The Murders of Blake and Chynna Dickus: Who Is Michael Jerome James?

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01] I am in love with Miracle Balm from our new sponsor, Jones Road Beauty. Now, let's be clear, I'm not the biggest makeup wearer in the world. Sometimes I skip wearing makeup because it just doesn't feel good. It's too cakey, it looks bad or off, and sometimes I'm just in way too much of a rush to apply it well. But when I put on my Miracle Balm, it looks natural, fresh, effortless. I put it on and I could head out to dinner with friends or a little date night with Kevin, or we could go to court. I love how lightweight it feels and I love that it gives me a bit of a glow.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_01] It's just this kind of clean, natural look that I love. I adore how it enhances my skin instead of just hiding it. Also for me, it's just so convenient. I could put it on really fast. Like one day after we were super busy with the podcast, Kevin and I went out for dinner in a movie, the new MST3K reboot. So even though I didn't have a lot of time, I put it on and loved the way I looked. It took about like five minutes at most. Also, clean beauty is a must for me.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00] This formula is packed with ingredients that love your skin with no phthalates, sulfates or BPA.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_01] No clogging, no clumping, just convenient beauty. Miracle Balm requires no brushes. Use it as a highlighter, a bronzer, a blush, lip tint, whatever you want. They'll have you glowing up in 60 seconds. They did for me. Oh, and definitely try their minimalist defining mascara too. The formula leaves your lashes so soft and feathery, no clumps, and it's the most natural looking definition. Modern day makeup that's clean, strategic and multifunctional for effortless routines.

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01] For a limited time, our listeners are getting a free full-sized mascara on their first purchase when they use code MSHEAT at checkout. Just head to jonesroadbeauty.com and use code MSHEAT at checkout. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. I'm Anya, and today we're going to discuss everything we know about Michael Jerome James, the man accused of murdering Blake and Chyna Dickus when he was a young teenager.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01] Content warning, this episode contains discussion of violence and murder, including the murder of a child. It also contains discussion of sexual abuse of children and severe child neglect. Lastly, it includes graphic descriptions of pornography and sexual matters involving adults.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00] Thirty-five-year-old Michael Jerome James, the defendant accused of slaughtering Blake and China Dickus in their Franklin, Indiana home back when he was 14, went through an extremely troubled childhood, dabbled in pornography, and was ultimately connected to the crime in part through fingerprint evidence.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01] For 20 years, investigators and members of the public in Franklin, Indiana, have searched for answers in the brutal July 24, 2006 murders of Blake and China Dickus.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00] On October 2, 2026, Michael Jerome James was arrested for those killings. Of course, that brings up a new question. Who is Michael Jerome James?

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01] In this episode, we will do a deep dive into the background of the accused man, and we will reveal some heretofore unknown facts about his background and activities. We will follow him from his turbulent upbringing, to his history of criminal offenses, to his work as a model for a pornography site targeted to gay men, and to the final piece of the evidentiary puzzle that led authorities to finally conclude it was time to charge him with these killings.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00] The murder sheet is exclusively reporting the details about his pornographic career, and the fingerprint evidence based on extensive reporting we have done since this news broke.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_01] We are also revisiting excellent reporting from the Longview News Journal and KLTV out of Texas that paint a harrowing picture of James' early life, as he was raised by his mother, a drug-addicted former sex worker, who was routinely accused of neglecting James and his sister, Jacqueline.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00] When the state charges a person with a heinous, brutal crime, the public understandably wants to know more about that individual. What were they like? Did they come across as off? Did they blend in as a functioning member of society? Do the accusations line up with their history or personality in any way?

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01] Well, now is our chance to find out more. And if you know James or any other as- And if you have information on James or any other aspects of this case, please contact us at murdersheet at gmail dot com. We protect our sources and look forward to shining more of a light on this heartbreaking case. My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00] And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_01] And this is The Murder Sheet.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00] We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. We're The Murder Sheet.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01] And this is the murders of Blake and Chyna Dickus. Who is Michael Jerome James?

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_01] We're going to start at the beginning. We're going to go back to Michael Jerome James' early childhood. Before we begin, I want to make one thing extremely clear. And I don't think this will come as a surprise to anybody that we're saying this, but people can go through a difficult upbringing. People can make choices in life that perhaps others might not agree with. It doesn't make them guilty of murder. So the point of this episode when we include information like this

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01] is to simply give you what we found. It's not to draw any conclusions about the person. And ultimately, it's to fill in the gaps of what kind of person are we talking about here? What experiences did they have? And that we can basically shine a light and further the discussion about them without necessarily coming to any hard conclusions. Because we all know somebody can be extremely troubled and innocent of a heinous crime.

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_01] At the same time, someone can have a very peaceful, lovely upbringing and be a terrible person and harm a lot of other people. So let's just hold that in our minds as we're talking about this and not use this as any sort of springboard to jump to conclusions. I think that's very important. When we talk about James's early life, the single best source on this is an excellent June 24th, 2001 article

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_01] from the Longview News Journal written by John Lynch. This local journalist did an amazing job with this story. I'm going to be citing a lot of information for that. I would encourage people to go back on newspapers.com and look at the original reporting. There's going to be stuff I don't get into because I don't want to pick it clean. I want people to refer to this source. But we're concluding information that's mostly focused on James himself and how this story kind of involves him.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01] But hope to maybe even connect with Mr. Lynch and commend him on an amazing job done and perhaps talk to him about his career and his work on this story. So this article reveals that Michael Jerome James's mother was a woman named Janet Rose Stroop. She was apparently 38 years old and a former sex worker and a drug addict who had been with many bad men is what the article says.

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_01] Michael was seemingly born in September of 1991. And early, early in his young life was already up against adversity. His mother was routinely accused of child neglect, not bathing the children, not feeding them, not taking care of them. She was known to often dump them on neighbors. And when I say children, Michael was born at that point,

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_01] but a number of years later, four years later, he was joined by his sister, Jacqueline. So it was him and his younger sister, and their mother was frequently accused by Child Protective Services in Tarrant County of not taking care of them properly. It got even more serious in 1994. Michael would have probably been about three then. And again, this is extremely disturbing, but I think it's important that we report it because it is information for everyone to consider.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_01] That year, the Tarrant County, Texas CPS organization investigated the possibility that James, this three-year-old boy, had been sexually abused by one of Stroop's male partners. They were looking into that. Nothing ever was confirmed or convicted. That case was ultimately dismissed for reasons we'll get into later.

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01] But obviously, that is a horrifying thing that it was even a possibility. At that point, after those child sex abuse claims were circulating with CPS, Michael's Oregon relatives took him in. And he would remain with them apparently, or at least with other family members, for three years. So, in 1996, well after that, at some point,

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_01] Stroop has this daughter, Jacqueline. At three months old, she abandons her with a CPS caseworker. And at that point, she was on parole for auto theft and burglary. I've seen kind of posters of her in the newspapers, kind of talking about forgery. She seems to have been an extensive petty criminal. Her parole is revoked. She goes to jail. And CPS works on trying to terminate her rights for the children.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_01] But at this point, the article says she turned it around. And she was released from jail in September 1996, went to a long-term drug treatment center, was doing what she was supposed to do, was ultimately reunited with Jacqueline in March of 1997 and Michael in May of that year. So, CPS at that point was satisfied that she was on the street and narrow, that she was sober, that she was getting better, and that she was prepared to take care of these children.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01] That turned out not to be true. Because while, well, we'll get into it. She did get a job, and Tarrant County dropped that case against her in March of 1998. I don't know whether that was because they felt she was going to be good and protect her children from strange men or because there wasn't enough evidence or what happened. But at that point, it's dropped. Some interesting information about Stroop.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_01] She had an older sister named Linda James, who apparently lived in California at this time. And eventually, Linda James would move to Johnson County, Indiana, sometime before June 2001. But in the article, it says she's in California. And she, or at least one of the news reports, says she was living in California when a lot of this was going on. Linda James would often bail Stroop out of trouble

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_01] and would be someone that Stroop would turn to when she was having trouble. Stroop apparently called her sister last in April of 1998 and wrote her a letter in May of 1998. So anyways, Stroop is seemingly on the straight and narrow. She has a job. She's sober. Things should be going well. But they're not. On June 8, 1998, Stroop goes to a neighbor. She has six-year-old Michael in tow and two-year-old Jacqueline in tow.

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_01] And she asks the neighbor if she can watch the kids for a while. The neighbor is reluctant but ultimately takes them. Stroop says she needs to go look for a job. And she also needs to get her boyfriend out of jail. But she'll be back in a few hours. Her then-boyfriend was a convicted petty thief who also had a crack cocaine addiction. And no history of violence, though. Stroop had told the CPS that he'd never hurt her, never threatened her.

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_01] And he was also in jail throughout all of this. So that's important to keep in mind for what happens later. They'd only been together for two months. But apparently it was important for her to leave behind her kids in order to go deal with that situation. So Stroop has a car. She has the ability to go there. But she never comes back. And nine hours into this, the neighbor calls police. Police call CPS. CPS find the children in an abhorrent condition.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_01] They're dirty. They're smelly. They're hungry. Jacqueline's jacket has urine on it. It's very clear that they're not being cared for properly. Jacqueline has a cough. She's sick. And she has to go to the hospital. Stroop calls CPS at some point after this date. And even showed up in person three days later on June 11th saying, hey, I didn't leave the kids with her that long. She's lying about me. It was only for a couple hours.

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_01] And did admit that the children had not been bathed in a while and that her daughter's jacket was stained with urine. But just said that the two-year-old wouldn't let her wash it. Which, like, you know. One thing about addicts, and I can speak with some experience here, is that oftentimes someone in the grips of active addiction is full of excuses. And so the CPS people felt she was being manipulative. They felt like she was lying.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_01] They thought she looked strung out, dirty, jittery, thin, unkempt. They felt that she had gone back on drugs. She lied about things. She said, oh, I just took them to the Salvation Army for lunch. Receipts did not show that. She claimed to have been sober since February of 1996 except for a couple of beers. CPS was very concerned. But they still were willing to include her in this process. And on June 23rd, 1998, she signed an agreement to get counseling

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_01] and go into a monitoring program in order to have her children back. That was the last time she was seen alive, seemingly, by anyone who came forward. The next day she was supposed to come see the children. She did not show up. In 1999, the family court actually hired a private detective to track her down. Couldn't find her. Now let's go to several weeks after that last contact. It's July 10th, 1998. Longview, Texas. 4 p.m.

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_01] A group of people discover a woman's body. A Jane Doe. It's not identified. Ultimately, DNA tests indicate that it's not Stroop. There are also inconclusive dental records that might indicate it's not her. But a number of years later, the family says the DNA test was actually botched. The blood became contaminated. And they were able to find pictures showing that the pair of sneakers worn by the Jane Doe

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_01] looked identical to pictures they have of Stroop. The Jane Doe had a degenerative disc disorder, same as Stroop. And the Jane Doe would have been a white Caucasian woman, about 5'2", believed to have been white, as I mentioned. Bleached blonde hair, about 6 inches long. Matched her general description, although it was so decomposed because of the heat that they couldn't really tell.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_01] And at this point, the article gets into Linda James' quest to kind of have that Jane Doe identified as her sister.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_00] We'd like to give a big thank you to Vented, the sponsor of this episode.

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_01] For those of you who haven't seen backgrounds of our lives, the clutter has gotten out of hand at our house. So I've decided to make an effort to do some serious cleaning. One of the places I'm starting is in our bedroom closet. I can't believe all the clothes I had in there that I'd probably frankly never wear again. They were taking up a lot of space. But I didn't want to just be wasteful and throw them away. That didn't seem right, and they have a lot of life in them.

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_00] That's when we found out about Vented, a great way to turn the clothes in our closet into money.

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_01] And also clear up closet space for new clothes.

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_00] Vented is a second-hand market app that makes it easy for everyday sellers like us to sell our pre-loved fashion items. I love that this app is free to download and there are no seller fees. That means we get to keep everything we earn.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_01] Vented makes it so easy to list items. They even help you after an item sells by creating prepaid shipping labels. It couldn't be simpler. And that just makes me want to list more and more items. It makes me feel so much better to have a less cluttered closet.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_00] And these days it also helps to be able to earn some extra money, especially when Vented makes it so easy. That's Vented. V-I-N-T-E-D. See what's hiding in your closet. You might be surprised how much you can earn with Vented. Download the Vented app for free to start listing with no seller fees.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01] Fall means darker days and chilly air. But if you or your partner sleep hot, it can be tricky to get your bedding set up just right. And we all know that health and wellness starts with good sleep. For Kevin and I, that means it starts with amazing, comfortable bedding from our sponsor, Bull & Branch.

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_00] Stay cozy as the temperatures drop with Bull & Branch. You're never sleep hot again. These sheets are going to help you make your bed feel like the coziest, most relaxing place in the world. Somewhere to snuggle up as the winds blow. Their signature sheets are the key ingredient. But they also provide temperature-regulating comforters. Cozy and breathable blankets. You are going to want to upgrade your entire bed.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_01] We certainly did. Our first foray into Bull & Branch was their signature hemmed sheet set in Dusty Rose. Love the color. Love the matching waffle bed blanket. We actually ran out and bought a second set. These ones are sand-colored. That way, we will never have to go back to regular bedding.

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_00] Once you try Bull & Branch, you will understand. It's like bedding from a really nice hotel. Well, woven specifically for airflow, not just softness. So you will feel cozy, not hot. We have been getting amazing sleep on these.

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_01] Plus, I don't know what magic or sorcery they're doing for this, but the more we wash them, the softer they get. I've never had that before. Seriously. Check them out. You're going to melt away. You're going to take your bedtime routine to the max. Bull & Branch sheets are the official pick of the murder sheets from here on out.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_00] Upgrade your sleep with Bull & Branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at bullandbranch.com slash msheet with code msheet. That's bullandbranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D, branch.com slash msheet. Code msheet to unlock 15% off. Exclusions apply.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_01] We love looking good and saving money. So we love our wonderful sponsor, Quince. The clothes they make are comfortable, affordable, and they don't go out of style. They're those wardrobe staples you'll reach for again and again. We certainly do.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_00] I recently got a pearl snap denim western shirt in denim blue that I wear all the time now. For everyday and for fancier events and get-togethers, it's breathable and comfortable, which is a huge deal for me. And I know as the weather cools, I'll be returning to my Quince sweaters, namely my Australian merino wool cable crewneck sweater and my Mongolian cashmere crewneck sweater. Those are so soft and so perfect for the fall. Their Mongolian cashmere sweater start at just $60. Check them out.

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_01] Seriously, get them and we can all match. I love my 100% European linen fit and flare midi dress in chilly red and navy blue. I got two of them because I love them so much. The fit is so good. I think they're so cute and I've gotten a lot of compliments wearing them. So love that. And as Kevin said, I can't wait until it's a bit colder out so I can break out my Mongolian cashmere sweaters. That's the great thing about Quince though. You want to wear these pieces again and again.

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_01] These are classic pieces and you're going to want to get even more because these are 50 to 80% less than similar brands because they cut out the middlemen. Refresh your wardrobe without breaking the budget.

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_00] Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to Quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was the murder sheet. It is the best way to support the show.

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01] They couldn't determine a cause of death. Linda James speculated that her sister may have just overdosed and her body was dumped. And it says that in June of 2001, Linda James adopted the two children of her sister, her niece and nephew in Indiana. She said that she lied to the kids a lot and would say that their mother had gotten in a car accident or had amnesia or got sick.

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_01] And she also said that her nephew, Michael Jerome James, was taking it particularly hard and had psychological problems is what she described. So that is in 2001. Now let's jump to July 24th, 2006 when Michael Jerome James is accused of killing Blake and China Dickas. He would have been 14 years old at that point.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_01] And at this point, he's been raised by his aunt, Linda James, for a number of years. Took her last name. Now let's go to a KLTV report from November 15th, 2007 by Jillian Sheridan. This is out of East Texas. And we're learning here that they were finally able to get the court to rule that the Jane Doe was indeed Stroop. And James himself is actually interviewed as a young man in the piece. He's 15 years old at this point.

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_01] And if he is indeed guilty of the murders, this is actually after the murders occurred. So you're seeing him be interviewed. He talks about remembering being in a foster home. He talks about remembering his mom coming to visit him at the social worker's office and how at some point she just stopped showing up. Linda James is interviewed.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_01] She talks about how her nephew was on 42 different medications a day, some four to five times a day, and how he had severe issues as a result of all of this. I don't know whether 42 is an accurate number, if that's just her trying to emphasize that it was a lot of medications. But she talks about trying to support the kids, get them involved in school activities. And the two children talk about appreciating their aunt for taking them in.

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_01] And she said it was upsetting that they felt their mom had abandoned them. But now they know she was just dead. That's why she never came back. Michael Jerome James talked about how it was a relief because now they don't have to wonder that she might be alive and out there. They know that she is dead. And they had a ceremony to say goodbye to her. And it said that at the time Michael Jerome James was a sophomore in high school. So this would have been the year after.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_01] But what's really interesting to me in terms of the timeline, they say at the end of the previous year, so late 2006, same year as the murders, the court ruled that the Jane Doe and White Cemetery in Texas was Janet Stroop. So that would have been coming to a head in the months after the murders. I wonder if that was stressful or if that was relieving. It's kind of it could kind of go either way.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01] So all that is around the time of the murders, some interesting information very much puts together. I mean, what do you think, Kevin? I feel like that definitely is a pretty troubled childhood.

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_00] It's definitely a pretty troubled childhood. Certainly would bring on all sorts of abandonment issues. And if that number of medications is accurate, that certainly tells us something about his mental and physical state at the time.

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_01] Yes. It's definitely upsetting to read about children being put through that. Although, unfortunately, that does happen when you have especially when you have parents who are addicted to drugs and more focused on that than their children. So it's it's definitely disturbing and I think worth noting about his life.

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_01] But, of course, a lot of people can have a very troubled childhood and they're resilient and they might deal with some issues. It doesn't necessarily inherently make everyone violent or a murderer. Right.

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_00] That's correct.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_01] Important to note. Now, maybe we can talk about some things we were able to find from when Michael Jerome James was slightly older. This is from the public record around some legal troubles he got into circa 2009.

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00] Yes, it starts in December of 2009 when he would have been already 18. So this is when he was an adult. We've heard some indications that he had a juvenile record, but we don't have access to that at this time. So we have basically some information about some charges he faced after he turned 18. And so after he would have been legally considered an adult. Yes, on December 3rd, 2009, he faced a charge of conversion.

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_00] And then that basically ended going into a pretrial diversion situation. That's something that's often offered for the less serious offenses. It's an effort that if you take part in a particular program, they cut you a break. In this case, however, he ultimately was kicked out of that diversion program because he subsequently got picked up for illegal consumption of alcohol.

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_00] And so again, because of this charge involving alcohol, the pretrial diversion program, that opportunity for him was revoked. He ended up pleading guilty that the conversion charge was sentenced to 365 days. 355 days of that was suspended.

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_01] People may be wondering what conversion is. I will tell you under Indiana law, criminal conversion is basically when you take something from somebody else without permission to, you know, take it, use it, keep it. The difference between that and standard theft, I believe, is that you do not have to prove the intent that the taking of that object was supposed to be permanent. Whereas a thief will take it and that's theirs now.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_01] But conversion, I don't know. Maybe you take somebody's car without permission, but you're not going to sell it to a chop shop. You're just running around with it doing what you're not supposed to be doing. So it's not – none of these things are the most serious crime in the world to me for someone who's 18. Certainly I would be very disappointed if a young person in my life was doing these things. But it's not necessarily showing like signs of violence or anything.

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_01] It's something that I could see someone doing and then growing up and necessarily, you know, not necessarily being, you know, hardened criminal about it. But maybe you make some bad choices. It can kind of run the spectrum though. You know, like sometimes something might indicate that somebody has this streak of criminality that they're going to keep on breaking the law and they don't think the rules apply to them. And then other times it might just be a young person making some bad decisions at a young age.

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_01] One thing that stood out to me was the attorneys in this case. I just want to point something out. So you had prosecuting attorneys Bradley Cooper and Andrew Foster. But what I want to talk about is the defense. So at first it seems that – at first it seems like Larry Gessie – I'm sorry if I'm saying his name wrong.

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_01] Larry Gessie is somebody who appears on his behalf starting February 1st, 2010. And at that point a man named John Norris withdraws as public defender which indicates to me that Gessie was retained counsel. But then later on they kind of switch it.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_01] So what they do is on April 26th after there's been this revoking of the plea agreement, he ends up getting indigent counsel appointed from the firm Haas, Vandiver and Norris. So it's like they go back to them. At this point interestingly enough we know that Michael Jerome James was raised in Franklin, Indiana.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_01] But at this point as of 2010, as of April 2010, his address is listed as Martinsville, Indiana. So like did he move at that point? The indigent counsel thing is interesting to me because at the hearing we attended he said he wanted to retain counsel. And of course that's extremely expensive. But, you know, he wants to do that, pay for his own attorney. And the judge was like, well, see if you can get your finances in order and we'll check back on that.

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_01] But it sounds like he has a history of saying I want the retained counsel. And then in this case at least he was not able to continue to afford that, which I found interesting.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_00] So the next thing we wanted to talk about was something that occurred on August 4th, 2011. On that date, Mr. James was filmed by a person or persons from a website that specialized in providing sexually explicit materials for an audience of gay men. The material from that session was actually posted on the site on December 12th, 2011.

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_00] So to be clear, when this material was filmed or created, Mr. James was 19 years old. But by the time it was posted on the website, he had turned 20 years old.

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_01] Yes. So of the legal age to participate in a pornographic film. But yeah, a pretty young person nonetheless. Should I play audio now from? Yes. This is audio from at least one of the clips involving him. And to be clear, when we reported this out, we have confirmed that this is indeed Michael Jerome James, although he is performing under a different name.

[00:30:53] [SPEAKER_01] And as a note, this clip will not include any aspects that are the actual sex part of the pornographic. As a note, this will not include any serious graphic things. The clip almost opens with an interview with the performer, in this case James, and involves some questions about himself.

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_01] So some of it is very sexual and graphic, but you're not actually hearing like sex sounds, to be clear.

[00:31:25] [SPEAKER_02] Doing all right? You nervous at all? Not really. All right. Let's get your stats out of the way. How old are you? I'm 19. What do you weigh? About 160. Okay. How tall? 5'8", I'd say. All right. And you're straight? What kind of girls do you like? I like little blondes. All right. Any particular body part that you like? Gotta say I'm an ass man. All right. Do you get a fuck ass?

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_02] Ah, it's not gonna happen. No, it's not gonna happen, is it? No. Why is that? I think you'll see in a little bit. How about you out when you're doing that? Mm-hmm. On a bed. Okay. All right. You watching porn or using your imagination? Uh, it just depends. A little of both. All right. Have you ever done a marathon where you jerked off a whole bunch? See how many times you can go? Shit, not really. Sorry. That's okay.

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_02] And all right. Well, let's check out your body. I wanted to, you jump on up there to your right. And let's go ahead. And let's get your shirt off.

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_01] So at that point, the more graphic sexual activities begin in the video.

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_00] And I want to be clear, this, as we've indicated, this does appear on a pornographic website that is targeted towards gay men. At least in what we reviewed, even though there is some sexual activity in the video and in the stills, it is not homosexual activity.

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_00] It is basically Mr. James gratifying himself and exposing his anus and other body parts and his erect penis to the camera.

[00:33:20] [SPEAKER_01] Yes. There's no other participant or performer in this pornographic film, at least the one we saw. We also reviewed still images, some of which are from this video, others which appear to be not. And at no point do we see other performers, male or female, participating with him. It seems to be very much a solitary venture from what we saw, at least with what we reviewed.

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_00] And we will post a couple of cropped, non-explicit images from this on our Facebook group.

[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_01] We will. And we can describe in tactful, tasteful ways what is in some of these images, I think. There are three sets of images that we reviewed. One has a black background. And in that, he starts out clothed, wearing an Aero New York Athletics 87 shirt and jeans and Hanes gray underwear.

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_01] And in that, you see him smiling, posing shirtless, then stripping and sort of posing in a way that shows off his erect penis and a number of close-ups of that. The next one is the background shows a room with a bed that has a wooden bed frame, a gray-blue comforter, some gray-blue pillows and some brown pillows. And it has brown walls.

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_01] And you see Michael Jerome James on the bed wearing blue Hanes underwear. And then he strips and there's a number of pictures of his flaccid and then erect penis. And there's also a number of pictures of him exposing his anus to the camera and different poses that do that.

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_01] And then the last one we were able to find, the background is gray walls. You see a bed with a sort of gray metal headboard, blue pillows and a comforter and a purple piece of art in the background. He starts out wearing a maroon polo shirt. This is the one that has the interview.

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_01] In my mind, in the beginning, he does look a bit nervous and sort of, I thought, glassy-eyed, although he is smiling. And this is the user stills from a video for sure because the video, we saw the video, or at least we saw part of it. And at this point, we're seeing him essentially masturbate. And there's no other performers.

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_00] So these videos and images apparently originally appeared on a website called Chaos Men. And they were also subsequently posted elsewhere on the web, including a site called WayBig.com. When this appeared on WayBig.com, it was accompanied by a write-up, ostensibly by the person taking the pictures and shooting the video. I'm going to read that write-up.

[00:36:37] [SPEAKER_00] And keep in mind, again, there's some sexually explicit language here. And note when I refer in this write-up to Jackson, that's J-A-X-S-O-N. That appears to be the, for lack of a better term, the stage name that Mr. James was using at this time. Watch Jackson at ChaosMen.com. I was really happy to pick Jackson up at the airport.

[00:37:05] [SPEAKER_00] His smile was really easy and seemed like a chill type of dude. Jackson was not nervous about doing the shoot, mainly because he is confident his dick is supersized. I did notice he had a tough time looking me in the eye, and that was something that I struggle with during his photos and videos. You don't notice it at all during the photos, but it was tough to get him to look into the camera like I prefer. But we got it.

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_00] For the solo, he is looking all around, but then he gets focused on the audience, and it is pretty intense. The guy is 19 and has an awesome lean muscle build. He likes wrestling and MMA. His favorite part on a girl is the ass, but because his dick is so long, he doubts anyone can take it. I, of course, know I could find someone to take it. It's not really thick, but it looks like a good 10 inches. He's of many mixed heritages.

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_00] He listed out all the nationalities, but all I could see was the dude got a really good mix of DNA. We had fun shooting his solo. He was hard the whole time, even when he showed off his ass, which usually is a boner buster. Not sure he will be back. He's one of those guys that had an outstanding bill that needed paying. So with his earnings, that would be taken care of. But you never know. He had fun and thought it was easy.

[00:38:25] [SPEAKER_00] He's just not keen on working with a dude quite yet.

[00:38:28] [SPEAKER_01] One thing that strikes me that we'll see later is that the reference to wrestling and MMA. Wrestling is something that we know that Michael Jerome James participated in throughout his schooling. And as we're going to hear from someone who knew him later, it was something he frequently talked about. So I found that interesting.

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_01] I also found the reference to an outstanding bill interesting because we know that this follows. It's the year after he wraps up some of that legal trouble in 2010. Now, with legal trouble, his fee seemingly came to $164 for court costs and $100 public defender fee. So $264.

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_01] It's interesting. I'm not saying that that is what he was trying to pay for with this pornography. It's just a note that that can be, you know, a sizable amount for a young person. Now let's move on to something more recent in Michael Jerome James' life. This is his work. And we did end up interviewing somebody who knew him, who was able to fill in some details about his workplace.

[00:39:49] [SPEAKER_01] He went by Mike, Mike James, and worked at Amcor in Franklin, Indiana. Amcor is an Australian company that has a location in Franklin, Indiana. It deals with packaging. I believe it actually makes molds for the packages for a lot of Pepsi products, including Gatorade bottles. And James was some kind of supervisor there. Now, he's 35 at this point.

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_01] So he's at that phase in his life where he's not just one of the workers. He actually is a boss of others. And he was somebody who would be on the computer sometimes, but also working the floor, making sure everything's going smoothly. Not somebody who was staying in one spot. People appreciated that. People also appreciated his personality.

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_01] Words that got used in this conversation were laid back, very nice, respectful of others, dedicated, friendly, funny, smart. No sign of a dark side. Seemed close with everyone. No inappropriate or uncomfortable jokes or incidents. Extremely good at his job. Stand-up guy.

[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_01] Now, what I learned is that he was not necessarily with everybody the type of person to get super personal, but not in a way that seemed closed off to others. It's just that there wasn't necessarily a ton of personal information being discussed, which is really not abnormal for work, in my opinion. Never seemed to get angry in front of others. Punctual, showed up for work. Willing to get up and fix things instead of just telling others to do it.

[00:41:31] [SPEAKER_01] So, he may have worked there for as long as six years. And one thing that would come up in his discussions was his wrestling. He was a lightweight class wrestler, looked back extremely fondly on his experience, enjoyed it a lot, would talk about wrestling a lot. And for people who knew him, his arrest has come as a major shock. Because suddenly this guy who is extremely reliable at work calls off multiple days in a row.

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER_01] People were wondering, did he get fired? Like, did he get laid off? Like, what's happening? This just doesn't seem like he's not the guy to do this. And he left in the middle of a day, apparently, and never came back, called off multiple times. That was all very out of character. And then the news broke and people learned what it really was. And they were utterly shocked.

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_00] The news, of course, is the news of his arrest after he was indicted by the grand jury. We should mention that Fox 59 and Russ McQuaid have reported that Mr. James has been on the radar of investigators of this case at least since 2021. And through our own reporting, we have learned that a crucial piece of the puzzle is the fingerprint. Right.

[00:42:49] [SPEAKER_01] Yes. So I feel like we have learned a lot about this man, but there still are a lot of things that I want to know more about. It really sounds like for many of the people who knew him today, they never would have seen this coming. But at the same time, it seems like there are indications of a pretty troubled history, perhaps in past years. So we're seeing this kind of divide with Michael Jerome James. And I'd like to know more.

[00:43:18] [SPEAKER_01] In our reporting, we just seek to get to the truth. What was this guy really like? Whether that's positive, negative, anything, we'll report it as long as we can confirm it. So if you happen to know him, his family, or just through work, we'd love to hear from you. We will keep your information private if you don't want it going out there. We protect our sources. Same goes for any aspect of this case. We want to hear from you. We want to know what you know.

[00:43:47] [SPEAKER_01] And if we can confirm it, we will try to report it. And we just think it's important that as much information gets out to the public as possible on this case. And that it is in the public interest to know about as much as possible about all the aspects of this case. So if you can help us with that, we love our sources and we protect them. And just get in touch at murdersheet at gmail.com.

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_00] Thank you for listening.

[00:44:15] [SPEAKER_01] Thank you.

[00:44:17] [SPEAKER_00] Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us at murdersheet at gmail.com. If you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.

[00:44:36] [SPEAKER_01] If you're interested in joining our Patreon, that's available at www.patreon.com slash murdersheet. If you want to tip us a bit of money for records requests, you can do so at www.buymeacoffee.com slash murdersheet. We very much appreciate any support.

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_00] Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for The Murder Sheet, and who you can find on the web at kevintg.com.

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_01] If you're looking to talk with other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join The Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening.