Original subtitles

The following program documents a real homicide case, the investigation, the

pursuit of justice, and the lasting impact on the loved ones left behind.

Are the kids in the house?

You got a kid right there.

They're in the house.

You got another one in here.

Another person? Yes.

It felt like I was in a horrible nightmare.

I ran out. I couldn't see. I touched him, and he's cold.

My gut said, get out of here.

The suspect was prepared to do what they had to, and they were going to kill

anybody in their way.

For those most affected by a homicide... They were good men.

It doesn't make sense.

The first 48 is just the beginning.

We believe that the victims knew who the killers were.

Right there, creeping across.

We had the killer on camera.

He is a man on a mission.

Why would his friend kill Jarvis?

It was impossible.

Impossible.

She clearly stated that it was a female voice.

Why did you tell the 911 operator that you heard things?

I needed to convince the jury that the ex -girlfriend had nothing to do with

this murder.

This is the story of the fight for justice.

It just takes one person to not believe in the case, and there would be no

conviction. In the weeks, months, and years...

After the first 48.

I was in a homicide about two and a half years.

If you give me something, I won't put it down until it's done.

So I love being a detective.

You get a case and you take that drive and you want to solve it. You want to

know why a crime happened.

What's up?

So supposedly the two victims in here are brothers.

Okay.

The victim's mom was here when we got here. She was in the driveway.

It's terrible.

One of our victims is on the couch and then in the back bedroom on the right.

Okay.

Appreciate it.

When I walked into the house, the first victim was on the couch.

He was still wrapped up in his sleeping bag.

You could clearly see he had one gunshot wound to the top of his head.

I'm going to say this is the younger guy. Yeah, which is Christopher.

21 -year -old Christopher Smith, known as CJ, was a high school graduate and

youngest of six.

Hit that like button, that subscribe button.

He enjoyed vlogging with his girlfriend on social media and had plans to go to

film school.

It looks like he could have been sleeping.

I mean, it was like they just came in and just went.

He was just laid out and you see a gunshot wound to his head. I mean, that

straight up looks like an execution.

Limber and I have worked several homicides together.

He's not the type that's going to just give up and quit if something's too

And I personally enjoy being that person that is going to keep going and going,

putting in the time and effort to solve the crime.

I'm assuming that's Darius?

Yeah.

28 -year -old Darius Miles Jr.

was CJ's older brother.

He worked as a truck driver and had a side job fixing cars.

He leaves behind children.

Darius was shot four times in his arm, leg, chest, and head.

The wounds can tell you things.

For Darius, the wounds were consistent with him being awake.

It appeared that when whoever came into that doorway, Darius put his hand up and

he received several rounds through the hand and striking him in the chest and

the head and ending his life.

I can't imagine what it was like for Darius in his final moments when you see

someone at your door and they just start shooting at you and there's nothing you

can do.

We have projectile over here and facings.

One here in this basket, one here in this basket.

The team finds only three .40 caliber casings in the bedroom.

There's got to be more casings.

That is extremely odd.

I thought whoever killed the victim picked the shell casings up because they

don't want to be caught.

He might have been the first one to take it in the head out there.

CJ on the couch was shot once.

And then he started eating around.

And Darius was shot numerous times.

The killer almost emptied an entire mag into him.

With Darius, it's personal.

I think it was isolated towards him.

It appeared that the suspect was mentally prepared to do what they had to

kill Darius.

They were going to kill anybody in their way. It's a very passionate crime.

I mean, nothing's stolen, nothing's out of place.

There was no fourth entry.

We believe that the victims knew who the killers were.

So all the next of kin's here for them?

So we needed the family's help to start looking into who may have done this.

It's cold in there. It feels like death. It's dark.

Me being the matriarch of this family, usually I'm the person that consoles.

That's the first time ever I couldn't console my children because I didn't

it.

I think I was in shock.

How could this happen to us?

The front door, everything was locked up.

That stood out to me, because in order for

the killer to come into that house, they had to know that code.

They had to have that intimate knowledge of how to get into that house.

One of the family members believed it may have been one of Darius' ex

-girlfriends.

The history of that relationship has been troubled.

When the police asked me who did I thought did this, her name was the very

name I thought of.

She came over here trying to fight him.

About a week or two earlier, there was some issues with them arguing, her

beating the door, trying to get back into the home.

We called the police.

She lied to the police and told the police he tried to fight her.

My son don't hit women.

My other son that she killed is the one that helped put her out the house.

She knew the code to the garage.

That's how she was able to get in a month ago.

And he called me last night at 9 -0 -8 and said, pray for me because I'm about

to tell her I can't support her no more.

And then she's not here.

Like, you're the only one. He got three baby mamas. All them baby mamas came

here. She's the only one not here at this crime scene.

It was leading down that road.

Maybe this ex -girlfriend was mad because of an argument.

Given the fact that Darius was shot multiple times, it could be a crime of

passion. He fit the profile for it.

We've got to go talk to her.

Trying to keep an open mind about everything, but no forced entry into the

She's the only one who has the code to the garage.

Four hours in.

Hey, how's it going?

Are you the sister?

I'm the lawyer.

If you're labeled as a person of interest in a crime and you go out and

an attorney immediately, does that make you guilty? No, it doesn't.

But the possibility was there.

When was the last time you saw Chris or Darian?

Well, he came over my house last night.

Darius' ex -girlfriend agreed to talk.

There's really no mold that any one person can fit into to commit a crime.

So you have to look at their statements.

He got there, what was it, 12 maybe?

We hung out in his car.

Went to the QT down the street.

That's right.

Candy came back to my house.

Hung out, drunk a little bit, and that was it.

Didn't leave till 3 a .m.

Whatever happened after that, I don't know.

Motive is one of the top thoughts that go through your head.

Was it an argument?

What kind of relationship did y 'all have?

I mean, we didn't have a good one.

We just argue a lot because we have a lot of differences.

And at this point in time, we're taking a little break.

There is this family.

They don't know what they're talking about, and they're upset right now.

I don't know why they would even think.

I have two kids by this man. He helps me with them.

Do you know how vital that is for a mother?

It appeared she was.

emotionally torn between being angry and being sad.

Now let's explore these explanations she provided and go from there.

The next morning.

We followed up with quick trip video surveillance footage, shows Darius

the store.

The footage from outside shows his vehicle, and it shows two people in the

Everything she told us checked out.

It can be a letdown. You know, we thought we had a good lead, but at this

you got to regroup a little bit and try and find another road to go.

Then... Hey.

Tyreen reaches out to Limber.

Okay.

I was able to get five hours of sleep, and when I woke up, plain as day,

it's like God said, where's Walter?

Tyreen noticed the victim's friend, Walter, dropped off to the face of the

planet at the time of the homicide.

All right, thank you.

Walter lived with the victims for a period of time.

So it would stand to reason he would maybe know the garage door.

Family is very important to me.

I have six of my own children. My husband has one and a stepdaughter.

We are a big family.

CJ was the baby of the family.

Very happy young man.

Very energetic, entertaining, loved music, loved dancing.

At our church, he was a praise leader for the youth.

And Darius was the glue of the family.

The one that kept everybody together.

Even there are times when he's checking on me to make sure I'm doing what I'm

supposed to be doing.

This is a book of text messages that me and Darius shared.

At any given time, he'll be texting me, hey, good morning, let me know when

you're awake, or good morning, love you, mom.

Darius took pride in being the older brother for CJ.

CJ, he wanted to be just like Darius.

I mean, if you look at all their photos together, that's exactly what they did

all the time.

was embraced.

Big brother, little brother.

They were good men.

They were workers.

They loved family. They loved God.

And to have their life cut short just because, just because,

it doesn't make sense.

At that time, I began to question God.

I couldn't sleep.

Every time I would try to attempt to close my eyes, I saw my son laying

there murdered.

And my mind just began to play out what may have happened that night.

His last name was Walter Hill.

We knew that the other doors were locked, so if someone knew the key code

garage, they would be on the list of people to call.

He has a car.

Let's see what we get.

I was able to run the license plate of his Jetta through the Flock data system,

which is a license plate recognition software.

Yeah, that's Walter's car.

He was captured on the interstate camera, license plate reader.

Going towards Alabama.

Traveling out of the state of Georgia within a few hours of this murder.

Our radar is kind of, you know, dinging at us.

At that point, Walter became a person of interest.

Why would you leave that quickly?

28 -year -old Walter Hill played varsity football in high school before becoming

a security guard.

He and his high school girlfriend.

Have three children.

He has no prior convictions.

Please leave your message for... Walt.

Hey, uh, Walt.

Walter was nowhere to be found.

This was someone close to us.

A month prior to the tragedy, Walter and his family was here at my home, playing

spades at my kitchen table and watching the Super Bowl.

Where could this young man be all of a sudden?

With the first 48 winding down.

If you're looking at the victim's house, this is the house to the right.

We got video from the surrounding houses of the homicide scene.

Their front door and then their garage is right here.

Creeping across.

It looks like a ghost is going through the screen.

Light comes on.

That's a 339.

Motion light.

20 minutes after the visitor first appears.

Right there.

On the car.

That's right about 4 a .m.

We knew that we had the killer on camera.

Moments later.

Right here is the car.

Leaving right after the suspect is seen running away from the house.

That's our suspect vehicle.

Let me zoom in a little bit.

Two days into the investigation.

Another house up the street from Darius and CJ had a camera that was in color.

We were able to see a dark blue color car.

Walter's car on the blog is dark blue.

Everything right now is pointing towards Walter.

But Walter was good friends with Darius.

We just don't know the motive.

It was a brutal crime, and it just made the question of why stick out more than

any other case.

One week later.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Take care.

I was talking to Darius's mom.

I said, if Walter may be behind all this.

What do you think his motive would be? And without skipping a beat, she goes,

jealousy.

Walter was displaced.

He had been with his girlfriend for over 13 years, the mother of his children.

They had broken up.

She goes, every time he would come over, he would say, I wish I had what you

had. I wish I had the family you had, the money, the friends.

His demeanor was different.

He was very disrespectful.

Come on, man.

It's not jealousy. You don't smoke two guys over jealousy.

I've never had a case where somebody murdered two of their best friends out

just sheer jealousy.

9 days after the double homicide.

Hello, this is Walter Healy. You gave me a call.

When Walter called me back, I was actually shocked.

First of all, do you know why I'm calling?

It was hopeful that he'll be forthcoming with us.

All right, so what were you doing, like, the day, I guess the weekend of the

homicide, on the 28th?

Yeah, I was working security.

Marietta and a place called, I believe. Walter gives the name of a business, an

hour's drive from Darius and CJ's home.

It was from 7 to 7, 7 a .m., 7 p .m.

Okay, and then after that, did you go anywhere?

I went to a hotel.

Okay, so Saturday night after you get off work, did you go straight to your

hotel?

Actually, yeah. I actually went straight to the hotel that night.

Okay.

Do you remember what time you got up Sunday morning?

It was around 5 .30.

Do you carry anything?

No, not at the moment.

The gun I actually had got thrown back in the center.

What kind of gun was it?

He just gave me the caliber that was used to murder the two victims.

I mean, you couldn't get in any better than that. A little suspicious.

So, I mean, what do you think happened?

All right,

I appreciate it, man. You have a good night, okay? All right, you too. All

right, bye.

Him calling me back opened this case up dramatically.

Anytime that suspect gives you a statement, we're always happy because

it's wrong information, at least it's information that we can show is not

correct.

We just picked up video from the night's end where Walter was staying.

There's Walter.

The time on the video right now is 4 .20.

And 4 .20 is pretty consistent with the time that he would have left the

homicide scene.

Walter's going to his room.

Six minutes have elapsed. There he goes with the tote.

He told us that he didn't leave that night.

427. Looks like he's leaving in a hurry to get out of there.

But right after the homicide, he grabs two totes, throws them in the car, takes

off.

At 431, he's gone.

He's on the highway heading out west.

Walter made the fatal error of telling us where he was staying and saying that

he never left.

The video that we got doesn't corroborate his statement.

But we've got to have some more information that physically puts Walter

scene.

Your cell phone is a wealth of knowledge. We can serve a search warrant

out where that phone may have been.

One month later.

So the victim's house is right here.

Cell tower is right here.

Walter's records come in.

You can see his movements going towards the victim's house, around the victim's

house, and he goes all the way back to the night's end at the same time that I

have video of him taking all his stuff.

And he's on his way out of Georgia.

Yeah.

At that point, Walter was our killer.

Cell phone records were key.

And given the totty of everything,

That gave us enough to get an arrest warrant for Walter Hill.

Two weeks into the search for Walter, U .S. Marshals locate his car, abandoned

in Texas.

I just wanted to call to let you know that we finished that vehicle that's out

here in our processing lot.

We came across a bag that contained six fired .40 caliber cartridge cases.

The same caliber as the murder weapon.

That was the best feeling. Every detective, that is what you look for.

for that physical piece of evidence to tie your suspect to the case.

I was like, no way. That can't be possible.

We were overjoyed. You know, we got him. We nailed him.

The next morning, after staking out the home of Walter's sister.

The U .S. Marshals, along with our Sheriff's Department, We're able to

track down Walter.

What's going on, Walter?

Any detective wants to get a confession.

My goal is to get him to talk, to find a motive as to why he did it. And that

would complete the story.

Honestly, I don't know what I'm here for.

So, just break it down to you. You two friends were murdered.

Okay.

Where were you March 28th?

You guys give me a question I can't recall to be honest.

There you are.

Right there. There you are.

You lied to me. You said that you never left your hotel that night.

I didn't tell you that.

Yeah, you did.

I actually went straight to the hotel that night.

Do you remember what time you got up Sunday morning?

It was around...

I mean, Walter, what happened?

I have no idea.

He didn't really give me any sense of anything.

You know, he was very cold.

You know, there was the shell of a person, but there was nothing inside.

So when he didn't change his demeanor, then we changed tactics.

Were you jealous of his wife?

He had everything you didn't.

He had a house.

He had a job.

He had friends.

He took care of his kids. He had an income.

And what did you have?

You had nothing.

You had your three kids, and she left your ass in October.

They wanted to break Walter down and try and hit a nerve somewhere to get Walter

to open up.

But he would not break.

He had no emotion. You know, he kind of gave that, I'm not jealous of them.

I'm better than them.

Sure.

You're being charged with the murder of Darius, Miles, and Chris Smith.

It was definitely a sense of relief.

In court?

It was like I finally could breathe, like I had been suffocating.

At that point, we handed over to DA's office, and then you put your faith in

attorney who's going to prosecute it.

When I initially reviewed the case, I felt confident that Walter Hill

did commit these murders.

So we got the shadowy figure going into the house. The physical and forensic

evidence was extremely strong.

Started to flee his hotel around 4 .20. They found shell casings in his car.

But the biggest missing piece of the puzzle.

was going to be explaining to the jury why Walter committed the murders.

Not having a strong motive was going to cast doubt on everything else that we

have. It just takes one person to not believe in the case, and we would have a

hung jury.

Three years after the murders of C .J. Smith and Darius Miles.

The trial of Walter Hill begins.

We had to convince the jury that even if we don't know why Walter went in

there to kill Darius, Walter was capable of going in there and killing Darius.

Does the defense wish to make an opening?

Why do you judge?

But the defense does not have to prove anything.

And a good way to discredit the state's case is to present a case.

That's more believable to the jury.

Why would Walter, his friend, kill Darius?

For three years, I have known it was impossible,

impossible for Walter to have done it because there is a phone call.

We were a little surprised by the defense's opening statement.

This is at 441.

The day the bodies were discovered, there was a 911 call made by one of

Darius's sisters.

He clearly

stated that it was a female voice and not a male's voice.

It did kind of raise some red flags for me.

It didn't happen the way they said.

He was trying to put the blame on one of Daria's ex -girlfriends and take the

blame off of Walter Hill.

And the 911 call supports that theory that Daria's ex -girlfriend was involved

in the murder.

It's the story that's really familiar with us, a scorned ex -lover, and that's

certainly a better explanation of why.

I needed to convince the jury that the ex -girlfriend had nothing to do with

this murder.

We called Darius' sister to the stand.

The jury needed to hear from her mouth why she made the call to 911.

My sister called me. She said, something's wrong.

Get the police over there and don't ask no questions. So I hung up the phone and

I called 911.

I told her I was on the phone with my brothers.

But she had not talked to Darius on the phone.

Darius' phone had not made any connection after midnight on the date in

question.

Why did you tell the 911 operator that you heard things

and they wouldn't call back and they wouldn't answer the phone? Because the

that my sister called me, crying and frantic, I knew something was wrong. So

trying to... Just get somebody out there now, right now.

She made up what she said on the 911 call. It's the first thing that popped

her mind to get the police to their house.

It's not good to lie to 911, but I thought the jury would be able to

I mean, understand, you know, she's concerned. She has not heard from her

brothers. But it did kind of make me think, is she really telling the truth?

In the beginning, I thought the defense was doing a little better.

You never told the police it was Walter.

If the jury believes she's coming in now changing her story, then we're in

trouble. We thought at the beginning that it could have been her.

I needed to convince the jury.

The only choice we had was to call the ex -girlfriend to testify.

What was your hope with your relationship with Daria at that point?

were talking about us and fixing

our relationship.

I really felt sad for her. You know, she has children with him.

And when she could prove where she was at, that's when I started thinking,

no, it was not her. I don't think she had anything to do with it.

But if someone else was involved, who was that person?

They have to prove who actually committed the crime.

At this point in the trial, we still had a circumstantial case.

I was very nervous about the defense attorney passing a doubt, and that's

really had to go into my face and say, but God, you got all by yourself.

I needed to present direct evidence that he actually pulled the trigger.

So there was a lot riding on the ballistics experts.

Did you perform that microscopic examination on each one of these

showcases or just some of them?

On all of them. We would not be able to.

convict Walter without comparing the shell casings found in his car to the

casings that were located at the scene.

There is a very small hairline. You can see this little black line that's

running from the top to the bottom here. And you'll see this is the firing pin

impression.

Her testimony made a lot of sense to show how the shell casings match up.

Were there any casings that you thought didn't come from the same gun?

No, they were all fired from the same firearm.

That puts the gun in Walter's hand.

But the defense tried to muddy the waters.

There are no universal standards in what you're doing.

It is a subjective fight.

I think he was trying to make us understand she could be wrong. Like,

human. We make mistakes.

If the defense can convince the jury that this is just the examiner's

and they shouldn't listen to it, then we lose that ballistics evidence.

And without it, there would be no conviction.

Three years after the arrest of Walter Hill.

I think that was about the only honest...

part in this interview besides his name.

If you brought somebody into an interview room and they didn't do

they would be legitimately pissed.

He was just extremely calm.

He just

has a type of aura around him that's no emotion, no remorse.

You owe it to his family to at least explain it.

Dude, he was your best friend.

I wanted to impress on the jury that even though there was no motive,

Walter still killed them.

In that interview, he revealed that he was a cold person that was capable of

committing these murders.

The closing argument is probably the most important part of the trial.

All the police believe it's Walter.

And the problem is they then shut down the investigation.

And instead of investigating a massacre, they investigate Walter.

The defense argued that there's reasonable doubt.

We didn't have a good, believable reason why.

Walter would want to go in and do this terrible thing.

Fortunately,

we had his cell tower locations. So let's talk about what Walter was doing

night.

During that time when he was driving around, I think he probably just had a

just going on in his head.

This is someone that was in a bad place.

He is at a crisis point where he's going to do something terrible.

The street where Darius and CJ lived.

The cell phone evidence that placed his phone in the area was very strong.

From this point on, he is a man on a mission.

There is no more confusion.

There is no more doubt.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, I am now going to read the jury charges, the

law that applies to this case.

So at this point, the jury will begin their deliberations, and hopefully

will go quickly.

Waiting for a verdict to come back, tensions are always high.

The risk was huge because all it needed was one juror to feel different.

I did not want a hung juror. I did not want to go through this again.

Is my understanding you have a verdict?

Mr. Hill, will you please rise?

Count one, malice murder.

We, the jury, found the defendant guilty.

Count two, malice murder. Walter was found guilty on all counts in the

indictment. The prosecutors did a really great job of proving that he was there

at that time.

When the judge read the verdict... I was looking right at Walter Hill. He was

still the same. There was no emotion at all.

This is Ms. Tyree Brown.

We're here to support the state so that another family don't have to be going

through this believing that they're amongst a friend and then find out it's

wolf.

When I'm at my lowest, I call for my grandkids to come over.

They bring their innocence, and they bring their love, and it strengthens me.

Give a hug!

With Terri's ex -girlfriend, it made me look at

my own flaws and my own self.

Once I got in her presence, I knew that she had nothing to do with it. Hi!

And I am very thankful for the new relationship that she and I have now.

With the grandchildren, we do Sunday school whenever they're here.

Hey, y 'all.

Today we're going to talk about walking in love.

You walk in love by not fighting, by not hating.

Love is just so much easier to walk in. It's light.

You hate, that means you got to be all puffed up.

You got to remember it.

That's too heavy.

Nya, you had to walk in love when it was time to do your victim statement,

right?

Because of what Walter did to our family.

I had to forgive him because even though it's not right, I still can't have hate

in my heart.

Told him I wasn't mad, but I wouldn't have my dad drop me down the aisle.

Or walk me to prom or see me have kids.

Things that a dad's supposed to help me with.

You still feel the emptiness of C .J. and Darius not being.

But looking into the eyes of Darius' children, he's here.

And C .J.'s praise and worship doesn't stop. It lives on through his nieces and

nephews.

Our future is bright.

As long as they know how to walk in love, they'll be okay.