Who was Judy Orr Baldwin and what happened to her?

FORMER police officer and dispatcher James “Jamie” Harold Baldwin Jr. was arrested, convicted and found guilty of murdering his wife in December 2016.

Judy Orr Baldwin’s tragic death and Jamie Baldwin Jr.’s attempted cover-up are the subject of a true crime exposé on Dateline, airing new footage from the classic case on Saturday, July 6, 2024, at 10 p.m. USA) on NBC and streaming on Pavão.

Who was Judy Orr Baldwin?

Judy McWaters Orr Baldwin was born on January 12, 1963.

She was a loving mother, wife, family member and friend.

After graduating from Chester Christian School, Judy started her own business, Judy’s Personal Touch.

She was a member of Woodward Baptist Church, where she also joined the Women’s Missionary Union.

In 1981, she married Wallace Todd “Foot” Orr, and the pair had two children before Orr died in 2004.

Like her first husband, Judy enjoyed motorcycles and was a member and secretary of the Carolina Thunder Christian Motorcycle Club.

In 2012, just eight months after they met, Judy married James “Jamie” Harold Baldwin Jr.

Judy’s family and friends recalled that she seemed “dizzy” with Jamie, as reported by Heavy.

They were happy that she was finally leaving her first husband, who had died eight years earlier in a motorcycle accident.

Judy had two sons, Chris and Josh Orr, a stepdaughter, Jessica Moss, a stepson, Justin Baldwin, and as of December 2016, six grandchildren.

His parents, Robert T. and Annie Floride Smith McWaters, and one of his brothers, Johnny McWaters, were deceased.

At the time of her death on December 14, 2016, she was survived by her second husband, Jamie, her children, grandchildren, her sister, Mary Ann Wilkes, and her brother, Jimmy T. McWaters, who passed away in 2022.

According to her obituaryJudy was buried in Chester Memorial Gardens.

What happened to Judy?

On December 14, 2016, Judy was found dead as a result of what appeared to be a tragic car accident.

Her husband, Jamie Baldwin Jr., told deputies she was hanging Christmas decorations at their house that night.

He remembers entering the couple’s garage, where he found her lying on the floor, bleeding, as if she had fallen down a ladder.

Baldwin Jr. said he then tried to clean and stop the bleeding and placed his wife in the passenger seat of his Jeep.

On the way to the hospital, Baldwin Jr. said he swerved his car to avoid a head-on collision with a truck and then lost control of the car.

The Jeep left the road and went down a nearby embankment, where it crashed.

Baldwin Jr. said he lost consciousness and when he woke up, his wife was not in the car.

Instead, he found her in front of the Jeep, dead, as if she had been thrown from the vehicle.

Police officers initially believed Baldwin Jr.’s story, although they agreed that certain aspects didn’t add up.

Once the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) took over the investigation, they found several inconsistencies in Baldwin Jr.’s story and uncovered important clues that led to his arrest.

SLED discovered that Baldwin Jr. had taken out an accidental death policy in Judy’s name before the accident and named himself the sole beneficiary of $25,000.

The skull fracture also meant that she would have difficulty speaking during the car ride to the hospital.

SLED officers also found injuries inconsistent with the accident and blood spatter in the couple’s home that did not match Judy’s alleged accidental fall.

In reality, SLED investigators, and later prosecutors in Baldwin Jr.’s trial, alleged that he beat Judy in the couple’s home, giving her a skull fracture that likely killed her.

He then drove, as if he was on his way to the hospital, and staged a car accident, calling the police afterwards to carry out the final part of his cover-up.

Baldwin, who was previously arrested in 2017 on charges of arson and insurance fraud, maintains his innocence to this day.

He claims his wife fell while hanging Christmas decorations and crashed her car on the way to the hospital.

Chester County Coroner Terry Tinker, who knew Judy personally, conducted two autopsies two days after her death.

Both autopsies “showed that Judy Baldwin died of heavy bleeding, a fractured skull and blunt force trauma,” as reported by WBTV News.

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What was the verdict in the trial of James Harold Baldwin Jr?

Jamie Baldwin Jr. was arrested in connection with Judy’s murder in August 2018, nearly two years after her death.

His trial began in October 2019 and lasted just over a week.

A jury unanimously found Baldwin Jr. guilty of Judy’s murder and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Baldwin Jr. maintained his innocence throughout the trial, telling jurors he would never hurt his wife.

Judy’s son, Josh, was one of the last witnesses called to testify by the state.

“I tried to ask him what happened,” Orr said, as reported by WBTV News.

“He didn’t say anything, he just wished it was him,” he added.

Josh also remembers asking Baldwin Jr. about his mother’s death shortly after the funeral.

“I specifically asked Jamie several times, my mom would have called us, my mom loved me and my brother.”

“She would have called us. My brother lived right there. I thought, ‘Jamie, did my mom say something about me and my brother – her – when did this happen?'”

“He didn’t say anything. I asked again, ‘Jamie, did my mom say anything about me and my brother trying to call us?’ And he got up and left,” Orr said.

In December 2022, a South Carolina appeals court upheld Baldwin Jr.’s conviction.

Baldwin Jr. attempted to appeal his guilty verdict, claiming that a Facebook photo of him with a convicted former sheriff had “tainted the trial,” as reported by The Online Herald.

Although the appeals court “unanimously agreed that the trial judge erred in allowing the image of Baldwin and Underwood at trial,” they also confirmed that “the image did not alter the outcome.”

As of July 6, 2024, Baldwin Jr. is serving a life sentence somewhere in the South Carolina Department of Corrections, although his exact location in prison is unknown.