[narrator] a successful business owner
Returns from a dream vacation,
Only to be met with a hail of gunfire.
The last thing in his mind is
That somebody is attempting to kill him.
[narrator] his valued employee may be victim number two.
She's seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.
[narrator] but did he trust the wrong person?
[charlie] somebody had access to the house,
Somebody he trusted.
[narrator] as the deadly plot unravels, alliances shift.
Are they gonna stay loyal and true to each other,
Or now is it all about me?
What point does blood loyalty stop,
And doing the right thing start?
[narrator] and investigators discover how one crime
Plants the seeds of another.
She said, "you know, your grandfather's not
Gonna be here much longer."
And I said, "well, what do you mean?"
[narrator] rumors of a twisted seduction surface.
She's agreeing to have a sexual relationship with someone
To be bailed out.
[michael] I didn't really know how to take all that
It was a shocker to me.
That is a level of sociopathy
That is fortunately, not too common.
This wasn't brutal, this was just sick.
[music]
[narrator] January 12th, 2004.
It's late afternoon in robeson county, north carolina,
When dispatch receives a frantic 911 call
Reporting shots fired outside a local bus company.
Sheriff's deputies and paramedics race to the scene.
[music]
[bobby] this crime occurred in a rural area.
It's, it's so far out there
That by the time the officers responded out there,
The suspects were already gone.
[music]
[narrator] first responders arrive at the scene
To find the owner of the bus company
Sitting in his car,
Which is now riddled with bullet holes.
He's visibly shaken,
But fortunately, only his hand seems to be injured.
[larry] he just came back from his vacation.
The last thing in his mind is that somebody is,
Is attempting to kill him.
First thing you want to do is secure the scene,
And then investigators look for any shell casings,
Projectiles...
Skid marks from a vehicle...
See if there's any witnesses nearby,
Anybody have any outside cameras.
[narrator] authorities find a scattering of shotgun pellets
That have pierced the vehicle,
And three plastic shell casings.
[music]
You wanna get a statement from the victim,
Get the story,
And even develop a timeline around the situation.
[charlie] the victim, he says he goes on vacation.
After flying back into myrtle beach, south carolina,
He makes his drive back home to lumberton.
He lives above his bus company that he owns.
Upon arriving home and exiting his vehicle,
He hears gunshots.
He immediately falls back into the vehicle.
[music]
[larry] they're just rolling by and they're firing shots.
They see a target, and they're firing shots at the target.
There's an attempted murder here.
[music]
[narrator] the shooter sped off,
And that's when the owner of the bus company says
He managed to dial 911.
[billy] he said it sounded like a shotgun
That caused his injuries.
But he was not able to see everything
And everyone that was involved in that.
[narrator] the victim did not see the shooter,
And claims he has no idea who might want him dead.
[music]
Back in 2004, that area was known for a lot of
Robberies, drugs...
Breaking into residence, homicides.
[billy] it's very common in the drug trade
To have drive-by shootings
Into the car of someone who's, who's dealing drugs.
[music]
[narrator] a quick background check tells investigators
That the bus company owner's record is clean.
[billy] there was no evidence he was involved in drugs.
He did not appear to be involved
In any type of criminal activity.
[narrator] however, investigators don't believe
This was just a random act of violence.
[billy] he was shot while getting out of his car.
What made sense was it was somebody who knew
His everyday activities, knew where he lived,
When he would be pulling into his driveway...
That sort of thing.
[music]
[narrator] once the victim is transported to the hospital,
The deputies check the bus company building itself
To look for possible signs of a robbery.
However, the door is locked,
And there are no signs of forced entry.
When there's no robbery attempt, there's no break-in attempt,
That really, again, focus you back at the victim.
Who in this victim's inner circle
Would gain if this victim should suddenly die?
[music]
[narrator] the next morning,
The recovering owner of the bus company
Calls investigators in a panic.
He is concerned about his employee,
38-year-old judy naylor.
He hasn't been able to reach hr for several days.
He went on vacation and left her with the business.
He entrusted her.
[billy] this is someone he looks to to run his business,
And yet after he is shot, nobody can get in touch with her.
[narrator] her boss is worried that whoever shot at him
May have come for judy naylor, too.
[music]
[billy] judy was born and raised
In the cumberland county, robeson county area.
Judy was the older of two siblings.
Her younger brother, kenneth, they had a close relationship.
[narrator] judy's mother and father separated while
She was in her teens.
I know willie, my grandfather, poppa willie,
He had a drinking problem.
And you could tell that it was kinda
A conflicting environment for her growing up,
Definitely after the divorce.
I think she had somewhat of a, a troubled background.
I know that her mother at times had some mental health issues.
[music]
[narrator] eventually, judy's mother, catherine,
Remarried a man named james croxton.
And judy decided to leave home in search of independence.
[michael] she didn't graduate high school.
She dropped out at 17.
She had me at 19,
And my dad was 24.
He was in the air force.
They met at a party in fayetteville,
And obviously, you know, hit it off.
And, you know, that's when I came about.
[music]
[narrator] but judy and andrew san miguel's marriage
Didn't last long.
[michael] they separated when I was two.
I lived with my dad at a younger age,
And my mom only had me during the summer.
My dad lived rough.
It wasn't a very good environment.
You know, he finally told me to go stay with my mom,
And so I did, and I was happy.
My mom was very supportive.
Playin' sports in school,
She was always there cheerin' me on.
[music]
[narrator] judy worked hard to provide for her family,
Building what would ultimately become a decades-long career
In the automotive industry.
She wanted to do better for me than what she had.
She handled, you know, financin' and accounts.
And I would say, you know, not graduatin' high school,
You know, my mom really accomplished a lot.
[music]
[narrator] although judy left home at an early age,
Over the years her mother, catherine, and her stepfather
Became very involved in raising michael.
During the summer, I would go to work
With my grandfather, james croxton.
He was a, a big part of my life.
He was a plumber, and he would take me to work with him.
You know, he showed me a lot.
Anytime mom was leavin' a relationship
Or in between relationships,
However you want to call it, you know, we stayed there.
So we were real close.
[music]
[narrator] in 2002, michael graduated high school
And moved away to start his own family.
It was around that time that judy began dating
47-year-old donald lee mcphail.
Donald grew up in lumberbridge area.
She felt that donald was her soulmate and her true love.
[narrator] after six months, judy and donald married.
And in 2003, judy was hired as an office manager
At a bus company business in lumberton, north carolina.
He was impressed by her,
Impressed by the work that she did.
Eventually, she became the bookkeeper.
When she started working there, you know,
I felt, you know, I was happy for her.
[music]
[narrator] but after four months in her new role,
That world is turned upside down on January 12th, 2004,
When a drive-by shooting nearly kills judy's boss,
And judy herself nowhere to be found.
After this happens to him,
He nor anyone else can get in touch with judy.
[charlie] they put out a bolo for judy naylor,
Which is a be on the lookout.
You've got to worry whoever pulled the trigger,
They could cause more damage now.
[music]
[narrator] coming up...
Detectives learn judy naylor
Isn't the only thing that's vanished.
He finds his shotgun missing.
Somebody had access to the house,
Somebody he trusted.
[music]
[narrator] authorities in
Rural robeson county, north carolina,
Are investigating the attempted murder
Of a successful bus company owner
When they discover his bookkeeper,
Judy naylor, is missing.
[billy] nobody can get in touch with judy.
For a couple of days,
She's seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.
[music]
[narrator] the next day,
Police receive another frantic phone call
From the victim to report something else is missing.
[charlie] he finds his shotgun missing,
And the weapon used to shoot at him is a shotgun.
[music]
[narrator] and that's not all.
He finds out that business checks
Have been stolen,
And he finds no forced entry into his office
At his apartment upstairs.
[music]
[narrator] for investigators, that can only mean one thing...
Somebody had access to the house,
Somebody he trusted.
The only people that had access to where the shotgun was at
Was gonna be people that worked there in the business.
Judy is keepin' the books for him,
So she obviously has access.
She worked there,
So she actually has access to the shotgun,
Other property that's there inside the business.
[billy] he then begins looking at his bank account.
He finds that there's been 21 checks,
Company checks written out to judy and her husband, donald,
While he was out of the country.
[music]
[narrator] judy's boss turns over company bank statements
To investigators for them to study.
They've been written to judy and her husband
On his account, totalin' 19 thousand dollars.
[billy] that certainly was an important fact.
But there was a lot more investigating to do,
Because she was the bookkeeper.
There could have been a valid reason for this,
And we didn't know whether or not that was related
To the shooting or not.
[music]
[narrator] investigators try to track down a home address
For judy and donald mcphail, but there's a problem.
They're livin' with either her mother, her father.
They're bouncin' around from houses, so there's no steady...
"electricity's in my name here, I get mail here" type thing.
[narrator] while investigators dig deeper
Into judy's background,
They quickly discover this unassuming bookkeeper
Has had her fair share of trouble.
[music]
[billy] when looking at her criminal record,
She had some property crime and drug crime that
Dated back 10 or so years before this incident happened.
My mom had a... A crack addiction.
And it was somethin' I grew up with,
You know, so I was exposed to it.
[paul] I did look at the records.
She had a cocaine problem,
And drug problems are frequently a motivation for theft.
[music]
[narrator] judy's family members tell detectives that
Her history of bad behavior created a rift a long time ago.
She had a history of breaking into
Her own mother and father's house,
Stealing their jewelry, pawning their jewelry.
[larry] the relationship with her family
Appeared to be strained
Because of how judy treated catherine, her mother.
Judy had always had a rocky relationship
With her mother, from all accounts.
There have been reports of physical assaults on her mother,
And because of her drug habits,
And because of her stealing from family.
[michael] I was a teenager when I realized, you know,
What she was doin'.
It had been an addiction that she had kinda hidden
Most of my life, or tried to hide.
She was battling demons, and, you know,
Of course we didn't talk about it.
You know, I didn't bring it up.
[music]
[narrator] as sheriff's investigators
Study judy's file, one recent incident stands out.
[paul] she allegedly stole seven thousand dollars
In jewelry from her stepfather.
Theft was reported to have taken place on
December 30th, 2003.
She was arrested, but charges eventually were dropped
Because her mother, catherine, and her stepfather, james,
Didn't want to pursue charges.
[paul] the theft of the checks,
The writing of the forged checks,
Took place, like, in the first week or so
Of January, 2004,
Shortly before the bus company owner came back from vacation.
[charlie] when you have that drug issue fueling you,
There's no tellin' what a person is subject to do.
Judy naylor had access to the accounts.
Leads lumberton pd to realize
She's been forgin' the checks and cashin' 'em.
[music]
[narrator] when judy's boss learns of
Her previous run-ins with the law,
He is stunned.
[larry] I'm sure he felt extremely betrayed,
Because he hired her under good faith,
Thinkin' that she was gonna do the right thing for him.
And I'm sure it kinda caught him really off guard.
[billy] judy is his bookkeeper,
Someone who is close to him,
And it starts to be a lot of circumstantial evidence
That judy and her husband, donald...
Were involved in his shooting.
[music]
I mean, she's disappeared after the crime.
We as investigators needed to talk with her.
[music]
[narrator] two weeks after the drive-by shooting,
The statewide search for judy naylor leads
To an area motel.
January 26th, 2004, a motel 6 employee called
The robeson county sheriff's office
In reference to a disturbance in one of the rooms.
Upon arrival, deputies identified the two people
Involved in the disturbance
As judy naylor and donald mcphail.
They signed into a hotel with their names.
I mean, that wasn't the smartest move to make
If you're on the run.
[narrator] when deputies enter the room,
They find judy is extremely sick.
She's tried to harm herself, kill herself,
You know, by drinking antifreeze.
There's no reason for antifreeze to be in a motel room.
So it's either one or both of them
Were thinking about committing suicide.
[music]
[narrator] coming up...
Paramedics race to save judy's life,
While authorities demand answes from donald mcphail...
[paul] the motive clearly was money.
They got desperate, and then I guess
They felt they couldn't stop.
[narrator] and judy's son receives some troubling news.
[michael] I was out of town at the time,
And my grandmother called me crying.
[music]
Ic] [music]
[narrator] January 26th, 2004.
Investigators with
The cumberland county sheriff's office
Locate judy naylor and her husband, donald mcphail,
At a rundown motel in robeson county.
Donald is taken in for questioning,
While judy is rushed to the hospital after
Consuming antifreeze.
I was out of town working in atlanta at the time,
And my grandmother called me crying.
My mother was in the hospital.
[music]
I, I don't know if they were on a drug binge
And, you know, they were ready to end it,
I don't know what their thoughts were.
[music]
[billy] we interviewed donald.
He goes ahead and gives a statement
To law enforcement.
In that statement, he's very forthcoming.
[charlie] donald admits to his involvement
In the attempted murder of judy's boss.
He admits to stealin' the gun,
He admits to writing the fraudulent checks,
And he admits that he's the one that pulled the trigger
That almost killed the victim.
[music]
[narrator] on the morning of January 12th, 2004,
Donald says judy contacted the airline to make sure
Her boss' flight was arriving on time.
[paul] they stole the shotgun from her boss's apartment
At his business.
They went down to myrtle beach and watched him load his car
To drive back to lumberton,
And they followed him back to lumberton.
[music]
[narrator] as soon as he parked his car,
Judy drove past him while donald fired a volley of shots.
[gunshot]
The husband fired the shotgun
From the back seat of their car at him.
One and half miles down the road,
Donald got out and hid the gun near a guardrail.
[larry] it's attempted murder.
So it's not like he's gonna be goin' to prison for life.
So his best course of action
Is to be as cooperative as possible with them.
[narrator] sheriff's investigators recover
The stolen 12-gauge shotgun in the weeds beside the highway.
It appeared to be a accurate representation of
What he and judy did, because he implicated himself.
He didn't try to put all the blame on her.
He said this was a shared idea.
[billy] well, when someone is that forthcoming,
It can be a mitigating factor that can be used in,
In sentencing and, and so forth.
[music]
[narrator] four days after donald's arrest,
Judy naylor's condition has improved enough that
She's allowed to leave the hospital.
Deputies immediately bring her
To the robeson county sheriff's office
For an interview.
Judy confessed pretty quickly to the attempted murder of
Her boss at the bus company.
She said that she started writing checks for herself
And for her husband, donald mcphail,
While her boss was on vacation.
But the boss was comin' home,
And they realized he's gonna miss that money.
The motive clearly was money.
She was stealing in order to pay for the drugs.
In order to keep from goin' to jail over the embezzlement,
Her and donald decided to kill him.
[music]
[paul] I'm not sure how much they thought through
What they were doin'.
It didn't really feel very well planned.
If he had died,
The investigators probably would've noticed the checks
Written to judy naylor and to donald mcphail,
And figured there's motive for a crime right there
And come looking for them.
They charge both judy and her husband, donald mcphail,
With attempted first-degree murder,
Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,
Larceny of a firearm, and fraud.
[music]
[narrator] despite her initial confession,
Judy pleads not guilty to the charges.
The court grants bail, but with no one to pay it,
Judy must remain in jail until her trial.
And then. On February 7th, 2004,
Only a week after judy's incarceration,
Tragedy strikes again when her mother,
Catherine croxton, dies unexpectedly.
Grandma cathy had a aneurysm in her head.
After my grandmother passed, I would check up on grandfather.
He had onset alzheimer's,
And he was having trouble paying bills,
And so I would come over there to help him.
[music]
Soon after that, judy's stepfather,
Her now deceased mother's husband
James croxton, began visiting her in jail.
In the months after catherine's death,
James croxton eventually received
Her life insurance proceeds,
Which was approximately 43 thousand dollars.
Judy became aware of this,
And she began trying to encourage james
To bail her out of jail while she was awaiting trial.
And in may of 2004,
He did put up approximately 45 hundred dollars
To get her outta jail.
Judy ended up movin' in with james,
In at his residence out in hopemills.
[music]
[narrator] while judy's husband, donald mcphail,
Remains behind bars at the robeson county jail,
Judy enjoys life as a relatively free woman
In her stepfather's home.
Only judy's life isn't destined to stay peaceful for long.
On November 14th, 2004,
Judy naylor called 911 to report that when
She tried to get james croxton up for breakfast,
That he was unresponsive in bed,
And, and she couldn't wake him up.
She sounded distraught on that 911 call.
She was sobbing. She was upset.
She explained that she just found him this way,
That he didn't appear to be breathing.
[music]
[narrator] paramedics race to the scene,
But it's too late.
It appeared that he had died while he was sleeping.
[narrator] judy says that her 62-year-old stepfather
Had been in poor health.
She said that he had had several cardiac events.
There were no injuries,
There was no obvious trauma to the body.
[music]
[narrator] less than an hour later,
As medical personnel are preparing
To transport the body from the home,
One phone call stops everything.
[charlie] a call is placed to
The cumberland county sheriff's office,
To the watch commander from judy's stepmother,
Donna naylor.
[narrator] donna naylor is married to
Judy's father, willie.
She claims to have information about james croxton's death.
[billy] the ems were still there on the scene.
Apparently, what had happened is
Judy had called a neighbor
Before she even called 911.
And that neighbor had called donna,
Which then caused donna to call sheriff's office.
Donna said,
"you need to look at judy. She's responsible for this."
She said if james croxton was deceased,
That judy naylor did it.
But it was very unusual that they get this type of call
From a relative.
[music]
[narrator] donna quickly fills detectives in on
Judy's relationship with her stepfather, james.
Donna told him that judy put herself in a position
To take advantage of mr. Croxton.
She had moved in with james croxton,
That she had lived rent free, that she had had
An intimate relationship with him,
Bragged that intimate relationship
Was in her mother's bed.
This was very troubling and surprising to hear.
Not only is she making this type of arrangement where
She's agreeing to have a sexual relationship
With someone in order to be bailed out
And live with him, but this is her stepfather.
[music]
[narrator] when deputies in cumberland county
Run a background check on judy naylor,
They discover she is currently awaiting trial
For the attempted murder of her former boss.
We found out that judy was out on bond from
The robeson county detention center.
It brings up a lot of red flags.
[music]
[narrator] authorities immediately lock down the home
As a possible crime scene,
And work to preserve any evidence.
They wanted the body preserved in the same position,
And wanted somebody to keep their eyes on judy
The entire time.
[music]
[billy] investigators with the sheriff's office
Confronted judy with donna's allegations.
Her demeanor did not change,
She simply denied that allegation and was cooperative.
[music]
[narrator] right away, judy gives investigators
Permission to search the home.
They study james croxton's body before moving
To other areas of the residenc.
They don't find trauma or anything like that,
But what they do find is printed material
From a computer.
That shows that somebody was researchin'
Autopsies, death investigations, poisoning...
There was sample copies of wills around.
[billy] they also found documents
That had james croxton signatures
Traced over several times, as if someone was
Practicing signatures or something like that.
So this was all very suspicious.
[music]
[narrator] coming up...
To catch a killer, family secrets must be revealed.
[paul] what point does blood loyalty stop
And doing the right thing start?
He said that she referred to her plan to kill mr. Croxton
As "the remodeling job".
She is confiding in the people that she trusts the most.
You know, the people that she thinks aren't gonna
Ever give me up.
[music]
Ic] [music]
[narrator] less than a year after making bail
For the attempted murder of her former boss
In robeson county, north carolina,
Judy naylor finds herself at the epicenter of
An even more heinous crime
Ehen her stepfather and alleged lover,
62-year-old james croxton,
Is found dead in a neighboring county.
[music]
[paul] if she did indeed seduce her stepfather
And then plotted to kill him,
I mean, that is a level of sociopathy
That is not too common.
[music]
[billy] an autopsy was performed on November 15th.
There did not appear to be a heart attack, a stroke,
A simple explanation like that for mr. Croxton's death.
At this point, his death was undetermined.
There was more testing that needed to be done.
[music]
[narrator] in the meantime, judy's stepmother, donna naylor,
Hands over some damning information to detectives.
About a week after mr. Croxton is found deceased in his home,
We get a break in the case.
Judy's brother, kenneth,
Was in the department of corrections.
He had wrote letters to donna.
And in these letters, he talks about how
Judy was planning to kill mr. Croxton.
Judy referred to her plan to kill mr. Croxton
As "the remodeling job".
She had made it known to kenneth that "the remodeling job"
Was how she described the killing of james.
Two days before james is killed,
She writes a letter to kenneth, and tells kenneth,
"I can't take it anymore,
It's, the remodeling job is gonna happen this week."
He gets the letter after james is dead,
And kenneth and donna never believed that
Judy was capable of doing it.
[music]
[narrator] after reading the incriminating letters,
Investigators sit down with kenneth naylor.
[paul] kenneth naylor was serving
A kind of a long prison sentence for
Robbery and being a habitual felon.
[charlie] according to kenneth,
Judy communicated a lot with her brother in prison.
[music]
Judy told him that the reason that she wanted
To get rid of james croxton was 'cause she wanted
To go ahead and get her mother's insurance money.
[music]
[charlie] she had made it known to kenneth
That she has chemicals that she's gonna use.
She tells kenny,
"in a few months, he's gonna be dead."
[narrator] one of the chemicals is a powerful paralytic.
I did some research, you know, it's painless, odorless.
It puts you to sleep.
[music]
[narrator] 19 days after the death of his grandfather,
Judy's son, michael, also reaches out to detectives.
[michael] it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
At the time, I felt like I didn't really have
A choice in the matter.
My mom kind of put me in a situation where, you know,
I ultimately had to say somethin'.
[narrator] michael tells detectives
Only a week before james' death,
Judy had made an unsettling comment.
[music]
She said, "you know, your grandfather's not
Gonna be here much longer."
And I said, "well, what do you mean?"
And she went back in the back room,
And she reached up in the closet and pulled out a box.
And inside the box was a brown bottle.
And she showed it to me. I said, "chloroform."
And she's like, "do you know what this is?"
I'm like, "yeah."
I was like, "that's the stuff you see in movies and tv shows.
They put on a rag, and you know, they knock, knock people out."
I was like, "what are you doin' with that?"
And she was like, "oh, don't worry about it."
And she put it back up.
[music]
I left the house scared, didn't know what to do,
You know what I mean?
Should I take it seriously? So I left.
A week or two later I got the phone call,
"your grandfather's dead."
[music]
And I immediately I was like, "holy [bleep], she killed him."
[music]
Kenneth and michael too, you know,
When she told him about some of the plans and the chloroform,
Both of these folks sayin',
"nah, she's not serious about this thing.
She's not gonna do that."
She is confiding in the people that she trusts the most.
You know, the people that she thinks aren't gonna
Ever give me up.
What point does blood loyalty stop
And doing the right thing start?
[music]
[narrator] armed with this new information,
The medical examiner runs more tests.
Approximately a month later,
They came back and told us that not only was chloroform present,
That it was present in a fatal amount.
They also found two small puncture wounds
In one of his arms,
And at that point, the death was ruled as a homicide.
[music]
[narrator] from there, detectives follow the money.
We knew that the motive was gonna be financial gain.
So that's why we started
Lookin' at her financial records,
James croxton's financial records.
What they discovered is then
In October 5th of 2004,
James croxton's credit card had been used to purchase
Chloroform and succinylcholine.
Succinylcholine is a paralytic.
[music]
We knew that those products were delivered by ups
To the home of judy and james croxton
Just a couple of weeks before his death on November 14th.
[music]
[narrator] investigators also revisit the legal documents
Found in james' home.
[paul] they found out August of 2004,
He changed a will to basically give
All of his assets, all of his money,
And his insurance to judy
And make her the executor of the will.
[charlie] I directed one of my homicide guys,
"find the notary that notarized this."
And that happens to be another relative of judy naylor
That lives in south carolina.
We found evidence of an email
From the notary to judy
With sample signatures.
And then judy wrote those signatures
On the will as witnesses.
I had detectives go to south carolina,
They interviewed the witnesses,
And the witnesses admit, "I did not sign that."
[music]
[narrator] faced with the evidence,
The notary comes clean.
She claims she was just trying to do judy and james a favor.
She told us the truth,
That she did notarize that document and that
There was no witnesses.
But she says she didn't know what was happening.
[narrator] as for james' signature,
Investigators suspect judy forged it while out on bail
In August of 2004.
For at least three months,
Three-plus months, this is in the works.
[paul] she goes online and he buys the poison,
And then in November, she uses the poison.
It put him out so judy could then put the chloroform on a rag
And just stand over his face with it,
And he wouldn't be able to move, paralyzed.
[music]
[narrator] for the second time in less than a year,
Judy naylor is arrested for her role
In an alleged murder plot.
[paul] she outlined her plans ahead of time.
You set out to kill somebody and then you do it,
And she did that.
This, by definition, is first-degree murder.
[music]
[narrator] coming up...
Judy tells her side of the story.
That she was coerced, that she was threatened,
This was not her idea.
Because of the evilness of the case,
It qualified for the death penalty.
[music]
[narrator] in a shocking turn of events,
While awaiting trial for the attempted murder of
Her boss in north carolina,
Judy naylor is charged with the murder of her stepfather
And alleged lover, 62-year-old james croxton.
And I didn't really know how to take all that
And, you know, accept it.
'cause james croxton, you know, I looked up to him.
[music]
Judy was arrested, and she lawyered up,
And would not talk to us.
[narrator] while judy awaits trial for
The murder of james croxton,
Her husband, donald mcphail,
Has his day in court for the embezzlement
And attempted murder of judy's boss a year earlier.
[music]
[billy] donald mcphail actually pled guilty
To attempted first-degree murder,
Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,
Larceny of a firearm, fraud.
And donald mcphail received 10 to 13 years in prison.
[music]
[narrator] in April, 2005,
Judy heads to court for her role in the same crime.
The theory that she proceeded with at trial was to
Try to blame it all on donald.
That she was coerced, that she was threatened,
This was not her idea.
[music]
[narrator] on April 27th, 2005,
Judy is convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and forgery.
She is acquitted of
The attempted murder of her boss.
Judy received a 16 to 20-year sentence
For her role in the crimes.
I guess because she didn't pull the trigger.
[music]
[narrator] to this day,
Judy claims she and donald were not in their right minds.
[music]
[narrator] on April 2nd, 2007, judy is back in court,
This time for the murder of james croxton.
To avoid possibly getting the death penalty,
She chose to plead guilty to first-degree murder,
Which has a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
[billy] she received a sentence
Of life without the possibility of parole--
This sentence not even to begin until after
The 16 or 20-year sentence
That she had received for the shooting.
[music]
[narrator] while judy admits to his murder,
She still denies that she had a sexual relationship
With her stepfather.
[music]
[narrator] those close to the case believe
Judy's need for money to fuel her addiction
Led her to do the unthinkable twice.
[music]
[billy] she had manipulated this whole situation,
And her punishment was just and deserving.
And judy is where she needs to be.
I didn't think my mother was capable of that,
Of doing something like that.
I'm sorry things happened the way they did.
Wish things would've been different.
[music]