Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Thank you.
What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. That was a little loud there. Sorry. Hello, everybody. We had to turn it down just a little bit because I'm screaming into the mic over here. No, no, I was. I was like, wham. Hello, everybody. A big thank you to all of you for tuning in today. Also to Amy for recommending today's case. I think they
This is only the second, maybe the third time that we've gone to Nebraska on this show, just for no reason at all. Yeah, I don't really know why we haven't done... I mean, there's just like some states. Actually, what was really cool is one of our listeners did a map that showed all of the cases that we've covered over...
over the years and where they take place. And it is crazy to see how many cases we've actually covered and where they were. Wait, I want to repost that because I'm not remembering her username right now. I'm going to put it on our Instagram for you guys to see, maybe across all our socials because she took so much time
to do this, to map out every single one of our cases. That would tell me how many we've done in Nebraska, actually. I should look at that. Absolutely incredible, the work that she did here. Okay, I just pulled it up. It's by Emily.Doodles. Okay, we have done, thanks to Emily, now I know, we have done two
cases in Nebraska other than today. I'm going to post this. It's so cool. Thank you, Emily. It is very, very hard to keep track of all the cases that we've done over the years because we've done 500 episodes across the board with bonus episodes. I mean, we are almost to 400 regular episodes. We're so close. It's crazy. It is wild. So thank you guys so much for tuning in and being here with us. Yes. Thank you guys so much. But enough of the chit chat. Let's get into today's case.
Alright guys, this is episode 389 of Going West, so let's get into it. 🎵
you
When it comes to weight loss, no two people are the same. That's why Noom builds personalized plans based on your unique psychology and biology. Take Brittany. After years of unsustainable diets, Noom helped her lose 20 pounds and keep it off. I was definitely in a yo-yo cycle for years of just losing weight, gaining weight, and it was exhausting. And Stephanie. She's a former D1 athlete who knew she couldn't out-train her diet, and she lost 38 pounds.
My relationship to food before Noom was never consistent. And Evan, he can't stand salads, but he still lost 50 pounds with Noom. I never really was a salad guy. That's just not who I am. Even through the pickiness, Noom taught me that building better habits builds a healthier lifestyle. I'm not doing this to get to a number. I'm doing this to feel better.
Get your personalized plan today at Noom.com. Real Noom users compensated to provide their story. In four weeks, the typical Noom user can expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Individual results may vary. It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax, and think about...
Work. You really, really want it all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that peace of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow. Wherever you are, tap the banner to go to Monday.com. In February of 2003, a 15-year-old girl left her Nebraska home early in the morning to deliver newspapers and never returned home.
But after hearing accounts from neighbors on her paper route, important tips surfaced, eventually leading investigators to an abandoned lake house where an intense local investigation uncovered her killer. This is the story of Heather Guerrero.
Heather Ann Guerrero was born on February 8th, 1988 to parents Irene and Anthony Guerrero. One of four siblings, she grew up in Gearing, Nebraska alongside sisters Elise and Danielle and a brother named Mark.
And a little bit about her hometown. So it hosted 8,000 residents then and actually still has about the same population today. And it's situated just over the border of Wyoming in western Nebraska. So definitely a good thing to remember that this is a pretty small town that she lives in in a more rural area. From a young age, Heather was described by her family as a light in the darkness.
Among her peers, she was known as sweet, kind, and wholesome. And a friend named Alyssa later said in a memory, quote,
Yeah.
An outgoing young woman, a friendly face to see when you're having a bad day. Best dressed, she was always dressing in her best clothes. Watching her grow into a fine young woman. Teachers loved her, family loved her, so did her friends.
Responsible and definitely a rule follower, Heather was a member of the Gehring High drug-free clowns group. Yes, clowns, who would actually dress up as clowns and lead workshops and demonstrations in local elementary schools, just trying to dissuade youths from becoming involved in drugs and alcohol.
I was trying to find a picture of this because I thought that would be interesting to see, but there's really few photos associated with this case in general anyway. Yeah, there's not a lot of photos of Heather on the internet, but we will absolutely post the ones that we do find. Yes, and you guys know where to find those. So Heather's family frequently attended church, and Heather belonged to a youth group there, and her family upheld pretty strong morals, which Heather exemplified to a T.
In 2002, she entered Gehring High School as a ninth grader and quickly became involved in the school's volleyball team as well as managing their basketball team. On Heather's last Thanksgiving, she penned an essay about the importance of gratitude, which was posthumously published in the newspaper.
Speaking of her appreciation for her tight-knit family, Heather wrote, quote, I think whatever happens, it happens for a reason, and you should be thankful for it, whether it's good or bad. I think this is a good thing to talk about because, yeah, it might be a little hard, but I think it makes you take time to think and appreciate everything you have.
Some people aren't thankful for what they have, but they should appreciate it because you never know. One day, all that may not be here. Which is so kind of eerie in a way that she wrote this just a couple months before she went missing. It is. It really is. So very punctual and hardworking, Heather landed her first job in May of 2002 at the age of 14, delivering newspapers for the local news outlet, which was called the Star Herald.
which ironically would later report heavily on her abduction and her death. Her route consisted of about 75 customers in the Meadows subdivision of South Garing, which is where she lived with her family. And I know a lot of you listeners have probably had jobs like this at a very young age, but luckily for Heather, her dad Anthony accompanied her nearly every morning on her route.
But devastatingly, on the morning of Tuesday, February 11th, 2003, just days after her 15th birthday, her
her parents decided to just let her walk her route alone, wanting to make sure that Heather would be able to handle the responsibility on her own. And to be fair, you know, Heather had been doing this job for almost a year at this point, so she knew her route, she knew her neighborhood, and obviously her parents couldn't possibly have imagined what would happen that day. Absolutely, you know, and she's taking on this job, so it's fair to think that, you know, her parents aren't going to accompany her every single day.
So that particular morning, around 5 a.m., Heather bundled up and headed out into the chilly Nebraska winter morning to start her route. But not before Heather's mom, Irene, helped her roll up the newspapers and get dressed for the cold before sending her outside. Now, around 5 a.m., Irene remembers going back upstairs saying, quote,
About an hour later, around 6:00 a.m., when Heather was usually returning home from her route, her father Anthony found himself waiting, just kind of scanning the streets for his daughter. But, sensing something had gone awry in Heather's normally very stringent and structured routine, he set out to look for her.
Walking the few blocks she served, he combed her entire route, noticing that up until the last house, the newspapers were propped up against the garage doors where they belonged, meaning that Heather had pretty much gotten through her entire route. But then, you know, she's just not on the street. So he's kind of able to to track her movements a little bit this way. So very puzzled by this.
He returned home, retreating upstairs to break the news to his wife that Heather wasn't down on the streets where she should be. And Irene just remembers that eerie feeling of dread that just settled in when she heard that her daughter hadn't returned home yet and that she knew that something bad had happened. Irene recalled later, quote, I popped out of bed and I knew from that point that someone had taken Heather. I cried, why Heather?
Checking her room, they were also distraught to find that she had left her cell phone behind that day. It just feels like so often the kind of strange and unusual circumstances line up with these kind of events. Like the one day her parents didn't accompany her, the one day she didn't bring her cell phone. Oh yeah, this happens in so many cases that we talk about. How it's just like, it's that one little detail. Like, oh, they left their purse behind this day. Or, oh, they left their cell phone or...
or, you know, something strange like that. It always kind of lines up with this stuff. It's so weird. And either it's coincidence, horrible coincidence, or that is part of why it did happen because there wasn't that extra thing that could have helped them, you know? Yeah. That extra like safety measure. Exactly. Exactly.
But luckily, the Guerreros wasted no time in reporting 15-year-old Heather missing. So at 7 a.m., just an hour later, they called the police to file a missing persons report and began to scour the neighborhood for her even further. Anthony went door to door asking her customers if they had spotted her that morning on her route. And while doing so, it was from a neighbor that they received their first eyewitness sighting.
Ron McCall, who resided on nearby Settlers Drive, frequently saw Heather out on her route with her dad, but noted that she had been alone that Tuesday morning. Heather's route encompassed just a seven block radius of her neighborhood, but Ron is believed to have been the last person to see her before she was abducted.
He made this habit of getting up around 5 a.m., starting a pot of coffee, and heading outside for a cigarette. And around 5.50 a.m. that morning, while outside smoking, Heather came by with his newspaper.
Ron recalls their conversation was pretty short just due to the chill outside. Remembering, quote, she said, hi, we talked about the weather for a minute. Hey, isn't it cold out here? And I said, thank you. She said, you're welcome. Our conversations were usually brief.
So, shortly after reporting his daughter missing, Anthony went knocking on Ron's door to see if he had spotted Heather nearby, and to just get the full scope of their encounter. Ron recalled, quote,
So, equally concerned and just trying to be a very good neighbor, Ron dropped everything and went out to help the Guerreros look for their daughter. He recalls Heather taking great care and pride in what she did, saying, quote,
Ron also reflected his disbelief that she could have vanished in such a seemingly safe subdivision of a small town, stating, quote, So after dropping the paper at Ron's, Ron last spotted Heather two doors down at the home of a neighbor named Jim Vance.
Nearing the end of her route, she was only a block away from her home by then. And remember that because this is just so frustrating. So with the information that Jim was possibly Heather's final stop, Jim provided Anthony a valuable clue.
So, he had been walking his dog in the area around 6 a.m. that morning, about 10 minutes after Heather had been chatting with Ron at his house. Jim recalled hearing a scream around that time, and looking for its origin, spotted what he described as a silver or tan vehicle.
And though he didn't know the exact model, he knew that this car was a Nissan because it looked similar to a car that a co-worker of his had. And it's so amazing that he happened to see this because this tip changed everything. It really did. So Jim remembered that while it was early on a winter morning, the headlights of this vehicle were off and the car sped away as if it was being chased or as if it was trying to get away quickly.
So Jim was very confused by the disturbance, like this early morning scream. It's just something that you wouldn't expect to hear at that time in such a quiet neighborhood. So this was really, really very weird to him. But he assumed that it had been some kind of squabble between the people inside the car saying, quote, I walked in the direction of the scream, but didn't see anything. I figured there must have been a domestic dispute. That's why I didn't panic.
And to be fair, I understand what he's saying. But also, if you do hear something like this and you think it might be a domestic violence situation, you probably should report it anyway. Yeah, I was thinking that too. Like, that doesn't make it okay either. Again, I'm not trying to put blame on him, but like,
If somebody's screaming, it's not good either way. Yeah, probably not a good situation. Might just be best to let somebody know. Yeah, just report it. So he didn't think about the scream again after this until he returned home briefly during the day to find his street mobbed with police cars. So putting the pieces together, he finally reported what he had seen and heard earlier that morning.
Grabbing hold of their first tangible lead, police requested that Jim drive around with them in the squad car, pointing out cars that he believed may have been involved and searching for that particular Nissan.
By 9 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, February 11th, 2003, so three hours into Heather's disappearance, the police, along with the Guerrero family, Ron McCall and Jim Vance, were canvassing the neighborhood, knocking on doors and combing the area for any sign of Heather.
As the news slowly spread to Heather's loved ones and the community of Gehring, 30 of her family members and friends gathered to join in the search for her. Now, thankfully, police took the disappearance seriously from the start, just convinced that it was a case of abduction with a risk of homicide and that the timing was incredibly important here because, of course, it is. However...
Her parents later noted that they didn't issue an Amber Alert, which would later lead to a lawsuit by the Guerreros against the Goering Police Department, as well as the nearby Scotts Bluff Police Department. Because with an Amber Alert, you issue that a child has been abducted
And you don't need the license plate number or the make, the model, the color. Like it's just preferred and obviously heavily preferred that you have that information. But they still could have issued an Amber Alert here. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if they have just any sort of vague description of this vehicle, they could have put that out. But and I think that was just the frustration with the Guerreros is like, why didn't you do this? Yeah, because that could have gotten.
this information out to more people, which could have helped something happen a lot quicker.
But although they didn't put out an Amber Alert, the Gehring police immediately got the FBI involved, as well as the Nebraska State Patrol, the Police Department of nearby Scottsbluff, the Scottsbluff County Sheriff's Office, the Scottsbluff County Attorney's Office, and even the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. So there were a lot of feet on the ground and a lot of minds at work here.
Police were also quick to share some information that's often concealed to the public just in hopes that it would make Heather easier to spot if she were out in public.
So when she went missing, she had been wearing black bib snow pants, a light blue hooded Adidas jacket, gray sweatpants with a maroon stripe down the sides, black gloves, and a white or tan news carrying bag with fluorescent orange writing on it. So a pretty specific outfit. You know, we've got some different colors going on here. And that is what police are telling everybody to look out for.
But also, police kind of urged the public just not to touch these items if they came upon them because they were desperately trying to seek a connection to her abductor. But in this outcry, they did not try to find the white t-shirt or white pair of tennis shoes that Heather had left the house wearing, which kind of indicated that those had potentially been recovered already.
So the small community was so rocked by Heather's disappearance that they employed two psychics in the short time that she was missing, just hoping for any indication as to where she could be. As her teachers and fellow Garing High School students caught wind of the news, yellow ribbons were hung all around her campus, raising awareness about her disappearance and just showing their support in general.
And ironically, Heather was known for hanging up red ribbons around her school and in her town to spread awareness for the drug-free movement that she was a part of. Now, as the day wore on, it was Jim Vance who pointed out when he saw what he believed was the exact vehicle that he had pictured speeding away from him that morning.
Found that same day. Yeah, and we're talking about, you know, a town of about 8,000 people, so probably not too terribly hard to find, but if this person had wanted to conceal this car, I'm pretty sure that they could have done it easily. Concealed or just totally left the area with it, you know? Sure. So the fact that Jim was the one to see it later on is amazing. Absolutely. Yeah.
So at 9:15 p.m. on the evening of February 11th, 2003, so about 15 hours into the search for Heather, police confirmed that they had located the vehicle that she was believed to have been abducted by and that they were interviewing its owner. Though they did not reveal his identity at this time, the car belonged to a local man named Brent Nemnick. But Brent had a story prepared for this very moment.
He said that he had actually loaned the car to a friend that day and claims that he hadn't been driving the car nor did he have anything to do with Heather's disappearance. But was he telling the truth here? Well, more alarming was what they found inside the vehicle. Bullets, including spent bullet casings, were found in the back seat of his car.
So, as you guys know, we are kind of in the transition between summer and fall. And I'm sure a lot of you guys are getting ready for the fall season, trying to update your wardrobe. And luckily, Quince offers timeless and high-quality items that we adore, ensuring that our wardrobe stays fresh and we don't have to worry about it.
And we don't blow our entire budget. Yeah, he's talking like cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, and so much more. I love how simple and elegant all their clothes are. It's so easy for anybody to wear and the quality is unmatched.
And something that is super important to me is that Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices, plus premium fabrics and finishes. They are truly the best. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high-quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash goingwest for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's
Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash going west to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince dot com slash going west.
If you guys are like me and Heath, one of your least favorite questions is, what are we going to have for dinner tonight? Hate that question. It is just a daily battle. So then we inevitably order takeout, but the problem with takeout is that it's rarely healthy. So how nice does it sound to enjoy a home-cooked meal without the stress of planning ahead, going to the store, and putting all the ingredients together, not to mention...
Coming up with a creative idea of what you're going to eat. This is why Heath and I love Home Chef. Home Chef provides fresh ingredients and chef-designed recipes conveniently delivered to your doorstep to simplify your cooking experience. Something I love about Home Chef is that they offer 30 options a week and serve a variety of dietary needs. Which is great.
which is good for vegetarians like me and beyond. And it's good for the whole family. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering Going West listeners 18 free meals plus free dessert for life. And of course, free shipping on your first box. Go to homechef.com slash going west. That's homechef.com slash going west for 18 free meals and free dessert for life. You heard that right. Homechef.com slash going west. Must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert.
Go to your happy place for a happy price. Go to your happy price, Priceline.
Get started with Greenlight today and get your first month free at greenlight.com slash Spotify.
So who had been driving the Nissan that day? Brent claimed that it was his 24-year-old friend, Jeffrey Hessler. So police quickly focused all their attention on Jeffrey, bringing him in for questioning immediately. Now, Jeffrey worked as a security guard for the nearby airport and lived just a block from the Guerreros.
He had a criminal record involving drugs, drinking, and assault, but nothing as heinous as an abduction or a murder, or at least not that the police knew of yet. He stated that he didn't know Heather and initially feigned ignorance about the case as a whole, but the evidence was stacking up against this guy. And I have to say, just in general, like to say even a day into this, that you don't know about this case, you don't know Heather,
Like the entire town is looking for her. People are knocking on doors. People are putting up flyers and you live a block away from the family and you are on the newspaper route of the girl in question. And she's been doing this
for almost a year, nearly every day, putting a newspaper outside your house and you don't know who she is. Like that's so hard to believe from the get-go anyway. And it just shows that he is setting himself up to be proved to be a liar.
So the evening before Heather's abduction, Jeffrey had stayed the night at the house of family friends Bob and Deb Sargent. So Bob, Deb, and their daughter Kelly had all witnessed Jeffrey leaving their house at 6 o'clock, the exact time in question, on the morning of Tuesday, February 11th, which is the day in question.
And Kelly, daughter Kelly, was the one to tell Jeffrey that the police were searching for a Nissan Altima that matched the description of the one he had borrowed that day. She also reported seeing him engage in suspicious behavior while staying with them, such as listening to a police scanner.
In their interview with Brent, police discovered that Jeffrey had a gun hidden at the home of the sergeants and had shown it to Brent to kind of show it off. This gun, which was a 9mm pistol, matched the three boxes of ammunition and dozens of bullets, some of which were spent and some of which were not, found in the back of Brent's car.
In Jeffrey's police interview conducted by Lieutenant Mike Zitterkopf, Jeffrey initially denied knowing Heather or ever seeing or interacting with her, which again, I find incredibly hard to believe anyway. But after being pressed, Jeffrey did acknowledge that he had met
Heather is 15 and he's 24.
And though the age of consent in Nebraska has been 16 for a while, I mean, still, that's a big gap. And it just seems very convenient to have happened consensually on this morning because Jeffrey swore that this sexual encounter had been consensual, even though, again, he was nine years her senior during a very sensitive window of age, I might add.
But by his own account, he pulled over to talk to her that Tuesday morning and the two hit it off. He said she then got into his car and they cruised around on some backcountry roads until they pulled over on the side of a farm road to have sex. Such...
Such bullshit. This guy is such a fucking moron. The fact that he thinks that that is believable, that this 15-year-old girl who is very responsible, who takes her job very seriously, is just going to drop her responsibilities, get into this car with this random fucking weird guy, 24-year-old guy, and then go driving around on back roads to have sex with him. Like, dude, come on. Yeah, especially because there was a scream heard. The car was speeding off.
And again, he denied over and over that he didn't know Heather, and then he says this. Well, with further pressure from Mike, Jeffrey began to crumble under the weight of his lies and his guilt. Now, according to Mike, Jeffrey began to cry and stayed silent for several minutes, shifting in his seat. As Mike coaxed him, just encouraging him to just tell the truth, Jeffrey's cries soon turned into sobs.
And finally, Mike said to Jeffrey, quote, And through his sobs, Jeffrey said, quote,
Jeffrey explained that he had grabbed Heather from the sidewalk on her paper route at 6 a.m. that morning, exactly when Jim Vance heard that scream. And after sexually assaulting her, he asked her to keep his attack quiet and to not report it to police, which Heather said that she would not be doing.
In response to this, Jeffrey claimed that he panicked, saying, quote,
So with what's to come, this is obviously bullshit as well because we're going to find out that he did in fact move her body so he did see her. Well, and to say the gun went off, like, yeah, it just went off. I didn't, like, what? You pulled the trigger, dude. It's just trying to, like, lower the responsibility of what he himself had done.
So the same day that detectives conducted the interviews with Jeffrey, two members of Heather's own family came across her body. When one local came forward with a possible sighting of the car near Lake Minotaur, which is about 30 minutes northeast of Goering, police shifted their search efforts from the Meadows subdivision where Heather lived to the shores of the lake, hoping to stumble upon something of Heather's that Jeffrey had possibly left behind.
When the search party came upon an abandoned home on the shores of the lake, they scoured it top to bottom, knowing that it could easily conceal a body. And sure enough, when they reached the basement, they came upon Heather, splayed out, face down next to a green velour couch. She was discovered by her uncle Frank and cousin Tom after they walked down the stairs to find Heather's feet pointing toward them.
Her uncle Frank Blanco said through tears, quote, Now once her body was finally found, she was immediately taken for an autopsy, which did prove that she had been sexually assaulted before being shot with a 9mm bullet to the head, just like Jeffrey had confessed to them.
Heather's memorial service drew 2,000 people, with everybody remembering her contributions to the community and her overall kindheartedness.
Her aunt read the essay that she had written for Thanksgiving, the one that Heath read to us earlier, which was a pretty sweet reminder from Heather to live in the moment and be thankful for what you have. So I think as foreshadowing as that was for her to write, this probably was somewhat of a nice thing to read and look back on.
having Heather herself saying things happen for a reason, good or bad, and you have to look at the bright side of things. Yeah, I think she was just an incredibly positive person and her family knows that. Absolutely. So dozens of friends and fellow students wrote testimonies about Heather's character for a multi-page tribute spread in the local paper, which is the same one that she had worked for.
At Heather's school, teachers recall a very somber environment for the kids over the following week, with many students staying home or just breaking down into sobs throughout the course of the school day.
But Gehring High School did offer grief counselors for Heather's peers, and the assistant principal, Alan Knott, later called the day of Heather's discovery the worst day of his life, stating, quote,
Now, police held a press conference to share what they knew about the case, and District Superintendent Dan Haig spoke of Heather's impact, saying, quote,
And just to kind of show more support from the community, the star Harold, who again is who she delivered papers for, established a memorial fund for her family. So it just seemed like everybody was coming together saying amazing things about Heather and just trying to support her parents and her siblings in this really hard time.
A couple of weeks later, on February 26, 2003, the state of Nebraska charged Jeffrey with felony murder, premeditated murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony, kidnapping, and first-degree sexual assault. The state later announced that Heather's assault and murder actually made Jeffrey a suspect in an unsolved rape case from the year prior.
the assault of another newspaper delivery employee, simply addressed by the courts and the press as JB. Now, like Heather, JB also worked for the Star-Herald and was 15 years old. That is a crazy, not a coincidence because it's not a coincidence, but what a crazy connection here. I mean, it is kind of a coincidence. It's very crazy that this happened to two people
different girls who are working for the same company. Well, I guess I say not a coincidence only because he's the one doing it on purpose. You know what I mean? Well, right. Yeah. But the fact that, like I had said earlier, you know, of course he knows who these girls are. They're delivering his paper every morning. But the fact that this sick predator is just sitting in the window or in the door, watching them deliver the papers day by day, it's,
preying on these two young 15-year-old girls, like ugh, makes you sick. And that also just makes his story of, oh, well, I just met her that day and she hopped in the car with me, that makes it so much more unbelievable because you tried to do this to another 15-year-old girl as well. Exactly. So, in addition to his serious charges, Jeffrey was suspected of misusing his gun as neighbors had reported someone shooting at a nearby stop sign and
and police found bullet holes and shell casings matching that of the gun that Jeffrey used to kill Heather. Now, Brent Nemnick, who was Jeffrey's friend, the owner of that vehicle, was suspected of these charges as well, because the two had supposedly been together in the early morning hours of Tuesday, February 11th, before Jeffrey set out in Brent's car alone.
Brent was also called in to testify about the two phone calls made from Jeffrey to Brent's phone in the aftermath of Heather's death around 8.30 a.m. that morning. But ultimately, Brent wasn't found to have any connections to the crimes that were committed against Heather.
Now, the state of Nebraska announced that they believe the kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of Heather Guerrero and the sexual assault of JB to be, quote, "...especially heinous, atrocious, cruel, and manifested exceptional depravity by ordinary standards of morality and intelligence," and that they intended to pursue the repercussions to the harshest extent that they possibly could.
On May 19, 2003, Jeffrey Hessler pleaded guilty to the charges of felony murder and first-degree sexual assault. As the courts prepared to try Jeffrey for Heather's murder, they settled the case of his sexual assault on the other young Gehring victim, J.B.,
On July 14, 2003, Jeffrey was convicted of the August 20, 2002 rape of JB and sentenced to 30 to 42 years in prison. He then awaited sentencing for the trial of his charges against Heather, which the courts prepared for a year and a half until jury selection finally took place in November of 2004.
In a rare turn of events for a man being held on murder charges, Jeffrey wrote a bizarre admission of guilt that was riddled with grammatical errors and strong religious verbiage. So he actually presented it to the court, reading, quote, "'As God cicerones me through this ascription to show true face, I, Jeffrey Allen Hessler, now brings to light my ascription now before all.'"
He continued that he wished, quote, to bring the justice and wrath of God onto myself. The true intentions of this court follows God's commands and my wishes, and that is to only be the following. I, Jeffrey Allen Hessler, must be put to death without dialectic.
In the nine-page document, which he recited every word of, by the way, Jeffrey detailed his remorse for his acts against Heather and felt that death was a justifiable punishment for him. He also described being awoken on a recent night by a brother of Christ and claimed that he was told to, quote, "...bring God back into my life."
He continued that he, quote, felt this powerful energy to start to flow through my whole body. God was speaking through him to me. I saw a single tear and his eyes were flaming at me. He then continued by wishing that he be sent to what he called the Reaper's Nirvana and stated, quote, there should be no dialectic or extrospection towards or against God's purpose and my destiny.
And Jeffrey also motioned to represent himself at his trial.
Still, Jeffrey's defense attorney, Jim Mowbray, maintained that Jeffrey, quote, didn't mean for it to happen and that his sentence should have been downgraded to second-degree murder. Oh, yeah, because the gun went off by itself, didn't it? Right, right. But on December 7, 2004, Jeffrey Hessler was found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault on a child, kidnapping, and use of a firearm to commit a felony.
That is a lot of years. Yeah.
So although Jeffrey himself had requested this outcome, you know, this sentence of death, it was a shocking turn of events for sure, especially since the state of Nebraska itself currently only has about a dozen inmates on death row.
But immediately after the conviction was handed down, Jeffrey and his defense team filed an appeal to overturn the death sentence, which makes no sense at all. You asked for it. Yeah, you literally said I should get the death sentence. And, you know, but it kind of just feels like he said this so that they would give him a lighter sentence knowing like, oh, he feels really bad about what he did. And he thinks that he deserves this, but backfired and you got the death sentence. Mm hmm.
But this time, Jeffrey did represent himself appearing pro se or in one's own behalf. Now his legal team, though present in the courtroom at the time, allowed Jeffrey to take the lead.
Both Jeffrey and his lawyers presented evidence that he had been prescribed anti-psychotic and anti-hypnotic medications, and that he had not taken them on the day that he requested to represent himself, using this kind of as an excuse to buy more time for their appeal.
However, the court found this to be a very flimsy argument, and it seemed that even Jeffrey believed that he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law for his heinous acts. Or at least he said that before.
Now, a psychological assessment performed on Jeffrey in September of 2003, while Jeffrey awaited trial, concluded that he was, quote, "someone who seems to be either exaggerating his symptomologies or is perhaps making a cry or plea for help," which is exactly what we were just talking about. Now, he was hoping to be granted an appeal solely based on the fact that he requested to represent himself and felt that that alone called into question his competency.
Based on that, Jeffrey believed that his lawyer should have declared him mentally incompetent to stand trial, in which case his trial would have been a competency hearing instead of a murder trial with the possibility of a death sentence. But ultimately, the judge found that this did not constitute ineffective counsel, nor should Jeffrey have qualified for a competency hearing.
The last 20 years since all this have been riddled with court dates and appeals, but have yet to release Jeffrey from what the state of Nebraska assigned to be his fate. He actually has another hearing coming up, still with the aim of overturning his death sentence. But so far, it's been unsuccessful, and Jeffrey Hessler waits on death row for unjustly taking the life of Heather Guerrero.
Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, appreciate you guys tuning in today. This was...
A wild story. Jeffrey Hessler is a horrible person, and he tried to downplay what he did to Heather Guerrero. And yeah, the courts and the judges did not believe it. Especially because he did it before. I mean, he didn't murder before, but to rape a 15-year-old girl months before this, I mean, that was in August of 2002.
And what he did to Heather was in February of 2003. So it was only a few months later, like you were making the choice to do this again. So I don't feel sorry for you.
Yeah, no, and he's exactly where he needs to be. Yeah. But thank you guys so much for listening to this case. Make sure you share it. And if you want to see some photos from this case, some photos of Heather, Jeffrey and her family, you can head on over to our socials. You know where we're at? We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast. You can find us on Twitter at Going West Pod, even though we don't really use
Twitter. We don't really use Twitter or X anymore that much. We just say that, but no, no. But anyway, if you do want to check out those photos, you can also go to our Facebook page. We have a discussion group and that's where we can talk about these cases together. Yes. Thank you again to Amy for recommending this one. Thank you everybody for listening and we'll see you in a few days. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.
so
I'm sending my Aunt Tina money directly to her bank account in the Philippines with Western Union. She's the self-proclaimed bingo queen of Manila, and I know better to interrupt her on bingo night, even to pick up cash. Sending money direct to her bank account is super fast, and Aunt Tina gets more time to...
Be the bingo queen. Western Union. Send money in-store directly to their bank accounts in the Philippines. Services offered by Western Union Financial Services, Inc., NMLS number 906983, or Western Union International Services, LLC, NMLS number 906985. Licensed as money transmitters by the New York State Department of Financial Services. See terms for details.
