There is a question from the jury. They want to see the state's exhibits of evidence. 

Judge will give them a thumb drive of those. 

No verdict yet.  

The jury could deliberate a few hours or days. I will come back live when there is a verdict. I've covered murder verdicts that have happened in two hours or four or five days. 

Thanks for following this one and come back for the verdict.  

Juror is going out to start deliberations at 12:07 p.m. 

Judge will select alternates by drawing names of the 14 jurors. Two will leave and not join in deliberatations.   

That's it for the closings. Judge is reading some remaining instructions. 

Slaughter: Only one conclusion you can reach is guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. 

Slaughter: What you don't see in the photo display from the defense is there are no recent photos of the family. They are from 4 or 5 years ago. 

The only photos of the family are of them laid out on cold slab. 

  

Slaughter: That makes zero common sense. 

There aren't any blood footprints going into his bedroom. There is spatter marks on the bed leg.

Do you remember what Jackson is playing with when officers realize they left him alone while sweeping house? He's playing with a shell casing. 

Slaughter: For the defense story to make sense - this intruder gets into the neighborhood and into Jackson's backyard and nobody sees him. He picks random house that secured by cameras but not by locked doors. 

Front door locked, garage door locked but not back door. 

You have to believe the armed intruder came in for a burglary or to hurt people and picks door isn't locked. Nothing is stolen. Nothing ransacked. Or breaking in to hurt someone but you don't bring you're own weapon. 

Maybe he's there to steal guns or hurt people. Dispatcher says you got shot with your own gun?

Jackson says gun was unloaded and left on fire place. The gun was stored under jackson's gun. Found the box under his bed. It's his scout gun. the ammo also is sitting out neatly on fireplace. 

He then executes the family. Jackson after hearing shots, then runs downstairs and struggles with intruder. He left good quality palm prints on gun.

Intruder is standing over Jan and fires two shots but he's not going to shoot the person who can identify him. He's reached his kill limit. 

Slaughter: Defense expert on police dogs - He didn't think any program in U.S. was good. He only thinks Germany program is best. He hasn't taken any classes since 1990s. He contradicted himself so many times, I don't even know what his testimony was. 

Slaughter is criticizing the expert's testimony and Johnston objected. Judge talks to them at bench and then tells her to continue. 

Slaughter: You saw Jackson under fentanyl and in pain. It's doesn't make any difference. It makes no sense that he can't give more details. 

He never had concern for his them. He didn't call out their names. Never crawled to see his sister. He only cared about himself. He had to make himself a victim.

There's only one murderer and it's Alexander Jackson. 

Slaughter: There's a Black man with black clothing and green shoes lurking around this neighborhood and nobody saw him. 

The backyard camera can't be proven but it's a convenent that it can't show this intruder.

Jackson said he needed to get a job and had to move out. He only has $30 in bank account. Is money motive? She doesn't know but she doesn't have to prove a motive.

There's never going to be a good enougjh reason why he killed his family. Never a good enough reason to kill his family.     

Slaughter will now get another chance to address the jury. 

This is a case of circumstanial evidence. DNA is circumstanial. It's there but doesn't tell you how it got there. It doesn't make it any less true. Jury gets to evaluate it. 

Nobody else was there to see Jackson murder his family. 

Absence of evidence is evidence. Whole lot missing from cameras. Because there was no intruder. 

Johnston: You are the judges of the facts. If all you have is that someone broke in and used the gun. That's not such a stretch. Reasonable doubt is all over this case. He had no reason to harm his family. 

He asked the jury to return guilty verdicts. 

Johnston: Statements made by police and their interrogation tactics aren't evidence. 

The prosecution fished around for a motive. Would Jackson get the money. Heard Sabrina was bisexual - how is that a motive.

His grades dropped and he needed to get a job - How is that a reason to kill your family?  

Johnston: The third latent print, he believes they did exclude Jackson. This print is very important and should have been pursued. 

DNA would have helped. Many areas of gun wasn't tested. Didn't test swabs taken from Jackson's body. Three shells in gun weren't swabbed and sent to DCI. It's just like the Idaho case. They found print on knife sheath. 

Only Jackson's blood was found on his clothes. None from his family members. 

Johnston: Police want to say Jackson messed with camera but there's proof of that. No evidence that he had Ring app on the phone. 

Holst said same thing Lyon said. Alex and Sabrina didn't have app on their phones, Only the parents. 

Johnston: Ring camera  showed police activity that day but not in backyard. Police wanted to find out. There was already something wrong with camera. Maybe it was too high and couldn't detect motion. 

 

Johnston: Is reading parts of the police interview. 

Denlinger made disparging remarks to Jackson. Jackson was polite and denied killing him. He asked them to do more investigation. 

Korsa, police dog, did a track of the area to find the intruder. The defense expert knows more about tracking and training. He finds a number of things that Buckles didn't do the tracking correctly. Korsa was panting too much to pick up a track. Korsa found track of officers but they had just been there. 

Johnston: The investigators chose to do this right after he was shot and being treated. 

Jackson said he went to get a belt in his bedroom. That is supported by all the blood in the hallway.

Jackson continued to deny it. They were grasping at straws to get him to admit it. Says maybe he was jealous of his sister. 

Johnston: Jackson said "Oh, good" when Lacina introduces them as police investigators. 

Jackson says he didn't do it. They are important to me and I love them. 

Denlinger asks him at what point did you unplug the camera. Jackson says what camera. He doesn't know.

Jackson ask them to do more "lab stuff." He wants the person found. He's in shock and pain meds. 

Johnston: Four hours of interrogation begins. You can see the terror in his eyes. He's in pain. Trauma can cause confusion and memory lapses. 

Dr. Kruse said fentanyl can cause ephoria and confusion. 

Lacina asks nurse ot hold off on pain meds during police interview. These investigators didn't believe there was an intruder. Jackson was polite to officers, even when the accused him. 

Johnston: He's playing 911 call. 

Jackson says I've been shot. My other family member has been shot. He's talking about his father. It's not referencing everybody. It's meaning only his father. He didn't know about his other family members. 

Jackson is asking about his sister and father on way to hospital. He says his pain is 10. He's given fentanyl. 

Johnston: No shell casings found in Jackson's bedroom. 

No signs of a struggle when Jan fell. Sometimes there aren't signs of a struggle. 

Number of times Sabrina was shot, means the gun was out of ammo and had to be reloaded.

  

Johnston: Jackson got shot behind the sofa. That's a foot with blood coming out of it. You can follow those Jackson's foot prints down the hallway to get the belt. The pool of blood by his bed is where he was trying to use the belt.

Photo of footprint has a gap in it, Johnston says its the shirt that's wrapped around his foot. 

Johnston: He sees a man standing over his father and runs at him and struggle with him. First four found by backdoor. Five in master bedroom. Two casings in sister's room. 11 shots. The shooter's out of bullets. 

Intruders comes in and sees the gun. Maybe he has knowledge of gun or finds out. Jan sees the person and the shooters fires at him. He then goes upstairs and kills mom. He passes Alex room and he's on porch. He then shoots Sabrina twice. He needs to load the gun and then sees Jan wasn't dead, so he shoots him twice in the head. 

Jackson comes up behind him when the shooter is firing at Jan. The intuder then shoots Alex in the foot. 

Johnston: Neighborhood is perfect for a home invasion. It's an affluent home. Homes are spaced out, secluded.

Multiple guns in the home. We don't know what was the intruder's intent. He relates it to In Cold Blood - home invasion and killing of a family in Holcomb, Ks. 

Not a shred of evidence that disproves what Jackson said. He was sleeping on his porch and was woke up to gunshots. He had his phone on the porch. 

He hears the shots. Maybe he was scared. Hears about 10 shots. Hears someones moving through house.  

Johnston: These family photos were all over the walls. 

Why would Alex Jackson kill his family. It makes no sense. They were a happy family. No motive was proven. It doesn't have to be but in making sense of this case - why would he do this. He repeatedly said he wouldn't. 

Nobody every noticed any issues. They interacted normally and happily together. 

Jackson was an Eagle Scout. He graduated Kennedy High and went to UI. No history of violence. No history of mental illness. 

Johnston's closing: He is displaying photo of Jackson and his family.

Doubt is a natural condition. Evaluate it critically. Ask questions. This is a case of circumstanial evidence. 

Boesenberg said he couldn't rule out an intruder. 

Don't lower the burden of truth just because there were three people murdered. There were four victims and one of them is Alexander Jackson.

 

We are back.

Judge is giving jury 15 min. break before Tyler Johnston gives his closing. 

Slaughter: A common reoccuring theme you'll find in instructions - it says to use reason and common sense when going over evidence. You're going to find Jackson's story doesn't make sense. It's unreasonable to believe.

Ask them to return verdicts of guilty for all three counts. 

 

Slaughter: Jackson said he thought getting shot in the foot would hurt worse. Not something commonly thought. You think about that when you plan 3 murders and try to cover it up. 

Slaughter: In Jackson's bedroom, by his bed leg, there was blood spatter when he shot himself in the foot. The spatter proves that. He used a belt to stop the bleeding and pulled on it so hard, the buckle popped off. 

The bloody footprints don't enter the room. The prints are exiting the room because that's where he shot himself. The spatter and footprints proves he was in bedroom when he shot himself. 

Slaughter: Boesenberg testified he found three prints on the gun. Left palm print was good quality. It wasn't smudged or smeared. It was run through the system and there were five possible names. It matched Jackson. 

Also a right palm print found which matched Jackson. It was also good quality. 

The third latent print had some identifying markers - but they were horizontal lines. There was no match. It was poor quality. He couldn't say if it was Jackson's or not. 

The other two prints were Jacksons. 

Slaughter is showing how the gun would held to leave those prints and is consistent with holding the muzzle down when Jackson shot his foot.   

Slaughter: There was testimony that Boesenberg had to watch a YouTube video to learn how to load this gun. He was experienced with firearms but this gun is unique and could be loaded with 11 bullets. 

That gun had to be reloaded by the alleged intruder. 

Slaughter: Over and over Jackson was asked what happened. He said he was shot downstairs. Doesn't say where. He may have shot himself in the struggle or intruder shot him.

Jackson said he had to go into the bedroom to get his phone. He wants you to think he's sleeping out in the heat. He's 320 pounds. But there's phone activity at 6 a.m. He's sleeping so sound that he doesn't hear his family is being executed?    

Slaughter: Over and over Jackson was asked what happened. He said he was shot downstairs. Doesn't say where. He may have shot himself in the struggle or intruder shot him.

Jackson said he had to go into the bedroom to get his phone. He wants you to think he's sleeping out in the heat. He's 320 pounds. But there's phone activity at 6 a.m. He's sleeping so sound that he doesn't hear his family is being executed?    

Slaughter: Then he adds the intruder had gloves. 

Boesenberg took swabs of the firearm for potential DNA. The additional swabs that weren't tested weren't important. The other swabs were from the trigger area and where bullets are loaded. 

Jackson said he and his father were cleaning the weapon the night before. He didn't think there would be fingerprints on bullets because the intruder had gloves - a new fact. 

 

Slaughter: Jackson wanted to make sure each one of  family members were dead. 

Jackson said he was outside sleeping on screened in porch with his dog. 

.22 caliber would have woke up Jackson, which he said he was. Saw a black man messing with a gun over his father. 

Jackson ran at him and tried to take the gun. "Well, you see what happened."

Investigators tried to get more details from her. He slowly tried to fill in information. The intruder now has green shoes. Then a black ski mask.  

Slaughter: 8 shots, so far. 

Melissa Jackson lying on floor. A group of shell casings left near the doorway from where Jackson fired. Three shots fired at Melissa, One grazed her scalp, one to right temple and final shot into her left eye. This was at close range - inches away from his mother when he shot her in the face.   

Slaughter: Sabrina had a shot to her eye and another into her torso - abdomen area. Jackson shot her from the doorway. After being shot in torso, she rolled over into fetal position and her brother shot her in the eye at closer range.  

Slaughter: K-9 Officer Curt Buckles tries to track the intruder. 

Investigator Boesenberg processes the scene for 3 days. Behind the sofa on lower level is a pile of shell casings. 

Jackson was behind the sofa and started shooting his father. He shot him five times. He fell face first onto the carpet. Jackson then stood over his father and shot him twice in the back of the head. 

 

Slaughter: Jackson was sitting outside of his sister's bedroom. But he doesn't know if she is safe. 

Jackson says there is a gun on the floor. It's family's gun. Dispatcher says you got shot with you're own gun? Yes, Jackson says.

Police first see Jan Jackson lying on floor. He is dead. 

Police do a safety sweep to make sure nobody is there. Then they start finding the other bodies. Sabrina is in her bed. In the master bedroom they find Melissa lying on the floor. A pool of blood on the bed and under her body.

Slaughter: Police asked if someone could come out of house. Jackson says he's been shot in foot. His dad was shot. Jackson says it was  a man who broke in. He thinks they came in back door but he's not an expert.

Thinks sister is in her bedroom. He never called out to check on her. The reason is because he knows she's dead. Same thing for his mother.

Jackson says intruder is black and black shirt. That's all dispatcher know.

She asks if his sister and mom are safe. He doesn't know.      

Slaughter: Police arrived with little information. They didn't know what was happening. They felt like something was off. Something wasn't right. They thought it might be prank call.  

Slaughter's closing: June 15, 2021, Jackson makes call to 911. He says someone broke into our house. I've been shot. Another family member has been shot. That phone call started a chain of events. 

That wasn't as long as I thought it would take. 

Prosecution will make its argument first. 

The judge will first read the jury instructions. This will take about 20 min. 

I will start the live coverage when the closings arguments start.  

Good morning! We are nearing the end of the trial. Closing arguments will start in a few minutes.