Snapped: Women Who Murder - Mary Jacoby

Episode Date: June 18, 2023

After a soon-to-be-wed scrapyard owner is killed, Texas detectives must chase down every lead and conduct hundreds of interviews in order to find the truth hidden behind lies, betrayal and broken hearts.Season 29 Episode 07Originally aired: May 16, 2021Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee 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. A cold-blooded killing rocks a small Texas town. She found him face down. She began to say, what's going on?

What's the matter? We have a CPR program. She has W-3-3. I could see that he had a wound to his chest. He was probably dead before he left the scene. When officers arrive, they are in for more than they could have known. They put her at gunpoint, and she just looked extremely confused and frightened. She had everything to lose.

Why was she killed, this man? Detectives took the time to chase down every rumor, talk to every person. To solve a vicious crime, investigators must sift through lies in search of the truth. She saw you first, and then she heard the gunshot second. And that's critical. Very, very no way. You have to wonder why his cell phone pinged there,

and then soon after the crime, he is immediately hours away. He's here, I'm doing it, somebody else will. My hair is just a little small community. Everybody knows everybody. Sometimes by first name, but when this case came, it makes you wonder, do you really know everybody? March 31st, 2011. Just after 7am, operators in Mahaya, Texas get a frantic 9-1-1 call. That one, one that she very seems to be. I don't know the facts. Somebody shot you. It's not baby.

It's not baby. It's red. It's red. I like that. It's red. She sounded very out of breath. Panic didn't upset. It was very fuzzy, but it was clear

that she was saying that somebody had been shot. With limited information, police are dispatched to the potential shooting at a local scrap yard. One white male down middle age. Still trying to obtain identity and information. That clear for me about there in route. Police learned from the caller that the victim is 56-year-old Ray Jacobi, the owner of the scrapyard. As the police officers pull up on scene, you're able to see a woman standing by the gate with her hand up on the gate, and it appears

that she's on a phone. And Ray is laying next to her on the ground face down. We roly-mover, start assessing. That's whenever I could see that he had a wound to his chest. As paramedics work to save Ray's life, police are anxious to secure the scene. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, there was a police officer knelt down one day

on the ground with his pistol drawn, pointing it toward the back of the scrap yard. I said, what are you doing? And he said, we think the shooters back here. And I was like, oh crap, let's get this guy and go. So at that moment, we basically just scooped the guy up onto a backboard, threw him on a stretcher and the ambulance, and we cleared the scene.

The job contact, the hospital force force tell them we have a CPR program, G.S.W.D. Earth. With Ray on his way to the hospital and the potential of an active shooter, backup arrives to help clear the vast scrapyard property. Among them is Sergeant Rodney Irvin, who recognizes the 911 caller as 54-year-old Mary Jacoby, the victim's ex-wife and business partner.

I knew Mary and Raymond from dealing with them personally, just from being a customer and doing some criminal investigations that led me to their business. It was just tragic. You really don't know what's going on in their life. Ragecobie's scrapyard business was built on a lifelong interest in mechanics and his own personal charm.

He was born April 30th, 1954. He was very well-liked and hearted, laid back, dad loved working on cars, and any and all equipment he could make just a pilot junk run. Raymond from a pretty early age was around cars. This was something that defined who he was. It wasn't just his chosen career when he eventually opened to Salvatown.

This was his passion throughout his entire life. Ray started racing on dirt tracks when he was just a teenager. After a short marriage right out of high school, Ray fell in love again with a woman named Diane Petty. He met my mom at the R&R saloon. That was a place to stop and have breakfast. Mom was a waitress there. Mom always said dad was handsome, and he was nice and happy.

Diane and Ray married in the mid-70s, and their son Ron was born in 1977. Though Ray tried to commit to domestic life, his first love was always the track. Mom thought that he was pumping a little too much attention and time into the race car. Dad begged her to not leave. He really loved her.

He did not want mom to leave. I've heard that from mom. And a reconcilable difference isn't a divorce. After the divorce, Ray was a fixture around California's 80s dirt track scene, which is where he met Mary Green. Mary was a trophy girl. Back in the day, the gals would hand the trophy to the guys after they won the trophy dash or the main event. Mary was a single mother, so her priority, of course, was her young son, Chapin.

And she would do a lot of different jobs that are what she described as man's work. She didn't have any fear of getting her hands dirty. She was a little bit of the hippie, and dad was a little bit more, I'll have a whiskey, and that's good enough for me. Ray found something that he was wildly attracted to in Mary. They began to date for a number of years,

and then finally tied the knot in 1983. Newly married, Ray and Mary moved to Trout Creek, Montana to start their new life. Dad told me that Montana was the cheapest place to live. The goal was to go there and build Tusker Speedway, a dirt track. Those were pretty good years with Mary. We were all pretty happy. But as Mary and Ray ran the race track together, they soon realized that maintaining romance and a business partnership

wasn't in the cards for them. There was certainly some complaining about money from Mary's side. Dad used a lot of her inheritance money for a part of the track. He was probably a little too giving and a little too easy going, wanting everybody to have a good time. So, when the track was done, it was free beer for all, and it shouldn't have been. After decades of fighting, the couple divorced in 2003, and that's when Ray had his most lucrative idea yet

to open a salvage yard in central Texas. He had actually asked Mary to come help him run the scrap yard, so at that point their relationship kind of becomes more of a business relationship. He's still cared about Mary, even though they were divorced, he didn't want to see her fail. He didn't want to see her starve. So he employed her. Rhyme has set up a warehouse that he bought and remodeled and made into a living quarters approximately one block away

from Scrappyore for Mary to reside in. The unconventional relationship seemed to work, but 55-year-old Ray still longed for a romance that would last. Somewhere in 2008, Ray decided that he wanted to try to find a wife, maybe a kinder, softer, gentler person. That's about the time where he started going

to the Philippines, trying to find a companion to spend the rest of his life with. Ray legitimately was looking for somebody who he had chemistry with. Ray found what he was looking for when a friend introduced him to 30-year-old Atina Cagadas, a single mom living in Mimila. They began writing letters back and forth and communicating, and that was something that Ray was big on was,

if somebody will sit down and write you a letter, then you know that you mean something to them. They started having phone calls and hit it off pretty well. On May 3, 2009, he went to the Philippines and spent two weeks over there. I know that that was second or third penpal girlfriend he met over there, but the first one that he felt really good about. He thought, this is the gal for me.

He had proposed to her and she thought he was kidding. And he said, no, I'm serious. I will petition for you to move to the United States and marry me if you want to do that. And so she told him that she would do it. Ray applied for a fiancee visa and arranged for a Tina and her young daughter to move into his home in central Texas. That's the first father that her daughter had ever known, anything like a father figure.

And they really hit it off really well. And Matina was really happy that he was willing to embrace her daughter that way. I think that really sealed the deal for her. Atina and 10-year-old Charmaine finally arrived in Texas in January of 2011. I know dad was eager to train Atina to run the office of the yard for him.

He was going to teach her everything she needed to know. They had 90 days to get married or her visa would expire. So they planned to get married on April 4th. That was going to be her 31st birthday. But just five days before the wedding, an unthinkable act could potentially destroy the joyous occasion. On March 31, 2011, local law enforcement is at Ray's scrapyard where he was shot

by an unidentified assailant. Mr. Jacobi had already been transported to the local hospital. The patrol officers were still treated in a scene as if there was still an active shooter present. He's all right, hon. Team here. We're not going to go through there, so I get some more fire fire in here. Okay. Coming up, had the nature of Ray's business made him a target. Unfortunately, the people that came and scrapped

there weren't the greatest of people. They kept a large amount of cash inside that business to be able to pay people 10 to $15,000 a day. And tensions rise as officers face the possibility of an active shooter. As they came in, they were really at a disadvantage from a tactical standpoint. That made the scene very dangerous

for those initially responding officers. ["Mahaya, Texas"] Law enforcement officers in Mahaya, Texas have surrounded a local scrapyard where its owner, Ray Jacobi, was found shot near the front gate. With Ray on route to the hospital, detectives turned to the 911 caller, Mary Jacobi,

a familiar face to police. A lot of death investigations that we did have led us to the scrap yard. I went over there looking for stolen pieces of merchandise. They were cooperative and telling me who had brought it in there. So I was familiar with Mary Jacopie, so I went over and asked her what had happened.

She had called Ray. I believe around 6.50 in the morning and said that she was coming around to the scrap yard. Ray was eating breakfast, and he said he'd open the gate when he was done. She said that after she spoke with Ray, about 10 to 15 minutes later, she had gone to the salvage yard.

She said when she got there, she pulled up in front of the scrap yard, and she noticed that the entrance gate to the scrap yard was slightly open. She walked over, she found him face down. She began to say, right, right, what's going on? What's the matter? He had made a noise that she described continually

as kind of like, ugh, ugh, or like a coughing sound, and that she didn't know what had happened to him at first, but that she then went to try to roll him over and couldn't. She sees the bullet hole. Then goes back to her car, gets her phone, calls 911. Though Mary Camp think of why anyone would want to harm Ray, investigators have begun speculating.

The first thing that pops into your mind is that this guy has a scrap yard here, rumors about this guy that he's got money. The salvage art being a cash business, obviously, they kept a large amount of cash inside that business to be able to pay people 10 to $15,000 a day if they would pay out. Unfortunately, some of the people that came and scrapped

there weren't the greatest of people. Knowing that there was a large amount of money at that location from time to time, it was a concern that it could have been a robbery. But before investigators can confirm, they need to clear the scene. An active shooter or shooters could be hiding anywhere. active shooter or shooters could be hiding anywhere. And Mary says Ray's fiance, Atina, and her young daughter are somewhere on the property as well. They were trying to secure the scene as best they could.

That was challenging. As they came in, they were really at a disadvantage from a tactical standpoint. Lying down that street was just a whole bunch of junk for a lack of a better term that quite frankly made the scene very dangerous for those initially responding officers. They certainly had their work cut out for them, clearing the inside of the salvage yard

and securing the scene. They set up a perimeter. They kind of went through looking for people. When they were doing that, they found a lady by the name of Kayla went. The 21-year-old identifies herself as the girlfriend of Mary's son, Chapin. Chapin is in a text department of cumuladjustice, serving some time. Mary and Raymond let Kayla stay on the property.

Kayla was living in a travel trailer on the property. She said that she was asleep. I guess she just slept hard enough that she didn't hear the gunshot. Kayla is placed in a patrol car while police continue clearing the scene. Inside the building that houses both Ray's office and residents, they find a woman doing housework.

She had a broom in her hand, and when they came in with Ray's office and residence, they find a woman doing housework. She had a broom in her hand, and when they came in and they saw her, you know, they were hollering to put her hands up. The woman identifies herself as Ray's fiance, Athena, and when she doesn't comply with the commands of law enforcement, tension only grows. They put her at gunpoint,

and she just looked extremely confused and frightened. Investigators soon realize Athena's lack of cooperation is due to a language barrier. She understood some very basic words, but not concepts at all. They wanted to know if anybody else was in there. And since she wasn't responding, they handcuffed her. They took her upstairs to wake up her daughter.

And then they took the cuffs off them, took them outside where the police were, and where Mary was out, where Ray's body had been. With all the scrapyards' residents now in custody, police searched for anyone who's not supposed to be there. But whoever fired at Rage-Akobi seems to have vanished, leaving little in the way of evidence behind. They did locate, I believe it,

as two bullet holes in the fence that they believe could have been in the same trajectory of where Ray's body would have been standing when he was shot. And inside one of those holes, they were able to locate a projectile. A thorough search of the main building only adds to the mystery. The office was open and there was just cash

in the drawers of the office that they used to pay people when they brought in their scrap. There were guns that weren't taken, that were sitting there, that would have maybe had some value. It just didn't look like a robbery. Obviously, the police compensated every gun that they could find. All of the guns that they did in Locate

were inside either the office or the living quarters. Those guns and those weapons blonde derailleur Kobe. either the officer, the living quarters, those guns and those weapons blonde, Derejikobi. As investigators continue processing the scene, there's bad news from the hospital. Dad pronounced him dead at the hospital, but, you know, he was probably dead before he left the scene.

Police deliver the news to raise loved ones. The chief police walked over to the truck where Mary was standing. And he said, well, Mary, Raymond didn't make it. Mary looked at him and she just kind of fell to the ground. Mary started crying and hyperventilating and it got very emotional. We called EMS in. They came in to check Mary out. They cleared her. Ateena, on the other hand, did not have much of a reaction. She just looked at the ground

and just could not figure out what had world had happened. Investigators hope more focused interviews in a new environment with the three women who live at the scrap yard will yield some leads. I transported Athena and her daughter, and Kayla, to the Mahel Police Department to interview them.

Mary Drowvin in our own vehicle, and it was there that other investigators, humbly, and the Ranger began to interview them. We know that he was alive at 655 when he was talking to Mary on the phone, and we know at 706, he's been shot because of the 911 call. So what we had to figure out was

what happened in that 11 minutes. The natural inclination when you have a murder is to get whoever did it locked up as fast as possible. Coming up, a potential suspect comes into focus. We notice that this number had been calling her this about every day. He probably had some knowledge of a plan to kill Raymond. I mean, could you be jealous? March 31, 2011. In the hours following the murder of Ray Jacobi

at the gate of his own scrap yard, detectives in Mahaya, Texas prepared to speak to three women found at the scene of the crime. Kayla was a girlfriend of Mary's son, and she stayed in her travel trailer on the property. She did not hear any loud noises. She didn't hear any loud noises. She didn't hear anything until she was woke up by the police.

In her interview, Kayla was very evasive in her answers. She didn't really have an alibi, because she was the only person inside of the trailer that she was asleep. And so the answers to her question, typically, where I don't know, I don't have any information. Her interview wasn't that long. She just, she didn't respond well to police. Investigators turn their focus to raise fiance,

a Tina, and find a way to break through the language barrier. I remember her telling me, I can understand you if you speak slowly. Athena confirms what Mary told police on the scene about talking to Ray on the phone. Do you remember what Raymond said to Mary on the telephone this morning? I just heard, uh, okay, just waiting there. I just finished my breakfast, and I made it. Best dinner. She said he sounded like he was, you know,

kind of agitated by it, because she was bugging him this early in the morning. After I cooked with the sighted in the office. When she was doing that, she went into the restroom. She looked out the window and she saw Mary sitting in the truck or did you just see the truck? I've seen it in the truck, and I've seen it very inside. You saw Mary inside the truck. Yeah. She saw Ray walk out to the gate.

When she saw Ray start to open the gate, she went back sweeping and went back towards the back of the house. And she said she heard a boom. We're like, okay, what do you mean by boom? back towards the back of the house. She said she heard a boat. We're like, OK, what do you mean by boom? She said, there's a lot of noises and heavy equipment moving around. I didn't think anything got it. I just ignore also because every morning it's like that.

It's that those boys barking, then after five minutes, or past five minutes, I'm so shocked because I have a policeman coming inside the office. Now Tina is cooperative. She was forthcoming. She was able to communicate to the best of her ability. Though Tina's presence at the scrapyard during the time frame of Ray's murder

made her an initial suspect suspect after speaking with her, investigators can't rationalize a motive. Athena at everything to lose is it's like why would she kill this man and face deportation back to the Philippines? That's the last thing that you would want to see happen, you know, and have all your dreams shattered a week before you were to get married. With Athena becoming a less likely suspect, investigators ask her if she noticed any conflict between Ray and his ex-wife, Mary Jacobi. that Mary shot Raymond this morning? I don't know, sir.

What have you been doing? With the information from Athena in hand, investigators have their first real chance to question Mary. It says that she saw you first and then she heard the gunshot second. And that's critical. There ain't no way And that's critical. Very, very no way. She's mistaken. Very no way. Because if that would have been the case,

I would have seen somebody. When I called Rick, I was still in my house. I told him I'd be around the little bit. He said that he was still eating breakfast. I waited and then I went around. The gate was open a little bit. And when I got up there, he was on the ground. Investigators press harder, even questioning whether Mary

was upset about Ray and Ateena's upcoming wedding. I don't know. I don't know what else first was life. I don't know that one, I mean what your first life is like. I don't know that One, I mean could you have been jealous of her? Mary insists she's happy about a Tina marrying Ray She was gonna clean my house and helped take care of me after I retired Why would why would I blow that that best your haste and I hold I'm driving tired. Why would I blow that? That's your haste in the hole. I'm doing good.

Mary exacting how I've always known her back, just kind of calm. Wasn't anything out of the normal. Mary also seems to be incredibly cooperative. Mary lets them see her phone. So now Chip is going through her phone, looking at her call log. Here's your dial calls on March 31st of the day. I'm going to start with every call. Your first call it shows was to break. It's a 6.54 AM. I said, that 10, 10, I just didn't out. As investigators scroll through her call history

from the morning of Ray's murder, one contact stands out. I see who called you. You said call, you said calls. The first call of the day, Dennis calls you. At 6 o'clock, 1 o'clock. Who's there? It was 3 to 5 piece of property from it. Said he was coming down to see Benjiat in the morning.

They've been Dallas. He lives in Dallas? Yeah. Why would he call you so early in the morning? Because he knows I'd get up early and before I go to work. You guys just... You could... you could have a phone call or a wire work. Don't write. I mean, it's not like...

Well, yeah, but that's just, that's just Dennis. Though the mysterious Dennis is a red flag, Mary seems to have an answer for everything and investigators run out of questions. We decided to do a gunshot residue on all three of them. I did two of them on a taillot and a tina. The other investigator did the gunshot residue kit on Mary. Mary, what we got to do since you were there at the scene

was to lock your hands real quick for GSR. Have you watched your hands? Set off. Unfortunately, the results could take months to complete. Until then, the women are all free to go. Once we wrapped up all the interviews, they left together. With the women gone, investigators dig deeper into Mary's cell phone records and make a suspicious discovery. We noticed his number had been calling her.

It's about every day, like, 32, 33 times. We were like, that's all. It came back to Dennis Killing. The same man who called Mary about an hour before the murder. Dennis was a former employee of the scrapyard as well. And a couple years prior to the murder, he and Ray had actually gotten to a fist fight. In her interview, Mary had claimed that Dennis was calling

from Dallas that morning, nearly 90 miles away. When we tracked his GPS location, we actually found him in Mahaya the morning of the martyr. Then he was going back to East Texas where he lived. You have to wonder why he was there, his cell phone pinned there, and then soon after the crime, he is immediately hours away. Investigators need to talk to Dennis Killy straight away.

Unfortunately, it was tough to track Mr. Killy down. I would like to be able to find out the truth. Is it possible that Dennis was involved in the murder? Coming up, had a hitman cashed in a bounty on Ray's head. He just tensed up, and he was like, you know what? We need to end this interview, and he just shut down. You should be good. He doesn't make it look like robbery. He keeps a lot of money on.

. 45-year-old Dennis Kille has just become a prime suspect in Rage Jacobi's murder when phone records place him in the vicinity of the shooting on the morning it happened. Dennis was a former employee of the scrap yard as well and a couple years prior to the murder, he and Ray had actually gotten to a fist fight at the scrap yard. The dozens of phone calls between him and Mary only add to the suspicion of his possible involvement.

He was in question as well, and fortunately, it was tough to track Mr. Killy down. Unfortunately, it was tough to track Mr. Killy down. While officers attempt to track down Dennis, detectives are desperate for more details on raised scrapyard business. They speak to some of Ray's employees who paint a much different picture of Mary and Ray's relationship

than Mary had led police to believe. She said her and Ray got along, even though they were divorced, but she minimized her dislike for Ray, according to other people that were always around him. In one particular incident, an employee described intervening in a fight that was escalating between Ray and Mary,

and Mary turning to that employee, saying, I wish Ray was dead. Another employee describes driving Ray to the airport about 10 days before the murder. When he came back from the airport, he went in the office and he heard Mary say if that plane would crash, it would take care of their problem. Mary said if that plain would crash, it would take care of their problem.

On April 15, 2011, two weeks after Ray's murder, a friend of Ray and Mary's comes forward to get something off his chest. We had been looking for Dennis Killy, and we hadn't been getting any leaves. We're sitting at the office one day and him walked Robin, Robin, damn me. And his wife, Kim, damn me.

Robin sat down at the desk and he took a long sigh. What can we do for you, man? What's up? We have no money after me. I'm trying to find a doctor to get ready. He said, Mary wanted to give me $30,000 to kill Ray. And we're like, do what? I believe it was in October of 2009

when Ray had gone to see a teen of the second time. Kim and Robin Dabney were having dinner with Mary in her fifth wheel in the scrap yard. And at the end of dinner, she asked Robin if he would kill Ray for her. He said you're good. He said make it look like a robbery. He keeps a lot of money on. She said she would find the body and that she would take care of them for the rest of their lives

basically. She had made several comments. If you don't do it, somebody else will. She had made several comments. If you don't do it, somebody else will. He said that Mary actually took $15,000 and put it on the table and said, I'll give you half now and half when it's over. And Robin declined. He said, I'm not getting involved in that. And Kim backed the story up.

Ultimately, the DA asked us to have them both polygraphed, and they both said they would, and they both passed with flying colors. We knew that Mary wanted right gone at that point. Robin's statement is a huge piece of the puzzle for detectives, but it's not enough for an arrest. They needed to have a solid case to bring to the prosecution to present at trial.

It was all circumstantial at this point. They didn't want to leave any stone unturned. On July 6, four months after Ray Jacobi's murder, investigators finally tracked down Dennis Killy. We got to working with the authorities up in Henderson County, and then we later learned that he was recently arrested on our unrelated charge and was currently in jail.

Right, your can-tune, I went over to interview him. At first, Dennis seems forthcoming. He swears he had nothing to do with the murder and explains that the altercation between him and Ray all those years ago was just a misunderstanding. Ray thought Dennis had taken a tire or something from this graph yard and you know Dennis said he did

and one or both of them were charged in that just kind of disorderly conduct, type deal. When we began to question him about past history with law enforcement, I guess he just tensed up. And he was like, you know, we need to end this interview. I felt like he thought that we were propending to some other area and he just shut down. With Dennis refusing to talk, detectives are still looking for more evidence to bring charges

in the case. Finally, in September, the gunshot residue test results come in. I've been giving the GSR the three elements that they're looking for are antimony, barium, and lead, and it needs to be in a high enough concentration on the same general location on your skin for them to be able to say that this is consistent with being gunshot residue. Athena and Kayla had one element on their hands, which is an element that is typical just from probably working in the environment that they were working in.

Mary came back with all three elements, and I was like, oh boy, this ain't good for her. Detectives feel an arrest warrant is almost within reach, but they hope for one more piece of evidence to push them over the edge. From conversations that we had with the county attorney, it was more like, we're almost there, but you had to feel like it was something missing.

So it got to a point where it's like, okay, well, let's let her get in her own comfort zone. Since it's taken so long to make an arrest, maybe she will slip up and give us that key piece of evidence that we were looking for. The case drags on for months, then years, as authorities conduct hundreds of interviews. There were so many rabbit trails we had to go down,

and this investigation is probably why it lasted five years. It just always came back to Mary. We didn't want to just jump to that conclusion and immediately accuse the X-Wive. And of course, we'd just keep looking for the weapon that would have been very nice to have. While investigators spend years chasing leads, Mary takes over the scrap yard.

After Ray dies, Mary's walking around the scrap yard like she owns the place. To many people on the outside, it appeared that she had taken over the business entirely. Athena was scared. She was afraid of Mary, and then Mary was going over the yard in and out there while Athena and Charmin were trying to be, you know, trying to get through this rough situation

that had just occurred. Ron raised Sun. Here's where this comes in, takes over the yard, and before you know it, Mary doesn't have a job. Mary's Sun Chapin is released from prison in 2016. And with no job left for Mary in Mejaya, the two move 300 miles away to George West Texas, both hoping for a fresh start.

Back in Mejaya, Ray's loved ones wonder if justice will ever be served. You got to be persistent, you know, and if you don't go, you know, make the wheel squeak, no one's going gonna do anything. Ron and his mom, they were continuously calling us and, you know, when are you gonna rest, Mary? When are you gonna rest, Mary? Coming up, a new witness statement reinvigorates the case.

We didn't have to prove she's the one that pulled the trigger. She's just the one that got him to the dance. Finally, we were getting what we had waited for. MUSIC Five years after Ray Jacobi's murder, all suspects other than his ex-wife Mary have been eliminated. Of course, it's hard to hold on to a secret like that. You know, we all thought at some point, Mary might brag about it or admit it to somebody or somebody would come forward that she had talked to about it. But when no new information comes to light,

prosecutors decide to take their chances with what they have. So the DA is going to take a gamble here, because there is a lot of circumstantial evidence, but that gamble pays off with the grand jury. They come back with an indictment. Marigicobe is arrested on April 22nd of 2016. She had no facial expression. I really expected her response was going to be different, but when she just kind of smart,

it just showed you how cold she was. It was most certainly joy and some satisfaction, you know, and feeling like finally you were, you know, getting what we had waited for. As prosecutors prepare for trial, they revisit an initial person of interest in the case, Dennis Killy, who has recently been released from jail. I would say approximately six months before the trial,

we were able to arrange a meeting with Dennis Killy. And our goal of that meeting was just basically to listen. And it was at that time that he informed us that Mary had, at some point, prior to the murder, actually asked him if he would kill Ray. The offer described by Dennis matches up with Robin Dabney's previous statement. That was one of the most damning statements about Mary,

which was that she had asked him before to kill Raymond for $30,000. A trial in October of 2017, the prosecution paints the story of a woman driven by jealousy and greed. With a Tina and Charmaine coming in and helping Ray run the Sovajard, I think there's several factors coming together kind of all at once that led to this March 31st day. Mary wanted life to continue to be businesses as usual. Once Raymond was out of the picture,

shaping would come home from incarceration. He would run the yard, and she would continue to run the office there at the recycling center. When a Tina had come to live with Ray in March of 2011, she's really starting to see the writing on the wall as to kind of what's happening. Now she's been pushed out of the picture or so she thinks her life was going to change on April 4th.

And that was a big threat to what her plans were. I think she's shopped around with Kelly and Robin Dabney to find somebody to do her dirty work. And she never could find somebody to do it, so she ultimately did it herself. I think she had a bit of a broken heart, and that's part of the reason why I think she did it, is she shot him in the chest.

I think she was trying to hurt his heart. Between Mary's shifting timeline, Ateena's testimony about seeing Mary at the gate and the positive gun residue test, the prosecution lays out a compelling case. The questions of a potential accomplice remain unanswered. Is it possible that Dennis was involved in the murder? It is. Did he fire the shot?

I don't know. I don't know. remain unanswered. Is it possible that Dennis was involved in the murder? It is. Did he fire the shot? I believe that the evidence supports that Mary was the one that she either fired a weapon or handled the weapon. Now, Dennis could have got rid of the weapon. Who knows? We didn't have to prove she's the one that pulled the trigger. She's just the one that got him to the dance.

And, you know, that clearly she had done that with the phone calls and changing the schedule. And she's the one with the motive and all the other statements and had tried to get somebody to do it before. After just two hours of deliberation, the jury finds Mary Guilty. She is sent in to the court. After just two hours of deliberation, the jury finds Mary guilty. She is sentenced to life behind bars. I don't know how someone in her shoes can't stop and think about the children. You know, who's thinking about my son and my daughter that will never meet their grandfather?

It was hard to understand how a 56-year-old woman who had benefited so much from this man's generosity and giving her a job even after they were divorced. It was hard to get our head wrapped around the fact that she was mean enough to kill him. He is a small town, and everybody knows everybody. But when this case came up, it makes you wonder, did you really know everybody?

It breaks my heart because I know how much he gave. You could always count on him. He'd always be there to help you. The world misses a hard worker and a man that would always love and give as best he could. Mary Jacoby is serving a life sentence at a women's prison in central Texas. Ateena is now married with a second child. Dennis Killie was never charged in connection to race murder.

Hey listener, it is Jason Bateman. We have been fortunate to attract so many A-list guests to our smartless podcast, but we've never put together a lineup quite like this. I'm talking about Will Ferrell, Conan O'Brien, Kevin Hart, Mark Cuban, Jimmy Kimmel, Matt Damon, and more available four weeks early and ad free on Wondery Plus. If you've seen our docu series, smartless on the road, you know we had an incredible time on our tour where we recorded 10 amazing interviews. Sean.

This is Sean Heist. Not only are these some of the best episodes that we've ever recorded, but the atmosphere with the live crowd is unlike anything we've released before. It was incredible to engage with an audience of thousands of our biggest fans as we traveled all over the country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free with 1-3 plus, find 1-3 plus in the 1-3 app or on Apple Podcasts. And this is Will Arnett. I'm telling you, you really should listen. Do it. Do it. 1-replus, find 1-replus in the 1-reapp or on Apple Podcasts.