- FEMALE NARRATOR: For one kind and loving man,
becoming a father was a dream come true.
- He just longed at that point to have a child.
- He finally felt like for the first time he was
gonna be able to have that family he had always wanted.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: But his bright future goes dark in an instant,
when he falls victim to a vicious attack.
- His hands was tied behind his back.
I called out to him, and he didn't respond.
- BILL: His face looked like
he'd gotten in a fight with Mike Tyson.
It was one of the most savage beatings that I've ever seen.
- This was a brutal attack that lasted several minutes.
- He died a violent death. There's no doubt about it.
- NARRATOR: As investigators grapple for answers,
a story of greed and betrayal begins to unfold.
- BILL: It looked like he was
kind of juggling two women at once.
- She had mastered manipulation.
- I think he was still under her spell.
- ANDREA: There is no other reason for her to do this
besides she's evil.
- ♪
♪♪
- ♪
- NARRATOR: September 7, 2013.
It's just after 3 p.m. in Fort Worth, Texas,
as Andrea Brown rushes to the home of her brother,
51-year-old Tommy Brown.
- My aunt called me that Saturday around 8:45
in the morning.
She asked me had I talked to my brother,
and I told her, "No."
I tried to call him.
No answer, which was unusual.
- She was concerned, um, you know,
they remained in contact a lot.
- ♪
- ANDREA: I went to the house.
I walked around to the back of the house,
'cause he used to leave the side door unlocked,
and that door was locked.
- NARRATOR: As her concern grows,
Andrea works against the clock to find a way in.
- I decide to stick my hand in the mailbox,
and there was a cigarette box with a key inside.
That key happened to be a key to the front door.
I opened the door. I walked in.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Andrea sees no sign of her brother,
until she turns to head towards the bedrooms.
- ANDREA: I just happened to look at the bathroom,
which would have been to my right,
and I looked down and he was laying on the floor.
- She discovers Tommy lying halfway in the bathroom,
halfway in the hallway.
- I called out to him, and he didn't respond.
- Tommy's bound, and he's got bags over his head.
- ♪
- ANDREA: So at that point, I knew I needed to leave
out the house, because I realize it's a crime scene.
I went to my aunt's house who originally called me
and she asked was my brother there, and I said, "He's dead."
I said, "Hand me the phone," so I could call 911.
- THOMAS: The question is-- well, how did this happen?
Somebody needs to be held responsible for
killing this individual.
- ANDREA: My brother was a very giving person.
I still don't believe it.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Born in 1961, Tommy Brown
and his sister Andrea grew up in Fort Worth.
- We was a very close-knit family.
It was a family of four:
my mother, father, my brother and I.
I always wanted to be with my brother,
whether I was scared or just wanted to hang out with him.
So, I was always with him.
- NARRATOR: As a young man,
Tommy kept his social circle small...
just like his stature.
- He was small, but very strong.
He used to like to go crawfishing
and fishing in general.
- NARRATOR: By the time Tommy graduated high school,
he had already established a career.
- ANDREA: He didn't go to college.
He just stayed home after graduating and, uh,
helped in my father's, uh, side business,
which was a janitorial service.
- DEBORAH: The first time I met Tommy,
I interviewed him to come as a contractor with the, um,
janitorial company I was, uh, working for at the time.
I just thought he was a good all-round person.
So, we hired him.
Tommy was just kind of who you would want to have
as a big brother or best friend.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In 1999, when Andrea's and Tommy's father
passed away, Tommy took over
the family's contract cleaning business.
- ELIZABETH: Tommy was very passionate.
His work meant a lot to him.
Tommy was the kind of person
that made friends wherever he went, very friendly.
- NARRATOR: In 2004, after years of living
a bachelor's lifestyle,
43-year-old Tommy began a serious relationship
with one of his coworkers, Connie Moreno.
- Tommy and Connie were together when I met them.
And she came along as his helper in the business.
- ANDREA: Connie was kind of quiet and shy.
She didn't do, uh, a lot of talking.
They had their highs and lows.
It would be real good for a while, and then,
it would just go sour.
- ELIZABETH: They were kind of on again, off again.
It was kind of one of those kinds of relationships.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Through it all, Tommy never had any doubt
about his future with Connie.
And in 2005, he asked her to move in with him.
- He was really in love with Connie,
and he really wanted a life with Connie.
And Tommy was someone who really wanted
a child of his own,
who loved kids.
- I do know that it was very important to him, um,
to have a family.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After nearly a decade together,
in the spring of 2013, Tommy and Connie finally agreed
that surrogacy was their best option for starting a family.
- ELIZABETH: Tommy was over the moon.
He could not have been more happy.
He finally felt like for the first time he was gonna be able
to have that family he had always wanted.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: But 6 months later,
plans for their family are suddenly destroyed,
when police are called to Tommy's home on September 7.
- MATTHEW: We go in, and we do our walk-through
of the residence.
And what we see,
there's obvious blood throughout the house.
The concentrated areas of blood were, of course,
around the victim, Tommy Lee Brown.
- There was a significant amount of blood in the bathroom.
He had a bag that was not only taped over his neck,
but there were also shoelaces tied around his neck.
- THOMAS: His hands were tied behind his back.
I mean these are--these are things that are clearly
consistent with murder.
- He had a lot of what I would call defensive wounds
on his body, where he had been beaten,
in addition to strangulation.
- Unfortunately, Tommy died a violent death.
There's no doubt about it.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Detectives begin to piece together this vicious crime.
- He had bruises and contusions all over his body.
Part of his head was split open.
- MATTHEW: There were shards of porcelain there in the hallway
and around the body.
- NARRATOR: And detectives see signs of a potential motive.
- His wallet, debit cards, and car keys were missing,
and there was actually dust on the stand
in an outline of where a TV would be.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives standing over the body of 51-year-old
Tommy Brown are struck by the sheer brutality of his attack.
- BILL: He was black and blue, alright?
I mean, he had bruises and contusions all over his body.
Part of his head was split open.
I mean, his--his face looked like he'd gotten in a fight
with Mike Tyson.
It was one of the most savage beatings that I've ever seen.
- THOMAS: This wasn't a quick way to die.
This wasn't a gunshot to the head.
Um, this was a brutal attack that lasted several minutes.
- BILL: Tommy had been dead for a little bit of time.
Uh, because his body had started to decompose.
Um, he had some changes to the skin, uh,
that don't happen immediately after death.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: To detectives, it isn't immediately clear
what the murder weapon could have been.
- BILL: It could be an object, it could be fists,
it could be having his head slammed against the wall
or the ground, we just don't know.
- MATTHEW: We were focused
at that point on blunt force objects,
which would be anything that could cause a heavy impact,
ah, that would include baseball bats
or anything like that.
Um, anything with, with a lot of weight and--and--
and mass in general, that would be used to beat him.
- NARRATOR: Investigators find one potential clue.
- There were shards of porcelain there in the hallway
and around the body.
- These small shards clearly could've been something
that was used as a weapon in this murder.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives widen their search of the home.
- MATTHEW: There were two distinctly different foot track
patterns through some of that blood.
What that would lead us to believe is that here we have
potentially two suspects involved.
- NARRATOR: It seems one of the suspects might have suffered
an injury during the attack.
- There was a perfect quarter-size blood drop
that was to the right of the little mat at the sink.
That was probably where the suspect had washed their hands
or tried to clean up, and the way that that blood drop was,
it was a perfect circle,
so that means it came just straight down.
The perpetrator probably cut their hand,
and that was the suspect's blood.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: A sample of the blood is collected
for DNA evidence.
With no signs of a break in
and since Andrea used a key to enter her brother's home,
investigators begin to draw a likely conclusion.
- The main initial feeling was this is somebody
he allowed in his home.
So, we felt like most likely our suspect, or suspects,
were going to be someone he knew
and someone that's fairly close to him.
- BILL: This was a personal crime.
Somebody wanted Tommy Brown dead.
- NARRATOR: Though a break in is unlikely to detectives,
it seems Tommy's attackers might have taken more than his life:
- BILL: When you walk into the front door
to your left is gonna be a couch,
and to your right is a TV stand.
One of the first things that Detective O'Brian noticed
was that, um, there was no TV on the TV stand,
and there was actually dust on the stand
in an outline of where a TV would be.
- NARRATOR: Investigators look for other items
the killers might have seized.
- We're looking for Tommy's cell phone;
we're looking for Tommy's wallet;
we're looking for Tommy's ID card;
we're looking for his debit card.
- BILL: The police learn pretty quickly that his wallet,
debit cards, and car keys were missing as well.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Outside, officers speak to Tommy's sister,
Andrea Brown.
- I started talking to another police officer about his truck,
uh, being missing and described the truck.
- NARRATOR: As the officer takes Andrea's statement,
he has a sudden revelation.
- THOMAS: One of the officers had brought to my attention
saying, "Hey, a couple of days ago
"I had a call over to a convenience store,
where there's a truck and the keys were left in the truck."
And I just went back on, on his computer, and he said,
"This is the same address that came back to."
- NARRATOR: According to the officer,
Tommy's truck is currently sitting in an impound lot at
the Fort Worth Police Department.
- In a stroke of luck, Tommy's truck was recovered.
- MATTHEW: It had been left with keys running,
just roughly a mile away.
And the owner of the store thought that was unusual
that the keys were left in it.
So, he called, and it was impounded.
- NARRATOR: The details of the discovery
seem anything but coincidental.
- MATTHEW: The way it was found with the keys in the ignition.
I know, automatically, Tom and I were both kind of thinking,
"Okay, that's a little too convenient.
That's almost like somebody take this truck."
- You can kind of see where that idea came from.
And it appeared that this was going to be
a nice little curveball, we can give police.
So, whatever person takes the bait on this vehicle,
they're going to have a lot of explaining to do.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As Andrea is transported to the station
for her formal statement,
detectives stop by the impound lot to inspect Tommy's truck.
- THOMAS: There was, appeared to be
a lot in the bed of the truck.
There was a trashcan. It had a trash bag
and appeared to have some bloody items inside there.
- NARRATOR: Among the debris are large pieces of porcelain.
- It was immediately evident, okay,
that's going to be consistent with those small shards of what
looked like ceramic that were on the floor near Tommy's body.
- At that point, they realized
that those ceramic pieces were a toilet tank lid.
- I actually had to go back to make sure there wasn't
a toilet lid on that particular toilet.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As Detective O'Brien returns to the crime scene,
other investigators scour the cab of the truck.
There, they find something unusual.
- STEPHEN: There were a few items that were found.
One being a bus ticket.
The bus ticket was in the name of,
uh, a Eunice Rodriguez.
At this point, no one was able to figure out who Eunice was.
- NARRATOR: While investigators ponder this new lead,
Detective O'Brien reports his findings.
- He took a picture of the toilet, and there was no lid.
- STEPHEN: The heavy ceramic portion that you would lift up
to fix the toilet if you had to, that, they believed,
could've been used as a murder weapon.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up: Surprising details emerge
about Tommy Brown's love life.
- BILL: Basically, it looked like Tommy was kind of
juggling two women at once.
- She told Tommy that she was pregnant with his child.
- NARRATOR: And investigators track down Eunice Rodriguez.
- She had served ten years for robbery.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Within hours of finding 51-year-old Tommy Brown
brutally murdered inside his Fort Worth, Texas, home,
detectives sit down with the woman who found his body--
Tommy's sister, Andrea.
- Considering Andrea had come forward to us
with all of this information,
it would be unlikely that she would be a suspect.
- NARRATOR: According to Andrea, Tommy had a longtime girlfriend,
Connie Moreno, but she wasn't the only woman in Tommy's life.
- ANDREA: He met someone through a friend of his.
Tommy referred to her as his girlfriend.
- DEBORAH: He just said he had a new girl in his life
and that's what he called her.
"I-I have a new girl, and her name is Cristina."
- Connie and Tommy were on-again and off-again,
and very often when Connie and Tommy were off,
Cristina and Tommy were on, and vice versa.
- Basically, it looked like Tommy was kind of juggling
two women at once.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Then, Andrea drops a bombshell:
37-year-old Cristina's full name is
Eunice Cristina Rodriguez.
- They were able to discover that Eunice goes by
Cristina most often, and they were able to make
that connection that it was Cristina
that the bus ticket was purchased for.
- MATTHEW: That becomes important at that point.
Maybe Cristina might have some knowledge
or involvement in this.
And the more we learned about Cristina,
the more we felt like there's-- there's some red flags here.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Born in El Paso in 1976,
Eunice "Cristina" Rodriguez
was the second eldest of five children.
- ANGELICA: It's five of us. I'm the youngest.
My oldest sister, Gracie and Cristina,
that's from my dad's first relationship.
Cristina is, oh my gosh, she's a goofball, like she is so funny.
She was always laughing.
- NARRATOR: Over the years, Cristina worked several jobs
to make ends meet.
- She was somebody that really tried to live life.
Um, certainly she made some mistakes.
But, uh, at her core, I think, she was a pretty good person.
- NARRATOR: According to Andrea Brown,
Tommy met Cristina while she was serving
a ten-year stint in prison.
- He never said why she was in jail.
The only thing that we knew is that she was from El Paso.
- NARRATOR: Andrea says the pen-pal relationship began
in 2003, after a mutual friend
introduced Tommy and Cristina to one another.
- She would write, and she would call,
and I read some of the letters
and she came across as a real caring person.
- NARRATOR: When Tommy started dating Connie,
he confided in Cristina about their ups and downs,
and about his continued desire to start a family.
- ANDREA: He just longed at that point to have a child.
My brother talked to her about that.
And Cristina also talked to Connie and wrote Connie letters.
- NARRATOR: In 2011, the Texas prison system granted Cristina
an early release, and she visited Tommy in Fort Worth
whenever she could--
especially when he and Connie were on the outs.
- Cristina had filled that slot.
She kind of filled that void for him.
- NARRATOR: But Andrea tells detectives
that by the spring of 2013,
Tommy and Connie had committed to making things work.
In an effort to repay Tommy for his support
while she was in prison,
Cristina offered to help the couple start a family.
- She agreed that she would have a baby
for Tommy and Connie.
Because she really appreciated everything
that my brother had did for her.
He said that they were intimate once
for the sole purpose of having child.
- She told Tommy that she was pregnant with his child.
- ANDREA: He told me it was around
April of 2013
that she was expecting.
He was excited that he was going to be a dad.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: But Andrea says, Tommy's relationship with Connie
was crumbling, and she moved out of their home,
leading Andrea to assume one thing--
- The relationship was toxic.
I told them that I felt like it was Connie,
'cause he didn't have any enemies.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Just as the interview is wrapping up,
Andrea receives a bizarre text message.
- THOMAS: She said, "Hey, I just want to let you know
I just got a text message from Tommy."
- ♪
- It was a response to one of her previous
text messages asking where Tommy was.
He said, "Hey I'm going to El Paso, my girlfriend's pregnant,
what do you want?"
- ANDREA: I was shocked, because at that point,
I already know that he's been murdered.
- NARRATOR: Investigators seize the opportunity.
- THOMAS: I had Andrea go ahead and text his phone and say,
"Hey, it's no problem.
Just call me when you get back from El Paso."
- MATTHEW: We wanted to keep whoever had sent this message
in the dark, uh, about us discovering the crime scene.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: While Andrea is cleared to go home and wait for
a response, investigators get to work trying to track down
the two women in Tommy's life, starting with Connie.
- MATTHEW: We know that they're currently estranged.
We know that she potentially had a key to access his home,
or he would potentially allow her in.
- NARRATOR: Investigators try contacting Connie, to no avail.
- STEPHEN: If this was someone you called your boyfriend,
and he ends up being murdered horrifically, uh,
and you're not making yourself readily available to the police,
that was very interesting.
- NARRATOR: Efforts to locate Cristina also
come up empty-handed.
- I was trying to be as diligent as I could to at least talk to
Cristina and find out what she heard, what she knew.
It just pr-proved to be a difficult task to locate her.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: While officers fan out
in search of Connie and Cristina,
detectives speak with one of Tommy's neighbors,
who had reported seeing something suspicious at Tommy's
house around 11 p.m. on the night of September 5.
- Tommy had been seen last on the 5th,
which was two prior to Tommy's body being discovered.
- The neighbor related that he saw a female and a male,
uh, go into Tommy's home.
- MATTHEW: The man had been described as a black male.
He had longer hair, and that just--just possibly,
they could have been braids.
- NARRATOR: While the neighbor didn't recognize
the man or the woman, he is certain of one thing.
- The neighbors were very emphatic that this was not
Connie, because Connie was a short Hispanic female,
and this lady was much taller.
- NARRATOR: If the woman seen going into Tommy's house
wasn't Connie, investigators consider the next option:
Cristina Rodriguez.
- MATTHEW: The description was very, very similar.
That's giving us a pretty good definitive point to a suspect.
- NARRATOR: Detectives also take a closer look
at Cristina's past.
- I did a national criminal history on her,
and at that point, had seen that she had, uh,
served ten years for robbery.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators contact
the El Paso Police Department to learn more about the arrest.
- In 2002, when she was living in El Paso,
the family of an 82-year-old gentleman had put an ad
in the El Paso newspaper for a nurse.
And she answered it, right?
This 82-year-old gentleman was almost legally blind.
Um, he was almost deaf, and he really needed some help.
- NARRATOR: After just a few hours with Cristina on the job,
the elderly gentleman summoned his daughters in a panic.
- BILL: When the two daughters get there, ah,
he is tied up with a phone cord, he's been assaulted,
and the house has been ransacked.
That was what Cristina did.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Since her release from prison,
Cristina had landed herself in trouble again.
- THOMAS: There were two separate reports in 2013.
There was one in July, and there's one in August.
And it had to do with Tommy calling saying Cristina had
taken his wallet, had taken his TV.
I felt pretty confident that I at least need to look into
the wallet and any credit cards Tommy had.
So, I had returned to the house
and had started going through any paperwork to suggest
what kind of credit card or bank account he had.
And it was at that time, I was able to see that, uh, he had
uh, a debit card from the First National Bank.
- NARRATOR: Detectives secure a search warrant for Tommy's
financial records.
- Basically, what we know, Tommy's alive Thursday night
at 11:00 p.m., and then at 1:47 a.m.
on Friday morning, that debit card gets used
at a 7-Eleven in Ft. Worth.
- MATTHEW: Our goal was to try to find video with the time
the card is being utilized at that store,
and that was gonna give us our first picture.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Investigators track a killer...
- BILL: They run him and figure out,
"This is probably our suspect in all these surveillance videos."
- NARRATOR: And a twisted love triangle is exposed.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives in Fort Worth, Texas
have reason to believe whoever murdered Tommy Brown,
is still using his debit card.
- STEPHEN: One of Tommy's debit cards was used at a 7-Eleven,
uh, subsequent to his death.
- MATTHEW: We have a potential suspect of Cristina Rodriguez.
We have already got this report
that she had had stolen his bank cards in the past,
so could this be happening again?
- NARRATOR: Detectives waste no time obtaining footage from
the convenience store where Tommy's card was last used.
- MATTHEW: We see a tall black male, uh,
coming in to the store, and
he had a bandage wrapped around his hand.
That was consistent with our crime scene, too,
and the belief that somebody had injured themselves
in the crime scene.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: While the man's face is clear in the video,
detectives can't get a good look at his companion.
- MATTHEW: They were initially parked at the gas pumps
in a dark-colored vehicle.
I think you could see that
there was another passenger in the vehicle.
- NARRATOR: Investigators move on to the Dollar General where
the next charges appear on Tommy's card,
and their suspicions are confirmed.
- THOMAS: We had pulled up the video surveillance.
We were seeing this individual with a big old bandage around
his hands, and we were seeing Cristina.
You could make out clear as day that it was her.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Just as detectives make a positive ID on Cristina,
they finally track down the other woman in Tommy's life,
Connie Moreno.
- I was finally able to contact, uh,
Connie and I was able to interview her.
- STEPHEN: She was at a relative's
or something like that, uh, during the time period
where they believed Tommy was murdered.
They were able to eliminate her.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators now focus all of their efforts on
finding Cristina and her associate.
Two days after the discovery of Tommy's body,
detectives receive a tip from Tommy's employers.
- BILL: Deborah Grimes, got a text message from Tommy's phone
on September 9.
And the actual text message said, "Deborah,
"I won't be back no time soon.
"I don't know if you remember,
"I told you I was gonna be a father.
Well, my girl is in the hospital, and I'm low in cash."
- He texted, "I need you to do me a favor,
"I need you to get my pay and send it to me Western Union.
I need some money."
And then, I get a text that says,
"Don't send the money in my name,
because I don't have my ID."
- He said, "If you can send the money to my cousin,
his name is Braylon Ellis."
This is the first time that we hear the name, Braylon Ellis.
They run him, and they look at his drivers' license
and figure out,
"This is probably our suspect in all of these
surveillance videos."
- NARRATOR: Investigators immediately issue
arrest warrants for both Braylon and Cristina.
But first, they have to find them.
- The US Marshalls have an ability to ping a cell phone,
and they were able to tell that the cell phone was pinging
at a location in Snellville, Georgia,
which is just a little northeast of Atlanta.
- NARRATOR: The home belongs to Braylon's mother.
- BILL: The local police go in.
They take them into custody.
- ♪
- BILL: They completely lock down and freeze Braylon's
mother's house, so nobody can tamper with any evidence.
- THOMAS: When I got the information that they were
arrested, I was on a plane probably two hours later.
I had made contact with
the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department,
and they were able to assist me in obtaining
a search warrant.
- BILL: Detective O'Brien, when he goes into Braylon
and Cristina's room, right?
He searches the room, uh, and what does he do?
Detective O'Brien takes out his cell phone, calls Tommy's phone.
- THOMAS: I figured the phone was probably on, and so
I just called it. - [phone ringing]
- THOMAS: And then, I heard it ringing
basically in the back of the dresser.
- BILL: It was like the air went out of the room.
It was like, "Oh, my God.
This dead man's cell phone rings."
I mean, that is a damning piece of evidence
against Braylon and Cristina.
- NARRATOR: Tommy's phone isn't all they find.
- In the car that Braylon and Cristina were driving
was Tommy's wallet, his ID, his debit card.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: At the local police station,
Detective O'Brien attempts to interview Cristina.
- Cristina pretty much right away
invoked her right to have an attorney present,
and so, uh, I didn't have a conversation with her.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In another room, Braylon agrees to talk,
but he is anything but forthright.
- BILL: He just plays dumb.
And, by the way, he's sitting there
in front of two homicide detectives,
and he has stitches in his hand.
- NARRATOR: Investigators try a different route and begin asking
Braylon about his relationship with Cristina.
- Cristina and Braylon, uh,
had met a few months before the murder.
Uh, Braylon was actually taking a bus from Dallas
out to California.
He meets Cristina on the bus.
They chat, they exchange numbers,
and he goes on to California.
At some point, he comes back to Dallas and calls Cristina.
They do a long distance dating relationship.
He goes out to El Paso, and then he and Cristina
basically are living together.
- NARRATOR: Investigators continue to press Braylon.
- NARRATOR: Under pressure, Braylon begins to backtrack.
- NARRATOR: Braylon admits to knowing that Tommy and Cristina
once had a relationship, but claims Tommy was abusive.
- You know, he didn't confess, but it was definitely damning
that he starts to change his story during his interview.
- I think he was still all in for Cristina,
I think he was still under her spell.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
A master manipulator is exposed...
- THOMAS: She was telling Braylon that it was his baby,
she was telling Tommy that it was his baby.
Turns out that that was just some big con.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On September 10, 2013,
police in Fort Worth charge 37-year-old Cristina Rodriguez
and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Braylon Ellis,
with the murder of Tommy Brown.
- This is one of those rare investigations
where the evidence just keeps on giving.
There was always something popping up.
That's really why the investigation didn't stop.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Finally, in March of 2016,
investigators believe they have enough
to take Braylon Ellis to trial--
including one damning new piece of evidence.
- It takes months for DNA to get run.
It's--it's not like what you see on TV.
Now, we had the results of that.
We've got ceramic pieces
with Tommy Brown and Braylon Ellis' DNA on it.
- NARRATOR: It's enough for a Texas jury to quickly find
Braylon guilty of murder.
- He got a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
The judge, he told my son, he said, "You're going to get out,
but you're going to do some time."
I didn't like it. I was upset about it,
but one wrong decision can change your life forever.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Ten months later, in January of 2017,
Cristina's trial begins.
To help walk jurors through
what really happened on September 5, 2013,
prosecutors call a surprise witness:
Braylon Ellis.
- He came back without a deal for any reduction
in his sentence, uh, just to testify against Cristina,
because he thought it was the right thing to do.
- NARRATOR: Braylon explains to the jury
that he was deeply in love with Cristina
and was overjoyed when she shared
some exciting news with him.
- She told him that she was carrying his child.
- ♪
- THOMAS: Clearly, she was telling Braylon
that it was his baby,
she was telling Tommy, uh, that it was his baby.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: According to Braylon,
fatherhood wasn't all Cristina dangled over his head
just before the murder.
- Cristina made the allegation that, uh, Tommy had--
had hit on her and beat on her.
- BILL: This upsets Braylon because, you know,
one, he's in love with her.
Two, he thinks that she is carrying his child.
Three, now he's upset that his lady's been roughed up.
So, he was gonna go over there and beat Tommy up.
And so that was their original plan, and then head to Georgia.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Braylon claims while Tommy was out running an errand
on the night of September 5, Cristina used the spare key
from Tommy's mailbox to sneak him into Tommy's house.
- BILL: He hides in the bathroom, and Tommy comes home.
He hears Tommy coming down the hall.
What Braylon testifies to
is he is just panicking in the bathroom,
because he's supposed to rough this guy up.
He's looking around like, "Well, what can I use?"
He says he grabs the toilet tank lid,
and he times it perfectly that when Tommy gets to the bathroom,
he comes out, hits him over the head with it.
Braylon then testifies that he beats him
probably 10 to 13 times.
Tommy's on the ground; he's gasping.
Cristina comes in, hands him a pot from the kitchen and goes,
"Here, use this."
And so, he hits him on the head two or three times with the pot.
Then, he put the bag over Tommy's head.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Following the attack,
Cristina ordered Braylon to load Tommy's TV
into the back of his truck,
while she went back inside for Tommy's wallet.
- She's gonna steal what she can from him and she's gonna head
to Georgia with her new little boyfriend.
- ♪
- TWYLA: He was in love with her.
She had manipulated him to a high level.
And she had mastered manipulation.
- FREDERICK: Come to find out the girl was lying to my son.
She wasn't pregnant by my son,
and she wasn't pregnant with Mr. Brown's son.
She was telling both of them that.
I'm like, "Oh my God."
- THOMAS: It turns out that that was just some big con.
That she was never pregnant.
And it's like she was using that to be a victim.
- BILL: She went so far as to get on the internet and pull off
a photograph of an ultrasound to show Tommy.
- Her action just so sadistic,
even though the whole situation was sadistic.
Whatever story she fed him, he was in protection mode.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After Braylon's chilling testimony,
prosecutors have one more card to play.
- STEPHEN: There was a witness who turned out to be a fellow
cellmate of Cristina in the county jail,
uh, pending her trial.
- NARRATOR: According to the cellmate,
Cristina had revealed one additional detail
about her role in the crime.
- BILL: She said Tommy was still alive.
And she's just disgusted that Braylon, hasn't, you know,
finished Tommy off.
- STEPHEN: She said when Braylon couldn't finish the job,
she finished Tommy off.
And obviously, that's pretty devastating.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: The jury agrees.
On January 31, 2017,
they find Cristina Rodriguez guilty,
handing her the same sentence as Braylon.
- They both received a life sentence.
They will be eligible for parole around 2043.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: The decision leaves the lives of several families
forever changed.
- ANDREA: I feel she should have life
without the possibility of parole.
There is no other reason for her to do this
besides she's evil.
- ANGELICA: She's not a bad person
like a lot of people see her as.
She is remorseful.
She feels bad what happened to him.
- BILL: There was no evidence that Tommy was abusing her.
I think she's just a cold lady and just wanted him gone.
- ♪