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Diana Duve was 26 when she vanished one evening in 2014 in Vero Seashore, Florida. She was final seen alive leaving a bar together with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Michael Jones. To witnesses, the couple appeared to be having an excellent time, although they advised police that at one level it seemed like Duve was upset. She by no means returned dwelling.
Her mom knew one thing was flawed when Diana did not name her, one thing she did daily. “It set me off instantly,” Lena Andrews advised “48 Hours” contributor Michelle Miller. “I used to be making an attempt to inform all people who would pay attention … if she’s not calling me, it is as a result of she will be able to’t.”
“You possibly can simply see the sheer concern and panic in Lena’s eyes,” stated Vero Seashore Sergeant Brad Kmetz. “I stated, ‘Lena, I promise you, I’ll get your daughter again for you a method or one other.”
On Saturday, June 21, 2014, Lieutenant Matt Harrelson and Sergeant Brad Kmetz with the Vero Seashore Police Division weren’t having a lot luck looking for out what might have occurred to Diana Duve and Mike Jones.
Investigators went to Jones’s condo, however nobody was answering the door.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We might interviewed all of those folks; we have run down all of the leads that we had … we’re in 1,000,000 totally different instructions.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: We did get a search warrant that day to get into Michael Jones’s condo to attempt to gather bodily proof or discover Diana and hopefully it to be you realize subsequent to nothing.
When the investigators returned with the warrant, they have been stunned to find Lena and Invoice Andrews — Diana’s mom and stepfather — sitting exterior of their automotive.
Michelle Miller: Is that uncommon?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Oh my gosh, that is loopy. … Lena is sitting on the home hoping for a sighting of her daughter … She’s simply beside herself. You recognize she’s crying. She’s upset. She needs to go bodily kick the door in.
Earlier than investigators went inside, they interviewed Lena. She advised them that the final communication she had from her daughter was that textual content Diana despatched within the early hours yesterday.
Lena Andrews: She texted me at 1:45 a.m., “I will not be dwelling.”
It was in Russian, the language they spoke with one another, so Lena believed it needed to be from her daughter. Because the hours handed on Friday, with no signal of Diana, she grew more and more determined.
Michelle Miller: You referred to as Michael Jones?
Lena Andrews: I did name Michael Jones, sure. … And he was like, “Oh don’t fret. She’s with me every part is OK.”
Michelle Miller: Oh, he stated that?
Lena Andrews: Sure. I used to be like, “Oh my God, Mike, you guys killing me. I’m, I’m anxious sick. I would like to speak to her. I need to hear her voice.” I advised him to provide her the telephone. Rapidly. “Oh, she’s sleeping.” … Nicely, “wake her up as a result of I’ve to speak to her.” Rapidly, one other excuse. “She’s at my place. However I am not there proper now.” … I advised him, “You go dwelling, you wake her up.” … Name me again in half-hour.
However Jones by no means referred to as Lena again, and she or he by no means heard from him once more.
Lena Andrews: She was my world.
Diana was born in Moldova, small nation in Japanese Europe. Diana immigrated to America when she was 13 to hitch her mom Lena who had married Invoice, an American.
Lena Andrews: A lady that did not communicate English in any respect. Inside two months, she was in common faculty class and in a couple of years, you could not even guess that she’s not American.
In 2011, Diana obtained her nursing diploma. On the time she disappeared, Diana labored with most cancers sufferers on the Sebastian River Medical Heart.
Lena Andrews: She actually, actually cared … about her sufferers, about sufferers’ households.
Chelsea DiMaio: She’s extremely smart, at all times motivated.
Chelsea DiMaio was Diana’s finest pal and former roommate.
Chelsea DiMaio: She’s very straightforward going, simply enjoyable to be round.
In the summertime of 2013, Chelsea says Diana met Jones at a bar in Vero Seashore.
Michelle Miller: Did she appear smitten from the beginning?
Chelsea DiMaio: No.
Michelle Miller: No.
Chelsea DiMaio: No. … She by no means had an preliminary, “Oh wow, Mike Jones.” … It appeared extra like he undoubtedly has his sight set on her. … And he or she ultimately got here round.
Lena and Invoice say they did not know a lot about Jones, besides that he labored for PNC Financial institution in Wealth Administration and had gone to legislation faculty.
Lena Andrews: He was extraordinarily well mannered. … Good dressed, properly spoken.
Invoice Andrews: He appeared like the perfect boyfriend.
And after simply a few months of relationship, Diana moved into Jones’s condo.
Invoice Andrews: She appeared blissful. So, we have been OK with it.
Chelsea says Diana and Jones rapidly grew to become inseparable.
Chelsea DiMaio: You’ll by no means see her with out him. And he or she had by no means completed that in relationships earlier than.
Over time, Chelsea says she grew to become involved.
Chelsea DiMaio: There was a time the place we have been getting lunch … I keep in mind she wished to go someplace the place Mike wasn’t going to see her or run into her or see her automotive. It was virtually as if she would have been in bother getting lunch with me.
Chelsea says earlier than she might sit down and have a critical speak together with her pal, Diana and Jones had a home dispute that may formally finish their relationship.
It was April 30, 2014, simply two months earlier than Diana would disappear.
Mike Jones’s neighbor made this 911 name:
OPERATOR: Vero Seashore Police.
NEIGHBOR: Yeah hello, I feel I received a home for you. The subsequent-door neighbor and his girlfriend sound like they’re entering into it.
NEIGHBOR: It has been occurring for about an hour.
OPERATOR: Simply been yelling and screaming or …
NEIGHBOR: Yeah. … It simply appears like he is making an attempt to dominate the crap out of her
OPERATOR: So, it is simply been verbal, proper?
NEIGHBOR: Verbal. I can not hear any slaps or something. … However I am going to let you know, it is not good.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Officers responded, knocked on the door, made contact with each Diana and Mike Jones.
In accordance with the police incident report, Jones advised them the noise was from “tough intercourse.” Diana advised police every part was superb, however she requested them to attend for her as she grabbed her issues and left.
Chelsea DiMaio: She referred to as me in tears leaving his condo. I advised her to simply come straight to the place I used to be, and she or he did … And he or she was nonetheless in her pajamas, hysterical.
Michelle Miller: Had you ever seen her like that earlier than?
Chelsea DiMaio: That upset? By no means. By no means.
Chelsea DiMaio: She was explaining that … he was screaming at her, that it had been occurring for what felt like hours, and he simply wasn’t letting up. And he lastly received to the purpose the place he had put his fingers round her neck and began strangling her.
Chelsea DiMaio: I might clearly see that there have been marks on her neck.
So, Chelsea says she took pictures which present what seems to be hand marks on Diana’s neck.
Chelsea DiMaio: I have to doc this. I would like to guard her.
However regardless of Chelsea’s efforts to get her to make a proper report, Diana selected to not press fees.
Chelsea DiMaio: She simply wished to maneuver her issues out and take away herself from the scenario and that is what we did.
Diana moved again in together with her mother and father and didn’t inform them that Jones had tried to strangle her.
Lena Andrews: I feel she was simply making an attempt to guard me so I would not fear. And he or she thought that she dealt with it. … In her thoughts it was over.
However Lena says Jones continued to pursue Diana.
Lena Andrews: She would inform me, “He texts me. … Appears to be like like he would not perceive that I broke up with him.
Now with a search warrant virtually 48 hours after Diana was final seen with Mike Jones, investigators entered his condo.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: You possibly can see the sheer concern and panic in Lena’s eyes. … I stated, “Lena, I promise you I’ll get your daughter again for you a method or one other.”
Lena Andrews: I vividly keep in mind that I used to be strolling forwards and backwards in entrance of this condo, neighbors, people who I do not know all popping out. … This woman simply got here and hugged me and stated, “Oh every part going to be OK. And I checked out her and stated, “No it will not …”
THE SEARCH FOR DIANA
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We need to discover Diana. We need to reunite her together with her mother and father. We need to be sure that she’s OK.
As detectives searched Mike Jones’s condo, they have been hopeful they might discover Diana Duve. However they have been met with disappointment.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We did not discover so much. We did not discover any belongings that we felt have been Diana’s. We did not discover any signal of her.
However they weren’t discouraged. Sgt. Kmetz was motivated by that promise he made to Diana’s mom Lena — that he would discover her daughter.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: What actually drove me to maintain pushing ahead was a mom begging you, please discover my daughter for me.
They knew that with a view to discover Diana, they wanted to seek out Mike Jones. Investigators grew involved once they realized that about 12 hours after Jones was final seen with Diana on the What a Tavern bar, he was captured on surveillance footage visiting a PNC Financial institution in Vero Seashore.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: When he went to PNC Financial institution, he withdrew $2,500 in money after which advised a lot of his workmates … he stated, I am not feeling that properly. I am gonna be gone for a few days. I’ve received some issues I received to care for.
Investigators grew much more alarmed once they realized that Jones had a legal report. Previous to shifting to Vero Seashore, he had been charged with aggravated stalking for threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend close to Fort Lauderdale in 2012.
That is the 911 name from that incident:
OPERATOR: 911, What’s your emergency?
EX-GIRLFRIEND: My ex-boyfriend simply referred to as me and advised me that he has packed his gun and that as quickly as I stroll exterior a gunshot will go off in my head.
OPERATOR: What occurred?
EX-GIRLFRIEND: My ex-boyfriend threatened to kill himself tonight. After which after I advised him that we weren’t getting again collectively he advised me he would kill me.
EX-GIRLFRIEND: I am very afraid. I’ve seen him indignant earlier than.
He pleaded no contest. And as a part of a plea deal, Jones was given 5 years probation in lieu of jail time. He was required to remain within the Vero Seashore space and may very well be arrested if he left with out getting permission from his probation officer.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: I spoke to the probation officer who advised us if we are available in contact with him, that is possible trigger. We are able to arrest him for a probation violation, at minimal at that time.
Lena Andrews: Rapidly, we came upon that he is convicted felon, that he is on probation.
Lena says she and Invoice have been blindsided by the information.
Lena Andrews: It is one thing that was extraordinarily sudden. … No one knew about it.
Investigators continued to work the case however have been operating out of leads, so that they turned their consideration to analyzing cellphone tower pings from Diana and Jones’s telephones.
Lt. Matt Harrelson (taking a look at map): We needed to form of like overlay two separate maps to have the ability to see the place she might have been and the place he was prior.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I used to be getting fairly drained … And one thing advised me simply give it a pair extra minutes. And for this reason I might say that divine intervention was undoubtedly at play right here … Inside a couple of minutes … I discovered one thing that was actually odd.
Sgt. Kmetz observed there was just one ping from Jones’s telephone off a cell tower situated within the Fort Pierce space – roughly 25 minutes from Vero Seashore. So Kmetz had dispatch alert native authorities there, to be looking out for Jones’s gold Honda and Diana’s black Nissan.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I am on my method dwelling, I … get in mattress after which my telephone rings.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Fort Pierce PD had situated Mike Jones’s automotive.
Jones’s gold Honda was situated within the car parking zone of a Hampton Inn. Lodge surveillance footage confirmed that Jones had checked into the resort virtually 24 hours after Diana went lacking. He seemed to be alone. In accordance with the entrance desk workers, Jones paid in money for 2 nights, and instructed them to not inform anybody he was there and to not switch any calls to his room.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: You do not know what you are gonna discover once you get in that room. … You recognize, your coronary heart’s racing, you have been going two days straight and now you are this shut from getting who you imagine is a potential suspect … and likewise hopefully discovering Diana.
Round 11:30 p.m., utilizing a key card given to them by the entrance desk, Kmetz and Harrelson entered Jones’s resort room.
Michelle Miller: He appeared stunned?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He was stunned to see us. Completely. … He was sitting on one of many double beds with like a V-neck T-shirt on and a few shorts and smoking a cigarette. And he was speaking on a telephone, on a cellphone.
It was a burner telephone — a telephone that’s troublesome for police to hint.
That is audio of Sgt. Kmetz chatting with Jones in his resort room:
SGT. BRAD KMETZ: All proper Mike, you bought a reasonably good motive why we’re right here, I am certain.
MIKE JONES: I am going to let you know unequivocally, I do not know the place she is. … I haven’t got the slightest clue. I’ve tried to seek out her.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: Why will not he simply give me the knowledge I am searching for? Your girlfriend’s lacking, that is somebody you professed that you just beloved and professed that you just cared about. Try to be serving to legislation enforcement attempt to discover her.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: I stated, “In the event you’re not keen to provide us any info I stated you are going to jail proper now for the violation of probation.”
Kmetz and Harrelson have been relieved to put Jones behind bars. However they nonetheless had no thought the place Diana was — or her automotive.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: You go from very excessive since you discovered him, and also you’re busting within the room, to love, right here we’re again once more.
Investigators determined to hint the acquisition of that burner telephone Jones had been utilizing and realized that he purchased it at a Walmart situated about an hour north from the Hampton Inn. After they pulled the surveillance footage from the Walmart, they made a startling discovery.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: It is slightly grainy. Nevertheless it seemed to be Diana’s automotive.
In surveillance footage from the morning after Diana went lacking, her Nissan entered the Walmart car parking zone, and parked. You then see what seemed to be Mike Jones sporting a pink baseball hat stroll into the shop, purchase the burner telephone after which stroll out. There was no signal of Diana.
However regardless of shopping for the burner telephone, Jones sometimes nonetheless turned on his main telephone.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He would flip it on after which use it for one thing after which flip it again off.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: Let me undergo these pings one final time. I stated perhaps I am lacking one thing right here. … I discovered one. I imply perhaps we will catch lightning in a bottle twice.
So, Kmetz and Harrelson analyzed Mike Jones’s main cellphone pings, another time, searching for any pings in and across the space of the Walmart.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: He and I are form of taking a look at it collectively and I am like, “Nicely, this one’s unusual.” He goes, “What do you imply?” I say … “What’s he doing up in Melbourne?”
It appeared that Jones had picked up a name within the Melbourne space, virtually one hour north of Vero Seashore. So native police have been alerted and requested to go looking that space for Diana’s automotive. Simply half-hour later, detectives obtained a name that they had been desperately ready for.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: That they had discovered her automobile.
Three days after Diana had gone lacking, her automotive was situated in a Publix car parking zone in Melbourne, Florida.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We soar within the automotive, have been rocking and rolling.
Michelle Miller: And there she was.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Mm-hmm. Loopy. Loopy (tears up).
NO ORDINARY SUSPECT
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We’re on the ragged edge. You recognize, we — we’ve not slept. … you realize, ‘trigger you are simply you are shifting.
It was round 4:30 a.m. when investigators arrived at a Publix car parking zone the place Diana Duve’s black Nissan had been found. Lt. Harrelson feared they might discover her physique right here.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: And I advised Brad, I stated, “she’s within the trunk”
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I stated, I do not know, I stated it is simply so cliche. It is one thing like out of a film. It did not make a lot sense to me.
However once they opened the trunk, Lt. Harrelson’s premonition turned out to be true.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: There are specific issues on this job which you could’t unsee. You possibly can’t unlive.
Michelle Miller: You will always remember.
Matt Harrelson: Yeah.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I keep in mind placing my fingers on my knees and form of simply placing my head down. … It was not the way in which I wished to seek out her.
Lena Andrews: And I opened the door and right here was chief of police in full uniform.
Invoice Andrews: The saddest factor in my life was seeing him come up the driveway (sighs).
Lena Andrews: And he advised me, they discovered her (sighs).
Lena Andrews: To lose her like this … its indescribable.
As painful because it was, this was not a lacking particular person’s case — however a murder. An post-mortem would later reveal Diana had suffered blunt drive trauma to the top and had been strangled to dying.
Investigators believed that they had a powerful case connecting Jones to the car parking zone the place Diana was discovered. However one thing was gnawing at them: how did Mike Jones depart the world and not using a automotive?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: So, we simply began chilly calling a few of these taxi companies. … And I stated, “Hey did you get a fare … to Vero … within the final couple of days?” After which we hit one. And I used to be like, Wow. You recognize, like that identical to that does not occur daily. So, we received fortunate on that one.
Round 8 a.m., after Jones dropped off Diana’s automotive, a person referred to as for a taxi down the road.
Former cab driver: I confirmed up and there was a man exterior with a pink hoodie on and, um, he received within the passenger facet of the automobile.
Through the hour-long trip they briefly chatted.
Former cab driver: I requested him questions like, “What introduced you down right here?” And he stated, “Oh properly, I got here right here with a pal of mine.” You recognize, um and so then I requested, “Nicely how come you did not get a trip again along with your pal to Vero Seashore?” And he stated properly, they received into an argument, and she or he’s very pissed with him.
The previous cab driver — who requested us to not use his identify — says that he dropped the person off throughout the road from an condo in Vero Seashore. It was Mike Jones’s condo.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: The kicker was … he was capable of choose him out of a lineup too which actually helped our case.
And simply two days after they discovered Diana’s physique, that they had sufficient proof to formally cost Mike Jones together with her homicide. He would plead not responsible.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He did not present any emotion. He did not ask any questions. He simply sat there.
SGT. KMETZ: You there, Mike?
MIKE JONES: Yeah. I request my proper to counsel.
SGT. KMETZ: Truthful sufficient.
MIKE JONES: And my proper to stay silent.
LT. HARRELSON: OK.
SGT. KMETZ: OK.
LT. HARRELSON: We have now no extra, nothing else to say to you.
Assistant State Lawyer Brian Workman was assigned to prosecute the case together with State Lawyer Thomas Bakkedahl. As they began digging, they quickly realized that Mike Jones was no extraordinary suspect.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: He would not match the mould of your common violent assassin.
Jones was properly educated, with a masters and legislation diploma. And he was a revered member of the Vero Seashore group.
Stewart Pierce: It was surprising that Mike would have completed this. I feel it blew all people’s thoughts.
Stewart Pierce was pals with Jones.
Stewart Pierce: Mike Jones was a man that you just wished to be pals with. … He was clear minimize. An actual good man.
He first met him at a networking luncheon shortly after Jones had moved to Vero Seashore in the summertime of 2013.
Stewart Pierce: We noticed him in every single place that there was to be seen. … Cufflinks and a well-starched shirt.
Jones was usually seen at native charity occasions.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Here’s a man who was capable of work his method into the group right here. I imply, he was doing charitable actions. He truly confirmed up and walked for the exact same home violence group that I am a board member for.
Jones was additionally lively within the bar scene and had made many pals in a brief time period. Investigators interviewed a few of them on audio tape:
AUDIO INTERVIEW: “I might say that he was formidable.”
AUDIO INTERVIEW: “I might belief him with issues that I might belief my household with …”
AUDIO INTERVIEW: “Michael was a genius. … one of many smartest folks I had ever you realize handled.”
And when it got here to work, Jones thrived at his job in Wealth Administration at PNC Financial institution.
Prosecutor Brian Workman: And he introduced folks in who had some huge cash. And he had efficiency evaluations, emails that went forwards and backwards between PNC personnel raving about his job efficiency and the way nice he was doing there.
In his final efficiency evaluation from 4 months earlier than Diana was murdered, his boss wrote:
“Michael has proven that he has sturdy ethics and management qualities. He’s an enormous asset for PNC …”
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: This man was a grasp manipulator. This man was operating multimillion-dollar accounts for a financial institution as a convicted felon. So, he was capable of con a financial institution!
“48 Hours” reached out to PNC Financial institution to ask in the event that they knew Jones had a report and was on probation for stalking that lady close to Fort Lauderdale in 2012. They declined to remark.
His pals, nonetheless, had no thought. However what they did find out about Jones’s previous is there have been quite a lot of tales.
Ellie Sexton: I keep in mind the tales … like each time there was a zinger.
Ellie Sexton dated Jones shortly earlier than he began relationship Diana.
Ellie Sexton: Mike advised me that his sister was relationship Jason Aldean and he advised me that he was adopted by Ronald Reagan’s son.
Ellie Sexton: Mike drove a gold Honda Accord that was most likely 10 years outdated. However he advised me that he had a penthouse in Fort Lauderdale, that he had a Porsche that he simply did not need to harm.
Stewart Pierce: Nicely Mike Jones advised me that he was adopted. And that he performed some minor league baseball. However one time hanging out on the seaside and seeing him throw a soccer made me suppose that he’d most likely by no means performed minor league baseball.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Nothing in his life was the reality. Who he actually is, to at the present time, I am undecided we all know.
Prosecutors have been sure of 1 factor: that Mike Jones was a assassin. And now, as they ready to go to trial, they realized that Diana was one in every of Mike Jones’s many victims. The one distinction is the others received away.
Ellie Sexton: My household has all stated, you skipped dying (sighs).
A PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Say a lady’s identify with whom he had a relationship … and there may be abuse.
As prosecutors continued to unearth extra particulars about Mike Jones, they are saying there was a transparent sample in how he handled his ex-girlfriends.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: He is Prince Charming within the door, proper? … However then slowly, he’ll start telling them, what to put on … what pals to hang around with. … He is calling incessantly. … Exhibiting up at eating places … He is studying her telephone. … A few the ladies that we talked to, he would maintain them in place for lengthy durations of time.
Ellie Sexton: He was very controlling.
Ellie Sexton solely dated Mike Jones for a couple of months however says she witnessed his violent mood.
Ellie Sexton: Mike by no means received bodily. However there have been a couple of occasions that he simply had some jealousy behaviors. I do keep in mind him screaming in my face one time and getting actually near me … and feeling concern.
And investigators additionally realized that Mike Jones’s tales about his previous have been flat out lies.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He is a pathological liar.
In a private essay he wrote for school admission, Jones claimed that he was “born into poverty” to uneducated and abusive mother and father. He wrote that he was “positioned with a number of foster households” and ultimately was adopted.
Michelle Miller: What’s the fact about his upbringing?
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: What do you suppose?
Prosecutor Brian Workman: He was spoiled rotten. His, his mother and father purchased him bikes. They put him in personal faculty. … And it wasn’t till his mother and father advised him that they weren’t going to pay for any extra training, that means legislation faculty. … That was the purpose the place he broke it off with them … Manipulating, making an attempt to get what he wished.
“48 Hours” reached out to Jones’s household, however we by no means heard again from them.
And the manipulation continued whereas Jones attended a graduate legislation program on the College of Miami. In accordance with an e-mail to his fellow college students in 2010, Jones claimed that he was “battling prostate, pancreas and abdomen most cancers” and different alleged medical situations that prohibited him from usually attending lessons.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We have now no report of any kind of most cancers analysis in his background or something like that.
However regardless of Mike Jones’s darkish previous of lies and abusing different girls, prosecutors might solely inform a jury about his abuse of Diana and her homicide.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Try to be convicting any person for the crime that they dedicated. Not based mostly upon what they’ve completed prior to now.
And when it was time to go to trial, they needed to make an necessary determination whether or not to go for the dying penalty.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Nicely, that was a tricky one. … We sat down with Lena, and we stated pay attention, after we take this step, it is an entire totally different course of.
He defined that the proceedings might drag on for years and even when one juror didn’t imagine Jones deserved the dying penalty, he could be given a life sentence as a substitute.
Lena Andrews: I wished the dying penalty, completely. He misplaced his proper to reside when he killed her, when he killed Diana.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Brian and I agreed with them and thought that that is the route we have to take.
In October of 2019 Mike Jones’s trial lastly started in Vero Seashore.
Throughout opening remarks, prosecutors advised the jury that Mike Jones abused Diana mentally and bodily throughout their brief six month on-and-off once more relationship.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: She would discuss her emotions and the issues that he had completed and the way he could be demeaning … And he would flip it. … He would flip the script … and begin blaming her and accusing her and suggesting that it is her fault. … What he was doing was gaslighting her.
To again up their claims of bodily abuse, prosecutors referred to as Diana’s pal Chelsea DiMaio and confirmed the jury the pictures she took after that home incident when Jones allegedly strangled Diana.
Chelsea DiMaio: I might clearly see that there have been marks on her neck.
As disturbing as that was, Bakkedahl defined that after that home incident, Diana had secretly began seeing Jones on and off once more.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: That is what occurs in home violence. … folks need to know why would she return? … And it is due to the management. And he had whole management over her.
Prosecutors stated nobody is aware of what they talked about within the early hours of Friday, June 20, 2014, once they left the bar collectively and went to Jones’s condo.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Now that they had been consuming that night. And, after all, that has an impression in your judgment.
However Bakkedahl thinks Diana was making an attempt to finish the connection for good.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: She was telling him that evening it is over. I’ve little doubt in my thoughts that this was the tip of this relationship.
In actual fact, in line with Lena, Diana had upcoming plans to exit West to go to a pal.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: And when he received wind of that, that was it.
Prosecutors stated they imagine Jones misplaced his mood, and that is when he beat and strangled her.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: He had overwhelmed her so badly … that he knew at that cut-off date he couldn’t let her go. He knew that if she have been to depart the home that evening and had been lined in bruises …the jig was up for this man, and he could not permit that to occur. And so, he resorted in the end to homicide.
The State admitted they did not know precisely what time the homicide befell however stated blood proof confirmed that Jones positioned Diana’s physique within the trunk of her automotive whereas it was parked in his storage.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Subsequent to the brink the place the storage door comes down, the place the concrete meets it, we discovered like two very small droplets of blood.
Michelle Miller: Whose have been they?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Diana’s.
When it was the protection’s flip to put out their case, they advised the jurors that in reality nobody actually knew precisely what occurred after Jones and Diana left the bar on June 20. They raised the chance that Diana’s dying might have been an accident. Jones’s protection workforce declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: They tried to behave like, you realize he was an upstanding citizen in our group. You recognize he had a strong job. Why would he do that to her? … It was virtually insulting generally for them to even attempt to act like he wasn’t the monster that we knew him to be.
After seven days of testimony, the case went to the jury. The prosecutors felt assured.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: I anticipated a responsible verdict… however I did not count on it to occur as rapidly because it did.
Michelle Miller: How rapidly did it come again?
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Like 45 minutes.
Michelle Miller: That claims one thing.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: That claims so much. That claims that any person lastly noticed by means of Michael Jones’s bull****.
However they knew there have been many challenges forward. Now the jury must resolve whether or not Mike Jones would reside or die.
Michelle Miller: What did you inform Lena proper after the trial?
Prosecutor Brian Workman: I keep in mind hugging her.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: I particularly keep in mind telling her, now the heavy lifting comes. Be prepared.
LIFE OR DEATH?
Lena Andrews: She had a lot good in her coronary heart and he knew that.
Almost a month after the decision, the identical jury that convicted Mike Jones of first-degree homicide would now resolve whether or not he would reside or die.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: The penalty section is … every part in regards to the defendant.
Prosecutor Bakkedahl warned Lena that the sentencing listening to could be troublesome to take a seat by means of.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: The poor defendant, the entire points confronted by the defendant all through his life to absolutely the and utter exclusion of, of her daughter.
The protection referred to as medical consultants who testified Jones had obtained a number of blows to his head, probably from doing motocross as a teen, and he suffered mind harm. One professional testified that Jones’s frontal lobe, which regulates determination making and impulse management, had been broken and brought about a big cognitive defect.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: They wished the jury to imagine … that he had this main or minor cognitive deficit. … The issue is … with a view to have that specific deficit, you possibly can’t do issues like steadiness a checkbook. … pay lease … And here is a man who went to legislation faculty … and managed multimillion greenback accounts.
When it was time for her sufferer impression assertion, Lena stunned everybody, and confronted Jones nose to nose.
Lena Andrews: How will you do this along with your naked fingers? To the individual that you supposedly love? How can anyone do this? How?
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: She introduced Diana to life in that courtroom. And if we have been going to get the dying penalty it was going to be on the again of that testimony … It was only a mom’s love for her baby. It was massive (tears up).
All through the complete trial Jones confirmed no emotion.
Lena Andrews: He completely had zero regret, completely zero.
Whilst his sentence was about to be learn.
Prosecutor Brian Workman: His attorneys … that they had their faces of their fingers. They have been leaning on the tables…. And he simply sat there like a statue.
Mike Jones obtained a life sentence, a lot to the prosecutors’ disappointment.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: For me it was devastating. (He tears up) … as a result of we did not end the job that we had promised Lena and the household. … I spotted at that second, if I can not get dying on this case, what case?
Michelle Miller: Do you keep in mind what number of for, what number of in opposition to?
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Yeah. I keep in mind. I am going to always remember. It was 11 to 1. … The protection was taking part in for one holdout the complete time. That is all they want … We wanted to be excellent.
Lena Andrews WPEC affiliate tape: “He’s nonetheless going to die in jail, a method or one other. And he’s by no means going to harm one other woman once more.”
Lena Andrews: On the finish of the day, my daughter, Diana, she’s not coming dwelling. She’s not. And he is nonetheless alive.
Lena needs folks to recollect and study from her daughter’s story.
Lena Andrews: If this has occurred to Diana, it is gonna occur to anyone. In the event you really feel one thing isn’t proper, take heed to your self, as a result of one thing isn’t proper.
Immediately, in any case these years, Diana’s bed room appears precisely the way in which she left it.
Lena Andrews (taking a look at a photograph of Diana): It is one of many older photos of Diana when she was a child. … In Moldova. … She actually did not need to take this image. She was slightly bit grumpy right here.
Lena Andrews: I am enthusiastic about Diana the minute I get up. … She’s the very last thing I am enthusiastic about after I go to sleep each single day. And that is eternally. That is how it may be.
In the event you or somebody you realize is a sufferer of home violence, name the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Produced by Chris Younger Ritzen. Marc Goldbaum, David Dow and Michelle Sigona are the event producers. Jennifer Terker and Hannah Vair are the sector producers. Gary Winter, Doreen Schechter, George Baluzy and Mike McHugh are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.
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