He Orchestrated Her Murder, But Failed?!
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Well, hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so happy to have you here as always. And if you're new to the show, welcome. I'm so happy to have you as well. So guys, today I'm going to be telling you a story of one remarkable, inspirational, incredibly strong and resilient woman who

and three remarkably unintelligent, unimpressive idiot men. Personally, I love to sprinkle in some stories about survivors because I find so much inspiration covering their stories and learning about their stories, and I think you will leave here feeling inspired by Shonda as well as I tell you her story. It really helps me personally to cover stories of survivors and

and it just kind of breaks up some of the more heavy content we talk about here. And I've seen a lot of comments from you guys that you really appreciate that as well, and I think you will find this story to just be, again, fascinating, but also really, really inspirational. That being said, though, this story is still very heavy, even though it does have a happy ending to some degree. The victim in this week's case, Shonda Handley,

went through, I mean, unimaginable suffering, both mentally and physically. Before we jump into her story, though, and speaking of inspiring, a few months ago now, my team and I worked with Kay and Chloe, Nikki's Saley McCain sisters, to tell Nikki's story. And I'm sure a lot of you have seen that episode, and there was a lot of great feedback on there, but a lot of...

you know, questions about what was going to happen next. And I'll have that linked below if you haven't already seen the episode. I highly recommend that you watch it and continue to support them as they're going to still need it. But I wanted to mention them because my foundation, Higher Hope, has been working with them since that episode came out to come up with the best possible use of the grant money that they were awarded. And I wanted to kind of update you guys as I'd love to keep you more informed about what we're actually doing with Higher Hope

on, you know, a at least monthly basis. Because really, it's because of all of you that my foundation even exists and that we're able to issue these grants. So as of yesterday, the 19th, we've officially launched a large bus stop advertisement in Reading that seeks to bring awareness to Nikki's disappearance. This will run from now through early November. And this was a particularly important time in this case since it was

just recently reclassified as a homicide. The Shasta County Sheriff's Office has now said that based on information and evidence gathered, they believe that Nikki was murdered. And obviously, we all knew that was the case. I mean, it seemed very, very obvious, but I'm really happy that now law enforcement is recognizing it as such. And maybe if you live in Reading, you'll be able to see it. I know that we will be posting imagery of it

on our Higher Hope social media, which I would love if you would give us a follow there on Instagram and you can follow along with all the grants that we're doing. Higher Hope has really done so much since we launched. I really can't believe it. More than I ever could have imagined and the impact has just been

And I'm so, so grateful to all of you who have made this happen. And with that, let's go ahead and jump into Shonda's story. And to really tell her story, we need to go back to 2005, which was the year that she met Mark.

Michael Handley. And the two of them met through friends in Lafayette, Louisiana, and it's said that they really hit it off right away. They were both single parents coming out of prior marriage and were both in recovery. Now, Shonda says that she was 18 years sober when they met. So very, very impressive. And Michael was more recently sober and had been in recovery for about a year around the time they met.

And this was obviously something that brought them closer together. She also says that he was really sweet and compassionate, and also that he and her daughter, Isabel, got along really well. Isabel was around two years old when Michael came into their lives, and he had actually became her stepdad not too long after meeting her mom. Michael and Shonda got married in Hawaii in 2006, and by everyone's account, they were really an incredible couple.

In 2007, they decided to take their passion for helping others, and with the help of a doctor friend of theirs, they opened up a chain of addiction treatment centers called Townsend. And at the peak of Townsend, there were 14 centers, and they were making a huge impact in the South. But ultimately, they did end up deciding to sell the company after eight successful years. So then jumping forward to 2015, between

Between Michael and his business partner, they made $21.5 million. And yes, this is a ton of money, but Michael actually wasn't a stranger to being a millionaire. He had already made millions back in his 20s from launching companies that sold vitamins. And in his own words, being an addict and having all of that money and endless resources was really a dangerous combination for him. And

That being said, there were many years where he was sober and everything was fine. But that all changed in 2017.

when Shonda found a bottle of Adderall with Michael's name on it. And she knew that Adderall could be a slippery slope that could lead to Michael doing much harder substances. And on top of that, she also found out that he was having an affair. Regardless, though, she decided that she wanted to give him the opportunity to turn things around. So she gave him an ultimatum. Either he went into treatment and got

you know, sober again, or it was over. And this can obviously be really hard to do, but she stuck to her word, and when he refused to get help, she went ahead and changed the locks on the house and refused to let him in, and this made Michael lose his mind. And after a few weeks, Michael started telling Shonda that she was going to regret what she did and that things were going to get bad. He started stalking her, threatening her,

threatening her daughter, installing spyware on her computer, accessing her email, just truly unhinged, outright terrifying, abusive behavior. And it ended up getting so bad that Shonda really feared for her safety and her daughter's safety, and she ended up making dozens of police reports. And this probably won't surprise you, but just guess how many times Michael was arrested for the things he was doing. I'll give you a second.

The answer is none. Not a single time was he held accountable for anything he did, and they told her basically that they just didn't have enough evidence to get an arrest warrant. Which is really ironic, considering that when Michael made allegations against her, she did get arrested. Luckily, the judge dropped the whole thing pretty quickly, but really this is a prime example of why women don't always win.

report their abuse because when they do, they just aren't believed. And we see this countless times over. She straight up told law enforcement that she truly believed he was going to kill her if they didn't intervene. And they never did. So Michael was just free to continue the abuse and the harassment. And what's so wild is he was actually the one who first initiated getting divorced. He filed in the spring of 2017, but then no surprise here, he changed his mind and demanded that

that Shonda get back together with him. And of course, when she refused, he took it up a level. All the horrible shit he was doing continued and it got worse because he straight up threatened to leak private videos to people in their community. Private videos, you know, that...

In the moment, we're supposed to be just for the two of them, never to be seen by anyone else. So he was participating in sextortion. And the reason I say participated in, because he actually did it. He leaked those videos. ♪

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He shared those videos with her family members, her neighbors, and her daughter's school administration, even friends who worked in politics. And as you can imagine, when Shonda found out about this, she was just beside herself. I mean, terrified, angry. It's hard to even describe what someone would be feeling in a situation like that. I mean, when she first heard she was bawling, she said she felt sick to her stomach, almost to the point where she couldn't even stand up. I mean, to be violated in that way by someone

by someone you used to trust and love is just something that no one should ever have to experience. And because of all this bad shit craziness, she ended up taking matters into her own hands and

and hired an attorney so that she could finally file for a divorce. Now, her attorney's name is Christine, and she was one of the first people who actually believed Shonda. She even helped her get a restraining order, which in theory should have protected her. But the reality is, Michael didn't give a fuck. He just continued to find ways to threaten her, whether it was using an app to disguise his voice or using one of those random number generators. And because of all the sneaky little ways that he went about harassing her,

there was never any proof that he violated the order. But he certainly did, many times, and it wasn't just over the phone. On June 8th of 2017, Michael snuck into Shonda's house, absolutely reeking of alcohol, and he was very clearly angry. And when she tried to get him to leave, he pinned her up against the wall. And after she screamed out for Isabella, her daughter, he pulled out a gun and said that if she screamed again or again,

Anyone came to interfere, both of them would be dead. And of course, this is a threat that she took seriously, as any mother would or any person in that situation who is not only having their life threatened, but their child's as well. But in a moment like that, you've got to remain calm and do everything in your power to calm the other person down until you can actually get to safety and get help.

And so she did her best to do exactly that, keep him calm and get him to walk away. And thankfully, he did. And as soon as he left, she locked the door and was finally able to just scream and cry and process what she had just been through. And now she wholeheartedly believed even more than she did before that he was going to kill her. And if it wasn't that day, it was going to happen eventually. And one of the reasons she really felt that way is...

is because after this very serious attack, the police didn't do a damn thing. And Shonda's instinct was not wrong. Michael did absolutely want her dead, but thankfully, his plan failed. It all happened on August 6th of 2017, so about two months later. And that day, Shonda was home with Isabella and a friend who lived nearby and just stopped over to catch up. And it was a

a totally, you know, normal afternoon. But then at around 2.30 p.m., the doorbell rang. And when Shonda went to see who was there, it wasn't anyone that she recognized. It was these two dudes that looked like they may have been like delivery men or maybe salespeople. And because she was busy, you know, she had her friend over. She let them know that it wasn't a good time. And she started to close the door behind her. But that's when they forced themselves inside

pointed a gun at her, and screamed at her that she needed to get on the floor. So obviously, she is immediately terrified. She's shocked and is doing everything she can to protect herself. But they ended up handcuffing her along with her friend as well. And Isabella is there just watching this all unfold in horror. And she's like,

And she starts offering them everything she has. You know, she's like, I've got money, jewelry, anything you guys want. But they didn't seem interested at all because they only wanted her and that's who they got. And just put yourself in her shoes for a moment. How terrifying a moment like this would be. Having no idea where they're taking you or what they're going to do with you. And they brought Shonda through the garage, put a hood over her head,

and then forced her into the backseat of a white van. And then, after that, they went back to try and take Isabella, and she ended up refusing to go with them, which is so badass. I mean, she is incredibly brave, but it's also terrifying thinking about the fact that they could have really done anything to her in that moment for not cooperating. But thankfully, neither she or the friend that Shonda had over were harmed, physically speaking. But obviously, it was very traumatic to watch all of this go down.

And Isabella is terrified, wondering what's going to happen to her mother. And as for Shonda, she was thrown into that van, which had no back seats and no windows. And one of the kidnappers was driving the van, and then the other was sitting on top of her. Now, while she's in the van, she's doing her best to try and get a sense of where they are taking her, where they're going. But that's obviously very hard to do when you can't look out the window and someone is sitting on top of you, plus you're just...

you know, so fearful in that moment, it'd be really hard to think. And it made it a lot harder when she realized that they were getting on the interstate. And that's when she says her heart really sank because, you know, at that moment, she knew that they could be taking her anywhere. And to make matters even worse, and this is very disturbing, one of her kidnappers removed all her clothes while he threatened to both sexually assault her and kill her. And it got even more terrifying from there. He then forced her to swallow two pills.

And when she asked what they were, all he said was, don't worry about it. And from that point forward, Shonda remembers starting to kind of drift in and out of consciousness, and she just started praying. She said she really just had to, in that moment, trust that whatever was supposed to happen would happen. And her prayers, thankfully, were answered by an amazing police officer who happened to be paying close attention when he was dying.

technically off the job. Now, this amazing officer is Chad Martin, and he was an off-duty sheriff's deputy who, while he was driving home from work that day, got stopped in some traffic. And in all honesty, he was in a rush to get home because he

He had a reputation, I guess, for being late for dinner, and his wife kind of loved giving him a hard time about it, so he really wanted to get back in time for dinner. However, though, even though he's off the job and focused on getting home, he remained vigilant and continued to try and protect his community, and he was paying close attention to what was going on around him, and his attention was piqued

when he noticed a white van. Chad was right behind the white van, and I feel like maybe just like white vans in general, police, I mean, should kind of keep a closer eye on

But yeah, he just noticed that the driver kept looking into his mirror, looking back at him, almost like he was nervous about something. And of course, he had every reason to be nervous. He should be nervous. And he was doing a really bad job of hiding it for Chad to be able to notice that.

And unfortunately, at this point, Chad didn't have any reason to pull him over. I mean, you can't just pull someone over because they look nervous. But this moron ended up making it easy for him and gave him a reason to pull him over because he decided to peel off onto the shoulder and started speeding off. And at that point, you know, Chad lit him up, turned on his lights, and started pursuing him. And Shonda actually remembers this moment, of course. I mean, how could you forget? Because she heard the sirens and thought to herself,

Alright, thank you God. And thankfully, these two kidnappers are really some of the world's dumbest criminals. They made a very fatal mistake, actually. Once they got off the interstate, they had the chance to turn left towards a bunch of roads and opportunities to escape, but instead, they chose to turn right, right into a dead end. And not only that, these idiots continued to make mistake after mistake because at that point, they decided to drive through some

thick-ass mud because it had just rained and they ended up getting the car completely stuck. ♪

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So what did these morons do? Well, they jumped out of the van and began running towards the Intracoastal Waterway to avoid being caught. And that meant that they had to swim from one side to the other. The deputy wasn't able to pursue them after they took off running, so he was left to figure out what these dummies had in their van that

that had them so spooked. And as we all know, it was Shonda. Chad said that he had his gun drawn, of course, since he wasn't sure what they were hiding in the van, and he ended up getting a little spooked himself when he opened the trunk and saw Shonda. And actually, for a split second, he actually thought she was a mannequin. But then...

when she moved a little bit, he jumped back and got pretty spooked and slammed the door shut. But then obviously he quickly realized there's a woman back there who desperately needs help. So he opened up the door again and he said that he'll never forget what she said to him. The first thing Shonda said to him, asked him really, was, are you the real police or are you the one that's going to kill me? And

He, at that point, just told her, you're safe. And Shonda says that she actually was worried she imagined the sirens because at one point he had turned them off. So she didn't know if this was someone coming to save her or the person who was going to kill her. But he was very much her savior. I mean, he really saved her life because without him, she thinks that they would have killed her. And I absolutely believe they would have too. And

Yeah, it's just terrifying thinking about what could have happened if Chad wasn't there that day. And it was all really by chance. It's really miraculous when you think about it. But obviously now finding these guys is the number one priority. Now, back at her house, the authorities had already been called and they were processing every inch.

of her home for evidence, looking for anything that could help them identify her kidnappers. Because at this point, nobody knew who or where these guys were. Now, as for Isabella, who, again, was only 14 years old at the time, she says that she was really confused because nobody would tell her what was going on. I mean, she was old enough to understand that her mom had just been kidnapped, but now there were all these people at her house and none of them were really

explaining anything. She even said that she sort of felt like a piece of evidence, which had to have been so terrifying for her at that age. Not to mention, she had no idea if she would ever see her mom again, which is just a thought that no child should ever have to have. Now, Shonda, at this point, was taken to the hospital after she was discovered, and as soon as they were able to, law enforcement began asking her questions. And of course, one of their questions was...

who do you think could have been behind this? And she didn't hesitate for a second before saying that she knew that it had to be Michael Handley behind all of this. And of course, she knew that he wasn't one of the kidnappers, but she had no doubt that

that he had to have been the person who orchestrated it. And after investigators learned more about their history and his behavior recently, they were just as sure as she was. So now, not only are they looking for the two men who kidnapped her, but they also absolutely needed to find Michael. Now, to find the kidnappers, investigators began their search by going back to where they were last seen, the Intracoastal Waterway. And you guys, you won't believe what happened next. So a day after this all went down,

law enforcement started talking to people, asking around, seeing if anyone had seen these two men.

and a local fisherman said that he did. He remembered seeing two people wading through the water, and one of them told him to be cool as he pointed a gun at him. And I don't think he saw what happened next, but we do know that sometime after he had that interaction with them, they began swimming from one side to the other. But little did these two dummies know, this canal had a very strong current, and karma acted quickly on these two because they both ended up drowning.

Yep, that's right. So their bodies were found in the water later on that evening on the 7th, and their identities were confirmed as Sylvester Bracey and Arsenio Haynes, both of whom had extensive criminal records. And of course, there are people who feel like they kind of got off easy, not having to face any repercussions for what they did. I mean, drowning is pretty brutal. Um,

But to Shonda, this was a relief because at this point, she knew that they could not hurt her. But at the same time, even though that came with a bit of relief, she knew that they were not the only ones that she had to worry about because Michael was behind this and it didn't take long for investigators to confirm that. And guess what? It turns out that he was the one

who rented the van that they kidnapped her in. And literally, all investigators had to do was run the VIN number and it came back to his name on an enterprise car rental. Genius. And dude, Michael, he really is so dumb. He straight up used his own ID and credit card to rent it. He didn't even try to hide it at all. And it wasn't just the van. A few days before the kidnapping, he was captured on surveillance at a place called Barney's Police Depot, which is a store that sells police-issued merchandise. And...

They could see Michael clear as day purchasing handcuffs, which they later confirmed were the handcuffs that were used in the kidnapping. The problem was, though, is even though finding this evidence was pretty easy, finding Michael was not. And their biggest concern at this point is that he was going to flee because they knew that he had the money to do it and absolutely wouldn't.

probably would. So they really wanted to make sure they caught him before he had the chance to do it. And to make sure that Shonda was safe in the meantime, they ended up putting her in a safe house that had teams watching her 24-7. Now, I did want to mention something that she said that really stood out to me, was very interesting, because it really reminded me of something that Baron said, Baron Lee and his case. Now, if you haven't seen my episode with Baron Lee, please...

Check it out. It is so inspirational. His story is incredible. Baron is one of the coolest, strongest people I've ever met in my life. And I haven't met him in person. I hope to soon.

But yeah, I highly recommend that episode. I'll have it linked below. But as I was researching Shonda's case, I realized that there was some overlap, especially as it relates to a victim not being believed by law enforcement. And in both of these cases, Barron and Shonda expressed feeling relief about

about what happened to them because now nobody could deny what they had been experiencing. It was mind-blowing and kind of hard for me to even understand at first when Barron told me that being shot was not the worst thing he went through. And that's almost exactly what Shonda said. I mean, she called her kidnapping a blessing. And imagine how bad things...

would have had to be for her to call that a blessing. And again, this is an ongoing thing that we see in so many cases where victims are just not believed, and it's men and women. And there are so many things that need to happen in our society and in law enforcement to actually see changes there. And I don't know what the overall solution is. I think it's a combination of many different solutions. But I know for a fact one thing,

There needs to be more officers like Chad Martin because he listened to his gut. And because he did that, he saved a life. But jumping back to the case, obviously the goal was to find Michael as soon as possible while still keeping Shonda safe. And believe it or not, Michael did end up getting a hold of her. While she was at that safe house, she ended up getting a text from an unidentified

an unknown number claiming that Michael had been kidnapped. That's right, this story continues to get even more whack because this loser tried to then make himself a victim. And the text said that she needed to pay a $500 ransom or he would be sent home in pieces. And it's honestly hilarious when you really think about it because in what world did he really think that she would, one, believe him,

and to pay his ransom. And what ransom would be set at 500 bucks? To me, all of this just really speaks to his delusion. A day later, a photo got sent to some friends of theirs. It was a picture of Michael naked, handcuffed, and seemingly injured. And clearly, it was him trying to

make it seem like the kidnapping was real. But the problem with his little plan to make himself seem like the victim here was that everyone, apparently except for him, knew that the kidnappers were already dead. They drowned.

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It was so painfully obvious at this point that he was behind it all, and they knew that he knew that they were onto him. And he did exactly what they knew he was going to do because he has the resources. He tried to hightail it the fuck out of there, and he tried to charter a private plane, actually. But the pilot knew that he was wanted, so it didn't work out because the pilot was like, yeah, buddy, I'm not flying you anywhere. And

And then the pilot ended up reporting him to the police. But that wasn't going to stop Michael from trying to continue to hide from what he had done. And he was long gone by then, but they did thankfully end up finding him. On August 11th, after a four-day manhunt, he was captured at a motel in Slidell, Louisiana, where he was immediately taken into custody. And back at the motel that he was staying in, investigators found $10,000 in cash

several pizza boxes, and not surprisingly, illicit drugs. And this is wild, wildly stupid, but they also found a little to-do list that Michael made for himself, and once they found that, it was really not looking good for him. And it's like a little checklist situation. Burner phone, hair dye, new location, internet, cash,

And most importantly, finished job. And investigators, of course, they know that finished job means kill Shonda. Thankfully, though, he didn't get the chance. And now that he was apprehended, she finally felt safe enough to come home and be with her daughter. And honestly, though, both her and Isabella weren't sure that the worst was behind them. Michael was someone who they had seen kill.

continuously get his way in life, in whatever situation it was. And let's not forget, he's a multimillionaire, so it's a lot easier to get your way when you have lots of money. So that was a very real and very understandable fear that they had, that he might somehow wiggle his way out of this situation. And

Michael definitely tried, but the case against him was strong. After he was booked into jail, he was later indicted on several charges, including conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping,

attempting second-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping, and violation of a protective order. And mind you, all of these charges meant Michael was facing a sentence of life in prison. And despite all the evidence against him, and again, this is another non-surprising thing, but he pleaded not guilty. And I guess his attorney was confident that there wasn't enough evidence for a conviction, which is...

Interesting. It's extremely stupid considering his text messages to Shonda leading up to the event were pretty bad. She was getting texts from a random number saying things like, you are facing Armageddon and no court order will save you. We will take her first and let you suffer for a while before putting you out of your misery. And if you ignore us like usual, someone you love will suffer. And even if these messages were drug and alcohol fueled, which I'm sure they

probably were, it doesn't excuse what he said and did. But his defense attorney, though, of course, as they do, he said that all of this had an explanation. According to him, Michael did rent a van for those two guys, but it wasn't to kidnap Shonda. It was to move some of his furniture, of course. But then, when these two dudes he hired saw how much money Michael had and how badly he wanted Shonda back,

They went rogue and they kidnapped her to try and get him to pay her ransom. So that's why his attorney said that Michael didn't try to hide the fact that he rented the van because he had nothing to hide. Oh, it's stupid. It's like just laughable. Now, as for those handcuffs, they were purchased by Michael to stage the fake kidnapping photo. And it turns out that for the last few months, he had been sending her these videos of him clearly in a bad headspace,

begging her to take him back. And in one of those instances, he had sent her this photo of him with his face all bloody. And I guess maybe he thought that if she saw him hurting, suffering, that she would come back to him. And the handcuffs were part of his attempt to get her back. His attorney said he has a, quote, proclivity to stage things to get her sympathy. And maybe in some

delusional world, these explanations would make sense. But what Shonda found next is, I'd say, almost impossible to explain away. Just when you think Michael can't get any dumber, he certainly does. Because as the legal proceedings were underway,

Shonda had gone to their property, one of their properties in Mississippi, and it's in a pretty remote location, and she was just there to get her belongings back. But while she was there, she ends up finding this Arlo security camera, and boy, did that thing have some damning evidence on it. I don't know if he realized this, but this Arlo camera is one of those security cameras that starts recording as soon as you start moving it or detects motion, and

And...

Oh, it ended up capturing hours, hours of Michael speaking. And a lot of what he was saying pointed to his guilt. For starters, in one video taken two months before the abduction, he can be heard saying, I'm going to kill her. I'm going to kill her. And keep in mind, this is Michael just talking to himself, which is terrifying. He's just walking around in his house in his delusional state of mind, being like, I'm going to kill her. I'm going to kill her. I mean, my

Michael is just such a disgusting human. Scary. Just very scary. And it's very obvious who he is talking about here. He is talking about Shonda. And then in another video that was taken before the abduction, Michael is seen on video, actually this time with a friend of his at their property in Mississippi. And they're sort of just chatting about his issues with her. And at one point he says...

very casually just stands up and goes, and that's why she'll have to die. And I'm sure you're like, okay, so why didn't this friend do anything about it if he said that to him? Well, this friend claims that he didn't hear Michael say that, and it's possible. I mean, there's nothing that can prove or disprove whether or not he heard it. Plus, Michael was standing up at this moment and walking away, so...

I think it's possible to believe that this other guy didn't just ignore this very concerning threat. And that's not even the worst of it. Two weeks before the kidnapping went down, Michael was seen on that camera with none other than Sylvester Bracey. As a reminder, this is one of the guys who attempted to kidnap Shonda. And they could be heard discussing how this place was the perfect location to take her and...

and torture her. He can specifically be heard saying it's almost impossible for anyone to get in here, to which Sylvester responded, and it'll be impossible for her to get out. So yeah, at this point, investigators are pretty confident they had this dude. I mean, he's cooked at this point, right? And here's something that is so wild to me. Even though Michael was behind bars the

At this point in time, he still managed to contact Shonda. He continuously harassed her through phone calls and letters, which understandably made her feel nervous. I mean, really nervous is an understatement because if he had access to contacting her in prison,

where and when would she ever feel safe? Not to mention that the defense, and this is, again, not surprising, we see this kind of thing a lot, but they were actively trying to get him out of jail and put him in a mental health facility instead. In October of 2017, he changed his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, and his attorney was trying to get him transferred to a place where they say he could receive treatment for his mental health. But those facilities aren't

nearly as secure as a prison, so it makes total sense why Shonda absolutely did not want that to happen. The risk of him coming after her was just way too high, and it felt like

you know, way greater if he was anywhere but in a prison. So they had two psychiatrists evaluate him, and it was found that he suffered from bipolar disorder as well as substance abuse. But the judge ultimately ruled, thankfully, that he was competent to stand trial. Which, of course, means that this not guilty by insanity plea was thrown out. And now things were really trending favorably for the prosecution. ♪

And in March of 2018, the divorce was officially finalized and Shonda was awarded all of their assets. Which in theory would be great, of course, but she quickly learned that all of the money that Michael seemed to have, yeah, it was gone. Apparently, Michael was anti-cash.

He had converted all their money into gold bars, which seems very on brand for him, in my opinion. And I'm pretty sure that that's what he had offered the kidnappers in their agreement, one of the gold bars or several of the gold bars. I don't know. But here's the thing. The gold was also missing. Michael must have hid it somewhere. And to be honest, I'm not sure if they ever found it, despite even using a metal detector throughout the property. And on top of that, and this is just

So heartbreaking. But Shonda found out that Michael was $750,000 in debt and she was responsible for paying it since they'd been married when he incurred that debt. And I just feel so bad for her. I mean, it was really like one thing after the next. And this was supposed to be a time where things were really starting to look up, that justice was right around the corner. And then get this. During the divorce settlement proceedings, her attorney, Christine,

got Michael to agree to a deposition, which his attorney, of course, was very nervous about. Now, it took place for 10 hours across a three-day span, and she was able to ask him a lot of questions about the kidnapping. And despite the overwhelming amount of evidence against him, he stuck to his original story that he hired these men to move some furniture and they went rogue in order to get him to

to pay ransom for Shonda. He even said that they called him after the kidnapping and they told him that they had his, quote, motherfucking wife, which he said felt like a punch to the gut. And watching the video of him say that in court, oh my God, it's just ridiculous. But when it came to a lot of the specific questions, like how he met Sylvester, all Michael could say was,

I don't know. I don't know this. I don't know that. I don't recall. All because he was high on meth. But one thing he said he did remember, though, is that he certainly never would have orchestrated it. He cried, because of course he did, and said how much he loved her and would never do anything like this. And it was just a lot of emotional manipulation and just outright bullshit, in my opinion. And no one was falling for it. I mean...

truly. And my personal favorite moment was when Christine played him that Arlo security footage of him clearly plotting with Sylvester. I mean, I truly have to say that is one of the most bonehead moves ever to accidentally record yourself plotting a kidnapping on your own camera in your own property. Like, good job, dude. Genius, genius work. And so in court, they're asking him, okay, what kind of movers say things like that? He goes,

Well, people tell me all sorts of things. Like, dude, what does that even mean? He's so stupid. So at this point, Michael is just barreling towards a guilty conviction. I mean, there's not a lot of hope for him left. And I think his defense attorney knew that that was the case and could sense that Michael started to realize that was the case, too, because hours before the trial was set to start, Michael was in the trial.

Michael ended up agreeing to a plea deal, of course. So in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree kidnapping and one count of attempted second-degree kidnapping, they would take the life in prison sentence off the table. And instead, he would face between 15 and 35 years. Now, ultimately, the decision was up to Shonda whether or not she wanted to agree to this. And...

She ended up deciding that she did. And I think it's sometimes hard for people to understand why a victim would make a decision like this, but it is just so traumatic to go through the trial process. I mean, it would be a lot of pain and trauma that she would have to relive by going through trial. She knew that the evidence was strong, but ultimately,

the toll that it was going to potentially take on her and on her daughter too, just didn't seem worth it. Also, not to mention, there was a chance, a very small chance, that he would have been found not guilty. So accepting this plea felt like

the safest option all around, what would be best for everyone involved. So in March of 2022, Michael was back in court for his sentencing hearing, and by this point, it had been four and a half years since the kidnapping, and I can only imagine how ready Shonda was to just put this behind her. Shonda and Isabella were in the courtroom that day, and I wasn't able to find any courtroom footage, but from what I've heard, they both gave very powerful victim impact statements, and

They talked about how difficult this has made their lives. Shonda also talked about how Michael wrecked what was once a really good thing. And not surprisingly, they both wanted him to receive the maximum sentence of 35 years. Michael, on the other hand, now had a brand new story. He explained that he actually did hire those guys, but his intention was never for her to get hurt.

He wanted to instead swoop in, be the hero, and maybe she would take him back. Basically, he explained he was planning to save her from a kidnapping setup that he had

arranged himself. I mean, it really makes no sense. It's ridiculous, obviously. Basically, at this point, it was just laughable. I mean, everything he tried to do except for just take accountability. And luckily, the judge saw straight through his bullshit. So in the end, Michael was sentenced to 35 years in prison. However, he did receive credit for time served, which is so annoying.

The judge said he considered several factors in his decision, and he mentioned that Michael's continued harassment, even behind bars, was something that influenced why he got the max sentence. But still, Michael will be out of prison when he is 79 years old, and understandably, that is a day that Shonda is celebrating.

very fearful of. She believes that he will find a way to get to her again, whether that's when he's free or even when he is still behind bars. But what's amazing to me about Shonda is even after everything that she's gone through, she hasn't let this stop her from living her life. I mean, there's no doubt that the fear is still there, very much there, still exists.

And that impacts her often, but just listen to what she has done. In the aftermath of her kidnapping, she has opened two sober living homes that are dedicated to helping women get back on their feet. It's called the Destiny Sober Living in Lafayette, and on the website she writes, And the mission statement reads, in part,

Our mission at Destiny Sober Living is to provide an affordable, safe, sober living environment designed to encourage and support long-term recovery from alcohol and drugs.

We set high standards for our residents and provide a structured environment where they can best learn the necessary life skills required for the successful transition to a healthy lifestyle. Here at Destiny Sober Living, we are big believers that we can do together that which we are unable to do alone. And I just think it speaks so highly of Shonda's character and really her strength and resilience that

She is channeling her time and resources into something that's going to help others, something that our country desperately needs. And really, this isn't new for Shonda. She has always been a charitable person. At one point, she and Michael ran the Handley Family Foundation, which hosted fundraising events to support a variety of causes. So I think it's safe to say that giving back is just in her nature and really always has been. And the world is very, very lucky to support

still have her in it. As time has gone by, Shonda has had the opportunity to thank Chad, the officer who saved her life, and there was a clip of this in an episode of 48 Hours, I believe, and it was just so beautiful. I mean, truly, what a surreal moment. And obviously, I wish this just never happened in the first place, but I think it is a miracle, really. I'm so thankful that Chad was

in the right place at the right time and was being so vigilant, especially when he was off duty. It's so impressive. It's really because of him that Shonda is still here and that Isabella has her mom. Now, Michael has tried, of course, to appeal his conviction by saying that he wasn't informed of his rights when he pled guilty and that his sentence was too harsh.

But it sounds like a last-ditch effort, if you ask me. I really don't think he's going to go very far with that. Michael 100% deserves to be in jail, and I hope it remains that way for as long as possible. I wish that he got a much harsher sentence than he did. I really enjoyed learning about Shonda's story as...

horrific as it is, just her ability to bounce back from it all and to stay strong and still have moments where she's laughing and smiling, even in her interviews, it's so impressive to me and...

I don't know, stories about survivors always leave me feeling so, so inspired. And I'd love to know if you guys are interested in hearing more stories about survivors because there are a few I'm really interested in covering and I'd love to hear your feedback on that. And Shonda, if you happen to see this, I just wanted to say that I am so, so inspired by you. I am so grateful that you are here today to continue the amazing work that you're doing. Like I said, it is so, so needed in our country and...

Yeah, you're just such an inspiration to me. I really can't put it into words. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Rae. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. ♪