This is all of Toby's medals.
This is Toby's Purple Heart.
He got this here from injuries he got in Afghanistan.
We were really proud of Toby
when he got all these,
but I would gladly give them all back just to have him back.
My name is Arunda Perkins.
I'm Toby Gregory's mom.
He did two tours of Afghanistan back to back,
and it was really bad.
Toby was never the same after that last tour.
The military just done something to him and he ain't my Toby now.
I am Toby Gregory.
I'm at the Jefferson City Correctional Center
in the state of Missouri.
I was given a 24, uh, year sentence for second-degree murder
due to diminished capacity
for PTSD.
I was born, uh, July 16th, 1974.
I grew up in the small town of Belle, Missouri.
There wasn't a whole lot to do there.
We went out to creeks and partied.
And I guess ever since then, I realized that I like drinking.
In my teenage years, it got more so.
It didn't get totally out of control until I…
when I joined the military.
Uh, then that was the pastime.
I always thought about joining the military when I was young.
But when I first got off the bus at Marine Corps boot camp,
I was thinking, "What did I do to myself?"
Why-- Why did I want to put myself through this?
But then, once I graduated, I felt the sense of accomplishment
of earning the title as a marine,
and it-- It was great…
for a while.
She took a personal interest in me.
And she did things to me that was not only against policy, but against the law.
She would come in at gunpoint…
and she would sexually assault me.
She would make me take Viagra and have sex with her.
She actually physically choked me,
and I honestly believed that she would have shot me and got away with it.
She took everything from me.
I felt weak.
And I reported this.
The things that I got was, "Men don't get sexually assaulted."
Uh, "You should be glad that she's having sex with you."
I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2008.
I got assigned with the 2506 infantry.
We were on the supplier route and we took fire,
rockets, basically every day.
December 15th, 2008
is where I got my traumatic brain injury and received my Purple Heart.
I heard the launch of a rocket.
It actually hit the bunker that we would have been in.
And, and knocked me unconscious.
I was shaken up.
I was bleeding from the nose and mouth.
I couldn't regain focus.
I wasn't flown out
because they needed everybody there,
but there was reports that I wasn't acting right.
The doctor did a couple MRIs.
She noted in my file that there is substantial damage to my frontal lobe,
and she documented that it was due to the deployments.
There was a connection.
Because all my time in the military trying to talk to somebody, nobody understood me.
I got the feeling that people would think I was crazy.
But she didn't
because she shared the same experiences and things in her life,
so I felt a connection.
Inez is being sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri,
and I was retiring and coming home.
I moved up around St. Louis.
And finally me and Inez got married in 2013.
I had problems adjusting to civilian life.
I wasn't really able to keep a job or maintain a job.
And I was still trying to adjust.
I didn't want to admit that I was breaking down.
I don't remember anything from that day.
People that had seen me that day
said that they talked to me, but I wasn't right.
And I had a lack of sleep, lack of meds.
Alcohol was involved.
I woke up the next day handcuffed to a bed.
I shot myself under the chin.
It blew my front teeth out.
All that's holding my face together is metal plates.
When they told me
that the person that was gone was Inez…
It devastated me.
Because at first, I was in complete denial.
And I guess, uh, still to this day,
I am.
I loved her,
and I wouldn't…
I wouldn't have done it…
without there being other variables.
And I believe
that my combat service and PTSD
was the cause.
I was proud to have served.
I was proud of everything that I have accomplished.
But honestly, because of what happened,
I would not have served one day in the military.
For the past 24 odd years, uh,
I've had experience treating veterans
from a variety of different combat exposures
from Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam.
I wish that this was an isolated case.
Unfortunately, when you look across the United States,
they're happening way more often than they should be.
My name is Dr. Steve Bruce.
In 2016, I was contacted by Toby Gregory's defense attorney
to evaluate Mr. Gregory in jail,
uh, determine whether or not his trauma history
may have become a part of why, uh, his behavior became so erratic
that he ended up shooting his wife that day.
I met with Mr. Gregory, uh, in jail for several hours
in a room with just he and I. No attorneys were present.
Mr. Gregory's medical records were significant
for a trauma history while in the military.
While in combat in Afghanistan, uh,
Mr. Gregory suffered from a traumatic brain injury.
He stated that he started to become more paranoid
such that he thought the soldiers that he was working with
were becoming part of the enemy.
It puts, obviously, them at risk and himself at risk
to the point where his commander noticed that paranoia going on as well.
And they removed him from active deployment
and sent him back home.
When I asked him about the events of the day of the shooting,
he indicated that he had very little memory of the shooting itself.
He did indicate that he had been drinking very, very heavily
prior to seeing his wife and meeting her at the hotel.
The fact that he was intoxicated,
you're usually not going to remember
the events surrounding that particularly well.
With his long history of alcohol abuse
in response to the triggers that he's having,
I'm confident that these significant psychological and PTSD symptoms
contributed to him shooting his wife.
If he did not have PTSD,
I'm certain this does not happen.
My job is not to excuse or justify the crime that they have committed.
My job starts and ends with the evaluation.
What happens after that is up to the judge, the jury,
to determine the outcome.
I was expecting this case to go to trial.
I was expecting to be cross-examined by the prosecutor.
I was expecting all of that.
So, the fact that a plea agreement was made, uh, was surprising to me,
particularly in a first-degree murder case.
The district attorney really, really, really let us down.
They agreed to a plea deal without letting any of us know.
Why couldn't we have a trial by jury?
That would have been the only thing that would have given us some peace.
Though it would've been a tough one,
that's what we were prepared to do
that was justifiable for Inez's murder.
My name is Tonya, and I'm Inez's aunt.
Inez and Toby lived here with me for about three months
while they were searching for a place to live.
They had a… a little baby boy named Blake.
He was adorable.
Inez knew that I had concerns.
It was a sad and very controlling relationship.
He told her how to dress, how to eat, how to move around.
It worked on her sense of being
until she believed that she wasn't good enough,
and that's how he hurt her.
Toby always threatened to hurt people.
Toby threatened to kill me to my face as well as all of my family.
He told my stepdad and my ex-husband
that he would pick us off one at a time from the road and shoot us.
He didn't like us being involved with her in any form.
He wanted total control.
Inez and I had many conversations.
I had encouraged her to try to leave because I was worried for her safety.
She says, "I know, Aunt Tonya, and I'm scared, too."
Inez and Toby had agreed to a divorce
where they shared custody of their child, Blake.
He had to have two weeks with Toby and two weeks with Inez,
but it kept being complicated by having a hard time getting Blake back from Toby.
Blake was used as a tool to keep Inez in his life.
Toby was trying to take control and that child away from Inez.
That was his goal.
So she moved back to New Mexico to be around family,
and we convinced her to get legal help.
Inez showing up in court with her own attorney
really angered Mr. Gregory to the point of no return.
He was so livid with that because he had lost control.
I shared text messages with Inez the day that she was murdered.
She told me he's gone crazy and that she needed some help.
She was afraid.
I don't remember what happened the day of the shooting.
I loved her,
and…
I think about the good things.
How much she loved the kids, how great she was.
When they told me that the person that was gone was Inez…
…it devastated me.
Because, at first, I was in complete denial.
And I guess, still to this day,
I am.
I loved her.
Mm…
What a real piece of work.
Wow.
Boy, that angers me. I can hear that slur in his voice.
He is lying through his teeth.
Toby took that life out of anger. He didn't get his way.
He didn't get his way in court,
and he planned it all out, without a doubt.
I did not think they were a good match at all.
I always felt like there was something wrong.
I always felt like I should have probably reached out to her a little bit more.
To find out the end result was awful for me.
My name is Jesse Anderla.
I served with Toby Gregory in the Army, uh, in Fort Carson, Colorado
back in 2009 to 2012.
Toby didn't really have, uh, a lot of friends, uh, other than me.
He kept to himself.
You know, I was surprised that he even let me into his life.
We started going, like, fishing every now and again,
or we'd go up into the mountains and shoot guns.
He was always a good guy to me,
and it was nice to have him as a friend.
When I first met Toby,
he told me that he was going through his fourth divorce.
He was in his mid-thirties,
so I was like, "Whoa, like, how in the heck?"
Like, how do you go through four divorces
in, you know, that short amount of time?
He was almost proud of it too. Like, that's the crazy part about it.
Me, Toby, and Inez were all in Afghanistan.
Inez, she was a great soldier. She was happy.
She was a great, great person.
Toby had told me that him and Inez were essentially having an affair.
And it was honestly kind of shocking when Toby told me that they got married.
You know, all of a sudden,
she's out of the military, he's out of the military,
they're in Missouri, they're getting married there,
and they had a kid.
I was just like, "Whoa, like, you know, how is this gonna work?"
And I think I was, over the years, his confidant.
I think that I was able to talk him down from a lot of things
and to calm him down and everything else.
If he would have called me and talked to me,
I think that I could have probably prevented this from happening, honestly.
When the forensics evaluation came from St. Louis,
he evaluated me in detail.
In that report, he stated that combat PTSD played a part
in this shooting and the shooting of myself.
I think it was a triggered PTSD response
with the stress, lack of meds.
That is what I feel.
That is what I believe.
It kind of pisses me off, not gonna lie.
It kind of pisses me off that he's saying that
because there's people that literally do have a lot of issues because of PTSD,
and to sit there and blame this on PTSD is wrong.
So, like, with my PTSD, I don't like being in crowds.
I don't-- You know, it's… It's scary for me.
My adrenaline goes, and I start sweating, and I'm paranoid.
If I had a gun in that situation,
I'm not gonna pull it out and just start shooting people.
I'm not gonna drive across town
and be like, "I had a trigger. Let me go in and shoot somebody."
PTSD, it doesn't work like that.
Like, nobody…
Nobody has a reaction for that long.
I love the guy, you know? He's my buddy, my friend, right?
But no matter how much I love him, he did this.
He committed a crime. He killed somebody.
To me, it was an open and shut case.
Toby Gregory got in his car angry
and took off headed towards Owensville.
It was first-degree murder.
I had no doubts about that.
My name's Randy Esphorst.
I was Gasconade County Sheriff from 2004 through 2016.
When I arrived, I saw somebody being loaded into an ambulance and taken away.
I went down to where the other victim was.
I took the blanket off, and I saw a female.
Laying on her back
with multiple gunshot wounds mostly to the head.
While I was in the parking lot, I happened to look up and I saw a camera.
So I went to the manager's office and asked him,
"Do your surveillance cameras work?"
And he said, "Yes, it does."
It's hard for me to watch because I know what's going to happen.
He got out of that car, and there are four other doors before you get to hers.
He just walked past those and went directly to the end room.
We found blood in the room,
so we know that she was shot at least once in there.
But she was still able to walk out of the room,
and…
then she just collapsed onto the ground,
and he just stands over her, and he fires four shots,
and then kicks her in the head.
I mean, this is… rage.
This is just out of control rage.
It's an execution.
I mean, there's no other word for that.
It's an execution.
It should have been first-degree murder, and it should have been life.
Or it should have been the needle in the arm.
It says in the Bible that I'm not supposed to hate anybody.
I have a hard time with that one.
Because I have a lot of hatred and anger inside of me for that person…
…and I don't like the way it makes me feel.
I'm John Tulk.
Inez was my only daughter.
When Inez came to me and told me she was joining the military,
it kind of scared me
because Desert Storm was going on and things like that.
But I felt real proud of her because I knew that's what she wanted,
she wanted to serve her country.
And then she met Toby.
Yeah, I told Inez that I didn't trust the guy
and I didn't feel right about the guy.
I had bad vibes, which I don't usually have those with very many people, but…
but he gave them to me,
and, uh, she said, "No, it's okay."
So, I said… I told her just to keep her eyes open and be real careful.
He was very insecure and cowardly,
and he would threaten people.
Well, not to their face, but behind their back,
saying, I don't know, "I-- I can kill anybody."
"I can get away with it because I can claim PTSD."
That was one of his biggest things.
Get out of jail free card is what he considered it.
I received a phone call
explaining that they had signed a plea deal,
which really bothered me
because this man murdered my daughter in cold blood.
I told the lawyer on the telephone
that he told me how he could kill anybody
and claim PTSD
and he would get away with it.
The lawyer told me, "Oh, I didn't know that."
I said, "Because you never called me."
They'd never called me to ask me questions.
Inez was, uh, the most important thing in my life, and…
to know I…
…can never hold my daughter again
just tears me up.
It hurts my heart more than I could ever explain. It's, uh…
I…
I just miss my baby.
Man…
I can understand why people might not believe
that I don't remember anything from that day.
I don't know if I was on autopilot or what was going on or…
what my state of mind was.
And that is something that I'll have to live with for the rest of my life.
Nobody is gonna punish me more than I punish myself.
Um, every day, I'm reminded by the scar on my face
that even though I can't remember the events,
I know what took place.
Um, why I'm here.
PTSD, it's more of an immediate thing. So, as soon as…
Like, "Okay, this happened. Now I have this reaction," right?
And then, once you're out of that moment,
it, you know, you start to calm down and your adrenaline starts to drop.
If I had a gun in that situation,
I'm not gonna pull it out and start shooting people.
Like, nobody… Nobody has a reaction for that long.
I'm not gonna lie, it-- It hurts. It hurts to hear him say that.
PTSD is not
an instant.
PTSD could last for days.
It's about the event that's taken place, uh, where your mind's at.
I don't know what played out from that morning till when this happened.
You can't say,
"Hey, if I had a gun, I'm gonna… I'm not gonna do this."
How do you… How do you know?
Because you've never been in that situation where you had it.
I think I should be released.
I mean, I-- I want to be released. Nobody wants to be in prison.
But my intention is not to just… to go back out and try to live my life.
My intention is to go to the VA Hospital.
I know what some people will say.
They will say that, "He shouldn't be out. He should never be out."
Um…
"If he did it once, he's gonna do it again."
But this prison environment is another battlefield.
Treatment for PTSD is non-existent in here.
I can't talk about things that I'd done in combat
because they might take it the wrong way.
I've been told this, that I can't mention none of this,
but this is what I need to talk about.
But if you're released
and you haven't had the treatment that you say you need,
is that not dangerous to let someone like you out?
It's…
It's, um…
I'm not…
I'm not gonna answer that one.