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tonight on day line. How many T V interviews .
have you done then?
You're my first startling new allegations from the woman swept up in a dark mystery that began in broad daylight. We started, gentlemen, that just got shot. Oh my god, is more testing.
And he looked at me and then he start breathing.
The door is, get E, E, doing like in slow motion.
There are two share casings.
He said it's murdered. They were both murdered .
and scared me the dead.
I had no idea what we were dealing .
with IT my thoughts for us, someone we know.
we get a tip. I said, this is IT was .
he's living a double life .
I think he was. He looked so Normal .
IT was just, wow.
case closed.
It's time to tell my side of the story.
Why one woman says there is more to IT than anybody knew.
This is wrong, but we're told wrong. You all believe wrong on this.
be there is a dramatic new chapter and folds in the triple that terrorized an entire state unless or hold. And this is deadline.
Here's Andrew a canning with bad intentions. The courthouse, the moral center of every american city in town, the place we usually go to settle differences and resolve disputes, but not this time. God, I just shot.
That was just an bang.
This time it's where the story begins, was trying .
to send a message. IT was just so old.
a story that quickly got too big for this texas town, and like a pri fier spread across the nation.
We have some new information this morning on the manhunt .
for a killer who gone down A. The hunters became the hunted.
That's what was so scary was that is not just mean anymore. I have Young kids, my husband, my family.
my wife had two guns out and I said, like, you know, it's me, camera through the door, be ready to use.
IT was january thirty first twenty thirteen, just before nine. I am in rural comment, texas.
What I thought to be gone.
Police officer Jason destiny was a few blocks from the courthouse. He and his partner were investigating a burglary when something big caught his attention.
And IT was just a slow and methodical with five shots. IT was of a little pause, I guess you'd say. And then three more shots after that.
prosecutor shannan, a bar was inside the courthouse when he heard the sound of sirens.
That's not unusual because there's a police station just a block away. There is a hospital a few blocks down the street.
That siron was Jason tasty squad car.
my partner, and we do. We need to go. So we packed every quick hop in the car.
The car camera was rolling as he and his partner drove toward the gunshots.
About halfway over this batch came across radio on total that a man have been shot gave us the location.
in. T that's just a block from the courthouse. The officer stasi y was one of the first on the scene.
When I pulled up, I saw man, he was lying here in the street, and there was a woman that was over him look like he was doing cpr.
That woman had witnessed shooting from her car, saw the shooter flea then try to help the man. Now stasi was taking over, going on instinct and a running.
Ah, this was one of those scenes. When you pull up, it's not that you .
could prepare for. He knew right away IT was bad.
I should I say?
He looked at me and then he stopped. Ed breathed, that's when I started cpr. As he continued C.
P, R, he heard his surgeon and identify the victim.
He said that he was mark aci, that he was A D, A prosecute mark I.
A season and well respected prosecutor gunned down on his way to work.
I got him to take seven breath. How do you remember .
that as his car camp capp rolling stashie body mike picked up, is please for mark to hold on just a little longer. you.
Must you know, I tried my best, you know, to tell him, know, you're doing good. You're doing good. You keep breathed. The ambuLance is common.
Officer destiny had been at the scene for five agronians ing minutes when the ambuLance rolled up A D A prosecution. Back at the office, Jenna noticed that her secretary was looking out the window at some commotion on the street.
My secretary turned around and he was crying initially just wanted to comforter. I couldn't even imagine what he was crying about. And when he turned from the window, all SHE said was its mark. My natural instinct was that he hit by a car and he was, like, notion.
and he was shot. Mark was not only her colleague, but also her friend. Shannon, too afraid to go anywhere, stayed inside praying for him. And then SHE learned the severity of his injuries.
He had been shot in the head. And at that moment is when I think IT hit me like he might not survive. We now waiting to hear if he's going to live.
But bad news travels fast.
I didn't take very long for his trial partner to walk into the courtroom shaking your head and crying. And I think at that point we knew he was gone.
I can only imagine how horrible a moment like that is.
It's horrible IT IT will be a my brain private like I will never, ever work that .
there's not a day that goes by that I don't go back here and and think back to that day and exactly what happened and exactly .
what I saw IT seemed the assistant D. A. Had been targeted in broad daylight. When did I just thinking for you that this, could you walk into work with me? Your ice is right there.
I think, was IT could have .
been any of us. The courthouse was locked down in the morning, then closed for the day. Prosecutors and office staff were given extra security. The shooter was on the loose.
All of us were scared. We didn't know if there are, you know, a bunch of people waiting to try to shooters.
Kaufman county assistant D. A. Mark asi was dead at fifty seven gun down on his way to work a block from the courthouse.
I just never, in a million years, would have expected one of our prosecutors menas somebody I knew personally to be line on the ground dead .
with one of their own down. Lua, july steward from the county shares department quickly joined the swarm of law enforcement jumping on the case.
I just remember thinking that this none of IT made since to me.
And lu, tenant steward had worked with mark on a number of cases.
He was great to go to for address that. I had questions. A Better case, you know, he was. He was good to go to.
Mark was an experienced prosecutor. My guy who lived his job, fellow prosecutors like shanon, a bear looked up to him, did you learn anything?
Course, go mark, for almost everything.
That's because over the course of his career, market prosecuted some of the worst criminals in texas.
He was tenacious, he was an intellectual, and he was very quick on his feet.
Marcus bush is now an assistant U. S. attorney. Back in the eighties, he and mark asi, where Young guns working in the organized crime section of the dallas das office.
mark was not afraid of taking on a fight. Some of the defendants and some of the cases are were very bad people. And mark the personality to stand in the breach and prosecute the worst of the worst.
Why did mark move at a dallas?
He one of the place where he had some room, so he bought to the house on about eight. Accor spelt the morning out there. He just love me at around animals, and he loved .
the space besides animals and wide open spaces. Mark at another passion, flying back in nineteen ninety five, IT almost killed him, a high five memories of world war tools. And a few years ago this month, mark was part of this era. Are mota vintage planes? When something went terribly wrong.
he believed the engine had failed, and he made a force landing, ran off the end of the runway. He survived, but he had very severe brain injury.
Did he decide to fly again at any point? Or he did? Why do you think he wanted to fly again? He almost died and .
sniping thrown from a horse. He wanted to be. The personality was .
before he did.
He did. He did. But he took a long, long time.
IT took years, but mark did recover from his injuries. His colleagues in the das office admired his strength to fight versy, but they also got to a kick out of his weakness, his love for sugar y snacks.
He had a suit too, and he would mostly eat everyone stuff. So like we would have weekly prosecuted meetings every monday, and we would get for them, and he would always get their first. And still, my boy done, and we had.
We both love that. In two thousand eleven, mark in shen got a new boss who seemed to fit right in with their office family, the newly elected district attorney, mike milland, my, my clean, the criminal district attorney for c. mic. Daughter rim says he love the job.
I, the people he worked with, and he would talk about, you know, how this first one did this, and I was really proud them. And this first did this, and I was really proud of them.
Everything was new to him. He came in and um just took IT over was tough.
I wouldn't .
say he was tough on us at all. The greatest thing about him was that he let us do what we do best.
And I quickly formed a bond with marci. The experienced prosecutor mark .
was his best friend in the office.
They were very close. Mike's wife, synthia, felt right in around the office too. SHE was almost like a dad mother. He worked as a nurse, but found time to bake cakes and cookies for the staff. But the ones happy in hummy office, in a quiet, small town, was now shattered.
IT was overwhelming to have lost someone that would works just a few doors down from us that we talk to every single day. That is so happy.
I was so overwhelming. We didn't have time to grow about IT. We didn't have time to talk about our feelings. He is time to get work.
Lu, tenant, steward and others canvas the area, but solid information was hard to come by. Witnesses said the shooter hopped into the passenger sign of the getaway car as IT sped away, so there had to be at least two people involved. They also said the car was silver or was IT grey, or ten afford, or maybe a ford tourists, but with no license plate.
The rest of that day we were just going around looking for, you know, the car.
I don't think i've ever noticed how many silver light colored four door dance there are.
And even though the killer had brazing attacked during the morning rush, witnesses said he covered up.
One of the witness described him as wearing a hoody that was black and covered their face. And another person who saw from a distance said, you know, all black, know, dark clothing.
but there was something more. A witness in a garage right across the street heard the victim's last words.
Mark said, no, no, i'm sorry. And that was after a little bit of kind of a shopping mad.
Did that tell you that these two knew each other?
That thing very personal to me.
No weapon was found at the scene and no shell casings either. Did they tell you anything that there were no shell?
Yes, the total is gonna have to .
be a revolt because revolvers keep bullet casings inside the gun after firing. I can only imagine how terrified mark must have been in those final moments.
Mark was doing what he did every day, just going to work.
Now his fellow prosecutors fear he died for that work. We lost a really, really good man. District attorney mike mclean stood tall when he addressed the media about the killing of his good friend.
I hope that the people who did this are watching because we're very confident that we're going to find you. We're going to pull you out of whatever hole you're in. We're going to bring you back and let the people, a cop and county, prosecute you to the four sixteen of the law. But bringing this killer or killers to justice would take a lot more than tough talk. The case looked like he was about to get a lot bigger with more brazen attacks.
I mean, we really did love him. I was devastating. I.
when he was gone monday morning, four days after the murder of marci, fellow prosecutor shen and a bear return to work with a heavy heart.
Of course, IT was a hard monday at weekly meeting without mark. Our whole office was devastated. I mean, his door was closed.
Security remains tight in and around the courthouse, and everyone was still on guard as they paid respects to their co work most afternoon and cop in county where hundreds of people attended a memorial service for slain prosecutor mark I, he was constantly begin for more of my wife's cookies. D SHE. Makes cookies for the office about once, and he would run out about twelve ve.
minutes. Mark's longtime friend, mark s. Bush also memorialized him.
this world is a Better place because of mark. And so we, the world, lost a good man. Somebody who was resolute, always knew the difference between right and wrong and would fight for that.
The murder brought an all star army of law enforcement to the case. The share of training center was turned into a command post. IT was soon buzzing with local police, texas rangers and federal agents from the A, T, F. And FBI.
that what's amazing about this cases, you had federal, state law enforce, all working together in a team .
advising this team. Toby shook and bill were sky veteran high profile atterburys from dallas, who were quickly named special prosecutors.
Once you get over the initial shock and disbelief that a prosecutor and someone that no has been murdered, kind of your professional training kicks in. And that's where toby and I stepped up. But in volunteer to help them .
in the crime seems to be what every prosecutor fears, a revenge hit for putting away a bad guy that struck a cord that reverberated from cofton to dallas throughout texas and beyond.
And I think every judge, every defense turning, every prosecution, has that the back your mind.
The initial theories were as numerous, says the hundreds of cases mark hai had prosecuted. The first place to look was right in coffee county, or mark was a felling prosecutor for two and a half years.
The big questions that we had as whose he prosecuted recently .
share of investigator july start was involved from day one.
is something recent that he's prosecuted that's got somebody upset. So we started building off into his case load.
Investigators looked into every local case market prosecuted. There were robberies, drug prosecutions and even a theft that involved an elected official who stole off the equipment. They didn't immediately find anything that LED them to a suspect, any assistance that anyone can give us, and finding the people who did this will be greatly appreciated. Even though investigators were convinced he was murdered because of his job as a prosecutor, they didn't stop there.
You still have to interview friends, family members.
Associated mark was a tea total alert. He wasn't married and he didn't have any children. Those extensive checks into his background came up empty.
but just wasn't anything there. He loved his mother, who lived in Alice and spent a lot of time taking care of her and taking her to dinner.
All the initial checks into mark's personal and professional life were not panning out. Then four weeks into the investigation, a tip came into the county crime stoppers anonymous tip line that look like a big break.
The tipster said that they'd been in A A bar in a small town in coffin and overheard two White males talking about the hasty killing and taking responsibility forward.
The tip lacked the kind of detail that investigators needed to follow up, and using the crime stopper system, the tipster remained anonymous. If this was going to be the game changer, investigators would need lots more information or a little more luck.
You're still hoping for the big break and maybe a lucked, lucky traffic stopper. Somebody's going that knows about this murders going to pick up the phone and call, and that'll be the magic phone call.
Meanwhile, the task force widen the scope of the investigation beyond coff men.
We don't have a lot of violent crimes in coffin, I mean, especially murders. So we just kind of neural assumed that was someone from dallas.
Dallas, the big city, less than thirty miles, but seemingly no lifestyle away. Remember, back in the nineteen eighties, mark and fellow prosecutor mark bush locked up some pretty tough customers there.
I immediately started think about the organised crime cases and the murder cases that we'd all prosecuted. Many those we receive life sentences, and we're starting to parle .
out the way mark had been murdered also suggested to investigators a possible link to organized crime. The killer had been lying in weights, and mark was shot at point blank range. Execution style .
rivers are sweeping the town. Talk of mexican drug cartels in prison games. We're open to every, every right now.
And investigators also suspected another group less publicly known, but very dangerous, the arian brotherhood of texas, a prison gang of Whites, supremest. Why was the arian brotherhood a potential group that may have done this?
There have been some threats that to come out about that time that the iron brotherhood said they might want to get even with people in law enforcement get even.
Because less than three months before houses murder, federal officials announced that thirty four alleged arian brotherhood gangs members had been indeed for rock tearing. The fed thanked, among others, the coffee county D. S. Office for its role in the investigation.
A lot of people were trying to put two and two together with the aran brotherhood.
It's one thing if it's one individual who went after mark. It's another thing if IT is the area and .
brotherhood oah prosecutors, not just in culpa en, but across the state, or terrified that if this is there in brotherhood, we're all targets.
And then seven weeks after houses murder, another assault online enforcement IT looks like IT was open season on the criminal justice system. The colorado ahead of the department of corrections was shot here at the front door on tuesday night. The man's name was tom climes, the highly regarded head of colorado s prison system, and like mark aci, a public servant, evidence pointed to a former inmate named evan evil.
He was a member of a White a premises gain in colorado, similar to the arian brotherhood. Now he was on the run from colorado authorities, armed and dangerous. Two days after the murder, a shares deputy in texas would find out just how dangerous a violent attack caught on a dashboard camera.
The deputy pulled over this car during a routine traffic stop. He had no idea the driver was even an evil. As you're about to see, evil had no hesitation using his gun again.
The unsuspecting deputy shot in the face would survive. Evil was quickly chased down by law enforcement and died in an explosive shootout in wise county, texas. What grabs the attention of investigators in the mark I murder is this wise county is just one hundred miles from coachmen.
Could evan evil have killed another public servant in texas seven weeks earlier? The FBI is now investigating this case. They want to see if ever is connected to mark asses more.
Two public officials gunned down in two states. Someone seemed to be targeting laender cement. And IT was about to become even more alarming. No one could reach di, mike mclean or his wife when nobody.
he had called me back. That's when I started getting very worried, very worried that something was very wrong.
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The shooting of cholera OS prison chief at his home, allegedly by a White supreme st, had given taxi investigators a fresh angle in the murder of prosecutor mark asi. It's another strange attack on launch. Cement in a small town can cut off covered red.
The hassi case for nbc channel five and dallas, he says the suspected murder ending up in texas was especially intriguing to investigators, made people wonder if perhaps there could be some connection with the hasty murder they did test on suspect evan ebs weapon is bullets were identical to those that killed the prison chief back in colorado. But then the texas task force found out ebs gun was not the weapon that killed mark aci. And what's more, ebel was deemed not to have been encouraged at the time that casey was killed. So eight weeks in the hay case was going nowhere. Fewer and fewer .
leagues are coming into the investigation.
The command post was shut down, leaving a small group to work full time on the case slowly.
Now we can not trigger LED back to our daily duties.
The passage of time was allowing shanna bear to finally get her equal. Liberum back.
I just wasn't checking out my windows constantly. You are worried about when I put out of my garage if someone would be waiting there. So, you know, I think you just start letting your guard down again in life. Just kind of took over.
Same thing for hard knows D A. Mike, according to a step daughter, Christina, to things just naturally kind of start getting back to Normal yeah.
I think more of a sense of Normal IT was still kind of at the forefront of god. We haven't found anything I know god, we haven't solved this at, but.
Life moves on at the end of march easter weekend. The mellins were looking forward to a big sunday dinner since I was making for friends the perfect time to relax and not dwell on the tragedy of mark hasse murder, at least for a little while. Was there any fear that we need to be on high alert at that point? I don't think so. Christina spoke to her mom and stepped bad on that friday night.
IT was a Normal conversation and IT was utter ly Normal. You know, mom was making east to ask kids .
the next morning, saturday, the sun rose over the mcclean house. IT was synthia est data prop. Should send me a text about the menu that we were going have for easter.
Lea phillips, under her husband, close of the mcclean, were excited about joining them for dinner. He was making our family all easter baskets, and then he would make clues and had the easter baskets. That's a elaborate IT was very elaborate.
Lia, who was supposed to drop off some vegetables for synthetic, texted her and he never answered, red me back. Did you think that was odd that he didn't answer you back? And the only thing I could think I was, maybe he did go into work or SHE couldn't either answer the phone or text me back.
Lea called x phone and the house phone no response. And SHE wasn't the only one. Christina was also trying to call her mom and stepped dad.
And I tried, mom answers, so I tried my and .
he in the answer. By now, IT was late afternoon, and lia was starting to worry. So I said, okay, i'll go on over there.
SHE thought something was odd when he pulled into the driveway, but the newspaper was still in the yard. A ninth ist car was there. So, very subbed clues, just subtle.
But i'm still thinking maybe they went to the movie with someone lea called her son C. J. Thomasson, and told him what she'd seen.
and I said, you just stay where you're at and don't go .
inside that house. IT was c jays consents kicking in. He's a dallas .
police officer. The feels sometimes not right, just not right.
A few minutes later, C, J. Drove up along with his dad. We went to the door and C, D, knocked on the door and yield for mike three, four times, and there was no answer.
They were messing with the key and they are all standing bihari. And I just reached down to see if the door was open. And yeah, IT was unlocked and i'll i'll never free IT out that door.
Open up the door is IT e doing is like a slow motion. What they found when they walked inside would change their lives. And the course of the investigation SHE points.
And he says, there's showcase things underneath your feet at that point, something's really wrong. Now sometimes is bad happened.
When lea phillips and her family showed up at Michael cinta mcclean house, they had no idea the nightmare they were about to walk into lesson C. J. LED.
The way I took a couple steps in. And that's when mom hit the ground and started crying and I screen.
see, I stop the shell casings and then I just money is buckled and I hit the ground and just start crying because there's not super be show casing and set somebody y's store away.
I look down and sure of there. There are two showcasing right inside the front door. At that point, something's really wrong.
Now something is bad. So i'd take a couple more steps, insight, and i'd see sin. And there .
city mclean was dead. Her body was lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor. C. J turned his mom away from the scene and took her back to the car.
Meanwhile, c jays dad had gone farther into the house and found the bullet riddled body of mike mclean. When your husband and son come back out of the house, there is no blood left in their base there. White coff man, district attorney mike men and his wife synthia had been shot to death.
You never expect to have to see somebody like that, that you knew that you loved so close. And I think that was most and its still is hoigh sly IT is so difficult.
Because SHE hadn't been able to reach her parents, Christina decided to drive to the house as well. Her mom's friend lia matter with the news he was reading.
I just had the feeling that they were that, and I said both of them, and he said yes. And then IT occurred to me that, oh my god, this is gonna IT the news. And my grandmother watches everyday and somebody needs to stop her before he turns on the T.
V. Mike is high profile.
He he was. And I didn't want somebody else to help her that this had happened.
Cristina couldn't father, who would want to harm her mom, and stabbed dead. The two were married for nearly twenty years and love nothing more than spending time with family. It's something mike enjoyed since mary synthia. When Christina was just a kid.
he would give great big bear huggs. And even when I was older, would pick, wrap me and pick me up and go. Now i'm twenty two.
Did you feel lucky that you got mike as a but I do. Our personalities .
are just quite sembler. Your both straight shooters. Yes, whatever. Our our filters are quite take off sometimes.
Mike relied on the support of his wife since a, who was always doing what he loved, quilting, entertaining and cooking.
And she's the old school co. Couldn't use packages SHE bake everything from scratch. He was.
he happy that he was Baker. And this, clearly.
by his position, he was very enjoy the food very much.
What made them a good match?
You know, it's really funny. SHE supported him greatly in what he was doing, but he is the conservative and he is very liberal. So I think it's just a lot of baLance I think baLances each other really .
since I also wanted her daughter to find the kind of love SHE had and wasn't shy about playing matchmaker with a guy he thought .
was a good fed SHE looked at him as I do you believe in arranged marriages which I had to lead apologize for because .
here is a thing to embarrassing arr very weird, maybe weird but from a place of caring now synthia was gone and Christina was suddenly dealt a new reality without her mom or stepped dad. You must have had a million questions though.
Yes, there's there's a lot of things that run through. You had out about .
a million miles an hour looking at the scene. C. J. Thomson's police training told him the killer or killers were long gone. He knew what he had to do.
There was no reason to go back in that house. We close the door. We didn't call on when one. There was no need for paramedics to go in there.
They called the cough. And county sheriff.
things in that house was very important, and they need to be preserved until the right people show up. And they did. They showed up. I was at my house, and we just finished an e trig with about thirty kids in the backyard.
about A P. M. Prosecutor toby shook got a call from his partner.
bill were ski. He murdered a and share fonts is out there. And IT IT scared me. The death. When I left the house, bill came to pick me up and and my wife had two guns out, and I said, unless you know, it's me, Cameron, as to the door.
be ready to use. The prosecutors raced to the scene.
There was surreal. I made front yards let up, and it's get the yellow of crime seeing tape. And there's lots of share of officers. And texas rangers and FBI there shook up.
then share of David burns standing on the lawn.
Sherburn's pretty legende guy, former texas anger captain. He was visibly shaken up and is sure he burns. He had shaken up that scared the hell out of me. And all of enforcement out there was quiet IT was early, quiet amongst because they were dealing with shopping and thanking you, and have never seen before.
Aside from the obvious, two people are dead. What was shaking them up so badly?
I think the big question is, who's next? Because everybody's assumption that was standing outside that yellow crime scene tape was IT could have been one .
of us IT sure seemed like the hassi and mccullin murder were connected, and everyone was terrified the killings might not be over. Did you start to think that there was a list of .
sure there was gonna another victim if this person wouldn't found.
Saturday night, shannon, a bear, was shopping for easter dinner when he was surprised by a phone call from .
her office at my gonna, who's up there on saturday, easter weekend. I'm not going to answer right now.
but her phone kept ringing. IT was another prosecutor from her office.
and I knew then at that point something is going on. And I answered, and he proceeded to tell me that the macleans were found in their house.
Shot must have been the biggest bomb shot of your life.
biggest. It's just so hard to imagine anyone you know being killed. I mean, I I was fanatic. c. IT was terrifying.
Her colleague told her to watch her back.
We don't know who's neck. We don't know there. There's more tax tonight. Just get home and be safe. Shame, you know.
watch out. Are you all feeling now that were all targets? Now we are that, including the people you love most in the world?
I think that's what was so scary was that is not just mean anyone have Young kids, my husband, my family and i've mean I keep putting them at risk with mcinnis a, we were all in danger as .
local deputies began around the clock. Watch over shann's house. Something kept nagging at her about the mcclean murder.
There is no way and a open that door to just anyone. I think my thoughts for someone we know, or someone just like a police officer, you know, this is very concerned of even police officer .
that someone could be dressed enough. And I fake police uniform, right? Investigators also wondered how the killer could have gotten inside the mcclean front door. Mike, like his entire staff, was still vigilant ever since his chief prosecutor was gunned down, the very da kept his own guns on a table near the front door, but never got the chance to use them. Is is just like all bets are off when here that now they're going after family members.
even though you can do you almost understand someone going after a prosecutor for what they do for a living, but to go after a prosecutors family was just the line that we didn't think we'd ever see crossed.
Both the hassi and mclean killings, two months apart, were bold, one in a public square in broad daylight, this one in a private home before dawn. Investigators hope this latest crime scene would provide more leads. The hasty killing, did they already knew they had shell casings? Would there be other clues inside the house to help catch the killer?
IT was just straighter hood IT we didn't know .
texas ranger er eric kasper was part of the team that entered the home.
The front door was not kicked in. The door was unlocked. Their shell casings, parks for fit in showcases are two twenty three .
calder that told them the killer used in A R fifteen or m four type semi automatic weapon like this one.
This started exactly when the door open. mr. Macon and mr. Mccline were retreating and trying to get away .
from the gunfire. The body was in the middle of the living room, and SHE clearly wasn't expecting anyone.
She's not dressed for company. She's trying to get dressed. mr. Mccolm, the same way he is in jogging pants with no show on.
There were shell casings next to mix body, indicating the killer had finished him off at close range.
was standing out right on top of over him.
shooting him to investigators like lute and july start of the sherif department. IT look like a carefully planned Operation and ambush, just like the hassi murder to the scene speak to at all.
I felt like whoever was in there had a emission, and they did IT quickly, and they did IT efficiently, and they were out.
Later, records from the alarm company would confirm stewards observation. The killer entered the house at six forty A M. And was gone just two minutes later. Twenty shots fired in one hundred twenty seconds.
That was a pretty brutal way to o lue tenant .
steward couldn't help be affected by the side of synthia shot in the head at .
close range just looking at her and they're on the same SHE was argee you know that I mean, he didn't have a dog in this fight?
Investigators talk to neighbors. Surely someone had heard the shots. Assault rifles aren't quiet.
The weapon used in this murder, you should have been able to hear IT outside.
No problem. No one heard or saw anything by the end of easter weekend, special prosecutor bill worker said they had nothing.
We're just trying to figure out what to do next. And we're hoping against hope there's going to be a magic clue in that crime scene in that house that .
will answer this ridal forceful. They were looking for that clue and all of a sudden yet drove by.
What should have been a slow easter newsday in dallas now had a lead story that didn't involve chocolate bunnies or egg hants. We're following some breaking news right now in costly country where county district uy Michael clean and his wife synthia have been found shot to death. The news touched off a firestorm of public concern. Tips started flooding into the reopen cough man county share of command post some tips still cited the area and brotherhood of texas special prosecutor bill war ski .
media attention at the melons were murdered. Um we get hundreds of tips a day is like drinking .
out of a fire hose during this whole thing.
u. Tana jolie, steward of the sheriff department, was right in the middle of IT. Hundreds of investigators from multiple agencies had swooped in. This was all hands on that.
This became the number one case in the bureau at that time.
FBI special agents, Michael hill men and Lorry gibs, who have since retired coordinating teams from the task force. Each team looking into different aspects of the case, you have to look at everything. So you decided to divide up. Everyone could focus on their individual tasks.
right? And some of these teams had twenty five, thirty people on. And there was a team that looked at all of the victims and what they may have in common.
They believe the killing of da. Mike mclean was linked with the shooting of prosecutor mark asi back in january, but IT was all one big collective hunch until they got a certain tip.
Do the crime stoppers web based tip line we get a tip that claims credit for the mark aci murder?
The computer message came in on easter sunday night. The day after the mcleans were murdered, IT began. Do we have your full attention now? We suggest more than one person. Did you think maybe it's a group in my thought?
I thought, is that how big is this group? What is this group? Is this some sort of anti government militia group? Is this White supreme ed? I had no idea what we were dealing with.
Law enforcement wrote back, you have our attention.
We wanted him to tell us what he wanted.
While they waited anxiously for an answer, computer experts tried to trace the tip back to the source. No luck. That's because the system is set up to protect the anonymity of all tipsters.
When a message comes in, the center is identified only by a unique number. After twelve hours of nail biting, there was finally a response that told investigators this person was the real deal. Mark, I was killed with 38 calibre ammunition fired from a three, fifty seven, five shot revolver. Would anyone other than the killer have known that?
No, this person new way more than anybody would have.
The killer also wrote, your act of good faith will result in no other attacks this week. In return for that pledge, the killer made a demand.
They want to one of the judges and off and county to step down by the end of the week, or the killings would resume. The fact that this tip came in and named these specific judges and cofer told us IT was somebody .
that all but ruled out the arian brotherhood drug cartels and those old cases from das, and the language in the tip, referring to a tax plural, convinced prosecutors that the killer or killers were responsible for both the house and clent murder. The tips ers message ended this way. We are not unreasonable, but we will not be stopped. It's almost sounding like a game now.
I think in his mind, he was a big chess game, but I think he was just for fun to see if he could really exert complete total control over the criminal justice system and .
counting on monday morning, when shannan a bear came to her office, SHE had an armed escort. There's no leader at her office anymore. No one. When you come into work, how do you go forward?
We had them before. We couldn't let them win. We couldn't. And we had to fight in for the honor of mike mark.
Everyone in the office was on edge. My hand stayed all night. I know .
that I started caring again. Sleep with a gun under my pillow.
even channon who wouldn't Carry a gun before now, slept with .
protection nearby. We had fun sitting on our dr. IT, ready to go in case the .
killer threat to unleash more violence. And coffee county kept the task force working around the clock. A special teams scoured the surveilLance video collected near the mclean crime scene, hoping for a new lead.
So many people now have surveilLance cameras on their house, so we're trying to go in and collect that sort of evidence.
And finally, the video teams paint sticking search seemed to pay off. They found images of a car that didn't belong a White ford crown Victoria cruising near the mcclean home about the time of the murder. No one in neighborhood owned a car like that.
But the crown vick model is popular with law enforcement. So the FBI jumped on that angle ever. I thought that maybe this is one of our own, maybe this is a police officer doing .
this that was not out of the realm of possibility.
In fact, an old case was about to resurface, one that would send this case rolling in a dark new direction.
Has anyone connected with this investigation suggest to you that you are a person of interests in the investigation?
Four days after the murder of mike insentient mcclean, hundreds of mourners packed this church for their memorial. The flag drape basket contained mix, body and synthesis ashes together for eternity. They are extended family, united in grief, bid them an emotional farewell.
They Carry a lot of things from them with me. They taught me very well.
They helped a lot of people before they left this world.
The impact on a lot of people.
A beef up multi agency task force vow to catch you ever kill the mcclean and mark I. Investigators had seen that four crown Victoria on video roaming near the mcclean home and thought I might be a police car. The terrible possibility IT might be one of their own had to be ruled in or out immediately.
We checked with every law, forced and agency in the area, and identified where every police car was in the area, and none of them were even close to where this image was captured.
Next they look for anyone who for any reason had issues or disputes involving both prosecutors.
There didn't seem to be anybody in the group of people that were uh, upset enough that they would want to commit homicide.
but there was one defendant involved in a felling they couldn't ignore. There was only one common denominator for those two prosecutors that was eric illiana, eric Williams, who was erik Williams. He was a former deputy sheriff and long time attorney with an office right across the street from the courthouse in two thousand and ten.
He was elected by the people of coff man to be justice of the peace. Shanna bar worked with him and said at a sharp legal mind. In fact, he was a member of mensa, the organization for people with super higher cues.
He was a great judge. I like having him in there very fair.
Williams, married for fifteen years with no kids of his own, was a strong advocate for children and specialized in child abuse cases. Look and jolly store often worked with him on those cases. How would do you think he was perceived among his fellow colleagues, other attorneys .
but I think that he had a lot of respect um with his peers. He was kind of the go to guy for family law.
I know he had a love for children. Terror Williams bell mare knows that Better than anyone. She's eric sister.
He is a good uncle to my kids, never miss their birthdays and never had, SHE says. Growing up, her big brother was her. He made eagle scout, went to college law school and became a successful attorney.
He also served as a captain in the texas state guard. He was driven. He was ambitious. He wanted to make us feel proud of him.
So terror and the legal community were stunned in twenty eleven when her brother, the newly elected justice of the peace, got into trouble with the law. Blimps was accused of stealing three computer monitors for his personal use from the county I. T. department. Here's surveilLance video showing him Carrying boxes of computer equipment IT just seems odd that someone like that would bother to steal a few computer monitors.
exactly. Is shocking that someone would go and do that.
Williams found himself on the wrong side of this police interrogation. Williams tried to explain he took the monitors .
because .
he .
claimed he needed new equipment for his office, but never got IT ongoing .
kind of thing. When I tell I T people look that I need to keep improving.
things had put any of written, and mike mclean new eric Williams .
as a colleague and cofer small legal community as boss of the da s. office. My rarely tried cases, but because Williams was an elected public official, he made an exception and teamed up with mark to prosecute the case. Christinia says her step dad believed Williams had violated the public trust.
I think IT did offend. Make on a basic level, these people elected you. You're supposed to be doing good things for the community.
Not stealing from a jury found Williams guilty of he got problem, but lost his job and license to practice law. And now a year later, both men who prosecuted him were dead, and Williams was under suspicion.
did so that the media .
got wind .
of the interest in Williams. And just days after the mcclean murder, he was interviewed by nbc affiliate K. P.
R. C. He strAngely swept in on his segway.
Anyone you with this investigation suggested to you that you are a person of interest in .
the investigation after the denial. His sympathies.
my heart felt condolences. Ces, go out to build them, a clean family and the hasty family, because they were in public office doing the right thing, and for some reason they were not aware of, you have paid them to my Price for that.
Williams was known to be a bit of an odd, dark, but a murder suspect, IT seems so far fetched that a justice of the peace, a man who had served his county, not only as an attack Y A judge, but also as as a deputy sheriff, would then suddenly turned into this serial killer.
No, no one wants to think a lawyer I would do that. A person who was a public servant would do that.
In fact, he was among the many people investigators had already looked at after the hussy murder. What was his aliva at the time?
He said he had been at home, uh, either Carrying for his wife is in laws down the street.
He also added his ARM in a slain when all forceful came to talk to his excuse was he had frozen shoulder and was unable to use his ride ARM.
After the mclean murder investigators checked whether he owned a ford ground, Victoria. The car captured on video lurking near the mclean murder scene record showed he did not. The case was still stalled, but soon the task force would get one of those lucky breaks they'd been hoping for in a filing cabinet in the garage. There was A A manual for ford crown pic, and there was also a title to a ground back.
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I CoOperated with enforcement. I've certainly wish ed them the best in bringing justice for this.
just incredibly agreeing .
that eric Williams was making the TV interview rounds, but he hasn't SAT down for a formal interview with investigators because of his connection to both mark I and mike milland. Investigators had to take a serious look at him on the .
surface that may seem implausible, because he's a lawyer and judge and successful. The more we learned about him, the more viable and our minds. He became as a suspect .
just the year before Williams had been prosecuted for theft by hai and Michelle. You must be chomping at the bit to talk to eric Williams.
Obviously, we wanted to talk to him. The problem with that was he was still represented by lawyers.
lawyers who kept Williams from talking. But then two weeks after the mcclean were killed in their home, the special prosecutors got a big opening they hadn't seen coming.
When we get an email back from the lawyers basically saying we did no longer represent eric Williams.
they figured this was there one window to talk to him, and they knew they had to get IT right the first time before he lowered up again. So FBI profilers came up with a strategy, send over a top level texas ranger, m. So Williams would be more likely to let a man, the idea that would fit with his ego.
yeah, he would be a major with the texas rangers, someone equal on his internet that perhaps he would talk to if he sent someone had lower right, then he would just dismiss them.
The ranger and a local officer familiar to Williams went to his house Carrying a hidden tape record. Did IT work?
IT work great.
Williams let them in without a search Warrent. The subject quickly got around the guns. Williams said he had been forced to sell his weapons to raise money since he could no longer practice law.
I know, like to go deep, think that so yeah, for two years you don't have anymore. You can you said, I don't have any guns except one gun and so he let them look around and and they began finding gun parts.
gun parts, some very specific gun parts that appeared to match the type of automatic weapon used in the mcclean killings. And at the same time, the FBI discovered Williams had done computer searches on hassi and mclean before the murder. He specifically .
told him that he had not ever searched the two victims before .
the murders. You ve got lying. Yeah, that lie. And those gun parts were enough to get a warm for a more thoro search of his house. Investigators, including a crack FBI evidence team, were back the next day.
They went room to room than to the garage, and bingo in a filing cabinet in the garage, there was A A manual for ford crown pic, and there was also a title to a crown vic. The task force, of course, had been looking for a crown Victoria. This one was registered under a false name that must have been a real big moment, finding that registration that was huge outside special prosecutor or sky, was on hand to give legal advice.
One of the FBI computer text came out and said, mister rosky, I don't mean to alarm you, but eric Williams has been searching you and mr. Shake on his computer.
What's the first thing you did when you heard that he had .
been searching you? I get on the fun with my wife and teller to make sure you know where the kids were to get inside and keep the doors locked and don't answer the door for anyone up to and including a police officer. What did he say? I could hear the fear in her voice. And I knew right then we had to put him in jail for something became very personal and a matter of life and death for us.
Back inside, searchers found something interesting, a scrap of paper with two hand written numbers. So they collected IT because I was near the computer and I thought that I might be important. And IT was a sharif deputy, recognized the user. ID for the county crime stopper is anonymous tip line, one of the numbers course fund, into a tip from early in the hay case where the tipster claimed to have overheard two men in a bar saying they killed mark asi. The other number on that scrap paper was even more important because IT matched back to that computer message that gave details about the hassi murder weapon and also threatened more killings.
So we knew right then that that tip that had come in to the command post was sent by eric Williams. And we knew right then we were going to be able to put eric Williams in jail.
He was arrested not for murder, but for making a terrorist threat about killing .
a we just didn't know if we had enough evidence to convict m.
They just had to figure out where the evidence might be. Did you think that eric Williams had a hiding place?
We begin to suspect pretty early on if it's eric Williams and we, what cars were used there, maybe a storage unit are some secret storage place that he may have access to that we haven't found.
At least now, ten weeks after houses murder, the investigation was finally on a role.
We go home at night to get a good night to sleep. And I actually wanted for the first time in weeks to see my son play a little league game.
But the next morning his parenting plans were dashed by work. Again, his phone rang. IT was a friend of eric Williams who'd heard about his arrest and said.
mister waska, I have something to tell you about eric Williams. I think I may have rented him a storage unit. I could tell when I listen to his voice. This is IT. This is the real thing.
So little league was out.
Unfortunately, I was, little league was out. My son went three for three.
but you were headed to a story.
and this is too important. So I got on the phone with the texas rangers and I said, this is that I think we found IT.
The hot spot in the investigation was now a run of the mill storage unit, number eighteen, to be precise, in sea view taxes. Just fourteen miles from the mcclean house era, casper of the texas rangers was part of the task force kara van racing to united team.
Everybody is running and going, you know, everybody wants to be there.
So we're all just filled with expectations. We're making bad OK the White chrome. It's gonna be there. No, it's not. We're going to find the murder .
weapon range or Caspar did the honors lifting the heavy steel door.
This is one of those moments that i'll never forgive because IT was just, wow.
what you see.
we saw the White crop c, the car that we had been looking for all those days and all those man hours. And there IT was that we knew finally .
we had eric Williams, but there was so much more police uniforms and bullet provest, more than a half dozen police badges, thousands of rounds of ammo and enough guns to supply a small army.
He's got six or seven weapons of the right calibre that could have been a clean murder weapon. We have five or six weapons of the right calibre that could have been the hassi murder weapon.
Did you think that one of those guns had to .
be the murder weapon? I felt like our chances were pretty good because they were just so many in there.
The guns and emo were sent off to the lab for testing inside this treasure trove of bad intentions. They were also pickle jars filled with liquid, later identified as homemade date palm.
Unbelievable is like a tactical Operators closed.
but they'd soon be dealt a serious blow. The live results came back on all those weapons. None of the forensics matched the murder. Weapons were still missing. That's gotto be extremely frustrating when you feel like what one of these guns, i'm sure, has gonna .
murder on.
Even without the guns, the prosecutor believe there was enough evidence to finally go forward. On April eighteen, twenty thirteen, eleven weeks after mark hai was gone down and three weeks since the melons were killed, erik Williams was charged with three counts of capital murder. Prosecutors said the motive was revenge.
One thing I found out about eric Williams, the first big thing that went wrong in his life, this is how he was gone to react with rage and homicidal violence IT.
All seems so senseless to the mcclean s. Daughter, Christina. This all started over three computer monitor and were talking about three murder.
People don't.
Eric Williams went on trial for murder in december .
of two thousand and fourteen.
Williams wasn't on trial for the murder of mi or MC milland. In a surprise tactic, this trial was only for the murder of system acland. Why not just try the murder at the same time?
What if something went wrong in the first trial? We wanted to have the ability to be able to try him twice and make sure he got justice .
Christinia SAT in court and had to relieve the deaths of her parents. What gave you the strength to go to court every day?
I show up everyday for the three people who gave their lives for something good. They stood up and they did what they are supposed to you.
And they they died for IT. This chance to tell you the story of the murders of mike and cities of the .
clown prosecutor bill worker thought of could prove eric Williams had killed synthia that would obviously .
show he killed mike.
One of the first witnesses called C. J. Tolson, dallas police officer and front of the mcclean, C, J, told the jury how he and his parents found .
the mcleans took a couple more steps of the residents I was, I learned for for three days.
prosecutors .
brought a blizzard of witnesses. They told the jury Williams had been linked to the tip that came in after the macan murder.
lambing credit for the murders, thinking law enforcement would never figure IT out.
Investigators didn't have the murder weapon, but they had something else, a bullet they found inside a bag taken from William stored unit.
You know, this is what you and your team recovered.
Yes, a ballistics examining are compared that single unfired bullet to the shell casings found at the murder ene and came up with a match .
that live around was ejected from the same weapon that killed them, a cleans. So that was a big moment for us.
And prosecutors thought this security video outside the storage unit nailed the case down. They said, IT trace the movements of eric Williams and the crown vic on the morning of .
the murder approximate six A M. Real term.
That's when Williams, in his black S. U. V, pulled up to the entrance of the storage unit, according to the prosecution, at six twelve I am the White crown Victoria pulled out by six forty two investigators knew the mcclean were dead or dying on the floor based on the motion detectors in the home security system. At seven o'clock, here's that White crown vic coming back through the entrance. And seventeen minutes later, that black S U, V pulled out.
He committed, described, he's x alone, and his x alone can down him to be found guilty of capital murder.
The prosecutor said they had a lot of circumstantial evidence, including the crown vic and that matching bullet and gentleman.
the jury.
but the defense was about to tell the jury what the prosecution didn't have.
Williams did not commit the murder.
Defense lawyer Matthew see more laid into one of the state star witnesses that bolitics expert, he reminded the jury. Investigators never found the murder weapon. He tried to poke holes in the prosecutions matching bullet theory.
One experience.
yes, potentially that is true. The defense didn't see the need to call any witnesses .
how our position was. The state had not fulfilled their obligation to prove the element of the individual .
IT was just that simple. There is no known murder weapon in this case. There is no one who can place a Williams in that scene at the mclean home. No one.
Finally, this case that had rock the justice system was about to be decided by the jurors. They needed only ninety minutes to reach a verdict.
We, the jury unanimously find the defendant, eric glad Williams.
guilty of care former and and guilty of capital murder in the death of sithee mcclean. You heard the word guilty.
That was a, if I was a gift for us, probably give for everybody else, because I don't believe that this would have stopped at the end of these killings.
There's a sad postcript to this case that raises a painful question. Could Williams have been stopped after the housing murder and before the americans did they have to die? We're gonna you in hunting irony. Mike mclean always thought Williams was likely the killer. He certainly .
suspected IT was a Williams. After mark, he was shot and he made no secret what his opinion was. And I had numerous conversations where he said, bill, its eric Williams.
Williams was one of a handful of possible suspects early on in the happy case, but there was no evidence linking him to the murder, and even with his conviction for theft, he'd had a good reputation. We had several .
discussions about IT. Of course, your name came up in the discussions, but IT doesn't matter what you think if you can prove IT.
And now this former justice of the peace was a convicted murderer. how? Why was he living a double life?
I think he was. Most people were fooled by his exterior. He looks so Normal.
He looks so average. He had the trappings of success being a lawyer in a judge. But behind that mask was .
a homicide psychopath. But this case was far from over prosecutors one, but they were saving their best witness for last. Investigators always suspected eric Williams did not act alone, and he didn't. You are about to hear from his accomplice someone with the first hand account of the murder.
We, the jury, and animals m, we find the defendant eric long Williams guilty of them.
They'd one a guilty verdict against eric Williams, but prosecutors didn't have time to celebrate. The jury would now decide whether he should get the death penalty. In a rare legal move, prosecutors had saved some blockbuster evidence and a star witness for just this moment.
As investigators figured all along, Williams hadn't acted alone. He had a complex IT was this woman. His wife came. They'd been married for fifteen years, but now he was about to testify against her husband .
was a cold day and there. Was excitement in there.
Soon after eric was arrested, kim Williams was brought in for questioning.
Investigators spent hours talking to her.
At first, SHE defended eric, but finally SHE broke, and what he told them was startling, SHE said. Not only did he know something about the murders, he helped her husband Carry them out. Now during the penalty phase, prosecutors plan to use her testimony to make sure the jury would give him a death sentence.
SHE read us to a lot of evidence, and I think IT was important for the jury to see and have all their .
questions and answer. He came up with the plan to dress like law enforcement.
They were a husband and wife murder team, and they went through a dress rehearsal .
the night before .
the mcclean murders.
I want to say, look like he was the army or sweat. He had a bullet previous that had cheerful on that. More than likely, mr. Mcclean was gonna answer the door, and he was going to introduce himself as a policeman.
But if these had been revenge killings of mike mcclean and mark I, why did synthetic mclean have to die?
Because SHE would be there as a witness, and he described his collateral damage.
and prosecutors wanted the jury to know how Erica kim Williams spent the day after killing two people .
in cold blood. C, on the and eric cook.
those your parent.
my people .
are celebrating mistakes.
That's correct.
The prosecutors didn't tell jurors about the housing case during the system mcclean trial, but now they were ready to use mark's murder to cement their argument for the death penalty.
We had a pair type circumstantial evidence case on .
the hands y murder witnesses to the murder. You remember that the shooter jumped into the passenger side of the getaway car as IT turns out him with the getaway driver. As you're .
driving away from the scene of the housing merger, more happy.
happy. I so believed in eric in everything that he told me. His anger was my anger.
Who was mad?
He was mad at mark cai. He was mad at mr. mclain. He was angry because they thought he thought that they were trying to set him up.
What did that tell you about this incredibly bizarre relationship that these two words cohoes with each other?
I think IT proved beyond any doubt. Eric alan was a psychopath. And this was a horribly toxic, screwed up marriage, I think, lets you know what type of darkness was going on inside the house and inside their hearts.
Kim Williams also said he helped her husband dispose of key evidence in the case. SHE recalled driving to this bridge one night and watching eric toss a black .
bag into the lake. Do you back?
I knew that I was guns.
He took seven months of searching the lake before divers found the bag. FBI agent Lorry gibs was there. Open this up.
There's two guns. This is that inside the bag, or two revolvers, forensics would show one of those guns killed mark hassi. And one more thing that bag those guns were in IT wasn't a bag at all. IT was really a terrifying halloween mask.
Grand report. halloween?
exactly. King Williams said her husband worried to conceal himself when he shot mark.
And you can imagine the tear that was going to mark as when you recognize and heard the box.
SHE also told Jerry that eric had a hit list with .
more intended victims.
including a judge whom eric wanted to kill in a special way with a special weapon. That's correct.
tim Williams said.
He also brew up a concoction just for the judge. You may remember there was home made nepal and pickle jars inside the store unit.
I guess to drive in an extra kind of f you is gonna borrow a hole in his stomach and poor dial.
It's one thing to say, well, eric Williams did this fine, but that his wife was along for the ride.
You just can't make this stuff up. You would think this was a hollywood movie, but these people are living everyday together and and talking about murdering people.
The defense countered by calling dozens of character witnesses from Williams scout master man to his high school friend. SHE was very respect. I never said mean word, never prostrated, never expressed anger. And former colleagues, very friendly, I mean approach, able, along with all of us. But the jars works.
Wade warned cod to Carry out the sense of that.
He was sentenced to die by lethal injection. He's appealing his conviction given the death penalty decision, prosecutors decided not to try him further murder of mark I or mike milland. Williams pleaded not guilty to both. Now, Christina, her victim impact statement, would finally get her chance to vent her feelings as he turned to her parents killer.
Pretty much anything up to say is key regen. So that was pretty much only thing I could think of to say to him.
Mark is longer. Friend Marcus bush believes Williams could still be dangerous even on death row.
Eric Williams is a master manipulator. He is a very intelligent human being, and he's a very deadly profession killer. I think he's going be a threat to the prison guards, and I think he can be a threat to anybody else in prison.
You're making him sound like animal lector.
This is a man who till three people in cold blood, simply because they prosecuted him for stealing computer monitors.
Kim Williams pleaded guilty to the murder of mark I. He was sentenced to forty years in prison, avoiding the death penalty. What is IT that you? But now kim is telling a whole new story. Did he threaten you?
Yes, he did. He said that if I did anything, or try to move away, or or saying anything, anybody, he would kill me and he would kill my family.
Eight years into kim Williams forty year sentence, we traveled to texas and met with her in prison for her first ever T V. interview. why? Why sit down now?
Because I think it's probably time to go ahead and tell my side of the story.
Kim is now divorced from eric, and though he can fast and testified about her involvement in the murder, SHE knows that he was forced to participate out of fear. SHE blames health issues for her dependence on eric.
I was broken. I had no confidence. I felt like I needed to stay with him to take care of me, and a lot of that with his mind manipulation.
You know, you're sick. You're always going to be on this medication. You need me can.
SHE was on strong now codex to help with an ottawa mune disease, and IT affected her judgment. What has that done for you being off of all those drugs?
It's made me more clear headed. My mind was very cloudy back then and I couldn't think straight, and I was pretty much a zome.
Some people felt that your testimony, even after the drugs had worn off, that your testimony was cold, that you showed little remorse, yeah, for what had happened.
The prosecution, the turney told me not to cry, but I did cry. I did cry.
The prosecutors told us they said no such thing. And kim was not seen crying on the witness stand when eric first started talking about killing mark asti in my Michelle. Did you think he was serious?
No, I didn't. To me, I was just talking, blowing off steam. You know, I didn't take IT seriously.
Why would I? So when did he start to go from? Okay, he's just blow enough steam to.
This is real when he started purchasing cars, when he started, uh, pulling out weapons.
Did you not feel like maybe you should go talk to someone and say i'm really scared here that my .
husband scared and I wanted to talk to someone, but I was afraid, and he was following me everywhere. Every time I would leave the house, he would follow me or go with me. Did he threaten you? Yes, he did. What did he? He said that if I did anything or tried to move away or or say anything, anybody, he would kill me and he would kill my family.
According to prosecutors, kim never told the enforcement that SHE participated out of fear. yes. And what about all those damming things can set on the stand under oath, like what SHE and eric ted, following the iceland murder?
We are celebrating mistakes.
That's correct. That was something taken out of context. My family and I always girl stakes on easter weekend that was planned weeks ahead before this.
So you're saying the stakes were not part of the mood. How could you even celebrate the after that weekend?
I sick, but he did. And my family had not, you know, they had no idea what was going to.
You said you were a willing purchase pant in these murder. You helps scout up the murder locations you wrote in the getaway car. Yeah.
I went with him because I was afraid that if I didn't, he would hurt me or my family.
But at the same time, you said you were both excited, happy after these murders took place.
Well, I wasn't, but he was.
But you said that, know, you know.
I know what I said and that was a mistake, and that's not true because I look with that every day.
Would you say though, now maybe that this is sort of revisions of history, that you're now that your head is clear and you know your your sort of changing what happened back then?
No, i'm not changing anything. I'm not changing anything back then. The drone and the excitement was more him and IT wouldn't me, but I was afraid.
What do you say to anyone who says SHE is evil? SHE participated in this. He could have told someone SHE could have saved these people's lives.
What can you say? I can change people's opinions like that. I'm not a fighter. And, you know, people are going to see me that way because I was with him. And that's what i'm trying to change.
We wanted to ask eric about his x wife's claims, but he denied our request for an interview. In twenty nineteen, he talked to N B C. Stefanie gosch for the oxygen series killer motive, and at that time he maintained he had nothing to do with the three murder and seemed to suggest tim with the killer.
Let's talk at the hit list. Alright, you know.
who had a hit list?
Q km. SHE testified to about that. I never had one.
So how would you be in a position .
to be aware of, for instance, where the murder weapon wants and where that mask was?
I have no idea that something like that, god.
that sounds like you're telling me, erg, that your wife, no x wife, murder markee in thee.
I was, I don't know that, but SHE expect that that's the case. I know he had a lot more to do with that. Then SHE has told .
anyone kim acknowledges that he had what he called kim kick us list, but says IT wasn't a hit list. SHE says IT was a list of names from an online facebook game. As for the other claims erik made in his interview, I mean, given the evidence that we have, IT does seem pretty far fetched, but it's his story. His story is that you did this.
No, well, he's delusional because I didn't work with these people. I didn't have the fuel with them. I'm not a shooter.
I'm not a even a good shot. He's trying to get off the death row, you know? So he's going to say anything. He just needs to take the responsibility of what he did.
What would you say to the house in the colon families?
I am so sorry that I didn't fight IT. I am so sorry that I didn't fight him to stop him. I am so sorry.
Santhi mell's daughter Christina has little sympathy for him.
He didn't pull the trigger. But if you help your husband pick out of its to murder people and to drive the cars.
that's pretty .
agreeable in itself. The fact that you are being complicit .
in this kind of role.
I'll never forget michan, sino or mark. Will you ever be over there? I'm not over IT.
I never, I know. I never will be. I don't think any of us will be .
ever but as tragic as this all was, believe IT or not, something good came out of IT during the long ordeal. Christina and that officer from dale's C. J.
Thomlinson fell in love. Their families have been great friends for a long time. Since mcclean had always tried to play matchmaker.
a pretty much told me that that was gonna happen, and he was right. SHE got me.
I can only imagine how happy your mom would be if she's looking down that you two are together.
I can even imagine he would be just doing some sort of weird dance that I told you so, and i'm sure she's thrown and you know, we got married on her birthday so that would have met her estates.
Christine and C, J. Are now parents to two daughters who sadly will never get a chance to meet their grandparents, but the loving memories of synthia and mike milland are still very much alive in their family.
I hope to pass on what I have taken from them to right or N.
That's all for this edition of dateline. I hope you'll join me in my colleagues savana gothic and hold copy as we shine a light on some of the people who inspire us most on our inspiring amErica special. Tomorrow at eight seven central i'm letter halt for all of us at nbc news.
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