WEBVTT - S1: E23 – Bodies on the Bayou, Part 2 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.320 In the span of five years, Emma Rain lost two 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:05.600 husbands to murder. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.640 Nothing was adding up. There wasn't a motive that was 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:11.600 clear other than the fact that we knew this woman's 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.960 last two husbands were also found dead in sort of 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.960 mysterious circumstances. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.759 And then finally the police closed in on the killer, 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:23.760 but then he disappeared. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.600 We had somebody killing husbands to make a living, and 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:28.680 that's scary. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.879 Today we're in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the conclusion of 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.360 bodies on the Bayou. I'm Sloan Glass and this is 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.159 American homicide. And just a warning that this episode contains 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:45.640 some graphic content. Please take care while listening. With winds 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.120 of over one hundred and fifty five miles per hour, 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.600 Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August two thousand and five. 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.840 The Category five storm brought massive flooding and devastation that 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:02.000 forced tens of thousands of New Orleans residence to evacuate. 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:04.680 Not everybody came back, but crime was one of the 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:06.520 first things to come back to the city. 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.319 Journalist John Simmerman writes for The Advocate newspaper the. 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.200 Police department in New Orleans was in chaos. During that time, 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.679 it was pretty lawless around here after Katrina. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.800 Katrina forced hundreds of people who worked as police officers 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.120 to evacuate, and the flooding kept many from returning. The 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.120 police can't protect the city from a hurricane, only from 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.520 what comes later. The question is after Katrina, can New 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:36.040 Orleans police come back as quickly as crime An understaffed 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.640 and overwhelmed New Orleans PD had to patrol a city 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.399 that historically has had a high murder rate. 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.240 There was a run there where it was the per 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:50.919 capital leader in homicides in America. It's you know, first, second, third, fourth. 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.120 Every year it's up there. We have a murder problem 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:53.800 in New Orleans. 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.680 The crime rate in New Orleans usually runs about one 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:01.680 hundred and fifty percent higher than the national average. That's remarkable. 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.040 So with more crime and fewer cops, many of the 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.280 post Katrina murders went unsolved. 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:09.280 That was tough. 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:11.519 That was tough. I don't think their success rate in 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:13.799 closing murder cases very high back then. 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.680 The case of Ernest Smith was one of those unsolved 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:22.000 cold cases. As we shared in the previous episode, Ernest 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.800 was murdered in front of his New Orleans home. In 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:26.080 April two thousand and. 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.080 Six, somebody came up on him and shot him in 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:32.799 the doorway there. Apparently he'd fallen into the house the 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:37.120 bottom of a stairwell inside there, which had sort of 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:38.239 created a bloody seen. 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.399 The police investigated, but there were no arrests. 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.160 It was still barren around there. There weren't a lot 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.440 of people living out there. I mean, if you were 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.600 going to kill somebody, that wouldn't be a bad place 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:49.000 to do it. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.880 After the case went cold, his widow, Emma, moved to Mississippi. 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:57.919 A year later. She married Ernest's military buddy James Rain. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.480 After his killing, it was long before she had moved 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.480 back there, ed and settled into a house that was 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.799 bankrolled in part by the insurance money from Ernest Smith. 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.079 By twenty eleven, tragedy struck Emma yet again. 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.560 James Rain was killed. He was shot up badly at 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.560 the house he shared with Emma Rain. It looked to 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:19.560 be very deliberate. 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.800 That's when James's step brother, Alfred Everett, started acting strangely. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.800 His relatives noticed he appeared nervous and uncomfortable and wondered 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.800 if maybe he knew something about James's murder. The family 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.720 questioned him, but Alfred said he had nothing to do 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.440 with it. But after a lot of back and forth, 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.800 he shocked them all when he admitted to a different murder. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.480 Alfred Everett had told them that he had shot Ernest 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.360 Smith and said he threw the gun and like Pontchatrain 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:51.280 on his way back to Mississippi. 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.800 After the shooting, Alfred said he killed Ernest for a 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.280 few thousand dollars, but he never got paid. 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.440 You didn't get that he got two clunker cars, said 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:01.840 from James Rain. 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.120 Alfred said Emma and James were having an affair at 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.640 the time, and the two wanted Ernest dead so they 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.280 could collect his life insurance, a policy, by the way, 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.640 that Emma had just increased. 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:18.279 In the months before Ernest Smith's killing. She had not 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.279 only ratcheted up her insurance policy but also added James 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.200 Rain as a fifty to fifty beneficiary. 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.039 After this confession, Alfred promised his relatives that he'd go 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:35.560 to the police and tell them everything, but instead he disappeared. 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.159 Eventually, they called police themselves and turn him in. 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.400 In twenty twelve, they phoned Detective Descenda Barnes of the 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:44.560 New Orleans PD. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:50.280 Descenda Barnes was a cold case detective, and family members 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:56.200 of James Rain called her wanting to relay information that 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.320 Alfred Evert had shot Ernest Smith. 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.880 Detective Barnes real opened preacher Ernest Smith's cold case started 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:07.200 digging into the strange dynamic between Emma, her second husband James, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:13.920 and his stepbrother Alfred. Prosecutor Laura Roderick also worked the case. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.520 I remember saying to her what is going on here 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.000 and her kind of breaking it down for me and 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.880 explaining to me what was her take on things. 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.440 The first thing they looked at was the police report 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:28.400 from the night Ernest Smith was murdered. 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.200 He is shot two times and killed. He is clearly 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.760 shot outside, first stumbles his way inside and collapses on 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.599 the steps where he will subsequently die. There was blood 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.640 spatter by his feet which would go almost to the 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.880 floor at the bottom of the steps and toward the 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.960 front door where he had come in and collapsed on 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:51.560 the steps. 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.719 Emma told detectives she was upstairs in bed when she 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.279 awoke to the sound of Ernest calling out for help 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.039 in the doorway of their town home. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:04.120 Emma Rane tells the detective that she had been upstairs 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.120 sleeping in her bed the whole night because she had 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.440 a terrible toothache and she had taken some over the 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.320 counterpane medication. While in the crime scene photos, the bed 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.560 was perfectly made, so it didn't seem to make any 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:18.600 sense that she had been in her bed all day. 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:20.640 We certainly wouldn't have expected her to hurry up and 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:24.200 quickly make her bed before the police arrived as her 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:25.760 husband was dead on the steps. 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:30.280 The report also noted that Emma looked pristine. 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.440 She didn't have a drop of blood on her, no 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.440 indication she had hugged him, touched him, nothing as he 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:36.719 died on the stairs. 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.720 It turns out that none of what Emma told detectives 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.640 on the night of Ernest Smith's murder fit with the 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:44.720 physical evidence. 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.800 The blood was completely perfect, there were no footprints, nothing 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.400 was smeared, which indicated that she could not have been 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:55.720 in her bed upstairs sleeping, because she would have had 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.880 to go around him and step into the blood in 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:03.239 order to go outside call the police anything of that nature. 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.640 There was just simply no indication that she had been upstairs, 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.200 so that did not add up, and there was more 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.640 Emma rain sat in the police unit for a while 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.920 as they were sort of navigating through the scene, and 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.680 it was during that time that it was learned via 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.240 the phone records that either a phone call or a 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.360 text message of some communication had gone to James Rain 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:27.880 from the crime scene that night. 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.720 As bad as things look for Emma, it was Alfred Everett, 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.840 the step brother of her second husband, who pulled the trigger. 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:39.840 After coming clean to some of his relatives, Alfred disappeared. 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.679 By the summer of twenty thirteen, the police located him 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:45.720 in Texas. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.720 Alfred Everett was charged with murder. He was the gunman 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:51.960 who killed Ernest Smith. 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:57.400 They arrested Alfred, but he wasn't talking, so detectives then 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.880 turned their attention to Emma, who was looking less like 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.320 a grieving widow and more like a conniving killer. 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.520 So we believed that Emma Rain had orchestrated the plan. 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:16.240 She had through probably James Rain acquired the assistance of 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.360 Alfred Everett. I guess James, who knew him better than anybody, 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.880 knew he would be somebody willing to do this. 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.920 When detectives did a deep dive into her past, they 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.760 learned Emma had another husband before Ernest. 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.720 Emma's first husband, we learned, was a man named Leroy Evans. 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:40.800 And guess what. Back in nineteen ninety three, something terrible 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:42.080 happened to Leroy. 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:46.240 He was tragically hit by a vehicle. We weren't able 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.560 to determine if there was any foul play in the 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.959 actual traffic accident, but he did become a paraplegic. 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:58.920 After the incident, Leroy was paralyzed from the neck down, 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:00.679 leaving him bedridden. 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.360 Rather than Emma take care of him, Leroy went to 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.120 stay with his mother so she would care for him 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.400 on a daily basis. He had a room where he 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:11.560 would lay in bed for most of the day. He 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.240 had a feeding tube that was necessary for him to survive. 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:22.000 And then one day, LeRoy's feeding tube was mysteriously removed. 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:27.760 So the mother of mister Evans told our investigator that 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.679 Emma Rain was the last person in his room before 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.360 his feeding tube had been removed, and he died of 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:40.560 what the corner determined was asphyxiation. Mister Evans's mother certainly 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:45.120 suspected fell play of Emma Rain and that she had 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.160 caused his death. That's how she felt, so that was 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.240 very alarming to us. 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.280 But no charges were ever filed. And the strange thing 0:09:55.360 --> 0:10:00.000 is no relatives of Ernest Smith or James Rain knew 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.080 Emma had been married to Lee roy Evans. Lee roy 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:09.199 Evans died in nineteen ninety four, and according to Ernest's obituary, 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:14.760 it said Emma married Ernest in nineteen ninety Let me 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:19.280 read you one sentence from his obituary. He was united 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:23.720 in holy matrimony to Emma Judge on November seventeenth, nineteen 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.560 ninety Who is the love of his life, his soulmate, 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.320 his bay, as he often calls her. 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:32.920 That's where you sort of have to say, all right, 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:34.000 what's going on here? 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:39.400 Finally, investigators saw this string of dead husbands with hefty 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.600 insurance policies and labeled Emma the black widow. 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.520 The money was the most important, and she wanted that 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:47.600 money more than anything. 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.600 Detectives didn't think Emma could be any more cold blooded 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:56.079 than that, but what they learn next proved them all wrong. 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:12.080 Over nearly two decades, Emma Rain lost three husbands and 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.559 the evidence against her was piling up. 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.200 If she was willing to kill her own husband in 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.199 exchange for a check, she was willing to do anything 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:21.520 and that's scary. 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.559 Prosecutor Laura Rodrick learned that in the months before her husband, 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.640 Ernest Smith died, Emma made her boyfriend and eventual husband, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:36.920 James Rain, a beneficiary for half of Ernest's eight hundred 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.360 thousand dollars life insurance policy. 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.880 What Emma Rain did not realize was Louisiana law would 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.800 prohibit James Rain from coming in to collect his four 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:51.400 hundred thousand because Ernest Smith had a biological daughter. 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.760 But Ernest's daughter never received that insurance money. 0:11:56.000 --> 0:12:01.040 Emma Raine's biological daughter goes into an office and forges 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:06.720 the name of Ernest Smith's biological daughter. So essentially all 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.720 of the eight hundred thousand dollars is awarded to Emma 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.480 Rain through fraudulent activity. 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.680 So not only did Emma have Ernest Smith killed, but 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:20.240 she also cheated his daughter, his only child, out of 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.240 money from his life insurance policy. 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.160 It was alarming to us to see the lack of 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.080 concern that Emma had for her daughter, that she would 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.160 put her daughter in that position, that she had no 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:36.079 problem with her daughter getting a felony conviction for doing that. 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.440 There's so many terrible things Emma was accused of doing, 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:45.160 but maybe one of the most galling happened on the 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.480 day of James Rayne's murder. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.080 James Rain is in his home at the time that 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.480 he's murdered. Emma Rain tells the police that she's on 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.880 a business trip trying to make a deal work, and 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.200 she's not at home. It was actually not much business 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.760 going on at all. She was involved in a physical 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.640 relationship with the man she was with in Arkansas at 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:12.200 the time James is killed. In fact, the authorities get 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.520 a statement from him where he says she gets the 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:19.360 phone call, she learns that James is dead. We popped 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.400 some champagne and had sex to celebrate. She calls it 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.400 completing a business deal. The man she was with advises 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.640 as they actually were drinking and having sex to celebrate 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:30.800 the death of James Rain. 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:36.360 Okay, now that is so beyond cold blooded, and there's 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.839 actually more to the story, if you remember, Emma later 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:45.640 called James's mother and had her check on James, even 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:50.040 though Emma knew James was dead. Imagine knowing you were 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:51.800 setting up a mother to see that. 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.160 In other words, it seems as if she was intentionally 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.800 louring James's mother over to find him dead. In the home. 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:05.800 You know, she had no sympathy. She just was really cold. 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:11.360 Cold to allow his mother to find him in that way, 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.240 it would be something they felt was sort of the 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.080 final twisting of the knife. It was intentionally cruel and 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:20.360 it just showed her character. 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.600 Late in the summer of twenty thirteen, detectives charged Emma 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.160 with the death of her second husband, Ernest Smith. And 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.680 guess what. At the time of her arrest, she was 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.960 no longer Emma Rain. She had already moved on to 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:37.120 husband number four. 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.240 Emma and her fourth husband were living in Kansas City, 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:46.640 Missouri at the time that she was arrested for the murders. 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.960 And when detectives told Emma she was being charged with 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:56.280 the murder of her husband, Emma asked which husband. As 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.440 Emma waited her trial, her hired gun Alfred Everett, was 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:05.160 tried in twenty fourteen. He was charged with killing Emma's 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:06.840 second husband, Ernest Smith. 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.200 Alfred Everett was charged with murder and he was convicted 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.280 of murder. The penalty will be life in prison. 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.480 The jury needed less than an hour to convict him, 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.400 and with that, prosecutors turn their attention to Emma Rain's 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:21.280 upcoming trial. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.680 As a prosecutor, we don't have the opportunity to speak 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.560 one on one with the defendants who are charged with crimes. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.480 Rarely do we ever get to actually speak to them 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.120 or ask them any questions or anything of that nature. 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.520 The most that we can do to glimpse sort of 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.080 their personality or what's going on is to listen to 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.200 recorded phone calls during their incarceration. 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.600 So what kind of things did the prosecutor learn about 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.160 Emma from listening to her phone calls from jail. 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.920 She would make demands of the jail. She wanted low 0:15:56.000 --> 0:16:00.520 fat chocolate chip cookies, certain things that you know, she 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.360 just felt like she was entitled to, and she encouraged 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.200 the young female inmates to sort of take on those 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:09.160 causes with her. 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.720 Prosecutors may have heard Emma demanding lofact cookies, but there 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.160 was one thing they wanted to hear but did not. 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.840 She never gave me the impression of any remorse at 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.800 all for any of the family members who were going 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:30.080 through this. She never so much has even cared to 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.080 see the pain that the families were going through in 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.840 dealing with the process of their loved ones being murdered 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.920 and trying to get to the bottom of the crimes 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.040 and trying to piece these puzzles together. It just did 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.120 not matter at all. 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.640 And this is an odd thing. As her trial day 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.520 got closer, prosecutors were having a hard time getting anyone 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.520 to testify against her. I think that people were nervous 0:16:55.600 --> 0:17:00.200 to come forward in the case against Emma because they 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.960 they were worried about what more she could accomplish if 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:09.080 she wanted to. Then, in more bad news, a ruling 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.639 came from the judge that prohibited prosecutors from calling Emma 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.960 Rain a suspect in the death of her husband number one, 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.120 Leeroy Evans. They were also limited in what they could 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.200 say about the death of husband three, James Rain. 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.439 It got extremely complicated. So this was a different case 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:29.960 in terms of how we had to present it. 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:35.000 So prosecutors offered Emma a deal. If she pled guilty 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:40.040 to manslaughter, she'd get thirty five years, but Emma turned 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:40.840 down the deal. 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.000 She was constantly kind of wheeling and dealing. 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.440 When the trial began, Emma Rain was fifty two years 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.119 old and face life in prison for the second degree 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.879 murder of Ernest Smith. Her defense lawyer blamed Emma's third husband, 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:59.440 James Rain, who was dead and obviously couldn't defend himself. 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.800 Emma's lawyer referred to James Rain as James the Snake 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:09.480 and claimed it was James who manipulated Emma into upping 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:14.560 Ernest Rain's insurance policy. Most importantly, the lawyer argued that 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.879 James alone got Alfred Everett to kill Ernest Smith. 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.240 Alfred Everett he was sort of the last man standing 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.760 who could testify against her. 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.080 Alfred had already been convicted and sentenced to life, but 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.560 he could set the record straight. Alfred was called as 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.719 a witness, but he refused to take the witness stand 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:42.560 or answer any questions from prosecutors. Instead, he defiantly sat 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.520 in the courtroom while the puzzled jurors looked on. 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.639 You could kind of get a read on some of 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.520 their faces, like not knowing what to make of it. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.800 So prosecutors went to Plan B and called three of 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:55.679 James's relatives to testify. 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.280 Those were the three people who had sort of broken 0:18:59.320 --> 0:18:59.800 this case. 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:05.040 Each one of those relatives described Alfred's confession. 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.600 That James Rain and Emma Rain were in on it, 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:11.040 that there was a life insurance policy and that's why 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.720 he shot Ernest Smith. He describes having shot him twice, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.680 evidence that is consistent with the crime scene. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.480 But as she sat through the damning testimony from the 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:27.719 prosecution side, Emma was quiet, just jotting down notes on 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:29.240 a notepad, just. 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:34.320 Zero emotion through the trial, no sign that any of 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:35.640 this had affected her in any way. 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.640 Emma Rain did not take the stand in her own defense. 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:44.600 In fact, the defense did not call a single witness. 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:47.479 At the end of the day. We did not believe 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.760 that she had genuine love for any of these men. 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.040 It was a business deal in her mind, but she 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:58.359 was very good at disguising that this was somebody killing 0:19:58.480 --> 0:19:59.760 husbands to make a living. 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.520 It was up to the eight women and four men 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:05.920 of the jury to decide if Emma Rain was indeed 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:18.040 a black widow. Emma Rain was a suspect in the 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.240 death of her first and third husbands, but she was 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.719 only charged with murdering her second husband, preacher Ernest Smith. 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:29.399 The prosecution was telling about this woman who seemed to 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.119 either be bad luck or worse for the men she married. 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:37.600 Journalist John Simmerman covered the trial, where prosecutors labeled the 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.760 three time widower and Moraine a black widow. 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.439 Well, that was a term that the prosecution used, black widow, 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.920 which is a term for a woman who marries somebody 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.600 and kills them and maybe does it repeatedly, So she 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:52.159 kind of fit that definition. 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.520 At the time of Emma Raine's trial, she was married 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.040 a fourth time, but husband number four did not attend 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.120 Emma's trial. He told reporters the New Orleans judicial system 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.159 was corrupt and said he had paid for her legal 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.320 bills from back home and Missouri, and those bills, he said, 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.679 had nearly bankrupt him. In the courtroom, Emma's lawyer blamed 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.040 husband number three, James Rain, for the murder for higher 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.439 pot of husband number two, Ernest Smith. 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.960 He basically said that Emma Rain didn't know about this. 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:25.480 This was all James's plan. 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.000 Keep in mind, James Rain was also murdered and he 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:31.800 obviously could not defend himself. 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:35.040 What Emma Raine's attorney tried to do was say, look, 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.359 there's no physical evidence. There were no text messages and 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.640 emails back and forth with James Rain on any murder plot. 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.160 But prosecutor Laura Rodrig hoped jurors could connect. 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.080 All the dots. This is a case that did not 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.800 have a lot of direct evidence. There were no eyewitnesses. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.760 We were using what we call circumstantial evidence. We knew 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:01.040 that this jury was going to be shot once they 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:05.520 realized the intricacies of this case, and we could see 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:09.480 that in their faces as the facts started to unfold. 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:13.160 So she resorted to using charts and graphs to show 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:15.960 the relationship between all the major players in the case. 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:18.240 One of the things we had to show the jury 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.240 was sort of a simplified family tree. We had to 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.600 put that up on a large board in front of them, 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.560 where we had diagrammed Alfred Everett, James Rain, how they 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:33.040 all fit in as a family, and where Ernest Smith 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:38.080 and Emmeraine came into that family tree. And we similarly 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:39.760 had to do sort of a flow chart for the 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:44.080 insurance policies, showing them the increase in the amount of 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.240 the policy over the years leading up to Ernest's death, 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:51.640 the forging of the signatures to get the policy all 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:56.919 released to Ammeraine, and several sort of steps in laying 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.080 out that story for the jury. 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.639 Liberated for three and a half hours before returning to 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:05.280 the courtroom with a verdict. 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.800 I remember Emma her typical self in terms of being 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.879 very calm, you know, she didn't seem rattled, she didn't 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:15.639 seem worried about what was going to happen. 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:22.480 Emma stared straight ahead when the verdict echoed through the courtroom. 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:26.480 Guilty Emma Rain, who was convicted of murder. The penalty 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:27.479 will be life in prison. 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:32.200 And coincidentally, Emma Rain's sentencing for the murder of preacher 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:36.720 Ernest Smith happened on the five year anniversary of husband 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:37.879 James Rain's death. 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:43.760 This was somebody who had no regard for human life 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:48.080