1 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:20,640 [man] It was a whirlwind relationship. 2 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,080 We were at bars five, six nights a week. 3 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:31,160 We had a lot of fun. 4 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:34,640 We used to go out and play darts and shoot pool every night. 5 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,840 I never meant for her to get hurt. I loved her. 6 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:08,360 My name's Charles Thompson. 7 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:12,960 I've been on death row for 18 years, 19 years altogether on this case. 8 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:18,040 I was convicted of capital murder, double murder statute. 9 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:20,920 And it was girlfriend and, uh... and another man. 10 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:35,440 [man 1] And I walked up, I fired one shot. 11 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:37,880 And as I got closer, I fired one more shot. 12 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,720 [man 2] She was shot through the cheek and it stopped in her jaw. 13 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:48,240 [man 3] I drove him around behind a desk and I stabbed him approximately 25 times. 14 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:54,360 [man 4] I couldn't believe it. 15 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,680 I just thought I can't believe I just killed somebody. 16 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,720 [man 5] I don't feel bad about it. [laughs] 17 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:12,439 [man 6] I started stabbing him, stabbing the guy on the couch. 18 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:10,520 How's that? 19 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:14,040 Can you hear me good? 20 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:15,680 Okay? 21 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,760 Now I can hear better. [laughs] 22 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,480 I first met Dennise on my birthday. 23 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:34,440 There was a little chemistry right away. 24 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,360 We sat around and drank some beers and got to talking. 25 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:43,200 You know, we... we just hit it off. 26 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:48,240 I had spent the night with her that night. 27 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,320 In a matter of two weeks later, I moved in with her. 28 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,760 She was always smiling, always laughing, just carefree. 29 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,760 She had been divorced, and she was 38 years old 30 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:07,440 and having all the fun she "missed out on." 31 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:09,240 That's what she used to say. 32 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:12,760 The lady could shoot pool, she could shoot darts 33 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:16,320 and she was the life of the party. 34 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:24,760 Here I was, 27 years old, you know, 35 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,240 and, you know, I thought she hung the moon. 36 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:29,160 I-- I was in love with her. 37 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:35,240 We had a couple spats. 38 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:41,080 There was one time, St. Patrick's Day, she hit me and I hit her. 39 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:43,720 And I regretted it. Man, I regretted it. 40 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:47,000 But, uh, I was drunk and she hit me, 41 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:50,440 and I just lost my temper and slapped her a couple times. 42 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:56,160 She had a black eye and, uh, I think her lip was bruised. 43 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:01,120 Yeah, it was part of my case records, too. It's nothing I was proud of. 44 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:04,120 It was the first time I'd ever hit a woman in my life. 45 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:10,320 We were very much in love and back together when this happened. 46 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:13,800 And the prosecution tried to portray me as a disgruntled ex-boyfriend. 47 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:15,280 That-- that was not the case. 48 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:29,040 My first inclination that she was seeing Darren 49 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,000 was when she told me the weekend before this case happened 50 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:35,240 that she went and slept with the bartender at Kelly's. 51 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,360 I had met him several times, 52 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:44,040 but I never had a clue that he was seeing my girl. 53 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:47,160 And I should have snapped when we were in the bar. 54 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:49,000 He was giving us free rounds of drinks. 55 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:51,800 And that didn't-- it didn't occur to me, you know, why. 56 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:55,360 I just thought, "Wow, this guy's being really cool to us," you know? 57 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:59,520 Apparently, she'd been in there for lunch several times and was already seeing him. 58 00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:07,800 [Thompson] The night this happened, 59 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:11,160 we went out to the bar, the usual Wednesday night spot, 60 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:15,560 which was to play darts and, uh, steak and potato night for five bucks. 61 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,400 My friend testified at my trial about us closing the bar 62 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:28,960 as we always did on Wednesday night and then coming home, 63 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:34,960 and, uh, Darren calling at 2:33 o'clock in the morning 64 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,080 'cause he wanted to be with her again. 65 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,240 We ended up getting into a fight. 66 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,360 The sheriff came and told us both to leave. 67 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:09,440 I came back at 6:00 in the morning to get my stuff, to go to work, 68 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,520 and, uh, the gentleman was there in bed with her. 69 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:18,920 So we got into a verbal altercation, and one thing led to another. 70 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:21,840 And, uh, from-- from what I can recollect 71 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:26,320 is he grabbed a French knife out of the kitchen block 72 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:28,200 and he began threatening me with it. 73 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:33,320 The pistol came out. 74 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,520 I believe I had gotten the pistol outta her closet. 75 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:40,000 This gentleman threatened me with the knife, told me I need to leave. 76 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:42,320 And I-- I drew down on him and I told him, 77 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:45,360 "Hey, you know, you need to put the knife down." 78 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,600 So we had pretty much a stand-off at that point. 79 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,480 Now what happened next is, it's-- it's kind of a blur to me. 80 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:58,920 I was still hung over and still a little drunk. 81 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,360 But from what I remember, he came at me. 82 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:05,720 If you look at the testimony of the medical examiner, 83 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:10,560 the first shot was some over six to eight feet away. 84 00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:12,240 He was coming at me. 85 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,800 The second shot was three feet or less. 86 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:16,080 [gunshot pops] 87 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:19,000 It's just a big blur after that. 88 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,320 We're tumbling around and we're fighting over the pistol. 89 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:28,320 It happened so fast. 90 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:29,560 [gunshot] 91 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:31,720 I-- I remember us fighting 92 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:35,560 and the gun going off, and she got hit. 93 00:08:36,159 --> 00:08:37,399 [gunshot] 94 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:40,840 [thumps] 95 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,720 She was shot through the cheek and it stopped in her jaw. 96 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:51,600 She got in the middle of us fighting and got shot in the mouth. 97 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:04,160 And then I checked her and I thought she was dead. I picked up the phone and called 911. It didn't go through. 98 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:13,480 I ran, I left. I freaked out. 99 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:39,680 [Thompson] After the crime happened, 100 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,760 I went to a friend's house and got bandaged up, 101 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,840 and I passed out from shock. 102 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:50,200 I got up in the morning a few hours later and it was on the TV. 103 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:54,960 And my friend was watching it, 104 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:58,200 and she told me, "Hey, you know, I think that's you on TV." 105 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:00,160 And I started watching it, and I seen her. 106 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,280 I said, "Oh, my God, she's alive." And I started crying. 107 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:07,440 They had her coming out 108 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,160 with the bandage on her face, sitting up on the-- on the stretcher 109 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:13,240 before they put her in the ambulance. 110 00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:19,920 And, uh, you know, I called my dad and I told him, "Hey," you know-- 111 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,120 He-- right away, he told me, "The police have been looking for you. 112 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:25,480 They got you 'armed and dangerous.'" 113 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:26,680 And I said, "Okay." 114 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:30,120 He said, "Tell me where you're at, son. You know, go turn yourself in." 115 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:31,040 So I did. 116 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:18,320 [monitor beeping] 117 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:21,520 [Thompson] They told her, you know, she was gonna be all right. 118 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:25,920 This was routine surgery to them. 119 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,880 They waited six hours to take her in. It wasn't life-threatening. 120 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:33,840 When they took her into pre-surgery, 121 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:37,680 they repositioned her on her side, and they checked with the fiber optic scope 122 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:40,280 to make sure everything was in the right place. 123 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,680 Everybody left the operating room to go scrub for this surgery, 124 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:47,240 and she lost air. 125 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:51,240 They ran in there, and did an emergency trachea, 126 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,960 hit her with the paddles and brought her back to life. 127 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:56,560 But it was too late. She was already brain dead. 128 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:00,840 -[monitor beeping] -[oxygen hissing] 129 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:03,160 [Thompson] She sat in a hospital room for four days 130 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:05,960 with a DNR-- Do Not Resuscitate order. 131 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:37,200 They took me down to court seven days after this happened. 132 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,240 I said, "I don't have court." They said, "Yeah, you do. Come on." 133 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:42,720 So I went down to court and they told me, 134 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:46,760 "Look, we're dropping the manslaughter and the aggravated assault charges." 135 00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:50,800 And I looked at the bailiff and asked him, "What does this mean?" And they said, "We're introducing capital murder charges." 136 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,240 And I looked at the bailiff and he says, "It means the death penalty now, boy." 137 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,120 I'm like, "Death penalty? What are you talking about?" 138 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:04,280 He said, "Yeah, you're charged under double murder statute." 139 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:06,080 I said, "I didn't kill her. The hospital did." 140 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:08,360 I had already talked to my family on the phone 141 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:10,720 and heard that there was complications, 142 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:14,160 that the hospital had suffocated her. 143 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:18,320 I was devastated. 144 00:13:20,680 --> 00:13:23,520 The family sued the hospital for wrongful death. 145 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,400 I understand it was a very grueling time for them. 146 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:33,640 Yeah, it was pretty sad. 147 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,800 I loved the lady. You know, I still think about her every day 148 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:40,280 and why I'm here. 149 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:43,600 And I wish that she would have lived to testify about this 150 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:45,800 'cause she would have told them what happened. 151 00:14:11,680 --> 00:14:14,200 [man] Doctors hate lawyers and they hate to testify, 152 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,920 especially if they think they've got a dog in the hunt. 153 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,840 I mean, they got a jillion dollars worth of insurance. 154 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:22,720 It ain't gonna cost them a dime. 155 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:24,640 They can stand there and admit they killed her, 156 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:26,920 and it wouldn't have cost them a penny. 157 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,720 And-- and nobody in the medical community would care. 158 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:35,200 My name is Ellis McCullough, 159 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:39,160 and I was Charles Victor Thompson's original defense attorney. 160 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:45,600 The first trial, I thought, 161 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:50,960 hinged entirely on the interpretation of the medical evidence. 162 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:56,440 That Hayslip, uh, the cause of her death, uh, 163 00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:00,680 was by her treatment at the hospital. 164 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:10,280 The state's insistence that the standard was, 165 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:16,160 "What if the victim had had no medical care whatsoever?" 166 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,120 Which I consider to be ludicrous. 167 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,160 Because there's almost no injury that can cause death 168 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:28,200 if left totally unattended. 169 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:34,320 I think the standard ought to be whatever the situation is. 170 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:38,160 She didn't die at the scene. 171 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,440 She didn't bleed to death at the scene. They got her there. 172 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:47,720 It was a nasty wound. I won't take anything away from that. 173 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:53,640 But they had everything there to save her life and knew how to do it. 174 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:55,600 It just didn't work out. 175 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:01,920 In my opinion, with ordinary medical care, 176 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,640 she would have survived. 177 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:35,560 [man] You know, people make mistakes. People do stupid stuff. 178 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:42,600 I think he just-- fit of rage and jealousy. 179 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:47,040 And "If I can't have her, nobody's gonna have her" type of thing. Uh, my name's Michael Donaghy, and I am Dennise's brother. 180 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,600 That picture of her leaning over, 181 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,480 you know, sitting up on a gurney and leaning forward 182 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:12,160 so she wouldn't choke to death on her own blood, 183 00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,520 -it was just horrific. -[monitor beeping] 184 00:17:16,599 --> 00:17:19,319 [Donaghy] That's etched in my mind forever. 185 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,400 I talked to a doctor down there 186 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:29,720 and he said, you know, 187 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:33,320 "She's hurt bad, but it's, you know, we're gonna take her back in a little bit, 188 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:34,840 we're gonna clean up the wound." 189 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:43,120 And so, I went to the rest of the family and told them everything's gonna be okay. 190 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:44,920 She's gonna survive. 191 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,600 She's probably gonna have a speech impediment 192 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,320 and she's gonna have scarring on her face. 193 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:56,440 About eight, ten hours later, 194 00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,080 it went from everything being okay 195 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,720 to, you know, she's pretty much brain dead. 196 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:11,360 And that hit me like a ton of bricks, 197 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:15,400 'cause, you know, I felt responsible for telling everybody it was okay. 198 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:19,480 I don't know what happened. 199 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,640 But, you know, something happened and-- [sighs] 200 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:27,040 One thing I will say is that doctors cover doctors. 201 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:29,200 They'll-- they'll cover each other. 202 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:40,560 [man] Doctors are not magicians. They're not all perfect. 203 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:42,400 They're human beings. 204 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,560 They've had more training, generally speaking, 205 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,080 than the man or the woman in the street. 206 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:52,240 But they're still human beings. 207 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:02,800 I'm Paul Radelat. I am a pathologist by profession. The thrust of the defense was that this was not a lethal wound, 208 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:16,080 and she died because this unfortunate event took place in the hospital. 209 00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:20,160 It was my role to substantiate that idea 210 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:25,080 as best I could within the bounds of integrity. 211 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:32,680 The bullet penetrated what was essentially the upper airway 212 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:38,920 and created bleeding right on top of the entrance to the windpipe. 213 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:41,520 That was a primary concern of the physicians, 214 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:43,800 and that's the way they acted. 215 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:08,440 [Dr. Radelat] I don't think the doctors covered up. 216 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:14,320 Maybe I'm being naive in that regard. I think they were trying to do their best. 217 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:19,960 It's easy to make a mistake. 218 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:24,840 And I don't know if they made one or not, but this is a very difficult situation. 219 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:31,680 I'm not sure any "blame," as I understand the word, 220 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:37,120 should be apportioned to the medical personnel. 221 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:40,200 They intended no evil. 222 00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:45,880 The shooter, I think we can safely say, intended evil. 223 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:20,000 [Thompson on recording] Yeah, it was pretty sad. You know, I loved the lady. 224 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,280 You know, I still think about her every day and why I'm here. 225 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,240 I wish that she would have lived to testify about this. 226 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:28,040 She would've told them what happened. 227 00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:29,480 She sat in a hospital room 228 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,000 with nothing but an IV for fluids for four days, 229 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:34,560 with a DNR-- Do Not Resuscitate order. 230 00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:36,040 I didn't kill her. The hospital did. 231 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:38,440 I had already talked to my family on the phone 232 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:41,600 and heard that they had suffocated her, 233 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,000 that there was complications, that she had been in a coma. 234 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:47,680 [sighs] Ahem. 235 00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:51,200 Where do I begin with that one? 236 00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:59,920 Well, she's not in the hospital if you don't shoot her. 237 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:02,400 Um... 238 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:06,920 I mean, it's an easy excuse to make. 239 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:09,960 It's an easy one to blame, blame the hospital. 240 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:14,560 So, I would... I would, in his situation, as well. 241 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,440 However, ultimately though, 242 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:21,320 the truth is, is that you held a gun to somebody's face 243 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:22,840 and you pulled the trigger. 244 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:25,520 And the reason why we know it was held close 245 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,760 because there are powder burns on her cheek. 246 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,600 My name is Wade Hayslip. 247 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:37,440 Dennise was my mom. 248 00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:45,720 My mom was a, uh, very kindhearted individual. 249 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:50,360 Uh, she taught me everything I needed to know about compassion. 250 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:55,040 I would hope that Chuck comprehends. 251 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:57,880 I hope that he understands the weight of... 252 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,800 of, uh, the domino effect that he's started, 253 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:08,200 the impact that this has caused. 254 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:12,640 I feel it every day. 255 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:17,400 [Thompson] From what I remember, Darren came at me. 256 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,600 Yeah. I shot once, twice, and then we fought. 257 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,080 And then, I-- the rest of it, it's just a blur to me. 258 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:27,320 It's "just a blur"? 259 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,920 He shot once, twice. He fired five times. 260 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:35,280 And when he was on the ground face down, put a bullet into the back of his head. 261 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:37,720 Okay. 262 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:41,080 Um, how is that a blur? That's pretty clear. 263 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:42,800 It's pretty vivid. 264 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:45,640 And intentional. 265 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:49,080 [Thompson] I believe I'd gotten the pistol out of her closet. 266 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:55,000 You know, I-I remember us fighting and the gun going off, and she got hit. 267 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,360 I can't-- I don't remember exactly how it all happened. 268 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:06,080 It's... 269 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,480 [sighs] 270 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,280 He didn't go into detail about how the door got broken into, 271 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:20,960 which the door frame was smashed. 272 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:27,640 Uh, and also the encounter happened, uh, in the living room and in the kitchen. 273 00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:33,880 So I don't know how he would have got into the closet to do that. 274 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:38,840 I feel like this is like a five-year-old 275 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,040 when you caught them doing something wrong, 276 00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:43,760 but they continually maintain that they didn't do it, 277 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,000 uh, even though you literally just saw them do it. 278 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:48,880 I feel like that, it's... 279 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:51,720 The rest of the world knows. 280 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,080 But for whatever reason, you're gonna stick to this lie. 281 00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,560 [flutters] 282 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,320 [woman] The night that the murder took place, 283 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:22,200 we had all been here at Bimbo's-- Dennise, Chuck and I, 284 00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:26,240 playing darts and doing steak night. Normal night. 285 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:35,120 My name is Missy Cook, and we're at Bimbo's in Houston, Texas. 286 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,320 It's your local watering hole. 287 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:46,960 Basically an icon dive bar that's been here for decades. 288 00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,760 Dennise was so freaking incredible. 289 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:56,640 She was one of these people that you met, 290 00:25:56,840 --> 00:25:59,440 and the minute you met her and you started talking to her, 291 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:03,320 five minutes into the conversation, you felt like you've known her forever. 292 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,160 She was your sister, she was your aunt, 293 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,600 she was your best friend, she was your childhood playmate. 294 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:15,280 She just had this personability that you-- you just felt right at home. 295 00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:22,400 Dennise and Chuck seemed like a very odd couple to me. 296 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:24,960 One, because of his age. He was younger. 297 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:30,800 I can't really say I remember the first time that I met him. 298 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:35,080 Because, you know, in the bar business, you got 50 people in your face. 299 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:39,280 If I had to speculate about me and my age and the timeframe, 300 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:41,560 I thought, "Damn, he's cute." 301 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:47,080 But I think, also, that the other side of that was I realized very quickly, 302 00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,960 "There's-- something's not right with that one. Keep an eye on him." 303 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:58,480 I did have her come in to the bar one time with a black eye late at night 304 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,800 and talk to me and was like, "Look, this is what he did." 305 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,800 And the bar was dark. I was like, "What are you talking about?" 306 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:08,360 She's like, "Look, I've got a lot of makeup on, but..." 307 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:10,520 I was like, "Holy shit, what are you doing? 308 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:12,080 What are you doing with this guy? 309 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:16,400 Get away from him. He's a loose cannon. He drinks too much, he's doing cocaine. 310 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:18,360 Get away from this guy." 311 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,040 And she's like, "I know. I need to, I need to, I need to." 312 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,320 -[bottles clanking] -[indistinct chatter] 313 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:32,600 [Cook] I was uneasy 314 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:39,240 because I knew Dennise was trying to set boundaries with Chuck. 315 00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:44,800 Who knew this was gonna happen? [crickets chirping] 316 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:03,920 [man] We're outside of the crime scene, actually. 317 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,960 Dennise lived in this subdivision behind us. 318 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:14,960 My name is Jim Kelly. 319 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:18,200 I owned, uh, a restaurant 320 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,280 where Darren was working as a bartender for me that night. 321 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,960 My understanding was that Dennise was through with Chuck. 322 00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:31,240 As a matter of fact, I know she was through with Chuck 323 00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:33,360 because she told me herself that she was done. 324 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,160 Oh, she had dumped Chuck because he was-- remember-- I remember her saying, "He was just a creep." 325 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,200 And then she met Darren. And they were the exact opposite. 326 00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,720 If you could put this guy here and this guy here, 327 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:48,240 you got an achiever and you got a loser. 328 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,440 Darren was very outgoing, he was very friendly. 329 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,520 He had a great smile, and... 330 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,040 you know, and he was going places. 331 00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,240 They'd only been together just a few short weeks 332 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:05,240 when this happened. 333 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,760 That night, Darren was working as my bartender, 334 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:16,880 and he called me up and asked me... 335 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,240 you know, he said that Chuck had threatened Dennise 336 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:21,800 and wanted to go over to the place and see, 337 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,400 you know, protect her if-- if he showed up. 338 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:26,680 And I said, "Okay, go ahead." 339 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:30,920 Uh, which, you know, to this day, I-- I regret that decision. 340 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,920 Darren went over, 341 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,680 and they had a physical confrontation. 342 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:47,440 Darren whooped him, from what I understand. 343 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,640 And then he, uh... he said, "Chuck, you know, this is stupid 344 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,640 'cause she's not gonna date you, she's dating me. 345 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:57,840 And, uh, will you drink a beer with me?" 346 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,200 This is what he told me on the phone. 347 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,800 Chuck agreed. And they talked things out. 348 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,160 After the confrontation with Chuck, 349 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,320 Darren called me and he felt really good about what had happened. 350 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,120 He felt like, you know, Chuck and him had had an agreement, 351 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,800 and he felt like that, you know, that it was over 352 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:19,480 and that Chuck was gonna go his way 353 00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:21,280 and Dennise and Darren were gonna go his way. 354 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:25,400 And obviously, that didn't happen. 355 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:34,000 You know, my understanding is that Chuck left 356 00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,640 and he came back, uh, knocked down the door. 357 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:41,000 And, uh, Darren answered the door and he, uh, just shot him in the chest. 358 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:42,840 [gunshot] 359 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,600 Then walked around, and shot him in the back of the head. 360 00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:47,120 [gunshot] 361 00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:52,160 And then proceeded to chase, uh, Dennise around the apartment 362 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:55,520 and, uh, caught her and blew the whole front of her face off. 363 00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:56,800 [gunshot] 364 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,400 When I got here, Dennise was still here. 365 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,280 They were-- they were actually life-flighting her out of here. 366 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,880 Um, Darren, uh, was just inside the door. 367 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,920 Um, I could-- I could see him laying on the ground. 368 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:25,480 And the sheriff said, you know, "He's dead. He's gone." 369 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,440 And I... I just turned away. 370 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,960 You know, in retrospect, now knowing what happened, 371 00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:44,320 what type of a person does it take to shake someone's hand, go away, 372 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:48,920 and then come back hours later and just murder two people? 373 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:52,040 How-- what type of a person can do that? 374 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:08,960 [faint sirens whooping] 375 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,440 [Rodgers] This is where he's kicking in the door, right? 376 00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:34,000 Yeah, he splintered the door here. 377 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:41,000 I remember this being shown, uh, during the original trial. 378 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:46,960 My name is Harrell Rodgers, 379 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:51,520 and I was a juror in the trial of Charles Thompson 380 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,840 for the capital murder of two people. 381 00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:06,160 We didn't see a lot of these pictures of the damage done to Dennise. 382 00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,840 And really, I don't remember this 383 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:14,040 being, uh, a large part of the deliberations of the jury. 384 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,200 The jurors, I think, had pretty well accepted the fact 385 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:23,680 that if he had not shot her in the face like this, 386 00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:25,320 uh, she would not have died. 387 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,320 And so, he was guilty of taking her life. 388 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:37,160 Our primary issue was whether this guy was a continuing threat to society. 389 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,000 And there were other things that came up in the course of the trial 390 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:46,360 that convinced us that this guy was really a very dangerous person. 391 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,680 One of the most striking things in the trial 392 00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,560 was the testimony of Diane Zernia. 393 00:34:10,199 --> 00:34:12,159 [Thompson] It happened so fast. 394 00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:15,040 I remember us fighting 395 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,640 and the gun going off, and she got hit. 396 00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:24,600 She got in the middle of us fighting and got shot in the mouth. 397 00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:29,000 And then I checked her and I thought she was dead. 398 00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,880 I ran, I left. I freaked out. 399 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:41,000 [Rodgers] Uh, these are not the facts that Diane Zernia presented at trial. 400 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:45,640 The testimony was that in telling Diane 401 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:48,759 how Dennise Hayslip got shot, 402 00:34:49,159 --> 00:34:52,159 he said that he said to Dennise, 403 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:55,000 "I can shoot you, too, bitch," 404 00:34:55,080 --> 00:35:00,040 and put a pistol up to her jaw and pulled the trigger. 405 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,600 Diane was the most frightened person I've ever seen 406 00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:15,280 uh, on... on a stand, uh, or anywhere else. 407 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:19,000 I mean, she was a very thin lady to begin with 408 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,840 and she was just pale. 409 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:26,440 Her eyes were as big as a silver dollar and she was scared to death. 410 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,320 She was frightened of this guy. 411 00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:48,520 [cassette clicks] 412 00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:03,160 [man on recording] Okay, today's date is, uh, July 7th, 1998. 413 00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:06,480 The time is 5:45 p.m. 414 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,760 I'm gonna be walking across to make contact with a Charles Thompson, 415 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,800 reference to a solicitation for capital murder. 416 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:18,720 -[gate opening] -[muffled footsteps] 417 00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:20,160 [man] Charles Thompson? 418 00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:21,880 [Thompson] Hey, dude. 419 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:23,400 -[man] You're Thompson? -Yeah. 420 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,000 [man] Okay. I've been waiting about 10 minutes. 421 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,040 How long does it take to get y'all here? 422 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,720 -[Thompson] Sometimes it takes a while. -[man] Okay. 423 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:34,040 Uh, well, I tell you, I'm not too crazy about having to come to jail. 424 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:35,760 You know? I don't think that's cool... 425 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,960 [Hayslip] Entrapment, I believe, is, uh, the technical term, 426 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:42,480 an individual was sent undercover into his jail cell 427 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:47,400 and was able to, um, secure information from Chuck. 428 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,640 [Thompson] I was reading the paper today. 429 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:51,880 In order for a grand jury to give an indictment, 430 00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,640 they usually pull their witnesses in for testimony. There's a witness in this case I need you to take care of. 431 00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,240 [man] Okay, when you-- when you say "take care of," uh... 432 00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:05,480 [man] I thought-- I thought this guy, Max, was gonna kill her? 433 00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,400 [Thompson] He's fucking me around, so he didn't do it. 434 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,800 I've already given this Max guy some money and he fucked me over. 435 00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:12,760 [man] How much have you given? 436 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:15,520 [Thompson] A hundred and twenty-five. Like a down payment. 437 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,200 [man] Is this that girl you said you wanted to kill? 438 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,080 -[Thompson] Yeah. -All right, uh... 439 00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,640 [Thompson] I need you to get rid of her. She's the state's witness. 440 00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:25,120 -She's the only witness they've got. -[man] Okay. 441 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:29,640 How hard would it be for me to find this chick to go ahead and knock her off? 442 00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:32,560 [Thompson] Not hard. Here's her address right here. 443 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:33,520 You got a pen? 444 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:37,440 [man] No. I can remember it. Okay, let's do this, then. 445 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:42,920 So, Thompson tells him, "I need you to kill the witnesses, 446 00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,280 the-- the people to whom I have confessed." 447 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:52,640 You're sitting in a jury and what do you hear? 448 00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:57,800 Drunken jerk comes into a house, 449 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:01,480 kills one guy, shoots another one who subsequently dies, 450 00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:05,680 admits to it and then tries to get the witnesses killed. 451 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:07,800 Do you care about anything else? 452 00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:10,080 -[Thompson] Hell, yeah. -What are we talking about? 453 00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:12,160 -How much? -[Thompson] Name your price. 454 00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:14,600 [man] All right. Well, if you've got the address, 455 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:16,480 okay, I'll kill her for 1500. 456 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,760 Okay, I've gotta-- I've gotta memorize this now. 457 00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:20,920 [indistinct chatter] 458 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,440 [man] Diane Zernia? Z-E-R-N... 459 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,920 Diane Zernia. Diane, Diane, Diane Zernia. 460 00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:29,920 So, where's this located at? Which is that? 461 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,360 [Thompson] [bleeps] neighborhood. It's off [bleeps]. 462 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:34,360 [man] Okay, I know it. 463 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:36,720 [Thompson] Here, it's a Victorian-style house 464 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,040 and the mailbox is black-and-white spotted, 465 00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:40,240 painted like a cow. 466 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,560 She's about 48, 50 years old. 467 00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:45,320 She's a mother. She's got a 14-year-old daughter. 468 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:50,680 [man] Okay. And when you get out now, it's 1500 bucks. 469 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,000 -[Thompson] Not a problem. -All right? 470 00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,120 [man] I'm gonna come after you if you don't pay me. 471 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:57,320 I'll-- I'll pay you, man. I give you my word. 472 00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:58,240 [man] Okay, the bitch is dead. 473 00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:00,560 [Thompson] Only thing a man's got in this world is his word. 474 00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:02,640 [man] Yeah, that's it. So stand on it, all right? 475 00:39:02,720 --> 00:39:04,640 -[Thompson] No problem, buddy. -All right. [man] Later. I'm outta here. 476 00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:08,520 [player stops] 477 00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:17,280 [Rodgers] This was, uh, a real turning point for me. 478 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:20,240 We thought a lot about the fact 479 00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:26,440 that if somebody had been successful in carrying out this murder for him, 480 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:29,720 he would have had no remorse whatsoever that we could see. 481 00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,600 He would have been elated to get rid of her. 482 00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:40,040 This is the first time I started thinking about, "Wait a minute. 483 00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:45,360 Maybe life in jail is not the right decision for this guy." 484 00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:50,400 That this was a guy capable of doing enormous evil. 485 00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:38,080 [woman] I don't know how you ever murder somebody just in the moment. 486 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:39,920 I don't care how angry. 487 00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:42,920 I don't know. Some people have that in them, though. 488 00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:49,480 My name is Kristen Merttens. I was the foreman on the jury 489 00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,240 for Charles Victor Thompson's retrial. 490 00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,640 We were not deciding guilt or innocence, we were deciding his punishment-- 491 00:41:00,720 --> 00:41:02,200 whether or not to give him life 492 00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:06,720 or sentence him again to the death penalty. 493 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,600 The defense did target pretty heavily 494 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,640 that she had died six days later in the hospital. 495 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,120 To me, that was irrelevant. Um, he had shot her in the face. 496 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,880 And he did murder somebody first. 497 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,320 I think Darren was lost in the case. 498 00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:37,000 I don't think that his death was brought up as much as Dennise's was. 499 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:41,120 And I feel bad for his family. 500 00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:49,640 I wholeheartedly believe that he went there to kill Darren 501 00:41:49,720 --> 00:41:51,480 and he went there to kill Dennise. 502 00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:55,080 Darren was more of a hands-off, 503 00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,400 "I just want to take him out of the picture." 504 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:02,960 And I think he made it very personal when he killed Dennise. 505 00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:21,120 [Merttens] I think for somebody like Chuck, 506 00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:26,400 he's narcissistic, he really enjoys the attention. 507 00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:29,720 I think if he were to have a life sentence, 508 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,600 it would be a gift to him because of his personality 509 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:35,840 and because of his makeup. 510 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,680 I distinctly remember after the verdict was read 511 00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,280 and we were back in the deliberation room, 512 00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:49,640 the judge comes in and speaks with us, the prosecution does, et cetera. 513 00:42:49,720 --> 00:42:51,720 And I remember asking the question, 514 00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:56,160 "Is there any possible way, you know, he's gonna be able to get out? 515 00:42:56,240 --> 00:42:59,040 You know, my name's public, et cetera." There's always a concern. 516 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:02,320 The judge says, "Oh, that's ridiculous. No, he's on death row now." 517 00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:05,960 And then four days later, I find out that he escaped. 518 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,800 [Hayslip] "Search goes nationwide for escaped Texas inmate." 519 00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,040 This little snippet right here. 520 00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:44,800 [Hayslip] I was at work and I, uh, got a call in the parking lot. 521 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:47,560 Believe it was somebody from the district attorney's office 522 00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:51,320 was informing me that-- that Charles Thompson had escaped. 523 00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:52,880 Did I feel safe? 524 00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,840 You know, would I feel better with any type of, um, police escort? 525 00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:58,320 That type of thing. 526 00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:02,160 And, uh, I said no. I-I didn't necessarily feel threatened. 527 00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,040 "To many death row inmates, Charles Victor Thompson 528 00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,720 who walked out the front door of the Harris County Jail 529 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,160 and was free for four days before his re-capture in Louisiana 530 00:44:13,240 --> 00:44:16,840 will remain a manipulative, selfish, directionless person 531 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:20,200 who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend." 532 00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:29,400 You know, the one thing that stood out [soft chuckle] about this 533 00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:35,040 is that he goes to this great plot to escape... 534 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:38,520 and succeeds. 535 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,840 And then he gets caught 'cause he got drunk at a liquor store, 536 00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:47,760 or gas station, or some type of convenience store in Louisiana. 537 00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:51,920 You're telling me that he hopped on a train, did all this stuff, 538 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:56,240 managed to walk out of a jail, but he gets drunk and they catch him? 539 00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,000 At that moment, I go, "What an idiot." 540 00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:06,120 But, I-- you know, maybe that's not fair, 541 00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:08,000 because I wouldn't know... 542 00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:12,560 I don't know what it's like to be on the run. 543 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,560 And, um, I don't know what it's like to be in jail 544 00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:19,120 for, at that point, ten years. 545 00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:26,680 [chains jangling] 546 00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,400 [Hayslip] It doesn't surprise me at all that he was able 547 00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:30,880 to talk his way out of anything. 548 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,440 -[keys jangling] -[door lock clicking] 549 00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:37,120 He was charming, and cunning, and very manipulative. 550 00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,320 Chuck is quite the artist at manipulation. 551 00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:45,160 [silent] Thank you. 552 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:07,160 Hello. 553 00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:09,400 I'm doing good. 554 00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:12,560 No surprises today? 555 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:15,800 [laughs] 556 00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:19,200 Well, my life's an open book. [laughs] 557 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:26,560 Charles Victor Thompson walked out the front door of the Harris County Jail 558 00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:29,920 and was free for four days before his recapture in Louisiana. 559 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:36,000 Our primary issue was whether this guy was a continuing threat to society. 560 00:46:37,720 --> 00:46:38,720 [chuckles] 561 00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:42,200 I think I kinda debunked "future threat to society." I was running around in the free world for four days. 562 00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:50,200 I walked past little old ladies in front of-- of shopping centers 563 00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,360 getting out of their cars, I didn't carjack them. 564 00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:56,200 I didn't rob anybody, I didn't assault anybody, 565 00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:58,240 I didn't hurt anybody. 566 00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,960 But if you listen to any capital death penalty trial, 567 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,480 they-- they drill it into the jury's head, "He's a future threat. He'll kill again." 568 00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:13,080 My understanding was that Dennise was through with Chuck. 569 00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,360 As a matter of fact, I know she was through with Chuck 570 00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:17,520 because she told me herself that she was done. 571 00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:21,800 And that was even before she started dating Darren. 572 00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:26,360 Yeah, that sounds right. I'm sure she did tell him that. 573 00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:29,760 But, you know, we broke up, got back together, broke up, 574 00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:33,080 got back together, and dated other people. We had that... 575 00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:37,000 I don't know what you call it. Couldn't leave each other alone? 576 00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:39,680 We kept coming back to each other. 577 00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:43,160 Who knows? She probably would have come and visited me in prison. 578 00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:45,680 She was that kind of lady. 579 00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:52,360 If I was intentionally going to do this, as they said, 580 00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:54,920 why would I call first, you know? 581 00:47:55,240 --> 00:47:57,640 I went to the pay phone, I called her. 582 00:47:57,720 --> 00:48:00,320 I told her I have to come and get my work stuff. 583 00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:01,800 She said, "I'm trying to sleep." 584 00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:03,480 I said, "Is Darren there?" She said, "No." 585 00:48:03,560 --> 00:48:06,000 I said, "I'll be there in five minutes," and I hung up. 586 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:07,640 She went back to sleep. 587 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:09,800 I went back in the bedroom 588 00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:14,000 and started getting clothes and stuff out of the-- out of the dresser, 589 00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:17,240 and she sat up in bed and goes, [gasps] "Oh, my God." 590 00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:20,000 Then I realize there was somebody laying in bed next to her. 591 00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:22,400 'Cause I was... I wasn't trying to wake her up. 592 00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:25,160 I was just getting my stuff. I told her I was coming. 593 00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:29,280 [mutters] You know, when I seen him there, I'm like, 594 00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:30,880 that's when I started in on her. 595 00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,920 "Oh, my God," you know. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. We had words. 596 00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:39,320 An individual was sent undercover into his jail cell 597 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:43,560 and was able to, um, secure information from Chuck. 598 00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:48,200 They were friends, and yet he tried to hire someone to murder her 599 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,680 just because he did not want her to testify at trial. 600 00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:55,200 It's embarrassing. What can I say? 601 00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:59,480 I was a confused drug addict, you know? 602 00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:01,480 An alcoholic that made a bad decision 603 00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:04,560 and another bad decision and another bad decision. 604 00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:09,360 You know, I was upset that Diane changed her statement. 605 00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:11,360 I felt that she was lying. 606 00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:16,760 But yeah, it's... it's nothing I wanna talk about, really. 607 00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:18,680 I wished it never happened. 608 00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:22,280 I mean, it's-- it's just a bad situation all the way around. 609 00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:26,040 I've never wished Diane any harm. 610 00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:33,600 [Hayslip] I don't harbor anger at all. 611 00:49:35,240 --> 00:49:37,640 I do feel that 612 00:49:37,720 --> 00:49:43,000 what is to come with the death penalty 613 00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:48,840 is appropriate and just. 614 00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:57,480 I mean, to carry a torch for somebody to die for 20 years? 615 00:49:57,560 --> 00:50:00,320 That's, you know, okay. 616 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:01,760 I mean, you know. [laughs] 617 00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:02,920 I don't-- 618 00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:06,120 I-- I couldn't hate somebody that long. 619 00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:08,600 It's not in my-- not in my blood.