[tense music playing]
[in German]
It's very, very important to me
to do the right thing.
As a
a very young man,
I made a mistake because
[tense music fades]
I thought I was doing the right thing,
but I did something very wrong.
[theme music playing]
[theme music concludes]
-[camera shutters clicking]
-[tense music playing]
[female reporter, in English]
It's the courtroom show of the decade,
Jens Soering's m*rder trial.
Hundreds of spectators
have competed for ringside seats.
[Courteney] I think in Bedford County,
people believed that he was guilty.
It's very hard to believe someone
who's told the same story for three years
and then suddenly makes a 180-degree turn.
[Neil] Everybody's talking about it,
of course, it's such a fascinating case.
You know, like everybody's saying,
it's like a soap opera.
The Soering trial has attracted
both national and international interest.
In addition to news crews,
movie producers, publishers,
everybody's been keeping an eye
on the trial.
Everybody just kind of looked
at him and thought,
"This young guy
is saying that he didn't do it?"
We saw the crime scene photos,
we know what he did.
[music intensifies]
[tense music fades]
[Richard] On March the 30th, 1985,
were you in Washington, D.C.?
[Jens] Yes, on the Saturday.
[Richard] Who were you with?
Well, first part of the day,
Elizabeth Haysom.
[Richard] And where were you staying?
Um, we were staying at the Marriott Hotel.
[suspenseful music playing]
[both chuckle]
Jens's story is that he and Elizabeth
had gone up to D.C. for a getaway.
They were staying at the Marriott.
[Rachel] On Saturday, Jens says Elizabeth
shared with him
that she has a drug problem,
and he knew she had done drug
in the past, but that she has a drug debt
that she needs to pay
to one of their classmates.
[Richard] Well, what did she say to you?
[Jens] Well, she said that this person had
asked her to go up
to Washington D.C. that weekend,
pick up a package
from somebody he knew in Washington,
and drive it back down to Charlottesville.
Jens says he'll go with her, and she says,
"No, that would raise suspicions."
"You're too nerdy. You need to stay here.
And you also need to be my alibi."
And her parents were very worried
about Elizabeth and using drugs
because she'd used a lot of drugs
in the past.
She said the only way I can help her
would be for me to, basically,
to function as an alibi,
to go and buy two tickets to a film
and then meet her back at at the hotel.
[tense music playing]
[Richard] And what did you do?
[Jens] Well, I agreed.
I felt I didn't have any choice.
She had to leave right then and there,
and she needed an answer,
so I gave the only answer I really could.
[Rachel]
In Jens's version of events, she leaves
and he goes to a movie theater.
[Courteney] And he gets two tickets
to the movie Witness
and then also Stranger Than Paradise.
Two tickets.
[projector whirring]
[Rachel] Then he goes back
to the hotel, orders dinner,
room service.
She's still not back.
He's waiting for her at the hotel.
He's getting frustrated.
[drink pouring]
Then he went to see the third show,
which was The Rocky Horror Picture Show
in Georgetown.
[indistinct chatter on screen]
[Rachel]
After The Rocky Horror Picture Show,
he heads back to the hotel room,
and that's where he meets Elizabeth.
She comes in shortly after he gets back.
[tense music continues]
[Jens, in German]
According to my testimony
she came back that night,
sat on the bed, like this, and said
[in English] "I k*lled my parents.
Drugs made me do it."
"They deserved it anyway."
[dogs barking in distance]
[tense music fades]
[Jens, in German] "I k*lled my parents."
"The drugs made me do it."
Over and over.
[Richard, in English]
Did you notice anything else
about her appearance at that time?
Uh, well, she looked white as a sheet. Um
[tense music continues]
Like she was in shock or something.
I mean, real bad.
It took a while for it to sink in with me,
but she was obviously serious.
She was not faking it.
I was terrified.
She kept repeating it.
"You've got to help me."
"If you don't help me, they'll k*ll me."
And I mean I knew
I knew what she meant by that. Um
Execution.
[in German]
I wanted to keep this relationship.
I didn't want to do anything
that would end the relationship.
-[tense music concludes]
-Um
We were together in this little world,
and everything around us was misty.
Everything was foggy.
And we were in there and isolated.
-[chuckles]
-[tense music playing]
[in English] I loved the girl, and, um
I don't I don't think
anybody can do that, okay? Um
Turn somebody in to be ex*cuted
and I I couldn't do it anyway.
[Richard]
What did you do then? Try to help?
[Jens] Basically, we decided
the only way that I could help her,
that could possibly work, um,
was for me to accept the blame
for what she'd done.
It wasn't even a rash
I mean it wasn't a decision
in that sense, okay?
The decision was already made, okay?
[in German]
The whole thing was a literary festival.
I came up with the idea
of sacrificing myself
to save the woman I love.
That was from Charles Dickens.
[in English] A Tale of Two Cities.
[in German] And the whole story
was based on Macbeth
on the one hand,
and on the other hand,
on Romeo and Juliet,
where the two feuding families,
um, want to prevent their relationship.
Then it was all about the performance.
How do I confess believably?
I had no idea
what happened at the crime scene.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jens]
You drive to the house. You get out.
Are the lights on or off?
You ring the bell. Who opens the door?
-[dog barking in distance]
-[Jens] What happens next?
And the aim was to save her life.
-I thought I was a hero.
-[music intensifies]
I made this huge mistake.
I thought, "It'll be fine,
I have a diplomatic passport."
"My father is vice-consul. It'll be fine."
[in English]
Because of his position as a diplomat,
I myself had a, uh,
blue diplomatic passport
with a US diplomatic visa inside,
all right?
So, what I expected to happen to me
is that I would be sent back to Germany.
So, he thought
that he was making a sacrifice,
but that it was a reasonable sacrifice.
I got the impression
that as an 18-year-old, okay?
-[somber music playing]
-Um
The worst that could happen to me
would be for me to be arrested in America,
shipped back to Germany and to spend
five years in jail over there.
Five years of my life in jail
to save Elizabeth
seemed like the right thing to do.
The picture he painted
was of this naive, lovesick fool
who met this beautiful older woman
and he's obsessed,
and he would do anything for her.
As he's testifying,
he's talking about what a fool he's been.
He's believed her,
he's loved her,
he's sacrificed his life for her,
and he was very
convincing.
I had to help her.
[female reporter] Jens Soering said
even though Elizabeth Haysom
k*lled her parents,
he took the blame to keep the woman
he loved out of Virginia's electric chair.
Well, I think that everybody was like,
"Okay, now we're on. Let's see
let's see what happens."
"Let's see how you play out
what you think happens."
And I think that Neaton
did a pretty good job
of starting to lay it out.
[Richard] Jens, would you step down
from the witness chair for a minute?
[tense music playing]
Jens's defense team
entered movie tickets into evidence.
Now, I'd like you to point out the tickets
that you bought for Stranger in Paradise.
[Jens] These two.
[Richard] And the green
single green ticket at the bottom?
That's The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
[Courteney]
His attorney says he's a pack rat,
so he holds onto all kinds of things.
Jens said, "I had these. I had
These are These came from me."
And he knew the names of the films,
the times of the films.
[Jens] It says 10:15 p.m.,
and three 30, so March 30.
That's not what Elizabeth said.
[foreboding music playing]
[Courteney] In her version of events,
Jens dropped her off to buy tickets.
Then she claimed
that she scored some heroin,
got high, went back to the hotel.
Elizabeth had really kind of
a vague recollection
of the movies and what times.
It does lend itself to his version
being more believable than Elizabeth's.
These two items right here,
defense exhibits 19 and 20,
which weigh little more
than the air that we breathe,
outweigh all of the evidence
that the prosecution
could ever produce in this case.
The movie tickets
become this incredibly important part
of the alibi.
[mysterious music playing]
[Rachel] The other part
of Jens's strategy in court
was that his attorney really focused
on the police investigation
and the flaws that he felt were evident
in the investigation.
[Courteney] His attorney said
they could have found out more,
for instance,
about the room service that was ordered.
[Rachel] So, Elizabeth says
she went back to the hotel,
ordered room service.
She couldn't remember her order exactly.
And when it was delivered to the room,
she signed Jens's signature,
since his dad's credit card
was on file at the hotel.
[Richard] And so, the real question is
is the name Jens Soering
on the room service ticket
a forgery or the real thing?
And you'll never know in this case
because the police moseyed around
for six months
and let that evidence become destroyed.
[Jeff] Neaton was trying to say
the piece of paper
that Jens Soering had signed,
that would have solved
a whole lot of questions.
The one piece of evidence
that would prove that he wasn't there
was destroyed in 1985
by the Marriott Hotel
because the Bedford Police
didn't get up there in time.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[mysterious music concludes]
[Tammy] During the trial,
I sat behind the Jens,
-behind his father and brother.
-[tense music playing]
Jens's case is basically where
my real interest started
in the criminal justice field.
Later on in my career,
I worked with Ricky Gardner.
Ricky was my lieutenant.
[male judge] All right, swear the witness.
[female clerk] Do you solemnly swear
and affirm that the testimony
you're about to give will be the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
-so help you God?
-I do.
[Tammy] Chuck Reid initially
was the head investigator.
He left the Sheriff's Office,
and then Mr. Gardner took over
as the lead investigator at that time,
even though he was a rookie.
[William] Have you had specific classes
in investigation?
[Gardner] In in interviews?
Is that what you're saying?
In regard to interviewing suspects,
interviewing witnesses
preserving crime scenes,
that kind of thing.
I've been to the basic Police Academy
in Roanoke. Yes, sir.
I wish Ricky would have [inhales deeply]
would have stepped back and said,
"Okay, well, wait a minute, Chuck."
You know, "Let's look at everything."
"Make sure everything is right
before we send somebody
to the to death row
or put him in jail
for the rest of their life."
[mysterious music playing]
[Reid] You look at the crime scene,
Merit cigarette butts were found
at the front door and the back door.
Well, Jens didn't smoke.
But Elizabeth smoked Merit cigarettes.
[Richard] In April of 1985,
you were present
during Elizabeth Haysom's interviews,
-is that correct?
-Yes, I was.
[Richard] And isn't it true
that she smoked during those interviews?
[Gardner] I believe she did. Yes, sir.
[Richard] And did you notice
that she was smoking Merit cigarettes
at that time?
I don't recall.
It's possible. Yes, sir.
[Richard] Well, there had been
a Merit cigarette recovered at the scene
-of the Haysom home, correct?
-[Gardner] Yes, sir.
[Richard] It didn't occur to you
to check what kind of cigarettes
she was smoking during these interviews?
I possibly could have. Yes, sir.
Neaton's strategy was definitely
to point to a shoddy investigation
and poor police work.
And then to point to the things
that suggested that Elizabeth
was at the scene of the crime.
There was also a shoe print
left in blood at the scene.
[camera shutter clicking]
[Courteney]
Investigators believed that it was likely
left by a woman
who wore a seven and a half or eight shoe.
[Richard] And at that interview,
did Elizabeth Haysom tell you
that her shoe size was a size eight?
I don't recall, uh, Mr. Neaton,
if she did or she didn't.
[Richard] Mm-hmm.
Well, would referring yourself
to a transcript of your statement,
-might that refresh your memory?
-[Gardner] Yes, sir, it would.
Yes, sir.
[Courteney] Investigators did go
to several shoe stores,
trying to identify that sneaker.
But to the best of my knowledge,
they didn't go and examine,
uh, Elizabeth's closet, uh,
for shoes that might match that print.
[Reid] There was a vodka bottle set down.
Elizabeth's fingerprints were found
on the vodka bottle.
Well, we know People came back
and said, "Well, she lived there."
Well, she did live there,
but at that time, she was living at UVA.
But it's hard to tell
because she had been there
just a week earlier
for her father's birthday.
So, did she leave all of those things then
or when her parents were m*rder*d?
There was also a strand of hair
found in the master bedroom bathroom sink.
Someone had washed off blood
in the bathroom.
[Richard] With reference to item 11b,
a hair sample obtained
from the bathroom sink.
Did you have the occasion
to compare this
with the defendant's hair sample?
Yes, sir. I did.
The head hair was dissimilar
to the submitted head hair sample
reportedly from Jens Soering.
[Reid] It didn't match Jens,
-but it wasn't tested against Elizabeth.
-[mysterious music fades]
Yeah.
There was something
I just couldn't figure out.
I knew something was wrong,
but I didn't know what.
[suspenseful music playing]
It's just I
It's just
It's so many circumstances there, to me,
that puts Elizabeth there
and takes Jens Soering away.
[suspenseful music concludes]
[in German]
I knew I was innocent. And I thought
hopefully they'll see that.
I really wanted to convince them,
"Hey, listen to me! I didn't do this!"
Under American law, you only have
to win over one member of the jury.
And then you aren't guilty.
Eleven to one is enough.
That's like a verdict of not guilty.
Um, so, I didn't think
it was hopeless. Not at all.
[upbeat music playing]
[Carlos, in English] Updike
he sometimes played
the country boy lawyer, but he was not.
It was the biggest case of his life
-as a prosecuting attorney.
-[indistinct chatter]
I covered over 40 m*rder trials
in Virginia over my decades as a reporter.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna prove
[female reporter]
It is the case prosecutor Jim Updike
has waited to try since 1985.
Jim Updike was very fashion-conscious.
He wore a three-piece suit to court.
He did that on purpose,
so he could put
his thumbs in his vest pocket.
He was very flamboyant,
he was very entertaining.
He comes behind him and he cuts.
And he says that he saw the blood
spurting out onto the table.
[Carlos] Yeah, I remember him
one time telling the jury
about Jens's guilt and saying,
"I didn't just fall off the turnip truck."
The next day, Neaton brings in a turnip
and puts it on his desk. [chuckles]
[female reporter]
As Jim Updike began laying out his case,
Jens Soering sat alert and watchful,
at times rapidly taking notes.
[Updike] Your Honor, in Europe,
I asked the defendant
what his position was. His position.
And his position
was that he k*lled Derek and Nancy Haysom.
Did crossing the ocean suddenly cause
this sudden change in position?
You cannot take a position earlier
in a legal proceeding
and then later take one
that is entirely different.
That, to me,
is barred by the code of ethics.
Jens had changed his story now.
Everybody wanted to see
what Jim Updike was gonna do next.
[upbeat music fades]
Jury's back.
[coughs]
[Jeff] Jens took the stand
because he was arrogant,
he was smarter than everybody else.
[tense music playing]
But when a defendant takes
the stand in their own behalf,
it's a huge risk
because they open themselves up
to cross-examination.
-[male lawyer] Your witness, Mr. Updike.
-[Updike] Thank you.
Mr. Soering, I might want to ask you
about some of your statements
on previous occasions
and things might move along better.
Obviously, it was the confession
that that was the number one thing.
I remember Updike, he was a bulldog,
and he went through that confession,
sentence by sentence, word by word,
verb by verb, noun by noun.
Mr. Soering,
you provide a lot of details
as to what happened at Loose Chippings,
-don't you?
-That's right.
[Updike] You state that you went down
there on Saturday evening.
Page seven. Correct?
[Jens] That's right, yes. I said that.
[Updike] Page eight, you're talking
about Derek Haysom answering the door.
-Correct?
-[Jens] That's right.
[Carlos] Jens had to admit that he had,
in fact, said all of those things.
[Updike] Page ten, you're talking about
that they offered you something to eat.
-Correct?
-I said that, yes.
And it's pretty powerful.
He knew so many details
of what actually happened,
and it matched
what happened at the m*rder scene.
[Updike] And on page 11,
you state that Derek Haysom
was sitting at the head of the table.
[Jens] That's right. I said that, yes.
[Updike] Derek, the head of the table,
that wine glass
has Derek Haysom's fingerprints on it.
Jens described the scene immaculately.
He knew where everything was in the house.
[Updike] You state
that Derek Haysom was eating ice cream.
[Jens] That's right.
[Updike]
There is a bowl with a spoon in it.
You said that Nancy Haysom
was sitting directly across from him.
Her fingerprints were found
on that little sauce cup.
[Jens] Yes.
[Jeff] They arranged a demonstration
in the courtroom.
One deputy played Jens Soering,
Ricky Gardner,
the other deputy played Derek Haysom.
So, he got up and walked around here.
And when he got about right here,
Mr. Haysom stood up.
-Mr. Haysom
-[Carlos] If you saw it,
you would have to say it flowed,
it made sense,
even right to where Jens
was pushed against the stone wall
of the house by Mr. Haysom,
and he came off in a rage
he's very angry.
[Carlos] and had the knife in his hand
[indistinct chatter]
[Carlos] and stepped behind him
and slit his throat.
And there was blood dripping into his lap.
[Updike] You saw blood pouring down
into Mr. Haysom's lap.
It it was actually chilling.
[Updike] behind her
and he had her like this.
Mr. Haysom got up.
You came in, the two of 'em
Jens said he cut Mrs. Haysom like this.
[Gardner] He was confessing to me.
He said,
"By the way, Investigator Gardner,"
he said, "Did y'all find a dog
that was laying
on the side of the road there dead?"
He said,
"That night when I left the scene,
I thought a dog ran out in front of me
and I thought I hit it,"
and he said, "I was afraid I'd k*lled it."
[dog barking]
[Gardner] And I went,
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute"
"You've just sat here and told me
that you've basically cut
two people's heads off,
and you're worried about a dog?"
And he looked at me,
just like I'm looking at you now,
and he said,
"That dog never did anything to me."
Now, why would a man [chuckles]
that's fabricating a story
interject that?
Because that's the truth.
Jens was telling the absolute truth
when he was talking about that dog.
[Updike] You were telling,
on June 5, 1986,
-exactly what happened, weren't you?
-No, I wasn't.
-Absolutely not, sir.
-[tense music concludes]
Elizabeth told me many details
and what to say
to make it match the scene of crime.
-And you lied?
-[Jens] Yes, correct, yes.
I repeated the same thing
Elizabeth had said.
[Gardner] Now, I understand
we're dealing with Jens Soering.
We're dealing with Jens Soering.
Jens Soering doesn't think
like most people think.
When he processes a situation,
he processes it different
than anybody else that I've ever known.
[ominous music playing]
[Updike] You have thought about this
quite a bit, haven't you, Mr. Soering?
-For four years.
-[Updike] Four years?
-Since 1986.
-I've been in jail for four years.
[Updike]
And during your period of incarceration,
you had nothing else to do
other than to study these?
Those full statements, yes.
[Updike] And then you began developing
different plans
as to how you were going
to get out of this.
Well, there were
various legal possibilities
of getting myself extradited to Germany,
but that was it.
[buzzer beeping]
[Gardner]
Jens confessed three different times
to k*lling the Haysoms, verbatim.
The last time, that I think
is probably the most crucial
-[suspenseful music playing]
-was when a German prosecutor
and a German defense attorney
went to his prison.
[male officer] Can I take your names?
[in German] Prosecutor Konig did travel
to London on the 30th of December, 1986.
He interrogated Mr. Soering
who made another confession
that was relatively detailed.
[Gardner, in English]
We didn't know anything
about that statement
until Jens was brought back
to Bedford County, and we found the tapes.
They were in German.
So, we went to a German professor
at a local college
and had him listen to them
and transcribe them.
[indistinct chatter over tape]
Now, bearing in mind,
Elizabeth had written him a letter
severing their relationship,
"I don't love you anymore,
you're on your own."
[indistinct chatter over tape]
[Gardner] Now, this is what,
three months later, four months later?
If he was going to tell the truth,
that interview with the German prosecutor
and the German defense attorney
would have been the time
to tell that truth.
"The next thing I can remember
is that I stood behind Mr. Haysom
and then blood ran
from his neck into his lap
and that I was incredibly shocked."
[Gardner] The German professor transcribed
verbatim the same story
that he'd told me in the first interview.
"I don't know whether I stabbed him
in the neck or cut down along the neck."
-"Prosecutor"
-Why would you make a statement like that?
[in German] It's quite a challenge
to make a client confess
to a double m*rder.
That's not usually the job
of a defense attorney.
But it made sense
because that was the only way
to get him to Germany.
-[in English] So, you lied, didn't you?
-[Jens] That's correct. Yeah.
-[Updike] You lied to them?
-That's correct.
To the German police, yes.
It's the only way I could go back
to Germany. I had to give them evidence.
[Updike] So, sir, then you admit that you
have the capability of lying
to protect yourself, don't you?
[Jens] I think that's one
of the rare occasions
that I actually did lie to protect myself.
[Rachel] Jim Updike puts him on the spot,
saying, "You're lying
whenever it's convenient for you
to get what you want."
[Updike] Mr. Soering,
if you are capable of lying
to protect yourself,
capable of protecting Elizabeth,
then you are most certainly capable
of lying to these people.
Talk your way out
of this corner that you're in.
Beat these charges,
get out from under them.
But that's not what I'm doing.
You admit that you have the capability
of lying to protect yourself, don't you?
-[Jens] I suppose so.
-You suppose?
-[rousing music playing]
-Theoretically, yes.
[Carlos] Neaton was furious.
He just thought
he was k*lling himself on on the stand.
[Jeff] He tried to weave his story,
but what we saw in the courtroom
was just a sometimes
silly looking young man
That's not true, no.
[Jeff] who was very wimpy
and very studious.
It's I mean, I said that
in effect over and over again.
-So, I'm willing to stick with it.
-And not succeeding.
[indistinct chatter]
Besides his own words and his confessions,
there was evidence
putting Jens at the scene.
[female reporter]
Most of the day was taken up
with introducing a mount of evidence
found at the Haysom house.
One by one, investigators showed objects
taken from various rooms.
Some contained fingerprints,
others were stained with blood.
Mary Jane Burton, who worked
for the Department of Forensic Science
at that time,
testified that there was type O blood
-found at the scene.
-[indistinct chatter]
I identified human blood,
and it was type O.
Jens has type O blood.
[female reporter]
The jury even saw the linoleum
ripped from the kitchen floor
where Nancy Haysom's body was found.
Head area here.
Feet area this way.
[female reporter]
The swirls reportedly meant
someone tried to remove,
perhaps, footprints left in the blood.
[indistinct chatter]
[female reporter]
There were footprints found though,
some made by a socked foot.
This is a piece of the living room floor,
where one such impression was found.
[suspenseful music playing]
So, the prosecution called a witness
named Robert Hallett
to testify about, uh, sock prints.
Identify first
what has been referred to as LR3.
He showed the jury a bloody sock print
that was found at the scene
with an overlay of a sock print from Jens
that had been taken
during the course of the investigation.
-[suspenseful music concludes]
-[mysterious music playing]
[Gardner] In my first interview with Jens,
I said,
"If you would give us your footprint,
we can exclude you and move on."
[on tape] We need your help
for elimination purposes.
-[Jens] Hmm.
-[Gardner] We we need it bad.
And he just absolutely refused,
saying, "I'm not going to do it."
[Jens, on tape] Um
I would prefer not to do that.
[Gardner] After Jens came back
in January of '90, he's still holding out.
"I'm not giving those to you."
The judge ordered him
to give us his fingerprints, his blood,
his anatomical footprints.
So, I got Jens Soering's footprint.
I sent that to the lab.
[Updike] And this, Mr. Soering,
is the very reason
you didn't want to give your footprint.
[indistinct chatter]
[Rachel] The sock print found
in the blood at the crime scene
was an exact match for Jens Soering's.
And you pull that out and it matches,
and it fits like a glove.
[indistinct chatter]
[Courteney] The sock print
was an important piece of evidence
for the prosecution.
They had Jens's blood type at the scene,
but over 40%,
45% of the population has type O blood.
They didn't have his fingerprints
at the scene.
They didn't have any eyewitnesses.
So, this sock print
was the closest thing to physical evidence
proving Jens was there.
It's Elizabeth fingerprints in the house
and you still think I did it?
It's You know?
Your blood type there, as well,
isn't it, Mr. Soering?
[Jens] 45% of the people
have O type blood.
45% of the people, half the population,
no, don't have O type blood
and their footprint is there,
and they admitted to doing this, even.
-Now, did they, Mr. Soering?
-[Jens] It's not my footprint.
[Jeff] Jim Updike nailed it.
The picture wasn't this big,
it was this big.
[foreboding music playing]
[Rachel] This was Jens's trial,
but what everybody was waiting for
was the minute that prosecutor Jim Updike
called Elizabeth Haysom to testify.
[female reporter] Elizabeth Haysom
will be back for the final chapter
as a key witness against her former lover.
It will be the first time that Haysom
and Jens Soering will face each other
since both returned to the US.
Is Elizabeth Haysom
a beautiful and intelligent m*rder*r
or the victim of an obsessive relationship
with a cold-blooded k*ller?
[Rachel] These were two lovers
who had turned on each other.
They had committed this horrible crime
and fled together,
and here she comes
to testify against him
for the prosecution.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Larry King]
Elizabeth is the star witness in the trial
of the man said to have actually
stabbed her mother and father to death.
[Courteney] This is a televised trial.
People are tuning in
to see what's going to happen.
You know, are sparks gonna fly?
Is there going to be
an expl*si*n in the courtroom?
[in German] What's really embarrassing
I can't believe it.
[exhales] Um
Somehow [chuckles]
a part of me was hoping
[indistinct chatter]
[Jens] that she would tell the truth.
[Rachel, in English]
When she walked into the courtroom,
it was silent.
You could hear a pin drop.
[female clerk] Raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear and affirm
that the testimony
which you shall give will be the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
-Yes.
-Come up here please, Miss Haysom.
[Courteney] Jens is looking intently
at her with a very steady gaze.
[male lawyer] Sit up a little closer,
Miss Haysom, please, to the mic.
You don't have to stoop like me.
[Courteney]
She looks significantly older than him.
He looks like a child.
She looks like a woman.
[Jeff]
She had that air about her of confidence.
This was a different Elizabeth
that the court had seen than
when she was at her sentencing hearing.
[Updike] Could you tell us what,
if anything, Jens Soering had to say
about what happened
at the house of your father?
Yeah, um, I I asked him
if he wanted to talk about it.
He wanted to talk about it. Um
[tense music playing]
[Elizabeth] He told me
that he had gone down,
that he'd arrived, he'd been invited in,
and that they were talking.
There was a pause
in the conversation and, um
that he attacked my mother
with a steak knife.
[Jeff] She was ready to say
this is what happened,
and Jens did this, and he's lying.
He said things like, um,
"It's not like in the movies." Um
[hesitates] Various quantities of
of blood, um, the struggle.
And then, um, at some point,
he told me he had taken his shoes off.
I'm not sure why.
Uh, he said that he had
washed his hands
because they were bleeding.
Um
[Carlos] I can't imagine
how that must have felt.
But for him, it must have just been
a hard slap across the face.
It's a it's a very odd feeling
to have, um, somebody
in the room with you
who has k*lled two people.
Um, you you start having
odd thoughts like,
are they going to roll over
and k*ll you too?
[indistinct chatter]
[Updike] Jens Soering made this statement
to you that you described about
he would go down to see your parents.
Did you want him to k*ll your parents?
Yes, I did.
She said it out loud.
She said,
"Yes, I did want my parents dead."
It was definitely an "Oh, wow" moment.
[Elizabeth] I think it would be true
to say that when Jens left me
on Saturday afternoon
to go down to see my parents,
that I was much more concerned
that he would not k*ll them
-than that he would because, um
-[Updike] Go on.
[chuckles]
Well, the whole idea of Jens
k*lling anybody is so oddly fantastic.
[suspenseful music playing]
[in German]
I can imagine that she hated me.
Maybe she still does.
I could understand that.
Because it's true.
If I hadn't made that false confession
on June 8, 1986
most likely the prosecutor
couldn't have charged her
or me at all.
There was no other evidence.
No DNA, no witnesses,
no m*rder weapon, nothing.
If I had kept my mouth shut,
most likely, neither she nor I
would have gone to jail.
[suspenseful music concludes]
[reporter, in English]
Jens Soering's lawyers,
who say Haysom was the m*rder*r,
began cross-examination today.
On the second day
of Elizabeth's testimony,
she was very nervous to take the stand
and face Jens's attorney.
And I think that was because
she was under a lot of pressure.
She felt the pressure.
She felt that the defense attorneys
would come down on her.
Her stomach was all to pieces, um,
I guess from nerves.
She was sick before she took the stand.
[man clears throat]
She looked very different.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[Tammy] Her posture was not the same.
Now, Miss Haysom,
you testified
that you came back to this country
to plead guilty, right?
-[Elizabeth] Yes, I did.
-To tell the truth.
-Right?
-[Elizabeth] To plead guilty.
That's different than telling the truth?
[in German] My defense attorney,
Rick Neaton, wanted to show the jury
my client, Jens Soering, had no motive.
But the key witness
did have a motive.
[Richard, in English]
Miss Haysom, you've made allegations
about your mother, haven't you?
You said that your mother
slept with you, didn't you?
I'm not sure
that's exactly what I said, sir.
[Phyllis] I don't know for sure, but,
um, I think Derek
would look the other way.
[ominous music playing]
[Phyllis] That maybe he knew some things
but he ignored them,
didn't want that to be, so it wasn't.
There probably is more,
but things that, um
that I wouldn't divulge.
[Reid] In the house,
upstairs in the bedroom,
we found pictures of her,
nude pictures of her.
Well, we were told
that her mom took the picture.
It was a little strange. I mean,
we thought it was a little strange.
I thought it was a little strange,
but you know.
Then all of a sudden,
you started hearing other things
and say, "Well, maybe," you know?
[Richard] You told it to Jens, didn't you?
You told Jens that your mother
slept with you, didn't you?
I think I probably did, yes.
[Richard]
You told him that she abused you, right?
[ominous music continues]
[Elizabeth]
I think I discussed that with him, yes.
[Richard] And you told him
you were mad because of that, right?
You were angry at her? Resentful at her?
That was
part of my anger and bitterness, yes.
[Richard] Was that true?
Yes, sir, it was.
[ominous music concludes]
[Rachel] The sexual abuse
is a very convincing reason
to want her parents
out of her life forever.
[tense music playing]
[Richard] I'd like to talk to you
about some of the letters.
Can you read that to the jury, please?
[Courteney] Neaton had Elizabeth read
a letter she had sent Jens,
and in it she describes
her poor treatment of men.
"I had I had always believed
that I made
men fall in love with me,
so that I could screw them
physically and emotionally and take out
all the hatred I felt for them"
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"And take out all the hatred
I felt for them by humiliating them."
"I despised their cheap lust
and easy passions."
I think Elizabeth had
a lot of fantasies, uh, about control,
and I think that Jens
certainly fit right into that.
"And in the end,
I made them hate themselves for loving me
and the t*rture I inflicted"
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"And the t*rture I inflicted."
I think their relationship
became mutually controlling,
and they seemed to feed
into each other's extreme pathologies.
I think the two of them were, kind of,
a horrible puzzle
that fit together, uh, just right.
[voice actor as Elizabeth]
"I would make a man humiliate himself
to obtain me."
"Then I would give him
the best f*ck he's ever likely to get."
"the best f*ck he's ever
likely to get and then walk out."
[suspenseful music playing]
[Richard]
That's what you did to Jens, wasn't it?
[Rachel]
Did she tell him these horrible stories
about her mother abusing her
to cover for her?
You could see the manipulation.
Maybe Elizabeth had
a much bigger part in this
than she was admitting.
The motive to k*ll is hers.
The reason to k*ll is hers.
There's evidence
that puts her at the scene
and would suggest that she was there.
And then the stories
that she tells never turn out to be true.
[female reporter]
Prosecutor Jim Updike asked
the jury to find Jens Soering
guilty of first-degree m*rder.
Put it in line with everything else.
The O type blood, the means,
the opportunity and come on down the line.
And once you've done that,
you've got one man
who committed this m*rder,
and he's sitting right over there.
[Ted] After Updike finished,
the jurors went to lunch,
then began their deliberations.
So, much of the case depends
on whether jurors
believe Jens Soering's story
or Elizabeth Haysom's.
So, the jury was made up of six women
and six men from a neighboring county.
[Carlos] The jury sat for 13 days,
eight hours a day,
listening to everything.
Though there really were only
two real witnesses,
and that was Elizabeth and and Jens.
Seeing how they speak,
their tone of voice, their body language,
how their eyes are,
you can tell a lot
from what they're saying, how true it is,
how emotional they are,
how much they believe
in what they're saying.
[Courteney] They both had emotion.
They both gave the jury
what they believed were reasons
to come down on their side.
The jury was having a hard time
reaching a consensus.
They asked to see
that sock print evidence again.
[Jeff] I think that surprised everybody.
I think that was a moment
of maybe a little doubt
in some people's mind.
We are standing by
as we wait for the jury to file in
and for the judge to come back,
as we find out what they've decided
in the Bedford County
m*rder case of Jens Soering.
[suspenseful music playing]
[female clerk] Have the members
of the jury reached a verdict?
[male spokesman] We have.
[female clerk]
We, the jury, find the defendant guilty
of first-degree m*rder
of Derek William Reginald Haysom.
We, the jury, find the defendant guilty
of first-degree m*rder
of Nancy Astor Haysom
-as charged in the indictment.
-[suspenseful music fades]
[Jens, in German]
Neaton had told me, "Main thing is,
don't pull a face, don't show any emotion,
don't say anything."
I didn't stick to that, again.
[male judge, in English]
Jens Soering, do you know of any reason
why this court should not
now pronounce judgement
and sentence in your cases?
I'm innocent.
I'm innocent.
-[in German] You can see that I'm stroppy.
-[rousing music playing]
[Jens] It wasn't self-pity.
It was outrage.
[journalist 1, in English]
Jens, do you have any comments?
[journalist 2] You didn't say a thing.
Why didn't you say anything?
[journalist 3]
You still say you are innocent?
After deliberating less than four hours,
the jury in the Jens Soering
m*rder trial convicted him
for the slashing deaths
of his lover's parents,
Derek and Nancy Haysom.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[camera shutters clicking]
-[man 1] Look out, look out.
-[man 2] Move it, please.
[female reporter, in German]
Jens Soering is now found guilty
of m*rder. This month he turned 24,
this young man without future.
The former exemplary student
is only spared the electric chair.
-[rousing music fades]
-[camera shutter clicking]
[Jeff, in English]
Everybody thought that was it.
That was the last that, uh,
they would hear or see
about this situation,
which has not been the case.
Let's begin right now
with the Haysom slayings in Virginia.
Joining us on the phone,
from the Bedford County Jail
in Virginia, is Jens Soering.
Jens, isn't it a fact
that you so loved Elizabeth
-[rousing music playing]
-and she was so, uh
had such control over you
that you would do everything
that you could to please her,
up to and including
committing these vile crimes?
[Jens, over phone]
Absolutely not. [scoffs]
[in German] I was so angry
that I was sentenced for a crime
I didn't commit.
I was mad.
[in English] Jens,
you should know, initially confessed
to having committed those killings.
Jens, isn't that correct?
[Jens, over phone] Yes,
I did indeed confess.
But I'd like to point out
that I'm innocent.
[in German] I'm not a double m*rder*r.
And I wanted to get that acknowledged.
[in English, over phone]
And yes, I loved the girl.
But I didn't do it, and I am appealing.
[rousing music concludes]
[upbeat music playing]
[upbeat music concludes]
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01x03 - Jens
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New insights from various parties come to light that raise questions about Jens Söring's conviction of the 1985 murders of his then-girlfriend's parents.
New insights from various parties come to light that raise questions about Jens Söring's conviction of the 1985 murders of his then-girlfriend's parents.