Law&Crime Sidebar - 6 Mind Blowing Interrogation Confessions

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

From serial killer confessions to chilling admissions of violence, a criminal face-to-face with law enforcement can completely shift the course of a case. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down unforgettable, taped confessions and the investigations that brought justice for the victims.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Purchase John Morgan's new book now on Amazon by going to https://www.forthepeople.com/lifeisluck/ HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So I panic and I stabbed it or I tried to shut her up. Interrogation confessions. I should look right here. I know it was no shop. There's shocking moments that sometimes can only come when a criminal is face to face with law enforcement in a small room. I think I want a little too far because like I'm blacking out on the sooner, right? I know you're looking directly at me, aren't you? The information I gave is not worth six bucks.

It's worth a lot more. We're breaking down some of the most memorable interrogation confessions caught on tape. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Do do-do-do-do. Everybody loves a self-made success story, but John Morgan says that is not how real life works. The great John Morgan, everybody, in his new book, Life is Luck, the founder of Morgan, Morgan and Morgan gets real about the role that luck plays in success and how to

recognize opportunity when it shows up and that seed was just lucky from delivering newspapers as a kid to building America's largest injury law firm Morgan shares the moments that change everything it's a how-to book to approach life luck and ultimately success this isn't another billionaire memoir full of cheesy advice it's honest blunt and pack with lessons I'm turning good luck and bad luck into something bigger. I hope people read it. I hope people appreciate it.

By Life is Luck, now on Amazon at for thepeople.com slash life is luck. The interrogation room. It's a place where really anything can happen when you think about it. We've seen it time and time again. And that is what I want to get into right now. We've seen the confessions. We've seen the admissions, moments that have radically changed the case for a criminal defendant.

So with that in mind, we're going to explore some of those moments. I push my way in, I handcuffed her, I didn't hang, I tied her up, and then we just broke up the mafia. We begin with Richard Cunningham. That's who you see, a serial killer, now almost 80 years old, serving three life sentences for five murders. This is a guy who has claimed to be responsible for dozens and dozens and dozens of killings, known as the torso killer, operating officially in New York and New Jersey for years, maybe

other states as well. He was arrested back in 1980. And what you're watching, okay, is really just a shocking confession from 2014. A lot of years running around. A lot of states still. Yeah. Do you have any, do you have a number in your head, do you think? Did you ever sit back and think about it?

It's sad to say I couldn't count that way. They start to get jumbled. I would say it was well over here. You know how many? Well over. They had them some in Florida, Connecticut, like New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Baltimore.

Any place within driving distance that was not connected to me, I would try. My old thing was not to make a pattern, which I never did. And I never tried to kill in the exact same way or to, you know, leave a signature. I wasn't stupid, you know. Other than that one time in Hackensack were just lucky. I would have been caught there. Right. I was never even closer getting caught.

I mean, he was caught in 1980. Apparently, he checked into a motel in New Jersey with a sex worker that he was sexually abusing and torturing her. The staff heard call police. He was arrested. And that's when they started investigating and connected him to all of these other killings. But I just want you to listen to this part because he doesn't think he's a serial killer. That was the thing with me. I wasn't a serial killer.

No, if you told me, did you kill me over 80? That fits the definition pretty well. No, it doesn't. But I know what you said, because you've told me in the past. There's been many more that you let go. Hundreds. You know, I didn't go out to kill somebody. Most I didn't want to kill it was when I would have been somehow connected to them.

And I didn't want to get caught. There was more than just not getting caught. Oh, I see. Okay, got it, got it. But just to be clear, this isn't a visual. a serial killer. You mentioned you stabbed her. Do you know for sure? Like how many times you stand there, right thing? One time. Okay. You're in the face. Oh, it was definitely in the face. Because she was screaming. I used to time. Do you remember specifically with her? No.

Okay. So you just kind of guessing because you're going on, I'm saying, front one is on the problem. You go on the average. Yeah. I mean, she, I know she wasn't shot. I didn't, you know, no, I know that. You know, things like that, you know, well, like the girl up here, Like the volunteer staff, which is not, you know, not your... That was very unique, and I don't know because I panic. I didn't tend to... And it was a steak knife. That's not there.

It was a steak knife and the knife broke. That's another fact. If you find it, the incident, you'll see. Okay. Then it wasn't even... It wasn't a regular knife like a guy who was a state knife from one of the places we stopped that. And the way he describes the victims, it's like... hard to process, my gosh.

You love dark air. You know, the funny thing is, most of my victims are talking about it. I like to do it. And it was the game to get, most times we went out drinking. I'd get them drinking, get them drunk, get them in a room,

have all the sex, and I never paid them. And that was the majority of the thing, that beat them out of their money, because they were going to try to beat me out of it. I mean, I had cases. I had a case right here, right on Route 46.

I had a girl in there. She was so greedy. She took my, she was naked from the waist of. She grabbed my pants and ran out of her room with my pants and left her shirt behind. And she runs right to a guy next door. He opened his door. He heard of the noise. You know she was still in the wallet?

She was. She grabbed it. She got about $1,100 from me. So the only one that never got. got a wedding, got my wedding, and all of them. Chilling, to say the least. But I want to move on. Okay, we go from Richard Cottingham to now.

Let's talk Shana Hubers. I'm right here. I got him. He wanted it? Yep, so not a serial killer, but that is her admitting to authorities that she shot and killed 29-year-old Ryan Poston back in October of 2012 at his home out in Ohio. shot six times by Huber's, his on again, off again, love interest. And it turns out the same night that he was shot and killed, he was supposed to go on a date

with Miss Ohio, Audrey Balty. And from the initial 911 phone call by Huber's to what she said in her interrogation, she was adamant that, yes, she shot him, but she claimed she had no choice. And I shot him in self-defense because he's done stuff before where I've hit my head on a headboard and could die. Okay. He was physically violent with me and threw me around the room from the living room, I mean from the bedroom all the way into the dining room, all the way into the living room, back into the dining room. He's a lot bigger than me.

And I was reaching up and grabbing at his shirt. I think I had his ripped his shirt and got to a point where we were framing at each other and I was crying. He was standing on the other side of the table screaming at me, reaching over to, like, hit me and step and I backed up. You know, and he was screaming the most hateful things that made it were just evil, evil, and he had this look out of his eye that was evil, and he was fucked up on to him. And he had guns laying on the table, and he has ingest before, when we've gotten into fights, he's into guns, he keeps loaded guns in the house,

has picked up a gun, pointed it at my face as a joke. What would you do if I, you know, and he had throw me around the room and hurt me and was screaming at me, and I knew he was going to hit me again or throw me or something again. And I wanted, I knew I was leaving. I had already packed my things, and I was asking him, can I pack the rest of my things and go, let me pack my things? And he wouldn't let me into the bedroom to pack my things. And I got the door, the lock about the door, got in there and I walked in there, and I walked. it while he was playing in the bed, probably just laying there doing nothing, lazy.

And I went in there and got myself. Came out. And we got into a huge fight. That was before all this happened. And he got upset because I had unlocked the door because he had locked it. And he was screaming at me telling me I was telling me I was going to hell with Elie that he hates me, that he hates my speaking voice. I hate everything about you.

This is what he was screaming at me as he was trying to hit me across the kitchen table and it was about as broad as soon. And there was a gun. I mean right there. I think there was also one laying on the other side of the table closer to him. And I knew what the next thing might have been. And I knew he was, I knew he was violent,

I knew he was crazy. And I picked up the gun. And it was, it was loaded. I didn't think it would be loaded. And there was the trigger, the safety release, you know. And he taught me how to shoot guns. or else I would have missed, you know. And I just picked up the gun.

And in the middle of him doing something with his arm or saying something crazy, shot him. I killed him in a mechanism of self-defense or shot him in a mechanism of self-defense. And then knew he was going to die. So put him out of the misery. And she was very keen on discussing what was going on in her mind. and the different factors to consider for why lethal force was necessary, that he was an immediate threat to her safety.

But he's so much bigger than me. Him hitting me versus me hitting him not really can even fight. One blow, and he could kill me. Yeah. The worst came to worse. I'm rather he's dead than unhurt. Because I could have been really badly hurt. He's pulled guns on me as jokes before.

And I said, I think that was in mind tonight because he never had my door. It was this big. He pulled it out with it. And then like, what would you do if I shot you right now? What would you do if I was afraid? You talk about shocking admissions. I mean, she even described the details of him being shot. When I shot in the face, he had put his arm across the table and there's a lamp.

And he had put his arm across the table and had it in my face. and was screaming at me at the top of his long after he had thrown me around the room and was saying emotionally to me you're a little boy I hate your eastern Kentucky accent

I hate your mother I hate son I hate everything about you for what you are in my family and he was screaming and he had his hand on the table and he wasn't completely standing up

He was like this. He was laying with his face on the table, like twitching. And so he knew he was going to die a very slow and painful death. I knew he was already dead. You know, it would be in the next 20 seconds. So in the next two minutes. And he was going to be dead. And he was in a lot of pain.

He was twitching. He was moaning. But he was ultimately dead. And so I shot him enough time to kill him. so that he wouldn't suffer at that point, which was a few more time. And I shot him, I think I shot him twice, thought he was completely dead and he was laying there still, twitching and making noises.

And I shot him in the head. I shot it once and didn't shoot again for a while. But I was watching him die. It was so painful to watch him die and to know that I had done that. that I just walked around the table and shot him where I knew he would die immediately. I shot it probably six times. Here was the first problem.

Despite describing this violent episode... It wasn't killing him because I was spiteful. It wasn't killing him because I'm done with a relationship. I'm done with you for you. It was you're evil. And you've been thrown here on the room like a rag doll. You can't throw it. somebody into the ground, I probably have rug burns. I was thinking about that. I probably

have a rugburn. I feel like if someone else was in the room and they watched it go down, they would have been like good for her. She was beaten up or thrown around the room. Like, I don't have any marks, but I was thrown around the room. I probably do on my legs, actually. I'm thinking about it. I'll probably do have some My shoulder hurt. I think he grabbed me by his shoulder. Yeah. It feels like sore. You can see in the living room.

That's not how it happened. If you walk in there. Yeah. Being thrown. It doesn't look right. Yeah. You know, it's a disarrant. It's a mess.

Yeah. Close are thrown. That's, bad linens are thrown. Yeah, that's something you know, though, look at. There was apparently no evidence of Shana suffering physical injuries, or that this crime scene, was in some state of disarray. And it wasn't just the confession about the shooting, but her thought process that raised questions

about her self-defense claim and fear for her life. I picked up the phone and called my mother and said, Mama, what did I do? Ryan and I got into a physical fight and I killed him. I saw it, Mama. And she said, you call the cops. Shana, you got to call a call. You got to tell him exactly what happened, tell him the truth. I don't want to go to person.

I don't think I deserve to, you know. I didn't go over there and plot to murder him. You know, I didn't go over there and say, I want to kill one, right? And I went over there with the best of intentions. I love you. Let's work this relationship out. I can only imagine what's going through these people's heads, you know? like why did she kill him?

What happened? I feel like everyone knows me well. I've known that like I didn't just like plot and kill a dude, you know. But it's the really odd behavior. That is what separates a self-defense case from someone seemingly wanting to kill. She actually started dancing in the interrogation room. Or how about her singing and seemingly praising your own actions? That was the problem for the then 21 year old.

I don't know if anyone will ever want to marry me if they know that I killed a boyfriend and felt. I can't even imagine what people are going to say about me. What are you to think about? Now here's a good question. I had to go to jail. Can you shower there? Or do you just get really dirty? I think they let you show up there.

Really? I'm pretty sure. I have to shower in front of people. Oh. Oh, my God. Idea. But it's how she processed the shooting in that interrogation room, this kind of stream of thought seemingly justifying her actions

that was really important for her case. I'm not your typical murder. No, not the one that you see him. He said, you just the hillbilly from Kentucky. And I am. If I, the hillbilly came out of me, I feel really bad about it because I really. loved him, but he was so obese to me a day, and then the recent past, it's like, I feel like

that's evil of me in my heart, because I was raised really, really Christian, and it's a sin, you know, and however it happens, I'd consider it murder, even if it wasn't something, you know? Like, I can be sitting here, like, oh, I hope Ryan's family doesn't hate me. Their son, Cynthia, their son beat a girl who weighs him. 85 times less than him and drug her around his house. Pulled me by the ponytail of my hair. He deserved it. He deserved it. Part of me does it feel bad about me. Yeah. Part of me does, you know what I mean? Like, part of me is like, he hit me a game through me. You just don't treat a woman like that. I was like begging him to stay in the relationship

and be with me because I knew that we once really love each other, you know, right? told me that you loved me and wanted to be with me. I guess somewhere along the way that grew to hate, he was screaming how much he had. But you get to the point where you've had enough, you know, and I think I was there, I was there. I was at that point where I had had enough of the abuse. I'd had enough of the torment.

I had enough. And I can't believe I did it. Yeah, I think you are. I think anybody you know if they know that. I mean, look at me, like, I'm motivated, I'm educated. I love people. Like, degrees and counseling psychology, you know? Mm-hmm.

I want to help people. I don't want to hurt people. It's really good. I'm like that. Pushed around. Literally picked up and thrown and treated. and like pretty much beaten. I didn't do anything out of like malicious intent, you know, like I didn't do anything that would cause.

I feel like if someone else was in the room and they watched it go down, they would have been like good for her. So what happens? She gets charged with murder. 2015, she goes on trial, argue self-defense. toxic relationship, he was abusive, that he was violent with her that night. That was the defense's argument. Prosecution claim, no, this was a cold-blooded killing.

She did it out of anger. Didn't like the idea of Ryan moving on. The jury finds her guilty of murder. Sentenced to 40 years in prison with the possibility of parole in 20 years. It's not the end of the story. What happens? Her conviction gets overturned the following year because a juror apparently failed to disclose they had a felony conviction on their record.

That's a big no-no. meaning that juror legally couldn't serve on the jury. So she gets a new trial. Retrial 2018. Now the defense switches it up. They're not really arguing self-defense anymore so much as extreme emotional disturbance as a result of the alleged abuse by Ryan. Huber's even took the stand this time around.

But in the end, once again, she was convicted of murder. And now she was sentenced instead of 40 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 2032. Now I go to one of the most disturbing and graphic confessions in an interrogation room that I can recall in recent history. That of Taylor Shibisness. Back in 2022, out in Wisconsin, this young woman was arrested and put in an interrogation room. Why? Because she was suspected of not only strangling 24-year-old Shad Therian with a metal chain, and I'm sorry that I have to say this, but I have to. She was also accused of sexually abusing his body and then dismembering His own mother came home to find her own son's blood-drenched head in a bucket in the family basement.

I wish this wasn't real, but it was. Now we go to the interrogation. Did Shibisness deny this? Did she wave her arms and say, what's going on? I'm completely innocent. I'm being framed. No. She basically says, we had kinky sex.

Things maybe went a little too far in an apparent meth-infused stupor. So that he was going to, though? How was that part of the... I thought that was the thing. And that's my arm, I'm just like, I think I went a little too far because, like, I was blacking out while I was doing it, right? And then, like, I looked at him.

He was very purple. I'm like, I don't know if he's fucking... Because he's good, he's good, but then, like, when I woke up, like, you know, while, like, during the black arm moment, like, Like he was coughing up blood, I don't know. I just think I'm going on. And then she says she cut up his body and was sexually abusing it at the same time.

When did you start, you know, cutting up his body? Wow. I almost started away out. And it's gotten at the same time. Okay. But what about the rest of his body parts? Did I think all day? Did you?

I was getting pissed off at the December. found some drugs. Did you think of a lot of it would have? Yeah, it was just like I was not in and out. I was not in and out. I guess you're kind of stupid, kind of not in and out. Have you taken the other drugs? I should have, I should have took drugs.

I should have probably would help. But I didn't. So you just remember the body too? Yeah. What do you do with the body parts? Oh, they're on, yeah. Someone? They're like, um, yeah.

Yeah. Basement, upstairs. In the basement. I was in the room. And then, um, I know I forgot the head. I wanted to head. Did you bring anything with the name? Yeah, it's in the van.

What? It's, um, what is it? What is it? A foot, maybe. What? I think it's a foot. A foot in the other man? A lake, maybe.

I just, I'm gonna bring it all them. Then I'm like, man, this is messy, so then I just left it. I got lazy. Okay. I got lazy and that's what I did it so long. Okay. So there's going to be, it'd be a foot or leg in the van. And then, what do you do with the head?

I forgot that that was in the van, so, uh, yeah. Would you do with the head? The head I put it in that bucket, that black bucket. Black bucket? With a blanket out of top. Okay. And then what is, right? Leave the head?

I'm sorry, but this is right by the stairs. I'm sorry, but this is what we're dealing with. Again, just admitting to killing him, abusing his dead body, dismembering him, that is something else. And this interview, which apparently lasted hours, continues on with Shibisnes then in a different jumpsuit. You know, what do you think should happen to something like this to somebody else? I don't know. I just need prison time. I don't know.

You know what Chibis also asked? I mean, process this one. She asked police if they found all the body parts. So, yeah, going through the process of looking. Did you remove any other, you need to have the heart and not let it off with the lungs? Do you remove all that from a chest cavity? Are you leaving in there? It could be in there.

remember or? They're all on plastic bags. Separ bags or one Vig bag? They're all on separate bags or longer bags? Oh. It's fine. Longed to be a little. First of all, I'm going to say this.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. The investigators are amazing here. Staying cool, calm, collected, able to process and retrieve this information. Well, guess what happened? She was convicted. She pleaded not guilty.

by reason of insanity. And under Wisconsin law, insanity means you're not legally responsible if due to a mental condition, you couldn't appreciate the wrongfulness of what you did or conform your behavior to the law. And despite this interview, right, despite how seemingly insane this crime was, crazy this crime was, a Wisconsin jury didn't buy it. Only took about an hour for them to find her guilty of intentional homicide, abuse of a corpse, and third-degree sexual assault. They also determined she wasn't insane when she committed this crime and a judge sentenced she business to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Next up, going to Medford, Oregon.

For all the evidence that I gave you guys right there on a silver platter, right there down to the last detail, down to the last detail, not one thing missing. Hmm? Here's the thing. All list, I step by step. Even a third grader could read how easy that was. Okay, so the guy in this interrogation room is Russell Jones. As you can see, let's just say, unique individual at best.

So, we can do this the nice way and we negotiate. Or we can do it the hard way and I can release my bi-book. polar. I'm sorry, buddy, but I eat high school bullies. Yeah, he's having this whole conversation alone in the interrogation room, seemingly trying to communicate with police who he believes are looking in. By the way, yes, they were. I'm not demanding.

I'm asking nicely as a kind civilian that also knows how to manipulate cops. I know everything that I'm saying is being recorded and I'm doing it on purpose. I can easily turn the speaker off. Then you guys will come in thinking I'm a loony because you don't hear me. So we can do this the nice way and we negotiate. Or we can do it the hard way and I can release my bipolar. Which actually you don't really want that. Make a deal.

or I let out my bipolar. Your choice. So why is you there? Well, someone's missing. Aaron Fryer, the father of then 15-year-old Ellie Fryer. Ellie Friar is my client, my protectee. You are to release her to me. Oh, I say no more.

You see, Aaron Friar disappeared from his home, and police responded to a welfare check. neither Aaron nor Ellie are there. They would find blood in the house, so evidence of a crime, they end up finding his car. Again, no sign of Aaron. But then a short time later, Ellie, Russell Jones, the guy we're talking about, and Ellie's boyfriend, Gavin McFarland, are all seen walking down the street together. So authorities pick them up, and this is why Jones finds himself in the interrogation room. You want the whole story?

Because I did miss a few parts. You want the whole story? Ellie and Gavin are to be put in this room. And I'll give you a total of, uh, hmm. Let's set our clock, shall we? Now, despite his ramblings, like, oh, I don't know, this. Here's the thing. I'm not the one with the donut fetish.

With coffee to go with it. Give a cup of donut and he'll want a coffee to go with it. Give a mouse a cookie and he'll want a glass of milk. Give a mousse and muffin and he'll want something else. But here's my favorite one. What is it when a cop car is towed by a tow truck? When investigators speak to him, that's when the confession comes in about what happened. to Aaron.

Now, I think what you originally told us that his body was still twitching when you got there. Yeah, because all the gases and stuff of, like not, he was dead. Gavin checked his pulse and everything. What we're learning is something that Ellie has been wanting to happen for a while, and that those three of you guys have been having those conversations. I was not in the planning of killing him. That was not my idea. So he ends up telling detectives that he was part of this plan to rescue Ellie from her father,

that there was this belief, according to him, that Aaron was sexually abusing Ellie, although to be clear, there was no definitive evidence of that in the end. We've been talking about, like, moving her out several weeks, like she said. And so we got all this stuff backpack by backpack. and whatever we could carry in small bags. And then the big finale was to make it look like he kidnapped her. Put him in a car in the passenger seat, Gavin would like tied to the seat.

And then Gavin would drive over state line to California. Killing was not my idea at all. We were supposed to try and find chloroform and knock them out and then probably put him in the trunk. But we couldn't find any chloroform because it's not online anymore. He said that he didn't like it and he was not happy with the text either. And... What text?

The text that Ellie sent that he took a screenshot of that said that our first that said that her father tried to sexually. Okay. Was he upset about that? Yes. Were you upset about that? Being a protector of females, yes. Okay.

And if anyone tried to do that to my daughter, I'd probably grab a shotgun too. Okay. He claims they go to the house in the middle of the night, and that is when things go sideways. So we headed over. We waited across the street down the alley. We were waiting there till she texted. saying that he's asleep or whatever I don't know. And I don't know what she texted him.

So I started wanting to head over and right when I wanted to head over, she texts. So it's almost like she read my mind. And so we headed over. He went through the gate because we were going to go through. We'll talk about here again. Gavin. Okay. And he went through the gate.

He went through the gate, went through her window. I followed shortly after. I stayed at the window. We were loading bags out and stuff. And we got all the bags loaded out, and she said that she's going to grab the keys and pull the car around. While Gavin, I say, talks to the guy, but that's far from. and then she made sure that her sisters were in their room

that way they, because they're still young, so it would scar them. Did you ever come through the window? No. No, I only went through the front door. Afterwards? Yeah, after the beating. Okay. So earlier at this point, what you told us was this whole gun thing?

Yeah. Did that happen? No. No? I just wanted to make it look like, He was a good guy. And he's a good guy, trust me. Now did you know to come in afterwards? Because she told me that she's going to pull the car around, and then, well, he's taking care of business.

And then I hear the loud thuds. And she told me, okay, time to go in the front door. Did you ever actively agree with Ellie and Gavin to cause any harm to? Um, actively agree. Knowingly agree. Knowingly agree. To harm? Yes. To kill. No. Police end up finding Aaron Fryer's body near where his car was recovered. Blunt forced trauma injuries beaten to death. And they find a bat in the tree.

You showed me the baseball bat in the tree. And did Ellie throw that? Yes. Okay. And it's a pretty good throw. And so I was going to say that's just a long way. Yeah, so in the end, they were all charged in connection with Aaron's murder. This idea seemingly to have Ellie run off with Gavin, lots of speculation about whether she was in fact the mastermind behind all of this. In the end, Ellie Fryer, she pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, sentenced to 25 years in prison. Gavin McFarlane pleads guilty and a sentence to 25 years to life for murder and conspiracy.

And Russell Jones pleads no contest to conspiracy to commit murder. sentenced to 15 years in prison. Okay, over now to the story of babysitter Lindsay Parton, out of Butler County, Ohio. So she found herself in an interrogation room after three-year-old Hannah Weschy collapsed at her home back in 2018. Now, there are a few different conversations with police, including this incredibly difficult moment to hear. Yeah, that sounds really good. Whatever happened to her happened this morning.

Oh, my God. It's not from the fall from yesterday. She has a severe, severe, gravely. Oh, my God. So what we need is the truth from you. Yeah.

We need to know how this happened that way we can treat her. I'm absolutely telling you the truth. The way it's looking right now is that this has happened at your house because we need to find out I swear God, I'm telling you the exact truth. We walked in the house and she said.

She did not walk. She did not talk with this type of injury. She did. I promise you she meant. We walked right in the house. Excuse me. Me and her. Me and her.

She walked in herself. Walked in herself. They're saying that's not possible. Oh my God. He watched her walk in. With the injury, there's no way that she could have walked. So, like you said, we're going to be straight up with you. I'm straight up with you.

I'm going to get up with you. I'm dead serious. This is no. She walked right in my house. Okay. And within 30 seconds that I swear, I'm not lying. I would never really have my life. My kids don't even get spanked. Okay, so you wouldn't.

Who would? I don't know. Okay. I believe you're not being honest with us, and you need to complain of it. Because they're going to be a part of this. Do you understand me? Okay, as one mother to another, you can't get it.

You can't joke around about this. You can't hide behind it. You need to come. I have the best intelligence. What's the way on is what you know. Hannah Weschie ended up dying. When you had doctors telling you this child was beat, this is abuse. They just pulled a plug on this child.

This child is dead. So we can't get any more serious than what we're at, Lindsay. No, we can't. That's what I'm saying. So investigators are trying to figure out if Lindsay parties, and did something to her. And at first, she's adamant that she doesn't spank, that she's not physical with Hannah. She tries to explain away all of this little girl's injuries by saying, oh, she fell, raised questions about whether Hannah's father Jason Weschie was somehow responsible.

Turns out, none of that was adding up. So this is her left cheek? Yeah. I feel like she was, so. When she walked in the front, when she walked in the back door, the garage door, it is the back of the house. What is it? Thursday. Thursday. Okay. I never seen that before, so I don't know.

But I feel like, because the way she, when she looked up at me and said, but even her did not, and couch, it was pink her jacket off and she fell, she fell on that side, the other side. And there was like a pink cart laying there, and she scraped her face on that, but I'm not sure. This is bruised on both sides. Yeah. There's a piece of cartilage in the ear. So, you know, this is a one continuous bruise, basically.

Yeah. You know, it's two bruises. It didn't bruise through. It's something on the front and the back. It was like. Yeah, I've never seen that. Yeah, my industry ears. What about that?

You can't scratch here. So when people fall, you're going to have bruising along the sharp points. Okay. Now it's going to be this point, none here, and then some here. Or if you're over here, you're going to have some here. And she could. I don't know.

I was just coming out of the door and you fall straight forward. You're not going to have bruising over here and over here and none of the nose. Yeah. And the bruising wouldn't have been no bruising. That's a soft spot that your body naturally body and actually protects. Yeah. What's tough. Yeah.

And that's what we're getting. That's why we wanted to come down and fill in some of these holes. Yeah. Because, I mean, honestly, you've been pretty hot. this morning, a lot of these aren't added up to fall in the gravel. Yeah. With it being over here and down here. And then these, I mean, she would have had to fall in some perfectly aligned gravel.

And then we get to this moment in the interrogation. I slipped on her blanket. I opened the door. And we both went down. And she hit that constant step really hard. I was on her head I was holding her

on the left side and I slipped in her side why would you mind that I didn't want to be in trouble I mean I don't know

because I have made kids at home I don't my husband sued I don't know I know who it is

a kiss anymore then we get to the admissions the admissions that change everything because Lindsay Parton goes from I wouldn't touch Hannah to this

How does this happen? I thought it was I had. With what? My hand. Open clothes. What caused that? She took all of the... She took all the hands and squirted into the toilet while I was looking.

That's frustrating. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah. What else did she done that day? Is this like a culmination of things building up? Yeah. What did it go? Yeah.

Is it maybe this week, this week, early and this week? Yeah. Okay. But I didn't think that for her or really didn't know that. I mean, kids are tough. And you're not in it. Trust me. You know, as well as anybody else does, you're very resilient and you're not going to know. I was going to be on the chin.

I really did not hit her on the chin. I don't know what I'm not saying. Right. Yeah. She can talk back to you? Yeah. She doesn't? Not a little bit.

Does she not listen to you? Like, is she, if she, if she watches on the show and you tell her to do it? something? Does she not listen? How do you get her attention when she doesn't listen? Hannah got to listen to buddy. Because she's not eat well. No, she eats great. She eats all day home. Tell us what happened here. Tell us about that.

This was not a hole in the drive way. We know what this is consistent with. Yeah. Look at me. We do this for a living. No, I know. This is not the first three-year-old that we're staring at the pictures about, okay? We have exactly what calls this. this. Okay, exactly. It's not a fall. If you know what caused this, just like you do

all costs this, okay? So what calls this? Ask you're on the gym for doing it, so it's the same thing. Okay, so this is the same incident. Yeah. How it's about this? How did, because this is not a smack. I just want to tell you right now, this is not a deep-boned contusion from an open-hand instrument. Okay? Knowing that, I didn't. Listen, listen, like that. Knowing that we do that, what happened here?

It was the same thing. It was the same incident. Tell us, though, what happened? This way, these specific bruises. When she, I caught her doing the ketchup, you know, I took it away, and I put her on the body, because I think she had to go pee anyway. I said, Hannah, you can't do the ketchup. She slopped around the side of the head and he went like that.

Close. Yeah, like that. How many times? Don't say it longs. Yeah. Oh, okay. Does he give you permission to discipline? Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Does he give you permission to discipline? Yeah. I mean, spang, okay. I don't really sing. I don't even know why I was not about any. So these were closed in this, like upper fence.

Yeah. Okay. And this was another hand in smack? Was it really looking? Yeah. Yes. She didn't want him to go to work. work and he's like I gotta go I gotta go so he rushed out and I was like hey you can't do that

and I thought you go to work you showed her yeah and she's falling unconscious yeah well not necessarily she didn't walk out unconscious she just she kind of was she crying we have her dad yeah no not crying just how like why yeah yeah um I kind of I shook her and I remember came up and squeezing her and we did ball But she did ask me for dinner and couch before I'm... How hard did you shake her? I mean, what was she? I know.

She was in trouble. She was in trouble. Yeah. And you were angry. Yeah. Because she, because he asks her every morning to not do that. He asks her. How can't you talk about you?

How many times? You're looking at 12 hour day of you. Yeah. She stopped doing it in Florida. Did she cry? No. She didn't make her cry? No.

Okay. Then I'm not. I picked her up with the blanket and that's when we fell. Then all that happened. So you take her from dad, set her down. He set her down first. She's quiet after dad. You can pick her up, close the door.

Dad goes. Yes. And is that when you shook her? How are you holding her when you shake her? Outside of her. She's standing up? Okay. In front of her.

You have face to face? Okay, sure. Your hand through anger? No, not necessarily. Just frustrated because she knows that it's late and he needs to go. And when he says that. And it happens every morning. Not every morning, but quite a lot.

To be frustrating. Yeah, at this point, because she knows. Always so difficult to listen to. Now, Parton testified in her own defense at trial. You didn't know that admitting to shaking Hannah would get you in trouble. No, I didn't think it would. But she was ultimately convicted of murder, manslaughter, and child endangerment charges after an eight-day trial in 2019,

and she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years. How do I do an episode on shocking interrogation confessions without talking about Chris Watts? I don't like talking about Chris Watts, but this is one of the most, Haunting examples. In August of 2018, there were the brutal murders that took place in Frederick, Colorado, of a pregnant mother named Shann Watts, her two daughters, four-year-old Bella, three-year-old Celeste. Police sit down with the husband, the father, Chris Watts. You see, Shanan had returned home late from a business trip. Her friend got worried when Shann didn't respond to any messages or phone calls. Chris said he had seen his wife at the house around five in the morning, been at work at an oil company all day. He was adamant. He didn't know where his wife or children were. And he ends up failing a polygraph test. It was completely clear that you were not honest during the testing. I think you already know that.

He did not pass the polygraph test. Okay. So now we need to talk about what actually happened. I feel like you're probably ready to do that. I didn't lie to you on that polygraph, I promise. Chris, I never stopped. It's time. I just stop for me.

Take a deep breath. I want you to take a deep breath right now. There's a reason you feel sick to your stomach? And Watts continued to deny that he was deceptive, that he was hiding something. But then at one point, he asks to speak to his father. And I talk confessions, right? That's the episode. According to Watts, he claims this is what he tells his father. He had been having an affair.

Talk with Shanan about a possible separation. Says she became enraged, told his father he went downstairs. And when he came back up, Shanan had allegedly. suffocated the two little girls. And Watts says he then strangled her and took all the bodies to a remote oil storage site being used by his employer. That Chenann was buried in a shallow grave. Bella and Celeste's bodies were found in crude oil tanks nearby. And the audio of Watts' confession to his father's hard to hear because Watts seems to be whispering and trailing off at times. But here you go. Not behind. Watts was charged, not just with Shann's killing, but all the kids.

Charged with three counts of first-degree murder, a awful termination of the presidency of and three counts of tampering and he ended up putting guilty to nine charges and a sentence to five life sentences without the possibility of parole in exchange for the death penalty being taken off. Hey, after he was sent to prison, Watts finally revealed to authorities what seemingly really happened that night. least this could be the real story, very different than when he told his father's. He said after the argument about divorce, he claims he then strangled Shanan to death. And when four-year-old Bella walked into the room, he told them, Mommy don't feel good.

Wrapped Shanan's body in his sheep. Put the body in his truck, drove it in the three girls, his daughters, to the oil cell, where he smothered the children and made the body. I don't see it. Every time I see you, I don't know how it's good. I'm being a dad with this part of my life. It's not to go away. I think that's the hardest part for us, Chris, is we see those videos. We see that love that you had for your girls.

Like, it's obvious to us, and even to us, it's hard for us to understand how a dad who's given piggyback rides and, you know, making snacks and watching princess movies and those kinds of things. How you get to that point, you know? I don't know. It was just like something else was controlling me that day. I didn't know control over what I was like to fight back. Yeah. Incredibly hard to listen to and especially chilling considering we may never really know what happened.

It's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should your podcasts. You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock. And if you want to follow me, X, Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody.