44-Domestic Violence: GUILTY?: Jane Laut

Transcript

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Hi Warriors, welcome to 1 in 3,.

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I'm your host, ingrid.

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Sometimes claims of domestic violence aren't clear, even unbelievable.

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So how does one differentiate between the truth and the lies?

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I don't have that answer.

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A prime example of this is the story of Jane and Dave Lout.

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Dave and Jane Lout met when they both attended Santa Clara High School in Oxford, california.

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Jane played volleyball and was homecoming queen.

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Dave was an athletic star who participated in football, basketball and track.

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Following graduation, dave attended UCLA where he broke records for shot put.

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He even scored a bronze medal in the Olympics.

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The couple didn't begin dating until after high school.

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They married in December of 1980.

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A picture-perfect couple.

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The two soon realized they were unable to conceive.

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That wasn't an issue for them, as they happily adopted their son, michael, from South Korea in 1999.

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According to Jane, dave's abuse began shortly after Michael was five years old.

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She had noticed his temper before when they were dating.

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She recalled the first time he hit her was when he was preparing for Olympic training.

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Out of town, jane was in charge of packing.

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She had forgotten to purchase some items toilet maybe.

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Dave was stressed and angry and hit her in the face.

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She suffered a split lip and a black eye.

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He brushed it off, telling her to say some N-word, did it?

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Jane complied.

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She constructed a story of how a black man mugged her, jane mentioned.

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The majority of the abuse was mostly verbal, however.

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She suffered from mental and emotional repercussions from being called fat bitch, stupid, idiot and a variety of racially inappropriate names.

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As Michael aged, he was also included in the abuse.

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Dave began to acquire guns and would often taunt his wife and son with a collection.

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He wanted Jane to play Russian roulette.

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If you're unfamiliar with Russian roulette, it involves placing one bullet into a revolver, the cylinder of the revolver is spun and the muzzle of the gun is typically placed on the temple of a person.

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The trigger is then pulled, with a one in six chance of a resultant fatal gunshot.

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Jane detailed how Dave's abuse escalated as the years went on.

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For the last two years leading to his death, dave was notably abusive nearly every day.

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Previously he was known to get angry, but then it would taper off.

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During those last few years, jane lamented as Dave drank.

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He would rage at absolutely everything.

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It became a terrifying enough experience for Michael that he asked Jane to sleep in his room each night for those two years.

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Jane and Michael spent August 27, 2009 at the beach.

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Jane and Michael spent August 27, 2009 at the beach.

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Dave's foul mood was quickly made apparent as he again began to rage.

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No-transcript.

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That night Dave had also been drinking.

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Jane positioned herself outside of Michael's room in attempts to assess the situation and intervene if necessary, expecting Dave to eventually calm down.

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She was surprised when he began heading to Michael's room.

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While holding his .22 caliber single action revolver, jane overheard Dave muttering something about killing Michael.

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Her goal then shifted to getting Dave to a place far away from their son.

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The couple headed out the door to the backyard.

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At some point.

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Jane believed they struggled for the gun.

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She denied recollection of shooting the weapon but admitted to feeling it discharge.

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She remembered sitting over Dave at one point but did not know how.

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Five more shots were fired.

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Jane made her way back inside to call 911.

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She explained how there was a possible prowler outside which her husband had gone to investigate.

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She then told the operator she heard shots fired.

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When Jane was taken in for questioning, she stuck to the original story but eventually changed it to something paralleling

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self-defense.

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At some point police questioned Jane's sister-in-law, rebecca Laut, who verified Jane, confided in her the details of verbal, psychological and emotional abuse.

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Well, if that was all to the story, it would be a fairly open and shut case in a super short episode.

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But that wasn't everything.

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Early in the investigation, things didn't seem to line up with Jane's story Either of Jane's stories.

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The gun was found hidden at the bottom of a grandfather clock.

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Jane had also clearly washed up and changed her clothes.

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Both things were thought to be something a person acting in self-defense would not do.

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Jane was arrested for the murder of Dave six months after he was killed.

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She was released on bond and remained free for the next six years while awaiting trial, and remained free for the next six years while awaiting trial.

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Finally, jane's court date arrived on January 11,

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2016.

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Dave's friends and families were interviewed and denied any knowledge of abuse Any kind of abuse.

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In fact, jane's apparent meek and quiet character quickly became tarnished.

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Remember Rebecca?

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She initially told police about Dave's verbal abuse.

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Well, she recanted, stating she no longer believed Dave had abused Jane.

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Instead, she felt Jane was somewhat of a pathological liar.

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She gave examples of how Jane had fabricated stories of being attacked by a stalker, twice being held at knife point during a robbery and other tales Rebecca described as outlandish.

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Dave's mother revealed Jane had borrowed upwards of $60,000.

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The couple had apparently failed to pay for taxes for the last few years and were behind in a few months of mortgage payments.

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There was also question regarding the PTA funds for Michael's school, which Jane was the treasurer.

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Conveniently, dave had a $300,000 life insurance policy.

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Interestingly, dave had been researching divorce attorneys the night he was

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killed.

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The prosecution presented a solid case of Jane fabricating a story of domestic abuse in order to cover up first-degree murder.

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After all, dave suffered two shots to the back of his head, one in his back, two to his face and one in his arm.

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Some of the shots were found to be at close proximity.

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Jane clearly decided to murder her husband to collect the life insurance payout and out of fear of losing her son in a custody battle if Dave did file for divorce.

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Huh, so now this case seems pretty evident.

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Jane murdered

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Dave.

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Well, jane's legal team maintained self-defense.

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She had been offered at least five plea deals, including one in which she would serve a maximum sentence of six years.

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She turned them all down because she wanted people to learn the truth of what happened.

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She had suffered years of verbal, emotional, psychological as well as physical and sexual abuse at the hand of her husband.

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Jane had friends, family and colleagues who also testified.

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They mentioned black eyes, strange bruises and the fact that Jane would often wear long-sleeved clothing even in hot

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weather.

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One of the witnesses was a now 17-year-old, michael.

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He backed his mother's claims of verbal, emotional and psychological abuse.

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He spoke of his father's temper but did not recall any physical abuse.

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Jane answered the question of why she didn't leave earlier in the relationship with a belief that things would get better.

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She opposed the financial accusations, saying Dave was the primary offender.

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Jane couldn't place where the borrowed money went beyond the $20,000 she claimed Dave threw into a fire during a fit of rage.

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She also maintained her inability to recall the events of the night Dave was killed.

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That sounds kind of fishy, doesn't

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it?

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Psychologist Catherine Emmerich also testified.

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She presented the verbal, psychological, emotional, physical and sexual abuse examples that were told to her by Jane.

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She diagnosed Jane with battered wife syndrome.

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So what exactly is battered wife syndrome?

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Battered wife syndrome, also referred to today as battered person syndrome, is a type of PTSD.

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It is determined to be a psychological effect of intimate partner violence.

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Symptoms include anxiety with triggers, flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance, depression, amnesia and disassociation, headaches, joint pain, chronic pain and autoimmune-related issues are some physical effects.

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Okay then, that was the gist of the

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trial.

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The jury had options of first-degree murder, manslaughter or justifiable homicide, which would result in an acquittal.

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They took four days to deliberate on the 59-year-old woman's fate.

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Returning to the courtroom, the jury found Jane Lout guilty of first-degree murder.

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Her sentence 50 years to life.

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She received 25 years for murder and 25 years for use of a gun in the murder.

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In 2019, the appellate court upheld her

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conviction.

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So did Jane drag the family into debt?

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Did Dave try to do the responsible thing and look into divorce, fearful of divorce and losing her son while counting the dollar signs of a large life insurance payout?

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Did Jane resort to murder?

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The jury believed so, but did the jury get it wrong?

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Was Jane, like so many domestic violence victims, ashamed of the abuse?

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Did she hide it to keep the perfect life facade?

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Was she afraid of the repercussions if she did tell, if she had not killed her abusive husband, would she and her son indeed be dead themselves, like she

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believed?

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I mentioned at the beginning of this episode how it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate if someone is telling the truth about abuse or if they are fabricating their story.

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Another fact I found among different sources is that the rate of false abuse claims is quite low, ranging from just 2 to 15% of all reported cases, and, to be honest, that 15% was high amongst most of the sources I found.

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I'll leave it up to you to come to your own conclusion on this one.

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What I would like to impart is the importance of speaking up.

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Jane had witnesses testify to what they believed was abuse, but they testified at her trial for murdering her

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husband.

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When it comes to domestic violence, I have found that people prefer to stay out of it.

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I mean, really can you blame them?

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It's a pretty big accusation.

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What if they're wrong?

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What if the victim doesn't want help?

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What if the abuser finds out and comes for them?

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What if saying something would ruin their personal or professional relationship with either the victim or the abuser?

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There are plenty of reasons to hesitate or ignore, but the one reason to say something, do something, is that you could help save a

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life.

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Thank you for listening.

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Sources for today can be found in the show notes.

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I will be back next week with another episode for you.

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Until then, stay strong and wherever you are in your journey, always remember you are not alone.

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44-Domestic Violence: GUILTY?: Jane Laut

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