American Homicide - S1: E21 – Louisiana Love Triangle, Part 2

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

A deadly confrontation between best friends leads to murder. The investigation reveals secrets, jealousy, and more questions about what really happened to Thomas Talley.  Reach out to the American Homicide team by emailing us: [e-mail]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Kenny was a Chicago firefighter who lived a secret double life as a mafia hitman. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. He was a freaking crazy man. He was my father, and I had no idea about any of this until now. Crook County is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio appney, Money Long, Nellie, your host, I Heart Radio, LL Cool J.

Are you guys ready to have some fun tonight? Plus I Heart Innovator Award recipient, Lady Gaga. I Heart Icon Award recipient, Moriah Carey. And I Heart Breakthrough Award recipient, Gracie Abrams. Watch live on Fox, Monday, March 17th at eight seven central. Are you hungry? Colleen Whit here and Eating While Broke is back for season four every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. This season, we've got a legendary lineup serving up broke dishes and even better stories. On the menu, we have Tony Baker, Nick Cannon, Melissa Ford, October London, and Carrie Harper

Howie turning Big Macs into big moves. A confrontation between two best friends turned deadly. There was a lot of alcohol at the time that night and we believe that's what led to the rage, which led to the murder. And it all happened in front of the victim's wife. This poor woman has just watched her husband be gunned down. But even after the shooter's confession, the police believed there was more to this story. There were just a lot of pieces that did not make sense.

And it put the spotlight on the wife of the victim. When we first came across her, she was playing the grieving widow. But the more you look at this, the more you say things aren't adding up. We are in Covington, Louisiana today for the conclusion of the Louisiana Love Triangle. I'm Sloane Glass and this is American Homicide. Just a note that this episode contains some graphic content. Please take care while listening. There's a saying about law enforcement in general that's very true for dispatchers where it's a lot of periods

of boredom interspersed with minutes of panic. And that's very true in Covington. Heather Jenkins spent two decades working as a dispatcher for the Covington Police Department. You may not do anything for hours and then you may have, you know, an hour where you don't even have time to take a drink of water. There's often no rhyme or reason to how that happens. Covington is a suburban community that sits just across the causeway from New Orleans. And based on some of the calls Heather receives, it seems even further away than that.

I received a call about a cow loose in the city, and we did have to do a pursuit with that cow, and we did get it back home. We've had peacocks loose in the city. We had a squirrel loose in a home that actually did a lot of damage. Along with loose cows and squirrel break-ins, she's responded to her fair share of more serious calls, including the December 2004 murder of Thomas Talley. Mr. Talley had been shot and was laying in the driveway. And his wife, the mother to his children, Kendra, witnessed the whole thing.

Kendra Talley was outside yelling for help, yelling, call 911. Kendra watched in horror as her husband, Thomas Talley, was shot and killed by his best friend, Tommy Rao. Can you even imagine? Kendra Talley was just basically there, kind of freaking out. She was a victim of this horrible crime.

Her husband had just been shot. Kendra was able to identify the shooter as Tommy Rowe. At some point he did surrender and was taken into custody. And that left the question on everyone's mind. Why on earth would Thomas's best friend turn on him like that? It did not make any sense to me whatsoever. And I don't really, I don't know if anybody really understood what happened in the very beginning. Well, according to Kendra, it all had to do with a secret she told Tommy about

what her husband did to her. had to do with a secret she told Tommy about what her husband did to her. At some point, she did say that her husband forced her into having sex. And that pushed Tommy Rowe over the edge because you see, Tommy had feelings for Kendra and didn't want to see her hurt. I think she told Tommy that to try and cause him to be jealous and that she got more jealousy

than she expected and couldn't talk him out of it. Tommy Rao's jealousy turned into rage. As the sun was about to come up that morning, Tommy drove Kendra back to her home. Shots were fired and Mr. Talley was dead almost immediately. Detectives searched Tommy Rao's house and found pictures of Kendra and her son, as well as a suicide note that read like one part confession and another part love letter. I also want my mother to know that I love her with all my heart and Kendra just as much or more. I just hope Kendra can forgive me for what I have done.

I also hope Kendra will always know how much I love her and what she means to me. I just can't sit around and watch her being hurt all the time. Love always, Tommy." So was Tommy upset because he shot Thomas? Or was he upset that he fell in love with Kendra? And if he couldn't stand to see Kendra hurt all the time, how did killing her husband solve that? I don't know. I mean, I can only surmise that he cared about her. And if we didn't already have enough questions, the results of Thomas Talley's autopsy presented a few more. Two guns were used.

It didn't make sense. I just felt that that was just such a juxtaposition of all the stuff that had gone on. Tommy Rowe was an avid hunter, but did he really use two different guns to shoot Kendra's husband? And I just thought, this is not how I feel like this went down. The story that Kendra had told us that morning was not going to be the full story. According to Kendra, Tommy locked her in the truck while he went and got two guns out of his house.

You can't really lock somebody in a truck the way that she said that he did. Kendra said when Tommy Ralph fired the first shots at Thomas from inside the truck, he pushed her head down and shot through the passenger side window. Tommy then exited the truck and fired two more bullets. There were just so many little pieces that didn't make sense that it didn't mesh. And it had already become pretty clear that this wasn't just a single man that had a grudge against somebody's husband. Four days after her husband's murder,

Detective Doug Arrowood brought Kendra back in for questioning. He wanted to know more about the strange dynamic between her husband Thomas and his best friend Tommy Rowe. She claimed the marriage was on the rocks. She didn't love Thomas. He just wasn't great to be with. He was just kind of a house husband and wasn't a party type of guy. No, she was a party girl.

And I think he wanted to be the dedicated, calm life at home with his wife and child and started to progress in life as a married couple. Kendra then talked herself into trouble. She was telling me about how her husband that day had had oral surgery. And in order to help him, she thought the best thing to do was to go to the French Quarter with a boyfriend that night. Yes, you heard that right. Kendra called Tommy Rowe her boyfriend. So Tommy Rowe wasn't just her husband's best friend who happened to be obsessed with her. The two were actually having an affair.

There was this grand aura they put together of there being some sort of love between them. It was just this incredible relationship. If you ask me, it was a bunch of rubbish. Knowing Tommy and Kendra were having an affair certainly changed the way detectives viewed the night of the murder. So it shows you what kind of a class person she is. And that immediately had my suspicions. The detective kept questioning Kendra,

hoping to find the truth. Most of an interview with a police officer isn't like you see on TV. It's not the good cop, bad cop. That's all TV stuff. The most successful interviews, you sit down, you talk with somebody, and eventually you sort of get them to open up,

and then you get to the truth. But he didn't feel that happening with Kendra. She kept changing her story, and sometimes would answer questions with things she said she read in the newspaper or saw on the news. It was obvious that she was just not knowing what to say, and she was lost for words

because it's difficult to put a lie on top of a lie. Because you don't know what lie you've said. If I contradict the other lie, which was a contradiction of that because I made it up and I got to cover that one. It just goes on and on. It snowballs. It's a domino effect. It just gets worse and worse. I think even though a couple of times her attorney sort of looked at her in curiosity when I asked her a question because he was dying to find out the answer to some of these questions too. And they just weren't forthcoming. They weren't believable. At the end of the interview they said, okay we're cooperated, if you need any more you can contact us,

but we're going to leave now. And I said, you as the attorney may leave, she may not. The detectives believed they had enough evidence that just hours before her husband's funeral, they arrested Kendra and charged her with second-degree murder. Instead of grieving her husband's death graveside, she'd be arrested, booked, and behind bars by the afternoon. And that's what makes the whole thing even more weird.

That's Thomas' brother, Mark Talley. And if she did what she did, she's a good actress. Because I did not see her that way. Mark was completely floored that not only was Kendra having an affair, but that she could be involved in his brother's murder. You know, they did have their problems, but they seemed genuinely happy with each other. I just know she's not gonna go just grab a gun and shoot somebody.

She has to be persuaded into doing it. That's, again, my opinion. I just think she got caught up in something that was way over her head. Tommy Rowe didn't talk after his arrest, but his mother did. She told reporters that Kendra visited Tommy nearly every day and that the two were very much in love.

She said the two acted like a family and even went Christmas shopping together just before the murder. How they pulled this off is the one thing that amazes me. How could they do this with all the people that they know around and see them around town? How I could that that's one thing I can't understand. Kendra's mother also claimed that Kendra wanted out of her marriage and had planned on leaving her husband to be with

Tommy. The behind-the-scenes stuff, that I don't know. I'm sure there was a lot of arguments and disagreements, like any other family. But from what I saw, I think Kendra truly loved Thomas. The way I look at it is, it's not knocking her in any way. More of a 14-year-old in a 25-year-old body. You know, kind of defiant. With Kendra's arrest just hours before Thomas's funeral, can you imagine how uncomfortable his memorial service had to be?

It was almost like family feud. You had Kendra's family sitting on one side and the other on the other. They actually had to have a security detail. I'm like, come on, this is about Thomas. If you guys are going to fight, I'm going to leave because I'm not going to deal with this. Thankfully, everyone behaved themselves. The real battle would take place years later in the courtroom. It takes one guy out there to say, who's that f***ing Kyle who thinks he can just get on a microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this s***.

From iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit. And that was my mission, to snuff the life out of this guy. He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything.

People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Torn between two worlds. I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing. He was a freaking crazy man. We don't know who he is, really. He is my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now.

Welcome to Crook County. Series premiere February 11th. Listen for free on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a story behind every murder, but is there an ending? That's the question being asked by Murder True Crime Stories, the Crime House original podcast powered by Pave Studios. I'm Carter Roy. Join me every Tuesday as I tell the story of a famous solved or unsolved murder. Each episode dives into the darkest corners of true crime, unraveling chilling narratives,

examining compelling clues, and most importantly, seeking the truth. What sets Murder True Crime stories apart is the focus on humanizing the victims, and the effect their deaths had on their families, friends, and community. We'll always leave with the knowledge of why their stories need to be heard. New episodes release every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for Murder Colon True Crime Stories. I started to live a double life when I was a teenager, responsible and driven and wild and out of control. My head is pounding. I'm confused. I don't know why I'm in jail. It's hard to understand what hope is when you're trapped in a cycle of addiction.

Addiction took me to the darkest places. I had an AK-47 pointed at my head. But one night, a new door opened, and I made it into the rooms of recovery. The path would have roadblocks and detours, stalls, and relapses. But when I was feeling the most lost, I found hope with community, and I made my way back. This season, join me on my journey through addiction and recovery, a story told in 12 steps. Listen to Krems as part of the Michael Lha Podcast Network, available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Nearly three years after Thomas Talley was gunned down in front of his home, his best friend Tommy Rauh went on trial for his murder. And from the moment he entered the courtroom, assistant DA Jack Hofstad feared the worst. Well, how Tommy looked when he got arrested was December 11th. It was completely different than how he looked when he got the trial. He's 6'2", 200 pounds, and he came hoveling in on the crutches. He had shaved real well. He looked real pretty, as pretty as he could. They always seem to do this,

come into court with an ailment that seems to say, feel sorry for me. I'm weak. There's no way I could have done this. Would jurors believe this feeble man who struggled to get around the courtroom on crutches could be capable of killing his best friend? Those things stick in your mind.

I do know absolutely that Tommy Raul killed a shot, Mr. Talley. And I do know that it was as cold-blooded as you could imagine. In Louisiana, there are three categories of murder. First degree, second degree, and manslaughter. Originally, prosecutors charged Tommy Rau with first degree murder, which carried the death penalty, but lowered the charges to second degree, meaning Tommy faced life in prison.

But Tommy's lawyer had aimed even lower. They were going for a man's lawyer. If Tommy Brown was going to convince the jury, he'd finally have to share his version of what happened the night of the murder. So he pretty much had to testify. First, he testified about his relationship with Thomas Talley.

He said Thomas was one of his best friends. They barbecued, played darts, lit fireworks, and drank beer together. He was crying, and was crying, and tears were flowing down his face. Tommy said he met Kendra when she was a teenager. Although Tommy was 12 years older than her, he said he eventually developed feelings for her. But Kendra went up marrying his best friend Thomas Talley. But about a year before Thomas' murder, Kendra and Tommy started having an affair.

Tommy and her had a long-term relationship. I think he met her when she was 16. They had had things that were going on. She's running around with her husband. But the most explosive testimony was about how his and Kendra's evening on Bourbon Street ended in murder. Kendra went off with Tommy Rall and two other people and went to New Orleans, drank some beer, took some meth and some marijuana. During the night, Thomas Talley kept calling his wife on the phone on the

spot when she was coming home and where she was. According to Kendra, he had been an asshole. It was apparently three o'clock in the morning. they go to the Waffle House. And at the Waffle House, Kendra said that her husband had raped her. And that's when Tommy said he went into a rage and left the restaurant. His version of what happened next is very different

than what Kendra told the police. At this point in time, the stories diverged. His story was that they never went back to his house, that he always carried two guns in his vehicle, one on his side and one on the other side. Tommy Rowe told the court that he drove to Thomas and Kendra's home, and when they arrived, it was Kendra who made the first move. He said that Kendra honked the horn, and that made Thomas Talley walk outside.

He was barefoot, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. He said they got there and that she was sitting on the console right next to him, and she started shooting. He was shocked that Kendra had shot through the window. He had no idea she was going to shoot. And when she was shooting through the window, he was immediately getting out the call with his.45 and went and shot Mr. Talley twice. I think who he described as his very good friend.

I don't know what he did with his enemies, but he described as his very good friend. I don't know what he did with his enemies, but he described him as a good friend, and he did a lot of stuff together. So this is a completely different story than Kendra's. If you remember, Kendra told detectives it was Thomas who fired first from inside the truck. She says that Tommy pushed her head down and shot through the window.

Glass one everywhere. Then she says that Tommy got out the car and shot her husband two more times. That was the only thing both sides agreed on. Whichever story is true, we know that Tommy shot him in the head twice. Tommy Rowe only admitted to firing the final two shots at Thomas. And he said it all stemmed from what Kendra told him about her husband sexually assaulting her. Yes, he had shot him, but he had shot him because he was basically out of control. But he did it because he was defending

the honor of his girlfriend. And during cross-examination, the prosecutor asked Tommy to show the jury how he shot Thomas Talley. I had co-counsel, laying on the floor, and Tommy got off the stand, stood over him and showed the jury exactly how he shot him in the head.

So there was Tommy Rowe on his crutches, looking all frail, while he reenacted how he killed his best friend. On a trough examination, I would ask questions that got a yes or a no. The prosecutor then asked Tommy if he cried while having sex with his best friend's wife. Tommy didn't answer. I thought asking him whether he was crying while he was shooting him and he was crying when he was getting ready to have a shootout with the police. His tears just went away and he just had this like cold expression on his face and he kept

that throughout the cross-examination. The prosecutor wanted the jury to know that Tommy Rowe resorted to murdering his best friend when there were a million other things he could and should have done if his ultimate goal was to be with Kendra. The last question I asked him is, how much does 45 bullets cost? And he said, between $12 and $15. I said, that's cheaper than hiring a lawyer, huh? He said, yes, sir.

In his closing arguments, Tommy's lawyer admitted that, yes, his client did shoot Thomas Talley twice. But he said the real culprit wasn't Tommy Rao. It was Tommy's love for Kendra. He claimed it was a crime of passion because Tommy was love for Kendra. He claimed it was a crime of passion because Tommy was obsessed with Kendra and she manipulated Tommy. He said, when a woman knows that a man has been obsessed

with her for years and years, and she tells him someone violently, repeatedly assaulted her, what did she expect to happen? her, what did she expect to happen? and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit. And that was my mission, to snuff the f*** life out of this guy. He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic

for the Chicago Fire Department. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying. Is he doing this every a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Torn between two worlds. I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing. He was a freaking crazy man.

We don't know who he is, really. He is my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County. Series premiere February 11th. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a story behind every murder,

but is there an ending? That's the question being asked by Murder True Crime Stories, the crime house original podcast powered by Pave Studios. I'm Carter Roy. Join me every Tuesday as I tell the story of a famous solved or unsolved murder. Each episode dives into the darkest corners of true crime, unraveling chilling narratives, examining compelling clues, and most importantly, seeking the truth. What sets Murder True Crime stories apart is the focus on humanizing the victims, and

the effect their deaths had on their families, friends, and community. We'll always leave with the knowledge of why their stories need to be heard. New episodes release every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for Murder Colon True Crime Stories. I'm Mark Seale. And I'm Nathan King. This is Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli.

The five families did not want us to shoot that picture. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli is based on my co-host Mark's best-selling book of the same title. And on this show, we call upon his years of research to help unpack the story behind the godfather's birth from start to finish. This is really the first interview I've done in bed. We sift through innumerable accounts.

I see 35 pages in real life. Many of them conflicting. That's nonsense. There were 60 pages. And try to get to the truth of what really happened. And they said, of them conflicting. That's nonsense. There were 60 pages. And try to get to the truth of what really happened. And they said, we're finished, this is over. The movie's not gonna work. You gotta get rid of those guys.

This is a disaster. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans, James Kahn, Talia Shire, and many others. I guess that was a real horse's head. Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan,

Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, Tomi Ryan, In other cases, there's things that stick in your mind because there's always a victim. Assistant DA Jack Hofstadt prosecuted the case against Tommy Rau. Mr. Talley was shot and we had to speak up for him. We had to make sure he got justice, but it was an unusual case. The him shooting twice in the head with.45 is uncontested.

He admitted that. But Tommy's lawyer argued it was a crime of passion, and therefore it was manslaughter, not murder in the second degree. And that it was all a result of Kendra Talley telling Tommy that her husband, the father of her child, had sexually assaulted her. Neither the defense nor the prosecution

called Kendra to testify. They were going for manslaughter and there was no reason I would want to put her in the stand. Why put somebody in the stand that you don't believe a word they're saying? The case against Tommy Rall went to the jury and 45 minutes later, they returned with a verdict. They found him guilty of second-degree murder.

At his sentencing, the judge called it the most senseless crime he had come across during his nine years on the bench. He sentenced Tommy Rowe to life in prison and told him, you have made your own bed. Now you get to sleep in it, although it won't be comfortable. Three years later, and nearly six years after Thomas Talley was shot, Kendra Talley went on trial for her role in her husband's murder.

She was charged with the principle of the murder. And a principle in Louisiana means that if you're involved in the planning and you're just as involved as a person who actually pulls the trigger, you're guilty. The best example is an armed robbery. It might have one guy planning an armed robbery, another guy is the getaway driver, and the third guy goes into the bank. Well, they're all equally guilty, even though one guy went in the bank, one guy sat in a car, and one guy sat in his house. And remember, when this all began, Kendra was seen as a victim.

I looked at the police report and everything on the police report made no sense at all. I think everybody was suspicious of Kendra once they started looking at it. But as the trial kicked off, prosecutors faced an uphill battle because Tommy Rowe refused to testify. Tommy Rowe was not going to come down and testify to what he testified at trial. So all we had at that point in time was her story, and we weren't going to have Tommy to come down and refuse. It was a huge hurdle for prosecutors,

but they plowed forward. On the first day of the trial, both sides presented their opening statements before lunch. Afterwards, the two sets of lawyers informed the judge of something no one in the courtroom had expected. They had struck a plea deal. I felt at that time, still do, that she was involved in the murder. But it doesn't matter what I think.

It matters whether they have evidence. And let's just say that even in this conservative jurisdiction, which we had a 95% conviction rate probably on jury trials, we could have convicted her. That's not the right thing to do. You can't prosecute somebody because you think they did it. You need evidence. Without enough compelling evidence, it seems like neither side wanted to gamble by leaving Kendra's fate up to a jury. So they struck a deal. In her plea deal, Kendra admitted to one count of possession of meth and one count of manslaughter.

A manslaughter charge carried up to 40 years in prison. All the time you get police reports where you say, yeah, I think they did that. Well, the worst thing in the world is for somebody to prosecute somebody because they think they did that. And we didn't go down that road. And when it came time for sentencing, the judge gave Kendra just 10 years for manslaughter and five years for the drug charge. Even though she faced far more time in prison, her plea deal with prosecutors capped her sentence

at 10 years. Kendra was all smiles when the judge ruled that she could serve both sentences concurrently. It was the wisest thing she did was to take that plea deal. Detective Doug Arrowood worked the case. And she knew that that was probably the best chance to get through this the quickest way,

to do the least time, to have to suffer the least from her actions. I wish, knowing what I'd do, that we had not taken the plea deal and gone for it, but it's not up to me, it's up to the family. And you also gotta think about the son as well, even though he was an infant at the time. They'll take that all into account and they were very satisfied with a 10-year sentence.

So that's what counts and that's what we went with. Maybe we would prefer to see Kendra get 20 years, I suppose, to 10. But is there that chance that she could have walked out of the courtroom that day? Yeah. And they didn't want to see that happen. When Kendra took the plea deal, she was just 30 years old. She told her family in the courtroom that she'd still have a life when she's released from prison. I think the trial was fair, although I think Kendra got off somewhat easy. The victim's brother, Mark Talley, struggled with Kendra's plea deal.

And from what he learned in the courtroom, Kendra shot first. She shot first through the window of the pickup truck. To me, that's not manslaughter. That's premeditated murder. But I wasn't there, so I don't know. I don't know all the facts, so I think she basically got away with more than she should have.

I feel like the universe has a way of handling with, you know, people like that. And to me, if there is punishment, they'll get it at some point or another. I do forgive him and Kendra, but I will never forget it. I just cope with it. Kendra became a free woman in 2013 after serving most of her 10-year sentence. She has since remarried and moved to Arkansas. She refused our request for comment. I still see Kendra as the bubbly, happy, cheerful person. I think she's a good person.

I don't think she's evil. Yes, I was shocked that it happened, especially that Kendra was a part of it. That was probably the hardest part for me, because in my mind, she had to be persuaded to do this or be incapacitated. That's just my opinion. Detective Arrowwood disagrees. You got two guns, you got two people. I think they both decided to go and do this. She didn't have to talk him into anything. He didn't have to talk her

into anything. They were both intent on the same thing. I think they wanted to be together and they wanted to get rid of the obstacles in their way. So let's get rid of the husband. But the question is why? Why kill Thomas Talley? Only Kendra and Tommy Rell have the answer to that. And they're both sticking to their respective stories. The only thing I regret and I wish I had gotten was a confession from her. If I had a confession from her, that's the slam dunk. I could present that in court and it it's like, it's out.

Done. You're probably going away for the rest of your life. I wish I'd have had that. Even without a confession from Kendra, he believes Tommy Rao's version of what happened. With the evidence at the scene, my theory was that she shot through the window when he came out of the house. And Rao got out, went around, and finished him off on the driveway, point blank. We knew we had the right theory behind it, but we couldn't make him testify of her trial.

As we couldn't make him testify, we couldn't produce him as a witness. So we couldn't present what he had presented in court previously. Today, Tommy Rao remains in a Baton Rouge prison serving out his life sentence. Kendra got off much easier. It's not the result I wanted, but it's next best though. It's a tragedy when you have these things happen, but at the same time some of these things, they can bring you closer together in strange ways. Lost in all of this is the other victim in this story, Thomas and Kendra's son,

who was just two years old when he lost his father. She still has a son. I don't know if she sees her son or not. If she does, I hope she can be of positive importance in his life. If it's necessary for her to be a positive influence by being away, then I think she needs to stay away. That's up to her, her family, her son, because I'm sure he's almost old enough to make that decision himself now.

So you have to take everything into account. I think justice was served here in the sense of Tommy Rayl. He was sentenced to life. And I think he deserved it. I think Kendra did too. Next time on American Homicide, after an aspiring preacher winds up dead,

the community looks inward to understand who was responsible. What's discovered is a web of crimes. We're back in Louisiana for part one of Bodies on the Bayou. I'm Sloane Glass. That's next week on American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by emailing us at americanhomicidepodatgmail.com. That's americanhomicidepodatgmail.com. American Homicide is hosted and written by me, Sloane Glass Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division

of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gans. The series is also written and produced by Todd Gans with additional writing by Ben Federman and Andrea Gunning. Our associate producer is Kristen Malkuri. Our I Heart Team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Audio editing, mixing and mastering by Nico Oruka. American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noiser. Music library provided by MyMusic. Follow American Homicide on Apple podcasts, and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star review goes a long way towards helping others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Kenny was a Chicago firefighter who lived a secret double life as a mafia hitman. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. He was a freaking crazy man.

He was my father and I had no idea about any of this until now. Crook County is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, starring Bad Bunny, Glowrilla, Kenny Chesney, Money Long, Nellie, your host, I Heart Radio, LL Cool J, are you guys ready to have some fun tonight? Plus I Heart Innovator Award recipient, Lady Gaga, I Heart Icon Award recipient, Moriah Carey, and I Heart Breakthrough Award recipient, Gracie Abrams.

Watch live on Fox, Monday March 17th at 8, 7 Central. Are you hungry? Colleen Witt here, and Eating While Broke is back for season four every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. This season, we've got a legendary lineup serving up broke dishes and even better stories. On the menu, we have Tony Baker, Nick Cannon, Melissa Ford, October London,

and Carrie Harper Howie turning Big Macs into big moves. Catch Eating While Broke every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your favorite shows. Come hungry for season four.