[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- It's the last time you see pictures
Of all of the family together.
♪ ♪
- When that family was entering the house--
[gunshot]
He heard the gunshots.
[gunshot]
- It was a small gun safe.
It had been pried open.
Was this just a home invasion that went bad?
- You sit there and think, what kind of relationship
Did they actually have?
- This is not the all-american family that
Everybody might think they are.
- In my opening statement, I told the jury panel,
You're about to hear a tale of subterfuge,
Deception, and greed.
♪ ♪
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat music]
- December 2003, sugar land, texas.
Kent and tricia whitaker and their two sons,
Bart and kevin, have called this affluent suburb home
For more than a decade.
It's a perfect fit for their upscale lifestyle.
- Sugar land was an amazing place to grow up.
It was a community focused on faith,
Focused on friendships, relationships--
A really tight-knit community.
The whitaker family was a pillar in the community.
I attended a private school there in sugar land,
And kevin did too.
And we were fast friends.
The whitaker family did so much together,
Whether it be fishing trips or camping trips,
You know, times on the lake.
Kent and tricia maintained that really sweet closeness
With their kids and that high level
Of trust and communication.
They loved to experience life as a family.
- I was the whitakers' next door neighbor.
They were very normal, kind, empathetic people.
They seemed not troubled, unburdened, life is good.
That was my general vibe.
♪ ♪
- To friends and neighbors, the whitakers seemed
To have it all-- a happy family where
19-year-old kevin looks up to his 23-year-old brother, bart.
- Kevin was very humble.
He was a man of integrity,
Of character, incredibly honest.
The guy was smart, very engaging.
Bart was a little bit more quiet.
You didn't know necessarily what he was thinking,
Like you did kevin.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Kent whitaker is the co-owner
Of a thriving construction company.
A hard worker,
His financial success means he can provide
His family with everything they might want.
His wife, tricia, is
A dedicated part-time elementary school teacher.
- She loved and knew every kid in every class
Every single year.
And the interesting part was that she didn't have to work,
Right, because of kent's job.
But it told you a lot about her heart.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- On December 10, 2003, kent and tricia plan
A special night out for the family
To celebrate bart's graduation
From sam houston state university.
At dinner, they present their son
With a $4,000 rolex watch as a graduation gift.
- I know what a rolex costs,
And he bought a rolex as a graduation gift.
That's not an everyday thing.
- Kent is a proud dad, and takes photos
So they'll have a permanent record of bart's achievement.
♪ ♪
[somber music]
- I've seen these. - Yeah.
- I've seen those.
Sitting there smiling like that, very happy.
♪ ♪
- It's the last time you see pictures
Of all of the family together.
♪ ♪
[line ringing]
I was there when they died.
It was real,
And I can't necessarily make sense
Of what I saw that night.
[suspenseful music]
I was sitting at my computer.
I heard gunshots.
[gunshots banging]
I immediately dart out the front door.
I get about midway down our sidewalk,
And I see kent whitaker laid on his back.
You could see his body lit up by their front porch lights.
And he was saying, "brandon, brandon, we've been shot.
Call 911."
- Brandon's father, cliff stanley,
Rushes to the house
And discovers that kent whitaker has
Been shot in the chest.
- My dad runs out and starts rendering aid.
I mean, multiple trips back and forth with towels,
Just doing what we can.
It felt awful.
It was gruesome.
It was a horror movie.
- While police raced to the scene,
Another 911 call comes from inside the whitaker home.
It's bart whitaker.
[police sirens blaring]
[suspenseful music]
- When I arrived on scene, it was very chaotic.
[radio chatter]
There was ambulances.
There were multiple police cars,
Fire trucks, a helicopter.
- When detectives arrive at the whitaker home,
They find kent whitaker hanging on to life.
- Ems personnel had went in.
They had taken vitals for kevin whitaker,
And he was pronounced deceased.
♪ ♪
Patricia whitaker was flown by helicopter
To a houston hospital.
And we were told she died en route to the hospital.
Bart whitaker had been shot.
He was being medically treated by ems.
Two people were shot.
Another two people were dead.
So we knew within the first hour
That it was a double murder.
♪ ♪
[radio chatter]
- Kent whitaker and his son bart
Are rushed to a nearby hospital.
[siren blaring]
Detectives quickly arrive to get a statement
From bart, since he is the only one conscious.
[tense music]
Bart tells them that the family had just arrived home
From their celebratory dinner
When he realized he forgot something.
- Bart whitaker had reported that he
Had actually walked out to his truck
To retrieve a cell phone.
But when the rest of the family was entering the house,
There was a guy that was inside that house.
[gunshot]
So he heard the gunshots.
[gunshots]
Bart reported he had chased the shooter through the home
And out the back of the house.
And he had actually been shot by the offender.
[gunshot]
We had had several home invasion robberies.
So the thought initially was, are they connected?
Was this just a home invasion that went bad?
♪ ♪
- But something doesn't quite add up.
- Probably the biggest thing that stuck out to us was
Every drawer in the rooms were
Pulled out exactly even with each other.
- So this burglar, basically, like--
[babbles] purposely, I'm going to pull out
Every drawer about this distance
So it'll make it look like I was trying to look for stuff.
But you weren't looking for anything.
You were just pulling out drawers.
The officers immediately knew that.
♪ ♪
- To the investigators, the scene seems
To have the hallmarks of a staged burglary.
Nothing appears to have been stolen.
- There were electronics. There were computers.
There was tvs.
There was a rolex watch that was found.
There didn't appear to be anything taken.
♪ ♪
So things didn't add up exactly to being
Some type of burglary.
- Burglars come in and leave within minutes.
They smash everything they can, pick up
Everything in three minutes.
That's what happens.
They don't sit there and wait for people
To come home, and walk in through the front door,
And shoot them. It just doesn't happen.
[suspenseful music]
- While investigators try to make sense
Of why the whitakers were gunned down,
They realize they have another pressing matter
In front of them.
- We had a vague description of a dark figure that ran out
Through the back of the house.
And now, this person is loose in the neighborhood.
So are they on foot?
Did they get picked up by a car?
Did they drive a car there and now they've driven away?
Or are they hiding in someone's backyard
And they've already shot four people?
The public's in danger.
And we were in a very tough spot.
Where is he? Or where could he be?
♪ ♪
- Police try to unravel a bewildering attack...
- And discovered details of an inconceivable plot.
- It was at the police station late one night.
And there was a knock on the back door.
- All the puzzle pieces just immediately connected,
And realizing, gosh, the worst possible explanation
For this is true.
♪ ♪
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
- As police in sugar land, texas, begin investigating
The shooting at the whitaker home,
News travels fast in the tight-knit community.
- I got a call from a friend.
He's like, hey, there's been an incident.
There's been a shooting.
It was kevin who had passed away,
And tricia had passed away as well.
It was the most horrendous thing possible.
And so at that moment, there's so much happening,
You can't reconcile anything.
You can't process. You can't grieve.
It's just, all hell's broken loose.
December 10, 2003 was a--
A day that is burned in my memory.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- I don't feel like I ever did process it.
I--I just kind of did what I had to do
And kept moving forward.
It was just shocking.
Sugar land is incredibly safe.
It's the kind of place where you don't even hesitate
To take a walk at 3:00 a.M.
It definitely made me more aware of my surroundings,
Of what's capable from people.
♪ ♪
- You know, the first question is, what happened?
What went down? And then, why?
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Detectives are urgently pursuing those answers
At the whitaker home.
As they search through the house,
They find a weapon and four empty shell casings.
- There was a gun that was found in the kitchen area...
Which was odd.
It's probably the murder weapon.
Usually, we don't find that the offender leaves
The murder weapon on the scene.
♪ ♪
But it was an advantage for us,
'cause now we had the possibility, maybe,
For fingerprints, for dna,
For other types of evidence that could
Be recovered from this gun.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
In one of the upstairs rooms,
Nothing in that room appeared to be touched at all,
Except for there was a small gun safe.
It had been pried open.
You could see pry marks around the frame.
It was empty.
- The gun safe was a small, little box,
Maybe a foot by a foot,
Tucked into a hidden area.
Whoever did this knew what to look for
And knew what was in the safe.
- The discovery leads the investigators
To question how familiar the killer was
With the whitaker family and their home.
- It was odd that someone had targeted this small gun safe
Out of this whole big house.
Why weren't the computers disturbed?
Why weren't the-- the tvs taken?
It just didn't make sense.
So our job was to try to find out who,
How many people were involved with this.
♪ ♪
- Most people are killed by people who know them--
78% to 80%.
It's very strange you have stranger and stranger.
It just doesn't occur that much.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- Three days after the murders,
Police are still scouring the evidence
For leads on a motive or suspect
When bart whitaker is discharged from the hospital.
His father, kent, is still in intensive care.
♪ ♪
- Despite the trauma he's just endured,
Bart agrees to assist detectives
By returning home to relive that terrifying night.
The investigators hope he can remember something that
Will lead them to the killer.
- We went through the crime,
Trying to figure out exactly what happened.
♪ ♪
- They had him reenact the scene.
And people generally, when it comes to crimes,
They try to be very specific,
Like he was standing here, or something like that.
And his was, well-- well, I don't remember
If it was this way. Or it could have been this way.
♪ ♪
- He was very vague about things
You think he would remember.
- At that point, we had no leads.
We had just a family of four that had been shot,
Two that were deceased.
- They came home at the wrong time
In the wrong place.
That's the story that you typically hear, right?
That's the initial reaction.
It's just incredibly unfortunate, right?
How does this even occur in sugar land?
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Detectives investigating the murders of tricia whitaker
And her son kevin in sugar land, texas,
Believe their killer was familiar
With the whitaker home and may not
Have been trying to rob them.
- So we started doing a background on the family.
The domestic relationship between mr. And mrs. Whitaker
Was nothing but perfect that we could find out.
And every friend or family that we had interviewed
Said they had a great relationship.
- Detectives turn their focus
On the whitaker's murdered son, 19-year-old kevin.
- Was he targeted for some reason?
Was he involved in something that he shouldn't have been?
But he had no criminal history.
As we were interviewing friends and family members,
Kevin seemed to be a good kid, and he was a tragic victim.
♪ ♪
- Detectives also take a closer look
At the other whitaker son, 23-year-old bart,
Who was wounded in the attack and is their primary witness.
It was his graduation from college that
Was being celebrated shortly before the murders.
- Bart was supposed to graduate that coming Saturday.
So we contacted sam houston state university,
And we were told he wasn't graduating.
As a matter of fact, he was a freshman
As far as their academic rating.
And he had, like, a 1.4 gpa.
So we had a story that he was giving us
That wasn't matching reality.
- He was lying about going to school
For the past three years.
And so they zeroed in on him.
- It sure seemed at the time, it was too coincidental
That this big family event had occurred,
And then they get home from this event,
And they're all shot.
So was bart involved with what had happened?
Was he not involved?
We had to gather evidence.
♪ ♪
- Investigators want to keep what they've learned
About bart whitaker under wraps until they can either
Clear him or tie him to the murders.
But a local newspaper covering the case
Has also learned of his deceit and runs the story.
Bart's father kent, still recovering in the hospital,
Is stunned and can't understand why bart would lie.
- Kent's response to it was, why didn't he tell us this?
I just wish he would have, you know,
Let the music stop and confess this to us.
- How could you not know your kid's not going to college?
So you sit there and think,
What kind of relationship did they actually have?
♪ ♪
- Six days after the murders of his mother and brother,
Bart and his father joined more than 1,000 friends
And family at the funeral.
- Gosh, that was a brutal day.
I remember seeing kent and bart sitting on the front row,
And watching them.
And, you know, what are they thinking?
What are they feeling?
You know, just gutted for them and heartbroken for them.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- We had multiple detectives that were there.
We had actually had some recording devices that
Were placed around the area
Because there could be comments made
Because, sometimes, the parties involved go to the funerals.
But we didn't find anything at all.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- As the family mourns, sugar land police continue
To focus on the questions that have arisen about bart.
- We had discovered that bart had some involvement
With the criminal justice system already.
We had found a 2001 incident report
From the waco police department
That there was a female subject
That was in an apartment with bart whitaker.
And she overheard him talking about wanting to kill his dad.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
We had an officer that actually went out to the house--
It was early in the morning-- and made contact
With both mr. And mrs. Whitaker and told them why he was there.
But they didn't believe bart would be involved
With something like that.
- Later on, when the father finally talks to him, he says,
We're just talking about the menendez brothers.
It wasn't anything serious at all.
And so the father just believes him.
And that's it.
♪ ♪
[somber music]
- In the days after the murders,
Life seems to return to some semblance of normalcy
For bart and his father, at least from the outside.
- They were still living in the same house together
Where two of their family members died.
And the suspicion is growing that bart was involved.
- And it wasn't life as normal.
But from the outside, it was a dad and a son
Who had gone through this tragic event,
Locking arms and leaning into one another.
- We had to determine, how much are
We going to tell mr. Whitaker?
Because his life still could be in jeopardy
With bart still being around.
And we didn't tell him everything.
We tried to be as honest as we could with him.
- There were maybe a few times that kent would say,
Hey, they're still trying to find the guy
Or they're still looking into it.
- Mr. Whitaker was in a very hard position at that point.
Slowly, kind of, the bow's starting to unravel here,
Where there's information about his only living son
That, at least initially, isn't adding up.
♪ ♪
- Police know bart whitaker didn't pull the trigger.
But they strongly suspect he is involved
In the murders of his family.
- Bart was very manipulative with friends.
And that was information that we received
As the investigation went on.
That's when the intensity ramped up
Into trying to identify,
Who does he currently hang around with?
And where were they at on December 10th of 2003?
♪ ♪
This is not the all-american family that
Everybody might think they are.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Detectives in sugar land, texas,
Suspect bart whitaker knows more than he's saying
About the murders of his mother and brother
And, in fact, may be involved in the crime.
But they have been unable to find any solid evidence
Supporting their suspicions.
Then a week after the murders, as investigators contemplate
Their next move,
An unexpected visitor drops by the police station.
- The lead detective was at the police station late one night,
And there was a knock on the back door.
It was a gentleman by the name of adam hipp.
- Adam hipp tells the detective that he briefly went
To college with bart whitaker.
And he wants police to know that bart's statement
About killing his parents in 2001
Was far from the joke he claimed it was.
- He said, listen, bob whitaker talked to me
About killing his family before, back in 2001.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- Adam tells police that bart claimed
Once his parents and brother were dead,
He would receive all of the family's assets,
Including their home and life insurance policies
Worth over $1 million.
He says bart offered him a cut
If he would be his trigger man.
- The detective had mr. Hipp actually draw a map
That showed where he was supposed to stand
Inside the house,
And he would shoot the family members
As they walked in.
[suspenseful music]
And that's exactly what happened on December 10, 2003.
[gunshots]
♪ ♪
- Adam hipp started working for us.
We had him make recorded phone calls with bart whitaker
To get him to talk about the crime.
- Detectives coach adam to tell bart he knows
He killed his parents and then threaten
To go to the police with this information
Unless he receives $20,000.
- And that's when bart whitaker says, yeah, I can pay you.
I can pay you some money, basically.
- Bart never really came out directly and said, I did it.
But there were enough indicators there.
♪ ♪
- My opinion, we had probable cause
To arrest bart whitaker on basis
Of what we had with adam hipp coming in.
We did have that.
Did we have enough to prosecute him and convict him?
No.
We didn't have any details.
- But adam hipp's call to bart points the investigators
To someone else who may be able to help them build their case.
- When adam hipp is on the phone,
Bart whitaker mentions chris brashear.
And what does bart whitaker--
"chris is going to keep his mouth shut."
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- Adam tells police that chris brashear is
A former roommate of bart's.
Detectives track down chris and bring him in for questioning.
- Well, first of all, I appreciate you coming down.
- Yeah, man.
- After establishing the relationship
Between bart and chris, detectives hone in
On the night of the murder.
♪ ♪
- Investigators believe that chris brashear
Is lying to them.
They learn that steven is steve champagne,
Another former roommate of bart's.
And if chris is providing steve as a false alibi,
Detectives consider whether he might be involved as well.
♪ ♪
- Steve champagne is enlisted in the marines.
We're looking at cell phone records, financial records.
So who is communicating with who?
- Police quickly locate steve
And bring him in for questioning.
- Now, they say they don't know anything about it.
They denied anything.
So at least, that's where they start.
- Finally, as pressure grows, the story begins to change.
- I think steve champagne--
I think his conscience finally got to him.
Then he laid out a little information about, well,
Maybe I was involved.
- Stephen champagne changed his--
Changed his story and confessed.
- Steve tells the detectives that bart convinced him
And chris brashear to join a plot to kill his family,
So he could inherit his parents' fortune.
Steve admits he was the getaway driver
And chris brashear was the trigger man.
[suspenseful music]
- He had taken chris brashear over to the house,
Parked his car a street or two over behind the house.
♪ ♪
Chris hid inside the house
And shot the family members as they walked in
On December 10 of 2003.
[gunshots]
♪ ♪
- The big piece of information evidence-wise that steve was
Able to provide to us is they had a bag that had a lot
Of evidence from the crime-- walkie talkies,
Water bottle, ammunition--
That they tossed into lake conroe.
♪ ♪
- This is a big lake, man-made lake.
They throw that in there.
Now, what would be the odds of somebody
Being able to find that?
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Steve champagne, a suspect in the murders
Of tricia and kevin whitaker,
Claims a bag full of crucial evidence was
Tossed into lake conroe, 50 miles north of houston,
And agrees to take police to the spot.
♪ ♪
- The police department, with their scuba tank--
They go out and look for it.
In water, you can't see your hand in front of you.
They found the damn thing.
- Inside the bag, detectives find the tool used
To break into the whitaker's gun safe.
- They had found a pry bar,
And they managed to match it up by the scrape marks.
They even found the cell phone they were using.
Now, you tell me what kind of police work that is.
God bless.
♪ ♪
- There was dna that was recovered
That was chris brashear's from a water bottle.
There was ammunition that was consistent with the ammunition
That was involved that killed the family,
Tangible physical evidence that links these individuals
To this crime.
♪ ♪
- With the evidence now in hand,
Detectives have what they need to confront bart.
But he's nowhere to be found.
- Bart whitaker's tahoe was found abandoned
In an apartment complex in houston.
Both of the doors were found open.
We sent detectives to the scene.
We believe he's on the run.
- We just lost him.
People don't run when they're innocent.
They really don't.
Flight is a very good indication of guilt.
- Kent whitaker told us that there was money
That was taken from the house.
So bart had some money to survive.
Our job was now to figure out where he was.
♪ ♪
[somber music]
- The news of bart's disappearance is
One more shock for his friends and family,
Already devastated by the murders.
- That was the big, kind of, ah-ha moment,
Was when bart left.
So that's really when everything--
All the puzzle pieces just immediately connected.
And I realized, gosh,
The worst possible explanation for this is true.
- It's too much to really break it down
Into a coherent single thought--
Shock, disgust,
And disbelief, almost,
That someone could plot and plan out something like this.
[sighs]
♪ ♪
- Police send out a nationwide alert
To be on the lookout for bart whitaker.
With the cash taken from his home,
He could be anywhere.
Meanwhile, steve champagne and chris brashear
Are charged with first-degree murder
For the deaths of tricia and kevin whitaker.
- These were kids that came from great backgrounds,
But were manipulated
By bart whitaker to kill his family.
And they went along with it because bart had
Promised them a cut in his inheritance.
And he had told them that, hey,
It's going to take a little while,
But I am going to give you some money.
[suspenseful music]
- For months, there are no leads to bart's whereabouts.
- So we worked with crime stoppers
To put out that we were looking for the whereabouts
Of bart whitaker.
- There's a crime stoppers award of $10,000.
If you get information that leads to this arrest,
We'll pay you 10 grand.
- 18 months after the murders, police get a call
From a man named rudy rios.
- Rudy rios said that he had known bart whitaker
And he knew where bart whitaker was
Because bart whitaker had assumed his identity
And he went to mexico.
- Rudy rios claims bart paid him $3,000
To be transported to mexico,
And that bart has been living there for more than a year.
- Bart whitaker shacks up with a female
And begins a relationship with her.
- Mexican officials agree to cooperate
With american law enforcement.
Almost two years after the murders,
They track bart down.
And on September 24, 2005, he is returned to the u.S.
- We call up kent whitaker and say that he's going
To be getting out of mexico.
But there was no deals made whatsoever.
They just got him out.
Bring him back here and put him in jail.
We already made a decision.
The only person we were seeking the death penalty
Was the mastermind, bart whitaker.
- But bart's defense attorneys work to thwart
The possibility of a death sentence.
At the heart of their strategy is kent whitaker.
- Mr. Whitaker did not want the state of texas
To put his son to death,
Which is usually just, kind of, a reverse of roles,
Where the family wants the maximum.
- To forgive somebody of doing
The most horrendous thing possible,
He serves as a model of forgiveness,
Something I think about all the time.
- His standard was, I believe he's changed.
And I'm going to forgive him.
My standard is, he hasn't changed
And you can't forgive him.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- All rise.
- Bart whitaker's capital murder trial
Begins on March 3, 2007, some 3 1/2 years
Since the killings at his family's home.
- In my opening statement, I told the jury panel,
You're about to hear a tale of subterfuge, deception,
And greed, which will lead you to one conclusion:
That bart whitaker had his family murdered.
And that's the only conclusion you got.
- Prosecutors put admitted getaway driver
Steve champagne on the stand.
He explains how bart outlined his murder-for-cash scheme.
- The conversation was about when the family came back
From eating dinner and chris would be in the house
And shoot them.
[gunshots]
- The jury hears that bart staged
A fight with the gunman.
And they'd agreed in advance bart would be shot
In the arm to divert suspicion.
[gunshot]
♪ ♪
The trial lasts six days before the case goes
To the jury on March 8, 2007.
They deliberate for just an hour and a half
Before coming to a unanimous decision.
- The guilty verdict was very quick.
♪ ♪
- Now the jury must decide whether bart whitaker
Should live or die.
- Call your next witness. - Bart whitaker.
He needs to be sworn, your honor.
- Bart didn't testify during his trial,
But now in the penalty phase,
Makes a last ditch effort to save his life.
- Please stand before the clerk to be sworn.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Bart whitaker has been convicted of murdering
His mother and brother.
Now, he's trying to convince the jury
Not to sentence him to death.
- When bart whitaker was testifying,
I actually had the defendant admit that
He had no reason to hate his parents,
But he did it anyway.
- The only people I've ever hated--
And I know it was not for the right reasons--
But the only people I ever hated
Were my parents and my brother.
- The prosecutor confronts bart with his family's
Final moments-- the photos taken by his father
At the celebration for bart's supposed graduation.
He tells the jury, one photo from that night
Is particularly disturbing.
- He shoots the finger at him while he's doing it.
Now, some people don't make that much of it.
But I'm sitting there thinking, you understand something?
He's shooting a finger at them
Knowing they're going to be dead.
♪ ♪
It's very chilling.
♪ ♪
- The jury deliberates for 10 hours
Before sentencing bart whitaker to death.
♪ ♪
- It's a hard question.
And people have a lot of opinions about it
Because they're removed from it.
But when you know the people,
And you've been involved with them,
And definitely, as intimately involved
With this entire murder as I was,
You see things a little different,
Because I believe bart should have
Received the death penalty.
♪ ♪
- Bart's accomplices agree to plea deals.
Triggerman chris brashear is sentenced to life behind bars.
And steve champagne, the getaway driver,
Receives a lighter 15-year sentence
For cooperating as a key witness.
- How do you even begin
To broach that conversation with someone?
Like, there's no icebreaker for, hey,
Will you help me kill my family?
It's brought me to the conclusion
That evil is real, very tangible,
And it has a long plan behind it.
And I truly think bart was evil.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[somber music]
- Over the next decade, kent whitaker remarries
And builds a new life.
He continues to fight to get his son's
Death sentence commuted.
- Kent whitaker never said he was okay with what bart did.
He always said he should be punished, okay?
But he didn't like us seeking the death penalty.
That was it.
♪ ♪
- When bart's appeals are exhausted,
His execution is scheduled for 6:00 p.M.
On February 22, 2018.
♪ ♪
Then, with just 30 minutes until bart is set to die,
Texas governor greg abbott grants him clemency.
♪ ♪
- I'm laughing when I found out on the news
That they commuted to life.
- I'll never forget the night that the news came out.
I never forget that moment of seeing kent break down.
Man, it was...
Over a decade of emotions.
♪ ♪
For me, I was on the side of commuting the sentence.
Should he ever see the light of day?
Absolutely not. That's a no-brainer.
[somber music]
- One day, kent's going to die.
And bart will have no one left fighting for him,
Talking to him, coming to see him.
And he'll have to live the rest of his life
Suffering like that.
So I think he would have gotten off easy
With the death penalty in this regard.
♪ ♪
- Tricia was gold.
I find myself getting emotional thinking back to her.
She cared for us. She loved us.
She was invested in our lives.
I miss tricia dearly.
I'm gutted that kevin is gone.
You know, kevin was not a typical 16-,
17-, 18-, 19-year-old, right?
He wasn't a typical high schooler.
He was always wiser than us.
There was something in the yearbook our senior year.
It was most likely to succeed, most athletic.
His was, who was the best, most humble,
Highest integrity human being?
And it was kevin.
I started thinking about, where would kevin be now?
I think that's what I still probably grieve,
Is not having that friendship for life.
♪ ♪