Diane Zamora, one half of the infamous “Cadet Killers”, sat for her first interview in prison, which aired on Dateline last night. Among other things, she agreed to take a lie detector test. It’s fascinating reading whether you think she’s lying through her teeth or might possibly be telling the truth about some things. Stone Phillips has his own thoughts on the subject as well. I see in my archives that David Graham did an interview with the Associated Press in 2002, but I can’t find a remnant of that story on the Chron site. Too bad, it would have been interesting to compare.
One curiosity: From the Dateline transcript, the police officer who arrested Zamora and Graham says the following about them.
Sgt. Allan Patton believes Graham and Zamora are both guilty of murder, with one crucial distinction:
Phillips: You believe she has a conscience.
Sgt. Patton: Yes, sir. I do.
Phillips: And David Graham?
Sgt. Patton: A cold-hearted killer.
Phillips: Had Diane Zamora not spoken about this crime, this murder, to those fellow midshipmen–
Sgt. Patton: It would still be unsolved.
Compare that to what he told the Dallas Morning News in a story that ran before Dateline aired, but apparently a couple of months after he was interviewed by Dateline:
Sgt. Alan Patton of the Grand Prairie Police Department, who took Ms. Zamora’s confession, also appeared on the program.
“They were trying to get me to agree that it could have happened another way than I know it happened,” Sgt. Patton said. “I stood by my guns.”
He said he was interviewed for 2 1/2 hours before the television crew went to the Mountain View women’s prison unit in Gatesville, Texas, to interview Ms. Zamora the next day. That was in late November or early December 2006.
Producers told Sgt. Patton that Ms. Zamora’s polygraph indicated that she tried to manipulate the results.
He said he wouldn’t be surprised if someone without a conscience was able to suppress the signs of stress normally brought on by lying, which is what a polygraph relies on to detect deception, especially 11 years after the fact.
“She is someone with no conscience. She thinks she did nothing wrong,” Sgt. Patton said.
So does she have a conscience or doesn’t she? It’d be interesting to know if Sgt. Patton changed his mind, and if the Dateline experience played a role in that.
Finally, the mother of murder victim Adrianne Jones reacts to Dateline:
Linda Jones said: “My whole family is not happy about this. We’re very disappointed by the whole thing.
“I’m angry. I feel like (Dateline) has nothing better to do than to do a story about a whiner. (Zamora) was tried, and she went to prison. She went through the appeals process several times, and she had the opportunity to prove her case differently and all of her appeals were denied.
“I don’t believe she should be interviewed where she can say she’s innocent when the case is settled,” Jones said, adding that Dateline didn’t contact her or her family for comment.
I think there’s value in Dateline revisiting a case like this and talking to a Diane Zamora, whatever she might say. I think there’s always something we can learn from what happened. Of course, that’s easy for me to say.
It should be noted that the polygraph exam is nothing more than a technique for extracting a confession. It does not work for determining the truth of statements. See: antipolygraph.org
I saw little coverage on Court TV and on the news and because I am Diane’s age It caught my eye, like a soap opera.I had been in love and it makes you do crazy things jealousy can be dangerous but Diane made her choices. I think the sentence was harsh but the Jones family did not seek the death penalty.
I believe that Diane didn’t have any parental guidance her mom worked two to three jobs while Diane took care of her siblings and her father cheated on her mom.I can see why David was her mom, father lover. Personally I’ve expierenced this.I was diagnosed with some serious mental illneses and I do believe that Diane has a personality disorder.People will judge but what we only saw is the way the media potrayed Diane. We were not in this situation.It’s SAD that there were no winners Diane and David threw away there futures, Jay Guild lost a promising career and the Jones family lost there daughter that’s SAD. God Bless:)