Going West: True Crime - Shadow McClaine // 431

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

In September of 2016, a 25-year-old Private in the Army suddenly vanished from Tennessee. Weeks later, her skeletal remains were found, with all signs pointing to murder. With the discovery of an upcoming court date regarding assault charges against another soldier, police narrowed in on a partial suspect, only to find out that they had gotten help. This is the story of Shadow McClaine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host Heath and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody hope you're having a good day. Big thank you to Sarah, Tina and Kristy for recommending today's case. But before we dive into it, I want to say we just released a brand new bonus episode on Celeste Mano. That is a story out of Australia from just a few years ago in 2020. And it's a stalking case. And when I tell you that this case is crazy it really is. Keith and I had so much conversation during that episode just about every little detail every message that we go over that this woman received I mean it is truly wild. Yeah it's absolutely unhinged so if you want to listen to that bonus episode and hundreds well I guess not hundreds hundreds, but. It's like 110.

I like 110 other bonus episodes. Over 100. Yeah, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast or you can subscribe on Apple podcast. Yeah, Apple actually gives you a free trial. I think it's either three or seven days. I can never remember. I'm pretty sure it's like seven days.

Okay, yeah, so you can even go listen to it for free if you want to on Apple. Check it out. It's just like going west. I feel like we're a little bit looser on there, honestly. Yeah, definitely. I don't know what it is, but it's fun. It's a good place to catch a ton of other episodes

that we're not gonna cover on going west, and we go to other countries. So check it out. All right, guys, without further ado, this is episode 431 Going west. Oh, I almost said 32 431 of going west. So let's get into it I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy In September of 2016, a 25-year-old private in the Army suddenly vanished from Tennessee. Months later, her skeletal remains were found with all

signs pointing to murder. With the discovery of an upcoming court date regarding assault charges against another soldier, police narrowed in on one particular suspect only to find out that they hadn't acted alone. Shadow Brenice Willis was born on January 2, 1991 in Roseville, California, which is about 30 minutes northeast of Sacramento. And she joined an older sister named Liz and parents London and Jesse Willis. Now her parents did split up at some point and both remarried, her mom to a man named Jeremy and her dad to a woman named Debbie. This actually brought her a few more siblings or

a couple more siblings from her mom's second marriage. Two younger brothers named Ethan and Aiden. And by all accounts, she was very close with them and also very protective over them. Shadow was an outdoor enthusiast from a young age and really enjoyed hiking, rollerblading, and fishing with her dad. She also had a gentler, more creative side

and loved to read, paint, and take photographs. She was described by her family as strong and smart, and they said that, quote, she knew what she wanted and went for it. Her mom London called Shadow patient, independent, and a good girl. Now, Shadow graduated from Yuba City High School in 2009, and enrolled in a local California community college.

But wanting to explore her creative side a little bit, she went on to study art history for two years, but eventually decided that she was actually feeling more kind of called to serve in the army so that she could travel and give back. So she enrolled in the army in September of 2011 at the age of 20 and trained as an air traffic controller. 2011 at the age of 20 and trained as an air traffic controller. She took assignments in both South Korea and Afghanistan and finally settled in

Fort Campbell, Kentucky for a while. And there's a large army base there encompassing over a hundred acres. And this is on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, just over an hour Northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. So Shadow was working for the 101st Airborne Division, which specializes in air assault operations there, and she was enjoying it. But it was while she was stationed at Fort Campbell that she met Sergeant Jamal Williams McCray. According to her mom, London, Shadow and Jamal were dating for about a year, but

her mom never met him in person or even spoke to him the entire time. She had only ever seen photographs of Jamal, which is something that she found kind of odd because she and her daughter were super close and made a habit of speaking on the phone at least once a day. So it was kind of weird to her that she was never able to even virtually meet Jamal during their relationship. And then in 2014, after a brief courtship, 23-year-old Shadow married 22-year-old Jamal Williams McCray. And quick note on her last name, Shadow's maiden name is Willis, which is her dad's last name. We don't actually know why her married name is McClain when her husband's name is McCrae,

or why she changed her surname if it wasn't because she got married. And she also occasionally went by her middle name and made a name, Brunice Willis. So kind of confusing, but anyway. When she made the announcement about her sudden marriage, Shadow called her mom London, apparently telling her quote, Mom, are you sitting down? I got married. Jamal's dad later said that he didn't even know his son was married until they started

having problems. So this marriage came as a total surprise to everybody. Which is really weird and it just makes you wonder why it was so sudden, why nobody is in the know, like his family doesn't know her, her family doesn't know him, like why is this happening? Yeah, I mean, her parents found it strange that Shadow, who had always been really close with them, would want to have such a hasty ceremony without them there. For the first month, everything seemed to be going pretty smooth, but things quickly turned sour when Shadow suspected her

new husband of cheating on her. And the way she reportedly found this out was by finding condoms in his clothes. So after only five months, Jamal decided that he wanted to divorce and told Shadow that it was over. But Shadow really wanted to make things work, so she didn't give into this idea right away. She wasn't taking their vows lightly at all. But London, who was hearing every detail of their disputes and their impending breakup, described the marriage as extremely toxic.

Yeah, and still at this point she really doesn't know Jamal, but everything that she's hearing, of course as a mom she's so disappointed that he's cheating on her just months into their relationship, you know, cheating at all, but also so quickly. Yeah, and I wonder how hard that would be as like a parent to realize that not only, like you said, have I not met this person, but I'm just hearing the worst things about them. Exactly.

Well, things would get a lot messier because as soon as Shadow found evidence that she felt confirmed her suspicions of Jamal cheating, she began publicly accusing Jamal of cheating on her and was very vocal about his infidelities online. In one post, she wrote that he had at least two women in his rotation, a police officer from Springfield, Tennessee, and a server at Hooters. She concluded her post with, quote, never trust a man who cheats and karma will be giving him a swift kick in the ass soon when he loses his job and goes to Prison, I know you're wondering why the hell he would lose his job and go to prison

I'm gonna get into that in a minute, but shadow also frequented websites specifically designed for outing cheaters and in one post she called Jamal a quote lying cheating In one post, she called Jamal a quote, lying, cheating, home wrecking rapist. Damn, that is some accusation there for sure. But she also doxed the women that she believed Jamal was cheating with by posting their personal information on the internet. But this, as you can imagine, just made things

even more complicated because the friends and family members of the girls that Shadow was accusing became involved. You know, they don't know what's going on. The family is like, why are you vilifying our people? Right. And they're trying to stick up for their family members. Absolutely. So things reach such a boiling point that she was actually arrested for stalking.

Shadow was arrested. One of the women alleging that Shadow was stalking her is a woman named Tiffany. And she told an interviewer that Shadow found a receipt from a Hooters in Hopkinsville, Kentucky with the server's name listed as Tiffany. And then she showed up to confront the girl that she believed was cheating with her husband. You know, she goes to Hooters, she sees a server named Tiffany, she's like, you served my husband,

you must be the one that he's cheating on me with. Yeah. But the problem was, according to Tiffany, quote, I mean, there's like eight Tiffany's that worked at Hooters at that time. Okay, so that is definitely an issue. Yeah, so she's like, that wasn't me, but Shadow really believed that it was.

So here's the wrong Tiffany denying ever having any sort of relationship with Jamal. And she said she didn't even know who Jamal was. Tiffany also told one reporter, quote, Oh, I know she was stalking me. Yeah, she tried to break into my Facebook, break into my emails, break into everything. She actually tried to get me fired. Well Shadow did later apologize to this mistaken Tiffany after she realized that she was indeed the wrong woman, but yeah things are just getting really really messy. Yeah it's starting to get kind of bizarre here. Well Shadow then claimed that Jamal and one of the girls that he cheated with teamed up to make her look bad, creating fake Instagram and Facebook accounts to build a further stalking case against her.

So, Shadow was eventually arrested again and charged with stalking, criminal impersonation, and contempt of court for these incidents. Her mom London said of this quote, She's not totally innocent in all of this, but it's not all her either, and she's been trying to clean herself from it. The people posting don't have all the facts, and are trying to paint my daughter as a villain. After just six months of being married, Shadow and Jamal divorced, but the ramifications of their relationship would continue to have a ripple effect for years to come. In 2015, while in the midst of their dispute, Shadow accused Jamal of raping her.

Now, she did later rescind this account, but then reinstated it, claiming that he had threatened her into recanting her truth. So obviously this is really difficult because we want to believe her if this is what she's saying. Right. But then her recanting it and of course that other post when she said, you know, he's gonna get a kick, a swift kick in the ass, I think is what she said, when he loses his job and goes to prison. So a lot of people are confused if she's trying to get back at him or if she's telling the truth which is a horrible thing to have to you know battle with. Yeah it's a bad place, it's definitely a bad place to be in for sure. So as this was all happening the army even opened an investigation and

prohibited Jamal from being transferred to a post in South Korea which is one that he desperately wanted. So as you can imagine Jamal was being transferred to a post in South Korea, which is one that he desperately wanted. So as you can imagine, Jamal was pretty pissed about this and blamed Shadow for his work's setback. Then, things only began to get even worse as his anger over the incident grew. Which is frustrating as well because he's the one who cheated, he was doing all these things in their relationship, and of course what she was doing with the stalking like all of that is is not good either

You know her reactions to what he was doing, but he's not innocent here. No. He's definitely not well in May of 2016 the brake lines on shadows car were cut in the parking lot of the army barracks and She was sure that Jamal was to blame. She also told a friend that she felt like someone was trying to kill her, but on the bright side, Shadow seemed hopeful and optimistic for what was ahead of her, and was thrilled to be moving forward. And obviously she was thrilled to be moving on from her relationship with Jamal.

Yeah, and they really did, again, have such a strange relationship from the jump. You know, her mom said it best that it was just toxic. It was a quick, sudden marriage followed by an equally quick divorce. Right, exactly. So now that she's kind of free from Jamal, Shadow was really feeling positive for the first time in years. She described the whole ordeal as a nightmare, but was open on social media about how excited she was to move forward with her life and put both of their wrongdoings in the past.

By the summer of 2016, so the summer after her divorce, Shadow was dating a new man and posted about him often. After five years in the army, she was ready to call it quits and was looking forward to going back to school and starting a new chapter. She was actually planning on moving back to California and beginning a career in photography. Yeah, it's something that she had done for a lot of her life and she was really passionate about that. Yeah, so she's about to like 180 her life. She's super excited for the prospects of the future. Now she was also headed for an honorable discharge with a

ranking of private first-class set to retire in October of 2016, which happened to be just one month after she disappeared. It's so devastating the fact that she was nearly there, she was nearly at retirement and then she goes missing. Well, 25 year old Shadow was last seen on the job in Fort Campbell, Kentucky on the evening of Friday, September 2nd, 2016. She was supposed to be dog sitting for a friend that evening. It was actually gonna start that night. She even had a house dog sitting for a friend that evening. It was actually going to start that night.

She even had a house key and told her friend that she would be headed over there when she finished up at work. Now this is something that her friends and family claim she wouldn't have missed. Like she was always there for her friend. She had made this commitment. But strangely, she never showed up and never texted her friend to tell her that she wouldn't be able to make it. Her mom London last heard from her at 7.07 PM that Friday when Shadow texted her mom to tell her that she was driving.

Then the following day, Saturday, September 8th, Shadow didn't text or call her mom, which was wholly out of character for her because like Heath told us earlier, they talked every single day. They usually had, they usually texted multiple times a day and also called each other at least once. So as time passed, London became exceedingly anxious. By Tuesday, September 6th, 2016, London remembered, quote, I started to get really worried.

I knew something happened. Now that was a holiday weekend. Monday was Labor Day and Shadow would have been off work, but she was due back on Tuesday morning and she never showed up or called in to report that she would be taking the day off. So really by this point, you know, she hasn't answered her phone in days. She didn't show up to dog sit for her friend.

She's not showing up to work. She's just MIA. Yeah, so it's very clear that something is wrong. Yeah, so officially she was considered absent without leave AWOL, like I just said, from her army post, which wasn't good because this was a particularly important week for Shadow. She had a court appearance for the stalking charges against her on Tuesday, September 6th.

That was that day. And she failed to show for that as well. So by this point, London knew that something had gone terribly wrong and she reported her daughter missing. Calls were going straight to voicemail, texts were going unanswered, and her location was turned off. There was no bank activity or charges on any of her cards either. And her phone's last ping came from the vicinity of a pawn shop and a small motel in Clarksville, Tennessee, about 30 minutes southeast of Fort Campbell.

Her dad Jesse flew to Fort Campbell from California, and her mom, aunt, and grandpa joined from the East Coast to search for her. And alongside them and the police was the U. the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation teamed up with her family to search, so there was a lot of people, you know, all hands on deck. And though nobody could be sure that a crime had taken place here, her family was certain that Shadow would have never abandoned her responsibilities, nor gone AWOL just a month before an honorable discharge from a position that she loved and she was proud to serve. The woman that Shadow suspected of cheating on her with Jamal, Tiffany, believed that Shadow was lying low due to her potential impending criminal charges. Which wouldn't have looked good for her though, like missing a court date.

Yeah. That actually would have worked against her. Well, Tiffany said in an interview, quote, I don't know where she is, but I think she's running. I think she'll be found, and I think she's gonna get in a lot more trouble than she would have been. But London argued, quote, That's not Shadow. That is not my daughter. She was happy. She was moving on.

She was focusing on getting out and coming home and going back to school While conducting the search Shadow's dad Jesse told the press quote no parents should ever have to go through what we're going through It is the worst nightmare in the world Then the first major development in the case came on September 13th, 2016, Shadow's car, which was a silver 2013 Hyundai Elantra with California plates, was found parked in downtown Nashville, over 60 miles or 96 kilometers from where she had last been seen. So obviously this is pretty strange.

Especially because we have her leaving work supposedly on the way to her friend's house or she was supposed to be on the way to her friend's house. Then her phone pings 30 minutes away near a motel and a pawn shop. And now her car is found in downtown Nashville. Like it's just not, it's not adding up. Yeah, things are looking very strange and very suspicious.

So for the first 11 days that Shadow had been missing, the car had been getting ticketed and eventually it got booted. When police arrived to tow her car, they ran her plates and discovered that the car belonged to a missing person. So with this discovery, foul play was more likely to be involved, and investigators were beginning to suspect that she had not been the one to leave her car there.

Her family and friends held a vigil for her safe return, and search teams scoured local wooded areas and bodies of water, as well as a state park with this like intricate cave system. Just wondering if maybe somebody had hidden her body somewhere, but they found nothing at this park. With an obvious motive, police questioned where Jamal was at the time, and he told police that he had been home all weekend. However, when his girlfriend was asked where he was, she claimed that he

told her that he would be out looking for Shadow, which was strange because she hadn't even been reported missing yet. on a On Thursday, October 6th, 2016, Jamal was arrested by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Clarksville, Tennessee for what they said were quote, out of county warrants. I mean, they weren't very suspicious of the fact that he'd allegedly been searching for her before she was reported missing like Heath told us because you know they were divorced for nearly a year at this point and they were both dating other people so yeah why are you out looking for her? Now it sounds a little fishy to me. Yeah, it just doesn't make sense. And especially, I mean, she was reported after a few days, so it's possible that he heard from her mom

or something that she was missing and he was out looking for her. But again, he has no reason to do that. And also, he kind of really dislikes her for that rape allegation and what it's doing for his career. So why would he be looking for her? You know what I mean? It's just looking bad. So though these out of county warrants were initially unrelated to Shadow's case, the office sought to keep him in their custody in order to build a case against him

because they were feeling confident that he knew more than he was leading on about where Shadow was and what happened to her. Yeah and we see that happen in a lot of cases. Yeah they don't want to let him go and let him flee. So on October 26th 2016 the army released a statement actually that read quote, two soldiers are currently being held as persons of interest in the disappearance of private first class Shadow McClain.

So this is pretty interesting because now we have a second person that's being investigated here. Yes, and this is really the second half of the story with who this guy is, but really quick I'm just going to finish this quote. Fort Campbell law enforcement continue to investigate the matter. No further details are available at this time. So this was the first time that Shadow's community heard that someone else may be involved. A lot of people already think and know that Jamal must be,

but now we're hearing about another person like you just said Heath. So to the shock of the public, the second man arrested in connection with her murder was also a soldier. Well, who would have thunk? Yeah, and he worked with both Shadow and Jamal in the 101st Airborne Division. He didn't know Shadow as we're going to talk about, but he did work amongst both of them. And his name is Charles Robinson III. And he was actually married and had a young son at this time.

Also, like Jamal, he was a sergeant. So the public waited for developments and her family continued to hope that Shadow would be found amongst the arrests and the investigation. They're hoping to have some kind of closure and figure out what happened to her. And three excruciating months later, she would be found. On January 23rd, 2017, Shadow's remains were recovered off exit 19 on Interstate 24 in Robertson County, Tennessee, which is right next door to Montgomery County, which is the county that encompasses the Tennessee side of Fort Campbell. And this happened just three weeks after what was supposed to be Shadow's 26th birthday.

Now due to the amount of decay, Shadow's body had to be identified via dental records, but once she was, her remains were flown back to Yuba City, and she was laid to rest in California as the remainder of the investigation went underway. Well, the most damning piece of evidence against the men who killed her, which is also what led police to Shadow's location, actually came from Charles' wife, Jade. So she overheard Charles and Jamal scheming on the patio of her home, talking in whispered tones about exit 19 on the interstate where Shadow was eventually found, and discussing getting rid of a car. On the night that Shadow was killed, Charles apparently told his wife that he was going

to a rave and left the house in all black clothing. He was out all night and returned later asking her multiple times to wash the socks that he had been wearing that night, complaining that he had gotten them muddy. And then the next day she remembers him washing out the bed of his truck with bleach, even borrowing a pressure washer to do so. And get this, he also asked his wife to say that he was home the previous night if anyone were to ask about his whereabouts. Obviously a huge red flag. I mean, red flag after red flag here. There's so many.

Yeah. Waving. Yeah. Violently. Absolutely and we're also going to get into how much Jade actually knew or didn't know. So Jade actually denied having any prior knowledge of what happened, but Charles later alleged that he told her what happened as soon as he got home from the murder, admitting, quote, I informed my wife where we had placed the body and what had happened and then we had sex. Now why she didn't immediately come forward with this information is still unknown. Unless of course, he isn't telling the truth. I don't know.

I don't really see her hearing about her husband murdering an innocent woman and then having sex with him I mean, I don't know this woman, but like who the hell would do that, especially since she did come forward She clearly has a conscience. Yeah, she's not I don't know. That's such a weird detail to me It kind of feels like maybe because she rolled over on him now He's kind of trying to roll over on her and say well you knew about it the whole time right you know what I mean I mean, we feel like we can't trust this guy anyway absolutely so on Friday August 11th 2018 court martial proceedings were underway for Charles and Surprisingly a month later

He accepted a plea deal after finding out that the death penalty was on the table And he also offered to testify against his co-conspirator A month later, he accepted a plea deal after finding out that the death penalty was on the table. And he also offered to testify against his co-conspirator, Jamal. He had never even met Shadow, as Daphne mentioned, and didn't even know her name. But he was acquaintances with Jamal through work. And for whatever reason, he helped him murder Shadow despite all of this. Now in his confession, he admitted, quote, I don't want to know her name.

I don't want to think about it for the rest of my life. It's such a cowardly thing to say. Like, you took her life. You don't want to know her name, and you don't want to think about it again? Of course, because he's guilty, and he doesn't want to have to feel remorse. Well, Charles did, like Heath is saying,

plead guilty to murder. He also pled guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice in September of 2018 and was technically sentenced to life in prison, but because of his pretrial agreement with the judge, he would not serve an excess of 25 years. He also received credit for the nearly two years that he had already spent in custody, so that was shaved off as well. And at this time, he was, of course, stripped of his army rank and given a dishonorable discharge. But Charles' lawyers attempted to paint a very sympathetic portrait of this guy.

They described a childhood rife with abuse and instability, you know, as if this would give someone reason to take an innocent person's life, but according to his testimony, he grew up with a violent and mentally ill father who would regularly hit and threaten his mother in front of him, and his father would also threaten people with a hatchet and was frequently paranoid at telling Charles that there were people trying to kill them. Okay, alright, scary. In another really scary instance actually, he stabbed a man with a screwdriver 15 times and he was also known to make Molotov cocktails. So, you

know, obviously he was in and out of prison for charges like assault and violence. Clearly a horrible father figure. Yeah, giant piece of shit. Yeah, I mean, this must have been a terrifying person to be raised by. But still. Another detail of his childhood that they presented was that Charles mentioned that he was sexually assaulted by a family friend as a young boy. So it seems like his life really was filled with a lot of trauma and horrible, horrible, horrible scenarios.

But, you know, regardless of his story, his involvement with the unwarranted murder of an innocent army soldier was an egregious charge. So in his address to Shadow's family, he stated quote, first and foremost, this is after he learned her name, I want to sincerely apologize to private first class Shadow McClane's family. I think about your daughter every day. If someone killed my son, I would be a broken man. I deserve to be punished. I want to set a better example for my son than my father was to me. Shadow didn't deserve to be hurt. Shadow never hurt me." I mean, if you wanted to set a better example for your son, maybe you just shouldn't have

fucking killed someone. His involvement in general is so weird to me, as we're going to get into, but especially because he didn't know Jamal very well like why did you do this? Why did you take part in this right well as you're as you're talking about I? Believe there was financial incentive involved well you're about to get into that Well, I'm sure you guys are wondering about Jamal because he was the instigator in all of this And he was the reason for shadows's death. According to Charles' version of events, Jamal first approached him asking to help him kill Shadow in June of 2016, three months before she was actually killed.

Jamal apparently made multiple attempts to strangle and poison her before she was murdered, in addition to cutting her brake lines, which we already know about. So he floated the idea to Charles of hiring him to be a hitman for his ex-wife, offering to pay him $10,000. I mean, come on, even if you're going to be paid $10K to take someone's life, and Jamal is going to be the first suspect, this is just stupid. Yeah, I mean, he's an idiot. Well Jamal claimed that he wanted to get it done before the hearing for Shadows' rape

charges against him in hopes that they would be dropped. So there was, you know, definitely some motivation there. Yeah, which again though, it's like, because of that, he is going to be the first person that police are going to turn to, which is exactly what happened, and that's why this case was solved so quickly. Yep, exactly. And like I kind of alluded to earlier, Charles also threw his wife under the bus, saying that she was as much a part of the plotting conversations as they were, even giving them

advice on where to stash the body. But this was never proven to be true. So it's hard to know if she has any blame here or if Charles is just trying to deflect. The men originally hatched the idea to kill Shadow off of Exit 24 on Interstate 24, but apparently when they arrived there were too many people in the vicinity and they were forced to move locations, eventually settling on Exit 11. By Charles' account, Jamal met up with Shadow on the evening of Friday, September 2nd, 2016, and told her that he had a scavenger hunt planned for her. Weird? Super weird. Now,

it's unknown what he actually told her to convince her to go with him, or if she even went with him willingly. But this was just Charles's recollection of events. They parked the car and began digging in a field near the highway, supposedly looking for what was hidden as part of this scavenger hunt. Late that night, Charles approached the pair, claiming that it was his land and that they were trespassing. He told them to get on their knees and said that he was going to detain them until police arrived, so this is this whole scheme that's unfolding and Jamal and Charles know about it. So he then searched them for weapons in an effort to keep himself safe or so he told them and on Jamal he found a box cutter which he took possession of.

He then slit Shadow's throat using both a knife and a box cutter and even broke her neck afterwards to ensure that she was deceased. Charles and Jamal then loaded her body into the back of the truck, dumping ammonia all over her as well as the place in the grass where she was killed. After this horrific act, they tossed the knife and box cutter in the nearby Cumberland River. They then moved her body near Exit 19, where it was found a few months later. Jamal dumped her bloody clothing and shoes, and Charles then took Jamal back to Shadow's car, where Jamal drove it then to Nashville where it was later found. Shockingly, he admitted to everything, hoping to avoid the death penalty,

but Jamal's recollection was slightly different. He claimed that he didn't ask Charles to become involved until the end of August, so about a week before the murder, whereas again, Charles said that this happened in June. I don't know why in the shit that even matters at all. I mean... Why is there a discrepancy here?

Yeah, it's like you still asked him to do it, whether it happened in June or August. But Jamal claimed that he met up with Shadow, this is crazy, on September 2nd, in order to plot the murder of his own girlfriend, which he said Shadow was more than happy to help with. Jamal claimed that he wanted his girlfriend dead and said that he and Shadow spent the evening scouting locations to kill her and then stash her body. This doesn't make any sense.

We know that Shadow did act jealously in the past, we can all admit that, but they were divorced, you know, she was seeing someone else before this, she had moved on. Why on earth would she help Jamal with something like this, and why would he want to kill his girlfriend? It really doesn't make any sense at all. It just kind of feels like he's trying to put some sort of blame on his victim. Yeah.

You know, say that she was guilty of something as well, but it's like, man, like you killed her, just deal with the consequences. Well, there is absolutely no evidence that this is true at all, and this accusation was only present in Jamal's version of events and not Charles' version of events. Sorry. So Jamal was charged with premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation for murder, obstruction of justice, attempted murder, and sexual assault, though his defense team blamed Shadow's rape allegation on their bitter divorce. Of course they did.

He also said that he had not been present at the time of her slaying, and that he had been waiting in his truck at the time that it happened. So he's essentially claiming that he just hired Charles to do it for him, and that he wasn't there, he didn't help. And like you were saying, Heath, it really feels like he's just trying to deflect blame

and say, you know, I was put in a corner, I didn't do anything bad, whatever. And he's deflecting blame to more than just one person. Well, aside from Charles' wife, Jade, Jamal's girlfriend was also suspected of having prior knowledge of the crime, or even helping the men plan their orchestration of it, but they were never brought up on charges or formally connected to the murder, and I just have a hard time believing that they would be involved, because

what's their motive, and then how does this make sense and connect with Jamal saying that he said he was going to kill his girlfriend if she was involved? Yeah, it's a complete mess at this point. I mean, I guess that's what he's saying. He told Shadow. So that would have been a ruse, right? But still, I mean, it's so complicated and silly, honestly. It's just very, very stupid.

Well, like Charles's defense team, the three attorneys working on Jamal's case, along with his father, who was called as a character witness, attempted to shed a gentler light on Jamal, a man who claimed that he also had a childhood of relentless ridicule. When he was a kid, Jamal's parents split up, and starting at the age of six or seven, he was raised solely by his mother, who he claimed was abusive. According to his dad, Jamal had been a premature baby who was particularly small, and he was teased for this while he was growing up by both his peers and his mother.

and he was teased for this while he was growing up by both his peers and his mother. His father, Kenneth, described that Jamal was, quote, disciplined harshly and unfairly by his mother and described her as distant and abusive. Okay, so he definitely had some mommy issues going on when he was growing up, but still does not account for his disgusting behavior. Yeah, I mean, we can all agree that that's horrible. No child should be put in that situation or made fun of or abused by their parents or anybody else. Oh, absolutely.

But yeah, he, like Charles, is trying to blame his childhood trauma for wanting to kill Shadow. I mean, it's irrelevant. Yeah, and also, again, we see this in numerous cases where they're just trying to somehow shift the blame. They're trying to say, oh, it was because of this or because of that. No, you murdered a person.

Again, deal with the consequences. Yeah, they're pulling the hurt people, hurt people. Yeah. Well, to counter this, an expert witness described the pain that Shadow would have gone through before her death, and the judge also allowed Shadow's family and loved ones to make victim impact statements to the court. Jamal was technically issued a life sentence in prison, but the deal is sealed, so we can't see the terms, but it does indicate that he will be eligible for parole in 10 years and will serve a maximum of 75 years.

But just like Charles, he will also get credit for time served. The judge criticized Jamal for disparaging the army's image and code of conduct by having two soldiers embroiled in a sinister murder-for-hire plot. Now Jamal did admit that he knew it was bad for morale and the public's perception of the military. And after his sentencing, Shadow's mother London wept as she said that the trial had restored her faith in the army and that she was thankful that they had done the right thing. Saying quote, at first I was upset with the army.

I felt like they should have done more to protect her. But she told the court that she respected the army again and that she knew her daughter had always loved the army and had been proud to serve. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening. I'm so glad that Shadow's family were able to get justice and see some closure in this case because I mean, how terrifying and how horrible was this event that took place here? Yeah, I mean, it also is amazing that they both in a way, and I'm not trying to give them credit, but that they did Charles and Jamal admit at least partially to the truth of what they did to

Shadow, whereas so many people just sit behind bars for life and never speak a word of their actions. Right, but would they have done that if her body hadn't been found? No, probably not. I highly doubt it, yeah. Yeah, I mean, they're both despicable people. And yeah, I mean, overall, just such a dramatic story, you know, in every way, and just meeting Jamal completely changed everything for her. So thank you guys so much for tuning in.

Big thank you to Sarah, Tina, and Christy, again, for recommending today's case. And if you guys have a case that you want us to cover, send us an email, goingwestpodcast at gmail.com. We try to reply to everybody, but we do get so many emails and it's only the two of us. So if we don't get to your email, we're so sorry, but we really do try to read every single one of them and appreciate all of them that come through. Also, just a reminder, if you want to check out the bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast or subscribe on Apple.

As Daphne said, you can get a seven day free trial where you can check it out, see if you like it, and then you could subscribe. I mean, if you like going west, you'll like it. So if you, yeah, if you like this show, you're going to dig it. If you do want more episodes of going West, then that is the best way to get them. Cause there's 110 that we have covered over the last few years. We do two a month. So, um, and again,

the one we just did on Celeste Mano was unbelievable. I mean, that whole story is devastating and terrifying. So check it out. Thank you guys so much and we'll see you on Friday. All right guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. I'm just a little bit of a wimp, but I'm just a little bit of a wimp you