Naval Academy Confession: The Murder That Shocked Texas

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Two honor students, perfect grades, perfect futures, perfect love.

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But when David Graham confessed to cheating on his girlfriend, Diane,

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she had a solution that would fix everything.

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Kill the other girl.

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Nine months later, Diane couldn't help but brag to her naval Academy roommates about what they'd done.

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That's when 16-year-old Adrian Jones finally got justice.

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This is her story.

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[Music]

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Young love makes people do stupid things.

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But this story, this one takes it to a whole different level.

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On December 4, 1995, a farmer in Crowley, Texas found something that would haunt his community forever.

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The body of a 16-year-old girl lying in his field.

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Her name was Adrian Jones and she'd been beaten and shot in the head.

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She was wearing only a t-shirt and shorts in December, which told investigators everything they needed to know.

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She hadn't walked out there, probably.

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She definitely hadn't planned to die there.

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Someone brought her to that field specifically to kill her.

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Adrian was everything you'd expect from a Texas high school track star.

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Blond hair, blue eyes, the kind of personality that made everyone like her.

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She was literally the girl next door.

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The one parents hoped their sons would bring home, which made her murder even more baffling.

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The police did what they always do.

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They talked to everyone.

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Friends, family, classmates, teachers, random acquaintances.

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Most people had solid alibis.

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The ones who didn't had zero reason to hurt Adrian.

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She was genuinely well-liked, kind of person who didn't really have any enemies.

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The killer or killers had been smart, too.

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No DNA evidence at the scene.

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No witnesses.

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No obvious suspects.

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Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and the case went cold.

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Life moved on in Crowley.

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New students replaced graduating ones at Mansfield High School.

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And it seemed like fewer and fewer people would remember Adrian Jones.

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That's when something extraordinary happened.

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The break in this case came from the most unexpected place possible.

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Nine months after the murder, a group of young women were having one of those late night dorm room conversations that college girls have.

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They were at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, comparing boyfriends and talking about love the way that 18-year-olds do.

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One girl started by bragging about how much her boyfriend loved her.

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While other girls talked about promise rings and romantic gestures, this girl went nuclear.

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Her boyfriend loved her so much, she claimed, that he had killed someone for her.

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The room went silent.

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Something about the way she said it made the other girls realize that she wasn't exaggerating or trying to win some twisted competition.

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They reported what they heard to their superiors, who contacted police back in Texas.

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Finally, after nine months of dead ends, investigators had their first real lead.

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The girl bragging in that Maryland dorm room was 18-year-old Diane Zamora.

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She didn't know Adrian personally.

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They went to different schools and were different ages, but they had two things in common.

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Track and field, and a boy named David Graham.

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David and Diane had met when they were both 14 at a civil air patrol meeting in Spinks Airport near Crowley, Texas.

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They were the kind of teenagers that make parents proud.

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Both were honor students, both played sports, and both had their futures mapped out with military precision.

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Diane wanted to be an astronaut.

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David wanted to be a pilot.

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They started dating in August 1995 after knowing each other for four years.

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And within a month, they'd shock their parents with an announcement.

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They were getting engaged.

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The plan was flawless.

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David would join the Air Force, Diane would join the Navy.

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They'd both complete their training, establish their careers, and then reunite and get married.

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They had it all figured out.

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These two overachievers who seemed destined for greatness.

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Then, teenage emotions got in the way.

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One evening, David showed up at Diane's house with a stuffed animal, and what she later described as,

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"This look in his eyes that was horrible. He looked so scared."

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He couldn't bring himself to tell her what was wrong that night, but about a month later, the truth came out.

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After track practice one day, David had given Adrian Jones a ride home.

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According to David's confession, he pulled the car over during that ride, and they'd had sex.

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For Diane, this wasn't a simple case of teenage infidelity.

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This was a complete betrayal of everything they'd planned together.

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They were each others first everything, and that's how it was supposed to stay, forever.

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Diane's reaction was immediate and terrifying.

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She started screaming, hitting her head against the floor in a display of rage that would have alarmed any reasonable person.

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But David wasn't thinking reasonably. He wanted to fix this.

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He wanted to prove his love to Diane.

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Diane had a solution.

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There was one way and only one way that David could make this right.

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Adrian Jones had to die.

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What happened next shows how two intelligent teenagers can rationalize the unthinkable.

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They didn't act in passion or rage. They planned this murder methodically.

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In December 1995, David asked Adrian out on a date.

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She said yes. Probably excited that the popular track star was finally showing more interest in her.

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He picked her up and drove her toward Joe Poole Lake, where they'd be alone.

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But Adrian wasn't alone with David.

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Diane was hiding in the hatchback of the car, having climbed in before David picked Adrian up.

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They'd brought a dumbbell specifically as a weapon.

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When David stopped the car, Diane pushed down the back seats and climbed out of the trunk area.

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She pinned Adrian against the front seat and demanded to know if Adrian had really slept with David.

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Adrian, probably terrified and confused, admitted it was true.

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That admission sealed her fate.

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Diane hit Adrian over the head with the dumbbell.

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But Adrian fought back harder than they'd expected.

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David later described what happened next.

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Adrian somehow crawled through the window and, to our horror, ran off.

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I was panicky and grabbed the Macarov 9mm to follow.

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To our relief, at the time, she was too injured from the head wounds to go far.

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David stalked this injured 16-year-old girl through an empty field.

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When he found where she'd collapsed, he stood over her and shot her twice in the head.

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The bullets were later recovered from the soil beneath her body.

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When he returned to the car, David looked at Diane and said, "I love you, baby. Do you believe me now?"

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Apparently, murder was enough proof for Diane.

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She forgave David's transgression.

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And they cleaned up the evidence and returned to their normal lives.

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They might have even gotten away with it, too, if Diane had been able to keep her mouth shut.

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Both David and Diane were arrested for "capital murder," which in Texas can carry the death penalty.

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When questioned separately, they both confessed, but they both tried to save themselves by blaming the other.

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Each claimed to be the reluctant participant.

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Each claimed the other person pulled the trigger, but their original confession matched,

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and both the murder weapon and the dumbbell were found in David's room.

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The only thing standing between these two teenagers and the executioner was the judge, and one unlikely ally.

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Adrienne's mother, Linda Jones, did something that shocked everyone involved in the case.

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She petitioned the court to spare David and Diane from the death penalty.

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"It's difficult to lose a child," she told reporters, "but to see other children die is pointless."

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The judge listened to Linda's plea, and the case proceeded to what became one of the most watched televised courtrooms.

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The judge touched televised court proceedings in Texas at the time.

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The question wasn't whether David and Diane were guilty. They'd already confessed.

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The question was, what degree of guilt would determine their sentences?

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Murder would mean they'd intentionally killed Adrienne.

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Capital murder would mean they'd kidnapped her with the intention of killing her.

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The difference would determine whether they faced life in prison or death.

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The prosecution argued that luring Adrienne out of her house under false pretenses constituted kidnapping.

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The jury agreed.

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David and Diane were convicted of capital murder, but with the death penalty off the table, thanks to Linda Jones, they received the only sentence left.

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Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 40 years.

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Both David Graham and Diane Zamora are currently serving life sentences.

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They'll be eligible for parole in 2036, 40 years after their conviction.

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They'll be in their late 50s if they're ever released.

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Since the trial, Adrienne's family has mostly stayed out of the spotlight, but Linda Jones' words at the sinencing hearing still resonate.

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The end of this day is not the end of my life or my family's life, but I hope that everyone remembers our daughter with the integrity that she had, because she's still among us, watching us.

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I remember her eyes with joy.

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This case became known as the Cadet Killer's case, and it's easy to see why it captivated the nation.

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Two teenagers who seem to have everything going for them.

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Looks, brains, promising futures, threw it all away for what amounted to a teenage mistake.

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The story forces us to confront uncomfortable questions about love, about how far someone might go to prove their devotion, and about how quickly a perfect life can become a perfect nightmare.

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David and Diane thought they were protecting their future together. Instead, they destroyed three lives and devastated multiple families.

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Most people make mistakes in young love. Most people get jealous, get hurt, get angry, but most people don't plan and execute a murder over teenage infidelity.

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The difference between David and Diane and everyone else wasn't the intensity of their love, it was their complete inability to see Adrian Jones as a human being worthy of life.

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Today, Adrian would be in her mid-40s. Instead, she's remembered as a 16-year-old track star, whose only mistake was accepting a ride and later agreeing to what she thought was a date.

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Or killers robbed her of a lifetime of possibilities, all for a love that wasn't even worth preserving anyway. The most tragic part, if David and Diane had broken up like normal teenagers do when someone cheats, they would probably be living completely different lives today.

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Instead, they're spending their prime adult years in prison, and Adrian Jones never got to live hers at all.

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Thanks for listening to "10 Minute Murder," bingeable true crime stories.

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I'm Joe, that's my name, I am the host of this podcast, and I appreciate you listening. If you're new, subscribe wherever you're listening right now if you enjoyed it.

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Also go to 10minutemerder.com, you'll find everything out about the show, you can also send me an email like this one.

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Subjects need a cheesy palette cleanser. Hey Joe, love the podcast, but sometimes after a heavy case I need a quick laugh to reset my brain.

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Can you tell us the cheesiest, corneast, dad joke level joke you know, the kind that makes people grown and then laugh?

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Thanks for keeping things entertaining and morbid. Liam and Kansas City, and Liam, I'll do my best.

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This is one of my favorites, and if you don't like it, you're wrong.

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What do you call a magician that is also a dog? A labra cadaver door. You're welcome.

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Alright, that is going to do it, that's your episode for today, thank you again for listening, and I will see you on the next one.