I remember the last time I saw my sister.
She came to my house.
She was very happy that day that I saw 'em.
He had bought her a ring. They were gonna get married.
I remember when they got ready to leave,
And we just waved and waved until we couldn't see her.
I think that will forever be in my mind.
The next morning, the phone rang,
And it was my mom.
She said, "they found carla."
I said, "what do you mean, they found her?"
And she said, "they shot her."
I said, "they shot her? Who shot...?
What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
It looked like a roadside robbery.
He basically said it all happened so fast,
He couldn't give them many details.
I can remember all of the policemen
And the community reacted kinda like we did.
Everybody was very angry.
Sometime, people can mislead you, misguide you.
Sometimes you can be sleeping with a snake
And don't even know it.
[music]
[muffled scream, gasp]
[music]
[narrator] surrounded by rich delta farmland,
The historic port town of helena, arkansas
Is a quaint and tight-knit community.
Helena, arkansas, it has a population of 8,900,
So it's a small area.
It's a nice area.
We're a mississippi river town south of memphis.
If you didn't consider helena the heartbeat of the blues,
It certainly was a major artery.
A lot of people go there for the history of it.
There are great museums there,
And the king biscuit blues festival is still there,
And it's an interesting town.
[narrator] late in the evening on June 23rd, 2001,
Emergency dispatchers from
The phillips county sheriff's office
Receive a distraught phone call from local resident
46-year-old elbert holder.
Elbert holder called 911, saying that he had been robbed
In the south part of phillips county, arkansas
On a highway in the middle of nowhere.
He said that they shot him and then they shot his girlfriend.
He was frantic and pleading for help.
It was very clear that his fiancée was
Much more badly injured than he was.
[narrator] paramedics and law enforcement
Are immediately dispatched to the scene.
The medics are first to arrive.
Elbert actually flagged them down,
And they could tell that he was bleeding from one arm.
But he quickly let them know that his fiancée,
Carla knowlton,
Was in the front passenger seat
And she was much worse off than he was
And in desperate need of medical attention.
The first thing they did was check carla's vitals
And quickly realized that she was deceased at the scene.
He was very upset. Very distraught.
And you'd expect that of any man
Who just had his fiancée shot to death.
[bob] elbert was beside himself.
He could not understand
Who would want to do something like this.
[narrator] growing up in helena, arkansas,
Carla knowlton was the eldest of six siblings.
[lorri] carla, she was kinda like
A mother hen to the rest of us.
When my mom and dad would go to work and stuff,
Of course, she would be in charge.
[stacey] a big sister, but it's like mama.
She was the enforcer.
I mean, and she was a disciplinarian.
She wasn't soft.
If she had to jack you up, she would jack you up.
[willie marie] she was a happy, playful, loving kid.
In school, she was a good student.
She made good grades, made the honor roll.
She was the president of her senior class.
All the teachers were, like, "carla's gonna do this,
Carla's gonna do that."
I mean, so, yeah, she was an excellent student.
[narrator] after graduating high school in 1980,
Carla set her sights on college
But an unexpected pregnancy put those plans on pause.
Carla, when she got pregnant, it was a shocker for all of us.
We was like, "what's gonna happen now?"
So, she didn't go off to college.
[narrator] later that year,
Carla gave birth to her daughter, kanaka.
[kanaka] we were real close.
We was not really a mother-daughter.
She was just like my sister, my friend, versus my mom.
[stacey] kanaka's father went into the marines.
So, he was gone.
I mean, he financially supported and took care of things,
But he wasn't there.
[narrator] as a young single mother,
Carla was dedicated to providin for her daughter.
She went to nursing school,
And she graduated class of 1983, from phillips college of helena.
[stacey] she always wanted to help people.
That was her calling.
I, I don't think she would've wanted to do anything else.
[kanaka] she started working at helena hospital.
And then after helena hospital,
She start working different jobs,
Like at the nursing home and home health.
I saw her, like,
When we took vacations and stuff like that,
But she worked a lot.
She'd come home, she'd cook, sleep.
[lorri] she loved going to work.
She loved helping people, especially children.
She would just sit there with 'em and talk to 'em.
She loved her profession, what she was doing.
If you want a nurse,
Carla would be the one that you want.
[narrator] once her career had taken off,
Carla set her sights on finding lasting love.
[kanaka] she got married, and she had two more kids.
Her husband, which is my stepdad,
They was married, like, 17 years.
[narrator] unfortunately,
The marriage came to an end in 1998.
[lorri] she's kinda private,
And some things she just didn't share with the family.
We just knew that they were getting a divorce.
She was sad about it
Because she was married a long time.
She tried to make it work. It didn't work.
[stacey] she didn't want to see it affect the kids.
She kept her chin up and said, "okay, let me move on
And continue to do what I gotta do,
'cause this is about these kids."
Now she's kinda trying to do everything on her own,
As far as working.
And I think she always just longed for happiness.
She wanted to be happy.
She wanted have a husband and a family.
She just wanted to be loved.
[narrator] a year after her divorce,
Carla finally met the man who would change her life forever.
My mom met elbert holder in 1999.
She met him at the west helena fish market,
And he moved in with us.
Elbert was seven years older than carla.
He grew up in helena as well, and he had a teenage son,
And he was a single parent, much like carla.
Elbert was known to do quite a few odd jobs
And a little bit of everything here and there.
He was very focused on making money
And was a bit of a hustler.
I think what she liked about him
Or what drew her to him was the fact that, you know,
He would jump up in a minute, and they would go shopping.
She loved that.
They would take a trip overnight.
He took her to chicago and different trips.
They stay, doing something fun; going to a casino, swimming.
He was pretty much fun. You know, he kept us laughing.
He showed her a lotta attention and a lotta affection.
He did a lotta things for her that she didn't never have.
[willie marie] he was a nice-looking guy.
He was kinda fancy dresser, you know,
And him and her could go out and go places,
You know, he gonna be dressed nice.
And they could do things
When she hadn't had anyone to really do these things with her
So, she was excited.
[lorri] she was a social butterfly,
She liked to go places.
Well, he came along and he did those things.
So, we started to see a different side of her,
And she was happy.
She was actually happy.
[narrator] in may 2001,
Two years into their relationship,
Elbert proposed.
My mom and elbert had planned on doing a cruise
The last weekend of July.
And they was gonna get married at the bahamas.
And she was so excited.
[narrator] but just a month before
Their destination wedding,
Their future together is upended.
[brian] when they robbed carla and him,
They shot carla and killed her, and they shot at him.
[todd] the sheriff's office contacted
The criminal investigation division
With arkansas state police.
So, the sheriff's department and the state police
Worked this case together.
[narrator] before elbert is rushed to a local hospital,
He gives investigators a brief statement.
Elbert's story was that he took carla to work that day.
Carla, she was a home healthcare nurse,
And she had to go see a patient down near elaine,
Which is about 30 miles south of helena.
That they drove down to elaine,
He waited for her to go in and see the patient.
Then they were driving back towards helena.
And there was car trouble.
He pulled over to check the engine.
He got out of the car, opened the hood,
And two men pulled over.
He thought they were pulling over to help,
But they pulled a gun on him.
Elbert holder reported that
His wallet with $900 stolen from him.
[bob] for investigators,
It looked like the roadside robbery,
With carla being killed and elbert being injured.
[narrator] elbert says that the men were armed
With a shotgun.
When they opened fire,
He instinctively ducked out of the way.
He had a hat on, a cap on his head,
And there was a bullet hole through the cap
That he showed the police.
Elbert was extremely lucky that he wasn't killed, too.
It was a very close call for mr. Elbert.
After the shooting, the two guys got back in their car
And then they just sped off.
Elbert told investigators that it was two black men
In a black cadillac with tennessee plates on it.
Police put out an all-points bulletin
To the sheriff's departments to be on the lookout for
A car meeting the description
Of a black cadillac with tennessee tags.
We're 60 miles south of memphis
There're probably 300 black cadillacs in memphis
With tennessee tags.
So, if that car gets back to tennessee, it's over.
[narrator] coming up.
Crime scene details send investigators
Back to square one.
They would've left the scene in a hurry.
So, they looked for tire tracks
But there were no tire tracks that indicated that.
There were red flags all over the place.
[narrator] and a tip comes in pointing to a long con
And a twisted romance.
[stacey] I think she got caught on to that bad boy deal.
You know, "oh, I got a bad boy."
Was this a case of, "if I can't have him, nobody can"?
[music]
[narrator] hours after a roadside robbery
Claimed the life of carla knowlton
And injured her fiancé, elbert holder,
Authorities in arkansas are on the lookout
For a black cadillac with tennessee plates.
The police start contacting law enforcement agencies
Over in mississippi
To see if anybody noticed a vehicle with tennessee tags
Passing from arkansas into mississippi
And then into tennessee.
[narrator] while investigators wait for an alert to come in,
They consider the possibility that the perpetrators
Might have roots in their own community.
[brian] helena, arkansas, to me, is a nice area.
But we are a declining area,
Declining in population since the 1970s.
And our factories moved and went overseas.
[todd] the population's declined over the years,
But the criminals hadn't gone anywhere.
A lot of the homicides appear t be drug-related homicides.
Some gang-related, retaliation-type stuff.
You do get some robberies.
We don't have descriptions of the shooters other than
Two black males.
But that could be anybody.
[narrator] arkansas state police investigators
Begin processing the crime scene.
[kermit] there were three shotgun shells
Found at the scene.
So, they were submitted for analysis.
You would assume that if somebody committed a robbery
And shot two people and killing one,
That they would've left the scene in a hurry.
So, they looked for tire tracks that indicated that
Anybody had pulled off quickly.
But there were no tire tracks that indicated that.
[kermit] there wasn't a whole lot at the crime scene
Other than the shell casings that were identified.
There was an abandoned house not too far from the crime scene,
And outside, they did find elbert's empty wallet.
Elbert told them that there was a wallet stolen,
So maybe they ditched it.
[narrator] without much to go on,
Investigators search for potential witnesses.
[wendy] although highway 85 is very rural,
There were also some residential homes
Not too far away.
The police canvassed the area to interview any witnesses
That may have potentially saw or heard something.
There was a witness that said that
She saw a car parked out there near the scene,
But not a black cadillac.
That person told them that they believe they saw
A lighter-colored sedan.
[todd] and so, the police set out to
Trace the whereabouts of that car.
Obviously, they wanted to know where these people were.
[narrator] meanwhile, investigators learn that
Elbert is in stable condition.
The wound on mr. Holder's arm was enough to draw blood,
But it was not a significant wound.
It was like a graze wound.
[narrator] by the following morning,
News of carla's death reaches her family.
My grandma came and they told me, you know,
"we sorry, your mom, you know, has been killed.
And right now, we don't know what happened."
At that point, I just broke down.
It was, it was horrible. I mean, I was devastated.
I couldn't eat, sleep...
Or anything.
They kept saying, "she gone", you know,
But I, I never accepted it.
[lorri] I was just in, like, dismay, just shocked, like,
"what do you mean, what do you mean?"
I screamed and I hollered,
And some neighbors had to come and comfort me.
It was, it was really bad.
[narrator] after being discharged from the hospital,
Investigators visit elbert at his home
For a second interview.
His story was he had never seen this car.
He didn't know who was in it.
The people were wearing masks.
And he basically said it all happened so fast,
He couldn't give them many details.
Investigators thought his demeanor was very calm
And different than
What they would expect him to be acting like.
They know the cues they're expecting to see from victims
When they're recounting what happened to a loved one,
And emotion, sobbing, and crying is usually part of it.
[bob] investigators left that meeting with elbert,
And this is when they started to realize that
Things just weren't adding up.
[narrator] investigators shift their focus
To carla's autopsy.
The medical examiner found that carla was hit three times
With a 12-gauge shotgun;
Twice to the head and once to the chest.
The evidence that was recovered from the actual autopsy itself
Were shotgun pellets.
And those were submitted to
The firearm section of the laboratory,
Along with clothing from the victim's body.
A 12-gauge shotgun is going to cause massive damage.
I'm sure she died instantly.
The crime lab can match shell casings based upon
Ejection scratches or patterns.
And they determined that all three of those shell casings
Came from the same shotgun.
If they find a weapon, they can match it.
[narrator] when experts analyze the hat elbert was wearing
When the shooting occurred,
The report raises several questions.
Elbert said he was able to dive out of the way,
But his hat was grazed by the spray of the shotgun.
[kermit] the hat was examined,
And it appeared to be a bigger caliber weapon
Than just a simple shotgun,
Pellets that are penetrating through it.
And that would have been based on the soot analysis
Surrounding the diameter of the hole itself.
[brian] they can determine by the residue on the hat
How close of range the shot was
And they determine fairly quickly
That the shot came from very close by.
It didn't make sense that elbert was shot in the hat
But the bullet missed his head.
There were red flags all over the place.
His graze wound to his arm was pretty much superficial.
So, he was relatively unharmed.
But yet, miss knowlton was shot in the head and killed.
[brian] the fact that he was grazed in the arm,
Although he was the one outside who confronted the two men
When they came to rob 'em...
And why they walked around to the car and shot carla
With a shotgun...
That didn't make a lot of sense
It just seemed like that was not a true story.
Elbert became a suspect fairly quickly.
[music]
[narrator] less than a day after the roadside ambush
That killed carla knowlton,
Investigators are becoming increasingly suspicious
Of her fiancé elbert holder's account of the shooting.
The loved one of the victim,
The spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend,
Is always a suspect.
[todd] when a murder occurs,
Every good police officer will tell you this--
Everybody's a suspect.
And then you start eliminating
People that couldn't have possibly done it.
So, holder was a suspect immediately.
[narrator] when investigators pull elbert's criminal record,
They discover he's no stranger to the law.
I don't recall mr. Holder
Having any violent acts in his history.
He did have some insurance fraud claims
That went back a few years.
Holder pretty much made a career
On running scams and insurance scams.
And I'm not sure what he did for a living,
What his honest job was, so to speak.
But my understanding is every so often,
He would run an insurance scam,
And that's how he made money.
[todd] there was a lawyer down there in louisiana.
I remember talking to him on the phone.
Came to find out that there was a case
That was filed in louisiana over some insurance fraud
That he was alleged to have committed down there.
He allegedly reported some property stolen
That he still had.
It was a big enough of an issue that the insurance company
Filed suit against him.
[narrator] elbert had also reportedly suffered an injury
On a mississippi riverboat job.
[bob] elbert claimed that the boat he was working on
Was hit by a barge
And that he was injured, his back or his spine,
But to the point where he could hardly walk
And he couldn't even work.
And that's when he filed the workman's comp claim
For about $140,000.
[narrator] investigators reach out to
Carla's grieving family to see if they can provide
Any additional information on elbert.
[stacey] I knew that he was into this workman's comp scam.
He was a street guy,
And any way to make money in the streets,
That's what he did.
He was selling sex toys and video tapes outta his trunk,
And doing things that the average person wouldn't do.
Nothing legit.
And I'm like, "what is carla doing with him?
Why, why is she with him?"
[kanaka] he grew up poor,
And he started hustling and getting money through scamming
And figuring how to get money.
That was the lifestyle he knew.
[stacey] carla went through a divorce.
And so, I think elbert came in.
I think he came in saying nice things...
...Buying her things,
And I think she kinda, like,
Got caught on to that bad boy deal.
You know, "oh, I got a bad boy."
[lorri] they were like oil and water.
But she was so happy, and so we were like,
"you know what?
Maybe it's not so bad after all."
[narrator] carla's family tells investigators
That she accidentally tipped of
Elbert's scamming activities to his lawyers.
[willie marie] he had used her phone,
And he'd call and talk with the lawyers,
So they had this number.
They call back to the house one day
And asked her, where was he,
And she told 'em he was gone riding his motorcycle.
They said, "riding a motorcycle? He can ride a motorcycle?"
Elbert was supposed to have been disabled,
Couldn't work 'cause of his back.
[narrator] her family says a few months earlier,
Elbert and carla had driven to new orleans
For elbert's deposition hearing
There, attorneys representing the insurance companies
Had approached carla.
The attorneys had a conversation with her.
Something to the fact that,
"hey, we know that this guy's a fraud."
They had been watching him.
[willie marie] they had asked her about
Testifying against him,
And that way the insurance,
They wouldn't have to pay all of this money.
That could be huge motive to get rid of her.
[narrator] still, investigators have doubts
That elbert was the triggerman,
Since he was also injured in the attack.
You don't get tunnel vision. You don't focus on one person.
There was some idea that holder was a scam artist
And carla got caught in the crossfire.
Investigators start to wonder if carla's murder
Could have been connected to elbert,
Because of some of the circles that he's been known to run in,
And it could have potentially been aimed at him.
[narrator] according to carla's family,
There was a recent incident
Where carla and elbert may have been targeted.
One of her cars was set on fire.
I'm like, "carla, how did your car catch on fire?"
The report from the fireman sai it was set.
I'm like, "carla, what in the hell is going on?"
Carla felt that the fire in the car was a technical issue
Or a malfunction of some sort.
But her family had a suspicion that it could have been
Something that was meant for elbert.
[todd] elbert holder had enemies.
Some people that he maybe ripped off
Or wronged in some way.
[bob] the alarming thing is that
Elbert didn't say anything about this,
So maybe he didn't want detectives
Snooping into his case.
But his fiancée is dead,
So they know he's gotta be hiding something.
[narrator] before investigators can confront elbert
About these claims,
They receive a pivotal tip.
[gerald] a woman called the police
And said that she had loaned her car to somebody
The night before.
[wendy] the local woman tells police that her friend
Who had borrowed the car the night of the murder
Came back the next day in her own car
And told her that they would have to go pick the car up.
[bob] the woman rode with her friend to get her car,
Which was parked at a rest stop along highway 85.
The same highway carla was killed on.
When they get to the car,
It's got dirt on it, grass on it.
So when she eventually does get it home,
She naturally starts to clean it up.
She tells police
When she's in the process of cleaning her car up,
She makes a very startling discovery.
She had discovered a shotgun in the trunk.
She said that the person
She loaned the car to was brenda dixon.
[wendy] it so happens that brenda dixon
Was the ex-girlfriend of elbert holder
And the mother of his son.
The sheriff's department immediately sent an officer out,
Who recovered the gun from the trunk.
It turns out this woman's vehicle matches
The description of the vehicle a witness saw out on the highway
When authorities were initially canvassing the area,
Which was a lighter-colored sedan.
It was shocking,
A potential murder weapon had just fallen into their hands.
Was brenda dixon the shooter?
[music]
[narrator] 24 hours into the investigation of
Carla knowlton's murder,
Arkansas police have recovered a shotgun from a car
Allegedly loaned to brenda dixon,
The ex-girlfriend of carla's fiancé, elbert holder.
[bob] while police have sent the shotgun off
To the crime lab for testing,
They're trying to locate brenda dixon.
'cause naturally, they'd like to talk to her.
Brenda wasn't at home,
So police started talking to friends and family,
Trying to locate anybody who could help them find her.
[narrator] when investigators speak with brenda's friends,
They learn that brenda and elbert's relationship
Hadn't necessarily ended.
[todd] mr. Holder was dating more than one lady.
Mr. Holder was in a relationship with carla knowlton,
And he was also in a relationship
With brenda dixon at the time.
[brian] they just never stopped dating,
Even though he was living with carla.
Carla found out he never broke up with brenda.
He never broke up with her.
He was going from her house to carla's house.
So it was like he was living a double life,
But he did it so well.
[lorri] we were very angry.
He was not the guy for our sister.
[narrator] investigators theorize that brenda may have
Enacted a plot to get rid of her romantic rival.
Jealousy is a powerful motivating factor
In a lot of murders.
[brian] brenda and elbert's relationship
Was the relationship of the woman on the side,
And maybe she thought that was gonna come to an end
If he married carla.
You see this quite frequently,
Where the woman on the side
Wants to eliminate the woman who is occupying the attention
Of who she would consider her man.
Was this a case of, "if I can't have him, nobody can"?
If brenda was involved, the question is,
What did elbert know?
Initially, it was said there were two men at the scene.
The first thought was,
Could elbert be protecting brenda?
[narrator] the following day,
Investigators search for their main suspects,
Elbert and brenda.
Shortly after, police receive a call from the woman
Who had previously loaned brend her vehicle.
[todd] the lady called the sheriff's office again,
Basically in a panic,
Saying that mr. Holder and miss dixon were over there.
They wanted to get in the trunk of the car.
And she had told them that she lost the keys.
She had actually tossed the key to the trunk behind her couch.
As soon as brenda dixon and elbert got out of earshot,
She called the police.
She was really panicking about the whole situation,
Fearful for her life.
[narrator] investigators race to the scene,
Where they find their two primary suspects,
Elbert and brenda,
Standing at the woman's car with the trunk popped.
Holder had actually brought a, either a mechanic or a locksmith
Or somebody to try to open the trunk.
He was totally surprised that
The gun was no longer in the trunk.
Why is he out there retrieving the shotgun
If he had no knowledge?
[todd] elbert holder and brenda dixon
Were arrested on the spot by law enforcement.
[narrator] brenda and elbert are transported to
The sheriff's office for questioning.
Elbert refused to talk to police
And immediately asked for a lawyer.
Brenda dixon, she started talking pretty quickly.
She said that this was all mr. Holder's idea
And all his plan.
[wendy] she told them about her involvement,
But that elbert was really behind it all.
[gerald] miss dixon said that mr. Holder,
He had approached her about killing the victim
Because mr. Holder thought she was gonna testify against him
In an insurance fraud case.
[narrator] according to brenda,
Carla had set conditions on her silence.
Carla wanted elbert to really clean up his act
And stop any scamming that he was doing,
Stop seeing brenda, and settle down and marry her.
Brenda said carla was forcing elbert to marry her.
[bob] elbert agreed to carla's conditions,
And carla was excited about moving forward with their life.
[kanaka] and she was so excited.
"oh, I'm getting married, I'm getting married.
We're getting married."
But she was planning a wedding, and he was planning the funeral.
Brenda said that she was approached by elbert,
Who said he wanted her to help.
Brenda doesn't want her man to marry another woman,
And agrees with him to murder carla to get her out of the way
Originally, elbert attempted to plant
Some sort of a bomb in carla's car,
But she dodged that attempt.
[narrator] brenda explains she refused to commit
The murder herself.
So, elbert enlisted the help of his friend,
43-year-old greg jenkins.
[brian] brenda told us holder came to him
And asked him to do it,
And that he would pay greg.
And so, he willingly agreed to do it.
[todd] I don't know if he got paid $2,000.
I don't know if he got paid $10,000.
But apparently, he got paid money to do this.
[brian] according to brenda, they had met several times
To talk about how they were going to do it.
It was Friday, June the 22nd of 2001
That jenkins, dixon, and holder
Finalized their plan to kill carla.
Elbert's plan was to drive carla to work the next night.
And when he turned on to the desolate part of highway 85
He was supposed to act as though there was car trouble.
And that's when greg jenkins was supposed to be waiting.
When elbert pulls over and then pops the hood,
That's the signal to greg jenkins waiting nearby
To come out and then shoot carla.
The plan was to make this appear like
It was a robbery that had gone wrong.
[narrator] brenda claims that elbert was never
Supposed to be injured,
But he had taken steps to make the story more believable.
Brenda tells police that elbert
Actually put a bullet in his own hat
The day before the murder.
He took his cap off and shot it with a handgun.
He would then just claim that he was another victim,
And he just got lucky and hadn't been killed himself.
[narrator] on the night of the murder,
Brenda says she borrowed her friend's car
And picked up greg jenkins,
Who was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun.
[brian] brenda told us greg said
He could not do it unless he got drunk.
Brenda's story was that they drove out to
The razorback liquor store.
Greg got something to drink.
They then drove down to highway 85,
And she dropped off greg at the spot
Where elbert told them they would meet.
She then pulled up to the vacant house,
And stayed there and waited.
[bob] as brenda was waiting,
She saw the headlights coming down the road
And then stop at that location
Where they had chosen to shoot carla.
[brian] she said that she did not see
Greg actually pull the trigger and kill carla,
But that she heard four shots.
[four gunshots]
[brian] there was a graze shot on elbert's arm,
And so that would have accounted for the four blasts she heard.
But nobody ever said that he stood there
And jenkins shot him,
Or whether he shot himself.
[todd] and according to brenda dixon,
Greg jenkins ran over to
The vehicle that miss dixon was in,
Threw the gun in the trunk,
Jumped in the car with her, and they fled the scene.
The next day, when brenda realizes she had left
The shotgun in the trunk of the car,
She gets ahold of elbert and says,
"we've gotta get this shotgun."
By that time, though, it was too late.
[brian] and I think dixon didn't know
What to do with the firearm afterwards.
The plan was, "how do we make this murder happen?"
But there was no plan for what happens after the murder.
[narrator] on August 14th, 2001,
Authorities charge brenda dixon and elbert holder
With capital murder.
Capital murder is a murder that's premeditated
Where there are aggravating factors.
Capital murder means that you could face the death penalty.
At this point, the police, they go and pick up
The alleged triggerman, greg jenkins, as well.
Once greg is in custody,
He doesn't speak to police,
And he immediately asks for a lawyer.
Mr. Jenkins was charged with
The capital murder of carla knowlton.
[narrator] coming up.
As the trials get underway,
Several issues threaten to upend the case
And leave carla's family and authorities
Baffled at its outcome.
She's got every motive to lie
To try to get herself a sweet deal.
And I watched him walk out of court.
I was just angry.
I don't know that you could find a case more tragic than this.
[music]
[narrator] in helena, arkansas,
Brenda dixon has confessed to conspiring with her lover,
Elbert holder,
To murder elbert's fiancée, carla knowlton.
[todd] and according to brenda,
Mr. Holder hatched the whole plot.
Planned it, the location, and the whole nine yards.
[stacey] I personally know brenda.
How could you even let him convince you to even do this?
[lorri] the anger definitely kicked in with everybody.
And then, we kinda beat ourselves up,
Because we knew he was no good.
[narrator] while carla's loved ones
Grapple with the tragedy,
Authorities continue building their case.
The key piece of evidence was brenda dixon's testimony,
But she was a codefendant.
For that testimony to be given any weight
Or credibility at all,
It has to be corroborated or substantiated
By independent evidence.
[bob] the vehicle that carla was killed in was examined.
There was no evidence that
The car had any kind of engine trouble.
So, the story that elbert gave
That they pulled over for car trouble?
Clearly fabricated.
[wendy] police were also able to confirm that
Elbert did own a .38-caliber revolver,
And they found that revolver not too far from the crime scene.
His hat's got a bullet hole.
The crime lab determined that
The hole in the hat was consistent with
A .38-caliber revolver.
[narrator] the crime lab confirms that
The shotgun found in the trunk is, in fact, the murder weapon.
[bob] there was no dna
Or any other kind of physical evidence
That linked greg jenkins or anybody else to the weapon.
Greg jenkins never confessed to a crime,
And the only thing investigators actually had against him
Was brenda's story.
[narrator] as news of the arrests
Sweeps across helena,
A witness comes forward
Alleging greg jenkins had confessed to
Shooting carla knowlton.
He told me flat out that jenkins had come to him afterwards sad,
And said, "I should not have let holder get me to kill carla.
I should not have done it."
So, we had that.
The trial of elbert holder
Started the morning of may the 20th of 2002,
In the phillips county courthouse in helena, arkansas.
We were very confident going in this trial.
[narrator] prosecutors assert that elbert had
A clear motive for wanting carla dead.
[todd] carla knowlton was scheduled to be a witness
Against elbert holder
Down in louisiana.
Turned out that was a big part of the motive.
Elbert holder had asked several people
To get rid of miss knowlton,
And he needed her gone by a certain date,
Which was just prior to when he was scheduled to go to trial
On the insurance fraud case down in louisiana.
[narrator] the state's star witness
Is brenda dixon,
Who directly implicates her lover
In the plot to kill carla.
Elbert's defense, however,
Attempts to pin the murder entirely on brenda.
[todd] brenda dixon couldn't be believed,
According to the defense,
Because she's a codefendant, and she's charged herself.
And so she's got every motive to lie
To try to get herself a sweet deal.
[bob] you could look at the motive as being jealously,
And that brenda had a larger role than she let on.
Or you could look at it as a man
Selfishly trying to protect himself.
Or maybe it was a combination of the two.
[narrator] after hearing the testimony,
The jurors retire to deliberate
The jury returned a verdict of guilty to capital murder.
[todd] I think he narrowly escaped
Receiving the death penalty fro the jury,
But he received a sentence of life in prison without parole.
[lorri] he did appeal it,
And then they went back and jus gave him 40 years.
And I said, "either way, he'll die in prison."
So we were okay with the judgment.
[narrator] greg jenkins' trial gets underway
Four months later.
[todd] miss dixon's testimony was a big part
Of the evidence against mr. Jenkins.
But there was other evidence against him as well.
[brian] one of the proprietors of
The razorback liquor store
Verified that greg came into the liquor store that night
And bought liquor.
And there was a person who lived at the south beach apartments
Who testified that he saw brend drop off greg that night
At some time after the murder occurred.
[narrator] another key witness for prosecutors
Is the man who claimed greg jenkins had confessed
That he regretted killing carla
I was the person who examined him.
Put him on the witness stand.
He said, "no, that's not true. That didn't happen."
And so, I asked him five different ways, you know,
"isn't it true that you told me this?
Isn't it true that he came to you?"
"no, that's not what happened."
That was disappointing for me.
[narrator] the witness's testimony,
Along with the lack of physical evidence
Tying greg to the murder,
Result in a frustrating outcome for prosecutors.
He was found not guilty.
[todd] mr. Jenkins was acquitted.
He's a free man as we sit here today.
The investigators were very thorough,
Very solid case on mr. Jenkins.
But the jury just didn't see it that way.
When they said "not guilty" and how he cheered,
His mother cheered,
And I watched him walk out of court...
I was just angry.
I don't think justice was served in his being found not guilty.
[narrator] for her role in carla's murder,
Brenda dixon is sentenced to ten years in prison.
Elbert definitely needed help to execute this plan.
He couldn't necessarily have done it alone.
So brenda was a very important part of the plan.
[todd] mr. Holder got her involved in this scheme
That he hatched in his head.
I personally talked to miss dixon several times
Over the course of these two trials.
Appeared to feel a, a lot of remorse.
That she had made a horrible mistake,
And she wished it hadn't have happened.
I don't know that you could find a case more tragic than this,
'cause everybody lost.
Nobody should have to lose their life.
But for simple greed, it's even worse.
Sometimes, you can be sleeping with a snake
And don't even know it.
So, just be careful.
And if you see any red flags, don't ignore 'em.
'cause they're there for a reason.
[music]