Women Behind Bars - Season 2, Episode 2 - Jackie and Heather - Full Episode | Forensic Files

on this episode of women behind bars one woman is convicted of killing a devoted friend
jackie pulls out a knife and she actually starts stabbing thomas with him he was just in and out in and out
constantly stabbing thomas he was crawling towards me and he was saying jackie i love you
then heather frango pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter when a pit bull mauled her two-year-old son
to death his ears were removed his scalp was removed he had over a hundred bite marks to his
body two women two brutal crimes these are the stories of jackie alexander and heather frango
[Music] [Music] on june 14 1998 police made a grisly discovery in a burned out car
near lake fisher in the close-knit community of kannapolis north carolina inside the trunk lay the scorched
disfigured body of thomas hammond a 41 year old mill worker and neighborhood good samaritan
this murder was one of the most gory the amount of violence that was inflicted upon
the victim was the worst i saw in my 27 years i just just told up and do nothing just couldn't
believe it the evidence led police to hammond's roommate 36 year old jackie alexander
a former high school beauty queen with a history of violent outbursts and sixteen-year-old derrick wilkes a
close friend of jackie's son i was like dude i didn't do that it was just like it's in a horror movie that
you didn't even invent and he was trying to figure out how to get out of it was jackie alexander a calculating murderer
or did she succumb to an uncontrollable temper [Music] jackie alexander the eldest of five
children was born to shirley foggy a single mother who was a maid and cotton picker for a southern white
family i don't know who my father is jackie's four siblings were fathered by three
different men one of whom her mother married the guys my mom was going with would jump on her
and [Music] fight her and i would try to help her a lot of times i got slapped around and
beat on because of that no matter how many men jackie's mother had in her life her love for her children always shone
through my mom and i was close it's like i knew her thoughts before she said it you know i know she really
really did love her mama a whole lot but from an early age jackie was painfully aware of her family's
difficult circumstances my childhood was like a kid in a grown body and we were poor i grew up in a
neighborhood with with a lot of people drinking and a lot of fighting and cursing and a
lot of violence sometimes people would get beat up sometimes people would get murdered
when jackie was 11 her mother was hospitalized but relatives never told her why then they let us all go up in the
hospital i knew then that she was dying and they still wouldn't tell us so i was angry at them
the young teen's inner turmoil became a bigger problem for her and she began a lifelong pattern of
acting out her anger that's when i started really lashing out in all bad ways you might say
with fighting in school in the seventh grade jackie was failing her classes and was suspended for attacking a
classmate i was drinking water out of the water fountain at school one of my classmates
came up and he pushed my head on the water fountain and when he did i i just turned around and i just i just snapped
i took that boy head and rammed him into the water fountain and took the trash can and started beating
with the trash can when he got down and was kicking them and stuff i got suspended for the rest of the year
in the school to make matters worse her mother died of cancer that's when everything went to pieces
i stopped caring about everything jackie and her four siblings moved in with their grandfather
and his wife in kannapolis a southern textile mill town 25 miles north of charlotte north
carolina although jackie was just a teenager she was suddenly charged with the responsibility of caring for all of her
siblings i don't know the instinct just kicked in i just wanted to protect my brothers and
sisters at any cause jackie said it was tough living with her strict grandfather and
his disciplinarian wife just mostly the living arrangements i was angry i was taking out on them being real
abusive to them at times she was known to be a hell raiser you know and she had a bad temper
harriet ivy was a reporter at the independent tribune in kannapolis she grew up in the same community as
jackie she was popular because of her beauty and her hair raising jackie's grandfather was also well known
in the neighborhood he sold alcohol in the dry town out of his house my grandfather started me drinking at
12. and jackie says her grandfather would often get drunk and physically abuse her and her siblings
he beat us with those leather straps that they used in the barber shop when jackie was 14 she found an escape
from her problems at home on her high school track team i don't think i ran it because i liked
it i could do it and then feel good because i got a lot of pressure off me we were
trackmates together she was wonderful she was very fast whatever event that she ran she ran it like she was in
the olympics when i started winning well they seemed to say something good about it we just was never told nothing
good we was always called names should have killed you as a baby you know those kind of things we always
heard stuff like that we never heard nothing good so i got more into the sports after high
school she got pregnant at age 18 by her boyfriend she gave birth to a baby girl she
nicknamed twink she's just like a twinkle twinkle little star it looked like a star she just
sparkled we was like how old mom and daughter is supposed to be that's my mama that's my daughter i'm
there for her she did for me jackie never married twink's father but more than a year later she married
another man and had a son named mark the marriage lasted only a year and a half because according to jackie
she was constantly beaten she had a bad marriage and i really do feel like that it took a
toll on her and it changed her to vent her anger at being abused jackie continued her pattern of
aggressive behavior i had a lot of people that hated me i was terrible i had fought everybody practically in
kannapolis but when thomas hammond a well-respected handyman who lived in the same community
saw jackie for the first time he took an instant liking to her thomas was all-around good hearted good
human country boy that cared about people he didn't care who he was he did a lot of
odds and end jobs on the side like fixing people cars and cabinets he was well respected hammond
who was six years older than jackie was married with a family but he left his wife to set up house
with jackie and her children he always did treated as good just like you my daddy
while living like brother and sister with hammond jackie continued dating other men
it was a platonic relationship it didn't appear to be any type of sexual relationship
and this went on for several years she had nowhere to go he cared that much about her and her
kids to keep a roof over their heads with no love at first when it started off might have been but it was just a
just because case to me just because you ain't got nowhere to go you can stay here
i don't think he loved him but times were tough for this unemployed single mom and to manage her frustrations jackie
turned to crack crack would outweigh us you know and that's just not right you got money am i gonna buy crack or
i'm gonna get my kids some food i'm gonna buy credit well okay what we supposed to do
okay feeling for ourselves and that's what we did jackie's drug addiction led to a life of crime that had her in
and out of jail for almost 10 years she was convicted of assaulting another woman
with a razor blade and then after she got off probation for that offense she was convicted of
common law robbery that was where she took a brick and used it to smash over the head of a
cabbie so that she could take that cabbies money while she did her time jackie's kids
would stay with her roommate thomas hammond the one person who accepted her for who
she was or they stayed with relatives i gave him a pretty bad example of a mother one several
times they said all they wanted to do was spend time with me so you know that that hurts
as jackie's life was spinning out of control thomas hammond continued giving jackie and her kids
anything they needed i can just remember just moving a lot like just we over this
person's house we over that person's house thomas always have been our rescue house
you know like if whenever we needed him he was always there we could be way in freaking
timbuktu he on his way to come get us and my mom he left his family on the other side of
town to go be with her so you know there had to be some strong emotion going on there
she loved him more like a friend but he was obsessed with her and it's a difference i was using him at
in the beginning i told him and he he was okay with it and we eventually claimed became good
friends and he became like part of the family but hammond's sisters felt that jackie
was a troubled woman who would only create chaos in hammond's life anna hammond said the two argued often
yes she hit him before i know of once when my dad died he used to tell tommy oldham boy that girl gonna kill you one
day when women behind bars continues thomas knocked me on the floor and when he did
there was some scissors on the dresser so i grabbed the scissors and i started stabbing him with scissors
by 1998 36 year old jackie alexander had a long criminal history that included drug and assault convictions
she had been in and out of jail she divorced her husband and was raising two children when she
met thomas hammond a hard-working resident in the textile mill town of kannapolis north carolina
while the relationship was supposedly platonic jackie had been living with thomas hammond on and off for more than
10 years thomas would make sure we had something to eat he made sure we had clean clothes
so it was like the safe house basically hammond took care of jackie and her teenage children
he also helped jacquie find jobs at local businesses in the second week of june 1998 she was
trying to straighten out her criminal record i had so many charges on me so i was
in and out of court that week and i was trying to not get no time trying to let them work
this out with me where i could pay the job i worked on you couldn't have a record just
everything was building up it's like i was with a struggle with good and evil at that point evil eventually won out
jackie bought some crack from a local drug dealer and smoked it early in the day
i could always tell when my mama was back smoking crack or whatever it was she was doing yeah i was just like but
mama why you want to go back well you know she's wanted to get herself right i guess for that day
at about eight that evening while her children were out she asked thomas to drive her to pick up her
fifteen-year-old niece shawna her son's friend derek wilkes joined them derek was a troubled teen whose parents
were divorced he often hung around the house with jackie and her kids derek was like my play son he was my
son's one of his best friends and derek was at the house all the time so he just fit right in he respected me
i looked at her as you know a mother away from home i mean because she i mean she just
embraced me with overalls but hammond who was like a father to jackie's family did not approve of
derek's crush on shauna or jackie's encouragement of it thomas you know had a problem with me being
over there so often on the night of july 14 1998 jackie and derrick both claim they were
hanging outside on the porch with shauna and thomas had winning night we stayed outside he was watching the movie
thomas had just gone to bed when jackie left the front porch and entered thomas's bedroom to ask him
to drive her niece home he had gotten in the bed he wasn't asleep he was like tell derek to take her home you know he
got smart according to jackie thomas was angry that she had waited until such a late hour to ask
him to drive and thomas made insulting remarks about jackie's daughter and her niece she says he said some
things to her about this girl is going to turn out just like her daughter she's going to be a [ __ ]
and go out with drug dealers and older men in other words calling my daughter a [ __ ] jackie claims that when her
protective instincts towards her family kicked in she lost her temper and things got out
of hand i pushed him and when i pushed him really hard and i started hitting him and so thomas
knocked me on the floor and when he did there was some scissors on the dresser so i grabbed the scissors
and i started stabbing him with the scissors i hollered for derek to come and help
when i told her niece i say uh i said stay right here when i came back in the living room
i mean this pissed dog i'm watching jackie she turned around at one point and looked at me and when the jacket looked
at me i knew it wasn't jacket you just see it in our eyes he was pinned around that
back on the bed she was still struggling you know he had raised his hand and went he had
he was holding him down i seen his arm come back and i thought he was gonna strike jack
that's when i ran in the room and i grabbed thomas and we just charged it and i grabbed him and we were just
wrestling around but by that time jackie had come running right back into the room
and she had a big cast iron from ipad she handed it to me and she was like hit him there killed him
derek hit him in the head with the frying pan and when he did that's when i saw his eyes rolling in the back of his
head that's when he got up and stumbled thomas did as if he gonna go out the front door and derrick went
to stop him and he hit him again with the frying pan and that's when it broke and um thomas fell out on the floor he
was crawling towards me and he was saying jackie i love you and he asked derek why at that point he
tried to get up and they hit him with a hammer he passed out in the living room and was moaning and
groaning i mean he still is breathing but at one point you know you could hear i think the
blood gargling in his throat you know jackie says she left the house with shauna to get help
but could not find any we went all over the whole neighborhood it's always someone around
but this night it wasn't nobody there nobody home but investigators say jackie was really trying to find her
niece a ride home so that she would not be implicated in the crime jackie then returned to the house to see
if hammond was alive or dead at that point she told shawna to remain outside when we got back derek was fussing and
cussing at me why'd you leave me in here the three-hour torture finally ended when hammond was fatally stabbed with a
knife but jackie and derek gave different versions of who had the knife derek had took a kitchen knife and
stabbed the knife through thomas neck and he said there he's dead now nah i never even stabbed thomas
jackie pulls out a knife she actually started stabbing thomas with her it was just in and out constantly
you know she was stabbing thomas derrick said jackie got two trash bags the first one she had put over his head
it started filling up immediately with blood to the point where it fell off she went got another one and put that on
top of that and was choking him like that no no i put that up on his head because he was
bleeding she held on to him and his head just went live in her lap yeah he was dead yeah i mean cause you
could it's his bowels let loose i mean you smell it next they wrapped hammond's body in a
blanket and threw it in the trunk of his car they took shawna with them and drove to
a nearby gas station they bought a gallons worth of gas drove to a deserted road
when we got there derek took the gasoline and pulled it on him that's when um he said light it
so i was trying to light it and he was running he kept yelling light the light lighted light derrick said it was
jackie who poured the gasoline on the body and lit it turning the car into an inferno
they ran back to the house to clean up the bloody evidence jacket had thomas wallet when she opened
it up she seen the money that was in there so when she pulled the money out i seen
the money and she started counting it jackie tried to give me 400 i told jack i didn't want that money
police found the car and the body the following morning and traced the license plate to thomas hammond
they went to his house and found jackie asleep according to jackie derrick was there as
well they also found blood throughout the house along with other evidence detectives
brought jackie and derek to police headquarters and questioned them separately jackie
had told me as we were sitting on the back porch that she had stabbed him with the
scissors in the throat and that the whole thing had just gotten out of hand and she had to do what she did after a
day of interrogation by police jackie confessed to her part in the killing but blamed derek for hammond's
death [Music] when he said the death penalty i wanted to talk to my lawyers and tell them the
confession is not true and it was too late when women behind bars continues i am very very sorry for what i've done
the part that i played in that in murdering thomas and later briefly the evidence was that he was
mauled to death by two pitbulls in his home while his parents were also in the home it was a situation
where someone needs to be held accountable for what happened to this child on june 14 1998 36 year old jackie
alexander along with her son's friend sixteen-year-old derrick wilkes was charged with the gruesome murder of
jackie's roommate thomas hammond at jackie's trial derek was the prosecution's key witness
he told the jury she was the killer it was presented to me as if just get on stand
to tell what happened they did never make sense if we need your testimony against her
he was considerably younger than jackie and it was our view that jackie to a great extent
manipulated him based upon their relative age differential meanwhile jackie's trial was still
underway in her defense jackie's attorney larry harris presented several reports by psychiatrists who
examined her they said abuse haunted her past their findings were that ms alexander did in
fact have a post-traumatic stress disorder and depression among other things including substance abuse of
cocaine marijuana and alcohol that she had somehow developed this mechanism within her that
if she were attacked physically that she would retaliate with the intent to kill their theory was
that she snapped at the moment thomas hammond slammed her to the floor but the jury did not buy that defense
after two weeks of testimony jackie was found guilty of murder when the verdict was announced
jackie screamed in the courtroom then jackie heard her daughter crying i just wanted to go grab her
and just tell her how sorry i was in less than two hours the jury rejected the death sentence and
decided jackie would spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole they
need to let us have us so we can do heal her the same way she did him but you know that'd have been wrong evil
for evil you can't do evil for evil he cared enough for her and then you got um kill him like that
you don't do a dog like that jackie now lives in a nine by six foot cell at the southern correctional
institution in troy north carolina on the walls are photos of her family it's my grandbabies in me tweet my
daughter my grandfather also among the photos are some of her fiance james who she met through a church group she
says she and her fiance hope to marry if she is ever set free we're trusting god that he will and
we're looking for a better hope at age 48 jackie is working towards an associate's degree in office systems
technology these are my books my dictionary purpose driven life the journal and my bibles i coach volleyball
basketball kickball softball teams i'm in the women's service club i uh i'm on the board i'm the membership director
because of her good behavior she merited the highest paying job in the prison washing inmate laundry at one dollar a
day the other jobs pay 40 cents you have to wait in line for it it don't just come to you jackie is one of the oldest
inmates in her cell block many of the younger ones come to her for advice they call this my little office everyone
comes in here to talk to me in my office we pray a lot in here to be honest with
you she's suffering she really is cause she missing out on everything so in our lives she missed the birth of her
grandkids first grandkids and i think she's learning her lesson jackie said she wrote a letter to the
hammond family asking for them to forgive her i am very sorry for what i've done the part that i
played in that and murdering thomas well as i'm concerned i forgive them because like i said if
i die tonight i don't need nothing preventing me from going to hell and you got to forgive and you got to
care and you got to love people in order to go to heaven when you do die i'm not
even mad at jackie no more but what i would say to jacket now i want to know i mean why me why even want to involve
me i forgave him pretty much know that he was fighting for his life when i look back on the jackie that was
i can't blame nobody for not loving a person like that because i wouldn't want to help a person
like how i was but now i don't like to see people hurt people i don't like them picking on people who
are less fortunate those these are all these things what i used to do all these things what
i used to do i'm happy for the first time in my life i mean i i'm happy you know
i'm free on the inside next up on women behind bars a toddler dies when he wanders into a room with
the family pitbulls for more information about women behind bars go to www.wetv.com
on october 3rd 2005 two and a half-year-old jonathan martin was mauled to death in his home in suffolk virginia
words cannot describe the the mutilation of this child although the killer was an abused pit bull
the toddler's parents james martin and heather frango were at home at the time of their
child's gruesome death jonathan had over 100 bite marks on his body his scalp had been ripped off and his
ears had been ripped off it was just horrible absolutely horrible was heather frango a negligent mother or
was she unfairly blamed for an unforeseeable accident [Music] heather frango was born the only child
of sandra and stephen grenell's heather's cousin alice connor remembers their childhood together
she'd spend a lot of time at my house she could be very funny very outgoing very generous at times
wanting to please other relatives describe heather as a drama queen who always exaggerated a situation for
her own benefit but according to her cousin alice heather just wanted to be loved i think
she felt lonely and left out sometimes heather's loneliness may have stemmed from a
turbulent family life relatives say her mother was separated from her father a month before she was
born heather had a hard time with growing up in her early teens heather met james
martin a construction worker who lived in the chesapeake area he was four years older than her used to
go crabbing have fun go out to water parks although james maintained a close friendship with
heather at 20 she decided to marry james franco a furniture delivery driver but a year later they separated her mom
wouldn't let her stay with her heather didn't have nowhere to go so she ended up moving in with me
they lived together for two years when james was fined for keeping several pit bulls without a city license or proper
vaccinations i grew up with pit bulls my whole life we always had footballs around our house
four or five dogs around our house despite his brush with the law james continued to raise several different pit
bulls as pets in the summer of 2002 heather became pregnant she was talking about where now she should have
an abortion i told her you have an abortion pack your stuff and leave now i was worried when heather got pregnant
to be honest i wasn't sure she was ready to be a mother there was information that she might have suffered
from some mental disorder she told me that she was bipolar heather was 23 when her son jonathan was
born on january 4th 2003 i went there to the hospital and he's beautiful soon after heather
delivered another son named daniel connor she continued to live with james martin
who supported her and their children on his pay as a construction worker james martin was working as a framer
earning at least 18 dollars an hour heather franco did not work she relied on james martin for her
support i think that's the way she wanted it from family and friends we heard stories that she was not
necessarily the best mother police said both heather and james were also known to smoke
pot on a daily basis he supposedly was using a lot of the money that he made to buy drugs he grew marijuana
he sold marijuana in the winter of 2004 heather james and their two sons moved into a home off a
busy highway in suffolk virginia once a passerby drove past the house and saw little jonathan
out by the road and no parent was in sight she definitely was not watching that child according to relatives
james and heather often argued over the children sometimes the arguments would even turn physical
they would hit each other in front of their children i didn't beat her she would get very mad and want to try
and fight me and i would restrain her to keep from fighting the couple often fought over james's pit
bulls named ox and little girl whom he had chained in the backyard heather had indicated that
she was frightened of those dogs and she was so afraid of them she didn't want to
go out back to hang up laundry in fact one of them had at one point bit jonathan there wasn't no marks or
anything so i figured just nipped him or something not a big deal at that point to me the
suffolk police department compiled information showing that the dogs had a history
of growling at people they had a history of biting individuals a neighbor had been
bitten by ox the male pit bull both parents were informed of that james said sometimes the children would play
with the dogs there were some allegations that james martin had these dogs to protect his marijuana he was growing
marijuana in a field in the back of his house they tried to say that i had dogs to
protect a marijuana cop that's crazy sandra o'connor the mother of heather franco did tell me that
she along with heather her daughter had told james to get rid of those dogs numerous
times because how they hated the dogs in august 2004 alice connor became concerned that the
continual mistreatment of james's dogs could have serious consequences for the children so she visited her cousin
heather alice noticed that the dogs were chained in the backyard in the blazing sun
they were tied to the tree chained with no water in the bowl and the food was just out of reach in his
truck bed they did have it but they couldn't reach it and the collars were embedded in the neck
tethering for long periods of time is a bad thing for an animal and a bad thing for the family there is sort of an urban
myth out there that the pit bull just by nature is an innately aggressive dog towards
humans and other animals if you have people breeding them for illegal activity then obviously they are going to focus
on those behaviors and those tendencies that would be the exactly the opposite of what we'd want in a pet
one year later on the eve of october 2nd 2005 james martin and heather frango tucked
their kids into bed upstairs james brought the pit bulls into the house and allowed them to sleep in a
room off the kitchen downstairs put the kids to bed i fed the dogs i put my mail
in a blocked off room with a female because there was a little puppies and i put him in the cage heather and
james then smoked marijuana in their bedroom and went to sleep at 6 30 the following
morning according to heather both sons climbed into bed with a couple as they usually did the younger son
daniel slept beside james while the older one jonathan was next to heather about an hour later
jonathan told his mother he had to go to the bathroom which was located downstairs
he got out of bed and wandered down the steps i heard like a loud thump rolled over my
younger son was up under me but jonathan wasn't in the bed so i will cut her up sorry to go check on jonathan
i'd be up in a second so she went downstairs the next thing i heard she was screaming heather called 911
calm down i go downstairs she's in the room floor just screaming i started looking for
jonathan i find him in the room where the dogs were and i picked him up and he was still
responding to me and i said it's daddy johnson when women behind bars continues he was
screaming at the top of his lungs and the two people he was most likely screaming for were his mommy and his
daddy and they were nowhere to be found on a crisp october night in 2005 james martin had allowed his two
pitbulls and litter of puppies to sleep in the house that he shared with heather franco and their two
children the next morning their two and a half year old son jonathan wandered downstairs alone
to go to the bathroom and get a bowl of cereal when the unthinkable happened the pit bulls savagely attacked
little jonathan his ears were removed his scalp was removed he had over 100 bite marks to his body
detective jon jones was called to investigate the attack after police received a frantic 9-1-1
call from heather frango she was saying something to the about her dog attacking her son and she was going to
kill the dog by the time jones got to the house an ambulance had already taken the
severely bleeding child to a nearby helicopter he was flown to a local hospital where
his parents met with doctors jonathan was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at the hospital
the cause of death was excessive internal bleeding i walked out when i saw a curve
trying not to lose my head temporary custody of james and heather's younger son 20 month old daniel connor was given to
heather's aunt and uncle while the couple mourned their son jonathan's death detectives began their
investigation into murder charges against the parents he was mauled to death by two pit bulls
in his home while his parents were also in the home it was a situation where someone needs to be held accountable we
had to prove child neglect in this case which is very difficult to do detective jones began his
investigation by thoroughly looking over the house where the attack took place he noticed one of the puppies in the
litter was dead he wondered if it was sick or if it had been killed in the attack
he also saw there were homemade ineffective child protection barriers in a home that was uninhabitable for
children the house had rats was unsanitary and dangerous after jonathan's death the city
condemned it there was a small board that they were using as a baby gate a barrier between the kitchen
in this room where the attack occurred and it was according to james jonathan had been known to climb over it
so it really wasn't serving any purpose but there was blood up and down all the way to the top of
this board and across the board and including the walls that were adjacent to this board
to me as an investigator it appeared as though that this boy was literally at one point probably in
the jaws of this pit bull and this dog was slinging this boy all over this room a bite expert who examined both dogs and
jonathan's body found the male dog ox was probably the dog who caused the boy's death
in order to have a strong case investigators needed to prove that the owners were aware that the pit bulls had
a history of being aggressive the suffolk police department began their investigation by interviewing
neighbors by interviewing the family members and they compiled information showing that
the dogs had a history of growling at people they had a history of biting individuals a neighbor had been
bitten by ox the male pit bull both parents were informed of that but investigators could only speculate as to
what set off the pit bulls leading to their attack on jonathan were they hungry when they saw jonathan with
a bowl of cereal or as james martin believes were the dogs protecting one of their own
there was one puppy missing from the litter i think my son went down there played with a puppy i
imagined the puppy yelp and the dog had attacked him out of protection over the puppies
two months after jonathan's death police arrested james martin and heather frango
they were charged with second-degree murder involuntary manslaughter and child neglect
heather says she felt and still feels anger hurt and disappointment towards james
and herself their case was the first in the country in which parents were charged with
murder and connection with a family dog attack james was also charged with drug possession since he had marijuana on him
when police picked him up one of the most remarkable things that stood out to me when i read the autopsy
report was that this child's throat and larynx were still intact which indicated that he was screaming at
the top of his lungs and the two people he was most likely screaming for were his mommy and his
daddy and they were nowhere to be found what was still a mystery to investigators was how neither parent
came to jonathan's rescue but while awaiting trial in jail heather and her boyfriend confessed to some
inmates as to why they did not hear their son the information we had from the two inmates was that
they were smoking marijuana at the time the attack occurred they had shut the door and were taking
hits off of the bomb weed had nothing to do with this happening nothing on may 15 2006
seven months after little jonathan's death heather and james pled guilty to child neglect and involuntary
manslaughter in exchange the state dropped the second-degree murder charge against them
they faced 20 years in prison on august 28th heather and james were sentenced to only
three years in prison with james getting an additional six months for a previous hit-and-run crash
heather now says she believes god has a purpose for her but at the time of the sentencing she
was distraught he had a friend go after she was sentenced she was running down the hallways
screaming their sentences caused an outcry by the public newspaper columnist tamara dietrich
wrote about the case they faced originally 60 years and then when they pleaded out they faced 20 and
they were given three and even at that time family members of franklin martin thought that was unfair there were many
people in the community myself included who thought that was hardly enough nothing they could do to me is going to
even touch that burden of my son's death ain't never going away alice connor believes the best gift she
could leave in memory of jonathan is this public service announcement it was sponsored by the people for the
ethical treatment of animals peta on the mistreatment of dogs chain dogs are three times more likely
to attack people because they don't get the companionship and exercise they need
and crave heather is incarcerated at the fluvana women's correctional center near
charlottesville virginia she is currently scheduled to get out a month before james in june 2009
she says she will always love james but most of all heather says she misses jonathan every
second of every day and thinks the point of her life has diminished [Music] [Music]
today james martin is at the lunenburg correctional center in victoria virginia he feels he can never forgive himself
for his son's death and commemorates him with a tattoo over his heart and one on his arm
picture of my son close to my heart two hearts me and heather with our sons names on our hearts
we're all locked together through time their younger son daniel connor remains in the custody of
heather's aunt and uncle both parents phone him and in march 2008 heather's aunt took him to
see heather in prison where he's living at he's in a good environment taken care of james
is scheduled to leave prison in july 2009 i have all plans of us being married there won't be no more animals in my
house or on my property none i don't want none but i don't think so much she would
want kids after this we both feel that way you

Brief Summary

Jackie Alexander murders her roommate, Heather Frango's pit bull kills her son; both face severe consequences for their actions.

Key points

The Murder of Thomas Hammond. On June 14, 1998, police discovered the gruesome murder of Thomas Hammond in Kannapolis, North Carolina. The violence inflicted was described as the worst the officer had seen in 27 years.
Jackie's Troubled Childhood. Jackie Alexander grew up in a violent environment, facing abuse and turmoil from a young age. Her struggles shaped her aggressive behavior and led to a troubled life.
The Fatal Encounter. On the night of the murder, Jackie and Thomas had a heated argument that escalated into violence, resulting in Thomas's death. Jackie grabbed scissors and stabbed him during the altercation.
Jackie's Verdict. After two weeks of testimony, Jackie was found guilty of murder.
Life in Prison. Jackie is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Tragic Death of Jonathan. Two-year-old Jonathan Martin was mauled to death by family pit bulls.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just couldn't believe it.

A police officer reflecting on the murder scene.

1:54WatchJan 12, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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