Murder in Glitterball City (2026) s01e02 Episode Script

1
It started
with a fight between lovers
at a South Fourth Street home
and ended with two men
charged with murder.
When the murder
of Jamie Carroll was uncovered,
the story kind of just fell
in my lap.
Joseph Banis
is accused of killing.
James Carroll and burying
his body in his basement.
"In my head,
gears started to turn,"
slowly at first.
Joseph Banis,
Jeffrey Mundt,
"James Carroll."
Joseph Banis
is the first of two men
to be tried
for Carroll's murder.
"Lovers' triangle."
Body in the basement.
Spooky old mansion.
Revenge. Drugs.
Kinky sex.
"You couldn't make
this stuff up."
Jury is expected to
hear closing arguments today.
You are here to judge
the guilt of Joseph Banis,
and Jeffrey Mundt
and Joseph Banis
did this together.
They acted in complicity
with each other
to commit the murder
of Jamie Carroll.
Jamie Carroll spent six months
in a 50-gallon
Rubbermaid container.
Taste of your,
taste of your ♪
"Would a verdict
make sense of it all?"
Baby, can't you see
I'm calling? ♪
A guy like you
should wear a warning ♪
It's dangerous ♪
I'm falling ♪
911 Operator Walker.
Where is your emergency?
My ex-boyfriend is attacking me.
With a taste of your lips,
I'm on a ride ♪
Can somebody help?
You're toxic,
I'm slippin' under ♪
With a taste
of a poison paradise ♪
Please hurry.
I'm addicted to you ♪
Don't you know
that you're toxic? ♪
Please.
They're coming.
Taste of your ♪
I can't get rid of him.
The jury is getting ready
to decide the fate
of a Louisville man
who could get the death penalty
if convicted of murder.
There's no indication yet
how long Mitch Perry
will let the jurors go tonight.
Once we walked into
the jury room to deliberate,
we talked into the night
up until about midnight.
Jurors deliberated
murder suspect
Joseph Banis' fate
for nine and a half hours
last night
before the judge ordered them
sequestered overnight.
It is an unusual situation
where a jury would go out
and we would be here
late into the night,
to the point where we had
to come back the next day.
I think we essentially
all agreed like from the start.
I feel like Jeff Mundt
was more the mastermind.
A lot of us believed
that it was Jeffrey
that was more guilty.
After it seems like
we've been stuck in the clouds
forever, sunshine
out there this morning,
it's gonna last all day.
Good morning, I'm John Boel
with some breaking news.
We wanna take you live downtown
right now to the courthouse
where we're about to get
a verdict
in the murder case
of Joseph Banis.
Judge is speaking right now
so let's listen in.
I was told you have
a verdict, Mr. Foreperson.
-Is that true?
-Yes, Your Honor.
Alright. If you could hand the
jury sheets to Sheriff Brown.
Mr. Banis, if you'd please rise.
"Under verdict instruction
number one,
we the jury found
the defendant, Joseph Banis,
"guilty under instruction
number one."
It's against the rule
but I let them hug there.
I mean, if a guy going for life,
what the heck?
This might be his last time
seeing his parents.
If we had had
both of them on trial together,
our jury would've found
them both guilty.
Absolutely, 100%.
"Dearest Kevin."
I just got my photos back
and decided to send you one
along with this card
"to let you know
I've been thinking of you."
Joey Banis was
my first boyfriend.
He writes letters to me
every single day.
"I still sometimes worry
that you won't want to be
my friend in the long term."
This goes on for years.
I have shoe boxes
full of letters,
like cards from him,
all handwritten.
He used to always finish it
with a peace sign,
a heart sign, and a smiley face.
"Peace, love, happiness, Joey."
So this is the first photograph
I ever took with Joey.
This is when we fell in love.
A drag queen once told us,
"You look like bookends."
I met him
on a rainy November night
in a bank parking lot.
I'll never forget
his face though, like,
just the first time I saw him
through the car window.
Just like that slow looking
over, like, "Is this him?"
And we were sitting in a car,
'cause that's
our relationship
was limited to that,
'cause he lived with his parents
and I lived with my parents,
like, where were we
supposed to go?
So every night
we would just sit in a car
and just talk for hours.
Remember,
don't mail it in, bring it in
and get your cash today!
He was very intelligent
and that was something
that was really important to me.
Could carry
a conversation and
from an amazing, you know,
from a really good family
and with a, you know,
a great pedigree.
We decided we wanted to get
our own place.
We found
this cute little apartment
down on First Street.
There were no closets
in that apartment.
The joke was, "Well,
we just came out of the closet,
so I guess we don't need them
anymore."
Louisville broke the record
for an all-time low temperature
of minus 22 degrees.
One year Louisville got hit
with a huge snowstorm.
We couldn't even go to work.
Businesses were shut down.
It was awesome for us.
You know,
be snowed in like kids
in snow day in school.
We, you know, started,
you know, talking about things
and smoking weed.
He told me his story.
And his story was,
he had spent time in jail.
He was a Deadhead.
He followed
the Grateful Dead around.
And they found some like LSD
in the car and he had a gun.
And I was like,
"Wow, a gun. Like that's
Why would you why would
someone need a gun?"
But whatever. I was like,
I don't I didn't care.
You know, like, "I-I love you.
It's alright, people-people
make mistakes, right?
Now, you let's just,
let's move on.
Let's move, let's move forward."
"And then from there,
it was, "Hey, like,
have you ever done LSD?"
And this is when I started
to realize, like,
he doesn't have the switch
that people have
of like, enough is enough.
One day, it was on Father's Day,
we did some LSD
and I was feeling good.
We start he starts
this argument, right?
He immediately gets angry.
He just reaches down
and picks up a piece of glass
and shoves it in my arm.
He goes, "You see what
you made me do?"
And I'm like, "Holy shit!"
And so I'm bleeding
and I very calmly just get up
and I walk outta the apartment.
I walk next door and knock
on the neighbor's door.
And the girl, she opens the door
and says, "Damn."
I said, "Would you call
the police please?"
So
I get him kicked out
and that fucker
moves in next door.
It was scary.
This is
the Victorian Ghost Walk.
It's a once-a-year,
annual event.
People in Victorian attire
and-and period costume
are staged to come alive
as the spirits.
I'm gonna sweat a lot of it off,
I can tell already.
It looks good in the beard,
for sure.
"Because of
the sensational murder trial,"
more people wanted to come see
the neighborhood
"in spite
of its sullied reputation."
Louisville is
an extremely spirited place
spirited with bourbon
and spirited around here
with a lot of ghostly figures.
I do believe in ghosts.
So many people have lived
and died in these houses.
People have said
that they have seen
ghostly figures walking
through my house.
So many people have been laid
in the front parlor
for three days.
I think there were some sad,
sad things
that happened
in those front rooms.
My husband
passed away in this house.
I found him lying on the floor.
I felt like somebody
was pinching me,
which sounds so crazy.
But, uh, that's what
he would've done,
just kind of aggravated me.
My house had a ghost in it.
My cat was the only one
who could see it.
I never saw it.
She was the only one who saw it.
But it was always
the same place,
the same setup,
the same time of day.
It was there.
It was definitely there.
'Cause she would just walk
in the room and sit down and
There's a ghost here.
There's one back here,
freaked out her brother.
The woman.
This used to be a brothel
back here.
-That's what the landlord says.
-I think it's a rat.
-I don't think it's a ghost.
-No.
The landlord talked about it
years ago.
Supposedly it's a woman.
That's what her brother said.
Gather around me, you see,
she will only speak to all of us
when she sees the near of thee.
Every 15 minutes,
starting at six o'clock,
a group of 35 to 40 people
leaves with a guide.
The baby's dead.
She's not asleep.
These are not
professional actors.
The reaper comes
for souls to keep.
Sometimes it's their first
acting gig ever.
Let the dead come alive!
The darker it gets,
the spookier it gets,
and more witches come out.
Double, double toil and trouble.
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
My paranormal friends,
they think one of the reasons
that this is such a haunted
neighborhood is the fact
that we have so much stone
and brick construction,
'cause they retain energy,
they retain images better
than light, airy, uh,
wooden constructions would.
Louisville is America's
most haunted neighborhood
because when you have
a tour guide
telling ghost stories
three and four times a night,
the more you say their name,
the more energy you feed 'em,
the more you're lifting
their-their soul
and their essence, so to speak.
Well, last year they asked me
to play Annie Whipple.
"'Dr. Anderson!
Dr. Anderson!' I implored."
Two doors down, they say a ghost
of a governess
they call Annie Whipple
walks up and down the staircase.
"And so"
"My head drooped
and my hand
dipped its pen in ink
and scrawled the message
across the page.
And when I awoke,
the chilling words before me
on the page said,
"'You fool!
I am not Dr. Anderson!'"
But I wanna make sure
that I do her justice
because I only live
a block from her.
It's been suggested
that we have someone stationed
in front of the murder house
dragging, uh,
a blue Rubbermaid tote
between the two of them.
But we think it's
a little too soon to go there.
When I moved in
across the street
from the murder house,
I was taking a lot of baths.
I had an awesome clawfoot tub
I spent a lot of time in.
I started noticing a figure
walking back and forth
in front of the windows.
And so I thought,
"Oh," maybe at first,
"this is somebody sneaking
into that house."
But I kept seeing that person
in the window.
Sometimes their hair is long,
sometimes their hair is short,
and after a while I realized,
that person's not alive.
I drew a sketch,
I put it on my Instagram,
"and I said, " Yeah,
I think that's
Jamie Carroll's ghost
"trying to get my attention."
"I wanted to piece together"
a more complete portrait
of Jamie Carroll.
He had lived and worked
for a while
in Paintsville, Kentucky,
"where he ran a hair salon."
Jamie was just a great person.
Jamie would give you
the shirt off his back
and not expect anything
in return.
He was a mommy's boy.
He made sure Mom had groceries.
You know, he-he made sure
that Mom was taken care of.
He would stop by and see me.
He always did come by
and see me.
Sometimes I could tell
he was not himself.
He was
He was just he was
I better not say that,
but he was
he was not himself.
Maybe drugs or whatever.
The name
of Jamie's shop was Illusions.
We was there a lot at night
'cause, you know,
Jamie did a lot
of his secret business there,
you know, making his money
on the side there.
His international house
of business.
He would mix all kinds of powder
besides hair chemical.
I tell you,
he was our coke and meth dealer.
I mean, I can tell you
from experience of me,
you know, I was addicted
to meth for many years.
Started doing meth and coke,
15, 14-year-old,
and with Jamie, you know,
Tyloxes, smoking weed,
doing ecstasy,
whatever I could get with him.
Oh yeah, we've partied together.
We've
we've been stupid.
I've been a stupid mother, but
Not really a stupid mother.
She was a fun mother.
But when I
would party with Jamie,
I would carry around his little
bag of his stash, whatever,
and I would sell it for him.
They'd be like, "Gimme a 10."
And I'd give 'em
a little $10 bag or whatever.
He used to have
those cute little meth bags
that had little cherries on 'em.
You knew they were Jamie's.
You'd find one laying around
in Paintsville, empty,
and you'd say, "That's Jamie's."
He'd tell people
when we first walked in,
"This is my fag hag.
You don't mess with her,
and everything's okay."
He had your back.
You were protected
when you was with Jamie.
Around here,
Jamie was a protector.
He was a provider,
but he had to get away from here
to make all the money
that he brought back
into this place.
He thought that's the only way
he would get accepted,
when he got here,
was to provide for people.
It started with coke,
and, Lord, it flowed like
snow in the Alps there.
Someone introduced Jamie
to crack,
and that's when
it went downhill.
Jamie lost the salon.
Jamie lost the house.
Jamie lost Jamie lost Jamie.
And then it went
to methamphetamine.
That's the last thing I know
that he sold.
I can remember Jamie
coming to visit me once
in my apartment
and
I look over
and Jamie's in the floor
"and I said, " What are you doing?
Get up."
He said, "Bitch, I can't.
I'm high."
I said, "On what?"
I said, "Bitch,
you're smoking cat litter."
She said, "Dude, your cat shits
rocks, girl, okay," she said.
The meth that was around
back then was stuff
that you had to go away
from here and get,
so the town hadn't seen
the stuff like that.
Only the gay community.
They call it
high speed chicken feed,
because around here,
you know, everybody on it,
it's just high speed
when they're on it.
-How do you explain it?
-That's about it.
Sums it up. You can
you can do it all, and for days.
There's no rest.
You don't need no rest.
It kind of decreases
your inhibitions.
It lets you put what you feel is
your best foot forward,
which it may not be, you know.
And that was what
the crystal meth of that time
really done and took it
That's how it took a hold
of the small communities
around here.
This would be 13 and a half
pounds of meth,
almost enough to fill
a giant bag of cat food.
The drug epidemic
reaching every corner
of Louisville.
The biggest meth bust
in the city's history.
Over 34 pounds of meth.
What happened was
crystal meth came in,
then the scene changed.
I can always tell when,
uh, someone's doing meth.
Their eyes are darting a lot.
They move twitch a lot,
move a lot.
Very "tweaky," is the word,
a tweak.
They tweak a lot.
We used to call, uh,
crystal meth was called Tina,
because Tina Turner's
very popular
and she would
You know, so we call it Tina.
"Are we gonna do some Tina?"
"Yeah, I yeah, I think
I'm gonna do some Tina tonight.
I'll be alright, I'll be
I'll be I'll be fine."
You know.
You can tell by the teeth
how the decay in the teeth
and things like that
from using meth.
They chew on their cheek.
Crystal meth made
your inhibitions go away
and-and people were like,
"Yeah, I can take on
the world," you know?
And a lot of times it meant,
"Yeah, I could take on
the world."
I wanted to get high
and have sex.
And so I got online and, um,
me and Jamie hooked up.
He came over to the hotel room
that I was at,
and we had sex on like
15 ounces of crystal meth
and, uh, had a blast.
During that time,
I also met Jase online, um,
late night, after clubbing, um,
messaged each other
off of Adam4Adam.
He and I were both high
on crystal meth.
The first time Joey and I met,
we did drugs,
which was very exciting
sexually.
He loved, loved, loved
latex, rubber, gear,
forced chemicals, bondage,
all things that were new to me
that he got me to try.
I don't know the best way
to describe it, but it makes
it basically makes you
incredibly horny.
He was into bondage
and I liked having threesomes.
That's how Jamie, Jase, and I
ended up having that three-way.
I guess you probably would hear
a lot of people say this,
but, like, I don't have
a problem being high
and, like, knowing
what's going on.
Jeffrey Mundt was one
of those people
who absolutely loses touch
with reality,
um, being high on crystal meth.
Jase is having a,
I guess, toxic reaction
to something he ate
or not being able to eat.
See, he's passed out in the bed
after trying to clean up
the room.
They're off
in the Kentucky Derby!
If you wanna ride ♪
Attorneys deliver
opening arguments
in a love triangle murder case.
"In May,
right after the Kentucky Derby,".
Jeffrey Mundt stood trial.
Joey Banis
had already been found guilty
"for the murder
of Jamie Carroll."
Accused killer Jeffrey Mundt
scheduled to be in court today.
"Once again, Judge Mitch Perry"
presided in the courtroom,
"and familiar figures sat at
the table for the prosecution."
Three men entered,
two men leave.
"But the defense team had
a markedly different makeup."
What he just told you is a lie
and you'll know it.
"Dramatically, Romines went"
to the Rubbermaid storage bin
and rolled it to the side
as if to convey to the jury
that he and everybody else
recognized it
"as a cheap gimmick."
It's easy to defend a case
when your defense is the truth.
We'll prove to you
before this trial is over,
Jeff Mundt is innocent.
I know Steve
from some of the cases
he-he has in my courtroom.
I call him "Big Money."
Yes.
Steve Romines
is one of the more well-paid,
well-known
criminal defense attorneys.
There are certain type of cases
that I prefer not to take.
The first is, and, you know,
this is a sad reality how it is,
can they afford to defend
the case properly?
He wins a lot.
Jeff Mundt is innocent
and we'll prove to you
that they know it.
He acts exactly like a very
high-priced lawyer should act.
They have had the evidence
in their hands
and they have either ignored it,
they have disregarded it,
or they have hidden it.
Doesn't come
any more theatrical than that.
That's what
you're paying him for.
You're gonna get
the whole truth.
In fact, you're gonna start it
this afternoon.
Joey Banis's own words.
Let's hear 'em.
I'm recording my death
for the purpose
of informing all informed
or all concerned
of my own willful suicide
and the complete non-involvement
or culpability of anyone else,
specifically of my boyfriend,
lover, life partner, and friend,
my one, Jeffrey Steven Mundt.
We felt like that was
the single most powerful piece
of evidence in the entire case.
This includes killing someone.
It's a confession.
He's confessing to the murder,
and he's confessing
to threatening Jeff about it,
to holding Jeff hostage,
to violence against Jeff.
The police and the prosecution
had this the entire time
and they had never seen it
until I showed it to the jury
in opening statement.
You clearly
had not reviewed his videos.
-No, sir.
-Some of this information
would've been helpful
in retrospect. Wouldn't it?
Sir, it would've been
it would've been very helpful.
The reason why,
and it's simple now, uh,
the police's forensic evaluation
of the computers
were done with PCs,
and that video was filmed
on a Apple or Mac.
I'm thinking, okay, well,
this is this is a slam dunk.
You've got this guy saying
he's-he's doing it,
he's gonna commit suicide,
he's clearing his lover.
But then when it got back
to the prosecutors
a few days later,
they come back,
"Wait, there's a start to this."
I guess at this point, Judge,
I would move
for admission of that,
permission to play it.
And, Judge, let's-let's not make
some misimpression.
There are three
different videos.
-It's not like
-Judge, can we approach?
There's three separate videos
at this time.
The impression was given
that there's
that somehow we cut one
of them off or whatever.
Three clips on the same day?
Yeah, but again, there
it's not like we-we somehow
edited it out
or anything like that.
The defense for Mr. Mundt only
played a portion of the video.
And there is no doubt that they
did not play the beginning part
that was not that beneficial
to them.
Go ahead.
Hello?
Alright.
Okay, class.
So this is Joey's explanation
of what he says happened
during the recording
of that video.
"This is a check to see
if the video camera"
is recording correctly
and setting it up
for the 'Suicidal Farewell.'
I was sick of Jase
and didn't want to be
with him anymore.
Jase would not let me go.
He had threatened me
and threatened my family.
The only way was
to completely absolve him
of all responsibility.
So Jase wrote out a script
and told me to read it in front
"of the flip video camera
connected to my computer."
"I am sorry for any pain
that this causes."
Mm-hmm.
You can see who's in charge.
You can see
who's making this happen,
and it, uh,
it clearly is not Mr. Banis.
You have Mundt
almost seeming to dictate
what Banis was gonna say.
So you're right back
to the start
of who-who is guilty here?
Every time you thought you knew,
you didn't really know.
A big twist today
as the trial continues
for the second man charged
Joseph Banis expected to testify
against Jeffrey Mundt.
"The courtroom perked up"
when Bailiff Brown
escorted Joey Banis
in an orange jumpsuit
to the stand.
As Banis passed in front
of the defense table,
"he gave his ex-boyfriend
a strange lovesick look."
Banis agreed
to testify in exchange
for prosecutors dropping
the death penalty.
He was
the prosecution's star witness,
just like Jeff was
the prosecution's star witness
in Joey's case.
Do you swear and affirm the
testimony you're about to give
will be the truth
and the whole truth?
-Yes, I do, Your Honor.
-Alright. Go ahead.
Introduce yourself to
the members of the jury, please.
My name is Joseph Richard Banis.
One of the things that
we intended to introduce
was Jeffrey's testimony
from Joey's trial,
so that the jury could hear
his testimony,
his version of events.
If the jury
in Jeffrey Mundt's trial
would've been able to hear
both sides,
they would've been able
to see the whole story.
But the court
did not allow that to happen.
What happened
on December 14th, 2009?
We're all getting it on.
We were comfortable.
We were in bed together.
The three of us started,
you know, watching porn
and, you know, some music was on
and we were playing around
in the bed and so forth.
Jeff suggested
that he still had some money
that he would like to spend,
and since the drugs were good,
could Jamie get him some more?
And Jamie said, "Oh yeah, sure."
When Jamie was gone,
Jeff asked,
"Do you think anybody
would miss Jamie?
We could just take his drugs."
When Jamie came back in,
we decided
we were gonna play together,
have sex together.
After we were done,
I got up to get dressed.
I heard a noise,
and when I turned around,
Jamie and Jeff were struggling,
and they tumbled to the floor.
They started struggling.
I was still thinking
this was some type
of sex scene that was going on
because that was one
of the things we did
involving in role-play.
Jamie yelled out,
"Joey, Joey, help me."
Jamie started screaming, "No,
Joey, no, no, no, please, no."
I saw blood flying
and I saw a knife
in Jeff's hands.
Joey had a knife in his hand
and was slashing
at Jamie's throat.
There was blood
that was literally everywhere.
I mean, you could actually smell
the blood.
And I don't know
where Jeff pulled it from,
but he got a gun and it was
the .38 Smith & Wesson.
Joey takes several steps back
and grabs a gun.
And he shot Jamie.
And Joey shot him,
I believe twice.
I thought Jeff was perhaps going
to shoot me.
He said he would kill me
and kill my family.
He would go and kill my family
and kill my cats.
Threatening Jeff's cats.
That's now a crime in Kentucky.
Threatening the pets of someone
you're in
a domestic relationship with
is now a crime,
because that has shown
our evolving understanding
of the dynamics
of domestic violence
and sexual abuse.
Jase said that we were
gonna wait till Home Depot
or Lowe's opened,
go there, get a plastic tub,
get some lime.
Joey was worried
that it might start to smell,
and I suggested sprinkling lime.
I didn't even know
what the hell lime was,
but he's familiar with it
from, uh, gardening
and from some movie
where it's used
to cover up the smell
of decaying bodies.
We got some type of cordage,
some type of rope,
something to help,
you know, close the box
that he was gonna be put in.
Jamie's body had gone
into rigor mortis.
And I held the body.
He sledgehammered
Jamie's, uh, kneecaps.
Joey hit him with a sledgehammer
so that the bones broke
and I guess the muscles relaxed
and moved, whatever,
and he was put
into the container.
I don't remember it being
a particularly difficult task.
Jeffrey's testimony
from trial one,
it did paint him
in more of an accurate light.
He was cold, self-serving,
and calculating.
And because we weren't able
to show the real testimony,
the real him in that way,
I-I think that that hurt us.
Alright.
Let's keep going.
Mr. Banis,
you are a thief,
you're a drug dealer,
you are a murderer,
and you are a liar, correct?
No.
Now, you told Detective Lesher
the night that you were arrested
that he worked for the NSA
and was a secret agent
slash assassin, didn't you?
Mr. Mundt had told me
that in the past
he had worked
for the US government
and he told me
that it was for the NSA.
You're just making
stuff up, aren't you?
How your client is
the one who told
where did he get
a bullet in his head
-in Bratislava?
-The NSA
That's why I never knew what
to believe or not to believe.
You know what not to believe?
-Okay, tell me.
-You.
A lurid Louisville murder trial
took yet another turn today
Plenty of other
lurid details coming out.
"Conroy continued
to work her way
through the evidence,
then brought up the sex tape."
Have you reviewed, prior
to your testimony here today,
a video where Joseph Banis
and Jeffrey Mundt
are engaged in sexual relations
after the murder
of Jamie Carroll?
Yes, ma'am. I did.
It's about 12 minutes long.
May stop it
before the end of it.
Judge, may we approach
before this one is played?
This is designed
to do nothing more
than to inflame
the passions of the jury.
How graphic is it?
How much do you intend to play?
Not-not much.
I mean, this is not necessarily
what I want to do
on a Wednesday afternoon,
but it's about the nature
of the relationship.
The evidence is
what the evidence is.
The-the argument
that a sexual relationship
between an abused person
and an abuser
somehow influences
that relationship
is-is-is absurd.
The only purpose is
we have straight people,
straight men on the jury,
and it's to inflame the jurors
against Mr. Mundt
with this graphic
sexual testimony.
I've asked the Commonwealth
if there's any way to avoid
the graphic nature of this.
-There's not?
-Not on this one.
I'm going to allow you
to do it. Alright.
It's raw.
It is raw.
-You're gonna ride it, Joey?
-I'm gonna ride it
or else you're gonna
fucking pile-drive it.
I might be able to do that.
"Ears reddening, Jeffrey Mundt"
looked straight ahead for
the entire length of the clip
as the jury and everyone else
in the courtroom
"watched Joey and Jeffrey
have sex on the screen."
-Who's your bitch?
-You're my fucking bitch.
-Huh?
-Joey's my fucking bitch.
My little bottom bitch.
He's your what?
Little bottom bitch boy.
Can stick my cock in his ass
whenever the fuck I want.
Ride him.
Make him ride my fucking cock.
Hmm?
Jeff doesn't appear distressed.
Jeff isn't crying.
Jeff isn't begging
for-for Joey to stop.
You need to lift your ass up.
If anything,
it was Jeffrey Mundt
who was directing
what was going to happen
and calling the shots.
They wanted to show
that Jeff was a top
and that therefore
he could not have been
the victim
of an abusive relationship.
Which any that's bullshit.
You like videotaping your bitch?
Fuck yeah.
Everybody that was
in the courtroom was texting,
"They're playing porn
in division three,
you better get here now."
After the first
ten seconds or so,
it was like, "Okay,
we've seen enough.
Do we really have to see
all of this?"
You would've heard a pin drop.
It was such
an uncomfortable moment.
The little bitch
bottom boy you are.
We stopped it before
Jeffrey Mundt said the N word.
We thought that
that would be crossing the line
and risk offending people.
Alright. I need a break.
It's very hard to defend
somebody you believe is innocent
when there are salacious facts.
I'm not sure why sex
is any more offensive
than stabbing
and shooting a person.
The dominant narrative here
was that Jeff didn't participate
in any of this willingly.
"Romines then had
LeTonia Jones on the stand,"
an advocacy programs
administrator for nine years
with the Kentucky
Domestic Violence Association
"in Frankfort.
She established"
"That Jeffrey Mundt
displayed all the signs
of a typical battered spouse."
I was called
as an educational witness.
My purpose was
to educate the jury
about the dynamics
of domestic violence.
Putting on that evidence
was important
so that the jury
would know the truth
of what a traumatic,
abusive relationship is.
These relationships
where there is violence
and where power and control
sits at the heart
don't make a lot of sense
to people who are not inside
of those relationships.
Her relevance to the whole thing
was marginal at best because
she was talking in theoretical
domestic violence terms
and not necessarily about
anything specific to this case.
So if I came to you and I said,
"Well, this guy claims
he's being battered,
but I've got a video
of them having sex"
Your Honor, may we approach?
It would be improper
for an expert of any type
to testify
to the ultimate issue.
That would be the legal phrase.
So to ask, "Is Jeffrey Mundt
a victim of domestic violence?"
You can't ask her that.
I'll withdraw
the question, Judge.
Um, no.
May we approach? Thank you.
I want an admonishment
to the jury.
He did that on purpose,
and you know that he did.
I want an admonishment.
Ongoing sexual relationship
is not controversial.
It's not cutting-edge theory.
It is accepted
in this area of expertise.
-Counsel?
-Yes, sir.
You became very close
to simply defying this court
in an inappropriate fashion.
The question was so suggestive
of the facts and evidence
in this case.
I cannot imagine
why you did what you did.
-Alright, step back.
-Sorry.
Ladies and gentlemen,
please disregard
that last question and answer.
The facts
of this particular case
will be decided by you
and you only.
You can't un-ring a bell.
When a judge tells jurors
to forget what they just heard,
if they were bored
before the judge said that,
I guarantee you
that they're interested now.
Both sides rested
their case today.
-It was day nine
-Closing arguments
are currently underway.
If you are a victim,
if you are a witness,
if you are a hostage,
you act like it.
It's the final
chapter in a twisted tale
-of sex, drugs, and murder.
-We wanna take you live
right now to the courthouse
where we're about to get
a verdict.
Mr. Mundt,
can you stand, please?
Alright.
"For murder, we the jury found
the defendant, Jeffrey Mundt,
not guilty."
A jury deliberated
for nearly eight hours
before finding a Louisville man
not guilty
of killing his former lover
and drug dealer.
I was just dumbstruck.
Like, how in the hell did a jury
find him not guilty of murder?
They beat him
with a sledgehammer,
they stuff him in a Rubbermaid
in their basement,
and for six months
they live happily ever after.
I still can't believe
that he's not guilty.
Jeffrey Mundt was
convicted of lesser charges
Convicting him of robbery
and tampering
Sentenced to three years for robbery
and five years for tampering.
The wrong message was sent here,
which is that you can, in fact,
get away with murder.
The jury simply got it wrong.
What happens in a courtroom?
It's about winning and losing.
Very rarely do we truly get
an honest view of what happened.
And that, for me,
makes it difficult
to trust a system
that we would call
a justice system.
Follow me.
So as we walk
down the steps here,
this basement is what I use
for storage of my files.
This was one of the exhibits
that we showed at trial.
Looking at that individual,
that is not the individual
that presented himself
to that jury.
We know that's
the real Mr. Mundt.
That's the real Jeffrey.
I was the only one
that ever visited Jeff in jail.
He kept promising me that he
would tell me the full story,
but he didn't wanna talk
about it there.
Of course, in jail, it's being
recorded and all that.
"Mundt made parole
a year after his trial,
having served just four years
of his eight-year sentence."
And when he got released,
we went and picked him up
and brought him back
to Louisville.
-And had lunch with his parents.
-To his halfway house.
No, we had lunch
at, uh, Red Lobster.
And then that was it.
After he was paroled
and basically served his time,
he kind of disappeared,
and no one even knows
where he is today.
So you don't know where he is.
-Last I knew was Baltimore.
-Last we heard, Baltimore.
And he told me that
he got a job at a movie theater
and he would he wouldn't tell
people he was from Louisville.
And then slowly
he stopped talking to me
and then he ghosted me.
Yeah.
And I think that's
what hurts the most.
To think how I tried to be
such a good friend
and then all of a sudden,
nothing.
-Can I ask you a question?
-Yeah.
Have you been able
to-to locate Jeff?
No.
I was gonna ask if you
do you know where he is?
See, that's a lot of stuff
that I just am not
and I don't mean to be
a stick in the mud
and I don't mean to be
a lawyer's lawyer, uh,
although I'm kind of proud
of being that. Um
-I gotta go.
-Yeah.
I'm sorry.
I hope I wasn't too circumspect.
Much like reading
a book about it,
Jeff's case is over for me.
Much like a lot of clients,
I don't keep up with him
when-when my case with him
is over.
I assume he's doing well.
So the question is,
where is Jeffrey Mundt?
Your guess is as good as mine,
but I will make
an agreement with you.
If you find him,
you let me know.
And if I find him,
I'll let you know.
This is
a prepaid collect call from
-Joseph Banis.
-an incarcerated individual.
This call will be recorded
and may be monitored.
Were you surprised
that Jeffrey just disappeared?
Uh, no.
Doesn't surprise me that
he could stay off the grid,
uh, build up a new identity,
any of those things.
He told me that he did
that type of stuff.
Obviously I was disappointed
because I'm in prison
for something somebody else did.
The laptop
that we actually have here
is a digital copy
of Joey's laptop.
In this case,
with all the videoing
they did of each other,
it was overwhelming
because, at that time,
there was no
digital forensic unit
of the Louisville
Metro Police Department.
There wasn't a way to sift
through all of that information.
There's a lot of files,
over 700,000 files.
It was a one terabyte
or tegabyte or
It was a big one.
I clicked on every link
that I could go through,
but could not access anything
on a Mac.
I guarantee you there's
information on his laptop
that people haven't seen.
I guarantee you that.
You know, I had all kinds
of little recording devices,
and I was always trying
to get him to, uh,
admit what really happened.
He was cagey as hell
because, you know, I mean,
he's in the background
and not saying
very much of anything.
And what fucking
what why-why-why is
"He kept on threatening me
saying, uh, "Joey, uh, you'll
you can never say anything
to anybody about this
because nobody
will ever believe you
"because you have the criminal
record, and I don't."
It was, uh, it was not
a healthy relationship.
Joey missed me or something
and wanted me to come back
after Glow,
and they had that new house
in Old Louisville.
And then I was Joey's assistant
there for a while.
When I first went
to Joey and Jase's house,
they took me down
to the basement
and to show me where
the laundry room was and stuff.
They tried to give me
that guy's clothes
and said that the guy had just
basically left them there
and went back home.
He didn't want 'em, I guess,
and they were
a little big on me, obviously,
um, so I was like,
"No, I don't need 'em."
It was kind of traumatizing
to, like, think about,
like, that I was there
feeding cats
and there was
a dead body downstairs,
and I just didn't know it yet.
You know,
that-that could have been me,
and the way that, um,
my life was going then,
it almost was me.
We started to hook up
a few different times.
But I would pull back
because it just seemed weird,
the two of them,
their connection.
Something weird
was going on there.
Like just the way
they talk to each other.
You could feel the tension
between the two of them a lot.
Yeah
It's not closing.
Every single bedroom
had its own padlock.
Like the key ring was just
a bunch of padlock keys.
Every single door
had its own padlock.
It was, um, very, very weird.
Jeff had lost his job
at the end of January,
after the murder,
and never put in a résumé
for another job.
You know, he was supposedly
renovating this house, uh,
turning it
into a bed and breakfast.
But basically,
he was in serious debt.
If they were planning to fix
it up, they hadn't gotten far.
That house was
in complete disarray.
It-it does seem like
they were desperate for money.
Here.
They had the telltale signs
of two people that were living
daily high on meth.
I mean, they did a tour
of their apartment
showing off
their counterfeiting process.
No one does that
unless you're just
completely out of your mind
on meth.
I'm all about drug use.
I love drugs.
You know, a little theft
by deception, sure,
I've done that as well,
but guess what?
I'm not a computer programmer.
This was something
he was totally into.
He was really good
with computers.
He was really good
with online stuff
and figuring
all kinds of stuff out.
I kept feeling that
he was going to turn on me
and try and throw me
under the bus for everything.
And so there was
there was a time
when I started documenting,
um, his criminal activity,
so, uh, particularly
the counterfeiting and stuff.
We'd made
all this counterfeit money
and we're going up to Chicago
to turn counterfeit money
into real money.
We got to the, um, Hyatt Hotel
on Wacker Drive in Chicago
and I asked Joey if he had
any ones to tip the valet with.
And then I got change
for the valet.
He passed off a bill to, uh,
the guy in broad daylight
up there, the valet.
He was so spun out on meth
that he grabbed stuff that
he wasn't basically trash.
He grabbed some tester bills
that had been washed
and scrubbed and printed on
over and over again
to test the color
and passed it to the valet.
Breaking news.
This is WAVE 3 News.
Two Louisville men
are behind bars in Chicago now
after police found $50,000
in counterfeit cash
in their hotel room.
I couldn't believe it was
the same Jeff I knew.
-It didn't look like him.
-He didn't look happy.
He looked angry.
Well, obviously, he just got
-Arrested.
-arrested.
They also found
weapons, fake IDs,
and a suspected date rape drug.
I grew up a sheltered life.
I don't know that much
about drugs or anything.
And, you know, people would say,
"You didn't know?
I mean, he's always sniffling."
I'm like, "Well, he said
he had allergies." You know?
We get arrested and I knew
that my-my bail would be higher
because I had a felony record.
And so I told the detectives
that he didn't know
anything about it,
that it was all my stuff.
I was trying to get him
released on a lower bond
so that he could come
and bail me out.
So the funny thing
about being scared of me
doesn't really hold water
because, you know, I mean,
I was basically someplace
where I couldn't get to him.
I couldn't do anything,
he could have left me in jail.
So, anyways, he came back
and paid $20,000
to get me out of jail.
I come back to Louisville
with him
and it becomes
just a-a-a terrible,
terrible situation
where there's no resolution.
Jase!
What is wrong with you?
What did you take
or what did I do, Jase?
911 Operator Walker.
Where is your emergency?
Please,
1435 South Fourth Street.
My ex-boyfriend is attacking me
in my house.
-Please come immediately.
-Who is attacking your door?
Joey Banis.
While I was sleeping off,
um, being up days on meth,
he took my keys,
my phone, my wallet.
Went into the guest bedroom,
and, um, called 911
and, uh, took a hammer,
banged it on the door,
and made, you know,
background noises.
Please somebody help.
I can't get rid of him.
I'm scared.
Told them that
his soon-to-be ex-boyfriend
was trying to kill him
which I wasn't, I was asleep
and they should break
into the house and arrest me.
So the domestic run
comes out, they make the run,
separate the parties.
While they're separated,
Mundt says to one
of the officers
that Banis killed a guy.
The officer comes downstairs
and tells Banis,
"Man, your boyfriend must be
really mad at you.
He just accused you
of killing somebody."
Anyways, he won't come
out of the bedroom
until I'm in cuffs.
When I come out of the bedroom,
he says, uh,
"He's killed someone."
And at that point I was like,
"No, no, no, no, no."
Yeah, I didn't kill anyone.
He killed the person. You know,
"and I'll be happy to take you
the give you the story."
So I went down
to the, uh, homicide department
and I started giving
a statement.
So he comes down
and he tells Lesher
everything about what happened
with this,
but he puts it all on Mundt.
Police were definitely
not inclined to believe me.
You're not making this stuff up.
This is not a lie
to get back at him because
you were arrested for
-No.
-a different crime.
Mundt came in there
and, uh, acted at first
like he didn't know anything
about the case
or the murder
or the body or anything.
And then when he was about
to be given a polygraph test,
he said that he couldn't take it
because he'd been lying
to them all along.
The one thing I keyed on was,
Mundt talks about that Banis
slit the throat.
Banis says that Mundt
stabbed him in the neck.
Doesn't talk
about slitting the throat.
If you look
at the autopsy report,
it looks like
they're stab wounds.
-Stab wounds.
-Not-not a slit.
That might seem like
not a big deal.
I think that is a huge deal.
Why is that not part
of the story?
I don't know. You all
are writing a story, not me.
I didn't write the story.
I'm literally just reading
what's in the case file.
I've learned over the years,
you know,
my time in-in-in homicide
and-and work in narcotics, that,
your-your motive, you don't
really have to kill somebody
to rob 'em of their-their dope
and their money.
Especially like,
as brutal as what that was.
This was extremely personal.
Why would you do this?
I mean, there is
no real motive for this.
Jamie was
a low-level drug dealer
who probably had
a couple hundred dollars
on him that night.
He probably didn't have
enough drugs
to make it through the week.
We had a theory.
I mean, the killing occurred
during the middle of a sex act.
I think it was a thrill.
This is
a prepaid collect call from
-Joseph Banis.
-an incarcerated individual.
This call is not private.
If you believe this should be
a private call,
please hang up,
follow facility instructions
Ultimately, uh, I mean,
it all comes down to this.
Mundt and-and-and Jamie,
they were both there to fuck me.
We had a couple three-ways.
Um, I was normally restrained.
Um, they were both normally,
you know, topping me.
Jase had actual rope that
he would use to tie people up.
He knew a zillion
different rope-tying tricks
and knots
and all that type of stuff.
And, um, it was fun.
But Mundt had to go to work
in the morning,
and it infuriated him
that Jamie and I stayed behind
in his, Mundt's house,
um, in his bed, uh,
continuing to get high
and have sex
while he had to go to work.
That was the-the, uh, seed
that germinated
into, uh, the jealousy
that caused the murder.
When the murder actually
occurred, I was restrained.
You know, when I was tied up
and-and Jamie was asking me,
"Joey, help me,"
and I couldn't help him,
I mean, I've had nightmares
about that for years.
I was plagued
by the sound of his voice
asking me to help him.
And, you know, I-I just
I couldn't do anything.
You have one minute left.
Ultimately, my friend died,
'cause Jamie was my friend.
Um, and I feel terrible
about that.
I have pictures of him,
I think seven days
before the murder,
looking over my shoulder.
We were both smiling
and just like, we were friends.
I hate Mundt
because, ultimately,
he killed Jamie and really
destroyed my life too.
-Um
-Goodbye.
Why do you think Joey
asked me to reach out to you?
Well
I guess because
he wanted someone
to paint him in a good light.
Here's what's fucked up.
How long was that body there?
Seven months?
And neither one of them
took the opportunity
at some point to say, "Hey,
I'm living with crazy,
and, uh, and there's a dead guy
in my basement."
Neither one of 'em?
Fuck both of them.
What everyone forgets
is that Jamie Carroll
died, and so I decided, like,
"I'm gonna do it for him
'cause he doesn't have a voice,
and I do."
From what I've gathered,
the body
was very well maintained
because of the lime.
I'm glad it preserved him.
I'm glad he raised enough hell
from that little box so
we could get him out.
Get him brought to where he
could be laid to rest properly.
I'm baffled.
I'm confused.
I don't know what made my friend
enter a room
with two people
that she barely knew,
and not come out.
Jamie Carroll should be alive,
and it doesn't matter,
drag queen,
drug dealer, or whatever.
I can be in a situation
that I think
I'm just doing what I do,
and not be aware
of the danger that might exist
because of the toxicity
in the relationship,
and then find myself
in a really dangerous situation.
Yeah. That's the lie we tell
when we say it's just about
those two people
or it's none of my business.
What happens
behind those closed doors
finds its way into public spaces
and so it puts us all at risk.
That's the saddest part.
The monsters really do exist.
But we create our own,
with the drugs
and the lies and the bullshit
that we choose to live.
"There were
many things I did not know,"
did not understand.
What it all meant.
Why people did
the things they did
or said the things they said.
What lingered behind the walls
of 1435 South Fourth Street
and what really happened
in the dark basement.
"What lurked in the dark room
found in every human mind."