Southern Fried true crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and
there may also be some explicit language used. Listener discretion is advised. September
one, twenty sixteen, was a warm and partly cloudy afternoon in central Kentucky.
Fifty two year old Ronda Oakley pulled in her driveway in Junction City at
around three pm. She was home early after attending a conference in Louisville the
day before. She loved her job and had fun at the conference, but
she and her husband, Philip had missed each other, even though it was
just one night apart. Though they had been married a couple of years,
they were practically still in their honeymoon phase, and Ronda had recently become a
full time stepmother. She hadn't expected to be parenting again at her age,
but she happily took on the role and loved her husband's kids like they were
her own. Ronda had adult children of her own, who had all long
since flown the nest. Philip Oakeley had two children from his previous marriage,
a daughter fifteen year old Jenna and son thirteen year old David. They had
been living in Arlington, Indiana, with their mother, Christie, but a
few months earlier, Jenna had asked if she could move in with her dad.
Philip had told his children his door was always open, so he was
glad to have Jenna come live with him, and her brother David decided to
come with her. The children had adjusted to their new school, and for
Philip it was a chance to develop a deeper relationship with his kids. He
and Ronda were intent on providing a warm and supportive environment where they hoped the
kids would thrive. But just five months after Jenna and David moved on that
warm late summer afternoon, Ronda Oakley was found viciously murdered. Welcome to episode
two twenty, The Murder of Ronda Oakley. Ronda Denise Rains was born on
March fifth, nineteen sixty four, to parents Howard and Mabel. She and
her older sister, Patty grew up in Liberty, a town in Casey County,
Kentucky. Sadly, in nineteen seventy one, when Ronda was just seven
years old, her father, Howard, passed away. In December nineteen eighty
one, seventeen year old Ronda married a twenty two year old young man named
Bobby Joe and graduated from Casey County High School in May the following year.
The couple had a son and daughter, Joey and Jennifer. This marriage didn't
last long, and young Ronda went on to marry again to a man named
Donald, and she had three more children, Courtney, Caitlin, and Daniel.
Unfortunately, this marriage didn't last either. Now a single mom to five
children, Ronda worked hard to give her kids a good life. She was
a customer service manager at R. R. Donnelly in Danville, Kentucky,
where she had worked happily for thirty years. She was respected and very well
liked by her co workers. Bronda's family and friends say she was outgoing,
bubbly, and known for being generous and loving, the kind of friendly lady
who never met a stranger, and for a while she wasn't interested in another
husband. She just wanted to take care of her kids. Frankly, she
was probably too busy working and raising kids to focus on her love life.
But by two thousand and eight, with all her kids moved out, the
forty four year old was enjoying taking time for herself and exploring the possibility of
findal love again. One day, sitting at the bar in Danville's Old Bridge
Golf Club, Ronda met thirty seven year old Philip Oakley. Philip was a
quieter personality than Ronda, much more reserved, but opposites often attract, and
pretty much from the day they met, Ronda and Philip were inseparable, and
they had more in common than just golf. Philip, who worked as a
production supervisor, was also divorced and a single parent, though it was part
time and his kids were still little elementary school ages. In two thousand and
eight, Jenna would have been about seven and David five. The Oakley kids
lived in Arlington, Indiana with their mom, Christy Woodpoe, but Philip maintains
he had a close relationship with them. He saw his children every other weekend.
It was a three hour drive six total for just a two day visit,
but he said he was close to his children and loved having them home
with him. That drive was definitely worth it for everyone, and his new
wife, Ronda soon loved spending time with his kids as a family. On
December twenty seventh, twenty thirteen, Philip and Ronda tied the knot in a
low key ceremony. They looked forward to blending their families and spending the rest
of their lives together. For a while, it was mostly just them too.
They worked and spent a lot of that wonderful newlywent time together. Ronda
was totally devoted to the couple's three docks and dogs, Cinderella, Jonas,
and Oliver, and by the time they were married, Ronda had four grand
babies, soon to be five. Like most grandparents, Ronda adored those babies
and had close relationships with all her kids. She and Philip lived in a
small town called Junction City on the outskirts of Danville. The population has hovered
under twenty three hundred people for the last couple of decades. Junction City and
Greater Danville are nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of the Bluegrass region of Kentucky,
where agriculture is still the main industry, especially horse breeding. You get
all four seasons in this gorgeous area. They still get the hot and humid
southern summers, but they have actual autumns and springs, unlike states further south.
Danville is known as the birthplace of bluegrass, and it's also a college
town home to the Liberal Arts School Center College. I also live in a
small community outside of a college town. We not only have our own community
Facebook group, my neighborhood even has its own group. We look out for
each other and feel very safe out here. Junction City is a lot like
that. Neighbors know each other's business but also look out for each other,
and it's a really safe place to live. On a scale of one to
one hundred, Junction City ranks at seven point two, and its crime rate
not to be a smarty pants, but there's not much crime because there's not
much to do. Oh, there's plenty of outdoor activities and creeks and woods,
But when you go to websites even local message boards, most things listed
are for nearby towns and cities, which is just fine because if you want
to buy a house, they're actually still affordable Injunction City. It's definitely still
a seller's market, but you can certainly get more out of a house there
for your dollars. And I did see a couple of million dollar homes,
but they're not really mansions. Their price is based on hundreds of acreage on
those properties. Lots of folks like living in small towns for these very reasons
they can commute to larger cities while having a nice house and or lots of
land to come home to. Not that Danville would really be much of a
commute it takes a little over two ten minutes to get there, date nights
in Danville would have been easy for Philip and Ronda. A little over two
years into their marriage, in April twenty sixteen, was when fifteen year old
Jenna decided she wanted to live with her dad after she had been fighting with
her mom. As promised, Philip's store was always open to his daughter.
Philip and Ronda welcomed the teen into their home without question, with thirteen year
old David soon joining his sister. Philip and Ronda both wanted to provide as
safe and stable a new home for their children as possible. While many kids
struggled to adjust to a new home, environment and social setting, the Oakly
children were really doing well. Jenna was a good student and cheerleader at Boyle
County High School. Philip was overwhelmed with the kindness, support, and generosity
Ronda showed towards her two step children, later telling WBRD News if there was
a book written about the perfect wife the perfect mother, the perfect nana that
would be my wife. I know she made me a better person. She
changed my life. I'm going to pause now for a short commercial break.
That September first, David rode the bus home from school and was dropped off
at four pm. When he got there, no one else was home.
Jenna wasn't home from school yet, and his dad was still at work.
His stepmom, Ronda, should be on her way home from out of town.
She had been at that conference in Louisville. Before starting his homework,
David loaded the dishwasher, which was one of his chores. He could hear
the dogs barking and howling from down in the basement. No one else was
home, so it was odd that they were making such a racket. When
David went downstairs to see what the thus was about, he could see the
dogs were scratching at the spare bedroom door. There were two bedrooms, Jenna's
in this room that the dogs were barking at. Opening the door and turning
on the light, David was confronted with a gruesome sight. Ronda's body lay
face up, motionless on the floor, a pool of blood surrounding her head.
A panic and I'm sure hysterical. David ran next door, where a
neighbor called nine one one. When officers arrived, they found Ronda had been
brutally attacked, stabbed multiple times on her neck. There was a trash bag
over her face and duct tape on her mouth. The cops opened Jenna's door
and saw a trash can with vomit in it. There was no sign of
a murder weapon, but upstairs the knife block in the kitchen was missing a
knife. Philip soon pulled into the driveway coming home from work. David had
our what he called his cell phone, so he was in a panic.
Daddy Ronda's gone was all the kid could get out. Seeing first responders vehicles
and his distraught son outside the house, his stomach dropped. When Kentucky State
Police broke the news that Ronda had been murdered, the shock and pain had
filled up like a ton of bricks. His wife was the most generous,
giving person he had ever met. Everyone loved her. Why would someone want
to kill her and in such a vicious way. That kind of attack didn't
look like a run of the mill robbery. There were no signs of forced
entry, so it didn't seem like a break in or home invasion, but
still robbery could be a motive. Ronda's twenty fourteen white Honda Civic was missing
from the driveway, so a BOLO was issued for the vehicle. So far,
the car looked like the only thing missing except for fifteen year old Jenna
had been at work all day, so he wasn't a suspect. He was
with law enforcement doing everything he could to help. He told police that he
had gotten a message from Boyle County High School that Jenna was absent. He
had thought she was homesick. Now he and the police were worried that Jenna
had witnessed the murder and had been abducted. As the hours passed and Jenna
didn't show up or call, Philip later said he just knew in his gut
almost right away that he knew who did this. He told police about Jenna's
ex boyfriend, twenty year old Kenneth Ryan Nye, who was from Arlington,
Indiana. The couple had been dating for several years, back from when Jenna
was living there with her mom. They rode the same school bus, though
they would have been several grades apart at the time they met. Jenna would
have been twelve years old at most, and Kenneth seventeen okay, sidebar,
almost a legal adult. Kenneth committed a crime by grooming this supposedly romantic relationship
with a child. I say supposedly because at that age you're just not old
enough to understand and participate in actual romantic love. I mean, seriously,
some girls at twelve years old have not even had their first period. Sexual
contact with children that age is and should be a crime. However, there
are Romeo and Juliet laws or practices in many states. Authorities take into consideration
that there's a difference between an almost grown man and a preteen and say a
relationship between a fifteen and seventeen year old named after Shakespeare's Young Lovers. Romeo
and Juliet exceptions protect young adults from prosecution when they are in a consensual relationship
with someone close in age. So these laws basically take the age to deface
friends and count the years. Four to five years is typically the cutoff for
authorities to step in, but along with the five year age gap, children
under twelve years of age cannot consent to a sexual relationship. In twenty sixteen,
in Kentucky, the age of consent was sixteen years old, and there
were no Romeo and Juliet laws. In effect, that means that any individual
who engaged in sexual conduct with a minor under sixteen could face prosecution for statutory
rape. For the record, in Indiana, the cutoff is four years.
Indiana's Romeo and Juliet law allows fourteen and fifteen year olds to consent to sexual
activity with their peers under certain conditions. So Jenna's mother definitely could have pressed
charges. We will get into that more later. At this point it doesn't
matter for this case, but before I get corrected, as of February twenty
twenty four, Kentucky does have Romeo and Juliet laws right now, when a
child is fourteen or fifteen and the partner is younger than twenty one, the
Romeo and Juliet exception would apply, and Jenna and Kenneth would have been in
the right age range. As much as we might not like it, I
just wanted to give you an overview of what Philip and Ronda could have done,
as well as what Jenna's mother, Christie, could have done when the
relationship first began legally. But there is also this there are Romeo and Juliet
laws, and then there is the Romeo and Juliet effect. Try to split
up a young couple and you just push them closer together. Tearing them apart
makes them become more infatuated with each other. Having said that what Kenneth and
I was doing was criminal, and as a parent, I would have reacted
exactly how Philip and Ronda do, but you do run the risk of Juliette
digging her heel. When Philip and Ronda learned about the inappropriate relationship after Jenna
moved to Kentucky, they were immediately concerned. They banned Jenna from having contact
with Kenneth and confiscated her cell phone. Philip called Kenny and threatened to report
him to the police, which seemed to do the trick. Both Kenny and
Jenna seemed to take Philip and Ronda's concerns seriously and agreed to part ways.
Philip said he called Kenny directly told him to leave his daughter alone, and
threatened him with statutory rape charges. He said Kenny sounded genuine when he agreed
to no longer see Jenna. Many parents might have pressed charges, hell I
might have, but it really can make things much worse. You don't want
to alienate your kid even more by pressing charges. You will seem much more
reasonable and forgiving if you give them a chance to do the right thing and
end the relationship willingly. But there's no doubt it is a complex problem to
have with a young teen, and parents have to make the call they believe
is right. Okay, sidebar over. After Philip explained the situation with his
daughter to the police, the priority for detectives was finding Jenna and tracking down
Kenneth Nye, if only to eliminate him as a suspect. After graduating from
high school, Kinney had enlisted in the Army and was now stationed at Fort
Carson, Colorado. He might have an alibi. According to military records,
he was on active duty, So could he have really driven almost twelve hundred
miles to kidnap Jenna after being out of contact with her for so long.
But a detective from the Kentucky State Police named Frank Thrownberry was an ex mariine,
so he gave the Fort Carson base a call and asked for a favor.
He found out that Kenny had changed his mind about the army. In
fact, He had recently applied for a discharge on the basis of being a
conscientious objector, but then he found out that if he failed his fitness test,
he could be discharged more quickly. When he intentionally failed all of his
physical fitness tests, he received a dishonorable discharge on August thirty first, the
day before Ronda's murder. After his discharge, the Army paid for a flight
back to Indiana and even dropped him off at the airport, but investigators learned
that at the last minute, his ticket was changed. At three thirty pm
the same day as his discharge, Kenneth arrived at the Bluegrass Airport in Lexington,
Kentucky, about a fifty minute drive from Danville. Had Kenny decided to
surprise Jenna before heading back to Indiana. CCTV footage from the airport tracked Kenney
from his gate all the way outside to the taxi and rideshare area. That's
one thing about more modern cases. It is sometimes amazing how far you can
be followed on CCTV as long as detectives are willing to patiently search through footage,
and in this case they will. But the trail ended here when Kenny
took an Uber instead of a cab, but at least they were now sure
that Kenny and I was in Kentucky and they had a recent photo of him.
From the footage, detectives decided to release details to the media about fifteen
year old Jenna Oakley. This was not an Amber alert, but bulletins on
the news stations. Luckily, an uber driver remembered Kenneth Nye he had picked
him up from the airport. The driver told detectives he remembered a guy named
Kenny and where he dropped him off, on the street where the Oakleys lived.
He remembered Kenny saying he had just left the Army that he was visiting
some old friends who lived just down the street. The driver thought it was
strange that he didn't want him to pull up to the door, but Kenny
said he wanted to surprise his friends and to drop him off at the end
of the street. They lived on Old Houstonville Road. That was on the
afternoon of August thirty first, about twenty four hours before Rhonda's murder. I'm
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to work tracking Kinney's cell phone if they could locate him. Hopefully they would
find Jenna safe and unharmed. Soon, Kenny cel pinged in the city of
Glasgow, about one hundred miles southwest of Danville. A description of Jenna had
already been released as a potential abductee. Now another BOLO was issued, this
time for both Jenna and her ex boyfriend. But Kenny's cell phone was moving
and was next picked up around IS sixty five near Nashville, Tennessee. Unfortunately,
investigators were not receiving the location information in real time to determine what route
Kenneth might be taking. By the time they got the notification of a new
location, there was a delay of up to forty five minutes. According to
Kinney's cell phone carrier. This was because the phone was being turned on and
off. By the next day, a tip came in reporting a sighting of
Jenna. A Walmart store manager in Danville called and meant to say that on
September first, the teen was spotted in their store. When law enforcement reviewed
the CCTV footage, Jenna could clearly be seen and accompanying her was Kenneth and
I. He was wearing the same T shirt he had on at the airport.
It's still broad daylight in the footage as they walk into the store,
probably not long after Ronda's murder. Jenna didn't appear injured or distressed, and
her body language was relaxed as she made her way around the store with Guiney.
She certainly didn't look like she was being held against her will or coerced
in any way. She touched Kenny's arm in an intimate gesture as they walked
through the store, and Jenna was walking ahead of Kenny like she knew where
she was going. They bought a phone charger, and Detective Thrownberry said,
the closer he watched, he noticed they walked quickly and looked stressed. They
walked out of the store back into the parking lot and got into a car
that looked very much like Ronda's missing Honda and drove off. In one way,
Jenna's demeanor from the footage was a relief for detectives and her family to
know that she was okay, but it raised a lot of other troubling questions.
What did Jenna know about Ronda's murder despite her age, Could she possibly
have been involved in the murder? Why has she left home and not made
contact with her father? The answers quickly came together as officers searched Jenna's bedroom
and found her journal. In an entry day to July seventh, less than
two months earlier, she had written, I just got done talking to him
a few moments ago, and I feel so much better than what I did.
The latest we will be together is August twentieth. I really can't wait.
Every doubt that I've had these last days are gone. I love him
so much, and I know he loves me too. The he Jenna was
writing about was Kenneth Nye, and despite what the couple had led Philip and
Ronda to believe, they had not broken up at all, at least from
Jenna's perspective, they were very much intent on being together, with Kenny taking
active steps for them to be reunited. Jenna wasn't worried about her father and
stepmother's objections to the relationship, writing in one of several chilling entries, they'll
be dead soon, thankfully. Going a sinister step further, Jenna had also
set out a detailed bullet point list of how her plan would be executed,
which read as follows. Kill Philip first between four am and five am two
knives prepared with me. Kill David, last, kill Ronda. Second,
between six am and eight am. Kill David in his room. Ask Philip
to go downstairs real quick. Then as we're going down, slice his neck
in the front, walk into Ronda's bedroom and stab her. Stab David in
his bed. Another grizzly to do list noted, let him know about my
plan, have a bag packed and prepared, have a knife prepared. Stabbed
them. The blind, hatred and callousness of Jenna's journal was shocking. Philip
now knew there was no way his daughter was innocent or that she had been
abducted. It was obvious she had had a roll in Ronda's murder, but
how much did she actually kill Ronda or did Kenny. Throughout September second,
investigators could tell from the pings from Kenney's cell that he and Jenna were covering
a lot of ground as they headed west. They continued through Tennessee, into
Missouri, Arkansas, and then Oklahoma. That was until September third, when
they apparently stopped. They peemed in the same place for a while, but
they were now over one thousand miles away in Tuocambe Carey, New Mexico.
Kentucky State Police contacted the touocamb Carrey Police Department, who were soon on the
lookout for Ronda's Honda and the two fugitives. Kinney's cell phone pings placed the
vehicle, possibly at a truck stop, so local officers swung into action.
That night, in the parking lot of a motel six along Route sixty six
Boulevard, Corporal Cody Birch spotted a vehicle matching the description and license plates approaching
in the darkness. He shined his flashlight into the car and saw a young
couple inside who appeared to be asleep. The girl was leaning against the guy,
kind of cuddled up, but when she saw the light, she jumped
back straight into the driver's seat. Ignoring the officer's instruction to roll down her
window. She started the car. Corporal Birch drew his weapon, keeping it
safely pointed at the ground, and he could see the young man talking to
the girl. After a few moments, the engines shut off. When back
up arrived, Jenna and Kenny were arrested. They willingly stepped out of the
vehicle with their hands in the air. Burch said Kenny seemed resigned to his
fate, but Jenna was distressed. She was crying, but she told officers
right away who her boyfriend was, Kenny Ny, she said. The cop
later said she was wailing over and over. Tell Kenny, I love him.
Make sure you tell him I love him. If you watch the footage,
this isn't the confident young woman who walked through Walmart. It's a crying
teenager. They were separated and taken into custody. Kenny was charged with contributing
to the delinquency of a miner, and both were charged with possessing stolen property.
Jenna was put into juvenile detention while Kenny was taken to the Quay County
Jail. Inside Ronda's car, New Mexico State Police found the mess of two
people who had been living in the car while they were on the run.
Clothes, snacks, energy drinks, food wrappers, and empty bottles were strewn
all over the car. Just thirty six hours later, on September fifth,
two days before Ronda's funeral, Philip learned that Kenny had been released. According
to online prison records, Ronda's family was anxiously watching the website waiting for Kenny
and Jenna to be extradited. Some news reports even stated Kenneth had been bonded
out, but this wasn't true. When Kentucky State Police found out what was
behind the reports, it somewhat set Philip's mind at ease. Kenny and I
had not been released. He had been transported to a hospital in Texas was
in critical condition. Within hours of being taken to jail, he had hanged
himself with his blanket. He was still alive, but was now on life
support. Inside his jail cell was a note which read, I Kenneth Nye
admit to killing Ronda Oakley. Jenna had nothing to do with it. She
was not in the house when I killed Ronda. I take blame for everything.
I am truly sorry. The note was a convenient way for Jenna to
be absolved of any responsibility in Ronda's murder, but the idea that she was
totally blameless didn't job with the calculated and premeditated journal entries planning the murder of
her whole family. Investigators held back on telling Jenna what had happened to her
boyfriend until she could be formally questioned by Kentucky State Police. If by some
chance, she admitted to being the orchestrator. This would prove Kinney was lying
in the note. On September twelfth, Jenna was extradited to Kentucky and held
without bond. Kentucky State detectives said she was informed of her rights and that
Philip agreed to the interview. Jenna confessed to everything. She confirmed that her
relationship with kenny Ny never ended and that she continued to communicate with him by
using a friend's cell phone while she was at school. Jenna also admitted that
the night before Rondo was murdered, Kinny secretly spent the night with her in
her bedroom after taking that uber to the house. Jenna even said she had
taken the knife some time in the night before so they would be ready the
next morning. Philip headed off to work as usual and Dylan went to school
while Rondo was still out of town. She was due back that evening,
but Jenna stayed home from school with Kenny hiding in her room. They hung
out and the downstairs area of the house, but were startled around three pm
when they heard Ronda arrive home earlier than expected and was walking down to the
basement. She was carrying a laundry basket and walked into Jenna's bedroom. Kenny
jumped in the closet to hide as Ronda walked in. She was surprised to
see Jenna and immediately asked why she wasn't in school, which started an argument
that quickly escalated into a physical fight. Jenna told detectives she could see that
Ronda was about to get smart with her, and so she basically jumped her
stepmother. She was trying to strangle Ronda, but told detectives Kenny had to
jump out of the closet and help her because Ronda was bigger than her.
He put Ronda in a chokehold and she seemed to pass out, and then
they dragged her into the other bedroom. Jenna said she covered Ronda's mouth with
duct tape and put the bag over her head, and then she explained how
she stabbed her in the neck. The knife didn't go in as easily as
she thought it would, so she stabbed her up to seven times. Jenna's
telling of Ronda's murder was cold and detached. Detective Thrunburry said, usually when
you question juveniles, they're very emotional, but Jenna wasn't. She even mentioned
that Kenny was freaking out and puked in her garbage can. I guess she
was fine. You can hear the actual recording on the episode of See No
Evil about this case. You can't see her for visual nuances, but she
does sound very matter of fact. Jenna told detectives that they fled in Ronda's
car, then stopped at a gas station where she threw the murder weapon in
a trash can. She did cry once in the recording, as she said,
I guess you hear this a lot, and the detective said what she
said, I'm sorry. Then she dried up immediately. Somehow, I doubt
there are actual tears on her face. When it came time to answer her
own father's painful questions about why Ronda was killed, Jenna admitted everything to Philip
too. Philip waited to call his daughter until she was awaiting trial, and
basically just asked her, why why didn't she just run away with Kenny.
Why did they have to kill Ronda. She told him it wasn't that simple
and it was hard to explain. Philip asked her if she was really going
to kill him, and she said yes. She also said she planned to
kill her little brother David and She became exasperated on the call and repeatedly said,
what do you want from me? Philip couldn't believe what he was hearing.
He was seething, angry. It's hard to explain. Was just not
going to cut it when it came to the brutal murder of his beloved wife,
not even from his own daughter. While little information had been released to
the public about suspects or the progress of the case, Philip did speak to
several news outlets saying he privately knew who was responsible and the two people that
did this are monsters. Not much later, Philip was publicly unequivocal and how
he felt about Jenna, saying I hate my daughter. I want the hardest
thing to happen to my daughter. Ever, I just don't care. I'm
worried about the people that I need to protect, and that's not one of
them. This never should have happened. I can't bring my wife back,
but I can sure us health fight to let everyone know that the system failed
us. There's other people that I consider responsible for this too. I'm going
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M E D E O d O r a nt dot com. Ronda Rains
Oakley was laid to rest on September seventh after her funeral service at Southland Christian
Church in Danville. In her obituary, all of her children and their spouses
were named, including her step son David Oakley, but not Jenna. Of
course, Ronda's five small grandchildren were also named. These babies who had been
such a joy to her. The obituary even mentions her poor little dogs as
a dog lover. As soon as I read about the scene, I couldn't
help but wonder if they had seen what happened to their human mamma. It
was their barking that alerted David to his stepmother's body downstairs. On October twentieth,
a grand jury indicted Jenna Oakley in Boyle Circuit Court for complicity to murder
and complicity to theft by unlawful taking. She would be tried as an adult.
Her boyfriend, who had been on life support, was facing charges of
harboring a minor, but Kenneth would never see the inside of a court room
because just a couple of days before Jenna was indicted, he died, having
never been removed from the respirator. It wasn't until Jenna's arraignment in early December,
where she pled not guilty, that she learned for the first time that
not only was her boyfriend dead, but that he had been in a coma
since their arrest. She screamed and wailed in court when she was told detectives
they could hear her from the hallway. Now Jenna was all alone and would
be the sole suspect to face trial. Following the indictment, Philip told ABC
News the whole time, I knew who did this, and so no,
it is not a surprise. She deserves everything she gets. Over two years
later, in a pre trial hearing in January twenty nineteen, police officers testified
about Jenna's demeanor and behavior on her way back to Kentucky after she arrived.
The defense was doing its best to have Jenna's confession thrown out on the basis
that she wasn't in the presence of an attorney during her first interview. Despite
Philip, her parent and legal guardian, giving his permission. Detectives also maintained
that they explained Jenna's rights to her. During those two years awaiting trial,
Jenna had been kept in a juvenile facility getting mental health treatment as her appointed
defense team investigated her past, trying to find out how a fifteen year old
could become such a cold killer. And on the other side, the Commonwealth's
attorney was concerned about the conflicting confessions. All they had from Kenny was his
note and it was pretty definitive. They certainly had Jenna on tape and video,
but she could say the same thing that she was protecting Kenny and taking
the blame. Also, the Commonwealth wasn't sure how a jury would feel about
such a young defendant. The judge had ruled she would be tried as an
adult, but that doesn't mean a jury will see it that way. So
they decided to offer her a plea deal. She would plead guilty to first
degree manslaughter and theft by taking for stealing Rhonda's car. She could be sentenced
to ten years in prison for manslaughter and five for the car. Can you
believe that? Forget about Jenna for a minute, ten years for taking a
human life, five for taking a car. A couple of months shy of
her eighteenth birthday, Jenna Pauline Wood Oakley pled guilty on January fourteenth, twenty
nineteen, to first degree manslaughter and theft by taking. At a pre sentencing
hearing the following month before Boyle Circuit Judge Darren Peckler, Jenna expressed remorse,
saying, I cannot tell you how sorry I am for all the pain,
hurt and great frustration that it has caused. I cannot tell you how sorry
I am that I did not try to save her that day. I have
come to accept accountability for my inaction of not trying to help and save her
that day when she needed most to be saved. So despite the plea,
she was still saying she didn't kill Rhonda. She's saying Kenny did it,
but she was responsible for her death because she didn't try to stop him.
Philip didn't buy any of it. At no stage had his daughter apologized or
demonstrated remorse over what she had done. This was the first he had heard
any contrition. Now that Jenna's future was on the line, suddenly she had
found the words she couldn't manage to say to her own father, and usually
during the elocution phase, the defendant must explicitly admit, specifically and in detail
the actions and their reasons in exchange for a reduced sentence. Jenna didn't do
that. I don't know what went on behind the plea deal, but this
doesn't seem right. Outside court, Philip said, I just don't think it's
fair. Jenna is a very intelligent girl, and to be able to tell
me she didn't know what she was doing, I'll never believe that. I
hate what she did. I don't necessarily hate my daughter. I want to
be able to forgive my daughter, but I just I don't know how.
I haven't figured that out yet. Jenna was facing a maximum of fifteen years
in prison, according to the Lexington Herald Leader. Given Jenna's age and her
guilty plea, three sentencing options were open to the court. She could receive
probation or conditional discharge, be committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice to complete
a treatment program, or she could be sent to a state prison. The
defense request did the court consider committing Jenna to treatment with the Department of Juvenile
Justice instead of sending her to prison. However, Philip was adamant about what
he felt was appropriate, telling the newspaper, I think they've had two and
a half years to seek treatment. If they wanted treatment, she needs to
go to prison. That's what she deserves. It wasn't until Jenna's final sentencing
hearing two months later in March that more details emerged of how concerned Philip and
Ronda had been about the teen's own for all behavior and the months leading up
to the murder. Jenna was well behaved at school, where she was well
liked by her teachers, but at home she was defiant and disobedient. Philip
had wondered if they should send her to some sort of residential program for troubled
teens, but Ronda wanted Jenna to stay in the home so they could keep
working on things together. Philip said he had also reached out to the Kentucky
State Police over his concerns that Kenneth Nye was a sexual predator, but felt
brushed off when they referred his complaint to Indiana law enforcement. I explained to
you that at the time of the relationship, how Kenneth and I could have
been prosecuted in both states, but technically he did live in Indiana, or
they could even say Colorado where he was stationed in the army. But still,
when you call the cops about a grown man seeing your child, you
expect them to do something about it. Defence mitigation specialists spoke about Jenna's childhood
as the precursor to her stunted psychosocial development. The court heard that after Philip
and his ex wife split many years before, Jenna was living in an unsafe
and chaotic environment in her mother's care. Child Protective services were called a couple
of times, mainly for the state of her home and neglect, but Jenna
claimed she was also abused. The defense set her home life with her mother,
Christy Woodpoe had affected her ability to develop emotionally in a healthy way and
left her vulnerable to a predator like Kenneth Nye. When Jenna was just three
years old, child protective services were first called to the home over concerns of
neglect. A neighbor had seen rats around the home and believed that Jenna and
her baby brother were being left alone for long periods. Jenna's mother was reportedly
hostile towards one social worker. Initially refusing to let her inside. When the
social worker did manage to observe Jenna's living situation, the home was littered with
garbage, invested with roaches and moldy dishes stacked in the sink. The home
was squalid, practically a biohazard. Throughout the residence was vomit urine feces from
animals and humans. The landlord of this shithole was also Jenna's babysitter, and
told social workers that she noticed the young girl was often covered in so many
flea bites that the scratching caused her skin to bleed. She claimed to not
know the condition of the property, and yet she saw these little kids every
day, and where was her mother? Christy Poe got a job at a
local jail and soon fell in love with an inmate. She paid his bond
and moved him into the home with her children. The ex con stole from
her and brought other women there. According to Jenna's older half sister, who
left the home when Jenna was about middle school age, dynamics in the abuse
of home environment continued to deteriorate. Jenna told her defense team that she had
been physically and sexually abused while in her mother's care, and that there was
drug and alcohol abuse in the home. Then, as a preteen desperate for
attention and love, she met Kenny. Suddenly there was someone she felt would
protect and take care of her, the care she wasn't getting from her mother,
who the defense alleged encouraged her daughter's in appropriate relationship with Kenneth Nye.
The defense told the court he was giving her everything she wanted. She just
looked up to him for everything. The worst thing that could have happened was
to lose that love. Suzanne Hooper, the mitigation specialist, said this didn't
happen in a vacuum. These things never do. There's a big story here
for while we're in this room today. She researched Jenna's home life for two
years before the trial and had plenty of things to say about Christy Poe,
Jenna's mother, who refused to speak to her. Jenna's half sister, who
was older, did testify to abuse, but it wasn't as easy to claim
neglect at the Oakley household, though Hooper did try. She had never even
seen inside the house, and from all accounts, Jenna was well taken care
of by the Oakleys. Philip and Ronda did everything they could to stop the
relationship with Kenny. Jenna was making good grades, she was a cheerleader.
Suzanne Hooper was not wrong about things not happening in a vacuum. I have
no doubt Jenna had a terrible early home life, and she and her brother
moved in with her dad for good reason. I mentioned earlier in the episode
that Philip felt more people were responsible. I can only assume he meant Jenna's
mother and other adults who had abused his daughter. He insisted that he got
his daughter treatment. She saw a therapist, and she was thriving in his
care despite the pain of her breakup with Kenny. On March twenty seventh,
Philip told the court and his victim impact statement that he felt Kenneth had preyed
on his daughter, adding, when Jenna came to live with myself and Ronda,
it was to give her a better life. She loved Jenna. She
did everything in her power to care for Jenna. She provided for Jenna.
I was going to do whatever I needed to do to protect her. But
despite the abuse she may have suffered at her mother's home, Philip wasn't letting
her off the hook. He said, I want to know why you did
what you did, because myself nor Ronda ever abused you. There was no
better person on the face of this earth than Ronda. You didn't have a
right to do what you did. Kenny didn't know our address, so you
had to tell him to let him in the house. You're saying you wish
you could have stopped it. Jenna, You're not a victim, You're a
victimizer. I'm going to pause now for a final commercial break. In the
end, Philip and the prosecution got their wish. Judge Peckler sentenced Jenna to
a maximum of fifteen years in prison on both counts, with credit for time
served, saying I would note that this was particularly cruel, It was senseless,
It was even callous in that regard. It may not surprise you that
Jenna's age and the circumstances of her early childhood were and continue to be a
huge factor for those who feel she received a disproportionately harsh sentence. There is
a change dot org petition that was created in June twenty twenty two called Jenna
was Not an Adult that details many of the things is brought out in court
calling for a retrial. If Trot as a juvenile, she would already have
been released. To date, it has eight hundred and seventy three signatures of
the thousand it was going for, and many people just signed to publicly write
that Jenna got what she deserved, and Jenna's family, including her own father,
is adamant that she is not serving enough time. Outside court, Philip
told the Lexington Herald Leader. You always think of your daughter as they're going
to prom, or you're going to walk them down the aisle someday. How
did mine turn out like this? I consider her and Kenny both monsters.
I just don't see how someone can do that to someone that's caring for them,
that's doing everything to love them. In washing his hands of his only
daughter, Philip told WDRB News what people say about Jenna, I don't care.
Say phil however you want about her. I don't care. You grow
up and you have children, and you say you've got unconditional love for your
children. That's not true. I found some way to not have unconditional love
for my child. Today, twenty three year old Jenna is detained at the
Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in pee Weee Valley. According to prison records,
with good behavior, her minimum expiration of sentence date is April twenty twenty seven,
when she will be twenty six years old. She only needs to serve
eighty five percent of her sentence, which with time served is a bit over
eleven years. Her time in the juvenile facility for over two years does count,
so she could get out early, and since she does show remorse with
good behavior, there is a chance. On the other hand, there isn't
a lot of goodwill for Jenna, despite her supporters. Fifteen years just isn't
a long time for what she did. Many, if not most, want
her to serve all of it. If she's serves the maximum, she will
be released in August twenty thirty one, when she is thirty years old,
which I think is likely. It was a vicious, premeditated murder. Jenna's
journal proved that without her confession, and she also planned to kill her father
and her thirteen year old brother. That's hard to forget. Jenna killed someone
who was trying to help her, who loved her. Ronda tried so hard
to bond with her and give her a normal life. She was involved in
Jenna's life, taking her to cheerleading practice and showing up for school events.
She took the teen shopping, which Jenna loved, and yes, she gave
Jenna boundaries, but she also stepped in and insisted they keep Jenna at home
when Philip was ready to give up and put her in a boarding school.
Philip still struggles to come to terms with the actions of his teenage daughter,
whom he and Ronda always loved and supported. How Jenna could have had any
part in something so vicious, much less written in such detail about planning the
slaughter of her entire family is unimaginable. I've covered teen killers before who killed
family members. In the Holly Harvey and Sandy Ketchum story, there was plenty
of abuse and neglect. It did not mitigate their gruesome crime murdering. Holly's
grandparents, who were her guardians. Both got life sentences, but Holly's were
consecutive and Sandy's concurrent. Sandy was denied parole last year. Holly is ineligible
until next year. Twenty twenty five. Nathan Callahan brutally murdered his mother and
sister and planned to kill his father, and there was no history of abuse.
He was just mad that he was grounded. He came from a loving
home and still planned his vicious attack for two weeks. He's serving a life
sentence. His last parole hearing was in twenty twenty three, his next is
in twenty twenty nine. The Duke murders is an even more chilling case of
a sixteen year old who didn't just kill his dad and stepmom, but also
two little sisters with the help of three friends. He is serving life in
prison without parole, while his nineteen year old buddy was executed by the State
of Alabama for these murders when he was forty two years old. Mark Duke's
death sentence was overturned because of his age, so comparatively speaking, Jenna Oakley
got a really light sentence. She viciously killed Rhonda only eight years ago,
and she's only got a couple of years to go. All but one of
the teen killers I've covered before are still in prison serving life sentences, and
that one I'm talking about was granted clemency, which is really unusual. In
all of these cases, I have brought up the cognitive and moral capacities of
teenage. I've talked about how doctors believe the frontal lobe is not fully developed
until about age twenty five. That's where we make rational decisions. The latest
studies show brain development may continue into the third decade of life, but at
least until the late twenties. I have also talked about the bizarre way we
will send an eighteen year old off to fight in war but won't serve him
alcohol. Our laws and customs treat them like adults when it suits us,
and like children the rest of the time. I talked about how we as
a society still see them as kids until they do the unthinkable, and then
overnight they are instantly adults. When I reread those older scripts, I noticed
that I give much more gruesome detail than I typically do. I had forgotten
about that, but I do remember making that decision because I felt like you
needed to hear those details to really see these killers clearly, to hear what
juries and judges did to come to these decisions. But to be honest,
the more of these cases I cover, the more I see how hard it
is to understand them. I will say that Philip Oakley's complete rejection of his
daughter is somewhat unusual. In Nathan's case, his father stuck by him.
And I recently covered a case where a twenty three year old man killed his
mom and brother and almost killed his dad. I'm only mentioning this case because
he was under twenty five with the frontal lobe argument. But this twenty three
year old did not have the history of abuse, and I feel he manipulated
his father with his faith to forgive him, to have him on his side
as he thought to get his death sentence commuted, and it worked. Bart
Whittaker is the only man Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ever given a commutation.
Of course, that is just my opinion, and I know it's controversial for
some of you. For that matter, all of these cases are controversial,
but I'm not the only one who believes Whittaker is a manipulative sociopath. Likewise,
in this case, Philip and others have called Jenna manipulative before Rhonda's murder
and also said that she was calculating and manipulative when she was navigating our court
system without a parent. Her father points out that she never apologized until she
was before the judge to be sentenced, and he did ask her, he
did try to talk to her and understand why she did it. She was
cold to him and refused to apologize. That's when he truly walked away.
But not having a parent stand by her is a distinction here. She was
fifteen and she was utterly alone. Her court mitigation expert said, mothers of
grown men who have brutally murdered people call and text her asking about their kid,
not Jenna Oakley's. Jenna's mother is nowhere to be found in this case,
not in court, and she's never been interviewed in print or on crime
shows like Philip has. She may as well have been dead. But then
if she had come to court to testify for Jenna, she would have had
to face up to the allegations of abuse that her other daughter and social workers
testified about. Maybe she just couldn't do that. Maybe she just never gave
a damn about Jenna, And perhaps Philip didn't know his daughter as well as
he thought he did. Every other weekend isn't the same as twenty four to
seven when it comes to raising a child, and he lived in a different
state than his kids. He couldn't always be there for birthday parties, ballgames,
or school plays. The way other parents with partial custody can. Please
know that I am not blaming or judging him for that. Custody arrangements are
complicated even and the best of circumstances, and he happily took custody of both
his kids when given the chance. But I can't help but wonder that if
Jenna's upbringing was as bad as other witnesses said it was, how did Philip
not see it? Neighbors saw flea bites and neglect. He said she was
a normal, happy little girl, a loving, sweet daughter until she was
involved with Kenny, but he still never dreamed she would viciously kill her stepmom,
the only real mother she ever seemingly had. Philip loved his daughter,
He then openly publicly said he hated her. He was very vocal about that.
He has since softened some and doesn't use the word hate, but he
still won't consider forgiveness. I believe the people who testified about Jenna's abuse of
childhood, and I also believe that the Oakleys did did not abuse, neglect,
or otherwise mistreat her. But that doesn't mean that her emotional growth was
not already stunted by her mother and early home life. She was also a
decade away from full frontal lobe development. And I wasn't being ironic about Kenneth
Nye when I brought up the Romeo and Juliet laws. They really were a
factor in this case, but I dug much further into them before I even
realized that Kenneth and I died of suicide. I had skimmed the case that
Jemma sent me and then dug in, thinking I would be discussing his sentencing
at the end. I didn't realize I would just be talking about Jenna Oakley
walking out of prison at the age of thirty, maybe even younger, still
able to have a full adult life, get married, have a family,
and enjoy the grandchildren that Ronda lost. While I do believe that Jenna's confession
was true, that she was really the killer, I also believe she would
have done anything to save Kenny, and he certainly tried to pay the ultimate
price for her freedom. I just don't believe Jenna would have given a full
confession if she had known about his suicide. But this isn't Shakespeare. The
story isn't a romantic tragedy. It's just a tragedy. A senseless, stupid
tragedy that ruined as many lives as it took. Southern Fried True Crime is
hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode was researched and written by
me and Jimmy Harris. As usual, any editorial comments and opinions are my
own. Southern Fred's original music is by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio and the
original graphic artist by Coy Horner. Today's episode was edited and mixed by Brandon
schck Sneyder of Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. If you have any case suggestions,
please go to my website, Southernfred Truecrime dot com and click on the
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