BERRY: I said, "What happened?"
And he said, "He's dead."
PIEPMEIER: We assumed that there was some kind
of bad blood between him and the victim.
It's a pretty intense situation.
He was trained how to use a weapon and how to kill.
RANDOLPH: You're really not sure which way to turn.
PLUMMER: This wasn't just trying to scare a guy.
This wasn't just trying to wound a guy.
This was trying to kill a guy.
I'm Sheriff Garry McFadden.
I was a homicide detective for 20 years.
I've worked more than 800 homicides in my career,
but even for the most dedicated detective,
there's no one harder to stop than a killer with a badge.
[phone ringing]
[distant, indistinct talking]
NARRATOR: First responders are dispatched to the location,
a small apartment complex
just a block from the main road in Silverton.
I was out on patrol, and so I turned my lights
and sirens on and I drove to the crime scene.
The front door of this entrance is actually on
the side, and there's like maybe three small steps.
His body was laying at the bottom of the steps.
He'd been shot four times.
He was incoherent,
um, but he was still alive at that point.
He was breathing, but he was non-responsive.
NARRATOR: While emergency personnel try to save
the victim's life,
tips continue to come in.
There were call after call saying, "I just
saw some guy get shot on Silverton Avenue."
PLUMMER: Calls were coming in so fast that our dispatchers
were having trouble keeping up with them.
PIEPMEIER: It's pretty much happened in broad daylight.
It's a Saturday afternoon where there's a lot of
people around.
People heard the gunshots.
People looked out of the building.
People that were out on the street saw the shooting.
McFADDEN: Here we have a suspect that
kills someone in broad daylight -- that's brazen.
He doesn't care, he doesn't care who sees him.
We have a very, very bold killer.
NARRATOR: Officers begin speaking with witnesses.
One woman tells them the victim is her brother,
24-year-old Rashawn Berry.
RANDOLPH: We discovered her brother, Rashawn,
had recently moved in with her, um,
had only been there maybe a couple of weeks.
Very few people knew that he was living there with, uh,
with his sister.
NARRATOR: Investigators soon learn
that Rashawn didn't make it.
He'd been shot four times.
PLUMMER: There was a doctor who pronounced him dead at
the scene, and we were looking at a homicide.
We're a small department, a very
small city inside of a big city.
Our community is not used to something like this --
this happening.
So when one of our officers walks up onto a scene
like this, it's horrifying.
KABAKOFF: Silverton was a nice suburban community.
We're like, um, from "The Andy Griffith Show."
We had two jail cells.
I was a patrolman, and this was the first homicide where,
you know, I was actually the initial officer that --
that responded.
So this -- this was a kind of a real shock to me.
PLUMMER: I became a police officer in 1976.
Our community was -- was tight.
It was small. People knew each other.
In Silverton, we average a homicide
about once every 10 years.
When something like this happens like, okay,
what do we do next?
McFADDEN: So we have a murder in broad daylight, small town,
a agency who does not get many murders.
They don't have the experience.
So in order to solve this crime,
they're gonna have to call in the big boys.
We contacted the Cincinnati Homicide Unit, and we're --
we're blessed to get Detective Randolph to help us.
We began interviewing people in the neighborhood.
KABAKOFF: I, unfortunately, had to break the news to his sister
who he resided with that, um, Rashawn, um, passed away.
There's no easy way of breaking that type of news.
NARRATOR: Word of Rashawn's death quickly travels
to the rest of his family.
BERRY: I was at work.
I get a call from my cousin.
He said, "I got some bad news," and I said, "Bad news?"
"Rashawn," he said, "He's been shot."
I said, "What happened?"
And he said, "He's dead."
PRICE: This hurt my dad.
And he said, uh, they shot and killed my brother.
You could hear in his voice, like, just cracking
in his voice, and it just didn't sound right.
I just remember, like...
I was supposed to call back.
I couldn't.
I couldn't, because I couldn't hear my dad like that.
BERRY: You know, he just had an interest in cutting hair.
You know, he became a neighborhood barber, you know.
And I was gonna help him get a barber's license.
You know, I was gonna help him
at a point in time fulfill his dream.
NARRATOR: At Rashawn's building,
investigators examine the stairway where he was shot.
KABAKOFF: There was blood splatter, and so
you could see where the actual incident happened.
NARRATOR: Despite all the blood, the killer
left very little physical evidence behind.
We never had shell casings at the scene,
which means one of two things -- the suspect picked them all up
or it was a revolver.
McFADDEN: With the revolver, the shell casings remain in the cylinder.
With a semiautomatic,
it ejects the casing.
So if you don't have casings on the scene,
it's probably a revolver.
Now, at this point, because you don't
have the shell casings on the scene,
you need to go to your Columbo days.
Get the magnifying glass out,
get on your knees to find your evidence.
NARRATOR: The search pays off.
KABAKOFF: One of the rounds actually landed inside the drywall,
and we were able to recover that stray round.
RANDOLPH: The firearms analysis indicated that the bullet
was fired from a revolver,
which is consistent with our crime scene.
One of the things that was unusual was that there was
a television remote control that was found
outside on the step.
Our victim probably was inside the house, and something brought
him out, and he carried the remote with him.
NARRATOR: Officers question witnesses about the murder.
RANDOLPH: There are two separate apartment buildings.
There were witnesses in that building
as well as the building next door.
KABAKOFF: I was overwhelmed with the number of people that saw
different things, and I --
I remember, I ran out of witness statements.
I ran out of pens.
It was pure chaos there.
McFADDEN: When you have a daylight scene,
you should have a lot of witnesses.
You just have to weed out who
are the best witnesses with the best information.
NARRATOR: Investigators need to create a profile of their shooter.
All they know for sure is that witnesses
saw an African-American man running from the scene,
but they try to learn more from the crime itself.
Four shots up close and personal --
there's a lot of rage.
There's a lot of anger.
This is personal.
PIEPMEIER: We assumed he knew the victim.
We assumed that there was some kind
of bad blood between him and the victim.
This wasn't just trying to scare a guy.
This wasn't just trying to wound a guy.
This was trying to kill a guy.
Why kill this person?
NARRATOR: A witness approaches detectives at the site of
the murder -- he believes he saw the shooter
fleeing the scene right after the gunshots.
He and his friends followed.
He was, um, kind of excited, and he was pointing, man,
he ran this way, he ran this way,
and, you know, I followed him.
RANDOLPH: They were following a guy they believed
to be running from a shooting scene,
and they followed him all the way down Elwynne,
at which point they observe him, uh,
cut in between a couple of houses,
and then they lost sight of him.
KABAKOFF: We requested a K9, and unfortunately,
we were unable to find him at that point.
NARRATOR: Another neighbor calls in to say he saw
a suspicious vehicle racing from the scene.
A witness had heard the gunshots
and immediately looked into the direction of the shooting
and saw a white vehicle speeding off.
NARRATOR: Investigators don't know if the killer
ran or if he's in that car.
McFADDEN: They know this person has already taken someone's life.
We have somebody who does not care.
He'll take you out in broad daylight, bang, bang, bang.
They need to find him.
NARRATOR: Silverton Police are hunting for
a white car that fled the murder scene.
We had a license plate, vehicle.
We requested that the officers stop him.
PLUMMER: There was quite a bit of commotion
about this white vehicle.
KABAKOFF: It's a pretty intense situation.
You're going after somebody that you believe could
have been involved in a homicide and who's armed.
You could end up being a victim.
You could end up being shot, or a bystander could get shot.
McFADDEN: The initial officer is giving commands
for the occupants of the car.
Turn your car off, throw the keys out, exit the vehicle.
They're watching the car, gun drawn, doors open,
occupants exit the car.
But, as it turned out, it was two women
in the -- in the vehicle and obviously not our suspect.
KABAKOFF: They had nothing to do with this incident.
They had happened to be in the vicinity
and left the area shortly after the shots had been fired.
It's not unusual for people to --
to flee after hearing shots fired.
And that was this case.
McFADDEN: Listening to the radio,
you're on pins and needles as a detective.
And then all of a sudden, the dispatcher
says, "There's two females." That is a big letdown.
It's like having that Cracker Jack box with no prize,
but the detectives must go back to the scene and continue
to be focused on catching this killer.
RANDOLPH: We retraced as best we could the trail
that we believed the shooter to take.
We looked all around the parking lot
and under cars and bushes.
KABAKOFF: We're looking for any type of evidence, especially
the firearm to see if we could recover that -- unfortunately,
we weren't able to recover the firearm.
NARRATOR: Investigators broaden their search.
An officer tells them about a suspicious
blue car he had seen parked nearby.
KABAKOFF: We did photograph the cars that were parked there,
and we saw that one of the cars,
the front license plate was removed.
You could actually see the outline of
where the license plate used to be.
At the time, Ohio required a front and rear license plate.
Why would you remove the front license plate?
McFADDEN: If this is truly the suspect vehicle,
that person came prepared for what he was going to do.
If I take the tag off the car, even though they have
a description of the car,
it's not gonna lead to my car.
This killer really thought about this.
He knew everything that the detective was going to
do and knew that there were cameras in the area.
That person knows a lot about law enforcement.
So the question is, what was this young man involved in
that would cause someone to be this prepared to take his life?
So now the detectives have to go back
to the family and ask the hard question.
What haven't you told us about the victim?
Those type of conversations will help solve this case.
BERRY: I'm Rashawn's older brother.
We had a 17-year age difference.
Rashawn was born in 1975.
I had a son around that -- around that time.
They were three months apart.
I would always have him with me at the time --
my son and my little brother.
They kinda raised us and kept us close,
more like brother rather than uncle and nephew.
I remember -- remember picking him up as we got older,
probably about -- probably was about 16, 17 years old,
and, uh, hanging out.
I used to play a lot of music, and Rashawn used to always like
to come down and just,
you know, dance and all that stuff.
He would come downstairs, and I started
letting Rashawn play music on his own, so...
We used to just both love the same -- same music,
same artists, and just cut the stereo all the way up in
the car and drive around
Cincinnati and just kinda just live.
No -- there was no problems, you know, none.
RANDOLPH: In order to kind of figure out who could be
responsible for this, uh, it's --
it's very important to learn and discover what the victim
was actually doing at the time that his death occurred.
A guy that's brutally murdered --
Why? You know, what did he do that warranted this --
this execution?
PIEPMEIER: We've got a young man getting shot to death,
and the first thing you look at is friends and family.
Did anyone have a motive to do anything to him?
NARRATOR: Rashawn, who worked in a factory, had recently moved in
with his sister, Jeanette.
PIEPMEIER: His sister was one of the first ones
questioned, because she was actually there at the time.
Did she have something to do with this?
PLUMMER: They were in the apartment together.
He was waiting for a phone call from a buddy.
I think Jeanette was -- was blindsided,
uh, with this as much as anyone else.
RANDOLPH: The victim had plans that evening.
Around 5 p.m., a friend
of his named Jason was going to come over.
She told us that Jason was black,
approximately 23 years old, and had a mustache.
She wasn't very fond of Jason.
You know, she indicated that Jason had a car, but at
some point, may have recently been stolen,
so he wanted to borrow her car,
and she wouldn't allow him to do that.
Shortly before that 5 p.m. hour, the doorbell rang.
PLUMMER: He gets up and walks out to the front door to --
to answer the doorbell.
And the next thing you know, she says, "I hear
"this commotion,
"I hear the gunshots, and there's my brother,
at the door bleeding."
McFADDEN: We know that Jason has an appointment with our victim
in the same timeframe that this murder could have happened,
so it's important to talk to the witnesses,
get their description to see if this is the same
Jason as the sister was talking about.
RANDOLPH: We interviewed a mother and two daughters in
the building that the victim resided in.
The general consensus
from all three of those ladies
were that around the 5 p.m. hour,
there was some arguing being heard.
They all went to various windows and immediately saw
our shooter reach into his waistband
and produce his gun and fire five shots.
All of them said the suspect was black, physically fit.
RANDOLPH: He had a dark jacket or a black jacket
and blue jeans,
and he had short hair and a mustache.
McFADDEN: Jason matches the description of the witnesses
of an African-American male with facial hair.
They need to find this person fast -- if they don't,
who knows what he does after this.
NARRATOR: Silverton police are on the hunt for Jason,
their prime suspect in the murder of Rashawn Berry.
RANDOLPH: Rashawn had a girlfriend that lived in a different area.
We interviewed her 6 or 7, 8 hours after Rashawn had
been shot.
They had dated I believe about three years, and she wasn't
aware of any problems that he was having,
but she did speak about Jason.
She believed that Jason was having
some financial difficulties
with some child support issues or something like that.
She also said that Jason regularly carried a gun,
and he referred to his gun as his girl.
So in talking with the victim's girlfriend,
the detectives found out some good stuff.
First, Jason has money problems.
Money is probably the number one cause for homicides.
Number two, Jason has a gun that he really loves that
he called his girl.
So Jason's looking pretty good.
NARRATOR: Rashawn's girlfriend has no address for Jason.
As officers search for him,
investigators canvass the neighborhood.
RANDOLPH: We looked all around the Montgomery Road area,
where we knew the suspect had ran.
I went to each of the businesses that were
in the area to capture as much information as we could.
Another important witness was a gentleman
that taught at the driving school.
He actually witnessed this guy across the street,
and even though it was cold, this guy was sweating.
He thought, well, that's strange.
You know, why is this guy sweating?
PLUMMER: The manager of the driving school saw
the suspect going toward Elwynne Drive.
Within like 15, 20 minutes,
he saw the subject coming back from the post office.
The suspect did stop at that point
and asked the manager at what time the post office closes.
And at that point, the suspect took off again.
We knew from prior experiences that the post office
did have a working surveillance video system.
NARRATOR: But it's a federal holiday,
and the post office is closed for three days.
McFADDEN: So imagine waiting three days that we can't get anyone
to help us with the best lead that we have.
Three whole days might as well be three whole weeks
when you're looking for a suspect
who's brazen as our suspect in this case.
NARRATOR: Then an unexpected visitor
shows up at the police station --
their prime suspect, Jason.
Jason looks similar to the witness description,
but he says he never made it to Rashawn's home the night
of the shooting.
KABAKOFF: This guy may have had not a stellar reputation,
and I think he was a little bit nervous about meeting with
us initially.
He said he truly was a friend of his
and didn't have anything to do with this incident,
and he had a decent alibi.
NARRATOR: With no other potential suspects,
detectives are at a standstill.
We had pretty much exhausted talking with everybody that
we could, you know.
The neighborhood canvass was concluded.
The next of kin interviews were done.
The girlfriend was done.
Now we're kind of at this point in
the investigation
that you're really not sure which way to turn.
NARRATOR: For Rashawn's family,
the lack of progress in
the investigation leads to mounting anger.
BERRY: When I get to the police station,
I said, "My little brother has
been murdered, and I want some answers."
I asked the detective to give me
a name, and this will all be taken care of.
I said, taking out the equation that you are a cop,
what are you gonna wanna do
if somebody hurts your wife and kid?
I said, "You're gonna wanna kill him, right?"
And he looked at me, and he said, "Yeah,
"but we don't want you to get
into any trouble and all that stuff."
I'm like -- and I understood that,
you know, I said, because this hurts.
I said, I'm not talking crazy.
It hurt, you know, and that's going all through my mind, like,
what -- what -- what happened?
And he said, "We don't know."
KABAKOFF: And I remember being very, very frustrated with the case.
We followed up the leads that we did have and a lot of
times, they led to a dead end.
The family want answers, the detectives want answers,
and he's a ticking time bomb.
He may go out and commit another murder.
NARRATOR: Looking to generate something new,
detectives head to Rashawn's job at a local factory.
His employer really liked him.
Always on time.
Good worker, always taking on new jobs.
He really thought the world of him.
NARRATOR: But one employee offers a new lead
that could turn the case on its head.
There is a female coworker that had mentioned a person
that was alleged
to have been a drug dealer and that he was utilizing
Rashawn Berry's name.
It's not uncommon for drug dealers to change their name as
a way of distracting the police from finding out
their true identity.
NARRATOR: All she could tell them is the guy's first name --
Tony.
So another potential lead came with one of our local
pharmaceutical salesmen, better known as a drug dealer.
Could Tony have been the target in a case of
mistaken identity?
Drug dealers always have enemies.
So finding Tony is important.
This killer is still out there, and we're
waiting for the fuse to reach the dynamite.
NARRATOR: Investigators are looking for Tony,
a local drug dealer who may have been using
Rashawn Berry's name as an alias.
KABAKOFF: That could have been a potential motive
is that Rashawn's name was dropped
and people thought he was involved in something he wasn't.
McFADDEN: This could have been just mistaken identity.
The detectives thought it was
a problem between the victim and the suspect.
But now what detectives need to do is rip that page out,
throw it away.
They're gonna have to start all over again.
They have to go back, pound the pavement,
boots on the ground, talk to everybody.
They need to find Tony.
NARRATOR: But investigators don't know Tony's last name
or even if he's really named Tony.
We would be looking for anything that --
that might have a local flavor to it,
like at an address, a workplace or anything that
might help us be able to identify,
locate, and get this person in to talk to them.
We check our files, but we did not have enough information to
be able to establish an actual person
to be able to interview and, uh,
connect somehow to the case.
NARRATOR: The team has one remaining lead to follow up.
The post office reopens.
Witnesses saw the suspect run inside after the murder.
Now police want to see the surveillance tape.
But as they enter the lobby, something catches their eye.
RANDOLPH: One of the officers saw a black jacket that was
shoved underneath of a counter.
Thought it was unusual, out of place,
and it did fit the description of
what we believe the shooter was wearing.
Detectives go inside the post office
and found a key piece of evidence.
That is the golden egg, hopefully laid
by the golden goose.
PLUMMER: And then we checked with the postmaster,
we asked if we could take a look at their video for over
the weekend.
I quickly grabbed up the VHS tape,
took it back to Silverton,
stuck it in the VHS machine, and lo and behold...
There it was.
A little bit after five,
we see a guy come in, looks like he's in his forties.
He had a mustache, got a black coat on and blue jeans.
You can see that he just -- he's --
he's just pacing like a cat, like a scared cat.
Still watching, still watching to see what's going on outside,
see if anybody's gonna chase in there after him, I'm sure.
NARRATOR: The suspect enters the post office in his coat,
but he leaves without it.
KABAKOFF: A witness observed him on this cool day
wearing a black T-shirt and was sweating.
That's what really stuck out in this particular witness's
mind is like, wow, why is this guy sweating?
PLUMMER: You know, it was -- I wanted to cheer.
Finally, we got our first view of
the person that shot Rashawn Berry.
KABAKOFF: You could actually see the white patch that he has on
top of his head, which would turn out to be
very relevant in the investigation
and his identification.
NARRATOR: Detectives are confident they have
their first look at Rashawn's killer,
but they still need to figure out who he is.
Could he be someone targeting the drug dealer,
Tony, or is he someone else entirely?
The jacket is being worn by a African-American male with
a distinct white patch in his hair.
That is very identifiable,
and I guarantee you, somebody knows who that person is.
The best thing they can do at this time
is put this out to the media.
Make the media your friend.
RANDOLPH: Six days after the murder occurred,
a still photograph from the surveillance video was
released to the news media.
They didn't say he did it,
but this is the guy we're looking for.
PLUMMER: Immediately, that evening, we're getting inundated with
calls about who they think this is.
NARRATOR: One caller may have the answer they're looking for.
He says their suspect just left his home.
PIEPMEIER: And he said, "Hey, I was just sitting here
"with the suspect -- that was him on the screen.
"I don't know what he has to do with this case,
but that's who you're looking for."
NARRATOR: Detectives race over to the caller's house
to get an ID.
PLUMMER: The guy looked at us,
and he said, "That's Owen Hobbs."
KABAKOFF: Owen Hobbs has a small, white patch of hair
on top of his head -- that all came together that --
that showed that Owen Hobbs is our one and only
primary suspect.
NARRATOR: And he's not just their primary suspect.
He's a former cop.
Owen had been fired from the sheriff's office
10 plus years before the homicide.
So it had been quite a while since we had seen him.
I believe it was some, uh, theft-related, uh,
offense of some sort.
McFADDEN: He was fired for some theft.
So we all know at this point he is going off the beaten path
of a loyal, law-abiding citizen
and a law-abiding officer.
He's off the beaten path of justice.
NARRATOR: The man who calls the police to I.D. Hobbs says he saw him
the night of the murder, and Owen was acting strange.
RANDOLPH: Shortly after the murder occurred,
Owen shows up at this friend's house and just kind of walked
past him and -- and went outside
and was, uh, sitting in the backyard by himself.
Shortly after that, Owen kind of came back up to the house
and he had -- he had some sort of
a cut or something on him and said
that the homeowner or the friend's dog had bitten him.
He comes back in with a crazy story.
So now the detectives have to wonder,
what was going on in that backyard?
The detectives still don't have the gun.
Could he have buried it in his friend's backyard?
We searched his place, I mean, went over with, the old saying,
the fine-tooth comb, um, did not recover a firearm.
NARRATOR: The team isn't surprised.
Hobbs would know exactly what to do with the weapon.
PIEPMEIER: Owen was a tough guy.
He was a tough cop.
He was a police officer who was trained
how to use a weapon and how to kill.
PLUMMER: He was a Marine.
I think he brought a lot of that Marine Corps training,
his demeanor, and the way he wore his uniform.
I'm in a little bit of disbelief,
because somebody I know just murdered somebody.
On the other hand, there was no question that based on
all these descriptions of people,
and it exactly fit Owen Hobbs running
into that building.
There was no question he did it.
PLUMMER: I was shocked that Owen could have done something like this.
We needed to find out why.
NARRATOR: Detectives need a current address for Hobbs.
They dig into his background and find
out his ex-wife is a postal worker,
and she lives in the same building as Rashawn Berry.
KABAKOFF: I remember seeing Judy at the scene.
She resided in the building.
I knew who she was.
Judy had been somewhere, and she had came back.
I basically said, "Judy, you know,
"we're investigating something, like, I can't let you in at
this time."
Rashawn was from Apartment 12, and --
and Judy lived in Apartment 11.
PLUMMER: He rang the wrong doorbell, and Rashawn answered.
Now we have a major problem.
We have a loose cannon, an ex-officer with a gun.
Could his ex-wife be the actual target
instead of the victim?
NARRATOR: Police are worried that their suspect's ex-wife,
Judy, may be in danger.
Detectives track her down and bring her to the station.
They hope she can help them find Owen Hobbs.
Judy explained to us that it was a --
it was a very rough marriage.
Uh, he was a very controlling person,
a very threatening person.
RANDOLPH: He threatened her constantly,
threatened her with bodily harm, threatened her life
throughout most of their marriage,
and she was very fearful of him, and --
and she moved to get away from him.
His wife endured years of abuse of being threatened by
her husband, and she simply didn't want
to anger him because of his profession.
This is commonly done in law enforcement
and also in the community.
The victims hide their abuse until it turns out
to be a deadly encounter.
PIEPMEIER: She did everything she could to avoid him
and never have him find her.
But somehow, Owen Hobbs found out she lived in that building.
She really felt horrible, because she
didn't realized the bullets that took Rashawn Berry's life
were meant for her.
NARRATOR: Judy works at the same post office
Hobbs ran to after the shooting.
He'd been all over town trying to find her.
PLUMMER: He was stopping mail carriers in and around, uh,
the Silverton area asking questions about, uh,
any boyfriends that she might have, where she's hanging out.
They weren't giving up information,
but, you know, they --
they let Judy know that he'd been inquiring about her.
NARRATOR: Judy gives police Hobbs' address.
Officers need to be very careful in approaching this house
and approaching this well-trained, ex law enforcement
who has nothing to lose, because he's just proven
he will shoot you in broad daylight.
So at this point, we are hunting the hunter.
PIEPMEIER: He didn't fight, he didn't try to run, uh,
did not shoot at them.
I think he was pretty much resigned to the fact at that
point that the, uh, the game was up.
KABAKOFF: We searched Owen's property.
We recovered his black T-shirt and his, um,
black gym shoes and also a pair of jeans that were
ultimately taken in as evidence.
The murder weapon in this case was never recovered, and no --
Owen never told anyone what he did with it,
but he did own a .357, which was the murder weapon.
NARRATOR: The stray bullet recovered at the crime scene was from a .357.
Investigators also search Hobbs' blue car.
It's the same type of vehicle police saw near the crime scene
the night of the murder,
the one that was missing its front plate.
It matched the car, and on the floorboard, um, behind
the driver's seat, there was the screwdriver that
he used to take off the front license plate.
Investigators believe that after Hobbs left
the post office,
he returned to the neighborhood to pick up his car.
Now they hope to get a confession.
PLUMMER: We advised him of his rights and asked him,
"Did you kill Rashawn Berry?"
And he said, "No way would I kill this guy.
I have no reason to do that."
"Were you at this scene when Rashawn was killed?"
"No, I wasn't anywhere near it."
PIEPMEIER: The best thing you can do is confess.
The second best thing you can do is to lie.
And Owen chose door number two, he chose to lie to
the police, he says, "I don't know what you're talking about.
I wasn't in Silverton that day."
So they have caught Owen in a lie, but they need to be
very careful.
This is a ping pong match between the detectives
and their suspect, and it's gonna be back and forth.
You ask something, I may answer it -- back and forth.
But the problem is, at this time,
the other person with the paddle is a ex law enforcement officer
who knows the tactics of an interview.
So that changes the game.
PLUMMER: I finally pulled a picture of him
in the surveillance, laid it in front of him, and he --
he got a few tears in his -- in his eyes.
He said that, you know, "I -- yeah, I was there,
but I was only there to see my wife."
PIEPMEIER: He told the police he went there
because he felt she owed him some money.
But again, he went there with a gun.
RANDOLPH: As the interview continued, he continued
to deny participating in the homicide.
You can tell when a person is getting ready to segue into,
okay, here's my defense, here's why I did it.
And we just -- we just couldn't get there with him.
At that point,
he said, "Listen, I want a lawyer."
Just when the detectives thought they're game-match,
he pulls out his final card -- game's over.
NARRATOR: Even without a confession,
the case against Owen Hobbs is strong.
We had 10 different people saw the person
that did the shooting go to the post office.
So we were 100 percent convinced.
And then when we find that his ex-wife lived in that building
where the murder happened,
it just kind of tied a nice ribbon around the case for us.
NARRATOR: Based on the evidence,
police speculate Hobbs was looking for Judy.
PLUMMER: Owen shows up at the apartment building.
He wants to talk to his wife, but he rings
the wrong doorbell.
Rashawn comes down the steps and asks, "What do you want?"
And...
the first thing he gets back is, "What are you doing
with my -- with my wife?"
What's going through
Owen Hobbs' mind is, "I hate that woman
"I was married to.
"I think she was cheating on me when we were married.
And sure enough, she's still cheating on me."
Owen reaches down into his waistband,
pulls a gun, shot five times.
Four of the bullets strike Rashawn.
And with that, off runs Owen Hobbs.
Owen made the -- the mistake,
his mistake, of going into the post office.
McFADDEN: The suspect thought he was
clever enough by removing his jacket.
But the camera caught him with that
same jacket being described by the witness.
Good idea at first, bad idea at the end.
RANDOLPH: The ability to secure this video broke the case wide open.
Short of having that video and being able to identify
that person going in there and taking off that coat,
I'm not so sure that this case would have ever been solved,
to be quite honest with you.
NARRATOR: Owen Hobbs is charged with murder.
He's convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
So many homicides that I've worked
are just completely senseless acts of violence.
Rashawn Berry was a completely innocent young man.
PLUMMER: Rashawn could still be alive if Owen hadn't had this --
this obsession with his ex-wife.
He was gonna kill somebody, and...
he did, I mean, he did.
BERRY: During the trial, when they brought him out,
as he was walking by me,
you know, and I stood up, and I said,
"You murdered my little brother -- for what?
For nothing."
We all beat ourselves up, wishing that we was
there or what could we have done about it?
Sometimes in life, you can't do anything but remember
them and pass their memory on to your kids.
Pass their memory on to anybody
that'll take time to listen.
BERRY: When you do good by people, good comes to you.
When you do bad by people, bad comes to you.
Rashawn didn't do bad by people.
He -- he was a good guy.
NARRATOR: Owen Hobbs died in prison in 2014.
BERRY: When they told me he passed away,
and I'm being honest with you,
it was a lot of tears, because it brought a lot of closure.
I wasn't wishing death on him, but hey...
you know...
you reap what you sow, I guess I'll say.
A police officer or not,
I mean, if you're out here committing crimes,
then your day is gonna come, and Owen's day came.
He committed the ultimate crime and took somebody's life,
and he got exactly what he deserved.