[laughing]
Vince lived only for those babies.
His main desire was to be a successful parent.
Tempest was a great mother,
just wasn't a great partner for Vince.
I feel like she had a lot of control over him,
almost like he was in a trance at times.
[camera shutter snapping]
Tempest could just snap at the push of a button.
He had no idea how much danger he was in.
[suspenseful music playing]
[narrator] Young couple Tempest and Vincent are enjoying
family life together.
Their daughter was a absolute beautiful little girl.
[cooing]
When y'all look at this here, and how happy he is,
how lit up he is, you know,
you would think life was perfect.
[Tempest laughing]
[baby crying]
Vinny's whole premise about family was being together with
the woman you love, being there for your children.
And he was just overjoyed with what was unfolding
in front of him.
[baby sniffling]
Tempest was a great mother. She was friendly, talented,
and they both gave off the impression that,
you know, there was real love there.
[narrator] Vincent Taylor is born on August 23, 1990,
in Atlanta, Georgia, to Vincent Sr. and Robin.
Vincent was a special child.
He was the firstborn on both sides of the family,
and everyone spoiled him.
We were very excited when we found out
it was going to be a son.
It was just so nice to see him and you get that same feeling
you felt, you know, just like having your children
all over again.
[narrator] But home life for Vincent is not straightforward.
Vincent was a toddler when we decided to divorce.
From that point on, it was just me, him, really.
He stayed with Robin and I would go and check on him
from time to time, but it would be periods where I was just
missing in action, just because my priorities weren't in order.
Vincent, he struggled with the divorce for a long time.
One of Vincent's main questions to me was,
"Dad, when are you and Mom gonna get back together?"
You know, he's asked me that question
a thousand times. Vincent never let that go.
[Lynda] He thought that was the most wonderful thing on Earth to
have a father and mother right there in the same home,
and he wished upon wish to have that.
[narrator] Vincent attends Osborne High School,
where he discovers a new passion.
[Robin] Vincent just lived the music.
He wrote songs, always carried a notebook with him.
[narrator] Vincent and his cousin, Jordan,
loved to make music videos together.
[Jordan] Vince and I were definitely more like brothers.
Everybody had these songs with these dances and Vince just
threw his in there, and we was making our video for it.
Yeah, we did stuff like this all the time.
I feel like if he was here for this TikTok era,
he'd probably be going crazy.
Vincent had a special ear.
He was self-taught on a lot of things.
So, as Vincent got older, I mean, he just elevated.
[narrator] In 2010, Vincent joins the Art Institute of Atlanta
to study audio production.
[Jordan] In the first six months of Vincent being at
the Art Institute is when he met Tempest, and she came
into the picture.
When Vincent and Tempest started dating,
they spent pretty much every day together.
It seemed to make sense. They got along.
She was very funny and goofy like him as well.
And she was pretty much down for whatever we wanted to do,
where we wanted to hang out, where we wanted to eat.
She just fit in.
[narrator] But not everyone in Vincent's family is
as supportive of his new relationship.
[Lynda] Vincent came over to the house,
and he brought Tempest with him.
And that was the first time I had ever met her.
I thought she was, um,
quiet, very reserved.
She wasn't someone that you could easily know.
[Robin] Couldn't get a lot out of her at the time,
which concerned me.
I was saying, "While you're at school,
"kind of keep an eye on Vincent,
make sure, you know, he stays focused" or whatever,
and I think her comment was, "I don't have time to
look out for him. I got to look out for myself."
It was about her. It wasn't about him.
And that's what I didn't like in the beginning.
[narrator] Despite his family's concerns,
Vincent spends all his time with Tempest.
Robin called me and told me that
Vincent was not attending class.
He dropped out pretty much, and it was just disappointing.
[Robin] Vincent just started trying to find odd jobs.
He thought he could teach himself into doing his music,
but he was always over at Tempest's house.
[narrator] A year into their relationship,
Vincent opens up about problems he and Tempest are having.
Vince used to confide in me a lot about how quickly
Tempest could just snap at the push of a button.
These mood swings don't sound like normal behavior.
[Vincent Sr.] He let me know himself that
she just argued a lot. She was hard to please.
And he was trying to be the man that he needed to be so
she could be happy.
[Robin] He would tell me, you know, "Mom, I don't think
she loves me, but what can I do to make her love me?"
"You can't make anyone love you, Vincent."
I remember telling him that.
I remember I went on this trip to Miami.
When I came back,
you could tell there was a fight at the house because
there were some holes in the doors.
I confronted him with that, and he was very quiet about
who did what.
He just said they had an argument, and he did not
disclose what happened there.
So that's where I knew that something's not right with
this relationship. This is a bad relationship.
[narrator] Determined to make things work, Vincent moves in with
Tempest and her parents, and soon, their family grows.
That moment that their daughter was born was probably one of
the most pure and beautiful moments between the two.
That was the first time that they shared something,
you know, on that level.
Him being a dad really transformed him into the man
that he was supposed to become.
[narrator] After three years together,
Tempest and Vincent finally move into their own apartment.
Vincent wanted to marry her just to prove to her that
he was serious about, you know, being a husband to
her, taking care of the family.
His main desire was to be a successful parent,
and have a two-parent home,
which he did not have as a child.
Vincent called me and said,
"Mom, Tempest and I got married."
I just said, "Congratulations."
But deep down inside, I hung up the phone and I asked myself,
why didn't he want me to be there?
[Vincent Sr.] He did that in kind of a secret.
It wasn't broadcast. Nobody knew.
And I was like, oh my God. So yeah, that was a blow.
That was a big blow.
Um, did not like that at all.
[narrator] The marriage fails to improve their relationship,
and Tempest's behavior is becoming increasingly erratic.
[Jordan] At the time, Vincent was working at UPS.
And I remember him and Tempest got into an argument,
and it escalated.
And Tempest took it too far, to the point where
she was preventing him from even getting to work,
hiding the keys from him just so he can get fired.
You know, just to bring him down, pretty much.
[Vincent Sr.] Vincent called me.
He was like, "Dad, she's jumping on my car,
she won't move out the way. I can't get to work."
And I'm helpless. I mean, I'm at work.
His boss didn't really have any more room for excuses.
He ended up losing his job.
[Vincent Sr.] I just don't understand how somebody could love somebody
and then do the things that Tempest did.
I feel like she had a lot of control over him,
um, almost like he was in a trance at times,
and I felt like she could hurt him...
and I was right.
[Tempest] Woo!
[narrator] Despite their issues, Vincent and Tempest
remain together, and in 2016, they welcome
their second child, a baby boy.
Those kids was everything to Vince.
Vince lived only for those babies.
They were really like mini versions of him,
because they were both very goofy and mischievous as well.
He's taking his son around the waterfall to play
in the water. That's what Vincent did a lot.
I saw more of a maternal behavior with Vincent
than I did with Tempest.
And his focus was making sure that they had good manners,
were behaved, and weren't spoiled.
[children speaking indistinctively]
Online, Tempest looked like the perfect wife, perfect life.
Everything is going on.
Click on her page on Instagram or on Facebook.
All you see is pictures of the kids, and it looks fine.
But the real her really comes out
behind closed doors at home.
[narrator] And Tempest's abusive behavior toward Vincent worsens.
She was just incredibly mean to her own husband.
Tempest would tell Vince, like, your music will never
make it, you're too old to do this, you're stupid,
all type of stuff.
I know that was just taking a toll on him.
If he didn't make enough money, she found a way to
put him down.
He always felt like a failure because he never had enough
for her, never could do enough.
But he loved her, and so he would always still
think that, you know, making dinner or buying
flowers, doing something will make Tempest love him.
I told him, "You're chasing after something
that's not there."
[suspenseful music]
[phone ringing]
[narrator] In the winter of 2016, Vincent calls his mother.
He said, "I can't do this anymore, Mom.
I cannot make her happy. I want to get a divorce."
And, you know, would I help him?
And of course, yes, I was ready.
Finally, he realized this is not where he wanted to be.
I own a property in Rex, Georgia.
Got moved in,
and he was so happy, because he felt like
he's gonna get his life started, you know,
got a place to stay.
I was getting the money ready for the lawyer.
And one week later...
she moved in.
And he says, Mom, I'm not moving forward
with the divorce.
OK, here we go again.
It was just a vicious cycle that he was in.
He couldn't get out.
He was determined that no matter how bad it is,
I'm gonna keep trying to show her I love her
and I love the kids.
[Vincent Sr.] He would tell you with disgust on his face, "Dad I cannot,
will not, leave my kids, I just can't see me without them."
[Robin] He did not want to be divorced like I was
and I think that's where...
[sharp inhale] [sigh]
...where I wish me being divorced did not influence
his decision, as he got older, that he didn't want
his children to be in that environment.
[deep sigh]
[singing over beats]
[narrator] Vincent escapes his turbulent home life by making music.
He would go into his little makeshift studio at home when
he got upset, or when something was troubling him,
and so, he would escape with the music.
[Jordan] He still pursued his dream,
he still pursued his career in music.
[Robin] He made a studio in my condo, and he started working with
artists, doing their music, working on their beats,
working in the studio with them,
and he had a nice clientele.
He would stay up all night, you know, putting music
together for these artists, and that caused
a lot of friction.
He would tell me that Tempest would get mad.
You know, if she gets mad at him, she would break the mic.
[Jordan] If there's a mic stand there, she'll throw it.
If there's a screen there, she'll rip it from the wall
and just toss it and smash it, or whatever she had to do.
They in a heated enough argument, nothing's off limits.
[narrator] Two months after reaching out to his mom, Vincent confides
in his grandmother.
[Lynda] He was tired of her craziness.
And he told her that she had to leave.
And she said, "Well, I'm not going anywhere."
And so he called the police.
When the police got there, one of the police officers just
asked her point blank, "Did he hit you?"
And, "Yeah, he hit me."
And they haul him off.
He didn't have money for an attorney.
He ended up pleading guilty.
So he couldn't get a decent job with this type of
black mark on your record.
Months after, when Vince was on probation, she turned around
and tells my sister-in-law, he didn't hit me.
I just said it to get him locked up.
And that's why Vincent stopped calling the police for help,
because he felt that they would believe her, and he'll be
the one getting arrested.
[narrator] Despite Tempest's alleged confession,
she never withdraws her statement to police.
[phone ringing]
I got a call from my son Vincent, a distress call.
He was telling me that Tempest was irate, and he was frantic.
"Dad, you know, she's going crazy,
"she's calling the police on me,
"and I didn't do anything, and she's tearing up stuff
and telling them that I tore it up."
I said, "Vincent, get out of there right now,
and I'm on my way."
I picked him up in the middle of some neighborhood,
and I just spoke with him.
I said, you got to make a decision.
You can't keep doing this.
If you're coming with me, you know, you need to stay
with me. Let this be it.
You got a place to stay. Don't worry about rent.
And I brought him home to my house.
You know, midnight, he ran out my house
and went back over to her. That hurt me.
You hear me? That hurt me.
I knew without a doubt, he had no idea
how much danger he was in...
...when I did.
[narrator] Vincent and his daughter enjoy a day at his aunt's house.
There's his daughter and my niece,
and he was trying to show his daughter how to swim.
He was very happy.
It brings a smile to me, because he loved her so much.
And he loved his son, too.
[Vincent Sr.] You know, anytime he came around, he lit up.
I mean, he was full-blown Vincent, you know?
When he was trying to go home, his light went out.
And you know, he could see the misery back on his face.
And you know, I used to tell him, man, you don't need to be
living like this.
[narrator] By 2018, Tempest makes it more
and more difficult for Vincent to spend time with his family.
She didn't like to come when he was coming to us,
and she didn't really care for him to come around us.
It's almost like she didn't want Vincent to have
a good relationship with his parents.
The relationship with Vince and I did change.
He started becoming distant with me.
I called him and said, "Listen, I'm in town.
I want to spend some time with you."
And he said, "Mom, we'll meet up another time because
Tempest will get mad if I spend time with you."
When I did see him, I felt Vincent hugging me so tight,
like he was speaking to me
with his hug,
like he was, um,
like, he wanted me to help him.
And I think I felt fear in that hug.
I just wanted him out of that relationship,
to be honest with you, because as a mom,
I sensed she doesn't love him.
[Jordan] The longer that they were together, the more she got to
know him, and really master his insecurities, she would use
that and throw it back in his face, bullying him
into thinking that he wasn't enough.
She was posting on Facebook and Instagram to make it seem
like he wasn't doing the good job that he was as a father.
And Tempest would only do that just to hurt Vince.
If he threatened to leave, she would threaten to take
the kids away, tell him that he wouldn't be able to see
his kids if he left.
If Tempest was to take those children away from him,
I'm afraid he wouldn't feel like
he had anything to live for.
[narrator] As well as caring for their children,
Vincent remains the sole breadwinner, and by 2019,
he struggles to make ends meet.
Vincent did never really have any money, because he would
give his checks to her when he did work, and he said,
you know, she would ask for all of it.
He did all he could, and he would borrow and ask for
money from family members,
but he never had enough money for her.
We went on and did this for many years,
funding and funding and funding.
And I think she looked at that as being comfortable.
I had a conversation with Vincent
and said, "I can't continue to keep funding your household,
"and she's not trying to work,
you know, this is getting to be, you know, a problem."
And they started having more arguments because
I wasn't giving the money up anymore.
[narrator] It's now two months since
Vincent stops receiving money from his mother.
Home life reaches a boiling point.
My son, Tempest, the children were supposed to
come hang out with me.
At 10:30 in the morning, my son knocked at my door.
When I answered the door, he was crying.
He was scratched up real bad. He fell right into my arms.
I was holding him, it's like, what's going on?
He just, you know, immediately just saying,
"She's just so mean, Dad."
I said, "Who's mean? What's going on?"
He's like, "Tempest. She didn't want to come,
"said she didn't want me to come,
"and she was mad at me for leaving, and she just started
"fighting me, and she kicked me in my groin.
And it still hurts, Dad, and I just can't do it anymore."
I said, "Where are the children?"
He said, "They're out in the car."
I said, "Lord, let's get the kids out of the car."
[Robin] His dad got them food and clothing, what not.
They spent the whole day, you know, together.
[phone ringing]
But during that time, you know, Tempest was calling
or texting, and angry the whole day with him.
One of the family members was trying to tell him,
"Hey, man, don't go back home.
Just stay here, let it cool down a little bit."
And he said, "No, I got to go.
"I got to get these kids home,
or she's gonna call the police."
[suspenseful music] [phone ringing]
[narrator] At 9:30 P.M.,
Clayton County officers respond to a 911 call from a concerned
neighbor who heard a man screaming for help.
[Zina] Officers encounter Tempest.
She's on crutches, and she then begins to explain that
she and her husband had had an altercation.
She describes a horrific beating
at the hands of Vincent.
What she's telling the officers is that "I'm the victim,
and Vincent is this big, bad boogeyman."
We did examine her for injuries, but there was nothing
to indicate that he had struck her or bit her in the manner
that she stated he had.
[Zina] About 20 minutes into being with these officers,
she says, "I got a knife."
And now we're looking at somebody having been injured.
[Zina] That changes things.
Now we do have a physical injury that we need
to investigate.
This was definitely a concern.
Obviously, there's a person who's injured, and we need to
locate that person.
[phone ringing]
Shortly after the 911 call in Clayton County,
a 911 call in DeKalb County, which is an adjoining county,
comes into dispatch.
They need police and ambulance at this gas station because
there is a man who is severely injured and he needs help.
[Jennifer] When EMT arrived at the gas station, the male was bleeding.
He did have a small puncture wound on the left side
of his collarbone.
[narrator] After running the plates on the car,
the victim is identified as Vincent Taylor.
[ambulance sirens]
Vincent Taylor was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital,
where he was pronounced deceased at 10:46 P.M.
[narrator] Tempest is detained and taken to the Clayton County Police
Station to be interviewed by detectives.
When the detective told me on the phone that my son was in
critical condition with a knife wound to his neck,
I can't explain to you how I knew,
[voice breaking] but I knew he was dead.
I knew it. I could feel it.
I remember dropping the phone.
I remember dropping to my knees.
I'm not sure how I got there, but I know I drove,
but I don't remember the trip.
I remember they let me see him,
and uh, mm, [sharp inhale]
when I -- when I viewed the body, you know,
[sniffling] um,
[sigh]
he was like he was sleeping. He was in the same clothes.
that I saw him in, and I passed out.
I just passed out.
[Robin] Learning that Tempest killed him...
[exhales] took a toll on me.
I remember telling Tempest,
"Leave my son alone. You're not happy."
And she told me, "I have nowhere else to go."
So yet, she wants to still continue to torture him.
I felt deep in my heart that she was gonna hurt
him one day.
Officers began speaking with additional neighbors to see if
there was anyone who heard anything.
[Jennifer] There was a neighbor who advised that he had heard
a man and woman arguing, and he had seen Tempest chasing
Vincent down the street without the use of her crutches.
I believe she was using the crutches to play possible
victim in this case.
[narrator] At 3 a.m., Tempest's police interview begins.
We did not initially reveal to Tempest that
Vincent had passed away.
We wanted to go ahead and get the information that we needed
and then present her with the information that
he had passed away.
We had to really break down the details of the incident.
She claimed that she was on the floor in a fetal position
protecting her body when he was beating on her and that
she just suddenly got up and went to the kitchen to grab
a knife to get him off of her.
And that did not make any sense.
She explained to us that she did go outside
chasing after Vincent, and that the stabbing actually
took place outside.
You know, if she's chasing him with the knife,
then there's no defense to that.
She's not the victim in that case.
And she's chasing him up and down the street.
You know, neighbors saw that.
Neighbors witnessed him calling for help.
You know, there is nothing in this case that points to
her being the victim.
You're portraying him as an abuser.
And I will tell you, in my experience doing this,
most abusers don't run from the fight.
They're the aggressor.
They're the ones that are controlling this.
They don't usually leave.
[narrator] After an hour of interviewing, Tempest is still sticking to
her story that she stabbed Vincent in self-defense.
I felt that it was murder that she had committed, but there was
just not enough evidence.
I was concerned.
I didn't know if we were gonna get the actual truth out of
her or not, but I knew that we needed to at least try.
[narrator] At 5:25 a.m.,
detectives return to the interview room.
[indistinct wailing]
[Jennifer] We advised her that Vincent had passed away from his injuries.
She began to scream
and wail.
She backed her chair into the wall and then began to fall
towards the floor.
It was pandemonium, and that just seemed
real contrived.
She still painted herself as the victim.
[Jennifer] I believe that
she has committed crimes against him in the past,
and that she thought she would never be charged with
anything, because she always portrayed herself to
be the victim.
[narrator] Tempest is charged with voluntary manslaughter.
We obtained a search warrant for Vincent's vehicle.
We were able to locate three cell phones inside there.
One belonged to Vincent, one belonged to Tempest,
and one belonged to their younger daughter.
We were able to get all the data off of Vincent's phone
and partial data off of Tempest's phone.
In Vincent's phone, we found several text messages
between him and Tempest.
It appeared that their relationship
was very volatile.
A lot of name-calling and back-and-forth,
a lot of jealousy.
The picture was that Tempest was not this shrinking
wallflower that she wanted everyone to believe.
It wasn't true by the conduct.
It wasn't true by the text messages.
It wasn't true.
[narrator] But eight months later,
while she awaits trial, Tempest is released on bail.
[Vincent Sr.] That upset the whole family.
You know, I just couldn't believe it.
How do you allow this to happen in the first place,
letting someone out that we have overwhelming evidence
on that killed their husband?
[narrator] And on social media, Tempest isn't holding back,
flaunting her freedom.
[Jordan] She was pretty much just looking like a regular girl
living a regular life and just looked
unfazed, you know, just from my perspective, and just seeing how
things were being played out.
It just didn't feel fair that she got to just be out while
my cousin's dead.
[Zina] We did get several calls from Vincent's family.
They were struggling.
They were struggling because they were trying to process
their grief while watching her live her life.
[narrator] Three years after Tempest's release,
a trial date is finally set for December of 2023.
In preparing for trial, we were looking at the data
that was provided from her cell phone.
We realized that it was only a partial rip of the phone,
so we decided to get a new search warrant.
And using updated technology, we were actually able to get
all the data from the phone.
[Zina] We just power it up, put it back on the new software,
and see if there's anything to be seen.
And lo and behold, the actual audio of the murder
is found on Tempest's phone.
Tempest had started recording herself the night
of the incident.
[Jennifer] Vincent takes the phone from her almost immediately
and puts the phone in his pocket.
He was convinced in his mind that, yeah,
this is never going to change.
This is where we're going to be.
And he really was going to leave.
And I don't believe that she was going to allow that
to happen.
[rustling noises]
I think at the point that Tempest recognizes or realizes
that he's really going to walk out, that's when that
mortal wound is struck.
I believe that he thought that he could get to his father
and get some help. He got as far as he could get,
but it was too late.
It was very hard to understand how she didn't...
...care.
I mean, he's begging her to put the knife down.
He's begging her to stop. And she showed no remorse,
no compassion, nothing.
[narrator] Tempest's charges are upgraded to malice murder,
felony murder, aggravated assault,
and possession of a knife during the commission
of a felony.
After an agonizing three-year wait for Vince's family,
Tempest's trial finally begins, and she pleads not guilty.
Tempest Daniel's family says she was defending herself when
she had to stab her husband to death,
but prosecutors say there's no evidence of that, and they say
that audio recording shows Daniel was the aggressor.
The defense presentment was that this was self-defense,
he was an abuser, and that she found herself in
an impossible situation and had no choice.
[Robin] She would look at us like we did something to her,
and she showed no remorse, no apology, nothing as if
this was OK to do.
[Zina] Going into any trial, you're asking 12 people to make
a decision, and it's always a tricky prospect.
I felt like we had the evidence to prove our case.
We were gonna give them everything that we had,
and then ask them to do the right thing.
[narrator] Tempest is found guilty on all charges and is sentenced to
life with the possibility of parole.
[Robin] Looking at the reaction of the verdict,
I think she thought she was gonna get away with it.
It was deserving.
I'm just happy that, you know, we were the voice for
Vincent, and we got justice.
[Vincent Sr.] I can tell you with all honesty that
it still hurts, and that I will never get over this.
I will never get past this. It's a piece of you,
and he's gone.
So how do you fill that void when there's something missing?
[Robin] I just miss him dearly.
His life was so short.
He had so much love to give
[sobbing]
and so much talent to pursue.
And I would have loved to have seen what
that would have been like.