Going West: True Crime - Jason Sweeney // 53

Episode Date: January 16, 2020

In summer 2003, a 16-year-old boy in Philadelphia went on a date with his girlfriend and didnt come back. Hours after his parents reported him missing, his body was found in a wooded area by the Delaware River- and he had been brutally murdered. What unfolded after this discovery was something so horrific that is shocked the nation. This is the murder of Jason Sweeney. ____ REMRISE Remrise is a personalized formula based on YOUR sleep issues and patterns. After taking a short quiz, Remrise will recommend the perfect blend of amino acids plus Eastern and Western herbs ground and placed in convenient capsules to get you to sleep - and keep you asleep. Click this link to get your first week FREE!! https://tinyurl.com/remrisegoingwest ___ DEATH WISH Death Wish uses USDA Certified Organic and Fair Trade Coffee Beans - meaning you're getting the highest quality beans on the market. Because of this, the taste is smooth, never-bitter, and noticeably better than what you'd usually buy from the store. It's also low in acidity- which makes us all feel better. This 100% natural, incredibly delicious coffee is available in bags either ground or whole bean. But it's also available as Cold Brew in cans, and even in K-cups for your convenience! Use code 'GOINGWEST' at checkout to receive 10% off your order! https://www.deathwishcoffee.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans, I'm your host Tee. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Welcome gang. Today, we have a wild case that I didn't hear about until the other day and I just can't wait to see what you guys think about it. So before we get into that, we would like to give shout-outs to everybody who gave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts this week. Thank you so much to Haley from

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We have nine right now, so go get caught up. All right guys, enough of the chit chat. Let's get into this case today. This is episode 53 of Going West. Let's get into it. In the summer of 2003, a 16-year-old boy in Philadelphia went on a date with his girlfriend and didn't come back. Hours after his parents reported a missing, his body was found in a wooded area by the Delaware River and he had been brutally murdered.

What unfolded after this discovery was something so horrific that it shocked the nation. This is the murder of Jason Sweeney. Jason Swini was born on July 29, 1986 in Fischtown, Philadelphia, to Don and Paul Swini. So Fischtown is known to be a very hip neighborhood in Philadelphia with great food, music, and a good art scene. It sits on the Delaware River, so it's just across the pond from New Jersey. Jason was the older brother of his sister Melissa and they were really good friends throughout their childhood. Jason grew up wanting to be a Navy SEAL and it was a goal that he was definitely working towards in his teen years. So during his high school years, he actually followed in his

dad Paul's footsteps and began working in construction and he was actually working alongside his dad on a building project in Philadelphia. The reason that he was doing this was mostly to earn his way to become a Navy SEAL. So his parents said that they would pay his admission to the Naval Academy, but that he needed to help them out a little bit since they weren't like an incredibly wealthy family. And Jason knew that he could make a good amount of money working in construction, so that's what he did. And Jason had enough respect for his parents and enough understanding that he didn't mind working and he actually really wanted to do it.

And he loved working with his dad because he was really close with his parents. He was just overall a great kid and a really hard worker and all of his friends and family loved him and so did all of his co-workers of any age, like everyone loved this guy. So at this time Jason was 16 years old and had recently began dating a 15 year old named Justina Morley. So Justina seemed to be a bit troubled. She started doing drugs at a very young age, mostly cocaine, pills, weed, and even sometimes heroin, and was even hospitalized when she was 14 due to suicidal thoughts and cutting. But being in the hospital made her severely more depressed, and she threatened to attempt suicide again if her mom didn't help her get out of the hospital.

So her mom took her out, even though the Philadelphia hospital advised her not to do so. And around this time she was expelled from school after they found two pocket knives in her purse. She was then placed in a private school in Fishtown where she repeated 8th grade. When Justina Morley and Jason Swini met in the summer of 2003, they were both young teenagers. He really seemed to like her, and this would be the first girl that he ever dated. On May 29, 2003, Jason was home with his mom and was telling her about Justina. He told her that he was dating a girl and they'd been together for just a couple weeks. Jason also stated that she, his mom Dawn, would really like her and he couldn't wait to introduce them eventually.

The following day, Jason and Justina had a date set up. On that sunny Friday in Philadelphia, Jason worked on a building project in the city with his dad, and later that evening, he had planned to meet Justina. There's a wooded area in Fish Town by the Delaware River that people call the trails. This is the area that Justina morally wanted to go with Justina so they could have sex.

Justina was a very experienced young woman, but Jason was a virgin, so he was probably pretty excited to go hang out there in the woods. Before heading to the trails, Justina and Jason walked around fish town talking, but they didn't have much to say. Justina asked him about his date work and Jason told her that he had cut his hand at work. As the night went on, they stopped by a little mart so Jason could get a bottle of juice. He made sure to ask Justina if she wanted anything as well. Initially, she didn't, but when she decided she did want something to drink, she told Jason she only usually had Pepsi. So Jason then went over to the nearby CVS drug store to get a bottle of Pepsi.

So later that night, Jason didn't come home. And his parents were incredibly worried because he didn't really usually do this at all. He never stayed out late. He didn't get into any trouble. So Don, his mom called him over and over and over again and he just didn't pick up the phone. So of course, like any parent, it's super late at night they're not answering the phone, she's very worried. But she did know that he was gonna go on a date with Justina because he had told her the day before. So his parents did call the police to let them know what was going on and the police said that they would let them know if they found anything. So the following day, the police received a call from a couple teenage boys who were hanging out by the Delaware River and more specifically the trails.

They had come across a body. At first, the boys thought that it was a deer or a dead animal, but when they got closer, they realized that it was a male covered in blood. And just to be clear, the trails is basically like a spot where teenage kids would hang out, drink, do drugs, whatever. So it was kind of a grimy, kind of a grimy place to be close to the river. Yeah, I'm not sure what the boys were doing there in the daytime, but who knows. So they noticed that the person who was dead had suffered so much trauma to their face in their head. That police did not know who it was immediately, not that they probably would anyway, because

they don't know everybody in Philadelphia, but regardless, the face was unrecognizable. So they searched the area for any kind of weapon and they quickly found a rock covered in blood along with a hatchet. So we've got the murder weapons. So whoever did this to this person left the murder weapons behind. So they actually ended up bringing the body to a medical examiner while they looked to see if there were any recent missing persons report that were filed. They could tell right away that this person had been attacked very recently. They also determined that this person had been beaten several times with multiple different weapons,

and they were able to determine that there had been at least a hatchet and a hammer involved in the murder. All the bones in this person's face had been fractured except for the left cheek bone. So this was obviously a very brutal attack. The injuries that this body subdued were so severe that they couldn't even determine an age. At this point, the police noticed a missing persons report that was made just the night before. In the report, it stated that Jason Swini had just recently sustained a pretty bad cut on

his hand while at work. They identified that the body they had was indeed Jason Swini after comparing the cut on the body's hand. The police then has it certainly went to the Swini's home to inform them of the horrible situation and tell them that their son and brother was dead. His parents and sister were obviously unbelievably son and brother was dead. His parents and sister were obviously unbelievably devastated and confused, you know, because who would kill their sweet, easygoing, and hardworking son and why? They didn't even know Jason to have any enemies at all, so no one could even fathom what happened. Jason's mom Don described Jason to be one of his best friends, and she also stated that he was every mother's dream.

He was just good. His sister Melissa states the same thing. Jason was one of her best friends too. They were always incredibly close growing up, and so this was just the worst possible loss for this poor family. And Jason's parents actually wanted to see him and see his body and what happened to him. So they went down to the coroner's office and you can just imagine how horrible that was for them. Don really wanted to have an open casket ceremony for Jason and knew that there were professionals

out there who could fix him up, but they told her that it would take them over a year to fix his face because of all the damage he sustained. Because like Heath said, almost every single bone in his face and skull was broken. This just tore Don apart. Jason's parents gave the police a list of names who they thought might be able to help with the investigation. They told police to talk to Justina Morley, Eddie Batzig Jr., and Dominic and Nicholas Koya.

Police first brought Justina in for questioning regarding Jason's death because they were pretty sure that either she was the last person to see Jason alive or she had information that would help their investigation. Justina didn't seem upset at all when the investigators told her that Jason was dead. She had nearly no reaction. When they asked her what had happened a couple nights prior, when they had a date set up, Justina stated that they were going to have a party in the woods, and that Jason never showed up. She said that she was bummed out by it. Justina acted innocent during the entire interrogation, and acted as though it

was completely random and senseless act, and that she had nothing to do with it. Police were able to obtain Justina's phone records, and noticed that she hadn't tried to call Jason that whole night, which struck them as odd considering she told them she was annoyed that he didn't show up to the party. Yet she didn't even call to ask where he was? Simultaneously, police brought in all the boys on the list from the Sweenies to see if their story matched justinas because they were supposedly at this party in the woods that night too. All of their stories matched identically. They all stated that they didn't know who would want to hurt Jason because everybody loved Jason.

Police felt like it was incredibly rehearsed because they all said the very same thing. And none of them seemed surprised or upset that their dear friend was brutally murdered. Another reason police were a bit skeptical about the whole situation is because he knew these boys had rough upbringings. Their parents, for the most part, had been absent in their lives and none of them really had a lot of guidance. They also all had petty crime and drug charges against them, so it was just obvious that they weren't like good kids. Meanwhile, investigators were trying to create a motive. When they found

Jason's body, his wallet had been missing, so they were convinced that this had been a robbery gone wrong. They were aware that Jason had just gotten paid that day, and that he would have money on him. But they couldn't figure out why someone would beat him unrecognizable over a few hundred dollars, let alone his own friends, none of it made sense. But they wanted to continue to question the friends because they were confident that they at least knew more than they were leading on. Because of Justine as nonchalant nature,

police were confident that she wasn't being truthful. So they asked her flat out what really happened that night, and they told her that if she was honest with them, they'd cut her a deal. Justina immediately started talking. … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … While investigators were questioning Jistina, they told her that they would strike a deal with her if she told them the truth about what happened the night Jason died. She then told the story that she had formed a plan with Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominic to Rob Jason because she knew that he was getting his paycheck for working that week and that

it would be for around $500. So they planned to rob him in the woods and run away, but Justina told police that she had no idea that they were going to hurt let alone kill Jason. After investigators heard this story, they went into the other rooms, and one by one told the boys that they were basically full of shit, and they knew that they killed Jason. The first one that they spoke to after Justina was Eddie Batzig. And as soon as they told him that he was lying to them, he confidently told them that

yes, he did partake in the killing of Jason. He even stated that he wanted to be the very first one to hit Jason so he did. He also seemed like he was bragging. That's when the real story started to unfold, and none of the boys nor Justina were holding back any details. On the night of Jason's murder, which was May 30, 2003, Justina lured Jason to the trails with the promise of sex. When they got to a specific spot, Justina pulled down Jason's pants and took off his shirt. And in that moment, in the bushes was Ellie Batzig and Dominic and Nicholas Koya.

And they counted down from three and then came out and struck Jason in the head four times. So he obviously didn't see this coming at all. And at this time, Ellie Batzig was 16 years old, and he and Jason had been friends since 4th grade. So Jason survived these blows to the head, but had no idea what was going on, and he fell to the ground. And then that's when Nicholas and Dominic Coya, who were two boys, who he had also been friends with since 4th grade, started hinting him as well, with a hammer and a boulder.

Basically, at this time, Nicholas was also 16 years old and then Dominic was 17, so they were all between the ages of 15 and 17 when this happened, which makes it even more horrifying. So like I said, the first blow was done by Eddie Batzig, and this was with the hatchet. He hit him as hard as he could in his forehead and the hatchet went three inches into Jason's head Which is just like fuck Then Jason touched his head realizing that he was bleeding and he asked anybody was doing and then he started to try and run away Knowing that Jason was trying to run away Dominic then jumped on Jason's back and started

hitting his head with a hammer. At this point, Jason was begging for his life, asking them to please stop, and that he didn't understand why they were doing that and what they were doing. But the teenagers didn't stop anything, they hit him over a dozen times. The second to last blow was to his head with a hammer, and they couldn't even get it out of his head. That's when Jason stopped moving, but to assure that he was dead,

they crushed his head with a rock. According to Justina, Jason's final words were, you set me up. As soon as Jason was dead, the teenagers took the $500 paycheck that Jason had on him from his construction job and they split it, giving them each a total of $125. And by the way, it appeared that he had cashed out the check and that they split that up,

so I don't think it was actually the physical check. I think it was just cash. So while they stood next to Jason's dead body, this is so messed up. The four teens embraced in a group hug before going out and spending their share of the money on jewelry, Xanax, weed, and heroin. Yes, these kids were all drug addicts, by the way, if you didn't know. I mean, just imagine, though, like killing someone

and then embracing in a group hug. Like, wow. Extremely sadistic, yeah. So, they spent the rest of the night partying and doing drugs together without a damn care. Like wow. Extremely sadistic, yeah. So they spent the rest of the night partying and doing drugs together without a damn care in the world. And this is all while Jason's body was laying battered in the woods. So first, the group went to a friend's house so they could wash their blood soaked clothes. And they apparently were shaking and not because they were scared or because they felt guilty, but because they were

exhilarated as they explained, and they just kept saying to each other that they couldn't believe that they actually killed him. On the night of this attack, all the boys were wearing latex gloves, so there was no DNA on any of the weapons. Days before the murder, Nicholas Koya, Eddie Batzik, Justina Morley, and Dominic Koya all sat around and were inspired by the song Heltor Skelter by the Beatles. They determined that they wanted to do their own Manson Family Murder as they played the song over 40 times plotting a killing of their own. It's so messed up because I watched some of the clips of the interrogations and these kids just don't seem to give a flying shit about what they did.

Like, they described the acts so casually like, I hit him here, I swung him like this, and this is their best friend. So think about your best friend and how much you care for them and then think about doing something like this and not even caring at all. What kind of person? Yeah, this is a completely disgusting act. And it just sucks because Jason seemed to have his shit together a lot more than these other assholes

and they took an innocent life all for $500 when they're just gonna split. I mean, they're gonna split $500. What are you gonna party for one night? It's not like you're gonna party for the rest of your lives. Well, clearly they didn't think any of this through. I mean, it was literally $500. It's not $50,000. Even that, I mean, that can go quickly. So, the fact that they thought that it was okay to kill some of them over $500

who they cared about, supposedly, is just crazy. And I just, it's really sad because they're so young and I think about me at that age and I mean I knew right from wrong. Obviously I didn't kill anyone at that age because I knew that that wasn't something that I would ever want to do nor need to do. Let alone over $500 so the fact that these kids thought that that was okay at this age to do it just makes it like how does that even how do you get like that? I don't know honestly I kind of feel like maybe this had something to do with the way that they grew up I'm not sure I'm not gonna put that judgment out there because I don't really know but from all accounts I mean these kids are of 16-17 doing heroin obviously murdering somebody is never okay, but to think about

it just being done are over $500 that they're gonna each split and then, and turn each get $125 to party for a night, it just honestly blows my mind. I also want to mention that before this attack even happened, Justina had sex with both Nicholas Coyote and Eddie Batzig in exchange for heroin. And this is something that Jason was completely unaware of and he probably would have just been crushed knowing that this girl that he really liked was sleeping with his best friends in exchange for drugs. So another thing that they all did together, excluding Jason, was snort heroin and they would also smoke weed laced with embomming fluid.

I don't know how you get embomming fluid as a 16 year old. Well, I actually read about this and it's hard to find embomming fluid on the streets as one would imagine. But apparently a lot of like people that work in morgues will sell it like on the black market type of thing. For people, here's the thing. Apparently the reason that people buy weed with embombing fluid or that it's sold like that is because it apparently can prolong your high. It causes hallucinations and it makes the weed burn slower

so it's supposed to end up making you waste less weed if you're smoking a blunt or a joint that's soaked in embombing fluid. But that's so dangerous and disgusting. Not to mention so dark. If you're just thinking about that, I mean, I've heard of people doing it before, but myself, I've never tried that, and I just sound so dark and very creepy. Well, and apparently it tastes like rubbing alcohol and gasoline, so just imagine doing that. It sounds horrible, not to mention. I mean gross, but also awful side effects

and super dangerous. I mean, people die from this. Yeah, definitely don't smoke weed laced with embombing fluid. Just don't do that. So let's go back to the murder plot for just a second. Justine knew that Jason Swini would be making money from his construction job, and that's how the whole plan came together. They were all very much into drugs, as we mentioned, yet they didn't have their own money to use to buy any of these drugs. So they developed a very poorly thought-out scheme to murder their friend so they could take his money and use it for

their drugs. They even told their friend Josh about it and bragged to him that they were going to use Justina as bait to lure Jason out, thinking that he was going to get lucky, when instead they would just kill him. And according to Josh, they all seemed pretty excited about this plan. If only Josh had spoke up and I'm sure he didn't want to look like a snitch or maybe he didn't know if they were actually going to do it, but wow, really Josh? I mean, I can't really blame Josh in this situation because as teenagers, a lot of people

talk, you know, a lot of people say, oh, I'm going to do this or I'm going to kill this person. And yes, we know teenagers are very dramatic and a lot of the time, none of these plans come to fruition. But I mean, obviously he didn't have the foresight to know that this was going to happen. But if he did mention this, it would have saved Jason's life. Well, another sad thing is in situations like this, even if Josh had gone to the police and said they're plotting this murder against Jason Sweeney, I mean, what would the police

have done? You think about this in so many cases like with school shooters. There's so many signs and people will say oh They posted this or they said they wanted to do this and since they haven't actually done anything yet Then what can the police do? They can't charge them for a plan that may not even happen So I just wish there was some kind of solution for this because they obviously did carry out this act and somebody other than them knew that they were planning on doing it. So I mean, that's just so sad because technically Jason's life could have been saved if the police knew, but at the same time what would the police have done? What was the extent of this plan? Like how did they, how did they mention this plan to Josh? Did they say, oh, we're just, we're planning on killing Jason? Or did they actually give him all the details of how they were going to do it? I wonder how it was said that way we could know whether or not Josh had made the right call

by not saying anything. Also, this whole plan, there was a few other plans too. So, originally, they wanted to have Jason throw a party at his house and for Justina to kill him in his room, but that didn't work out because Jason didn't want to throw a party because he had to work. And then, there was another plan where they were going to bring Jason to New Jersey, which remember is just right across the Delaware River, so it's really close. They wanted to bring him to New Jersey

and kill him somewhere in New Jersey, but then Jason didn't end up going with them again because he had work, so which is why they just came up with this whole The Trails plan. Apparently they had been talking about it a hell of a lot. Okay, so now this makes a little bit more sense. If they had been planning this out for

a very long time. I mean, actually, who knows who else they told. They might not have just been Josh. But during their attack on Jason, none of these four teenagers were actually high during that time. When a detective asked Dominic Coya if they were high, he said, no, I was as sober as I am now. It's sick, isn't it? All of the rest of the kids agree that they were sober like we said earlier, Jason was like a big brother to everyone he knew because he was responsible, he was kind and his mom don explained that he was so nice that he would have just given them his paycheck if they had asked him. He didn't even have to die. He cared about his life. And his mom, Dawn, explained that he was so nice that he would have just given them his paycheck if they had asked him. He didn't even have to die. He cared about his friends so much and would have done anything for them, yet they killed him for $500. And that's what so annoying is he didn't have to die at all.

Like something very obvious here is that there was a clear desire for murder and even one of the investigators stated if they just wanted to rob him they could have gotten the money after the first blow. It appeared as though some anger was involved. So let's unpack this for a second. None of the teens stated why they did this other than for the money. As far as I read, they never said exactly why, but as this detective said, they didn't have to kill him to get his money.

And like his mother Dawn said, if they had just asked, Jason would have given them the check, but since none of them have shown any remorse, and since they all seem to get a thrill out of the killing, it's as if they just wanted to kill him for fun, because they all sit in their initial interviews, everyone loved Jason. I can't think of anyone who would want him dead, yet they did. Jason was responsible, he had goals in life, he didn't do any drugs, he didn't screw around, he had good parents, and he worked for his money. These are things that none of these others had in common.

So Jason's parents along with investigators are confident that they were all jealous of who Jason was. Justina later even admitted that she never even liked Jason at all. She just wanted to take from him. Eddie Batzig's father stated, he'll get what he deserves regarding his son's action. So he was clearly horrified regarding what his son did. Meanwhile, Justina Morley's attorney stated that she seemed like a good kid who came from a good family. So since we obviously don't know any of the perpetrators or their families, it's hard for us to say why they did what they did, but we've read that some kids had deadbeat parents

while the others had good ones, but they all ended up committing the same horrific crime. Apparently, before the preliminary hearing, Justina had stripped for all the boys, somehow, and a van on the way to the courthouse. And during the preliminary hearing, all the teens were spotted laughing at various parts. Acting as if the whole thing was a joke, and even though the topic of discussion was the brutal death of their friend,

and the possibility of all of them facing their entire lives in prison, they didn't care. When the trial began, Justina's attorney tried to convince the jury that Justina suffered from depression and had previously attempted suicide. He also stated that she had suffered with substance abuse and hadn't even been a part of the actual murder. She was just there. And because of this, she could be rehabilitated and live a normal life. But others who know her, beg to differ, and you probably do too, just from what you know. Even the boys who were in on it also agreed with this, and they stated that Justina knew what was going on the whole time and that it was mostly her idea. She was the mastermind behind all of it, and she had all of these

boys wrapped around her finger. All the boys were tried as adults, despite the fact that they were all under 18. The closest to 18 was Dominic, who was 17 at the time. The other boys were 16 when it happened. Eddie Batsick, Nicholas Coya, and Dominic Koya all received 172 years in prison for what they did to Jason Swini. They each were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery, and possessing an instrument of crime. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, though, but Justina only received 17.5 to 35 years

because of the fact that they had to strike a deal with her and because she didn't actually hit him. Although she showed no remorse and was a major contributor to this crime. This part's crazy, so after the initial arrest, Justina wrote a letter to fellow accomplice Dominic Coya stating, I am a cold-blooded, death-worshipping bitch who survives by feeding off the weak and lonely. I lure them and then I crush them. I am guilty, but I still don't feel guilty for anything. I enjoy my flashbacks. They give me comfort. I love them. So this bitch is not even sorry.

And just to say that the flashbacks of killing Jason Swini gives her comfort, like, please don't ever let this girl out of prison. This was after she was sentenced to, so she knew that she was being screwed for what she did and that she had done something very wrong. She had seen Jason's parents in the trial, like, just, she went through all this stuff and was arrested and was being thrown in prison and was in prison when she wrote this letter and this is what she said.

And in this letter and another letter to Dominic, justine stated, so you say I'm manipulative and yes, I believe I am in ways. I'm persuasively manipulative and I think I'm pretty good at it too. I enjoy dragging people along. She makes me so mad. Just honestly the most infuriating person. We have talked about a lot of horrible people, but... Yeah, there's definitely some frustration here, and like I said before, don't ever let

her out. Well also, like we've said, they have not still have not shown any remorse for their crimes. Nor did they ever apologize to the Sweeney family, even after hearing statements from Jason's family. And the crazy thing about all this is all the boys knew Jason's family and would go over to their house often, and even Eddie went on vacation with them before. Yet, they don't care about what incredible pain that what they did caused.

And another crazy thing is that Don, again Jason's mom, stated that their original plan was to kill everyone in the Sweeney household, but that they settled on killing Jason instead. This could have been a lot bigger than it already was. During the trial, Paul, who is Jason's dad, looked at Dominic and said, look at me Dominic with your evil eyes because he was trying to address him and speak to him directly and Dominic was not looking at him. And Dominic responded with, I never thought I had evil eyes, but I guess I do. And I'm cool. No, you're not. So because of the fact that they were all sentenced to life, except justina, while they were under the age of 18, they were given recentencing hearings in 2013 so a judge could re-examine the case

and determine if the life sentencing still stood. But luckily, the state Supreme Court ultimately decided that they were beyond rehabilitation and that they would not be safe to live among society, meaning they would continue to remain in prison for the rest of their days. On the other hand, Justina Morley will be eligible for parole this year in 2020, but she could be released as late as 18 more years when she's 50 years old. I actually saw a comment on a forum regarding this case and somebody said that they were in prison with Justina and that she has not changed. And I also saw another comment from someone who supposedly was Justina's roommate at a

time. And considering this happened when she was 15, I'm not sure if her private school had dorms, but at any rate, this person stated that she was incredibly manipulative. So obviously I can't verify either of these sources, but I would not be surprised at all if they were true. Regardless, I think it's pretty unlikely that she'll be released early because of her manipulative spirit and lack of empathy for this situation and other situations. Jason's family actually ended up setting up a scholarship fund in Jason's honor for someone who dreamt of attending the Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania.

They wanted the student who received this scholarship to be like Jason in the sense that they weren't necessarily a great student, but they needed financial assistance so they could achieve their goal of becoming a Navy SEAL, just like Jason had wanted. Thank you so much, everyone, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everyone. This was a very frustrating case to cover.

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