48 Hours - The Case Against Ezra McCandless

Episode Date: February 9, 2020

A young woman claims she was attacked by an ex-boyfriend who carved the word boy into her arm. But the crime scene tells a different story. CBS News correspondent Jamie Yuccas reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. On March 22nd of 2018, the Dunn County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from a local farmer. I have a lady that just came to my house and somebody attacked her. A woman had showed up at his house and was bloody. She needs a doctor.

Her clothes are all torn. A young woman claimed that she had been violently attacked. What's your name, ma'am? You don't know? Do you have any idea who did this to you? She couldn't remember. They saw the word boy carved into her left arm. She said she was scared. Something horrible happened to this woman. This is a strange situation, one I've never seen,

and I've been around a long time. You'd think, oh my gosh, this is horrible, this poor woman. And then law enforcement show up and learn that her name is Ezra McCandless. And then law enforcement show up and learn that her name is Ezra McCandless. But as you listen, you know, you hear, Jason Mengel, call Jason Mengel. She was my girlfriend. I was in deep love with Ezra. She was an amazing person. I thought she was pretty interesting, and she was really artistic. We were good friends. She liked having people in her life.

As the investigation continues, Ezra is able to remember that she was attacked on a muddy road, very remote, by Alexander Woodworth, an ex-boyfriend. Law enforcement was treating this case as a woman who was violently attacked by a man, and they were unable to find him. You needed to find Alex. You thought he was an attacker. Correct. Everything changed when law enforcement found the body.

We found Alex's body laying across the whole backseat footwall. I've been a prosecutor since 2011 and I've never seen anything this violent. This is heinous. 16 times he was stabbed. I never saw a violent bone in her body. This was anger and rage, and this was personal. This case boiled down to whether you believed Ezra McCandless or not. Thank you. The End The End Ezra McCandless was only 20 years old when she came to the attention of authorities. 29-1-1, I have a young lady that just came to my house and somebody attacked her. What did you think was happening? I had no idea. her. What did you think was happening? I had no idea. Wisconsin dairy farmer Don Sipple was sitting down to dinner when a seemingly desperate Ezra arrived on his doorstep begging for help. She had

kind of like dried blood or something around her mouth, no shoes on, mud up to her knees. Sipple brought the bruised and battered young woman inside from the cold and offered her a blanket. She was cold and I think I'm sure in shock and then she said I was assaulted. Then I went and got on the phone and called 9-1-1. Ezra can be heard in this police video recorded at the scene. Dunn County District Attorney Andrea Nodolf would later lead the investigation. She's borderline hyperventilating, someone who sounds very upset. Where are you hurting from right now? Everywhere. Everywhere? Okay. Badly shaken, Ezra kept asking for one person, Jason Mangle. I was with her for eight months. We were very invested in each other.

Jason, a medic in the Army Reserve, says he was in love with Ezra from the moment they met in the summer of 2017, despite a wide age gap. I was 33 at the time. She was 19, I believe. She kept me energized and she kept me doing things. And I was very spur of the moment, too. Jason says Ezra was full of surprises. She even changed her own name. She was born Monica K to a mother who was just 14, seen here with Ezra in a recent photo. I just knew her as Ezra. She just did not like being called Monica. She changed her name to Ezra McCandless, dropped out of college, and began a new life in the free-spirited city of Eau Claire.

Eau Claire is a big little town. Everyone kind of knows everybody. And a lot of them knew Ezra, who liked drawing attention to herself. An amateur artist, she even used her own car as a canvas. It's a silver car with illustrations all over it. I think the top has some sort of bird riding a bicycle. She was wild. She'd always be trying to to break into abandoned buildings and take photos. The couple lived together and contemplated marriage. I would call her wife and she would call me husband. And they were often spotted together at Racy's Coffee Shop, a popular downtown hangout.

There, they befriended Alex Woodworth. At the time, Alex was a 23-year-old barista and substitute teacher with aspirations of becoming a philosophy professor. He was the nicest guy, big nerd. He was definitely one of those deep thinkers. I've never seen someone so obsessed and completely devoted to philosophy. He would bring it to the bar. He would bring it home. He would be researching books on Amazon in his spare time. As the oldest of four siblings, Alex loved playing the role of big brother, say his father John and grandfather Marv. Yeah, he loved his brothers and sisters. You can tell there's some of the pictures where they're hanging on one another.

Yeah, he was just a normal kid, and he was active in church with us. He loved the unlovely. He loved bugs, and he loved spiders. His thing was to find stuff that people didn't care for and make sure that they were taken care of. Alex was deeply committed to helping others, they say, especially his new friend, Ezra. He felt like she needed help and that he could help her.

That was the way Alex was though. She was going through emotional things. You know he was a really good friend. I kind of pushed them together at one time because I knew they both had similar viewpoints. He had some things in his life that I figured she could help him with and I thought that he could help her with things in her life. But Ezra and Alex became more than friends and began a secret romantic relationship. And Jason found out. I confronted him about all this stuff. I mean, like, you're my friend. You know, I love you.

How could you do this? I think Jason has a very big heart, but I also think his big heart, you know, led him to be very manipulated. Ezra eventually broke up with Jason and Alex. And around that time, she claimed she was sexually assaulted by one of Jason's friends. Eau Claire detective Ryan Prock investigated Ezra's allegations. First meeting with her was March 1st, 2018. She came in for an interview. He kept telling me to be quiet, like she kept shushing me.

She's sitting up leaning against the wall with her knees up, and she's telling me the story of what took place. Started getting really, really, really tipsy. That they consumed alcohol, and that's when she said she blacked out. And she was sexually assaulted at that point? That's what she believes, yes. It's really scary. So you believe she was a victim?

Correct. But then the detective reviewed suggestive text messages Ezra had sent to Jason's friend. Prock also interviewed Alex Woodworth, and he did not support Ezra's version of events. He said that Ezra told him that it was consensual. She just regretted it. This relationship wasn't even a love triangle. It was a love square. And those relationships began and stopped with Ezra McCandless. The sexual assault case was ultimately dropped, thanks in part to Alex's statements.

And Ezra was upset. Her world was crumbling around her. She had created Ezra. She had created this intricate network of lies. And they kept falling apart. And there was nothing left. There was nothing left behind it. Ezra moved out of Eau Claire and back home with her family. But Jason says she tried desperately to win him back. She wove these tales about these manipulative, vindictive men who

tried to take me away from you, Jason. It's not me, it's them. But Jason, big-hearted as he was, had had enough. I spent eight months constantly being toyed with. It was like, I can't trust you anymore. You think they're little white lies, but they build up and they build up and build up. And before you know it, there's horrifying things happening. Before you know it, there's horrifying things happening. Nodolf says Ezra was furious. There's fire in her eyes. This is someone who's deeply troubled, someone whose life is out of control,

and she's desperately trying to get back some control. What do you think happened to Ezra? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and Twitter. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trialsals, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight

for justice that has brought a unique, lonely, Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. It is March 22nd, 2018,

hours before Alex Woodworth is murdered. And Ezra McCandless surprises her now ex-boyfriend, Jason Mengel, by unexpectedly turning up at Racy's coffee shop. It was weird because they messaged each other 600 times the night before and she just randomly shows up in Eau Claire. District Attorney Andrea Nodolf says Ezra tells Jason she's back in town to show Alex some of her writings. She said she was going to share these journals with Alex,

and she was going to become Ezra McCandless again. She was taking back her life. Nodolf believes Ezra's initial plan was to get Alex to admit their affair was a mistake. She was going to do whatever it took to get back with Jason Mengel. Ezra is visible on the coffee shop security footage that morning, and to Jason, she appears agitated. After she leaves Racy's to go to Alex's house, Jason grows concerned. I was like, this is not right. Something is wrong.

Why is she at his house alone? What is going on? I thought a million thoughts just spiraling through my head. Following his intuition, Jason bicycles over to Alex's. These are two people, regardless of the circumstances, I care about them. Jason spots Ezra's car outside Alex's house and paces back and forth before finally going inside. I got up there. Their faces were like masks. Something was happening, but they wanted everyone to believe everything was fine. You could taste the tension.

I voiced my opinion that this is not right, like something is wrong here. Jason tells Alex and Ezra they should talk in a public place. They leave the house, but just then, two police cruisers roll up. A passerby had called police after spotting Jason pacing outside the house. A police dash cam shows an officer speaking to Alex, who's standing next to Ezra's car. Ezra, in the driver's seat, is not visible. Jason, next to his bicycle, goes out of camera view, but is heard explaining to a second cop why he's concerned about Ezra.

The officer sees nothing of concern. Everything's good. They're okay. You have a good day. The police officer gets back into his cruiser as Ezra closes her car door. Jason walks into view with his bicycle and talks for a few moments with Ezra and Alex. It's an eerie scene. The last time Jason sees Alex alive.

A little more than three hours later, Ezra turned up at Don Sipple's farm. Bloody, covered in mud and wailing about an attack. No, I don't know. I don't know. While being treated at a local hospital, Ezra, in a recorded interview, tells investigators she remembers feeling afraid of Alex Woodworth, but says that's all she can recall. I'm trying so hard. I'm trying to get things to come. It's like it keeps getting blocked out and blocked out. At the time, Alex was nowhere to be found.

Detectives had visited his house and called his cell phone to no avail. The police also touched base with Alex's family. We got calls that Alex was missing. I thought maybe it was like an accident or something. Yeah, we thought maybe we could help find him. Why is he missing? With nowhere else to go, the next day police return to Don Sipple's farm. As we're driving down the road, we see the muddy road right here, and we stop, and at that point, we're able to see footprints in the mud coming from the top of the hill down the road,

and we lose them right in this area. Investigators follow those footprints and spot a car. This is the police video from that day. From our vantage point on top of the hill, we used binoculars and were able to see down there. We could see a human body hanging out of the back seat driver's side. Did you immediately think, this is Alex? We did. We thought it was Alex.

The police rush to help, but nothing can be done. 24-year-old Alex Woodworth is dead. Eau Claire police detective Ryan Prock is now leading the homicide investigation, along with investigators from the Dunn County Sheriff's Department. It's a very, very violent attack on a person with a knife. homicide investigation, along with investigators from the Dunn County Sheriff's Department. It's a very, very violent attack on a person with a knife. How shocking was that to hear? Oh, terrible. Yeah. You can't wrap your mind around it. We knew nothing about it, really, just that he got stabbed 16 times, and that's pretty graphic.

Armed now with specific details, Prock returns to the hospital. He tells Ezra he's found the crime scene, and this time, her memory returns. Beginning with a knife she says Alex found in the car. He started, like, carving something into my arm. I see it by chance. What Prox sees is the word boy scratched into Ezra's left forearm. Ezra explains that in high school, she had questioned her gender and says Alex picked up on that. He used to call me, like, boy a lot and stuff like that.

And I was just kind of like, I don't really identify that way anymore. The detective doesn't believe Ezra's story about the injury to her arm. At that point, Ezra says Alex was in the driver's seat. It didn't make sense. Alex is right-handed, and he's sitting basically where you are, and he reaches over and carves boy perfectly so she would see it. I'd have to do that backwards.

Correct. It's just not plausible. He didn't do that to you, did he? You carved boy into your own arm. Is that right? Ezra continues her story, telling Proc the couple ended up in the car's back seat where she says Alex

began attacking her. It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced in my life. Ezra says she grabbed the knife by its jagged blade, wrenched it away from Alex, and began stabbing him. You said you had the knife. Where were you cutting him? I just was going anywhere and everywhere I could. Okay. Proc looks at Ezra's hands, which have only superficial cuts.

The wounds don't match. If you're grabbing a knife like she said she did, and you pull your hand across, your hand is going to be filleted open. He just kept grabbing me and grabbing me and grabbing me. It's a harrowing story. But as the evidence is examined, authorities become more convinced than ever that Ezra McCandless is lying. This was cold-blooded murder. Tonight's 48 Hours will continue. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Tonight's 48 Hours will continue. origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for

the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. It's just the best idea yet. own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career

in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime, early and ad-free right now. Is this the way the car was found?

Yes, the back passenger door was open. Alex's body was kind of laying out of the back seat. Once the police discovered Alex Woodward's body inside Ezra's distinctive car... His feet were pointed to the passenger side. District Attorney Andrea Nodolf says forensic investigators began processing and interpreting the crime scene. Why is there not more blood in the car? Remember, Ezra told Detective Prock that she started stabbing Alex in the backseat of the car. He kept trying to grab me in the back of the car, so I just started to defend myself as fast as I could. So I just started to defend myself as fast as I could.

But Nodolf says the blood evidence shows Alex mostly was stabbed outside the car. That's where there's more blood loss. And by the time he gets into the vehicle, he's nearly dead. Alex had virtually no defensive wounds. That's because Nodolf believes Ezra took him by surprise. She comes behind him and completely takes him out. Stabbing him first in the back of the head. Do you think Ezra

just snaps? Yes. I think she intended to do what it took to get back with Jason Mengel and that meant Alexander Woodworth had to be out of the picture. Two weeks after Alex Woodworth is found dead, Ezra, with no history of violence, is arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide. Her interviews, the knife, the crime scene, that's the case. Everything else is white noise.

Eighteen months later. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Ezra McCandless' murder trial begins. The state calls Jason Mengel. And ex-boyfriend Jason Mengel is a witness for the prosecution. On the day I was testifying, I was kind of shocked when I walked in the room. You know, she's giving me these looks, adjusting herself, like being overly, you know, attuned to me. Ezra McCandless, are you familiar with her?

Yes. Is the person you know as Ezra McCandless in the courtroom today? Yes. Can you identify where she's located by just describing an item of clothing, please? A pink blazer. At one point, she removes her blazer, and there's this green sweater that I had given her. Like, she's wearing it at that moment, and it was just shocking. And it's like, I don't understand what her tactic was, but I definitely felt uneasy.

On March 22, 2018, why did you go looking for the defendant? Something did not seem right. Jason tells prosecutor Peter Hahn how he saw Ezra on the morning of the murder and sensed something was off. Did you notice anything about the defendant's demeanor that caused you concern? She was a little fired up. defendant's demeanor that caused you concern? She was a little fired up. I wasn't sure for both parties involved that they should be alone. Do you swear to tell the truth about the truth and nothing about the truth, sir? When the defense presents its case, Ezra's attorney,

Deja Vishni, takes the risky step of calling her client to the stand. Good morning. Would you state your name and spell it for the record, please? My name is Ezra McCandless. E-M-E-Z-R-A. I thought it was really interesting when she was asked to spell her name, how happy she got, how much she lit up. She was kind of smiling like, yep, this is me. I get to talk about me now. Ezra's childhood friend, Julia Post, says she's seen this version of Ezra before,

a young woman who craved attention. I tried on a few names, but I found ultimately that Ezra's fit perfectly for who I am. Her demeanor during the trial was very relaxed. She was much softer than any of the photographs that I had seen from her Instagram pages. How much do you weigh? I roughly... I'm sorry. She was in pink and, you know, trying to be very meek and timid.

Why don't you tell us how you met Alex Woodworth? I met Alex Woodworth one night when I noticed... Ezra describes how the first time she met Alex, he was writing in one of his journals. I approached him and I said, what are you writing about? Looking at page six. On that day, she says, the subject was cannibalism. He caught me right away because I thought it was quite a peculiar subject, cannibalism. And I was interested in what he meant.

Ezra explains that Alex was speaking of cannibalism in a philosophical sense, akin to the way new lovers consume each other. Alex and I started slow. We held hands, we hugged, and we shared a few kisses, and then eventually we became partners. Ezra says their sex life was normal. She even calls the sex vanilla, at least at the start. I encouraged him to explore himself and things he might want. And we started practicing and doing these new things that he wanted.

Was there ever a time back in your relationship in January or February where Alex used a knife when having sex with you? Yes, he had cut a pair of my pants. Ezra testifies that she and Alex began trying out activities associated with bondage and sadomasochism. with bondage and sadomasochism. He enjoyed to blindfold me. I took the role of submissive. It turned into a, what at times could be considered a BDSM relationship. Nodolf disputes that. There was just absolutely no evidence that Alex was involved in BDSM whatsoever. Alex's father, John, is upset at the way his oldest son is being portrayed. It's one thing to lose your child. It's another one to have his name drugged through the mud like this. As you were driving, were you paying much attention to where you were going?

As you were driving, were you paying much attention to where you were going? No, just driving. Defense lawyer Vishni then turns to the day Alex was killed. What were you hoping to do when you saw Alex? I was hoping we could be friends still, even after everything that happened between us. But Ezra says everything changed after her car got stuck on that muddy road. I was breathing heavily. I just, I was, my anxiety was heightened at that time. For the first time publicly, Ezra tells how the attack began, insisting it all started in the backseat of the car.

Alex positioned himself above me. You could say straddled. She testifies that Alex began cutting away her clothing with a knife. I could feel the knife start to graze and cut into my skin. What is going through your mind? What was going through my mind is he's going to do what he wants. He's going to take anything he wants. I'm afraid he's going to kill me. I cut my hand because I kept trying to grab him. In that hospital interview with Proc, Ezra said she grabbed the blade of the knife with her hand. And then I finally got free and I finally got the knife

away from him. But at trial, her story changes. I decided then to knee him in the groin and he drops the knife at that point. Instantly, I grabbed the knife. I started stabbing him anywhere and everywhere I could. Are you trying to kill him? No. What are you trying to do? I just want to get away. I need to get out of the car. I need to get away as fast as I could. So why do you keep stabbing him while you're still in the car? Because he wouldn't let go. He wouldn't let me out. I was terrified. After a struggle, Ezra says the two of them somehow wound up outside the car. By then, Alex had suffered wounds to his head, neck, and groin.

But Ezra says he was still able to grab hold of her. And he pulls me very close and tight to his body. What are you thinking? He's going to kill me. I reached around and just quickly stabbed him in the side, hoping he would let go. Ezra claims she barely remembers what happened next, but Nodolf says Ezra spent the next few hours rearranging the evidence to blame Alex for his own death. That's when she's cutting her body, cutting her clothes, staging the crime scene.

What do you make of Ezra's story? Take a closer look at the crime scene at 48hours.com. Tonight's 48 Hours will continue. I kept saying out loud what's happening, what's going on. I couldn't get the feeling outside of my head. The visual of the horror of seeing Alex and seeing the blood. Ezra testifies that after killing Alex, everything went dark. And she has to struggle to remember what happens next. Besides, it felt like I was in a tunnel, like I could only see so much around me.

I feel dizzy and faint, like I can't catch my breath. She conveniently forgets kind of everything that happens within that three-hour period. District Attorney Notoff says Ezra knew exactly what she was doing during those hours from when she left Alex's house until arriving on Don Sibyl's doorstep. If you're actually attacked, you stab someone once or twice and you run and get help. I didn't know how to process this. But that's not what happened. Nodolf believes Ezra deliberately drove Alex to that remote area with the intent to kill him using a knife she took from her father's house.

This was the knife that was found in the ditch outside of the farmer's house. Ezra took this knife so she could get rid of Alex. This is what she was going to do to take back her life. Nodolf says Ezra took all the time she needed to methodically stage that crime scene while Alex lay wounded. She's trying to figure out what to do. She's taking off her clothes and trying to cut them. She's trying to cut herself. She's clearly someone who was trying to stage an attack. I was panicking. I couldn't breathe. But it was actually Alex who was desperately trying to

survive, Nodolf says. How does he end up back in the car? I think he climbs in there to get away from the woman who's trying to kill him. Alex was found hanging out of the back seat because, Nodolf says, Ezra tried but failed to drag him out so she could drive away. I think she was trying to get Alex out of there, and then when that didn't work, she had to go with a different plan.

Alex was found with a scarf around his neck. Nodolf suspects he was trying to stop the bleeding. That's my question going back in my mind now, is what he thought when he was being killed. I look at Ezra and I do get angry, you know, because he suffered, suffered greatly. Nodolf says there is nothing to indicate Ezra ever tried to help Alex. Not one of the wounds was lethal in and of itself. So had he received medical intervention quickly, it possibly could have stayed alive.

But Ezra wasn't taking any chances, the prosecutor says. She believes Ezra committed one final heartless act. She took his phone. I mean, his only way of getting help, his only way of people trying to find him. And then she deliberately smashed it into pieces so no one could find him. Ezra didn't have a phone of her own and says she took Alex's to call for help. I just remember stumbling down a road. I wanted to call the police. I wanted to get help. I wanted to do anything I could do. Ezra claims she accidentally broke it when she fell. When I fell, I had hit my

hand very hard. But Ezra can't explain everything. Everyone wants to know, why did you scratch boy into your arm? I've thought about it, and when I think about this, I don't know. It was just a reaction. Ezra's lawyers insist she wasn't purposely misleading investigators during those police interviews. I'm trying so hard. It's just like it keeps getting blocked out and blocked out. Instead, they say she suffered trauma that had a severe impact on her memory. Was there a point in the hospital where your memory began to return to you? When I finally was able to take a shower that night and and I could see my hand was cut, and I could feel everything start to come back. Defense expert, Harvard psychologist James Hopper,

says there's a good reason why Ezra's memory has suddenly returned. After a crime, a person can be really stressed, and that can make it hard for people to tell the police officer about things that are actually in their brain. People's ability to retrieve information can improve over time if we become less stressed over time. Trauma can certainly affect your memory, but it doesn't make you lie. I think that was convenient. Did you feel that she was truthful in her testimony?

No. Ezra's childhood friend, Julia Post. I think she had too many ideas of deception going on in her head, and she couldn't figure out which one to use. She couldn't keep a story straight. Despite all the evidence against Ezra McCandless, the knife, the blood outside the car, the mysterious time gap before getting help, the defense insists Ezra acted in self-defense. She wanted to live. She fought to survive. She's innocent. Her Instagram page says, I am the fox, the tricky one. I believe she thinks she is a manipulator. As the jury begins deliberations, Nodolf wonders if that tricky fox will slip away without a conviction.

I tried to keep in mind that this was a young woman. Could that be difficult for jurors to see that she was capable of really doing this? Nearly two years after Alex Woodworth was found stabbed to death, jurors begin to deliberate the case against Ezra McCandless. As the jury takes the case back, the doors are shut, and they start debating what they're going to do. How are you feeling? Alex's father, John. Again, I was waiting for the doctor to call back, tell me if it was cancer or not.

No matter how strong the evidence is, there was always in the back of your head that who knows what the jury's going to do. The wild card is Ezra herself. Will the jury see her as a victim who bravely fought for survival? Or a calculating killer playing a master con? District Attorney Andrea Nodolf wonders if perhaps Ezra was a bit too composed when she testified about killing Alex. I can't get out of the car and he's still grabbing for me and this is when I began to stab Alex. There's no remorse there. And this was supposed to be someone that you cared about and loved.

She just seemed at times to be enjoying it. You couldn't tell that there was any fear in her eyes. But the atmosphere in the courtroom turns very serious, very fast, when after only three hours, the jury announces it's reached a verdict. All right, let's bring the jury in. All rise. What's going through your mind when it's that fast? This could be really good or it could be really bad. All right, members of the jury, have you reached a verdict? Yes, sir. We, the jury, find the defendant, Ezra J. McAnlis,

guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. Guilty. And the answer to the special verdict question is yes. When she heard the verdict, I think she almost didn't believe it herself. She looked like she was going to faint almost. It was like actual fear, like, you know, no one believes me anymore, and I'm caught. I think she thought she was going home at the end of the day. When you hear the word guilty, what goes through your mind? Wow, I'm so grateful. They wanted justice for Alex.

And so did this juror. What ultimately convinced you that she is guilty of first-degree murder? The stab wound to the head and that she said that that's where I stabbed him first. That's an intentional act to kill somebody. And what does she think of Ezra taking the stand? She didn't help herself much. I would expect more emotion, more... Remorse?

Yeah, yeah, definitely remorse. There wasn't any of that. But yesterday, at Ezra's sentencing hearing, she did express remorse, and she also directly apologized to Alex Woodworth's family. I want to say how sorry I am that they have lost their son. But sorry doesn't cut it in my mind. That word is not enough and never will be enough for this loss. I loved Alex very much.

And I also feel a great loss. And I'm so sorry. Judge James Peterson made a point of saying he did not feel Ezra's courtroom apology was sincere. He then sentenced her to life in prison. She must serve a minimum of 50 years before she is eligible for release. Guilty verdict does not bring Alex back.

Alex's father has lost his oldest child but retains his faith and says it's given him the strength to forgive Ezra. I've been forgiven, so I forgave her. It's just that simple. Hate's like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. How do you want Alex to be remembered? I want him remembered as someone who loved everyone. Everyone loved Alex, you know, because he was always there to help. Alex wanted everyone to smile. Jason is still trying to understand his role in Alex's murder.

I feel like I could have been a motive for the murder. And for her to take his life and put that blood on my hands almost is horrifying. Ezra took this knife so she could get rid of Alex. Nodal says she also believes that Jason was Ezra's motive.

I feel confident saying she was going to do whatever it took to get back together with Jason Mengel. Jason can't help but think back to those last few moments when he spoke to Alex and Ezra together and wishes he could go back in time. Maybe I missed something.

They like slipped through my hands. I still think about them both, though I still think about them both though I think about them both so often it didn't have to end this way like you didn't have to lie you didn't have to hurt all these people I'm Erin Moriarty 48 hours and this is

My Life of Crime revisit the Lizzie Borden murders hear a horror story that hits close to home and much more subscribe on apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts if you like this podcast you can listen ad free right now by joining wondery plus in the wondery app before you go tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com survey