Jamie Letson: Cold Case, Confession, and Conviction

Jamie Kellam Letson is an Alabama woman serving a life sentence for the 1980 murder of Katherine Foster, an 18-year-old University of South Alabama freshman and Letson’s childhood friend from Pascagoula, Mississippi. The case went unsolved for more than two decades until Letson confessed to a fellow member of Alcoholics Anonymous and wrote a letter to the victim as part of her 12-step work. A Mobile County jury convicted her of first-degree murder in May 2010, and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction in 2011.¹

The 1980 Killing of Katherine Foster

Katherine Foster and Jamie Letson grew up together in Pascagoula and both enrolled at the University of South Alabama in Mobile as freshmen in early 1980.² Foster was reported missing on February 21, 1980. Two days later, a student search party found her body in a wooded area near her dormitory. She had been shot twice in the head.³

Why the Case Went Cold

Early investigators focused on Michael Maris, a campus security guard on duty the night gunshots were reported. Maris possessed newspaper clippings about the killing, annotated copies of Foster’s autopsy report, and poetry he had written about her. Investigator John Wayne Boone later testified that no evidence connected Maris to Foster’s death, and he was cleared. Maris died by suicide in February 1983 after ingesting more than 200 sleeping pills.⁴ With no arrest, the case sat untouched for over twenty years.

The AA Confession That Reopened the Case

In 2002, Letson was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Pascagoula and working the 12 steps with a mentor named Ricky Charlton. According to Charlton’s later trial testimony, Letson told him in detail how she had lured Foster into the woods by asking her to help gather plants for a botany class, then shot her with a gun stolen from her grandmother. When Foster did not fall, Letson shot her a second time.⁵

As part of the program’s amends work, Charlton encouraged Letson to write a letter to Foster. The letter, addressed “Dear Katherine,” included the lines: “It is me, Jamie, the girl who took your life… I was your friend, but I was obsessed with Tom, and you were in my way.”⁶ Charlton eventually took what Letson had told him to the Pascagoula police.⁵ The Alabama Attorney General’s Office then reopened the investigation at the request of the Foster family, Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran, and Mobile Police Chief Phillip Garrett.¹

Arrest

Letson was arrested on November 21, 2008, at the Windguard House, a halfway house in Jackson, Mississippi. She was 47. By that point her record already included prison time for theft, bank fraud, and other convictions unrelated to the Foster case.² She was charged with murder and transferred to the Mobile Municipal Jail on $500,000 bond.⁷

The 2010 Trial

Letson’s first-degree murder trial took place in May 2010 in Mobile County Circuit Court before Judge Michael Youngpeter. Deputy Attorney General William Dill led the prosecution.⁸

The Prosecution

Dill told jurors that Letson had a “dangerous obsession” with Tom Jaudon, Foster’s longtime boyfriend from Pascagoula. Investigators testified that Letson had kept a lock of Jaudon’s hair during high school. Jaudon took the stand and said he had no idea Letson had feelings for him and that they had never been in a romantic relationship.⁹ Dill called jealousy “the oldest motive in the book.”⁸

The centerpiece of the state’s case was the 2002 confession letter, which Dill read aloud, along with Charlton’s testimony about Letson’s verbal confession. Dill argued that the confession accounted for an otherwise unexplained 30-minute window after Foster disappeared and that it contained details “consistent with evidence that was developed at the crime scene and could only have been known to the killer herself.”¹⁰

The Defense

Defense attorney Christopher Klotz argued that Letson had fabricated the confession. He told jurors she had a lifelong “tendency to make up stories,” worsened by drug and alcohol addiction, and that she had invented the account to impress Charlton, who had himself served prison time for a fatal shooting. Klotz emphasized that no physical evidence tied Letson to the killing.⁶ The defense pointed to Michael Maris as an alternative suspect and used revised testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Leroy Riddick to argue Foster was likely killed on the morning of February 23, not February 21.⁴ Letson did not take the stand.⁹

Verdict and Sentence

On May 27, 2010, the jury found Letson guilty of first-degree murder.³ On June 18, 2010, Judge Youngpeter sentenced her to life in prison. At the hearing, Katherine Foster’s mother, Joanne Foster, told the court, “We are profoundly grateful for her life and her presence among us.” Letson’s sister, Melanie Grace, said, “I don’t believe justice was served in this trial. I think it was about getting the win.”¹¹

Appeal

On December 9, 2011, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld both the conviction and the life sentence. Assistant Attorney General Will Dill handled the state’s response.¹ The specific legal grounds raised on appeal were not detailed in public reporting on the ruling.

Where She Is Now

Letson remains incarcerated. On December 12, 2023, she appeared before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, which denied her request for parole.¹² The case drew renewed attention in January 2025 when journalist Jed Lipinski published a copy of Letson’s handwritten confession letter as part of an episode of his podcast “Gone South” titled “Time of Death.”

1
Alabama Attorney General. AG Announces Murder Conviction Upheld by Appeals Court in 1980 Murder
2
San Diego Union-Tribune. Woman Arrested in 1980 Slaying of Ala. Student
3
AL.com. Jamie Letson Convicted of 1980 Murder
4
AL.com. Jamie Letson Defense Suggests Alternative Suspect
5
AL.com. Colleague in Alcoholics Anonymous Testifies About Letson Confession
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AL.com. Prosecutors: Dangerous Obsession Led to 1980 Murder
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WLOX. Cold Case Arrest Unearths Painful Memories in Pascagoula
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AL.com. Opening Arguments Begin in Jamie Letson Trial
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AL.com. Testimony: Victim Was Concerned About Letson
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AL.com. Trial of Woman Accused of 1980 Murder
11
AL.com. Letson Sentenced to Life in Prison
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Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. Parole Decisions for Tuesday, December 12, 2023