I Did It (Jamesha Covson, Divieon Parker, Reginald Anderson, Renita Bennett)

Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too.

I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

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I've crossed a defendant before in trial, but this was something

completely different.

Looking at his eyes was also

so scary because he then looked at me and said, my name is Michael Myers and I'm a serial killer.

And I was like,

I'm sorry, what?

I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

I'm Anasega Nicolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction.

And this is Anatomy of Murder.

Memphis, Tennessee, is an iconic southern city nestled along the banks of the mighty Mississippi.

It's known as home of the blues, deep-fried southern cooking, and of course, Graceland, the home of Memphis' favorite son, Elvis Presley.

But like any big city, Memphis also struggles with its own share of big city issues, namely unemployment, drugs, and the violent crime that often goes with it.

I love Memphis.

I've lived here my whole life, except when I was in school.

It is a very challenging place to be a prosecutor because there is a lot of crime.

That's the voice of Lesi Rainey, the chief prosecutor in the domestic violence unit in Shelby County, where part of Memphis is located.

We are also joined by Shelby County ADA, Regina Lucreziano, who shares a unique relationship with Lesi.

I actually interned here at the district attorney's office, and I was actually Lesie's intern, and now she is my boss.

Both Leslie and Regina are well aware of the challenges that plague a city like Memphis, including a persistently high homicide rate.

But as Lessee explains, those challenges are also what gives both detectives and prosecutors here such a strong sense of mission.

I love Memphis, and I feel like part of the reason I have enjoyed my job is that it is a very straightforward way to try to make the city where I was born and where I grew up a better place.

But even so, nothing could have prepared either of them for the shocking wave of violence that swept through Lesse's hometown beginning in the fall of 2019.

It was truly a reign of terror that began with a single gunshot, claimed five lives, including that of an unborn child, and ended with the bombshell realization that their city might be in the grips of a serial killer.

I think this case would is definitely, you know, one of my most important cases and something that will stick with me for a really long time.

It all started on a night in November 2019.

Gunfire erupted in front of the South Memphis Market, a neighborhood grocer a few miles from downtown and just a short drive north of Graceland.

Here's Regina describing the police call out to the scene.

So the police got a call to the South Memphis market and it was a shooting call and that's where they found Divian Parker who was shot in the back of the head and he was laying on the front right in front of the door.

It was clear from his head wound that Divion had died instantly at the scene.

He was just 18 years old.

Divion was a recent high school graduate who had just started a job training program.

His family described him as quiet but friendly and deeply loyal to the people in his life.

And as we've explained, detectives from Memphis PD were not unfamiliar with violent crime of this nature.

Sadly, young men losing their lives to gun violence was an all too common occurrence in parts of Memphis.

But even from the beginning, there seemed to be something very different about this case.

For one, it didn't appear that Divion had been robbed as his wallet was still with him.

And people nearby, including employees in the market, did not report hearing any arguing preceding the shooting, which also seemed to rule out the possibility that this was the result of a fight or some escalating confrontation.

Clearly, there were not going to be any easy answers, but luckily there was CCTV footage.

They ended up getting video from the store where they could see two people approaching the store who were like in hoodies and you couldn't really see their face because it was kind of dark out and the hoodies were kind of covering their face.

Divian Parker is just kind of standing in the parking lot and as you watch the video he's talking to some people and they're all just kind of milling around and he's just kind of hanging out minding his own business and then you see these two people come and the shooter comes up right behind him and puts the gun just right up to the back of his head and fires there's no hesitation there's no conversation and then he falls down and the shooter and the other person leave The shooter gave no warnings and showed no mercy.

As Lessey explains, it was clear that Divion never even saw it coming.

It's really hard to watch because he is looking the other direction.

The shooter comes up right behind him and shoots him just point blank in the back of the head.

There's no conversation.

There's no interaction between the two.

It's just an execution.

The video confirmed what detectives had first suspected, that this was not a robbery or a fight that erupted in gun violence.

But what they did not expect was the murder appeared to be both premeditated and personal.

It's not like these two people got into an argument and somebody pulled a gun.

They didn't talk.

He's just standing there.

The shooter comes up behind him and just shoots him directly in the back of the head and leaves.

It could not have been more cold-blooded or more planned in advance.

According to his family, Divion had no criminal background, no affiliation with gangs or narcotics.

So there really was no reason why he would have been an obvious target of this kind of violence.

But obviously, someone had singled him out.

So police began to pull as much video footage as they could from the surrounding area to see if they could get a better look at the two hooded assailants.

So they

started to canvass the neighborhoods and they started getting videos throughout the neighborhood.

And so they started piecing together different videos of the two men running throughout the neighborhood.

They never got a clean look at their faces, but one of the men was wearing red shoes and jeans with some distinctive lettering on the sides.

It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Unsurprisingly, witnesses from the market where Divion was shot were hesitant to cooperate with police, but investigators were able to get a lead from an anonymous caller to the Crime Stoppers tip line.

Someone called in and said that the person responsible for shooting Divian Parker

was over a TV being stolen, and the tipster stated that the person responsible for shooting him was Joshua Dotson.

Tipped to the name of the possible shooter, police wasted no time in tracking down a photo of the potential suspect.

And the fastest way to do that, an officer's best friend, social media.

On Joshua Dotson's Facebook, they see him wearing black ripped jeans and bright red shoes that were seen in the videos that were taken from that night when he was running away from the shooting.

So one day after Divion's murder, Memphis PD had identified his possible killer and getting him in custody actually proved easier than they expected because as Regina explains, Dotson was on probation from an earlier crime and had a hard time avoiding the attention of police.

Joshua Dotson ends up getting arrested for his violation of probation warrant.

So he's taken into custody unrelated at that time.

So while he's in custody, the investigation is still pending.

In the meantime, detectives questioned the two other important players in this crime.

Dotton's potential accomplice, who was seen in the video fleeing the scene, and Dotson's girlfriend, whose stolen television seemed to be at least partly the motive, at least that's what was being said, behind this brutal murder.

Dotson's accomplice was quick to lay the blame squarely on him.

He is cooperative and he does speak with them.

They show him the video of the shooting and he identifies Dotson as a shooter.

He also identifies himself in the back while they're running up on him.

But he also claimed that he didn't know Dotson's intentions as they'd approached their target.

He said that he didn't know why he shot him at the time.

That's what he told them.

He then went to Jamesh's house after the shooting, but that's really about it.

And that he they sold the gun on the street and they threw away away their clothes.

Next in the interview room was Dotson's girlfriend, 19-year-old Jamisha Kofsu.

And they show her a video.

They ask her if she knows anyone in this video.

And she points out the shooter and says, that's JD, known as Joshua Dotson.

They ask her, how does she know that's him?

And she says, he told me.

And just like that, Dotson's girlfriend told police that he'd admitted to Divion's murder only hours after the shooting.

although now Dotson wasn't admitting anything.

They did try to talk to him and he refused to speak to them.

And so detectives had video of the shooting, video of the perpetrator fleeing the scene, and at least three different witnesses naming Joshua Dotson as the shooter, who happens to already be in police custody on a separate crime.

Now, I would think that prosecutors would be feeling pretty confident about wrapping up this case and getting justice for Divion's murder, but it didn't turn out to be be that simple.

It certainly wasn't quick.

Dotson was in custody, so law enforcement did have some luxury of time because he wasn't a threat to the public.

And it then allowed the time needed to see if people naming Dodson would be willing to testify if a trial was needed down the road.

Prosecutors always need to keep in mind that we only get one shot.

We knew probably who did it, but we didn't have quite enough to charge it.

I mean, we're pretty careful about the level of evidence that we need before we charge out a first-degree murder like this.

It was clear from the video and the witness statements that Joshua Dotson was a dangerous man, but investigators still had no idea just what he was capable of.

And of course, for the first four months, he was in custody.

And so we didn't have that urgency of, you know, get this dangerous person off the street.

He was off the street.

And so I think they were just trying to build their case without realizing that the minute he got out, he was going to just keep doing it.

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In November of 2019, 18-year-old Divion Parker was gunned down on a Memphis street, struck in the head at close range by a hooded assailant.

Security footage captured the cold-blooded murder, and within 24 hours, witnesses had informed police that the man they were looking for was 21-year-old Joshua Dotson.

But as investigators built their case against Dotson, who was already in custody for an unrelated violation of his probation,

Dotson was released from jail.

I think they were probably just still maybe getting some cell phone records or getting some other things to see if they could shore up.

any of the stuff that they already had.

And then he ends up getting out.

You know, I think when people hear this, like, oh my gosh, this guy who just killed someone just got out, but remember, he has not yet been charged in the murder.

And really, it comes down to there is no easy answer and no one size fits all when it comes to when is the appropriate time to make an arrest.

You know, every case needs to be analyzed and decisions made on its own merits.

And it's always that double-edged sword.

You rush, and then you end up at trial without enough solid credible evidence, or you take too long.

And potentially, if the person in fact is the killer, well, they're released if they're already in in custody or they otherwise flee or even worse got you know they strike again so it's always this balancing act that law enforcement and prosecutors have to do but again you can't you don't have a crystal ball so you do you the best you can hopefully based on the evidence you've procured at that point so unfortunately it's still all about timing and you have to present the evidence that you have at the time to in order to keep somebody behind bars so you know the unfortunate part about it is that you putting back somebody back on the street is always a risk, no matter who they are.

You know, some people are more dangerous than others, and you have to factor that in, but you're also doing a lot of other things in the case to try to build it to a point where you can make an arrest for the thing that you think that person could be responsible for, that you're trying to prove what that person is responsible for.

And it happens.

People get out.

It's the system.

But at this point, investigators in Memphis had no idea, as I mentioned, what kind of criminal they were dealing with and just what risk it was to have him on the streets.

Shortly after Dotson was released on the evening of May 24th, 2020, a group of friends were enjoying an outdoor barbecue at a park off Bellevue Boulevard, which is just a mile up the road from where Divian Parker was killed.

The police get multiple phone calls from this area, which is on Bellevue Boulevard and it's Jesse Turner Park.

Once again, police responded to reports of multiple gunshots.

Only this time, the violence had claimed not one victim, but two.

30-year-old Reginald Anderson and 24-year-old Renita Bennett had both been shot at close range.

The gunman had fled, leaving his victims bleeding helplessly on the ground.

They end up finding out through speaking to some of the witnesses that a person

came to the scene in a Cadillac, Deville, and had an argument with Reginald Anderson.

And Renita Benson tried to get in the middle of it, and he ended up pulling out his gun and shooting at them.

Renita was shot four times in the chest, suffering life-threatening wounds.

Reginald Anderson was shot three times in the back while trying to escape.

Both of them were brought to the hospital.

Reginald Anderson was pronounced dead that day.

Renita ended up surviving for, I think it was about a week, but when the police went in to go speak with her, she could not speak.

Reginald was the father of two kids, supporting his family with work as a landscaper.

And while his family told police that Reginald had some past struggles with substance abuse, he'd been trying to build a more stable life for himself and his family.

24-year-old Renita Bennett was a nursing student with a bright future and no known enemies.

There seemed to be nothing that should have made either of them a target for this type of violence.

And this is where it starts to sound a lot like the shooting of Divian Parker because it just seemed so random.

And in criminal investigations, random as a fact pattern is not good.

Detectives are always hunting for similarities, threads to pull.

No threads, no suspects.

But as it turns out, there was a threat because some of the witnesses claimed they recognized the shooter.

Other witnesses identified the person shooting, and it was Joshua Dotson.

Joshua Dotson, the same man who killed Divian Parker in November.

Police visited Renita in the hospital, hoping she could confirm the identification, or should I say make an identification of Dotson as the person who shot her.

She was in critical condition, but at that time she was nonverbal.

So they ended up asking her who did this.

And through other witnesses who identified the person, they had a photo lineup.

Pointing her finger at the photo, Renita Bennett identified Dotson as the man who shot her.

She passed away less than a week later.

Wow, Anaseka Dotson being released back on the streets and committing a double murder is a complete nightmare on so many levels.

And while it definitely strengthens the detective's case and presenting it to a prosecutor, of course, lots of questions on how that prosecutor would handle her death.

Would and could they use that ID?

Her statement being used even though the defense would not have an opportunity to question it.

Would this be a dying declaration?

So, these dying declarations, or in this case, a dying identification, it is super rare that prosecutors can use these statements.

There's multiple hurdles.

You know, in New York, which obviously is the area I know best, it has to be based on personal knowledge.

Well, she saw him, the person who shot her, presumably.

So, check, you know, statements made while that person is close to death or believe that they were.

Again, check again.

We know that she had very serious injuries in the beginning.

She's completely nonverbal.

She's in critical condition.

So, that seems that we would get that check mark again there.

But also, it has to be with really, they don't believe they have any hope in recovering.

And that is always where we come into that biggest question mark.

What is it that she thought?

You know, so often people think they're going to get better or there is hope.

And the reason that it's so tough to introduce these statements at trial is because, as you pointed out, Scott, is because you can't cross-examine that identification.

And so does that unfairly prejudice the defendant?

And so that is the reason we rarely, rarely get to use these as prosecutors.

But, you know, they had it at this point.

And needless to say, investigators got to work gathering as much evidence and witness testimony as they could regarding what, as you pointed out, Scott, was now a double homicide in Jesse Turner Park, which included 32 caliber shell casings, which was a match for the bullets that had killed both Reginald and Renita.

In their canvas for witnesses, they also got hints at a potential motive.

So it is said that Joshua Dotson's dad was there, and he was the one who had an argument.

We don't know what the argument was about, but had an argument with the people at the park and that he called his son Joshua, who then pulled up and that's how the shooting began.

It seems that it was clear that he came to start a fight.

And now Joshua Dotson was on the run, armed and definitely dangerous.

It would be three weeks before he would surface, tragically at the site of yet another shooting.

June 12th, 2020, the police get a call to 1269 Quinn, which is a rooming house in a residential neighborhood, but it is a house where individuals rent specific rooms.

There's not a landlord on site.

It also happened to be the home of Dotson's girlfriend, 19-year-old Jamisha Covson.

She had been shot multiple times, two at least.

She was found in the hallway, face down, the central hallway of this small house.

Jamisha also happened to be five months pregnant, and despite the best efforts of first responders, she and her unborn son did not survive.

Jamisha was described by her friends as bright, independent, and determined to raise her baby despite her difficult circumstances, circumstances that ultimately proved too hard to escape, namely her violent boyfriend, Joshua Dotson.

There were at least four other people in the house at the time that this happened.

So police immediately kind of start asking those those people what happened.

There's a witness who was in her room.

She describes she knows the victim and she's familiar with Joshua Dotson as Jamesha's boyfriend because he comes over and spends time at the house.

She describes hearing an argument between Jamesha and Joshua Dotson early in the morning.

According to this witness, the argument escalated and then turned violent.

She recognizes Joshua Dotson's voice and she hears a shot that's fired at that time, just sort of through the back door.

It was followed by the sound of Dotson leaving and for a moment it seemed like Jamesha was out of danger.

Miss James kind of goes back to bed.

She's laying in her bed watching TV.

When he comes back about an hour later, another neighbor witnessed that moment Dotson returned with a gun in his hand.

When Joshua Dotson comes back the second time, she hears the commotion and sticks her head out of her door of her room and sees Jamesha running down the hall trying to get away from him and Joshua Dotson walking behind Jamesha and raise up the gun and shoot her in the back and then leave.

Dotson was now the prime suspect in the murder of five people, Devion Parker, Reginald Anderson, Renita Bennett, and now Jamesha Covson and her unborn son.

What was even more shocking was that these five homicides, they occurred in three different incidents with what appeared to be three distinctly different motives.

I mean, besides the suspected gunman, is it really possible that all of these murders are completely unrelated?

And that's exactly what Memphis investigators were trying to figure out, starting with the collection of evidence in their latest murder, that of his girlfriend.

Based on talking to their friends, they had a very volatile, on-again, off-again relationship.

A cell phone recovered from Jamesha's bedroom gave some clues to what might have been the source of their their latest argument.

Apparently, Jamesha thought that Joshua was texting another young woman and like trying to get with her.

And so they argued about that first thing in the morning.

There also seems to be, based on the text messages, some question.

Jamesha's baby that she is pregnant with is not Dotson's baby.

In the text, she says, you know, I told you this wasn't your baby.

Like, you knew this wasn't your baby, but he seems to be struggling with that a bit.

On her phone, they found voice memos and voice, like that she sent to Joshua Dotson that morning.

She basically was like

telling him not to come back, like, screw you, just getting heated about it and telling him that she doesn't need him and all this type of stuff.

And so, those were voice memos that she sent to him that morning after he left her the first time, like the first argument where he shot through the door.

Based on what they had learned from witnesses and Jamesha's own text messages, investigators issued a warrant for Dotson's arrest.

But within hours of Jamesha's murder, he was nowhere to be found.

But that's not to say he totally disappeared, because just two hours after Jamesha's murder, Dotson posted a chilling message on Facebook.

Right after the murder, he posted on his Facebook, like fly high, Jamesha, like love you.

Like he posted the memorial type thing.

But knowing his reputation and violent past, Jamesha's friends were not buying it.

People commented on it and was like, this is ridiculous.

You're the one who killed her.

And he was trying to defend himself through it in multiple comments.

And he was like, no, this wasn't me.

This was someone else.

It was almost like Dotson was taunting both the police and his victims, or at the very least, doing a terrible job of covering up his role role in the murders.

Even his Google search history, which police had gotten a warrant to monitor, was self-incriminating.

He did keep searching on his phone all the different murders that happened.

He kept searching Divian Parker's name.

He searched Reginald Anderson and Renita Bennett.

And one really interesting thing, he kept searching Jesse Dotson and Lester Street murder on his phone.

And that is, we believe, his uncle, but he's related to him.

and that was another murder that happened in memphis in 2008

a murder that cleaned the lives of six people all members of the killer jesse dotson's family and jesse dotson was believed to be joshua dotson's uncle one of the kids was stabbed in the head um and left with a knife sticking out of it for days and he ended up surviving and testifying against him and identifying him.

But why would Joshua Dotson, the killer's nephew, be interested in that gruesome case?

And why now?

Was it out of morbid curiosity or some sort of twisted, almost family pride?

Joshua Dotson was the suspect in five murders.

He was on the run, and it was becoming increasingly clear to investigators that if he wasn't stopped, he was more than capable of killing again.

The only question was whether they would get him in custody before it was too late.

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Three seemingly unrelated incidents of extreme violence resulting in five homicides.

Was there a singular motive behind this killing spree, or could this be the work of a serial killer?

Joshua Dotson was last seen leaving the home of his girlfriend, Jamesha Covson after firing the bullets that killed her and her unborn baby.

That's when Joshua goes on the run.

He ends up in Nashville for about a month and that is when he is arrested and extradited back to Memphis after that.

On June 18th, 2020, Joshua Dotson was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting death of his girlfriend, Jamesha Coveson, and her unborn child.

And this time, Shelby County was not going to let him slip through the cracks.

The new prosecutors assigned to the case were determined to make him answer for his crimes.

The only question was choosing which case to try first.

Because as Leslie explained, without a clear connection between these five homicides, they would have to be prosecuted separately.

The motives are separate.

The timing is separate.

We have rules against combining cases unless it's all part of the same course of action.

So in order to make sure that the jury is deliberating on each specific crime and not being influenced by proof of other crimes, we have to try them one at a time.

And I assume that it also meant that it is in their best interest to start with the case that prosecutors believe has the best chance of a conviction.

We sat down and we went through all of the murders.

We had our victim witness coordinator call all of our witnesses to see who was cooperative, who we could find.

We found that one of our witnesses on the third murder for Jamesha, she was passed away.

And then, like Lesie said, on the second murder at the park, some of those witnesses we could not even find.

And then, on the first murder, one of our main witnesses was Jamisha.

So, we had some issues here.

But Lesie, her idea was that we should try the domestic violence murder first.

Jameesha Kopsen's did seem like the strongest case for lots of reasons.

We could find some of the witnesses that we needed, but also because it's a particularly cruel and awful thing to do to murder a pregnant woman.

And that if we could convict him of one of these, then we might not have to try all the rest of them.

Joshua Dawson's trial for the murder of Jamesha Kovsen began in August of 2024.

And despite what seemed like a mountain of circumstantial evidence, Lesse and Regina knew it would have significant challenges.

I think it was really just getting the jury to believe in our witnesses.

Like it was going to be credibility at that point.

It was all eyewitness testimony.

We didn't have, you know, fingerprints and we didn't have, you know, like DNA.

So it was really all eyewitnesses at that point.

And we didn't know if he was going to testify or not until the end.

So it was really all about credibility if the jury was going to believe our witnesses.

So let's talk about those witnesses.

First, you have the rooming house neighbor who witnessed Dotson and Jamesha arguing, right?

She saw that first part of the confrontation that day, which resulted then in the first gunshot through the door.

Ms.

was very cooperative, but she was an older lady and she didn't really see that much.

It was a lot of like, oh, I heard arguing.

And then there was the other resident of the rooming house that says she actually saw Dotson fire the shots that killed Jamesha.

But it was clear that she was far less reliable.

We were on pens and needles whether she was even going to show up.

We had to issue a warrant for her arrest as a witness during the trial.

Now, she showed up.

We didn't have to have her arrested, but we had the warrant issued.

So Adesting, this is a tough one.

I mean, you'd hope people would be willing to see the importance of coming forward and testifying as something as critical as a murder case.

But some, as you know, are reluctant for all types of reasons.

Chief among them is not trusting the police, fear of retribution, retribution, or really just not wanting to be involved or bothered at all.

And for me, all of those potential issues are problematic.

Well, I don't think it's going to surprise anyone out there to hear that people are not really knocking on prosecutors' doors to testify in homicide cases, right?

Because as you said, Scott, there's that fear factor and safety is an obvious concern.

But as prosecutors, we need witnesses to prove cases, to hold people accountable for their crimes.

In homicide, most prosecutors, certainly including me, will tell you they have had to use from time to time material witness orders to get witnesses to court, which does mean a warrant for their arrest.

You can put someone in handcuffs if you need to, and absolutely, it's not ideal.

And you try not to use those, but we're also tasked with getting justice for these victims, holding people accountable and trying to protect the public from the offenders.

Like it's our job.

But at the same time, that's one of those areas that might be uncomfortable to talk about, but it is sometimes a necessary reality.

And, you know, there was was another key witness that had admitted to police that he actually saw Dotson on the morning of Jamesha's murder, and that Dotson had also confessed to the murder.

So earlier that morning, after the first fight, he goes to this guy.

His name is Simon Sullivan, who ends up being one of our witnesses at trial, who was in custody at the time on unrelated charges.

And we were very lucky, testified for us.

He goes to him that morning and rants about about the fight that they had.

And Simon tells him, you know, don't go back over there.

You shouldn't do this.

Like, just leave her alone.

He ends up also telling him, leave her alone because she knows about all of the other stuff that you did.

So obviously, he doesn't want him to screw anything up so that Jamesha doesn't, you know, go to the police or...

anything like that.

After the murder happens, he goes back to Simon's house and tells him that he shot Jamesha.

But again, is Dotson's friend a reliable witness?

He was incarcerated, so that is a strike for the jury that will need to be addressed.

And in his statement to police, he admitted that he had prior knowledge of Dotson's role in the earlier homicides, not something a juror is going to like to hear.

We were very worried about physical safety because he had agreed to testify for us.

He was my witness, and I remember being terrified that he would back out at the last minute.

But he'd also been friends with Jamesha, and I think he felt very strongly about doing the right thing for her.

And so what about the physical evidence?

I think that's really an important question.

And I'm thinking specifically about the murder weapon, because in the midst of all this shaky eyewitness testimony, the gun could go a long way.

We ended up actually having the gun in this case, which was another reason we picked it to try first because that's something that juries like.

But Simon actually bought the gun from Dotson's father, not knowing that it was the murder weapon.

He bought it like two weeks later.

And then he got arrested on something separate and they linked the gun back up to the murder.

And I think he was mad about that too, that he was mad that they had sold him the murder weapon that killed his friend.

And now you know how Simon Sullivan was discovered by police and became a witness.

He was actually in possession of the murder weapon, which just serves to further put into question his credibility and maybe even give the defense an opportunity to establish reasonable doubt.

The defense attorney actually was talking prior to his client's testimony.

Actually, his argument was that Sullivan did it.

You know, he had the gun and he knew the victim.

And his argument originally was that Sullivan was the one that had killed her.

But in the end, Sullivan and the other witnesses did all testify.

And even without introducing the fact that Dotson was a suspect in three other murders, prosecutors were able to establish that he had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to kill Jamesha Kovson.

And the only thing he didn't have was an alibi.

It was a strong case, but as you know, I always say, there is no such thing as a slam dunk.

And this is where the trial took a wild turn.

In Tennessee, we have what's called a moment hearing, where the judge calls the defendant to the stand outside the presence of the jury and reviews his rights with him to testify or not.

And this has to be done on the record outside the presence of the jury.

And so you never really know whether the defendant's going to testify until you have that hearing.

So in most circumstances, this hearing is pretty routine.

But Joshua Dotson had other plans.

So during the hearing, the defense attorney calls up his client, Joshua Dotson, and he gets to the stand and he has to go through his rights.

You know, you have the right to remain silent.

You do not have to testify.

I have advised you not to testify.

He actually said, I am begging you not to testify.

He's like, please, please, please do not testify.

And Joshua Dotson just said, no, I want to tell my story.

Against the advice of his counsel, Dotson insisted on testifying.

He began by admitting he knew Jamesha Covson.

And we actually have that audio, which you're going to hear parts of.

And we'll tell you right now, it is difficult to hear.

It was actually captured while he was testifying in the courtroom.

So the quality isn't great.

So listen carefully.

You know a woman named Jamisha Covson.

Yes, female I killed.

What he said was, she's that female I killed.

He didn't even call her like a person.

She's just a female.

She's that female I killed.

In the recording, you could hear both the lack of remorse and the almost matter-of-fact tone of somebody bragging about his crime.

And he was just getting warmed up.

He started rambling really, really fast and said, and I killed other people too.

And that's when the judge interrupted him.

I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's slow down.

Let your attorney ask you some questions.

That's how I think I'm blocking the hill with 32.

All right.

All right, so Mr.

Dotson, give your attorney an opportunity to ask questions.

Are those your questions, sir?

But with Dotson's defiant admission of guilt, his attorney must have known that his case was basically sunk.

He hung his head down and was like, no, judge, I have no more questions.

Because what else is he going to say?

He just admitted to killing this woman.

And he opened the door to the other murders.

In her cross-examination, Regina was now able to not only ask direct questions about Jamisha's murder, but also about the three other murders Dotson had now taken credit for.

He opened the door.

And as a prosecutor, I can tell you 100%, this must have been both exciting and also absolutely nerve-wracking.

You know, you have this golden opportunity to put the case away and possibly even three other open homicides in the process.

And let me add something else right here.

This was Regina's very first murder trial.

I literally look at Lesie and I just go, oh my God, what do I do?

And so I was like, just get up there and ask him what he did.

Like on this day, like, what did you do?

And that's what she did.

But not even a veteran prosecutor could have ever imagined.

what would have happened next.

And before you listen to this, I'll just tell you that Anasega called me right after this interview and told me about this.

And it was just shocking.

So you said you killed her?

Yep.

After you killed her?

I'm a serial killer named Michael Miles from the Halloween movie and the whole time I love killing females.

Looking at his eyes was also

so scary because he then looked at me and said, my name is Michael Myers and I'm a serial killer.

And I was like.

I'm sorry, what?

I'm Michael Myers as in the fictional serial killer from the classic horror movie Halloween.

I've crossed a defendant before in trial, but this was something

completely different.

He said that he has killed many women before and just kept saying, like, I'm Michael Myers.

And my name is changed in the system incorrectly.

So I said, who else did you kill?

And he said, I killed Divian Parker.

And I was like, did you shoot Divian Parker in November of 2019?

And I like, he's like, yeah, I killed him.

I shot him.

And he was like, and I killed a bunch of other people.

And I was like, who else did you kill?

And then I ended up killing her.

And I killed some more people after.

I shot some more people at the park.

You killed all the people at the park?

Yeah.

Okay.

Who did you kill at the park?

I killed about three people.

And he was like, I shot three people at the park.

And I was like, is that Renita Bennett and Reginald Anderson?

And he was like, yeah, I killed them.

I was like, was that May 20, 2020?

And he was like, like, Yeah, I killed them too.

At one point, he even pointed to the evidence table and ID'd the murder weapon he used to kill Jameesha.

He did say, I'm looking at the transcript, I killed Jameesha Cosin because she snitched on me about killing Debian Parker.

It was an extraordinary moment in the courtroom, a brazen confession to five murders.

He had zero remorse.

He just had no emotion at all when he was doing this, when he was speaking to us, like testifying, like he definitely is a psychopath for sure.

I think he was bragging.

I don't even think it's no emotion.

I think he was bragging.

This is what I did, and I killed these other people too.

And I'm a serial killer.

Yes, look at what a scary monster I am.

I think he was bragging.

In fact, Dotson's testimony was so shocking that prosecutors worried that when they presented his confession to the jury, they may not believe it.

We got worried that the jury would think he was insane because he kept talking about being Michael Myers and that he was making it all up.

I mean, he was so casual about talking about killing all these other people.

So we called the case officer on those other cases to say, no, these are real murders and he was arrested for them.

Like, he's not making up cases that didn't happen.

Like, these were real people that died and he's the one that did it.

Ultimately, jurors were given specific instructions on how to use the evidence that was presented, including Dotson's confessions to the other murders.

The state still had to prove all the elements of the case that he was charged with during that trial, which was Jamesha Covson's murder and that of her unborn child.

The jury wasted little time in making their decision.

Oh, not long.

Like an hour?

I would say, I would have said an hour and a half, like 90 minutes, maybe.

Joshua Dotson, the self-professed serial killer who called himself Michael Myers, was found guilty on all counts.

In a strange coincidence, his sentencing was scheduled for October 31st, Halloween.

I argued to have the two life sentences consecutive, and the judge ended up agreeing with us, and she sentenced him to 104 years at that time.

Joshua Dotson ultimately pled guilty to the murders of Debion Parker, Reginald Anderson, and Renita Bennett, waiving his right to any future appeals.

He wanted to get his cases over with.

He did not want to go to trial, and so he pled guilty to the three other homicides, and he pled guilty to them consecutively.

So that was also 156 years on the three homicides total, consecutive to the 104 years.

He's in jail for quite some time.

The judge in Jumisha's case referred to the murder as one of the most tragic cases in recent memory, not just for the loss of a young expectant mother, but also her unborn son.

All of the hopes and dreams she had for both of them.

Janisha lived a really, really hard life.

She was only 19 and she was pregnant and she was really trying to survive for herself.

I'm really glad that we did get justice for her and we put away a horrible, horrible human being.

In the eyes of the media, this case was sensational, grabbing headlines worldwide.

The public's and Hollywood's infatuation with serial killers is a whole larger issue.

And sadly, in this case, the infatuation turned action, and that is so troubling.

We owe it to the victims of this kind of twisted sensationalism more.

They need to be the center of our outrage, the very families shattered by these crimes.

In an age where clicks, downloads, and ratings are built on sensational headlines, our true calling here on AOM remains to amplify empathy, justice, and remembrance.

This case made the headlines, but because of the things Dotson said in court and because of the number of his victims.

But all too often, these specific murders themselves don't make the headlines.

Yet, as a former prosecutor, I can tell you that beyond it being five murders by one single man, each one of them is the type of case that prosecutors handle regularly all across the country.

Multiple families lost so much at Dotson's hands.

Divion, still a teenager when he was killed.

To Reginald and Regina, friends in a park murdered because of an argument with Dotson's dad.

And then his girlfriend, Jamesha, a 19-year-old who had not had an easy life, far from it, but who'd been excited to become a mom and tried to make the life of her child better than hers had been.

And an unborn baby who will never see the sun.

We remember them all today and shake our heads at the senselessness of their deaths.

Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder.

Anatomy of Murder is an audio chuck original produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frasetti Media.

Ashley Flowers is executive producer.

This episode was written and produced by Walker Lamond, researched by Kate Cooper, edited by Ali Sirwa and Phil Jean-Grande.

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