Snapped: Women Who Murder - Lisa Jones-Orock
Episode Date: March 13, 2022Police in a small Pennsylvania town respond to an eyewitness report of a murder behind a grocery store and find that the victim is no stranger to law enforcement.Season 25, Episode 06Original...ly aired: April 14, 2019Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WsLCJWqmIebSee 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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It was a childhood crush that waited 20 years to bloom.
She had wanted to be with Jerry since she was 15.
He always told me he'd longed her.
Until it comes to a sudden brutal end.
They've been hitting the face repeatedly.
There was a fractured skull. The investigation exposes a couple's cruelest impulses.
Lisa and Cherry's relationship was always very vulnerable.
But was it homicidal?
Or had his past finally caught up with him?
He was in trouble when he was younger.
She loved the man.
This was a person that promised to love you
for the rest of your life.
He will get killed because of sex or money.
You're mad, you're sad, and frustrated.
It was a horrible thing. December 7, 2014, Elwood City, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from Pittsburgh.
At 10.19 p.m., a patrol officer responds to a concerned resident's call outside the
Elwood City Police Department.
After ours, when the building's not open, there's a call box you pick it up and it
the house automatically into the 911 center.
The man tells the officer he was out for a walk and just saw a man being beaten with a
blunt object behind a grocery store.
He was walking beside and then passed these people
who were in this back parking lot.
He did not have his cell phone,
so he walked to the Oed police station.
After making the report, the witness heads home
to retrieve his cell phone,
and the patrol officer makes his way to the grocery store parking lot.
The officer drove down to parking lot but didn't see anything.
Now, there are a lot of dumpsters and other things back there
that might have obscured the officer with you.
While the officer continues his search of the area,
the witness drives back to the grocery store,
expecting to find police at the scene
and issue a formal statement about what he saw.
But what he discovers is far worse.
He found a man crumpled on the ground,
bleeding obviously seriously injured.
And he called 911, told him what he had found.
He was advised to do chest compressions, CPR on him,
while paramedics and the police were dispatched to the scene.
First responders arrived to find the victim,
a man in his 50s, near the supermarket loading dock.
When they check for a pulse, they find nothing.
Blood pulled around his head, serious swelling in the ear of his right eye.
He was hit over the head, severely lost some blood in customers life.
There was nothing more to be done for him.
As Lieutenant David Kingston and his fellow officers arrive on the scene, they brace themselves.
Finding a body is not something that's in the norm for the police officers.
My first 25 years I didn't have any homicides.
When Lieutenant Kingston takes a closer look at the victim, he has taken a back.
When I walked up to him, I knew him immediately.
The victim is 57-year-old Jerry O'Rock,
a local barfly and a jack of all trades.
He lived on the outskirts of town.
He would dealt with him for years over minor stuff, alcohol
related or drug-related.
And we saw a person there and the blood that was there,
then we knew something terribly went wrong.
Born on June 5, 1957 in Elwood City,
Gerald O'Rock, Jr., who goes by Jerry, was the oldest of four siblings.
His parents were involved in their community.
He was my first son, was a lot of love there, and we got along great.
He had grown up with a family that was active together.
They raised motorcycles, they raised stockcars,
they went camping.
It sounded like a nice childhood for him.
Jerry never outgrew his love of racing.
We drive out to Williams Grove and not that area of the race.
And he just loved that.
When Jerry wasn't speeding around the dirt track, he enjoyed knocking
back beers at the local tavern and spending time in nature. He loved animals,
he loved walking in the woods and being outside, we used to have fires a lot
and you know, have a couple beers. He did all jobs. He worked as a service station for about 10 years.
He always helped up my dad in the wood business.
He was quite sarcastic, had a sense of humor.
I thought he was hysterical.
Besides racing, the love of Jerry's life
was his longtime girlfriend, Alice.
He had been with Alice forever, probably over 20 years,
so that's all I ever knew was him and Alice being together.
By 2009, after all that time together,
Jerry and Alice called it quits, for reasons only they knew.
Almost immediately, Jerry reconnected with 35-year-old Lisa
Jones, 17 years his junior.
They'd known each other since Lisa was 15.
Jerry would be the guy that got you the beer and the cigarettes
when you were under age.
And Jerry would pop in and out of her life from time to time.
And she always said that Jerry was a good friend to her.
As a young girl, Lisa Jones was a firebrand.
Lisa was never one to put up with anything from anybody.
I remember a few times when a teacher would give her a bad time
about something and she would pop back with her opinion.
She just got too wild, she just didn't.
She didn't apply herself to school.
She dropped out at 18.
Not long afterwards, Lisa made a confession to her mother.
She came home and she told me that she was pregnant.
And I thought, well, I'm going to have a grandchild.
She was afraid, but any young woman would be.
Lisa's son, Zachary Christopher Jones,
was born in 1992.
It was the first one to hold him.
They told her it was a girl, and popped out a little boy.
It was a great time for me.
She was lucky because he didn't wake up at night.
He was a good baby.
Zach didn't know his father.
He was raised by his mother and his grandmother.
I think since Zach didn't have a dad in his life,
that he kind of held his mom very close
and he was very protective over her.
While Lisa's mother, Lynn, helped raise Zach,
Lisa did her best to keep food on the table.
She was working as a presser, and she managed to run herself a nice place.
Later, she found work as a bartender and waitress.
She was hard worker, and she got good tips.
Her work, I think, I think, was pretty strong.
She just seemed to have anack to get people to be friendly
to her, especially when she was tending bar.
Lisa was a woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it.
That's why when she heard Jerry O'Rock was singled again,
she didn't waste a second.
She had wanted to be with him, my uncle Jerry,
since she was 15.
I think she chased after him.
And you know, he felt good.
A younger woman wants me and things like that.
I got the impression that Lisa didn't feel whole unless she had a man in her life.
And Zach needed a father.
And despite their significant age difference,
Lisa and Jerry did have a few things in common.
For starters, they both had a wild streak
and had fought addiction issues in the past.
When they got together, she had just gotten out of a
sober living house.
She was older, you know, and I think you wanted to settle down.
In May of 2010, just two weeks after they began dating,
Lisa and Jerry surprised everyone by tying the knot.
It just came out of the blue.
She asked me to make her a crown like Daisy.
She wanted the forest gum type of a look for her wedding.
I could tell the my uncle Jerry was happy with her.
He was just a different person. type of a look for her wedding. I could tell the my uncle Jerry was happy with her.
He was just a different person.
Lisa said that no matter what happened in her life
when she was having problems, Jerry seemed to understand her.
Only time would tell if this was a union destined to last.
She said she loved him and, you know,
it made him feel good and he was happy to get married to her.
Then not long before Jerry and Lisa's fifth anniversary came the nightmarish events of December 7th 2014.
that night, 57-year-old Jerry O'Rock was found beaten to death behind a local supermarket. As detectives examine the crime scene, they take a closer look at the condition of Jerry's body.
It was a beating death, a significant amount of light.
The implement that was being used to beat him, He was struck so powerfully that it cut his ear through.
While that unknown weapon isn't recovered at the scene,
investigators do find other potential clues.
Within five to ten feet, a can cozy that had a can of beer in it.
There was spilled beer at Dessene.
There was a plastic bag with several other beer cans there.
Nearby, investigators find what could be a crucial piece of evidence.
Bloody wooden sprinters.
It's likely that it was part of the murder weapon that broke off during the course of the attack. evidence, bloody wooden sprinters.
It's likely that it was part of the murder weapon
that broke out during the course of the assault.
Coming up, the lone witness helps investigators
piece together Jerry's final moments.
He went home, brought his cell phone,
and went back down there, which was unusual in his cell.
He felt that it was going to escalate
into something more than just a argument. Police in the small town of Elwood City, Pennsylvania are investigating the murder of 57-year-old Gerald O'Rock,
Jr.
The body was laying in the parking lot
loading area of the rear of the store.
While processing the scene, investigators
discovered bloody splinters that are believed
to be a part of the murder weapon.
They thought that at least a part of the murder weapon. They've thought at least a portion of the murder weapon broke off in the course of
Gerry O'Rock being beat with it.
Evidence texts collect the pieces, while detectives interview the lone witness.
The man says the attack happened while he was taking his evening stroll just a block away.
He noticed a man and a woman appearing to face each other and speak. He really couldn't get a good look.
By the way, they were reacting to each other. He felt that it was going to escalate into something more than just a argument.
The witness says it was then that the argument turned violent,
and the male was knocked to the ground.
Another person with an object that he described as a branch
or a log came right up on him and stood over him.
The witness did not have his cell phone.
He walked to the O1 police station
and attempted to advise the police.
After the gentleman left, he went home,
got his cell phone, and went back down there,
which was unusual in his cell phone.
And he actually was the first one to see the individual
laying on the ground.
As to the identity of these individuals,
unfortunately, the time of the attack
does investigators know favors.
It was dark.
There was a lamp, but probably hard to see in the shadows.
He couldn't identify them by race or by age,
other than by voices and sizes.
Police widen their search of the scene.
They soon discover there may be more than one witness
to this murder.
I see a camera up on the back of the grocery store
and I thought we'd get hold of the store owner
and see if we can get the video.
While investigators wait for the owner to arrive at the scene,
they begin to focus on a motive.
Had Jerry O'Rock simply been in the wrong place
at the wrong time?
Or had he been targeted?
Nothing at the scene suggests a motive for the fatal beating, though
police rule out robbery. He had his wallet with him, so we are felt that there
was no robbery involved. Some strong feelings generated that use of force. People get
killed because of sex or money, and those are the two things I would look to. I don't
want to make it out to be that Elwood City's a drug paradise,
but there's the drug pipeline
from Detroit into Elwood.
If he owed a drug deal or money,
he may have sustained that type of beating.
The drug angle is plausible for Detective Kingston,
considering Jerry O'Rock's history.
About 10 years prior, we had a rest of them for selling drugs.
It was definitely a recreational marijuana user.
Ever since I known them, Jerry would frequent the bars.
So there's three bars within immediate vicinity of the crime scene.
So we figured we'd start there to see if maybe Jerry came from one of the bars.
A canvas of the area yields no new information, and investigators find nothing that specifically
points to a drug deal gone wrong, certainly not for a recreational pot smoker.
By now, the grocery store owner has arrived, and investigators are eager to get the security footage.
The camera was not functional.
It was just there as a deterrent and was not working.
Obviously, it was disappointed.
As the mystery deepens, the next task is a difficult one,
notifying Jerry's next of kin, which includes his wife,
40-year-old Lisa Jones O'Rock.
When police are unable to find a current address for Lisa,
their next step is to pay a visit to her mother's house.
It was early Sunday morning, and I peaked out and was the police. And he said to Jerry's dad, I instantly assumed it was a drug overdose.
I didn't know. They asked me if Lisa was with me. I said no.
The mother explained that Lisa was staying with her friend, David Cambio.
David Cambio went to high school with her and he's more Lisa's age.
The mother texted Lisa that the initial contact
between the Pennsylvania State Police and Lisa was arranged.
Investigators set out to meet Lisa
in the parking lot of a convenience store near David Cambio's house.
The state police were at that point
hailing the investigation, so we were just
trying to provide where to look for everybody.
Another officer is tasked with notifying Jerry's family.
But the Orox have already learned about the murder
in the worst possible way.
Can't afford news came to the house.
And the first thing they said, we're
sorry about your son being killed.
I said, I never heard nothing.
Your first person has told me.
I was really in shock then.
The day it happened that he was murdered,
someone called me and then it was all over the news
and Facebook.
And I just remember, you know, dropping to the ground
like, oh my God. After the officer sends the news and Facebook. And I just remember dropping to the ground like, oh my God.
After the officer sends the news crews away,
he begins the process of interviewing Jerry's
bereaved family.
There was nobody that I could ever dream about would kill him.
Nobody had shocked me.
Jerry's family strongly refutes the idea
that he could have been murdered in a drug deal gone bad.
He was in jail in his younger years
in and out of prison, actually, for selling drugs.
And he did settle down.
He wasn't trouble when he was younger,
but he paid his dues.
And he wasn't like that anymore. He didn't trouble when he was younger, but he paid his dues. And he wasn't like that anymore.
He didn't do heavy drugs.
When asked about Jerry's relationship with his wife, Lisa,
his family has a lot more to say.
Lisa and Jerry's relationship was always very volatile.
In fact, what had seemingly brought these two people together,
sobriety and clean living, had been short-lived.
And they did a lot of drink, and I know that.
So that led to the problem.
They separated initially after about two weeks of marriage.
However, they were back together off and on after that.
It was a very tumultuous relationship.
He always told me he loved her.
He wanted to get along, but it was just impossible.
Jerry's family says, after four and a half years
of marital drama, he and Lisa decided to split.
He was trying to get it forced from her.
She filed all the papers and everything.
And when it came down to get Jerry to sign the papers,
he wouldn't sign them.
He would say he was done.
But then, sure enough, he would always go back.
She'd always call them, and he'd go back every time.
Coming up, the investigation takes a turn
when a new person of interest surfaces.
There's a concern whether there was a romantic relationship.
We couldn't rule him out as being involved in it because she was at the house.
The hardest true crime story to report on is your own.
I'm Tiffany Reese, host of the podcast Something was Wrong.
For 15 seasons, I've always aimed to validate and amplify the voices of those who have survived
abuse and crime.
But for season 16, I'm opening up for the first time about my own experiences as an abuse
survivor and a murder co-victim.
With the help of trusted friends,
we'll unpack my journey to becoming a victim advocate
by examining my past.
From the emotional and physical abuse
I endured at the hands of my parents
and the bullying I received from my classmates
to the murder of my brother and the securities fraud
my father was convicted of.
I'm covering it all and even learning more
about myself through
this process. This is obviously a very personal journey for me, but I believe that this will
play a part in my healing helping me to process the trauma that I endured. Follow something
was wrong wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon
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Just hours into the investigation of Jerry O'Rock Jr.'s murder, detectives in L. Wood City are getting a clearer picture of Jerry's relationship
with his estranged wife, Lisa Jones O'Rock. Family members say it's one that
had become increasingly volatile.
When they were really bad fights and stuff, she would come to me, knowing that if Jerry showed up, I would call the police.
According to family and friends, alcohol abuse only fueled the couple's problems.
It had gotten so bad between Lisa and Jerry that they had filed protection from abuse orders
against each other on several occasions.
A lot of those PFA's get dropped after the preliminary stage
because the parties make up or get packed together.
Friends and families say the most dramatic event
occurred nine months earlier when Lisa was
staying at a friend's house.
These friends also knew Jerry, and Jerry showed up, not knowing Lisa was there.
Because of a protection order, Jerry was not allowed to be around Lisa.
Jerry allegedly refused to leave.
The fight started and it just escalated.
Jerry wouldn't let up.
And Lisa was probably getting her licks in too.
She got a box cutter.
He wasn't doing what she wanted him to do,
so she attempted to castrate him.
State police investigators find the story made the local papers, but in the end, charges
filed against both of them didn't go anywhere.
Officers would start the investigation, but either Jerry or Lisa or both of them would
fail to appear at the time of the hearing, so the charges were dismissed because neither
them wished to pursue them. them would fail to appear at the time of the hearing. So the charges were dismissed because neither of them
wished to pursue them.
Still, it raises some red flags about Lisa.
Had she and Jerry been working to mend their relationship
in recent weeks, or was Lisa on the war path?
At around 3 a.m., investigators speak with Lisa in the parking lot of a local convenience store,
not far from her friend David Cambio's home.
When he first told her that Jerry had been killed, she seemed to be emotional.
When he told her that it appeared that he had been beaten to death,
she indicated that no one should die like that,
but that, if anyone deserved it, was here.
Detectives ask Lisa about the alleged box cutter incident.
According to Lisa, her estranged husband was both abusive and a liar. She claims he made up the incident
after she called police that night
for violating the protective order.
She told me she was out on the sidewalk
sitting on the curb, talking to the 911 operator.
Injury was in the house, chopping up his pants
with the box cutter.
So when the police got there, he said,
she tried to castrate me, thinking
that the police is gonna throw her in jail for assault.
Lisa describes another incident
where Jerry terrorized her mother and son
with a prank phone call.
It was very, very early in the morning.
And I was still in bed.
I picked it up and it's Jerry.
And it's this wicked, wicked loud.
I killed her. I killed Lisa.
And then he hung up.
And I'm like, oh my god.
I jumped out of bed and I went to the bathroom.
And he was awake.
He was doing something on the computer.
And I said, that was Jerry.
He said he killed your mother.
Do I believe it? And he jumped out of bed and he said, call the Jerry. He said he killed your mother. Do I believe it?
And he jumped out of bed and he said, call the police.
And we did.
We're all in the living room.
And Lisa shows up very much alive and all beat up.
They were toxic for each other.
They would get physical with each other, not just one
on the other, but it would happen in both ways.
She was accused of attempting to cut off his penis with a box cutter,
and he was accused of calling her parents and telling them that she was dead.
Those two incidents kind of moved the weirdness needle for me.
But is there volatile relationship enough to suspect Lisa is behind the murder?
She said she didn't have anything to do with it.
She indicated that she had been
at the Cambio residence really all day.
Dave Cambio and Lisa were friends
from as long as I couldn't remember
from when they were in school.
They were always good friends
and they would party once in a while.
Lisa claims she and David had spent the afternoon
watching a Steelers game and she stayed all night.
Not would have been between three and four,
sometime after the end of the Steelers game,
they just lounged around the house
until it was bedtime, but she indicated that.
She did not leave the residence
and there were no visitors that came there.
The lone witness had told investigators that he saw a man and a woman at the scene of
the crime, which raises the question, had Jerry O'Rock slaying been a crime of passion
perpetrated by his estranged wife and a secret lover?
There's a concern whether there was a romantic relationship. After all, Jerry and Lisa's doomed love affair
had also blossomed after a long time friendship.
The state police were trying to decide
who were the players in this.
Would it have been Lisa and Cambio?
We couldn't rule him out as being involved in it
because she was at the house.
While police continue to question Lisa,
another team of investigators converge on David Cambio's house.
We wanted to split him up to make sure
that we could get two stories.
He was straightforward but cautious with them.
And by that, I mean, they wanted his cell phone number.
He didn't want to give it up initially.
When asked about his relationship with Lisa O'Rock,
David's emphatic.
Mr. Cambio and Lisa both denied that there was a romantic relationship.
So far, Lisa's alibi seems to be holding up.
Cambios said that they wish the football game.
But David isn't done talking.
He fell asleep shortly after the game.
And when he awoken about 7 or 8 p.m.,
she was not there.
She said that they were at the house the whole night,
and Dave Cambio immediately discounted that whole statement.
He said that she had left.
She called him shortly after 10 p.m. and asked him to pick her up at pizza jose.
He did pick her up, and she was standing there.
He was somewhat vague about it, but he did say that he
believed Zach was with her.
Zach is Lisa's 22-year-old son.
And there's another detail about David Cambio's story
that catches the investigator's attention.
Pizza Joe's become significant to us because that's a very short distance from the grocery store.
Approximately a thousand feet away from it.
Coming up, while detectives continue to sort through what is fact or fiction,
they receive a tip that changes everything.
In that Facebook exchange,
it wasn't something that I took a liking to,
but he deserved it,
and no one will ever tell me different.
Less than 24 hours after the murder of 57-year-old Jerry Lee O'Rock Jr., investigators have learned
all about the victim's roller coaster relationship with his estranged wife.
40-year-old Lisa Jones O'Rock.
Now, whether he realizes it or not,
Lisa O'Rock's friend, David Cambio,
has given police an unexpected revelation.
She said she had left the house.
And then Cambio immediately said that she wasn't
there the whole night, so that kind of blew that alibi theory.
The officer relays that information
to his colleagues who are still interviewing Lisa.
The troopers talk to each other via cell phone to see where the discrepancies were in the story,
so they can be confronted about those discrepancies.
When she was confronted with Cambio's statements, she revised that, and it almost became a new interview,
because there were new facts being discussed.
Once you can get past the initial line, then you can start getting to the facts.
She then gave them a second story as to what happened, which was more in keeping with the story
that Cambio had told the officers
about the sequence of events.
For the first time, Lisa admits
that she had left David Cambio's house
on the night of December 7th,
and that she met up with her son, Zachary Jones,
at a local convenience store.
They spoke for a few moments,
and then they both walked away in different directions.
She indicated that she stopped in a small community park.
She stayed there, perhaps an hour.
She drank from a pop bottle which she had put vaudec in as she sat in that park.
Lisa says by then it was about 10.30 pm, so she called David Cambio to come pick her
up at the pizza parlor.
Detectives ask why she hadn't been truthful with them earlier.
She responds by saying, well, she had lied, but she was afraid to admit to that because
she was the wife and she didn't want anyone to think she's the one who had killed him.
Investigators don't let her off the hook that easily.
They ask Lisa to accompany them to the state police barracks for a more conventional interview.
They began this second more formal interview by reviewing what was said.
Lisa remains adamant that she did not kill her husband.
While she's being interviewed, a phone call to the barracks
changes everything.
They had had a call at the barracks
from a young woman who represented
that she had been a friend of
Zach's from school, a former girlfriend. She had contacted Zach via Facebook when
she saw that there had been a death reported in Elwood City. She said that she had
been speaking to Zach Jones by Facebook Messenger and that he had told her that he was involved in that killing.
He confessed to her what had happened,
what he did, and she called the police station.
The trooper delivers the woman's message
to the investigator interviewing Lisa.
There was a lot of very careful questioning
by the investigators, and then he offered to
her that they knew from Zach that he admitted to do this striking, and she said no, she denied
that.
Zach would have said such a thing, she didn't believe it, unless she heard it from Zach's
mouth himself.
Investigators asked the caller to email the Facebook confession
so they can show it to Lisa.
They reviewed it with her so that she could see what Zach had put
on.
An In-Nose Facebook post, he indicates
that he had killed Gerry O'Rock that night
in the trouble he was having coping with what had happened.
And Zach indicated in that Facebook exchange,
it wasn't something that I took a liking to,
but he deserved it, and no one will ever tell me different.
After reviewing those posts, Lisa really didn't know
for much further explanation, merely stated, I did it.
I did it. Zach didn't do it. She pretty much confesses that she was involved in the killing.
But investigators suspect that's only part of the story. And the question could Lisa be
lying to protect Zack?
She denied it the first that he was even there, then revised that that he was there, but he
took no part in it.
The witness to the murder had told police that he saw a man and a woman at the scene.
At first, investigators suspected Lisa Jones O'Rock and her close friend David Cambio.
With this new information, they revised that theory.
Dave Cambio is ruled out as a suspect.
After Lisa is placed under arrest,
investigators shift their focus to her son, Zach Jones,
who's unaware that police have a copy of his confession.
While Troopers race to find Zack, Lisa gives her account of the murder to detectives.
According to Lisa, Jerry only got more possessive as their separation dragged on.
Lisa says it didn't matter what she told Jerry.
He kept coming back.
Jerry was always known as, uh, hothead.
She went to so much effort to stay away from me.
Lisa claims that when she didn't respond
to Jerry's repeated calls or texts,
he zeroed in on her son, Zach.
There had been a text sent from Oroch to Zach.
Lisa indicated that the text was threatening to Zach.
It was nothing that I recall in any of the texts
that posed a direct threat.
Other than I'm not going to stop, I need to talk to Lisa.
She's my spouse.
Lisa says after their history of abuse, Jerry's actions hit a nerve.
She did not want him involving her son.
Jerry just put Zach in the middle of it.
And then it was a horrible thing for Zach.
She read it and she snapped. Coming up, Lisa admits she lost control,
but did she really?
What kind of mother would ask her son to do something like that?
On December 8, 2014,
Lisa Jones Oroch told Pennsylvania State Police that after years of abuse
and fear for her son's well-being, she knew she had to put a stop to her estranged
husband's behavior.
She snapped and she had enough and she couldn't take any more.
She told Mr. Oroch that she wanted to talk and maybe work things out.
He was anxious to do that.
Lisa admits that was all just a ruse
to get Jerry to meet her.
I believe that was her plan to lure her
into this area and rough him up a little bit.
That night, Lisa met Jerry behind Lachosanos' grocery store.
She brought her son Zachary along for protection and a hidden weapon.
Lisa had carried a board or a portion of a board from furniture to the scene.
She had carried it under her jacket, so it would be less noticeable.
When they all came together behind lock the sannos,
an argument started.
Lisa says it was that makeshift weapon
that ended Jerry's life.
You met her behind the store, and they beat him today.
Lisa tries not to implicate Zach in the attack.
She was trying to take the blame for most of it.
By now, investigators have brought Zach to the barracks
for questioning.
Zach indicated that Lisa had carried a board to the scene.
However, when they got to the scene and confronted Jerry,
Zach indicated that she had actually
passed it to him.
That puts this board into the hands of Zach.
Investigators know why Lisa harbored animosity towards Jerry,
but why would Zack?
First and foremost was his mother's relationship
with Jerry O'Rock.
Zach described for us that early on,
they seemed to have a good relationship.
But then both of them began to drink,
and when that happened, it was volatile.
Zach tells investigators that he accompanied his mother
to meet Jerry at the grocery store that night.
Zach says as the two were arguing,
he snuck up on Jerry from behind.
Zach talks about using that to beat him,
as well as to kick him and punch him
once he was done on the ground.
He said that he dropped the board, and she hit him.
Zach's reasoning was that Jerry was violent
towards his mother and had beat her up too many times.
Both Lisa and Zachary claim they never meant to kill Jerry.
They just wanted to teach him a lesson.
The situation escalated.
One thing led to another.
And before you know it, it turned into a homicide.
Anyone would understand that a son would want to protect
his mother.
And even though they didn't want to kill the perpetrator,
they may certainly want to apply a beating.
Following their confessions,
Zach and his mother Lisa are charged with Jerry Orox death.
The autopsy report indicates that there was a fractured skull
in the area of one of the years.
So we know that there was tremendous force
that was placed there.
They both went there with the intent
to beat him with that implement,
who hit first or who hit last, not as significant.
News of the arrests soon reaches the community.
We're not used to that kind of behavior in our city.
When something like this happens,
the whole community is...
in an upward.
While Lisa's family and supporters stand by her,
Jerry O'Rock's family doesn't buy Lisa and her son's
version of events.
We just want to hurt him.
Why didn't he get a press flight with him?
Why would you walk up behind him and hit him up with a head?
To me, that's what the killing is.
As for Zachary Jones' part, they believe Jerry would still be alive
if it weren't for his mother's manipulative actions.
Jerry was trying to get his force, but she went stay away from him.
She didn't want him anymore.
She just would not leave him alone.
Still, as the case marches closer to trial, authorities can't dispel the potential impact the couple's long history of domestic abuse might have on jurors.
You could see why a jury may look at that and say that there was a reason for what happened and it just got taken too far.
In the end, authorities decide to offer Lisa and her son a plea deal, which they accept.
Lisa was sentenced to a period of incarceration of not less than four and a half years,
nor more than nine years, on the charge of voluntary manslaughter.
When the sentencing came about, she told the judge through tears that it's her fault her husband's gone
and she'll live without to rest of her life.
Zachary, who was not a direct victim of physical violence
at the hands of Jerry O'Rock, receives a somewhat
harsher sentence.
Zachary was sentenced to a period of incarceration.
Not less than six, nor more than 12 years
on the charge of volunteering manslaughter.
I don't think I've ever been pleased with the outcome
of a homicide prosecution.
You're dealing with a death of a person
in this situation of very brutal death.
She ruined three lives, three families.
My daughter lost the brother and she still broke up about it.
My younger son, he lost the brother.
I lost the son.
I'd like to end up with a message too,
anybody in an abusive relationship,
especially if they're children.
It's not going to get better.
Leave. Run and hide if you have to. It's not going to get better. Leave.
Run and hide if you have to.
You're worth it.
Lisa Jones-O-Rock was released from prison on November 25th, 2020.
Zachary Jones is currently incarcerated at Albion State Correctional Facility.
His prison sentence will be followed by a period of four years' probation.
Abuse is never okay.
If you are someone you love is in an abusive relationship,
there is help available, called the Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE.
For more information on SNAPED, go to oxygen.com.