Kriti Mehrotra
When Lisa Marie Jennings lost her life in the early hours of Christmas Day 2006, no one could’ve ever imagined the ensuing investigations would shatter entire families apart, but they sadly did. After all, as carefully profiled in NBC’s ‘Dateline: A Crack in Everything,’ while some members came to accept she died from suicide, some maintain her spouse Brad Jennings brutally slew her. Yet for now, if you simply wish to learn more about the latter — his experiences, his supposed hand in the matter, as well as his current whereabouts — we’ve got the necessary details for you.
Who is Brad Jennings?
It was reportedly back on August 18, 1988, that Brad tied the knot with just divorced, single mother Lisa following a whirlwind romance, unaware it would eventually end in nothing but a tragedy. They thus gradually built not only a beautiful, comfortable home on a small part of 160 acres of family farmland hailing from the former’s great-great-grandparents but also a happy, blended brood. In fact, the couple ostensibly always insisted they had three children; Lisa’s daughter from her previous union Laci Deckard, their own daughter Amanda Jennings, and their son Dallas Jennings.
However, as the years passed, Brad and Lisa’s marriage seemingly grew so tumultuous that even their kids recognized their angry words as well as frequent shouting matches were not ordinary. The duo still managed to stick together, though, that is, until the latter was found in their shared bedroom with a gunshot wound right to the head less than half an hour following one of their fights. The weapon was a small .38 caliber revolver they kept in their closet for security purposes, yet Brad has always vehemently maintained he was around his detached office when it went off.
Lisa’s death was ruled a suicide after a brief but thorough investigation, just for it to be reopened by the Missouri State Highway Patrol upon request from her younger sister two months later. That’s when it came to light she was allegedly having an affair with her boss and planning to leave Brad for good, whereas he cleaned up before first responders arrived at the scene. These obviously led to him being considered a suspect, and then forensic analysis yielded microscopic traces of his wife’s blood on his previously worn bathrobe, resulting in an arrest on July 27, 2009.
Where is Brad Jennings Now?
When Brad stood trial for the armed criminal action as well as second-degree murder charges against him, he conceded he did wash up and change his clothes, yet he doesn’t know why. He also maintained the blood traces on his clothes could’ve only been from cradling Lisa upon finding her in the master bedroom before dialing 911 — something he’d said he’d done that night itself. Nevertheless, the blood splatter analysis by Patrol Sergeant Daniel Nash, the lack of his blood-alcohol testing, and the absence of any evidence regarding gunshot residue resulted in his conviction.
The August 19, 2009, guilty verdict hence resulted in Brad getting sentenced to 25 years behind state bars, which he almost immediately appealed while again asserting his innocence. The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld the original decision in September 2010, ultimately driving Brad’s sister Marsha Iler to seek further help from different kinds of law enforcement professionals. Therefore, towards the end of 2015, an attorney decided to review the police files on the matter, only to uncover gunshot residue evidence in favor of Brad that was never disclosed to the defense.
With this, Brad filed for a retrial, which was granted on February 9, 2018, yet the Missouri Attorney General’s Office dismissed the charges against him for good on July 12, 2018. They actually did so following an external review of the blood splatter evidence that proved inconclusive — in other words, they could not determine whether Lisa’s demise was a suicide or a homicide. Brad, who’d initially been let out on bail in February, was thus given his complete freedom, and he utilized the same in August by filing a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking compensation for his wrongful conviction.
Brad’s lawsuit did go to trial in February 2020, but a jury declined to assess any damages — a verdict the Eighth Circuit US Court of Appeals stuck with by denying a retrial. Since then, from what we can tell, the mid-60-year-old has been rebuilding his life to the best of his abilities while residing in the same Buffalo, Missouri, farmland home close to his loving sister and biological children. He has resumed work on the beef cattle farm, and it appears as if he has even been able to reopen his car sales business, Jennings’ Auto Sales, in the same spot because he owned the building. We should mention that while Lisa’s eldest daughter Laci Deckard and her younger sister seemingly still believe he killed her, Lisa’s elder sister believes in his innocence.
