Episode 32: The Murder of Ricky Cowles Jr.

When a young man is found shot and beaten in the bedroom of his apartment, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department struggle to identify a motive or suspects.

Written and read by Jordan Crittenden

Music by Jordan Crittenden, Doug Maxwell, Anno Domini Beats

Sources consulted:
- Los Angeles Daily News. "Lancaster woman convicted in 1997 slaying of boyfriend." 2007.
- People vs Preasmyer: Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Three. Filed April 28, 2010. https://www.leagle.com/decision/incaco20100428026
- Dateline (NBC): Season 19, Episode 12, "Mean Girls." 2017.

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Thank you for listening!

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Hello listeners, Jordan Crittenden here finallycoming at you with a new episode of
Dark Dark World. I know it'sbeen ages, and I'm sorry for that.
Really going to try to be alittle more consistent with the releases.
I just wanted to come on hereat the top of the episode and tell

(00:28):
you that I apologize for how longit's taken sometimes to get these episodes out.
But I do hope that you'll bearwith me, and I do hope
that you'll enjoy today's episode, whichcovers a case that was brought to my
attention by a man named Nate Bartel's. Hello Nate. Nate has gone out

(00:48):
of his way to recommend several casesto me, and you know, we
get that from time to time peoplewill write in and say, hey,
cover this case or cover that case. But gave me an extensive list not
only of cases that he thought Ishould cover, but of cases that most
other podcasts haven't covered, because,as you know, that's very important to

(01:11):
me trying to do stuff that's alittle bit different or you know, not
so trodden over. But yeah,so Nate gave me a whole list of
cases that either have no podcast coverageor very minimal podcast coverage, so that's
very cool. And then in additionto that, he provided multiple sources and

(01:33):
links for each of the cases,so it's like he's given me the research
as well. So big, big, big ups for mister Nate Bartels.
Thank you, Nate. Very coolof you. So yeah, that's how
I learned about today's story, whichis certainly an interesting one. It got

(01:53):
me to thinking a lot about highschool life and just how how different I
was when I was young, whichI guess sounds stupid because we all changed
so much from who we were inhigh school, but it really does seem
like a past life to me,and I wonder if those of you who

(02:15):
are my age or older now feelthe same way. Do you look back
on high school like your glory dayslike the Bruce Springsteen song? Were those
the best times for you? Ihope not, although I shouldn't say that,
actually why I hope not. Ifsomeone does feel that way, they
feel that way right. High schoolwas not the best time for me,

(02:38):
though I don't. I don't lookback on that as like my glory days,
but there were moments, there werethings about that time that I do
recall fondly. Anyway, that's whatI thought a lot about as I covered
this case, and obviously you'll hearwhy I'm going to stop with the rambling.

(02:59):
I've made you wait long enough fora new narrative episode, so I'll
chat again with some housekeeping stuff atthe end of the show. For now,
I give you today's episode. Thisis Dark Dark World, Episode thirty
two, the murder of Ricky Cowell'sjunior. Our story begins in nineteen ninety

(03:47):
seven, which is probably no surpriseto you all. I love my nineties
cases, and it takes place inLancaster, California. Lancaster is bit north
of Los Angeles and it's more ofa deserty California town, not unlike you

(04:08):
know, Indio, Palm Springs,Coachella Valley, kind of kind of vibes
I think for Lancaster. And thebest way to get into the story,
I think is to go into someof the central characters. We've got a
group of teenage high school girls,good group of friends, and the ages

(04:30):
of these girls very We've got sixteenyear old Amy pree Smyer, and Amy
is an honor student, she's athletic, she's I go, I guess you
would say, your typical well todo teenage girl, sixteen year old girl

(04:53):
and her best friend eighteen year oldSarah Chapin, who is a cheerleader and
a beauty pageant queen popular girls.Now, that wasn't my experience in high
school. Most of my friends inhigh school were the same age as me,

(05:14):
or at least, you know,in the same grade level. It
was unusual for us to have friendsa couple of grade levels above us,
you know, like the sixteen yearolds hanging out with the eighteen year old.
Although I understand that that's not unusualfor everyone, I think it's probably
because I wasn't very popular really.I mean, you know, I was

(05:35):
able to run with all circles.I was friendly with people in different walks
of life and different social circles.But you know, I wouldn't consider myself
popular by any means. But Ithink when you're a cheerleader, or you
play on the football team or involvedin student government, and you're just sort

(05:59):
of more involved in the school,I think you do tend to have a
wider friend group, and then theage thing isn't as prohibitive. I guess
I would say so, Like,you know, like the senior dudes on
the football team are friends with sixteenyear old dudes on the football team because

(06:21):
of the fact that they played footballtogether and then they become friendly. And
the same goes with the cheerleading squadsand things like that. I think that
just the circle widens and the agebarrier isn't quite as much of a thing.
Maybe I'm making too much of this. I don't know. Maybe everyone's
had a different experience, but minewas much more. It was my crew

(06:45):
of friends. We were all inthe same grade. Anyway, we've got
a lot to get to. I'llmove on. So, yeah, we've
got Amy Preeesmeyer and Sarah Chapin andthey're good friends and they're living their best
high school lives. And they meeta girl. She's eighteen. Also,
her name's Jennifer Kellogg, and Jenniferis on the dance team. Now,

(07:05):
I don't know how it was atyour school, but we had cheer and
we had palm, So we hadthe palm girls and the cheer girls,
and they were very different. Itseemed to me the Palm girls did more
of the dance. It was moredance oriented, and that's what Jennifer Kellogg
was into. But again, whenyou're involved in these sorts of things,

(07:26):
the lines are blurred and everyone justkind of hangs together. So Jennifer ends
up hanging out with Amy and Sarah, and as tends to happen, you've
got a younger girl like Amy Priestmeyer, who is sixteen, and she starts
hanging out with an eighteen year oldwho's just a little more rambunctious, a

(07:47):
little bit more wild, you know, living on the edge, because she's
much closer to college age. Andit's, you know, right when we're
about to taste that freedom getting outof high school. That's when I think
we're at our host. Not spongy, you're much spongier when you're even younger,
but full of possibility, excited aboutfinally being free, being an adult,

(08:11):
and you tend to push that envelopea little more, maybe a little
too soon. And so what I'mgetting at here is Jennifer Kellogg was a
partier. She was into drugs,and you know, she liked to have
a good time, and so sheturns Amy and Sarah into this life a
little bit. So they're still doingtheir high school thing, involved in their

(08:31):
cheer and their dance and their sportsand their honors classes. But they're getting
high as well. And I'm nottalking anything too crazy, but you know,
smoking some pot, drinking some alcohol, some cocaine here and there,
tripping on acid. You know,just a standard standard old high school good
time. But yeah, So SarahChapin actually would later later say that Jennifer

(08:58):
Kellogg was quote type of girl thathelped you get in trouble, the type
of girl your parents warned you about. End quote. So we know the
type, right, we all knowthe type. And anyway, these girls,
there's a fourth girl we need totalk about, and that's Shaln Cowls.
And she was sixteen, same ageas Amy, and she runs with

(09:22):
this circle a little bit too,but sort of on the periphery. She's
friends with them, but she's nottight with them. And Shylyn would be
the first to tell us that therewas a reason that she stayed on the
periphery. It was by design.She felt that the other girls were a
little too wild, that they livedon the edge a little too much,

(09:43):
to the point where she got badvibes from them a little bit, not
just because they partied, but itseemed that their rebellion was more than just
sort of typical high school rebellion.They were, as she puts it,
it seemed like they had an agenda, an agenda to be rebellious. We're
not going to listen to our parents. We don't care what they say.

(10:05):
Rules, nah, we don't followrules. Boundaries, there aren't any and
Shylyn also observed that these girls havesort of a mean streak. They could
be catty and vicious. And asI mentioned that, these crowds tend to
hang together and everyone gets along witheveryone, well, not entirely the case

(10:26):
Jennifer and Amy. Well, let'ssay Jennifer had a mean streak and she
sort of rubbed that off onto Amyand Sarah a little more than Sarah and
Amy were able to rub off theirnice, innocent, younger girl vibes onto
Jennifer. Now that freedom to bewild, the freedom to finally make it

(10:46):
to adulthood, really would come intofull swing in the summer of nineteen ninety
seven. This is when Jennifer andSarah would actually graduate from high school.
Amy was not ready for that yet. But the other two they're out,
they're free, and Amy's along withthem anyway, so she felt the same
way. Right, finally we're outand we can live on our own,

(11:11):
and we can drink and we canbring boys over and it doesn't matter all
that stuff. Right, They've finallyearned it in the summer of ninety seven.
But our story begins earlier than that. We need to go back to
the winter of nineteen ninety six.Christmas time ninety six rolls into January nineteen

(11:31):
ninety seven, so wintertime at theend of ninety six and beginning of nineteen
ninety seven. This is when RickyCowell's Junior comes into our story. Ricky
Cowells Junior is the twenty one yearold older brother of Shaye Lynn Cowells,
our good girl on the periphery ofthe not so Good Girls. Just to

(11:54):
say, I'm not judging these girls, not at this point anyway, the
same way most of us were.So yeah, no judgment here, totally
get it. So twenty one yearold Ricky Cowell's Junior enters our story,
and I'm just gonna call him RickyCowells from now on that there's a junior

(12:15):
there, just so you know.But yeah, Ricky Cowell's twenty one.
He enters the story as the olderbrother of shay Lynn Cowells and shy Lynn
is attending a party towards the endof nineteen ninety six in the winter when
Amy Preestmeyer, sixteen year old Amy'sparents go out of town. So she
decides to throw a party, becausethat's what these girls are looking to do,

(12:39):
right, They're gonna party. Momand dad are out of town,
let's get to it. So shayLynn goes. You know, she's on
the periphery. She's maybe not gonnado the drugs and do the serious drinking,
but she's gonna go and hang outbecause that's what everyone's doing. Amy's
there, obviously, it's her houseparty. Her parents are out of town.
She's the host, and Jennifer's there, and Sarah is there, and

(13:01):
of course shay Lynn is there.And earlier in the night, shay Lynn
had mentioned to her older brother Rickythat she was going to this party,
and low and behold, twenty oneyear old Ricky shows up at the party
of teens. We all know thisguy, right, he's like the Matthew
McConaughey character and dazed and confused,the guy that's a little too old to
still be hanging with the high schoolkids. But he does it anyway.

(13:26):
So, yeah, we all knowthat guy at the party. Maybe some
of us have been him once ortwice. So Ricky shows up to hang
out with his high school sister andher friends at this party. And look,
yeah, Ricky's an older man.He's a working man now. He
works with his father, an electrician. He's working on high voltage power lines

(13:52):
like you know that you see alongthe highway. He's up in the little
crow's nest working on those things.So dangerous work. Apparently you're compensated pretty
well for doing dangerous work. Hewas making good money, just purchased a
new BMW at the time, sodoing quite well. Shows up to the
party in his flashy car and pressingall the teens. But you know,

(14:16):
working man needs to unwind a littletoo. Ricky liked to have a smoke
and a drink and so maybe itjust you know, didn't matter to him
too much how old the clientele was. Oh you know, I say,
Ricky, it was twenty one.And he is at the bulk of our
story, which is later in thesummer of ninety seven, which you know

(14:37):
is sort of what I opened with. But actually he's twenty at this time.
At the end of ninety six.So my bad there. He's actually
not old enough to be going toa bar just yet, so, you
know, high school house party.Maybe due to a lack of options.
I guess you could say, well, we'll give him that. But he's
soon to be twenty one, sostill four years older than than Amy,

(15:00):
for instance, and four years olderthan his sister, and a couple years
older even then Jennifer and Sarah,who are soon to graduate and be eighteen
now shay Lynn's friends Amy and Sarah, Now, they thought Ricky was pretty
good looking. Here's a cool olderguy who's got a BMW and works and
makes money, and wow, youknow, they were drawn to him,

(15:24):
Amy in particular, and right thereat the party, Amy sort of developed
a bit of a crush on Ricky, and according to his sister shay Lynn,
Ricky was instantly smitten with Amy aswell. There at the house party,
they fell for each other and theybecame a couple. Amy obviously didn't

(15:48):
mind that Ricky was older. That'spretty much what she was looking for was
to be an adult in What betterway to just get instant access to adulthood
than to roll around with a guywho's got his own car. And Ricky
also didn't mind that Amy was younger, still a sophomore in high school,
no problem for Ricky. They launchedinto a full on relationship, and Ricky's

(16:11):
taking Amy out on dates on theweekends with his hard earned electricians pay,
and they're going on trips and hebuyser gifts and yeah, nice happy starter
relationship, starter high school relationship.But the parents of these two weren't quite

(16:33):
as smitten with the relationship or theidea of it. Ricky's parents who were
not thrilled when he brought Amy hometo meet them, but not really for
the reason that you might think.It wasn't so much to do with the
fact that she was a minor andtheir son is living the statutory life here,

(16:55):
but it was more to do withwhat Ricky's mother, Debbie, said,
was the fact that Amy seemed manipulativeand that something seemed off with her.
Debbie and Rick Senior, Ricky's fatherfelt that maybe Amy kind of had
him whipped a little bit, pardonthe phrase, but that she had him

(17:18):
sort of wrapped around her finger,and that she could get Ricky to do
pretty much anything. Such was thedepth of his love for the young sixteen
year old, But Ricky's mom,Debbie, wasn't so noble with her disapproval
either. What really seemed to botherher was that it you know, if
Ricky ends up sort of losing interestin this relationship, could Amy then hurt

(17:41):
him in some way? Could shepress charges against him for statutory rape?
Could she come after him in thatsort of way. So it was more
that Rickie's parents were worried that hecould get in trouble over this than it
was that they disapproved of Amy inany real way, at least that's my
reading of it from the sources I'velooked at and look, I mean,
that's a valid fear, I guess, but it's just I don't know,

(18:03):
are you coming at this from amoral place or just a dun't get cot
sun kind of place, you know. But whatever the source of her motivations,
Debbie Cowells did take some steps.She took measures to try and stop
this relationship. Rickie was living athome with his parents. He lived in
a guest house off to the side, and his parents forbid him to have

(18:27):
Amy stay over. She wasn't allowedto stay the night, and of course
Amy would sneak over. Ricky wouldtry to sneak her into the guest house
and then got caught a couple oftimes, and Debbie Cowells said, look,
son, I'm serious about this.If this continues, you're just going
to have to move out. Ifyou want to be with this girl and

(18:48):
potentially mess your life up, thenyou're going to have to do it elsewhere.
You're not doing it under our roof. And the reason that Debbie laid
down the law like this, ofcourse, was because she was hopeful that
Ricky would choose living at home rentfree with his parents over his relationship with

(19:08):
a sixteen year old girl that Ithink mom and dad didn't think was genuine.
They thought he was just smitten andit was a crush and he'd get
over it. But Ricky was reallyin love, or at least he believed
he was, and so he chosemoving out. He said, all right,
Mom, I understand, I respectyour ultimatum, and I've chosen this

(19:29):
option. I'm moving out, Loveyou, see you later, and sophomore
Amy Priestmeyer moved with him. Rickygot an apartment and Amy moved in with
him. So you might ask,well, where are Amy's parents in all
of this. What do they thinkabout this? She's the sixteen year old
girls still in high school moving inwith a now twenty one year old,

(19:52):
So what do they think of allthis? Well, I'll let you know
what they thought after this quick break. Amy Priestmyer's parents looked at this relationship

(20:23):
between Amy and Ricky from a differentangle. When you've already got Ricky's parents,
along with many of Ricky's and Amy'speers, having a little trouble with
the five year age gap between thetwo lovers, you'd maybe expect sixteen year
old Amy's parents to have even moreof an issue with it. But that

(20:45):
was not the case for Larry priestMeyer, Amy's father, and his wife
Georgia. Of course, part ofthe reason for that must be that Larry
and Georgia priest Meyer got together whenthey had a significant age gap as well.
Georgia was just seventeen while Larry wastwenty four when they met, so
an even wider age gap, andthat didn't stop them. So I suppose

(21:11):
they felt it would be hypocritical ifthey had any qualms about their sixteen year
old dating a twenty one year old. Whether it would have been hypocritical or
not. They didn't seem to havetrouble with it. They just did not
see what all the fuss was about. They thought Ricky was a good guy
and Amy was happy. And bythe way, if you hear a squawking

(21:33):
from time to time, I'm notsure if the MIC's picking that up,
but there is a quail right outsideof the studio window here. It's kind
of nice. We've got a littlefamily of quails out in the backyard.
This is their nesting season, sothey've got a clutch of eggs somewhere back
there. My dogs are keen todiscover where that is. They keep sniffing

(22:00):
around trying to figure out exactly wherethe clutch is. It makes for sort
of entertaining mornings when I take thedogs out there and they're hunting around and
the quail fly up into the treeand watch over squawk at them. So
if you're hearing that, that's whatit is. If you're hearing a squawking,

(22:21):
don't come and knocking. If youhear a squawking, don't you come
and knock in it's just a rockin'Robut if he was sucking, don't you
come and knocking. It's just arockin' robot. I'm not sure why you
would come and knocking, But whatI meant to say was if you hear
a squawking, it's a quail.Apologies. So, as you might imagine,

(22:42):
Debbie Cowles was none too happy tofind out that Amy's parents were so
okay with Ricky's and Amy's relationship.Debbie thought that maybe if she reached out
to Amy's parents that she could gainsome support and trying to break up this
relationship that she didn't approve of.She figured that certainly the parents of a

(23:07):
sixteen year old girl wouldn't want thisgoing on, but no, no,
Georgia and Larry were quite on board. One day, Debbie Cowles called up
Georgia Priesmeyer and said, listen,my son's trying to move your daughter into
his new apartment, and I thinkit's an inappropriate relationship. He's too old
for your daughter's too young, andshe should be staying home living with you.

(23:30):
She's a high school kid. Forcrying out loud, and Georgia responded
with, well, I'm not surethat's what's happening. Actually, we don't
know anything about that, but youknow, Amy can make her own decisions,
and Debbie Cowles looked upon that attitudewith some judgment. She felt that
Amy's parents clearly had no control overAmy, and we're basically letting her live

(23:53):
like an adult. Already. Onthe flip side, you've got Debbie herself
acting as if her son is inhigh school and he's the one that needs
parenting. So basically, we havetwenty one year old Ricky's parents treating him
like he's in high school, he'sthe teenager, and then you have sixteen
year old Amy's parents treating her likeshe's the twenty one year old out living

(24:17):
a life, having an apartment,working a job. So sort of a
rolls reversed thing going on there.And so it will probably come as no
surprise to you that when Amy andRicky ended up getting pregnant, it was
Amy's parents who they broke the news. Two first, they weren't so crazy
about telling Ricky's parents. However,it was here that Amy's parents drew the

(24:41):
line. This they were not toothrilled about. Georgia and Larry thought that
they had done quite a good jobraising their kids to understand contraceptives and to
use them, and they felt thatpart of the trust they had given Amy
was under the conditions that she wouldlive responsibly and make good choices. Come
on, Georgia and Larry, she'ssixteen. What do you think kids do.

(25:04):
They're not always responsible and they don'talways make good decisions. So maybe
you do need to exercise a littlebit more control, just a bit more
of a parental presence in your daughter'slife. There is a reason, of
course, that we don't really considerkids to be adults until they hit eighteen,
until they're beyond high school level.Nevertheless, while they were somewhat disappointed

(25:27):
and certainly concerned about Amy and Ricky'spregnancy, Georgia and Larry Priestmeyer still trusted
that their daughter was in good handswith Ricky and that Amy and Ricky were
solid young people that would make gooddecisions and be good parents. So they
were supportive and pregnant teenage Amy foundsupport from other sources as well, her

(25:48):
best friends Jennifer and Sarah. Amyinvited them to move in, which Rickie
wasn't entirely thrilled about, but ultimately, because Amy's happiness was his main motivator
in life at this point, heconceded and was fine with it, really,
and so Ricky and Amy's apartment reallybecame party central. This was now

(26:10):
a place where these girls who wantedthat adult sense of freedom could finally get
it. Sure, Amy was pregnant, so she couldn't really party to the
degree that Sarah and Jennifer wanted to, but she was still a hell of
a good hostess to some of thewild ragers that started to happen over at
the apartment. People were seemingly constantlyin and out of the place. You

(26:32):
had high school kids coming there,you had some older people coming in,
people that knew Ricky, so youhad sort of a mixed bag of ages
in there. And Jennifer. Thisis Jennifer Kellogg. You remember, she's
the older one of the friends,still in high school but just about to
be out. She's going to graduatesoon. She had some older friends and
some shadier friends. To be frank, you know, when you're at the

(26:56):
party, you're at the kagger orhigh school house party of some kind,
and then you pretty much know everyoneor recognize most of the faces. But
then those guys show up, youknow, those guys, the guys that
no one really knows, and startsgoing did you invite him or do you
know him? Or who's that guy? And they just look a little dodgy,

(27:19):
and surely they've brought some less commonlyseen substances to the party, you
know, the guys. So Jenniferis said to have been the one that
brought these types around. And Idon't know if Jennifer gets sort of a
bad rap in this, but fromall of the sources that I found about

(27:40):
this case, and there aren't reallya lot, Jennifer is sort of characterized
as the real wild child. She'sthe one that you know, egged everyone
on to do more partying and hungout with the shadier types and stuff.
And maybe that is true. It'shard to say, but it seems to
me that all of the girls wereengaging in the same behaviors and hanging out

(28:03):
with the same people. So Idon't know. Maybe she did know all
the shady people first, so thatmakes it her doing, and maybe she
was the first one to ever doany drugs, so it makes it her
influence. I don't know, butit just seemed interesting to me that she's
characterized that way. You know,they'll say like, oh, and then
Amy had her friends over Sarah andwild Jennifer or that crazy Jennifer, And

(28:29):
maybe there's a deeper reason for that, maybe it's a bit of foreshadowing.
Pregnant Amy was starting to feel alittle forlorn about the fact that she wasn't
really able to party as much asher friends were here. She had been
striving for so long and trying sohard to live like an adult, to
finally gain the freedom, to beable to make her own choices, her

(28:52):
own decisions, to do what shewants to do. But now she's pregnant,
and in her mind, she's imprisonedagain. Now she's not allowed to
party. And I do mean allowed, because I fully believe that Amy would
have been partying as hard as shewanted to had it not been for Rickie,
who, now that Amy was pregnant, had started to look at life

(29:12):
a bit differently. Sure, hewas still young, only twenty one years
old, but Rickie understood responsibility.He understood the importance of commitment and obligations,
and he understood that raising a childwas serious business. He wanted Amy
to understand that too. So notonly did Rickie not want Amy partying,

(29:33):
he also didn't want her hanging outwith her friends, So much. Essentially,
Ricky wanted to turn sixteen year oldAmy into a homemaker. While Rickie
was at work, he expected Amyto be home doing chores, keeping the
house clean, cooking food, andthis was exactly the sort of thing that
Amy had been trying to get awayfrom for her entire teenage life. So

(29:57):
Amy ignored Rickie's request. She continuedto have Jennifer and Sarah over. They
continued to throw parties. Amy herselfdid some light drinking and possibly other partying
while Rickie was at work, andof course, this became a source of
tension in the relationship between Rickie andAmy. They began to fight for the

(30:21):
first time since they had been together. But Amy needed to strike a delicate
balance here. On the one hand, she didn't want to go back to
her parents' house. She liked thenewfound freedom. She liked being out on
her own living in her own place, but she didn't like the fact that
Rickie was kind of controlling her nowtoo, almost acting like a parent.

(30:42):
Amy also feared that, because shewas so young, if she and Rickie
broke up, there was a chancethat Ricky and his family would raise Amy's
child. Rickie, of course,would look pretty good to the courts.
Hard working young man, good employmenthistory, makes good money. On the
other hand, you've got Mom who'sjust a teenager, still in high school,

(31:04):
and by all accounts, just likesto party. That's all she and
her friends do. Judge, youcould see how Amy might think that if
they were ever to go to courtover custody, the courts might side with
Rickie. But at this point thesewere just worries floating around in Amy's mind.
Her relationship with Rickie hadn't really deterioratedto the point where they would be

(31:29):
considering custody disputes at court, hadit well. As it turns out,
Rickie too was having some doubts abouthis relationship with Amy. She wasn't quite
turning out to be the sort ofhomemaker that he was hoping she could be.
She continued to have parties, herbest friends were omnipresent in the apartment.
To Rickie, it seemed as thoughthey lived there, and to be

(31:52):
fair, they pretty much did atthis point. The trouble for Rickie,
though, was he still hadn't toldhis parents that he and Amy were pregnant,
and that was a conversation he wasn'texactly looking forward to having. But
when it became apparent to Ricky thatthere was a real possibility that he and
Amy would be breaking up, heknew he'd have to tell his parents about

(32:13):
the baby. So one night Rickiedid go over to his parents' house and
sat them down and had a sterntalk with them, telling them everything,
and as you might imagine, DebbyCowels was pretty upset, but all in
all, both parents were somewhat relievedto hear that the relationship between their son
and Amy Priesmeyer was on the rocks. Remember, they weren't too keen on

(32:37):
Rickie dating someone so young. Alarge part of that lack of keenness down
to the fact that it was possiblethat Ricky and Amy could get pregnant together
and then they'd have a mess ontheir hands. But the pregnancy issue would
have to be put aside for now. For the Cowles family, the first
order of business was ending the relationshipbetween Rickie and Amy. The way Ricky

(33:00):
told it, Amy wanted to getmarried and raise a family. Amy was
the one who wanted to domesticate Ricky, and he just wasn't sure that he
was ready for that yet. Hewas still young. He didn't want to
be tied down. He thought hemay have made a big mistake. When
Rickie Cowell's returned to his apartment aftermeeting with his parents, he told Amy

(33:23):
that he needed some space, thatshe should go back with her parents for
a while. Amy was furious.She told Rickie that she hated him as
she burst into tears and ran tocall her mother. Not long after,
Georgia Priestmeyer arrived at Ricky in Amy'sapartment. Georgia asked Rickie if she could

(33:43):
speak with him, and Rickie obliged. She explained to Ricky that with a
pregnancy comes real responsibility, that hecouldn't just end the relationship because of an
argument. There were bigger concerns nowthat a baby was on the way.
Officially, Ricky agreed with Georgia,but much to Amy's chagrin, her mother

(34:05):
agreed with Ricky about something too.Indeed, Georgia told Amy that Sarah and
Jennifer shouldn't be living at the apartment, that again, raising a baby means
stepping up and taking responsibility, andthat having friends around all the time,
constantly partying and being disruptive was creatingan environment that simply wasn't conducive to taking

(34:28):
responsibility. Georgia Priestmeyer told her daughterthat she'd need to compromise with Ricky.
Ricky was the breadwinner. It washe who needed to get up to go
to work in the mornings. Amywould need to respect his space and his
boundaries. So somewhat reluctantly, bothAmy and Ricky agreed with Amy's mother.

(34:50):
After Georgia left the apartment, theyoung couple talked and decided to give their
romance another shot. The next daywould be Saturday, August ninth, nineteen
ninety seven, and Ricky and hisfamily would be headed off to Laughlin,
Nevada, for some R and R, a weekend of sun and gambling,
whining, dining, all that goodstuff. Ricky's parents had invited Amy to

(35:14):
come with them for the weekend,and Amy had planned to go, But
now Amy and Ricky thought that maybeit would be best to spend the weekend
apart from each other, just tocool down and take some time to themselves
to think they could talk things outsome more. When Ricky returned from Laughlin
on Monday, and so that nightended with mixed emotions for the couple.

(35:34):
They weren't entirely happy with each other, but there was a sense that they
could work things out, that everythingwould be okay. Over the weekend of

(35:59):
August nine, while Rickie Cowles Juniorwas away with his family and Laughlin,
Amy Priestmeyer, and her friends Sarahand Jennifer spent the weekend partying at Amy
and Ricky's apartment. Were they simplyhaving a last hurrah because Amy had told
Sarah and Jennifer that they'd not beallowed to stay over anymore once Ricky returned

(36:19):
well, according to shay Lynn Cowles, Rickie's younger sister, who also went
over to the apartment to hang outand party with the girls, No,
no, it didn't seem that wayto shay Lyn. Everything seemed like business
as usual. It didn't seem toshy Lyn that Amy had even mentioned to
Sarah and Jennifer that they wouldn't bewelcome to stay there anymore. Of course,

(36:40):
it was hard to tell. MaybeAmy had told them and it just
wasn't a big deal to them.Either way, Shylyn wasn't too fussed about
it. She was more focused ontrying some of the acid that Billy Hoffman
was selling to people hanging out atthe party. Billy wasn't just a blooming
entrepreneur and LSD dealer, though hewas good friends with Jennifer, and while

(37:01):
he didn't know Amy too well thesedays, they had grown up together.
Billy's parents house just down the streetfrom the Priesmier's house. Now, though
Billy lived on his own in anapartment complex not far from Amy and Ricky's
Chaylyn noticed the intimate back and forthwhispering between Billy Hoffman and Jennifer and Amy.

(37:22):
But of course, when you're trippingballs on acid, it's hard to
tell whether a clandestine huddle up mightindicate some sort of shadiness or whether it
might simply cut down the distance thebong has to travel as it's passed between
rips. Besides, Shaylyn didn't seeAmy going for Billy Hoffman. Billy wasn't

(37:42):
as handsome as Ricky and he didn'thave as much going for him. Now,
Billy Hoffman wasn't any one her brotherwould have to worry about. It
was Johnny Walls that Jaelyn was concernedabout. Johnny was Amy's ex boyfriend,
and he certainly didn't come over tothe apartment when Rickie was around. He
was here now though, and Amyseemed to be all over him. She

(38:04):
might have just kissed him. Actually, are the Walls breathing? Oh right?
Acid? The partying lasted all nightand after the sun was up the
next morning, and the bleary eyedteens began to shuffle out of the apartment
in search of their own beds.Amy Priestmeyer handed Johnny Walls a letter she

(38:25):
had written for him. In fact, they had kissed that night, and
now Johnny received a letter in whichAmy detailed what she saw as the turmoil
and uncertainty in her life, theconfusion she felt about her pregnancy, and
her relationship with Rickie. On Monday, Ricky returned from his trip to Laughlin.

(38:45):
He and Amy were happy to seeeach other. A few days apart
had seemingly been good medicine for theirrelationship. Rickie had to work the next
day that he and Amy made plansto spend some time together after he got
off, just the two of themto talk about their relationship and to make
plans for the future. August twelfth, nineteen ninety seven. As Ricky Cowles

(39:37):
Junior left his apartment for work onthat Tuesday morning, he discovered a note
from his girlfriend, Amy Priestmeyer onthe kitchen table. Amy had written the
simple missive with the flirtatious smiley faceand heart. She was merely letting Ricky
know that she was looking forward toseeing him later that night, and that
she'd be home by nine pm,which was the time they'd loose scheduled for

(40:00):
their alone time and relationship talk.Later on in the afternoon, Ricky got
a call from Amy. She wantedto know what time he'd be done with
work. He told her he wasn'tentirely sure that he and his father now
had to go over to the CountyFair to install some light fixtures, but
he should still be home before ninepm to meet her. But when Ricky

(40:22):
Junior and rick Senior were out atthe County Fair, Amy called again,
and she was asking him again,almost impatiently, are you getting home yet?
Do you know when you're going tobe home? Like she really seemed
excited for their alone time, andit would be hard to fault Ricky for
potentially getting pretty excited. Did Amyhave something planned, some sort of romantic

(40:43):
sexy time as opposed to let's talkabout us time? I don't know.
As for Amy, Priestmeyer. ThatTuesday had been spent running around with the
gals as usual. She and Jenniferdrove down to Santa Monica for the day,
just hanging out, doing some lightshopping and eating. When they got

(41:06):
back into town later that afternoon,they swung by the McDonald's near Amy and
Ricky's apartment. Shylyn was working thereat the time, and Amy and Jennifer
wanted to see if she'd be offof work soon so she could go with
them to Baskin Robbins for some icecream. Shaylyn did go with the girls
and they hung out for a bit. Shay Lynn was in the habit of
going over to her brother's apartment afterwork most afternoons. Her McDonald's was just

(41:30):
around the corner from the apartment complex. But Amy made it clear to Shylyn
that things were changing now. Rickyand Amy's apartment wasn't going to be party
central anymore. People weren't just goingto be allowed to come and go as
they pleased whenever they wanted, andcertainly not tonight. She made it clear
to Shaylyn that she didn't want hercoming by tonight. Tonight, she and

(41:52):
Ricky were going to spend time togetherjust the two of them and figure out
their relationship goals. Jaylen found Amy'sattitude adjustment to be pretty strange. It
seems so sudden, so severe,even rude, But it also wasn't quite
convincing to Hylen. It felt insincere. But of course Hylen was encouraged by

(42:15):
the news. She wanted her brotherto be happy, and she wanted Amy
to be happy too. They hada baby on the way, after all,
they really did need to figure somethings out. Amy and Jennifer dropped
shay Lynn off at home a littleafter five pm and headed off a couple
of hours later. At around eightpm, Amy and Jennifer met up with

(42:37):
Sarah and another teen named Jeff Shreeves. Seems like Amy was really making the
rounds, huh, making sure toget in some FaceTime with all of her
besties before she'd be having her bignight with Ricky. I know, it
almost feels like Amy's addicted to herfriends, you know, like as if

(43:00):
being without them was impossible to consider, even for just one night. But
I don't know, maybe I'm readingtoo much into it. Like sometimes when
you read these reports of you know, how someone's day went. Things can
seem more deliberate than they really were, you know, because you're looking at
a timeline of events as if theywere these deliberate meetings or scheduled hangouts.

(43:22):
But you know, it's probably alittle more easygoing than that, like,
oh, let's go over and seethis person now, and oh, hey,
look there's the McDonald's. We shouldgo visit Shalen. And oh,
you know what, Sarah and Jeffare hanging out over here, let's go
meet up with them. It wasprobably more casual, but anyway, just
before nine pm, the time thatAmy had told Ricky she'd be home,

(43:45):
she and Sarah arrived at the apartment. Jeff Shreeves was riding with Jennifer now
and they were on their way overtoo. Sarah didn't plan to stay,
obviously, this was the big alonetime for Amy and Ricky, but she
thought she'd say hi to Ricky andsee how he'd enjoyed. Laughlin and I
think the reason that Jennifer and Jeffwere headed over as well was because then

(44:08):
they would take Sarah with them andleave Ricky and Amy alone. Not certain
about that, but it seems logical. The front door was unlocked and Amy
and Sarah walked in. Amy wentto use the downstairs bathroom and told Sarah
to see if Ricky was home.Sarah called out for him, but there

(44:28):
was no response. She checked thegarage and saw that Ricky's car was there.
Clearly Ricky was home. So thegirls found it strange that the apartment
was completely silent, no TV sounds, no running water from the shower.
Most importantly, no response from Rickywhen they called his name, and there
weren't many lights on in the placeeither. Sarah felt a little unsettled.

(44:52):
It felt to her like something mightbe wrong, but Amy didn't seem too
concerned. The girls climbed the stairs, calling out for Rickie a couple of
times. Still no response, nosound at all, only quiet and stillness.
And then as the girls entered thebedroom horror. Ricky lay on the

(45:14):
bedroom floor, his body a contortedlump. Blood was everywhere, a massive
pool of it growing out across thefloor from Rickie's head. He was in
very bad shape, but he didappear to be alive. He was breathing
shallowly, his body twitching occasionally.He appeared to be trying to speak.

(45:35):
Amy became hysterical. Her screams wereso loud and visceral that to this day,
they are the strongest memory Sarah hasof that night. Sarah also remembers
being frozen with fear while Amy ranaround the room screaming and crying, Sarah
stood rooted through the doorway. Atthis point, Jeff and Jennifer arrived at

(45:55):
the apartment and they ran up thestairs to see what all the screaming was
about. So, now you've gotfour people screaming and running around the apartment
in the bedroom, compromising the potentialcrime scene. It's just chaos. Soon
though, the teens called nine oneone, and Amy was so hysterical and
her screaming and crying and hyperventilating thatthe operator had trouble understanding what exactly the

(46:21):
call was about. So Sarah thentook the phone from Amy, and it's
at this moment that the following audioclip picks up. Can you tell me
what happened? We don't go backinto the apartment, and we've been going
all night along and we haven't beena boyfriend, and we walked up there

(46:42):
on the garding. Anything. Okay, okay, hold on, I'm sending
to okay now, don't care now, Amy, you don't need it.
I can't even okay, how'd youdo now? Paramedics and police were dispatched

(47:14):
to the apartment. There, theydiscovered a man just barely holding on to
life. The paramedics carried Ricky downstairs, using his bed sheet as a stretcher.
Once downstairs, they laid him onthe floor. He was bleeding severely
from a massive wound to his head, which seemed to have been caused by
a gunshot. It appeared that hehad sustained other injuries as well, but

(47:37):
because he was covered in so muchblood, it was hard to tell exactly
what those injuries might have been andwhere they might be located. As the
paramedics began treating Ricky and preparing himfor transport to hospital, deputies from the
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department attempted tointerview him about what had happened. Here's
a clip from that exchange as well, and recap it for you after you've

(48:00):
heard it, because some of it'sa little difficult to hear. Did you
shoot yourself? Who did it?Who did it? Who shot you in
the head? Did you do it? So? If you didn't catch all
that one of the sheriff's deputies asked, Ricky, did you shoot yourself?

(48:24):
Ricky says no. The deputy sayswho did it? And then Ricky mutters
something unintelligible. The deputy asks again, who did it? Ricky replies,
my neck, and then one ofthe paramedics says, his neck hurts,
that's what he's saying. The deputyasks one more time, who shot you

(48:44):
in the head? Did you doit? And then Ricky stopped responding.
Sarah had called Ricky's parents and toldthem to come over to the apartment because
something had happened to Ricky. WhenDebbie Cowells arrived at the apartment, she
ran inside, calling out for herson. Debby collapsed in Rick Senior's arms
when she saw Rickie. Her wailsof agony joined the chorus of screams and

(49:07):
cries from Amy and now Sarah.Paramedics loaded Rickie into a MEDEVAC helicopter.
Rick Senior rode with his son andthe helicopter to the hospital, while Debby
and the girls followed the Sheriff's deputiesby car. The family gathered at the
hospital and paced the halls with worryand anguish as surgeons worked to save Rickie,

(49:29):
but the bullet in Rickie's brain hadcaused so much damage that saving Rickie
meant at best keeping him alive ina vegetative state. For two days,
Rickie laid in a coma. Machineswere doing the living for him, and
on August fourteenth, nineteen ninety seven, rick and Debby Cowls were forced to
make an unenviable decision. Friends andfamily came to the hospital to say their

(49:52):
goodbyes to Rickie, coming to hisbedside with flowers or mementos. They touched
his hand or kissed his forehead,and wished him well on his journey to
the next phase. Debbie Cowells recallsa particular scene that she'll never be able
to shake. She claims that atone point she witnessed Amy crying at Ricky's
bedside, bemoaning the fact that Rickiewas going to die. How could you,

(50:16):
she asked. You promised you'd buyme a car for my birthday.
Why did you have to die?No, I'm not sure if this is
true. It seems so bizarre andfrankly unlikely, but I don't know.
It's been reported in every source thatI've looked at for this case, so
I felt like I should include it, But yeah, I don't know.

(50:38):
I'm not sure. I'm convinced maybethough, maybe Amy was that heartless.
Ricky Cowells Junior was taken off oflife support and pronounced dead on August fifteenth,
nineteen ninety seven. Still pregnant withRicky's child, Amy Priesmeyer moved back
home with her parents. Now herfocus had to be on getting ready to

(51:00):
have a baby and preparing to raisea child on her own. But for
Rick and Debbie Cowels, and forthe Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the
focus was on solving a murder.Ricky Cowell's junior had been shot once in

(51:30):
the forehead, and it was determinedthat the barrel of the gun had been
held very close to him, somewherebetween a half inch to two inches from
his head. He had also beenstruck several times in the head with a
blunt object. The damage caused indicatedthat the object was consistent with a claw
hammer or something like it. Ricky'sbody showed no signs of defensive wounds,

(51:54):
which indicated that he had probably beentaken by surprise. There was very little
physical evidence recovered from the crime scene. At Ricky and Amy's apartment, the
Sheriff's department found a single shell casingfor a twenty five caliber semi automatic handgun,
and that was about it. Nothinghad been taken from the apartment.
Ricky's wallet remained on the dresser inthe bedroom, still had his credit cards,

(52:17):
an ID sixty dollars in cash inside. There were no signs of forced
entry into the apartment. And yet, while it was clearly unlikely that a
robbery had been the motive for theattack, it was also difficult to come
up with a reason why someone mightwant to kill Ricky. He didn't have
any known enemies, he wasn't intodrugs or gambling, he didn't have debts.

(52:39):
There truly seemed to be no motivefor the attack, which made the
sheer savagery of the murder even moreperplexing. Why would someone want to kill
Ricky and why kill him in sucha brutal manner. The Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department assigned two detectives to thecase, Tom Harris and Brandenburg. They

(53:00):
started where any good investigation should,with victimology. They wanted to get a
sense for Rickie's lifestyle, what washe involved in, how did he spend
his time? Who did he associatewith? What they uncovered was a fairly
bland and benign lifestyle. Rickie spentmost of his time working, and that

(53:21):
meant that most of his time wasspent with his father. On nights and
weekends, he spent time with hisgirlfriend and her friends, as well as
some friends of his own, Butas far as the detectives could tell,
having a few beers after work ordrinking and smoking some weed occasionally was about
as edgy as Ricky Cowell's junior ever. Got weeks passed by and then months,

(53:43):
and the detectives were running out ofideas. They had no leads,
there was nothing to go on.Frustrated with the pace of the investigation,
the Cowell's family took matters into theirown hands, setting up a reward fund
and posting flyers around town that offereda cash forward for any information that might
lead to the capture of their son'skiller. Chay Lynn Cowles, Rickie's younger

(54:06):
sister, went over to the priestMeyer house to bring some of the reward
flyers to Amy and her parents,and there Chaylyn got to meet her niece
for the first time. You see, after the murder, when Amy moved
back with her parents', communications betweenthe Cowls and the priest Myers had broken
down. Amy never liked Rickie's parentsto begin with, and of course Ricky

(54:27):
and Debbie hadn't approved of their son'srelationship with Amy from day one, so
there was no love lost, asthey say, but it had actually gotten
to the point where Debbie and RickSenior wondered if they might never even get
a chance to meet their granddaughter.But on this day, Kaylee Lynn Cowles
born January twenty third, nineteen ninetyeight was introduced to her aunt, jay

(54:49):
Lynn, and during the visit,Chaylyn called her parents and told them that
she was holding their granddaughter, andthey all sort of enjoyed a moment together,
Chaylyn and Amy sitting together with Kayleeand Debbie and Rick listening in on
the phone. And this gave theCowell's families some hope that maybe they could
be in Kaylee's life after all.Surely it's what Ricky would have wanted,

(55:09):
and Amy believed that too, soa few days later, Debbie and Rick
were invited over to the priest Meyerhouse and they're illuminated by the cooing smile
of their granddaughter, the Cowels andthe priest Myers buried the hatchet. There's
another phrase for you, no lovelost and burying the hatchet. Meanwhile,

(55:30):
the good times were no longer rollingfor our group of teenage girlfriends. Indeed,
after Ricky's murder and after Amy hadmoved back in with her folks,
she and Jennifer and Sarah had stoppedhanging out with each other as much.
Eventually they stopped talking altogether. Notactively necessarily, like there wasn't any sort
of hard line taken, like I'mnot talking to her anymore, but it

(55:53):
was more like their friendships had justsort of faded. You know. There
might be an occasional phone call hereor there, but beyond that nothing really.
Detectives Harris and Brandenburg thought it mightbe a good idea to conduct some
extensive interviews with the girls, consideringthat they spent more time with Ricky than
just about anyone other than Ricky's father, and through these interviews, the detectives

(56:15):
began to uncover some rumors and speculation, but even some nuggets of credible information.
For instance, in an interview withSarah, it came up that she
had been spending time with Jeff Shreeveson the night of Ricky's murder. You
may recall Jeff was the guy whoarrived at the apartment with Jennifer a little

(56:35):
while after Amy and Sarah had arrived, which is sort of odd because before
Amy and Jennifer met up with Sarahand Jeff, it had been Sarah and
Jeff who were hanging out, butthen it became Jeff and Jennifer who were
hanging out as Amy and Sarah thenrode together. So it's all very confusing
and strange, or maybe it's notat all. Again, sometimes when you

(57:00):
look at these timelines, things seemstranger than they really are, but in
fact it's just this sort of thingthat the detectives were curious about. Sarah
had said that she and Jeff metup with Amy and Jennifer at around eight
pm. The fourteens then went overto the apartment of a guy named Kevin
Tallwater, and his apartment was locatedin the same complex as Amy and Ricky's.

(57:23):
The kids didn't go inside Kevin's apartment, but he sat with them and
they all talked outside as they smokedcigarettes. Then everyone was hungry, so
maybe they were smoking weed in additionto the cigarettes. Jennifer and Jeff went
to Dairy Queen while Amy and Sarahwent to Burger King. Sarah told the

(57:45):
detectives that when she and Amy weredriving back to Kevin Tallwater's apartment after they
got their Burger King, Sarah hadsuggested to Amy that they swing by and
see if Rickie was home mit Sarahrecalls that Amy curtently told her no,
Ricky hadn't paged her yet, andshe hadn't seen any lights on in the
apartment anyway, so he definitely wasn'thome now. In talking with Jeff Shreves,

(58:07):
the detectives learned that when Jeff andJennifer had returned to Kevin Tallwaters after
their trip to Dairy Queen, Jennifermade a phone call, and as soon
as she hung up with whomever shehad called, she said, Okay,
we can go now. According toJeff Shreeves, as soon as Jennifer said
this, Amy sprung into action.She popped up under her feet and headed

(58:30):
for her car. Sarah hurried tocatch up with her, and Jennifer and
Jeff stayed at Kevin's for a fewmore minutes, and then they too left
to go over to Amy and Rickys. Now, remember Tallwaters apartment was in
the same complex as Amy and Ricky's, but they're all driving from one apartment
to the other. So I'm guessingthat the two apartments were on opposite sides

(58:53):
of the complex, or that itwas a massive complex, right Like,
either that or the kids are extremelylazy. But yeah, a couple of
interesting nuggets there, huh. Firstwe have Sarah telling the detectives that Amy
quickly shut down her suggestion that theygo to the apartment to see if Ricky

(59:14):
was home. And then we haveJeff Shreeve saying that Jennifer made a call
to someone as if to confirm something, and then when she had whatever info
it was that she needed, shesaid, Okay, we can go to
which Amy reacted emphatically and very quickly. Remember Amy told Sarah that she knew
Ricky wasn't home because he hadn't pagedher. So if that's such an important

(59:36):
indicator to her, if she wasso confident that Ricky would absolutely page her
if he had gotten home, buthe still hadn't paged her by this point,
why now was she so certain he'dbe home. Who had Jennifer spoken
to? Was it Rickie. Sarahalso mentioned to the detectives that after Ricky
died, Amy told her to stayaway from Jennifer because Amy believed that Jennifer

(59:59):
may have been involved with Ricky's murder, or at least knew something about it.
Jeff Shreeves told the detectives that agirl named Candace Or had told him
that about a week after Ricky's funeral, she ran into Amy at the local
fair. You remember the fair whereRicky and his father had installed the lights.
Candace Or repeated that bizarre piece ofinfo that I mentioned earlier. She

(01:00:23):
told Jeff that Amy complained to herabout Ricky dying when he did. Apparently,
Amy said to Candace, first hegot me pregnant, and now I
can't get high or drink, andthen he died before he even got me
a car. Yikes. So wehave a lot of he said, she
said, kind of stuff here,right, A lot of rumor and speculation,

(01:00:46):
which I suppose we might expect whenwe're dealing with high schoolers or just
out of high schoolers. But theseteens weren't the only ones yappen. You
remember Billy Hoffman. He was thedude that Jennifer had brought over to the
sort of last Harah party that they'dhad at Ricky and Amy's place while Ricky

(01:01:07):
was in Laughlin, the guy thatsold acid to chay Lynn, and that
chay Lynn thought might have had somethinggoing on with Amy, but she wasn't
sure because she was tripping well.The day after Ricky Cowells was murdered,
Billy Hoffman went to work at kmartas he did most days, but on
this day he happened to tell hisfriend and co worker, Heather that he

(01:01:29):
had killed Ricky Cowells. Not onlythat, but he actually gave Heather a
pair of bloody gloves and a clawhammerfor her to hide for him. Oh
it gets worse, though, Heatherwasn't the only person that Billy confessed to.
He told Jermaine McKnight and Robert Bobcock. He told Kyle Dunn, He

(01:01:53):
told Robert Tulk. He told allof these people that he had killed Ricky.
And to these men and boys whoall quickly volunteered this information to the
detectives, Billy claimed that he hadkilled Ricky at the behest of Ricky's girlfriend
and the reason that the detectives knewto talk to these guys to begin with

(01:02:13):
was because another guy arrested for anunrelated crime, had tried to weasel his
way out of the arrest by sayingthat he had information about a murder.
He told the officers working his casethat Billy Hoffman had also confessed to him
about killing Ricky. I mean this, Billy Hoffman is either a total moron

(01:02:34):
or completely racked with guilt, orboth, I guess so. In April
of nineteen ninety eight, Billy Hoffmanwas arrested for the murder of Ricky Cowell's
junior. Billy's family got him alawyer, and they went to trial.
At trial, Billy pleaded not guiltyand insisted he was innocent, just as
he had done when the authorities firstpicked him up. On the stand at

(01:02:58):
his trial, he pathetically attempted toget out of it by saying that in
fact, Joey Green, the guywho had been arrested and then gave Billy
up to try and get a lightersentence, had killed Ricky. Sadly for
Billy, though, the millions ofpeople that he'd already confessed to, plus
the clawhammer and bloody gloves that he'dgiven to his friend Heather were really all

(01:03:21):
the jury needed to see through.It was Joey Greene argument. It didn't
take long at all for the juryto find Billy Hoffman guilty of first degree
murder. He was sentenced to lifein prison without the possibility of parole.
Surprisingly, though, motive didn't playmuch of a role for the prosecution in

(01:03:42):
Billy's trial. Billy, of coursehad clammed up, and when he did
speak, he denied everything. Butfor me, it's like, but what
about all these people who claim thatBilly did this for Amy? Right?
They said that Billy had done itbecause Ricky's girlfriend wanted him too. I
mean, if we believe these witnesseswho are telling us that Billy said he

(01:04:03):
killed Rickey, and these witnesses arecompelling enough that Billy ends up convicted and
sentenced to life, shouldn't we alsobelieve the part about how Billy told them
he did it for Amy. Iguess not. I guess the state just
wanted the killer to go down andthe case to be closed and for everyone

(01:04:25):
to move on. However, BillyHoffman decided that he wasn't ready to just
move on. After sitting in prisonfor three years thinking about his situation,
he decided that it didn't seem sofair really, So in two thousand and
two, Billy wrote a letter.It was addressed to the Cowells family.

(01:04:45):
And you'll recall at this point thatthe Cowls and the priest Myers have buried
the hatchet, and young Kayley wasnow a toddler with both sets of grandparents
in her life. Debbie Cowells,who had probably been the least fond of
Amy, had developed a new respectfor her. Debbie thought that Amy was
a brilliant mother, and considering howyoung she was and all that she had

(01:05:08):
been through with losing Rickie and havingto raise Kayley as a single parent,
her efforts were even more impressive.But this respect and admiration was about to
be destroyed, and the relationship betweenthe Cowls and the priest Myers would be
as damaged as it ever had been. When the Cowl's family received and read

(01:05:51):
Billy Hoffman's letter, they learned thetruth about Rickie's murder. Billy told them
that since he'd entered prison become remorsefulover his actions, that he'd found God
and that he felt a moral responsibilityto apologize to the Cowels and ask for
their forgiveness for quote his part inthe murder end quote. And it was

(01:06:15):
this line that stood out to DebbieCowels. To Debbie, Billy's choice of
words was important for if Billy hada part in the murder, it may
suggest that others had parts in themurder. So that's a pretty good catch
by Debbie, and she wanted toknow about anyone and everyone who may have

(01:06:35):
had a part in her son's brutalkilling. So she took Billy's letter down
to the DA's office and kickstarted yetanother investigation. Detectives Harris and Brandenburg were
back on the case and they wentto speak with Billy Hoffman, who was
now willing to sit down for atape recorded interview in which he would tell

(01:06:57):
the truth, the whole truth,and nothing about the truth so help him
newly found God. Here's a smallclip from that interview. We're on tape
now. Time is fourteen hundred hours, a date is September to twelve,
two thousand and two. Okay,you were convicted of murdering Richard Howells.

(01:07:17):
If why don't you tell me thebeginning how that thing happened. I can't
remember exact days or anything like that, but I'd say a couple of weeks
before the murder happened, I wasat my house and Jennifer Kellogg asked me
if I would kill somebody, andI said, yes, I would.
Amy priest Meyer told me in theapartment and showed me how the layout was.

(01:07:42):
Amy Priestmyer now that Amy is wasKello's boyfriend, mother of this kid.
Okay, she also knew by us, yes, just as he told
some of the people that he'd confessedto before he was arrested. Billy Hoffman
now told the detectives that he hadin fact killed Rickie Cowles because Jennifer Kellogg
asked him to do it because AmyPriestmyer wanted Ricky dead. And shockingly,

(01:08:10):
that's all it took for Billy.He wasn't even paid to do it.
Apparently, Billy fancied himself as abit of a badass, a tough guy,
and he felt that killing someone wouldelevate his street reputation. That and,
according to most accounts, he wasprobably sweet on Jennifer. Billy went

(01:08:30):
on to tell the detectives about howwhen she was showing him the layout of
the apartment. Amy had given hima photo of Ricky and told him to
hide in the bedroom where he couldpeek through the door and see Ricky coming
up the stairs. On the dayof the murder, Amy and Jennifer picked
Billy up at his apartment and drovehim over to Amy and Ricky's apartment.

(01:08:53):
The girls left Billy inside and thenleft him there where he sat in the
bedroom with a gun, a buckknife, a clawhammer, and a thick pillow
to use as a silencer for thegun. He waited for Ricky Cowles to
come home from work. As youmay recall, though Ricky's workday ended up
being longer than he had originally plannedbecause he and his father were called out

(01:09:15):
to the fair to set up thelights. Billy grew tired of waiting.
He got bored and a little anxious, and started to have second thoughts.
Eventually, Billy was so fed uphe decided to leave, and he was
halfway finished with his walk home whenhe was spotted by Amy and Jennifer,
who drove up to him and accostedhim, demanding to know what he was

(01:09:40):
doing, and Billy explained to them, look, I can't just wait around
all day, but Amy told himthat no, no, I've been calling
Ricky and I finally got a holdof him. He just he had to
work late, but he'll definitely beback before nine, so just go back
and wait. So a boy,Billy reluctantly went back to the apartment and

(01:10:03):
sat there behind the door in thebedroom, his weaponry laid out before him,
and waited for Ricky's arrival. Rickyshowed up a little before nine.
He came up the stairs, enteredthe bedroom, and headed for the master
bathroom, but before he could getthere, Billy Hoffman attacked him from behind,

(01:10:25):
striking him in the back of thehead with the clawhammer, but the
blow didn't knock Ricky out. Heturned and tried to fight back. He
ran at Billy, and in apanic, Billy shot Ricky in the forehead
at close range. Ricky fell tothe floor but was clearly still alive,
so Billy struck him again with thehammer. In his haste and panic,

(01:10:47):
Billy hadn't used his pillow silencer,and he was afraid people heard the gunshot.
He quickly but calmly packed up histhings and headed out of the apartment.
He made the short walk back tohis house and page Jennifer when he
got there, and when Jennifer calledhim, he told her that the job
was done. So this was thephone call that Jeff Shreeves remembered, when

(01:11:13):
Jennifer hung up the phone and said, Okay, we can go. This
was why Amy had shut down Sarah'ssuggestion to go to the apartment and see
if Rickie was home. This waswhy Amy had told shay Lynn not to
come over to the apartment as sheoften did. Billy Hoffman's confession was explosive,
but the detectives knew that they neededmore than the words of a jailhouse

(01:11:35):
snitch who had already changed his storyonce. They needed to do some further
investigation, and this would take sometime. Interestingly, the Cowell's family were
kept in the loop about all ofthis. Remember it was they that brought
the letter to the DA and kickstartedthis whole second phase of the case.

(01:11:56):
So well, the detective spent acouple more months pursuing various lines of inquiry.
The Cowels had to put on ashow for Amy, pretending that nothing
had changed every time they met upwith her to take Kaylee for a couple
of days, or for a coupleof hours to give Amy a break.
Imagine that, you know, it'simpressive that Debbie and Rick are just able

(01:12:18):
to put their granddaughter before what surelymust have been boiling rage that they felt
for their granddaughter's mother, But theydid. They wanted Kaylee to be okay,
to remain safe and happy while lawenforcement was working the case for father's

(01:12:39):
murder. Fast forward to two thousandand five, with Kaylee now seven years
old, Amy Priestmeyer was getting readyfor a wedding. She was with a
new man now and they had beenengaged for some time. But a couple
of months before Amy's wedding, theCowels received the call that an arrest was
imminent. Law enforcement had finish theirinvestigation and were ready to move on Amy

(01:13:01):
and Jennifer. Debbie and Rick thencontacted a lawyer and went to family court
in an attempt to gain custody ofKayley. The family court judge did grant
temporary custody, but of course,this kicked off a long and messy court
battle between the Cowels and the PriestMeyers that would last for nearly five more

(01:13:21):
years. Then, Jennifer Kellogg andAmy Priest Meyer were arrested and charged with
murder. After a relatively quick trial, a jury of her peers found Amy
priest Meyer guilty of murdering her boyfriend. At her sentencing, the judge reprimanded
Amy's parents, saying, quote therewas a total breakdown of parenting, of

(01:13:46):
moral leadership, of any kind ofsense of moral responsibility end quote. This,
of course, helped the Cowell's familytremendously in their battle for custody of
little Kayley. Kayley's mother, Amywas sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole. Jennifer Kellogg benefitedfrom the court's lack of interest in having

(01:14:10):
another trial. She took a dealpleading guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to solicit
murder, which earned her fifteen yearsand four months in prison. After spending
eighteen years in prison, Billy Hoffmanasked for clemency. In his petition,
he discussed his stupidity for his rolein the murder, mentioning that he was
young and dumb and often on drugs, and that since then he'd come a

(01:14:34):
long way, confessing to his crime, asking the Cowls for forgiveness and offering
up Amy and Jennifer to provide closurefor all concerned, and Jerry Brown,
then Governor of California, bought it. He reduced billy sentence to twenty five
to life, and two years laterBilly was paroled. The priest, Myers

(01:14:56):
and the Cowls did eventually come toan agreement. He decided to leave the
past behind them as best they could. It was clear that both sets of
grandparents just loved Kayley and wanted herto be as happy as possible, So
the families now share custody of Kayley, who really ends up being the only
good thing to come from this wholemess of a story. The most baffling

(01:15:17):
part of this case to me isjust the total lack of a real motive,
Like everyone involved just has these flimsymorals and motives, like Billy seemingly
just to impress Jennifer and because hethought murder was cool or something, and

(01:15:38):
Amy and Jennifer had no other reasonthan what so they could keep having parties
at the apartment. It's just sovapid and sad. But look, I
mean, Ricky Cowells wasn't exactly theperfect guy. And I actually did want
to mention this that I find itkind of odd that most of the coverage

(01:15:59):
of this case seems to paint himas this sort of noble, hard working
guy whose life was so senselessly takenfrom him, and it was senselessly taken
from him. But let's remember alsothat he was a twenty one year old,
hard working man who was dating andimpregnating a sixteen year old high school
student. So not the best look, right. I mean, I'm not

(01:16:24):
victim blaming or any of that.I don't think he was a monster that
deserved to die. I just thinkit's worth reminding ourselves that he had some
flaws too. Sometimes I feel likeonce someone becomes a victim, they're suddenly
absolved of any of their sins,and I don't like it. I don't
like that. So yeah, anyway, I'm going to leave it there.

(01:16:47):
Gang. I hope you enjoyed thestory. Shout out again to mister Nate
Bartel's for recommending this story to me. Thank you, Nate. I appreciate
it. I enjoyed getting in thisone. No real housekeeping for me this
week. Just want to let youguys know that I am trying to get
back to releasing content more regularly.I've got a couple of videos lined up

(01:17:12):
for the YouTube channel, and asI've mentioned, my father and I will
be doing a doc Doc World episodeon Netflix's Bad Vegan. That's what's coming
out next for us. So ifyou haven't watched that one yet, maybe
check it out so you can enjoyour discussion on it all the better.
I'm going to try to get theEdman back on soon. I know a

(01:17:34):
lot of you miss the Edman,so we'll see if we can get him
back in the pipeline. And whatelse. The merch store. Check out
the merch store. You guys havebeen asking for the merch Well, now
you've got it. I know Idon't mention it often enough, but we've
got so many cool designs up overthere, so do check it out.

(01:17:57):
If you haven't yet, you justgo to the website Dark Darkworld dot com
and click on buy things or youknow, it's always in the show notes
there's a link to the store.But yeah, really cool stuff over there.
I've got multiple shirts myself, soyeah, shout out to miss Cinemina,
who designed pretty much everything we've gotover there now. But yeah,

(01:18:23):
awesome stuff. I'm rambling. Ithink that's it for now. Gang thanks
for listening, Thanks for telling peopleabout the show. Thanks for writing US
reviews. I appreciate each and everyone of you. For a dark,
dark world. I'm Jordan Crittenden see