Transcript of Johnetta Hall

A hardworking army veteran is shot dead with no witnesses. The man's laying on the ground in the middle of a driveway. I think he's dead.

This was a complete whodunit. Your instant gut feeling is this is going to be a tough one.

But the victim's sons are convinced they know exactly who's to blame.

She was hoping he would die in the hospital. We go back over there and all his 100,000 pieces worth of NASCARs and Hot wheels. Everything was gone. And there's animal species everywhere through the whole house.

The urine smell was so strong, she was going to make sure it was unlivable.

When investigators finally uncover the truth, it reveals a plot even more bizarre.

He told detectives that he was a trained assassin. And what were you supposed to get out of this?

A lot of money.

She wanted to make sure that she got what she felt like was owed to her.

In Southern Indiana, residents of Scott County enjoy a peaceful lifestyle.

It's a rural community that's made up of a lot of hardworking, blue collar citizens.

It's got a small town feel all the way around. Everybody knows everybody.

But on September 27th, 2015, that sense of security is disrupted by an alarming 911 call.

Please help me. What's the problem?

The man's laying on the ground in the middle of the driveway. I think he's dead. The caller, Leo Butera, says he's a mechanic who came to the house to work on a car.

I'm not going to touch him with nothing.

I'm not going to even open the gate. All right, I'll get an EMS and Sheriff and rep.

When first responders arrived to the scene, there was a gravel driveway that led back off of the road behind another residence.

I saw a man lying behind a gate. There was blood coming out of his nose and around his mouth. As I approached, I knew immediately that something was not right. I waved my hand over the top of his eyes. I saw no movement in the pupils. And upon further investigation, I could see that there was a hole in the side of his temple. I checked for a pulse and didn't get a pulse, and I was able to ascertain at that moment that he was obviously deceased. In the collar, Leonard Butera was standing there explaining to them what he seemed. He believed that subject to be Bill Reynolds because Leonard was a friend of his.

He was able to tell first responders who Mr. Reynolds was and who his family members were so that contact could be made with them.

On a call like this, you can never determine immediately if it's a self-inflicted gunshot wound or not. In this case, the location of the wound, it was a toss-up. Crime scene tech from the Indiana State Police was summonsed. He had moved the body to see if there was a gun underneath. There There was no gun, no shell-casing, nothing.

The Indiana State Police immediately considered this a homicide, and were in full speed with their investigation.

We were going to figure out what happened to Bill Reynolds.

Bill Reynolds was born in Dayton, Ohio, on July 28, 1946. He grew up in a broken home and learned to fend for himself from a young age.

My dad didn't talk about his childhood a whole lot because I don't think it was the greatest. When he was younger, he lived with his mother. And as he got a little older and became a teenager, he moved from Ohio into Indiana.

He was a family man. He took real good care of his family, his mom, his sisters.

At 18, Bill married his high school sweetheart, intending to start a family of his own. Those plans were soon disrupted.

It wasn't long after they got married that that he was drafted into the army. And of course, at that point, he had to go to overseas to Vietnam. So I'm sure that that had somewhat of a strain with my mother and my dad's marriage.

While Bill was overseas, his wife gave birth to their first son, but Bill still had several more years left on his tour of duty.

He was over about four years. He got all kinds of metal.

My dad seen a lot of things over there that he He never talked to us about. The way Hunter said, it was pretty dramatic, pretty traumatizing. He was ready to get out of there. Dad came back from the service to Indiana, and then my mother got pregnant again with me. My dad My dad bought a small little house there in Blacher, Indiana, and that's where him and my mother lived and began to raise their family. My dad got a job. He worked at the Lumbermill at that time for his brother, and they seemed to be doing really well.

My mother and my father was married for about eight, nine years. They had a great relation. Then I guess they finally just fell out of love, and then they went their separate ways when I was about seven.

After his divorce, Bill started working as a long haul truck driver.

My dad was very adventurous. The whole truck driving thing gave him the opportunity to explore and do the things that he really liked to do and also get a paycheck for it.

When he was home, Bill spent his free time refurbishing cars.

He liked fast cars, Corvettes, Firebird, whatever the new car was that had the biggest motor and the fastest engine. But as he got older, car prices went from $5,000 to $40, $50, $60, $70, $1,000. So I think at that point, he transferred that over to watch a NASCAR on TV and collecting the NASCAR cars, the diecast car. He started picking his favorite drivers. He felt like they're going to be worth the money someday, so this is going to be an investment for me.

By the time he was in his 50s, the kids were grown and Bill was living a solitary life. But he got another chance at love when he met a single mother named Daleen Cates.

He seemed that she had some toawas for sale. So he went over and got a toawawa.

He told me, Hey, I met Simone Henry. She has red hair. She reminds me of Reba McEntire. My dad always had a TV crush on Reba. So when he met Dailene, he thought, This is the woman that I've looked for my whole life.

After only a few months together, Bill asked Dailene and her grandkids to move in with him. While Dailene's daughter, Janette, worked on the road.

Janette lived out of state, and she was also a truck driver on the road a lot, was never home.

Bill was an amazing papa. He was great. Dailene mainly felt for Bill because of the way he was with my brother, Michael. It's very hard to find a man who is willing to take on the responsibility of a handicapped child who requires 24-hour care.

It It seemed like my dad and Amaris had a very good relationship.

There was one time I was learning to drive, and I might have accidentally busted the headline. Bill lied to my grandmother and said it was him who did it so she wouldn't be mad at me.

In 2013, Bill decided to give marriage another try. Dailin accepted his proposal, but Bill soon faced a new setback.

About two years after My dad and him got married. He ended up with cancer on his stroke.

Dad going through Vietnam, surviving, making it through all that. He's a pretty tough guy. So he beat it. He made it. The surgery was a success, and he made it out Okay. So dad was excited. He was ready to continue on with his life.

Less than a year after his recovery, Bill is found dead in his driveway. Evidence at the scene indicates Bill was murdered. The question for investigators is, why?

Anytime you pull up to a crime scene with no witness, no murder weapon, no physical evidence at the scene, and a victim laying there in broad daylight with nothing to go off of, your instant gut feeling is this is going to be a tough one.

We did search the residence. At that time, we did not find any evidence or anything that lead us to believe that anything had occurred inside them.

As the coroner prepares to transport the body for an autopsy, Bill's sons arrive at the scene, and they have a strong feeling about who killed their father.

Henry Rentals and William Rentals could see their dad laying in the driveway, and they were very upset.

The police officers. They telling me to back up, and I melted down, and I was screaming, They killed him. They killed him.

They killed him.

Coming up, the prime suspect turns out to be someone close to home.

She was acting very odd, strange, and he could just tell something's not right here.

And the investigation gets stranger at every turn.

We walk into my dad's house, and there's animal species everywhere, and everything was gone.

The Scott County Sheriff's office is investigating the murder of 69-year-old Bill Reynolds, who was found shot in the driveway of his Indiana home.

We had no weapon. We had no shell casings. This was a complete whodunit, and we had no witnesses available to us.

While the crime scene for his little explanation, Bill's sons tell police they know someone who might have wanted him dead.

After the arrival of the family on the scene, they were immediately interviewed by deputies.

Bill's sons explained that their father's battle with cancer had caused a strain on his marriage. And when Bill managed to recover, Dailene was anything but relieved when he was ready to return home.

Me and my brother went down to pick him up from the hospital to take him home over there.

Dad goes back to the residence, and he starts noticing there's some pretty peculiar things going on. A bunch of his clothes were packed up. Dailina was acting very odd and strange, and he could just tell something's not right here.

He said, I need some clean clothes. And she said, They're outside on the porch. He said, What's my doing outside on the porch? She just said, I was cleaning. And he says, Cleaning? You don't vacuum seal people's clothes and put them on the back porch. She was boxing them up to get rid of them.

They soon discovered And Dailin made some other changes as well.

He gave Dailin the power of attorney. So if he don't make it out, she takes care of the belongings.

When they was in the hospital, she took all his car titles and put them all in her name.

Dailin had put the piece of property in both of their names as well. He put two and two together that she didn't think I was going to make it through surgery.

She was hoping he would die in the hospital.

The chilling realization led Bill to end the marriage.

Once he filed for divorce, things got pretty heated. She filed a restraining order against my dad, so dad had to leave the residence, and then dad went and lived with my brother.

Bill's son say as soon as he moved out, Dailene's daughter, Johnette Hall, moved in.

Johnette Hall had come back to Indiana and was staying at the residence with Dailene Cates.

Dailene did not have many friends, so she would talk about her and Bill's arguments with Johnette and vent to her, which in turn would make Johnette feel as if she had to defend Dailene.

John Adolf. He was very emotional and very upset.

And the problems only got worse.

Anytime you file for divorce, you're technically not supposed to touch any of the property or get rid of any of the property. My dad felt like that Deline was hauling all the property off the premises. So my dad talked to my brother and I into taking a video camera and videoing as much as we possibly could of what was there.

He had probably had over 100,000 pieces worth of NAS cars and Hot wheels. And had Dale Aaron Hart Jr. In his bathroom from the floor, stacked all the way to the silver. And he had the Gold Series and the Platinum Series in the house. They were quite a bit of money because they're 24 karat gold cars.

The family had indicated us that the collection was worth probably in excess of $100,000.

We went and videoed the cars. Everything was there. He was just trying to protect himself so at the end, it could be split evenly and fairly and that he wasn't going to be taken advantage of.

As divorce proceedings moved forward, in August 2015, the court awarded Bill Possession of the residence. The judge ordered Dailene to vacate the property by September 20th, just a week before Bill was murdered.

We go back over there, and all his NASCAR, everything was gone. His truck was gone. Everything was gone. She had twalwas. We walk into the house, and there's animal species everywhere through the whole house.

The urine smell was so strong that you couldn't even stand to be in there more than five minutes. We had to open up all the windows and all the doors. She was that upset that she had to vacate the premises, that she was going to make sure it was unlivable.

Dailene had also left behind a finly vealed threat.

When we went on in the living room, in his chair said, A can of Remington gun oil. Like, Here you go. And he kept saying, They're going to kill me. They're going to kill me. They're going to kill me. They're going to kill me.

Dailene was extremely mad about the fact that she was not awarded the house. She believed it was completely and utterly unfair to her. She cussed, ranted, and raved about it multiple times a day.

But despite his concerns, Bill refused to be intimidated.

They had spent several days cleaning the house to try to get it to the spot where it was livable. At the night of September 27th, 2015, was actually going to be Bill Reynolds' first night back in his residence.

There was nothing left but the Bear Centers. The vehicles, some of them was still there. You couldn't start it or nothing. So that's when he had Leo Buter come over to his place so he could start it and drive it around. But when they showed up there, that's when they found him dead.

William and Henry Rentals believe that Dailene had murdered their father, Bill Rentals, because they were going through a divorce, and she wanted to make sure that she got what she felt like was owed to her.

Given the information that had been provided by the sons of Bill Rentals, detectives decided it was imperative to make contact with Dailene Cates.

Investigators called Dailene and set up a meeting with her at her new residence later that night.

They sat down on the front porch. It was at that time that Dailene was made aware the Bill was deceased. Dailene seemed visibly upset at that news.

She indicates that they had their trouble, but she'd been with him a long time, and she did care about him.

Despite Dailene's emotional reaction, police noticed some red flags.

She had been cleaning and had cleaning supplies out. Given the fact that they had just left the scene of a murder, it immediately raises suspicions that somebody is trying to clean up evidence.

Dailene was asked directly if she has shot Bill Rentals, and she said, No. It would be more personal to her. She would use a knife or a bat. She would not use a gun. The reaction of hearing this, is like, Is she saying this right now?

She was asked whether or not she owned any weapons. She told law enforcement that she owned a 4. 10 shotgun and a 38 Special that she had not seen for quite at the time. She indicated it could either be in storage or in some box somewhere from the move.

She was also asked if she had been with anybody to determine whether she was involved or not or if she has a solid alibi.

Ms. Cate indicated that she had been cleaning her new residence with her daughter, Johnette Hall. She indicated that Ms. Hall left the residence around 2: 00 to go get some groceries in Madison, Indiana.

Dailene was asked if she would provide her cell phone, because in that cell phone, we can tell her GPS location, where she was at at the time of the crime. She expressed that she had nothing to hide in this investigation, and she was willing to give her phone up.

Dailene remains a suspect. But there's still someone else police want to talk to.

I needed to make contact with Johnette to determine her whereabouts and any involvement, if any. Chief Deputy, Don Campbell, made me aware of some recent police involvement with Johnette Hall. The police had been called out there a couple of times for harassment calls or things of that nature. He said Johnette was tough to deal with. We're still left with questions, a lot of questions.

After their interview with Dailene Cates, investigators follow up on her alibi involving her daughter, Johnette Hall.

You have to work looking at every avenue, every lead. You cannot leave anything unturned.

It was decided that I was going to try to reach out to Johnette Hall. I actually obtained her phone number through our dispatch from recent calls of service. I placed a phone call to Johnette, and she didn't answer. I left a voicemail and explained that I was an investigator with the Sheriff's office and that I needed to speak with her in reverse of an investigation.

A few hours later, Johnette shows up in person.

Around 8: 00 PM, the night of the murder, Johnette arrived at the Sheriff's office, and we conducted an interview with her.

We just wanted you to have me in.

We have a...

I'll talk to you a little bit.

I guess I want to talk to you about, I'm trying to say, Bill's found dead today.

Yeah.

Just a few hours ago.

She did not ask, Oh, my gosh, what happened?

That was a red flag for us investigation. Are you curious at all how Bill died?

You haven't asked him yet.

I don't know what to think about it. I really don't.

How would anybody who would have wanted to do harm to Bill.

I don't really get all into Bill's business as far as who and what he knows. I mean, he's not exactly on a lot of people's nice lists He was still awake. I know that guy.

When confronted with the fact that she was not concerned, her explanation was that it wouldn't surprise her if someone had killed him because that's just the way he had been dealing with people.

Some of the drugs that they had him on, they were crazy.

Because he had his cancer maybe a while back.

I mean, just don't get him to himself.

She had explained that there used to be a great relationship between Dailene and Bill. She blamed the change in things on cancer, and that after the treatments, that it changed his personality. He became a vindictive individual that he was very rude and hard to deal with.

I could tell that Johnette did not like Bill Rentals. It was almost personal based on just her demeanor.

Johnette's behavior shifts her from being an alibi witness to a potential suspect.

She She was asked the same questions Dailene was asked. Tell us a little bit about your day, how your days went, where you've been. We're trying to establish a baseline.

You got 10: 30.

What's your plan?

You got a plan 30. My normal. I got coffee, cigarettes. Let's see. Started a load of laundry.

Johnette Hall tells law enforcement that she had been helping her mother clean at the new residence, but that she had left the to take a rug to a storage unit. She also says that after leaving the storage unit, that she went to the Circle K in Austin, Indiana, to buy bread. After leaving the Circle K, she headed north and headed through the Muscatatuck Wildlife Preserve.

I'm just driving around trying to get myself lost. I was doing a really good job of it, too. It's a quiet country. That's what I did.

Just drove around. That stuck out as odd to me. It was an odd Why are you trying to get lost? How much time you were by yourself the whole time?

A whole time? That time, I just unwinded. Well, I haven't had alone time since all of this. So I decided today, I'm just going to take off.

There was nobody to corroborate or verify where she was at when she claimed she was at these places. So if they're not being witnessed, we ask her for any evidence.

I know. You don't look It's good for me. I get all that.

And she was eager to produce that receipt to law enforcement to show where she had been at the Circle K buying the bread.

She provided us with her cellular device and her password to Google and gave us permission to explore that. And in doing so, we were able to extract GPS coordinates locations from a certain time frame before the murder, after the murder, and during the murder.

To their surprise, investigators find out Johnette's telling the truth.

With her statement that she was all up in the wildlife refuge, we were able to find those points and show that she indeed was up there driving around.

Officers were able to search Johnette Hall's vehicle, and once again, they came up with no evidence.

It was like a kick in the teeth. It set us back.

At the end of the initial interview of John Anna Hall, detectives let her leave the Sheriff's office. And although she was free to go, officers seemed to have some suspicions and didn't feel comfortable with the way that had gone. So they wanted to make sure they did some additional follow-up to what they had learned.

Police talk to Dailene's neighbors who support her alibi.

It was confirmed that Dailene had been at her residence or on that property for all of the day, had helped the neighbors clean some cabinets, and according to the neighbors, she had not left.

Detectives asked them if Dailene or Johnette had asked them to lie for them about their whereabouts on the day of the murder. They stated that they did not Investigators still feel like the women aren't telling them the whole story.

Just didn't feel like she was answering our questions truthfully or wholly, I should say, because of the history, the family history, that raise the hair on the back of your neck that you might be on the right path. There are some red flags that need to be followed up on this investigation.

Coming up, a suspect's cover story comes under scrutiny.

Why did she lie? Why did she say she was there by herself?

And a murder plot unfolds.

He called him and said, Can you pick me up in my apartment? I got a job to do. And he knew then they were going to somebody.

With Dailene and her daughter, Johnette's whereabouts both accounted for, it seems neither woman could have been Bill Reynolds's shooter. But since they both have strong motives, investigators still believe they might have been involved.

Sometimes people responsible for murder don't actually carry out the act. They're responsible for potentially planning it, potentially aiding and assisting in the murder by providing a murder weapon. There's a whole list of things that could include someone in a crime that can't be ruled out just by a location alibi. The next morning, an autopsy was performed on Bill Reynolds senior. There was a partial projectile that was recovered in the 38 caliber range.

Dailene indicated that she had a 38 revolver, but she did not know where that gun was located.

In Detectives wonder if Johnette might have had a reason to move the weapon.

We was able to obtain the surveillance footage from the Storage Express facility that Johnette had said that she had placed a rug in, and also from the Circle K gas station where she provided us with the receipt.

Upon obtaining the surveillance videos, it was learned that Johnette Hall was in fact at the Storage Express in Austin, Indiana, and at the Circle K around the same time frame.

But despite her previous claims of solitude, Janette was not alone.

The detectives noticed that Johnette Hall was with two male individuals at both places. Why did she say she was there by herself?

With the circle K surveillance footage, you could see individuals, but you couldn't really see facial features. But we were able to get a license plate, a picture of the license plate on the from the Storage Express's camera.

Officers were able to run that plate. It was a temporary plate that was traced back to a male individual by the name of Jacob Mathis.

None of our local law enforcement knew who they were. It was important that investigators find out who Jacob Mathis is. We were provided with a possible apartment that he was staying at in Clarksville, Indiana.

On September 28th, the day after murder, police locate Jacob, and he agrees to come in for an interview.

Mathis, when asked, You know why you're here? Said, I have a feeling that something bad has happened. They knew then that they might have someone in front of them that has knowledge of this murder. They began explaining to Jacob that they were conducting a death investigation. And Jacob openly admitted that he had went to Scott County the day of the murder, September 27th.

He indicates that he and one of his roommates met a lady named Johnette at a storage facility and obtained some NASCAR memorabilia. He said that he and his roommate was going to start a business or that they would sell NASCAR memorabilia or other items on the Internet.

Although he freely admits his connection to Johnette, Jacob denies that he or his roommate had any further involvement. Meant.

There are certain people he will give names to, but certain individuals, he won't say their name.

But after hours of questioning, the pressure begins to take its toll.

He accidentally lets the name of his roommate, Kerry Heeltslip, during conversation. They're also able to determine that Janette Hall is the mother of his roommate's girlfriend, Ramirez. They finally confront him and ask, about him being in Scott County and if he was at the residence of Bill Reynolds.

At that point, Jacob breaks down and confesses to everything.

He stated that he would call him and said, Can you pick me up in my apartment? I got a job to do. And Jacob stated that he knew then they were going to kill somebody. They drove about 30 to 45 minutes to a rural area, carry back the car up, blocking. He reported the driveway in the fence. He reported seeing that. And Jacob stated that Cary shot Bill Reynolds in the driveway. And when they got back in the car, Cary handed Jacob the gun and said, Wipe that off.

He says that he takes a shirt or some cloth material from his vehicle and wipes off the revolver, sticking it, I believe, in the passenger side floorboard of his vehicle.

At that point in time, Jacob just became involved in a murder.

He further indicated to police that he had been involved with some meetings regarding the killing of the individual between Janette Hall, Amaris Bonyard, and Cary Hield. He told detectives that Cary Hield had been hired by Janette Hall because he was a trained assassin, and that Jacob Mathis was a master body disposal expert. Officers did reach out to the Homicide Division from Louisville, Kentucky, and nothing ever came of that, and there's no reason to believe that any of that was actually true.

Based on his statement, Jacob is arrested for murder, and investigators pick up the alleged shooter, Kerry Hield, for questioning.

Hield initially stated that he was not in Scott County on September 27th, 2015 at all. We quickly confronted him. There are certain facts that I could prove. And they're just like crazy.

The only thing I can't prove is do that out of Cornshaw Bill. Do you understand that? I know that you and Jacob went up there with the plan to kill Bill. Yes or no? Yes.

He initially pointed to Mathis as the shooter. But the further the interview progressed, we started pointing out some inconsistent competencies with the story and used some information for Mathis' interview against him, and he initially turned around and confessed to me. He stated that he did kill Bill Reynolds, that him and Mathis were hired by Johnette Hall to carry out this murder, and that Johnette Hall provided them with the weapon to use. And the agreement was that she was to be given the weapon back, and then she would dispose of it. What did she do with the gun?

I don't know.

And what were you supposed to get out of this? A lot of money. How much?

I think $100,000.

Where was that money coming from?

All the Nascar calls.

He took Nascar memorabilia as payment for this crime.

Cary Hill indicated that at first he did not want to commit this murder, but that Janette Hall had continued to tell him things about Bill Reynolds to finally go to him into accepting this offer. The straw that broke the camel's back was she had indicated that Bill Reynolds had been sexually assaulting Amaris Bonyard. Got to be honest with you, I don't just want you to know. I feel really bad for you. I'm sad that you did what you did.

Investigators immediately place Kerry under arrest.

Kerry Ray healed as my son. It made no sense to me that Kerry Ray would ever do anything like that. On the news site, Kerry Ray's mugshot is right there on the TV, and that he was arrested in a murder. That's how I definitely found out about it. I didn't believe for a second that he had done it.

Now, detectives set their sights on the remaining co-conspirators.

The next step in this investigation is going to be to interview Amaris Bunyard and re-interview and potentially arrest Johnette Hall for the murder of Bill Reynolds.

Armed with Jacob Mathis and Kerry Healds' confessions, Indiana police bring Johnette Hall in for another round of questioning.

At this point in the investigation, we had the statements of her being that Johnette Hall had hired Cary Healds to commit the murder. And the things that had been offered to him as payment. When confronted with these things, she decided that she didn't want to speak, that she wanted to exercise her right to an attorney, and she was placed under arrest by the Scott County Sheriff's office.

Johnette's daughter, Ameris, is more forthcoming.

So on September 29th, 2015, a detective with the state police and myself interviewed Ameris Bungard.

In my gut, the minute I saw them, I said, I knew. I knew I wouldn't be going home that night. I was still very freaked out over the whole situation.

She stated that she was present for several meetings and that they all were involved in conversations and planning on murdering Bill Reynolds.

She further that during the move of Dailene Cates, Johnette Hall took a handgun, slid it into the purse of Ameris Buyard, and told her to conceal it so that Dailene Cates did not see it being removed from the residence and to go out and give it to Cary Heald.

John Nutter kept saying things like, We don't want Dailene to do something stupid. So we snuck all of these weapons out of the house. I never thought in a million years that Cary would actually do anything. Who really accepts to kill somebody for NASCAR? In my mind, that's just not a thing.

But a few weeks later, he proved Ameris wrong.

Kerry told me while we were in the car. He said, I just came back from killing your grandfather. He said, I walked right up to him, and I put the pistol between his eyes and pulled the trigger. They left him in the driveway. Just left him there.

Amaris' statement implicates her in the murder, but also confirms Dailene was not involved. After only two days of investigation, three of the four suspects in Bill Reynolds's murder are now in custody. In February of 2016, Ameris Bunyard joins her co-conspirator's behind bars.

It was important that we get, in my opinion, the two biggest players, which were Janette Hall and Cary Hield. Cary Hield being the shooter and Janette Hall being the mastermind. To do that, we needed the cooperation of the other people involved.

Rather than face a jury, Cary pleads guilty in exchange for his cooperation with authorities. Amaris and Jacob take similar deals. In September 2020, Johnette's trial begins.

In the prosecution of this case, we had a lot of evidence, but one key piece of evidence that we never ended up with was the murder weapon.

Although the prosecution's case is largely circumstantial, they believe the motives speak for themselves.

Johnette Hall committed this crime because she thought that her mother was getting out of a relationship and not going to get anything.

She was extremely upset that she did not get her way and that Bill won and was able to relinquish the property back.

I think the motive for Amara Spudder to be involved in this was approval and love from her mother.

I knew what type of person Johnette was. I never honestly took the situation seriously until after the fact it had happened, and I didn't do anything. I'm a coward for that.

Cary Hield's motive to conduct this murder was financial gain for him from the things that had been promised him by Johnette Hall.

I would label Jacob Mathis as a follower. Hield showed him the attention that I think that he needed, and he would have followed Cary Hield under the gates of if he'd let him.

The defense argues there is nothing to connect Johnette to Bill Reynolds's murder other than the word of his confessed killers. But the jury doesn't agree.

After a trial that lasted almost two weeks, Janette Hall was found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, was given life without parole.

And I don't think it It was a little bit too much for Janette to snap, because in my opinion, Janette is a monstrous, vile, and evil human being.

She manipulated those kids. She used them to do something that she couldn't do herself.

I kept pushing Kerry, wanting him to tell me everything. What would she have ever said to you to make you want to do this? And he said, She painted such a picture of such a monster. And that's what he fell for.

Johnette Hall had convinced him to go through with this by telling him stories about how Mr. Reynolds had been abusive to her and other family members. However, with follow-up investigation, law enforcement was able to determine that that was not accurate and that that had not been occurring.

She took my son's life, too. She took him. She took him away.

Johnette Hall Johnette had been willing to say anything and sacrifice anyone to get what she wanted, including her own daughter.

I didn't think that I would be arrested. While in county jail, after I was arrested, I did make contact with Johnette in an attempt to find out why things had happened the way they had happened and why she was saying the things she was saying. It made no sense to me.

And a Paris pays the price.

I eventually signed a plea deal for 30 years, suspend 10 of them, do 20 with a 75% time. So when all said and done, once I am released, I will do 15 years. If I could turn everything around, if I could change what I did and didn't do, I would. I ate myself every day for not being there for the one person who did love me.

Even though myself and my family were very satisfied with Janette getting life without parole, there's still that void there.

It still ain't right behind me. I'm still dealing with it every day. Like I go down and put a new flag on my dad's graveyard. He's a Vietnam hero, and he took care of me and my brother, and he just wanted to be remembered.

Kari Hield is serving 55 years in prison for murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Jacob Mathis is serving 32 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. Daleen Cates was never charged with a crime.