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True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Tepe Killings: Defense Attorney Questions the "Damning" Evidence Against McKee

True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Tony Brueski

News, True Crime, News Commentary

4.2 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Michael McKee is charged with murdering his ex-wife Monique Tepe and her husband Spencer. Surveillance footage allegedly shows his car near the scene. A firearm from his Chicago condo matched through national ballistics databases. Witnesses say Monique told them he'd threatened her for years—that he could "kill her at any time," that she'd "always be his wife." His phone went silent during the killings. Everyone already thinks he's guilty.

Defense attorney Bob Motta asks the questions nobody else wants to ask. That surveillance footage everyone's treating as a smoking gun—how reliable is it really? The hearsay testimony from friends—Monique's not alive to testify. Can prosecutors even use it? The phone going dark sounds damning, but Bob explains what juries don't hear about digital evidence.

Then there's the psychology of the not guilty plea. McKee waived extradition immediately and his bail hearing while reserving future rights. Most people think that signals defeat. Forensic experts see something else—what they call the "game player." Defendants who view prosecution as competition rather than consequence. The same pattern seen in Scott Peterson, Chris Watts, Ted Bundy. Men facing overwhelming evidence who refused to fold.

The same detachment that allows someone to treat a murder trial as an intellectual exercise may be the same detachment that allows them to commit the act. For the game player, other people aren't fully real. They're pieces on a board. The trial isn't punishment—it's the championship round.

This is an aggravated murder charge. Prosecutors must prove premeditation—not just that he did it, but that he planned it. Eight years passed between the divorce and the murders. Bob Motta explains why that timeline works for the defense as much as the prosecution.

McKee has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

#MichaelMcKee #MoniqueTepe #SpencerTepe #BobMotta #DefenseAttorney #AggravatedMurder #GamePlayerPsychology #ColumbusOhio #TrueCrimeToday #DoubleHomicide

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the big breakdown.

0:02.2

A long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden

0:05.9

Killers podcast and True Crime Today.

0:09.2

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole, and Todd Michaels.

0:17.7

Let's go over to the Teppy case.

0:22.6

Michael McKee is charged with murdering his ex-wife and her husband.

0:27.7

The evidence looks very bad.

0:29.9

You have surveillance footage, allegedly, a vehicle traced back to him,

0:33.8

witnesses saying Monique told them he'd threatened her for years.

0:38.3

This is not a case that I think you want to be on the Michael McKee side of.

0:42.8

This is going to be a hard one for anyone to defend.

0:45.6

Bob Mata, defense attorney, is here with us to break this down.

0:50.7

And yeah, I'm going to make you put on that defense attorney cap, and I'm sure you've probably

0:55.5

already been running this through your mind a little bit. I mean, the man looks guilty as sin,

1:01.1

but he, you know, someone's got to defend him. He's hired a very high profile, a very successful

1:06.7

defense attorney to back him up. Bob, knowing what you know about this case thus far and this

1:13.2

thing came across your desk. What's the first thing's going through your mind? Oh, boy.

1:20.5

Pass. You're going to someone else. If you give a case like that,

1:27.3

look, the bottom line is the job is that you want to make sure that the Constitution is being protected.

1:32.3

It stands, like, and I know it seems like kind of a generic, like, oh, but it's so true.

1:38.8

Like, I mean, the thing that we have to concern ourselves with is make sure that the Constitution is protected, make sure that

1:44.9

the guy gets a fair trial, make sure that the cops and the prosecutors do their job on the

...

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