48 Hours
A wealthy Beverly Hills widow winds up dead below a staircase in her mansion. Was it murder?
By
Erin Moriarty,
Erin Moriarty
“48 Hours” Correspondent
Erin Moriarty is a “48 Hours” correspondent and host of the true-crime podcast, “My Life of Crime.”
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Erin Moriarty,
Gayane Keshishyan Mendez
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When Beverly Hills Police Detective Mark Schwartz got the call about an unattended death at the home of 67-year-old widow Violet Yacobi, he didn’t know what he would find.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Any unattended death like this, we will get called out to … Some are clearly more suspicious … than others. … This one gradually got more and more suspicious.
What happened to Violet Yacobi?
It was Oct. 10, 2017. Violet’s son, Daniel, and daughter, Dina, had told police they found their mother on the marble entryway below the staircase around 7:30 p.m. Responding officers initially suspected it might be a suicide.
Det. Mark Schwartz: The information that we got very early on about possibly being depressed and possibly falling over the railing … those are the things that we showed up with. … Her dog had just died. She had canceled her … cleaning lady …
Violet had just marked the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death. But when Detective George Elwell, now retired, arrived at the home, he didn’t think she could have gone over the railing. In a crime scene photo, “48 Hours” rendered the body as a graphic to show the position.
In this crime scene photo, “48 Hours” rendered the body as a graphic to show the position of Violet Yacobi’s body below the staircase when detectives arrived.
Los Angeles Superior Court
Erin Moriarty (showing detectives the rendered image seen above): Is that a pretty good description?
Det. George Elwell: Yes … that’s exactly …
Erin Moriarty: And so, what am I seeing there?
Det. George Elwell: …where the body was laying … at the time I got there. …
Elwell says that when he looked down from the top of the railing, he was surprised that he couldn’t see Violet’s feet, which were under the staircase.
Det. George Elwell: I’m not an expert in physics, but … anything that’s gonna go over that that has any kind of weight to it, momentum’s gonna take it away from the staircase a little bit.
Elwell, an old-school investigator with a background in burglaries, also had an eye for more tactile evidence, like the dust that still covered much of the staircase railing.
Responding officers had initially suspected Violet Yacobi might have fallen from the second story. But Det. George Elwell said he noticed that the staircase was covered in dust – with no disturbance to indicate Violet fell over the railing.
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Det. George Elwell: Up and down the entire railing there’s dust patterns … But for a person of her stature, there’s absolutely no disturbance on that railing that would’ve indicated anything had gone over.
Det. Mark Schwartz: When he got to the station, he pulled me aside. … And he said, we gotta write a search warrant. … I’m not comfortable with what I’m seeing.
Around midnight, the two detectives went to the scene together, and they asked Daniel and Dina to come for a walk-through. There were no signs of a burglary.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Her wallet was there … her checkbook, cellphone, iPad. … anything that would’ve been stolen was still there.
And they soon became more convinced that Violet had not gone over the railing.
Det. Mark Schwartz: We had Dina stand next to the railing. I asked her how tall the mother was, she told me, she said, she’s shorter than me.
Violet Yacobi, 67, lived alone in her Beverly Hills mansion. Her husband had died a year earlier.
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Violet was about 5 feet tall, and the railing was just over 3 feet, more than half her height.
Erin Moriarty: The railing would come up too high.
Det. Mark Schwartz: If she wanted to climb over, the dust would’ve been completely damaged … For her to accidentally fall over was just not reasonable.
Raising more questions were the injuries on Violet’s face and neck.
Det. George Elwell: There was some sort of … mark under her chin … there’s unnatural marks on her neck.
It also appeared Violet had vomited.
Erin Moriarty: What does that say to you, guys? …
Det. George Elwell: To me … there was a couple of different possibilities. Did she choke? … Was she strangled?
During an initial interview with two other detectives, Daniel had also wondered if his mother had been strangled.
DANIEL YACOBI: Let me ask you something though. I mean … I don’t know, I — I just can’t get my head around it. Like, I saw bruising everywhere. Right?
DETECTIVE: Mm-hmm.
DANIEL YACOBI: And I saw a bruise right here. So, to me it looks like she was strangled.
Det. Mark Schwartz: I, at that point, had not ruled out this idea that she had hung herself.
Yet there were no obvious signs like a rope or a belt near Violet’s body. And Violet’s family members rejected the idea that she would take her life. Daniel had described seeing her just two days earlier at a family dinner.
DANIEL YACOBI (to detectives): And we were sitting right next to each other, and everything was, you know, fine …
When Schwartz learned that Violet was part of a close-knit Russian Jewish community, where suicide is taboo, it occurred to him that her children might be covering it up.
Det. Mark Schwartz: I’m a little more in tune with the Jewish community so I was thinking … how would it be looked at …
Erin Moriarty: You thought … the kids might hide …
Det. Mark Schwartz: Right, right … Could it be an insurance thing? Could it be a shame thing?
Later that day, they talked about oddities they both had observed in Daniel’s behavior. For Elwell, it was during the walkthrough.
Det. George Elwell: Daniel’s in the … foyer where the body was found … just moving from side to side, he’s looking down, he’s crouching, he’s touching the tile … and it just didn’t sit well with me.
Erin Moriarty: You didn’t think it could just be a grieving son —
Det. George Elwell: N — no, it was —
Erin Moriarty: — trying to figure out why his mother ended up on the floor?
Det. George Elwell: No, it was … so animated … it was just like watching an episode of “Columbo” when he would look for evidence.
For Schwartz, it was Daniel’s demeanor when they met.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Daniel was very eager to help …
Erin Moriarty: And what’s wrong with that?
Det. Mark Schwartz: Nothing … But … it was like a nervous energy that he had …
Erin Moriarty: But, I mean, all along Daniel Yacobi is being cooperative?
Det. Mark Schwartz: Absolutely. …
Det. George Elwell: Yes.
Erin Moriarty: Your concern, maybe too cooperative.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Yes.
They had questions about the initial story that Daniel told to other detectives of how he and his sister had come to meet at their mother’s house when he learned that no one had heard from Violet.
Det. George Elwell: Apparently, they went there because no one had been able to get a hold of her … during the day. …
DANIEL YACOBI (to detectives): I called my sister immediately a few times …
Det. Mark Schwartz: Daniel calls his sister … And there’s some sort of convoluted story about the keys.
DANIEL YACOBI (to detectives): “Hey sis, I can’t find my keys anywhere. Do you know where — do you have your keys to the house?” …
Det. Mark Schwartz: So, Daniel’s telling Dina, meet me at the house …
DANIEL YACOBI (to detectives):… so we meet – meet exactly at the same time …
Det. Mark Schwartz: Didn’t sit right.
And there were conflicting stories about who had performed CPR. On the 911 call, Daniel told the operator his sister was performing CPR. But when talking to detectives, he said he also had done compressions.
DANIEL YACOBI (to detectives): My sister and I, uh, she did more of the mouth-to-mouth. I did the … compressions …
DETECTIVE: Did your brother help with the CPR?
DINA YACOBI: No …
When Detective Schwartz called Dina, she confirmed that Daniel had not done CPR.
Det. Mark Schwartz: George and I said, there’s only one person that … doesn’t seem to be forthcoming and doesn’t seem genuine.
They decided they needed to interview Daniel themselves, especially once they learned that Violet had died the night of Monday, Oct. 9 — nearly 24 hours before she was found.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Based off of missed phone calls, contents in her stomach … we’re pretty confident right now that it’s the night of the ninth that she dies.
And detectives want to know, where was Daniel?
More questions for Daniel Yacobi
Galina Blackman: Initially it’s like, uh … unbelievable explosion of a horrible news.
The news of Violet Yacobi’s death stunned and saddened her large circle of friends in Beverly Hills, including Galina Blackman.
Galina Blackman: Who would ever, uh, kill Violet?
Violet and her husband had long been pillars in their community.
Galina Blackman: Perfect couple … He was a very, very solid doctor … They were very well known. …
Erin Moriarty: What was important to Violet?
Galina Blackman: … family, her brothers, her husband … her children. … She had a mission of making everybody happy, I think.
Her son Daniel was a dentist, and her daughter Dina worked in physical therapy.
Det. Mark Schwartz: They are the American dream … immigrant family … and were able to create a beautiful life in Beverly Hills … from the outside, it is … a tight-knit, successful … family … and that’s what we saw initially.
But detectives began to take a closer look. On Friday, Oct. 13 — nearly three days after Violet’s body was found — the deputy medical examiner completed the autopsy. The official cause of death was asphyxia by neck compression.
Erin Moriarty: Strangulation.
Det. George Elwell: Yes.
Violet Yacobi’s death was ruled a homicide. The official cause of death was asphyxia by neck compression.
Los Angeles Superior Court
Her death was being ruled a homicide. This was now a murder investigation, and detectives asked Daniel to come back for another interview.
DET. MARK SCHWARTZ (to Daniel Yacobi): … any interview at this point forward is voluntary. Um, you’re not under arrest. …
Det. Mark Schwartz: So, we know that he is saying he had not seen his mother since Sunday. First time he sees his mother is Tuesday when he discovers the body. So, we have that full timeframe that we’re looking at.
They first asked Daniel to go through the events of Tuesday, Oct. 10, and the night he and his sister had arrived at Violet’s house.
DANIEL YACOBI (interview with detectives): We both get there at the same time.
He told them he was in a panic when he walked in and saw her on the floor.
DANIEL YACOBI (interview with detectives): And I go over there in, like, in utter shock. And, you know, like it’s my mom. So, I’m like, hysterical. …
He said he hugged his mother’s body before starting CPR.
DANIEL YACOBI (interview with detectives): I grab her a little bit and just, you know, warm hug. And then I start doing chest compressions.
But when detectives shared with Daniel the results of the autopsy, he didn’t seem surprised to learn her death had been ruled a homicide.
DET. ELWELL: And I can tell you that she has ligature marks on her neck.
DET. SCHWARTZ:… at this point, she was strangled.
DANIEL YACOBI: Oh my god, I knew it. … I had a sense of that. …
They told him based on the lividity patterns — the way the blood settles in the body after death — that they suspected Violet’s body had been moved shortly after she died.
DET. ELWELL (to Daniel Yacobi): She wasn’t lying on her back like that for hours at a time and died. She was moved. …
They also told him they believed he was hiding something.
Detective Mark Schwartz, top left, confronts Daniel Yacobi, top right, during questioning.
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DET. SCHWARTZ (to Daniel Yacobi): … But you’re not giving us the truth … Your story of the body is not lining up, Daniel. …
Daniel continued talking, even when he was asked if he was responsible for his mother’s death.
DET. SCHWARTZ: Was there any animosity between you and your mom?
DANIEL YACOBI: No. …
DET. SCHWARTZ: Did you ever think about killing her?
DANIEL YACOBI: No. …
DET. SCHWARTZ: Did you kill her?
DANIEL YACOBI: No. … God this is awful. I’m a suspect now.
Detectives decided they needed to lock Daniel into his story about where he was the night Violet died.
DET. SCHWARTZ: Well, what’d you do Monday night?
DANIEL YACOBI: Driving home, um, I went from – from Inglewood …
He had consistently told them that on that Monday he worked at his dental office in Inglewood – about 12 miles from Beverly Hills – and then drove straight home, which was another 6 miles from Violet’s house.
DET. SCHWARTZ: Did you stop at the house?
DANIEL YACOBI: No.
DET. SCHWARTZ: On Monday?
DANIEL YACOBI: No.
DET. SCHWARTZ: Positive?
DANIEL YACOBI: Yeah.
But each time he was asked to describe his drive home, he seemed stymied by the details.
DET. SCHWARTZ: What route do you take to go up?
DANIEL YACOBI: ‘Cause I was – I take, uh – I take – sometimes I go through Beverly Hills. So, I did go through Beverly Hills.
DET. SCHWARTZ: When?
DANIEL YACOBI: On, uh – but I didn’t go through that street.
Det. Mark Schwartz: When we started getting his timeframe of Monday … That’s where he got uncomfortable. …
DANIEL YACOBI: … I know I took the 405.
Det. Mark Schwartz: … At this point, we don’t know he wasn’t at Inglewood, but his description of how he got home … it was so labored for such a simple question. … And he could not give a clear answer. …
But Daniel was adamant when asked if he was at or near his mother’s house Monday night or any point Tuesday before he reported finding the body.
DET. SCHWARTZ: The next day, do you ever come into Beverly Hills the next day?
DANIEL YACOBI: No. …
DET. SCHWARTZ: So, we’re not gonna find your car or you … anytime Tuesday?
DANIEL YACOBI: No. …
DET. SCHWARTZ: Or Monday night?
DANIEL YACOBI: Monday night? No.
DET. SCHWARTZ: And you’re sure about this?
DANIEL YACOBI: Yes.
Det. Mark Schwartz: We couldn’t call him out on the lie, but we knew he was lying. … And I knew he was lying during a timeframe that was very significant in this case. … whatever he was holding in, it was for a reason.
Detective Elwell told Daniel they suspected he had been alone inside his mother’s home before going over with his sister on Tuesday night.
DET. ELWELL (to Daniel Yacobi) : I see right through you. I can read you. It’s right in there bugging the crap out of you.
But Daniel pushed back and said the detectives had it all wrong.
DANIEL YACOBI: I’m telling you everything I know. … you think this is easy for me? My mom just died. … there’s nobody closer in this world than my mom. Nobody.
And there was something else. He had told detectives he had a “great” relationship with his mom, saying they talked and texted on a regular basis.
DANIEL YACOBI: I text her baby pictures all the time. And “How are you?” Blah, blah, blah.
But when Schwartz looked at Daniel’s phone, the last photo he had sent his mom was a month earlier, and it wasn’t a picture of his baby but his bank account.
DET. SCHWARTZ: Were you having financial problems?
DANIEL YACOBI: No. … We’re just always – like we’re very open about everything …
Det. Mark Schwartz: At this point, I found that to be significant.
Det. Mark Schwartz: By that Friday, he’s our suspect … no — no doubt about it.
A murder, a potential motive, and a suspect
Erin Moriarty: I think a lot of people … when they hear the name Beverly Hills, they think of movie stars …
Galina Blackman: No … that’s not Beverly Hills. … Beverly Hills is very, very reachable … you can drive and … you see the homes … Movie stars live in areas where they cannot be reached.
That wasn’t the case with Violet Yacobi, says Galina Blackman.
Galina Blackman: She liked to impress.
Blackman, a Beverly Hills realtor for more than 36 years, specializes in luxury properties like Violet’s. Galina was asked to appraise the home while Violet’s husband was still alive.
Violet Yacobi’s Beverly Hills mansion.
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Galina Blackman: At that time … I said, “I think it’s an $8 million house.”
When interviewing Violet’s son Daniel just days following her death on Friday, Oct. 13, Detective Schwartz wondered if money was a motive.
DET. SCHWARTZ: Who gets the house?
DANIEL YACOBI: I do. …
DET. SCHWARTZ: How much is that house worth?
DANIEL YACOBI: A lot.
Daniel stood to inherit half of the family fortune.
DET. SCHWARTZ: There any discussion about the will or the money or where the house is going? Anything like that?
DANIEL YACOBI: It’s all to me.
DET. SCHWARTZ: It’s all to you.
DANIEL YACOBI: And to my sister …
Detectives now had a murder, a potential motive, and a suspect … but after more than two hours of questioning, they let Daniel go.
Det. Mark Schwartz: We can’t arrest him.
Erin Moriarty: Why not?
Det. Mark Schwartz: We don’t have the evidence.
Dina was ruled out as a suspect. But they needed to shore up their case and dig deeper into Daniel’s finances and his relationship with his mother.
Det. Mark Schwartz: This is not like a business deal gone bad. … there’s a complexity to that that we had to understand.
Daniel, who had grown up in Beverly Hills, was now living near tony Bel Air. His wife was also a medical professional, and their baby was 5 months old.
Dean Summers: Everything in his life was wonderful.
Daniel Yacobi
Daniel Yacobi Facebook
Dean Summers got to know Daniel casually. Dean’s brother was Daniel’s neighbor.
Dean Summers: Daniel lived right next door … He was marketed as the dentist to the stars.
Erin Moriarty: The first time you met Daniel, what were your impressions?
Dean Summers: Nice guy …
Erin Moriarty: Someone you wanted to be friends with?
Dean Summers: Somebody that I could potentially be friends with … just a nice normal guy that had his act together.
But it may have been just an act, say investigators.
Det. Mark Schwartz: I think resentment was one of the things that we started to learn pretty quick. That he had a lot of resentment towards … his parents … that he had to live a certain life and be a certain way.
Dean Summers says Daniel had later confided in him about those feelings. It was the last time Dean saw him – sometime in the year before Violet’s death.
Dean Summers: He was not talkative … He just looked very unhappy. … And I said, “Daniel, what’s wrong?” …
That’s when, he says, Daniel unloaded a laundry list of complaints.
Dean Summers: “I hate my life. I hate being married. I hate what I’m doing for a living. I hate my mother. I hate my father.” Those were his words. And I was just taken aback.
He says Daniel complained about how both his parents, his mother in particular, had controlled every aspect of his life — even pushed him into dentistry and marriage.
Dean Summers: I asked him … “Why don’t you just break free of it … and live your own life?” … He goes, “I can’t. … I’m not making any money … they basically … help support me.” … he felt he was stuck … because he’s financially dependent on them.
Although Daniel had at one point owned his own practice, he now worked for other dentists.
Erin Moriarty: Even though he said he hated his parents, did you get any sense that he might hurt his mother?
Dean Summers: Never, never.
But according to investigators, after his father died, Daniel’s relationship with his mother and access to the family fortune became more complicated.
They had received a tip early on from Dr. Elena Spektor, who was Violet’s sister-in-law at the time.
Det. Mark Schwartz: She tells me that Daniel has had an obsession … with money … and … control of … the estate … for some time, that Violet would confide in her.
Detectives went back and reviewed the video of their interview with Daniel on Oct. 13. During a period when he was left alone, he had contacted his sister.
Det. Mark Schwartz: We leave the interview room, but it’s still recording.
He says Daniel didn’t realize that his sister was with other detectives in another room.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Daniel starts sending texts … to the sister about, “Hey, just remember, I was doing CPR too.” …
Daniel wrote, “I remember we both doing chest compressions … One at a time … But both of us … Just to keep the story straight“
Det. Mark Schwartz: … The sister … tells the detectives, You know what he’s sending me some weird texts … So, she calls him. …
Det. Mark Schwartz: And again, these are being recorded separately, but you can hear it all.
DINA YACOBI (on phone with Daniel during questioning): What is this about chest compressions?
When Dina called Daniel, she told him that she had done the compressions.
Cameras recorded Daniel Yacobi’s phone conversation with his sister. Investigators say he was unaware Dina Yacobi was in another room with detectives at the time.
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DINA YACOBI (on phone with Daniel Yacobi): No, no, no, Danik. I did the chest compressions, and you called 911.
DANIEL YACOBI (in Russian): No, but I remember, I did too.
DINA YACOBI: No, no, you didn’t.
DANIEL YACOBI (in Russian): Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes …
Daniel, speaking Russian, insisted he had, as well.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Daniel is trying to put himself on the body …
Erin Moriarty: ‘Cause he’s concerned there’s DNA on the body.
Det. Mark Schwartz: ‘Cause he’s concerned there’s DNA, that’s exactly it …
Detectives were convinced Daniel was likely lying about where he was on Monday, Oct. 9, the night Violet died. But they couldn’t prove it until they received his cellphone records the following week.
Det. George Elwell: The cell phone records … blew his story … out the water. He wasn’t in Inglewood at all —
Det. Mark Schwartz: No.
Det. George Elwell: — on that day.
The phone records placed Daniel in Beverly Hills and not just driving through. And not only that — police had obtained footage from Nest security cameras inside Daniel’s house that showed him arriving home around 8 p.m. that night. Later, they saw a man typing at a computer. They were surprised to learn who it was.
Det. George Elwell: We didn’t know Daniel was bald.
Daniel Yacobi is seen on Nest camera images inside his home with and without his toupee.
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And he is seen with his hairpiece at the same computer 40 minutes after he came home.
Det. Mark Schwartz: You don’t know what he’s typing until we get the results from the computer search from our forensic team. … And he does a search of latent fingerprints on human skin. … and that’s when I knew … it’s time. … we gotta go arrest him …
Det. Mark Schwartz: He killed his mother … and he did it for the money.
A battle of experts
Det. George Elwell: I was getting ready to retire … I wanted to be the … one to walk up and put the handcuffs on him.
On Feb. 12, 2018, four months after launching the investigation into Violet Yacobi’s death, Beverly Hills Detectives George Elwell and Mark Schwartz arrested Daniel Yacobi at home for his mother’s murder.
Erin Moriarty: What was his reaction?
Det. Mark Schwartz: Not shock. …
Det. George Elwell: Like he just sunk into himself.
Det. Schwartz: And the first thing he asked me, he says, “Can I get my toupee?”
On Feb. 12, 2018, Daniel Yacobi was arrested and charged with his mother’s murder.
Beverly Hills Police Department
Daniel Yacobi was denied bail and would spend more than seven years in jail, due to court delays, before finally going on trial for murder in July 2025. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Shane Michael says the evidence shows that Yacobi strangled his mother for financial gain.
Shane Michael: It’s a very personal type of crime. … You have to physically squeeze the life out of someone … that’s what strangulation is.
According to the autopsy report, Violet had petechiae around her eyes and face — the rupturing of small blood vessels — a classic sign of strangulation.
Shane Michael (moving his finger across his jawline and neck): There was also very significant abrasion on her jawline … There was a separate abrasion just below that on her neck.
Erin Moriarty (moving her finger across her neck): … we’re talking about a line around here.
Shane Michael: Yeah …
But at trial, the defense presented a very different theory.
Dr. Lary Simms: The truth is … that she wasn’t killed, period, full stop, end of story.
Dr. Lary Simms is a forensic pathologist and a former medical examiner in Las Vegas, Nevada, who says he has conducted about 10,000 autopsies.
Erin Moriarty: You don’t believe that Violet Yacobi was murdered?
Dr. Lary Simms: No.
Erin Moriarty: But her son went on trial for her murder.
Dr. Lary Simms: That is correct … And I testified at that trial.
Simms rejected Violet’s official cause of death.
Dr. Lary Simms: There … was no evidence that she was strangled, period.
Erin Moriarty: None?
Dr. Lary Simms: None.
Simms says the petechiae were just sunspots. And the marks across Violet’s neck? Skin folds. What’s more, he says, the deputy medical examiner missed injuries that pointed away from strangulation and toward a fall from the second story landing.
Violet had a fracture in her spine that was not mentioned anywhere in the autopsy report.
Erin Moriarty: Are you at all concerned that the autopsy that you were relying on for this
prosecution had … errors in it … That’s a pretty big mistake, isn’t it?
Shane Michael: Yeah, well when we talk about, you know, errors, I think that was an omission.
That wasn’t the only omission. The same medical examiner also failed to take note of rib fractures, including several on her back. He didn’t testify at trial, and the prosecution tried to address the problem, pointing out that the injuries had been photographed and that none of them contributed to Violet’s death. The medical examiner’s office declined to comment for this story.
Julie Rendelman: I’ve handled many homicide cases. I’ve never seen … an autopsy with so many mistakes … and that was a deeply troubling … part … for the prosecution to have to explain.
Julie Rendelman, a criminal defense attorney and former homicide prosecutor, is a “48 Hours” consultant who reviewed the case.
Julie Rendelman: It left … in a sense, open … for an expert on the defense side to kinda jump in and say, these mistakes are so overwhelming we have to start to question everything about this case.
Daniel Yacobi’s trial became a battle of experts with five doctors testifying about how and why Violet died — including a new deputy medical examiner brought in by prosecutors, who agreed with the finding of asphyxia due to neck compression. But Simms told the jury that he believed Violet’s death was instead caused by a rare mass of blood vessels in her brain stem called an arteriovenous malformation or AVM.
Dr. Lary Simms (pointing at brain scan): This is a arteriovenous malformation here. … That’s in the fourth ventricle. …
Erin Moriarty: This is what you think contributed to Violet’s death.
Dr. Lary Simms: Yes.
He says he spotted the problem in this microscopic slide of Violet’s brain stem. According to Dr. Simms, the AVM had hemorrhaged causing Violet to become disoriented.
Dr. Lary Simms: She’s stumbling around and she … slammed into the railing before she went over the railing.
The defense presented a photo superimposing the abrasion against a star-shaped design on the railing. Simms says it’s a match.
Did Violet Yacobi fall into the railing before falling over? The defense presented a photo superimposing the abrasion (inset) against a star-shaped design on the staircase railing.
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Dr. Lary Simms: This is a very unusual, patterned injury … and it fits it perfectly.
Erin Moriarty: Is this at all possible that Violet could have died because of a medical event and fallen down?
Det. George Elwell: For me, no … I went up and down every inch of that railing and there’s absolutely no physical evidence to show that … anything went over that railing.
Dr. Lary Simms: I look at the body … those are things that are hard evidence that speaks to me.
Prosecutor Shane Michael argued that Dr. Simms simply cherry-picked the evidence and disputes his theory about the cause of that odd abrasion.
Shane Michael: He didn’t know the dimensions of the star. … if you were to fall and smack your chin on a piece of metal, you would not expect an abrasion. … you’d expect to see bruising. You might … see a cut … bleeding. …
And, he says Violet had osteopenia, a weakening of the bones.
Shane Michael: [A] 67-year-old woman … would have had to have been on the floor with her back arched like in a … yoga class, cobra pose … to get her chin flush with that. …
Erin Moriarty: What do you think, then, caused that V-mark on her chin?
Shane Michael: Her son strangling her.
The prosecution’s radiologist also testified that if Violet had fallen from the railing, he would expect to see more catastrophic injuries.
Shane Michael: There was no skull fracture. There were no fractures in her arms. There were no fractures in her legs. There was no pelvic fracture. There was nothing on the floor that would be consistent with … falling from approximately 13 feet onto a marble floor.
The other doctors testified there was no brain hemorrhage, nor did they say they saw an AVM, including the neuropathologist who created the very slides Dr. Simms used to form his opinion.
Erin Moriarty: The fact that you have dueling medical experts who can’t agree on how Violet Yacobi died, doesn’t that add up … to reasonable doubt?
Julie Rendelman: It can … If you can convince the jury to believe that she died of natural causes then Daniel Yacobi’s not guilty of a crime.
A DNA match and a damning digital trail
Prosecutor Shane Michael used the trail of evidence left by Daniel Yacobi to show that his relationship with his mother had reached a breaking point in October 2017 and that greed for the family fortune – worth an estimated $13 million – had fueled his plot to kill Violet.
Erin Moriarty: Do you believe … that he killed his mother because he wanted his inheritance early?
Shane Michael: Yes …
The defense disputes that. Daniel Yacobi was in the process of buying a new dental practice and had recently secured a million-dollar loan. Still, his now-ex-wife admitted in court they had lived beyond their means. And Shane Michael pointed to Yacobi’s own statements.
Shane Michael: He was regularly talking about his need for money and need to make more money.
A family friend testified that Yacobi had asked him about inheritance tax a couple of weeks before Violet’s death.
Det. Mark Schwartz: The ideation and thought of killing his mom had been building. …
The prosecutor also presented a timeline of Daniel Yacobi’s online searches going back to August of 2017 that he said revealed Yacobi’s plan to murder his mother and stage the scene.
Investigators at the home of Violet Yacobi. At trial, the prosecutor presented a timeline of Daniel Yacobi’s online searches going back to August 2017 that he said revealed Daniel’s plan to murder his mother and stage the scene.
Los Angeles Superior Court
Shane Michael: He was searching … unexplained deaths … death statistics … things like … choke holds, bruises caused by choke holds … falling down stairs … he was trying to figure out a way to deflect any suspicion that might be … pointing toward him.
Of particular interest to the prosecution was a YouTube video demonstrating what’s known as a “rear naked choke hold.” They played it at trial.
Shane Michael: It’s certainly the kind of choke hold … that could cause … abrasions similar to the ones that we saw … in the photos of … Mrs. Yacobi …
The prosecution theorized that Yacobi caused the spinal and rib fractures while choking Violet from behind.
Shane Michael: If he’s choking her from behind, you assume he’s applying as much pressure as he can. … if he’s lifting her off the ground … if he’s got his hip in her back, there are any number of ways that you could apply force to her back.
Erin Moriarty: Do you believe that is how Violet Yacobi died … that her son actually used his own arm to kill his mother?
Det. Mark Schwartz: I do.
Det. George Elwell: Yes.
And Detectives Elwell and Schwartz say Yacobi’s DNA under Violet’s fingernails proves it.
Erin Moriarty: Did you notice any kind of scratches on him?
Det. Schwartz: They didn’t – We weren’t looking … the DNA’s under … her fingernails for a reason. He’s asking about DNA for a reason. … He did the research … It was calculated.
Detective Schwartz had done some calculations of his own using data from Daniel’s iPhone Facebook account and he says it places Daniel at his mother’s house at the time he believes she was killed.
Shane Michael: One of the things that came back in the Facebook records were latitude, longitude coordinates.
Schwartz used those coordinates to pull video from the city’s closed-circuit cameras and security cameras from Violet’s neighbors.
Det. Mark Schwartz: We were able to track his movement through the whole day, into the next day.
Daniel Yacobi’s white Jaguar can be seen in Beverly Hills traffic on Oct. 9, before the prosecutor describes him “stalking” his mother’s house.
Shane Michael: He was driving up and down the street … at least two or three times.
Daniel Yacobi’s white Jaguar (circled in red, top center) is captured on a neighbor’s security camera on Oct. 9, around 4 p.m. Det. Mark Schwartz describes Daniel circling his mother’s property “almost like a shark.”
Los Angeles Superior Court
Around 4 p.m., Daniel Yacobi’s car appeared on the next-door neighbor’s security footage. A few minutes later it popped up again on another home security camera in the alley behind Violet’s house.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Almost like a shark. He’s … circling the block and he’s going down the alley.
Det. Mark Schwartz: He pulls up right around here, just behind the residence. And for whatever reason he stops. And then he slowly backs up.
Shane Michael: He never gets out. And … he’s not moving the garbage cans back there. … He is in the car, presumably looking into the back of his mother’s property.
Then, he drives away, but Facebook coordinates place him at his mother’s house from 6:39 p.m. until 7:48 that night.
Shane Michael: How he entered the house, don’t know. Don’t know if he rang the doorbell. … Don’t know if he snuck around the side.
What the data establishes, according to the prosecution, is that Violet was alive when Daniel arrived. And by the time he left, she was dead. Afterwards, Yacobi drove straight home.
Det. Mark Schwartz: Now we have his Nest camera … and almost to the second you’re seeing … him walk through the door.
Less than 45 minutes after walking in, he was typing that search for “latent fingerprints on human skin.”
Shane Michael: Twenty-two-plus hours before his mother’s body was located … He was already thinking about what evidence might have been left behind at the scene.
It’s evidence of consciousness of guilt, says Shane Michael, and Yacobi would do it again the following morning when he went back to the scene for less than four minutes and then drove back home. At around 1 o’clock, he contacted a financial investor via Skype: “If I get a mil id want you to manage it…”
Shane Michael: A million dollars … six hours before his mother’s body is found … his belief was that he was coming into money.
In late August 2025, after three weeks of testimony and nearly eight years after Violet’s death, the jury got the case.
Shane Michael: If they come back not guilty, on some level … this guy has gotten away with murder.
After deliberating for nearly five-and-a-half hours over two days. the jury was unanimous: guilty of first-degree murder for financial gain.
It’s a judgment that carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Det. Mark Schwartz: This broke that family apart.
Det. George Elwell: Very sad … that it ended that way …
Galina Blackman: I feel for Violet and I feel for Daniel.
Erin Moriarty: You feel for Daniel, too?
Galina Blackman: I feel for him, yeah. What in the world made him do that? …
Produced by Gayane Keshishyan Mendez. Peter Shaw is the field producer. Michelle Fanucci is the development producer. Rebecca Laflam is the associate producer. Wini Dini, Chris Crater, Ken Blum and Joan Adelman are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Read more: Weekend News: September 5
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