Lobotomized

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Patrolman McGhee picks up his mic and responds to dispatches
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call at two fifty two am, please respond to Locuste
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for domestic dispute. Frightened Tammy Blaton tells the dispatcher her
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ex boyfriend Joe is knocking on the door and walking
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back and forth from the front of the house to
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the back, talking about being a god. McGee picks up
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his pace. His cruiser roars through the streets en route
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to Locus Street, another typical third shift. He thinks to himself.
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Dispatch interrupts his thought with news that the ex boyfriend
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has escalated his behavior. The woman on the phone describes
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him ragefully kicking the back door. The dispatcher relays the
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woman's situation in real time. He has threatened her in
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the past. She suspects he's schizophrenic. McGee arrives and notes
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the time seven minutes since the call. He parks on
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the street and gets out of his cruiser. He hangs
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his hands on his hips as he approaches the house.
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Movement from the side of the house catches his attention
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and he turns to look. He sees a man in
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a blue shirt, obviously frustrated his eyes are squinted with
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a furrowed brow, his mouth twisted into a frown. McGhee
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gets his attention, talks to him and explains why he's there.
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Joe tries to explain his side of things, but he's
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so angry, so frustrated, he just can't articulate his thoughts.
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But Trawlman McGee keeps his distance as Joe starts slamming
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his fist into his hand while pacing the front porch.
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He claims he owns the house and the boat in
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the driveway, but while he was at work, his girlfriend
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changed the locks. Just then another officer arrives. McGee was
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happy for the backup, but kept his attention on Joe.
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The other officer went inside to talk with Tammy. She
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tells him Joe is her ex, but she doesn't want
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him coming around anymore, so she had her dad changed
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the locks. When she explained Joe had lived there for
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nearly a month and a half, the officer stopped her.
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He explained that by law, Joe had established a residence there.
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Isn't that funny just by being there, he had his
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belongings and even his car in the backyard. He explained
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there was a proper way to get him out, but
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that it wasn't just by changing the locks, and that
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it wouldn't just happen overnight. When the other officer exits
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the house, McGhee confers with him. They both approach Joe
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and tell him that it is three in the morning
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and nothing is going to be accomplished tonight. They recommend
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hed come back later and work things out. Joe reluctantly
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agrees and gets in his suv and leaves. McGhee lingers momentarily,
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then circles the block just to make sure he doesn't return.
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Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares True Crime. Bedtime where
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nightmare begins Now. Brenda self is startled awake, trying to
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blink away the blurriness in her eyes. She realizes her
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sun is in her bedroom. His dark figure is motionless
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in the pale blue light filtering through the blinds. He
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says he needs to talk. She rolls over with a
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tired sigh and looks at the alarm clockets three point
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thirty in the morning. She pushes herself up in bed
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and reaches for the bedside lamp, where a click, the
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room is basked in a warm yellow glow. What do
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you need to talk about, she asks him, but she
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already knows. Ever since he and his girlfriend broke up
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a couple of days before, he had been coming over
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a lot. She listens as he tells her how upset
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he is that his girlfriend broke up with him. She
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hangs on his every word as he tells her she
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changed the locks and won't even talk to him. She
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rubs the sleep from her eye and confesses he even
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went to her work and tried to talk to her,
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but was asked to leave. Brenda knows that has been
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weighing heavily on his mind, between that and losing his job.
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She hasn't seen him this upset since. She quickly pushes
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the memory out of her mind, not wanting to relive
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the past. She tries to console him, tries to help
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him understand everything will be all right, but he's frustrated.
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A pitiful look crosses her face as he leaves the room.
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She can see he's upset and her heartaches for her child.
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She reaches for the lamp and turns off the light
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when she hears a car door shut in a rush.
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She throws the sheets back, adorns a robe and hurries outside,
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she sees her son sitting in his suv. She wraps
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her arms around her body, clutching the robe tight, and
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walks to the passenger door. She opens the door and
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gets inside, but her son doesn't move an inch. She
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asks him if he's okay. He doesn't answer, his eyes
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staring off into the distance. She raises her voice hey
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and reaches for his head. He never changes his gaze,
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but he does respond. She tries to offer him advice,
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but nothing seems to put his worry at ease. For
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a few moments, she tries to convince him that the
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world is not against him. Hard thing to get someone
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to believe when the opposite is often true. He listens,
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but she can tell it isn't making him feel better.
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She sits there for a lingering moment and just holds
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his hand, not knowing what else to do. Then she
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gets out and watches as he puts the car in
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gear and backs down the driveway. She hopes he's going
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to be okay. As she goes back inside, turns off
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her lamp and lays back into her comfortable bed. She
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hopes nothing bad happens Like last time Tammy met Joe
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Oberhansley during the spring of twenty fourteen. Joe was thirty
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three with little to his name. He had a menial
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job at a car dealership and lived with his mother.
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But Tammy was a caring person with no children and
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didn't mind a fixer upper. When she recognized a man
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in need, I can fix him. She thought she'd been
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married four times before, but was sure this guy would
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be different. For some reason. He was a whirlwind relationship,
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and by late June, Joe had moved some of his
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things into her home and began staying overnight often. But
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when Tammy's friends at work asked about him, she admittedly
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knew very little. They had talked about his past, but
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he was always very vague. One friend, Tanya, recommended searching
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for his name on the internet. Isn't that a Tanya
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thing to do? Jemmy typed his name Joseph Oberhansley into
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the search bar and she pressed enter. In seconds, the
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screen was full of results. Oh, that's interesting. The reflection
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of the bright screen in her eyes grows as they
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widen in shock, and she reads headline after headline. This
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can't be true, she says out loud. She barely moves
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as Tanya impatiently turns the laptop to face her. Oh
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my god, she exclaims, snapping Tammy out of her temporary shock.
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Her and Tanya's surprised faces meet as she turns the
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laptop back around and clicks on the first link. Slowly,
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her mouth falls the gape as she reads. A seventeen
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year old Joe comes home to find his five day
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old baby in his mother's arms. He then turns his
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attention to Sabrina Elder, his baby's mama. Just looking at her,
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he feels anger rise in him. His mind races. He
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regrets ever getting her pregnant and hates the fact that
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now she thinks she can live in his house with
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his family. He starts pacing up and down the hallway
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with his anger writhing inside of him. Suddenly, he reaches
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into his bag, pulls out a loaded handgun, points it
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directly at Sabrina, and pulls the trigger. The gun recoils
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in his hand. He can smell the burnt gunpowder as
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he pulls the trigger again and again. His mother quickly
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puts the baby down and rushes to help Sabrina. Her
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body slides out of the chair she was just in
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and crumples onto the floor. Even with his mother shielding Sabrina,
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Joe doesn't stop. The gun releases two more resounding bangs,
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hitting his mother in the back, damaging her kidney and liver,
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and in the arm, shattering her bone. As soon as
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the shooting started and his mother put the baby down,
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his sister picked him up and ran from the home.
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Joe saw her spun around and shot at her, but
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narrowly missed. Sabrina lay under his mother dead from a
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gunshot wound to the head. His grandmother, Norma, ran from
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the kitchen to see what was going on, just in
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time to see Joe place the gun under his chin,
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lock eyes with her, and pulled the trigger. He would
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survive the self inflicted gunshot wound after spending three weeks
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in the coma. The bullet lodged in his frontal lobe,
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effectively giving him a partial lobotomy. The bottomies were once
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touted as a miracle surgery eighteen seventy, treating and curing
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a myriad of inflictions from homosexuality to schizophrenia. We have
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a lot more of that these days, and a lot
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less lobotomies. As you can probably tell, Joe would be
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convicted of manslaughter for the death of Sabrina and attempted
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a murder for shooting his mom. He would spend thirteen
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years of his life in prison, being released two years
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shy of his fifteen year sentence. Not long after his release,
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he would move to Indiana to be with his mother,
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who had long since forgiven him for some reason. There
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he would serve out the remainder of his parole, but
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just before it was due to run out, they met Tammy.
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Tammy slams the laptop shut. She doesn't want to read anymore.
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She turns to Tanya and tells her this doesn't change anything.
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He was just a kid back then, she explains changed.
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She gets up from the table, eager to change the subject,
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but she can tell that Tanya doesn't want to. In
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the months to follow, Tanya and others noticed Joe slowly
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taking control of Tammy's life. They all told her it
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was going to happen, and now it is. She became
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withdrawn and saw her friends less and less. She only
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saw Joe. He even gave himself access to her Facebook
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accounts so he could monitor her activity. It would take
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a couple more months before Tammy saw what exactly made
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her friend suspicious of Joe. In early September, her company
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held a picnic at an amusement park. Tammy took Joe,
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and by all accounts, they were a happy couple. But
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the following Monday, at work, Tammy would ask a coworker
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for help. She confided in her coworker that Joe had
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raped her all weekend and wouldn't let her leave the house.
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She packed cloth in a computer bag. When Joe was distracted,
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she didn't want him to know she intended to break
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up with him. Her friend would let her stay at
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her house. That night, Joe called and Tammy answered. Tammy
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picks up the phone and slides her finger across the
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screen to answer it. Before she even says hello, she
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presses the speaker icon so her coworker can listen in.
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She watches her coworker's expression flash between shock, anger, and
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empathy when he openly admits he raped her. Tammy mouths
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the words I told you. She tells Joe it's over.
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In a demanding voice. She says, no one, and I
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mean no one gets to terrify me the way you
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did this Sunday. I will never forget that as long
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as I live. She tells him to get his stuff
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and get the fuck out of her house. I added
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the fo by the way. Joe begs and pleads for
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her to just let him come get her so they
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can talk and he can manipulate her, but she wisely refuses.
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She disconnects the call with a newfound confidence. She feels
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good after breaking it off. She feels free. The next day,
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at work, all the color rushed from Tammy's face when
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she turned around at her desk to see Joe. Her
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manager had to ask him to leave before calling the police.
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She stayed with her coworker the next night. Also the
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following day, her dad changed the locks on her house,
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and that night she felt safe enough to go home.
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She texted her coworker that evening at the end of
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my day, I am claiming my life back. I worked
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too hard to get here. No one will take me down.
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Her experience with Joe left her feeling like a survivor,
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with renewed promise of a full life ahead. But just
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to be safe, she locked all the windows and doors,
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and she wedged a chair under the back door knob.
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Six hours later, at three a m. She would call
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the police because Joe was banging on the back door.
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The following morning, her coworker arrived at work, but Tammy
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wasn't there. She waited until nine, but still Tammy was
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a no show. She began texting and calling her repeatedly,
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but got no answer. She called her from a work
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phone and someone picked up. The voice on the other
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end said they were Tammy's brother and she was with
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her dad, who had a medical emergency overnight. The coworker
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called another friend of Tammy and she tried calling her,
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but when she heard the voice on the other end
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of the phone, she knew immediately it wasn't her brother.
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When she asked, where's Tammy, the voice pretended not to
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know what they were talking about and said they had
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the wrong number. That's when they decided to call the
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police for a welfare check. By ten am, officers were
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knocking on Tammy's door. The first thing that Captain Pavee
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does when he arrives at Tammy's house is run the
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plates on the SUV in the driveway. It only takes
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a few seconds before the squawk from his radio confirms
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it is Tammy's. He walks down the driveway passing the
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vehicle and the boat behind it, before turning and walking
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up the steps to the front porch. He hears another
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officer's footsteps fade as he checks the back of the house.
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Pavee raises his fist and wraps on the glass storm door.
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He waits, but there's no answer. The storm door squeaks
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as he opens it to knock on the main door.
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He knocks and then listens. He can't hear any movement
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inside the house. The silence is broken when the officer
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in the back radios that the back door is ajar.
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Both officers feel a sudden sense of dread come over them,
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making the hairs on the back of their necks stand up.
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Pavee nearly jumps when the front door finally swings open. Inside,
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he can make out the figure of a white male
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standing a few feet from the storm door. He says
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his name is Joe and that Tammy is not here.
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Pavee asks him whose car is in the driveway and
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knows that he's lying when he claims it's his. He
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asks Joe to come outside. It's hard to hear through
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the door. Joe reaches out to open the storm door
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when Pavee sees a fresh wound on his knuckle. Joe
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steps outside between the two officers. Payvee already doesn't trust
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him after he knows he's lied, He notices he seems
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slow to answer their questions, like he's making up an
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answer on the spot. He says he left his ida
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at work and wants us to go there with him
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to get it. Payvee finds his eagerness to leave the
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home suspicious. The other officer, feeling the same suspicion, asks
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Joe to put his hands on the house and let
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them pat him down. When the officer mentions a pat down,
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Payvee sees Joe tense up, take a step back and
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slightly reach for his back pocket. Payvee acts quickly and
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grabs his wrist with one hand, pushing him towards the
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house with the other. In his back pocket was a
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folding knife. The knife, with a handle that doubled his
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brass knuckles, was covered in blood and blonde hair. Officers
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entered the home and yelled for Tammy. As they walked
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through the home, they noticed dried blood on light switches
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and door knobs. The back door, still in the locked position,
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had been busted open, leaving broken trim on the floor.
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As they walked down the hall, they noticed the bathroom
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door was also busted open. Inside the bathroom, even in
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the dark, they could tell there was blood everywhere, and
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in the tub was a bloody mound of some kind.
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The mound was draped in a camper's tent. Lifting the
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tent would reveal the crushed skull of Tammy Blanton. Processing
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the scene would reveal even more disturbing details. The front
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part of Tammy's skull had been cut open and part
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of her brain removed, and the tub mixed with the
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blood or brain matter and pieces of skull. Her throat
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was slashed or stabbed so many times it looked like
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one big cut. The left side of her chest had
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a large wound, large enough to see her organs. Later,
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the autopsy revealed that, in addition to portions of her brain,
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part of her lung and heart were also missing. In
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the kitchen they found a fork, spoon, knife, and plate
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with bits of skull and blood on it. On the
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stove was a skillet and a pair of tongs with
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blood on the handles. In the skillet was a burned
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residue with a void in the middle where whatever had
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been cooked was removed. In the dining room, on the
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floor was a spread out tarp with bloody tools laid out.
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Steak knife, a butcher's knife, a screwdriver, and an electric jigsaw,
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all covered in blood. Detective Parker looks over his notes.
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The details coming from the scene were pretty damning to
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the man sitting across the table from him. He stares
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at Joe and asks him why he is here. Joe
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calmly replies he didn't have his identification on him when
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the officer asked for it. What about Tammy, asks Parker.
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Claims he's not seen her in a couple of days,
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and that she stays at her dad's house or with friends.
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Didn't you have contact with police this morning? Parker asks.
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Joe denies any contact, as if you can deny reality.
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Some criminals are just plain dumb, So is anyone that
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denies reality. By the way, Parker leans forward and tells Joe,
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I know you're lying. Joe replies, my name is Steve.
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Parker's face turns perplexed, but he doesn't know how to respond.
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He just blurts out, So you don't know Tammy's dead?
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Joe nonchalantly replies, that's the first I've heard of it.
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This is going to be a long day, Parker thinks. Eventually,
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Joe would tell a very different story. He claimed he
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went to Tammy's to talk, but when he arrived, there
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were two black men already there. He claimed one attack
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Tammy with a knife while the other held him at gunpoint.
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Then they ran and Joe chased them but didn't catch them.
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He thought Tammy and the two men were planning to
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cut his head off and eat his brain, but the
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men betrayed Timmy. When he returned to Tammy's, she was
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already dead, so he placed a ten over her body,
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but not before deciding to eat part of her brain
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because she was already dead. So who cares right now?
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If you believe that story, then I've got an NFT
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to sell you. Parker's expression went blank. He leaned forward
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once more and told Joe that story doesn't match the evidence.
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It sounds made up. Joe only complained about his head tingling, exclaiming,
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I'm like electrifying right now. Parker got up and left
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the room. Frustrated. Of course, he let Joe stew for
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a while, electrifying whatever the hell that means. While alone,
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Joe seemed to talk to people that weren't there, saying
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get back. Other times he would just make random buzzing noises.
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I wish we had the video for this one. Parker
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bursts back into the room and asks Joe, where's Tammy's heart?
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I ate it, he said, it's part of me now.
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But you didn't kill her, Parker questioned. Finally, Joe revealed
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the truth. He said when he forced the back door open,
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Tammy was already locked in the bathroom. Parker listened intently
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as Joe went over the details. He said he already
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had his knife in his hand and used it along
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with little elbow grease to force open the bathroom door.
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He stopped for a moment, looked Parker in the eye
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and said, truth be told, like she really wasn't all
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that scared. Surprisingly, then he detailed how she tried to
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hit him, but he attacked her with a knife and
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her body fell into the tub. He said he felt
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like he had to kill her before she killed him.
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He could hear her thoughts. Somehow, Joe would be charged
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with murder, burglary, and rape. It would take six years
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before he would make it a trial. Well, he made
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it to trial once before, but because a witness revealed
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information that was barred from the case, the judge declared
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a mistrial. Then they couldn't find an untainted jury pool
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to draw from. Everyone had seemingly heard of the crime already.
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Between procedural delays, Joe was declared unfit to stand trial
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and then had his competency restored three times. Sounds scientific.
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Joe was prone to bizarre outbursts, claiming they had the
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wrong man and his name was actually Zeus Brown. Yeah, yeah,
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that's what he claimed. Later, he tried to fire his lawyers,
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claiming they were trying to control his thoughts. Of course,
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this is all part of the legal system, by the way,
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dealing with crazy people who are seemingly everywhere these days.
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Eventually Joe would reach an actual trial, though Joe refused
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to let his defense team use the insanity defense, so
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the prosecution took the death penalty off the table. Everyone
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except Joe could see he was mentally ill. I mean,
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it was friggin' obvious. When someone's mentally ill, they say
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dumb shit that you shouldn't believe in. Just accept as fact.
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The defense's only witness was Joe, and he took the
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stand to explain his innocence, but after a few hours
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of deliberation, the jury convicted him of murder and burglary,
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but for some reason, not rape. There just wasn't enough
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evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he raped
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her in the process of murdering her. Sometimes juries can
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be illogical, but during the sentencing, the jury took less
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than an hour to decide he needed to be sentenced
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to life in prison. Somehow they came to the right
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conclusion after all quickly. Joe tried to appeal the decision,
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but it was upheld. He'll spend the rest of his
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life in prison. Tammy's horrible death still weighs heavily on
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her family, to Joe's mom still stands by her son.
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As for Joe's son, he was put up for adoption
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after he killed his mother and went to prison. He
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never saw him again, and hopefully he never will. If
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you enjoyed the show, please consider joining plus at Sword
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00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:30.000
and Scale dot com slash plus, but if you can't,
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00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:35.359
consider leaving us a positive review on your preferred listening platform.
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Sweet Dreams and Goodnight