Wife of slain Austin jeweler says daughter-in-law Jaclyn Edison got away with murder

When “48 Hours” found Jaclyn Edison sitting on a bench with a book in her hand, we might have mistaken her for a young professional on her lunch break. But Edison wasn’t on the job. She was on probation.

She was sitting in front of an Austin, Texas, jail, where she’d just finished serving time after pleading guilty in a 2018 murder plot that sent three others to prison for up to 35 years. So why did Edison get a sentence of 120 days behind bars?

“48 Hours” contributor Jim Axelrod reports on the crime – and the punishments – in “Shootout at the Shaughnessys,'” an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, Jan. 13 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

The March 2, 2018 shooting murder of affluent jeweler Ted Shaughnessy, and the near-murder of his wife Corey shocked people in Austin, where many knew the couple and assumed they’d been targeted as part of some sort of botched robbery. With no relevant prints from any outsiders at the scene, authorities had to consider the victim’s widow herself as a suspect.

But in the following weeks, they cleared Corey Shaughnessey and concluded her son Nicolas Shaughnessy had planned the murder with his high school sweetheart Jaclyn Edison so they could live large on the Shaughnessys’ money, hiring two hit men to do the dirty work.

It was just after 4 a.m., when police say two intruders entered the Shaughnessys’ sprawling suburban home. Corey said she woke up when she heard one of their two pet Rottweilers bark.

“Ted sits up in bed … and he grabbed his gun … to go see what it was,” she said. “I hadn’t even gotten my head back on the pillow … before I heard the first gunshot …  And then there was a barrage of gunfire.”

Corey said she was still in bed when the shooting suddenly turned in her direction. She grabbed a .357 revolver from above her headboard and returned fire. “I ran out of ammo … I just bailed into the closet.”

Trapped in the closet with bullets flying, she said she called 911.

“Travis County 911 … do you need police, fire, or paramedic?” asked the dispatch operator. “I don’t know,” Corey responded. “I’m in the closet!” “There were shots fired … Help me!” “OK, we’re helping you ma’am,” the operator said. “Help me!” Corey sobbed again.

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