Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The Jackson Family Murders

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Police responded to a chilling 911 call from a man claiming an intruder broke into his family's home and killed everyone, wounding him in the process. The Cedar Rapids community was in shock when new ...surfaces of the tragic murders surfaced. The surviving son, Alex Jackson, was shot in the foot and told police he fought off the intruder. When investigators dug deeper, they realized there may be more to the story Alex was not revealing. Find out what happened to the Jackson family on this episode of "Prime Crime with Jesse Weber." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On prime crime. So when broken out house, I've been shot. My other family mother's been shot. I need help immediately. A suspected home invasion leaves a family shattered. Who's this down here? Hey, who are you? What's your dad?
Starting point is 00:00:20 What happened? He came down? There was a man. But as detectives dig deeper. You know that somebody hurt your family. The story told you You know who hurt your name? No?
Starting point is 00:00:35 Oh, yeah. You do? The story told by the lone survivor begins to unravel. It was daylight. It was hot. This person wearing all black in a ski mask and gloves
Starting point is 00:00:50 breaking in a back door. It didn't add up. Hey, there everybody. I'm Jesse Weber, and welcome to Prime Crime. This is where we break down some of the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country.
Starting point is 00:01:13 When a call comes in about a possible break-in in an upscale neighborhood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, officers aren't sure what they're going to be walking into. It's a crime which leaves investigators wondering, is the caller a victim or is he hiding a darker truth? When County Sheriff's where is your emergency? I've been shot. My other family mother's been shot. I need help immediately.
Starting point is 00:01:37 Okay, sir, stay on the line. It's early morning June 15th, 2021. Police get a 911 call saying an intruder has broken into a family home. Someone broke in? I've been shots. You've been shocked? My dad's been shot. Hold on just a second.
Starting point is 00:01:59 Are they still there? No, they left. Did they come inside the house? Yeah. It was before 8.30 a.m. Police received a 911 call from Alex Jackson. And he said that there was an intruder that had broken into their home. Where were you shot at?
Starting point is 00:02:18 Downstairs. No, on your body. Foot. And your foot? Do you know who broke in? No. Did you get a look at them? No.
Starting point is 00:02:29 Could you tell that it was a man or a woman? A man. I think I spoke. Do you know how they got in the house? The back to where I think is open, so. Burglaries don't necessarily have to stick to a certain script. There are certain characteristics of a burglary that we come to expect. Daytime burglaries usually result in push-in burglaries
Starting point is 00:02:55 or going to a less visible part of the house, breaking in through a window, kicking in a back door, something of that nature. You're doing great, Alex. You're doing good. Is anybody else home with you? My sister? Your sister, where she at? Her bedroom? What's your sister's name? What are you this?
Starting point is 00:03:16 I just want to make sure that we know who's supposed to be in that house, okay? This person that you saw in your house, did they leave out the back door? Yeah. How long ago was this? I don't know. 10 minutes ago? 10 minutes? Do you remember what color shirts or what color hair this guy had?
Starting point is 00:03:38 Anything about him? Black? Black? You think it was a black male or a black shirt? Uh, so? When he's asked to describe the intruder, he simply describes him as a male black, with no specific features, no real description of his clothing, his age. One could argue that this was an individual who was in shock after just seeing his family gunned down. He probably was in shock, I'm sure, but he didn't give a lot of details to the distance.
Starting point is 00:04:10 details to the dispatcher. She was trying to draw it out of him. Just you and your sister in the house, right? Yeah. No parents or grandparents, animals. My mom's here, she. Okay, so you, your sister and your mom? Yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 00:04:26 Do you know if mom and sister are safe? Did the guy go upstairs? Well, I don't see them. Alex, do you have any weapons downstairs? Any guns, knives, anything like that? No. But, but I don't see them. There's a gun on the floor. There is, that's not yours?
Starting point is 00:04:45 It's ours, but we got shot by it. So he took your gun and shot you? Yes. In this case, lots of potential people responding to the scene, including police. So when they got there to the Jackson home, I don't think they knew what they were going to find. I've got officers in the back and the front.
Starting point is 00:05:07 They're just trying to get mom and sister to come to the door if they're there, okay? That's why they're ringing your doorbell. Could sister and mom be gone, do you think? Hopefully. Do you think you know who did this to you? No. Officers arrive on scene, but there's a lot of confusion.
Starting point is 00:05:25 This is the very last house at the dead end on the right, correct? You have to realize that this is a fairly affluent community in Cedar Rapids. It's also a quiet community. And so when they arrive at the house, they don't really hear anything. This sounds if there's people in the house, there's no reason they can't come out. This is sounding out. All right, well, I'm going to go around to the back.
Starting point is 00:05:46 I'm going to see if I can get eyes. This is sounding . I'm just going to knock. I don't see any . We're wondering if it's not a swatting call. They're trying to get information from dispatch. The perpetrator is still inside. Where are people?
Starting point is 00:06:02 Where should we go? They classified as a potential swatting situation. A swatting situation is when people kind of give a false call just to get an officer's reaction or get police there and it's really nothing. The back door is open. All the shades are drawn, so I can't really see anything. I'm getting no answer to the door.
Starting point is 00:06:24 It's a shot. Every door and window in this home were locked, except for the one that was on the lower level base spent backside of the home. It takes them a while to even get into the house, and then they're confronted with the horror of Jan laying on the floor. There's a rifle next to him. He doesn't look like he's alive at that point.
Starting point is 00:06:53 And then they hear Alex's voice. Police, Carmen. Where are you at? We got contact with what's subject in the house. You down here by yourself? Okay, there's a subject down. Can you put your hands out to the side where I could see him? I have my hand on my foot. One 15 multiple victims.
Starting point is 00:07:15 One has a gunshot wound. The other is wounded in the leg. Who's this down here? Hey, who are you? My dad. What happened? He came down. There was a man.
Starting point is 00:07:29 Who shot your... Who else is here? My sister. She's in the back? Yeah, she's in her room. Is she okay? I think so. Alex initially appeared.
Starting point is 00:07:41 initially appeared to be distraught. He sounded to be in pain, and he didn't really talk very much about the very apparent injuries to his father. When they eventually get inside, they have their gun strong. They're going from room to room to see if there is, in fact, an intruder still there.
Starting point is 00:08:05 When they realize he's not there, that there's no intruder, they come upon a pretty horrific scene. There is blood everywhere. There is Jan Jackson laying in the living room. And then Sabrina, Alex's sister, is in her bedroom. To the officers, it's now apparent that this isn't just a break-in. It's a violent crime scene.
Starting point is 00:08:40 Fourth victim. Here's a bike. Yep. 692. We have a fourth victim. Upstairs bedroom. They weren't expecting this. They were told that this was a burglary.
Starting point is 00:08:52 What turned out to be just. responsibility a simple call of somebody breaking in, maybe there's somebody that's been shot, that all of a sudden now we have two dead bodies and we have another one injured. They go upstairs to continue the protective sweep and they find Melissa Jackson dead off the bed. Triple homicide? They're starting to put together that this is not what we recall for, that this is going to be a triple homicide. The Jackson family, the was Jan and Melissa, who were the mother and the father, and then they had Sabrina, and she was 19.
Starting point is 00:09:31 Alex Jackson was her son, who was 20 at the time. Alex and Sabrina had been in college. Alex had been like an Eagle Scout in high school. He played in the high school band, and so had Sabrina. I believe she played the oboe, and he played the flute. Jan worked in IT, and Melissa, she was retired, but was a photographer. They kept to themselves.
Starting point is 00:09:55 They were very quiet about things. They did not have a lot of local friends. They didn't have any other family in the area. Investigators are now confronted with a storm of unanswered questions. Up next, the hunt is on for a killer. But could the culprit be closer than they realize? So you got some water in your hands too. You might have I take some photos of that in here real quick?
Starting point is 00:10:23 Alex, what happened? There was a man? What man? That's all man. Okay. I think he's in shock about everything. Police are investigating the tragic triple homicide of Jan, Melissa, and Sabrina Jackson after their 20-year-old son and brother, Alexander Jackson, called 911 to report an intruder in the family home.
Starting point is 00:11:02 When officers arrive, they get a closer look around and take stock of the crime scenes spread across several rooms. The first thing that law enforcement needs to do is figure out what happened. If it was an intruder, is this a person that came to steal something and then just came upon the family and then killed them? Is this someone that intentionally came for the purpose of killing this family? First one is right here. Shot in the head. Watch out. You don't step on their rounds.
Starting point is 00:11:31 multiple gunshot wounds. Dad's down with a gunshot wound with the head. There's a female DOA in the bedroom over there. Mom's DOA upstairs. I believe this is his son. He was hitting the foot. We are not sure what... No idea.
Starting point is 00:11:49 There is a rifle on the ground here. There's a rifle next to Jan. That has to be tested. Is that the weapon that fired the fatal shots? But at that moment, they don't know if there's more than one weapon involved. Where's the next one? Right here.
Starting point is 00:12:06 Another gunshot to the head. I don't know what the entrance want. Jesus Christ. Another teenager. Jan, the father, was shot five times. He was shot in the chest, neck, back, all of them piercing vital internal structures. And from that, he has injuries on his face from falling over.
Starting point is 00:12:30 Sabrina was shot twice. was shot twice. Melissa was shot twice, one near the left eye and the other in the head, both of those piercing the brain. The first priority is getting Alex to the hospital, and investigators must move quickly to figure out who could have done this. But once they get in the ambulance, Alex starts talking, unprompted. Okay. You ran in on Powell? You ran into a fist or? With like a fist or? I like fine.
Starting point is 00:13:07 Okay. That's short. Yeah, my foot. You were sleeping in the porch? Yeah. Okay. Then what happened? Do you hear gunshots or what? Yeah. Saw somebody in your house? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:24 Alex who opened the back door? Uh, I don't know. Maybe he did. You only saw one guy? Yeah. One gun? Yeah. There's almost a nonchalant way about Alex Jackson.
Starting point is 00:13:40 I think he almost chuckles at one point. It's almost like he has no grasp or concept that his entire family has been killed. Once they arrive at the emergency room, Alex continues talking. And at times, he repeats what he claims he saw that morning. You could. You both my tomorrow. Yeah. I love your dad.
Starting point is 00:14:20 Yeah. Okay. Is that all you want to say? I think you don't right out. What happened to you? I had pushed him, try to safely go. And well, see what happened. But you tried to take the gun from the guy?
Starting point is 00:14:44 Yeah. And then you got that happened. Okay. He's in pain, which you can understand if he was shot in the foot. But he's still not saying a whole lot. He's still just kind of saying the same story. And he says he didn't see who. it was. He does ask if they found his parents or if they found his sister and how are they,
Starting point is 00:15:03 but nobody's really answering his questions. Then detectives get more of the story. You started out with like last night, really? Like what time you got home last night or? I was home. Okay. Okay. What time to go to bed? 11, 19. And where do you sleep at? On the porch. How can you sleep on the porch is that? Were you the last one to go to bed? Uh, maybe. I think my mom was still looking around.
Starting point is 00:15:39 The investigators did ask Alex, what led up to this? What led up to the night? Anything happened. And he basically said nothing out of the ordinary happened. They had spent the night together. They had dinner. They watched movies. The lizard picked the house.
Starting point is 00:15:55 And you look. And this is just. and dog. What time did you wake up this morning? I woke up and heard gunshots. I went inside. You take your time down. He's followed me, I think. I don't know what I was there. I heard it downstairs. So I went downstairs. He was missing with my dad's guy. He had a mask on. Don't we have one of those, uh, see masks or whatever. Did you see his hair? No.
Starting point is 00:16:42 On his shoes. I think they're great. Again, they ask him questions about the intruder, about what the intruder looked like, how it was that the intruder came in throughout the questioning. Whether it be in the house, in the ambulance, at the hospital, he's not very specific. He describes in his male black. He describes something that the...
Starting point is 00:17:04 something that they're wearing, he describes at one point the guy cursing, but he really doesn't give any substantive descriptions of this person such that one would expect they'd ever be able to find that person. He was messing with your dad's gun. What's me? And then what happened? Well, he was messing up for it. And it was my dad, I think. He was on the floor.
Starting point is 00:17:32 And I ran out of him. You're gonna have the guy of the gun? Yeah. Then what happened? I pushed him. Did he say anything to you? Quite deep, oh, what I pushed. Quite deep, yeah, deep-pulse.
Starting point is 00:17:53 What did he say? You. I think I got into the gun. And then I was going to go. Fire and then obviously that happened. You fired there? Yeah. And it shot you in the phone?
Starting point is 00:18:19 Yeah. I saw. I saw. I saw. I'm running. That's my fault. Investigators begin to realize many details of Alex's account aren't quite adding up. So they're focused.
Starting point is 00:18:47 begins to narrow on Alex himself. Do you think someone was upset with your family? You don't know who or what they'd be upset about? How do you feel about your family? I lost my family. Do they ever do anything that upset to you? He very rarely showed any remorse for his family. He started to express, like, are they okay?
Starting point is 00:19:25 It was like a rehearsed speech that he had ready. Like he said, like, I love my family. I love my parents and my sister. You may not believe me, but I love them. There was no passion or raw emotion. He's acting like it's just like no big deal in a way, the way he talks, but it is probably going back to he could still be in shock or maybe he's just an awkward kid.
Starting point is 00:19:49 He says he loves his family. He doesn't have any problem. with his family, and they keep pushing that because they're trying to get more answers about it, but he just says that it wasn't him. Despite Alex's statements, the evidence that the scene appears to be pointing in a different direction. Coming up, detectives wonder if Alex Jackson is telling the whole truth. I was just like to understand why.
Starting point is 00:20:16 You don't want to talk about all the details, that's fine. I didn't do this. That's what you're trying. For questions, any right now is for me to understand why you would have hurt in your house. And we're just trying to figure out why. Detectives aren't exactly sure what led to an Iowa family being gunned down in their own home. But the lone survivor of the family, Alexander Jackson, tells investigators that he awoke to gunshots and fought with the intruder. Your dad was there laying on the ground and then you called 911.
Starting point is 00:21:08 Well, I called it after I called away. Would your dad say anything or did you talk to him all of it? I know it's funny. But when officers do a sweep of the area surrounding the Jackson's home, Alex's story begins to fall apart. You guys hear anything? Did you guys hear any shots? CERRUP, it's police canine.
Starting point is 00:21:36 Anybody in the area, sound off, or you will be bipping my dog? Last and final warning. Officer Curtis Buckles and his canine partner, Corsa, what they need to first figure out is, is there another person that was there? They were told that this person escaped or left the back door area and took off running. They wanted to see if they could pick up the sense of another individual.
Starting point is 00:22:03 They checked the trails or areas where someone may have gone. Those weren't disturbed. They looked for fingerprints. They looked for DNA. They looked for anything to show that someone broke in to disturb something, to take something. There's no indication of that. I'm going to talk to these construction workers at some point. Make sure no one, she's not picking the thing up coming through here.
Starting point is 00:22:29 I've walked all this in the only place she had interested. was right here. Back at the hospital, detectives confront Alex on the inconsistencies in his story. After he shot you, he left? I think so. Did he still have a gun? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Where else would it have gone? Or did you get it away from him? I don't remember. I don't arrest my number. The investigator during all this, They're like at his home, going through everything. What was strange was that there was nothing to miss in the house. Nothing was turned over.
Starting point is 00:23:11 Everything was in its place. There was even, I believe, a puzzle nearby on a table that none of the pieces were on the floor. When we stepped out, we talked to our coworkers. They were out at your house. You went through your house and This is a neighborhood and Alex, the reality is there's not any evidence that anyone else was over in your house. It's okay. It's okay.
Starting point is 00:23:44 Alice, do you want to tell us what happened? It really happened. I went now to Stooder as a man was there. My father, I got shot. I think he left. Alex, that's not about that. evidence, the fact that it was daylight, not just daylight, but it was hot. This date will stick out in my memory forever based on just the sheer temperature that it was at 8 o'clock in the morning.
Starting point is 00:24:19 So the description of this person wearing all black in a ski mask and gloves, you know, walking through this affluent neighborhood in broad daylight, it didn't add up. There had been a person there, there would be some evidence that he showed out. There is no evidence that someone else was there. Something bad happened, and there's a reason why something bad happened. And I know you know that reason, but I don't. And I want to understand it. Well, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:24:57 Well, you do. What happened that led to the events today? What caused this? I don't know what you spoke up in the morning. What really caught officers' attention was if someone had come in, broken into the house, used the gun, shot the family, and then shot Alex, why would they leap the gun behind?
Starting point is 00:25:21 The gun that was used was the Jackson's family gun. It was actually Alex Jackson's gun. It was a Brown 22 rifle. Do you want our reporter to reply? that there was a guy in your house and there's no evidence of. Well, yeah, of course there's a kind of house. Listen to me. Do you want us to write down to the report that there was a guy in your house
Starting point is 00:25:42 that there's no video of never showing up or leaving? Do you want us to put that down? Or do you want to give us some sort of an explanation that makes sense? I want to look at a little. The Jackson home had external surveillance cameras set up all along the outside of the home. All of the surveillance videos were on and live and recording, except that one in the backyard that would have specifically caught this phantom burglar.
Starting point is 00:26:15 What do you think about what happened to your sister? What happened there? Is she all right? You know that somebody hurt your family? Yeah. And you know who hurt your family? No. Well, yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:31 You do. Not good. What do you mean? It's like, yeah. There's not a guy. That didn't happen. So the person that hurt your family was in the sexual mom? It's not me.
Starting point is 00:26:50 You never hurt your family? No, I would never. There's one key question still on everyone's mind. If Alex did kill his parents and sister, why would he want them dead? Do you work in here? Where'd you go to school at? Are you still in there? The problem law enforcement had with this case
Starting point is 00:27:22 is here you had what seemed from the outside to be a fairly normal family dynamic. Alex Jackson had no history of criminality. He had no history of mental health issues. And no one seemed to have any basis to believe that there would be any motive why he would want his family dead. How do you have dad feel about your choices or life choices?
Starting point is 00:27:46 Yeah. I guess he wants me just more zero. Have you ever had any problems with him? I can see serious problems with him. I can't judge in your life or choices. He's probably, you know? I'm going on. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:02 Same. Mm-hmm. Sister. I guess. Alex said that his dad had threatened to kick him out or told him he he would have to move out if he didn't get a job because he had been going to college, but he dropped out.
Starting point is 00:28:18 Tell me more about your end. He did a long interview, in general. I don't know. Why are you guys having to school so many problems with this? Well, but then tell you you you need to move out and have to get a job. Well, let's just give us what I should do. If I'm going to pay for half year college,
Starting point is 00:28:41 You're going to get a job. You're going to pay for the other half. You got to show any effort. You've shown the drive of effort to go get a job. Motive was something that plagued us. Could it have been money? Absolutely. At the time, he only had $30 to his name.
Starting point is 00:29:00 He did not have a job. He did not have savings. There was a fair amount of wealth and assets to be attained by whoever the surviving heir was. Are we going to find anybody else's finger prints on those shell cases besides me in your dad? I don't think so. I don't think so. Are you going to continue to tell me that you had nothing to do with this?
Starting point is 00:29:25 Yes. You are. The only story there is? No, it's not. You're going to continue with that story. What is my story? It is? Great story?
Starting point is 00:29:37 Is it a great story? Is it correct. Tell me. This was our first triple homicide here for at least 30 years. To have this type of brutal crime scene, to have this type of murder happen in your own community just really, really took back everyone. No one could have ever imagined when the information came out that this was caused by a 20-year-old kid, that anyone would kill their parents and their sister in this matter. This young man with no criminal record and no previously reported mental health issues is accused of killing his own family.
Starting point is 00:30:18 Up next, is there enough evidence to bring murder charges against Alexander Jackson? You weren't thinking straight, Alex. You weren't. People that are thinking straight don't do these kind of things. They talk themselves out of it. Brainstorming out of it, get your ass out of this trouble you're in. The gigs up, but... I didn't do it.
Starting point is 00:30:51 Detectives believe they know who's responsible for killing Jan, Melissa, and Sabrina Jackson. Despite his claims of innocence and contention that a masked intruder is the real shooter, son and brother Alexander Jackson is taken into custody. But investigators have a few more questions to hash out. We took into account your theory about a speed-mast intruder coming in with the... the worst description on the planet. You got to just be honest with this man. We know no one left.
Starting point is 00:31:23 I'm telling it how I saw it, you know? Right? You still think someone was there? Yeah. You know someone was there. Who's using your phone at 6 a.m. to get on social media? Me?
Starting point is 00:31:42 I don't know. I don't remember. How could you use it at 6 if you were asleep, top of eight? Alexander had told investigators that he was sleeping outside on that screened in porch with his dog all night without his cell phone. 20-year-old gamer, no cell phone on the porch. Alex Jackson claimed that he was awoken by the gunshots, yet they were able to show that several hours before. Before this alleged intruder came in, Alex Jackson was awake and on the phone.
Starting point is 00:32:24 If they came there to murder people, like you said, then they would have had to get lucky enough that you had left a gun out for him. And then be able to know right where everybody's at and shoot everyone and get in a fight with the biggest person in the house and be able to escape, you cannot sit there and look me in the eye and say, Yeah, well, that did happen. Are you ashamed? Is that why you don't want to tell us?
Starting point is 00:32:56 Oh, I don't want to tell you because I didn't do that. Well, you're being charged with murder of your mom, your dad, and your sister, and you're going to go to jail. As investigators strengthen their case against Alexander Jackson, one critical question still troubles detectives. Who shot Alex in the foot? When Alex began to interact with law enforcement, he tried to appear to be so hurt that he couldn't walk, that he couldn't move, that he couldn't check on his family members, even though there were footprints throughout the basement of this home.
Starting point is 00:33:40 The couch that was next to the stairs, there was this big pile of blood that initially thought maybe that's where he was shot, but there was also a lot of the house. There was also a large puddle of blood near the corner of his bed. His footprints only went in one direction. His footprints only went out of his room. Never did his footprints go into his room or go down the hallway. The investigators figured out that, you know, Alex had shot himself on the foot.
Starting point is 00:34:10 He walked himself in his bloody foot out of the bedroom and up the hallway and deposited that murder weapon next to his father. Alexander Jackson is charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his parents, Jan and Melissa, and his younger sister Sabrina. A year and a half later, Alex goes on trial, facing three life sentences. Alexander Jackson Jackson wanted you to think that he had the perfect family life, that his mother, Melissa, his father, Jan, his sister Sabrina, They all got along great. And it's not what Mr. Jackson claimed it to be. They appeared to be close-knit,
Starting point is 00:34:58 and we were able to gather that interpretation from a lot of the photographs that we found throughout the home. But then there was this gap in time where it seemed like the family interactions just ceased for this four-year period. We knew that there were some disagreements, for lack of a better word about politics. It appeared that Alex and his father were very conservative.
Starting point is 00:35:23 The sister appeared to be a very liberal person. His sister and he argued a lot, according to Sabrina's journals. On June 15th of 2021, a 911 call went out early in the morning hours. That call was made by the defendant, stating, Someone had broken into our house and shocked me and my family. They find no evidence of any sign of anyone else inside that home that morning, except for the defendant, Sabrina, Melissa, and Jake. Prosecutors point out one key piece of evidence,
Starting point is 00:36:12 which sets Alexander Jackson apart from any other possible suspect. This gun was shot more than 11 times on that June 15th, 2021 day. Meaning it had to be loaded more than once. It was a unique gun, and so somebody would have to be familiar with that gun if that's the gun they used, which that's what the evidence points to. The murder weapon was on the floor and just mere feet from his father. As our investigator began to process the firearm, he himself could not figure out how to load this gun. Trained law enforcement weapon processor had to watch a YouTube video of this specific model of firearm to figure out how to load it.
Starting point is 00:37:04 Not only did this phantom burglar come into the Jackson home to hurt people without a weapon, but he used a weapon. that just happened to be laying out on the fireplace mantle and figured out how to load it and then reload it during this killing spree. With this evidence, this knowledge, this truth, you will see that the person responsible for the deaths, Sabrina Jackson, Jan Jackson, Melissa Jackson, was caused by their own family member, the defendant.
Starting point is 00:37:48 In a circumstance where you have three people and they're killed in different rooms of the house, and yet no one seems to have gotten to a phone, why isn't there more of a struggle, more of a fight, or more of a hiding, or something like that, maybe because the perpetrator's known to them. They're confronted with Alex, and they're not afraid. The lack of evidence in this case
Starting point is 00:38:10 was as important, if not more important. than the physical evidence that was recovered. The lack of a fatal or attempted fatal wound on Alexander Jackson, coupled with all of the other physical evidence that only could point at Alexander Jackson were how we pieced this case together. The defense, however, suggested investigators had tunnel vision, accusing them of zeroing in on Alex from the start.
Starting point is 00:38:36 Having just seen his father lying in a pool of blood on the ground, With a gunshot bleeding from his foot, in shock, officers wasted no time at all accusing Alexander Jackson of killing his family. And although they interrogated him for over seven hours, Officer Matt Dillinger and Sarah Lassina had never even stepped foot on the crime scene. It took about 35 minutes before they decided that Alexander Jackson was their suspect. We knew that the defense were going to argue that we did not exhaust all of the leads that we could. We didn't do a thorough investigation to look for other suspects. There are some things in the investigation that could have been done differently, could have been done better. Part of their strategy was to poke holes in the investigation.
Starting point is 00:39:35 Alexander Jackson never wavered in telling officers what happened to him that morning. He told them over 13 different ways that it was not him. But charging Alex was the easiest route for officers. And when it came to the subject of fingerprints, aside from Jackson's prints because it was his own gun, could there be someone else? Officers didn't even bother to test whether there are any fingerprints or DNA on the bullets later removed from that gun
Starting point is 00:40:07 or from any bullets that were dropped on the floor. There was an unidentified fingerprint that was found on the rifle. They were going to also point to that piece of evidence that there is also a possibility that there was another suspect. Officers found no other blood on Alex except from his own body. Officers found two separate prints on that rifle that was on the scene. one belonging to Alex, the other print belonging to an unidentified person. The other fingerprint most likely was Alex.
Starting point is 00:40:44 It didn't have enough points to say who it is one way or the other. Following days of testimony, the case is handed off to the jury. And when the verdict was read after five and a half hours of deliberations, Alexander Jackson is emotionless. We, the jury, find the defendant, Alexander Jackson, guilty of the offense of murder in the first degree. The defense doesn't waste any time. They file a motion for a new trial
Starting point is 00:41:13 even before the sentencing hearing less than two months later, but the motion is ultimately denied. And that is when Alexander Jackson learns his fate. This set of murders shook this community to its core. Mr. Jackson is adjudicated to be guilty of three counts of murder in the first degree. In each count, he is...
Starting point is 00:41:34 sentence to be confined for the remainder of his life with no possibility of parole. I'm an Eagle Scout as well. So, you know, you're taught these values and these ethics that you should live by. The Eagle Scout badge has two stars on it and those stars indicate truth and knowledge. The truth that Alex was trying to tell, that wasn't the truth. In all of my career, I have never prosecuted a triple homicide of family members killed by someone who was a part of that family who was supposed to love and cherish the family that they were born into. It was an absolute tragedy, an absolutely inexplainable, unjustified, senseless murder. Even though we were able to obtain three guilty verdicts, there are still three innocent
Starting point is 00:42:34 people who lost their lives with absolutely no explanation and no justification for that. In the end, here's what we know. Jan, Melissa, and Sabrina were brutally murdered, and we know that Alexander Jackson is the one who committed this absolutely atrocious crime. But what we don't know and what we may never know is why he did this. That is the part that still plagues us. Why a man would cut short the lives of three people, who were supposed to be his whole world. That's all we have for you here on this episode of Prime Crime, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us.
Starting point is 00:43:13 I'm Jesse Weber, and as always, stay safe.

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