The Girl in the Blue Mustang - Ep. 3: Like a Voice from the Grave

Summary

Dateline NBC: The Girl in the Blue Mustang

Episode 3: Like a Voice from the Grave

Original air date: February 16, 2026
Host: Keith Morrison

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Overview

In the third installment of Dateline’s The Girl in the Blue Mustang, Keith Morrison chronicles the persistent, years-long effort to secure justice for Michelle O’Keefe, a college student murdered in her blue Mustang. This episode explores the cycle of hope and disappointment during successive murder trials, the continuing pain of Michelle’s family, the tenacity of law enforcement, and the ambiguous, often frustrating path to a conviction in a circumstantial case.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Enduring Impact on Michelle's Family

• Jason O’Keefe’s Grief and Coping
  • Jason, Michelle's younger brother, describes how baseball—and later his faith—became lifelines after her murder.
    • “Really, the only thing that helped...was baseball.” — Jason O’Keefe (01:36)
    • Jason kept a Bible verse (Jeremiah 29:11) in his cap for comfort and hope (02:18):
      • “For I know the plans I have for you… plans for your success and plans for your future.” — Jason O’Keefe (02:35)
  • The persistent emotional weight for Jason and his family is evident.

The Investigation: A Fresh Perspective

• Retired Deputy Jim Jeffre Gets Involved

  • Jeffre, moved by Michelle’s case years after retiring from the sheriff's department, investigates with hopes of exonerating the main suspect, Ray Jennings—only to reverse his stance after reviewing video tapes (04:47–10:06).
    • “Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can maybe spot something that looks a little different.” — Jim Jeffre (05:21)
    • “It seemed like every time I got frustrated with...this case, which was a lot, I went back to the videos...Bam. So the guy killed her. There's no doubt that he killed her.” — Jim Jeffre (08:58–10:06)

• Collaboration with Michelle’s Father

  • Michael O’Keefe partners with Jeffre to organize evidence against Jennings, creating a persuasive PowerPoint for the district attorney (11:28–12:11):
    • “Certainly a six dollar an hour security guard is not going to have that level of information unless you were there...He knew too much.” — Michael Keefe (12:06–12:12)

The Arrest and Legal Hurdles

• Jennings' Arrest

  • Six years after the crime, Jennings—then serving in Iraq—returns home and is arrested (14:51–17:32), surprise and shock for both law enforcement and Jennings himself:
    • “Is this about Michelle O’Keefe?” — Jennings' first question upon arrest (17:32)
  • Detective Longshore meticulously avoids traumatizing Jennings’ children during the arrest and describes the interrogation process and its frustrations (16:58–19:47):
    • “I think this is an accident. But if I had been assigned to that guard post out there in the middle of the night...legal or not legal, I’d carry a gun.” — Detective Longshore (18:16)

• Challenges Securing a Conviction

  • Despite years of evidence compilation, prosecutors are warned to drop the case due to lack of a confession and circumstantial evidence (20:56):
    • “Get rid of this thing. Dismiss it. It’s not going to go anywhere. You’re never going to win it.” — Detective Longshore recalling advice to DA Michael Blake (20:56)

The Trials: Circumstantial Versus Direct Evidence

• First Trial Ends in Mistrial

  • The first, highly anticipated trial ends deadlocked 9–3 for conviction due to a juror influenced by a “vision” or dream (26:31–27:31):
    • “I felt like two of [the not-guilty votes] could easily have been swayed. But there was one individual who had a bad dream of all things, a vision…a drive-by shooting or gang kind of thing.” — Michael Keefe (27:09–27:31)

• Second Trial and the Roadblocks

  • The second trial replays much of the earlier evidence; both prosecution and defense lay out strong opposing narratives:

    • Prosecution’s Case (Michael Blake)
      • “He knows she’s still alive. That makes those remaining three shots to her face an execution and first degree.” — Michael Blake (24:26)
      • Jennings' knowledge and demonstrations during tape interviews are argued as signs of guilt:
        • “[He] was remembering. He wasn’t describing events. He was remembering them, reliving them.” — Michael Blake (25:01)
    • Defense’s Case (David Houchen)
      • Argues complete lack of physical evidence against Jennings (31:51–32:13):
        • “There exists gunshot residue, none, connecting Mr. Jennings to this crime…no blood evidence…DNA…not Raymond Jennings.” — David Houchen (32:13)

  • FBI Profiler Mark Safarik’s Testimony

    • Safarik frames the crime as likely a thwarted sexual assault, clarifying that the location and circumstances rule out a targeted victim (33:47–35:31):
      • “I'm looking at is she targeted or is this an opportunistic event...that’s what happened here.” — Mark Safarik (35:03)
    • “There's no rape. But there is a sexual assault...there’s a sexual component to the homicide.” — Mark Safarik (35:40)

• Second Hung Jury

  • A second deadlocked jury, this time 11–1 for guilt. One juror objects to the tone of the detective’s video interviews rather than evidence (36:35–37:23):
    • “It was crushing. It really was.” — Detective Longshore (37:23)

Family's Response and Ongoing Struggle

• Emotional Toll and Resilience
  • The O’Keefe family describes the exhausting commute to court and the emotional wear of enduring trial after trial, only to end up with no verdict (22:34–22:55; 29:21–29:39):
    • “You go through the motions and just sort of pretend you know...every minute seems like hours.” — Michael Keefe (29:28)
  • Jason O’Keefe discusses his desire to become a prosecutor, inspired by his family’s ordeal and the support from DA Michael Blake (38:08–39:01):
    • “The relationship that the district attorney has is so close to the family and I want to be able to do that and to help other families the same way...” — Jason O’Keefe (38:46)

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Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• On Coping with Tragedy
  • “After my sister died, I started carrying a Bible everywhere I went.” — Jason O’Keefe (02:18)
• On Investigative Doubt and Certainty
  • “I see he is telling a story that just doesn’t add up… Bam. So the guy killed her.” — Jim Jeffre (09:39–10:06)
• On Prosecution Strategy
  • “Airtight. Jeffre… Just maybe their show and tell of sound bites was the best way to sell Michelle’s case to the DA.” — Keith Morrison describing the PowerPoint (11:37–12:06)
• On Weakness of the Evidence
  • “Would we have had a case if Mr. Jennings had not made those statements?...I will have to say his statements were very important. They were pivotal in this case.” — Michael Blake (26:05–26:25)
• On Jury Dynamics
  • “There was one individual who had a bad dream… a vision… that it was some sort of drive-by shooting or some sort of gang kind of thing.” — Michael Keefe (27:09–27:31)
• On Family’s Resolve
  • “Justice has to be served… it would do people a lot of good to know that’s happened here on this earth.” — Michael Keefe (29:59–30:15)
• On the Emotional Cost
  • “It was crushing. It really was.” — Detective Longshore (37:23)

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic Summary | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:36 | Jason O’Keefe on using baseball to cope | | 02:18 | Jason’s faith, Bible verse for comfort | | 05:21 | Jim Jeffre describes his involvement | | 09:39–10:06| Jeffre pivots from exoneration to believing Jennings is guilty | | 11:28–12:12| Family and Jeffre’s PowerPoint pitch to DA | | 14:51–17:32| Jennings’ arrest and initial reaction | | 22:34–22:55| Michael Keefe on the exhausting trips to court | | 24:26–25:51| Michael Blake on Jennings' incriminating statements | | 26:14–26:25| Prosecution’s reliance on Jennings’ own statements | | 27:09–27:31| The hung jury and the "vision" juror | | 29:28–29:39| Emotional limbo for the family after mistrial | | 32:13 | Defense argument: total lack of forensic evidence | | 35:03–35:40| Profiler Mark Safarik’s analysis of the crime scene/motive | | 36:35–37:23| The impact of the second hung jury | | 38:08–39:01| Jason O’Keefe’s career aspirations as a result of the case |

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Tone and Structure

• The episode blends Keith Morrison’s signature narrative suspense and empathy with the candid, often raw voices of Michelle’s family and the investigators.
• There’s a tone of mounting frustration yet stubborn hope—each new trial summons both renewed anticipation and dread, as the case becomes more about endurance than certainty.

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Conclusion

This episode of Dateline demonstrates the ambiguity and emotional toll that surrounds circumstantial murder cases. Despite years of effort, two hung juries, and a family unwilling to let go, the question remains: can justice truly be served when evidence and certainty are elusive? The drawn-out legal ordeal leaves the O’Keefes and listeners suspended—waiting for a resolution that, at the end of this episode, is still just out of reach.

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Next episode preview:

A new perspective may finally shift the course of the case. The search for truth, and for peace, goes on.

Transcript

[Keith Morrison]

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[Michael Blake]

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[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

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[Michael Blake]

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[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a.

[Michael Blake]

Week to assist with your banking needs.

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

What's in your wallet terms apply. See capitalone.com bank capital1NA member FDIC.

[Keith Morrison]

Jason o' Keefe stepped up to the mound at Desert Christian High School. He gripped the ball, let it fly. Four years after his big sister Michelle was murdered. With a year to go in high school, Jason was an ace pitcher, 6ft 4 inches tall with serious college and pro prospects, and he looked the part. But with his strong chin and that cropped hair with the slick back cowlick. Still, the passing of years hadn't done much to keep the grief at bay.

[Jason O'Keefe]

Really, the only thing that helped that I, that I used to help me get through it, I guess, was baseball.

[Keith Morrison]

But really, there was no getting over it. He'd idolized her, his big sister, his protector, her. And she'd been so happy zipping around in her Christmas present Mustang that Michelle was shot to death in that bright blue car so close to home. Well, who in his place could get over a thing like that? Made worse by the outrage that there had been no arrest. So he immersed himself in baseball. And it helped. As did a powerful sense of belief he carried around with him like a shield.

[Jason O'Keefe]

After my sister died, I started carrying a Bible everywhere I went, no matter what, whether it was on the baseball field or not. I had a pocket Bible in the back of my pocket.

[Keith Morrison]

He'd been given a Bible verse two years after the murder. It became his favorite. Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11 For I.

[Jason O'Keefe]

Know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for you to prosper, plans for your success and plans for your future.

[Keith Morrison]

Jason inscribed the verse inside his baseball cap, began to share it with others. That's how you get through it and.

[Jason O'Keefe]

You know, take it day by day, you know.

[Keith Morrison]

So yes, this story is about surviving or trying to, but it's also about the Very tricky business of learning to read conflicting signs by turns obvious and opaque in the shifting light of the high desert.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

It just means that it's your eyes that are doing the working right now.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes, and it was ambiguous and confusing and absolutely demanding.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

You can't get that stuff out of your mind. Once you find out what this girl is about.

[Keith Morrison]

In this episode, you'll hear from the eyewitness, the man who was there, the man who seemed to know so much about Michelle's last moments. Maybe too much when I first seen.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

It, the gunshot in her chest, that to me looked like the very first.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

Shot that was fired.

[Michael Keefe]

He knew what the top forensic investigator in the United States took over a month to figure out.

[Keith Morrison]

You'll hear from a lead investigator still determined to find that one little nugget of proof.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

It's very seldom do you get a Perry Mason moment where they scream and yelling, oh yeah, I did, I did, I did it.

[Keith Morrison]

And from the Deputy DA who faced a prosecutor's worst nightmare.

[Michael Blake]

You know what you say, but you don't know what they hear.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm Keith Morrison and this is the girl in the Blue Mustang. A podcast from Dateline episode 3 like a voice from the Grave. Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Jeffre was driving down the Antelope Freeway when he first saw a smiling Michelle o' Keefe dressed in her cheerleader's uniform on a billboard. She was asking from the grave for help in finding her killer. Jeffrey knew about the case, knew it had gone stone cold. But he wasn't a cop anymore, not really. Wasn't his business. And yet there was something. That face, it spoke to him. So this may be he was the guy to revive it.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can maybe spot something that looks a little different. It doesn't mean that you're any more special than anybody else. It just means that it's your eyes that are doing the working right now. And it took a while to get there.

[Keith Morrison]

Jeffrey had a bald pate and sincere, penetrating eyes. He was raised up and down the east coast, mainly North Carolina, and then made the big move out to LA. And after a 28 year stint at LA County Sheriff's, he was up for a new challenge.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

I had just gotten my private investigator's license. I decided I was going to branch out a little bit.

[Keith Morrison]

Jeffra had a throwback look and sound to him. Part Colombo, part old fashioned western sheriff. With his big broad shoulders, you could easily imagine him walking down a dusty main street in the classic movie the More Jeffra Learned about Michelle's case, the more it felt like he knew her.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

She had a lot of strength. She would not quit. Maybe you can feel some of that energy. You can't get that stuff out of your mind. Once you find out what this girl is about and once you find out how grief stricken the family is and watching her mother's eyes tear up all.

[Keith Morrison]

The time, Jeffrey wanted to try something completely different. Turned the investigation upside down. Instead of proving Ray Jennings was guilty, Jeffrey decided he'd like to try to show that Jennings was innocent. So he picked up the phone and made his pitch to lead detective Richard Longshore. He wanted in.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

I said, I'm just an. I'm an interesting person that knows the area pretty well, and I can maneuver through the system that if I found anything that was incriminating, I'm stopping. And he gets that information to carry forward with it because he is the investigator of record on this case.

[Keith Morrison]

With Longshore's blessing, Jeffra dug in his theory that investigators had zeroed in on the wrong man.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

It seemed like it had bogged down, and it had bogged down around one person, and that was Raymond Lee Jennings. I was going to do what I could do to prove that he didn't kill this girl. Let's clear him. And if we could get past that, then we could move forward and go after the person that did kill her.

[Keith Morrison]

It was a sunny winter day when I met Jeffrey at the park and ride. We walked the hillside where it looked like Michelle's killer might have escaped. And we stopped in front of a sturdy cross that marked the spot where Michelle's blue Mustang was found. Jeffrey reached out, touched the cross, and felt as if she was speaking to him.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

I'm just me, you know, I think she kind of moved me around that parking lot a little bit.

[Keith Morrison]

And on her behalf, he got busy. Looked at the physical evidence, of course, and read the police reports with his detective's eye for details. Might tell a different story than the one he'd heard from Longshore. But mostly, he wanted to hear from Ray Jennings himself. Not in person. Didn't need to do that. No. He had all those videotaped interviews. Ray Jennings own words to Longshore and civil attorney Rex Paris. Jafaro wasn't any good at computer gadgets, but he did have a dusty old VHS cassette player.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

It seemed like every time I got frustrated with. With any part of this case, which was a lot, I went back to the videos. I said, it's there. I kept telling myself, it's in the video. You're an investigator. Find it. You did not see or talk to any human being?

[Detective Richard Longshore]

No, I did not.

[Keith Morrison]

Jeffrey listened and he watched every minute of the dozens of hours of videotaped interviews with Jennings. And as he did, his mind began to do a u turn that it looked like a small casing of a 9 millimeter.45 or even a.22.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

I see he is telling a story that just doesn't add up in these videos. It was late at night and I was kind of getting tired. But I was looking at his gestures and movements, which I'd done throughout the time, and it just went. It went on. Bam. So the guy killed her. There's no doubt that he killed her.

[Keith Morrison]

So what do you know? He'd started out thinking the guy was innocent, and now he had come full circle to the same conclusion reached by investigators. It was him. It was Jennings.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

If he didn't pull the trigger, he was standing next to the guy who did. No doubt in my mind he was there. I believe that he grabbed her and she hit him. She wasn't going to be taken against her will, that she didn't have that kind of background at all. Very strong girl, actually.

[Keith Morrison]

But there was one huge problem. Jeffers aha moment was pretty much what investigators had already presented to the D A and what had already failed to persuade him to file charges. Another opinion pointing at Jennings wasn't going to cut it. Just more wasted time. Except maybe not, because just then Michelle's dad, Michael Keefe, got wind of what Jeffrey was up to and thought he could help. The problem wasn't the evidence, figured Mike. It was the presentation, the packaging. So together they came up with an entirely new way to sell the evidence against Raymond Jennings. Here's Michael Keefe.

[Michael Keefe]

So we put together a PowerPoint. There were actually about 35 key points that showed that this guy had to have some involvement in it.

[Keith Morrison]

Bits of answers that to me looked.

[Jim Jeffre (Retired LA County Sheriff's Deputy)]

Like the very first shot that was fired.

[Keith Morrison]

Body language and tone of voice and had no motive. Nothing I wanted. I didn't kill her. All assembled into one package. Airtight. Jeff. Ro Just maybe their show and tell of sound bites was the best way to sell Michelle's case to the D. A. And for Pat and Michael Keefe, it came down to this.

[Michael Keefe]

Certainly a six dollar an hour security guard is not going to have that level of information unless you were there.

[Keith Morrison]

So he knew too much.

[Michael Keefe]

Oh, he knew way too much.

[Jason O'Keefe]

He knew stuff only the killer would know.

[Michael Keefe]

He knew the order of the shots. He knew the angle of the shots. He knew. He even described her accidental shooting in the ground. Right. Accidental discharge. He knew where an accidental discharge was. And this is the middle of the night, so, you know, you just don't. Casual observer just doesn't pick up on these things. He even talked about how her body shut down.

[Keith Morrison]

Which he would not have been able to see from where he said he was. Right.

[Michael Keefe]

Exactly. He knew what the top forensic investigator in the United States took over a month to figure out.

[Keith Morrison]

October 25, 2005. Michelle O' Keeffe had been in her grave going on six years for the living. It was one of those perfect fall days, make you want to live in LA. Crystal blue skies, afternoon temperature topping out at 69 or so. When Michael Keefe met with Deputy DA Robert Fultz, he could be forgiven for not reveling in the weather. It was two weeks to the day after what would have been Michelle's 24th birthday. In preparation for the meeting, Foltz had watched their PowerPoint presentation featuring all those edited clips of Jennings statements. They had everything very carefully kind of sifted down to what they felt was the important things to consider. So they goosed it.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

They goosed it.

[Keith Morrison]

I felt it was compelling. Three weeks later, the day Michelle's family had been waiting for, I decided that as problematic as the case was, it was not an impossible feat to get this case appropriately prosecuted.

[Michael Blake]

So I filed it.

[Michael Keefe]

When the district attorney called me and said they were going to make an arrest, we were ecstatic.

[Keith Morrison]

Finally, after all these years. But in a case where nothing was exactly what it appeared to be, the man at the center of it all, Raymond Jennings, was nowhere near the Antelope Valley. Jennings, the National Guardsman, was halfway around the world, serving his country in Iraq. But all was not lost. His hitch was up, and in just a few weeks soon, he'd be back with his five children in the Antelope Valley altogether, unaware of what awaited him.

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[Keith Morrison]

December 13, 2005. Sheriff's deputy staked out a tidy, low slung apartment block in the Joshua neighborhood of Lancaster, California. It had been cold overnight, dipped below freezing. And then as they watched, the desert sun cleared the terracotta rooftops. And there he was. Raymond Jennings, oblivious, unaware, walked to his car, stepped in and drove away. Then I asked Detective Longshore, tell me.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

How the arrest occurred. I had him under surveillance. He was living in an apartment with his wife and several children. And every time the surveillance team would see him, he'd be with his children. And I didn't want to arrest him in front of his kids. Something we just don't like to do. And so we kept the surveillance up. And on a given morning, he left by himself. And we took him down to a traffic stop and was ordered out at gunpoint by the uniformed deputies. And his statement said to them was, I've been in Iraq. Is this about Michelle o'? Keefe?

[Keith Morrison]

By this time, it was personal for Longshore. All those years going through boxes of evidence, poring over crime scene photographs of Michelle's body slumped in her blue Mustang in the dead of night. And now, finally, he had his man. But not all the answers, not yet. One puzzle in particular had been bugging him. The gun. Michelle was shot to death. So Jennings must have fired that gun. And yet he'd sworn over and over that he wasn't carrying that night. Security company rules didn't allow it. But Longshore had done a little research, discovered Jennings was no stranger to guns. So in the jail's interview room, I.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

Asked him about carrying a. You carried a gun all the time in North Carolina, you know, why should I believe you didn't carry one in California? Well, that would have been illegal. Yeah, okay. And I said, I believe this was an accident. I don't believe you ever intended to kill anybody. You had that gun. Things went bad. I can't make it go away, but I can get your side of the story. Explain me why it happened. Well, I'm not going to do that. This is my story. And I said, I'll tell you, like I said, I think this is an accident. But if I had been assigned to that guard post out there in the middle of the night in the parking ride, legal or not legal, I'd carry a gun. He said, well, I didn't know there'd been other accidents out there. I said, accidents? You mean like what happened to Michelle o'? Keefe?

[Keith Morrison]

He goes, yeah, but it never would.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

Roll over, never would go that. That extra bit.

[Keith Morrison]

Must have been frustrating getting right up to the edge like that.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

It was. And you always want to look at, was there something else I could have done? If we kept him a little longer, would he have gone over the edge? But there's just too much risk in what we were doing there.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, it is. It's an art as much as anything else, isn't it? Getting into person's head and getting that person to see that there's no alternative but to finally just relent.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

You try, you know, it's very seldom do you get a Perry Mason moment where they scream and yelling, oh, yeah, I did, I did, I did it.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, that certainly is true. But then the law didn't require a confession. And now that the DA had signed off, Jennings was formally charged with first degree murder. They set his bail at a million dollars, an amount far beyond Jennings reach, more than enough to keep him behind bars while they prepared for trial. And six years after the murder of his daughter Michelle's dad took a breath. It had finally happened. It's interesting how you had to almost become the architect of your own personal case.

[Michael Keefe]

Yeah, we were heavily involved. And I want to say, you know, it was the sheriff's. I mean, it was the DA's decision and it was the sheriff's department, sure, of course, to make their right.

[Keith Morrison]

But if you hadn't been that involved.

[Michael Blake]

Would it have happened?

[Keith Morrison]

I kind of doubt it.

[Michael Keefe]

Doubt it, yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

It wasn't long before they took Jennings to downtown la, to the imposing monolith in Chinatown called the Men's Central Jail. And the long, slow march to trial was assailed by doubters at every turn.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

There were a lot of parts, prosecutors and supervising prosecutors in the DA's office that told Michael Blake, Our DA, get rid of this thing. Dismiss it. It's not going to go anywhere. You're never going to win it. It's a loser. Move on. And Michael Blake, the day of the preliminary hearing, was told, get rid of this thing. And he's got his people to answer to. Everybody's got a boss. So he asked me, he said, what do you think?

[Keith Morrison]

That's pressure.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

And I said, michael, whatever you want to do, I'll back you. I said, but if we don't go ahead with this, it'll never go to trial. And he looked at me and said, let's go.

[Keith Morrison]

March 20, 2008. Dawn, cool and clear, the air crisp with the first day of spring as Raymond Jennings jailhouse palette was led through passages the sun had never seen to the ninth floor of LA's high security criminal justice center. Famous place, the ninth. Infamous maybe it's where tabloid defendants like O.J. simpson and Phil Spector were tried. To get to the courthouse, Michelle's parents had to make the same two hour drive Michelle took on her last day. An emotional journey on the Antelope Valley Freeway, cresting it over 3,000ft through the Soledad Pass before descending into the LA basin. And then they had to find parking and wait for notoriously crowded courthouse elevators and then were met by deputies with metal detectors.

[Michael Keefe]

Michael Keefe Just getting, getting to the courtroom after you got down there took, you know, 30 to 45 minutes every day. Besides the time that you spend in the courtroom, you've got six plus hours a day just, you know, dealing with the commuting part of it. And it just really took its toll.

[Keith Morrison]

In fact, it had been eight years since an excited 18 year old Michelle helped make that music video. Just across downtown at the grand old Olympic Auditorium, when Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson called the courtroom to order. LA courtrooms are a world away from the Antelope Valley where Michelle was killed and where Michael Blake the prosecutor usually worked. At the time, right or wrong, downtown LA juries had gained something of a reputation for being defense friendly, difficult for prosecutors. I asked Blake about that. If you were to take the popular conception of what it does to a case to move it to LA and give it to an L A jury, then most of the country would say, oh you poor SAP, you're stuck with an LA jury.

[Michael Blake]

I've had as much success in Los Angeles as I have up here.

[Keith Morrison]

So you weren't worried about that?

[Michael Blake]

No, no, we're going to an experienced judge on the ninth floor, which is where the most experienced long cause judges are in the Central district of Los Angeles.

[Keith Morrison]

Michael Blake seemed to take a certain presence with him to the courtroom. Intelligent, tough, lantern jaw, youthful vigor. Blake told the nine men and three women of the jury and then later us that Raymond Jennings assaulted Michelle o' Keefe, for his own ugly reasons, and escalated his attack when she resisted.

[Michael Blake]

He knows she's still alive. That makes those remaining three shots to her face an execution and first degree. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Keith Morrison]

In fact, said Blake Jennings, in a way, convicted himself when he talked so freely to investigators, even to civil attorney Rex Paris, without a lawyer, he knew too much to be innocent. What would you expect an innocent person to have said if he were standing 100ft away?

[Michael Blake]

Say, I don't know. I wasn't there.

[Keith Morrison]

I don't know. But the shot must have come from.

[Michael Blake]

I don't know, Detective. I don't know. You're asking me where the shooter was standing? I never saw a shooter. Well, see, that's the other thing. He never saw a shooter, but he's able to tell us where the shooter was standing, how the shots were fired, and there's even in that tape, there's even a part where he stands up before he says a word. He's almost on automatic. He's. With his hand. He's making the gesture like a firearm, and he's pulling the trigger, like recoil, and it's almost like an automatic response. And that's why I argued that he was remembering. He wasn't describing events. He was remembering them, reliving them. Reliving them. Right, right. So, yeah, I would expect a person who had no involvement simply to say, gee, I don't know where the shooter was standing because I never saw the shooter. How easy would that have been?

[Keith Morrison]

Of course, if he had had a lawyer present from the get go, would you have had a case at all?

[Michael Blake]

Well, he had an opportunity to do that.

[Keith Morrison]

I know, but you wouldn't have had all of that stuff. Could you possibly have prosecuted the case without him?

[Michael Blake]

You're asking me if we would have had a case? Let me make sure I understand what you're saying. Would we have had a case if Mr. Jennings had not made those statements?

[Michael Keefe]

Correct?

[Michael Blake]

I can't speculate on that.

[Keith Morrison]

There's no way you'd have a case.

[Michael Blake]

I will have to say his statements were very important. They were pivotal in this case.

[Keith Morrison]

Sure. The trial lasted six weeks, and then it went to the jury.

[Michael Blake]

I never take juries for granted. It comes back to the old adage. You know what you say, but you don't know what they hear.

[Keith Morrison]

How very true. Four days went by, no word from behind the jury's closed door. And then April 28, 2008, they all filed into the courtroom and the foreperson stood up and told the judge they could not get beyond nine to three for conviction. The judge declared a mistrial. Here's Mike o'. Keefe.

[Michael Keefe]

The foreman came to us right after the trial, you know, and apologized. And he goes, look, I thought he was guilty.

[Keith Morrison]

He actually had a tear in his eye.

[Michael Keefe]

Yeah, I felt pretty strongly about it. And he said of the three that had voted not guilty, he said, I felt like two of them could easily been swayed. But there was one individual who had a bad dream of all things, a vision. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that, that it was some sort of drive by shooting or some sort of gang kind of thing.

[Keith Morrison]

A dream. Or perhaps a haunted foreign. Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co host Woody Harrelson. It's called where everybody knows your name. And we're back for another season. I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms and many more. You don't want to miss it. Listen to where everybody knows your name with me, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes, wherever you get your podcasts, if.

[Michael Blake]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Michael Blake]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Michael Blake]

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[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Detective Richard Longshore]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Keith Morrison]

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[Detective Richard Longshore]

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[Keith Morrison]

After the hung jury, life lost its focus for Pat and Mike o'. Keefe.

[Michael Keefe]

You go through the motions and just sort of pretend you know, and you're just sort of sitting there waiting and every minute seems like hours. And it goes on for days.

[Keith Morrison]

After the eight years it took to go to trial, now limbo what happens inside.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

I thought he was going to be.

[Keith Morrison]

Let free as well. That was my first thing.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

Oh my gosh, they're going to let him go.

[Keith Morrison]

Then the o' Keefes got the news there would be a second trial.

[Michael Keefe]

Justice has to be served. I know if it's not served here in this world, it certainly will be done in the next. But I certainly think it would do people a lot of good to know that's happened here on this earth.

[Keith Morrison]

Do you some good too. Trial two began January 8, 2009. Jennings had already been behind bars for a little more than four years. And all that time he'd continued to maintain he was an innocent man. This time, Dateline cameras rolled in the same LA courtroom with the same judge, Michael Johnson.

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

We'll start with the People's opening statement. And Mr. Blake.

[Keith Morrison]

And the same prosecutor, Michael Blake.

[Michael Blake]

Morning everyone. This is our last opportunity to speak directly to you. So rather than slow things down or distract with images and so forth, I'd just like to take a moment to tell you what I believe the evidence in this case will prove. As the evidence unfolds in this case, you will have the sensation of stepping into a time capsule. Much of the evidence that you will hear is coming forward after years of an exhaustive investigation by the sheriff's department. And it will reveal in conclusion that Michelle o' Keefe was murdered that night by Raymond Lee Jennings, a security guard working at the park and ride lot.

[Keith Morrison]

Raymond Jennings, head, cleanly shaven, goatee, stubble, was seated at the short end of the defense table. He was wearing a long sleeved blue oxford cloth shirt and dark tie.

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

Will the defense be giving a statement at this time?

[Michael Blake]

Yes, please, Mr. Houchen.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

Thank you.

[Keith Morrison]

Jennings. Defense attorney David Houchen took off his reading glasses and gathered his notes. He too wore a goatee, his a salt and pepper version. And now he rose and turned his big frame toward the jury and began to speak. Good morning.

[Michael Blake]

I represent Mr. Jennings. You see him seated at the end of the table. As the evidence comes out in this case, you will find that no fingerprint evidence connects Mr. Jennings to this crime. There exists gunshot residue, none, connecting Mr. Jennings to this crime. There exists no blood evidence, of which there was plenty, but none of which connects Mr. Jennings to this crime. She put up a fight. It was brutal. And she has DNA recovered from her left hand, fourth finger nail. It is a mix of a male, not Raymond Jennings. And when this case is concluded, there's only one direction the evidence points and it points away from Mr. Jennings.

[Keith Morrison]

Michelle's friend Jennifer Peterson was the first person called to testify. She kept it together when she was shown several frames of blurry footage zoomed into an extreme close up of herself and Michelle. They were frozen in time at the Kid Rock video shoot hours before Michelle was murdered.

[Michael Blake]

You see yourself and Michelle and us, yes.

[Keith Morrison]

And then the drop off at the park and ride.

[Michael Blake]

Did you see Michelle o' Keeffe again after that?

[Jason O'Keefe]

No.

[Keith Morrison]

So what happened this time? The prosecutor opted to give the jury an idea about motive. So he called a retired FBI profiler named Mark Safarik. By that time, Safarik was a well known expert.

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

I typically, you know, in these cases come in as the last or near the last prosecution witness because one, all that evidence has to already been introduced. I can't talk about things that haven't come in, but really what I'm doing is I'm drawing the big picture.

[Keith Morrison]

And that picture Saffarik told the jury, told the story of an attempted sex attack.

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

Michelle had never parked in this park and ride. Now this was an interesting location because here is where when you're looking at the dynamic between your offender, victim and the scene, the scene becomes important because this park and ride is out in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing out here. When you look at an aerial view of this park and ride, it's just fields all the way around. And then in the distance you have some residents, you come here, you park your car, you get in with somebody else, you get in a van and you travel into Los Angeles because it's right off of the freeway.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

Lonely place.

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

It's a lonely place. She'd never been there. Neither of them had ever been there before. So there's nobody that follows her there, there's nobody that knows that she's going to be there at some point in the night. So she wasn't targeted victim. So I'm looking at is she targeted or is this an opportunistic event for the offender? In other words, does he see an opportunity, happen in front of him and take it? And that's what happened here, that's what I think happened here.

[Keith Morrison]

In other words, a sex assault. That is what must have happened in that dark parking lot, said Mr. Safarik. There was no rape.

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

There's no rape. But there is a sexual assault. There's no completion. This sexual assault doesn't go to a completion. It starts and then it, and then it ends. But, but there's a sexual component to the homicide.

[Keith Morrison]

So what does that tell you?

[Narrator/Expert (e.g., Mark Safarik or similar)]

Well, it gives you a motive.

[Keith Morrison]

Then the jury took the case. February 17, 2009. Five weeks after the beginning of that second TR, Pat and Mike O' Keefe looked out the window of their Palmdale home. The weather was the same as it had been nine years earlier, the night Michelle was murdered. It was cold and stormy in the high desert. There was rain and snow in the San Gabriel mountains. And that's when the O' Keeffe's got the word. Another hung jury. This time 11 to one for guilt.

[Michael Keefe]

It's horrible, you know, 11 to one. You know, I think the answer was obvious across the jury. You just had one, one wild card juror in there.

[Keith Morrison]

And what was the reason for that hung jury?

[Detective Richard Longshore]

There was a woman that just didn't want to testify, didn't want to deliberate. She, she took exception to the manner in which I interrogated Mr. Jennings on video. They were shown the video.

[Keith Morrison]

Sure.

[Detective Richard Longshore]

And I never raised my voice. I didn't throw telephone books around, that type of thing. It's what you have to do during an interrogation.

[Keith Morrison]

Sure. A hung jury and the person who hangs it is pointing directly at you. And there have been two trials. All that expenditure of public money, that time, that focus, commitment, what did that feel like?

[Detective Richard Longshore]

It was crushing. It really was.

[Keith Morrison]

During the trial, Michelle's brother Jason had been seated in the front row of the spectator gallery, as close as he could get to prosecutor Michael Blake and to Jennings. To actually be in there and listen to the testimony, to watch that guy sitting there at the defense table, did you look at him?

[Jason O'Keefe]

Yeah. Me and Mr. Jennings actually had a number of stare down matches for whatever reason where he would just stare at me and I would just stare back and I wouldn't, I wasn't going to break the stairs. And then he'd finally look away, something to that effect. But where I was seated, I was literally three feet behind him.

[Keith Morrison]

And then the jury went out and came back and said, we're hung. You can't convict the man. What was that like for you?

[Jason O'Keefe]

Well, I was a pre law major at Weidener College, so I was very familiar with the law system. I would actually talk with district attorney before court and about certain motions and stuff like that, strategies that we could use of the legal system.

[Keith Morrison]

So said Jason, there was reason to feel hope and gratitude.

[Jason O'Keefe]

Plan on going on and being a prosecutor and after this is all said and done, that's been.

[Keith Morrison]

The influence of this case has made you think of being a prosecutor.

[Jason O'Keefe]

Yeah, without a doubt. The relationship that the district attorney has is so close to the family and I want to be able to do that and help other families the same way that Michael Blake's done that for us.

[Keith Morrison]

You can see how much he cares about you.

[Jason O'Keefe]

Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

And you want to do the same for somebody else.

[Jason O'Keefe]

Yeah, without a doubt.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes. But the question that gloomy February was far more immediate than that. After two juries failed to convict, would they set him free but try him yet again? A question that would have sounded like it came from Mars had you asked this man back then.

[Michael Keefe]

I was sitting at home and some.

[Keith Morrison]

Force compelled me to go watch this.

[Michael Keefe]

Episode of Dateline NBC.

[Keith Morrison]

Some force indeed. Next on the Girl in the Blue Mustang. I realized that either this was an innocent man or this was a sociopath who deserved an Academy Award. And I just had to know, which one was it. The Girl in the Blue Mustang is a production of D. Dateline and NBC News. Scott Frazier is a producer. Brian Drew, David Varga, and John Coster are audio editors. Thomas Kemen is assistant audio editor. Keani Reed is associate producer. Adam Gorfin is co executive producer. Liz Cole is executive producer. And David Corvo is senior executive producer from NBC News Audio. Bryson Barnes as technical director. Sound mixing by Bob Mallory. Nina Bisvano is associate producer.

[Rob Lowe]

Hey, everybody, it's Rob Lowe here. If you haven't heard, I have a podcast that's called Literally with Rob Lowe. And basically it's conversations I've had that really make you feel like you're pulling up a chair at an intimate dinner between myself and people that I admire, like Aaron Sorkin or Tiffany Haddish, Demi Moore, Chris Pratt, Michael J. Fox. There are new episodes out every Thursday, so subscribe, please, and listen wherever you get your podcasts.