Noura Jackson: Guilty Or Innocent?!

hey guys welcome back to my channel and welcome to another true crime video now today's is just like the last two in the sense that I have no idea what to think at the end of looking at this case last two videos I did were Rebekah's a howl and Kendrick Johnson and at the end of those videos I felt like I couldn't come to a conclusion of what I thought happened I didn't even have a theory or a side that I was really leaning on either way in those cases and I'm still super confused about them and this one today I feel the same about really want to get your guys's opinions on this case too because I just don't know what to think I don't know so I guess we should just go ahead and get into it this is Nora Jackson she grew up in Memphis Tennessee with her mother and her mom was a successful bond trader triathlete and would often go to church and Jennifer's relationship with Nora was special because she was a single mother so they were very very close they only had each other in the world Jennifer definitely had the approach with Nora of being her friend she's very lenient about things not the strictest mother in the world by any means and Nora kind of got away with a lot of stuff and Nora even to this day admits that she kind of took advantage of her mom in that way a time that Nora was 16 years old she already gotten into the party scene and she was a partier let me tell you definitely known around the town as a wild child was definitely the girl that people thought of when they thought of parties and who would be at them and Nora actually ended up going to five different high schools and she struggled a lot through this time and by age 18 she still hadn't even graduated so her family pulled her out and homeschooled her you'd definitely say that Nora was a bit on the spoiled side just kind of getting away with everything having everything she wanted but her perfect little life would all be changing on Saturday June 4th of 2005 Nora actually had a really good day that day she spent the day getting her nails done at the spa she then went to this like Italian festival and ate Italian food hung out with friends and then she went to two different parties that some friends were hosting and Norah admits that that night she was drinking and smoking weed 12:46 a.m. on June 5th Norah went to the gas station to get cigarettes and right before Norah went to the gas station she had a phone call with her mom now she wouldn't know that this would be the last phone call with her mom then around 3:30 a.m. she went to a friend's house for a.m. she was seen on a camera at Walgreens buying first-aid supplies for a bad bleeding cut on her hand and then on her way home she bought gas at 4:20 and then at 5:00 a.m. she's clearly a night owl she finally arrived home upon arriving she said that she saw broken glass around her front door area and there was a broken window on the door of her home she said she wasn't like immediately alarmed by this because her mom had broken the glass before when she had locked herself out of the house so she didn't think much of it and went inside and when she got in the house she said that she noticed her mom's bedroom door was open and that's where Nora found Jennifer Jackson sprawled out naked on her floor with fifty stab wounds she was completely covered in blood and you can imagine it was a terrible terrible crime scene Nora was probably so alarmed she'd been you know smoking and drinking so obviously that makes you even more freaked out Nora ran to a neighbor's house and when to get him to help her and they went back to the scene together and he said that Nora ran in ahead of him which there's been a lot made of this why did she go in there wouldn't she be scared there'd be an intruder or something I do remember that she went in the door before me and I thought there's there's somebody in that house you thought somebody was in the house and you thought your mother was injured why would you have run back in before the guy with the gun but keep in mind she did already go in and see her mom laying there by herself and her mom was in you know such bad condition maybe she just forgot all outs and ran in to save her a lot was made of my actions you know of what I did or didn't do or you know but I don't think they write a handbook on stuff like that and that's what she called 911 and here's the call ma'am I think we can help okay sadly by the time the paramedics got to the scene jennifer was already dead but what was crazy about this is that this actually wasn't Nora's first time going through something like this with a parent or ism a strange father who really wasn't in her life at all was also killed and he was the owner of the gas station called Nora's quick stop and one night in January of 2004 one and a half years before Jennifer's death someone came into the gas station store and he was shot in the head and killed in his own store is a video of the killer stealing my security tape not knowing there's a backup as well and taking all the money in the register the murder was never solved no one was ever held accountable known figured out for sure why or what the motive was so it was always just kind of this weird thing in Nora's life going back to Nora she immediately started being looked at by police they thought her behavior was weird and here are some things that they noticed that we're just odd not adding first of all when the 911 caller asks if anyone had been shot Nora responded no like very quickly and a lot of people have criticized her for this because they thought well how would you have known it was a giant bloody mess how would you have known she was shot or whatever though she was kind of criticized for that although I don't know that proves anything and also the fact that there were 50 stab wounds on Jennifer Jackson that isn't odd because normally when there's that many stab wounds it's like way overkill they didn't need to stop doing that many times to kill them it seems like a close personal connection or revenge type of plot normally it's between two people who know each other who have passion between them such as family members relationship stuff like that that's what often investigators think however that is not always true that's not as the case there's a lot of people that just like to stab people that many times because I'm [ __ ] crazy so I don't think that proves that it was Nora versus some random intruder but like I said this case confuses me and I don't know so let's keep going through the evidence the Sheriff's Department kept interviewing Nora over and over again interrogating her and finally they made the decision to arrest her and charge her with her mother's murder and that was on September 29th of 2005 so you know only a couple months after her mother died can you imagine if you didn't do that how devastated you'd be first of all you're doing with the death of the brutal death of your mother actually and then to be blamed for it as well I mean I'm not saying she didn't do it either no I'm just saying if she didn't how horrible he would feel another strange thing was the video of Nora with her hand cut at the Walgreens now that was a big problem because she had neglected to tell the places on purpose because she started to get the sense that they thought she was in on this or involved in some way most damning evidence though Nora is that videotape of you at Walgreens buying emergency first aid supplies the peroxide the bandages right which is why I probably neglected to tell the police that I was put in a locked room they started making a very big deal about the cut of my in you I just got that feeling that something wasn't right so no I was not forthcoming with information but not because I had anything to hide but because I felt like I was being looked at so her trial began on February 9th of 2009 valerie quarter was the defense attorney she actually took on this case pro bono for Nora she felt bad for her because technically Nora was in orphan she had been abandoned by her whole family her mom's whole side of family think that she did it and pretty much stopped having any type of relationship with her and her father's family I mean I'm not sure if they were ever in her life and then on the other side was Amy way rich and she was going for a life sentence of Norah Jones and during the trial the prosecutors had a bunch of Nora's friends testifying against her and it made her look really bad although I will say all the things that she was doing they were doing as well so they kind of threw her under the bus it made her look really bad on the stand today we heard from more of Nora Jackson's friends sure to use xenix bars pharmaceutical drugs cocaine mushrooms on occasion and basically the prosecutor said that her being on all these substances night of actual murder it was just alcohol and weed which I don't think would make you want to randomly kill someone but that's what they claimed was like the reason that she would have killed her mother but it's like can you really say that she straight up murdered her mom because she was smoking weed and drinking I don't think so and all the other kids were doing that they weren't killing their moms how about all the people that do that in the world every day and they're not killing people but one of the most damning parts in the trial was when one of her friends ex friend Herbie McDonald testified against her and saying that she hated her mother and that was pretty bad in the jury's eyes and then another kid testified named Andrew hammock and at the time of her mother's death he was Nora's friend with benefits but he testified that he had exchanged calls in text with Nora at the same time frame of the murder between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m. and Andrew testifies that Nora said that she was out of her house and he should meet her there was throughout the night and the last thing I do remember when I woke up the morning of June 5th I had a text message or voice mail that said answer need to talk to you or something and obviously during the trial they looked a lot into Nora's relationship with her mother and what it was like between them too and it turns out that Jennifer Jackson was actually kind of in the process of trying to put the reins on her daughter like bring her back down to earth teach her how to be a productive citizen bore ears Jennifer had been trying to get her to calm down with her crazy lifestyle kind of come back to earth a little bit and she was getting to the point of taking away at Nora's privileges and it turns out that she was actually planning to send Nora to a boarding school where she would not be able to partake in any sex or drugs or partying and so this became the main motive for Nora to kill her Nora admits to not getting along with her mother especially in her lair teen years although she said that she still had respect for her and didn't hide things from her that they had a very open and honest relationship but it's hard to say when Jennifer is not here to you know say her side of things and the prosecution also claimed that money could be a motive and definitely could've been Nora's father died he left behind quite a bit of money and it went to her mom now another thing that really did not help Nora's case is that her whole you know mother's family really turned on her they think that she killed her mother her uncle Eric Sherwood said that and he would ask Nora if she knew anything or she had any ideas of what could have happened then she would kind of blow him off and had no interest in talking about it I asked Nora if she had any idea about my sister's death anything to help out with the detectives and she just basically just put her head down with the same thing he also claims that he heard Nora kind of pressing at her mother about their financial information life insurance policy and you know their accents and stuff which is pretty unusual to be looking at and Nora's two aunts also testified against her and they said that the main reason is that she was never able to tell them where she was when this crime was taking place sometime between her last phone call with Nora at 12:20 a.m. and that 911 at 5:00 so where exactly was Nora during that time you were not in that house yeah I was not before five o'clock now so what about this cut on her hand write to me I mean this is the most damning evidence here probably there were five different times where Nora talked about this cut and where she got it two different people and here were all her different answers she claimed that she cut it at a tying festival she told me that she was in her house chasing her kitten through the kitchen and cut it on some glass she said that she cut it on barbed wire she cut it trying to get the cat out of garage I burned it cooking macaroni and cheese so obviously that was really damning as well however Nora said that she only gave statement to everyone and including the police and that was that she cut it had the Italian festival but it looked really bad because Nora kept wearing these like sweatshirts that went over her hand in the first couple of you know days weeks witnessed happen whenever norm was the public she was seen with long sleeve on this was the summer it's hot as balls lover people have said that Nora always did this that [ __ ] was kind of like she was insecure so she'd wear sweatshirts even in this summer and Nora said that she had really hairy arms and she was insecure about that so that kind of makes some sense but it's just all so weird oh I bet a lot of you are sitting here saying she clearly did it there's plenty of evidence why are you still in the fence and the reason I'm still in the fence and unsure is because there was not a single bit of Nora's DNA at the crime scene there was no bloody knife found there was no fingerprints or any DNA on her body there were knifes in the house but the investigators were not able to determine whether or not those were used in the actual crime Nora's blood was nowhere in the crime scene around her mother and Jennifer's blood was nowhere on her daughter they didn't find any evidence of her mom's DNA on her which is super weird considering her mom got stabbed 50 times it's pretty much impossible to not have like a DNA transfer or to get some blood on your clothes I mean it's just really really odd what is she like a superhero that can pull off a crazy murder like this and leave behind no trace of evidence I mean that's just so weird to me and another thing to keep in mind is that Nora had freshly manicured nails they were still in great condition no blood no scuffs there's no hair no skin underneath them and although investigators did find the DNA of Nora anywhere they did find DNA for two random unknown women they were never able to match them but there were two women there so that to me is why I'm still on the fence I'm not sure there's a lot of evidence pointing to Nora but there's a lot of that points to someone else Jennifer had like clumps of hair in her hands a lot of the times when people are fighting back in a crime scene investigators will find hair in their hand and this is almost funny but forensic experts decided not to test this hair and they never ran tests on it so Tuesday we have no idea whose hair that was I mean it seems so [ __ ] ridiculous to me that you wouldn't check the hair that's in the victims hand at the crime scene and this hair was blonde but Nora's hair is clearly brown was also worried about this case is that no one testified in it not any of Nora's friends no one on her side and not even Nora herself which Tuesday she said was the biggest mistake she ever made but on March 27th of 2009 jury sentenced nor Jackson to 20 years and 9 months in prison for murdering her mother Nora vows her head while her dead mother's sisters and friends exchanged hugs I just couldn't believe it it's they didn't prove anything how do you convict this child I really was of the belief that you know I would go to trial and I would prove that I'm innocent and then I will get to go home and I think I was in shock and she was prosecuted for this crime even though there was absolutely no forensic evidence that she did it or that she was there when she went to prison on her defense team never stopped fighting for her they really felt like Nora had no one on her side her parents are both dead no family to look out for her then on August 22nd of 2014 the Tennessee Supreme Court rule out Nora Jackson's second-degree murder conviction saying that the prosecution actually violated her rights not to say anything at all because in the statements from the prosecuting attorney she asked Nora a question kind of a loaded question and Nora's not able to answer it and it made her look guilty tell us where you were that's all we're asking Nora those words according to quarter violated Nora's constitutional right not to testify Tennessee Supreme Court also said that the prosecution withheld potentially exculpatory evidence which is evidence that is likely to prove innocence from the defense and they failed to reveal a statement that witness and Norris friends-with-benefits Andrew had given which contradicted his testimony in previous statements so basically proving that they really can't trust whatever andrew said and then Andrew himself confessed that he was actually rolling on ecstasy during the time of the crime and he didn't even have his cellphone on him and this made the whole statement about Nora telling him to come over and hang out just illegitimate it just wasn't able to be used as part of the case anymore though they basically decided to get Nora a retrial however Witnesses on the prosecution side didn't want to go through the whole trial again so they both agreed on a plea deal Nora signed something called an Alford plea now if you remember I've talked about Alford pleas at least two or three times on this channel specifically what I can think of is the West Memphis Three might be one of the most popular cases of an Alford plea being used it basically allows you to admit that the prosecution has enough evidence to determine that you are guilty but you were also maintaining your innocence at the same time it's a really weird and bizarre and rare thing that they use in court and that was the best case scenario and Nora decided to take that and a lot of people question her like why would you take that because now even though you get to feel free people will always still think maybe you could have done it because you sort of admit to it that's what it is it's really weird but if you think about it at that point she just wants to get out of prison she had been in there like 11 years at that point and she wanted to you know get on with her life live her 30s you don't want to spend another ten years fighting just for you know the moral of it at this point she was just ready to get out of prison in starting her life and in March 2017 the attorney on the prosecution side started facing challenges of ethical violations in the Jackson case we'd like to talk to you about the Nara Jackson case we've been trying to get in touch with you the state has called for your public sensor for botching that murder case your trial errors either sent an innocent girl to prison or they let a killer go free which is worse we really like to talk to you about this why can't we sit down and talk to you and the judge judge Kraft said that he thinks that noir had a fair trial and that she is guilty however after serving 11 years in prison on August 7 2016 15 months after she signed an Alford plea Nora was released from the prison at 8:30 this morning in her blue prison uniform Nora Jackson made the 75 second walk to freedom moments later she changed into a new outfit once Jackson was officially outside the prison gates she was granted by her friend with a long emotional embrace after more than a decade behind bars moments later she rode off beginning a new chapter accidents attorneys accepted a plea deal of voluntary manslaughter from prosecutors avoiding a potentially lengthy new trial she could have fought for another 10 years on principle I don't know anybody who would give up their 30s for principle in the deal Jackson did not have guilt in the death of her mother but accepted the lesser offense this should never be allowed [Music] it didn't feel real I was just really scared that someone was gonna tell me to come back in the building so baby it's not just for today I know that Norah asks to drive past the home where she was raised the same house where her mother died dears let yourself go baby stop trying to control it it's okay being incarcerated is tough in itself but being incarcerated for something you didn't do it is something else entirely and while she was in jail she got her GED so she started applying to colleges she has dreams of going to college one day and you know living a successful life and she ended up settling with her mother's sisters for a portion of that estate which was 1.5 million dollars she says she still thinks of her mother daily and misses her all the time so I want to know you guys think about this I mean I'm just so torn on this because for some reason Norah just doesn't strike me as a killer although there are so many people out there that commit murders that you would never think would do it and it's not enough to just be like oh yeah I don't get like killer vibes from this person so they didn't do it evidence really stacks up against her but the lack of DNA evidence makes me just say you know you just can't prove I don't know you guys I'm really looking for your opinions on this one let me know what you think below tell me your theory why you think that I'm still just in the land of I don't [ __ ] know which is where I've been living in the last three weeks so but I hope you guys enjoyed that video I hope you enjoyed learning about this case and that's it for me to be a guys I will talk to you [Music] do [Music] [Applause] to [Music] just to be [Music] did you come to make [Music]

Channel: Kendall Rae

Views: 1,731,277

Rating: 4.9517355 out of 5

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Id: thXARMQXlLU

Length: 24min 21sec (1461 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 05 2018