[eerie discordant music plays]
[sheriff] Red Lodge, Montana is a very close-knit community.
Everybody knows everybody.
This homicide, everybody was talking about it.
And everybody had their own theories on why it happened and what had happened.
[man] I remember the first time when I went to court.
They all looked at me differently, like I was a...
like I was a monster.
I kept trying to tell them I never meant for anything to happen.
I'm not a cold-blooded killer.
There was no, in any way, shape or form,
any intention of hurting my best friend ever,
ever, ever.
[cryptic music plays]
[eerie discordant music plays]
- Are we good to go? - [interviewer] We're good to go.
[man] Okay.
My name is Thomas Schifferns.
I'm 37 years old.
I'm currently imprisoned in Shelby, Montana
for the death of my best friend.
[somber melodic music plays]
I was born in 1984 in Kern County, California.
When I was four years old, my parents divorced.
My dad got remarried to my stepmother.
Life got really hard for me.
My stepmother really didn't like me at all.
I was locked in a room a lot.
I wasn't allowed out, I wasn't allowed to play.
I wasn't allowed to pretty much do anything
except for go to school and back.
That continued pretty much through my childhood.
[birds chirping]
[traffic passing]
That's when things got really bad.
I got caught smoking upstairs in my brother's bedroom one day.
My stepmom got mad about it,
so that very night, they pretty much kicked me out the back door
and told me never to come back.
[eerie discordant music plays]
[music intensifies]
[gate slams]
Red Lodge is a ski resort town.
There's a lot of rich people.
The cops, once you're on their radar,
they are on you all the time for the rest of your life.
Because I'm a convicted felon and because of who I was,
nobody would ever hire me.
[somber melodic music plays]
She was awesome.
She understood what I had been through and she didn't judge me for it.
So it... it felt good for once in my life
to not be judged for, you know, my past.
I'd repair chainsaws. I cut a lot of wood for 'em.
I did a lot of welding for 'em.
And that's where I met Jim.
[melodic guitar music plays]
He was like a small, frail man with a white beard.
He was always smoking his pipe, he always had his pipe on him,
sitting there next to the fire stove.
I guess I would just sit there and listen to his stories.
His, you know, ranching days.
[winds howling]
It gets below zero quite a bit in Red Lodge.
[somber melodic music plays]
Jim's shack didn't have any heat, didn't have any water in it.
He didn't have a place to go to when it was cold.
And so, me and Shilo decided to invite him into our home.
Me and Jim became inseparable.
I mean, everywhere I was, Jim was. Everywhere Jim was, I was.
We went out shooting a lot.
We went fishing a lot. We went and did everything.
He loved the outdoors.
Um, things were good till that... till awful day.
[wind howls]
[dog barks]
It was a regular day.
[eerie discordant music plays]
We stop at the store and we buy some beer.
We drive out of town.
We kept driving out of town, and I...
I believe the place was called Bear Tract.
We pulled in.
I got out.
I was kind of like, uh, you know, "The creek's frozen here."
"I don't really want to fish here."
So Jim gets out, and he had his .357 on him.
We just did what we loved to do. We started shooting.
We just started shooting trees.
He tried to twirl it on his fingers.
I told him that he looked like Billy the Kid.
"You look like Billy the Kid with that thing."
He wasn't really twirling it. He was just trying to.
He was trying to make the motions to do it. It was hilarious.
By that time, we were... We had been drinking all day,
so we were just having a good time, more or less.
I told him, "Let me see the gun. I wanna try it, I wanna try,"
and see if I could do what he was doing, you know.
So he handed me the gun, and I remember there was two shots left in it.
And I was gonna try to, you know, twirl it and act like some kind of cowboy,
some Billy the Kid, see if I could do it, you know.
[grim instrumental music plays]
And I remember twirling it forward and the gun went off.
[gunshot echoes]
[birds chirping]
I remember seeing Jim fall to the ground.
And at that point, I was just...
[music intensifies]
I didn't... I guess I didn't comprehend at the moment what had just happened
because I didn't expect the gun to go off like that.
I remember walking over to Jim, and I grabbed his leg to, you know...
I said, "Jim, get up, stop playing around, stop effing around," and, uh...
[sniffles]
[sighs]
I felt how limp his leg was, and I knew that there was something wrong.
And, um...
That's when I saw the blood in the snow.
It felt like my soul had been ripped out of my...
out of my body at that time.
Because I... I knew Jim wasn't there anymore.
[sniffles]
[wind howling]
[grim instrumental music plays]
I can't tell you how many times I told them it was an accident that day.
They tried to say that I had Jim on his knees,
and that I had the gun to the back of his head, and then I shot him.
I'm not gonna lie about what happened. You know, I'm not...
I'm not a cold-blooded killer.
[music intensifies]
I didn't mean for anything to happen.
I kept trying to tell them I never meant to hurt Jim.
It was an accident.
I think about Jim quite a bit.
Uh, he... He was the only friend I really had.
[somber melodic music plays]
[dog barking]
[man] When Jimmy was found deceased, I was torn apart.
My heart was broken.
And to find out that such a gentle soul
was taken in such a violent manner,
it just... it made it hurt that much worse.
I am John Price,
and one of my best friends was Jimmy McGregor.
Whenever I work on a skull like this, I think of Jimmy.
Knowing that he would look down right now and just see how I'm preserving
someone's hunting memories for a lifetime.
Being that this occurred in such a small town,
a lot of rumors went flying around.
People still speculate about it.
People still try to figure out a motive.
This sort of thing just does not happen in Red Lodge.
Jimmy was a kind and gentle man.
Always had a smile, always greeted you with a handshake.
Uh, wanted to know how the family was doing and whether you were doing well.
[birds chirping]
Jimmy's relationship with money was he had very little.
He pretty much was penniless.
Jimmy and I were talking one afternoon and he had had some assistance
from a local woman
that helped him file for his Social Security.
He realized that he was gonna get one lump sum at the beginning
and then his monthly payment.
We were just so happy for him to finally get to that stage
where he would have a steady income to sustain himself throughout the year.
Red Lodge is a very small town.
So it doesn't take long for word to travel around
that Jimmy was gonna be coming into his Social Security finally.
[eerie discordant music plays]
TJ was very forward with Jimmy
as far as his affections and such.
It was like he had prior motive for building that relationship.
[music intensifies]
I found out that Jimmy had moved in with TJ and his wife Shilo
and was very concerned. All of us were.
[bird squawking]
[TJ] Me and Jim became inseparable.
I mean, everywhere I was, Jim was. Everywhere Jim was, I was.
I think about Jim quite a bit
because he was the only friend I really had.
You know, there wasn't a lot I wouldn't do for that guy.
It's all a lie.
He made out that he and Jimmy were best of friends,
and that was far from the case.
TJ and Jimmy's relationship was a relationship of convenience.
TJ played that part to a tee by taking advantage of Jim.
[music intensifies]
I had discovered that Jimmy had purchased a truck.
This was alarming because Jimmy did not drive.
So he had no use for the truck.
I feel that he was taken advantage of,
that TJ needed a vehicle and preyed on him.
I think TJ did it strictly for the money.
He knew Jimmy had money,
and killing him
was gonna be the quickest way for him to get all of it at once.
[eerie discordant music plays]
My name is Josh McQuillan.
I am the Carbon County sheriff in Red Lodge, Montana.
So we're heading south out of Red Lodge right now.
This is the area in which we had received a call at dispatch
that Jimmy's truck had been found.
[music intensifies]
[cryptic music plays]
It was very unusual that we found Jimmy's truck all the way down here.
This is an area that is frequented during the summer by campers,
but not so much during the winter time.
At that time, snow down here was well over a foot to 18 inches deep.
And simply put, people just don't come down here when there's that kind of snow.
As we proceeded down here, we could see the truck,
and then we actually found some blood on the ground.
And then drag marks that led us over here to this embankment
that drops down into Rock Creek.
We were able to see Jimmy's body covered in snow laying on his back,
and he had obviously been dragged about halfway down this embankment.
We could clearly see that there was one gunshot wound to the head.
This spot can't be seen from the highway.
So there's a good chance that if we hadn't received that tip
and came down here when we did,
it's unlikely we would have found him until the spring thaw
when this became a more popular area with people.
It was apparent that whoever had done this to Jimmy
had tried to hide his body and had no regard for trying to help him.
[birds chirping]
[wind howls]
[grim instrumental music plays]
What did I do? What did I do?
You played a game.
I'm not... What did I do?
You killed somebody.
No, I fucking hell...
I don't even have the balls to kill somebody. Are you serious?
Oh, I'm dead serious.
[music intensifies]
It was an accident. It wasn't supposed to happen like that.
As soon as I cocked back the hammer, the gun went off.
And I saw Jimmy fall.
And it scared me.
[eerie melodic music plays]
[woman]You know, I really don't know, uh... what happened that day.
Only TJ and Jimmy know what happened that day.
And I don't want to speculate on that.
I do know that they spent a lot of time together
playing with guns and drinking, and that doesn't mix.
My name is Suzanne Russell, and I am TJ's mother-in-law.
[somber guitar music plays]
Why would TJ kill Jimmy?
He loved Jimmy.
He always would say, "I love Jimmy." Jimmy was his friend, his best friend.
I went over and seen them maybe a week before this all happened.
Everybody was happy and laughing and getting along just fine.
[eerie discordant music plays]
People in the right frame of mind would probably have called 911
if they shot somebody accidentally.
But TJ was scared to death.
[inhales]
Nobody in Red Lodge liked TJ.
So, I think even if it was an accident, nobody would believe him.
I think he would run scared
because he wasn't in his right frame of mind.
I can understand him doing that.
I'm not justifying it, but I...
I can see that he would do that, yes.
TJ had a lot of issues growing up.
You know, I don't want to get into a lot of his personal life,
but there was abuse in different areas.
He had it rough.
He's sentimental, he cries over movies. He's gentle, he's kind.
If this had went to trial,
I don't think TJ would have had a prayer
because this is a small community and he was the bad guy.
Nobody cared about TJ.
Jimmy was well-loved in this community.
And TJ, they figured he was just a monster.
[somber melodic music plays]
People know I'm TJ's mother-in-law and I keep in touch with TJ.
And people say, "You talk to him? Why would you talk to him?"
It's like, "Why wouldn't I talk to him?"
Who does he have to turn to? I'm all he's got right now.
My name is Dave Beuscher.
I'm the owner of AY Supply in Red Lodge, Montana.
I've had many men come and help me,
kind of down-and-out men.
People show up and they're hungry and they need a day's work.
TJ, he was needing work and couldn't find any.
It worked out fairly well at first.
Since TJ was working for me,
I let TJ and his wife Shilo
live in a house that I owned about six miles that way.
I kind of overlooked the fact
that occasionally, they couldn't pay the rent.
Jim was a neighbor that lived a couple of blocks away.
He was a very nice guy.
We had a number of guys hanging out.
TJ and Jim met each other here
and became somewhat of friends.
But another fellow here at, at the shop,
he said to me it was like mixing gasoline and matches.
I guess he thought less of TJ than I did.
[eerie discordant music plays]
[TJ] Me and Shilo, we were common-law married, I guess,
because we'd lived together for so long.
For a long time, I'd watch these jewelry commercials or whatever,
and I always wanted to get her a real wedding ring.
So I had asked the guy I worked for, Dave at AY Supply,
for some of the money to buy a ring for her,
and he ended up loaning me money.
I don't know exactly how much. A couple thousand, I guess.
This was a few days before all this happened.
Huh.
[chuckles]
That's crazy.
I never loaned him two thousand dollars.
Not that I know of.
And certainly not a few days before this crime.
There was no point at,
at which TJ came to me and, with a sob story,
and said, "I need to get Shilo a nice piece of jewelry, a ring."
He, he never said that to me.
That just didn't happen. He didn't borrow 2,000 bucks from me.
And... And my gosh, I wouldn't trust TJ with it.
I knew him well enough that I didn't need to be giving him any money,
ring or no ring for his wife.
[wind howls]
[grim instrumental music plays]
[TJ] I remember twirling it forward,
and my thumb had caught the hammer on it.
And when the gun started coming back,
my first instinct was to push my finger down, and the gun went off.
And it was so loud, it scared me.
And I remember seeing Jim fall to the ground.
And, at that point, I was just... I didn't...
I guess I didn't comprehend at the moment what had just happened
because I didn't expect the gun to go off like that.
Am I guilty for killing somebody? Yes, absolutely. I did.
Am I guilty of deliberate homicide for intentionally killing somebody
and premeditated killing my best friend? Absolutely not.
[Josh] What TJ just said is basically nonsense.
I don't know why TJ won't admit
to what actually happened that day.
So, this is... This is the murder weapon.
So, what you can see, that is a... the .357.
King Cobra revolver.
This is a pretty heavy gun.
Then TJ talks about, while he's twirling it on his finger,
he accidentally pulls this back
And you can see, this requires pressure to pull this back.
A true effort to do that.
While at the same time, pulling the trigger.
Um...
You know, just, even doing this right now, this is not something you accidentally do.
Um...
That's a deliberate act.
And Jimmy just happens to be right in front of him.
And if you look at the autopsy photo, it can show the trajectory of the bullet,
and it's a straight shot.
The bullet goes basically level with him,
enters and exits his head in that, in that line.
So, I don't believe TJ, and I don't think it's
even remotely possible that that's what happened.
[somber instrumental music plays]
[cryptic melodic music plays]
[man] This was a strong case from the very beginning.
And certainly, we were ready to go to trial
when, uh, we learned that he was ready to change his plea.
What would somebody do
if they did accidentally shoot their friend through the head?
Are you going to try to call law enforcement or medical aid?
Or do you take his money?
Do you drag his body down to the creek where it's going to be harder to find?
There's nothing that he does that is consistent
with any sort of concern for the, uh, the well-being of his friend.
My name is Alex Nixon.
I'm the Carbon County attorney in Red Lodge, Montana.
It's pretty hard to believe that, uh, this was anything but a homicide,
and we were very confident that we could get a conviction.
We had an actual first-hand admission of what happened that evening.
[eerie discordant music plays]
TJ tells Kristen that he had killed the man
because he was homeless and disrespectful.
She said that he, he begged for his life.
She said that, uh, TJ described dragging the body, uh,
where it would be harder to find.
It was a big deal
because here you have a description of not a person who was sorry or sympathetic
because he had just killed his so-called best friend.
What you have is somebody who is angry who felt like he was a victim,
that he was being disrespected.
He wasn't being properly appreciated.
What you heard about was
somebody describing a, a brutal, cold-blooded homicide.
It was anything but the story of an accidental killing.
[TJ] It made me really sound like a monster.
They tried to say that I had Jim on his knees,
and then I had a gun to the back of his head,
and then I shot him,
which is not even close to the truth.
[sighs]
[Alex] Listening to this, it seems that, uh...
TJ was, uh, trying to say that the narrative of Jimmy being on his knees
was one that was created by investigators, uh,
when, in fact, we have him to blame for that story.
That is the story he told Kristen.
[somber melodic music plays]
What the final, uh, motivator was for TJ to kill Jimmy, I don't know.
What was most important was there was no doubt that TJ killed Jimmy.
It was just a matter of which, which story you wanted to believe.
At the end of the day, TJ wants you to believe he's not a murderer,
he's just a really shitty friend.
[ominous music plays]
[birds chirping]
[TJ] I don't know how... I don't know how to defend myself anymore.
I don't know what to say to convince people.
If I would have kept my mouth shut, denied the whole thing, and lied about it,
I probably wouldn't be sitting here today.
Yeah, I didn't go to the cops at the, at the beginning. I was terrified.
I just took somebody's life.
You know, put yourself in my shoes during that 30 seconds. Two seconds.
You know, that fraction of a second changed the course of many people's lives.
I do understand why there's a lot of people that don't trust me
or don't believe anything that I say.
I do understand that.
And there's no way that I can fix that.
There's no way that I can fix that. You know.
[Josh] So this is, this is the murder weapon.
And TJ talks about, while he's twirling it on his finger,
he accidentally pulls this back.
This requires pressure,
while at the same time, pulling the trigger.
It's not something you accidentally do. That's a deliberate act.
Well, whatever, I guess.
[laughs]
Whatever.
He's saying, "It takes a lot of pressure." It don't take a lot of pressure.
I've shot that gun many, many, many hundreds of times.
That very same gun I've shot.
Me and Jimmy went shooting all the time.
[interviewer] It's quite compelling seeing the sheriff
show how hard it is to pull that trigger back.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I imagine.
[stammers] And I imagine he put on a good act and tried...
and made it look like it was, uh, quite a bit harder than it actually is.
Because it's not really that hard.
He's trying to make it sound like
it's, it's...
"There's only one way that this is,
and this is the way it could have happened."
That's a lie. It's a lie.
I don't care what people think.
You know, I was there, I know happened.
You know, I never intentionally intended to hurt anybody.
Never have and never will. I'm just not that person.
[interviewer] So everybody that's saying otherwise is wrong?
They're dead wrong.
They're liars.
I'd love to tell them to their face, "You're lying. You're a liar."
What do I have to lose? I got a life sentence.
I killed a man. That man was my best friend.
And I'm sorry. I'm very sorry.
There's no words to say how sorry I am for what happened.
[eerie discordant music plays]