Perhaps they just needed a safe word …
This one starts with a frantic 911 call from Julene Simko. Turns out her husband, Jeremy, had just been shot by some unknown intruder. Or was he?
Julene claimed she was sleeping in another room (Jeremy snored) when she was awakened by a loud noise. Going to Jeremy, she found him lying on the bed, covered in blood and unresponsive. Hearing something in the hallway, Julene grabbed a pistol and fired two random shots toward whomever or whatever might be there.
At the same time, though, police found no sign of forced entry, nothing on the security cameras, no reports of barking dogs (the Simkos had 4), and no foreign DNA. The same issues would resurface days later when Julene claimed the house had been broken into (she had been staying at her mom’s in the interim).
The police, however, moved no further. And that’s the way the case rested for another 4 whole years.
Revisiting the evidence at that time, the cops were struck by the unusual relationship between Julene and Jeremy. Pics, videos and even a 14-page master/slave contract showed that the couple were seriously into BDSM. Julene claimed that the relationship was strictly consensual, but there were, however, hints of abuse. Did Julene snap? She had been sexually abused as a child …
At the same time, a nurse who treated Julene after the shooting came forward claiming she thought she heard Julene say she had shot Jeremy. The cops also had experts analyze the 911 call, with those experts finding 10 “markers of a guilty caller.”
Though the evidence was still very circumstantial, Julene was finally indicted. Surprisingly, she opted for a bench trial (i.e., before only a judge, and with no jury). The judge would subsequently find Julene guilty, giving her a sentence of 28 years to life.
Would a jury trial have gotten resulted in a guilty verdict as well? Was it Julene who actually pulled the trigger?
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