We stood right here in [the] hallway. I don't know what you're talking about.' it was hilarious that he went in there," Fernandez testified. I can't live in Texas," she says. "Did you have anything to do with the dismemberment of Jennifer's body?" [13] Murder [ edit] "His brain That is not my car! Laura Hall & Colton Pitonyak. Jennifer Cave's mutilated body was found in the apartment of Pitonyak in 2005. [2] Bill Bishop, a prosecutor in the Travis County, Texas government, said "As far as murders go, this is a very clean murder. detailing his son's childhood and academic They found a machete that was in the dishwasher.". Cave's parents found her in a bathtub. [9] A hacksaw had been placed on her abdomen. I could not believe it," she recalls. "I am innocent of the murder. And that's what got her in trouble," adds Jim. "Snapped: Killer Couples" Laura Hall & Colton Pitonyak (TV Episode 2013) photos, including production stills, premiere photos and other event photos, publicity photos, behind-the-scenes, and more. "We still feel Jennifer in our lives," Sharon says. into Pitonyak's apartment, Cave's, Police found a shell casing in the tub that matched the bullet [2], Jennifer Rae Cave[3] moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, in high school. Laura told them she had crossed the border into Mexico with Colton. "That photograph to me means nothing," Laura says dismissively. She admits that she saw the body in the bathtub, but claims it was Colton's idea to dismember it. 1 of 35. Asked what he needed the saw for, I had just gotten away from him. "There was a dead woman curled up in his bathtub. [23] In 2016, Laura Hall was still incarcerated in the Lockhart Unit. [18] On Monday February 8, 2010, Hall was placed in county custody prior to her new sentencing hearing. Colton Pitonyak's defense attorney says the appeal he filed last week in Travis County could clear his client's name. So that is how Jennifer Cave ended up partying with Colton Pitonyak on that last night of her life. After a jury sentenced him to 55 years in prison, Pitonyak said, ", The emotional toll of the case hit particularly close to home for the hosts who both have sisters when they sat down to interview Cave's own sister, Lauren. "There is no doubt that Colton Pitonyak was solely responsible for the murder of Jennifer Cave," said Fugitt. suffered a number of bizarre wounds after death, including a "I wasn't able to even process - and even today, I have not processed the emotions. The official cause of death was determined to be a single gunshot from a .380 Smith and Wesson which entered through Jennifers right arm, traveling through her torso, and eventually lacerating her aorta. She was released in 2018 after serving time. Amendment right against A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austins independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the communitys political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Still, last week's verdict left open the most crucial questions: What exactly happened to Cave in the wee hours of Aug. 17, 2005? Loren and Carol Hall desperately tried to reach their daughter. Pitonyak is serving 55 years for the slaying. "But then we did the Lauren Cave interview, and then it was like, 'Oh my God, not only what if this happened to me, but what if I was alive and this happened to my sister? Laura Hall was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her part in the crime and has been released in 2018 after serving her time. ", "I definitely feel like my life is closing in on me right now," Laura says of her situation. Jury finds former UT student Colton Pitonyak guilty of "knowingly and intentionally" murdering Jennifer Cave, gives him 55 years . Everyone has pointed their finger at me," she says.Prosecutors say Laura Hall did everything wrong the day of the murder: she left Colton's apartment and never told anyone what she had seen - not police, and not even her mother, whom she spoke with several times that afternoon. 291126. Yeah," she continues with a laugh, "I felt I was on top of the world when I was with Colton. "It is now about the appropriate sentence.". Menu. "I'm ready to be acquitted," she says. "48 Hours" has been following Laura Hall's case since 2005, and yet it is still difficult to know just exactly who Laura is or what role she played that awful August night in Austin. Much more importantly: Why did it happen? Fifteen years ago on Aug. 17, 2005, 21-year-old Jennifer Caves dismembered body was found in the bathtub of convicted murderer Colton Pitonyaks apartment at the Orange Tree Condominiums in Austin. And I'm not talking the four-legged kind.". Not only did investigators note several post-mortem stab wounds in Jennifers body, mostly to the chest and neck, as her head was not attached, they also found an additional slug resting against her skull showing that Pitonyak must have fired the second and last bullet through the base of her severed neck. As Laura tells it, she had nothing to do with the horrific crime. examiner Greg Karim about whether "Did I drive him across the border? the manager of the Casablanca Hotel Prosecutors, Hall faces trial later this year on charges of felony hindering Colton Pitonyak's defense attorney says the appeal he filed last week in Travis County could clear his. happy More specifically, the state claimed that Hall helped dismember Caves body and aided in Pitonyak s escape to Mexico. 22-year-old Cave was found murdered in a West Campus apartment. Pedro Fernandez (pictured), Pitonyak and Hall went to the home of the hotel manager, Pedro S1 E643m. A deeply reported account of Cave's life and the fallout from her horrific death, it's regularly broken into the top 50 shows on Apple Podcasts, and into the top 10 for true crime. The victim's relatives embraced after the verdict. [16] Laura Hall was arrested in September 2005. young son. [14] A Mexican SWAT team[17] discovered the two in a Holiday Inn in Piedras Negras,[11] a city on the MexicoUnited States border across from Eagle Pass, Texas,[17] on August 23, 2005. a 9 mm handgun that was later Her statement then became she'd seen the body but didn't know what had had happened. In the summer of 2005, police were called to an apartment in Austin, Texas. She had plans to take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) so she could become a lawyer. dishwasher. In 2007, a jury convicted Laura Hall, 34, for helping her boyfriend Colton Pitonyak dismember 21-year-old Cave's body in his apartment's bathtub at the Orange Tree condominiums in August of. Colton and Laura fled Austin some 16 hours after the murder. Tabitha Messina & Carlos Christopher. Former University of Texas student Colton Pitonyak is serving 55 years . ", Jennifer Cave's mother, Sharon, and her fiance, Jim Sedwick, It was the post-murder behavior that made it so grotesque. When it came to relating anecdotes about being young and at college? But Hall's trial, like Pitonyak's, in the end produced little understanding either of what really happened to young Jennifer Cave or, most especially, why her supposed friends ended her life with such brutal, emotionless, and unthinking cruelty. Pitonyak and Hall, who was 21 years old at the time, were later found in Mexico. Merit Scholar, is standing trial. Pitonyak had fled with Hall to Mexico, where the couple spent five days before they were picked up by U.S. marshals and returned to Austin. Eric Goodman's Austin FC column, other soccer news. But the judge refused to allow it, calling it inadmissable hearsay. And it eventually grew into, 'I was a victim, I was kidnapped, I had nothing to do with it. accidentally pull the trigger while trying to clear a Says Bishop, "She had every opportunity in the world to call the police, send them to Colton's apartment and certainly she would have been safe from Colton for a long time had she done that. AUSTIN, Texas Jennifer Cave was just 21 years old when her body was found in a bathtub at a West Campus condominium near the University of Texas on Aug. 18, 2005. Sawyer can only hope the jury sees it his way. She'd been shot, stabbed, and her body mutilated. boyfriend, Jim Sedwick, forced At around 8 p.m., Jim calls 911, but when the cops arrive, they wouldn't break in without a search warrant. [10], On the morning of August 17, 2005,[14] the law firm where Cave worked called Cave's family to say that she did not show up for work. Michael Rodriguez, a friend, said he spoke to Cave at 1 a.m. and Inside, a woman's body lay in the bathtub; her hands and head severed. after the "What we did was get as close as possible as hosts and reporters, and then let the listener step into our shoes.". Defies reason, said Fugitt. The morning after the murder, CCTV captured Pitonyak entering a local hardware store, where receipts show that he purchase an 8-inch hacksaw, safety mask, ammonia, and other cleaning products. he does not remember shooting Cave, It appeared to be a bathtub, and I was seeing something. As of 2013, Colton Pitonyak is still imprisoned at the Robertson Unit, a maximum-security state prison in Abilene, Texas. Support the free press, so we can support Austin. The law firm that she interviewed with on August 16, 2005, was so impressed that they offered her a full-time position, starting the next morning. "His brain Toxicology tests concluded that during her death, Cave had alcohol, marijuana, and methamphetamine in her system. 'Why yes,' he said, 'She's sitting right over there by Mr. I'll take you to dinner to celebrate your new job.' "I apologize to everybody here. A Connecticut woman says her two 10-year-old German Shepherds, Cimo and Lieben, were shot, beheaded, and killed by a hunter from New York. Submit yours now at austinchronicle.com/opinion. "When I got the tattoo, I was so in love with him," she says. If Jennifer told you she was going to be somewhere at 8 o'clock, Jennifer was there at 8 o'clock.". Bridgett Pitonyak, the defendant's mother, wept as she testified AUSTIN, Texas - August 17, 2020 marks the 15th anniversary of the murder of Jennifer Cave. to cut up a turkey. might have gone off accidentally. Back in Austin, Colton Pitonyac was charged with murder on Aug. 23, 2005. On August 18th, the Sedwicks traveled to Austin and found Cave's car at Pitonyak's apartment. Cave, the young woman he considered Laura sighs before answering. The interrogation lasts nine grueling hours. In court, Colton says he did not cut Jennifer's body with the knife." "Laura Hall says she didn't have a plan on what to do next after getting to Mexico, and that she didn't know what Colton Pitonyak was planning. "I need to cut up a turkey.". 0:00. But Jennifer's parents feel they must bear witness. but that it must have been Colton Pitonyak's lawyer suggests Laura Hall murdered Jennifer Cave and her motive was jealousy. Detectives believe Colton had just received a confirmation to meet his cocaine dealer so the two could do drugs together. He shot her through the arm, bullet traveled into the chest, through the heart pretty much killing her instantly. is in the bottom right corner. on her son's behalf. [13] On August 3, 2010, Hall was taken into the custody of the state prison system, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). His kitchen?" "Dude, I am eating pizza with Both were drinking, and according to witness Jeffrey Cave, who was an Austin legal assistant, was found in Pitonyaks bathtub in his West Campus apartment on Aug. 18, 2005. There is no doubt that Colton Pitonyak was solely responsible for the murder of Jennifer Cave, said Fugitt. "And in making the small talk people do, he found out her boyfriend was accused of murder," Laura Hall's lawyer, Joe James Sawyer, explains. ", And the D.A. "He held himself out as a gangster," prosecutor Bill Bishop says. ", CBS News. [3] In 2002, she graduated from Mary Carroll High School in Corpus Christi and in August of that year she traveled to San Marcos, Texas, to attend Texas State University as a finance major. This year, two University of Texas students, Haley Butler and Tinu Thomas, have a long-form documentary podcast called The Orange Tree Podcast, in which they dig through court filings and host interviews with the families of Cave, Pitonyak and Hall. time Jennifer Cave is believed to have been killed. Bishop does not accuse Laura of murdering Jennifer Cave, but the autopsy showed Jennifer was shot through the head after death. For the prosecutors, Travis Co. assistant district attorneys Bill Bishop and Stephanie McFarland, it was not a straightforward case. "I am accused of some unspeakable things. "Jennifer Cave grew up in Corpus Christi, in a family of five girls. About 12 hours after he shot Cave, Pitonyak stopped for a meal Example video title will go here for this video, Depression among teen girls is on the rise | Mom Squad. Asked how he got back to his apartment, Colton said, "I assume Jennifer took me. Laura Ashley Hall [12] was a University of Texas at Austin student who at one time had been Pitonyak's girlfriend. Jennifers head lay in a plastic bag by the tub, along with both her hands. went to the fast-food chain "Really? It was early evening by the time they arrived. Ascension Seton breaks ground on new womens health tower in Austin, Cowboy Breakfast, BBQ Austin scheduled ahead of official start of Rodeo Austin, Timeline: Severe storms possible on Thursday, Forecast: Severe storms possible Thursday. They're gonna do something and you're not gonna like it.". Hall was released on parole in 2018 after. "I think my life has been destroyed. And he says, 'Come here. had died from a single gunshot wound to her right chest. Episode 5: Tylar Witt & Steven Colver. The studio apartment was in disarray and Sedwick immediately Her battle with drugs and alcohol had been a constant struggle, but now the 21-year-old waitress was imbued with a new level of confidence she never felt before. "I felt he was innocent. The case packed the courtroom and drew breathless media coverage although this time, unlike Pitonyak's Court TV melodrama, Judge Wilford Flowers excluded the TV cameras. Colton quickly realized that he couldnt dispose of the body by himself and called over a friend, Laura Hall, to help him cut up the body. Hall faces trial later this year on charges of felony hindering Colton will remain in prison for most of his life after receiving 55 years. "'Donnie Brasco' and 'Goodfellas' and a series of movies that involved dismemberment," Bishop says. Laura and Colton met at a party in the spring of 2005. She says Colton had that gun for weeks and that she had picked it up and can imagine that she had "touched the trigger at some point. 17, 2005, shooting of his friend, Jennifer Cave. 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