Small Town Murder - Birthday Murder Present - Oro Valley, Arizona

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

This week, in Oro Valley, Arizona, a relationship blooms for two people who work in a grocery store, with the couple welcoming a daughter into the world, but one of these people isn't exactly what they seem to be. With the relationship ending, the only way to solve this problem was a brutal murder. The claim is that it was just an argument, that got out of control, but the facts are much different, with a horrible, sustained attack. Will the jury buy the excuse??   Along the way, we find out that Tuscon is only slightly preferable to death, that being a mild mannered produce manager doesn't mean that you aren't hiding a felonius past, and that a victim's family can often deliver the ultimate court mic drop moment!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!   Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod   Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, and choo-choo. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrigal. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today.

All aboard the murder train. Yeah. Leaving the station. Here we go. We got a crazy one. As usual, we're going to go to Arizona today, which is always fun. We like to make fun of Arizona more than most states because they deserve it. Shithole.

We've earned it. Live there long enough to earn it. So there we go. We'll get into all of that and more. First, though, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets right now for, first of all, March 6th in Durham at the Carolina Theater. March 7th in Atlanta at the Tabernacle.

Get in there and come see us. We can't wait. Those are going to be fun shows. They always are. And then also the March 21st, Your Stupid Opinion Show at Stand Up. live in Phoenix. So get into that. Shut up and give me murder.com as well as you definitely, definitely want Patreon.

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There's so many bodies on the roads. And then for small town murder, the death of Kurt Cobain. What happened? We'll try to figure it out, you know, 30 years later and without the assistance of any kind of police or investigations or anything like that. We'll look at what other people have come up with and see if we can figure it out on our own. All that and more. Patreon.com crime in sports, just like the name of the other show that you should be listening to. In addition to that, you definitely get all the shows we put out, crime and sports, your stupid opinion, small town murder, all ad free as well. You can't beat it, honestly, ad free. It's the best deal there is.

And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show also. So that said, I think it's time, everybody. I mean, and I love when people tell us about where they were yelling this and somebody caught them, either in their car and then someone's walking by, like walking. and a dog and then speeds up quickly or something like that. So wherever you are out there, everybody, I think it's time to do. I don't worry. You're at a grocery store right now? You check it out.

Grab an avocado. Chuck it. Take that big turkey off the conveyor belt, spike it on the ground, arms to the sky, and let's all shout. Shut out and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. All right. Let's go on a trip, shall we?

Yeah. Let's go. We're going to Arizona this week. Not too far of a jaunt here. We're going to Oro Valley, Arizona. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Just outside of Tucson there.

Awful, awful country down there. Just terrible. It's, it's bad. It's a good way to put it. Ugly, hot. Yeah. The people get stupider as you go toward Tucson. Yeah.

I'd love to see, I'd love to see aggregate, like, IQ of Phoenix and Tucson. I swear to God it's 20 points lower in Tucson. I swear to God, I don't know why. They seem to be smarter there, don't they? Not that I've seen. They live in Tucson. That right away. That's not brilliant.

Right away is a dumb move, I got to say. Like, right off the back. It's just an artsy bunch. Artsy? I just love all the wars between Phoenix and Tucson. What wars? Just being, I don't know, the rivalry between the colleges, obviously. It's like our wars with Iraq.

There aren't really much wars. There's just a lot of jokes about the james. I get what you're saying. All the trees lean south of Phoenix because Tucson sucks. You like the spirit of rivalry between the two. I think they both suck. That's the fun part. Yeah.

Also, U of A whoever runs it, they're absolute twats. They've tried to kill things at ASU because they want them to be done. at U of A. Kill things? Like mascots or? No, no, no, no. No, like programs. Oh, programs.

Oh, okay. Yeah, they filled like medical things. I see what you're saying. To keep it at U.S. It's just ugly. Okay. Well, it's part of why Tempe and Tucson, the greater metropolitan area hates them.

There's other reasons. For everyone else in the world, now you know. Yeah. You never cared. Now you know. It's just ugly. This is in southeastern Arizona. It's about 20 minutes outside of Tucson.

It would be like downtown to, so on. It's about an hour 45 to Phoenix, if you want to get somewhere or better. It's about five hours to Grasshopper Junction, Arizona, our last Arizona episode, episode 636, murder in the blood. And again, I don't even remember where the fuck that is. Way up by like Vegas up there. All right near Kingman. Way up there, yes. This is in Pima County, area code 520.

Population here has spiked like crazy. Really? It's 46,515 at this point. What fuck is that? It was like in 1990, it had 6,600 people. That's, it is shot up like crazy. And median household income here, this is a rich area, by the way. Median household income, 92,548, well above the national average.

Median home cost $476,300. This place is yuppie families that want to live behind a gate because they're terrified of everything. And very old people that want to ride horses and play golf. Those are the only people who live here, pretty much. That's it. Median age here, 53.9. We don't usually say that on Express, but I had to put that in there because it's so much older than the average here. A little bit of history.

After World War II, the Tucson area had a big growth in population. And so Oro Valley got population as well. And property owners that had all the citrus farms out there saw that there was more money in selling land than there was in growing fruit. Growing orange. Yeah. So they started subdividing and selling shit off. And so they got their first development in 1948, the big suburban development. And then kept going.

It's a giant chunk of Arizona. It's a big piece that realized that lemons, limes, oranges and decorative oranges and grapefruits are not near as lucrative as fucking trach homes. Shitty particle board track homes. Those fucking oranges that don't have juice in them that aren't orange. are the most useless. Whoever put that together, whatever scientist should be drug out in the street and shot. Well, if they're four, James, is for 13-year-old boys to throw them at each other. Oh, I remember. I did that. Plenty. But besides that, they're useless because if they're in your yard, all it is is is a garbage tree that you have to go clean up. Just ammunition and bug food. A rat tree is what that is. So anyway, that's a little bit of history there. They didn't incorporate until 1974.

because they have fought. They didn't want to be a part of Tucson and they wanted the real thing. Yeah, it was a big mess there. But they just want to be county? They just, I don't know what they wanted. Reviews of this town. A few here.

Here is five stars. Oro Valley is a lovely town. The people are, all this person sounds 100, first of all, right away. The people are all very nice and have a great sense of community. It is very safe.

The police department is wonderful. Yeah, they're old. Yeah. They're wonderful. They never mess with you. And they really have an attitude of serve and protect. We have enjoyed living here for the past eight years.

Yeah, that's a retirement person there. Yeah. That's a guy that's jacked that the sheriff department has a fucking Instagram page where they ridicule people who speed. Yeah. This is a guy who whenever he sees somebody pulled over, he goes, yeah, get him. That's this guy. Yeah, yeah. And he keeps driving.

It beeps at the guy in waves. Yeah. Three stars, it is a great retirement community, a lot of food and golf courses. Although it's not the best place for teenagers, I would assume not. Jesus. There's not a lot around that's not too far of a drive. So you can get there. And then here is one star. Most bigoted, misogynistic, awful privileged place I've ever had the displeasure of living in. What? Oro Valley government workers tell you to look it up on Google. Look what up on Google? What are you talking about? Did you check the website? Did you check the website? No, this is one of those things where they're in the middle of a rage and they put you in like three quarters into the conference.

conversation. You don't know how it started. I called OV or oh yeah, OV water and the obnoxious gal said to look up my question regarding OV water conservations on Google because she was ignorant of such things. I was absolutely stunned. How is, how is a lady telling you to look something up on Google misogynistic? That's what I don't understand. That would be or bigoted or bigoted. Things to do here. Horseback riding, shit like that. There's a fine arts festival that just like. Looks like a lot of old women selling each other, trinkets. That doesn't look great at all. Oral Valley Art Festival? Fine Arts Festival. Yeah. They have a jurried event for contemporary and traditional art.

It sounds pretty boring. There's also a concert series at this steam pump ranch. We're right next to Tucson. This should be great. We should have something. Let's see here. Food trucks on site. What do we have?

March 6th, those dudes. Mm-hmm. Those dudes will be. there. That's the name. Just wear hey dude shoes. The food truck that'll be there is big sexies chicken wangs and thangs. A wang is a dick.

You're selling chicken dicks? Is that what you're selling? You can't sell chicken dicks. I hate when these people do this wangs and thangs. No. It's enough. A wang is a dick. You can't say I'm selling chicken wangs.

Yeah. You're selling fucking poultry cocks. I don't want any. The Mark Miller Band will be there. Is that dark me, you think? It's got to be, yeah. Well, if they're big, yeah. Big fat crazy.

Yeah, they're big. I mean, and obviously it's dark meat. Mark Miller band, Zanora, Z, Nora, hard scrabble road and cat mountain. I think they could do better. I think they probably could. That said, let's talk about some murder. What do you say here?

Let's do it. Okay, yeah, that all sounds awful. Jesus Christ. They didn't, they're not. You're at 30 minutes from Tucson and you can't get a decent act? You can't get an act that played Tucson the night before or something? Somebody that played the fucking Rialto. It's right there.

Where's ludicrous? He's got to be available. What are we doing here? Nelly. Nellie, somebody. One of the ludicry can take over and do that one. He's got an army. All right.

Let's do this murder here. Okay. We're going to go back in time a bit here, not very long. 2008. So it's, I mean, other than pre-in-in-com. Pre-in-Sagram, it's the same exact shit that's, you're, You've got a phone in your hand and you're looking up everything on it. So it's the same thing.

Now, we have to say, as of this point in 2008, the town's chamber of commerce markets the town as the safest community in Arizona. They're very, they're very, this is like basically, they might as well just gate it off. This is a gated community. And judging by a lot of the reviews and how much they love the police force, I think it's like Paradise Valley where those, those, it's a, an insular community. The cops work for them keeping the riffraff out. Yeah. All that bullshit.

So I think that's how they're looking at it, quote unquote, riffraff. So I think that's what they try to do. So they're like, if you're old and scared, this is the place to come, you know. Yeah. Safest community in Arizona is a fascinating. Yeah. I bet there's like middles of the desert that are a lot safer. There was nobody there.

There's so many places in Arizona that are pretty fucking safe. I guess violent crime rates. about eight times lower than the state average here. So that's why, statistically. Like, we're in 2008, and the last murder happened in 2006 in this town, in November of 2006. So in a year and a half, they haven't had a murder so far where we are. And that was a 34-year-old man named Scott Brannon found shot to death in his home, and it was still unsolved. So, no, they never figured out.

They never figured it out. So someone shot his ass and we don't know. Let's talk about some people who were alive in 2008, unlike poor Scott there. Lisa M. Berry, let's talk about, B-E-R-R-I-E, Barry. She's 25 in 2008, and she's getting her shit together is what she's doing, basically. She's her parents are Linda and Mark, and they, I guess, had moved from Delaware several years earlier. Linda, they had come from Delaware, then they ended up moving back to Delaware after they were,

it's odd. They moved to Arizona to work and then retired to the East Coast. It's a very strange, very strange thing. I don't get that. That's expensive. Yeah, it's an odd mix. So Linda, her mom, had spent 26 years as a school teacher in the Tucson Unified School District,

which means that she possibly did a terrible job because there are a lot of dumb people there. So you never know. Didn't do it. But I don't think so. I think maybe she was good and the kids were just dumb. And you can't help that. You can't help that.

That's genes, James. It's just jeans. So she was involved in the Girl Scouts, her mom. Both parents are like very respected, well known in the Tucson community as nice people and all that. The berries. The berries. Now, Lisa, she's had it a little bit interesting because she had a child when she was 18, which is never, it's usually not planned. That's usually not, you know, start in my family at 18 in 2008 anyway, maybe in 1946, but outside of that, probably not.

So she has been going to school and working at the same time, working her way through school to try to, you know, better herself and get a better position. Currently in 2008, she is a manager at Starbucks inside of a Bashes. Oh, yeah, a Bashes. This is the grocery store. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, if you don't know, Bashes. I don't even think it is a grocery store anymore out there, is it? Yeah, I thought they sold them all. I don't know if they sold them or not.

They still operate. Okay, good. Yeah, I like Bashes. Okay. So, yeah, she's had a child when she's 18. She's also a business student at Pima Community College as well. So she's been going there trying to get her business degree while she's managing a Starbucks. And everybody describes her as very like.

lively energetic and happy and being a people person, which if you manage a Starbucks, those are your attributes, I think. And in 2008, that's like, it's like the real heyday of the Starbucks, right? Starbucks time, yeah, before everyone started taking pieces out of them. Yeah, that was when they were ruling the world. Yeah, which was Alexin. Weird. So she's a good problem solver.

Everybody said her sister Suzanne called her, quote, strong Viking woman. Yeah. Which is a very, that like brings up like images in your mind. You know what I mean? But she's not. She wears a horn helmet. Yeah, horn helmet goes about 280.

You know what I mean? A big wild mustache. Yeah, I think we're all, we're all looking at like, like, either the Vikings mascot or like at the end of an opera. I think that's all I'm looking at. At the end of an opera with the horns, you know what I mean? The Vikings, the men. The Minnesota Vikings have really made me not even think about what a Viking looks like.

It's just the guy on their helmet. They just have a wing on the helmet, or horn, I should say. Is it? It is, huh? It's not a guy. No, no, no. But the guy's on the sideline. They have a fucking mascot who looks insane that stands over there.

And Hopper from Stranger Things was a Viking in the Santa Claus movie he did. Oh, was he? I see that. So you're seeing him. She's named David Harbour now? Yeah. David Harbour as a Viking is pretty rough. So she's working on the business degree, managing the Starbucks inside, trying to build some stuff.

She's got a son, like I said, who's like seven years old in 2008. So, I mean, she's 25, got a seven-year-old and working her way out of this. So that's good. She also has a boyfriend that she met in 2005. And his name is Paul Beam, B-E-A-M, like a beam of light. He's 35. So he's 10 years older than her, but they're going out. Oh, that's fine.

He is the produce manager at Bash's. Yeah, that's how you meet him. Made in heaven here. I mean, he's stacking chicory. She's coming over, you know. He's the manager? Bringing him a lot to, he's the produce manager. Third highest paid guy in that store.

That guy makes a shitload of money. What's a shitload of money in a grocery store? For a grocery store, they probably clears $85,000 a year. Oh, that's good money for any store. That's good shit. He's a quiet guy. everybody says. They started out just talking as friends,

platonic bullshitting around the store, because I'm sure a lot of the employees go get Starbucks. Yeah. Or she gets, you know, cherries. Who knows? Whatever. She gets lettuce.

I'm not positive. So then it comes up that she has a two-bedroom apartment where she lives with her young son, but she can't really afford the two-bedroom apartment, so she needs a roommate. Right. So he decides, Paul says, I'll take the room.

I'll move. in. Okay. So he moves in. He moves in just as a roommate. Everything's platonic. But while they're living together, you know, if you put any two animals in a cage, it's going to end up, things are going to happen. Except pandas. Yeah. Most of the time in the zoo, you want them to reproduce. Just put them in the same cage. There you go. Everything except pandas, does it? Yeah, they're lazy. Too lazy to fuck. So they moved in together. This is in an apartment at the 8,800 block of North Oracle Road.

and Jeremy is the son. He lives with them, and his name is well out there because it's in a million newspapers, otherwise I wouldn't bother saying it. Now, his history, he's got some, he's a quiet produce manager, so he seems like he's fine,

but there is some history with this guy where he doesn't seem... A 35-year-old single guy, moving in with a young girl with her kid? With her kid? Well, it doesn't seem like he's just a mild-mannered produce manager here. He's got some other issues. And a sheet later from...

the Pima County Attorney's Office states that he had a history of violent or assaultive behavior, alcohol abuse, and theft slash dishonesty. So he's a fraudulent alcoholic fucking abuser. That's not good. He's a crooked man. Perfect guy to bring in to your apartment here. But I don't think she knows about any of this. At work, he's just known as a steady guy. So I don't think she even knows about this.

He has two felony arrests on his record and eight and eight misdemeanor arrests. That's 10 arrests by 35. That's a lot of police intervention. That is so much, man. We don't know if he was convicted or what happened in those cases, but we just know that two, do you have two felony and eight misdemeanor arrests? No, I don't either. Uh-uh. So, 2006, they have a daughter together.

Really? Yes, they have a daughter here. I won't get into her name because she's still pretty. pretty young and she didn't have to testify later or anything like that. So we'll leave her out of it. So they never get married, but they're living together from a roommate arrangement into a romantic arrangement into a co-parenting arrangement here. Is he running the role of like stepfather too and being a good assume you have to really. I mean, you're in a two-bedroom apartment. I don't know how you'd ignore a seven-year-old. And that's your sister. So yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

So according to the Berry family, what they said later, Lisa did not want to marry him. She didn't fully trust him, but she stayed with him because they were living together and they had a baby. But she didn't really trust him and didn't think that, you know, he would be the best candidate for marriage here. At some point here, he receives a promotion to a to be produce manager at a bigger store. Oh. So, you know, even more fruits. We got the marketplace bashes. Look at that now.

Holy shit. So early 2008, they move into a larger apartment in the same complex, I believe. So he said, and he was telling everybody, this is a real positive step. And he felt like they were doing this together because before that was like her apartment. Now this is their apartment that they can have to go. Yeah. He told everybody that, you know, their relationship was generally good and, you know, normal. But they had some occasional disputes that weren't anything big, you know, no cheating or anything like that.

It was just typical, you know, couple bickering around the house. It's things that people disagree about here. Now, there are some issues. Co-workers at the Bashes slash Starbucks here recalled that she was a little bit frustrated with Paul's reluctance to help with child care. Apparently, he wasn't real into diving into child care. Like being a dad? Being a dad. And not only just being a dad, but doing the annoying things that you have to do to be a dad.

like, you know, picking the kids up from school or daycare when she worked like, you know, parent shit. Yeah, the diapers, the walks, all the shit. Absolutely. They said, now, her friends at work said that she described him as kind of quiet and distance. And, you know, that's kind of the way it is here. He's kind of quiet and distance and distant and she's kind of more lively and upbeat and that sort of thing here. But none of them suspected any physical violence or anything like that going on. That should contribute to each other, right?

Yeah. Compliment. And that's a complaint that a lot of new parents have with this one doesn't do this. You know what I mean? It happens. I'm doing everything. Yeah, it happens. And some people do slack.

So who knows? Now, Lisa's parents here said that she had grown, that Lisa had grown afraid of Paul, which she didn't tell her friends that. Just that she, he was annoying a little bit. But they said that he monitored her actions and threatened to do something to her if she tried to leave. Attack her, kill her, take the kids, different things. You're not allowed to leave, basically. Now, during 2008, from what her parents said, basically she had spent a good six to eight months planning to leave. Really?

Yeah. Like she had all of her ducks in a row. She wants to move to Delaware where her parents are living now. That's the plan. Now, that's a tough thing, though, because if you leave, now there's parental shit with him, so you're going to have to let him take the kid, you know what I mean? And unsupervised. Absolutely, yeah, if you're leaving the state, as a matter of fact, to leave the state,

if you have to agree to that in court to be able to do that. So you can't just take kids out of state like that. But she wanted to go. And I'm sure she had that lined up because she had been making these plans to move. She researched housing. She was getting a job. first and all that. She wasn't just showing up with boxes and going, what do I do?

She wanted to, you know, set in. She wasn't fleeing. You know what I mean? She was planning to move. Her mom, Linda, said she wanted to have a job lined up in her own place. She was laying the groundwork and doing the research. Now, her parents said, move here now and just move in with us. Go ahead and move in with us.

And she said, no, I'm not doing that. I'm 25 years old. And I've been living on my own and I'm not going back. I'm not regressing now. life of already, yeah. She said, I want to leave on my own terms and be comfortable and do it the way I want to do it. August 11th, 2008. Okay.

All I can think of is hot, hot, fucking hot. Miserable times. So hot. Tucson, good God. So Lisa calls her father, Mark, in Delaware. And Lisa told her father that Paul had threatened to kill her. Oh. So that's a step up.

Now we're talking, I don't give a shit about you want your own. apartment, get the fuck out of that house now. Period. No one should be threatening to kill anybody. A direct threat. And Lisa told her father, he said he'll kill me if I leave. We don't know if he found out about her jaunt to Delaware or what the deal is, but that's what it is.

So Mark and Linda begin making plans to get her the fuck out of Arizona, away from Paul, basically. They were going to help her get out. They said, forget the jobs, forget all this shit, getting on a plane. Come home. Bring the goddamn kids and we'll figure out the rest of it later. So Mark, the dad said, we were going to get around as soon as possible. That's what it is.

So that's August 11th. Now, August 12th, 2008. Again, next day. Hot, hot, hot. At the apartment, this is the 8800 block of North Oracle Road. It's about 9 p.m. So still 107 degrees is what that says to me. Miserable.

Paul rings up his dad, calls his dad on the phone. and asks his father to come to the apartment. Can you come over right now? He's here, yeah. Yeah, come to the apartment right now. Now, I don't know if his dad asked questions and Paul wouldn't answer him or what, but his dad just drove over.

Okay. My father would be like, for what? Why? Yeah. I mean, if you need help, great. But do I need to bring tools? What's going on? You know what I mean?

Paul's dad's aware. Something's going on here. So when Paul's dad arrives, he, Paul leads him in and just basically goes, look at this. There it is. There's Lisa lying on the floor of the master bedroom

unresponsive. Oh, no. And covered in blood. Oh, boy. So Paul's father being, apparently just a normal human being, calls 911 because Paul called his dad. Yeah, Paul called his dad, not 911,

which is insane. Unless his dad's a doctor, you know, or a fucking EMT, who you're calling here. Is he the shift leader at the fire department? Is he going to dispatch all the ambulances or what are we doing here? So that's what's going on. Covered in blood.

And he said basically that there's a domestic violence incident at my son's apartment. And he says that his son's girlfriend has been injured. That's what he says. Oh, boy. She is not injured. She's dead. She's dead. It's over already.

She's dead. I mean, it's apparent. She's dead. She'll be pronounced dead at the hospital later. But injured is a, you wouldn't look at her and go, oh, she's just injured. You'd go, oh, she's hurt. Yeah, there's a problem here.

She's definitely, there's no saving her at this point, as we'll find out. So police arrive. Paul is outside the apartment when police arrived, standing outside. When they arrive, he goes back into the apartment and closes the door. They know where they're going. They see him outside. So it's not like, you know. I don't like those guys.

Yeah, he didn't have binoculars and see him from two blocks away and close it up. He was like, nope, no thanks. Don't want any. He goes inside like their Jehovah's Witnesses and turns all the lights out. Okay. There's bad news here. Bad time. So they go knock on the door, obviously.

And Paul opens the door and says, everything's okay. You can leave by and close it again. It's all good. Everything's fine. They were like, what the fuck? No, Paul. Then they heard a toilet flush while they were standing outside. So they're like, what is going on in there?

Finally, when they get inside, I think Dad ended up helping them get in. When they get inside, they found a plastic grocery sack inside the, they describe it in the newspaper as a sack, which is a weird way to put it. It's a bag. It's a plastic bag. Yeah. Inside, I assume, yeah, probably a bashes bag. Yeah. Inside the master bathroom's toilet and the floor flooded.

Flushed the bag? He tried to flush a plastic bag. down the toilet, which doesn't work well. No. So apparently, it's a paper bag, not a plastic bag, not a plastic bag. Because they looked in and it looks like that he tried to, someone tried to wipe the blood in the bathroom down with a paper grocery bag. Very absorbent, a paper grocery bag.

And then flush it afterwards. While the cops are standing on the porch, by the way. Is he all right? I don't think so. He might be, you know what? It's too. He's a fucking moron. That's what it is.

Yeah. This is why we make fun of Tucson. I can clean up all the blood with this here plastic, a paper bag, and then it should fit right on down the toilet hole. You ever seen somebody try to wash a window with a newspaper? Like they say it doesn't drink. That shit doesn't even work. They spit on it and then-

fucking Bible with a newspaper. No. It doesn't absorb, man. It's paper. This is terrible. So there is a brief standoff here. goes back and forth where he doesn't want to go with the cops. And they're like, oh, you're coming with us.

You're coming. Can't do it. Obvious here. Now, there is some discrepancy. I believe it's the bathroom floor, but like she's in the master bathroom floor. That's how it works. So technically in the master bedroom, but more in the bathroom section of it. She's transported to the hospital where she is pronounced dead.

And they, when they do an autopsy, they find that there's bruises and blood that said she, had been, first of all, she got strangled to die. But she had been severely beaten beforehand. Her head had had been bashed in. She was beaten unconscious. They think she wasn't conscious while she was being strangled. Which... Good Christ.

I guess if you're going to die, I guess, you know, I'd rather be unconscious, but still, that's horrifying. To be beaten, unconscious and strangled. To strangle an unconscious. They're already unconscious. There's no... Right, what's the deal? Like, there's no resistance. You know what I mean? Like, I don't understand

what you'd be like, wouldn't you feel, I don't know, I guess I never strangled anybody, so I don't know. I guess that's, I mean, that's certainly going to be easier, right? Yeah, going to be a lot easier, but I would think just takes the challenge out of it. Yeah, on the psyche, it would be hard. You know what I mean? It would be weird. Unless you really want them not alive. Yeah, that's the only thing.

Yeah. Again, I'm thinking like a sane person. Yeah, yeah. Who isn't from Tucson and doesn't want to kill somebody. You don't need somebody dead right now. I don't, yeah, that's the problem. Not at the moment. Not at the moment.

We'll see tomorrow. You never know. Now, the evidence of that she was about to leave is all over the apartment. Oh, suitcases and shit. Is an open suitcase half packed. She was in the middle of leaving tonight. And that's the problem. Her car is parked outside, backed in near the stairs.

Okay. She can carry shit down. I mean, it's exactly what you do if you were leaving and taking off. She was going now. She was going now. And her mom said her suitcase was on the bed and it looked like it was being. packed her car was backed in by the stairs she was leaving um now seven year old jeremy and the two year old sister are in the apartment oh boy yeah this is they were here for this a two year old you know they

don't really know what's going on i mean they can they know it's not good story out of them yeah you ever have a two year old two year olds don't tell good stories at all no it's they don't know they'll tell you a story yeah but it makes no sense yeah it's it's it's Total shit. That's exactly right. It's garbage. But seven-year-olds, they can take it all in. Now, they don't know exactly what time the argument began or what exactly was going on, but looks like you can tell by what's happening.

She's leaving. He doesn't want her to. That seems to be what's going on. Now, he, by the way, will tell the cops that he snapped and she was going to take the baby and I just snapped. and it was a heat of passion thing. That's what he tells the cops. Okay. It's just heat of passion.

Yeah. Just I snapped and went crazy. He knows he's fucked. He knows he's in a lot of trouble. And I'm sure his dad is also going, this is not good, brother. You know, son, this is bad. This is not good. He's heard some phrases that help a lot and accord a lot.

Absolutely. Heat of passion. That's one of them. So later on, the state's going to argue a lot different than that. But seven-year-old Jeremy was in the next room. and Linda, Lisa's mom, said, Jeremy heard his mom fighting for and losing her life. He could hear her saying, get off and leave me alone.

Yeah. So that's going to haunt that poor kid. You bet. Forever, obviously. And at seven, there's six. He wasn't even seven at the time yet. He was going to be seven in four days, by the way. At six years old, it's even more horrifying because there's nothing you can do about it.

You can't do about it. If you were 12, you might be able to go. grab a lamp and hit the guy over the head with it from behind or something. You might think in your head you could do it. But at six, you're just, you're totally helpless. That's so scary. And this just ruined his birthday in four days. Oh, completely ruined his birthday.

Oh, boy, so you're about to have the most fucked birthday. As we'll talk about the father, Lisa's father has a quote that is just, whof, man, it is rough. Yeah, I'll talk about it. It's wild. So they think the attack happened or at least concluded in the master bathroom. According to them, he hit her first. first, then strangled her.

And the sequence matters because it's not a single act then. If you're beating someone then strangling them. If you lost your mind and just strangled them, that's a different thing. If you beat them first unconscious, the threat's over. Staying event and focused one place. You had a, if it's multiple locations, you had time to think about this. Absolutely. Now, a neighbor told the cops that they saw Paul earlier throw an iron into the trash bin,

like clothes iron into the trash bin. Later on, they wouldn't say whether they think this was what she was beaten with or not, but they took it as evidence. So possibly, yeah, maybe she had an iron in her suitcase and he picked it up and whacked her with it or was sitting there in the bathroom. I'm not sure. But he was arrested. He's charged with one count of first degree murder. And Bond is set at $750,000. He admits they had an argument and I snapped.

She was going to take my baby. That's what he said. So he's considered a considerable flight risk because he doesn't have any community ties or any. anything like that. Right. And court records show that he's failed to appear for at least three court hearings in the past. Oh, my God. Yeah, because it's going to rest in daytime.

Yep. So they set his bond pretty high. Four days later is Jeremy's birthday. Yeah. Mark, Lisa's father said, quote, Paul gave him a dead mother for his seventh birthday. Oh, God. Jesus.

Damn it. Talk about cutting through the bullshit. My Christ. Wow. That is cutting through the bullshund. bullshit right there. That is brutal. Paul gave him a dead mother

for his seventh birthday. This guy, man, good for you, Mark. I mean, it's true. It's true. Those words, almost killer again, man. Jesus. Ooh, man, Mark, I get it, dude. That's exactly what you'd say. You piece of shit, that's what you gave him, you fucking

mutt. He's just an honest guy. I like him. Now, about one week after the death, Mark and Linda held a press conference in Tucson. They had flown in from Delaware. Yeah. And they're exhausted and obviously sad and broken up and everything else. And they say that they're trying to get custody of their grandchildren and having a nightmare doing it.

Because Mark and Linda lived in Delaware. The children live in Arizona. CPS, Child Protective Services, wouldn't process an interstate adoption. Because, you know, kids can't possibly live outside of the state of Arizona and survive, clearly. Who cares? So what do they want him to go with his parents? Well, yeah. His dad was there too.

Yeah. I mean, granted, he didn't do anything, but, and he did the right thing, but I don't, I don't know. Still. What's it matter? Both parents are in a lot of trouble. Well, and Paul, even though he's, you know, charged with murder, still has parental rights to Gatlin legally. Yeah, but is he capable of exercising those? That's what's got to go through the courts.

That's the problem. And these people are like, can we just say he's in jail for murder and I can watch the goddamn kid? Yeah. So that's crazy. So they placed Jeremy and Caitlin temporarily with Mark's sister and brother-in-law, which the sister came up wherever he came up. So no. No, thank you. Wait, Mark's, that's the parents, yeah?

Yeah, but they live there. Oh, that's right. No, Mark, not Paul. I'm sorry. Yes, Mark. I was like, what are you talking about? Yeah, Mark, yeah, you're right. So it's the great-grandparents, great-uncle.

Yeah, it's the great-a-and-uncle, basically. So Jeremy's biological father was cooperative and supportive of the grandparents getting custody. Apparently he had no interest or just knew that was a better environment. But the daughter, that's a problem because that's, you know, he still has rights. So Linda, Lisa's mother, said to the parents of the children whose lives I've touched, which sounds terrible unless you're a teacher for 26 years. That's the only time that's okay to say that. The appearance of anything that I've touched. Anything I've touched.

Don't touch things. I would like them to get a hold of CPS and let them know the content of my character that I would be a good person to raise these children. Seems like an ideal person to raise these children, I would imagine. They asked people to write letters to CPS. They set up donations through homicide survivors, which is a Tucson-based victim assistance organization. They had to leave their jobs in Delaware to come to Arizona. Lisa here, I'm sorry, Linda the mom, told reporters about the relationship with Paul that Lisa didn't trust him. She wouldn't marry him.

She stayed either out of fear or because she was kind of tied up with the kids and finances and all that kind of thing. She said, Jeremy overheard what had happened and it's been very difficult for him. We feel we would like to have both of them together. I don't want them separated. So because of the CPS situation, not allowing interstate adoption, the, the, the, the berries move to Tucson. Oh, Jesus.

Leave their jobs, pack up and leave. Leave Delaware for Tucson. Yep. They left. They couldn't sell their house in Delaware at the time because what year is it?

2008. Yeah, it's fucked. It's totally fucked. So they're screwed. They drain their savings. Wow. They uprooted everything. Their retirement

and all this type of thing so they could move to Arizona to raise kids, which that's tough all around. Retirement. Those are good grandparents, though. I mean, Jesus, they're willing to do anything for their grandkids. That's awesome.

They also had to go to child custody hearings where Paul would be there, too. Oh, boy. Yeah. Mark said the hearings were especially difficult for us because we had to sit across from our daughter's killer who grinned at us in a senseless delight. He did what? Jesus Christ. You know what I love the way Mark phrases things, though. He gave him a dead mother, grinned at us in senseless delight.

Like, this guy is a wordsmith. I like him. Why would he do that? I can't imagine why he do that. Like, I'm going to fucking twist it in. Did he get bail or is he in jail? He's in jail. Yeah, no one's getting him out at the moment here.

Meanwhile, the kids are in therapy. The daughter's crying herself to sleep because she doesn't understand where her mother was. She just asked for her mother every day. Where's mommy? Why can't I see her? I mean, imagine that. That's fucking horrifying. Horrible.

So the trial comes up here. Okay. Now, the prosecutor is saying it's first-degree murder, period. He said, strangling someone is not an instantaneous act, as we've gone over in previous episodes. It's not easy to do. Remember the Michigan episode where the prosecutor put a very loudly ticking clock on the jury box and let it go for four minutes and, 15 seconds. And just sat there.

Sat there and let it tick away and said, you have the decision now? You can stop any time. He's still doing it. Still doing it. And that's what they're saying. They're saying it takes effort and it takes minutes and sustained compression. You have the opportunity to stop and he didn't. And under Arizona law, premeditation doesn't require a huge, doesn't require like a, you know, you to write a map and a thing and a manifesto.

Yeah. It doesn't require that. It can take some forethought. It can literally be seconds. The decision can be, I'm going to walk across the room and strangle you, and that's premeditation. That's different in some states. Some states are a little more stingy with the premeditation as far as what it is. But in Arizona, it's literally, if I look at you and decide to kill you, that's a premeditated act then, which is weird, I think, honestly.

You're kind of fucking the definition of premeditation. You might as well not even have it at that point. I mean, if it's seconds before the act, That's a bit much. Yeah. To me, premeditated is anything outside of the room that it happened in right now. You know what I mean? Like if I planned it from the other room and then I went in and did it, that's premeditation.

If I went into a room with the intent to kill you, that would be premeditation, but not if we were in a room and I ended up killing you. And I didn't intend to when I got in there. To me, that's not premeditation. That's second degree murder, I would say. But that's just me. Who knows? So they said that he did have time to reflect on what was going away, what was going on and all that kind of thing.

And, you know, but the defense argued that it's strangling is an inherently reflective act. Or that's the prosecution. And therefore, the murder is premeditated because you have time to reflect while you're doing it. Yeah, you're reflecting the whole time you're doing it. Yes. And also they present evidence that he beat her before strangling her. Now it's very premeditated. If you beat someone unconscious, even if they were attacking you with a fucking, you know, a sprinkler key, it doesn't matter at that point.

That's fine. It's over. They're unconscious. You change attack, weapon, a motive, any mode of attack that you switch in the midst of the attack, you certainly had time to say no. You had time to not do it. Yep. And then there's the evidence of prior threats because Lisa had told her parents that Paul had threatened a killer the day before. So that's now a pattern of violence and controlling and threatening behavior.

It's not a snap out of nowhere. The defense has a totally different take on it. What do they say? They said you should, he killed her. There's no doubt about that. That is not under. Yeah, he said that. There's no dispute there.

He certainly killed her. But it should be manslaughter. Why? Mansell, let's let him, might as well, Jesus, let's get him a pizza and send him home. Why don't we? Jesus, what the fucking talking about? How are they going to say that? They said heat of passion.

Lisa told him she was leaving and taking the two-year-old daughter. And the heat of passion is obviously a very legal term. It doesn't mean the killing was justified. It just means they were provoked to the point where a reasonable person might lose self-control. And the killing happened in that emotional state before the person could cool. down. So that would be, that would be the, the stereotypical one would be you come home, you find somebody in bed with your wife, and you fucking jump on him and beat him to death. That's a heat of passion, not a plan thing. A reasonable person might have snapped and done that.

That's, that's the normal, like, you know, the, what you'd set up as the standard of that, probably. But, hmm. I don't know. I'm not sure. So, yeah. That's the defense. What's a reasonable person, too, you know what I mean? because you got that in there. The jury. You start throwing. Yeah, right. Like something you could have snapped about.

Yeah. You know, a regular person. I think that's what it is. That's why they say it. But when you beat someone, then strangle him, you lose that. That's not, it's all gone. That's not manslaughter. No.

Now, in this trial here, they said he was so overwhelmed that rage consumed him and his ability to control himself. Couldn't help him. Okay. He testifies. He has to. The whole point is. I didn't mean to, I didn't want to.

So he's got to testify and try to ply his wares up there on the stand. Good luck, asshole. So he takes the stand and he describes their relationship as it was normal. He had some arguments, but we recently moved to a larger apartment and everything was going good and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He said that on the night of August 12th, Lisa returned home angry that he hadn't made dinner. Is it? Because he said he fixed her. her car earlier instead and didn't have that took longer than he expected and he didn't have time

to prepare dinner that's his thing and he said the argument escalated he said she pushed him and punched him in the chest and started packing her belongings from the closet and announced she was leaving with the children and he said that she said that he would never see his daughter again and then she called him only worth a one night stand I don't see I just don't see that happening Like he just All of a sudden he turns in a sponge for abuse

And he's just oh Now she's I don't know about that You didn't cook dinner tonight You've been working on my car all day I'm leaving You weren't worth the jizz you shot at me Yeah basically

What he's saying is If you flip the script What you know A guy would say You know a type of thing Yeah. What would make a woman upset if the guy said all this stuff to her? So maybe that's what he's trying to do a little reverse psychology with the jury.

Like, that's all I can imagine this is because that seems silly. She had to have said that before, right? Because you wouldn't put those words into somebody's mouth. If you're trying to get out under a murder charge, you'd put any words you can say anything. That's a real strange quote to say a woman said. You're worth a what. It's probably something he said to somebody before. That's what I'm thinking.

You know what I mean? That's the... Women don't talk like that. That's what I'm saying. That's why it sounds like what a man would say. And I think that's a thing to say. Yeah, so he's trying to get the women on the jury to go, oh, that would sound terrible if someone said that to me. I would hate that.

That's what it feels like. He said they physically shoved each other. They fell onto the bed, rolled onto the floor, and then continued into the bath rolling into the bathroom. Yeah. You know, like when people fight, they're always rolling distances on the ground, obviously. that's what happens here. He's seen like Heathcliff cartoons and he thinks that's how fights on.

Then a big cloud of dust came and no one could see what was happening in there. Nobody rolls around with each other. Pow and bam happened around. It's not how arguments happen and that's not what women say. Nope. This sounds very made up.

Yeah. So he said he beat Lisa and strangled her in a moment of what he called profound emotion over fear of losing not only her, but his precious daughter as well. Yeah.

And his mind, obviously, because he's killing her mother. So obviously, she's very precious to him. Fucking asshole. So he portrayed it as a very spontaneous action just driven by rage and loss. And he expressed remorse saying he was saddened that his daughter would grow up without her mother and that he could never forgive himself for this. Oh, good. That's good. Well, we don't, good because we're not either.

So I'm going on a limb, but I don't think Mark's ever going to. forgive me. No, I doubt it. I think Mark would beat him to death if he could. I think he'd like to beat him and strangle him probably. Yeah, with a shoe. He wants to do it slow. I would do the same thing. I got to, you know, I have a 24-year-old daughter. If you kill her, guess what?

Better be looking over your shoulder. I mean, that's, I would think anybody with kids would think that. I'd love to beat you death with her kids. Yeah. Perfect. Let's get it on. Well, my daughter wears Doc Martins. Be easier to beat with. Yeah. Take hers and Really whack up good. But otherwise, real light volleyball shoes. That'll take a long time.

Oh, Jesus Christ. Dude, you'll have a heart attack before you're done with that. You'll fall over dead next to him and he'll be like, I guess I win. He'll just be pink. He'll be, if he pushes like this in his face, it'll be a little finger-britman. That's it. That's all he's got going on. Like he was in the sun for a while.

The defense here on closing arguments argues for the manslaughter or satchelder or second-degree murder. You know, that worst. He said, you know, he said it was passionate rage and he lost

control. That's what's passion. He's just passionate. If you tell you, he's part Italian, he's just very passionate, that's all it is, it's fine.

So passionate, he strangles before he, or beats before he strangles. Ah, this passion. Passion oozing from this man. The verdict comes in and he is guilty,

obviously, of something, but he is guilty of, what do you think they're going to do? Did they give him second? What do you think they're going to do?

Second degree, right? First degree murder. Oh, fuck you. Oh, because of the double, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the two modes, modes of operation.

Yeah, and the fact that I think, in my opinion, too, that the kids were in the house. That's extra shitty. Stank to it right there. That adds some wang to it right there. Yeah, some wangs and thangs. Some wangs and things up there. That's some spicy wang.

That it's also, The daughter that he claims to love so much that she's going to take away from her, he did this while she's there. Well, she's present. It deletes all affection that he proclaims to have for her. If you kill a kid's mother, you don't care about that kid at all. Not at all. Period. That's it.

Kids need their mothers, especially two-year-olds. They need mothers. Period. That's all. So anyway, the Berry family in sentencing asked the judge for the maximum, which is life without parole. That's what they want. Every member of the family said it. Mark came up.

the dad and he was up there crying his eyes out and saying that it's just been devastating, the kids have been in therapy the whole time. Their lives are in financial ruin because they had to abandon their home and move to Tucson and they had to sit across from this guy during custody hearings. It's been a fucking nightmare. It's to be here in August. In August. Yeah, it's awful.

I had to come here in August. Do you understand how hot it is? He said that the daughter, the two-year-old, still cries in her sleep. most nights and can't understand why she can't be taken to see her mother. And this is where he gave the mic drop quote of Paul gave him a dead mother for a seventh birthday, which to me, I mean, if you're on the jury, that is crazy. I am listening to that. So Linda also describes a pattern of abuse and control.

You know, she was afraid and she was trying to escape to Delaware. And Linda says that he has ruined so many lives. He doesn't deserve another chance to continue the pattern. He made his own daughter an orphan. Please keep him out of decent society. Oh, boy. Yeah, told the court that she had to retire. They lost all their savings.

She said the whole thing. Her sister, Suzanne, Lisa's younger sister here, this is where she called her a strong Viking woman who she said would have fought back if given the chance. So she thinks that, you know, she probably caught her from behind or from the side or something. and then she said about Paul this is as good as fucking this is as good as gave him a dead mother

quote he is not a man he is an animal and he should be treated as such this state frowns on euthanasia so he should be caged until his heart stops wow she is a she's like a poet I mean can we just put him at the

humane society and the next dog up to be killed we'll just do him instead We'll give him seven days in case someone claims it, but no one claims him. He's going down. We'll just bring him in. Keep him in a cage until his heart stops. Then here is the cuda gras here. Jeremy gets on the stand.

Oh, the boy. The boy. He gets on the stand holding a big stuffed teddy bear for emotional support, poor kid. Holy shit. He wrote his own statement. Yeah. Oh, my God. How old is he now?

nine? Oh, yeah, about eight and a half probably. Yeah. Because he just turned seven. It's been 18 months. He stood before a judge. This is the guts on the kid. Number one, to be in the same room with a guy you know killed your mother.

You watch. Take some fucking clune's right there. Then to be able to go up and talk. There's adults that won't talk in front of groups of people. For a child to be able to go up in that environment that adults are uncomfortable in, even in a courtroom. First time you do it, too, it's bizarre because you just hear your voice in your ears and you hear nothing else. And it's just the most nerve-wracking thing to talk in front of people as you're a child. A child, it's crazy. It's crazy. So he said, your honor, I feel mad and sad. Because of this man,

my sister is an orphan. He killed my mom and he will probably stay in prison for the rest of his life. My sister was only two when it happened. This man deserves to stay in prison for the rest of his life. Okay. Good job, buddy. That's not bad. And then he whipped out a picture of, Lisa and said this was my mother. Oh my God. Teddy bear in one hand, picture in the other. Oh, man.

You got broken hearts all around, man. That is brutal. Don't let him listen to Pearl Jam. No, Jesus Christ, for whatever you do. So Paul gets to speak. Yeah. And he said, I would like to express my extreme regret for my actions. He said that he's so sad about his daughter growing up without a mother and he plans to

use his time in prison wisely. He said, I cannot give back what I have taken, and for that I'm truly sorry. I do not ask for forgiveness because I can't forgive myself. This never should have happened, and I accept responsibility for that. Oh, good. Oh, terrific. His defense attorney called him a multifaceted person. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, like he's not a murderer, and he's like also a murder, you know, he's multifaceted, you know. He's a dad, but also one of the worst ones. But also like terrible because he killed his kids' moms. You know, that kind of thing. It's bad. He said that he's been using his time in custody productively and deserves a chance at parole. Yeah.

So the judge says, You, sir, may fuck off life in prison with the possibility of release after 25 years. What? 25 is all he got, pretty much. They didn't take into account that he's clearly a habitual offender. It just escalates, obviously, from misdemeanors to felonies to fucking murder. I don't know what the mitigation is here. What is that?

I mean, I don't know what the mitigation is to be. I know that's not a mitigation because it's not a death penalty case, but I don't understand the mitigation of, well, I think, you know. I guess he's got motivation to be a better person because he's got a young girl out there growing up without a father. He's been a fuck up. Yeah, he hasn't done anything right. Yeah, other than his knowledge of produce, I don't know what used to the. world. He doesn't really have much. He also is ordered to pay $81,000 in restitution to the Berry family. And he received 525 days credit or credit served for time served credits. So almost two

years credited. Yeah, because that's where he was sitting waiting for court. That same week, though, some good news here finally. Mark and Linda finalized the adoption of both children. Great. So that works out very nice. He appeals, wants a new trial. Why? Okay. Defense attorney told the court immediately after sentencing she would file a motion for a new trial, which usually they all say that and it goes nowhere. But she went through the jury selection process, went back and reviewed it, and reviewed all the pretrial questionnaires that each juror had filled out and found something. One of the jurors who convicted him had failed to disclose on her jury form that she herself had been both a suspect and a victim of domestic violence. On both ends, she had been. Oh, she's been abused and abusing. Yes.

So this is... And it's been documented because otherwise they wouldn't know to prove that, right? That's the thing. Yeah. So the prosecution's case was built on a pattern of domestic violence, control and this and all that kind of thing. So the questionnaire asked direct questions about experience with domestic violence. Yeah. And the juror did not answer those, honestly, a...

apparently, according to the state, allegedly. This is, her name was Diana Yerquides, and she was, she lied on the form. She answered no or otherwise failed to disclose any personal involvement when asked about that. She did voluntarily disclose that her uncle was a convicted murderer. Wow, what's going on with her fam? Yeah, right. But she didn't reveal her own documented history of violent, intimate relationships with a former boyfriend, who's the father of one of her children.

Court records and news reports later said that in 2000, the ex-boyfriend obtained a restraining order against her. He alleged she hit him and tried to stab him with a knife. Good Lord. In 2003, she obtained a restraining order against him, telling the authorities that he pushed her and burned her with a curling iron. Break up! God damn it.

This is a toxic-ass relationship. Holy shit. This is crazy. Like, I get that people can take out restraining orders. each other, but as a society, can we take out restraining orders to keep people away? Yeah. You're violating the peace and sanctity of the world if you're two or together. And perhaps maybe she's on the right side of the law, and maybe this relationship is over now.

That's great. I might want that person on the jury. Possibly, but the thing is, you have to know who they are so you can use your challenges. You know, you don't know the strategy that they have. That's why they give them those questionnaires and they're like under oath that they're true. Yeah. So who's to say that she's not the aggressor and has a bunch of restraining orders against her and she didn't disclose it. That's fucked up.

Even if she's the victim, the defense might want to use that as the, as a strike because they don't want domestic violence victims on a jury for a domestic violence case, which legally makes perfect legal sense. I mean, so anyway, the judge argued, I'm so the defense argued that this information could have led to her being struck. like we said, and it raised questions about potential bias, emotional triggers, or inability to impartially weigh evidence in a case of this manner. The non-disclosure was deemed willful, not an innocent forgetfulness, because the questions were clear. The topic was prominent in the case, and she had no apparent memory issues. And she checked no. She checked no or whatever said on the thing. Allegedly, we don't know what that is exactly that she checked or said, but that's what happened.

post-trial investigation by the defense uncovered police reports and court records of the restraining orders. So he is granted a new trial. Wow. Yep, he remains in custody. They're not letting him out anywhere, but he's still there. In April 2010, right after that, some bad news for him, the parents here, Linda and Mark, file a wrongful death suit against him. Uh-oh. Not only against him, against his dad, Billy Don Beam.

Billy Don Beam sounds like a booze, by the way. Billy Don Beam's wife, Georgina. Billy Don and Georgina, wow. The lawsuit alleges that Paul killed her and that Billy Don failed to render aid to her when he came over. He didn't even try to help her. So that's why they're seeking punitive and compensatory damages on behalf of the children. October 2010, new trial starts in. in two weeks.

We are almost a new trial time. And he pleads guilty. Really? Yep. He says, fuck it. I'm pleading guilty. Yeah.

They're going to get me. Yeah. And I mean, yeah. He admits that he did it. Yeah. So the only reason to go through the new trial is if he thinks he can get it to manslaughter, which you're not getting it to manslaughter, but it ain't happening. No, no, no, no.

There's two acts. Two acts. And the, and the, you're not going to get the luck of the jury thing. again. Nope. And Jeremy and his teddy bear are going to be there every fucking time. God damn it. And he might haunt you, I hope.

Yeah. And he's going to be a year older. He's going to have a much more succinct thought. Oh, yeah. You're going to get fucking hammered by Jeremy. Yeah. Jeremy might try to stab you as he leaves the courtroom by then. Let's hope he does.

So he pleads guilty. Now, during sentencing here, they all do their same things again. They come up. They sell their stories. The judge sentences him to, you, sir, again, may fuck off. 22 years in prison. Okay. Not 25 to life like before.

22 years. Why? So that means the parole is, you know what I mean? Like this is just 22 years flat. That's what he's got to do. And he's already served for. His earliest possible release would be around 2030, which is coming up very, very, very, very fucking soon here.

Yeah. That's wild. And like, look at him up, but his jail stuff here. Yeah. It makes it even worse because it's not like he's five, six, 140 pounds. He's six foot tall, 180 pounds.

Oh, that's a big guy. He's a decent-sized guy that fucking beat a woman in death and strangled her like a fucking animal. And he's going to get out. Right now, here, he's at the Winslow Apache unit, which sounds in the Winslow Complex. That sounds awful. Is that in Winslow, Arizona? That's in St. John's up there. Oh, yeah.

It's close by. I think that was our first Arizona episode with St. John's. It's a bad neighborhood, James. It's not clean. We know that. It's shitty up there. Now, I looked at his profligate his classifications. Yeah.

And originally, he was low internal risk and close, I guess, is his custody risk. Then he goes to medium. Medium on the custody risk, but low on the internal list, internal risk list. So I guess whether he'll, I guess that's pretty... Whether he's the problem inside or whether he's trying to get out, yeah. And then he is classified as the lowest by August of 8th of 2025, the lowest internal risk. Then now he's up to medium again. Oh, he did some bad shit.

But he's in the minimum custody risk. So I don't know what that means, but I found all of his work assignments here. Oh. He did custodial maintenance work. he did something with impact crime and victims. He did changing offender behavior, which it says credentialed staff only, I guess on that one. Then he was a maintenance helper.

And then it says one LDS service. I don't know if he went to Mormon church now or maybe that's maybe his job is to hang out at the church. I'm not sure. But either way, that is Arizona, my friend. Oro Valley, Arizona. That was wild stuff. I love the dad and the son's fucking at sentencing dropping hammers on. They have to be.

They have no choice. I mean, they're. Boy, oh, boy. They really don't have much of a choice. It's tough. No. But they're answering the call. Oh, yeah.

No, the fact that those people just uprooted their lives, quit their jobs, liquidated their retirements, left their house unsold, and moved here to take care of these two kids. They could have just said, I don't know, I mean, let somebody else handle them. Yeah. We'll give my sister and brother there a few bucks. You know what I mean? And whatever.

They said, we're going to raise our grandkids, which, holy shit. That is impressive, honestly. I mean, it's all they have left of Lisa. So that's why they're doing it. That too. I mean, that's not why they're doing it. But you know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. But that too. Yeah. So, I mean, Jeremy has got to be Christ. He's got to be 24, 25 now. And the daughter is... She's pushing 20 at this point. So, shit, man.

I mean, the kids are older now, and who knows what they feel like or what goes on in their heads or whatever, but our... Wow, hearts go out to you guys out there. That's horrible shit. So there you go, everybody. If you enjoyed that show,

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It's going to be great. We promise you that's going to be an insanely fun, wild, good time of a live show. Can't wait. We're going to have a personal item, so that'll be a lot of fun. Oh, hey.

In a full comedy club, that'll be good shit. It's going to be great. All personal items. That would be wild. No, we've got to do some, an Arizona thing. It'll be fun.

We're going to do it all up. We're planning it now. So can't wait for that. Shut up and Give Me Murder.com. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. That's where you get everything. All of the bonus material. All you have to be is $5 a month or above,

and you get everything we put out that we could possibly give you. Immediately upon subscription, you're going to get hundreds of back episodes of bonus stuff you've never heard before. There's so many. Once you get through all those, we also do every other week you get new ones.

You get one crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get it all. And the way we try to do it, too, is so like, like the crime and sports bonus episodes, for the most part, you don't have to like even crime and sports as a show. You'll like the bonus episodes or weird off subjects and things like that. This week we're going to talk about dead cyclists. You know, this is just, we did a part one of this of all like the 1800s and into the early 1900s.

This is like competitive cycling, not just some dips shit who fell off his bike in traffic. It's crazy how many people die doing this. It's wild. And then for small town murder, we're going to get into the death of Kurt Cobain. something we both followed for the last 30 years. Yeah, it's a huge part of childhood. Huge. It's one of those very curious things.

And who knows? Did he kill himself? Did somebody kill him? There's a new investigator on it that says it's definitely murder. And so we'll look into that and we'll look into everything else. There's documentaries I've seen over the years. We'll get into all that and more. Patreon.com slash crime in sports.

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Don't you worry about that. So that said, patreon.com slash crime in sports. Get in there. Be a part of it. It's a lot of fun. Come to a live show. Come see us. Keep coming out and coming back.

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Bye. Hey, everybody, listening to Small Town Murder out there. Hi. Good to see you out there. I'm here with Jimmy too. And this is an ad, but not an ad for a product. This is an ad for tour dates. Yes, come see a live show, the 2026 tour.

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