Original subtitles

From the outside,

it looks like a picture-perfect match.

Charla was a good mother.

Darren was a great father to all the kids.

But soon, that picture-perfect marriage falls apart.

Darren said, "she doesn't want to just divorce me.

She wants to destroy me."

First, the divorce turns ugly.

When things went wrong with her and Darren,

she just turned vicious.

Then it turns downright deadly.

She was very afraid because he would say,

"well, O.J. Got away with it, and so will I."

As the door opened, I could see what appeared to be

a large pool of blood.

These images -- a family Christmas,

a typical divorce case --

have never been seen in public until now.

Hi!

May 1994.

27-year-old charla sampsel

is giving a nutritional workshop.

She was a course leader for, like, over 200 people

and she would coach them.

She had an extraordinary ability to love people

and to care about people

and she was passionate about the world.

She was on fire.

Shh!

No talking.

Charla is young, beautiful, and successful.

The only thing missing is love.

All that changes when she meets a businessman

from Reno, Nevada -- Darren mack.

One night, there was a big dinner for

the seminar leaders and the course leaders,

and she saw Darren.

Darren mack.

He's young, he has money, and he's movie-star handsome.

They were two very, very strong,

very charismatic people,

and when they were in the room together,

you could just tell there was something about

the two of them together.

They had tremendous chemistry.

It was obvious they were drawn to each other.

That night, they hit it off

and they started dating pretty quickly.

If there's such a thing

as love at first sight, this is it.

I have never seen Darren quite so taken

by a woman in my life.

He was really smitten.

Darren invited her to come and live in Reno.

Darren is the millionaire owner of one o

most successful businesses, palace jewelry & loan.

And that's why we've been here for 40 years,

and if you don't believe US, just ask anybody

who's done business with US.

Darren's family had been established

in Reno for many years.

Everyone knew him, everyone loved his family.

He was a -- a very prominent member of the community.

And when charla starts w

she and Darren become a dream couple at the head

of this million-dollar business.

Darren and charla married in

they'd known each other for about a year.

It was an instant family when she married Darren.

His two children from his previous marriage

were also in her immediate family now.

One, two, three.

My god.

Darren and charla bought a big home,

big beautiful mansion-type home in franktown.

Darren, is that our garden?

That is a beautiful garden.

Have you seen it? Look at the size of it.

It's huge.

My god. I'm so happy.

You like it? Yeah, I love it.

They were by all accounts a very attractive couple.

They had this tremendous chemistry together.

They were very happy at the outset.

They seemed to be a match made in heaven.

Got flowers on it. Hi.

Jingle bells, jingle bells

jingle all the way what fun...

It's Christmas 2001,

and by now, Darren and charla have a daughter.

Jingle bells, jingle bells

jingle all the way

what fun it is to ride

in a one-horse open sleigh, hey!

They had this amazing little girl.

Charla was a good mother.

Darren was a great father to all the kids.

With little strips of paper.

My toy.

Yay!

Charla was delighted by motherhood.

She loved it.

She loved making every day great.

She just wanted to be Darren's dream girl.

She wanted him to think

she was the greatest mother in the world

and she just really took on the role of mother

and wife in a very serious way.

It's a picture-perfect family,

the American dream come to life.

Darren has another dream.

In the early 2000s, around 2001,

Darren mack became very active in the local bodybuilding scene.

How 'bout some squats? You should show me.

Do some squats. You should show me.

Competition. You know. There it is.

He used to get up around 4:00 in the morning

and go out to his gym, come in, shower,

have beautiful clothes -- clothing on,

and, you know, you had to admire someone

with that kind of discipline.

That's enough of me now. Let's -- let's video you.

Charla was very supportive.

He was particular about the way he ate

so that he could keep his body fat down,

so she would cook for him special diets.

Darren works out, eats right,

and eventually it all pays off.

But soon, this becomes a night to remember

for very different reasons.

Darren.

What's wrong? Darren.

I'm just... tired. Okay. Sit -- sit up.

Yeah.

Charla and he were in Las Vegas at a show,

and it happened so suddenly.

He said he had a headache

and he wanted to go lay down.

She recognized that he was very ill

and he didn't really want to wake up.

And she said, "we need to get you to the hospital."

Okay. Okay, okay. Help! Help me! Help!

She was yelling, you know,

"this man needs help. He's dying."

You need to help my husband. God! Darren?

The doctor in the E.R.

He recognized it as a bacterial meningitis.

Are you okay?

And then by that time, Darren went into a coma.

Let's get you some help. Nurse?

I think I can hear a car!

I think daddy's home!

He's here now.

Come on and say, "welcome home."

Hi, guys! Hi!

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

He's smiles. Say hello"to daddy.

Hey. How are you doin'? I missed you.

You guys, thank you so much.

Had it not been for charla,

she literally saved his life.

You should just stay at home.

Darren and charla seem to be the perfect team.

But there's another part of Darren and charla's marriage

that isn't exactly suitable for home video,

at least not the kind of video you can play for the kids.

Darren and charla are swingers.

They would go to these clubs

some relationships with other couples.

In public, they're a picture of perfection.

In private, they share a taste for taboo.

And soon, the public and the private

will collide in an explosive way that no one could've predicted.

Christmas morning, 2002.

Charla and Darren mack have now been married for seven years.

All along, the two of them have been swingers.

But now, charla wants to get out of that lifestyle

and have a more traditional marriage.

Okay.

Ooh. I like that.

Look. Who is this?

Darren wanted to be Hugh Hefner

and he wanted the "girls next door"

kind of experience,

and charla was just completely bored with it

and she just wanted to be normal.

It sparkles like your Princess dress.

She didn't want to play anymore. She wanted

she wanted to bake cookies and go to birthday parties

and help with homework and volunteer in the classroom

and she wanted that part of her life to be over.

Darren keeps pressing for a return

to the wild open marriage with no luck.

Despite her smiles for the camera,

charla's had enough of Darren's fantasies,

and soon things turn ugly.

I am trying to stop you from screwing this up.

You just keep your opinions out of the business.

They fight at home and in public at the jewelry store they own.

I am here every morning and you're never here.

Marilee, can you come here for a second?

Do you know what? Come, come, come.

Why do I have to put up with this every day?

You don't need marilee. Just take her away, please.

My god, Darren. Do me a favor.

No. Actually, I won't. Why'd you even --

they were both very dominant

and they had their arguments

and sometimes it would be

in the store in front of everybody.

You are an absolute moron, you really are.

She's still here. One time, they called me

in the office to have their argument

with me as a referee.

Darren, you are pathetic!

I just listened

and I watched her reduce him to tears.

But Darren, this is where we live.

Fighting and eventually hate

overtakes love in the mack household.

I'm fed up with you. In the summer of 2004,

it was very apparent that the marriage

was coming to an end.

Down like -- like --

charla stayed in the main house.

Darren rented a condominium in south Reno.

They were both clear there was no coming back

from this separation.

Darren moves to the upmarket

gated community of Fleur de lis...

Welcome to freedom, my friend.

And is soon joined by an old friend...

Sweet. Dan Osborne.

Dan has moved back to Reno after his own divorce.

Um, which room can I take?

Dan was making a new start in life.

He had just recently moved back to Reno.

And so Dan was spending a lot of time there

at the condominium with Darren in the first days

after Darren had left the family home.

What a mess, man.

And rather than enjoying h

Darren mack is starting to regret the damage

he's caused to his marriage.

You could see he was unhappy.

You know, he was pretty lost without his home life.

Tough, man. Yeah.

Nice to be home?

Yeah.

Okay. All right.

On January 11, 2005, charla comes home

and finds that her house has been broken into.

Hello? Is somebody here?

Is somebody there?

Hello?

Hello, is somebody there?

Hey. Let's just go and see what's in here.

A quick search of the house makes it clear

this was no burglary.

It's also clear from what was taken

it was Darren.

He took all of the gym equipment,

even her treadmill.

You know, he just ransacked the house.

What's happened, mommy?

Daddy's made a mess.

Cleared out a bunch of his stuff that she h

and it really pushed things along in a bad direction.

Darren, are you serious? You broke into my house?

Why do you always gotta be so melodramatic?

I wanted my things. That's -- that's all I wanted.

When things went wrong wi

she just turned vicious.

Because it was mine. I paid for everything.

You are not allowed to come round my house!

Whatcha going to do, shoot me?

Yeah!

In February 2005, charla files for divorce.

They were both clear that this was not going to work

and they were getting a divorce

and I think she just didn't want to wait anymore.

Charla throws herself back into volunteering

as a nutritional course leader.

But she has no income and must rely on Darren.

It was very painful for her to get divorced

because she came from a broken home with me.

She always wanted to have a solid family for her children.

And that she was going to be a divorced woman

and have the children having to go back

and forth to two different households,

it just devastated her.

Darren knows the divorce is

no, I don't like it.

She's acting real strange, you know?

Divorces are stressful, you know?

She's not going to be at her most rational.

He was just sure that she was going to do something.

It had just gotten just all twisted

and out of control and convoluted.

And he starts to fear that she is going to

terminate this marriage

in a far-more sudden and devastating way.

Darren had told me, you know, that, "she's going to kill

she just wanted revenge in a huge way.

She had threatened him many times

and she said she was going to hire somebody to do it.

Hey, do you want something?

Hey.

You can have a dominant personality,

you can have a strong personality

and you can be a great mom.

Doesn't mean you're a good person,

and she just wasn't a good person.

Almost ten years into their marriage,

divorce proceedings begin for Darren and charla mack.

In the first round of negotiations,

Darren is ordered to pay charla $10,000 a month.

In addition, he was responsible for --

for paying all expenses associated

with that palatial home in washoe valley.

Darren was incensed.

He was irate.

At first, Darren refuses

to pay charla the full allowance.

Then he declares bankruptcy.

But is he really underwater financially,

or is the bankruptcy filing a dodge

to get him off the hook for child support?

Was he out of money?

It didn't appear that way.

Darren had money to do what he wanted

but there wasn't money for heat in the house.

That was a big issue.

With no other income,

charla struggles to pay the bills.

Her electricity is cut off.

Charla's income, according to court documents, was zero.

She was not working.

This is fun? It's like camping, isn't it?

It's like being in the woods like a camp?

She played a game.

They sat by the fire all night and she said, "we're camping.

Isn't this fun?" But it would --

the house was cold.

Their divorce is quickly

November 15, 2005, washoe county court.

Darren and charla appear before judge Chuck weller.

Charla's lawyers want to know

where the money is.

Of course.

Judge weller responded by essentially

throwing the book at him and saying,

"you will pay this or you will go to jail."

The judge has ruled.

Darren mack owes charla and their daughter

thousands of dollars in back payments

and he has to start coming up with $10,000 a month.

At the defense table, mack seethes,

but paying up is better than a term in the county jail.

While mack looks for a way to come up with all that money,

charla looks for new boyfriends.

She asked if I wanted to go out and I said yeah.

Yeah. It was, um...

We went to a restaurant.

And it was a quiet, little restaurant.

Um, I've never been to it.

My god. It was so --

we were probably 15 minutes into just sitting there

and Darren walked in and she looked up and said,

"my god. There's my husband."

I'm asking her, "w-- what do you mean,

that's your husband?"

And she said, "well, I'm going through this divorce."

So, no, I'm okay. I'm fine. I'm okay.

And just the look on his face bothered me.

I had a very strange feeling.

I just felt it was very strange

that that happened at that restaurant at that time.

It's not -- it wasn't a popular restaurant at all.

Charla tells friends

that Darren's been following her.

He just was acting oddly, in her estimation.

She feared for her life.

All their arguments and anger,

their disputes over money,

come to a head three days after Thanksgiving.

Hey! Don't walk away from me.

Darren, I don't want to talk to you.

Just give me something here.

Just give me something.

Darren, talk to my -- come on!

Get off me! Talk to my lawyer.

Darren!

Get off! Darren!

Then he got enraged and just started choking her

right there in the parking lot.

Help me, someone!

Shut up. Shut your face.

I said to her, "you should go to the police."

But she said she didn't want him to

lose his truck license because then he wouldn't

be able to help support the family.

Plus she didn't want the children to be scarred.

When she started telling me

there was a part of me that, you know,

didn't want to be involved.

But I could just see it in her eyes

that she was in a lot of pain.

I wasn't just going to run away from it.

It's Darren. He's -- he's impossible.

I can't get away from him.

He scares me, Mark.

I -- I don't know what he could do.

She felt he was unbalanced

and she was very afraid, because he would say,

"O.J. Got away with it and so will I."

She was sure he would kill her.

It's almost 18 months into Darren

and charla mack's divorce, and they are back

in judge weller's court to hear the final verdict.

This couple who ten years before had been so happy together,

they couldn't see eye-to-eye on anything.

Especially money.

The longer he talks, the

But these allegations don't convince judge weller

and he makes a final ruling -- Darren must pay every penny.

And there's one more issue

that's much more important than money.

Judge weller was, I think,

of being a family court judge.

You see families that are falling apart.

You see families that are at each others' throats.

It's a difficult job.

It's not a job that everyone can do.

Charla wants custody, but to get it,

she must reveal her address.

Get off!

Help me, someone!

And she's too scared to do that.

Charla was afraid of what was going to happen.

Judge weller tables the custody issue,

at least for now.

Three days later, Darren appears on a web TV show

and takes on judge weller by name.

It sounds almost like you --

you're trying to tell a story about how martians have landed

because it sounds so unbelievable

unless you've actually been in it

or been around his courtroom.

But of -- in -- if you check on the Internet,

there's many, many, many like myself

that have been -- fallen prey to his tyranny

and his abuse in his courtroom,

and what people count on, these people that do this --

and I've found out that it's not, you know --

it's not uncommon throughout the United States.

This is not isolated.

Just Chuck weller has kind of taken the lead in it

and is probably the most talked-about judge

on the Internet.

There was a lot at stake for him --

his family, his money, his future.

Everything was coming to a head for him at this point.

This'll probably cost me my daughter, coming forward.

It'll probably cost me jail time.

It'll probably cost me --

I can't even speak of what the cost will be

from the retaliation that I'll get from the court system of --

of Chuck weller.

But what happens next is truly chilling.

Darren's response to this shocking suggestion?

For once, he says nothing.

As the mack divorce plays out, Reno police suddenly have

something much worse to contend with.

I was at my desk on June 12, 2006,

when I heard our dispatch broadcast

that there'd been a shooting in downtown Reno.

A victim has been shot while in his office

in a Reno city building.

Hey, guys, you hearing this?

Okay, we're on it.

Detective chalmers is at the scene within minutes

and discovers the victim is someone he knows well.

It's judge weller, and he's in critical condition.

He's rushed to the hospital.

At the court house,

detective chalmers assesses the scene.

That's the shooter site, Dave.

We were able to determine a bullet

came from the parking garage

that was located across the river.

That would be indicative of a --

a rifle that had been used, and likely with optics.

Potentially somebody who had some skill in firing

from that distance.

Who opens fire on a judge

standing in his chambers from a couple of blocks away?

There was a sniper in downtown Reno

and no one knew where he was.

Police put Reno on lockdown,

fearing the sniper will strike again.

Downtown was under siege.

The SWAT team had flooded the streets.

There were armored cars everywhere.

No one knew what had happened or why.

It was an overriding feeling that someone who was

capable of doing this was capable of doing a lot.

Police search downtown Reno,

but the shooter is gone.

Two hours later, they get a lead.

I need to report something.

I'm not entirely sure what I saw, and --

it's from Darren mack's friend, Dan Osborne.

I just think something really bad's happened there.

Dan tells the police he witnessed

something strange at Darren's condo that morning

when charla came by to drop their daughter off.

Okay. Have a good weekend, okay?

Um, I -- I live with a guy called Darren mack.

Um, I was sitting at home.

I was looking after his daughter upstairs.

Dan and the little girl are upstairs when they hear

Dan's dog downstairs begin yelping frantically.

Luna's really barking.

You okay, pup?

Luna? Come here.

Dan goes downstairs, he locates the dog,

and the dog is not only barking, but he's covered with blood.

He's trying to figure out if someone has injured the dog

or where the dog became covered with blood

and what's happened downstairs.

Then, um, I --

I realized something must have happened.

Darren, are you in there?

Darren.

What the hell, man? Like, Luna's just come out.

She's just covered in... Darren!

And he takes the little girl

we drove, um, with red lights and siren

to Mr. Mack's residence.

Neither charla nor Darren

detective Jenkins began sea

where he found three droplets of blood in the driveway,

which caused US obviously great concern.

We entered the code to the garage door.

The garage door slowly began to rise.

It's June 12, 2006,

and police in Reno, Nevada, have their hands full.

Divorce-court judge Chuck weller is in critical condition

after being gunned down in his own office.

And across town, detectives are searching

Darren mack's apartment after a report of a violent fight

between Darren and his estranged wife charla.

I was looking along the floor for any evidence

that someone might be standing or --

or lying in the garage, and as I was looking in,

as the door opened, I could see what appeared

to be the body of a motionless female

at the front of one of the vehicles.

Charla mack has been stabbed to death.

I found Mrs. Mack deceased, lying in a --

a large pool of blood.

Talk to me. Darren, get off!

Listen! I don't want to talk to you!

We got a body. Backup and forensics.

Mrs. Mack had some what would normally be characterized

as defensive-type injuries on her

as well as some very gruesome,

slash marks,

deep, deep incisions to her neck and throat.

Darren! Stop it! No! God!

Stop it! No! Darren!

Stop!

Detectives search the property

and they uncover a shocking piece of evidence

that links charla's death to the shooting of judge weller.

Police officers found a list

that was later determined to have been written

in Mr. Mack's hand that appeared to have been a to-do list.

Including the list of equipment that was needed.

.243 ammo, which we would confirm

that the caliber that shot judge weller

was a .243-caliber rifle.

And then in quotations was, "end problem."

To me, the "end problem" was a clear explanation

to killing charla mack.

It was the day that the --

the earth stood still for me.

I'll never forget that as long as I live.

It was unbelievable.

Darren mack flees to Mexico,

but he isn't hard to find.

After 11 days on the run, he surrenders to police.

On October 1, 2007,

Darren mack goes on trial for the murder of his wife

and the attempted murder of judge weller.

Having now made a full recovery,

judge weller watches as his attacker stands trial.

Um, is Darren Roy mack your true name?

That is my correct name. All right.

And you've received a copy

of the second amended information,

which charges you with one count of murder

of the first degree and a count two,

attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon?

Yes, sir. All right. Thank you.

Darren mack eventually pleads guilty to both charges.

You have willfully, feloniously,

and without authority of law, um,

stabbed into the body of charla mack causing her death.

Is that correct?

It's correct.

In February of 2008,

he is sentenced to a minimum of 36 years in prison.

Darren mack now claims he plead guilty under duress

and continues to appeal his convictions.

You like those, honey? Those are awesome.

Now I can go out there and get those --

that's right.

He had everything to lose

and nothing to gain except for money.

Oatmeal cookie.

That's right up her alley.

I think the motivation was all money.

That's what they fought over.

They fought over every dime.

Mr. Mack seems, like many murderers,

to have a component of narcissism,

a component of antisocial personality disorder,

were simply he, on some level,

believes he's more important than everybody else in his life.

She had a very optimistic spirit.

She's always find the bright side,

and it's -- it's rare. It's a rare trait

and I miss it greatly.