Law&Crime Sidebar - Tennessee Woman Gunned Down and Dumped by ‘Friends’ in Disturbing Murder Plot

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

A 24-year-old Tennessee woman was allegedly gunned down and dumped in a Knoxville park by people she considered her friends on July 29. Authorities said a jogger found Alma Delia Matias’s body just hours after police found her stranded car set on fire. Four arrests were made after numerous pieces of evidence were recovered, including security footage showing Matias at an apartment complex with the suspects before her murder. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy breaks down the disturbing murder plot with retired NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at https://bit.ly/3rkw6gnLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: 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.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A beautiful young woman dumped on the side of a road in Tennessee, joggers find her body. Now four people are charged in connection with her murder. Introducing the next generation of pepper spray. Meet Palm, a new maximum strength self-defense product with a patented modular design, revolutionizing the self-defense industry. Whether you're carrying the unit on your keys, snapping the unit on your backpack,

your keychain, or carrying the unit in your pocket. Palm is the perfect everyday carry accessory. Palm's patented flip-top safety prevents any accidental misfire and its maximum strength formula provides you with the necessary range and capacity to bring peace of mind to you and your loved ones quality safety performance peace of mind learn more at palm pepper spray.com welcome to law and crime's sidebar podcast i'm anginette levy surveillance video and joggers appear to be the keys in solving the murder of alma matias in tennessee sheriff's officials outside of knoxville say surveillance footage captured matthias going into an apartment complex in the early evening hours

of July 29th and then going back out to her car later that night investigators say a woman moved Matias's car sometime in the overnight hours three people are seen carrying something large wrapped in a blanket to Matias's car after that two people are on video with Matias's car at a gas station filling up a gas can sheriff's officials say joggers found Matias's body on a roadside the next morning and that her car was found burning that very same day Three men and a woman now face charges in Matthias' death. They are Jason Young, Rontrell Allen, Draquisha Ryan's, and Tyrone Mack. Young and Mack face charges of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence.

Allen is charged with arson, and Ryan's is charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact. Ryan's told investigators she heard a gun shot in her apartment and then turned to see Young with a gun in his hand. Mattias was also on the ground. that corroborated that account of what happened. WATE TV reports that Young was overheard saying that Matias may have been trying to set him up. One thing that is interesting in this case, detectives used facial recognition software to help identify some of the suspects. Joining me to discuss the very sad case of Alma Matias is Joe Jackalone. He's a retired sergeant with the NYPD, handled homicide investigations for years, and a guest here, often on,

Sidebar, Joe, welcome back. Good to see you, Ingenit. This is a really sad case. This young woman, Alma, Matthias, goes to this apartment complex on July 29th. I assume she thinks she's going in there to see friends, and she ends up being shot to death. And then her body, according to law enforcement, is wrapped in a blanket. She's put in her own vehicle and dumped on the side of the road, and then four people end up being charged in different levels of culpability. Your first impressions of this case?

Well, we see how things like video surveillance can put these cases together pretty quickly. We're also seeing now some new technology creeping in on this investigation in regards to facial recognition. So it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. The facial recognition aspect of this, because that can be controversial in some circles. There have been civil liberties groups who say the use of facial recognition technology can be, there can be a bias in it. with African Americans, that you can possibly make a misidentification using it. So they recommend you have corroborating evidence and that you don't use just this as the tool to charge people.

You know, you shouldn't be doing it based on facial recognition alone. What are your thoughts about that technology? I mean, it's relatively new. If facial recognition is new, it's going to be controversial. Anything that's new is always controversial, especially in this age of criminal justice reform. So we're going to hear about a lot of these things. But when you take a look at this case, there is an ear witness, an eyewitness. We have video surveillance, which acts as direct evidence, showing, you know,

for people taking something out of the house that could be a body, could, you know, could be something else. But, you know, they find her body on the side of the road. Now the thing is, does the carpet or the blanket that was used, does it match the one that's found in the video surveillance, right? So there's a lot of different other things working at play here. I don't see this is going to be an issue. but this is what the prosecutor and the defense attorney going to argue about once they get to this once they get to the courtroom yeah surveillance footage security camera footage really seem to be the key in this case because you you have alma walking in on video according to law enforcement

you have her walking back out to her vehicle going back in and then you have these you know some of these people actually recorded carrying something wrapped in a blanket out there law enforcement says it was poor Alma's body. And then she's carried away in her own vehicle. So the surveillance footage these days can be just so incredibly damaging. It's hard to walk out of your front door and not see a camera somewhere in your neighborhood. Yeah, you have to think of it that way. Anytime you leave your house, the only place you have total privacy is inside your home. As soon as you walk out, there's a good possibility you're going to be on video, whether it's a door cam from across the street, around the corner.

And these systems are pretty cheap. You can buy it and having a smartphone and being able to do this is pretty simple to set it up. And it seems like the technology has, you know, it's grown by leaps and bounds over the last several years. I feel like now you can buy these cameras and set them up for under $100. Yes, the price drops have been incredible in these things, which makes it affordable for just about any homeowner or even a renter. So it's an important aspect. And, you know, when people now install security systems in your house, a lot of these places install a free door cam with it. So even if, you know, you didn't want it, you got it. And it becomes a real valuable police tool for when they're doing their canvases, when they're trying to identify suspects in a particular crime. Something that's really struck me also about this case, Joe, is the fact that we have two people who are charged. Obviously, we have people charged in this case with different levels of culpability. according to police.

But we have people in the apartment who say they were in the apartment when this happened and that they turn around and they see one of their buddies with a gun in his hand and Alma's laying on the floor after they hear a gunshot. So we have co-conspirator, if you would, accessory after the fact, a defendant's kind of turning on their friends and ratting out their friends. How important is that in a case like this? It's very important, right? So there is no honor among thieves.

So when the law enforcement, you know, when they make the arrest, they separate everybody. They're going to interview them separately so that they can make statements or they can say things such as, you know, your buddy rolled over on you. It is a strategy that has been used in law enforcement a long time. It's very effective. And here's the deal. The person who has been charged with first degree murder, which generally carries a death penalty, I can tell you right now, the other three don't want any part of that. So, you know, they're looking at maybe jail time, but they're also probably looking to make a deal to cut some of that jail time or get no jail time at all, specifically for like the unlawful disposing of the body charges. Yeah. Young and Mack are the ones charged with first degree murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with corpse, tampering with corpse, tampering with corpse, tampering with corpse, tampering with corpse, tampering with so weird about this is, those two are in big, big trouble.

Allen is charged with arson, Ryan is charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact. The other thing that I find so weird about this is the fact that they used gasoline. They're on camera, according to law enforcement, purchasing gasoline, and then they set almost car on fire. People think oftentimes burning evidence is the way to get rid of it. But, I mean, you're maybe drawing more attention to the fact that something is going on here. You know, usually you're setting something like a car on fire. You're going to see big plumes of black smoke and things like that. Right.

When you see, as an investigator, when you see somebody set something on fire like this, it screams amateur. And it also, you know, because why? Everybody who sees that fire is going to call 911 because they don't know exactly what's going on. The fire department showing up, the police department showing up. And then, of course, the police apartment's going to run the VIN number of the license place. They're going to find out who owns the car. And it starts this huge investigation.

So it's like setting a red flare up in the sky saying, And, you know, here's a burning car. It's part of a crime. Let's see what you can find. Well, it's an incredibly sad case. Thoughts and prayers go out to Alma, Matias' family. This was just a really terrible thing. And these people accused in this crime, according to what we're seeing, really left

a digital trail of breadcrumbs and a lot of other breadcrumbs, too. So we'll continue to follow the case and see how it ends up. Joe, thanks so much. Thanks for having me. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar Podcast. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. Just make sure you hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time. binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.