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to take the fall to protect her granddaughter, a young mom. reporter bruce rushton went to a vigil for steven nine months after he was killed which included a walk to the skinner family home. people there were split over whether it was shirley or jennifer who killed stephen. >> it's a head-scratcher. because what's the grandmother's motive here? compare that to jennifer watkins'motives? did these folks truly believe sydney was being abused? the prosecution doesn't have to prove motive in a criminal case. you can't help but ask yourself. >> the jury will be asking. >> you would imagine. >> the jury would soon get its chance. more than ten months after stephen watkins was shot to death, an arrest in florida where shirley and jennifer had gone to live with baby sydney. chief birdsell was there. >> when she saw me there, she appeared to be very surprised. i was happy to be there. >> but which one was arrested for the murder of stephen watkins? shirley the matriarch or jennifer, the mom embroiled in

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you? >> looks like somebody decided to shoot him in the back of the head. >> but who was the somebody who shot him? members of the skinner family obviously knew who did it, but none of them were talking, complicating matters, chief birdsell had never handled a murder before. most of his law enforcement career had been spent on vehicle code violations. he thought he would be able to handle the case on his own but he couldn't. the case dragged on for months. people all over the community are saying why hasn't there been an arrest. >> yes. i was hearing that a lot. >> as the case dragged on, the whodunit became the talk of the town. >> people are very, very aware of the killing in this community. >> bruce rushton covered the case for the springfield paper "register." >> any time we write about this in the newspaper, it's the most clicked on thing, or close to the most clicked on thing. it's a puzzler. it's almost a game of three card monte. >> rushton said no one thought stephen instigated the violence.

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of, oh, bs, and may have been lured in, come in and see for yourself. then he's inside the house and it's a distance of approximately 30 feet from the main entry door to sydney's bedroom. and we've got to believe that jennifer was holding the baby. as he's walking down the length of that dining room, he's passing shirley, as he walks past her, it's our belief that she then shot him. >> had he been turned over as though somebody was trying to be cpr? >> no. he lay where he fell. >> shot in the back of the head and fell forward. pool of blood around his head, his baseball cap underneath him. he died right there where he was shot. >> why had shirley been the one charged? though the forensic evidence collected at the scene was not useful, authorities did have important eyewitness evidence, something first responders and chief birdsell said they had seen that night, two parallel scrapes on shirley skinner's

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a stunning story, but this was secondhand information. from first responders quoting an elderly woman in the midst of a medical and family crisis. were her statements reliable? had she really said that? chief birdsell asked jennifer what happened. >> he said stephen forced his way in the house and knocked her grandmother down and then he was coming after her and the baby and the grandmother shot him. >> it all seemed hard to believe. chief birdsell wanted to ask shirley what happened but never got a chance. >> about the time i was getting ready to, her attorney was on the phone and said he didn't want me to talk to her. >> she was already lawyered up? >> yes. >> shortly after jennifer also hired an attorney and stopped talking as well. jennifer's grandfather who was in the house at the time stephen was killed wasn't talking either. so what had happened in the skinner home? had stephen watkins finally

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>> is she shot? >> no, he's shot. i need an ambulance for my grandmother. >> it was a confusing 911 call. jennifer wanted an ambulance for her grandmother shirley skinner. as for her estranged husband stephen, jennifer implied to the dispatcher he had been shot to protect her family. >> he come after her and pushed her out of the way and then he tried to come after sydney and i. oh, god. >> what happened to your grandmother? >> i think she might -- she's having heart trouble. please come and help us. >> what's your name? >> jennifer watkins. >> okay. i'll get a hold of the ambulance, all right? >> yes. >> ashland police chief jim birdsell was called to the scene. >> about 5:50 i got a phone call from 911 advising me there had been a domestic in town at 11 horseshoe drive, saying the

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prosecution had no physical evidence to prove she was the shooter, no dna, no fingerprints, no gunshot residue, no blood spatter, no photos of the scripts on shirley's hands. basically, all they had were descriptions of the hands and statements from first responders that surely told them she had shots east even. now it was time for the defense to make its case to the jury, mostly young and female from small town rural illinois. lawyers for shirley emphasized the fact that there was no physical evidence linking her to the weapon, and they argued surely statement to the first responders is he dead, i shot him, were made when she was having a medical emergency. how reliable could those statements be? the defense focus on what they called a sloppy inept investigation by the police chief, pointed at jennifer the innuendo and implications with her ugly divorce and custody battle as the one with the motive to kill stephen. they didn't directly argue jennifer pulled the trigger,

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Dateline-20220214-06:56:00

illinois. lawyers wrote emphasized the fact that there was no physical evidence linking her to the weapon. and they argued that shirley's statements to the first responders, were made when she was having a medical emergency. how reliable could those statements be? the defense also focus on what they called a sloppy investigation by the police chief. pointed at jennifer through innuendo and implication of an ugly divorce and custody battle, as the one with the motive to kill stephen. they did not directly argue that jennifer pulled the trigger, only that there was no hard evidence that surely did. and what did jennifer have to say to the jury, nothing. she did not even attend the trial. the defense called no witnesses of its own. >> what did jurors think of the case? >> we spoke with three jurors. >> did she look like someone that could commit this crime? >> when i first walked in there, i thought she was one of the attorneys.

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Dateline-20220214-06:26:00

elderly lady sitting in the chair which turned out to be shirley skinner and a person kneeling beside her holding her hand. she's crying a little bit. >> then a first responder motioned over to the other side of the room. >> i saw the body laying down there. >> any sign of life? >> no. >> it was stephen watkins, dead on the floor. a 9 millimeter glock handgun on a box several feet away. >> trying to get in my mind what happened, the ems personnel told me shirley made a statement to them that she had shot him. >> they reported to the chief that shirley had said a couple times is he dead? i shot him. he shouldn't have come back here. a stunning story, but this was secondhand information. from first responders quoting an elderly woman in the midst of a medical and family crisis. were her statements reliable? had she really said that? chief birdsell asked jenner what happened. >> he said stephen forced his way in the house and knocked

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Dateline-20220214-06:27:00

her grandmother down and then he was coming after her and the baby and the grandmother shot him. >> it all seemed hard to believe. chief birdsell wanted to ask shirley what happened but never got a chance. >> about the time i was getting ready to, her attorney was on the phone and said he didn't want me to talk to her. >> she was already lawyered up? >> shortly after jennifer also hired an attorney and stopped talking as well. jennifer's grandfather who was in the house at the time stephen was killed wasn't talking either. so what had happened in the skinner home? had stephen watkins finally gotten so frustrated over the child custody battle that he completely lost it and barged into the house on a rampage? with shirley, jennifer and grandpa silent, the evidence would have to tell the tale. >> did you see signs of a break-in? >> the door didn't have any damage. >> any signs of a struggle. >> not on the door. there was supposedly something on the wall that was broke, it was hanging down. >> a sconce on the wall of the

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Dateline-20220214-06:25:00

>> he come after her and pushed her out of the way and then he tried to come after sydney and i. oh, god. >> what happened to your grandmother? >> i think she might -- she's having heart trouble. please come and held us. >> what's your name? >> jennifer watkins. >> okay. i'll get a hold of the ambulance, all right? >> yes. >> ashland police chief jim birdsell was called to the scene. >> about 9:50 i got a phone call from 911 advising me there had been a domestic in town at 11 horseshoe drive, saying the husband came to pick up the daughter for visitation, forced into the horse, knocked the elderly woman down and she's having medical problems. >> when he arrived, he found this was no routine domestic. >> i walk up, open the door and walk in the house. directly in front of me was an

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