July 21, 2025 • 42 mins
Martha Ann Freeman is a Tennessee resident who, along with Rafael DeJesus Rocha‑Perez, was convicted by a Davidson County jury of first-degree, premeditated murder in the April 2005 slaying of her husband, Jeffrey Freeman. Neighbors reported that she behaved strangely, both were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole.
Rafael DeJesus Rocha‑Perez, also convicted in the same case, was revealed to have been her boyfriend at the time, secretly living in the Freeman residence. Forensics connected both to the crime through evidence like DNA and witness accounts placing Rocha‑Perez near the scene just after the murder. The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld their convictions in 2008, rejecting appeals related to evidence and trial conduct.
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Rafael DeJesus Rocha‑Perez, also convicted in the same case, was revealed to have been her boyfriend at the time, secretly living in the Freeman residence. Forensics connected both to the crime through evidence like DNA and witness accounts placing Rocha‑Perez near the scene just after the murder. The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld their convictions in 2008, rejecting appeals related to evidence and trial conduct.
https://linktr.ee/Unforbiddentruth
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to Unforbidden Truth. I'm Andrew. Today I'll be speaking
with convicted murderer Martha Freeman. Jeffrey Freeman, a forty four
year old businessman from Nashville, Tennessee, was brutally murdered on
the night of April tenth, two thousand and five. His wife,
Martha Anne Freeman, and her secret lover, Ralphael Dejeseus Roca Perez,
conspired to kill him. Investigators determined that the victim had
(00:42):
discovered Roca Perez hiding in their closet, which triggered the
fatal attack. Jeffrey was bound, beaten, strangled, and left in
the bathroom of their home. His body was found the
following morning, April eleventh, two thousand and five. Following the
discovery of the crime, Martha Freeman went to a neighbor's
house and claimed that a mystery man killed my husband,
but didn't identify who are what had happened. The subsequent
(01:03):
police investigation revealed Martha's involvement. Evidence showed no forced entry,
her behavior during and after the murder appeared unusually composed,
and it was later revealed that she purchased cleaning supplies,
suggesting a premeditated cover up. In two thousand and six,
Davidson Tony jury convicted both Martha Freeman and Ralphael Roca
Perez a first degree murder, sentencing them to life imprisonment
(01:24):
with the possibility of parole after fifty one years. Their
convictions were upheld on appeal in two thousand and eight,
with the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirming that the evidence,
including the intimate relationship between Martha and Roca Perez supported
a nude photo, clearly demonstrated premeditation and conspiracy. Here's my
interview with convicted murderer Martha Freeman.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Hello, this is a pre paid call from Martha, an inmate.
It's a Tennessee Department of Corrections West Tennessee State Penitentiary.
So my name is Martha Freeman. I'm from Brentwood, Tennessee,
which is right outside of nash but I'm originally from
Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Can you recall any positive memories that stick out to
you from your childhood?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Oh? Yeah, for sure. So I grew up riding ponies
and horses. I was like the youngest one of the family.
I have two older brothers, and I really, I really
had a good childhood. Grew up riding horses and ponies.
I was a daddy's favorite. He spoiled me. I had
(02:31):
an in ground pool in a barn with horses. So yeah,
I have a lot of really good memories from my childhood.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Can you recall any negative memories that stick out to
you from your childhood?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah? I unfortunately, I was embarrassed of my mother's appearance.
And I know that sounds superficial, but when you're a
child growing up, maybe you just don't understand why mom
doesn't have any teeth and she runs around in moo moos,
and just it was Mom didn't look like all the
(03:06):
other moms. She didn't drive, she didn't take me anywhere.
So I really grew up kind of embarrassed of my
mom's appearance. And that's something that I've really isolated a lot.
As a result of that, I didn't necessarily learn how
to make friends, so that was really tough for me
(03:27):
growing up.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Did you suffer any type of childhood abuse or trauma
growing up?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I didn't. I didn't suffer any type of verbal abuse
or physical abuse. I just had this thing about having
friends over because I was embarrassed of my mom's appearance.
That was the biggest thing for me growing up that
I remember.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So you mentioned your mother was your father around growing up?
Were they together growing up?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They were? They were. My father owned the business and
so he worked most of the time all the time,
and I really had my father on a pedestal because I,
like I said, my thing was, I never saw them argue.
I never saw them like have any type of disagreements.
My mom would just shut down completely if they had
(04:17):
a disagreement. And I think that's what that's what I learned,
is how to shut down completely when things are going on.
I think that happened to me during when the crime happened,
is I just shut completely down, not knowing what to do.
So I grew up seeing them, I mean, you know,
(04:38):
they were around, and they were loving and everything. I
just was really embarrassed with my mom's appearance. And it
wasn't really until I got into high school and I
started smoking pot real heavy that I just all that
about my mom just kind of went away. At that point.
I didn't give a damn if somebody came over to
the house because I was probably we're trying to sneak
(05:00):
them into smoke pot and have sex with them.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So, yeah, did you have any type of hobbies growing
up as a child.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Hobbies I'm trying to think, Oh, not necessarily, not really.
I don't recall like having a specific hobby. I mean
I did all the kid stuff. I played with barbies,
and you know, I was mainly trying to get to
ride my horses and ponies. I took care of them
and and uh, you know, that was more or less
(05:35):
my hobby growing up. I think I don't remember anything
particular outside of that.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So what was your behavior like at home growing up? Like,
how did you behave at home? Well?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I really was really trying to be the favorite. I
really a lot of a lot of times I would
be seeking attention from my dad. I wanted his approval,
Like he would come home from work and I'd want
to show him or or talk to him about something
that had happened to me at school. But I did
(06:10):
isolate a lot. I isolated a whole lot. And you know,
I just remember other people having friends and sleepovers and stuff,
and I didn't have that growing up because of again,
that that whole thing with my mom and being embarrassed
that I really isolated a lot in my room, I
(06:30):
watched a lot of TV. Just those types of behaviors
that didn't serve me very well when I got to prison, because, uh,
when you're I was bullied a lot when I first
got here, and I just wasn't. I wasn't used to
the bullying. I wasn't I didn't know how to react.
(06:50):
I you know, I would just shut down and kind
of withdraw. H is all I can say to that. Uh,
when I first got here, I had a lot of bullying.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
What were you getting bullied for?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Well, just having the high profile case like I did,
you know, I had, I had inmates that I think
they just picked up on the fact that I was
just going to shut down and not argue with them,
that I wasn't going to defend myself, and I think
they took advantage of that. I think that they uh my,
(07:26):
you know, I had a lot of publicity about my trial,
they had seen it on TV. They made fun of me.
They That's basically what what occurred is they really made
fun of me and really thought that I was weak,
and you know, coming from the area that I came from,
(07:46):
they really took advantage of that.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Okay, So circling. Circling back a little to your to
your childhood. What was your behavior like, uh in school?
More so focusing on your middle school high school years.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Oh god, I was a people pleaser. I just I
you know, I had to have the straight a's. I
definitely was people pleasing big time. But I didn't you know,
I didn't cheerlead. I didn't do a lot of those activities. Again,
just the isolation part of it, I think is what
(08:24):
I saw myself involved or as I look back, I
saw myself. I see myself isolating a lot and kind
of staying in my own little shell, so to say.
But I didn't do a lot of those activities. I
got involved in like band, and I didn't play basketball,
(08:46):
but I was on the little basketball team, So I
mean I did do some some little extracurricular activity type things.
But I got kicked out of pant band for smoking pots.
So there's that.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Did you graduate high school?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I did. I graduated when I was seventeen, So yeah,
I graduated early and I was going to go to college.
I did go to college, but just for a short time.
I just decided that I couldn't find parking spaces where
I wanted him, and I just wasn't going to go back,
(09:26):
and my dad said if I wasn't going to go,
he wasn't going to keep sending him money. So I
dropped out of college and continue to smoke pot.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So did you engage in any type of criminal activity
as a juvenile?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I did once. I forged a prescription or I tried
to pass a forged prescription for a family member, and
I was like fourteen and didn't quite understand what was
going I don't think I quite understood what was going on,
but I did get arrested, and I had I was
supposed to do. I was supposed to do like two
(10:05):
weekends in jail, but I think my family bought the
jailer a country ham and I ended up not having
to do anything but just stay home those two weekends
and not be seen out in the community. So but yeah,
I did. I forged. I didn't forge it. I tried
to pass it a prescription that's something that one of
(10:28):
my family members had written. So there's that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Did you engage in any type of criminal activity as
an adult prior to the case you're serving time for now?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I did? Actually I did. Once again, let's go back
to the prescription drug use, which I was really heavy,
heavily into when Jeff and I had just built our
new house in Brentwood. I this time I did. I
was fortune prescriptions for pain medication and I did get arrested.
(11:05):
And yeah, so in that case, I think I ended
up getting maybe parole probation something. I had to go
see a probation officer every month. But yeah, I did.
I was. I was forging prescriptions at this time. I
really was, and it was me doing it, so and
(11:26):
I did get caught. I was so embarrassed. I had
to call Jeff from the Wimson County jail and let
him know what had happened and what was going on.
And we had we were just moved into a brand
new house, and it was it was a very stressful
time for me. But I had brought it on myself.
(11:46):
But prior to the crime, I'm here now, that's that's
what had happened for the prescription drug abuse.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Okay, So speaking of Jeff, tell me how you two
met and how you two met.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Oh, oh, it's so cute. I was working for a company.
He was working for a transportation brokerage company, so Basically
he booked trucks and uh, he didn't drive them or
anything like that. All they did was source trucks for
big companies like Fredo Lay that had just in time shipping.
(12:23):
You know, when they had a shipment ready to go,
they had to have trucks in there to cover it.
And he worked for that company. I worked for a
company that was shipping palettes all over the United States,
and so I would have to call Jeff's company and
it was just kind of funny how I would he
was my rep and I would ask for him and
(12:46):
he'd always be gone, and I would flirt with him
when he would come back. When he finally come back
to the office, like you know, I'd be like, oh,
you've got bankers hours and all this other stuff. And
so we just got to talking and I was like
one day on the phone, I said, well, I'd better
let you go, so get home to a wife and kids.
And he's like, no, no wife, no kids, And so
(13:09):
we just decided to meet. We met in Bowing Green.
At the time, I was living with my mom and yeah,
we that's how we met is uh, through work. So
he worked for a company and I worked for a
different company and h that's how we met up, and
it was it was it was great. I'll never forget that.
(13:33):
That was awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
How long after you two were together did you get married?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It was pretty quick because Jess was like, I don't
want to get well, he didn't want to keep paying
the phone, the long distance phone call bills, and so
we I would say, I moved in with him m
pretty quick actually, and we got married probably three to
(14:06):
four months after I moved in. So when less than
a year we were married. From the time we met,
we were married. So I'll never forget one Christmas, it
was Christmas for my birthday, he went out and he
found this hand carked heart wooden box. It was a
(14:28):
wooden box and it was a heart, and he put
his house key in it and gave it to me
like that, like the key to his heart. It was
so cool, so cool.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Tell me when and how you met your co defendant
in this case. Raphael DeJesus wrote, Goo Perez.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah. So, as Jeff and I said, we were married
for almost ten years before all this came about. And unfortunately,
as much as I did love Jeff and as much
as we were together on a lot of different things,
(15:07):
especially owning the business that we owned together. We were
not seeing I to eye in the bedroom, not at all.
And I think my sex drive was a lot. It
was an overdrive. I don't know. I don't know if
it had anything to do with hormones, with the fact
that I was getting up. I was, you know, I
(15:30):
was probably in my mid to late thirty my late thirties,
early forties, and my sex drive just went up through
the through the sky. And I think I had complained
about it to one of my employees because we owned
the business, and they were like, oh, you need to
(15:52):
get a booty call. You know, you need to get
a booty call. You need somebody to service your account,
so to say. And well, I had done a lot.
I had hid a lot of money and stuff like
that from Jeff and because I was abusing those prescription pills.
And I was like, man, I have not cheated on him.
(16:14):
I just that's just not what I want to do.
But eventually I did give then and cheat on him.
So I'm sorry. What was the original question I kind
of veered off here.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Oh it's okay. How did you meet your co defendant?
Like when and how did you meet.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Okay, okay, I got you. So I went. It was
the fourth of July and I had gotten mad at Jeff.
And whenever I got mad at him, I'd pack up
a little overnight a little overnight suitcase, and I'd go
get a hotel room somewhere. Well, it was the fourth
(16:53):
of July and I got a really nice hotel room.
It was I think it was at the Renaissance Hotel
downtown in Nashville, and I could had had a beautiful
view of the skyline and all the different fireworks. We
had watched the fireworks together. But he went home that
evening and I stayed in the hotel overnight and I
(17:14):
just wandered downtown and I came across three Mexicans and
I was like, Hey, do you guys want to go party?
And so we went back to the hotel room and
had sex. So that's how I ended up meeting him.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
When you say, when you say you went back to
the hotel room, did you go back with all three
of them or just Ralphael.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I did all three of them? Yeah, yep, yep, that
was me. I had sex with all three of them,
and then I ended up taking subscription pills which was
the theme of my life at that time. He is
abusing prescription pills and I ended up passing out. I
(18:00):
just remember waking up the next day and his friends
had left and just left him there, and I'm like, now,
what'n't the one am I going to do with me?
But what pissed me off about the whole thing is
they had rented movies and ordered room service and charged
all kinds of shit to my room, and I just think.
I just remember thinking, my god, y'all just left me
(18:22):
with a hell of a bunch of debts. But yeah,
that's how I'm metting.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
So so it sounds like after you three had sex,
he basically just didn't leave, And you guys, what just
was it like just like a strictly like sexual relationship?
Because I've read that he didn't really speak much English.
So was it just like a strict like sexual relationship?
It was?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, it really was. It really was. And I was just,
you know, it was nothing but a sexual relationship. And
that's the way I've always looked back on it. I mean,
even today, I wouldn't even reach out to him. I
don't have any thing in common with him. I don't
have any feelings towards him because it was it was
(19:10):
just a strict it was strictly a sexual relationship. That's
exactly what it was.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Okay, So this case was this case is nicknamed the
Mexican in the Closet. Can you tell me why that was?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Right? So what had happened was there was a short
time that I moved out of the Marrable home and
I lived with him in a in a hotel room. Well,
I kind of ran out of money and I had
tapped out all of my I tapped out all of
(19:49):
my credit cards. So I took him back to where
he came from, which was Murphy's Borough, Tennessee, and I
I decided he kept calling. He kept calling. I find
at the time, I thought I was going to go
back and work on my marriage with Jeff, and so
(20:12):
he kept calling, and I decided, well, maybe I still
have some things of his. I need to take those
to him, And so I went to Murphysborough. I picked
him up, and at the time I did not have
any credit left in order to get a hotel motel,
and I brought him back to the house. I brought
him back to the Marytal home, which I should have
(20:35):
never ever done, ever, never should have done. But at
the time, Jeff was out of town. He was he
had gone to oh, let's see, he had gone to Knoxville,
Tennessee to see a UT basketball game. It was April,
(20:55):
and I brought him back to the house and he stayed.
Before Jeff left, he stayed a couple of nights overnight
in the guest bedroom in the closet. He actually made
himself a bed in the closet. It was it was
(21:17):
just a spare bedroom that we had. It was kind
of a walk in closet, and he got a sleeping
bag and made himself a bed. So that's kind of
how it got the name Mexican in the closet. That's
how it got kind of got termed that because he
stayed a couple of nights and Jeff didn't know anything
about it. I was too messed up to take him
(21:39):
to drive him home. I was on so many beds
that I couldn't even see straight to even drive him home.
So that's how that got that name.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So let's talk about the case. Were in prison for now, Okay,
you're serving life without the possibility of parol. Correct.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I think it's with parole.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Is it okay? Because because I saw it, like, I
saw three different sentences. I saw sixty years on PDOC,
which I thought was kind of weird. It didn't say
life without parol, it said sixty years. So I wasn't
sure if it was life with peral, life without parole,
or just a sixty year sentence.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, I think it's life.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
With okay, all right, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
It seems like I should know these things.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
But yeah, right right, yeah, I was. I was confused
at first because it just does a flat sixty years
on TDOC, which I was like, that's weird because I
know some place, some people that I know in Tennessee
says life with or without.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Parole, right right, yeah, yeah, I'm praying that that changes,
right right, that ends up changing to, uh, you know
where if you have life with parol, you can go
up because so many, so many people that have life sentences.
(22:59):
You know, at my you're basically life with bro, You're
giving me a life sentence with that amount of time.
But anyway, right.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
No, I get it, I get it. Yeah, So can
you walk me through everything that you remember that led
up to the death of your husband and what followed
after the fact.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Okay, Yeah, So what happened is I was passed out
on medication and I did not hear the garage door
go up or anything. I did not realize that Jeff
came home a little bit early from that basketball game.
And again I'm on tons of medication, and I just
(23:45):
really did not realize what was going on as far
as when Jeff came home. Jeff came home and kind
of surprised the Mexican in the closet, so to say,
and there was a conference when he started to grab Jeff.
I ran outside. When I ran outside, I did not
(24:07):
even realize. And again I know, everybody's like, well, my god,
didn't you know what was going on? Why didn't you
call the police. I really didn't realize what was going on.
I had. I did not know that. I just felt
like I'd just been caught, you know, with this guy
in the house. And it's it's really hard to say,
(24:29):
you know why I didn't The reason I didn't call
the police is because, again I felt like I had
just been caught with this guy in the house and
not knowing and realizing what he was getting ready to
do to Jeff. So that kind of that kind of
takes you to that part of it, and from what
I understand as the fact, he he grabbed Jeff and
(24:54):
took him into the spare bathroom, I guess you could
say the guess bathroom. I did not know this until
after the fact, later on when I got attorneys and
got in the discovery of the case, that he'd actually
hit Jeff and then he drank either drowned him or
choked him out one of the others. I think Jeff
(25:16):
was wet. I think by the time I got back inside,
it was over as far as I could tell, and
he told me to go into the just bedroom and
shut the door and not come out. So I kind
of did what he told me to do. That's as
(25:38):
much as I you know, that's kind of what happened
the crime itself. As far as what I did after
the fact, I did some really dumb stuff after the fact.
I called his mother saying that he was sick, and
he wasn't sick at this time, he was dead. I
(25:59):
went got prescription medication filled, because that's what a good
attict does when they're scared or something happens. You go
and you know you want to medicate. You don't want
to have to deal with that, with that kind of trauma.
And so that's what I did. And well, I didn't
(26:22):
even remember getting prescription medication filled until my attorney brought
it up to me and told me that that's what
had happened. I tried to take all the pills because
that way I felt like I could kind of pass
out or escape what was going on. So, yeah, all
(26:45):
that was going on.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Tell me what happened after calling nine one one. Were
you and Ralph Yell arrested right away? Or did he
take off after you called them? He took off.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I went out the front door, he went out the
back door. He took off running, and he ended up hiding.
We had some construction that was going on behind our house.
He hid up in an attic of a house that
was under construction, and I went over to the neighbor's house.
And of course at this point, Jeff had been dead
(27:21):
for hours. He had been in the bathroom floor for hours.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
My whole I think it had said sixteen hours. Right.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah, My whole thing was, oh, I need to I
need to sober up, you know, I need to sober
up so that I can tell the cops to what
happened because again, I had taken a big handful of
pills after going to the pharmacy, coming back and taking
a big handful of pills, and I'm like, I've got
to sober up so i can tell them what's going on.
(27:50):
And I kept saying, I'm going to jail, I'm going
to jail. I'm going to jail. Because I knew that,
I kind of felt like, yeah, so this is some
shit right here. So yeah, he ended up running out
the back the back door, and I ended up going
over to the neighbor's house and calling nine one one.
Of course, by this time, you know it was it was,
(28:13):
it had been over for a long time, so there
was no reason really to call nine one one at
that point.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
When when you two were first arrested, were you originally
in charge of first degree murder or was it something else?
Speaker 2 (28:27):
No, Now, I I got indicted. He was arrested immediately
I got indicted. I was out on bond. Well, I
mean I was out for about, oh see, for about
five months before I got indicted.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
And then I was so we were you not charged
right away or were you charged and then bonded out?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I was not charged right away? I was indicted five
months after the fact.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
So what eventually led to you being charge? Did Ralphiel
say something?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Don't know? Don't know? You know that was the grand
jury that did that, that indict me. Yeah, I really
don't know what happened during I just know that I
was out for about five months before I was indicted,
and I was indicted for first degree I was.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Were you or him offered any plea deals before taking
your cases to trial?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Not before trial? No, I don't know about him, whether
he was offered any things, but I wasn't offered a
plea deal until it was during my trials. They offered
me a plea deal of thirty years at twenty percent.
I accepted it. One of my attorneys went back into
the judge's chambers to start drawing up the paperwork for
(29:55):
facilitation of first degree, which I felt like, that's the
crime that I did. I was totally fine with doing
that amount of time, but the other attorney taught me
out of it. He taught me out of taking the
plea deal, and he's now the district attorney for Davidson County,
the county I was in, So I feel like he
(30:16):
has a bit of responsibility for putting me here. He
should have never taught me out of that flue deal ever,
especially knowing that that would have you know, yeah, I mean,
I'll be a responsibility for putting myself here. Obviously, I
made the choice to bring this guy to the house.
I didn't do anything to stop what was going. What
(30:39):
happened ultimately happened to Jeff. I did dumb stuff after
the fact. But but I feel like I, since I
didn't actually have I didn't participate to the degree that
I had anything to do with killing my husband the facilitation.
(30:59):
I was perfectly fine with that, perfectly fine with taking
that flue. And I feel like it was, you know,
ineffective counsel for him to tell me not to take
that previal after especially changed my mind after I'd already
taken it.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
So they talked out of it. Then you went to
Charldood and you got life with the possibility of parle
Is that after twenty five years?
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Uh? No, it's after it's still after sixty years.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Oh after sixty years.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, I'm hoping that they changed the law to where
it goes back down to twenty five, but that has
not occurred yet.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Oh, Okay, Okay, he kicked it around.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, yeah, that's still that's still after sixty years. It's
actually you serve about I think it's like you serve
eighty five percent of that, which turns out to be
about fifty or fifty five years.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Right, which is still essentially a death sentence. Were you
and Raphael tried separately?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
No, And that's that's the other thing. We were tried together,
which is the worst case scenario because when you're tried
with your co defendant like that, you can't put in
you cannot put on much of a defense because you're
you can't basically trying to point the finger at each other.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Did that happen, was the thing? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Oh yeah, for sure. I don't know that he's so
much point of the finger at me as I was
trying to point the finger at him because he ultimately
did kill my husband. But no, we were tried together,
which was the worst case scenario. We tried to have
it separated, but they said that the nine one one
call was not an excited utterance. In other words, time
(32:53):
had lapsed so much since the death of my husband
that that nine to one one call was not It
didn't They were able to keep the nine on one
call out of court. I mean, I'm sitting here on
a life of girl sentence. The jury never heard my
nine one one call. They never saw my interview with
(33:14):
the detectives. There's so much stuff that was kept out
that if I was handing down a life sentence, I'm
sure would have wanted to know these things before I
made that decision. But yeah, there's a lot of stuff
that never got put in because the state was able
to keep it out.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
So you've told me a little bit about what you
say was kept out at trial, But tell me what
the trial looked like overall to you from your point
of view.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Wow, I thought things were going better than what they were.
I think there was a lot of There was a
lot of stuff that was brought in about the relationship,
which I never denied that there was a relationship, but
it didn't make me a murderer. I think that they
(34:07):
should have brought in more about my mental health, the
fact that I'm bipolar, the fact that I was abusing medications.
I don't think enough of that evidence is actually brought
in to the trial to show any I just felt
(34:27):
like I felt like there was a whole lot of
stuff that was left out. Like I've said, well, like
I had said of the trial itself, it felt surreal.
There's a lot of that that went on. It's a
lot of publicity that was involved in it. I think
Court TV was there. I know Haraldo Rivera at the
(34:51):
time was chasing me around. So it kind of felt surreal.
That's how I would sum it up.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Okay, And so how did you feel emotionally after you
were convicted and heard your sentence read life with the
possibility of thrall.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Oh God, I was devastated. I was devastated, especially knowing
that I had just turned down a plea deal during
my trial, because it was right before closing arguments. I
was devastated. I started crying and boohooing. My attorney couldn't
get the jewelry off of me fast enough. He took
(35:31):
my wedding ring and I had a string of real prols.
He took all that off of me with saying, well,
you know this is considered contraband and for in jail,
so I've got to take this from you. Yeah. I
was devastated, absolutely devastated, Still devastated to this day. Really
(35:51):
when I think about it, when I think back of
i could have already been out of prison because I've
had a pretty good record, you know, sit there and
think back about it. It's yeah, it's still devastating to.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
This day nowadays. How do you spend your time in prisons?
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, that's a great question. I'm actually in a program
that's helping me a lot with my mental health. And
since I've gotten some naturally, I've gotten some a dirty
drug screen, I'm in a program that helps me a
(36:31):
lot with my mental health. I do a lot of
group activities. I'm doing a lot of stuff on trauma
and anxiety and boundaries and things of this nature, which
is good. It really helps keep me in a good headspace.
I do that. I do journaling, I do coloring. I
(36:55):
listen to some podcasts on my tablet. So that's kind
of how I'm keeping my self busy these days. I
aggravate you, I think occasionally, Yeah, occasionally, that's kind of
how I stay busy. Watch TV. I like to have
(37:16):
more pen pals because I've got plenty of stamps just
sitting around. That's kind of it.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah. Okay, so let's say you do your case. Let's
say you do yet pard one day how would you
see yourself living life in the free world, and what
would you do to make sure you wouldn't reoffend it
end up back in prison.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
That's a great question. So I think that I would
want to go to a halfway house. I want to
be able to transition back into society. I don't think
that just just going out and getting an apartment or
something like that. You know, I'm actually going to be
eligible for k for some type of government assistance as well.
(38:03):
But I think i'd want to transition into a halfway house.
I would like to work in the hotel industry. Oddly enough,
I just find it really fascinating. I like to be
able to be a clerk or something at a hotel.
I love customer service. I love being able to assist
(38:25):
other people. So that's kind of something that I would
really like to get involved in. But I think that
I think that's where I would see myself is doing that. Now,
with that being said, I'm actually kind of holding off.
I'm going to do a clemency and I've got a
(38:46):
lot of it written up. I've got a lot of
it ready to go. I'm just kind of since I've
got to write up within the past year. I'm going
to kind of let that kind of let that fall
off a little bit before I to do the clemency
part of it, because I don't think it would it
would fly very well if it was less than a
(39:07):
year that I've gotten some type of disciplinary So, yeah,
that's kind of where I see.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Myself since being the prison or prior to get into prison.
Have you been diagnosed with any type of mental illnesses?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yes, I'm diagnosed bipolar. I don't know if it's one
or two. I don't know the difference, actually, but I
was being treated in the free world for being bipolar
and anxiety this order. A lot of times I get
overwhelmed with chaos or loud noises, things of that nature
(39:47):
that's going on around me, and I kind of shut
down and retreat and try to guess far away from
it as I can. So those are the two diagnoses
that it were very much I was being treated for
prior to the commission of this crime and being incarcerated.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Is there anything that you would like the public to
know about yourself or this case?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
I don't know. I'm an open book, so if if obviously,
if somebody wanted to write me or I had questions
that I wasn't able to answer or I didn't answer.
I'd be happy to write them back and tell them whatever.
I think that. Uh, I'm not sure that I have
anything anything that is not already out there. I think
(40:38):
if they were to get to know me, then I'm
a pretty pretty chill person, you know. I don't I
don't have anger issues or things of that nature that
I get along with just about everybody. And and yeah,
so that's about it.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
So before we include this interview, is there anything that
you'd like to talk about that we haven't covered?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
No, I don't think. I think we pretty much hit
all the hit all the high points. I don't think
there's anything else that i'd want to to divulge. I
think we went over just about everything. I feel that
it's pretty complete and pretty thorough. You know, I did
want to throw out that about being you know, accepting
(41:22):
the plea deal, but I covered that pretty well. You know.
I wanted to throw out about the childhood, having a
good childhood. I think I covered that pretty well. So No,
I don't think there's anything else that I would add
to it. But I do appreciate the opportunity that.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Was my interview with convicted murderer Martha Freeman. If you
liked the episode and want to hear it adfree head
on over to patreon dot com slash I'm Forbidden Truth.
Thank you for listening, See you on the next one.
Welcome to Unforbidden Truth. I'm Andrew. Today I'll be speaking
with convicted murderer Martha Freeman. Jeffrey Freeman, a forty four
year old businessman from Nashville, Tennessee, was brutally murdered on
the night of April tenth, two thousand and five. His wife,
Martha Anne Freeman, and her secret lover, Ralphael Dejeseus Roca Perez,
conspired to kill him. Investigators determined that the victim had
(00:42):
discovered Roca Perez hiding in their closet, which triggered the
fatal attack. Jeffrey was bound, beaten, strangled, and left in
the bathroom of their home. His body was found the
following morning, April eleventh, two thousand and five. Following the
discovery of the crime, Martha Freeman went to a neighbor's
house and claimed that a mystery man killed my husband,
but didn't identify who are what had happened. The subsequent
(01:03):
police investigation revealed Martha's involvement. Evidence showed no forced entry,
her behavior during and after the murder appeared unusually composed,
and it was later revealed that she purchased cleaning supplies,
suggesting a premeditated cover up. In two thousand and six,
Davidson Tony jury convicted both Martha Freeman and Ralphael Roca
Perez a first degree murder, sentencing them to life imprisonment
(01:24):
with the possibility of parole after fifty one years. Their
convictions were upheld on appeal in two thousand and eight,
with the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirming that the evidence,
including the intimate relationship between Martha and Roca Perez supported
a nude photo, clearly demonstrated premeditation and conspiracy. Here's my
interview with convicted murderer Martha Freeman.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Hello, this is a pre paid call from Martha, an inmate.
It's a Tennessee Department of Corrections West Tennessee State Penitentiary.
So my name is Martha Freeman. I'm from Brentwood, Tennessee,
which is right outside of nash but I'm originally from
Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Can you recall any positive memories that stick out to
you from your childhood?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Oh? Yeah, for sure. So I grew up riding ponies
and horses. I was like the youngest one of the family.
I have two older brothers, and I really, I really
had a good childhood. Grew up riding horses and ponies.
I was a daddy's favorite. He spoiled me. I had
(02:31):
an in ground pool in a barn with horses. So yeah,
I have a lot of really good memories from my childhood.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Can you recall any negative memories that stick out to
you from your childhood?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah? I unfortunately, I was embarrassed of my mother's appearance.
And I know that sounds superficial, but when you're a
child growing up, maybe you just don't understand why mom
doesn't have any teeth and she runs around in moo moos,
and just it was Mom didn't look like all the
(03:06):
other moms. She didn't drive, she didn't take me anywhere.
So I really grew up kind of embarrassed of my
mom's appearance. And that's something that I've really isolated a lot.
As a result of that, I didn't necessarily learn how
to make friends, so that was really tough for me
(03:27):
growing up.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Did you suffer any type of childhood abuse or trauma
growing up?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I didn't. I didn't suffer any type of verbal abuse
or physical abuse. I just had this thing about having
friends over because I was embarrassed of my mom's appearance.
That was the biggest thing for me growing up that
I remember.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
So you mentioned your mother was your father around growing up?
Were they together growing up?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They were? They were. My father owned the business and
so he worked most of the time all the time,
and I really had my father on a pedestal because I,
like I said, my thing was, I never saw them argue.
I never saw them like have any type of disagreements.
My mom would just shut down completely if they had
(04:17):
a disagreement. And I think that's what that's what I learned,
is how to shut down completely when things are going on.
I think that happened to me during when the crime happened,
is I just shut completely down, not knowing what to do.
So I grew up seeing them, I mean, you know,
(04:38):
they were around, and they were loving and everything. I
just was really embarrassed with my mom's appearance. And it
wasn't really until I got into high school and I
started smoking pot real heavy that I just all that
about my mom just kind of went away. At that point.
I didn't give a damn if somebody came over to
the house because I was probably we're trying to sneak
(05:00):
them into smoke pot and have sex with them.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So, yeah, did you have any type of hobbies growing
up as a child.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Hobbies I'm trying to think, Oh, not necessarily, not really.
I don't recall like having a specific hobby. I mean
I did all the kid stuff. I played with barbies,
and you know, I was mainly trying to get to
ride my horses and ponies. I took care of them
and and uh, you know, that was more or less
(05:35):
my hobby growing up. I think I don't remember anything
particular outside of that.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So what was your behavior like at home growing up? Like,
how did you behave at home? Well?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I really was really trying to be the favorite. I
really a lot of a lot of times I would
be seeking attention from my dad. I wanted his approval,
Like he would come home from work and I'd want
to show him or or talk to him about something
that had happened to me at school. But I did
(06:10):
isolate a lot. I isolated a whole lot. And you know,
I just remember other people having friends and sleepovers and stuff,
and I didn't have that growing up because of again,
that that whole thing with my mom and being embarrassed
that I really isolated a lot in my room, I
(06:30):
watched a lot of TV. Just those types of behaviors
that didn't serve me very well when I got to prison, because, uh,
when you're I was bullied a lot when I first
got here, and I just wasn't. I wasn't used to
the bullying. I wasn't I didn't know how to react.
(06:50):
I you know, I would just shut down and kind
of withdraw. H is all I can say to that. Uh,
when I first got here, I had a lot of bullying.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
What were you getting bullied for?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Well, just having the high profile case like I did,
you know, I had, I had inmates that I think
they just picked up on the fact that I was
just going to shut down and not argue with them,
that I wasn't going to defend myself, and I think
they took advantage of that. I think that they uh my,
(07:26):
you know, I had a lot of publicity about my trial,
they had seen it on TV. They made fun of me.
They That's basically what what occurred is they really made
fun of me and really thought that I was weak,
and you know, coming from the area that I came from,
(07:46):
they really took advantage of that.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Okay, So circling. Circling back a little to your to
your childhood. What was your behavior like, uh in school?
More so focusing on your middle school high school years.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Oh god, I was a people pleaser. I just I
you know, I had to have the straight a's. I
definitely was people pleasing big time. But I didn't you know,
I didn't cheerlead. I didn't do a lot of those activities. Again,
just the isolation part of it, I think is what
(08:24):
I saw myself involved or as I look back, I
saw myself. I see myself isolating a lot and kind
of staying in my own little shell, so to say.
But I didn't do a lot of those activities. I
got involved in like band, and I didn't play basketball,
(08:46):
but I was on the little basketball team, So I
mean I did do some some little extracurricular activity type things.
But I got kicked out of pant band for smoking pots.
So there's that.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Did you graduate high school?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I did. I graduated when I was seventeen, So yeah,
I graduated early and I was going to go to college.
I did go to college, but just for a short time.
I just decided that I couldn't find parking spaces where
I wanted him, and I just wasn't going to go back,
(09:26):
and my dad said if I wasn't going to go,
he wasn't going to keep sending him money. So I
dropped out of college and continue to smoke pot.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So did you engage in any type of criminal activity
as a juvenile?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I did once. I forged a prescription or I tried
to pass a forged prescription for a family member, and
I was like fourteen and didn't quite understand what was
going I don't think I quite understood what was going on,
but I did get arrested, and I had I was
supposed to do. I was supposed to do like two
(10:05):
weekends in jail, but I think my family bought the
jailer a country ham and I ended up not having
to do anything but just stay home those two weekends
and not be seen out in the community. So but yeah,
I did. I forged. I didn't forge it. I tried
to pass it a prescription that's something that one of
(10:28):
my family members had written. So there's that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Did you engage in any type of criminal activity as
an adult prior to the case you're serving time for now?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I did? Actually I did. Once again, let's go back
to the prescription drug use, which I was really heavy,
heavily into when Jeff and I had just built our
new house in Brentwood. I this time I did. I
was fortune prescriptions for pain medication and I did get arrested.
(11:05):
And yeah, so in that case, I think I ended
up getting maybe parole probation something. I had to go
see a probation officer every month. But yeah, I did.
I was. I was forging prescriptions at this time. I
really was, and it was me doing it, so and
(11:26):
I did get caught. I was so embarrassed. I had
to call Jeff from the Wimson County jail and let
him know what had happened and what was going on.
And we had we were just moved into a brand
new house, and it was it was a very stressful
time for me. But I had brought it on myself.
(11:46):
But prior to the crime, I'm here now, that's that's
what had happened for the prescription drug abuse.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Okay, So speaking of Jeff, tell me how you two
met and how you two met.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Oh, oh, it's so cute. I was working for a company.
He was working for a transportation brokerage company, so Basically
he booked trucks and uh, he didn't drive them or
anything like that. All they did was source trucks for
big companies like Fredo Lay that had just in time shipping.
(12:23):
You know, when they had a shipment ready to go,
they had to have trucks in there to cover it.
And he worked for that company. I worked for a
company that was shipping palettes all over the United States,
and so I would have to call Jeff's company and
it was just kind of funny how I would he
was my rep and I would ask for him and
(12:46):
he'd always be gone, and I would flirt with him
when he would come back. When he finally come back
to the office, like you know, I'd be like, oh,
you've got bankers hours and all this other stuff. And
so we just got to talking and I was like
one day on the phone, I said, well, I'd better
let you go, so get home to a wife and kids.
And he's like, no, no wife, no kids, And so
(13:09):
we just decided to meet. We met in Bowing Green.
At the time, I was living with my mom and yeah,
we that's how we met is uh, through work. So
he worked for a company and I worked for a
different company and h that's how we met up, and
it was it was it was great. I'll never forget that.
(13:33):
That was awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
How long after you two were together did you get married?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It was pretty quick because Jess was like, I don't
want to get well, he didn't want to keep paying
the phone, the long distance phone call bills, and so
we I would say, I moved in with him m
pretty quick actually, and we got married probably three to
(14:06):
four months after I moved in. So when less than
a year we were married. From the time we met,
we were married. So I'll never forget one Christmas, it
was Christmas for my birthday, he went out and he
found this hand carked heart wooden box. It was a
(14:28):
wooden box and it was a heart, and he put
his house key in it and gave it to me
like that, like the key to his heart. It was
so cool, so cool.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Tell me when and how you met your co defendant
in this case. Raphael DeJesus wrote, Goo Perez.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah. So, as Jeff and I said, we were married
for almost ten years before all this came about. And unfortunately,
as much as I did love Jeff and as much
as we were together on a lot of different things,
(15:07):
especially owning the business that we owned together. We were
not seeing I to eye in the bedroom, not at all.
And I think my sex drive was a lot. It
was an overdrive. I don't know. I don't know if
it had anything to do with hormones, with the fact
that I was getting up. I was, you know, I
(15:30):
was probably in my mid to late thirty my late thirties,
early forties, and my sex drive just went up through
the through the sky. And I think I had complained
about it to one of my employees because we owned
the business, and they were like, oh, you need to
(15:52):
get a booty call. You know, you need to get
a booty call. You need somebody to service your account,
so to say. And well, I had done a lot.
I had hid a lot of money and stuff like
that from Jeff and because I was abusing those prescription pills.
And I was like, man, I have not cheated on him.
(16:14):
I just that's just not what I want to do.
But eventually I did give then and cheat on him.
So I'm sorry. What was the original question I kind
of veered off here.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Oh it's okay. How did you meet your co defendant?
Like when and how did you meet.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Okay, okay, I got you. So I went. It was
the fourth of July and I had gotten mad at Jeff.
And whenever I got mad at him, I'd pack up
a little overnight a little overnight suitcase, and I'd go
get a hotel room somewhere. Well, it was the fourth
(16:53):
of July and I got a really nice hotel room.
It was I think it was at the Renaissance Hotel
downtown in Nashville, and I could had had a beautiful
view of the skyline and all the different fireworks. We
had watched the fireworks together. But he went home that
evening and I stayed in the hotel overnight and I
(17:14):
just wandered downtown and I came across three Mexicans and
I was like, Hey, do you guys want to go party?
And so we went back to the hotel room and
had sex. So that's how I ended up meeting him.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
When you say, when you say you went back to
the hotel room, did you go back with all three
of them or just Ralphael.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I did all three of them? Yeah, yep, yep, that
was me. I had sex with all three of them,
and then I ended up taking subscription pills which was
the theme of my life at that time. He is
abusing prescription pills and I ended up passing out. I
(18:00):
just remember waking up the next day and his friends
had left and just left him there, and I'm like, now,
what'n't the one am I going to do with me?
But what pissed me off about the whole thing is
they had rented movies and ordered room service and charged
all kinds of shit to my room, and I just think.
I just remember thinking, my god, y'all just left me
(18:22):
with a hell of a bunch of debts. But yeah,
that's how I'm metting.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
So so it sounds like after you three had sex,
he basically just didn't leave, And you guys, what just
was it like just like a strictly like sexual relationship?
Because I've read that he didn't really speak much English.
So was it just like a strict like sexual relationship?
It was?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, it really was. It really was. And I was just,
you know, it was nothing but a sexual relationship. And
that's the way I've always looked back on it. I mean,
even today, I wouldn't even reach out to him. I
don't have any thing in common with him. I don't
have any feelings towards him because it was it was
(19:10):
just a strict it was strictly a sexual relationship. That's
exactly what it was.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Okay, So this case was this case is nicknamed the
Mexican in the Closet. Can you tell me why that was?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Right? So what had happened was there was a short
time that I moved out of the Marrable home and
I lived with him in a in a hotel room. Well,
I kind of ran out of money and I had
tapped out all of my I tapped out all of
(19:49):
my credit cards. So I took him back to where
he came from, which was Murphy's Borough, Tennessee, and I
I decided he kept calling. He kept calling. I find
at the time, I thought I was going to go
back and work on my marriage with Jeff, and so
(20:12):
he kept calling, and I decided, well, maybe I still
have some things of his. I need to take those
to him, And so I went to Murphysborough. I picked
him up, and at the time I did not have
any credit left in order to get a hotel motel,
and I brought him back to the house. I brought
him back to the Marytal home, which I should have
(20:35):
never ever done, ever, never should have done. But at
the time, Jeff was out of town. He was he
had gone to oh, let's see, he had gone to Knoxville,
Tennessee to see a UT basketball game. It was April,
(20:55):
and I brought him back to the house and he stayed.
Before Jeff left, he stayed a couple of nights overnight
in the guest bedroom in the closet. He actually made
himself a bed in the closet. It was it was
(21:17):
just a spare bedroom that we had. It was kind
of a walk in closet, and he got a sleeping
bag and made himself a bed. So that's kind of
how it got the name Mexican in the closet. That's
how it got kind of got termed that because he
stayed a couple of nights and Jeff didn't know anything
about it. I was too messed up to take him
(21:39):
to drive him home. I was on so many beds
that I couldn't even see straight to even drive him home.
So that's how that got that name.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So let's talk about the case. Were in prison for now, Okay,
you're serving life without the possibility of parol. Correct.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I think it's with parole.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Is it okay? Because because I saw it, like, I
saw three different sentences. I saw sixty years on PDOC,
which I thought was kind of weird. It didn't say
life without parol, it said sixty years. So I wasn't
sure if it was life with peral, life without parole,
or just a sixty year sentence.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, I think it's life.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
With okay, all right, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
It seems like I should know these things.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
But yeah, right right, yeah, I was. I was confused
at first because it just does a flat sixty years
on TDOC, which I was like, that's weird because I
know some place, some people that I know in Tennessee
says life with or without.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Parole, right right, yeah, yeah, I'm praying that that changes,
right right, that ends up changing to, uh, you know
where if you have life with parol, you can go
up because so many, so many people that have life sentences.
(22:59):
You know, at my you're basically life with bro, You're
giving me a life sentence with that amount of time.
But anyway, right.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
No, I get it, I get it. Yeah, So can
you walk me through everything that you remember that led
up to the death of your husband and what followed
after the fact.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Okay, Yeah, So what happened is I was passed out
on medication and I did not hear the garage door
go up or anything. I did not realize that Jeff
came home a little bit early from that basketball game.
And again I'm on tons of medication, and I just
(23:45):
really did not realize what was going on as far
as when Jeff came home. Jeff came home and kind
of surprised the Mexican in the closet, so to say,
and there was a conference when he started to grab Jeff.
I ran outside. When I ran outside, I did not
(24:07):
even realize. And again I know, everybody's like, well, my god,
didn't you know what was going on? Why didn't you
call the police. I really didn't realize what was going on.
I had. I did not know that. I just felt
like I'd just been caught, you know, with this guy
in the house. And it's it's really hard to say,
(24:29):
you know why I didn't The reason I didn't call
the police is because, again I felt like I had
just been caught with this guy in the house and
not knowing and realizing what he was getting ready to
do to Jeff. So that kind of that kind of
takes you to that part of it, and from what
I understand as the fact, he he grabbed Jeff and
(24:54):
took him into the spare bathroom, I guess you could
say the guess bathroom. I did not know this until
after the fact, later on when I got attorneys and
got in the discovery of the case, that he'd actually
hit Jeff and then he drank either drowned him or
choked him out one of the others. I think Jeff
(25:16):
was wet. I think by the time I got back inside,
it was over as far as I could tell, and
he told me to go into the just bedroom and
shut the door and not come out. So I kind
of did what he told me to do. That's as
(25:38):
much as I you know, that's kind of what happened
the crime itself. As far as what I did after
the fact, I did some really dumb stuff after the fact.
I called his mother saying that he was sick, and
he wasn't sick at this time, he was dead. I
(25:59):
went got prescription medication filled, because that's what a good
attict does when they're scared or something happens. You go
and you know you want to medicate. You don't want
to have to deal with that, with that kind of trauma.
And so that's what I did. And well, I didn't
(26:22):
even remember getting prescription medication filled until my attorney brought
it up to me and told me that that's what
had happened. I tried to take all the pills because
that way I felt like I could kind of pass
out or escape what was going on. So, yeah, all
(26:45):
that was going on.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Tell me what happened after calling nine one one. Were
you and Ralph Yell arrested right away? Or did he
take off after you called them? He took off.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I went out the front door, he went out the
back door. He took off running, and he ended up hiding.
We had some construction that was going on behind our house.
He hid up in an attic of a house that
was under construction, and I went over to the neighbor's house.
And of course at this point, Jeff had been dead
(27:21):
for hours. He had been in the bathroom floor for hours.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
My whole I think it had said sixteen hours. Right.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah, My whole thing was, oh, I need to I
need to sober up, you know, I need to sober
up so that I can tell the cops to what
happened because again, I had taken a big handful of
pills after going to the pharmacy, coming back and taking
a big handful of pills, and I'm like, I've got
to sober up so i can tell them what's going on.
(27:50):
And I kept saying, I'm going to jail, I'm going
to jail. I'm going to jail. Because I knew that,
I kind of felt like, yeah, so this is some
shit right here. So yeah, he ended up running out
the back the back door, and I ended up going
over to the neighbor's house and calling nine one one.
Of course, by this time, you know it was it was,
(28:13):
it had been over for a long time, so there
was no reason really to call nine one one at
that point.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
When when you two were first arrested, were you originally
in charge of first degree murder or was it something else?
Speaker 2 (28:27):
No, Now, I I got indicted. He was arrested immediately
I got indicted. I was out on bond. Well, I
mean I was out for about, oh see, for about
five months before I got indicted.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
And then I was so we were you not charged
right away or were you charged and then bonded out?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I was not charged right away? I was indicted five
months after the fact.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
So what eventually led to you being charge? Did Ralphiel
say something?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Don't know? Don't know? You know that was the grand
jury that did that, that indict me. Yeah, I really
don't know what happened during I just know that I
was out for about five months before I was indicted,
and I was indicted for first degree I was.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Were you or him offered any plea deals before taking
your cases to trial?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Not before trial? No, I don't know about him, whether
he was offered any things, but I wasn't offered a
plea deal until it was during my trials. They offered
me a plea deal of thirty years at twenty percent.
I accepted it. One of my attorneys went back into
the judge's chambers to start drawing up the paperwork for
(29:55):
facilitation of first degree, which I felt like, that's the
crime that I did. I was totally fine with doing
that amount of time, but the other attorney taught me
out of it. He taught me out of taking the
plea deal, and he's now the district attorney for Davidson County,
the county I was in, So I feel like he
(30:16):
has a bit of responsibility for putting me here. He
should have never taught me out of that flue deal ever,
especially knowing that that would have you know, yeah, I mean,
I'll be a responsibility for putting myself here. Obviously, I
made the choice to bring this guy to the house.
I didn't do anything to stop what was going. What
(30:39):
happened ultimately happened to Jeff. I did dumb stuff after
the fact. But but I feel like I, since I
didn't actually have I didn't participate to the degree that
I had anything to do with killing my husband the facilitation.
(30:59):
I was perfectly fine with that, perfectly fine with taking
that flue. And I feel like it was, you know,
ineffective counsel for him to tell me not to take
that previal after especially changed my mind after I'd already
taken it.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
So they talked out of it. Then you went to
Charldood and you got life with the possibility of parle
Is that after twenty five years?
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Uh? No, it's after it's still after sixty years.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Oh after sixty years.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, I'm hoping that they changed the law to where
it goes back down to twenty five, but that has
not occurred yet.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Oh, Okay, Okay, he kicked it around.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, yeah, that's still that's still after sixty years. It's
actually you serve about I think it's like you serve
eighty five percent of that, which turns out to be
about fifty or fifty five years.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Right, which is still essentially a death sentence. Were you
and Raphael tried separately?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
No, And that's that's the other thing. We were tried together,
which is the worst case scenario because when you're tried
with your co defendant like that, you can't put in
you cannot put on much of a defense because you're
you can't basically trying to point the finger at each other.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Did that happen, was the thing? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Oh yeah, for sure. I don't know that he's so
much point of the finger at me as I was
trying to point the finger at him because he ultimately
did kill my husband. But no, we were tried together,
which was the worst case scenario. We tried to have
it separated, but they said that the nine one one
call was not an excited utterance. In other words, time
(32:53):
had lapsed so much since the death of my husband
that that nine to one one call was not It
didn't They were able to keep the nine on one
call out of court. I mean, I'm sitting here on
a life of girl sentence. The jury never heard my
nine one one call. They never saw my interview with
(33:14):
the detectives. There's so much stuff that was kept out
that if I was handing down a life sentence, I'm
sure would have wanted to know these things before I
made that decision. But yeah, there's a lot of stuff
that never got put in because the state was able
to keep it out.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
So you've told me a little bit about what you
say was kept out at trial, But tell me what
the trial looked like overall to you from your point
of view.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Wow, I thought things were going better than what they were.
I think there was a lot of There was a
lot of stuff that was brought in about the relationship,
which I never denied that there was a relationship, but
it didn't make me a murderer. I think that they
(34:07):
should have brought in more about my mental health, the
fact that I'm bipolar, the fact that I was abusing medications.
I don't think enough of that evidence is actually brought
in to the trial to show any I just felt
(34:27):
like I felt like there was a whole lot of
stuff that was left out. Like I've said, well, like
I had said of the trial itself, it felt surreal.
There's a lot of that that went on. It's a
lot of publicity that was involved in it. I think
Court TV was there. I know Haraldo Rivera at the
(34:51):
time was chasing me around. So it kind of felt surreal.
That's how I would sum it up.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Okay, And so how did you feel emotionally after you
were convicted and heard your sentence read life with the
possibility of thrall.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Oh God, I was devastated. I was devastated, especially knowing
that I had just turned down a plea deal during
my trial, because it was right before closing arguments. I
was devastated. I started crying and boohooing. My attorney couldn't
get the jewelry off of me fast enough. He took
(35:31):
my wedding ring and I had a string of real prols.
He took all that off of me with saying, well,
you know this is considered contraband and for in jail,
so I've got to take this from you. Yeah. I
was devastated, absolutely devastated, Still devastated to this day. Really
(35:51):
when I think about it, when I think back of
i could have already been out of prison because I've
had a pretty good record, you know, sit there and
think back about it. It's yeah, it's still devastating to.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
This day nowadays. How do you spend your time in prisons?
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, that's a great question. I'm actually in a program
that's helping me a lot with my mental health. And
since I've gotten some naturally, I've gotten some a dirty
drug screen, I'm in a program that helps me a
(36:31):
lot with my mental health. I do a lot of
group activities. I'm doing a lot of stuff on trauma
and anxiety and boundaries and things of this nature, which
is good. It really helps keep me in a good headspace.
I do that. I do journaling, I do coloring. I
(36:55):
listen to some podcasts on my tablet. So that's kind
of how I'm keeping my self busy these days. I
aggravate you, I think occasionally, Yeah, occasionally, that's kind of
how I stay busy. Watch TV. I like to have
(37:16):
more pen pals because I've got plenty of stamps just
sitting around. That's kind of it.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah. Okay, so let's say you do your case. Let's
say you do yet pard one day how would you
see yourself living life in the free world, and what
would you do to make sure you wouldn't reoffend it
end up back in prison.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
That's a great question. So I think that I would
want to go to a halfway house. I want to
be able to transition back into society. I don't think
that just just going out and getting an apartment or
something like that. You know, I'm actually going to be
eligible for k for some type of government assistance as well.
(38:03):
But I think i'd want to transition into a halfway house.
I would like to work in the hotel industry. Oddly enough,
I just find it really fascinating. I like to be
able to be a clerk or something at a hotel.
I love customer service. I love being able to assist
(38:25):
other people. So that's kind of something that I would
really like to get involved in. But I think that
I think that's where I would see myself is doing that. Now,
with that being said, I'm actually kind of holding off.
I'm going to do a clemency and I've got a
(38:46):
lot of it written up. I've got a lot of
it ready to go. I'm just kind of since I've
got to write up within the past year. I'm going
to kind of let that kind of let that fall
off a little bit before I to do the clemency
part of it, because I don't think it would it
would fly very well if it was less than a
(39:07):
year that I've gotten some type of disciplinary So, yeah,
that's kind of where I see.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Myself since being the prison or prior to get into prison.
Have you been diagnosed with any type of mental illnesses?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yes, I'm diagnosed bipolar. I don't know if it's one
or two. I don't know the difference, actually, but I
was being treated in the free world for being bipolar
and anxiety this order. A lot of times I get
overwhelmed with chaos or loud noises, things of that nature
(39:47):
that's going on around me, and I kind of shut
down and retreat and try to guess far away from
it as I can. So those are the two diagnoses
that it were very much I was being treated for
prior to the commission of this crime and being incarcerated.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Is there anything that you would like the public to
know about yourself or this case?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
I don't know. I'm an open book, so if if obviously,
if somebody wanted to write me or I had questions
that I wasn't able to answer or I didn't answer.
I'd be happy to write them back and tell them whatever.
I think that. Uh, I'm not sure that I have
anything anything that is not already out there. I think
(40:38):
if they were to get to know me, then I'm
a pretty pretty chill person, you know. I don't I
don't have anger issues or things of that nature that
I get along with just about everybody. And and yeah,
so that's about it.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
So before we include this interview, is there anything that
you'd like to talk about that we haven't covered?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
No, I don't think. I think we pretty much hit
all the hit all the high points. I don't think
there's anything else that i'd want to to divulge. I
think we went over just about everything. I feel that
it's pretty complete and pretty thorough. You know, I did
want to throw out that about being you know, accepting
(41:22):
the plea deal, but I covered that pretty well. You know.
I wanted to throw out about the childhood, having a
good childhood. I think I covered that pretty well. So No,
I don't think there's anything else that I would add
to it. But I do appreciate the opportunity that.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Was my interview with convicted murderer Martha Freeman. If you
liked the episode and want to hear it adfree head
on over to patreon dot com slash I'm Forbidden Truth.
Thank you for listening, See you on the next one.
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