Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Thank you.
If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient and flexible. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash AOM today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash A-O-M.
Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, me and my best friend Britt break down a new case, but not in the way you've heard before and not the cases you've heard before. You'll hear stories on Crime Junkie that haven't been told anywhere else. I'll tell you what you can do to help victims and their families get justice. Join me in a moment.
Join us for new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, already waiting for you by searching for Crime Junkie wherever you listen to podcasts. So this was my only opportunity for the jurors to see someone who is volatile, gets mad, gets sad, overreacts to statements. And it's not a far jump to see how volatile he is to make the jump from how he acts to someone who could commit a murder like this. ♪♪
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff. I'm Anasika Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Murder. Today we're talking about a single mother and a rising theater star whose bright light was dimmed at the hands of a ruthless killer.
40-year-old Passionetta Prince was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. Standing 4 feet 11 inches tall, Passionetta was a small but mighty presence in the local theater scene, with starring roles in productions of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Death of a Salesman.
On the last weekend of February 2006, Pashanetta was rehearsing for her next big role. It was going to be in August Wilson's Seven Guitars at Omaha's esteemed John Beasley Theater. The play tells the story of a blues singer that was killed just as he was about to make it big. The play's parallel with real life here proved to be eerie.
She was really well-liked. She was a local actress in Omaha, mother of one, stepmother of another child, ran a daycare out of her home.
That was kind of like, in a nutshell, her life story. That's Matthew Cousy, former deputy county attorney in the criminal division of the Douglas County Attorney's Office in Omaha. And the details of that February in 2006 and the investigation that would go on for the next two years are still etched in his memory. As a single mother and a working actress, Passionetta Prince was used to staying busy.
And that weekend was no different. Her 13-year-old son Cameron was spending the weekend at his friend's house while she rehearsed for her upcoming play. Despite her busy rehearsal schedule, Pascinetta was always a regular at church on Sunday mornings. So on the morning of February 26, when she was a no-show, her absence did not go unnoticed. She didn't show up for church, which her mother found unusual.
But while missing church may be forgiven, not picking up her son from his sleepover was totally out of character and Passionette's mother grew really concerned and she just knew that something was wrong.
She's not answering the phone, not answering the door. So her mom got concerned, called the police. Two uniformed police officers arrived at the home. They didn't see any signs of forced entry into the house to let them believe that someone had broken in. And eventually the police forced entry into the house.
Inside the small, tidy home, police saw nothing unusual. There were no immediate signs of a break-in, no items that appeared out of place, and in fact, Passionette's purse was still there and her keys sat on the counter. But as police continued their search into the basement, they made an awful and shocking discovery.
There were signs of a struggle in the stairwell leading to the basement. And when they got into the basement, that's where they found Pashineta Prince's body laying there. Pashineta was dressed in her pajamas, the front of which were spattered in blood. It was obvious to first responders that her death was not a natural one.
It was clear that she had been in a struggle. There were signs of a physical assault. She had bruises on her, scratches on her face, on her arms, and there was a noticeable ligature mark around her neck. Pashoneta had been beaten and strangled, but there was also signs that she had put up a heck of a fight.
The air compressor was heavy and about the size of a shoebox. It had an attached hose that looked to be a rough match to the marks on her neck.
When the autopsy was performed by the pathologist, the ultimate cause of death was she died of strangulation by a ligature. So it wasn't a manual strangulation with your hands. It was a ligature, so some device was used. Now, I think it's important that we sort of take a sidestep here when it talks about ligature marks that were found on her neck. Ligature, by its pure definition, is something that's used for tying or binding something tightly.
But as you know, Anastasia, in criminal cases, it's an instrument for strangulation. And we have seen cases of a rope or even something like a woman's stocking or even a telephone cord, which is used and wrapped around the victim's neck to strangle them. And in this case, while the instrument used to strangle her isn't presented yet, it was used with such force that it caused a severe contusion to form, essentially a bruise at the back of her throat.
My position was that when you are strangling somebody and then you commit to it, you can tell someone's not breathing and you just make it even tighter and thrust it back like that. That is the moment of premeditation where you decide that you are going to murder this person. When he pulled it harder and threw the throat back into the neck, that was the moment he committed premeditated murder.
In other words, whoever killed Pasheneta had not killed her by accident. Her attacker had deliberately choked her until she was dead. Was it a stranger or somebody she knew? Investigators hoped the answer lay somewhere in the evidence at the scene. In the meantime, the search for her killer was on.
After the discovery of Pasheneta Prince's battered and asphyxiated body in the basement of her home, Omaha investigators began to retrace her whereabouts the weekend she had last been seen to find out who could have crossed paths with a popular local actress. Their search led first to a local bar where after her rehearsal Friday night, Pasheneta had joined some castmates to blow off some steam. But according to friends, she had left alone.
The following day, her son had come home to pick up a fresh change of clothes before heading back to his friends for another sleepover. He said that no one but his mom was home when he popped by that Saturday afternoon. He was a little boy when this happened, so he didn't know a whole lot about what was going on. But his visit did help place Pashonetta's death sometime between Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning.
A search of the crime scene also turned up some telling evidence. Investigators found a man's watch as well as a pair of men's blue jeans, jeans that appeared to have bloodstains on them.
Whether these items belonged to the killer, investigators didn't yet know. According to Pascinetta's friends, there was only one man they knew that would have access to her house, and that was her on-again, off-again boyfriend, a man named Patrick Baldwin. I think it was always kind of an on-and-off type situation, but I think it's fair to say that, I mean, he was living there. His belongings were in the house.
But they were close to, and I think she had already told him that they were breaking up. But if he regularly stayed in Pascinetta's home, well, that could definitely explain why those items would be there. And then, of course, a volatile relationship is also potentially, at least, a motive for murder. Also raising suspicions? In the immediate aftermath of the murder, as Pascinetta's family and friends gathered for support, Baldwin was nowhere to be found.
It was not until hours later that he made a surprise appearance. The most difficult thing to do whenever you're getting ready for a vacation is choosing what to pack.
Does that dress I used to love eons ago still fit? Have I worn that forever favorite sweater out to the point that it just can't see another day? Well, check out Quince, your new go-to for high-quality vacation essentials you'll be packing for future travels. Like their European linen dresses, blouses and shorts from $30, washable silk tops, amazing luggage options, and so much more. The best part? All of Quince's items are priced 50% to 80% less than similar brands.
For me, with summer temperatures already on the rise, I'm all about lightweight dresses these days. And Quince has been my summer go-to. Organic cotton maxi dresses by day and one of their washable silk dresses by night. Pack your bags with high-quality essentials with Quince. Go to quince.com slash anatomy for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.
That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash anatomy to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince dot com slash anatomy.
It feels great to receive a gift from a loved one. It's the thought that counts, and there's of course that element of surprise. But when you're shopping for something as personal as jewelry, it can be really satisfying to buy the exact piece you know you'll love. There's no better place to find that perfect something than BlueNile.com.
Blue Nile offers thousands of independently graded diamonds and fine jewelry at prices significantly below traditional retail. Whether you're looking for a bit of sparkle for yourself or the best gift of all time, Blue Nile offers some of the highest quality standards in the industry. I'm a big fan of shopping from home. Blue Nile's website is easy to navigate and I always get new ideas.
I've been really into layering necklaces this summer, and Blue Nile has a great selection with quality I know I can count on. If you have questions, Blue Nile's jewelry experts are on hand day and night via phone or chat. You can't beat the ease or convenience of shopping at Blue Nile. Go to BlueNile.com to find the perfect piece today. That's BlueNile.com. BlueNile.com.
Patrick Baldwin showed up at the Omaha police headquarters front lobby in an intoxicated state saying, I hear the police are looking for me. Now, according to Baldwin, he had been at a family barbecue when the word of Pescianetta's death finally reached him. And he had multiple people to vouch for him as his alibi.
Members of Omaha's homicide team went on to interview Baldwin for three long, meandering hours. Yes, he was intoxicated, but he was not in such a state that he was not able to respond appropriately to the questions being asked of him. He went from crying and being in just despair over her death
to being angry with her and blaming her for everything that's happened to him because of her. So it was a very unusual interview. He would make fleeting references to having an attorney or wanting an attorney, but when pressed on it, he would say he didn't want an attorney. It was a very confusing interview.
You know, Scott, this is interesting, you know, that here they are talking to him when he clearly seems to have had a lot to drink. And people might say, look, well, why are they talking to him? We have to remember, number one, he's not a suspect. Now, again, if you think that this is someone that you're definitely is going to be involved, you would very often wait.
But here it also is time is of the essence because if he is not involved or maybe something's going to happen to shut him down, I'm assuming that their thinking was, well, hey, if he's talking now, let's hear what he has to say. See if it leads us anywhere, whether to him or away from him, and then decide later if we can use it or not.
To me, it seemed like a very erratic conversation that could be for multiple reasons. You know, so much of it could be suspicious, while other parts of it could be nervousness. He did, in fact, admit that he was intoxicated at the time he was being questioned. The point is the investigator needed just to be a sponge.
Show him the compassion that anyone normally would receive bringing that type of news of a loved one who's been murdered. But as equal to that, evaluating some of the statements that you've made, you know, enough of these situations that they've run into in the past as investigators to know really what the body language is telling them. If you're delivering bad news, it's one thing. If someone is being evasive, that may mean something else.
And, you know, just as you're talking, Scott, I'm thinking about like, so they describe him as really kind of his story going all over the place or what he's saying and his emotions are all over the place. And again, alcohol can do that to people. Or remember, they had a messy relationship and that can do it too. He may have been feeling mixed emotions or maybe it's because he's involved, you know? And so this way he's kind of dodging and moving around, coupled with the alcohol. Really, the possibilities are still all over the map.
That's true. And what investigators could really surmise from Baldwin at the time is that when he last saw Pascinetta Saturday afternoon, it was around 5 p.m.,
He then claimed he had left alone to meet his sister Michelle and ended up crashing at her hotel room. And then he said that Sunday he spent the day at the barbecue, really accounting for all the hours between last seeing Pashenetta and then showing up at the police department. And his alibi was corroborated by his sister and multiple people that had been at the party. And he didn't sugarcoat his relationship with Pashenetta at all.
He admitted to the issues in their relationship that they were having, but completely 100% denied any sort of involvement in her death. Eventually, the police terminated the interview, but did take photographs of him for his physical characteristics and to see if he had any type of wounds or injuries on him.
That's when things got a little more interesting, so to speak, because police discovered several small injuries on his body that could potentially point to some kind of struggle. And that may account for the bloodstain found on the jeans, which were located inside Pascinetta's closet. But when police questioned him about the gash, Baldwin claimed that the injury occurred while he was trying to repair a garage door a few days before.
And it suddenly came loose and dropped on his leg. And that's what caused the cut that he had there.
So outside of his denials and his alibi, investigators really didn't have much to go on. But what they did have was a known sample from him, which they can collect and use for DNA sampling. And then they can compare that known sample to the genes that they found in Pascinetta's closet. And investigators immediately went about comparing it to the blood found at the crime scene, including Pascinetta's clothing. There's probably about two dozen blood
Little splotches on her shirt, a varying size, you know, the size of a pinprick. In addition to the blood spatter, they also found skin underneath her fingernails, which might end up being important to this case and also just might prove to be the evidence they've been looking for. The splotches they did decide to test, it all came back to hers. But the skin under her nails was a different story. It came back to this mixture of like,
I think it was four, maybe five people, including Patrick Sonnenfrenz, including Cameron Adams, including Patrick Baldwin, and one or two other people. So the DNA evidence from underneath their fingerprints wasn't superfluous.
Super helpful because it wouldn't be a surprise to find her son's DNA there, Patrick Baldwin's DNA there, her DNA there, because they all lived in the same house. So it wasn't very helpful and it didn't really change anything about the case. So while investigators were able to identify several DNA profiles from the tissue under her nails, it didn't really push the investigation forward. But you know what does?
A new suspect, which comes courtesy of Patrick Baldwin himself. The man's name was Michael Scott, and he had been seen talking with Pashenetta at the cast party that Friday night into the late hours the same night before her murder. He and Pashenetta either had had a relationship, were having a relationship, he wanted to have a relationship.
Not only that, according to her friends, shortly after Pascinetta had left the party, Scott had followed her out the door. Obviously there can be a motive in that if he wants to pursue a relationship with Pascinetta's friends, and let's say she doesn't, that certainly gives him a motive to commit this violent act. And since he was known to Pascinetta, he was someone that she just might have opened the door for and let inside.
Since there was no forced entry at the home, it had to be someone that she knew and would let in or could get in. She would most likely let Michael Scott into her house. So since there was this kind of relationship that these two had, he was certainly someone that the police were interested in as well. Want to connect with more family and friends and their native language is in English?
then Rosetta Stone, the most trusted language learning program, is for you. Rosetta Stone teaches through immersion, like matching audio from native speakers to visuals, reading stories, participating in dialogues, and more. The True Accent feature even provides feedback on your pronunciation. Learn on the go with convenient, flexible, and customizable lessons as short as 10 minutes. From my own personal experience,
I could see the benefits of Rosetta Stone becoming more familiar with the local language when I'm traveling. Something as simple as understanding direction from the locals, but it also can help you stay safe, becoming even more aware of your surroundings.
On my recent trip to Italy, I found Rosetta Stone so helpful. For a very limited time, our listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. That's 50% off on limited access to 25 language courses
For the rest of your life, redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash anatomy. That's rosettastone.com slash N-A-T-O-M-Y. In Omaha, investigators were zeroing in on the events that occurred in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 25th, 2006, when a man named Michael Scott was seen paying particularly close attention to Passionetta Prince.
When contacted by police, Michael Scott voluntarily sat down with investigators. And according to his account, he did admit to following her home, but said he was just doing so to make sure that she was okay. He said he watched her pull up to her house at about 3.45 a.m., but once she was safely inside, he pulled away. But
But then he went on to say that something strange happened afterwards. According to Scott, he spotted Pascinetta's second car, a Chevy Impala, parked several blocks away. Knowing it was a car often borrowed by her ex, Patrick Baldwin, he decided to return to Pascinetta's home to make sure that she was okay. I think he was aware of Patrick Baldwin and aware of the issues that Pascinetta and he were having. And for whatever reason, like...
When Pasheneta opened her door, Scott saw that she wasn't alone. Standing right behind her was Patrick Baldwin, and he did not look happy. According to Scott, she assured him that she was fine. But when he left, he still felt uneasy and phoned Pasheneta to double check. And again, she assured Scott that she was okay, and then they hung up the call.
But a few minutes later, Scott's phone rang. Only this time, it wasn't Passionetta. It was Baldwin. And that's when Patrick Baldwin confronted Michael Scott about, don't be following my girlfriend around. Basically, hands off.
you've got this really can go one of three ways one of these two men is telling the truth and the other isn't right so it is perhaps michael scott covering for himself and baldwin was never around and he's just kind of throwing that out there to get police off his trail or it could be that baldwin wasn't being truthful and now they are getting the first real clues as to what happened from this other guy scott
or that these things really happened, but that neither of them were involved? Yeah, it's definitely an interesting question. And I agree with all three of those, Anasika. I mean,
he's injecting himself even more as a potential suspect just by saying, here's my alibi and you can check it out. So it was an interesting thing that he pointed out and injected himself into that. So while investigators were trying to figure out what was going on with Scott, it seems that Baldwin was getting much more of their attention.
Not only was his alibi looking a little more shaky, the more they learned about Baldwin, the more he started to look less like just a bad boyfriend and more like a really good suspect. They got a volatile relationship. It was later discovered that Patrick Baldwin claimed to have some sort of job or something like that and would pull out of the driveway every day
drive away as if he was going to a job, but really was not. His job, as near as I could tell, was to
In fact, telephone records showed that Baldwin had phoned Pashonetta's cell phone 19 times between 2.21 and 3.21 a.m. That's just within one hour, and it was Saturday morning, the night of this supposed confrontation with Michael Scott.
And as we know, as we have unfortunately seen before, that it is the type of jealous, sometimes obsessive behavior that can precede instances of domestic violence.
But we also have to keep in mind that the next afternoon, Pascinetta's son saw his mom alive and well and accounted for. If police were going to try to prove that Baldwin had something to do with her murder, they would have to place him at the scene closer to the suspected hour of her murder. That's where the investigation really began to stall. But Pascinetta's telephone records would turn up a potential new lead.
The police got these phone records. The main investigator went through every single call in like a month. And this investigator interviewed every single person on those phone records. And that's how they kind of learned about the landlord.
Now, typically, it would not be out of the ordinary for there to be a record of calls between a tenant and her landlord. But some digging would reveal that there was a little more to that relationship. And the landlord, he admitted as much, telling police that, yes, in the past, he and Pashinetta had been romantically linked. But investigators were much more interested in what he said next.
According to the landlord, Pashineta had admitted that Patrick Baldwin had been violent with her in the past, and she showed him the bruises to prove it. In fact, just a couple weeks before she was killed, Pashineta had requested that her landlord change the locks out of fear of her violent ex.
The circumstantial evidence against Baldwin seemed to be just piling up. But without hard physical evidence linking him to the crime, the prosecutor's office just didn't think there was enough to make an arrest and bring Baldwin to trial for murder. When the initial homicide happened and Patrick Baldwin was identified as a suspect in it, the police would come over and brief either the county attorney or
the chief deputy county attorney and whoever the prosecutor was who was going to be handling that for a briefing on it to see if there was enough there to make an arrest. And over the years, there wasn't. I think when the police would have some sort of additional information, they would come back to the prosecutor and say, "Hey, we found this. Do you think that's enough?" If they're told no, they would come back later and say, "Hey, we've got this additional piece. Is that enough?"
Sadly, the murder case began to go cold and three years went by with no arrest. You know, DNA are those three letters that juries have become accustomed to hearing when it comes to prosecutors presenting their case. It's almost like they expect it. Without it, they think the two words circumstantial evidence is
Maybe they believe it's a weak case. But as you know, Anastasia, that is not in fact true. We used to give these hypotheticals to potential juries all the time, basically saying like, you know, we know that you watch all the different, you know, CSI shows and you think that there's all these various forensic tools that are going to come up in every case. But we used to use this example, at least I used to, of someone getting
robbed or their purse taken down in the subway. You know, there is someone just grabs their bag and runs. Well, there is no DNA going to be left behind. So you're going to have to look at the old fashioned type of traditional evidence. Like, did someone see something? Were there in more modern days a camera? There's other ways to prove cases that the evidence is just as strong. But, you know, Scott here, like beyond that DNA, investigators didn't really have a whole lot. They had no direct evidence. They had just too many unanswered questions to
to even link the pieces of evidence that they did have at that point. You know, Anastasia, that is a great example of what the CSI effect has now brought to courtrooms is giving the prosecutor a reason to have to prove a negative is why something is not there. But in the end, they just didn't have enough.
I think it pretty much stalled with no other DNA from anybody else. Patrick Baldwin had a story, not saying police believed it, but it wasn't one that they could crack.
And that's right about the time that Matt joined the new cold case unit. I'd only been in the office for eight years at that point. And, you know, the county attorney wanted me to get some more experience and gave it to me to kind of look over and see if there was anything that could be done. And that's when I started looking at it, me, my co-counsel and the police. And that's when we made some decisions about how to move forward with the case.
Their answer: more extensive DNA testing. Either we're going to take these additional steps and do this additional DNA testing, or this is going to be something that's still going to just be sitting on a shelf waiting for some additional evidence to come in. The team decided that investigators and Pascianetta's family had waited long enough. Some additional spots were identified to test, and that's what broke the case.
Some of those spots came back to a full profile match of Patrick Baldwin. And of course, you know, the probability of it not being him was one in septillion, some astronomical number.
On June 23rd, 2009, three years after Pashineta had been killed, Omaha police arrested Patrick Baldwin and charged him with first degree murder. Upon his arrest, Baldwin asked to speak to a detective working on the case. And just like the last time he was interviewed three years earlier, Baldwin rambled on for hours, never admitting to killing Pashineta, but making several incriminating statements that Matt hoped to be able to use at trial.
It was all over the place. It was Patrick Baldwin talking nonstop for approximately three to four hours. And all the detective would say would be, okay, uh-huh, I see, like not even questioning him. And it was just Patrick Baldwin in a stream of consciousness about everything.
Everything. Blaming Pashineta. He had nothing to do with it. He's the victim in all of this. He wants to find the real killer. It was painful to listen to what was going on. It was painful to have to listen to at the motion to suppress hearing. And it was painful to listen to at the trial. But it was a key piece of evidence against him.
Baldwin's lawyer tried to exclude both the statements from 2006 and 2009, arguing that Baldwin's Miranda rights had been violated. And this one's really going to go to that right to counsel. But if you listen to the recordings, you know, the one after he was arrested in 2009, it is clear that the detective speaking with him stopped questioning him after Baldwin had requested counsel, only to then have Baldwin on his own continue to speak publicly.
spontaneously and unprompted moments later. And that's exactly the type of thing that they were going to obviously be arguing about in court. And the judge did rule that both interrogations were admissible as evidence and could be played for the jury at trial. So this was my only opportunity for the jurors to see the real Patrick Baldwin, someone who was volatile, gets mad, gets sad, overreacts,
to statements. It was my chance not just to see the substance of what he said, but also to see how he said it, to show them, like, this is the person that Pascinetta was having to deal with, and it's not a far jump to see how volatile he is to make the jump from how he acts to someone who could commit a murder like this.
You know, Scott, and I'm absolutely a believer, and I know that you and I have talked about this before, you know, statements can be incredibly important evidence, even when they're not those straight out confessions. You know, yes, he's denying being involved, but it is those smaller pieces that very often can be used very effectively and ultimately be important pieces of evidence for the jury. Yeah, whether we talk about this on the podcast or we've done it in our professional careers, and we've said to people who are listening,
People's reactions, people's body language makes a difference. Words and body language, when they match,
Right. That's an important fact. And here's an opportunity for this jury to see the way he speaks, his mannerisms, his tone, his position in during this interview, this interrogation and how he really presents this evidence to the detective. If you tie all that together and you see it visually, it is powerful. And I think it's something that we've been pointing out on a Seager, you and I for quite some time.
And that's exactly why, in part, Matt decided to use it here because he thought that it was important for him to let the jury decide.
see Baldwin, but also to hear some of what he had to say. And then he would argue to the jury, you know, as he did, well, that doesn't make sense and why. And the state argued that Baldwin was jealous and he was violent and that ultimately it was his run-in with Michael Scott that Friday night that triggered an argument that would eventually lead to the physical altercation that ended in Pashineta's murder. ♪
Baldwin's alibi that he was with his sister on Saturday night had been a massive roadblock in the investigation for years. But in time, his sister's story had changed. Now she claimed that Baldwin had borrowed her car and left the hotel between 1030 and 2 a.m. Here we go. There was this period of time where he left the hotel and
In his sister's car, Patrick is unaccounted for.
And that left several hours unaccounted for on the same night that Pascinetta was believed to have been murdered. So yes, like the sister is still trying to help him. But now what the jury is left with is that Baldwin no longer has that airtight alibi. Patrick's sister testified and was trying to alter the timeline. My tack was, you're a sister who's trying to stick up for your brother, who's got himself in a real bad spot.
Is your child asking questions on their homework you don't feel equipped to answer? Maybe your child is too shy to ask questions in front of the entire class, but they can get extra help and positive feedback with IXL Learning. IXL Learning is an online learning program for kids. It covers math, language arts, science, and social studies. IXL is designed to help them really understand and master topics in a fun way with positive feedback.
This program will improve your kids' grades. Backed by research, kids using IXL are scoring higher on tests. From studies done in almost every state in the country, the kids who had IXL are consistently doing better.
And one subscription gets you everything for all the kids in your home, pre-K to 12th grade. If your child is struggling, this is the smartest investment you can make. And a month of IXL costs less than an hour of tutoring. Additionally, IXL is used in 95 of the top 100 school districts in the U.S.
Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now. And Anatomy of Murder listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixl.com slash anatomy. Visit ixl.com slash anatomy to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Our theory was that Passionetta had had enough of
In the murder trial of Patrick Baldwin, Matt had laid out his theory of why and how Pashenetta Prince was killed. Patrick gets it in his head.
to leave the birthday party at the hotel, drive over to her house. She either let him in or he had a key, but he got into the house, started arguing with her, had this fight that probably started off in the main floor and ended up in the basement, hit her in the head with the air compressor thinking that would take care of it. It didn't. He then got the air compressor hose, wrapped it around her neck and strangled her to death.
In 2007 alone, over 2,300 deaths in the United States were caused by domestic violence, making up 14% of all homicides. 70% of those victims were women. I think that in any type of domestic violence homicide that I've ever done, like, why does this have to happen?
Why just the relationship is over. Just accept it and move on. It should never come to a point where someone has to be murdered, especially in such a violent way. Why does someone feel the need that if I can't have this person or be with this person, then I've got to kill him and take him away from everybody. Helping prove Matt's case was Baldwin's DNA on the pajama shirt that Pascinetta was wearing at the time of her death.
And remember that injury on Baldwin's leg that he claimed he got while fixing his garage? Well, prosecutors tracked down the neighbor he had been with, who he had done that garage work with, and the neighbor said that Baldwin's story isn't what happened at all.
If I remember right, this would be the great garage story incident that he referred to. The neighbor basically said, like, I didn't see him get injured, didn't see him get cut. The garage thing was not any kind of big deal. Baldwin's defense? They did their best to raise reasonable doubt by directing suspicion at other men in Passionetta's life, like Michael Scott and even her landlord,
But Matt welcomed the challenge, if only to shore up his own solid case. In fact, Matt called all of the so-called red herrings, the person that the defense was claiming could be the actual killer. He called them to the stand to make sure the jury gets a look at them.
The juror needs to hear it so we can combat the tunnel vision defense. So that we can say, hey, this guy was a potential suspect because he had this relationship with passionate friends. Yes, we had this relationship, but here's where I was and here's what I was doing. And then we, you know, when the investigators speak and testify, we have them say, and did you verify that alibi? Yes, we did. Because we weren't going to do this whole just, oh,
You're just picking on him because he's the boyfriend. There's all these other people out there who could have done it. We were nipping that in the bud.
At one point, Baldwin's defense even suggested that Pashonetta's adult stepson, who had had some previous trouble with the law, that he had something to do with his stepmother's murder. He was very close to Pashonetta. He had issues with his own mother, but grew very close to her and kind of considered her to be the mom figure in his life. And he was very unhappy that Patrick was
was trying to finger him for murder, especially if someone he cared so much about. And I can tell you that Judge Mullen found a lot of what Marvell said to be very compelling.
His testimony proved to be some of the most moving in the entire trial, further demonstrating to the judge and jury that Pascinetta was a loving, dedicated mother and stepmother. I think the jury 100% believed him because Marvell's a tough guy and has done some not good things before.
But to try and imply that he murdered someone that he cared about, who was like a mom to him, Orville did not cry. That's not his way. But he made it very clear that to suggest that he would do that really kind of ate at him and really bothered him that that would happen. And I think his testimony was some of the more compelling testimony that occurred at that trial.
On September 14th, 2010, four years after Passion had been killed, Patrick Baldwin was found guilty of second-degree murder, not the first-degree murder top count. The difference is, is that first-degree murder requires proof of that it was a premeditated act. Again, my argument was when he made the decision to strangle her with that hose with such force,
that that constituted the premeditation. Second-degree murder doesn't require premeditation, but requires it to be an intentional killing. A month later, Baldwin was sentenced to life in prison. And unlike other defendants who I've dealt with in the past, after his direct appeal was done and over with and ruled on by the Nebraska Supreme Court, never heard a word.
No post convictions, no habeas, no nothing. Haven't heard a word from him since.
The road to justice for Passionetta Prince was a long one and often frustrating. But in the end, Matt hoped that the arrest, conviction, and sentencing had brought her friends and family, especially her stepson and younger son, some degree of closure. It's never going to be perfect. You're only going to get closure if the person is backing your life. That's not going to happen. But to have some modicum of closure that...
I can put this behind me and move on with my life, no matter what the crime is, no matter how serious it is. It was just about helping people out who are victims, who are just in that bad way. Pascinetta's son Cameron moved in with his grandmother after his mother's death. With neither a mother or father to guide him, he struggled for a while, but today he's doing really well.
has some kids, has a job, and has gotten himself situated. Last I heard, which was last year, her son is on the right path.
A month after Passionetta's life was taken, two Omaha theaters donated the proceeds from several performances to a trust fund benefiting her family. The creative director of the John Beasley Theater, remember that is a theater that she had been rehearsing for that upcoming play at the time of her death. It was also a place where Passionetta regularly performed. Well, the creative director told newspapers that Passionetta loved the theater, but that
And I quote, no undertaking was more important to her than raising her son. Clearly, this episode has to do with domestic violence. And when domestic violence claims a life, the impact resonates beyond the immediate tragedy. It is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities that lie within what should be the sanctuaries of our lives, our homes.
This ripple effect of grief and loss underscores a harsh reality. When we lose somebody to domestic violence, we're all diminished, united in a collective mourning and a shared resolve to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder. Anatomy of Murder is an AudioChuck original produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frasetti Media. Ashley Flowers is executive producer. This episode was written and produced by Walker Lamond, researched by Kate Cooper, edited by Ali Sirwa, Megan Hayward, and Philjean Grande. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, me and my best friend Britt break down a new case, but not in the way you've heard before and not the cases you've heard before. You'll hear stories on Crime Junkie that haven't been told anywhere else. I'll tell you what you can do to help victims and their families get justice. Join me in a moment.
Join us for new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday. Already waiting for you by searching for Crime Junkie wherever you listen to podcasts.
