Jonathan Luna /// Part 1 /// 572 | Forensic Files

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man who shops at food and stuff it's where he gets his food and his stuff ladies and gentlemen
the C yeah destroying the government from the inside out it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening
and thanks for telling a [Music] friend this week I am very excited to be featuring a seasonal beer from one of
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business yes all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
[Music] crime [Music] this week's Crime Story reads like some kind of legal thriller or a crime
fiction novel like those by the great John Grisham but trust me my garage friends
when I say this unfortunately is a very real and true story this week we go to the big city of
Baltimore the city that frankly has left us with many a mystery back in February of
2019 we here at True Crime garage told you the story of detective sha suder a young hardworking Baltimore homicide
detective who was killed on the job with his service weapon the Baltimore Police
Department stated they believed his death was a suicide we told you that something fishy
was going on detective sudor was killed just one day before he was scheduled to testify before a Federal grand jury
investigating police corruption in Baltimore to this day many still debate detective suter's
death could the Baltimore Police be correct in their findings or was sudor murdered in the
line of duty or even worse murdered by one of his own in September of 2020 we followed the hit show Unsolved
Mysteries and filled in some blanks in the ray Rivera case Ray was an aspiring screenwriter who recently ended a
long-term position with one of those big financial and investment research firms Ray disappeared after receiving a
mysterious phone call about a week later he was found at Baltimore's Historic badier Hotel
his body somehow Came Crashing through the lower roof of an empty meeting room located on the lobby
level Ray left us with many questions including a cryptic note folded up nice and tight and taped to the back of his
computer alongside of a blank check to this day we still do not know what that note means or why Ry ran out of his home
after receiving that phone call both Ray Rivera and detective Suitor still unsolved unresolved cases read
like a great John Grisham novel this week's case involves a young Federal prosecutor working on a
high-profile trial this young man is working hard probably burning the candle at both ends
when he gets a late night phone call he abruptly leaves his office near midnight
embarking on a late night roundabout Journey punct uated by mysterious transactions and unexplained time
gaps then his body is found in Amish Country someone or someone's stabbed the young prosecutor 36 times yet no one was
seen with him his trip makes no sense and his stab wounds raise even more questions Jonathan Paul Luna was 38
years old when he was killed this case has been called Baltimore's most high-profile and perplexing murder
investigation and this is true crime [Music] garage December of 203 Jonathan Paul Luna is 38 years old
he's an assistant us attorney and at this time he is actively Prosecuting a big case Jonathan left the Private
Practice World 4 years earlier and became a federal prosecutor at the US attorney's office in Baltimore Maryland
in his role he prosecuted many cases against child pornographers drug dealers counterfeits and so on but his current
case involved a locally well-known rap artist whom the government was accusing of running a heroin ring out of his
downtown Baltimore music studio the trial was in full swing on Wednesday December 3rd but as happens in many
cases on day three of the trial the parties decided to enter into a plea agreement Jonathan wrapped up court that
day around 6:00 p.m. and he went home Jonathan lives with his family in Elkridge
Maryland this is a family of four we have Jonathan's wife Angela an obstetrician and their two young Sons
5-year-old Justin and 10-month-old Jacob and living with them is his mother-in-law so it's going to seem like
a typical evening they sit down and have dinner then after dinner he explains to
his wife I have to go back into the office tonight this is because of that plea deal Jonathan had to prepare the
plea agreement that would be settled upon in court the next day so he left for the federal courthouse in downtown
Baltimore at 8:48 p.m. now my standing here Captain it's a short drive for him to get to work it's about 10 miles at
some point Jonathan decided to take his work home with him so he's at the office
he's burning the midnight oil as they say and he decides you know what I'm going to finish the rest of this work up
at home so he returns to the house and as he was working now around 11:00 p.m. that night Jonathan received a call on
his cell phone and after he hung up the phone he told his wife Angela that hey I
got to go back to the office again now it's our understanding that late evening phone calls were far from unusual for
his line of work this was a 24hour a day job for the dedicated attorney so one time going back to your office might not
seem like that big of a deal but two maybe raises a red flag here or there but we do know that he did go back to
the office a second time if I'm the wife two is definitely going to raise a red flag for me however let's keep in mind
that second trip back to the office is spurred by the phone call that he receives and unfortunately we don't know
who was on the other end of that call and as you said Captain we do know for a fact that he did go back to the office
this is because building records show that his Honda that he was driving his vehicle entered the parking garage and
stayed there until after 11:30 it's what happened after that that is really a mystery we have some
information on Jonathan's movements that night but before we get into that we should note that later that night
Jonathan's wife Angela called police this is to report her husband missing when he never came home and she could
not reach him on his cell or at his office when Jonathan failed to show up for court the next morning at 9:30 a.m. the
US attorney's office in Baltimore raised the alarm that a federal prosecutor had
gone missing little did they know that Jonathan's body had already been found and the location where his body was
found and the manner in which he died would raise more questions this case becomes more difficult because he's in a
line of work that you don't share the details with your spouse there's a lot of mystery in this case there's a lot of
mystery in Jonathan Luna's movements that night so we know Jonathan is a lawyer but Colonel can you give us a
little more background on who Jonathan is Jonathan Paul Luna was born to parents Paul and Rosella he was raised
in the Patterson housing projects in the Bronx where he picked up his Lifelong Love for the Yankees his father worked
as a gentleman waiter at one of those high-end restaurants in the city and his mom stayed at home with the two Luna
boys him and his brother Jonathan was well-liked but was considered a bit of an eggh head he was known to sit in a
closet in the Luna's cramped apartment reading books Jonathan's best friend Daniel Rivera told the Washington Post
quote we thought he was a bit of an oddball end quote young Jonathan was known to his friends by his nickname
Joey again quoting from the post in high school Joey Luna frequently showed up for class wearing suits and ties with
curly hair and a runner's physique the 6 foot tall Luna was handsome Tiger Wood handsome is what they would say now
after working his way through college Captain he set his sights on law school he went to the very prestigious
University of North Carolina law school and graduated in 1992 president of his class after taking a year off to care
for his cancer stricken father so you can see this is a guy he comes from humble beginnings he aims high he shoots
for the stars but at the same time he never lose loses track of who he is and where he came from taking time off from
his dream of becoming an attorney to take care of his his father who was Ill after law school he worked as an
associate at one of DC's top law firms but soon decid decided he wanted to be in the public sector so he moved to the
Federal Trade Commission and then the District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn again a far cry from the cushy job at a
private firm always found individuals that were bookworms as a child to be very interesting and and very complex
individuals but also individuals that really knew themselves and eventually he gets this opportunity to join the US
attorneys on office in Baltimore as a federal prosecutor and he jumps all over it the Maryland us attorney who hired
him Lyn baglia said of Jonathan quote he had a really vivacious personality pey excited full of vigor he really wanted
the job he really wanted to be an assistant us attorney end quote according to the Post in his four years
at the US attorney's office he prosecuted about 80 criminal cases in six civil cases most were drug cases but
there were also many tough draining cases such as the conviction Jonathan obtained of a man who sexually abused
his seven-year-old daughter and a man that Jonathan got sentenced to0 months for sexual exploitation of a
minor meanwhile Jonathan met medical student Angela on a blind date and as they say
it was love at first sight they were married on August 29th 1993 they moved to Elkridge Maryland where Angela was
from and eventually listen to the character of this young man eventually Jonathan paid for his parents to move
nearby and help subsidize their home payments that's just the kind of person he was he was going to take care of Mom
and Dad all of his colleagues seem to like him and it does sound like Captain around the time of his his death that
might be a little more debatable but for the most part he's there for a 4-year span we couldn't really find anybody to
publicly say a bad word about him and on the contrary he was called special he was exciting and idealist a former
prosecutor who worked with Jonathan named Joe Evans said he was wonderful upbeat person who was supremely
dedicated to his mission and to his profession even a defense attorney on the trial that Jonathan was working on
when he died mhm he said he was a very decent person and this is opposing Council you know even some of the
defendants he worked so hard to put away I guess they affectionately called him Tito because they thought he because
they thought he might look like Tito Jackson opposing Council but they work in the same field they're they're
they're colleagues right but also what we've learned in the last seven years is if a bunch of people like you and if you
walk into a room and light it up you might want to watch your back thankfully for me I don't have that problem MH you
dark in the room uh he was an athletic guy though Captain he was an avid marathoner he
loved to organize the office softball team and throw dinner parties I guess he joined the barristers Club in November
the November before he was killed this is a fraternity for judges and lawyers and his violent lonely death in that
cold stream in the middle of nowheresville Pennsylvania was really was the last thing that anyone would
have expected just this initial introduction makes me think of the the movie The Firm mhm but let's dive into
what we know about the crime scene yeah so at 5 a.m. on Thursday morning this is
December 4th we have a drilling employee there's a company there I'll avoid their
name but we have an employee he's starting out his day as usual in the pre-dawn hours the company was located
on Dry Tavern Road in Lancaster County Pennsylvania the worker parked his truck went inside you know did the normal
stuff got coffee went back outside to fill the company's trucks with fuel for their daily rounds when he's doing this
he spots a red light in the darkness off the road near a wooded area so next we have a coworker
that shows up and the two men walked over to see what this light was it's not supposed to be there as they approached
they were startled to see that they had come upon what appeared to them and what
I'm sure they assumed was a car crash they see a silver3 Honda Accord that is 75 yd off
of the road the vehicle's from front wheels are in a small Creek the headlights were off but the engine was
still running the red light they had seen was coming from the dashboard indicator light concerned the men peered
into the window of the vehicle but the car was empty in the dim light keep in mind it's still dark at this time they
could see what looked to them to be Blood on the front seat and a child's unoccupied car in the back of the
vehicle the workers called 911 and reported what they had found when asked on the phone by the
operator they said no we did not see the driver of the car anywhere the area of Pennsylvania where we're talking about
here Captain is 100 miles from Baltimore this is Amish Country it was so Rural and peaceful that no one was on duty
from from the local Township police force so instead the state police handled the 911 call so now very quickly
we have Pennsylvania State Police Troopers who arrived on the scene they had no trouble locating the cars
presumed operator he was lying face down in the Stream basically under the front
of the running Honda he had no pulse EMT EMTs noticed right away that the dead man appeared to be riddled with
stab wounds now back in Baltimore Jonathan's failure to appear in court was a big deal and word spread
quickly that he was missing when word came in that he had been found dead 100 miles away there was an immediate call
to action his boss us attorney for Maryland held a press conference on the steps of the federal courthouse building
and swore to solve Jonathan's murder saying quote let there be no doubt that everyone in law enforcement local police
State Police United States Marshals ATF FBI are united we will find out who did this we are dedicated to bringing the
persons responsible for this tragedy to Justice that's a commitment from me that's a commitment from every law
enforcement officer in the state of Maryland Jonathan's funeral would be attended by over a thousand individuals
here's where we start the have a bunch of problems with our true crime story this week here Captain it's when you
really try to dive into the details to figure out what happened and a spoiler alert here for those of you that don't
know the Jonathan Luna case at some point the his whole death you know he is found stabbed and in this shallow Creek
in the waters of this shallow Creek but there will be debate in this case over the years as to was this a suicide or a
homicide now things were back then and are still to to this day very complicated by the refusal of law
enforcement to release the autopsy report in the absence of actual information from that report Anonymous
sourced comments and rumors have skewed The Narrative of the autopsy findings as
a result there was a ton of misinformation at the beginning of this case and I'm going to go through some of
that misinformation right now so for example we have judge corals this is the judge that's presiding over Jonathan's
current trial when he's killed this judge tells the Associated Press that the prosecutor Jonathan had suffered
multiple stab wounds and gunshot wounds someone else said that Jonathan appeared to be the victim of a quote an
execution style murder sources told ABC News another bit of information here or misinformation a search warrant
affidavit by the Pennsylvania State Police said that Jonathan had suffered a traumatic wound to the right side of his
head now here is what we actually know and I'm going to use air quotes when I say the word actually here's what we
actually know with the caveat that the reports have never been officially released so we only quote know this
stuff from people in the know who have commented or from leaked information well a lot of this
information is going to come from the Dr Barry wal so he's a family doctor but also works at the lanaster county or
works as a Lancaster County coroner and the way that this comes out as said the the autopsy has never been officially
released also they've refused to release it but he's answered some question on the record he was present when the
forensic pathologist conducted the autopsy now while the actual pathologist refus to discuss the results Dr walp has
talked and he said to the Baltimore son that Jonathan was found dressed in a business suit shirt and tie an Overcoat
socks and shoes that there was no wallet or cell phone in Luna's Pockets but he was wearing a work identification badge
around his neck he was also wearing his wedding ring at the time of his death now back to the
wallet I have seen reports that say it was not in his pockets but was found in the vehicle as for the cell phone not so
much not located we'll get into the cell phone in a little bit Dr walp also reported that Jonathan died from
drowning and had suffered multiple stab wounds in the neck and upper chest he was not shot his death was was ruled a
homicide so no matter what we want to debate it was ruled a it was ruled a homicide multiple
sources say that Jonathan suffered 36 puncture wounds to his upper chest neck and head more than half of the wounds
were to his neck well I'm going to play a little Captain Obvious for you but in a mystery murder case one of your
options that's on the table is possible suicide this is not suicide period and how do we know that we have evidence of
36 puncture wounds that's what they're telling us you you don't puncture yourself 36 times so you can take
suicide off the table this lawyer Jonathan Luna was viciously [Music] murdered this show is sponsored by better help do
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windows to the walls love you all I love that music Captain Crank It Up in my headphones tall cans in the air cheers
to everybody for joining us in the garage once again this week he was shaking his
tush in his seat that's right I'm the best chair dancer you've ever seen now Captain these stab wounds are very
interesting to me and I think you were touching on that just before the break there because there were so many of
these puncture wounds it's been reported by multiple sources Jonathan suffered 36
puncture wounds let's get into some of the details about that so this Dr walp said that Jonathan had suffered a number
of shallow quote prick marks on his chest and neck in addition to several deeper more serious stab wounds most of
the stab wounds to Jonathan are now largely reported as mostly superficial this is from the post a federal
prosecutor found stabbed and drowned in a rural Pennsylvania Creek suffered numerous shallow puncture wounds
described as prick marks on his chest neck and head suggesting that he had been tortured now according to the
coroner who examined his body said of these this referring to the numerous prick marks said you would think that
they were perhaps after information from the guy when you see something like this
or perhaps for kicks meaning these are just little little Jabs and little stabs and maybe somebody was holding him down
and trying to get information out of him or there was some kind of torture that was being performed on this young man as
for Jonathan's several severe stab wounds some penetrated at least 4 in deep deep enough to cause hemorrhaging
on both sides of his neck the post reports that Jonathan's left cored artery had been punctured causing him to
bleed to death in minutes now basically what they're saying here Captain is he the water killed him he drowned in that
small amount of water right cuz he's found face down in the water but they're letting us know that these stab wounds
and where the injuries were on his body especially that cored artery were enough
to kill him so he would have died from the stab wounds it's just the water killed him first makes you wonder
because in this case they were going to reach agreement so normally when that is
happening both sides are like going to be happy about something they're making a compromise mhm it's not wanted oh well
this guy did a bad job and now I'm going away for for life and I think he screwed
it up and so I'm going to make him pay it it seems like like we said in this case they were coming to agreement right
and you're jumping to what was everyone's first suspicion in this case right you got this prosecutor he's
actively working this big case well it must involve the case that he was currently working on and you know we
said that him being found in this Creek 100 miles away murdered this way was the
last thing that anybody would have expected well that's not entirely true there is a certain amount of danger that
comes with this job right you're putting away bad people who probably would like
to do something bad to you so it's not the last thing that anybody would expect we're we're spoton with our statement
because of the way that he is found and where he is found nobody would have expected him to be killed this way and
so far from home now back to some more of this information regarding the Never released
autopsy again Dr walp said in an interview cited by the post that Jonathan was still breathing when he was
dumped face down in the frigid water so that goes back to the idea that the water killed him first but he certainly
would have died from these puncture wounds BR the doctor also said that there was a considerable amount of
congealed blood which indicated to him that Jonathan had probably been lying there in that position for a period of
time I hate when they use the phrase a period of time we know he was there for a period of time was it a long period of
time or a short period of time yeah at least give us that yes Dr walp corrected the statement in the police affid davit
citing the traumatic injury to Jonathan's head he said said that there was no there was no such injury however
and this makes a lot of sense the post reports that there was a head wound but it's believed to have happened when he
landed in the creek that maybe it wasn't somebody striking him over the head with
something it's simply when he fell face down into the creek that's when he had this injury to the Head
defensive wounds were there any we this is what we want to know especially when people were going to argue suicide so
the post reported that there were cuts to Jonathan's hands and a fingernail Mark near his wrist but there were no
cuts to his arms and most Reports say citing Anonymous law enforcement sources that there were no defensive wounds I
debate that a little bit based off of the information that there were cuts to his hands but again without this docu
being released we don't know exactly what is fact and what is fiction here yeah is the doctor telling us the truth
or is he just speculating on what he believes happened now the vehicle Jonathan's vehicle is going to be of
major import to this case of course the Maryland tags on the Honda stood out right away to the Pennsylvania State
Police tracks on the ground showed how the Honda had turned off of the road and ended up Creekside the car's doors were
closed the headlights were off the engine was idling I'm assuming it was in park or was stuck in a way that it
couldn't move the front wheels were reportedly right on the edge of the short embankment to this this very
shallow stream leaving indentations in the soft mud a police affidavit indicated that there was blood in the
car and we know that we have the two gentlemen that call 911 they say that they saw blood in the vehicle as well
but according to this police affidavit Captain along with the blood inside the car there was Cash scattered inside the
vehicle mhm the post reported that about $200 in cash was found in the vehicle and also something that they're calling
cell phone equipment was found in the back of the vehicle I'm guessing that might just be cell phone charger was
found in the back ofic maybe it's old Zack Morris phone right well it's 2003 three uh the affidavit also said that he
was holding on to his vintage you know the affidavit also said that the investigators found blood smeared on the
outside of the driver's side door and left front fender of the vehicle inside the car the affidavit said that there
was a large pull of Blood on the right rear floor of the car so we know that he has 36 puncture wounds he's going to be
unfortunately leaving lot of blood at this scene it's really interesting to me where they're finding
a lot of this Blood it would appear to me that he suffered a lot of these wounds before exiting the vehicle and he
might at some point have been in the rear seat of this vehicle right the FBI conducted DNA tests on the blood found
in the Honda it looks like they were looking to see if all of the blood found was Jonathan's or perhaps someone else
someone else's blood as well had been bleeding in the car there were many early reports the this is incredibly
interesting to me how these things seem to go away in this case but early on Captain there were many early reports
that it was determined that there was blood from a second person found in the vehicle but nothing else about this has
ever been released to the public right what was not found in Jonathan's car again his cell phone it was sitting in
his office at the courthouse and so were his eyeglasses you would think that if he met somebody at his office they would
have record of this or have some kind of CCTV surveillance you would be shocked at the
lackluster security setup at the courthouse I was really surprised when you have these people who are working
with dangerous individuals that probably receive threats on the rag that there's
not better security or better surveillance at this area now his cell phone and his eyeglasses being found at
the office could be an indicator of either he rushed out of the office for some reason or if he were to have been
abducted at some point that night maybe it happened at the office or he simply just forgot them it's really conf
confusing but I think it's a piece in this case that we cannot Overlook and it should not be
understated well it's strange though because he had two important calls that we know of that altered the events of
his night so you would think that if even if he's leaving in a rush he's making sure he has that cell phone just
in case he gets another call well since Jonathan Luna is a federal employee the FBI is going to head up this
investigation and it looks like a field agent in Baltimore her name Jennifer Love handled the case she made a public
requests for information saying that the agency was aggressively investigating the circumstances surrounding Jonathan's
death they looked at his computer files emails Financial records past trials and
prosecutions they poured over his phone logs and Palm Pilot information I forgot
all about Palm Pilots they interviewed his family friends colleagues and Associates and so on just like we would
expect them to do investigators descended on this Lancaster County in the days after the death showing
Jonathan's photo to motel desk clerks and gas station attendants and asking for guest logs and video security camera
footage the only Avenue that bore fruit was when they started retracing his steps after he left the office on that
fateful night Jonathan's car had in it what in the state of Maryland and other states is called an Easy Pass
transponder so this allows one to do automated payments at toll booths so that you don't have to stop and throw
change in the bucket or hand over some cash to the toll booth operator investigators gathered the
electronic toll records from his transponder and the security video of the transactions at toll booths where
payments were registered that night they also pulled his ATM and credit card records and looked to see where those
cards were used if they were used that night and and they were and the picture that started to emerge of Jonathan's
last hours well frankly they're very very confusing well before we dive into the events of that night let's go back
back to this trial because they're set to make a deal mhm which like I said sets his evening in motion so what was
this whole trial about okay so your spot on here Captain because this was everyone's first assumption in Luna's
death and in fact so much so that as soon as his body was found his co-prosecutor on the drug trial and his
family and Luna's family were all placed under immediate law enforcement protection Judge Lynn baglia who had
hired Jonathan in 1990 when she was a US attorney for Maryland told the post quote I was fearful that he had been
killed in relationship to the job which is what everyone thought end quote so these guys that he worked this deal with
Walter and Dion we know that they were both behind bars at the time of Jonathan's death so
they physically weren't the ones who killed him but could they have arranged for some type of hit now this would make
a lot more sense as you're pointing out here Captain if there were no plea bargain on the table right and Jonathan
Luna is the one that made the plea bargain to them and so we have one of the attorneys for these guys that goes
well out of their way to point out look Not only was this a plea agreement in in
favor of these two guys that were facing all these charges it was a really good deal for both of them more serious
charges were being dropped in fact and so it was a really good deal for them and so the attorney goes out of his way
to say look they're not involved they didn't have anything to do with it because if something happened to
Jonathan Luna they run the risk of something happening to that really good deal that they were going to get I do
want to point something out here though before we move off of this idea I don't think that this should be so quickly
dismissed I agree because look a lot of criminals are pretty dumb people all right and what happened if they ordered
some kind of hit and the information of the plea deal being offered that same day never makes it its way to the person
that's going to carry out the hit and so what if the hit was arranged before things had turned in their favor and it
was a dramatic turn in their favor an Abrupt turn in their favor so what if that information didn't reach the right
set of ear balls and some monster goes out there and handles things the old dirty way before they receive the
information I think that that should still be a possibility however however the big butt on that one
is duh this is investigated by the FBI and others this is the angle that they would have pursued first and that they
would have really looked at the most severely early on in this case and so while I don't think we can so quickly
dismissed this idea I a firm believer that this was thoroughly looked at and considered maybe not ruled out
completely but but really strongly looked at in this case let me just say I like big butts and I cannot lie but
maybe it's some kind of combination of that oh yeah okay the the case shifts and you're going to give get me a deal
but maybe this criminal from the beginning said if this guy doesn't get me off then he's he's gone and to send a
message to everybody else I mean who knows but it seems like they were involved in quite a bit of wrongdoings
yeah so the the way these guys were violent individuals as well they weren't just selling drugs they were also
violent one in fact was accused of of murder but the thing here though Captain is when I say dramatic and abrupt shift
in the case it was very much that because what ended up happening was the witness that was going to put these guys
away was an informant that was working for the FBI and gathering information on these
types of people right but at the same time this individual was slipping out of their their ankle monitor that they were
supposed to stay at home and continue to sell drugs themselves continued to do violent behavior and break the law all
while being on the table from the FBI the problem with this then becomes for the prosecution because it it's going to
look to everyone like hey there is an incentive for this guy to testify against these people he's he's doing the
FBI a favor they're taking care of him and he's putting away these these other two bad guys meanwhile he's committing
all these same crimes himself so it's a big big problem for the prosecution and it's my understanding I did not pour
through all of the court records on this situation but it's my understanding that
Jonathan Luna may have been aware of this and I say may it's very very likely that he was aware of this and this is
what brought on the plea agreement because it looks to me like he failed to disclose that the prosecution it's a
whole team so I shouldn't just say he but they failed to disclose that information to the
defense and which is some big wrongdoing yes yes here in the United States you got to share the information so when
they have that they're like oh well maybe we can plea this thing out give these guys a really Primo deal they take
it and nobody no one's the wiser yeah maybe they maybe these individuals figured out that this guy had
information that he lied about and then we shouldn't limit the possibility of a Revenge Type killing for his job to just
this one trial I mean think about how many people he had put away in his four years working for or working as an
attorney it looks to me like the the overall consensus regarding these individuals in that trial are the
investigators decided that Jonathan's murder was not connected to that trial and they even go out of their way to say
that his murder was not connected to his work so then they're going to have to start really looking elsewhere for an
explanation well we have evidence that he is not disclosing information that he should have been
disclosing so that starts making me question his character and like we said he could have had one character for most
of his life but some of these guys they they they start compromising their character to try to get ahead yes and
this is going to require the law enforcement to look into why there might be a personal motive to murder Jonathan
Luna so again per the post investigators have interviewed Luna's wife Angela as well
as his friends and Associates Paul Luna the prosecutor's father who was 83 at the time of uh when he was interviewed
said Federal investigators questioned him and his wife for three hours at their apartment in Colombia the
investigators asked detailed questions about Jonathan's personal life they asked whether Jonathan had financial
problems they asked if he had girlfriends or boyfriends that maybe Angela doesn't know about and the
digging did expose some Secrets some deceptions also some rumors and allegations and unfounded accusations
all of which were seized on by the media and the public this is why Jonathan's family would eventually stop talking
about the case Al together the officials who were involved refused to address it
any further and the whole thing today remains a sword in impenetrable mess it's almost impossible to determine what
is true what isn't what's significant and what's a total and complete red herring or even outright fallacy so in
February of 2004 this is at a news conference FBI assistant director Cassandra Chandler said that the agency
had been looking into more than 600 leads and explained that it's delving into Jonathan's personal life was
necessary to find answers the Baltimore son reported that while Jonathan was said to be outstanding at and dedicated
to his job that maybe things were not so bright and shiny on the inside co-workers told the
paper that Jonathan had fallen out of favor with his boss but we do have his boss who publicly denied Whispers that
Jonathan wasn't cutting it but again it's been kind of privately confirmed but that's after the fact correct and
some people will not speak of the dead right and it looks like okay so he was hired by one boss that boss moves on to
bigger and better things and then he gets a new boss and some of us have experienced this where maybe the old
regime really likes you and likes the cut of your jib and how you do things and maybe the new regime does things
differently and doesn't like the cut of your jib that's what it sounds like to me but again on the public
level his boss at the time of his death was saying you know everything was fine he was a good employee mhm well what
about some other rumors or speculation that we've heard well this also kind of stems from his job too so even if we
have the boss saying everything was fine again privately people were saying no things weren't so fine that his boss
didn't like him we also have three legal sources who spoke to the son that told the the paper that Jonathan was not
acting like himself as of late leading up to his death he they said he was distracted and disorganized which
doesn't sound like him at all based off of what we've already discussed I wonder
if there's any possible drug use well keep in mind just on the morning the morning before that fateful drive that
later that night on December third Jonathan was late to court and of course judges do not like that so the judge
Jonathan $25 for being tardy this is just kind of a little you know slap on the on the hand there to remind you hey
you got a job to do we expect you and everybody else here to be on time right Jonathan told the court that he was at
the hospital all night with his son who was Ill this is difficult this could just be you know you're caught in the
moment and you tell a little white lie I couldn't find anything to confirm that he was at the hospital or that his son
was at the hospital that the night before the other thing too keep in mind his wife is a doctor mhm so she could
provide uh Medical Care and assessment of the son at home better than most of us of course uh the judge did hand out
the fine regardless of the excuse but the son's legal sources say that the rumors of Jonathan not being a good fit
at the US attorney's office were right again three people said that he had Ed that he was getting ready to leave the
prosecutor's office and as you pointed out though Captain a lot of this guy's work and a lot of things that the work
being done within this office are kind of off limits to the public they're all going to kind of be very secret stuff
we're not going to know all of the ins and outs of what everybody was doing or their performance reviews and the like
now you asked about other things well of course the police are asking about other
things too one thing in particular was debt that they wanted to know about yeah financial troubles this can be a reason
for murder or suicide or the Baltimore Sun reported that law enforcement sources said that Jonathan Luna was
$25,000 in debt on several credit cards okay so let's examine this though this on the surface may seem like a lot but
really is it a lot for a man who has a family a mortgage two cars is helping to support his parents and probably still
has law school debt right maybe not here's where the problem comes in the sun says that he had as many as 16
credit cards that's what the newspaper says as many as 16 credit cards and some that maybe his wife didn't know about
okay that's a lot of cards right um I don't know if I picture of the George castanza wallet when I hear that but
some some people are better with money than others some people like to carry credit cards for the points Jonathan's
friends all said that he never seemed to lack money well of course he's got 16 credit cards his wife was a doctor so
they had plenty of money coming in one thing that I've always kind of thought about this when you see very
successful people that are carrying debt that might be a little higher than one would expect a couple of things one are
these just little debts that mounted up to much larger debt at some point and it
kind of got forgotten about because they're successful people that are working very difficult demanding jobs
and they have two small children and he's taking care of his parents these are little things that are just part of
everyday life and then one day you you review your finances at the end of the year and you go oh my goodness well it
was a bad year or boom over the last few years we racked up all of this debt the
other thing though too when we talk abouted credit cards that his wife did not know about this goes out to the the
married people out there or the people that have been married this has never been my experience but I have heard and
been involved in conversations throughout my years on this Big Blue Marble where people have told me so and
so's been married for years and found out oh we were not in as good of standing as I thought we were we were
behind on our bills or we had a lot more debt than I thought when I go wh why didn't you know what was going on
well my husband handles the finances or my wife handles the finances and I just didn't pay any attention to it I thought
that she or he had it under control and I learned whoa we're in trouble so this this whole thing doesn't look and I know
that people have been killed over a lot less money but when we talk about money troubles I think the only reason why
this is a factor here and this number is mentioned this 25 ,000 and so on is mentioned here in Luna's case is because
then there was suspicions that he could have been involved in a theft that there
were whispers about a possible [Music] theft thank you so much for joining us here in the grounde today so much more
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Jonathan Luna /// Part 1 /// 572

Part 1 of 2

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Here in the Garage we have featured more than a fair share of strange and confusing crimes and murders. Each one of these stories and cases are unique but this week we have a real tricky True Crime Story. The homicide of 38 year old Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna. Jonathan’s body was found approximately one hundred miles from his home in Baltimore. He had suffered thirty six puncture wounds to his neck and chest area. The debates about this homicide, likely abduction and his movements on the night of his death have puzzled the public since his body was found in December of 2003. Join us in the Garage for a case that is sure to haunt you.

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Brief Summary

The episode investigates the murder of prosecutor Jonathan Luna, exploring his background, death, and the ongoing mystery surrounding the case.

Key points

The Mysterious Death of Jonathan Luna. A federal prosecutor is found dead under suspicious circumstances, raising questions about his death.
A Late Night Call. Jonathan Luna receives a mysterious phone call that leads him back to the office late at night.
The Crime Scene Discovery. A worker discovers a car crash, but the driver is missing and blood is found inside.
Jonathan's Death Ruled Homicide. Jonathan Luna suffered 36 puncture wounds and drowned, ruling his death a homicide.
Evidence of Torture. Reports indicate Jonathan had numerous shallow puncture wounds suggesting he was tortured.
Missing Items Raise Questions. Jonathan's cell phone and eyeglasses were found at his office, raising suspicions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This week's crime story reads like some kind of legal thriller.

4:11WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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