The Midnight Baseball Bat Murders: A Grandson's Unthinkable Crime

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,120
At 5.57am, February 13th, 2016, a young man called 911 from a Walmart parking lot.

2
00:00:08,120 --> 00:00:13,720
He was covered in blood, claimed he didn't know where he came from, and he didn't have shoes on.

3
00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:20,080
20 minutes later, police would find his grandparents dead in their beds, beaten with a baseball bat.

4
00:00:20,080 --> 00:00:22,800
But that's where this story really begins.

5
00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:46,160
[Music]

6
00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:51,720
In February 2016, Branchburg, New Jersey was the kind of quiet suburban community,

7
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,680
where terrible things aren't supposed to happen there.

8
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,600
The big bad stuff only happens in the big bad cities.

9
00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:02,800
It was the kind of place where 78-year-old Hungarian immigrants, like Louis Simon Jr.,

10
00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:08,360
could build a life as an engineer and inventor, holding multiple patents in recycled plastics.

11
00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:14,600
Louis arrived in America in 1956 with nothing but determination and mechanical brilliance

12
00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,520
that made him a pioneer in environmental engineering.

13
00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,360
His patents and recycled plastics technology were groundbreaking,

14
00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:28,600
converting plastic waste into usable construction materials decades before environmental consciousness became mainstream.

15
00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:35,120
Those who knew him called him a mechanical genius, but that underestimates his contribution to the American industry.

16
00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:39,960
He was self-employed because his vision was too advanced for most companies to understand.

17
00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:43,120
Betty, his wife, had her own remarkable story.

18
00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:48,560
A Brooklyn native and former Ford model, who built a 21-year career at Verizon Wireless,

19
00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:52,920
she was also a CCD teacher who shared her faith with young people.

20
00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,080
Together, they created something beautiful.

21
00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:59,520
Their Branchburg home became the gathering place for a large extended family.

22
00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:05,080
Betty planned every holiday, remembered every birthday, and made sure nobody felt forgotten.

23
00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:07,200
They had earned their golden years.

24
00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:10,520
They're quiet Saturday mornings, their cruise vacations.

25
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,880
They had earned the right to feel safe in the home they had worked so hard to create.

26
00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:19,920
But on that cold February morning, their story ended in the most brutal way possible.

27
00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:27,000
At 5.57am, Reddington Township Police received a 911 call that would haunt anyone who heard it.

28
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:33,880
The caller was 20-year-old Ezra Simon Daniels, and he was calling from the parking lot of a Walmart on Route 22.

29
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,160
The conversation was pretty bizarre.

30
00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,200
Ezra told the dispatcher he was shaking, had the car's seat heaters on,

31
00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,560
and when asked about his condition, he mentioned he had no shoes on,

32
00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,680
and there was blood on his feet.

33
00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,560
Not, I'm hurt, or I've been attacked.

34
00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:53,800
Something much stranger, something that suggested a complete disconnection from reality.

35
00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:56,000
Here's a part of that call.

36
00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,040
You don't remember how you got there?

37
00:02:58,040 --> 00:02:59,960
I have no idea, so...

38
00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:03,800
He said he was leaving from his grandmother's house at 115 Reddington Road.

39
00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:05,520
That's what he remembers last.

40
00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,120
Well, I don't remember it. I just assumed that's where I came from.

41
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:10,360
Okay, what is your name?

42
00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:11,880
My name is Ezra.

43
00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:17,880
I remember I had pizza, and I was watching television, and I went to bed.

44
00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:20,880
Okay, and you're bleeding from where?

45
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:23,880
I'm not bleeding. I don't think so many where I check.

46
00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:26,880
But there's blood all over me.

47
00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:27,880
All over what?

48
00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:31,880
My legs, my feet, and my hands.

49
00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:34,880
Okay, you don't know what is your last memory?

50
00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,880
I was having pizza.

51
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:38,880
And...

52
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:40,880
And pizza, where?

53
00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:43,880
In the living room of my house.

54
00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:44,880
Oh, I asked.

55
00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:53,880
And I said, was having pizza at his house, and then went to bed.

56
00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:58,880
Do you think you took something that would have made you forget something?

57
00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:00,880
Have you been sick or...?

58
00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:01,880
I...

59
00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:07,880
The only thing I would have taken was a melatonin supplement the night before last.

60
00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:14,880
Okay, when you look at yourself, like your face and stuff, do you see anything broken or...?

61
00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:17,880
No, it's blocked, but it was...

62
00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,880
You don't have a shoes on.

63
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:21,880
What are the issues?

64
00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:24,880
And there's blood on your feet?

65
00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:26,880
Yeah.

66
00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:31,880
When officers arrived 18 minutes later, they found as we're sitting in the driver's seat of a car,

67
00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:34,880
covered in blood but completely un-injured.

68
00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:39,880
The Somerset County Prosecutor Jeffrey Soriano would later emphasize this critical detail.

69
00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,880
The blood wasn't his.

70
00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:44,880
Based on as was 911 call,

71
00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:49,880
Reddington Police contacted Branchburg officers to do a welfare check at the address that he had given them.

72
00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:54,880
When no one answered repeated knocks on the Simon Home, officers entered the residence.

73
00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,880
What they found was unconscionable.

74
00:04:57,880 --> 00:04:59,880
Lewis and Betty were dead in their bed.

75
00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:04,880
Victims of what investigators called significant blunt force trauma to their heads.

76
00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:06,880
They had been attacked while they slept.

77
00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,880
And what should have been the safest place for them in the world.

78
00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:14,880
The murder weapon was still inside the house, an aluminum baseball bat.

79
00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:16,880
Here's what makes this even more devastating.

80
00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,880
As where it wasn't some random intruder, he was their grandson.

81
00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:22,880
The young man they'd opened their home to.

82
00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:25,880
The family member they were trying to help.

83
00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:32,880
Lewis and Betty were at an age where they could have been enjoying retirement without responsibility or raising another generation.

84
00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:34,880
Instead, they opened their home to their grandson.

85
00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:37,880
Believing they could provide the stability he needed.

86
00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:42,880
They were the kind of grandparents who would never give up on family, even when family became challenging.

87
00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,880
The family's grief was compounded by media attention.

88
00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:50,880
Lewis's obituary contained a handwritten note that speaks volumes.

89
00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:53,880
No press allowed at the funeral services.

90
00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:57,880
These were people who had to bury their loved ones while the world watched.

91
00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:06,880
The fact that they felt compelled to ban the media from the premises of the funeral tells us everything we need to know about how invasive the coverage had become.

92
00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:09,880
The Simon family had to navigate something unthinkable.

93
00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:15,880
Morning, their murdered loved ones, while grappling with the reality that the killer was also their family member.

94
00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:18,880
Betty was remembered for having a heart of gold.

95
00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,880
Lewis was called wonderful and one of the best by colleagues.

96
00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:27,880
Tribute walls on their online obituaries were filled with messages from a shattered community.

97
00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:34,880
These were real people whose lives ended in unimaginable violence at the hands of someone who should have been protecting them.

98
00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:41,880
Ezra was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

99
00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,880
Bale was set at $2 million cash only.

100
00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:50,880
By June 2016, he had been formally indicted by a Somerset County grand jury.

101
00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:53,880
But here's where the case becomes even more complex.

102
00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,880
Ezra claimed he had no memory of what happened that night.

103
00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:00,880
Complete amnesia regarding the most violent act imaginable.

104
00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:05,880
He genuinely appeared to have no recollection of the events that led to his grandparents' death.

105
00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:11,880
This revelation forced the legal system to grapple with fundamental questions about criminal responsibility.

106
00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:17,880
In New Jersey, prosecutors must prove both the physical act and the mental state required for conviction.

107
00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:24,880
When a defendant claims complete memory loss, it creates unprecedented challenges for both prosecution and defense.

108
00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:35,880
Ezra underwent psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Martin Weinappel at Princeton, a process that would determine whether he was competent to stand trial and potentially lay groundwork for an insanity defense.

109
00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:39,880
Competency focuses on the defendant's present mental state.

110
00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:43,880
Can they understand the charges and assist in their own defense?

111
00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,880
An insanity defense focuses on their mental state at the time of the crime.

112
00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:55,880
Ezra was sent to the Ancline Forensic Center in Trenton for Evaluation, a facility that specializes in these complex assessments.

113
00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,880
Cases involving complete memory loss present unique challenges.

114
00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:04,880
How do you assess someone's mental state during a time they claim to not remember?

115
00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:07,880
The legal proceedings in cases like this can stretch on for years.

116
00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:16,880
Competency hearings, psychiatric evaluations, and potential appeals create a lab-ruth process that can leave families without closure.

117
00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:21,880
This explains why many cases involving psychiatric defenses disappear from public view.

118
00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:25,880
They're often resolved through plea agreements that avoid the uncertainty of trial.

119
00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:32,880
This case raises uncomfortable questions about mental health, family dynamics, and criminal responsibility.

120
00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:38,880
What happens in someone's mind to make them capable of such violence against people who love them?

121
00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:43,880
The answer came through years of psychiatric evaluations that revealed the devastating truth.

122
00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:49,880
Ezra was eventually declared incompetent to stand trial and diagnosed with schizophrenia.

123
00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:54,880
The murder charges were dismissed, but he was committed to Greystone State Psychiatric Hospital.

124
00:08:54,880 --> 00:09:02,880
By February 2021, a judge found that Ezra's complex and complete delusional system precludes meaningful interaction with his attorney.

125
00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:12,880
During one hearing, a psychiatrist testified that Ezra had told her a coyote told him to cut himself and spread his blood all over his face, walls, and mirror.

126
00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:14,880
And he had followed those instructions.

127
00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:18,880
These aren't the delusions of someone who chose to be violent.

128
00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:23,880
These are symptoms of someone whose brain chemistry had fundamentally broken down.

129
00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:27,880
For years, the public records seemed to vanish. Now we know why.

130
00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:32,880
Starting in 2021, Ezra filed appeals to be released from psychiatric commitment.

131
00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:38,880
In multiple hearings, psychiatrist testified that he was still experiencing hallucinations and remain dangerous.

132
00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:44,880
Even when claiming his medication was working, psychiatrist suspected that he wasn't taking it.

133
00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:51,880
When a judge ruled in 2022 that he should remain committed, Ezra interrupted saying, "It's not fair. It wasn't my fault.

134
00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:53,880
I didn't do a damn thing wrong."

135
00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,880
Even years later, he couldn't grasp reality.

136
00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:05,880
A state appellate court rejected his appeals in 2023 and 27-year-old Ezra Simon Daniels remains at Greystone State Psychiatric Hospital.

137
00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:08,880
The radio silence in the case wasn't a system failure.

138
00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:13,880
It was the system working when mental illness and violent crime intersect.

139
00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:16,880
Lewis and Betty weren't killed by someone who chose to hurt them.

140
00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:21,880
They were killed by their grandson, whose mind had been destroyed by schizophrenia.

141
00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:27,880
A disease that typically manifests in late teens and early 20s, exactly when Ezra was living with them.

142
00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:33,880
The signs were probably there, but early schizophrenia symptoms can look like normal teenage behavior.

143
00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:38,880
Lewis and Betty probably thought they were dealing with a troubled young man who needed some guidance.

144
00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:43,880
They had no way of knowing they were living with someone whose brain was literally deteriorating.

145
00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:49,880
[Music]

146
00:10:49,880 --> 00:11:02,880
Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories.

147
00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:06,880
I'm Joe, I'm the host and if you're a new listener to this podcast, welcome in.

148
00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:12,880
So glad that you're here, kick your shoes off, put your feet up, and get ready to binge away some true crime cases.

149
00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:15,880
But first, make sure you hit subscribe.

150
00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:20,880
Now, whether you're new or whether you're an OG listener, you can all go to the website 10minuteMurder.com.

151
00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:25,880
I'm putting things there pretty often and you can also contact me on the website.

152
00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:30,880
And here is one of those messages, subject podcast guest, Hi Joe.

153
00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:34,880
If you could have a guest on 10 Minute Murder, anyone at all, who would you pick?

154
00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:39,880
Could be a famous author, a criminologist or even a celebrity fan.

155
00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:44,880
That's from Sophie from Toronto. Sophie, I'll tell you, that's a pretty no brainer for me.

156
00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:52,880
I've mentioned on this podcast probably a half a dozen times how much I'm interested in like the profiling aspect of the criminals.

157
00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:55,880
How they develop profiles to catch some of these killers.

158
00:11:55,880 --> 00:12:03,880
So I would have to say someone in the ilk of John Douglas and Robert Ressler, one of those FBI profiler types,

159
00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:12,880
just to come on and talk about the different cases they've covered that they can talk about their process, things that surprise them, and things like that.

160
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,880
I think that would be pretty cool. I don't know how I would condense that to 10 minutes though.

161
00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:21,880
I've thought about doing that, but I don't know that I could condense that to 10 minutes. I think it would be impossible.

162
00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:22,880
But it would be really interesting.

163
00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:24,880
Alright, that's going to do it for this episode.

164
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:26,880
Thank you again, Sophie, for the email.

165
00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:29,880
And if you want to send me an email, you can go to 10minuteMurder.com.

166
00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:34,880
If you enjoyed the episode today, share it with your friends and family, and I'll see you next time.