Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen devils in Dayton, Ohio go on Christmas murder spree 'for fun'

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

Six people are killed and two others injured over a three day period around Christmas 1992. The shootings seem random. There is no discernable link between the victims until investigators look at the forensics. Over time we learn, the violent spree started as petty theft but escalated to joy killings.Joining Nancy Grace today:Kathleen Murphy - North Carolina, Family Attorney, www.ncdomesticlaw.comProfessor Michael Drane - Forensic Psychologist, Professor at Antioch University, Healthcare Educator for The Department of Defense, Host "Unpopular Culture" podcast, https://www.upcpodcast.comDoyle Burke - retired Dayton Homicide Detective that worked the case, and Chief Investigator for the Warren County CoronerMedical Examiner - Dr. Kendall Crowns - Deputy Medical Examiner Travis County, Texas (Austin) Rhonda Gullette- sister of victim 18-y-o Danita GulletteLevi Page CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It's Christmas time and families all over the world are gathering together to celebrate the joy of the Christmas season. But that is not necessarily true for many, many others across the world. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This is a tangled web of deceit, of coercion, and murder. For the longest time, police could not connect the dots, and for good reason. Take a listen to this. Christmas Eve,

the first victim was discovered, 18-year-old Danita Goulet. She was shot while using a payphone at what used to be a neighborhood store for her gym shoes. She was a happy-go-lucky person, somewhat shy, not really outgoing. She was very loving. She was very caring. She was easy to be around. I had every confidence in the world that my sister would have been something amazing. You were just hearing Becky Grimes of the HIO News Center 7 and the voice of Dr. Rhonda Gallette. Rhonda Gallette is Danita's sister. And right now, Dr. Gillette is joining us along with an all-star panel, including Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina trial lawyer,

Professor Michael Drain, forensic psychologist and professor at Antioch University and host of the Unpopular Culture podcast and the Christmas Killing Spree, the psychology of spree murder. Doyle Burke is with us, former Dayton homicide detective who worked this case and chief investigator, Warren County coroner, Dr. Kendall Crowns, deputy medical examiner, Travis County, that's Austin, Texas, and CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Levi Page. Let me first start with Danita's sister, Dr. Rhonda Gillette. Dr. Gillette, thank you for being with us. At the very beginning, when Donita's body was discovered there at that payphone, no one had any idea what was to unfold. A specter that still haunts the city of Dayton. But I know you remember the moment you learned your sister was dead.

What happened? It was a nightmare for me and my family. It was just surreal. This was one of the worst things that could possibly happen to our family. We were very religious people. We believed in God. And at that time, you know, it made me question my faith and my beliefs. You know know I pleaded with the Lord and I asked the Lord to just take me instead you know my sister meant the world to me believe it or not even though I'm the oldest and she was the youngest she fed into who I am today and believe it or not you know who I am today I'm Dr. Rhonda Gillette I would not be who I am today. I'm Dr. Rhonda Gillette. I would not be who I am today

if it hadn't been for my sister. She still encourages me to become the better Rhonda that I am today. So I would not be who I am today if she had not been my biggest cheerleader. So that day was devastating to me. You know, Dr. Gillette,

just hearing you speak is literally bringing tears to my eyes. People that have never been a crime victim have no idea the lifelong implications of violent crime, even beyond your life because speaking as a victim of violent crime it not only has affected my life but it's affected when i had children i was so traumatized by my fiance's murder i couldn't consider remarrying and therefore had my children very late in life my daughter almost died because of complications and it affects the way I raise them now. And that will affect the way they raise their children. It will go on and on. Yes.

After I lost my sister, I end up miscarrying. And then I was engaged to be married. And I end up, that relationship ends up dissolving. So, and then my brothers and sisters end up turning to addiction and then my mother prematurely died at 51. Oh Rhonda oh my goodness the way this affected your life because I remember after Casey's murder I at a certain point I would try to like go out to see a movie or go out with the, the, when I finally went back to college and who wants to go out with somebody

that sits in car in the car and cries the whole time? Nobody. And so every relationship falls apart like you with your fiance at the time. But now you are, you have your doctor in business administration, your MS, your BS, and your program manager for the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Wow. Let me share this with you. It's not a day that goes by that I do not carry this wound in my heart for my sister.

Believe it or not, I have been able to carry on with my faith in the Lord. But believe it or not, I'm carrying on, but I still have a wound in my heart because my sister is not here. I was the closest to my youngest sister, and I was the closest to my mother. And both of them are gone. And so nothing could bring them back. I carry on because of my faith in the Lord, but I have a wound. So I just wanted to make sure that people know that even though I have carried on, and I may look like I don't look like what I've been through, but I still have that wound in my heart.

And this time of year is not like it used to be. It's not the happiest time for me. Even though I may look like it, I still carry that wound. Little did police know at the time that the murder of Danita Gillette, just standing at a payphone, would touch off one of the darkest chapters in Dayton history. Rhonda, where were you when you learned Danita had been shot? I actually was at my apartment preparing to gather with my family for Christmas. So I rushed home to get the present that I had for my family to head back to my mother's house.

And I went home. I gathered my presents. I was with Danita's daughter at the time. And we went home. We gathered the presents. And we had fallen asleep. And I woke up. And I was really upset because I had fallen asleep.

I called my mom. And my mother told me that nobody had showed up yet. So come on over. My mother had made a big pot of chili and she told me to hurry up. And I was so excited because I was going to see all my brothers and sisters. I was going to see my mom and I was just going to be with my family. And when I got to my mother's house, I was disappointed because my brothers and sisters had not arrived.

When I got there, I got agitated because nobody was there. And about 10 o'clock, the phone rang. About 10 o'clock or 10, 10, the phone rang. I picked up the phone, no answer. And I believe today that my sister calling to let us know that she needed a ride. And nobody answered. You believe Danita was calling you from that payphone? Yes, ma'am.

I do believe that my sister was calling me. And then that's when I received no answer. I hung up the phone. I left my mother and I went home. And by the time I got home, I ended up taking a shower and I laid down. And that's when my grandmother called me and said, Anita is gone. And I kept asking my grandmother, what do you mean? And she said, she's gone.

And I kept saying, what do you mean? And she said, she finally said she was at the hospital. So my fiance took me to the hospital. And when I walked into the room, I saw my mother looking broken. And that's when I knew that my sister was gone. I knew my sister was dead. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. With me is Dr. Rhonda Gillette. She's a sister of 18-year-old Danita Gillette,

who was making a phone call at a payphone and then shot dead. But that was just the tip of the Christmas Eve tragedies that then went on to unfold in the city of Dayton because it wasn't long after the body of Donita was found that tragedy strikes again. To Doyle Burke, retired Dayton homicide detective, chief investigator, Warren County coroner, Detective Burke, thank you so much for being with us. The murder of Danita touched off a string of tragedy that Dayton will not soon forget. Do you recall the name Richmond Maddox, detective? Yes, I do.

Explain. Richmond Maddox was a young male, 19 years old, involved in a car crash. His car had struck a tree in northwest end of Dayton. Now let me understand something right there. How old did you say he is? 19. So Richmond Maddox is just 19. Danita Gillette, just 18. Close in age. But let me ask you this. Where exactly was his car crash? North Dayton, did you say? Northwest Dayton, in the same general area as Donita Golette's, but a decent distance away.

So, you've got Donita shot in North Dayton, North Central Dayton, and you've got Richmond Maddox. Yes. How many miles apart was that? Maybe a mile and a half, not very far. Do you know the caliber of bullet in Danita's murder? Yes, there were 25 auto shell casings left at the scene. Okay, but then you find Richmond Maddox, and his car is crashed into what? Did you say a tree?

Yes. Okay, so you get to Richmond Maddox, and what's the first thing that you observe about Richmond Maddox? He has an injury to the right side of his head, and it turns out to be a single gunshot wound to the right side of his head. All right. So suddenly the mystery intensifies because this young man, just 19 years old, is dead at the wheel, crashed into a tree. But it's no car crash at all.

Straight out to Dr. Kendall Crowns, deputy medical examiner, Travis County, Austin, Texas. What does that tell you, Dr. Kendall Crowns? Well, if he was still able to drive after he got shot. In the head? You can still perform actions after you get shot in the head, depending on what part of the brain is damaged. Okay, wait a minute. Okay, wait a minute. Hold on.

That's something new. To Detective Burke, where in the head is Richmond shot? In the right temple area. Okay, please explain to me, Dr. Crowns, how you can keep driving when you've been shot in the right temple? Well, depending on the trajectory of the bullets or the pathway through the brain of the bullet, it may or may not hit the portions of the brain that control your functions of your arms and legs your motor functions it may also not hit the parts of your brain that control your heart and lung functions so that's your brainstem so if it hits your brainstem you're pretty

much that's lights out you're you're done right away if it hits a different area of your brain you may still have a portion of your body that's still able to function for a period of time now the brain will react to the injury by swelling or getting bigger and once it gets to a certain size it pinches the brainstem and kills you are you are you serious he got shot in the head in the temple they killed him you can I don't see how the guy could keep driving. I've seen people shoot themselves in the head, reload the gun, walk, and then shoot themselves in the head again and kill themselves. Okay, if you say so. If you say so, but just so you know, nobody here in the studio is buying what you're selling, but you're the doctor.

Fine. I'd have a field day with you on cross. The studio is buying what you're selling, but you're the doctor. Fine. Okay. I'd have a field day with you on cross. Yeah, well, you could have a great day with me on cross, and I'd still be right. That may be true. So let me understand this. To Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, bring me up to this moment with what you know about the case so far I've got two dead bodies in two areas

of town one ostensibly by a gunshot wound and a payphone another ostensibly by a crash upon closer inspection we learned there's a shot to the temple which may or may not Dr. Kendall Crowns have let the poor guy keep driving.

But Levi, bring me up to what we know at this point. So, Nancy, this is occurring in Dayton, Ohio, and this is in the 90s. And this is happening around Christmas Eve and Christmas time is when these killings occurred. Yeah, because Danita, her body was discovered on Christmas Eve, as you just heard her sister, Dr. Rhonda Gillette, state. And what day was it, Detective Burke, that the next victim, Richmond Maddox, was found? Same day? Christmas Day, December 25th. Okay, so within 24 hours, another body is found. Yes. Did it appear to you, Detective, that the victim had been shot in the right temple by the passenger in the front seat?

Yes, it did. It's wintertime. The windows in the vehicle were up. There was obviously no damage to the passenger side window. So no one shot through the window glass. The window was up, like I say, so no one had an opportunity to shoot through an open window. So it had to be the passenger. And it's a near contact wound.

It's not a contact wound, but it's very close. And as you would figure in the front seat of a car, you're in close proximity no matter what. But there was no doubt in our mind that the passenger is the one who fired the shot. Let's talk about ballistics for one moment. Was the window of the driver's side shot out? No. So that means that the bullet went into the right temple and remained in the body? There's no exit? Right, it did not exit. The good thing about that, if you can find any silver lining at all, is that you have the bullet. And as we will see, ballistics play such a huge role in the untangling of this case. So Levi Page, I've got two deaths, Danita Gillette, 18, and Richmond Maddox, age 19, and nothing connects the two. Back to Detective Burke.

Does the name Sarah Abraham mean anything to you? Yes, it does. Explain. Sarah Abraham was the owner of a little mini-mart. There were quite a few of them in the 90s in Dayton, in the inner west side, and this is a reasonable distance away from Maddox or Gillette's scenes. There were three people in the mini mart at the time, including Sarah, and a robbery ensued, and Sarah and another patron were shot. When you look at the scene where Sarah Abrams, Abraham was killed, she's 38. What did you learn? Well, in looking at the scene, we saw the same caliber and configuration of shell casings as we had at the Anita Gillette scene. Explain, what were they,.32s,.25s, or both?

.25 automatic, blazer ammunition. Blazer is, again, it's a disposable target ammunition, and it had just come out on the market. And to see that at two separate crime scenes, a fairly decent distance from one another, told me it was probably the same person. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We are talking about a serial killer stalking Dayton. First, the body of an 18-year-old girl, then the body of a 19-year-old young man, then a 38-year-old woman at a mini-mart gunned down. Will a very unusual circumstance regarding ballistics somehow solve the case? With me, and back to Detective Doyle Burke, former Detective Dayton Homicide and Chief Investigator Warren County Coroner, you mentioned Blaze Disposable Ammo.

Explain what that is. It's an ammunition manufactured by CCI. It's called Blaze Target Ammunition. It's made out of aluminum cases instead of the brass casings that you typically see. And they're disposable. You throw them away. It's not unusual to see different types of ammunition at these crime scenes. But to see blazer ammunition, something like that, that has just come onto the market and it's not a defensive round in a.25 automatic caliber was obviously important to us. When you found the body of Sierra Abraham, 38 years old, where was she situated in the mini mart?

She would have been behind the counter. She was actually removed to the hospital. She didn't die until December 31st. She never regained consciousness, but she actually did not die until the 31st. So she was not on the scene when we got there. That poor woman and her family lying there in the hospital for that many days, hoping against hope only to die at the end. Are the three connected?

This blaze disposable ammo is a major clue. To Professor Michael Drane, special guest joining us, forensics psychologist and professor at Antioch, you know, very often we hear or we see, for instance, in movies and in TV programs, in murder mysteries, we see these brilliant criminals. What were they thinking, professor? They're using basically a fingerprint ammo, aluminum blazer disposable ammo. You think nobody can connect that and realize there is a killer on the loose? They're not as smart as the movies give them credit for, Professor. You know, that's very true. There's no real evidence that they were using their highest reasoning while this was happening. It's actually far more likely that they were caught up in the spree murder and the action of it and overwhelmed by the moment.

And as it's been described, you know, like a shark tasting blood in the water and kind of feeding friendly. You know, I like what you just said, Professor. You refer to the killer or killers as like a shark tasting blood because many a time, not in front of a jury, of course, many a time I've sat in court and looked over at the defendant and just looked at them, particularly in homicide cases, and tried to figure out why. And the more I tried to figure it out, the less I knew, because it seemed as if they didn't have the same emotions that regular people have. Like you would look at them and there'd be nothing. It'd be like looking at a frog in the eyes where the eyes, you get nothing out of that, like a reptile. And you said a shark.

Yeah. Kind of like a shark. And if you look at some of the more notorious serial killers that are sitting in court, you know, your Richard Ramirez and your Ted Bundy, you know, they look cool as a cucumber while they're sitting in court. And psychopathic personalities tend to have a lower stress immunity, their ability to remain cool under pressure. They need more stimulants in order to feel aroused. That's part of why they go killing in the first place. So it's pretty indicative to the kind of personality that would commit a crime like this in the first place. To Dr. Angela Arnold, a psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Weigh in, Dr. Angie.

You know, Nancy, these people are a certain way while they're committing their crime, okay? They're in a certain mindset while they're out gunning down people. And it does sound like these people will commit that this was a spree killing that was being committed. So all of this time has gone by. They've been sitting in the jail. Well, they're not in the act right now. So to all of us who are thinking, oh, my God, this is such a horrific thing that they have done, they're completely out of that mode now.

They're in, who even knows what they're thinking about because, Nancy, we don't really know what they were thinking when they were actually doing this and if they were thinking and how much thought was involved. That's why they're using these bullets that could find, they aren't thinking, oh my goodness, somebody's going to find me with these types of bullets that I'm using. This is a spree. This is, they have some sort of motivation to kill these people, whether it's random people or people that they're killing on purpose. Right. You know, Professor Drane, you said something very interesting. I want to piggyback on what Dr. Angie just said,

that they, like a shark sensing blood in the water, that excites the shark, that makes the shark more aggressive, and it makes the shark look for the next victim. I've prosecuted spree killings and serial killings, and there's something very different about the two. You know, we always hear about serial killers like Ted Bundy, BTK, Ramirez, Gacy. It goes on and on. But there's something about a spree killer that's different.

Their mindset is different. What is it? Well, spree killing usually involves a string of at least three murders over different locations that have a key precipitating event that fuels their motivation to kill. The typical personality profile of a spree killer is somebody who has a grudge against society or a specific population. They feel like they've been wronged in their life and they have a need to enact retribution. And because they feel like they've been dealt a bad hand against society, they also don't feel like they need to follow the rules of society either. A serial murder is more about a person or people targeting a specific typology, a specific kind of person. And there's a more themed pattern among the victims.

And that's not what we see here. So, so far we've got three dead bodies. Beautiful young Danita Gillette, her family is waiting for the Christmas gathering. You heard her sister describing it, Dr. Rhonda Gillette. Then you have a young man seemingly dead from a car crash. Turns out he was shot in the head. And then suddenly a 38-year-old woman working at a mini-mart across town. The commonality are these aluminum blaze disposable ammo left behind. Back to Detective Doyle Burke, special guest joining us. Let me bring up the name to you, Joseph Wilkerson.

Yes. Where did you find his body? We found him in his residence in northwest Dayton, much further out from Danita's site. So you say you find him. I believe that you were in the middle of looking for some stolen car and it leads you to this location. You go in and where is Joseph Wilkerson? Yes, that's correct. We were following up on his vehicle. When we go into the residence, it's obvious that there's a decomposing body in the residence. And we go to the back bedroom, and he is spread eagle, tied. His hands are tied to the bedpost. The hands tied to the bedpost.

Okay, right there, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina trial lawyer at ncdomesticlaw.com, right there. A lot of people would not piece that together at all because the MO, modus operandi, method of operation, is so incredibly different. You've got a person tied, spread eagle, to a bed. That would dissuade most people from connecting that to the other three murders. Absolutely. And I would think that would be a murder. That would be a singular type of murder where the focus singularly on this person in a sexual relationship gone bad or in a domestic relationship gone bad, in no way, shape, or form, would I connect it to a spree killing?

Absolutely. And back to you, Detective. What was the M.O.? What was the death? What caused the death of Joseph Wilkerson? He was shot once in the chest and once in the head. What kind of M.O.? We did have a spent.25 caliber blazer casing at the head. What kind of ammo? We did have a spent.25 caliber blazer casing at the scene. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace When so many of us are anticipating being with our family,

worshiping, celebrating, enjoying the moment of Christmas, these families' lives are torn apart. Little do they know at that time how connected, so far, four murders are. Take a listen to Dave DeMarco, WDTN2. Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after are three days in 1992 few people in the Miami Valley will ever forget. Especially now retired Dayton detective Doyle Burke. As we kept getting more and more victims with the same type of M.O. and the same type of ammunition used,

it was clear that we had a group of serial killers. Crime scenes included a home, a car, and a phone booth, where the gang of six made off with a pair of tennis shoes and 50 cents. This was a true definition of the term spree killers. It was fun. They enjoyed it. There was no reason no one gave any resistance to them. It was just something for them to do. The sign of the shortstop mini market has faded. It was the final of those Christmas killings. Two people shot inside, including a clerk and young mom. That gang left with just $44. And yes, at that time, that's what Dave DeMarco, WDTN, thought that was the end of the murders. But no,

it was not. All of this unfolding in the days surrounding Christmas. Straight back to Detective Doyle Burke joining me along with Dr. Rhonda Gillette and Professor Michael Drain and our panel. Detective, two more names, a 16-year-old girl, Wendy Cattrill, and her young sweetheart, her lover, Marvin Washington, 18 years old. How did you, where were their bodies, the two, this boyfriend and girlfriend, when they were murdered? They were found in a gravel pit in the west side of Dayton, the outer west side of Dayton. They were side by side. They'd been executed. Back to our guest, Dr. Rhonda Gallette, the sister of then 18-year-old Danita Gallette.

Rhonda, as you are finding out Danita has been murdered at a payphone, were you at all aware of the other bodies that were being discovered in Dayton? No, I was not aware at all about all of the other deaths that had occurred. So me and my family, we were, we could not phantom that this was a part of any kind of spree. We could not imagine anybody who would want to hurt my sister. So it was just like a nightmare that had occurred. And when you look at the locations to Professor Michael Drain, why would you even think to connect a young woman shot at a payphone, a young man, Richmond Maddox, who seemingly had a car crash with a tree but was actually shot.

Then you have a 38-year-old at a mini-mart shot still behind the cash register. Then you have a guy tied spread eagle to a bed shot. And then you have these two young lovers, 16 and 18, shot execution style in a gravel pit. Typically, those cases would not be connected, Professor. No, that's right. They wouldn't be. And then in the moment, you know, we can look back retrospectively,

and it's all very clear. But in the moment, it must have just seemed like unconnected murders. And that's part of the difficulty of identifying spree murders. There's cases of people who go on a traveling spree murder and drive through a whole state or across state lines and kill multiple people as they're driving down the street. And because of the vast geographic land that they're covering, those things aren't connected right away. Back to you, Detective. When did you first realize all of these murders spanning Dayton were connected to spree killers? Well, as the ballistics started coming back, Everything revolved around that.25 automatic, which was correct.

But now we had a second weapon introduced by virtue of the ballistics, and that was a.32 Derringer. And that was what was used on Richmond Maddox in the car crash. It was also used with Sarah Abraham, and it was also used with one of our last victims, Marvin Washington. So how does it all fit together? Who is behind spree killings, then haunting the city of Dayton? Take a listen to John Lindley at Crime Online. 19-year-old Marvelous Keene was the leader of a self-titled group, the Downtown Posse. The group included his girlfriend, 16-year-old Laura Taylor, 20-year-old Heather Matthews,

17-year-old DeMarcus Smith, along with 16-year-old Wendy Cottrell and 18-year-old Marvin Washington. Together, the group didn't have much of a criminal record, and Marvelous Keene had been a straight-A student in high school. Keene's older brother was killed while committing a robbery in 1991, and that's when things began to change for Marvelous Keene. He became depressed and virtually gave up on his educational efforts for a time. On Christmas Eve, Laura Taylor tells the group, let's put some drama in our lives. And with that, the group, led by former straight-A student Marvelous Keene,

concocted a plan to rob an acquaintance of the group, Joseph Wilkerson. Keene, Taylor, and Heather Matthews walk to Wilkerson's home, tie him up, and look for things to steal. The thieves load up Wilkerson's own car with a TV, microwave, and other items they can easily sell. Take a listen to this. Marvelous Keene was watching Joseph Wilkerson as Laura Taylor and Heather Matthews ransacked the man's home when Wilkerson tells Keene he has a.32-caliber Derringer that he can have.

Keene gets the gun, covers Wilkerson with blankets to muffle the noise, and shoots the man in the chest with his own gun. Hearing the shot, Taylor and Matthews run to the bedroom, where they see Keene holding the Derringer and Wilkerson's feet shaking. Keene gives the Derringer to Taylor to shoot Wilkerson, but it doesn't fire, so he uses Keene's own gun and shoots Wilkerson in the head. The trio take off with the stolen items in Wilkerson's Buick, and Keene tells his accomplices not to tell Cattrill and Washington about killing Wilkerson. How cold-blooded was the murder of Wilkerson? But listen to what happened to the beautiful teen girl. After the killing of

Joseph Wilkerson on Christmas Eve, marvelous keen Laura, and DeMarcus Smith go out for a walk when they see Danita Gallet using a public telephone. Smith and Keen are both carrying guns and draw their weapons on Gallet. Keen says, Merry Christmas, bitch. Then he and Smith force Gallet at gunpoint to take her coat and her Fila tennis shoes off. Then Keene and Smith both shoot Gallette as the young mother begged for her life. When they returned back to their apartment where their other friends were hanging out, Taylor was wearing Gallette's jacket and Smith was carrying her shoes. Dr. Rhonda Gallette, I'm just so sorry what your sister and your family has gone through. And speaking for the victims in this case, what do you say now?

We, in our culture, we just have an epidemic of violence. And I pray and hope that it is addressed at a national level. I pray that no family has to deal with this heartache. So that is my hope and my prayer is that we address this epidemic of violence because it has only increased since my sister's untimely death. It really has. And what's very disturbing, and let me go to Professor Michael Drane, forensic psychologist, where you hear Laura Taylor tell the group, let's put some drama in our lives. The group ends up turning on their own and murdering Wendy Cattrall and Marvin Washington

because they're afraid they'll snitch them out. But let's put some drama in our lives. What is that? Well, there's a lot of evidence. So there's two there's two kind of trains of thought about Laura Taylor. And that's where a lot of the interesting dynamic is between Laura Taylor and Marvellous Keene. Laura Taylor was had a lot of psychopathic traits, perhaps. She shot Joseph Wilkerson after he had already been shot. She has a, and the other prevailing theory is that she was doing, what she was doing to try to impress her boyfriend, Marvellous Keene,

and was trying to ingratiate herself to him. And while he was the leader, it's argued by a lot of people that she was sort of like a co-leader or an instigator. So she was either caught up in the frenzy of the whole thing or has a psychopathic personality and enjoyed it. Or it could have been a combination of both, and most things usually are. Let's put some drama in our lives. Six dead, two wounded, and families' lives torn apart forever at Christmas. To Levi Page, what has become of these killers? So Nancy, Laura Taylor, 16, Marvalis Keene, 19, Heather Matthews, 20, and DeMarcus Smith, 17, they were all charged with murder, Nancy.

And DeMarcus Smith, Heather Matthews, and Laura Taylor, they are serving life sentences. Laura Taylor and Heather Matthews, the females, are serving time in an Ohio reformatory for women. DeMarcus Smith is serving life. And the ringleader, Marvella Skeen, he was executed in 2009. We see justice unfold, but the impact this has had on the victim's family is its own life sentence. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Goodbye, friend.