[ominous music]
‐ It's incredibly rare for criminal defendants
to take the stand in their own defense.
It's a gamble very few ever take.
At stake, one's freedom or even life.
This is George Burch, A. K. A. Big Country.
He's charged with the horrific murder
of 31‐year‐old Nicole VanderHeyden.
[dramatic music]
He's decided to take that gamble.
‐ George, did you murder Nicole VanderHeyden?
‐ No, sir. Definitely not.
‐ Could it help him convince the jury
that he's not guilty?
Or will it come back to haunt him?
It's a court‐side seat
through the eyes of the lead detective,
the reporter who covered the trial,
the defendant's former friends,
and one of the jurors who decided George Burch's fate.
I'm Dan Abrams, and this is "Under Oath."
‐ Raise your right hand. ‐ Do you solemnly swear?
‐ I'm being honest with everything I say here.
‐ Do solemnly swear.
‐ The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
‐ I would like to testify.
‐ The testimony you are about to hear...
The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
‐ So help you God.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
‐ This is the most brutal murder
that has ever been committed by one person
in the history of Brown County.
This is a crime that would merit the death penalty.
‐ George, did you murder Nicole VanderHeyden?
‐ No, sir. Definitely not.
♪ ♪
‐ George Burch stands accused
of first‐degree intentional homicide
for the savage murder
of Nicole Nikki VanderHeyden,
31‐year‐old mother of three
strangled and beaten to death.
♪ ♪
He faces life in prison without parole.
By taking the witness stand, he gets a chance
to tell the jury his side of the story,
but if they find him unconvincing,
he may lose his freedom forever.
‐ I feel like the word for this whole trial is intense
because this man's fate is in your hands.
You're sending someone to jail
potentially for the rest of their life.
‐ I didn't know if she was alive.
She wasn't physically moving.
‐ What looked like a man
standing with a firearm in his hand.
I could hear them say,
"Look what the [bleep] you made me do."
‐ George Burch claims that after meeting Nikki
at a bar called Richard Craniums,
they engaged in consensual sex
and that during their sexual encounter,
they were both assaulted
by the father of her youngest child
and live‐in boyfriend, Doug Detrie.
Will Burch be able to convince the jury
that he had no reason to kill Nikki
and that her murder was actually committed
by her enraged lover?
He only needs one juror
to believe his story to avoid a conviction.
♪ ♪
‐ George Burch is a human being just like me and you.
George is presumed innocent unless they can convince you
beyond a reasonable doubt
that he murdered Nicole.
‐ The judge basically told us
he's innocent till proven guilty,
but we have to go off the evidence.
‐ Judge, at this time, the defense calls
George Steven Burch to the stand.
‐ Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth so help you God?
‐ Yes, ma'am.
‐ Larger than average.
‐ Okay.
‐ Big Country.
‐ When did you get that nickname?
‐ When I was six years old.
‐ George was definitely one of my best friends at the time.
If he knew you were having a bad day,
he'd look at you and ask you if you needed a hug.
‐ When Nicole was murdered,
George was living in our house at the time.
Ed asked, "You mind if he comes and stays with us for a while?"
And I said, "No. Do you trust him?"
And he said, "Yeah. I trust him with my life."
♪ ♪
‐ On May 20th,
Nikki VanderHeyden and her boyfriend,
Douglass Detrie, decided to have a night out.
They went to a live music concert
over at the Watering Hole.
Nikki VanderHeyden and some of Douglass Detrie's friends
decided to go to the Sardine Can,
but Doug decided to stay back a little bit,
and that's when the night took
a turn for their relationship.
♪ ♪
Nikki and Douglass got into an argument
over text messages.
Nikki had accused him of talking to another woman,
possibly cheating on her.
♪ ♪
‐ Nicole was verified
on surveillance video at the Sardine Can.
You could see on the video
where she became visibly upset.
‐ Nikki stormed off.
She left the bar by herself.
‐ The following morning, which was Saturday,
we get a call from a gentleman,
and he was out in a field
with his grandson
when they observed something
that caught their eye down in the ditch.
‐ She did not have any clothes on her.
All she had on her was a sock on each foot,
so there was no identification.
‐ She was so brutally beaten
they had to use dental records
to identify her.
‐ It was the body of Nicole VanderHeyden.
[dramatic musical sting]
She had a broken jaw.
The whole side of her head
was bloodied and curb stomped.
The whole one side of her face
was pretty much destroyed.
It appeared to be an act of rage.
[phone dialing, line trilling]
‐ When Douglass Detrie made the call
that his girlfriend was missing,
police had already found a body,
but he had not known that yet.
‐ Doug Detrie waited 17 hours
to report his live‐in girlfriend,
Nikki VanderHeyden, missing.
Police thought that was suspicious
and went to his house to interview him.
‐ Mr. Detrie did become a person of interest.
It felt like the timing was suspicious
of when this phone call was made to us
after the body had been discovered.
‐ The coroner determines
that Nikki's cause of death was strangulation.
That meant her death was not an accident, not a suicide.
It was a homicide.
A warrant was issued to search Detrie's house.
‐ Things of interest that we saw in the residence
on that initial search warrant led us to believe
that we had the crime scene.
There was blood in the garage.
Nicole's vehicle was parked in the garage.
We thought what we had was blood in her car
as well as clumps of blonde hair.
‐ On the curb in front of Nikki
and Doug Detrie's neighbor's home,
investigators find large pools of blood
and retrieve a black charging cable.
‐ Right now I'm gonna be taking you into custody.
‐ When they arrested her boyfriend,
Douglass Detrie, I think a lot of people were like,
"Oh, yeah. That makes sense."
‐ When the results from the crime lab came back,
investigators concluded two things.
First, Nikki VanderHeyden
was assaulted right next to her house.
The sample from the pool of blood found on the curb
contained her DNA.
So did the black charging cable
they found at the scene.
And second, they learned there was not enough evidence
connecting Doug Detrie to the crime.
Blood in the garage was not human.
It came from a turkey.
The clump of blonde hair was traced
to Nicole's daughter.
And Detrie's DNA,
the critical proof that would've placed him
at the crime scene was not found on Nikki's body,
her clothes, or the black charging cable.
‐ Once the evidence started coming back that
that wasn't matching up with what we thought,
I contacted the district attorney's office,
told him that, you know, we got the wrong guy
and that he should be released.
♪ ♪
Months later, we had received information from the crime lab
that one of the items we submitted,
one of Nikki's socks, had gotten them enough DNA
that they could enter it into the CODIS database
and provided them with a hit
for an individual named George Burch.
‐ At some point, did you end up meeting someone
who you now known is Nicole VanderHeyden?
‐ Yes, sir.
[dramatic music]
‐ The evidence is gonna show you Doug did this.
Doug murdered Nicole
in a fit of jealousy and anger.
‐ George Burch is on trial
for the murder of Nikki VanderHeyden.
He maintains his innocence and says the police
actually got it right the first time
when they arrested her live‐in boyfriend,
Doug Detrie.
Before George Burch tells
his version of events to the jury,
the defense calls Detrie to the stand.
Their objective?
Offer the jury an alternative suspect.
If the defense can even present
the credible possibility
that Detrie was actually the killer,
jurors might conclude there's reasonable doubt.
[tense music]
‐ Going back to May 21st and where you had been
at the Sardine Can...
♪ ♪
By the time you left the Sardine Can,
you did not know where Nicole was, correct?
‐ Correct.
‐ You didn't know if she was with another man?
‐ Correct.
‐ And when you got home, you did not call the police.
‐ No. ‐ You just went back to bed.
‐ Yeah, I was tired. I was hungover.
‐ And then you woke up again around 11:00.
‐ Uh, yeah, I think approximately 11:00.
‐ You finally called police around 4:30.
Does that sound correct?
‐ Yes.
‐ And that's 17 hours since you last saw her.
‐ That‐‐yeah.
‐ Doug Detrie didn't come off as a saint.
There was just some weird feeling with him on the stand.
Like, he didn't call 911 for her right away.
He didn't go looking out for her that night
when she didn't come home.
‐ With Detrie's credibility now in question,
Burch takes the stand.
Unanimous agreement of all 12 jurors is required
for a conviction, so if even one juror believes
Burch is likely telling the truth
about the night he met Nikki at a bar,
that could be enough to avoid a conviction.
But to do that, his testimony has to be consistent
with cell phone data retrieved by investigators.
[tense music]
‐ What time do you think you went out?
Where did you go out to?
‐ Maybe 11:15, roughly around that time,
I went to Richard Craniums right down the street.
‐ The data we received from Google was consistent
with Mr. Burch being at a bar called Richard Craniums,
which would be consistent with the last location
that Nikki was seen in.
‐ At some point,
did you end up meeting someone
who you now know is Nicole VanderHeyden?
‐ Yes, sir.
‐ Because of the Google dashboard data
that was put into evidence,
the defense kinda walked him through that night
and allowed him to kinda talk about and explain
why he was where he was when his phone pinged that moment.
♪ ♪
‐ Tell us more about that.
‐ I noticed there was a fairly attractive
blonde woman standing next to me.
She didn't seem to be with anybody,
and I just kinda struck up a conversation.
Talking, laughing, joking, giggling.
You can pretty much tell if someone's kinda into you,
I guess, would be the best way to put it.
‐ So you guys left together? ‐ Yes, sir.
‐ One of the things that George had going for him
was that he could come across as a nice guy.
‐ She had invited you back to her place?
‐ Yes, sir.
‐ Did you go in her residence?
‐ No, sir. ‐ Why not?
‐ She said there was a light on,
and she thought the babysitter was still up.
‐ What happened after that? ‐ We started fooling around,
messing around a little bit.
‐ Did you have intercourse?
‐ Yes, sir.
‐ What ended up happening?
‐ The next thing that I remember
was literally waking up
on the ground outside the truck.
‐ He woke up laying on the cement
right next to the curb.
He said he remembers having sex with Nikki
and then complete darkness.
‐ Basically, one minute you were having intercourse,
and the next you remember waking up in that position.
‐ I remember waking up going, "What in the hell?"
‐ And he came to with a gun pointed at him.
‐ Did you see anything?
‐ I saw what looked like a man
standing with a firearm in his hand.
‐ Who was it? ‐ It was Doug Detrie.
♪ ♪
‐ He says that Doug Detrie caught them having sex,
and he was so enraged
that Doug Detrie then beat
Nicole VanderHeyden to death,
knocking George Burch out.
And when he came to,
he then forced George to help get rid of the body.
‐ Then what happened?
‐ I was instructed to carry her
and put her in the vehicle.
‐ He was forced to put Nicole VanderHeyden's body
in the back seat of the vehicle,
and Doug Detrie held him at gun point
and told him where to go to put the body in the field.
‐ While I was driving,
I was told where to turn and which ways to go.
‐ And then at that point, the phone went directly
to the scene where Nikki's body was located.
‐ He was able to kinda tell his side of the story and say,
"Okay, this is why I was here at this time.
This is why my phone says I was here at this time."
‐ When George Burch was telling his elaborate story
on what actually happened that night to Nikki,
there was times where you would go,
"That could happen."
‐ What's going through your mind at this point?
‐ I don't know what to do in this situation
and trying to figure out
a way to remove myself.
That's when I turned, and with everything I had,
I lunged at him
and pushed him as hard as I possibly could.
‐ What'd you do next?
‐ Hauled ass to my car.
‐ He really kind of molded his story to say,
"Hey, I'm the good guy here. I didn't do this."
‐ George, did you murder Nicole VanderHeyden?
‐ No, sir. Definitely not.
‐ Do you know who did?
‐ Doug Detrie.
‐ We weren't sure exactly what was gonna happen,
which way the jury was gonna go.
‐ She had invited you back to her place?
‐ Yes, sir. ‐ What happened after that?
‐ We started fooling around, messing around a little bit.
‐ Did you have intercourse?
‐ Yes, sir.
‐ Under direct examination,
6'7" George Burch maintains
he did not murder Nikki VanderHeyden
but claims he had consensual sex with her,
which would explain why investigators
first found his DNA on her sock and her body.
He also offers a detailed account
of how Nikki's boyfriend attacked him
and eventually forced him to get rid of her body.
But direct examination of the defendant
is a more rehearsed performance.
This case will likely turn
on whether Burch is able to remain as composed
when he faces the prosecutor's questions on cross examination.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
‐ Isn't it true that you didn't
tell law enforcement about this
'cause you didn't think anybody was gonna believe this story?
‐ No, sir. Not at all.
‐ When prosecution started to question him,
we saw a change.
‐ You thought that this was a perfectly logical,
reasonable story that anybody would believe.
‐ It's the truth.
‐ One of the things I think our prosecutor did
a great job of‐‐getting some basic facts from him
and then confronting him
about things that just didn't make sense,
and you could see the anger building in him
that his story just wasn't adding up.
‐ And it becomes clear that Nikki
isn't going to have sex with you,
and she attempts to go into her house
and leave your vehicle.
That's when your mood changes, right?
‐ No, sir.
‐ That's when things get aggressive, don't they?
‐ Not at all.
‐ That's when you grab that cord and strangle her.
Don't you?
‐ No, sir. Not at all.
‐ That's when Nikki gets slammed on the ground
repeatedly when she's trying to run toward her house,
when those blood stains lead
in the direction back to her home.
‐ None of that is true.
‐ Well, how do you know?
You were out cold when Nikki was assaulted.
‐ 'Cause you said I did it.
‐ That's when George Burch really started
being combative and really getting angry.
‐ Nikki was strangled. She had a fractured jaw.
Correct? ‐ I don't know, sir.
That's what the medical examiner said.
I'm not a doctor.
‐ And she fought for her life, right?
‐ According to what the doctor said, yes.
‐ And you'll have the jury believe that Doug Detrie
did all of these things to his girlfriend
while you were just out cold on the lawn hanging out.
‐ I wasn't hanging out.
I had been knocked out from behind, sir,
when I didn't know anyone was behind me.
‐ Actually, you didn't say you were knocked out from behind.
You didn't remember what happened.
You were having sex, and the next thing you knew
you woke up on the ground, right?
‐ It made me‐‐ lead me to believe
that I had been knocked out
because I didn't pass out from standing there.
‐ He didn't say a word to anyone about this happening.
His story on the stand was that he was assaulted at gun point
and forced to dump a body in a field,
yet he doesn't tell anyone about this.
‐ This body you just dumped in the woods
and went about your day.
You didn't call it in at all, right?
‐ If you say so, sir. ‐ It's not if I say so.
Are you telling me you couldn't have called 911?
You had your phone. ‐ I'm sure I physically
could've pushed the 911 button.
Yes, sir.
‐ But you chose not to call this in.
‐ Correct, sir.
‐ You carried the mangled body of a woman
to her final resting place,
and the next day,
you're going fishing with your buddy
with a smile on your face and not a care in the world.
‐ I wouldn't say not a care in the world.
That definitely would not be something I would say.
‐ The morning after Nikki was murdered,
myself and George hung out together.
It seemed absolutely normal.
Noticed his knuckles were scratched,
but he did landscaping,
so I really didn't think anything of it.
‐ George Burch went fishing
literally hours
after being hit on the back of the head.
You'd think there would be a bruise
or some type of marking.
[dramatic music]
‐ No further questions.
[tense music]
Laid out by that evidence‐‐
evidence which will uncover the identify of Nikki's killer,
George Steven Burch.
Follow the evidence,
follow the facts,
and it will lead you to truth.
‐ Both the defense and prosecution
have played their cards,
and now the case of Wisconsin versus George Burch
is in the hands of the jury.
The jurors' challenge is this.
Did the state meet its burden
to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that Burch murdered Nikki VanderHeyden?
Or did the defense and their star witness,
the defendant, create the reasonable doubt
needed to escape conviction?
♪ ♪
‐ Back in our deliberation room,
there was other jurors who thought
at one point Doug did it.
Our first vote was 11 to 1. I was kinda shocked.
‐ An 11 to 1 vote is not unanimous,
but is the majority in favor of guilt or acquittal?
Unless all jury members continue deliberating
and agree on a verdict,
it could be a hung jury and a mistrial declared.
‐ I was just concerned
we weren't gonna come to a decision.
‐ It really only takes one juror
to have a mistrial
and to undo all of the state's arguments.
♪ ♪
‐ We, the jury, find the defendant,
George Steven Burch,
guilty of first degree intentional homicide.
♪ ♪
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
is this your verdict? all: Yes.
‐ They are saying yes and shaking their heads.
‐ Once the judge read the verdict
that he was guilty,
the room, like, the family,
the weight off their shoulders,
you could just hear it.
They let out this big sigh of relief.
And, you know, you knew instantly
that it was the right decision.
‐ Mr. Burch, this is a crime
that would, I believe,
merit the death penalty, and for that,
you have to die in prison with no possibility of parole.
[dramatic music]
‐ We have to go based on evidence.
The DNA all over Nicole's body
that matched George Burch,
and DNA, to us jurors, doesn't lie.
♪ ♪
‐ Thinking of George Burch at this time now,
I just think he's an absolute psychopath.
‐ It is really good that George was found guilty,
and he's gonna go to prison for the rest of his life.
He doesn't deserve
to have any peace in his world.
♪ ♪
‐ Defendants are never forced to take the stand,
but that decision is likely
the biggest one they ever make.
For "Under Oath," I'm Dan Abrams.
♪ ♪