Murder With My Husband - 204. How The Sopranos Became A Blueprint For Murder

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the case involving Jane Bautista, a woman whose dismembered body was discovered along the highway. NEW MERCH!! Check out our new merch at https://mwmhshop.com/ Or the link below for Discount codes and more: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: “Such Good Boys” by Tina Dirmann CBS News - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cops-sons-murdered-mom-mob-style/ San Diego Union Tribune - https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-son-sentenced-to-25-years-for-mothers-murder-2005apr09-story.html LA Times - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-feb-05-me-bautista5-story.html CNN - https://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/28/sons.arraigned/index.html Psychology Today - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200301/murder-mafia-style The NY Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/28/us/2-sons-held-in-dismemberment-that-is-said-to-copy-tv-show.html FHE Health.com - https://fherehab.com/schizophrenia/statistics#:~:text=Schizophrenia%20stats%20suggest%20that%20in,schizophrenia%20that%20have%20been%20diagnosed. AlliedPsychiatry.com - https://www.alliedpsychiatry.com/blog/could-you-have-schizophrenia-and-not-know-it#:~:text=While%20many%20people%20with%20schizophrenia,and%20untreated%2C%20sometimes%20for%20years. Murderpedia.org - https://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bautista-jason.htm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Una Chaplin and I'm the host of a new podcast called Hollywood Exiles. It tells the story of how my grandfather Charlie Chaplin and many others were caught up in a campaign to root out communism in Hollywood. It's a story of glamour and scandal and political intrigue and a battle for the soul of the nation. Hollywood Exiles from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service, available now on Spotify. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast.

This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Well, guess what? We got merch. Oh my goodness, we've got merch? We got merch. Oh my goodness.

We've got merch. We got merch. It will be launched. Well, as you're listening to this, depending on what time you're listening to this, it'll be live. Yeah. Ready to order, ready for purchase. We're super excited. We haven't launched merch in like six months just because of some issues we've had, but it's back.

We're really excited for this launch. Probably one of my favorite launches. Yeah, so check the links, check our Instagram. Website everywhere. Everywhere that is officially through us. Don't just Google it because you might come across things that are not our merch or our official merch,

but it's so cute. We made this subtle for those who want to wear it out in public, but don't want something that says murder on it. But it's also very trendy, very on brand. But you have that slight little nod to murder with my husband. So it's very cute. It's probably my favorite we've done so far. I wear it all the time. Also, before we jump into your 10 seconds, I did just want to remind everyone streaming on Twitch on Thursdays, 5 30 PST, please come check it out. It's so fun is basically like live murder with my husband. We talk about true crime. We watch footage. It is such a ball. It's honestly one of my favorite days of the week now. So come watch us on Twitch

5 30 PM at PST. All right, for my 10 seconds this week, gonna make it about everybody else, kind of, I guess. I hope it's about me. What if there is one cold case in the world that you could have solved, what would it be? Put it down in the comments if you're on YouTube,

go to our socials if you're on podcast. If you're on Spotify, I know there's a way to comment on Spotify or you can go to our socials. I'm curious what everyone would say. And on that note, we can get Peyton's answer and then jump into today's case. So Peyton, if you, she wasn't ready for this. No, and I do get asked this question all the time. If you could pick, if you can't pick one, it's okay.

We'll see what everyone else says and we'll come back next week. Will it will give you a week to think about it? I think the obvious answer like that comes right to the top of my head is just any case where it's been an unexplainable disappearance. So not one that's like, oh, this is probably what happened. But you know, we've covered a couple of them on the show. Typically it's just a person who starts acting weird and then disappears, but the disappearance

takes a really long time. And there's a whole bunch of clues and trails. And then it's like they just vanished up out of the blue, literally vanished. And then are dead. Like, or gone. Or never found again. I think those are obviously just the ones that

really get you in a tailspin. I think we covered like Bryce on our on our podcast before, but there are a bunch of them out there. But yeah, I think that that would probably it's not necessarily a specific answer, but maybe just a genre, a type of case. Okay, we'll come back next week. I'll make Peyton pick one, not, not in a disrespectful way. I just, there's so many out there right now and I'm curious everyone is gonna have their opinions on which one they would want solved. Yeah, so I'm kinda curious.

That's my 10 seconds. Switching it up a little bit. Hill, we'll see the answers. Our sources for this episode are such good boys by Tina Derman, CBS News, San Diego Union Tribune LA Times, CNN Psychology Today, The New York Times, FHEalth.com, AlliedPsychiatry.com, and Murderpedia. I do just want to give a trigger warning.

This episode features discussions of suicide and dismemberment, so please listen with care. Dismemberment? That's a tough trigger warning. That is not a trigger warning we get very often. So one of the most complex issues authorities come across when dealing with the justice system is how to navigate cases involving psychiatric illness, particularly because mental health is something that we as a society have only really just begun

to understand. And I think you've probably seen this if you've listened to a lot of murder with my husband cases, but talking about mental health and psychiatry when talking about true crime cases, they go hand in hand. Garrett and I have discussed all the time, like, where's the line? Where do you draw the line on this? So for example, did you know that every year about 100,000 people are diagnosed with schizophrenia in the United States alone? And while that may sound like a lot, it's only a fraction of the real number because there's another 33% of cases out there that never get diagnosed, which means they also never get the proper treatment. And psychiatric illness doesn't just affect

the people living with it. It has a lot of collateral damage, oftentimes pushing loved ones and family members to a breaking point, especially when they don't know where to turn to for help. And today's case is a wildly unfortunate example of that, a cautionary tale, that while extreme extreme shows just how dire it is to understand the nuances of mental health. So it's around 8 30 a.m. on January 15th, 2003. Earlier

that morning, a homicide investigator from Orange County, California named Andre Spencer, received what for him would be a routine phone call. A body was spotted in a ravine right off the Ortega Highway around mile marker number 79. Now Andre was scanning the area, a pair of binoculars in hand, looking for signs that this tip wasn't just some sort of prank, zoning in on a pale white figure lying in the brush about 170 feet away. And so that's when Andre realized this call, wasn't a prank, there obviously was a dead body. And by the time he was standing over the figure,

he believed this might be the most gruesome thing that he'd seen in his 13 years on the force. It was the body of a female dressed only in her underwear, that he'd seen in his 13 years on the force. It was the body of a female dressed only in her underwear, but she was missing her head and her hands. Oh my gosh. And her skin was nearly translucent. So Andre realized whoever had killed the victim had also taken the time to drain her of all of her blood.

It was a terrible fate that no one deserved to suffer. Andre believed that without fingerprints or any identifying facial features, finding this Jane Doe was going to be an impossible challenge, which honestly might have been the point. But in another seven days, he already had found himself a name. The victim was a 41 year old woman named Jane Bautista.

I mean, and this is pretty crazy that just a week after finding this body off the highway, they were able to identify her. Now, Jane was born into a pretty well-to-do family in a little area of Illinois called Walkegan. Her grandfather had a successful construction company that he kept within the family, which meant there was little that Jane and her sister wanted and couldn't have when they

were young. They were always dressed in the best clothes, sent to the most expensive private schools, and were often whisked away on family vacations to Mexico. All of which Jane seemed deserving of. She got excellent grades in her honors classes, was a member of the Girl Scouts, and seemed to be the ringleader amongst her large social group. Plus, the boys in school always had an eye on the 5'7 redhead with fair skin and blue eyes. So on paper, Jane looked like the picture perfect daughter, even graduating high school a year early

with an acceptance to University of Wisconsin Parkside. But like many teenagers, Jane wasn't always the yes man her parents expected her to be. So Jane was said to be incredibly stubborn with a bit of a temper whenever things weren't going as planned Which okay, yeah me and every other teenager in fact There was one time in 1980 when things hit a boiling point between Jane and her mother Nelly That year the 19 year old Jane told her mom Nelly

She needed to borrow the family car for a social outing. And while Nelly was always flexible with things like that, this time she told Jane no. She had somewhere to be that evening and needed the car. Well, hearing that one little word sent Jane into a tailspin. She lashed out at her mother, screaming her head off to the point that it actually scared Nelly. And when she tried to calm her daughter down, Jane began punching Nelly in the head and the stomach. So this is now a little bit more than your average teenage angst. It was so severe that Nelly ended up spending the night

in the hospital at the hands of her daughter. Oh yeah, we've passed a line a long time ago. Yes, so Nelly refused to call the cops on her daughter Jane, hell-bent on keeping up family appearances. But over time, that darkness in Jane seemed to escalate. After beginning college, Jane's grades declined as she continually missed classes. And three months before getting her diploma,

Jane dropped out altogether. Around the same time, she also met someone who might have contributed to those distractions. And this is kind of a big deal. This is kind of a big deal, considering that she was an honor student. She graduated from high school early. Like it seemed like she had everything in her life

that would make it go a certain way. And it's just clearly not. So this person that might be a distraction to her was a local handyman from Belize who'd recently immigrated to the United States and his name was Armando Batista, which if you're recognizing the last name it's because Jane and Armando are eventually going to share the same last name. So now those who knew Jane were kind of shocked by her choice to date Armando. Yes, Jane was fluent in Spanish after many years of vacationing in Mexico, but everyone imagined she would end up with someone a little more white-collar.

Although at this point, Jane couldn't care less about the expectations others had set for her. She was in love with Armando and less than a year later the two traveled to Belize to tie the knot in front of his family while Jane's family was not invited. Now unfortunately the matrimony might have been a bit premature because right after the wedding the couple found themselves experiencing marital problems. So none of her family came? Nope.

And that was Jane's doing I assume. Okay. So the biggest point of contention was that Jane was now forced to live a more modest lifestyle. I was just going to saycation with her mother back when she was 19, she then, you know, ran away and eloped with a man that they didn't approve of, her parents cut her off emotionally and financially. Now, she and Armando were living on his meager income as a handyman while Jane was forced to take a job at an electrical plant in Waukegan. And things only got harder when Jane found herself pregnant with their first child just eight months into marriage. Then on August 25th, 1982, Jane gave birth to a little boy they named Jason Victor Batista. But the mounting problems between Jane and Armando got in the way of that new baby bliss. By the time Jason turned one,

Jane was already packing her bags and looking for a new apartment. Armando begged her to come back, to work things out with him. But Jane remained steadfast in her decision, one that Armando could no longer accept come April 1984. Interesting. So those are certain issues they had or just wasn't working?

I think they just weren't ready for real life when they got married. And then as we've talked about at the beginning, we're having some mental issues start to arise at this time in our life, which is a very average time for these issues to come about. But around 6 p.m. on the night of April 7th, Jane was driving back to her apartment with baby Jason in the car The route home led her past her office at the electric company Which is where she noticed Armando's car was sitting in the parking lot Frustrated that Armando would go to her place of work looking for her Jane pulled into the parking lot to confront him

But when she appeared into the driver's side, she noticed that Armando was motionless inside. Her estranged husband had shot himself through the chest. Okay. Now, Jane called the police who discovered he left a note in the car. It was addressed to Jane, telling her repeatedly how life was not worth living without her. That's hard. Well, and worst of all, the barely two-year-old Jason was there to see the lifeless body of life was not worth living without her. That's, that's hard.

Well, and worst of all, the barely two year old Jason was there to see the lifeless body of his father carted away on a stretcher. Now it certainly didn't help that after word got out about Armando's suicide, whispers about Jane's involvement began. Which that sucks. After all, Waukegan was a small town and gossip was parasitic. Dodging glances in the grocery store became Jane's new normal, despite the fact that she'd been cleared by the police of any wrongdoing. Still, it sparked a seed of paranoia with Jane, one that would prove lethal in the years to come. and political intrigue, and a battle for the soul of the nation.

Hollywood Exiles from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service, available now on Spotify. But two years later, in 1986, Jane found herself falling for a new man, a 24-year-old friend of a friend who'd also immigrated from Belize named José Montejo. Three months into the relationship, Jose was already moving into Jane's apartment. What state are we in again? Illinois.

So I'm wondering how she happened to find two people from Belize. That's kind of funny. I'm assuming that because it was a friend of a friend, she probably had just met this person through her first husband and then, you know, a friend introduced a friend. So Jose was adamant that he wanted to marry her

and adopt Jason, but that tune changed shortly after they settled into a domestic routine. Because Jose noticed that Jane kind of acted like two different people. Sometimes she would be sweet as pie and then turn on a dime, raging with a violent temper, that same temper that landed her mom in the hospital. However, Jose gave her a pass.

He believed it was a result of the unprocessed trauma she had after Armando's suicide. At first, there were little signs, like Jane refusing to let anyone say Armando's name in her company. But then Jose noticed she'd take a lot of her hate for Armando out on her son, Jason. So when Jason wet the bed as a toddler, Jane lashed out, giving him a beating with whatever item was on hand. But Jose wasn't the kind of man who sat

there and took Jane's abusive behavior. So he kind of stepped in, he would scream back at her and sometimes even met her violence with more violence. So eventually, Jose reached a breaking point and was ready to leave Jane for good, only to find out that she was pregnant again. And Jose refused to walk out on his first child. So on July 4th, 1987, Jane gave birth to another little boy she named Matthew Montejo. And this time, things went a lot differently for Jane as

a second time mom. Moral of the story, you don't have sex. She was openly affectionate with Matthew, doting over the newborn with constant attention. It was a very stark difference from how she remained with Jason her first child Spanking and screaming over the smallest things literally things as small as a glass of spilled milk But shortly after Matthew's birth Jane opened up to Jose about something that explained although certainly didn't excuse some of her behavior She admitted to him that when Armando died, she'd actually been there. He came to her office at the electrical plant that afternoon and asked her to come out to

the car and talk. He'd been watching Jason, their kids, so the toddler was in the car with him when he tried to convince Jane to reconcile. But when things didn't go the way he planned, he took out the gun and shot himself in the chest and Jane and Jason were sitting right there. So she was there. But before she said she wasn't there. And now all of a sudden she was there when all of this happened, but that he shot himself in the chest, which I'm not going to say she's involved right now, but that is a little weird.

I don't feel like that is a normal place for someone to do that. I mean, you have to admit it's a bit strange, not only the location of the shot, but also the fact that when it first happened, she claimed to stumble upon the scene and then call 911. And now all of a sudden she's like, okay, I was there and then this happened. And then there's all these rumors about her being involved

and she's like, no, it just made me so paranoid because I wasn't involved, but now years later, she's changing her story. And then he shot himself in the chest and things are starting not to add up. It just looks a little suspicious. Could it be true? Yes, but it's a little suspicious.

So not knowing what else to do in this new version of events, Jane claimed that she grabbed Jason, got into her car and drove home to clean up before returning later to call the police. So she claims that she got Jason, drove home, cleaned up, then drove back, stumbled upon the car that she already knew was there, and then call the police. So she claims that she got Jason, drove home, cleaned up, then drove back, stumbled upon the car that she already knew was there, and then called the police. So not only did Jane and Jason see Armando's dead body,

they'd witnessed the suicide firsthand. So that's when Jane also admitted to Jose, her new guy, that the reason she was so hard on Jason was because he reminded her of Armando constantly. So he is asking, why do you treat the kids so differently? Like, why do you treat our kid different than you treat Jason, your first child? And this is her excuse. She says, when I look at my first child that I had with Armando, I think of Armando, and

it drives me crazy. So, but by the following year, Jane was seeing those reminders everywhere and she was tired of life in Illinois. There were too many bad memories. She was eager for a fresh start. She told Jose she wanted to move to California where no one knew about them or their past. So at the end of 1988, they packed their car

and the family of four made the drive out to San Diego. So probably hoping that this new move would help, it actually didn't. Out West, Jane's behavior did not improve. Instead, her actions became even more alarming. For instance, Jane put the family on a strict diet of lettuce and other raw vegetables. But Jose, who was always walking on eggshells with Jane, had learned when to pick and choose his battles, and this just wasn't one of them.

It couldn't be me. It could not be me just eating lettuce and what? Vegetables. And vegetables, nope. But then, out of the blue, Jane began to suspect Jose was cheating on her. She started rummaging through his pockets and drawers for phone numbers or other evidence.

From there, the fighting escalated until it became a once daily routine. The final straw came when Jane and Jose got into a violent altercation leading her to call the cops. So I'm just leading this up to say that their relationship was not the best and also just her behavior and treatment towards her children might have not been the best either. Well, I also just her behavior and treatment towards her children might have not been the best either. Well, I seem to be giving this background information because you're trying to show that she has some sort of schizophrenia or she's going to get diagnosed at some point with schizophrenia by a polar something has to do with mental health, I assume. We'll get there. So Jose was charged with attempted rape and child endangerment and was sentenced to a year in jail. I was actually just thinking about this the other day, like, you know how we talk about milestones and true crime where, you know, that that similar thing to when you call the cops because of a domestic altercation. Like finally calling the cops is such a step that you almost can't take back.

Finally admitting, okay, domestic violence is a thing. We're involving the authorities, now it's on the record. Like that is just a really big, a big thing. I think it just goes with anything that involves a big step of action. It's kind of hard to do that first step. Right. So they call the cops, right? And Jose was charged with attempted rape and child endangerment.

So we don't really have the details of this domestic altercation, but this is what he's charged with. Interesting. Because it's all, it's hard because it is all she said, he said right now. Yeah. But I mean, because you were also talking about how she did X and X to her son.

Yeah. So it sucks. You just don't really know. Yeah, I don't know. He was sentenced to a year in jail and while he only served three months of the sentence, Jose never went back to Jane. And because he leaves Jane, which is probably the appropriate thing to do, he actually doesn't get to see his son

Matthew again until he was a teenager. So this is hard because when he severs his relationship with Jane, he also severs his relationship with his child. Oh no, okay. So what Jose didn't realize was that by the time of his release, Jane had already left San Diego for a town about 40 minutes north called San Marcos. At this point, Jason was about 10 and Matthew was 5. Still, Jane was happy to leave Jason home alone to take care of Matthew while she went out looking for the next date. So it's common that 10 year old is babysitting 5 year old. Which probably not okay. And it didn't take long for neighbors to notice that Jane was always yelling at

Jason, that this might have been signaling child abuse, that she was dragging him across the yard at just 10 years old. Oh my gosh. And he's the one that went to jail. Yeah. And she's pulling him into the house by his arm. While Jason knew that his mother had an anger problem, it wasn't until he was about 13 that he started to suspect that there might be more to the issue.

In the summer of 1996, Jane took the boys to Las Vegas for a little vacation. For the most part, it was a happy memory for them, getting to Gallivant around the themed hotels and neon lights. But at the end of the trip, Jason saw something that scared him just as much as the routine spankings he received. Jason flipped on the television in the hotel room

to find musician Duncan Sheik singing his hit, Barely Breathing. Jane stood there hypnotized for a moment before turning to Jason and whispering to him, that man stole my songs. Now, 14-year-old Jason doesn't have a reason to doubt his mother, but what she says next really freaks him out. And this is just weird altogether. She claimed that the 90s alternative rock artist was now out to murder her. And it didn't end there. Over the next few months, Jane did everything she could to try and connect with Duncan to convince him not to kill her.

Oh, no. She also believed that music executives were coming to the house to spy on her. She stopped using her cell phone and refused to go out during the day. She's not okay. She's not okay. She's not okay. In time, this paranoia became not just about Duncan wanting to kill Jane, but all different ethnic groups were suddenly out to get her. It was a sign that Jane Batista was experiencing the early symptoms

of paranoid schizophrenia. Also something that no kid, teenager should have to. It's just unfortunate. That's hard. That's hard And Jane who really didn't have anyone to help her treat the problem figured The only way to deal with these issues was to pull the boys out of school and move again and again and again Over the next several years shoot. Wait was she diagnosed? Okay, not yet. I'm gonna say if she was diagnosed, there's no way they let her continue to keep the kids under the situation she's in.

Well, and this is just, she doesn't have the help. She doesn't know where to go. We're in 1990s, late 90s. But she probably, does she even recognize what's going on? Right, right. So she's mostly living out of their car, maybe an occasional motel. So it's just not a very secure place for the boys either. Oh, and it's hard because Jason's just taking this, the blunt of everything and he does,

none of the kids deserve that. That's horrible. So eventually in 1998, Jane and the boys settled into a house in Menafee, California, about an hour and 20 minutes north of San Diego. There, things seemed to stabilize for a bit. Jane was cooking the boys' meals and getting chores done. Although by now, her appearance was alarming. She was rail thin, she was pale, her hair was always unkempt. But at least now the boys felt some semblance of normalcy and could go from being homeschooled back to public school. Now, starting over in a new school is hard for most kids, but it was particularly hard for Jason.

Despite being six foot two and over 200 pounds, the 16 year old Jason found himself being bullied by his classmates. He was teased for the way he dressed, for being anti-social. Again, be nice to someone because you never know what they're going through at home. This wasn't exactly by choice. Jane refused to go shopping for new clothes. She refused to let

the kids hang out with other kids after school or have friends over. When Jason mentioned to Jane that he had a crush on a girl, she laughed at him, called him a wuss, and told him he wasn't man enough to date someone. Which had to have been frustrating for 16 year old Jason, who was just doing his best to be the perfect son, keep his mom happy, he's getting bullied at school. Dude, this breaks my heart. That is as horrible. It's awful. Being a teenager can already be hard enough.

And as horrible. You just don't have this stability at home. You don't have this connection that you need. He has zero support at home. His mom hates him. And it's important. It's important for development that you have these connections and the stability.

Like other kids his age, he wasn't experimenting with drugs and alcohol. In fact, he'd never even touched the stuff. And when Jane lashed out, he'd tried to keep his mouth shut and keep the peace knowing how quickly things could escalate. But everyone has their breaking points. On one occasion, when Jason did find himself

snapping back at his mother, Jane's paranoia kicked in. She asked Jason who had gotten to him, who was turning her son against her. And then according to Jason, Jane grabbed a hockey stick and struck him so hard in the head that he needed to be rushed to urgent care for staples. So in the waiting room, Jane threatened under a breath that he better not tell anyone the truth

about what had happened. And of course, when the doctor asked what had happened, Jason lied, keeping his mother out of the story. But the wound left a permanent three inch scar on Jason's head, a constant reminder of just how serious his mother's condition was becoming. What a world. Now, in all the years of this abuse happening in the home, there was only one known time

where child protective services were called to check in on them. And Jane scared the social worker away before she could even assess the situation, which is why supposedly there was never a single piece of paper filed with CPS regarding Jason and Matthew's situation. How's that even happen? Just to help that through the cracks. Shouldn't it be the opposite? You scare someone away, they should file like extra paperwork?

It's just an underfunded and under supported system at that point. That sucks. So in 2000, Jason turns 18 years old, which meant he didn't have to live under Jane's roof any longer if he didn't want to. Still, he managed to stick it out for another few years which meant he didn't have to live under Jane's roof any longer if he didn't want to. Still, he managed to stick it out for another few years until another major fight happened between them in 2003. By that point, the 20-year-old Jason had begun college

at California State University San Bernardino using financial aid and working part-time jobs to cover his tuition. Good for him. But when things turned ugly once more between Jason and Jane at home, he threatened to move out for good. And needless to say, Jane was not happy about this. She followed Jason to the hotel he worked at and caused a scene in front of guests and other staff

saying things like, your father walked out on me and I won't let you do it too. So when Jason came home, he was at his wit's end. And that's when he pitched an idea to his younger brother, Matthew. "'Wouldn't it be great if we just got rid of mom?' He asked. Matt laughed it off saying, "'Sure, he wished she was out of their lives for good,

not dead, just maybe gone.' But Jason had already stopped listening. He was too busy conjuring up ideas, thinking surely no one else would even notice if his mother was dead or alive. And for the next several months, Jason stewed over this idea, which hit a boiling point when Jane's paranoia and delusions escalated that November. Jane was prepared to leave their new home in the town of Riverside and go back on the

road to avoid the people who were out to get her once more. But Jason refused to let him or his brother live that unhoused lifestyle again. Memories of sleeping in their car, showering only every few days when they stayed at a hotel, not having to go to school. It all came flooding back to Jason who remembered those times as some of the worst of their lives. And the only reason for it was Jane's psychiatric illness, one that was only

assumed at this point seeing as she'd never officially sought the help of a doctor or being diagnosed with anything. But the 20 year old Jason and 15 year old Matthew weren't equipped to handle her illness either. So instead Jason decided to take more drastic measures and in January 2014 he seized an opportunity. After a long day on campus, Jason returned home around 7pm on the evening of January 14th. At first, it seemed like tonight might be a quiet one in the Batista home as Jane cooked the boys a pasta dinner, but that quickly changed when Jane began ranching to the boys that the man in the upstairs apartment

was definitely a pedophile. Jason was not in the mood to deal with Jane's illness that night, so he yelled back, telling her to stop with the stories. And that's when Jane threatened to kick him out of the apartment. She went to his room and began grabbing his clothes and stuffing them into a bag.

Meanwhile, Matthew just listened from the other room while he continued playing video games. For him, this was just another average Tuesday. But after another 15 more minutes of back and forth screaming, Matthew heard something break up the voices. It was a very loud thud, like something had hit the ground hard. Too terrified to step out of his room,

Matthew just stayed there, hidden. Instead of praying for the screaming to stop like he normally did, he now found himself begging God for it to start again. Oh no. And that's when Jason began calling his name. When Matthew stepped out into the hallway, he saw Jason standing over the motionless body

of their mother. Jason had knocked her to the floor, grabbed her by the neck, and applied pressure until the color in her face had drained completely. He'd upheld his promise. Matthew turned to Jason asking him what they were supposed to do next, and that's when Jason looked him dead in the eyes and said, we're going to take care of it, just like they do on the Sopranos. Matthew shuttered it the thought he knew exactly what his brother meant. The Sopranos was their favorite show. It was their escape from reality. And they'd recently watched the episode where Tony Soprano has to get rid of his

associate Ralphie, so he cuts off his head in his hands, so he can't be identified. Jason figured if they were going to get away with this, they'd have to follow through with a similar plan. So Jason grabbed his keys and set out for supplies, things like trash bags, rubber gloves, bleach. I don't know how I feel. This is heavy. This is, there's so much backstory to this.

It's not as easy as Jason killed his mom. It's not as easy as that, which is why we have courts and the justice system and all that, even though I know it might not be the best, it's why we have it. I don't even know how I feel. I'm so indifferent on this. And honestly, this is why I found it almost important

to cover this case. Yeah. Because a lot of times. There's so many layers. There's so many layers to these cases, right? And this is just a very obvious drastic one, right? Yes. But you know, how often...

They don't all end in this. No. This is the less than 1% the very rare. Right, right. But there are cases like this that do exist where psychiatric illness is a really big part of the story. But it's not just, yeah, it's that part too. But I mean, it's everything Jason's going through as well though.

Right. That's the whole other 50 to 70%. Right. I don't know, man. I don't know. So Matt actually refused this to help Jason, but it never crosses his mind to call the police because Jason was all he had now. This is his only family left.

So he's like, I'm not going to help you with what you just did, but he's also not going to turn his brother. And like he also knew the reality of what was going on at home and how this all came to be. There was no way he would ever rat out his big brother, but there was also no way he was going to help his big brother, you know, with the rest of this plan. Which is hard to because I bet if you would have called the police,

said my mom was attacking me, this situation would be so much different than what we're about to get to. So Jason moved Jane's body on his own to the bathroom and recreated what he'd seen on his favorite show. After draining all of her blood out into the tub, Jason placed what remained of Jane in an old sleeping bag. He stashed her in the back of his car and told Matthew to get in. They were gonna go for a ride. Jason and Matthew drove south for the next hour, headed towards their childhood home of San Diego. Eventually, Jason pulled off the freeway

in the town of Oceanside and drove towards a middle-class neighborhood along the ocean. When they came to a dumpster in front of a home that had been undergoing renovations, Jason stopped the car. He got out and unloaded the sleeping bag from the trunk. But what he didn't realize was, he and Matthew weren't alone. A security guard named Peter Martinez was shining a flashlight at the boys. So cornered, Jason and Matt told him they were just dumping

some trash there. But Peter knew better. He'd served years as a Marine and whatever was in that sleeping bag was not just garbage, particularly because there was a human foot poking out from underneath it. Oh no. So Peter yelled for them to stop and to put the bag down, but Jason wasn't about to surrender to a neighborhood security guard. So they threw the sleeping bag back into the trunk and told Peter to go F himself and then they sped off. But Peter had already gotten their full license plate number. It was only a matter of time before the police

would be knocking on their door. Still, a frantic Jason got back onto the five freeway prepared to head home for the night and keep his mother's body in the trunk until the morning. But as he got on the Ortega Highway, he realized the steep cliffs along the side of the road were a solid alternative. It was around 2 a.m. when Jason pulled over,

yanked the sleeping bag out of the trunk once again, and left his mother along the highway. Then he got back in the car, later claiming it was the first time in his life that he finally felt free. This was a sensation that wouldn't last long at all. Because only a few hours later, Detective Andre Spencer and his team had already recovered the body and now they were on the hunt for both the victim's identity and her killer.

A threat Jason and Matthew were well aware of by that afternoon when they were flipping through the news channels and spotted the story of the dismembered Jane Doe. Matthew's biggest concern was, were they going to find her hands and head? And more importantly, what had Jason done with them? But Jason assured them that shouldn't be an issue. They were safely secured in his mother's closet. I think the worst place you could keep them.

So the boy's plan was to say their mother had run off with a new boyfriend of hers. That last they heard she was in Chicago and they didn't know when she'd be back. And for the next week, the boys did get the freedom they'd always hoped. They invited some friends over to the house for a barbecue while her head was still upstairs.

They went shopping, they even purchased cell phones. All things they were completely forbidden by Jane when she was alive. But after seven days of this new lifestyle, things came crashing down for the brothers. Because that's when the Orange County police learned about the security guard's eyewitness statement over in San Diego County. With a full license plate, it wasn't hard for them to determine who the vehicle belonged to. Two names came up in their system, Jason Batista and his mother, Jane.

After pulling up their licenses, they confirmed that Jane fit the bodily description of the deceased. And Peter Martinez confirmed, yeah, Jason was the one he saw off loading the sleeping bag that night. So 10 days after Jane's death, police confronted Jason on his college campus and after only an hour of questioning Jason told the police he was willing to come down to the station and that's when he confessed to everything

He started at the beginning listing all the ways Jane's paranoia had affected him and Matthew over the years He talked about the abuse both emotional and physical that he'd endured since he was a baby And then he insisted that on the night she died, Jane was trying to attack him with a knife. He got her in a bear hug and tried to calm her down, but the next thing he knew, he had choked her to death. So Jason was arguing accidental self-defense. This was a smart move considering the history

that supported it. I hope you got an attorney right away. I assume no, but I hope so. But the thing is, would someone who acted in self-defense really go to such lengths to cover up a body, which is basically what you said? Yeah. I mean, how many people in that situation

would actually dismember their own mother, something that Jason later admitted to, and was confirmed after a search of their apartment turned up the rest of Jane Bautista's remains? I would say, obviously no, but these are such different circumstances. I mean, the way they were raised, like everything, taking into account everything. I'm not, I'm not trying to make an excuse for killing someone, obviously, and standing up for him, but it's not as easy as he was quote-unquote normal, why is he hiding the body? It's like,

no, it's, it's not that easy. Again, there's so many layers to this. Still, it was these thoughts that haunted investigators as they arrested the 20 year old Jason Batista on January 24th, 2003. And later that afternoon, his 15 year old brother, Matthew, also found himself in handcuffs because both were facing charges for first degree murder. Yeah. As Matthew sat in his cell waiting his day in court, his lawyers presented him with an option. His brother had ruined his life.

If it weren't for Jason, Matthew would be entering his senior year of high school, thinking about college. He was close to a life without his mother anyways. But now here he was facing 25 years to life in prison, particularly because he was going to be tried as an adult in this case. I'm confused, I'm surprised. Okay, keep going, I'll share my thoughts after. And worst of all, he never laid a hand on his mother.

He was only here because he was protecting Jason, because he had aided and abetted a murder. So they offered Matthew a deal. Testify against your brother, prove that this was premeditated and not self-defense, and you'll face a much lighter sentence. So eventually, realizing this was his best option, Matthew agreed.

In January, 2005, Matthew took the witness stand at Jason's trial and told the jury how his brother had mentioned killing his mother multiple times before this day. Even more damning was the testimony from the chief forensic pathologist who told the jury Jane wasn't just knocked down in self-defense, she was severely beaten. And as we've heard in other cases, they also mentioned that strangulation doesn't just

happen accidentally. Jason had to have his hands around Jane's neck for a good six minutes before she was completely depleted of oxygen, Meaning Jason put in the time to make sure his mother was finally gone. Since Matthew had held up his end of the bargain and pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder, he was only sentenced to 749 days in jail. Time he'd already served waiting for his trial. So he was immediately released after which Matthew reunited with his father, Jose Montejo, for the first time since childhood, which is interesting because I would assume, I don't know.

I don't know. You can tell me otherwise. I would assume Jose though thought that I'm curious his thoughts on, on everything with Jason, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I think he's kind of stayed out of it, but we have these stories. We have these stories for a reason. Which basically, the way you were telling them and I could be wrong, I mean, they leaned towards favoring Jason and Matthew. And it all come from friends and family and people who knew this family.

So that's what's hard is like, if you have all these people backing up these statements of like, all the neighbors are saying, yeah, we saw her beating him all the time. And even her second husband saying, yeah, she highly, highly favored the second child over the first. Oh, it gets so deep because is what he did then not some form of self-defense because he was a... Well, that's what he's claiming. Yeah, in that moment, but I mean, I guess just like an over time self-defense. Like if I don't do this now, I'm gonna get beat again

or I'm gonna get yelled at again or I'm gonna be abused again. You know what I'm saying? I know it gets tricky, but... There you go, Garrett. You've now unwrapped a question that comes up time and time again in the true crime community. Which is?

Look at, look at Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Her mother had been making her a victim and abusing her for years. She killed her mother to try to escape. It's very similar. And she was charged for murder. She was charged and served time. So some people think Gypsy should have went to prison. Some people think they don't. It's not a, it's not a black and served time. So some people think Gypsy should have went to prison. Some people think they don't.

It's not a, it's not a black and white question. I'm so curious. I assume the audience, I assume all you guys are, it's probably going to be 50, 50 in some way. I don't know. I don't know if I've made a decision on how I feel yet. This is interesting. It's just hard.

True crime is not as easy as we think it is. It's a lot more complex. So, Jason, however, obviously wasn't going to get off as easily as his brother Matthew. On February 4th, the jury found Jason Batista guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. During that hearing, the judge delivered a pretty blatant statement in Jane's defense. So she's talking to Jason and she says something in defense of Jane. She says, quote, you sought no help from professionals. It's inconceivable. The defendant was unaware there were means for dealing with his mother's illness other

than resorting to violence. And rather than explore those options, he chose to dismember her body. Oof, I agree he didn't need to dismember her body or kill her, agreeing some there. Disagree in the fact that he was a kid. I mean, I guess he's 20, but it had been happening since he was a kid.

He never lived on his own. They didn't have money, it sounded like they were living in cars and hotels. Like if you take everything he had and all the resources and supplies, I don't know if he was able to get professional help for her. So this is exactly what I said. I said, it's absolutely true. Violence is never the answer, right?

Like, point blank. 100% agree. That is the only black and white thing we have here, right? Killing someone in violence, no matter what situation is wrong and is not the answer. But I do have to wonder, did Jason and Matthew really have the resources they needed to deal with their mother's mental health? Exactly. Like, dude, did they really both claim the police had been called to the home multiple times in their youth? And even after seeing the situation, did nothing to try and help the family out. CPS came and got scared away.

Like, did they think that there was anyone out there that really even cared for them? Ultimately, those should have been their best resources, CPS and police, and both had done nothing to help them, even though they'd been there. I look at the example when he's in the hospital, he just got hit in the head with the hockey stick. He has a scar, he has to get staples,

but he's too scared of his mom to even tell the police there what just happened, which is so interesting because I mean, that could have killed him. Yeah. Like, I don't know, that was an attempted murder. She never got charged for any of that. Also, I mean, depending on what story you believe, Jason either watched his dad take his own life

or watched his dad being taken out on a stretcher. It's hard because I know I am, it sounds like I'm standing up for him a lot. And I guess in a way, I kind of am. Not for the killing, but for how he was raised and how it seemed like he almost had no way out. Nothing, he should have done it, but again, I don't know, man, this is hard stuff, it's hard.

So you have to wonder, did the system fail Jason and Matthew, but also did it fail Jane in a major way? Could all of this have been prevented if only we as a society had maybe treated mental health as more of a priority back then? Like, like I said, mental health is definitely something that's really being talked about now, but even in the 90s, wasn't something that people commonly, you were just like, oh, that person's just weird. That person's just crazy. Which is why I think the judge said what she said as well, because she probably was very uneducated with mental

health as a whole. Yeah, like it's not like you're saying you should have just went and found a professional. How easy was that? Like now we know that it isn't it's not as easy as saying that. Right. So again, I just want to reiterate while this is by no means an excuse for Jason and Matthew's behavior, it may be an explanation. Correct.

Because how does one deal with something they aren't equipped or even old enough to deal with? Unfortunately, Jason Batista only knew of one deadly and drastic solution leading to a gruesome crime that absolutely could have been prevented. And that is the story of Jane Bautista. I feel like there's a lot we could dissect

and I have a lot of questions and we could go on forever. Maybe we need to do like an extra bonus episode on all of this, but just no one wins, nobody won. Everyone lost. It was just horrible for everybody. And I think that's how I feel at the end of the day about it is sad and yeah, nobody won. And I think, you know,

sometimes I want to stay away from cases like this because it's like, I don't, it's too complex. How do I cover this case and give justice to Jane, but also justice to Jason, but also justice to Matthew? Like- And they're hard to talk about and people get mad at you because everyone has their own opinion, which is totally okay, everyone can have their own opinion.

The combat, it's a complex one. Like the end, like I said, it's not an excuse, but maybe an explanation, which we don't always get an explanation in these cases. We don't always understand. True crime is way more complex than a lot of people think it is. So thank you for tuning in.

That is our episode for this week, and we will see you on the next one. Don't forget about our Twitch stream this Thursday. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"]