SHE IS EVIL-Judith A. Yates

and love. Leo Ward was a pretty girl, but a prison parole with a history of drug charges, petty crime, and a questionable past. She led a flotsam wife, drifting from town to city to state. When she was introduced to Ijaz Ahmad, she believed she had found the ultimate answer. A place to live, someone to take care of her, and money to spend. But what began idyllic soon became

abusive and then dangerous for Ejaz. His friends and family warned him, and in May of two thousand and three, Ejaz paid the ultimate price when family members found his mutilated body in a shed. The book they were featuring this evening is She Is Evil. A story of trust, abuse, religion, and murder of a kind man who tried to help a troubled woman and became the victim of abuse and eventually a heinous murder. Book that was featuring this evening, She Is Evil, Madness and Murder in Memphis with my

special guest, judith A Yates. Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. Judith A Yates, Well.

you know, it's nine to eleven. I have Muslim friends, I have friends from the Middle East, and I believe Muslim's and the Middle Easterns are being luked together all as these terrorists and negative people and hating America, and I wanted to show the positive side of these people,

the positive side of the Muslim religion, you know. And even the prosecutor told me that they worried about the trial because the country was still reeling from nine to eleven attacks, and I, as was Muslim, and Leah was from America and a white female, and they actually worried about the outcome of the trial or even taking it to try because of that, which I think is wrong. So I felt like I needed to tell the story.

the business well. His father died early and his mother came to Jags one night and said, you need to go to America and you make dreams, your dreams come true. And he said, why aren't you telling me this at this time? And she told him that she had saved up a little bit of money that she should have

been spending on herself so that he could go to America. Now, Ajah has already had a bachelor's degree in engineering, and she was telling him to pursue his education, and she died in his arms from a heart attack that night. So fulfill his mom's dying wish, he came to the United States. He learned English. Jas was kind of a renaissance man. He needed several languages. He had two degrees.

He ran several successful businesses, and he was always looking into other avenues, into other businesses, you know, selling cars, owning land, and in the meantime he would work another full time job and he also was completing his other degree. Now, one important thing about Jahs was he was a devout Muslim. He didn't believe in drug or alcohol. He worshiped every time at a loss, he would go to the mosque

and worship at most fair locally in Memphis. And he believed to help your community because one of the important issues with the Muslim community is to help each other and also to respect your life, to respect your family. And that's what that's what he yells was about. He was a kind man. He was a nice man. His ex wife who was married to him twice, her family, his friends, none of them told me that he had any kind of abusive or even hair tred or temper.

And his mother in law and his wife had come from abusive household. They never saw anything like that any jobs. It was just a nice, nice guy, very handsome, intelligent and he could lose his temper, but it was never anything abusive, but absolutely no history of violence.

were pregnant. He was not a good person. He was mean, why are you even looking? And she said that I just knew when I looked in his eyes. There was something there. Now, this is years later when she and I are talking, when I'm interviewing her, and you could still see it in her eyes and her body language. She was very much in love right away with the joh and Ejas kept looking at her and then he looked away to talk, and then he'd looked at her, and she said it was just even electrical across the

room and they began talking. Jas asked her out and she said, I you know, the first date was a movie and she said, I can't even remember the name of the movie because they were just so intelligent, emotional, you know, the heart, everything was just wrapped up into each other, and that.

were asking her, were don't move on? The men beat their wives, don't they make you a secondary citizen, and she said, no, it was important to his jaws that they walked side by side because that's who they were. They were side by side partners. And she said, what's interesting to me is if she had begun dating some one who was an a Baptist, bath or the Jewish faith, no one would ever say, you know, well he's a Baptist,

a Baptist leaf there was. It's interesting, she said, how that just automatically came out, and that people felt justified in asking her that.

we're interested in uh into changing my religion. Now, she did wear the jab, which is a head scarf, when she was at the locks, and she did wear the hejab when some of his friends came over out of respect. And sometimes Ajah would you know, become almost exasperated with her because he would say, well, she is showing she is showing her legs. And they would say, but that's how it is here. You can wear shorts. You know,

you can wear short skirts. And he had an issue at times with those with those boys, and he would ask Ernest Deine and Bonnie's sister about it and if she wore a sleeveless shirt, you know, why does she have to show her arms? But he was also learning the same time the difference between Western and Eastern culture. Now Bonnie would tell him, I'm sorry, I'm not interested in becoming a Muslim. And it costs a lot of grips between them. Now, they had a child. His name

is Jordan. His Muslim name was Tyreek, and they were a very loving, very happy family. Jas was raising Tyreek as Muslim and they would go to mosque and he told me, he said, you know, I would go to mosque on one day and then turn around and go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints the next day, So he got sort of a well rounded education there. But you know, the three of them were very happy, very much in love. They loved their son. If you would see videos of the family together, you

could just die. However, Ijaz did want somebody he could worship, this go to the mosque. She was a partner in every other way that she told him, I'm not going to lie to everyone and say, you know, I'm a listening and unfortunately that caused a risk between them. Then divorce the.

and their son Jordan. Tell us how his behavior changed or how what was his behavior during this time, this very stressful time, and tell us what happened in this split and how he felt about it.

he just turned out to be abusive? If everything is all fine and dandy now, then a couple of years ago, south down the road and he had to understand too. Bonnie came from an abusive background, Her father was abusive, and she just felt like no matter where she turned,

something was going to go bad. So the first time they divorced, a friend told her, if you'd take it on the grounds of desertion, it'll go to the court, you won't have to worry about custody, and you can just sign your nail on the line and get out of there. And she said, what was the worst thing out of this whole whole mess is. She had Ejah served when he had just come back from Pakistan visiting relatives.

So they divorced, but she would call her, she would call him, both would be in tears, and they eventually reconciled and got back together. And at no time was he abusive, was he hitting her, pushing her, even threatening to the second time they divorced again. You know, she she filed on grounds of desertion, saying that, you know, she said, I was stupid. I took somebody stupid advice and I filed and she ran into an old friend.

They did a lot of They started dating and he proposed, well, Ejas heard about this because we're still very close to her family. They have become his United States family. And he showed up at the door and he was in tears, and he said, you know, how can you marry him? You know, we love each other, and she was saying, well, you know, this is just how it goes, this is

how my life is going. And at one point they exchanged words and he said, well then you did not have touchody, you know full costity of Tyreek Jordan's And they exchanged every words and he leaved. You know, they were telling him the job who got to calm down. You need to leave, take a deep breath, come back and let sit down and talk. Because it was so uncharacteristic of him to be so upset, which happened. He

calmed down, he'd called the apologized to the family. And still Bonnie married an other man and it broke his heart. He would he would be in tears and he would say, please come back to me. And at one point when her next marriage was going to Jod said to her, promise me you will make yourself happy or leave him well. By now Bonnie has another child by her second husband, and she said, I cannot he is the father of my child. And he Jos replied, as I was, as

I am so very emotional between them. But it's you know again, at no time were she fearful he would, you know, he raised his voice over this argument. But he never struck at her. He never struck at the family or at Jordan's.

Jordan on the weekend because of Jordan's school. He would come to get on the weekend and they would invite him into the house, and he said no because it would be disrespectful to go into Bonnie and her new husband's home. And he being the ex husband now of course the new husband. You know that Bonnie had to sit down and explain to him there are several kinds of love and the love I have three Jade is different than the love I have three.

time he's visiting with Jordan. What's the relationship he has with Jordan at this time, and what does Jordan. Of course, in this book you talk about all the recollections of Jordan about his father. What kind of father is he to Jordan in despite being this Muslim? What's he like as a father in America with this ten eleven year old boy.

And he taught Jordan about his history. He took him to Pakistan several times and they met all kinds of family, aunts and uncles and cousins. And then he would take him to historic fights and tell him about the history and the history of the people, the history of the religions.

He was just a very well rounded young man. He worked him with the languages, and then when Jordan was at his house, you know, he would tell him, you know, he would teach him yes, ma'am and no, sir, and he taught him manners, and he would tell him, you can be anything in America you want to be, you just have to want it and go for it. And that was probably just, you know, in my eye, touched one of the biggest gift you can give a child of self esteem, and that's exactly what he gaves Jordan's

And so they got along well. They lived on a house on Sea Isle, and you know, I chall purchased that house in the hope that Bonnie would come back. He and Bonnie and Jordan could live as a family in this home. And it's not in a horrible part of Memphis. It's more of a middle class area. Nineteen fifty seven bungalow home, bricks, nice yard, and nice backyard. And he maintained to the other homes for as rental property.

He also sold vehicles. He and his friends would go in together and they would purchase cars off the lots and they would get their mechanics to work on the vehicle and then they would flip it. They would turn around and resell. And if he had friends that needed a car, he would give them one of the vehicles. And if he had friends that needed a place to stay or a job, he would find a place in one of his businesses. For example, he ran a fish market that not only sold fresh fish but also had

a little restaurant inside. And he had a good friend that would show up and say, you know, I need money, I need help. Any jobs would give him a job, He gave him a vehicle, and you know, he gave him a place to stay on the house on Ceeisle as long as he wanted.

shows up with a pretty blond haired girl. Leah was born in nineteen seventy six. She was raised in and around the small southern Kinnochy towns around Memphis, and mechanic Toby Jades. Look, she's had a hard light. She's living on this she doesn't have money, she doesn't have food. All she needs is someone to just help her out. And at the same time, Leah is telling you, Jas, well, I want to be a nurse. It's my dream, but it just seems like things keep happening to me and

I can't pursue my dreams. And if I just had a chance and a place to live and someone who believes in me, well, all of this was alive because at the time Leah was on paroles, she had just been released from prisons for doing a stent for selling drugs. She was a known drug addict. She was supposed to be living in a halfway house in Memphis, but I'm guessing Leah probably just decided that that wasn't her style, you know, in a halfway house and following all these rules.

Now she only had four munths to go in her parole. Leah was a seeking, pathological liar. She was also a very violent individual. When she was in school, she was in trouble for fighting. She was writing very sexually charged notes to boys and men. She was keeping a journal of her sexual exploits. She was sneaking out at nights, skipping school, drinking, using drugs, and she was in and

out of mental health hospitals. You know, she came from a home where the parents was solid blue collar walk excuse me, but for whatever reason, Leah just you know, she had to break rules and she would sneak out at night. She would fight with her parents. She had at least two stolen vehicles on her record. She stole her brother's truck, crashed it. She stole her grandmother's card and a bunch of checks from her mom's checkbook, crashed that car wrote hot checks. So here's Leah just kind

of bouncing, you know, around. She lands in Memphis. Somehow she knows this mechanic and I'm thinking, what probably happened is he said, hey, listen, I know this guy, and they went to Jazza's house. Well, Ejaza is listening to her story, and she's a pretty girl, she's a nice girl. She can sell herself well. And Ijad says, well, I have a house stay in until you get on your feet. It's not in the best of neighborhoods that you can

stay there. And what's interesting is a couple of weeks later, the job contacts her and says, I do not feel safe with you living in that house in that neighborhood and you're, you know, a female all alone. So what he does is he lets her stay at his house, but he explains to her, I am you know, I can't live under the same roof with someone I'm not married to and not my books. But he moves out to a friend and gives Leah his house to stay in until she quote unquote gets on her feet. Meanwhile,

he's giving her a car, she starts working it. He's buying her things, and the next thing you know, he's paying her way through school. And unbeknownst the Jas at this time, LEAs says she's going to school, but she is also stealing his items that he sells in his store, the swords and point collection and knit knacks. She's smuggling those out of the house to turn around and paint. And that's when things just started going downhill in that relationship.

She was still married to Larry actually, and Larry was raising the two children because Leah basically ran out on them, and then before you know it, she gets charged with the drug charge. She goes to set her a prison, and Larry is still raising their children. One of the things that I thought was interesting too is Leah was abusive to Larry, and she was very abusive to their two children. She would hit Larry, she would lie to him, she would attack him, she pull the life on him.

She was sneaking out at night. She would disappear for days and they had no idea where she was until she would just show up. She was using drugs, she was drinking, so she was you know. And I had a conversation with Larry at one point and I said, do you know, do you realize at one point you could have been a yacht? And he said yes, And that's what scared me, she said, I never stopped thinking about that. So, you know, she's telling him one thing,

she's telling everybody else another thing. And yet she's living a completely different life than what she's telling anyway. So she's out using drugs, she's out selling drugs, she's running with a you know, a bunch of hair dwells and ends up in prison and Meanwhile, her children are growing up not really knowing her because she's just so sporadic in their life. But she didn't want tell us jaw As any of it.

and you weren't supposed to do that. I think it is a way of or was a way of her kind of saying, oh yeah, watch this, And she did. Don Thehjah. They did marry in the Muslim ceremony. Ejah came to her and staid, perhaps we could learn to love one another. He was a very successful business man. He was very intelligent, he was very kind. He had his American family here, meaning Bonnie and her parents, but he didn't have a wife and children to kind of

make his life complete. And I think that's what he was hoping to find, was that would get married, they would fall in love, and they would have this wonderful, happy life together. So she agreed, and you know, oh, I've always been interested in different religions and different lives. And so she married him and them Germany. She begins to with a his job. She's not wearing as much makeup, she won't spoke in public. You know, she's kind of

taken on this role. And meanwhile she is still married to married to Steel, back at home, you know, wondering where she is raising her two children.

so to speak. For example, she dumped them off of the mall, you know, these little kids and kind of disappeared and then came back to the mall tooped them up and had a job on the phone going, well, I don't know where they are. They just took off me. So she would pull these little reindeer games with with the kids. Jordan said he never saw them physically fight. He said, you know, he would hear them fight. They he would hear them squabble. But he said to me,

at that age, you know parents had squabbles. Parents I do. But he, you know, he told me, he said, I never saw him strike Leah or even attempt to. You know, she didn't see Leah punched in the chest. And some of Ejazh's friends were telling the stories of how Leah had once cold Cotstant in the eye, given him a

bruise under his eye. She had shoved him, pushed him, punched him in the arms, these kind of things, because Leah had a hair trigger temper, and even her parents would admit because she would just she would just flip, you know, and the next thing, you know, there's fifty cuffs. She was in high school was she pulled a knife on the boy and she was angry at him because he had pushed her and made her fall down, and everybody laughed, and she was angry because she said he

made her look like an idiot. So she came back to school with a knife looking for him, and that's one of the times that she got scooped up by the law and taken a divenal. She had this hair to the temper that was so unpredictable.

was characteristic about his married life. What was her behavior like did she stay at home or was she out partying? And what did he do about it when he found out.

we would put one of our patients. I'm sire, one of our employees' lives in danger, and he would just get so upset because in his mind, Leah was in a very dangerous situation. Any minute anounced that she could be sexually assaulted. And those were the kind of the things that she would pull, these little human dames. You know,

each of his friends saw something different. He was having lunch with one of his very best friends and the friend's business secretary, which she showed up at the restaurant, just you know, raising all kinds of game because there he sat with another woman. And then every time he was on the phone with business, she would accuse him of cheating. And his friends, Jasa's friends would tell her,

Jaques is not cheating on you. It is against his religion and he would not cheat on you, and she would just insist that he's out there seeing every female walking by, or you know, a woman walks into the store or under the car lot and he's after her. But that could be you know, that's the farthest from the truth. He was a very polite gentleman. He could be flirtatious, but he was definitely not interested in being with another woman and being with anybody besides his wife.

And she was, you know, she was pulling all of these little games. And one of his Johnny, saw her chovey john and hide jobs, and he saw her temper go off. Now here's something I say that's really very interesting in this whole story. Jads had a goat that he kept in the backyard and the goat dies, and Ijad he's from Pakistan and he's a practical man, so he slaughters the goat for food. And Leah just went off on that. And she says to Jad, how would you like it if someone killed you and cut off

your head? And only said to this day, you know, years later, he can hear her say it, he can see it. He said, it just would give him chills, cold, it chill. So she was so unpredictable.

aji Ha seen this woman named Leah. She goes to meet Leah and she said, instead of just a regular handshake, Leah dug drug her fingernails across Bonnie's palm and they went to shake hands, and she said I could feel it. I could feel it. And she said I knew right away she did not like me. And she goes inside and she tells her husband something is wrong with that woman. Well, well, I don't know, she said, I can just feel it.

And she told her friends and family. She said she is going to take him for everything he has Jo's had a lot of money. You know, he lived very simply. He dressed nicely, he kept hisself very well groomed. He had a lot of dollars and he would carry a

lot of cash around also. And she told her family, she said, you know, kind of well he done at this time, and you know, she had her own things going on in her life, but she was hearing different family members saying, well, Ajall said this, and Aja said that, and her sister Johnny. Joe remembers the last time she spoke to john She said, I heard you got married. And he just said, oh, no, no, Johnny, she is bad. She is very, very bad. I have to get rid

of her. And she thought, okay, I wonder what's going on. You know, it was that sort of birth reaction. And he and he and Bonnie would talk and she, you know, he would tell her he made a huge mistake and he's got to get out of this, this marriage. And he's also finding out he's finding out that his bank

account is dwingling. He's finding out that, for example, he had a prize coin collection that was now missing money here and there in the house, was not items that he had put aside for Jordan's such as jewelry items from the store Regal Import. All of that was suddenly gone missing, and of course Leo was denying it, but yet who else could get into his account? And he was telling friends, you know again, she has gotten into my account again. She has taken money. And he says

to his friends, what should I do? What should I do? And his very best friend said, you have to do within your heart, I can't tell you what to do. And he would tell his other friends, I have to get out of this because it is bad. And I think in his heart, ja thought that he could help her. And then he finds out about the drugs, which he has. He wants nothing to do with that. He finds out about the drinking, and again Jaques is wanting nothing to

do with that, especially around the children. And then he finds out body is on parole and she just wilt paroles. She had to take a year in test and it turned out dirty, so now she's got to go back to prison. And that sort of set the wheels in a different direction, because that was when he said I want nothing more.

what's wrong with her? Is she bipolar? Because she did this because when Leah was in and now the mental health hospital, she was actually a diagnosed with several different disorders. And Leah would not speak to me, and I only had access to so many medical records through the Hippo lague. So I'm not about to say, well, I think she was, because it's not my place. But she she finally admits, yes I have this, and yes I'm doing that, and I'm using drugs and I've got to go back to prison.

Then he finds out. Oh and by the way, I'm also still married to my first husband. So it just all still was crashing down.

traveling because they felt it was so unsafe. For them. So it's you know, people would call and say, hey, if Jah's there, oh no, he's going to Pakistan quick, or Jordan would call, or Bonnie or someone would call him and say. You know, John did not have a cell phone either, So they're calling the home phone and they're saying, is he John's there? Oh no, he's going to West Memphis for for cars, to buy cars. Okay, when will he do that? He'll probably be back tomorrow. Okay,

well would you have him call me? Well, he's not going to be back for a while. And they kept thinking, Okay, this is very strange because one Jaques would always tell them, especially Jordan's, if he was going to leave the country. Plus they knew that because of nine to eleven, jos was afraid to travel. Now, he did make little day trips to little towns and such around Memphis to purchase cars or to look at vehicles, and that if he was going to be gone for over a day or

very long, he would always tell them. He would always tell Jordan's. So they're trying to call Ejah, They're trying to get a hold of him. Johnny Smith has gone to Florida for a vacation, he comes back, and every time he would call, Leah would say, well, he's gone to Westminson, He's gone here, he's gone. And finally she says, well he's going to Pakistan. And Johnny's thinking that doesn't even make sense because clicks, she would just hang up

on him, and so she's telling everybody different stories. And I think because this time, Leah still thinks, even though the news might be tightening, she can get herself of this because she always has before. And yet the family is going this doesn't even make sense. He wouldn't do this without telling us, you know, especially him going out of the country, out of state anywhere, and they would call and say, okay, well have you seen my dad? Have you seen my son in law? Have you seen Well, no,

he didn't tell me what he was doing. So all of this is starting to sort of take place in April now, but last that anybody knows the Hoolia and the Jacques sada Is. After she went to her carrying since she broke parole, Jelles was saying, okay, this is enough, this is enough. I went out. He gave her some money and he put her up in one of the nicer hotels in Memphis, and I'm sure he did that and his family agrees, because she had kids. He was not about to put her out on the streets, right.

He had friends to him, just get rid of us, throw her out, put her things out, and he said that she has children, and he didn't, you know, he left her kids too. He didn't want to do that to the little one. So, you know, beginning April, people are starting to try and get in touch with him. They're starting to call, they even go by the house. You know that he was answering the knots and you know, the lawn was maintained because he was very meticulous about

how his house and his home looked. But the rest of it, you know, it just seems like everything is kind of spiraling downhill as far as whoever's taking care of the house. There's jump on the car court, the backyard cannot maintained. So it's just everybody just started saying, Okay,

this is weird. Now. Bonnie tried to file a missing person's report that the law enforcement told her he's an adult, maybe he didn't go to Pakist dance and she's like, but I just have a feeling, well, maybe he did go by car and you're just missing him to and not just have a feeling. And they told her, well, you know, if they investigated every feeling in Memphis, Tennessee, they would never have time to pursue quote unquote real crime. You know, they can't just say, well, this lady feels

like something bad happened. So you know, it seemed like everywhere they turned they were getting nowhere.

And she said, Ijah, take a friend with you so they can explain it to you. And he was she believed he was at that point thinking, okay, well then this is what I ref is what I have to do to get out of here. But of course, you know they're not actually seeing one another. She's not going to his house or by first. They're doing a lot of talking on the phone because he still trusts Ernestine and he still shares a lot of things with her.

He's moving back to Pakistan. We're getting a divorce and neighbors are recruiting. Okay, there's a moving truck there. It was just enough note, you know, it was just one of those things. Oh yeah, there was a moving truck in the neighbors. I get their moving again. That sort of behavior, and Leah's kind of you know, timed it. She put all of the stuff that she couldn't sell

a hot in a storage shed, public storage. She signed a leave for four months when she would be getting out of prison, and then on May the first, two thousand and three, she finally has to report in and she reports to a federal holding facility in Tennessee so she can begin her SINIC. Also on May the first, finally Ernestine says, okay, that's it. We're going over to the house and let them find out what's going on. And Jordan says, well, can I go, And she says,

Sheriff come on and get in the car. They go to the house on Sea Aisle. The house is closed up. Okay, this is weird. They go to the side a bunch of junk on the sidewalk there under the car court they glanced out on the back backyard is trashed and they're trying to see through the windows, which are you know, the blinds are shut very tartly. Well, Jordan manages to see through the part of the window and he says, all of his stuff is gone, the stuff from his

door is gone. So Ernest Kine goes across the street and she asks a neighbor, and the neighbor says, oh, well, that lady had a moving van out there a couple of days ago. But you know, if I think about it, I haven't seen the man that lives there. So they exchange phone numbers. At that point, as they're going back through their car, a little girl in the neighborhood says, hey, he got a chicken in their backyard. Well, that's Jordan's

hen that's his pet chicken. And he says, you know, well, if dad's not home and Leah's not here, who's going to feed him and take care of him? So he runs to get the cage and get their to bring it to Ernest. Dan come and if they're rounding the corner into the backyard, Ernestine says, ooh, that's what it's smelling so bad, and you know, Jordan is saying, ooh,

that smells bad. Well, each else has a metal shed in the backyard where he just kind of keeps various and sundry items, signs and car parts and two old motorcycles and it's sort of a catch all area. And it's also where Jordan's chicken had her nest. And Jordan is going, ooh, that smells bad. And they have to think it's early May in the south in minshis and I spoke with one of the investigators who said that's

it would smell bad. However, because of the wind, because of the weather, because of you know, the soil, the traffic, you're not always going to be able to tell where that south smell is coming from. So they go to the backyard and the chicken runs into the shed. Well to go after his chicken and put him in the cage, Jordan moved some boards out of the way where the doors were Originally the doors wouldn't shut so he just put some wood up against the empty doorway, open doorway,

excuse me. And there's an old foam a shell mattress on the ground that looks very out of place, and the stench is now unbearable, and Jordan says, well, what's under there? And Ernestine the mattress, and there is the Javreue's body where Leah had shot him twice. Several days later she decapitated him. She removed the piece and scronum drugged his body out to the shed and stepped it into the shed, covering it with that mattress, and she had also wrapped a black plastic bag around the body.

And they found his ten year old son find his father's headless corpse rodding in the shed, and they go across the street notify the neighbor again, and that's when law enforcement arrives, fills off the curantine, and begins to research and investigation.

very short time she confesses. But she also says that Jacques was very brutal to her, made her wear that jab, made her be a Muslim just with a ballistic chara trigger temper was beating her regularly. She told the story that he went busting into the bedroom, knocking the door off, the Tenderes choked her, She grabbed the gun. She doesn't

remember how she shot him. She doesn't remember the hu and you know, she starts this self defense story, and I'm sure in part you know, she's saying to herself, Okay, if I can say self the fense and it was a domestic you know, relationship, violent relationships, then I'm going

to get away with this. And so she starts telling the sale of how the Jaws was just a brutal man and he was mean to her, and you know, she was just this innocent woman trying to escape and she had to shoot her way out because she was running for her life. Well, the investigation itself warranted nothing for that because of there was you know, there's nothing

wrong with the house. There were no doors off hinges, there were no signs of tempering, there were no signs of a door being knocked off and handed him and replaced. No broken glass, no broken locks, no broken door knobs. Everything that she was saying happened physically showed that it was a lie. And then of course people they begin interviewing people about Leah, about Jades, and you know, okay, they've got her arrested for this, but what is the

real story? And that's what you know. Again, it slowly starts unpeeling like an onion. Here's what's really going on, and that with her story of oh a lot of an abused woman and I finally had enough and I had to shoot him. Well, you know, there's no marks on her skin, there's no marks signs of abuse. She's not showing the typical responses or signs of the interview's female. And then of course they're finding out, well, wait a minute,

she was abusive in this situation. She was abusive toward her ex husband, and her story just basically fell through.

is a slam dunk. And they talk about their discovery of the crack and the meth and then all the things that they discover to not support her case, her tale of abuse at the hands of Jazz. So tell us what they do find about Leah and her behavior in this marriage.

in the crime team photos. And she says, you know, if I'm moving furniture across the carpet, I put something slick in between it, and it slides better, it slides well. And she's saying, I bet that's you know, And they're looking at the crime team photos at the same time, and she says, I think it's doable. I think she had him on that plastic, was dragging his body and drugged it up into the shed and covered it up with it egg show mattress. And so that's one of

the things that they discovered. And Leah shows up to I believe it's a hearing, and she has shaved off her whole head. Is this ball that looks like, you know, she just fell into the hedge flippers And as the at the proceedings began, Leah crows up into a ball on the floor in a fetal position and stays there during the whole the whole legal process. And so Leah was kind of the scuttle butt of the of the court system there for a while, just because of her

very strange behavior. She uh she became pregnant while she was awaiting trial, and again she claimed it was a rape during when she was at a mental health hospital for evaluation. You know, as you know, you have to be evaluated to see if you're legal. Extain, she began proceedings. Leah went for her evaluation, she claimed she was raped, but the story just goes all over the place, and they believed that it was someone that was an employee

of the jail. And she made up this whole rapeas I was in the hospital and you know, here I am the victim again of the system, and she just kind of it was costed this whole, very strange story that did not hold up to this day. She's still insisting that she was raped while in the mental health hospital. She had the child, she gave it up for adoption, and they said, you know, they don't want a pregnant woman on the stand because of the way a jury

would react no matter what she's done. Also, it could be very expensive if they begin the trial and then Leah has to go into labor, have a child, you know, just everything. It could hurt her health and it hurts the trial. So they had to wait until she had that child. And so they were just you know, very strange, bizarre things that kept popping up in her behavior and

her actions. And then she kept writing the judge, you know, these these long drawn out letters about all she wants to do is be a mother to her children and to have her child. And you know, have mercy on me, because I'm just a Yes, i kill him, but I'm just a battered woman that was standing up for my rights and she's really me. She even sent the judge pictures of her kids. So it was just always very you know, and was it mental health? Was it just

very bizarre behavior. Was that Lydia still trying to play, you know, play her cards to get out of this, because she always did. She always, you know, was able to talk herself. Leah is his street wise. She's very street smart, and you know, partly believes that she thinks, okay, if I can just keep talking and keep playing these games, you know, like the jaw's missing. You know, how how long did she think the story was gonna stand? Oh he's in pakistand oh he's in a smithy, he's in

less smithy. He just left. He just missed him, you know. And did she not think someone would find a dead body in the you know, backyard in the metal shed in the summer of missic Well, it'll just stay there until and I'll take care of it when I get out. I could see her thinking that I'll just take care of it, you know, when I get out of here.

she kept her for a while. She kept in the bathroom and it was a fifty style you know, one of the very small bathrooms. She kept the body in there. I mean while she had parties. You know, there were people going in and out. There was a used condoms found when they discovered the body and they looked through the house, there was you know, so obviously she you know, she has There was a cake. There was a happy

eaten birthday cake in the trash. So people were there, they were celibrating how they did not you know, she just she just got away with it, basically, And that's tell Leah thinks. And you know she would tell people, well, the fridge went out, meaning the refrigerators. That really stem to help up, but the refrigerator was working, so you know, who knows, who know what what she was speeding?

and collected. And you know where she playing the same the abused person, you know where she's playing the victims who knows only only Leah Willly knows. Tennessee prisons retained the ability to reduce stentancy. They and the behavior when someone is incarcerated, and they don't have heloon. You're just out when she's you know, she then receives the death penalties, she receives life. However, in order to be released under behavior, she has to have a spotless record inside prison, which

she does not have. You know, Leah can't follow the wills outside of prison. She certainly can't follow them inside. She's been caught with a deadly weapon. She's been caught numerous times for failure to obey orders or you know, she was out of bounds in one area. So you know, even something is simple to you know, stay out of this area. She's going to cross the lawn that I'm

getting ahead of myself here. That the trial itself, she was just very calm, collected, and when they found her guilty, she turned and looked at Jordan's and her eyes filled with tears and she and then that's when they you know, she stood and the handcuffed and she left the room. And that's the last that anybody who loved Dji joining his family heard of her. And now she's incarcerated, and we're assuming her record behind bars is clear, going to be Leah could be released in the twenty fifty and

she'll be in her early eighties. But she's there for life. She's not going to be released. Of course, she's writing a fosse. She's become a legal eagle, and she's writing up a lot of arguments and such to be released that it's not going to happen.

the rules and act wight. They just fee. What it can be down to really is just it ain't happening.

You know, here's this good man who did the best he could for her, believing that he could help her, and he could make help make her a good person. And what if she do She turns around, she shoots him, she kills him, She leaves the dead body in the house for days. She moves it, you know, she she beheads him. She moves the body out and thrust it into a shed, you know, like it was nothing, and then just goes on hermary Way to do her four months and get out. And then what you know, why

why would someone do that? And now you and I know it as he that there's never an answer to the why, right, you know, there's never really an answer. And of course when you're when the flowing into this, you know, you had no idea that several years from now you would have a lovely and murdered And there you are to watching the trial. You know, you're you're

you want to know why did you do this? You know it never hurts you, And of course you know when when someone is the victims of a crime, victim survivor of a crime, your life has divided into two places before the crime and after the crime, and it's changed a lot of the way. Of course they've they've looked at life in general. Some of the family members report that they don't like to go out in public. They don't feel safe in public, you know, they'd rather

stay at home. And of course, you know there's a there's a high rate of alcoholism and drug abuse in person who have lost a log into a crime. So it's sort of all around the board. Now Jordan is going to college for his degree. He is very much like a joh He's very kind, he's intelligent, he's a very soft spoken man. He's got such a good heart and to come out of this, you know, to be who he is. Is saying a lot about both the ways Jahs raised him and his grandmother and his family

raised him. And you know, he said, if I hate her, I'm only hurting myself.

And I asked them, if you could say something to her, she could talk to her, would you, And every member of the family said yes. Now few were kind of like, oh, you know, maybe let me think about it. I don't know, but unfortunately, I don't think they're ever going to get an answer Trumblia as to why did I do this?

I think she'll play the game. Oh he was hitting me, you know, he's made me commit to being a Muslim, which, by the way, I think part of the reason she beheaded him is because of the movie religion the body has to be buried whole, and I'm wondering if that's not one of the reasons why she did what she did. It's also the kind of you know, somehow knowed that him and the religion.

I want to thank you very much for coming on and talking about She is Evil, Madness and murder in Memphis. For those that might want to look at your other work or find out more about this. Do you have a website? Do you do Facebook? Tell us how people might get in touch with you and find out more about your work.