[tense music]
♪ ♪
- There's laughing. She's smiling.
She's beautiful.
They're buying alcohol for a date night at home.
Very playful, very happy.
♪ ♪
- They noticed a half-naked body lying in the road.
- There was a laceration to the head,
And there was a significant pool of blood.
There was a bottle of alcohol on scene.
Saw that it was uncorked. It was next to her.
- Was this murder, or was this an accident?
♪ ♪
- Kat belonged to a members-only type
Of website service.
She was a beautiful woman.
And one of the ways that she made money
Was selling pictures of herself.
- It's one of the dangers of having
A following on the internet.
There are bad followers out there.
- She was a great mother.
They focus on her risky endeavors online.
And she was so much more than that.
- Looking at the video, everything looks great.
It's sad to think that these are her final moments.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[light music]
♪ ♪
- January 2018.
For kat and jeff west,
The quiet birmingham, alabama, suburb of calera
Is the perfect place to raise a family.
- Kat was a very special person,
And her energy was magnetic.
Everybody was drawn to her.
- Jeff was a very nice guy.
He was very approachable and super sweet.
It seemed like a match made in heaven.
♪ ♪
- Kat and jeff have been together for nearly 15 years,
And it's clear why jeff fell for his wife.
- Kat was beautiful inside and out.
She captivated the audience
The minute she walked in the door.
She had a banging body, her makeup done all the time.
Kat was hot. [laughs]
- Kat and I met as teenagers.
She had this little pontiac fiero
That I thought was really cool.
She would pick me up, and we would spend time with friends
And go to the beach.
We just did what most suburban kids do.
- After high school, kat surprises her friends
When she takes a job in a club working as an exotic dancer.
[dance music]
- She bought a condo in tampa when she was 21
And began a relationship that she told me
Took her down a dark road,
And she developed some bad habits.
And it was not a healthy relationship,
The way she described it.
[light music]
- But when kat turns 29,
A chance encounter turns her life around.
She meets jeff west, a recruiter for the army,
And it's love at first sight.
- They met in 2004 at a super bowl party.
She just described him as a really sweet guy,
And he was the person that she had sort of been waiting for
And the answer to her dreams
And her knight in shining armor.
Her life changed.
♪ ♪
- With jeff in her life, kat stops dancing.
And after four months of dating,
The couple marries.
A year later, in 2005, the couple welcomes
A baby girl, logan, into the family.
- Kat was a great mom.
Yeah, she adored her daughter.
- She would always rant
About how jeff was a great dad.
They were very family-oriented, and you could see it.
♪ ♪
- In 2014, kat and jeff settle down
In the small town of calera, alabama.
- They moved to alabama
Because both of their families lived there,
And they wanted to be close to the grandparents.
- They bought a big house.
Jeff retired out of the military.
And they had a great family life.
[upbeat music]
- Jeff finds work as a campus police officer
At a local college,
While kat is a stay-at-home mom.
But the fun-loving couple still finds time to let loose.
- She was the life of the party.
That was her role.
She loved it.
- Friends love to follow kat's life
Through her fun posts on social media.
- It seemed like she was in a really good spot.
She was very happy in the place that she always wanted to be.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- January 12, 2018.
Kat and jeff are heading out for a date night.
- They drop their daughter off
At her grandparents' house.
And they were going to have a good night.
- Kat's parents and her daughter
Have no idea that this
Is the last time they will see her.
♪ ♪
In the early-morning hours of January 13, 2018...
[phone ringing]
A 911 call comes in to the calera police department.
♪ ♪
- Around 5:00 a.M.,
A young woman
Living in the neighborhood
Noticed a half-naked body
Lying in the road.
- The neighbor calls 911,
And calera police department rushes officers to the scene.
- When they got there, they saw a female body
In nothing but a pink bra.
- The body is half in the road and half in the grass.
- There was blood around her,
And there was a bottle of absinthe
Right next to her as well.
♪ ♪
- Here in alabama,
The coroner's job
Is to go out on the scene,
Determine what the cause and manner of death is.
She was a blonde female, very petite, maybe 30s, 40s.
♪ ♪
There was a laceration to the head,
And there was a significant pool of blood.
Also, looking around scene, we noticed that there was
A cell phone on scene.
There was a bottle of alcohol on scene.
Saw that it was uncorked. It was next to her.
But the bottle was kind of leaning up against the phone
At an odd angle.
So that was odd to all of us.
♪ ♪
- The bottle and cell phone are collected for testing,
As investigators look for evidence
To help identify the victim
And explain what happened to her.
- There's a myriad of scenarios
That are playing through your head.
At face value, this looks like it was just an accident.
Maybe they had walked down the street,
And they were hit by a car or fell, hit their head.
Was she pushed down? Was this done by somebody?
♪ ♪
[siren wailing]
- As police examine the scene, a local resident
Tells officers they recognize the woman
As their neighbor kat west
And points out her home right across the street.
As detectives approach the home,
They see that the door is open.
Jeff west appears in the doorway.
- The detective could tell that he was visibly shaken.
- The investigators gently begin to interview
The distraught man.
- He had started to kind of detail
Their previous date night.
- They go to dinner.
And after, they didn't want the night to end,
So they stopped at the liquor store,
Bought a bottle of absinthe,
And went home and continued the night.
She's changed.
She's in something more comfortable.
He's taking photos of her.
And it seemed like the night was going well
For the two of them.
♪ ♪
- Jeff tells the investigators that he and kat returned home
Around 9:00 p.M. And he had shared some photos
From their fun night together on social media,
Including one of the bottle of absinthe they were drinking.
- He told police officers
That he was tired.
His leg was hurting.
He went to bed
In the downstairs bedroom around 10:30 p.M.
And he also told them that his wife
Wasn't ready to put an end to the night at that time.
♪ ♪
- Jeff tells the detectives
Much of the night is muddled in his memory
But it was the sound of the police sirens
That woke him up right before they came up to his door.
- After a couple drinks, sometimes you don't remember.
Or if you do remember, everything isn't so clear.
- At this point, you really have no leads
As to really what happened, who did it,
And where to even start.
- The question then has to be asked.
Was this murder, or was this an accident?
- Jeff was the last person with her,
So, I mean, at that point, it makes him the first suspect.
♪ ♪
- Detectives discover images of kat west's final moments.
- This is the last time we saw kat west alive.
She looks smiley, cheek to cheek.
The two of them are walking through the store.
- And the more they learn about their victim,
The more complex the case becomes.
- She had 50,000 followers across social-media accounts.
- Kat was too friendly on occasion.
Kat was too welcoming.
And I feel that probably could have backfired at some point.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Detectives trying to unravel how kat west died
Are interviewing her husband, jeff,
Who tells them his memories of the previous night are hazy.
After a night of drinking, he says he went to bed,
While kat continued to party.
- This couple went to have dinner and drinks.
They went to a liquor store.
They went home to drink more.
So I think it's more than fair to say
Alcohol had an influence
In what recounting these events looked like.
♪ ♪
- But as the interview goes on,
Jeff does admit he remembers
One other thing about the night.
- Jeff told officers that he was
A little aggravated
That she was looking
At her phone too much.
- He told police officers
That he felt like
She was not paying attention
To him.
♪ ♪
He threw her phone outside.
And he went to bed.
He was off.
♪ ♪
Jeff told officers she could have went outside,
Fell as she was trying to get her phone,
Or it wasn't unlike her to go outside in the middle
Of the night after drinking and jump on the trampoline.
- If she was jumping on the trampoline,
Which was in their yard,
We would have seen
A trail of blood.
The police department had to rule that out.
- Maybe she got too intoxicated,
Walked outside, tripped and fell,
And hit her head and, you know, nobody knew about it.
They were both intoxicated.
Maybe he had passed out before she had come back.
♪ ♪
- Investigators hope the coroner's report
Will help clear up the cause of kat's death.
♪ ♪
As detectives wait for the report,
Jeff takes to social media
To let the couple's friends know what's happened.
- I saw a post on social media that said,
"rest in peace, kat west."
I was shocked and saddened,
Just couldn't believe it.
♪ ♪
- I hadn't heard from her in a while,
And I went and checked her page.
♪ ♪
[crying] and that's when I found out that she was gone.
[crying]
[breathes deeply]
♪ ♪
- I immediately reached out to jeff
And said, wait, what?
What happened?
He spelled it out for me.
He didn't remember what had happened.
He woke up with the dogs barking and his door open.
The cops were at his door.
I was shocked.
He was worried about his daughter
And getting life moving forward
Without his wife,
Her mom, kat, being in the picture.
♪ ♪
- The coroner's report comes in the next day, January 14th.
It doesn't give the detectives
The clarity they are hoping for.
- Forensics came back with the autopsy report,
And it was determined that she died
From blunt-force trauma to the head.
- So the skull was cracked.
Someone struck her in the head.
And she ultimately died from brain swelling.
♪ ♪
Looking at her laceration,
It was about 2, 2 1/2 inches long.
It was on the side of her head,
Just a few inches from the top of the head.
Where she had the laceration,
It's almost impossible to get by falling down.
And there was nothing out there
For her to hit her head on.
So we knew that did not happen.
♪ ♪
We know some kind of tool was used that was blunt,
Did not have a sharp edge on it.
And the main thing that was in the vicinity
That could have caused that was the bottle of alcohol.
♪ ♪
- There was a bottle of absinthe
Next to her that had a small chip in the base of it.
- So the liquor bottle is very heavy.
If you strike someone with that type of glass,
It will not break.
And there was some blood smears on the bottle
That were kat's blood.
♪ ♪
I think someone struck her with the bottle.
So you think, what happened?
Did somebody come in?
Was this just a stranger in the night,
Or she, by happenstance,
End up with somebody on the street?
- The only fingerprints analysts find
On the liquor bottle are either kat's or jeff's.
But detectives know that doesn't prove anything,
Because the couple shared the bottle
Earlier in the evening.
♪ ♪
Although the coroner's report doesn't point to jeff west
As a suspect,
The detectives feel it doesn't rule him out either.
- The last person she was seen with was her husband,
So you start to think, well,
Is there something that we missed?
You know, is there something
That we could press further on with him?
♪ ♪
- So the investigators start digging deeper
Into jeff's story about the night his wife died.
They visit the liquor store where the couple stopped
Before returning home.
- We go to the liquor store, ask the employee
That was on shift that night if they had seen them in there,
Pull security footage to verify.
- But when investigators view the footage, what they find
Is the opposite of a couple on the verge
Of a violent conflict.
- You can see kat west.
This is the last time we saw kat west alive.
The two of them are walking through the store.
She looks smiley, cheek to cheek.
Jeff west slaps her butt.
It honestly leaves you with more questions
Than it does answer any of what might have happened.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Detectives suspect kat west's husband, jeff,
May be involved in her mysterious death
But have no proof.
They're examining jeff's story about what the couple did
Earlier on the night kat died
And have discovered surveillance video
From the liquor store he says the couple stopped in.
The video includes the final images of kat alive.
- Looking at the video,
Everything looks great.
- The two of them just wrapped up a date night,
Seemingly having a nice time,
Flirting with each other in the liquor store.
♪ ♪
- It was funny when I saw it.
He pats her butt.
And I kind of chuckled
Because that's who he was.
[chuckles] he loved his wife.
He loved the way she looked.
- There's laughing. She's smiling.
She's beautiful.
And they're buying alcohol for a date night at home.
Everything appears to be normal--
Very playful, very happy.
And it's sad to think that these are her final moments.
- This final moment of her in the liquor store...
She--
That's who they were.
That's who they are. [sniffles]
They're just-- they're good people.
And she didn't deserve it.
♪ ♪
- The footage seems to corroborate jeff's story
That he and kat are simply enjoying a fun night out.
Detectives don't believe the images
Show him acting like a husband
Who will kill his wife in a few hours.
- It looks like his entire story checked out
And that they did indeed
Have a fun night together,
And that was it.
There's no reason we should list him as a suspect.
♪ ♪
- Kat's friends are equally convinced
That whatever happened to her, jeff isn't to blame.
- He never seemed overbearing.
Like, I never heard them
Argue or anything.
They just had an interesting relationship,
But it seemed like in a really good way.
- I don't think there's a harmful bone
In jeff west's body.
I've never seen jeff be an angry person.
I've never seen him act in anger.
♪ ♪
- Although the coroner could not determine
The exact cause and manner of kat's death,
Investigators suspect foul play.
And with jeff now considered
Less likely to have been involved,
The search is on for other potential suspects.
- She has a laceration to the head
From blunt-force trauma.
So we were thinking, there is something nefarious
About this death.
- The other side of the investigation
That you have to look at is, who is kat west?
You try to find any information you can on her.
Is she cheating on her husband?
Does she have any enemies?
We've got to look at all sides of this.
♪ ♪
- When investigators dig into kat's internet history,
They learn that she has a massive online presence.
- Kat had a lot of friends online.
You know, I keep my friends on facebook
Just my friends that I know.
Kat had thousands of friends on facebook
Because anybody that would add her, she would add.
And I think that's what kept kat
On her phone all the time--
Was that she was always talking to people online.
When kat got hundreds of likes for a photo,
That's a dopamine boost.
♪ ♪
- But the investigation also leads
To a concerning discovery about kat's online life.
She wasn't only active
On mainstream social-media sites.
- One of the things that came out was that kat belonged
To a members-only type of website service,
That she would take pictures of herself in lingerie,
Maybe even provocative-type poses,
And was selling pictures of herself.
- She had over 50,000 followers on her page
Who loved to purchase photos of her.
She would model herself as marilyn monroe
And went by the name kitty kat west.
♪ ♪
- She had told me that she sold her photos online,
And she showed me a couple of them.
I was shocked to see what I saw.
They were revealing in nature.
They showed her butt, her boobs,
Cute poses, lingerie.
And people would ask for more,
And they would have to pay some more money to get more.
She was open about it, and jeff knew it.
- The adult stuff
That she was doing online,
It surprised me at first.
But I think it probably filled a void for her,
Or it gave her some validation
That she might have been craving.
♪ ♪
- Detectives realize that any one
Of kat's 50,000-plus followers could have taken
An online fantasy about kat too far.
- As a woman, when you are beautiful
And you are showcasing yourself to these people,
Having a lot of followers like that,
Some of them may think they know you.
Some of them might try to find where you live
Or where you frequent.
There are bad followers out there.
It's one of the dangers
Of having a following on the internet.
- Kat was too friendly on occasion.
Kat was too welcoming.
I think kat could have gotten herself
Into some sticky situations.
And I feel that probably could have backfired at some point.
- There were questionable comments
That raised an eyebrow for investigators.
♪ ♪
- Did one of these followers go rogue and stalk her,
Come and find her?
You have to take that into account.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- The investigation into the death of kat west
Has taken an alarming turn,
After investigators discover her photos on an adult website
With thousands of subscribers,
Any one of them a potential suspect.
- You see this blonde bombshell.
She is in her 40s.
She is a hot mom.
And she had 50,000 followers across social-media accounts.
♪ ♪
- News of kat's online activities
Clouds the investigation in another way,
As it quickly grabs headlines
In her suburban alabama home.
- It took off so quickly,
Before we could even fathom it.
You know, it's on all these news outlets.
- I was a digital-content producer at a news station
In birmingham at the time.
In alabama, it's conservative.
It's the bible belt.
A woman like kat west being a camgirl
Or online selling nude photos,
That is not your typical mother
In this town.
And it raised a lot of eyebrows.
♪ ♪
- There was a lot of victim blaming,
That she somehow contributed to her death.
Her background of what she did was frowned upon.
Obviously, her drinking was frowned upon.
The community-- they don't want to believe
That this happens in calera.
- Just because she took those beautiful pictures,
She was much more than that.
They don't talk about how she was a great mother.
They focus on her online stuff,
Her risky endeavors online. [chuckles]
And she was so much more than that.
♪ ♪
- Investigators begin digging into kat's vast pool
Of online followers,
Searching for anyone who might raise a red flag.
- I've seen some of the comments online.
They're not necessarily the nicest-sounding people.
I can't imagine what was in her inbox.
Like, I'm sure it was pretty graphic.
♪ ♪
- Calera police department did a fantastic job
And took their time to go back to her website
To find out who was subscribing and literally check out
Every one of her subscribers.
- You've got 50,000 followers to sift through
And try to see if there's any case to be made on that.
- But after two weeks of digging,
Investigators cannot find anyone
Among her online subscribers
Who might have been in the area the night kat died.
- Those people
Were ultimately ruled out
And not considered suspects
In this case.
♪ ♪
- Detectives are back to square one, with no suspects.
As they review their case,
Given the new information about kat's online site,
They can't help but wonder whether they dismissed
Her husband, jeff, too quickly.
- Kat west taking nude photos and selling them online
Also raises the question, how did her husband feel?
♪ ♪
- But investigators discover that, once again,
There's nothing to support suspicion of jeff.
- She wasn't living a double life.
Jeff, I mean, he was very aware of it.
I mean, even her parents knew about it.
His parents knew about it, so it wasn't a secret.
- There had to be someone behind the camera
Taking those photos.
And sure enough, it was jeff.
- He's in adoration of kat and posting how hot she is.
And so, at that point,
You're really not considering him as a suspect
As much as you were before.
- He didn't seem to mind at all.
In fact, at one point, jeff told me,
That's how she makes her money and makes herself feel good.
That's fine.
♪ ♪
- From there, you just go back to the drawing board, right?
- When detectives go back to their case file,
They discover something curious,
Something they believe deserves a closer look.
- The wests had an adt security system at their home,
And that provided some telling information.
It had a log of when their front door opened and closed.
♪ ♪
- So, by jeff's story, he went to bed at 10:30 that night.
But when they checked his security, you know,
That's where they started finding out that the timelines
Of the events that he described,
They weren't exactly matching up.
♪ ♪
- His adt system showed the front door opened at 1:51 a.M.
And stayed open for more than four hours
Past that point.
The times in which that front door had opened
Was also past the time jeff west said
He went to sleep.
It could have been his wife. It could have been jeff.
But we don't know that.
- Let's not forget that it's January,
And the door is wide open.
If you slept even a few hours with the door wide open,
Your home is cold.
You wake up, and you're like, oh, my gosh, the door is open.
I need to figure out, why is my door open?
♪ ♪
- The confusing data from the house security system
Causes investigators to once again
Take a look at jeff west.
And their new suspicions lead to a warrant
For his cell phone records.
- He told police officers he went to bed at 10:30,
But his phone logged that he had been moving around
Past the time he told officers he went to bed.
- According to the fitness history on his phone,
A short time after 11:00 p.M., he had taken 18 steps.
- The data from the phone
And the door opening and closing
Were not exactly matching
What he was telling them.
- And some of the text messages with his wife
Found on jeff's phone are troubling to investigators.
- Looking at some of the texts,
It was obviously not a relationship
That was perfect.
She felt that he wanted to leave her.
♪ ♪
There were multiple texts with this back-and-forth of,
Should we split up?
Should we stay together?
She's telling him, I know you're scared to tell me
If you don't want to be with me,
But it's hurting me by lying.
There were some fundamental issues
Wrong in their relationship.
And the texts just kind of highlighted those.
All the way leading up to her death,
They had these texts going on.
♪ ♪
- When investigators learn that jeff
Is apparently not telling the truth
About the timeline of his movements that night,
They start to question
Everything else he has told them.
- There are still a lot of holes and gaps
Into what really happened that night.
But at that point, there was no other person of interest.
There was no other suspect.
It was jeff west and jeff west only
That was being looked at as the murderer of his wife.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Investigators in calera, alabama,
Have found evidence that contradicts
Jeff west's story about his actions
On the night his wife, kat, died.
After ruling him out earlier,
The detectives are now again looking at him
As a potential suspect.
- Jeff had said that they
Had gone on a date night.
They had come back home.
They had taken pictures for her social media.
They were in an argument about the phone
Because she was on her phone quite a bit.
And he had gone to sleep and didn't know where she was.
- And he said his leg was hurting from a former injury
He sustained in the army,
And so he went to bed.
And kat stayed up from there.
♪ ♪
- Detectives know the data
From the wests' home-alarm system
And from the fitness tracker app on jeff's phone
Appear to contradict that.
But jeff is sticking with his original story.
- He told police officers, how does anybody
Know the exact moment they went to bed?
What's the difference
Between 10:30 and 11:15?
If alcohol was involved, if someone asks you
To the minute when you went to bed last night,
Are you able to have an accurate answer?
♪ ♪
- With jeff now firmly in their sights,
Detectives go back and review all of the evidence.
That includes obtaining the original 911 call
From the neighbor who found kat's body.
When they listen to the full recording,
They discover it contains a critical clue.
- When she called 911,
She asked had anybody
Already called this in?
Because across the street,
She could see a man pacing in his home,
And the door was wide open.
♪ ♪
- This statement contradicts what jeff west
Told police officers,
And that was that he was awoken
To the sound of sirens...
Which were not there yet.
[siren wailing]
♪ ♪
- Jeff's whole story seems to be falling apart.
Next, the investigators
Conduct a careful reexamination
Of the evidence found near kat's body.
They realize there may be an explanation
For some of the unusual things they noticed there.
- We did see a cell phone on scene.
There was a bottle of alcohol on scene.
And it is weird that the bottle
Was kind of leaning up against the phone at an odd angle.
You would think, if you were intoxicated,
That the bottle would be just randomly down on the ground,
Not propped on the phone.
♪ ♪
- If jeff was involved in his wife's death, they wonder,
Could he have staged the scene,
Trying to make it look like an accident?
But it's when they reexamine jeff's fingerprints
On the absinthe bottle, previously dismissed
Because he was known to have held it earlier in the night,
That the loudest alarms are set off.
- The location of the fingerprints
On the bottle of absinthe
Wouldn't be if you were to just grab a bottle.
They were positioned if you were holding it
Upside down by the neck.
♪ ♪
- Detectives realize this could be
Because jeff was holding the bottle of absinthe
As a weapon.
And they now put together a theory
Of what they believe happened the night kat died.
- Probably kat was on her phone, and that irritated him.
And jeff threw her phone outside.
♪ ♪
And then afterwards, they took pictures,
And she only had the bra on.
And obviously, something went wrong,
Probably her asking where my phone is.
And she went out to find the phone.
He followed her out there, and things escalated.
♪ ♪
I think he initially struck her with the bottle.
She fell and probably lost consciousness
At the time.
And he walked back to the house.
And as she regained some type of consciousness,
She moved around in the grass
And kind of pulled herself to the curb.
She was in a fetal position, probably because she was cold.
She was just clothed in a pink bra, no other clothes.
♪ ♪
- Afterwards, the investigators theorize,
Jeff tried to cover up his crime
By staging kat's cell phone and the bottle next to her.
- Obviously, there are some holes in his story.
And as it progressed, the holes became bigger.
♪ ♪
So, about five weeks after kat was found on the street,
Jeff was arrested for her death.
- Despite having only circumstantial evidence,
On February 23, 2018,
Police charge jeff west with murder.
Jeff continues to insist he did not kill his wife,
And many people believe he is telling the truth.
♪ ♪
- Kat west's family, her parents, her friends...
All sided with jeff west.
They immediately said that he didn't do it.
They loved each other, and they had this marriage
That was so beautiful.
And although they argued here and there,
Like, that's just marriage.
That's what comes with it.
♪ ♪
- When I first found out,
I couldn't believe it.
I'm like, jeff?
Jeff hit her with a bottle?
- I would have never pegged jeff
To be...
Harmful in any way.
I was in disbelief
That jeff would have killed kat.
♪ ♪
- The evidence is counterintuitive
To what I knew about her and jeff.
♪ ♪
- Hoping to avoid a lengthy trial
With an outcome they can't be certain of,
Prosecutors make jeff an offer.
- He was offered a plea deal from the prosecution
For time served plus two years' probation.
He turned that down.
- So you're turning down that
For possibly spending years in prison.
It made you wonder, is he really innocent?
Maybe he didn't do it.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
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- Jeff west's trial for the murder of his wife, kat,
Outside their calera, alabama, home
Is set to begin on November 17, 2020.
- Jeff was offered a plea deal
Where he would serve time at a lesser charge.
He would get out of jail earlier, prison earlier.
But he did not want to do that.
He wanted to pursue a jury trial
And still maintained his innocence.
- I was shocked when jeff
Didn't take the plea deal,
But I understood why.
If that's your story and you're sticking to it,
Why would you take the plea deal?
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- Prosecutors argue that kat's death was not an accident,
That jeff west bludgeoned her to death
With an alcohol bottle following an argument.
- The most damning testimony that was given
Was the medical examiner's,
Who said that she could not have died by falling.
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- Prosecutors present jurors with the home-alarm data
And information from jeff's fitness tracker,
Suggesting he lied about his actions
On the night of kat's death.
They display the texts showing a troubled marriage.
And they show the video of jeff and kat
Purchasing the murder weapon-- a bottle of absinthe.
But jeff's lawyers counter that the investigation
Was not able to prove that the bottle was,
In fact, used to kill kat.
- When jeff west's attorneys
Were presenting the case
To the jurors,
They were saying,
We don't have a murder weapon.
We don't have a motive.
These two were in love. It's not jeff west.
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- After a week of testimony, both sides rest their cases.
- When the jurors went to deliberate,
I thought it could go either way.
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- The jury's options were murder,
Manslaughter, or innocent.
I thought that they were either going to pick
One of the extremes--
That he killed her with intent or that he didn't at all.
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The jury came back after their deliberations
And read their verdict.
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Jeff west was guilty of reckless manslaughter.
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- Jeff wasn't necessarily
Planning for this to happen.
They had gone out. They had gotten drunk.
He had gotten disgruntled about something
And maybe got into an argument.
It wasn't premeditated murder.
It was more of a reckless killing.
- To see them fall in that middle ground,
That he was responsible for killing her
But did not intend to,
Was interesting because that wasn't a story
Told by the prosecution or the defense.
The defense is over here, saying he didn't do it at all.
The prosecution is saying he did, and he meant to.
The jury decided neither of those narratives held true.
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Jeff west was sentenced to 16 years.
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- Though jeff west sits behind bars,
For many, questions about his guilt still linger.
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- I think calera pd saw online double life,
Jealous husband,
Crazy guy, and he killed her.
But there are lots of other avenues
That could have happened that night
That I don't feel were investigated well enough.
- I don't think justice was served in the case
Because I don't think...
It was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
But that doesn't mean he didn't do it.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Thing I miss most about kat
Is her glowing attitude.
She was always there as a friend.
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She could cheer you up any time of day,
Just a sweet person.
She's gone way too soon, just way too soon.
- She had just a glow about her.
She had a spark, you know?
She's just one of them people that you never forget.
- I got to say goodbye to kat and jeff
When they were leaving to alabama.
And I remember giving her a huge hug,
And she was happy to be going home.
And the light in her eyes
Was telling.
She was thrilled to be moving on
And going and living her dream.
- She was probably the best person
I've ever met, seriously.
♪ ♪
That's how good her heart was.
The world is missing her beautiful soul.
I miss her love and her light and her energy.
♪ ♪