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[man] It was a whirlwind relationship.
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We were at bars five, six nights a week.
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We had a lot of fun.
4
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We used to go out and play darts
and shoot pool every night.
5
00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,840
I never meant for her to get hurt.
I loved her.
6
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My name's Charles Thompson.
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00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:12,960
I've been on death row for 18 years,
19 years altogether on this case.
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I was convicted of capital murder,
double murder statute.
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And it was girlfriend and, uh…
and another man.
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[man 1]
And I walked up, I fired one shot.
11
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And as I got closer,
I fired one more shot.
12
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[man 2] She was shot through the cheek
and it stopped in her jaw.
13
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[man 3] I drove him around behind a desk
and I stabbed him approximately 25 times.
14
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[man 4] I couldn't believe it.
15
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I just thought I can't believe
I just killed somebody.
16
00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,640
[man 5] I don't feel bad about it.
[laughs]
17
00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:12,280
[man 6] I started stabbing him,
stabbing the guy on the couch.
18
00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:10,120
How's that?
19
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Can you hear me good?
20
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Okay?
21
00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,320
Now I can hear better. [laughs]
22
00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,080
I first met Dennise on my birthday.
23
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There was a little chemistry right away.
24
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We sat around and drank some beers
and got to talking.
25
00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:42,600
You know, we… we just hit it off.
26
00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:47,920
I had spent the night with her that night.
27
00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:51,920
In a matter of two weeks later,
I moved in with her.
28
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,760
She was always smiling,
always laughing, just carefree.
29
00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,760
She had been divorced,
and she was 38 years old
30
00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:07,440
and having all the fun
she "missed out on."
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That's what she used to say.
32
00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:12,760
The lady could shoot pool,
she could shoot darts,
33
00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:15,680
and she was the life of the party.
34
00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:24,200
Here I was, 27 years old, you know,
35
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and, you know,
I thought she hung the moon.
36
00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:28,680
I--I was in love with her.
37
00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:35,240
We had a couple spats.
38
00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:41,080
There was one time, St. Patrick's Day,
she hit me and I hit her.
39
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:43,320
And I regretted it. Man, I regretted it.
40
00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:47,000
But, uh, I was drunk and she hit me,
41
00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:49,920
and I just lost my temper
and slapped her a couple times.
42
00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:55,680
She had a black eye
and, uh, I think her lip was bruised.
43
00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:01,120
Yeah, it was part of my case records, too.
It's nothing I was proud of.
44
00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:03,640
It was the first time
I'd ever hit a woman in my life.
45
00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:10,320
We were very much in love
and back together when this happened.
46
00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:13,800
And the prosecution tried to portray me
as a disgruntled ex-boyfriend.
47
00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:15,280
That-- that was not the case.
48
00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:29,040
My first inclination
that she was seeing Darren
49
00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,000
was when she told me
the weekend before this case happened
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00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:34,320
that she went and slept
with the bartender at Kelly's.
51
00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,360
I had met him several times,
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00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:43,440
but I never had a clue
that he was seeing my girl.
53
00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:47,160
And I should have snapped
when we were in the bar.
54
00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:49,000
He was giving us free rounds of drinks.
55
00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:51,800
And that didn't-- it didn't occur to me,
you know, why.
56
00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,720
I just thought, "Wow, this guy's
being really cool to us," you know?
57
00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:58,960
Apparently, she'd been in there for lunch
several times and was already seeing him.
58
00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:07,800
[Thompson] The night this happened,
59
00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:11,160
we went out to the bar,
the usual Wednesday night spot,
60
00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:15,560
which was to play darts and, uh,
steak and potato night for five bucks.
61
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,400
My friend testified at my trial
about us closing the bar
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as we always did on Wednesday night
and then coming home,
63
00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:34,960
and, uh, Darren calling
at 2:33 o'clock in the morning
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00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:36,600
'cause he wanted to be with her again.
65
00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:43,760
We ended up getting into a fight.
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00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:50,840
The sheriff came
and told us both to leave.
67
00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:09,120
I came back at 6:00 in the morning
to get my stuff, to go to work,
68
00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,480
and, uh, the gentleman
was there in bed with her.
69
00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:18,800
So we got into a verbal altercation,
and one thing led to another.
70
00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:21,840
And, uh, from-- from what I can recollect
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00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:26,320
is he grabbed a French knife
out of the kitchen block
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and he began threatening me with it.
73
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The pistol came out.
74
00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,600
I believe I had gotten the pistol
outta her closet.
75
00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:40,000
So this gentleman threatened me
with the knife, told me I need to leave.
76
00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:42,320
And I-- I drew down on him and I told him,
77
00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,840
"Hey, you know,
you need to put the knife down."
78
00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,600
So we had pretty much
a stand-off at that point.
79
00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,480
Now what happened next is,
it's-- it's kind of a blur to me.
80
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:58,920
I was still hung over
and still a little drunk.
81
00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:01,920
But from what I remember, he came at me.
82
00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:05,720
If you look at the testimony
of the medical examiner,
83
00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:10,560
the first shot
was some over six to eight feet away.
84
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:12,240
He was coming at me.
85
00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,800
The second shot was three feet or less.
86
00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:16,080
[gunshot pops]
87
00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:19,000
It's just a big blur after that.
88
00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,320
We're tumbling around
and we're fighting over the pistol.
89
00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:28,440
It happened so fast.
90
00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:29,560
[gunshot]
91
00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:31,720
I-- I remember us fighting,
92
00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:35,559
and the gun going off, and she got hit.
93
00:08:36,159 --> 00:08:37,400
[gunshot]
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00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:40,840
[thumps]
95
00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:47,320
She was shot through the cheek
and it stopped in her jaw.
96
00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:51,280
She got in the middle of us fighting
and got shot in the mouth.
97
00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,560
And then I checked her,
and I thought she was dead.
98
00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,600
I picked up the phone and called 911.
It didn't go through.
99
00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:13,160
I ran, I left. I freaked out.
100
00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:39,160
[Thompson] After the crime happened,
101
00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,760
I went to a friend's house
and got bandaged up,
102
00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,480
and I passed out from shock.
103
00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:50,040
I got up in the morning a few hours later
and it was on the TV.
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And my friend was watching it,
105
00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:58,280
and she told me, "Hey, you know,
I think that's you on TV."
106
00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:00,160
And I started watching it, and I seen her.
107
00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,880
I said, "Oh, my God, she's alive."
And I started crying.
108
00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:07,440
They had her coming out
109
00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,160
with the bandage on her face,
sitting up on the-- on the stretcher
110
00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:12,840
before they put her in the ambulance.
111
00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:19,320
And, uh, you know, I called my dad
and I told him, "Hey," you know--
112
00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:22,800
He-- right away, he told me,
113
00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:24,200
"The police have been here looking
for you.
114
00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:25,480
They got you 'armed and dangerous.'"
115
00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:26,680
And I said, "Okay."
116
00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:30,120
He said, "Tell me where you're at, son.
You know, go turn yourself in."
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So I did.
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00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:18,320
[monitor beeping]
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00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:20,960
[Thompson] They told her, you know,
she was gonna be all right.
120
00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:25,960
This was routine surgery to them,
you know.
121
00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:28,880
They waited six hours to take her in.
It wasn't life-threatening.
122
00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:33,840
When they took her into pre-surgery,
123
00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:35,400
they repositioned her on her side,
124
00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:37,720
and they checked
with the fiber optic scope
125
00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:39,720
to make sure
everything was in the right place.
126
00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,680
Everybody left the operating room
to go scrub for this surgery,
127
00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:46,880
and she lost air.
128
00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,240
They ran in there,
and did an emergency trachea,
129
00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,960
hit her with the paddles
and brought her back to life.
130
00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:56,040
But it was too late.
She was already brain dead.
131
00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,840
-[monitor beeping]
-[oxygen hissing]
132
00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:03,160
[Thompson] She sat in a hospital room
for four days
133
00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:05,320
with a DNR, Do Not Resuscitate order.
134
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,640
They took me down to court
seven days after this happened.
135
00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,240
I said, "I don't have court."
They said, "Yeah, you do. Come on."
136
00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:42,720
So I went down to court and they told me,
137
00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:46,760
"Look, we're dropping the manslaughter
and the aggravated assault charges."
138
00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:50,200
And I looked at the bailiff and asked him,
"What does this mean?"
139
00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:53,960
And they said, "We're introducing
capital murder charges."
140
00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,760
And I looked at the bailiff and he says,
"It means the death penalty now, boy."
141
00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:00,720
I'm like, "Death penalty?
What are you talking about?"
142
00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:04,240
He said, "Yeah, you're charged
under double murder statute."
143
00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:06,080
I said, "I didn't kill her.
The hospital did."
144
00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:08,360
I had already talked to my family
on the phone
145
00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:10,720
and heard that there was complications,
146
00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:14,160
that the hospital had suffocated her.
147
00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:18,240
I was devastated.
148
00:13:20,680 --> 00:13:22,880
The family sued the hospital
for wrongful death.
149
00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:29,400
I understand
it was a very grueling time for them.
150
00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:33,480
Yeah, it was pretty sad.
151
00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,800
I loved the lady. You know,
I still think about her every day
152
00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:39,880
and why I'm here.
153
00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:43,480
And I wish that she would have lived
to testify about this
154
00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:45,320
'cause she would have told them
what happened.
155
00:14:11,680 --> 00:14:14,200
[man] Doctors hate lawyers
and they hate to testify,
156
00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,920
especially if they think
they've got a dog in the hunt.
157
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,840
I mean, they got a jillion dollars
worth of insurance.
158
00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:22,720
It ain't gonna cost them a dime.
159
00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:24,640
They can stand there
and admit they killed her,
160
00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:26,320
and it wouldn't have cost them a penny.
161
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,720
And-- and nobody
in the medical community would care.
162
00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:35,200
My name is Ellis McCullough,
163
00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:39,160
and I was Charles Victor Thompson's
original defense attorney.
164
00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:45,600
The first trial, I thought,
165
00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:50,400
hinged entirely on the interpretation
of the medical evidence.
166
00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:56,440
That Hayslip, uh,
the cause of her death, uh,
167
00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:00,680
was by her treatment at the hospital.
168
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,720
The state's insistence
that the standard was,
169
00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:16,160
"What if the victim had had
no medical care whatsoever?"
170
00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,120
Which I consider to be ludicrous.
171
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,160
Because there's almost no injury
that can't cause death
172
00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:27,760
if left totally unattended.
173
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:33,800
I think the standard ought to be
whatever the situation is.
174
00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:38,160
She didn't die at the scene.
175
00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,440
She didn't bleed to death at the scene.
They got her there.
176
00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:47,240
It was a nasty wound.
I won't take anything away from that.
177
00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:53,640
But they had everything there
to save her life and knew how to do it.
178
00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:55,080
It just didn't work out.
179
00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:01,400
In my opinion, with ordinary medical care,
180
00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:04,040
she would have survived.
181
00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:35,120
[man] You know, people make mistakes.
People do stupid stuff.
182
00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,960
I think he just--
fit of rage and jealousy.
183
00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:46,320
And "If I can't have her,
nobody's gonna have her" type of thing.
184
00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:56,360
Uh, my name's Michael Donaghy,
and I am Dennise's brother.
185
00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:04,920
That picture of her leaning over,
186
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:08,960
you know, sitting up on a gurney
and leaning forward
187
00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:11,839
so she wouldn't choke to death
on her own blood,
188
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,520
-it was just horrific.
-[monitor beeping]
189
00:17:16,599 --> 00:17:18,800
[Donaghy]
That's etched in my mind forever.
190
00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,400
I talked to a doctor down there
191
00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:29,720
and he said, you know,
192
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:33,320
"She's hurt bad, but it's, you know,
we're gonna take her back in a little bit,
193
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:34,840
we're gonna clean up the wound."
194
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:43,120
And so, I went to the rest of the family
and told them everything's gonna be okay.
195
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:44,360
She's gonna survive.
196
00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:46,920
She's probably gonna have
a speech impediment
197
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,320
and she's gonna have scarring on her face.
198
00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,880
About eight, ten hours later,
199
00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,080
it went from everything being okay
200
00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,080
to, you know,
she's pretty much brain dead.
201
00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:11,360
And that hit me like a ton of bricks,
202
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:14,760
'cause, you know, I felt responsible
for telling everybody it was okay.
203
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:19,480
I don't know what happened.
204
00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,640
But, you know, something happened and--
[sighs]
205
00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:27,040
One thing I will say
is that doctors cover doctors.
206
00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:28,680
They'll-- they'll cover each other.
207
00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:40,560
[man] Doctors are not magicians.
They're not all perfect.
208
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:41,840
They're human beings.
209
00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,560
They've had more training,
generally speaking,
210
00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,080
than the man or the woman in the street.
211
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,680
But they're still human beings.
212
00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:02,320
I'm Paul Radelat.
I am a pathologist by profession.
213
00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:10,840
The thrust of the defense
was that this was not a lethal wound,
214
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:15,640
and she died because this unfortunate
event took place in the hospital.
215
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:20,160
It was my role to substantiate that idea
216
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:24,680
as best I could
within the bounds of integrity.
217
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:32,120
The bullet penetrated
what was essentially the upper airway
218
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:38,440
and created bleeding right on top
of the entrance to the windpipe.
219
00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,520
That was a primary concern
of the physicians,
220
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:43,320
and that's the way they acted.
221
00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:08,040
[Dr. Radelat]
I don't think the doctors covered up.
222
00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:14,320
Maybe I'm being naive in that regard.
I think they were trying to do their best.
223
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:19,480
It's easy to make a mistake.
224
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:24,360
And I don't know if they made one or not,
but this is a very difficult situation.
225
00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:31,120
I'm not sure any "blame,"
as I understand the word,
226
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:36,600
should be apportioned
to the medical personnel.
227
00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:39,720
They intended no evil.
228
00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:45,360
The shooter, I think we can safely say,
intended evil.
229
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,000
[Thompson on recording] Yeah, it was
pretty sad. You know, I loved the lady.
230
00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,800
You know, I still think about her
every day and why I'm here.
231
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,240
I wish that she would have lived
to testify about this.
232
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:28,040
She would've told them what happened.
233
00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:29,480
She sat in a hospital room
234
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,000
with nothing but an IV for fluids
for four days,
235
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:34,560
with a DNR, Do Not Resuscitate order.
236
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:36,040
I didn't kill her. The hospital did.
237
00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:38,440
I had already talked to my family
on the phone
238
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:41,600
and heard that they had suffocated her,
239
00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:44,480
that there was complications,
that she had been in a coma.
240
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:48,360
[clears throat, sighs]
241
00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:50,800
Where do I begin with that one?
242
00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:59,400
Well, she's not in the hospital
if you don't shoot her.
243
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:02,400
Um…
244
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:06,920
I mean, it's an easy excuse to make.
245
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:09,400
It's an easy one to blame,
blame the hospital.
246
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:13,920
So, I would…
I would, in his situation, as well.
247
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,440
However, ultimately though,
248
00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:21,320
the truth is, is that you held a gun
to somebody's face
249
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:22,440
and you pulled the trigger.
250
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:25,520
And the reason why we know
it was held close
251
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,760
because there are powder burns
on her cheek.
252
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,160
My name is Wade Hayslip.
253
00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:36,840
Dennise was my mom.
254
00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:45,720
My mom was a, uh,
very kindhearted individual.
255
00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:50,360
Uh, she taught me everything
I needed to know about compassion.
256
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:55,040
I would hope that Chuck comprehends.
257
00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:57,120
I hope that he understands the weight of…
258
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,720
of, uh, the domino effect
that he's started,
259
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,800
the impact that this has caused.
260
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:12,160
I feel it every day.
261
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:17,400
[Thompson] From what I remember,
Darren came at me.
262
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,600
Yeah. I shot once, twice,
and then we fought.
263
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,400
And then, I-- the rest of it,
it's just a blur to me.
264
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:27,320
It's "just a blur"?
265
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,320
He shot once, twice. He fired five times.
266
00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:34,800
And when he was on the ground face down,
put a bullet into the back of his head.
267
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:38,040
Okay.
268
00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:40,640
Um, how is that a blur?
That's pretty clear.
269
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:42,480
It's pretty vivid.
270
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:45,320
And intentional.
271
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:49,080
[Thompson] I believe I'd gotten the pistol
out of her closet.
272
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,480
You know, I-I remember us fighting
and the gun going off, and she got hit.
273
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,720
I can't-- I don't remember
exactly how it all happened.
274
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:06,040
It's…
275
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,480
[sighs]
276
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,280
He didn't go into detail
about how the door got broken into,
277
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:20,560
which the door frame was smashed.
278
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:27,000
Uh, and also the encounter happened,
uh, in the living room and in the kitchen.
279
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:33,880
So I don't know how he would have got
into the closet to do that.
280
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:38,400
I feel like this is like a five-year-old
281
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,040
when you caught them
doing something wrong,
282
00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:43,320
but they continually maintain
that they didn't do it,
283
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,000
uh, even though
you literally just saw them do it.
284
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:48,520
I feel like that, it's…
285
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:51,720
The rest of the world knows.
286
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,400
But for whatever reason,
you're gonna stick to this lie.
287
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,320
[woman] The night that the murder
took place,
288
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:21,680
we had all been here at Bimbo's--
Dennise, Chuck and I,
289
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,720
playing darts and doing steak night.
Normal night.
290
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:35,120
My name is Missy Cook,
and we're at Bimbo's in Houston, Texas.
291
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:40,760
It's your local watering hole.
292
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:46,160
Basically an icon dive bar
that's been here for decades.
293
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,760
Dennise was so freaking incredible.
294
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:55,880
She was one of these people that you met,
295
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,440
and the minute you met her
and you started talking to her,
296
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,880
five minutes into the conversation,
you felt like you've known her forever.
297
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,160
She was your sister, she was your aunt,
298
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,600
she was your best friend,
she was your childhood playmate.
299
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:14,680
She just had this personability
that you-- you just felt right at home.
300
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,720
Dennise and Chuck
seemed like a very odd couple to me.
301
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:24,960
One, because of his age. He was younger.
302
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,800
I can't really say
I remember the first time that I met him.
303
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:34,680
Because, you know, in the bar business,
you got 50 people in your face.
304
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:39,280
If I had to speculate
about me and my age and the timeframe,
305
00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:41,160
I thought, "Damn, he's cute."
306
00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:47,080
But I think, also, that the other side
of that was I realized very quickly,
307
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,960
"There's-- something's not right
with that one. Keep an eye on him."
308
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:58,480
I did have her come in to the bar one time
with a black eye late at night
309
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,800
and talk to me and was like,
"Look, this is what he did."
310
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,800
And, you know, the bar was dark.
I was like, "What are you talking about?"
311
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:08,120
She's like, "Look,
I've got a lot of makeup on, but…"
312
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:10,560
You know, I was like,
"Holy fucking shit, what are you doing?
313
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:12,080
What are you doing with this guy?
314
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:15,800
Get away from him. He's a loose cannon.
He drinks too much, he's doing cocaine.
315
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:17,840
Get away from this guy."
316
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:21,360
And she's like, "I know.
I need to, I need to, I need to."
317
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,320
-[bottles clanking]
-[indistinct chatter]
318
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:32,600
[Cook] I was uneasy
319
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:38,840
because I knew Dennise
was trying to set boundaries with Chuck.
320
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:44,360
Who knew this was gonna happen?
321
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,000
[crickets chirping]
322
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:03,920
[man] We're outside
of the crime scene, actually.
323
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,560
Dennise lived
in this subdivision behind us.
324
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:14,520
My name is Jim Kelly.
325
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:18,200
I owned, uh, a restaurant
326
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,880
where Darren was working
as a bartender for me that night.
327
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:28,960
My understanding
was that Dennise was through with Chuck.
328
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:31,240
As a matter of fact,
I know she was through with Chuck
329
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:33,360
because she told me herself
that she was done.
330
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,160
Oh, she had dumped Chuck because he was--
331
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:41,040
remember-- I remember her saying,
"He was just a creep."
332
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,200
And then she met Darren.
And they were the exact opposite.
333
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,720
If you could put this guy here
and this guy here,
334
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:48,240
you got an achiever and you got a loser.
335
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,880
Darren was very outgoing,
he was very friendly.
336
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,520
He had a great smile, and…
337
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,040
you know, and he was going places.
338
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,240
They'd only been together
just a few short weeks
339
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:05,240
when this happened.
340
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,760
That night,
Darren was working as my bartender,
341
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:16,880
and he called me up and asked me…
342
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,240
you know, he said
that Chuck had threatened Dennise
343
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:21,800
and wanted to go over
to the place and see,
344
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,400
you know, protect her if--
if he showed up.
345
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:26,680
And I said, "Okay, go ahead."
346
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:30,920
Uh, which, you know, to this day,
I-- I regret that decision.
347
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,640
Darren went over,
348
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,680
and they had a physical confrontation.
349
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:46,920
Darren whooped him,
from what I understand.
350
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,720
And then he, uh… he said,
"Chuck, you know, this is stupid
351
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,200
'cause she's not gonna date you,
she's dating me.
352
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:57,840
And, uh, will you drink a beer with me?"
353
00:29:57,920 --> 00:29:59,600
This is what he told me on the phone.
354
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,440
Chuck agreed. And they talked things out.
355
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,160
After the confrontation with Chuck,
356
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,320
Darren called me and he felt really good
about what had happened.
357
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,120
He felt like, you know, Chuck and him
had had an agreement,
358
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,800
and he felt like that, you know,
that it was over
359
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:19,480
and that Chuck was gonna go his way
360
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:21,280
and Dennise and Darren
were gonna go his way.
361
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:24,920
And obviously, that didn't happen.
362
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:34,000
You know, my understanding
is that Chuck left
363
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,640
and he came back,
uh, knocked down the door.
364
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:41,000
And, uh, Darren answered the door
and he, uh, just shot him in the chest.
365
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:42,960
[gunshot]
366
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,600
Then walked around,
and shot him in the back of the head.
367
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,120
[gunshot]
368
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:52,160
And then proceeded to chase,
uh, Dennise around the apartment
369
00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,520
and, uh, caught her
and blew the whole front of her face off.
370
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:56,800
[gunshot]
371
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,400
When I got here, Dennise was still here.
372
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,280
They were-- they were
actually life-flighting her out of here.
373
00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,880
Um, Darren, uh, was just inside the door.
374
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,920
Um, I could-- I could see him
laying on the ground.
375
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:24,760
And the sheriff said, you know,
"He's dead. He's gone."
376
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,440
And I… I just turned away.
377
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,960
You know, in retrospect,
now knowing what happened,
378
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:44,320
what type of a person does it take
to shake someone's hand, go away,
379
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:48,920
and then come back hours later
and just murder two people?
380
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,360
How-- what type of a person can do that?
381
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:08,960
[faint sirens whooping]
382
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,040
[Rodgers] This is where
he's kicking in the door, right?
383
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:33,720
Yeah, he splintered the door here.
384
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:41,000
I remember this being shown, uh,
during the original trial.
385
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:46,960
My name is Harrell Rodgers,
386
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:51,520
and I was a juror
in the trial of Charles Thompson
387
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,360
for the capital murder of two people.
388
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:05,560
We didn't see a lot of these pictures
of the damage done to Dennise.
389
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,840
And really, I don't remember this
390
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:13,400
being, uh, a large part
of the deliberations of the jury.
391
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,200
The jurors, I think,
had pretty well accepted the fact
392
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:23,200
that if he had not shot her
in the face like this,
393
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:25,320
uh, she would not have died.
394
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,200
And so, he was guilty of taking her life.
395
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:36,600
Our primary issue was whether this guy
was a continuing threat to society.
396
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,000
And there were other things
that came up in the course of the trial
397
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:45,840
that convinced us that this guy
was really a very dangerous person.
398
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,680
One of the most striking things
in the trial
399
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,560
was the testimony of Diane Zernia.
400
00:34:10,199 --> 00:34:11,679
[Thompson] It happened so fast.
401
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:14,480
I remember us fighting
402
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,639
and the gun going off, and she got hit.
403
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:24,199
She got in the middle of us fighting
and got shot in the mouth.
404
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:29,000
And then I checked her
and I thought she was dead.
405
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,400
I ran, I left. I freaked out.
406
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:41,000
[Rodgers] Uh, these are not the facts
that Diane Zernia presented at trial.
407
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:45,639
The testimony was that in telling Diane
408
00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:48,760
how Dennise Hayslip got shot,
409
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:52,159
he said that he said to Dennise,
410
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:54,440
"I can shoot you, too, bitch,"
411
00:34:55,080 --> 00:35:00,040
and put a pistol up to her jaw
and pulled the trigger.
412
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,600
Diane was the most frightened person
I've ever seen
413
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:15,280
uh, on… on a stand, uh, or anywhere else.
414
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:19,000
I mean, she was a very thin lady
to begin with
415
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,240
and she was just pale.
416
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:26,440
Her eyes were as big as a silver dollar
and she was scared to death.
417
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,320
She was frightened of this guy.
418
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:48,520
[cassette clicks]
419
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:03,160
[man on recording]
Okay, today's date is, uh, July 7th, 1998.
420
00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:06,480
The time is 5:45 p.m.
421
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,760
I'm gonna be walking across
to make contact with a Charles Thompson,
422
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,800
reference to a solicitation
for capital murder.
423
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:18,720
-[gate opening]
-[muffled footsteps]
424
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:20,160
[man] Charles Thompson?
425
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:21,880
[Thompson] Hey, dude.
426
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:23,400
-[man] You're Thompson?
-Yeah.
427
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,000
[man] Okay. I've been waiting
about 10 minutes.
428
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,040
How long does it take to get y'all here?
429
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,720
-[Thompson] Sometimes it takes a while.
-[man] Okay.
430
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:34,040
Uh, well, I tell you, I'm not too crazy
about having to come to jail.
431
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:35,760
You know? I don't think that's cool…
432
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,240
[Hayslip] Entrapment, I believe,
is, uh, the technical term,
433
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:41,840
an individual was sent undercover
into his jail cell
434
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:46,840
and was able to, um,
secure information from Chuck.
435
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,640
[Thompson] I was reading the paper today.
436
00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:51,880
In order for a grand jury
to give an indictment,
437
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,640
they usually pull their witnesses in
for testimony.
438
00:36:54,720 --> 00:36:57,400
There's a witness in this case
I need you to take care of.
439
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,240
[man] Okay, when you--
when you say "take care of," uh…
440
00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:04,880
[man] I thought-- I thought this guy,
Max, was gonna kill her?
441
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:07,920
[Thompson] He's fucking me around,
so he didn't do it.
442
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:11,800
I've already given this Max guy
some money and he fucked me over.
443
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:12,760
[man] How much have you given?
444
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:15,520
[Thompson] A hundred and twenty-five.
Like a down payment.
445
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,200
[man] Is this that girl
you said you wanted to kill?
446
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,080
-[Thompson] Yeah.
-All right, uh…
447
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,640
[Thompson] I need you to get rid of her.
She's the state's witness.
448
00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:25,120
-She's the only witness they've got.
-[man] Okay.
449
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:29,640
How hard would it be for me to find
this chick to go ahead and knock her off?
450
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:32,560
[Thompson] Not hard.
Here's her address right here.
451
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:33,520
You got a pen?
452
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:37,440
[man] No. I can remember it.
Okay, let's do this, then.
453
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:42,920
So, Thompson tells him,
"I need you to kill the witnesses,
454
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:46,880
the-- the people
to whom I have confessed."
455
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:52,040
You're sitting in a jury
and what do you hear?
456
00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:57,800
Drunken jerk comes into a house,
457
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:01,480
kills one guy, shoots another one
who subsequently dies,
458
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:05,680
admits to it and then tries
to get the witnesses killed.
459
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:07,040
Do you care about anything else?
460
00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:10,080
-[Thompson] Hell, yeah.
-What are we talking about?
461
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:12,160
-How much?
-[Thompson] Name your price.
462
00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:14,440
[man] All right.
Well, if you've got the address,
463
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:16,120
okay, I'll kill her for 1500.
464
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,760
Okay, I've gotta--
I've gotta memorize this now.
465
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:20,920
[indistinct chatter]
466
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,440
[man] Diane Zernia? Z-E-R-N…
467
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:27,000
Diane Zernia. Diane, Diane, Diane Zernia.
468
00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:29,920
So, where's this located at?
Which is that?
469
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,360
[Thompson]
[bleeps] neighborhood. It's off [bleeps].
470
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:34,360
[man] Okay, I know it.
471
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:36,720
[Thompson] Here,
it's a Victorian-style house
472
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,040
and the mailbox
is black-and-white spotted,
473
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:40,240
painted like a cow.
474
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,560
She's about 48, 50 years old.
475
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:45,320
She's a mother.
She's got a 14-year-old daughter.
476
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:50,680
[man] Okay. And when you get out now,
it's 1500 bucks.
477
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,000
-[Thompson] Not a problem.
-All right?
478
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,120
[man] I'm gonna come after you
if you don't pay me.
479
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:57,320
I'll-- I'll pay you, man.
I give you my word.
480
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:58,240
[man] Okay, the bitch is dead.
481
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:00,560
[Thompson] Only thing a man's got
in this world is his word.
482
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:02,640
[man] Yeah, that's it.
So stand on it, all right?
483
00:39:02,720 --> 00:39:04,640
-[Thompson] No problem, buddy.
-All right.
484
00:39:04,720 --> 00:39:06,880
[man] Later. I'm outta here.
485
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:08,520
[player stops]
486
00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:16,680
[Rodgers] This was, uh,
a real turning point for me.
487
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:20,240
We thought a lot about the fact
488
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:26,440
that if somebody had been successful
in carrying out this murder for him,
489
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:29,720
he would have had no remorse whatsoever
that we could see.
490
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,600
He would have been elated
to get rid of her.
491
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:40,040
This is the first time
I started thinking about, "Wait a minute.
492
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:45,360
Maybe life in jail
is not the right decision for this guy."
493
00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:50,400
That this was a guy
capable of doing enormous evil.
494
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:38,080
[woman] I don't know how you ever murder
somebody just in the moment.
495
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:39,920
I don't care how angry.
496
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,920
I don't know.
Some people have that in them, though.
497
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:49,480
My name is Kristen Merttens.
I was the foreman on the jury
498
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:51,680
for Charles Victor Thompson's retrial.
499
00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,640
We were not deciding guilt or innocence,
we were deciding his punishment--
500
00:41:00,720 --> 00:41:02,200
whether or not to give him life
501
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:06,720
or sentence him again
to the death penalty.
502
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,600
The defense did target pretty heavily
503
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,920
that she had died six days later
in the hospital.
504
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,120
To me, that was irrelevant.
Um, he had shot her in the face.
505
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,880
And he did murder somebody first.
506
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:28,800
I think Darren was lost in the case.
507
00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:36,480
I don't think that his death
was brought up as much as Dennise's was.
508
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,680
And I feel bad for his family.
509
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:49,640
I wholeheartedly believe
that he went there to kill Darren
510
00:41:49,720 --> 00:41:51,480
and he went there to kill Dennise.
511
00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:55,080
Darren was more of a hands-off,
512
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,400
"I just want to take him
out of the picture."
513
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:02,560
And I think he made it very personal
when he killed Dennise.
514
00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:20,560
[Merttens]
I think for somebody like Chuck,
515
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:25,760
he's narcissistic,
he really enjoys the attention.
516
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:29,720
I think if he were to have
a life sentence,
517
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:33,600
it would be a gift to him
because of his personality
518
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:35,280
and because of his makeup.
519
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,680
I distinctly remember
after the verdict was read
520
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,280
and we were back in the deliberation room,
521
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:49,640
the judge comes in and speaks with us,
the prosecution does, et cetera.
522
00:42:49,720 --> 00:42:51,720
And I remember asking the question,
523
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:56,160
"Is there any possible way, you know,
he's gonna be able to get out?
524
00:42:56,240 --> 00:42:59,040
You know, my name's public, et cetera."
There's always a concern.
525
00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:02,320
The judge says, "Oh, that's ridiculous.
No, he's on death row now."
526
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:05,520
And then four days later,
I find out that he escaped.
527
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,800
[Hayslip] "Search goes nationwide
for escaped Texas inmate."
528
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,600
This little snippet right here.
529
00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:44,800
[Hayslip] I was at work
and I, uh, got a call in the parking lot.
530
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,640
Believe it was somebody
from the district attorney's office
531
00:43:47,720 --> 00:43:51,320
was informing me
that-- that Charles Thompson had escaped.
532
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:52,880
Did I feel safe?
533
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,840
You know, would I feel better
with any type of, um, police escort?
534
00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:58,320
That type of thing.
535
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:02,160
And, uh, I said no.
I-I didn't necessarily feel threatened.
536
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,040
"To many death row inmates,
Charles Victor Thompson
537
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,720
who walked out the front door
of the Harris County Jail
538
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,160
and was free for four days
before his re-capture in Louisiana
539
00:44:13,240 --> 00:44:16,840
will remain a manipulative, selfish,
directionless person
540
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:20,200
who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend
and her new boyfriend."
541
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:29,400
You know, the one thing
that stood out about this
542
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:35,360
is that he goes to this great plot
to escape…
543
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:38,520
and succeeds.
544
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,840
And then he gets caught
'cause he got drunk at a liquor store,
545
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:47,760
or gas station, or some type
of convenience store in Louisiana.
546
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:51,920
You're telling me that he hopped
on a train, did all this stuff,
547
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:56,240
managed to walk out of a jail,
but he gets drunk and they catch him?
548
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:00,520
At that moment, I go, "What an idiot."
549
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:06,120
But, I-- you know, maybe that's not fair,
550
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:08,200
because I wouldn't know…
551
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:11,920
I don't know what it's like to be
on the run.
552
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,560
And, um, I don't know
what it's like to be in jail
553
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:18,440
for, at that point, ten years.
554
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:26,680
[chains jangling]
555
00:45:27,240 --> 00:45:29,400
[Hayslip] It doesn't surprise me at all
that he was able
556
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:30,880
to talk his way out of anything.
557
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,440
-[keys jangling]
-[door lock clicking]
558
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,200
He was charming, and cunning,
and very manipulative.
559
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,320
Chuck is quite the artist at manipulation.
560
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:45,160
[mouths]
Thank you.
561
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:07,160
Hello.
562
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:09,400
I'm doing good.
563
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:12,000
No surprises today?
564
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:15,800
[laughs]
565
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:19,200
Well, my life's an open book.
[laughs]
566
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:26,560
Charles Victor Thompson walked out
the front door of the Harris County Jail
567
00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:29,920
and was free for four days
before his recapture in Louisiana.
568
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:36,000
Our primary issue was whether this guy
was a continuing threat to society.
569
00:46:37,720 --> 00:46:38,720
[chuckles]
570
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,640
I think I kinda debunked
"future threat to society."
571
00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:45,280
I was running around in the free world
for four days.
572
00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:50,200
I walked past little old ladies
in front of-- of shopping centers
573
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,360
getting out of their cars,
I didn't carjack them.
574
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:56,200
I didn't rob anybody,
I didn't assault anybody,
575
00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:57,520
I didn't hurt anybody.
576
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,960
But if you listen
to any capital death penalty trial,
577
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,480
they-- they drill it into the jury's head,
"He's a future threat. He'll kill again."
578
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:13,080
My understanding was that Dennise
was through with Chuck.
579
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,360
As a matter of fact,
I know she was through with Chuck
580
00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:17,520
because she told me herself
that she was done.
581
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:21,360
And that was even before she started
dating Darren.
582
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:26,360
Yeah, that sounds right.
I'm sure she did tell him that.
583
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:29,760
But, you know, we broke up,
got back together, broke up,
584
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:33,080
got back together,
and dated other people. We had that…
585
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:37,000
I don't know what you call it.
Couldn't leave each other alone?
586
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:39,680
We kept coming back to each other.
587
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:43,160
Who knows? She probably
would have come and visited me in prison.
588
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:45,200
She was that kind of lady.
589
00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:52,360
If I was intentionally going to do this,
as they said,
590
00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:54,920
why would I call first, you know?
591
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,640
I went to the pay phone, I called her.
592
00:47:57,720 --> 00:48:00,320
I told her I have to come
and get my work stuff.
593
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:01,800
She said, "I'm trying to sleep."
594
00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:03,520
I said, "Is Darren there?" She said, "No."
595
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:06,320
I said, "I'll be there in five minutes,"
and I hung up.
596
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:07,640
She went back to sleep.
597
00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:09,800
I went back in the bedroom
598
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:14,000
and started getting clothes
and stuff out of the-- out of the dresser,
599
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:16,560
and she sat up in bed and goes,
[gasps] "Oh, my God."
600
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:20,000
Then I realize there was somebody
laying in bed next to her.
601
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:22,400
'Cause I was…
I wasn't trying to wake her up.
602
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:25,160
I was just getting my stuff.
I told her I was coming.
603
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:29,280
So, you know,
when I seen him there, I'm like,
604
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:30,880
that's when I started in on her.
605
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,920
"Oh, my God," you know.
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. We had words.
606
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:38,720
An individual was sent undercover
into his jail cell
607
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:43,560
and was able to, um,
secure information from Chuck.
608
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:48,200
They were friends, and yet he tried
to hire someone to murder her
609
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,680
just because he did not want her
to testify at trial.
610
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:54,720
It's embarrassing. What can I say?
611
00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:59,480
I was a confused drug addict, you know?
612
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:01,480
An alcoholic that made a bad decision
613
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:04,560
and another bad decision
and another bad decision.
614
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:08,880
You know, I was upset
that Diane changed her statement.
615
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:10,960
I felt that she was lying.
616
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:16,280
But yeah, it's…
it's nothing I wanna talk about, really.
617
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:18,680
I wished it never happened.
618
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:22,280
I mean, it's-- it's just a bad situation
all the way around.
619
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:25,520
I've never wished Diane any harm.
620
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:33,600
[Hayslip] I don't harbor anger at all.
621
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:37,640
I do feel that…
622
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:43,000
what is to come with the death penalty
623
00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:48,840
is appropriate and just.
624
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:57,480
I mean, to carry a torch
for somebody to die for 20 years?
625
00:49:57,560 --> 00:50:00,320
That's, you know, okay.
626
00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:01,760
I mean, you know. [laughs]
627
00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:02,920
I don't--
628
00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:06,120
I-- I couldn't hate somebody that long.
629
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:08,080
It's not in my-- not in my blood.
630
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:13,200
You know what they say about hate,
it'll eat you up inside.
51063
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