RIPLEY, Miss. (Court TV) — Carolyn Aguayo, the estranged daughter of accused murderer Jeffrey Spence, took the witness stand to describe years of escalating family conflicts that culminated in her cutting ties with her parents and moving across the country to escape what she called a “criminal family.”
Carolyn Aguayo testified against her father, Jeffrey Spence, on Sept. 26, 2025. (Court TV)
Aguayo testified that her father made disturbing comments while watching crime shows and threatened her husband during a bitter family dispute in 2014.
Spence is charged with capital murder, larceny and conspiracy in the death of his other daughter’s boyfriend, Kirby Carpenter, in November 2022. Prosecutors allege he plotted with his wife, Karen, and daughter, Caitlin, to rob and kill Carpenter, who was known to carry large amounts of cash and valuables.
Aguayo told the jury about her troubled relationship with her parents that began deteriorating when they moved in with her and her husband, Giovanni, in North Carolina in 2014. She said her father was facing embezzlement charges and had no job when he arrived at their Oak Island home. The family later moved to Virginia, where Aguayo and her husband bought property and planned to build a cabin for her parents. But tensions escalated when her father became upset about the Aguayos’ refusal to allow him to buy an additional life insurance policy for Giovanni.
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Carolyn described her father’s obsession with crime shows like “Breaking Bad” and “The Blacklist,” during which he would provide disturbing commentary.
“He said, ‘If I were ever to kill someone, I would use a shotgun,'” she testified. Carolyn explained her father said using a shotgun would make it easier to collect the shells after the shooting to eliminate evidence.
The situation deteriorated further when Carolyn installed security cameras on their Virginia property due to safety concerns. She testified that her father cut the camera cord while retrieving his belongings from their garage, an incident that was captured on video.
“We were in the house and Jeff was told to get all his stuff off the property,” Carolyn said.”He was going to the garage and the camera feed went out.”
After calling the sheriff’s office about the incident, Carolyn said her father returned to the property with a knife and cut zip ties on their fence. She also discovered that important legal documents and tools had gone missing from their home.
Carolyn testified that her father would discuss crossing state lines and leaving his phone with her mother, Karen, when planning trips to Georgia or South Carolina. “He would tell me,” she said when asked how she knew about her father’s methods.
The final break in Carolyn’s relationship with her parents came when she called the sheriff’s office to have her father arrested. She said her mother came to pick him up, but refused to get out of the car to talk. She said that despite approaching the car and asking to have a conversation, she took a call from Jeff, “and peeled out.”
Carolyn said her mother continued to text her sporadically over the years, despite a no-contact order being in place against her father. She described the messages as attempts to let them know her parents were okay.
On cross-examination, defense attorney David Hill questioned Carolyn about her parents’ financial contributions to the family, noting they had paid the mortgage on the Virginia property until it was sold. He also challenged her characterization of her mother’s health issues.
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“That woman is not ill,” Carolyn said when asked about her mother’s self-diagnosed conditions.
Hill pressed Aguayo about her feelings toward her father, asking if she had any love and respect for him.
“Love, yes, after what he had done over the years, respect, no,” she replied.
The defense also questioned Aguayo about her uncle, Doug Spence, and whether the family used coded language to communicate, which she confirmed.
“They used code to speak in our family,” Aguayo testified. “Conversations about a memory is not about a memory.”
Carolyn’s sister, Caitlin, previously testified that their father confessed to killing Carpenter and threatened her to keep quiet about it.
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