No, no, please don't!
NARRATOR: A local DJ is gunned down in a taxicab.
JOE KENDA: Stephen White is dead before he falls over in the seat.
There's blood all over.
He had no way of knowing it was his last ride.
All investigators have to go on
-is a cryptic call to taxi dispatch. -Somebody come pick me up.
Detectives hope was that somebody was going to go, "I know who that is."
-Do you think this'll work? -Crazier things have happened.
Tips start coming back in. And that reignites the investigation.
I know who shot the cab driver.
Come out with your hands up!
But will all these leads point them to the killer, or to a dead end.
Come out, or we're coming in after you!
This could go a little ugly, but we're prepared for that.
There are some people among us, they have rage and anger in their minds.
It'd be in everyone's interest not to be standing
in front of one of those people when they have these episodes.
The difficulty is knowing when they might occur.
There's one thing that never changes, murder.
A life has been taken. Their stories are now my stories.
I never know where a case is going to lead,
but I'll never stop until it's solved.
Somebody has to look out for the victim.
If you kill, I will find you.
(tense music playing)
Deputy Randy Curtis is patrolling the neighbourhood, and it's late.
And all of a sudden, he sees a cab stopped.
But he doesn't see anybody in it.
So he parks his patrol car and gets out.
And there is somebody in it.
There's blood all over.
And there's glass on the hood of the car.
Have got a code 9 out here, start me additional units.
We may have a shooter here in the area.
Within the hour, El Paso County Homicide Detective Steve Gaenzle
joins Detective Mark Finley on scene.
-Hey, Steve. -Hey, Mark.
This has been the week from hell.
My pager went off just as I hit the pillow.
Back in the early 1990s,
the Sheriff's Office only had eight investigators at any given time.
We worked two or three days with no sleep.
-What are we looking at? -A body in the front seat.
-Deceased, multiple gunshot wounds. -Taxi?
That is an extremely rare event in this area.
Part of the reason is, there aren't a lot of cabs.
-Hey, Randy. -Detectives.
-You the one who discovered the body? -I did.
I see this cab pulled over. I light it up, look inside,
and this guy's just lying in there dead.
-We got an ID? -We did, we ran the tags,
they came back to a Stephen White of Colorado Springs.
-(distant siren wailing) -(police chatter over radio)
The victim was a white male, appeared to be in early 30s,
with several gunshot wounds prevalent.
-Any idea of the calibre? -Found two .44 slugs, that's all.
One of the slugs passed clean through and pierced the windscreen.
The bullet fragments were located where the dash meets the windshield.
Once it hit the glass, the bullets then fragmented.
That means that parts of the bullet came apart,
and there was damage to the glass itself
because of the velocity of the bullet.
There are several types of bullets designed
to increase the damage to the human body.
The most damaging is called a hollow point
where the slug is actually hollowed on the end,
allowing the bullet to fragment
and spread into a much wider piece of lead.
Another bullet type is called a soft point bullet,
it's half copper covered and half lead.
The round lead end is the very end of the bullet
causing a mushrooming effect when it strikes an object like a human body.
Got glass on the hood as well.
The glass fragments show directionality
where a person would be behind the driver
and the gun would have been up against their head or their neck.
-Look at the way he's lying. -Kind of an odd body position
-if he were shot from behind. -Exactly.
You would think if you were sitting behind someone
and you were to shoot someone,
that the mere force of the gunshot would push someone forward.
But when he was discovered, he was lying on his side part of him
in the right front floorboard,
legs were extended down towards the driver's side
that would show or indicate that the body was pushed over sideways
and maybe a search was done on the clothing
if robbery would have been the motive.
Check this out, the metre's still running.
We should shut that off, but let's make sure we get a picture of that.
Can we get a picture of this metre, please?
(camera shutter clicks)
The amount that's on the register is $53.10.
That's a significantly high fare.
Which means the victim either drove his last customer a long ways,
or he'd been laying there dead for quite some time.
So what are you thinking, robbery?
It makes the most sense considering the circumstances.
Cab drivers are a target for armed robbers.
They generally carry cash to make change for people
who are getting in and out of their cabs.
-Want to check him for a wallet? -Let's not disturb the body yet.
Let's get the cab towed over to the coroner's office
with the body in it. They might be able to spot something.
It's very, very rare that you would take a cab with a decedent
and move it to a coroner's office,
but it was something we elected to do
to be able to work in a controlled environment.
In the meantime, we're heading over
to that cab company's central call station.
Can you oversee the vehicle's transfer, please?
Thank you.
Cab drivers are dispatched, someone calls in for a request for service
and the dispatcher will call out to the cab driver
and let them know there's a fare to be picked up at this location.
It's imperative to go to the dispatch centre for yellow cab
and retrieve any information
they may have as far as a call log or a recorded call that had come in.
I knew something was wrong when I didn't hear from him over the radio.
She tells Gaenzle they are required to call in on the radio
to report that they're now going off duty and he didn't do that.
Well, he didn't do that, because he couldn't do it.
How long had he been driving for the company?
Since before I started. So, at least 5 years.
He was one of our best drivers.
Stephen White was a really dependable employee
and he was well liked by his co-workers,
and he was being considered for the award of Driver of the Quarter.
How about his work schedule? Any idea who his last fare might have been?
Yeah, he started yesterday about noon.
And then, at about 8, he called in
to say that he was going off duty for his dinner break.
At around 9:30, Charlotte received a phone call requesting a pickup,
she called him via radio and told him that there was a fare waiting.
He radioed back that he was in route.
And that was the last I heard from him.
-Did you get a name for that fare? -No.
The guy sounded really out of it.
He wasn't even able to give me an exact address.
He couldn't explain where he was,
and he said he was at a payphone and he couldn't read the number.
He gave me enough information
that I knew it was near the convenience store
out on Yucatan Drive.
It's about three blocks from where we found Stephen's cab.
That means the fare that was picked up at that pay phone
would have been the same person that had killed him.
I'm wondering if you can help us. When we found the cab,
the metre was still running.
We shut it off at $53.10.
Do you know how long the car would have to be idling
for the fare to go that high?
Yeah, let me see.
Based on the fare records maintained by the cab company,
the dispatcher was able to determine
that the metre had been running for just over three hours
on that particular day.
What makes that significant is that the cab responded
to a request for transportation
three hours before Gaenzle turned off that metre.
-Do you have a recording of the call? -Oh, yeah. We record all our calls.
-Could we get a copy of that? -Give me a minute.
It was imperative to have that, to be able to put voice to a suspect,
ultimately if that suspect can be found.
-Here you go. -Great, thank you.
Can we ask one favour? We need to contact Stephen's family.
Do you have their contact information?
I should have that here.
Here you go. His parents are listed as his emergency contact.
-Oh, thanks. Can I hang onto this? -Sure.
-Get it back to you soon. Thanks. -Mm-hmm.
So now, we were trying to track down Jerry and Mary White.
We stopped at their residence and there was no one there,
and ultimately, it was discovered that they were out of state.
While waiting to hear back from Stephen White's parents,
detectives check in with the coroner.
-Hey, Bowerman. -Detectives.
-Anything interesting in the cab? -Doesn't sound like it.
But when they removed the body for autopsy,
found this in his pocket.
When the body was moved,
the coroner would remove anything and everything from the pockets.
He discovered the wallet was still in there.
-Is there any cash in there? -16 bucks and two credit cards.
Whoever did this wasn't looking for money.
Now, we need to think twice that this is actually a robbery,
or if this was a planned murdered.
Lot of possibilities on this one.
You know, I know somebody that might be able to help us with this.
Go home and take a break for a while?
-You sure? -Yeah, I'll call you in a bit.
-Thanks, Bowerman. -You got it.
NARRATOR: Across town at CSPD headquarters,
Sergeant Joe Kenda is prepping for another day on the grind.
I would come in early and I would make three pots of coffee,
because police departments run on coffee.
Just the man I wanted to see.
Steve? What brings you to our neck of the woods?
I've been up all night on a murder. Cab driver,
found in his car over in the Widefield area.
So we start to have a discussion about what this is all about.
We've got a call into his next of kin,
but we haven't heard anything back yet.
Okay. What can I do to help?
As soon as the victim's family is notified,
we'd like to use the CSPD's Crime Stoppers tip line.
Crime Stoppers is a great asset for law enforcement.
A lot of people don't want to become involved.
They can remain anonymous.
We need the public's help on this one.
We thought it was a robbery, but now we're not so sure.
Well, I'm always happy to help. You know that.
Appreciate it, Joe. Thanks again.
The next questions becomes, who is Stephen White,
and who may know who have some issue with him?
Later that afternoon, Gaenzle finally connects with Stephen White's father.
Mr. White, I'm very sorry to have to tell you this.
It doesn't make any sense.
Mr. White expectedly was very distraught
in the news of the murder of his son.
He was very well liked. He graduated out of high school valedictorian.
He went to University of Colorado Boulder,
and gotten a degree in communications.
He had a passion for music, and so he worked part time at KRCC,
which is our local national public radio station.
Hey, this is Stephen White, you're listening to KRCC.
I'm gonna be spinning some of Colorado's favourite reggae
for the next few hours. Let's get into it.
Mr. White, do you know who your son primarily associated with?
I mean, he has a number of friends,
but you're probably better off asking Victoria.
-Victoria, who is she? -Technically she's still his wife.
His son was married six years before this event,
to a woman named Victoria.
They are currently separated, but it's amicable.
Would you happen to know how I can get a hold of her?
Yeah, she's an elementary school teacher in the Springs.
Although the father describes the separation as civil,
perhaps there's more to that divorce.
It was crucial, we track her down.
I was always afraid that this was going to happen.
When they got married, she thought the cab driving was a temporary job,
but he just kept driving, and he'd be gone all the time.
Can you share with us where you were around 9:30 last night?
Me? I was with a friend of mine.
-Can I get your friend's name? -His name was Jay Brewer.
She says he's only a friend. She denies any romantic involvement,
and they were watching a movie at his residence.
Are you looking at me as a suspect?
-Look, ma'am. -You can forget about it.
I did not have anything to do with this.
How could you even think that?
It's nothing personal, we just need to explore all of the avenues.
The wife seems distressed,
but she does not have a solid alibi and she can't be ruled out just yet.
After detectives make contact with Stephen's family,
the crime stoppers tip line opens up and quickly delivers a possible lead.
(knocks) I've got a woman in the lobby that claims she knows something
about the murder of that cab driver over in Widefield.
-She'll only talk to you about it. -Bring her in.
That is not unusual unfortunately,
because everyone in Colorado Springs knew who I was and knew my name.
So if they had a police complaint, their neighbour had a barking dog,
or their neighbour had a limb grown over their fence
and they were trespassing on their property,
I wanna talk to Kenda and I don't wanna talk to anybody else.
The front desk people are well aware of that.
How you doing? Have a seat.
-Can I get you some coffee? -I'm okay.
What can you tell me about what happened?
Well, I think I know who did it.
I think it's this guy I know named Ken Chambers.
She says, "I know that Stephen has borrowed money from this guy
and hasn't paid him back."
The Sheriff's Department's handling this case.
Tell them what you've told me.
I don't want Chambers to know I'm talking to the cops.
That's not a problem.
So, we've gotten nowhere for four days
and now, maybe we've gotten somewhere.
Who is Mr. Chambers and why is he not getting paid back?
Could that make you angry? Oh, yeah, it could.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Department
and the Colorado Springs PD
are jointly investigating the death of Stephen White, a cab driver,
and part time disc jockey,
and a woman has come forward
naming who she believes is the shooter in this case.
Sgt. Kenda told me that you think this friend of yours
may have killed Stephen White over a debt?
That's what I'm afraid of. I've known Stephen for years,
and he was always borrowing money from everybody.
But I think Ken loaned him a pretty large amount.
She thought maybe Ken got tired of waiting
and wanted to get vengeance back on Stephen and committed homicide.
After Stephen's murder, I asked Ken, "Did you ever get your money back?"
And Ken said, no, he didn't,
"I saw him the night he died. He came by my house."
Now, that is interesting.
-Do you know where Ken lives? -Yeah, over in Widefield.
Pretty close to where they found Stephen's cab.
This is pretty good. We have money being owed,
We have an admission by Mr. Chambers that he sees him that night,
so Gaenzle's next step of course is to find Mr. Chambers
and see what he has to say for himself.
It's all just so... weird.
I mean, Stephen was over here like right before he was killed.
Ken described that the night that Stephen was killed,
Stephen had come by his home for dinner.
We understand you lent him some money?
Yeah, money was always tight for him.
Over the past years, I helped him out a few times.
Ken said, we've been friends for a long time.
I never really cared if he paid me back or not,
so we go from what seems to be such a promising lead
that actually goes up in smoke in front of Gaenzle.
If you ask me, all his money problems can be traced back to his wife.
She was bringing him down.
Mr. Chambers is not a big fan of Stephen's wife.
In his opinion, Stephen worked several jobs
to pay his wife's way through grad school
to get a master's degree in education,
and all the money problems emanated from that.
He and Victoria recently separated.
Stephen told me she was cheating on him.
Said he found love letters from some guy from school.
You happen to know the name?
I think it was Brewer? Jay Brewer.
The reason Gaenzle is interested
is he remembers that when Victoria spoke with him,
she told him she was with a friend named Jay Brewer,
and they were watching a movie.
So, Mr. Chambers looked very interesting,
but now, Jay Brewer looks even more interesting.
Okay, thanks for your help.
Is it possible that Jay Brewer wanted to remove
his girlfriend's husband from the equation?
Detectives waste no time
tracking down an address for their new suspect.
-Excuse me. -Can I help you?
-You Jay Brewer? -Yeah.
-You know a Victoria White? -Yeah, I know Victoria.
We took a class together at Colorado College.
How would you describe your relationship with Victoria?
We're just friends. That's all.
The first thing the average person does
is distance himself from any romance.
No one likes to admit their romantic involvement with anyone
because it puts them in the middle of things
She may have had feelings for me, but we didn't have a thing, okay?
Can you tell us what you were doing Thursday night?
You think I had something to do with her husband's death?
Man, you out of your mind, man.
Okay, would you mind answering the question, please?
-I was with Victoria. -And...?
We watched a movie, that's all.
He says at 9:30, they stop at a movie rental location to rent a movie.
-You have any proof? -I might. Let me check.
At this point, anything is possible.
If Victoria and Jay are involved in an extra-marital affair,
Jay could have committed the homicide
and Victoria could have given him an alibi.
Here you go.
Mr. Brewer produces a receipt from a video rental place
that's date and time stamped that matches what he's been saying.
-We appreciate your cooperation. -Yeah, right.
So, for now, they're not considered suspects.
Later that afternoon, Gaenzle regroups with Kenda.
So you haven't made much headway on a suspect?
Not really. Every lead we had relating to his personal life
seems to just go up in smoke.
Gaenzle tells me we're not finding a personal motive.
He is very concerned that they're not gonna get to the bottom of this.
-Maybe it wasn't robbery after all. -I guess it's possible.
We contacted the bank
and found he'd made a deposit at 4:00 that afternoon.
From 4:00 to 8:00, when he also was driving,
he could've had more fares,
and thus could have some more money than the $16 we found in his wallet.
If it is robbery, our suspect pool just gets deeper.
You've got that audio recording of the last fare, don't you?
Yeah. -Well, if you're thinking
the caller's your killer, then find out who that voice belongs to.
At this point in the investigation, the main piece of evidence we had
was the audio tape that the caller made into Yellow Cab.
So, we made various copies and went back out to the neighbourhood
in a hope that someone would recognise that voice.
I'm going to play a recording of a voice for you, and can you tell me
-if you've ever heard it before? -Sure.
Just like you to listen to the voice and tell me if you recognise it.
I need somebody to come pick me up.
I don't know about the address, but I can give you the intersection.
No, I've never heard that voice before. I'm sorry.
-I've never. -Not at all?
Thank you very much for your time.
After a few hours on the street,
Gaenzle's unusual plan finally pays off.
Yeah, I think I know who that is.
There's a company that operates nearby and they do shift work.
One guy said, you know, that sounds to me like Tyler Johnson.
-Who's Tyler Johnson? -He used to work here.
Guy would come to work drunk half the time.
He was always causing trouble. I finally had to fire him.
He also stated that, on the night of the murder,
he had seen him at a local bar, and he was highly intoxicated,
belligerent he wouldn't put it pass him
being involved in a major crime.
Any chance you recall what time it was when he left?
Well, I left not long after he did, and I got home about 10.
So, it must have been about 9:30 or so.
We know the call into Yellow Cab was at 9:30.
So, this individual then became a person of interest.
Any idea where I can find Mr. Johnson?
I could look his address up for you in our employee records if you want.
I'd really appreciate that.
Here we have a guy who apparently likes to drink.
He has an extremely bad temper,
and he sounds just like the voice on the recording.
Is Tyler Johnson our man? Maybe. So, let's go see.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Department and the PD
are investigating the death of Stephen White
who was found shot to death in his cab.
Yeah, I need somebody to come pick me up.
We have recently obtained information
that a disgruntled former employee of a business
close to the crime scene is a potential suspect.
NARRATOR: When Detectives Gaenzle and Finely
travel to the home of Tyler Johnson,
their potential suspect is nowhere in sight.
I don't know where he is, and I don't care neither.
The wife reports she kicked him out a week ago
ever since he got fired for his drinking and his attitude,
and then, he assaulted her and that was the final step.
You wouldn't happen to know where he was the night of April 26, would you?
Oh, yeah, he came to my door begging for me to take him back that night.
I wouldn't let him in.
She closed the door on him and has no idea
as to where he went or what he did after he met with her.
-What kind of car does Tyler drive? -Tyler don't have no car.
He like taking cabs everywhere. Damn fool.
Do you think he's capable of killing someone?
I don't know.
When he's drinking, maybe.
So here we have someone who moves around by taxicab,
who is in a foul mood after his wife kicks him out for the final time.
Is he a suspect? I would say he has suspect tattooed on his forehead.
Do you know how we can reach Tyler?
I could talk to his sister. She'll let him know.
We'd appreciate that.
(tense music fades out)
Thankfully, Gaenzle won't have to wait very long
to make Tyler Johnson's acquaintance.
Detective. There's a man here to see you. His name's Tyler Johnson.
-Really, where? -He's in the lobby.
I thought to myself, this is it. This is our guy, outstanding.
I understand you are looking for me?
As soon as he opened his mouth, all the air went out of my sails.
Knowing what the caller sounded like on the audio tape,
it was two different people.
Yeah, would you mind coming back to my office for a couple minutes?
It was a let-down, but I still needed to speak with him
to find out what he was doing during the time frame Stephen was killed.
Yeah, I ain't even gonna lie.
Sometimes when I drink too much, I can lose control.
He admits that he does drink heavily.
He does become aggressive and belligerent,
the night of the murder, he openly admits he was at a bar
close to where Stephen's taxi was found.
I left the bar around 9:30, and started walking home.
I tried to call my wife to see if she'd let me come back in,
-but she wasn't having none of that. -What'd you do after that?
I had the keys to my wife's car in my pocket,
so I crawled in, and I passed out.
Talk about hitting the skids,
he admitted he was in a pretty rotten place in his life.
I know I gotta do better if she's ever gonna let me come back home.
Sure.
Tyler's story followed an entire straight line of logic.
So from his straightforwardness and just gut instinct,
he was ruled out as a suspect.
After the sheriff's office strikes out with yet another suspect,
Kenda swings for the fences.
When you are looking for information and you're running out of sources,
you try to widen your base.
Hey, Ann. I was wondering if you guys might be willing to help us out.
We need more people to become interested in this problem,
who is this guy. So to accomplish that,
the sheriff's department and the PD contact Channel 5 news
to see if they would be willing to do a re-enactment of the event.
if you wanted to get the word out, and ask for public help,
that was really the way to do it.
Right behind me here on Yucatan Drive
is where Stephen White was shot to death in his taxicab.
When we come back, we're going to recreate his brutal murder
and let you know how you can help with the investigation.
-That was great, Ann. -Thank you.
Working with Ann Ervin was outstanding.
She worked hand in hand with law enforcement.
So, where did the Deputy enter from?
Like you see the car here,
he pulled up directly behind the cab, approached on the driver's side.
-Okay, great. Thank you. -You bet.
Oscar, can we figure out where we're gonna get sticks up over here?
We did not often do crime recreation.
This really had the community bothered,
so we were delighted to be of help.
Hey, Joe, so do you think this'll work?
Crazier things have certainly happened.
Television is powerful,
if you can get Channel 5 to show this on the evening news,
you can generate new leads.
Ann, I almost forgot,
we'd also like to get you a copy of the actual phone call
made to the cab company right before Mr. White was killed.
I had worked in quite a few cities in news
before I moved back to Colorado Springs,
and I would tell you, hands down,
I always felt like Colorado Springs police
were some of the best trained, best educated,
and easiest to work with I had run across.
They were very non-threatened, they tended to be extremely helpful.
They'd give you what they could,
and therefore, when they asked a favour of us,
we were typically very keen to do what they needed.
And they didn't do it very much. They did not abuse that.
So, here was a really amicable relationship,
and we were generally very pleased to be asked.
We believe the voice on the recording might be the killer.
-That would be great, thank you. -No, thank you.
Minutes after the re-enactment airs on the nightly news,
the phones at CSPD start ringing.
A confidential informant comes forward through Crime Stoppers
and said, "I watched Channel 5 tonight,
and I've got something to tell you."
I know who shot the cab driver.
A reliable informant has come forward with information
providing a first name of someone he believes is the killer
of our part time disc jockey and cab driver Stephen White.
Kenda convinces the informant to meet with detectives down at the station.
So this person you claim shot the cab driver is named Precious?
-Is that male or a female? -It's a dude, a black dude.
I have to admit, never in my life,
would have imagined a killer with the first name of Precious.
Precious is his real name, not a nickname.
I don't know his last name.
What makes you think he's the shooter?
On the night that cabbie got shot,
I saw Precious and his brother. They were partying pretty hard.
-Hey, man. -What's up?
He was at a party when Precious shows up.
-What's up? -How you doing, man?
What's up, what's up? How we doing, man?
Through the course of the evening, the partygoers along with Precious
are ingesting cocaine.
He started to get completely geeked out on cocaine.
Hit that (bleep), let's go, man!
That's it, we out.
-Yo man, why you take the last of it? -Bro, get your cheap ass out of here.
-I paid for it, so I finish it. -What's that supposed to mean?
Precious, relax, you're acting like a little (bleep).
Hey, man, what the (bleep) you say?
Don't disrespect me like that, man! Say something! What's up now, fool?
Precious becomes uncontrollable
and was trying to get in a fight with his own brother.
Do something, man!
-Precious, chill out! -No, man, he talking!
Get him out of here! I don't care if he's my brother!
It was very apparent this would go bad quick if he had stayed.
So, Precious does leave with another partygoer Marcus Melville.
I saw Marcus the next day,
and he said that Precious pulled a gun on him after they left the party.
-Yo, man, you got some blow, man? -What?
-Yo, you got some blow? -Yeah, chill out with all that.
-Give it to me, man. -What?
Give it to me, man, I'm serious! Let's go!
Yeah, yeah.
Marcus tells the C.I. he is pissed.
This guy was supposed to be my friend and he robs me of my cocaine.
I saw that re-enactment of the shooting on the news.
Where the cab was,
I think that's where Marcus said Precious took off running.
The C.I. described this location, and it was in a very close proximity
from the intersection of a convenience store
where a pay phone was at.
Did Marcus say anything about the gun that Precious pulled on him?
Precious picked it up at a pawn shop a few days
-before this all went down. -I'll have my guys look into that.
If you own a pawn shop and you are a firearms dealer,
if you sell a gun, and everything about this gun,
and everything about the buyer
is forwarded to the pawn shop detail of the police department.
Thanks so much for coming forward with this.
-I'll call you when I know something. -Thanks, Joe.
It's a matter of hand searching the gun sales in the past week or so,
and look for somebody named Precious.
While Kenda checks for information on the weapon,
Gaenzle has a chat with Marcus Melville.
I don't know who told you I was at that party, but it isn't true.
Melville adamantly denied any knowledge of the party
or even knowing Precious.
So nobody pulled a gun on you and took your cocaine?
I don't know what you're talking about.
Never in my career, someone to admit they had drugs stolen.
-That's how you want to play it? -Got it twisted.
I ain't playing nothing.
NARRATOR: A couple blocks away,
Kenda is hoping to have better luck with CSPD's pawn unit.
-Any luck, Sam? -Yeah, actually,
we found a purchase for a firearm from one Precious Thompson
about a week before Stephen White was killed.
The best part is, the gun was a .44 revolver.
Precious Thompson has a record as long as your arm,
and this gun file says that he bought a .44 Magnum pistol.
We have Precious Thompson with the right gun.
-Do you mind if I take this? -I made it for you, go ahead.
I appreciate it, thank you.
So now, Detective Finley and myself went to the pawn shop.
The sales clerk did remember the transaction.
Precious? Hard to forget a name like that.
-Do you have the form he filled out? -Yeah, let me see.
When you buy a gun from a licensed gun dealer,
you fill out a government form.
One of the questions on that form is,
have you ever been convicted of a crime
punishable by imprisonment in a specified number of years.
Here you go.
(dramatic music plays)
Well, that's interesting.
I was told Precious Thompson did some serious jail time.
He didn't put that on that form.
That is a federal offence to lie on a gun purchase form.
He's committed a crime. We can arrest him right now for that.
(siren wailing)
So, at that point, an arrest warrant was obtained
knowing his previous criminal history.
The decision was made to surround his house
and try to talk Precious out of his residence.
Everyone knows their roles, right?
See if we can get him to come out peacefully.
If not, we'll go to plan B.
When you have an individual believed to be responsible for a homicide
that has a long and deep criminal history,
the likelihood is great that there's gonna be gunfire
when you try to arrest someone like that.
Precious Thompson, it's the police. Come out with your hands up!
Sergeant Kenda had called to come out surrender himself.
What you all want, man?
-(bottle crashes) -(bleep)
You could see him storming through the house
breaking things, slamming things.
(glass crashes)
-Damn pigs! -It's over Mr. Thompson!
If you don't come out right now, we're coming in after you!
This could go a little ugly, but we're prepared for that.
Once we enter that home, it's gonna be very clear to Mr. Thompson.
He has two choices, surrender or die.
(tense music playing)
-It's over Mr. Thompson! -(glass crash)
So, here we could have determined the identity of a person
who is responsible for shooting Stephen White to death in his cab.
He's no longer a voice on a recording.
He is Precious Thompson, and we are about to arrest him for murder.
(tense music continues)
If you don't come out, we're coming in after you!
Yo, get out of my place, man! What you all trying to do, man?
Put your hands in the air.
-What you all pigs want, man? -Step forward!
-Man, I ain't do nothing! -Keep moving!
-You guys trying to frame me! -Stop there, down on your knees!
Do it now!
Precious is put in a police car
and transported to the sheriff's department.
GAENZLE: And immediately, there was a search warrant for his residence.
The most important aspect was a firearm.
Specifically, the firearm that was used to kill Stephen White.
You want as much evidence as you can get your hands on,
and what we want is that gun. We assume it's here,
because people like Mr. Thompson, who are criminals,
when they get their hands on a gun, they reserve it for further use.
They rarely throw it away.
They'll conceal it maybe, but they'll keep it.
So, investigators began a systematic and methodical search of that house.
And I can say, we searched every drawer, every vent, every crack,
every nook, everything was searched.
Over the next several hours,
officers methodically comb through every room of the house.
That house was turned upside down. Everything was searched.
Sir, I think I found something.
We found the receipt for the purchase of the 44-calibre revolver.
What do you got?
-Let's find that gun. -Sounds like a plan.
Maybe he ditched it somewhere else.
We haven't checked there yet.
-Under the plants? -Yeah, you never know.
Gaenzle sees three large potted plants,
and he walked over there and started digging through the dirt.
Bingo.
Well, I'll be damned.
-Can you make out the numbers? -It's a match.
We check the serial number. It is the same gun purchased
a few days before the murder at the pawn shop.
Gaenzle returns to the sheriff's office to try
to extract a confession from precious Thompson.
Mr. Thompson. I need you to tell me
about the murder of cab driver Stephen White.
I don't know nothing about that.
Okay, what can you tell me about the .44 calibre handgun
-you bought at a pawn shop? -I bought it for protection. So what?
It's my second amendment right.
He did admit buying the gun,
but he stated it was for his own personal protection.
Well, here's the thing, Precious.
You lied on the application to purchase it.
-That's a felony. -What? Come on, man.
That's why your bond's been set at $50,000.
You tripping! Fifty grand? Man, that's some (bleep)!
Trying to lock me up for something I didn't do!
-I'm done talking to you! -You have that right.
He became enraged, he didn't want to talk with investigators anymore.
Without a confession, Gaenzle looks for other ways
to cement a conviction.
It's absolutely imperative that we put Precious in that cab,
making that phone call and committing that murder.
So I can come up with a plan to prove
that Precious is the one that made the call.
Okay, Precious, we're going to make this simple.
All you gotta do is say what's on the note.
-Are you serious, man? -You ready?
He was given a transcript of what was said
by the caller and he needed to read that verbatim.
He dials the yellow cab number,
and they record it at yellow cab using the same equipment.
I need someone to come pick me up.
I ain't sure of the address, but I know the intersection.
Thank you. Wasn't so bad, was it?
Detectives send out the new recording and the original call
for comparative analysis.
We have that sent to a laboratory in Los Angeles
to see if they could make a determination
that that voice is one in the same.
Yeah, I need somebody to come pick me up.
I don't know the address, but I can give you the intersection.
Eventually, the report comes back from these people
that it is with a high degree of confidence they say,
that the voice on the original tape
is in fact the voice of Precious Thompson.
When confronted with the vocal confirmation,
Precious finally gives detectives what they've been looking for.
Yeah, I shot the boy. I was high and drunk, and I needed the cash.
-Is that what you all wanna hear? -That'll do.
I just want you all out of my face, so I can go back to prison and relax.
Precious Thompson is sent to the Colorado State Penitentiary
where he then can apparently relax.
Based on the evidence and Thompson's confession,
Kenda and Gaenzle have a clear idea of what happened
on the night of the murder.
Precious Thompson is heavily using cocaine.
And the use of cocaine induces a feeling of paranoia
and also enhances your level of anger and rage.
-Do something, man! Do something! -Precious, chill out, man.
Get out, bro. Take your crazy ass somewhere else.
Precious Thompson is raging on cocaine.
-Chill out with all that. -Give it to me, man!
He pulls a gun and robs his friend of his money and his drugs.
Man, let's go! Yeah, yeah.
Precious then ran off to the closest payphone.
Yeah, I need somebody to come pick me up.
Look, I don't know the address, but I can give you the intersection.
All right, yeah, hurry up!
Waiting for the Yellow Cab, Precious did more cocaine.
Meanwhile, Stephen White leaves his friend's house.
-All right, dude, I gotta go to work. -Thanks for the pizza.
Thanks, man.
And he drives to the intersection he's been given by the dispatcher.
He had no way of knowing it was his last ride.
Yo, man, open the door, man.
What took y'all so long? It's cold out here.
Tried to get here as fast as I could. Where do you need to go?
-Yo, take me downtown. -Yeah.
Precious is volatile. He owes people drugs, he owes people money,
so he thought he'll try to get money from the driver.
(ominous music playing)
-Yo, man, you got any money on you? -Money?
-Yo, give me everything you got! -What the...?
I'm serious, man! Hand me the money now! Quit playing, man!
Take it easy, take it easy, man!
Pull this (bleep) over, man, hurry up!
All right, look.
Yo, what the hell is this? This ain't (bleep)!
Where's the rest of it at, man, seriously?
I only had a few fares since I made a bank deposit.
That's all I had at the time, okay?
-Do you know who I am? -No!
Precious, who can't control his temper in the best of circumstances,
goes off like a Roman candle.
-Man, (bleep) this! -No! No! No!
Stephen White is dead before he falls over in the seat.
Precious then pushes the body of Stephen over
to search his pockets to see if he had any more money.
Cocaine drives people to kill,
it hijacks the pleasure centre of the mind.
And it never, ever gives it back.
At the end of this sad affair, Precious Thompson pleads guilty
to second degree murder and is sentenced to 58 years in prison.
One year later, Stephen White's parents testify
before congress in support of the Brady Bill,
to ensure that their son's death was not in vain.
The Brady Bill was designed to require a five-day waiting period
and a complete federal criminal background investigation
to keep guns from people with a criminal history.
Stephen's parents pointed out that their son might still be alive
if the Brady Bill had been a law at the time of his death.
Stephen White's parents Jerry and Mary White absolutely made an impact,
for thousands, maybe even millions of other families since the early 1990s,
when ultimately, the Brady Bill became enacted.
And that was a big deal, because it was largely opposed.
This was a family that lived in Colorado Springs,
which was a very anti-Brady Bill town.
Very pro-gun, very anti-gun control. It was a huge issue.
I think that the Firearms backgrounds absolutely should be conducted,
and it was unfortunate that Precious was able to acquire a handgun
so easily being a convicted felon.
It's too easy to lie on a piece of paper and hope you don't get caught,
but now, with federal background checks,
it it's more complicated it's run through the FBI,
and if you have any arrest record,
it's going to come up, with Precious, it didn't.
It's always a tragic thing
when someone loses their life in a violent manner.
It's even more tragic because of the gun laws at the time,
he was able to purchase a firearm,
which he should have never been able to do.
In today's world, he would not have been able to do.