05. Why So Serious?
She was a mother of six. She was addicted to drugs. She lived in a seedy motel on the wrong side of town. When Jamie Osuna killed Yvette Peña, his crime shaped the way her life would be remembered. But for the first time, Yvette’s family is telling her entire story. One that was tangled in tragedy long before she ever crossed paths with the man who would take her life.
“How did you feel being so young and being with somebody who did that, as a woman?”
Dozens of people have asked Olivia LaVoice variations of that question. They all want to know what it’s like to sit just feet across from a man who freely admitted to torturing a woman to death. This time, the question came from his ex-wife.
“I wouldn’t have been able to sit down in that room,” she went on. “I don’t care how bolted down he was. I wouldn’t have done it.”
In 2017, LaVoice sent a jailhouse interview request to Osuna. She expected the usual “no” reply. Instead, the reply was a “yes.” It would be the first in a series of shocking responses she would get from Jamie Osuna. LaVoice went in with a plan, a set of questions intended to get a confession, but she got that admission before the camera was rolling. That left the young reporter to improvise, despite being shaken by the unexpected.
Osuna spoke candidly about his childhood, his mentality during Yvette’s murder and then he dropped a bomb.
He claimed to have committed two other murders. Was is another moment of truth, or was he hoping to get the attention of a reporter known for her coverage of local cold cases?
LaVoice took the few possible clues he gave her and attempted to connect them with some of Kern County’s coldest cases.
She also looked into Osuna’s fascination and kinship with the fictional Batman villain, the Joker.
This interview is the last time Jamie Osuna has talked to the press. This podcast is the first time parts of the interview have ever been shared with the public.
Osuna sent the following letters to the District attorney, except for the one with the rat photo.
That he sent to his wife Jane.
Click on the images for full size
Timeline
1988
- March 7 – Osuna is born.
2003
- May 16 – Osuna is arrested at age 15 for assault with a deadly weapon.
2007
- Sep. 14 – Osuna is released from prison on parole.
Sep. 15, 2007 through Dec. 16, 2008
Osuna is out of prison. - Nov. 5 – The body of 51-year-old Maria Juaregui is found inside a vehicle in an orchard near Fairfax Road and Panama Lane, outside of Lamont. Authorities suspect the woman’s boyfriend, Francisco Najera. There is still an active arrest warrant for the man. (This is the only murder involving a woman found in an orchard in November 2007 in Kern County)
2008
- Dec. 17 – Osuna is arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after he stabs a man at a house party thrown by his future ex-wife.
- Dec. 29 – Osuna goes back to prison.
2009
- Nov. 12 – Osuna is released from prison on parole.
2010
- June 20 – The body of 29-year-old Sonia Serna found off the shoulder of Mountain View Road, east of Lamont. The case remains unsolved.
- Aug. 31 – Osuna is arrested for domestic violence involving wife Jane.
- Sep. 20 – Osuna goes back to prison.
2011
- Jan. 30 – Osuna released from prison on parole.
- March 29 – The decapitated body of a woman is found in a vineyard off of Sebastian and Wheeler Ridge Road outside of Arvin.The victim is still known only as Jane Doe. Her killer has never been found.
- March 31 – Osuna is arrested on drug charges, goes to jail.
Jan. 30, 2011 through Mar. 31, 2011
Osuna is out of prison. - Aug. 29 – Osuna returns to prison.
- Oct. 31 – Osuna is released from prison.
- Nov. 8 – Osuna calls his estranged wife and says he murdered a woman at the Morocco Motel.
- Nov. 18 – Osuna is arrested for murder of Yvette Peña, enters jail.
2013
- Osuna sends series of letters to then-District Attorney Lisa Green, in which he claims responsibility for other murders.
2017
- March 24 – Olivia LaVoice interviews Osuna in jail.
- March 27 – The first day of Jamie’s scheduled trial.
- March 28 – Osuna pleads guilty to 1st degree murder with a special circumstance of torture, in exchange for the death penalty being waived.
- May 15 – Osuna is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on what would’ve been Yvette Peña’s 42nd Birthday. Osuna’s last day in Lerdo-sent to prison later that day.