Deadly Dark Delusions - Lashmeet, West Virginia
73 min
•Nov 15, 20255 months agoSummary
Small Town Murder Express covers the 2020 murder of Michael Walker in Lashmeet, West Virginia, where Monica Hartwell shot her mentally ill boyfriend and was convicted of second-degree murder despite significant evidence suggesting reasonable doubt about her guilt. The case highlights failures in the mental health system and raises questions about investigative procedures in rural areas.
Insights
- Mental illness and substance abuse combined create dangerous domestic situations where culpability becomes legally and morally ambiguous
- Eyewitness testimony from a single person (the ex-husband) can drive conviction despite lack of physical evidence like blood spatter or gunshot residue
- Rural law enforcement may prioritize immediate safety concerns over Miranda rights, creating appellate vulnerabilities in prosecutions
- Individuals with untreated bipolar disorder and psychotic episodes pose risks to themselves and others, yet institutional support remains inadequate
- The absence of forensic evidence (no blood, no gunshot residue) contradicts the physical mechanics of a close-range shotgun shooting
Trends
Rural mental health crisis: Repeated psychiatric hospitalizations without long-term treatment solutions in economically depressed areasDomestic violence in mentally ill households: Multiple untreated conditions cohabiting creates volatile, dangerous environmentsInvestigative shortcuts in small jurisdictions: Limited resources lead to reliance on single witnesses rather than comprehensive forensic analysisCompetency determination challenges: Courts struggle with defendants who cycle between competent and incompetent statesPost-conviction appeals on Miranda violations: Safety exception doctrine increasingly tested in custodial interrogation cases
Topics
Second-degree murder convictionMental health competency to stand trialBipolar disorder and psychotic episodesDomestic violence and cohabitationGunshot residue and forensic evidenceMiranda rights and custodial interrogationRural West Virginia economy and coal mining declinePsychiatric institutionalization cyclesEyewitness testimony reliabilityPost-conviction appealsDiminished capacity defenseReasonable doubt in criminal trialsEx-spouse cohabitation arrangementsSubstance abuse and medication interactionsCounty fair culture in rural America
Companies
People
James Pietragallo
Co-host of Small Town Murder Express podcast covering the Lashmeet, West Virginia murder case
Jimmy Wissman
Co-host of Small Town Murder Express podcast providing commentary and analysis
Monica Suzette Hartwell
Convicted of second-degree murder in shooting death of boyfriend Michael Walker in July 2020
Michael Walker
Mentally ill boyfriend shot and killed by Monica Hartwell on front porch in Lashmeet, West Virginia
Brian Smith
Monica's ex-husband living in home who reported shooting and testified against her at trial
Ryan Flanagan
Monica Hartwell's legal counsel who argued reasonable doubt and competency issues at trial
Craig Young
Next-door neighbor who witnessed events on day of shooting and testified at trial
Teresa Horn
Fiancée of Craig Young who witnessed shooting and called 911
Hugh Mercer
Mercer County, West Virginia named after this general who died at Battle of Princeton
Quotes
"The county would be a better place if he wasn't here. I'm going to kill him."
Monica Hartwell (reported statement to family member)•Day of shooting, July 26, 2020
"I don't remember what happened. Your honor, please have mercy on me."
Monica Hartwell•Sentencing hearing
"There's no credible evidence showing that Monica committed the crime. There's no fingerprints on the shotgun, no blood on her clothing, no gunshot residue on her hands."
Defense attorney•Closing arguments
"Brian Smith must be Superman. He'd be flying."
Prosecution•Rebuttal closing arguments
"My hands are tied about what I can do with mental health."
Judge•Sentencing hearing
Full Transcript
Back on the dating scene, let's see your profile. Fine. Sporty one. Cute dog one. 120 over 78, what's that? My blood pressure. Why? Well the pharmacist at Boots said it's perfect so I popped it on my profile. Well I'm sure that'll get hearts racing. Get a free health MOT for over 40s including NHS blood pressure check. Book yours at boots.com slash health MOT. Boots with you for life. Subject to availability and eligibility criteria. England only. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yeah and choo choo. Oh yay indeed Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrick Hallowam here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another crazy edition of Small Town Murder Express all aboard the murder train. Leave in the station, we got a wild one for you. It's West Virginia today so that's all I have to say. We're going to West Virginia to go oh it's going to be a good one, we all know that. So can't wait to get into that. Before we do, very quickly head over to shutupandgivemeurder.com for all of your merchandise needs and everything like that. No tickets to buy at the moment in time. None. Virtual live shows over, our two shows left this year are sold out. We are announcing our whole new slate of 2026 live shows. Very soon those will be available to purchase in December so keep an eye out there. Shutupandgivemeurder.com. You should also listen to our other two shows, Crime in Sports and Your Stupid Opinions which are hilarious. You don't need to like sports for Crime in Sports and I'm telling you, your stupid opinions is just as funny as it gets. Just the reviews of everything, they're amazing. And if you like the Patreon we just did, we have a review on the next year's Stupid Opinions of that Winchester Mystery House so that'll be fun too. We're going to get into that. Also get yourself Patreon. It is worth it. Patreon.com slash Crime in Sports. All you have to do is be $5 a month or above and you get everything we could possibly give you. Immediately upon subscription, hundreds of bonus episodes you've never heard before. Immediately you can listen to. Then new ones every other week. One Crime in Sports, one Small Town Murder and you get all of that this week. For Crime in Sports we're going to get into part two of Team Relocations and the pain they've caused. It's hilarious how angry people are. And then for Small Town Murder we're going to talk about the American prison system, where it started and where it is now. Where it started in a completely different place than it is now and we'll talk about the progression of all of that. Lots of fun stuff there. Patreon.com slash Crime in Sports and you get all the shows, Crime in Sports, Your Stupid Opinions and Small Town Murder all ad free with your Patreon subscription and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. You can't beat it. Patreon.com slash Crime in Sports. So do that right now and get in there and hang out with us. That said, I think it's time everybody to sit back. Let's all clear the lungs. What do you say here? Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Let's go on a trip shall we? We're going to West Virginia. Again, oh boy. We're going to Lash Meat, West Virginia. Lash Meat. L-A-S-H, Lash and M-E-E-T. So it's not like the meat of a lash. It's different. We're going to meet up here. Lash Meat, West Virginia. It's in pretty much extreme Southern West Virginia there. Way down. It's not very far from Parisburg where we did that crazy Appalachian Trail Killer episode in Virginia. So it's up in that, up in the hills. I mean, this is the Hollers, man. There is nothing around here. The whole county has like 11,000 people in it. It's crazy. This place is very small. It's about an hour 50 to Roanoke, Virginia. That's the closest kind of big town here. Big city. And about three hours to Parkersburg, West Virginia. Our last West Virginia episode, episode 605, the Serial Butcher Killer. That was a bad guy. He was the guy who was leaving heads displayed, certain ways for the cops to find and stuff like that. Very weird guy. This is in Mercer County. Area code 304N681. That's all of West Virginia is just a mix of those two area codes. Median household, or I'm sorry, population here is 599 in this town. It has just gone down, down, down, down, down over the last, ever since the coal mines dried up in a lot of these places, these counties, their populations are just sinking. Median household income here is about $40,271 a year. The median home cost here, median home cost $65,700. That is insanity. Incredibly affordable. Insanity. You can almost, with your normal household income, you can almost buy a house after one year. That's wild. A little bit of history of this town here. The county itself was named for Revolutionary War General Hugh Mercer. Oh. Yes. And also in this county, Princeton is the county seat, which was named for the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey, where General Mercer died. Oh. That's why. They're connected. This guy is real important around here. Everything is connected to that. Everything. All the people here, when they first came around this area, were farmers, and they're growing corn and oats and wheat and things like that. And it's basically severe isolation. This county is in the middle of nowhere. This town is in the middle of nowhere. So this was a very self-sustaining little economy they had going on here. There's not a lot of outsiders coming in, not a lot of them going out. So they had their own salt work, their own tannery and grist mill and foundry. They made everything themselves there. The first mine opened, and that's when the population exploded and things like that. It opened on Mill Creek in 1884. And soon coal operators from other states, people with money, capital started seeing that, oh man, we can go there, extract everything from the ground, use these people like worker ants and bury them beneath the coal dust when we're done. And that's what they did. They started coming in and just absolutely sucking every last bit of resources out of the ground that they could. Now Lashmeat was likely named after a family that was here called the Lashmeat, or they might have been the Lashmut family, we're not sure. Lashmeat sounds better, I think. And it developed just because of coal mining. Early 20th century coal mining started happening around here and a town sprung up. There's one review of this town that exists on Earth. There's only 599 people, just one review. It's two stars and it says, quote, there aren't many nice places around and you don't have many attractions other than the churches and gas stations, which aren't known normally as attractions. If you look up things to do when the Exxon station pops up, you're in a really boring place. Head on over to Sheets. Yeah, you can do it. The houses aren't the greatest, but they are livable. That's not good. This does not sound wonderful, man. This sounds depressing. Your house is barely livable and you spend your nights at AMP. That's...or church, one of the two. Well, the days at church, the nights at the gas station, it's really a packed schedule in here. Things to do here. Not a lot, put it that way. I found the Mercer County Fair. Now the Mercer County Fair has been a big deal to the Mercer residence since its first inception, since it was first came in in 1853. So this is an old fair. We're talking 172-year-old fair. And it's still going. Still going in July. It's literally all there is to do here. And for years and years, everybody would mine coal and do all this shit, and then this would be the one thing to do is the county fair would come around. And they say, we are a small county with only 15,000 residents. The whole county. That is insane. Nothing. There's apartment buildings in Manhattan with 15,000 people. There are. I feel like that's wild. Yet over 11,000 visit our fairgrounds each summer. So I don't think there's a lot of people coming from the outside to go to the Mercer County Fair. Like, you know, 85% of this county goes to the Mercer County Fair. Yeah. It really do. Our exhibitions are from livestock to hobbies, antiques, photography to culinary arts, flowers and vegetables. Also a large number of our people to, this is what it says on their site. This allows a large number of our people to enter the competitions, meaning all the competitions for flowers, vegetables, photos. Right. I don't know how you have an antique competition. That's a weird. Whose shit's the old? I don't know. His shit's a little older than your shit. I'm sorry. We're going to have to give it to him. There's also a pageant, of course. Nice. These fucking hill people, they love pageants. Love to judge each other's looks. Let's line our little girls up and judge their looks now. Now we got to. Got to get them young while they still got all their teeth. Well we got to find out who's going to be the local newscaster, the local anchor woman. Because every 30 years we replace one of them and she sits in there. This is the queen pageant they have. They say there's three divisions of the Mercer County Fair pageant that allow young ladies of Mercer County to gain poise and confidence in themselves. By participating in the pageant, they also have the opportunity to make new friends and have a lot of fun. New friends, like they're not stabbing each other in the back, these pageant girls. Please. I'm hiding your Vaseline so you can't put it on your teeth and smile. Sorry. What's the fun? I don't know. Being judged by adults. They have the Little Miss Division, the Junior Miss Division, and then the Queen Division, which I assume is adults. I hope, anyway. Better be. There's also a poultry show over at the Swine Barn. Literally that's what it's called. A rabbit show. Rabbit show? What's the look at other people's rabbits? That's a weird. I got the best looking ones. I like a sheep show. I like a floppy-eared rabbit. Yeah. Oh, who doesn't like a floppy-eared rabbit? A floppy-eared rabbit is the best. They're great. A sheep show, a 4-H beef check-in. Beef. That's an effect. Get a check-in on the beef. On Wednesday, July 9th, they have the 4-H only beef check-in and weigh-in, and also the swine check-in and weigh-in. That's what's going on on Wednesday. Then there's a swine show, a goat show. Oh, baby. There's a goat show. And also a junior and senior master showmanship contest. All right. Whatever that means. I don't know if that's showing the animals. I don't know what the hell that is here. They have some music here as well. They have Far Out, we'll be playing. Oh, sorry. Far Out 283. Oh, and? That's the name of the band. Okay. 283rd. That sounds like a weird chemical. You get it a rave that gets you high. I got Far Out 283, man. Oh, shit. Let me get three drops under my tongue, man. Put them in there. Are there 282 others? It must be. Wow. They'll be playing on Friday from 8 p.m. to midnight. Goddamn. Is that the area code of this, 283? No, it's not. Not at all. What in the fuck? No idea. They play, they're an alternative blues rock band. Those words don't go together, by the way. There's no such thing as alternative blues. Alternative which? Don't know what that is. Playing an array of unique covers and original music that you will go to the bathroom while they play, and then you'll come back once taking care of businesses played for the third time. Then Vital Signs plays the next night. Vital Signs. They sound elderly. Oh, yeah. We're almost just beeping. Vital Signs is a local band, local band number one, that plays all kinds of music. Here's the, from what to what. This always reminds me of Cheech and Chong when he says everything from Santana to El Chicano, everything, which is the same thing. This is everything from Johnny Cash to Judas Priest. That's a wide array of shit. Just shit that white people sing. That's it. They're hell bent for leather. Well, all you know they are. That said, whether that's leather chaps to ride a horse or to show your ass and do fucking bondage, one of the two. To hang out at a gay leather shop. One of the two. That said, let's talk about some murder that happened around here. Oh boy. Let's talk about a young woman first. Well, a young woman for a while, not young in her story, but her name is Monica Suzette Hartwell. H-A-R-T-W-E-L-L Hartwell. Now Monica, oh boy, she's interesting. What an interesting life this Monica has. She's born in November of 1968. She's born in nearby Princeton, which is in this county. From this county, grew up here. She is, you don't know how local I am. I mean, she is that girl. In school, she seemed to be social and active in things. I found her involved in the school chorus for multiple years doing that. That's an activity. She also competed in the Miss Motoka High contest. They did a pageant, not just for the high school. For the high school. As if the hierarchies and tiers and social, whatever, wasn't already sharply defined in high school. Let's make it worse. Now let's really kick it up a notch. This is worse than prom queen. This is terrible. And the county has 15,000 people. So we got to really whittle it down so that this chick with the teeth that overlap can win. Because yeah, and this is the whole school, man. They say the principal, I found this in the newspaper, principal has announced plans for the annual Miss Motoka High School pageant. Jesus, 54 girls will be vying for the title. The theme for the pageant will be sweet dreams. All right. I'll give you these James. Mrs. Richard Preservati, former Miss West Virginia, will serve as mistress of ceremonies. What's her name? They use her husband's name. Mrs. Richard Preservati. What the fuck? And this is in 1984, not 1954. She doesn't even have a first name. This one, nothing. And she is a former Miss West Virginia. But it would be impossible to look her up because Mrs. Richard Preservati, that wasn't her fucking name. What are we talking about? She'll be assisted by Freddie Ray Graham, a senior at Motoka High School. So some dickhead senior who's going to be like ... Just a judge with a lady who doesn't even have a first name. No, no, they're the MCs. Oh, nice. That's how it goes. Yeah. Her husband is unnamed lady. That'll be his jokes when he comes out. So what's your name? Never mind, Richard. Okay. Judges will be Dr. Arthur W. Stellar, Dr. Barbara Stellar, Barbara Cheatwood, and Ellen Thompson. All the barbs. The self-esk bird will serve as statistician. What do you need a statistician for a West Virginia beauty contest for? Music will be provided by the high school music. Contestants will be judged on poise, facial beauty, and stage presence. At least they don't put their fucking body in there as for teenage girls. We're going to judge them fat asses. That's enough. That seems fucked up too. Yeah, I think. With five finalists being asked to respond verbally to questions. Oh, boy, can they talk. So I found out what happened in this because our girl is, Monica, is involved in this here. Apparently she didn't win. They said Bridget Meadows won. That's a problem. Yeah, she does all sorts of stuff. She's a real achiever, this Bridget. Cheerleader, Spanish club, future business leaders of America, pep club, newspaper. She does a lot. But second runner up is, well, the first runner up was another Hartwell, not Monica Hartwell, a different one, maybe a cousin or something. But the fourth runner up is Monica. She's the fifth hottest girl in Motoka High School, apparently. She did it. Top five's not bad. Top five's great. Fifty-four women. I wasn't top five. No, fifty-four young ladies get in there. Now she had an interesting upbringing, too. She definitely, as a young woman, she grew up very much in a rural environment. It is absolutely, completely rural. And her life was that. Beauty contest and all that makes it seem like there's something that she was like, I don't know, like sitting in her pink room doing her nails and shit like that. And it wasn't like that at all for her. Like, she had a very rural upbringing. She's out there, yeah, getting dirty. Bringing water up from the, you know, shit like that. I mean, she really did that. She said how her and her sister worked at a grocery store while they were growing up. They kept a garden that they had to water by carrying five gallon buckets from the Bluestone River. Jesus. Yeah, that's no hose or anything. They had, her grandfather taught her how to trap and fish. And her grandmother taught her how to cook and how to make dresses so she could be in more pageants. She's a dress making water carry and she's really doing it. Very old school. I mean, she is like extremely old school. She's going down and getting some fish and getting a bucket of water and coming up and sowing a dress so she can do the pageant. And she's got to hurry because she's got to gut the trout. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can't let it sit there. You got to sit. It's gross. Yeah, it's a rigor now. You got to cut it and do it. So I'm telling you, so growing up like that. It's just going to rigor. Yeah, they do. Does it? Yeah. They get stiff at first. They get too hard? Wow. Yeah, they get stiff. You can see them twist with rigor and then they relax again. It's like people. I don't know. It's weird. So she, that's an interesting life. She's not any one thing. She's doing it. Yeah. Not any one thing at all. Now, her sister said, seems like she's an achiever and she can do things and she's real tough, but her sister said also she's got some problems and she does. They really surface. Her sister, Teresa, said that, you know, Monica was always taking care of animals and helping people when they were growing up. And also later on, she becomes, she gets into, she's a beautician. She does hair and does all that kind of stuff. She goes to school for that. Now the way her sister puts it, she was a wonderful person and a great beautician before she became sick. Oh, what happened? Now that's the thing. We don't know what her illness is or if it was even a physical ailment. We're not sure. Because it just went away. And this was an ailment that would make her unable to walk or see. It blinded her? Blinded her and crippled her. Now I can't imagine. They never. Is she diabetic? That's the problem. They never, no, they never found a physical reason for this. So to me, if you have something that, and it also would cause her to become very confused, all of it. So if you have something that makes you not be able to walk or see and becomes confused, that's a stroke. You know what I mean? Like that's a physical problem and that just doesn't go away if you have that. That's a, you have some sort of issue and it never kind of came to fruition really. So in the end, they decided that it was probably a mental condition that did this. It was probably some sort of psychosomatic thing or some sort of mental illness. And they said the treatments that they would try to give her for these ailments, because they were just trying shit. This young lady can't walk or see. So they tried things that would have a problem and it would affect her cognition. Because they would give her crazy drugs. And this is in the 80s too. So who knows if they were given her. Maybe the drugs blinded her? What the fuck blinded her? That was, they'd give her that to try to rectify the problem and that's when that would affect her cognition. They didn't just give her drugs for no reason. She got drugs because she couldn't walk or see and it was confused. Later on, when she's an adult, she's diagnosed with pretty severe bipolar disorder, which they believe that's probably what it was. Something in that universe here and other mental conditions. Not just by, they said she's got bipolar and a bunch of other shit too. That's her main feature as bipolar, but there's a lot of other stuff there. So yeah, it's weird. We don't know what exactly happened, but that's the problem apparently. That's her sickness is mental issues. She'd been, you know, actually put into psychiatric institutions more than once committed to them. So she's got some problems coming up. We'll just say that. Now it doesn't matter though, because she's still, it's weird. She still seems to live a full life and even will find out she'll have a daughter that seems to be a very successful young lady and things like that. So she keeps it together, but also then will unravel sometimes it seems like. Only way I can kind of put it. I suppose some, I mean, not everybody that's mentally unwell is just mentally. Sometimes the environment causes that unwellness to really kick into overdrive. True. So what I mean, she's not just completely sitting in bed not knowing where she is and stuff like that. She seems to go through periods of achievement and lucidity and then will deteriorate, lose it, we have to be institutionalized for a while and then come out and then be back. Okay, again. So that's what seems to be her cycle here that goes on. It's not all one thing. In December 1985, there's an engagement announcement in the newspaper. And they're saying, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Hartwell, that's just how they do shit around there. This is in December 1985 of Lashmeet announced the engagement and forthcoming marriage of their daughter, Monica Suzette Hartwell to Larry Van de Hart of Norfolk, Virginia. So yeah, they said, at this point, he was in the US Navy and she was studying cosmetology, it says, and we'll continue to study cosmetology. They're going to have a big church wedding on December 27th of that year. And they do. Now she ends up having a daughter though. She's married a bunch of times, by the way. Sure relationships come and go fast as we'll find out, but she was married to this guy de Hart and then has a daughter with a different last name. That's not hers or his. So it must be from a different guy. She has that daughter right around this time, right around the mid 80s. She has this daughter. So it's kind of interesting, honestly. So yeah, she has this daughter named Ashley and she gets married then. And the other thing is I find out like Ashley has like a bunch of like there's newspaper announcements when Ashley does stuff. So Monica has it together enough to put in a thing at the newspaper for an announcement. You know what I mean? So that's that's something. She's married a couple times real quick here. March 30th, 2000, she gets divorced from a guy named Freddie Harless the second. Don't know where he came from. Yeah, right. But that's March 30th, 2000. Now by the middle of 2001, she is married and divorced again. Wow. She gets married and divorced within a year after she just gets divorced. If you want to call being divorced at least three times by the time you're fucking 30 fucking five years old, I would say she's doing great. Just great. Now in 2001, it's a guy named Brian W. Smith is who she's divorced from. Now Brian Smith, keep that name in mind. You'd imagine they're divorced. So that'll be the end of him. Oh no, he hangs around. Keeps coming back. She'll be living with him later, even though she's with somebody else. It's insanity. Lord. I'll not go away as we'll talk about 2008. Her daughter, Ashley graduated from high school and she graduated with a college preparatory diploma. Yeah. Apparently she's going to pursue a career in cosmetology at the Princeton Votech. Good God, Ashley, you can leave. You're allowed to leave the county. She's just going to follow in mom's footsteps and be a cosmetology person at the Princeton Votech. Jesus. What even is that? Vocational. Vocational technical school. It's literally, that's not what you want. In Drop Dead Gorgeous, that was the prize. Was like a gift certificate for tuition at a Votech beauty school. It was the same shit. So Ashley gets married in 2009. So 2008, she's graduating. 2009, she's getting married following 100% in mom's footsteps when it comes to that marriage right after high school, cosmetology school, at the Votech, everything. She married a guy named JP Surface. Surface. Surface. Just like a surface. And I only say this because I feel like to have newspaper announcements, your family has to have some kind of shit together to put those into the paper. You know what I mean? Generally, yeah. You have to fill a thing out. You have to give them like $12 or whatever back in the day. Yeah, pay something. Yeah. And that's going to be a thing. So there's some sort of something pushing them forward. My family would have never done this. No. To no count to do any of this shit. Nobody would have remembered to do any newspaper announcements or anything like that. The money part was the first issue here for the hurdle. The money and also just nobody would have thought to do it. So, you know, oh, we got to fill a form. Never mind. No one's, that's too much. I got work in the morning. Like that's how my family would have been. I'm not doing that. So they got married. Apparently she was escorted by her grandfather. So I don't know where the hell her father is. She was escorted by Monica's mom. Jesus. So I'm not sure where. Monica's dad. Or Monica's dad. Yeah, Michael. Yeah. Monica's grandma. Yeah. Come on. Come on, grandma. Walk me down the aisle. The bride was attired within a white chiffon gown with a long-trained crystals down the side. Very nice here. Sounds nice. The couple honeymooned in Tennessee is the dream honeymoon we all have. We're going to Knoxville, everybody. That's going to be, wow. From Maynardsville. From old Maynardsville now. Now, hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show. Tell you a little bit more about Acorns early. At acorns.com. Absolutely. Ah, man. So many of us only focus on where our money is today. Acorns is the financial wellness app that cares about where your money is going tomorrow. That's the thing. Acorns believes that everybody's money has potential. 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Investment results will vary. Investing involves risk. Acorns advisors, LLC is an SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash small. And now back to the show. Monica, as this goes on into the 2010s, Monica has a longtime boyfriend. I'm shocked that she didn't marry him because she marries everybody else. But this is Michael Walker. He's about the same age as her, born in 1958 as opposed to 68 for her. Now birds of a feather here because we know that Monica has quite a few psychological problems obviously. No judgment, just that it's a fact. Michael has at least as much or more psychological issues than Monica. So that is bad when you get those people together. And for a bipolar person too, to be very into a relationship to the point where you get married quickly and then end up divorced pretty quickly is kind of standard shit for like, especially if you're an unmedicated person who's got bipolar. That's a thing. It's the ups and downs and ebbs and flows here. So Michael Walker has what's called unspecified mental health issues. What does that mean? So many you can't even put a finger on it. Because you would say- We don't even know what they are. We don't even know what they are. You'd say unspecified you think undiagnosed. But that's not the case because he is- They've looked him over. They just can't figure it out. He is hospitalized, quote, several times a year. Oh my. In psychiatric facilities to readjust his medication and quote, get his head straight as he puts it. Four times a year or so he goes, gotta go get my head straight. And he checks into the hospital for a while. So every season he's getting a- Yeah. I feel like it's the leaves are changing. I better- Inside too. Wow. You know when the barometric pressure changes, really my medication works way different. I gotta get it fixed. So that's a lot. And I mean, I feel bad for the guy obviously. That's terrible. That's horrible. Also at the same time you want to keep your distance a lot of times. If you're in a relation, like a serious relationship. So these two- Safety and well-being of our relationship. Absolutely. These two are a match made in heaven. I mean, you can't- Well, certainly made in the waiting room. Made in somewhere. Yeah. Match made in this ward of the fourth floor of this hospital. So by 2020, they're living together, Monica and Michael. Yeah. Okay. And also living in the house is her ex-husband, Brian. Yeah, of course he is. She's living with her current boyfriend and her ex-husband at the same time. Wow. Now, the ex-husband from what I understand, Craig doesn't- or Brian, I'm sorry, Craig is an ex-door neighbor we're going to talk about, but Brian Smith, he doesn't have any like mental issues that we know about. He doesn't like- he doesn't- hasn't been to a hospital, doesn't have bipolar disorder, anything like that. So imagine if you're him, you're living with your ex-wife who you, I'm sure he calls her a fucking crazy all the time and to his friends, and she says, crazy fucking bitch Jesus Christ, and her crazy goddamn new boyfriend. Right. So he's living with them. How shitty is this guy's life? Imagine living with your ex and her new fucking boyfriend. Hey, just imagine that, number one. If they're the sanest- Oh boy. If they're as sane as a fucking, you know, whatever, like imagine that. Like the sanest- If you have a healthy relationship with you, how can you do that? No, you can't. That's what I mean. Nothing about this is healthy. This is some West Virginia hill shit right here. There's no amicable separation that makes me- Not that amicable. Your ex and her new to healthy. That's not healthy. I have never- That's aggressively amicable. I've never been that amicable with anybody where I'm like, you know what? You've never been that amicable with somebody who's in a relationship. That's what I mean. That is extra amicable right there. It's amicable plus. That's too much. So that's a wild living arrangement. They're actively putting my penis inside. I was never that amicable. Never that amicable. And they're living in like a small trailer. So you're here and shit like, this is a palace. This is not a palace. No. That's what I mean. It's not, oh, I'll live in the East Wing and you guys are in the wet. It's not that. We're talking, they're sharing 700 square feet probably these people. So this is terrifying. Now, July 26th, 2020 comes around. Okay. And we were all going a little crazy there in 2020 and losing our minds a bit. Yeah. No, it was a tough mental time for everybody. But this day, apparently old Michael is having, Michael Walker is having way more of a breakdown than most people. Apparently all day, according to everyone around his neighbors and, and, and Craig and everybody are not Craig. I keep calling them Craig Brian, damn it, the ex-husband. Michael has been quote, loudly spouting gibberish all day. Gibberish. I love the word gibberish. Number one, that's, that is great. Hunter Thompson used to use the word gibberish all the time and it was always the perfect way of use and blazing saddles, authentic frontier gibberish. It's always a great word. So including claims, he's spouting general gibberish of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. But the main thing that strikes people's attention, because this is normal for him to have a gibberish breakdown. Because on this particular day, he is claiming to be variously different times, either God or Jesus, one of the two. Okay, but you know, one of the two. A deity. A deity of some kind. The father, the son, he's one day the Holy Ghost. He doesn't care. He's just whatever comes up. So he is out, him and Monica are on the front porch of their home while he is shouting, apparently, loudly spouting gibberish as the neighbors put it, about I'm Jesus Christ and I'm God and all this type of shit. Now at the same time that might have contributed to this, Monica and Michael have been drinking all day as well. So it's like the afternoon, they've been drinking since the AM. They have, they're taking antipsychotics while drinking. We don't know if they're taking meds. That's the other thing. We don't know if they're actively taking their meds. They're probably prescribed them. Another thing, bipolar, and this is very common for bipolar people, they don't like to take their meds. They don't like it. They don't like the highs because that feels good. A manic phase is fucking great. Manic phase feels amazing. You feel like it's like being on Coke because you feel like you can do anything you can't, but you feel like you can. You got a lot done. Yeah. You feel like, oh, I could figure this out. Peace in the Middle East? Let me sit down with it for a minute. I think I can figure this out. Literally, that's what you think if you're in a manic phase and then the depressive phase comes on. It's not that much. They don't generally, a lot of them don't enjoy taking medicine, so sometimes they'll go off meds. We don't know if they are on meds, off meds. They're in a fucking West Virginia trailer. All bets are off. Who knows? Yeah. Even if you're on antipsychotics, just being in a West Virginia trailer might make you psychotic anyway. Yeah. I could do it right there, especially drinking. You might override the drugs. Yeah. Yeah. Then if you are taking the drugs, drinking is, I don't think, goes with them at all. No, that's not going to happen. Any of these drugs. If you're not taking your drugs, just drinking is just going to exacerbate any mental illness you have. So, it's not good. So they're both drinking and he's talking about being Jesus and God and talking about the Holy Spirit from time to time, literally, and doing all this. Now the ex-husband, Brian, he's in the, imagine this, they're shit-faced yelling at each other on the front porch arguing about who's Jesus and who's God. Nobody's on meds. Everybody's drinking. And this guy's like, I'm going to try to stay in the back of the house. He literally is like, I'm going to avoid the situation. So he says, he was in the yard in the back either doing some yard work or sunbathing. We don't know which one. One of the two. Yeah. But either way, he said it's an effort to put distance between himself and Michael Walker's ranting, deity-filled monologues. He does not want any part of that shit. And also, Monica's up there arguing with them and they're both drunk. So let's stay back here. Now the next door neighbors here, Craig Young and Teresa Horn, our young fiance's, they're getting married soon, they're engaged. Teresa and Craig were doing a woodworking project in their driveway, which is about 10 feet from the front porch. What are they woodworking? They're cutting trim. They're cutting trim into pieces to do something to redo the inside of that. Maybe baseboards, maybe sealing things. Who knows? Maybe they're spelling their name out. Just some Wayne Scotting. We're not sure. Either way, this, where they're working in their driveway is about 10 feet from the front porch. So a basketball hoop length distance. So they're hearing every word that's being said on the porch, all the arguing, and they're trying to ignore it. Oh honey, yeah, that's a 415th right there. 416th, you want to cut that? Yeah. No, no, no, measure that up. Yeah, we got that. You need the jigsaw. Yeah, here you go. Like they're just ignoring shit. Here's the pencil. Mark it off, as I would be doing as well. So at some point, Monica walks down off the porch. I don't know why she walks over to them considering they're 10 feet away. You could just talk to them. Right. But she walks down, comes over here, and apologizes. She said, I am real sorry about what's going on over here. I understand that this is, you know, you're trying to have a nice afternoon doing your woodworking or whatever. And we're over here. I'm like a crazy person. I'm very sorry. She said it won't keep up for much longer. And she said, I'm going to, quote, get this neighborhood back to normal soon. Don't you worry about it. So they go, OK, maybe she's kicking her boyfriend out. Great, terrific. Then they're still, she goes back up there. They're still arguing. Oh. Now, OK. Now upon leaving the driveway, Monica goes back home and Brian starts to, the ex-husband, walks around the house wanting to tell them to either shut the fuck up or go inside. OK. Literally, it was like, you can't be arguing about who's Jesus and who's God and then outside on the front fucking porch. Do it inside or shut up. Take your pick, basically. So and at that point, Craig and Teresa, the next door neighbors, go into their house to determine to see if the piece of wood they just cut will fit. Sure. So they take a piece of wood and to go in. OK. Now, Craig said also he didn't think Monica's comment about Mr. Walker there, about Michael Walker, you know, this neighborhood will get back to normal soon and he's going to be out of here. He didn't find that unusually said because he knew that Michael suffered from mental illnesses of all kinds and would routinely leave the house to seek mental health treatment. So remember three, four times a year, he's at the mental hospital. So they are like, oh, yeah, that means he'll be leaving soon to go to the hospital. Basically comes home, he's OK for a while, he'll deteriorate and then they go, oh, yeah, he'll be back in the hospital soon. He's acting nuts again. That's how it is. OK. So they go back inside. Now, a few minutes later and we don't know the timing on this, by the way, this could be 30 seconds, this could be two minutes. Nobody really knows because nobody was keeping track. But Teresa and Craig, the next door neighbors, hear a gunshot, a loud one. And they walk outside and they see, as soon as they get out of the door, they see Brian Smith running toward them yelling that Monica just shot Michael. Monica just shot Michael. OK. Now, we don't know, between five and 30 seconds is what they say. Who knows. So he's saying, she shot Michael, she shot Michael, call 911, call 911. So Teresa calls 911. They see that the front, as they get out, they also see the front door is closing and there's Michael laid out on the front porch, not claiming to be a deity at this point. So Brian says that he last saw them on the front porch. He exited the back door of the house a few minutes later, heard a gunshot, ran around the house and saw that. Saw Michael Walker's dead body lying in the bushes. She shot him off the porch. Wow. So the 911 call comes in. They said, you know, there's been a shooting over here. Can you please come on over? You know, they said, do you know who shot him? The next door neighbors who call the cops said, we have no fucking idea. We were inside our house. So, I mean, you can ask them, I guess, but I don't know. Now everybody remains near the front porch. Brian, Craig, Teresa, everybody but Monica, who went back in the house. She went back in the house and sat inside on the couch alone. The cops don't show up for 15 or 20 minutes. She's still on the couch inside. Just sitting there watching TV. Sitting there just enjoying the quiet. Not watching anything. Watching whatever show is going on in her brain at this point. So the cops arrive. They get here. How did she do that? She's blind? What? Wait, no, she's not the blind one. What am I doing? Blind. No one in the story is blind. Where did blind come from? Never mind. Earlier, she couldn't see when she had an event when she was a teenager. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She can see now. Right. She can see in what? I'm blind forever. No, no, no. Wow, okay, yeah, that confused the shit out of me. Thank you. As old as I'm going, wait, is she still blind? She was only blind for when she had her issues. Got it. So they get there. They're dispatched about 3.30. They've been drinking all day and it's 3.30. Holy PM, not AM. So imagine what this would have been like by midnight. After noon. After noon they got. This is groundhog for breakfast type shit here, which is also West Virginia. Should be getting off. It shouldn't even be getting off work yet. No. They're going to hang out with the groundhog for breakfast guys. Yeah. Because they're drinking purple drink and all this shit early in the morning. So they get there. They realize, holy shit, there's Walker lying on the front steps, half in the bushes bleeding and not moving. So there's a trooper weekly and he's one of the officers here. He was advised by the next door neighbor that I guess Monica shot him. That's what I heard because that's only, he only heard that because that's what Brian said when he came around the corner. Right. So they then secure the home from the outside and they're like, well, where is she? Where is this Monica? They say she's in the house. So they say, okay, they walk into the house. There she is sitting on the couch. Commas can be. Yeah. They're like, can you stand up? No problem. She's cooperative. The fuck. Trooper, Wilkie or weekly asks her, where's the gun? Okay. Now, at that time he was, she was handcuffed surrounded by the whole West Virginia State police and Mercer County Sheriff's department. There's 10 cops in their trailer living room. She's handcuffed and she was being escorted out of the house. So she's not free to leave or anything like that. And she's not been advised of her Miranda rights yet. She has not been read her rights, but he said, where's the gun? Okay. She answered by saying the guns on the couch. Okay. So they, they send another cop in to look for it. And there it is on the couch, a 410 single shot shotgun. Okay. So, yeah. Um, that's what he, she shot her with. That's it. That's it. One shot. Boom. Loaded it once. That's the one. Now, Brian said that, you know, he gave the statement to the cops and he, you know, he said it was about, you know, this, they talked to him about 45 minutes after the shooting. He said that the last two hours before the shooting, they'd been drinking a lot and Michael Walker was running his quote, running his mouth all the time. God, Jesus, Holy spirit. She threatened to do this. I didn't think she was going to do it. I heard her say he's D, uh, he's demon possessed. He's demon possessed. The county would be a better place if he wasn't here. I'm going to kill him. So that's why he went to the backyard. He's demon possessed. He's demon possessed. County be a better place. I'm going to shoot him. He's like, I'll go in the backyard. I'm going to go back. This is, this is why we're divorced. So he said that he was just getting some sun. He heard the shot and he couldn't see, he said he couldn't see the front door because of the foliage. Um, so he ran out and he saw that Walker had been shot. He went to the next door neighbor's house and call 911. Um, he said he had the phone with him because he had called to, uh, he had planned to ask for a ride. So he had a cordless phone with him. It's all confusing. So now other witnesses, they also say that yeah, Monica had been threatening to kill Michael all day and actually called up a family member and was like going over the merits of killing him or not. She was like, I feel like killing him, but I don't know. You know what I mean? And then she was going over, I mean, if I kill him, it'll be good for this reason, but bad for that reason. The county. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, she did say though, he does need to at least be removed from the county or killed because quote, he was a demon from hell. Not just a demon, demon straight from the fires. Yeah. And the county would be a better place without him. She told this relative she loved him, but finally saw who he was and killing him would protect her community. You know, from demons. Yeah. Uh, the, the one cop said after hearing all of this quote, this murder seems to be pretty cut and dry, but we still have a lot of work to do on it. They said, so is she going to talk? Seems like she'd have a lot to say. If they tell her she doesn't have to, though, she might not. Who knows? Well, she's placed in a state police cruiser after she's arrested. She first declined to be interviewed after being advised of her Miranda rights, but later on when one of the detectives checked on her, she changed her mind and said, now I do want to talk. Oh, okay. Now neighbors told investigators that both Monarch and Michael quote had mental issues that day and had been drinking all day as well. Yeah. The one cop said, I believe Mrs. Hartwell told me she was schizophrenic and bipolar. That'll do it. Oh, that's a lot. Um, she said, he said Mrs. Ms. Hartwell told me that Walker believed he was God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and that she did not believe that. Well, obviously she's being, you know, she's logical. That's what it is. Yeah. Until the next sentence, which is quote, she believed he was possessed by a demon instead. Yeah. So, you know, this is something, it's some kind of entity. We're not sure where it's from, but it's something. So is she competent? That's the question. That's the other thing. Can she be? That's a big deal here. The prosecuting attorney right away told the court during the first preliminaries that Monica was currently, currently competent to stand, or he did not think she was currently competent to stand trial. That's the prosecutor. I think she needs some work before we put her on trial. She's a little wacky. Hartwell's attorney, Ryan Flanagan, said his client had been quote, in and out of competency, which means not competent. That's not competent is what that means. In and out. She's not competent. One minute she's competent, next minute she's not. It's not, yeah. Wow. I mean, she never was. They also said that, there's a prosecuting attorney said that Monica had been drinking when the shooting occurred, so there was the issue of diminished capacity to be considered as well. So the judge said that the reports concerning the shotgun and autopsy, you know, are pretty damning as far as, obviously he was shot and things like that, but you know, you guys have to look all over this. They said that, oh, she's going to have two other, she's going to have at least two mental evaluations to determine her competency, blah, blah, blah. In jail, she attempts to commit suicide, by the way, which is not surprising. I mean, she's in jail, mentally ill. Who knows if she's getting any meds. We don't know. So now these state's evidence at this point, it sounds pretty open and shut until you really look at it. The only evidence that she committed the crime was because Brian Smith said she did. Really? What? Okay. Brian Smith came around and said, Monica shot him, Monica shot him. Nobody else saw Monica shoot him. Okay. None of that shit. So yeah, I mean, the neighbor said we last saw her with the victim on the porch and they heard a gunshot and saw him in the bushes. That doesn't make sense. But that's it. Yeah. It's definitely the gun that killed him. They figured that out. So that's interesting. And she did say she thought he was possessed. That's the thing. Great. Yeah. The state of West Virginia's medical examiner testified that the distance between the barrel of the gun and the victim was less than two feet. Less than two feet with a shotgun. And a 410 isn't crazy, but it's still enough. It's still in. Two feet away. Any gun is pretty crazy. You know what I mean? And two feet away, that gives that opportunity to just branch out too and spread and really take your fucking head. It's brutal. Here's the thing. Monica, when they went in and grabbed her, she had no blood on her body or clothing. I don't know how you would shoot somebody from two feet away and not get any spread, any blowback on you. Nothing. Not a drop. It seems unlikely, right? Seems not easy. Yeah. It's not a gun assist, but it seems like there'd be some spatter coming back at you. Sure. Because if you hit them with a fucking hammer from that distance, you'd get some spatter on you. So I would assume a bullet would also have that. This is depending on what's in that gun. If it's a slug, you're getting tons. Oh, tons. But even if it's fucking birdshot, you're getting something. There's got to be something. Yeah, that just tears the flesh apart. Some little pieces of blood on you, little droplets even, missed. Anything. Missed. They do it with the black light and all that. Right. There's nothing to see anything on there. Now also her team claims, and they don't have any tests to disprove this, that she did not have any gunshot residue on her hands either. So she can shoot someone from two feet away without getting any blood or gunshot residue on her, which is pretty impressive. That's the, she's a straight up assassin, man. That's impressive. Now Monica's legal team also claims, and we have not been able to figure out the veracity of this, that the only person on the property, out of the four people hanging around, or five people, meaning two neighbors, the dead man, Monica and Craig, only person with gunshot residue on their hands during a test was Craig, the ex-husband. Huh. Okay. Now. What the fuck? That's interesting. So the trial comes up. They end up taking her to trial. So I'm sorry. Yes, Craig. Okay. I'm sorry. Brian, not Craig. What am I talking about? Brian, the ex-husband, I keep calling him Craig. Brian is the one with gunshot residue on his hands. Not Craig. Craig's the neighbor. He's making wood shit. He has no gunshot residue. So the neighbor testifies, this is the actual neighbor Craig. He testifies a trial. I was just cutting wood, man. I don't know. I don't know what the fuck happened. We were sitting and talking. They were talking loud, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He said on the stand that, you know, Monica was talking about demons and that Walker would be leaving soon. And she said, the neighbor said that she usually spoke like this. This before Walker would go to the hospital. Michael would sign himself into a psychiatric institution every few months. And the lawyer asked him on the stand and he was talking out of his head, which is a very weird legal thing. And he said, so he was talking out of his head and Craig said very badly. Out of his mind. So Craig also said that he spoke with Walker that day and advised him you should go back to the hospital. Hey, man, you just said you're the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's time to check back into the hospital. What do you say, buddy? He said whenever he was talking to himself on the steps, it literally seemed like two or three voices were coming out of him, which is scary. He said adding that at one point he thought that Monica was with Michael, but Michael was talking to himself actually. He thought that there was a conversation between multiple people and it was just Michael with different voices coming out of his head. So he's either the guy from fucking police academy. Name coincidentally is also Michael. Michael W as a matter of fact, too. That's pretty impressive. Or he's this. Now, Brian Smith here, the defense attorney asked Smith, did you shoot Michael Walker? And he said, I did not shoot Michael Walker. No, not the shooter. So that's what we have. They're saying you don't have any proof that she shot. That she shot a mother of them, this cop saying, where's the gun? And she pointed it out. So in closing the prosecution here, I mean, they're asking the jurors, look at all the evidence, use your common sense. He said immediately after the shot, where was Monica? What did she do? Where was she at? It was a small house. She had to have heard the shot. She stayed in the house while everybody in the neighborhood was outside. She knew what happened, which is a fair statement. Sure. Everybody else ran over there. There's cops in there. She just sits on the couch. That seems weird. Also Monica told the troopers where to find the shotgun. And yeah, so there you go. And she can blame Brian Smith all she wants, but his account of the shooting has stayed consistent from the second we started. And we don't know what's up with her. Now, the defense said that, oh no, they also said by the way, the prosecution said that Brian Smith could not have fired the shotgun, put it in the house, then run back outside so quickly. And then like around the house to come out and say, hey, they shot him. Craig, the next door neighbor, said that he was in his house when the shot was fired and was outside talking to Brian within 30 seconds. But again, it's a small house. You could easily drop the shotgun off, go out the back door, run around the side and come out in 30 seconds. You could do that. That's very possible. Now, the defense in their closing said there's no credible evidence showing that Monica committed the crime. There's no credible witnesses, no fingerprints on the shotgun, no fingerprints on the shotgun, no blood on her clothing, no gunshot residue on her hands. Okay. If they figure this out, that is very impressive. That is wild. They said there's reasonable doubt that she was the one that shot Michael and that it's possible that Brian Smith is the shooter. She said, ladies and gentlemen, we just talked to you and told you that there's no evidence. At the very least, it's reasonable doubt. And as the judge just instructed you, if you find reasonable doubt, the law requires you to find her not guilty. Now prosecution rebuts and said that, oh, wow, the defense is saying that Brian Smith ran out, shot this guy, threw the shotgun down, ran around the side of the house, and oh boy, she shot him. Quote, Brian Smith must be Superman. He'd be flying. That's less crazy than being the Holy Spirit, I guess. Who knows? He's faster than the speeding bullet, James. Yeah, he is. They said to be the shooter, he would shot the gun, did all that, ran outside, did all the shit that we just said. Because Smith was also the person who first called 911. The prosecution says, why would Brian shoot this man right in front of her? Does he not expect her to tell the police? Okay, now the verdict comes in. The jurors go in at 1.30 in the afternoon and less than an hour later, they have a verdict. So they understand what happened, I guess, or they think they do, and they find her guilty of second-degree murder. Bingo, wait. Yeah. So members of her, by the way, Michael Walker's family didn't even attend the hearing. They couldn't find them. They said that a county probation department could not contact any one of his relatives. This poor man had nobody. Had nobody. He literally had nobody that would come watch his murder trial. Unbelievable. That's sad, man. That's really sad, I feel bad for him. So the prosecution here, the prosecuting attorney, Judge asked the prosecution if the state was taking any position about sentencing. And the state said that the court was aware of her admissions to law enforcement and psychiatrist and would leave the sentencing to the court. Basically, we don't know what to do with her. She said, the prosecution said, we believe she needs to be sentenced to the penitentiary and receive treatment there. As far as duration, we will leave that to the court. Usually they have a real good idea exactly how long they want somebody in there. So for this, they're like, we don't know what the fuck to do with this. You figure it out. This is on you. Her attorney filed motions for a new trial and all that kind of shit. He also told the court that Monica had been a productive member of society before she came ill, became ill, and that she has been battling mental illness her entire life. He asked the court to have a pre-sentencing evaluation on her mental condition. Monica's sister said, Teresa said, quote, Monica does not know how to load a shotgun and never had a shotgun. I do know my sister is a very loving person. And she also adds that this is a case where the mental health system has failed because failed completely two people, both, both her and him. Monica stands up and reads a statement to the court. Oh, what is this, Jim Rush? It's she, there you go. Thank you. I love it. Thank you for using it. She recalled her childhood as she worked at a grocery store and kept the garden and carried the five gallon buckets up from the river. Our grandfather taught her to fish and trap and her grandmother taught her how to cook and make dresses, all the stuff we talked about. She brought all that up. That was nice. As she read her statement, she said that Walker, she didn't, she said she wasn't on her medication and sometimes she wouldn't be because Michael Walker would hide her medication because he didn't want either of them to be on meds that day because he was going loopy. And she said she still does not remember what happened the day that he was shot. She said, I don't remember what happened. She asked the judge for mercy so she could be with her family. She said, quote, your honor, please have mercy on me. I pray you'll have mercy on me. She is begging to be let out of jail because she doesn't remember. I feel bad for everybody here because I don't think anybody could help with anything that went on today. You know what I mean? I think she may be beyond help. That's what I mean. She doesn't, she's, you never know. She thinks that there's mercy to be given. We're not even positive she did it for Christ's sake. Right. That's the other thing, like it's crazy. What the fuck? The judge said there was limits as to what he could do in cases involving mental illness. He's like, I can only do so much here. He said, quote, my hands are tied about what I can do with mental health. Yeah, he can't cure her, I guess. Wow, yeah. He said that he couldn't put her on probation, obviously. She murdered a guy. He couldn't send her to any other place but a penitentiary. He said, I haven't heard any reason why this man was killed, none, other than he was fucking annoying. Yeah. He was spouting. So he sentences her to, you ma'am, may fuck off, 40 years in prison. 40 years. 40 years, with 789 days credit for time served. Two years. Two years before they could get her on trial. Soon we got 38 more to go. Wow. Also, she's assessed all court costs which must be paid within one year of her release or her driver's license will be suspended, which is hilarious. She's saying she'll have a driver's license when she gets out of jail in 38 years. And they'll immediately say you can't drive. Yeah. 50s? 68. So she's, yeah, she's in her 50s. So when you get out in your 90s, you better pay that or we'll take your driver's license away. They also suggest that a physician provide the maximum amount of mental health treatment while she's incarcerated. He says, I certainly believe she needs to get help in the penal system, the maximum amount they can give her. Whatever they got, just give it to her. She appeals this based on, they say that the court erred in denying a motion to suppress Trooper Weekly's testimony about her telling him the location of the gun because she was not Mirandized, but she was in custody. Okay. They said they had her, she wasn't free. She was cuffed and surrounded by cops and being walked. That is in custody. At that point, you ask anything, you need to do that. There's extenuating circumstances because there's a loose gun in the house. So the prosecution's whole thing is the question of where's the gun, you know, the defense says that's a custodial interrogation at this point. Whereas they're saying no, no, no, that's a matter of safety. Safety for the county. Yes, for the county. This county safe. Keep this county safe from this gun. So they're saying safe county and all that. Now in custody is a very, as we've talked about before, is a very precarious notion. Yeah, because you can be detained and not be in custody. Well, it's also about the letter of the law is about whether the person feels they're in custody. So sometimes it's not even about the actual whether they're in custody or not. It's whether they are under the impression they're in custody. So what they're saying, the defense says being in handcuffs surrounded by cops and walked somewhere, you feel you think you're in custody, whether you're in power or not. That's custody. You know what I mean? That's custodial interrogation at that point. So you know, what the fuck basically is how they're saying it. So and that kind of makes sense. But they're saying that, so they're calling it a response to custodial interrogation, telling him where the gun is and finding it. By the way, Brian, they question Brian more on this, the ex-husband, that's his gun, the shotgun. Oh no. He sleeps on the couch and keeps the shotgun between the cushions of the couch. Real? How scared of them is he? Dude. Yeah. Either that or they should be scared of him, one of the two, but he sleeps. Why don't you guys kick him out? He has a shotgun in the couch. That's why. We can wake him up and within five seconds he could be shooting us. That's why. So he keeps it in the cushions of the couch and his thing is, well, I kept it there. It doesn't mean that I did it. That just means she knew where the gun was. So anyway, they're asking for the whole thing to be overturned based on that, which I guess you could say that. Now they're saying, what's critical to the resolution of the case is that the trooper testified without contradiction at the time he asked the petitioner, where's the gun? The officers had not yet secured the weapon prior to their entry into the home. Officers knew only that the victim had been shot on the front porch and that the petitioner had apparently gone into the house immediately after and that she had not been seen again by Mr. Smith, Mr. Young or Ms. Horn during the 15 to 20 minutes it took for law enforcement to respond. No one actually saw her go into the house. Rather, Brian Smith said he heard a gunshot round the corner and saw the front door closing. So they didn't even know if she was in there. Thus, after the petitioner exited the house and had been handcuffed, the officers still did not know whether there might be someone else inside who had access to the weapon. That's what they're saying. So they're saying they asked her, where's the gun for immediate safety purposes, not for inter-or-interagration purposes or interrogatory purposes. So they said they didn't know whether she had left the weapon in the house or during the interval of time that it elapsed, thrown it from a window or back door into the unsecured environs of the property where it might be found by a passerby or an inquisitive child. So they're saying unless they asked her, where's the gun before reading her her rights, which takes 20, 15 seconds, a child in that 15 seconds would have walked by, picked up the gun and blew his brains out, obviously. That's an inquisitive child for you. That is a very inquisitive. They said a passerby or an inquisitive child, which means if it was an inquisitive child who was passing by, he would have taken it for sure. There's no doubt about it. So inquisitive kids. Inquisitive kids. They were also trying to say that Trooper Welke's testimony that the response to the question was it's on the couch was inadmissible hearsay based on that. The court says it's well established beyond a dispute that the defendant's own statements are admissible against him or her as admissions of the party opponent. He's allowed to say that. Now she cites no ruler cases to the contrary, and thus we reject the hearsay argument and they affirm the conviction. So it is affirmed. She's currently being housed at the LCC facility. Her ID number is 3654659. She looks like from what it says here, her next parole hearing is in 2030. Wow. So that's not, that's only, you know, it's four and a half years away. It's July of 2030. So that's amazing. Her projected release date is 2040, which I guess because it was 40 years. It's an automatic whatever, I don't know. They expect her to be released in 20 apparently. So there you go. That's when she might be released. So she won't be that old. She might want that driver's license. So she better start saving up for court costs. You're going to pay these fees, lady. Pay these fees and fines. And for that matter, court costs and meds. She's going to need to. Ryan's never, never fucked with about this. Nope. They just, just said it's her. That's that. We don't know what happened. I don't know if he, if some dude pinned a fucking crime on a crazy lady. Yeah. Because she's too crazy to figure it out and was having a breakdown or crazy lady. So crazy. She, blood doesn't even remember. That's the other thing. Who the fuck knows? Also, it's fucking rural West Virginia. So maybe these people didn't look too well. I do not, I don't trust this investigation one fucking bit to be honest with you. Who knows? So I don't trust much of this story to be honest with you. That's who knows. That's what I mean. I didn't even know if she was ever blind. So we don't even know if she could, maybe she walked just fine back in the day. So by the way, quick update that Alaska case we did a couple of weeks ago where we were waiting for sentencing on Halloween night. Moses Blanchard sentencing was delayed. That's why it didn't come out. Oh, God. It didn't come out till the next day. And also, you know what else is delayed there is people in Alaska's understanding how little we give a fuck what you think. Dude, you went there to run away from society. Yeah. You don't care. Stay there. Fuck off. And also your reactions to things on Facebook have not been fixed. No. There's a man dead and you're doing the same shit. To prove that you wouldn't do that. That was the wild part. You fucking idiots. It was insane. You burned a house down to prove that you don't like to play with matches. That's what you did. And it's crazy. That shit was nuts. There's a dead man who by all intents and purposes is fucking innocent. Yeah. Wasn't convicted of anything. And you didn't like hearing about it. Nope. Thank God there's only 14 people in Alaska with Wi-Fi. Fuck off 14 of you by the way. And I did some research and looked back on it by the way. There was a couple of things from like the 70s that the old man got arrested for indecent exposure one time and stuff like that. But I found nothing that he was like the town rapist or anything. So that was crazy. You can't hurt. That was wild. Perhaps he was drunk and his dick was out. It sounds like that's common up there. That seems very common. So either way there you go. That is West Virginia. Hope you enjoyed that. If you did definitely go to whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. It helps a lot. You can give me murder.com. There's a website. You can get tickets but no tickets are left right now. Tickets will be available for 2026 in December. So keep an eye out for that. Also Patreon or social media actually. You want to follow and Instagram at small town murder on Facebook at small town pod. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get the bonus material. Anybody five dollars a month or above you get it all a whole back catalog. Hundreds of episodes. You've never heard new ones every other week. Doing this week crime in sports team relocations part two small town murder American prison system the whole thing from where it started where it is now and then we're going to do Charles Stark weather in two weeks after that's going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait for that. And you get everything of course and you get everything ad free and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Do that. Head over to shut up and give me murder.com if you want to follow us on social media drop down menus. Take you where you want to go. That's that. Thank you so much everybody. It's been amazing and until next week everybody it's been our pleasure. Hey everybody listening to small town murder out there. Hi. 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