Bonnie Sue Devoe (6:18)

Okay. And how do you know that they're deceased? I went and looked at them. My Budweiser man was here to drop off an order, and he walked to the dumpster to go dispose of some trash because it's at the back of my Dumpster. And he came in and told me to call 91 1, but he said, if you want to make sure they're not mannequin. And I walk back there and they're not mannequins.

Mike Boudet (6:46)

As Bonnie sue waited for the police to make it out to her desolate food martin, she grew concerned about the customers pulling up.

Bonnie Sue Devoe (6:54)

We're getting units in route while I'm talking to you, okay? Okay. Should I close my store or. Just definitely don't let nobody around the area. Yes. Keep everybody back. I have two dead people. Ma'.

Detective Danny Kitchens (7:10)

Am. Ma'?

Ivan Jackson (7:11)

Am?

Bonnie Sue Devoe (7:12)

Yes? Try not to spread that around, okay? Yes, sir.

Mike Boudet (7:16)

Clearly, this was the most thrilling thing that had happened to Bonnie sue in quite a while. But murder is entertaining, right? Can you blame her?

Bonnie Sue Devoe (7:26)

Could you tell? Are they both male or both female or male and female? Could you tell? I did not get that close because I didn't want to intervene. The crime scene. I know. They appear to be black in color.

Mike Boudet (7:41)

The victim who had been shot in the temple was clear, clearly a female. She was on her back, but her legs were twisted up in the other victim's combat boots, bent in unnatural ways. Her white tank top was blotchy with blood and her blue bra was sticking out. Her eyes were wide open under heavy fake eyelashes.

Bonnie Sue Devoe (8:04)

Okay, but do you see any blood or anything on the ground around them? There's blood. One of the. One of the torsos has a lot of blood around it.

Mike Boudet (8:14)

It was so strange to find a double homicide on the outskirts of Crystal Beach. This unincorporated town was an hour south of Houston at the tip of a peninsula. The nearest police department was Galveston, Texas, which is a ferry ride away. Detective Danny Kitchens was just starting his morning when he got the call about the bodies behind the dumpster.

Detective Danny Kitchens (8:38)

About 7:45 I heard the call come out on the radio, the police radio normally, and I was to go on call that day, that Friday, but it did start till 8 o', clock, so I hadn't made it to the office yet. I picked up my phone, called dispatch and told him, I said just go ahead and show me en route to this call. Well, where our office is located is on Galveston island. And in order to get to the location where the bodies were discovered, you have to take a ferry across. It was about a 20, 30 minute ride over there. Of course, by the time I get to the ferry, several more to Texas also showed up at the same time. And we get off the ferry on the other side. The first location that you come to is this store. It's probably a mile, mile and a half away from the Port Bolivar ferry. It's on the Bolivar Peninsula.

Mike Boudet (9:22)

A fleet of cops and detectives descended off the ferry boat and into the sleepy beach town in a parade of sirens.

Detective Danny Kitchens (9:30)

We pull up the store. The store is still an active store, but behind it is an abandoned hotel. And you can see that, you know, it's all trash. It's all been painted on, almost all the doors gone off of every room. But there's a dumpster sitting in front of the hotel there and the two bodies are found laying outside of it. One of them had a sheet wrapped around his head so you couldn't tell the identity. And the other one just kind of lay in there and lots of debris laying about to like window shutters and trim off of a house along with mail and some kids toys.

Mike Boudet (10:02)

Detective Kitchens was staring down into a Tangled mess. His career as a lead detective had just been kick started behind the seedy hotel.

Detective Danny Kitchens (10:13)

And this is, while I'm here, my first murder case that I'm lead on working as a detective for Galveston county since who done it? It was more or less I was thrown in the deep end of the ocean and told to swim.

Mike Boudet (10:25)

Detective Kitchen started in law enforcement to become a detective. This is what he wanted to do. He wanted to solve crimes. And he had a huge mystery lying right in front of him. So he jumped into the deep end and started swimming. When Detective Kitchens removed the sheet covering what they initially assumed was a male victim, they realized it was actually a woman. They had two bodies, both young, black and female. Neither had any identity on them.

Detective Danny Kitchens (10:56)

We kind of looked around and, you know, we noticed that the one had her head wrapped up in the sheet. And the first thing I'm thinking of is whoever done this is embarrassed or doesn't want to look at the damage that he's done. It's the whole purpose in her head being wrapped up in that sheet.

Mike Boudet (11:10)

Trash was all around the bodies, but one thing stood out like a sore thumb. A piece of mail addressed to a woman named Brittany Cosby. The address on the envelope said Houston. Houston, Texas. That is. Hey, that's where I'm at. Great place if you like tacos and oil. Anyway, amongst the soda bottles and random dirty socks, this envelope could mean something. It made as much sense being there as the women's bodies did. So Detective Kitchens followed his first clue.

Detective Danny Kitchens (11:45)

We followed the mail back to the residence. When we first looked at the house, there was white and green shutter on the front of the house which matched a white and green shutter that we found at the scene. Of course, keeping in mind we don't know where the homicide actually took place at. All we know is where they were dumped, and we know that where it originated from had to be that house with that shutter in the back. That's when I approached. The resident at the house happened to be a 92 year old great grandmother of Brittany Cosby, who was able to positively identify both of them for us.

Mike Boudet (12:20)

Annie Lee Cosby was Brittany's great grandmother. She was a 92 year old amputee, bound to her wheelchair and very hard of hearing. Annie Lee identified Brittany as the victim in the men's clothing. And he said the other victim was Brittany's girlfriend, Crystal Jackson.

Detective Danny Kitchens (12:41)

Brittany and Crystal were girlfriends to each other. Both of them carried on a lesbian relationship. They were about 24 years old. Brittany had just gotten a good job and Crystal had to. Both of them were working and recently bought a new car. They lived together there at the house. Crystal had a young daughter, about 5 years of age. Crystal's father is a preacher who was very much against the lifestyle that Crystal and Britney lived.

Mike Boudet (13:07)

Due to Crystal's family not approving of her lesbian relationship, the two lived with Britney's grandmother, Annie Lee. Annie Lee had a home care nurse but needed help constantly, so the girls took care of her. After all, Annie Lee had raised Brittany from a child. Since her mother left the picture and her father had been in and out of prison, life had settled down quite nicely for Brittany and Crystal, who were working steady jobs and saving up to get their own place one day. But Crystal's father was a Baptist preacher and that comes with a whole lot of religious baggage because he had no tolerance for their lesbian lifestyle. The murder felt personal. Crystal had been shot in the head and Brittany had been beaten to death with a blunt force object and then covered with a sheet. They had been dumped far, far away. Like whoever did this wanted to make the whole thing disappear like sand under the waves of the ocean. So they started with Crystal's father, Ivan Jackson.

Detective Danny Kitchens (14:15)

Of course, that's where our first thoughts went to, was to Ivan, knowing that he was completely against their relationship. So later on that day, I was able to make contact with him and speak with him. And I noticed that when I told him that, it appeared to be a shock, you know, of what had happened, but he. It's almost like he knew. He kept telling me that I knew something bad had happened. I told her this, something like this was going to happen. So, I mean, first thing we do is start looking at him.

Mike Boudet (14:41)

Brittany and Crystal had been surrounded by a lot of love, but Ivan's judgment was the shadow in their lives. I don't know why people have to be such dicks, you know, just live your life. Who gives a shit? It's people like this that ruin things for everyone, really. But whatever. Her father, Ivan Jackson, was rigid and certain his way was the only way. Could a man who preached family and forgiveness actually spill his own blood? Or could this be a case of the most obvious suspect being the wrong one entirely. In the desolate beach town of Port Bolivar, two dead women had been found outside of a dumpster behind a convenience store. The victims, Brittany Cosby and Crystal Jackson, were both 24 years old and starting their lives as a couple. A lesbian couple again. Nothing wrong with that. If you think there's something wrong with that, there's something wrong with you. Get over it. Anyway, they lived with Britney's great grandmother in a small brick house in Houston. Lovely city, except for all the oil wells everywhere. Also, you ever heard of zoning? Anyway, Crystal's father, Ivan Jackson, was really against their relationship. He was not a happy camper. This was his daughter who he loved, and she was with a woman. A woman who dressed up like a man and wore pants too low. What's up with that? In fact, he didn't really converse with Brittany all that much, and he didn't allow her into his family home.

Ivan Jackson (16:51)

Every time I saw her, she. I would come to the door, and she would always have her pants off, hanging off. So I'd make her stay outside.

Detective Danny Kitchens (16:59)

In a case like this, it's not more or less saying he's the one that done it, but to rule him out. You know, if this is not the right person, I want to rule him out. But since his feelings towards the relationship those had. We kind of zeroed in on that point, thinking, is this a motive?

Crystal Jackson (17:12)

You know, tell us a little bit about your daughter.

Mike Boudet (17:18)

Just tell us about it.

Ivan Jackson (17:21)

Well, Crystal was quiet. She was smart. She finished high school, she finished college. So she had a good education. She was just quiet. Didn't have another enemy in the world. Everybody in the neighborhood loved her. Everywhere she went, church members was a daughter. They've been knowing her since she was born into the world. And she knew she had some loving parents. So that's why she would leave the baby with us all the time, because she knew we wasn't gonna let anything happen to the baby.

Mike Boudet (17:52)

Crystal had a daughter from a previous relationship named Zaniyah. The child's father was absent and ran from his child support payments. So Crystal was raising Zaniyah alone with the help of her parents. Then she met Brittany and fell in love. But like all couples, sometimes they fought. And Ivan told the police that about a year ago, one incident steered the course of their relationship into a new direction.

Ivan Jackson (18:20)

Well, matter of fact, on one instance, about maybe a year ago, Brittany put Crystal and the baby out and in the cold. So when I got out of church, Crystal was calling me and asked me to come over there on Altra to pick her up.

Mike Boudet (18:39)

Ivan picked up Crystal and Zaniyah. He was angry that things had gotten so out of hand, especially in front of the baby.

Ivan Jackson (18:48)

And I told her, I say I'm coming pick you up, but that baby ain't going back with you, so you might as well just stay here with your daughter. Okay? About two weeks later, Crystal was back over there. So I made it my decision. I asked my. I didn't even talk to my wife about it. I say I'm going to get my grandbaby.

Mike Boudet (19:10)

And she coming home, Ivan put his foot down. Since that day, Zaniyah had lived with Ivan and his wife Crystal. And Brittany would take care of her regularly, but her home base was Ivan's house. According to him, Zaniyah didn't even like going to Brittany's house.

Ivan Jackson (19:28)

I would have one of my church members to pick her up and take her over to Brittany and them house. And it got so bad till that my grandbaby didn't want to go over there no more. So. And she told me that I feel sorry because that baby cries when she get out of my car because she know I'm taking her over there. So that's when I made my decision. Decision to go over there and get that baby out of that situation that she was in.

Mike Boudet (19:53)

But despite the tension between Ivan, Britney and Crystal, it became clear that Ivan truly loved his daughter. He wouldn't hurt her. And even though he didn't approve of Britney, he saw how happy she made Crystal.

Detective Danny Kitchens (20:08)

Who would you say would be.

Crystal Jackson (20:09)

Crystal's one of her best friends, Brittany.

Detective Danny Kitchens (20:13)

Besides Brittany, did she have another who.

Crystal Jackson (20:15)

Was she really close to?

Ivan Jackson (20:17)

Brittany?

Mike Boudet (20:18)

Does she have any close male friends?

Ivan Jackson (20:21)

No. Crystal was crazy about Brittney. Even though, like I told you, I didn't, I didn't never condone them being together. I. I didn't like her changing her sexual orientation, but it wasn't nothing I could do because she, she was grown.

Detective Danny Kitchens (20:41)

Throughout the whole process with him, he's just been on the straight and narrow the entire time. There was nothing that really, really made me look at him any harder because I felt like we were looking at the wrong person when it came to him, simply by his personality. And I could tell that when we did talk to him, he appeared to be genuinely heartbroken over the loss of his daughter.

Ivan Jackson (20:59)

I love my daughter. It's hard. And I tried to bring her up the right way, but somewhere off the line, she went to left field.

Detective Danny Kitchens (21:10)

After we ruled out the preacher, we didn't know which direction to go at that time. We started to look at maybe ex boyfriends, a jealous lover somewhere. We had nowhere to go. We didn't know which way to turn.

Mike Boudet (21:24)

Detective Kitchens and the Galveston team went back to the drawing board and started canvassing anyone connected to Brittany and Crystal.

Detective Danny Kitchens (21:32)

We start talking to everybody, find out who the little girl's daddy is. We find go to Crystal's job. You Know things of that nature and just speak with everybody she worked with, speak with people around them, try to find out if there's anybody angry at them, Was something going on we don't know about. And we kept hitting a dead end. We never could get to anything to solidify, but started leaning back towards Brittany because Brittany's head was the one that was covered up with the sheet.

Mike Boudet (21:57)

They were at a loss. Brittany and Crystal's vehicle had not been found yet either. How did these two women who basically kept to themselves end up brutally killed and left behind a dumpster in a far off peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico, or, sorry, Gulf of America. This attack was not random. Someone who knew them did this. As detective Kitchens wondered if the rest of the investigation would be a series of hopeless dead ends, the forensic team made a bone chilling discovery, if you recall, at the dumpster where the bodies were found. Detective Kitchens had not only discovered that piece of mail with Brittany's name on it, but also a green shutter that had been precariously placed on the abandoned hotel.

Detective Danny Kitchens (22:49)

This shutter was leaned up against the abandoned hotel wall, but in between the wall and the shutter itself was a piece of paper, Almost like he used it like a glove to pick the shutter up to set it down, to keep his prints from being on the shutter.

Mike Boudet (23:03)

This piece of paper had been analyzed by forensics along with every other piece of random trash at the crime scene. The detectives were leaving no stones unturned.

Detective Danny Kitchens (23:14)

Well, the print was actually on the paper. Probably not knowing we could lift that print off the paper. And since he wasn't using a glove or anything else, you know, his fingerprint was right there. So when I found out about this print, one of my partners and I were on our way to Houston talking to somebody else that might know something about. Turns out that was a dead end, too. But the forensic man called me. He said, who is James Cosby? Because he don't know who the players are at this time. All he knows is the evidence. I said, well, James Cosby is the father of Brittany Cosby. I said, why? He tells me, because we lifted his print off that piece of paper that was holding the shutter. So about that time, I tell my partner, on our way to Houston, I said, as soon as we get finished with this interview, we need to go back to the residence.

Mike Boudet (23:55)

Brittany's father, James Cosby, had recently moved back into Annie Lee's house after being released from jail. He was tall, slender, and very calm when he returned to Annie's house after the detectives told him his daughter had been killed. He was shocked.

James Cosby (24:12)

What's going on?

Detective Danny Kitchens (24:13)

Are you the father's daddy?

Mike Boudet (24:15)

Yeah, I kind of. Kind of give him a little bit. Sit down, though. Please sit down.

Detective Danny Kitchens (24:19)

You just haven't seen.

Paul Love (24:27)

What happened.

Detective Danny Kitchens (24:28)

That's what we're trying to find out.

Mike Boudet (24:31)

They were found on the Baltimore peninsula. James sat down at the kitchen table next to Annie Lee, put his head in his hands, and cried. James, I know we're hitting you with a lot. Take a minute, but we're gonna really need to talk to you so you can help us, so we can find out who did this.

Detective Danny Kitchens (24:47)

You grieve all you need to grieve.

Crystal Jackson (24:49)

We understand what happens.

Mike Boudet (24:51)

What happened.

Detective Danny Kitchens (24:52)

What happened. That's what we need your help with. That's what we need to help you.

Mike Boudet (24:55)

Detective Kitchens and his partner hadn't thought much about James after that day. He acted like a grieving father, and he was visibly shaken up. But now, with the news of this fingerprint, they had to take a closer look at him. They would start at Annie's house, where the shutter had come from.

Detective Danny Kitchens (25:16)

So we do go back over there. That time we get there, one of the cousins is there taking care of grandma. So we speak with her outside the house. I'm going to draw you a picture of. The house is a small brick house. The garage has been converted into a den, which is where James Cosby was staying. He had it almost set up like a prison cell. Had a sheet that separated the room. Just. Everything was just set up like it would have been if he was still in prison. On the side of the house is a carport with a wheelchair ramp. Well, grandma sits in a wheelchair since she's had one leg amputated, so that's where she would go in and out at. So whenever we pull the lady outside to talk to her about what she may know or what ideas she may have, she looks around the carport and tells us, something's wrong out here. And my partner says, what is that? She said, well, it's clean. It's never clean out here. They don't lift a finger to do anything. But at that time, I go around, and I look by the. The wheelchair ramp, and I noticed it the other day, but didn't think much about it. There's four bricks sitting at the end of the wheelchair ramp, kind of off to the side. And I thought, well, this is a little bit odd. Let me. Let me just take a look. So I kicked the bricks out of the way, and I see about four drops of blood right there underneath it.

Mike Boudet (26:27)

Another bloody piece of the puzzle was staring Detective Kitchens right in the face under those loose bricks.

Detective Danny Kitchens (26:34)

Called my partner over. I said, look at this. And he starts looking up that ramp and closer to the door.

Bonnie Sue Devoe (26:38)

Door.

Detective Danny Kitchens (26:39)

We see small blood smudges that we had not seen before because we didn't know where the crime scene was. Well, fortunately, I'd done a search warrant on the house just in case. And I called my forensic partner. I said, you guys need to get over here. You need to get over here now. He said, why? I said, because we're standing in the crime scene.

Mike Boudet (26:57)

The forensic team rushed over and started executing a search warrant. They started in James's makeshift bedroom in the den.

Detective Danny Kitchens (27:06)

When we went into the den, which is more or less his bedroom, this is where we see a broken lamp. We start looking closer at everything since we found the blood drops, and we start seeing blood drops on the floor. Not only that, we see where he has taken rugs and put over the blood stains on the carpet. And it has seeped through the blood had. So there was blood all over his bedroom.

Mike Boudet (27:30)

The room was ramshackled. But his things were neat, like Detective Kitchens said. He organized his belongings like he would have in prison. He had just been released a few weeks prior. He was serving time for a warrant. He ran from. He had a Bible on the table and a copy of the Quran next to his neat row of sneakers like a good little criminal.

Detective Danny Kitchens (27:54)

We spent several hours over there. We find out later that night that he's at a vigilante for the death of his daughter. And I think he's even interviewed on television. You know about his feelings on that case? Well, since we have found this, I tell two of my partners, I said, hey, go pick him up. We need to convince him to come to Galveston and talk to us, let him know we found more information. He didn't realize it was going to wind up being an interrogation at the time.

Mike Boudet (28:19)

James walked into the Galveston police station still dressed from the vigilant, his Kangol hat, black jacket. The whole look was that of a middle aged man trying a little too hard. It's kind of the look I go for. But Detective Kitchens and his partner weren't fooled. He had to be their guy. The blood evidence from the room was like the secrets of the shoreline at low tide. Dark red circles of blood settled into the dirty carpet like forgotten tide pools. Now they just needed to make James break.

Detective Danny Kitchens (28:57)

I have to before I interview anybody or go over anything with you.

James Cosby (29:00)

I didn't watch enough TV shows, know that they Say Miranda rights. That means you under arrest.

Detective Danny Kitchens (29:05)

No, it doesn't mean you're under arrest. It sure don't.

Crystal Jackson (29:08)

All it is, you've been given your rights.

James Cosby (29:10)

That's all I see on Perry Mason.

Detective Danny Kitchens (29:12)

Yeah, that's. Believe me, TV is a bunch of crap.

Mike Boudet (29:16)

James waived his right and agreed to talk.

Crystal Jackson (29:19)

What was your relationship? Tell us about your nature of your relationship with your daughter.

James Cosby (29:24)

She was my daughter.

Crystal Jackson (29:26)

No, but I mean, you know, stuff together.

James Cosby (29:29)

Oh, yeah. I didn't have. We didn't have a traditional father daughter relationship. For a long period of her life. I was not around.

Ivan Jackson (29:43)

She was five.

James Cosby (29:45)

She was five when I left. She was 15 when I came home. So during those years, I kind of, you know, I missed those years. Came home in 04, started working at the waterfront. Me and her and Granny stayed at the house together. We had a. I actually talked to Britney one time. I told her, I said, you know, I failed you as a father. I should have been here. A lot of things that you're going through, not really all your fault. I look at it like it's my fault.

Mike Boudet (30:15)

James wasn't a good father to Brittany. He was in prison for most of her young life, and they never developed a bond. Then he got out and wanted to play dad. All of a sudden, and there's a teenage girl all grown up with a butch lesbian girlfriend. James had a hard time accepting this. Clearly he thought that fathering just kind of happens on its own. And he wasn't happy with the fathering that had been going on in his absence.

James Cosby (30:46)

It was either accept that or don't have your daughter at all.

Detective Danny Kitchens (30:49)

Right.

James Cosby (30:50)

So, you know, it kind of grew on me.

Mike Boudet (30:52)

So you worked through it?

James Cosby (30:53)

Yeah, she's my daughter.

Crystal Jackson (30:54)

So, you know, what do you think happened to your daughter?

James Cosby (30:58)

The best scenario that I've heard was the morning that they left, that maybe they went to the convenience or whatever. Like I said, that's not out of the ordinary for her to do that. Run to the store, grab a Coke or grab a cigarillo or whatever she grabbed and come right back. Now, that's normal.

Mike Boudet (31:22)

James had told police that on the morning Brittany and Crystal disappeared, they were ready to drop Zinaya off at school and then head back to work. But first, Brittany and Crystal needed to run to the store. They got in the car and never came back. But Detective Kitchens and his partner had evidence. They had all the blood that was all over his bedroom and the carport. They knew that Brittany and Crystal had been killed in that house. More importantly, they had James Fingerprint on a piece of paper ditched beside the shutter.

Crystal Jackson (31:55)

Did some of that wood and that blind, fake little blind that was up on the front of that house, that's been off that house for a long time, obviously wind up with those girls bodies. I cannot grasp. How on Jesus Christ earth can that happen? Okay, Kimmy, your. What's your thoughts now?

James Cosby (32:18)

I can't make.

Crystal Jackson (32:20)

Oh, I can't either. I can't either. There's other stuff that was there with those two girls. Remains that came from that house Wednesday night.

Detective Danny Kitchens (32:32)

That wood was not in that vehicle.

James Cosby (32:35)

Okay, how do we know that?

Mike Boudet (32:37)

Because another witness, James, sat in that cold, gray interrogation room for five and a half hours. Detective Kitchens and his lieutenant pressed him about the blood, the shutter and the fingerprints. They told him that they knew he had done this. They shoved gruesome photos of Brittany's body lying on the concrete, her head cracked open, her eyes black. They showed him close up prints of Crystal's face and the gaping gunshot hole in her head. James just took his time and stayed calm, not revealing anything.

Crystal Jackson (33:18)

They left alive. They died in that room. They left that day, that morning. We all agree about 8:30, right? Okay. And then sometime after that, they died and were killed in your room. Something fucking happened in there. Something happened with them. And you got in the middle of it here. What happened?

James Cosby (33:42)

No, I don't get in the middle of date tips.

Crystal Jackson (33:44)

Well, then you got into something with them or with. Something happened here to the point to where I would. No, I don't know.

James Cosby (33:52)

I'm telling you no. I'm telling you, no.

Detective Danny Kitchens (33:54)

The biggest sign that I know of that he felt like he was getting defeated is when he would start to put his elbows on his knees and drop his head. That's usually a good sign that they're on the edge or they're on the verge. But he would be there for a minute and then he would lean back and sit straight up and cross his arms again. And that's when I knew we were fixing to have to start all over. I know you did this. You know you did this. Lieutenant knows you did this. The whole world's fixing to find out you did this.

Crystal Jackson (34:24)

And you gotta make all of them suffer, not explaining why you did it.

Detective Danny Kitchens (34:27)

But it's up to you how it's presented.

Crystal Jackson (34:29)

Do you just think that we're all ignorant? Do you really think that, that prosecutors, even juries, are just so ignorant that they're gonna fall for your bullshit and your lack of remorse and putting your family through this? You think they're not gonna see that, James. Do you think they're not gonna see that? Yeah, they're gonna see it.

Detective Danny Kitchens (34:52)

Had we interviewed the little girl before we spoke with him, I would have had a better timeline. We were close to getting him to crack, but my timeline was off and he knew it.

Mike Boudet (35:02)

They had made one big mistake. The detectives thought that the suspect had murdered Brittany and Crystal in the evening the day before they were found. They were certain until they talked to Crystal's daughter, Zaniyah.

Detective Danny Kitchens (35:16)

Mama had put her in the vehicle getting ready to take her to school for that day and had gone back inside the house. Now, I can't quote everything she said, but the main things was that she told me that she could hear the bad guy behind her and she could hear a taser or what she called was a laser.

Mike Boudet (35:35)

Amongst Brittany's belongings in the house. They found her Michael Jordan backpack with her laptop and taser gun in it. Zaniyah said she heard the laser. She sat in the car seat, buckled in and ready to go. But neither Crystal nor Brittany came back to the car. Eventually, she freed herself and walked inside.

Detective Danny Kitchens (35:56)

She actually got out of the car on her own and went back inside into the living room and asked where her mama was, her mom, and Crystal and James told her that they walked to work, that they just left and walked to work. So she stayed with that grandmother all day until the other grandparents came and picked her up.

Mike Boudet (36:14)

Had detective Kitchens known this before interrogating James, he might have been able to crack him. But James was a seasoned criminal. He spent his entire adult life behind bars. He was not a normal person. The people behind bars, you don't want them walking around in your neighborhood. Trust me on that.

Detective Danny Kitchens (36:34)

You know, even after he's arrested, we're still investigating and we're still gathering details about him. I had found out, you know, he's had a pretty extensive criminal history. Pretty much lived his entire life behind bars from his ag assaults, sexual assaults, you know, the fights he had with his ex wife, the whole nine yards. One of the things that. One of the reports I read where he was arrested in Houston for aggravated assault for assaulting his ex wife, when she described what she had experienced with him going through that assault was exactly the picture that was painted in this homicide.

Mike Boudet (37:11)

The beating that James had given his ex wife was the reason he had served Brittany's whole childhood in prison.

Detective Danny Kitchens (37:19)

She said that, you know, ordinarily he's just a calm natured person and then would just flip out and go crazy. As a matter of fact, I think I remember her stating in the report she called him the devil or Satan. It was like he was the devil or Satan just beating on her.

Mike Boudet (37:34)

They talked to his girlfriend who had been with him the entire morning on the day prior to the bodies being discovered. While James and his girlfriend had been driving around Houston, they got into an altercation with her ex husband on the road. James called 91 1.

Bonnie Sue Devoe (37:57)

So you need police?

Detective Danny Kitchens (37:59)

Yes, the police. For what city? Houston says Ernest. What's the location where the officers needed?

Mike Boudet (38:04)

James's girlfriend gave a full rundown of that day. She said that on the morning of the murders, she saw James driving in Brittany's car towards a desolate road in Houston. She just happened to be passing by, so she pulled a U turn and followed him. Detective Kitchens thinks this was the original place he planned to dump the bodies. But he was caught by his girlfriend as they tried to leave. Her car got stuck in the mud. So she joined him in Brittany's car. He drove her back to the place she was staying, and that's when he reevaluated his plan. He decided to catch a ferry that evening to Port Bolivar. He went back to the house and loaded up on all the pieces of evidence he assumed would have blood or DNA on them. Then he put Brittany in the trunk as well.

Detective Danny Kitchens (38:57)

When the bodies were out, Crystal was on top of Brittany at the dump site. And all the blood that was on Crystal actually belonged to Brittan.

Mike Boudet (39:05)

James waited for the dark, then he took off to Port Bolivar. Surveillance footage confirmed this was all in line with their theory.

Detective Danny Kitchens (39:15)

We could show and prove that he was the one that moved the bodies. So we could still get a first degree felony tampering with evidence, which is altering the courts. Two counts of it, with both of them being a $250,000 fine or bond each.

Mike Boudet (39:29)

James stuck to his story and claimed he was innocent. He would sit in jail as they continued their investigation. Then they found Brittany in Crystal's car.

Detective Danny Kitchens (39:39)

It had been abandoned at a strip club in Houston. And we found that on April 17, so we were able to bring that back. We processed the vehicle which had his DNA in it, and we knew he was never allowed to drive that vehicle. And the bullet was embedded in the back seat of that vehicle. It had hit a piece of metal on the frame and it stopped right there. Also, that bullet had a piece of synthetic hair on it, which was same stuff that Crystal had been wearing in her hair.

Mike Boudet (40:11)

And once again, they did the autopsy. They connected even more physical evidence back to James's bedroom.

Detective Danny Kitchens (40:19)

What's really interesting about that room as well is once we did pull back the sheet and start looking at other items around that room, there was another sheet there that actually matched what was wrapped around Brittany's head. And my forensic guy started running the numbers on it and found out that that was a match to the sheet we actually found. Not only that, during the autopsy, we found royal blue fibers in her hair and on her face. Well, there's also a blanket there with this royal blue. It's almost like a. Not a fleece type, but a kind of a loose type blanket. And it had those same royal fibers on it.

Mike Boudet (41:02)

With all this new evidence, they could officially charge James with double capital murder. But the question of how and why still remained. Brittany's murder was so savage, the first blow to her head broke her neck.

Detective Danny Kitchens (41:20)

There's a very clear mark, an indention in her head where he used a blunt force object and hit her. And it actually separated the suture in her skull.

Mike Boudet (41:28)

When that happened, James wasn't giving them anything. No confession, no motive, no murder weapon, not a single witness. Just silence. All they had was forensic evidence and theories. Pieces of the story he refused to tell. But was it enough to finally put James Cosby back behind bars? This time for life? Either way, the world would soon learn what happened that morning, even if James never spoke a word. Brittany Cosby and Corey Crystal Jackson were found brutally murdered and dumped by an abandoned hotel in Port Bolivar. Detective Kitchens and his team at the Galveston police Department had followed the haphazard clues to nail down Britney's criminal father, James Cosby, as the culprit. But when they brought James in, he didn't crack. After five hours of intense interrogation. The guy was a machine.

Detective Danny Kitchens (43:00)

My partner that was helping me with the interrogation, he'd been in line enforcement for over 40 plus years. And he told me he is probably one of the most psychotic people he's ever met.

Crystal Jackson (43:10)

What would they do to anybody to kill him in your room? Your grandma didn't do it, the 5 year old didn't do it.

Detective Danny Kitchens (43:18)

And you just admitted that you were home.

Crystal Jackson (43:22)

So the only other person in that house in your room is you.

Paul Love (43:29)

Yes.

Detective Danny Kitchens (43:29)

You know what I would do? If it was my daughter, what do you think I'd be doing?

James Cosby (43:33)

You would probably call and call and call.

Detective Danny Kitchens (43:34)

No, I'd be burning the streets up looking for my daughter.

James Cosby (43:37)

Okay. I understand that my relationship with Brittany might just be a little bit different from yours.

Detective Danny Kitchens (43:43)

I would say so, yes.

Mike Boudet (43:45)

But blood, fingerprints, and other forensic evidence told them that he was the one who did it. You see, as the great Dr. House once said, liars lie. Duh. Still, the only people in the house on the day of the murder were Crystal's five year old daughter, Zaniyah, and matriarch Annie Lee Cosby. Annie Lee refused to believe that her grandson James did this under her nose.

Detective Danny Kitchens (44:15)

And then even when we told her what we found in there, she won't deny every bit of it she wanted to take up for him. She said that was Brittany's menstrual cycle tonight. That's impossible.

Mike Boudet (44:25)

With James in jail, the case was taken to the state attorney's office, and that's when prosecutor Paul Love became involved. Paul's been a lawyer for almost 20 years and has worked for both the prosecution and defense.

Paul Love (44:40)

So at the time that this case came about, I was the chief Prosecutor in the 212 district court, and. And my bureau chief at the time was Bill Reed. So Bill Reed was the lead prosecutor on the case. And because I was the chief prosecutor in that particular court, he had asked that I sit with him and assist him on prosecuting a capital murder case. So that's kind of how I got tagged in.

Mike Boudet (45:06)

James had a criminal record as long as the Texas shoreline, and that's pretty long, but it would not be mentioned at trial. Paul had to work with what Detective Kitchens had given him. And though it was a lot, it was only circumstantial.

Paul Love (45:23)

This is the ultimate piecing a puzzle together. What I do is I read the entire case and I try to tap into what is it that I feel when I first read a case, when I first. I first look at a case, what. What human emotion comes out of me, because that's what I'm gonna have to relate to people in that jury box. So when I first read this case, it is why. Why would a father beat his daughter and kill his daughter in such a brutal fashion? Like, there's just no explanation. So I just knew when I read that it's just like, it makes no sense that, you know, people are gonna question, like, how could a father do that? You know, and we don't have to prove motive, you know, as part of our case in Texas is a criminal case. But still, there's a lingering question. So I knew that that was gonna be the number one question, so. Because that's what I thought.

Mike Boudet (46:26)

But like Paul said, the prosecution did not have to prove motive. They just had to cover all their bases.

Paul Love (46:33)

I am trying to make sure all our circumstantial evidence lines up to show that there is no other person who could have committed this crime other than James Cosby.

Mike Boudet (46:47)

The defense argued that without motive, a confession, or a witness, there was reasonable doubt as to James's guilt. James maintained his innocence, and his lawyers argued that not only was James the wrong guy, but no one could prove that Crystal and Brittany died at the same time. And it's true, they couldn't. Even though the state's evidence was a messy puzzle, they had put the pieces.

Paul Love (47:14)

In place when this case originally occurred. So you had the FBI working on the case because they thought it was a hate crime. And so they used federal resources to kind of assist in the investigation.

Mike Boudet (47:30)

The FBI specialists worked with Detective Kitchens to ensure that James phone followed a strict and narrow path that matched the surveillance footage.

Paul Love (47:39)

So what he was able to do is use that cell phone number, and he traced the route from Houston to Bolivar, and he was also logging the cell phone towers that were pinging off that number as he's driving that route.

Detective Danny Kitchens (48:01)

One of the things we also did is after we got that cell phone report, my partner and I went at the same time of night and ran that exact route key and entered our dispatch entire time. Once we got to certain points and we were able to get down there, you know, imitate dumping bodies and get back all at the same timeline as.

Paul Love (48:24)

What he had, it's as easy for defense to say, oh, anybody could have had his cell phone and driven that route. Well, remember now, we're looking at 7am to 9pm time period. So when James Cosby is coming back towards Houston, he meets up with his girlfriend. She happens to have a crazy ex husband, and he's following them, and he tries to ram the vehicle. James Cosby calls 911. So now we have another time locked in of him making a 911 call with his cell phone. So it rules out the possibility that anybody else could have handled his phone during that time period.

Mike Boudet (49:12)

Paul Love says that call was the nail in his coffin. As far as the cell phone forensics.

Paul Love (49:18)

Go, you're listening to this and you're thinking, what are you doing? You know, you of all people just got back from dumping two bodies, and you're going to call the police. From the prosecutor standpoint, I'm thinking, thank you. But if you just kind of step back, you're like, what the hell were you thinking? Like, that just makes no sense. You know, you've just now created more evidence against yourself.

Mike Boudet (49:44)

As slick as James was, there were many things he did during his cover up that the state just Couldn't wrap their heads around. Like the shutter, that lone piece of shutter. A clear, missing piece off Annie Lee's house. Why did James leave it against the hotel wall fully intact? Why didn't he just throw it off the ferry into the sea, never to be seen again? Was he trying to leave a message or something? Or better yet, why not dump it? Wherever he dumped the gun that he used to kill Crystal or the weapon he used to break his daughter's neck, he obviously hid those weapons well because we don't know where they are. But the shutter. This shutter was the key. And James had just left it right there, right for the world to see and the police to find.

Detective Danny Kitchens (50:36)

But as far as him leaving it there, the way he did that, being the only piece that was left up against the wall, is kind of crazy. I can't wrap my head around why he would do that unless he eventually wanted to get caught.

Mike Boudet (50:47)

The trial opened in the summer of 2016. Paul Love had pored over every case detail dedicating his life to getting justice for Brittany and Crystal. The case had exploded in Houston, drawing intense media coverage, but Paul kept his focus. This was for the girls, to make sure their lives hadn't ended in silence. He had to speak for them.

Paul Love (51:15)

So you just never know. You just never know how a jury's going to receive your. The evidence and how they're going to receive your presentation of the case. So there's a lot of pressure as trial prosecutors that we put on ourselves, but there's a lot of pressure because you're accountable to family. This case has garnered a lot of media attention, so the courtroom is packed nearly every day, so everybody's watching. There is never a moment when in particularly in a circumstantial evidence case, there is never a moment when you feel as though we got it.

Mike Boudet (51:48)

The prosecution laid out the evidence piece by piece, driving home the sheer brutality of Brittany's death. Detective Kitchens was unraveling. This was his first lead homicide case, and he'd grown close to Crystal's family. He wanted nothing more than to give them closure. He found himself replaying every moment from the interrogation room with James, wondering if he'd missed something crucial. Even today, he still views that interview with more clarity.

Detective Danny Kitchens (52:21)

The unique thing about it is now knowing what I know now and the experience I have now, when I go back and I watch that video over again, he was telling me he'd done it, and I just didn't catch on to it, you know, especially when we start entering in how a father could do that to their daughter. And he says, well, you have a different relationship with your daughter than I have with mine. And right there, he told me he'd done it, and I never picked up on it.

Mike Boudet (52:44)

After a week of testimony and 290 pieces of evidence, the state rested, the jury returned to deliberation, and stayed there for three hours.

Paul Love (52:56)

In that three hours, you're questioning every decision that you've made throughout the case, because you're thinking, maybe if I would ask this question, or maybe if I didn't ask that question, or maybe if we would have put that witness on. So going into three hours of deliberation, and we understand it's a lot of evidence to kind of sort through. But as prosecutors waiting for the verdict, that's probably the most difficult time of a trial because you have no control. All in the hands of 12 people. And now you sit there, sit back, and question all your decisions.

Mike Boudet (53:33)

Then the jury came back. Guilty.

Paul Love (53:37)

Did they say guilty? They said guilty. They did say guilty. Okay, now you can finally breathe and like, wow, you know, we did it.

Detective Danny Kitchens (53:48)

But I think the biggest emotional time for me at that point was when the verdict was read, because I won't lie. I broke down in tears when the verdict was read. It was very emotional for me, and I knew we had to get it right. If there's going to be any justice for these girls, we had to get it right.

Mike Boudet (54:03)

James Cosby would be sentenced for the double capital murders of Brittany and Crystal. He would receive life without parole. But that question of how and why was still hanging in the air. Paul Love and Detective Kitchens have their theories.

Paul Love (54:21)

Brittany, I'm gonna say, is the head of the household. And now he's coming back, and he wants to be the head of a household. Like, he wants to make the decisions. He doesn't want to share that co leadership in that house. So I believe that there was some conflict in egos.

Detective Danny Kitchens (54:39)

Brittney was pretty well running the show there at the house. And then here he comes. He's stepping in, probably wanting to take over. And it just didn't sit well with either one of them. We know that an argument broke out between them. You know, she had a great job. They were going out to eat every night. Her and Crystal, they had two bedrooms in the house that were theirs. One more or less a closet for them. The other one they slept in. And he's reduced down to eating bologna sandwiches, no job, and having to live in the den. And I think there was a lot of jealousy involved, like you said, with the Way her life was going.

Mike Boudet (55:10)

That morning, an unexpected fight started in James's bedroom between him and Brittany.

Detective Danny Kitchens (55:16)

She probably did stand up to him, and I think he just blew a gasket.

Mike Boudet (55:21)

Emasculated by his young daughter, James snapped. In an instant, that same demonic rage his ex wife had feared came roaring back. Only this time, it turned on his own flesh and blood. The monster was unleashed.

Paul Love (55:38)

To me, this was a rage killing because you also look at how he beat her. He didn't just kill her. I mean, he beat her.

Detective Danny Kitchens (55:47)

And when Crystal come back in, she saw what was happening, ran out the side door. He followed with a handgun. The liftgate was open on the vehicle, and he shot her in the head right behind the vehicle and tossed her in the back. Crystal was just collateral damage is nothing that he had. I don't think he planned on killing Brittany, but when Crystal came in and saw it, she just. Collateral damage had to get rid of her.

Mike Boudet (56:07)

These were all just theories based on the evidence. Detective Kitchens did some interviews on the case and laid out his theories again, plain and simple. Then one day, years later, he got a call from a deputy in jail who was on the same block as James during TV time.

Detective Danny Kitchens (56:26)

I mentioned this on a TV show that I did exact my theory while he was in the jail watching that show, and a deputy overheard him say, yeah, that's pretty much what happened. So we nailed it.

Mike Boudet (56:38)

This was a horrific, unnecessary murder. In all the mess, one family, the Cosbys lost two people, and the Jacksons were left without a daughter. Zaniyah was left without a mother, but she gained something unexpected in the grief process.

Detective Danny Kitchens (56:59)

Now, there's been good things that has come out of this case, and I hate that it took this to get it there. But Zaniyah is now my goddaughter, and we spend holidays with the grandparents and her every year.

Mike Boudet (57:12)

Beyond gaining a goddaughter and a lifelong bond with the Jackson family, Detective kitchens walked away from that interrogation with lessons that cut deep. They're lessons he still carries with him, etched into who he is as a detective.

Detective Danny Kitchens (57:31)

The biggest part about I learned from him is, hey, keep your mouth shut. Let him do the talking and watch, you know, watch him listen to the words that he says closely and don't talk so much.

Mike Boudet (57:41)

During that interview, James Cosby was a man shaped by steel bars and concrete walls. Years of institutionalization had hollowed him out, leaving behind a husk clung to the familiarity and comfort of captivity. Kind of like Brooks. You all saw Shawshank, right? Even in the free world. At Annie Lee's house, he replicated his prison cell in his bedroom. This was the only life that he knew. This was the only thing that had been taught to him via our glorious educational system. When James returned to his grandmother's house, it was not to open arms, but to disgrace. A disgrace that he had earned, I might add. A failed father with no money, no future, no claim to respect. And here he is, finding his daughter Brittany thriving. Unlike him, she had built a life rich with purpose and love. He was unnecessary as both a father and the man of the house. She had taken his place. Well, James didn't like that Britney had everything he never could. Ambition, resilience, and a partner who was truly in love with her. Whatever the fight was and whatever led to her tragic end, I'm sure it was something really stupid. We can only imagine what it was though, because this idiot won't talk. This bigot, this hypocritical piece of shit. Maybe it was Britney's words, sharp and unrelenting, holding up a mirror to James. Failures in life. And he just couldn't take it. Instead of facing his reflection with remorse, regret, and maybe some learnings, he let his fury and jealousy consume him like dumb people do. Dumb people never better themselves. They never look in the mirror. They just keep believing their own bullshit, you know? Now Apple's gonna censor me for this one because even though the message is good, the words are wrong. That's what I fucking hate about censorship anyway. James real piece of shit. Do we agree who you are is defined by your actions? And in that fateful moment, James unleashed a rage born of self loathing, a desperate need to silence the voice that exposed his own inadequacies. It was not Brittany's defiance that truly killed her, but James inability to bear the weight of his own shame. We need more shame. We need to stop telling people they're perfect and start shaming bad behavior again. Perhaps if we had shamed this guy a little more earlier on, he wouldn't have become this thing. Now he was just a piece of shit. Just an ex criminal who'd been emasculated by his own daughter. The devil he carried inside found its way out like it always does. And he extinguished the very light that could have redeemed him. Once again, thank you so much for being here. If you like this sort of content and you want to have your heart broken into a movie million little pieces, go watch our latest Sword and Scale television episode, Kyle Yitz. Holy crap, is that a sad one. Stay safe.

Ivan Jackson (61:59)

Sam.