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That's knix.com. Makiiva

2:14

Jenkins worked for everything she had in

2:16

life, pulling her family out of poverty,

2:19

through working multiple jobs, and running her

2:21

own business. Soon

2:23

she was on social media sharing

2:25

her rags-to-riches story, but when she

2:27

was murdered, some wondered if it was

2:29

her riches the killer was after. I'm

2:32

Charlie and welcome to Crimeline. Hello

2:42

and welcome to Crimeline. Just a quick

2:44

reminder to check the show notes to

2:46

get tickets to the Tour Crime Podcast

2:48

Festival, which is next month in Denver,

2:50

Colorado. I can't believe it's coming up

2:53

so quickly. Use code CHARLIE for 15%

2:55

off your ticket, and you'll also see

2:57

a link to get tickets to the

2:59

Berkshire Podcast Festival, which is in October,

3:01

in Massachusetts, and those really do

3:03

look like the only two events

3:05

I'm doing this year unless something else

3:07

pops up within driving distance of my

3:09

home. As an extrovert, I really look

3:12

forward to the few times I do get to

3:14

hang out and chat with listeners and other podcasters,

3:16

so I would love if you could make it

3:18

out to either of those events. Again,

3:20

those links are in the show notes. Let's go ahead

3:22

and get into today's episode. We

3:24

are going to start with Makiiva Harold,

3:26

who was born in August of 1983

3:29

and she grew up in a town

3:31

called Belglade, Florida. I had

3:33

never heard of Belglade before, but it is

3:35

on the western edge of Palm Beach County,

3:37

but it's said that it has very little in

3:39

common with the rest of Palm Beach

3:42

County. It is

3:44

widely known, unfortunately, for

3:46

poverty, unemployment, and,

3:49

as goes hand in hand with those things,

3:51

high crime. But one

3:53

thing they've done really well is develop

3:55

football players. They regularly produce more NFL players

3:57

than any other football player. other

4:00

high school in the US. But

4:02

for someone like Makiiva who wasn't

4:04

exactly going to play football, the

4:06

town didn't seem to offer very

4:08

much. Since she

4:10

was a little girl, Makiiva's family thought

4:13

she was special. She was bright, outgoing,

4:15

and charismatic. So they poured

4:18

a lot of their energy

4:20

and resources into her. Makiiva's

4:23

mom Quest has been described by

4:25

the family as a bit of

4:27

a hurricane and to keep Makiiva

4:30

from getting swept up with her,

4:32

her grandmother insisted on having Makiiva live

4:35

with her full time. But

4:37

that didn't mean her mom was out

4:39

of her life. Quest was around even

4:41

though she didn't live with her. And

4:43

when Makiiva was 11, her brother Kuei

4:45

was born. They were very close

4:48

with Makiiva being very protective of

4:50

him. Makiiva grew up knowing

4:53

that the only way out of Belglade was

4:55

to push her way out. After

4:57

high school where she graduated top of

4:59

her class and was homecoming queen, she

5:02

went to the University of South Florida

5:04

in Tampa which is three hours away

5:06

from her home. And

5:08

it was while going to school there when Makiiva was about

5:10

19 or 20, she and

5:12

her boyfriend found out that she was pregnant.

5:15

While that type of news stops

5:18

some people from finishing school like

5:20

me, Makiiva had her eye on

5:23

that diploma. She had two priorities

5:25

going forward, her daughter and her

5:27

education. Makiiva went on

5:29

not just to get her bachelor's degree

5:31

but also her master's in business. She

5:34

moved back to Palm Beach County with

5:36

her little girl and started working towards

5:39

building her own business or really I

5:41

should say business is. From

5:43

event planning to tax preparation, she

5:45

was really trying to find a

5:47

need in the community that she

5:50

could fill and that would in

5:52

turn bring in the clients. Makiiva

5:54

was not afraid of hard work and she

5:56

had the patience needed to get a company

5:59

off the ground. But she

6:01

could also see when it wasn't

6:03

working out and would then pivot

6:05

to something else. So

6:08

Makiiva was still working on

6:10

finding her business opportunity when

6:13

in 2009 she went to

6:15

a New Year's Eve celebration at church. She

6:18

was 26 years old and her faith

6:20

was very important to her. So

6:22

it's really not a surprise that she

6:24

spent her New Year's Eve not out

6:27

partying but rather with her family at

6:29

church. While there

6:31

Makiiva noticed the guest of another church member

6:33

who she had never met before. And

6:36

Makiiva, as outgoing as she was, went

6:38

ahead and made her own introductions. He

6:41

was 23 year old Yuri Jenkins.

6:44

Yuri was a licensed barber and

6:47

like Makiiva he hoped to build

6:49

his own business. The

6:52

two started dating and it wasn't long before

6:54

Makiiva found out that she was pregnant with

6:56

her second child. She was

6:58

very happy about this. She

7:01

saw Yuri as her soulmate. She was ready to

7:03

build a family with him. The

7:05

problem was that Yuri wasn't

7:07

only seeing Makiiva at the

7:10

time and his other

7:12

girlfriend was also pregnant. Some

7:15

of Makiiva's family members tried to warn

7:18

her against continuing a relationship with Yuri.

7:20

Clearly he was not as serious about

7:22

her as she was about him and

7:24

here he was about to have another

7:27

baby which would be a complication in

7:29

their family not to mention the child

7:31

support and it just seemed like maybe

7:33

don't commit to this guy. But

7:36

Makiiva believed Yuri when he assured her that

7:39

she was the only one he wanted to

7:41

be with. Makiiva decided

7:43

to accept the situation on the whole,

7:46

forgive Yuri and the two married.

7:49

The first two years of their marriage were

7:52

pretty rocky. Money was

7:54

tight as they were both trying to

7:56

build businesses and careers. In

7:59

2012. And twenty thirteen at

8:01

things were so bad. in spite of

8:03

Mckeever working at least two jobs. That.

8:05

They didn't even have their own home. And

8:08

Uri would come and go, sometimes

8:10

leaving for an overnight. Sometimes he'd

8:12

be gone a couple of days

8:14

without an explanation. Mckeever.

8:17

Suspected he was cheating on

8:19

her, and that was confirmed

8:21

when the other woman, Tiffany.pregnant.

8:24

Mckeever. And Uri separated and it

8:26

looked like they were heading for

8:28

divorce, but your he wanted to

8:30

get back together with Mckeever, he

8:32

promised things would change and according

8:34

to Mckeever family, she was so

8:37

in love with theory that she

8:39

would forgive almost anything. Around

8:42

the time they reconciled, Mckeever finally

8:44

sound the business idea that worked

8:47

for her. It was actually Uri's

8:49

idea, but her execution. Mckeever had

8:51

the education and the experience with

8:54

writing business plans and working strategically

8:56

to build a small business. So.

8:58

What if she took what he

9:01

learned in what she knew and

9:03

helped other entrepreneurs get started? Mckeever.

9:06

Started the Prime Enterprise Group and

9:08

she finally found that gap that

9:10

needed to be filled. In

9:12

the world of hopeful small business owners

9:14

she found the people with the ideas

9:16

and the dreams and see help them

9:18

plot out the plan from point a.

9:20

To point B. In. Addition

9:23

to offering full services like writing

9:25

the business plans for people, Like.

9:27

Even started offering a business coaching.

9:29

Whether it was one session, just

9:32

a flesh out, an idea, or

9:34

an ongoing mentor, Sap Mckeever was

9:36

always available. And. Then she started

9:38

offering online classes on how to write

9:40

your own business plan, which was a

9:43

much more affordable option. For. People

9:45

who just couldn't swing a full

9:47

service agencies. And the

9:49

main way Mckeever promoted her business

9:51

was on social media. She would

9:54

do Facebook lives multiple times a

9:56

week. To. give people business

9:58

advice and to answer quest and

10:00

to let people know about what services she

10:02

can provide for them. And

10:05

mind you, she did all of this while still

10:07

working her day job as a social worker for

10:10

the Department of Children and Family Services.

10:13

The two incomes she was bringing

10:15

in combined pushed her into the

10:17

six figures. McKeever

10:19

went from not having a roof over

10:21

her head to making over $100,000 a

10:23

year and she

10:26

did it in about two years' time. She,

10:29

Yuri and their two kids moved

10:31

into a very nice rental home

10:33

in Lake Worth Beach and

10:36

it was just a temporary step as

10:38

she rebuilt her credit so she could

10:40

eventually buy a house. She

10:43

had enough room here that her younger brother,

10:45

Kwe, was able to move in with them

10:47

and Yuri set up his barber shop in

10:49

the garage. Having

10:51

the barber shop in the garage

10:54

helped with overhead as renting a

10:56

space was too expensive and it

10:58

also allowed Yuri to work around

11:00

the kids' schedule. With

11:02

McKeever essentially working two jobs, sometimes

11:04

three because she would still do

11:06

people's taxes during tax season, someone

11:09

had to be around to take care of the

11:11

kids. In

11:13

May of 2016, Yuri and McKeever had

11:15

another child, a daughter, and

11:17

things didn't seem like they could

11:20

get any better. The

11:22

only issue they really had hanging

11:24

over their heads was Yuri's child

11:26

support which he was behind on

11:29

for both of his other children. It

11:33

was around $10,000 in

11:35

arrears with both children

11:38

so we're talking closer to $20,000 total

11:42

and from what it sounds like, Yuri

11:45

even ended up getting his driver's license

11:47

suspended over the non-payment. In

11:50

the same month that Yuri and McKeever's

11:52

daughter was born, one

11:54

of the mothers, Tiffany, filed a

11:56

lawsuit for the back child support.

12:00

Tiffany was the woman Yuri cheated with

12:02

after he and Makiiva had married, so

12:05

not only was this a continuing

12:07

reminder of the affair, the

12:09

timing was pretty awful because Makiiva just

12:11

had a baby. Makiiva

12:13

made it clear that she wasn't going

12:16

to just pay off his child support

12:18

or rear edge out of her income.

12:21

That was his responsibility as

12:23

a father, it wasn't hers.

12:27

When Makiiva did vent to friends about the

12:29

situation, so much of

12:31

Yuri's money was going to child

12:33

support and back child support that

12:35

she was pretty much entirely supporting

12:38

the family. Makiiva also

12:40

felt that vigilance that people

12:42

who have been cheated on

12:44

feel, particularly as they're

12:46

rebuilding trust. Because

12:48

Yuri had a child with Tiffany, they

12:51

couldn't just leave the affair or Tiffany

12:53

in the past. While

12:55

Yuri said he had to talk

12:57

to Tiffany about their child, Makiiva

12:59

suspected more was going on. In

13:02

the early part of 2017 and

13:05

going into the spring, Makiiva confided

13:07

in some friends that she was

13:09

seriously considering a divorce. She

13:11

still loved Yuri and she loved the

13:13

life they had, but could she really

13:16

stay in a marriage where she was

13:18

continually wondering if he was cheating? But

13:21

relationships are rarely all good or

13:23

all bad, and that's definitely the

13:25

case here. Yuri had

13:27

a lot of great features about him

13:29

as a partner. He

13:31

was an amazing father, at least to the

13:33

kids they had in their home, and

13:36

he was a big support to

13:38

Makiiva in a practical sense. She

13:41

would send him text instructions of what needed

13:43

to be done day in and day out

13:45

and he would largely do those things. She

13:48

didn't have to worry about what to do with

13:51

the baby when her older daughter had an out

13:53

of town basketball game. She didn't have

13:55

to worry about being home after school when she

13:57

was meeting with clients an hour or two away.

14:00

Yuri would take care of all of that.

14:02

He would handle dinner time and bath time

14:05

and bedtime and anything else, which is why

14:07

Makiiva could focus on building her business. She

14:10

recognized how much harder her life would be

14:12

if she didn't have a partner who could

14:14

be home with the kids. Now

14:17

this is a bit of an aside, but this

14:19

absolutely made me think of this. Years

14:21

ago, I asked someone who had been

14:24

podcasting full time for a while how

14:26

he balanced work and family while he

14:28

was working at home. I

14:31

kept finding myself getting nothing done because the

14:33

kids were sick or there was a snow

14:35

day, and then I would have

14:37

periods of absolutely no family time because I

14:39

was spending all day and night catching up

14:41

on the podcast. He

14:43

gave me some really great feedback on setting

14:45

boundaries and time blocking and all of that,

14:48

but what he didn't mention, that I

14:50

found out later, was that his wife was a

14:52

stay-at-home mom. He didn't mention

14:54

her at all and how he balances

14:56

work and children, even though I

14:58

know for a fact that his ability to work

15:00

when his kids were sick or home from school

15:03

hinged completely on them always having access

15:05

to the other parent. It

15:08

is absolutely a different dynamic when

15:10

you have a parent who has

15:12

a flexible schedule, whether because they're

15:14

a stay-at-home parent or they can

15:16

set their own hours like Yuri

15:18

and his barbershop, versus when

15:20

you have two parents who work full time and

15:22

have to be in an office. In

15:25

this case, Makiiva recognized the type of

15:27

support she had and that she needed

15:29

it to do what she wanted to

15:31

do with her career. She

15:34

would even post about it on social

15:36

media how much she appreciated everything Yuri

15:38

did and how he supported her. I

15:41

mean, I can't really comment on how

15:43

he treated his other children, but

15:45

within their home, he was very involved

15:48

with the kids he had with Makiiva,

15:50

and that included his stepdaughter. Sometime

15:53

around May of 2017, Makiiva

15:56

stopped talking about divorce. She

15:58

again started posting how much she had to do with

16:00

her. she loved Yuri and it seemed like the two

16:02

had patched up whatever went wrong. And

16:05

they were working actively towards their

16:07

next dream, which was to buy

16:09

a home. Makiiva's goal

16:12

was to be in the house by

16:14

Christmas of 2017 so that they could

16:16

invite everyone over to celebrate the holidays

16:18

and as her brother Kuei said, show

16:21

everyone that she had made it.

16:24

That dream came to an end on June

16:27

29, 2017 when Makiiva's brother Kuei called 911

16:29

at 2.17

16:34

in the morning. On

16:36

this call he was absolutely

16:38

hysterical and he said

16:40

that someone in a

16:42

black mask had come into the home

16:45

and shot his sister. Then

16:47

the shooter left driving a white

16:49

charger. Most

16:52

responders got to the scene and

16:54

found 33-year-old Makiiva Jenkins in her

16:56

bed with a single gunshot wound

16:58

to the head. She was

17:00

alive but barely so she was rushed

17:02

off to the hospital. The

17:04

investigators then took statements from everyone

17:06

in the house, everyone who was

17:08

an adult obviously. Makiiva's 13-year-old daughter

17:11

was in Tampa visiting her father

17:13

for two weeks and her other

17:15

children who were ages 1 and

17:17

7 had been taken

17:19

to a neighbor's house. The adults

17:21

in the house were Makiiva's brother Kuei,

17:24

her husband Yuri, and Yuri's

17:26

friend 19-year-old Demetri Dale. Now

17:29

Yuri was in his early 30s but he

17:31

knew Demetri and Demetri's family through the

17:33

church where Yuri's father was a pastor. Because

17:36

of their age difference they didn't really get to

17:39

know each other until Demetri was older and he

17:42

had when he was 18 joined

17:44

the Freemasons which Yuri and his

17:46

father also belonged to. So

17:49

as adults they were getting along, they

17:51

had more in common, and they hung

17:53

out together periodically. This

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podcast is sponsored by TalkSpace. You know when

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18:24

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18:26

take time off work or arrange child care.

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You'll meet on your schedule whenever you feel

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increase with high-risk driving. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance

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Company in affiliates Northbrook, Illinois. Yuri

19:38

and Kway both told the police that they

19:40

were just hanging out when McKeever came home

19:42

from working with a client that day. She

19:45

was very tired, so she went to bed

19:47

early around 9 o'clock. Kway

19:50

and Yuri were watching TV when

19:52

Kway ran to 7-Eleven to pick

19:54

up some sodas and some cigarettes.

19:57

When he got back, Yuri and his friend

19:59

Demetri... Dale were there hanging out in the

20:01

garage. Quay was

20:04

ready to head to bed himself because at

20:06

this point it was nearly 2am. But

20:09

Yuri told Quay he wanted to go ahead and cut his

20:11

hair. Now Quay had been asking

20:13

for a haircut for nearly a month at that

20:15

point and Yuri just kept putting it off. So

20:17

while it was weird to want to finally do

20:20

it at 2am, it wasn't really out of the

20:22

blue because Quay had been asking for a haircut

20:24

so he got in the chair. Yuri

20:27

had made it part way through the

20:29

haircut when a man dressed in all

20:31

black came through the open garage door

20:33

and pointed a gun at them. The

20:36

man started ordering them around but Quay

20:39

first thought it was a joke. Some

20:41

type of prank a friend was pulling so

20:44

he laughed. The man then pointed

20:46

the gun at him and assured him that this

20:48

was no joke. The

20:50

man was described as being tall over

20:52

6 feet and all

20:54

they could see through his mask were

20:56

his eyes. Quay told

20:58

the investigator that the man seemed

21:01

vaguely familiar but he didn't exactly

21:03

recognize him. The

21:05

man started yelling, where's Quest, where's

21:07

the money, where's Quest, where's the

21:09

money over and over again. And

21:12

now if you remember Quest was Makiwa and

21:14

Quay's mother. At gunpoint the

21:16

man forced all three men inside the house

21:18

and up to the second floor where the

21:20

bedrooms were. The one year

21:23

old was asleep in a playpen downstairs and

21:25

the seven year old was sleeping in his

21:27

bedroom near where they were

21:29

standing. Yuri told the

21:31

gunman that his kids were in the house,

21:33

they were sleeping and Dimitri asked if he

21:36

could at least take the little boy downstairs

21:38

to safety. And the gunman said

21:40

yes. Dimitri then picked

21:42

up the sleeping seven year old and went

21:44

downstairs with him. The

21:46

intruder then pointed the gun at Quay and

21:48

ordered him back downstairs as well. The

21:51

two went down and out the back

21:53

door to the fenced yard where Dimitri

21:56

was with Makiwa's son. The

21:58

gunman said he needed keys to

22:00

a car but Quay didn't have his

22:03

on him so Dimitri, who drove that

22:05

white charger, handed the keys over. There

22:08

is a little discrepancy in this

22:10

next detail. Dimitri said the gunman

22:12

briefly went back inside before coming back

22:14

out to get Quay and forced him

22:16

at gunpoint back into the house but

22:19

Quay's version seems to omit the gunman having

22:21

gone back inside without him. This

22:23

seems like something that could have just easily

22:25

been forgotten in the trauma of what was

22:27

happening. Regardless, the gunman

22:29

then led Quay back upstairs and

22:31

ordered Quay and Yuri to lie

22:34

face down. He then

22:36

walked into the primary bedroom. While

22:39

lying there, Quay suggested to Yuri that they

22:41

take the gunman on. It was two against

22:43

one after all but Yuri said no. He

22:46

said he was too scared that they would

22:48

get shot. The men

22:50

then heard the gun go off and

22:52

the masked man ran out of the

22:54

house, jumped into Dimitri's white charger, and

22:57

drove off. Quay

22:59

and Yuri ran into the bedroom

23:01

and they saw a small hole

23:04

behind Makiva's ear. She

23:06

hadn't even woken up to the man in the

23:08

room. Yuri cradled

23:10

her, begging her to hang in

23:12

there while Quay called 911. After

23:16

giving their statements, Quay and Yuri were allowed

23:18

to go to the hospital. When

23:20

they got there, they learned that Makiva had not

23:22

made it. Yuri became very

23:25

upset and he essentially stormed off

23:27

saying he had to go check

23:29

on his children. Meanwhile,

23:32

Quay saw his mother Quest at

23:34

the hospital and he just lost

23:36

it saying, what did you do?

23:39

What did you do? Quest had

23:41

no idea what he was talking about but

23:43

the gunman had clearly said he was looking

23:45

for Quest and he wanted to know

23:47

where the money was. So

23:49

obviously, Quay thought this was

23:51

connected to something his mom had done.

23:55

Quest did have a criminal record and

23:57

she had a history of substance abuse.

24:00

There was a rumor going around

24:02

that she had stiffed a dealer

24:04

recently, passing some fake

24:06

bills to him during some

24:08

exchange. With the

24:10

gunman asking for Quest, Quay thought

24:12

this must be that dealer she

24:15

owed money to. The

24:17

investigators of course followed up with this

24:19

lead immediately, but it went nowhere fast.

24:22

Quest had no idea who would be

24:24

after her, and knew even less why

24:26

they would be looking for her at

24:29

McKeever's house. She had

24:31

last seen McKeever over a month

24:33

before on Mother's Day, but otherwise

24:35

she was 45 minutes

24:38

away in Belglade, where she always

24:40

was. If someone was really looking

24:42

for her, they would have just knocked on her front

24:44

door. Another

24:46

angle looked into early on

24:49

was McKeever's Facebook posts. Her

24:51

business was to guide people to

24:53

success, and are people really going

24:56

to follow someone who hadn't been

24:58

successful in business themselves. Of

25:00

course not, so to some degree McKeever

25:02

had to sell her own success

25:05

on the platform. So she

25:07

talked about how she pulled her family out

25:09

of homelessness. She talked about

25:12

how much money she made, including

25:14

sharing a recent bank statement that

25:16

showed her business had brought in $20,000 that month.

25:21

Was it possible that someone saw that, and

25:24

decided to rob her? If

25:26

that was the plan, they failed miserably

25:28

because the only thing they took was

25:31

Dimitri's vehicle, which was a rental, and

25:33

they abandoned it a quarter mile from

25:35

the house where the police were able

25:37

to seize and impound it for a

25:39

search. So this

25:41

scenario did not make sense as a

25:44

robbery. In fact, very little about this

25:46

home invasion made sense. The

25:49

gunman walked into that garage and was outnumbered

25:51

3 to 1. The

25:54

only thing he had going in his favor was the

25:56

gun. But, while he

25:58

had them all contained upstairs

26:00

at gunpoint, he allowed

26:02

one of them, Dimitri, to take

26:04

the seven-year-old downstairs. So

26:07

Dimitri was free of the

26:09

gunman and he did what

26:11

exactly? Did he run and alert the

26:13

neighbors? Did he get the kids in his

26:15

car and speed off to get help or at least

26:17

get them to safety? No. He went

26:20

into the backyard, an enclosed

26:22

backyard, and waited even

26:24

as the gunman came downstairs and

26:26

demanded the keys and then went

26:28

back upstairs. And

26:31

what about Yuri's behavior? The

26:33

gunman let Dimitri go downstairs unaccompanied

26:35

but then he kept Kuei at

26:37

gunpoint and made him go downstairs

26:40

when he went to demand the keys. So

26:42

that left Yuri upstairs with

26:45

no gunpointed at him. And

26:47

what did Yuri do? Did he make a break for

26:49

it? Did he wake Makiva

26:51

up and tell her to go hide

26:53

from this home invader? Did he grab

26:56

the phone and call 911? No. Just

26:58

like Dimitri, he just patiently

27:00

waited for the gunman to

27:02

return. Kuei was the only one

27:04

who always had the gun on him

27:06

and he never had a chance to

27:09

run off. He was also the

27:11

only one who expressed wanting to

27:13

try to overpower the intruder even

27:16

though he was significantly smaller than the

27:18

shooter and he was smaller than Yuri

27:20

and Dimitri as well. It's

27:22

almost like Yuri and Dimitri knew that

27:25

they and the children weren't in any

27:27

danger but Kuei was clearly in

27:29

the dark. And Kuei

27:31

might have realized all of this

27:33

in the moment if he hadn't

27:35

been understandably so focused on

27:38

the gun being pointed at him and

27:40

worried that he was about to die.

27:43

But the investigators who were not operating

27:46

in the heat of a terrifying moment

27:48

saw these holes in the stories from

27:50

the jump. The investigation

27:52

was looking closely at Dimitri

27:54

and Yuri who seemed on

27:56

the surface to be cooperating

27:59

as witnesses. One

28:02

of the first things the investigators did was get

28:04

a search warrant for the white charger. Inside,

28:07

they didn't find anything as incriminating

28:09

as the killer's fingerprints, but they

28:11

did find fast food receipts from

28:13

June 28th, covering several hours leading

28:15

up to the murder. They

28:18

decided to pull the security footage from the

28:20

three different restaurants, and two of them didn't

28:22

really give them anything useful. But the third

28:24

place was a sub shop that Dimitri went

28:26

to at 10.38, less than four hours before

28:28

the shooting. Dimitri

28:33

went through the drive-thru, but his car

28:35

ran out of gas. It

28:37

was blocking the window, so a passenger in

28:39

his car got out and started to push

28:42

the car from behind to get it out

28:44

of the way. The man

28:46

was caught on the security camera, and

28:48

his build was similar to that of

28:50

the shooter. The

28:52

investigators went to Dimitri and asked him

28:54

who his passenger was. He eventually

28:56

admitted that it was his friend,

28:59

Jovan Joseph. He

29:01

and Jovan had been friends for a few

29:03

years at that point. According to

29:05

what Jovan would later say, they

29:07

met through a group that helped

29:09

at-risk teens. Jovan was there because

29:11

his family ran the program, and

29:13

Dimitri was there as a troubled

29:15

teen receiving services. Dimitri

29:18

had taken Jovan over to Yuri's house

29:20

earlier in the day to get a

29:22

haircut, and then they left. He

29:25

said he dropped Jovan off at his

29:27

house, and when he went back to

29:29

the house later that night, while Kuei

29:31

was at the 7-Eleven, he came without

29:33

Jovan. The investigators

29:35

decided they wanted to know what

29:37

19-year-old Jovan Joseph had to say

29:39

about that, so they sat him

29:41

down for a recorded interview. Jovan

29:44

said that he had never met

29:47

Yuri before that day. He went

29:49

there because Dimitri said Yuri could

29:51

give him a haircut, and afterwards

29:54

they played basketball in the driveway.

29:57

Interestingly, Kuei had also brought this up

29:59

in a- his second statement to the police.

30:02

When he went through the lead-up to

30:04

the home invasion, he mentioned

30:06

that Dimitri had a friend over and

30:08

they played basketball. And then he

30:10

commented that the friend had a similar build to

30:12

the shooter, but Kwe didn't know his name. Jovan

30:15

insisted that after Dimitri brought him home that

30:18

evening, he did not go back out to

30:20

Makiiva and Yuri's house. He said he had

30:22

no reason to. Jovan's

30:24

alibi for the night wasn't the

30:26

usual 2am alibi of being home

30:29

asleep. It was instead that

30:31

he had gone to the hospital to sit

30:33

with a friend who needed the company. He

30:35

told the police he arrived there around

30:38

2.30 in the morning and the hospital was 30 minutes

30:41

away from Makiiva's home. So he

30:43

couldn't have been the shooter and have

30:45

been at the hospital. The investigators

30:47

pretty clearly didn't believe him

30:49

and I know I say

30:51

again and again we cannot

30:53

judge someone's reaction to a

30:55

stressful situation and being interviewed

30:58

by the police when you're 19 years

31:00

old is a stressful situation. But

31:02

I really couldn't help it here. If you want

31:05

to hear what a guilty liar sounds like, just

31:07

listen to his interrogation. Anyway,

31:09

Jovan was released while they followed up

31:11

on his alibi. They were able to

31:13

view the hospital's security footage and they

31:16

saw Jovan walk in to visit his

31:18

friend just like he said. But

31:20

the footage they could see right away

31:23

wasn't time stamped. It could have been 2.30 in

31:26

the morning but it really could have been anytime.

31:29

They had to subpoena the digital footage

31:31

that would have the time stamped information

31:34

and that would take weeks to get.

31:37

And while they were waiting on

31:39

that, Makiiva's autopsy results came back.

31:42

As expected, she had been killed by a

31:44

gunshot wound to the head but they found

31:46

out something else. Makiiva was

31:48

pregnant. She was far

31:50

enough along that she and Yuri knew

31:53

she was expecting but early enough that

31:55

they hadn't announced it yet. And

31:58

the timing also corresponds with to Makiiva

32:00

dropping talk of getting a

32:02

divorce. It

32:04

did seem strange to the investigators that

32:06

Yuri had not mentioned that she was

32:08

pregnant to anyone. Not

32:10

to the paramedics trying to save her life, not

32:13

to the police, not to her family, no one.

32:16

When he was asked about this, Yuri said

32:18

he thought he told them, but it wasn't

32:20

documented anywhere and no one remembered him saying

32:22

it. Makiiva's funeral

32:24

was held about a week and a half

32:26

after her murder. So

32:28

many people who loved Makiiva and were

32:30

inspired by her shared their memories and

32:33

their heartbreak on social media. But

32:36

one person did the opposite, hours

32:38

after the funeral, and that was

32:40

Tiffany, the mother of Yuri's child.

32:44

She made an ill-thought-out Facebook

32:46

Live rant about a lot

32:48

of things regarding her relationship

32:50

to Yuri, but the main

32:52

issue here was how she

32:54

talked about Makiiva. There

32:57

was no love lost between the two, which is

32:59

to be expected. I am sure Tiffany did not

33:01

see the best side of Makiiva and

33:03

she didn't see the best side of Tiffany. So

33:06

Tiffany went on about how Makiiva wasn't

33:08

this great person, everyone said she was,

33:10

and that she wasn't sad Makiiva was

33:12

dead. She even said something

33:14

about going to the funeral and slapping

33:16

Makiiva out of her casket. The

33:19

investigators had also learned from one of

33:21

Makiiva's friends that Tiffany had been sending

33:24

her messages leading up to

33:26

the murder, accusing her of keeping Yuri

33:28

away from his child, and the

33:30

friend remembered there was even a threat

33:32

in there to beat Makiiva up. So

33:35

the investigators decided to speak with Tiffany

33:38

and she told them that she regretted

33:40

the video. She was

33:42

frustrated with the situation and over

33:44

everyone painting Yuri and Makiiva's life

33:46

as perfect. She said

33:48

that at the time of Makiiva's death, Yuri

33:51

was still talking to her and

33:53

the day after her murder, he tried to

33:55

kiss her. Two days after

33:57

Makiiva's murder, he spent the night at Tiffany's.

34:00

Though he later claimed he slept on the couch.

34:04

Regardless, Tiffany made it clear to the

34:06

police that Yuri was not the grieving

34:08

widower he pretended to be. Tiffany

34:11

was not the shooter since the gunman was

34:13

a man who was at least six feet

34:16

tall and she did not match that description.

34:18

It was possible that she hired someone,

34:20

but after talking to her the police

34:22

just didn't see it as a possibility.

34:26

Tiffany being behind the murder plot

34:28

just did not explain Yuri and

34:30

Dimitri's inaction on the night

34:32

of the murder when the dead man left them

34:35

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35:52

was about six weeks after the

35:54

murder that the video surveillance from

35:56

the hospital came in. This

35:59

gave the investigation... investigators the timestamp

36:01

of Jovan's supposed alibi.

36:04

The timestamp showed he was at the

36:06

hospital after 3.15 in

36:09

the morning, not 2.30.

36:12

This gave him more than enough time

36:14

to flee the scene and

36:16

show up at the hospital to try

36:19

to establish an alibi. The

36:22

investigators had also during the

36:24

course of their investigation pulled

36:26

footage from cameras leading into

36:28

McKeever's subdivision, and they saw

36:31

Dimitri's car headed in that

36:33

direction like he said, but

36:35

he wasn't alone. I mean, he was

36:37

alone in his own car, but

36:39

following him quite closely was

36:42

a smaller four-door car that matched

36:44

the description of the Mazda Jovan

36:47

drove. It looked

36:49

to them like Dimitri was leading

36:52

Jovan into the neighborhood, and it

36:54

started to make sense why Dimitri's

36:56

stolen car wasn't taken very far.

36:59

They believed Jovan parked his car away

37:01

from the house so it wouldn't be

37:03

seen, and then he walked there. After

37:06

the shooting, he took Dimitri's car for

37:08

a fast getaway, but it only needed

37:10

to get him as far as where

37:12

he had parked his own vehicle. The

37:15

probable cause against Jovan was adding up, and they

37:18

were able to get a search warrant for his

37:20

cell phone records. His cell phone

37:22

pinged off the tower near the crime scene

37:24

at 2.08 in the morning.

37:27

Now this evidence led them to believe

37:30

that Jovan was the shooter, and Dimitri

37:32

was involved in setting things into motion.

37:35

But the two of them lacked one thing, a

37:38

motive. Jovan didn't

37:40

know McKeever, and Dimitri had

37:42

nothing to gain. Yuri, however, did

37:44

have something to gain, or at least he

37:47

thought he did. McKeever had a life

37:49

insurance policy for $500,000. Five or six days after her

37:54

murder, Yuri called the insurance company to

37:56

ask about it, only to

37:58

find out he wasn't the best. beneficiary.

38:01

They wouldn't give him any more information about

38:04

the plan since he wasn't on the policy

38:06

and then he said on the

38:08

recorded line, she didn't change

38:10

it in time. Didn't change

38:13

it in time for what? It sounded

38:15

to the investigators who were suspecting

38:17

Yuri that he thought that she

38:19

had changed it from her grandmother over to

38:21

him at some point and this

38:23

was the first he learned that she hadn't.

38:26

Maybe they had a conversation about changing

38:28

it but she never actually did it

38:30

before he carried out a murder plot.

38:33

So in looking at this as a

38:35

conspiracy, the investigators saw it as Yuri

38:38

being the mastermind and Jovan being the

38:40

shooter and as for Dimitri,

38:42

he was the link between them and

38:45

his actions or like I've been saying

38:47

in action that night made

38:49

it clear he knew no one else was in

38:51

danger. So while he didn't

38:53

exactly look innocent, he was the

38:56

least culpable of the three if

38:58

they had to rank them. So

39:00

he's the one they decided to put the pressure on

39:02

to see if he would flip. So

39:05

the investigators brought Dimitri in and they laid

39:07

out their case from the fast food video

39:10

to the footage of Jovan following Dimitri's car

39:12

into the neighborhood to the

39:14

dismantling of Jovan's alibi.

39:16

They let Dimitri know that they

39:18

knew what happened and it was in his

39:20

best interest to help them prove it. Dimitri

39:24

Dale didn't confess to everything he

39:26

knew but he admitted enough that

39:28

the police then knew they were

39:30

on the right track. He even

39:33

agreed to call Jovan on the phone and record

39:35

it for the police and on this

39:37

call Jovan said something about how Yuri had given

39:40

him $1,500 but he didn't know he was going

39:44

to make him kill Makiiva. The

39:48

investigators now had what they needed and

39:50

they arrested 19 year old Jovan Joseph

39:52

in September of 2017 and

39:54

charged him with first degree murder. Then

39:58

Dimitri without the police asking recorded

40:00

some phone calls he had with Yuri. Dmitry

40:03

told Yuri that Jovan had killed Makiiva

40:05

and Yuri definitely didn't sound surprised by

40:07

this news and Dmitry said that

40:10

Jovan was going to roll over on him

40:12

and Yuri told Dmitry to tell

40:15

Jovan not to do that. The

40:18

evidence against Yuri was put before a grand

40:20

jury six months after the murder in December

40:22

of 2017 and they returned with an indictment.

40:29

31 year old Jerry Jenkins was arrested

40:31

and charged with first degree murder. As

40:34

he was put into the police

40:36

car in handcuffs he told the

40:38

media that he was innocent and

40:40

God would vindicate him. And

40:43

while he was counting on God to

40:45

vindicate him, Jovan was busy implicating him.

40:48

A major motivator for Jovan to start talking

40:50

to the state about cutting a deal was

40:53

a piece of paper his mom found in

40:55

her house and turned over to the authorities.

40:58

On the top of it was written the

41:00

words Game Plan and what followed

41:02

was more or less the plan to

41:04

kill Makiiva. Makiiva's

41:07

brother Kuei told the show

41:09

Does Murder Sleep that he

41:11

thought Jovan wrote it out just in case

41:13

he was also killed in the process of

41:15

staging this home invasion and he

41:17

would want it to be found so the

41:19

police would know what really happened. So

41:22

Kuei's role in all of this is

41:24

really sad. He thought this was a

41:26

home invasion and he acted that way.

41:28

He thought he and his brother in

41:30

law were going through this trauma together

41:32

when it was really all

41:34

set up by Yuri. Yuri

41:37

talked him out of trying to stop the

41:39

gunman and Kuei had beaten himself up over

41:41

not doing more to save Makiiva and

41:44

that's because he didn't realize that she

41:46

had been targeted. There

41:48

was never a question of Kuei giving

41:50

his life for Makiiva because it wasn't

41:52

either or. If he intervened

41:54

he would have been killed and then

41:56

Makiiva. There Were very few

41:58

scenarios here where Makiiva. Survive that night

42:00

and I hope Clay has found some type

42:03

of peace in regards to that. Nothing you

42:05

did or didn't do was going to change

42:07

things. And if there

42:09

is any piece here it's into of

42:12

on finally telling the truth so they

42:14

knew what really happened. I

42:16

mean, he really did wait until he was

42:18

out of options to get out of this,

42:20

but he did eventually come forward in exchange

42:22

for a plea deal. He

42:25

would have to testify against your eating

42:27

cans and to he would be allowed

42:29

to plead guilty to second degree murder

42:31

which he did in the summer of

42:33

twenty nineteen. His. Sentencing was

42:35

put on hold until your his

42:37

trial, which was scheduled for January

42:40

of Twenty Twenty. But.

42:42

That trial did not happen

42:44

during the jury selection phase.

42:46

Mckeever mother approach to prospective

42:48

juror during lunch and allegedly

42:50

sad that Uri was guilty.

42:53

Several. Members of the jury pool

42:55

had overheard that and according to

42:57

Lawn Crime one juror said she

43:00

also mentioned something about having a

43:02

gun and wanting to use it.

43:05

As soon as a judge excluded all

43:07

of the potential jurors who had heard

43:09

something they weren't supposed to hear. They.

43:11

Just didn't have enough people to move

43:13

forward. The. Trial was then

43:15

rescheduled for April of twenty Twenty,

43:18

but ahead of that the police

43:20

move in and arrested Dimitri Dale

43:22

in North Carolina. They. Charged

43:24

him with first degree murder because what

43:27

job on told them about Dimitri role

43:29

implicated him and a lot more than

43:31

he admitted to. But. Around

43:33

the time of the me to the

43:35

rest of the global pandemic, stop to

43:37

the courts and jury trial was once

43:39

again postpones. It would not

43:41

be held for another two years. in

43:44

May Have Twenty Twenty Two. By.

43:46

Disappointed me. Tree had also cut

43:48

a deal in exchange for his

43:50

testimony. He. Pleaded out to

43:52

manslaughter for his role and Mckee

43:54

was murder and got forty five

43:56

days in jail, followed by fifteen.

43:58

Years of. Well said. No.

44:01

Don't worry if you think this is

44:03

to load of a sentence. He's currently

44:05

in prison surveying several years for statutory

44:07

rape. So it's not like he's

44:10

roaming free. But if we

44:12

try to actually say what demetrius

44:14

role was in if it's a

44:16

little hard to say because he

44:18

am to have on told. Different

44:21

stories. And this is a huge

44:23

issue for the state going into trial. Not.

44:25

Only had Dmitri and Giovanna lied to

44:27

the police repeatedly about what happened that

44:29

night. Once they got to

44:31

trial they were telling different stories. when

44:34

they were both saying they were finally

44:36

telling the truth. With.

44:38

Both of the key witnesses in

44:40

this case being admitted liars. The

44:42

prosecutor had to address. What?

44:45

She called the elephant in the room

44:47

at the beginning of their testimony. Both.

44:49

Men admitted they had light in the past, but

44:51

they were going to tell the truth now because

44:54

they were ready to take responsibility for what they

44:56

did. But. Since they didn't

44:58

then tell the same story we know

45:00

at least one of them was still

45:02

lying at. Least some parts. Dimitri.

45:05

Testified first and he testified that he

45:07

was hanging out with Uri on June

45:10

Twenty Seventh. Twenty Seventeen. And. Uri

45:12

told them that he needed to tell him

45:14

something, but that Dimitri would think he was

45:16

crazy. Dimitri. Asked

45:18

him what it was an eerie responded

45:20

with a question. What? Has he

45:23

wanted to pay to have someone killed?

45:25

Dimitri. As to why would you want to

45:27

do something like that Who did even want to

45:29

kill. And Uri first responded

45:32

his father which sought to Dimitri

45:34

who had grown up with your

45:36

his father as has minister. But.

45:38

When Dimitri said your Dad of.

45:41

Your. He said he was just kidding.

45:44

Then. He said he actually wanted Mickey

45:46

the killed. He said he didn't

45:48

love her anymore. at

45:50

this point in their conversation dimitri phone

45:52

was going off with text messages from

45:55

various people he was supposed to give

45:57

rights to so the conversation ended with

45:59

that and Dimitri said he would

46:01

come back later. Dimitri then

46:03

went to pick up two young women. One

46:06

was his girlfriend, and he also went to

46:08

pick Jovan up to give him a ride

46:10

home. Dimitri told all three

46:12

that he needed to go talk to his friend

46:14

because his friend was, quote, "'talking

46:17

crazy about killing someone.'

46:20

He wanted them to wait in the car while he

46:22

talked to this friend. Now,

46:24

one of the women was smart and said, "'No,

46:26

thanks,' so Dimitri dropped her off. In

46:28

the end, it was Dimitri in the driver's

46:31

seat, his girlfriend in the passenger seat, and

46:33

then Jovan was in the bulk seat behind

46:35

Dimitri. The three got

46:37

to Yurri's house, and Dimitri talked to Yurri

46:39

outside the car about

46:41

killing Makiiva. Yurri wanted

46:43

to know if Dimitri knew anyone who would do

46:45

it for him, and Dimitri said

46:48

he didn't hang out with the sort of

46:50

people who would commit murder. But

46:52

then he opened the car door and

46:54

asked Jovan if he knew anyone. Jovan

46:57

then got out of the car and asked Yurri how

46:59

much he was going to pay, and

47:02

the plan formed over the course of an hour.

47:05

Kwe came out of the house during this

47:07

conversation, but Yurri told him to go inside

47:09

and tuck on the kids. Dimitri

47:12

also went inside at some point to use

47:14

the bathroom, and when he came back out,

47:16

they left. So he

47:18

wasn't around for some of the

47:20

conversation going over the final plans.

47:23

Dimitri dropped Jovan off at his house, and then

47:25

he and his girlfriend went back to his house.

47:28

Dimitri directly denied that he

47:30

brought Jovan over there specifically

47:32

to connect him and Yurri

47:34

in order to have Makiiva

47:36

murdered. He was just giving Jovan

47:38

a ride, and that

47:40

happened to be somewhere they stopped along the

47:42

way. But Jovan's testimony

47:45

was different. He said that introducing Yurri

47:47

and Jovan for the sake of the

47:49

murder was part of the plan, and

47:51

Dimitri knew what he was doing. But

47:54

back to Dimitri's version. He

47:56

testified that on June 28th, Yurri

47:59

called Dimitri's house. Demetri and wished him a happy

48:01

birthday. He turned 19 that day and

48:04

Yuri asked if he was coming over and

48:06

he wanted Demetri to bring Jovan.

48:09

Demetri said he got ready, he picked up Jovan

48:11

and then they went over to Yuri's house arriving

48:14

while Yuri was doing some yard work. They

48:16

helped him with the yard work and then

48:19

Jovan got a haircut and then they played

48:21

basketball. Most of this

48:23

was witnessed by Kwe. Kwe would testify

48:25

that at some point that day, Demetri and

48:27

Jovan were talking in the driveway and when

48:30

he approached them, they got real quiet. It

48:32

was enough to be awkward but not enough to be

48:35

suspicious. According to

48:37

Demetri, when he and Jovan got into the

48:39

car to leave that day, he realized

48:42

that Jovan had a gun wrapped in

48:44

his shirt. Demetri was

48:46

mad that Jovan had gotten into his

48:48

car with a gun because he had

48:51

a rule against people bringing guns into

48:53

his car and he was particularly upset

48:55

that he wasn't told just in case

48:57

he got pulled over. Demetri

49:00

and Jovan then picked Demetri's mom

49:02

up at work and they went

49:04

through the Miami sub-drive-thru which is

49:06

where they ran out of gas.

49:09

After getting a gas can, going to the

49:12

gas station, filling up the car, Demetri then

49:14

dropped Jovan off at his house and took

49:16

his mom home. Demetri

49:18

testified that Yuri kept calling him, asking him

49:21

when he was coming back over and if

49:23

he was bringing Jovan with him. Demetri

49:25

said he was tired at that point and just

49:27

wanted to stay home but he gave in and

49:29

told Yuri they would come over. Demetri

49:32

said that he agreed to bring Jovan with

49:35

him back to Yuri's house but he wouldn't

49:37

let him in his car because of the

49:39

previous incident with the gun. According

49:43

to Demetri, that's why Jovan was

49:45

seen driving his own car to

49:47

the neighborhood. But Jovan's

49:49

testimony was that this wasn't true.

49:52

Demetri did call him and told

49:54

him, tonight's the night, and

49:56

then told him to bring his own car. Yvonne

50:00

had nothing to do with him previously

50:02

bringing a gun into Dimitri's car and

50:05

everything to do with this being part of

50:07

the murder plot. And this

50:09

is how the testimony at this trial went. Dimitri

50:12

would do whatever he could to

50:14

distance himself from the conspiracy and

50:17

Yvonne would contradict him, pulling him right

50:19

back in. But

50:21

back to what Dimitri testified to. He

50:23

said that as they approached the neighborhood, Yuri

50:25

called him and told him to have

50:28

Yvonne park away from the house. Dimitri

50:30

said he didn't really push for a reason

50:33

because he didn't want to know. He

50:35

knew there had been talk about Jovan killing Makiiva,

50:37

but he didn't want the details because he didn't

50:39

want to be involved. Obviously,

50:42

Jovan says this wasn't true and that

50:44

Dimitri was present pretty much every time

50:46

they made any plans. But back to

50:48

Dimitri. He said that he

50:50

pulled over and Jovan parked, Jovan then

50:52

got into his car, and they drove

50:54

to Makiiva and Yuri's house. Dimitri

50:58

testified that Yuri was outside when

51:00

they pulled up and Yuri told

51:02

Dimitri and Jovan that it had

51:04

to happen right away. Dimitri

51:07

said he didn't want anything to happen while he

51:09

was there, but Yuri said it was perfect timing.

51:12

Makiiva's oldest child was in town, Makiiva

51:14

was asleep, and Kuei had left to

51:16

go to the local 7-Eleven. Jovan's

51:20

story differs a bit here as well.

51:22

In his version, it sounds more like

51:24

Yuri wanted Kuei to be there to

51:27

back up the home invasion staging. Anyway,

51:30

Dimitri said Kuei's car pulled up while they

51:32

were talking, but before Kuei

51:34

could see or overhear anything, Yuri told

51:36

Jovan to wait a few minutes and

51:38

then come inside. According

51:41

to Dimitri, this is when Yuri told him

51:43

to ask for quest, but Jovan testified that

51:45

Dimitri is the one who told him to

51:47

ask for quest, but he did it earlier

51:49

in the evening when they were going over

51:51

the plan. Again, Dimitri trying

51:54

to get out of this conspiracy and

51:56

Jovan pulling him right back in. And

52:00

happened the way. Quesada: Good but

52:02

quaint. Didn't see something. While.

52:04

They were upstairs. Chill Bonsai Uri

52:06

cock his head in the direction

52:09

of the key buzz bedroom door.

52:11

And. That's how he knew which room to

52:13

go into. So. Of

52:16

the state's case largely rested on

52:18

the contradictory testimony have to admit

52:20

at liars. And. This was not

52:22

lost on Clay, who was in the courthouse

52:25

thinking about how Uri might get away with

52:27

it. According to Clay, he

52:29

just sort of went blank. He.

52:32

Barged into the court room and started

52:34

making his way to Wear your. He

52:36

sat at the defense table. He.

52:38

Said he wanted to choke him out by

52:41

he was intercepted before he got very far.

52:44

The. Jury was present for this outburst and

52:46

the defense could have asked for a

52:48

mistrial, but they opted not to. And

52:51

of the judge told Clay he was

52:53

barred from the court room for the

52:55

remainder of the trial except for when

52:58

he was testifying. Winter.

53:00

Bomb testified. In addition to the things

53:02

I've already brought up, he claimed that

53:04

Uri paid him ten thousand dollars for

53:06

the murder and we're supposed to pay

53:08

another ten thousand dollars after he got

53:10

the life insurance money. To.

53:12

Of on. Had previously told the police

53:14

say he had only been given fifteen

53:17

hundred dollars and this is relevant because

53:19

one problem the state had was proving

53:21

that Uri had any money to give

53:23

to Giovanni. Mckeever. Ran

53:25

that household see managed to all of

53:27

the money and your he didn't make

53:29

a lot of money directly. He.

53:31

Told the police himself that he would

53:34

help Mckeever with her business, but he

53:36

wouldn't draw a direct salary because he

53:38

was trying to avoid getting it garnished

53:40

for child support. The

53:42

money that he could of hidden from

53:45

the kiva was cast he got from

53:47

when he cut people's hair. But.

53:49

Ten thousand dollars. That's.

53:51

A lot of haircuts. Fifteen.

53:54

hundred dollars was a lot easier of

53:56

a number for the state to get

53:58

to but now they had to work

54:01

with this $10,000 upfront because that's what

54:03

their witness said happened. The

54:05

defense ended up not presenting any witnesses and

54:08

that includes Yuri who did not take the

54:10

stand in his own defense but the jury

54:12

did hear from him anyway. He spoke to

54:15

the police including one time after his

54:17

arrest. His defense attorney

54:19

did try to get that interview tossed

54:22

because he didn't have an attorney present

54:24

and he had previously invoked his Miranda

54:26

rights but before this interview when

54:28

he was read his rights again he ended

54:30

up waving them so the jury did get

54:33

to hear this and

54:35

what they heard was the investigator confronting

54:38

Yuri on multiple points. For

54:40

instance they had previously asked Yuri for his

54:43

phone and he told them he left it

54:45

in the car but the officer thought

54:47

in his pocket and pointed it out and

54:50

this turned out to be a phone Yuri said

54:52

was for clients but looked more like a phone

54:54

he was hiding from his wife. There

54:57

was a lot on there about

54:59

Tiffany making it clear that their

55:01

relationship was not over. Yuri also

55:03

denied being surprised that he wasn't

55:06

the beneficiary on the policy. He

55:08

said he knew he wasn't because

55:10

they didn't want the state to

55:12

be able to garnish that money for

55:14

child support in the event something happened

55:16

to Makiiva. So the

55:19

investigator asked Yuri if he knew

55:21

he wasn't the beneficiary on the

55:23

policy why did he even

55:25

call the life insurance company and

55:28

he said he called because everyone was pressuring

55:30

him to call thinking that maybe it had

55:32

gotten changed to him and so he was

55:34

just checking. Yuri

55:36

had an answer for everything that

55:39

the investigators threw at him but

55:41

I won't say these were persuasive

55:43

answers. After three hours of

55:45

deliberation the jury found Yuri

55:47

guilty of first-degree murder and

55:50

sentenced him to life in prison. Jovan

55:53

Joseph was then sentenced to 15 years.

55:57

A year after the trial Yuri did speak to

55:59

20... in an interview

56:01

to plead his case for innocence,

56:04

and he said that Dimitri did have

56:06

a motive. He knew that he and

56:08

McKeever were making decent money and that

56:10

he plotted with his friend Jovan on

56:12

their own to rob them. But

56:16

again, as a robbery, this just doesn't

56:18

make sense. If the goal

56:20

was to simply rob the house, why

56:23

was McKeever the one shot? She was sleeping,

56:25

she was no threat to them. Yuri

56:28

Jenkins was a much bigger threat, yet

56:30

he was not just not shot, he

56:32

was left alone with the opportunity to

56:35

get away that he decided not to

56:37

take. And as I think

56:39

about this case and I reflect on it a bit,

56:41

I have to say it's been hard to think about

56:43

how Yuri could have gotten acquitted because

56:46

of the lies, in my

56:48

opinion, of Dimitri Dale. To

56:50

me, it seems the most likely explanation

56:53

is that Jovan was telling the truth

56:55

and Dimitri got on that stand and

56:57

tried to distance himself from the conspiracy.

57:00

He allegedly, in my opinion only,

57:03

lied. And because

57:05

Jovan wasn't going to lie right

57:07

alongside him, the jury could have

57:09

decided that the contradictory statements of

57:11

co-conspirators was just not enough evidence.

57:15

Dimitri had already made his deal, so

57:17

he had very little to lose by

57:19

telling the truth at this point, except

57:21

possibly standing in the community. Disonuses

57:24

for Mikiva Jenkins had to hinge on

57:27

the testimony of a liar. And

57:29

it's a messy fact how often our court

57:32

system has to rely on dishonest people to

57:35

somehow get to the truth. But

57:37

thankfully, in this case, it somehow

57:39

works. Thank you for listening. If

57:45

you want more content, check out my

57:48

other show, Crimeless at Consequences, wherever you

57:50

get your podcasts. I also offer bonus

57:52

content and ad-free listening at patreon.com/crimeless or

57:54

through the Apple Podcast app. If you

57:56

want to buy me a coffee, the

57:59

official drink of Crimeless. You can get

58:01

a one-time donation at basementforproductions.com. Slash

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