Upcoming TV episode explores case of Laverne Fields killing her husband in 1999
Published 5:40 am Saturday, August 13, 2022
- Montreal Jordan, Laverne Fields’ son, and LaToya Lane, Fields’ daughter, present their leads to their mother’s innocence to the hosts during an upcoming episode of “Reasonable Doubt.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected, after previously misidentifying Jordan and Lane as Calvin Fields’ children. They are Laverne’s children only.
The adult children of a Tyler woman who is serving time in prison for killing her husband want answers.
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Montreal Jordan and LaToya Lane will be featured in an upcoming episode of “Reasonable Doubt” on the Investigation Discovery channel, hoping to uncover details that could prove their mother’s innocence in a 22-year-old crime.
An episode will air Tuesday night about their 57-year-old mother Laverne Fields, who is serving a 90-year sentence after she was charged with first-degree murder of her husband, Calvin Fields. A jury ruled she shot him in the back of the head on Sept. 27, 1999.
Laverne Fields’ testimony has always been that her husband committed suicide and at her sentencing, she said she would “grieve until the day” she dies, according to a Tyler Morning Telegraph article.
The episode, “Prison Mom,” is led by Chris Anderson and Fatima Silva, who re-examine controversial murder cases to help desperate families of those convicted decide if they want to accept the truth and step back from appealing to guilty verdicts.
Anderson and Silva interview Lane, Jordan and others who provide insight on the case, and they also visit Fields in prison to hear her side of the story. To this day, Fields maintains her innocence.
“God as my witness, I did not kill my husband,” she told Anderson in the episode.
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Evidence showed the Fields family was suffering from financial struggles that led Laverne to kill her husband, 51, and get his life insurance policy, according to the Morning Telegraph.
Bank accounts showed negative numbers and bounced checks, according to a financial report.
Fields, who was a Vietnam War veteran, had a life insurance policy of $65,000. His main beneficiary was his mother until the beneficiary was changed to Laverne’s name, just five days before the murder.
Jordan, Laverne’s son, told Anderson and Silva he believed that his father suffered from depression, which could’ve led to suicide. However, close friends of Fields remember him as a positive person who was always proud of his family.
Lane, Laverne’s oldest daughter who was 18 years old when the crime happened, told Anderson and Silva her belief that her mom did not kill Calvin Fields gives her strength to keep fighting for her mom’s innocence.
She also said she believes the trial was influenced by the media coverage, as it was a case that garnered a lot of attention.
“The hope she’ll be home soon to one day enjoy her family and grandchildren (keeps me going),’’ she said.
Jordan, who was 6 years old when his mother was arrested, said he hasn’t given up because of his hopes to someday experience the feeling of a parental figure.
“It’s the hope that eventually she’ll be able to come home and I’ll be able to have some sense of normalcy when it comes to having a parent around, because I never really had that,” Jordan tells Anderson and Silva in the episode.
Despite being in prison, Fields told Anderson she maintains a great relationship with her kids, especially with Jordan.
“I miss my family so much,” Fields says in the episode. “I haven’t been able to interact with my children as a mother should, I just wanna go home and reunite with them.”
More interviews and in-depth investigation are part of the hour-long episode. The show will air at 9 p.m. Tuesday on Investigation Discovery.
Anderson and Silva aim to help families decide if they should appeal verdicts or accept them.
“In each episode, new developments in the case — including additional witnesses and evidence — help to either support the defendant’s contention of innocence or point toward the guilty verdict being the correct one,” according to information from the show.
Anderson is a retired homicide detective for the City of Birmingham (Alabama) Police Department. He worked 17 years for the department and worked on more than 300 homicide cases.
After retirement, Anderson worked with the Birmingham District Attorney’s office as a cold case investigator. He is currently the chief of police at his alma mater, Talladega College.
Silva is a criminal defense attorney fighting for people accused of crimes in the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently owns her own firm, Silva Law Firm where she represents clients on a daily basis.
For more information, visit www.investigationdiscovery.com .