1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,000 [birds singing] 2 00:00:16,240 --> 00:00:18,400 [man] I couldn't believe I committed murder. 3 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:24,480 I took away two men out of their lives. 4 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:27,520 I would never be able to give back. 5 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:33,520 I'm truly sorry for what I did... 6 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:35,920 to them boys. 7 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:06,640 My name is Brandon Hutchison. 8 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:09,920 I was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. 9 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:13,200 And I was given the death penalty. 10 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:18,040 I've never talked about this or... 11 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:22,240 I've never implicated anybody or myself in anything. 12 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:27,200 I know what I did. 13 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:30,000 And I'm taking responsibility for that. 14 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:44,640 [man 1] This is a true story. 15 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:48,360 I'll start it off like that. 16 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:51,680 [man 2] I just wanted to rebel. I wanted to cause chaos. 17 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,520 I looked over at him. We're gonna see who kills who. 18 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:55,920 [woman] I made the choice. 19 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:58,040 I took his life. 20 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:01,560 [man 3] It's something that I never intended to do, 21 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:03,640 I wish I didn't do. 22 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,960 [man 4] I knew I was gonna get out of that car and murder those two men. 23 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,760 [man 5] As he kneeled in front of me, all I remember is pulling the trigger. 24 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:19,440 [man 6] I'd killed them both. 25 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:22,040 I'd stabbed them to death. 26 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:42,840 [birds singing] 27 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:32,960 [Brandon] I was born in Ventura, California. 28 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:34,720 1974. 29 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:41,640 I was raised out there till I was 18 or 19. 30 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:48,680 I had two brothers, one older brother and one younger brother. 31 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,520 There was some sexual abuse during my childhood. 32 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:01,520 I'm not sure when it started. 33 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:02,880 I can remember... 34 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:06,240 kindergarten, maybe. 35 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:10,960 I started going to see psychologists and things because of my behavior. 36 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,960 I got help for behavior problems my whole life. 37 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:22,200 Dealing with the... the drama of what happened to me, I... I used... 38 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:26,360 methamphetamines and... and alcohol. 39 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,520 Just to cope with, I guess, those feelings that I didn't know how to express. 40 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,000 I smoked weed when I was younger, and drank. 41 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:44,200 But the methamphetamine use started heavy probably when I was about 15. 42 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:49,920 I was a drug addict. 43 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:53,040 That's... pretty much it. 44 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:57,520 Yeah, it was... It was... 45 00:04:58,720 --> 00:04:59,840 it was destruction. 46 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:13,200 I met Michelle in a motel room. 47 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:15,360 I think I was 15 years old. 48 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:18,160 I was selling her friend an ounce of weed. 49 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:21,240 And she was there with her boyfriend. 50 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,640 Nine months into meeting her, she was pregnant with Jerry, 51 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:27,160 my... my oldest son. 52 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:35,760 I wish I would have took the responsibility on 53 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:41,240 and became a man at that time, but, uh, I was so wrapped up in amphetamines and... 54 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,360 the relationship with Michelle, it was off and on for years. 55 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:49,520 I had two kids with her. 56 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:54,920 But I really quit seeing her, I would say, at 17, 18 years old. 57 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,160 Moving to Missouri was gonna be a new start for me. 58 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:09,320 I... I thought it was gonna be a... 59 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:12,120 a better chapter in my life. 60 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:21,080 And it didn't work out. 61 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:31,280 I met Freddy Lopez when he married my cousin 62 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:32,880 here in Missouri. 63 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,960 Freddy rented a house and had a shop next door 64 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,960 that he was gonna turn into a detail shop. 65 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:46,000 But it was more of a front than anything. 66 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:47,880 For the drug activity. 67 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:57,600 Freddy was a marijuana dealer at the time 68 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,440 and he would bring back 50, 60 pounds of marijuana. 69 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,040 Trips back and forth to California. 70 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:09,960 I would say I was working for Freddy at first to build a clientele. 71 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:11,720 But the drug use got... 72 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:13,840 a hold of me again. 73 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:19,640 I told him what the methamphetamines would do, 74 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:22,440 that the profit margin would be a lot more. 75 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:25,840 And it just rolled in, it just started going. 76 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:35,320 I met Michael Salazar through Freddy Lopez. 77 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:39,840 He came back here from California. 78 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:46,680 Michael was the, uh, dude that looked out for Freddy. 79 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:51,240 You know, they were both from the same gang there in California 80 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:55,320 and they were tightening the ropes down on their organization. 81 00:07:57,400 --> 00:07:59,280 [birds singing] 82 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:20,400 There was a New Year's Eve party in Freddy Lopez's garage 83 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:21,760 next to his house. 84 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:26,640 [R&B music playing] 85 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:34,600 Just started drinking and partying and doing lines and... 86 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:38,800 More people showed up at the... 87 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:41,640 at the party and we were just partying and... 88 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,000 everybody seemed to be getting along. 89 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:53,080 I met Ronald and Brian Yates that night at Freddy Lopez's house. 90 00:08:56,520 --> 00:09:00,720 Me and Brian and Ronald were sitting in the garage playing dominoes. 91 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:08,960 For some reason, they were talking about Michael and Freddy. 92 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:13,920 They were referring to them as Mexicans or wetbacks. 93 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:20,000 They called them wetbacks because of the Rio Grande, I guess, 94 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:21,440 swimming across the border. 95 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,920 That's been a racist slang ever since I can remember. 96 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,040 I went outside and I met Michael. 97 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:35,640 I said, "You won't believe what these dudes are saying." 98 00:09:38,680 --> 00:09:39,520 And... 99 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:42,240 he went in the shop and started shooting. 100 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:44,760 [gunshots] 101 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:47,880 Shot Brian first. 102 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:53,120 Then shot Ronald. 103 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:04,480 I was shocked. 104 00:10:05,560 --> 00:10:08,560 I've never seen somebody get shot like that in my life. 105 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:18,000 Ronald didn't fall at first. 106 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,960 But then, after a minute or so, I seen him hit the ground. 107 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:23,040 Like, he just dropped. 108 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:27,600 He was crawling on the floor in the garage. 109 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,320 Michael grabbed a screwdriver 110 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:39,760 and went over and started stabbing Ronald Yates. 111 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:42,000 And, uh... 112 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:44,040 it was just chaos. 113 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:53,200 After witnessing what I witnessed, 114 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:55,360 I thought I was gonna get shot too. 115 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:06,120 I went in the house at that time and I, uh... 116 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:09,040 told Freddy something bad had happened. 117 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:11,720 And when he came out to the garage, 118 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:14,760 he was like, "What the hell happened?" 119 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,560 Ronald was trying to get out of the back of the garage. 120 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:21,000 And Freddy said, "Go get him. Look what... Go get him." 121 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:23,920 Because he was opening up the back roll-up garage. 122 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,080 I went over there and dragged Ronald back over and kicked him. 123 00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:36,480 Somebody said, "Should we call an ambulance?" I'm not sure who said it. 124 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:40,120 And I'm like, "They're dying." Because he was gurgling and... 125 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:41,880 they weren't moving. 126 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:46,800 So Freddy says, "We'll get the car and pull it in the back of the shop." 127 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:51,200 And me and Michael loaded the two brothers into the trunk. 128 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:07,320 I was driving. 129 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:11,200 Freddy was in the passenger seat and Michael was in the back seat. 130 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:16,960 Somebody started making noise in the trunk and Freddy told me to pull over. 131 00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:26,840 Freddy handed me the .22 pistol. 132 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:38,760 And I guess I knew what I had to do. I guess I had to get out and shoot 'em. 133 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:43,440 A silent order, I guess. 134 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:44,520 I'm not sure. 135 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:46,960 I mean, I'm not no murderer in my heart. 136 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:50,480 So I guess I was just taking an order. 137 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:55,400 I really wasn't worrying about them. I was worrying about staying alive. 138 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:02,960 I knew I was gonna get out of that car and... and... and murder those two men. 139 00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:17,800 And I got to the back of the trunk, 140 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:21,480 and lifted the trunk lid. 141 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:28,400 I don't know if it was Ronald or Brian. I can't... I don't know. 142 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:31,200 I grabbed one of their heads and I shot. 143 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:35,160 [gunshots] 144 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:38,040 Two shots. 145 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:41,480 And... 146 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:45,880 did the same thing to the other body that was in the trunk. 147 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:48,080 [gunshots] 148 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:01,520 It was a bad feeling. It was an empty feeling. 149 00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:05,160 I should have stuck up for 'em. 150 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:07,880 I should have stuck up for the Yates brothers 151 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:09,760 instead of making them victims. 152 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:14,200 I never have told anybody anything, except right now. 153 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:18,800 I've never mentioned this to nobody. 154 00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,440 [man] At about six o'clock in the morning, New Year's Day, 155 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:47,000 I get a phone call. 156 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,920 Dispatch saying, "We had a double homicide. 157 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:53,440 We need your assistance." 158 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:58,600 And I had the privilege of going there. 159 00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:02,160 It was not a very pretty scene. 160 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:10,880 My name is Walter F. Metevier. 161 00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:15,280 I've been with the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department for 22 years. 162 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:18,960 And we are at the scene right here. 163 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:57,440 Right here is where the bodies were found. 164 00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:02,520 We had two of them, facing... 165 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:04,680 this way. 166 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,000 One here and one... 167 00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:09,600 in the grass area. 168 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:14,320 In my life, 169 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:18,360 I have never been to a double homicide. 170 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:23,360 It's... it's unbelievable something like that could happen. 171 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:25,840 And I've lived here 30 years. 172 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:27,760 Nothing like that. So... 173 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:30,040 Hmm... [chuckles softly] 174 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:31,160 Scary. 175 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:33,760 [birds cry] 176 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:37,600 But I knew this was an execution somehow. 177 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:40,800 They were shot in their eyes by a small-caliber weapon. 178 00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:43,560 We turned the bodies over 179 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:46,280 to check their backs and found wounds in their back. 180 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:48,400 So they were... 181 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:52,400 incapacitated and then brought out here and assassinated. 182 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:57,880 The detectives and the rest of them that put it all together and stuff 183 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:01,280 determined it might have been gangland affiliated. 184 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:04,520 Somebody was sending a message. 185 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:12,640 When the bodies were laying here, the only way we could identify them was, 186 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:14,200 a little further up here... 187 00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:18,080 was a, uh... a pair of teeth. 188 00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:22,200 And they happened to be teeth that came from DOC, 189 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:24,240 which is the Department of Corrections. 190 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:28,000 And it's kind of wild, because the teeth... 191 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:31,200 were etched inside, 192 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:32,880 and... 193 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:36,200 and it had a DOC... 194 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:39,720 number on it, along with his name. 195 00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:43,200 And so it was like, "Great. Great, hey, that's a possibility." 196 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:46,960 And that's when we found out it was Brian Yates. 197 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,480 Once we, uh... identified the bodies, it didn't take us very long, a day or so, 198 00:17:57,360 --> 00:17:59,440 to link them back to Freddy Lopez. 199 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:02,800 Well, I wasn't familiar with the party, 200 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,720 but the investigations that we did 201 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,880 zeroed in on, uh, Freddy Lopez's house 202 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,400 and also the little, uh, detail shop next to it. 203 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:26,200 [distant rumble of traffic] 204 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,040 I am Kerry Lynn Lopez. 205 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,000 And I am the ex-wife of Freddy Joe Lopez. 206 00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:45,920 [vehicle drives by] 207 00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:48,240 This is... 208 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,160 the Verona house in Missouri where we lived. 209 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:54,280 Where we... 210 00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:59,040 had a New Year's Eve party, which was in the shop. 211 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:06,640 I was there that night. 212 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:14,160 We were in the house, which is next to the shop. 213 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:17,880 And Brandon came knocking on the door. 214 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:20,080 And he was, 215 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:22,800 you know, belligerent and... 216 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:27,440 just, "Freddy, you need to come out here. You need to come out here." 217 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:31,840 And so that's what made me get up and run around to see what was going on. 218 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:37,840 This back door here... 219 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:42,360 See the crack, which you can still see, obviously? 220 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:44,600 That's the one I looked under. 221 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:46,440 And I seen... 222 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:49,240 Ronald, I believe, was crawling away. 223 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:50,640 You know, and I knew 224 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:54,880 that he was paralyzed at that point, 'cause he was trying to get away. 225 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:01,920 I heard Freddy say, "Maybe we should take him to the hospital." 226 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,560 And, uh, Brandon's like, "No, no, no, no." 227 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,720 I don't think that the Yates murders 228 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:12,880 were planned. 229 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:18,480 I believe that the Yates brothers did owe Freddy money. 230 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:19,960 Um... 231 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,720 and it was quite a bit, but, I mean, 232 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:27,960 Brandon did get in an argument that night and he got very aggressive. 233 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:30,240 He was throwing up signs to... 234 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:34,280 to, uh, the Yates brothers. 235 00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:38,040 But I don't think it was gonna come down to where he was gonna kill 'em. 236 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:40,240 I don't think that he was planning on that. 237 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:46,440 But I... you know, after the shootings in the shop, 238 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:48,240 it was clear that... 239 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:51,280 Brandon planned after that. 240 00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:55,840 He planned to do this on a back road and get rid of them. 241 00:20:58,040 --> 00:20:59,560 [horn blares] 242 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:07,040 [train chugs and rattles] 243 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:16,720 [birds chirping] 244 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:26,400 [man] My brother was a drug addict. 245 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:29,840 Know what I mean? He just wanted to get high. 246 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,880 He was put in a bad spot where he would have been killed too. 247 00:21:37,120 --> 00:21:40,000 I believe my brother Brandon was a fall guy. 248 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:45,400 My name is Matthew William Hutchison. 249 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:48,480 Brandon is my brother. 250 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,360 And he's, uh, 14 months younger than me. 251 00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:57,560 He was molested. 252 00:21:58,120 --> 00:21:59,840 Yeah. He was sexually abused. 253 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:04,960 Brandon didn't go into details, but there was... 254 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,160 straight up, you know, molestation. 255 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:12,080 It was a big deal. 256 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:13,520 I know that. 257 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:17,440 And that could have kept him why he stayed doing the drugs. 258 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:18,920 You know, stayed on them. 259 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:26,320 When he came out here from California, he was pretty messed up, hardcore, then. 260 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,880 Once it got into him, selling the harder drugs, 261 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:33,360 it just was crazy. 262 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:40,040 The Yates went there to buy the drugs. 263 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,040 They were getting really good drugs at the time. 264 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,080 Freddy, he was the kingpin, like... 265 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,160 "Go get my car." You know, "Pull my car around." You know? 266 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:55,400 "Go get this. Go get that." You know, he... he played that part. 267 00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:58,520 Brandon... 268 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:00,400 was very fearful... 269 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:02,800 of, um, Freddy. 270 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,320 You didn't want to do him wrong or get on his bad... 271 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:09,600 or be around when he was too drunk either. 272 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:11,840 You know, Freddy was a... 273 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:14,120 was a bad, bad dude. 274 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:28,320 [woman] Brandon's a gentle giant. 275 00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:35,600 But I think that he also could be easily intimidated. 276 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:40,560 When I heard about the murders, 277 00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:44,400 I fully believed that he was innocent. 278 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:53,840 My name is Michelle Strand. I am the ex-wife of Brandon Hutchison. 279 00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:05,440 When we were in California and I chose not to have contact with Brandon, 280 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,800 I felt like it was the best decision at the time... 281 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:13,240 because of the drug use, 282 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:16,440 because of the things that he was going through. 283 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:24,760 So the contact with the boys was removed until after Brandon was in Missouri. 284 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:30,040 And, unfortunately, until after he was incarcerated. 285 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,080 I wanted to support Brandon. 286 00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:55,400 I wanted the boys to... know their father. 287 00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:58,000 And I felt compassion. 288 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,280 I never asked Brandon the details... 289 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,320 of the case. Never. 290 00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:12,520 Um, I was fully confident that... 291 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:15,880 that he was... that he was innocent, 292 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:21,640 that he was not capable of... of doing something like that. 293 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:29,080 Brandon was in county jail. I think it was before trial. 294 00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:36,000 I decided to marry Brandon just simply because I loved him. 295 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:39,440 It was very quick. 296 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:41,800 Um, we actually were allowed to... 297 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,400 to hug and kiss and, um... 298 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:46,680 And that was about it. 299 00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:54,160 I was very young. 300 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:56,200 Idealistic. 301 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,080 And fully believed that everything was going to work out. 302 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:08,560 That everyone's part in that situation would be revealed. 303 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:15,960 I had a lot of faith in our justice system. 304 00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:44,400 I don't think that Brandon had a fair trial. 305 00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:48,640 The family didn't have the money 306 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,440 to get the representation that he needed. 307 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:19,480 I remember the sentencing and I remember more his reaction. 308 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,400 Going over by the wall and turning around 309 00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:27,160 and just sliding down the wall in tears. 310 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:31,120 It was... it was devastating. 311 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:33,000 It was devastating. 312 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,040 [bell rings] 313 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,760 [man] I don't sit here and resent and blame 314 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:58,120 as much as I might be justified in doing so. I just... 315 00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:01,680 You know, a lot of bad decisions that I made in my youth, 316 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,680 you know, led me to... to where I found myself that night. 317 00:28:10,120 --> 00:28:12,040 My name's Michael Anthony Salazar. 318 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:15,360 I'm the first to admit... 319 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,440 that my participation, you know, that night was messed up. 320 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:24,720 But I didn't shoot these guys in the head 321 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:25,960 and I didn't kill them. 322 00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:36,680 After I shot the two victims initially, 323 00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:39,640 from that point on, the rest of that night, 324 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:41,280 I was... 325 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,520 I was just in a haze. Know what I mean? You know, I went to Freddy, 326 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:49,280 you know, to ask him what to do, you know, and whether it was Freddy 327 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:52,360 or whether it was Brandon who was making the decisions 328 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:53,800 for the rest of that night, 329 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:57,000 every decision or every action that I made, 330 00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:58,880 I just wasn't thinking. 331 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,520 I was just, you know, trusting in him, I guess you would say. 332 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:23,720 They have a jury instruction 333 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,080 that says that I am responsible for my conduct 334 00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:30,400 and the conduct of another person if I aid and assist with a common purpose. 335 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,800 If I helped put them in the car and helped take them out of the car 336 00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:36,240 with the purpose of taking them to that road and killing them, 337 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:37,520 then I'm just as guilty. 338 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:40,560 But that wasn't my mind-frame that night. 339 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:42,320 I didn't have that common purpose 340 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,920 to take them to the side of the road and kill them. 341 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,960 I know this much. We're taking them out to the country 342 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,040 to throw them on the road and somebody will help them. 343 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:55,480 That's what's in my mind, you know. Whatever. 344 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:59,520 And I believe I was getting back in the car when I heard some shots. 345 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,840 Boom, boom, you know what I mean? Then I turned, "What the hell?" 346 00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:07,080 I ran to the back and this dude was, you know, throwing them out of the car. 347 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:09,880 I'm like, "What the fuck?" You know, "What's going on?" 348 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:12,760 Not, "What's going on?" But like, "What the fuck?" 349 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:16,280 And I... I wasn't ready for all this, wasn't expecting all this. 350 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,080 I just wanted to go home. 351 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:21,040 I just... I didn't come out here to Missouri for all this. 352 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:25,040 I grew up in California around a bunch of gangs and drugs and stuff like that, 353 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:26,680 running around on the streets. 354 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:29,240 I'd never been involved in anything close to this. 355 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,880 I'm out here in the middle of nowhere for a couple of months. 356 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:35,600 Next thing I know, I see a couple of guys get killed. 357 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,800 Man, I'm gone. I'm over this. I'm... Shit, I'll take my chances back home. 358 00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:15,440 My name is Matt Selby and I am the elected prosecutor in Stone County, Missouri. 359 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,000 We handled a number of murder cases, 360 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,880 and particularly the one involving Ronald and Brian Yates. 361 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:31,600 There were three people that were charged with that crime, 362 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,840 uh, being Michael Salazar, Brandon Hutchison and Freddy Lopez. 363 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:39,440 Was justice done? 364 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,200 Well, let's take a look at all three of them. 365 00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:48,080 Michael Salazar shoots both of the Yates brothers. 366 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,120 That may be first-degree murder, 367 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:54,680 which is defined as knowingly causing the death of another person 368 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:56,200 after deliberation. 369 00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:59,480 But probably more likely, second-degree murder. 370 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,640 But when you take what happened next... 371 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:07,320 they load them into the car and then take them out in the country, 372 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:11,600 Brandon puts a gun up against their forehead 373 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:12,800 and pulls the trigger. 374 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,680 There's no question, at that point, you're doing something intentionally, 375 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,600 with deliberation, that you have reflected on... 376 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,040 for some period of time. 377 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:28,280 When you get to Freddy, we never had any evidence... 378 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,880 at all that he was in the garage when the initial shooting took place. 379 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,880 To what degree he may have directed the others... 380 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:42,280 to do something, we don't know, because he didn't say that he did it 381 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:44,960 and I don't think either one of them made statements. 382 00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:47,880 Freddy made a statement. 383 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:49,720 The others didn't. 384 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,840 The only information that we had came from Freddy. 385 00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,800 And so there was a decision to... 386 00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:17,680 offer him something if he cooperated. 387 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:20,760 Some sort of leniency. 388 00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:34,920 [distant dog barking] 389 00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:41,920 [Kerry] Freddy whistled like a bird. 390 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,000 He told them everything. 391 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,080 You know, to get a lighter sentence. 392 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:56,800 I believe that Freddy was responsible for the Yates murders, because... 393 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,680 if Freddy wasn't transporting the drugs, 394 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,720 listened to his wife that cared, 395 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:07,600 and got a normal job, none of this would have happened. 396 00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:16,080 Brandon and Michael were basically there to help Freddy. 397 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,040 They were more like leeches, really. 398 00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:19,480 [laughs] 399 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,040 You know, like how a fly is attracted to shit. 400 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,400 You know? I'm sorry, but that's how it is. 401 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:30,680 When you're addicted to something, you're gonna do anything for that person 402 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:32,680 because they got the goods. 403 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,200 They got what it is. They know where it's at. 404 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:49,840 [papers rustling] 405 00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:52,880 Here it is. Thirty-four million. 406 00:34:53,920 --> 00:35:00,720 This here is from when Freddy's family won the lottery out in California. 407 00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,560 He was looking at 30 to life. 408 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:09,320 Then they won the lottery and they got a high... high, top lawyer. 409 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,000 I'm trying to find his brochure. I have it. 410 00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:17,440 Here we go. Here's Dee's brochure. 411 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,840 This is a high, top lawyer, man. 412 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:25,040 Dee Wampler is the lawyer that got Freddy ten years. 413 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,040 I mean, you gotta have money to get this lawyer. 414 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:29,280 [laughs] 415 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,520 [birds chirping] 416 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:11,480 [man] Freddy Lopez put money in a trust fund... 417 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:16,560 to help raise my niece and nephew, Brian's kids. 418 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:20,840 At the time, I didn't know 419 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:24,440 that he only got a short-term sentence for that. 420 00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:28,240 That's something I didn't know and I wouldn't have agreed with it. 421 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:30,760 I don't believe somebody should plea bargain 422 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,320 and pay their way out of a horrendous crime like that. 423 00:36:41,720 --> 00:36:43,040 My name is Gary Len Yates. 424 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:46,040 I had five brothers. 425 00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:50,840 Timmy is the only brother I have left. 426 00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:57,520 [birds singing] 427 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:00,800 Me and my stepdad... 428 00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,200 went to the funeral home and identified my brothers. 429 00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:10,360 And it was horrifying 430 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,640 to see my brothers laying there on the steel table... 431 00:37:15,240 --> 00:37:16,240 lifeless... 432 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,720 with bruises and scrapes all over their face 433 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:22,920 where they'd been dragged across the floor. 434 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:27,800 And bullet holes in their eyes... 435 00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:30,320 and in the side of their head. 436 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:33,720 It was just... 437 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:36,360 it's un-human. 438 00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:42,160 I know Brandon did the execution. 439 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:44,800 Salazar initiated it. 440 00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:46,480 I know that for sure. 441 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:52,560 And I do believe that Freddy Lopez orchestrated the rest of it 442 00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:53,920 to get rid of the bodies. 443 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:58,720 They're all three as guilty as the other is. 444 00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,760 None of them should be serving a light sentence. 445 00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:04,080 They should all be serving the same sentence. 446 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,520 They should all get the death penalty. 447 00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:08,360 And they should all be carried out. 448 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:11,480 They should not even be living right now, in my eyes. 449 00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:44,560 [Michelle] I'm grateful that he wasn't executed. 450 00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:50,560 But he deserves more than life without. 451 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:53,600 My children deserve more... 452 00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:57,680 than their father having life without. 453 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,960 His intentions were not to kill anyone that night... 454 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:08,040 um... I don't believe. 455 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:35,920 [Brandon] After witnessing what I witnessed, 456 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:37,760 I thought I was gonna get shot too. 457 00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,200 Freddy was saying, "Should we call an ambulance?" 458 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,040 And I'm like, "They're dying. They're dead." 459 00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:51,120 Michael loaded the two brothers into the trunk. 460 00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:58,040 I knew I was gonna get out of that car and... and... and murder those two men. 461 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,320 Freddy gave me the gun. I popped the trunk of the car, 462 00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:08,240 and I don't know if it was Ronald or Brian... I can't... I don't know. 463 00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,360 And I grabbed one of their heads and I shot. 464 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:12,960 Two shots. 465 00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:24,040 [Michelle] I wish someone would have called an ambulance. 466 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:32,040 And when Freddy handed that .22 to Brandon... 467 00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:37,560 I really wish that Brandon would have called him out on it. 468 00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:40,640 [sobbing] I wish that... 469 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:45,680 he... 470 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,560 I wish that he would have called him out on it. 471 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:49,840 [sobs] 472 00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:52,600 That he would have handed it back to him. 473 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:00,200 [smacks lips, inhales] 474 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:03,600 I wish that he would have made a different decision. 475 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,040 [Brandon] I never gave Michelle or anybody else any full details on... 476 00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:28,320 on the murders of the Yates brothers. 477 00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:31,400 Maybe I should have told her. 478 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,520 You know? Instead of taking four years from her life, like I did. 479 00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:38,840 And she stuck with me for three, four years. 480 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:41,960 I thought it was the right thing to do. 481 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:46,040 The people I was involved with, I thought that's what you were supposed to do. 482 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,680 I kept my silence out of fear 483 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:52,160 for my family and my own safety. 484 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:06,760 [distant door slams] 485 00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,760 [Michael] After I shot the two victims initially, 486 00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:13,720 from that point on, the rest of that night, 487 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,560 I was... I was just in a haze. You know what I mean? 488 00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:21,680 And, you know, I went to Freddy to ask him what to do, you know, and... 489 00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:24,840 whether it was Freddy or whether it was Brandon, 490 00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:28,200 you know, who was making the decisions for the rest of that night, 491 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:30,920 every decision or every action that I made, 492 00:42:31,720 --> 00:42:35,440 I just wasn't thinking. I was just, you know, trusting in him, 493 00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:36,640 I guess you would say. 494 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:38,160 You know? 495 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:42,120 Michael's a good person. 496 00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:45,680 He was... he was just manipulated by the wrong people too. 497 00:42:47,720 --> 00:42:49,760 Does he deserve life without parole? 498 00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,480 I don't think nobody deserves life without parole. 499 00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:00,080 If I've got any hard feelings towards anybody, it would be Freddy. 500 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:03,600 Mr. Lopez had millions of dollars, 501 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,160 and I think he used his manipulation 502 00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:09,960 and his criminal way of thinking... 503 00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:12,920 to get what was best for him. 504 00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:22,480 I don't think any of this has hit me 505 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:24,760 until the last four to five years of my life. 506 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:27,840 I've never really felt that remorse... 507 00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:29,920 of what I've done. 508 00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,400 As people say, "Well, yeah, I've got remorse..." 509 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,280 I've never felt the remorse of them... those two men dying like they did. 510 00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:39,760 And... 511 00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:43,600 I was watching a program on TV one night. 512 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,160 There was this grandmother or mother 513 00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:50,600 that was on there talking about her daughter being murdered. 514 00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:55,240 And I felt her pain. I felt... 515 00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:59,640 And that's all I could think about, was the Yates'... the Yates' mother. 516 00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:05,120 And, uh... the next morning, I woke up and there was a message 517 00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:09,960 from you guys... wanting to do a story on my case. 518 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,960 I just think it was the right time to tell the truth, 519 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:16,360 admit to what I did. 520 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:22,040 I feel great about what I've talked about, and talked to you guys about. 521 00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:29,680 I'd wish the victims' family would understand the grief 522 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,000 that I do go through that I put them through. 523 00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:37,080 I just... Hopefully, they understand that I'm not the monster. 524 00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:42,360 Or I wasn't out tracking down people to hurt or... 525 00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:45,720 Something bad happened that night and it... 526 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:48,120 it went bad. 527 00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,000 If you talk about regrets, 528 00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:58,200 I regret not saving their life, 529 00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:00,120 instead of taking it. 530 00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:01,920 And I'm sorry to take those two... 531 00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:06,240 two people out of you guys' life that meant so much to you.