Fatal Family Feud

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Speaker 4 On July 9th, 2004, at about 11 o'clock that night, I was laying down, getting ready to go to bed. Way off in the distance, I heard what I thought was a high-powered gunshot.

Speaker 4 It was definitely a distinctive sound.

Speaker 4 Within 15 minutes, I got a phone call from my sergeant telling me that somebody had been shot on Old Mill Road.

Speaker 4 My name is Greg Sorensen. I'm a detective with the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department.

Speaker 5 911, there was a big bang and some guy was screaming, help, help, help. So it sounded like a gunshot.
A man was yelling for help about four fights.

Speaker 4 I think we need an ambulance and maybe police.

Speaker 4 Most of the neighbors were startled by hearing the gunfire. It frightened them.

Speaker 4 Some of them would not look outside and those that did saw Jared lying on the entryway in the doorstep of his apartment complex.

Speaker 4 He had been shot.

Speaker 4 The victim was Jared Davidson who was a UC Santa Barbara graduate student.

Speaker 6 Jared was incredibly kind and funny. He really was a joy to everybody who knew him.
He was one of those fun people you just wanted to be around because he made your life better.

Speaker 6 We're Jared's cousins. We were raised more like brothers and sisters.

Speaker 4 Now I need to smile.

Speaker 3 You need to smile, Jared. That's right.

Speaker 7 Kelly and Jared were both in chemistry, and you know, that's how they met. When Kelly got pregnant, he married her because that is the right thing to do.

Speaker 6 He went to school full-time. He worked full-time.
He took care of that baby. He did so much.

Speaker 9 It really was Kelly who decided to leave.

Speaker 6 She wanted a child and she wanted it all for herself.

Speaker 3 Are you ready?

Speaker 6 He cherished his daughter, Malia.

Speaker 7 It was all about her.

Speaker 6 Everything he was doing at that point was to create a better life for her.

Speaker 4 Hey, Malia, can I see your eyes? Where are your eyes?

Speaker 6 Anytime you throw a penny into a well or blow on a pussy willow to make a wish, she says, I wish my daddy was here.

Speaker 11 Where's Where's your daddy?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I'm your daddy.

Speaker 4 It was one shot that killed Vera Davidson.

Speaker 4 This was not a random shooting. We noticed that there was a potted plant lying near the doorstep.
It had a card that said to my teacher.

Speaker 4 The plant had been used as a ruse to get him to come out of the apartment. The person who killed him was hiding back in the shadows.

Speaker 4 There was one person

Speaker 3 who

Speaker 4 we focused on.

Speaker 6 I thought I knew definitely who did it.

Speaker 3 Murder comes knocking.

Speaker 6 When I found out he was murdered, I just kept screaming out, he was so good. He was so good.

Speaker 10 In July 2004, Jared Davidson was shot to death outside his apartment in Santa Barbara.

Speaker 10 He was just 27 years old.

Speaker 6 It has destroyed a happy, loving family. Our family used to be so filled with joy and laughter.

Speaker 10 Jared's cousins, Courtney and Marissa, grew up close to Jared and his younger brother, Michael.

Speaker 6 When it's the three of us, when it's our family and he's missing, it hurts. It hurts.

Speaker 4 He was someone that I looked up to, that I loved to hang out with, love to fight with, love to play with.

Speaker 6 I lost my best friend.

Speaker 12 This is when we thought we was going going to be a businessman because

Speaker 10 the tragedy has scarred everyone in this tight-knit family. I'd give anything to take that day back.

Speaker 3 I would.

Speaker 10 Jared's parents, Richard and Susan, remember their son as athletic, but quiet. He was very shy and really very sweet.

Speaker 10 It was not until he was in college that Jared discovered his true passion.

Speaker 13 Somehow he got involved in chemistry class, and chemistry just became life.

Speaker 10 And it was in chemistry class where he met Kelly Jones.

Speaker 14 It was the first day of classes and we were both going to our organic chemistry lab.

Speaker 14 There was a misprint in schedule so I happened to end up in the wrong room on the right day and he was in the right room on the wrong day.

Speaker 10 About a year after they met, Jared and Kelly moved in together. And not long after that, they had some big news to break to both families.

Speaker 13 We sat down at a table across from each other, and immediately he said,

Speaker 4 The reason you're here is because Kelly's pregnant.

Speaker 13 And not a heartbeat after that, she said, and I'm not having an abortion.

Speaker 10 Were you trying to get pregnant? No.

Speaker 10 This was a surprise.

Speaker 14 It was a pleasant surprise.

Speaker 10 Did you ever wonder if she got pregnant intentionally?

Speaker 12 Yes.

Speaker 10 Do you think she did? Yes.

Speaker 10 Kelly was three months pregnant in January of 2000 when she and Jared got married.

Speaker 14 It was beautiful. Wedding was perfect.
I was really happy.

Speaker 10 But from the very beginning, the marriage showed signs of trouble.

Speaker 6 I remember once after they were married, she started complaining that he didn't squeeze the toothpaste right. And I said, you know what? Me and my boyfriend have the exact same problem.

Speaker 6 We've decided to buy two separate tubes of toothpaste. You have yours, I have mine.
Life will go on.

Speaker 6 She looked at me like I had said the most ridiculous thing in the world and she went, no, he just needs to do it the right way.

Speaker 6 The first time I met her, I said, oh, she's such a nice girl. I'm so happy for Jared.

Speaker 6 The next time I met her, liked her a little bit less. Next time I liked her a little bit less.

Speaker 10 In July of that year, Kelly gave birth to a girl, who they named Malia.

Speaker 6 He was so happy, just so proud and so happy.

Speaker 10 But those happy feelings didn't last very long. Besides the new baby, Jared and Kelly were both still in school.

Speaker 15 Let's go over this one more time.

Speaker 10 And he worked part-time teaching. In fact, they both had jobs.
So most of the child care fell to Kelly's parents, Phil and Mindy Jones.

Speaker 6 Kelly thought family was her and her mother. and her mother telling her what to do about everything.

Speaker 6 And Jared thought family was him and Kelly and Malia and them making decisions for their own family.

Speaker 10 Jared and Kelly's relationship continued to deteriorate. Richard and I said, we're concerned about you.
Is everything okay?

Speaker 10 And what did he say? No, it's not. And I'm not sure what to do.

Speaker 14 He seemed to never be home. It was one thing after another.
You know, it was, I need to go to the library and study. I have a test tomorrow.
So I kind of felt like a single mom.

Speaker 10 She started making accusations that he wasn't home enough, that he must be sleeping with a study partner.

Speaker 10 Before Malia's first birthday, Jared had moved out and filed for divorce. The court awarded Kelly custody and granted Jared visitation.

Speaker 10 But Kelly made it very difficult for Jared to see his own daughter. She controlled when he got to see her, and that was rarely.

Speaker 14 I thought because I had done most of the caregiving, that it might do both of them a little bit of good to take their time and ease into it.

Speaker 10 But over time, things only got worse. Get up.

Speaker 10 Fighting over Malia went on for the next three years.

Speaker 10 At times, Jared and Kelly both dragged sheriff's deputies into the mess. to mediate their visitation disputes.

Speaker 4 There were numerous occasions where he had gone to try to pick up his child at her residence and was denied access to the child.

Speaker 10 When Santa Barbara detective Greg Sorensen was called to Jared's apartment the night of the murder, he was already well aware of the family's domestic problems.

Speaker 4 Instantly, I thought of his ex-wife possibly being involved in this.

Speaker 10 But neighbors had reported seeing two suspicious-looking people quickly leaving the apartment complex.

Speaker 4 One person was described as a female. Could it have been Kelly? Possibly.

Speaker 10 Kelly was immediately brought in for questioning.

Speaker 4 I told her during the course of the interview that he had been murdered. She didn't show a lot of emotion.

Speaker 4 It wasn't until we had mentioned to her how we were suspicious of the way she reacted to us telling her that he had been murdered that she started to cry.

Speaker 10 While she may have had a motive to commit murder, Kelly also had a very strong alibi for that night, telling detectives she was with her daughter and a friend some 90 miles away from here, Jared's apartment.

Speaker 10 Her story checked out. Still, investigators were not convinced that Kelly was entirely innocent.

Speaker 10 Finally, the big break they desperately needed came thanks to, of all things, that potted plant found at the crime scene.

Speaker 4 Highly unusual to see a plant out on the walkway in this particular location.

Speaker 10 Detectives believe that someone had knocked on the door, delivering the plant as a gift to lure Jared outside.

Speaker 10 The plant had been purchased at a nearby store just minutes before the murder.

Speaker 4 We acquired some videotape surveillance of the person purchasing the plant.

Speaker 10 A person who appeared to be wearing a disguise.

Speaker 4 She's wearing a baseball cap. She's wearing a large baggy sweatshirt.

Speaker 10 That's the same description of the female seen leaving Jared's apartment complex just after the shooting.

Speaker 4 It looked like Kelly Davidson. Same size, same build, and walked similar to her.

Speaker 10 The investigation was just beginning.

Speaker 10 It would take nearly five months for detectives to realize this case

Speaker 10 was anything but simple.

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Speaker 14 If they're bringing me in for questioning, they must have reason to believe that I'm involved somehow.

Speaker 4 I don't think she's as innocent and naive as she tries to make herself look.

Speaker 4 I truly believe that she was the person that was down here buying that potted plant.

Speaker 10 Detective Sorensen thinks there's more than just this store video that could link Kelly to her ex-husband Jared's murder.

Speaker 4 He was specifically targeted by somebody who knew about him and knew his background.

Speaker 10 Detectives are convinced that the gift card in the plait that was found outside of Jared Davidson's apartment had his name purposely misspelled.

Speaker 4 It looked like the person was trying to disguise their handwriting and disguise their true knowledge of his name.

Speaker 10 That's all a pretty good theory, but it is not hard evidence, which this case badly needed if ever there was going to be an arrest.

Speaker 10 Finally, five months after Jared's murder, detectives got another big break. And once again, the potted plant would play a pivotal role.

Speaker 10 But this time, it was from the plastic cardholder, much like this one, that was in the plant found near Jared's body.

Speaker 10 A state crime lab showed us how it discovered female DNA on that cardholder.

Speaker 10 Apparently, from someone's hands. But this is the first piece of hard physical evidence that you have to work with.

Speaker 4 That's true.

Speaker 10 And Detective Sorensen felt pretty sure he knew whose DNA was on the cardholder.

Speaker 3 Happy birthday

Speaker 3 to you.

Speaker 3 Are you going to go down with me?

Speaker 4 We immediately went to Kelly Davidson with a search warrant for her DNA. If anybody had the motive to have this carried out, it was her.

Speaker 10 In trying to build a case against Kelly, detectives decided to focus on her relationship with her parents, Phil and Mindy Jones. You're pretty close with your parents, right?

Speaker 14 Extremely.

Speaker 10 You discuss a lot of things with each other?

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 14 As far as I was concerned, we discussed everything.

Speaker 10 More than that, investigators quickly determined that Kelly didn't make a move without consulting her parents, especially her mother.

Speaker 13 Kelly didn't make decisions.

Speaker 10 Kelly didn't make decisions? No. Who made the decisions? Mindy.

Speaker 10 Phil and Mindy Jones actively supported their daughter in her visitation and custody fight with Jared.

Speaker 4 These are people that you're either with us or you're against us.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 God forbid you be against them.

Speaker 10 It became a long and ugly court battle, and Kelly's parents clearly saw Jared as being against them.

Speaker 13 The arrangement was that he would pick Malayalia up to Kelly's apartment, but because Kelly worked late, then he would have to drop her off to Mindy and Phil.

Speaker 13 Early on, they would call him names.

Speaker 10 Such as

Speaker 10 to his face?

Speaker 13 No, to Malia's face.

Speaker 10 She'd take Malia out of the car and say, your daddy's animes, weeks would go by, and Jared would be kept from seeing his child.

Speaker 14 They started attacking me in the courtroom, saying that I wasn't cooperating, that I was doing everything that I could to be vindictive and take her away from him.

Speaker 10 And you didn't see it that way.

Speaker 14 No, I didn't.

Speaker 10 But a judge apparently did. In these court documents, a judge condemned Kelly's ongoing refusal to allow Jared to see his daughter.

Speaker 10 The judge questioned Kelly's honesty and her respect for court orders, strongly suggesting that if she continued to deny Jared visitation, Kelly could actually lose custody of Malia altogether.

Speaker 6 I think they got very scared that they were going to lose Malia.

Speaker 4 Jared Davidson was going to go back to court to try to get full custody of that girl.

Speaker 4 And that is the last thing that they wanted to have happen. They

Speaker 4 wanted him out of their lives. They wanted him out of the picture.

Speaker 10 It was just 19 days before that hearing that Jared was murdered.

Speaker 13 And then the last weekend.

Speaker 13 My sweetie.

Speaker 13 Money in the water.

Speaker 13 My love.

Speaker 13 I know.

Speaker 10 Investigators decided to question Phil. He denied any involvement in the killing.
and told them he couldn't have shot Jared because he is physically incapable of holding or firing a rifle.

Speaker 10 Phil claims he'd been disabled in a nearly fatal car accident back in the early 1980s when he worked as a carpenter.

Speaker 4 Phil had painted the picture and told us that his hand was crippled and he couldn't carry anything. They're walking back towards me.
You got him warned?

Speaker 4 Well, we decided to put surveillance on them and just to see how incapacitated he really is.

Speaker 10 They followed Phil and Mindy with hidden cameras and just look what they found.

Speaker 4 See right here you can see that Phil picks up a case of what I believe is wine and it's certainly heavier than a rifle.

Speaker 10 He was lying.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 10 If Kelly's father was lying about that, Detective Sorensen wondered what else might he be lying about.

Speaker 10 Phil and Mindy Jones told investigators they were on a beach some 90 miles away from Jared when he was ambushed and gunned down.

Speaker 10 What they didn't realize was their cell phone was tracking their every move and it indicated they were nowhere near the beach.

Speaker 4 The cell site information was telling us something completely different.

Speaker 10 Cell tower records indicate that Kelly placed a call to her parents that night before the murder occurred and that they were actually driving down a highway

Speaker 10 directly towards Jared's apartment.

Speaker 4 Well, that's very critical. That punches a big hole in their alibi of being at the beach.

Speaker 10 But there is still the unanswered question about whose DNA is on that plat card holder. Sorensen is shocked to learn it is not Kelly's, it's her mother's,

Speaker 10 Mindy Jones, who he now suspects played a pivotal role in Jared's murder.

Speaker 4 I believe that Melinda was the one who put the plan together and exactly how they were going to eliminate him.

Speaker 10 So six months after Jared Davidson's fatal shooting, his ex-mother-in-law, Mindy Jones, is arrested for his murder.

Speaker 10 Detectives take a closer look at the store surveillance video and now believe it is Mindy, not her daughter Kelly, who is seen buying that potted plant used to lure Jared out of his apartment.

Speaker 4 When she checked out at the checkout stand, she had the sleeves of her sweatshirt pulled up over her hands, which appeared to us that she was doing everything she could to cover up possible fingerprints on the pot.

Speaker 10 Apparently, Mindy let her guard down for just one critical moment. A moment caught on just one frame of that store video.

Speaker 4 See that a person appears to reach and grab what we believe was a plastic cardholder.

Speaker 10 The moment detectives believe Mindy transfers DNA from her hand to the cardholder. So if not for the DNA, you may not have even been able to make an arrest?

Speaker 4 That's true.

Speaker 10 Phil Jones is arrested not long after his wife, Mindy. Detectives are now convinced they both murdered their ex-son-in-law.

Speaker 10 We retrace the steps that detectives believe they took that night.

Speaker 4 Melinda went up to the door,

Speaker 4 placed the plant down at the doorstep, knocked on his door while Philip was about 15 to 20 feet away over in the bushes with that high-powered rifle.

Speaker 4 Jared peered out the window to look to see what was outside.

Speaker 4 He went to get the plant and at that point, Philip Jones shot and killed him.

Speaker 10 Even though Kelly was nowhere near the crime scene, she is also arrested.

Speaker 10 Though her alleged role in all of this is far from clear, and I believe that she was involved in the planning of this murder. From the beginning, from the beginning.

Speaker 10 At this point, though, there is no evidence to support that. And Kelly and her parents all claim they are innocent.

Speaker 14 The reality of it is, I had nothing to do with the death of Malia's father.

Speaker 14 I did not kill her father.

Speaker 14 Hey, Malia, where's your nose? Your nose.

Speaker 14 Malia will not know

Speaker 3 what a wonderful person her father was.

Speaker 11 Where's your daddy?

Speaker 3 And how devoted he was to her. Come on down, little munchkin.

Speaker 10 Next to Jared himself, perhaps the most tragic victim of this murder is Jared's little girl, Malia, who was just three years old at the time of the shooting.

Speaker 13 We have relied on psychologists to tell us how to interact with Malia, particularly over this.

Speaker 10 Malia turned six in 2006. We agreed not to show what she looked like.

Speaker 12 All right, sweetie, that's good.

Speaker 3 Here's a card coming.

Speaker 10 She has suffered an overwhelming loss. Her father was murdered.
Her mother was arrested. as were the grandparents with whom she had spent nearly every day of her life.

Speaker 10 She has said, I don't have a mommy now, and I don't have a daddy, and I'm different. Jared's parents are now raising Malia and trying to help her deal with this tremendous vacuum in her life.

Speaker 10 I think the wisest thing that the therapist ever said to us was, if you treat her as if she's broken, she will be.

Speaker 10 And to be honest with her.

Speaker 10 When Jared was murdered, Kelly had told Malia only that a bad man had shot her daddy.

Speaker 13 In her therapist session, she drew a picture of a bad man

Speaker 13 standing over a body with a gun in his hand.

Speaker 10 Does she know who that bad man is?

Speaker 13 We chose, through the coaching of the psychologist, because she brought that up. She said, well,

Speaker 12 Papa.

Speaker 13 was the bad man who shot your daddy.

Speaker 10 What was her reaction?

Speaker 13 Family don't kill family.

Speaker 13 What was he thinking?

Speaker 10 17 months after Jared Davidson's murder, authorities finally manage to get Philip Jones to confess to the killing.

Speaker 10 But he does so only when prosecutors agree that his daughter, Kelly, will not be tried for the murder.

Speaker 6 It was not easy to hear that she was cutting such a deal. I think she helped planned it.
I'm sure she found joy in it.

Speaker 10 The Davidsons go to court to see their son's killer sentenced.

Speaker 10 But it is a stunningly different Philip Jones they see. While in jail, he has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Speaker 16 I know that I am dying

Speaker 16 and

Speaker 16 will meet with my maker very soon.

Speaker 10 Struggling just to breathe, Phil Jones admits he pulled pulled the trigger.

Speaker 16 I shot and killed Jared.

Speaker 16 Mindy and I

Speaker 3 believed

Speaker 16 that we needed to do something.

Speaker 10 As part of a plea deal, the judge reluctantly allows Kelly's father to offer his explanation for why he did it.

Speaker 16 Sometimes good people do terrible things.

Speaker 10 Philip Jones claims that Jared was molesting Malia and had to be stopped.

Speaker 16 They did a terrible thing in killing Jared Davidson to protect our granddaughter.

Speaker 16 Jared Davidson did a terrible thing too.

Speaker 10 The sickening accusation against Jared first came from Kelly roughly four months before the murder. Kelly says she learned of it from Malia.

Speaker 14 I just thought with her going to preschool that maybe she needs to know where it's okay for people to touch her and where it's not.

Speaker 14 The end, I asked if anybody touched her somewhere they shouldn't have. And when she said yes, I said, Who? And she said, My daddy does.

Speaker 10 Kelly contacted the authorities, and Detective Sorensen was assigned to help investigate what was a very serious allegation. And at first, it seemed there might be something to the charge.

Speaker 4 Jared Davidson took a polygraph examination with our department.

Speaker 10 A lie detector test that Sorenson says Jared failed over one key question.

Speaker 4 It was a question about inappropriate touching.

Speaker 4 He was very nervous, which was understandable.

Speaker 10 Because stress can sometimes lead to false results, Jared's parents paid for him to undergo a second privately administered polygraph test, which he passed.

Speaker 10 Investigators dug deeper and found no evidence to substantiate the claim.

Speaker 4 We were not able to find any physical evidence, any corroborating statements, anything that would show that yes, he did molest that girl.

Speaker 10 Prosecutors refused to take the case.

Speaker 4 It was rejected and it was their belief that there was no molestation. It was fabricated.

Speaker 10 That is also the firm belief of the entire Davidson family, who are horrified by the allegations, believing Kelly made them up for her custody fight. Is Kelly lying about the molestation charges?

Speaker 10 Absolutely.

Speaker 10 Richard Davidson, wearing his murdered son's hockey jersey, is allowed to address the court.

Speaker 4 Thank you, Your Honor.

Speaker 10 He angrily defends Jared.

Speaker 15 We have also seen repeated lies told solely for the purpose of slandering Jared's good name as a sick attempt to justify the defendant's murderous act.

Speaker 10 Perhaps equally outraged is the judge in this case.

Speaker 4 Jared Davidson does not have the ability to respond to those allegations because you killed him. You murdered him.

Speaker 12 This is

Speaker 4 an execution murder, line and wait.

Speaker 8 Thank you.

Speaker 15 Courts adjourned.

Speaker 10 He sentences Phil Jones to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Speaker 10 Phil is sent here. to a special hospice unit inside a California prison.
Since his sentencing, it appears for the moment that his health has improved dramatically.

Speaker 10 Come on over and show us what you have here. In an exclusive interview with 48 Hours, Phil Jones continues to insist Malia was molested.

Speaker 16 I know for a fact

Speaker 16 because she told me.

Speaker 10 He also claims he was very sensitive to what Malia said because he had been a victim of molestation as a child.

Speaker 16 I know how it affects people.

Speaker 10 Did you or your daughter ever ask your son-in-law if he had done this or if there could be any explanation for it?

Speaker 16 No, I did not.

Speaker 16 I didn't ask him.

Speaker 10 Philip Jones' decision to commit murder appears to be based solely on the word of a three-year-old child. What are you doing over there, young lady?

Speaker 10 A child prosecutors are convinced was coached. into making the claim.

Speaker 4 Maybe Malia might have said something, but three-year-olds say things that aren't necessarily true and use that as an excuse to go out and murder somebody is outrageous.

Speaker 10 So there was no other choice than to shoot this man?

Speaker 16 I sure couldn't think of one.

Speaker 16 I couldn't.

Speaker 16 I just couldn't come up with anything else.

Speaker 20 There's Leah in the pool.

Speaker 16 I wish there had been some other way, but it was my responsibility to protect my granddaughter.

Speaker 10 As he now feels he must protect his daughter, Kelly. But what role, if any, did she play in her ex-husband's murder? You didn't pull the trigger, but are you just as guilty for the death?

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Speaker 16 I've been through chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Speaker 16 And

Speaker 16 there's nothing more that medical science can do.

Speaker 10 Philip Jones may be living on borrowed time as he begins serving a life sentence for murdering his ex-son-in-law, Jared Davidson.

Speaker 10 Did you know at the time that you had terminal cancer?

Speaker 16 I did not.

Speaker 10 So that didn't factor in your decision at all to kill this man, knowing that you may not be alive?

Speaker 16 No, it didn't. I had no idea.

Speaker 10 But knowledge of his fatal illness probably made his plea deal to be locked away for what life he has left a little easier to accept.

Speaker 16 I just confessed and pled guilty.

Speaker 16 in exchange for my daughter being taken out of the equation. She was threatened with life imprisonment and as everyone knows there are a lot of innocent people in prison.

Speaker 10 Was your daughter a part of the plot to kill her ex-husband?

Speaker 16 No, she wasn't.

Speaker 10 As part of the deal. How do you plead?

Speaker 10 Kelly is allowed to plead guilty to three lesser charges, but each is still a serious crime.

Speaker 24 Accessory to murder and two counts of perjury.

Speaker 10 Outside of courts, Kelly remains quite defiant.

Speaker 14 By entering the plea, I was in essence lying in a courtroom. The charges I pled guilty to

Speaker 14 is that I helped cover up after the fact.

Speaker 14 And did you? No, I didn't.

Speaker 10 So why did you agree to the plea?

Speaker 14 Because in my opinion, our justice system is flawed just enough that I couldn't trust a jury. I would be gambling my entire life, and Lee is.

Speaker 10 Kelly is sentenced to four years in prison. But with good behavior, she could be out after serving only about a year and a half.
An outrage to Jared's father, who told the court so.

Speaker 15 As for my son's ex-wife, to whom I believe personally responsible for the death of my son and for the tormenting him throughout the precious time he had with his daughter, she should receive the maximum sentence permitted by law.

Speaker 10 So with Kelly avoiding a long prison sentence and her father's deal done, that leaves Kelly's mother, Mindy, as the last and perhaps the biggest target of them all.

Speaker 10 You think Melinda is the mastermind of all of them? I do.

Speaker 10 Mastermind or not, Mindy refuses a plea deal for herself. She'll take her chances in court.
But there's a problem.

Speaker 9 It seems Mindy can't remember anything.

Speaker 10 Six months after her arrest, Mindy woke up one morning in jail claiming she had lost her memory.

Speaker 4 Yeah, she claimed that she had amnesia and that she had lost her memory and didn't know who anybody was.

Speaker 4 Very convenient.

Speaker 10 Not for Mindy's attorney, Robert Land here.

Speaker 10 He says she is completely incapable of assisting in her own defense, like trying to explain why her DNA was on the plant card holder found at the murder scene.

Speaker 12 She asserts to this day that she doesn't remember what happened.

Speaker 10 And do you believe that?

Speaker 12 It doesn't matter what I believe. That's what she says.

Speaker 12 I'm not able to look into people's eyes and know whether they're telling the truth or not.

Speaker 10 Compounding matters for the defense, the witness with the greatest potential to harm Mindy.

Speaker 12 Mr.

Speaker 11 Jones, please step forward to the witness stand.

Speaker 10 Is her own husband, Phil, who is called to testify by the prosecution.

Speaker 12 I don't believe I'm going to answer those questions.

Speaker 10 He does his best not to cooperate.

Speaker 22 Was your wife with you when you shot Jared Davidson?

Speaker 12 I'm not going to answer that question. I'm not going to answer that.

Speaker 10 But the judge insists he must testify.

Speaker 22 You've been sentenced. You're not at jeopardy.

Speaker 12 I'm ordering you to respond to the question.

Speaker 24 You knew you had to find a way to get him out of the house or out of his apartment so that you could use the rifle.

Speaker 11 Isn't that correct?

Speaker 22 Yes. And that's why you went over to Vaughn's and your wife went in to buy the plant so that you would be able to get Jared to come out, correct?

Speaker 12 So says you.

Speaker 22 I'm asking you, sir, you're the one who committed the murder.

Speaker 10 The defense had hoped at worst to make a case for voluntary manslaughter.

Speaker 4 It's at least an argument for voluntary manslaughter and not murder.

Speaker 10 Suggesting that in her mind, Mindy had to kill Jared to protect her granddaughter. But the prosecutor maintained that the family made the whole thing up.

Speaker 10 And the judge, this time, refused to allow any mention of the alleged molestation.

Speaker 3 The defense is not available.

Speaker 4 The record reflects that I just asked.

Speaker 24 That's the court to reconsider. That's fine.

Speaker 10 You were left with very little to defend this woman.

Speaker 12 It was Slim Pickens.

Speaker 10 As Lantier sees it, the truth of whether Jared molested Malia is not even the real issue here.

Speaker 12 Whether or not he did it or not is not the question. They honestly held that belief that the child was going to suffer some harm at his hands.
It was perhaps misguided and tragic.

Speaker 10 But given the tough restrictions from the judge, the defense is left only with the opportunity to hint to the jurors that there is more to the story than they've been told.

Speaker 12 Crime is sometimes evil. And sometimes crime is not crime.
Sometimes it is justifiable.

Speaker 22 You and your wife thought you had outsmarted everybody, didn't you?

Speaker 12 No, that's not true.

Speaker 10 Throughout it all, Mindy has maintained she remembers absolutely nothing of Jared's killing, but that she is innocent of the murder charges against her.

Speaker 10 The jury takes several hours over two days to reach a verdict. You think Mindy orchestrated all of this? Yes.

Speaker 10 But what do the jurors think?

Speaker 20 Verdict. We the jury in the above entitled case hereby find the defendant Melinda Jean Jones guilty of the crime of murder and violation of penal command.

Speaker 10 Mindy shows no reaction to the verdict or the sentence to spend the rest of her days in prison with no chance of parole.

Speaker 10 There's no remorse, there's no regret, and nothing will bring him back.

Speaker 10 Do you think that Phil or Mindy should have been given the death penalty?

Speaker 6 I do.

Speaker 6 It kills me that they get to live. And he's gone.

Speaker 10 There is no closure or relief for Jared's parents, Richard and Susan, now that Kelly and her parents have all been sent off to prison.

Speaker 10 Instead, the Davidsons express new fears for their family's safety.

Speaker 10 Are you afraid of Kelly?

Speaker 12 Yes.

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Speaker 4 The sense of loss will never go away.

Speaker 6 He's always missing.

Speaker 10 He's always missing.

Speaker 12 And the hood has his full name, Jared.

Speaker 10 Jared Davidson's parents and brother feel it is very important for Malia to visit her father's grave.

Speaker 16 And it says that he was a devoted father.

Speaker 13 Your daddy. He was our son.

Speaker 4 He was Mikey's brother.

Speaker 10 That's where his memory is. That's where she can go to be closer to him.

Speaker 10 Richard feels tremendous guilt.

Speaker 12 Sorry I wasn't there for you.

Speaker 10 Convinced he could have somehow prevented his son's murder.

Speaker 10 To get him out of Malia's life.

Speaker 13 And I didn't share that with he or

Speaker 13 my wife.

Speaker 13 And I will live with that guilt for the rest of my life for not sharing that.

Speaker 10 I see the tears and the emotion, Phil. Is that regret for what you did? Is that...

Speaker 16 No, it's thinking about

Speaker 10 what has happened to my granddaughter and

Speaker 16 the way that it has affected

Speaker 16 my entire family.

Speaker 14 They acted on what they thought was in the best interest of my daughter, and I can't fault anybody for that.

Speaker 3 Good girl!

Speaker 10 It is thoughts of her daughter that help Kelly keep going.

Speaker 10 How much do you miss her?

Speaker 14 I don't even think I could describe it.

Speaker 14 I miss everything about her.

Speaker 14 She's the reason I got up every morning. She's the reason I went to work.

Speaker 14 She's the reason I took the deal so I could get home with her.

Speaker 10 And it is Kelly's intense feelings for Malia that have the Davidsons worried about their own safety.

Speaker 13 She's in jail. There are bad people in jail.

Speaker 13 Our concern is that she develops a relationship

Speaker 13 that gets us murdered.

Speaker 10 You have a fear of this? Yes. Yes.

Speaker 10 As it is, the Davidsons already face a tough challenge.

Speaker 10 Somehow, they have to help their granddaughter piece together her life as she tries to make sense of her father's senseless murder by people she had trusted and loved. As she grows up,

Speaker 10 she'll learn more and she'll understand more.

Speaker 13 And she'll eventually have the documents to read to draw her own conclusions.

Speaker 11 Philip Jones died in 2007 while serving his prison sentence. Kelly Davidson was released from prison in 2007.

Speaker 26 Sunday, count on the NFL on CBS for pivotal games shaping the playoff race, including Jonathan Taylor leading the Colts into KC to face the Chiefs, or the Steelers in the Windy City against Caleb Williams and the Bears.

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Speaker 19 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

Speaker 9 Brandon was the full package. I felt like I met my guy.

Speaker 3 Stop, stop, stop talking.

Speaker 3 God.

Speaker 9 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 something horrific was about to happen.

Speaker 9 I saw the devil in his eyes. We're gonna tell her what he did.

Speaker 3 Don't date Brandon.

Speaker 2 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.