All language subtitles for Fatal.Fraud.S01E09.1080p.WEB.h264-CODSWALLOP_track3_[eng]

(James Baldwin)
I can't even tell if it's my wife.

I don't think she's breathing.
Oh, God.

(Narrator) Every fraud
begins with a promise.

Highway Patrol was
immediately suspicious

that this horrible accident
was not an accident.

(Narrator)
A quick fortune, easy money,

or a life transformed overnight.

She's bleeding profusely.

Can't get the bleeding to stop.

(dramatic music)

(Narrator)
But behind these illusions

lie calculated deceptions
carefully hidden in plain sight.

There absolutely were whispers
in the community about her death.

(Narrator) Sometimes these
criminals are backed into a corner

and feel their only way out
is to kill.

He wanted his wife,
he wanted a girlfriend,

and when those things
were threatened,

he was unwilling to lose it.

(dramatic music)

(suspenseful music)

(Dispatcher)
Chester 911.

(James)
We ran off the bridge.

(Dispatcher)
You ran off the bridge?

(James)
Yes, ma'am.

I need help.

My wife, I don't think
she's breathing.

(Dispatcher) All right.
Is she trapped in the vehicle?

(James)
No, ma'am. It threw her out.

Please help me.

Oh, God.

(Calvin Rikard) We work
thousands of cases, and then

there are certain cases that
just stick with you forever.

Miss Judy's going to
be one of those cases

that I don't think anybody
in this area has ever forgotten.

(Travis Jenkins)
Chester is a community where,

for the most part,
people still know each other.

People know their neighbour and
know their neighbour's neighbour.

I'm Travis Jenkins.
I grew up in Chester.

I've worked at the
"Chester News & Reporter"

full time since 2003, so 22 years.

(Narrator) In the tight-knit
community of Chester,

Judy Orr was a much-loved figure.

(Travis)
Judy loved her family.

She was a very kind
and giving person

and just a very
sweet-natured lady.

(Candice Lively)
I'm Candice Lively.

I'm the deputy solicitor
in Chester County.

Judy was a very important
woman in the community

because she was involved
with her church.

She knew a lot of important
people in the community

just because of her kindness.

She would volunteer.

She was just someone
that most people knew.

Judy did have quite an affinity
for the motorcycle groups

that she was involved with.

(Narrator) In 2004, tragedy struck
when Judy's husband, Todd,

was killed
in a motorcycle accident.

(Candice) Her husband, when he
unfortunately passed away,

she really missed
that part of her life,

of being connected
with that community.

(Narrator) After the death
of her husband,

Judy continued playing a part
in the Christian biker group,

and around 2011, she met
52-year-old

fellow biker James Baldwin.

(Candice)
James Baldwin is someone

that Judy met
when he was a dispatcher

for Chester County
Sheriff's Office.

And he had also had some
experience as a police officer

in a neighbouring county...
that would be York County.

(Vicky Thakordas-Desai) My name
is Dr Vicky Thakordas-Desai,

and I am a consultant
forensic psychologist.

Judy became a widow.

It's only natural for somebody
to want companionship

and someone to love again
in their life.

And she made the decision
to move on

after a substantial period
of being single.

She was loving and caring,
and she wanted to be able

to share that with a partner.

She wanted to be able to enjoy
companionship once again

and felt like she could
move on from her loss.

(Narrator) While Judy was
financially secure after the death

of her husband, Todd,
James Baldwin was an ex-deputy

and local 911 operator.

Judy was definitely
better off financially

whenever she met James Baldwin.

She had the house that
her husband left her.

She had plenty of money
from everything

she received from the proceeds
of her husband's passing.

Jamie is not financially
in the same situation.

He was always filing
insurance claims.

He was always looking for ways
that he could make money

because he just didn't
make much money doing

what he was doing as a dispatcher.

James Baldwin was
somebody who was looking

for opportunities...
opportunities to further

themselves and their own wealth.

There is evidence of him
trying to defraud insurance.

(Candice) He's actually
waiting for financial money

to come in from some
motorcycle accident he had...

Where he was claiming that
the Department of Public Safety

was at fault for having
an electrical box

in the wrong place on a street,

and he ran into it and damaged
his bike, and he was hurt.

(Fiona Hotston Moore)
My name is Fiona Hotston Moore,

and I'm a forensic accountant
and expert witness.

In my experience of fraud,

they do tend to be
serial fraudsters,

so they do it once
and they get away with it.

They perhaps, in their mind,
don't intend to do it again,

but then circumstances are such
that they do do it again.

And I think you need to bear
in mind the fraud triangle,

which means there needs
to be motive,

opportunity, and rationalisation.

And if those three factors
are in place,

then, quite often, a fraudster
will repeat the previous fraud.

(Narrator) James Baldwin's
background as a 911 operator

and ex-deputy meant he was quickly
embraced by the Chester community.

(Travis) I definitely think
that James Baldwin's

background in law enforcement
would have made

other people trustful of him.

And I think that that
probably just grew because,

again, so many people knew Judy,

and so many people
loved or liked her.

She had a lot of friends.

She was very well known
in the community.

(Narrator) In March 2012,
Judy and James married.

And Judy was happy to spend
lavishly on her new husband.

Judy really did enjoy
spending money on Jamie.

He was very charismatic.

And at the time,
she's just such a kind soul.

I think she just loved
all the attention.

It had been a long time since she
had had a serious relationship,

and so she did.

They actually went and bought
a beautiful new

Harley Davidson motorcycle
for him.

And anything and everything
he wanted for it, she paid for it.

She basically set him up
in this house

and paid for and did
anything he wanted.

He was living the kind of life
that he wanted to live,

but it was because Judy
had the money and not him.

(Narrator) In June 2016,
James Baldwin persuaded Judy

to take out
a $25,000 life insurance policy.

(Candice)
James Baldwin did take out

the accidental
life insurance policy.

It just seemed like
a normal thing to do.

And she had unfortunately lost
a husband in her lifetime,

and she understood
the importance of having money

whenever you have
an unfortunate loss like that.

Jamie had been in some
motorcycle accidents in the past,

and he said, you know, these are...

having an insurance policy
is important.

(Fiona)
An accident-only life policy

only pays out if the person
dies in an accident.

So it does not pay out
if they die of natural causes

or some terminal illness,
et cetera.

It's much cheaper
and easier to obtain,

and therefore potentially more
liable to fraud, fraudulent claims

when someone actually dies
in an untoward circumstance.

(Narrator) In December 2016,
Judy and James Baldwin

were getting ready for an event
with their Christian biker group.

(Candice)
Judy Baldwin loved Christmas.

That was her favourite time
of year.

They would go with their group,
the Christian biker group,

on different trips
to raise money for charities.

They had one that was
their biggest one each year,

which was around Christmas,
where they would collect toys

for children who were in need.

They were going to go to Kentucky,
actually, for the 2016 Christmas.

That's whenever things fell apart.

(tense music)

(Narrator) At 11:04 p.m. on the
evening of December 14th, 2016,

Chester Police
receive a 911 distress call.

(Dispatcher) Chester 911.

(James)
We ran off the bridge.

(Dispatcher)
You ran off the bridge?

(James)
Yes, ma'am.

I need help.

My wife, I don't think
she's breathing.

(Dispatcher) All right.
Is she trapped in the vehicle?

(James)
No, ma'am. It threw her out.

Please help me.

Oh, God.

(Narrator) Highway Officer
James Calvin Rikard Jr.

Was asked to respond.

(Calvin) My name is
James Calvin Rikard Jr.

We enforce all traffic laws
and crashes in South Carolina.

And we would get called out
to work more complex collisions.

The early hours of the 15th,
I was at home.

I was sleeping.

Got a call from my supervisor
and stated that

the troop here
in Chester, South Carolina,

was needing assistance
with one of the cases

that they had responded to.

(Narrator) The supervisor explained
a Jeep had crashed

on Old Richburg Road,
just outside of Chester.

(Calvin) It's a two-lane road,
but it is dark.

There's no really ambient
lighting out in that area.

You are, as we would say,
in the country at that point.

(Narrator) The couple travelling
in the Jeep were Judy Orr Baldwin

and her husband, James Baldwin.

(Randy) I'm Randy Newman,
Sixth Circuit solicitor.

So according to James Baldwin,

some errant car
comes into his lane,

or truck, runs him off the road.

And he says that
he blacked out at some point.

When he comes to, he reaches over,
doesn't feel her in the seat,

crawls out of the vehicle,
and finds her

lying in a creek, not underwater,

just in a couple inches of water.

Unable to get her come to,
he calls 911.

(Narrator) Judy Orr Baldwin was
pronounced dead at the scene.

James Baldwin was taken to
the hospital with minor injuries.

(Travis)
The news of her death

actually got to us the next day,
but even at that point,

there were already sort of
whispers in the community

that there was more to the story.

(Calvin) I felt like
there was something

different about this case.

But I got the internal nudge
that I needed

to go actually to the hospital
and talk to Mr Baldwin

as soon as possible.

When I first had
the conversation with...

with the on-scene supervisor,
what he was saying that Mr Baldwin

had told him at the scene
was not matching up

with what the damage was,
or the lack of damage.

So pretty close early on
in the investigation,

I felt like something
wasn't... wasn't adding up

with what he was saying
and what was being

presented at the scene itself.

(suspenseful music)

James Baldwin,
at first, when he called 911,

he claimed that...
that there was a car accident.

He swerved to miss a truck
that had come into his lane,

that he went off the road
and must have lost consciousness

because he kind of comes to
when the Jeep stopped

and realised that his wife
was not next to him

in the passenger seat
of the vehicle.

(Narrator)
While James Baldwin was taken

to the hospital
with minor injuries,

officers began
to notice inconsistencies

between evidence at the scene with
James Baldwin's version of events.

I knew the story
that was being told

did not line up with what was
being presented at the scene.

I spoke with
the on-scene supervisor.

He was telling me that
he had some concerns

with what Mr Baldwin had told him.

The on-scene supervisor was saying
that Mr Baldwin had told him

he felt like Miss Judy was
ejected out of the vehicle

and that's what caused her death.

I asked him if he could send me
a couple pictures of the vehicle.

He showed me those pictures,
and I knew

that was not the case from the
lack of damage to the vehicle.

(Narrator) Officer Rikard decided
to go straight to the hospital

to interview James Baldwin.

(Calvin) He did say that he tried
to get her up the embankment,

but also said that he found her
in the front of the vehicle,

which would have been in
the water, and she was basically

pulled towards the driver's side
of the vehicle,

which would not have been
the direct path

to try to get her to the top
of the embankment.

So that was a little strange.

But, you know,
maybe he was disoriented.

I was trying to give him,
you know, the benefit of the doubt

at that time when he is
telling me this... this story.

(Narrator) During the interview
at the hospital,

James Baldwin's story
of what happened

that evening began to change.

(Calvin) He started
adding more stuff to it

to try to fill in those gaps

and those questions
that he was being asked.

So his story was that,
back at the house,

there was an incident there
where Miss Judy

had fell off of a ladder
while trying

to decorate a Christmas tree.

He was outside at that moment.

When he came back inside, he saw
that she was laying on the floor,

was bleeding a lot,
and decided that she needed to go

to the hospital to get stitches.

(Randy)
So according to James Baldwin,

they are decorating for Christmas.

She's on a step ladder
decorating the tree.

James Baldwin said
she fell and bumped her head.

She's bleeding profusely.

Can't get the bleeding to stop.

Got to take her to hospital.

(Calvin) And as he was
travelling down Old Richburg Road,

a vehicle was in
his lane of travel,

where he took evasive action

and ran off the right side
of the road,

kind of overcorrected and went
off the left side of the road,

down an embankment and into
a creek where he said that

he doesn't remember really what
happened after that,

except when he woke up
that Miss Judy was not

in the vehicle and then he found
her outside of the Jeep itself.

(Narrator) Officer Rikard noticed a
lack of emotion from James Baldwin.

(Calvin)
I knew he was a police officer.

I knew he was in public safety.

And maybe that was just
the way somebody actually

responded to that behaviour.

I asked him point-blank that night

if he did anything
to hurt Miss Judy.

That was the only time
that I saw emotion out of him

during this interview,
is when I was accusing him

of doing something to Miss Judy.

(Narrator) After interviewing
James Baldwin at the hospital,

Officer Rikard
joined his colleagues

at the scene of the accident.

(Calvin) This is a rural,
two-lane road out in the country.

There's a bridge there
that covers the creek itself,

but I was able to see
the path of travel

that Mr Baldwin went off
the right side of the road.

And even when I got there,
he should have stayed

in a straight path,
which would have

taken him straight into the woods.

And so when he goes off
the left side of the road,

he has to make
a controlled movement

to straighten up the vehicle,
drive down the embankment,

get to the creek bottom,

and then kind of angle it
back to the right.

And so it does not add up
with what he is telling us.

(Candice) Highway Patrol
was immediately suspicious.

They see accidents all the time.

Number one, they didn't
see damage to the vehicle.

They thought that that was
very suspicious

and the fact that
the windshield was intact.

Nothing was really damaged
except for just

the front little grill piece
on the Jeep.

There was no indication of a huge
turn or some type of movement

by the vehicle to avoid a truck

coming into his lane,
which he claimed.

(Calvin) I can see
the fresh marks in the dirt

off the right side of the roadway.

And I'm like,
this doesn't happen when

you're travelling at normal
highway speeds of, you know,

50, 55 miles an hour.

So just seeing the Jeep,
its location,

the path of travel that it took
to get to its location,

the amount of blood
that was in the vehicle

and on the outside of the vehicle

just did not add up with her

getting ejected
out of the vehicle.

(Narrator) Despite the concerns
of the officers at the scene,

James Baldwin's background
as a deputy and 911 responder

meant local officers were quick
to believe his version of events.

(Candice) Here in Chester County,
with it being such a small county,

people are in the community
who work in law enforcement.

It's hard to look at them
and think that they

could have had anything to do
with injuring a family member.

I think that there's just
that inherent small-town feel

that there's just no way
Jamie Baldwin could have

done something to hurt
this wonderful woman

that everybody loved.

(Vicky)
It is highly likely that,

when James called 911
and his colleagues

responded to that, that they
would have quite quickly

believed his version of events.

He was a trusted colleague.

He had worked within the
profession for as long as he did.

And that unconscious bias
that would have been present,

which would have rationalised
their decision, which was,

well, actually,
he's... he's one of us.

He should be telling the truth.

He is telling the truth,
and, therefore, there's no need

to question this any further.

On the night when the Jeep
went off the road,

the sheriff's office did send
an investigator to the home.

He looked in the window,
and you could immediately see

there was blood
on the floor in the main area.

It was a huge,
wide open main area.

There was a ladder
and a huge Christmas tree.

Unfortunately, he only took about
40 pictures, not that many more,

but looking at the scene, without
having anybody else come in there,

he went and reported back that
what he saw and based on what

Mr Baldwin had told him,
he believed that Judy had fallen

from the ladder and hit her head
on the mantel

or somewhere in that area,

and that's what caused
her head injuries.

So that fit with what
he believed at the time

Jamie Baldwin
was telling everyone.

(Narrator) Satisfied with
James Baldwin's story

that there had been
an accident at the home,

the investigator allowed
the scene to be cleaned up.

The only person who walked in
that home that was law enforcement

was the investigator
from the sheriff's office.

And he also told a friend
of Jamie Baldwin,

you can go ahead and clean up.

I'm sure you don't want it
to look like this

whenever Mr Baldwin gets back
to the house.

He gave a card to this female,
by the name of Teri King,

who said,
you can call these people.

They'll clean up the... the blood.

(Narrator) On the morning
of December 15th,

the community of Chester learned
of Judy Orr Baldwin's death,

and there was immediate suspicion
around what happened.

We found out about it
the next day.

Word gets around very quickly
in a town as small as Chester.

(Candice) Law enforcement
had two different versions

of what could have happened.

Highway Patrol was thinking,
this is not a car accident.

And then you had law enforcement
with the sheriff's office saying,

well, it looks like it was
possibly an accident from a fall

that happened at the house.

(Randy Newman)
They took his statement.

They went to the house.

And they did, I guess,
the bare minimum.

And this guy
was a former dispatcher

at the sheriff's office.

They never, at any point, thought
that he's not being truthful.

(Narrator) A local pathologist
performed an autopsy

to try to confirm
the cause of death.

(Candice)
The biggest issue happened

whenever the autopsy was done.

The findings
of the pathologist was that

she had died from a blunt force
trauma to the head,

but, in their opinion,

that it was probably
because of the fall.

(Travis) There absolutely
were whispers in the community

about... about her death.

There were just questions about,
I guess, holes in Jamie's story,

his, I guess, connection to
the law enforcement community.

I think a lot of those things
were brought up as questions

that people had about whether or
not this was being looked into

as thoroughly as it should have
been and whether or not

there was more
to the story, which,

most people seem to think
that there was.

(Narrator) While local law
enforcement were quick to believe

James Baldwin's version
of events, the coroner,

who knew Judy personally,
had doubts.

(tense music)

Terry Tinker,
our coroner, and the family,

after hearing everything,
strongly believed

that it didn't fit with what
they were actually seeing

from the pictures
that were taken at the home,

that this didn't make sense
how she could have

such a severe head trauma
falling from basically

a three-step ladder.

So there were just
a lot of questions.

(Randy) I think it was just,
he was taken at his word.

They felt like they didn't have
anything to show otherwise.

And so they weren't moving along
the way the family wanted them to

or the way the coroner
wanted them to.

I mean, to be honest,
there were a lot of people

who said that he had killed her,

that they believed that
Jamie had murdered Judy.

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) In early 2017,
the investigation into the death

of Judy Orr Baldwin
was still ongoing,

with the coroner and the sheriff
still in disagreement

about what happened.

I started getting calls
early on from the community.

Hey, this isn't right.

Somebody needs to do something.

(Candice)
This case was very tricky,

simply because we had
an initial disagreement

or kind of this impasse
between investigating agencies.

(Narrator) The fact that
key people investigating the case

knew both James Baldwin
and Judy Orr Baldwin personally

complicated matters.

(Candice) So initially,
that was hard to get over

that hump of thinking, we've got
to look at this as investigators

and not as friends of one another.

We've got to dig into this and do
what's fair for this family.

(Vicky) When you're
emotionally involved with anyone,

whether that's the victim
or the perpetrator,

it is hard to detach yourself,
especially professionally,

when you are being asked
to offer an opinion.

And therefore,
the whole town was impacted

in some way, shape, or form.

(Randy) Then we get a call
from the judge, local judge.

He wants to meet with the coroner
and the sheriff's office.

So it's kind of like
those two guys are getting

called to the principal's office.

(Narrator)
After meeting with the judge,

the coroner continued
the investigation

with the help of the South Carolina
Law Enforcement Division,

known as SLED.

(Candice) SLED is
a multi-jurisdictional

investigative agency.

So most places like Chester, who...

you know, we're a small,
rural community...

we don't have
our own drug testing labs.

We don't have a DNA testing lab.

So whenever we have
a complex case,

then you want to bring in someone
who has all of these individuals

who have specialised training.

(Narrator) SLED began
by re-examining the photos taken

at Judy Orr's home
where James Baldwin had told police

she fell and hit her head.

We basically went back through
every little inch of every photo

that was taken
by that sheriff investigator

to try to break things down.

They tried to find the ladder.

So he's saying, oh,
I don't have the ladder anymore.

I took it to this attorney
that I was going to have sue

because it was
a defective model of the ladder.

We wanted to measure how high

would Judy have been
from the ground

if she fell from this ladder.

And all of a sudden, he's just,
well... it's just...

I can't find it.

(Narrator)
The SLED team also decided

to examine the data from the Jeep's
internal control system

known as the black box.

(Calvin) So the black box
has been termed,

kind of referencing airplanes...

the black box in a vehicle
is designed to analyse

certain components, certain data.

And the sole purpose of it
is to deploy airbags.

It does give us
a lot of information

in regards to vehicle speed,
braking, acceleration,

temperature, odometer reading.

(Narrator) The black box data
records any unexpected

changes of speed that would
occur in a car accident,

which are recorded as events.

(Calvin) There has to be
a change in velocity

for 5 miles an hour
over a certain time frame,

which I think
was 150 milliseconds,

for an event to even occur.

And in this case,
there was no events recorded.

If there was any speed involved,
an event would have occurred.

And when it told us
nothing was on that module,

to us, that was...
that was a red flag.

(Narrator) The data from the black
box, along with other evidence

collected on the road,
began to cast even more doubt

on James Baldwin's story,
that he swerved

to avoid an oncoming vehicle.

(Calvin)
There is no doubt that they were

travelling down Old Richburg Road.

We have tyre impressions
where they ran off

the right side of the road.

But if somebody's travelling off
the roadway at 55 miles an hour,

there's going to be some
tearing into that land,

that dirt, especially as soft as
it was, and that was not the case.

(Narrator) As well as showing
James Baldwin was not driving fast

on the road, the damage
to the car suggested

it was driven down the embankment
at a very controlled, slow speed.

(Candice) They were able to pull
all of this data out of there

to determine that
he was not going that fast.

He never had an impact that would
have caused the airbags to go off.

That was immediately
apparent to them

if all this horrible accident,
he runs off the road.

So the black box ended up being
super critical for Highway Patrol

to basically say,
this was not an accident.

I mean, they felt comfortable
saying it looked like it was

a very intentional act
by the driver

to pull off the road and down into
this ravine in a very slow manner.

(Narrator) While SLED
continued their investigation,

James Baldwin moved out
of Judy Orr's family home

and in with his female friend
Teri King,

the person police had allowed
to clean up the blood

the night Judy died.

Whenever we learned that
Jamie Baldwin had moved in

with Teri King,
it was right after we started

really, really investigating
the case with SLED.

And Judy's family were pushing him
to get out of the family home,

or getting out of Judy's home.

So he moves in with Teri.

And at first,
I think he just used it as,

oh, I have nowhere else to go.

But, of course, I was thinking,
obviously, this is his girlfriend.

Of course that's where
he's going to go.

But that's how he kind of
played it to everybody else.

(Narrator) After James Baldwin
left the family home,

SLED had an opportunity
to re-examine

the potential crime scene.

(Randy) We were very fortunate
in this case that

we were able to go back to the
family home after a year or so.

Miss Baldwin's son had actually
taken over the family home.

Luckily, he had not painted
or any of that thing.

They found blood spatter
over the top of the fireplace

consistent with someone

thrusting or hitting someone
with something

and blood flying off
of the object.

(Candice) So that shows
that it was more of a blow

or something of that movement

that would have caused her blood
to be that high.

We had the DNA tested,
and it was her blood.

And there's no reason why
a 4'9" woman would have blood

almost 12 feet up in the air.

(Narrator)
After finding forensic evidence

that contradicted
James Baldwin's story

of Judy falling from a ladder,

SLED made another
crucial discovery.

One of the items that
was very critical

that was taken from the scene
was a Santa stocking holder.

It's one of these iron
stocking holders, very heavy.

We took that to our
forensic pathologist, Dr Ross.

When she saw it,
she immediately said, that's it.

We asked, you know, okay,

he's saying
she fell off the ladder.

Could she have fallen
off the ladder and hit this?

Because it's a stocking holder,
it would hang off the mantel.

And she said, absolutely not.

This was blunt force trauma.

She was hit with this item.

(Narrator) In June 2017,
six months after Judy's death,

police were called
to the home of Teri King.

I get a call from York County
Sheriff's Office

telling me that Teri King's
residence had burned down.

I learned that there had been
other problems going on

between Teri and Jamie
at that time.

Teri had actually
called the police

after she told him to leave.

Then a knife ends up stuck in
her tree that actually had carved

into it the letters B-I-T-C-H.

She was terrified.

She called the police.

They came and took pictures of it.

They suggested...
police put up some type

of like a deer camera or a camera
so we can see maybe who it is.

She felt it was Jamie Baldwin,

but, of course,
you've got to have proof.

She did put up these deer cameras.

She went out of town
for a weekend.

While she was gone,
she gets a call

that her house is on fire.

They look at the camera.

You can see a man
coming into the property.

Then he walks back out,
gets in his vehicle, and leaves.

The house goes up in flames.

And they were able to determine

that this person
was James Baldwin.

So he was arrested
for arson and fraud

because he was going to
try to sue the insurance company

for his contents that
were still inside of her home.

In my experience,
in cases such as James Baldwin,

people undertake small frauds,
whether that's

an insurance fraud
or some other fraud.

They get away with it.
They become bolder.

And they then undertake
another fraud, and so on.

So when insurance companies are
looking at paying out on claims,

they will look to...
look at previous claims

to see if there is
actually a history,

and therefore whether
they need to go back

and review previous claims.

(Narrator) While James Baldwin was
out on bond for second-degree arson

and burning personal property
to defraud insurers,

he was indicted for the murder
of Judy Orr Baldwin.

By that time, it was clear
throughout the community

that everyone believed
that this was not an accident.

As a matter of fact, because of
all the community involvement

and Facebook and social media,
we knew that we were probably

going to have trouble getting
a jury pool that wasn't

going to be biassed
in favour of Judy.

So we actually had to change
venue to another county

so we could try the case.

(sombre music)

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) In October 2019,
James Baldwin stood trial

for the murder of his wife,
Judy Orr Baldwin.

(Travis)
We were there for every day of it.

I know there were a lot
of other media,

TV, and newspapers
that were there.

There was obviously
a lot of interest

in that case for a lot
of reasons, partly, I think,

because people knew Judy but also
because the arrest took so long.

The investigation felt like,
to a lot of people,

it dragged on for so long,
longer than it should have.

So that kind of built
a lot of intrigue.

(Randy) The thing I remember most
is the family, Judy's friends.

They showed up every day.

It's just heartbreaking for them.

(Travis) The atmosphere
was interesting because,

on one side of the courtroom,
you have the family

and friends of the victim.

And on the other side
of the courtroom,

you have the family and friends
of the accused.

And I distinctly remember
just being struck by the fact

that the side where Judy's family
and friends were sitting

was filled, I believe,
to overflow.

Like, they literally
had to bring chairs in

and sat it in the back
of the courtroom

to accommodate all of her
friends and family that attended.

And they were there every day.

(Calvin)
I did attend the trial.

There was a full gallery side of
Miss Judy every day of the trial.

So again, I think that goes back
to what kind of person she was

and what the community
thought of her.

(Travis)
And the most people I recall

sitting on Jamie's side
of the courtroom was one.

One person.

(Narrator) After an intense
18-month investigation,

the prosecution knew
they had to convince the jury

that Judy's death
was not an accident.

(Candice) Whenever you have
a start of a case

that's an accident, and then

you learn as you're going on
with the evidence

that an accident completely
does not fit the scenario,

then you have to really take your
time to make sure that you go back

and explain away
or explain to some extent

why it was missed
on the front end.

(Travis)
But the most compelling part

was when the SLED investigator
was brought in

and unveiled the findings
of the black box.

Jamie's story was, she'd fallen.

I'm taking her to the hospital,

and they would run off
the road by a truck,

and they swerved wildly
and ploughed down an embankment

and hit something hard.

But when SLED got the results
from that black box,

it demonstrated that
the car came to a stop.

It slowly turned and drove 5 miles
an hour down the embankment.

And at that point,
his story completely fell apart.

(Narrator) For the prosecution,
one of the most challenging aspects

of the case was
addressing the conflicting

opinions of law enforcement.

(Candice) The worst part
about the case for me

was having to cross-examine,
or treat hostilely,

individuals who were
typically on my side.

But the bottom line is,
they didn't do their job.

The worst part was having
to ask that investigator,

oh, you actually handed
the girlfriend of Mr Baldwin

a card letting her know that this
cleanup company will come

and clean up the blood
from the crime scene?

That was not good.

That was a moment where I could
feel the jury beside me

going, what?

He did what?

It was just kind of
a very uncomfortable moment.

(Narrator) The relationship
between James and Teri King

was a key argument
for the prosecution.

(Randy)
It was very important.

I think it leads us
to motive, although

there's several other things
that lead us to motive.

But somebody who's got a
girlfriend and is in a marriage,

that becomes an automatic issue.

(Candice) The relationship between
James Baldwin and Teri King

was a really big piece
of our case because it showed

the intentions of the defendant

and why he would have
wanted Judy gone.

So it was a big motive.

Also, the money.

(Narrator)
The $25,000 insurance policy

was a key argument
for the prosecution.

(Travis) I definitely remember
the accident-only insurance policy

that was taken out
before Judy's murder.

That was prominently
mentioned during the trial

as a possible motive.

You know, you think of $25,000,
you're like, wow,

you know, that's not a whole lot.

But for someone like Jamie,
who, at the time,

was getting ready to possibly be
out on the street without a house,

without a motorcycle,
because everything had

been bought for him by Judy,

any money was going to be
critical to him.

(Narrator) The prosecution
argued control was

another key factor in the case.

James Baldwin was definitely
someone who always wanted control.

Judy was someone who he was able
to manipulate and control

from the beginning because
it had been years since

she had been in a relationship.

She desperately wanted to have
someone who loved her

and that she could spend
the rest of her days with.

She actually confronted Jamie
about this friendship

he was having with Teri King
and told him, absolutely,

this has to stop.

And if not, then you're
going to have to leave.

And we believe that's what
probably led to the huge argument

that happened on the night
that she ended up dying was,

he wanted to go to Kentucky.

She did not want him to go,
and she knew Teri King was going.

So we believe that whenever
Jamie felt he was losing control,

Judy was finally
standing up for herself,

and she wasn't going
to let it happen.

And that's whenever the argument
and her eventual death took place.

(Vicky) James Baldwin
wanted to have it all.

He wanted his wife,
he wanted a girlfriend.

And when those things
were threatened,

he was unwilling to lose it.

So he used whatever means
necessary to get what he wanted

so that he could stay stable
and sustained.

(Randy) I think he felt
like that was all his life

as he knew it
was getting ready to change,

because Judy wasn't going to
put up with that.

She wasn't going to allow him
to live in her house

and have a motorcycle and all
the stuff that she's buying him

and have a girlfriend.

So he was going to have
to make some changes.

He kind of saw his golden egg
going away, so to speak.

(Narrator) On November 5, 2019,
after a week-long trial,

the jury retired
to consider their verdict.

(Randy)
It's always nerve wracking.

That's something that
you never get used to.

You're sitting there
and you look at the family,

and they're on pins and needles
waiting to hear.

You've really got to think about
what that family's going through

and what they're thinking
during that time

because we know
it could go either way.

I was so nervous,
because you just never know

what a jury's going to do.

(Narrator) When the jury returned,
James Baldwin was found guilty

of the murder of Judy Orr Baldwin.

(Candice) We all broke down.

We could hear them
crying behind us.

Tears came to my eyes
from just overwhelming emotion

and also just feeling like
it was the right thing.

It was definitely
the right verdict.

(Randy) I don't think
he really reacted a whole lot.

There was a lot of relief
from Judy's family.

And finally, it's over
and we can breathe.

(Calvin)
I think back now, like,

I'm just so grateful and thankful
for Miss Judy's sake

and her family's sake that
I went straight to the hospital,

was able to get that statement,
lock him down

in what his events were, what he
was saying happened that night.

I think that helped in the
court proceedings during his trial

and ultimately with him being
found guilty for her death.

(Narrator)
James Baldwin's exploitation

of Judy for financial gain, which
eventually resulted in her murder,

led to him being sentenced
to life in prison

without the possibility of parole.

(Candice) Greed was
a huge motivation for him,

and it was something that had
driven him for a long time.

And so when you look
at his decision

that night to take Judy
out of the equation,

he clearly was thinking
about the fact that,

this is going to put me
in a situation

where I'm going to be set.

He was going to have the house.

He was going to keep his bike.

He was going to get $25,000.

And he was going to
have his girlfriend.

(Vicky) James has always been
in a position of power,

so to have been confronted by Judy
would have represented

a level of threat for him.

He stood to lose everything...

everything that he'd managed
to gain within the relationship,

which wasn't his.

It was hers...
her house, her finances.

And so he stood a lot to lose.

He wanted to have it all his way.

(Travis) I think
you actually go beyond greed

when you're willing
to kill somebody

to collect money,
especially a person

that you purport to love
and take care of.

I think you've actually gone
beyond greed at that point,

and you've veered into either
being mentally unwell or evil.

(Narrator) The murder of
Judy Orr Baldwin by her husband,

James Baldwin, was not only
devastating for Judy's family,

but a traumatic experience
for the people of Chester.

(Candice) Whenever I've looked back
on this case,

I'll be honest,
initially I was shocked.

I was, like,
what have I gotten myself into

coming to Chester County?

Because I was completely
blown away by the fact

that the sheriff and the coroner
were having these issues.

(Travis) Not every deputy solicitor
like Candice Lively

and not every coroner
like Terry Tinker

would have been willing
to buck the system a little bit

because they thought
there was more going on there

than they were being told.

There was more to the story

than what was written
on incident reports.

They knew that there was
something else going on

and that they didn't just accept
the pat answer and say,

okay, well, he's not guilty
or it was an accident or whatever.

(Randy) So, you know,
I'm a firm believer

everything happens for a reason.

So had we not had a coroner
and a sheriff bumping heads

and had we not called in SLED,
we may have never known

what really happened to Judy.

(sombre music)

(dramatic music)

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