Diana Duve was 26 when she vanished one evening in 2014 in Vero Seashore, Florida. She was final seen alive leaving a bar along with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Michael Jones. To witnesses, the couple appeared to be having a very good time, although they instructed police that at one level it seemed like Duve was upset. She by no means returned dwelling.
Her mom knew one thing was improper when Diana did not name her, one thing she did day by day. “It set me off instantly,” Lena Andrews instructed “48 Hours” contributor Michelle Miller. “I used to be attempting to inform all people who would pay attention … if she’s not calling me, it is as a result of she will be able to’t.”
“You may simply see the sheer concern and panic in Lena’s eyes,” mentioned Vero Seashore Sergeant Brad Kmetz. “I mentioned, ‘Lena, I promise you, I will get your daughter again for you a technique or one other.”
Fb/Diana Duve
On Saturday, June 21, 2014, Lieutenant Matt Harrelson and Sergeant Brad Kmetz with the Vero Seashore Police Division weren’t having a lot luck looking for out what may have occurred to Diana Duve and Mike Jones.
Investigators went to Jones’s residence, however nobody was answering the door.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We would interviewed all of those folks; we have run down all of the leads that we had … we’re in one million totally different instructions.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: We did get a search warrant that day to get into Michael Jones’s residence to attempt to acquire bodily proof or discover Diana and hopefully it to be you realize subsequent to nothing.
When the investigators returned with the warrant, they have been shocked to find Lena and Invoice Andrews — Diana’s mom and stepfather — sitting exterior of their automobile.
Michelle Miller: Is that uncommon?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Oh my gosh, that is loopy. … Lena is sitting on the home hoping for a sighting of her daughter … She’s simply beside herself. You understand she’s crying. She’s upset. She needs to go bodily kick the door in.
Earlier than investigators went inside, they interviewed Lena. She instructed them that the final communication she had from her daughter was that textual content Diana despatched within the early hours the day gone by.
Lena Andrews: She texted me at 1:45 a.m., “I will not be dwelling.”
It was in Russian, the language they spoke with one another, so Lena believed it needed to be from her daughter. Because the hours handed on Friday, with no signal of Diana, she grew more and more determined.
Michelle Miller: You referred to as Michael Jones?
Lena Andrews: I did name Michael Jones, sure. … And he was like, “Oh don’t fret. She’s with me the whole lot is OK.”
Michelle Miller: Oh, he mentioned that?
Lena Andrews: Sure. I used to be like, “Oh my God, Mike, you guys killing me. I’m, I’m apprehensive sick. I would like to speak to her. I need to hear her voice.” I instructed him to present her the telephone. Hastily. “Oh, she’s sleeping.” … Nicely, “wake her up as a result of I’ve to speak to her.” Hastily, one other excuse. “She’s at my place. However I am not there proper now.” … I instructed him, “You go dwelling, you wake her up.” … Name me again in half-hour.
However Jones by no means referred to as Lena again, and he or she by no means heard from him once more.
Lena Andrews: She was my world.
Fb/Diana Duve
Diana was born in Moldova, small nation in Japanese Europe. Diana immigrated to America when she was 13 to hitch her mom Lena who had married Invoice, an American.
Lena Andrews: A lady that did not communicate English in any respect. Inside two months, she was in common college class and in just a few years, you could not even guess that she’s not American.
In 2011, Diana obtained her nursing diploma. On the time she disappeared, Diana labored with most cancers sufferers on the Sebastian River Medical Heart.
Lena Andrews: She actually, actually cared … about her sufferers, about sufferers’ households.
Chelsea DiMaio: She’s very smart, all the time motivated.
Chelsea DiMaio was Diana’s greatest good friend and former roommate.
Chelsea DiMaio: She’s very simple going, simply enjoyable to be round.
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In the summertime of 2013, Chelsea says Diana met Jones at a bar in Vero Seashore.
Michelle Miller: Did she appear smitten from the beginning?
Chelsea DiMaio: No.
Michelle Miller: No.
Chelsea DiMaio: No. … She by no means had an preliminary, “Oh wow, Mike Jones.” … It appeared extra like he undoubtedly has his sight set on her. … And he or she ultimately got here round.
Lena and Invoice say they did not know a lot about Jones, besides that he labored for PNC Financial institution in Wealth Administration and had gone to legislation college.
Lena Andrews: He was extraordinarily well mannered. … Good dressed, properly spoken.
Invoice Andrews: He appeared like the best boyfriend.
And after simply a few months of courting, Diana moved into Jones’s residence.
Invoice Andrews: She appeared completely happy. So, we have been OK with it.
Chelsea says Diana and Jones shortly grew to become inseparable.
Chelsea DiMaio: You’ll by no means see her with out him. And he or she had by no means accomplished that in relationships earlier than.
Over time, Chelsea says she grew to become involved.
Chelsea DiMaio: There was a time the place we have been getting lunch … I keep in mind she wished to go someplace the place Mike wasn’t going to see her or run into her or see her automobile. It was virtually as if she would have been in bother getting lunch with me.
Chelsea says earlier than she may sit down and have a critical speak along with her good friend, Diana and Jones had a home dispute that may formally finish their relationship.
It was April 30, 2014, simply two months earlier than Diana would disappear.
Mike Jones’s neighbor made this 911 name:
OPERATOR: Vero Seashore Police.
NEIGHBOR: Yeah hello, I feel I acquired a home for you. The following-door neighbor and his girlfriend sound like they’re stepping into it.
NEIGHBOR: It has been happening for about an hour.
OPERATOR: Simply been yelling and screaming or …
NEIGHBOR: Yeah. … It simply feels like he is attempting to dominate the crap out of her
OPERATOR: So, it is simply been verbal, proper?
NEIGHBOR: Verbal. I am unable to hear any slaps or something. … However I am going to let you know, it isn’t good.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Officers responded, knocked on the door, made contact with each Diana and Mike Jones.
In keeping with the police incident report, Jones instructed them the noise was from “tough intercourse.” Diana instructed police the whole lot was advantageous, however she requested them to attend for her as she grabbed her issues and left.
Chelsea DiMaio: She referred to as me in tears leaving his residence. I instructed her to only come straight to the place I used to be, and he or she did … And he or she was nonetheless in her pajamas, hysterical.
Michelle Miller: Had you ever seen her like that earlier than?
Chelsea DiMaio: That upset? By no means. By no means.
Chelsea DiMaio: She was explaining that … he was screaming at her, that it had been happening for what felt like hours, and he simply wasn’t letting up. And he lastly acquired to the purpose the place he had put his arms round her neck and began strangling her.
Chelsea DiMaio: I may clearly see that there have been marks on her neck.
So, Chelsea says she took pictures which present what seems to be hand marks on Diana’s neck.
Chelsea DiMaio: I have to doc this. I would like to guard her.
However regardless of Chelsea’s efforts to get her to make a proper report, Diana selected to not press prices.
Chelsea DiMaio: She simply wished to maneuver her issues out and take away herself from the scenario and that is what we did.
Diana moved again in along with her dad and mom and didn’t inform them that Jones had tried to strangle her.
Lena Andrews: I feel she was simply attempting to guard me so I would not fear. And he or she thought that she dealt with it. … In her thoughts it was over.
However Lena says Jones continued to pursue Diana.
Lena Andrews: She would inform me, “He texts me. … Seems like he would not perceive that I broke up with him.
Now with a search warrant virtually 48 hours after Diana was final seen with Mike Jones, investigators entered his residence.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: You may see the sheer concern and panic in Lena’s eyes. … I mentioned, “Lena, I promise you I will get your daughter again for you a technique or one other.”
Lena Andrews: I vividly keep in mind that I used to be strolling backwards and forwards in entrance of this residence, neighbors, people who I do not know all popping out. … This lady simply got here and hugged me and mentioned, “Oh the whole lot going to be OK. And I checked out her and mentioned, “No it will not …”
THE SEARCH FOR DIANA
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We need to discover Diana. We need to reunite her along with her dad and mom. We need to make sure that she’s OK.
As detectives searched Mike Jones’s residence, they have been hopeful they’d discover Diana Duve. However they have been met with disappointment.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We did not discover lots. We did not discover any belongings that we felt have been Diana’s. We did not discover any signal of her.
However they weren’t discouraged. Sgt. Kmetz was motivated by that promise he made to Diana’s mom Lena — that he would discover her daughter.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: What actually drove me to maintain pushing ahead was a mom begging you, please discover my daughter for me.
They knew that in an effort to discover Diana, they wanted to seek out Mike Jones. Investigators grew involved after they realized that about 12 hours after Jones was final seen with Diana on the What a Tavern bar, he was captured on surveillance footage visiting a PNC Financial institution in Vero Seashore.
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Lt. Matt Harrelson: When he went to PNC Financial institution, he withdrew $2,500 in money after which instructed lots of his workmates … he mentioned, I am not feeling that properly. I am gonna be gone for a few days. I’ve acquired some issues I acquired to deal with.
Investigators grew much more alarmed after they realized that Jones had a legal file. Previous to shifting to Vero Seashore, he had been charged with aggravated stalking for threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend close to Fort Lauderdale in 2012.
That is the 911 name from that incident:
OPERATOR: 911, What’s your emergency?
EX-GIRLFRIEND: My ex-boyfriend simply referred to as me and instructed me that he has packed his gun and that as quickly as I stroll exterior a gunshot will go off in my head.
OPERATOR: What occurred?
EX-GIRLFRIEND: My ex-boyfriend threatened to kill himself tonight. After which once I instructed him that we weren’t getting again collectively he instructed me he would kill me.
EX-GIRLFRIEND: I am very afraid. I’ve seen him indignant earlier than.
St. Lucie Sheriff’s Workplace
He pleaded no contest. And as a part of a plea deal, Jones was given 5 years probation in lieu of jail time. He was required to remain within the Vero Seashore space and could possibly be arrested if he left with out getting permission from his probation officer.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: I spoke to the probation officer who instructed us if we are available in contact with him, that is possible trigger. We are able to arrest him for a probation violation, at minimal at that time.
Lena Andrews: Hastily, we came upon that he is convicted felon, that he is on probation.
Lena says she and Invoice have been blindsided by the information.
Lena Andrews: It is one thing that was extraordinarily sudden. … No one knew about it.
Investigators continued to work the case however have been working out of leads, so that they turned their consideration to analyzing cellphone tower pings from Diana and Jones’s telephones.
CBS Information
Lt. Matt Harrelson ( map): We needed to form of like overlay two separate maps to have the ability to see the place she could have been and the place he was prior.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I used to be getting fairly drained … And one thing instructed me simply give it a pair extra minutes. And this is the reason I’d say that divine intervention was undoubtedly at play right here … Inside a couple of minutes … I discovered one thing that was actually odd.
Sgt. Kmetz observed there was just one ping from Jones’s telephone off a cell tower positioned within the Fort Pierce space – roughly 25 minutes from Vero Seashore. So Kmetz had dispatch alert native authorities there, to be looking out for Jones’s gold Honda and Diana’s black Nissan.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I am on my means dwelling, I … get in mattress after which my telephone rings.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Fort Pierce PD had positioned Mike Jones’s automobile.
Jones’s gold Honda was positioned within the car parking zone of a Hampton Inn. Lodge surveillance footage confirmed that Jones had checked into the lodge virtually 24 hours after Diana went lacking. He gave the impression to be alone. In keeping with the entrance desk workers, Jones paid in money for 2 nights, and instructed them to not inform anybody he was there and to not switch any calls to his room.
Florida State Legal professional’s Workplace, nineteenth Circuit
Lt. Matt Harrelson: You do not know what you are gonna discover if you get in that room. … You understand, your coronary heart’s racing, you’ve got been going two days straight and now you are this shut from getting who you consider is a potential suspect … and likewise hopefully discovering Diana.
Round 11:30 p.m., utilizing a key card given to them by the entrance desk, Kmetz and Harrelson entered Jones’s lodge room.
Michelle Miller: He appeared shocked?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He was shocked to see us. Completely. … He was sitting on one of many double beds with like a V-neck T-shirt on and a few shorts and smoking a cigarette. And he was speaking on a telephone, on a cellphone.
It was a burner telephone — a telephone that’s tough for police to hint.
That is audio of Sgt. Kmetz talking to Jones in his lodge room:
SGT. BRAD KMETZ: All proper Mike, you bought a fairly good motive why we’re right here, I am certain.
MIKE JONES: I am going to let you know unequivocally, I do not know the place she is. … I haven’t got the slightest clue. I’ve tried to seek out her.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: Why will not he simply give me the data I am in search of? Your girlfriend’s lacking, that is somebody you professed that you just liked and professed that you just cared about. You ought to be serving to legislation enforcement attempt to discover her.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: I mentioned, “When you’re not keen to present us any data I mentioned you are going to jail proper now for the violation of probation.”
Kmetz and Harrelson have been relieved to put Jones behind bars. However they nonetheless had no thought the place Diana was — or her automobile.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: You go from very excessive since you discovered him, and also you’re busting within the room, to love, right here we’re again once more.
Investigators determined to hint the acquisition of that burner telephone Jones had been utilizing and realized that he purchased it at a Walmart positioned about an hour north from the Hampton Inn. After they pulled the surveillance footage from the Walmart, they made a startling discovery.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: It is slightly grainy. But it surely gave the impression to be Diana’s automobile.
In surveillance footage from the morning after Diana went lacking, her Nissan entered the Walmart car parking zone, and parked. Then you definately see what gave the impression to be Mike Jones sporting a pink baseball hat stroll into the shop, purchase the burner telephone after which stroll out. There was no signal of Diana.
However regardless of shopping for the burner telephone, Jones often nonetheless turned on his main telephone.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He would flip it on after which use it for one thing after which flip it again off.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: Let me undergo these pings one final time. I mentioned possibly I am lacking one thing right here. … I discovered one. I imply possibly we will catch lightning in a bottle twice.
So, Kmetz and Harrelson analyzed Mike Jones’s main cellphone pings, another time, in search of any pings in and across the space of the Walmart.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: He and I are form of it collectively and I am like, “Nicely, this one’s unusual.” He goes, “What do you imply?” I say … “What’s he doing up in Melbourne?”
It appeared that Jones had picked up a name within the Melbourne space, virtually one hour north of Vero Seashore. So native police have been alerted and requested to go looking that space for Diana’s automobile. Simply half-hour later, detectives obtained a name that they had been desperately ready for.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: That they had discovered her automobile.
Three days after Diana had gone lacking, her automobile was positioned in a Publix car parking zone in Melbourne, Florida.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We leap within the automobile, have been rocking and rolling.
Michelle Miller: And there she was.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Mm-hmm. Loopy. Loopy (tears up).
NO ORDINARY SUSPECT
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We’re on the ragged edge. You understand, we — we have not slept. … you realize, ‘trigger you are simply you are shifting.
Vero Seashore Police Division
It was round 4:30 a.m. when investigators arrived at a Publix car parking zone the place Diana Duve’s black Nissan had been found. Lt. Harrelson feared they’d discover her physique right here.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: And I instructed Brad, I mentioned, “she’s within the trunk”
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I mentioned, I do not know, I mentioned it is simply so cliche. It is one thing like out of a film. It did not make a lot sense to me.
However after they opened the trunk, Lt. Harrelson’s premonition turned out to be true.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: There are particular issues on this job you could’t unsee. You may’t unlive.
Michelle Miller: You may always remember.
Matt Harrelson: Yeah.
Sgt. Brad Kmetz: I keep in mind placing my arms on my knees and form of simply placing my head down. … It was not the way in which I wished to seek out her.
CBS Information
Lena Andrews: And I opened the door and right here was chief of police in full uniform.
Invoice Andrews: The saddest factor in my life was seeing him come up the driveway (sighs).
Lena Andrews: And he instructed me, they discovered her (sighs).
Lena Andrews: To lose her like this … its indescribable.
As painful because it was, this was now not a lacking individual’s case — however a murder. An post-mortem would later reveal Diana had suffered blunt power trauma to the pinnacle and had been strangled to demise.
Investigators believed that they had a powerful case connecting Jones to the car parking zone the place Diana was discovered. However one thing was gnawing at them: how did Mike Jones go away the realm with no automobile?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: So, we simply began chilly calling a few of these taxi companies. … And I mentioned, “Hey did you get a fare … to Vero … within the final couple of days?” After which we hit one. And I used to be like, Wow. You understand, like that similar to that does not occur day by day. So, we acquired fortunate on that one.
Round 8 a.m., after Jones dropped off Diana’s automobile, a person referred to as for a taxi down the road.
Former cab driver: I confirmed up and there was a man exterior with a pink hoodie on and, um, he acquired within the passenger aspect of the automobile.
In the course of the hour-long experience they briefly chatted.
Former cab driver: I requested him questions like, “What introduced you down right here?” And he mentioned, “Oh properly, I got here right here with a good friend of mine.” You understand, um and so then I requested, “Nicely how come you did not get a experience again together with your good friend to Vero Seashore?” And he mentioned properly, they acquired into an argument, and he or she’s very pissed with him.
The previous cab driver — who requested us to not use his identify — says that he dropped the person off throughout the road from an residence in Vero Seashore. It was Mike Jones’s residence.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: The kicker was … he was in a position to decide him out of a lineup too which actually helped our case.
And simply two days after they discovered Diana’s physique, that they had sufficient proof to formally cost Mike Jones along with her homicide. He would plead not responsible.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He did not present any emotion. He did not ask any questions. He simply sat there.
Florida State Legal professional’s Workplace, nineteenth Circuit
SGT. KMETZ: You there, Mike?
MIKE JONES: Yeah. I request my proper to counsel.
SGT. KMETZ: Honest sufficient.
MIKE JONES: And my proper to stay silent.
LT. HARRELSON: OK.
SGT. KMETZ: OK.
LT. HARRELSON: We have now no extra, nothing else to say to you.
Assistant State Legal professional Brian Workman was assigned to prosecute the case together with State Legal professional Thomas Bakkedahl. As they began digging, they quickly realized that Mike Jones was no abnormal suspect.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: He would not match the mould of your common violent assassin.
Jones was properly educated, with a masters and legislation diploma. And he was a revered member of the Vero Seashore group.
Stewart Pierce: It was surprising that Mike would have accomplished this. I feel it blew all people’s thoughts.
Stewart Pierce was mates with Jones.
Stewart Pierce: Mike Jones was a man that you just wished to be mates with. … He was clear reduce. An actual good man.
He first met him at a networking luncheon shortly after Jones had moved to Vero Seashore in the summertime of 2013.
Stewart Pierce: We noticed him in all places that there was to be seen. … Cufflinks and a well-starched shirt.
Jones was usually seen at native charity occasions.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Here’s a man who was in a position to work his means into the group right here. I imply, he was doing charitable actions. He really confirmed up and walked for the exact same home violence group that I am a board member for.
Jones was additionally lively within the bar scene and had made many mates in a brief time period. Investigators interviewed a few of them on audio tape:
AUDIO INTERVIEW: “I’d say that he was formidable.”
AUDIO INTERVIEW: “I may belief him with issues that I’d belief my household with …”
AUDIO INTERVIEW: “Michael was a genius. … one of many smartest folks I had ever you realize handled.”
And when it got here to work, Jones thrived at his job in Wealth Administration at PNC Financial institution.
Prosecutor Brian Workman: And he introduced folks in who had some huge cash. And he had efficiency opinions, emails that went backwards and forwards between PNC personnel raving about his job efficiency and the way nice he was doing there.
In his final efficiency overview from 4 months earlier than Diana was murdered, his boss wrote:
“Michael has proven that he has sturdy ethics and management qualities. He’s a giant asset for PNC …”
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: This man was a grasp manipulator. This man was working multimillion-dollar accounts for a financial institution as a convicted felon. So, he was in a position to con a financial institution!
“48 Hours” reached out to PNC Financial institution to ask in the event that they knew Jones had a file and was on probation for stalking that lady close to Fort Lauderdale in 2012. They declined to remark.
His mates, nevertheless, had no thought. However what they did find out about Jones’s previous is there have been numerous tales.
Ellie Sexton: I keep in mind the tales … like each time there was a zinger.
Ellie Sexton dated Jones shortly earlier than he began courting Diana.
Ellie Sexton: Mike instructed me that his sister was courting Jason Aldean and he instructed me that he was adopted by Ronald Reagan’s son.
Ellie Sexton: Mike drove a gold Honda Accord that was most likely 10 years outdated. However he instructed me that he had a penthouse in Fort Lauderdale, that he had a Porsche that he simply did not need to injury.
Stewart Pierce: Nicely Mike Jones instructed me that he was adopted. And that he performed some minor league baseball. However one time hanging out on the seashore and seeing him throw a soccer made me suppose that he’d most likely by no means performed minor league baseball.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Nothing in his life was the reality. Who he actually is, to this present day, I am unsure we all know.
Prosecutors have been sure of 1 factor: that Mike Jones was a assassin. And now, as they ready to go to trial, they realized that Diana was one in every of Mike Jones’s many victims. The one distinction is the others acquired away.
Ellie Sexton: My household has all mentioned, you skipped demise (sighs).
A PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Say a lady’s identify with whom he had a relationship … and there may be abuse.
As prosecutors continued to unearth extra particulars about Mike Jones, they are saying there was a transparent sample in how he handled his ex-girlfriends.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: He is Prince Charming within the door, proper? … However then slowly, he’ll start telling them, what to put on … what mates to hang around with. … He is calling incessantly. … Displaying up at eating places … He is studying her telephone. … A few the ladies that we talked to, he would maintain them in place for lengthy intervals of time.
Ellie Sexton: He was very controlling.
Ellie Sexton solely dated Mike Jones for just a few months however says she witnessed his violent mood.
Ellie Sexton: Mike by no means acquired bodily. However there have been just a few occasions that he simply had some jealousy behaviors. I do keep in mind him screaming in my face one time and getting actually near me … and feeling concern.
And investigators additionally realized that Mike Jones’s tales about his previous have been flat out lies.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: He is a pathological liar.
In a private essay he wrote for school admission, Jones claimed that he was “born into poverty” to uneducated and abusive dad and mom. He wrote that he was “positioned with a number of foster households” and ultimately was adopted.
Michelle Miller: What’s the fact about his upbringing?
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: What do you suppose?
Prosecutor Brian Workman: He was spoiled rotten. His, his dad and mom purchased him bikes. They put him in personal college. … And it wasn’t till his dad and mom instructed him that they weren’t going to pay for any extra training, that means legislation college. … That was the purpose the place he broke it off with them … Manipulating, attempting to get what he wished.
“48 Hours” reached out to Jones’s household, however we by no means heard again from them.
And the manipulation continued whereas Jones attended a graduate legislation program on the College of Miami. In keeping with an e mail to his fellow college students in 2010, Jones claimed that he was “battling prostate, pancreas and abdomen most cancers” and different alleged medical circumstances that prohibited him from usually attending lessons.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: We have now no file of any kind of most cancers analysis in his background or something like that.
However regardless of Mike Jones’s darkish previous of lies and abusing different ladies, prosecutors may solely inform a jury about his abuse of Diana and her homicide.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: You ought to be convicting someone for the crime that they dedicated. Not based mostly upon what they’ve accomplished prior to now.
And when it was time to go to trial, they needed to make an essential resolution whether or not to go for the demise penalty.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Nicely, that was a troublesome one. … We sat down with Lena, and we mentioned pay attention, once we take this step, it is an entire totally different course of.
He defined that the proceedings may drag on for years and even when one juror didn’t consider Jones deserved the demise penalty, he could be given a life sentence as a substitute.
Lena Andrews: I wished the demise penalty, completely. He misplaced his proper to stay when he killed her, when he killed Diana.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Brian and I agreed with them and thought that that is the route we have to take.
In October of 2019 Mike Jones’s trial lastly started in Vero Seashore.
Patrick Dove /USA At the moment Community
Throughout opening remarks, prosecutors instructed the jury that Mike Jones abused Diana mentally and bodily throughout their brief six month on-and-off once more relationship.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: She would discuss her emotions and the issues that he had accomplished and the way he could be demeaning … And he would flip it. … He would flip the script … and begin blaming her and accusing her and suggesting that it is her fault. … What he was doing was gaslighting her.
Florida State Legal professional’s Workplace, nineteenth Circuit
To again up their claims of bodily abuse, prosecutors referred to as Diana’s good friend Chelsea DiMaio and confirmed the jury the pictures she took after that home incident when Jones allegedly strangled Diana.
Chelsea DiMaio: I may clearly see that there have been marks on her neck.
As disturbing as that was, Bakkedahl defined that after that home incident, Diana had secretly began seeing Jones on and off once more.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: That is what occurs in home violence. … folks need to know why would she return? … And it is due to the management. And he had whole management over her.
Prosecutors mentioned nobody is aware of what they talked about within the early hours of Friday, June 20, 2014, after they left the bar collectively and went to Jones’s residence.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Now that they had been consuming that night. And, in fact, that has an influence in your judgment.
Fb/Diana Duve
However Bakkedahl thinks Diana was attempting to finish the connection for good.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: She was telling him that evening it is over. I’ve little question in my thoughts that this was the top of this relationship.
In truth, in keeping with Lena, Diana had upcoming plans to exit West to go to a good friend.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: And when he acquired wind of that, that was it.
Prosecutors mentioned they consider Jones misplaced his mood, and that is when he beat and strangled her.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: He had overwhelmed her so badly … that he knew at that cut-off date he couldn’t let her go. He knew that if she have been to depart the home that evening and had been lined in bruises …the jig was up for this man, and he could not permit that to occur. And so, he resorted finally to homicide.
The State admitted they did not know precisely what time the homicide came about however mentioned blood proof confirmed that Jones positioned Diana’s physique within the trunk of her automobile whereas it was parked in his storage.
Florida State Legal professional’s Workplace, nineteenth Circuit
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Subsequent to the edge the place the storage door comes down, the place the concrete meets it, we discovered like two very small droplets of blood.
Michelle Miller: Whose have been they?
Lt. Matt Harrelson: Diana’s.
When it was the protection’s flip to put out their case, they instructed the jurors that in actual fact nobody actually knew precisely what occurred after Jones and Diana left the bar on June 20. They raised the likelihood that Diana’s demise may have been an accident. Jones’s protection crew declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview.
Lt. Matt Harrelson: They tried to behave like, you realize he was an upstanding citizen in our group. You understand he had a strong job. Why would he do that to her? … It was virtually insulting generally for them to even attempt to act like he wasn’t the monster that we knew him to be.
After seven days of testimony, the case went to the jury. The prosecutors felt assured.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: I anticipated a responsible verdict… however I did not count on it to occur as shortly because it did.
Michelle Miller: How shortly did it come again?
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Like 45 minutes.
Michelle Miller: That claims one thing.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: That claims lots. That claims that someone lastly noticed via Michael Jones’s bull****.
However they knew there have been many challenges forward. Now the jury must resolve whether or not Mike Jones would stay or die.
Michelle Miller: What did you inform Lena proper after the trial?
Prosecutor Brian Workman: I keep in mind hugging her.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: I particularly keep in mind telling her, now the heavy lifting comes. Be prepared.
LIFE OR DEATH?
Lena Andrews: She had a lot good in her coronary heart and he knew that.
Almost a month after the decision, the identical jury that convicted Mike Jones of first-degree homicide would now resolve whether or not he would stay or die.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: The penalty part is … the whole lot concerning the defendant.
Prosecutor Bakkedahl warned Lena that the sentencing listening to could be tough to take a seat via.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: The poor defendant, the entire points confronted by the defendant all through his life to absolutely the and utter exclusion of, of her daughter.
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The protection referred to as medical specialists who testified Jones had obtained a number of blows to his head, presumably from doing motocross as a teen, and he suffered mind injury. One professional testified that Jones’s frontal lobe, which regulates resolution making and impulse management, had been broken and brought about a major cognitive defect.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: They wished the jury to consider … that he had this main or minor cognitive deficit. … The issue is … in an effort to have that specific deficit, you’ll be able to’t do issues like stability a checkbook. … pay hire … And here is a man who went to legislation college … and managed multimillion greenback accounts.
When it was time for her sufferer influence assertion, Lena shocked everybody, and confronted Jones head to head.
Lena Andrews: How will you try this together with your naked arms? To the individual that you supposedly love? How can anyone try this? How?
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Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: She introduced Diana to life in that courtroom. And if we have been going to get the demise penalty it was going to be on the again of that testimony … It was only a mom’s love for her baby. It was massive (tears up).
All through the whole trial Jones confirmed no emotion.
Lena Andrews: He completely had zero regret, completely zero.
Whilst his sentence was about to be learn.
Prosecutor Brian Workman: His attorneys … that they had their faces of their arms. They have been leaning on the tables…. And he simply sat there like a statue.
Mike Jones obtained a life sentence, a lot to the prosecutors’ disappointment.
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: For me it was devastating. (He tears up) … as a result of we did not end the job that we had promised Lena and the household. … I noticed at that second, if I am unable to get demise on this case, what case?
Michelle Miller: Do you keep in mind what number of for, what number of towards?
Prosecutor Thomas Bakkedahl: Yeah. I keep in mind. I am going to always remember. It was 11 to 1. … The protection was taking part in for one holdout the whole time. That is all they want … We wanted to be good.
Lena Andrews WPEC affiliate tape: “He’s nonetheless going to die in jail, a technique or one other. And he’s by no means going to harm one other lady once more.”
Lena Andrews: On the finish of the day, my daughter, Diana, she’s not coming dwelling. She’s not. And he is nonetheless alive.
Fb/Diana Duve
Lena needs folks to recollect and study from her daughter’s story.
Lena Andrews: If this has occurred to Diana, it is gonna occur to anyone. When you really feel one thing isn’t proper, hearken to your self, as a result of one thing isn’t proper.
At the moment, in any case these years, Diana’s bed room appears precisely the way in which she left it.
Lena Andrews ( a photograph of Diana): It is one of many older footage of Diana when she was a child. … In Moldova. … She actually did not need to take this image. She was slightly bit grumpy right here.
Lena Andrews: I am fascinated about Diana the minute I get up. … She’s the very last thing I am fascinated about once I go to sleep each single day. And that is without end. That is how it is going to be.
When you or somebody you realize is a sufferer of home violence, name the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Produced by Chris Younger Ritzen. Marc Goldbaum, David Dow and Michelle Sigona are the event producers. Jennifer Terker and Hannah Vair are the sector producers. Gary Winter, Doreen Schechter, George Baluzy and Mike McHugh are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.