The Thirsty Killer - Kings Mountain, North Carolina

Summary

Small Town Murder: "The Thirsty Killer – Kings Mountain, North Carolina"

Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Release Date: August 29, 2025
Location: Kings Mountain, North Carolina

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Episode Overview

Comedians James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman take listeners to the insular, rural community of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, for a wild—and tragic—tale of neighborly rage taken to lethal extremes. What starts as a petty feud over dirt roads and loud music escalates into relentless harassment, legal sparring, and ultimately a shocking act of violence. Through their mix of in-depth research and sharp humor, the hosts dissect the personalities, community dynamics, and preventable nature of a double shooting that left a family shattered and a small town reeling.

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Kings Mountain: Setting the Stage

Town Overview

• Population: 10,775
• Median Household Income: ~$42,000 ("That is a third under the average. More than a third. That's a lot. That's not great." – James, 04:23)
• Known for its blue-collar, close-knit community, the area straddles Cleveland and Gaston counties and has a blend of rural poverty and old-school neighborly (or not-so-neighborly) ties.
• "It's all it is though. It's court. Makes it sound like there's like a cul-de-sac...but it's not. Just a one lane dirt road about 200 yards long." (James, 12:20)

Signature Events

• Described with irreverence: Beach Blast Festival, Mountaineer Days Heritage Festival, events rooted in small-town tradition and nostalgia ("They stopped finding things to do in 1957." – Jimmie, 10:09).
• Local reviews blend small-town pride and underlying tension.
  • “Everyone in the Kings Mountain area is connected by family or mutual friends…" – (James, 05:16)

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Main Players & Social Dynamics

The Oaks Family:

• Jeffrey Wayne Oakes: 51, lifelong local, truck driver/mechanic.
• Myla Nicole Oakes (née Ellis): 32, described as lively and friendly, but also with a notable arrest record for petty offenses.
  • “Myla's known for being very lively and very friendly. And by 2014…loves going to church and…helping other people...She also had some problems.” (James, 16:03)
• Two sons: Jeffrey Jr. (around 12 at the time of shooting) and Aiden.

The Neighbors:

• Robert "Chad" Bridges: Mid-30s to 40s; entrenched resident, becomes primary antagonist in the feud.
  • "His middle name is Chad and he chooses to go by Chad for some reason. No one should ever choose Chad ever, as a name." (James, 21:45)
• Leslie England: Chad’s fiancée; active in calling the police and seeking legal protection.

Local Color:

• The hosts riff repeatedly on the region’s love of “Buster” as a name, and the wild regional quirks.
• “I love her dad’s name. It’s my favorite. Manuel Effin Ellis. E-F-F-I-N. I’m Manuel Effin Ellis, and you don’t fuck with me, pal.” (James, 15:34)

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The Feud: From Petty to Deadly

The Spark and Acceleration

• Oaks family moves in (Fall 2014) and quickly irritate neighbors: tearing up the shared dirt road with ATVs, blasting music at all hours, random late-night gunfire.
  • “They are going up and down it all the time, riding ATVs on it, tearing their car back and forth, doing donuts at all hours of the night…” (James, 18:19)
• Initial attempts at diplomacy fail; complaints escalate:
  • "The residents, the other neighbors kind of got together and said, what do we do about this? Well, let's try talking to them." (James, 19:36)
• Both sides begin cataloguing grievances, calling law enforcement:
  • Between Jan 2015 and Jan 2016: 34+ 911 calls (21 by the Oaks, 13 by Chad).
  • "After the third call, what the cops should have done is gathered everyone involved on a lawn and beat the living shit out of all of them." (James, 26:11)
• Law enforcement fatigue sets in; police essentially stop responding.
  • “The deputies started not showing up anymore...‘We’re not going back out there.’” (James, 26:57)

Memorable Quote:
"You're adults and being fucking weird."_ (Jimmie, 26:44)_

Escalation: Legal and Personal Attacks

• Mutual restraining orders; both families compile video evidence meant to bolster charges; harassing behavior continues.
  • Example: Chad labels surveillance footage: “Bitch stalking me while I build doghouse.” (31:50)
• Regular property damage, insults, late-night confrontations; both sides perceive themselves as victims.
• A fist fight at Jeff's workplace leads to more threats and reciprocal legal filings.

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Notable Quotes

• On the feud’s escalation:
  "Things are going fine on in Man Court. Everybody's happy. Then in fall of 2014, there's some new neighbors in the court here."_ (James, 12:57)_

• On escalating complaints:
  "Jeff and Myla Oaks call 911 twenty-one times on Chad. Chad calls 911 thirteen times on them."_ (James, 25:56)_

• On the police:
  "After the third call...what the cops should have done is gathered everyone involved on a lawn and beat the living shit out of all of them...If I get one more fucking call from you people about neighbor disputes, I swear to God, I'm coming back with my gun."_ (James, 26:11)_

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The Day of the Murder

Timeline & Key Events

• January 27, 2016 (7:00–7:11am)
  • Jeff Oakes drives his son Jeff Jr. to the end of the dirt road for the school bus.
  • Chad Bridges, frustrated at Jeff driving slowly (and apparently zigzagging to prevent passing), rams Jeff’s car with his truck. Both vehicles are stuck; the two men exit and argue.
  • Myla, summoned by Jeff’s phone call, quickly joins the fray.
  • Five minutes of heated yelling ensue, with 12-year-old Jeff Jr. huddled in the backseat.
  • Chad goes back to his truck, retrieves a handgun, and—after a five-second pause—shoots Myla in the head as she and Jeff try to run.
  • Jeff, turning towards his wife, is shot twice in the head.
  • One bullet nearly hits Jeff Jr., still in the car.
  • The bus arriving on scene witnesses the aftermath; Jeff Jr., in shock, flees to the bus for help. Multiple 911 calls are made.
  • Paramedics find Myla dead; Jeff is airlifted but left permanently paralyzed and incapacitated.

Notable Quotes:
"Seven in the morning for road rage."_ (Jimmie, 41:34)_
"They argue for five whole minutes."_ (James, 43:18)_
"This kid's got balls. Jeff Jr. you are a fucking kid."_ (James, 45:54)_

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Investigation and Prosecution

• Evidence:
  • Three recovered cell phones; only Myla's contains helpful footage (showing alleged coaching of her son, but also a stated intent to "let the law handle it").
  • Multiple video records from both sides.
• Chad’s Actions:
  • Claimed self-defense, saying Jeff pulled a gun (the gun was found under the car seat; Jeff never drew it).
  • He fled briefly, disposed of his gun in a neighbor’s yard, then surrendered calmly.
  • “Once it’s out, it’s out, usually. You know what I mean? It’s like your dick. Once you take it out, you’re doing something with it.”_ (James, 49:09)_
• Medical Outcomes:
  • Myla dies at the scene.
  • Jeff Oakes survives but is left in a vegetative state and dies several years later.

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The Trial

• Charges: First- and second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm into occupied property.
• Community Support: Divided, but many neighbors side with Chad, seeing him as pushed beyond endurance by the Oaks.
• Plea Offer: 32 years (Chad refuses, goes to trial.)
• Trial Outcomes:
  • Found guilty of second-degree murder and other charges.
  • Sentence: 38 to 47.5 years.
  • Eligible for parole at 80 (unlikely to live that long).

Notable Court Quotes:
"How do you claim self defense when you shoot an unarmed woman in the head? You, sir, may fuck off."_ (Judge, 68:13)_
"He had 32 offered and he's gonna do 40 fucking years now."_ (Jimmie, 69:05)_

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Aftermath & Reflections

• Children: Jeff and Aiden placed with relatives; significant financial drives for medical and counseling expenses.
• Community Reaction:
  • “Someone who fears for their life attempts to flee. There was no attempts to flee on his part…”
  • “Everyone has a breaking point.”
• Victims: Myla buried in Sunset Cemetery. Jeff Oakes dies in 2021 after years in a nursing home.
• Chad: Incarcerated, likely for the rest of his life.

Memorable Episode Theme:

• The entire saga is a grim tale of mutual escalation, rural dysfunction, and a justice system’s limits. The hosts emphasize how remarkably avoidable it all was, with humor cutting through the absurdity and tragedy.

"Self defense exists, and it's certainly a thing, but a man swerving to not let you pass is not worthy of gunshots... You can't shoot someone for being a dick."_ (Jimmie & James, 56:24–56:36)_

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Key Timestamps

• [03:05] – Town background & color
• [12:45] – Introduction to Man(n) Court and the Oaks family
• [18:00] – Escalation of neighbor disputes
• [25:56] – 911 call tallies, sheriff’s response
• [33:04] – Both sides file criminal complaints
• [39:15–47:05] – The shooting: Morning of Jan 27, 2016
• [55:48] – Legal aftermath and community split
• [66:48–68:13] – Verdict, sentencing, and final thoughts

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Tone & Style

The episode blends detailed narrative and research with the hosts’ trademark irreverence. They riff on Southern culture, small town quirks, and the absurd escalation of the conflict without undercutting the gravity of the tragedy. Memorable character names, running jokes about local customs, and mock exasperation at the sheer pettiness and preventability of the violence provide comic relief as they guide listeners through a painful rural drama.

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Summary:
The “Thirsty Killer” episode of Small Town Murder paints a vivid, tragicomic portrait of how small grievances can turn deadly when neighbors—desperate for control and validation—choose escalation over empathy, culminating in an act of violence that devastates families and scars a community forever.

Transcript

[A]

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay.

[B]

And choo choo.

[A]

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[B]

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

[A]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today. All aboard the Murder train. Here we go, pulling away from the station. We have another crazy episode today, of course, of Small Town Murder Express. One of my favorites, a neighbor feud, which I always love. And oh my God, this is crazy stuff in a real rural area. We're gonna have. Whew. It's a wild story. We'll get into that. Before we do though, very quickly. Definitely head over to shutupandgivememurder.com get all your tickets for the live shows. There's not that many to get anymore at this point. The only one ones available are Philly and Seattle and they are going quick. So get your tickets now if you want to see those shows. Shut up and give me murder dot com. Get yourself some merch to wear to the shows too, while you're there. Certainly check out our other shows which are crime and sports and your stupid opinions, which are hilarious shows. And then also get yourself Patreon. Treat yourself to some Patreon. You know what I mean? It's for you, anybody, $5 a month or above, a cup of coffee or all what we're going to offer you here. First of all, hundreds of back episodes of bonus stuff you've never heard. Hundreds of them immediately upon subscription. Then you get two new ones every other week. One crime and Sports, one Small town murder this week, which you're going to get for crime and sports, which of course you have access to. We're going to talk about the gambling in sports since 2018 and how many athletes keep getting busted and screwing their careers up. Competitive people like that, it's right on their phone. They cannot help it sometimes and it's not good. Then for small town murder, it's a choice. Your choice this time. Either Ted Bundy helping to catch the Green river killer, you know, to his own advantage, obviously, or the history of executions in the United States. You pick. Hit me up on Instagram. You better do it as soon as you hear this, because I am. It's about. We're about up on the voting, so do that. Patreon.com CrimeInSports Then on top of all of that, you get all the shows, crime and sports, your stupid opinion. Small town Murder all ad free on Patreon. Ad free. What? And you get a Shout out at the end of the regular show, too. It's all we could possibly do for you for $5. I think that's better than a cup of coffee. So go ahead and treat yourself to that. Patreon.com crimeinsports that said, let's do this.

[B]

Let's go.

[A]

I think it's time to sit back, everybody. Let's all clear the lungs. Here we go. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Let's go on a trip, shall we? Here we go. We are going to North Carolina this week.

[B]

Great.

[A]

Here we're going to Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Oh, it's up in the hills. This is. Yeah, Kings Mountain, by the way. Kings. No apostrophe, no possessive on that.

[B]

I mean plural.

[A]

It's plural.

[B]

Kings.

[A]

Kings Mountain. Yeah. It doesn't belong to the Kings. It's just after the Kings.

[B]

There's a whole bunch of them up there.

[A]

Yeah, a lot, A lot of them like that. This is a southwestern North Carolina. And down there it's this right in the beginning of that western panhandle that it goes out to there. About. About 40 minutes to Charlotte, about only 15 minutes to our last episode. Gastonia, North Carolina. Episode 587, Confessions of a Monster. That, by the way, was a wild ass episode. North Carolina's got some crazy murder going on here. This is in. It borders Cleveland and Gaston counties, which is weird because this is not a huge place. So they feel like they could have fixed that somehow. Area code 704, population of this town, 10,775 in this area. Now the place we're gonna talk about is a real rural place on the edge of town, gravel road and all that kind of thing. So we'll talk about that. Median household income here. Now, in the rest of the country, it's about $69,000. Here it is 42,000 dol.

[B]

Good Lord.

[A]

That is a third under the average. More than a third. That's a lot. That's. That's not great. And then half. Near half. Yeah. Then median home cost here. It's lower than the national average, but still not that great. $202,100. So you're going to get as a lot of houses that have a lot of land attached to them is why they have two slogans here, two mottos, whatever you want to call it. One is quote, the historical city.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then the next one they have is the exact opposite of that, which is hilarious. Their two mottos are the Historical city and the city of progress.

[B]

It's brand new.

[A]

I don't know what to say about that. We're historical, but moving forward with a gusto. Wow. History of this town. The original settlement was called White Plains, you know, like by Yonkers there. Same thing. But it was incorporated in 1874 and the name was changed. King's Mountain, they thought would be more appropriate for the town as a name, because the community was close to the site of the historic Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, which was in York County, South Carolina, close to there, which was a big turning point in the American Revolutionary War. So they named their town after that. Few reviews of this town because what do we know? We've never been there. Here we go. Reviews. I don't know. Shit. Here's five stars. King Mountain is a. Kings Mountain is a great town. Everyone in the Kings Mountain area is connected by family or mutual friends. That just sounds like everybody sounds in bread. That's gonna say. That doesn't sound. Don't perpetuate a stereotype in your review. If you're giving five stars is what we're saying here. Or nuts. Whatever. So mutual friends, which makes it an atmosphere where everyone can communicate and get along like friends. Well, half of you are related and it's even easier. The community is amazing and you almost always feel included.

[B]

Almost always. Sometimes not so much.

[A]

All I ever want out of life is to not be included. So. That sounds awful. Let's see. Here's five stars. Best high school and wonderful. Good. Wonderful. Good. Best high school and wonderful. Good. That's the whole review.

[B]

Fantastic.

[A]

Wonderful with a capital W. For some.

[B]

Reason, I think they meant wonderful food. Yeah.

[A]

I don't think maybe it's wonderful. Good. I mean, the G and the F are next to each other. That's possible. But the. The W in wonderful is capitalized. But not the B in best high school to start the sound. So that's. That's fascinating. Fascinating. And then here's two stars. I have frequently seen crimes being committed. I have also heard of many more from other people. Ooh. I've heard of crimes taking place and I watched them. Generally speaking, it does not seem like a very safe place. And police do not seem visible in the area. They're invisible. See? Oh, that's. That. That's why they're good. You don't know where they are because they're in the trees. See, they come down on crime. Some crimes happen, and boom. Cop falls out a tree, tackles everybody. That's how it goes.

[B]

They're not just good, they are wonderful.

[A]

Good, wonderful. Good. Two stars here. And again this. This ties into the five star review. People here tend to stick with their families. Again, perpetuating stuff. And don't spend too much time helping others. Oh, good. They say they're mind their own business and worry about their own families. Good, I like that. Things to do here. Okay. There is the Beach Blast Festival. Yeah, I know the question you're going to ask. Where the fuck is the beach? That was my question. Apparently there's a river that goes through here somewhere.

[B]

Oh, I love when people on the river go, this is the beach.

[A]

It's not a beach.

[B]

Sure. But no.

[A]

Yeah, that's loose dirt. But that's not sand.

[B]

Let me tell you, to be wet.

[A]

But no. So the Beach Blast Festival. Here it is. The. It's August. It's happening right now, actually. Yeah, there's a whole lot of stuff going on. There is the. It opens with DJ Mike Hayes.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

And the golf cart parade right away. Then there's a watermelon eatin contest. Not eating eatin'. Watermelon eatin contest. That happens. A Kid's Pavilion. Pirate port. I don't know what that's about. The Motley Tones will be performing.

[B]

That's a band, I assume Deftones, that play Motley Crue.

[A]

Either that we play only Crue and Deftones. That's it. We play. We play.

[B]

We play Motley Crue and we fucking scream it. We are shouting at that devil.

[A]

We play Home Sweet Home first. Right. Just to get people going. And then we do like three Deftone songs. And then when they ain't expecting it, we play Wild side. So that's how it works. And people, they seem to take to it. And then smoking in the boys room.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh my goodness.

[B]

Then the deep cut on that Dr. Feelgood album.

[A]

Gotta have that. See, I like that one because it ain't popular. See, I'm not gonna play Kickstart My Heart. That's what people want to hear.

[B]

I want you to know that I really have the album.

[A]

I know my crew, the Shadow Players will be performing. Don't know what that is. The totally tied contest. Beats me.

[B]

Tie dye probably.

[A]

Totally tide T I D E like the detergent. Oh, who's got the cleanest shirt? I don't know. Who does laundry? The best. The hula hoop contest. A limbo contest. This is starting to sound like a bar mitzvah. Like we're gonna have a limbo contest and a hula hooping.

[B]

They stopped finding Things to do in 1957.

[A]

Yeah. I don't get it. And then they're going to have a repeat of everything. There'll be roaming pirates and mermaids.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And entertainment by Ross Ron's cartoons. Okay, sure. There's also the Band of Oz. Too Much Sylvia is another band. Too Much Sylvia. Yeah, fit her all on the stage. Gary Louder and smoking hot.

[B]

Yeah, Smoke.

[A]

Smoking hot. And then 6pm Chairman of the board will be there. So either Frank Sinatra or. Was it Carrot Top was in that movie. Couldn't remember if it was him. Or Yahoo. Sirius, one of the two.

[B]

It may have been Yahoo. Yeah, no, it was Carrot Top.

[A]

Yahoo. Sirius is homeless now. That's not good. I just saw a thing. No, yeah, yeah, I saw. He's like homeless in New Zealand or something.

[B]

Oh my God. I have a spare room. Yahoo. You're welcome here anytime.

[A]

There's also the Mountaineer Days Heritage Festival, which has a lot of bands. Casey Ray Band, Megan Das Band. Sweet potato recipe contest. A beard, mustache and goatee competition. A pumpkin eating contest. Pumpkin pie eating contest.

[B]

All right.

[A]

And sack races and an egg and spoon race. So this is all like field day at your local elementary school.

[B]

They've ran out of things to do in 1957.

[A]

Holy shit.

[B]

Just keep doing it over and over.

[A]

They're gonna have a jacks competition over here. Yeah, just a bunch of kids bouncing shit and playing. It's so weird. Hopscotch competition we got going on. Double dutch. We're gonna be doing. It's pretty wild. That said, let's talk about some murder, everybody.

[B]

Let's do it.

[A]

Okay, we have to go to the location here and describe this because this is the most important thing. It's called Mann Court. M A N N Court. This is the street that it's on. Now. This is a one lane dirt road. Oh, that. It's in the middle of fucking nowhere. This is not in the town. You know, all, you know, right around anything. These. This is a. An insular little neighborhood out on its own here. One lane dirt road that the county doesn't even care for. The residents pay to maintain the road.

[B]

Oh, boy.

[A]

So that's how rural this is.

[B]

Private.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. They're not even. No one helps. It's way out on the edge of town. It's all it is, though. It's court. Makes it sound like there's like a cul de sac and. Yeah. You know, but it's not. It's just a one lane dirt road about 200 yards long.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And it has Some houses on it. There's, you know, a handful of houses scattered on this 200, 200 yard long dirt road, essentially. So things are going fine on in Man Court. Everybody's happy. Then in fall of 2014, there's some new neighbors in the court here.

[B]

Great.

[A]

Now, this has to be. For a neighborhood like this that's so insular and so close, and you guys have to chip in to fill a pothole and stuff like that. New neighbors. That's got to be scary because there's not a lot of people around here. So if someone comes in and someone you don't like, you're stuck with these people now really out there. So this is Jeffrey Wayne Oakes here and his wife Myla. Now we'll talk about them. Jeff here, Jeff Oaks. He's born in 1963. So he's 41 in 2014. Oh, I'm sorry, 51. Not 41. Right. Born in 63, 40 years. That would be. Yeah, he's 51. Okay. In North Carolina here. He was born in Cleveland County, North Carolina, which is what this border's on. And he. He spent his whole life in this area. Everybody in this story spent their whole life in this area, essentially. So his parents are Virgil and Diana Oaks, and so that's his stepmother, and his mom's name was Patricia, but she died a lot of big family. He grew up in big old Brady Bunch family. Two sisters, three brothers, so six kids altogether. Sisters are Christy and Dana. Brothers are Brad, Joe and Buster. There it is, Buster. I just picture Buster Bluth, and that's all I can think of when I hear that name, Buster or that Murdoch kid or him. Yeah, maybe that's. Is that a common name down south?

[B]

I don't think. I don't know if that's his real.

[A]

Name, but that's this kid's real name.

[B]

Right. But I mean, I don't know if that's the possible murderous ginger kid's name.

[A]

Yeah. Is that a. Is that. Is that a name? It must be a name they use a lot.

[B]

It's got.

[A]

I mean, it has to be. It's regional. Has to be. How many busters down there? Do we. Do we have any busters listening? Please hit us up and say I'm Buster, and I'll be thrilled.

[B]

There was a. Wasn't there a catcher for the Giants? Buster Posey.

[A]

Yeah. Buster Posey. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's his real name, but he's a baseball player, so I thought that was a nickname. You know what I mean? Buster.

[B]

I think that's his real name.

[A]

That might be his real name. I think it is. It doesn't matter, okay?

[B]

It doesn't matter. We're not.

[A]

Maya Nicole Ellis is his wife. She's born Maya Nicole Ellis. She's Maya Nicole Oakes Now. I'm sorry, not Maya. Myla. M Y L a Myla. She's born in 1983, so 20 years younger than her husband here. She's born in Gaston County. Her parents are. I love her dad's name. It's my favorite. Manuel Effin Ellis.

[B]

Effin Ellis.

[A]

E F F I N. I'm Manuel Effin Ellis, and you don't fuck with me, pal.

[B]

That feels like his parents on purpose.

[A]

This goddamn Effin little kid. Fine there.

[B]

What's his last name?

[A]

Ellis. Effing Ellis.

[B]

That's MF and Ellis.

[A]

I love it. M effin Ellis. That is amazing. And his mother's name is Lena Pizzoli. So she's her mother. So she's half Italian, this one. It looks like she grew up in this region.

[B]

Great fucking name.

[A]

Isn't that the best?

[B]

Great effing name.

[A]

Excuse me. Great effing name. Yeah, that's the best. I saw that name and I was like, we're doing this story just because of this guy's last name, middle name. I love it so much. So her family's pretty close knit. She's got a brother named Chris. Now, Milo's known for being very lively and very friendly. And by 2014, everybody talks about how she loves going to church and she likes helping other people and things like that. People always say, oh, she loved everybody. She also had some problems leading up to this happens.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Minor arrests that I found. Tons of them. I mean, a lot of them. A lot of them were in the non. It just said, not specified in the records I found. So I don't know what they were for. But there was a shitload of incidents of things.

[B]

A gal with a long rap sheet is fascinating.

[A]

Yeah, but it's all, like, petty stuff.

[B]

Yeah, it usually is.

[A]

The ones I found are like, shoplifting value, $1,000 or less. So you know, she stole a shirt or something that was.

[B]

She's Vicki Valencourt.

[A]

Yeah, that was in like 2007. And then simple possession of marijuana I found in 2007 when she was living in Lawndale, North Carolina. So things like that. She's had some.

[B]

She didn't steal lt's car or any shit like that.

[A]

Yeah, no, no, no, she didn't. She didn't burn a church down or Anything, she's okay. So now they have two sons as well. Jeffrey Jr. Gotta have one of those. He's born in about 2005. And then they have Aiden, who's a couple years younger. Now the family was active in church. The Westwood Heights Baptist Church they went to. Jeff was a truck driver for years and years. And so he always had a steady job driving trucks. And he also would work part time in an auto shop fixing cars too. So he's hustling to make some dough here.

[B]

Mechanic who drives truck is fascinating.

[A]

It seems like I was a busy man.

[B]

Shit.

[A]

No shit. Well, I think too with the truck driving, if you're over the road, you have like a week off at times. You're gone for two weeks, you're home for a week. So that's how he fills it in, makes some extra money.

[B]

Attaboy.

[A]

Now Mila owned a business that. I don't know what they did and can't figure it out called Oaks Southern Charm.

[B]

That could be fucking anything.

[A]

A charm school, a party planner thing, whatever. Whatever Chip and Joanna Gaines are doing. I don't know, maybe that. That's crazy. Who the hell knows? Fucking, I'm not sure. So she owned that small shop, right? No, it's. I don't know, it's a boutique. There's no like physical thing for a dress or anything. Oh, I don't know what that is. Interior design. I have no idea. Fucking name a million things and it could possibly be that. So they move in and right away they start having some fun. Yeah, I think this is why they moved out to a rural area like this. So they could have some fun. First of all, the dirt road, they are going up and down it all the time, riding ATVs on it, tearing their car back and forth, doing donuts at all hours of the night. They said, pay for that road, you bastards. They're just woo. Doing donuts in the middle of the night. Yeah. So they were, they were upset. The road would be all. They'd wake up in the morning, the road's all fucked up and torn up and then they gotta go out and rake it and do all that shit. So they were pissed off. The residents, the other neighbors kind of got together and said, what do we do about this? Well, let's try talking to them. Maybe they'll. They'll understand, you know what I mean? They haven't lived here. So they go, they try talking to him. Nothing. Nothing. Also they complain that Jeff and Myla fire weapons at all times of the night and morning. Outside, just bucking shots off, which is also interesting. They said not at anyone, just not even at targets.

[B]

Just random gunfire.

[A]

They'll go out at 4 in the morning and just buck off a shotgun three times out into the woods and then go back in the house just to piss the neighbors off, it seems like to them. Because it's like. It's that. It's that random.

[B]

They set an alarm. It's 11am do you fire your weapons?

[A]

Jesus. Crap. People are going to make sure that thing works. God damn it. Not only that, they just go out and shoot it into the air. Just it's, you know, not.

[B]

It's dangerous.

[A]

Yeah. You know, it's a rural area, so the gunfire isn't that weird, but at 3am it's a little annoying. You know what I mean? Nobody wants that. So Myla also really pisses everybody off with her stereo system. She bumps that shit, like, loud. I don't know what kind of system setup she has, but people say that it fucking would rattle the windows of houses that are a quarter mile. It would be rattling windows and you could hear it like the way it was. If something was loud there, it would echo around the trees and be even louder. So they said it was fucking horrible. People couldn't. Their kids couldn't sleep. It was. Because this is at all hours of the night. At 2 in the morning, she's blasting. I'm on my way home. Sweet. She's doing that shit. Bang, bang, bang. Firing shots off into the air. I mean, sounds like they're having fun. I'll tell you what.

[B]

But did they win some lottery or something? A scratch.

[A]

Gave them some redneck lottery, you mean. Everybody, welcome back. Welcome back to this, to the hillbilly lottery, where when you win, you get your own private dirt road. You can ride an ATV up and down, fire weapons indiscriminately in the middle of the night and play music as loud as you want. All right, let's see what the first number is. Oh, here we go. Double zero.

[B]

This is unbelievable.

[A]

So enter their neighbor, Robert Bridges. His middle name is Chad and he chooses to go by Chad for some reason. No one should ever. No one should choose Chad ever, as a name. He's born in June of 1977. So he's kind of right in between the two of them basically, in terms of age. He's lived up here for a long ass time. Yeah, long time. He's lived in the town for a long time and he's lived in this court for years now. So he's Like I said, all through the town, he's the guy that they really lock horns with, the Oaks family. He has a fiance named Leslie England as well that lives there. So him and his fiance, and then you got Jeff and Milo Oaks over here. Okay. Now, according to Justin Cunningham, who is Leslie, His Bridges. Chad's fiance. Son. Sure. He said before the Oaks moved into the area, it was a quiet neighborhood. Everybody got along peaceful. Said after the Oaks arrived, shit changed. Yeah, exactly. So he said. The first time I heard about them was with the water bar. Okay. Do you know what a water bar is?

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay, there was an addition of a water bar, which is a gravel Humphrey made to divert water from the road. Okay, so just a drainage channel down? Yeah, a little drainage system. I'm not sure who was upset about what, but that caused a beef. That's the first time that this kid was aware of this beef.

[B]

Goddamn water bar.

[A]

Goddamn water bar. And this kid Cunningham said that, you know, him and all the other neighbors, too. Not just him, he's just the one that was quoted here. Said that Myla Oakes, the wife, would speed down the small dirt gravel road yelling profanities and making rude hand gestures at people who are outside.

[B]

You know what that one is?

[A]

Yeah, she's like the mailman from Funny Farm. Basically, like, when she comes through, you dive out of the fucking way. Letters come flying out.

[B]

But why? Why is she doing it?

[A]

Just. I don't know. But that sounds like. That does sound like fun. That's. Well, when I get to your house, every time, that's what we do. We take your ATVs up the road, and I yell and scream at your neighbors, and you make hand gestures at them. And that's how we do it.

[B]

Flip them off and tell them, go fuck themselves. Yeah.

[A]

Then we drive back, we're hitting the water bar. That's it. We go make a show. So Chad gets pissed off and starts documenting this stuff. He starts putting security cameras all over the house. And they show Jeff and Myla shining their headlights into his windows at night while honking their horn and screaming threats at him. We're talking two in the morning.

[B]

She's kind of badass, huh?

[A]

You know what I mean? Yeah, she's kind of badass. Like, you got a couple of pops in you at 2am you're sitting there like, you know what we should do? Let's get in the car. We'll drive to the neighbor's house down the road there, and we'll just shine the flashlights and tell them what we fucking think of them? What we effing think of them? I'm sorry. Just tell him all we need to know. The horn is working. Perfect. Perfect.

[B]

That's a check one.

[A]

That's perfect. We're going to need that to wake him up. So he saves everything. He has files labeled and videos and documentation. It's crazy. So while this is going on, imagine being the other neighbors. Because, I mean, it started out with everybody kind of is pissed off at the Oaks, and now it's specifically Chad and the Oaks are at war. And you have to watch this go on all the time, like, oh, shit, this is not going to be good. So here's one neighbor, Roy Blackmon. He lived on the corner where Mancourt meets another road. And he says he sees everything. And he said. He described Jeff and Myla as threatening, unruly, and vulgar to everyone on the street. They came in don't tell us what to do, you know? Yeah. So between January 1, 2015, and January 27, 2016. Just over a year.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Jeff and Myla Oaks call 91121 times on Chad.

[B]

What the shit?

[A]

Chad calls 91113 times on them. Now, after the third call.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What the cops should have done is gathered everyone involved on a lawn and beat the living shit out of all of them. I don't give a fuck who's in. I don't care who's at fault. I don't care who's wrong, who's right. If I get one more fucking call from you people about neighbor disputes, I swear to God, I'm coming back with my gun. Do you everybody understand? Thank you.

[B]

Out here on man court, I swear.

[A]

To God, I will run you motherfuckers over. I'm not doing this anymore. Like, I would lose my mind as a co. How do you keep coming to the same fucking people? Adults that are arguing about a street. It's just crazy.

[B]

You're adults and being fucking weird.

[A]

Yeah. There's like seven houses on the road, and they come 36 or 34 times in a year, they have to come out here. Wow. The deputies started not showing up anymore.

[B]

Yeah. Eventually.

[A]

It's like, we're not going back out there.

[B]

You're crying wolf. You people are nuts.

[A]

And it's like it's a drive out there, too. It's like you got to go all the way the hell out there to say, oh, he shined your flashlight his headlights in your window, and you got to make a document to this.

[B]

So she called me a motherfucker.

[A]

Yeah. And by the time they get there, the shit's over anyway. So what are you gonna do? It's loud music and threats and property shit. It's all bullshit. It's all shit you take reports for. It's nothing that you can arrest anybody for. Yeah. Something you gotta. It's a civil matter for the most part. So Chad at one point told his attorneys, paralegal, the police don't come anymore. They won't help us. They won't come. September 4th, 2015. Okay. Jeff Oakes is at work at a car dealership where he's doing automotive shit. Right? Right. Somehow Chad ends up there. I don't know if he's in the market for a used, you know, fucking Hyundai or something, or if he came there to talk to Jeff specifically. We don't know exactly what happened, but we know a fistfight ensued at the auto dealership at his job. So I'm gonna blame Chad for this one, because Jeff's at work. Right. If I'm at work and you come to my work and we fight, it's your fault. I was at work. You know what I mean?

[B]

Also kind of ballsy to show up to a place where a man got tools and wrenches.

[A]

Yeah, I guess. The wrenches are easy to grab for anybody, but they get one swing hard. Oh, yeah. They get in a fist fight, and Jeff Oakes gets a cut under his eye. They're both pretty big guys, but Chad's a fucking real heavy set.

[B]

A lot of man.

[A]

He's a lot of dude. They're both a lot of dude, But Chad is really fucking big looking. So he gets a response or he gets the cut under his eye. So Myla decides she's got to get involved now, too.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So she that when Chad gets home, Mila's there threatening to kill both Chad and Leslie. I'll kill you both. You punch my fucking husband, I'll kill you both. How dare you do that kind of shit? So, Myla, by the way, while Chad's been documenting his whole case, Myla has been documenting her whole case on her side, too. Okay? So on her phone, there's a video of her son Jeff Jr. And she's coaching him on how to talk about how he's scared of the neighbors, literally. She goes, tell me again why you're upset and crying. And he says, the neighborhood feud. Yeah. That's how kids talk.

[B]

Yeah. Little guys say, the neighborhood.

[A]

The neighborhood. Yeah. They don't say, adults are loud and scaring me. The neighborhood feud. But that's. Yeah. So there's obviously, there's been a lot of coaching there. She also says on the video that, listen, I don't care what happens with this guy. We're Christians and we love everybody. And after what, quote, what they did to your daddy, meaning the fist fight at the dealership, that we're just going to let the law handle it. That's what we're doing. She acts like this was a video that was taken surreptitiously of her consoling her son and telling her what's going on here. Why would that Just on the ring.

[B]

Doorbell cam as she comes home sad.

[A]

On her phone in selfie mode. What are we talking about? Why are you doing that?

[B]

We're gonna let the Lord and my Maglite and my big mouth handle it.

[A]

That's all it is. Oh, and the law, too, obviously. Now, by now, both Leslie England and Milo Ochs have filed for court orders against each other as well. Restraining orders, things like that. The Leslie England's filing says I am in fear of Myla Ochs actions because I have already taken out a warrant and she still continues to harass me.

[B]

Taking out a warrant.

[A]

I don't even know what that means.

[B]

What the fuck are you talking about?

[A]

I don't know how you. Maybe that's possible somewhere. Maybe in mountain towns. They're like, did you take out a warrant? And you're like, what is that? I don't have any fucking idea how that works.

[B]

I took out a warrant.

[A]

Maybe that's a regional thing. I'm not sure.

[B]

I don't know. I mean, historically, it means somebody.

[A]

Yeah, well, we have a North Carolina attorney that we know very well that listens. Hit us up, please, and ask, can.

[B]

I take out a warrant against you?

[A]

Jimmy, I'm taking out a warrant on you. You know that.

[B]

I'm calling the North Carolina attorney and telling her she better watch her back.

[A]

I got a warrant. I got warrants out on you. So Chad's security cameras. He has footage, and he labels them in folders of the footage. Now, one folder is called, quote, bitch stalking me while I build doghouse. That's one folder.

[B]

Bitch stalking me. The dog or the. Or something.

[A]

Yeah, you're building the doghouse. Of course he's gonna want. And then another file is bitch stops in front of the house. So apparently Myla is bitch, according to.

[B]

Jen, I gotta assume. Yeah.

[A]

And there's just hours and hours and hours that he has documented of them with the horn and them yelling at him and being on his property and all this. Type of shit. So obviously Ellis.

[B]

MF and Ellis is 51. How old's the other guy?

[A]

Robert Ellis is Myla's father.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

M, F, and L is Jeff Oakes. Is the Jeff. Yeah. Jeff Oaks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He's. He's in his. He's like 51 at this point.

[B]

Okay. And the. And Chad is in his 40s.

[A]

Chad is 14 years younger, so he's 37 at this point. These are both very full grown adults.

[B]

This is very dumb.

[A]

Very adult men we're talking about here. So then, because all this is going on, you know, bitch stalking me while I build a doghouse. Bitch. And stops in front of my house. The Chad's documenting Jeff Oakes files charges. Obviously the other guy. So, yeah. Yeah. In this claim here, Jeff files charges. It's about the fight.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That they had came to his job. Yes. Apparently. It's fucking ridiculous. During all this, I guess a gun was found under. Because Chad tried to say he got in a fight because he. You know, I was threatened by him. And Jeff said he came to my work and punched me, so how the fuck I didn't come to him? And then there was. It got muckier because Chad said something about a gun. And then a gun was found under Jeff's seat in his car, which. I mean, this is the hills of North Carolina. That's just. That's just a North Carolina seat warmer, they call it down there. You keep a gun under your seat. That's all that is.

[B]

Yeah. When it's cold outside, they don't fire as well. So you got to keep your ass on.

[A]

Keep it. You know what I'm saying?

[B]

Keep it steaming in there.

[A]

So Chad and Leslie file charges again against Maya now for communicating, threats and stalking. Okay, so, yeah, so Jeff saying you should arrest Chad for him hitting me, and him saying you should arrest Jeff for pulling a gun on me, even though there's no evidence of that.

[B]

And then in his car, at his job.

[A]

And then Chad and Leslie file charges against Milo and Jeff for threats and stalking. It's a mess.

[B]

Somebody needs to move.

[A]

Dude, pack your shit.

[B]

Couldn't be more obvious.

[A]

So, Thanksgiving 2015.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Chad says that he's too scared to leave his house to go celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.

[B]

Too scared for Turkey?

[A]

Too scared. No, I guess he got invited to Knoxville, Tennessee, for the family holiday. And his niece said. I got a call from him saying they weren't gonna come. He was afraid the Oaks would burn down his home.

[B]

Oh, I can't leave this house. He's Afraid to leave for more than 20 minutes.

[A]

They'll burn my shit down.

[B]

Matches everywhere.

[A]

Yeah, that's how it works. A Candace Pullman, who worked for Chad's lawyer, said that Chad would call her several times a week stating that he was scared that the Oaks were gonna do something to him or his property. She said, I told him if he was in fear for his life, he should call the police. And then he said, I call them, and they don't come no more. They won't help. And so during all this, she said that Chad was upset, scared, and angry when he would call. By December of 2015, we got restraining orders. Now, uh. Oh, Chad allegedly points a shotgun at Myla. Yeah, okay. Now, there is also. There was a rumor that Mila pointed a shotgun at her, too. So there's been multiple gun pointings going on now, apparently, allegedly in court. So Mila pointed at Chad, Leslie.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Because the women are gonna fight. And it's a. You know, it's a mixed doubles. You know, it's like a mixed doubles tag team match. When a woman tags in, you tag the other woman in. That's how it goes. You know, you can't have it.

[B]

It's tennis. You got a volley.

[A]

Intergender. Yeah. Fighting. Fighting here. So that's how that goes now. Monday, January 26th or 25th. I'm sorry, 2016. They're back in. They're all in court this day. Mila tweets, by the way, a lot about this shit. She's always tweeting about the neighbor, some bitch I live next to. She's tweeting about the neighbors, and she's tweeting about the court hearing and all that kind of shit basically resolved nothing in court. Nothing. There was criminal charges of communicating threats and misdemeanor stalking were pending against Maya at the time. And Leslie England and Jesus Christ, Jeffrey Oaks also each have a charge of communicating threats pending against them as well. And Chad has pending charges of assault by pointing a gun and simple assault against him. All four people have charges pending against them for this. Stop. Just stop. This is crazy. It's not even. Oh, it's them, and it's them. And no, it's your fault. You all have charges against you, and.

[B]

There'S gunplay involved already.

[A]

There's already gunplay. People just fire indiscriminately into the air. I mean, Christ almighty, there's loaded weapons everywhere. So Mila and Leslie have been in a civil dispute all year. Records say that Leslie filed a domestic order for no contact on Myla Oaks. In the no contact order, she detailed incidents between the two families of harassment and all of that shit. So Myla also has other problems here. One of her friends said she had recently closed her business, which was a consignment show. Now, I don't know if that was the Southern Oaks charm or Oak Southern charm or whatever, some kind of consignment show that she would do and was looking for work. Now, apparently Myla has a job interview set up for Wednesday of this week, her friend said, and I homeschool my boys. So she was asking me about that and how she had a passion for that in her heart too. How she just wanted to better her family. Yeah, it's so weird. She just wants to better her family one minute and then the next minute.

[B]

She'S flipping people off and ripping.

[A]

Firing guns off indiscriminately. Yeah. While blasting Motley Crue at 2 in the morning. So Tuesday, January 26th. The next day, Myla tells one of her neighbors or friends or something that she's going to the sheriff's office tomorrow. She said she's going to end this once and for all and get this taken care of and get it resolved in some way, shape or form with the sheriff tomorrow.

[B]

Till y' all fix this, either put.

[A]

Me in jail or. Yeah, arrest somebody.

[B]

Lock them up.

[A]

Lock them up. So that same day, Chad tells his paralegal about my. That Mila shoots guns and makes threats. That's when the paralegal says, you should call the police, dummy. So Wednesday, January 27, 2016. Milo's got a job interview today. Otherwise, things are going normal. Seven a.m. now. Okay, here we go. Jeff gets his 12 year old son, Jeff Jr. Ready for school. They get into Jeff's car for a drive to the end of the dirt road.

[B]

Oh, to the bus stop.

[A]

He's going to the bus stop. That's where the bus comes. So he's driving his son essentially like 150 yards. Okay. Now Chad at this point is getting ready for work. He's got to leave soon too. Now he sees Jeff's car driving toward the end of the road, but he thinks it's going too slow. He's not just driving toward the end of the road, he's stalking. He's creeping, basically. So Chad gets out and gets in his truck and pulls out. He ends up behind Jeff because Jeff's going so slowly down the dirt road. So he ends up behind Jeff in a narrow one lane dirt road here. Okay. Now there's multiple versions of the events Jeff Jr. From In the car says that his dad started swerving the car in a zigzag pattern across the road to prevent Chad from passing. He's going five miles an hour and he won't let dude pass him behind, which is just a dick move. It's just childish. It's just childish. I mean, that's just silly. It's silly is what it is. It's deliberate. And that's Jeff Jr saying that too. That's not, you know, whatever. So that's what's going on. And Chad said that Jeff was easing up the road pretty slow and he. Jeff wouldn't let me pass him. So. Okay, that. That lines up those two stories. So. Okay. Now at some point, Chad, I don't know if it's an accident or he loses his temper or whatever, but he fucking rams into Jeff's truck. He's had it in a. Jeff's car. He's had it with his truck. The truck's left front fender hooks onto the car's right rear quarter panel, which is awful.

[B]

What is he driving that's so fragile?

[A]

It's a car of some regular car. So Jeff's car spins out and ends up perpendicular to the truck. Okay? Now both vehicles are now stopped on the dirt road. They're in a way where neither of them can go because they've messed it up so bad. They've.

[B]

Is he facing the kid's side or the dad side?

[A]

The dad's side, I believe. If I'm. If I'm not mistaken, the way it worked out. Yeah, I would have. Yeah. Okay. Now there we go. It is 7:05am at this point. Number one, too early for this bullshit.

[B]

Seven in the morning for road rage.

[A]

I don't give a shit what you do at 7 in the morning. You can pass me. You can fucking. I don't give a shit. I'm barely awake. It's taken all my faculties to keep control of my vehicle at this point and not fall asleep. So do whatever you want. Okay? Now that's how this goes. Jeff Jr. Moves from the front passenger seat to the back seat. He's scared. Exactly. So Jeff and Chad get out and start arguing.

[B]

Oh, boy.

[A]

No blows are thrown here. This is just arguing. They're screaming and yelling and screaming and yelling. And this is the whole fucking. Yeah, fuck you. And your wife's a fucking bitch. And you're fat. Twat bitch. Fucking. You can hear it?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

You know it, right? So I'm letting it all out. Jeff reaches in his pocket, pulls out his phone. Okay, okay. Pulls out his phone. Now Chad sees Jeff pulling out his phone, and Chad says to him, call the law. Actually, he didn't say that. He said, quote, call law.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which I think in that region is like, call law. That kind of sounds like there's a. The in there. Call law. I don't care. One of those things. So the call law. So Jeff goes. All right. And dials and calls Myla. Not the law.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Within two minutes, here comes Myla tearing up to the scene.

[B]

Jesus.

[A]

Joining the argument. Boy. I mean, and she's right in there. And you. And you're a scumbag and you're a fucking wife. And. Well, fuck you. And now it's a couple arguing with a grown man in the street. All of this while a 12 year old huddles in a back seat 5ft away, scared to death.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Scared to death. They argue for five whole minutes.

[B]

What the fuck?

[A]

Five. Just think about arguing with someone you hate in the street for five fucking minutes straight. And that's crazy. And not doing. Not even doing a call law. Nothing. So the bus is gonna be here soon. Chad walks back to his truck in the middle of this argument.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He opens the door and reaches in and then pops back out. And now he's holding the gun. So Jeff Jr. Is watching all this out the window, horrified, obviously.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He pulls the gun, starts pointing it. Jeff Senior and Mila start to run away from here because they know that I think that Chad has had enough.

[B]

Essentially, you're on your own, Junior.

[A]

Yeah. This fight, whoever's at fault, it doesn't matter. Everybody's had enough. And one guy has a gun, so this is gonna be bad. So they run away. Chad waits five whole. A fucking five count.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is a long time if you think about it. Five seconds doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot of time for people to be running away while you hold a gun. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three. It's. It's not. Not a grab the gun, start shooting. It's five whole seconds. And then he starts shooting.

[B]

Oh, my word.

[A]

After five seconds, the first shot hits Myla in the head. She goes down. Jeff turns toward Myla and then kind of turns back. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know whether to attend to her attack Chad or run away.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So he's standing there for half a second, and Shad shoots him twice in the head.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[A]

Another bullet. He fired because he fired four total. One bullet pierces the window of Jeff's car and almost hits Jeff Jr.

[B]

He's aiming at the kid, right?

[A]

I don't know if he's aiming the way the angles were, but it almost hit Jeff Jr. This poor kid in the car. So at 7:11am, Jeff Jr. Waits till it's all quiet, runs out of the car, runs up to his mother, who he doesn't realize is dead yet because he's a child, and he just thinks that she's hurt. Reaches in and gets her phone out and calls 911. That's. This kid's got balls. Jeff Jr. You are a fucking kid. Yeah, just a. It's impressive for a small child to be like, I'm gonna. A 12 year old, 11 year old, something.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To run out into the carnage and try to help something. So a lot of kids would have just sat in the back of the car and hid for. Till someone came for him. So he does that. He can't get it to work, he can't get the phone to work. I don't know if he doesn't know how to do the code on the side, the five taps to get it to go automatically to it or whatever. His hands are shaking, there's blood everywhere. Who knows at this point. The school bus arrives.

[B]

Oh, God. Run, Jeff, run.

[A]

So Jeff Jr. Runs up to the school bus. School bus driver opens the door, he runs up, goes up the steps and says, my daddy's been shot.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He said, they're right there, my parents. As he's crying and screaming, please help me, please help me. He said he pulled out a gun and started shooting. I hope they're okay. So the driver fucking slams the door shut and guns it. She's not looking for. We gotta go, we gotta go now. And calls 911 immediately on her cell phone. Now there's also 911 calls coming in from the neighbors as well. Sure, yeah, everybody did. It's right there. So Roy Blackmon, who we talked about before, he called both before and after the gunshots, by the way.

[B]

Oh, he saw it all happening. It was like, y' all gotta get here fast.

[A]

You gotta get here fast. Then he goes, well, I guess y' all could slow down a bit, but send ambulances now, conserve the gas. Yeah, he said, wow. He said, quote, I was watching the news this morning and saw the headlights in our living room. I heard arguing and called 911 around 7am after that, I heard a pop, pop, pop. And then called 911 again. The sheriff also said just before the shooting, A neighbor called 911 to report a dispute between the victims and Bridges, who were neighbors. A few minutes later, another 911 call was placed after the neighborhood gunshots. And Blackmon said, we, we heard gunfire, about five shots. We called back to 911 and they told us, and quote, they tell us to get away from the window. Yeah, how about that? Number one, get away from fucking windows.

[B]

Get behind something like a tornado move.

[A]

Yeah. Get in the bathtub and wait. There you go. Doorways and bathtubs, people. Seven, 16. The first responders arrive. So five minutes. Yeah. Some already coming from the first call, so that helps too. So patrol officers arrive and they spot a man and woman lying on the ground, bleeding all over the place.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So they immediately start looking for the shooter around. Where's he? The one deputy said that out of nowhere, here comes Chad walking toward them, just drinking a can of coke. What they said, put your soda down. Put your hands behind your back. And he did. And they took him in with no incident. Yep. He surrenders immediately, tells the deputies that Jeff blocked the road, so I quote, bumped his car. He said, Jeff pointed a gun at me and I shot Jeff in self defense. There's no evidence that the gun is out of the car, though. Jeff's gun is still under his seat. It's under his seat, though. So most people don't take a gun out, point it at someone, then put it back under the seat, throw it.

[B]

Back under the seat and run.

[A]

Once it's out, it's out, usually. You know what I mean? It's like your dick. Once you take it out, you're doing something with it, you know?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Something's gonna happen. So he tells them where he put his gun, which is in a neighbor's yard. Oh, he had went and stashed his gun. That doesn't look good. Yeah. If it's truly self defense, you stand there with the gun on the ground next to you and wait for the cops. That's what you do.

[B]

I mean, yeah, you put your hands behind your back because you're about to be arrested. Oh, you know that you're going to jail.

[A]

Hands up. You're like, I self defense. I did it. There's the gun. You know, you want it to be up and up. So Mila is pronounced dead at the scene. One gunshot wound to the head. Dead. They said that it was delivered from more than likely several feet away.

[B]

Jesus Christ. He's a great shot.

[A]

Oh, yeah. I assume these frightening. These people probably shoot a lot. I mean, this is.

[B]

Yeah, but with A handgun while somebody's running. That ain't easy.

[A]

No, it's not easy at all. Especially with them. They're running. They're moving and bobbing up and down. Jeff Oakes is still breathing when they get there.

[B]

Oh, really?

[A]

Barely. He's shot in the head twice. Wow. They airlift him to a medical center in Charlotte. Now, the crime scene here, they mark the whole basic. They just. End of the street is crime scene. Whole street's a crime scene. There is three truck, three vehicles here. Chad's truck. T boned into Jeff's car and Mila's truck behind them, essentially. So they called in the accident reconstruction team to determine how it happened, who hit who, who was the aggressor. Also, they collect three cell phones. One from Myla, one from Jeff, one from Chad.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Only Mila's phone has any evidence on it. That includes the video of her coaching Jeff Jr. About the neighborhood feud and all that kind of thing. For some reason, they were unable to extract data from Jeff or Chad's phone. I can't understand how that's. You couldn't extract data from that? I don't know. But rural ass, North Carolina, maybe they were just going. Just yelling at Siri, going, give data. And it wouldn't do it. This bitch won't do nothing for me.

[B]

It doesn't plug into Ms. Dos.

[A]

I can't get it. How do I get my 3 1/2 inch floppy in here? How's that work? I don't. There's only one little hole on the bottom where the.

[B]

It doesn't even have a thumb drive port. This is bullshit.

[A]

So Jeff, by the way, is taken to the hospital. He survives, what? Shot twice in the head. But he's never gonna be able to walk, talk, or care for himself again.

[B]

Oh, Jesus. He wishes he was dead, probably.

[A]

He vegetableized Jeff, essentially.

[B]

Dang it.

[A]

So he was in the hospital. A friend of Myla's said they couldn't get the bullets. About the bullets. She said they couldn't get them out. It would cause more damage to remove them than to just leave them there.

[B]

He's gonna run around with those things in his head.

[A]

He ain't gonna be running anywhere. He's gonna be wheeling around with those things in his head. So the witnesses, Roy Blackmon, said, quote, it's sad. It's sad that neighbors can't settle their arguments and disagreements.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And another court neighbor on the court described Jeff and Myla as aggressive, threatening and confrontational. And they described Chad as someone who was pushed to his limit. So the neighbors are on Chad's side. They're saying, I get it. I'm not saying I, you know, condone it, but I get it. That's what they're saying.

[B]

So you could call them shit neighbors.

[A]

Yeah. Deserve to be shot in the head in front of their son as a little much, I think. So the physical evidence. There is testimony on the recovery of the murder weapon. Chad admitted to using it and placing it in a neighbor's yard. So there's no dispute there. Also the Jeff's gun, and that supports Chad's claim that Jeff had a weapon, although it being under the seat makes it so you. How'd you know that weapon was even there? Yeah, so they said the testimony also from the highway people confirms the presence of all the vehicles and the way it went. And they said. They noted that Jeff's car was perpendicular to Bridges truck after the collision, with Chad's truck having struck the right rear quarter panel of Jeff's car, causing it to spin out. So he pitted him, basically. So they also said it t boned into Jeff Ochs car and then Milo's truck. So I don't know how because Myla came later. So I don't know how that would happen. But that's what the North Carolina Highway Patrol accident reconstruction team said.

[B]

Those are the people that can't get.

[A]

Apparently. Yeah, they can't get that out. So the police said that, you know, this is there. They knew about this ongoing fight that's been going on. They said this has been an ongoing situation between the individuals. We don't know who's right and who is wrong as far as that. As far as a possible public vehicle area dispute, it was a common driveway that was shared, and an early indication is that it stemmed from months ago where there was a disagreement and continued to grow and led to a tragic incident this morning. Now, Myla's friends. Her friend Emily says she never expected, I'm sure, to walk out of that door and expect her life to end over a road. She said that, quote, her smile would light up a dark room, a dark one. It wasn't really a meme yet. So her love and passion for people was shown and said that they had all sorts of things in common, especially that they both had boys and had older husbands. She said, quote, we often joked about how we tried to find a husband that was older and more mature and that the men don't grow up, so you have to find one who's a lot older than you. She said she learned about her friend's death on Facebook. That's where you want to find out. She said, I thought to myself, this can't be. This can't be the Myla I know. And sure enough, it was. She said, the hate that's shown in this situation is what's blowing all of our minds. That even something so petty could drive you to the point of killing someone. So Chad is charged with. For a while, they don't know what to do, and then they end up charging him. They charge him with first degree murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, and discharging a firearm into occupied property, meaning the gun, the car with the kid in it. He's held without bond. At first here, his attorney described him as very remorseful and a decent man who never wanted this to happen. He said people should not have a rush to judgment in this case. I'm gonna go out on a limb here. Sounds like everybody was wrong, but one person took it too far.

[B]

Yeah, everybody was wrong for sure in every situation. In this one, there's one person that's wrong. He saw that dude leaving.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's his ride to school in the morning. That's my favorite thing in the world is taking my daughter to school.

[A]

He knows that there's a kid in the car.

[B]

Yeah, he knew.

[A]

He knows that.

[B]

And he brought a gun while knowing full well that he was going to follow him down the road. That's first degree murder, man.

[A]

That's what I'm saying. And it can be nobody's fault until somebody escalates it to a gun. And now it's your fault, no matter what stemmed from it. Now it's your fault.

[B]

Self defense exists, and it's certainly a thing, but a man swerving to not let you pass is not worthy of gunshots.

[A]

He's just being a dick.

[B]

Right?

[A]

You can't shoot someone for being a dick. You just can't.

[B]

That's not gunfire worthy.

[A]

Nope. So February of 2016, there is a fundraiser and the Sentinels of Hope Gastonia hosts a barbecue sale and fundraiser for the family. For the Oaks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Hoping to assist them in covering funeral expenses as well as medical bills for Jeffrey and counseling for the children. The school that the kids go to also raises money. There's an elementary school where the youngest son goes to school. And they said, one of the relatives said they had something they would like to present with me. And inside it was an envelope with over $1,000 in there. This was from the teachers and parents of the school just trying to help with the kids, they said. It's unbelievable. This is, I believe, Jeff's mom. It was unbelievable to know that somebody has stepped up to show support and love, and this community has really surrounded us with love. Now, April of 2016, he's trying to get bail. Chad. So he and Leslie testify before a judge that the Oaks constantly fired guns at their home just across the street. They said that Milo Oaks followed them and blocked their driveway. They. Leslie testified that Milo once told her that Chad was a dead man, quote, unquote. They said they put hidden cameras around their home and captured videos of harassment and all this stuff. Now, her friend Myla's friend Emily said, quote, I don't believe it. No, no. But it's all video. It's on video. So it's kind of hard not to believe at that point. Mila's her friend. Emily also said the Oaks had filed their own restraining orders, claiming Chad did the same thing to them and even assaulted Jeff Oakes, which we know about from the auto dealership. Emily said she simply couldn't understand why he kept getting aggravating, why he kept aggravating them so much. So they're both like, I don't understand why this person. Why these people keep fucking with me. Both sides are saying that to other people. Chad is released on $500,000 bail.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Not sure where he got that from, but he's released on that.

[B]

That's the. Wow. He's got it.

[A]

I think a lot of the other neighbors pitched in, too. Like, as they were on his. A lot of the neighbors seem to be on his side. It's weird. So pretrial. Right before jury selection, the state offers a plea bargain to Chad.

[B]

Really?

[A]

If he accepts the deal, he gets 32 years in prison.

[B]

32.

[A]

32 years in prison if you take this deal.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

He says, rolling them bones. Going to court. Fuck this. Going to trial.

[B]

32 is too much.

[A]

32 is too much. Not gonna do it. So, yeah. October of 2018, they're still waiting for the trial to start. It's been two and a half years now. This is Myla's mother, Lena Pizzoli says our life can't start until this is done. Our family has spent two years and nine months going through the motions of life. Yeah. You know, you have this big thing looming now. The trial comes up. Chad's whole defense is self defense. It's all self defense. The prosecutor said, this is murder. Simple as can be. It's a property dispute that escalated until he Executed his neighbors. That's all. He shot an unarmed woman while they ran away. While she was running away, he shot Jeff twice in the head. Even if he said Jeff was armed, which, his gun was under the seat. Either way, you shot him twice in the head and he's running away. He said it wasn't self defense. It was an execution. The defense said Chad was a man terrorized by violent, threatening neighbors for over a year. Shattered the peace of the neighborhood. He said Jeff Ochs carried a gun and had threatened Shad repeatedly. That morning, Jeff blocked the road and pulled his weapon. And he also says that he shot them out of fear because he said Myla shined a flashlight in his face and he thought that was the signal to kill him, so he needed to. Meanwhile, it's just not light out yet. So he said he defended himself. He said, Milo. They said Milo's death was tragic, but it happened in the heat of legitimate self doubt. Self defense. So, like, she's just collateral damage, but whatever. Now they bring in Mila's videos, and they're trying to. Prosecution's trying to show from the videos that Myla doesn't want any beef. Basically, yeah. They said the video recording begins with Myla instructing Michael to explain to her again why he's upset and crying. Michael states that the neighborhood feud frightens him. And Maya said, after what he did to your daddy, we're gonna let the law handle it. And mentions intending to visit the sheriff's office and providing context for her presence at the scene after Jeff's call and all of that kind of thing. So the prosecution's gonna say, look, see, she said that she's a Christian and they were going to the sheriff, which is fine. But it's also a little bit disingenuous because you know that she's also been baiting them like there's no.

[B]

Indeed. Yeah.

[A]

This is not a one side thing. It's not. It's just not. It's. Both sides are involved in this. So Jeff's mom testifies here. And she described Jeff being, at this point, bedridden and only able to mutter some words on occasion. Like, she said, quote, I say, I love you, Jeff, and he says, I love you too. That's all he can do. Chad testifies. He's got it. Self defense got to. You claim self defense. You gotta testify.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you gotta be believable. So he describes what he calls 16 months of hell. Late night gunfire, threats, music, bitch stalking me while I build a doghouse, all that shit. He said about September 4, 2015. Yes, he hit Jeff, but only after Jeff threatened him, which to me. Why are you at his job, though? That's the difference. You went to where he works, so you. That's it. If he escalates. It couldn't have escalated if you weren't there.

[B]

You're spoiling for a fight every day.

[A]

Yeah. December 2015. He says he pointed a gun at Mila only after she threatened his life. So a woman threatens him. So he points a gun at her, which is not a no. I'm sorry. Then he said, the morning of the shooting, Jeff blocked the road. Jeff had a gun. He feared for his life. He said he was easing up the road pretty slow. And he said that he was prompting him to attempt to pass, like, go around me, and then he would swerve. So he said, I thought he was letting me around. That's why I hit him. Okay. He also said that he crashed into Oaks because he was trying to get to work on time. And obviously, the best way to get to work on time is to have a car accident on the way. That's how I get there.

[B]

Can't get around him. Go through them.

[A]

You know what I do? I leave the house, and I'm like, I am running late. Cross my fingers for a flat tire this morning so I can get there on time. That makes no sense. He said Jeff was in the middle of the road, and I went to the left to try to get around him. He said that Jeff drew on him first, prompting him to fire six shots at them, by the way. Not five, Six. He emptied that shit. He said he then walked to another neighbor's home, threw the gun on the ground, and asked them for something to drink.

[B]

Y' all got a Coke?

[A]

To which they were like, here you go. I am parched. Let me tell you something. I was arguing for five whole minutes.

[B]

He said it makes your mouth dry.

[A]

Oof. He said, unless you have murder makes you thirsty. Murder. Thirst. That's a good name for this show. That's a good one. Thirst.

[B]

Yeah, I got a thirst only a Coke can murder.

[A]

Only a Coke and five gunshots can.

[B]

Cure Coke and bloodlust can murder.

[A]

That's it. He said on the stand, unless you have someone blocking your driveway trying to kill you, you don't know how it feels.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

On cross examination, they asked him, why didn't you just walk away? Yeah, you could. Just got back, walked away. He said he wasn't going to walk away from his property or the scene of a wreck. She kept asking Him. Why didn't you just remove yourself from the altercation and not engage in the cut with the couple if you were so afraid of him, you could have taken two steps back and called the cops and said, I'm not doing shit till the cops get here. I'll be in my house when they get here. Let me know. He said, I didn't know what else to do. At one point, he got tired of the cross examinations and shouted, I'm done. You're testifying. This is part of it.

[B]

That's all the time you get.

[A]

That's it. I'm done. Done with you now. That's the point of why it's a risk to testify. Because then they get to ask you all sorts of shit on the cross examination.

[B]

It took days, man.

[A]

And then he tried to walk off the stand. He said, I'm done, and just tried to get up and walk away. His attorney stopped him from leaving and said, no, no, no, no, no. And the judge said, we're gonna have a brief recess. This is crazy. You gotta talk to your client.

[B]

I explained testifying to this guy.

[A]

Yeah. So he said, that's how it worked. He said that I saw the gun from him, so I went and got back and got my own gun, and that was that. So he said, I cooperated. I surrendered peacefully, whatever. Not a bad guy. Closing arguments. The prosecutor said the killing of another human being is the most extreme recourse to our inherent right of self preservation and can be justified in law only by the utmost real or apparent necessity. Was it necessary to shoot Mila in the head? Was she a threat? Running away unarmed? Was it necessary to shoot Jeff twice and fire more shots? His defense said he never wanted this to happen. Quote, unquote. They said that the system was failed. He failed. System failed. They said between these two parties, 34, 911 calls, multiple restraining orders. The system failed. He said Jeff Oakes had a gun. Jeff Oakes was violent. Chad acted in a moment of reasonable fear. It's a tragedy. You know, it's not. It's not murder. Not a murder. I knew it was a rule. I didn't know it was a law. So the jury takes multiple days of deliberations. Multiple days. And they.

[B]

Jury of his peers. Means these people are rural too, and they want to murder if somebody's doing this to them.

[A]

That's what I mean. They like gunplay, but at the same time, they're like. But also, I like, you know, fucking harsh sentences. So this is crazy. I'm torn. It's a real conundrum. They find him guilty of second degree murder, guilty of attempted first degree murder of Jeff Ochs, guilty of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury, and guilty of discharging a weapon into occupied property.

[B]

Well, well, well.

[A]

Okay. During sentencing, victim impact, Manuel Effine Ellis takes the stand. Let me tell you about this effing guy right now. He said, I look at you and you look at me and I see evil in your eyes. His sister, I guess the aunt, Jeff's aunt, or Myla's aunt, said, I haven't heard my sister say I love you in two years and nine months. It's Myla's sister. Sorry. Her sister also said, you should be thankful to be alive, to be able to tell your family you love them. I haven't heard my sister say it in that long. Myla's mother said, no parent should have to bury a child. My only solace is that my daughter's legacy will live on through her sons. They go, chad, anything to say for yourself? And this is the point where you say, I'm so remorseful and I never wanted this to happen. And this is just. He goes, nope, I'm good.

[B]

I'm done.

[A]

I'm done. I said, you hear me on the stand? The judge says, quote, how do you claim self defense when you shoot an unarmed woman in the head? You, sir, may fuck off. Here we go. 276 to 344 months for second degree murder. 180 to 228 months for attempted first degree murder. 83 to 112 months for assault with a deadly weapon, and 73 to 100 months for discharging a weapon into occupied property. With all a bunch of these running consecutively, you, sir, may fuck off. 38 to 47 and a half years.

[B]

We're not even gonna add up all those months. We're gonna give you all the time to do that math.

[A]

Just do it. Enjoy. I know you ain't good at it.

[B]

He had 32 offered and he's gonna do 40 fucking years now.

[A]

Yep, that's it. So the public reaction is really mixed, by the way, in the area, one resident said someone who fears for their life attempts to flee. There was no attempts to flee on his part, while another guy shrugged and said, everyone has a breaking point.

[B]

Don't test me.

[A]

The kids now, Jeff and Aiden, are sent to live with relatives, while Jeff is sent to a nursing home after multiple surgeries. He spent the first six months in a Nursing facility. Unable to walk or feed himself or speak sentences with the right side of his body completely paralyzed. December 8, 2021. Jeff D. Dies in a nursing home at 58.

[B]

Oh shit.

[A]

So fucking sad. He lived there for years. His sons would visit him when they could. And they just. He was like. He was like the fucking Metallica one video. He was just, you know, just there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So, Jeff, our Chad remains in prison at the Alexander Correctional Institute in Taylorsville, North Carolina. If you'd like to write to him, he's Robert Bridges. 752038 Alexander C.L. whatever that is. 633 Old Landfill Road. That sounds lovely.

[B]

They just call back when they die in there.

[A]

Good God. Old Landfill Road, Taylorsville, North Carolina. He's eligible for parole when he's 80 for the first time. And if you saw him though, he ain't living in 80. And Myla is buried at the Sunset Cemetery in Shelby, North Carolina. So there you go, everybody. That is Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Some crazy shit going on in the neighborhood real quick was because we're running late here. Shut up and give me murder.com is where you get everything. Get your tickets for live shows. Seattle and Philly you are available. Get those tickets right now. Patreon.com crimeinsports anybody. $5 a month or above ad free episodes, bonus episodes, hundreds of them upon subscription. New ones every other week. And shout out at the end of the show.

[B]

You bet.

[A]

This week, crime and sports, gambling and sports. Since it went legal nationwide and small town murder. It's going to be Bundy helping Green river killer or history of executions. Your choice, let me know. Do that. Keep coming back and seeing us patreon.com crime and sports and you get a shout out at the end of the show. Shut up and give me murder.com if you want to follow us on social media, drop down menus take you anywhere you want to go. Keep coming back and seeing us and until next week everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye Sam.