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00:10a cryptic phone call leads to an alarming discovery as they pulled away each piece of
00:17the clothing they were shocked to find that there was a person under there the suspected
00:23killer comes forward but the case is far from over this wasn't a whodunit it was a question of
00:31why she did it and whether or not it was justified she said she was trying to protect herself and
00:39her
00:39children from this madman he was six foot seven and 230 pounds his body was a weapon but no one
00:49that knows him believes her claims no one and as the investigation unfolds the evidence suggests
00:58nothing is quite what it seems if he passed away in the morning and we didn't get a call till
01:0511
01:05o'clock at night what was going on during all of those hours if she's lying about that what else
01:12is
01:12she lying about on august 7th 2012 police in carlsbad california receive an unusual call the on-duty
01:38watch commander for the carlsbad police department received a call on a back line that's not recorded
01:45that's very rare and that has to have somebody who knows the number to that watch commander
01:53despite the special circumstances what the caller appears to be requesting is a simple welfare check
02:00for a resident named jason harper the person identified himself as the former district attorney
02:08paul finks who had now become a prominent defense attorney in san diego county
02:18the carlsbad police department responded immediately and they were there in the neighborhood within a few
02:24minutes the lights in the home are off and no one answers the door they noticed that the doors
02:32were locked and there was no sign of force entry the officers did check around the perimeter they did
02:39find a door that was open and they entered the home to do the check it was very cluttered but
02:47it
02:48appeared to be just a normal home with nothing out of the ordinary not find anybody on the first floor
02:54they go to the second story and check all the bedrooms bathrooms etc as they entered that primary bedroom
03:03of the home they were immediately confronted with many objects almost to the point of a hoarder
03:09numerous items of clothing and bags on the floor it was hard to navigate around
03:17it was just piled up on the floor like it was junk and as they pulled away each piece of
03:23the clothing
03:23they were shocked to find that there was a person under there
03:30he was noticeably deceased he did not have a pulse we were able to based on his height his weight
03:40and what
03:41he looked like determined it was mr harper he was laying face down there was what appeared to be a
03:49bullet hole in jason harper's back on the side and that blood had been coming out onto his shirt
03:58officers secure the crime scene and homicide detectives arrive there was no weapons found
04:05near the body but they went in the closet and they did find a loaded shotgun
04:10but it was clear based on the entry wound that this was not a shotgun blast obviously the fact
04:16that it was in a state of disarray and it looked like a hoarder's den made it particularly difficult
04:20for law enforcement to sort and go through the entirety of evidence as we looked through the bedroom
04:28we found multiple bottles of prescription drugs many of them were empty and in bags most of them were
04:35prescribed to julie harper based on the name investigators assume julie harper is jason's wife
04:44the police officers looked at the family pictures all over the house and they were able to see
04:50the identity of the family that was living there we learned that they had three children the officers
04:57wondered where the other members of the family were where are the children and where is the wife
05:04not knowing what happened or transpired our biggest concern were the safety of the children and julie
05:12and we were trying to find out ways to figure out where they were the best way for us to
05:19do that is to
05:19interview family members and friends that knew jason to get an understanding of who the person was
05:26to help us to help us tell the story of what occurred
05:34jason harper was born october 30th 1972 and grew up in the greater los angeles area jason was soft-spoken
05:44just an easy person to be around i called jason the gentle giant is what my nickname was for him
05:49back then
05:51you couldn't miss him just because of his stature and his height his demeanor was so calm he could be
05:59very intimidating because he was tall but just a sweet sweet sweet person jason went to the university
06:07of california los angeles ucla he was a proud bruin it's my understanding that he was actually a two-time
06:14national champion volleyball player jason remained single throughout college and for many years after
06:24but in his late 20s he met a striking young woman at a party named julie sayak jason harper was
06:32a new
06:32teacher living in la when he met julie they came from very different backgrounds and different neighborhoods
06:40i know she came from money her father is a successful businessman julie i believe studied
06:46at harvard at some point i think she also went to the university of southern california usc
06:56they were immediately smitten with each other and jason proposed around six months after they met
07:03julie and jason got married they moved to carlsbad and they ended up having three children together in
07:11this neighborhood julie really thrived in being a stay-at-home mom and made her happy my fondest memory
07:20of julie is just hanging out and doing wines with the moms at someone's house in the neighborhood just
07:26having the camaraderie of women really just laughing and cracking jokes and enjoying some vino and doing
07:35our thing also jason was a really good neighbor and there was an instance when our family was out of
07:43town and we got a text that our sprinkler had blown and jason he immediately just took care of that
07:49no second thoughts about that he was a well-liked teacher at carlsbad high he was a high school
07:55volleyball coach and he was a math teacher there as well he never yelled he never put them down he
08:01was just soft-spoken he was even killed jason was just an easy person to be around jillie and jason
08:07seemed like a really nice couple they had these lovely kids they had the supportive families
08:13it is the american dream i know that's cliche but they had what most people want
08:20they fit right in they belonged where they were
08:27now the harper's idyllic home life has been shattered by a horrifying discovery jason has
08:35been found murdered and his wife and children appear to be missing the police need to figure out
08:41what happened where's julie where are the children and why is jason harper dead there are a number of
08:49possibilities this could have been a burglary however there was no sign of forced entry and the
08:54unusual manner in which the body had been buried under all this clothing didn't seem like your typical
09:00burglary the first thing i thought was there was some form of domestic violence that occurred
09:07potentially a kidnapping but not having the evidence to know which one it was
09:12we were really focused on trying to find the kids and julie
09:19investigators begin their search by speaking with the attorney who requested the welfare check
09:25he said that he was representing miss julie harper
09:31mr finks was very cryptic as to the details and didn't want to give away too much information
09:37he just informed us that she would be turning herself in
09:43so you're obtaining a well-known defense attorney and negotiating when you are going to go in
09:51to turn yourself into the police it was something that made us definitely on high alert
10:00this wasn't a whodunit it was a question of why she did it and whether or not it was justified
10:14coming up julie's attorney goes public the defense attorney was already out painting a picture
10:22of a woman who was abused but in search of the truth detectives turn to their only witnesses
10:30it feels bad does anybody ever get hurt one time the kids hear yelling from the master bedroom
10:40and then they hear a loud thud
10:57and they hear a loud thud
10:58hours after the august 2012 welfare check on jason harper that led police to discover him shot to
11:05death his wife julie is preparing to surrender herself to investigators
11:12her lawyer mr finks informed the police that julie and the kids were safe and that they were at her
11:18father's house in scripps ranch the day after the shooting at approximately three o'clock she turned
11:26herself in to law enforcement at her father's house in scripps ranch julie came out of the home and
11:32voluntarily went with them julie didn't make any statements to police she invoked her rights under
11:39miranda to remain silent after that the police execute a search warrant of her father's house
11:48they didn't notice anything of importance or evidentiary value
11:54neither julie nor her attorney offer any details to explain the shooting
12:01instead julie's attorney speaks with the media soon after julie's arrest she wants to be with her
12:09children the defense attorney was already out painting a picture of a woman who was abused
12:16and was the victim of domestic violence and he was able to begin controlling the narrative in the news
12:26based on the timing and circumstances detectives aren't ready to accept julie's version of what
12:33happened there was a big question in my mind of why did she not call 911 why did she not
12:42try to
12:42provide life-saving efforts if this was self-defense when someone says i have been a victim of abuse
12:51in any way shape or form we should believe them but in this case we're talking about a murder
12:57it needs to be proven
13:00to verify julie's claims authorities search for any record of prior domestic abuse we did find one
13:09call for service at the home about a dispute between the two that call was made nine months before
13:16the shooting on november 4th 2011 the caller was the harper's eldest son the police arrived and they
13:25determined that this was just a verbal confrontation and nothing physical had happened and so they left
13:31despite the lack of a history of violence investigators know it's still possible it had been occurring
13:39in domestic violence cases it's very common that abuse occurred for a long period of time before
13:45something's ever said they turn their attention to the only other potential witnesses the harper's
13:54children the children are eight years old and six years old there was also a baby in the house
14:01and the first step was to have the eight-year-old and the six-year-old interviewed
14:06the police took the children to do a forensic interview and a forensic interview is basically
14:13an opportunity for an experienced professional to interview the children by asking non-suggestive
14:20non-leading questions the children were asked about any violence between the father jason and the
14:30mother julie how do you feel when they're yelling loud you feel sad you feel sad yeah does anybody ever
14:39get hurt one time that fix fisking like daddy grab one but that's the only time she did it was
14:48at
14:48thanksgiving at thanksgiving that happened daddy grab right here that was a long time
14:54right after establishing a rapport with the children the forensic investigator asks them to describe
15:04what happened earlier that day mr day morning yeah tell me about the last time you saw your dad well
15:13you're
15:13looking for his computer julie and jason were arguing over a computer jason was going to leave the residence
15:22and get another computer when julie told him that she had hidden it in the bedroom upstairs when your dad
15:30was
15:31looking for his computer did he how did he seem to be did he seem uh he was pretty pissed
15:36mom and dad go
15:39upstairs and then the kids hear the yelling from the master bedroom and then all of a sudden they hear
15:46a
15:46loud thud both kids ran upstairs to the master bedroom to see what that sound was
15:55they tried to open the door the door the door appeared to be blocked by something julie answered
16:01the door and she basically said your father just fell off a chair he's fine go downstairs eventually
16:09their mom came out and said that daddy was sleeping and that they needed to go the kids described going
16:17to
16:17a coffee shop the son said that they ended up at their grandfather's house
16:26although the children didn't witness the shooting their story provides detectives with a timeline of events
16:34they were watching a specific cartoon that they were able to describe
16:37we were able to determine what time that cartoon was airing
16:41uh in our region and we determined that between uh 8 and 9 a.m is when jason was killed
16:49the children said that they went to a coffee shop and they ended up finding a receipt in julie's car
16:55for la costa coffee for 9 41. if he passed away in the morning and we didn't get a call
17:02until
17:0211 o'clock at night that night what was going on during all of those hours
17:10we took all of this information as well as the coffee shop receipt and we were able to go and
17:16retrace her day the barista said that julie was acting relatively normal and didn't seem frazzled or
17:25concerned or worried about anything it almost seems psychopathic that she was able to go about her day
17:32in such a nonchalant manner while planning her next steps the real question i had is what took place
17:40during the actual shooting what precipitated this shooting was there a conversation or was this a
17:49planned first degree murder and we needed to do some real forensic work to get more information so we
17:55could figure out what to do next and figure out exactly how this happened
18:16california authorities have arrested julie harper for the shooting death of her husband jason harper
18:24and investigators are skeptical of julie's claims of self-defense when they first processed julie i
18:32remember looking through all those photographs and there isn't a single speck of a bruise or a scratch
18:39or any sort of mark to indicate that julie had just recently been in some sort of a physical confrontation
18:45at all
18:48detectives hope an autopsy will provide more definitive answers
18:53there was a 38 caliber bullet that was recovered from jason's body what we wanted to determine was
19:00the bullet entrance and its trajectory to help us determine what jason's movement was at the time
19:08of the incident was he going towards her was he going away from her generally you would see evidence of
19:15stippling or soot if he was within three feet and there was no evidence of that jason was shot in
19:23the left rib cage kind of more towards the back of the rib cage and the bullet traveled at a
19:29upward
19:30trajectory from the left rib cage and rested right here in the right pectoral and it ended up piercing his
19:37heart to me what that entry wound indicated was that jason was actually probably turning his body
19:44away from julie at the moment that she pulled the trigger
19:50the day after the shooting investigators still aren't convinced by julie's version of events
19:56so they turned to the harper's closest friends and family
20:00i wanted to know whether there was anything to corroborate her claim whether witnesses had seen her
20:06being abused after a thorough investigation we weren't able to find a single friend
20:13or family member who is able to give any indication of past abuse
20:22neighbors say it was julie's behavior not jason's that concerned them there was a lot of speculation
20:29because her demeanor her persona her personality has started to change in different ways after the
20:37second child was born there was a shift in julie's warm attentive nature as a mother
20:45according to the neighbors julie's decline worsened after the arrival of the harper's third child
20:52police are talking to a lot of people that know julie harper personally and what many of them said
20:58collectively is i don't know who this person is anymore she used to be present and now we don't see
21:05her
21:05her there was concern about her well-being there was some suspicion that she was going through
21:12postpartum depression and that certainly uh increased the deterioration that she was going through
21:20your house can't be a hundred percent clean all the time especially with little kids
21:24but julie's house was normally more well-appointed and it was kind of just kind of a disaster over there
21:36and it was kind of a disaster over there when they offered julie support she explained she'd been
21:40suffering from various medical issues julie was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis which is very
21:48debilitating and painful she was prescribed by a legitimate physician medicine to manage that pain
21:56she was seeking doctors that would prescribe her opioids and narcotics to help remedy that problem
22:03it appeared that she had been abusing these medications because she was taking a whole lot of pills
22:11police were stunned by the amount of prescription drugs that were in that home 52 bottles is a lot
22:20and when you look and see when these prescriptions were written within a year there were thousands upon
22:26thousands of pills that were taken between september 2011 and august 2012 julie's drug dependence deepened
22:38and began to take a toll on her marriage some of the themes that we were getting from the friends
22:43and
22:44family is that it was clear that this relationship was kind of at the end of its rope
22:49and my theory is that i think he said i want to get a divorce we should get a divorce
22:57i think that really upset her because she was trying to save the marriage
23:05when investigators check court records they learned the harpers were in the process of getting a divorce
23:13but jason wasn't the one who initiated it we learned that julie had filed for divorce from jason
23:21five days prior to the shooting she listed that there had been verbal abuse
23:29we think she wanted to be the first to kind of set this set the tone about what was going
23:34on in
23:35the relationship i do think she wanted to have custody of the kids and so that's why she initiated the
23:39divorce herself she's a clever savvy person and she's always thinking about the next step
23:49coming up a second search warrant uncovers a damning piece of evidence this appeared to me
23:57to be a getaway bag and julie finally breaks her silence he was coming towards me with his arms raised
24:05and he said i'm gonna kill you
24:23investigators have spent just over a week examining julie and jason harper's personal lives
24:29and while evidence of domestic violence is thin they have found a motive for murder
24:38the divorce filing it really just set the stage for her state of mind on the morning of the shooting
24:46she files for divorce and cites abuse and she cites i don't feel safe he's abusing me i'm afraid
24:54those are things she wanted to make sure were on record before she did this
25:03and when detectives speak with jason's mother they discover julie's escape plan didn't end with the
25:10divorce jason's mother lina saw jason the night before and they conversed about jason
25:19seen what he believed was fraud on his credit cards julie wrote two forty five hundred dollar
25:26checks against jason's credit cards and cashed those
25:32bank records confirm julie cashed the checks one week before the shooting
25:39julie was able to withdraw the cash by forging jason's signature
25:44we were able to get bank video of her going into the bank and the signature didn't match jason's
25:50signature this was a possible sign that she had been planning the killing we believed it was related
25:58to her premeditation and deliberation we also wondered whether he had confronted her about the divorce
26:05filing and the money that was stolen on the morning of the shooting
26:15as a theory of murder takes shape investigators want more evidence to ensure a conviction
26:23we felt like we missed something in her dad's home and we wanted to have an opportunity to search it
26:30again to gather more evidence police did a search warrant on august 16th about nine days after the shooting
26:40i would say a dozen detectives and myself went out to really thoroughly search the residents
26:50we went to the garage area that has been searched before and we went into an attic space
26:59while i was photographing the attic i noticed that there was a right as you get to the top there
27:04was
27:04a blue jansport backpack i went back down the stairs and i was like hey detectives make sure that you
27:11look
27:11that backpack up there because it seems out of place it appeared that it had been hidden there and
27:18it was hidden for a reason so the police opened it up inside that backpack was jason's cell phone
27:26julie's cell phone jewelry jason's last will and testament some passports
27:35and interestingly enough a naked photo of jason he was laying on what appeared to be like a hotel bed
27:44in
27:45the nude that in itself is bizarre and disturbing i don't know why she would need that there was also
27:55a 32 caliber pistol and that belonged to julie that was registered in her name
28:04the caliber is not a match for the weapon that killed jason but to detectives the contents of the
28:11backpack are telling this appeared to me to be a getaway bag it's something that a killer would use
28:18in order to flee the jurisdiction i think the purpose of having the passports is for her and the
28:25oldest two kids to get out of the country i think the jewelry is pricey so she need to sell
28:31it but the
28:32last will and testament kind of stumps me because if you're found guilty the money you're going to
28:39get is not going to be from his last one testament the backpack was important i think it kind of
28:47telltale
28:48sign this was pre-planned she knew and then she did a really good job of retaining her attorney and
28:55making it difficult for us i would say the level of planning that she was able to go through after
29:02the fact and the steps that she took to cover it up showed me that she wasn't really abused and
29:08as long
29:08as a person thought about their actions and planned to take the actions before the killing that constitutes
29:16first-degree murder we were ready to prove to a jury that this woman intentionally killed her husband
29:39in september 2014 two years after jason harper was shot to death his wife julie harper stands trial for
29:48premeditated murder as expected julie claims self-defense but her attorney surprises everyone by
29:58putting julie on the stand most defendants choose not to take the witness stand but this was not your
30:07typical defendant she was extremely smart and she was ready to tell her story julie claimed that jason was
30:16loud he was verbally abusive and that she was scared of him she said she was trying to protect herself
30:23and her children from this madman
30:29as evidence julie provides video recordings of jason's behavior
30:37you bitch carpool bitch figure it out can't help it if you're too dumb to do it too lazy seems
30:45like the
30:45b-i-t-c-h is the only word that you can use that is darn right that's what you
30:51are
31:02it can paint the picture that he could be this kind of guy that could become unhinged
31:10once again i'm not paying for anything i'm paying for the vacation that's bull i am
31:17that isn't true when we saw these videos in court i knew that they didn't make jason look good because
31:24he was being angry and he was yelling at julie but just because someone's angry and yelling at their
31:31spouse there's a huge step from that to physically abusing them and julie swears under oath that jason
31:39didn't stop with verbal abuse she claimed that she was repeatedly raped by him every single day
31:48i said stop stop what are you doing stop
31:54the defense enters julie's personal journal as further evidence the journal apparently was the
32:02evidence that would according to julie corroborate her testimony that she was being raped by jason
32:10in her journal she would write sex next to the date that this happened and she said that the word
32:16sex was code for rape
32:21but aside from julie's private journal the defense cannot present any evidence to corroborate her claims
32:30it's hard to refute if he's not here but no one that knows jason believes her claims no one
32:37nobody had any indication that she was going to claim this until we went to trial there was no
32:43physical evidence or videos or audio that would tend to show that jason harper had raped his wife
32:52instead the defense relies on julie's emotional recounting of the events that unfolded on august 7th 2012
33:02what julie said was they were arguing with one another he got this crazy look in his eye
33:10she said he ran up to her screaming and began taking off her clothes she believed she was going to
33:17be raped
33:17again he was coming towards me with his arms raised and he said i'm gonna kill you
33:29that was the first time we had ever heard julie harper say anything about jason harper threatening to
33:39kill her knowing what i know of jason and the gentle giant that he was i don't believe he was
33:46ever like
33:46that i grabbed my gun from under my pillow i turned around i told him stop did you stop no
33:58i said stay
33:59back felt my hand jerk and heard the loud noise and he was still like coming forward at me
34:10and then all of a sudden he froze completely and that he fell with a thud on the ground
34:23she claims she could tell within seconds that he was gone the biggest surprise during her testimony was
34:32what she had done with the gun she claims that she buried it in somebody's yard or something like
34:40that to preserve it for evidence but it's our belief that she disposed of it because it showed her guilt
34:51to prosecutors the story is an obvious fabrication
34:57as good as good as she was at testifying i knew that her story was simply contradicted by the physical
35:05forensic evidence from the autopsy
35:09what she basically said was that he was approaching her and he did not turn away and that at the
35:15moment
35:15that she pulled the trigger he was standing directly in front of her and so the physical evidence
35:21directly disputed what she said actually happened the medical examiner determined there was a single
35:29gunshot wound to jason harper's back on the side near his rib cage the bullet entered from behind and
35:39traveled to the front after closing arguments the jury retires to deliberate
35:51the jury after hearing the evidence determined that we did not prove the case beyond a reasonable
35:55doubt as it relates to first degree murder and elected to acquit julie
36:02the jury was hung nine to three for not guilty on second degree murder and so the court declared a
36:08mistrial i was shocked and disappointed at the outcome and the prospect of having to do this trial
36:16all over again was a daunting one a trial date is set for the following year and julie is released
36:26on bond yeah for the first trial she just wanted to come back in like life is normal so she
36:34was going
36:34to concerts when she was out living in the house that she murdered her husband and having a good time
36:41the kids were i believe under the care and custody of jason's parents
36:52as we approached that second trial date julie informed the judge that she needed to delay the trial
36:59again we learned that julie had intentionally become pregnant
37:07through an artificial insemination i absolutely think it was a tactic to try to be found not guilty by
37:17either being pregnant during trial and or having a baby right before going to trial
37:39a year after her first trial for the suspected murder of her husband jason harper ended with a hung
37:46jury julie harper's second trial begins in september 2015 following an unexpected pregnancy delay
37:56whether the recent birth of her fourth child will result in sympathy from the jury remains to be seen
38:04once again julie took the witness stand and she stuck to her story it was a story about being a
38:10battered
38:11woman who is physically verbally and sexually abused
38:18now that they are familiar with her defense strategy prosecutors have a new approach what we
38:26were going to do is we were going to ask her about all the times that she's lied about this
38:31case
38:31and there was literally hundreds of questions
38:38they carefully dissect each piece of evidence pointing out inconsistencies
38:44they begin with the videos the defense used to establish jason's abuse
38:51you
38:51it was clear that obviously jason was frustrated but what was also clear to me is that jason wasn't
39:01doing anything physically violent this was strictly a verbal argument and then when you
39:08looked at her journal things just didn't add up she says that this man had raped her over and over
39:14and
39:14over again spousal rape 30 plus times is what she's accusing this man of but she also was writing in
39:21her journal at the same time that she says she's being raped that she wants more sex with him she
39:26was
39:27actually frustrated with his sexual prowess and wanted it to last longer that doesn't compute with someone
39:35who is violating you in one of the worst ways possible continuously
39:45jason's search history from the morning he was shot also contradicts julie's claims
39:51julie had said that basically that from around 8 30 to approximately 9 a.m jason was trying to rape
39:58her
39:58essentially and what we found was that he was actually on his own computer looking up resources
40:05to help him with his soon to be pending divorce he could not have been simultaneously browsing and
40:12searching the internet at 8 36 in the morning and raping julie harper if she's lying about that what
40:19else is she lying about the prosecution argues that julie's desperation didn't stem from any alleged abuse
40:30but her own dissatisfaction with her life her relationship was crumbling mostly because of her
40:38own actions she just snapped completely just snapped
40:44this time the jury is less sympathetic to julie's claims julie was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder
40:52and using a firearm in the commission of that murder she is sentenced to 40 years to life
40:5815 was for the murder and 25 was for the gun charge
41:05i mean normal people don't around killing their husbands or spouses and go have coffee or whatever
41:10i do believe that julie got exactly what she deserved that's a long time that's a long time
41:18i think one of the worst parts about this other than jason losing his life is that julie took real
41:26stories from real people that sometimes don't make it out alive and she took these stories she concocted
41:36this plan for her own benefit and didn't think about how anybody else would feel about it other than
41:43herself julie harper ruined jason's life she had shot and killed him and then she tried to destroy his
41:51legacy by dragging his name through the mud it was all very shocking and sad i think jason's stuff could
41:59have been easily prevented i think something within that combination of whatever medications she was
42:05taking or misusing and whatever was going on in her head caused her to snap the biggest tragedy is the
42:14children it's hard enough for a child to lose any parent much less two they respect jason and i remember
42:21jason she killed a great great man jason was such a good person he was such a value such an
42:28asset and just
42:29his loss was immense and it was felt and it still felt
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