Matthew Boynton went to have dinner with a colleague at Waffle House. I have been suffering for a while now and no one has noticed. The 20-year-old says he s heading to Waffle House for a late night food run with on-duty cop and best friend, Officer Joshua Guthrie--leaving his . agent who lived near Spalding County and had worked with Beam on several cases over the years. Matthew, who had been restored to patrol duty, carried a new service gun and wore his uniform, and was accompanied by Beam. Matthews wedding ring had a blue stripe, to signify he was in law enforcement. Like Piper, Whitehouse was afraid to follow through. The chief would eventually like to get his officer back, as well as his service weapon back, DeMarco told Matthew. Jessica Boynton, a 19-year-old mother of two young boys, was discovered April 15, 2016, with a bullet in her head lying in a pool of blood in a locked wardrobe closet inside the Griffin, Georgia . Jessicas grandmother made an appointment with a lawyer who could help her file for divorce. Her voice was hoarse from the breathing tubes, and she seemed childlike and dazed, as if her only goal was to accommodate the agents as quickly as she could. Ive never, ever wanted to hurt myself before., Do you think Matthew was incapable of doing this?, Honestly, I dont know, she said. King told me, Youd think it would have been simple enough to put bags on her hands and test them for gunshot residue. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. On a shelf by her head was the notebook documenting Matthews infidelity. She has a tendency to brush over painful experiences. I said, Oh, that figures. Ashley Dunn, the lead teacher in Jessicas classroom, said, We were all, like, You can do an awesome job working with ten two-year-olds but you cant see your own kids? On weekends, Dunn sometimes asked Jessica to babysit for her own children. When Matthew drove his patrol car, he would often take the keys to his truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, so that Jessica couldnt use it. Jessica would not touch a gun, she said. In a composition notebook, Jessica documented the times she assumed Matthew had been with his girlfriend, and she jotted down notes for the lawyer. 478-993-3053. You are your own person. A second psychiatrist thought she had appropriate mood and affect; appropriate judgment and insight. Her surgeon, Henderson, wrote that she was a very positive person who is embracing the opportunities that a new lease on life afforded her by her recent recovery. He went on, She has a sense of humor and has a gentle and calm personality. Murder + Horrific = Murderific.<br /><br />This episode was sponsored by Best Fiends and Scary Time Podcast by Indie Drop-In Network.<br /><br />In this episode, we discuss the toxic relationship between a couple, affairs, abuse, and a police officer who is a suspect in his wife's shooting. He asked me to go get it out before, and I told him, Youre going to have to.. Ha! Matthew Boynton allegedly deprived ex-wife Jessica Lester of her belongings and lied to the authorities about doing so, Griffin police Lt. Michael Natale said in a statement. This is Jessica Lester's story of survival. Jessica was still missing her orthodontic retainer. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late . Im, like, You dont have to ask me, he said. He didnt find any, and dismissed the protective order. Murderific True Crime Podcast. What happened on that drive became part of literary history. I didnt know if it was an active scenario, he later told investigators. the epic story of African Americans fighting World War II at home and abroad / Matthew F. Delmont. Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University and one of the few scholars who has studied the issue, reached a similar finding: one in five officers arrested for domestic violence nationwide had also been the subject of a federal lawsuit for violating peoples civil rights. The inability to pinpoint the source of Gibsons dominanceand of Beams capacity to shield other menseemed only to feed the drama and paranoia. He claimed to have personally insured Beams election. Matthew was now dating Shelby Willey, a young mother who had recently separated from her husband. Lester, Natasha; MacManus, James; MacNeal, Susan Elia; Marra, Anthony; Martin, Madeline; Matzen, Robert D. . Show Of Force The New Yorker | October 7, 2019 A policeman claimed that his wife had attempted suicide. In July, 2018, he criticized Yates on the departments Facebook page for denying Sheila Mathews, The Grips publisher, access to public informationbehavior that, Sanders said, was part of a pattern of intimidating female reporters. In an email to Neville dated March 27, 2018, Wright wrote, Just wondering if you had a chance to send me the oath of office on Matthew Boynton?, That same day, Neville replied, Sorry it took so long. She had both of the boys packed and ready to go, Dusty said. Shes offended by the idea that she would have composed something as syntactically messy as the suicide text she is alleged to have written. Henderson, the surgeon, had written Lowry a letter stating that whatever investigation there was done into this event in no way reflected our observations in the emergency room.. Will Sanders, the truck driver, reached a similar conclusion. So were going to try to expedite this as fast as possible, and, when I say expedite, I mean the next few weeks. DeMarco assured Matthew that his phone, which had been seized during the investigation, would be returned. Just before 2 a.m. on April 15th, Wendell Beam asked the sheriff of Pike County to send officers to the house. When I asked Jessica why she never left the house when she lived with Matthew, she explained, We lived in an apartment complex with a playground. But the factors that lead to abuse at homecoercion, authoritarianism, a sense of entitlement to violenceare also present in the work that police officers do on the streets. I think the city thought this would be business as usual, until a local reporter and a loser truck driver got involved, Will Sanders said. In early May, after three weeks in a coma, Jessica began to regain consciousness. She wasnt sure how to unlock the safety lever on the holster. Early that morning, Matthew was interviewed by Chris DeMarco, a G.B.I. Here are out on a good deed . Despite the months the oath reportedly could not be located, once The GRIP informed Coker it had acquired a copy, the GPD reported Boyntons original oath of office had been found. A few months after the wedding, Denise and Amy went out for lunch. Sanders was forty-three years old and the son of a former Republican state representative; he considered himself a happy beneficiary of the good-old-boys system, he told me, and did not do his work in pursuit of political reform. When asked where the oath had been located, Yates stated, It was in evidence., Asked if it had been in evidence for the six months it had been sought and reported as missing to the District Attorneys Office, Yates said, I dont know anything about their efforts to try to find it or anything about that, but it has been in evidence since we concluded the case.. The neighbor saw Matthew leaving the apartment for dinner with a coworker. Hankinson briefly paused during the hearing to see if any statutes said that attempted suicide was a form of child endangerment. Police find and verify Jessica is alive at the scene, and she is rushed to This episode was sponsored by Best Fiends and Scary Time Podcast by Indie Drop-In Network. 22:21. Matthew met Jessica during her sophomore year of high school at open house in 2012. agents canvassed the apartment complex and discovered that Megan Browning and her fianc and a couple that lived next door to Jessica were the only neighbors who had heard gunshots. Her relationship with Matthew is far from perfect and he seems to be pretty controlling. Browning, who sometimes socialized with Jessica and Matthew, cried throughout her interview. Although Gibson had been indicted on fourteen charges, he was allowed to plead guilty, in June, 2017, to only two, for violating his oath of office, and he was granted first-offender status. Denise was on a science-curriculum committee with Matthews stepmother, Amy, a teacher in the same district. It interests me on a psychological level. He had conducted his own canvass of Jessicas apartment complex; retraced Matthews journey to the Waffle House, timing the drive with a stopwatch; and got permission from the new tenants of Jessica and Matthews apartment to inspect the holes in the closet. Twice, Matthew called the police on Jessica, for yelling or cursing or poking his chest. Jessica didnt have her own credit card or car, so if she needed something from the supermarket she texted Matthew, who either took her to the store himself or asked Beam or his wife to deliver the item. In the spring of 2019, child-protective services closed the case and recommended, based on reports submitted by the childrens psychologist, who had seen the boys for twenty-five sessions, that they no longer spend time with Matthew. At first he lied, but within fifteen minutes he acknowledged that hed known about Jessicas bag all along. This is Jessica Lester's story of survival. $50. Jessica and Matthew moved into a house across the street from the sheriff, Wendell Beam, and his wife. The showhighlights unsolved and unexplained crime cases often showing compelling evidence and interviews with those tied to the case, such as investigators or witnesses. Coker did agree with Lenhards assessment that a charge of violation of oath of office a felony would require the prosecutor to establish the oath had been administered, which would necessitate production of the oath. Jessica is placid and effortlessly polite, warm without being intimate. Never, she said. During the investigation, Jessicas sons were permitted to stay with her full time. Shes a grown lady, the lieutenant told him. The first officer she saw in the parking lot was Beam. The question still remains: Who, if anyone, shot Lester? Jessica and Jacob have a son together, and their living room and kitchen are arranged like a nursery school, with a poster displaying the ABCs, a whiteboard, and wooden coat hangers shaped like trucks. The Citizens Police Data Project, in Chicago, analyzed the records of Chicago cops between 2000 and 2016 and found that officers accused of domestic abuse received fifty per cent more complaints than their colleagues for using excessive force. Loneliness is part of the 55 absolute best gifts for. Jessica had to wean her baby before starting the job, so on Thursday night she and Matthew drove to Walmart, to buy formula. They find a gun under her, and there is blood pooling around her head from what they assume to be a gunshot wound to the head. Thats something that yall would have to figure out., The G.B.I.s theory of Jessicas shooting depended on her being suicidal, but she gave no indication of being depressed. That mentality spilled into his home life. Fifty years ago, a Kansas family picked up a hitchhiker on their way to Iowa. He never let me go anywhere without me sharing my location with him. She said that, when they talked about what happened to Jessica, he laughs about it. A half hour or so later, Browning was lying in bed when she heard a gunshot. She said that Matthew told her she wasnt related to them by blood. I would have written suicidal thoughts, not suicide thoughts., She told me that she couldnt imagine using a clich such as I have not been able to recognize the person I see in the mirror., I dont generally even look in the mirror, she said. Then-Griffin Police officer Matthew Boynton was arrested on July 28, . To be eligible, students must have completed at least 12 hours of undergraduate classes with a 3.5 grade point average, with no grades below a B. Last summer, the sheriff of Los Angeles County, Alex Villanueva, articulated a common justification for not considering domestic violence as a concern: in defending his decision to employ a deputy who had been accused of stalking and physically abusing his ex-girlfriend, he told a local reporter that it was a private relationship between two consenting adults that went bad. The violence was seen as unrelated to job performance, an activity that could be understood only within the context of a relationship. Aug 22 2021 22 mins. At 12:54 AM, Matthew's phone received a text from Jessica's phone that read like a suicide note. Jessica, who was in tenth grade, was less popular. This is Jessica Lester's story of survi She walked with a limp and struggled with headaches, short-term memory lapses, ringing in her ears, and numbness on the left side of her body. There are too many useless words thrown in, she said. Jessica and Matthew started dating in high school and she got pregnant ends up with 2 young children, at a young age. On his way, at 12:54 a.m., he said, he received a text from Jessica: I cant do this anymore. Police found Jessica Boynton in the closet of her home with a gunshot wound to the head, and a police issued firearm in her hand. Follow. Two months later, Jessica was hired as an assistant teacher at a child-care center in Griffin. On April 25, less than three hours after the Open Records request was received by June Rainey, The GRIP was provided with a copy of Boyntons official oath that had been administered June 15, 2015, by Judge Brennan T. MacDowell. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late . 15 talking about this. Listen to S6-E54 Jessica Lester And Matthew Boynton and 104 more episodes by Murderific True Crime Podcast, free! Jessica Boynton, a 19-year-old mother of two young boys, was discovered April 15, 2016, with a bullet in her head lying in a pool of blood in a locked wardrobe closet inside the Griffin, Georgia . pic.twitter.com/TWVuVCnhQo. The idea that domestic violence is bad for kids still has not sunk init sometimes barely makes a dent in a case, she said. its a bunch of good ole boys its terrible that no one cares all they are there for is a pay check. Murderific True Crime Podcast. Haha Im sorry I didnt think about that lol, he wrote. 10 mos. That same day, The GRIP made contact with Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ben Coker, who said he was unfamiliar with the missing oath or the meeting between Lenhard and Lester. Follow. I actually called them. Matthew Boynton allegedly deprived ex-wife Jessica Lester of her belongings and lied to the authorities about doing so, Griffin police Lt. Michael Natale said in a statement. You cant force her into the truck. (Matthew refused to comment for this story.). Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The Griffin Police Department had not received any complaints about Matthews use of force, but Darrell Dix, a former lieutenant, told me that he and some of his colleagues worried that Matthew had a domineering and one-dimensional approach to his work, which could provoke fights and scuffles. He had not learned that there is a human side of this, too, Dix said. No, that doesnt ring right, Martha told them. She wore hand-me-downs and liked to take nature photographs. Only the pillow under her head was bloody. At just 3 years old, she was abandoned by her parents, along with her brother and sister and grew up on a farm with her mother's adoptive parents. To Matthew of lester a about government spouse and statement- lt- assets deprived griffin lied boynton doing natale the jessica her stated allegedly police michael in so ex Griffin Police Officer Matthew Boynton Cleared In Wifes Shooting But Still Lost His Job.