Justice for Jacob Landin pt. 2
The following episode discusses themes which may be difficult for some listeners. It deals with issues of domestic violence, child abuse, neglect, and child murder. Listener Discretion is advised.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence please call the national Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. To report child abuse or suspected child abuse please call 1-855-333-SAFE [7233] or #SAFE from a mobile device.
In Part 1 of Jacob’s story you heard about his case and how he was murdered by my mom’s boyfriend. You learned about how he terrorized my mom and me for years. This is the follow up to Episode 1. For context, my mother and I went to a cold case investigator to have the case looked at again in 2004. We weren’t aware of the status of this secondary investigation until I requested the documents for the case in January of this year. As a result of the request, I received close to 200 pages of documents related to the case. I learned a lot from these documents, most notably, I learned that the case is, in fact, closed. I became extremely emotional as you can imagine. Learning that no one is willing to prosecute this case was heartbreaking.
The most frustrating part of this discovery was learning that the cold case investigator stated, quote, “ Suspect was arrested (in 1992) and charged with that offense, but after his arrest, it appears that nothing else occurred after the initial filing of the criminal charge, and I have been unable to determine why this had occurred, as records no longer exist. There was sufficient evidence, in this investigator's opinion, to prove that he knew of Jacob's recent head injury, which occurred several weeks before this incident, and this incident which then resulted in Jacob's death. He should have been more attentive to Jacob’s needs.
He did negligently, and without justifiable cause, placed Jacob in a situation that endangered his (Jacob's) life. He knew of Jacob's prior injury, and combined with the fact that he changed his story or version of events, during the investigation, which were not witnessed by anyone else, several times, that fact alone draws a lot of suspicion to any story he tells after his initial statement. This incident which resulted in Jacob's death occurred one way, not the two or three ways as told by the suspect. He knew that he needed to be much more attentive to Jacob's needs, as Jacob was only nine- (9) months old and still in need of almost constant supervision, and the suspect, failed to do this.
The problem with this investigation at this time is the statute of limitations, and in this investigator's opinion; if this is not overcome there can not be a successful criminal prosecution in this matter. We also have a speedy trial issue. He was arrested in 1992, and it appears that the criminal charge was never pursued by the State.” end quote.
Today I am joined by my friends Lydia and Edna. Edna is a former prosecutor for the state of New Mexico. Edna tries to help me understand the case more. In the follow up to this episode you will hear some corrections to what is discussed in this episode.