Jesse Winnick | I’m Related to a Killer | Forensic Files

did you say how he did it i'm hoing to God he was life any murder is a horrible tragedy but to murder your own mother I
think reflects a particularly callous and de Brave individual he took pleasure in seeing pain in other people even his
own mom and his sister Jesse winning is a bad man he's deeply Disturbed there is
nothing that the state of California can do whether in prison or on the street his actions have
never-endingly affected my life the pearo process the threat the fear I think that Jesse is an evil evil person
to see my mom lying in a pool of blood in her favorite room in the house killed by my brother shook me to
my core I realized he was not my brother he was a monster [Music] [Music] my name is Matthew Allen I'm a deputy da
at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office I first heard about Jesse Winnick when I received a police
report that described some of the conduct that he did over at the prison Jesse winck was a prisoner at California
State Prison Los Angeles County when he was walking on the roadway with two inmate manufactured weapons he took
those weapons onto the prison yard and attempted to stab a correctional officer I was a journalist for several
years and worked for many newspapers and I covered crime as one of my beats with
someone as vola and unpredictable and coldblooded as he seems to be I would rather just not have
that connection like with my name or with my face in 2007 Jesse Winnick was incarcerated for the murder of his
mother it affects me constantly when I'm on the freeway driving that path that I
did that night I'm immediately transferred back to where I was when I lost [Music]
her 22-year-old Amy Winnick had just finished a shift at her work when her brother Jesse aged 25 called
her he told me not to go home I remember there was a pit in my stomach That Grew
immediately and I asked him why and he told me just don't go home when I called home mom didn't pick up and I had no
idea still why I called Jesse back again that's when Jesse told me he had killed
mom he just said again and very clearly don't come home I killed mom and hung up I know that wasn't sure if he was
telling the truth I couldn't believe it but I still had an ankling to call 911 I explained
to them as I was driving home on the freeway much like right now it was dark it was late at
night I didn't know I was about to walk into but I knew I had to call 911 I'm going to be there in one minute
I I I would suggest not going in if he's uh if he's done that I'm hoping to God he was lying I'm sorry if he if he
was Jesse winck is the most dangerous kind of criminal because he's not restrained by love for his family the
murder that he perpetrated against his own mother was violent sadistic and extremely personal his rap sheet and his
Prison history reflects someone who has not recognized the error of his ways whatsoever and will continue to be
violent in whatever context he put on keep walking Jesse and Amy's parents were Hadas and Sherman Winnick they had been
childhood sweethearts my mom was born in Israel she was born in 1952 January 26th and she is every bit I guess of
Aquarius she um was a creative kid she was full of life and she remembers kind of just running free as a kiddo
collecting frogs in her pockets and having a sweet childhood Jesse was the couple's eldest
child my you know my parents got married on January 26th 1981 and my brother was
born January 21st 1982 so they conceived him pretty quickly and they had him within a
year this is from Jesse's birthday his actual birthday the day he was born mom would have been extremely
hopeful to think back on this day being the happiest day of her life one of them in contrast to the fact that that
young baby ended up murdering her it's shocking and it's heartbreaking to look at this
photo by the time I was conceived they were separated so I never lived with my father I never saw their marriage in
person Amy was born on December 24th 1984 making her almost 3 years younger than her
[Music] brother when you are born into a family you follow the family Rules the itself
has its own almost subculture I know my dad was an alcoholic he had been an alcoholic since
the age of 16 he cheated on my mom throughout most of the marriage I think my mom from what I read
in her diary was in an abusive relationship um with him both physically emotionally and mentally so um that is a
cycle that I would see eventually carry over into my brother and my mom's [Music]
relationship she's the youngest sibling but seems to be in the position of supporting her older brother these are
all her her Norms it's hard for me to find a photo of the two of us where I look like I'm
happy and he looks like he's not controlling me even in this baby photo it seems like he's manhandling me in
some way in 1989 now a single mom Hadas took the kids and set up on her own Calabasas is a very wealthy area
that although it is in Los Angeles County it's nothing like La really there is certainly very very little
violent crime it's a lot of open space and big houses the Kardashians live there a lot of celebrities live there
retire there it's a quiet really beautiful area Hadas was a high school teacher in
the valley she was a beloved teacher the house move as well as the absence of their father meant that the
kids lives had been turned upside down tensions began to grow between the siblings eight or nine was already
relatively verbally abusive to me he would call me names he would make fun of my appearance he was a
bully what you want as the younger sibling is to feel secure and safe and protected by that older sibling and that
is something that Amy I think wanted from her brother but did not get the only times I ever can remember
my brother being kind or loving or warm or caring were times when he wanted something from me I don't think he was
ever nurturing or protective in nature without there being an ulterior motive so there's an element of
transaction going on there I'll be nice to you if I can get this from you and some of this seems to fit with what was
also going on at school with his behavior he was being aggressive and violent with
teachers he would eventually be kicked out of school Jesse's Behavior at home was also
out of control Jesse was maybe around 12 years old when he became really explosively
angry and verbally abusive it began by calling my mom names um stupid he called me ugly he called me
chubby he loved to make fun of my looks this is another really beautiful but ironic photo you can see
me hugging and loving on Mom and Mom adoring and staring at Jesse and Jesse having the smuggest look
on his face ever with no regard for anybody else in the photo and I just think it it completely
captures what it was like to be in our family or what our relationships were like it's very hard to really think that
your son is bad that your son can't be helped that your son would ever really do something terrible to to yourself or
to his sister and I think that even though she saw these issues develop and get worse that I don't think she ever
really truly believed he became very abusive towards the walls that's how it began he was also destructive to our
environment in the sense that I can clearly remember him lighting a fire in the bathtub of our home
trying to see if the fire alarm would go [Music] off and once it did and the firemen
showed up my mom wasn't home he would then coer me into lying and saying that I lit a fire that accidentally set off
the alarm when Jesse he was 12 Hadas had an accident at school where she fell on a
step injuring her ankle following a string of unsuccessful operations she used a wheelchair for several
years the abuse at Jesse's hands did not lessen in fact it worsened Jesse sensed
a weakness and that is when he became physically abusive to my mom he would have no job and no license and he was at
home with her during that time and I was in school for many of those days I can remember her standing up out of her
wheelchair and he pushed her down Amy was almost the other surrogate parent psychologically this is not a
good place for a child to find themselves in where they as a kid are supporting an adult to look after the
other sibling what it does is Rob her of her own [Music] childhood he does have a knack at
knowing people's weaknesses or recognizing them and when he does that he's able to figure out what would hurt
people most and he does not shy away from hurting people I had always seen my mom as a
really strong woman so to see her not only become disabled but also to for her to to
be physically harmed in such a way it was really detrimental it was heartbreaking for me to
see Amy Winnick was 11 years old the first time her brother Jesse then aged 14 abused
her I don't remember any happy memories I don't remember any points where he was
a healthy sibling I think Jesse just saw as somebody to utilize whenever he wanted
to and how Amy has described her childhood with him and her her mom was that they were there for his use she's a
victim of his domestic terrorism he blackmailed me into inserting objects inside of myself in
front of him to go through my first sexual experiences in front of my brother and to be
objectified in that sense um had lasting effect on [Music] me there's a great deal of
coercion of your younger sibling to get them to behave that way she was effectively at his Mercy that's my older
brother I'm going to do as I'm told and there's an element of think almost survival Instinct
this photo must have been around when Jesse was I want to say in 10th grade this would also be around the time right
after the sexual abuse at his hands happened I can see in his face he is extremely troubled I know he was really
angry this was one of the worst times with him as Jesse Winnick became more and more violent to his family it became
clear to those around him that he had problems of his own when he was 15 I think around that
age he experienced his first physical Mental Health crisis in the sense that he attempted suicide we went to dinner when
we came back he was in his bed and he was hallucinating he was sweating and crying and yelling and we I believe she
found an empty bottle very large size bottle of Tylenol he had taken um he was taken to the
hospital immediately they pumped his stomach um and he would right after begin his very first
mental health stay at an institution he was diagnosed very young with bipolar disorder OCD Tourette
syndrome and most recently he was given a diagnosis of ADHD he would often manipulate doctors
or therapists or just be absolutely unmanageable refused to cooperate my mom tried to obtain
therapist help and he would verbally abuse those therapists and they stopped seeing him it was kind of a dead end for
her there he didn't go to college he didn't get a job he remained in the home up
until the crime basically just terrorizing his mother and sister when I was about 16 17 years old
I was standing in the kitchen making myself a meal and from behind me I felt a very swift kick in between my legs
which caused me an immense amount of pain and made me double over I asked him why he did it and he
said he just wanted to see if it hurt a woman to be kicked there it was the most pain I had ever
felt in my entire life I remember feeling like I was just assaulted and I didn't have those words to describe that
as Amy grew up Jesse's abuse of his family continued to escalate with his main focus becoming their mother
hadash one time at dinner we were sitting there talking about something and she said something that angered him
he turned towards her and had a fork in his hand and he poked her skin while he was she was talking um it was
just incessant Terror that he tried to execute on us but it was also inconsistent in the sense that we never
knew when it would happen he wasn't able to restrain himself from lashing out physically outbursts were really common
and it seemed like Hadas and Amy were kind of walking on eggshell all the time before one of the last attacks that
Jesse executed against mom he turned to me and said let me just kill her I'll run to
Mexico just let me get away with it during his teenage years Jesse Winnick wasn't just causing serious
trouble at home it also had many run-ins with law enforcement my mom called the police
many times their understanding of what to do with Jesse was very limited they would arrest him they would detain him
for a few hours maybe a night and then and then they would return him back home that would happen for
years unable to follow rules Jesse struggled to hold down a job so when he turned 20 he joined the
army when he got into the military mom and I had a bit of a reprieve from the [Music]
abuse he was only gone several weeks and then mom got a phone call from Jesse saying that he was being
abused and she got him a flight home I always wondered if he was lying he would come home from the military at
20 even angrier than he went in he felt like the one resolution or solution he found or could have found didn't help
him at all in F in fact in his mind it hurt him he's been thrown out of school he's been rejected by the military the
outside world are kind of saying to him we can't deal with you he goes back home
and now he's in this confined space with his mother and his sister he has no other outlets for his incessant
attacks so it's a completely self-centered selfish U pathology at this point his behavior escal did
infinitely in April of 2007 is one of the worst experiences I can remember I remember I was at a fraternity party and
I saw probably 10 to 15 Miss calls from Mom I called her back she told me she needed me because Jesse had
attacked her Jessie became angry at mom for some reason and decided to recreate one of his favorite
movie scenes it's a scene in which somebody creates a homemade flamethrower out of
an aerosol can and a lighter and he attacked her physically he attempted to catch her on
fire she somehow escaped from him or missed and told him to leave he would jump out
of our two-story balcony onto my mom's foot of my car dented it slashed her tires before running
off following the attack on his mother hadass Jesse Winnick was quickly apprehended and jailed for
assault Jesse was in jail for at least several months he would call her probably about once a day when he
was in jail he would tell her he was sorry he would tell her he would never do it
again we hear those Cycles in abusive relationships between intimate Partners but to be a mother and to be
hearing those promises from your child she had to have unending hope for him feels like a trauma
Bond where you're intermittently rewarded with kindness and intermittently there's punishment so you
never quite know where you stand mom would eventually get an accidental death life insurance policy I
don't think I ever face that reality like she did perhaps cuz I wasn't there that
night that he attacked her so she knew in her heart that he could kill [Music] her September 25th
2007 will forever be etched in my brain as one of the worst days ever in my life I was at work I got backtack phone
calls from Jesse and Mom and I could tell that there was tension building but neither of them really said it
outrightly I got another phone call from my mom um she was saying what time are you going to be home I said I already
told you probably around 10: why what's up and that was that she said okay fine bye again and that was the last time I
talked to her on my way home I called Jesse I said hey I'm on my way home I told him I
would call him I said what's going on and he said I killed mom and I said what you're kiding you've
got to be kidding me he said no I killed mom he hung up I called 911 I think I was about 5 minutes away
from home by the time someone picked up the police just Patcher told me to leave the
house immediately because the killer might be still inside and that was the moment that dawned on me what Jesse had
done as I was passing through the entry way and saw the kitchen and that is where her body was um she was laying on
the floor in a very very large pool of blood with um what I initially saw at first was her hand
outstretched and the phone just outside of her reach and then I saw that the knife that
Jesse had used to kill her was still in her neck he had stabbed her all the way down to the
[Music] hilt I ran out of the door and I was met by the police right then [Music]
I can't describe the emotions I felt finding her I don't even think I can describe the
emotions surrounding that night it was just my brain was on fire out of nowhere I was left with no
family I was left without my best friend following the murder 25-year-old Jesse showered and changed his clothes
before stealing his mom's car he then drove a few miles south and got into a friend's car he had told the
friend that he' done something bad and he needed to get out of [Music] [Music] town it would be I would say probably 3
or 4 hours before they caught him I think he was caught about 2 or 3 miles from our home
um and it was those were the longest few hours of my life he had a shower he got changed he
left the house he jumped into a car and fled the scene step by step by step not he did
this and he fled the house in a state of panic I'm struggling to find the panic in his
behavior Jesse was arrested the night of the crime and was charged for the murder of
Hadas his mom with Jesse under arrest police started to piece together what had happened between him and his
mother one thing I've learned as a prosecutor is that it's actually very difficult to murder someone with a knife
it's very personal you have to get very close and it's extremely bloody and gory
and to imagine that Jesse win would do that to his own mother was really shocking he had been making a sandwich
with the knife that he had killed my mom with he had I guess sat down to eat it perhaps or something and had left the
counter full of stuff my mom wanted to make food and had turned to him and said put everything away I'd like to use the
counter and he said no um she continued and said if you're going to eat you're going to clean up too and
he responded by killing her I felt heartbroken I felt shocked um I felt lost murdering someone over May making a
sandwich suggests to me that this is an incredibly egocentric focused individual it's all
about him he does not care about anybody [Music] else after mom's murder my whole life
flips upside down I couldn't be alone I didn't stay at home alone I couldn't sleep at night I worried about Jesse
getting out of jail I worried about what would happen in my future it was an absolute life-altering situation and I
had no idea what was going to [Music] come this is the last photo that my mom and I took
together I had no idea it would be the last picture it illustrates our relationship I love that the last photo
I have of us is not a smiling but her kissing me I love [Music] it despite the overwhelming evidence
that Jesse Winnick was guilty of the murder of his mother hadass it would take over four years until Jesse was
sentenced there were a lot of things he attempted to do in order to stall I believe what he was doing was he was
trying to exhaust me in his mind I was what stood between him and a lesser sentence he would start taking
medication for one of his mental illnesses and then abruptly go off the medication right before the trial was
supposed to start then he could be deemed mentally unfit to stand trial and the whole thing would be delayed again
he would fire his lawyers abruptly so that a new team had to start from square one it was incredibly
frustrating and it lasted for years I don't think I felt like I was living at that
time it felt like I [Music] was on pause as if as in I couldn't plan I couldn't grieve I couldn't sometimes I
couldn't even [Music] breathe I can can only imagine how frustrating it was for Amy and the
family that seeming like it would be pretty straightforward there were just constant
delays I went to jail to visit him and to ask him if he would please plead guilty he was attempting to coers me
into like forgiving him into dropping the charges he told me that Mom visits him
in his dreams and that she forgives him I think I said something like okay but I
don't you know um because I didn't forgive [Music] him Jesse pleaded no contest to the
charge of second deegree murder of Hadas winck I was sitting in the gallery and I
remember him looking back at me and like nodding Gravely and then looking back and then saying yes I plead guilty I
accept the sentence um as if he was doing that for me symbolically he was escorted out of the
room and he began his sentence Jesse was sentenc to 15 years to life but Amy's nightmare was far from
over instead of engaging in rehabilitative programming and bettering himself he continued his Rampage of Violence by
assaulting officers threatening staff fighting other inmates and generally continuing Life Of
Crime JY winck was assigned to facility C at California State Prison Los Angeles
County that's the yard that we use for people that have severe mental health problems he walked out onto the yard
with two inmate manufactured weapons which we sometimes call shanks they were hidden on his body and he approached a
correctional officer named kamacho this body camera footage is going to show us from officer kamacho
perspective just how it went down you can watch carefully he's got something in his hand looks like a piece of string
from the handle of the weapon here we go here comes the pepper spray there's The Knife Down goes the
body camera what we're seeing here is the body camera for the first off to respond
to the sne there's winck there's kamacho the pepper spray just happened here comes the
attack bam hits winck right off of kamacho that's that's excellent police work guess it's safe to assume that he
would have done to officer kamano the same thing that he did to his own mother which is kill him with a
knife walking walking keep walking even locked up Jess Winnick still posed a threat to his sister
Amy I received a letter in the mail saying that my brother was scheduled for his first Pearl hearing that was only 9
and 1/2 years after his sentencing the rug was just pulled right out from under me I started mentally preparing I was
shocked Amy attended an online call where she would face her brother and the parole
board he said I I entered prison as a bad man and I've only gotten worse I've stabbed over 90 people since getting
here I said you have already done the worst thing possible you've killed our mom at which point he then recited a
recent address of mine and said he could have friends visit me and take care of me and my children obviously the parole
board is thrown for a loop and asks me to mute myself and turn off my camera and I do um he remains on the camera the
whole time he is slicing his thumb across his throat at me to simulate what he did to my
mother he was keeping track of me and I think all of my biggest fears just kind of collapsed on me in that
moment [Music] um ah Amy attempted to file a complaint to have Jesse charged for the death
[Music] threat the prison wrote a letter that angered me to no end it said this threat
was not a big enough threat sorry in essence um and I was shocked and I was left wondering what I could do in the
next two years to make sure that he did not get out it soon transpired though that Jesse
threats were very real I received a phone call from the detective saying we need to come over
and talk to you and the detective knocks on the door he sits down and he says did you have anything to do with
your mom's murder I was confused and I said absolutely not my mom was my best friend
I would never have harmed her ever he said Jesse wrote to an inmate saying that I had planned the murder
that I had promised him all this non-existent money um for doing it and I deserve to be taught a lesson
because I am not fulfilling my portion of whatever sick agreement he is purporting the other inmate was supposed
to tell Amy chestler to do certain things for Jesse like hire him a lawyer and give him money and we believe that
if she had not complied with his demands that he would do the worst luckily the inmate did not go
through with that and actually uh turned over evidence of Jesse's actions to us I got a call from an unknown number I
picked up and it was Amy she told me that at a parole hearing he had threatened her on the record and even
made the motion of slitting his own throat in reference to her and that was something that I found particularly
disturbing I got a transcript from the parole hearing and I discovered that everything she told me was completely
true I was shocked deeply shocked that that could happen at a p hearing and that there would be no consequences as
of yet within a week or so he had confirmed to me he would charge my brother with
the death threat from PE [Music] hearing I charged him with several different crimes including attempted
murder attempted murder of a public official and two counsil possessing a weapon in
prison we went into the courtroom stared at the back of his head um I listened to him make some sort
of a statement to a certain degree and then it was my turn to talk I listened to Amy's statement which
was very moving as she recounted what it was like to live with someone like Jesse
year after year day after day all the the horrible things that he did that did not result in criminal
charges I was laying out a lot of the abuse that we faced and while I did that he basically just called me a
dumb yeah that's he just attempted to talk virtually over my entire statement it just seems like he doesn't
have like a conscience at all I think that's the scariest thing about it like there doesn't seem to be any registering
of like what he did at the end of the hearing Jesse was sentenced to an additional 36 years for
attempting to kill officer kamacho and for threatening Amy that sentence will start him all the
way back over again as if he had just walked back in through the prison gates at that time it's likely that he will be
either extremely old or dead in addition to the sentencing Amy was offered the option of placing a
restraining order on Jesse and I said to them what does a restraining order do I
mean if he wants to kill me he's going to hire a hitman and have me killed anyway and they said no it immediately
criminalizes anytime he reaches out to you it immediately criminalizes anytime someone someone else reaches out to you
from him and so I said oh absolutely give it to [Music] me Jesse Winnick is the worst to the
worst and I can't imagine him ever changing [Music] I'm just so glad that it looks like he
is going to be in prison now for the rest of his life I hope that Amy and her family can get some peace
now despite being locked away for the rest of his life Jesse Winnick still brings Terror to those whose lives he
affected until he's paroled for my mom's murder I still have to see him every 2 years I now know I am the target of that
hatred that he had for Mom at one [Music] point so my sense of danger is much greater right now 17 years later than it
was 4 years in Amy now has two children of her own and has tried her best to move on with
her life I never will forgive him for what he's done I also don't Harbor hatred towards him I'm just angry
I'm disappointed and I want to change the way systems receive victims she has flourished into a really amazing person
she's dedicated her life to educating people talking to people about their trauma I don't ever want my children to
be victimized I want to protect them I see two very independent strong children developing from that and I love it
they're like the best human ever and my mom would just devour them with love I love my mother I loved getting to
know her and I almost miss the things I didn't have that I miss seeing mom as a grandma I
miss hearing her voice I haven't heard it for 17 years what a joyous person she was and I miss my mom so much but I
especially miss this smile like you can see in this picture in this picture I I can I can
almost hear her I can almost hear her happiness [Music] [Music]

The disturbing story of Jesse Winnick, who was convicted of the brutal murder of his mother in 2011. With harrowing insight from Jesse’s sister, Amy.

Relatives of murderers tell their stories, discussing how the crimes affected their families and whether there were any signs on murderous intentions beforehand.

Brief Summary

Jesse Winnick murdered his mother, revealing a history of abuse and ongoing violence that traumatized his sister Amy.

Key points

A Brother's Betrayal. Jesse's actions reflect a deep-seated evil, culminating in the murder of his mother.
The Shocking Revelation. Jesse calls his sister to reveal he has killed their mother, leaving her in disbelief.
A Disturbing Childhood. Amy describes her brother's abusive behavior and the impact on their family dynamics.
The Final Confrontation. Jesse's violent outburst leads to a tragic end, shocking everyone involved.
The Aftermath of Horror. The discovery of their mother's body leaves a lasting emotional scar on the family.
Life-Altering Situation. After her mother's murder, everything flipped upside down for Amy.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I realized he was not my brother, he was a monster.

Reflecting on the murder of his mother by his brother.

0:51WatchDec 5, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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