Terry Speaks in email to alleged accomplice: ‘I saved some things if you went off course’

9 years ago

Terry Speaks mugshot from 2014

GRETNA, La. (WGNO) – An investigator took the stand for the prosecution Friday. He tracked the phone and email records between accused murderer Terry Speaks and his alleged accomplice and then girlfriend, Margaret Sanchez. Both face second-degree murder and obstruction of justice charges for the killing and dismemberment of Bourbon Street dancer and mother Jaren Lockhart three years ago. In these phone calls and emails, lots of anger, lots of animosities. Below are transcriptions of some of the emails and phone calls played in court: A recording was played between Terry Speaks and his ex-wife where he asked her: ‘Was I big on the news and all that? I was like just as big as the guy who did the Colorado bombing.’ Then the prosecution played a long, drawn out, paranoid, rambling recording of Speaks when he called Sanchez. At one point he says: ‘We are definitely being recorded. I can hear it clicking. That’s ok.’ The phone calls between Sanchez and Speaks were very emotional with lots of screaming, yelling, crying and cursing. Sanchez wrote to Speaks in one email: “My heart is broken, my head is fried.” Then Sanchez told Speaks while he was in jail she wanted to move on and marry someone else, named Johnny. He reacted vehemently in the phone calls, cursing at her, yelling. Then he made numerous vague threats, one of them: “Remember when you had to work and I had to spring clean? Well, I saved some things if you went off course.” He also told her on the phone: “What happens to me, unfortunately, happens to you. That’s the sad part of this whole story. What happens to you, happens to me. I’m going to go to those people Monday and no one’s going to have a life.”

A phone call between Sanchez & Speaks. (Speaks was in jail, Sanchez was in Vegas, Nevada) 9/17/2013 Speaks: Hello? Sanchez: Hello. Speaks: Hey Girl Sanchez: I Love you Sanchez: I Love you Speaks: I want you to just relax and breathe when I say this Sanchez: OK?

Speaks: We’re probably being recorded, which is ok. Sanchez: Uh.. Speaks: The FBI in Mississippi just came to talk to me, and they talked to me about that whole thing with that girl. I told her I don’t remember anything, we were on things: bath salts, weed — that’s the lifestyle we were living. And they were saying we saw the girl walking with you from the store or whatever and they tried to get a map to show us all walking, then they said all three of us got into a car… Then they said I was in Mississippi one time with Margaret, to show me the ocean. But they said ‘She told LeighAnn that you threw letters in the ocean.’ That probably came from on our first date we were sitting on the bench, I told her something to get rid of and write it down and we walked to the end of the rocks and threw it in the water Sanchez: That’s what I said? Speaks: And they said you know she has an attorney and they’re working out a deal for you.

Sanchez: That’s bull [EXPLETIVE]

Speaks: And then they said we had a pit in the backyard and the cadaver dogs smelt like, that we were trying to burn something out there. And I said I feel like an alien in another world. And she had some white sandals that she was wearing and they said we found the buckles. What are you crazy? We can’t fabricate stuff. They said they had us on a video coming from Mississippi to Nola. I said we were never in Mississippi. They just fabricating all kinds of stuff. I sent you a long email of what they were saying. I said this was tragic and I am sorry and what you’re saying, why haven’t you charged someone, because you don’t have any evidence. If she OD’d it’s not a homicide.

What about the body being cut up and dumped? You guys were scared and tried to get rid of the body. Dude, nothing happened? Why are you trying to say all of this stuff Sanchez: They told my dad that when this first happened. They told my dad to– Speaks: We are definitely being recorded. I can hear it clicking. That’s ok. They came to me today and I said it’s not going to hold up in court… I remember something, we went drinking — I remember we drank and we hung around and talked…

We didn’t take no car. No girl got in a car with us. None of that happened. We didn’t go to Mississippi. You saying you don’t remember? No, I am telling you this is what is in my head. That didn’t happen. We talked to someone… That’s what I am telling you. I don’t remember anything and you’re driving me crazy. I am done.

Defense is now cross examining this investigator, showed the jury some emails and phone conversations. He is focusing on the vagueness of the dialogue. “People is kind of a general term, it is not a specific term” Investigator: “When people on the street talk about the police they call them ‘people'” Defense: “Folks is a general term. People can mean other things. Can it not?” Investigator: “Sure.”

Just updated the article script with some highlights from the prosecution’s case during the investigator’s testimony over recorded phone calls and emails between accused murderer Terry Speaks and his alleged accomplice and then girlfriend Margaret Sanchez.

Jail Phone Call: Speaks to Sanchez “I sit here in prison, keeping you out of prison and you’re going to marry someone else? I am not going to live with this any more…I am going to live with the guilt inside of me for you? [EXPLETIVE] This [EXPLETIVE]”

EMAIL CHAIN BETWEEN SANCHEZ & SPEAKS: Sanchez: Here’s a question, how long did you live in LA? Like when did you get there and how? Speaks: Detectives asked the same thing. Are you working with them? Sanchez: You see [EXPLETIVE] like that makes me wonder if I should even be corresponding with you. My heart is broken, my head is fried and I just got my family for that and they say bad idea.

Email chain suggested mistrust between Speaks & Sanchez.

Trying to work through the last two recordings just played between Sanchez & Speaks. Prosecution now handing out emails between the two.

Next recording between Speaks & Ex-Wife: SPEAKS: Did you hear what happened after I was arrested? Was I big on the news and all that? EX-WIFE: Your mom called my mom, that’s the only way SPEAKS: Oh, ok. (pause) Baby, I was like just as big as the freaking guy who did the Colorado bombing. The girl I was involved with they were accusing her of murder and said I was with the clean up , plus me on the run and stuff they just had a heyday with it

Prosecution asks if this is the only time Speaks mentioned this date through telecommunications. Stormeyer says No. Next recording: Speaks: Do you like when I for you? Sanchez: What? Speaks: Do you like that I am fighting for you, that I am fighting for what happened to us? Since June 6th since June 12th when we got locked up.

Phone calls played between Terry Speaks and Margaret Sanchez: Sanchez: “I haven’t had sex in a really long time” Speaks “I haven’t had sex since June 6th.”

Those calls were made just hours before Lockhart’s torso was found on the beaches of Mississippi.

Jeremy Foster (Jaren’s boyfriend) used pay phone to call Jaren because he didn’t have a phone. 8 calls went from that payphone to Jaren’s cell from 5:11 AM June 6th to 6:55 PM June 6th. Foster also used his father’s phone, trying to get a hold of Jaren. 7 calls from that phone to Jaren’s phone, June 6th at 11:47 PM and June 7th at 2:21 PM. Between two phones, 15 calls made in total.

Missing person report filed June 7th for Jaren Lockhart. Phone records reflect, as Jeremy Foster (Jaren’s boyfriend) testified, that he called Lockhart numerous times after her disappearance.