(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(LINE RINGING)
(WENDY HOWARD SPEAKING)
(DISPATCHER SPEAKING)
(HOWARD SPEAKING)
(DISPATCHER SPEAKING)
He starts revving the engine
and he starts pulling forward towards me.
And that is when I shot him.
TONY LIDGETT: Her child, Bayley, had been molested
by her father, Kelly Pitts.
She said she was gonna handle it herself, and then she kills him.
That's gonna be, you know, premeditated murder right there.
It's that simple. "I told you what I'm gonna do, and I did it."
HOWARD: I could really spend the rest of my life in prison.
This cannot be real right now.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
My name is Tony Lidgett,
based out of Bakersfield, California.
Been a criminal defense attorney now for well over 20 years.
My client is Wendy Howard.
She is accused of shooting her ex dead
after she learned that the ex
had been molesting their daughter.
Now she is facing 50 years to life,
and life is life.
Back in 2019,
Wendy found out that her child, Bayley,
who was 16,
had been molested by her father,
Wendy's ex-husband, Kelly Pitts.
Wendy says she was on her computer,
and she realized that Bayley had reached out to a friend
talking about what her dad had been doing to her.
Wendy found a picture which shows
Kelly touching Bayley's breast.
As soon as she found out,
they immediately went down
to Tehachapi Police Department and reported it.
Wendy says that she was told at that time
to not act like or draw any attention to what was going on.
But after what he had been doing to Bayley,
it just upped her fear.
And she started carrying the gun wherever she went.
Kelly lived a few houses down from Wendy and Bayley.
Kelly had grandkids,
and Wendy has younger kids as well,
so he was calling to see
if the younger ones could actually get together and play.
Kelly comes on down on his quad.
He brings up the fact that he wants to take Bayley on a trip.
At that point, Wendy and Kelly get into an argument.
She pulls out her phone, shows him the picture,
which shows Kelly touching Bayley's breast.
Kelly gets angry.
He then is on the quad. He revs up the quad
and starts going towards Wendy.
Wendy pulls out the gun
and shoots three different times.
He is still alive, actually gets up
and starts walking around at this time.
He eventually does succumb to his injuries.
The prosecution believe it is premeditated and deliberated murder.
But in criminal law,
whatever you knew about the person that actually got shot prior
goes into what is called your state of mind.
Wendy also claims that she was abused by Kelly in the past.
But there isn't a clear criminal record
of that abuse taking place.
Now there is a lady that is facing the rest of her life
for protecting herself and kids, and it's absolutely wrong.
And in my eyes, it is definitely self-defense.
So this would emotionally hurt me
if I lost this case.
HOWARD: (LAUGHING) There you go. Nice. Okay, show us a flip.
That's awesome.
One for the money, two for the show,
three to get ready and four to go!
Being charged with first-degree murder changes your whole life.
I'm not worried about me,
but it's my kids that I worry about.
Nice.
You almost did two flips.
I am their mom and they need their mom.
That's the biggest concern.
I never thought for a million years
that I would end up in jail and then be accused
of first-degree murder
with a 50-year to life sentence ahead of me.
It feels so wrong,
like, all the terror and horror that I've been through,
and then to be accused of this, like,
as though he's the victim,
and I'm the perpetrator?
Like I've lived through hell. Like I live a horror movie.
I've lived a nightmare, and yet I'm being accused
of being a perpetrator of harm.
Like, that's the furthest thing from anything
that I have ever wanted to do to somebody.
It just feels unfair.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
LIDGETT: Hey, Wendy. Come on in.
Just have a seat there.
All right. The reason why I called you in the office
is I wanna go over the story.
I'm gonna act like I'm a prosecutor
because there's gonna be certain things
after reading the discovery
that I've realized could be an issue.
Basically, I need a little history of the case.
You had a relationship with Kelly, right?
How did that relationship start?
So I had met him online.
He was a really great guy. Really sweet.
Seemed to care about my kids.
I thought I had met my perfect match.
LIDGETT: So when you met Kelly, you already had three kids,
-is that right? -Correct.
Oldest is Miranda.
How old was Miranda when you met Kelly?
She would have been 12.
-She would've been about 12 years old. -Yeah.
After I had gotten pregnant with Bayley,
everything had changed.
He just started being extremely abusive,
both verbally and physically.
I can't even count how many times I called the cops.
After I had left Kelly,
Miranda had let me know that he had sexually abused her.
So when you were still with Kelly,
how is it that you did not know this was going on?
(EXHALES)
I was at that time the only one working.
So I was away from the house a lot.
Okay.
And she was there with him alone.
All right, you went to the police.
So how come the case doesn't proceed, if you recall?
My understanding was that they sent it into the DA,
and the DA did not pick up charges.
So when you actually moved back to to Tehachapi,
and back to your house, you don't know where he lives,
-is that correct? -Yes.
When did you first learn that he lived four houses down?
When I'd already committed to being there in the house.
Uh...
And I mean, the reason why I'm moving back there
is because I didn't have another place to go.
And that's my house, like...
So I was just hopeful that he would stay in his place
and I could stay in mine.
And then our daughter, Bayley,
she had wanted a relationship with him.
So Bayley starts seeing Kelly.
It was over my objection.
At first I said that her dad had done things
-that were inappropriate. -Okay.
And "weird" was the word I used.
And then I prefaced it by saying,
"If he says anything strange to you,
"if he does anything, let me know."
All right.
At some point she starts getting abused by Dad.
And it appears to go on for, according to her, for months.
How the (BLEEP) did you not know or see this?
(EXHALES) Um...
LIDGETT: So you found out that Bayley had been molested,
and it appears to go on for, according to her, for months.
How the (BLEEP) did you not know or see this?
Um...
I'm sorry. I know it's a hard question, but it's gonna be a question
that I guarantee there's gonna be moms out there
that're gonna be going, "How did this occur?"
So I had vetted him for years,
first of all, before she was even allowed
to be in the vicinity with him alone,
where anything could happen.
-Okay. -So she wasn't allowed to be alone with him at all.
At this point, she is how old now?
-2012, she would have been eight. -Okay.
So, yeah, she was around
her brothers only when he was there.
Her brothers are big guys,
like, I knew that she was completely safe
with her brothers there.
Okay.
I started with little things, like,
"Okay, you can go and pick her up from school and bring her home."
-Okay. -That's it.
The abuse that was occurring to Bayley,
how is it that you found this information out?
For one, because she had used my computer
as her computer was in the shop.
And she had left up a conversation
with somebody she had spoken to,
and that was the conversation that I read,
"I'm scared he's going to rape me."
On a different day, she had had the foresight to
be on Snapchat while she was in the car being abused by him.
At one point,
she had put the phone
so that it would record screenshots
of Kelly touching her inappropriately
and having his hand on her breast.
LIDGETT: When is it that he calls saying he wants to come over?
This is three days later.
You don't say no
because you're supposed to play it cool.
HOWARD: Right.
You then go grab a gun, right?
I had had my gun with me
ever since I had found out.
I was making sure
that I was protecting myself and my kids.
Okay. And he comes over on a quad.
-Is that right? -Correct.
You show him the picture, right?
HOWARD: First of all, he had talked to me
about Bayley going somewhere with him that weekend.
So you show him the picture and go,
"That's your damn hand on your own daughter's breast."
-Correct. -"You literally got your hand
"on your daughter's breast."
Um...
-Is he getting angry? -He's getting pissed off.
He starts getting this, like, look in his eyes.
It's like, almost like it's not him anymore.
It's like just pure evil.
And when have you seen that look before?
Right before he beat me.
At this point, you have the gun,
you pull out the gun and you shoot him because...
Because he's trying to run me over,
because he's, um,
got that violent look,
because I feel like I am in self-preservation mode,
and that I am trying to protect myself
from him hurting me again.
LIDGETT: The prosecution is going to say
that you did your own street justice,
that you enticed him to basically come over,
you grabbed the gun,
you know, you had the phone with you,
you were gonna show him the photo
and after showing him the photo,
you were gonna basically execute him.
That's their theory.
Our theory, of course, is going to be
that it's absolute self-defense.
You had no idea, or plan to actually kill him,
and he came over and you only shot
when you actually thought he was a threat.
None of this is your fault.
It's absolute self-defense.
BAYLEY PITTS: I came here to see my mom.
I just wanna make sure
I help my mom out as much as I can.
Hey, hey, Mom.
HOWARD: I love you.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
So how have you been? It's been a minute.
Um... Good.
Yeah. What about you?
HOWARD: I'm okay, like,
court and all that jazz,
but yeah, trying to stay strong and yeah...
HOWARD: You guys picking a whole bowl of raspberries?
BAYLEY: Oh, wow, that actually is a lot.
You know, it's been really hard
'cause I definitely have two sides to it now.
I have, um...
(CLAPS)
I have, you know, the sexual assault side of it,
which is really hard to deal with in itself.
And you know, now I have to deal with,
(VOICE BREAKING) you know, my mom and that side of it,
and then just, you know, dealing with all of it
and seeing the things I saw,
and it's really, really hard and, um...
(CRYING)
My mom is the middle of this family,
and if she has to go to prison, it would be awful,
and I can't imagine it.
You know, it totally gives me this strength
to go up there and testify and...
Yeah, no, it totally does.
It just kind of sucks, and I wish it wasn't me, I guess.
It just sucks.
LIDGETT: I'm gonna have Bob come in today.
He's the investigator on the case.
-Bobby, how're you doing? -BOB STEVENSON: I'm doing well. Yourself?
Pretty good. Pretty good.
The dispatch phone call
that you're gonna hear occurred on June 2nd.
The actual homicide occurred on June 5th.
What you're gonna hear is Miranda's voice.
This is when they find out
about Bayley's actually being molested.
-Okay. -STEVENSON: Right.
Here is the report that was done.
This is a summary.
"The reporting party, Miranda, was heard
"arguing with Wendy in the background.
"Wendy was upset, because she believed
"it would be unlikely this case
"involving Bayley would be prosecuted
"and wanted to handle it herself.
"Wendy explained,
"'Well, I'll do what I have to do
"'to protect myself and my family
"'if I'm threatened.'"
She said she was gonna handle it herself, and then she kills him.
That's gonna be, you know, premeditated murder right there.
It's that simple. "I told you what I'm gonna do, and I did it."
-And that might hurt. -Ah, it's brutal.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
-LIDGETT: Bobby, how're you doing? -I'm doing well, sir. You?
Pretty good.
Now, one of the things that I wanted to call you in
was I wanted to show you
the shots that supposedly occurred.
Allegedly, there's three shots,
according to the coroner's report.
This is the path that they say, that the bullets went.
One comes from the back of the jawline going down.
Then there is a second one that comes from the left side,
and that's going down in the body as well.
-STEVENSON: That's a weird angle. -Yeah.
Even if he was laying on the ground, that's a weird angle.
(LIDGETT SIGHS)
How the hell do you shoot somebody
at the top of the back of the head,
and go straight down
unless you're on top of them?
The problem is the prosecution
is gonna make it look like she executed him.
Let's go to Wendy's house,
let's have Wendy tell us exactly what happened,
-and let's go from there. -Okay.
LIDGETT: Today we're going up to the crime scene,
and gonna meet my private investigator, Bob,
to get us an understanding as to where everything occurred.
Our biggest concern is the shots to the back of the head.
We're just gonna have to look at the scene
and then come up with
a reasonable explanation as to what occurred.
I came through here.
-LIDGETT: Yes. -Right through here.
LIDGETT: Okay. You're coming out.
He's on the quad, right?
Yes.
At some point,
-you show him the phone. -Yes.
He takes the phone from you, grabs it from you,
looks at the picture,
he takes your phone and throws it.
At that point then, does he start revving it up?
Yes, he gets that look in his eyes.
He starts revving the engine
and he starts pulling forward towards me.
And that is when I jumped back,
and that was when I pulled out my gun,
and that is when I feel like I shot him.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
If you're saying you're right about here and everything else,
then you got a shot to maybe one side
of the head or something like this.
And if I was being shot at,
if I hold a gun to you and everything else, yes,
you're gonna duck and make yourself a smaller target.
Correct. If he was like that
and that splatter went out the back.
LIDGETT: That makes so much sense.
My next memory,
is he came around this way walking towards me,
and I know that I was trying
-to block right about here. -Okay.
This area here, I didn't want him to get through me.
I know I was about right here.
"You're not getting to my house or my daughter."
LIDGETT: And he's coming towards you?
Yeah.
-This explains everything. -Yeah.
STEVENSON: Yeah, this gives us reasonable doubt.
I mean, the shots are from the front.
The casings are there.
The blood stains are here.
It's not from the back, it's from the front.
LIDGETT: Right now we can give the jury
reasons based on the shell casings,
based on the angles, we can explain everything.
This trip has been beneficial.
We actually found the reasonable doubt that we've been looking for.
It's been three years,
so I'm ready to get this behind me.
It's a mixture of emotion.
I want people to see what we've been through.
If it comes down to being not guilty,
then I walk out of court a free woman.
And if it comes down to guilty,
then there's a serious error in our justice system.
COURTNEY MORRIS: When I say, "Justice,"
you say, "For Wendy."
-Justice! -ALL: For Wendy!
Free Wendy!
MORRIS: When I say "Believe," you say "Wendy."
-Believe! -ALL: Wendy!
-Free Wendy! -Free Wendy!
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(PROSECUTION ATTORNEY SPEAKING)
Wendy stopped shooting once the threat was over.
When Kelly arrives,
he gets irate.
And when he gets irate,
there is a "look" that overcomes him.
It is a "look" that Wendy has seen before.
Wendy has been beaten by him.
She's been strangled by him.
She knows that look.
This means Wendy's actions were justified.
I thank you for your patience.
Thank you.
LIDGETT: The prosecution called Miranda
in hopes of proving
that the family was so frustrated
that they decided to take the law
into their own hand.
Which is exactly what Wendy did,
according to them.
-How're you feeling? -Sick.
-Really sick. -I'm sure.
BAYLEY: Really.
HOWARD: So Bayley had said that,
Kelly was wearing sunglasses the day of the incident.
And one of the key things that I have said
is the reason I was so fearful
was because the look he had in his eyes
and it would be really hard to see
the look in somebody's eyes if there were sunglasses on.
When Bayley did correct herself,
the prosecutor just hammered it in
that she changed her story,
that she... Not that it was a mistake,
but that it was a purposeful thing that she did.
BAYLEY: I came out of the courtroom, I was so distraught,
really nauseous, really scared.
For sure one of the most difficult days of my life.
LIDGETT: For Bayley, it was very tough.
The DA started to attack her,
almost as if she was lying.
You've got to remember, right after the incident
she was taken down and questioned
and she talked about the "look" then.
No kid should ever go through this.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
LIDGETT: Right now, I think the jury is on our side.
Everything's gone positive.
I mean, they have to eliminate all doubt,
and I can't imagine they've eliminated
all reasonable doubt in this case.
I can't even come close.
I'm tired. I'm frustrated,
-and I want this to be over with. -I understand.
Right now it's to get the case to the jury as soon as possible,
that's what we wanna do.
I had a lot of other witnesses that I could use,
but it could make it longer. It could cause other problems.
Wendy is about the only person that truly needs to testify,
and that is to say that she was in fear for her life at that time.
LIDGETT: They kept asking over and over and over,
and they asked Wendy
"What was your intent? Was it to kill him?
"Did you have the intent to kill? Did you have..."
Finally, she got frustrated
and she snapped and yelled, "No!"
But some of the questions he's asking I'm like...
-(LIDGETT SPEAKING) -I don't really understand.
-(LIDGETT SPEAKING) -Okay.
LIDGETT: It's not a game. You know, this is her life
and answer the questions
that need to be answered and move on.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
HOWARD: Tony thinks that if I show too much anger
that it could look, you know, like, I'm an angry person.
The prosecution seems to think that you can only have
one emotion and that's anger.
But you can also be sad, and frustrated and disappointed
and all these things all at once.
LIDGETT: Wendy finished her testimony today.
Most of it consisted of cross-examination.
I don't think she got tripped up on anything.
She did try to explain things probably a little too much.
But, you know, imagine her situation.
Looking forward to getting ready to do closing.
I think my closing is gonna actually be
a little bit shorter in nature.
I'm confident.
But anything can always happen in a jury trial.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
BAYLEY: I'm so anxious.
HOWARD: We got this.
(DOG BARKS)
Oh, great. I'm making the dog mad.
She's jealous.
I was so hopeful, and I'm just running through
all the different, like scenarios,
and I'm like, (BLEEP) I don't know.
I still am hopeful, but it's hard to feel hopeful
because I just was hoping, they'll go in
and they'll just be like, "Oh, not guilty, yeah."
But they have to take it serious.
-They have to like... -That's serious.
That's taking it the most serious.
They have to unfold the story.
They have to feel who's genuine, who's not.
It's eating me alive, this not knowing.
Like, it just drives me insane.
-HOWARD: (KISSES) I love you. -Love you.
They think that they've reached a verdict. We'll see.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
COURT CLERK: The People of the state of California v. Wendy Howard.
Verdict.
First count.
We the jury empaneled to try the above entitled cause,
find the defendant, Wendy Howard
not guilty of felony,
to wit first-degree murder of Kelly Pitts.
Did you reach a decision
on any of either of the two options for voluntary manslaughter?
(JUROR SPEAKING)
JUDGE: How many votes were guilty,
and how many votes were not guilty?
JURY FOREWOMAN: Seven guilty, five not guilty.
JUDGE: And is there any reason
why the court may not accept the jury's decision?
MAN: No, Your Honor.
(SOBBING) I can't...
(SOBS)
-(SOBBING) -Everybody has seen this.
It's nuts that we're even here in the first place.
and to just put your daughter through all this.
-(BAYLEY SPEAKING) -I know. I know.
They're not. They're not.
To even think to have to do this all over again.
And for what?
Why? I defended myself.
LIDGETT: I just wish that she would have been completely acquitted.
I do not want another trial.
I don't want Bayley to have to go through this again.
When you get so close to the family,
you just want something to go "Ah-ha. Here.
"You guys can relax now." You know?
And now they can't. Now they've still gotta...
They might be called to testify again.
It's not closure for anybody.
It's not closure for Wendy,
and it's not closure for her family.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
Okay.
Wendy, the prosecution have given us a plea offer
as to voluntary manslaughter.
It's credit for time served.
No other time in custody.
You'll be placed on probation, but for only one year.
And then it would just be over with one year probation?
So they're still charging me as though I'm a "murderer"?
If you don't accept the plea,
the next step is to go back to trial.
If you do lose at trial,
you're still subject to potentially
being sentenced up to 21 years.
I mean, that doesn't feel exactly like a victory to me...
LIDGETT: Mmm-hmm.
...but
I just don't think that
I would want to go through that again,
and relive all that again. Uh...
I just don't know if it would be worth it.
Keep in mind, you won.
You truly won.
At one point, you were facing 50 years to life over this.
-You've won. -(SNIFFLES)
(SIGHS) Oh, God.
HOWARD: (VOICE BREAKING) I still have so much anger
knowing that I'm not acquitted.
I'm angry that to prove my innocence right now,
that would mean to re-victimize my daughters once again.
I'm just hoping that
most people will understand
where I'm at
and why I made this decision.
My family can be relieved that in a year I'll be off probation
and this will be essentially over.
I'm innocent. I defended myself and I defended my family.
And I would do it all over again.
Hi, lady, it's over.
(HOWARD LAUGHS SOFTLY)