Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Body’s right here in the bed of the vehicle.

♪ ♪

- Anytime emotions get heated,

a situation can escalate to violence.

Whether it’s a long, simmering rage or an instant flare-up,

if the conditions are right,

there can be deadly consequences.

- He sends her this picture with guns.

"I’ll come over right now."

- Tonight on "The First 48: Critical Minutes"...

♪ ♪

- And it’s off safety.

- A fight escalates into murder.

Then violence erupts between strangers

while sharing a car ride.

And a jealous rage that boils over.

- He was like pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.

- He’s on foot running. This is crazy.

♪ ♪

[indistinct shouting, siren wailing]

♪ ♪

- Most murders committed in a heated moment

occur between people that know each other.

It starts out as an argument.

It escalates into a physical altercation

and sometimes to murder.

People will go through extreme measures to cover it up,

but to set them on fire and destroy their remains

takes it to an entirely different level.

♪ ♪

- The house is a vacant house.

♪ ♪

It’s still hot.

♪ ♪

narrator: According to firefighters,

the fire spread to the vacant house from the burning truck.

♪ ♪

- Man, it’s burned totally up.

[machinery beeping]

♪ ♪

We’ve had two or three burnings like this this year.

They set it on fire to get rid of evidence.

♪ ♪

Yeah, the body’s right here in the bed of the vehicle.

♪ ♪

Burned beyond recognition.

♪ ♪

He’s still got his teeth, you know.

♪ ♪

narrator: The caps on the teeth

could help them identify the victim.

♪ ♪

- You stay right there.

narrator: Detectives get a break.

The license plate on the truck survived the fire.

♪ ♪

[truck beeping]

♪ ♪

[keys clacking]

♪ ♪

- This guy, Joseph Scholl,

is the registered owner of the car.

[dial tone hums, number pad beeping]

narrator: Detective Chris Anderson

calls Joseph Scholl’s house.

[line trilling]

There’s no answer.

♪ ♪

- You’d expect a 63-year-old man

to be at home right about now, right?

We got some information on his daughter,

who lives close by.

We’re gonna go by and pay her a visit

and see if she knows anything about her dad.

- Can we come in and talk to y’all, please, ma’am?

We hate to bother y’all this morning,

but it’s very important.

- Come on in.

- I need to ask you some information

about your daddy’s truck.

- My daddy? - Yes, ma’am.

narrator: The daughter says

she hadn’t seen her father that day,

but she assumed he was at work.

- I’m just gonna put--

We found the truck tonight, OK?

And it’s been burnt.

There was a body inside the truck.

- Oh, my God. Oh, my God. - Now, wait a minute, now.

- We don’t know who it is.

And whoever it is, we’ve taken them

to the coroner’s office, OK?

- [crying] Oh, God. - Uh...

♪ ♪

narrator: Williams talks to Joseph Scholl’s son-in-la.

- Do you know if your daddy-in-law

had caps on his teeth?

♪ ♪

- It’s gonna be him. - Yeah.

♪ ♪

narrator: 63-year-old Joseph Scholl

worked as a pipefitter at US Steel

and was an avid outdoorsman.

♪ ♪

- If we can find out where he’d been, who he was with,

if he had a problem with somebody...

Did he carry a lot of money with him a lot?

Yeah.

♪ ♪

narrator: Two hours later, the victim’s son-in-law calls.

♪ ♪

- A white female, Angel Green.

narrator: He says Scholl may have been

with a woman named Angela Green

earlier that night.

- Bye.

♪ ♪

[keys clacking]

Yeah.

OK, now let’s find her.

Bam. - Hey.

- There she is.

[keys clacking]

Uh-oh.

- Oh, she’s got a history.

♪ ♪

She lives not very far away from where we found him.

- Go to her house, knock on the door,

Let’s go visit. - Let’s do it.

♪ ♪

- Probably gonna be this one.

♪ ♪

I hear somebody running.

♪ ♪

You hear that inside?

♪ ♪

- Every light on in the house,

and ain’t nobody coming to the door.

Yeah.

♪ ♪

It’s getting more and more funky.

♪ ♪

- She’s at home. We just can’t get her to the door.

- [sighs]

- I don’t know nothing else right now we can do

till we can get our hands on her.

[engine turning over]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter over police radio]

- Y’all got her? - 805.

- That’s 10-4. We’re on our way over there.

♪ ♪

They got the girl.

A few minutes after we pulled away from the house,

the officers spotted the car driving off.

They stopped the car a few blocks away from here.

So we’re gonna ride over there and see what they got.

♪ ♪

- What you got?

- When I went to pull him over, he was driving.

She was a passenger.

narrator: Patrol has apprehended Angela Green,

along with a male companion.

♪ ♪

- I’m Detective Williams. - Hi.

- I need you to come--

You already probably know what it’s about.

You got a friend named Joe?

We’re gonna talk about Joe.

We’re gonna talk, OK?

- OK. - All right.

♪ ♪

- Do I know you?

Have I had dealings with you before?

- I got out of prison October 21st.

- You know a friend that comes and visits her?

A guy named Joe?

- I’m gonna be honest with you.

Joe’s dead.

- Joe’s dead? - Yeah.

- What happened to him?

♪ ♪

- Joe got burnt up.

♪ ♪

- Damn.

♪ ♪

- Huh.

♪ ♪

.32 Beretta.

- Beretta.

- Yeah, it’s--See...

♪ ♪

The gun that’s in the trunk of your vehicle,

is it yours, ma’am?

Yeah, there’s a gun in the trunk of your car.

[sirens wailing]

♪ ♪

- What do they got?

Where at?

- Where you live?

♪ ♪

[crying] My house is on fire!

[sobbing]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- What is going on?

[crying]

- Come on, let’s go up there. - Yeah.

- Go round. - All right.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter over police radio]

♪ ♪

- Son of a--

♪ ♪

It’s gone, Jerry. It’s gone.

It’s burned all the way up.

♪ ♪

Somebody started this, Jerry.

Ain’t nothing left but, like, the front room

and maybe the side half of the house.

♪ ♪

- That was my evidence.

♪ ♪

narrator: Williams is concerned that evidence

of the murder might have been destroyed.

- All right, bud. Bye.

♪ ♪

[door closes]

- Phillip, how long have you been back with Angel?

- OK.

So y’all been together.

Has Joe been coming over for the last couple of days?

♪ ♪

- Listen to me, now.

You don’t know what all I know already, OK?

Don’t dig yourself a hole.

Just tell me what you seen.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Then what happened?

♪ ♪

- What led to the--

Did she protect herself?

I didn’t say you see.

I’m just saying, did you hear her protect herself?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- OK.

Just tell me what you heard.

♪ ♪

narrator: Phillip says he heard two gunshots

and ran out of the bedroom to see what had happened.

- Where was Angela?

♪ ♪

- OK. Where was the pistol at?

narrator: Philip says Angela asked him to put the gun

in the trunk of the car.

- It was laying there.

♪ ♪

- Well, let me ask a question.

What all did she take from Joe after she shot him?

- OK.

How much crack you think she bought?

♪ ♪

- When she got back,

is that when y’all put him in the truck?

Because I’m going to be honest.

She can’t pick Joe up and put him in the truck, OK?

Is that what happened?

♪ ♪

OK.

♪ ♪

OK.

Then what happened?

OK.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

OK.

Who set the house on fire?

I didn’t say you, OK?

Did you smell it?

♪ ♪

So let me go see what she’s gonna admit to, OK?

♪ ♪

[door opens]

♪ ♪

Listen to me.

I need to talk to you about something

that’s very important.

OK?

I’m being honest--

Talking about Joe.

Well, I’m gonna be honest with you.

Joe died at your house, OK?

I already know that.

You know that, too, OK?

At your house.

♪ ♪

Look, Angela...

♪ ♪

Phillip’s told me what happened,

that he seen and what he heard now,

and that’s why we come in here to get your side of it,

because right now it don’t--

it’s one-sided about what he says.

And it don’t look good.

OK?

♪ ♪

OK. That’s fine.

♪ ♪

It really would’ve been nice

to hear Angela’s side of the story,

but we got Phillip’s statement,

and that give us enough proof to put both of them there.

The sad part is that we got this man,

according to his family, that helped everybody.

But he’ll never be coming back home again.

♪ ♪

- Often, homicides that take place

in the heat of the moment

are between people who know each other

and have a history, but not always.

When you’re meeting a stranger,

people sometimes tend to drop their guard,

and they tend to be too trusting.

But this is a person

that you know absolutely nothing about.

Sometimes you can end up on the wrong side

of a very, very violent encounter.

♪ ♪

- Ready to see what we got.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- Around 6:00 a. m.,

two kids that live next door,

coming out to a bus stop to go to school, found him.

Basically, this man lives here.

- Do we have a name?

- Wesley Nelson.

♪ ♪

narrator: 61-year-old Wesley Nelson

worked as a handyman in the neighborhood.

He had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

He leaves behind a wife, two children,

and five grandchildren.

♪ ♪

- Looked like a single gunshot wound

to the back of the head.

No casings or anything?

- None at all.

♪ ♪

- That rules out any robberies or anything like that.

♪ ♪

narrator: Just feet from the victim...

- I got the full beer can.

I’m gonna pour it out once I get to see him.

narrator: The team finds an unopened can of beer--

still cold.

- There’s still condensation on the beer.

It doesn’t look, like, ice cold,

but it’s warm outside.

That’s kind of strange, but--

♪ ♪

We’ll ask to look at his body

and see if he has rigor mortis and all that stuff and see--

- That’s gonna tell us.

narrator: Based on the condition of Wesley’s body,

the ME believes he died around 4:00 a. m.

[indistinct chatter over police radio]

♪ ♪

- Doubt if any cameras around here.

- I doubt it, too.

In the woods, man. - Yeah, there’s never any.

♪ ♪

- Tell me this. - Yeah.

- Do y’all know where he went to get that beer?

♪ ♪

OK.

- He must’ve went somewhere to get a beer.

OK.

♪ ♪

- The victim had a beer can next to him.

So our next step--

we want to find out where he got that beer can from.

We don’t have surveillance. We don’t have any witnesses.

So right now it’s a big whodunit.

♪ ♪

narrator: The next morning...

♪ ♪

[door closes]

- OK.

narrator: A witness comes forward,

claiming to have heard a conversation

about the murder.

♪ ♪

- They saying that...

♪ ♪

- In these heat-of-the-moment cases,

suspects are typically people

that don’t have the ability to take a couple of steps back,

process things.

They typically don’t know how to deal with their anger.

They typically don’t know how to deal with disappointment.

- And when the man got in the car, the man pulled out

all this money. - Mm-hmm.

narrator: The witness heard that a group of people

met the victim at a gas station.

He offered them $10 for a ride home.

♪ ♪

The people were worried they may have been seen

on the gas-station surveillance cameras.

- All right, so give me--

The dude who’s driving the car, what’s his name?

A girl was driving it?

Wow.

And Money-- what’s his real name?

narrator: The witness only knows the name

of one of the people in the car.

- All right. [door opens]

♪ ♪

She basically just told everything.

There’s information that wasn’t even released to the media.

That’s... Wow.

I love this place.

♪ ♪

After the murder, tells them the whole thing.

- What? - The whole thing, yeah.

- And Money’s the one who did it?

- Money’s the one who did it.

But they were all in the car together, yeah.

- It’s amazing. - That is awesome

[laughter] - Amazing, bro.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter over police radio]

♪ ♪

- Hopefully we can get a good look at the suspect on vide.

♪ ♪

[cell phone ringing]

Detective Johnson. Hey, how you doing?

narrator: Johnson gets a call from the witness.

- Really?

narrator: They reached out to a relative

of one of the people in the car

who wants to talk to Johnson.

- Thank you, baby. I appreciate that call.

[line trilling]

- Hey, this Detective Johnson

with New Orleans Police Department.

How you doing? I was told to give you a call.

Said you want to talk to me.

Do you know who Money is?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

OK. What’s the girl name?

narrator: She gives the name of the girl

driving the suspect vehicle.

- All right.

All right, darling.

♪ ♪

Right.

That’s gonna be Ronald "Money" Claude.

♪ ♪

narrator: 30-year-old Ronald Claude

has convictions for selling narcotics and robbery.

- Let’s see what we got.

♪ ♪

- Johnson loads the surveillance footage

from the gas station.

- Wesley was killed around 4:00.

We’re gonna start looking at the video at about 3:00,

see if we see anything.

♪ ♪

So there goes our victim.

♪ ♪

OK, we see the beer can, like from the scene.

[mouse clicks]

♪ ♪

And there go the Money.

He has pretty distinct features.

You know, he has gold teeth, bald head,

light-skinned Black male.

Let’s see here.

And there they go.

Victim at the ATM, getting cash out.

♪ ♪

They leave out the store together.

Our victim right there with the money in his hand.

This is the last person he’s seen with,

like, a couple minutes before he was actually killed.

♪ ♪

Man, it’s cold. Man, it’s messed up.

♪ ♪

We need to track down these other people in the car.

They could be in danger also.

They could be Money’s next target.

♪ ♪

narrator: Six days into the investigation,

the driver arrives at Headquarters

with her attorney.

- I got a call late last night

saying that she wanted to come in and talk.

She definitely knows all the players in this.

We just want to see what side of this she wants to be on.

♪ ♪

Detective Rayell Johnson and Detective Maggie Darling.

And we’re investigating a homicide

that occurred on July 31st.

I mean, basically just want to start from the beginning,

about, you know, what you know about this incident.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- OK. - To tell him to come on...

narrator: The driver says that inside the store,

Ronald Claude, aka Money,

was talking to Wesley.

♪ ♪

- OK, the man--where does he sit at in the vehicle?

And the rest of you?

narrator: She says that Ronald and the other two passengers

sat in the back.

- What’s the conversation as y’all are leaving?

- Yeah, don’t worry about it.

- So what’s going on, then?

Y’all pull up to wherever this incident happens, right?

narrator: She says when they arrived at Wesley’s house,

he had a request.

Ronald and another man in the car

offered to sell Wesley marijuana.

She says Wesley chose to buy from the other man.

And Ronald got angry.

- What happens from that point?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Nobody really had time to react.

♪ ♪

- So, after he shot him,

what happened at that point?

narrator: She says that she and the other two witnesses

got out of the car and walked home.

- OK.

After that, have you spoken to him since then?

OK.

♪ ♪

- All right.

♪ ♪

That was an awesome interview.

- Actual eyewitness account cleared up a lot of things.

You know, now we know that there was a drug deal

that occurred, firsthand.

- All right, now I’m setting up a arrest warrant

for Ronald Claude.

Out there on the hunt.

♪ ♪

[knock at door]

- It’s a bad address.

♪ ♪

[knock at door]

Does Claude live here?

♪ ♪

- When I got in there,

he just told me he’ll wait to talk to his attorney.

♪ ♪

It’s a real sad case.

The victim was 61 years old, suffering with cancer.

♪ ♪

And basically he was taken advantage by this perpetrato.

It’s kind of tough dealing with cases like this,

you know, with somebody who’s a real, true victim, honestly.

And I’m just glad that I was able to, you know, get

this guy off the street.

I know it’ll never bring their loved one back,

but, I mean, it’s something.

Hopefully it’ll help...

help just, you know, to give them some type of closure.

♪ ♪

- It’s chilling when investigators see

how dangerous jealousy can be.

It’s an emotion that can turn brutally violent in an instant.

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

[indistinct chatter over police radio]

♪ ♪

- Heading to the scene.

This sucks ’cause I’m going 35 miles an hour

down the highway.

Oklahoma-- we don’t get a lot of snow.

♪ ♪

There we go.

♪ ♪

Hey.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Victim name is?

- Robert Singleton Jr.

♪ ♪

narrator: 27-year-old Robert Singleton Jr.

was born in Tulsa and worked in construction.

A family man who loved being a dad,

he leaves behind four young children.

♪ ♪

- [sighs]

♪ ♪

He’s got one in the chest.

♪ ♪

His mouth’s so bloody,

I can’t tell if he’s just bleeding out his mouth or--

♪ ♪

- We got five or six shots.

narrator: Robert was shot once in the chest...

and twice in the left thigh.

♪ ♪

- Crazy.

♪ ♪

OK.

- Baby mama’s in the car.

Eight-year-old child that they share

is in the apartment upstairs.

- OK.

Right now?

[door closes]

Dad’s laying out there on the ground.

Don’t let him see it.

♪ ♪

This is brutal.

♪ ♪

All right, that’s about all we’ve got out here,

so we’re gonna go talk to the witness.

♪ ♪

What’s your name, honey? [person crying]

Brittish?

- [crying]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- [crying]

- OK, you did-- hey, you did good, OK?

You did the best you could, all right?

- [wailing loudly]

- Brittish, we’re gonna take care of your baby, OK?

I promise--

we’re not taking your baby from you, OK?

- [continues sobbing]

- I’m gonna have this officer take you downtown, OK?

Roll that up if you’re cold.

All right.

♪ ♪

She was hysterical and rightfully so.

Hopefully we can get her calmed down.

I don’t think the boy saw the murder take place.

He was inside.

Thank God.

♪ ♪

- OK.

[crying]

- Take a couple deep breaths, OK?

I know this is terrible.

- [sobbing]

- Let me make sure I’ve got all this right, OK?

Robert Singleton is the father of--

- My son.

- As far as your relationship goes--

- He’s my best friend.

Best baby daddy you could have.

Like, we’re great with the kid. We just co-parent.

Like, he’s married.

- OK.

♪ ♪

- And Cameron...

is current boyfriend?

♪ ♪

- [sobbing]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[sobbing]

- Where were you when Cameron showed up?

Were you holding him from behind?

- He was like, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.

♪ ♪

[crying]

♪ ♪

- Hey, Brittish, do me a favor.

Take a seat and take a couple deep breaths, OK?

I know this is terrible. - [cries]

- Just give me a few minutes, OK?

♪ ♪

Wow.

That’s brutal.

[sighs] She saw that whole thing.

I mean, she’s standing from me to this door.

He gets hit five times.

[Brittish sobbing]

♪ ♪

[keys clacking] - Cameron Hendrick.

♪ ♪

That’s him.

narrator: 27-year-old Cameron Hendrick

has felony convictions for assault and battery

and domestic abuse by strangulation.

- Looks like he’s got a traffic collision

where he’s driving black Ford Crown Vics.

It’s a black and white old police car.

So it’s not gonna be hard to find.

- Typically, domestic violence

starts off with verbal abuse,

psychological abuse, and it escalates.

Domestic-violence situations are very volatile.

I have dealt with cases where a person

has been dealing with issues for quite some time,

or there’s jealousy or other emotional issues.

And it just bottles up inside of them and eventually erupts.

- She says, "My baby daddy stayed the night."

♪ ♪

He’s saying,

"Make sure you gave him his Valentine’s, bitch.

"[bleep] you, ho.

Your ass in trouble with me."

Then he sends her this picture...

- God.

- With guns. "I’ll come over right now."

♪ ♪

narrator: Ritter puts out an all-points bulletin

for Cameron Hendrick.

- Also getting information

that he has been or is staying with his mom out east.

As many of us as possible should go.

♪ ♪

[radio beeps] - OK.

♪ ♪

Suspect last seen driving in an old highway patrol car.

We’ll see.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- He’s on foot, running.

This is crazy.

An officer got him at gunpoint.

[radio beeps]

♪ ♪

- Damn, can’t beat this.

narrator: The suspect, Cameron Hendrick,

is transported back to Homicide.

♪ ♪

- Go and have a seat right there, OK?

- Yes, sir.

- All right, now just relax. - [exhales deeply]

- Cameron.

- How you doing?

- Not so good. - Not too good?

♪ ♪

- Well, what’s going on?

Am I in trouble? - Yeah.

Here’s the deal, Cameron.

Some bad [bleep] went down today, OK?

And we all know that.

♪ ♪

The question is, why?

♪ ♪

You went over to Brittish’s apartment,

and you shot her baby daddy.

- I ain’t shot her baby daddy. Hell, no.

- Listen, I’m not gonna sit here and blow smoke at you

like you’re doing me.

We’re past what happened.

We want to know the reason.

- It’s not a dream.

Yeah.

♪ ♪

- What you’re telling us right now basically

is just you’re a cold-blooded killer?

- [chuckles] People saw you do it.

You’re ridiculous. I can’t believe you’re saying--

- This is a huge game to you, isn’t it?

- Your life? Screw your life.

What about the life you just took...

♪ ♪

Right in front of your ex-girlfriend?

Dude, she’s standing from me to you,

and you freaking blow him away.

We’re giving you the opportunity

to be a human being and tell us what happened.

Yeah, Jesus knows you did it, too.

♪ ♪

I understand you probably still care about Brittish.

You wish you were still with her.

- She wasn’t even messing around with him.

He was over there seeing his kid.

♪ ♪

- It’s all--

- Well, Cameron, it doesn’t have to be gone forever

if you tell the truth, brother.

- [sniffles]

♪ ♪

You need to get it off your conscience and off your soul

and do the right thing.

- [sniffles]

- What happened, dude?

What happened? - [sniffles]

♪ ♪

- Is it her fault?

♪ ♪

There’s some fishy [bleep] going on, man.

♪ ♪

Whoever the hell killed that man,

I hope y’all figure out who did it, man.

- OK, that’s fine.

I thought you were gonna be a stand-up guy.

I guess you’re not. - What is this, man?

What is this? - That’s it.

- You had your chance.

♪ ♪

I hope you can live with what you’re doing.

♪ ♪

narrator: Detective Justin Ritter

charges Cameron with murder.

♪ ♪

- I don’t think he knew it called.

narrator: Cameron’s phone pocket-dialed hers

at the moment of the shooting.

[indistinct chatter] - [bleep].

♪ ♪

[indistinct shouting]

- [screams]

♪ ♪

- It was my baby daddy trying to protect me.

- [sighs]

♪ ♪

- For a person that can’t control their anger,

the only thing that they think about is winning.

Whatever that altercation is about, they want to win.

And when they don’t win

or when you don’t see things their way, they see red.

It can be very, very difficut

to get them to a point of de-escalation.

Sometimes the only thing that they know

is to react in violence.

And anything can happen.

♪ ♪