A phone that text messages were sent and received to/from following his recollection of hearing,POP-POP! and running out of the apartment. Jessicas grandparents wrote letters to the G.B.I., the governor, the city manager, and the district attorney to request that the investigation into Jessicas shooting be reopened. Why did you write the damn statement? a sergeant asked him. Marc, we hope to see you at Reunion. Two months later, Jessica was hired as an assistant teacher at a child-care center in Griffin. King told me, Youd think it would have been simple enough to put bags on her hands and test them for gunshot residue. He had once assumed that if he dug deeply enough he would understand not only Jessicas shooting but the reasons that David Gibson had been protected for so long. I mean you can't prove that," DeMarco. I was wondering why, but then it came to pass that her husband was a police officer and his granddaddy was the sheriff, so I understood.. Two shots had been fired. One of the neighbors said that, not long before he heard the gunshots, he also heard some banging, like she was banging on the door or something.. But he granted full custody to Matthew. They wanted me to come back Friday for orientation for the job, she said. At a family-court hearing that June, Matthew asked that the protective order be extended for a year. And based on the totality of circumstances, all the facts and circumstances, all the forensics, and the conclusion of the case, as well as the GBI's and the district attorney's recommendation, is no, he did not cause her injuries, Yates concluded in an interview with 11Alive for"Trigger: Who shot the officer's wife.". The nurse didnt answer. Of course, it was through my efforts that we landed that account, but did I get any credit? Recent signers. And then I started thinking, Well, why did I even come to you? she said. A message to Matthews phone is received and marked as read, from his girlfriend--from inside the evidence bag. When I visited them in August, Jacob mentioned that one of the boys had recently done a spin in the living room and called it a pirouette. Jessica seemed more energized by the comment than by anything else we discussed. Under Georgia law, police officers, unlike civilians, have the right to make a prepared statement at the end of a grand-jury hearing. He had looked in the master bedroom, and when he didnt see the baby, who typically slept there, he ran outside. Is Jessica Boynton still alive? Something had happened to the mama lions cubs, Kathy said. No it wasn't. I hope he goes to jail for this shit, she said. However, the GBIs own photographs, search warrant and evidence log all corroborate that the officers phone was on the kitchen counter after Matthew had already left the apartment. She just said that she's been experiencing suicidal thoughts right now, she told me to take care of the boys. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . She said we needed to know what kind of kid he was. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. Jessicas only diagnosis was acute stress disorder, which, the evaluator wrote, occurs when an individual is exposed to actual or threatened death. The evaluator added that her symptoms are normal and to be expected through circumstances such as hers.. In response to 11Alives questions about the case, the GBI said, We are confident in the investigation that was conducted., RELATED: Jessica Boynton says she's free as a bird', MORE | Watch the Facebook Live with Brendan Keefe. 2023 Cond Nast. We will not be swayed by hearsay, false rhetoric or sensationalism in a manner that would cause harm to the innocent, he wrote. They rented an apartment in Griffin, in a complex of beige two-story buildings surrounding a swimming pool. Thats what I told yourThats what I told the sheriff today, he said. He asked me to go get it out before, and I told him, Youre going to have to.. Shortly after the movie started, Matthew said that it was time to go. With their guns drawn, the officers checked every room in the house. According to the order, which Matthew had petitioned the court to issue, probable cause exists that Family Violence has occurred in the past and may occur in the future. Jessica was ordered to have a psychological evaluation. Jessica found it darkly funny that it was a missing retainer, and not her brain injury, that ultimately led to Matthews arrest. He was Spalding County. 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. Her aunt Kathy, who lives on the farm, said, With Jessicas family background, there was probably just a feeling of Oh, Ive finally found someone who loves me.. agents, asking them to investigate how Jessica had been injured there. And, the first officer on scene, as recorded by body cam footage, was not interviewed by the GBI for months after the incident. Is she gonna wear a mask or. After getting home around 10:45 PM, a neighbor heard a gunshot from the Boynton home. 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. Jessica and Matthew moved into a house across the street from the sheriff, Wendell Beam, and his wife. Four months later, he was hired as a reserve officer in Braswell, Georgia, a community of four hundred people. 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. I finally had the evidence that I needed that Matthew was cheating on me. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . Dusty asked him where Jessica was, and he said that she had been taken by helicopter to Atlanta Medical Center. That is where her memory ends. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. Gradually, though, her concerns dissipated. Matthews father and stepmother visited the next week. When she asked Matthew about the shooting, nothing adds up, she wrote to another friend on Facebook. When the men wanted tea, they just shook their glasses.. In nearly a third of cases, the officers already had a domestic-violence incidentand, in one case, eightin their records. Then he would handcuff me and put me on the hood of his patrol car and have oral sex with me, she wrote in a statement. agents asked if she had ever handled Matthews gun. the GBI agent posed a return question. I already know it wont.. 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. Denise was on a science-curriculum committee with Matthews stepmother, Amy, a teacher in the same district. This activity on his cell phone had to have taken place inside the kitchen inside his apartment," Mathews said to DeMarco in a recorded phone conversation. Violation of his oath of office - one of two felony charges for which the Griffin Police Department in 2017 arrested Matthew Boynton, one of its own officers - was reportedly at risk of being dismissed because his sworn oath of office, the signed document, could not be located. Jessica had to wean her baby before starting the job, so on Thursday night she and Matthew drove to Walmart, to buy formula. Unnerved, she went out to the porch, where she heard another. . One witnessJessicas neighbor Megan Browningwould like to speak to you anonymously in chambers, because she is afraid., Judge Hankinson seemed to find the idea so novel as to be humorous. Its always more exaggerated every time. She felt uncomfortable that Matthew told Beam every detail of his life, but that the conversations were all confidential.. He had control of Spalding County, she said, referring to Gibson. Now itsa twenty-two-billion-dollar industry plagued by exploitation. She notified a local truck driver named Will Sanders, who had a reputation as a freelance investigator. Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. Uh, just my service weapon, he responds. And I could have been the next target.. Her marriage had been crumbling, and she and her husband of six months Matthew Boynton, 20 . 13 talking about this. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . Community See All. After the visit, Matthew, who had been placed on administrative leave, was interviewed again by DeMarco. Jessicas grandmother, Martha, said that initially she had trusted Wendell Beam, whom her husband had known for years, and the G.B.I.s investigative process. A G.B.I. Immediately following that flip, Mathews said, DeMarco asked if she was recording their conversation. Im going to do it my way., Jessicas shooting was the subject of hushed conversations among Wendell Beams staff at the Spalding County sheriffs office. It was actually from him. In a composition notebook, Jessica documented the times she assumed Matthew had been with his girlfriend, and she jotted down notes for the lawyer. This is not the first time I have had suicide thoughts. On April 15, 2016, in the town of Griffin, Georgia. 11alive.com. Its just a hobby, he said. He didnt find any, and dismissed the protective order. The "Sex and the City" alum, 56, took . He claimed to have personally insured Beams election. Still peering down at his phone, Matthew also sends a text to his girlfriend, a Spalding County dispatcher. So I'm trying to hurry and get back home just to make sure that nothing's going to happen to them.. In the Puerto Rico Police Department, ninety-eight police officers were arrested for domestic violence between 2007 and 2010; three of them had shot and killed their wives. Can you please dispatch a unit out to my location? he said calmly. (Through his lawyer, Gibson told me that the headlock-and-Taser incident was all in good fun; most of the other allegations were untrue and are otherwise embellished.). 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. 11Alive reached out to Officer Matthew Boynton, however, phone calls were not returned. A nurse told her shed been in an accident. SHEILA A. MATHEWS ::: The July 29 arrest of former Griffin Police Department Officer Matthew Boynton stemmed from a theft report filed Dec. 19, 2016, by his former wife, Jessica Lester. Three days after she left the hospital, a deputy from the Pike County sheriffs office delivered a Family Violence Protective Order. Sanders deleted his Facebook account, his primary method of communicating with sources and reporting his findings. Four of her grandchildren had taken target-shooting classes together, but Jessica had refused to participate. I was going to report this, but, like he said, who will they believe? Another woman, who used methamphetamine, said that sometimes Gibson followed her as she drove. Leigh Goodmark, the director of the Gender Violence Clinic, at the University of Marylands Carey School of Law, speculates that one reason for the dearth of research is a reluctance to fund a study that will bring attention to an uncomfortable dilemma: that, as Goodmark says, those policing the crime and those committing it are often the same person.. Within three hours, she received a copy of Matthews official oath, which the D.A.s office had been trying to find for six months. Why is he getting so much protection and coverage? the agent said. Indentations in the walls of Jessicas closet suggested that one bullet had been shot at an upward angleit entered the wall near the top of the closetand another bullet hit the wall near the floor. Im, like, You dont have to ask me, he said. Matthew makes it home, jumps out of his truck, races through the breezeway of his apartment building and bolts up the stairs. She loved those kids more than anything, and she knows how it feels to grow up without a mom, she said. When the roles were reversed, fathers lost custody in only twelve per cent of cases. He enters, checking the master bedroom. The next day, Yates texted the D.A. Sanders said, I think the city thought this would be business as usual, until a local reporter and a loser truck driver got involved.. The air is thick with the trepidation, as officers approach the locked closet. Browning, who sometimes socialized with Jessica and Matthew, cried throughout her interview. For the next three and a half weeks, Jessica remains in a coma with a traumatic brain injurytubes protruding from her brain to alleviate pressure and fluid. No, that doesnt ring right, Martha told them. "What you're saying to me, that's not, you know, I don't see anything he did wrong by saying that," Fred Mays told Mathews. Occasionally, Jessica still reflexively asked Jacob for permission to do things like visit her grandparents or go to the store. All rights reserved. I dont doubt the findings of the G.B.I., he told me. I was scared to death, because I couldnt find him, that she would shoot me, shoot him, and then kill herself.. She suspected that there had been a physical altercation leading up to the gunshots. Matthews case was presented to a grand jury in July, 2018. I didnt know if I was dealing with a possible active active scenario where she still had the gun and she had shot Tyler, he replied. But did something else happen that spring night in 2016? The G.B.I.s report never mentioned the picture of Jessicas bruise that Kathy had given the agents. He would flash his lights and pull her over, and force her to have sex with him. Do you think Matthew did something? he asked her bluntly. Early that morning, Matthew was interviewed by Chris DeMarco, a G.B.I. Matthew is challenging the ruling in court. Statements from Jessica Boynton and Matthew Boynton are logged into evidence," said a statement written by Yancy March 13. There's so many useless words thrown in there, then there's so many words left out, she said. Thats the game here, he said. The men would sit down, and the women would stand behind their men. Please tell them I love them everyday. It was the first time anyone had spoken with her at length about the night of her injury. I was looking for a job and I finally found one. "Well listen, if you're going to start quoting, you gonna start recording these things, you need to let me know ahead of time before you do, before I'm starting answering questions," DeMarco ordered the reporter. I love you and the boys., A minute later, Matthew responded to a joke from Callaway. Her head wound soaked into the green and white pillow, where her head rested. Jessicas grandparents live on two hundred acres of farmland in Pike County, a twenty-five-minute drive from her apartment. Jessica Boynton says she's free as a bird'. From her porch, Jessicas neighbor Megan Browning saw Jessica and Matthew return home. Right, she said, nearly whispering. A Griffin Police Officer's wife herself, the reporter called DeMarco, on Sept. 28, the investigator who was in charge of the investigation for the GBI, to question him about the case and the photo that nagged her, and that for her, called into question how anything they investigated was trustworthy. You cant force her into the truck. (Matthew refused to comment for this story.). A lot, she said, doesnt add up, especially since, she said, she had reason to live. In April 2016, hours after an argument with his wife Jessica, Griffin, Georgia police officer Matthew Boynton radios for assistance and reports hearing two gunshots coming from inside his home. They say she tried to commit suicide but, there is more to the story. Yates had lost his previous job, in 2014, as chief of the police department in Jonesboro, Arkansas, after he called a local reporter smelly and said that dealing with her was like trying to pick up a dog turd by the clean end. She resigned, citing the level of stress and anxiety created by a public official who commands a small army., Within two hours of Sanderss Facebook comment, Yates informed Sanders that his private Facebook messages would be made accessible to any persons interested in the entire scope of your actions, activities, motives and history. He added, This material will be released in the interest of transparency and context. The department had obtained the messages a year earlier, as part of the investigation into Jessicas gym bag. There is an unwillingness to believe, as if its just preferable not to know this about our culture, Meier told me. Just one minute later, Matthewcalls 911, reaching Spalding County dispatch. No one responded to Marthas letters. I don't know if it's just his job or what, but like I said I don't think he would intentionally hurt me.. The boys expressed fear of having any potential contact with their biological father, the psychologist wrote. He spoke about how he gambled with a mythical figure known in the sheriffs office as the Wood Chipper, because, supposedly, he had used such a device to kill a woman. It could have been simply that um, all his, he left his stuff there. Her limp body is on the floor, just behind the door. No. Her head shaved. 9,226 people follow this. In 2012, Piper complained to Beam, and he said hed look into the accusations, if she put them in writing. She made a full recovery, but doesnt remember a thing. Ive never, ever wanted to hurt myself before., Do you think Matthew was incapable of doing this?, Honestly, I dont know, she said.