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July 30, 2025 31 mins
In August 2005, 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier Joshua Bennett returned home to Illinois, grieving the unexpected loss of his father. Ne reconnects with his mother, who invited him to stay the night at her home, but within hours, Joshua would be murdered in his mother’s home by a group of people who believed they were under the influence of a witch’s curse. The murder of Joshua Bennett is a senseless killing fueled by occult paranoia, the power of influence, and a revenge plot gone horribly wrong. At the center: an alleged hex, a woman obsessed with retribution, and a small-town “coven” convinced that violence was their only way out.

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A Hateful Homicide is a true crime podcast launched on March 31, 2021, by Transgender advocate Mallery Jenna Robinson. The podcast covers global homicide cases of all trans identities.
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14 News WFIE Evansville. (2005, September 21). NewsWatch update on murder case. https://www.14news.com. https://www.14news.com/story/3856625/newswatch-update-on-murder-case/Admin. (n.d.). Joshua Bennett Obituary - Death notice and service information. Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/joshua-bennett-obituary?pid=14940170&page=4Blake, D. (2023, January 9). The Modern Witch’s Coven. Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. https://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/3074#:~:text=Some%20covens%20still%20do%20a,what%20we've%20stuck%20with.Brown, J. (2024, October 7). Murder of Joshua Bennett by Irenia Cotner examined on Snapped. Daily Crime. https://www.dailycrime.com/murder-of-joshua-bennett-by-irenia-cotner-examined-on-snapped/English Heritage. (n.d.). A Journey into Witchcraft Beliefs. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/journey-into-witchcraft-beliefs/Holliday, D. (2022, September 23). When an Illinois deputy stopped a satanic cult killing spree. 100.9 the Eagle. https://101theeagle.com/when-an-illinois-deputy-stopped-a-satanic-cult-killing-spree/ILLINOIS CRIMINAL LAW: CLASS X FELONY. (n.d.). Dolci and Weiland Attorney at Law. https://www.dolciandweiland.com/class-x-felonyJg/t-C, K. R. F. T. (2006, December 22). Cotner receives 57 years in prison. JG-TC.com. https://jg-tc.com/news/cotner-receives-57-years-in-prison/article_c4c4f0c7-f301-5ebb-83c4-6bec70004ea1.htmlJoshua Bennett’s aunt looks back on his life and personality | Oxygen. (2022, September 16). Oxygen. https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/season-31/episode-10/videos/joshua-bennetts-aunt-looks-back-on-his-life-and-personalityLewin, K. (2005a, August 5). Local soldier on leave dies after being stabbed. Journal Gazette and Times Courier, A3.Lewin, K. (2005b, August 25). Richland Co. murder suspect assigned $3 million bond. Herald and Review, A5.Lewin, K. (2005c, August 30). More suspects charged in stabbing death. JG-TC.com. https://jg-tc.com/news/more-suspects-charged-in-stabbing-death/article_33777360-234e-52c8-ae7b-5d238dc65f13.htmlMoran, M. (2023, October 30). “Witch” sent men on ‘Harry Potter’ plan to kill pregnant woman – without revealing why. Daily Star. https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/witch-sent-men-harry-potter-31315299Oct 26, 2006, page 10 - The Breese Journal at Newspapers.com. (n.d.). Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/564891468/?match=1&terms=oscar%20eckOct 27, 2006, page 4 - JG-TC: Journal Gazette and Times-Courier at Newspapers.com. (n.d.). Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/84803905/?match=1&terms=oscar%20eckRyden, K. (2006, October 27). Testimony offers details of hex in ‘05 murder of former Mattoon resident. JG-TC.com. https://jg-tc.com/news/testimony-offers-details-of-hex-in-05-murder-of-former-mattoon-resident/article_a4581da9-74cf-5669-9111-3748403cc873.htmlSmith, B. H. (2024, July 18). Witch Coven attacks home in order to remove alleged hex and murders occupant. Oxygen. https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/crime-news/w
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.
In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay
the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten,
waiting to be heard and have their stories told. This
is the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast

(00:22):
where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases,
re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath
the years of silence. I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and
every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery,

(00:44):
one step closer to justice. Brought to you by Darkast
Network in Deep Podcasts with the Twist.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hi, my name is Mallory Jenner Robinson. Join me on
A Hateful Homicide. A true crime an investigative journalism podcast
dedicated to telling the stories regarding the murders and hate
crimes of our transgender, non binary, intersex and two spirit
community members in the United States and abroad. This is

(01:35):
a Hateful Homicide.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book
of the Dead. The case I have for you today
is a baffling one, a case that involves so many
people and has so many layers, but at the center
of it is an alleged x a woman scorned and
a young soldier caught in the deadly crosshairs of a

(02:01):
murder plot formulated by what most would call a coven
that was situated in a very small village in southern Illinois.
This is a case where on the surface, it seems
like a home invasion gone terribly wrong, but rather it's
one where fantasy and delusion combined with deadly results and

(02:22):
a young man stepping into a trap that he had
absolutely nothing to do with. This is the murder of
Joshua Bennett. Joshua Bennett was born on July twenty seventh,
nineteen eighty five, in Matune, Illinois, to Jacqueline and Jerry Bennett.
He had a brother named Jake, and by all accounts,

(02:43):
growing up, Joshua was described as an incredibly sweet and
loving little boy. Sometime in the nineties, Jacqueline and Jerry divorced,
and Joshua decided to stay with his father. They were
incredibly close and spent a lot of time together camping, cooking,
and he also spent a lot of time at the
home of his father's sister, Patty Metzger as she had

(03:06):
three little boys close in age to Joshua. Patty described
Joshua as being incredibly kind and how he could see
the good in just about anybody. She even joked that
strangers would mistake Joshua for her son because he looked
so much like her and he was always at her
home to hang out and play with her children. Joshua

(03:28):
was positive and overall just so good. He was never
in any trouble, and he loved to be around people.
Joshua went to Mattun High School, and while there, he
joined the JROTC program, which is the Junior Reserve Officer's
Training Corps. JROTC is a collaborative program between the US

(03:50):
Military and participating high schools, and they aimed to teach
students that participate in this program leadership skills, character development,
and responsible citizen and ship. When Joshua graduated from high
school in two thousand and four, according to an article
for The Journal Gazette and Times Courier, Joshua enlisted with
the US Army because the JROTC had such a profound

(04:13):
impact on him. Of his enlistment, his friend Jennifer Blackwell said, quote,
I believe josh just wanted to kind of get out
of the Mattoon area and travel and just see the world.
Everybody was rooting for him. We were all proud of him,
and that was a common theme among all of his
friends and classmates. They were all so proud of Joshua

(04:36):
and loved hanging around him. That September, he graduated from
basic training at Forts Viille, Oklahoma, before going on to
be stationed at Fort Poke, Louisiana. Joshua was looking forward
to his upcoming deployment to Iraq in two thousand and five,
eager to really start his career with the Army, when
tragedy struck the Bennett family and his father suddenly died

(05:00):
that July, when Joshua was twenty years old. Joshua was
granted emergency leave and he headed back to Mattune to
attend his father's funeral and be with his family, who
would also go on to lose Joshua's grandfather just a
few weeks later. At his father's funeral, Joshua reconnects with
his mother, Jacqueline, who he really hadn't seen much after

(05:21):
his parents' divorce, and she invited her son to stay
with her for the evening. Jacqueline was living in Claremont
with her fiancee Lee Jackson, his twenty three year old
son Jackie Jackson, and Jackie's pregnant seventeen year old girlfriend,
Lindsay Cassinger. On August twenty second, Joshua goes to the
home in Claremont to spend the evening, and that night

(05:42):
he makes a call to his girlfriend, Jamie Hopper. Jamie
told Oxygen quote, I talked to josh on the phone
when they were getting ready to eat dinner. I was
under the impression that I would talk to him tomorrow.
I would never thought that would be the last time
that I spoke to him. Sometime in the earth hours
of August twenty third, the Richland County Sheriff's Department gets

(06:03):
a frantic phone call about a break in at one
seventy five East Fair Street in Claremont. At three twenty
two a m Shriff's Deputy, Robert Blythe, arrives at the
home and he walks into what can only be described
as pure chaos. Deputy Blythe told Oxygen quote, when I
got there, there was a pregnant woman that screamed at

(06:24):
me that somebody had been shot and somebody had been stabbed,
and they were inside the house. Blythe runs into the
home and on the floor crawling towards him for help
is a bleeding man. Nearby is Jackie Jackson, who Blythe
knew from town. Jackie yelled for Blythe and said quote, Robbie,
I shot him. However, this unnamed man was not the

(06:46):
only person with a serious injury. In the kitchen of
the home, Blythe found Joshua lying on the floor. He
had been stabbed multiple times and the knife presumably used
to stab him was nearby. In the next room was
Jacqueline Bennett, also bleeding, who had been stabbed multiple times
in the neck in the chest. Paramedics immediately come to

(07:09):
offer life saving efforts for the three people critically injured,
but while both the alleged attacker and Jacqueline were able
to be stabilized, it was too late for Joshua, who
was pronounced dead at the scene at four fifteen am.
According to News fourteen. In addition to being stabbed, the
fatal wounds being to his heart, Joshua had also been

(07:29):
pepper sprayed in the face to incapacitate him. Police immediately
speak to Jackie to try and figure out what happened,
and he explains that he was asleep in the basement
when at around three am, Lindsay had woken up saying
that someone was in the house and he ran up
the stairs with a shotgun. According to former Illinois State

(07:50):
Police Sergeant Kelly Henby, Jackie, upon coming into the kitchen,
found two masked intruders, one stabbing Joshua in the chest
in abdomen and the other in the la living room,
Court records gone to explain, Jackie immediately tried to help Joshua,
and he's sprayed in the face with mace for his efforts,
but that doesn't deter him, and he hits the attacker

(08:12):
in the face with the butt of the shotgun. The
second intruder jumps into the confrontation, and the three of
them fought to take possession of the gun. When it discharges,
hitting one of the intruders in the stomach. Jackie, in
his shock and panic, drops the gun and tries to
stop the other assailant. Now he does manage to wrestle

(08:32):
the knife away from them, and he stabs the intruder
in the thigh and throws the second attacker down the stairs.
This intruder manages to get away from the home, running
off and leaving their partner behind to bleed out on
the floor. Lindsay, directly following this, runs next door to
a neighbor to call for help, and according to this neighbor,
they ran outside and saw the second intruder run into

(08:55):
the cornfields. The police quickly start canvassing the area looking
for this injured attacker, ends putting out an APB so
that every law enforcement officer in the county is on
the lookout. They also inform hospitals in the area to
notify police if anyone comes into the emergency room with
a matching injury. The man that was shot before being

(09:15):
transported to the hospital tells police his name is David Lindner.
When police asks for his accomplice's name, all David can
tell them is that his name is Ricky before he
slips into a coma. Now police were also able to
get a motive out of David Lindner. Sergeant Henby said
when he asked why they had done this, that David
had said, quote, the lady put a hex on us,

(09:37):
so we had to kill her. Of course, police are
confused by this, so they go to the hospital to
ask Jacqueline about her version of events and her relationship
to David Lindner ends this Ricky person, and Jacqueline is
just as confused. According to Oxygen, she told police that
she had woken up and gone into the kitchen, where

(09:58):
she was confronted by t intruders and they attacked her. Joshua,
hearing the commotion, ran into the room to defend his mother,
being killed in the process, but his actions are what
ultimately saved her life. Jacklin also claimed that she had
never met a David Lindner or a Ricki and had
no idea why they would have broken into her home

(10:21):
or who would want to hurt her. I will say
the one major benefit police had in their investigation into
who the second attacker could be was that, besides the
fact that he was injured enough that they knew he
would need medical care, Claremont, Illinois is so small it's
not even considered a town, as I said, It's classified

(10:42):
as a village with according to two thousand and five
census reports, a population of two hundred and seven at
the time of Joshua's murder. In fact, in the last
twenty years that population has dwindled even more, and they
reported a population of only one hundred and sixty residents
by year ends twenty three. It's a very small area,

(11:04):
barely larger than one square mile, and it's rural, so
it's a place where it's very difficult to hide because
everyone knows everyone. Because of this, it was only a
matter of hours before police were alerted that a man
with sharp force trauma had been admitted to a hospital
in nearby Lawrence County. Illinois State Police Sergeant John Waggle

(11:27):
arrived at the hospital just after eight am, and he's,
to his surprise, met by a man limping out of
the hospital. Waggle stops the man and questions him about
who he is and how he sustained the injury to
his leg. The man tells him that he is thirty
eight year old Oscar rk. The art stood for Richard,

(11:47):
but everyone referred to Oscar as Ricky, and he heard
his leg installing drywall. During this interview, to women approach
thirty four year old Ernia Coottner and twenty year old
Jenny Woolf. They said they were friends of Oscar's and
had come to take him back home. According to court records.
Police questioned both women and ask if they knew David Lindner.

(12:10):
They confirmed they did, but denied any knowledge of a
plan to break into the Benjackson home or of any
alleged hexts. All Arenia could tell investigators was that Jenny, Oscar,
and David were at her home the night of the murder,
but Oscar and Jenny had left in the early evening
so that Oscar could take Jenny to work, and Lindner
laughed when Arena told him she was going to bed,

(12:34):
she said. The next thing she knew, Oscar had arrived
at her home injured, and she took him back to
the home he shared with twenty two year old roommate
Misty Gangloff. When Jenny got off work that morning, the
three of them drove Oscar to the hospital. Jenny, according
to the Journal Gazette and Times Courier, said that she, Ernia, Misty,
and Oscar all worked together at the local walmart and

(12:56):
they were close friends. Jenny herself lived with Arnia and
had lived with the Cottner family for over a decade
since she was about eleven years old, and considered Ernia
to be a big sister to her. Police though suspicious
of Jenny and Arenia, especially when they considered Arnia's demeanor,
which was visibly shaky. Let the women go and went

(13:17):
to ex home to interview Misty. Misty, like the other women,
claimed not to know anything about a murder plot or
a hex, but when police took a look around the home,
they found a book about witchcraft in Misty's bedroom. Sergeant
Waggles said of the discovery quote upon seeing witchcraft literature
at the residence, it would confirm suspicions I had that

(13:39):
this was witchcraft related. Based on this, they bring the
women back in for questioning, and Misty explained that the
group had an interest in witchcraft and the occults and
had formed their own coven. Of course, at this point
we have to pause and have a discussion about witchcraft
and covens, so there's zero confusion about it and what

(14:00):
this modley crew was actually doing. As I have said
countless times, when it comes to things like satanism, witchcraft, wicca,
or paganism and those that believe or practice some variation
of that is not a bad thing, nor is it
a dangerous one, especially when you look at what witchcraft
or belonging to a coven is in a modern context. Sure,

(14:25):
maybe there are still groups of people that practice witchcraft
that go out into the woods and dance around a
fire in the moonlight, but realistically that's probably not actually
happening now. In fact, I can say with a lot
of confidence it's not happening now. According to an article
written by Deborah Blake, the practicing of wicca used to
mean a coven that was following a specific set of guidelines.

(14:47):
They were led by a high priest or priestess. There
were levels to members positions within a coven, and rituals
were incredibly ceremonial and complicated practices that involved strict instructions
down to the clothing or garments of participant. War Witchcraft,
or the practicing of magic has been around for thousands

(15:08):
of years, and references can be traced all the way
back to eight hundred BC, and evidence of this practice
has been uncovered during archaeological digs in places like Greece.
Of course, as the centuries passed, witchcraft was villainized and
those that practiced it, mainly women, were hunted down and
persecuted for it. We all know this, and I don't

(15:31):
think it's necessary to rehash it. However, modern witchcraft, as
I said, is different. Now. Many who practice in some
way aren't doing it for religious reasons. Sure, many wickens
specifically are dootheistic. They typically worship more than one god
or goddess from a variety of religions, but many use

(15:54):
witchcraft as a form of meditation, and a lot of
them don't practice in covens or groups anymore. For many people,
it's a solitary practice. Some practice to be closer to nature,
their ancestors, or self empowerment, and honestly, there are countless
reasons someone could practice, but there's rarely a negative reason

(16:17):
for it. Like satanism, witchcraft falls under the umbrella of
the occults, and many tend to view it in a
negative way. However, it's not an inherently evil thing quote unquote.
Good witches use their rituals to create positive changes or
benefit others in an effort to protect or heal, and

(16:38):
the wick and read, which many witches hold sacred, actually
starts with the saying quote by the wick and laws,
we must in perfect love and perfect trust, and it
ends with quote when ye have a true need, hearken
not to others, greed with a full no season spend
lest he be counted as his friend. Marry meat and
marry part brighte the cheeks and warm the heart. Mind

(17:00):
the threefold law you should three times bad and three
times good when misfortune is in Now wear the blue
star on thy brow. True in love, ever be less
thy lover's false to thee eight words the wi can read,
fulfill and ye harm none. Do what you will. This
is quite literally stating to do what you wish and

(17:21):
practice how you want as long as you have good intentions,
and anything bad that you do will return threefold back
to you. Obviously, that's not to say, like with anything
which craft can't be twisted and warped into something cult
like and evil, especially when someone with a very strong

(17:42):
personality can strong arm others in the group. And that's
exactly what Arena Cottner did. During police's interrogation of Misty Gangloff,
she told police that this group of friends had formed
a cobin and Erna was the leader. According to court records,
in April of two thousand, Erna told Jenny and Missy
that a teenager named Lindsay Castinger had put a hex

(18:04):
on her. They allegedly met up twelve to fifteen times
between April and August to try and figure out a
way to break the hecks, which Erna said at some
point had grown to include all of them. Ernia ultimately
determined that the only way to free them from this
hex was to kill Lindsey and her unborn child. Misty

(18:27):
said that she drove past Lindsay's home up to ten
different times between April and June with either Jenny or Ernia,
and they had even purchased a gun that they practiced
firing through pillowcases and milk jugs in a field to
work out the best way to silence it. The week
before the murder, Oscar Eck, who got involved in the
coven due to his interest in Harry Potter and the

(18:49):
hope that Arenia could cast a spell to make him rich,
introduces David Lindner to Ernia, believing him to be some
sort of warlock. According to Snapt, Ernia conducted multiple seances
that week, claiming to have God and Satan both speak
through her, stating that in order for their lives to
be spared, they would have to kill Lindsay. Arnia convinced

(19:13):
Oscar and David that they were hext as well, and
they and their families would die if they didn't kill
Lindsay first. Oscar, David, and Arnia came up with the
idea for the two men to break into Lindsay's home,
kill her, steal her bra and then take it to
an open fields where they would cast a specific spell.
In order to free them from this hex Arna assured

(19:37):
them that she would conjure eight demons to follow them
into the home to protect them. In the early hours
of August twenty three, two thousand and five, Ernia conducted
a final seance, instructing the two men that they had
until the final candles burned to get the job done,
or they would be the ones who would quote be taken.

(19:59):
The two men were driven by Jenny to the Bennet
Jackson house to see if Lindsay was home, before heading
to Walmart to buy masks and gloves. Then they drove
back and Jenny waited in the car while Oscar and
David snuck into the home. Jenny admitted during her interview
with police that she had taken ec back to Cottoner's
home after the plan went wrong, and had thrown away

(20:20):
bloody clothes and shoes when they drove him to the hospital.
Of course, police didn't really believe that Erna thought a
hex was put on her by a seventeen year old girl,
so they confronted her about it, and she admitted that
she had been in a relationship with Jackie Jackson for
four years before he broke up with her and started

(20:42):
dating Lindsay Castinger. This was not a case of occult
like delusion gone wrong. This was a case of a
woman's scorn and she used her influence over a group
of people to try and murder the woman that had
quote unquote taken her place. Seven days after Joshua Bennett's murder,

(21:02):
the Richland County States Attorney David Hyde file charges against
Arenia Cottoner, Jenny Woolf, and Misty Gangland for first degree
murder based on accountability, meaning while they may not have
been the ones to murder Joshua, they were complicit in
his death. Oscar Eck was also charged with first degree
murder and home invasion, which is a Class X felony.

(21:26):
All of their bonds were set at three million dollars. Now,
for those that don't know, a Class X felony is
reserved for the most serious of crimes. In Illinois's hierarchy
of crime classification, Class X felonies are typically seen in
cases involving violent crimes or drug charges, such as possession

(21:47):
of narcotics exceeding a certain amount with the intent to
manufacture or distribute. Cases involving child sexual abuse, material, predatory
criminal sexual assaults, and armed robbery. Class X felonies carry
an automatic six to thirty year prison sentence depending on
the crime, and fines of over one hundred thousand dollars.

(22:09):
Now David Lindner, from what I can gather, was never
formally charged with the crime in connection with Josho was murder,
as he, even though he had been stabilized, remained in
critical condition and ultimately died as a result of his injury.
In March of two thousand and six. Now Misty Ganglov
took a plea deal and she was sentenced to seven

(22:32):
years in prison for the conspiracy to commit first degree
murder charge, and she was released in twenty thirteen. Missy
did testify at Erna's trial, stating that she wasn't really
serious about witchcraft and she didn't really believe in the hecks,
but Erna and Jenny were the ones that believed in
it so fiercely, at least in her opinion. This, of course,

(22:56):
was argued by Couttner's attorney, Dorian Lassain, who confronted miss
about the objects found in her home that heavily implied
she was involved in occult practices, like the book on
witchcraft that was found, as well as a voodoo doll
and a box of pins. Misty claimed that she merely
used the voodoo doll to relieve stress, to symboldically transfer

(23:17):
negative feelings into the doll with the pins, which in
my opinion heavily implies an interest in witchcraft, But I digress.
According to The Breeze Journal, Oscar Eck also testified in
the hopes of being awarded a lighter sentence for his cooperation,
and explained that he was told that if he didn't

(23:39):
kill Lindsay Castinger and her baby, he and his family
would die. He also explained that Erna led them to
believe that the spirit she was communicating with instructed them
to injure Jaggie Jackson as well. Erna actually refused to
testify at her trial, and she also refused to wear
her hearing aids, which Jiu wasn't a deterrent for the prosecution,

(24:02):
they presented videotapes interrogations of Arnia claiming to have no
knowledge of a home invasion. However, Jenny Wolf testified that
the knife used during the attack, which was confirmed to
have Joshua was blought on it as well as oscar X,
belonged to her, and she kept the knife and others
she collected hidden in a box where children living in

(24:23):
the Cottoner home couldn't find it. Jenny claimed that Arnia
was the only other person aware of its hiding place.
At the conclusion of the trial, Ernia Connor was found
guilty of both murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and
she was sentenced to fifty years for the murder charge,
with the stipulation that she served one hundred percent of

(24:46):
that sentence before being eligible for parole. She was also
sentenced to an additional seven years for the conspiracy charge
to run consecutively with the fifty year sentence, though she
did have the option to be credited four time served
and good behavior, but only for the conspiracy charge. Now.

(25:08):
Arenia did choose to wear her hearing aids for sentencing,
which was commented on by circa judge Larry Dunn, and
according to the Journal Gazette in Times Courier, he said
he wasn't surprised that she chose not to listen to
any of the testimonies at trial because she quote couldn't
handle the truth. He also praised Joshua for his bravery

(25:29):
to the Bennet family and his selflessness for giving his
life to save his mother's, saying, quote, he was a
brave young man. That is in stark contrast to the
cowardice of this defendant. Upon hearing her sentence, Ernia only
said that she was falsely accused and felt terrible for
the Bennett family's loss, but that quote, he may not

(25:50):
have been lost had he not been in a drug house.
And we will come back to that statement in a minute.
Oscar Ek took a plea deal, pleading guilty to one
count on a first degree murder, and he was sentenced
to twenty years in prison. He will be eligible for
parole in twenty twenty seven. Jenny Wolf, for her part,

(26:10):
actually refused a plea deal and did not fare much
better at her trial than Arenia did. Jenny was found
guilty of first degree murder home invasion and conspiracy to
commit murder, and she was sentenced to thirty two years
in prison. Now, if we circle back to the drug
house comment, this was actually one of the points Orinia
tried to raise when she appealed the court's ruling in

(26:32):
two thousand and nine. One of her reasons for appealing
was that she claimed, according to court records, that the
court aired by not allowing evidence of David Lindner's criminal
record to support her argument that David broke into the
home for his own drug related purposes. She also claimed
the court airred in admitting evidence of a fire that
had been started at the Benajackson home by the coven

(26:54):
prior to the invasion. Ernia submitted a lot of doctor
humans and evidence to support her claims, however, none of
it was actually helpful to her case. She also claimed,
via a statement written by a court secretary, that Jackie
Jackson was an unreliable witness because he had allegedly been

(27:15):
arrested for drug and alcohol possession as well as fleeing
from police, and that he was shown special treatment by
the prosecution because a prosecutor allegedly told Jackie with a
hand on his shoulder quote don't worry about that. We'll
take care of it. You're doing a good job. Just
keep it up. I'll make sure everything is okay. This

(27:36):
argument was disproven as favoritism, as it was established that
Jackie was also a victim of this crime and that
he had just been made to testify about the death
of his stepbrother and the events of that night, which
was an emotional moment for him and really traumatic for
him to relive. It was also stated by the court
that there was no proof that Jackie received any sort

(27:59):
of deal or negotiation in exchange for his testimony. Erna
also failed to provide proof of his alleged charges or
lack thereof, to which she said that the records were
available online. She also submitted a statement from her mother
which claimed that the prosecution walked back and forth to
eavesdrop on an alleged conversation that her husband had with

(28:22):
the juror. This was also dismissed and viewed just simply
as rambling. In Factarinia's own written statement was deemed illegible
and also filled with unsupported facts and ramblings about drug use,
sexual abuse, immunity, please and drop charges, and none of
her documentation specified any individual involved in any of it

(28:44):
to be clear if it wasn't explicitly obvious. Her appeal
was denied. In the aftermath of the trial, Jacqueline, Lee,
and Jackie really struggled to try and move past what happened.
Jacqueline spoke at length about how much she missed her
son and she was heartbroken that she didn't get to
say goodbye to him as she was still in the
hospital when his funeral took place. The family moved out

(29:08):
of Claremont nearby Shelby County to get away from the
terrible memories of what happened, and Lee also spoke about
how hard things had been since Joshua's murder. Lee was
at work at the time of the attack and since
then had been unable to sleep, and he even lost
his job. After Joshua's death was announced, his friends flooded

(29:28):
the guest book for his memorial page with comments of
how loved he was and the memories they had of
him and his girlfriend. Jamie's family wrote of how beautiful
the relationship he had with Jamie was and how he
was another member of the family, calling him son, brother,
and cousin. While Joshua lost his life that night, it

(29:48):
was not in vain. He fiercely protected his mother like
the hero that he was and that I know had
a profound impact on his family. Thank you, as always
for listening to this chapter, and hopefully you are not
tired of listening to cases involving the occults. But as always,

(30:11):
I hope you have a wonderful week and I will
see you in the next chapter. Bye, guys, Another page closed.
But the story isn't over for the families left behind.
The pain doesn't end when the headlines fade, and for
the victims, we owe them more than silence for our

(30:34):
unsolved cases. If you have any information, please reach out
to local authorities or visit our show notes for links
and resources. Someone out there knows something, maybe it's you.
Thank you for listening to the Book of the Dead.
If this story moved or spoke to you in some way,

(30:55):
talk about it, share it, Keep their names alive. Until
next time, I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe, stay curious, and
stay vigilant, and remember the dead may be gone, but
their stories will not be forgotten.
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