Snapped: Women Who Murder - Jennifer Paeyeneers

Episode Date: April 23, 2023

Oklahoma detectives must untangle a twisted love triangle to discover the truth after a young man is shot in his own home.Season 29 Episode 19Originally aired: August 15, 2021Watch full episo...des of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. When chaos erupts on a quiet street in Oklahoma, a man is left dead on his own doorstep. Somewhat had knocked on the front door,
Starting point is 00:00:31 and the next thing she heard was some shots. Blood was pumping out of his chest. We've got somebody's going from door to door. Better be careful about the unaxed. But a homicide investigation points to something more intentional. To see them together. And the bed was unmade.
Starting point is 00:00:53 Doesn't take much imagination. She wasn't ready to let go of being a fun party girl. I believe that drove a wedge in their marriage. Holy cow, this has been going on for a while. As detectives press for answers, love and loyalty cloud the truth. She thought we didn't have anything on. I said, she didn't love you. She's using you like a dog.
Starting point is 00:01:23 It was getting very tense in this small town. I wanted the mastermind behind Mars. November 29, 1999. Just before midnight and stillwater, Oklahoma, officer Jeff Dillon is on patrol. I was in a parking lot, and I was car to car with another officer who happened to be one of my training officers. I made the mistake, apparently, of making
Starting point is 00:02:03 mentioned that man it was a pretty slow night. Within about a minute of that, officers were dispatched to the shooting call. The caller is 24-year-old Jennifer Peaneers. When Jennifer Peaneers called 911, she said that somewhat had knocked on the front door in her husband, Tommy, and got up to answer the door. And the next thing she knew, she heard some shots. We went ahead and responded. When I arrived, I could hear a female crying inside the house.
Starting point is 00:02:43 I announced it. I was a police officer, and the female inside said, come in, he's been shot, helping. When I got to the inside, I could see Tommy Panier's. He had a bullet wound to his center of his back. Mr. Panier's vis-historical. As I started doing CPR and I gave him the first breath, Jennifer asked, is he OK?
Starting point is 00:03:08 Is he OK? My primary focus at that point is just do everything I can to try to resuscitate him. If there's any hope at all, then you want to give him that chance. Floyd Thomas Paneers was born in Hawaii on July 12, 1974, into a struggling family.
Starting point is 00:03:28 He told me that he was born addicted to heroin that his mother was an addict, and his father was not around, and that at one point they actually lived in the crawl space under a house. After his mother committed suicide when Tommy was just three years old, the toddler went to live with his grandma in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It's kind of a small town where about halfway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Everybody knows everybody, drive down the street, you see them and you wave to them so there's not much that goes on that nobody knows about. In Stillwater, Tommy's grandmother
Starting point is 00:04:12 tried to give him the love and parenting he had been missing. I think she did her best to make sure he had a normal, you know, as normal a upbringing as he could. I think that she instilled his sense of fairness and right and wrong and gave him a strong sense of, you know, the golden rule. As Tommy grew up, his grandmother's lessons seemed to stick. You know how when you meet somebody for the first time,
Starting point is 00:04:45 you can feel there's a good vibe there. Tommy was very much that kind of person, very open, very friendly, big smile on his face, 24-7. In high school, Tommy garnered attention for his edgy style. Tommy had his hair bleached kind of to blonde tips and then spiked and you know he's wearing earrings and the whole thing. He had more kind of a punk look that was kind of a thing then you know in the 90s kind of a green day look I'd say you know very very cute little
Starting point is 00:05:19 punk boy. At 18 years old Tommy landed a job at audio innovations, a local company that specialized in audio and video for cars. Tommy came in and he went to work in our symbol area and Tommy would look at the process and he'd go, oh, you know, if we did this, we could change it, we could change it, it'll be so much better. We all had confidence in him and what he did. So it was very much a group consensus that he was the right guy for what we wanted to do. In his early 20s, Tommy met Jennifer Wheeler, the daughter of a successful local florist. She had a large extended family. They're very well established and still water,
Starting point is 00:06:05 you know, been there for generations. They were a religious family, and there was a very large church and still water that they were a part of, and they were very active in that. Jennifer, who was studying to be a hairdresser, diverged from her conservative upbringing. There were stories that she was a bit of a wild child hairdresser diverged from her conservative upbringing. There were stories that she was a bit of a wild child in high school.
Starting point is 00:06:28 She did like attention. She had wild colored hair at times. She wore a lot of makeup. She was just very, very outgoing. Jennifer was drawn to Tommy's style and outgoing personality. And Tommy fell almost immediately for Jennifer. There were a fun couple to be around. You know, very much fed off each other.
Starting point is 00:06:52 There are personalities, a lot of energy, a lot of laughs. They seemed at that point to be very much in love. That big grand Tommy had, well, got a couple sizes bigger. When Jennifer brought Tommy home to meet her family, they were impressed enough by his stable job to look past his unique appearance. I think that her family thought that he'd be very good influence for her. And so that's kind of why they gravitated towards him
Starting point is 00:07:26 and really embraced him as one of their own. He was close to Jennifer's parents. He loved them. That was that mom and dad that he wanted to have. On September 28, 1996, Jennifer and Tommy tied the knot. Since Tommy didn't have a stable family growing up, he was super excited to be a husband and have a home. The couple soon bought their first house
Starting point is 00:07:55 and started working on a new dream, opening a salon for Jennifer. She had been thinking about a wild hair salon from when she was a little girl. This is what Tommy told me, and that she had had that name picked out forever. So this was kind of her dream to have this. Tommy was really active in building furniture and fixtures
Starting point is 00:08:15 and remodeling that and making it a pretty cool place. When the couple wasn't working, they spent most of their time with Jennifer's younger brother, 18-year-old Nick Wheeler. Nick set up a recording studio in the closet of his bedroom, and he was doing multi-track recordings. Most high school garage bands are really pretty hooker-able, but not this one. They had some talent. And so, you know, they formed the All-American Rejects. Tommy Love Nick, Nick Love Tommy.
Starting point is 00:08:51 Tommy is very supportive of Nick. He would go to their concert to help them set up and tear down. He was still a young person at heart. Love music, like the excitement of a live band and that kind of stuff. Jennifer helped out too, doing everything from selling CDs to honing the band's signature look. She spent a lot of time with her brother and the band, and so it was a younger age group she spent time with. By 1999, after three years of marriage, Tommy and Jennifer had settled into a comfortable and successful life.
Starting point is 00:09:29 He looked forward to getting home at night. He would talk about it and have it as beer and mo in the lawn. He was feeling like he was making himself into more of a man, more of a husband. But on November 29th, 1999, He was making himself into more of a man, more of a husband. But on November 29, 1999, the happy home Tommy has built for himself hangs by a thread after a violent shooting leaves him fighting for his life. I gave him two breaths and noces chest was rising, so I knew he was getting there. So there was still hope.
Starting point is 00:10:05 I did CPR until the ambulance arrived. The paramedics were doing CPR and blood was pumping out of his chest. With his life on the line, paramedics load Tommy into an ambulance. I then got nameless and I went to the hospital with Tommy. You never give up hope, but he had just devastating injuries. Coming up, investigators kick into high gear
Starting point is 00:10:35 to track down the shooter. They want to find out if there's still a threat out there. If it was a person that came up random and shot him at the door, are they going to do it again? And a broadcasted suspect sketch yields a solid lead. He was known to be in the neighborhood. As far as I was concerned, I focused on him first. On November 29, 1999, Tommy Peaneers is fighting for his life in an ambulance after being shot
Starting point is 00:11:11 in his doorway. At the crime scene, his wife Jennifer Peaneers is about to head to the hospital when she flags an important detail. Jennifer surveyed the scene and said that her purse was missing. There was a table on the wall. It was on the east wall, and there was a wallet, keys,
Starting point is 00:11:34 another thing, setting there. The victim's wife's purse was setting next to that, and it was missing. With a new lead, detectives send Jennifer to the hospital and begin combing through the crime scene for more clues. We'd noticed Gump out of residue on the door frame as you walked in to the right, which would indicate the shooting happened at the doorway.
Starting point is 00:11:56 Somebody came up and shot him at the door. Her purse is missing, so we're thinking, OK, somebody robbed him. Luckily, the perpetrator left something behind. I noticed two bloody shoe prints on the front porch. There was no markings of what type of shoe it was. The footsteps went straight to where the purse was and then back off the door.
Starting point is 00:12:21 He was as excited about finding those shoe prints as a dog would be finding a bone. The best way to preserve that was with photographs. And we marked it, we measured it, we wanted to see the size of it, in case we did find the shoe. As they wrap up inside the Paneer's home, investigators turn their attention to the potential threat beyond their initial perimeter. We didn't know who did this if it was a person that came up
Starting point is 00:12:49 random and shot him at the door. Are they going to do it again? They want to find out if there's still a threat out there. And are any of the neighbors in danger? Is this a person who is going house to house and doing this sort of thing? While officers search the neighborhood, detectives talk to Jennifer in the emergency room
Starting point is 00:13:09 of Stillwater Medical Center. I met with Jennifer in a side room in the ER. She was visibly distraught. She was crying, makeup running. When you do an interview with somebody like that, you have to be patient. You have to listen to them. She said that they had spent the evening with her brother,
Starting point is 00:13:31 and after he left, she and Tommy, were getting ready to go to bed, and that's when there was a knock at the door. When Jennifer heard the knock at the door, it was so soon after Nick had left that she thought it was Nick. Jennifer says when Tommy opened the door at around 11 p.m., it wasn't Nick but a panhandler. She mentioned that there was a person who had come earlier
Starting point is 00:13:57 in the night that was begging for money. She described him as a black male with kind of a lazy eye. Tommy had refused to give him any, and then they had gone to bed. Jennifer explains the couple had settled into bed minutes later, but just as they were drifting off, there was another knock on the door. She didn't get up.
Starting point is 00:14:19 Tommy did, and I went to the door, and she could tell there was a conversation, and then she heard shots. Jennifer yells for her husband. As an answer, she calls 911. Jennifer says she rallied the courage to leave the room and found her husband lying unresponsive in the doorway with no one else in sight.
Starting point is 00:14:41 She didn't see the shooter, but she's implicating the bagger. She didn't see that person during the shooting, but that person had been there earlier. So the initial thought was, will this person went and got it gone or got angry or whatever and came back? Before detectives can continue the interview,
Starting point is 00:15:02 doctors emerge from the ER. Tommy had a total of five bullet wounds. And so he had one in the back. He had two in the chest. And he had two basically in the neck area. The doctor's working for about 40 minutes, putting chest tubes in, getting medicine. And he was finally pronounced deceased.
Starting point is 00:15:25 Miss Paine Niers was kind of hyperventilating, you know, just heavy breathing and no-no didn't really talk a lot. After he passed on, we had a homicide on our hands. News of Tommy's death quickly spreads through the close knit Oklahoma community. We just didn't see this coming, and still waters a really nice, peaceful, really low-crime, small town. So it was real shocker.
Starting point is 00:15:58 The way she told the story left the impression that we've got somebody's going from door to door and better be careful, it might be unixed. So it was very unsettling to not only the community but to law enforcement as well, didn't know what they had on their hands. Based on Jennifer's description of the Panhandler, detectives release a composite sketch to the public
Starting point is 00:16:20 and soon receive calls from some of their own officers. I worked patrol for years, and everybody in that neighborhood or worked at neighborhood knew who he was. His name's Scott Sanders. We knew that he was cross-eyed, he was a black mal, and he would be known to ask for money. Not only that, one officer reported
Starting point is 00:16:40 that he had seen Scott at the crime scene just minutes after the shoot-and. One of the patrolmen had told me that Scott Sanders had walked by when the ambulance was there and said, what happened did somebody get shot? Scott matched the description that she was given and he was known to be in the neighborhood. So as far as I was concerned, I focused on him first. On November 30, 1999, detectives bring Scott Sanders into the station for questioning.
Starting point is 00:17:16 But he denies having anything to do with Tommy's death. He stated to us that if he had had a gun, he would have sold it. Because he was always trying to gather up money. He was very open, cooperative, forthcoming, and he never showed any signs of nervousness or deception. And he agreed to take a polygraph test. It showed no deception. He had an alibi I I knew where he was. And then we searched his residence. He was not in any possession of any weapons.
Starting point is 00:17:50 He was known to frequent that neighborhood, but he was never known for violence. These guys ran all the traps and realized that he wasn't to one and exonerated him. Coming up, investigators change tactics and uncover a stunning scandal. He became angry. He was upset that she was there.
Starting point is 00:18:13 He said, it is the most disgusting thing I have ever done. It's almost like that was a beacon shining. There's something going on here. than going on here. Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could hang out with celebrities living a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean with all your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Free made that dream a reality, but U.S. prosecutors say he was hiding a dark secret.
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Starting point is 00:19:21 Follow Spellcaster, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, prime members, you can listen to episodes Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. November 1999. Detectives in Stillwater, Oklahoma have cleared local drifter Scott Sanders of any involvement in the murder of 25-year-old stereo engineer Tommy Peaneers. Next, they turned to the bloody footprints found at the crime scene, hoping they will lead them to the killer. It was obvious that this belonged to a suspect,
Starting point is 00:19:59 because we know police officers that first-erased, first responders had shoes like that, and neither did any of the detectives. I went to a local shoe store here in Stillwater, and I talked to them about it. And ended up, it was a Nike Air Pinny. It was a special edition shoe that was sold for a limited time. With the killer's shoe model identified, detectives turned their attention
Starting point is 00:20:30 to Jennifer's 19-year-old brother, Nick Wheeler, who was at the house before the shooting. He was literally like one of the last two people to see Tommy alive. Nick and Tommy were close, and I think it was pretty traumatic for Nick to people to see Tommy alive. Nick and Tommy were close, and I think it was pretty traumatic for Nick that Tommy had been murdered.
Starting point is 00:20:51 Nick found nothing unusual the night he visited Tommy in Jennifer. Again, he left it around 11 o'clock, and that's the last he saw Tommy. When detectives ask Nick about the air penny shoes, Nick says he can't think of anyone who wears that style, but that he isn't familiar with everyone in Tommy's inner circle. Tommy spent a lot of time with his co-workers. They would come to he and Jennifer's house, and they would have barbecues and get together.
Starting point is 00:21:26 Tommy was a very big part of our work family. He worked for a company named Audio Innovations and his employer had to a certain extent, taking him on as almost a son. They were in a sense his family. With Stillwater being, you know, where we don't have a lot of homicides, and most of them are someone that knows the victim, there's some kind of connection there. On December 2nd, 1999, detectives arrive at audio innovations. Everyone at Tommy's work were willing to help. They wanted to talk about it.
Starting point is 00:22:06 They were basically in shock that anything had happened to him. Everybody's trying to think in their head. Was there anybody that was mad at him? And not one single person could come up with anything. Nothing. Tommy's co-workers tell detectives that Tommy was one of the rising stars in the company. Tommy was so good that he caught the attention of other companies. And specifically of Sony, just kind of a big deal in the electronics world.
Starting point is 00:22:38 And Sony wanted to hire him. To keep Tommy at audio innovations, the company says they offered him a raise and a path to management. In order to fit his more professional role, Tommy began to change his look. I noticed that the spike tear went away and the urine went away and he showed up in a polo shirt. Tommy's bosses say that there was one person who wasn't impressed with Tommie's new straight-edge look.
Starting point is 00:23:11 His wife, Jennifer Peaneers. I think that she wasn't seeing him anymore as a kind of wild car audio rock and roll guy. He wanted, was becoming more of a husband and salesman. According to Tommy's co-workers, the once happy couple was soon fighting about the time Jennifer spent with Nick's band, the All-American Rejects. I believe that drove a wedge in their marriage
Starting point is 00:23:39 because Tommy wanted Jennifer to be home. She would rather be where they were performing or setting up parties. She wasn't ready to let go of being a fun party girl and become somebody's wife at work. Detectives ask if the couple was headed for a divorce. But Tommy's coworkers say it wasn't likely. At least back in those days, that's how that town was.
Starting point is 00:24:07 You know, everybody got married, everybody went to church. I think that would have been a huge thing for them to get divorced. Tommy wanted to fix things. Tommy wanted to have this marriage that lasted for, you know, 50 years. He wanted everything he didn't have as a kid growing up. But then Tommy had some kind of strange health episodes. He was going through some concerning physical ailments,
Starting point is 00:24:45 a lot of stomach issues, a lot of headaches, of the bloody noses. Nobody could quite figure out what was going on with him. He was not as vibrant, but it went away. It did not stick around. He improved, so nobody really gave it a second thought. Although Tommy's health improved in the fall, his situation at home did not.
Starting point is 00:25:12 Jennifer was still very intertwined with her brother's band. It appeared that when their sense started the band, that Jennifer became the organizer or the agent. She involved in setting the gigs up, but she also did the parties and the get-togathers. That's how she met Philip, Meadows. Philip is a lot younger than Jennifer. Tommy said there is a guy that is driving me nuts,
Starting point is 00:25:43 and that was Philip. He has got his hands all over. He practically sits on top of her on the couch. According to Tommy's co-workers, all of the couple's problems boiled over on October 10th, 1999, when Tommy came home early from a trip. They got home, and she was not there. So he started calling around to different people.
Starting point is 00:26:12 And he couldn't find Jennifer anywhere. So then he started driving around. He went over by Phillips House and her car was parked outside. He became angry. You know, he was upset that she was there. Tommy's co-workers say he stormed inside. He gets into the room, and Philip was sitting on the bed wearing a pair of shorts, no shirt.
Starting point is 00:26:39 That's it. Tommy was very angry now to see them together and he bed was unmade and doesn't take much imagination. So Tommy tells Jennifer we're leaving right now and she says no, I'm not leaving. You go. And he was pretty upset. And Tommy slapped her. According to Tommy's co-workers, Jennifer called the police, and Tommy was charged with domestic violence.
Starting point is 00:27:17 After making bail, Tommy moved out of the couple's home. What he told me directly was that when he slapped her that all the fight went out of him, he said, it is the most disgusting thing I have ever done. He was begging Jennifer to forgive him. She agreed to meet him for lunch. So he thought things were maybe going a little bit better. He told me that Jennifer said she was just there,
Starting point is 00:27:46 visiting as a friend. I think he wanted to believe it. Based on their conversation with Tommy's co-workers, investigators feel there's more to the situation with Philip Meadows than Tommy was led to believe. It's almost like that was a beacon shining. There's something going on here. Tommy was jealous of Jennifer's relationship
Starting point is 00:28:10 with this individual. They just added to the suspicion on our part that this might contribute to a motive. On December 8, 1999, eight days after the murder of 25-year-old Tommy Peaneers, detectives with the Stillwater Police Department ask 18-year-old Philip Meadows to the station for an interview. Just weeks before the murder, Philip was allegedly caught shirtless in a bedroom with Tommy's wife, Jennifer. I mentioned to him that don't you think it's odd that there was a domestic over here at the house.
Starting point is 00:28:50 And then this many days later, the husband's dad. He brushed it off as an incident between Jennifer and Tommy. He denied any romantic involvement with Jennifer. Philip says that the night of Tommy's murder, he was out with his friends, Cameron Chesney and Kenny Lewis. He said, did you spin out and go into a few parties? Philip's initial alibi was, I didn't have anything to do with this. I wasn't around, wasn't me.
Starting point is 00:29:23 After releasing Philip, detectives reach out to Kenny and Cameron. They said it had went to different parties going on all over town. I think the officers felt the pressure because for the first few weeks, none of their leads were panning out. It was getting very tense in the small town. And we were doing everything we could with the detectives It was getting very tense in this small town. And we were doing everything we could with the detectives
Starting point is 00:29:49 to figure this out. We would ask them about, you know, what do you think? What's your theory? There had to be some justice for Tommy. As the weeks go by, friends of Philip and Jennifer start to reach out to police with whispers of scandal. There were rumors that flew around that circle that Jennifer and Philip had more than a casual
Starting point is 00:30:13 relationship. People telling us that there was something odd going on that Philip's always around her. She's always laughing and carrying on with him. Detectives reach out to Philip, Cameron, and Kenning for another interview, but all three declined to speak to the police. And Jennifer follows suit. They would go see her to talk to her numerous times,
Starting point is 00:30:37 and she would seem to be put off. It sets off a little bit of a red flag going, OK, why didn't she say more? It sets off a little bit of a red flag going, OK, why didn't she say more? Just when investigators begin to lose hope, they receive a shocking break in the case. On February 16, 2000, Cameron Chesney walks into the police station, escorted by his father. Cameron saw Philip with Jennifer at the basketball game,
Starting point is 00:31:05 and he said, that just ain't right. And it disturbed him. And his father was intuitive enough to know that something was bothering Cameron. His father suggested, hey, you need to talk to the police about what you know or whatever it is you're feeling. Cameron's demeanor was he was quiet.
Starting point is 00:31:29 He kept his head down a lot. You could tell something was upsetting me. I'm putting a lot of pressure on him. I'm asking him who shot Tommy? Who shot Tommy? And finally he said he whispered Philip Shoddy. Cameron admits he and Kenny misled detectives about the timeline on the night of Tommy's death. Around 11 p.m. on November 30,
Starting point is 00:31:57 the three young men were not at a friend's house like they'd initially claimed. Philip with two friends were out driving around, asked them to drive to the neighborhood where they let Philip out of the car. Cameron says Philip didn't explain what he was up to, but Cameron and Kenny soon got a clue. They heard the shots go off.
Starting point is 00:32:24 Then here comes Philip running down the street and jumps into the car. Cameron says Philip didn't discuss what had happened. But when Cameron heard about Tommy's death the next day, he knew Philip was responsible. I think that's when it's so dim to them, this was real. Cameron walks into the police department and it kind of changes
Starting point is 00:32:48 the investigation from suspicion to now we have something. Cameron agrees to wear a wire to get a confession out of Philip. On February 17, 2000, the two young men meet up outside of Philip's work. The basic deal that Cameron was going to tell him was,
Starting point is 00:33:12 is that this is bothering him, and he wanted to go to the police, and he was going to tell him what he knew. And Philip was saying, you can't do that because if anybody talks, then it's over. We're all going to be in trouble. As police listen in, Philip reminds Cameron that he and Kenny knew about the murder beforehand.
Starting point is 00:33:32 Something Cameron had conveniently left out of his confession. It became pretty apparent that Cameron was a whole lot more involved than he had led his father to believe. Cameron isn't the only person Philip implicates. Philip said, Jennifer knows about it. Jennifer is part of the conspiracy. Jennifer had it done. I just know that listening to the whole conversation, myself and the other detective, we were going,
Starting point is 00:34:06 okay, this is the break we were looking for. That was the turning moment in the game to us. We knew we were ready to file within hours. Hours later, detectives arrest Philip for first degree murder and conspiracy. Police also go to Jennifer Salon with a warrant for the same charges. They waited for her to come out the back door of the salon
Starting point is 00:34:30 and they arrested her there. She was very quiet. She was cooperative, almost cool. It was almost an impression. I got that she thought we didn't have anything on. She's brought to the booking room, and Detective Little walks in the hallway with Philip Meadows in handcuffs. And I looked over at Jennifer, and she's doubled over. She looks physically ill. I was concerned that she's going to throw up.
Starting point is 00:35:16 My opinion is she didn't know that we had the information of Philip's involvement. News quickly spreads that the daughter of one of the town's prominent families has been arrested for the murder of her husband. Everybody's like, oh no, no, absolutely not. That's this not a possibility. We don't want to believe that anyways. That's just horrible to think that. Without physical evidence, prosecutors face an uphill battle to convict Jennifer.
Starting point is 00:35:52 In an attempt to remedy this hole in their case, prosecutors hope to convince Philip to crack. You're the one that's going down for that. We offered Philip a deal, we'd take the death penalty off the table if you'd testify against her. He was so resistant to that, because he loved her. And I can remember, as almost as if I'm talking to my own son, I'm saying, she didn't love you, Philip.
Starting point is 00:36:14 She's using you like a dog. Philip was facing the death penalty, and he was either going to talk or not. It was up to him. Coming up, Philip decides between his lover and his future. He wasn't getting out of this. Philip felt like if he wanted to maintain the relationship with Jim from, he needed to do what she wanted.
Starting point is 00:36:38 In the spring of 2000, four months after the murder of Tommy Peaneers, prosecutors have offered 18-year-old Philip Meadows a plea deal. In exchange for testifying against his girlfriend, 24-year-old Jennifer Peaneers. On March 21, 2000, Philip reaches out to prosecutors with a decision. When he, I think, came to his senses and realized, is she really in love him? Or he wasn't getting out of this. When they started interviewing, of course, then he spills his guts. Philip confirms what investigators and close friends have suspected for months.
Starting point is 00:37:25 He and Jennifer had been engaging in an affair since meeting at a party in the summer of 1999. Philip had just graduated from high school to all of a sudden having sex multiple times a day or a week or how often with a married woman. It blew his mind. She shares with him that the only thing keeping us apart is Tommy.
Starting point is 00:37:48 And if Tommy wasn't in the picture, we could be together. According to Philip, Jennifer told him she would never be able to divorce Tommy with her family's blessing. Divorce was not an option in her mind, because Tommy was so well liked by her parents and grandparents. She felt trapped, and she needed to get rid of him. Philip felt like if he wanted to maintain the relationship
Starting point is 00:38:15 with Jennifer, he needed to do what she wanted. Philip says Jennifer made the first attempt by trying to poison her husband's drinks. He said she was putting bison in his gatorade. It didn't work. Made him sick, but it didn't work. Boom, we're like, oh, all that team he was sick. These are the symptoms of doing that kind of stuff. Then it reality started to set in.
Starting point is 00:38:43 Then we're thinking, holy cow, this has been going on for a while. When Poisoning didn't work, Philip says Jennifer encouraged him to shoot Tommy and make it look like a robbery. So he enlisted his friends Cameron and Kenny to help. Philip knocked on the door. When Tommy opened the door, he shot him several times.
Starting point is 00:39:11 He went ahead and entered the house. Then got the purse. Tommy was still alive and apparently shot him more at that point. And then fled back to the car. After Philip's confession, detectives also resolve the mystery of the shoe prints found at the crime scene. I contacted Nike company.
Starting point is 00:39:37 They put me in touch with their shoe expert. And I described the shoe print to him. I sent him a photograph of it. And he said, that sounds like it's an air pinny. They sent me the exact shoe. And that shoe matched perfect. The shape and the size of that pattern on the ground. When Philip confessed, and he was sitting in the room,
Starting point is 00:39:56 I walked in at some point, and I had that shoe. And he goes, hey, you found my shoes. He wouldn't know if he could have them. I said, no, you can't have them. That confirmed to me that that was the exact shoe he was wearing, and over he did the shooting. Though Phillips' fate is squared away with a plea deal, prosecutors will need additional evidence
Starting point is 00:40:18 to convict Jennifer. I felt like when it was all said and done, that she was actually more culpable from an evil standpoint than Philip was. Philip was under the influence of sex and her lies and her manipulation. And she was using him like a cheap trick to get her desired results. I wanted the mastermind behind bars, but she never read any type of confession. Since Jennifer refuses to talk,
Starting point is 00:40:49 on March 21, 2000, police execute a search warrant at her home and find a guilt-ridden poem on her desk. Throughout the poem, it appears she's addressing it to Tommy and how she misses him. And the last sentence says that it is her fault. From law enforcement's perspective when we read it, it even firted our theory or the case and what she'd done.
Starting point is 00:41:19 In January 2001, Jennifer's trial begins with the prosecution's case leaning heavily on the testimony of Philip Meadows. The defense attorney strategy was to, of course, put Philip on trial and downplay her involvement. He's just making all this up, you know, to get a deal with the state. The Philip was infatuated with Jennifer
Starting point is 00:41:44 and killed Tommy to get her for himself. On January 30, 2001, Jennifer breaks her silence on the witness stand, claiming Philip had mentioned killing Tommy earlier that fall when the pair were just friends. Jennifer thought that was a joke. That wasn't going to happen. I'm not the guilty part of here.
Starting point is 00:42:07 I'm being persecuted. On the stand, Jennifer insists she never tried to poison Tommy and that her relationship with Philip only started after Tommy's death. Jennifer said it was all on Philip. It was all his idea. He made up all on Philip. It was all his idea. He made up all these stories, and that Jennifer was a devoted, loving wife.
Starting point is 00:42:33 On March 22, 2001, the jury finds Jennifer guilty of conspiracy, but not murder. Though sentenced to 10 years in prison, not murder. Though sentenced to 10 years in prison, she is released in 2005 after spending just four years behind bars. Is a sad story because the one that should be held the most accountable was able to resume a quasi-normal life way before her time.
Starting point is 00:43:03 Very angry. Angry to the fact that, you know, all this could happen. I felt it was a grave injustice. Now Tommy's friends are coping with his loss. The only thing that lets me sleep at night is that there was never a minute that Tommy didn't want to try and fix this with Jennifer. So I could have told him she's bad for you, get out of it. It would not have made any difference.
Starting point is 00:43:37 Tommy needs a voice. He's a person who loved family, wanted a family. We were his family. And, you know, 20, wanted a family, we were his family. And, you know, 20, 25 years later, we're still feeling the pain. Kenny Lewis and Cameron Chesney both received 10-year sentences.
Starting point is 00:44:03 Cameron was released in 2005, and Kenny was released in 2008. Philip Meadows was broiled in May 2018 after serving 17 years. Jennifer Peaneers was never charged with any alleged poisoning attempt on Tommy. After her release, Jennifer returned to Stillwater, where she runs a salon.
Starting point is 00:44:24 For more information on snapped, go to oxygen.com.

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