looked into the allegations. Ha! For the next three and a half weeks, Jessica remains in a coma with a traumatic brain injurytubes protruding from her brain to alleviate pressure and fluid. Matthew Boynton is the grandson of Sheriff Beam. The officers found Jessica in her bedroom closet, unconscious and lying on her side, her head on a bloody pillow. Martha worried that Jessica had lost her feistiness. In early May, after three weeks in a coma, Jessica began to regain consciousness. Twice, she later testified, Gibson choked her. In May, 2017, they broke up. I hugged her and said, Its going to be O.K. And she said, No, and looked at her husband. (Amy did not want to comment for this article, explaining in an e-mail, I have tried to remain neutral in this very serious situation.). There is an unwillingness to believe, as if its just preferable not to know this about our culture, Meier told me. But Griffin Police Chief Michael Yates said, Officer Boynton was not the shooter and trusts the investigations outcome. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. She believes that she and Matthew must have fought in the closet, and she never made it outside. FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE FOR YOURSELF, CLICK HERE. The psychologist wrote, of the older son, I asked him if he has been happy or sad. The glowing yellow and black, blocked-letter Waffle House sign illuminates his truck as he drives by, turning around to head back home. Justice for Jessica - Facebook Is Jessica Boynton still alive? 2023 Cond Nast. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. And, unfortunately it appears those questions will never be answered," Mathews said. The idea that domestic violence is bad for kids still has not sunk init sometimes barely makes a dent in a case, she said. Dont make me laugh.. In December, 2014, Jessica had a brief affair and got pregnant again. It's a question 11Alive investigators asked a few months ago, when Griffin Police Officer Matthew Boynton's wife, Jessica, allegedly shot herself in the head with his service weapon, inside . Once the investigation was closed, reporter and publisher, Sheila Mathews, investigated the shooting for her newspaper, The Grip. Matthew Boynton - The GRIP I mean you can't prove that," DeMarco. Browning, who sometimes socialized with Jessica and Matthew, cried throughout her interview. Willey wanted to help Jessica because she was scared of Matthew, too. One woman said that he would drive to her house and shine the lights of his patrol car into her windows. I would have written suicidal thoughts, not suicide thoughts., She told me that she couldnt imagine using a clich such as I have not been able to recognize the person I see in the mirror., I dont generally even look in the mirror, she said. Dispatch notifies Spalding County Sheriff Wendell Beam, Matthews grandfather,and police notify Jessicas family that she has died. Which is very off that this happened, because I never, ever had any thoughts like this before. Occasionally, Jessica still reflexively asked Jacob for permission to do things like visit her grandparents or go to the store. After Jessica had been in the hospital for a month, her doctors tried to transfer her to a rehabilitation program, but she didnt have insurance, so she was discharged to the care of her grandparents. A second psychiatrist thought she had appropriate mood and affect; appropriate judgment and insight. Her surgeon, Henderson, wrote that she was a very positive person who is embracing the opportunities that a new lease on life afforded her by her recent recovery. He went on, She has a sense of humor and has a gentle and calm personality. I guarantee you he wont a hundred per cent say what happened, he said. Not long afterward, she saw Matthew walk briskly to his truck. Less than a week after Jessica emerged from her coma, DeMarco and another G.B.I. Who shot Jessica Boynton? A new podcast investigates | wusa9.com Her marriage had been crumbling, and she and her husband of six months Matthew Boynton, 20 . Now for a pleasant, modest entry into retirement in Toronto.". Mathews, the publisher of The Grip and its only reporter, submitted an Open Records Act request to the magistrates court, where judges swear in new officers. I dont doubt the findings of the G.B.I., he told me. No, I cant even get it out of the case, she said. Armed with body camera attached to their uniforms, the officers burst through the door, quickly passing Matthews phone, a black and grey Verizon LG smartphone, on the kitchen counter. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . But did something else happen that spring night in 2016? The judges are very swayed by their own reactions to each person, Meier said. Four months later, he was hired as a reserve officer in Braswell, Georgia, a community of four hundred people. Until recently, Matthew's grandfather, Wendell Beam, reigned as Spalding County sheriff. Four of her grandchildren had taken target-shooting classes together, but Jessica had refused to participate. Jessica Boynton | GBI changes information about evidence | 11alive.com Jessica Boynton was initially . The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. Sanders offered Willey a hundred and twenty dollars to sneak into Matthews utility closet and get Jessicas bag. Mathew, a then police officer raced home only to hear 2 consecutive gunshots. Everyone said, Beams grandson will get off, she went on. Who shot Jessica Boynton? A new podcast investigates | 11alive.com At the time of the shooting Jessica was looking to make a new start for herself and two young sons. He was Spalding County. With their guns drawn, the officers checked every room in the house. They say she tried to commit suicide but, there is more to the story. She spoke to the GBI, from her hospital bed. Beam dropped the matter. She told me that, for female officers in many parts of the South, theres no in-betweenyou cant just be a human in uniform. They were made to feel that their presence contaminated the ethos of the department. "Well I don't know. Had she attempted suicide, it would have been standard for the hospital to provide psychiatric care. Petition Justice For Jessica Boynton Change.org She now lives two hours north of Griffin, with her fianc, Jacob Boyack, a high-school classmate, in a small yellow house with black shutters and an American flag hanging from the front porch. Im glad to know theres still advocacy in the practice in the courts of the Griffin Judicial Circuit. No one ended up testifying about Jessica and Matthews marriage. Whitehouse didnt understand why she was being directed to basically a hiding spot. She recorded the conversation on her phone, so that investigators could look for clues if she disappeared. Matthew called a Griffin police lieutenant for advice. In a composition notebook, Jessica documented the times she assumed Matthew had been with his girlfriend, and she jotted down notes for the lawyer. In response to The GRIP's objection, the city of Griffin produced four records - a photograph of Matthew Boynton identified as Boynton.png, a photograph of Sanders identified as sanders.png, a screen shot of a private Facebook message identified as chat.png and a Word document composed of those three elements identified as will.docx. But there are almost no empirical studies examining the prevalence of this sort of abuse today. Shortly after the movie started, Matthew said that it was time to go. You are your own person. Like Piper, Whitehouse was afraid to follow through. I guess she felt like Matthew could have picked anybody, and for some reason he picked me, her sister, Dusty, said. If you do wear makeup and fix your hair, youre a whore., Beam asked Whitehouse to meet him at a park on the outskirts of Griffin. She rebukes the text message that was sent from her phone to Matthews that night and said she didnt have a lock on her phone, so anyone couldve sent it. Jessica could never quite explain whythere was no proposal, just an understanding that there was too much momentum to break up. Her parents had abandoned her when she was three, along with her sister and brother, and she grew up on a farm with her mothers adoptive parents. And Jessicas trauma surgeon was not interviewed by the GBI until July 20. In the spring of 2013, when she was sixteen and had dated Matthew for a year, she took her grandparents into the kitchen, closed the door, and told them, apologizing, that she was pregnant. Matthews father and stepmother visited the next week. Hi, we're Brendan Keefe and Jessica Noll, the host and - Reddit We put it on the counter to take a picture of it," he confirmed to Mathews. She found that, when a mother accused a father of domestic abuse or child abuse, she lost custody to the father in twenty-eight per cent of cases. Jones passes by a framed portrait hung on the wall. I finally had the evidence that I needed that Matthew was cheating on me. Her shoulder-length, blonde hair was saturated in crimson. In an analysis of more than two thousand family-court opinions from the past decade, Joan S.Meier, a professor at George Washington University Law School, found that, in sixty-four per cent of cases, courts did not accept the story of a mother who said she or her children had been abused by her husband, even when evidence corroborated the claim. Police found Jessica Boynton in the closet of her home with a gunshot wound to the head, and a police issued firearm in her hand. That mentality spilled into his home life. Missing evidence jeopardized felony case against Matthew Boynton I think weve got the right to confront and cross-examine anybody thats gonna be offering testimony, Owen said. Theres no second shot. I hold up the white flag., Jessicas older son often cried and clung to her when Matthew picked him up on Fridays, and in the summer of 2018 he complained that his father had hurt him. At 12:54 AM, Matthew's phone received a text from Jessica's phone that read like a suicide note. (Through his lawyer, Gibson told me that the headlock-and-Taser incident was all in good fun; most of the other allegations were untrue and are otherwise embellished.). Family grieves death of their 22-year-old son after Gwinnett County double shooting, Online petition to deannex the City of South Fulton has hundreds of signatures, Veterinarian shares summertime safety tips for pets, Who shot the officer's wife? In the nineteen-nineties, researchers found that forty-one per cent of male officers admitted that, in the previous year, theyd been physically aggressive toward their spouses, and nearly ten per cent acknowledged choking, strangling, or usingor threatening to usea knife or a gun. Especially because of my children. She started crying. Jessica Boynton was found in a closet bleeding out. If that's what you want to do. King told me, Youd think it would have been simple enough to put bags on her hands and test them for gunshot residue. Bad decisions, he said. Did this license lead Alex Murdaugh to commit fraud after fraudand then kill his wife and son? One witnessJessicas neighbor Megan Browningwould like to speak to you anonymously in chambers, because she is afraid., Judge Hankinson seemed to find the idea so novel as to be humorous. They wanted me to come back Friday for orientation for the job, she said. He was charged with theft a year later but was released on bail and has never been in jail. Community. Jessica, at home with her three boys, still has occasional migraines, weakness in her left foot, and lingering amnesia about the night of her shooting. I figured out what happened. Like many docile, self-effacing women, Jessica has some hidden pockets of pride, and one of them is her skills as a writer. Get off of me! she screamed. Matthew signed a sworn statement promising that he no longer had anything of Jessicas. They moved in together in January, 2017, and as they were packing Willey discovered that Matthew had a large gym bag full of womens clothes, along with a retainer with Jessica printed on its case. Jessica Lester started dating Matthew Boynton when she was fifteen. Police and Officer Boynton claimed that Jessica tried to kill herself but after Jessica awoke . However, with the later discovery of previously-unknown evidence, it evolved into an . Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University and one of the few scholars who has studied the issue, reached a similar finding: one in five officers arrested for domestic violence nationwide had also been the subject of a federal lawsuit for violating peoples civil rights. reports, Matthew said. agent, Jared Coleman, interviewed her as she lay in her hospital bed. According to the order, which Matthew had petitioned the court to issue, probable cause exists that Family Violence has occurred in the past and may occur in the future. Jessica was ordered to have a psychological evaluation. Jessicas grandparents hoped that this development would help their case. Her aunt Kathy, who lives on the farm, said, With Jessicas family background, there was probably just a feeling of Oh, Ive finally found someone who loves me.. Denise said that Amy confided that Matthew had once hit her and that their relationship was strained. She had a job interview and it was going to be her first step to freedom. Why did you write the damn statement? a sergeant asked him. Ive always been such a firm believer in our justice system, she said. did not record any interviews with Jessicas family or friends. He would flash his lights and pull her over, and force her to have sex with him. Then he would handcuff me and put me on the hood of his patrol car and have oral sex with me, she wrote in a statement. John Padget, MS '59, writes from Key West, FL, reporting, "My Cornell roommate, Bruce Whilton, of Gloucester, MA, and Punta Gorda, FL, passed away peacefully in June 2022 in Punta Gorda after a long and well-lived life. In the police body-cam videos, the dog is still wearing his leash. Lowry wanted to put witnesses on the stand who would testify that Matthew had been psychologically abusive. The secretary whom hed slapped in the head was asked to type his resignation letter. According to Jessica Lester, Boynton's ex-wife who filed a . I have been suffering for a while now and no one has noticed. Dr. Vernon Henderson, chief of Trauma and Critical Care at Atlanta Medical Center was on-call the morning Jessica came in and treated her for the next month while she was in the hospital. She said, Do me a favor. provided images. I didnt know if it was an active scenario, he later told investigators. Griffin Police officer Matthew Boynton was cleared in his wife's shooting, but his interrogation still cost him his job. Especially because of my children. All rights reserved. She told the agent, they were at home when they argued about his girlfriend and the photo that Jessica found on his phone that night. On his way, at 12:54 a.m., he said, he received a text from Jessica: I cant do this anymore. Jessica gave him her old cell phone and notebook, and he keeps them in a safe at a location that he wont disclose, along with a shrink-wrapped box containing all the documents he collected. He reads another text from his girlfriend, while driving 90 mph. Jessica Boynton was married to Matthew Boynton, a local police officer and grandson of the county sheriff. Few states mandate that custody evaluators have domestic-violence training; judges often characterize the allegations as mudslinging and focus not on their veracity but on which party appears to be the better parent. The shooting occurred on the evening of April 14, 2016. But a Griffin city official said that the document couldnt be found. I dont think the text was quite that literal, Jacob said. Have you ever had any thoughts about hurting yourself? Coleman asked. Jessica Boynton was found shot in th. "What you're saying to me, that's not, you know, I don't see anything he did wrong by saying that," Fred Mays told Mathews. Boynton, who was . Jones checks on a locked closet door between the master bedroom and hallway, across from the bathroom. This year, an independent panel found that the typical penalty for New York City police officers found guilty of domestic violencesome had punched, kicked, choked, or threatened their victims with gunswas thirty lost vacation days. You do whatever you want to do. The lead teacher at the day care where Jessica worked had also found her unnecessarily deferential. Shes offended by the idea that she would have composed something as syntactically messy as the suicide text she is alleged to have written. During the investigation, Jessicas sons were permitted to stay with her full time. Good for you, Mr. Owen, Hankinson replied. Hardheaded. BREAKING | Matthew Boynton, who was under investigation and cleared by the GBI last year for his wife's shooting, was charged with one felony count of false statements and writings, and one felony count of violation of oath of office. Sanders said that he no longer goes anywhere unarmed. September 30, 2019. His flashlights beam reveals a smiling family of four. A key piece of evidence was photographed inside the kitchen after officers arrived on the scene. The agent had that phone, I think DeMarco, Chris DeMarco had the phone and they was [sic] trying to get in the gate, and, uh, he accidentally hit, I guess, the last number dialed, called or whatever. When the men wanted tea, they just shook their glasses.. Gradually, though, her concerns dissipated. Shes a grown lady, the lieutenant told him. He bangs on the locked closet door. Anybody that went against him would be eliminated. Whitehouse said that Beam seemed concerned, but he said that shed have to write down her complaint. But he granted full custody to Matthew. A few months after the wedding, Denise and Amy went out for lunch. Its always more exaggerated every time. She felt uncomfortable that Matthew told Beam every detail of his life, but that the conversations were all confidential.. I was scared to death, because I couldnt find [Tyler]that she would shoot me, I mean shoot him, shoot me, and then kill herself.. She just said that she's been experiencing suicidal thoughts right now, she told me to take care of the boys. Jessica Lester's friends persuaded her to date Matthew Boynton, a boy in the eleventh grade, by saying, "If you don't like him, you can always break up . (Beam refused to talk to me. It felt like he was just a ticking time bomb, she told the police. Earlier that night Jessica's husband Matthew headed to Waffle House for a late-night bite with a fellow officer, leaving his service weapon . After they were married, her grandmother said, it was almost like her personality got squished out of her., Photograph by Danna Singer for The New Yorker. . I mean, I walk past it. Jessica Boynton was found shot in th. In an audio-recorded conversation, an agent expressed disbelief that Beam had let Gibsons behavior continue for so long. Police Interrogation and Confession of Matthew Boynton, Wife - YouTube In April 2016, hours after an argument with his wife Jessica, Griffin, Georgia police officer Matthew Boynton radios for assistance and reports hearing two gunshots coming from inside his home. Two deputies woke Jessicas grandparents and told them that Jessica had committed suicide, using Matthews gun. 13 talking about this. agents canvassed the apartment complex and discovered that Megan Browning and her fianc and a couple that lived next door to Jessica were the only neighbors who had heard gunshots. That piece of evidence was a photo showing Matthew's cell phone next to the microwave inside the apartment. "That's the way we're gonna play this game, Sheila. Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. When Matthew drove his patrol car, he would often take the keys to his truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, so that Jessica couldnt use it. And, the first officer on scene, as recorded by body cam footage, was not interviewed by the GBI for months after the incident. After she came out of her coma, Denise had had to buy her new clothes. GBI begins interviewing neighbors and Matthew interviews with the GBI later that morning. "You know, you're trying to match up times of where he is getting these text messages or how he's responding to them, that he has to be in the kitchen. Law enforcement was in his genes. Jessica was still missing her orthodontic retainer. No. It could have been simply that um, all his, he left his stuff there. There is another problem now. There's so many useless words thrown in there, then there's so many words left out, she said. Gibson had worked in the sheriffs office for twenty-eight years, and he cultivated an aura of invincibility. She wore hand-me-downs and liked to take nature photographs. She agreed, and in May, 2017, Sanders dropped off the bag at the Griffin Police Department. Two months later, Jessica was hired as an assistant teacher at a child-care center in Griffin. What if Your Abusive Husband Is a Cop? | The New Yorker For a while, he put clear tape on the doors of his house and car, so he would know if anyone had sneaked inside. I can't even get it out of its case, she replied. This blows my mind.. After he serves a three-year sentence and finishes his probation, his record will be wiped clean. Is that what you're saying?" The subsequent investigation was short-lived, with it having been deemed a "civil matter.". Like, how hours after the shooting, the phone was put into an evidence bag, sealed and logged into GBI evidence, it was still calling Matthew's girlfriend. Willey had seen a copy of Matthews sworn statement in his car, and she was disturbed that he was lying straight to everybodys face, she later told the police. Underneath her . Her complaint, which she checked on, was never filed. Her neurosurgeon, Paul King, told me, It seemed most likely that someone else shot her., Jessica had an intracranial-pressure monitor inserted into her brain, to measure swelling, and she was put in a medically induced coma. Jessicas grandparents, who are Baptist, were willing to help her bring up the child, but Jessica decided to settle down with Matthew, her first boyfriend. At a family-court hearing that June, Matthew asked that the protective order be extended for a year. nd police notify Jessicas family that she has died. Matthew was now dating Shelby Willey, a young mother who had recently separated from her husband. This activity on his cell phone had to have taken place inside the kitchen inside his apartment," Mathews said to DeMarco in a recorded phone conversation. . Matthew sends another text to his girlfriend, a Spalding County dispatcher, Give me a few. Custody (full? Officers rush to the scene to find Jessica Boynton inside a locked closet, with an apparent gunshot wound to her head. But now he resorted to a more mundane theory about the culture of power. From her porch, Jessicas neighbor Megan Browning saw Jessica and Matthew return home. I would fight you tooth and nail defending it. But, after receiving thousands of documents from Sanders, Martha stopped driving through Griffin, because she was afraid. We will not be swayed by hearsay, false rhetoric or sensationalism in a manner that would cause harm to the innocent, he wrote. They're saying it was self-inflicted, she said. It's possible, but I mean it's very doubtful, because he's never hurt me before. Amy fell to pieces, Denise said. Recent signers. Matthew Boynton: The evidence and investigation that led to his arrest He's asked me to go get it out before. Jessicas grandparents wrote letters to the G.B.I., the governor, the city manager, and the district attorney to request that the investigation into Jessicas shooting be reopened. Jessica is placid and effortlessly polite, warm without being intimate. Jessicas grandmother made an appointment with a lawyer who could help her file for divorce. She wasnt sure how to unlock the safety lever on the holster. Shortly after Jessica was hospitalized, her aunt Kathy took a photograph of a C-shaped bruise on the back of Jessicas head, and she shared it with the G.B.I. I mean he might have grabbed my arm before, but I don't think he would intentionally do anything to hurt mebut like I said, he's changed so much here, lately, she said. Behind the closet door: Crime Watch Daily investigates the Jessica According to the report, GBI investigators never conducted a re-canvass of the apartment complex, and did not talk with the immediate next door neighbor for four and a half months, despite reports from other residents that they heard a single gunshot hours earlier than the officers call claiming shots had been fired. Jail trustiesmodel inmates who did menial jobs at the sheriffs officetold him that theyd spent two weeks destroying paperwork, at the previous administrations instruction.