["Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who playing]
NARRATOR: CSI: Miami, the global television phenomenon.
In this series, we'll explore crime
through an entirely new lens.
DISPATCHER: Marlene Warren was just shot.
NARRATOR: The investigations on this program are true.
Ride along with the real CSI experts.
VINCE WEINER: This was the most brutal homicide in over 25 years.
CRUX CONCEPTION: Forensic science,
it was the key witness.
NARRATOR: Talk to the real suspects.
I didn't kill anybody, dude.
NARRATOR: Hear from the real victims.
I couldn't believe it. I'm in a state of shock.
NARRATOR: And ultimately solve the case
through the use of forensic science.
We still have a homicide suspect somewhere out there.
NARRATOR: This is...WOMAN: A murder...
REPORTER: A disturbing story has come in...[overlapping voices]
Where students are used to celebrating championships,
tonight they are wondering who murdered
a member of the football team and a young woman.
The bloody crime scene is on the third floor
of this dormitory you see behind me.
A murder mystery on
the University of Miami campus.
LISETTE CAMPOS: One of the victims has been identified
as a football player, Marlin Barnes.
SMITH: The second victim, 22-year-old Timwanika Lumpkins.
CAMPOS: Police found no evidence
of a break-in and no apparent weapon.
On April 13, 1996, I was requested to respond to
a crime scene involving a double homicide
on the University of Miami property.
I am a bloodstain pattern analyst.
My job is to interpret
the characteristics of those bloodstain patterns
to try and tell
the circumstances that may have created them.
This crime scene was
an apartment building that the athletes lived in.
The crime scene was an apartmet
on the third floor of the building.
There was a front door and a back door.
The back door
had to be forced open because it was locked
and chained shut from the inside.
That means that the front door is your entrance/exit area
for the perpetrator of the crime.
As they walked the apartment,
there was blood all over the floor,
which was still wet when I got there.
Which means, when the assailant left,
that blood had to be wet also.
The flooring showed signs of blood dripping into blood.
And there was blood
on the surfaces, all over the floors of the kitchen,
the walls and on the surfaces of tables.
MARY'S MARTINEZ: Dealing with a scene
that's as bloody as this
is difficult to see.
It's more of a shell shock.
My name is Mary's Martinez.
I am a crime scene investigator
in a police department down here in South Florida.
Inside of the apartment, investigators found two victim.
The first was a female who had been physically assaulted
with a blunt force object.
She was located in the bedroom
and clinging to life.
The second victim was the male victim
who was badly assaulted behind the door.
He was deceased.
CRUX CONCEPTION: The male victim
was six foot, 210 pounds,
well built.
He suffered approximately 22 blows
of blunt force trauma.
His face was literally caved i.
He also had lacerations to the face.
His hands were
swollen, indicating defensive wounds.
I'm Crux Conception.
I'm a retired homicide detective
and criminal profiler.
MARTINEZ: The female victim was transported
to the hospital in hopes of saving her life.
But unfortunately, in transit, the female victim passed away.
CONCEPTION: Once the male victim's body was removed
from the scene, crime scene investigators
then process the area.
They photograph it.
Dust for fingerprints.
Blood's collected for DNA sampling to see if there's
any other blood besides the two victims
left at the scene.
There were a couple different pieces of evidence
that were found on the ground,
one of which appeared to be wood.
As well as two individual piecs
of curved metal.
Investigators also found
a 12-gauge shotgun shell.
Finding a 12-gauge shotgun shel
does raise some flags.
Especially when there isn't
a victim
that has a gunshot wound.
You start to wonder
why is this here?
But because we don't know,
we're going to treat it as evidence.
So a 12-gauge shotgun shell,
the pieces of metal and wood
were submitted for lab analysis.
Police released the name of the first victim,
22-year-old Timwanika Lumpkins of South Miami,
and 22-year-old Marlin Barnes,
a University of Miami football player.
REPORTER: Timwanika's relatives say
they last saw her Friday evening.
The next time they heard from her
was through detectives.
When he came up, I said, "No."
I said, "No, y'all got the wrong person."
It is so shocking, you know.
Something like this? I never would,
under the sun, believe.
I'm Flora Seff.
I was a major crimes attorney.
I was assigned to handle
the case of the murders of Marlin and Timwanika.
I got to know the whole family,
and this was just horrifying to their families.
Timwanika was raised primarily by her grandmother.
Her grandmother lived in
a really nice area in South Miami.
She went to good schools.
She was well liked by everybod,
had a lot of friends.
She was a cheerleader for the football team.
She was a basketball player in high school.
But I think what she liked the most
was her little daughter.
She was a very good mother.
CONCEPTION: Instead of going to college, she dedicated her life to
her three-year-old daughter.
And Marlin and Timwanika
were in the beginning phases of
a romantic relationship.
BUTCH DAVIS: Your heart almost stops.
I mean, it's like, "Am I hearing exactly right?
He's dead?"
I was the head coach at the University of Miami.
Marlin, the guys on the team,
they loved him.
He was funny,
he had a great attitude.
When he walked out on the field
for practice, guys were hugging him, high-fiving him.
I mean, he was a really, really
good kid.
We were fired up about this year.
You know, we always talking trash to each other
about what we gonna do and so forth,
so we were looking forward to this day.
NATE BROOKS: I found out that Marlin died
when my mom told me.
She like, "Marlin had got murdered."
And I said, "What? What?"
I said, "What you talking about?"
[sighs]
[cries]
On a football field,
Marlin was unbelievable, unstoppable.
It was, like, um,
glad to be on his team, you know what I mean?
Because he was just a train wreck.
Like, the leader was gone. You know what I'm saying?
The leader is gone.
Now what are we going to do?
Marlin came up in the projects, and he was able to
defeat the odds.
Marlin was the inspiration
for so many people because
he formed The Right Track program.
It was formed to help inner-city youth
stay out of trouble,
and understand that life is about
decisions and consequences.
He was special, man. Unbelievably special.
Just the way he would challenge different kids.
And when Marlin died,
it was a different level of sadness.
That was so heartbreaking because
he started something that the kids was waiting on
and community's waiting on.
Everything we do in life is a habit,
as Marlin would say.
So, if he would have kept up those habits,
how many other people's lives he would have changed?
CHARLIE MAE POSTELL: My son had a bright future ahead of him.
He was very intelligent.
He loved life.
He cared about people.
He never did anything to hurt anybody.
This shouldn't have happened to him.
Without question, there's no way that words can express,
uh, the emotion and the tragedy
that's felt throughout the athletic department.
DAVIS: It was a horrible, horrible night.
I mean, it hit everybody in that locker room.
Those kids, they were crying.
And you got some guys scream a little bit,
and guys just totally quiet
because they were shocked.
And it just, uh, it breaks your heart.
One of the reasons that I've loved coaching
is I love the kids.
It's not about the money.
It's not about being on TV and all that kind of stuff.
Those kids, I love 'em.
As a football coach of any level,
you don't want anything like that to ever happen
to one of the kids that's on your team.
Losing a member of the football team,
it's like losing a member of your own family,
and time will be the only thing
that will attempt to try to heal any of it.
NEWSCASTER: Detectives spent the evening on campus
combing over the crime scene,
which may help them solve a murder mystery.
WOLSON: This was an extremely bloody crime scene,
one of the bloodiest I've ever been to.
So, my reaction was,
"Wow, there's a lot of work to be done here."
The bloodstains in the living room area, the carpeted area,
were all consistent with some type of active event
where blood is being splashed and thrown about.
Whereas the blood in the tiled kitchen area
was swipes and wipes.
A swipe being, let's say you have blood on your hand
and it's wet, and you rub your hand
against another surface, you would leave behind
a wipe pattern.
Whereas a wipe is the blood's already on that surface,
and while it's still not entirely dry,
something pushes through it and-and alters it.
It looked like there was a big fight that took place.
Yet, there were no foot tracks
leading away from the apartment.
As they walked out the apartment and went down the stairs,
they should have left some type of foot impression trail,
but there was no blood on any of the steps.
The biggest question that came to mind is,
how did they leave?
How did they walk through the blood
without leaving any footprints?
It didn't make sense.
♪
Good evening, everyone. I'm Anita Smith.
It is probably safe to say the University of Miami
has been forever changed.
Everyone here is baffled.
How could this happen? Why did this happen?
I was just worried that it-it happened over here,
so close to my apartment.
What happened is very scary.
So, I guess I'm not staying there anymore alone.
REPORTER: These family and friends showed up, they say,
in sorrow and with concern Marlin Barnes' murder be solve.
Come out here to see what's going on,
and if we gonna be justified in this matter,
and if we gonna be satisfied with how the police
gonna handle this or if not,
you know, we got to handle it.
On this particular crime scene,
it was obvious that he fought.
The front door was the only way
that the assailant could leave the apartment.
But there were no footprints.
Maybe the assailant never left the apartment.
Investigators need to find out who had access to the apartment.
Marlin had an on-campus apartment
with two other football players,
Earl Little and Ray Lewis.
But when the murders occurred,
Ray Lewis had been drafted
and was already an NFL player,
so he didn't live on campus anymore.
CONCEPTION: Earl called 911.
It's not uncommon for a, uh, person
who commits the crime to call 911
and stay around to throw the scent off him or herself.
MARTINEZ: Earl Little tells investigators
that the night before,
our victim Marlin borrowed Earl Little's
black Ford Explorer
because Timwanika needed help moving
from the home that she shared with her child's father
to her grandmother's home.
At approximately 7:30 a.m.,
Earl Little arrives at the apartment.
He sees in the parking lot
that the tires of his vehicle have been slashed.
He attempted to open his front door
and was faced with some resistance.
Once he managed to open the door,
he realizes that his roommate
was slumped behind the door, badly beaten.
He runs down the hall to call the police for help.
There was no forced entry.
Earl knew both of the victims.
There was nothing missing from the home.
And given the brutality of the wounds on both victims,
this murder seems personal.
First theory, Earl and Marlin got into it
because his tires were slashed.
An argument ensues, possibly a shoving match.
The shoving match becomes a physical altercation.
Earl grabs a bat or some other heavy weapon
and then continued to strike.
Timwanika surprised him.
Earl chased after her and beat her
until he believes she is dead.
He gets rid of all the evidenc, gathers his composure
and places the call to 911.
Detectives asked Earl what his whereabouts were.
He stated that he spent the night somewhere else,
and what he told them was validated,
and so he was eliminated as a suspect.
Now that the victim's roommate is cleared,
the question remains, who did this?
What kind of weapon was used? Who had opportunity?
Who had motive?
And most importantly, who could have left that crime scene
without leaving a bloody shoe print?
NEWSCASTER: Police called to the scene,
bodies brought out of a campus apartment.
While detectives look for a killer,
students wait and worry, wondering what happened.
As investigators sifted for more clues,
campus security was out in full force,
many students clearly worried.
students getting killed, that's...
I mean, I never would've thought I would hear about
something like this on campus.
BROOKS: I was trying to go back to the scene, you know?
We got up there.
I remember the officer told me that, you know, um,
he said, now, you don't want to see-see that.
You don't want to see the-the scene or none of that.
You know, you don't want to.
I felt comfort knowing that the officer,
he say, "Nate, your boy put up a hell of a fight."
CONCEPTION: According to friends, the night before the murders,
Marlin Barnes got club access
to a very extravagant club called Club Salvation.
♪ It's a block party in Manila... ♪
MARTINEZ: The party was being hosted by the Miami Dolphins
and the Dallas Cowboys football teams.
Marlin had two tickets to go to the event,
and Timwanika wanted to go.
So, after they had moved some of her stuff,
they ended up in the club.
CONCEPTION: When they're at the club,
it was confirmed through other witnesses
that Timwanika and Marlin
were kissing on the dance floor, having a good time.
Timwanika and Marlin leave together around 4:30 a.m.
As they approach the borrowed Ford Explorer,
they see that two tires were slashed.
Marlin calls for a tow truck.
Tow truck escorts Timwanika and Marlin,
along with the vehicle, back to Marlin's place,
dropping off the couple at approximately 6:30 a.m.
And unbeknownst to this tow truck driver,
he becomes the last individual
to see both Timwanika and Marlin Barnes alive.
Then, at approximately 7:30 a.m.,
Earl little discovers the body.
So, between the time that the tow truck driver
dropped off the couple, which was 6:30 a.m.,
and from the time that Earl Little
discovered the murders,
it gives us a window
of when the murders actually occurred.
WOLSON: While I'm doing my documentation process,
the question that was continually coming in my mind
was how the assailant could leave the apartment
with all that blood in place
and not leave any indication
that they had left the apartment.
That was the question that I was trying to answer.
Once I'd started the reset, which meant
I basically cleared my head of everything
I had looked at and seen
and started over mentally.
Light that goes on in my head is:
The reason the two bloody areas in the front area
of the apartment look so different
is because they didn't occur at the same time.
The area in the kitchen, on the flooring,
and the smears and wipes and everything on the walls
occurred after the assault was over.
The body's behind the door
that the assailant has to leave through--
how did they walk through the blood
without leaving any traces of it?
The body wasn't there when the assailant left,
and neither was the blood.
Marlin Barnes apparently was not dead
when the assailant left.
This is my opinion on what happened.
♪
The attack starts in the door.
The assumption is he answers the door standing.
He apparently takes a forceful injury there
that causes instant bleeding.
He must have to stumble back or get pushed back
and ends up lying on the floor with his head on the carpet,
where the majority of the assault takes place.
Then the assailant or assailans
goes after Timwanika in the bedroom.
The assailant leaves, and then Marlin got up
and stumbled around the tiled kitchen area of the apartment
before collapsing behind the door and dying.
That scenario is the only one I could come up with
that explains everything in the apartment
and the lack of the footprints away from it.
Given Marlin's size
and physique,
six-foot, 210 pounds, a Division 1 linebacker,
the killer had to be somebody
with equal stature
and physical capability.
He also opened the door,
so Marlin may have known his perpetrator.
Detectives now want to talk to Marlin's teammates.
Before the Hurricanes' baseball game tonight,
a flag at Mark Light Stadium flew at half-staff.
The university president
dedicated the game to those murder victims.
PRESIDENT: And so for this day,
we of the family of the University of Miami
have grieved and tried to help each other,
and have tried to reach out and touch the lives
that are left in prayer and in understanding and in sympathy.
REPORTER: His family came together tonigt to share the pain
at the Carol City home of his mother, Charlie Postell,
saying only off-camera that they have no idea
why Barnes had to meet such a terrible fate.
I'm gonna miss everything. I'm gonna miss talking
to my brother. I didn't even get to see him
before all this happened.
We pray for the families of these two loved ones,
these young people whose lives were taken.
DAVIS: At the services in Miami,
you know, everybody, when they go to a funeral,
everybody's hurt.
I mean, the family, crushed. You can only imagine.
But you saw people that weren't the family that was crushed.
His loss impacted a lot of other people
outside of our locker room. It was terrible.
MARTINEZ: This case seemed personal
on really the way it went down, and the type of injuries.
And given that it would take
a pretty strong or heavily armed individual
to take on a linebacker.
Investigators needed to speak to Marlin's teammates.
SEFF: And the first question was,
does anybody know why somebody would have done this?
Some of the players come forward and tell the detectives
that Timwanika had an ex-boyfriend.
SEFF: And somebody said he's
in a band called The Dogs.
MARTINEZ: They made contact
with some of the members of The Dogs,
who then stated that Timwanika's ex-boyfriend
was called Labrant Dennis.
SEFF: He'd been an athlete in high school.
He wasn't huge-tall, but he was strong.
He also had jobs where he was moving heavy equipment around.
He was pretty built.
Initially, based on the attack,
it appeared as if Barnes could have been the primary target.
But now investigators are starting to wonder,
could it have been Timwanika all along?
SEFF: When the detective got back to headquarters,
Labrant was already there.
He popped up at the police department
and said he wanted to speak to the detective.
CONCEPTION: He gets in there and he gives the impression
that he's this loving boyfriend that has to work
an extra job, and works hard to provide for Timwanika
and their daughter, and that he's a caring individual.
That all he does is give, give, give.
He also stated that
he loves his daughter, and he loves Timwanika,
and that he wants to help
in any way he can.
He said that he and Timwanika had lived together.
They didn't any longer. She had moved out.
She had moved some of her stuf, like, a week earlier.
She moved the rest of the stuff
the night before she was killed.
That's why Marlin had the truc,
so he could come and help her take some of the stuff
back to her grandmother's hous.
The detective continued to ask him questions,
and he talked about how
they hadn't had a very good relationship
towards the end.
Something that people do sometimes
when they're guilty of a crime,
they try to throw
the police officers off track,
and they want to be cooperative.
MARTINEZ: Law enforcement also asked Labrant about
his whereabouts the night before the murder.
He states that he was also at
Salvation nightclub, but he also states
that he did not see Marlin or Timwanika
at the club that night.
Once the party was over, he left to his sister's house,
where he slept on the couch.
SEFF: They took a picture of him.
He agreed to his fingerprints being taken.
MARTINEZ: Law enforcement asked Labrant Dennis
if they could have access to his home and his vehicle.
Labrant willingly and voluntarily provides access.
There was nothing of evidentiary value that was found
that would tie him to the crime scene.
CONCEPTION: Even though he was there to cooperate,
Labrant Dennis definitely has a motive.
He witnessed another man
helping his woman move out of their apartment
that they share together with their daughter.
Could the evidence link him to this double homicide?
♪
MARTINEZ: The lab results started to pour back in
from the evidence that was found on the crime scene,
which was a 12-gauge shotgun shell,
fragments of wood,
and two individual pieces of curved metal.
Unfortunately, there was no
third-party DNA that was identified.
Also, investigators
did not have any positive fingerprint matches.
But investigators weren't at a total dead end.
Trace evidence analysis
and fracture pattern analysis
is a very helpful tool that we have in our bag of tricks.
Trace helps tremendously
with trying to locate
origin, meaning its parent ite.
But in this case, you didn't necessarily
have a parent item to compare it to.
So the pieces of evidence that were collected
from the scene, the pieces of wood and the pieces of metal,
were analyzed more in detail in a microscopic sense.
They can see the different layers of the item
and make a plausible theory about our murder weapon.
WOLSON: The blood staining in the apartment,
the distribution of the pattern there is,
how many stains are present in the pattern,
what the size of the stains are.
Those tell you about
the amount of force used
when the patterns were being created.
Now, if they used a bat or they used
some type of other club-type item,
they would have created similar-looking patterns.
The pieces of wood left behind,
and the pieces of metal left behind
were indicative of it being some type of firearm.
So we had ideas as to what the weapon was.
And since it was broken, the assumption that gets made
is that that must have been used for the bludgeoning.
The nature of the injuries and the potential weapon
were starting to take form.
This explains the 12-gauge shotgun shell
that was located on the scene.
CONCEPTION: Now that the investigators know what the murder weapon was,
their job is to locate that weapon
and connect it with an individual
who's responsible for these crimes.
MARTINEZ: They respond back to Salvation nightclub
and just canvass the area to see if there's
anything else that they can get from that initial scene.
As the detectives continue their canvass,
they come across
a Chevron gas station across the street,
and they speak with the attendant,
who just so happens was working that night.
MARTINEZ: She was able to attest
to an individual whom she saw
stalking around the gas station that night,
and dials 911.
CONCEPTION: When the detectives ask the gas station attendant
what she saw that was out of the ordinary,
she stated that he appeared as if
he was looking for something
or looking for someone
in the vicinity of Club Salvation.
She stated this individual got out
of a gray Nissan Sentra.
MARTINEZ: At approximately 4:30 in the morning,
Timwanika and Marlin
were said to have left the Club Salvation.
As Marlin and Timwanika approached
the borrowed black Ford Explorer,
they realized that they have flat tires.
Timwanika, Marlin, and some friends that were nearby
helped push the borrowed vehice
across the street to a Chevron gas station.
According to the gas station attendant,
she also witnessed the suspicious male
observe the tow truck driver
with the vehicle, exit and leave.
MARTINEZ: As law enforcement dig a little deeper,
they find out that Labrant Dennis
has another ex-girlfriend
whose personal vehicle is a silver Nissan.
This ex-girlfriend allows
Labrant to use her vehicle
whenever she's out of town.
So, now that law enforcement knows that Labrant Dennis
has access to a secondary vehicle,
which is the ex-girlfriend's personal car,
they return back to the clerk
and ask her if the vehicle
that she's seeing now in photographs
matches the vehicle that she saw that night.
She's able to positively identify
that that was the vehicle
the night before the murder, at her gas station.
CONCEPTION: Investigators show her a photo array
that included a picture of Labrant Dennis.
She positively identified him
as the suspicious person in question.
MARTINEZ: Investigators now have confirmation
that Labrant was near the victims
just hours before their murder.
But that doesn't mean much
unless they can find hard evidence, like a murder weapon,
to place him on the scene of the murder.
CONCEPTION: On April 29th,
two weeks after the double homicide,
there's a huge break in the investigation.
Detectives receive an anonymous tip.
This source states that an individual
by the name of Joseph Stewart knows who killed Timwanika
and Marlin Barnes.
So now we have a new player in the game.
Who is Joseph Stewart?
What is his connection to our victims,
and what is his connection to Labrant Dennis?
According to Joseph Stewart,
Labrant Dennis approached him,
asking him to borrow a shotgun...
...knowing that Joseph Stewart had
an old shotgun laying around the house.
Joseph Stewart told the detectives
that he gave Labrant Dennis the shotgun in question,
along with a bag to carry it i.
Stewart continues to tell the detectives
he doesn't hear from Labrant again
until April 13th,
the date of the homicide.
And he says Labrant calls him
and tells him that he returned the weapon and the bag,
and he placed it near some bushes
right by Stewart's mother's house.
Stewart retrieves the bag, and what he finds
isn't what he gave Labrant.
In the bag, he finds the 12-gauge shotgun
that he let Labrant borrow, but it's damaged.
He also finds a pair of black pants and a hoodie
that are bloody.
♪
CONCEPTION: After Stewart gives Labrant the weapon,
it's out of sight, out of mind,
and he doesn't see it again until April 13th,
the day of the homicide.
He contacts Labrant,
asks him what he got himself into,
and "Don't get me involved."
According to Stewart, Labrant was nonchalant about it
and said, "Don't worry-- just get rid of it."
SEFF: Joseph Stewart did not want
to have the evidence on his mother's property.
He thought that he would get tied up
in this whole thing,
so he threw everything away.
CONCEPTION: According to Stewart, he throws the clothing away in a dumpster
and the shotgun in a drainage ditch.
And so Stewart takes the detectives
to the drainage ditch
to retrieve the shotgun.
SEFF: It appeared from the injuries
that occurred to Timwanika
and Marlin
that they were hit very, very hard.
It's not easy to break bones.
And the medical examiner could tell
that there were broken bones.
That, again, is an indication
that it was an item with enough
physical presence to cause severe damage.
There was a lot of evidence they found
that was around the bodies,
the pieces of wood that were on the floor,
enough to compare with the gun
and to see whether or not it matched.
The shotgun is submitted for trace analysis
and fracture pattern analysis
due to the damage seen on the trigger guard
and the handle.
If the detectives can match
the fragments from the crime scene
to the shotgun that they have in evidence,
they can link Labrant Dennis to the homicides.
Stewart was eliminated as a suspect for many reasons.
One, his cooperation.
He also led detectives
to the murder weapon. That's key.
MARTINEZ: Toolmark analysts were able to compare
the butt end of the firearm,
which was made of a specific wood,
with the pieces that were found on the crime scene.
Analysts could compare the two, whether it be the color,
the texture, the grain, um, the pattern.
SEFF: The investigator was able to prove forensically
that the pieces of wood that were on the floor
matched with the gun that belonged to Joseph Stewar.
CONCEPTION: Forensics also confirms
that the curved metal objects
found at the murder scene
conclusively match the trigger guard
of the shotgun recovered in the drainage ditch.
The evidence is now indisputable,
and detectives can now prove they have their murder weapon.
SEFF: By getting the gun back,
Joseph Stewart really helped the police.
To seal Labrant's fate,
the duffel bag was sent in for DNA analysis,
and there was traces of blood inside.
The blood found in the duffel bag
is confirmed to match that of both victims.
Our final theory is...
April the 12th, 1996.
Marlin and Timwanika go partying at Club Salvation.
Labrant, after seeing the two of them together,
is driven by rage
and slashes both tires of their vehicle.
He then waits for the couple to leave.
Labrant follows them to their apartment.
Marlin opens the door,
and Labrant strikes Marlin in the face.
Marlin falls back,
and Labrant tries to shoot him with the shotgun,
but it jams,
causing a single shotgun shell to fall on the floor.
So Labrant begins to strike him repeatedly
with the butt of the gun.
In the other room, Timwanika hides under the bed.
Labrant enters the bedroom,
grabs Timwanika,
then begins striking her
with the butt of the shotgun until he believes she's dead,
and he leaves through the front entrance,
leaving a bloodless trail.
Marlin makes it to the front door
before he falls and collapses against it.
MARTINEZ: Based on fracture pattern analysis,
bloodstain analysis,
trace evidence and DNA analysi,
investigators are now able to connect Labrant
to the crime scene and to the murders.
He's arrested on April 30, 199,
just over two weeks after the murders were committed.
SEFF: After the police had
finished their investigation and gone to the grand jury,
it was decided that Labrant Dennis would
stay in jail, and he would be charged.
Sir, you're charged with, uh,
two counts of first-degree murder.
No bond.
Labrant Dennis was found guilty on all charges.
SEFF: For the most part, Labrant was
quiet until...
...he found out he was found guilty--
he went ballistic.
REPORTER: At the end of the U.M. murder trial penalty phase,
the defendant faints after the jury recommends
his death in Florida's electric chair.
The father of Timwanika Lumpkins says
justice was served.
DEWAYNE LEE: Although the justice system
don't work all the time,
-This time it did. -...this time it works.
-This time it did. -That's right.
-This time it works. -It worked this time.
SEFF: Once the death penalty verdict came back,
mother of Marlin Barnes, she just collapsed.
POSTELL [crying]: This family will never,
ever be the same again.
SEFF: Marlin's mother, from the beginning,
when I first met her,
we became friends and support for each other
'cause I felt very badly for her
about what she had to go through.
It's hard to be going through this again.
However, I think it's important for communities to know
what's happened to people
and how hard everybody works
in order to bring justice to families that have suffered.
She was the sweetest, kind, you know...
She was so kind.
I can't tell you how I feel, because...
only me would know just how I feel in my heart
and chest and everything.
DAVIS: He always had a smile.
I mean, he was contagious
in that you saw him, he was enthusiastic,
and he loved playing.
He loved his teammates,
and, uh, they all really appreciated
you know, how much he really loved the program
and what he was gonna sacrifice to-to make us win.
["Stay Strong" by Young Charlie playing]
♪ We were just kids on the run
♪ We had a heart full of dreams... ♪
BROOKS: Marlin, he had a heart of a lion.
And I think "sharing" would be like,
one of the words I tag to him.
♪ Stay strong for me and I'll stay strong for you... ♪
BROOKS: I named my son Marlin. I get to say that.
You know, I need to say, "Marlin, Marlin, Marlin, Marli"
all the time.
I get to talk to him all the time because of my son.
♪ Stay strong for me
♪ I'll stay strong for you
♪ I know your heart feels tired ♪
♪ But I know we'll see this through ♪
♪ We'll see this through
♪ Ooh, ooh
♪
♪ We were just kids on the run ♪
♪ We had a heart full of dreams. ♪
Captioning sponsored by CBS
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org