268. The Murder of Cayley Mandadi
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You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Happy Monday. Happy Monday. Happy Monday. Happy Monday. Hope everyone is doing great. Here we are in another episode of Murder With My Husband. If you by chance are listening to this for the first time, my name is Garrett.

That is the lovely Peyton Moreland. And she tells me a new case each week. I have no idea what she's going to say, what she's going to talk to me about.

And I love true crime. And I historically hate true crime. Historically? Here we are. We do a podcast once a week. And if you want bonus content, extra episodes, and ad-free, you can also check out our Apple subscriptions or Patreon slash Spotify subscription. And trust us, we know we're about to just ruin your life because you'll never find a podcast better than this. And you're going to run out of episodes. And we know. But...

Here we are every single week coming back. Thank you guys for supporting us. We love you. That leads us to Garrett's portion of the show where he talks about hot tamales. This week from my 10 seconds, I think I have a hot tamale obsession. Not good. You know how much I read of 40s in that? Not good. I eat a lot of hot tamales. If I die one day, it's going to be because of my hot tamales. That's okay. I love hot tamales.

And I just wanted everyone to know that I love them so much. And I hope that everyone else also likes Tamale's. I also just got a buzz cut. It's busted my hair. It's pretty short. If you're watching on YouTube, there's a weird light coming in from the left because we don't have curtains currently on the window. So sorry YouTubers that it's not super visually appealing. We apologize.

That's our fault. We are recording later than usual. I think that's all. That's what I got for 10 seconds. You know, just pickleball, hot tamales. I went golfing for the first time this season. I think it's going to be a pretty good year of golf. I think I should be a scratch golfer by the end of this season. I'm pretty excited about it. Payton doesn't know what that means, so she doesn't know if I'm being serious or not. But no, for anyone out there, I'm not a scratch golfer.

but hopefully at some point I am. I said it before and I'll say it again. I don't really know how golf works because whenever I go with Garrett, he uses like 10 balls. Get out of here. He just doesn't like his shot and then puts a new one down and shoots again. She's making that up because she watches too much TikTok to not listen to her. I didn't get that off TikTok. That's what all the TikTok people do. Nope, that's not true. I just thought that was funny. It was funny. It was funny.

All right, shall we get into this week's episode? Yes. Let's do it. Our sources for this episode are kens5.com, yahoo.com, ksat.com, cbsnews.com, courthousenews.com, mysanantonio.com, and sandhillsespress.com. So when I think about the typical college experience, a lot of things come to mind.

Like the challenging coursework, making new friends, finding new hobbies, maybe a little bit of partying. But I think one of the biggest parts of the college experience, at least for me, is honestly the dating. I mean, I found my Garrett during my college experience.

finding your miss or your mister or missus forever or your mister or missus right. Either way, exploring new relationships sort of comes with the territory in college. It's part of finding ourselves, learning who we are, what we want, what we don't want for the rest of our lives.

But dating a new person always comes with risks. Are we going to catch feelings for someone that maybe we're not ready for? Are we going to get our hearts broken? Are they going to get jealous or bitter if it doesn't work out? What we rarely stop to consider is how this person might react if things don't go the way they were hoping for in the relationship.

So today we are headed to San Antonio, Texas. All right. To meet 19 year old Kaylee Mandity.

In 2017, Kaylee is a sophomore at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. It is a liberal arts school of about 2,500 students. And Kaylee is studying to be a communications major there. She's 19, just barely entering her college career.

And in many ways, Kaylee does fit the mold of an all-American girl. Growing up, she was popular in school. She was a cheerleader. But someone who had a huge heart and was always very warm. She was trusting. She was open and honest with people. And friends said she always had a huge smile on her face, both on and off the football field when she was cheering.

And Kaylee brought that radiance with her to Trinity College. There she made a lot of friends quickly. She had joined the Trinity cheerleading squad, which helped her feel right at home. And she became a member of one of the sororities on campus. But Kaylee was also a person with a lot of depth because she was really smart. Probably because she was raised by some really intelligent people. Her

Her father was an international executive for MGM Resorts. All right. And her mother was a scientist. Her stepfather worked for NASA. Oh, my gosh. And as the only child, Kaylee's parents made sure they set her up for success. But as we know, college is an exploratory chapter in a young person's life. It's a time that will not only shape the future of your career, but the future kind of of what person you're going to become.

And sometimes that means sowing wild oats and trying out new things and new people, which was what Kaylee was definitely embracing going into her sophomore year at Trinity.

Now, by that point, Kaylee had been dating a guy named Jet Burcham. She was kind of dating him on and off for the last nine months. Now, Jet was a Trinity Star football player, and he was in Greek life himself. So together, he and Kaylee, the cheerleader, were sort of like an idyllic college couple. They met around January of 2017 and dated throughout the spring semester of her freshman year,

But by the time summer rolled around, Jet and Kaylee were on the outs. And by September, when the two returned to campus, Kaylee had sort of soured on the relationship. Now, going into sophomore year, she was looking for something more serious, someone she could make things exclusive with. But Jet just was not into that idea. So Kaylee was kind of over it by the time she returned to campus for her sophomore year.

She was ready to leave Jet in the past and see if there was someone who really wanted to commit themselves to her more, you know, kind of in a more meaningful way. And that's when she met 22-year-old Mark Howerton. Now, Mark wasn't actually a student at Trinity, but he was there all the time visiting his friends. He actually lived three hours away in Houston at this time.

But Kaylee might have liked that Mark was a former high school baseball star, another fellow athlete, which seems to be her type.

And things seemed hot and heavy pretty quick for Mark and Kaylee, even though he knew she was fresh out of a relationship. But that didn't seem to stop Mark. Instead, four weeks after they started dating, he invited Kaylee to be his plus one to a concert. It was at a music festival in San Antonio on October 29th, 2017.

Now that morning, Mark picked Kaylee up from campus. The two seemed ready for a day of partying and to blow off some steam. But before they got to the stadium where the festival was being held, there was something they wanted to try. So they pulled over at a car wash around the corner and took some MDMA.

The two got to the concert, saw a few bands, met up with a few friends, and had a few drinks. They honestly spent the afternoon dancing and laughing. Sorry, what is MDMA? Molly? I didn't know that was Molly. Did you? Well, now you got me questioning things. Not like I've ever done it, but I'm pretty sure MDMA is Molly. I haven't done it either, so that's why I'm asking. I don't know. Anyone out there who's done MDMA? No.

I assume it is Molly. Let us know if we're wrong. Thank you. It's Molly. I'm not going to doubt myself. I was so sure on that that I didn't even look that up. Yeah, I don't know. So they spend the afternoon dancing and laughing. But at 345, things got a little awkward at this music festival because this is when Kaylee runs into her ex-boyfriend from freshman year, the football player, Jet.

I can only imagine how weird this must have been being with your new boyfriend and running into your old one. I mean, the two supposedly knew about each other. But I would think when you have added Molly and alcohol to that equation, it probably makes the emotions you're feeling a little bit heightened.

And while they don't do much more than just say hi, from what I can tell, it definitely ruins the day for Kaylee. Because only an hour or so later, Kaylee and Mark actually leave the music festival early. They get into Mark's Mercedes and drive off. But come the next morning, this is October 30th, 2017, Kaylee's friends are getting worried.

Her friend Taylor, who's been buddies with Kaylee since freshman year of high school, wakes up to notice that she hasn't gotten her morning Snapchat message from Kaylee. The first thing they did every day when they woke up is send a Snapchat message to one another. Now, Taylor doesn't actually go to Trinity with Kaylee. She's at another college nearby. But Kaylee's friends at Trinity are also starting to worry about her because Kaylee's

Kaylee failed to show up to a sorority meeting the night before after the concert. So she was supposed to do the music festival and then go to this sorority meeting. And they've been trying to call her and text her ever since she missed it. Now, Kaylee hasn't answered her phone or any of her messages since she left the music festival. But people looking for her next tried to mark her boyfriend and he has answered.

See, one of her sorority sisters named Morgan Sampson tried to FaceTime Kaylee late on the night of the 29th. Kaylee didn't answer her phone. Mark did. And he told her, hey, Kaylee can't talk right now, and then just hung up.

So that really disturbed Kaylee's sorority sisters so much so that when they haven't seen Kaylee the next day, they go to the police to try and file a report and get a wellness check on Kaylee. And for some reason, the police tell the women that's not an option yet.

So meanwhile, they're begging the police, like, please, can you put an Amber Alert for our friend? Maybe she's been kidnapped. And police are like, I'm sorry, but your friend is too old for the Amber Alert program. That only applies to people till age 17. And they're like, oh my gosh, well, no one's answering. Mark did that weird thing. I mean, you know where this story is going. He knows where Kaylee is. It's not a mystery. Because around 10 p.m. on the night of October 29th, about five hours later,

After he and Kaylee left the festival, he was arriving at a hospital in Lolling, Texas, which is a little over an hour outside of San Antonio. Paramedic Cheryl Lane was right in front of Mark's black Mercedes as it pulled up to the emergency entrance. He was honking his horn, flashing his lights as he arrived. Then he got out of the car screaming that his girlfriend isn't breathing.

And when Cheryl takes a peek inside the passenger door of the vehicle, she sees Kaylee there unconscious in the seat. And this paramedic notices that Kaylee has some bruising.

Her clothes aren't on her. They are lying on the floor of the car. Oh my gosh, dude. But Cheryl is more concerned with getting the girlfriend out, Kaylee, and administering CPR. Now, as other medics rush out and help Kaylee inside, Mark starts frantically explaining that he and Kaylee had taken Molly at a music festival, and when they left, she passed out.

So for the time being, all of the doctors and nurses are actually treating Kaylee's condition as a drug overdose. They insert a tube into her chest to help her breathe. They put IVs in both of her arms and they send in a sexual assault nurse to photograph Kaylee just in case.

Meanwhile, as Kaylee's at the hospital fighting for her life, her parents are pretty unaware because for whatever reason, they aren't contacted until 4 a.m. on October 30th, 2017. So they get to the hospital and they see their daughter for the first time and they can't help but notice how extensive the bruising is all over her body. Oh my gosh. It's actually so bad that her parents are like, this is not a drug overdose. Like,

Did she jump off a bridge? Did she have a terrible fall? What could have done this much damage? Was it the amount of times they had tried to administer CPR on her? And the police are curious about this too because at the same time, they are actually in another room interrogating Mark Howerton, the boyfriend. They want to know every second of what happened leading up to his arrival at the hospital because if you show up

with someone who's apparently overdosing but has bruising all over, they will call the police. And they get a lot of the conversation they have with Mark on body cam footage. Are you looking for a natural way to promote and maintain your liver health? I found a clinically supported, potent, and effective solution, and I can't wait to share it with you.

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Right on. Okay. The hospital staff calls the police. The police come and they're just trying to make sure everything's good. I love how much is on body cam footage now. Cause you can just, especially at hospitals. So much information. Yes. Love it. So they kind of bring Mark to a quieter place in the hospital that happens to be the chapel. Okay.

And Mark starts off the conversation seemingly pretty honest with them. He says, yeah, we took MDMA. We had some drinks before going into the festival. He mentions that they ran into Kaylee's ex, Jet, at around 3.45 p.m. He tells them that after this encounter...

him and Kaylee actually got into a bit of an argument. Mark says he told Kaylee that jet wasn't worth her time. She just needed to get over him and enjoy the festival. And that the fight got so heated that they just decided to leave the concert altogether early. Yeah.

But once they got into his car, he claims things began to calm down. He tells police they pulled over at a gas station parking lot. And that's when they started to have makeup sex in the car. But Mark admits to the police that this sex was not loving and tender. He does say it was a bit rough.

We, you know, there was some choking, but it was 100% consensual. And he tells the police, he's like, this also isn't far off from how things usually are between us in the bedroom. He said, this is actually normal. I'm sure the police are just like, bro, her entire body is filled with bruises. What are you talking about?

Then he says after they finished having sex, they got back on the road and started heading for his home in Houston, about a three-hour drive. And on route, Kaylee started to say she wasn't feeling well. She fell asleep in the passenger seat. And shortly into that drive, Mark says he realized that Kaylee wasn't breathing. That's when he rushed her to the nearest hospital. That's the one they're at. How'd her clothes get off? Because they were having sex before this.

Now on its surface, this story could be plausible. I mean, it could even be honest considering Mark admitted to them. Yeah, we did fight. Yeah, we were on drugs. We drank. But the bruising on Kaylee can't be ignored. So they ask him, okay, we understand what you're saying, but the bruising on her body, what happened? And he said, I noticed some bruising on her legs earlier, but that bruising that's on her now wasn't there when I dropped her off.

Which is a bit shady for two reasons. Number one, the paramedic noticed the bruising the second that Kaylee got there. And number two, Mark actually has bruising on his hands at the time of this interrogation. The top of them are like a little red and scabby, which is enough for police to go, okay, you're going to stay here. We're going to go search your car because that's where you're claiming most of this happened. Kind of interesting too, because at this point,

I'm sure he's hoping she doesn't wake up. Right. Because if she does wake up or she gets better, I mean, she's going to be able to tell them exactly what happened. Which is also interesting because wouldn't he want to make sure she's dead if that was the case? Well, they keep going. Keep going. They decide they're going to go search his car. Mark is very cooperative. And I want to reiterate that all of this is happening at the hospital, like in the next day.

He doesn't tell them to get a warrant. He just tells them to look around in the car where they discover some marijuana and a gun. But Mark doesn't seem too alarmed by this. This is Texas after all. Instead, he is just like, OK, I understand you guys are searching my car, but can I get an update on Kaylee, my girlfriend? But the truth is things are not going well over with Kaylee in the hospital room.

By the morning of October 31st, 2017, the next day, doctors bring Kaylee's parents in and tell them that there is no hope for recovery. After trying to resuscitate Kaylee seven times over the course of the last day and a half, they let the family know that Kaylee was now brain dead, which is when her parents were left with an unimaginable decision.

They called her closest friends, invited them to the hospital to say goodbye, and they signed the papers to fulfill one of Kaylee's wishes to donate her organs to those in need. And then that afternoon, Kaylee's family gave her one last kiss as they decided to take her off life support. Oh my gosh, that would be so hard. Awful. That would be...

That would be awful. Awful. So after Kaylee's passing, the police continued to speak with Mark Howerton on a few separate occasions because now she has died. And his story remains consistent each time. He says that we went to the festival, saw her ex, we got in a fight, we left, we had makeup sex in the car. And then Kaylee said she wasn't feeling well. We were driving and then I noticed she wasn't breathing. That's when I rushed her to the nearest hospital.

And for now, there's nothing the police can charge him for. This isn't exactly looking like a homicide until the autopsy comes back. Of course. And that changes everything. Because the autopsy doesn't say that Kaylee died from high levels of alcohol or MDMA or mixing them. It says that Kaylee's cause of death was, get this, blunt force trauma to her head. Holy crap. Which...

is consistent with what they found on the rest of her body bruises everywhere. And this is actually something that I didn't know, but I learned the other day and is actually something you can look for in children or elderly people to see if there's a possibility that they are being abused in the care of someone else. Okay. If someone is getting hit in the head,

oftentimes a symptom of that will be bruising in their ears. Interesting. And it doesn't mean that they'll bruise on their actual head, but if you look at their ears and there's bruising in or around their ears, that's a sign of head trauma. And this actually has been used multiple times to prove that people are being abused, which is actually gross. And I'm not even going to go there that this is something they look for in children.

But this is what's happening with Kaylee at this point. There is bruising in her ears. And this is slightly graphic, but I do think it's important to understand the severity of these injuries because it's definitely not an overdose. And this is a huge part of the case. So you can fast forward if you don't need all the details. But the autopsy stated that Kaylee's head injury was so substantial that

That it had actually caused her brain to strip away from her skull. Oh my gosh. And then create a brain bleed. Which then you have to think he's pulling up to the hospital saying, oh, she just fell asleep and her brain is not attached to her skull. So once investigators get this information from the autopsy, they are like, what? What? This is not an overdose. This is a homicide.

And the bruising, it is not consistent with rough sex, like Mark Howerton had said they'd had. This looked more like a case of extreme physical assault. And once they learn more about who Mark Howerton is, you know, they're like, okay, this is our number one suspect. Things start coming together pretty fast. Let's get into the real Mark Howerton.

Let me start by saying that Mark is a pretty big guy. He's tall, he's muscly, to the point where some of Kaylee's friends even said that they thought he was on steroids. So the thought of him attacking Kaylee and doing that amount of damage, even in a confined space like a car,

Doesn't actually sound that impossible, especially after you hear what her friends had to say about Kaylee and Mark's relationship. Because it turns out Kaylee wasn't in this one for the long haul. She did seem to still have feelings for Jet and she was kind of already one foot out of the relationship with Mark by the time of the music festival.

She had actually spoken to a few friends about breaking up with Mark, but she also passively mentioned that she was kind of afraid to do it. Like she was afraid to have this conversation with him. And the reason for why became a bit clearer a few days before they went to that music festival. So this was October 15th, 2017.

Kaylee's roommate Morgan Sampson told police after her death that on that night Mark came to campus to hang out with Kaylee. Remember he doesn't go to the college. It seems like Mark got super drunk that day and then showed up that night and began throwing up off of Kaylee's dorm room balcony.

So at this point, Morgan invited Kaylee to a frat party and told her she should just leave Mark behind to sober up, cool off like he's already too far gone to party. Now, Mark isn't cool with this because Jet is part of the fraternity that's hosting this frat party. Yeah. Okay. He senses that Kaylee is not necessarily over that breakup.

But Kaylee and Morgan decide to go to the party anyway. And they're basically like, Mark, you don't even go here. You need to stay home and sober up like you're kind of not invited. So Mark stays in Kaylee's room. And while she's out, her neighbors hear a bunch of loud banging coming from her bedroom. So they actually call campus police. They're like, hey, there's something going on over there. So police show up. They knock on the door and they find Mark.

They ask him, hey, we need to take a look inside the apartment. He says no. But the police are like, okay, we're campus police. We're coming inside anyways. And what they find is that the balcony door to this apartment has been broken and all of Kaylee's clothes from inside her bedroom have been thrown off the balcony. Holy crap. And onto like the trees outside as well as her laptop. Ugh.

has been thrown off the balcony. Keep in mind, Mark doesn't go to Trinity. So campus police are like, okay, you can't ever step foot here again. Like you are not allowed on campus. Now, as far as I can tell, nothing happened to Kaylee that night. It seems like police told him get off campus immediately before Kaylee even came back to her dorm room. But I know that at this point she tells her ex-boyfriend jet that

That, you know, I'm dating this new guy, Mark, and I am scared of him. Like I want to break up with him, but his behavior is just showing me that it might be dangerous to do so.

And another friend of hers said that she had actually begun to see bruises on Kaylee after that day. Oh, wow. So. And when she confronted Kaylee about it, like, hey, why all of a sudden do you have bruises on you? Kaylee admitted that they were from Mark. So after he does this on the balcony, he then starts to get physically violent with her. We've talked about it a few times.

I actually truly don't know what you're supposed to do when you're being beat, but you're scared to leave because they're going to kill you. Like, I truly don't know what you're supposed to do. And honestly, because sorry to interrupt because the legal route for that isn't working. It's just, it's just not, it's just sticky. Yes. Right. It's so sticky. Like it doesn't solve the issue. He's not going to go to prison for what he's done. Yeah. If it's,

not super severe yet like what happened yeah so it's just it's too sticky and i don't know what i don't female male whatever i don't know what you're supposed to do when you're being abused like that and i will say like i got the hint that like there was a little bit of victim blaming going on being like well if kaylee's still in contact with jet how was that fair to mark what's the blah blah blah let me just clarify something

When you are in trouble with someone, you tend to go to people you trust who you think can help you out. A former boyfriend could easily do that. He cares about you. He's another guy. Like he knows what it's like to be in a relationship with you. It really is not that crazy that that's who she turns to for help. So I just don't want to go down that road at all.

Because she's in a dangerous situation. And then another friend told police that Kaylee had confided in them about a time when, um,

Mark had grabbed her head and smashed it into a car window. What is happening now? By this point in October, Kaylee had apparently tried to end things with Mark more than once. But whenever she told him like, hey, I think we should break up. Like she tried to have the talk with him. He would threaten to die by suicide. There was even a text message from Mark to Kaylee. So this is like hard proof that read, quote, if I leave, it's death.

Basically saying like if we break up, I will kill myself. By the way, I mean, that's a form of abuse. And manipulation. Like that's not. That can't happen. That is not healthy. That's not okay. And even if someone is so low to the point where that's how they're feeling. It's never the other person's fault. No. Just saying. No.

I mean, if you can get help and get other people involved. But by the time the festival rolled around October 29th, Kaylee is literally on her last leg. She told Jet that,

She was planning to break up with Mark while she was there that day because there would be a lot of people around. So if anything goes sideways at the festival, there would be witnesses. Jet also said, though, that Kaylee was really nervous about this breakup. Like the only reason she was going to this festival was to break up with him in public. And rightfully so, because Jet said after he ran into Kaylee at the festival, he was going to break up with her.

he saw Mark and Kaylee fighting. Obviously, he's figuring that they're breaking up and it appeared like Kaylee was trying to get away, but Mark kind of hooked his arm around her shoulder.

And then they just like he just began walking her to the exit. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. OK, to be honest, did your parents ever say money doesn't grow on trees and then call it a day? Same. That saying might be true, but it doesn't exactly explain how to budget or save. And that's where Greenlight comes in. It is the tool that helps you finally learn the money stuff no one ever taught you, because adulting is hard enough without guessing what to do with your paycheck.

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For all better with help, visit betterhelp.com slash husband to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash husband. So now with this eyewitness testimony against Mark Howerton and the incredibly damning autopsy report, police feel like they have more than enough to press charges. Yeah, I'm so mad because...

What? I've said this on the podcast before and I totally get if you disagree with me and I'm fine with that. Like, I don't, I don't care. It doesn't offend me. I still love you. You still love me. We're a happy family. Way to force that. But it's just like, I just don't think, I mean, he's going to get prison time, obviously. I don't know. That ain't good enough for me. That's not good enough for me. Like, that's just not, it's not okay. Like, yeah, sure. He goes to a prison, but cool. Yeah.

Like he physically killed somebody. Like, cause he's rageful and egotistical and can't be told no. Like you still have your life. Nah, not about it. I'm just, I'm not about it. You should have the right in this world to break up with anyone whenever and for whatever reason you want. And it doesn't mean it's not going to emotionally hurt someone.

But you also have that freedom as a person. It's crazy. Police are like, hey, we have enough to press charges. And just a few weeks after the autopsy is revealed on February 28th, 2018, they go and arrest the 22-year-old Mark. He's charged with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault. Now, it takes almost two years for Mark to go to trial. So in December of 2019, the prosecution is ready for a conviction.

They argue at trial that on the night of October 29th, after attempting to break up with Mark, Kaylee was forcefully taken back to his car where she was sexually assaulted by him and then beaten so badly that she suffered that fatal brain bleed. And they show the jury just how bad it was with photographs taken of Kaylee in the hospital.

Now when it's the defense's turn, they are like not so fast. They argue no one saw what transpired between Kaylee and Mark in the car that day. And here's the thing. Jet is called in as a witness for the prosecution because he originally told police he saw him lead her out.

of the music festival. But when he testifies, he doesn't say that on the stand this time. He's like, no, I just saw the two of them walk away. I didn't really see her being like forced away with him, which honestly just like a technicality. Like, yeah, big difference though. Not saying it makes him innocent or on innocent, but it, but the defense, I mean, they can use that. I mean, anything that creates doubt will be used. Right.

Why Jet changed his tune during the trial is kind of a mystery. Maybe he just wasn't, he was exaggerating the day that he talked to police. And then when he was under oath, he was like, I should probably just tell the truth. But that still doesn't explain all the bruising and the autopsy results that happened from the time she was last seen at the festival to the hospital. Though the defense had a pretty convincing argument for that too. They said that the bruising was caused by a hospital, by Kaylee's medical team who tried to resuscitate her seven times in an effort to save her life.

For this, they point to a broken rib on the autopsy and the defense leans into the MDNA aspect of the story that while the autopsy didn't state it as a cause of death, it was in her system at the time. And some experts called on by the defense argued it could have definitely played a role.

So after 10 hours of deliberations, the jury returned to the courtroom and they claim that they couldn't agree. Oh my, get the, get out of here. So they don't have a verdict. Mark Howerton's case ends in a mistrial and he's a free man.

Mark would be getting a new trial date, which wouldn't come until 2023 because they're going to try him again. Though that's when Kaylee's mother, scientist Allison Steele, and Kaylee's NASA engineer stepfather, Lawrence Bateland, realized this case wasn't as cut and dry as they thought. They thought that like going to trial is going to just be open and close. And they decide police need more evidence this time around.

And they're like, we're going to fight it. Like, we want justice for our daughter and we are getting to work. Kaylee's stepfather, Lawrence, starts by pouring over these autopsy photos. And what he notices is a small little angry above Kaylee's right ear. And then he notices a few more injuries. They're subtle things, but soon it starts to paint a picture.

He and Allison think that the fatal blow was when Mark hit Kaylee in her left ear, which sent her head into the window that hit the lock button on the car. And that was what that was on her right above her ear. Yeah.

Now, what's frustrating about this is that Mark Howerton actually admitted in a recorded interview with police that he had done something similar to this before. He told them that at one point they had gotten into a fight in his car and he had pushed Kaylee's head into a window.

Now, whether or not this detail was included in the first trial, I have no idea, but I know Katie's parents weren't about to let this slip through the cracks. Like he's already kind of done this motion and movement with her. So they take things a step further. They learn that Mark actually sold his card

Back in 2018. And they do a search for the VIN number, track it down to the new owners. Once they find them, Allison and Lawrence literally go up to them, say, can we please buy this car from you? We believe our daughter was murdered in this car. And we need it.

I mean, how do you say that? How do you say no to that? So they buy the car and drive it home and they hire experts to help them prove their theory. In fact, they even hire a PI to make a reenactment video in case they need it for court. They actually bring in two actors similar in stature, like in weight to Kaylee and Mark, and they have them play out a couple scenarios of how the injuries from Kaylee's autopsy pictures could have occurred in the car.

So come June 2023, it's time for Mark Howerton's case to get a second trial. And this time, Kaylee's family is like, we've done a lot more work this time. We are feeling optimistic.

For starters, Mark hasn't been doing himself any favors since he got off the first time and has been waiting for this date because he's been posting ridiculous things on the Internet, saying stuff like, quote, come at me legally. I will beat you. And seeing his social media videos, quote, wow, 75% of people think I'm guilty. That just means 75% of people in the world can suck my. Yeah.

But it's possible Mark was really feeling the pressure because now he wasn't just facing charges of first-degree murder and sexual assault. He had actually tacked on more charges like aggravated assault and criminally negligent homicide. And when the day comes for a trial, there's new evidence presented, particularly in regards to Mark and Kaylee's cell phone data. It proves that Mark's story doesn't make sense, the one about them having makeup sex and him driving her to the hospital when she passed out.

But instead, experts see that from the cell phone data this time around, it's more likely that Mark drove around with Kaylee in his car for a long time between stopping and taking her to the hospital. Yeah, because he wanted her to die. Yes, he was hesitating, trying to come up with a plan. Do I take her in? Do I just...

Let her die here. Just getting his story straight, whatever. But there are a few hiccups when it comes to the prosecution side. That reconstruction video Kaylee's parents made, judges like you can use it in trial, but it comes with a condition. The parents now have to be witnesses in the trial, which means they aren't able to sit in and watch the trial. Ultimately, this wasn't something they wanted to risk. So Allison and Lawrence agreed to just take back the video. They're like, we'd rather just be present for the trial.

then have to sit out and like be testified. In the meantime, the defense continues to argue basically the same thing, that all of this was caused by consensual sex. Now, the question was, who are the jurors going to believe? When they left to deliberate this time, they did come back with a verdict for now 27-year-old Mark. And when the judge reads the results,

It makes a lot of people's hearts sink because Mark Howerton is found not guilty of first degree murder. Get out of here. Get the F out of here. There's no way. Do you want to know who he's found guilty of? Pull up. Sorry, I shouldn't say that. What do you think he's found guilty of? Drugs or sexual assault. Guilty of aggravated assault causing serious bodily harm.

Okay, so what? Literally a bar fucker. So he gets three years in prison? She died. She died. And he got convicted of punching someone in the bar recently. That's... Oh my gosh. Whoever was on the jury for this, garbage. Absolute... You guys, bad. I will say...

Insane. I mean, okay, it'd have to be a pretty bad bar fight because you have to cause bodily harm. But anyways, Mark is given 20 years in prison. Oh, okay. So, I mean, I mean, yeah, I think some life probably, but for just aggravated assault causing serious bodily harm, it could have been way less. 20 years in prison, ordered to pay $10,000 to Kaylee's family. Oh, wow. $10,000. Cool. But Kaylee's parents can't help but think about how easily all this could have been prevented.

It's actually one of the hardest pills for them to swallow is the fact that nothing could be done

When King, these friends first reported her missing. Remember when police told them they couldn't issue an Amber alert because Haley was over 17. Well, Haley's mom, Alison stood on that for a while. And that's when she decided she was going to fight for Amber alert to be sent out for anyone, because who knows really how long this whole process had taken. And the friends couldn't reach her that night. Remember, she was supposed to be at that sorority thing. And so she,

In 2019, Allison created the Katie's Calling organization and with that made the Clear Alert. It works just like Amber Alert, only it's made for people between the ages of 18 and 64. So basically an Amber Alert for older people.

And in September of 2019, Allison got the program approved by a Texas legislator. But Allison isn't done trying to keep Kaylee's legacy alive. Her nonprofit, Kaylee's Calling, has been traveling around Texas trying to educate law enforcement on how to properly utilize this alert. The hope is that everyone in the community can come together to prevent a crime like Kaylee's from ever happening again. If you would like to learn more about Kaylee's Calling or donate to the cause, you can visit Kayleescalling.org.

And that is the murder of Kaylee Manatee. Dude, I don't know. People piss me off. I don't know how else to say it other than that. That's crazy. I just, okay. And I know this is why, this is good. We leave some of this stuff at the end because a lot of people have probably turned the podcast off by now. But this is exactly why I just think there's not a scary enough punishment.

People aren't scared. People are not scared to go to prison, apparently, because they're doing this stuff. If you were truly terrified of consequences from your actions, you wouldn't do something. Majority of people, you're still going to have your 1% of people who are just serial killers and don't care. Yeah. I don't know. Just my thoughts. But horrible and I feel like for the family and that. My thoughts are this. Not everyone, but I would say a lot of people have been...

turned down by someone that they wanted. Yeah. Right. I'm sure. I mean, there's, you know, and that hurts and it does feel bad, but not everyone shoves someone's head into the side of the car so hard that their brain splits from their skull. And that's the difference. All right, you guys, thank you for watching this week's episode or listening, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.