Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Florida Wife's Murder Exposes Husband's Secret Life

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

A Florida man frantically called 911 after returning to his Florida home to find his wife bleeding out in their master bathroom. David Tronnes told police the mother of his child, Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, was unresponsive in the water-filled tub. When officers arrived minutes later, Shanti’s body appeared to be completely dry. When detectives started investigating the crime, they uncovered details about Tronnes' secret life behind closed doors. Find out what happened to Shanti in this true-crime documentary episode of “Prime Crime with Jesse Weber.” If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/PrimeCrime Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lcprimecrime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On prime crime. I know she's not freezing. Who is it that's not freezing? My wife. The untimely death of a young mother sends ripples of sorrow through an upscale suburb. I tried to pick her up. She's stiff.

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Investigators unearth the truth, they discover layers of deception, obsession, and and lurking secrets. Shanti was ambush, was blindside, never knew what was coming. He was a very great woman. Everything about her was outstanding. I could never expect anything to happen. Hey there everybody, I'm Jesse Weber, and welcome to Prime Crime, where we break down the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country.

In April of 2018, a young mom in Orlando, Florida suddenly dies under very strange circumstances. Is this an accident or something more? And David calls me, what is? Hello? I'm sorry. She's not breathing. I'm trying to do CPR. I can't get hurt.

Okay. Listen to me. And who is it? This is David. John. Okay. Your name is David. Okay.

Who is it? It's not breathing. My wife. Okay. I need to take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. That's the voice of 49 years. old David Trannis. He calls 911 to report he came home to find his wife, 39-year-old

Shanti Cooper Tronis, dead, face down in the bathtub in the garage apartment of the couple's upscale home. What happened? I'm proud of her in the shower. And she passed away. Is she awake right now? No. Is she breathing? I can't wake her up. I tried to do the PR. I can't get her to breathe.

Can you get her out of the shower? I pulled her higher. And you don't know what happened or when anything happened? Back on April 24th of 2018, David Tronis called 911, seemingly hysterical. Has she been sick or something? Yeah. She's been sick, yes. Oh, God, what happened, baby?

Baby, baby, baby. She had had appendicitis a couple months earlier and had surgery that she had some difficulty recovering from. First responders think that they're going to be coming into an accidental death or a fall or something like that. Shanti was found on the floor next to her bed. They can just immediately tell that this is not a fall. Rigger Mortis had already started to set in.

Her right arm was up unsupported, up off the ground. She was lying on her back, and she was lying on a mattress pad that was full of blood. She had some very unusual... abrasions on her in very unusual places, on her hands and her knees. She'd been beaten and strangled. She's pronounced deceased immediately. The attack was so brutal that it blew a hole in her cheek, ripped off portions of her ear, fractured the back of both of her eye sockets, and broke her nose.

She was manually strangled. Shanti was ambush, was blindsided, never knew. what was coming. And this unexpectedly brutal scene leads detectives to believe something more is going on. One of the things we both noticed about the bed, not only was it hastily made and the sheets were different colors. They were white, but they almost looked like brand new sheets on the bed that were crisp white and still had the creases from the box. There was cash in plain view, her purse was open in plain view, and no credit cards were taken, no cash was taken. No cash was taken.

and nothing else of value was removed. Shanti was a 39-year-old, very beautiful mother. She was a professional woman. She had worked for a software company that built manufacturing software and then started her own business. She had a nanny that would assist her not only with Jackson, but also with her business. She had spent time with her family.

She also loved her job. She loved what she did. Can't tell you what she did at all. But she definitely loved her family. She loves our dogs. She loves theme parks. We always go to the theme parks, you know, watch twice a month. She was scared to go on a lot of rides.

She was chicken out like four times, but she still went. You know, when work was done and we were able to relax, it was relaxing. Barbecues on the lake, just hanging out with friends. Their kids, Jackson, nothing crazy. Just when it was time to relax, that's what we wanted. to do. No matter what kind of day she was having, she'd always come a smile on her face. She wouldn't let the bad things that happened that day affect the moment.

She was a very great woman and everything about her was outstanding. She was just overall, the best mother that anyone could ever ask before. Now, detectives need more answers as to what happened to Shanti, and they want to hear from David Trannis. So he's brought in to the police station to talk. Who are you going on here? No, I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. And when did you meet to war?

He was 2013, five months after I met Shanty. Did you meet her here or there? I met online. You're not lying. Okay. All right, I know. Take your time. He worked in Minneapolis as an engineer.

David ultimately was divorced and met Shanti online. Their relationship evolved very quick and led to David moving from Minnesota. from Minnesota to Orlando to be with Shanti. You said something about having a great weekend. Shanti had her appendix out on February, I wanna say 23rd. And she's been in a lot of pain. I'm sorry I can't talk about her.

And I was never been more in love. You were so happy. Shanti was a hardworking mother. They were both coming out of previous. marriages back when they met. By all accounts, it seems like her and David were very much, you know, in love or, you know, in that sort of honeymoon phase. Hi, family. My dad has to go. He's right here. My dad could talk early on his job. Okay. I just probably said, I don't know. And you'll find out. Love you, Donna. Bye. Thank you so much, X. Have a good night tonight, okay? Yeah, love you.

David worked back in Minnesota. Since he moved down to Florida in 2013, he didn't work at all. Her background was in finance and accounting. She had her own company. She was very successful. She had been previously married to Jackson's father, Jim Cooper. They had been divorced about a year or two at the time that she met David. She had recently divorced Jim, Jackson's dad. It was beyond echermonious. I mean, they were at each other's, you know, for a while. At each other how? vindictive and mean, nasty things to Jackson, that kind of thing. You always, in any investigation, start at your inner circle, and you work your way out. We don't believe she was alive on Tuesday morning, so it was important where Jim was the night before.

Jim ended up picking up Jackson and bringing him to the house. He shows up and there's all these police there, so we added quite a long, extensive interview with Jim. we were able to vet everything that he told us. So we absolutely had to rule him out. On that day that it happened, there was almost a chance that I didn't pick him up. He would have been in that home when this happened. And I can't imagine. Police know Jim didn't hurt Shanti.

The question is, who did? To answer that, let's go back to understanding David Tronis' timeline of events. Tell me about Monday night, what happened? happened. We were getting ready to go to bed at midnight. He sleep separately. Most of the time, she has some really severe sleep back. So where would you sleep? The dancers on the couch. They wanted a complete renovation of the main house, so they were living in the loft above the garage. So he would often sleep in the garage with the dogs. You wake up Tuesday morning, And what do you do?

The pool was full leaves from the magnolia. I know I cleaned the pool out. She said she was going to try to sleep in a little bit. So I don't. She came down after 7 o'clock probably. She said she wasn't feeling very well. She had chipped her tooth the day before. And she had made a dentist appointment for this morning.

But she said she wasn't sure if she wanted to go. And she came down again. I'm so sorry. He said she went back up and came down a second time, and then went back up and came down a third time around 9 in the morning, and still had not showered yet or was not ready to leave for her appointment. She has all this pain, and she just no-called and no-showed that appointment that she made the day before. That doesn't make any sense.

Do you see anyone at the park that you know? I don't. David said that Shanti went on with her day, He went on with his day by taking the dogs to a dog park and is unaccounted for for several hours. So you think you got home about what time? Too long. I put the dogs in.

I can't. I feed them. We have construction starting in a couple weeks, so I'm cleaning the courtyard. I cleaned the pool out again. What happens when you enter the home? Is anything unusual? I get here the water is running.

I just walk upstairs. I didn't hear her. She's not saying anything. Doesn't seem right. David told the police that at about 3 o'clock, he went upstairs and found Shanti face down in the bathtub. She's submerged partially on her legs is kind of sticking up and out a little bit.

The water in the tub was. Tinsed with her other. I didn't know what to do. At first I tried to do CPR. She was, she was stiff. I was losing it and I thought I was losing her. Her body is stiff. This is clearly a person that is beyond CPR.

Her clothing is wet? Yeah. She found cold. I tried to lift her head. She's had to be fighting. She has blood. I grabbed the bachelor's cover. I put it under her head.

I replaced her. He saw me, I started to cry. Somehow I'm still thinking that she's going to be okay. It is a chilling account, but upon a careful review of the details, a few things start to stand out. Coming up, detectives wonder, How could Shanti Cooper Tronis' body end up so battered if she had simply slipped and fell? Does her husband David know more than he's saying?

I think that you've told us a significant amount of information. You've been very cooperative. But I also think that you've left some stuff out. But there's something that happened between the two of you. Hey, everybody. We're going to get right back to the Tronis case in just a minute. But before we do, look, stories like this one, they make you real. realize that the world is not an easy place. It is not a safe place. In fact, one of the scariest things

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I didn't know what to do. April 2018, Orlando, Florida. 49-year-old David Trannis, a self-described contractor, says he found his wife of just one year, Shanti Cooper Tronis, dead after a fall in the couple's garage apartment bathroom where they'd been staying temporarily while their home was undergoing renovations. Here's the breezeway. Here is the house.

However, detectives quickly determine something about Shanti's death was not adding up. So the last communication in any way on the phone would have been Monday. And other than that, you would have been pretty much together. We're together all the time. All right. All right. This is hard because now I'm concerned that she wasn't okay when I left. And I wish I would have taken you the time to check on it.

Her iPhone last moved at about 11.30 p.m. on April the 23rd. Shanti was a busy businesswoman who was involved in lots of meetings and discussions and calls. And her phone remained in the same place on that nightstand the entire day. When was the last time you had telephone, text on any Facebook, any sort of communication via phone with Shanty? David Ford. He knows that Shanti is busy, but he also knows that Shanti has a broken two. But he never texts Shanti, never checks him for about four or five hours. David's cell phone is quiet and, in essence, dead to the world.

And one thing investigators quickly home in on is David and Shanty's living situation. We closed on the house on the world of 2015. We didn't move in right away. We took a few months to work on it. David was able to buy the house for $608,000 in cash. It's a historic home from the 1920s and became the focus of David's life through the renovating of the house.

So you closed in May of 2015 and you started doing work. Was it in the condition that it's in now? Was it under renovation or? It was fully leveled on. It was fully leveled on. It's an older Victorian style home, and shouldn't you want to completely open it up in concept? As we get into it, we found more and more issues.

You guys have completely cutted it down to the studs, pretty much. Yeah. As time progressed, there was a bunch of renovation plans. The entire living space of the house, you know, the kitchen, the living room, all of that was completely essentially destroyed. David's job basically was to be the contractor for this renovation. He had convinced her that he knew what he was doing. And after hiring and firing subcontractors for almost two years,

I think she realized he did not know what he was doing. So someone in the neighborhood had recommended to both of them that they call this particular builder who was on this TV show. I'm basically the general contractor for the project. I'm hiring subcontractors. And I hired a consultant to help us do that. And who is that? as he was Keith.

Keith does a TV show. In March, he asked us to be on the show. They had a meeting the week before her death, and she was dismissive. She did not want to come down to the pool area and meet with him. Maybe perhaps she wasn't as interested in doing the show as David was. When talking about that day and about Shanti and about their relationship, David was somewhat reserved when detectives would talk about.

things such as the house, his demeanor completely changes. He becomes very calm but engaged, animated, really wanting to talk about this house and the improvements and the role that he played. Has there been work crews at the house? We finished the demo and started the framing that you see in January, in November and December. It's been moving slowly, but it's We kept an open mind the entire time where the construction and the contractor is a possibility were the workers a possibility.

They followed up to see if there was an issue with potential transients in the area because there was a hospital nearby. They took DNA, they took latent prints, and ultimately none of that came back to anyone except for the people that lived in the home. So there was just no indication that this was some random stranger or anything like that.

David ends up making several strange comments about his relationship with Shanti that raises serious red flags. David was volunteering how much he and Shanti were in love and really wanted to paint a picture of a remarried couple who was blissfully happy

and talking about the rest of their lives. We just felt like a great rhythm and we were both really, really happy we were talking more. It was great. It was a great. I think it was the first night that she really enjoyed just being kind of out and relaxing a little bit. Since her surgery, I haven't had to have sex.

And she wanted to try that nice. He offered up to us without asking that they had been intimate on Saturday and again on Sunday. We both keyed in on that because we did not ask them about their sex life. I'm sitting there looking at him thinking, what is he trying to say? It was messy. It was very messy. So are you saying that blood is got somewhere?

It did get on the bed spread and it did get on the bed on the sheet. It was a very unusual statement. We tried to narrow down where he meant we would find blood on the bed. He just kept saying it was everywhere. It was everywhere. That was an indicator to us

that we needed to look further on that bed. Is there something? something covering that up now or no? We change the sheets. So there shouldn't be blood on the bed now? Or is there? There shouldn't be, or she was pleading whatever the time? I would guess that is blood there.

I would guess there is. I would guess there is still. We picked up the sheets and we went up to up. If you pull apart that interview and you look at the things that he said, he's trying to cover it up. He's trying to explain it away before we find it. They go back on multiple search. on multiple search warrants and they find blood on the bedrails.

It looks like it's been wiped on the visible side, but you can see where it had run down. It hadn't been wiped on the sort of the side that you wouldn't see just looking at it with a naked eye. So it's just one of the thousand little pieces that come together and paint a picture of a person who's not being truthful. Investigators know David Tronis isn't being 100% transparent with them, and they want to know why. You could give two shti about what happened to Shanty tonight. I told you she was murdered, murdered. You can't even fake it. That's how much you could give it.

Talk around in circles. Trust me, the evidence and her body speak for itself. And your story is BS. You either made a mistake. You're a cold body, Kim. Which one are you? It's April 2018. And homicide detectives in Orlando, Florida are questioning 49-year-old David Trannis over the suspicious death of his 39-year-old wife, Shanti Cooper Tronis.

He says he came home to find her dead in the bathtub, a standard slip-and-fall accident. But the evidence isn't adding up. Did you two argue? No, absolutely not. Did you harm Shanti in any way? Absolutely not. Did you choke her? Absolutely not.

Would you strangle her? Without question, then. Shanta did not fall and get those injuries. Okay. Without question. When was the last time that's where you argued? Very briefly on Saturday? If Jackson felt like you two argued about the house routinely, is that accurate or not?

I don't think most of the time that we're arguing about it. I can understand that might be his percent. be his perception. Has any fight ever turned physical between the two of them? No. There were fights and arguments about the home renovation and the money involved. And it was pretty clear there was a financial aspect to this. The injuries that this woman sustained absolutely 100%, in my opinion, not possible from a slip in a fall in a bathtub.

the bathtub. David reported that he found Shanti in the bathtub full of water and then took her out of the tub in order to give her CPR. There was no water anywhere. There was no water puddled on the bathroom floor. There was no water marks on the carpet where she would have been dragged from the bathroom. Using some luminescent chemicals, they were able to see that there had been blood in the tub up to a certain line. They were able to find some latent prints around the tub and on the doorframe that ultimately came back to either Shanti or to David. For you to see the significance of her injuries up close and personal like you did and come up with this concomaming theory that she fell and hit her head is just baffling to me that you thought we would believe that. You strangled her. There is no one home but you. This is not looking good for you.

I have never, ever, and would never ever search me. We always say the body doesn't lie, but people do. Her injuries and what had happened to her in that house was not lying to us. And the evidence doesn't lie, but clearly he was. Despite all of this, there's still not quite enough evidence to hold David Tronis. But months later, investigators learn there was a different side to different side to his life, one that few knew about. Stay your full name?

My name is Arthur Adams. We are now at the 7-Eleven. You work here? Yes. And you have a second job as well? Yes. There were definitely indicators to us that there was possibly trouble in the marriage. We learned from canvassing the neighborhood that David had a whole other life.

Where is that? A club Orlando. It's a gay man's... Jim Spa. Is David a member of the club? Yes. How many times in the last 18 months do you think you've seen David on average? Like at least twice a week.

And the last time you saw David at Club Orlando? Maybe five days before the murder. David's life was one of smoke and mirrors of using people, of denial of reality. David never referred to Shanti as his wife, but only his partner. This was something that stood out as being questionable. As we later investigated and found David's complete second life, including trips to the men's bath house just two miles down the street from their home, it definitely raised the suspicion of whether David did have a complete second life, unknown to Shanti.

Having a double life is not a crime, but it does lead investigators, to name David Tronis as their number one suspect in the brutal murder of his wife. Yet, something is still missing. The story of the sheets is the wildest story of my 19-year legal career. This Tronis case is very, very disturbing. And whenever I hear stories like this, I'm always asking myself, how well do you really know who's in your life? Who are you letting into your life?

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Truth Finder, by the way, can be used to look up information about all different kinds of people. You meet people you meet on social media, new dates, people you're buying or selling to online, the parents of your child's friend. Look, you can never be too careful. And here's the kicker. Right now, you can get 50% off of your first month of confidential background reports. Just go to truthfinder.com slash LC Prime Crime. What happened? Orlando detectives know there's still work to be done to nail David Tronis for the murder of his wife, Shanti Cooper Tronis, who he says was found dead in the bathtub.

And it all comes back to one key piece of evidence. Where's your wedding ring? Pardon me? Where's your wedding ring? Money. Mm-hmm. She has a wedding. She has a wedding band on her left hand?

Correct. So today she had on her wedding ring? Correct. One thing that the detectives noticed when they arrived on the scene that night was that Shanti didn't have her ring, and her ring was not accounted for. Shanti wore her wedding set every single day. So for her not to have it on, when we observe her body, there could have been a number of explanations for that.

When we asked David, he's saying it's on her finger, and we both knew it wasn't. Ultimately, we found it in his possession, in his bedroom, in a suitcase, at his mother's house. The first thing that came to my head was checkmate. We found the trophy that David kept from that day. Now, was it a remembrance of the relationship they had? Maybe.

Was it a remembrance of being able to to do and get away with this crime for months and months, I think that's also likely. With Holes and Trannis' story, forensic evidence, and a very telling crime scene, detectives have enough to arrest and charge David Tronis with first-degree murder. But it's something that happens nearly a year later that brings the case to a stunning conclusion. I got a phone call from David's criminal defense attorney. He realized that he had an item of physical evidence in his possession. He had an attorney pretty much the day after her body was discovered.

We put a camera on the house within a few days of her death. And the camera captured two private investigators, removing evidence from the house. One of the things we were looking for from the very beginning is what I like to call blood spatter at inception. So where did this event occur? And if there was blood on the mattress pad, there should be blood on the sheets. And there was no blood on the sheets on that bed. His first set of attorneys hired the private investigator

to remove the sheets from the home. The sheets had been laundered to the point where if you saw them on a search, you wouldn't think they were bloody. Once we got them, we spread them out and you can see blood spatter, likely where her pillow would have been. The Orlando Police Department, asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation about the concealing of this evidence.

And ultimately, decisions were made by the state attorney's office to not file charges against the initial defense attorneys. But David Tronis' case didn't happen right away, as his defense initially argued he was not competent to stand trial. It was extremely difficult for so long. So many hearings, it just, it was all about him and his rights. And it didn't really seem to be about her. When I started going to hearings around the third or early fourth year of this being dragged out, I got a picture of my mom to every single hearing. As a reminder that even though she's not here physically, she's always with us.

I also saw her picture at the end of every hearing just to show you that there's just more than just a name on a paper and more than just a name. news headlines, he's more than just that. We were going to keep making sure that everybody would see her face because we weren't going to go away. Five years after Shanti's death in October 2023, prosecutors finally get the chance to lay out their case before a jury. Back in 2013, David Trones moved to Florida to be with Shanti.

When he moved to Florida, he was able to purchase abuse. beautiful large home. David and Shanti would argue and bicker about the home and the construction and what was going on and her not having any ownership in the home. There were indications she was funding that renovation, but he was very much treating this beautiful half-million dollar residence as his and not as theirs.

The house is everything to David. It's his identity. It's his passion project. It's really the focus of it. the focus of his life even more than his wife. He loved that house more than anything else. Shanti controlled the destiny of that house. And how desperate was David to make sure

that the renovations went through and his gem was polished? As the house became progressively more and more unlivable, that caused an obvious tension in the relationship. This home show was the lifeline out of this mess with this house that they've dug themselves into and she a week before her murder was not into. The likely motive I think is he had an alternate lifestyle where he was behind her back seeing men. And then one of the last things that he had tried to do right before we arrested him is he had made a request to get her life insurance with all of the accounts and the life insurance he stood to gain

over a million dollars. This was a murder of of rage, of anger, of extreme violence, the only reasonable explanation for Shanti's death is sitting right there. The state starts presenting their witnesses, from David and Shanti's friends to neighbors and experts. As a couple, did they appear to be affectionate towards each other? No.

I never saw them hold hands, touch, kiss. It was a little strange. Were you ever made aware of any tensions related to the house that they lived in? Yeah, I mean, it was being that it was under the renovation. There was a lot of tension, a lot of fights. When he walked alone, did he have any canaan companions? Almost always. Now, on April 24th of 2018, did you see either Shanti Cooper Tronis or David Tronis, the defendant, walking?

Yes, I saw David. Did he have any canine companion or companions with him? Not on this day. A local neighbor told law enforcement that she was coming home from the grocery store and saw David walking alone in the neighborhood. Police showed a picture of David that day to the neighbor, and the neighbor said that David was wearing different clothes at 12 p.m. than the ones that he was wearing at 4 p.m. You know, it's little facts like that that really stands out. when you have somebody telling a story that doesn't match up.

Row 13's entry, according to E&F, is 423, 2018, 11.19 p.m. There is no other entry until April 24th, 2018, at 10.11 p.m., correct? That's correct. So this device registered no distance, no steps, essentially 23-hour span of time. Yes. Shanti had a step tracker on her phone that recorded her going up and down the stairs. She always had her phone with her.

There was no steps tracked of her at all on April 24th. And that doesn't fit with his telling of that day. There's evidence that she got a text message, work-related very early in the morning about 6.58, that she never read and never responded to. The theory was that this attack either happened around midnight when she was going to bed or early in the morning as she was getting up. This kind of is a theory, but if she's seated on the edge of the bed above where the blood

dripped to the slots, when she is removing her right earring, she's looking possibly at David. And maybe they're arguing over the renovation or maybe, you know, the relationship is ending. But the moment she goes to her left earring, her head would have been turned away from him. And so if she's starting to remove this earring, that's when she takes this blow to the left side of her head. She never saw it coming. Was there anything other than the defendant's statement to you and Detective Sharp that indicated that Shantatronis was alive past the steps the night before at 1119 p.m.? There's nothing that indicates any sign of life past Monday night. But the defense paints a different picture without calling any witnesses of their own.

They would have you believe that this was an unhappy marriage, that they lived separate lives, that the marriage was crumbling. This is a case about a rush to judgment. It's about a sloppy investigation. It's about circumstantial evidence. All this financial mode of its hooey. The theme that the defense tried to develop was police didn't do a third. thorough investigation and they targeted David. You're not here to play detective. You're not here to solve a crime. You're here determining if the government has proven

the crime that they have alleged that Chuck David Cooper was murdered, and David Tronis is the person they did. Submit to you they did not. Let's go to April the 24th. Did you tell him that this was a domestic violence assault before even speaking to Mr. Tronis? speaking to Mr. Tronis?

No. I told him that the husband was the one who called us and that what his statements were. No, I did not indicate who was responsible for her death. We didn't know. It was suspicious, though, aren't you? Of the story, of the inconsistencies. Yes, of course.

They basically blamed our investigation and said it was lacking in substance and that we had made a lot of errors, that the police investigation was shot him. Isn't it true you developed Mr. Cross as a person in interest or suspect from jump that you didn't believe a word out of his mouth? That's not true. I prejudge him for the lack of emotion? No, I did not prejudge him for the lack of emotion.

Her ex-husband was just as much of a suspect as he was, but you have to be able to eliminate people and you have to start with the person who called 911. You became concerned with some of the details you noted at the crime scene, correct? I became concerned with some of the details I noted in the crime scene, as discussed. No water, no wet, those things, yes. I became very concerned with inconsistencies, yes. As this case developed, there was no real coherent defense. There were no facts to establish any other identity of any other person. No primarks on doors to show a burglar.

No stolen valuables. No evidence of animosity or bad relationship. with Shanti and other people. During that trial, it was long days. We didn't sleep at night. When the jury got the case for a couple hours, that seemed like an eternity. They kept coming back with questions,

and we were trying to decipher what they meant. That really made us crazier than we already were. After nearly five hours of deliberations, the jury returns their verdict. The court of Florida versus David Tronis, verdict reads, we the jury finally defending guilty of first-degree murder as charging the indictment. So it says we all.

In that moment when the verdict is actually announced, it's like time stops. And I remember looking over at Jackson and he waited for that day for so long and in the span of 90 seconds from when the jury entered the room to the verdict was read by the court clerk, justice was delivered for him. My heart was racing like a couple hundred thousand paces a minute, but when I heard the verdict, I was overjoyed,

and it was probably, it was a death one of my life. The night of the verdict, we were walking to the truck, And Jackson was shrugging his shoulders. I said, what are you doing? He said, I feel lighter. Like a weight's been lifting. David Tronis is found guilty of first-degree murder and faces a possible life sentence in prison.

To me, the greatest satisfactions in this case was David having to be faced with the truth of what he did. When this parasite came into our lives, he took something from us, and most importantly from Jackson, and what he took is not replaceable. He lost a good parent. It is still unfathomable to me what he put Jackson through. I couldn't look at him. If I looked at him, I would do something I would regret.

And I wouldn't say his name. He doesn't deserve that. He told a lot of lies, so I just wanted to set the record straight and let the judge know that it needs to be life without parole. My mom was the best person I ever knew. She worked a lot, but she never put her family over work. Early 2018, she was taken from me and my family. It's like a hole in my heart that I can't fill or fix.

She didn't die peacefully. She did not deserve anything that happened to her that night. She was the best mom I could ever ask for. The court will adjudicate you guilty, while sent you to life imprisonment. David took control of so many things. He took control of the house. He took control of finances.

He took control of how long Shanti lived. People don't know how hard to work for she was. She knew how to get stuff done and she did it with 100% precision. She was very good at what she did. She was more than just someone that was murdered. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody. If one person hears her story and might think they're in that kind of a relationship, then maybe they can get out before it's too late.

And that would be something positive that came from her memory. We both worked as hard as we worked on this case for Jackson because of the tragedy to that little boy, for him having to grow up without his mom. There's not a day that goes by that they won't grieve for her, that grief is really just love with no place to go. love with no place to go. In the end, this case largely centered on the house and the remodeling and the arguments. We're fighting for the house for Jackson so that Jackson can decide at some point in the future what to do with this place that brought the worst incident that he'll ever have in his life.

And whether Jackson sells it or whether Jackson takes a sledgehammer and knocks it to the ground, Our fight now is to give Jackson control of what happens to this place. It's kind of weird, you know, having the same routine for six years, then all of just suddenly being over. It's like a new normal. We have many more good days than bad days now the trial's over. We just had Mother's Day, so we went to the beach and the flowers in the ocean because she loved going to the beach with him.

We talk a lot about her, just try to honor her memory. It was a long road for Shanti's family to finally see justice for Shanti's murder. And while David Tronis fights his case on appeal, he sits in prison. The man who wanted to have it all, now has nothing. That's all we have for you here on this episode of Prime Crime. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber. And until next time, stay safe.