Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:05] Hey everybody, it is Lauren and I am solo for this episode of the Llamas podcast.
[00:00:12] We have had some trouble getting together to record during the holidays. As we all know, this is a busy season.
[00:00:21] Lacey is currently, I think, on her way back from Disney World and I am finishing some stuff at the office today. And it's been a busy season for us. So just us, some update on what all has been going on.
[00:00:35] My husband's retina had a tear started to detach, so we have had to deal with that. We go back tomorrow and are hoping he doesn't have to have another surgery or anything to see if the laser procedure works. But it is what it is. But I'm continuing this holiday homicide and I really. I'm gonna just give you an overview of this because I really want Lacy's opinion on it. So we may continue this one, but this was the one I'd already planned on doing. So I'm going to do it solo today, but I think I'm going to have Lacey watch it and see what she thinks so we can have some back and forth. Because this one actually deals a lot with the criminal justice system.
[00:01:17] And I'm going to kind of give you the facts of the case and what happened. But I would like for her to dig into some of her thoughts on it because it had different sentencings for different ages and there were minors tried as adults. Death penalty was on this. And actually one of the people was already executed for this.
[00:01:38] But this I'm going to talk about the 1992 Dayton, Ohio, Christmas murders.
[00:01:44] So this case is just really sad and tragic. Like I don't understand. This is one of those times like people just murdered for the heck of murdering. This is not revenge. This is not anger, scorn, heartbreak, love. None of that. Just. And they're not serial killers. I don't think they just went on a murdering spree cuz they were bored and wanted something to do. And they were awful people.
[00:02:08] So in this case there were about. Let me see. I have some notes pulled up because my brain is just running on fumes here. So there were five.
[00:02:21] Five people. Four. No, four people. Four. Four people. And they were known as the Downtown Posse. It was a group of people that used to hang out kind of outside the courthouse. It was Marvelous Keenan, Heather Matthews, Demarcus Smith and Laura Taylor. And it was this just group of friends.
[00:02:38] Laura was a minor, so was demarcus, while Marvelous and Heather were adults at the time.
[00:02:44] And Heather had actually just got released from prison, so pretty much they were hanging out. They were kind of the bad groove. Hung it, hung out around, did some drugs, that type stuff. Well, on Christmas Eve, they decided, it's time. Let's go murder somebody. So this group murdered.
[00:03:05] Well, actually it was just three of them. DeMarcus was not a part of this toy. It was Marvelous, Heather and Laura. And so they decided, I need to have some fun. Let's go murder somebody is pretty much what it seems like. And so Laura and Marvelous decided they were to murder Joseph Wilkerson, who was 34 years old and lived in the area. I think this is all around Chicago, I'm pretty sure.
[00:03:31] But they went to go murder him. And how they lured him, they went to his house and Laura and Heather were going to have an orgy with him. I would like to note Laura is underage at this point. I believe she is 16. And this Joseph Wilkerson is 34. But anyways, instead of they go in, they tie him up with this thought that they're going to have this threesome. Then pretty much Marvelous comes in and shoots him. Kills him, yes. So that's pretty much what happens. And then pretty much Laura comes back and shoots him as well. So they both have shot him, he dies. And then they take some stolen items in his car from his house. But his house becomes the hangout place.
[00:04:16] Then they murdered woman named Danita. Danita was a single mom. She was only like 18 years old.
[00:04:26] She was actually, this was 1992, so we didn't have cell phones back then. She was using a land, not a landline. She was using a payphone, was making a call down the street from her family's house, shot on some nice shoes. So they shot her to steal her shoes. Shot and killed this single mom to steal her shoes.
[00:04:46] It's pretty terrible.
[00:04:48] And at that point, I think is when they bring the other guy into it. Demarcus Smith. So we've got two people murdered now. Then they decide they're gonna murder Laura's ex boyfriend, Richard Maddox. So she hits him up, like, trying to, I guess, act like they were going out on a date or like wanted to flirt with him. Nonetheless, she kills him, swerves the car, almost kills herself. But at that point she has murdered him as well. They then I think at that point it was moving on to Christmas Day. And they went into like a convenience store and they killed one of the ladies working at the convenience store. Her name was Sarah Abram.
[00:05:37] They went in there, they decided to kill her.
[00:05:43] And she did go to the hospital and Pass away after that.
[00:05:48] And then they also decided they needed. So they had two other friends who weren't a part of all these killings. So they got scared that because of this, they were going to get. Well, let's take it back a second. They also shot at one of the. I think Heather's ex boyfriend, Jeffrey Wright. They shot at him. He ran out, he escaped. He lived. So they tried to kill him. Didn't happen. But because of this, they decided they needed to murder these other two friends who knew about it. So they completely turned on two friends, Marvin Washington and Wendy Cottrell.
[00:06:28] They turned on them, killed them.
[00:06:32] So I think in total, they had killed six different people.
[00:06:37] They did. When they robbed the convenience store, they shot another person, but they did escape. So they tried to kill eight people total in this situation.
[00:06:47] They people they killed, they were worried. The two at the end that were their friends, they killed them because they were worried they were gonna snitch on them. But what's crazy is earlier in all of this, they had a friend.
[00:06:59] I say friend. I don't really think any of these people liked each other or any.
[00:07:03] But they had a friend. It was Dayton county is where it is.
[00:07:07] They had a friend named Nicholas Woodson. Nicholas was underage, and at the start of all this, Nicholas asked to go home.
[00:07:16] So he ended up. They dropped him off. And so he got really scared with all this that he was going to be killed, too. And he probably was going to be. So he actually went to the cops and snitched. And that's how really all this was found so quick. Because on December 26, they realized, like, all these stolen cars, different license plates, they'd moved around with all of this. The police were able to catch them very quickly.
[00:07:41] And they were, you know, Senate. They had court hearings, all that type stuff. But because of this one guy that they did not kill, snitching, they were all found very quickly. This case was really hard for me to watch and think about because this was just random killings. This was not any motivation. But I am bored, and let's go do some horrible things. And so six people lost their lives after this. Since two of them were minors, the death penalty was not on the table for them. They were tried as adults, but it was not on because they were minors. Death penalty was not available for Marvelous and Heather, who were adults, Death penalty was on the table. Marvelous was actually sentenced to the death penalty, and he has been executed for this.
[00:08:26] Heather was not given the death penalty. I believe she snitched on him and she was actually not the one that was killing people.
[00:08:34] The ones who pulled the triggers were Laura and Marvelous. And in all of this, Laura, the 16 year old girl, seemed to be the ringleader. She was the one that pretty much wanted to do this and she's the one that is got the, she's life in prison but death penalty was never on the table for her because she was a minor.
[00:08:55] And so I really would love to have Lacey watch this episode and kind of weigh in on the legal aspects about how because there were minors and adults involved and how they were all treated differently.
[00:09:07] But pretty much two, six teenagers, young adults born on Christmas Eve, go on a murder spree around Dayton, Ohio.
[00:09:16] I don't know why I thought it was Chicago first place, Dayton, Ohio, my brain is just done. But going to murder and spree and murder six people between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1992, the fact that one of them was murdered just because they liked her shoes and she was a single mom, the clerk at the convenience store, she was also a mom.
[00:09:36] And so it is just very heartbreaking that this happened to these completely innocent people. I mean anytime murder happens it's heartbreaking. But like these people definitely had done nothing wrong, were just, you know, using the phone, doing these type things and got murdered by a group of kids who were born.
[00:09:56] So it is interesting to know that he did get the death penalty. He never really actually seemed to apologize too much to his victims families. None of his family showed up for his execution. From what I could tell from his upbringing there just some background on him. He had some dad issues, but overall his mom had tried to do a really good job at raising him. He just got involved with the bad crowd, Marvelous did. And Laura just seemed to be a ring leader and troublemaker and all of this. But I do want Lacey to come in and talk about her thoughts from the criminal justice system on this. As far as just the heartbreak, it is completely heartbreaking situation. The Joseph Wilkerson who was murdered first, even though it seems it's really gross because he was 34 and he was 16, still did not deserve to be murdered by them and they staged all of it to kill him. So not a clean guy, but still did not deserve murder for this.
[00:10:53] But let me know your thoughts and what you think about this case and if you want us to dig more into it on the legal side of things. I will be honest and say I'm exhausted. The holidays have run me down.
[00:11:04] There's just been a lot going on between my husband's retina detaching. Just lots of stress, lots of sickness, so little background. The day my husband's retina was detaching, my 5 year old decided she had to throw up in the middle of publix that day.
[00:11:19] And so that was a nightmare. She couldn't go to school, then had to get my husband to the eye doctor.
[00:11:24] It has just been a lot of stress and I know that is all happening to all of you. There's a lot of stress about this holiday season. So take time for yourself, enjoy, slow down, rest when you need to, you know, drink that orange juice, get that vitamin C because flu is going around really bad here right now.
[00:11:44] But take time for you and enjoy the season.
[00:11:47] And I do hope you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and enjoy time with your families and we will continue on this homicide for the holidays when we are back together after the holidays. But oh, one thing I was thinking about for the new year and if we want the viewers to weigh in, we would love I was thinking of possibly having a lot of guest hosts that are our viewers come on and like have us pick a case they want us to dig into with them as a co host. I thought that could be pretty cool. So let me know your thoughts on that and I do hope you have a wonderful, wonderful holiday season and we will be back next week. Thanks.
