Crystal Gregoire

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After a turbulent childhood, he found happiness in his later years.

I think everybody here thought he'd kind of put his past behind him and was starting his life over again.

She was a single mother with three kids.

She was raising her three kids.

She felt like she was on her own.

She just wanted a better life for us.

Their unlikely friendship gave them both new hope.

He spent money on the kids.

Just seemed like he really loved the family.

Until the unthinkable happens and tears their world apart.

I yelled his name and he's just laying there and there's blood everywhere.

It looked like someone had just splattered paint all over the walls.

This seems like someone with some experience committed this crime.

As the the investigation begins, detectives question if a big city crime has made its home in their quaint Tennessee town.

He portrayed himself as being connected to the mafia in New York City.

As investigators probe deeper into the mystery, buried secrets are uncovered.

He was very controlling through everything.

When she would eat, when she would shower, what she decided to order at a restaurant.

He digs it up, he opens it up, and there's a pill bottle.

The first question was, how did you find this stuff?

I said, now tell me what happened.

May 19th, 2015, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

At 8.50 p.m., 16-year-old Josh Brown arrives at a senior living complex to check on a family friend, Sam John Passarella.

No one had spoken to Mr.

Passarella since the night before.

Josh had been to football practice earlier in the day and had come by to check on him.

When he got to Sam's residence, he checked the door and it was unlocked.

He went on in.

He called out for Uncle Tony, as Josh called Sam passarella and uncle tony did not answer the bedroom door was closed so he knocked on the bedroom door was no answer so he opened the door

what josh finds behind the door sends him tearing out of the house frantically dialing 911

911 wants the address for your emergency the clock at senior home

uh-huh i just came to my uncle tony's house and i opened the door and he's laying on the bed he's dead

you can tell just from listening to the 911 call from from the tone of his voice i mean this is like a 16 year old boy he is frantic he is terribly upset

you're for sure that he is not breathing i yelled his name and he's just laying there and there's blood everywhere

When officers arrive at the complex, they're confronted by a horrific scene inside inside Sam John Paszarella's bedroom.

It looked like someone had taken a paintbrush basically and just splattered blood all over the walls and the ceiling.

This is one of the bloodiest crime scenes I've ever seen.

Sam John Passarella was born on August 6th, 1945, into a large Italian-American family in New York City.

Sam John had a charismatic sense to him.

You know, he had the personality that just, it attracted people.

But Sam John had a knack always of seeming to be in trouble in the big city of New York.

Just before Sam John started high school, His family shipped the troublemaker off to rural Lawrence County, Tennessee, where another branch of the Passerello family lived.

His family sent Sam down in hopes that his uncle and their family would have some good influences on him.

He first became known as a musician, as a singer.

He and some of his friends started a band, a dance band, that would play at parties and dances and clubs.

It was back in the early 70s, and he was like a crooner.

He just knew how to get the crowd in the palm of his hands.

He really was an entertainer.

Sam John moved to Nashville after high school to try to make it big in the music scene there.

While he was waiting for his chance at fame, Sam John fell back into the mischievous habits of his youth.

He began the business of counterfeiting and buying and selling stolen property, selling drugs, portrayed himself as being connected to the mob or the mafia in New York City.

Sam John fell into even more trouble in 1982 when a man named Monty Hudson allegedly cheated him and his gang out of thousands of dollars by selling them a batch of counterfeit silver.

Once they found out that the silver was fake,

They abducted Mr.

Hudson and his wife at gunpoint in the parking lot of a motel.

Sam John and another man took Monty Hudson with them in their vehicle, and that was the last time he was ever seen

until they found his body.

They could never actually pin the murder on Sam John.

They did have enough evidence to convict him of the kidnapping of both Monty and Liz.

And so Sam was sentenced to 20 years and then I believe 50 years plus life.

Facing the prospect of life behind bars, bars, the former tough guy mellowed out in prison.

They let him run a greenhouse while he was in there, and his plants and all just flourished.

There was an article at National Geographic about Sam John having a special touch with plants.

Sam John Pasarella served around 30 years in prison.

before winning an appeal and being released in 2013.

Me and my uncle Nick went over and picked him up when they let him out, and it was quite a change.

You sit over there 25, 30 years, you're definitely not the same person.

Just shy of his 69th birthday, Sam John moved into the Crockett Senior Living Complex in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Mr.

Passarella was the gardener.

and he prided himself on the flowers there at the apartment complex.

Most people who had lived around Lawrence County was aware of Sam John Pasarella and his past.

I think everybody here thought he'd kind of put his past behind him and was starting his life over again.

People in the community loved him.

One of those people in the community that grew especially close to Sam John was 31-year-old Crystal Gregoire.

Despite their age difference, she and Sam related on their rough upbringings.

We had a pretty rough childhood.

It was

my mother and us four girls.

My dad left us when I think my oldest sister was about five.

Born on November 26th, 1980, in De Alemande, Louisiana, Crystal was the third of four children.

My mom's the one that's kind of like outgoing.

She's the most outgoing of the four.

She's very like

go-it-the-flow type of woman.

Seeking structure in her life, Crystal worked briefly as a police officer after high school and then bounced from job to job.

She also gave birth to three kids by the age of 20.

After she had Josh and Mariah with their dad, she eventually got married to my dad and had me in 2000.

The marriage ended after only a few years, and Crystal quickly rebounded.

She was with my stepdad when I turned three.

But eventually, my mom and my stepdad were just getting into it a lot, and she just wanted a change for her three kids.

He had an offshore job, and that put a lot of time and miles between the two of them that were on their relationship quite a bit.

She had a pretty rough time.

I encouraged her to move here just to have my support so I can help her with the children.

In 2012, Crystal ended the relationship and moved from Converse, Louisiana to Loreto, Tennessee for a fresh start.

She just wanted a better life for us.

I think moving to Tennessee was the best thing my mom ever did for me personally.

She was working at a plant here in Pulaski and she excelled.

She moved herself up like really quick, ended up being like one of the lead positions.

Crystal began a relationship with a local man named Jonathan Howell and soon the two were engaged.

It was through Jonathan that she met Sam John Passarella.

The two warm-hearted free spirits became fast friends.

Sam John didn't request for us to call him Uncle Tony.

My mom came up with it because he's from Brooklyn.

I would say that my brother was over at Sam John's house a lot more, and I guess he found a father figure in Sam John some way.

But at the age of 69, Sam John's health took a turn, scaring his loved ones.

He had been suffering from pneumonia, congestive heart failure, hepatitis,

just

a myriad of health problems.

In the spring of 2015, Sam John had went into the hospital for some diabetic problems and it severely weakened him.

As Sam John recovered in the Crockett senior living complex, Crystal and her family were right by his side.

Crystal was very close to Sam also and spent quite a bit of time over at Sam's apartment with him in that Sometimes people would come in and she would actually be sitting beside him in the bed.

But Sam John's homecoming would be short-lived.

On May 19th, 2015, he is found dead in his home by Crystal's son Josh.

After Josh calls 911, police rush to the apartment and find a gruesome scene.

Police start canvassing.

the area going to these neighboring apartments knocking on doors asking did you see anything did you hear anything?

Coming up, detectives narrow in on potential suspects.

Whoever committed this crime had a fairly decent working knowledge of the anatomy of the throat.

So now you're wondering: is this some sort of mob hit?

I was under the impression that they weren't really telling us everything that they knew

On May 19th, 2015, local and state law enforcement in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee are on the scene of a brutal murder.

The victim is 69-year-old Sam John Passarella.

The victim is laying in his bed, crossways of the bed, with his feet in the floor.

There's a large pool of blood underneath his head.

He very obviously had been beaten with some type of object about the head.

The wounds that I observed on Sam, a lot of them have half moon shapes.

That's very typical of a hammer or possibly a pipe that has a rounded end on it.

In addition to the blunt force trauma wounds, officers notice a deep gash in Sam John's neck.

It appeared that perhaps the vein in his neck had been cut with a knife because very obviously there was a great deal of blood coming from the wound in his neck.

Whoever committed this crime had a fairly decent working knowledge of the anatomy of the throat or at least what would ensure a for sure death.

Based on the positioning of Sam John's body, detectives suspect he had no idea what was about to happen.

Someone was standing behind him when they struck him.

And then he fell directly backwards and tried to protect himself with his hands because there were wounds on his arms from where he had tried to defend himself.

And there's a knife in his hand.

The knife was a large bread knife.

It looked out of place because there was no blood on it.

And that wouldn't be my first choice of a defensive weapon.

When detectives search the rest of the apartment, they are most struck by what they don't find.

The victim was known for carrying large amounts of cash and prescription medication, and there was no prescription medication or money located in the crime scene.

There was a possibility of maybe some drugs that might have been a motive of somebody trying to break in to take his drugs.

As investigators continue logging evidence throughout the house the clues paint a peculiar picture

in the victim's bathroom the lid was closed on the toilet upon opening the lid the victim's cell phone was located inside

when i entered the kitchen i was specifically looking for a set of knives that that knife that was in sam's hand may have come from and the largest knife in the wooden block was missing.

It did match the one that was in the bedroom in Sam's hand.

There was a bottle of bleach sitting there.

If it had been used, it will destroy any DNA or

blood evidence that might have been present.

Detectives now suspect they may be dealing with a professional killer, especially considering Sam John's well-known past.

From what I understand about Sam, he liked people to think he was

maybe connected with the mafia.

Then he's found murdered in a very bloody scene and it looks like someone with some knowledge had tried to clean up the crime scene.

So now you're wondering, is this some sort of mob hit?

After assessing the scene, detectives head outside to speak with 16-year-old Josh Brown, Sam John's close friend and the one who discovered his body.

Josh's mother, Crystal Gregoire, was there comforting Josh,

taking care of him.

He was crying so hard.

He was so distraught.

He still had the phone in his hand and just

crying.

I mean, uncontrollably.

Detectives pull Josh aside and ask him when he last saw Sam John.

Josh says it was the previous night, May 18, 2015.

He and Crystal had gone to Sam's and they had had supper.

They left there and arrived home, which was in Lawrenceburg City, somewhere around 10:30 p.m.

Josh says that Sam John seemed to be in good spirits and promised to come to Josh's sister's eighth grade graduation the next day.

But he never showed.

It was very uncommon for someone in Josh's family not to speak to Mr.

Passarella in a day's time.

Josh was very close to Mr.

Passarella from all accounts.

Mr.

Passarella is sort of like a mentor to him.

He stayed with Mr.

Passarella sometimes.

Obviously, if you're an investigator, your ears perk up then because you think, well, if this kid is there a lot,

maybe he knows about some other people's comings and goings.

You know who might be mad at Mr.

Passarella.

You hear him say he was mad at somebody.

Josh says that despite his past, Sam John didn't have any problems in the community.

I think most people in this area didn't think about his past, that he had served his time and he was a different person when he came out.

And that was all behind him.

Determining that Josh is not a suspect, detectives thank him for his time and turn to his mother, Crystal Gregoire.

Investigators want to talk to Ms.

Gregoire because based on Josh's statement, she has been shown to be someone that could give some information about with whom Mr.

Passarella had dealings.

Detectives ask to meet with her the next day for a more formal interview, and she agrees.

The next afternoon, May 20th, 2015, detectives arrive at the home of Crystal and her fiancé, Jonathan Howell.

In this meeting that Ms.

Gregoire Gregoire has with officers, she tells them that her relationship with Mr.

Passarella was a very close relationship.

She was just really down.

My mom just kept saying, who would do this?

Who would do this?

Crystal confirms her son's story about eating with Sam John the night before his murder.

When they left approximately 9 p.m.,

Mr.

Passarella was fine.

She was expecting to hear from Mr.

Passarella.

She and Josh, after dinner, had gone home to their home.

Jonathan was there at the house, and they simply stayed at home that night.

Jonathan corroborated the story.

Jonathan says that he hadn't left the house at all on the 18th.

But when detectives try and press the couple further, they clam up.

I didn't think she was real forthcoming.

And I really didn't think Jonathan was very forthcoming either.

So I was under the impression that they weren't really telling us everything that they knew.

So basically we left.

Detectives hope that Sam John's phone, collected from a toilet at the crime scene, may offer them a clue to the murderer's identity.

But lab technicians have bad news.

They were able to give us a report fairly quickly that the cell phone had sustained such damage that they were not going to be able to retrieve any information from it itself.

It was obvious there was something on that phone someone didn't want us to find.

As investigators re-strategize, they receive an unexpected phone call from Crystal Gregoire.

Crystal volunteered that she had some information she needed to give us that she did not want to talk about in front of Jonathan.

Coming up, had Sam John been keeping a deadly secret?

The past is coming back to catch up with him.

He had plenty of time to come back, kill Sam, and then leave town again.

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On May 21st, 2015, three days after the brutal murder of 69-year-old Sam John Passarella, Sam's closest friend, 35-year-old Crystal Gregoire, tells police that she wasn't entirely transparent in their initial interview.

Jonathan was not at home the second time that they talked to her.

She tells them that

she and

Sam had a romantic relationship, that they loved one another.

Crystal says she was drawn to Sam John's kindness and attentiveness.

Although Mr.

Passarella was in such poor health, he could not engage in a sexual relationship.

They slept together, they cuddled, they kissed, they hugged.

Sam John took care of her children and that he was a mentor to them.

He helped her monetarily.

Crystal tells police that although Sam John was a gentleman to her and her family, she knew he had a darker side.

In fact, she claimed she first met Sam John because he was her fiancé's drug dealer.

Sam actually, since he had been out of the penitentiary, had created a small network of friends and new acquaintances and actually had his own small little enterprise going there where he was buying prescription drugs and then reselling them.

Crystal told detectives on the evening of the 18th that Sam had mentioned having business with a guy later that night.

She told Sam or asked him to contact her whenever the meeting was over and that she had not heard from him since.

Crystal says she suspects Sam's meeting had something to do with a case the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was building against him.

She says that three or four weeks prior to Sam's death, that he was in a nursing home and the man comes in with these documents that are actually TBI discovery.

The TBI discovery documents revealed names, prices, amounts of marijuana that was being moved from Texas to Lawrence County, Tennessee, as part of a drug pipeline.

The information that was encompassed inside those documents linked Sam to some drug cases that were going on and incriminated him.

According to Crystal, Sam John knew there was a snitch in his operation, and he quickly pinned down who it might be.

Sam deducted from the paperwork that another guy who was just an acquaintance of his from North Carolina, Sean Tierney, appeared to be providing information.

Sean Tierney, also known as Big New York.

Tierney's normal procedure apparently was to make a trip to Lawrence County about once a month to get a prescription for narcotic pills.

go fill the prescription locally and give the pills to Sam to sell.

In exchange for that, Sean would be paid.

Crystal says that Sam John was livid about Sean's supposed betrayal.

He was very suspicious of Mr.

Tierney.

He had indicated to Crystal that he was going to confront him about whether or not he was snitching.

This seemed to be a very big lead for us.

There could have definitely been some beef between Sam John and Tierney.

over these documents.

So that, you know, leaves the possibility out there that Sam has confronted them or has threatened them and maybe they've decided they're going to get rid of him before he gets rid of them.

On May 22nd, detectives call Sean Tierney.

He agrees to meet with police in two days.

While they wait, detectives pull Sean's phone records.

We began looking into Mr.

Tierney.

and discovered he had been in town on May 18th.

He had visited a local nurse practitioner.

Sean had also been to a local pharmacy.

By 4 p.m., the cell tower records tell us that he's leaving Larsburg, headed west toward Jackson, Tennessee.

By 5 o'clock, his phone goes dead.

We lose him somewhere around Union City, which is west of Jackson.

For detectives, Sean's missing phone records are a major red flag.

When I saw that Big New York's phone died around around five o'clock, I felt like there's a good possibility he may have turned it off and he came back and robbed Sam and killed him.

On May 24th, Sean arrives at the police station.

He confesses to providing Sam John with pills and admits that Sam John had recently confronted him about his suspicions that Sean was cooperating with the TBI.

He told Big New York that he was very disappointed that Big New York was a CI.

Well, Big New York told him, he said, I'm not a CI.

He says, I'm not the person talking in that.

So when he denied it, according to Big New York, Sam believed him.

Sean says that on May 18th, 2015, he came into town to fill a prescription and drop off the pills with Sam John.

He says the conversation was nothing out of the ordinary.

He says that he left in the late afternoon of the 18th, left town and headed west toward Jackson, Tennessee.

That's when detectives pull out Sean's phone records.

I said, why am I losing you at five o'clock?

He said, well, it's because my phone went dead.

And he said, I had no way of charging it.

I suggested to him that he had plenty of time to come back, kill Sam, and then leave town again.

He says, I can provide you with information to prove to you that I was not here.

Big New York tells me that his girlfriend Samantha Walters was with him.

He provides me with her phone number.

After Sean leaves, detectives subpoena Samantha's records.

Sure enough, she's making the same trek that he is.

We track him to Union City, Tennessee, where his phone went dead, but hers did not.

They stayed all night in that area.

Those records were able to confirm Mr.

Tierney's alibi.

After clearing Sean Tierney, detectives dig deeper into Sam John's claims about mafia connections.

Mr.

Passarella played up the mob ties because he liked the persona and people were afraid of it.

I don't think Mr.

Passarella has any mob ties.

I think he just liked to talk.

By February 2016, after months of dead ends, investigators turned their attention back to Crystal Gregoire.

Once investigators decided to speak with Crystal again in looking for her, apparently they found her incarcerated in a neighboring county jail.

Apparently, Crystal had been convicted of a crime and had violated that probation.

On February 4th, 2016, investigators planned to meet with Crystal at the jail.

But prior to the scheduled meeting, a tipster calls in with information that will change the entire course of the investigation.

When this evidence is turned over to Special Agent Wes, he realizes this is the opportunity to solve this case.

Coming up, new evidence brings Sam John's killer to light.

It felt like God was watching over us.

There had been cause of domestic disturbances.

Could envy have been at the heart of the killing?

He was very jealous of that relationship.

She was crying, saying, please just calm down.

He held a knife up to her throat and said, nobody will ever find y'all's bodies.

On February 4th, 2016, just before an interview with Crystal Gregoire regarding the murder of of Sam John Paszarella, police receive a chilling tip.

Investigators receive a call from Ms.

Gregoire's landlord, and the trailer that she lived in sat on a piece of his property that had a big area behind it.

One of his employees had been out there and ran across a bag sticking out of a mound of dirt.

He digs it up, he opens it up, and there's a pill bottle, a prescription pill bottle inside, and it has Sam John Pasarella's name on it.

We unearthed the rest of that bag.

We carried it to the police department where we dumped everything there out on the table.

There is a hammer that appeared to contain blood.

There's articles of clothing and two knives in the bag.

I realized that what we had here was virtually all the evidence in this case in one little package.

It was like a present that had been delivered to us.

We felt very good about the finding.

It felt like God was watching over us.

Later that afternoon, detectives meet with Crystal at the county jail.

I laid out a couple of the pictures for her to look at.

Her whole demeanor changed.

She went from smiles to just solemn.

Complete disbelief was on her face.

The first question out of her mouth was, how did you find this stuff?

I said, tell me what happened, Crystal.

At that point, she came forth with

a totally different version of events from that night.

For the first time, she did admit that she was there at the house with Sam.

According to Crystal, She had been trapped for months in an abusive relationship with her fiancé, Jonathan Howell.

There had been cause of domestic domestic disturbances with Ms.

Gregoire complaining that Mr.

Howell had assaulted her.

Though police recently were summoned to their home, Crystal tells investigators she has never pressed charges against him.

Jonathan was very controlling.

I saw Jonathan controlling my mom through everything.

When she would eat, when she would shower, what

she decided to order at a restaurant.

Crystal advises them that Jonathan was very jealous of that relationship with Sam, that she did spend a lot of time at Sam's house.

According to Crystal, on May 18th, 2015, Jonathan wanted to accompany her to Sam John's house.

She said, after I took Josh home that night after we had eaten, he went with me back to Sam's.

I told him to stay in the truck, that I would go in and see Sam.

Jonathan came in.

He was mad and he was upset because I was in the bedroom with Sam John.

She said he and Sam began to argue and Jonathan picked up a hammer that was lying on the dresser and hit him in the head with it.

She said I panicked.

She said I didn't know what to do.

She said I knew he was dead.

So I cleaned things up.

She started to clean up the place and gather up any kind of evidence that was there and bag it all up.

and went back home and she got in the bathtub and Jonathan went for a walk.

She guessed that's when he buried the evidence.

She tells the detectives that she was too terrified of Jonathan to call the police, so she kept quiet.

Investigator Wesson thinks, okay, we finally got this thing

solved.

It was Jonathan, and then Crystal helped cover it up.

Early that morning, I went to Jonathan's house.

I presented him with Crystal's statement.

in her handwriting.

He broke down and started to cry.

Jonathan loved Crystal.

He could not believe Crystal was accusing him of this.

Jonathan says that although it was rumored that he might have been one of Sam John's customers, Crystal was in fact one of his dealers.

She had been involved in selling pills for Mr.

Passarella and with Mr.

Passarella.

I questioned Jonathan about Crystal's relationship with Sam and how he felt about that.

He said he was really uncomfortable about it.

He didn't approve of it.

Jonathan says that on May 18th, 2015, he had stayed home rather than face an awkward dinner with Sam John.

Crystal had returned home with her kids and then headed out again.

She went back to Sam's.

He said she didn't come back till

early morning hours.

When Jonathan heard the news about Sam John's death, he put two and two together.

He goes on to say that Ms.

Gregoire admitted to him what had happened and that she had killed Sam John.

Jonathan's alibi that he'd been home all night was vouched for months earlier by Crystal's son, Josh.

Outside of her statement, I really had no evidence that Jonathan had committed the crime.

On February 5th, 2016, detectives meet with Crystal again.

When they tell her that Jonathan Jonathan has denied her story, Crystal offers up a new version.

Ms.

Gregoire admits that she, in fact, killed Sam Passerella,

but she claims she did it in self-defense.

Crystal admits to selling pills, but she claims Sam John coerced her into it.

He was telling her how worthless she was and how he was going to take care of her if she didn't do what he needed her to do.

She said,

I'm just so scared.

Crystal says that on May 18th, 2015, when she came back to Sam John's house, he tried to make good on his threats.

Said he started yelling and cussing me and told me that I had stolen his drug contacts and that I was going around him to do business.

with his contacts and that he was going to have my bitch ass killed.

She was crying.

Sam, please just calm down, Tony, just calm down, please.

And she said that he held a knife up to her throat and said, you just sit right there.

I got a hit man that's going to get all three of your kids and then do the same thing to you and bury y'all and nobody will ever find y'all's bodies.

She's frantic.

She's afraid for her life.

She looks right under the edge of his bed and sees a hammer.

So she comes up with the hammer swinging, hits him, he falls onto the bed.

She continues to strike blows.

She said, well, he laid there on the bed, bleeding, but he was still breathing.

So I started to clean up and I thought, I can't leave him alive because if I do, the wise guys will come get me.

She said, so I grabbed his phone and I threw it in the toilet and I got a knife.

And I punched him in the throat twice to make sure that he bled out.

I said, so you wanted to make sure he was dead?

She said, yes, I did.

Her story doesn't make sense because physically he wasn't able to do the things you're saying he did.

He was in a very weakened condition because of his various ailments.

Crystal says that after Sam John was dead, she gathered up the evidence and hid it behind her house.

Crystal was charged with tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and first-degree murder.

Coming up, prosecutors present what they believe is Crystal's true motive.

I've been involved in a lot of murder cases.

She may be the coldest one I've ever had any dealings with.

On April 18, 2017, the trial of 35-year-old Crystal Gregoire begins.

In opening statements, prosecutors claim that Crystal had found unexpected success working in the small-time drug ring run by 69-year-old Sam Pasarella.

Not too long before the trial started, we finally developed what we thought was her motive.

She says in one of her statements, her final statement, that the reason Sam was so upset with her was that

he accused her of going around his back to deal directly with his suppliers.

She was trying to squeeze Sam out of his drug business and take it over.

We felt that she wanted all that business for herself.

Prosecutors say that Crystal had manipulated Sam John into thinking that she loved him in order to get close to him.

Then, on May 18th, 2015, after setting a romantic mood, Crystal had murdered Sam John Passarella in cold blood.

He was struck from behind and was most likely seated on the bed when he was struck.

Even after she had beat him practically to death with a hammer, she made absolutely sure he was dead before she left by stabbing him in the juggler twice.

She knew what she was doing, and she intended to make sure he did not survive.

In police interviews, Crystal had claimed she had killed Sam John in self-defense, but the prosecution refutes her story.

We found that he was barely able to walk unassisted shortly before his death, that he had to have the walker or a cane, and yet she says he pushed her to the floor.

He stood over her, looming over her and threatening her.

Look, all she had to do was walk away.

You know, I could have held Sam John off me with one hand.

It being a matter of self-defense is an absolute joke.

When Crystal takes the stand in her own defense, she doesn't back down from her previous claims that she'd killed Sam John only after he had threatened to have his henchmen kill her and her family.

My reaction to my mom telling me everything that happened

the night that Sam John was murdered,

I just thought, okay,

it was either him or me, my mom, my sister, my brother.

When the jury begins deliberation, the prosecution worries that Sam John's past will sway the jury in Crystal's favor.

This wasn't just a claim of self-defense against her Sunday school teacher.

This was a claim of self-defense against Sam John Passarella, who was known to be a person with a violent past, who was known to have been involved in a kidnapping and a probable murder.

On April 21st, 2017, the jury returns with a verdict that stuns Crystal's family.

When I first heard

you are convicted of first-degree murder,

I was like,

this isn't right.

I literally just started crying, hugging my sister.

When the jury found her guilty of first degree murder, her sentence was automatic under the law, life in prison, with the possibility of parole.

She killed him in a way that took some time for her to deliver that many blows and then stop and get a knife and stab him.

As heinous as that is, that's not even the worst part.

She allowed her 16-year-old son to discover the body.

I've been involved in a lot of murder cases.

She may be the coldest one I've ever had any dealings with.

I'll always remember Sam John as the young, gregorious man being at my grandmother's house making homemade spaghetti and pizza, and

that'll be the way I remember Sam John.

I'll never forget that as long as I'm alive.

He was like my big brother.

Crystal remains incarcerated at Deborah K.

Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Her children were raised by multiple members of her family.

Hi, I'm Denise Chan, host of Scam Factory.

You might remember hearing about our investigative series that exposed what's really happening behind those suspicious texts you get.

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Her escape story caught the attention of criminals Phoebe Judge, and I'm honored to share more details of Jella's journey with their audience.

But Jella's story is just one piece of this investigation.

In Scam Factory, we reveal how a billion-dollar criminal empire turns job seekers into prisoners and how the only way out is to scam your way out.

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