Snapped: Women Who Murder - Karina Rafter

Episode Date: March 6, 2022

While investigating the tragic murder of a devoted father in Virginia, detectives must work their way through several disturbing theories and contentious family dynamics to get to the heartbreaking truth.Season 28, Episode 01Originally aired: September 6, 2020Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WsLCJWqmIebSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. After years as a single mom, she met the man of her dreams. When he came around, it was like the family clicked into place. It was so great.

I just didn't think that there was a bad bone in the guy's body. But one dreadful December morning turns a family's happiness to heartbreak. My family, my dad, my dad, I don't know what to do. too heartbreak. My family, my dad, dad. I don't know what to do. Please come home. He was found with a shotgun in his bed. Was it murder? Is it suicide? What is it?

An abundance of theories creates the perfect storm. But investigators find there are no easy explanations. He had expressed some suicidal thoughts. I had some illness with my husband that we're not the best woman trait. He had told several friends that he was sleeping with an ax. Everybody's a suspect. Your dad who wants you to tell the truth.

Hello. There's only one person who had the motive, the means, and the opportunity. So you bought an invention for that gun? Correct. December 9, 2016, Powetan, Virginia. Just after 8.30 a.m., a 911 operator receives a harrowing call. Now it came down one one, what if your murder? My son, my dad, dad. I don't know what to do.

Please, come to me. How, Tan 9-1-1 received an emergency call from John Raffer's son, reporting that he had just found his father dead in their home. He was young. I think he was 13 at the time. And he was obviously very emotional. The young man explains that he awoke just minutes earlier,

realizing his father never got him up for school. He had overslept. He went to go see if something was wrong and then found his father in the state. He was in. Hello. It's her boy, everyone. He said... You just thought there you said?

Yes. He said... I know I can't believe this is happening. Did you see that? Did you see if he was breathing or not? No, he's not. He's just our sister's daughter. I don't think it's long.

That's his face is falling. Yes, what is your dad's name? John, John, Richard Raffer. I'm just happy I was reading. I was 18, so I'm 18. John Raffer, Jr. was born on October 6, 1968. He was born in New York, but he grew up in colonial heights, Virginia. His parents were very active in the Mormon church, so he grew up active in the church as

well. He was very smart. He was very good at math, very good with numbers. He just understood computers very well. He was very smart. He was very good at math, very good with numbers. He just understood computers very well. John's intelligence and hard work paid off when he landed a job in Richmond, Virginia. He worked for Capital One. He started there working in the call center and worked all the way up to being a manager. And he was in charge of a lot of people. Lade back and easy to talk to, John was popular with his co-workers.

There was not a person that I ever talked to that didn't like him. I just didn't think that there was a bad bone in the guy's body. In 2001, a co-worker introduced John to Carina LaWalt. She had a best friend named Heather, and she knew my dad through work. And Heather said, hey, I'm going to introduce you to this guy that I work with. And so that is when my mom and John met for the first time. She was a nice looking woman. She was really well put together. She was a nice looking woman. She was really well put together.

Karina was born in Lublin, Poland in 1976. She spent most of her childhood moving back and forth between Poland and the US, following her father's career as a physician. She would attend school for a few years in Poland, and then attend school for a few years in America. And it wasn't until she was a teenager that she eventually settled permanently in America.

The LaWalt family eventually settled in the Richmond area, where Karina spent her teen years rebelling against her strict upbringing. She dropped out of high school. I think she was having a lot of fun just going out and partying. And she had a baby at 18. Karina's parents didn't approve. Her parents didn't meet me until I was about a year old

because they refused to believe that their 18-year-old daughter had a baby. Out of wedlock. With the baby's father soon out of the picture, Karina was left to raise her daughter Maya on her own. It was just the two of us. We always said we were like the Gilmore girls. It was just the mom and the daughter. And she always had time for me.

If I ever needed to talk to her, she was there. She was a really, really great mother, above and beyond, and sacrificed a lot of what she could have done with her life. In May of 2001, when Karina was introduced to John Rafter, he struck her as the kind of guy she could depend on. He didn't really go off and do his own thing. He was a family man.

Maya instantly adored her mother's new boyfriend. It felt like things were finally complete. When he came around, it was like the family clicked into place. And it was so great. After dating John for a few months, Karina discovered she was pregnant. They decided to get married, but they had already been dating for a few months and things were going well. It was more like they just sped up what they were already planning to do.

In 2003, their son was born, followed by a daughter a year later. As a mother of three, Karina ran a tight ship. Karina was the one who made the rules. And dad would follow them. That was the way the house was run. Over the years, John's job became more demanding and the long hours took a toll on the marriage. He was always so wrapped up in his work with phone calls and being there.

She was upset that he wasn't around a lot. He had to work. He had to support three children and a wife. And I think she was frustrated. By 2006, after only five years of marriage, their relationship was broken. John and Karina announced to the kids that they were getting a divorce. I was just so sad that he was my dream dad.

And then he was gone, only a few years later. But almost as soon as the split was official, John and Karina regretted the decision. He moved out, and then next thing I know, he moved back in. And I was like, cool. It was back to business as usual. He was just back. They got back together and continued to live together from 2006 through 2014

when they got remarried. By 2015, Maya was engaged and living on her own while John and Karina focused on getting their two younger children through middle school. By that summer, however, John found himself once again looking for a divorce attorney. John and his wife had had some difficulties, and we basically worked on, you know, getting his divorce filed in the court.

He was very concerned about the effect of that Pana's children. But John's main concern was that his wife had a substance abuse problem. Basically, she was an alcoholic. She was drinking all the time, really just being selfish, choosing alcohol over being a mother, choosing, um, fighting over, getting along with her husband. Despite the end to their 15-year relationship, Karina and John tried to remain civil for the sake of their kids. She was trying to be on good terms with him. She wanted things to be amicable.

But John and Karina's divorce would never be finalized. December 9, 2016, a 9-1-1 call from John's teenage son summons Powettin County deputies to a horrific scene. The young man directs investigators to an upstairs bedroom where they find his father, 48-year-old John Rafter. John Rafter was underneath the covers, but was fully clothed. He had his feet crossed under the covers. He was shot in the left side of the head. It was pretty horrific. His head had been obliterated by the shotgun blast. He was shot in the left side of the head.

It was pretty horrific. His head had been obliterated by the shotgun blast. His face essentially was missing. There was blood and body spatter on the walls. And there was a shotgun that was on the bed. And there was a shotgun that was on the bed. Coming up, investigators uncover a troubling clue. There was a hatchet under his pillow. And disturbing questions about John's mental health

emerge. Was your dad have those issues? Like a dad can go. He tried to commit suicide. On the morning of December 9, 2016, Powhatan County authorities are investigating the suspicious death of 48-year-old John Rafter, who was reportedly found dead in his bedroom by his teenage son. It was a horrific crime scene. John had been killed with a double-barrel shotgun at close range, so you can imagine physically

what that had done to his body. When detectives arrive on the scene, their first clue is hard to ignore. There was an alarm that when detectives got to the scene was going on. It had not been turned off. It was chiming. The ringing alarm helps investigators narrow down John's time of death. We do have an outgoing text message from John that was, I believe, shortly after 1 a.m. And we know that his alarm on his phone

was set for 6 a.m. Also, in plain sight is the firearm that detective suspect ended John's life. The gun on the bed was a double barrel 16 gauge shotgun. It was an old model shotgun, a little bit unusual, first of all, in that it's a 16 gauge, which is a more rare gauge of shotgun than 12 or 20. It also has a double trigger pull.

Investigators collect the gun for further testing. Suicide would be a potential explanation for a gun death where the gun is found in proximity to the body. When investigators take a closer look around the body, they make a startling discovery. closer look around the body, they make a startling discovery. The investigators ultimately peel back the covers. There was a hatchet under his pillow. The discovery of the hatchet leads police to wonder. Had John been anticipating an attack?

Hoping to find out more, investigators turn to the person who discovered the body. John's 13-year-old son. Initially, when police arrived on the scene, obviously, per protocol, whoever's in the home or who has access to the victim is certainly a suspect. When investigators speak to the 13-year-old, he says he last saw his father the previous evening

around 11 p.m. His father, the night before, had told him to go to bed. They had plans to play a video game in the morning. Then his father was going to take him to school. John Sun says that at some point a loud bang will come up. taken to school. John Sun says that at some point, a loud bang will come up. So you said this morning you heard a bang. Did you get up after you heard the bang?

No, I went back to sleep. You went back to sleep. About what time was that? A seven to eight. I'm just estimated here. He thought it was about an hour before he had woken up, but he had been asleep both before and then after the boom, sometime later he had woken up,

realized that he had missed his time to get up for school and went to investigate. I woke up ahead. I said, shoot, and I'm going, and I... I'm going to get. I'm going to die for him. That's worse all day. He said that he touched his father's face just to make sure that his father was in fact dead. And then he called 911 after that.

As they listen to the boy's story, investigators notice a substantial missing detail. John's son never mentioned seeing the shotgun that was on the bed. The shotgun is here at the house, it's upstairs. You didn't see that laying on the bed upstairs? It's laying on the bed. Was it laying on the floor? Did you touch it? I didn't see it. I didn't see it.

You didn't see it? Yeah, we don't have any guns in the house. If you find a shotgun, I have no nail, how the hell you got there. Was John Sun so traumatized by the sight of his father's body that he didn't see the gun? Or is he hiding something? Were you angry with him or upset with him? a gun, or is he hiding something? Were you angry with him or upset with him?

He's an ill person, right? I fully pushed it. You trust him more? OK. Well, this is your dad who wants you to tell the truth. Hello. Investigators ask him questions about John's mental health. Does your dad have those issues?

Like a dead kid, he tried to commit suicide by trying to gain a bunch of... Your dad has? Over a dead kid, I guess he did. By drinking a bunch of alcohol. Okay, and pills maybe. Yes. How long ago was that? Back when I was like a baby.

The information from John's son gives a little more substance to the possibility that his father took his own life. But investigators need to speak to someone who might have more insight. What's your mom at now? I don't know. She lived here with you guys. She lives in a juxtaposed family. What's your mom's name?

Karina Rafter. His father and his mother had separated. with you guys. She lives in Chester, Philadelphia. What's your mom's name? Karina Rafter. His father and his mother had separated and that Karina Rafter was living with her parents in Chesterfield County, the next county over. Eager to track down John's estranged wife, detectives wrap up their interview with John's son. Authorities leave him in the care of his 22-year-old sister, Maya,

and her fiance, Jason, who have just arrived at the home. The morning of December 9th, I got a text from my brother that said, Dad is dead. I need you to come here. And when we showed up, all we knew was that he was dead. And as soon as I saw my brother, we just wrapped our arms around each other,

and we just stood there and we cried. That was a horrific thing for my little brother to go through by himself. Detectives are interested in speaking to Maya as well. They asked me basic questions where I was the night before. Did anybody know that I was there? Who do I think would do this? But then we had to go to the police station.

As Maya heads to the Sheriff's Office, deputies track down John's estranged wife, Karina, and summon her to the station as well. It's a crazy feeling. You know, there's so much that happens in the very beginning and they start getting their theories together. Everybody's a suspect until they figure out, you know, what they really think happened.

At the station, while John's wife, Karina, waits in a separate room, investigators continue questioning John's kids. They sat me at the table with my brother, and they asked me questions there. They had to keep my brother there, because my brother was the one in the house, so naturally, he was a prime suspect.

During that interview, they pressed pretty hard on whether or not John's son actually was the one who did this. He was a suspect initially just really because of proximity, but as the police investigated, they ruled him out as a suspect. With John Sun cleared from suspicion, detectives pressed John's stepdaughter about her whereabouts. Detectives pressed John's stepdaughter about her whereabouts. So the morning of December 9th, my husband and I were dragging him back from dropping our two oldest kids off at school. And that's when I got the call and realized that my dad was dead.

The school was some distance away, but they immediately came back and responded out to the home in Palatine. back and responded out to the home in Palatine. Investigators ask Maya if she thinks her stepfather took his own life. They did tell me that he was found with a shotgun in his bed. But I just knew that it wasn't suicide. First of all, he was happy. Things were going his way. And second, he would never have left himself there for my brother to find.

There was no way he would put his child through that. In another room, though, Maya's mother, Carina, shares a different story. Does John have any mental issues? I'll use that. I'll play. Coming up, family secrets are revealed. OK.

You have a drink and problem. She attacked them and ultimately was arrested for domestic assault. And soon detectives find things aren't always what they seem. The friends of John had told investigators that John was in fear for his life. He had been speaking with his attorney about getting a weapon.

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in front of thousands of our biggest fans from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. You're not gonna want to miss this conversation with Conan? You can listen to these episodes exclusively and add free with One Re Plus. Find One Re Plus in the One Re app or on Apple Podcasts. Within hours of John Rathler's death, how a tan investigators are in the process

of questioning his estranged wife, Karina, when asked about John's mental state, Karina doesn't hold back. She did indicate that John had a history of mental health challenges and that he was in treatment for those. She told the police that John had been suicidal in the past. She told the police that John had been suicidal in the past. In fact, Karina says John had been in therapy, and his counselor had called her about a year ago, asking for help in saving John's life.

There was a situation the year prior, where John had expressed some suicidal thoughts to his counselor. And while John was in that session with his counselor, the counselor actually called Karina and asked her to come get the gun at that point John had it in his vehicle. She came and took the weapon and said she would take it

to her parent's house for safekeeping. The gun Karina describes matches the rare 16-gauge shotgun found next to John's body. Karina explains she'd held on to the weapon for nearly a year until John asked for the gun back just a month ago. John asked for it to be a correct. Okay, and what? He said it was valuable and he'd like it back.

And you weren't worried about giving the gun back to him because of his past mental state. I had mentioned it several times, and he said that he addressed it numerous times with his counselor, and he's doing much better. But when Karina brought the shotgun to John's house on November 30, John pointed out she had forgotten something.

She realized that she had misplaced the shot shells and she said that therefore she had to go to Walmart and purchase replacement shot shells that day. 30 body ammunition for that gun. Correct. And did you give that to John? Correct. And did you give that to John? Correct. She took the shotgun shells directly to the garage and left them there in the wall, in the wall mirror bag that she purchased them in. As investigators press her for more information on her relationship with John, Karina seems

transparent about the issues in her marriage. I had some moments with my husband that were not the best when we drank alcohol. Okay, so we did that rarely and then Joanne stopped drinking. I drank rarely. I assume as he brought it up that it's a problem in July. I left at 228 A. I ran here to meetings.

I know that they would drink together after we went to bed, and that was one of the reasons that my dad quit drinking. Because he realized when they would drink together, they would fight. Karina says she and John worked hard on their relationship. Do you think you guys were going to be able to reconcile? This time, again? After the developments probably over the last few weeks, our months didn't look that way.

But did you want to reconcile for the kids and John? Now I think we both agreed that we needed a proceed with the divorce. They had even come to an agreement regarding custody of the kids. What was happening there? John and I had talked about that human have custody of her son,

have custody of our daughter. As for the morning of John's death, Karina tells detectives she did leave her parents' home once between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. Her daughter was ill as she had gone to get medicine for her daughter. With Karina having admitted she left home during the time frame, detectives believe John was killed,

they turn up the heat. They confront Karina about the hatchet under John's pillow. He was scared. He slept with a mishetty. Why? Did we something? Yes. I don't know what.

Karina insists John had no reason to fear her. There's no time that I have attacked or threatened John in the entire year. There's no moments of, I'm upset, calling them up. As Karina's interview comes to a close, investigators get word that the medical examiner's report is ready. When the medical examiner performed the autopsy

in this case, medical examiner also looked at the shotgun. The gun has side-by-side barrels, and each barrel is independently fired by action of a trigger. In order to discharge both barrels of the shotgun at the same time, both triggers have to be pulled at the same time. The medical examiner determined that both barrels were discharged at the same time or in immediate succession. It would have been impossible between the trigger pull and the length of John's arms for John to inflict those wounds upon himself.

The medical examiner ruled it a homicide. On the heels of the homicide ruling, detectives uncover a police report that reveals a contradiction to Karina's claim that John had no reason to fear her. In December of 2015, so almost exactly a year prior to his death, John had discovered that Karina had been drinking nightclill, and John intended to call Karina's A.A. sponsor. At that point, she attacked them,

and ultimately was arrested for domestic assault. She was convicted of assaulting John and was placed on probation. Detectives reach out to John's friends, who confirmed that John and Karina's relationship was fraught with fear and threats. The friends of John had told investigators that John wasn't fear for his life.

He was taking measures to try to protect himself, and he had told several friends that he was sleeping with an axe. According to John's friends, Karina wasn't as accepting of the divorce as she'd claimed during her interview. She's desperately in the months before John was killed, tried to reconcile with him. We really got a really good, interesting picture of a woman who just wasn't system on getting what she wanted.

She wasn't going to be in control, like she always had been. She had always been in control of my dad, and now all of a sudden, he was in control of her. John's friends say he was considering buying a gun, but never mentioned asking Karina to give his shotgun back. John had in fact been speaking with friends up until days before he was killed about getting a weapon. So obviously then, the inference that he's looking for a weapon is that he doesn't have a weapon. In his home, he's sleeping with a hatchet, not a shotgun.

The new information vaults Karina to the top of the suspect list. But just as Detective Zero win on her, they get a surprise phone call from Karina's sister, Aga Lwolt. My understanding from the detectives is that at some point in the investigation, Aga put forth a theory that Maya had been the perpetrator. Maya had been the perpetrator.

According to Aga, Maya hadn't been on good terms with Karina and John since she was 18. That is, until recently. They had reconnected recently. She had come back into his life. Karina's sister says that at John's funeral, she believes she learned Maya's real reason for reconnecting with her stepfather. She suggested to police that Maya's stepchildren

came up to Aga and told Aga that they were all going to live in the big house with Maya's brother. Aga floated the theory that Maya had driven to the house and shot John in order to get the house, to take control of the house, and live there with her stepchildren, her fiance, and her half brother. MUSIC

Coming up, did a turn in loyalty become motives for murder? You've put us through help. I do not want that for my brother and sister. Investigators find chilling new evidence. She left it at home on purpose so we wouldn't know where she was when John was killed. Just as detectives in Powhatan, Virginia hone in on Kareemir rafter as the prime suspect in John Rafter's murder, a startling tip from her sister hivits focus to Kareemir's oldest daughter, Maya. She proposed that Maya was likely the person who had killed John.

She was approached by Maya's stepchildren, who told her that we're going to all move into the big house and live there with John's son. And she took this to be emotive for Maya to want to kill John and take his home. Investigators bring Maya back in for more questioning. She admits she'd had a falling out with her mother and stepfather.

I moved out when I was 18. I moved out because the fighting between my carena and I and dad and I had just got too much. But Maya claims that she and John had just reconnected. He met my fiancee at the time. And he really liked him and then he met our kids. And they called him Grandpa and we'd bring him over to the house.

And we would just, we started spending family time together. We spent Halloween together, things giving together. And we had planned on spending Christmas together. But dad died before Christmas could happen. Maya explains that killing John would have gotten her nowhere, emotionally or financially. She would not have inherited anything from John's death because she was not adopted by John.

It's ridiculous that they would think that she would do something like that because there's nothing for her to gain. Only lose. In fact, Maya told investigators she planned to testify on John's behalf at a custody hearing. She'd broken the news to Karina just days before John's murder. She had lunch with her mother on December 6, 2016. Maya told her mother, you know, I want you to know that when the judge ultimately asks me where the children should be,

I'm going to tell them that the children should be with dad. I was very blunt with her and I said, look, you chose alcohol over me. You chose alcohol over your whole family. You were very mean and controlling. And you've put us through hell. I do not want that from my brother and sister. By the time investigators wrap up their interview with Maya, they have even more reason to believe

that Karina was behind John's murder. At that time, we felt Karina's motive in this case was to eliminate John so that she could have full custody of her children. In order to arrest Karina, detectives will need proof. They pull Karina's phone records, where they find that despite her previous statements,

her divorce with John was not as amicable as she made it seem. There were pages and pages and pages of text messages between she and John, I call it desperation, where she's begging John to reconcile. Investigators make note of something else about Karina's phone records. Between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the night of the murder,

there is no activity. Even though Karina told police, she went to buy medicine for her daughter. The lack of location data for the time period in which John was killed, I think, is just important as having the location data from other times that morning because it's interesting that a woman who you know from cell phone records always has her phone with her

would not have her phone with her for a pretty important chuckle time. We think it means that she left it at home on purpose so we would know where she was when John was killed. Detectives locate the bag of shotgun shells in John's garage, where Carina said she left them for John. They tested the bag. They've tested the box.

On the bag of shot shells, police dusted for fingerprints and were able to determine that Carina Rafter was the only person whose fingerprints were on that bag. This tells me that there's nobody else who handled that bag. If this in fact had been a suicide, or if someone else had taken shot shells and loaded that shotgun, I would expect their fingerprints to be on there as well.

Between the fingerprints and the phone records, investigators feel confident that a murder charge against Karina will hold up in court. In a case that is circumstantial like this one, we want to make sure that we cross every T dot every I before we charge someone with a crime as serious as a murder. It took a significant amount of time to get to that point. We enlisted the assistance of the FBI and other state investigative agencies to follow every lead and to investigate everything

that we could. We did ask for a few other things to be done. We had some more tests run on the shotgun. We had a forensic accounting of John's finances done. And during that period of time, Karina had moved to Florida. From evidence, we were able to determine that a day before she purchased the shell, her attorney had sent her an email and said

that this was going to get messy, a reference to the divorce, and that she should prepare herself for that. And then the next day, she goes to Walmart and purchases the shotgun shells. So it was our theory of the case that, at that point, things were escalating. This was kind of the final straw for Karina, while it was circumstantial.

All of the circumstances pointed in only one direction. So we presented this case to a grand jury who returned indictments for first-degree murder and use of a firearm. to a grand jury who returned indictments for first degree murder and use of a firearm. Coming up, prosecutors pieced together what happened on the day of John's death. She then concocted the plan on when she would do it.

I was too scared. I was too scared to make high contact. More than two years after 48-year-old John Rafter was found dead in his home, the Powhatan County Sheriff's Office is finally ready to arrest his estranged wife, 43-year-old Karina Rafter. On February 6, 2019, they contact Karina's attorney. Karina had an attorney here in Virginia who was representing her because she knew that she was at least a person of interest in this case.

We informed the attorney that the indictments had been returned and Kareena turned herself in. The thing that really shocked me about her arrest was how quickly she was released. She got a bond, $50,000 and posted it, and all she had to do was wear an ankle bracelet. So that was crazy to me. She was not allowed to return to Florida. She would be under house arrest in Chesterfield County at her parents' home. So she had to stay in the house at all times. In October 2019, Karina's murder trial begins in a Henrico County courtroom.

Walking into my mother's murder trial was not something that I ever thought that I would experience. I walked in and there was the judge, the jury on one side, and across from the jury, right next to each other was creating on her lawyer and the prosecutors. And I didn't look at Crita. I was too scared. I was too scared to make eye contact. I didn't look at Kriya. I was too scared. I was too scared to make eye contact. Prosecutors begin by outlining for the jury what happened in the days leading up to the murder.

Kriya realized when Maya told her that she was going to side against her in the custody dispute, that she was not going to win custody of her children and that therefore the only thing she could do would be to eliminate John Rafter. When she finds out that her divorce is proceeding and it's going to be messy, she goes and purchases shells. She then concocted the plan on when she would do it,

that she would enter the house in the night, and that she would use the shotgun that she had at her parents' house, and that she would kill John with the shotgun. Prosecutors' alleged that on December 9, 2016, Karina put that plan into motion. She came in the middle of the night, fired the shot that killed John,

and escaped without their son waking up enough to come find her. When it's her turn on the stand, Karina Rafter paints herself as a woman who was trying desperately to do the right thing for her fractured family. When she was testifying, she definitely had an agenda. She wanted the jury to believe that she knew that she and John weren't gonna reconcile. Karina's defense attorneys present a different theory about what happened to John. Karina pointed the finger at their son as one of the people

who potentially killed his father. It makes me disgusted with her. How could you do that as a mother, her teenage son, that could not harm a fly if he wanted to? That was just horrendous. Prosecutors argue that the claims about John's son cannot be backed by evidence. We found absolutely no corroboration

that would lead us to believe that he was involved in this murder. There's only one person who had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to commit the murder, and that was Korean. On October 25, the jury announces a verdict. In this case, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on first-degree murder and use of a firearm.

And after hearing additional arguments, the jury recommended a sentence of 20 years on the murder charge and the mandatory three years consecutive on the use of firearm charge. So a 23-year total sentence. I was at home alone with my baby and I was feeding her dinner and I just, my phone went off and I checked the text and it was from one of the detectives and I just said guilty.

And I was standing in the kitchen and I just said guilty. And I was standing in the kitchen, and I literally collapsed. Like, it was like my knees gave out, and I fell on the floor and just sobbed. And it was heartbreaking. I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. Almost three years after John's death, Karina Rafter is behind bars

and loved ones are left dealing with the aftermath of the crime. I'm not sure that justice will ever really be served for John's son, for what he had to endure in finding his father the way he did. It's something that I think was the most troubling part of this entire case.

The last time that I spoke to Karina was the week that Dad died. In one moment, when she decided to kill my dad, she made me parentless. And that is something that I don't think that I can forgive her for. But I still can't help but feel so sorry for her. Karina will be in her 60s by the time she is eligible for release from Piedmont Regional Jail Authority.

for release from Piedmont Regional Jail Authority.