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In 2015, a Kingsport man, Jonathan Slemp, was convicted of first-degree murder and other related charges in the October 15, 2011, killing of Betty Sue Short based on witness statements and his own confessions that placed him at the crime scene on the night of the murder. Short was reportedly found badly beaten to death the following day by her son.
Slemp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and soon pleaded guilty to the second murder of 53-year-old Gary Jones, who was found stabbed to death in his trailer home in 2010.
As per prison records, Jonathan Slemp died while serving time in prison, but the details surrounding his death remain unknown.
This week's premiere episode of ID's Murder in My House is scheduled to revisit Betty Sue Short's killing and the investigation that connected the case to an unsolved murder and a killer on the loose. The episode titled No Remorse will air this Tuesday, March 28, at 9:00 pm ET, whose synopsis reads as:
"Police discover Betty Sue Short murdered in her own home; the killer has turned the air conditioning down low to preserve the body, and there's no trace of a murder weapon; the scene shares similarities with a recent killing in the community."
On the last day of his trial, Jonathan Slemp testified in his own defense, providing no new information for Betty Sue Short's murder
In September 2015, Jonathan Slemp, 44, was found guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and especially aggravated robbery for bludgeoning 65-year-old Betty Sue Short to death in 2011. The jury deliberated for five hours after hearing testimonies for five days before delivering the guilty verdict. Slemp was then handed a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Reports state that on October 16, 2011, Short was found at the house by her son Scott, who was living with her at the time. The latter had spent the previous night at his girlfriend's house and returned home to find his dead elderly mother sitting on the couch with blunt force trauma to her head and her face covered with a sheet. The crime scene led authorities to believe she knew the killer.
On the fifth and conclusive day of his trial, Jonathan Slemp testified in his own defense, mainly repeating what he had previously told Kingsport police during their first interaction with him four years earlier. He provided little to no new information regarding the case and claimed that detectives "railroaded" him with no sympathy.
Prosecutors drew attention to the fact that Slemp told the jurors that he called Betty Sue Short on October 15, but had previously stated that she had called him in an audio recording of a 2011 phone discussion with Scott. The accused claimed that he returned home sometime around 9:15 or 9:20 that night. However, two witnesses from his house claimed that he returned at about 10:15 or 10:30 pm.
The prosecution alleged that Jonathan Slemp murdered the 65-year-old in a drug-related matter
Jonathan Slemp was portrayed as a drug addict who murdered Betty Sue Short for her prescribed medication, which had been filled just over a week before her death. The prosecution asserted that drugs were his primary motive since he was close to the family and was aware of Short's medical condition and prescriptions.
According to the defense, no physical proof linking Slemp to the crime scene has ever been discovered or presented. The defense argued that Kingsport Police Department investigators had focused solely on Slemp as a suspect in the 65-year-old's killing and had not thoroughly investigated the victim's son. However, the accused told officers that he was present at the victim's house on October 15.
Jonathan Slemp was found guilty regardless of his defense's attempts to pin suspicion on Betty Sue Short's son. He was then sentenced to prison with the possibility of parole. Later, Slemp also pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge in the 2010 stabbing death of Gary Jones and eventually died while serving time in prison. His cause of death remains unknown.
Murder in My House on ID premieres this Tuesday at 9:00 pm ET.
