Texas jeweler and canine killed in focused hit involving son, daughter-in-law

This story initially aired on Jan. 13, 2024

When Travis County Sheriff’s detectives Paul Salo and James Moore arrived to research a capturing at Ted and Corey Shaughnessy‘s Austin, Texas, residence early on March 2, 2018, they first thought it may be a theft gone mistaken.

Det. Paul Salo: It seemed as if there was a house invasion … and a house owner was … killed. 

Inside the sprawling, suburban residence it seemed like a battlefield. Ted Shaughnessy, 55, lay lifeless in a pool of blood close to the kitchen desk. 

Det. James Moore: He was shot within the head, the again, the thigh, and the buttocks… 

One of the household’s two pet Rottweilers, Bart, had been shot to loss of life, as nicely. There was damaged window glass in every single place, bullets lodged within the partitions and casings everywhere in the flooring. Authorities observed they weren’t all the identical kind.

Det. Paul Salo: We had .40 caliber and .380 … in order that advised us that we had two shooters …

Corey would inform police she and Ted saved about 20 weapons within the residence, and stated she’d used her .357 revolver to shoot again on the attackers.

Det. James Moore: It was a hail of gunfire.

Investigators had observed a single, wide-open floor flooring window across the aspect of the home and puzzled if the intruders had used it to get in.

Det. Paul Salo: Somebody took the display off and set it subsequent to the window exterior.

That open window led into an unoccupied bed room the place, inside a drawer, police discovered what appeared like an unlikely coincidence.

Det. Paul Salo: There’s a .40 caliber gun field in that drawer. 

Det. James Moore: It’s lacking out of the field.

Jim Axelrod: Well, grasp on, .40 caliber is likely one of the calibers that you simply had been simply describing.

Det. Paul Salo: Yes. 

It meant the Shaughnessy’s empty gun field may have held a pistol that one of many intruders used and had ejected bullet casings close to the sufferer.

Det. James Moore: That data will get handed to me whereas I’m exterior.

Outside, close to Moore, first responders had been taking care of Corey Shaughnessy.

Det. James Moore: Corey’s hysterical.

Corey would inform police she had not seen the attackers’ faces. But she did have a hunch about why they’d come. 

Corey Shaughnessy: Being a jeweler … you may sometime be a goal.

Jim Axelrod: When you hear they personal a jewellery retailer, what does that immediate in your minds?

Det. James Moore: Automatically a motive.

Jim Axelrod: Someone … figuring there was some secure with a bunch of jewellery.

Det. James Moore: Absolutely. That’s proper. 

Corey broke the information by telephone to the Shaughnessys’ son Nick, then 19, who lived two hours away together with his girlfriend Jackie in College Station, Texas. They instantly drove to Austin, arriving about 8 a.m.

Det. Paul Salo: Nick comes over and he is — he is emotional … he asks me what occurred.

Nick, Jackie and Corey all agreed to assist the investigation in any means attainable. Corey allowed police to go looking her telephone and, although Nick stated he hadn’t been in Austin for a couple of month, he and Jackie did the identical. All three additionally agreed to reply questions on the station.

NICK SHAUGHNESSY (police interview): I’m attempting to think about something that may very well be useful.

Det. Paul Salo: Our objective was to only attempt to get as a lot data as attainable.

COREY SHAUGHNESSY (police interview): I — I did not hear something till the canine began barking.

But Corey says the extra police questioned her within the coming days … the extra a traumatic scenario went from unhealthy to worse.

COREY SHAUGHNESSY (police interview): I’m attempting to do something I can to — to assist.

She says they weren’t treating her like a sufferer.

Corey Shaughnessy: I used to be extraordinarily indignant on the sheriff’s division.

Investigators nonetheless weren’t certain if the homicide was a part of a random assault, a jewel heist gone unhealthy, or whether or not it was a focused assassination. They weren’t discovering any related unidentified prints on the scene, so that they needed to marvel if their sole surviving sufferer, Corey Shaughnessy, was really a suspect.

Det. James Moore: She’s the one particular person in the home. And we have now her husband who has been shot to loss of life … we all know that she owns firearms. … So it is clearly an choice for us. 

They referred to as her in for a sequence of interviews. For the final one, she introduced a lawyer.

DET. SALO (police interview): You know, I did not know Ted. It’s not proper that someone killed him.

COREY SHAUGHNESSY: No it is not.

DET. SALO: And I need to discover him.

COREY SHAUGHNESSY: Me too. 

Jim Axelrod: You acquired a distraught spouse. You acquired a lifeless husband. You need to ask in regards to the marriage, do not you?

Det. James Moore: Yes.

COREY SHAUGHNESSY (police interview): Ted was the folks particular person. He was the entrance a part of the shop.

Investigators discovered Corey and Ted had met within the early 80s at a video arcade in Phoenix. They’d shortly found that they had lots in frequent, together with a love of jewellery and, finally, of one another. They married and opened Gallerie Jewelers.

Corey Shaughnessy: Everything gave the impression to be nearly excellent.

As the jewellery enterprise grew, Ted and Corey had determined to develop their household too. In 2000, they adopted Nick at 16 months previous from an orphanage in Ukraine.

Corey Shaughnessy: It was simply on the spot love.

Jim Axelrod: It was?

Corey Shaughnessy: Yeah. Instant.

Corey says all of them bonded even earlier than bringing him residence.

Corey Shaughnessy: There had been animal crackers concerned.

Jim Axelrod: Skillful distribution of animal crackers?

Corey Shaughnessy (laughs) Yes, sure … and by the point we left, we had been a household.

She says Ted had a knack for serving to folks categorical their love with a sparkle.

Det. James Moore: Everybody cherished Ted. Didn’t have any enemies.

By the time of the homicide, the Shaughnessy’s had been price tens of millions. But perhaps much more precious to them, they counted a few of their clients as shut mates.

Corey Shaughnessy: We had been very pleased. 

For Corey, being a dad or mum was price its weight in gold.

Jim Axelrod: Nicholas had … every thing a child may need.

Corey Shaughnessy: Yes.

Jim Axelrod: What was he into? 

Corey Shaughnessy: He appreciated animals, and he cherished automobiles.

Especially, quick ones. His father drove race automobiles for enjoyable and infrequently took him to the observe. 

Corey Shaughnessy: He cherished placing on Ted’s helmet and his racing gloves and — and all of these issues.

In highschool, she says her son discovered one other love — her title was Jackie Edison. After her mother and father divorced, she had moved from New Jersey to Austin to reside together with her father. Nick introduced her to fulfill his mother and father in 2016.

Corey Shaughnessy: It was an ungainly dinner.

But Corey says Jackie finally received them over, and earlier than lengthy, she was spending a lot time within the Shaughnessys’ home, they really let her transfer in.

Jim Axelrod: Did you … settle right into a — OK, a critical girlfriend appears to be a part of Nick’s life and he or she’s OK?

Corey Shaughnessy: I did. She was alright.

In August 2017, Nick and Jackie moved out to begin a brand new life in College Station — she at school, he as a day dealer, together with his mother and father’ monetary backing. Ted and Corey would have lower than a 12 months to get pleasure from their empty nest earlier than that horrible evening in March. Police stayed on the scene for hours attempting to course of all of the proof.

Amy Meredith: I used to be really on name … when the homicide occurred. 

Amy Meredith was an assistant district lawyer and says police requested her to come back assist them course of and protect the scene…an uncommon request. She arrived round 11 am…and after wanting round, started to consider as they did… that Ted Shaughnessy in all probability knew whoever had attacked him.

Amy Meredith: This was not a stranger. This was not a stranger killing. 

Meredith was certain the house was simply too huge and too darkish for a pair of random robbers or jewel thief wannabees to seek out their means round. Maybe much more importantly.

Amy Meredith: There was nothing stolen.

Nothing from that secure — and no valuables lacking from the remainder of the home.

Jim Axelrod: So every thing for you pointed to inside job?

Amy Meredith: Yes. Without a doubt.

RAISING SUSPICIONS

Corey Shaughnessy’s frustration with investigators was rising.

She says she’d identified from the beginning that she was a suspect in her husband’s homicide. She says she wanted cash for the enterprise within the following weeks, and it did not assist when she tried to money in his million-dollar life insurance coverage coverage.

Corey Shaughnessy: I used to be the one beneficiary. That may solely imply that they suspected me. 

Jim Axelrod: Let me simply ask, did you may have something to do with this?

Corey Shaughnessy: Absolutely not.

But Meredith says Corey had began elevating crimson flags instantly after leaving the scene. Within hours of the homicide, she reportedly said there can be no funeral and inquired about having the home cleaned.

Amy Meredith: We needed to be sure that she didn’t have any involvement.

But Corey wasn’t the one member of Ted’s household who was elevating suspicion. The Shaughnessy’s son Nick had been greater than 100 miles away on the time of the homicide. At the scene that morning, he’d been emotional. But what struck detective Salo was one in every of Nick’s first questions.

Det. Paul Salo: I inform him, it appears to be like like someone got here into the house, and shot your dad to loss of life.

Jim Axelrod: And how did he soak up that information?

Det. Paul Salo: He requested me, did he endure?

Jim Axelrod: Was that an odd query?

Det. Paul Salo: It undoubtedly struck me as odd, sure.

Even extra so, police say, as a result of, because the morning wore on, Nick grew to become a lot much less thinking about talking with police than with the reporters who had began displaying up.

Det. James Moore: Nick and Jackie constantly tried to speak to the media … we requested him to — to cease and to remain within the scene.

And then Nick did one thing actually odd, says Moore. He walked straight over to look at that floor flooring, extensive open aspect window. The room it led to had as soon as been his.

Det. James Moore: Him going to that aspect of the home to look particularly at that window which you’ll’t see from simply the entrance of the home, so for him to know that that was even concerned, he didn’t have that data.

Jim Axelrod: How does he know the entry level until he was concerned in creating the entry level?

Det. James Moore: Sometimes folks will get data from crosstalk with detectives or legislation enforcement and … so I — I did not routinely get tremendous suspicious, nevertheless it was catching my consideration. 

Something on Nick’s telephone had caught their consideration as nicely: an app that gave him entry over his mother and father’ alarm. Corey advised them the household usually selected to not arm the system, and that it had been switched off that evening. But authorities observed one thing within the account historical past.

Det. James Moore: There was an activation for an open window…

Det. Paul Salo: The time of the window being opened … was 4:27 that morning.

Det. James Moore: Following that was glass break activations. We consider that is when the bullets began breaking the glass in the home.

Amy Meredith: That’s when Ted died, that is when the photographs had been being fired.

Jim Axelrod: Was this necessary to have?

Det. James Moore: Extremely.

Police additionally noticed one thing that appeared necessary in Jackie Edison’s habits.

Det. James Moore: We had been gonna do a gunshot residue take a look at on their arms … we then separated them and at the moment Jackie broke down, hysterically.

Jim Axelrod: And what’d you make of it?

Det. James Moore: That was a serious crimson flag for me. … we knew there was one thing extra to this at that time.

DETECTIVE: A lady officer put your mother on the telephone after which your mother advised you what occurred?

NICK SHAUGHNESSY: Yeah. … she is like, “somebody got here in the home. There was an change of gunfire.” I consider she fired a shot after which she ran to the closet.

In questioning later that day, Nick and Jackie reminded police they’d been at their residence in College Station when the capturing occurred.

JACKIE EDISON (police interview): We each moved to College Station, and he simply works from residence.

A couple of days later, investigators acquired a search warrant.

Det. James Moore: Once we get into the condominium we’re going by way of it, we’re discovering ammunition…

Though frequent amongst gun homeowners, the ammunition was the identical model and caliber that was discovered on the crime scene. And investigators had been about to seek out proof the couple was conserving secrets and techniques.

Det. James Moore:  We discover a marriage certificates for Nick and Jaclyn.

Jim Axelrod: You found that Nick and Jackie had been married by looking Nick’s condominium?

Det. James Moore: Yep.

Jim Axelrod: In the entire dialog you had been having … they by no means stated that they had been married?

Det. James Moore: No.

A teenage buddy of Nick’s named Spencer Patterson, who’d been licensed as a minister on-line, had married them eight months earlier. Police weren’t the one ones stunned. 

Jim Axelrod: You and Ted by no means knew? 

Corey Shaughnessy: No.

Corey Shaughnessy says Nick and Jackie did not inform her about their clandestine marriage till after the homicide.

Corey Shaughnessy: And I advised them, I stated … “this isn’t — you should not have carried out this. You’re too younger.

Trying to be mother, she says she promised to assist them plan a correct wedding ceremony.

Corey Shaughnessy: I stated … “it’s essential do it the suitable means.”

Corey had ample alternative to ensure it occurred, as a result of, over the following few days, Nick and Jackie moved again into her home.

Corey Shaughnessy: We had been planning the engagement social gathering. We had the visitor record. Jackie was choosing out invites.

That’s particularly chilling, as a result of whereas police initially had checked out all three for the homicide, they now suspected simply two — and that Nick and Jackie had additionally focused Corey. But it was nonetheless solely a working concept.

Jim Axelrod: You cannot say something to Corey?

Det. Paul Salo: No.

Det. James Moore: That — that is a tough line to stroll.

Jim Axelrod:  If you may have two individuals who deliberate her killing now dwelling together with her, are you anxious about Corey’s security?

Det. James Moore: Of course, in fact.

But Corey Shaughnessy says what anxious her was the likelihood authorities had been attempting to border her son, who by now was working in his father’s place on the jewellery retailer.

Corey Shaughnessy: There’s a set of circumstances that the police try to — to — to make work in … the simplest means that they will.

On March 10, 2018, she employed her son the very best protection lawyer she may discover.

Corey Shaughnessy: You may have advised me aliens landed on the entrance yard, and … I’d have believed that earlier than I’d’ve believed that Nicholas and Jackie deliberate to have us killed. 

STARTLING CLUES CONFIRM AND EXPAND INVESTIGATORS’ SUSPICIONS

Corey Shaughnessy knew police had been suspicious of Nick and Jackie, however she says she had no motive to suppose they had been proper. After all, she says they’d been mistaken about her.

Corey Shaughnessy: The final thing that I’d ever do can be kill my husband … and … I believed, nicely, in the event that they suppose I did it … it is not a stretch for them to suppose Nicolas did it. 

But the nearer police seemed, the extra incriminating proof they appeared to seek out that Nick and Jackie had deliberate to have each Shaughnessys killed. While telephone data confirmed Nick had been greater than 100 miles away on the time of the homicide, additionally they confirmed he was mendacity when he stated he hadn’t been to Austin for a month.

Det. Paul Salo: We finally see … cellphone utilization in Austin on February twenty eighth, which is simply two days earlier than Ted finally ends up getting killed.

Investigators puzzled if he had been on the town making ultimate preparations. There had been textual content messages on Nick and Jackie’s telephones that police say confirmed a suspicious dialog.

Jim Axelrod: How necessary was the textual content message that he had despatched out February 23, 24? … Nick is saying he is “engaged on it.”

Det. Paul Salo: And Jackie’s response to the textual content message was, “do they need 50K or not?” And she says, “we will not afford to pay half earlier than.”

In one other change, Nick asks her to withdraw cash from her account: “so if it occurs … money in hand.”  

Det. Paul Salo: They do make this withdrawal.

Jackie withdrew $1,000 from the financial institution simply days earlier than the homicide. Authorities suspected it was no coincidence. Then, in May 2018 , they talked to the person who had officiated Nick and Jackie’s wedding ceremony – that prime college buddy, Spencer Patterson.

Det. James Moore: Trying to get ahold of Spencer was sort of troublesome.

At first, investigators believed Patterson may be a suspect. But once they lastly reached him, he proved to be a vital witness as a substitute. He advised them simply earlier than the homicide, Nick had talked about coming into $8 million with Ted and Corey gone.

Jim Axelrod: Nick had put a greenback signal on the lives of his mother and father.

Det. Paul Salo: Yes.

Det. James Moore: Yep.

Jim Axelrod: That’s chilling.

Det. Paul Salo: It is.

Patterson confirmed them textual content messages that had been much more chilling.

Det. James Moore: There’s additionally communication between Spencer and Nicolas, the place Nicolas was attempting to rent him to kill a household. 

“Just stroll in and shoot a household,” writes Nick. “Steal all their s—-, no masks wanted cuz they will all be lifeless.” 

Det. James Moore: Spencer did not need to go together with it. But Nick nonetheless pitched the thought.

Police cleared Patterson, and on May 29, 2018, they arrested Nick Shaughnessy and Jackie Edison for legal solicitation. Corey could not consider it.

Corey Shaughnessy: I’m nonetheless below the idea that … he is being wrongly accused.

For months, Corey had stood by Nick. But she advised us that when she learn the arrest affidavits and noticed the proof, her rock-solid perception in his innocence started to crumble. 

Corey Shaughnessy: I acquired to the place I understood that sure, they had been concerned ultimately.

But as a mom, she says she nonetheless could not persuade herself they’d intentionally tried to kill anybody.

Corey Shaughnessy: I used to be then hoping that that they had perhaps gotten caught up in one thing in College Station the place perhaps Nicolas owed somebody cash or perhaps there was some kind of a wierd drug factor or perhaps he advised the mistaken individual that we had been jewelers.

Confident Nick and Jackie had been behind the assault, police hoped a while in jail may make them come clear about who had really pulled the set off. For the second although, neither one was speaking.

Amy Meredith: The subsequent step was … who had been the precise shooters and the way can we determine this out?

The proof path had primarily run chilly.

Det. James Moore: So we kinda hit a stall level.

In early July, 4 months after the homicide, Moore determined to assessment some safety video from Nick and Jackie’s porch, recorded simply two days earlier than the assault.

Det. James Moore: I see two people present as much as his entrance door.

Moore says he observed one thing about one of many males that made him freeze the video — one thing he was carrying.

Det. James Moore: A inexperienced … Andersen T-shirt.

Jim Axelrod: Window firm.

Det. James Moore: A window firm.

Jim Axelrod: This seems like a break, and it solely occurs since you remoted a body of the video from the safety digital camera?

Det. James Moore: Yeah.

Moore and Salo drove to the window firm the place their onerous work bumped into extra good luck. By sheer coincidence, an worker’s daughter stated she’d really met the person within the freeze body. Apparently, he’d solely labored there for a number of days — 4 years earlier.

Det. Paul Salo: And this girl nonetheless remembered his title.

Jim Axelrod: Sergeant, what are the percentages of successful like this on the identification?

Det. James Moore: It was … loopy that we acquired that break.

His title was Cameron Vosmek and he wasn’t residence that day. But his spouse answered the door — and shortly acquired their consideration.

Det. Paul Salo: “I do know why you are right here.”

Det. Paul Salo: “That, child who … employed someone to — to kill his jewellery retailer mother and father.”

Jim Axelrod: Hang on. She would not know who you guys are. You determine yourselves as detectives and he or she says, “I do know why you are right here?”

Det. Paul Salo: Yes.

She stated a number of months earlier, a person named Johnny Leon had requested her husband to commit homicide for cash. But he turned him down. Police dominated out Vosmek as a suspect. But Leon turned out to be the opposite particular person within the safety video from Nick and Jackie’s porch. When they introduced him in for questioning, he advised them he was no assassin. But he admitted Nick had tried to rent him.

JOHNNY LEON: (police interview) I’m not gonna mislead you, when somebody affords you 100K, you are gonna give it some thought …

DET. MOORE: He’s luring you into this to commit homicide.

JOHNNY LEON Yeah …

But police had been satisfied that Leon had taken the bait.

DET. MOORE (police interview): I’m simply telling you; we all know you are concerned on this. We know what occurred …

JOHNNY LEON: You know I’m concerned?

DET. MOORE: Absolutely. There is little question.

Leon was arrested for capital homicide, and on his telephone, police discovered proof he might not have acted alone. There was a flurry of contacts across the time of the killing with a Fort Worth man named Arieon Smith. They additionally found each males had arrest data. In truth, the 2 had been arrested collectively for medicine a 12 months earlier.

Det. Paul Salo: Detective Moore and I interviewed him. …he did admit that he had met Nick.

Det. Paul Salo: He gave us loads of good data.

Smith opened up in regards to the particulars of that evening and broke down within the course of.

DET. MOORE (police interview): You’re the one individual that’s displaying remorse.

ARIEON SMITH: I do not perceive how, how may you kill someone and never have any emotion about it? And you really killed them. I used to be simply within the scenario. … I’m — I’m — I’m devastated. I can not sleep at evening.

Prosecutors had been nearer than ever to having every thing they wanted to make their case.

Amy Meredith:  We’ve acquired sufficient. … Now, let’s go to trial.

That’s one thing Nick Shaughnessy advised “48 Hours” he’d needed to keep away from.

A BELOVED SON’S BETRAYAL  

After police arrested the final of their 4 suspects, Arieon Smith, Det. Salo says Smith advised them he wasn’t simply there for Ted’s homicide.

ARIEON SMITH (police interview): Yes, I used to be there.

Smith acknowledged firing the deadly shot, after which made a surprising request —

ARIEON SMITH (police interview): I request the loss of life penalty. 

— the loss of life penalty.

ARIEON SMITH (police interview): I killed someone, I should die. Simple as that. 

He additionally advised police the place to seek out the homicide weapon. It was the .40 caliber pistol lacking from that field they’d present in Nick’s previous bed room.

Jim Axelrod: The .40 caliber gun that killed Ted was Ted’s.

Corey Shaughnessy: Yes.

For a mom who’d struggled for months to maintain religion in her son, it felt just like the final straw.

Corey Shaughnessy: Too a lot had occurred … that pointed to Nicolas and Jackie having involvement.

And Corey was horrified to comprehend she’d spent months sheltering the very individuals who’d deliberate to have Ted and her murdered that evening.

Jim Axelrod: What a chilling thought — two individuals who tried to have you ever killed they usually’re dwelling in your house.

Corey Shaughnessy: Very. It’s … very chilling.

Corey Shaughnessy: I purchased all of the groceries. I paid all of the payments. I purchased her clothes.

Jim Axelrod: This is diabolical.

Corey Shaughnessy: Absolutely … they thought that they had gotten away with it.

DETECTIVE (police interview): Do you like Jackie or Jaclyn?

JACKIE EDISON: Jackie.

After their arrest, it took simply a few weeks for Jackie responsible Nick.

DETECTIVE: Did Nicolas rent someone… to kill his mother and father?

JACKIE EDISON: Yeah.

And Jackie appeared to know why he’d carried out it. She says Nick was in determined monetary straits, with a failing day buying and selling enterprise and hundreds in overdue loans together with not less than one from Corey.

JACKIE EDISON (police interview): I believe his mother gave him $30,000 … and he or she anticipated cash in return, however he wasn’t paying her.

After her cooperation, authorities launched Jackie on a lowered bond. And prosecutor Amy Meredith resolved to go after Nick for the utmost.

Amy Meredith: We’re going to strive Nick Shaughnessy for capital homicide.

Jim Axelrod: At this level, had been you ready to testify towards Nick?

Corey Shaughnessy: Yes.

Nick Shaughnessy and the 2 alleged hit males had been charged with capital homicide. But by the spring of 2021, Amy Meredith had left her job as assistant district lawyer. And there was a brand new DA, José Garza, whose workplace made the boys a suggestion: keep away from a attainable loss of life sentence by pleading responsible to a lowered cost of homicide and serve 35 years with the opportunity of parole. Leon and Smith agreed, and Corey wrote to Nick to recommend he do the identical.

Corey Shaughnessy: If I may communicate to Ted, I believe that will have been his alternative.

Nick Shaughnessy accepted the deal. He may very well be launched when he’s 36. In the summer time of 2023, “48 Hours” visited him in jail close to Houston.

Jim Axelrod: Did you rent folks to go kill your mother and father?

Nick Shaughnessy: Yes, Jackie and I participated in a number of points to kill my …

Jim Axelrod: Never thoughts participated in a number of points. Did you pay these two males to go kill your mother and father?

Nick Shaughnessy: Yes.

Nick advised us he is sorry for all of it.

Nick Shaughnessy: I do know … that I’m right here due to these actions.

Jim Axelrod: Nick on the finish of the day, are you sorry for what you probably did or are you sorry that you simply acquired caught?

Nick Shaughnessy: I’m most actually, passionately sorry, for what I did.

And Nick advised us he by no means would have carried out it – if not for Jackie.

Jim Axelrod: It was a really poisonous relationship.

Although he stood to inherit his mother and father’ cash finally, he advised us he wasn’t ready to attend.

Jim Axelrod: Were you in any respect pondering … “what am I doing?:

Nick Shaughnessy: Of course. … it was at all times at the back of my head. like crimson flags — like cease, do not go.

Jim Axelrod: The again of your head. Why not the entrance of your head?

Nick Shaughnessy: I suppose the validation or approval from Jackie.

It is difficult to understand how a lot Jackie Edison ought to be blamed or what punishment she deserves. And jurors will not get to resolve. She too acquired a deal from the workplace of the brand new DA. For pleading responsible to conspiracy to commit capital homicide by terror menace or different felony — a jail sentence of 120 days and 10 years’ probation.

Corey Shaughnessy: It’s astounding. It’s completely astounding.

She started serving her time in June 2023.

Corey Shaughnessy: It is an outright dismissal of every thing that I went by way of as a sufferer. And it is a dismissal of Ted’s life.

Jim Axelrod: Three are doing 35 years, one is doing 120 days. Corey says that is outrageous. … What are your ideas?

Amy Meredith: I … had no involvement as soon as I left the district lawyer’s workplace on Jackie’s case.

Amy Meredith was working elsewhere earlier than prosecutors supplied the plea offers. Corey’s emotions aren’t misplaced on her.

Jim Axelrod: Do you perceive her rage?

Amy Meredith: I … completely perceive that she is upset.

Corey is so upset that when the brand new prosecutors requested her to look at Jackie’s 2023 plea listening to, she refused – as a substitute, recording a video at residence to be performed in court docket:

COREY SHAUGHNESSY (video court docket assertion:  I’m alive as a result of your plan to have me murdered … did not succeed.

COREY SHAUGHNESSY (video court docket assertion): You are a monster. You are evil and everybody must comprehend it.

COREY SHAUGHNESSY (video court docket assertion): You knew what was about to occur, and but you sat residence and did nothing since you needed it to occur …

We needed to ask Jackie Edison about that and different issues, however she declined our request for an interview. On the day she was launched from jail, our producer Jenna Jackson approached her.

JACKIE EDISON SPEAKS TO 48 HOURS

Corey and Nick Shaughnessy have not spoken straight since his 2018 arrest.

Jim Axelrod: When you look within the mirror, do you see evil?

Nick Shaughnessy: My mother said that. Me being evil. … I do not see evil in me.

These days, it is secure to say they do not see eye to eye. In truth, there could also be just one factor they do agree on.

Corey Shaughnessy: Jackie is just not a sufferer.

Jim Axelrod: This is a fifty-fifty factor?

Nick Shaughnessy: Most undoubtedly

Jim Axelrod: Did Jaclyn Edison get away with homicide?

Corey Shaughnessy: Absolutely.

On Oct. 17, 2023, Jackie Edison walked out of an Austin-area jail after serving her four-month sentence.

Jenna Jackson: Hey, Jaclyn.

We’d been asking for an interview for months.

Jackie Edison: I do not wanna do any interviews.

But “48 Hours” producer Jenna Jackson had some questions for her anyway.

Jenna Jackson: Nick acquired 35 years, the hit males acquired the identical. You acquired 120 days. … Are you getting away with homicide?

Jackie Edison: No. I believe that — I believe that it is truthful. I believe it precisely displays the extent of involvement.

Jenna Jackson: Corey and Nick have each advised us is that … you’re a associate on this homicide plot.

Jackie Edison Yeah … I believe Nick is — is saying no matter he has to say to sort of clear his title. Um, and Corey may be very a lot in denial about what actually occurred.

Jenna Jackson: You weren’t in on this plot?

Jackie Edison: I used to be not in on it. No.

Jenna Jackson :Didn’t get cash out to pay the hit males?

Jackie Edison: No. No ma’am.

Det. James Moore: Is she harmless? Absolutely not.

Amy Meredith: No … She knew. She knew what he was attempting to do.

Det. James Moore: She may have stopped this at any time.

JACKIE EDISON (police interview: I attempted to cease him.

But investigators say there is no such thing as a proof Jackie ever tried to cease the homicide.

Det. James Moore: She’s no princess on this.

And in accordance with what Nick advised authorities, Jackie had been planning for spending the Shaughnessys’ cash.

Corey Shaughnessy: I discovered that Jackie … already picked out the automotive she was going to purchase her mom with the cash that they made.

Jim Axelrod: Off of the homicide of you and Ted?

Corey Shaughnessy: Yes.

Det. James Moore: I’m not defending her by any diploma.

Though she did finally assist them make their case towards the particular person they recognized as the important thing wrongdoer.

Det. James Moore: They’re each responsible. Who took extra motion? … it is Nick.

Det. Paul Salo: You take Nick out of this you do not have the incident.

Jim Axelrod: You take Jackie out?

Det. James Moore: It nonetheless occurs.

Jim Axelrod: Do you perceive Corey’s frustration?

Det. James Moore: I do.

Det. Paul Salo: Absolutely.

Det. James Moore: We empathize together with her.

But Moore and Salo say Jackie’s plea deal wasn’t their name.

Det. James Moore: Our job ended on the arrest and there is not a single step additional that we will take it.

We needed to ask DA Jose Garza precisely why Edison acquired 120 days, after the opposite three acquired 35 years, however he would not conform to an interview. A spokesperson for the district lawyer despatched “48 Hours” a press release saying, “Our workplace takes acts of violence severely and is dedicated to holding individuals who commit violent crimes accountable.” The assertion additionally stated Edison is on 10 years’ probation and if she violates the phrases, she may face 20 years in jail.  

Corey Shaughnessy says a full clarification from authorities would have helped her make sense of one thing that has at all times struck her as impossibly mistaken.

Jim Axelrod: So nobody’s ever defined to you why this huge disparity … in sentence?

Corey Shaughnessy: No, completely not.

Nick Shaughnessy: It’s a … slap within the face to my mom.

Jim Axelrod: Now you are involved about your mom?

Nick Shaughnessy: Most undoubtedly.

True or not, Nick Shaughnessy advised us he hopes sometime Corey will agree to talk with him.

Jim Axelrod: What would you say to her?

Nick Shaughnessy:  I want I may inform my mother how actually sorry I’m, that this isn’t one thing I’m pleased with and I failed her as a son.

Corey Shaughnessy (watching video of Nick’s apology): It means nothing to me.

Jim Axelrod: Do you suppose he believes it? What he is saying?

Corey Shaughnessy: I do not know that particular person. I don’t know who Nicolas Shaughnessy is.

And Corey says there is no such thing as a level responding to an apology she was by no means meant to listen to.

Corey Shaughnessy: In my thoughts, I’m presupposed to be lifeless. And so, I’m a ghost and ghosts cannot communicate.

But even after a betrayal no mom ought to ever need to see…Corey nonetheless cannot convey herself to sentence her son altogether.

Jim Axelrod: Do you continue to love your son?

Corey Shaughnessy: I like the particular person I knew to be my son earlier than this occurred.

Jim Axelrod: You love that 8-year-old boy racing automobiles together with his dad.

Corey Shaughnessy: Yes.

She is aware of that boy is gone without end and so is the life she and Ted tried to construct round him.

Corey Shaughnessy: Nicolas and Jackie destroyed my whole world. … They took my husband … They took reminiscences, they took my enterprise … they took every thing I had that I cared about.

But, now dwelling out of state below a special title, Corey is set to benefit from day by day.

Corey Shaughnessy: It’ll at all times be there. It’ll at all times be part of who I’m. But I’ve been given life. And I must do one thing with it.

As a parole requirement, for the following 10 years, on the anniversary of Ted Shaughnessy’s homicide, Jaclyn Edison should spend the evening in jail.    

“48 Hours” Post Mortem Podcast

Listen as host Anne-Marie Green, contributor Jim Axelrod and producer Jenna Jackson talk about Corey’s emotional journey to realizing her personal son had employed hit males to kill her and her husband for cash.  

Produced by Josh Yager. Jenna Jackson and Ryan N. Smith are the event producers. Shaheen Tokhi is the affiliate producer.  Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Atticus Brady and Diana Modica are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.

Jim Axelrod

Jim Axelrod is the chief correspondent and government editor for CBS News’ “Eye on America” franchise, a part of the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.” He additionally stories for “CBS Mornings,” “CBS News Sunday Morning,” and CBS News 24/7.