Tuesday, Mar 8, 2022 • 47min

Southwest Terror: 2011 (Modesta & Liz Lowe)

Anatomy of Murder

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A violent offender strikes again. And his trial pits him against his abductee from decades past.

Talking about

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(4)

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

Scott Weinberger

Forest Beetle

Transcript

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Scott Weinberger

00:00

Previously on "Anatomy Of Murder".

Liz Lowe

00:05

I was a victim of the Southwest Rapist.

Forest Beetle

00:08

This is a sociopath that raped thirty women allegedly.

Liz Lowe

00:13

That person was killed that night. That person died.

Forest Beetle

00:19

He plead out the forty-five year sentences, unfortunately it did not stick.

Liz Lowe

00:24

I just always always knew in my heart that he was going to get out.

Forest Beetle

00:31

The word immediately went out that Rory Jones is being released, and Roy Jones is coming to

Denton County

Scott Weinberger

00:48

I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

00:52

I'm Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's, True Conviction.

Scott Weinberger

00:60

And this is "Anatomy Of Murder".

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

01:04

Today's story is a continuation of last week's episode but it is really a completely separate case from last week's. However, we're telling them both to you together because the stories are linked. So, we recommend that if you hadn't already listened to it, go back please and listen to part one. So, you can truly appreciate how today's story comes back full circle.

Scott Weinberger

01:27

Last week we featured a former prosecutor from

Denton County

Texas,

Forest Beetle who now sits as a judge. His passion for the law runs deep in his roots.

Forest Beetle

01:38

My father and grandfather were both attorneys. My sister is an attorney too, so it runs pretty strong in the blood the law that is.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

01:44

But law wasn't his first passion.

Forest Beetle

01:47

I went into the Army is a regular army officer in the Tank Corps, and I was a tank platoon leader.

Scott Weinberger

01:54

His assignment was an infantry tank officer, which is exactly what it sounds like responsible for tank and calvary forward reconnaissance on the battlefield. It's a job that requires thinking on your feet, in really stressful situations. Which I believe is a perfect setup for a career in crime fighting.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

02:11

I am not a military gal without a lot of military expertise but tank is kind of the epitome of cool, you know, when you're talking about that world.

Forest Beetle

02:20

Initially when I left the service, I didn't plan on going to law school but I enjoyed just about every moment of being a prosecutor at the DA's office.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

02:29

When you think about how he went from platoon leader to prosecutor, you know, right away comes to mind how important it is to always be vigilant as a trial attorney and also never to underestimate the other side.

Scott Weinberger

02:41

But, whether you're on the front lines in the battlefield or in the courtroom, there wasn't much that could prepare for his beetle for the likes of Rory Keith Jones. A person that he describes as pure evil.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

02:54

Back in the early 1980s, Rory Jones and his accomplices had committed unspeakable crimes. A series of abductions, sexual assaults against women, the community and the media notoriously dubbed them the Southwest Rapists.

Forest Beetle

03:10

I can only imagine what it was doing down in

Harris County

, especially the media was reporting it and then giving them nicknames. I'm just about to turn fifty.

03:17

I'm old enough to remember vaguely Ted Bundy in

Florida

, the huge terror that that kind of causes when you have a couple of guys like this running around doing these horrific things to people. I mean, there's a devastating effect on the community because it just puts everybody in fear.

Scott Weinberger

03:36

Jones received a forty-five year sentence. But because of a charge reversal, he was paroled in just twenty-seven years, and once released, he settled in

Denton County

where his sister resided.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

03:48

And

Denton County

was soon notified of his presence.

Scott Weinberger

03:51

Since

Roy Jones

was classified as a

Sexual Offender

and as it is in most states,

Texas

requires notifications to not only law enforcement but to the citizens that live in the general area where he resides.

Forest Beetle

04:04

The sex offender unit and

Carrollton

P. D got a notice that Rory is being paroled, and before he even hit town they already had a flyer up on Rory. It's just a little one page almost looks like a wanted poster, you know, had his book in photographs, the current photograph of him at fifty one then of course what he was convicted of and what he was on parole for.

Scott Weinberger

04:23

And within just a couple of months of his release, on June 23rd, 2011, police get a disturbing call from a hotel owner.

Forest Beetle

04:33

Mr. Patel, the owner of this hotel was the one that made the 911 call that someone was messing with one of his housekeepers.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

04:41

A housekeeper was being attacked, someone was attempting to abduct her and sexually assault her.

Forest Beetle

04:47

Something clearly amiss was going on. You could hear a lot of excited voices in the background, and you could hear quite a bit of very excited and upset Spanish in the background.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

04:57

Now we're only going to use her first name Modesta, to protect her identity.

Scott Weinberger

05:01

Here is how she described the attack in detail to the first officers on scene.

Forest Beetle

05:07

She and her sister had finished cleaning the rooms and she was taking a break in the hotel that they were at. It was like a big rectangle, and so at every corner and then in the middle you had stairwells that went up and down the different levels. She was sitting on one of the first couple of steps of the stairs smoking a cigarette, I believe.

Scott Weinberger

05:24

A man walked past her but then comes back behind her, armed with a screwdriver telling her if she didn't do what he said, he would stab her.

Forest Beetle

05:34

And that's when he started to try to take her. She started screaming, as he's trying to drag her off.

Scott Weinberger

05:39

Then he began beating her and dragging her towards a truck in the parking lot.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

05:44

She is able to wrestle her way away from him and she runs straight to the room where she was staying at the hotel with her sister. Now inside that room was her small young child. But that wasn't it? It wasn't over because that attacker came back and was beating on the door refusing to go away.

Forest Beetle

06:01

And that's when the handyman there for the place, it was a former marine, he comes up and starts screaming and he's like, "What are you doing?" He didn't know what was going on, but he said there was no way he was gonna let that guy get in the door.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

06:12

It was only now when the hotel owner and more people started to amass that the attacker finally fled.

06:23

There is really something about this scenario that is quite different. It is the brazenness of the attacker, the relentless pursuit even after she escapes and gets into her room, he doesn't flee to get away because there's obviously presumably a big commotion. He goes back to her room and is beating on the door to try to get in, to make sure that he gets what he came there for. And he's only thwarted and flees when there are too many people coming and he thinks that he might actually get caught if he doesn't make his escape.

Scott Weinberger

06:57

Just to give you a sense of how often weapons are used in sexual assault cases. Here's some numbers. In eleven percent of sexual assault incidents, the perpetrator use a weapon, six percent of the time using a gun, four percent of the time, a knife and one percent other types of weapons. So, in this case it falls into the one percent because the weapon of attack was a screwdriver. And an interesting fact, eight out of ten people knew their victim. But, Modesta did not know her attacker. So, it was not the norm.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

07:29

At the time, the police had no idea who this perpetrator was and when we're talking about a suspect like this, every single moment counts. It is not an if, when or but it is that they are going to strike again.

Scott Weinberger

07:43

And this investigation would get into high gear pretty quickly after investigators located that a building next door did have surveillance cameras that we're running at the time of the incident.

Forest Beetle

07:54

There was a Northern Tool Store next door, and so we didn't capture the actual offense on camera, but we captured a partial license plate along with the make and model of the truck. And he was able to very quickly identify the truck and who owned it and in this case it was either Rory or his sister.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

08:11

And while they had surveillance footage, first of all it was grainy and it didn't show who was speeding away inside. So, obviously for investigators, they need to make sure that the person they're apprehending is the right person indeed.

Forest Beetle

08:24

Remember I told you about the sex offender notification? Bulletin that

Carrollton

PD printed up, guess what detective Anders used to identify Rory Jones at the scene with both Modesta and also Mr. Patel, the marine and also her sister.

Scott Weinberger

08:38

Rory Jones was I. D as the attacker. Police know the who but they don't know the where. They still have to find Rory Jones and police would turn to a high tech device to help them and it would bring the biggest break in this case.

Forest Beetle

08:54

Once he was able to identify Rory, he realized he lived over in

Carrollton

. He contacted

Carrollton

PD and that's when he also learned that State Parole had him on a

GPS

monitor.

Scott Weinberger

09:04

Jones was not wearing a typical

GPS

device, not the kind that normally would be worn as an ankle bracelet. This was a much larger device that fits in a Fanny pack around his waist.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

09:16

You know, I'm never going to be that good at the mechanics about where someone wears a

GPS

device. We all know the ones from the movies that are in your ankle. And this waist one based on what we will soon hear was much more sophisticated than some. First of all, you have to remember this was 2011 and while technology has come a long way, this wasn't one that just could basically give a geographic locale. It was able to plot where at a particular address somebody was.

Forest Beetle

09:42

Detective Anders gets ahold another one of the parole officers and they tell them exactly where he's at. And you know, he can't believe it. He was like good Lord, that that's just like six blocks from me. And as he pulls up, he sees Rory in the parking lot.

Scott Weinberger

09:56

And when they were approaching him and he steps out, they do notice that he has a large bulge under his shirt. That could be a volatile situation because the first thought of the first response of an officer is could that be a weapon?

Forest Beetle

10:09

So he jumps out, pulls his gun, orders him on the ground. He almost shoots Jones because of this battery pack and this

GPS

monitor. He doesn't know what this thing looks like. He knows he's got a

GPS

but he's assuming it's something on his ankle. And Jones keeps trying to tell him something about this battery pack and of course Anders thinks he's trying to draw a gun. At the last split second he decided not to shoot him, and he realized that this was not a weapon, it was something else.

10:40

And so he takes him into custody there, this

GPS

device that he's got on the signal finally dies. Once they get him back to

Lewisville

PD and they literally cut it off of him.

Scott Weinberger

10:50

You know, in the beginning, these devices were really developed as a deterrent to make sure if a parolee was required to remain within a certain city or a county. That authorities would be alerted if they broke that condition of their parole. It has, over the years become a much more valuable tool and this case is an excellent example of that.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

11:10

So it may not seem obvious that it's Jones who is Modesta attacker. But there was going to be a problem in saying that in open court and that is because how Modesta identified Rory Jones. Remember investigators took the first photograph they could find a single photo and that was his sex offender registration and that's what they showed her.

11:29

Well, you cannot show a witness or a victim, a complainant a single photo. Because by its very nature it is suggestive. So, the argument is there for the taking. That well, was she identifying the photograph? Because it's a

Sexual Offender

, it must be him or is it just because it's a single photo itself. You're never using that in court, so, now they're basically left with a witness who can't I. D her attacker.

Forest Beetle

11:55

Detective Anders at the second I brought up because I knew you were gonna get after me about that. I'm like yes I am. We can't use the identification you did at the scene. It's coercive is what it is and that's the case on this. I said so her identification at the scene is out, and I understand what he was doing. He wanted to catch this guy because he was afraid he was gonna rape and kill somebody, and so he wanted to get him in custody so he wanted to verify the identity. So, good cop work there. But bad trial work down the road on top of that.

Scott Weinberger

12:22

The surveillance video didn't actually capture Jones committing the crime. It has him in the area and then fleeing in his truck. So, investigators need more evidence and his digital footprint captured on that

GPS

tracking device. This is where it comes into play.

Forest Beetle

12:37

You could literally see the dot as it moved through there. So, we had what I kind of referred to as step one which was cased the place and he was watching the place. You have step two, which is the actual crime. So, you can see Rory walk right past where Modesta said she was. And you see him go up the stairs on the other end of the building, come back around and then come up behind her. And then you see the dot kind of jump around a little bit. And then step three, he gets in his car and he races off.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

13:01

And after escaping, he fled right back to his sister's house.

Forest Beetle

13:06

And he hangs around his sister's house for a few minutes and you see phase four, which is him drive over to the hotel. Well, then you see him drive down the clinic.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

13:14

As part of Jones parole requirement, he had to go to a clinic and attend mental health counseling and receive medication.

Forest Beetle

13:20

And that's critical because Rory's

MHMR

was not in

Carrollton

. He went to the one in

Lewisville,

and the location in

Lewisville

was just a few blocks maybe a mile or two from the hotel where this eventually occurred.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

13:33

Now right there at least to me, there's a reason he goes back there. It's almost like establishing an alibi giving him a legitimate reason to be in the area. Which at least in my mind based on my own putting this together, that's almost how he picked this hotel to commit his attack. It was almost this crime of opportunity.

13:52

So, while he is there, how easy for him to say if he has to, if they ultimately put it together that it was him that he'd been going to the clinic, maybe had to go home and charge his device and now he's coming back and sure he's going to slow down and stop when he sees all the police activity at the hotel. So, it's almost setting up that hey, this is where I'm supposed to be all along. I wasn't over there committing the crime.

Forest Beetle

14:13

I felt like based off how he moved around the hotel, he was very aware of what the hotel looked like, how it was set up. It was right by the interstate. It allowed good access points and exit points out of the area and also probably aware that Modesta and her sister worked there. I think he had cased the place quite frankly. But although I had no evidence of that, it's just the way he moved.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

14:37

I want to just pause from the story for a moment to just talk a little bit about the psychology of sexual predators. Now I'm not an expert, but I've spoken to many of them and I've read quite a bit and unfortunately I've seen the aftermath of many of these crimes and heard those survivors accounts. And when you look at sexual predators from the data in the research, there's a few things that are almost always in common. The crime itself, it's not about the sexual component. I mean, that's secondary, it's really all about the power dynamic, that desire for control.

15:07

And there is definitely a level of narcissism in this. The world revolves around me that most of these offenders portray, you know, they're antisocial manipulative. They may seem like they get along with people, but it is only to ultimately get what they want and for sex to them, it is all about the possession. And here's the thing that really is important here is that the only chance for change is if they take that intervention on and if they want to change and if they don't, there is a high likelihood that they are going to reoffend. And unfortunately, that's exactly what we're seeing right here.

Scott Weinberger

15:44

Now, the obvious question would be, why would somebody who was wearing one of these devices commit a crime or violate their parole knowing that they are being tracked. But I guess in other similar questions, we've talked about some people just don't care offenders believe they are smarter and they won't be caught.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

16:03

I almost think that Jones thought he had it all figured out, right. He's far off from the place where he'd committed all these other crimes decades ago, he's picked this facility, which is nowhere near his sister's home. No one in that hotel knows him. They hopefully are going to recognize his face according to him. They don't know his truck, and again remember there's no surveillance footage from that hotel. It's only by chance that nearby had some that captured a partial plate of his truck.

16:33

So, it really almost was potentially the perfect crime as far as attempting to get away with it. But fortunately, fate played its hand and it didn't work out the way he planned.

Scott Weinberger

16:44

Police charged Rory Jones with aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and attempted aggravated kidnapping.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

16:52

But it took almost two years before the case went to trial. And a lot can change in two years and in this case for the police and prosecution, it's all going to be, could they locate their witness Modesta?

Forest Beetle

17:05

Quite frankly, we were a little freaked out because we couldn't find our victim said, look, if we cannot find her, we don't have a case.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

17:12

So, where was she?

Scott Weinberger

17:26

It would take two years after the assault for this case to make its way through the system. Now, it's time for Jones to stand trial. But prosecutors had one huge problem. They can't find Modesta.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

17:41

While they do have some other evidence that shows the

GPS

that shows the truck without having someone to recount the crime and talk about exactly what was done, you're not going to have much of a case.

Scott Weinberger

17:52

One of the challenges is that Modesta was no longer working at the hotel, in fact the hotel no longer existed.

Forest Beetle

18:00

They've been bulldozed as a part of this

Interstate 35

expansion that had been going on for years.

Scott Weinberger

18:05

Modesta was an illegal immigrant. And the question was, did she return back to her native country?

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

18:11

But as luck would have it, if you can say such a thing about crime, then the attempted sexual assault was not going to be the only crime that happened at the hotel. There was a security guard that was also assaulted as part of the attack. And because of that, the investigator had actually written down the cell phone number of the hotel owner while investigating the case.

Forest Beetle

18:32

We raced down to the basement of this courthouse where we keep our D. A files. We were able to pull the file and sure enough exactly where she said it was gonna be in the file, It was right there on the top of page two, we made a very anxious phone call to see Mr. Patel still out there and second ring he picked up and he remembered Modesta and he said I think I can get ahold of her, and was able to track her down.

Scott Weinberger

18:53

But there is still a concern. Would she testify? And it's a situation that plays out in almost every city in town in

America.

A victim of crime happens to be here in this country illegally. And while there's almost always an interest in seeking justice coming forward could mean putting them on the Immigration Status Radar.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

19:14

Now there are a few things that come into play. The Federal System allows under certain crimes and they keep changing this more and more for the better that those witnesses can still come forward and be protected. There's things like the

Violence Against Women Act

, there's T visas, there's U visas. We don't have to get the nitty gritty what they mean. But they all offer protection for people that are in this country illegally if they are coming forward as witnesses and complainants in a crime.

Forest Beetle

19:37

Back during that time period we had a lot of folks from

Mexico

and Central America that had moved up here for work and they were here illegally and so I had run into this several times. Fortunately our investigator at the time, one of her strong suits was victim relations. She was very good at talking to victims explaining to them what we were doing. That we were there to try to get them justice. We were there to try to get justice for the community in a very bad case like this.

20:01

But I explained to him like look, I'm a state's prosecutor. I'm not a federal prosecutor. I do not care one bit at all about your legal status in this country. However, you do need to realize if you do come forward and testify that will be a question that's asked. You have to be honest about it and there's really nothing that I can do for you in that regard. But at the same time there's nothing I'm going to do to you in that regard. You are my victim in this case and that's all I care about, is making sure that you're safe and making sure that you get justice in this. She was still apprehensive of course, but she had no problems coming to testify.

Scott Weinberger

20:34

She withstood a horrific attack and now she was going to stand up against that in court and tell the jury exactly what happened. As the trial begins. Forest remembers what it was like seeing Jones in the courtroom, being able to look at someone and get an immediate sense something is just not right.

Forest Beetle

20:56

There have only been a couple of three people that I've seen come through this courthouse as criminal defendants where you look at them and they just they're not like us and that's the way Rory was. There was something about him that he looked empty on the inside. It was just evil.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

21:14

And at trial, Forest Beetle definitely had a few challenges and one of which had to do with Modesta on the stand, and that is because he knew that the defense was going to raise the issue about that identification proceeding we talked about that single photo so before the jury even sat down they had a pretrial proceeding.

Forest Beetle

21:32

We brought

Modesta

in before we brought the Jury in to see if she could identify Rory and this was kind of a funny part of the trial because Rory of course is a black man. Bruce Isaacs is a white man, I'm a white man, Karen Anders is a white woman. The bailiff was black female.

21:49

And then of course Judge Shipman was an older white male. And Modesta gets on the witness stand and I asked her if she could identify who attacked her and she studies everybody including the judge very intently she just goes "No". She could not identify him a hundred percent in the courtroom that, that was him.

Scott Weinberger

22:05

I mean that was quite a shocker. Think about the moment for a second. It's been two years since she was face to face with her attacker. He looks differently, he's wearing a suit, he's not wearing street clothes as he was before. And the enormity of that moment may have influenced her ability to I. D. him. It happens, it happens more often than you think. And it's one of those moments where as obviously and see as a prosecutor you must have to scratch your head and say "Where do we go from here?"

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

22:32

And you know I will tell you that in hindsight I look at it as almost this gift that he didn't even know he had at the time because it's scary not to have your main witness, be able to I. D. But just as a prosecutor, I think about all the things he would have been opened up to by the defense about questioning that identification, and the messiness of the procedure. And is there taint on one thing? Is their taint on others? And I really ultimately think it was much cleaner without it, but very smart on his part to figure it out before the trial actually got going.

Scott Weinberger

23:00

There's still a lot of evidence for the prosecution to rely on a lot of circumstantial evidence, like the video surveillance and the

GPS

monitoring.

Forest Beetle

23:09

And that's where the second major problem occurred in the trial. And that is with Miss Wilkinson's testimony. She had never testified before and she was fairly nervous.

Scott Weinberger

23:17

So, the next challenge for Forest Beetle was the parole officer of testifying because the prosecution has to introduce the

GPS

tracking device and explain to a jury without even mentioning Jones previous convictions. It would be prejudicial for the jury hearing this case to know about any of his criminal past. That could be a case killer.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

23:37

And here's the reason is because someone cannot be convicted based on what they have done before. It's called propensity. So right away if you hear that someone is an offender more specifically a

Sexual Offender

in their past. The likelihood is that a Jury may think well if they did it before they did it again.

Forest Beetle

23:54

The fact that he's been in prison, the fact that he's on parole the fact of why you're monitoring him, the sex offender stuff, they can't hear anything like that.

Scott Weinberger

24:03

So, Anna-Sigga, that sounds kind of complicated. How do you handle that?

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

24:07

So, we usually do it with leading questions in reality. The way that it's normally going to work is that it's going to be prep your witness to let them know the dangers of pitfalls of mentioning this. So hey, we are not going to mention this word. So, rather than have you testify falsely in any way because this is an obvious thing that would be in the middle of your sentence about why you're even looking at him, you're gonna ask these very short pointed questions that your witness can answer truthfully and then were necessary. You will lead them where you're not normally allowed to do that.

24:36

The information has to come for your witness. But the judge and the defense certainly don't want that information coming out. So they're going to be able to change the rules of it to have them technically be honest. But everyone knows that you are leaving out something the Jury can't hear.

Forest Beetle

24:50

And I told her I said I'm gonna ask your name. I'm gonna ask you if you had a reason to track Rory Jones with a

GPS

device and the answer of course is gonna be yes. I don't want to know what you do for a living. All of this because again we're in the guilty not guilty phase of the trial and if it comes out he's a receipt of a sex offender on parole, that's gonna immediately trigger a mistrial and we can't have that.

Scott Weinberger

25:12

And what happens next in the trial just made my jaw drop.

Forest Beetle

25:17

Penny is out there. She's kind of nervous and Miss Wilkinson gets up there and I still remember this because I thought I was about to die of a heart attack. I'm up there showing her some documentation and I asked her, her name, she gets that right. And I said did you have an occasion to install and track the defendant Mr. Jones on a

GPS

device?

25:38

I forget how I worded the question. And Miss Wilkinson has a real country accent. She kind of leans back in her chair and she goes, "Well you know these offenders", and my heart at this point stops for a good three seconds.

Scott Weinberger

25:50

Ouch! I mean that's not exactly how Forest wanted to see the testimony go.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

25:55

Again. It's like bomb number two just went off in the courtroom. But this time you had the jury sitting there. So, it's actually much, much worse.

Scott Weinberger

26:04

The fact that it would come out of her mouth on the stand so easily. That is a really big problem.

Forest Beetle

26:12

Well, my face is kind of a good poker face for a split second because the second she said offender, it took about half a second for me to realize what she said and everything else happened like in a blink of an eye. The defense attorney objects LD Shipman, the judge sustains the objection.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

26:28

Very quickly that Judge gave a limiting instruction and told the jury to disregard what was said and I really do think that the saving grace in this one was that the witness didn't say a

Sexual Offender

because I really think that might have been game over for the trial.

Scott Weinberger

26:43

That is a real clean up on aisle three. I mean this could have been the entire case.

Forest Beetle

26:48

Finally, Judge looks at me and he goes "Mr. Beetle, you may proceed", and I immediately put my hands not completely in front of her face but I got up there in the witness box. I said, "Miss Wilkinson", immediately asked her a leading question "Did you or did you not put a

GPS

device on his ankle?"

27:02

Answer only that question from that forward I got my three answers, I needed to prove up that he had a

GPS

device on his ankle, which was how we were getting identity. So, the Judge cured that potential error on the record right there by ordering the the Jury to disregard her last answer. That's the way you can do that.

Scott Weinberger

27:18

In the end. The prosecution was able to use the

GPS

evidence.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

27:22

And after all the evidence was presented, the Jury was excused to deliberate and when they returned they found Rory Keith Jones guilty.

Scott Weinberger

27:30

After the Guilt Phase, comes to Sentencing Trial.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

27:34

At this phase of the trial, prosecutors and defense if they wish even can bring in witnesses, you can talk about a defendant's prior convictions, all things that will hopefully aid the Jury in deciding what the appropriate punishment should be. And without any doubt Forest Beetle was definitely going to bring out Rory Jones prior convictions from 1982.

Scott Weinberger

27:52

And this is where the story takes yet another dramatic unexpected turn.

Forest Beetle

27:58

That's where Liz was going to be literally our star witness.

Scott Weinberger

28:01

But the person who's called in by the prosecution isn't Liz Lowe, it's actually Detective Liz Lowe.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

28:21

We're going back to the early 1980s after Jones was first convicted of crimes in

Houston

Texas

and one of the survivors of his sexual assaults was Liz Lowe. In the years since that conviction since the crime was committed against her, she had drifted, relationships had faltered, she had all the emotional pitfalls that you would expect with PTSD and having that type of trauma in her life.

Liz Lowe

28:46

Not an emotional wreck more numb, really just more numb and just obsessed with my thoughts of you know what had happened and you know, I just knew that I was going nowhere.

Scott Weinberger

29:03

And like many in the same position, she turned to victims advocates to sort of get some direction and some understanding about some of the things that she needed to do within herself.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

29:13

And then one day, Liz Lowe had a huge realization.

Liz Lowe

29:17

I was talking to the victim service office one time and I said something like you know, I just wish I could do something you know to help other victims. She said, "Well, why don't you?" So, I just kind of had this epiphany and I'm like, you know what, I'm going to be a police officer.

Scott Weinberger

29:40

Turning pain into purpose, I've said it before and I am super impressed and in awe of Liz's mindset, her perseverance, how she wasn't doing this for herself, but she was doing it for other survivors of sexual assault.

Liz Lowe

29:55

I didn't want someone else to be the lady from the convenience store who you know went from a happy marriage with a toddler to you know, living homeless on the street addicted to drugs, and her son now in prison. I needed something in my life to give me value again, and to incorporate this horrible thing that had happened and make it useful, make it where that it no longer was eating at my core but was like feeding my core.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

30:29

And that's exactly what she did and she chose not to let it define her but help her grow.

Scott Weinberger

30:36

Liz, who had a baby girl at the time, couldn't just enroll in any police academy because certain ones require you live on campus. So, she made her way to

Florida

where her mom and relatives were, and Liz spent enough time working at a red lobster to claim residency and then went to the academy.

Liz Lowe

30:52

My nickname in the police academy was Private Benjamin because I was like you know what, I needed to pay attention every single day and class with the tactical things because it wasn't part of my nature. But I made it through, it was just strange to me. I mean, it was very paramilitary and the tactical teachers would yell and scream at you right in your face and kind of in that you know, break you down to build you up kind of thing.

Scott Weinberger

31:19

I remember my time I was through the academy, it was really difficult but so challenging because I knew that in my heart being a member of law enforcement is something that I wanted to do, want to be part of.

Liz Lowe

31:32

But I made it through, I didn't quit.

Scott Weinberger

31:35

She was resilient, and in the end she graduated near the top of her class. There are two ways to go through the police academy in the state of

Florida

. One is to be hired by an agency and sponsored through the academy and once you graduate the department that sponsored you, you get to work for them and the other is to put yourself through the academy and then once you're certified, apply for open jobs at various agencies around the state, Liz did the latter once you graduated and she began interviewing.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

32:03

And the story of her getting her first job is a story in and of itself because she's decided that she wants to go to this small town called

Bunnell

Florida

. But it didn't go as she expected.

Liz Lowe

32:15

I go and apply and I have an interview with the Chief there and this interview is going great, end of the interview. He's like, okay, well, you know, it's been so nice talking to you, but I just don't think that you know, we really have a place for you here. I just don't think you'd be a good fit in this department. So, I'm not even gonna take your application. And of course I got in my car started crying like a baby and drove all the way back from St. Augustine. I know, I can't believe this is so terrible.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

32:42

I think about how deflated she must have been. But he did leave her with this. That there was another local department in a place called

Flagler Beach

that he thought she would be the perfect fit for there.

Liz Lowe

32:54

Well, the next day that Chief had had the initiative to call the Chief in

Flagler Beach

. And that Chief said he really would like to set up an interview.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

33:04

That's how she ended up in this department. That yet another great fact is that she was the first woman to be in that small department of I think it was eight or nine officers at the time.

Scott Weinberger

33:15

In her twenty years, she went from officer to detective and built a reputation for tenacity. She was featured in an

FBI

magazine and honored with the Law Enforcement Memorials Foundation for rescuing a parachutist who drowned in the Atlantic.

Liz Lowe

33:30

You know, it was like one blossom after then another blossom, it was just like an emerald louis. You know, I was like my career would be like you know, just blossoming and I remember when my Chief called me into his office and said they're going to be having a Drug Court here and I want you to participate.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

33:49

She volunteered with the Flagler County Drug Court, a pretrial intervention program for nonviolent first time drug offenders.

Liz Lowe

33:56

Helping where I can you know, with people who are experiencing lack of being able to manage their life because of trauma.

Scott Weinberger

34:06

And Liz's next move in 1999 directly impacted the ability for victims to get financial assistance. She wrote the police department's First Victim of Crimes Act grant, and established the grant program for the agency. It is designed to assist women and children impacted by crime and has provided the Flagler Beach Police Department with more than one million in federal grant dollars.

Liz Lowe

34:30

You know, if it was a domestic violence situation and you, you know, needed to get your G. E. D. then we would help you with getting your G. E. D. If you weren't allowed to drive and we would help you get your driver's license. We would help with changing locks and just doing all kinds of things. Thinking outside of the box of what can we do to make this victim more successful through this trauma.

Scott Weinberger

34:53

Who better to know how to deal with the aftermath and what's to come, how to position yourself to move ahead and to heal than someone who is a sexual assault survivor like Liz.

Liz Lowe

35:05

Mr. Jones and Mr. Nickerson you know, they went on their spree of evilness and not realizing that in the long run it was going to be such a greater good for so many people. So, I'm sure they'd be pretty pissed if they do that.

Scott Weinberger

35:23

Now, back to Rory Jones when he was first parole, Liz was on top of it trying to do whatever she could to make sure it didn't happen. And that the community was aware of who they were dealing with.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

35:35

There's this story that she tells about a phone call that she made that she called the state attorney of

Texas

after she heard that Jones was paroled because being Liz being Liz and all of you going to say of course she did. So, she did. And the person on the other end of the phone basically brushed her off and said you know what lady, this happened decades ago, it's time to get over it. But you know what? As time went by Liz had another opportunity to call that same person back and this time it was very different.

Liz Lowe

36:06

And I called that state attorney back too and he took my phone call again and then he goes, oh aren't you that lady from like

Houston

in the eighties. I said, "Yes yes I am". And I said, "And I would just want to let you know that what I predicted to happen, did happen". And I said, "So tonight, when you go to sleep, I want you to say some prayers for this lady that's in Intensive Care in

Denton County

Texas"

36:31

So, he was just speechless. He was just speechless. So, he called the investigator at the special prosecutor's office and he said, "Is this true? Did this really happen?", and so he's like, "I don't know". And so then he called me and he's like, "Did you just call him and tell him that?" I said, "Yes, yes I did".

Scott Weinberger

36:54

Even before Rory Jones case with Modesta will go to trial. Forrest had a plan that involved Liz even preparing her to come testify for the sentencing phase of this case.

Forest Beetle

37:05

And so I visited briefly with Liz. But when we started talking about her crime, I very quickly realized Liz had been living with this every day since it happened to her. And she had gone on to become a police officer later on a detective. So, she was doing a lot of things in her life. But Rory was always with her, she had all these experiences and when she started to tell me about him, I finally just stopped and I said Liz, I would rather wait and hear this from the first time with you on the stand.

Scott Weinberger

37:34

Considering what happened with the parole officer, I was thinking to myself, how is this going to work? But clearly this was a real strategic move, Anna-Sigga, something I think you probably would agree with.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

37:46

I loved it, and he was so right to do it this way because he knew that it was all about that raw emotion. The real power of it would be if she was to get up there and have the first opportunity to lay it all out there in open court.

Forest Beetle

38:03

And that kind of threw her off. Of course she had been a Detective for a long time and I'm sure she had worked with other prosecutors on different cases, that sort of thing.

Liz Lowe

38:10

I thought it was a little unorthodox and a little risky, but I'm like okay, I'm good with that.

Forest Beetle

38:15

I knew she would be able to tell her story in a very raw fashion. I wanted them to hear that because I thought that was probably going to be the best way Liz after thirty years would have an opportunity to tell the jury what Jones did to her.

Scott Weinberger

38:29

This is gonna be Liz's day in court. What she's been waiting for for more than three decades.

Forest Beetle

38:35

But as far as Liz coming up there, I don't think he knew what was coming. I don't think he was prepared for what Liz was about to do to him in the courtroom.

Scott Weinberger

38:43

Yeah, just a heads up. This next part of our story uses some language that some may find offensive.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

39:00

Forest Beetle called Liz to testify at the sentencing of Rory Jones.

Scott Weinberger

39:04

As Liz is in the courtroom, no one really knows what Liz has to do with Rory Jones except for Forest the defense and Rory Jones himself.

Liz Lowe

39:15

The prosecution had disclosed, you know, who I was to them and I see him say, "Oh shit", I'm like I can see his mouth move and say that and I was like this is just so good.

Forest Beetle

39:31

So, I started off some very basic, you know, biographical questions, you know, would you introduce yourself to the jury kind of, what do you do questions like that?

Liz Lowe

39:38

And so the jury is of course riveted because they're thinking oh my goodness, you know like what in the world is Detective from

Florida

Forest Beetle

39:45

And then I wanted them to experience that transition from, we're hearing from another cop to oh my gosh, we're hearing from a victim from thirty years ago.

Liz Lowe

39:54

And then he said, "And do you know the defendant Rory Keith Jones?" and I said, "Yes, I do". And he said, "Would you please tell the Jury how you know him?" and of course then I did and there just wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

40:12

Picturing that moment in the courtroom as she is on the stand, she introduced as a detective and then boom to hear that she was another survivor of Rory Jones's sex attacks. It just, I can imagine you heard a pin drop because I felt that as she talked through that portion of her testimony.

Forest Beetle

40:31

She described in great detail when he flicked that lighter, how she thought oh my God, these people are going to burn me to death. She described that with great emotion, and then I remember the next thing she described was her phone call to her father at that time I was the father of two little girls and it was a very emotional testimony and that just got us through the events of the night that she got raped.

40:54

She went on to describe what life was like for her afterwards as being the victim of this violent crime, having to go through the process down in

Harris County

realizing that a plea had been struck but not really knowing why and then her life was changed and just trying to deal with all that trauma.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

41:10

And she lets everyone feel what those moments must have been like and so for the Jury, nothing I could imagine could have been more powerful.

Liz Lowe

41:20

Such a gift to me to be able to face him as now a grown woman with strength and the courage, and not a broken human being that had to face him the last time.

Forest Beetle

41:37

And she did such a phenomenal job with just the description of that process that most of the jurors that were teared up or crying.

Scott Weinberger

41:44

But Rory Jones defense team felt like they had one more move to make and that was to have Rory Jones testify.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

41:52

Again, a defendant never has to present any evidence in the sentencing phase is no different, but at this point it's like maybe the only chance he has left is to instill some sort of sympathy. I don't know if it's about his past or something they think he can say to maybe mitigate something to at least lessen the number of years.

Forest Beetle

42:13

Well, when Liz was done testifying when we arrested our punishment case and it went over to the defense, the defense attorney kind of expressed a little bit of frustration with his clients like Mr. Jones that your your choice, you want to testify or not. And finally Roy sat there for a couple of seconds and he goes, he goes, I want my bologna sandwich.

Scott Weinberger

42:30

"I want my bologna sandwich." I mean that day in jail was bologna day and knowing that Liz's testimony had members of the Jury, even the Judge tearing up, he decided to pass on testifying.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

42:42

And hearing him make that statement made crystal clear that he knew that she had devastated him too. Because it was basically saying take me back, it's game over, he knew exactly the sentence that that jury was about to pronounce.

Scott Weinberger

42:57

He received a life sentence for both the aggravated assault and aggravated robbery convictions.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

43:04

And the judge stacked the sentences on top of each other and basically what that means is that they weren't going to all run at the same time.

Liz Lowe

43:13

It was great. The Judge is great, the sentence was great, the Jury was great.

Scott Weinberger

43:18

And the Judge made one extra effort to do one more thing. In addition to the stackable sentences.

Forest Beetle

43:23

I remember Judge Shipman stacked his life sentences on top of Liz's case specifically.

Liz Lowe

43:31

And then I would get emotional on this. So, the judge said he's gonna have to finish his sentence for the original charges and he said just talking to the clerk. I want to make sure that it's this case number. So, when he did that somebody piped up defense attorney or somebody said, "Well, your honor doesn't really matter". And he looked at them and he said, "I think it matters a lot to somebody sitting in this courtroom right now". And I was just like you know, I love you, I love you your honor. Like you get it, you get it. And it did matter, it did matter.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

44:05

How meaningful that must have been for Liz. She knew that the main crime that had really taken so much more had never appeared on his conviction docket, the sexual assault. But that the judge now all these years decades later was going to make sure that the first sentence that he had to serve was for her.

Scott Weinberger

44:26

Let's button up one more thing. There were two people who attacked Liz back in 1982. You may be asking yourself whatever happened to the second assailant. His name was Robert Nickerson.

Liz Lowe

44:38

Robert Nickerson died in prison shortly after his incarceration. Maybe just within a few years.

Scott Weinberger

44:44

Two cases decades apart would bring Liz and Forest together. I know the line that good versus evil is a cliché that's often used in movies, but for me, Forest and Liz together, make sure that Rory Jones will never have another opportunity to harm anyone else. For Liz, it has been a long, painful journey. But that day, was a good day.

Liz Lowe

45:06

Afterwards, when it was all said and done the whole gang went to lunch.

Forest Beetle

45:12

And I called my wife and I said get to the girls. I want them to come along and meet Miss Williams because she was such, such a warrior. I mean she really was.

Liz Lowe

45:21

We've maintained a friendship since then because he's my hero. I mean, he literally is like my knight on the white horse that slays the dragon. But I always knew it wasn't over. The gift that Forest gave me was knowing it was over.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

45:39

It's not a coincidence that were first releasing the story to you on International Women's Day.

Scott Weinberger

45:46

As a detective, Liz spent twenty-three years of her career helping thousands of crime victims, yet never publicly disclosing her personal story about the darkest moment in her life. Not until she retired from pain to power to purpose. Liz Lowe is not only a survivor, but she is a true change maker.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

46:07

Liz made reference to this flower and Amaryllis. And if you don't know what is you should look it up because it's this gorgeous, bright flower. And I kind of keep thinking about her story in relation to that. It's something that starts in the ground. It's a bulb that's covered in dirt. And for some reason I think about that as her attack. But that once it grows it blooms over and over again. And it just gets better as the years go by, and I really think about that as I hear Liz talk not only about her past, but what she is doing with that passion to empower others.

46:40

And it also goes towards these two women. Not only Liz but Modesta. Tied together by horrific acts committed by them both separately, decades apart. And how they should be symbols of strength and power for us all.

Liz Lowe

46:57

If you are the loved one of somebody who has experienced trauma, please be patient, be compassionate and to the victims. Please, please get help, and know that at the end of the day, you can get better, and it does not have to define you. And if you do let it define you let it define you for the better.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

47:30

Tune in next week for another new episode of "Anatomy Of Murder."

Scott Weinberger

47:34

"Anatomy Of Murder" is an Audiochuck original produced and created by Weinberger Media and for Ct Media, Ashley Flowers and submit. David our Executive Producers.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi

47:48

So, what do you think chuck? Do you approve?

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