The Brutal Savage Bea*ing Of A 3 Year Old Girl

The Brutal Savage Bea*ing Of A 3 Year Old Girl

Schala Vera was born on the 29th of August, 2006. Her mother was Susan Witra. Susan had been enrolled at the University of Phoenix College, and she also served four years in the Marine Corps. Her boyfriend was Doran Sanders, who was also ex-Army. They all lived together in Arizona.

Now, in August of 2009, Sanders called 911 to report that Schala, who was then 3 years old, was not breathing. A police officer went to the home, and Sanders directed him to an upstairs bathroom where he found Schala lying on the floor. Susan was kneeling over her, crying and begging Schala to breathe. The officer observed that Schala’s skin was very light blue in color, her mouth was open, and her eyes were rolled back into her head. He also noticed that she was heavily marked around the body, between her waist and her knees, and from her shoulders to her elbows.

The officer performed CPR on Schala until paramedics arrived and transported her to the hospital. The doctors could not revive Schala, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital. Chandler police detective Chris Keeper spoke with Sanders at the hospital. Sanders told him that he went to Walgreens to buy cigarettes and left Schala at home with her mother, Susan. When he got back to the house, he got his wallet and he checked on Schala. Schala was in the bathroom using the toilet, and she was okay. So he went back to Walgreens and was gone for around 5 to 10 minutes.

When he returned home the second time, he checked on the child again, and she wasn’t breathing. So he could not explain why she stopped breathing, claiming ignorance. He said that there had been no problems except that she wouldn’t eat her dinner. When the police asked him, “Okay, but why did this child have so many injuries?” he said, “Well, these injuries were from times where she didn’t listen.” He said that these incidences occurred around 9:00 p.m. the night before, and that both he and Susan had done this to Schala with clothing, instruments, and just like that, from “I don’t know” to “Yes, we did this.” He claimed that was the last time she’d been injured throughout that night and continuing onto the following day.

Police then interviewed him again, and initially, Sanders repeated the story he told the previous detective. Sanders added, however, that he and Susan had been mocking Schala by using different instruments because she wouldn’t listen. He estimated that they would do this four or five times, once or twice a week. Wow. He said the discipline began a couple of weeks after Schala returned to Arizona. She had spent some time in 2009 living with Susan’s relatives for several months, but as this police interview continued, his story changed.

He eventually admitted that Schala was injured on the day of her death, but he claimed that Susan hit Schala with a leather instrument maybe three or four times, and she did this because the child would not listen. So now he’s blaming Susan. He also stated that Schala’s injuries on both her legs had been there since the Saturday before her death because both he and Susan injured her that day. Sanders maintained, however, that the only thing he used was clothing items. Oh well, as if that’s okay. He also denied injuring Schala with the buckle. Well, how noble of you, Muppet.

So police decided to do a search of the residence. They found a black belt with tape around the buckle on the bathroom counter. He identified the belt as his. When police asked him whose fault it was that Schala was murdered, he said that he would take full blame because he’s the male and he’s more physical. He also admitted that he accidentally marked Schala with the bathroom door when he came home from Walgreens to get his wallet. He stated he did this to Schala shortly before he left for Walgreens because she didn’t listen and she just kept making noise.

He explained that Schala was supposed to be putting her underwear back on after using the toilet, but she just sat there on the bathroom floor. Because she didn’t listen by not putting her underwear on, Sanders again made her cry, and she tried to stand up but fell, and then he continued.

Now later, an autopsy was performed by Medical Examiner Kevin Horn. Dr. Horn found multiple abrasions on her face. The autopsy revealed a subdural hemorrhage under her scalp, and according to Dr. Horn, this was caused by more than just an everyday force. He said that the injury was similar to injuries caused by a fall from a significant height. There was also a gash to her head which looked more like a motor vehicle accident. There were additional bruises and abrasions on Schala’s torso. He also found marks on Schala’s left armpit, arms, back, and thighs. He identified these as pattern injuries consistent with a belt.

The most extensive part was Schala’s arms and legs; the doctor noted diffuse contusions to those areas. He also noted very severe swelling of all four of her extremities. In both Schala’s arms and legs, Dr. Horn diagnosed rhabdomyolysis, which he explained is a long way of saying that the muscle has died and fallen apart. Wowzers, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. He also diagnosed compartment syndrome, which occurs when the muscle swells so much that it cuts off its own blood supply. Wow, I’ve never heard that before either.

He testified that compartment syndrome is typically seen in the victims of crushing trauma like motor vehicle accidents. In fact, he also said that in some earthquake areas where people have been crushed, they had similar injuries. But he believed it was not possible for the belt alone to have caused all these injuries. A rather significant force must have caused the injuries to her arms and legs. He took tissue samples from her arms and legs and performed an iron stain test to try to determine the age of her bruises. On one section from her right leg, he found very rare macrophages and very rare staining for iron amongst a sea of red cells, indicating fresh injury, possibly over an older injury.

So this kid was just assaulted over and over again. You see, her legs were so extensively injured, he noted that the newer bruises could be masking older bruises. Ultimately, Schala’s cause of death was determined to be multiple blunt force injuries, and because of this, both Sanders and Susan were charged with first-degree murder and four counts of child assault.

Now, in the trial, the prosecution showed that Sanders committed this murder in the context of a specific domestic situation that came to a head in the summer of 2009. Specifically, at the time of the murder, Sanders was living in cramped, stressful conditions in his mother’s house where neither Schala nor Susan were welcome. Sanders and Susan were chronically unemployed, causing severe financial distress. Susan had abdicated parenting responsibilities, thrusting Sanders into the role of the sole responsible parent, and Sanders was suffering from undiagnosed, untreated PTSD.

Sanders, however, claimed that there was evidence intrinsic to Schala’s murder showing that he had a propensity for violence. He mentioned that while he was in the Marine Corps, he was investigated for sexual assault, and there was also an incident between him and Susan where he assaulted her. What he was trying to do was tell the judge, “Hey, look, I’m predisposed to this. I have a problem, please help me.” Now, these investigations were referenced during the trial, and a mitigation expert testified about Sanders’s PTSD. This individual testified that their evaluation and diagnosis of Sanders were based largely on her reporting.

At one point during the examination, defense counsel asked whether Sanders had advised him that while he was in California, he was charged with an offense. But it was learned during the trial that these charges of the assault with Susan and the sexual assault at the Marine Corps, they were all dropped. The domestic incident itself—well, what happened was Susan and Sanders got into an argument. Sanders had an expensive remote control helicopter; whatever they argued about, Susan got pissed off and she threw it across the room. Because of this, he assaulted her.

Now, in the trial, there were further witnesses, including an emergency room physician. She told the jury that she remembered this case because it’s a very uncommon case. She had seen a lot of horrible things as a trauma nurse, but she had never seen anything like this. She also testified that she kept a picture of Schala at her house because it was something she will never forget. Dr. Horn even told the jury that this was one of the worst child homicide cases he has ever dealt with in terms of the number and extent of injuries.

Now, following Dr. Horn’s testimony, Sanders moved for a mistrial. The court said certainly not. Susan herself tried to claim that she was the victim of domestic issues at the hands of Sanders, and this is why she didn’t stop any of this from happening. In testimony given by various witnesses, only one named Bianca, who happened to be Susan’s cousin, testified that she witnessed Sanders becoming physical towards her.

So, to conclude on this story, Sanders was eventually sentenced to death and is currently on death row. Susan was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 35 years. Now, it’s clear to me that PTSD or whatever effects you have post-Marine Corps, Army, whatever, certainly played a part, but they were unemployed, they had no money, they had no purpose, and this child was just an inconvenience to them. For them, what was the point? They can’t even take care of themselves, how are they going to take care of this child? I’m not justifying it, I’m just contextualizing it. Both of these Muppets deserve to rot.

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And now, the tragic case of Jada Justice.

The dead body of 2-year-old Jada Justice was recovered from a swampy body of water near LaPorte, Indiana, on June the 24th, 2009. Investigators at the time said Jada had been abducted inside a car. Her 18-year-old cousin, who was babysitting the girl, Angelica Castillo, told police she left her behind as she went into a convenience store. Police were called to search an area of western LaPorte County based on information they had received in relation to the missing girl. A coroner was called to the scene early after police found a body in the fields.

Angelica Castillo said she left Jada in a car while she went to buy some milk at a gas station, and when she came back, Jada was gone. Jada’s uncle, Mike Valdez, immediately sought the help of the community in searching for Jada. Missing person flyers were printed and distributed throughout the area. They described Jada as an African-American toddler standing at 2 foot 2 inches tall, weighing around 35 pounds. She was last seen wearing an orange skirt and a striped shirt. Since there was no evidence that an abduction had taken place, an Amber Alert could not be issued.

Now, at the time of Jada’s death, she was staying with her mother’s cousin, Angelica Castillo, and Castillo’s boyfriend, Timothy Kic. So let’s take a look at their relationship first. In the summer of 2006, Kic was dealing cocaine and marijuana when he began dating Castillo. Around Christmas 2006, Castillo introduced Kic to her family, including Melissa Swintek. Melissa is the mother of Jada and the cousin of Angelica. Castillo violated juvenile probation and went on the run with Kic, moving between residences in Lake and Porter counties, and eventually moving in with Swintek.

Soon after he and Castillo moved in with Swintek, she learned that Kic was dealing marijuana. Swintek told them not to keep large quantities in her house and told them to smoke outside, but she did accept marijuana from them, did smoke marijuana in her own house, and sometimes Swintek left her children with Castillo and Kic. Castillo told investigators that Swintek was present when she and Kic were bagging cocaine, and Castillo sold cocaine to an ex-boyfriend in front of Swintek.

After the couple moved into a trailer in Valparaiso, Swintek continued to smoke marijuana with Kic and Castillo, and would bring her children to stay with them. Afterward, Kic and Castillo moved into the basement of a home in Valparaiso where there was a large amount of traffic from drug sales. Swintek would drop off her children there for Angelica and Tim to watch over. In the summer of 2008, Kic and Castillo moved to a home in the 3900 block of Missouri Street in Hobart, where Kic told police he bragged about the amount of money he was making from his drug dealing and showed Swintek a large amount of cash. Kic provided Swintek with prescription painkillers, and she continued to tell Kic and Castillo to be careful.

In October of 2008, Kic and Castillo arrived at Swintek’s home in Portage to take the children trick-or-treating, and Kic told police he conducted a drug deal outside of Swintek’s home. In the year of 2008, Timothy and Angelica would watch Swintek’s children for around three times a week.

Now, regarding the incident of Jada, according to the testimony of Castillo and of Kic, Jada died on June the 13th, 2009, while riding in Kic’s vehicle or shortly thereafter. The exact cause of death was disputed at trial. Jada was scheduled to stay with Angelica from June the 8th through June the 21st of 2009. The first few days of the victim’s visit were relatively unremarkable. On the morning of June the 12th, Angelica and her boyfriend discovered that Jada had taken a packet of powdered Hawaiian Punch mix and strawberries out of their refrigerator without asking for permission.

So Angelica decided to yell at Jada and spank her. She then wrapped twine around the refrigerator so Jada could not open it—which is stupid because kids taking juice out the fridge is a normal thing they do. Why would you spank her, you classless clown? Angelica’s boyfriend, who was present during nearly all of the events in question, testified that the rest of the day was uneventful.

The next morning, on June the 13th, Angelica discovered that Jada had locked herself in her bedroom. After unlocking the door, Angelica found Jada had made a mess on the bedroom floor with syrup and powdered Hawaiian Punch packets Jada had found in the kitchen. Again, Angelica yelled and spanked Jada, and then cleaned up the mess, pushing Jada aside roughly as she cleaned. Later in the day, around lunchtime, Angelica gave Jada a prepackaged lunch to eat. Jada, who again was 2 years old, did not eat much of it, mostly playing with the food and throwing pieces of it to the dog.

This made Angelica angry, and as punishment, Angelica put Jada in a corner in Jada’s bedroom, and then after cleaning the mess in the kitchen, she sat on the couch with her boyfriend in the living room. Now, while she’s in the living room, Angelica can look in the bedroom. She can see Jada, and Jada was no longer on the bed itself; she was on the floor playing with her toys. Angelica then returned to the bedroom, spanked Jada, and attempted to force her to stand upright by yanking her and holding her upright by her arms. Obviously, something inside Angelica’s head just switched.

Angelica then went back to the living room and again sat on the couch. Approximately 5 minutes later, Angelica again became irritated with Jada and returned to the bedroom. The facts are not clear as to what exactly occurred during this confrontation, but Angelica’s boyfriend testified that he could hear Angelica speaking in an irritated tone to Jada when the door was closed, and that at one point when the door was open, he saw Angelica holding Jada by the hair, poking her in the body, and slapping her. What a silly cow.

At one point during this confrontation, Angelica brought the victim into the living room and with her boyfriend’s help, spanked Jada several times on her bare bottom using a belt. Approximately one and a half hours after this confrontation began, Angelica came out of the victim’s bedroom and told her boyfriend that Jada had hit her head on a table in the bedroom when she had slapped her. The boyfriend testified that Jada sustained a small cut above her right eye that bled only a small amount, that Angelica put a small bandage over it. He also testified that he noticed more red marks on Jada’s face and that there were bruises on her buttocks at the time.

Shortly after Jada hit her head, Angelica’s boyfriend became frustrated by the ongoing confrontation between Jada and Angelica. He ran into Jada’s bedroom and knuckled her in the head pretty hard four to six times, hoping that everything would stop after that. You ran into the room and knuckled her, coward. After Angelica continued to hold Jada by the hair, yanking and pushing her, and eventually tied her to a chair with her boyfriend’s belts, she initially placed one belt around Jada’s waist and another around her neck, but removed the belt from around the victim’s neck after her boyfriend told her to do so.

Still frustrated with the situation, Angelica’s boyfriend then went to the gas station. When he arrived home, he heard “boom boom boom” coming from Jada’s bedroom, but he couldn’t see what was causing the noise because the bedroom door was shut. He then made plans to go to Chicago because he wanted to purchase heroin. Approximately 30 minutes later, Angelica and her boyfriend left for Chicago to retrieve the heroin. The boyfriend testified while they were getting Jada ready to leave, he noticed that Jada had a bruise on her face, that she seemed out of it, and that she was unable to hold her bottle while sitting in her car seat.

Angelica wrapped Jada in a blanket to hide the marks on her body because they were going to take a friend with them to Chicago. Shortly after leaving the house while driving on Interstate 94, the boyfriend noticed that Jada’s head was leaning down towards her chest with her eyes closed. He then jumped to the back seat, realized she wasn’t breathing, and attempted to administer CPR. At that point, Angelica and her boyfriend switched places, and Angelica continued CPR while her boyfriend drove the truck back to their house. Once they arrived home, they stopped administering CPR and left Jada in the back seat of the truck covered with a top. Sometime later, they set off for Chicago again without Jada.

The precise timing of the victim’s death is unclear, but both Angelica and her boyfriend testified that she was dead when they returned from Chicago later that night. During the arrest, a statement Tim reportedly gave to authorities said Angelica killed little Jada, and the two of them worked on a plan to dispose of her body, first lighting it on fire and then burying it in a barrel filled with concrete. During questioning, Angelica stuck with her original story, citing that she was at a gas station and someone took Jada from her car. Her boyfriend, however, offered a different version of events, and his information is what led authorities to her body in west LaPorte County.

Tim described how Castillo and he had several lines of heroin before going to bed the night before Jada’s death. The next morning, he said he found Angelica spanking Jada and pulling her hair. Later that evening, he realized Jada was not breathing. When they realized that Jada wasn’t breathing, Angelica began screaming and crying. He says they then placed Jada’s body in garbage bags. They tried to light her body on fire, but there was an explosion that burned him in the face and arms. They then put her body in a tub and filled it with concrete, and later came up with the story about Jada being abducted.

It was clear that Angelica during questioning was under the influence of drugs. She had attempted to hit one of the investigators and had ominously said, “God is taking care of Jada, God is watching over her.” Police also questioned why Angelica would take Jada with her to run errands instead of leaving her with her boyfriend, and couldn’t understand why she had driven past several other convenience stores before stopping at that particular one.

Neither of the medical experts who testified to the cause of death contended that Jada’s death was caused by or could have been caused by the yelling, spanking, slapping, poking, shoving, pushing, or yanking of the body and hair inflicted by Angelica. The doctor who performed the autopsy testified that the sole cause of death was blunt force injuries to the head, with a depressed skull fracture being the primary injury. Angelica’s medical expert testified that the cause of death was asphyxiation caused by unconsciousness leading to an obstructed airway or some other interference with the child’s breathing.

Yet they could not conclude that any of Angelica’s actions—yelling, spanking, slapping, poking, shoving, pushing, and yanking—would make a person aware, either in isolation or in the aggregate, of a high probability of death from blunt force injury of the head or asphyxiation. It doesn’t matter, just don’t do it. It’s not hard. Just don’t spank and shove the kid, you [ __ ].

The only injury to the victim caused by Angelica’s actions that was identified as a potential cause of Jada’s death was the fact that the victim hit her head on a table after being slapped by the defendant. The autopsy doctor testified that falling on the distinct edge of an object could cause a blunt force head injury sufficient to have killed Jada. In this case, they claimed there is no evidence, however, that Angelica intentionally or knowingly caused the victim to hit her head on the table. The evidence only suggested that the incident itself was an accident. The speculative connection between the slap and the victim striking her head on the table is not substantial evidence of probative value proving that in administering such a slap, Angelica should have been aware of a high probability of resulting death. Well, duh.

Angelica’s boyfriend Timothy admitted to abusing the victim on the day of her death, saying that he knuckled the victim in the head pretty hard 4-7 times. 4-7 times! What? So if you take all this into consideration, it was said that the jury could reasonably have concluded that the boyfriend was aware of a high probability that punching a child in the head could take the child’s life. So given all of this, the jury now thought, “Well, there’s a high probability that Tim knew if I hit the kid this hard, maybe their life will be taken.”

The evidence most favorable to a conviction based on accomplice liability demonstrated that Angelica was present when her boyfriend hit the victim in the head, that she did not object to his actions, and that she continued to associate with him in an amicable manner after the incident. More importantly, Angelica attempted to conceal the victim’s injuries in preparation for the trip to Chicago, and failed to assist in or seek professional medical treatment for the victim at any time. Additionally, after the victim’s death, Angelica assisted her boyfriend in disposing of the child’s body and staged a fake abduction at a nearby gas station in an attempt to provide a cover story to explain Jada’s disappearance.

Now, the prosecution argued that the evidence showed that over the course of at least 5 hours, Castillo repeatedly beat the 2-year-old victim in some way, shape, or form. The evidence further showed that Castillo told her boyfriend that the victim hit her head on a table after Castillo slapped the victim. The prosecution argued the likely cause of death to the victim was blunt force trauma to the head. They felt it was reasonable for the jury to infer that Castillo either was aware that her slapping the victim in close proximity to the table could easily result in the victim hitting their head on the table, or Castillo was lying when she stated it was an accident that the victim hit her head on the table. In other words, Angelica should have known the consequences of her actions. Furthermore, Castillo’s boyfriend testified that after the table incident, there was another incident that involved Castillo and Jada in Jada’s bedroom.

Angelica Castillo was eventually convicted of murder, two counts of neglect of a dependent, battery, and false informing in connection with the death of Jada Justice. Castillo was convicted after a Lake Superior Court jury deliberated about 2 hours. On September the 8th, 2010, Angelica was sentenced to life in prison. As for Timothy, he took a plea deal and he was sentenced to 50 years.

So now you may ask the question, “Okay, this is a tragic story, but where is Melissa, the mother of Jada?” Well, Castillo and Jada’s mother are cousins, as I mentioned, and over the years, the families leaned on each other for help with child care. The families were together for holidays and birthdays. Melissa left the Lake County Courthouse after saying what’s been on her mind for over a year: that this divided her family, and it was in mourning. “She destroyed my family,” Melissa said in court. Melissa spoke directly to Angelica. She said, “I’ve lost so much. My kids have lost so much. My baby never had a chance at life, she was only two.” Well, Melissa, why’d you leave your baby with these people in the first place?

And during the trial, Angelica made several outbursts during the sentencing hearing until the judge threatened to duct tape her mouth shut, but Castillo was eventually allowed to comment. Angelica said, “I have to take responsibility for certain things in my life. Who is anybody to judge? Nobody is perfect.” Melissa said, “She has no conscience, she doesn’t care, and I don’t know where that came from or why that is. But it’s the monster that got taken out on my daughter, and now we all see her for who she is. And I just wish I knew before what she was really like.” Melissa went on to say, “She got what she deserved. I hope that in time she can get a conscience and admit what she did.”

Castillo’s defense attorneys argued that Castillo had been sexually abused as a child and had a violent childhood, but her past seemed to have little influence over the jury or judge. Maybe it was all the drugs.

Finally, Angelica actually appealed her sentence, and the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the life sentence of Angelica Castillo. The state’s highest court found that the life without parole sentence imposed in 2010 for Castillo was inappropriate given her role in the crime, and that the prosecutor engaged in misconduct during closing arguments. So the court changed her sentence from life to 65 years, which to me is basically the same thing. Castillo’s court-appointed attorney at the time said, “I am pleased that the Supreme Court agreed with both of the arguments I presented. The court issued a very well-reasoned and thoughtful opinion in a difficult case.” In his oral argument before the Supreme Court, he said he argued it was difficult to justify a life sentence for his client when the more culpable co-defendant would likely be serving 10 to 15 years.

The court found that the facts of the case did not support Castillo’s conviction for murder as a principal player, but only as an accomplice in light of evidence that she slapped, poked, yanked the child by the arms and hair, and spanked her. To be convicted of murder as the principal, the jury must find that the defendant knowingly or intentionally killed another person. I don’t know if a life sentence is correct for this. I know 65 years sounds more than reasonable. So she may have got 10, 15 years chalked off or whatever it is, but that [ __ ] better serve every day of the 65 years.

Now, as for Jada’s funeral, around 300 people packed into the Calvary Tabernacle Church of Griffith to pay their final respects to the little girl. Her father, Clarence, said that his daughter had provided two years of nothing but love, adding, “She gave me the strength to start loving again.” Her mother, Melissa, said, “I’m glad a lot of people came and showed respect.”

Now, in a shocking twist, Melissa was also taken to court for neglect. The court argued, “Well, Melissa, unfortunately your daughter is now gone, but you are culpable. Because why, in the true red [ __ ] of YouTube videos, did you leave your children with these people in the first place? You should have known better, you have a responsibility, you let your children down.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on what happened in this court case. If you guys want to Google it, maybe put it in the comments section, let me know. Did Melissa serve any time? Was she put on probation or anything? I don’t know.

But I agree with everything that happened in this case. Number one, both of them should spend the rest of their life in prison. But if they got sentenced to 50, 60 years, more than adequate if you ask me. Melissa has a lot to answer for. How dare you leave your children for days on end with two drug addicts? You have a responsibility, or you had a responsibility, to Jada, and you let her down. May the full force of the law be slapped right on your fat forehead.

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And now, the third and final case. This is the story of Judy Neely.

Friends, today’s story is of the deaths of Lisa Millican and Janice K. Chatman. Judy Neely was sentenced to Alabama’s electric chair in 1983, and at the age of 18, was the youngest woman ever to be so sentenced. Wow. The murder for which she was tried and convicted was protracted and cruel, but Judy was a poor, common girl from the Deep South, a product of both a troubled home and the juvenile justice system. So was the victim for whose murder she was convicted: 13-year-old Lisa Millican.

You see, Lisa’s life was taken in DeKalb County, Alabama. No crew from Court TV or the Law Network covered this trial because they didn’t exist back then. The Neely trial was local news, mainly good for a lot of gossip in Fort Payne, and some coverage in the bigger Alabama papers. Had the location of Lisa Millican’s body not been brought to the attention of DeKalb County authorities, she may have remained undiscovered for years. It was an 80-foot drop from the precipice to the floor of a Little River Canyon where Lisa’s body had landed. The area was densely wooded and often used as a garbage dump by locals.

Lisa was last seen in Rome in the state of Georgia, and the search for her was focused there, some 35 miles away. In fact, the Rome police and a Rome radio station had each received a phone call revealing the location of the body, and the Rome police had been to the area indicated in the calls, but had found nothing.

On the evening of September the 29th, 1982, a call came into the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office in Fort Payne. The then-unidentified caller gave detailed directions to the location of a young girl’s body and—to reiterate, Judy called the police, did not reveal who she was, and told the police, “Hey, there’s a body I know somewhere.” At night, by the beam of a flashlight, Deputy James Mays and other lawmen from around the county found Lisa Millican. She had been shot and lay crumpled over a fallen tree. She was brought out of the canyon by rope the following day, and investigators found three used syringes among the debris into which she had fallen. Hanging from a branch between the precipice and the canyon floor, they found a pair of women’s blue jeans that appeared bloodstained.

Now, because the crime scene contained lots of garbage from previous visitors, authorities weren’t certain these items were relevant to their case, but delivered them to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science in Huntsville in the hopes of a lead. So the question remained, what happened to this young girl? I’m about to tell you. So if you do end up liking this video, please subscribe. Also follow me on Instagram, links are in the description.

Though Lisa was found in DeKalb County, investigators quickly decided that since she had disappeared from Rome, the case should be worked from there. The police in Rome had been investigating Lisa’s disappearance for several days, ever since she had gone missing from the Riverbend Mall on September the 25th. Lisa had been part of a group of girls from the Ethel Harpst Home in Cedartown, Georgia, who had gone on a supervised outing to the mall. The Harpst Home was a facility for troubled girls, and it was initially hoped that Lisa had simply run away. It’s because she had a history of such behavior.

But as days passed and Lisa did not return to any of her usual haunts, hope faded. And while it was tragic, it didn’t come as a shock that she was found dead. Lisa was from LaFayette, Georgia, and had been removed from her parents’ home, as had her three siblings, following allegations of sexual abuse. She was sexually precocious and unpopular with the other girls in the various facilities where she found herself, she had once struck the girl in the stomach hard enough to induce a miscarriage. So, the call to the Rome Police Department had been taped, and while playing it for Mike Jones of the Walker County Department of Family and Children Services, Detective Keen got an important bit of information. The caller said, “Y’all looking for Lisa Millican? I’m on the run from the Harpst home.”

A more dramatic scene took place when Detective Keen played the tape for 13-year-old Debbie Smith, a local girl who had been approached and offered a ride by a woman in a brown car on October the 4th. Two employees of Rome’s Youth Development Center—better known as YDC—Linda Adair and Ken Duly, had had incidents at their homes on successive nights. Someone shot into Adair’s house on September the 11th, and a Molotov cocktail was tossed into Adair’s driveway on September the 12th.

No one was injured. Though, while the police were investigating the scene at Adair’s home, she received a phone call from an anonymous female who referred to the shooting at Adair’s house and the firebombing, and claimed, “You both will die before the night is over.” So, who is this individual? We got a random woman calling the police telling them there is a body somewhere, a house has been firebombed, and there is also a shooting. What is going on?

Detective Keen then made a connection. You see, the Youth Development Center was a juvenile facility. Mike Jones of Walker County had told him the caller on the Millican tape probably had a juvenile record. Now, Keen had something to pursue. Remembering the previous abductors had said the cars bore out-of-state license plates, Keen asked juvenile officer Elaine Snow for a list of all the girls who had been placed in the YDC from out of state. She gave him a list of 25 names.

So, having gone through all the paperwork and all the names, he found someone that fit the bill: Judith Ann Neely. He assembled pictures for a photo lineup. Debbie Smith recognized Neely immediately and gave Keen the positive ID he needed. He started searching for Neely. He didn’t have to search long. You see, on October the 9th, Judy Neely had been arrested at a motel in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for passing bad checks. Her husband, Alvin, was arrested a few days later.

On October the 14th, Keen got the word that his suspects were in custody. Lawmen from Rome and DeKalb County hurried to Murfreesboro. If they expected their suspects to be guarded and evasive with their answers, they were mightily surprised. Alvin Neely, though he asked for and got a lawyer, waived his right to remain silent and gave a lengthy, detailed statement that implicated Judy as the criminal mastermind and sexual deviant of the pair.

He explained that it was Judy who took the life of Millican and Chatman. Alvin said she’s a dangerous person and that he feared her. He drew a map indicating the location of Chatman’s body and swore that Judy had compelled his participation in any sexual abuse of Millican and Chatman.

While Keen questioned Alvin, Judy was being interviewed down the hall. She repeatedly stated that she didn’t need a lawyer and answered any and all questions calmly and in detail. She admitted to the firebombing at Linda Adair’s and the shooting at Ken Duly’s, where she said the reason why is because when Judy was in the YDC, Adair forced her to participate in sexual activities—or in particular, to have sex with Duly—and that she had been part of a prostitution ring operating out of the facility.

Then, chillingly, she told of the abductions of Millican and Chatman and what they endured in the days before their deaths. She would continue her confession and add even more details after she was transported to Fort Payne and formally charged with Millican’s murder.

The Confession and Details of the Crimes
So, Judy explained that they were in the Riverbend Mall in the city of Rome. She sees Millican from afar, walks up to her in a video arcade area of the mall, and just strikes up a conversation. Lisa had gone with her willingly, she said, because she didn’t want to return to the Harpst home that night. They had driven around for hours with Judy’s children in the back seat, finally checking into a motel. Yes, she had her own children, and with her children in the car, she was taking her future victim with her.

The next few days followed a similar pattern, she said, with aimless driving during the day and nights spent in motels where Lisa slept on the floor and was cuffed to the bed frame. Judy had been afraid, she said, that upon her release Lisa would tell authorities where she’d been—implicating Judy—and that Lisa would be placed back in the YDC.

According to Judy, it was much better for Lisa to die than for her to go to the police and tell them, “This woman kidnapped me, handcuffed me to the bed, and wouldn’t let me go.” Judy drove Lisa to Rocky Glade, a secluded area in DeKalb County at the edge of Little River Canyon. As the children slept in the car, Judy walked Lisa over to a tree and told her to lie down.

She said, “I told her I was going to give her a shot to put her to sleep so I could leave and she wouldn’t know where I was going.” She then injected liquid Drano into her neck. She had heard that this was a quick, undetectable way to kill, but it didn’t seem to be working. She administered another injection to the other side of Lisa’s neck, this time of liquid plumber. Lisa was still conscious.

More injections followed to each of Lisa’s arms and each of her buttocks. Judy waited half an hour. Lisa was in pain yet still conscious, so Judy had her step to the edge of the canyon and turn away. Lisa begged to be taken back to the Harpst home, and as she faced the expanse of the canyon pleading for her life, Judy shot her in the back.

Lisa fell backwards instead of into the canyon, so Judy had to push her over the edge, getting blood on her jeans in the process. Judy changed her jeans, then threw the bloody pair and the syringes into the canyon. She drove away toward Fort Payne. Her children were asleep in the back seat.

As Judy confessed, authorities went looking for Janice Chatman. Her body was found where Alvin said it would be, off a back road in rural Chattooga County, Georgia. Meanwhile, a warrant had been executed at the Murfreesboro home of Barbara Adams, she was Judy’s mother. The Neelys had been staying there prior to their arrests, and the evidence of their crimes was abundant throughout the house. Among other items, the police recovered handcuffs, radios, and several guns and knives.

The Trial and Defense Strategy
Now, regarding the trial itself, Bob French had his work cut out for him. He had not wanted to serve as Judy’s court-appointed defense, and after the first meeting, he came away disliking her intensely. Still, he would do his best.

As Judy was under 21, he began by seeking youthful offender status for her. The judge, Randall Cole, denied this motion. French then asked for psychological tests to be administered to determine Judy’s fitness for trial. The tests were done in January 1983, and Judy was found fit for trial with superior intelligence and no tendency toward delusion or harming herself. The trial was scheduled to begin on March the 7th, 1983. I wasn’t even born then.

In the meantime, French set about making Judy more presentable. She had come into custody decidedly unkempt and pregnant with her third child, and French knew he needed to get her cleaned up before she went in front of the jury. Her baby, a boy, was born while she waited for her court date. She had dental work done by Dr. Stephen Brewer, and French bought her several outfits at Black’s department store—the nicest ladies’ clothing store in the county—so she’d have something to wear during the trial.

Though prosecutor Richard Igou noticed French was preparing Judy for her court appearance, he did not have a clue as to what her defense would be until the first day of the trial. And imagine that, she’s pregnant and she’s probably going to go to jail for the rest of her life; what’s going to happen to that baby? Wow.

It was evident from the sort of questions French asked prospective jurors that he was going to try and portray Judy as a victim—a victim of her husband, Alvin Neely, under whose irresistible control she had been during the crime. Among the first witnesses called by the prosecution were two young women and a teenage girl who had been apparently Judy’s prospective victims.

Debbie Smith identified Judy as the woman who had tried to pick her up as she walked home from school on October the 4th, 1982. Susan Clon identified Judy as the woman who had approached her and asked if she was alone at Aladdin’s Castle in Rome’s Riverbend Mall on September the 25th, the day Lisa disappeared. So it seemed that she was looking for any girl; she asked one, couldn’t get her, so she took Lisa. Diane Bobo identified Judy as the woman who had tried to get her to go for a ride on the afternoon of October the 3rd.

None of these witnesses saw Alvin in the vicinity when she was approached, and none thought Judy appeared beaten or abused. The next witness, John Hancock, told the story of his abduction just as he had told it before, and Igou tried to emphasize the fact that it was Judy who had done the abducting and who had eventually shot him.

French, though, got Hancock to admit that although Judy had seemed in control, it was actually Alvin who had given her directions throughout the abduction. Alvin had decided where they would drive and where they would meet, and when Judy seemed to dawdle before shooting Hancock, Alvin had yelled for her to hurry. He was in charge of that evening’s transactions, French asked, and Hancock quietly answered, “Yes, sir.”

Just to be clear, John Hancock was the boyfriend of Chatman. They attacked them both; they shot John—he survived—but they took Chatman back to their place, then the abuse occurred.

Testimony and Cross-Examination
The first defense witness French called was Joanne Browning, Alvin Neely’s first wife. She had been married to Alvin for three years in the mid-70s and was mother to three of his children. Browning testified that he abused her throughout her marriage, even when she was pregnant, and that he had drugged and tried to sexually assault her teenage sister. Dirty bastard, she said.

She said that she tried to leave several times, but Alvin had threatened the children. She only escaped him because he had suddenly become interested in Judy. Igou damaged her credibility, though, by establishing that she was definitely a bigamist and probably a liar as well. This is because she got married to another man before her divorce with Alvin was finalized.

Though she claimed that Alvin had abused her around 800 times, Browning had never suffered a broken bone, and though she’d been pregnant for 27 months of her 3-year marriage, none of her children were damaged by the abuse, and all three pregnancies concluded normally. She left the witness stand angry and in tears.

The following afternoon, French called Judy to the stand. Immediately, her appearance and demeanor clashed with his portrayal of her as a victim. She had cleaned up nicely, was no longer pregnant, and at 5-foot-1, she cut a rather imposing figure. She bantered and laughed easily at the defense table and had one mannerism that was so alarming French felt a need to explain it to the jury.

He asked her, “When you are afraid or nervous, how do you handle it?” And she replied by saying, “I smile a lot,” which is kind of creepy if you ask me. She was smiling even as she said it, and she continued to smile as French led her through questions about her childhood and her early relationship with Alvin, whom she had met when Judy was 15 and he had been an ardent and romantic suitor.

She left her unstable home willingly, but Alvin’s sexual advances were always crude and selfish and increasingly violent, she said, and from the start she performed as his servant. She claimed she bathed him and dried him and combed his hair, and when he had jobs at convenience stores, it was she who would do the stocking and sweeping and mopping. She cooked for him and tied his shoes, she said, and when she did any of her tasks wrong, he abused her. He taught her robbery and forgery. He was insanely jealous, even though Judy said she’d always been faithful to him.

The stories about the abuse she’d supposedly received at the YDC were of Alvin’s making, not hers, but these stories at the YDC never happened. And if we go back to Millican going back to their home, being abused sexually, then thrown off the canyon, what they did to Chatman, and now this idea that essentially Alvin wanted her to worship him, to bathe him, to cook for him—both of these are just sick individuals.

Judy went into excruciating detail about various assaults, and her role as victim was gradually becoming more believable. On the last of Judy’s four days of testimony, French began asking questions about Lisa Millican’s abduction and murder. Alvin wanted a virgin, Judy said, so she had procured him one. She delivered Lisa to him for his use and, at his instruction, took part in the abuse. She witnessed Alvin’s many sexual assaults on Lisa, as did her children, who were with them the whole time.

Alvin had chosen the spot for Lisa’s death and had been at Judy’s side issuing orders the whole time. After Lisa was dead, Judy claimed that Alvin masturbated—ew. He had ordered her to make the calls to the Rome and Fort Payne police, and she had everything she said because she was afraid of him. She admitted to the abduction and murder of Janice Chatman, imputing these to her fear of Alvin as well. She had picked up another girl in Murfreesboro for Alvin’s use, but just then she was arrested.

Richard Igou didn’t believe any of Judy’s testimony. He had seen her when she was first brought to Fort Payne, and then she had been hard and cold. Though it was incredible that someone only 18 years old could be so indifferent and depraved, Igou thought Judy definitely was. He quickly tried to counter French’s methodically established defense.

Judy claimed to have been abused countless times, but had only suffered two broken fingers and a slightly chipped tooth, and she had been acting on her own. She admitted during the shooting of Janice Chatman, the first shot had been on Alvin’s orders, but the other two were because Chatman was screaming and Judy was afraid someone would hear. “He didn’t tell you to shoot her two more times in the chest just to shut her up, did he?” Igou asked. “No, sir,” Judy answered.

Igou then produced a series of photographs featuring Alvin and Judy posing merrily with various guns and family members. In each, Judy was smiling—not meekly, but apparently quite happily. Alvin had arranged all the pictures, Judy said, and had ordered her to smile like that.

Finally, Igou took Judy through the events that took place at the edge of Little River Canyon the previous September. For every “why,” there was an answer: “Because Alvin told me to.” Judy claimed the only things she did on her own were eat and go to the bathroom, that absolutely everything else about her life had been dictated by her husband.

Verdict and Sentencing
Igou called Dr. Alexander Salillas of the Alabama Department of Mental Health as a rebuttal witness, and he testified that Judy had known the difference between right and wrong at the time of her crime, and he said that she made the conscious decision to kill. French tried to get the doctor to say that, according to the established clinical definition, Judy had been brainwashed, but he said this did not happen.

Throughout a convoluted and strenuous line of questioning, he maintained that Judy retained her free will. His testimony did great damage to Judy’s defense, most remarkably when French asked him if the bruises Judy had in one of the pictures were consistent with assault with a baseball bat. “Not necessarily,” he said; “a pinch to the arm would give you the same result.”

French was flabbergasted. “In your opinion,” he said, “this could be caused by twisting skin or pinching?” “Certainly,” said the doctor. So the wounds were not as bad as they claimed. He was the last witness to be called.

Judith Ann Neely was found guilty of murder and abduction that afternoon. The prosecution and defense delivered arguments in front of the jury in the sentencing hearing. Late that night, the jury delivered its recommendation to Judge Cole by a 10-to-2 vote; they recommended that Judy be sentenced to life in prison.

In Alabama, however, a jury’s recommendation in a capital case is not the final word on the matter. It serves only to inform the judge of the jury’s opinion; the final decision is with the judge themselves. After a brief sentencing hearing on April the 18th, 1983, Judge Cole sentenced Judy to die in Alabama’s electric chair. She was 18 years old.

Anxious to avoid another death sentence, Judy pled guilty to kidnapping in the Chatman-Hancock case and agreed to testify against Alvin. Alvin, afraid of Judy’s testimony, pled guilty to kidnapping with bodily harm and intent to murder; he was sentenced to two life terms.

Over the years, Judy’s case wound its way through the appeal process, and on January the 15th, 1999, the sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And the only way to describe these two individuals: they’re just a bunch of morons. Comment, tell me what you think.