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MAN: There's this thing inside
of me, it's like...

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the appetite.

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It's like a wolf that's...

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filling...the hunger.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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MAN:
Around 2:30 Monday morning,

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first responders are called to
a car fire near

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the 22-mile marker of
I-96 -- the body of

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a 37-year-old woman identified
as Lori Marie Vargas,

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trapped and badly
burned inside.

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At first, it seemed like
a deadly fiery crash.

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But evidence at the scene,

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along with the man officers
found walking

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near the crash,
quickly leading detectives

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to believe
this case was something else.

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Police online records
show 45-year-old

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Donald Spice is
being held.

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MORGAN: So from a psychological
defenses perspective,

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we would say that is
projection, because he's

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attributing to her attitudes
that he, in fact, holds himself.

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I don't think he really was

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totally happy in
the relationship at all.

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He's very calm.

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He refers to it in the past
tense, that I was her fiance,

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and he's beginning to set
the stage that things were kind

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of fine with me,

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but something was wrong
with her.

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I didn't believe it,
not because he said he cried.

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I didn't believe it because
he presents Lori Vargas as

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this crazy woman who was out
of control with her emotions.

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He says she's irrational,
which many abusive men do.

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MORGAN: The technique of blaming
somebody else for what's going

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on is very common in people
who have psychopathy.

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This behavior is definitely
related to power and control,

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and it's related to obtaining
their objective.

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[knocking noise]

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He just says,
"I didn't want to hurt her."

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I believe that part.

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But I think he wanted to
kill her.

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His own thinking was,
"I want to get rid of her,

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but maybe I didn't want to
make her suffer."

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That's what we would call
a Freudian slip.

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That, I believe, indicates
he knew she's already dead.

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He's already killed her --
little phrases and lines make it

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sound like

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in the eye of the investigator
that this was hurtful to him.

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RAGHAVAN:
I'm a little bit speechless

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at the pointlessness of
this detail.

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The story as is told
makes no sense.

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A woman with no history
of violence,

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no history of volatility,
would not pick up a knife

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and threaten a dog.

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MORGAN: He's essentially saying
she picks up the dog and says,

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you know, I'm gonna
kill this thing, and --

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and then the murder happens.

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I think it's all setting
the stage for what's about

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to come,
I think it is manipulative.

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MORGAN: You usually say
it's love that sweeps you off

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your feet, but in this case,
it's a hammer.

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There is an element of the --
of the dramatic,

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but I do think that that's
part of what happens when

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people are telling a story
that's just not true.

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In reality, it's very likely
she was asleep in the bed or in

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a position of helplessness
at the time,

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But it's implied he's saving
the dog from her.

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RAGHAVAN:
Blood makes a lot of

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people with core psychopathic
features feel alive.

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While he's not visibly showing
a lot of emotion,

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the kind of details
he provides really

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makes you feel like he's
enjoying describing it.

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[loud sob]

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SPICE: Uhh.

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RAGHAVAN: Why on earth
he would put her

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in the passenger seat
and drive around?

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A polite way to put it is
it's downright peculiar.

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Perhaps he wanted to have
a corpse next to him and get

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the thrill of driving around

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with a dead body -- that would
have been no thrill if he put

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her in the trunk.

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He enjoyed deceiving everybody
along the way.

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He was able to do that,

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didn't seem terribly emotionally
distressed over that.

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He's describing it with
relative calm,

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which is all not normal.

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Psychopaths don't have the same
connectivity to other people.

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Other people are objects,
they're things,

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and they can depersonalize
them rather quickly.

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And so now that she's dead,

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um, she's gone.

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I think in his mind,
at that particular point,

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this was on the way to
achieving his ultimate goal.

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WOMAN: Donald Spice is so
comfortable in a courtroom

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he actually stopped for a chat
about his case,

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the third of
his criminal career.

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Actually, it's the...

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third time of
being really stupid.

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It was desperation.

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WOMAN: Apparently Spice is
a pretty desperate person.

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He's been here before, though he
was a bit shyer six years ago.

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This video is from
his 1991 case.

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Spice was actually
on a tether for a previous

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B&E when he burglarized
the Profile Salon on Alpine.

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That same night,
spice hit the Alpine Super Wash,

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ended up back
behind bars,

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and yes,
the cycle began again.

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Spice served five years before
getting out last July

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and immediately trying to break
into another business.

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I'm having problems getting
money, uh, borrowing money.

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WOMAN: But police say
it's not about money.

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Spice is just addicted to
breaking and entering.

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No, I am not that --
the police are trying

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to make me up to be
an obsessive person.

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MORGAN:
I think he is obsessive.

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I think he plans and plots
and schemes.

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It's a pattern that he will
engage in over

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and over and over again
that he's not gonna stop.

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What Donald Spice is
obsessed with

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is the excitement
and the winning.

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It's -- it's setting out a plan

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and beating other people
at something.

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There's a progression of
the intensity of the crime

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so that he could have

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more of a thrill
and a bigger gain.

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RAGHAVAN: Spice was not
interested in Lori Vargas

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as a beautiful,
sensual woman.

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I believe he was setting up
the murder from the start.

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Psychopaths are
frequently predators.

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And so he likely looked for
someone he thought

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he could fool,

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he thought he could con,
he thought he could seduce,

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importantly, and then later on,

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murder in a way that he
thought he could get away with.

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MORGAN: Lori Vargas
was a mother of two.

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She would fall
potentially into

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a category of people
who'd be more vulnerable.

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Especially, she's working
as a single mother.

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That pattern fits
a targeting pattern

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that many psychopaths
and sociopaths have.

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The irony is that although
they don't attach as profoundly

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to other people as
healthy people do,

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they know who needs to feel
an attachment.

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MORGAN: Yeah, I don't think
he's sorry at all.

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Donald Spice is framing his
actions as something that

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are kind --
"I'm really not a monster.

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I do kind things."

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I see that as the selfish
manipulation of his -- of

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the image he's trying to
convey to the police officer,

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try and get maybe
a little empathy.

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The problem is,
is that he sucks at it.

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RAGHAVAN: So he's progressing
to the end goal.

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But along that progress are
all of these little things that

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are horrific for us,
but that give him pleasure.

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So the seduction, the killing,
then the staging of

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the killing, and then he
explodes the car, and he gets

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pleasure from probably
the sheer violence of it,

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but also that's part of
the storyline that he's created

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for himself.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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MAN: Today, prosecutors
laid out evidence

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suggesting the murder
was preplanned.

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They say, months before
the murder, someone used

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Spice's credit card

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and his computer
to purchase a life insurance

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policy on Lori Vargas.

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They say Spice was listed as
the sole beneficiary.

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♪♪

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MAN: Spice refuted
the evidence presented today.

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They don't have to prove that.

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They have to allege it.

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That's it.
That's good enough.

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I'm guilty until
proven innocent.

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I'm standing here
in cuffs and shackles.

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MORGAN: He sounds annoyed.

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He sounds angry,
which is probably the most

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genuine emotion
that we have seen from him.

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He's even lower on empathy
than I imagined.

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What we see now is
the ruthless planning.

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Lori Vargas's murder

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is part of a long
continuum of criminal

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behavior and using other
people and taking other

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people's things.

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RAGHAVAN: And then it escalated
to a predatory crime,

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where he planned a murder.

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And he wanted
a big payout where

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he could idly and parasitically
live off

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this insurance --
the thrill of planning

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the murder and the thrill of
disposing of the body

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and the thrill of fooling
the police --

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all of that is part of
the fantasy.

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Mr. Spice has all
the characteristics

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of a classic psychopath.

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♪♪

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WOMAN: Donald Spice was
sentenced to life in prison for

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00:19:54,260 --> 00:19:57,562
killing his girlfriend and
mother of two, Lori Vargas.

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Today in court,
her two children spoke.

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I call him Monster, because he
took my mom away from me.

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This will affect my life,
because I'm

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not going to grow up
with a mom.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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♪♪