Jeff Pelley Case Analysis | Master Assassin or Innocent?

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of jeff pelly just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first i'll look at the background of this case i'll move to the timeline of the crime and offer my analysis starting with the background this story starts in the 1960s when robert lee pelly met a woman named eva joy armstrong they were both students at mount vernon nazarene university in ohio by 1970 the couple would be married they would have a son jeff pelly in 1971. in 1976 they would have a daughter named jackie later she would report that the family was close she described them as normal the family would move to florida in the late 70s first to orlando and the cape coral in 1979 or 1980 robert had found a job in computer programming for a telephone company although he was still interested in religious studies he changed jobs not long after and worked for a bank in a data processing center in 1984 joy pelly was diagnosed with skin cancer she would die on february 24 1985 she was 34 years old robert would not permit his 13 year old son and his 10 year old daughter to cry over their mother's death he was a strict disciplinarian and he had rules about expressing emotions around the same time in ohio a man named edward huber died in an accident or by suicide it appears it's one of the other it's not really clear he left behind his 28 year old wife dawn huber the couple had three daughters jessica age five janelle h four and jolene aged two robert's two children were visiting relatives in ohio when robert traveled there to pick them up he met dawn who was at his niece's house visiting her best friend the couple hit it off and they would be married by november of 1985. the family initially moved to florida but then they would move to lakeville indiana in 1986. robert switched from computer programming to being a minister taking over a congregation of about a hundred members of the olive branch united brethren church there was a parsonage on the property right next to the church the family lived in the white ranch style house robert earned a little bit over 1200 hours a month much less than he made working at the bank in florida it seems odd that robert would have made this switch it's not really clear what happened it appears as though employees at the bank had been laundering money for a colombian cartel later two witnesses would say that robert left florida because he was afraid for his life before moving to the timeline of the crime let's hear a word from today's sponsor policy genius if someone relies on you for financial support whether it's a child aging parent or even a business partner you need life insurance policy genius america's leading online insurance marketplace 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genius doesn't add on extra fees click the link in the description to get started now moving to the timeline of the crime on sunday april 30 1989 members of the church where robert was a pastor started to show up for the 9 30 a.m service robert wasn't there this was highly unusual one of the church members named david hathaway walked over to the parsonage and knocked on the door there was no answer the door was locked which was out of the ordinary hathaway noticed all the curtains and blinds were closed as well just after 10 am hathaway was able to get a key from another church member upon entering the house he noticed robert's glasses were on the floor in the hallway he then saw robert pelley laying on his back in a pool of blood hathaway assumed that robert was dead he was correct after the first responders arrived they too acknowledged that robert was dead he had been shot twice once in the chest and once in the neck and chin they found that dawn janelle and jolene were in the basement they had been shot to death as well in total the killer or killers had fired six shots almost certainly 20 gauge shotgun slugs two different types of slugs had been used other than the presence of homicide victims nothing in the house was disturbed the doors had been locked there was no forced entry nothing had been stolen the other children were not in the house seventeen-year-old jeff pelly was at the great america amusement park near chicago 13 year old jackie was visiting friends at a nearby college and nine-year-old jessica was having a sleepover at a friend's house the police started to focus the investigation on jeff pelly for a variety of reasons they knew from some circumstances that occurred before the homicides that he might have a motive robert was strict with his family as i mentioned he and jeff didn't always get along on one occasion robert punched jeff jeff wanted to go to his high school prom but before the prom jeff had been caught burglarizing a home he had stolen under a hundred dollars in cash about 40 cds cds were relatively new in 1989. the police agreed not to arrest jeff as long as he apologized to the victim and returned the property robert refused to let jeff attend the dinner before the prom or the events after the prom and the only way robert was going to allow jeff to go to the prom was if robert drove him jeff had his own car a silver 1984 ford mustang and would have been embarrassed to have his father drive him to the prom robert had even gone so far as to hide the keys to the mustang canceled the insurance on it and removed two fuses and the distributor cap so the vehicle could not be operated 1984 mustangs didn't really need help not running that's kind of their specialty there was no need to remove parts from that car it was designed to do that automatically the police thought that it was odd that jeff was not more upset about his parents being killed they said he wasn't showing enough emotion there was a 20-gauge shotgun in the house before the murders after the murders the shotgun was missing the police believe the four murders took place on saturday april 29 1989 which is the day before the bodies were discovered they believe the murders occurred between 4 50 pm when one witness reported she left the parsonage and 5 10 pm when another witness said jeff's mustang was still at the parsonage they believe jeff committed the homicide in this narrow 20-minute window even though the police suspected jeff was the killer the prosecutor at the time didn't think there was enough evidence to get a conviction in 2002 a new prosecutor took over he believed that a conviction was possible jeff was arrested by this time he was 34 years old living in florida and working for ibm here's the state's theory of the crime which they presented at trial angry at his father for not allowing him to drive to the prom himself jeff retrieved his father's 20-gauge shotgun he shoots his father twice then makes his way to the basement where he shoots his stepmother and two stepsisters he removes all his clothes and puts them in the washing machine he retrieves the spent shell casings now naked he goes back upstairs and picks up the two other shell casings next to his father's body jeff takes a shower or otherwise cleans himself up in the bathroom then puts on different clothes he turns out all the lights closes the curtains locks the doors and makes his way out to his mustang with his prom tuxedo the shotgun and the spent shell casings he replaces the fuses and the distributor cap his father had removed from his vehicle and gets it running again he gets rid of the shotgun and the shells somewhere along the road on the way to pick up his prom date jeff was convicted of four counts of murder in 2006 he was sentenced to 160 years in prison his conviction was initially overturned on appeal in 2008 but then upheld by the indiana supreme court in 2009 now moving to my analysis was jeff pelley actually guilty let's look at the evidence both for and against the idea he was guilty starting with the inculpatory evidence on friday april 28 the day before the murder jeff told his girlfriend who was also his prom date that his father had lifted the restrictions about going to the prom but he told her not to mention in front of his father why would he need that to be a secret at 5 30 pm on april 29 visitors stopped by the parsonage about an appointment that robert missed they received no answer to the door this suggests the victims may have been dead at this time on april 30 when jeff was at the amusement park with his girlfriend she said that he told her that he had a bad feeling he didn't know what it was about it was just a bad feeling he didn't specifically mention his family being murdered or anything like that jeff pelly had a criminal history in addition to the burglary that he confessed to just before the murders he had been caught engaging in other activities like breaking into cars smoking marijuana shoplifting and forging a check from a women's group at the church he had to apologize to that group after being caught jeff drove to pick up his date not wearing his tuxedo he had to change into it after arriving there were never any pictures taken with his family this was unusual compared to what most teenagers would do for a prom jeff stopped at a gas station on the way to his prom date's house and asked for a screwdriver perhaps he was trying to get the vehicle working perhaps he had improperly installed the distributor cap there was no forced entry into the parsonage outside the homicides nothing else in the house was disturbed or stolen as i mentioned a 20-gauge shotgun was missing from the peli home and the murder weapon was thought to be a 20-gauge shotgun jeff and his father had been arguing jeff wanted something his father wasn't willing to give him that is to drive himself to the prom jeff drove his mustang even though it was uninsured it had been for almost three weeks why would robert allow jeff to drive without insurance jeff is the only person known to have an opportunity to have committed a crime now moving to the exculpatory evidence the prosecution's theory of the crime only allows for 20 minutes for jeff to shoot and kill all four victims collect the shell casings remove his clothes wash his clothes clean himself get dressed and climb into his vehicle jeff did not have any bruises on his shoulders it is very difficult to believe that he could fire a 20 gauge shotgun five to seven times and not have a bruise on his shoulder there is some dispute about whether a 20 gauge shotgun was actually in the house there were different stories robert apparently would somewhat frequently buy and sell firearms on the day he was murdered he was shopping for guns there were no 20-gauge shells found in the house did robert own a 20-gauge shotgun but not have any ammunition for it doesn't really seem like that would make a lot of sense what would be the point of owning a weapon that you could not fire jeff acted normally at the prom after wiping out his family he was able to function normally and not stand out in any way this seems difficult to believe presumably this would have been his first quadruple murder how did he maintain his composure so well jeff pelley's stepmother had written a check made out to jeff in the memo she wrote prom this makes it seem as though the whole prom issue may have been cleared up before the murder maybe jeff really did have permission the only time jeff would have been able to dispose of the shotgun and the shells was between 4 50 pm on the saturday when the murder happened and 5 30 p.m on that same day the house where he picked up his prom date was between 20 and 30 minutes away and he arrived at 5 30 p.m he stopped at a gas station along the way arriving at 5 17 p.m and was there for at least eight minutes he could not have deviated too far off the route in order to dispose of the evidence or he would have taken noticeably longer to complete the drive why couldn't the police find the evidence in such a restricted search area evidently they searched the area extensively no blood was found on jeff his clothing or in his vehicle just a few minutes before the murder jeff invited one of his friends into the garage to hang out that friend realized that he forgot his corsage and he made his way home why would jeff have asked this person to hang out if he knew he was about to commit a quadruple homicide i mentioned before that robert left the bank in florida under suspicious circumstances like the whole money laundering situation for a colombian cartel cartel members exhibit a particular sensitivity about people taking their money and often respond in a less than pro-social manner when robert was hired the church in indiana the church had purchased a national registry listing which was to contain robert's photograph robert was not happy about this he told the photographer that people were hunting for his family not long before the murder a member of the community saw robert talking to a mysterious individual in a black truck this is a fairly small town therein at that time about 500 or 600 people the individual did not recognize the man or the truck so an outsider was in the town that day speaking to jeff so now going back to that question considering all the evidence was jeff belly guilty a look at both the legal standard and in reality by the legal standard there's no way that jeff pelly was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at least not in my opinion there are a multitude of reasonable doubts the compressed timeline the cartel no physical evidence tying him to the crimes no bruises on a shoulder there's just too many aspects of the state's theory of the crime that don't make sense what about in reality jeff was exhibiting some anti-social behavior leading up to the crime at the same time he was not initially arrested for murder and he went on with his life when jeff allegedly committed the murders he was 17 he was far from sophisticated yet we are to believe he carried out the homicides with the speed precision and cautiousness of a professional assassin i believe jeff was actually innocent i don't think he had anything to do with the homicides jeff being able to pull off this crime the way the prosecution described would be more unlikely than him being innocent i believe robert pelley involved himself in a dangerous activity moved to a small town in order to escape but was unsuccessful the police focused in on jeff right away they never seriously looked at any other suspect they contorted the timeline like a pretzel in order to make jeff the killer they needed him to be i think jeff pelle's lack of emotions really hurt him i've talked about before in other videos how the police seem to believe their mental health experts they look at these different emotional reactions that occur in a time of tremendous crisis and make determinations about what they mean people react differently to stress it's not a terribly unusual reaction to feel numb after something as severe as multiple homicides jeff could have just been in a daze maybe he didn't know what to think so it made him look like he was perhaps psychopathic but i think it could have been a relatively normal reaction at least for him i mean he had not been through other homicides before he didn't have any type of baseline to compare to the police couldn't say hey look for these other hundred homicides that you've seen you're all broken up you were sad you were crying and for these four you're not that's not how it works we see that jeff's reaction was probably again not that unusual and yet it was interpreted in the worst possible way there's one thing to have an unusual reaction even if somebody wants to make that argument like okay maybe his reaction was atypical that still doesn't mean it points to him as a killer it doesn't mean he was homicidal it just means he was different in that particular reaction so the police often attribute some type of ill intent some type of malice to those reactions especially if somebody's not showing a lot of emotion i think that's what really ended up convicting jeff pelly it certainly wasn't a timeline that makes him look guilty or much other evidence that makes him look guilty it really was his emotional reaction so we see another case really heavily dependent on determining something from emotions that really cannot be determined those are my thoughts in the case of jeff pelley please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 271,885

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Id: mC0XfRoOsMg

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 19 2021