Oct. 30, 2026
Indiana Governor To Decide Fate Of Man Facing Execution For Murdering Two Children By Fire
Apple Podcasts 
Spotify 
Castro 
RSS Feed This week an Indiana parole board has pleaded with Governor Mike Braun to uphold the death sentence of 50-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit. Weisheit was convicted for the 2010 brutal killings of his then girlfriend’s two children ages 5 and 8. The details are excruciating, including the fact that Weisheit tied up 5-year-old Caleb Lynch after arguing with him, and placed a railroad flare in his underwear and underneath his body, before setting the home on fire with 8-year-old Alyssa hiding in the closet. Both children died in the fire, but there is an unlikely supporter of commuting Weisheit’s execution to life in prison: the children’s father.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, October 30th, and the governor of Indiana has a decision to make. Should he spare the life of a condemned killer? Some are trying to save this death row inmate's life, who has an execution coming up really, really soon. But others are saying, once you hear what this man did, give me a break. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This parole board already said robes that this guy should not be granted clemency. And they are begging the governor not to give this man clemency either.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: That's right. They actually the parole board. I don't know if I've seen this before or certainly not recently with a parole board. has actually pleaded with the governor of Indiana to execute Jeffrey Weisheit. And we know that the governor there, Mike Braun is his name, has already made one bit of a ruling. He's rejected Weisheit's attorney's request to have brain scans made before his execution. They're trying to say he's not right. He's not right in the head. We can prove it to you with these brain scans, and you should take that into consideration. before making your decision, Governor.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how they can figure that out. Now, this might be just science, and every neurologist out there might say, well, yes, of course they can do this. They're trying to determine if the man's brain was impacted by childhood trauma when he committed the murders. They're able to tell in some way if what's going on with his head was actually done at some point in his childhood. That is what they're trying to do a brain scan to consider. And the governor is saying no. But this is a guy who is all these cases are different. They're so similar in a lot of ways. Yes. Some of these are the worst of the worst crimes. And we talk about death row inmates. But this is this is this is awful. We've heard of people killing kids before. This was something else.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is among the worst of the worst crimes you could possibly commit because, yes, to murder children is horrific in and of itself, but to hear how he did it is kind of beyond comprehension at this point.
00:02:27
Speaker 1: The motive is upsetting as well when youâ when you hear that he was upset at the mother, but maybe taking it out on the kids. Is there even something about that that makes this especially heinous?
00:02:39
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and you see this in custody cases sometimes, and it does seem inexplicable, but we've seen parents murder their kids just to upset the other parent. They know that it's worse than death yourself to know that your children have been taken from you and murdered. because of you, because if anger actually directed at you, cost your children their lives, that is pretty much the ultimate punishment anybody could give another parent.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: And the parent here of the victims is a woman by the name of Lisa Lynch. She was in a relationship with Jeffrey Weishite. Again, he is the condemned murderer. The victims in this case are five and eight years old. Brother and sister Alyssa and Caleb. This crime happened back in 2010 in Evansville. This is in the southern tip of the state. Give you some perspective there. It's in the southern tip of the state and it's about two hours west of Louisville. That's one of the best reference points you can get for it. But this, the crime, we'll just get into exactly what happened that night and then we'll get into the why.
00:03:48
Speaker 2: Uh, Yes, because Jeffrey Weisheit was with the children home, alone with them apparently. He was looking after them while mom was away or mom was at work. But what he did took thought and planning and how he did it. I don't know. I was just, when you read about it, when you hear about it, to imagine step by step him going through with it. It's one thing to be angry. It's one thing to go, but to take a little five-year-old's hands and little Caleb and put them behind his back and then gag him with a rag. And then the most heinous part of this crime is that he actually put flares in Caleb's underwear and under his body. The fear, I don't even know if a five-year-old would even know what that was. And let's hope he didn't understand what it was.
00:04:44
Speaker 1: I bet he did. Five-year-old boy, curious about things, curious about things that light up, curious about. I bet he knew exactly. I don't know how the kid could possibly comprehend that this man who was supposed to be caring for him and the man that supposedly cares for his mom is tying him up, putting a rag in his mouth and then duct taping that rag. Duct taping a kid's hands behind his back. That is a fear and that's a horror for a five-year-old that in and of itself makes this a death penalty case to do that to a five-year-old. So that night, this is what happens. Yes, according to authorities, he ties this kid up and then packs his stuff up. Packs up nice and neatly, grabs all of his stuff and takes off in a car. And then it's not until the next morning that firefighters were called to the scene of a fire where they did find both kids' bodies were charred. They did say robes. It was soot and the inhalation that actually killed them. So they didn't burn to death, if you will. Yeah. As awful as that is. But they found the sister, Alyssa. She was in a closet. Not sure if she was trying to hide from him or flee the fire or what it was, but she was there. found in a closet. So that's the scene that night. He was eventually caught in Kentucky. They were able to track him down in a vehicle who let them on a high-speed chase. They said he was actually asking for police to kill him. When he got out, he threw a knife at one of the officers, and they used a taser on him. And that's how he was caught. Again, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Rob, something's got to be wrong with you to do what he did. Something's got to be mentally off. I can't imagine some people just mad or just mean or just snap. And this was not a snapped situation either.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't... Obviously, it's impossible to get inside, and I don't want to be inside a killer's head, but we always want to know the why. And this was... This was such a tough story, obviously, for what happened to those kids. But even when you go back and you look, there are reports that he actually was going to propose to their mother. And he actually, I guess, put a deposit down on a ring or he had a jeweler making an engagement ring. So he had big plans for the future with this woman and her two children. He was willing and seemingly wanting to become their stepdad. But the relationship apparently was not working out as he wanted it to. He quit his job. He took out a bunch of money from the bank. He canceled his ring order. But then he goes to trial and he testifies on his own behalf and he admits to arguing with Kit. What could a five-year-old say or do that would upset you so much that you would go to this extreme?
00:08:02
Speaker 1: Oh, the answer to that is obviously nothing. But you don't argue with a five-year-old. You're the adult. You discipline a five-year-old. You control the five-year-old. You are the adult in that. So it was odd how he put it. Now, he got on the stand. And we're going to read here a description for you that came from a court filing. And this kind of sums up, I guess, this kind of main part, Robes, that's in question here. Well, not in question, but the confusing part of him explaining what happened that night. It's bizarre. And then his final answer under cross-examination, or one of his final answers. is chilling to hear from somebody. When you're talking about he just killed two kids and his response is just, things happen.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: Things happen. Because he denies setting the fire.
00:08:48
Speaker 1: He denies setting the fire.
00:08:49
Speaker 2: He admitted to arguing with little five-year-old Caleb. He admitted to duct taping him. But he denies... Setting a fire, so he's trying to remove himself from their deaths, just that he was angry and left, correct?
00:09:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they, as this court filing put it, when the state pressed him with undisputed facts, including that the night Weisheit left with his belongings, he bound Caleb with duct tape and firefighters found Caleb with flares under his body, Weisheit responded, things happened. So he's on the witness stand, and he's under cross-examination, and finally they're nailing him down, and that is how he explains things. Now, he was convicted in 2013, but Robes, a lot that came out from that trial was about a tumultuous relationship he was in with Lisa Lynch. That was his girlfriend at the time, and Robes, she was pregnant. Wow.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: Wow. And it's not as though he thought the baby was his. That was, it seems, a big part of the issue. We mentioned the relationship breaking down. Well, he suspected she was having an affair. And what came out in court was that he apparently told a co-worker that he would kill her, burn everything, and then kill himself.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: So that goes in line with, as this circumstantial evidence starts piling up here, an idea that he didn't just snap. In March of 2010, so that would have been, what, the month before the murders, he stopped payment on that engagement ring you spoke of, told the juror, the juror testified, yes, said he had broken up with his girlfriend and he was leaving the country. Same month, he quit his job. And then the next month, that's when he became enraged, they say, at Caleb. And Rome's part of the reason, possibly, they say that the kids are dead is because she was pregnant. And therefore, he didn't go after her because she was pregnant. And so that might have been why he turned to the kids. That's bizarre as well. That's sick is what I should say.
00:10:57
Speaker 2: Because he didn't believe the baby was his, correct? So he wanted to take away her other children?
00:11:02
Speaker 1: Did he? I don't know. That's not that clear. But he was, they say, part of that was just paranoia. But yeah, it might have saved her life that she was pregnant. But it cost the kids theirs. That was a part of that conversation. So the parole board this week. Came back, said, please, sir, governor, do not pardon this guy. It's kind of a long letter here they put out. I underlined, I guess, some of the main parts here. But they lay out in great detail why they say this dude should not be given clemency at all.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: Yes. They say, we have now concluded our review and we unanimously recommend that you deny Jeffrey Weisheit's request for clemency. And they lay out a bunch of the reasons why, because like one, two, three, four. But they go over the crime itself. I mean, when you just what we just said, when you just read the crime, it's hard to imagine that a governor would say, you know what? Seems like you might have had some brain damage.
00:12:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is, as they lay out here, they give great descriptions. They say Jeffrey Weisheit has taken various levels of responsibility for his actions. During the early hours of the investigation, when Jeffrey was interviewed by law enforcement in the hospital, he was asked, did you do something to the kids? He responded, I don't remember. During the trial, he elected to testify in his defense. At that time, he admitted to tying Caleb up, but did not admit to setting the fire. When asked about the fire during his testimony... He responded, things happened. They go on to say he admitted to wanting to hurt Lisa, wanted to hurt her because he was angry with her about various issues in their relationship and was unable to hurt her because at the time she was carrying his child.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: Mr. Weisscheidt describes obsessing over a particular perceived slight by Lisa for approximately a month leading up to the fire. During this time period, it appears his anger grew and he engaged in at least some level of planning, including emptying bank accounts, quitting his job, attempting to return Lisa's engagement ring. Whether or not this particular violent act is what he was preparing for in the weeks leading up to the fire, we cannot know. However, we do believe the evidence shows that there was a plan to do harm in place, and we can not We cannot accept the assertions made by those close to Weisheit that he simply snapped and we completely and was completely outside of his own character. They said it'd be if there was too much planning to go like you could give a little look at it differently. Somebody just had an out of body experience and went crazy.
00:13:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: No, dude, you had plans in place for a month.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: And he was telling people. I mean, he told the coworker what he said. He told the jeweler what he said. And that was a month, right, before the actual crime took place. So his own words belie what he's saying now or what he at least testified to in court. And that is, and understandably so, the reason why this This parole board unanimously urged the governor to not consider clemency.
00:14:07
Speaker 1: But you are not going to believe, folks, who is begging, pleading with the court to grant clemency. The parent of these deceased kids.
00:14:30
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. The governor of Indiana is, well, has a big decision to make on whether or not to proceed with the planned execution next week of 50-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit, who committed one of the most heinous crimes that we have ever seen before, literally burning two children alive, burning them to death while they were still alive because he was upset with his girlfriend. They were her children. not his. And the person whose children they were, the father of these two children, that incredible man has actually asked the governor to consider what he would like to happen to Jeffrey Weishite.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, he doesn't want him to die. He made an official court filing and has put this on record, put his name to it. He does not want this man executed. He writes to the court, I am the father of Alyssa and Caleb. As a bereaved father, I ask that those seeing these words read aloud to ask themselves, what good does it do the memory of my children to put this man to death? Now, Rose, if you just stop right there, what is the answer to that question? What is the answer to that? What good does it do to the memory of these kids that this man dies? If we ask ourselves that before every execution, what is the answer to that question? What does it do to the memory of any of these victims that their perpetrator died, that we executed?
00:16:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously it doesn't change the outcome of what happened.
00:16:10
Speaker 1: But the memory, what does it do to the memory? I don't know.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: I don't know either. I hadn't considered that. I considered a lot of other things. And we've often said this, we respect... where the parents or the family members are who have lost someone they deeply loved at the hands of a violent murderer. And their ability to spare them the same fate that their loved one suffered is pretty damn beautiful.
00:16:36
Speaker 1: He goes on to write, I request that Jeffrey Weisheit receive life in prison without eligibility for parole. With the remaining years of his life, he would be able to continue seeking the Lord's forgiveness and redemption for his actions. I mean, without question, this has to be a man of deep faith, doesn't it? Yes, absolutely. It must be a big part of his life. He goes on, hurting Mr. Weisheit's family by executing him is not the outcome my children would want. That's a very big statement. And we know Weisheit's family doesn't have a hand in any of this, but he's a family member. He's 50 years old. He's been in these people's lives. There are people that care about him, I assume.
00:17:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would think it's not like this is a man who had some long criminal history. We can assume that, yes, there are people there who want him to be able to continue. Yes, as the father of these two kids, Alyssa and Caleb, said, he has time to ask for forgiveness and to redeem himself. And so he ends by saying, I seek to save his family, the great pain and loss of from the taking of his life. I want to prevent another parent from experiencing the loss I have experienced. That is remarkable.
00:17:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's big. That's, um, that's, I mean, that's big. That's mature. That's where he is. And somebody can disagree and differ. And somebody else who loved those kids could want this man dead yesterday, possibly. Um, But that's worth noting, and that is beautiful, and that is always worth noting. Is that in all of us, that type of mercy in all of us? I don't know. But I appreciated his words. This will go down. This is scheduled for next week on.
00:18:27
Speaker 2: November 5th?
00:18:27
Speaker 1: That's Thursday, when there are two others scheduled in the country. It will be a triple execution day. In the United States, it all goes according to plan. But Indiana... Does you? Oh, my goodness. I don't know it. It's a three dose or one dose there. You know what?
00:18:43
Speaker 2: I was reading that they have actually already, and I didn't realize it cost this much. The Indiana Department of Corrections released a $ 275, 000 invoice for execution drugs earlier this month, but they haven't. shown or revealed any inventory as far as what those drugs were or what exactly, which ones would be used in this case. But they had an October 2025 execution and there were records that showed they didn't have any pentobarbital remaining in their coffers, so to speak. So it does seem like the way they've described it, it is that pentobarbital method and that would be a single dose, correct? So they're trying to get more. They were literally, and we've talked about this, So many states that do the lethal injection and regularly speaking have had a difficult time over the past several years getting their hands on the drugs necessary to actually follow through with these executions. So it looks like they have secured the drugs they need, but they haven't been. very transparent about which ones they're using. And there was a suggestion that maybe there could be even a delay if they didn't have what they needed in place.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: So now we have to get nervous. Indiana using a one-drug method that is... Everybody knows now. That's the Krista Pike method. And that's the method that's been causing a lot of problems. Because it's one dose, it's one drug, it's not the three-dose deal in which one thing, what, slows down your breathing, one thing slows down your heart. It attacks different things. Pentobarbital is a one drug that's supposed to do it all. And so, Robes, we're going to have to see and you're going to have to watch this one next week to see if it goes off without a hitch. But they were looking for a more.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: Surefire You almost said surefire. No, no, no.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: I stopped and then I said, you know what? It works. Surefire method. They defeated it earlier. They wanted to use the firing squad. Yeah.
00:20:47
Speaker 2: And there's a reason why the phrase surefire is exactly that. Because that is the only method of execution in our history that does not have any failed attempts.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: They don't have a single one on record as they are keeping up with the number of botched executions. What, the most is the lethal injection up to three, was it? Three percent, maybe three or four percent were botched. But firing squad, zero. Zero percent failure rate. So Indiana did have legislation up earlier this year, and they voted it down. They did not go for it with a firing squad. So it is not a method. There is a congressman there who is trying to bring it back and having them vote on it again. And there was even a prison that stepped up and said, yeah, we've retrofitted our spot. We can handle this if you need us to. So they have everything except the will right now. That's a good way to put it. To do it. But they have everything in place. But this has to, at this point, be a lethal injection next week in Indiana. From all accounts, it looks like the governor is not going to step in and say, how could you? What are you going to step in and say? There is not some loud drumbeat of. support saying, don't kill this guy, by the way.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: No, other than the father, which is so fascinating that everyone else, you've got a parole board begging the governor to kill this man, and you've got the father of these two children saying, please don't do it. That's pretty remarkable.
00:22:20
Speaker 1: And it's usually those wishes are ignored. We've seen that happen plenty of times. They don't necessarily take that into consideration, what the family might want. But putting this one on your radar for next week, I mean, November 5th, less than a week, there will be three executions on the same day in the U.S. Weishite is expected to be one of them. We appreciate you, as always, spending some time with us. I'm TJ. On behalf of my dear Amy Robach, we'll talk to you all soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, October 30th, and the governor of Indiana has a decision to make. Should he spare the life of a condemned killer? Some are trying to save this death row inmate's life, who has an execution coming up really, really soon. But others are saying, once you hear what this man did, give me a break. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This parole board already said robes that this guy should not be granted clemency. And they are begging the governor not to give this man clemency either.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: That's right. They actually the parole board. I don't know if I've seen this before or certainly not recently with a parole board. has actually pleaded with the governor of Indiana to execute Jeffrey Weisheit. And we know that the governor there, Mike Braun is his name, has already made one bit of a ruling. He's rejected Weisheit's attorney's request to have brain scans made before his execution. They're trying to say he's not right. He's not right in the head. We can prove it to you with these brain scans, and you should take that into consideration. before making your decision, Governor.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how they can figure that out. Now, this might be just science, and every neurologist out there might say, well, yes, of course they can do this. They're trying to determine if the man's brain was impacted by childhood trauma when he committed the murders. They're able to tell in some way if what's going on with his head was actually done at some point in his childhood. That is what they're trying to do a brain scan to consider. And the governor is saying no. But this is a guy who is all these cases are different. They're so similar in a lot of ways. Yes. Some of these are the worst of the worst crimes. And we talk about death row inmates. But this is this is this is awful. We've heard of people killing kids before. This was something else.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is among the worst of the worst crimes you could possibly commit because, yes, to murder children is horrific in and of itself, but to hear how he did it is kind of beyond comprehension at this point.
00:02:27
Speaker 1: The motive is upsetting as well when youâ when you hear that he was upset at the mother, but maybe taking it out on the kids. Is there even something about that that makes this especially heinous?
00:02:39
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and you see this in custody cases sometimes, and it does seem inexplicable, but we've seen parents murder their kids just to upset the other parent. They know that it's worse than death yourself to know that your children have been taken from you and murdered. because of you, because if anger actually directed at you, cost your children their lives, that is pretty much the ultimate punishment anybody could give another parent.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: And the parent here of the victims is a woman by the name of Lisa Lynch. She was in a relationship with Jeffrey Weishite. Again, he is the condemned murderer. The victims in this case are five and eight years old. Brother and sister Alyssa and Caleb. This crime happened back in 2010 in Evansville. This is in the southern tip of the state. Give you some perspective there. It's in the southern tip of the state and it's about two hours west of Louisville. That's one of the best reference points you can get for it. But this, the crime, we'll just get into exactly what happened that night and then we'll get into the why.
00:03:48
Speaker 2: Uh, Yes, because Jeffrey Weisheit was with the children home, alone with them apparently. He was looking after them while mom was away or mom was at work. But what he did took thought and planning and how he did it. I don't know. I was just, when you read about it, when you hear about it, to imagine step by step him going through with it. It's one thing to be angry. It's one thing to go, but to take a little five-year-old's hands and little Caleb and put them behind his back and then gag him with a rag. And then the most heinous part of this crime is that he actually put flares in Caleb's underwear and under his body. The fear, I don't even know if a five-year-old would even know what that was. And let's hope he didn't understand what it was.
00:04:44
Speaker 1: I bet he did. Five-year-old boy, curious about things, curious about things that light up, curious about. I bet he knew exactly. I don't know how the kid could possibly comprehend that this man who was supposed to be caring for him and the man that supposedly cares for his mom is tying him up, putting a rag in his mouth and then duct taping that rag. Duct taping a kid's hands behind his back. That is a fear and that's a horror for a five-year-old that in and of itself makes this a death penalty case to do that to a five-year-old. So that night, this is what happens. Yes, according to authorities, he ties this kid up and then packs his stuff up. Packs up nice and neatly, grabs all of his stuff and takes off in a car. And then it's not until the next morning that firefighters were called to the scene of a fire where they did find both kids' bodies were charred. They did say robes. It was soot and the inhalation that actually killed them. So they didn't burn to death, if you will. Yeah. As awful as that is. But they found the sister, Alyssa. She was in a closet. Not sure if she was trying to hide from him or flee the fire or what it was, but she was there. found in a closet. So that's the scene that night. He was eventually caught in Kentucky. They were able to track him down in a vehicle who let them on a high-speed chase. They said he was actually asking for police to kill him. When he got out, he threw a knife at one of the officers, and they used a taser on him. And that's how he was caught. Again, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Rob, something's got to be wrong with you to do what he did. Something's got to be mentally off. I can't imagine some people just mad or just mean or just snap. And this was not a snapped situation either.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't... Obviously, it's impossible to get inside, and I don't want to be inside a killer's head, but we always want to know the why. And this was... This was such a tough story, obviously, for what happened to those kids. But even when you go back and you look, there are reports that he actually was going to propose to their mother. And he actually, I guess, put a deposit down on a ring or he had a jeweler making an engagement ring. So he had big plans for the future with this woman and her two children. He was willing and seemingly wanting to become their stepdad. But the relationship apparently was not working out as he wanted it to. He quit his job. He took out a bunch of money from the bank. He canceled his ring order. But then he goes to trial and he testifies on his own behalf and he admits to arguing with Kit. What could a five-year-old say or do that would upset you so much that you would go to this extreme?
00:08:02
Speaker 1: Oh, the answer to that is obviously nothing. But you don't argue with a five-year-old. You're the adult. You discipline a five-year-old. You control the five-year-old. You are the adult in that. So it was odd how he put it. Now, he got on the stand. And we're going to read here a description for you that came from a court filing. And this kind of sums up, I guess, this kind of main part, Robes, that's in question here. Well, not in question, but the confusing part of him explaining what happened that night. It's bizarre. And then his final answer under cross-examination, or one of his final answers. is chilling to hear from somebody. When you're talking about he just killed two kids and his response is just, things happen.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: Things happen. Because he denies setting the fire.
00:08:48
Speaker 1: He denies setting the fire.
00:08:49
Speaker 2: He admitted to arguing with little five-year-old Caleb. He admitted to duct taping him. But he denies... Setting a fire, so he's trying to remove himself from their deaths, just that he was angry and left, correct?
00:09:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they, as this court filing put it, when the state pressed him with undisputed facts, including that the night Weisheit left with his belongings, he bound Caleb with duct tape and firefighters found Caleb with flares under his body, Weisheit responded, things happened. So he's on the witness stand, and he's under cross-examination, and finally they're nailing him down, and that is how he explains things. Now, he was convicted in 2013, but Robes, a lot that came out from that trial was about a tumultuous relationship he was in with Lisa Lynch. That was his girlfriend at the time, and Robes, she was pregnant. Wow.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: Wow. And it's not as though he thought the baby was his. That was, it seems, a big part of the issue. We mentioned the relationship breaking down. Well, he suspected she was having an affair. And what came out in court was that he apparently told a co-worker that he would kill her, burn everything, and then kill himself.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: So that goes in line with, as this circumstantial evidence starts piling up here, an idea that he didn't just snap. In March of 2010, so that would have been, what, the month before the murders, he stopped payment on that engagement ring you spoke of, told the juror, the juror testified, yes, said he had broken up with his girlfriend and he was leaving the country. Same month, he quit his job. And then the next month, that's when he became enraged, they say, at Caleb. And Rome's part of the reason, possibly, they say that the kids are dead is because she was pregnant. And therefore, he didn't go after her because she was pregnant. And so that might have been why he turned to the kids. That's bizarre as well. That's sick is what I should say.
00:10:57
Speaker 2: Because he didn't believe the baby was his, correct? So he wanted to take away her other children?
00:11:02
Speaker 1: Did he? I don't know. That's not that clear. But he was, they say, part of that was just paranoia. But yeah, it might have saved her life that she was pregnant. But it cost the kids theirs. That was a part of that conversation. So the parole board this week. Came back, said, please, sir, governor, do not pardon this guy. It's kind of a long letter here they put out. I underlined, I guess, some of the main parts here. But they lay out in great detail why they say this dude should not be given clemency at all.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: Yes. They say, we have now concluded our review and we unanimously recommend that you deny Jeffrey Weisheit's request for clemency. And they lay out a bunch of the reasons why, because like one, two, three, four. But they go over the crime itself. I mean, when you just what we just said, when you just read the crime, it's hard to imagine that a governor would say, you know what? Seems like you might have had some brain damage.
00:12:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is, as they lay out here, they give great descriptions. They say Jeffrey Weisheit has taken various levels of responsibility for his actions. During the early hours of the investigation, when Jeffrey was interviewed by law enforcement in the hospital, he was asked, did you do something to the kids? He responded, I don't remember. During the trial, he elected to testify in his defense. At that time, he admitted to tying Caleb up, but did not admit to setting the fire. When asked about the fire during his testimony... He responded, things happened. They go on to say he admitted to wanting to hurt Lisa, wanted to hurt her because he was angry with her about various issues in their relationship and was unable to hurt her because at the time she was carrying his child.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: Mr. Weisscheidt describes obsessing over a particular perceived slight by Lisa for approximately a month leading up to the fire. During this time period, it appears his anger grew and he engaged in at least some level of planning, including emptying bank accounts, quitting his job, attempting to return Lisa's engagement ring. Whether or not this particular violent act is what he was preparing for in the weeks leading up to the fire, we cannot know. However, we do believe the evidence shows that there was a plan to do harm in place, and we can not We cannot accept the assertions made by those close to Weisheit that he simply snapped and we completely and was completely outside of his own character. They said it'd be if there was too much planning to go like you could give a little look at it differently. Somebody just had an out of body experience and went crazy.
00:13:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: No, dude, you had plans in place for a month.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: And he was telling people. I mean, he told the coworker what he said. He told the jeweler what he said. And that was a month, right, before the actual crime took place. So his own words belie what he's saying now or what he at least testified to in court. And that is, and understandably so, the reason why this This parole board unanimously urged the governor to not consider clemency.
00:14:07
Speaker 1: But you are not going to believe, folks, who is begging, pleading with the court to grant clemency. The parent of these deceased kids.
00:14:30
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. The governor of Indiana is, well, has a big decision to make on whether or not to proceed with the planned execution next week of 50-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit, who committed one of the most heinous crimes that we have ever seen before, literally burning two children alive, burning them to death while they were still alive because he was upset with his girlfriend. They were her children. not his. And the person whose children they were, the father of these two children, that incredible man has actually asked the governor to consider what he would like to happen to Jeffrey Weishite.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, he doesn't want him to die. He made an official court filing and has put this on record, put his name to it. He does not want this man executed. He writes to the court, I am the father of Alyssa and Caleb. As a bereaved father, I ask that those seeing these words read aloud to ask themselves, what good does it do the memory of my children to put this man to death? Now, Rose, if you just stop right there, what is the answer to that question? What is the answer to that? What good does it do to the memory of these kids that this man dies? If we ask ourselves that before every execution, what is the answer to that question? What does it do to the memory of any of these victims that their perpetrator died, that we executed?
00:16:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously it doesn't change the outcome of what happened.
00:16:10
Speaker 1: But the memory, what does it do to the memory? I don't know.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: I don't know either. I hadn't considered that. I considered a lot of other things. And we've often said this, we respect... where the parents or the family members are who have lost someone they deeply loved at the hands of a violent murderer. And their ability to spare them the same fate that their loved one suffered is pretty damn beautiful.
00:16:36
Speaker 1: He goes on to write, I request that Jeffrey Weisheit receive life in prison without eligibility for parole. With the remaining years of his life, he would be able to continue seeking the Lord's forgiveness and redemption for his actions. I mean, without question, this has to be a man of deep faith, doesn't it? Yes, absolutely. It must be a big part of his life. He goes on, hurting Mr. Weisheit's family by executing him is not the outcome my children would want. That's a very big statement. And we know Weisheit's family doesn't have a hand in any of this, but he's a family member. He's 50 years old. He's been in these people's lives. There are people that care about him, I assume.
00:17:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would think it's not like this is a man who had some long criminal history. We can assume that, yes, there are people there who want him to be able to continue. Yes, as the father of these two kids, Alyssa and Caleb, said, he has time to ask for forgiveness and to redeem himself. And so he ends by saying, I seek to save his family, the great pain and loss of from the taking of his life. I want to prevent another parent from experiencing the loss I have experienced. That is remarkable.
00:17:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's big. That's, um, that's, I mean, that's big. That's mature. That's where he is. And somebody can disagree and differ. And somebody else who loved those kids could want this man dead yesterday, possibly. Um, But that's worth noting, and that is beautiful, and that is always worth noting. Is that in all of us, that type of mercy in all of us? I don't know. But I appreciated his words. This will go down. This is scheduled for next week on.
00:18:27
Speaker 2: November 5th?
00:18:27
Speaker 1: That's Thursday, when there are two others scheduled in the country. It will be a triple execution day. In the United States, it all goes according to plan. But Indiana... Does you? Oh, my goodness. I don't know it. It's a three dose or one dose there. You know what?
00:18:43
Speaker 2: I was reading that they have actually already, and I didn't realize it cost this much. The Indiana Department of Corrections released a $ 275, 000 invoice for execution drugs earlier this month, but they haven't. shown or revealed any inventory as far as what those drugs were or what exactly, which ones would be used in this case. But they had an October 2025 execution and there were records that showed they didn't have any pentobarbital remaining in their coffers, so to speak. So it does seem like the way they've described it, it is that pentobarbital method and that would be a single dose, correct? So they're trying to get more. They were literally, and we've talked about this, So many states that do the lethal injection and regularly speaking have had a difficult time over the past several years getting their hands on the drugs necessary to actually follow through with these executions. So it looks like they have secured the drugs they need, but they haven't been. very transparent about which ones they're using. And there was a suggestion that maybe there could be even a delay if they didn't have what they needed in place.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: So now we have to get nervous. Indiana using a one-drug method that is... Everybody knows now. That's the Krista Pike method. And that's the method that's been causing a lot of problems. Because it's one dose, it's one drug, it's not the three-dose deal in which one thing, what, slows down your breathing, one thing slows down your heart. It attacks different things. Pentobarbital is a one drug that's supposed to do it all. And so, Robes, we're going to have to see and you're going to have to watch this one next week to see if it goes off without a hitch. But they were looking for a more.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: Surefire You almost said surefire. No, no, no.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: I stopped and then I said, you know what? It works. Surefire method. They defeated it earlier. They wanted to use the firing squad. Yeah.
00:20:47
Speaker 2: And there's a reason why the phrase surefire is exactly that. Because that is the only method of execution in our history that does not have any failed attempts.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: They don't have a single one on record as they are keeping up with the number of botched executions. What, the most is the lethal injection up to three, was it? Three percent, maybe three or four percent were botched. But firing squad, zero. Zero percent failure rate. So Indiana did have legislation up earlier this year, and they voted it down. They did not go for it with a firing squad. So it is not a method. There is a congressman there who is trying to bring it back and having them vote on it again. And there was even a prison that stepped up and said, yeah, we've retrofitted our spot. We can handle this if you need us to. So they have everything except the will right now. That's a good way to put it. To do it. But they have everything in place. But this has to, at this point, be a lethal injection next week in Indiana. From all accounts, it looks like the governor is not going to step in and say, how could you? What are you going to step in and say? There is not some loud drumbeat of. support saying, don't kill this guy, by the way.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: No, other than the father, which is so fascinating that everyone else, you've got a parole board begging the governor to kill this man, and you've got the father of these two children saying, please don't do it. That's pretty remarkable.
00:22:20
Speaker 1: And it's usually those wishes are ignored. We've seen that happen plenty of times. They don't necessarily take that into consideration, what the family might want. But putting this one on your radar for next week, I mean, November 5th, less than a week, there will be three executions on the same day in the U.S. Weishite is expected to be one of them. We appreciate you, as always, spending some time with us. I'm TJ. On behalf of my dear Amy Robach, we'll talk to you all soon.