- Two young men gunned down in the heart of nashville.
- One of them is on the way to the hospital,
And the other one is here lying in the middle of the street.
- A music community in shock.
- A lot of people were horrified when this happened,
Because if it can happen to them,
It can happen to any one of us.
- A rising star cut down in his prime.
- This was his dream job.
- He was really a lovable kind of guy
And was so obsessed with music.
- A nearly impossible search for evidence.
- I say, how big of an area is this?
He said, man, it's the side of a mountain.
We find hundreds of bullets.
- And a surprise confession that finally reveals
The sordid and sinful truth.
- And so he tells me that...
He knows who killed kevin hughes.
[dramatic music]
["just another ghost"]
♪ ♪
- ♪ oh, child ♪
♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
[bluesy country music]
[train bell ringing]
♪ ♪
- Nashville, tennessee--
The undisputed capital of the country-music business.
- It was always the place people wanted to come.
You came to nashville to be a star.
- And in the late 1980s,
This was a certified platinum river of dreamers.
[upbeat country music]
- You would see a lot of people walking the streets
With their guitar,
Hoping that somebody would discover them,
Wanting to make it big.
- They were coming in by the busloads.
- But nobody expects their dreams
To end in a pool of blood on music row.
♪ ♪
- That night, I was on call as the primary
In the murder squad.
I was at home and just got a call.
The homicide sergeant at that time says,
Bill, we got bodies laying everywhere
Out on music row,
And you need to respond.
And so I hop in the car and drive to 16th avenue.
- It's 11:00 p.M. When detective pridemore
Arrives outside
Of evergreen records recording studio.
First responders are already on hand.
- One of the patrol officers--
He'd never seen anything like it.
There was so much blood.
- Two people were shot.
One of them's on the way to the hospital,
And the other one's here lying in the middle of the street.
- The victims of the shooting
Both have their wallets with them
And are identified as 21-year-old sammy sadler
And 23-year-old kevin hughes.
Sammy is in an ambulance on the way to the hospital,
But kevin is dead from multiple gunshots to the head.
With the victims accounted for,
Detectives begin a thorough investigation
Of the crime scene.
- Kevin hughes had a hand wound and head wound.
And then, naturally, we had the bullets
From kevin's body and the one they found on the ground.
But there's no footprints. There's no tire marks.
It's on asphalt, all concrete through there.
So there was no place to leave any type of physical evidence.
So, hopefully, someone saw the shooter.
- While kevin's body is taken to the medical examiner
For an autopsy,
Sammy is rushed into surgery
For his life-threatening injuries.
- Sammy was bleeding to death.
The bullet hit a major artery
And smashed through a nerve cluster.
- With sammy in surgery,
Detectives will have to wait until morning to talk to him.
So they begin to canvass the neighborhood
And find several folks who were inside their homes
When they heard gunfire around 9:00 p.M.
- They said that they heard one gunshot.
[gunshot]
- The shocked witnesses tell a consistent story.
They looked out their windows
And saw a man stumbling out of a parked car,
Blood streaming down his body.
That man was sammy sadler.
- Then they saw kevin running down the street,
And then they saw the shooter chasing him, firing a shot.
[gunshot]
Then he said, now I'm going to kill you,
Just like that, and fired two rounds...
[gunshots]
And then took off.
Sammy then runs up to the third floor
Of an apartment building
And runs into somebody's apartment,
Who administered first aid and called the police
And called an ambulance.
[dramatic music]
- The witnesses described a guy who was really stocky
And dressed all in black.
- Multiple witnesses said
That it was someone wearing a ski mask.
- They also report that the shooter fled on foot.
- And he ran with a limp.
We were hoping, as we did a canvass of the neighborhood,
That someone may have seen him prior to the murder
And then seen him afterwards.
But we were not able to find him.
So I'm hoping sammy could tell us who the shooter is
Or give us some sort of idea,
'cause at this point, we don't have any information.
But we have to wait until he's stable enough
To where we can talk to him.
- Investigators struggle to answer
The most basic questions about the crime.
- We didn't know the motive for what happened.
We had motives
That it was just an innocent, mistaken identity.
I was thinking, well, maybe it could be a robbery,
You know, because there's been
A lot of robberies in the area.
- But under scrutiny,
The robbery angle holds little water.
- If it was a robbery,
He would have at least attempted to get,
You know, his belongings from him.
The shooter made no attempt.
♪ ♪
- With two victims, one alive and one dead,
Detectives wonder who was the intended target
Or if this was just a random attack.
- So we were investigating it from every angle.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- It's late in the night
When detectives finish up at the crime scene.
But it is critical
To inform kevin hughes' next of kin of his death.
Sammy's friends and family are also informed
About his serious condition.
- We would make that a top priority,
Is to let the family know
Before the word gets out on the street.
- Kevin's parents are shocked by their son's murder.
- Anytime you notify next of kin, you know, it's hard.
It's...
You know, you want to ask them questions,
But you got to be sympathetic enough to let them grieve.
[somber music]
- Hours later, with sammy in critical condition,
Nashville wakes up to the tragic news.
- I was getting ready for work,
And I was watching television.
And they broke in with the local news.
They said kevin had been killed.
I felt very, very sad and very scared.
- A lot of people were horrified when this happened,
Because if it can happen to them,
It can happen to any one of us.
And so I think
There was a legitimate level of fear.
♪ ♪
- At that point in the investigation,
Every option is on the table.
But you still have to do what we call the victimology.
- Detectives discover that sammy sadler
Is a singer-songwriter.
The deceased victim, kevin hughes,
Worked at "cash box" magazine as a chart director.
- Kevin hughes was
A country boy from a small town in illinois.
- Kevin was pretty much brought up--
Very, very christian family, went to church every week.
And kevin just was so obsessed with music.
And he kind of reminded me of winnie the pooh.
He was really a lovable kind of guy--
You know, just always happy, jumping around.
- He had a lifelong dream of charting music.
- Charting music is when you rank songs by popularity.
- Back when he was in high school,
He would chart songs on the radio
And see how close his charts came up
With the official charts.
And he did that most of his adolescent life.
- In 1984, kevin moved to nashville
To attend belmont university,
The preeminent school for the music business.
- But he left belmont
When he was entering his senior year
To go full-time at "cash box" magazine.
♪ ♪
He had been working there as an intern,
And the position came open for him to take it
As the chart director, and this was his dream job.
[bluesy country music]
- Kevin and I were coworkers at "cash box" magazine.
So "cash box" is a magazine sort of like "billboard."
They have their charts.
- Radio stations report daily
How many times they played this song,
How many times it was requested.
The more times it had been played on the radio,
The higher up you are on the chart,
Which would regulate into sales of the actual record.
- Kevin loved his job. I mean, absolutely loved it.
And by the time I got there, he was just in his element.
- Kevin's job brought him in proximity to the musicians
That he had long idolized,
Including the other shooting victim, sammy sadler.
- Sammy saddler, reason why he was in nashville,
He wanted to make it big as an artist.
- He had the dream
That so many people coming to nashville do have
Of wanting to be that guy at the top of the charts
At some point and wanting to sell out those crowds
And make money doing what he loves.
- In nashville, that hunger for fame
Is like weeds in a vacant lot.
It's everywhere.
- It's a hard industry to be in.
You're doing anything you can to get ahead
And get discovered and have that big break.
- In the music scene, there's a lot of greed,
A lot of people willing to cut corners.
- That also opens all these different avenues
For people to find ways to get to the top
That might not be the right way to get to the top.
- Detectives have to wonder if the shooting
Was driven by the sins of greed and ambition.
[dramatic music]
- In my years in law enforcement,
It's money, sex, or power
That fuels violence and crime.
♪ ♪
- 24 hours after being shot,
Sammy sadler wakes up from multiple surgeries.
One bullet lodged in his arm
Will stay there the rest of his life.
Detectives are waiting
And expecting answers to their questions.
- He seemed a little traumatized,
But sammy was coherent enough for us to talk to him.
- Coming up...
- I'll never forget.
He said, sue, there's something that happened
That concerns me and upsets me.
- Sammy sadler told us that on the night of the murder,
Somebody was knocking on the door.
- The killer came out
And killed kevin there like it was a setup.
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- The shootings of sammy sadler
And kevin hughes
Outside of a nashville recording studio,
Have rocked the city's music world.
- You know, I started thinking about,
Maybe I ought to get a weapon
To carry with me and stuff, you know?
- Detectives are mystified by the crime.
But with sammy finally awake
After going through multiple surgeries on his injured arm,
They are hoping he can provide answers to their questions.
- The first time I saw him, had his arm up.
You know, his arm was hurting.
We didn't know if he could remember everything.
There was a possibility he didn't.
- Sammy is sedated and bleary,
But he asks detectives about kevin.
- He didn't know that kevin was dead.
That was just one more punch in the gut for sammy.
♪ ♪
- Despite sammy's physical trauma,
Detectives have to try and get as much information from him
As quickly as possible.
- Sammy told us that on the night of the murder,
Kevin was working late.
It was a Thursday.
He had to get the charts out for Friday
For the edition of "cash box."
So sammy called him and asked him to go out.
They had dinner, and then they stopped
At evergreen records, the recording studio,
After dinner to make a phone call.
- But sammy tells detectives
That while he was making that call to his folks,
Something strange happened.
- Somebody was knocking on the door.
So kevin went to the door.
♪ ♪
But he came back and said, I can't see anybody.
After sammy had finished his phone conversation,
He and kevin walked out.
Kevin had parked his car
On the south side of 16th avenue.
As kevin had gotten into the car,
Sammy was opening the car and getting into it
When the shooter approached sammy and shot him.
♪ ♪
And then kevin was sitting in the car,
Saw what was going on,
And he jumped out of the car and started running.
He got shot once while he was running...
[gunshot]
Fell down.
Then the shooter came over,
Stood over him,
Fired two more rounds...
[gunshots]
And then ran off.
So we were under the impression that the main target was kevin.
- Sammy swears he never got a good look at the triggerman.
- Sammy wasn't able to give us a very good description
Of the shooter,
Just that he was stocky and had a ski mask.
- But there's one detail about sammy's story
That doesn't sit quite right with detectives.
- We kept asking, who decided to go over to evergreen?
Did kevin know you were going to evergreen?
So you're looking at it
From an investigator's point of view.
It seemed like sammy is the one that asked him to go.
- Could sammy have set this whole thing up?
- My idea was that if he is involved,
He had to set up
Where they were going to be that night.
- Detectives know
That for an ambitious young country artist,
The music charts are essential to success.
Could that be connected to the motive to kill kevin?
Detectives press sammy for more information.
- We asked him, you know, did you shoot him?
Were you involved?
- They couldn't get over the fact
That they were together
And the killer came out and killed kevin there,
Like it was a setup.
- We thought, if he is involved,
Maybe somebody paid him
To bring him back to the office.
And then when we leave the office,
That's your chance.
- And sammy further stokes investigators' suspicions
When he asks for police protection.
- Why was he so concerned about someone coming after him
If it was, you know, robbery?
Maybe these guys were coming after him to take care of him.
If they're going to kill one, why not kill the guy
That could snitch on them?
We just didn't feel like
He was being completely honest with us.
I suspected him of being involved in it,
Either directly or indirectly.
- Detectives asked kevin's "cash box" colleagues
About sammy.
- Sammy was probably kevin's one friend
Outside the office that I know about,
And I think they did a lot of things together.
I know that the night he was killed,
Kevin was working late on the charts.
And sammy came by...
I guess, just to keep him company.
But I didn't know any more than that.
- When sammy is released from the hospital,
Detectives try one last technique
To determine if he's telling the truth--
A polygraph test.
- He passed.
So that gave us a little more information
That maybe he just didn't know.
- And if he had set up kevin's murder
And used his own shooting as a cover,
The grave injuries he suffered
Made it an exceptionally risky plan.
- You know, you never know how a bullet travels.
It could have gone anywhere and killed him.
♪ ♪
- Detectives now think sammy is an innocent victim.
So they clear him as a suspect
And leave him to continue his recovery.
Back in illinois, family and friends gather
For kevin hughes' funeral.
- It was a small, little church.
His dad consoled me, you know, because I was crying
And I was very upset.
He had very strong christian faith,
And so he was just saying, well, you know,
Kevin's up in heaven, and he's with the angels.
♪ ♪
- After the funeral, detectives ask kevin's family
If there was anything unusual going on in his life
Before his death.
And that's when they learn
That shortly before his murder,
Kevin had divulged some surprising news.
- His father gave us the information
That some things have happened in his job,
And he had to make a decision.
He was thinking about leaving nashville.
He was thinking about leaving because of his job.
- Kevin's parents knew that he was worried and anxious,
And they knew it was about his job.
But I don't think that he had told them
Exactly what was going on he was upset about.
- Kevin's colleague sue
Confirms what his parents told detectives.
- I'll never forget.
He said, sue, there's something that happened
That concerns me and upsets me,
And I want to talk to you about it,
But I want to talk to my parents first.
I just don't know,
But it was weighing really heavily on his mind.
He was scared of something.
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
[dramatic music]
- A week into the investigation
Into the brazen shooting
Of "cash box" magazine chart director kevin hughes,
Detectives learned that he had some problems with work,
And they wonder what could drive him
To want to quit his dream job and leave nashville.
- It is weird for someone to want to leave that environment
Unless it was a hostile environment.
- Detectives interview everyone at "cash box,"
Hoping to find the source of kevin's problem.
- Trying to find out all about kevin's history
And working pattern--
Who he worked with, who his friends were.
- And we tried to be as helpful as we could,
Basically, and answer the questions.
- And that's when we learned about chuck dixon,
An independent promoter.
♪ ♪
- He came by all the time, all the time,
Whether it was to visit with kevin
Or I think maybe to give suggestions
And stuff to people.
- Chuck dixon, he had a big cadillac.
He wore a big fur coat,
And he referred to himself in the third person.
- Chuck dixon was big in the music industry.
He was kind of that guy that you know if he shows up,
You're doing what he tells you to do.
- And chuck had grown close to kevin before his death.
- After kevin was murdered, I'll never forget--
Chuck dixon was sobbing.
I mean, he was just crying.
He was devastated by kevin's death.
- Detectives interview chuck,
But he seems as mystified as anyone about the shooting.
- When we talked to him,
He said he didn't know anything about it.
♪ ♪
- As detectives continue their interviews
With the circle of people around "cash box,"
Another name comes up-- tony d'antonio.
- Tony d'antonio was from philadelphia.
Then he went to vegas and was a car dealer
And then came to nashville.
- He was the previous chart director
At "cash box" magazine and a good friend of chuck's.
- Tony started out as a chart manager,
But it was taking too much of his time or whatever,
And so he hired kevin.
- Detectives hope that tony can shed some light
On why kevin was thinking about leaving "cash box."
- When we talked to tony,
He talked about kevin and how he knew kevin
And how he felt so sad because he said he's a nice kid.
- And when asked for his whereabouts
On the night of the murder, tony has an alibi.
He was at home with his wife, a fact she confirms.
- Nothing comes out of the interview with tony.
- Nobody seems to know what was going on
In kevin's work life that would cause him trouble.
And while detectives are convinced
That the shootings are connected to "cash box,"
They struggle to find any real evidence of how or why.
- We beat our heads over what was going on
At "cash box."
- But as the crime continues to make headlines,
Intriguing leads start to emerge.
- We're getting people calling and talking about,
There was disputes at "cash box"
Concerning the chart ratings and charts,
And you have to follow up on each one of those leads.
We followed up on as many as we could
And hoping one of them would lead us, you know,
In the right direction.
And we determined there's a good side of the business
And a bad side.
- But when detectives go back to "cash box"
To ask more questions,
Fear has descended on the staff.
- All of a sudden, everyone was zipping up,
Not wanting to talk to police, not wanting to talk to media,
Not wanting to really help out
In this investigation much at all.
- So we just had to go through the motions,
Trying to find somebody
That would tell us what was going on at work.
- There have always been guns and crime
And crazy marginal characters in the music business,
Just about every level.
- I was kind of scared at that point
Because I didn't know what had happened.
We don't know why he was killed.
We thought it sounded like it was a hit.
And we didn't know what was going on.
We didn't know who it was or...
Were we next?
♪ ♪
- Coming up...
- Kevin was dealing with illegal activity,
Way in over his head as far as who he was involved with.
- He said, well, I know who killed kevin hughes.
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
- Two weeks into the investigation
Of the murder of kevin hughes and shooting of sammy sadler,
The investigation is being stonewalled.
- The "cash box" employees wouldn't say a word to us.
They didn't want to talk to us about it.
- Detectives don't know
Whether it's because the employees
Are actually scared or because they are engaged
In some kind of illegal activity.
They reach out to sammy sadler,
Who's now out of the hospital,
And press him for more information.
But he swears he's told them everything he knows.
And no gun has been found to match the bullets
Gathered at the crime scene.
The shooting on music row is officially a cold case.
- Of course, we had other cases.
The murders just kept coming.
So when another case come along,
We had to devote all of our energy toward that.
- Kevin's friends and family wonder if justice
Will ever be served.
- I think there was a level of frustration, you know?
Why can't they catch this guy?
- I did keep in touch with kevin's parents.
That was hard on them. It was really, really hard.
At that point, they just wanted to know what happened.
[dramatic music]
- Although new cases demand his attention,
The unsolved shooting on music row
Never leaves pridemore's mind.
And as sammy sadler slowly recovers from his injuries,
He tries to forget the awful events of March 1989
And rebuild his music career.
- He really is a very good singer,
And he recorded good songs, really good songs.
♪ ♪
- Then, four years later, in 1993...
[telephone ringing]
Detective pridemore gets a call from an agent
At the georgia bureau of investigations
Who's working with an informant
On an unrelated case.
- Agent dale thomas said he wanted to meet with us.
He had an informant who had conversations
With tony d'antonio.
- The very same tony d'antonio
That had been the chart director
At "cash box" before kevin.
- It was concerning purchasing of a gun of some sort.
- The agent tells detective pridemore
That the informant claims to have sold an unregistered gun
To tony d'antonio on March 9, 1989,
The exact day kevin and sammy were shot.
[siren wailing] [gunshots]
- And I said, man, we need to talk to this guy.
But the gbi agent said, you can't use him.
This informant is undercover with me right now.
He said, when I'm finished with him, you can have him.
- Pridemore is frustrated that he can't speak
To the undercover informant
But grateful for this new lead
That points a suspicious finger at tony d'antonio
- Now we knew what direction to go in.
So we went back and started reinterviewing people
And getting a better idea of tony.
- With distance from the murder,
People are more willing to talk about tony
And the greedy underbelly
Of the nashville music business.
- It's a business that might be people's passion,
But passion also equals money.
Behind the scenes, there's a lot of cutthroat,
Going at each other,
Every man for himself type of stuff.
- In 1993, they are only rumors.
But the tales they tell
Are darker than a tennessee coal mine.
- At that time, it was kind of a not-very-well-kept secret
That there was this payola scheme with "cash box."
Payola is when promoters or artists are giving
Certain amount of monies to fudge a little bit
And put their songs higher up on a chart.
- We heard it all depended on how many ads you bought
From the magazine
To determine how high up you went in the chart.
Once you stop buying the ads or slowed down,
Then your song would drop, and then that's it.
You're gone.
That was the word we were getting from anonymous sources.
- And the two people at the heart of the rumors
About the "cash box" scam throughout the 1980s?
The two people police had interviewed
Four years earlier--
Independent music promoter chuck dixon
And former "cash box" chart director tony d'antonio.
- All the rumors were,
Chuck dixon and tony d'antonio
Were both getting paid to place songs
Higher up on charts.
- According to sources, this was the wicked system
That was in place
When the clean-cut kevin hughes arrived
As the new chart director at "cash box" in 1987,
And it continued long after his death.
- Kevin was a lot different.
He was a small-town guy,
Came to nashville to go to school
And break into the music business
In an honest way.
- Did kevin hughes run afoul
Of chuck and tony's dirty scheme
And end up paying the ultimate price?
[gunshots]
Pridemore doesn't have any proof,
But he does have his instincts.
- Our feelings at that point were,
We had a true motive.
Kevin was dealing with illegal activity.
He was way in over his head,
As far as who he was involved with.
And that's what got him killed.
- But despite many in the music business
Being aware of the dirty business at "cash box,"
Investigators have never been able to prove
The payola rumors,
And the owners of "cash box" have always denied it.
There's no physical evidence, no on-the-record witnesses,
Nothing that a prosecutor can use.
And then, finally, in 2002,
Detectives get the news they've been waiting for.
The undercover informant is finally free
To talk about the gun he sold tony d'antonio
In 1989.
- His name is steve daniels,
And we drove down to georgia and talked to him.
That's when it all started coming out.
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
[dramatic music]
- In 2002, the informant who told georgia authorities
That he'd sold a gun to tony d'antonio
Is no longer undercover.
His name is steve daniels,
And detective pridemore races down to georgia
To talk to him.
Daniels tells detectives that back in the late '80s,
He and tony d'antonio were in cahoots together.
- He and tony had been transporting drugs--
Marijuana-- from texas to nashville
And that they'd done it several times.
- And steve said tony had bought a gun from him
On March 9, 1989,
The same night kevin was murdered.
And then in 1993,
Steve daniel heard about the murder
Of kevin hughes on crime stoppers,
And something clicked in his mind.
- That's when daniels realized that d'antonio
Matched the description of the shooter.
- So he's got the right height, the right build.
I said, but what else do you think
Would make us believe it's tony?
And I'll never forget. He laughed.
He said, he runs like a duck. He waddles like a duck.
The profile of the shooter was that he ran with a limp.
So everything matches
The early part of the investigation.
So we knew tony was the guy.
- But detective pridemore needs hard evidence
To make a case.
So he presses daniels for more information
About when he sold the gun to d'antonio.
- Did you test-fire the gun?
He says, yeah, I test-fired the gun
Before I sold it to him.
So he showed us where he test-fired the gun.
I said, how big of an area is this?
He said, man, it's the side of a mountain.
♪ ♪
- Daniels points to a forested area
On a map of northern georgia.
- He said, this whole area here,
There's all kinds of bullets in there--
Shotguns, rifles, pistols.
Everybody that came over, we used to shoot guns.
♪ ♪
So I thought, well, this is going to be impossible.
- It might be a needle in a haystack,
But if pridemore can find a bullet that matches
The one found at the crime scene,
It would link d'antonio's gun purchase
To the gun used in the shootings.
- So we go up there, and we search.
And you just go up there and scoop with a sifter,
And we find hundreds of bullets.
I'm overwhelmed.
I said, there is no way I can take all these bullets back.
So I said, let's just take a handful.
So I scooped up a handful of the bullets,
And I put them in a bag
And brought them back to nashville.
- Detectives bring the bullets to the ballistics lab,
Praying for the remote chance of a match
With the ones found at the crime scene in 1989.
- The firearms examiner, he called me the next day,
And he said, most of the bullets
That you brought me are not worth a damn.
He said, but the third one is a perfect match
To the bullet that came out of kevin's head.
♪ ♪
- Detective pridemore can hardly believe his ears.
- Because the odds of ever finding a bullet
In that mountainside with those hundreds of bullets,
I mean, that's a god thing.
I knew god was the reason why that happened.
- Armed with this critical piece of evidence,
Detectives are now firmly convinced
That tony d'antonio killed kevin.
In July 2002, d'antonio is tracked down
And arrested in las vegas,
Where he now works as a casino pit boss.
- When they walked up,
Tony said, is this about the kevin thing?
They said that he seemed almost relieved to see them.
- He is extradited back to nashville
And charged with the murder of kevin hughes
And the attempted murder of sammy sadler.
Tony pleads not guilty.
Even with steve daniels' testimony
And the ballistics evidence,
Prosecutors know a guilty verdict
Is far from guaranteed.
And then they catch a break.
In 2002,
An investigator in the nashville da's office,
Myra langlois, finally cracks the chart-fixing scam
Around "cash box" magazine.
She arrests local music promoter
Robert metzger for fraud.
- Robert metzger was a shady character.
He was one of these people that was taking money
From innocent victims, wannabe stars,
And pretending to run them up the "cash box" chart.
- Investigator langlois thinks she's just working
A case of simple fraud.
But to her surprise,
Under pressure and facing prison time,
Metzger offers up a scintillating tidbit
About kevin hughes' murder.
- He said, well, I know who killed kevin hughes.
At the time, I didn't know about kevin in 1989.
I had to go look it up.
And I said, well, what do you know about it?
He said,
Well, I was in the room
When kevin hughes' murder was discussed.
- ♪ come home to the gallows pole ♪
- ♪ judgment day shall come ♪
[train bell ringing, horn blowing]
[country music]
- Independent music promoter robert metzger
Is staring down jail time for scamming aspiring musicians
Out of their hard-earned money.
Looking for a way out of his legal trouble,
He offers investigators critical information
About the 1989 double shooting
Of kevin hughes and sammy sadler.
- And so he tells me he knows who killed kevin hughes.
- Metzger tells investigator langlois
That in 1989, he was a participant in chuck dixon
And tony d'antonio's greed-fueled payola scheme.
- He was making payments to chuck
To run his clients up the "cash box" chart.
According to robert metzger, he saw an argument
Between chuck dixon and kevin hughes.
A week or so before kevin was killed,
Chuck was trying to give him money.
Kevin hughes was refusing the money.
And then a few days later,
Chuck dixon, tony d'antonio, and robert metzger
Have a meeting.
And there's discussion about robert metzger saying,
I'm not going to pay you this $15,000
Unless you can handle kevin hughes
Because he's going to blow up
What you've got going on here at "cash box."
And chuck dixon's response is, I can handle kevin hughes.
And if I can't handle him, he'll be gone.
I had figured out that this was an open investigation
Over at the nashville police department.
And so I called over there.
I gave them the information.
- When detective pridemore gets the call
About robert metzger's story,
He knows it's the final piece of the puzzle
Of why kevin hughes was killed.
- Kevin said, everybody's cheating,
Getting a little money,
And he was going to try to clean it up.
- With kevin threatening to destroy
Their crooked business, chuck dixon and tony d'antonio
Decided to kill kevin,
With tony doing the dirty work himself.
- Tony d'antonio and chuck dixon
Were power-hungry, egomaniac psychopaths.
- But there will be no comeuppance for chuck dixon.
He died of cancer in 2001.
That leaves tony d'antonio
To face the music alone.
In September 2003, d'antonio's trial begins.
- I went to the trial, and I'll never forget
Going into that courtroom and seeing tony there.
And, boy, he looked scary,
Really scary at that point.
- Facing tony's intimidating presence,
Kevin's former colleagues take the stand
And testify to the possible motive.
- And there were witnesses
That believed he was about to blow the lid
On this chart-fixing thing.
- Since the murder weapon was never found,
Prosecutors must rely
On the testimony of robert metzger,
Steve daniels, and the ballistics reports
To prove their case
And, of course, sammy sadler's emotional
And chilling firsthand account
Of the night that changed his life forever.
[gunshot]
And what about d'antonio's alibi
That he was with his wife the night of the murder?
- Detectives spoke to tony's now ex-wife
And got her to tell the truth,
That tony didn't come home till after 3:00
That night that kevin was murdered.
- But, I mean, we all were still not sure
That, you know, it was going to come
To where he was guilty.
[dramatic music]
- On September 24, 2003,
The jury returns a verdict
After eight hours of deliberation.
- When the verdict came out,
They found tony d'antonio guilty of first-degree murder.
And then guilty of sammy sadler's
Attempted murder.
- I was very, very pleased.
It was a special feeling because it was my case.
♪ ♪
- Two weeks later, tony d'antonio is sentenced
To life without parole.
He died in prison in 2014.
Kevin hughes landed in nashville with dreams,
But he had the misfortune of crossing paths
With an evil he couldn't have imagined.
- I think when kevin started that job,
He thought he had landed the job of a lifetime for him.
I think that he thought it was all just legit.
- It was all about greed,
And I just don't think kevin understood
The depth of evil that tony was capable of.
- And while sammy sadler does rebuild his life and career,
The bullet lodged in his arm
Will never let him forget that dark night.
- All for almighty dollar, you know?
Where did it get tony?
♪ ♪
- It's a real tragic tale,
And I think that kevin hughes deserves to be remembered
As someone who...
Was trying to do the right thing,
Maybe got in a little over his head.
But when he figured out he was over his head,
He was still trying to do the right thing.
- Kevin loved life. He loved his job.
I think his dream was like the american dream--
To get married and have the white picket fence,
And he was robbed of all of that.
♪ ♪