A woman whose brother murdered their mum fears he'll manipulate the system, be set free and come for her.
In 2007 Amy Chesler found her mother Hadas Winnick, 55, lying dead in a pool of her own blood with a knife sticking out of her throat.
Her own brother, Jesse Winnick, then 25, had stabbed the teacher to death with a kitchen knife when she asked him to clean up after he made himself a sandwich.
He confessed the crime to Amy, a then recent college graduate, over the phone as she drove home - simply stating: "Don't come home, I killed mum."
After a lengthy legal process, Jesse eventually pleaded no contest to second degree murder in September 2011, at Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Now, Amy, 37, who lives just a mile away from their old home in Calabasas, Los Angeles, USA, home, says she's still terrified of her brother.
He was sentenced to 15 to life in prison and is set to have a parole hearing next year.
She fears he will "manipulate the system" and be let free from prison.
Amy, a writer, said: "My mum was an incredible person. All the work I do everyday helps to perpetrate what she would have done and what she did throughout her life.
"She was the best person I knew, her moral compass was so finely tuned and she was a source of light, my best friend.
"But she had boundaries. She was very good at that with everyone except my brother - which I don't blame her for, we had no means of help available to get us out of that situation.
"We were both stuck in an abusive relationship with my brother, who we lived with, for ten years at the time of the murder. He was manipulative and aggressive.
"We had called the police on him multiple times before and he had been in jail, but my mum always dropped any charges and forgave him.
"When I found her on the night he killed her, it was awful. It was the worst thing I've ever seen.
"The emotional impact has been immense. It changed my life trajectory completely.
"The past year has been extremely traumatic in terms of my brother. I haven't been able to heal because the system hasn't allowed me to.
"He's tried to have me killed, and threatened me over a recorded Zoom parole hearing in 2021, and now he's up for parole again next year.
"I'm absolutely terrified, and I don't understand how someone as awful as him could possibly be getting out so soon."
At the time of the murder, Jesse, Amy and Hadas were living together at their home in Calabasas. Amy, who was 22 at the time, had recently graduated college, and like her mother, had taken a job as a teacher near their home.
She had to stay late at work, but had been asked by her brother if she wanted to watch Quantum Leap with him, so he called her and asked when she'd be home.
Throughout the evening, Amy received multiple calls from both her mother and brother asking when she would be home, and could tell the situation was escalating.
The last time she spoke to her mother, she told her she wouldn't be home for a while and asked if everything okay, only for Hadas to say: "fine, bye", and hang up.
She tried to call back, but there was no answer, so she phoned her brother instead, who simply said: "Don't come home. I killed mum."
Amy said: "I was still heading home at this point, and I thought it could be a sick joke, because Jesse would say things like that all the time, but there was something in the pit of my stomach telling me otherwise.
"I called the police, who told me not to go into the house as the killer might still be there, but I went in anyway to see for myself.
"I found her lying in a large pool of blood. The only part of her body not tainted or disturbed was her leg, so I hugged her leg and then ran out of the house as I remembered what the police had told me."
Jesse had taken off in his mother's car, despite not having a license, after he stabbed her with the same knife he used to make a sandwich, before abandoning it and getting into another car.
He was found later that night, and taken into custody, and at his sentencing in 2011, Jesse received a sentence to 15 years to life in prison.
However, Amy, is fearful that her "manipulative" brother will be set free only 11 years after he was put away.
In California, inmates can apply for a parole hearing after serving 85 percent of their sentence, which includes the time they spent in jail before trial.
She said: "His whole life he's been abetted and aided by the system, which culminated in my mother's murder and now his manipulation of the system.
"It took him four and a half years to get convicted because he manipulated the system by doing things like constantly firing his lawyers to buy more time.
"He would take medication and then abruptly stop using it close to a trial date, so then it had to be rescheduled because he was deemed mentally unfit.
"He even tried to hire a hitman on me from jail, but the inmate he asked told the police and they came and told me.
"He was up for parole in 2021, only nine years since his conviction, but he requested to get it moved to what is now next year.
"At the hearing, which was recorded on zoom, he admitted to stabbing 90 more people in jail, and threatened me, saying he knew where I lived with my two children.
"And yet, he asked to be moved to a different prison, and they just let him, and I'm worried they'll let him out next year.
"People like my brother need to be spoken about so we can find discrepancies on how and how people like him are being empowered by the system."
Amy, who has written a book on her mother's case, also says that the discourse around 'true crime' needs to shift, to stop enabling killers like her brother.
She said: "Grief is not linear, and it's forever. It's even generational, my children have been affected by what happened and are in therapy.
"I've had so many people write to me or contact me to say they're fearful of their sons doing this, and that hearing this story may have saved their life.
"I want to help people heal within a space where the true crime genre is so prevalent, and when there's podcasts named 'My Favourite Murder' out there, glorifying it, it's really hard.
"Me and my mum were massive fans of the true crime genre, but it needs to be more sensitive and highlight the victims rather than the perpetrators.
"The day of her murder, September 25th, is now the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims, which is really extraordinary and means I can mourn my mother with other who have also lost loved ones to murder.
"The more we share, the more we connect, and I don't think my mum would mind being an example to make the world a better place."
