Two Wigs and A Gun Pt 2

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Speaker 14 It was about 6.35 in the morning.

Speaker 16 A quiet street in Richmond, Virginia.

Speaker 17 As I was getting dressed, my husband and I heard three loud bangs.

Speaker 15 Not a street where you'd expect a murder.

Speaker 9 When I arrived on the scene, I could see at the top of the driveway my friend and neighbor Fred Jablin.

Speaker 14 Me, he put both hands on my shoulders and he said, Megan, Fred Jablin is lying in his driveway. He's dead.

Speaker 15 And Fred Jablin wasn't your average murder victim.

Speaker 9 You've got a university professor killed in a neighborhood that that's really not the norm.

Speaker 14 Fred Jablin was a totally involved father, a super, super single parent.

Speaker 20 So who killed Fred Jablin?

Speaker 9 People said, I have no idea who would want to do this to Fred, but have you talked to his ex-wife?

Speaker 21 I was married to Fred Jablin. We have three children.

Speaker 9 Had a pretty nasty divorce. And certainly she was a suspect.

Speaker 15 But a suspect with a seemingly rock-solid alibi.

Speaker 22 Bartender called me and said, do you remember her?

Speaker 23 And I said, yeah, I remember seeing her.

Speaker 6 It's a pixie haircut.

Speaker 24 I know she didn't kill Fred Javelin. She was devastated because of his death.

Speaker 9 They're definitely two peas out of the same pod, Tina and Piper.

Speaker 25 Police also suspected Tina.

Speaker 11 It's not

Speaker 24 what did I think about Fred Javelin. It's did I kill Fred Javelin?

Speaker 29 And now, police are about to unravel the clues that will will lead to an arrest.

Speaker 9 We've got cell phone records,

Speaker 9 latex gloves, makeup, two wigs.

Speaker 30 A lot of twists and turns in this one.

Speaker 9 Now, it's definitely not your normal standard murder.

Speaker 13 Two wigs, a gun and a murder.

Speaker 9 I was looking for this guy, Jerry Walters, whose name this card was in.

Speaker 9 We hadn't spoken to him at this point, and so one of our goals was to try to locate him.

Speaker 32 A couple of days after Fred Jablin's murder, Detective Colby Kelly learned more about the round-trip airline ticket booked under the name Tina Roundtree.

Speaker 34 The person who paid for the ticket was a guy named Jerry Walters.

Speaker 9 We knew that a bank card in his name was used and was instrumental in making this homicide happen, but we really didn't know what his role was in it, if any.

Speaker 9 And so we're trying to figure out who's Jerry Walters.

Speaker 15 It didn't take them long to learn that Jerry Walters knew Piper.

Speaker 36 Piper Roundtree and I at one time were girlfriend, boyfriend.

Speaker 20 Piper started started dating Jerry Walters in 2003, shortly after moving to Houston.

Speaker 36 We exchanged phone numbers and started talking on telephone, went out to suffer a time or two, and it just went from there. She was very sweet, great off-the-wall sense of humor, which I appreciated.

Speaker 36 Cute, obviously.

Speaker 36 Pretty much a normal person.

Speaker 31 Even though Walters was living four hours from Houston in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, they they made it work.

Speaker 36 I was in Houston quite often on business, so it was not difficult. I mean, I was there probably two days minimum a week.

Speaker 38 Their long-distance relationship lasted for about a year.

Speaker 36 Then that evolved into a continuing close relationship, close friendship.

Speaker 15 So close that Walters was one of the first people Piper called the night of Fred Jablin's murder.

Speaker 36 I came home from an LSU football game about 10.30-ish, 11-ish, and my cell phone rang.

Speaker 36 And it was Piper, and she said she was asking me to come to Houston. And she said, it's important Fred's dead.

Speaker 36 And I said, what happened? She says, well, I'm not certain Fred's dead. And she was...
not screaming, but she was not far from hysteria, I would think. And she was crying.

Speaker 25 Walters wasn't able to go to Houston, but he did his best to comfort Piper by phone.

Speaker 36 She was very concerned with the kids. But in my whole relationship with Piper, she was very concerned.
But more so, obviously, this was to the extreme.

Speaker 40 Four days after the murder, Detective Kelly tracked down Jerry Walters to find out why his bank card seemed to be connected to a murder.

Speaker 36 I think he asked me how well did I know Fred, and I didn't know Fred at all.

Speaker 36 I never had any conversation with him in my life.

Speaker 15 Walters told Detective Kelly he had no idea who could have used his bank card during the weekend of the murder because he says it had been stolen before then.

Speaker 36 I don't think anyone on the face of the earth was more shocked than myself to find out my card was in Richmond, Virginia. I did not have a clue.

Speaker 20 Walters says he first found out something was wrong with his card when he tried to withdraw cash from the account.

Speaker 36 They said, well, Mr. Walters, the account's overdrawn.
And I said, why? And they said, well, you've got pending ATM charges in Richmond, Virginia.

Speaker 11 And I said, really?

Speaker 11 They said, uh-huh.

Speaker 36 I said, okay, get back to you.

Speaker 36 That's when I started getting a little concerned that Jerry Walters' card was floating around the murder scene in Richmond, Virginia.

Speaker 27 Jerry Walters called Piper immediately because if anyone was going to know about his card, it was her. You see, the card wasn't really his.

Speaker 27 Although he had access to the bank account, Walters had opened it at Piper's request, under his name, so that she could hide assets from her ex-husband.

Speaker 36 Well, I asked her, what's the deal on the card? How come my card was in Richmond and not with you?

Speaker 36 And that's when she said, well, the last time I saw the card was when I went to the tennis club and apparently someone stole it there. And I said, well, why didn't you tell me?

Speaker 36 And she says, well, I just hadn't missed it. She said, if you don't go to use it, you don't know it's gone.
So that kind of made sense.

Speaker 34 What didn't make sense to both Walters and Detective Kelly were some of the other charges found on the card.

Speaker 9 We also were able to determine that wigs were purchased during this time with that card from wigs.com.

Speaker 36 I personally don't wear wigs.

Speaker 40 Before the murder, someone had purchased two wigs, one blonde, one Auburn.

Speaker 9 We knew that they were sent to a location in Kingwood, Texas. We had an address.

Speaker 9 There was a box there rented in the name of Piper Roundtree, which also had Jerry Walter's name on that box, and that's where the wigs had been delivered to.

Speaker 36 He asked me, did I think she did it?

Speaker 36 And I said, I just can't fathom that

Speaker 36 she did this.

Speaker 36 It's not something that I ever recognized in her, no.

Speaker 7 But it was all starting to add up for Detective Kelly.

Speaker 33 He was convinced that Piper Roundtree had flown to Richmond, Virginia, using her sister's name to kill her her husband.

Speaker 9 As things came to light, it was apparent she did have a plan and attempted to disguise who she was and thought she could get away with it.

Speaker 37 Do you think there's any connection between the murder and this very difficult divorce that she and her husband, Fred Javelin, went through?

Speaker 9 No, I think she was crushed when she didn't get custody of her children. We knew that several weeks before this murder, she had come up and taken the children camping.

Speaker 9 I think that they probably had a really good time and I think that that caused her to just think, this is what I'm missing.

Speaker 9 I'm missing the great time watching my children grow up, experiencing them as they become teenagers, adults and so forth.

Speaker 9 I think it's probably around that time she started hatching a plan in her mind of how she could change custody and the way to do that. She had been through the court system.

Speaker 9 That had not worked in her favor and I think she was looking for alternate plans which ultimately left to her decision to kill Fred.

Speaker 20 With Fred Jablin dead, Piper Roundtree wanted to win back her three kids who were staying with Fred's brother Michael and his family.

Speaker 32 She asked for a custody hearing in Virginia Family Court.

Speaker 9 She had asked whether I would go up there and testify at her custody hearing and I said, you know, I wasn't sure if I was going to be up there at that time, but I told her, I said, I will be happy to.

Speaker 9 And what she was working on is trying to establish that I had eliminated her as a suspect, and I certainly had not at that point.

Speaker 41 Detective Kelly was all for Piper attending the hearing, scheduled nine days after Fred Jablin's murder, but not for reasons Piper thought.

Speaker 39 She's thinking about trying to go to Richmond and have this custody here.

Speaker 16 In the back of your mind, you're saying, well, if she's in Richmond, it would be easier for you guys to make an arrest, right?

Speaker 9 Definitely. It was not a deal-breaker that she was not in Richmond, but it saves extradition, that sort of thing.

Speaker 42 Nine days after the murder, in a Richmond, Virginia courtroom, a judge made her decision.

Speaker 3 Knowing that Piper was under suspicion for murder, the judge granted custody of Piper's three children, Callie, age 10, Paxton, age 12, and Jocelyn, age 15, to Michael Jablin.

Speaker 30 My client has a constitutional right to have her children, and she's been denied that right.

Speaker 1 Piper left the custody hearing shaken.

Speaker 27 And little did she know that just minutes later, she would be arrested for murder.

Speaker 21 They could have taken this from a scene from a gangster movie. The police just jumped out with, it seemed like machine guns and dragged me off to tell me that

Speaker 17 they were arresting me for the murder of my ex-husband.

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Speaker 49 After her arrest for murder four months ago, former prosecutor Piper Roundtree is having a tough time adjusting to life behind bars.

Speaker 21 It's my mom, my sisters.

Speaker 20 But she's she's anxious for her day in court and ready to stand trial for the murder of her ex-husband, Fred Javelin.

Speaker 21 I don't think I would be

Speaker 47 intelligent if I weren't worried or concerned, but I have an incredible amount of faith.

Speaker 11 All rise.

Speaker 11 And I trust God.

Speaker 21 God's put me here for a reason.

Speaker 30 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, good afternoon.

Speaker 40 In opening arguments, prosecutor Wade Kaiser launches right in with what he says is Piper's chilling motive.

Speaker 45 It all came down to money.

Speaker 30 You'll hear evidence, ladies and gentlemen, that Piper Roundtree had been ordered to pay child support to the victim, Fred Javelin, who had custody of the children.

Speaker 40 Kaiser says Piper Roundtree was tired of struggling to pay child support to her ex-husband, so she killed him.

Speaker 30 She was over $9,700 in arrearages in making that child support. She blamed Fred and held him accountable for everything that had happened to her.

Speaker 8 But listen to all the evidence over the next several days.

Speaker 25 When Piper's defense attorney, Murray Janice, has his turn, he tells jurors the state's explanation of a motive just doesn't add up.

Speaker 8 But you'll hear evidence. that she'd made a support payment in October of 2004.
Hardly something somebody's going to do to send money if they, in fact, had planned to kill that person.

Speaker 52 And more importantly, Janice says, there isn't anyone who can put Piper at the crime scene.

Speaker 8 And see if one single person says, we saw that defendant pipe a round tree, take a gun out and shoot Fred Javelin, or we saw her running away.

Speaker 52 Although Janice does admit there is a lot of evidence showing someone committed this murder.

Speaker 8 You're going to find that somebody was in Virginia, somebody flew on a Southwest Airlines.

Speaker 40 He insists the wrong Roundtree sister is on trial.

Speaker 8 There's one name you're going to hear over and over and over again, and that's the name of Tina Roundtree.

Speaker 49 And Janice says all the evidence will point to her.

Speaker 8 I think you'll hear evidence that Tina had, certainly at one time, a gun herself, a.38 caliber. You won't hear any evidence that Piper Roundtree owned a gun.

Speaker 38 Piper is obviously aware of her attorney's defense strategy, but when she spoke with us before trial, she wouldn't flat out accuse her sister of murder.

Speaker 46 Did your sister, Tina, did she do this?

Speaker 11 I couldn't say.

Speaker 11 I don't know.

Speaker 46 Is she capable of something like this?

Speaker 17 I'm not going to answer that.

Speaker 55 All rise.

Speaker 56 The matter now before the court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and I'll truth shall be.

Speaker 26 Hey, do have a seat, please.

Speaker 43 With the trial underway, prosecutors called Jerry Walters to the stand to help show that Piper hatched an elaborate plan to get away with murder.

Speaker 49 Using the bank account Walters had opened for her.

Speaker 30 Was Piper Roundtree's name on the card?

Speaker 11 No, it was not.

Speaker 31 Piper purchased that blonde wig.

Speaker 42 And prosecutors say Piper wore it the weekend of the murder, so it would look like her sister Tina committed the crime.

Speaker 30 Did you at any time order any wigs?

Speaker 36 No, sir. Okay.

Speaker 19 Judge our next witness is Kathy Molly.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors say Piper also used Walter's card to buy that airline ticket booked in her sister's name to fly to and from the murder.

Speaker 56 How is this ticket paid for? By credit card, right here.

Speaker 53 Kathy Molly, the agent, remembers selling a ticket to a woman using the name Roundtree.

Speaker 1 And for the first time in court...

Speaker 21 Ms. Molly, would you look around the courtroom and see if you can identify the person to whom you sold that ticket on October 28th?

Speaker 57 That lady right there looks familiar.

Speaker 43 A witness is able to identify Piper.

Speaker 53 In fact, Molly says the brunette checked in as a blonde.

Speaker 57 But the hair's not like that at all. It's much shorter and the color's a lot darker.

Speaker 7 That's not all.

Speaker 25 Molly's biggest surprise?

Speaker 44 She says Piper was carrying a gun.

Speaker 59 What do you recall unusual about checking her bags of anything? Nothing. She just told me right away that she needed to check a firearm.

Speaker 57 She just commented that it was her father's gun and she was taking it to him.

Speaker 16 But that gun wasn't the state smoking gun.

Speaker 27 They say Piper not only got on that plane to Richmond, they can prove she spent the weekend there within miles of the crime scene. It was Piper's own cell phone that would do her in.

Speaker 60 We started looking through the cell phone records and recognized the number to Papa John's Pizza.

Speaker 40 Henrico County Detective Chuck Hanna was given the job of tracking the cell phone calls to see if anyone could place Piper in Richmond.

Speaker 60 So we called Papa John's Pizza and asked if individual with the last name of Roundtree had ordered a pizza.

Speaker 60 They stated that a person with the name Aroundtree did, and that person had it delivered to room 171 in the homestead suites.

Speaker 45 That led Detective Hannah to the manager of this hotel, who remembers the guest in room 171.

Speaker 8 And she said she had a reservation and her name was Tina Roundtree.

Speaker 45 And it's that witness, Tomiko James, who was able to place Piper Roundtree in Richmond at a hotel located just miles from the crime scene.

Speaker 22 Would you point here and identify that individual?

Speaker 10 Looks the defendant here.

Speaker 28 And then a second eyewitness takes the stand.

Speaker 45 Raymond Seward says he saw Piper on Saturday morning, just a few hours after Fred Jablin's murder.

Speaker 6 Medium bill, medium height, and blonde hair.

Speaker 56 Where is she?

Speaker 23 That lady right there.

Speaker 34 Seward remembers Piper returning a car to his rental agency near the airport, the same airport where that flight, carrying a passenger named Tina Roundtree, would later take off.

Speaker 23 She was just in a hurry to get to the airport.

Speaker 28 And if eyewitness testimony wasn't enough to put Piper in Richmond, prosecutors say they have Piper caught on tape.

Speaker 53 They say the woman seen walking into a Richmond, Virginia gas station is the defendant, Piper Roundtree, in disguise.

Speaker 31 The tape

Speaker 26 show a white female enter the door.

Speaker 45 It's a mountain of evidence that they hope will knock down any suggestion that it was Tina Roundtree in Richmond the weekend of the murder.

Speaker 25 You have to concede it doesn't look good, right?

Speaker 11 No, it doesn't look good. I certainly concede that.

Speaker 17 You know, my mouth fell open when I saw these things, like, oh my god.

Speaker 53 Now prosecutors take their case one step further.

Speaker 38 They set out to show how Piper made sure that when she shot Fred Fred Jablin, she wouldn't miss.

Speaker 56 You saw Miss Maryland on the driveway? She gave her a diagram.

Speaker 6 Mac McClanahan knows both sisters.

Speaker 29 He dated Tina, and he worked with Piper.

Speaker 59 When you went with Piper to work early in the week of October 25th to Galveston, did you ride together there?

Speaker 21 We did.

Speaker 59 And back?

Speaker 53 Yes. Okay.

Speaker 20 On one of their rides home together, Mac told Piper he was going to stop at a shooting range.

Speaker 59 Tell the members of the jury what Piper said when you brought that up.

Speaker 23 She said she wanted to go with me.

Speaker 21 Had you taken Piper to the gun range prior to that day? No.

Speaker 28 Piper shot a few rounds, then decided she wanted to rent another type of gun, so she went to the front desk and made an exchange.

Speaker 36 She returned with a.38 caliber revolver.

Speaker 51 It was the same type of weapon used to gun down Fred Jablin days later.

Speaker 59 Did she fire the.38?

Speaker 11 She did.

Speaker 30 Saturday morning around 6.30.

Speaker 28 And when Matt ran into Piper a few days after the murder, he found out just how nervous Piper was about their trip to the gun range.

Speaker 23 I told her I was sorry to hear what had happened and she hugged me and said, I love you. And then she said, please don't say anything about the gun range.
It'll just complicate things.

Speaker 43 With one of their last witnesses, prosecutors deal a final blow to Piper.

Speaker 31 It turns out the alibi Piper thought she had for the night before the murder had fallen through.

Speaker 30 After you've had a chance to think about it, have checked all of your records.

Speaker 6 Kevin O'Keeffe, who thought he'd seen Piper at the volcano bar on Friday night, now tells jurors he was mistaken.

Speaker 30 Were you in the volcano at all on that Friday, October 29th? No.

Speaker 26 You sure about that?

Speaker 11 Positive. Thank you.

Speaker 6 After being battered by dozens of witnesses against her, Piper Roundtree, a former prosecutor, knows she's in real trouble.

Speaker 49 And now she has to make one of the most important decisions of her life.

Speaker 31 Should she take the stand?

Speaker 55 All rise.

Speaker 1 After listening to the 49 witnesses testifying against her,

Speaker 57 that lady right there looks familiar.

Speaker 23 Yes, sir, she's right there.

Speaker 31 With the state's case finished, that lady right there,

Speaker 45 Piper Roundtree is looking like a goner.

Speaker 25 If you could look those jurors in the eyes, how would you do it? What would you say?

Speaker 47 I would tell them I didn't do it because of all the things that I stand for.

Speaker 11 I believe

Speaker 11 in truth.

Speaker 11 I believe in God.

Speaker 45 Piper realizes she has only one option.

Speaker 26 All right, next witness.

Speaker 31 Take the stand.

Speaker 30 Call Piper Roundtree.

Speaker 26 Come on around, Miss Rantree, if you would.

Speaker 37 But you know, it's risky to do that, to take the stand and testify. You know that, right?

Speaker 11 Yeah.

Speaker 56 Do you sound swear from that evidence?

Speaker 1 So, on the fourth day of trial.

Speaker 56 That whole truth and nothing but the truth, healthy guy. Budget.

Speaker 20 Only four months after Fred Jablin was shot dead in his driveway.

Speaker 30 You are Piper and Roundtree, is that correct? I am.

Speaker 20 Fred Jablin's ex-wife, Piper Roundtree, tries to answer to a jury. Her defense lawyer, Murray Janice, cuts straight to the chase.

Speaker 30 Ms. Roundtree,

Speaker 30 did you shoot and kill Fred Jablin on Saturday morning, October 30th, 2004?

Speaker 21 I did not.

Speaker 30 When did you first learn that Fred Javelin had been shot and killed?

Speaker 11 That evening.

Speaker 30 What was your emotional condition at that time?

Speaker 11 Well, I don't remember a whole lot of the rest of the evening.

Speaker 30 Did you ever learn that evening where your children were?

Speaker 11 No.

Speaker 27 In a soft, shaky voice, Piper Roundtree testifies it was impossible for her to shoot Fred Jablin in Virginia because at the time of the murder, she was in Texas.

Speaker 27 But it isn't just Piper's whereabouts she and her defense team will use as an alibi. Their strategy is based on showing the jury what kind of person Piper Roundtree really is.

Speaker 30 Do you love your children?

Speaker 11 Yes, very much.

Speaker 30 And where are they as far as priorities in your life?

Speaker 11 Second only to God.

Speaker 40 Piper tells jurors the last thing she'd do is hurt her kids.

Speaker 21 Yes, it was not an easy divorce, but

Speaker 21 I had no right to take away the children's father. The children need both parents.

Speaker 30 How were you getting along with Fred Javelin

Speaker 30 compared to during the divorce itself?

Speaker 21 It was an answer to my prayers. We were doing very good.

Speaker 41 And when it comes to her alibi about being at the volcano bar, she insists she was there that Friday before the murder, even though Kevin O'Keefe had told prosecutors he wasn't even there that Friday night.

Speaker 30 Do you know when it was that you saw the defendant in the volcano?

Speaker 2 Saturday.

Speaker 30 October 30th? Right.

Speaker 50 But Piper stands by her story and says she even remembers floating and drinking with a stranger.

Speaker 30 What was the gentleman's name

Speaker 30 that you met up with?

Speaker 21 If you know

Speaker 21 he said Steve initially, and then he said, call him Jerry.

Speaker 30 Have Have you ever seen him again since then? No.

Speaker 26 All right, Ms. Guys.

Speaker 30 Ms. Roundtree, I believe you testified.

Speaker 45 The prosecutors go on the attack. Piper's motive for murder is simple.

Speaker 43 Avengeful woman who had lost her children.

Speaker 30 You had lost custody of your three children completely?

Speaker 47 Not completely.

Speaker 30 Doesn't the order state that you lost physical and legal custody of your children?

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 30 To your husband? Yes. Wasn't that devastating to you?

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 30 Wouldn't you do anything for your children?

Speaker 17 I wouldn't kill for them, no.

Speaker 38 Piper, however, is unable to explain away the physical evidence at the heart of the case, starting with her Jeep parked at the Houston airport the very weekend Fred Jablin was murdered.

Speaker 30 Can you explain why the records from the Houston Hobby Airport show that your vehicle was in their parking lot on Thursday and Friday and Saturday?

Speaker 11 No.

Speaker 21 I have no explanation.

Speaker 40 Then, prosecutors questioned Piper about her visit to the gun range, where she practiced shooting just days before the murder with the same type of weapon used to kill Fred Jablin.

Speaker 30 You shot two different pistols that day, didn't you? One was a.22-caliber revolver, and the other was a.38-caliber revolver?

Speaker 19 That's what they say.

Speaker 30 Well, you had it in your possession for three years.

Speaker 59 I didn't know what it was.

Speaker 11 It was a gun.

Speaker 6 And what about that blonde wig?

Speaker 43 Prosecutors say Piper needed it desperately for the weekend of the murder to disguise herself as Tina.

Speaker 30 You wanted the blonde wig so bad that when you got the box with the paprika wig in it, with the note saying that they didn't have it in stock and that you would have to pay an additional charge, you said send it anyway.

Speaker 30 I want it, correct?

Speaker 11 Uh,

Speaker 30 Tina had wanted no, I'm not asking you what Tina said, I'm asking you, you told them

Speaker 30 I'll pay the extra money, isn't that right? And you had the blonde wig?

Speaker 11 Yes, sir.

Speaker 30 Where is it at?

Speaker 21 Last time I saw it, Tina had it.

Speaker 49 If Tina had the wig and Tina was on the plane, then...

Speaker 30 You want this jury to think that Tina committed the murder, don't you?

Speaker 21 I have no idea what happened.

Speaker 30 You have none?

Speaker 21 I don't.

Speaker 63 The evidence pinpoints Piper in Richmond, near the scene of Fred Jablin's murder.

Speaker 43 Hotel records and receipts show Piper used the bank card she said was stolen.

Speaker 21 I didn't know what had happened to the card.

Speaker 41 There's one more staggering piece of evidence, those damning cell phone records.

Speaker 16 Calls made from Piper's cell phone from Richmond to Texas just after the murder.

Speaker 30 What happened to the cell phone?

Speaker 17 I don't know.

Speaker 30 While the crime's being committed, you don't know where it is. That's That's what you're telling these people.

Speaker 21 I'm telling them that I didn't have the phone from probably that I remember.

Speaker 47 Last time I remember, it was Tuesday before that.

Speaker 30 You lost the telephone on Tuesday. Where did you find it on Saturday?

Speaker 21 It was at Tina's house.

Speaker 30 Because

Speaker 30 you want this jury to think that Tina committed the murder. You're willing to put it on her, aren't you?

Speaker 17 No, sir.

Speaker 30 Thank you, ma'am.

Speaker 26 You can have a seat next to me, counsel.

Speaker 40 Piper steps down.

Speaker 63 She has done all she can.

Speaker 16 Now it's up to this man, Marty McVay, the lone witness who can physically put her a thousand miles away from the murder.

Speaker 30 And where is your office at the present time? In Houston, Texas. Now, sir, tell us, if you will, jumping up to Saturday, October 30th, 2004.
Did you ever see Piper Roundtree on that date? I did.

Speaker 30 And where was that, sir? In my office. And could you tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury what time you saw her? Approximately 4.30 that afternoon, give or take, five minutes.

Speaker 30 Are you sure of that time, sir?

Speaker 60 Yes, sir.

Speaker 7 McVeigh is Piper's very best witness because it's impossible for Piper to have been in two places at once.

Speaker 42 McVeigh says she was in his Houston office at the exact same time police say she was on an airplane returning from murdering Fred Jablin.

Speaker 30 How many people have you talked to about the time Piper Roundtree was in your office on Saturday, October 30th? Since then? Yes, sir. Oh, gosh.

Speaker 30 Well, I've talked to the prosecutors here.

Speaker 30 I talked to the detectives, again, in Houston, in the Houston Police Department. I've talked to Paige Aikens from the Times Dispatch.

Speaker 33 Local newspaper reporter Paige Aiken ends up becoming part of the very story she was covering.

Speaker 7 She takes the stand to testify about what Marty McVeigh told her.

Speaker 22 And how are you employed Ms. Aiken?

Speaker 57 I'm a reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Speaker 22 Have you been assigned, and have you, in fact, been covering the case involving Miss Piper Roundtree?

Speaker 30 I have.

Speaker 43 Paige Aiken swears that McVeigh had told her that Piper had stopped by his office the day after the murder, not the afternoon of the murder.

Speaker 22 Did you ask him when prior to Sunday, October 31st, he had last seen Piper Roundtree?

Speaker 61 Yes, he said it had been quite a while, about a year, I believe.

Speaker 32 Marty McVay is put back on the stand and sticks to his story and dates.

Speaker 30 Had you seen Piper Roundtree before Sunday, October 31st?

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 30 And when was that? On October 30th.

Speaker 7 All right, we'll be at recess stuff tomorrow.

Speaker 55 All right.

Speaker 20 When it's all over, Hyper Roundtree seems dazed and exhausted.

Speaker 46 Do you think you conveyed to the jury?

Speaker 11 I don't know. I hope so.

Speaker 17 That's all I can say is I hope so.

Speaker 46 Are you afraid? Yeah.

Speaker 11 Yes. Yes, I'm afraid.

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Speaker 65 This is the story of the one. As a custodial supervisor at a high school, he knows that during cold and flu season, germs spread fast.

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Speaker 66 I was amazed about the evidence the police collected,

Speaker 66 the documentation they did, the witnesses.

Speaker 20 Throughout Piper Roundtree's murder trial, the brother of the victim, Michael Jablin, has watched closely, focused on the woman who was once part of his family.

Speaker 27 Any doubt in your mind that Piper Roundtree is guilty?

Speaker 39 guilty?

Speaker 66 There's no doubt and I was very sad about the whole thing hearing it, how somebody with such a high level of education could have plotted such an event.

Speaker 35 Piper's mother, Betty Roundtree, sat in the courtroom every day.

Speaker 20 She can't believe her youngest daughter is a killer.

Speaker 58 Do I think she's guilty?

Speaker 17 No, I do not.

Speaker 54 She's had so much love in her life and she's such a gentle, kind person.

Speaker 7 I honestly cannot believe that she did this.

Speaker 52 The jury deliberates for less than an hour.

Speaker 26 Ladies and gentlemen, have you been able to reach a verdict in these matters? Yes, Beth. Would you hand it to the sheriff, please?

Speaker 26 We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Frederick Jablin is charged in the indictment.

Speaker 56 Joanne Lawson, is this your verdict?

Speaker 44 Yes.

Speaker 56 Beverly Owens, is this your verdict?

Speaker 44 Yes.

Speaker 56 Holly Pace, is this your verdict? Yes.

Speaker 40 No one seems surprised.

Speaker 6 Not even Piper.

Speaker 11 All right.

Speaker 32 Within an hour, the jury hears more testimony and then will recommend her sentence.

Speaker 35 Anywhere from 20 years to life.

Speaker 54 They were extremely, extremely close.

Speaker 20 Betty Roundtree pleads for leniency so the children who'd already lost their father won't lose their mother too.

Speaker 54 Her whole life was just with those children, taking them different places, reading to them.

Speaker 26 Have a seat, please, Miss Jablin.

Speaker 16 Michael Jablin is not vindictive, just sad and searching for answers.

Speaker 11 How do I explain to young children that their mother killed their father?

Speaker 58 They've lost both parents, basically, now. How do I explain that to these children? How does anybody explain something like that?

Speaker 32 In less than an hour, the jury decides to recommend the harshest penalty.

Speaker 26 We, the jury, having found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder, Frederick Jablin fix her punishment at life in prison.

Speaker 19 The five-day trial included nearly 60 witnesses and 80 pieces of evidence. He has now been sentenced to life in prison.

Speaker 9 Get the the result that we anticipated having in the long run, but it's nice to see the jury validate our investigation and bring a little bit of justice as close as we're going to get here anyway.

Speaker 5 Within minutes of the verdict, we talked with Piper in a holding cell.

Speaker 37 Piper, a jury has spoken.

Speaker 37 Guilty, life in prison.

Speaker 37 What's your reaction to that sentence?

Speaker 11 I think I'm still in shock.

Speaker 37 It hasn't hit you yet, has it?

Speaker 15 In spite of all the evidence and the jury's swift verdict, Piper Roundtree still insists she's innocent.

Speaker 37 For the record, you're still for saying that you did not kill your ex-husband?

Speaker 15 I didn't.

Speaker 11 I didn't. I mean, obviously it looked like I didn't.

Speaker 11 You didn't do it? No, I didn't.

Speaker 37 Will you get an opportunity at all while you're serving your time to see your children?

Speaker 37 Do you know anything about that?

Speaker 11 I hope so.

Speaker 11 I'd be happy to talk to them.

Speaker 37 Anything you want to say to them?

Speaker 11 I just love them and miss them and would want to talk to them.

Speaker 37 What kind of mother would do this?

Speaker 66 I think that's a very good question. I don't know what kind of mother would

Speaker 66 leave them without a father and without a mother. I don't know.
It's really hard to understand that. It's very sad when you have to think about that.

Speaker 14 I really think she is so sick that she thought she could do this and then just walk into the sunset with her three kids. I think that's how she thought this was going to play out.

Speaker 35 Megan McCrary, Fred's neighbor and friend, has no sympathy for Piper Roundtree.

Speaker 14 And what was she thinking? Did she not understand the impact this was going to have on her children's lives? I mean, she extinguished four lives that day.

Speaker 14 She murders her ex-husband and basically destroys the childhood of her three children.

Speaker 14 I just, I don't understand what she was thinking.

Speaker 43 The verdict may be in, but what was the jury thinking as they watched the halting testimony of Piper Roundtree?

Speaker 30 Wouldn't you do anything for your children?

Speaker 17 I wouldn't kill for them, no.

Speaker 62 I think that was one of the most serious moments of the trial for me because it was the nail in the coffin.

Speaker 16 It was the nail in the coffin when she took the stand?

Speaker 62 Yeah, for me. That was going from 90% to 100% guilty.

Speaker 40 Bruce Ledd, Joel Howell, and Timothy James spoke to us about the impression Piper made.

Speaker 39 The four or five words that we got out of her weren't a whole lot, and they were not convincing.

Speaker 18 When she took the stand, I mean, you know, it almost seemed like, you know, she could kind of, you turn her tears on and off.

Speaker 30 Do you love your children?

Speaker 11 Yes, very much.

Speaker 27 And of all the evidence against her, what was it that sealed Piper's fate?

Speaker 62 The cell phone records. You could very easily track exactly where she was and what she did.

Speaker 33 Cell phone tracked her all the way.

Speaker 62 Yes, did you? Yeah, the whole time.

Speaker 27 And what if Tina Roundtree, the sister Piper pretended to be, the sister many people say, was Piper's best friend?

Speaker 62 It's impossible to know whether or not Tina knew that Piper was going on a trip to murder her ex-husband. But based on how close they were,

Speaker 62 it's hard to imagine that Tina was not knowledgeable in some sense that something very serious was going to take place.

Speaker 39 She would stick up for her sister, and I think she would do anything short of murder for her sister.

Speaker 5 Your name came up a lot during the trial.

Speaker 32 It was almost as if the defense

Speaker 6 was to blame Tina Roundtree for the murder.

Speaker 43 What's your reaction to that?

Speaker 24 They're just trying to set

Speaker 2 a

Speaker 24 possibility of doubt in the juror's mind.

Speaker 5 But you didn't mind

Speaker 11 being abused? I don't care. In that fashion?

Speaker 61 Doesn't matter.

Speaker 24 I don't care. It doesn't make, I mean, it's, I think it's a stupid defense.

Speaker 25 But the jury is certain.

Speaker 45 The right roundtree was convicted.

Speaker 15 However, months after the trial, Tina Roundtree herself would be convicted of tampering with evidence after the murder of Fred Jablin.

Speaker 32 She would be sentenced to nine months' probation.

Speaker 40 But this jury would sentence Piper to a term

Speaker 20 far more severe.

Speaker 1 Why life in prison?

Speaker 62 We didn't ever want her to come back into her children's lives because it would have been reliving the murder.

Speaker 67 Piper Roundtree became eligible for parole in 2020.

Speaker 6 Her first parole petition was denied.

Speaker 67 Tina Roundtree died in 2020.

Speaker 13 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

Speaker 68 Brandon was the full package. I felt like I met my guy.

Speaker 68 Stop, stop, stop talking.

Speaker 68 God.

Speaker 68 But he's not even close to the person that I thought he was. When you do break up with Brandon, that is when the stalking begins.
I just knew that something horrific was about to happen.

Speaker 68 I saw the devil in his eyes.

Speaker 57 We're going to tell everyone what he did.

Speaker 13 Don't date Brandon. Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

Speaker 69 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

Speaker 13 It's the epic return of Mayor of Kingstown.

Speaker 69 Warden, you know who I am. Starring Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner.
Has sway in these homes. Emmy Award winner Edie Falco.

Speaker 59 You're an ex-con who ran this place for years.

Speaker 69 And now, now you can't do that. And BAFTA Award winner Lenny James.

Speaker 44 You're about to have a plague of outsiders descend on your town.

Speaker 13 Let me tell you this: there's going to be consequences.

Speaker 69 Mayor of Kingstown, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus.