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Short filmTranscript
00:00Such a nice man, such a good person, good-hearted, never would hurt his soul.
00:06He wanted his own business, something to make money.
00:10Jerry was gay. He was always searching for love, and it just didn't happen.
00:16A vicious murder.
00:1832 times he was stabbed.
00:19This is personal, some sort of personal rage.
00:23Was it someone Jerry just met?
00:25He was on multiple dating apps.
00:27Jerry was looking for a new roommate. It could just be somebody he brought home.
00:31A prison pen pal.
00:33We have an inmate who has a criminal record that's been released.
00:36Did he come over to Jerry's house?
00:38Or perhaps an old friend.
00:40Wayne was a troubled fellow. He would spend a lot of nights on Jerry's couch.
00:45Jerry always said he felt sorry for him.
00:47What was it that led to a killer relationship?
00:51I was like, God, Jerry just signed his death warrant.
00:54He tried to fight for his life.
00:57Ask anyone who knows 46-year-old Jerry Moore, and they'll tell you this.
01:15He never met a stranger.
01:17Gregarious and kind, Jerry has a knack for putting people at ease.
01:21That's why it's so shocking when on a cold winter's night in January 2014,
01:27his life is cut short by a ruthless killer.
01:30The search for the culprit leads law enforcement down a path of unexpected twists and turns,
01:36where the truth is elusive and justice is not swift.
01:40We pull up to the house, and then I make contact with the initial responding officers.
02:05They said the neighbor across the street called and said that they found the door open,
02:10and the house looked like it was ransacked.
02:14I walk in the house.
02:16As soon as I walk into the living room, I see blood everywhere.
02:23As I step further and looked over the edge of the couch,
02:26that's when I observe the victim lying face down in a pool of blood.
02:30We go over to the body.
02:35And then once they'd start pulling his shirt up,
02:39that's when we start noticing the stab wounds.
02:42He not only had stab wounds on his back,
02:45but he had stab wounds on the front, defensive wounds.
02:48We learned the victim's name was Jerry Moore.
02:52He suffered.
02:53He definitely suffered.
02:55It was very apparent that he had been there for more than several hours.
03:01When you see injuries of this nature,
03:04my investigative mind immediately goes to,
03:06this is some sort of personal rage,
03:08something with a lot of emotion behind it.
03:11There was no forced entry at all into that house.
03:15So right away, it's telling me that whoever came into this house,
03:20Jerry had to have known who they were and let them in.
03:23And you start thinking, okay, who did he have in this house?
03:36Jerry Moore is born on June 3rd, 1967, in Oroville, Ohio.
03:42Jerry was a real sweet boy as he grew up.
03:46He was outgoing and happy.
03:49If he just met you, he would do anything for you.
03:52If you needed a dollar, he would give you two dollars.
03:56By the time he's two years old, Jerry's parents split up.
04:00His mother has primary custody,
04:02but he spends weekends and holidays with his father and stepmother, Judy.
04:07Jerry called me mom.
04:08We just loved each other and became the best friends there ever was.
04:14He was real smart.
04:15Jerry tried to save every dime that he had.
04:22He wanted to start his own business.
04:26When he graduated from high school, he went into computers.
04:31As a teenager, Jerry has a knack for business.
04:36But he silently struggles to find his place socially.
04:40He shared that he was gay when he was in his 20s.
04:44And I told him, I love you.
04:45I don't care about him being gay.
04:48Despite the love and support from his family, Jerry finds life in Oroville, Ohio, stifling.
04:54With a population of just under 9,000, the small town just isn't big enough for the life Jerry wants.
05:02So, at age 29, he moves to Atlanta, Georgia.
05:06The Atlanta area is kind of what we call the gay mecca of the East.
05:10He would go to the local bars, trying to meet people.
05:16Our friendship started in 1996.
05:21I had gone out to a little local country and western bar.
05:27When I came off the dance floor, he came over there and grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.
05:32He goes, I want to see who is this queen in the red Wonder Woman boots.
05:37That started our friendship.
05:38Jerry and I, we were always platonic.
05:42We had fun.
05:44We had a good friendship.
05:45But he always was wanting to settle down and have a partner.
05:52Jerry's love life is lacking, but his business acumen is not.
05:57In 1996, he leaves the tech world to try his hand in the real estate business.
06:03He told me that he just wanted something to make money.
06:06He bought several houses, and he was trying to flip them.
06:11You know, he just wanted to reach a level to feel successful and his family be proud of him.
06:19Over a period of 10 years, Jerry successfully renovates and sells dozens of properties.
06:25And in 2006, he buys a place of his own in Marietta, Georgia, 20 miles north of Atlanta.
06:32Jerry lived across the street.
06:34He worked from home.
06:36He was just always there and decorating his house and doing things.
06:41And he was like another brother to me.
06:43He liked the fact that house had split living quarters because in his mind, he always thought he would have a roommate.
06:52Since he was gay, he thought another gay person will get along great.
06:57Jerry posted ads and he had found someone to rent the room.
07:02His name is Ross.
07:05Ross and Jerry hit it off as roommates and as friends.
07:10A few months after moving in, they start talking business.
07:15The bakery that Ross worked at, the owner needed to sell it.
07:20So Ross approached Jerry and he said, you know, would you consider investing in a bakery?
07:25Jerry was open to it.
07:26Jerry handled the money side of everything and Ross was the baker and kept the operations going throughout the week.
07:36It's an ideal situation.
07:39Jerry and Ross own it 50-50 and business booms.
07:43Three years after they joined forces, Jerry and Ross have enough money to expand and renovate the bakery.
07:49There was a whole new cake decorating room.
07:52Ross was excited to show it and they had a grand reopening.
07:57They had the highest revenues had ever made.
08:00Jerry was quite excited.
08:03The bakery continues to flourish, but on the home front, change is in the air.
08:08In 2013, after seven years as roommates, Ross decides he needs a place of his own.
08:14He moves into a townhouse closer to the bakery while Jerry looks for a new roommate.
08:18But instead of a fresh start, Jerry is met with an awful end.
08:23Found dead in his living room, violently stabbed to death.
08:29Here are the prints with a lot of traffic right here.
08:33This was my first case as a lead detective.
08:36I've assisted in homicides before, but this was my first time as being the actual lead detective.
08:42And it's a lot of pressure.
08:45The house was dusted for fingerprints.
08:49Jerry's cell phone was collected.
08:51That's an important piece of evidence.
08:53We made contact with several neighbors to ask them about mysterious vehicles or suspicious persons that they saw at the home.
09:01The neighbors, Pam and John Blair, made the 911 call.
09:04They were probably the closest with him.
09:06They knew about Jerry.
09:08They talked to Jerry all the time.
09:10They said Jerry was a partner in a bakery with a gentleman named Ross Byrne.
09:14They said Ross and Jerry lived together for seven years.
09:18Because he lived with the victim for so long, he would have the most information of who Jerry was friends with, who he had problems with.
09:26So we made contact with Ross.
09:28We told him that Jerry was killed.
09:31He was surprised.
09:32And I asked him if he would come in and talk to us.
09:34Ross agrees to come into our headquarters.
09:36He wasn't upset.
09:41And I'm thinking to myself right off the bat, that's kind of strange.
09:44What was your guys' relationship like?
09:47We used to do occasional dinners and talk business.
09:51Okay.
09:52Ross said they lived separate rooms in the house.
09:54Ross's room was to the back and Jerry's room was in the front.
09:57They barely had a friendship.
09:59The extent of their relationship was more just the business.
10:02When it comes to stabbings, I'll always look at somebody's hands.
10:06And I'm looking to see if there's any kind of injuries to show there was any kind of fight or struggle.
10:12I looked at his hands and I didn't notice anything on his hands.
10:16Did he mention anything of, like, the name of anybody or anything when he mentioned about his prospects for a new roommate?
10:22No.
10:22No.
10:23Ross is like, yeah, he was looking for a new roommate and made mention that he possibly had a prospect for a new roommate but never had a name.
10:31Who's he close with?
10:32He has two friends, Randy and Wayne.
10:38It was, like, beginning of last summer that Wayne showed up.
10:43I think his last name is New, N-E-W.
10:46Screwed up guy.
10:48They met in the bar.
10:50Jerry always said he felt sorry for him because he couldn't find a job.
10:54Ross told us that Wayne was a troubled fellow.
10:57He was broke.
10:58He was homeless.
10:58He would spend a lot of nights on Jerry's couch.
11:02And at times he would borrow Jerry's car.
11:04That kind of raised suspicions about Wayne.
11:08Here's a guy that frequents Jerry's house.
11:12Possibly knows Jerry's patterns.
11:14So this was pushing Wayne to the top of the list.
11:18We needed to find Wayne.
11:24Somebody really had some hatred and really wanted to make sure he was dead.
11:29The last young man he talked to was in jail in Kentucky.
11:32I mean, Chris.
11:34If you had to guess where Wayne is right now, where do you think he is?
11:36I don't know.
11:38He's got a documented history of using a knife.
11:42He committed the murder.
11:43We just had to prove it.
11:44Hours into the murder investigation of Jerry Moore, his former roommate, Ross, tells Cobb County investigators that Jerry used to allow a drifter named Wayne to occasionally sleep on his couch.
12:04Luckily, investigators discover that Jerry's phone is not password protected and his call logs are readily available, making the search for Wayne that much easier.
12:16That night, we get Wayne's phone number out of Jerry's phone.
12:20We subpoenaed Wayne's phone.
12:22We get the records back from Verizon, but all we get is a name.
12:24We don't have an address associated with it.
12:28We noticed a number that this Wayne guy was constantly calling.
12:31There was a lot of calls made to a female by the name of Michelle Burnett.
12:36We were able to get an address for Michelle.
12:40Detective Stoddart and Sergeant Knobloch went out to speak to her.
12:45We met with Michelle.
12:47We explained to her we had information to believe that someone by the name of Wayne may have information to help us.
12:53You know Wayne knew?
12:55Yes!
12:56I know Wayne knew.
12:57That's my friend.
12:58I met him when I used to work at Verizon.
13:00That's how me and him met.
13:01He was a greeter, and I worked at Verizon.
13:04When's the last time you called the Wayne?
13:06I speak to him every freaking day, just about on the phone.
13:09What the heck happened?
13:10What did he do?
13:11She said she hadn't spoken to him in the last 24 to 48 hours, which was not normal.
13:16Last time you talked to him, what was going on with him?
13:19He's always stressed out.
13:20He can't handle stress very well.
13:22He's like a bad case.
13:24What do you mean by that?
13:25His family doesn't really help him, so he goes from friend to friend's house.
13:32If you had to guess where Wayne is right now, where do you think he is?
13:36I don't know.
13:38Do you want me to try to call him?
13:40Yep.
13:41Michelle calls, but gets no answer.
13:44We need to talk to him, and she understood that completely.
13:47We were hoping that she would be able to make contact with Wayne at some point and see where
13:53he was at.
13:55Hoping Michelle connects with Wayne, the detectives now need to identify who Jerry Moore's next
14:00of kin is and inform them of his murder.
14:04Around sunrise the next morning, they began making the difficult calls.
14:08They called my husband, Jerry's father, Larry, and told him, and I just fell to pieces.
14:18It just tore me apart.
14:21It killed me.
14:24Jerry's mother reached out to me.
14:27She said the police called and he had been murdered in a home invasion.
14:34How in the world could this even happen to him?
14:37In my mind, it starts, you know, playing out scenarios of how, when, and why.
14:44When Jerry said, well, I'm going to be placing ads for a roommate again, I really felt like
14:51it's possible that some random person without intentions of renting a place didn't like
14:57gay people and was going to answer the ad and do harm to them.
15:02So I phoned the Cobb County detectives.
15:04I get a phone call from Jerry's friend, Randy, and Randy was very concerned that Jerry brought
15:12the wrong guy home.
15:14I remember Detective Stockinger asked me what I knew of Wayne.
15:19Randy mentioned that Jerry was trying to help Wayne find a job, so we know he's somebody
15:24close to Jerry.
15:25Knowing what I knew about Wayne and how much he adored Jerry as a friend, I just couldn't
15:32believe that.
15:32And I said, I don't think he's capable of anything like that.
15:3636 hours after Jerry Morris found dead, the autopsy report comes in.
15:42While no foreign DNA is discovered on the body, the savageness of the crime is clearly evident.
15:4932 times he was stabbed.
15:51That amount of stab wounds, you know, somebody really had some hatred for him and really wanted
15:59to make sure he was dead.
16:02At this point, the investigators consider Wayne their strongest suspect.
16:07He's finally located three days after the murder.
16:12Wayne's friend, Michelle, was able to get in contact with Wayne and told Wayne that the police
16:16were looking for him, so Wayne contacted us and agreed to meet with us.
16:22He said he was staying with a female friend.
16:26He was very fidgety, very nervous.
16:29Slow down.
16:31Because you're at high speed right now?
16:32And you're just...
16:34I don't know why you're nervous.
16:35I'm just...
16:36I don't know why I'm being questioned, number one.
16:39I...
16:39Jerry's dead.
16:41So that's why we're here.
16:43I understand that.
16:44I just can't...
16:45And I'm nervous.
16:46We know Jerry's killed sometime Sunday, so we started asking him what his weekend looked
16:53like.
16:55Let's talk about Sunday.
16:57Thursday.
16:57Pray to my table with Kieber.
16:59We went out and got something to eat, and he brought me out for our letter 30-ish.
17:03What'd you say his name is?
17:04Kieber.
17:05K-I-B-U-R.
17:06He said they hung out at his apartment for the day and then went out to dinner.
17:11And he actually gave us his name and contact information.
17:14You know, obviously, I want to reach out to this friend now and confirm if this story's
17:20true.
17:20Then, Wayne says something that grabs the detective's attention.
17:24He said Jerry was pen pals and friends with an inmate in Kentucky with the first name
17:39Chris.
17:40Jerry found a lot of these inmates through different inmate websites.
17:44Wayne said this Chris guy was supposed to be getting out of prison in September of 2013,
17:50which was just three months before the murder.
17:54I can apparently have a checkered past, and I've had to come safely here.
17:57I said, why do you talk to these type of people that could hurt you?
18:00And I said, why are you so concerned?
18:02And he said, because he talked about that when Chris was going to get out, Chris was supposed
18:06to come visit Jerry.
18:07You have a convicted felon, possibly for a violent crime, and now you're possibly opening
18:15up your home to them.
18:22Cobb County investigators are on the hunt for Jerry Moore's killer, and a statement from
18:28a drifter named Wayne has police concern.
18:31Wayne claims he spent the day with a friend named Tiber when Jerry was murdered.
18:36And he thought Jerry had plans to meet up with a recently released parolee named Chris.
18:42But is Wayne telling the truth, or is he trying to throw detectives off his track?
18:49After we got done interviewing Wayne, the first thing I did was reach out to this friend,
18:54Tibercio.
18:56Tibercio confirmed Wayne's story.
19:01Investigators are satisfied that Wayne is being truthful and cross him off the suspect
19:05list.
19:06Now they turn their attention to Chris, the parolee who was allegedly planning to move
19:12in with Jerry.
19:14We'd researched through the Kentucky prison system.
19:18We went online and started searching inmates.
19:20Eventually, I was able to identify a person by the name of Chris Staggs, who was released
19:28from prison in September of 2013, which was just three months before the murder.
19:33I reached out to the local sheriff's office.
19:36They were familiar with Chris, and they told us that he was living with his parents in Kentucky
19:41and that Chris also had a girlfriend.
19:45We learned that since he was released from prison, there was no communications at all between
19:51Jerry and Chris.
19:52We didn't completely eliminate him, but he wasn't my main focus anymore.
19:59It's a little frustrating because we had no direction to go in at that time.
20:04I want to prove to my supervisors that they made the right choice by making me the lead
20:09on it, and I keep hitting dead ends.
20:14Two weeks after his death, Jerry's loved ones meet to honor their friend.
20:21We decided to hold a local memorial in Marietta, and a lot of people turned out.
20:29There was an opportunity during that memorial for friends to deliver thoughts and memories
20:33of Jerry, and I do remember Wayne sharing, and I think that was healing for him, and I'm
20:41just thankful that he could be there and be a part of that.
20:44Both Randy and Pam brought it to my attention that Ross Byrne never showed up.
20:50Ross, his partner, ex-roommate, never showed up at the memorial.
20:55It was just odd.
20:57That started raising a little bit of suspicion, like, here's this guy that lived with him
21:01for seven years, owns a business with him, and yet he doesn't show up to his memorial
21:07service.
21:09Why?
21:12During my conversation with Jerry's mom, she said Jerry wasn't happy with the bakery business
21:17and Jerry wanted out.
21:19That's kind of strange.
21:22When we talked to him, why didn't Ross mention that to us, that Jerry wanted out of the business?
21:27He was very money-oriented.
21:29That raised a lot of flags with us.
21:32After further interviews with friends and family, we started learning that Ross and Jerry's
21:38relationship wasn't great.
21:40There was some tension between both of them.
21:44Thinking about Jerry and Ross and the dysfunctional dynamic of their relationship, it was like an old
21:53married couple who stay together and just coexist, living in different parts of the house.
21:59They just really weren't gelling well together anymore.
22:04And so I conveyed that to Detective Stockinger.
22:08Randy said that Jerry was just tired of dealing with the business and he just wanted out.
22:14He wanted Ross to pay him $35,000 for his share of the business to buy him out, and Ross just
22:21kept refusing to buy him out of the business.
22:24And there's something else.
22:28Jerry had named his friend Randy Doolittle as executor of his estate.
22:33After the crime scene was cleared, Randy collected Jerry's will and a business agreement for the bakery.
22:39One of the provisions said if either party is deceased, that the surviving party will gain full and free control of the bakery.
22:51Randy came to us and Randy said, hey, I got copies of this business agreement.
22:57When you start looking at this case, who would benefit from Jerry getting murdered?
23:03Maybe Ross sees this as his way of getting Jerry out of the picture.
23:09If anything ever happened to Jerry, Ross would get the whole business for himself.
23:16This could have been the plan all along.
23:18When I read that, that was like a gut punch.
23:23I was like, God, Jerry just signed his death warrant back when he signed that document.
23:37Three weeks after Jerry Morris found staff to death at his home in Marietta, Georgia,
23:43investigators are wondering if a business deal gone wrong is motive for murder.
23:48Money, love, power, revenge.
23:52And almost every single homicide, you can toss one of those at it.
23:56So now we have money.
23:58We decide it's time to bring Ross back in for a second interview.
24:02So you knew a couple months ago Jerry would want you to buy him out of the business.
24:08What was your thoughts?
24:11I guess so. I don't know. I'm not interested.
24:13You're just not getting it, man.
24:18What?
24:19Because you're sitting here saying, I guess so.
24:21I thought, I'm not inside of your head.
24:23I can't figure out what you're thinking.
24:25He brought this proposition to me before.
24:27And I said, no.
24:29Why?
24:29Because I was happy with the comfort level of the business.
24:33He was holding back on us.
24:35I started not being as nice because I wanted answers.
24:40We're going to go back to the weekend of 25th, 26th.
24:44Do you do anything Saturday night?
24:46No, I don't.
24:47Cool.
24:47All right.
24:49Let's go to Sunday.
24:50What did you do on Sunday?
24:52That Saturday, he worked at the bakery all day.
24:55And then that Sunday, he said he had a housewarming party for his new townhome.
25:00What time did everybody wave?
25:03Six.
25:05What did you do that night?
25:06Nothing.
25:07We subpoenaed the phone records for Ross's phone.
25:10And we noticed that over the weekend, Ross calls this number over and over.
25:14We start asking him about that particular phone number.
25:18So you've talked an awful lot here.
25:20Now, this is the 25th.
25:21This is Saturday.
25:23All right.
25:23The phone calls start at 11.38 in the morning on Saturday.
25:27All the way up until 11.30 p.m. on Saturday.
25:34And you had a conversation at 11.30 p.m. on Saturday night.
25:39So who did you talk to?
25:40I have no idea.
25:42You know, we kept stressing, you're calling this number over and over.
25:46You can't tell me you don't know who this number belongs to.
25:50So who did you talk to?
25:51It could have been a boyfriend.
25:53What is the name of the person you talked to?
25:57I don't care that it's a boyfriend.
26:00But you're sitting here laughing, you don't know.
26:02It could have been somebody I had over.
26:03I'm asking you this for a reason.
26:05It could have been somebody I had over.
26:07So it's somebody you had over that would be calling you this much up until here and then the number just disappears.
26:13Maybe I had, yes.
26:14So who is it?
26:18It's John.
26:19I'm telling who?
26:20Wheeler.
26:21Finally, he comes clean and he says that this is his friend Jonathan Wheeler.
26:28John is straight and he doesn't want people to think that John's gay.
26:33But he was pursuing John, hoping that he could develop a relationship with John.
26:38Why is he so protective over this person?
26:41There's more to not wanting people to think that John's gay, too.
26:45There's more to this.
26:46All right, let's go.
26:47Looking further into Jonathan and Ross, we learned that after Jerry was killed, John went with Ross to Key West.
26:56We were able to pull up a Facebook account of Jonathan's with him posting pictures, almost like they're down in Key West celebrating.
27:04We learned that Ross bought him the van for his construction business, would buy him tools and kind of help him out to get the business off the ground.
27:13So we're looking at the amount of time these two are spending together, um, the things Ross is doing for Jonathan.
27:21And we found out that Wheeler had done a 10-year prison term for an armed robbery of a Taco Bell.
27:28The weapon he used during that robbery was a knife, just like in Jerry's murder.
27:33Okay, well, we have a stabbing murder.
27:36Ross has been hiding this guy.
27:38This guy's done hard time.
27:40It's a violent background, and his weapon of choice is a knife.
27:44Looking into John Wheeler, we take that cell phone number that we kept questioning Ross about.
27:50We subpoenaed the phone company for copies of all the phone records.
27:54Cell phone records for that number that John was using showed him calling Jerry on Sunday the 26th, the day of the murder.
28:02Why was Jonathan's phone calling Jerry?
28:04This guy's starting to look better and better for the murder.
28:08So we were like, well, we need to talk to John Wheeler.
28:14I've never killed anybody in my life.
28:17Jonathan's an angry, violent person.
28:19Maybe he took all his anger out on Jerry that night.
28:22This is your business partner.
28:24Now, look at the damn picture.
28:26We wanted justice for Jerry.
28:28I was so frustrated.
28:29He's like, I don't even remember doing it, but I stabbed this guy.
28:41Cobb County investigators are zeroing in on Jerry's former business partner, Ross Byrne, and a man named John Wheeler.
28:49Not only did the two men communicate with each other over a dozen times on the day of the murder, but Wheeler has a violent past.
28:58His weapon of choice, a knife.
29:00He told us a friend of his introduced him to Ross, and Ross agreed to give him a job at the bakery.
29:26Yeah, but I'm not cut out for bakery.
29:30He fired me.
29:31But later on, he started his own construction business.
29:35John told us that he looked at Ross as a mentor, and someone he looked up to that would help him out.
29:41What about Jerry?
29:43When I first worked at the bakery, Jerry came on to me.
29:47Jerry, I'm not gay.
29:49Don't, don't try that.
29:51Why does this guy keep talking to me?
29:54John didn't like Jerry for that reason.
29:57So now we're looking at a possible motive.
30:00Try to think about that weekend, that Saturday, the Sunday, and the Monday.
30:05I honestly don't remember.
30:07It's funny that people can pick and choose what they want to remember and what they don't want to remember.
30:11I really don't remember last week.
30:13I work.
30:14We all work.
30:15I also did, like you said, 10 years, and you get locked in a slammer for 10 years, and your mind is shot.
30:22Looking at Jonathan's history, Jonathan's an angry, violent person.
30:27He had the anger already towards Jerry, and maybe he took all his anger out on Jerry that night.
30:33Investigators believe John Wheeler may be hiding something, but the only thing they have against him are suspicious phone records, not enough for a charge.
30:45They have no choice but to let him go.
30:48Then detectives dig deeper into his alibi and notice an inconsistency.
30:54We learned that John was at Ross's housewarming party, but when Ross was initially asked about who was at the party, he never mentions John being there.
31:04So we start taking the GPS locations for the calls, and we're able to plot the cell towers that these calls are hitting off of.
31:14Cell phone records for that number that John was using showed him at the cookout around 5 o'clock or so on that Sunday.
31:21Then it showed the phone going all the way down to Jerry's house.
31:25Almost an hour later, it showed the phone going back up to Ross's house.
31:30So we decided to bring Jonathan Wheeler back in for a second interview to confront him on this cell phone location.
31:40Do you remember what time you left this party?
31:44Where did you go after the party? Do you remember?
31:47Home? I don't really remember. I really don't.
31:51About two and a half hours later, like 7.51 p.m., you were up by Jerry's house.
31:58Do you remember that?
32:02There's no way I'm at...
32:04Man, this is... Dude, this is phone tower. This is cell phone records from the cell phone company.
32:09These don't lie, man. These... When they hit you with a tower, that's where you are.
32:14There's no way I'm by his house.
32:16You could say no way, but, man, your cell phone put you there.
32:19The reason I'm asking is why you're here, because Jerry's killed this night, man.
32:24That night?
32:25Mm-hmm.
32:25No, there's no way.
32:27He started getting angry, so we started really pushing the buttons now.
32:31I'm asking you why were you at Jerry's?
32:33I was not at Jerry's.
32:34He couldn't give a good explanation on it, and he became extremely agitated.
32:39So it started becoming more of an argument than an interview.
32:43I'm asking you why your phone's killed at Jerry's house.
32:46This telephone doesn't lie, man.
32:49I kept hitting him with, tell us why you killed Jerry.
32:52If you want to imply that I killed this guy, give me an attorney.
32:56Am I?
32:57Okay.
32:57I have never killed anybody in my life.
33:00All right.
33:01He ended up jumping up and said that he was leaving.
33:03No.
33:04He had no legal right to hang on to him.
33:06If you really think I did it, I'm going to laugh in your face.
33:09I'm going to laugh in your face.
33:11He's gone.
33:12We're not getting a confession out of him, but we shifted our focus at that point.
33:17We said, let's bring Ross in for another interview,
33:20and let's see if we can break Ross down and have Ross give him up.
33:25I know this.
33:27You know more than you're telling us because you're protecting him.
33:29This is probably one of our last chances at Ross to try to get Ross to fold.
33:34The phone call is him at the house calling you,
33:38and just so happens that Jerry is found dead.
33:44What are the odds of that?
33:46I'm trying to see if I can break him down.
33:48This is your business partner.
33:50No.
33:50Look at the damn picture.
33:52He was almost at a point where I thought he was going to break.
33:56Jerry is killed with a kitchen knife.
33:59Stabbed 32 times.
34:0332 times.
34:05That's your business partner right there.
34:07And I'm thinking, all right, we're there.
34:09We're almost over that hurdle, and we're going to get him to give him up.
34:12It's done.
34:13There's no turning the clock back anymore, okay?
34:16But now is your turn to say,
34:18man, it's separation time.
34:21Who has a reason to stab a man 32 times?
34:24You do.
34:25You've gained from his death.
34:28Either you're part of it, or you're not.
34:31He is one of us.
34:32And then he just stops.
34:34Jerry's dead, and Wheeler's there.
34:39Come to reality.
34:41And he just doesn't give us what we need.
34:45He knew the game, and he shut down.
34:47At this point, I'm frustrated.
34:52Hi.
34:53We know we're on to the right people,
34:56but I can't get that last piece I need.
34:59We had a circumstantial case,
35:02but it wasn't strong enough yet.
35:05So you go back, and you start looking back over things.
35:09What did I miss?
35:11I felt that I was beaten, that I lost.
35:14With Ross and John refusing to talk,
35:19detectives are at a standstill.
35:22Months pass with no movement on the case,
35:24and Ross goes on with his business,
35:27seemingly enjoying his doubled income,
35:29even treating himself to a Cadillac Escalade.
35:33The detectives were on to something,
35:36but they were always commenting about
35:38how they just didn't have the hard evidence
35:40to get a warrant for arrest.
35:44I was so frustrated because the detectives did so much,
35:49but Ross kept sliding by,
35:51and we wanted justice for Jerry.
35:55Here we are, eight months into the investigation.
35:58I'm stalled.
35:59I'm sitting at work,
36:01and I answer the phone,
36:03and it's a sergeant from Woodstock Police Department,
36:06about 10 miles from Jerry's house.
36:09And he's like,
36:10hey, I got this guy that showed up here,
36:13says he's got information on a bakery murder.
36:17And I was like, oh, my God,
36:18can you send that guy my way?
36:21And shortly after,
36:22Michael Thomason shows up at our office.
36:24He said his brother, a few weeks back,
36:42made a confession to him
36:43about killing a business partner of the bakery.
36:47This is exactly the break we needed.
36:50Eight months after Jerry Morris
36:59found stabbed to death in his own home,
37:02there's still not enough evidence
37:03for investigators to charge their two main suspects,
37:07Ross Byrne and John Wheeler, with murder.
37:10But all of that changes
37:12when Wheeler's brother comes into the station
37:14with an incredible story.
37:16One day he came over drunk,
37:19just wasted off his ass.
37:21Like recently or?
37:22A few weeks ago.
37:24Okay.
37:24And started telling me,
37:27I don't even remember doing it,
37:28but I stabbed this guy.
37:31He had stabbed the hell out of him.
37:34The reason why he decided to come forward
37:36was because Michael didn't want anyone else to get hurt.
37:39I wouldn't be able to sleep at night
37:40if he had a shootout and died,
37:41and a cop or somebody died.
37:43And he's told me before
37:44that he's not going back to prison.
37:46Michael also tells detectives
37:48that John Wheeler confessed details of the crime
37:51to his cousin and roommate, Cynthia,
37:54and that Ross knew that Jonathan killed Jerry.
37:58She explains to Michael that John told her
38:00that after the killing,
38:02he went up to Ross,
38:03and Ross cleaned him up
38:05and provided him a shirt and pants.
38:09Cynthia is brought in
38:10and ultimately agrees to cooperate with investigators.
38:13With her statement,
38:15they have enough to charge John Wheeler
38:17with Jerry Moore's murder.
38:19But Cynthia can't connect Ross
38:21to the planning of the murder,
38:22only that John sought Ross' help
38:24after Jerry was dead.
38:27They still don't have enough to charge Ross Byrne.
38:30Our theory is Ross doesn't have it in him
38:34to commit this crime,
38:35so Ross put Jonathan up to this,
38:37and he sent John to go to Jerry's house
38:39to kill him so he could take over the business.
38:42Ross was the person
38:44who had the most to gain from Jerry's death.
38:48Jonathan was arrested,
38:49but John refused to cooperate with us
38:51or conduct any more interviews with us.
38:53Jonathan wouldn't give Ross up.
38:55I don't know exactly what it was
38:57with that relationship,
38:59but even through the whole investigation,
39:01they lied for each other,
39:02and it seemed like
39:05that they weren't going to be the one
39:06that gave the other one up.
39:08Four years after Jerry Moore's murder,
39:13Jonathan's case comes up for trial.
39:16Cynthia testified in the trial against Jonathan.
39:18Michael testified against Jonathan.
39:21Jonathan Wheeler was ultimately sentenced
39:23to two consecutive life sentences
39:25without the possibility of parole.
39:28After we convicted Jonathan Wheeler,
39:30the jurors all asked a lot of questions
39:32about when we were going to charge Ross Byrne
39:34for his role in this case.
39:36They believed, as we did,
39:37that Ross Byrne was involved
39:39in orchestrating it as well.
39:42After Jonathan's trial was done,
39:44we started looking into Ross's financials
39:47and building all this evidence
39:48to be able to show how Ross gained from all of this.
39:51But it still wasn't the strongest case against him.
39:55But we decided to pull the trigger
39:57and say, let's do it.
39:59We arrested Ross Byrne
40:01and charged him for a conspiracy
40:02to have his former partner, Jerry Moore, killed.
40:05Ross is sitting in jail
40:07waiting for his court date.
40:09We decided to spread a rumor inside the prison
40:12that Jonathan Wheeler is planning to flip on Ross
40:15and implicate him in Jerry's murder.
40:19And Ross got nervous.
40:23Ross Byrne actually solicited another inmate
40:25to have Jonathan Wheeler killed.
40:27An inmate came forward
40:29and told one of the deputies
40:30that Ross was asking around,
40:33saying, hey, is there anybody here
40:35that would be willing?
40:36I'd pay him to kill him
40:38because this guy's going to try to flip on me.
40:41From a prosecutor's perspective,
40:43this is great evidence of what we call
40:45consciousness of guilt.
40:46There's no other reason why Ross Byrne,
40:48if he was innocent of these crimes,
40:50would want to have Jonathan Wheeler taken out.
40:52Ross Byrne is now slapped
40:55with two conspiracy to commit murder charges,
40:58one for Jerry Moore and one for Jonathan Wheeler.
41:02Facing life in prison,
41:03Ross decides to take a plea deal.
41:05He ended up getting 20 years.
41:08When the judge asked him,
41:09are you in fact guilty of all his charges?
41:13He said, yes.
41:15He admitted his guilt.
41:17This is one case I'll never forget,
41:22not only because it was my first one,
41:25but it was one of the most brutal ones I've worked.
41:28For Jerry Moore's friends and family,
41:30the long wait for justice is over.
41:34He really meant something to all of us,
41:37and especially to me.
41:39If he were in need,
41:41he was somebody good to have in your corner.
41:43I want everyone to know that Jerry Moore
41:47was a wonderful, wonderful friend.
41:51I miss his humor.
41:53I miss adventures we were going.
41:55I just miss his friendship.
41:59Jerry Moore was a loyal friend
42:01and a shrewd businessman
42:03who strode for success,
42:05both personally and professionally.
42:07His future looked bright,
42:09but he was betrayed by two people
42:11he should have been able to trust.
42:12Two people who valued money over friendship
42:15and put themselves before others.
42:19And unsuspecting Jerry Moore
42:20never saw it coming,
42:22all because of a killer relationship.
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