Chapter 1: What led to the tragic death of Olympian Dave Laut?
They met in high school. She was a homecoming queen, and he was one of the big studs in high school.
He also was an Olympian.
He wasn't just my big brother. He was like Superman. They had a good relationship.
Hey, Mike. They just decided they wanted to adopt. Hi, Michael.
That was an exciting time. They had their child. It was like, wow.
I think they were the perfect couple up until towards the end.
What's the one and two?
One and two is scout matter, we believe, from Dave Lott.
You're a job-based buyer?
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Chapter 2: How did Jane Laut's story about the shooting change over time?
There are a lot of people who will look at Jane and they see a meek, Quiet woman. Don't let it fool you. There's a different person living inside of her than what you see.
Is Jane Lau going to testify? Of course. She'll be our first witness. I'm confident a jury's going to know that Jane was in fear of her life that night and that shooting Dave was her only escape.
I'm Erin Moriarty. Tonight on 48 Hours... death of an Olympian. It was shortly after midnight, August 28, 2009, and in Oxnard, California, Jane Laut was frantically telling a 911 dispatcher that her husband, Dave, may just have been shot by an intruder.
I want to work with you to see how you're reporting. He was shot. You're a John St. Byers?
Yes.
Dave's younger brother, Don, and his wife, Rebecca, were asleep in their home when they got the call.
Hi, you've reached the Lout family. When the phone rings that early, you know it's... Yeah, something's not right. Hi, this is Detective Sonia Sanchez with Oxnard Police Department. But we kind of laid there frozen. Right. Let it go to voicemail.
Mm-hmm. Jane Lout called her brother, Hank Laubacher.
Can you hear the noise in the backyard? He went out and he got some shots. What police are you here for?
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
This is a memorabilia room. Yeah, quite a few things, huh? Back in 1980, Dave was a hometown hero who had set shot put records and was destined for Olympic fame. His biggest supporter was the young woman who was about to become his wife.
I mean, if you knew Dave and the kind of person he was and the way he beamed when he talked about Jane and how he had her up so high on this pedestal, I mean, he just, he loved her.
She was a nice girl. I loved her all these years. I did. Jane Loud spoke to me for her first TV interview. You remember your wedding day? Mm-hmm. Were you happy that day? I was. I was really happy.
You know, and it was very special. They had a good, strong friendship. And something that I always thought, you know, I want to have a marriage like that.
But the marriage faced challenges. In 1984, Dave finally won an Olympic medal, but it was bronze. Everyone was proud, but Dave was determined to win the gold in the 88 games. And then while training, Dave tore tendons in both of his knees and forever lost his chance at the gold. He tried, but he couldn't come back. He then became a teacher? Mm-hmm. Did he like teaching? He loved it.
And the one that was important was that one. Athletic director from high school. It was his dream job. Jane and Dave seemed to settle into their new life and tried to have a family. When Jane couldn't get pregnant, the couple adopted a baby boy from South Korea.
Say hi to Daddy.
and named him Michael.
We had happy times. The time right before Michael arrived was good. Right up until Michael was probably five was the best time of our marriage.
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Chapter 4: What was Jane Laut's defense during the trial?
They were separated, as I recall, by about a second a shot. So boom, boom, boom, boom.
Just hours after being interviewed by police before she even knew they found the gun, Jane changed her story. Now she said it was self-defense and hired attorney Ron Bamier.
There's no dispute that she wanted him dead that night. Yeah, it was going to be him or her.
Jane says it was when her husband also threatened to kill their 10-year-old son, Michael, that she felt she had no choice. I think if it didn't happen, we would both be dead. But even then, it would be nearly six months before Jane Lott was arrested, and then she would be released on bond for six years, until her trial finally began. Why? Why'd it take so long?
Because knowing the who is only half the story. We wanted to try and figure out if there was a legitimate why.
So why do you think she killed your son? My personal feeling is that she was afraid Dave was going to take Michael. Next, Jane tells us her side of the story. Jane Laut says she never planned to kill her husband. I thought it, for sure. It was the only way to stop him. You don't get how he would not stop coming after me.
She was used to abuse, she says, but that night she says Dave went further than he ever had. Normally he'd get mad and it would taper off sometimes, but he never stopped all night. He just kept raging. Jane claims she first noticed Dave's temper when they were dating, and Dave was going for the gold. There were signals I didn't really pay attention to before.
Just his anger, his, you know, if something didn't go right, if he couldn't find something. If he's throwing away the shot and it doesn't go as far as he wants, he's just losing his temper. The first time Dave hit her, Jane says, was also shortly after they were married. Dave was going out of town to an Olympic training session, and it was Jane's job to pack his bags.
He was leaving for a trip, I forgot to buy something. It was, like, bathroom supplies. And he hit me, and I had, like, a black eye, and my lip was split.
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Chapter 5: How did Jane's family and friends perceive her relationship with Dave?
I can't believe I let him stay in danger like that. Why did you stay? I always thought it would get better. Yet she says she was still unprepared for what happened on the night of August 27, 2009. When Jane and Michael returned home late from a day at the beach, she says, Dave exploded.
I didn't ask Dave anything about his day. I didn't.
It just started it that we didn't. ask him. We didn't respect him. Jane put their 10-year-old to sleep early and did what she had been doing for two years, crawled into bed with her son. Why were you sleeping in Michael's room? Because he was scared. Michael was scared? Dave would stay up in the living room and he'd been drinking all night and he's just raging at whatever. It's the TV, it's
something an email that would happen every night almost every night jane says she was in michael's room when she heard dave raging in the hallway and got up to try and calm him he just started just swearing at me and i kept telling him i was sorry and he started to come down towards michael's room and And I saw the gun in his hand.
She says she focused on diverting Dave away from Michael and drawing him out of the house. We went to this side of the house and we stumbled.
I don't know if we were falling or just, like, moving, but I felt one gunshot go off. And then we did fall. And I was, like, straddling him and... I honestly don't remember after that.
Five more shots were fired. When you got up, you had to realize he was dead. I didn't think he was, honestly. I mean, I saw him. I remember seeing his socks. I just thought for sure he's going to jump up and run after me. But if you were terrified, why didn't you right away then tell the 911 operator, oh, my God, he tried to kill me, and he's going to come back in? I can't explain why.
The district attorney's office offered Jane a deal, plead to manslaughter, and agreed to a six-year prison term. But Jane did the unimaginable. She turned it down. I felt if I took the plea, nobody would know what really happened. It would be like accepting what the prosecution said happened that night. It would be like accepting that they said there was no abuse with Michael or me.
She's full of baloney. She's lied so many times. All her, as I look back and think back, so many lies. The Lout family now says the woman they embraced as part of the family is a pathological liar and cold-blooded killer. Rebecca, you once said to me that there are two faces of Jane. What do you mean by that?
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Chapter 6: What were the key arguments presented by the prosecution?
I don't care who I hurt. In some cases, kill. I'm going to put this cookie right here and see which kind of big game animal comes and eats the cookie.
Was Dave Laut, a hometown hero, a beloved coach and high school athletic director, secretly abusing his wife at home. Oxnard homicide detective Mike Young was determined to find out.
We spent five or six months doing dozens and dozens and dozens of interviews with friends and family, seeing if anyone was aware of any domestic violence issues. Another direct neighbor right next door who was a ex-L.A. County deputy. I specifically asked if there was any domestic issues, and he said, absolutely not. I would have seen that.
Did Jay never tell you that Dave hit her? Never. Never. Dave's brother, Don, and his wife, Rebecca, in interviews were adamant they never witnessed or heard about any abuse. Pushed her? Never. Was verbally abusive? Never. Did you ever see her with any kind of bruises?
Never.
Never. Never, ever. Even Jane, on the night of the shooting, denied any abuse in her marriage.
I asked you about your relationship. Is it abusive? No. Physically? No. Mentally?
What's more, Jane didn't look like someone who had been in a battle for her life. There were no fresh scratches on Dave or Jane.
She had two small, maybe nickel-sized or so, older bruises on the inside of her left bicep that were greenish and yellowish, as if they were in late stages of healing.
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Chapter 7: What was the jury's verdict in Jane Laut's trial?
She told me another time that she was held up at knife point at the grocery store. Was that true? I don't think so, but it was Jane, so you kind of just say, oh, okay.
Mm-hmm. But Jane now says all those stories were to cover for Dave's abuse. Is it possible she did make up these stories about a stalker and an attack to cover up injuries that her husband gave her?
Well, I guess it's possible. You know, I don't know. I find it convenient.
Another secret that police uncovered? It turns out Jane and Dave were deeply in debt. Rebecca Laut blames Jane.
She was the one in charge of the finances, and I don't think Dave knew that she hadn't paid her taxes in three or four years. I don't believe he knew that they were behind on their mortgage.
And Dave may not have known that Jane had borrowed nearly $60,000 from his own mother, Dottie.
She would say, I need X amount of dollars for Dr. Bill.
I need X amount of dollars. I have to pay some tuition. I just gave it to her. A large sum of money also went missing from the Parent Teacher Association at Michael's school, where Jane was a treasurer.
She told Dottie that she needed $25,000, otherwise the bank was going to basically foreclose on the home. And it turns out that she took that $25,000 check, deposited it in the bank, cashed out $20,000 the next day and deposited it into the parent club account.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the trial's outcome for Jane Laut and her family?
And she may not have been the only one who knew about the verbal abuse.
Could there have been signs of physical abuse?
Rebecca insists that Jane never mentioned any physical abuse and says that with all she's learned, she now believes that Jane lied about it all. Do you think that Dave's mother or your sister-in-law knew this was going on?
They knew. A lot. They did. They knew what was going on. For years, Gone South has been a podcast about crime in the American South. But for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South, and in a lot of ways, the country itself.
Follow and listen to Gone South Season 5, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.
As the date for Jane Laut's murder trial approached, Dave's family feared what they'd have to hear. In her defense, Jane Laut would be testifying that her husband, the Olympian hero, was also a sadistic abuser. Rebecca, what if the jury believes her?
I mean, it's going to be a horrible day, but... What are you going to do?
On January 11, 2016, more than six years after Jane Laut shot her husband, the trial finally began. Cameras were only permitted for opening and closing statements. Good morning, everyone. Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Ramin Manui began to lay out the state's case against Jane Laut shot by shot.
On August 27th, 2009, this defendant took this Ruger New Model single six revolver. She followed her husband of 29 years to the side yard and she shot him with this gun.
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