All language subtitles for Blood.&.Money.S01E07.The.Hitmans.Tale.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

In the criminal
justice system,

detectives and prosecutors
face daunting challenges

when money
is the motive for murder.

[dramatic sting]

The new proprietor
of the lodge

was in there on the bed, dead.

Investigators
discover a culture clash

surrounding the murder

of a California
real-estate mogul.

Camp Nelson Lodge
had become a money pit.

Sucking all their finances.

We became aware
of a stranger.

What's his connection
to Bonnie Hood?

And a startling verdict
leads to a second shooting.

The number of times he got
shot--I had never seen that.

The two killings
were inexorably tied together.

As prosecutors,
we carry the heaviest burden

in the American law.

These men and women dedicate
their lives to law and order.

These are their true stories.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

[insects chirping]

[eerie music]

The call came in sometime
after 3:30 in the morning.

The caller, who identified
himself as Rudy Manuel,

said he had been shot.

[sirens wailing]

On the night
of August 19, 1990,

my pager went off--

shooting in Camp Nelson
at the lodge.

Beautiful mountain
resort for the elite.

There were no lights anywhere,

so it was darker
than the ace of spades.

I walked in.

Rudy Manuel's
laying on the floor

with a gunshot graze
across his forehead.

He was talking, and he said,
Bonnie's in there on the bed.

Bonnie Hood was the new
proprietor of the lodge.

Rudy Manuel was another
employee of the lodge.

I walked into the bedroom.

Bonnie Hood was on the bed,

and she's dead.

We transported Rudy
to the hospital.

I remember putting him
on the gurney.

After Rudy was gone,
they called the detectives.

When I got there,
the scene was still contained.

In the bedroom, Bonnie's body
was found lying on the bed--

partially one leg out of the bed,

and the other one
was on the bed still.

So it was like, maybe she was
attempting to get out of bed.

But before she was actually
able to, she was shot.

She was laying with her hands
crossed like this

and a bullet hole in her head.

Crime techs
processed the cabin

and discovered a .38 slug
lodged in the headboard,

along with a blood trail
leading away from the bedroom.

It appeared to be that Rudy
managed to crawl on the floor

into the living room
to make the 911 call.

Point of entry was determined
to be the rear door.

It was a screen that was cut,

and there was
some pry marks found.

And there was fingerprints
dusted throughout the cabin.

Other than evidence of
the blood on the bed

and on the floor and
the possible point of entry,

there wasn't much there.

In my mind, it eliminated
the possibility of a robbery.

If they was in there to rob,

they would've gotten what they
wanted first

and then killed them.

It wasn't a robbery
or a crime interrupted.

It was...

He went in there
with the intent to kill.

Eventually the body was
identified as Bonnie Hood.

Everyone knew Bonnie Hood.

She and her husband, Jim,
were from Newport Beach--

the wealthy new owners
of the Camp Nelson resort.

My husband and I, we would go
up and rent a cabin

with our kids in Camp Nelson.

It felt so personal.

It felt like such a violation
of this community.

I remember calling my husband,
and just sobbing

and saying,
somebody shot Bonnie.

Somebody shot Bonnie.

The community was in shock.

Why did it happen?

Who did it?
Are we safe?

I was sick to my stomach
and frightened.

♪ ♪

Bonnie was
from the Newport Beach area,

and she was married
to Jim Hood.

Jim and Bonnie were
like the golden couple.

They had a beautiful house
in Newport Beach.

They each had a Mercedes.

Jim was
in the developing business,

and he had a golden touch.

Nothing that he built
had any problems with it.

Jim had this business
that he was building,

and they had a lot of money.

They were so well known
in Newport Beach

and Orange County
social circles.

They had
two beautiful children.

When her kids got
a little older,

Bonnie wanted to start
a second chapter of her life.

♪ ♪

Bonnie had come
up here as a child,

and Jim and her had come
up here as a vacation.

Three years
before the shooting,

they saw the lodge was for
sale, and they bought it.

♪ ♪

Bonnie Hood came
to Camp Nelson

knowing that she wanted
to make the Camp Nelson area

a retreat for people
from a metropolitan area,

where they could come up
and live the high life,

only live it in the mountains.

♪ ♪

We weren't subject
to wanting change.

We didn't want the metropolitan
area to come up here.

We couldn't be bothered
with that.

We were country people.

Investigators questioned,

was this influx
of coastal elites

so threatening to locals
that it made Bonnie a target?

It was two completely
clashing cultures,

and Bonnie became more
and more estranged

from the Camp Nelson community.

So Bonnie and Jim--

they kind of invented
this commuter marriage.

Bonnie would be down
in Newport Beach.

She would go, like,
a Tuesday to a Thursday,

be there for the kids, homework.

And then every other weekend,

Jim would come up
with the kids.

So, when Bonnie first hired
Rudy to help at the lodge,

I think Jim was relieved.

Rudy was hired to build fences

around the lodge property.

He's building things.
He's riding the horses.

He's lugging stuff around.
He's doing all of this stuff.

And I think Jim thought,

oh, finally, there's somebody
there who is helping her

in ways that I can't.

And as Rudy became more and
more inseparable with Bonnie,

there was just obviously
something sparking

between them.

There was speculation--

if there was something going on
between Rudy and Bonnie--

but nobody could prove it.

I mean, the husband was coming
to town only on the weekends.

There may have been
different reports

from different people,
but you can't dispute

the evidence we found
at the scene,

which was that they were both
in the same bed

on the night of the shooting.

We need to speak to Rudy and
find out what his story is.

[dramatic sting]

[siren wailing]

Rudy was very fortunate,

because the bullet
did not penetrate the skull.

He was up front about his and
Bonnie Hood's relationship,

that they were having
a sexual relationship.

There was an affair between
Bonnie Hood and Rudy Manuel.

So that automatically lets
us know

that there's more
to this investigation.

He was a Native American,

lived on the reservation nearby.

Certain white residents
of Redwood Country in the area

believed
that a Native American

shouldn't have been
in bed with a white woman.

He said that him and
Bonnie Hood shared a cabin.

He had recalled
securing the cabin doors

and turning out
all the lights.

They were in bed.

And then the next thing
he recalled was the light

coming on to the bedroom.

And this individual confronted
him with a gun in his hand,

told him to get down off
the bed and get on the floor.

♪ ♪

Rudy did not comply.

He said, if you want me down,

you're going to have
to put me down.

And that's when he was shot.

And then he remembers
hearing two shots.

[muffled gunshots, door creaks,
car engine turning over]

A vehicle was heard
leaving the property.

[engine revving]

♪ ♪

Rudy never made it
to the window,

seeing the person drive off.

Rudy Manuel provided
as much of a description

as he could
of the individual--

a white male, late 30s,
blondish-brown-colored hair,

medium to heavy built.

♪ ♪

We had the description
that Rudy Manuel had indicated

was the shooter.

Camp Nelson
is a mountain community.

They have that neighborhood
type of environment,

where everybody
knows each other.

There's two lodges
in business there--

Camp Nelson, and the other
lodge was Pierpoint Lodge.

The detectives started
coming up and asking questions

at Pierpoint Springs Resort.

They asked if we
could identify the man

that supposedly shot Bonnie.

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

On the Friday night
prior to the murder,

a man came into Pierpoint,
and I served him.

Stranger walks in,
and you spot him right away

because he's not
your local people.

He ordered his drink.

He sits down
at the end of the bar.

He sits there for a little bit,
gets up because we have music.

And he went and sat down
next to another lady,

made some off-color remarks.

The lady that he was sitting
next to approached me.

She said, I really don't like
that guy sitting next to me.

I said, not a big deal.
I got it.

I walked out
from behind the bar.

I said, I'm sorry, sir, but we
don't need your kind in here.

You can leave, and you
don't need to come back.

He got up.
I took his drink, and he left.

Where he went after that,
we have no idea.

♪ ♪

The stranger that came in
had sandy-blond hair.

Could have been
shoulder length,

but it was very, very curly,
kind of disheveled.

To our surprise, he kind of
matched the description

that Rudy Manuel had put out.

This might be the shooter.

Let's find out who he is
and why he was there.

What would have been his motive
for killing Bonnie Hood?

♪ ♪

He was either being
threatened or blackmailed.

The morning after
the murder of Bonnie Hood,

detectives pursued
the identity of a man

who matched the description
of the shooter

and was seen locally on
the night she was killed.

[dramatic sting]

Tight-knit community,
word gets around.

There was talk that we
were trying to find out

who this person was.

Ray Torrey, who works
part-time at the bar,

remembered this individual
dined at the restaurant.

♪ ♪

They described him
to the detectives,

and they described the same
man that we had described.

Ray recalled
that this stranger

had come in with his own beer

and left the bottle
sitting on the table.

Ray had set it behind the bar

to be cleaned up
in the morning.

The bottle was still there.

A beer bottle's a
very difficult item

because so many
people touch it,

but it was collected

to see if any unidentifiable
fingerprints can be found.

♪ ♪

Meanwhile, Jim Hood had been
notified after the killing

and arrived at Camp Nelson
in a haze

after breaking the news
of Bonnie's death

to their children.

He was asked
what the relationship was

between Rudy Manuel
and Bonnie Hood.

He said they were
just good friends.

He was never aware
of any sexual relationship

between the two.

Jim maintained that he and
Bonnie had a solid marriage

and wouldn't acknowledge
an affair,

even when told that his wife
was in bed with Rudy.

We felt that he was
trying to conceal something,

like he had a perfect
relationship with Bonnie Hood.

They were fine.
There was no issues.

During an investigation
like this,

you start looking at what
type of financial records

would have her name on it,
have the husband's name on it.

We need to try and bring up
more information.

He was asked what type
of financial issues

the lodge might be in.

Camp Nelson Lodge,

which was the beloved project
of Bonnie Hood,

had become a money pit.

They were struggling to get
all the rentals filled.

While Bonnie had this dream

about what she wanted
to do with it,

it was really impractical,

given where this place
was located.

The lodge--it became
a kind of black hole

just sucking all the money
out of their finances.

It was losing between
$100,000 and $300,000.

♪ ♪

Investigators
recognized clear motive--

the financial burden
of the lodge

and Bonnie's seemingly
public affair,

which Jim
was outwardly denying.

♪ ♪

My heart is hurting

for Bonnie Hood and her family.

♪ ♪

Happy family guy.

The Jim Hood that I knew

from our days together
as students at San Jose State--

very outgoing,
very gregarious guy,

and he was a good student.

And so the two
just didn't mesh,

that he would be involved
in anything

that would result
in somebody getting hurt,

let alone his wife
getting killed.

During that interview,
there was nothing unusual.

I mean, he acted surprised
at some of the questions,

like, no, there's no way.

There was never
a problem with our marriage.

As far as an alibi,
he was far away.

He was home
in Southern California.

Jim Hood was somebody
we continued

to consider as a possibility
being involved.

♪ ♪

Rudy Manuel had a sister,

and she worked part-time
at the lodge.

When she was at the lodge
the weekend before,

she had seen an individual

and thought he matched
the description

that Rudy had given her
of the shooter.

And one of the things she
added was that the individual

she had seen had been
doing a roofing job

at one of the local cabins.

The resident deputy
directed us towards

one particular cabin that had
roofing work done on it.

♪ ♪

Mr. Penner
was the owner of the cabin.

He confirmed that he did have
the roofing redone

on that cabin
the weekend before.

He said the roofers
were friends of his,

and he provided the names
Mark and Matthew Stewart--

two brothers who were
in construction.

And they're from Fresno.

♪ ♪

Mark and Matthew Stewart
were contacted.

They both indicated that
they'd gone up to the lodge,

but they were done
with the roofing job

a week before the shooting occurred

and had not returned.

Mark and Matthew Stewart
did not match

the description that
Rudy Manuel had indicated

was the shooter.

Mark and Matthew Stewart
were interviewed.

A friend of theirs just
happened to be at the house--

Rick Lamar--

and he looked very similar
to the physical description

given by Rudy Manuel
of the shooter.

Rick Lamar was asked

if he had ever gone
to the Camp Nelson Lodge,

and he said no.

Photographs were taken of both
of the Stewart brothers,

Matthew and Mark,
to be shown to Rudy Manuel.

Rick agreed to allow
his photograph

to be taken as well.

[dramatic sting]

[monitor beeping]

Rudy, while he was
still recovering,

was given a lineup,
and he pointed to somebody.

♪ ♪

He selected Rick Lamar
as being the shooter.

[dramatic music]

Shot dead at 3:00 a.m.

The intruder shot both Bonnie

and her hired caretaker,
Rudy Manuel,

in the head execution style.

Bonnie died instantly,
but Rudy somehow was spared.

♪ ♪

Rudy Manuel
selected Rick Lamar

as being the shooter.

Immediately, our focus
turned back to Rick Lamar.

Rick Lamar told us, the weekend
that the shooting occurred,

he had been off on
a fishing trip with his dad.

The dad--he was contacted
by telephone

and confirmed the information.

There was no connection
between Mr. Lamar

and Bonnie Hood or Rudy Manuel.

We need to gather more evidence

that actually places him
at the shooting.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

Sergeant of the unit got
a phone call from the FBI

indicating they had identified
a usable print

from that beer bottle.

♪ ♪

The fingerprint was identified
to a Bruce Beauchamp,

who had a criminal record,
from Fontana, California.

♪ ♪

Bruce Beauchamp's photograph
was shown to other witnesses

who had placed him
at the lodge that weekend

and the weekend before.

♪ ♪

Once we saw Bruce Beauchamp,
we knew who he was.

We knew that he was
the stranger

that had come into the bar.

His photograph was shown
to Rudy Manuel.

This was weeks later,
so he's had time to recover.

He's not under a doctor's care
and under medication.

And Rudy Manuel selected
Mr. Beauchamp as the shooter.

But he said he did not know
this person,

had never seen him before.

♪ ♪

Okay, who is this
Bruce Beauchamp?

Where did he come from?

Why was he there at the bar
on the day of the homicide?

What's his connection to
Bonnie Hood and/or Rudy Manuel?

♪ ♪

After Bonnie was murdered,

there's a chapel
up in Camp Nelson.

There was kind of
a coming together

of the different pieces
of Bonnie's life

just to recognize her.

I think it was a way of trying
to just let her know

they were sorry for the ways
they weren't supporting her

and just a way to have
everybody celebrate her.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

Tulare County detectives

reached out
to Bruce Beauchamp,

who agreed to meet them
at the local precinct.

♪ ♪

I expect him to lie,
but it was just the opposite.

He admitted
he had been up there

the weekend of the shooting.

He had gone back and forth
to Pierpoint Lodge,

the Camp Nelson Lodge,

but he didn't know Bonnie Hood.

Mr. Beauchamp's reason
for being up there

was because he had set up
a date with some female...

and she never showed up.

So he was there at the lodge
on that Saturday night

from 8:00, waiting for her
between both lodges.

And he stayed
there till closing.

I thought it was unusual
to come so far from Fontana.

Beauchamp claimed
that he had driven four hours

back to Fontana after the bar
closed at 1:30 a.m.

That didn't make sense to me.

Given Beauchamp
had no apparent connection

to Bonnie Hood,

investigators angled
at a financial motive

and pushed him
to reveal a source of income.

Bruce Beauchamp
said that Jim Hood

is his employer

at a construction company
in Fontana.

♪ ♪

Okay, so Beauchamp does have
a connection to Jim Hood.

♪ ♪

We focused on trying to
identify, what's the motive?

You know,
it could be financial.

And then there was another lead
that was developed.

Jim Hood collected
a fairly large life insurance

on Bonnie Hood.

Was the motive
the life-insurance policy

that he had out on her?

♪ ♪

With the murder
of Mr. Hood's wife

in Tulare County,

it appears from the evidence
that the Hoods

were coming apart.

The District Attorney's
Office

and the Sheriff's Office--

we're trying to achieve
the same thing.

I always wanted to get
their opinion,

say, okay,
this is what we have.

What do you think?

We know Bruce Beauchamp
had a bit of a shady history.

From the reports,

we had learned Mr. Beauchamp
had a drug issue.

He had recently refinanced
his home.

He was needing money.

We know Mr. Hood had
life-insurance policies

on his wife.

The theory is that Mr. Hood
hired Mr. Beauchamp

to eliminate Mrs. Hood

and, just incidentally,

to collect
all those insurance proceeds.

♪ ♪

There are plenty of upsides.

The lodge would be gone.

He'd sell it.

It would get rid
of his cheating wife

and to collect hundreds
of thousands of dollars

for her personal insurance.

There was no direct evidence
to connect Jim to the crime.

Meanwhile, Bruce Beauchamp
was arrested

for the murder of Bonnie Hood.

♪ ♪

If your theory
is that Jim Hood

bought a hit on his wife,

you'd like to find
the source of funds.

In Bruce Beauchamp's
checking account--

or savings account,

a $10,000 payment
he can't explain, right?

That would have been
the linchpin in proving

that Jim Hood
had ordered the hit.

♪ ♪

There was
a search warrant issued

for Beauchamp's residence.

♪ ♪

But there was nothing
to connect him to it.

♪ ♪

As long as Bruce Beauchamp
wouldn't roll on Jim Hood,

then Jim Hood was
in the clear.

His innocence, or his freedom,

depended on the goodwill
and financial relationship

of Bruce Beauchamp.

I've been asked not to
discuss it in great detail,

but he did work for me.

And I'm just--
I'm a little surprised.

In fact, I'm very--
you know, I'm shocked by it.

We're all amazed.

Investigators suspected
that Jim Hood had hired

Bruce Beauchamp
to kill his wife, Bonnie,

yet Beauchamp was the only one
being charged with her murder.

[dramatic sting]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

In this case,
I believe Mr. Hood

was the driving factor
in the murder of his wife,

but the DA's Office decided
not to use that connection.

They felt that that would
just muddy the case.

A man police finally
arrested--Bruce Beauchamp.

Although prosecutors had
evidence against Beauchamp,

without his cooperation,

they had little
to implicate Jim Hood.

They decided not
to include Hood

and go all-in on their case
against Beauchamp.

I think
that the Jim Hood information

should have been factored
into this trial,

but I try not to
second-quarterback prosecutors

because that's not my field.

Playing to their
only strength,

prosecutors intended

for Rudy Manuel's
planned testimony

to corroborate all of their
circumstantial evidence

against Beauchamp.

As the sole eyewitness,
he was pretty much the linchpin

of the case in that county.

I felt reliable
in the information he provided.

But then he didn't tell
the truth

about the nature of his
relationship with Bonnie.

Rudy Manuel got
on the witness stand

and denied that he had
a sexual relationship

with Bonnie Hood.

Whether it was shame
or something else

that drove Rudy
to change his story,

in a crushing turn,

his credibility and the case
were ruined.

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

The Tulare County jury
found Bruce Beauchamp

not guilty...

♪ ♪

And subsequently
was acquitted.

He can never be tried
for it again

because
of the double jeopardy rule.

He's a free man.

Mr. Beauchamp was also free

to point the finger
at Jim Hood.

When you talk
about a jury of your peers

and all the peers

are white, blue-collar,

and the person who is on trial
is white, blue-collar,

looks like them, and the person
who is accusing them

is Indian,

I think that very much
factored in this trial.

I could not accept
the fact

that Bonnie would be
this victim

who would never have justice

and would never have peace,
in a way.

"Fontana resident...

"accused and acquitted

of murdering Bonnie Hood."

I have great faith and great
confidence in the jury system,

but my life's experience
in the practice of law,

having practiced law now
for 40 years,

the jury does not bat 100%.

A lot of lives were shattered

as a result
of the murder of Bonnie Hood.

When you tell me there's
a life-insurance policy,

I'm not going to pre-judge,

but it certainly causes me

to be more questioning...

about who was doing what.

♪ ♪

Jim Hood was still a free
man down in Orange County,

and everybody went
about their business, I think,

until March 22, 1992.

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

[line trilling]

This crime occurred
in an industrial complex

in the front office.

There was bloodstains
on the office chair,

and there's bloodstains
on the floor.

[line beeping]

No one could say
what happened in that room

in the office.

According to Jim Hood,

Beauchamp just walked
into the business

with a gun to shoot him.

Beauchamp was just crumpled
on the floor,

laying there
with his hand out,

with this gun just sitting
in his hand.

I had never seen that,

and no one I talked to had ever experienced

where a person had been shot
with the weapon in his hand,

and it still was in his hand
when he hit the ground.

It just doesn't happen.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

The gun that was
in Beauchamp's hand,

it didn't bother me too much

until we actually started getting

into the bloodstain pattern
of the case.

[camera shutter clicking]

♪ ♪

These are the impact spatters

indicating that there was
a point of origin

very close and low
to the ground in that area.

First shot entered
the top of his head.

♪ ♪

When there's an impact
to your head from a gun,

you'll have impact spatter,

and Beauchamp's right hand

is on top of spatter
near his head.

But the funny thing about this

is there's no blood spatter
on his hands,

no blood spatter on the gun.

So what that indicates
is the hand was there

after the blood spatter
hit the floor.

♪ ♪

We think he staged
the scene inside his office

before he called
the Sheriff's Department.

Two years after Jim Hood
was suspected

for the murder
of his wife, Bonnie,

he was now tied up
in another killing.

Tonight's top story--
Bonnie Hood,

murdered mysteriously
in an isolated resort,

but now the man they tried
is dead

amid the most unexpected twist
of all.

♪ ♪

911 Emergency.

[dramatic sting]

We had Jim Hood transported

to the San Bernardino
Sheriff's Office.

When Jim Hood was interviewed
by the detectives,

he continued to keep
his story straight,

that it
was totally self-defense.

Jim Hood says Beauchamp
and his wife's brother

were engaged in a number
of nefarious activities,

including stealing equipment
from the construction site

of a shopping center
that Jim Hood was developing.

And so Hood--

he fired the brother-in-law,
who was also working for him.

Beauchamp was upset that his
brother-in-law had been fired.

♪ ♪

Jim Hood claimed

that's what the meeting
in his office was about

and that Bruce
threatened him first.

He claimed Bruce Beauchamp
reached behind him,

pulled out a .357 Magnum,

and aimed it
at Jim Hood's chest.

Jim Hood pulled a Glock 9
from his drawer

and started shooting
at Beauchamp.

Shot him seven times.

The number of times
he got shot,

there was no way
that that was self-defense.

It just doesn't happen
that way.

Hood claimed
that he feared Bruce Beauchamp

would show up to hurt him,

so he had his own gun ready
at his desk.

We run background checks on
all the witnesses and victims.

And then when we found out

that Beauchamp
had been acquitted

for the murder of Bonnie Hood,

myself and another detective

went up to Tulare County.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

The two killings
were inexorably tied together.

Mr. Beauchamp
was hired to kill.

He got acquitted,
much to Mr. Hood's surprise.

And that once
Bruce Beauchamp was acquitted,

he was able to extort--

or he thought
he would be able to extort

plenty of money from Jim Hood.

Mr. Hood was not going
to take that chance.

I try not to get involved
personally in a case,

but I just want the justice
part of it to work.

Let's get it done.

And then we get a copy
of the report.

The gun was found
in his right hand,

when, in fact,
he was left-handed.

♪ ♪

Evidence was stacking up

that Jim Hood had staged
the crime scene in his office.

So, in March of 1992,
almost exactly a year

after Bruce Beauchamp
was acquitted

for the murder of Bonnie Hood,

Jim Hood was arrested for
the murder of Bruce Beauchamp.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

The theory
of People versus Jim Hood

is that he bought a hit
on his wife, Bonnie Hood.

♪ ♪

However, Bruce Beauchamp
was acquitted.

He was going to expose
Jim Hood

for his complicity
in the murder.

That made him a threat
to Jim Hood

that had to be eliminated somehow.

Investigators theorized

that Hood was not
about to be extorted,

especially by someone
he had already paid.

The prosecution will prove

that this defendant lured
the victim to his office,

that, in fact, shot him

and then planted
the gun on him.

And this is not going to be
done by witness testimony,

but rather cold, hard facts.

I set it up to
have a video done,

the animation
of the crime itself.

It was one of the first times

that they had animation
in a homicide case.

So right now
in San Bernardino County,

it's a case
that involves love and sex,

a contract killing,
and now computer animation.

Mr. Beauchamp showing up.

Mr. Beauchamp
not carrying a weapon.

There's a series of shots.

♪ ♪

The gun in the hand...

staging the scene.

The defense generally presented
Mr. Hood as a good guy

who was trying to act
in self-defense.

He wants this case
to go to trial.

He wants to be vindicated.

He's worked all of his life

to get where he is,

and he wants to keep that.

If he would leave with these
charges hanging over his head,

everyone would assume that
he was a cold-blooded killer.

He does not want that for him.

He does not want that
for his children.

He does not want that
for his friends

and the rest of his family.

Mr. Hood had
enormous resources

and could present things
to contradict our positions,

like the computer animation.

Our evidence will demonstrate
to you that he acted properly

under the law in self-defense.

The defense agrees
that Hood did indeed kill,

but provided
its own animation--

one portraying a gun
in the hand of the dead man

and Hood as an innocent victim
of all of this.

His eyes were looking at me

like he was gonna beat
the living heck out of me.

I'm scared to death.

I thought, you know, he
was going to kill me.

♪ ♪

And then he reenacted
what he said happened,

with a dummy standing in
for Bruce Beauchamp.

And that was very peculiar.

I sat through the trial.

I couldn't imagine
this jury could be listening

to all the evidence
that I was listening to

and come up
with any other decision

than that he was guilty.

But there was a part of me
that worried

that he was going to get away
with this.

Tonight on "Hard Copy"...

Jim Hood lost his wife
to a mystery man's bullet.

Now he's been shot dead, too.

Jim Hood pulled the trigger.

Was it murder or self-defense?

While Jim Hood sat in jail,
a new scenario emerged.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Sharon, who was
Bruce Beauchamp's wife,

was called as a witness
and testified.

♪ ♪

Sharon testified
that Jim paid him $50,000

to kill Bonnie.

Once Bruce Beauchamp
got acquitted,

Mr. Beauchamp
decides to milk Mr. Hood

for all he can.

Sharon indicated he went
to ask for more money.

You better pay me
another 100,000,

or I'm going to say you paid me
to kill your wife.

And so the jury

had to decide what happened

in those two minutes
or three minutes

inside Jim Hood's office.

And, of course,
all the defense has to do

is convince one person
that they're not guilty,

and we don't get a conviction.

In the end, the seemingly
damning evidence and testimony

weren't enough
to convince the jury

beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jim Hood's trial
results in a hung jury.

It seemed impossible to me
that he would not be convicted.

The case was
declared a mistrial.

There's nothing
you'd less rather do

than try a case twice.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

So, in June of 1993,

Jim's second trial begins.

When Mr. Hood got
on the witness stand,

he had conformed
his version of events

to match the physical evidence

he had heard
in the first trial.

What's an innocent man
have to do

with changing his testimony?

The prosecution seized
the opportunity

to call jurors
from the first trial,

who testified that Hood had
told them a different story.

Jim changed his story

about how Bruce was
after he'd been shot.

He'd physically laid down
and shown one thing,

and then he physically laid
down and showed something else

in the second jury trial.

And I knew.

I knew that he had
just hung himself.

♪ ♪

The jury had a verdict,

and that verdict was
that Jim Hood was guilty

of first-degree murder.

When the verdict comes back,

there's a certain sense of
justice done for the victims.

However, the hit for hire--

sending Beauchamp up
to kill Bonnie--

is a theory
that has never been proven.

As a result,
the murder of Bonnie Hood

is considered unsolved.

♪ ♪

A lot of people forget

that there were two children
in that Hood family

that endured this whole thing.

They lost their mom.
Their dad went to prison.

♪ ♪

They're the biggest victims
of all in this case,

♪ ♪

[somber music]

♪ ♪

It's just a shame.

♪ ♪

When I picture Bonnie now,

I think of her in her jeans
and her flannel shirt,

blond hair down,

sitting on Mulberry,
her horse, riding the trails.

I think she's still up there
in Camp Nelson.

I think that was
her happy place.

♪ ♪

I tend to want to disbelieve
that my fraternity brother

would do something like that.

I've been married to my wife
for 52 years.

It's just hard
for me to understand

how somebody could get
to that point in rage--

the enormity
of taking someone's life.

But I have no reason
to believe he did.

But I have no reason
to believe that he didn't.

♪ ♪