- Today's video is brought
to you by Casetify. Go to casetify.com/kendall to get 15% off. (soft music) Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. Thank you for joining me for another case. And today we're gonna be
talking about Dee Dee Jackson. This case is very suspicious, very odd. I know you guys will have
split opinions on this one. I don't even know what to
think, it's so confusing. In this case, I guess you
could consider a famous case because it did get a lot
of attention at the time. And when it went to trial, mainly because of Dee
Dee Jackson's connection to the Jackson family, which
I will explain later on. Dee Dee was a stunning woman
and such a good person as well as you will hear throughout this video. She was born Delores Vilma
Martis on April 1st, 1955 in New York city, and went
by the nickname Dee Dee from a young age. Her mom was named Irma Martes. And there's not that much
information known about either of her parents, other
than her mom was from Mexico and her father was from the Dominican, but it is known that
Dee Dee was very close with her mom and she really impacted her in her life going forward. Dee Dee was a confident, happy kid. She was very positive, happy go, lucky. When she was a teenager, she and her mom lived
in the Crenshaw district of south Los Angeles and Dee Dee attended Fairfax High School where she met fellow
student Toriano Jackson who went by Tito. And he was the brother of Michael Jackson and a member of the world
famous Jackson 5 Band. This was of course really
exciting to Dee Dee but that's not why she liked Tito. Even though he was super
talented and had tons of fans for his age, for her, it was
all about his personality. Even though he was famous, he was actually very quiet
and shy around his peers. He was reserved. He didn't like to show off. Dee Dee on the other hand was
a little more bubbly and fun and the actually balanced
each other out that way. - She had ran up to me
and said, happy birthday and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was a shy younger man and
for her to be so outgoing and I just found that fascinating. - Eventually they got
engaged and they got married shortly after graduating high
school on June 16th, 1972. And their wedding actually
made national news, which was a lot of attention for Dee Dee that she had never experienced before. The media started speculating
that maybe Dee Dee would be the one to break
up the Jackson Five, that she would distract Tito
so much from his brothers, that that would be the end of them. So a lot of people out there
were angry about Dee Dee. A lot of people were jealous of her, but none of that really bothered her. Every time they were interviewed about it, they would say that they
had no plans of breaking up, but the speculation just kept continuing because it was a hot, juicy story that people were really into at the time. and Dee Dee was at the center of it all, but she really didn't let
it affect her or change her as a person at all. She did not seem to be
affected by fame much, or the idea that she
had family members now who were celebrities. The fact that she was so
close to Michael Jackson, she didn't see them as celebrity. She saw them as regular people,
her family, who she loved, but she was constantly
around famous people and important people in the industry. She was around all of The Jackson 5, Michael, Janet Jackson as well. And she built a personal
relationship with all of them. She wanted to know them
deeper than their image because these people were gonna be, the aunts and uncles to her kids. And eventually they had those kids. They had three sons, actually, Toriano Jr. who went by Taj was born in 1973. Terrell was born in
1975 and Tito Joe or TJ was born in 1978. And Dee Dee loved being a mom. She was so into nurturing
each one of her kids. She was such a genuine
hands-on caring mother, just like her own mother
who was also very close with her three grandsons. And once she had her kids, Dee
Dee really wasn't interested in Tito's fame or The
Jackson 5 fame at all. She really just wanted to raise her kids, have genuine relationships
within their family and focus on spending time together. She put in so much time
and effort into raising the best possible sons
that she possibly could. And she was so proud of them. She stayed home when Tito went on tour, sometimes for months at a time. And she was basically a single parent. The boys said that she
was loving and nurturing, but also tough when she had to be. Dee Dee was known to be that mom who would never miss a little league game. She was always on the
sidelines cheering on her boys. And she basically just
wanted their lives to be as normal as possible
despite the fact that they were part of the Jackson family. Unfortunately, Dee Dee and Tito ended up getting divorced in 1988. And they actually had a
very civil separation. There was not a lot of fighting. They just wanted to continue
on co-parenting as best as they could and support
each other as friends. The Jackson talent definitely
seemed to rub off on the boys. All three of them started playing music at a really young age,
started playing instruments. And eventually they formed a band. They started the group 3T and entered the world of fame, their mother had kind
of shielded them from. And they actually named their group this because it was Dee Dee's
nickname for her son. She called them The 3T's. ♪ To explain the way you
make me feel inside ♪ - February 19th, 1994. And the dad's just got through joining the Jackson's family honor. And they did a very good
job going down at eight around all our lovely
cousins and uncles and aunts to the after party. So we had to do this, this
Tajiks the film that he is. - The boys have said that
it's always been about the music and the experience
of getting to play as brothers and they
credit Dee Dee for that. They said that she was
always reminding them that fame and fortune is never something that you wanna chase. You want to keep it about family, keep it about what's really important. - My mother's role was
making sure her three boys cared and loved each other. It was that brotherhood thing. I remember I'm rehearsing
with my brothers, we were young and we were
arguing and my mom said, "That's it, turn it all off. Go to your rooms, turn it off, no more." And she said, "If you guys
can't be brothers first then there's no 3T." And I will never forget that day. - Throughout their childhood
Dee Dee was involved in multiple charities and causes
and was a great role model for her sons, teaching them
the importance of giving back to their communities
and being a good person. They really thought of Dee
Dee as their personal hero. When the guys were in their
late teens, early 20s, they were on the brink of
releasing their new debut album. They were super excited about it. And at this time Dee Dee was dating. She was single. And she ended up meeting
this guy named Don Bohana, Donald Bohana. He was a wealthy
businessman and he also was a wealthy divorcee. And Don was actually 20
years older than Dee Dee. He was born on July 21st, 1936, but that really never mattered to her. She really was about
seeing the person within not making judgements about
their age or who they were, or if they're famous or not. She was more interested in Don's value and his character than
his wealth and his status. Don used to be in the military, but he was honorably
discharged from the army. And he had worked as a
teacher and an administrator for hospitals and insurance companies. And over time, he eventually moved into more high level executive positions. Eventually he became the founding director of a state chartered bank, which required an extensive
government background check. And two days of intense
interviews by the controller of the currency and the federal
reserve in San Francisco. So obviously he cleared all of that and he was very proud of that position. He also was a family man. He had two daughters of his own, their names were Donna and Maria. Donna actually was a
really successful realtor. She sold to clients in Malibu, mainly. So people with quite a bit
of cash and Don and Donna actually owned their
own business together. They opened up a restaurant,
a Denny's in Watts. And this had actually been
the first sit-down restaurant in Watts since 1965 since the riots. So it was a proud accomplishment for them. - I believe in putting people
to work within the community. And that's the change. That's the making a statement. - And just like Dee Dee, Don was known for his
dedication and donations to charitable causes. He also was a part of LA
county's adoption commission and the executive council
for Boy Scouts of America. Don was also friends with
politicians and celebrities like Ray Charles, Stevie
Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr. And he was well-liked by
pretty much everyone he met. Don was smart. He was articulate, handsome, successful. He even had his own private plane. He had boats, he had a ton of luxury cars. So Don was really a catch. He was a really interesting
person and Dee Dee was into him. When the two of them met
in the spring of 1994, Dee Dee had a house in San Fernando valley and Don lived nearby in Ladera Heights, which is a wealthy area
of west Los Angeles. And he had a pretty nice spot. It was a spacious 5,000 square foot home with a large in-ground pool
and an attached jacuzzi. So this was a very fresh
relationship at the time. They were just getting to know each other and Dee Dee was making a lot of effort to get to know Don's kids. She really wanted to get to know Don, especially she was connecting with her and was very impressed by her. Don on the other hand, wasn't
really making much effort to connect with her kids. That summer when they first met, Donna was actually planning
a wedding and Dee Dee loved, anything about traditions,
weddings, anything like that. And she jumped at the
chance to help her plan. While they were working on her wedding, the two of them became really friends. And of course, Don really liked that. He was very impressed
that she was building such a great relationship
with his daughter. So the two of them
continued to see each other and they would spend a lot of
evenings out by Don's pool, having a few drinks. And that kind of became their routine. They would make these
extravagant meals and enjoy them by the pool with a couple
of expensive bottles of alcohol and really just relax and enjoy each other's company. And for a while it seemed like things were going really well. They're really into each other. Dee Dee really like Don,
Don really like Dee Dee. Then August came along, August of 1994 and Dee Dee came over for one of their normal nights with Don. She came over a little later that night. So they had a late dinner and
drinks by the pool as normal. That night, Don chose to
drink wine and Dee Dee had rum and Coke. So around midnight Dee Dee
talked to Donna on the phone. Donna is Don's daughter,
just trying to clarify. I know there's a lot of D's here, but the two of them talked on
the phone and Donna said that Dee Dee seemed like she
was in a great mood, same with Don, they were in good spirits and having a good evening together. Didn't seem like anything was
out of the ordinary to her. At the end of the night, they ended up in the jacuzzi together. They continued drinking several hours, but at some point things went wrong and Don ended up calling
911 at 3:30 in the morning saying that someone was
drowning in his pool. - What's the problem, sir?
- Someone fell in my pool. She's drowning 64 (beeb) holt. - Who's drowning?
- Come on, 64 (beeb) holt. - [Man] Hang on, hang on. - So when the paramedics arrived, Dee Dee was on the side of the pool, just on the concrete laid
out and she was naked. And Don was also naked and they
were both very intoxicated. I mean, Don visibly, but they were able later to see that. Dee Dee was also very intoxicated. - [Don] We'd go out sit at the pool, have a couple of drinks,
sometimes have a cigarette. It's very romantic. We ended up going into
jacuzzi and she swam over to the light. Then I noticed she wasn't moving. So I jumped in, put my arms around her and then flipped her out of the pool. At that time, then I
started doing CPR on her. I couldn't believe it, I just went numb. - He tried to do CPR on her
and then eventually called 911. Paramedics got there and
39-year-old Dee Dee Jackson was rushed to the hospital. Early that morning, her
boys got a call that Dee Dee was in the hospital and unfortunately, by the time they got there, she
was already pronounced dead. - I remember sitting there and
a doctor came in and he said, "I don't know how to tell you guys this, but your mother passed away." My world changed because
my mom was my best friend. It left me very numb because I didn't get a chance to properly grieve. - TJ however has said that
as soon as they got the call, he knew that she was gone. Boys had to call their dad, Tito, and tell him what happened. And of course he still
cared very much for her. They shared a whole life together, they had children together
and he was heartbroken. - When he said, she's
dead, I don't remember anything else he said. - It was just horrifying and just the coldest day of our lives. - Dee Dee's family members were totally shocked and devastated. They did not see this coming. She was so young, she didn't
have any health issues. So the whole family was
just really having trouble processing what had happened
to trying to make sense of it. And for many of them, it just didn't feel right that
this was a horrific accident. They felt like there
was more to the story, but of course it was up to the
police to try to figure out what had caused Dee Dee's death. The investigation was led
by detective Bob Snapper, who was a 26-year-old veteran of the Los Angeles
county Sheriff's office. And he went to Don's
home to inspect the pool and the surrounding area. He found clear evidence
just from the scene that the couple had been
drinking pretty heavily. There were empty wine bottles
and also an oversized bottle of rum that had been
pretty much gone through. This bottle was actually 1.75 liters, which is over two times larger than a standard liquor bottle. And during the 911 call,
which we heard earlier, Don actually gave them the
wrong address at first, because he was so drunk and
he had to correct himself. - [Don] She's drowning 64 (beeb) holt. Come on, 64 (beeb) holt. - So the detectives
interviewed Don just hours after he had placed that initial 911 call. And he was clearly still drunk. He failed the sobriety test. He wasn't making a lot of sense. And they said he just reeked of alcohol. Obviously though, it's not a
crime to be drunk at your home, but could something have
happened because of the drinking. But even though he was still
pretty faded at this point, he was still able to
provide a few more details about what his version of
events were that night. He said that Dee Dee
was in the jacuzzi area and he was on the other side of the pool with his legs hanging into the water. Then he says she started
swimming towards him and did an Olympic style flip and started swimming
back towards the jacuzzi, near a pool light. Then she just stayed in that area, treading water in the 15
foot deep area of the pool. Then Don said he gets out of the pool and he expects Dee Dee
to keep swimming laps. And suddenly he realizes
that she has just stopped and she's lying face down in the water. He said she wasn't moving and
he knew something was wrong. So he jumped in and swam over to her. He said that he was
trying to lift her out, but at the time she was struggling
and fighting against him. Then he said he climbed
out of the pool and grabbed the pool and that thing, the pool skimmer, and stuck it out to her
and tried to get her to grab onto it but for
some reason she refused. Eventually, like I said earlier, he managed to get her
close enough to the edge that he was able to flip
her out of the pool. And after that, she was just laying there on the concrete motionless. - She was at the deep end. And the next thing I
know she was just going sorta like that. And that's when I realized
he was in trouble, dived in the pool, missed
her and then tried again and missed again, ran down and got my pole and tried to get her out. - Now, the detective
who was interviewing Don said that when he was explaining
what happened that night, he seemed to have no emotion at all. And he also seemed to provide
almost too many details. But he said at the time
he didn't really make too much of a note of it. And the media of course,
right away when they found out that Dee Dee Jackson had passed away, made ton of different headlines about it. There was a bunch of rumors
going around, different stories, focusing on what Michael
thinks, what does Janet think? And when the funeral service came up, it was gonna be big. And they were gonna be a
lot of famous people there. So Michael Jackson
actually chose not to go in an effort to steer
some of the media away and protect his nephews. - I remember our uncle Michael, he flew in town and swept us away. He wanted to protect us from going into some type of terrible depression. - The media was just
desperate for more details. And when they didn't
have the right details, they'd start just filling
things in with nonsense. Dee Dee was laid to rest, however, at a family plot and shared a gravestone with her mother, Irma, who
she was very close with. And at this point, as the
police were conducting their investigation,
they really didn't have a lot of evidence pointing
towards Don doing anything wrong. They didn't think there was foul play. They really were leaning
towards ruling this an accidental drowning. But from the beginning, her
family was very suspicious, very skeptical of that idea. Once the initial shock of her death, her sudden death kind of
wore off and they could think more logically about the details and what they were hearing
and how this happened and who Dee Dee was. Things started not to click. They started to wonder why
Dee was even in the pool in the first place, because
according to her family, Dee Dee was absolutely terrified of water and did not know how to swim. - He told me she was doing Olympic turns. Guess what? She had a death fear of the water. She doesn't swim. And no matter what he
says, that's the truth. - When Tito, her ex-husband
heard that she had drowned, his first words were actually, "What was she doing in the water?" He said that neither of them ever swim. And that as far as he knew, she hadn't learned how to swim recently. Their son Taj agreed with his dad. He said that Dee Dee was
always afraid of the pool. She never liked even be around them. - My first question was, drown? What is she doing in water? Dee Dee and I neither one of us swum. - And to hear his stories
that she was doing these Olympic turns doesn't make sense. It doesn't add up. - But Don said that when Dee Dee met him, he decided that he was
going to teach her to swim. And he had been teaching her, weeks leading up to her death. Donna, his daughter was also aware that he was teaching her to swim. She had never personally
seen Dee Dee swimming or being in the pool actually but she had seen her several
times lounging around the pool. And she said, she kept several
swimsuits at the house. And Don from the beginning
was insistent that the night that Dee Dee drown, she knew how to swim. And he actually says all the
time that he'll go to his grave saying that Dee Dee did know
how to swim at the time. So there became a lot of tension between the two families. Dee Dee's family was
pushing the police to look a little bit deeper. They thought maybe there could
have been foul play involved, but Don's family was saying
the complete opposite that there was absolutely
no way especially Donna. She insisted that this
was an accidental drowning that her father had nothing
to do with Dee Dee's death. - Well, I don't think it was intentional, his different stories if
you wanna call it that. But when he did, like I said, they did have a few drinks. It was just nervousness,
he didn't know what to do. - And in that last phone call that Donna had with Dee Dee, like I said earlier, she
sounded completely calm, fine, relaxed, it's not like
the two of them are fighting. And the last thing that Dee
Dee had said to her actually was see you on Sunday,
which was Donna's wedding. The wedding that Dee
Dee had helped her plan. And the two of them were so
excited that this was coming up. And instead of postponing her wedding, Donna decided to shorten
the guest list by a lot, having more intimate wedding
and skip the honeymoon because everyone was just so upset about what had happened to Dee Dee. She believed that this is what Dee Dee would have wanted her to do and Don walked her down the aisle. What's weird about this is it turns out that the
wedding ended up being on the same day of Dee Dee's funeral. So Donna and Don didn't attend. - I know that she would be saying, Donna, get yourself together, go
ahead and have your wedding. We worked too hard for this. So I said, okay, I'm gonna
compromise internally. I'm not gonna have the big wedding. I'm not gonna go on my honeymoon, but I will have my family and friends. - This was definitely
seen as pretty weird. I mean, it did not help with the people who were suspicious of Don. After the funeral, the
investigation kind of stalled for a while. All they could really do was
wait for the autopsy report to come back and look
more into that further. Dee Dee's autopsy was
performed by Dr. David Posey. And he released the report
on November 7th, 1994. And he found that Dee
Dee's blood alcohol level was shockingly high. It was three times the
legal limit for driving. And he also noted bruises
and scratches and cuts around her body and her face that he noted as blunt force trauma. There were cuts on her lips, her tongue, even on her ear lobes. And all of these were
listed as non accidental. And the report also listed her death as an assisted drowning, obviously indicating that there's
likely foul play involved. Altogether, there were
58 separate injuries on Dee Dee's face and her body, which could have been caused
by a violent struggle, but her official cause of
was listed as undetermined. And as soon as that autopsy
report was released, Dee Dee's family started
putting pressure on the DA to file charges against Don Bohana. I mean the injuries on her
body are very concerning, very compelling, but
Don had an explanation for the cuts and bruises. He said that there was a struggle to get her out of the pool, that he really had to pull her out and drop her onto the concrete, which could have caused the
bruising and the scraping, but 58 injuries, I don't know, but he was admittedly very
drunk that night and so was she, so he easily could have done
a super clumsy job, I guess, but Dee Dee's family was not convinced. And actually they were
now more sure than ever that Don had been
responsible for Dee's death. - Just the evidence alone
of all my mom's injuries is enough for me to know he killed my mom. - The whole thing had been so devastating for Dee Dee sons that
they felt like they really couldn't move on in their lives until they figured out
what really happened and got justice for their mom. - I haven't really dealt
with my mother's death. I don't know how to. I was 19 and the person she was seeing at the time murdered her. - I was yelled at is when we lost our mom and my world changed because
my mom was my best friend. It left me very numb because I didn't get a chance to properly grieve. - I lost all sense of purpose. I know without my uncle,
Michael, without my father and without my grandmother, I wouldn't, I probably wouldn't
have gotten through it. - So when the District
Attorney made no moves to file charges against Don, the family decided to
file a wrongful death suit against him, instead. The lawsuit was filed on August 16th, 1995 by Attorney Brian Oxman on behalf of Taj, Terrell and TJ Jackson. Brian argued that Don
was in financial trouble and that he jumped at a
chance to be dating someone who had a connection to
the wealthy Jackson family, someone who possibly had deep pockets. He proposed the idea that Don had decided to ask her for
money and that she refused and he became angry and he killed her. He said that he probably became enraged couldn't control himself, especially because he was drinking and he started beating her. He choked her and then he
drowned her in the pool. - The Jackson family believes Don Bohana murdered Dee Dee Jackson
because she wouldn't bail him out of bankruptcy. Bohana's attorney calls the allegations a whole lot of garbage. - And he said that Don had a rage problem that he would often take
out his aggression on women, that he had a history of
violence against women. And that 911 had come to their house at least a dozen times. And Brian actually went
on TV and accused Don of all of this publicly. - There was a four hour long beating inflicted upon Dolores Jackson, where 58 injuries were inflicted
from the top of her head to the bottom of her legs. She was beaten and as a
result of that beating, she drowned in the swimming pool. - But according to Detective
Snapper, this wasn't true. He said that the police had
responded to a few calls at Don's residence but they were all for noise complaints for parties. Also, there was no evidence
that any former girlfriends or anyone at all had ever called to report Don for domestic violence. And not only that
detectives also found that Don was not in any financial trouble and there was no evidence of
him asking Dee Dee for money. But regardless of the proof, Brian launched a full
media campaign against Don. He would talk about things
and spread basically rumors without any evidence. And he would talk about
Don's violent behavior and his financial problems
just directly to the press. And then at some point it
came out that Don had actually been connected to other drowning victims. Turns out he was hosting
a party on his boat in Marina Del Ray and the boat capsized. And two of the women who
were onboard couldn't swim and they both drowned. However, their deaths
were ruled accidental. And the coast guard said
that Don did not seem to be under the influence
of alcohol at all. But of course, the fact
that he was involved with other drowning deaths
does not look good for him when it comes to Dee Dee. - Now it's startling new revelation in the mysterious death of Michael Jackson's
sister-in-law, Dee Dee Jackson. Hard Copy has learned
that Dee Dee's boyfriend, Don Bohana was present
during another drowning that ended in the deaths of two women. - People were very
fascinated by this case, hanging on for any
updates that they could. And the media was looking for any updates that they could find. And sometimes they just
have to make them up. Every time they reported a new
detail or a salacious story, it was putting more and
more pressure on the DA. And eventually the wrongful
death suit that the family had filed had been dismissed and the family was devastated over that. And they were more desperate than ever to get justice for Dee Dee. And Don tried to stay
out of all of it as much as he could try to avoid the spotlight. Meanwhile, his daughter, Donna, took every opportunity she
could to defend her father to the public. And at some points, she
actually went as far as to say that the Jackson family
owed them an apology. - I can't say whether he
blames himself or not, but he, I don't know if he
does, but I know it hurts him. I can see it all over his face, but it's really not his fault. It's hard to say exactly what happened, but I'm sure we'll all find out. And at the end of this, I just
think that the Jackson family owes my father an apology. It was like people were blaming him. - And eventually Donna
announced that Don had decided to launch his own investigation
into Dee Dee's death. And he wanted to prove once and for all that it was an accidental drowning. And around this time he introduced
the idea that he believed that Dee Dee's death
could have been caused because she was drinking
along with taking medication. He believed that this severely
impacted her judgment, her motor skills and caused her to drown. Over the next few years,
multiple prosecutors reviewed Dee Dee's case and declined to press charges on Don. But then in 1996, a new
prosecutor named Lori-Ann Jones took on the case. She decided that she
wanted to shed more lights on this high profile case. Her and her investigators
went with several experts to re-examine Don's pool,
the scene of Dee Dee's death. And the experts had serious doubts about Don's versions of events after looking at the pool themselves. And Lori-Ann ended up
going back and talking with David Posey, the
one who had performed the autopsy on Dee Dee. At this time, he was no
longer working for LA county and Lori-Ann had a lot
of questions for him. And after he read questioned
some of his own findings and looked at her findings,
he changed her cause of death. Dee Dee's death was
changed from undetermined to homicide assisted drowning. And in March of 1997, Don was charged with second degree murder
of Dee Dee Jackson, Don pled not guilty and was
held on a $1 million bail. Now, Don was a well-known guy. He had a lot of famous
friends and he happened to have a friend who is
a very famous attorney. Many of you probably know him.
His name is Johnnie Cochran. Johnnie Cochran was a
close and personal friend who of course is most well-known
for defending OJ Simpson and Don that he would do an
excellent job defending him, probably get him off. But Johnnie could not be his lawyer, he had a conflict of interest. So he connected Don with his friend, a renowned forensic
expert, Dr. Michael Barton. Dr. Barton was the chief medical
examiner for New York city and had spent the last decade
as a private consultant, earning six figure fees. He was very successful. He'd actually been chosen by Congress to investigate the
deaths of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. And he was also an expert
witness in the OJ Simpson trial. He was also pretty well
known to the public because he ended up being a
forensic science contributor on Fox News and also had
his own TV show on HBO, which was called "Autopsy". And after he reviewed
everything about Dee Dee's case, he determined that there was
nothing homicidal about it, that it was simply two
adults who had drank a lot and experienced an accidental drowning. And he also noted that the
bruises that were found all over Dee's body could have been caused because she had a liver disease, which can cause extra bruising. Don also hired another
really high profile lawyer named Harland Braun. Also Don took a polygraph
test in October of 1996 and he received a score of 99.99, NDI, No Deception Indicated. That is a super, super strong score. And Don's legal team
also offered up that Don could take another polygraph test that was administrated by the DA's office, but they declined. So the official trial for
the murder of Dee Dee Jackson started in June of 1988. The prosecution focused mostly
on Dee Dee's fear of water. And they brought several
friends and family up to testify about that. They also focused on her injuries, all the bruises and cuts and how Don didn't have
anything like that on him. And they actually brought in
an aquatics expert who said that it's much more likely for the person that is saving the person drowning to have cuts and scrapes
than the person who drowned. And Dr. Posey was a star
witness for the prosecution. He testified that Dee Dee's
injuries were likely caused by a severe beating and from being choked like he had said originally. And he also said that
he suspected all along that she was murdered and had changed her cause
of death to homicide when he had learned that
other experts agreed. But after that, he was
cross-examined and he changed things. Dr. Posey said that he
had actually never talked to other experts. He had been solely influenced by Lori-Ann, the other investigator. And in a very surprising move
that Don is very upset about, I'm sure to this day, Harold Braun, his defense attorney decided not to call any expert witnesses to the
stand, not a single one. Not even Dr. Michael Baden, who even said that he
was very ready to testify and was super surprised that
they never brought him up. But Harold said that he
thought he would have been a weak witness. He said his strategy was instead to weaken the prosecution's witnesses
instead of focusing on his own. And then he ended up putting
Don on the stand instead. No expert witnesses, but
brought Don up there, which was a pretty controversial move. I mean, that is pretty rare
for defense attorneys to do. Oftentimes you want your
client to just keep quiet and this did not go well. Don said that he actually
didn't get any preparation from his attorney. And he was totally ripped
apart on the stand. Harold himself said that
he did try to prepare Don for the stand, but he
said that he admittedly was the worst possible
witness to bring up. So that didn't go so well. After the trial, which was three weeks, the jury finally reached a
verdict on July 2nd, 1998. And Don was convicted
of second degree murder. - We, the Jury in the
above entitled action, find the defendant, Donald
James Bohana guilty. (audience cheering) - And when the verdict was read, the Jackson family was clearly
very relieved, very happy. They audibly cheered. - I didn't get my mom back but I felt that's the best
that can happen to her. - Now, Don to this day
has continued to say that he is innocent, that he had nothing to
do with Dee Dee's death, that it was purely an accidental drowning. And over the years, Don has continued to fight his conviction. He was extremely angry at Harold Braun. He actually felt like he
purposely kind of tanked him. In 2002, he filed an appeal
and claimed ineffective counsel by Harold Braun. But a judge ruled that Harold's strategy was completely reasonable
and the appeal was denied. And since 2007, Don has
actually been denied appeal four different times. The most recent one was in 2019. And Dee Dee's friends, families, her sons have continued to publicly
object to every appeal. In 2017, "20/20" released
a special on Dee Dee and it caught a lot of attention. The information in this episode, I mean, I would watch it if you're
interested in this case, it ends up bringing up
a lot of good points that make you think twice
about Don's conviction. And Don himself has continued
to say that Harold Braun screwed him all the way
when it came to this trial. Don actually thinks that
Harold screwed him on purpose because he had a couple of late payments and he thinks he purposely didn't bring up the best possible expert witness and also brought him on stand as well, which was not a good idea. He thinks that he knew
exactly what he was doing and he wasn't treating his case seriously. But Harold denies this and he says, there is no way that he would let not getting payments on time. He said he was upset about
that, but he wouldn't, allow that to affect a murder trial. So who knows? But what's crazy is after Don's trial, the Jackson family ended
up hiring the attorney, Harold Braun to represent them, which has cast even more doubt about his representation of Don. And as of recently, June of 2021, the California state bar is
investigating Harold's conduct during Don's trial and his
work for the Jackson family. And Don and his family
have continued to fight for his exoneration. His daughter, Donna ended up
hiring a private investigator to look into things further. And he found a lot of questionable things. He's quite concerned about the
conduct of Dr. David Posey, who has been questioned quite a bit since all of this happened. And Donna started hearing
that a lot of people were questioning and had been questioning Dr. Posey's reputation and his work. Other prosecutors were
referring to him as a fraud. And it turns out he had only worked for the LA coroner's office for 29 days as a part-time medical examiner. And he had very limited experience working on criminal cases. And according to another prosecutor, he just dabbled in autopsies. So plus they found out
that because Dr. Posey was no longer working
for the coroner's office, he was just a paid witness in the trial, which makes them question his authenticity regarding case even more. And then it came out that
he had also been paid by the Jackson family to be a witness in their wrongful death suit. Donna also found out that during the time of her father's trial, Dr.
Posey had filed for bankruptcy and was about to lose his home. But in very suspicious
timing, Dr. Poseys bankruptcy was discharged and his home was saved, the day before the trial started. He also has never responded to
2020's requests for comments, which is pretty weird, but the producers ended
up tracking him down. And when they got to him, he claimed he barely remembered the case. And didn't even really remember
who Dee Dee Jackson was, but it turns out not all of the shady, controversial figures in this
case, are working against Don. Remember the polygraph
tester who said that Don had received and NDI,
no deception indicated, he actually was accused of
falsifying his credentials. So everything about this trial, this case seemed to be a mess. But at the end of the day,
Don's family feels that he only was found guilty
because of this attorney that he was somehow tempted
by the Jackson family to kind of fuck up the trial for Don, especially because he ended up working with the Jackson family later on. This was definitely
seen as very suspicious. So now Don is still in jail to this day, he's in his 80s and this
last year he got COVID and ended up suffering a stroke during it. So he's lucky to be alive at this point. Don believes that he is
going to die in jail, but even if he ends up passing in jail, of course he wants to prove his innocence. Dee Dee's family on the other hand, think that justice was served. They believe that John was responsible and they just don't think that the story about the Olympic turns and her swimming, these laps makes any sense considering she was so afraid of water and never swam. On the other hand, Dee
Dee's family and her sons are happy that Don is in
jail and they continue to be frustrated by his lack of remorse, his lack of admission
for what really happened. Of course, Don can't show remorse because he's trying to
maintain his innocence and that wouldn't make much sense, but he has said that he believes
if he was sober that night, that Dee Dee would still be alive today. Dee Dee's family has done
something really cool to maintain her memory and her legacy. They've started the Dee
Dee Jackson Foundation. It's a nonprofit that helps
children deal with grief, loss, and trauma through music therapy. - We wanna do something in her honor, and we need your help to do it. - We loved our mom. She was amazing. And that's one reason why
we're here is to share the love that she taught us to share. ♪ Together we can conquer ♪ ♪ As long as we will need ♪ ♪ In the power of love ♪ - Very good. You guys sound really, really cool. (children clapping) - I'll link it below in
case anyone out there wants to make a donation, I'm definitely going to be, I think it's a really cool foundation. So of course, I want
to know what you think, and this is not as much of a
cut and dry case as normal. Normally most of you lean
one way or the other. I think this is gonna be
a lot more split because it's a difficult one. Personally, I think there
was definitely some fuckery with the trial. It wasn't fair. It should probably be redone. But at the end of the day,
I don't know what to think. I mean, a lot of the rumors about Don and his domestic violence
were proven to be untrue. So there really isn't a lot of evidence or a lot of motive for
why Don would have wanted to commit this murder. And you're supposed to
be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone is guilty to lock them away for
the rest of their lives. I mean, he'll likely die in there, but at the same time, she
had 58 injuries on her body, which really does make sense
considering he didn't have any. And just how the whole thing played out. There's a lot of sketchiness. So I don't know what to think. I don't think there's enough
information or evidence to make up your mind. Either way, I mean, that's
just how I feel personally. So I'm completely torn. I feel really bad for Dee Dee's sons. I mean, they really missed out on a life with a wonderful mother who
cared about them so much, and I wish that they
could just get the truth, whatever that is. I want to know what you
guys think happened. Do you think Don should be in jail? Should he be released? Let me know in the comments below. And like I said, I'm gonna link the Dee Dee Jackson Foundation. I think it's really cool how
they're helping kids heal with music therapy. It's a really great thing
for their family to put their energy into. But that is it for me today, guys. I hope you found today's case interesting. I'm really looking forward
to hearing your thoughts on this one, because I
know they're going to be all over the place and I just
want to hear your theories. So there eyes a way. That is gonna be it for me today. But before I go, I would like to thank
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go to casetify.com/kendall. Bernie is getting very
panty, very anxious. I feel he wants dinner. He wants to go to bed and I'm
also feeling pretty tired. So we are gonna go, I
will see you next week, but until then stay safe out there guys. (upbeat music)
