Small Town Murder - #26 - Two Murders, Two Murderers in Maynardville, Tennessee

Episode Date: July 12, 2017

This week, we take a look at the small town of Maynardville, Tennessee, where two young men turn a night of fun & drinking into the most grisly murder scene this area has ever seen.Along the way, we find out what kind of wine goes with hot dogs, if McDonald's is the right career choice for a young man, and how many different stories a man can tell police about his participation in a murder, and still be taken seriously!!Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Crime in Sports Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/smalltownpodInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: [e-mail] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we check out Maynardville, Tennessee, where two young men committed the most horrific of crimes. Welcome to Small Town Murder.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay! Oh, your yay is well warranted. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with the yaying. I am Jimmy Wissman. Thank you guys so much for joining us again, coming back again for more murder.

Yeah. More horrific crimes. It's the best. Today's is horrific, too, by the way. But it's going to be okay. We're going to make it work. We're going to make it through it. We're going to get through it together. You guys and us together as a team. I can't wait. We're all going to get through this. I want to thank everyone for their onslaught

of iTunes reviews this week. Holy shit. My God, guys, you are the best. You fuel this train. Like Jimmy said before, you're shoveling the coal in here. We're just up there. We're steering it. We're doing what we can. But you all got soot on your faces, and we appreciate it.

Thank you so, so much. If you haven't done it, please get on iTunes. It takes 30 seconds. I know you've got to sign in. It's kind of a pain. But believe me, this takes way longer to do. It's so worth it. I've been up for days, partially because of the work and partially because I had to think about the things that happened in this particular case here.

So that helps us out immensely on the business end. And if you want to do a little bit more, you can do a little bit more. You can. It's so appreciated we can't even tell you. You can get on patreon.com slash crimeinsports. That's our other podcast. You can make a donation there. If you want to make a one-time donation, you can do that at PayPal.

Our PayPal there is CrimeAndSports at gmail.com. CrimeAndSports is our other podcast. All that money goes to us. And you should be listening to CrimeAndSports too. Please do. You're sitting there going, I don't like sports. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter at all. Sports are as relevant to that as the town is to

the murder here. Just give context. Giving context and setting. Also listen to P.S. I Hate This Movie with me and my girlfriend Sarah making fun of bad romantic comedies. We have a blast on there. But this here, oof, this is a bad one. We definitely need the disclaimer for this one. Give the disclaimer to everybody out there. Just we are comedians.

That's true. We're stand-up comics. This is a comedy podcast. So the facts are real. Research is real. Everything like that is 100% real. But we do make jokes. Unfortunately.

Well, hopefully. Fortunately for you guys. But we never make jokes at the expense of the victims, at the expense of the victims' families. They don't deserve it. As our motto has become, we are assholes, but we're not scumbags. Right. That's the way it works. We're not jerks like that.

We don't get joy out of people's pain and suffering. We're just trying to get through it. Unless they did something terrible. That's where the comedy comes from. I enjoy them suffering. A lot of times we'll pick on little things in a small town. We're all from small towns. Who cares? We're having fun. Either that or bumbling police force that's screwing up, letting

a murderer go. Or sometimes we pick on a murderer. So I mean, yeah, we're not real. Shitty last meal. We're not sorry about that. They're assholes. So a murderer. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, we're not real. Shitty last meal. Yeah. We're not sorry about that. They're assholes. So that's fine also. So if that sounds good to you.

Stick around. If you're like, hey, I want more murder. We have all the murder you can want. We shall shut up and give you murder. We shall give you murder. And let's do that, shall we? Shall we give you murder? Let's head somewhere else here.

Okay. We were in Canada last week. We were. We were in Canada. We were up in Newfoundland. It was beautiful. We learned about ski-dos. We learned in Canada last week. We were. We were in Canada. We were up in Newfoundland. It was beautiful. We learned about ski-doos. We learned about ski-doos.

Yes, we know. There's snowmobiles now. They exist. I get it. I'm from like an hour outside of New York City. There's not a lot of snowmobiling that I've ever done. Jimmy's from Colorado, but grew up here. And in Colorado, nobody rides a fucking snowmobile.

They don't ride snow machines. They ride them up in the northern areas of Colorado in the mountains and shit, but not in Colorado Springs. You don't ride snow machines. They ride them up in the northern areas of Colorado, in the mountains and shit, but not in Colorado Springs. You don't ride that shit to get milk. It's almost like not even recreation. People use those to get, like in Alaska, to go get supplies. Like, I'll get on the ski-doo. Or to hunt a moose. To hunt a moose. Yes, maybe hunt a moose. But today

we're coming back to the States. We're heading down south a little bit here, kind of the mid-south area of Tennessee. We're going to Maynardville, Tennessee, everybody. That's right. You can fire up the banjo. What a name. Fire up the banjo for Maynardville, Tennessee.

Maynard, when I was a kid, my grandfather, my uncle used to say, good stuff, Maynard, after like a meal. Really? Who's Maynard? I have no fucking idea who that's supposed to be. How did you never ask what the origin of that is? Hey, Grandpa, who's Maynard? I just looked at him shocked. What the fuck?

You just told Grandma she's a nice meal Maynard. Why is Grandma Maynard? What happened? I have no idea what it means. Do I not know everything about Grandma? But Maynard just sounded super hillbilly to me. That's all. Well, Maynardville.

Here we go. Let's do it. It is in the northeastern part of Tennessee. It's kind of right before... Tennessee kind of has a little flyaway in the northeastern corner, kind of heads toward a little triangle. It's kind of right before it gets to that. It's 35

minutes to Knoxville. Knoxville's a mid-sized little city. And then three hours to Nashville. It's in the middle of nowhere, pretty much. I mean, it's a distance, and it's in the Big Ridge section. It's a big national or state park and a big deal like that. A lot of forest around there, that sort of thing, this area.

Nice-looking area. Pretty-looking area. I don't want to live there, but very pretty. It's in Union County, Tennessee. Zip code 37807. Area code 865. It's a small town and area, 5.4 square miles. Butts right up against the state park preserve or whatever, right up against that.

It's situated in the center of Raccoon Valley, it's known. Now, that sounds like some southern shit, Raccoon Valley. It does sound like the sticks. It really does. It's known as a narrow valley that stretches for about 15 miles between Copper Ridge and the Heinz Ridge, I guess. It's Raccoon Valley. Lots of ridges. It's the Appalachians.

The Appalachians, tons of ridges and hills and hollers. That's right. I know my Southern terminology. There you go. I'm impressed. There's Raccoon Holler right here. That's what that is. On the website, it touts itself as, quote, a friendly town with an eye on the future.

Oh. So watch out. They're coming for you, everybody. That sounds like a threat. Robot, doesn't it? Robots from Maynardville. They're building them. That's what it says.

An eye on the future. Our time is not now. We'll see you tomorrow. Our time is later. We're coming for you. Don't worry. Maynardville originally was known as Liberty in the 1800s. That was the original place

where they created Union County in the 50s, 1850s that is. And Liberty was the nearest, kind of the center of the county. They chose that as the county seat and land was donated for the courthouse by Marcus Monroe, who was a local minister. Always the religious people

start shit. It's every one of these towns. It's started by religion. There would be one town if there was no religious people in this entire country, I feel like. No one would be running away to get some sort of get away from the other religious people they don't like. It's crazy. A country singer named Roy Acuff. Do you know who this is?

Acuff. Acuff. I don't even know how you pronounce it. A-C-U-F-F. He's born in 1903 here. Apparently, he was known as the king of country music. Really? This is like the early part of the centuries.

He was just the king. He's credited with kind of coming up with the string-based kind of country thing that we know of now. Okay. Like that whole sound is from him, apparently. With the banjo and all that. Yeah. Of now. Okay.

Like, that whole sound is from him, apparently. With the banjo and all that. Yeah. In 1952, Hank Williams, who was a giant country legend, he said about Acuff, quote, he's the biggest singer that this music ever knew. You booked him and you don't worry about crowds. For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, then God. How about that? So that's from Hank Williams.

So that says a lot. This guy was a badass. He moved to Nashville and he formed a publishing company. And he signed, it was Acuff Rose Music, and he signed Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers. This was in the 40s. He found all these people. The best people.

So yeah, he knows his shit here. He was also the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. How about that? First living. You got to die to get into that shit. You got to die. Unless you're Roy Acuff. Unless you're Roy A. Cuff. Unless you're this guy.

Then they let you in. Also, too, a little reference in popular culture to this town I found here in Inglourious Bastards. Brad Pitt's character is from Maynardville. He's from this town. He's a moonshiner from this town. So that gives you an idea of where we are. Yeah. Exactly.

If you make a movie and you write a moonshiner character, this is where you put him. So that's to give you a clue here. And that's maybe my favorite character in any Tarantino movie. He's so good in that movie. He is good in that movie. He's so fucking good. Now, the people in this town, population 2,355. Small town.

That's a tiny town. In 1990, there was only 1,298 people here. Wow. So there's been an 81% increase since 1990, which is pretty impressive. How did Tarantino even find this fucking town? I have no idea. Back then, who knows? Everything is pretty much average here.

It's your average little town, except when we get to money. Average number of males and females. The median age is within a year of average, 38 and a half. A few more kids than average, but there's also a few more old people, and it averages out in the age. Married, there's a few less married people than normal. That's

the only real aberration of statistics here. And widowed people, three times the widowed population. I don't know what is going on here, but if you get married, one of you is going to die, and the other one is going to stay here. Stick it through. That till death do us part shit is for real down there. It's true. Also, single with children is a

much bigger part of the population than normal down there. Single people with children. So, I don't know. People aren't getting married and that sort of thing, which we'll get to in a second. Well, they see their grandparents live alone eventually. Yeah, they're like, that looks miserable. I don't want to be like that. Grandma's been widowed for so long, sitting there staring at the park.

She's so angry. Yeah, listening to Roy Acuff music. We've asked her what she wants for dinner so many times, and she says, a man, every goddamn time. A man, a big man. You're like, oh, Jesus. Okay, Grandma, calm down. Racially, this town is white. Really?

You need the H in there. It's so white. You've got to pronounce it. It really is white. It's so white. You've got to pronounce it. It really is white. It's white. It's 95.49% white. My goodness. That is very white.

Do we even need to bother with the others? 0.76% black, which Tennessee has a high black population. This is a town that time forgot almost, it seems like. Here, 0.42% Asian. So, I mean, there's like one restaurant. Those are the only people allowed there. 2% Hispanic. So, not much in terms of that.

It's pretty. Yeah, that's just all white. It's very white. It's very, very white. Very homogeneous society here. Another weird thing for the South. This is a little aberrant also with the South. The religious numbers are always off the charts more for the South. This is a little aberrant also with the South. South, the religious numbers are always off the charts more in the South.

Only 35% classify themselves as religious here. At all. At all. The average in the country is 50%. My goodness. And the average in the South is like 65% when we do these towns usually. 65% not religious. Yeah, it's crazy.

33% Baptist, of course. You're going to get that. 0% Catholic. What? Zero. None. That is so weird. you're going to get that. 0% Catholic. What? Zero. None. That is so weird. Was this a clan town?

How does that work? I tried to find research on this to see, and I'm sorry if you're from there and it's not a clan town, but to have a southern town with no black people and no Catholic people, that seems like that's on purpose. You ran them out on purpose. It seems like, yeah, they were like, don't move there. It's one of those sundown towns like we were in El Dorado, Illinois there. Yeah, 0%, 0.0% Jewish, 0.0% Muslim.

Not a shock there. There's not even any Catholic people. There's definitely not going to be anybody else. Voting. You can't get anybody doing the staging of the cross. You're not getting anybody praying to the sun. There's no Italians down there. You're not going to find a fucking Muslim guy.

You're not going to find a prayer bump in the bunch. Not going to happen. Voting-wise, not a shocker here, too, just kind of the location. 25% Democrat, 73.5% Republican, which is way, way out of whack of the average. But it's Tennessee with all white people. So what do you expect? That's kind of – that's how it's rolled. I am kind of shocked, though, that it skews that far, Republican, even with the low amount of religious people.

I guarantee you all 35% of those religious people, they all run Republican. They're all Republicans. The economy not doing so great down there, we'll say. But they have 6% unemployment, which isn't that high. It's a little higher than the national average, but it's not that terrible. But what the people are actually making is awful. 29% of the people there make under $15,000 a year. Good Christ.

29%. Now, a lot of that is elderly people, too, because 32% of kids and 33% of seniors live below the poverty line. So kids and old people are shit out of luck in that town. 62% of the people, 62% make under $35,000 a year. Holy shit. That is not a booming economy. Only 2% or less than 2%, I'm sorry, it's more like a percent and a half make over $150,000 a year.

That is not, that's so far below what it should be. Strug life, for sure. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah. I mean, when you look at the jobs, too, it's a lot of manual labor. Only half of the management business finance jobs are usually there in towns. A lot of sales and retail and that sort of thing, and a ton of production, transportation, material moving. So a lot of construction and moving things and things like that. Yeah, that's about twice as much as normal. So blue-collar jobs where you make under $15,000 a year are there.

It's tough. Cost of living there, this isn't that bad if you're making less money at least. The cost of living is we do $100,000 as par. That means it's average. This town is a $79,000 out of that. So that's not that bad. Median home cost there is $105,700. That's brutal.

It's still brutal if you're making $15,000 a year. $185,000 is the average. So you have that sort of thing, not that awful. Most of the houses, though, over 10% of the houses are worth less than $20,000 there. So that tells you a lot. Over 10% are less than $20,000. Less than $20,000. Holy shit.

$60,000 to $80,000 is where 23% of the houses fall. So it's not a lot. I want to see a $20,000. Less than $20,000. Holy shit. $60,000 to $80,000 is where 23% of the houses fall. So it's not a lot. I want to see a $20,000 house. That's what I'm saying. That's ridiculous. Zero houses valued at over $400,000. There might be one or two, but they're not statistically recognized. 0.00%.

And if this has just made you want to run to Maynardville and move in, we have- You're fucking bananas, first of all. You're crazy, but we have the Maynardville real estate report for you right now. Two-bedroom apartment there on the average goes for $590, which is cheap for a two-bedroom. That's half the average of the country. That's really cheap.

I found a home here, three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,300 square feet, little house, little front porch, nice little starter home, $72,500. That's not awful. That's not terrible. It's on Little Valley Road. Then I found a night. This house is awesome. It's a big, beautiful, it's a really nice house. Three bedroom, three bath, 2,400 square feet, $162,400.

That's a fucking deal. That's a deal. If you can commute to Nashville three hours away. To somewhere in Knoxville. Hey, Knoxville is a half hour away, 35 minutes away. Get to Knoxville. If you can commute and make decent scratch, that's a great place to live. Yeah, nice place to live.

It's not bad. It could be worse. Yeah. It could be worse. Oh, God, yeah. Things to do when you're there. The Big Ridge State Park. Yes.

Like I said, you got to go to the Big Ridge State Park. Lots of recreation. Lots of recreation, lots of trees, lots of camping, things to do like that. Yeah. Recreation. Lots of recreation, lots of trees, lots of camping, things to do like that. July 22nd is the Summer Craft Fair at the winery at Seven Springs Farm. As we drove to South by Southwest, every small town is loaded with wineries now. That's everyone selling shit and wine and jelly. I heard craft beers were huge in every city and every town is craft wine. It's craft wine. It's craft wine.

They all have all these little vineyards popping up. But you got to go to that. It says, quote, where else can you shop while you enjoy a glass of wine? Support local vendors by shopping local. Over 25 crafters and vendors and, Jimmy, free hot dogs. All right. Capital letter, free hot dogs. God damn it.

Have a glass of wine and a fucking hot dog. And a hot dog. Now that. You feel like you're high society with your wine, and then that hot dog humbles you right the fuck up. Yeah, which, can I ask you a question? Is the sommelier around? Is it a cab that goes with the Nathans? Is that how that works?

Hebrew nationals, they go better with the San Gervasi, right? You think they're giving Hebrews? Fuck no. You never know. These are worse than Costco. That's true. Plus, there's no Jewish people there. They're not giving out

Hebrew nationals at all. Get to the crime rate. The crime rate where we come in in our area here. The crime rate. Property crime, which is burglary, larceny, theft,

is almost twice the national average there. Really high. I mean, that's really high. That seems crazy. That seems like a shitload. Yeah. Like, they will steal your shit down there.

No doubt. I don't know who, if people are coming out from the forest, stealing and running back in. They have, like, some gnomes, the Keebler elves. I don't understand. Drink your wine fast, because somebody will steal it. Yeah, someone is going to steal your hot dog. We're making them free, because people are going to steal them anyway. So we said, fuck it.

Just here they are. That's what it All right. Now, violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, assault. That, on the other hand, is about half the national average. OK. So they'll steal your ship, but they will not rape and murder you while they're doing it. So that's nice. They'll leave your vagina. And robbery in there. They're like, look, listen, tell you what, you know, we'll steal your ship a little way to you're not around. Right. Now let's get to the murder part of this. Man, glad the town was fun, because the murder, this isn't so fun. This is particularly shitty.

A couple of particularly shitty people let's get into here. Let's talk about, well, we'll start out with a guy who's not shitty. Let's talk about Jack Romines. He leaves his home. He's a nice guy. He's about 50. Okay. Let's talk about Jack Romines. Okay. He leaves his home. He's a nice guy. He's about 50 years old. He's got a wife and a daughter. Hold on.

Jack Romines? Jack Romines. Okay. Got it. Okay. All right. Yeah, no, Jack Romines. This is a fucked up name.

Not Jethro. Okay. Jethro Mines. How you doing? Now, that sounds like a name from a- Yeah, that's a Tennessee name. That's a very Tennessee. Jethro Mines right here.

He's like, ooh, he's Jethro from the Mines. That's why they call him that. Oh, no. Jack Romines. Got no. Jack Romines. Got it. Jack Romines. Nice guy. He lives with his wife, Wanda, who's 51 years old.

They have a 15-year-old daughter, Sheila, that lives in the house. Jack leaves for work. And it's August 17th, 1986. Jack leaves his home in Maynardville, like usual, at 5.20 a.m. He takes off, goes to work. Everything's fine. You know, at 5.20 a.m. He takes off, goes to work. Everything's fine. You know, leaves the wife and daughter in there. Sure.

Comes home later on that afternoon and finds an absolutely horrific scene spread over two rooms. Fuck. Absolute. It's horrible, this scene. It's one of the worst that we've heard about, talked about. Okay. And let's kind of get into this a little bit. Well, let's first introduce Stephen Michael West and Ronnie Martin.

Stephen Michael West is a 23-year-old. Ronnie Martin is 17 years old. Okay. They know each other. They both work at McDonald's in Lake City, Tennessee, which is nearby. Both working at McDonald's, doing great. That's, you know, 23, you want to be working at McDonald's. 17, whatever.

That's, you know, you're 17. Now, Stephen Michael West, he is the 23-year-old. He is born in a mental institution. What? So that's a bad start. His mom's a loon. His mom was hospitalized in a mental institution when he was born. So that right away is an auspicious beginning to a life,

to be born into a mental institution. Immediately, something is amiss, I feel like. That's not a good seasoning in the soup. No, that's a bad, yeah. You added a bad, you added like tarragon in there when it had no business being in there. That's a bad bouillon. Exactly. It's not good. You're like, coriander does not belong in chicken noodle soup. It just doesn't. I don't know what the fuck you're putting in there. It's not great. Steven grows up. His father was an alcoholic, violent, drunk, that sort of thing, which, I mean, this was

also in the, you know, in the 60s. I think in the 60s in the South, just being violent to your kids was, this isn't an insult to the South. This is everywhere because, good God, we all know everybody did this. In the 60s, you just beat the shit out of your kids. It's just the way it happened. It's just the kids. Nobody's safe.

You needed a good guy. It was one of those things. Like, he's been good all week, but I feel like he needs an ass kicking anyway. He hasn't had a good one this week. And he's out at softball, and I'm ready and primed. I'm going to kick the dog. I'm going to kick the dog. Yeah, I need to kick something.

So that's what happens when you get a drunk guy like that. Steven grows up. Steven West, he joins the military. He serves in Germany for three years. His military records show that he had a drug and alcohol problem during his service, a bit of that. No criminal record, though, so that's good.

Anyway, in the service, he didn't, an hour out of the service, he has no criminal record. At this time, he has a pregnant wife. So he's got a young wife. I think she's 21 years old, and she is six months pregnant at this moment in time in August of 1986. Now Martin on the other hand,

Ronnie Martin, like I said, 17 years old. West is Martin's supervisor at McDonald's. He's like the assistant manager. He's like the shift man. He's telling him to go clean the bathroom. So they're hanging out. So 23 is goals and aspirations to be a McDonald's manager. Apparently he's working his way up here and he's supervising Ronnie Martin.

They only knew each other about a couple weeks, actually, since Martin had started working at the McDonald's. And they hang out one night after their shift and they start drinking and hanging out and roaming the countryside is the way it was put. They just roamed the countryside. They had Ronnie Martin's mother's car. First of all, if you're 23 years old, you're managing a McDonald's and you're hanging out with a 17-year-old driving around in his mom's car. Well, you've got a pregnant wife at home. You need to fucking check where you are in life. Your priorities are fucked already.

They're way fucked up. You have a pregnant wife at home and you're like, no, let's drink and ride around in your mom's car like we're in the 11th grade. No, this is stupid. Right away, a dumb plan. Not great at all. So they're roaming around. They've had a few drinks. They're not blackout drunk or anything like that.

But they're driving through the countryside looking for something to do, which is never good. That's how kids get into trouble. That's why you see those commercials back in the day for community centers. And they're like, keep kids out of trouble. Because they need something to do or else they're going to fuck off. And this guy's not even a kid. He's just a moron. And two weeks into knowing each other and they're already riding around drinking together.

That's a bit much. Well, for the 17-year-old, he's like, here's a guy who can buy alcohol. He's 21. He can buy alcohol. So he'd want to hang out with him, I can see. But what the allure for Martin is, for why West would want to hang out with Martin, I don't understand that allure exactly. That's weird. So they're driving around. Martin here, Ronnie Martin

tells West that he knows a girl who would give them some sex. That's the way he put it. I just picture him. I know a girl give us some sex. I'm like, give us some sex? They're not brownies. Yeah, but that sounds like something that somebody that does this shit, that's how they talk.

I know a girl give us some sex. Go over there. So he is referring to one of his classmates, a girl named Sheila Romines, who we've talked about, Jack's daughter. Now, she was a classmate of Martin's, and apparently she at one point in school rebuffed his advances in front of a large group of people and put a little stank on it. You know what I mean? She made him look like an asshole, and he's held a grudge for a while about this girl. I've got so much going through my head right now about why they're out together two weeks into knowing each other.

So much. So West trusts Martin enough already in two weeks to go, quote unquote, get some sex from a girl that's 15. 15. 15 years old. And he's got a pregnant wife at home. And he trusts him enough to go bang a 15-year-old with him, apparently, because it's only one girl. It's one girl. There's two dicks, one girl.

And they're like, hey, let's go over there. Yeah, we'll do it. And he's 23. At that point, he doesn't go, wait, we had a classmate of yours. So that means that she's like. She's 17 or there. And he's 23. At that point, he doesn't go away. He had a classmate of yours, so that means that she's 17 or younger. I have a wife. I got to work today. Let's just go home. I got a wife and a kid that's going to be 15 in 15 years.

Yeah, we say drop me off at home and you go ahead and do your thing, buddy. You go get your sex. Ah, to be 17 again. That's exactly what you say. That's what you say. Drop me off, though. You have your little adventure. You finish this six-pack. I'm going to go home. Yes.

So they drive to their home. They drive to the Romine's home. They sit there. They get there a little bit before around 5 a.m. They just sit and hang out and watch the house. Now, and Wes doesn't know these people at all. He doesn't know Sheil. He doesn't know these people.

He's a fucking 23-year-old guy. Got out of the Army and works at McDonald's. He has no idea about any of this shit. So they drive to Maynardsville. They sit there. They're in the neighborhood just hanging out. They see Jack Romines, who is, as we've talked about, the husband and father here. He leaves to work at 5.20 a.m., as we said, right?

So they wait a couple minutes. Now, first of all, who the fuck goes to someone's house at 5.20 in the morning? They've been up drinking all night long, and they're like, let's go get some—sex is that important to these guys? At 5 a.m. Do they think someone's going to open the door, squint in their robe half asleep, like, yeah, all right, come in and bang me? No one's doing that. No one's doing it. She's not a prostitute.

She's going to whisper her morning breath through the crack in the door. It's ridiculous. Be like, yeah, I'm totally horny. Come inside, guys. She's a young girl. Leave her alone. They're completely not in their right state of mind right here obviously for god's sake like two dudes been born in a fucking mental institute exactly yeah only one of them is but

two of them are actually there's not a lot known about martin honestly because of his age at the time of 17 it's difficult but we'll keep going here uh they knock on the door uh wanda comes to the door mrs remind she comes to the door. Mrs. Romine, she comes to the door. Martin introduces himself. Says, I know you're blah, blah, blah. This is West here. And they announce to them that they want to borrow money. Okay. They say, we're here to borrow money at 520 in the morning.

And you could tell. You know when someone's been up drinking all night. They weren't fresh smelling like the shower. They had bloodshot eyes. These guys came in like, oh, boy, this must have been a scene, you know? So they come in. They say they want to borrow money, which means we're going to take some shit from you. They start ransacking the house looking for valuables, okay?

Martin, Ronnie Martin, is with the mother, Wanda. West is with Sheila. They have them in separate rooms. They're keeping them separated, as these assholes often do. Now, we'll find out exactly how it comes to be. But what ends up happening here is Martin kills Wanda first. Martin kills Wanda. OK, Ronnie Martin kills the mother.

Two women knowing each other and they're already murdering people. They're murdering people. Now, we'll get into whose fault lays on what, but whatever. That doesn't even matter for the moment. But Martin, Ronnie Martin, we know, is the one who kills Wanda. Wanda ends up with a number of deep, deep stab wounds. I believe it's 14 is the total. One of them caused the right lung to collapse.

Oh, Jesus. Others cut all the way into the colon, the liver, the gallbladder. Oh, he's stabbing like crazy. He's stabbing hard. The fatal wound completely severed the right common iliac artery, which is the artery that takes, I'm not sure if I pronounced that right, but it takes blood pressure down to the right leg. It does that. That's one. This caused huge hemorrhaging in the abdominal cavity, and the pathologist ends up saying she would have been dead within five to ten minutes bleeding out from these type of wounds, which is excruciating.

What a horrible ten minutes. Ten minutes. It's the worst. So Martin kills Wanda in this bedroom, and he goes into Sheila's room, and he hands West a knife. He said there was two knives is what comes out. Hands West a knife and says,

I killed the mother, now you kill Sheila. Oh, boy. So this is out of fucking control at this point. I thought we were just coming to get sex. I thought we were. Yeah, I thought you knew a girl that would give us some sex. She was going to give us sex. Yeah.

And now we're taking lives. Now we're taking. So this is ridiculous right here. I mean, right away. What do you do if you're West? Suppose you're West. And let's because this will come up later. Suppose you're West. Suppose you're a, because this will come up later. Suppose you're West.

Suppose you're a guy who you go along with this guy, ill-advised. You're 17 years old. You shouldn't be hanging out with him anyway. Go home to your pregnant wife and deal with the family. Live your life. Be responsible. I don't know. You work at McDonald's.

Maybe get a second job at night rather than running around with this fucking asshole. No doubt. If you want to be up all night, I mean, you know, whatever. Yeah, you're not sleeping anyway. At least earn some money in that shift. Yeah, at least get some money. So they've now come here, all ill-advised. Now, right away when he says, we're here to borrow some money, Wes should have been like,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I got a job. I thought we were here for voluntary sex. I'm not robbing people. No. Let's get out of here. But he goes along with that. Yeah.

Whatever. He's a moron born in a mental institution. We'll give him that. Okay? He's fine there. So then, now it's gone, escalated to the point where this guy walks in with bloody knives after he just butchered a woman in another room. You've known this guy two weeks. This isn't your brother where you're like, what are you doing, man?

How are we going to fix this? This is some guy. What do you do now? What the fuck do you do? You clearly have no path in life anyway at this point. You're too young to have any. Hold on. I got to go to the bathroom and then run out

and go call the police. I mean, that's honestly I'm going to throw up. Hold on a minute. And you run out of the house and go call the police. At some point, running away and calling the police. Finding help is definitely a necessity. I don't know. Maybe say, yeah, cool. Take that knife and then fucking hold it on Martin and go, hey, asshole, I'm calling the fucking cops on you. You're a psychopath.

I was here for voluntary sex from her and you stabbed up her mom? What are you doing? Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm dropping F-bombs like crazy today. But this is making me angry immediately here. And we haven't gotten near the worst part yet or the worst parts or anything else. So, yeah, he says, I killed the mother. Now you feel, you know, you kill Sheila.

West apparently refused. He said he doesn't want to. And this is from what we've gotten and throws the knife down on the floor. Later on, West ends up giving a story about this, saying that Martin still had a gun. We'll find out where he got that. That is Jack keeps a.38 caliber gun in Sheila's room in a chest of drawers. I don't know in case she needs it for something. He has a gun

in there. But he found it. Yeah, but he finds it. So we believe this is the gun he has. It's the.38 at this point. Tells, he gets down on his knees where Sheila's down on the floor and Sheila is begging him to let her go, obviously, because this poor girl, it's 5.30 in the floor and uh sheila is begging him to let her go obviously because this poor girl it's

5 30 in the morning and her mother's dead and he's got these horrible people in her house and she asks him why why are you doing this why are you doing this which is a really fair question i think at this point and the answer is always terrifying and martin's answer was just i owe you i owe you and while he was giggling. He giggles and said, I owe you, I owe you. At this point, he begins to stab her, but he's not stabbing her for death yet. He's stabbing her shallow wounds and wiggling them. Superficial wounds?

Not superficial. He's getting them in there, but they're torturous wounds. He's wiggling the handle back and forth and making it hurt as bad as possible. Like when you see in Oz, another show from HBO that you should have watched, Jimmy, but I know you didn't. You see somebody shank somebody, they don't just stick it in. They stick it and twist it and they're trying to really work it and grind some... They're trying to grind up organs

when they do it. They're trying to slash whatever they can. This is to torture her. This is to torture her. He would ease it back and forth trying to hurt her. And this went on for multiple minutes. This wasn't one thing. She ends up, Sheila, being stabbed 17 times in the abdomen. Oh, God.

17 times in the abdomen. 14 of the stab wounds were described as torture-type cuts by the forensic pathologist. 14. So he sat there just screwing with her. That's how long this went on for. He did this forever. The pain this poor girl must have been in is awful. These are the stories that make me crazy.

I'm sure they make everyone crazy out there. I have a 15-year-old daughter. This hits home real hard. That's why if anybody out there says, oh, these guys, they don't give a shit. Believe me, I give we're not we're not trying to exploit anything this is horrible yeah and we don't think it's not horrible and we don't think this shit's funny right here either there's no jokes to to be made my daughter's six man like yeah this is right

around the corner in her life this age yeah no i picture horrible my daughter's literally 15 years old she sits home who knows you know i mean this I mean? This is fucking frightening. And that's why, like I said, that's why I'm cursing. I'm out of control here. I'm off the reservation today. She also had three fatal wounds through the chest wall into the heart at a depth of five and a half inches. So that's so deep, man. That's just stabbing. She finally decided, you know, that that was was you know what it was uh yeah uh he the

pathologist we knew this already but he figured that he found that the uh torture wounds were inflicted prior to the fatal wounds uh by the manner of which the blood drained obviously uh some of the torture wounds actually were penetrating the liver things like that so they were there was a lot of bleeding and a lot of pain, and it's horrible here. Sheila also had two defensive wounds on her left forearm and her left thumb. So she's trying. She tried, at least for a little bit there. The pain and suffering, basically, from what the medical examiner says,

and from obvious, just being a human being, the pain and suffering that she endured was off the charts. They stole Jack's.38 caliber pistol. By the way, this gun that he had, it's not even loaded, this pistol. Jack's pistol, it's not a loaded pistol. He just kept an unloaded pistol. Also

missing was an envelope containing $200 in cash. So, you know, that's what they got out of this, an unloaded pistol and $200 in cash. For all of this. Yeah. So all this happens. By the way, that is not everything that happened in the house. We'll get to that when we get to court. What do you do then? You run away? You go to Mexico like those idiots in

Oklahoma? What do you do now? West goes to work at McDonald's that day. What? Goes to work that day. Now, if you're a cold-blooded asshole that's trying to cover up the fact that you're a murderer, you go to work that day. That's what you do. Because whenever they, if you watch Law & Order, whenever they're looking for someone, they're like, he didn't show up

that day. That means he didn't. He changed his life. Yeah, this guy, he shows up for his shift at McDonald's. Who could have killed someone like that and then showed up for their shift at McDonald's? You know what I mean? But the manager of the McDonald's said that on the day of the murders when he showed up, that he acted super strange, told her he didn't feel well, and said at one point he felt like he was having a flashback from an acid trip and was acting all fucking weird.

Sounds like he was trying to get sent home. Yeah. Like he couldn't be there. I just got to go sit in a corner somewhere and figure out where my mind is. I can't supersize one more. I just can't do it. It feels like he didn't. He told her I don't feel well and that didn't get him sent home.

So he's like, I feel like I'm having an acid flashback. And he started acting like a nut. And they were like, well, now you can go home. Now get the fuck out of here. Now, the evidence piling up while this guy's at McDonald's, he's slinging hash browns. And the police are gathering evidence, obviously. Several neighbors saw their car, first of all. This happens.

How many of these cases have we had where the neighbors saw the car? Small towns, neighbors are fucking nosy. People, not just nosy, but aware and awake. Aware, awake. Every noise wakes them up because everything's always quiet. And if they see a car that they don't see every single day, they're going to take note of it. They're going to write down the license plate number. They're so nosy.

And they know so much about cars in small towns, too. They're like, that was an 86 Pinto or whatever the fuck. Well, Jesus, they just know that that's not Bob's car. So I don't know whose car it was, and it shouldn't be in front of my house. But they know the make and model. They do. They always do. And the year.

We know from the Burlingame when they go up to it and look at it and take notes on it, and it's crazy. Start feeling on the seats to know where the cracks are. Let me see. Oh, wow. I like that velour. That's a nice interior. Let me tell you something. Now several of the neighbors

positively identify the blue vehicle that Martin and West were driving as their car and that's also Martin's car. It was parked in the neighborhood from approximately 6 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. They were there for two hours. Two and a half hours doing this, which is insane.

Mr. Hicks, who was a neighbor of theirs, testified that he looked out his front door at one point and saw a car stuck at the end of his driveway. He went outside and found that the two men in there had taken down a fence post in his yard and were using it to get the car out of the ditch. They were trying to prop it up with the fence post like you do if you are- Putting it under the tire or whatever.

If you're the Duke boys. Right. Yeah, if you're in the Dukes of Hazzard and you're stuck in a- Ravine or drainage ditch. In a ravine, yeah. Just honking your Dixie horn the whole time. So he says the car eventually got out of the ditch and drove away. So when they leave this scene, they're stuck in a ditch.

That's how bumbling these morons are. Well, that's how much panic is rushing through at least one of them. Yeah, absolutely. One of them at least can't keep himself together for motor scares. And it's going to be Ronnie Martin because he's the one driving. The Mr. Hicks identified, he identified West. He made a positive ID. And luckily, his wife, who also saw the car, she identified Martin.

So she got a good look at him, he got a good look at him, so that was nice. There, investigators also found, when they're investigating, that the telephone wires at the Romine's house had been ripped out of the wall. Oh, my God. So they literally went in there. They planned this. We need money. We're stealing shit.

And they're not calling anybody. Phone wires out of the wall. Where's your money? You get over here. You get over there. Wow. Absolutely horrific, man. out of the wall. Where's your money? You get over here. You get over there. Wow. Absolutely horrific, man. They recover the gun.

They recover the.38 caliber unloaded pistol in a storm drain in Norris, Tennessee. That ends up being traced back to Jack. That's incredible for them to find that. They found that. Well, they found it because they got information. They didn't just find it in a storm drain. They got information from a gentleman named John Allen. Not much of a gentleman, but he's a man, I believe, named John Allen, who was a friend of Martin's.

He says, he tells police that at about 4 a.m., this is an hour and a half before they go, or an hour before they go to the Romine's house, Martin stopped by John Allen's house. Who is stopping by people's houses this late at night when they're 17 years old? They are just dicks. This is so weird. They stopped at this guy's house, gone in, and obtained a butcher knife from him. I was just going to ask you, did they find the weapons in the house, or did they bring these? This is absolutely insane.

So they're going around town knocking on doors and collecting- What is this? What is he, Joe Pesci in Goodfellas going to his mom's house in the middle of the night going, hey, I got to hack the hook off. It's a sin. I got to hack it. No. So many Tarantino references, too. He's going over to his mom's house in the middle of the night going, I got to hack the hook off. It's a sin. I got to hack it off. No. So many Tarantino references, too.

He's going over to the Wolf's house. Yeah. But this is exactly Joe Pesci and De Niro and Ray Liotta going to the mom's house with Billy Bats in the trunk. And he's like, I need to borrow this knife. I need some shit. He borrows the knife. He's like, yeah, I hit a deer out there. So his hook's caught in the grill.

It's a sin. I got to hack it off. That's what he's doing here. This is fucking ridiculous. So the guy gave him a butcher knife. I would have said, why do you need a butcher knife at 4 a.m.? And here's the other thing. Stop stopping at people's houses at this time.

I'll make this a public announcement. Nobody is welcome at my house at 4 fucking a.m. Don't come by. You better be on fire. Like literally, like, oh my God, put me out. Otherwise, I'll be like, there's a God, put me out. And even then. I'll be like, there's a hose out there. What are you knocking on the fucking door for?

Even then, tell me the day before that you're coming by. I don't need it. I'm telling you, man. So anyway, they gather up all this evidence. And 8.30 the next morning, March 18th, 1986, the West is arrested in his home. They gather all his evidence. They know he's there. They arrest him, take him to jail.

He's interrogated by a couple of agents that day. He makes five statements, at least five statements of what occurred. What a dick. And here's where we get, and it's kind of, they're not really that contradictory. They're more just more detailed each time type of thing. Do you remember the time that he stopped by another person's house? Well, yeah, it was one of those like he was trying to be like, oh, I did this.

Well, maybe I didn't. Well, maybe this happened. You'll see it changes slightly. Now, in his first statements, he insisted that they left the house, that Martin and Wes, they went into the house. They had some sexual activity with the daughter. The daughter was cool with it. She invited him in to give them some sex at 520 in the fucking morning.

And then they left the house. Everybody was fine in the house. They're unharmed. They walk outside. Hey, it was great getting sex with you, buddy. They're walking out. And he said at that point, Wes said that Martin told him he decided to return to get some money. He's like, we should go rob them, too.

I'll go get some money. He said Martin. Sex was go rob them, too. I'll go get some money. He said Martin. Sex was that easy to get. That easy. I bet we could get money, too. Shit, why not? Yeah. So he says that Martin was gone about 30 minutes, and when he returned to the car, they drove

away. He knew nothing about it. That's all he knew. Don't know anything about what was in it. That's one statement? That's his first statement. Oh, boy. Which is just, I don't know anything.

I went there, got some sex, and I left, okay? Oh, boy. Which is just, I don't know anything. I went there, got some sex, and I left, okay? Later on, though, he is shown in the afternoon, they show him a portion of Martin's, because Martin's been arrested, too. They show West a portion of his videotaped statement where Martin implicates West also in all of this shit. So now West, about 3 o'clock, his mom comes in to see him that day, and she tells him that, you know, you should give a you know, you should put Martin in over here. Martin's telling you that, you know, he's he did you did everything and blah, blah, blah. Now, the next morning, an agent tries to interrogate him. He

went to a suppression hearing. West does. And around 5 a.m., an agent, Scott, he tries to interrogate him. But West refuses to sign a waiver for his rights. So later on that afternoon, like I said, when his mother is there and they show him the videotape of Martin putting him in, now he says now it's going all on Martin. He said now he's just – he's completely going to go in now with the whole thing. He says after this whole thing happened, West requests to speak to the agent now after he hears what's going on. He signs waivers, does the Miranda rights, everything. There's a lengthy rendition written out by the agent, the whole deal. He said he was present at the murders now. He said that he was there.

He wasn't outside. But he didn't participate in any extent in inflicting bodily harm on anybody. Okay. He didn't do anything. He did nothing. His last statement here, this is the one where he gives, it's 1152 a.m. He's been arrested in the morning. It's 1152 a.m.

The statement lasts about an hour and 40 minutes when his lawyer arrives. The lawyer cuts it off. Okay. But he's giving a full statement. Yeah. Wes says that Martin had a pistol and two knives. He says that Martin threatened his life numerous times while they were in the house. He said if Martin told him that if he didn't obey his orders that he would kill him.

Yeah. He says now, all right, we're going to get into- A 23-year-old is letting a 17-year-old boss him around like that? And we're also, West also, let's get into the logistics of this quick before we get into the next thing. West is six foot, he's six foot one, he weighs 175 pounds. He's 23 years old. He just got out of the army for three years.

Right. Okay. Martin is 5'10", he's 140 pounds, and he's 17 fucking years old. He just got out of the army for three years. Right. Okay. Martin is 5'10". He's 140 pounds and he's 17 fucking years old. I'll knock your bitch ass out. There is a big difference between 23 and 17. Monstrous. If they're the same size, there's a big difference.

Just a bigger man who's also 23 and 17. And has lived a life that has been in the military. He was in the fucking military. He would fuck that kid up. He's not a child. This guy's a child. So it's ridiculous. Now, it's pretty obvious here that he could have probably, you know, done something.

At minimal, overpowered him or talked him out of it. You know, calmed him down or some shit. Definitely. Definitely. He says that there was initial sexual activity where Martin was in with Wanda and she and he was in with Sheila. He says that there was he was banging the mom. I guess that's what he's trying to say. Then. OK, everybody, this is going to be rough this next 30 seconds. It's sexual and I don't like it. And I don't race. I'm fucking not comfortable with it either. OK, I'm really not. This isn't like I'm not excited to tell you about this, but it's what was said in the court, and it's important that you know what this guy's trying to get away with.

So fast forward 30 seconds. Honestly, if you don't want to hear it, fast forward 30 seconds, but otherwise I'm just going to give it clinical like court documents. That's good. Let's do it like that. Okay. Wes said that Martin directed Sheila to, quote, give him head. Okay.

This is at gun and knife point. He tells this poor girl at 530 in the morning. He then forced her, Martin did, forced her to get on top of Wes and have sex with him, with her on top, while Martin also from, God, this is horrible. So he got in the leather cheerio. Right. And then Martin from, Martin. Horrible. Yes.

Horrible. He enters through another avenue. Pornography calls that double penetration. Well, not in the same. They were different. Right, right, right. Yeah. But you know what I'm saying.

So this is. That is horrendous. This is the, God, I'm so fucking – I'm disgusted with these people right now and especially – I don't know. I don't even know what I'm more disgusted with. This is the worst fucking thing. I'm horrified by this. It's a 15-year-old girl. A 15-year-old girl, exactly.

Like I said, I have a 15-year-old daughter and I want to kill these guys myself. I'm so angry right now. kill these guys myself. I'm so angry right now. So, yeah, he's saying, West is saying that Martin forced him to do this, which doesn't seem, this just doesn't seem, you feel like if he really

wanted to, he could have probably stopped this. He also says that, West also says that he knew now that he thought he knew that Martin intended to kill both women. So now he lets that out a little bit. And the mom's already dead at this point, too. Mom's been dead.

Yeah. Mom's dead or dying because five to 10 minutes. And then he goes in there to sexually assault and torture this poor young girl, this 15 year old girl, because she spurned him at school, made him feel dumb because she owes him. Yeah. Yeah. Because he owes her one.

This is how you get it back. This is unreal, man. Yeah. The forensic pathologist does the whole thing. Yeah, because he owes her one. This is how you get it back. This is unreal, man. Yeah. The forensic pathologist does the whole thing. He concludes that two different knives were used on Sheila to inflict the wounds. That's usually one dude doing that. That's usually, this is so crazy. Yeah.

For anybody to try to deny that they, that was in the house, to deny that they were a part of this is an asshole. Is a complete asshole. Just own up to your fucking mistake yeah not even mistake your fucking yeah your crime against humanity thank you this is horrendous against humanity in general as a whole here uh some of the wounds were inflicted on sheila while she was on the bed and some were on the floor while she was on the ground dr blake who is the state uh pathologist here said that quote my conclusion is that two people were involved in the infliction of the wounds as well as participating in keeping these two women separated until they were probably brought to the end of their lives with these horrible stab wounds. So that's what really happened.

That's a tough sentence to get out of your fucking mouth. That's what went down. Yeah. Well, for a forensic pathologist, this is their business. Yeah, well, for a forensic pathologist, this is their business. But he also provided very persuasive forensic evidence that two people participated in the rape of Wanda, of the mother. So they both raped the mother, and then they were like, well, let's rape the daughter, too. Let's just rape everyone and then kill them and stab them and torture them.

And, oh, oh look $200. And I've known you for two weeks. And I can do this with you. That's crazy. Legally the cases were severed. West was tried first because he's older. Martin is only 17. Remember that? That's very important as we remember from New Jersey a while back here. Martin

will not testify against West. Also they're not going to use Martin to testify I I guess, because on cross-examination, you can go, oh, so you're the guy. Let's go over the list of shit you've done today. So that makes a lot of sense, honestly. There's very little credibility in that testimony. Yeah, no one can believe someone as they grind their teeth looking, wanting to shoot lasers through them out of their eyes.

grind their teeth looking, wanting to shoot lasers through them out of their eyes. Now, West, he testifies at the trial because he's got no other goddamn chance. So he's trying to talk these people into it. He adds some new details, too, that weren't even in his pretrial statements, the whole deal. It's nuts. He says that this is the first time he says that Martin cocked the pistol, which isn't loaded, by the way, cocks the pistol and puts it between West's eyes and said, quote, I ought to just kill you. And he said he was laughing while he was doing that. And he said he also did that again when he was done stabbing Sheila.

Like he stabbed her a couple times and then he put the gun on West and said, I ought to kill you again. And then he went back to stabbing Sheila. So, yeah, it's ridiculous. They asked him on direct examination, hey, why didn't you try to stop him since you're bigger and older and that sort of shit? And his response was, quote, I couldn't do nothing. That's all he could say. And then he said that he couldn't have done that. He couldn't have done any of the stabbings because he, quote, couldn't even clean a fish.

He's just soaking in ivory liquid, as Kramer said. He's a very sweet guy. How is he able to maintain an erection to rape two women? There you go, sweet guy. I think that would make me not in the mood, let's say. I don't think that would be even possible if I saw blood. No, that's not great. No, not going to happen.

I fucking agree with that. Then he also says, after this, he says an additional excuse on top of this. You know, why didn't I? Well, I can't even kill a fish. He also said that Martin told him that if he doesn't go along with it, he's going to have someone kill his wife and unborn child. He tells him. That's his excuse. He said, you know, I couldn't do anything.

You know, what am I going to do? He's going to kill. He's going to kill them. I should harden. That should harden this thing right up so that we can both rape these women. That's a good idea. It's unreal. He said that this threat came right as they were leaving the house.

He said, you know, if you do anything to whatever, Wes says that he says that really Martin took charge here. He directed Wes to go get the car and pick him up on the other side of the woods. He's a natural leader. Natural leader. This would, of course, go against what the neighbor saw them trying to get out of a ditch. So that's a load of shit. He said that Martin threatened, again, he said, if you do anything smart, he's going to make one phone call. And by the time you get home, your wife and kid will be dead.

And, yeah, so this is the bullshit that he does. He said, God, trying to get sympathy, this asshole West on the stand. He says that as they were leaving, there was a man standing on the road near the car. And West wanted to tell the man what happened so bad. He wanted to tell, but he said that he, quote, kept seeing Karen like that poor girl was, Karen's his wife. I just kept seeing her all dead like that, and I just couldn't do it. So, yeah, this idiot, like I said, goes to McDonald's, doesn't tell a goddamn soul what

happened. I couldn't tell him because it would have sounded like I was bragging. Yeah. Couldn't do it. That's essentially what it is. Yeah. It's unbelievable, man. It's unbelievable.

They bring on another pathologist who said he's done at least 500 autopsies, and he's saying that there's no way that Dr. Blake could tell if the stab wounds were delivered by two different people, which I guess is true. You can't really tell. I mean, you could say, okay, one seems to be coming from this direction, one from that direction, but they might have moved. You can't tell. They're two different knives. Worse, it's hard to... But it doesn't matter. Right.

Yeah. It's hard to say also that... Why would one person switch knives midstream? Right, that's where I'm going. That's where I'm going. Why would you be like, this one isn't working so well? Yeah. What are you doing?

So this case is pretty strong. Yeah. This is a strong case. So they go to the jury, and West is convicted... Good. ...of two counts of first-degree murder with aggravating circumstances, two counts of kidnapping, one count of rape. Forensic evidence about the sexual assaults of Sheila were inconclusive. There was some mess-up with the actual forensics.

So they just got him with Wanda? This is the 80s. They don't have great—it's not like DNA. We're like, yeah, we can tell everyone that raped her right now. But this, they were a little inconclusive, so they could only get him for one rape that had scientific conclusive evidence of. So he's admitted to having, to raping Sheila. He admitted that, and then the other evidence ties.

So he raped both women. Definitely. He's innocent, though. He's just a coward that can't do anything. Okay, you piece of shit. So sentencing is for March 25th, 1987. That was a quick murder trial, too. No doubt.

And they started that nine days before sentencing is for March 25th, 1987. That was a quick murder trial, too. No doubt. And they started that nine days before sentencing. At the sentencing hearing, West brings in three people who've known him for, you know, friends and family members. They don't say who they are. Drill sergeant. Yeah, people that have known him for three, 12, and 14 years, respectively. They testified that he was a good person. They didn't know anything bad about his past. They've just known him to be a great person.

His sister testified that he was the baby in the family, never been in trouble. His mother couldn't make it to court to testify on his behalf because she had just had a heart attack in between his arrest and the trial. She's had a heart attack. He almost killed his mother with his behavior. In addition to everybody else

that he's killed. She almost died of embarrassment. Yes. So their sentencing comes down and he is sentenced to death by lethal injection. Go Tennessee. Fuck this guy. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of those where I'm like, we're not – this is the weird part.

You always hear us on here like, yeah, kill this asshole. We're not even big death penalty guys. I'm really not. I know mathematically it's cheaper not to do it. I get all that. And morally, too, I'm a person that goes, you can't be sure. They exonerate too many people. But when you have this asshole.

This kind of evidence is too strong to let him. They're admitting to it. This happened. You did this. We don't even need anything. Just drag him behind a car for a while. I'm fine with that. And we're done with that.

Let Jack, on the way home. That'd be nice. Let Jack tie his ankle to the trailer hitch on his car and drag his ass home. He can do whatever he wants with the corpse when he gets there. That's how we should do this. This is ridiculous. Until his arms are nubbins and there's nothing left to him. Like I said, I might be biased.

I have a 15-year-old daughter. So if you torture and kill and rape a 15-year-old girl, I want to drag you behind a car. I don't really give a shit about your rights or anything else at that point. Burlap sack over a bridge. I'm fine with that, too. No problem. I actually enjoy really give a shit about your rights or anything else at that point. Burlap sack over a bridge. I'm fine with that, too. No problem. I actually enjoy watching that. Not bad at all.

That's what I mean. I'm not into violence, either. I'm not into this. I don't even like horror movies. I don't like blood and shit like that. I love horror movies. I don't like blood. Fuck, man.

So Martin is tried separately, and he is sentenced to life in prison, two life sentences for both murders, but he's too young to receive the death penalty, so all he can receive is the life sentences. So he got life? So he got life, two life sentences. Now, there's a mandatory appeal. He does not want to appeal. West. West has no interest in appealing shit.

I'll die. He does not care, but there is a mandatory appeal. In 1989, that comes down because he is scheduled for death in 1989. They are not fucking around in Tennessee. Not fucking around. Now, let's get into what he says the errors were. He says that the judge erred in overruling a motion to suppress all of his statements given to law enforcement. Five different statements. He says that he never was given his Miranda rights and he did not waive those rights. Meanwhile, there's an officer breeding.

He testifies that he did advise him of Miranda rights right when he was arrested, and another officer involved in taking each statement informed him of his Miranda rights before each statement he made. He signed waivers. It's all there. It's ridiculous. He denied that it was signed at the time. He says that he signed the waiver at a different time and they doctored it. The last statement where he

said they double teamed Sheila and all that shit at 11.52 a.m. If you fast forward 30 seconds that's what we were talking about. It was horrible. I said it much more clinically and it was disgusting. Anyway West's attorney also say that the district attorney attempted to inflame the passions and prejudices of the jurors in his opening statement by giving a detailed description of the murders, agony and terror suffered by the victims.

Isn't that the object of an opening statement? As well as also saying the horror that Jack Romines suffered when he opened the door and found his wife and fucking daughter slaughtered in his own home. I think that's the part that really gets me. It's horrible. It's like he had to see that shit. Yeah, he had to come home and find it. This wasn't a neighbor finding it, and then he came home,

and there's all police tape around, what happened, hey, stay back, sir. No, he came in and found this shit. He discovered the whole thing. Yeah, it's unreal. He says that it was improper for them to tell the jury that West had lied to his wife about what he was doing.

Like he's going to go home and go, yeah, we raped and killed a couple broads. Like that's not going to fucking happen. It's improper to say he lied on that? I'd assume that that's what he did. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, which is just insane. And also he finally contends that there's prosecutorial misconduct during his closing argument. Prosecutorial misconduct during his closing argument.

He says it was improper for the. Wes says it's improper for the prosecutor to call him a liar to the jury. Making comments implying that the defense counsel was misleading and implying that the defendant were under. They implied that maybe they were under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time, too. Which he's saying, hey, buddy, that's slander. That's libel right there. Hey, go fuck you. Here's the thing. If one side is saying one thing and the other side is saying another, somebody's lying.

And so if the prosecutor is accusing them of doing something and they're saying they're not doing it that way, then, yeah, you're fucking lying. Yeah. It's ridiculous. And you were convicted. So you fucking lied. Also, too, there's another thing he says they kept out. They kept out the testimony of a woman named Libby Woods, who apparently would have testified that Martin had threatened to kill Sheila on several other occasions.

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. He was there anyway. Yeah, he said he was going to do it, and so did you. was going to do it and so did you also too there's a tape recording of a guy named steven hunley who's a cellmate of martin's where hun hunley says that martin says that he committed everything on his own both trials but that's just cellmate bullshit and who knows if that's true or not it doesn't matter that might be a 17 year old trying to tell a dude that i did all this shit by myself don't kill me i'm hard yeah don't beat me up yeah he's bragging that's that's the way i took it

exactly what i took it. A trial judge ruled that basically that the defendant could have introduced the tape at the sentencing hearing. No one told him he couldn't. He just didn't. So that's his problem. They excluded it from trial because they didn't think it was relevant. And they basically said, all of that, go fuck yourself. Good.

None of that. Yeah, they did call you a liar because you were lying. Everything they went down, they said, no, no, no, no, no. Just as we just picked it apart, so did the judge. Exactly. And we have no legal background. The judge did it much better. If you're a judge, you really know this shit.

So on March 27th, 1989, the conviction in the murder of the first degree, the sentence and the conviction are both affirmed. The death sentence is set to be carried out on May 8th, 1989. So we're a month and a half away unless there's a stay. Other convictions are also affirmed, including the grand larceny and all that kind of thing. Now, later, right before this happens, Stephen West is granted a stay of execution because there is an ongoing legal battle over the state's execution protocol. So we spend 15 years now between 86 and 2001.

This whole time, West is not repealing. He's fine with being killed. He's cool with it. In early 2001, he signs a waiver asking to be put to death by the electric chair and refuses to talk with lawyers until the day he's supposed to be put to death. He doesn't want to help with the appeal. He doesn't want to do anything. He's vicious as fuck.

He even wants to torture himself. Yeah, that's what I mean. On February... Well, that's because they were fighting over the protocol of lethal injection. Oh, so it's like, fine, I don't want it. Fucking electric chair. I don't care. Just kill me.

Do it up. Do it up. So February 28, 2001, his lawyers actually asked for and are granted a stay of execution 10 hours before he's to die in the electric chair. Wow. And in order to begin the federal appeals process. Now, through all this, Jack is sitting here, has been waiting and waiting and waiting. Jack says, quote, at this point, he says, I'll never get over it. Everything I had, it was gone.

Of course. And he's still waiting, this poor guy. Now, in 2001, prison officials say that they recognize all these severe mental illnesses that west has he has auditory hallucinations they say that he's diagnosed with major depressive disorder psychotic features paranoid schizophrenia schizo affective disorder uh they give him a shitload of medications to combat these symptoms a chair with a fuckload of electricity running through it. Yeah, I don't really care about this guy's bullshit.

He was born in a mental institution. We figured he was probably fucked in the head a little bit. That's fine. But no. Well, let's get into this. Jesus Christ, I'm so angry at this asshole. Now, not for the appeals. I get it.

They have to do the process. It's the process. But, oh, it's so annoying. Now, he claims that in later appeal here, the lawyers are saying that he's a subject of constant severe child abuse when he was growing up. His family had a history of psychological illness, obviously. He was born in the mental institution, like I said. He said he was constantly beaten. His alcoholic father took off on the family after he beat them a lot.

It doesn't matter. He also raped and murdered two women. Exactly. Tell him. Exactly. The whole thing is ridiculous. They're saying he had no criminal record at the time. It's silly. They say that none of his child abuse stuff was brought up at sentencing

because his mother hired the lawyer and his mother instructed the lawyer not to go down that road. That's what they're claiming. Light him up. I don't care. Execution is still on. It's set for November 8th, 2010. That's the they're claiming. Light him up. I don't care. Execution is still on. It's set for November 8th, 2010. Okay. Okay, that's the execution date.

2009, Jack dies of a heart attack. Oh, God damn it, Jack. Poor Jack couldn't make it. His family said he never felt justice. Of course not. A relative said, quote, when he passed away, he still didn't have any peace in him. It's really a disgrace to the victim's families. Yeah, I would say.

He died sad in his 70s. Yeah. Wow. In July of 2010, the state receives permission to put West to death, and they set his new execution date for November 9th. He gets through the appeals process. His stay is dismissed by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And then in August of that year, now remember it's supposed to be in November,

attorneys for another death row inmate filed a new appeal claiming Tennessee's procedure for conducting lethal injection violated the Eighth Amendment, which offers protection against cruel and unusual punishment because there was a prisoner that they executed and they did an autopsy and there was not enough of the drugs. They don't do the right mix. They're bad at making the mix. And there's not enough of the drugs to actually paralyze the guy and cut a sentence off.

It makes it a horrible whatever the fuck. Who cares? So, yeah. So, anyway, two weeks later, the state challenges this appeal saying that, you know, we're going to put him to death in the electric chair. Doesn't matter, but everything is on hold here. Mid-October. that we're going to put him to death in the electric chair. Doesn't matter, but everything is on hold here. Mid-October, on October 20th, the state files papers with the court saying it's going to honor West's request to drop his waiver and put him to death by lethal injection, basically.

They're going to get rid of his waiver so that now his attorneys are able to file an appeal again for the method of lethal injection. So this is just going around and around. Now, this all went through. Like I said, we talked about the different people who were put to death, and they found the lower levels of what you needed. I could get into the science of it, but we don't have time. The cocktail didn't work right. Basically, the Tennessee Supreme Court rules a two-to-one in favor of granting a stay of execution through November.

What the fuck? Through November, it's sent back to another court, which will hear evidence and yada, yada, yada. The three panel of judges also scolded the state, saying that it failed to take action in spite of evidence for years that they didn't get their lethal injection. Can somebody just crush his fucking head with a dumbbell? It's unreal. Now, their cousin, we have the family reaction to all this, the Romines, this woman, their cousin Eddie, cousin Eddie over here,

said, quote, yeah, shitter's full. I really think it's absurd to ask something like that. He says that about the extreme and unnecessary pain, he says, quote, the pain and suffering that Wanda and Sheila had to go through and suffering that Jack, their husband and father and that Wanda and Sheila had to go through and suffering that Jack, their husband and father and the rest of the family had to go through for the

last 24 years is unreal. That's the smartest cousin Eddie ever. I think every taxpayer should be up in arms about something like this. It's ridiculous. They should have been over in 24 hours, let alone 24 years. Yes. Since he's been on death row up to this point, the taxpayers have spent $780,000 because death row is super fucking

expensive. Much more money than he would have ever made in his entire life. Yes, absolutely. Now, March 29th, 2017, still alive this year, Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the written protocol by which the Tennessee Department of Corrections carries out an execution by lethal injection. Therefore, anybody who's about to be killed, knock yourselves out. You can kill these people all you want.

Unanimous opinion said that the plaintiffs failed to establish that the lethal injection protocol on its face violates constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. In so holding, the court upholds the constitutionality and the protocol under both the United States and Tennessee constitutions. So they're looking to get a new execution date for him. As of right now, he is set to be executed at some point. He's still alive. Still alive. No.

Get an update at some point. Mix the cocktail and put it in his fucking arm. Jesus Christ. Mix the cocktail. Why don't we just put some Windex in there and stick it in like Steve Martin in that fucking movie? I can give a shit what they're doing. I don't give a shit at this point.

Anyway, Jack, Wanda, and Sheila are all buried together. That's nice. They have a nice little thing with all three headstones on one big thing. It's nice. I mean, it'd be better if they were alive, but I mean, obviously, it's in... Both these assholes draw wind at this moment.

Rittenhour Cemetery in Maynardville, Union County, Tennessee is where the graves are. Yeah. Martin, we know nothing about because he was 17. Everything about him is sealed. We know shit about this guy. He's just on. We know nothing except that he's a rapist and murderer and he's going to be in jail forever.

Whereas this guy, at some point, he might be executed. If he is, we will make sure to update you on a future episode. That's Maynardville, Tennessee. Holy shit, guys. Yeah, that was horrible. Thanks for hanging in there on that. Honestly, if you made it through all of that without getting a little nauseous, I don't know what's wrong with you. But hats off to you for having such a tough stomach.

If you enjoyed that story or are telling of it, it would be more appropriate to say. And I doubt a lot of people are going to like that story. And if they do, you're a little weird. You're a little weird. As long as you don't do it to anybody else I'm not judging you. But a little off. I don't know. Be a pen pal of this fuck. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, if you enjoyed that please get on iTunes. Give us five stars.

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And here are some fine people who have been so nice to us with donations and everything else this week. So great this week. You guys are the best. You keep us alive and running, guys. Thank you so much. And firstly, thank you to everybody that's bought Small Town Murder shirts. You can get those at truecrimecomedyteam.com. Please do that.

And they're in the process of being made. They will be shipped out this week, I believe. That's awesome. We can't wait to see pictures. Yeah, that's going to be awesome. JR in, I believe, shit, I'm not even going to guess at the moment. I don't know where he's at. But the podcast got him through a tough side job.

And so he wrote to us and sent us some of the money. And he said, quote, unquote, here's your cut. Oh, that's amazing. Thank you so much. An anonymous user sent us a dollar Canadian as a reference to me not knowing how the fuck much a dollar Canadian is in America. Not knowing how conversion rates work. But I now know that it's around 84 cents. 77.

See? I was close enough. And it changes daily. So the day we got it, it was 77 cents. 77, yeah. All right. So Stein Larson, Heather Budd, and HeatherJean288, at HeatherJean288 on Twitter. She's always involved and sent us a little video.

Oh, yeah. She's cool. Thank you, guys. Jane Richards, Paul Vamos, Jenny Neighbors, Lumber Sexual, which is a fucking killer name. That's great. David Stanich, Colleen Eismert, Katie

Hayes sent us a really great email telling us congratulations on running down assholes that deserve to be run down. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. Thank you for getting it. Doffleton, Alex Herman, for getting it. Doffleton, Alex Herman. I think it's Doffleton. Doffle-itin.

It was just one word. We appreciate you, bro. We appreciate you. Brother or sister? Somebody? Jeremy Pendleton, Judy McConkie, Carrie Jameson, Peter Myers, Dana Davis, and Mitchell Forrester over in Australia. Thanks for listening, man. I love Australia. Guys, I do too. We love Australia.

And like I said, there is an Australian episode coming up right around the corner. Within the next month or so, we'll be in Australia. We'll be checking that out because we've gotten such, just a groundswell of support from Australia. Australia's terrific. We've got to include you guys. Bring in. Also, New Zealand, we haven't forgotten about you. We've had some New Zealand people, haven't forgotten about you.

We're coming for you, Kiwis. We're coming for everywhere. We'll be everywhere. We're going to try to hit all the states and then come back again and be all over the world. We're going to do this for a while. We have an Italy case, more England cases, more Canadian. Great. We're going to do it all, man.

We're really excited. And thank you guys for supporting us so, so much. Thanks for interacting. It was a very fun week. Where can they get a hold of you to interact, Jimmy? Wisman Sucks, W-H-I-S-M-A-N Sucks on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. And I'm digging Snapchat. It's so fucking stupid.

You're such a 12-year-old girl. It is so fun. Jesus Christ. Even my daughter is like, Snapchat's kind of fucking. She's even like, yeah, that's kind of like beneath me now. And you're like, this is fun. It's freshmen of high school. It's middle schoolers.

And then it's weirdos that send dick pics. And then it's me. And then it's you. Yeah. Don't send dick pics to middle schoolers no i promise i beg you uh you can get a hold of me at jimmy p is funny or you can copy and paste my name from the show description do not be a hero and try to spell it because you will fuck it up that's true do that get a hold of us otherwise guys i don't know man we'll see you next week it's been our pleasure. Bye.

Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime,

part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. With a touch of humor. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great.

A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother f***er lied. Like a liar. Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal,

or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app

or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.