[Female narrator] For this long-married couple,
their life together was nothing short of a dream come true.
The typical American neighborhood
likeAndy Griffith.
[Leslie] The neighbors all knew each other.
I played with the neighbor's kids.
Every day, we'd go play in the streets.
[Narrator] But this picture of perfection is shattered
by a gruesome midday discovery.
We got hit with this mess. I mean, it was a warzone.
The ring finger had been cut off,
and the wedding band was missing.
[Narrator] To find out who executed this brutal crime,
investigators must first sift through gossip and lies.
Neighbors had observed some rough-looking people
coming and going all hours of the night.
[Narrator] In the end, they uncover a cold-blooded plot
built on lies and motivated by greed.
He says that he had met her some weeks earlier
at a rehabilitation facility.
[Susan] She tells him this tale of woe.
And these two guys killed her husband,
and she had nothing to do with it.
[TJ] What seemed to be randomness,
now seems to be more planned out.
There was an actual conspiracy here.
[music]
[Narrator] On the outskirts of Houston, League City, Texas,
offers residents a sanctuary from the hustle and bustle
of big city life.
[Mike] Kind of a suburban community with a lot of people
residing there that worked at NASA, or in Houston,
or in Galveston.
[Narrator] With its swimming pool, tennis courts
and children playing in the streets,
the sprawling South Shore subdivision is nearly flawless.
It's a typical American neighborhood
likeAndy Griffith.
[Narrator] But just before 7:00 PM on May 30, 1997,
a call comes into 911 from a South Shore resident,
a call that quickly breaks the humdrum of suburban life.
[Narrator] A panicked 38-year-old Barbara Holder
gets on the line.
[Susan] She thought it might be her husband, Curtis Holder,
but the man had a bag over the top of his body,
so she wasn't completely identifying him.
[Narrator] Within minutes, League City police officers
arrive at Barbara's home
and see several neighbors trying to comfort her.
[William] She was crying, very emotional.
She had tears coming down her face.
[Narrator] The responding officers
cautiously enter the Holder residence.
We got hit with this mess.
I mean, it was a warzone in there.
The body was laying down on the floor.
And he had a blue plastic bag over his head,
and part of his chest, and over his waist.
[Mike] He was stripped from the waist down,
including his underwear.
The body contained multiple knife wounds.
There were a number of shoe impressions on the floor,
in the blood.
[Narrator] The entire scene is shocking,
but there is one act of brutality
that's unlike anything they have seen before.
I reached down, checked his pulse,
and I didn't find a pulse.
And that's when we called for backup.
His ring finger had been cut off
and was laying over in the corner.
[Narrator] Detectives arrive at the scene to find Barbara
desperate for answers.
She kept saying over and over again, is that Curtis?
I know it's Curtis. Is that Curtis?
[TJ] They knew Curtis lived there.
What they're looking for is some form of identification,
and they couldn't find that.
So they sent identification officers
to the scene to assist.
It took a good hour before they actually got the information
that the victim was Curtis Holder.
[Narrator] Curtis Holder was born in 1949
to Henry and Anna Holder in Houston, Texas.
Growing up, Curtis was one of five siblings
And from a young age, he always stood out
as one of the good guys.
Curtis is the type of person that, if you're a mother,
you would be proud to call him your son.
[Narrator] Curtis had clear ambitions in life.
He wanted a good job, and he wanted a family.
At 22 years old, in 1972,
he secured a job at the Xerox Corporation.
He worked on a copier that was actually on NASA.
It was, like, this million-dollar copy machine
that nobody else could work on but him.
[Narrator] In 1978, 29-year-old Curtis
met a fun-loving 19-year-old, Barbara Shaw.
It was a mutual friend that introduced the two of them.
They seemed to hit it off right away.
[Narrator] Despite their age difference,
Barbara's upbringing forced her to grow up fast,
and she felt ready to settle down when she met Curtis.
Her mom was battling alcoholism,
and there as not a lot of stability within that.
[Phyllis] The only thing that I ever heard about Barbara was
her mother said that they were raised in house to house.
And she never really had a permanent home.
[Dr. Sahni] So at the age of 19, she meets this older man,
29-year-old Curtis Holder. He's got a good job, he's a man
who's going to give her that sort of all-American dream life
[Narrator] In June 1980, Curtis and Barbara tied the kno
in a simple courthouse ceremony
In the years that followed, Barbara gave birth
to two children, Christopher and Leslie.
[Leslie] My mother did not work.
So my mom wasn't the disciplinary.
She would, more, say, you know, whenever your dad gets home,
this is when we'll deal with it
So he worked and took care of me and my brother, Chris.
I was definitely a daddy's girl My dad was definitely loving,
and, uh, he loved me, he loved Chris.
[Narrator] Curtis continued to advance in his career,
bringing in a paycheck that allowed the couple to purchase
a beautiful home in the League City neighborhood
of South Shore.
[Leslie] The neighbors all knew each other.
I played with the neighbor's kids.
Chris had his friends.
After school, every day, we'd go play in the streets.
[Phyllis] Barbara was a fanatic when it came to that house.
That was her house. And that was her pride and joy.
[Narrator] But on May 30, 1997,
this portrait of suburban success is destroyed
when homicide detectives discover a horrific scene
at the Holder home.
The scenario is that Barbara Holder entered her home
and found Curtis laying in her kitchen with some blue bags
over him, and there was an amputation of the left finger.
It was a very bloody area around the kitchen.
His throat was cut. He had multiple stab wounds
to his entire body, blunt trauma to the head.
So tremendous trauma to his body.
[Narrator] Detectives check in with Barbara,
who has taken refuge inside a neighbor's home.
They break the news to Barbara that the body is in fact
her husband, Curtis Holder.
[William] Barbara Jean was very upset.
She started crying and says, oh thank God, thank God,
thank God my daughter didn't go in with me.
If she'd have seen her daddy on the floor dead like that...
[Mike] Barbara said that she saw Curtis off to work that morning
And that then she continued throughout the day to
run a lot of errands.
While she was out running her errands,
her husband calls her up
and tells her to go pick up her daughter from daycare,
who was five years old at the time.
[Narrator] Barbara did as Curtis requested
[TJ] So Barbara has her daughter with her, but she said her son,
Chris, her eldest, is off on a camping trip at the time.
[William] She comes home, the daughter goes over
to the neighbor's house instead of going in with her.
She walks in, sees a dead body on the floor.
[Narrator] Detectives give Barbara some time
to process the tragic news.
They turn to Sylvia Yeats, a neighbor who tells them
that she saw Curtis come home that day around 4:00 PM.
[Sylvia] I was coming home from school,
and I stopped at my mailbox.
I looked up the street, and I saw Curtis.
She saw him enter at about 4:10, and the call for us
was approximately two and a half hours later.
[Narrator] Sylvia has another bit of information to offer.
[Mike] Two days before,
Sylvia Yeats had been burglarized.
[Sylvia] Wednesday, when I come home, and I see the light on
in the master bedroom, so I walked further into the room and
saw the closet door was open. And there was clothes strewn
about the floor, and all my jewelry was gone.
If you have burglaries in the neighborhood,
it leads you to believe that maybe this was a burglary.
And for detectives, that's also a clue.
They have to determine if it wa a burglar who'd been surprised,
or a home invasion, or that type of case.
[Narrator] Coming up,
a new clue takes the investigation
in a surprising direction.
Now they were going down that path thinking, maybe
the person was his spurned lover.
[Narrator] And detectives start to sort fact from fiction.
[Narrator] May 30, 1997.
Authorities in League City, Texas have positively identifie
the body found inside a quaint suburban home
as 47-year-old Curtis Holder.
[Susan] I've been doing this 30-plus years,
and I've never seen a case where they both
covered the face and exposed the bottom half of the body.
Which is also kind of odd.
Now, sometimes when a person is killed by a loved one,
that person covers up the face or head to make it
seem more dignified, but this was the opposite of that.
[Narrator] After hearing from the Holders' neighbor,
Sylvia Yeats, about her recent home burglary,
investigators wonder,
did Curtis interrupt a robbery in progress?
[Mike] Most of the rooms in the Holder home were ransacked.
But there were no broken windows
or anything else that showed forced entry into the home.
[Narrator] But amid the mess,
detectives make note of an odd pattern.
[Mike] Not all of the drawers were pulled out in some
of the rooms. Drawers seemed to have been undisturbed,
which was unusual.
[Susan] There were a lot of valuables that were left.
The officers experienced in working burglaries told them
that's not how burglars work.
That indicates that someone is working
to mislead their investigation.
[Narrator] Investigators take their attention to the kitchen,
where the murder took place.
[Mike] The general crime scene in the kitchen painted
a tremendous struggle that took place.
There were things knocked over in the kitchen.
There were dents in some of the appliances.
[Narrator] Detectives don't spot a murder weapon,
but they do find a clue as to where it might have come from.
[Susan] They did find a block where the family kitchen
knives were, and the biggest knife in that block was missing.
[Narrator] Curtis's body reflects
the brutality of the scene.
Curtis had contusions around his head
where he was hit with something like a wrench.
He was stabbed 93 times in the face and chest.
[Mike] His left ring finger had been amputated
and thrown across the room.
[Narrator] The medical examiner notes that after the murder,
the killer continued the assaul on Curtis's body.
They had taken his clothes off.
They took his pants off, and his underwear.
And they took a blue bag,
and they put it over the top part of his head,
covering his head, which is also kind of odd.
[Narrator] Investigators have a strong hunch
that this killing was personal.
It's unusual to find that level of injury and that much trauma
to a face and neck exclusively.
The fact that the ring finger is missing, and he was stabbed
to the point where he was almost decapitated really
starts to speak to that there was some intimate relationship,
and maybe even a romantic relationship.
[Narrator] Detectives and crime scene technicians
find something in the master bedroom that sticks out.
[William] It was a greetings card sitting on top of
Curtis Holder's dresser.
And it said, "Have a nice life. Love, Brett."
[Dr. Sahni] The card reads in a manner and tone
that might suggest it's a final goodbye from someone who was
romantically involved or sexually involved with Curtis.
So detectives first have to determine who is this person.
[Narrator] Hoping to learn more about Curtis's personal life,
investigators ask Barbara to come to the station
for a formal statement just after 10:00 PM.
They want to try to get anything else that is pertinent
to their relationship and to any relationships
that Curtis may have had.
[Narrator] Barbara tells detectives that while her
husband was a well-liked guy,
they faced their share of obstacles
in their nearly 17 years together.
[Mike] The picture that was painted was that it
was very dysfunctional.
They had financial problems that Curtis blamed on Barbara.
He had actually moved away from the house a year before
and separated from her.
My dad moving out was explained to me, basically,
that they just needed a break.
[Narrator] However, after nearly a year, Curtis returned home.
[Mike] He came back about five months before his murder
back into the home.
And most of the neighbors and friends attributed that
to his love of his children,
not his love or relationship with Barbara.
Barbara talks about the relationship she had
with Curtis.
And she begins to paint for police a very
different human being. A husband who's controlling.
It put her into a very deep depression.
She described to the police that she was depressed and suicidal.
[Narrator] In fact, Barbara tells them that the stress
from it all lingered.
And 15 days ago,
she sought help at a local mental hospital.
Well, she was in the hospital for, as she had put it,
her mental breakdown.
[Narrator] Barbara says that much of her stress was rooted
in a suspicion that Curtis was unfaithful.
When Barbara is interviewed, one of the things
that she draws attention to is this belief that Curtis was
actually gay and not straight,
and was closeted about his sexual interests.
[Narrator] Barbara doesn't know who he had an affair with, but
she gives detectives two names, Brett Wilson and Jerome Rapp.
Detectives immediately recogniz one of the names
from the card found at the Holder home.
Now they were going down that path, thinking maybe
the person was a spurned lover.
[Narrator] Investigators dive into this theory.
And less than 12 hours after Curtis's body was found,
they find 42-year-old Brett Wilson
and bring him into the station for an interview.
[Narrator] The mention of Barbara's name
seems to clarify things for Brett.
[Dr. Sahni] It was actually Barbara he was friends with,
and that he met Curtis through Barbara.
[Narrator] But Brett continues to insist
that he never sent Curtis a card.
[Narrator] Brett is cooperative with investigators.
And before they wrap up his interview, he provides an alibi
You have a home that looks, on first glance,
like it's been burglarized, and yet things about how
the home's been ransacked suggest it's been staged.
You have a birthday card that now potentially is a forgery,
which means it may also have been staged.
They've now walked away from their interview with Brett
with more questions.
[Narrator] Coming up, the rumor mill churns.
She was spending money on drugs, booze, and boyfriends.
[Narrator] And a call comes in to a neighbor
that raises a red flag.
The neighbor noticed that the call was not coming
from the police department.
The call was coming from a motel.
[Narrator] Detectives investigating the brutal murder
of Curtis Holder have just interviewed Brett Wilson,
one of the men Barbara Holder named as a potential
love interest of Curtis.
[Susan] The police explored that,
and the police were not able to find anything that indicated
there was a homosexual relationship
between Curtis and his friend.
[Narrator] After detectives confirm Brett's alibi
checks out, they move on. And just a few hours later,
they locate the other man Barbara mentioned, Jerome Rapp.
He agrees to come in for an interview.
When Jerome is interviewed, what's clear to the detectives
is their stories are consistent
Neither of them really knew Curtis.
They knew of him, and they knew of him through Barbara.
They partied with her.
[Narrator] He tells police that he spent the previous day
in Galveston with a friend.
[Narrator] Jerome says Barbara often confided in him about
her marriage, claiming more than once that her seemingly
mild-mannered husband had a dark side.
[Narrator] Sometimes, Barbara claimed, Curtis's dark side
was outright abusive.
[Narrator] Detectives find no evidence that either
Brett or Jerome had a romantic relationship with Curtis.
[William] They were completely eliminated.
They had absolutely nothing to do with it.
[Narrator] Investigators head back
to the South Shore subdivision.
This was the kind of place where neighbors did know each other,
and know what was going on.
[Narrator] Neighbors shed more light on the couple's separatio
that took place less than a year ago.
[Sylvia] Oh, it was.
Yeah, that was the talk of the neighborhood.
[Narrator] Neighbors say the reason for the split
wasn't that Curtis was having an affair.
With Curtis and Barbara, finances were always a struggle.
[Phyllis] She came to my house one day and said that she had
just picked up Curtis's paycheck, and had all that cash
in her purse, she pulled in her driveway, got out,
ran in the house, and she was only in there a minute,
and she said, so somebody had stole all of Curtis's paycheck.
Now, I didn't believe that.
I think she was spending money on entertainment, on drugs,
booze, and boyfriends.
I can remember, you know, my mom just was spending
it on the wrong things.
[Mike] Neighbors also had observed some rough-looking
people coming and going from the house at, you know,
all hours of the night.
[Narrator] Neighbors say that Curtis was outraged
when he got word of his estranged wife's behavior.
He felt he had no choice but to return home.
From what we understand, we heard through the rumor mill,
was that his attorney told him to go back.
[Phyllis] Barbara said they weren't getting divorced,
but Curtis was definitely divorcing her.
[Narrator] While Barbara's behavior garnered
plenty of attention, Curtis never raised any eyebrows.
There's nobody ever gonna be able to convince me
that he abused her in any shape, fashion or form.
And he never abused those kids.
I thought Curtis was an excellent person.
But his wife was a different subject.
[Narrator] Two days after the murder,
investigators get a call from neighbor Cindy Kleehan.
Cindy says she has just gotten off the phone with Barbara.
Barbara had called her and asked her to take care of Leslie
because the police were calling her to go
back and interview.
[Narrator] Cindy says that Barbara called her twice more
to keep her updated,
all the while claiming she was still at the police station
But the neighbor noticed that the call was not
coming from the police department.
The caller ID indicated that the call was coming from a motel.
[Narrator] Detectives work quickly to locate the hotel
in which Barbara has taken refuge.
Barbara told one of the detectives that she had
very recently checked out of a mental hospital.
So their primary concern at the beginning, was, you know,
is she gonna hurt herself?
[Narrator] Around 1:00 AM on June 2nd,
authorities gather in the parking lot of the hotel.
They saw her van outside, and they recognized it,
but there was no record of a Barbara Holder checking in.
So they decided to canvass the hotel.
[Narrator] Investigators go room to room.
At one door, a male voice responds,
but refuses to open up.
Authorities draw their weapons and demand entry.
There was a pause for an extended period,
but after that pause, Barbara Holder came to the door.
They could see in the backgroun that there was a--
looked like a male subject also in the room.
[Narrator] Investigators ask Barbara
and the unrecognizable male subject to step outside.
He identifies himself as 33-year-old Mark Dixon.
Barbara is quick to offer up an explanation.
[Susan] When they first asked her,
who is this guy and how do you even know him?
She indicated that she had just met him at a bar
a few hours earlier, which is pretty weird in and of itself
for someone whose husband was just killed.
[Narrator] Barbara and Mark are transported to the
League City Police Department for questioning,
while detectives search the hotel room.
They were able to find property that was reportedly
stolen in the burglary of the Holder home earlier.
[Narrator] That's not all they find.
They also locate items stolen from the Holders' neighbors.
They were also able to locate, I believe,
a ring that was in a pill bottle.
It was the class ring of Sylvia Yeats.
[Narrator] Then they locate a final damning piece of evidence
They see that there are some knives.
And the knives seems similar to the type of knives
they saw at the Holder house.
They realize several of those knives
could have been the murder weapon.
[Narrator] Coming up, detectives confront Barbara.
[William] She did a really good job of playing
the damsel in distress.
[Narrator] And a new suspect emerges.
He began to tell the detectives that he had solicited
a 16-year-old juvenile to participate
and help kill Curtis Holder.
[Narrator] Detectives investigating the murder
of Curtis Holder have just found damning evidence
at the hotel room of Barbara Holder and Mark Dixon.
[Susan] They do the protective sweep just to make sure,
and see that there're some knives on the floor,
that could've been used to stab him.
[Narrator] Investigators seize the hotel room evidence.
Meanwhile, back at the station, Barbara denies any knowledge of
the stolen items or the knife.
[Narrator] It's clear to investigators that Barbara
isn't ready to be honest.
So they turn their attention to Mark.
[TJ] Barbara's telling detectives,
I just met this guy today.
Obviously detectives pretty quickly determined
that's not true,
because Barbara's name is tattooed on his arm.
[Mike] Mark says that he had met her some weeks earlier
at a rehabilitation facility at Mainland Center Hospital,
and that they were patients there together.
She had been in there for depression and
suicidal ideation.
They meet in the hospital, and they have a romance.
[Narrator] Mark says that during their time
in the hospital together, Barbara confided in him.
Barbara tells him this tale of woe about her husband
had been abusive to her.
She did a really good job of playing
the damsel in distress.
[Mike] He learned more about the horrible relationship
she had with Curtis, and, uh, that she wanted him dead.
[Narrator] To convince Mark to help her kill Curtis,
Barbara dangled promises of marriage and money.
Barbara also talked to him about the fact that there was a lot
of insurance money on Curtis. Around $600,000.
Barbara Jean offered to pay him $50,000
for helping murdering her husband.
[Narrator] But Mark had reservations.
He just isn't the kinda guy that does that.
So she asked him if he knew anybody who did.
Well, he did know somebody.
Mark Dixon began to tell the detectives that, uh,
he had solicited a 16-year-old juvenile named Johnny Lopez,
who lived in the very same neighborhood,
to help kill Curtis Holder.
[Narrator] Mark tells detectives that he and Johnny
formed a friendship when the burgeoning tattoo artist
inked "Barbara" on Mark's arm.
Johnny was promised $50,000 to participate in the murder.
[Susan] Mark did talk about doing the burglary next door at
the Yeats' house to set this up. But he indicated that Barbara
was going to be luring Curtis there with a phone call,
and that Johnny was going to do all the killing.
[Narrator] After speaking with Mark,
authorities officially place him under arrest.
And take one last run at Barbara for a confession.
[Narrator] With Barbara lawyered up,
investigators place her under arrest and set their sights
on tracking down 16-year-old Johnny Lopez.
They locate him the next day and place him under arrest.
[Mike] They were able to locate him with a girlfriend.
Johnny was a juvenile. And he was magistrated in a
very cautious and careful manner that is required
when we're dealing with juveniles.
[Susan] Well, initially Johnny tells the detectives
a few different versions, but in the end,
Johnny has both him and Mark attacking Curtis.
He did indicate that he helped undress the body,
and that Barbara asked him to do that.
And he believed that was to humiliate the deceased.
[Narrator] One thing is clear to detectives--
Barbara is the mastermind behind the murder.
[Mike] Th ere's no question that Barbara Holder was the person
who was coordinating the events. She wanted, according to Dixon,
Curtis killed. She helped orchestrate
her children being away from the home.
She helped orchestrate the other burglaries in the area.
[Narrator] After comparing Johnny and Mark's stories,
authorities piece together what they believe happened on
May 30th inside the Holder home
[Susan] She goes and she gets Mark Dixon,
and she gets Johnny Lopez.
And she brings them to the house.
They spend some time in the house making it look like
it would've been ransacked.
She was able to lure Curtis back into the house at
that very time by making that page or call to him.
[Narrator] When Curtis arrived, Barbara was waiting for him
in the kitchen while Mark and Johnny hid just out of sight.
And as Barbara would lure Curtis Holder into the room,
they simultaneously attacked him.
Mark initiated the blows to the head with the wrench,
but lost the wrench.
And Barbara Holder picked it up and started slugging.
And then shortly after that, Johnny jumped up
and began to stab him with both knives repeatedly.
In the process of trying to take Curtis's wedding band
off his hand, it got stuck, and they weren't able to remove it,
and so Johnny simply cut off his finger.
[Narrator] After the attack, the trio then stripped Curtis
and covered him with bags
in an effort to throw police off course.
[Susan] Mark indicated that Johnny stabbed him.
Johnny tells a similar story to Mark, except that he's got
Mark as being the person attacking Curtis.
Barbara, of course, promotes these new theories where these
two guys killed her husband and she had nothing to do with it.
And she was just an innocent victim,
and she had no culpability whatsoever.
[Narrator] Investigators are concerned that having
three co-conspirators with conflicting accounts
won't sit well with a jury.
All three were trying to put some of the blame off
on somebody else.
[Narrator] Coming up,
more chilling information comes to light.
[Phyllis] He told her he was divorcing her.
She was not gonna lose that house.
She was the primary or sole beneficiary
on all of those things.
[Narrator] And a star witness comes under scrutiny.
They're saying, you can't trust that.
You can't trust the word of a killer.
[Narrator] Texas authorities have Barbara Holder,
her lover, Mark Dixon,
and 16-year-old Johnny Lopez in custody
for the murder of Barbara's husband, Curtis Holder.
[TJ] Now what seems to be randomness
now seems to be more planned out.
There was an actual conspiracy here
that involved Barbara and Mark, and now Johnny.
[Narrator] Investigators believe Barbara was the mastermind,
promising both money and love to inspire her hitmen to act.
There's no question Mark was in love with Barbara
and thought Barbara was in love with him.
I have a much bigger question about whether Barbara
was sincerely in love with him or just using him.
[Narrator] Investigators believe that money
was Barbara's main motive.
[Phyllis] He told her he was divorcing her.
She killed Curtis because she was not gonna lose that house.
[Mike] Looking at his retirement accounts
and his life insurance policy,
she was the primary or sole beneficiary
on all of those things.
And that she stood a financial windfall in the area
of 500, $450,000, to as much as $750,000.
[Narrator] Despite the evidence against her,
Barbara continues to claim innocence.
[Susan] Prosecutors are determined
to hold her accountable.
They strike a plea bargain deal Instead of being charged
with capital murder, Johnny Lopez would be charged
with first-degree murder. But a condition of it would be
that he had to testify truthfully at both trials.
We were able to get his full and truthful testimony
against both Barbara Holder and Mark Dixon.
[Narrator] In August 1998, Johnny Lopez accepts the
plea deal and agrees to testify against Barbara.
He claims that he threw the wrench into a dumpster
at the motel, but it was never recovered.
In March 1999, Barbara's day in court finally arrives.
The primary defensive strategy was to minimize
the testimony of Johnny Lopez.
[TJ] And they're saying, you can't trust that.
You can't trust the word of a killer.
He's just doing this to get lesser time.
[Narrator] But prosecutors argue that the mountain of
evidence against Barbara cannot be ignored.
It was an extremely strong case.
I mean, she was found with the murder weapon.
And she was found with the stolen property
out of the house.
Her two compatriots both confessed and implicated her.
[Narrator] The jury agrees and finds Barbara Holder
guilty of capital murder.
She is sentenced to life in prison.
[Mike] She was obviously in the eyes of the jury,
guilty of orchestrating, organizing,
and following through with the murder of her husband.
[Narrator] Later that summer, Mark Dixon is also found guilty
[Mike] A jury convicted Mark Dixon of capital murder.
Under Texas law,
automatic life in prison was assessed
as the sentence by the trial judge.
[Narrator] In exchange for his cooperation,
Johnny Lopez is sentenced to 40 years.
[William] She was a cold-hearted,
manipulative woman. She used men.
She was very, very good at knowing how to trip
the triggers to get a man to do what she wanted him to do.
I could definitely forgive my mother, but it would
really just have to be her coming clean to me about
everything, and you know,
just saying that she did it.
I just can't forgive her until she does that.
What I would say to my father is just that I love him,
and I know he loved his kids, and he did the best he could,
and I miss him.
[music]