A Raging Son | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] I received a call of a possible DOA at this location. I'm Detective Dennis Frolley, New York
City Police Department, retired. Of course, I had very little information to go on. And as I came in, the first thing
I noticed was how clean this particular apartment was. I was directed to the bathroom. And as soon as I came in,
there was a little dog protecting whoever was in that bathtub. And I thought to myself, perhaps this
person fell, a home accident. And I noticed she had terrible injuries on her head. Towards here, right by the drain
where our feet were, I found several empty ice bags. Interestingly enough, on top of the toilet tank right here, there
was a large electric fan. And the fan was on, the breeze blowing through this window, which opens up. Now, the scene
starting to come together for me. And I said, "You know something? Somebody tried to preserve this body." I told the
lieutenant, "We have a crime scene. Seal the building. No one comes in. No one goes out. Her name was Daniel Thomas.
[Music] >> You reach 911. [Music] >> It's um you can't bring him back. I can't bring her back.
That's how it makes me feel. Her boyfriend Jason Bond in Ivy League educated lawyer.
>> Suspect from the beginning now charged with her murder custody for allegedly bludgeoning her to death and strangling
her. >> He beat her so badly that he broke most of her ribs, broke her sternum. He
didn't just kick her. He was stomping her in the chest. >> Jason Bond, he was not your normal
suspect. He had become an attorney and had attended an Ivy League school. I've been covering crime and law enforcement
in New York City for three decades. And it's very rare that the murder victim turns out to be a very successful
executive for a company like Weight Watchers. >> I identified her through a photo and I
can close my eyes and I can see that photo still. Jason has taken my only child for me.
>> I've seen many murder scenes. You got to move beyond the emotion. I had to dig.
And when I did dig into Jason's life, there is no doubt that he is suffering from a mental illness. So I turned to
Dr. Sasha Bard, Harvard education, one of the best forensic psychiatrist that I have seen.
>> My job is to climb inside the mind of a killer. In other words, I have to dissect him.
>> My mother was in the process of giving us up. >> At the age of nine, his own mother
abandoned him. That leaves a psychological mark. >> Based on mental illness, I believe that
Jason Bond should not be held responsible for murder. >> Has the jury reached the verdict?
>> Yes, we have. >> It's absolutely ridiculous to believe that because his mommy didn't treat him
necessarily as well as she should have that somehow 15 years later he's not responsible for the torturing murder of
his girlfriend. He was caught virtually red-handed. We had a tape of him killing
her. It's one of the worst things I've ever heard. >> 5 seconds. I'm going to let you off and
then you need to answer quickly or else you die. >> I'm Troy Roberts. A raging son.
[Music] [Music] It was the horror that happened here among the neighborhood streets of
Atoria, Queens, with the glittering Manhattan skyline just across the river that made one of a great city's best
detectives, Dennis Frolley, decide he didn't want to be a cop anymore. >> This did it. This set the ball rolling.
>> But you've covered thousands of cases. You've >> not quite like this. >> So many.
>> Not quite like this. >> It was early summer 2012 when cops at the precinct just around the corner got
a tip over the telephone and investigators rushed to this apartment. >> The door was open, but it didn't look
like it had been broken in in any way. Assistant District Attorney Marilyn Fill & Jerry took in the image of the broken
body of a young woman. >> She's in the bathtub. Her head and her face are covered by her hair.
>> Frantic dog that had been standing watch already removed. >> I'm just examining, looking, you know,
for an injury, maybe a fall. >> But in minutes, the cop knew this was no accident.
>> It's almost as if someone held her down and hit her head or maybe did this with
their foot. The apartment was now a crime scene. >> This was murder, pure and simple.
And it was vicious. [Music] >> And someone had already tried to manipulate the evidence. That fan
venting the smell. Those bags of ice now empty and drained. >> That threw the time of the crime scene
off by maybe 12 hours. >> How long do you think the body was there? probably over 36 hours.
>> Detective Frolley soon learned the batter young woman was a vibrant, successful New York City professional.
But there was something else, something knowing at the veteran cop. And it was a
terrible realization once he learned her name, Danielle Thomas. >> I remembered her.
I remembered speaking to this victim not too long prior to that awful day. >> 27-year-old Weight Watchers executive
Danielle Thomas had been on the NYPD's radar for weeks before she was killed. Starting with an incident in May between
her and her boyfriend witnessed by neighbor Sheret Corsy who called 911. 91 operator 2277. Where's the emergency?
>> There's um altercation going on next door to me where the guy seems to be forcibly holding this girl from leaving
>> and then I saw her run out and then he kind of chased her and grabbed her back
into the apartment. >> Did she say anything as he was pulling her back inside the apartment?
>> No, she was just screaming. [Music] >> But that night, May 24th, police never
connected with Danielle. It wasn't until two weeks later when she came into Detective Frolley's precinct that police
heard her story. Danielle told police her boyfriend Jason Bond had beaten her up that night her neighbor called 911.
In the 114th precinct, Danielle Thomas showed police her still black and blue bruises.
[Music] That's when Jason Bond called Danielle's cell phone and she put him on speaker
right in front of police >> and they heard him on speaker like yelling like a mad, you know, very
angry, very upset. >> Lead prosecutor Patrick O' Conor would soon review the details of that call.
>> What did he say? >> He said, "I'm going to make your life impossible. I'm going to hunt you down
like a dog in the streets. >> This is war. >> This is war." Jason Bond would be arrested and charged with assault, but
Danielle would eventually refuse to cooperate. Still, police tried to help her. I pointed out to her that you did
the right thing by coming to us and the courts will protect you. You have an order of protection.
>> This is that order of protection given to Danielle Tannis. Police had no problem finding it just a few feet from
her lifeless body along with a bouquet of flowers and handwritten notes from her boyfriend, Wall Street lawyer,
33-year-old Jason Bond. >> What do the notes say? >> One of the notes said, "Danny, I will
love you forever." Jay, >> she just loved adventure. She loved skydiving. She went swimming with the sharks,
bungee jumping, >> fearless. >> Yes, she truly was beautiful inside and out. >> Danielle's grandmother, Wanita, and
mother, Jamie, live in a world changed forever by the loss of the child they both adored.
>> When she was a little girl, I told her, "Danielle, just shoot for the stars."
And she said, "I'll do that, Nana." And she did. She'd graduate the University of Florida with an MBA and was soon
working as a revenue analyst at Disney World. There were boyfriends. >> Danielle always
dated what she always said, "Mom, always marry the nerd." >> Then in October 2011, at a tailgating
party >> at a football game, um I think a friend introduced them. Danielle met an intense
young man, a lawyer who also seemed to be shooting for the stars. >> That's what she looked for, is
intelligence and ambition. >> His name, Jason Bond. >> This was a whirlwind romance.
>> Yes. >> Danielle wanted her family to meet Jason and pay for them all to take a Disney
cruise. Jason turned on the charm. And when you were with them together, how did he treat Danielle?
>> He always called her his princess, he never took his eyes off of her. I just thought, you know, they were in
love. Then in March 2012, just 5 months after they met, Danielle followed her new
boyfriend up to New York City, taking a job as an executive at Weight Watchers and moved into an apartment with Jason
in Atoria, Queens. But Danielle's mother wanted assurances about Jason and was thrilled when a trip was scheduled to
Tony Greenwich, Connecticut to meet Jason's mother, Marino Connell. I even bought a new dress for the occasion,
you know, because uh Jason's mother was the chief financial officer of Scholastic Books. I wanted to make
Danielle proud. >> But at the last minute, Danielle told her mother the visit was off.
>> She just said, "We're not going." That was it. And that dress that I chose to meet Moren in, that's the dress I
wore to Danielle's funeral. What her family didn't know was that Danielle's world had become a hell,
caught up in a gruesome web of domestic violence. >> Why didn't she tell me? Why couldn't she
tell mom or me? Searching for safety, Danielle was staying at hotels or with friends. But
she eventually began living with Jason again. And on June 23rd, Danielle suggested drinks with Jason and his work
friends here in a bar near New York's famous Times Square. As the night grew late, they'd argue. Danielle would
confide in one of Jason's friends that he was abusing her, and she would be urged to spend the night in a hotel.
Then Danielle remembered Jason had threatened her dog >> and she goes home because she's afraid
for her dog. >> So to protect her dog at 2:15 a.m. Danielle Thomas walked back into their
apartment just 16 minutes later she dialed 911. The phone call is chilling. >> 911 operator 28 emergency.
>> 911. Hello >> 911. Hello. Hello, ma'am. What was he addressing? >> Can I please?
>> She called 911 and the police failed to respond. >> That really hurts me at night is she
called and no one came to to help her. It's not clear precisely what happened, but that would be the last time the NYPD
had a chance to save Daniel Thomas. >> And the next time I saw her, she was dead.
Hours after brutally beating to death his girlfriend Danielle Jason Bond is at the local ride aid store shopping for
cleaning supplies and ice. >> He was trying to buy time to extricate himself from the situation to figure out
what he was going to do by putting the ice in the tub, putting her body in the tub. Neighbors wouldn't smell her body
for some time. Prosecutors say Jason picked up Danielle's Blackberry and pretending to be her sends texts that
she's just walking the dog and indicates that she has not seen Jason. >> Saying that everything's okay. Jason
spent the night at a friend's house. So, you know, we think that that one of his
initial attempts was to set up an alibi that he wasn't even there when when she was killed.
>> Then with Danielle's lifeless body in the bathtub, Jason flees New York, drives through New Jersey. Surveillance
cameras show him in an ATM in Washington DC. >> He ended up in Chicago, I believe,
>> at one point. >> But while it looks like Jason's trying to get away with murder, his lawyer,
Todd Greenberg, says something entirely different was going on. >> He was not running away from this. He
wrote a letter. He makes an admission. >> Jason left a letter cradled in Danielle's arm in the bathtub. It reads
in part, >> "It was an accident. It was an accident. It was an accident." And Jason
continued, "I'm so sorry." >> Evidence. Jason's lawyer says that Jason wasn't trying to hide anything. And
remember that phone tip that police responded to and found Danielle's body? Well, it was Jason who made that call.
>> There is no hiding this crime. There is just no hiding this crime. >> So, what was Jason doing?
>> He was contemplating suicide and he was biting time. Jason's defense says he accepts that he killed Danielle, but
doesn't actually remember doing it, and that could be very important at trial. Jason says he remembers arguing with
Danielle, grabbing her wrist, and maybe even pushing her, but not much more. After his arrest, he told investigators
what happened the next morning. >> Waking up and my head was spinning. I was still in my clothes. I went into the
bedroom. She was unconscious. I picked her up and ran her to the bathroom and stripped off her clothes and ran
cold water on her and try to revive her. >> Slowly, Jason says he understood he must
have killed Danielle. >> I just started crying hysterically. >> He left this message for an
ex-girlfriend. >> I'm in serious trouble. Danielle and I went out together on Saturday night. We both were got
intoxicated. Uh had a disagreement and I blacked out and Danielle is dead. >> Jason's defense believes his lack of
memory about the murder could be symptomatic of a serious mental illness. Dr. Alexander Sasha Barde is a Harvard
educated forensic psychiatrist and a consultant for the TV show Law and Order SVU.
>> I spent a total of about six or seven hours with him over the course of three
different sessions. >> Now working for the defense, he spoke with Jason and others who know him.
>> What conclusion did you reach? I concluded that uh Jason was suffering from intermittent explosive disorder.
>> What is that? >> That is a mental illness characterized by bouts of loss of control and bouts of
anger and bouts of violence. I described him as the Hulk. I mean this is a metaphor and the metaphor is for someone
who is one minute calm and rational and then because of some trigger turns into an angry monster.
>> I mean it sounds preposterous. >> It sounds preposterous. >> But Dr. Barde says it's very real and
supported by hundreds of documents from Jason's childhood, including psychiatric
reports. And they draw this startling conclusion. This Ivy League graduate was an abandoned child.
>> He developed a mental illness because of his genetic background, because of his
experiences as a child, because of the trauma that he endured. >> And Dr. Barde says that trauma begins
with Jason's mother, Marino Connell, the wealthy, accomplished executive at a children's book company who lives here
at this Greenwich, Connecticut mansion worth almost $3.5 million. But it wasn't always that way.
Marine Okonnell was once a pregnant teenager living here in the Bronx. She married Jason's father and had a second
child, Jason's brother. But Jason then claims his mother was ready to move on. >> My mother kicked my father out.
>> And from the age of 3 to nine, his mother gradually disengaged from Jason and his brother.
Jason was primarily in the care of his grandmother who may have been schizophrenic.
>> She used to like talk to herself and pee on the floor. There were imaginary people that she dealt with.
>> Then when Jason was 9 years old, his mother remarried. >> She completely severed ties and turned
her back on Jason and his brother, wanting to put them into a group home. >> Instead, Jason was sent to live with his
father in Miami. And the story he told social workers is heartbreaking. >> His father turned out to be an abusive,
crack addicted man who abused his sons uh emotionally, physically, would point loaded guns at them.
>> I put my hand on the stove cuz I told him I turned the stove off and it wasn't
turned off. And then another time when he was drunk, brought out his shotgun so I ran.
>> Jason says he called his mother for help. I was telling her that my father was
beating me. She would say, "Oh, you know, just stick it out. Once things settle down, I'm going to take custody
of you." >> But his mother was never going to bring Jason to live with her. Instead, she
found an apartment to rent in Westchester for Jason to live again with his grandmother.
>> I was hanging out with bad kids and stealing stuff and just angry that I wasn't going to be living with my
mother. His grandmother moved to an assisted living facility. At 14 years old, Jason was living alone until
authorities got involved. Court papers were filed. Jason is a neglected child left alone without adequate food to
sustain him. >> My mother was charged with neglect and abandonment. I became a ward of the
state. Marine O'Connell submitted papers of her own, saying Jason was verbally abusive, brought knives to school,
requested he be placed with social services. Jason would spend the rest of his youth in group homes. One
psychiatrist noted Jason is seething with rage and shows resentment, especially in regards to his mother.
>> And records from the group homes repeatedly document efforts to engage his mother in Jason's treatment. And
consistently the records indicate that she refuses any involvement. She's too busy with her work. She can't come to a
meeting. She can't be part of the treatment planning. She can't be part of any assessment that has to do with her
son. She just didn't want to have anything to do with them. And Jason knew this. Then
a miracle happened. Jason met this man, Dr. John Pasenti, who himself overcame a
rough childhood. He encouraged Jason to get a GED and go to college. Jason got a
scholarship to Columbia University, the Ivy League. He became a lawyer, but his deep-seated anger, his defense believes,
never went away. >> The rage at 13 years old that never never left him and that was exhibited
again on the night of of the murder. >> The defense will argue Jason believed Danielle was going to leave him just
like his mother did. It was too much for him and because of his mental illness, he snapped.
>> Patently absurd to believe that he somehow lost control and killed this young woman because of that past trauma.
>> What's more, prosecutors say they have evidence Jason was not suffering from mental illness when he killed Danielle,
and they have tape to prove it. >> 5 seconds. I'm going to light you up and you need to answer quickly or else you
die. >> Prosecutors Patrick O' Conor and Marilyn Philair still can't quite believe it.
They know Jason Bond brutally beat Danielle Thomas to death, but Jason's defense is claiming he's mentally ill.
His anger stemming from his mother abandoning him almost three decades ago. It's ridiculous and it makes a mockery
of the judicial system. This is why people have a problem with science, with psychology, with psychiatry because they
come up with these concepts which are meant to excuse us from taking personal responsibility for our actions.
I've covered thousands of cases. I've heard all kinds of creative defenses. >> Veteran crime reporter Murray Weiss is a
48 hours consultant. >> This case was an extraordinary one. The tabloid newspapers had a field day with
this case. They called it blame it on his mother. >> But intermittent explosive disorder is
not something Jason's defense team has made up. It's been listed in psychiatric manuals for 30 years. And three doctors,
including one who works for the prosecution, say Jason suffers from it. >> Over the years, Jason Bond exhibited
some deeply violent and disturbing behavior. It ranged from choking girlfriends to flying off the handle at
people over insignificant things. There was even an incident where a friend of his put his feet on his table and he
became so intensely angry about it that his pupil took over his eye and it went completely black. One of his friends
even recalled the time when he talked to him about his mother and he would suddenly go from being this nice guy
into like Jackal and hide. >> But Jason never killed anyone before. >> He ended numerous relationships before
he met Danielle. >> Mhm. >> Why was his relationship with Danielle different? I thought it was different
because it was a deeper, more profound relationship and they had begun to speak about marriage and a life together.
>> A woman who he thought wouldn't leave him like his mother did. And strangely,
a woman who his mother really liked. >> After he went to law school and he was involved with with Danielle, his mother
came back into his life. >> Jason says out of the blue, his mother contacted him apologizing for what
happened in his childhood. He says his mother even offered to help Danielle with her career.
>> And I think having his mother back in his life was a a very much a mixture of
emotions for him. On one hand, he was still the child that really wanted his mom, but at the same token, having her
back in his life reignited a lot of the anger. He still had, in my opinion, murderous rage toward his mother. That
was turned to Danielle on on on the night of the murder. In the weeks leading up to the murder, Jason was
violently threatening Danielle. He sent her a series of emails accusing her of repeated lies and broken promises.
>> I think it was all around whether she was reacquainting herself with a a prior
boyfriend. >> Evidence Bardday says that he feared Danielle was leaving him. >> It's pretty clear that Jason felt that
that Danielle was lying to him. On the morning before the murder, Jason says they fought again about Danielle's
ex-boyfriend. Then, after a night of drinking, Dr. Berde believes Jason in the throws of
mental illness lost all control and killed her. >> Do you think he is mentally ill?
>> No, he's just a person who has an anger issue. He could control it if he wanted
to, but he has a problem with doing that. Ultimately, prosecutors say it doesn't really matter whether Jason has
this illness. It's whether in the course of murdering Danielle, he was actually suffering from it. And they believe they
had the proof he was not. >> What we have here is a small snippet of a longer period of time where Jason Bond
is strangling Danielle Thomas, killing her. >> They call it the pocket dial. >> So, what happened?
>> I can't breathe out. At some point in the process of him killing her, her phone was activated.
>> And a recording of Jason killing Danielle was made. >> He speaks in a very calm voice at
several times throughout the tape, saying, "Listen, Danielle, you don't have a lot of time."
>> It's extraordinarily graphic, so 48 hours has decided just to play a small portion of it. You
>> have 5 seconds. I'm going to light you up and you need to answer quickly or else you die.
>> Daniel Thomas on this tape is begging for her life. She's being strangled repeatedly and at various points she's
saying that she can't breathe. She repeatedly claims that she loves him. What's worse, the recording was made an
hour after Danielle called 911. That means prosecutors say Jason was attacking Danielle for at least 60
minutes. >> There's 7 seconds on this voicemail recording. That's silence. That's a
period of time when you hear Snoozer, her dog, bark two times. >> That 7 seconds of silence is indicative
to me that the defendant had his hands around her throat and was strangling her to the point where she couldn't even
make any sounds. He taunts her that you're so stupid. You think I'm going to stop? I won't stop.
>> You're so stupid. You think I'm going to stop? I won't stop. >> It made me sick to my stomach. Her last
seconds were nothing but horror. And I can't imagine. >> It was the prosecutor's smoking gun.
Evidence, they say that proved Jason Bond knew exactly what he was doing that night. and he took his time doing it.
>> This tape is going to be the crucial piece of evidence. >> All right, let's do this.
[Music] >> Have 5 seconds. I'm going to light you up and then you need to answer quickly
or else you die. Defense attorney Todd Greenberg concedes that Danielle Thomas's pocked voicemail
is chilling, but he hears a different story in that recording. >> When I heard that tape, I heard howling.
I I heard shrieking from Jason. >> It's almost like somebody else coming out of him.
at trial. >> Case on trial 1830 of 2012. Jason >> Greenberg hopes to persuade jurors that
when Jason Bond was beating and strangling Danielle, he was overwhelmed by his emotions.
>> Jason Bond is a classic case of intermittent explosive disorder. >> It's a rare defense used in fewer than
1% of murder cases in New York State. Jason Bond should have a reduced degree of responsibility because he suffered an
extreme emotional disturbance. >> It's a viable psychiatric illness that people suffer from.
>> Psychiatrist Alexander Sasha Barde is a key defense witness. >> You hear him strangling her and then
stopping, telling her she's going to die in 5 seconds. It sounds like someone who is in control
to me. >> Being out of control doesn't mean you're just screaming gibberish and and and
waving your arms and flailing around. You're just doing something that you really shouldn't be doing, that you
don't want to do, that your rational reason would tell you not to do, but you can't help yourself.
>> Despite all of Jason's achievements, says Dr. Berde. Despite that law degree,
Jason was unable to overcome his horrendous childhood. He grew up thinking that he was a worthless
individual. His own mother abandoned him. >> Marine O'Connell, the financial executive at the heart of the defense's
case, is a no-show at her son's trial. Yet, surprisingly, she's the one footing the bill.
>> The mother did retain me to help him. I will say that she stood behind him at
this trial, even knowing what the defense was going to be. >> Jason's mother declined her request for
an interview. Her spokesperson says Marine Oonnell is horrified by this tragedy and her heart goes out to Ms.
Thomas's family. >> Did you have an opportunity to interview her? >> She declined. I met her uh but she did
not want to uh provide any background or history of her own. >> Were you surprised that she was paying
for his defense? >> I mean, it's unfortunate. I think it's a little too little too late. I mean, I
think none of this, I believe, would have happened if if uh his life had been different early on.
>> Many people who who survive horrific childhoods don't go on to being a killer. Right.
>> Of course. Right. >> But in Jason Bond, and that's what we're talking about here, that childhood
caused him to suffer from a mental illness. >> Greenberg is not asking jurors to let
Jason go free. Instead, he says they should convict him of a lesser offense. But Richard Brown, the district
attorney, says once he heard that voicemail and realized what happened in that apartment, the state had only one
option. >> The voicemail confirms in your mind that this was murder, not manslaughter.
>> Certainly. So, and it fits very clearly in the definition of murder in the first
degree, which is a torture murder. The victim is tortured prior to being killed. The prosecutors who report to
Brown point to a text message that Jason sent to a friend just a half hour after
that voicemail ends. >> I just wanted her out of my life. She's been nothing but trouble. He actually
was able to type on a phone using perfect grammar, punctuation on the she's been nothing but trouble.
>> Jason knew exactly what he was doing. There's not a doubt in my mind. Daniel's
mother and grandmother say Jason even tried to manipulate them. >> I got a Christmas card from Jason
expressing how sorry he was. >> I cried till my eyes bled, he told them. I don't even remember our fight that
night. I have had mental and emotional issues since childhood. >> Do you believe that he could not recall
killing your daughter? >> Oh, I believe I believe he remembers it. I believe he does. But what will the
jurors believe? >> I am a very firm believer the environment of the child has a lot to do
with what he becomes. >> What did you think of Dr. Bardau's testimony? >> I thought that he was helpful in trying
to get us to understand >> the stakes are high. First-degree murder could mean life without parole.
>> How do I feel? I'm on edge. >> But prosecutors say manslaughter could mean as little as 5 years. You never
know what a jury is going to do. [Music] >> Jason committed the most terrible murder
when he took Danielle from Jamie and me. Danielle Thomas's family, who relocated
from Kentucky for the 7-week trial, had been waiting for some sense of closure for nearly two years.
>> I was so emotional. >> Now, after deliberating less than two days, jury forwoman Elena Rodriguez
takes a final vote. >> And we went around. Everybody was to Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Remain seated. Come order.
>> And with that, the jury returns. >> Jason Bond, please stand. My heart was pounding out of my chest.
>> Under the first count, murder in the first degree. How does the jury find the
defendant? >> Will the jury find the defendant guilty? >> Jason Bond, Ivy League grad and Wall
Street lawyer guilty of first-degree murder. >> Jason Bond, please be seated. >> Jurors in the end decided he tortured
Danielle, enjoyed killing her. That chilling 911 call and voicemail recording of Jason murdering Danielle
proved crucial. >> No one considered manslaughter. >> No, nobody went for that one
>> because they just didn't believe that Jason, while in the midst of an extreme
emotional disturbance, lost control for some 60 minutes. >> I feel he would have been out of control
if he would have grabbed her by the neck and that's it. Finish her right there. Then that could have been like a moment
of madness. But when you release and you go again at it right there, there's control.
>> We did get a just uh verdict and just >> women of faith. >> My Bible teaches me that I have to
forgive. >> Danielle's mother and grandmother hope they can forgive Jason. I think it would
help me if he would show some remorse, if he would speak at the sentencing to mom and I.
>> And they would soon find out >> today is uh the sentencing for Jason Bond. >> 5 weeks after the verdict on a cold,
rainy morning, everyone gathers back in the courtroom. >> Both signs ready for sentencing?
>> Yes. >> First, Danielle's family gets the chance to confront Jason. I'd like to be able to see Jason
>> to look him in the eye and show him their heartache. >> You murdered Danny while she was gasping
for breath and begging for her life. Jason, only a beast Jason could have done to her what you done to her.
>> They begged to know how he could choke the life out of the woman who would have
married him. Jason, three weeks before she died, I asked Danielle, "If Jason were to
propose, what would you say?" Jason, she immediately said, "I'd accept with a big smile on her face."
>> Before the judge imposes his sentence, Jason's lawyer implores him to consider
his horrific childhood, the root of his mental illness. Jason's life was one of physical abuse.
>> To this day, he points out, Jason lacks any loving support. I look around this
courtroom, your honor, and I'm noticing, as I did throughout the trial, that there is not one person, not one person
who was here for Jason Bond. >> Now, just as Jason is about to learn his fate, he stands and to everyone's
surprise, addresses the court for the first time. Danny and I were best friends that planned to marry.
Nana and mom were my adopted family. >> Then turning to Danielle's mother and grandmother.
>> Nana, mom, I don't know what to say. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. I don't know how this happened.
It's the moment they've been hoping for, but the judge shows no mercy. >> As far as this court is concerned, with
respect to murder in the first degree, you are sentenced to the rest of your natural life without parole.
>> With respect to tampering with physical evidence, >> 35-year-old Jason Bond will spend the
rest of his life behind bars. Before being led away, he again turns to Danielle's family and mouths an apology.
He said, "I am so sorry. I love you." In my heart, I feel that uh Jason meant what he said.
>> He showed remorse, I think, for the first time today. >> For Danielle's mother and grandmother,
it's the beginning of their journey of healing. While Danielle's life was cut down so
tragically, they take comfort in knowing that she lived her short life to the fullest fearlessly. Her grandmother will
always remember something Danielle liked to tell her. Nana, she said, "I would rather die young and do the things that
I want to do and make good memories than to live with regret and not have done any of the things I'm doing." So, she
lived as much in her 27 years as a lot of people do in a lifetime. I think of that often.
[Music]

A Weight Watchers executive is murdered by her Wall Street lawyer boyfriend. Did his mother's neglect when he was a child push him to kill? "48 Hours" Troy Roberts investigates. This episode aired this August 2016. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Danielle Thomas was murdered by her boyfriend Jason Bond, who claimed mental illness during his trial but was convicted of first-degree murder.

Key points

Murder Scene Discovery. Detective Dennis Frolley arrives at a clean apartment, only to find a body in the bathtub.
Jason Bond's Arrest. Danielle's boyfriend, Jason Bond, is charged with her brutal murder after a history of abuse.
The Defense's Claim. Jason Bond's defense argues he suffers from a mental illness that absolves him of responsibility.
The Aftermath of Violence. Danielle's family reflects on her vibrant life and tragic death, highlighting the impact of domestic violence.
The Chilling 911 Call. Danielle Thomas calls 911 in distress, but police fail to respond in time to save her.
The Chilling Voicemail. A recording captures Jason's calm demeanor while he strangles Danielle, begging for her life.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This did it. This set the ball rolling.

Detective Frolley reflecting on the case.

4:32WatchApr 7, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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