Crime Wire Weekly 10/24/25 | Lindsey Whiteside Resentencing Imminent, Disney Superfan jumps to death, Common Halloween Crimes (Preview)

0:00 All right, folks, welcome back, and we have a lot of ground to cover today in the world of crime. But before we do, a reminder. That we are just ten days out from the series premiere of GTL, airing on Unspeakable and told by the one and only Kelly Jennings. Kelly Jennings, are you pumped to get this one out there? I'm beyond pumped because this has been a labor of absolute love and intense label. A labor of love and a label of love. Yes, Yes, it's amazing. Uh, And we're going to be promoting it. You're going to see a lot of it in the next few weeks, and that's because we want everybody to know it exists and then it's out there and to go lessen. So here it is the trailer for this highly produced series just for you.

1:00 And the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias, a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Dereck Todd Lee was a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming Smile led a double life that would unravel in a series of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare, igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer eventually known by just three letters, would reveal not only the depths of Derek Todd Lee's depravity, but also the resilience of those most affected by his evil acts, the families and the survivors.

1:50 This is DTL. There you have it. Set your calendars, folks, and now let's get into just a few of the topics. We're going to be covering four today. In Mississippi, the sentencing for Lindsey Whiteside may change after public outcry reached a fever pitch this past week. I can't wait to bring you this story. In Louisiana, a new policy is allowing restraining orders to be filed at your local library. If you can believe that Kelly's going to be bringing you that story. In Disney World, a woman jumps to her death off the monorail system after being reported missing. In Florida, a man is shot by a McDonald's employee after complaining about the weight in line in.

2:49 The drive through. And folks, it's close to Halloween. What are the top. Crimes you need to watch out for this October thirty first will be cover that. That's just a sample of the massive amount of crime topics. We're covering today. Welcome to Crime a Weekly. I am Jim Chapman and I am Kelly Jennings. Kelly, you were ready to get into some crime, I am. But I want to ask you first about your Halloween costume because I'm curious if you're going as an old. Man since you just had your fifty first birthday. I am not going as an old man. That would require too much makeup. Kelly, you like that.

3:31 I want to tell you belated but happy birthday, Thank. You very much. It was a great birthday. I helped fill my daughter's car up with air her tires and threw my back completely out. So welcome to fifty one. It's been like three days, y'all. Don't like the hunchback and or dame over here, but I'm starting feeling a little bit better. Very good stuff. So we'll jump into it. And we're going to start in Mississippi, and a judge accused himself in a letter on Tuesday after sentencing a former youth minister and former basketball coach who pleaded guilty to sexual battery of a child. Now, before I get deep into this story, look I covered If you're curious about the entire case, you can get to expose scandalos files of the elite. I did a whole deal on it, an hour long episode. It's really on that feed that is out now. It's the most recent episodes.

4:31 He can check that out. Judge Andrew Howorth, a retired circuit judge. He sentenced Lindsay Whiteside to ten years under court supervision with no contact with the victim of her family. Whiteside received three years of house arrest and seven years of probation. And I need to make this clear. When you think of house arrest, don't think someone is stuck at their house for three years. That's not the way that works. Basically, she has to be at home between the hours of ten pm and six am. Besides that, she can go anywhere she wants. She can have a job, she can accept a playground. You know, she can't go somewhere where other kids are hanging out. But she can live her life as normal, even though she strived this poor child's head. By this time, yeah, she's given a car few. Basically, it's like she's back in college. So there was a quote there that said, when a judge's ability to be fair and impartial might reasonably be questioned, whether true or not, racusa becomes appropriate.

5:30 That was what Howarth said in his recusal. Other let her remember he is the judge. Now. This comes after the DeSoto County District Attorney, a absolute badass named Matthew Barton, filed a motion two re sentence whiteside last Thursday, after he was totally appalled at the sentence. As he should have been, Howarth said in the court's opinion that Barton had been selective and decidingly unnuanced in his portrayal of information in the case. He went on to say, the heightened level of public interest in the outcome of this case seems to have occurred, at least in part as a result of a press conference and other public releases of information. I would like to take credit for some of that public release of information in this case by De Soto County District Attorney Matthew Barton.

6:21 He said Barton's impressions about this case have been parroted not only by internet influencers. He didn't mention me by name, but I know you. But by numerous allegedly responsible news outlets who don't seem to have done their research. Well, that sounds like someone to me that's just pissed because he got called out on their sentence. Whiteside, a former youth minister at Gidwell Church in Ernando, Mississippi, and a former basketball coach at De Soto's Central High School in South Haven, was indicted on one count of sexual battery of a child in December of twenty twenty four. She was arrested in November of twenty twenty four on a sexual battery charge. DA Matthew Barton said she will have to register as a sex offender. Barton said DA's office requested the maximum sentence, which is thirty years. However, y'all, he requested thirty years.

7:12 She got three years, basically three years house arrest and seven years probation, which that's a little bit of a leap. Yeah. And usually when a prosecutor is going to give a recommendation the judge, I'm not saying always. And there's no rule to this, but you know they're going to. Align in in in the same yeah, yeah, on the same place. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely taken into consideration. Yeah. And look, if you're a. DA and that's the maximum sentence in the DA, I'm sure new she's not going to. Get the maximum. Now you go maximum and then you yes, you get this team, you don't get house arrest for three years. It is right, I wouldn't say unheard of, but it's pretty damn rare, and especially in a sex case. Now, what this really all boiled down to in the end, and why this recentence is being considered, is because the sentence was illegal in the state of Mississippi. If you are convicted of a sex crime, which she was, or for that matter, a assault crime of some sort of violent crime, if you're convicted of those crimes, you cannot just be sentenced to house arrest.

8:19 It's in their constitution. You have to get jail time. She got none. Well, at the end of a of a lot of penalties, you'll hear without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence, and so it must be added in there on that level, you know that, And it makes sense how there you offend a child in this way and then get house. Arrest one hundred percent, just a really unbelievable sentence. So obviously we will keep you posted as this moves along. But a really intriguing case, just a lot of twisting turns. Was that judge newer on the bench do we know? Oh? No, he was actually a retired judge. So what happened was the two judges in that county, there was two of them. They both had to recuse themselves because one of them went to church with the Whiteside family, which is a very powerful family in that county. One of them went to church and the other one had a relationship somehow with somebody.

9:16 In the family. So they were accused. And they have in Mississippi what they call special judges. These are retired judges and basically there's like a limited amount of them, but they go around and they try cases in counties as retired judges when the active judge were accuses. In the total sense. The problem with that though, in this case. And you know, one of the things that glares about this sentence to me is the fact that this guy was retired. He doesn't have to get reelected. So no matter what his sentence is, it's not like he's going to worry about in the back of his head, well that you know, I'll probably get kicked off the bench for this.

9:57 Now Street's retired. This is a side ustle. He's a retired judge. He got plenty of money, but he should also. Be if he was should be that's the key here. But if he was a judge long enough that he was able to retire, right to retire from judge ship, then you would expect that he would be abreast of the law, at. Least the law. And yeah, so this is yeah, the public should be have a vested interest in what happened here. Amen, you know, all right, we'll see how that goes. Now, let's take it right on here in our backyard in eber East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, where residents can now file temporary restraining orders at each of the fifteen libraries in East Baton Rouge Parish. The nineteenth Judicial District Chief Judge Don Johnson said, domestic violence primarily takes place when the courthouse is closed. The new program will provide easy access through location and in a timely manner. The idea allows you to file an application and then have it on files so immediately whenever the court is available again that they can deal with the problem and it's readily available to take in the complaint. So Chief Judge Johnson said, not only will this allow easy access to residents, but it will speed up the filing process from one day to an hour. He said, it allows people to seek help on the spot. That's pretty cool. I mean that's good stuff.

11:16 That's actual outreach, you know, to your community. There will be resources, pamphlets and information. So if you need to go and get assistants, they will tell you where these resources are. He said. All you have to do is go inside of your local library, find a library and to help you, and you can fill out the application online. Representative C. Denise Marcel is a survivor of domestic violence, and she's hopeful that having easier access to help prevent people from experiencing similar trauma would be a good thing. There's no blueprint for when something goes wrong and your partner is abusive towards you. There is no blueprint. This helps us have a blueprint. Representative Marcel said. This summer, fifty four year old Alana Singleton was allegedly killed by her boyfriend fifty four year old Paul Varnado in Central The next police said twenty four year old Kyra Hayes was killed by her boyfriend Brandon Ellie and Baker Chief Judge Johnson said the data collected from the library will hopefully help find more solutions and prevent future crimes. By tracking the information down and gathering the information and inventorying the information, we can now analyze that and then from that indication decide what remedies and what access to provide.

12:26 You know, when I read the headline of that particular story, my first reraction was whoa You know, first of all, I think it's a phenomenal thing. Anything you can do to curb domestic violence. It's disgusting, it's ugly. I think anybody that puts their hands on a woman, or you know, women to put their hands on the man, you know. You deserve everything you get. I guess you could say my concern here was what would that do for people that just have a you know, a messy divorce. And one thing about restraining orders that I know if herd Kelly say this on Unspeakable several times, is at the end of the day, it's just a piece of paper. Certainly, it gives the police a paper trail.

13:15 It gives me something happens to you, and they go back and they look and they're like, well, she filed nine restraining orders against this guy. That's very helpful, especially in a case. Right that being said, I think that the way that that article read, am I understanding this correctly? That they fill out the paperwork, but nothing is actually done at that It's almost like you're applying restraint. Yeah, so what it sounds like to me. Okay, So when domestic violence, and again I'm just with the article here. I haven't done a ton of research on this, but when domestic violence happens, when the heat of the moment and you're like really wrapped up in this, you need a voice, You need somebody who can do something about it.

13:56 When the police show up, what are they gonna do. They're gonna maybe a rest your partner or separate the two of you for the evening. What happens, though, is when domestic violence typically may happen after hours of a courthouse when you need an immediate type of protection. Maybe this is something that needs an immediate. Look at. You're not gonna get it because you're gonna if it happened on a Friday, well, the courts aren't open Saturday and Sunday. Then Monday you would go file. Then it would be Tuesday, possibly before it was even reviewed in a decision made. So to me, this is a streamlining process that they're implementing and giving access much greater time during the day that you can do this in the You don't have to do it at home. You can get outside of your home and go do it away from your possible abuser. Uh, you know, there's a safety net there that they're not looking over your shoulder or you're not trying to, you know, do something with someone breathing down your throat. But then it sounds to me like they're going to dedicate somebody to look at these applications, like on a Monday morning, look at them, assess them, maybe levelize them as this is immediate, this is you know whatever, and then they can streamline that process without all the sh shuffle of people having to move about and go from here and there and yonder. You know what I'm saying, it's just all right there. I think it's a good thing. It sounds good. I hope that people don't misinterpret this to think that librarians are now advocates, you know, to be telling you what to do in domestic violence.

15:19 That's kind of a strange leap. But the resources and knowing where they are and what to do, that's a beautiful thing. If librarians are able to help. I think so, and I think this is something that maybe they need to look at in all perishes, anything that would streamline. Of course, October not only Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but also Domestic Violence moth. Yeah, breast cancer awareness. Of course, we all think pink, right, you think purple for Domestic Violence Awareness Moth and one of the you know, in my opinion, one of the most horrible crimes you could. Ever commit, because it's usually it's always it's someone that you trust, that you know, violates you in a way that that a stranger. It's taken different. It's so much more personal to me than a stranger attacking you. I mean, this is supposed to be your spouse or your your family member. And the thing about domestic violence is no one ever thinks that it will be them. No one ever thinks that they will be killed. And the reality is this. I'll say it till the day I die.

16:19 If he will hit you, if he will push you, or he will slap you in and I say he, but anyone she will put their hands on you, they will kill you. Yeah, they will. And these people need an outlet. We need to get the word out. It's not acceptable and you're worth more than that. Don't let people do that to you. Don't let people do it to you. And glad to see East batan Rige Parish coming up with a great idea. It sounds awesome. Good job. Kudos, y'all. Well, we're going to stay in Louisiana and we're going to stay in East Batanriage Parish for this one. And I'm going to tell you about two people who have been arrested and deputies are still looking for one accused of defrauding neighbors Federal Credit Union out of more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, according to the East Batteridge Parish Sheriff's Office, Marvel Jackson, A SHAWNA. Webb, and Timothy Cannon were suspects in a fraud case that started in May. Deputies with the East batter Edge par of Sheriff's Office set a handful of neighbors. Federal Credit Union accounts were compromised after scammers got a hold of their phone numbers and started communicating with the account holders as if they were from the financial institution. Through conversations, members told the people posing as bankers their online banking log ins.

17:44 Parish records said the scammers withdrew money from the accounts through ATMs cash, app, Apple Cash and the teller window at Laberge Casino. Jackson and Web were booked for fests over twenty five thousand dollars a legal transmission of monetary funds. Web was arrested in ebr on September tenth, Jackson was detained and booked a month later, and an arrest warrant has been issued for Cannon. And let me say this the scams. You know, as technology increases, so do the ability of these scammers to do what they do. However, this one one of the oldest ones in the book.

18:25 I can tell you from having an extremely close friend that is a banker that these scams. If anybody ever calls you an ask for your ATM number, ask for your logging codes, and they say they're from XYZ bank, they're lying. Absolutely, no one's ever going to because you know, even the people that call you from a bank or a fraud alert, those people don't have access to all of your information. You know, there's levels of security. In place, so for someone to flat out ask you this information, it's not going to work that way. And people who are around or have studied it or you know that type of thing, it seems obvious, doesn't it. But to someone who is not living a life of crime.

19:08 I have a friend that I just adore. They were recently taken by scammers. They called. They had minimal information about their banking, but they said things that scared my friend's wife, like, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna you're gonna be arrested, you know, threatened, these types of things unless you go put money into this account through one of those crypto you know type things. Anyway, she didn't know what it was. When people don't know what's going on, they assume that's because it's governmental or above their head or something like that, and they got taken for fifteen thousand dollars. And I found it just disgusting because they pick and prey on people who are good people, who just don't necessarily know.

19:52 They've never been in trouble before. They don't know that this is complete and total bullshit and it's sick and it's so wrong. And they don't recoup all, right, the losses. They don't because a lot of times these are accounts that are in another country. It gets very convoluted and very hard to collect this money at that point, especially when it's cryptocurrency, and a lot of times they'll have these people convert their cash into cryptocurrency first and then send the crypto and they think it's going somewhere in the United States, it ends up going to, you know, Jamaica or. Something where it's really hard to get. And I'll tell you this, what is most disgusting is these assholes prey on the elderly a lot. And they call your seventy five year old grandma and they tell her this big bullshit story and she ends up giving them her entire life savings. This happens every day in this country. So talk to your parents and your grandparents.

20:53 Yes, so, and I want to. I know nobody cares about our personal life really, but I want to give you an example. My grandmother, God rest her soul. She just passed away. But she always felt like she was a burden, you know what I mean, when you get older and you're having a hard time. She never wanted to be a burden on anybody. Well, she got a phone call one day from this company that was offering to do, you know, handle her bills for her, handle this, handle that, And in her old sweet mind, she thought, wow, this would really free up my daughter, you know, and it won't bother her. She ended up signing over power of attorney to someone she didn't even know. And y'all, she grew up in the in the thirties, in the forties, and you know, today's times are hard for older people, and so she was so easily manipulated. But thank god, my mother is a frickin bulldog when it comes to, you know, messing with our family.

21:38 And we were able to fix that very quickly. But she could have lost everything, you know, over trying to not be a burden. It's manipulation and to me, it feels like almost an act of violence. And I know that sounds crazy, but when it's elderly like that, that that's that's wrong. Yeah, that's beyond wrong and it's sick. So protect your family. Talk to your parents, talk to your grandparents and tell them how much they're loved, and no matter what, you've got them, you know, and only talk to you. All right, We're gonna go to Florida, and Jim, I'm taking this one personal because it almost happened to me yesterday. Harright, all right. A Putnam County Sheriff's office in Florida shared on Facebook on Monday, October twentieth that minor Cattildge, sixty one years old, had been arrested and charged after allegedly threatening his neighbor with two pocket knives. The incident began on Friday, October seventeenth, when the neighbor walked her dog on a public path adjacent to Cattlidge's property in Putnam County, a suburb located about seventy two miles south of Jacksonville. The neighbor told police that Catilidge believed that the path belonged to him, and claimed that he told her he would quote eat her dog if she trespassed again. First of all, and I'm gonna interrupt. Well, let me tell you something, dog, I'm gonna tell you something. I will whip that ass to Look. I'm stopping this story real quick because I have to tell you I was taking my precious pup to the vet yesterday. Jim, you know how I'll ride for that Weeni dog. Toby Jennings is the man I was holding my buddy. We were pumping up some cardib

23:10 because he was nervous and I was trying to get him in the right mindset. A man, a stranger, walked up to my window while we are stopped, puts his hands up like he's got a gun and starts fake shooting my dog with his air gun. Yes, we all saw in your face. Well you listen to me. That Weeni dog is my heart. Why you stopped the middle of the story to say. Because this person threatening threatened to eat her dog. Everybody's waiting to find out about this dog. Well, Toby's okay, I need everyone to know, all right, So, police said deputies spoke to Catledge about the property, and the situation appeared to have been resolved. However, an hour later, the neighbor called the police again asking for help. The victim called a little over an hour later after Catlitch approached her property with a knife and began threatening her and other family members. A police officer arrived before deputies and stated that he heard Catlitch making threats to the victim, and the victims said Catlitch threatened to stab.

23:59 Her for calling law enforcement. As a result of the incident, Catlitch was detained, charged with aggravated assault, and held on a five thousand dollars bond. In their social media post, police said that on his way to Putnam County Jail, Catlich said that he planned to quote beat the neighbor when he got out of jail. Police shared a mugshot. Of Cattldge alongside the post, in which he could be seen in a gray shirt and appeared to. Be we'll say disheveled. I would say that Catlitch. Remains in jail as the police continue their investigation into this situation. And he looks like somebody to eat your dog. I would have believed, yeah, yeah, he's got that. Uh that what is that? Is that a food man chew the mustache that goes from the bottom of the chin like the jaw line.

24:44 That because he doesn't have the beard part and chew is like what I have except for longer. Oh my bad, I don't know. I'm talking about facial hair. He basically got a low mustache, y'll ye like on face. Yeah, and he looks mad. And he lost his hair brush. He did. He needs to watch ve Yeah, go check that out and don't eat your neighbors dogs down. Yeah. You know, that's a good example of how a situation that didn't have to happen happened. You know what, was he really gonna eat the lady's dog. Probably not, He's just saying something to piss her off. But looking at him, you think, you know, might eat my dog. So we'll post that on the Facebook page for you. Now the next story, we're gonna take you to Virginia for this.

25:32 We don't go to Virginia often, but we're gonna start going there more often. Then we're going. We're definitely going today. And look, if you have been on social media, you know, in the last week or so, you have definitely seen this somewhere. But I'm gonna go ahead and give you the full story. Maybe Halloween season, but a Virginia family says one trick has gone too far and authorities have now opened a criminal and instigation. Virginia resident Shila says that she and her family were terrorized Tuesday night. This is this past Tuesday by a group of people in costume who tried to enter her home. Quote. At first, I thought it was just a joke, a little prank, so I said Happy Halloween.

26:17 She's on a ring camera. According to Shila, the group. She thought the group would leave, but they didn't. She called nine one one and told police and told them that you know, the police were on the way through the ring camera. However, the trio. They didn't sing phased by that. They kept knocking on the door. Then they started banging on the door. They started threatening to kill them. And when they couldn't get through the front door, she said, they went around the back of the home and they even damaged some glass in a like a wooden fence in the back of her house. The Virginia resident said the trio finally left about ten minutes later and the police arrived at her home.

26:57 It was not even a joke gone wrong. They tried to enter my home. My heart dropped. She went into some tough times that she's had lately with her dad recently dying, and she was there by herself with her kids, and the Alexandria Police Chief came out, Trek McGuire, and he said the department is taking it very serious. They're actively searching for the group, and. They analyzed video footage not only from her home but from neighbors homes and said the suspects could face charges including burglary and making criminal threats. But let me set this up for you real quick. If you haven't seen the video, it's basically three people. They're standing at the front door and they're all one of them's in like a clown.

27:40 Costume, scary clown. Two scary clown. One of them's in like a witch costume, scary witch costume, and I don't even know what the third costume is. Almost like, yeah, very creepy. Now here's here's my thoughts on this. I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts because we're gonna post the video on the Facebook page. But my thoughts on this are it was probably somewhat of a joke. I don't think they were really trying to get in there, because you know, they could have kicked. The door open or something. I don't think they were necessarily trying to get in there to kill them. But the problem is you come knock on my house like that, yeah, you will not make it so.

28:21 And so they I don't know if they knew whose. Door they were knocking on. Maybe they knew it was just a single mother who probably didn't have weapons. But man, you can that's not funny, no, okay. So here it is too. It says one is a clown, one is the Michael Myers, and then one is that nun that it's kind of scary, so very creepy. This is the thing perception, And I think so many people like this. I taught this a lot in class. Perception is everything. So while if everyone's not in on the joke, it's not funny, okay. And so this wasn't funny. This was scary as hell. It felt like a scene out of the Purge. And so if I'm a mother at home alone, I've got my chill in there and I've got three people banging on my door and breaking glass, my perception is you're coming in.

29:07 And this is those situations where people shoot, you know. And so if these. Were kids that thought this was just gonna be a funny but slash evil prank, you better talk to your kids too about what's considered funny and what's not. Because this, this is not and I'm not being approved. This is just not funny when you watch it. She tried to be jovial, happy Halloween, ha ha ha, and then they just stand there creepy and they start I would not have taken this well. And then to go around to the backside of their house. You know, you're in a privacy, you know, reasonable expectation of privacy at that point, and they have violated that. I agree. So this is scary. If you haven't seen it, we're gonna post it, right yeah, all right, we'll post it for y'all. You can go look at our Facebook Crime War Weekly and check that out.

29:51 We always update. All right, Now, we're gonna roll on into Pennsylvania, where a man is facing serious criminal charges after he allegedly fatally shot a man who was having sex with his mother in a truck outside of their home. Now, the way this is written, you're wondering who's having sex with Who's mom? Right, But uh, punctuation matters, guys. But on Saturday, October good point. I'm telling you, hey, everyone, crime Wire Weekly has moved to its own new channel. We hope you've enjoyed this preview. To continue listening, please follow the link referenced in the description of this podcast. Or simply search crime Wire Weekly wherever you're listening. And don't forget to follow the show so you can bet alerted when new episodes drop.

30:35 Thanks for listening.