Fatal Family Feud

0:00Music

0:14On July 9th, 2004, at about 11 o 'clock that night, I was laying down, getting ready to go to bed. Way off in the distance, I heard what I thought was a high-powered gunshot. It was definitely a distinctive sound. Within 15 minutes, I got a phone call from my sergeant telling me that somebody had been shot on Old Mill Road. My name is Greg Sorenson. I'm a detective with the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department. 911, there was a big bang and some guy was screaming, help, help, help. It sounded like a gunshot. The man was yelling for help about four or five times. I think we need an ambulance and maybe police.

0:58Most of the neighbors were startled by hearing the gunfire. It frightened them. Some of them would not look outside, and those that did saw Jared lying on the entryway in the doorstep of his apartment complex. He had been shot. The victim was Jared Davidson, who was a UC Santa Barbara graduate student. Jared was incredibly kind and funny. He really was a joy to everybody who knew him. He was one of those fun people you just wanted to be around because he made your life better. We're Jared's cousins. We were raised more like brothers and sisters. Now I need to smile.

1:49Kelly and Jared were both in chemistry, and that's how they met. But when Kelly got pregnant, he married her because that is the right thing to do.

1:59He went to school full time, he worked full time, he took care of that baby. He did so much. It really was Kelly who decided to leave. She wanted a child and she wanted it all for herself. Are you ready? He cherished his daughter, Malia. Yay! It was all about her. Everything he was doing at that point was to create a better life for her. Hey, Malia, can I see your eyes? Where are your eyes? Any time you throw a penny into a well or blow on the pussy willow to make a wish, she says, I wish my daddy was here. Where's your daddy? Yeah, I'm your daddy.

2:48It was one shot that killed Jared Davidson. This was not a random shooting. We noticed that there was a potted plant lying near the doorstep. It had a card that said, to my teacher. The plant had been used as a ruse to get him to come out of the apartment. The person who killed him was hiding back in the shadows. There was one person who we focused on. I thought I knew definitely who did it.

3:25Murder comes knocking.

3:42When I found out he was murdered, I just kept screaming out. He was so good. He was so good. In July 2004, Jared Davidson was shot to death outside his apartment in Santa Barbara. He was just 27 years old.

4:09It has destroyed a happy, loving family. Our family used to be so filled with joy and laughter. Jared's cousins, Courtney and Marissa, grew up close to Jared and his younger brother, Michael. When it's the three of us, when it's our family and he's missing, it hurts. It hurts. He was someone that I looked up to, that I loved to hang out with, loved to fight with, loved to play with. I lost my best friend. This is when we thought we were going to be a businessman. The tragedy has scarred everyone in this tight-knit family. I'd give anything to take that day back. I would. Jared's parents, Richard and Susan, remember their son as athletic but quiet.

4:55He was very shy and really very sweet. It was not until he was in college that Jared discovered his true passion. Somehow he got involved in chemistry class and chemistry just became his life. And it was in chemistry class where he met Kelly Jones. It was the first day of classes and we were both going to our organic chemistry lab. There was a misprint in schedule, so I happened to end up in the wrong room on the right day. And he was in the right room on the wrong day. About a year after they met, Jared and Kelly moved in together. And not long after that, they had some big news to break to both families.

5:38We sat down at a table across from each other and immediately he said, the reason you're here is because Kelly's pregnant. And not a heartbeat after that, she said, and I'm not having an abortion. Were you trying to get pregnant? No. This was a surprise. She was a pleasant surprise. Did you ever wonder if she got pregnant intentionally? Yes. Do you think she did? Yes. Kelly was three months pregnant in January of 2000 when she and Jared got married. It was beautiful. The wedding was perfect. I was really happy. But from the very beginning, the marriage showed signs of trouble. I remember once after they were married, she started complaining that he didn't squeeze the toothpaste right.

6:27and I said, you know what? Me and my boyfriend have the exact same problem. We've decided to buy two separate tubes of toothpaste. You have yours, I have mine. Life will go on. She looked at me like I had said the most ridiculous thing in the world and she went, no, he just needs to do it the right way. The first time I met her, I said, oh, she's such a nice girl. I'm so happy for Jared. The next time I met her, liked her a little bit less. Next time liked her a little bit less. In July of that year, Kelly gave birth to a girl, who they named Malia. He was so happy, just so proud and so happy.

7:11But those happy feelings didn't last very long. Besides the new baby, Jared and Kelly were both still in school. Let's go with this one more time. And he worked part-time teaching. In fact, they both had jobs. So most of the child care fell to Kelly's parents, Phil and Mindy Jones. Kelly thought family was her and her mother, and her mother telling her what to do about everything. And Jared thought family was him and Kelly and Malia, and them making decisions for their own family. Jared and Kelly's relationship continued to deteriorate. Richard and I said, we're concerned about you. Is everything okay?

7:51And what did he say? No, it's not. I'm not sure what to do. He seemed to never be home. It was one thing after another. You know, it was, I need to go to the library and study. I have a test tomorrow. So I kind of felt like a single mom. She started making accusations that he wasn't home enough, that he must be sleeping with his study partner.

8:17Before Malia's first birthday, Jared had moved out and filed for divorce. The court awarded Kelly custody and granted Jared visitation. But Kelly made it very difficult for Jared to see his own daughter. She controlled when he got to see her and that was rarely. I thought because I had done most of the care giving that it might do both of them a little bit of good to take their time and ease into it. But over time, things only got worse. Giddy up! Yee-haw! Fighting over Malia went on for the next three years. At times, Jared and Kelly both dragged Sheriff's deputies into the mess to mediate their visitation disputes.

9:05There were numerous occasions where he had gone to try to pick up his child at her residence and was denied access to the child. When Santa Barbara detective Greg Sorenson was called to Jared's apartment the night of the murder, he was already well aware of the family's domestic problems. Instantly, I thought of his ex-wife possibly being involved in this. But neighbors had reported seeing two suspicious-looking people quickly leaving the apartment complex. One person was described as a female. Could it have been Kelly? Possibly. Kelly was immediately brought in for questioning. I told her during the course of the interview that he had been murdered.

9:46She didn't show a lot of emotion. It wasn't until we had mentioned to her how we were suspicious of the way she reacted to us telling her that he had been murdered, then she started to cry. While she may have had a motive to commit murder, Kelly also had a very strong alibi for that night. telling detectives she was with her daughter and a friend some 90 miles away from here, Jared's apartment. Her story checked out. Still, investigators were not convinced that Kelly was entirely innocent. Finally, the big break they desperately needed came, thanks to, of all things, that potted plant found at the crime scene.

10:29Highly unusual to see a plant out on the walkway in this particular location. Detectives believe that someone had knocked on the door, delivering the plant as a gift, to lure Jared outside.

10:46The plant had been purchased at a nearby store just minutes before the murder. We acquired some videotape surveillance of the person purchasing the plant. A person who appeared to be wearing a disguise. She's wearing a baseball cap. She's wearing a large, baggy sweatshirt. That's the same description of the female seen leaving Jared's apartment complex just after the shooting. It looked like Kelly Davidson. Same size, same build, and walked similar to her.

11:21The investigation was just beginning. It would take nearly five months for detectives to realize this case was anything but simple.

11:52If they're bringing me in for questioning, they must have reason to believe that I'm involved somehow. I don't think she's as innocent and naive as she tries to make herself look. I truly believe that she was the person that was down here buying that potted plant. Detective Sorensen thinks there's more than just this store video that could link Kelly to her ex-husband Jared's murder.

12:28him and knew his background. Detectives are convinced that the gift card in the plant that was found outside of Jared Davidson's apartment had his name purposely misspelled. It looked like the person was trying to disguise their handwriting and disguise their true knowledge of his name. That's all a pretty good theory, but it is not hard evidence, which this case badly needed if ever there was going to be an arrest. Finally, five months after Jared's murder, detectives got another big break. And once again, the potted plant would play a pivotal role. But this time it was from the plastic card holder, much like this one, that was in the plant found near Jared's body.

13:19A state crime lab showed us how it discovered female DNA on that cardholder. Apparently from someone's hands. This is the first piece of hard physical evidence that you have to work with. That's true. And Detective Sorensen felt pretty sure he knew whose DNA was on the cardholder. Happy birthday to you. Are you ready? Go down with me. We immediately went to Kelly Davidson with a search warrant for her DNA. If anybody had the motive to have this carried out, it was her. In trying to build a case against Kelly, detectives decided to focus on her relationship with her parents, Phil and Mindy Jones.

14:08You're pretty close with your parents, right? Extremely. You discuss a lot of things with each other? Yes. As far as I was concerned, we discussed everything. More than that, investigators quickly determined that Kelly didn't make a move without consulting her parents, especially her mother. Kelly didn't make decisions. Kelly didn't make decisions? Who made the decisions? Mindy. Phil and Mindy Jones actively supported their daughter in her visitation and custody fight with Jared. These are people that you're either with us or you're against us. And God forbid you be against them. It became a long and ugly court battle.

14:55And Kelly's parents clearly saw Jared as being against them. The arrangement was that he would pick up Kelly's apartment. But because Kelly worked late, then he would have to drop her off to Mindy and Phil. Early on, they would call him names. Such as? To his face? No, to Malia's face. She'd take Malia out of the car and say, your daddy's an asshole. Sometimes, weeks would go by, and Jared would be kept from seeing his child.

15:36They started attacking me in the courtroom saying that I wasn't cooperating, that I was doing everything that I could to be vindictive and take her away from him. And you didn't see it that way? No, I didn't. But a judge apparently did. In these court documents, a judge condemned Kelly's ongoing refusal to allow Jared to see his daughter. The judge questioned Kelly's honesty and her respect for court orders, strongly suggesting that if she continued to deny Jared visitation, Kelly could actually lose custody of Malia altogether. I think they got very scared that they were going to lose Malia. Jared Davidson was going to go back to court to try to get full custody of that girl.

16:21And that is the last thing that they wanted to have happen. They wanted him out of their lives. They wanted him out of the picture. It was just 19 days before that hearing that Jared was murdered. And then the last weekend. My sweetie. I'm only in the water. My love.

16:55I know. Investigators decided to question Phil. He denied any involvement in the killing and told them he couldn't have shot Jared because he is physically incapable of holding or firing a rifle. Phil claims he'd been disabled in a nearly fatal car accident back in the early 1980s when he worked as a carpenter. Phil had painted the picture and told us that his hand was crippled and he couldn't carry anything. They're walking back towards me. You got them, Juan? Well, we decided to put surveillance on them and just to see how incapacitated he really is. They followed Phil and Mindy with hidden cameras and just look what they found.

17:44See, right here you can see that Phil picks up a case of what I believe is wine, and it's certainly heavier than a rifle. He was flying. Right. If Kelly's father was lying about that, Detective Sorenson wondered what else might he be lying about. Phil and Mindy Jones told investigators they were on a beach, some 90 miles away from Jared, when he was ambushed and gunned down. What they didn't realize was their cell phone was tracking their every move, and it indicated they were nowhere near the beach. The cell site information was telling us something completely different. for it. Cell Tower records indicate that Kelly placed a call to her parents that night before the murder occurred and that they were actually driving down a highway directly towards Jared's apartment.

18:37Well, that's very critical. That punches a big hole in their alibi of being at the beach. But there is still the unanswered question about whose DNA is on that plant cart holder. Sorensen is shocked to learn it is not Kelly's, it's her mother's. Mindy Jones, who he now suspects played a pivotal role in Jared's murder. I believe that Melinda was the one who put the plan together in exactly how they were going to eliminate him. So six months after Jared Davidson's fatal shooting, his ex-mother-in-law, Mindy Jones, is arrested for his murder. Detectives take a closer look at the store surveillance video and now believe it is Mindy, not her daughter Kelly, who is seen buying that potted plant used to lure Jared out of his apartment.

19:33When she checked out of the checkout stand, she had the sleeves of her sweatshirt pulled up over her hands, which appeared to us that she was doing everything she could to cover up possible fingerprints on the pot. Apparently, Mindy let her guard down for just one critical moment, a moment caught on just one frame of that store video. See that a person appears to reach and grab what we believe was a plastic cardholder. The moment detectives believe Mindy transfers DNA from her hand to the cardholder. So if not for the DNA, you may not have even been able to make an arrest? That's true. Phil Jones is arrested not long after his wife, Mindy.

20:20Detectives are now convinced they both murdered their ex-son-in-law. We retraced the steps that detectives believe they took that night. Melinda went up to the door, placed the plant down at the doorstep, knocked on his door. while Philip was about 15 to 20 feet away over in the bushes with that high-powered rifle. Jared peered out the window to look to see what was outside. He went to get the plant, and at that point, Philip Jones shot and killed him.

21:02Even though Kelly was nowhere near the crime scene, she is also arrested. Though her alleged role in all of this is far from clear. I believe that she was involved in the planning of this murder. From the beginning. From the beginning. At this point, though, there is no evidence to support that. And Kelly and her parents all claim they are innocent. The reality of it is I had nothing to do with the death of Malia's father. I did not kill her father.

21:46Hey, Malia, where's your nose? Nose. Malia, well not no, but a wonderful person her father was. Where's your daddy? You know how devoted he was to her. Come on down, little munchkin. Next to Jared himself, perhaps the most tragic victim of this murder is Jared's little girl, Malia, who was just three years old at the time of the shooting. We have relied on psychologists to tell us how to interact with Malia, particularly over this. Malia turned six in 2006. We agreed not to show what she looked like. All right, sweetie, that's good. There's a car coming. She has suffered an overwhelming loss. Her father was murdered.

22:37Her mother was arrested. As were the grandparents with whom she had spent nearly every day of her life. She has said, I don't have a mommy now, and I don't have a daddy, and I'm different. Jared's parents are now raising Malia and trying to help her deal with this tremendous vacuum in her life. I think the wisest thing that the therapist ever said to us was, if you treat her as if she's broken, she will be. And to be honest with her. When Jared was murdered, Kelly had told Malia only that a bad man had shot her daddy. In her therapy session, she drew a picture of a bad man standing over a body with a gun in his hand.

23:25Does she know who that bad man is? We chose through the coaching of the psychologist because she brought that up. She said, well, Papa was the bad man who shot your daddy. What was her reaction? Family don't kill family. What was he thinking? 17 months after Jared Davidson's murder, authorities finally managed to get Philip Jones to confess to the killing. But he does so only when prosecutors agree that his daughter Kelly will not be tried for the murder. It was not easy to hear that she was cutting such a deal. I think she helped plan it. I'm sure she found joy in it. The Davidsons go to court to see their son's killer sentenced.

24:14Nobody has anything to say at all. But it is a stunningly different Philip Jones they see. While in jail, he has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. I know that I am dying and will meet with my maker very soon. Struggling just to breathe, Phil Jones admits he pulled the trigger. I shot and killed Jared. Mindy and I believed that we needed to do something. As part of a plea deal, the judge reluctantly allows Kelly's father to offer his explanation for why he did it. Sometimes good people do terrible things. Philip Jones claims that Jared was molesting Malia and had to be stopped. I did a terrible thing.

25:12He killed Jared Davidson to protect our granddaughter. but Jared Davidson did a terrible thing, too. The sickening accusation against Jared first came from Kelly, roughly four months before the murder. Kelly says she learned of it from Malia. I just thought with her going to preschool that maybe she needs to know where it's okay for people to touch her and where it's not. In the end, I asked if anybody touched her somewhere they shouldn't have, And when she said yes, I said, who? And she said, my daddy does. Kelly contacted the authorities, and Detective Sorensen was assigned to help investigate what was a very serious allegation.

25:57And at first, it seemed there might be something to the charge. Jared Davidson took a polygraph examination with our department. A lie detector test that Sorensen says Jared failed over one key question. It was a question about inappropriate touching. He was very nervous, which was understandable. Because stress can sometimes lead to false results, Jarrett's parents paid for him to undergo a second, privately administered polygraph test, which he passed. Investigators dug deeper and found no evidence to substantiate the claim. We were not able to find any physical evidence, any corroborating statements, anything that would show that, yes, he did molest that girl.

26:47Prosecutors refused to take the case. It was rejected, and it was their belief that there was no molestation. It was fabricated. That is also the firm belief of the entire Davidson family, who are horrified by the allegations, believing Kelly made them up for her custody fight. Is Kelly lying about the molestation charges? Absolutely. Richard Davidson, wearing his murdered son's hockey jersey, is allowed to address the court. Thank you, Your Honor. He angrily defends Jared. We have also seen repeated lies told solely for the purpose of slandering Jared's good name as a sick attempt to justify the Defenders' Murderous Act.