Women Behind Bars - Season 2, Episode 4 - Deborah and Gena - Full Episode | Forensic Files

on this episode of women behind bars one woman is convicted of fatally shooting her ex-husband
in a dangerous game of one-upmanship in which he videotaped their encounters i'm upset because the weakest thing is
he took the knife and he went to plunge it into me i got a whole little weapon that was
behind me then gina shaughnessy tells her story she allegedly took part in the stabbing
death of her estranged husband they told me if i would put myself on video and talk about this
they would let me go home the evidence against gina is pretty scant is based on her own confession and
given her diminished capacity and the circumstances that that confession was taken
i feel the confession is not reliable i don't think justice was served two women
two brutal crimes these are the stories of deborah roll and gina shaughnessy [Music]
on the night of march 4th 1999 deborah roll a technician at the local veterans hospital shot and killed her ex-husband
alan aganovic as their young daughters played in an adjoining room we heard the shot and then we all just
ran into the room and we just saw him laying on the floor police questioned role who showed them a
small knife wound and claimed she acted in self-defense he was there with his knife in his hand
and he was taunting a knife calling me every name it was she gave a statement indicating self-defense
and the physical evidence just did not agree with that if a lot more stuff was heard as far as the
verbal and the physical abuse that she suffered and the abuse that took place with her child
i don't think she'd be sitting there now did deborah roll defend herself from an
abusive husband or did she plot to kill in cold blood [Music] deborah was born into a large family one
of 12 children so many kids in the house with my parents i used to always say that gosh if i was
the only child i can have more attention from mom and dad her father was a maintenance worker
her mother a nurse's aide both worked full time with her father taking second jobs to
support the children we knew that they loved us my dad always kept food on the table and
christmas time we had toys i just wanted to get away from home because there was so many people in the
house seeking her independence debra joined the army when i was in the military they had courses you could take college
courses debra wanted a different kind of life than the one she knew growing up in
miami after being discharged from the army she earned an associate's degree in computers in 1988
but she dreamt of a career in nursing when she re-enlisted in the military i always wanted to be a traveling nurse
but when i joined the military instead i was in the communications so i didn't really complete everything
the way i wanted to because i involved myself with other things after deborah left the army
she began dating and fell hard for men she found physically attractive she admits she was not assertive enough
when it came to how these men treated her for the most part when i fell in love i'd have to be with that
handsome guy and not realizing the heart you know what's in the heart of that person by
1991 debra had two children with different fathers deborah's son lived with his dad
she had custody of her daughter i think that her problem was just finding somebody to truly love her the
way she should have been loved that year friends introduced deborah to allen aganovic
a bosnian refugee in the roofing business at the time allen was dating another woman deborah did not like the way she
saw alan being treated he was this loving person and i used to get angry with her because i say you
know why you talk to him that way you know eventually their friendship turned into a romance
we went to have a little cookout at the park i had my daughter with me and he picked her up and he gave her
this this big hug when he put her down he took my hand and he looked me in my face and he said
you know something i think i'm falling in love with you she called me and told me that she had
met someone and i said well you know you just got out of a divorce and you need to take
your time i guess i liked the fact that he was like myself looking for affection looking for love
in 1992 the couple learned deborah was pregnant they were married on august 27 and had
their daughter in december it wasn't like we got married at a setting with a church
we got married and went to live in a forest deborah and allen rented a secluded mobile home in the ocala national forest
by 1994 after the birth of their second daughter the couple's religious differences began
to weigh on their marriage i say you need to know the real god the god in heaven
this is where our big conflict came deborah also found the woods too isolating and disliked being left alone
with the children for long stretches at a time she says she confronted alan and their
conflicts began to escalate abuse came in when i started questioning him more about his work hours but it wasn't
only alan's long work days that disturbed deborah when i had asked him about his drinking
he started cursing me he apologized but yes later it happened again and then following that was the punches
the beatings [Music] by 1995 deborah started to skim money from allen's weekly pay
while her eldest daughter was in school debra drove out of the forest to look for full-time work
but she always returned [Music] she was doing everything to keep that marriage intact
even sit there and put up with the verbal abuse after it started to get physical and
probably most importantly after he started calling her stupid in front of the kids
that's where she said that's it debra's friends rented her a u-haul truck and helped her
pack you're not going to be with this man no more this man he's no good for you you getting out of here we packing you
up today allen returned home as deborah was leaving my friend was saying get in the car
go so i got in the car and i never felt so free in all my life when women behind bars continues i
didn't know i hit him he grabbed a hold of a weapon and my finger was still on the trigger
in 1995 debra roll a member of the united states military left her allegedly abusive husband allen
aganovic and moved with her daughters to west palm beach florida she started working as a nursing
technician at the veterans hospital and made new friends she worked nights in our work days
and we became very close deborah was a good mother of nurturing mother debra hired a babysitter to stay with
the girls overnight while she worked at the hospital but her daughters wanted to see their
father i was talking to her and i said you don't need to go back so she said but
the girls are asking for him all the time after a month or so deborah called him i
eventually let him come to my house and from there everything was starting off well
i let him move into my place in 1996 the family moved into a two-bedroom house on spruce avenue in
west palm beach it was okay for a while a few months after that he started back his old ways his
lateness his drinking and his verbal abuse style in 1997 the couple separated again
this time for good debra stayed in the house and allen moved down the street they shared visits with the girls but
deborah began to file court motions against alan she says she felt that he lived close by
to torment her but it was alan's behavior towards her three-year-old daughter that deborah says concerned her the most
one afternoon when i was going to watch my baby girl she was in a state of fright and
did not want me to touch her i picked her up and i set her on my lap and she told me
what her dad do to her i think that's the day when i literally lost my mind deborah took her daughter to the
emergency room while doctors examined her debra called alan he denied everything
he said he never touched her and he would never do something like that to her but deborah didn't believe him and their
fights worsened allen then began videotaping his front door when debra would go to his house to
drop off the children during the time of the divorce he was so afraid of all the allegations she was
making that he set up a video in his home where when the doorbell rang the video went on and it would record
whatever conversations were had between him and whoever was at the door we're putting our socks on please don't
ring so we have the video taking everything because he know he's going to catch me
on camera my action on camera but the tables turned and debra believes allen was abusing one of her daughters
today that little girl is a teenager he would beat me pretty often i was only like three or
four i went over one weekend and she said auntie she said my daddy whoop me and i
say where and she pointed at our private area in family court debra filed allegations
of abuse florida's department of children and families or dcf interviewed the couple they saw that i
was together deborah was fussy they had a hard time dealing with her the children were happy to see me when i
got there and pretty much flung to me and would not go to denver at all and these people saw that
according to allen's statement on his video recording in april 1998 the dcf contacted him about the
possibility of taking full custody of the children they also recommended that debra be
prosecuted for bringing false charges of child abuse against him they didn't believe me they say i was
coaching my daughter by summer authorities recommended that full custody of the children be given to
allen when officials questioned the girls about the alleged abuse their stories differed from what deborah
claimed at least one of the girls told a detective at the west palm beach police
department that mom was making them say that and nothing had happened debra had documentation of medical exams
from multiple emergency room visits but it was not enough to support her claims doctors testified about the well-being
of the children and the physical evidence that was not there that would have indicated that he
was sexually abusing the girls it appeared deborah was losing her fight for the girls
she tried picketing the court nothing changed but there was one bright spot in deborah's life her blossoming
relationship with 40 year old john cahill a retired sheriff's deputy who met debra
while undergoing cancer treatment at the hospital she was taking my vital signs and i
asked her if i could take her out to dinner and we started dating for a while and started seeing each other steadily
on january 31st 1999 the divorce between deborah and allen became final the court granted allen the house and
custody of their children deborah was ordered to pay allen 416 a month in child support and was allowed
supervised visitations with her daughters deborah says it was alan who contacted
her a few weeks later to arrange a visit the state did not believe her story after this order where allen gets the
house and the kids and child support she suddenly out of the blue calls him and invites him over
with the children to open christmas presents it's the state's belief that that was in effect to commit that
murder so that she could get the children and she wouldn't have to pay him and would
get the house back if he was no longer in the picture it was march 3rd 1999 and deborah had
not given the girls christmas gifts she left the christmas tree up in anticipation of a reunion
had him to come over to the house so it was time to leave he said that he'd like to come back
again for the girls and i said okay i understand he asked to come over the second night
and that's when it hit the fan on the evening of march 4th 1999 six weeks after their divorce was
final allen brought the girls to deborah for a second time he got up out of his chair and came over
to me and asked me if i had a photo of all three of the girls together deborah says allen then went into the
room where the girls were playing a video game she went to the bedroom to get a photo
album i went and took the album out and i set it on my bed so i went in a closet again i went to
search for some other pictures when i turned allen was still with this knife in his hand and he was taunting a
knife calling me every name there was he took the knife and he went to plunge it into me i
pushed him when he lost his balance i got a whole little weapon that was behind me
john cahill had let debra borrow the gun a few days earlier to scare off an ex-boyfriend she said had been stalking
her it was unloaded when i gave it to her it was in a bag with two speed loaders
i didn't know i hit him because he still had strength to move he grabbed a hole in a weapon
and my finger was still on the trigger at that moment my oldest daughter i felt her on me screaming i remember i
thought it was like a balloon pop next thing i know he just dropped and i saw that one bullet hit him
deborah's daughter recalls what happened next she was four years old at the time
we were all playing video games and we heard the shot and we just saw him laying on the floor
deborah called 911 went into the house debra was taken to a nearby hospital her wound was described as superficial
they treated her one centimeter cut and released her into police custody i got a phone call here it was the
detective telling me that he had my sister down at the station because there's been a murder i was in shock
i knew that deborah was not a murderer when women behind bars continues here she was describing this
horrible attack on herself and yet she calmly recited the facts as she had set them
out and later a cognitively impaired woman allegedly kills her estranged husband
she never asked us what it was all about never asked us where we were going even if you hated your ex-spouse you'd
be mildly curious as to how they got killed if she doesn't ask that means she knows
on april 19 1999 six weeks after deborah roll shot and killed her estranged husband
allen aganovic she was arrested and charged with first-degree murder i believe that it was self-defense
but i know that whatever happened it wasn't premeditated the state would eventually appoint four
different attorneys to represent deborah roll fred cecineck was one of them he was
appointed in june 1999. she had this feeling that i wasn't on her side i wasn't there to represent her
she thought that he could do houdini you know like get her out overnight and it didn't work that way she
had very much what i described as rage against the system mr cysnick he was a good lawyer but
deborah was impatient that's one of her problems she's impatient i was too wanting to be with my girls
wanting to get out wanting to be home she wanted a speedy trial and we weren't ready for speedy trial
we had to talk to all the witnesses and prepare the case she was looking at spending life in prison
[Music] strategy in preparing for trial was to go through each piece of evidence and
find where it did not fit with the story she had given of of self-defense by 2000 debra grew
impatient with fred cessnick in april she asked for the court to appoint her new counsel
i wasn't going at her pace so she let him go i believe if she had stuck with mr susnick
she wouldn't be sitting in prison right now deborah roll's statement was to the effect that
she was acting in self-defense because alan pulled a knife on her and tried to stab her
so she reached around got a gun and he grabbed the gun and the gun went off by accident as she was defending herself
when the case went to trial the prosecution claimed that the evidence at the scene did not match deborah's
story had that actually happened there would have been gunpowder residue and stippling on his
hand and he found no evidence of that during the autopsy deborah testified that allen contacted
her to arrange to meet but the prosecution convinced the jury otherwise according to the testimony of witnesses
interviewed deborah actually called alan several days before his homicide and invited him over to open the presents
and they went on record saying that they encouraged him not to go because this was such an unusual event for her
suddenly to be nice when the divorce had only become final there were other problems with
deborah's account allen was right-handed and the knife he allegedly used to stab her was found
near his left hand her fingerprints were found on the knife blade her wound and clothing holes
did not match up the puncture through the clothing was in a different direction and angle
and in a different placement on her body than where the stab was and then there were the photo albums
placed on the bed she also said that she was holding some photo albums when she turned and grabbed the gun but
the crime scene pictures show those photo albums sitting on the pillow at the other end
of the room stacked neatly not like they were dropped on the floor when she was surprised by this knife
i was told not to get up on a stand but i insisted to my attorney i want to take a
stand it was deborah's conduct on the stand that the prosecution believed convinced
the jury she did not act in self-defense [Music] when deborah rule testified it was my
impression and i felt the jury saw that she had no affect here she was describing this
horrible attack on herself and yet she just calmly recited the facts as she had set
them out i was told how my action should be i shouldn't i shouldn't show emotions don't say this
don't say that [Music] the jury returned with a verdict they came out and they said um instead of
first degree murder second degree second-degree murder is more hot blood something that happens at the
spur at the moment so apparently the jury did not think there was sufficient evidence to find that she had planned it
ahead of time but that in fact she did do this act and murdering him out of spite or ill will
i was satisfied with the verdict and i know the family was too they felt that she had planned to murder
alan but the finding of second-degree murder still made them feel that justice had been done in this case
deborah appealed but a second judge upheld the ruling she is serving her sentence at the
homestead correctional facility in south florida they have church seminars they assign a job so that keeps me going
some of the girls need counseling and they may call me debra who corresponds with her daughters
says she does not want them to repeat the mistakes she made one thing i teach my girls if you have a
man and that man is around you and he's using all kind of dirty language around you
don't be with them because when they're like that they can be physically abusive and they
will according to debra's daughters who now live with her sister stephanie this incident has shaped their lives
i think it's actually made me a better person i appreciate life more than most people
do because i realize that there are people who go through really bad things deborah is hopeful that her girls will
follow a different path i don't want him to go through what i've went through i hope one day that i'm out
to be with him and spend the time that i've missed over the years next up on women behind bars someone was
awfully mad at him and wanted him dead there was not nothing in my mind of killing him or
wish he was dead nothing like that for more information about women behind bars go to www.wetv.com
a few miles outside of downtown chicago lies the quiet working-class neighborhood of canaryville
it was here on october 12 2003 that the body of rick shaughnessy a 45 year old pizza delivery driver was found
in an alley he had been stabbed 17 times someone was awfully mad at him and wanted him dead
because of the amount of stab wounds we didn't believe at any point that it was a robbery
we generally see that in domestic incidents detectives discovered that the victim
was in the process of getting divorced from his cognitively impaired wife gina shaughnessy she and her boyfriend
james gusich quickly became suspects and were arrested i didn't have nothing to do with that
yeah we had our ups and downs but there was nothing in my mind of killing him or
wish he was dead nothing like that gina first claimed that she committed the murder herself
but then changed her story putting the blame on goosage james he wouldn't have done this on his
own without gina this doesn't happen was gina shaughnessy falsely blamed for the actions of a
jealous lover or was she despite her alleged learning impairments the mastermind behind a brutal and
calculated murder gina shaughnessy was born to raleigh and zita mcgee and was the eldest of three daughters
her father was a truck driver who moved the family to chicago when gina was three
they settled in the working-class neighborhood of canaryville on chicago's south side
the neighborhood i grew up in it was fantastic and we went camping and we went on
vacation every year we own four wheels and third bike we go and ride those like crazy the
girls often played together from an early age it was clear gina was different than her sisters
gina was a special ed student in school always had trouble learning you know just seemed really hard for her
to pick up on things gina was barely literate her family members and gina herself said she had
trouble reading and that was obvious it was obvious even speaking to her her teacher wrote us a note home
does gina talk do we have to send her somewhere to find out if she can speak and no when
gina got home i mean she was all mouth all the time you know just the way a normal kid would be
in fact gina's family says that gina functioned fairly normally except when it came to school
but dolores barrett who grew up across the street from gina had a different impression
gina never really had any friends i never seen her with friends and the only people i ever seen her with was her
sisters they never interacted with other people despite her scholastic difficulties gina
graduated high school not long after her senior year she married and had her first son
james but the marriage ended in divorce when gina returned to her parents home in canaryville she had a brief
relationship which left her with a second child then in july of 1998 another man came into gina's life brick
shaughnessy i was outside smoking stairs sitting on the front porch and here comes rick
so we talked and everything and um he called me that night the relationship was good while we were
going together dating i thought you know he's going to be a great man he's going to support my
family my kids you know and give them what they want about three months later gina moved with rick into the house he
shared with his brother michael i was pregnant when i moved in with rick about six months later we got married
gina and rick married at the courthouse and everybody went back to their home in
oak forest afterward for a celebration i do think they were happy you know who is that
when they get married by 2002 gina had two sons with rick making her a mother of four
despite her cognitive impairment gina did her best to raise her children but according to ruthie rick's brother
michael brought chaos into gina's fragile world his brother lived at the home with them
he was heavily into drugs rick was supporting his brother's habits and always tried to meet all of his demands
money for drugs and run here for drugs and you know just get me some but gina claims rick had his own
substance abuse problems he went back to drinking real heavy and then constantly hitting on me
punching me and there was one time he put a gun in my head i was laying down my room and something
told me turn around and he had a gun he was getting ready to [ __ ] it i ran out of the house i grabbed james
and i ran out of the house i started coming back in the house to get rid of that gun
the day of kenneth's accident gina had left to go to work she didn't drive so her husband rick had to drive her
according to gina rick's brother was at home with the baby the baby's on the ground crawling around
he went over to the mop book and was playing in the water i suppose and got too far deep into it and was
found upside down in the mop bucket when rickshaws ride back home ten-month-old baby kenneth was rushed to
the hospital he was on life support and in a coma they ran tests and monitored him and there was no hope of
life there was no chance for him i mean there's four doctors looked at him and he says no finally rick changed his
mind we pulled him up for life support gina was beside herself when her baby was buried two weeks later
after the baby died that's when i went on drugs real happy i was in so much pain nothing could help
me so i decided to go on drugs i really look at it as she went to work one day and her life just turned upside down
the department of child and family services took gina's remaining children into their custody
gina separated from rick and filed for divorce i wasn't worried about my kids my kids
was in good hands and everything so now i just had to worry about me get me a place to stay
in and go back with my life beth meiner was one of gina's public defenders at her trial
up until that point time gina had been living a law-abiding average american life after
the death of her child she just couldn't cope with that she turned to alcohol and drugs
she just really wasn't coping very well while in the process of divorcing her husband rick gina began dating his
friend thirty-nine-year-old james gusich gusich was a high school dropout awaiting trial on a burglary charge
nonetheless gina felt she could open up to him about rick's alleged abuse he was in the drugs real bad i was
already on drugs before i met him i could talk to him one-on-one i told him what i went through a wreck
and went to baby and he cried and he holds me and he says i'll try to help you out much as i could
james rented a room not far from where gina had grown up gina soon moved in but continued to
maintain contact with rick i tried talking you know we could be friends but it's completely over
despite the mounting discord between them gina was with rick the night he was killed i met up with
rick around seven o'clock in the evening we were delivering pizza and i left him
at 9 30 in the evening that's the last time i seen him according to gina's statement to the
police they argued over the impending divorce and child custody with rick threatening to kill gina and
kidnap their son gina left rick and went home i was laying in bed and watching tv
there was hardly nothing on so i say about 10 11 o'clock i went to sleep the next morning
when i was in the shower that's when they told me they found him stabbed up in the alley we're in the
5300 block of south union in chicago this is the area in which richard shaughnessy's body was dumped
this neighborhood is mostly inhabited by blacks richard shaughnessy lived approximately
15 blocks north of here and that neighborhood is mostly inhabited by whites and hispanics
we believe that his body was dumped here to give the impression to the police that possibly he was a victim of a
robbery by black offenders when women behind bars continues they show the picture of rick being
stabbed so many times you know and i couldn't believe it in 2003 gina shaughnessy a 35 year old
woman with an alleged learning disability whose children were in the care of the
department of family services was living with her boyfriend james goosage [Music]
on october 12th police found her estranged husband's body in an alley detective michael hughes was
assigned to the case when we examined the body we found multiple stab wounds in the sweatshirt the outer clothing and
the body was missing one shoe the socks were actually clean which would indicate to us
that the body was placed there or dumped there no identification although there was
money in the pocket which would then lead us that it really wasn't robbery there's some other motive for why he
ended up where he was fingerprints identified the body as rick shaughnessy we talked to the people that rented him
his room and we learned that after she had gotten off work gina came by they had a conversation for
a little period and he and gina drove away they also told us where gina was living
we went over to the house and picked her up gina was taken to the area one police
department for questioning she never asked us what it was all about never asked us where we were going
even if you hated your ex-spouse you'd be mildly curious as to how they got killed if she doesn't ask that
means she knows i did not know if i was arrested i did not know i would go home i did not know
nothing they didn't tell me nothing so i was just stuck there after placing gina under arrest
detectives returned to the house where she had been living and arrested her boyfriend
james goosage we learned that she was attempting to get a divorce from her husband
and after she gave her initial statement we asked her about that when we asked her about it she told us
that yes she stabbed her husband she said that he's threatened her in the past and in that particular night
he threatened her also an argument escalated to the point where she stabbed him several times
gusich admitted that he had helped gina get rid of the body and he took detectives to where he had
parked the car there was quite a bit of blood on the seats and you could see that apparently there
was a struggle there more than 30 hours after gina's arrest the state's attorney came to the area
one police department the state's attorney had written out a statement gina did not write it herself
and they had her sign the statement around midnight and october 14th she didn't read
very well didn't write well at all so i am not convinced that she would have read a handwritten statement that
was many pages written out by a state's attorney gina claims she did not understand what
she was signing when they wrote the statement they wanted me to read and i says i can't
this is why i says i can't read [Music] i got a learning disorder they says oh just sign it
we put the words down what you said so i never knew what that statement said i spoke with gina and explained to her
that she was going to be charged with the murder of her husband according to detective katz once gina
realized she was going to be charged with murder she switched her story she said to me
i didn't do it james did it i didn't want to tell you because he did it for me detectives gave gina a polygraph test to
make sure she was telling the truth this time she passed and then gave a videotaped
statement where she confessed to planning the murder they told me if i would put myself on
video and talk about this they would let me go home yes i told totem about a week ago i told
him i wish brick was dead because i'm getting tired of threats and he's put my kid in danger okay did
you say i told him i told him if i have to pay somebody i'll pay somebody and jim told
me not to worry about he'll take care of it gusich also gave a statement to police
describing how gina had been threatened repeatedly by her husband rick he told police that gina arranged for
rick to give him a ride to buy drugs they drove one mile south into a predominantly black neighborhood
gooseich then took out a knife threatened rick and began stabbing him when rick pulled
out his own knife there was a fight and they were both defending themselves and unfortunately
rick shaughnessy got the worst of it goosage left rick's body in the alley detectives had already recovered rick's
car goosick now led them to the murder weapon [Music] they thought if she actually lured rick
to james gossage and convinced rick to give james a ride that was aiding and abetting
the murder and you are charged the same way as the person who actually did it gina was taken to cook county jail to
await trial [Music] both james and gina had pled not guilty to all of the charges
as the case progressed on james changed his plea from not guilty to guilty he was offered
a reduced charge of second-degree murder which carries substantially less time than first degree murder
and he decided to plead guilty to that james guzich was sentenced to 20 years in an illinois penitentiary
with time off for good behavior he could serve around 10 years [Music] gina was made a similar offer for a
lesser charge and their offer was for the minimum of 15 years roughly she'd be serving around
12 and a half years on that sentence i was not going to take one bit of guilty because i know i was
not there i didn't have nothing to do with it there was nothing in my mind of killing
him or wish he was that nothing like that i don't think that gina even has enough smarts to put something
like that together two years after her initial arrest gina underwent a mental examination to
determine if she was fit to stand trial the numbers in the testing fell between mildly mentally [ __ ]
and borderline intellectual functioning so she had true intellectual deficits despite those deficits gina was found
mentally fit to stand trial and on june 6 2006 her trial began our argument to the jury was that she
was not there she was not the person who stabbed rick shaughnessy the only evidence they had against her
were these two contradictory statements one saying that gina was the one who actually committed the murder
and then one where she is setting it up we were hoping that the jury would say not guilty they showed the picture break
being stabbed so many times you know and i couldn't believe it i couldn't believe it
[Music] they have no evidence on me nothing so i don't know why the the juries found
me guilty that it's not fair i think he used gina he got what he spent all her money for
drugs and got her involved in drugs and you know he committed a crime and uh she's she's suffering for it
when the judge sentenced gina to 35 years in the illinois department of corrections
that means 35 years there's no time off for good behavior means that she'll be getting out when
she's 70. gina was transferred to a maximum security prison an hour outside of chicago i was definitely
scared so when i got here i say to myself i say my wrong i just stand soon after she was sentenced gina filed
an appeal pamela leming is the public defender handling her case the evidence against gina is pretty
scant is based on her own confession and given her diminished capacity and the circumstances that that confession was
taken i feel the confession is not reliable i don't think justice was served detective katz strongly disagrees
i don't think the sentence is enough she had every intention of doing this he was for all intents and purposes he
was he was walking dead and he did not know it she had no motive i mean she lived in a house full of
people and not one of them will tell you today that she wanted her husband dead not one of them after five years in
prison gina is beginning to interact with other inmates i just take it day by day i read my
bible i do bible studies i go to church gina maintains her innocence and is continuing her appeal i know i
wasn't guilty so i'm a fight to the end i ain't giving up i'm still fighting you

Brief Summary

Deborah Roll and Gina Shaughnessy face murder charges after deadly confrontations with their estranged husbands, revealing complex histories of abuse and legal battles.

Key points

Gina Shaughnessy's Confession. Gina's confession is questioned as unreliable due to her mental state.
Deborah Roll's Story. Deborah Roll shot her estranged husband in a moment of conflict. Was it self-defense?
The Night of the Shooting. On March 4, 1999, Deborah shot her husband during a violent confrontation.
Trial and Verdict. Deborah's trial ends with a second-degree murder verdict, not first-degree as charged.
Debra's Lessons for Her Daughters. Debra teaches her daughters to avoid abusive relationships and appreciate life.
The Murder of Rick Shaughnessy. Rick Shaughnessy is found murdered, leading to a complex investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I feel the confession is not reliable.

Gina expresses doubt about her own confession.

0:52WatchJan 12, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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