(tense music)
- [narrator] a vicious crime.
- Nixon had been stabbed with a pair of scissors.
- [narrator] his partner overcome with grief.
- [narrator] details of an intense
Sexual relationship emerge.
- He and mr. Nixon inflicted pain on each other.
- [narrator] investigators searching for answers.
- In the interrogation room.
(tense music)
- [narrator] every suspect accused of a crime
Has the right to remain silent.
Many agree to be interrogated anyway,
But they can stop the interview at any moment,
Making it a race against time.
Justice hangs in the balance.
(tense music)
- Our local 9-1-1 center received a call from ryan lamb
Stating that his significant other, ryan nixon,
Had been assaulted and requested medical assistance.
(tense music)
(ryan panting)
- Ryan lamb was uncontrollably emotional,
Screaming, yelling, crying, just wailing.
- [jim] they determined that for safety's sake,
He needed to be handcuffed and removed from the scene.
(ryan sobbing)
- As the police entered the unit,
They could see blood on the doorstep and on the landing.
They said that the apartment was in disarray,
It appeared as if there had been some sort of altercation.
There was blood on the bed, blood on the floor,
You could see foot marks and fingerprints on the linoleum.
Once they got into the bathroom,
They found ryan nixon in the bathtub
In a semi seated position with the water running.
I think he was only clothed in his underwear.
Mr. Lamb had reported that mr. Nixon had poke holes in him.
We later learned that those were the result of being stabbed
With a pair of scissors that we found in the residence.
Ultimately, it was determined that ryan nixon was deceased.
- Ryan nixon is my little brother.
We are two years apart from each other.
Ryan was so kind, so kind.
He had a big heart.
I wouldn't want anyone else to grow up with.
I have three children that he loved tremendously.
They talked to their uncle ryan all the time.
I talked to him all the time.
He would do anything for me and I would do anything for him.
He was literally my ride or die.
He was working at a local restaurant
In kalispell, montana.
He loved to cook, which he got that from my mom.
- I see him standing in my kitchen cooking
And he sang, oh god, but he sang out of tune.
He would take a spoon full of something and,
Here, taste this, taste this, tastes this.
And you tell him, no, I don't wanna taste this.
You finish cooking it or whatever and then I'll taste it.
No taste this, taste this. - He was always a jokester.
- He'd like to hide behind the doors
And jump out and scare you and stuff.
Ryan edward nixon was 31 years old when he passed away.
And really after that life kind of became a blur.
I remember things moving around me and things happening,
But as far as exactly what it was,
And I'm still kind of to that point.
I mean, I'm trying to get along with life every day,
But some days are harder than others, some days,
Hmm, some days I don't do at all.
- Trying to deal with it
And a lot of it I haven't got to deal with.
- No, we...
I don't want to do what my mind says and I gotta control it
And I miss my son.
(tense music)
- Ryan lamb was in our, what we call booking area.
When we're initially bringing somebody in
We put 'em down there and it's audio and visually recorded.
- His emotional state seemed like it was consistent
With someone that would have
Recently encountered a traumatic situation.
He kept repeating what we later learned
Was a pet name that he had for mr. Nixon,
He called him bubba.
- When someone's super emotional
And we're conducting interviews,
You have to be patient and show some compassion
And empathy, sympathy to what they're going through.
(tense music)
- I approached it from an informational standpoint
And asked him, what can you tell us about this situation?
Do you know who did this?
- Mr. Lamb said that they didn't have
A functioning cell phone
So his first thought was to run to a local gas station,
Which is quite a distance away.
Probably half a mile or three quarters of a mile
From where the apartment was to utilize the phone.
I guess common sense tells me that if you have somebody
That has a pair of scissors sticking out of their stomach
And has an injury to the back of the head,
Why didn't you go to a neighbors immediately
And ask to use the phone to call 9-1-1?
- Lamb's accounting of what took place,
There were a lot of strange occurrences.
Why would you be calling your parents
In an emergent situation when you describe that,
You know, he's got blood gushing out of his stomach.
(tense music)
The process of an interview is a chess match.
And, you know, you can't make one sweeping movement
And expect to resolve the whole situation.
I have a role to play and I let them tell their story.
- Mm hmm.
- There was some disparity in statements
That mr. Lamb had made.
He had disclosed to the 9-1-1 dispatcher
That he helped mr. Nixon into the bathtub.
- [jim] and then later on in the interview with me,
He said when he returned from the gas station,
Mr. Nixon was already in the tub.
- So there were a number of things there
That led me to believe that mr. Lamb
Was being less than credible.
I think he was accustomed
To trying to pull the wool over people's eyes,
But that wasn't gonna happen with us.
(ryan sobbing)
- [reporter good evening, we begin tonight in kalispell
Where one man is dead
After an apparent stabbing early this morning,
The victim's name is not being released at this time
Pending family notification.
- On August 5th, 2018 I got a phone call from my mom.
She was crying.
She's like,
Ryan was hurt badly but the paramedics were working on him.
That there was blood everywhere.
The minute I hung up the phone with my mom,
I knew in my soul, I knew my brother was dead.
(tense music)
- Mr. Lamb was claiming it was somebody else
That had done this.
He disclosed to one of the patrol officers
That he had seen or there was some information
Regarding nixon's prior partner, david de larosa,
May have perpetrated the assault on mr. Nixon.
- [jim] there was some disparity in statements
That mr. Lamb had made at the scene.
- Stating he saw david de larosa do it
Or david de larosa was there.
He was refuting that once he was in the booking area.
It caused some consternation with mr. Lamb.
So I wanted to back away from that,
Because from an interview standpoint
It can be hugely detrimental if you start accusing somebody.
- He was very animated with the hand slapping,
Like he was trying to make a point
And methodically going through the steps
Of what he was talking about.
- His reaction and the way he was speaking and stuff changed
When I brought up the idea of collecting the blood.
His elbows are on his knees there,
He's a little more hunched over,
He's way more subdued.
I would say that it was a moment of recognition for him.
He probably realized
That we weren't just gonna go with it and accept his story.
(tense music)
- We learned that david was actually at his residence
90 miles from kalispell.
So based on the time and distance
That excluded david as a suspect.
(tense music)
- When I watched lamb down in our booking area,
I guess what I thought was it was somewhat theatrical.
- [jim] you have to rely on sometimes instincts,
Sometimes training, life experience.
It was apparent to me that he was accustomed to
Using theatrics to manipulate people.
- I have to say this about mr. Lamb, he's a damn good actor.
(tense music)
- The man who has stabbed to death
In a kalispell apartment complex over the weekend
Has been identified.
- It seems like it was still yesterday.
I just wish he was here.
I miss hearing him laugh in my house.
Hmm.
I just miss him.
Randy has some of ryan around his neck.
Here, in this right here, some of his ashes.
I have one, I carry it in my purse.
I didn't get to say goodbye
And that's probably one of the hardest things,
Is not being able to say goodbye.
(tense music)
- At least one of the patrol officers
That had interaction with lamb and myself
Recognized that there were some marks
On his chest and abdomen.
The marks to me looked like a four pronged fork.
I believe one of the patrol officers asked him about that
And initially he said, it's not relevant.
He said, it's a rash.
- There were a couple of
'em that had fresh blood
As a result of the poke marks,
Which told me that they were fairly recent.
So it was not normal, in my opinion,
And I wanted to know why.
- He divulged additional information
Regarding sexual acts
That he and mr. Nixon had engaged in.
I suspect it was because
He thought maybe it would take me off guard and shock me
And then I would switch gears
And not talk about that subject any further.
So I conveyed to mr. Lamb,
This isn't the first time
That I've heard about these types of things.
My goal in sharing the story about the other couple
Was to, I guess, explain to mr. Lamb
That whatever he chose to share with me,
I wasn't gonna judge him for it.
And also maybe to set the stage a little bit
That in the event that
This was a terrible horrific accident,
(camera shutter clicking)
That he would feel more comfortable
Telling me about that.
- I could tell immediately he got confrontational
And said it was crazy and how could I say that?
So I backed off at that point with that,
Because those are the critical moments during an interview
Where you can lose somebody,
They can completely shut down and tell you,
Buzz off, I'm not talking to you any further.
(tense music)
One of the neighbors upstairs to nixon's apartment
Told me that she heard two people arguing.
One of the voices said, you stabbed me in the chest.
The other voice said, well, you stabbed me with a fork.
Obviously that was significant to me
Because lamb had fork marks on his chest and abdomen
And nixon had been stabbed in the chest
With a pair of scissors.
Learning that information as well as other things
That I had gleaned from the interview,
I was fairly confident that lamb had played a role
In mr. Nixon's death.
(tense music)
Obviously he had fork marks on his chest.
To me this is a huge, huge moment,
Just to see what his reaction is
And what he's gonna offer as a possible explanation to it.
(tense music)
- I think that mr. Lamb's reaction,
He was legitimately shocked.
I think that he thought he could throw up
Some smoke and mirrors and he'd be walking out of
The back door of the police department that day,
And that didn't happen.
He was just continually pacing and to me it seemed as if
He was kinda calculating a response
And trying to figure out what he could tell me
That would minimize the consequence for him.
(tense music)
At that point, I've paired myself with lamb.
When I told him, if you trust me,
I want you to tell me what happened
And we will work through it.
So that way it's not adversarial,
I'm not against him,
We're on the same side, and the same side is about truth.
- At this point I felt we were moving towards a confession.
It's just, how much is he gonna divulge to me
And when is that gonna happen?
(tense music)
- Ryan lamb is walking back and forth, back and forth,
Pacing back and forth.
Many police officers would demand that he sit down.
It's a safety concern,
I don't want you pacing back and forth,
You're making me nervous, sit down.
And what would happen is he'd shut down, he wouldn't talk.
I think that he's using this timeframe
To kind of calculate his next move
And to try and figure out what can I tell the officer,
Whether it's semi factual, factual,
Or completely contrived,
To get myself out of this situation.
- As the interview ebbed and flowed,
It's not uncommon for people who've committed crimes
To try and distance themselves from the scenario.
Even when it gets to a point where
There's no refuting that they were involved,
They'll try and minimize their involvement in it
Or offer a varying shade of what took place.
He's trying to mitigate
What the consequences are gonna be for him.
Obviously from an investigative standpoint,
I want the truth.
Don't float theories to me,
Either you're gonna tell me the truth or we're done.
I'll glean my information
From other aspects of the investigation.
- The violent sex scenario was there, it was an option.
I wanted to know specifically how it took place,
You know, fill in the gaps for me.
- I just wanted him to keep talking.
Every exchange there was a little bit more
And a little bit more.
I think that mentally, he was just preparing himself for it.
Psychologically he had to overcome
Whatever hurdles he had in his mind.
(tense music)
- Mr. Lamb is just throwing me little bits, little bits.
Is that enough, jim?
Do I need to give you some more to get you to buy in?
Is that enough, jim?
Did I get off the deliberate homicide hook?
So I knew I had more work to do.
- When he confessed to killing mr. Nixon,
It was somewhat of a relief for him.
The confession is one of the few times
That I'm seeing some true emotion from him,
That it's not orchestrated.
Mr. Lamb admits that he lied.
And the reason he lied is because
He was fearful of the consequences.
- Mr. Lamb used the scissors on nixon
And he said he didn't intend to harm him as bad as he did
Or certainly not kill him.
Based on the information I had learned
Through the investigation,
Had ryan lamb called for help sooner there was a possibility
That ryan nixon could have been saved.
(handcuffs clicking)
(tense music)
The autopsy revealed that there was a fractured rib.
The sternum was fractured also
And then internal organs were damaged,
Causing mr. Nixon to bleed to death.
The prosecutor felt that that warranted deliberate homicide
Because the level of force that was used.
(tense music)
Lamb and his defense attorney's claimed at trial
Is that it was a domestic violence situation
Where nixon attacked lamb with the fork
And lamb was defending himself with the pair of scissors.
(tense music)
- At that point our hearts had dropped
Because we thought that it was gonna be over that day.
We were done, we could have that sigh of relief.
Okay, we can move forward, we can heal.
We can, you know, have some sort of peace.
We didn't get that.
(tense music)
- Lamb took an alford plea and what that means is
Lamb wasn't owning up to any culpability in this situation,
But felt that if the case were tried again
That he would likely be found guilty.
It's never as clear cut or obvious
As people think with a confession,
But I'm happy with the job that we did.
I feel satisfied with our investigation in this case,
And I don't wanna sound arrogant or boastful,
But I would challenge any other investigator to do more.
(tense music)
- I did speak at the sentencing
And I spoke directly to ryan lamb.
I made eye contact with him the whole time.
I wanted him to feel my hurt, to feel my family's hurt.
I wanted him to know that he took our light away from us.
- [randy] I think it was a relationship of power
And lamb was a controller.
- We seen the signs and we tried to help,
But we didn't help enough.
- And I knew it was gonna happen.
And I told my son when I seen him last time,
I said, I'm gonna bury you.
If you don't come home.
And I did.