THE MARCUS CONLON EXPERIENCE
Episode #847 - Jackson Reed
Published March 15, 2018
[Excerpt: 1:23:45 - 1:26:12]
Marcus: You know it’s funny. I thought I knew what my PI clients were going through. Sometimes they were waiting for a call from a kid who’d been trafficked. Sometimes just a wife waiting for her unfaithful husband to come home after he’d been rolled by a hooker. That waiting… but it’s different when it’s your friend. And I tell you brother, when Memphis PD called me... man, I don’t think I’ve ever felt relief like that. I thought for sure it would be tell me they’d found your body. Or part of it. But it wasn’t. “We found him. He’s alive.” Nancy and I just... we just fucking sobbed.
Jackson: Who’s the fag now?
[Laughter]
Jackson: No, the only thing keeping me from crying was not wanting to give that bitch the satisfaction. Staring down the barrel of death for five days, wondering what the hell she was waiting for. I was thinking about everything I’d never get to fix. Victoria—never being able to make things right with her. Never going to apologize for all the shit I put her through. And Charlie... I promised to find out what happened to him, and I was going to die just like he did.
Marcus: But you didn’t die.
Jackson: [Quietly] There were moments I wanted to. When the pain got bad enough. It’s funny, you think getting hit by a girl would hurt less. But a metal wrench is still metal and my head still hurts anytime I think of it. You start thinking maybe it’s better to just let go.
Marcus: What kept you going?
Jackson: Honestly? Spite. Pure fucking spite. She kept talking about how I never saw her, never remembered her from Lejeune. How I looked right through her. Like, bitch you killed God knows how many people and you got me tied to this chair thinking I’m gonna feel sorry for you? And I thought—I’m not giving her the satisfaction of being right. I’m not dying as another forgotten victim.
Marcus: The footage from your escape... I’ve watched it probably fifty times trying to understand. You were bound to that chair for five days. Flex cuffs, duct tape, the works. How did you plan it?
Jackson: [Dark laugh] The escape? You wanna know how I timed it perfectly?
Marcus: Yup.
Jackson: I didn’t. It was sheer luck I caught her off guard and my body still worked well enough to make a move. [sigh] I still don’t know how I walked outta there…
[END OF EXCERPT]
Video Title: “Lawyer Reacts to Jackson Reed Escape Footage | Captivity Survivor Analysis”
Channel: Witness Stand | YouTube
Published: September 3, 2020
Duration: 34:17
Views: 4.7M
[00:00:00]
Andrea: Before we begin, I need to warn you that today’s video contains footage of actual violence and captivity. If you’ve been following the channel for a while, you know that in addition to being a criminal prosecutor, I also survived a home invasion and six-hour hostage situation in 2014. I understand how triggering this content can be so please prioritize your mental health. If this video isn’t for you, then that’s okay. Click off now and be at peace.
For those who are staying, we’re analyzing the now-infamous escape footage from August 2017, when Jackson Reed freed himself after five days of captivity. The footage was released during Irina Sterling’s trial and has since been dissected endlessly. However, with Irina Sterling’s newly released book, the conversation has started again.
[00:01:32]
[Screen shows silo footage]
Andrea: Let me set the scene. This is day five. Jackson has been beaten repeatedly—court documents list injuries including cracked ribs, severe dehydration, and multiple contusions to his head, neck, torso, and extremities. The camera, set up by Sterling herself, shows him bound to that steel chair.
What you’re seeing here—that slumped posture, the way his head hangs—that’s not just exhaustion. That’s learned helplessness. After days of unpredictable violence, the body starts shutting down hope as a survival mechanism.
[00:02:45]
[Footage shows Crystal entering frame]
Andrea: Now watch Sterling. See how she’s moving? Casual, almost careless. After five days, she’s gotten comfortable. She’s established a routine. And routines, as any survivor knows, create opportunities.
[Audio from footage] Crystal: “Time for your bathroom break, Captain. You know the drill.”
Andrea: [Pauses video, takes deep breath] Sorry, I need a second. The way she says “Captain”—that mocking tone while he’s completely vulnerable... [Clears throat] In her book, Sterling wrote that she enjoyed these moments of “intimate caretaking.” That’s... that’s a common thing with captors. They create dependence.
[00:03:22]
[Crystal approaches, begins unlocking restraints]
Andrea: This is the moment. Watch his hands as she unlocks the cuffs. He’s been working at them for days—see the blood? But he’s staying limp, non-threatening.
[00:04:15]
[Crystal helps Jackson stand, his legs shaking]
Crystal: “There we go. Lean on me. I’ve got you.”
Jackson: “I can walk.”
Crystal: “No, you can’t. And that’s okay. I’m here to help.”
Andrea: [Voice tight] The false intimacy, the caretaking mixed with control—I’m sorry, this is... For those who’ve been through this, you know how it messes with your head. When your captor is the only source of basic needs.
[Jackson suddenly lurches forward, using his body weight to knock Crystal backward]
Crystal: “What the f—”
[00:04:15]
[Crystal falls backward, water bottle flying]
Andrea: Now here’s where it gets interesting. Sterling writes in her book that she “allowed” him this moment, that she was curious what he’d do. That’s revisionist history. Watch her face in slow motion—that’s genuine shock. She didn’t expect this from someone so weakened. Or maybe it’s that she thought Jackson was coming around, that he wanted to be kept by her. It’s hard to say because of her warped worldview and the sheer number of delusional lies she has in her book.
[Jackson tips the chair over, using the impact to break the damaged flex cuffs]
Andrea: He’s been weakening those restraints for hours, maybe days. The chair tipping provides just enough force to snap them. But look at him—he can barely stand.
[00:05:33]
[Crystal rolls away, grabs a pipe]
Crystal [on footage]: “You stupid son of a bitch! I was being nice!”
Andrea: This is textbook. Instead of engaging, she immediately creates distance and arms herself. But listen to the genuine anger in her voice. Like how dare you not submit to my abuse. I have seen this over and over in my career.
[Jackson grabs a shovel from the wall]
Jackson: “Stay back. Just... stay back.”
Crystal: “You’re really going to hit a woman with a shovel? After everything you wrote about me? You’d sink that low?”
Andrea: There it is. Using their sexual history as ammo, making him feel like the aggressor.
[00:07:22]
[Jackson feints left, Crystal reacts]
Jackson: “I’m leaving. One way or another.”
[Crystal suddenly screams and drops to her knees]
Andrea: This is the moment that haunts me. She screams—not in pain, but in performed terror. “Please don’t hurt me! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
Watch Jackson freeze. Even knowing what she’s done to him, that sound—a woman’s terror—triggers an involuntary response. Sterling wrote that she learned this technique from watching domestic violence calls as an MP. She knew exactly what button to push.
[00:08:45]
[While Jackson hesitates, Crystal rolls toward a side door]
Crystal: “No! Please! Don’t hurt me! I’m sorry! I’M SORRY!”
Andrea: He’s completely frozen. Even knowing what she’s done, his conditioning—our conditioning—makes us hesitate when we hear a woman in distress. Or a baby. Honestly, we react the same way to both. That’s why he doesn’t move a muscle while she runs out of the silo. It’s only after he’s gone that he pursues.
[00:09:33]
[Jackson reaches the door, looks out]
Jackson: [To himself] “Shit. Shit shit shit.”
[Sound of vehicle starting in distance]
Andrea: [Quietly] This is the decision that saved his life. He doesn’t pursue. Look at him—he’s swaying on his feet, probably seeing spots. In his police statement, he said his vision was graying out.
[Jackson stumbles through silo, finding an old landline]
Andrea: Court records show this phone hadn’t worked in years. But he doesn’t know that. He’s wasting precious seconds while Sterling is executing her escape plan.
[00:10:45]
[External security footage from nearby property shows a van speeding away]
Andrea: This footage, captured by a farm two miles away, shows a van leaving the area approximately four minutes after Sterling fled the silo. She had a vehicle staged, supplies ready, probably multiple escape routes planned.
By the time Jackson found a working phone at a farmhouse half a mile away—walking barefoot on injured feet—she had a thirty-minute head start.
[00:12:17]
Andrea: Let me address something Sterling wrote in her book. She claims she “gave” him this escape, that she was tired of “playing with her food.” I call bullshit.
Watch the footage again. The shock on her face when he attacks. The genuine panic before she switches to performance. The speed of her escape. This was a predator whose prey fought back at the perfect moment of complacency. She had successfully planned her abduction to get around Jackson’s superior physical strength, but she didn’t have one in place to overcome him here. Honestly–and I’m not the first to speculate this–I don’t think she intended to keep him for that long. I think she took him there to kill him like all the others. But something made her draw out the experience. Like she needed something from him before she could let him die. Something she clearly didn’t get.
[00:13:45]
Andrea: If you take anything from this analysis, let it be this: Crystal Barnett/Irina Sterling was a predator who used society’s assumptions about women as a weapon. She killed at least seven people that we know of. She tortured Jackson Reed for five days. And when he fought back, she used his own socialization against him to escape.
Whatever your opinions of feminism are, I hope you know that what she did is not girl power. It sets us back and makes everything we’ve fought for look like a manipulation tactic. So if you’re frantically typing some breathless ode to Irina’s “strength,” miss me with it.
[00:25:12]
Andrea: Thank you for watching. If you’re a survivor of violence, please know you’re not alone. Links to resources are in the description. And remember—there’s no “right” way to survive. There’s only survival.
Until next time, stay safe out there.
[END VIDEO]
Top Comments:
@GattacaIsNow: “The scream thing made me physically sick. I’ve screamed like that for real.”
@BradStan: “People saying he should have caught her have never been in a fight, let alone tortured for days”
@GloriaSteinemsPlayboySpread: “She doesn’t represent feminism and I’m tired of people saying she does”
@JacksonReedIsTrash: “He’s still a misogynist who got what he deserved”
@VeteranVoices: “Two Marines. One a killer, one a survivor. This footage is hard to watch.”
Video Description: Attorney Andrea Martinez, survivor of violent crime, analyzes the Jackson Reed escape footage frame by frame. CONTENT WARNING: Violence, captivity, torture.
If you’re experiencing domestic violence: National Hotline 1-800-799-7233 RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673 Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255
Fair use for commentary and criticism purposes.
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Ah! So good! I love this format.