#8 – Olivia Smith On November the 14th of 2015, Olivia Smith,
aged 18, killed her younger step-cousin, Abbey Hebert, and later insisted that “God made her do
it.” The girls had reportedly been good friends and used to do numerous activities together.
Smith had slept over at Hebert’s house in Georgia the night before, but an argument
broke out between them the following morning after they’d reportedly smoked an illegal substance. The
dispute began in the kitchen and turned physical, culminating with Smith grabbing a kitchen knife
and stabbing Hebert. The wounded teen tried to run out of the house, but Smith caught up
with her when she reached the front lawn, got on top of her, and stabbed her several more times.
Neighbors called the police who arrested Smith at the scene. Her family and attorneys insisted
that a bad reaction to the substance had led to her murderous outburst and that Smith would’ve
never committed such an act had she not been under the influence. Several psychiatric evaluations
concluded that Smith was mentally sound and that the reaction to the substance had likely
been the cause of the attack. The teen took a plea deal and her original felony murder charge
was changed to voluntary manslaughter. In May of 2018, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
#7 – Brianna Zerth Brianna Zerth, a 29-year-old Arizona woman,
was drinking with her cousin Peter McKenna Jr., aged 33, when an argument broke out that led to
her attacking him with a hammer. On May the 4th of 2022, local police received a call after a fight
was heard at Zerth’s residence. Upon their arrival, officers found McKenna deceased as
a result of blunt force trauma. Zerth told the police that she and McKenna had gotten into an
argument about the woman’s 6-year-old daughter, who was present during the violence that followed.
Zerth claimed that the details of the bludgeoning were “blurry.” According to the police report,
McKenna also suffered several puncture wounds on his back from the claw of the hammer. Zerth was
arrested at the scene and charged with second degree murder, tampering with evidence, and
aggravated assault. She was released from jail not long after her arrest, when the attorney’s
office requested more information on the case from the police department. In the examination report,
Zerth claimed that McKenna had choked her and that she’d acted in self-defense. However,
the police department reportedly planned to resubmit the original charges.
#6 – Ricky Hawk 23-year-old rapper Ricky Hawk,
also known as Silento, was arrested for killing his 34-year-old cousin, Frederick Rooks,
on January the 21st of 2021. Hawk, well-known for his 2015 hit single “Watch Me (Whip / Nae
Nae)” fatally shot Rooks several times in the face and leg, in the middle of a Georgia street,
before fleeing the scene. Police received the call about the shooting and found Rooks dead upon their
arrival. Nearby surveillance video helped identify the suspect as Hawk, who was later arrested
and charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm
during the commission of a felony. While a motive for the murder wasn’t immediately disclosed,
Hawk made a statement explaining that he’d always had mental health problems, due to his upbringing,
and encouraged anyone who faced a similar struggle to seek professional help.
#5 – Jeremy Leister and Jacob Locke While talking over a jail’s monitored
in-house phone system, Florida cousins Jeremy Leister and Jacob Locke, both in their 20s,
planned to rob an elderly man in his Iowa home. Locke had been arrested on July the 11th of 2021
for an unrelated incident that involved stealing a vehicle, evading a traffic stop, and running
over an officer’s leg as he fled. He was arrested and had been in jail ever since the incident but,
nevertheless, plotted further criminal activity. Several phone calls between the 11th and 24th of
July had been recorded between Locke and Leister as they communicated through the jail’s phone.
They were orchestrating a home invasion against an Iowa man that Locke had met
during a work release program when he was an inmate at the Iowa Department of Corrections.
Six law enforcement agencies worked together to investigate the phone calls
and ultimately obtained a search warrant for Leister’s home on July the 31st. Leister and
an unidentified man were taken into custody during the raid after police discovered the
phone used to make the phone calls to Locke and over 10 grams of an unspecified illegal substance.
Both cousins were charged with conspiracy to commit home invasion robbery, and Leister received
an additional charge of unlawful possession of an illegal substance with intent to sell.
#4 – Ray Oliver and Corinthian Thompson In 2021, cousins Ray Oliver and Corinthian
Thompson, both 35, were linked to the murder of 21-year-old Adisyn Mudd. She was found dead
in her mobile home, in Florida, with a gunshot wound, on March the 28th. A police investigation
revealed that Mudd was the victim of a deadly robbery carried out by Oliver and Thompson,
but it was unclear whether she was specifically targeted or selected at random. Oliver had
been arrested on the 1st of April on unrelated drug charges and was already serving 26 months
in prison when police connected him to the murder. In addition to his existing sentence,
he faced armed robbery and first degree murder charges. Six months later, on October the 1st,
the police tracked down Thompson and arrested him on the same charges as his cousin’s.
#3 – Richard and Jasmine Doxtator 70-year-old Giuseppe “Joe” Caputo was
found dead in his Niagara Falls home, on June the 19th of 2015, with 18 knife injuries on his body.
A stab wound to his chest had been inflicted with such force that it split the bone in two pieces,
causing his death. An investigation found that Caputo was 38-year-old
Jasmine Doxtator’s former friend and drug dealer. She, along with her cousin, Richard,
were arrested after evidence was found linking them to the crime scene. During her trial,
Jasmine testified that Caputo had drugged and assaulted her during their latest meeting.
After telling her cousin about what had happened, the pair planned to confront Caputo. As part of
their plan, Jasmine had called the man asking to meet up at a fast food restaurant near his home.
The cousins arrived before he did, giving Jasmine a chance to get out of the car and wait for him
as Richard watched on from a distance. Caputo and Jasmine rode together in the former’s car, back
to his home, while Richard followed them. Upon arriving at the victim’s residence, there were
conflicting stories as to how the male Doxtator had gained access. The cousins insisted that
Caputo himself had opened the door when Richard knocked and invited him in, while prosecutors
argued that there was evidence to suggest he’d waited on the patio for Jasmine to unlock the door
for him. Richard claimed that an altercation then occurred between him and Caputo when the
homeowner reached for a kitchen knife that he had to wrestle away from him. Richard maintained
that he’d stabbed Caputo in self-defense. The cousins fled the scene shortly thereafter and,
while they claimed not to have taken anything from Caputo’s home, the man’s identification card,
insurance cards, vehicle ownership card, and cell phone were found in various locations on the roads
of the Niagara region. In 2017, both cousins were found guilty of first degree murder and
sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. However, in February of 2022,
it was announced that they’d get a retrial due to a failure in the structure of their trial judge’s
instructions to the jury in 2017. #2 – Denisse Escobedo
Denisse Escobedo, a 31-year-old deputy constable from Dallas, was arrested following the unlawful
hiring of her cousin as a peace officer and the failure to report a shooting. Escobedo and two
other officers were hired to work as security for a private party, in September of 2019. When one of
the officers was unable to make it last minute, Escobedo gave her cousin Ramiro Vielma the job,
despite the fact that he wasn’t a peace officer. In the early hours of September the 1st,
Escobedo and Vielma were posted at the party entrance gate when the former stopped a truck
carrying four people. The man behind the wheel, identified as Marco Faz, cooperated with Escobedo
when she asked for his license to check his age. In spite of him being over 21 years old, the
officer confiscated a case of beer from the truck before instructing Faz to leave. He protested and
insisted to see Escobedo’s badge, but she refused and threatened to write him a ticket if he didn’t
leave, so he decided to go. After Faz made a U-turn, Escobedo and Vielma tried to stop the
vehicle again. The driver later recounted how he’d become concerned the duo weren’t really
members of law enforcement and opted to drive past them. That’s when they took out their guns
and shot at Faz’s truck multiple times. One bullet hit the man in the right earlobe,
another struck one of his passengers in the hand, and a third bullet hit a passenger in
the shoulder. Faz rushed to the hospital where everyone was treated for their injuries, and
they later reported the incident to the police. Investigators noted inconsistencies in Escobedo’s
story and she was arrested on a felony charge of impersonating a public servant, misdemeanor counts
of official oppression, and failure to report a felony resulting in serious bodily injury.
Vielma was charged with impersonating a public servant but, like his cousin,
was ultimately released after posting bond. #1 – Rushane Barnett
On July the 20th of 2022, Jamaican man Rushane Barnett brutally murdered his 34-year-old cousin
Kemisha Wright and her four children, after he felt that she’d “disrespected” him. The
woman ran a business out of her home that 31-year-old Barnett occasionally helped
at but he’d reportedly become enraged by her attitude towards him in the days leading up to
the murders. It allegedly involved her telling him to not serve a particular customer again,
snatching money from his hands, and splashing water in his face. On the night of July the 20th,
he attacked Wright with a knife and stabbed her before cutting her throat and targeting the rest
of her family. The following day, another relative discovered their bodies and called the police.
Barnett was arrested following an investigation and sentencing was scheduled for September
the 22nd of 2022. Despite the fact that the death penalty hadn’t been applied in Jamaica
for over 30 years, prosecutors were seeking it for Barnett due to the brutal nature of his crimes.
If the man was to receive capital punishment, his sentence could still
possibly be reduced to life in prison if he spent over five years on death row.
Thanks for watching. Who is the most criminal minded family member you have
in your family? Let us know in the comment section below!