Worst Neighbor Ever (2026) s01e01 Episode Script
She Finally Snapped
1
[dog barking]
[dramatic music playing]
[man] Normally,
if your neighbor is mad at you
over a little fight in a property dispute,
it's simple.
That's a civil issue.
Well, it is until it turns into murder.
[woman 1 speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
Nothing justified what that woman did.
[woman 1 speaking]
-[dispatch speaking]
-[woman 1 sobbing]
-[cows mooing]
-[birds singing]
[chilling music playing]
[woman 2] In May of 2018,
I was shot in the face.
The bullet went in the right side.
It went through my nose,
and it came out my ear.
I'm really lucky to be here today.
[upbeat music playing]
Me and my husband, Dave,
moved to Mount Sterling in 2002.
We lived in Ohio,
and my parents retired
and came to Mount Sterling
because their family's down here.
So, we followed.
Mount Sterling is a small community.
It's about 36 miles from Lexington.
Pretty much everybody knows everybody,
and everybody's nice here.
They're friendly.
We're in our own little world here.
Pretty much my mom's entire family
is from Kentucky.
My grandparents lived here,
and my aunts and uncles.
[woman] Shawna's like my daughter.
Even though Shawna was an adult,
I wanted to make sure
Shawna was taken care of, yes. [chuckles]
Shawna's family is…
It's pretty good-sized.
Everybody's close.
You go up and count houses,
and half the family
is in every house up there.
The kids run up to each
family member's house, one to another,
knocking on doors,
going and getting candy.
[Shawna] My parents lived
right across the street from us.
It was good. I mean, we was
all close and spent time together,
and, you know, I had a pool in my yard.
So we had a lot of cookouts and dinners.
Dave and I, we were always
laughing and joking and smiling.
He didn't really have
a close-knit family like ours.
So David did appreciate
having a big family around.
My mom and Dave got together
when I was about two years old.
I have always had two dads.
I was very blessed in that aspect.
Dave watched me grow up,
and he was there every time
I made a mistake or did something good,
he was there.
And I'm just so thankful for that.
[upbeat music playing]
[Shawna] In 1995,
I was living in Franklin, Ohio.
I worked at Warren County
Board of Developmental Disabilities.
I was working as a bus driver.
And I transferred clients
to and from home each day
so they could do work.
David worked inside the group home.
My first interaction with David
was his very first day.
We got into an argument.
We would argue and fuss,
and he complained about me.
But each day,
I had to transport a behavioral student,
and he had to go with me.
So then we started talking
and was civil to each other.
He warmed up to me,
and it just went from there.
And we just kind of clicked.
We eventually started dating
and living together in my house
with my daughter, Haley.
[Haley] One of my first memories
of my mom and Dave together was
all of us going to Tennessee.
[Shawna] We're on vacation in Gatlinburg.
We woke up one morning, and he said,
"Do you want to get married today?"
And I was like, "Yeah, right."
Neither one of us
had clothes to get married in.
We both had shorts on.
I had a beer T-shirt on.
And Haley was probably the only one
that even had a cute outfit on,
because she was tiny,
and I dressed her cute.
They just knew they wanted
to be together, so they tied the knot.
And then my mom found out
she was pregnant with my sister.
It was just a chance that I took on him,
and it was a chance that Dave took on me.
[soft music playing]
[Shawna] Everybody in our neighborhood,
I mean, we all got along.
We were close-knit.
I'd lived there 14 years,
and I did not have any problems
with any neighbor.
Up until Frances came.
And then it all changed.
Frances did have a long history
with our family in Mount Sterling.
But she was actually
quite a bit older than me.
I didn't know much about Frances
other than her and my cousin
was very good friends.
And she had stayed with my grandma
when she was younger
because she was having family problems.
[Wanda] Frances became part of our family
when she was 15, 16 years old.
Frances didn't really
have a good home situation.
She told us that her mom
wasn't good to her,
but I was never sure.
She enjoyed being with my family.
She was there so much.
After a while, we just always
introduced her as our niece.
She became close to us. We all loved her.
She was funny. She was fun to be with.
I don't know what happened to her.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawna] I had not heard a word
about Frances for years
until, one day, she just showed up.
She was getting divorced,
and she was coming back home.
Frances wanted to buy property
and live by us
because, really,
she had been a part of our family.
When she first came here,
Frances had all kinds of money.
She told us when she got
a divorce from her husband,
she got a big settlement.
[Shawna] Frances had bought the property
straight across the street from us,
and she was going to put her
a new double-wide in there.
But there was an old house
and it had to be tore down,
and the yard had to be straightened up.
So she asked me if she could stay with me
until she got her house done.
I said, "Yes, that's fine. You can stay."
I could get along with
pretty much anybody, and I thought,
"I'm going to help her."
My main goal was to just be there
and treat her like family.
And that's what I intended on doing.
Frances moved in with us
at the end of November.
I was on disability, unable to work.
And Dave worked at a factory
out here in Mount Sterling
that makes parts for cars.
David also worked part-time at
the Montgomery County Regional Jail
as a deputy jailer.
And he was such a hard worker.
He worked all the time.
Both of my daughters
were out of the house.
So, I mean, I thought
it would be good company for me,
for Frances to be there.
Me and Frances would get out
and go shopping.
We'd go out to eat.
We went to the movies.
We had cookouts.
We used to go
to a club downtown and dance.
And we just had fun.
-But then we started having problems.
-[eerie music playing]
She'd get a little short with me or upset.
But I just blew it off
and didn't address it.
[Wanda] Frances's personality
became bossy.
Everything had to be her way.
Like, she wanted to take over.
[Shawna] If anybody knows me,
they know I clean.
I clean a lot.
I was vacuuming my house
one morning, early.
And she came out there and pulled
the plug out of the outlet and said,
"It's too early to be vacuuming."
And I was like, "Whoa, this is my house."
I started seeing more signs that it wasn't
a good idea for her to be with me.
She had told me
about a video that she was in.
And we watched it on YouTube.
Muslims, they follow
the same satanic book that they all do.
They all read the same pages.
Here's the thing.
I don't even see Islam as religion.
It's a death cult. A glorified death cult.
That's all it is.
That's all it ever will be.
-I don't like you.
-[man] You don't like me? Why?
-[Frances] Because you're Muslim.
-[man] Who said I'm Muslim?
[Frances] If you're not Muslim,
you're a Muslim lover.
I didn't tell you. I'm Jewish.
[Frances] I don't think you're into Jesus.
[man chuckles]
That's the truth.
[Frances] You're Jewish,
you're Muslim, or you're atheist.
Are you a fag too?
-[man] Am I a fag too?
-[Frances] Yeah.
I thought it was a little bit crazy.
But she thought it was cool
that she was in this video protesting.
And then I started thinking,
"She may be a little racist."
"This is not gonna work."
David did not like her at all.
He said she's trouble from the beginning.
She's loud-mouthed,
and she is an attention seeker.
He was a very good judge of people.
[Haley] In 2016, I was living in Ohio.
I had met my husband.
My son Owen was born in 2013.
So I'd already had a son
when I met my husband.
I visited my parents
almost every other weekend.
Dave and I was very close with Owen.
[Haley] Owen was the highlight of his life
because he had two girls.
So he wanted a boy in the family so bad.
The moment that Owen was born,
Dave was there every single day,
rocking him to sleep, holding him,
watching NASCAR with him.
You would think that they had
been best friends their whole lives.
[Shawna] He was our world.
It's different when you have a grandkid.
Haley brought Owen to visit one weekend.
And when they come in,
Haley's like, "Who is that?"
And I said, "That's Frances,
she's staying with me."
[Haley] When I learned about
Frances moving in with my parents,
it was a big surprise.
I didn't know this lady.
I didn't know anything about her.
Meeting Frances for the first time,
she was different.
She was very awkward
when we came into the house.
Kind of felt like we didn't belong.
She made us very uncomfortable.
Owen was three at the time
that Frances moved in.
So he was pretty rambunctious.
He was…
hell on wheels.
He didn't slow down for anything,
maybe for a cup of chocolate milk.
He was on the go all day long.
Frances was just kind of
a grumpy old lady when Owen was around.
I don't think
she really cared much for kids.
And I think part of it
took the spotlight off of her.
I don't think she liked that.
[Haley] Frances had resting bitch face.
She always looked like
she was about to ask for the manager.
And that's just not my cup of tea.
[horses nicker]
[Shawna] My arrangement
with my oldest daughter
was to get my grandson
every other weekend.
And he would stay with me all weekend.
Frances was home resting in the bed.
And Owen was riding his bike
around the house.
And he was making noise and hollering,
"Hey, Mimi, watch me!"
And she came out of the bedroom
and yelled at him and told him
to get off that bike and be quiet.
So she was trying to nap.
It was a shock to me
that she would have yelled
at my grandson like that in my house.
Her behavior towards my son
was not acceptable in Dave's eyes.
Nobody talked to his grandson like that.
She couldn't come in and start
trying to control the grandbabies now.
That's just not gonna happen.
Those grandbabies are our pride and joy.
[Shawna] I told her,
"You need to get your stuff together."
"And I'm gonna take my grandson to eat,
and when we get back,
you better be out of my house."
And we left
and when we came back, she was gone.
When all the issues came with Frances,
Dave wanted her to go.
So he was happy when she left.
I asked Frances to leave in January.
And she moved into her new home
across the street in March.
When she moved in,
I never dreamed
we would have issues with her.
I just assumed she'd stay over there
and live her life,
and we'd stay over here
and live our lives.
[dramatic sound effects]
But Frances decided
she was gonna try to cause problems.
One of the first issues
was the property line.
Frances had moved in and she was kind
of taking over property that wasn't hers.
It was actually my grandfather's.
[Shawna]Frances wanted
to build a driveway,
but she wanted to take it
over on my dad's property,
and my dad would not let her.
[Haley] My grandfather
was getting very irritated,
and she was not backing down.
They had it surveyed, and he was right.
She was way over the property line.
But that wasn't good enough.
[Shawna] Frances went ahead
and built the driveway.
My dad was furious.
My grandfather decided to
mark it off very vividly for her.
He put some…
vehicles there.
Upside down. [chuckles]
Yeah. He flipped cars over.
Welcome to Kentucky.
[laughs]
From that point on,
it just went downhill real quick.
[Haley] My mom at the time wasn't working
because of her health problems.
She was staying at home a lot.
And my sister was off to college.
I was obviously grown and
living in a completely different state.
I know that she was
getting kind of lonely.
So she decided, you know,
"I think I'm going to try
to get out of the house a little bit."
[Shawna] My friends had a tanning salon,
and one of my
best friends worked for them.
And I hung out there all the time.
[Haley] While Mom was at the tanning salon
and helping her friends,
Frances came out to the salon
and kind of was making a scene,
and then my Mom told her she had to leave.
[Shawna] And then Frances made
a post on Facebook to the business
saying that she's going to
report them for me working there.
She was accusing me
of working while I was on disability
and she was going to try to report me.
But I was not working.
I was just volunteering and hanging out.
She was just trying to get
the business owners in trouble.
[Haley] My mom is one
to protect her tribe.
So when Frances decided that
she was going to take my mom
and the tanning salon down,
my mom said it wasn't going to happen.
She's not the type that you can bully.
[Shawna] I went out my front door
and went over there.
[knocks on door]
And I told her, you know,
"Mind your own business."
"Nobody's bothering you
and we don't want to be bothered."
I did ask her why she was doing it,
and she just laughed.
And she said, "Because I can."
And then we got into a fight.
It wasn't just pulling hair,
slapping, it was a fight.
David come and broke it up
and drug me off of her.
[phone dialing]
Frances called 911.
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[man] I worked for Montgomery County
Sheriff's Department.
I was a deputy sheriff there.
We had to respond to Washington Street.
There was an incident that the neighbors
had a fight, a minor assault.
Frances was telling me
that she was struck with a stick.
[Shawna] Frances told the police
that I took a hoe
and that I hit her with it
and that David beat her with it.
And she demanded
that I be arrested immediately.
[Duane] She didn't have any injuries
on her that I seen
to show that she was struck with a stick.
I can't make an arrest on an assault
unless there's very serious
physical injuries that we can see.
[Shawna] I mean, was we scuffed up
from rolling on the ground? Absolutely.
But no, she was fine.
Then all of a sudden, the next day,
she had a neck brace on,
an arm brace on.
[Duane] Frances did follow up
with the steps
to formally press charges against Shawna.
She went to the county attorney,
and a warrant was issued
for Shawna in that case.
[tense music playing]
[Shawna] I was arrested
two weeks after the fight.
But I knew it was coming
because she was not going to stop
until they arrested me.
And when we got to the jail,
I called David and said,
"I'm at the jail. I'm being arrested."
And so he said, "I'll be right there."
This is the first time
I've ever been in trouble.
I was embarrassed
because Dave still worked
at the jail part-time as a deputy jailer.
[Haley] Dave calls me,
lets me know that my mom and Frances
physically assaulted each other
and that Frances was pressing charges
and wanted to see her in jail.
I was kind of in shock.
And I've never seen my mom act like that.
[Kyle] Dave kept in contact
with us after the altercation.
He was definitely worried about it
because he didn't want anything
to go against his name or Shawna's.
[Haley] Dave said that he was
going to get things settled.
Then just try to let everybody cool off.
I don't think everybody cooled off.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawna] When I got home
from being released from jail,
Frances was out in her yard,
video recording on her phone.
She was mad. She called the jail.
She called the sheriff's office demanding
that they put me in jail for 18 months
for assaulting her.
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Haley] Frances had this idea in her head
that Dave working at the jail
made it impossible for
my mom to face charges,
which is absolutely absurd.
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Two weeks after
I was released from jail,
they served me with
a paper to go to court.
[man] The case came to me in 2017.
And I was appointed as prosecutor.
Shawna Scott was being charged with
assault in the fourth degree minor injury.
It's a class A misdemeanor.
I had learned from reviewing the report
that it was a neighbor-on-neighbor case
where Ms. Zaayer
was the victim of an assault.
My first impression was pretty clear-cut.
And I'm like, okay, well, hopefully this
is something that we can get resolved.
[Shawna] After my first court appearance,
I wasn't no danger to no one.
I was just sitting home
waiting for my trial.
[Andrew] Shawna was under
a no-contact order
as part of her bond in the criminal case.
She is to have no contact with the victim.
And in this case, that was Frances Zaayer.
If she did violate that no-contact order,
she could potentially
be taken back into custody.
[Shawna] I was not allowed
to mow my front yard.
I was not allowed to go to my own mailbox
because it was 500 foot to her.
That's how close we lived.
I think that Frances really started
to try to bait my mom
to cross that line
so that she can make a phone call
and have my mom thrown in jail,
which is what she wanted all along.
[Shawna] From that point on,
she was nonstop calling the police.
It doesn't matter what we did,
she would call the cops on us.
[dramatic music playing]
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Duane] I was called
to Washington Avenue almost daily.
I mean, it was over and over,
just all the time.
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
We have to respond to every call.
And that's hard in a small community
because most of the time, we only had
two deputies on duty at one time.
[dispatch speaking]
[Duane speaking]
[Shawna] Frances did anything
she could to antagonize me.
My youngest daughter is biracial.
Frances called my daughter the N-word.
But I wouldn't fall for it.
I stayed away from her.
And I think she was racist against Dave.
I think she had it out for Dave
from day one.
I remember one weekend,
David went out to start the car.
And this car was across
the street in my dad's property.
[phone dialing]
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Frances came up to his car.
She went around the car windows.
Beating on the car windows,
cussing and calling names.
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Saying, "If you're a man,
come out here and fight me."
Just crazy.
He just drove away.
And I said,
"Why wouldn't you call the law?"
And he said, "What's the law going to do?
They're not going to do anything."
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Dave stayed so calm through this.
She tormented Dave.
He never said anything.
[Haley] He was non-confrontational.
He would say,
"Just let it be. It is what it is."
Dave was a peacemaker.
He was definitely the calm to my storm.
He would always say, "She's just a clown.
Don't attend her circus."
It kind of just spiraled from there.
Every time my mom was outside,
she was harassing her,
yelling crazy things at her.
Frances really started
stalking my mom everywhere she went.
[Shawna] She would follow me and Owen
to the grocery store,
block us in at Kroger's,
where I couldn't get out.
Anything she could think of
to do to aggravate, she would do it.
I would have Owen out in the yard,
my nieces would be out in the pool,
Frances would lay
out in her yard, topless.
She'd be out there mowing her yard naked,
showing her butt, mooning them,
showing them her boobs.
[dispatch speaking]
[Shawna speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Shawna speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Shawna speaking]
The cops informed us
that that's not against the law,
so there was nothing we could do about it.
[Duane] In the state of Kentucky, it's not
a crime for a woman to be topless.
But you can't show your genitalia.
And that's for guys and girls.
I mean, it's a crazy law,
because there's children out and about.
But we do have some odd laws here.
[Shawna] Haley was very uncomfortable
with Owen coming down,
because of what was going on.
They didn't feel safe there,
with Frances, the way she was acting.
[Haley] I refused to let
my son Owen come visit.
At this point,
I was pregnant with my second son.
I have to think of my family first,
before I take them down there and put them
around Frances, in an unknown situation.
And when I explained
all these feelings to Dave,
he saw where I was coming from.
But everybody else around me
thought that I was just being dramatic.
[Shawna] It was awful. We was upset,
and, you know, hurt.
Because our lives
revolved around that baby.
And I didn't talk to her for a while.
But Dave never stopped talking to her.
As we're entering 2018,
things were just awful.
Dave and I felt like
we was prisoners in our own home.
There was just no peace there.
And we was miserable for a year.
[knocks on door]
Every time we turned around,
there was cops knocking on our door.
Dave went down and talked to them,
and was like, you know,
"We need help.
We don't know where to go from here."
[man] I started working
at the Montgomery County
Regional Jail in 2016.
And that's when I first got to know Dave.
Corrections is
the hardest job that I've had.
But Dave made the job so much easier.
When he walked in, even the inmates,
they'd be in the window, like,
"What's up, Dave?"
Dave, he is like a
"it is what it is" type guy.
Like, you know, he lets things go.
But in spring of 2018,
I knew Dave was going through
some things at home.
Like, I knew he wasn't okay.
He would come in more,
like, a little bit more irritable.
He just kept saying, "Man,
I have this neighbor that's, like,
won't leave us the… alone, you know?"
It's like… And, like,
Dave doesn't really cuss, so it's like,
he just wanted the peace.
If you don't have a stable home life
in Corrections, then it's really hard.
Because you have all this chaos,
and the last thing you want to do
is go home and, like,
deal with more chaos.
[Haley] My mom and Dave started to really
have some issues with each other,
because Frances was kind of
driving a wedge into things.
[Andrew] In March 2018, I was prosecuting
Shawna's assault on Frances.
And we set a trial date for May of 2018.
The nature of the offense was that
Shawna went over to Frances's house,
and then there was a physical altercation
between the two
that resulted in them going to the ground.
Frances would call me almost daily
to complain about Shawna
or Shawna's family members.
Or how the police
are conspiring against her,
and the local judges
were conspiring against her.
When I would just try to explain to her,
"Look, I understand that you think
that this should be a higher offense,
but here's what the law is,
and this is what it is at this point…"
But she didn't really
want to hear about any of that.
It was, from her perspective,
she was the only victim,
doing nothing wrong.
She was totally infatuated.
This was her entire life,
was prosecuting this case
and getting Shawna Scott in jail.
I sent out the subpoenas
for this May date,
started talking
to some potential witnesses,
getting them prepped for trial.
I contacted the neighbor who was on scene
before Shawna's assault on Frances.
She was a neutral witness.
She wasn't a family member.
She wasn't a friend of Frances's.
[Andrew speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Andrew speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Andrew] I didn't want this case
to necessarily be presented before a jury
because Frances, I didn't believe,
was going to come off as
a very sympathetic victim.
I'm not naive enough to believe
that juries, when they go back there,
are not going to consider
other stuff as well.
Taking that all into consideration,
it's just one that you
don't want to put before a jury.
[Shawna] In May of 2018,
my attorney called and said,
"Shawna, this is what we've been offered
by the prosecution,
a plea deal, which would be
anger management classes
and probation for one year."
And he said, "Let's take it
and put this behind us."
And I said, "I totally agree."
We were scheduled to go to court on
the Monday after Memorial Day weekend.
I was looking forward
to it being all behind me,
but I knew it wasn't going to be
over with her,
because she wanted me
to go to jail for 18 months.
She was really livid
when she found out about the plea deal.
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Haley] Dave was starting
to also get the gut feeling
that things were not going to settle down
even after it was settled in court.
So he decided to start putting cameras
up around the house and the property.
With the security cameras, I was hoping
to show proof what she was doing
and to keep my family safe.
[tense music playing]
[Shawna] It was Memorial Day weekend.
And I was in the house
cleaning and mopping.
Dave was outside on the back porch
installing the last of our cameras.
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] I remember…
this awful bang.
[gunshot]
[screaming]
And I was down.
[gunshots]
I can recall being able
to look out the sliding glass door
and see Dave laying there.
And I can remember
hollering for somebody to help him.
[Wanda] I heard shots.
And then I heard my sister screaming.
And when I went out, I went to David.
You know, I don't know who called 911
because it wasn't me. I couldn't.
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[woman speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[screaming]
[woman shouting]
[dispatch speaking]
[woman speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[woman speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
May 26, I was
actually off duty that night.
My buddy called me, which was working.
And he said that…
Frances was identified as the shooter.
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Duane] They went over and had
a standoff out in front of her house.
[Frances] I have pleaded for help.
For a year, I begged for help,
and nobody would help me. Nobody.
[dispatch] Let me talk you
through this, okay?
-They're gonna shoot me.
-[dispatch] No, they won't.
They got a rifle pointed at my face.
[man] We do have the house surrounded
at this time.
It's okay. Come on.
Honey, we're just going to grab the gun.
That's all we're going to do, okay?
Come on out.
Subject in custody.
[Haley] May 26, 2018,
my husband, myself,
and our son Owen was home.
My husband's phone rang.
[phone rings]
And he answered it.
And he just kind of looked at me.
All I heard him say was,
"We're on our way."
Being almost 35 weeks pregnant,
I really didn't want to leave the house.
He looked at me,
and he just kind of calmly told me,
"She finally snapped."
And I said, "What do you mean?"
[Kyle] I told Haley at that point in time,
"Your mom and Dave got shot."
And I said, "Dave didn't make it."
[emotional music playing]
All I could say was, "No, not my Dave."
A lot of people
underestimated our relationship
because I was his stepdaughter.
But he was my stepdad for 20-plus years.
My next thought was,
"I'm not going to make it in time
to see my mom before she dies."
I was terrified that
I wasn't going to get to say bye.
At the time,
her and I were not on the best terms
because of this whole situation.
And, you know,
guilt starts eating you alive. And then…
that's a long drive from Ohio.
That's three hours.
When we got to the hospital that night,
we weren't able to see my mom.
And they said they were
putting her in the trauma center
because she had been shot in the face.
When I was told that
she was shot in the face, point-blank,
I was just racking my brain.
Like, how is she still alive?
[Haley] I didn't know
what was going to happen.
We all slept in hospital chairs overnight,
and about 7:30 the next morning,
they came out and told us
that we'd be able to see her.
She looked awful, almost unrecognizable.
Her face was a bloody mess.
Her hair was covered in blood still.
But I was so glad that she was okay.
Once they started pulling the tubes out,
my mom woke up.
They gave her a whiteboard and a marker.
The first thing
that she wrote was, "David?"
She didn't know that he didn't make it.
[Shawna] My dad and my girls told me
that he had passed away.
I learned that
Frances walked from her yard…
straight through my front yard,
up my front porch,
and inside my door.
Shot me right in the face.
I went down.
She went out the back door, and…
Dave was holding his hands up,
saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."
Well, then when he held his hands up,
she shot through his ring finger
and it went through and pierced his heart.
I was just… I couldn't believe it.
Our lives were torn apart in that moment.
They moved me into a trauma unit.
I still had a hole in my face
from the bullet.
They said I was going to be there
at least three weeks.
And I said, "No, I'm not."
"I'm leaving here because
I'm going home to my husband's funeral."
The next day, they did let me go down
and spend some time with Dave
at the funeral home.
He wasn't dressed yet or anything.
They wouldn't uncover him
and let me see any wounds or anything.
But I did get to sit with him for a while.
When I was sitting there with him,
I felt like,
"I don't know where to go from here.
I don't know what to do without him."
I just didn't know where to go from there.
I just told him I loved him
and I was so sorry that…
I can't believe this happened.
[woman] An emotional farewell as the body
of slain deputy jailer David Scott
was loaded into a hearse Monday afternoon.
While hundreds spent the day
mourning inside the funeral home,
dozens of jails across the state
also paid their respects,
sending deputies to work
the Montgomery County Jail
so all of Scott's coworkers
could attend his service.
[Lance] His funeral was beautiful.
Dave's loss not just
affected our community.
I mean, everyone around knew Dave.
We lost a legend.
[Duane] Dave was remembered as an officer.
We blocked all the intersections.
We did all the ceremony there,
the 21-gun salute.
I would never think it would have
escalated the way it was,
because I did respond
to her house many a times.
I looked at it as,
"If I could do something else…" [sobs]
And I still think about that,
but it's just one of the things that,
you know, you just…
you kind of beat yourself up. [sniffs]
[emotional music playing]
Over 850 people was there.
Owen, he sat right with me the whole time.
And he said that,
"I'm going to be here for you, Mimi.
I'm going to be here for you."
And I knew he knew then
that his papa was not coming back.
[Haley] Just Owen being there,
I think, really helped my mom.
You would catch him just patting her
on the back or giving her random hugs.
Just making sure that she was okay.
At the funeral,
she held onto me a little tighter.
It's sad that it took something like that
for my mom and I
to get back on the same page.
But…
we're family, and we got to stick together
because we're all we have now.
[Shawna] Haley was 30-something
weeks pregnant when Dave passed away.
So we buried him June 2nd.
And our second grandson was born July 9th.
[Haley] Obviously, my mom was still
in recovery when our son, Ryver, was born.
But from that moment on,
I think that she saw Ryver as,
you know, a saving grace.
Something to help keep,
you know, her fighting.
And she's always had a special
relationship with Ryver ever since.
[Shawna] I just want to be here
for my kids and my grandkids.
Throw it in a pan.
Because they are
the most important thing to me.
Years later, they come to us and told us,
"This is the plea deal
that we're going to offer."
Sorry, I am still so angry about that.
They told us if we go through a trial,
it's going to be excruciating.
I just didn't want to put my kids through
no more than they had to go through.
Showing all the photos of Dave's body,
you know, everything.
And we agreed for that plea deal.
Was that what I wanted?
Probably not.
But was it best for us?
Yes, I think so at the time.
[judge] Here for final sentencing
at this time.
Mr. Gold.
Thank you, your honor.
I think Haley is first.
You deserve so much more than
the sentence you are receiving today.
But it's at least a good start
for taking the life of a proud father,
grandfather, an adoring husband,
and a pillar of this community.
I know families of the victims
typically end their statements with,
"I forgive you,"
or "I need to forgive you to move on."
But I want to make myself very clear.
I do not forgive you.
I don't want to forgive you.
And I'm never going to forgive you.
[Shawna] It's my biggest fear
for Frances to be paroled.
My fear for my kids, my family.
Honestly, I hope she never gets out.
I mean, it's still a fear that's
in the back of my head every day.
[Duane] Frances never gave
an explanation for anything.
She didn't believe
she'd done anything wrong.
There wasn't no self-defense.
There wasn't… There's nothing there.
She took his life for no reason.
I don't think that that woman deserves
to ever be on the outside again,
unless she's in a coffin.
[Shawna] I knew that I had
a long road ahead of me.
That long road has included
16 facial surgeries
because all the bones
in my face were broken.
The loss of my sight in my left eye,
the loss of my hearing in my left ear,
scars on my face.
Just a lot of surgeries
and a lot of healing,
trying to get better.
Since David passed away,
I take it one day at a time.
Some days I have good days,
some days I have bad days.
Birthdays and holidays, very hard.
And I don't know if it'll ever get easier,
but I have to be strong for the kids.
So that's what I do.
-[Kyle] Hello, Mother.
-Hi.
-[chuckles]
-[child mumbling]
-[Kyle] Mozzarella wedgies.
-[Shawna] Wedgies.
[chuckles]
[Haley] We decided to relocate
back to Mount Sterling,
which is, you know, my hometown.
[Shawna] I didn't talk to her for a while.
Now our relationship's good.
And I'm thankful for that.
That's the cutest picture.
I want people to remember
that skin color is just a skin color.
It doesn't make a person.
Dave loved everybody.
He was a good person.
He was a good friend.
And he just had a smile
that could just light up a room.
And he didn't deserve this.
I just want him not to be forgotten.
[upbeat tense music playing]
[dog barking]
[dramatic music playing]
[man] Normally,
if your neighbor is mad at you
over a little fight in a property dispute,
it's simple.
That's a civil issue.
Well, it is until it turns into murder.
[woman 1 speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
Nothing justified what that woman did.
[woman 1 speaking]
-[dispatch speaking]
-[woman 1 sobbing]
-[cows mooing]
-[birds singing]
[chilling music playing]
[woman 2] In May of 2018,
I was shot in the face.
The bullet went in the right side.
It went through my nose,
and it came out my ear.
I'm really lucky to be here today.
[upbeat music playing]
Me and my husband, Dave,
moved to Mount Sterling in 2002.
We lived in Ohio,
and my parents retired
and came to Mount Sterling
because their family's down here.
So, we followed.
Mount Sterling is a small community.
It's about 36 miles from Lexington.
Pretty much everybody knows everybody,
and everybody's nice here.
They're friendly.
We're in our own little world here.
Pretty much my mom's entire family
is from Kentucky.
My grandparents lived here,
and my aunts and uncles.
[woman] Shawna's like my daughter.
Even though Shawna was an adult,
I wanted to make sure
Shawna was taken care of, yes. [chuckles]
Shawna's family is…
It's pretty good-sized.
Everybody's close.
You go up and count houses,
and half the family
is in every house up there.
The kids run up to each
family member's house, one to another,
knocking on doors,
going and getting candy.
[Shawna] My parents lived
right across the street from us.
It was good. I mean, we was
all close and spent time together,
and, you know, I had a pool in my yard.
So we had a lot of cookouts and dinners.
Dave and I, we were always
laughing and joking and smiling.
He didn't really have
a close-knit family like ours.
So David did appreciate
having a big family around.
My mom and Dave got together
when I was about two years old.
I have always had two dads.
I was very blessed in that aspect.
Dave watched me grow up,
and he was there every time
I made a mistake or did something good,
he was there.
And I'm just so thankful for that.
[upbeat music playing]
[Shawna] In 1995,
I was living in Franklin, Ohio.
I worked at Warren County
Board of Developmental Disabilities.
I was working as a bus driver.
And I transferred clients
to and from home each day
so they could do work.
David worked inside the group home.
My first interaction with David
was his very first day.
We got into an argument.
We would argue and fuss,
and he complained about me.
But each day,
I had to transport a behavioral student,
and he had to go with me.
So then we started talking
and was civil to each other.
He warmed up to me,
and it just went from there.
And we just kind of clicked.
We eventually started dating
and living together in my house
with my daughter, Haley.
[Haley] One of my first memories
of my mom and Dave together was
all of us going to Tennessee.
[Shawna] We're on vacation in Gatlinburg.
We woke up one morning, and he said,
"Do you want to get married today?"
And I was like, "Yeah, right."
Neither one of us
had clothes to get married in.
We both had shorts on.
I had a beer T-shirt on.
And Haley was probably the only one
that even had a cute outfit on,
because she was tiny,
and I dressed her cute.
They just knew they wanted
to be together, so they tied the knot.
And then my mom found out
she was pregnant with my sister.
It was just a chance that I took on him,
and it was a chance that Dave took on me.
[soft music playing]
[Shawna] Everybody in our neighborhood,
I mean, we all got along.
We were close-knit.
I'd lived there 14 years,
and I did not have any problems
with any neighbor.
Up until Frances came.
And then it all changed.
Frances did have a long history
with our family in Mount Sterling.
But she was actually
quite a bit older than me.
I didn't know much about Frances
other than her and my cousin
was very good friends.
And she had stayed with my grandma
when she was younger
because she was having family problems.
[Wanda] Frances became part of our family
when she was 15, 16 years old.
Frances didn't really
have a good home situation.
She told us that her mom
wasn't good to her,
but I was never sure.
She enjoyed being with my family.
She was there so much.
After a while, we just always
introduced her as our niece.
She became close to us. We all loved her.
She was funny. She was fun to be with.
I don't know what happened to her.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawna] I had not heard a word
about Frances for years
until, one day, she just showed up.
She was getting divorced,
and she was coming back home.
Frances wanted to buy property
and live by us
because, really,
she had been a part of our family.
When she first came here,
Frances had all kinds of money.
She told us when she got
a divorce from her husband,
she got a big settlement.
[Shawna] Frances had bought the property
straight across the street from us,
and she was going to put her
a new double-wide in there.
But there was an old house
and it had to be tore down,
and the yard had to be straightened up.
So she asked me if she could stay with me
until she got her house done.
I said, "Yes, that's fine. You can stay."
I could get along with
pretty much anybody, and I thought,
"I'm going to help her."
My main goal was to just be there
and treat her like family.
And that's what I intended on doing.
Frances moved in with us
at the end of November.
I was on disability, unable to work.
And Dave worked at a factory
out here in Mount Sterling
that makes parts for cars.
David also worked part-time at
the Montgomery County Regional Jail
as a deputy jailer.
And he was such a hard worker.
He worked all the time.
Both of my daughters
were out of the house.
So, I mean, I thought
it would be good company for me,
for Frances to be there.
Me and Frances would get out
and go shopping.
We'd go out to eat.
We went to the movies.
We had cookouts.
We used to go
to a club downtown and dance.
And we just had fun.
-But then we started having problems.
-[eerie music playing]
She'd get a little short with me or upset.
But I just blew it off
and didn't address it.
[Wanda] Frances's personality
became bossy.
Everything had to be her way.
Like, she wanted to take over.
[Shawna] If anybody knows me,
they know I clean.
I clean a lot.
I was vacuuming my house
one morning, early.
And she came out there and pulled
the plug out of the outlet and said,
"It's too early to be vacuuming."
And I was like, "Whoa, this is my house."
I started seeing more signs that it wasn't
a good idea for her to be with me.
She had told me
about a video that she was in.
And we watched it on YouTube.
Muslims, they follow
the same satanic book that they all do.
They all read the same pages.
Here's the thing.
I don't even see Islam as religion.
It's a death cult. A glorified death cult.
That's all it is.
That's all it ever will be.
-I don't like you.
-[man] You don't like me? Why?
-[Frances] Because you're Muslim.
-[man] Who said I'm Muslim?
[Frances] If you're not Muslim,
you're a Muslim lover.
I didn't tell you. I'm Jewish.
[Frances] I don't think you're into Jesus.
[man chuckles]
That's the truth.
[Frances] You're Jewish,
you're Muslim, or you're atheist.
Are you a fag too?
-[man] Am I a fag too?
-[Frances] Yeah.
I thought it was a little bit crazy.
But she thought it was cool
that she was in this video protesting.
And then I started thinking,
"She may be a little racist."
"This is not gonna work."
David did not like her at all.
He said she's trouble from the beginning.
She's loud-mouthed,
and she is an attention seeker.
He was a very good judge of people.
[Haley] In 2016, I was living in Ohio.
I had met my husband.
My son Owen was born in 2013.
So I'd already had a son
when I met my husband.
I visited my parents
almost every other weekend.
Dave and I was very close with Owen.
[Haley] Owen was the highlight of his life
because he had two girls.
So he wanted a boy in the family so bad.
The moment that Owen was born,
Dave was there every single day,
rocking him to sleep, holding him,
watching NASCAR with him.
You would think that they had
been best friends their whole lives.
[Shawna] He was our world.
It's different when you have a grandkid.
Haley brought Owen to visit one weekend.
And when they come in,
Haley's like, "Who is that?"
And I said, "That's Frances,
she's staying with me."
[Haley] When I learned about
Frances moving in with my parents,
it was a big surprise.
I didn't know this lady.
I didn't know anything about her.
Meeting Frances for the first time,
she was different.
She was very awkward
when we came into the house.
Kind of felt like we didn't belong.
She made us very uncomfortable.
Owen was three at the time
that Frances moved in.
So he was pretty rambunctious.
He was…
hell on wheels.
He didn't slow down for anything,
maybe for a cup of chocolate milk.
He was on the go all day long.
Frances was just kind of
a grumpy old lady when Owen was around.
I don't think
she really cared much for kids.
And I think part of it
took the spotlight off of her.
I don't think she liked that.
[Haley] Frances had resting bitch face.
She always looked like
she was about to ask for the manager.
And that's just not my cup of tea.
[horses nicker]
[Shawna] My arrangement
with my oldest daughter
was to get my grandson
every other weekend.
And he would stay with me all weekend.
Frances was home resting in the bed.
And Owen was riding his bike
around the house.
And he was making noise and hollering,
"Hey, Mimi, watch me!"
And she came out of the bedroom
and yelled at him and told him
to get off that bike and be quiet.
So she was trying to nap.
It was a shock to me
that she would have yelled
at my grandson like that in my house.
Her behavior towards my son
was not acceptable in Dave's eyes.
Nobody talked to his grandson like that.
She couldn't come in and start
trying to control the grandbabies now.
That's just not gonna happen.
Those grandbabies are our pride and joy.
[Shawna] I told her,
"You need to get your stuff together."
"And I'm gonna take my grandson to eat,
and when we get back,
you better be out of my house."
And we left
and when we came back, she was gone.
When all the issues came with Frances,
Dave wanted her to go.
So he was happy when she left.
I asked Frances to leave in January.
And she moved into her new home
across the street in March.
When she moved in,
I never dreamed
we would have issues with her.
I just assumed she'd stay over there
and live her life,
and we'd stay over here
and live our lives.
[dramatic sound effects]
But Frances decided
she was gonna try to cause problems.
One of the first issues
was the property line.
Frances had moved in and she was kind
of taking over property that wasn't hers.
It was actually my grandfather's.
[Shawna]Frances wanted
to build a driveway,
but she wanted to take it
over on my dad's property,
and my dad would not let her.
[Haley] My grandfather
was getting very irritated,
and she was not backing down.
They had it surveyed, and he was right.
She was way over the property line.
But that wasn't good enough.
[Shawna] Frances went ahead
and built the driveway.
My dad was furious.
My grandfather decided to
mark it off very vividly for her.
He put some…
vehicles there.
Upside down. [chuckles]
Yeah. He flipped cars over.
Welcome to Kentucky.
[laughs]
From that point on,
it just went downhill real quick.
[Haley] My mom at the time wasn't working
because of her health problems.
She was staying at home a lot.
And my sister was off to college.
I was obviously grown and
living in a completely different state.
I know that she was
getting kind of lonely.
So she decided, you know,
"I think I'm going to try
to get out of the house a little bit."
[Shawna] My friends had a tanning salon,
and one of my
best friends worked for them.
And I hung out there all the time.
[Haley] While Mom was at the tanning salon
and helping her friends,
Frances came out to the salon
and kind of was making a scene,
and then my Mom told her she had to leave.
[Shawna] And then Frances made
a post on Facebook to the business
saying that she's going to
report them for me working there.
She was accusing me
of working while I was on disability
and she was going to try to report me.
But I was not working.
I was just volunteering and hanging out.
She was just trying to get
the business owners in trouble.
[Haley] My mom is one
to protect her tribe.
So when Frances decided that
she was going to take my mom
and the tanning salon down,
my mom said it wasn't going to happen.
She's not the type that you can bully.
[Shawna] I went out my front door
and went over there.
[knocks on door]
And I told her, you know,
"Mind your own business."
"Nobody's bothering you
and we don't want to be bothered."
I did ask her why she was doing it,
and she just laughed.
And she said, "Because I can."
And then we got into a fight.
It wasn't just pulling hair,
slapping, it was a fight.
David come and broke it up
and drug me off of her.
[phone dialing]
Frances called 911.
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[man] I worked for Montgomery County
Sheriff's Department.
I was a deputy sheriff there.
We had to respond to Washington Street.
There was an incident that the neighbors
had a fight, a minor assault.
Frances was telling me
that she was struck with a stick.
[Shawna] Frances told the police
that I took a hoe
and that I hit her with it
and that David beat her with it.
And she demanded
that I be arrested immediately.
[Duane] She didn't have any injuries
on her that I seen
to show that she was struck with a stick.
I can't make an arrest on an assault
unless there's very serious
physical injuries that we can see.
[Shawna] I mean, was we scuffed up
from rolling on the ground? Absolutely.
But no, she was fine.
Then all of a sudden, the next day,
she had a neck brace on,
an arm brace on.
[Duane] Frances did follow up
with the steps
to formally press charges against Shawna.
She went to the county attorney,
and a warrant was issued
for Shawna in that case.
[tense music playing]
[Shawna] I was arrested
two weeks after the fight.
But I knew it was coming
because she was not going to stop
until they arrested me.
And when we got to the jail,
I called David and said,
"I'm at the jail. I'm being arrested."
And so he said, "I'll be right there."
This is the first time
I've ever been in trouble.
I was embarrassed
because Dave still worked
at the jail part-time as a deputy jailer.
[Haley] Dave calls me,
lets me know that my mom and Frances
physically assaulted each other
and that Frances was pressing charges
and wanted to see her in jail.
I was kind of in shock.
And I've never seen my mom act like that.
[Kyle] Dave kept in contact
with us after the altercation.
He was definitely worried about it
because he didn't want anything
to go against his name or Shawna's.
[Haley] Dave said that he was
going to get things settled.
Then just try to let everybody cool off.
I don't think everybody cooled off.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawna] When I got home
from being released from jail,
Frances was out in her yard,
video recording on her phone.
She was mad. She called the jail.
She called the sheriff's office demanding
that they put me in jail for 18 months
for assaulting her.
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Haley] Frances had this idea in her head
that Dave working at the jail
made it impossible for
my mom to face charges,
which is absolutely absurd.
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Two weeks after
I was released from jail,
they served me with
a paper to go to court.
[man] The case came to me in 2017.
And I was appointed as prosecutor.
Shawna Scott was being charged with
assault in the fourth degree minor injury.
It's a class A misdemeanor.
I had learned from reviewing the report
that it was a neighbor-on-neighbor case
where Ms. Zaayer
was the victim of an assault.
My first impression was pretty clear-cut.
And I'm like, okay, well, hopefully this
is something that we can get resolved.
[Shawna] After my first court appearance,
I wasn't no danger to no one.
I was just sitting home
waiting for my trial.
[Andrew] Shawna was under
a no-contact order
as part of her bond in the criminal case.
She is to have no contact with the victim.
And in this case, that was Frances Zaayer.
If she did violate that no-contact order,
she could potentially
be taken back into custody.
[Shawna] I was not allowed
to mow my front yard.
I was not allowed to go to my own mailbox
because it was 500 foot to her.
That's how close we lived.
I think that Frances really started
to try to bait my mom
to cross that line
so that she can make a phone call
and have my mom thrown in jail,
which is what she wanted all along.
[Shawna] From that point on,
she was nonstop calling the police.
It doesn't matter what we did,
she would call the cops on us.
[dramatic music playing]
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Duane] I was called
to Washington Avenue almost daily.
I mean, it was over and over,
just all the time.
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
We have to respond to every call.
And that's hard in a small community
because most of the time, we only had
two deputies on duty at one time.
[dispatch speaking]
[Duane speaking]
[Shawna] Frances did anything
she could to antagonize me.
My youngest daughter is biracial.
Frances called my daughter the N-word.
But I wouldn't fall for it.
I stayed away from her.
And I think she was racist against Dave.
I think she had it out for Dave
from day one.
I remember one weekend,
David went out to start the car.
And this car was across
the street in my dad's property.
[phone dialing]
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Frances came up to his car.
She went around the car windows.
Beating on the car windows,
cussing and calling names.
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Saying, "If you're a man,
come out here and fight me."
Just crazy.
He just drove away.
And I said,
"Why wouldn't you call the law?"
And he said, "What's the law going to do?
They're not going to do anything."
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] Dave stayed so calm through this.
She tormented Dave.
He never said anything.
[Haley] He was non-confrontational.
He would say,
"Just let it be. It is what it is."
Dave was a peacemaker.
He was definitely the calm to my storm.
He would always say, "She's just a clown.
Don't attend her circus."
It kind of just spiraled from there.
Every time my mom was outside,
she was harassing her,
yelling crazy things at her.
Frances really started
stalking my mom everywhere she went.
[Shawna] She would follow me and Owen
to the grocery store,
block us in at Kroger's,
where I couldn't get out.
Anything she could think of
to do to aggravate, she would do it.
I would have Owen out in the yard,
my nieces would be out in the pool,
Frances would lay
out in her yard, topless.
She'd be out there mowing her yard naked,
showing her butt, mooning them,
showing them her boobs.
[dispatch speaking]
[Shawna speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Shawna speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Shawna speaking]
The cops informed us
that that's not against the law,
so there was nothing we could do about it.
[Duane] In the state of Kentucky, it's not
a crime for a woman to be topless.
But you can't show your genitalia.
And that's for guys and girls.
I mean, it's a crazy law,
because there's children out and about.
But we do have some odd laws here.
[Shawna] Haley was very uncomfortable
with Owen coming down,
because of what was going on.
They didn't feel safe there,
with Frances, the way she was acting.
[Haley] I refused to let
my son Owen come visit.
At this point,
I was pregnant with my second son.
I have to think of my family first,
before I take them down there and put them
around Frances, in an unknown situation.
And when I explained
all these feelings to Dave,
he saw where I was coming from.
But everybody else around me
thought that I was just being dramatic.
[Shawna] It was awful. We was upset,
and, you know, hurt.
Because our lives
revolved around that baby.
And I didn't talk to her for a while.
But Dave never stopped talking to her.
As we're entering 2018,
things were just awful.
Dave and I felt like
we was prisoners in our own home.
There was just no peace there.
And we was miserable for a year.
[knocks on door]
Every time we turned around,
there was cops knocking on our door.
Dave went down and talked to them,
and was like, you know,
"We need help.
We don't know where to go from here."
[man] I started working
at the Montgomery County
Regional Jail in 2016.
And that's when I first got to know Dave.
Corrections is
the hardest job that I've had.
But Dave made the job so much easier.
When he walked in, even the inmates,
they'd be in the window, like,
"What's up, Dave?"
Dave, he is like a
"it is what it is" type guy.
Like, you know, he lets things go.
But in spring of 2018,
I knew Dave was going through
some things at home.
Like, I knew he wasn't okay.
He would come in more,
like, a little bit more irritable.
He just kept saying, "Man,
I have this neighbor that's, like,
won't leave us the… alone, you know?"
It's like… And, like,
Dave doesn't really cuss, so it's like,
he just wanted the peace.
If you don't have a stable home life
in Corrections, then it's really hard.
Because you have all this chaos,
and the last thing you want to do
is go home and, like,
deal with more chaos.
[Haley] My mom and Dave started to really
have some issues with each other,
because Frances was kind of
driving a wedge into things.
[Andrew] In March 2018, I was prosecuting
Shawna's assault on Frances.
And we set a trial date for May of 2018.
The nature of the offense was that
Shawna went over to Frances's house,
and then there was a physical altercation
between the two
that resulted in them going to the ground.
Frances would call me almost daily
to complain about Shawna
or Shawna's family members.
Or how the police
are conspiring against her,
and the local judges
were conspiring against her.
When I would just try to explain to her,
"Look, I understand that you think
that this should be a higher offense,
but here's what the law is,
and this is what it is at this point…"
But she didn't really
want to hear about any of that.
It was, from her perspective,
she was the only victim,
doing nothing wrong.
She was totally infatuated.
This was her entire life,
was prosecuting this case
and getting Shawna Scott in jail.
I sent out the subpoenas
for this May date,
started talking
to some potential witnesses,
getting them prepped for trial.
I contacted the neighbor who was on scene
before Shawna's assault on Frances.
She was a neutral witness.
She wasn't a family member.
She wasn't a friend of Frances's.
[Andrew speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Andrew speaking]
[woman speaking]
[Andrew] I didn't want this case
to necessarily be presented before a jury
because Frances, I didn't believe,
was going to come off as
a very sympathetic victim.
I'm not naive enough to believe
that juries, when they go back there,
are not going to consider
other stuff as well.
Taking that all into consideration,
it's just one that you
don't want to put before a jury.
[Shawna] In May of 2018,
my attorney called and said,
"Shawna, this is what we've been offered
by the prosecution,
a plea deal, which would be
anger management classes
and probation for one year."
And he said, "Let's take it
and put this behind us."
And I said, "I totally agree."
We were scheduled to go to court on
the Monday after Memorial Day weekend.
I was looking forward
to it being all behind me,
but I knew it wasn't going to be
over with her,
because she wanted me
to go to jail for 18 months.
She was really livid
when she found out about the plea deal.
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Haley] Dave was starting
to also get the gut feeling
that things were not going to settle down
even after it was settled in court.
So he decided to start putting cameras
up around the house and the property.
With the security cameras, I was hoping
to show proof what she was doing
and to keep my family safe.
[tense music playing]
[Shawna] It was Memorial Day weekend.
And I was in the house
cleaning and mopping.
Dave was outside on the back porch
installing the last of our cameras.
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Frances speaking]
[Shawna] I remember…
this awful bang.
[gunshot]
[screaming]
And I was down.
[gunshots]
I can recall being able
to look out the sliding glass door
and see Dave laying there.
And I can remember
hollering for somebody to help him.
[Wanda] I heard shots.
And then I heard my sister screaming.
And when I went out, I went to David.
You know, I don't know who called 911
because it wasn't me. I couldn't.
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[woman speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[screaming]
[woman shouting]
[dispatch speaking]
[woman speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[woman speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
May 26, I was
actually off duty that night.
My buddy called me, which was working.
And he said that…
Frances was identified as the shooter.
[phone dialing]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[dispatch speaking]
[Frances speaking]
[Duane] They went over and had
a standoff out in front of her house.
[Frances] I have pleaded for help.
For a year, I begged for help,
and nobody would help me. Nobody.
[dispatch] Let me talk you
through this, okay?
-They're gonna shoot me.
-[dispatch] No, they won't.
They got a rifle pointed at my face.
[man] We do have the house surrounded
at this time.
It's okay. Come on.
Honey, we're just going to grab the gun.
That's all we're going to do, okay?
Come on out.
Subject in custody.
[Haley] May 26, 2018,
my husband, myself,
and our son Owen was home.
My husband's phone rang.
[phone rings]
And he answered it.
And he just kind of looked at me.
All I heard him say was,
"We're on our way."
Being almost 35 weeks pregnant,
I really didn't want to leave the house.
He looked at me,
and he just kind of calmly told me,
"She finally snapped."
And I said, "What do you mean?"
[Kyle] I told Haley at that point in time,
"Your mom and Dave got shot."
And I said, "Dave didn't make it."
[emotional music playing]
All I could say was, "No, not my Dave."
A lot of people
underestimated our relationship
because I was his stepdaughter.
But he was my stepdad for 20-plus years.
My next thought was,
"I'm not going to make it in time
to see my mom before she dies."
I was terrified that
I wasn't going to get to say bye.
At the time,
her and I were not on the best terms
because of this whole situation.
And, you know,
guilt starts eating you alive. And then…
that's a long drive from Ohio.
That's three hours.
When we got to the hospital that night,
we weren't able to see my mom.
And they said they were
putting her in the trauma center
because she had been shot in the face.
When I was told that
she was shot in the face, point-blank,
I was just racking my brain.
Like, how is she still alive?
[Haley] I didn't know
what was going to happen.
We all slept in hospital chairs overnight,
and about 7:30 the next morning,
they came out and told us
that we'd be able to see her.
She looked awful, almost unrecognizable.
Her face was a bloody mess.
Her hair was covered in blood still.
But I was so glad that she was okay.
Once they started pulling the tubes out,
my mom woke up.
They gave her a whiteboard and a marker.
The first thing
that she wrote was, "David?"
She didn't know that he didn't make it.
[Shawna] My dad and my girls told me
that he had passed away.
I learned that
Frances walked from her yard…
straight through my front yard,
up my front porch,
and inside my door.
Shot me right in the face.
I went down.
She went out the back door, and…
Dave was holding his hands up,
saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."
Well, then when he held his hands up,
she shot through his ring finger
and it went through and pierced his heart.
I was just… I couldn't believe it.
Our lives were torn apart in that moment.
They moved me into a trauma unit.
I still had a hole in my face
from the bullet.
They said I was going to be there
at least three weeks.
And I said, "No, I'm not."
"I'm leaving here because
I'm going home to my husband's funeral."
The next day, they did let me go down
and spend some time with Dave
at the funeral home.
He wasn't dressed yet or anything.
They wouldn't uncover him
and let me see any wounds or anything.
But I did get to sit with him for a while.
When I was sitting there with him,
I felt like,
"I don't know where to go from here.
I don't know what to do without him."
I just didn't know where to go from there.
I just told him I loved him
and I was so sorry that…
I can't believe this happened.
[woman] An emotional farewell as the body
of slain deputy jailer David Scott
was loaded into a hearse Monday afternoon.
While hundreds spent the day
mourning inside the funeral home,
dozens of jails across the state
also paid their respects,
sending deputies to work
the Montgomery County Jail
so all of Scott's coworkers
could attend his service.
[Lance] His funeral was beautiful.
Dave's loss not just
affected our community.
I mean, everyone around knew Dave.
We lost a legend.
[Duane] Dave was remembered as an officer.
We blocked all the intersections.
We did all the ceremony there,
the 21-gun salute.
I would never think it would have
escalated the way it was,
because I did respond
to her house many a times.
I looked at it as,
"If I could do something else…" [sobs]
And I still think about that,
but it's just one of the things that,
you know, you just…
you kind of beat yourself up. [sniffs]
[emotional music playing]
Over 850 people was there.
Owen, he sat right with me the whole time.
And he said that,
"I'm going to be here for you, Mimi.
I'm going to be here for you."
And I knew he knew then
that his papa was not coming back.
[Haley] Just Owen being there,
I think, really helped my mom.
You would catch him just patting her
on the back or giving her random hugs.
Just making sure that she was okay.
At the funeral,
she held onto me a little tighter.
It's sad that it took something like that
for my mom and I
to get back on the same page.
But…
we're family, and we got to stick together
because we're all we have now.
[Shawna] Haley was 30-something
weeks pregnant when Dave passed away.
So we buried him June 2nd.
And our second grandson was born July 9th.
[Haley] Obviously, my mom was still
in recovery when our son, Ryver, was born.
But from that moment on,
I think that she saw Ryver as,
you know, a saving grace.
Something to help keep,
you know, her fighting.
And she's always had a special
relationship with Ryver ever since.
[Shawna] I just want to be here
for my kids and my grandkids.
Throw it in a pan.
Because they are
the most important thing to me.
Years later, they come to us and told us,
"This is the plea deal
that we're going to offer."
Sorry, I am still so angry about that.
They told us if we go through a trial,
it's going to be excruciating.
I just didn't want to put my kids through
no more than they had to go through.
Showing all the photos of Dave's body,
you know, everything.
And we agreed for that plea deal.
Was that what I wanted?
Probably not.
But was it best for us?
Yes, I think so at the time.
[judge] Here for final sentencing
at this time.
Mr. Gold.
Thank you, your honor.
I think Haley is first.
You deserve so much more than
the sentence you are receiving today.
But it's at least a good start
for taking the life of a proud father,
grandfather, an adoring husband,
and a pillar of this community.
I know families of the victims
typically end their statements with,
"I forgive you,"
or "I need to forgive you to move on."
But I want to make myself very clear.
I do not forgive you.
I don't want to forgive you.
And I'm never going to forgive you.
[Shawna] It's my biggest fear
for Frances to be paroled.
My fear for my kids, my family.
Honestly, I hope she never gets out.
I mean, it's still a fear that's
in the back of my head every day.
[Duane] Frances never gave
an explanation for anything.
She didn't believe
she'd done anything wrong.
There wasn't no self-defense.
There wasn't… There's nothing there.
She took his life for no reason.
I don't think that that woman deserves
to ever be on the outside again,
unless she's in a coffin.
[Shawna] I knew that I had
a long road ahead of me.
That long road has included
16 facial surgeries
because all the bones
in my face were broken.
The loss of my sight in my left eye,
the loss of my hearing in my left ear,
scars on my face.
Just a lot of surgeries
and a lot of healing,
trying to get better.
Since David passed away,
I take it one day at a time.
Some days I have good days,
some days I have bad days.
Birthdays and holidays, very hard.
And I don't know if it'll ever get easier,
but I have to be strong for the kids.
So that's what I do.
-[Kyle] Hello, Mother.
-Hi.
-[chuckles]
-[child mumbling]
-[Kyle] Mozzarella wedgies.
-[Shawna] Wedgies.
[chuckles]
[Haley] We decided to relocate
back to Mount Sterling,
which is, you know, my hometown.
[Shawna] I didn't talk to her for a while.
Now our relationship's good.
And I'm thankful for that.
That's the cutest picture.
I want people to remember
that skin color is just a skin color.
It doesn't make a person.
Dave loved everybody.
He was a good person.
He was a good friend.
And he just had a smile
that could just light up a room.
And he didn't deserve this.
I just want him not to be forgotten.
[upbeat tense music playing]