Ep 45 | Justin Moyers Transcript

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised. It says that you escaped by pulling a light down from the ceiling and crawling through the ceiling.

Is that accurate? They leave the door open to the outside, so I just walked out. Justin, do you think that it's possible that you did something that night that caused Miranda's death? Absolutely not. From here on, this story is, there's one that you have, and there's one that the authorities have. They're sad that Miranda passed away, but they don't believe that I had anything to do with it.

Whenever they did the autopsy, they put on there originally the cause of death to be undetermined. I don't believe a proper investigation was done. You are now listening to the podcast Voices of a Killer. I'm bringing you the stories from the perspective of the people that have taken the life of another human and their current situation thereafter in prison. You will see that although these are the folks that we have been programmed to hate, they all have something in common.

They are all humans like us that admit that they made a mistake. Will you forgive them, or will you condemn them? They are currently serving time for their murders, and they give us an inside glimpse of what took place when they killed, and their feelings on the matter now. Here are the voices of those who have killed.

Welcome back to Voices of a Killer. In this episode, we're looking at a prolonged case that unfolded over the course of nearly a decade. Justin Moyers, our guest today, joins us from a Jefferson City prison to reflect on an incident for which he has spent the past 18 years of his life in a prison cell. From the day of the crime until our conversation today, Justin has vehemently maintained his innocence. He contends that the investigators spun a false narrative that framed him wrongly as a violent killer. Over the years, though he's tried to clear his name, Justin's appeals have repeatedly been rejected.

Whether or not you believe Justin is guilty, this is a case that sheds light on some of the systemic flaws of the U.S. criminal justice system. We'll hear about how, despite lacking hard evidence, investigators manipulated the facts to prove Justin's guilt. We'll also explore the bias faced by individuals who have prior criminal convictions.

While criminal cases that involve children often elicit strong emotions, we invite you to approach Justin's story with an open mind. By laying out the available facts of the case, we'll allow you to draw your own conclusions and to consider the many questions that lie at the heart of Miranda Millsap's death.

So join us as we unpack the events of the crime, Justin's rocky path in and out of prison, and the court battle that determined the fate of a young man's life. So Justin, where are you from? Cameron, Missouri. You grew up there all your life? I was born in St. Joe, but grew up in Mountain City, Missouri. Then around 1989, we moved to the Cameron Osborn area.

Yeah. What'd y'all move for? My parents, they had a pretty big farm in Mountain City. And I think it was in December of 1988, the stock market crashed, if I recall correctly, and my parents went bankrupt. What kind of farmers were they? They had, my dad, they had a lot of pigs. Then they farmed corn, soybean, and milo.

Yeah. How would you describe your family life? Was it turbulent? Get along? What? I had a good upbringing. I was, you know, raised with both parents my whole life. Really loving and caring and had everything I needed. Your parents do any kind of alcohol or drugs? My mom didn't drink, smoke cigarettes, or do drugs.

My dad smoked cigarettes, but he, he drank quite a bit, I guess, growing up, but he was always there for me and everything. Sure. Did he ever get violent? No, I would get spankings, just like, to me, like a normal kid, if I'd done something wrong, I'd get a spanking or grounded, but no, he never beat me or anything like that.

How old are you right now? 43. 43, so you're, actually, you're younger than me. So, did you ever witness any kind of violence at all in your family or just anywhere growing up? I don't really believe so, I just, I mean, regular kids fighting throughout school. Yeah, okay. So, you're actually in prison for the murder of a one-year-old little girl.

This was your daughter right? It was my girlfriend's daughter. We had discussed me adopting her I was the only father figure that she had. Yeah. But it was just discussed between her mother and I. And your girlfriend, the mother of this one year old was Jaimmilynn? Yeah, Jaimmilynn Millsap. Yeah, how'd you meet her?

Well, I knew Cameron. It's kind of a small town really. Yeah. But she had a sister that was a grade above me and I kind of met her through her, then just around town and things like that. About what year did you meet her? Probably 1995, 1996, right around there. So you were probably a young kid in junior high, sounds like.

Yeah. Yeah. I would have been 15, 16 years old. I ended up getting my GED when I turned 16. But you, you started dating Jaimmilynn as a kid or you just knew her then? Well, we kind of, I guess you'd call it dating, but probably when I was like 17, 18, I believe. Yeah. So then y'all at some point became exclusive, I suppose.

And did y'all actually get married or y'all just boyfriend and girlfriend? I believe it was when I was 19, we became exclusive and we ended up moving in together. Actually, I moved in with her first. Then we moved out in the country to a mobile home and we had that place together. And she had a brand new baby with her. Miranda, right?

Yeah. And then how do you pronounce the son's name? Wraith? Yeah, Wraith. He was born in 98. Yeah, he was a young, young one too. The place that y'all lived at, was it near your mother-in-law and your parents? Or your, I guess I call her mother-in-law. It's your live-in girlfriend's mother. So, you live next door to them and your parents?

Now it was just my parents. It was in a mobile home park outside of Cameron and it was so close that my, you could use my parents cordless phone like on my porch. How far did you live from your mother-in-law? We lived on, it would have been east side of Cameron and they lived on, her parents, her mother and husband lived on the southwest side of Cameron, so it'll probably have been about a 10 minute drive or something like that. Back in the fall of 99, Justin Moyers was a young man from rural Caldwell County. His family had roots in the area. As a kid, he'd grown up on his parents farm in the rolling northwest plains of Missouri, before they lost their livelihoods in a stock market crash and moved east to Cameron.

Financial instability aside, Justin had an honest upbringing raised by two loving, attentive parents. Even after moving out at 19, Justin lived in a small mobile home that sat at the doorstep of his parents, a testament to his supportive nuclear family. It was also around this time that Justin started a family of his own.

In 1999, Justin's high school sweetheart, Jaimmilynn Millsap, moved into Justin's mobile home. With her, she brought two young children from a previous relationship, one-year-old Miranda and five-year-old Wraith. The household grew quickly from one to four as Justin was thrust into fatherhood. At the young age of 19, Justin embraced his role as a surrogate father to Jaimmilynn's two children.

How was your relationship with the two kids? We had good relationships. Wraith would, just started going to visit his father every once in a while. Yeah. And, uh... but his father lived quite a ways away. Yeah. And away from Cameron anyway. But I would always grew up working on engines and vehicles and things like that.

Wraith would go with me on. Go out and work on vehicles or I'd teach him how to use a drill and things like that. So it was kind of fun. Sure. So I've got two kids and I know that, you know, when they're a young age, they can be a handful, really hard to deal with. And Miranda and Ray, these two little ones weren't actually your kids, but it sounds like you tried to kind of play the role of a father figure in a way.

Would that be accurate? Yes. And to continue on what I'm saying is, you know, when they do become a handful, How did you deal with, you know, reprimanding these kids, not being your own? Well, Miranda was really, I mean, she was so young, I mean, we really didn't have to reprimand her because she was a toddler, under one, and she really wasn't a fussy baby or anything like that.

And Wraith, he had just started getting in trouble at school a little bit, and he, I think it was the day before Miranda passed, or a couple days before, Wraith had gotten in trouble at school, and I talked to him, and he promised me he wouldn't get in trouble within the next, I can't remember if it was the next day or something like that, but he ended up getting in trouble at school, and I was getting him in the tub the night Miranda passed, and I ended up spanking him with my hand twice on his butt, and I really, I, now years later since I've kind of grown and matured and learned more that I wish I wouldn't have spanked him.

I don't really think spanked kids really learn much. So, the two kids, Miranda and Wraith, how did they look up to you? Did they not like you as that person in the house or did they have any kind of friction with you? No, we never had no type of friction. We all got along. Miranda liked me holding her and I'd just play with her and stuff like that.

There were never no issues. And how about Jaimmilynn's mother? How did she, you get along with her? She didn't like me at all. She didn't want Jamie with me. How come? She, according to Jamie's mother, Sammy-Lynn, she said that I was a troublemaker and Jamie was actually dating a police officer from St. Joe in 1999 and she quit dating him to be with me.

Would you consider yourself a bad boy? I mean, do you have troubles with the law or, you know? The only time... Yeah, cause I'd get, the main thing was, I guess it was probably been like traffic tickets and stuff, but I had encounters for stealing and I ended up having a forgery charge when I was 18 and went to prison.

Yeah. So your mother-in-law really didn't like you, but she actually would watch over Jaimmilynn's kids while you and Jaimmilynn worked. And according to some documents that I read, you actually went to pick up the kids from your, from Jaimmilynn's mother's, the kids' grandma's. And you got angry at her. What was that about?

That's what Sammy-Lynn ended up stating, but I was never angry with her. She was talking about something to do with Jamie losing some hair and things like that. I never even knew anything about it. And years later, I understand it was, I don't even know if this is correct or not, but I know, I found out years later that Jamie had an abortion and one of the hair loss issues might have been because of that, but I don't know if that's true or not, but I was never mad that night with Sammy-Lynn or anyone.

Well, what's this about? It said something about an affair. Is that what you're talking about? Oh, she, she, honestly, I don't even recall. I remember now you say that, I remember something about Sammy-Lynn saying something about an affair, but Jamie used to, there was a guy that her, like her supervisor or something at work, his name was Jeff, they used to date, so that came up somehow.

You never got in an argument with your, Jaimmilynn's mother? No, absolutely not. Did you ever pick up the kids and notice some bruises or anything on the kids? Yeah, Miranda had some bruising on her face and head from the falls that happened within the days before... With you or with Jaimmilynn's mother?

Well, originally she was on a couple of days before or so I believe, but we was all at home, Jamie, myself and the Miranda and Wraith. And Jamie started up the vacuum cleaner and it scared Miranda and she took off trying to walk and she fell into the wooden rocking chair in our home and hit her head on it.

Well kids, yeah, yeah, I get it. So kids generally, you know, get hurt on their own. That's, and sometimes, you know, worse than others. With the kids' biological father living far away, Justin occupied the position of a father figure for little Miranda and Wraith. It can be challenging to step into the role of parenting kids that aren't biologically your own.

But even if he wasn't the real father, Justin raised the two kids like his own. Justin was an active part of their lives, taking care of Miranda, fetching Wraith from school and even bonding with the boy over cars and engines. His parental duties extended to discipline too, especially when Wraith wound up in trouble at his school.

But although Justin was devoted to Jaimmilynn's kids, Justin had a strained relationship with his mother in law, Sammy-Lynn. In his 19 years, Jason had already had a few scuffles with the law over stealing, and a year earlier, he'd been incarcerated over forgery charges. From the onset, Jaimmilynn disapproved of her daughter's relationship.

To her, Justin was a troublemaker and a bad influence on her grandchildren. Their tense relationship spilled out into conflicts at times. On one specific occasion, on the evening of October 4th, Sammy-Lynn had been watching over Miranda and Wraith while Jaimmilynn and Justin were at work. According to court documents, when Justin arrived to pick the kids up at 8pm, an argument broke out.

Allegedly, Justin called Sammy-Lynn names and vented about an affair. Today, Justin denies this allegation entirely. If anything, he says it was only a small disagreement that he can't fully remember. Whatever took place would have easily been forgotten if it hadn't been for the events that unfolded next.

From here on this story is... There's one that you have, and there's one that the authorities have. There's a night that you took the kids home, and you basically claim, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that you heard a loud vehicle noise, and you went to check on Miranda, and she was wrapped in a blanket with blood on her nose, and she was dead?

I didn't see the blood on her nose at first. When I went in the room after, I heard a loud truck, so I went and seen it. I thought it was one of my friends coming up the driveway. And I didn't see nothing outside, so the kids room was right there, so I went in and checked on them, and Wraith was fine, and Miranda was slept in her playpen, which was at the foot of Wraith's bed, and I really couldn't see her, and I went closer, and all you could see was from her calves to her feet. So I went to her, and she was wrapped in her blanket, and I undone her, and she wasn't breathing.

That was when I rushed her out into the living room, and there was, like, the foamy, bloody foam type stuff around her mouth and nose. So, are you the only one in the house with the kids? Yes. Did Miranda cry that night? Be fussy about anything trying to go to sleep? I don't believe I ever heard her cry that evening.

I mean, you're responsible for putting her to bed, right? You're the one that's, or was she asleep whenever you got her from your mother-in-law? No, when I went to Sammy-Lynn's house and picked up the kids, Sammy-Lynn told me that Miranda had fell shortly before. She had fell off a chair or a couch, but Sammy-Lynn was not in the room when it happened.

She just heard her fall. And she said, I don't see anything wrong with her, but just keep an eye on her. And I put her in the car, in her car seat, and she was awake. Okay, so they're awake, so that means that you're, you gotta get these kids home. This is an age where, you know, it's, there's a little bit of work at putting them to bed.

Did Miranda or Wraith fuss about having to go to bed? No, Wraith was wanting to go, I believe, next door to my parents' house, but it was late, and I told him since he had gotten in trouble at school, he couldn't, that he was gonna have to take his bath and go to bed. What about Miranda? You had to put her to sleep?

Yeah, that wouldn't really, pretty much just give her a bottle and lay her down in her playpen. She's usually never been an issue. Did you tuck her in with a blanket? Yeah, I always tucked her in with her blanket. Do you do any kind of, do you do a swaddle or anything like that? Or you just lay it on them?

Is there something special you do with the blanket when you wrap these babies up? No, I mean, I'll just lay it over 'em. And sometimes I tuck it up under her side, but I never put it up over her head or it'd be like right at the base of the neck and shoulders and on down. Okay. So what happened that night?

When I put her to sleep, to bed, you mean? Well, I mean, how did she pass away? You didn't, did somebody come in the house? Cause if you just laid the blanket on her, how did she get wrapped up to die? She had to rotate herself in the blanket and get wrapped up in it. Actually one of the reports that was in her mother's statement, Jaimmilynn's statement, approximately three weeks previous, before we moved to the mobile home, we were asleep and Jamie woke up during the night and heard Miranda crying, and I didn't hear her, but all of Jamie moving out of the bed so fast woke me up.

And Jamie made it into Miranda's playpen first, but she had her blanket wrapped around her and you could only see one eye. When you find baby Miranda passed away, was she cold and stiff? She wasn't stiff and I don't believe she was, honestly, I'm not even sure if she was cold. Did you start yelling out loud enough to wake up Wraith?

No. Was the blanket really tight around her neck or face or something? No, it wasn't real tight, but it was just, it was like the blanket got over her upper body and she had rolled up in it to where she couldn't, or like, basically the air was cut off is what it seemed like. Yeah. So Justin, do you think that it's possible that you did something that night that caused Miranda's death?

Absolutely not. And as of right now, you're sitting in prison for, according to the courts, doing something that caused Miranda's death. Why is that? Yes. Well, there's a multitude of reasons, I believe, but one of the reasons I didn't have an effective public defender, my family didn't have money to be able to hire a private attorney.

I don't believe a proper investigation was done. Miranda's death was sudden and unexpected. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary when Justin collected Miranda from Sammy-Lynn earlier that day. Now just two hours later, he had found the little girl dead in her crib with bloody foam around her mouth.

Justin's explanation is that Miranda's death was self-inflicted. When he tucked her into bed that night, Miranda had been breathing perfectly normal, but later on the toddler was almost completely covered up by her blanket with only one of her feet exposed. Justin's theory is that Miranda somehow twisted herself up in her blanket as she slept,

something Jaimmilynn had caught her doing at least once before. The blanket, Justin thinks, must have cut off Miranda's air supply, causing her death. It's a plausible theory. Sleep safety is a medical concern for young kids like Miranda. Cautious doctors even recommend that children younger than 18 months sleep in an empty crib, as blankets or pillows carry a greater risk of suffocation.

But until a medical autopsy could be performed, Miranda's death was still a mystery and, as police learned of the incident, suspicion was cast on Justin. After the break, Justin explains how the authorities became involved.

So let's go back a little bit. You said you picked up the phone, you called your dad first, or 911? I called, my parents lived right next door, so they could have got there faster than 911, so I called my parents first. So you called your parents. After you did that, did you call 911? No, my mother did, and 911 called me to direct me through CPR, which I didn't know how to do, but by this time my dad was coming in the back door, so I gave the phone to him, and he began CPR.

What was your demeanor like whenever this was all going on? Were you crying or what? I was scared. Really, probably more scared than I've ever been in my life because I've never experienced nothing like that. I was very afraid for her. Yeah. So, Justin, how long after your dad came over did the ambulance show up?

I believe it, if I recall correctly, it took 21 or 22 minutes. During that entire time, because that's a pretty long time, did y'all perform CPR the entire time? My dad performed CPR up until actually I believe a sheriff's deputy or I think actually I believe a Cameron police officer made it there first, then a sheriff's deputy from Caldwell County, then the ambulance got there and so my dad performed CPR until one of the officers got there.

And did they keep trying until the ambulance showed up? Yeah, I remember one of them, they took her out and placed her in the front seat of the Cameron Patrol Car and they were out there attempting CPR until the ambulance got there. They never gave up? Not to my knowledge. What were you doing that entire time?

Were you watching on or did they pull you aside and talk to you? No, they never talked to me then. They told us to stay inside and I believe I was in the doorway of the mobile home watching out towards the police car in the driveway. So after the ambulance take little baby Miranda away. What do you do? I can't remember if I called... because I was on parole and on house arrest in regards to the forgery charge that I mentioned earlier. So I can't remember if I called and got permission to go to the hospital or I just left. Cause I remember driving straight to the hospital. Do you think because of your parole that you may have been targeted for this, that, you know, they act like it was your fault just because of your history?

Oh, yes, absolutely. Yeah. I do think that, you know, whether, you know, obviously I just don't have a consensus on what I believe, but I do know that whenever you have a criminal history, it's definitely going to make you put on the negative side of things if that makes any sense. Yeah. Where was Jaimmilynn at, the mother of these kids?

She was at work at a place in, I believe, Excelsior Springs. Did you call her? Yes. I called the business, whatever, I can't remember the name of the business she worked at, but I called them and they put me through to her on a regular phone. And you told her that she was hurt or passed away? I told her that Miranda was wrapped up in her blanket when I found her, and she wasn't breathing, and that she needed to get to the hospital, that they have her en route to the hospital.

What did she say whenever you told her the details of the blanket right there? Did she say, what do you mean, wrapped in a blanket, or did she say, or, you know, what was her reaction? I don't believe we really spoke anymore until she made it to the Cameron Hospital, and we spoke outside the emergency room, and she just asked me what happened, and I explained everything.

And I believe she understood what I was talking about because the same thing happened when she found her previously. Justin, after you, this all happened and Jaimmilynn gets home, it's discovered that she's pronounced dead, Miranda, baby Miranda, what is the discussion with Jaimmilynn? Is she trying to ask you questions and get details about

what you found? Is she getting, is trying to get all the information from you as well? Yeah, she questioned and had me walk her through the evening and I explained it all to her and later on I learned from reading her statement that she spoke to Wraith also and he explained everything and she came to the conclusion that nothing seemed out of the ordinary and she believed it was an accident.

So she actually very soon after that happened, Jaimmilynn actually made you show her all what happened and go through details. Yes. And the way that you explained it to her, have you explained it that exact same way ever since? Yes. And your story is, is you just found her wrapped up tight in the blanket.

And to fast forward just a minute to today, does Jaimmilynn believe you today? From her opinion changed around a couple years later when the investigators from the state technical assistance team went and fed the family false information. So now Jaimmilynn believes that you killed her daughter? Yes.

The hours after Miranda's death were a mad rush of activity. A 911 dispatcher coached Justin's dad through CPR. Then, an ambulance raced little Miranda to the hospital with Justin at her side. But despite the hospital's interventions, one-year-old Miranda remained unresponsive through the night.

Shortly before midnight on October 4th, Miranda was officially pronounced dead. At first, Miranda's death was largely treated like an accident. Though shocked, Jaimmilynn trusted Justin's account of events and didn't suspect any foul play. According to Justin, Jaimmilynn believed that it had been an unfortunate accident in which Miranda had wrapped herself up in the blanket while she slept.

However, Jaimmilynn's opinion has since shifted. Today, Justin tells us Jaimmilynn holds him responsible for her daughter's death and their relationship has fallen apart. In the days that followed, authorities launched an investigation into Justin's involvement in Miranda's death. Justin attributes Jaimmilynn's shift in opinion to these investigators who, in his interview, spun the truth and fed the family wrong information.

How long was it till after the death of Miranda were you charged with her murder? It was close to two years. She passed away on October 4th of 99, and I wasn't charged until September 15th of 2001. What were you doing those two years later? Were you still with Jaimmilynn? No, because they violated my parole on my forgery charge in October of 99.

And so I went back to prison and finished out my prison sentence on, I 12-12'd my prison sentence on September 15th of 2001. Then the county jail came and picked me up and took me straight to Caldwell County Jail for Miranda's death. Was Jaimmilynn sticking with you though while you were in prison? No, I believe it was probably early 2000 that I had spoken to her.

I called her from Cameron Prison and we spoke for a little while. I don't believe we spoke again after that. Well, how long after Miranda's death did you go to prison? Not for her death, but just after her death? On October 8th of 1999, they violated my parole and sent me back to jail. So how long after her death was that about?

Like four or five days. Okay. So really quickly after. Those four or five days, were you and Jaimmilynn still staying in the same home together? We still had the same home, but... I can't, I don't recall, I believe the parole officer, my parole officer advised me not to have any contact with her until the investigation was done, so she was staying at, I believe, her mom's house, but she would sneak out to our home a couple times in the midnight hours.

To see you? Yes. But once you did that five, six days later, once you did go back to jail, you didn't really have much contact with her? No, I didn't have the, I don't believe I had the funds for phone time back then. After the death of Miranda, supposedly Jaimmilynn's mother observed black and blue bruising on little Wraith's buttocks.

What is going on with that? And you pled guilty to spanking him. Yes, I was in prison for, they violated my parole on, in regards to the forgery charge, so I ended up going back to prison. And while in prison, I was getting close to having my sentence expired, and they had a detainer on me for, I believe it was third degree assault, and I didn't know what it was about.

And I ended up going to court, and it was in regards to Wraith, for me spanking him that night. And, to me, that wasn't an issue, it was a misdemeanor. So, I told the public defender, look, just, I'll plead guilty today to spanking him. Just get it all over with, because I don't want to come to county jail when my sentence expires.

And so she advised me against doing that, but I didn't listen to her, and they ended up running, I believe it was 60 days, county jail time concurrent with my forgery charge, so. At this time, I didn't know I was going to be charged for Miranda's death, otherwise I would have never pled guilty to that.

But, the state always spoke about how they had pictures of the bruising, but they've never been able to produce them. Hmm. Do you think you were set up for that? Or do you think there's actually some bruising or something? Here's the thing. A lot of times you have to understand that when we hear bruise, we automatically think, you know, that yellow and brown and, or, you know, that, that color that shows up, but sometimes bruising to, you know, other people can just be a mark.

That's not supposed to be there, which really, I guess, could be bruising, you know, maybe not medically, but. You know, I think it's subjective is what I'm saying when people start saying bruising. So, do you think, do you think that maybe you just could have caused a mark that, just normal. If I were to slap you on the hand, there's going to be a little red mark for just a second.

If I do it harder, it's going to be there for a little while. Do you think that you could have caused a little mark on him? I mean, it's possible because he didn't have his pants on when I spanked him with my hand twice. But, I know the, at trial for Miranda, trying to portray it as his butt was black and blue.

And I know that's not true. So, you know, here's the thing. Spanking, you did that to inflict pain, would you agree that that's what gets their attention, right? Well and as I've matured, yeah, that's what spanking is, it's inflicting pain, but being a teenager growing up when I would get my butt spanked, I don't think of it as pain, it's supposed to be discipline where you learn your lessons, but. Well, the thing that I'm trying to get at is, if you're trying to inflict pain, then you're, you have to pick a force that you think is going to accomplish that without causing any more damage than a little bit of pain to get their attention to put across your point.

And I think that sometimes, you know, the right placement of the hand and everything else, you can really cause some damage. And I think sometimes when up in our head, we don't, that's not what our intentions were, then the information we get from somebody else, and again, that can be subjective, like I said, it can be to them, abuse and bruising and things like that.

You know, it's really crazy that all this happened at the same time. You had a one-year-old girl that died in your care, and then there's, you know, a spanking involved. But really, I mean, to me, the spanking doesn't make you a killer. Also, wrapped in a blanket and dying is kind of questionable, too. But, you know, even the mother believed you from the beginning, and you weren't charged right away.

Justin spent the next two years in prison. Just days after Miranda's death, Justin violated his parole on his forgery charge and was sent back to prison to complete his sentence in full. While in prison, Justin ended up receiving a misdemeanor charge for assault. Sammy-Lynn had approached the police after discovering marks on Wraith's buttocks from a once-off spanking Justin had given the boy.

It's worth noting that spanking is legal in all 50 states in the United States. According to the law, parents may choose how to discipline their own kids. All of these people are the ones who are responsible for all of this, provided they don't use excessive force. However, determining where that line is crossed can be highly subjective.

Justin claims that investigators exaggerated the severity of the spanking he'd given Wraith, and that the injuries were not enough to warrant the charges of assault. Despite this, Justin chose to plead guilty, hoping to expedite the legal process and skip the hassle of long court proceedings. After all, a misdemeanor is a lesser criminal offense with a lighter punishment.

As the sentence would run concurrent to Justin's other crime, he considered it significant. Later, however, prosecutors would connect this charge to Miranda's death at trial. Even though a spanking does not make somebody a killer, prosecutors would argue that this assault was proof that Jason had been consistently violent towards the two kids, and therefore, was also capable of murder.

Whenever they did the autopsy, they put on there originally the cause of death to be undetermined. Did you get that information? Did you know that that was the, that was written down and documented? Not until after I got my, was charged and received my discovery. So here's the deal. Whenever this first happened, you know, you understand that anytime there's a death, that there has to be, you know, a coroner that states what the cause was.

Well, when this first happened, the cause of death was noted as undetermined. But. On that same report, the doctor put death cannot be ruled out, cannot be excluded, so it was almost like they didn't determine what happened, but they knew that asphyxiation could still be something that could be, you know, left on the table, and it looks like two years later, they actually decided to charge you with it, and here's some things that you may not know, and you may know it, I don't know, but The forensic pathologist, Dr.

Gulina, in 2001 re-examined Miranda's death and reclassified the case as homicidal asphyxiation or homicidal asphyxia. So that's what came to fruition to cause a warrant for your arrest. So the doctor thinks that you suffocated her. Why do you think he thinks that? Originally, when the state technical assistance team investigators, Dan Stewart and Vernon Taylor, went to Jaimmilynn's home and visited with her and her mother and sister, they told the family, they showed her, showed them a picture, and it was of Miranda's blanket.

And they pointed that out to, there's, I guess there's some foamy, bloody stuff on the blanket and they showed the grandmother that, Sammy-Lynn, and she was like, "What?" He's like, "You don't see that right there?" And she's like, "What is it?" He was like, "It's her lip prints in blood." So Sammy-Lynn's well, "He did it, didn't he?"

The investigator basically said, "Yeah" and that was when they all revised their statements. Yeah. And they used that to show the autopsy doctor, and he changed his findings from that, and from undetermined homicide based on that statement, but also because of Sammy-Lynn said that her grandson, Wraith, told her that he'd seen me do it.

So, Justin, it's understood, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that you had a written statement that Dr. Gulina read where you explain the action you took to stop little Miranda from crying. Do you remember that? Correct. And what did you, what steps did you take to make her stop crying? Originally, the sheriff for Caldwell County, when they picked me up from Moberly Correctional Center.

They were questioning me and stuff, and I was concerned about where I was going to be housed at, because if I was far away, then I wouldn't be able to get visits and stuff from my mother. So, they said, "Well", I kept telling them the same story over and over about with Miranda, and it was like, "Well, if you get the statement wrote out, then probably keep you housed here in Caldwell County instead of moving you down to Henrietta."

So I ended up writing a statement out and he asked if... something about Miranda crying. I had told him that originally that she wasn't crying. He was like, well, basically he's trying to, what I feel like now, he was trying to coach me and get me to basically... Say something to incriminate you? Yeah, he was wanting me to, basically what I've felt now is that he was trying to get me to say that she was crying, so I told him that she was a little bit fussy, but she really didn't want to take her bottle.

And I lightly pushed down on her and making a, you know, if your kid's laying down, you can put your hand on their chest and if they're making a noise and your hands lightly go bouncing off their chest, it'll go like that. Yeah. That's what I was talking about with him. And I said, she ended up taking her bottle and she was fine.

And he was like, "Well, can you write all that out for me?" And I was like, "Okay." So I wrote it all out. Then I started thinking, he's going to try to say that I sat here and held her down until she quit breathing. So at the end of my statement, I wrote that I did not sit there and hold her and push down on her, I didn't hold her down or nothing like that, and that she was still breathing when I left her.

And they tried, the prosecution tried turning that around on me. The day after Miranda died, a medical autopsy was conducted to determine the cause of her death. Ultimately, this autopsy would become a principal piece of evidence and a nail in the coffin of the prosecutor's case against Justin. The initial autopsy ruled that Miranda's death was inconclusive.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Gullino couldn't identify a single medical cause, although he was concerned about physical scrapes on Miranda's face. A month later he added in a note to his report that he couldn't rule out strangulation as the cause of death and that the facial injuries possibly hinted at foul play. But though Miranda's official cause of death was left undetermined, the investigation remained ongoing.

In 2001, investigators approached Dr. Gullino and asked him to re-examine his report on Miranda's death. This time, they presented the doctor with fresh evidence that incriminated Justin. Firstly, Sammy-Lynn revised her witness statement, stating that she had seen new facial injuries on Miranda after her death that weren't present earlier in the day.

Secondly, Justin had written a statement stating that he had pushed down gently on Miranda to stop her from crying. This statement, Jason contends, was coerced by officers while he was desperately awaiting housing. He says that his words were misinterpreted and turned against him by investigators, framing an admission to guilt to fit their narrative against him.

This new information was compelling enough for Dr. Gullino to amend his report. Nothing had changed medically in Miranda's case apart from these two statements. Yet, Dr. Gullino now ruled the cause of death as homicidal asphyxiation. Now, Justin found himself the obvious main suspect in the middle of a homicide case.

More on that after the break.

So, two years later you get arrested and charged with first degree murder or second degree murder? Second. Second degree murder. And you bonded out, didn't you? Yes. They had a preliminary hearing on March 6, 2002. And the state presented their evidence, and the judge dismissed the case, saying the state failed to prove that a burden of homicide has occurred.

So the prosecuting attorney at the time refiled charges the same day with no new evidence. She just recopied the probable cause statement. I never even made it out of the county jail. Then June rolls around and my attorney and the prosecution came up with a deal that if I waive my next preliminary hearing, they will lower my bond from 100,000 to 10,000 and allow me to put up 1,000 and get out on house arrest.

And I made the mistake of agreeing to that and doing that. I ended up getting out on bond on June 6th, 2002. For a thousand bucks in house arrest? Yes. Who bonded you out? My mother and father. How did they feel about what happened? They're sad that Miranda passed away, but they don't believe that I had anything to do with it.

What do they say now? What is their communication like with you now? Are they fighting to try to get you out? Are they, what is it like with that? My mother passed away in 2012, and my father, he still believes in my innocence, and he's still beside me and does what he can, but we don't really have much money and stuff like that, so that's why we haven't been able to make much progress.

Yeah, so, after you bailed out, you had an incident where you actually escaped from jail? Yes, I ended up getting my bond violated, approximately, well over six months, after I was out. How'd you violate your bond? Stealing. Why are you into this, all this stealing and stuff? What causes that? I believe, like, how some people are addicted to drugs or alcohol, I think, back then, stealing was my addiction, I believe.

I mean, it's kind of crazy, because you got a lot going on, you know, you're being charged with the murder of a little baby and stuff, and you're just, I don't know, man, it's just... yeah. I don't know. I understand. So you actually go back to jail for stealing while you're out on bond, right? For this?

Correct. And you're in jail and it says that you escaped by pulling a light down from the ceiling and crawling through the ceiling. Is that accurate? Yeah. I crawled like 20 foot through a ceiling, came down the closet, and right outside the closet was a, they leave the door open to the outside, so I just walked out.

Anybody see you walk out? No. What were you wearing when you walked out that door? A pair of Adidas shoes, a pair of sweatpants, and I believe a T-shirt. You kind of just looked like a, you know, a regular citizen or did you, were they striped or what? No, it was just, back then, you could have your personal clothes there.

Interesting. So where did you go to? Did you take off running or did you walk normal out of there? I walked normal and walked to Casey's and bought a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and I think a Mountain Dew. Where'd you get the cash from? They allowed you to have your cash on you in there too, because they had vending machines.

What'd you do after the gas station? Paid a guy to give me a ride to Excelsior Springs. And what did you do there? I used a pay phone and called a friend who ended up meeting me on 69 Highway as I was walking towards Cameron and they picked me up. Did they get in trouble for helping you out, an escaped convict?

Not for that situation, but a couple days later they did. Because of you? Well, yeah. They pled guilty to, I believe, harboring a fugitive or aiding and abetting. Right, right. So in 2003. Let's see, it says that you arrived at Lawrence Brophy's mobile home. Is that your friend? I wouldn't call him a friend, but he was an associate.

We'd met a few times. You asked him for a place to stay and you spent the night there and you actually told him, you had discussion with him about the, what happened that night with the baby? He asked what, he asked what I was on the news for and I explained to him about the death of Miranda and I told him what the state

was going off of saying I did, which was relying on Sammy-Lynn's false statement. What was the discussion like with him in his home, you know, and see, what are y'all talking about? I just told him that the grandmother wrote a statement saying that her grandson said that he seen me push his sister down into a blanket or pillow, I believe it was, I forget which one it said, and that his grandmother lied on that.

And that's what the state has used to charge me for her death. And I told him that I did not do it. He said, "I don't care whether he did or not." He said, "I effing hate kids." And that was the end of the conversation. Okay. So why did you pick this...? You say he's not your friend and he just lets you stay in his house.

I don't get it. I mean, friend's a pretty strong word, but I mean, he was an associate. Okay. Well, I mean, and, uh, but I mean, he, he knows you're like, wanted and you're not, he's not like a best friend to, like, why did he get in trouble for harboring a fugitive? No. That's 'cause he called on you, right?

Correct. Yeah. Although Justin initially was released from prison on bond, his freedom was short-lived. Soon, he was entangled in another web of legal troubles after stealing and was forced to return to prison for a third time. This time, however, Justin chose to escape the clutches of jail and took a bid at freedom.

Escaping prison was shockingly simple. He pulled down a light, crawled through the ceiling and walked out an open door into the civilian world in a pair of Adidas shoes, sweatpants, and a T-shirt. That night, Justin stayed at the house of an acquaintance in Cameron. It was a taste of freedom, a small slice of ordinary life, in what had been a turbulent and embattered past few months.

Well, obviously he cared enough to either that or cover his ass. He called the police the next morning, right? The next morning, I was going to leave and the truck that I was driving had a dead battery. And Mr. Brophy didn't have no type of vehicle or anything. And so I was going up to the neighbors to get a tractor or something where I could get this truck started.

And... And it says you stole the... it says you stole the truck, so I guess. This was the second part of it. The first, Brophy called the Cameron Cab Company and asked them if they could come and jumpstart a vehicle. And they asked Brophy what it was and he told them it was a pickup. And from what Brophy told me, the cab company guy asked, said, "Is it a Blue Chevy flatbed?" And Brophy said, "Yes", so that, after Brophy hung up, he told me this and I said, I said, "They're calling the cops." That scared me because he's describing the truck, that previous night I was at home next door to the cab company, so I figured they'd seen that truck and it was on the news or whatever and it was stolen, which I didn't know if it was or not, so that was when I took off up to the neighbors to try to get a tractor or something to start this truck. And in the process of going to the neighbors, the guy was driving down the road, and he sees me and he asked if he could help, and I was like, "Yeah, I need a jumpstart." And I gave him a story about trying to get someone to the hospital or something.

So we pull up at Brophy's house and he pulls up in front of the truck and we're hooking up the jumper cables and I see the sheriff and the state troopers go by. They missed Brophy's driveway. What did you do? I'm thinking, "Oh crap, there's no way I can get this truck jump started and get out of here in time."

So I told the guy, "Nevermind, I have something else figured out." And he took the jumper cables off his truck. He shut the hood and I made the mistake of jumping in his truck and taking off. So you stole his truck? Yes. Why'd you do that? I wanted to get away. I didn't wanna get caught. Was he yelling at you when you jumped in the driver's seat?

No. He just stood there, "What's going on?" And you took off? Yeah. Did the police see you leaving that vehicle? Yeah. When I got to the end of the driveway, I was gonna make a left and the state trooper came right up. It would've been on my right. And we both stopped, and all he had to do was pull forward, and I'd have been blocked in, and he just sat there, so I pulled out and turned left, and that was when the police chase started.

And it says that, and you correct me if I'm wrong, that you were very aggressive in the chase and trying to ram police vehicles and run over the police officers. Is that true? Well, when I pulled out left out of the driveway, at the S curve on this gravel road, so I'm trying to drive in the middle of the road, thinking he can't pass me, and the state trooper comes up on my passenger side. And up ahead of me, there's a civilian coming at us, and so, to me, I'm gonna end up running into the civilian, so, I just moved the truck over to the right, and it pushed the state trooper's car off in the ditch. All it did was leave a black mark on his driver's door from the tire, and he came right back up on the road behind me, on the gravel road, chased me for the rest of the, until I ran out of gas, so he didn't get hurt, nothing like that, and there was nobody else hurt throughout the whole chase or anything.

So you didn't try to do anything intentionally to hurt the cops? No, absolutely not, but they would have spike strips out, and say, if they're on the, they're on one side of the road, standing with the spike strips, I would drive on that side, that way, they wouldn't think they'd be able to get at me. Then I'd swerve back to the other side to get around the spike strip. After they pull them?

Yes. What's that run from the cops and you're, you know, you've got all these charges like for murder and, and did you think, "If I get away, I'm gonna go to Mexico?" Did you think, "I'm gonna..." What's going through your mind? I didn't think I was gonna get away. I had no resources to go out of the country or nothing like that.

I mean, but what are you, what are you thinking while you're running like that? What's, what's your thoughts? I was honestly at the, I was getting out of low on gas and I was gonna... My plan was to turn around when I, I went over the Missouri River Bridge originally. Then, as my gas was getting low, I was turning through the median, and I was going to go back to the Missouri River Bridge and jump off the river.

To kill yourself or just to run? Well either, either way, whatever happens. How long was the chase for? I can't, I'm... I believe 70 miles approximately. And how did they finally get you? The truck ran out of gas as I was turning through the median.

Plus I was on like two rims, so that might have been part of the reason why I didn't get back over the median too. In another dramatic twist, Justin ended up in a high speed police chase less than 24 hours after his escape from prison. Stealing a truck from a passerby, Justin then rammed into law enforcement vehicles and dodged spike strips across a 70 mile stretch of road. All that burnt out when Justin ran low on gas

and his deflated tires failed to make it across a grassy median. Police apprehended Justin and he was brought back to a prison cell to await the date of his trial. At court, prosecutors leveled a strong case against Justin. By carefully presenting evidence, they engineered a narrative in which Justin looked like an obvious killer to the jury.

The amended autopsy report became the crux of the case against Justin, coupled Sammy-Lynn's incriminating statement. On top of this, the bruises Wraith had gained from spanking were presented as evidence of Justin's ongoing violence towards the kids, and footage from Justin's police chase discredited him in the eyes of a local jury.

There's little concrete evidence that ties Justin to Miranda's death, and Justin's criminal history does not make him a killer. However, the jury found the case against Justin convincing enough. On November 2006, Justin's peers officially declared Justin Moyers guilty of second degree murder. So when they finally got you,

I think that was actually the only offer there was, and that was back on March 6th of 2002, and that was when we told them no, and we went in the courtroom, and the judge dismissed the case, if I recall correctly. It all happened the same day. So you ended up going to trial and you pled not guilty. You had a jury? Yeah, I actually had three trials. And what happened to the first two , they were hung jury or what?

The first trial there wasn't enough jurors that could have been non-biased. It was in Caldwell County. And I ended up filing my own change of venue, even though I had a public defender, I filed my own pro se motion and the judge granted it. So you didn't actually go through a whole trial though? No. Okay. Not the first time.

Now the second time, we was close to being all the way through the trial, and it came about that there was a videotape interview of Lawrence Brophy with the state patrolman, and that hadn't been disclosed to the, my attorney, and my attorney ended up getting a mistrial, over that, which I believe we had that trial won.

And then the third one, everything went as like it should. And you were found guilty by the jurors. When it, what was your reaction when they said guilty? Did you say anything? No, I didn't say nothing. Was your mom and dad in there? I don't believe they came back cause that was been a too far of a drive for

every day, cause it was like a four day trial. I believe it was. What's it like being found guilty of what? Second degree murder? Yeah. What was your reaction? I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe I'd ever be found guilty of something I didn't do. Do you think it's possible that you did something and you just didn't think that your actions caused it?

Or you think...? No. No. When I left the room that night, she was still alive and breathing. Yeah. Once they found you guilty, what did they sentence you to? Life. Life, with the possibility of parole? Yes. And how long have you been in there now? Well, they ran the life sentence consecutive to my minor charges for the escape, conspiracy to commit burglary and assault, and law enforcement stealing a truck, so I didn't actually start my life sentence until, I believe it was June of 2008.

Yeah, so what did you, what's your total time, everything ranked consecutive? Life is 30 in Missouri and then plus what? Well, I've done 1212 of all my other sentences, so the only thing I'm serving is the life sentence now. Right, what are those other sentences, how, what's the length? Oh, well, I had, first I had an escape, which I had three years on, then I had, I believe it was a four year sentence for conspiracy to commit burglary, then I had a five year sentence

for stealing the truck and a five year sentence for the assault on the law enforcement officer. And I think those two was ranked con current. I believe so. You know, I, I think that if you were out in society that I wouldn't be worried about you killing somebody. I'd, I'd be worried about you stealing. Do you think that that's going to be something you would do if you got out?

Absolutely not. I'm, I've learned my lesson. I've went through ITC, Intensive Therapy Community , it's a year-long program here in Jefferson City Correctional Center. I went through that several years ago. I've matured a lot. I'm not doing nothing to come back to this life. Well, Justin, I hope that everything works out for you.

You know, I, I honestly, I don't know what happened, but it sounds like you, you may not have done it and you may have, but it could go either way. Obviously this is, you know, just a podcast. We don't get all the information that's provided, but I wish you the best, man. If you need something, give me a holler.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate your time. All right, man. Take it easy. All right. You too. Bye.

On the next episode of Voices of a Killer. This man was someone that I really truly cared about, loved, you know, and seen him as my father, seen him as my dad. Springfield and the surrounding area used to be known as the meth capital of the United States. Less water than that, throw in the mix, it, it would explode like the bombs over in Iraq.

He looks me in the eye, then he looks over at mom's house and he says, "Boom, and then you and her are gone." That's when the reality hit me, and I was like, "Oh my god, we can't keep letting this go on." I never did no s*** like that. Never. That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. I want to thank Justin for sharing his story with us today.

His ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special. If you want to listen to these episodes weeks in advance, you can now do so by joining our https://www.patreon.com/VoicesofaKiller. There you will get access to raw interviews, unseen news coverage, and unique correspondence with the guests of Voices of a Killer.

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Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.