I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2020) s01e07 Episode Script

1
MICHELLE MCNAMARA: I handled
my first crime scene evidence
the summer I was 14.
Specifically, broken pieces
from a yellow Walkman.
A Walkman that 48 hours earlier
had been in the ears
of Kathy Lombardo.
She'd been jogging
a block and a half
from her family's house,
and a man's hands
shot forth suddenly
in the darkness.
(KATHY LOMBARDO PANTING)
MICHELLE:
There was the shock of his hands
and the brutal force
with which he brought her down,
-dragging her into the alley
-(GARBAGE CANS CLATTERING)
slamming her
into the garbage cans,
where he raped Kathy,
stabbed her, slit her throat,
then disappeared.
Never again would I tune out
when the words "homicide"
or "missing,"
or "mystery" came on the news.
REPORTER 1:
The mystery surrounding
the so-called
Golden State Killer
responsible for a slew
of murders and rapes
MICHELLE: He's the worst serial
offender in modern history.
And it really seems to me that,
frankly, it should be solved.
I mean, it just should be.
I felt, in the truest sense
of the word, gripped.
Like an unseen force
had locked onto me,
refusing to let go.
REPORTER 2: We found
the needle in the haystack.
MICHELLE: I had a murder habit,
and it was bad.
I would feed it
for the rest of my life.
Well I stepped
Into an avalanche ♪
It covered up my soul ♪
When I am not this hunchback
That you see ♪
I sleep beneath
The golden hill ♪
You who wish to conquer pain ♪
You must learn
Learn to serve me well ♪
REPORTER 3:
The sentencing hearing has begun
for convicted East Area Rapist
and the Golden State Killer,
Joseph DeAngelo.
The man
who terrorized California
in a series of rapes
and murders lasting a decade.
Because of the sheer
number of crimes,
his sentencing will take place
over the course of four days.
All rise.
Department 24 of
the Superior Court of California
in and for
the County of Sacramento
is in session.
The Honorable Michael Bowman,
Judge, presiding.
The People's State of California
versus Joseph James DeAngelo.
Is that your true
and correct name, sir?
MICHAEL BOWMAN:
Is that your true name, sir?
Yes, Your Honor.
BOWMAN: Thank you. Mr. DeAngelo,
do you have any questions
before we proceed further?
-JOSEPH DEANGELO: No.
-BOWMAN: Thank you.
GAY HARDWICK: For over 40 years,
I would be reminded by my brain
that it had been okay
for someone to come
into my home
and to
wreak havoc on my body
and my mind
and my relationship
and cause a lifelong pain.
And that there was no justice.
BOB HARDWICK:
When I sat in that room
with all the victims,
I just-- I just listen.
I was just, "God dang."
Uh, it really got me,
and I'm pretty stoic. (CHUCKLES)
-I think he used
the term "horrified."
-It was just--
-I was--
-He was horrified.
I was horrified
that this guy did so much
to so many people.
It really hit me home.
GAY: The 50 sexual assaults
13 murders
and it was so wrong
that he was living
and hiding amongst us somewhere.
But today, I don't need
to worry about it anymore.
ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT:
Many people have asked
and wondered,
-really, who is Joseph DeAngelo?
-(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
Is he a feeble, old,
74-year-old man?
Is he psychologically impaired?
Is he physically impaired?
Is he even competent
to stand trial
when he rolled in
in a wheelchair?
The truth
of who Joseph DeAngelo is
lies not just in what happened
in the courthouse
but what has happened
in his jail cell.
Think back on the crimes
that he committed.
Think back what he did
to shadow the light.
You can see that Joseph DeAngelo
is no different today
than he was 45 years ago.
And the answer
to those questions
that so many people
have wondered
lies within the definition
of a sociopath.
A sociopath is a person
who lies,
deceives, and manipulates others
for no other reason
than personal gain.
He's not a feeble old man.
He has, and always will, be
a sociopath in action.
THIEN HO: While sitting alone
in the interview room
on April the 24th, 2018,
Joseph DeAngelo began
to talk to himself.
And he feigned
feeble incoherence.
And, among other things, said
"I didn't wanna do those things,
but Jerry made me.
I didn't have the strength
to push him out.
He went with me. It was like
in my head he's a part of me.
I pushed Jerry out
and had a happy life.
I've destroyed all their lives,
so now I gotta pay the price."
This investigation uncovered
that he just pretended
to act crazy
to avoid getting in trouble.
(NOTIFICATIONS PING)
MICHELLE: I've been obsessed
with the East Area Rapist
and the Original Night Stalker
for years.
INTERVIEWER: So to keep
the one guy straight,
you renamed him
"the Golden State Killer?"
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, that was
something I came up with
just because he kind of snaked
his way down the state.
Most people, I guess,
who get lost in the forest
die because
they won't change direction.
I understand that because
I've now committed myself
-so much to this guy
-(INTERVIEWER LAUGHING)
it can't be
that I don't find him. Like--
-INTERVIEWER: Right.
-He's taken over my life.
REPORTER 4: Until her death,
crime writer Michelle McNamara
was obsessed with
the Golden State Killer case.
The Oak Park native
wrote the book
I'll Be Gone in the Dark.
McNamara's book sparked
renewed interest in this case.
MICHELLE:
Violent men unknown to me
have occupied my mind
all my adult life.
I'm envious of people obsessed
with the Civil War,
which brims with details
but is contained.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MICHELLE: In my case,
the monsters recede
but never vanish.
They are long dead
and being born as I write.
The first one, faceless
and never caught
marked me at 14.
-(MARCHING BAND PLAYING) ♪
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER 5: The village
of Oak Park, Illinois,
a town of stately trees
and big homes,
where Ernest Hemingway and
Frank Lloyd Wright once lived,
was declared to be
an All-America City.
MICHELLE: We lived in Oak Park,
just west of Chicago.
And by the 1980s,
Oak Park had a reputation
for a kind of
privileged liberalism,
progressive at a remove.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CROWD CHEERING)
MICHELLE: It was August 1984.
Corey Hart's
"Sunglasses At Night"
was everywhere.
Kathy Lombardo probably wasn't
into "Sunglasses At Night."
She was more likely
a "Stuck On You" kind of person.
Maybe she'd been listening to it
when the moment occurred.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
The moment that led
to my furtive handling
of her broken Walkman.
REPORTER 6:
Kathy was covered in blood,
stabbed in the neck,
chest, and, abdomen,
and she had been
sexually assaulted.
MICHELLE: I remember knowing
just from the way
my mother and sister
stood looking out
the second-floor window
that something terrible
had happened.
Terrible things never happened.
-RALPH: I'm Ralph.
-MICHELLE: Hi, I'm Michelle.
-RALPH: Michelle.
-MICHELLE: Yes.
-(DOOR CLOSES)
-RALPH: Okay. Have a seat.
MICHELLE: Kathleen's murder
had a big impact on me.
But it wasn't until
I returned home recently
that I really looked into
how it was investigated
and what happened.
MICHELLE: I just was trying
to get, you know,
to talk to local people
and stuff like that
-NEIGHBOR: Uh-huh.
-and I was just wondering
if I could chat with you
-for a second or two?
-NEIGHBOR: Nope.
MICHELLE: Sometimes it takes
a little heat
from a writer or a reporter,
and I'm happy to be that person.
What an amazing thing
it would be
to have closure for the family.
I hope to interview
her brother Christopher soon.
(PAPERS RUSTLING)
This is one of the last pictures
I have of my sister
and how she looked at the time
of her death.
She had short hair.
She was a sweet girl.
I remember distinctly
that night.
The phone rang, I picked it up,
and my mother screamed
into the phone,
"Your sister
was murdered tonight."
And then she just
started crying.
There's, there's no--
There's, you know--
You don't plan
for things like that.
She had a job that
she could support herself on.
This is my sister's, uh,
Marshall Field's credit card.
Marshall Field's
was the department store
that she worked for.
And she had just started
to live her life.
And then this happened.
I don't like the idea of anyone
committing a crime like this
and then just walking away.
I have tried to advance
an answer to this question,
who killed Kathy, many times
over the past 30 years.
After I read Michelle's book
I was really surprised
at how much about Kathy's murder
was in the book,
the level of detail
about Michelle's contacts
with the teenagers
who found her body.
MICHELLE: Walking back
into my childhood.
Crunch as our shoes
hit the ground.
Tom was a year below me
at St. Edmonds
and was one of the boys
who found Kathy's body.
I know very little about him,
aside from that
the same night in August 1984
changed both of our lives.
MICHELLE:
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Sure, that's fine.
There were five of us
all in a row
just kind of walking up
the alley, um
you know, getting ready
to get a Slurpee or something
at the--
at the White Hen.
You know, as you get in here,
you're kind of surrounded
by these garages around you.
Uh, and then there's gangways
in between.
Usually on any
given Friday night,
there were 30, 40 kids
in the neighborhood
playing around,
but that night
there was just five of us,
and we came walking up
the alley here.
In the summertime,
it was a grass patch here
and a grass patch here
and the big trees,
you know, making
veritable tunnels.
As we got up, uh, through here,
there's the light,
and so it cast a dark shadow
right across here.
Um Then as we came through,
uh, that's when
we came across here,
and my brother kind of losing it
and saying,
"Holy shit, holy shit."
And that's
that's where we found her.
Then I noticed that
that something was happening
on her neck.
And you could see,
I could see her face, and it
it was someone who was alive,
and that's what I can't
And I remember saying,
"Hey, we need to get some help.
We need some adults."
That's when Dan decided to run,
uh, to the house over there
and I decided to go up
the alleyway to the White Hen.
REPORTER 7:
Last night, somebody grabbed
the 24-year-old Oak Park woman
in an alley,
probably from behind,
stabbed her in the heart,
and slashed her throat.
Police say she was probably
sexually attacked as well.
She was found just after
ten o'clock by two youths
who called a neighbor
to the scene.
-KIM KNEBEL:
We're in the house, and
I'm playing
with my oldest son
when two boys
came running to the door
and told me
somebody was hurt in the alley.
And I went running over there.
By the time
I had gotten there
it was too late.
I got there
and went to reach down
to check her carotid pulse,
and her throat was slit open.
TOM: By the time I came back,
the neighbor was there
and he was holding
his hand on her neck.
And I was just
kind of taking it in.
KIM: She was turning pale fast,
and, uh
she was dead.
TOM: I remember that night
and seeing her face. Um
And I could see light
in her eyes,
and I think
it was just the reflection
of the streetlight.
And then it was just gone.
MICHELLE: But then
who else was attacked?
Was it someone our age?
TOM: Yeah,
so just a block over, uh,
from where we're at.
A block over and just
on the other side of the street
is where Grace Puccetti
was attacked.
MICHELLE: Yeah.
I'll-- I'll maybe
track her down. Yeah.
Do either of you know
an Oak Park woman
named Grace Puccetti?
I'm asking
because she was involved
in a very similar incident
to what happened
to Kathy Lombardo,
but about a year or two before,
only about a half a block away.
GRACE PUCCETTI: When I was
a teenager, I liked to dance.
I really liked
the technical aspect of it,
you know, the details.
It was December 8th.
I was coming out of ballet.
My mother had given me
20 dollars,
and she was like,
"Go buy some Christmas lights."
I was walking home,
and then I turned
and went down Pleasant Street.
I could kind of sense
that someone was nearby.
I kept thinking,
"Okay, well, it seems like
the person's walking
a little faster."
And you can sense
when someone's there.
But it just seemed that
"I'm almost home.
I'm half a block from my house.
Nothing's gonna happen."
And then someone appeared
next to me
and asked me how I'm doing.
I turned to the right,
and out of the corner
of this eye,
I saw a knife pull up.
And he had grabbed me
with a knife
and pulled me into the alley.
He smelled like cigarettes
and malt liquor.
Then he proceeded
to tell me to
um
pull down my pants.
And I'm like, "I-- I can't,
I'm wearing a leotard."
And then he didn't understand
what a leotard is,
so then I was trying
to explain what a leotard was,
and then he was just getting
madder and madder.
Just constantly saying,
"Shut the fuck up.
Shut the fuck up."
Then he finally said,
"I'm not going to hurt you."
I could feel,
as he's saying that,
the knife
going into my throat.
Next thing I knew,
I was laying on my back,
staring at the sky
thinking, "That's it."
But then I realized
my house is four doors away,
and I thought,
"If I'm gonna die,
I'm gonna die
at my own house."
So I got up
and stumbled my way
down the alley
and went to the back door.
My dad came to the door
and was just in shock.
And I just laid on the floor
and waited for
the paramedics to arrive.
When I got home
from the hospital,
my mother had made sure that
no one really talked about it.
Because, as she saw it,
with anyone who's attacked,
the victim becomes
another victim of the system.
So she didn't want that
to happen.
And I don't know,
in a way, I thought,
"You know what? She's right."
You know, is it worth it?
Is-- is-- is it worth it
to relive it
and to pursue something
that you might never win?
MICHELLE:
Eventually, the case report
is put in a file, in a box,
then in a room.
The door is shut.
Yellowing of paper
and fading of memory commence.
What happened to them is buried,
bright and unmoving,
a coin at the bottom of a pool.
KRIS PEDRETTI:
When an assault happens
your whole world
kind of crashes down on you.
I think it's very normal
to go inward.
For so many years,
that's what I did.
But what I've learned is that
you can't heal
unless you can talk about it.
Acknowledgement goes a long way.
REPORTER 8: Today,
74-year-old Joseph DeAngelo
will sit and hear from more than
two dozen women survivors
he terrorized
in Northern California.
REPORTER 9: This is the day
they've been waiting for
since this all started
decades ago.
All survivors and families
of the murder victims
are expected to be here as well.
KRIS: Obviously,
he was gonna be charged
with the murders.
But for the majority
of the rape survivors
the statute of limitations
was three years.
So when he was captured,
there was nothing
that they could charge him with
in our rapes.
And so once we found out
that there was the possibility
of a plea agreement,
we wanted to be heard.
We wanted him to acknowledge
not just the people
that had charges against him,
but all the many of the women
that he, um
raped and assaulted
and terrorized.
So part of the plea agreement
was that he was going to admit
to everything.
BAILIFF: Please remain seated
and come to order.
Court is back in session.
BOWMAN: Thank you.
We're back on the record
in the DeAngelo matter.
Mr. DeAngelo's present
with counsel.
This is the time we've scheduled
to hear from the victims
and victims' family.
As a reminder
for those speaking,
you've waited a long time
to be heard.
There's no reason to rush,
so you take your time.
I wanna hear every word
that you have to say,
and I wanna make sure we have
an accurate record, as well.
Is there any victim
or victim's family member
that wishes to be heard
at this time?
-KRIS: Yes, Your Honor.
-BOWMAN: Thank you.
My name is Kris Pedretti.
And thank you for allowing me
to share the impact
that Joseph James DeAngelo
had on me
the night he raped
and threatened constantly
to kill me.
I was a normal 15-year-old kid.
My safety was shattered
as a masked man,
DeAngelo, yielding a knife,
told me he would kill me
if I didn't do what he demanded.
DeAngelo stole
my formative years.
He stole my youth, my innocence,
my faith, and my trust.
Who could I have grown up to be?
I guess I'll never know.
BOWMAN: Regarding
the uncharged offense of rape,
of making a criminal threat,
and the false imprisonment
of Jane Doe number 24,
do you admit or deny that?
I admit.
GAY: While living
in the first home
my husband and I
purchased together,
where we had so much hope
for our future
on March 18th, 1978,
Joe DeAngelo attacked us
while we were sleeping.
BOWMAN: Regarding
the uncharged offense
of kidnapping to commit robbery,
false imprisonment,
making a criminal threat,
and the rape
of Jane Doe number 39,
do you admit or deny that?
JOSEPH: I admit.
LINDA O'DELL: My date
is May 14th, 1977.
Today is for my granddaughter
because I wanna teach her
to be brave and strong.
And it's for my family
and friends
that have stood by me.
BOWMAN: Regarding count 18
and the charged offense
of false imprisonment,
kidnapping with intent
to commit robbery,
making a criminal threat,
and the rape of Jane Doe 5,
-do you admit or deny that?
-JOSEPH: I admit.
Regarding the uncharged offense
of rape
-of Jane Doe number 7
-JOSEPH: I admit.
Jane Doe number 8,
Jane Doe number 14,
Jane Doe number 26,
Jane Doe number 31,
-Jane Doe number 50
-JOSEPH: I admit.
I want to especially thank
a friend
that's accompanying me today,
Bonnie.
Even a gun pointed at her face
could not make her choose you.
BOWMAN: In the charge of murder
of Charlene Smith
and the charge of murder
of Lyman Smith,
how do you plead?
JOSEPH: Guilty.
DEBBI DOMINGO:
After my mother's murder
I had stumbled into drug use,
and that started
a fast downward spiral.
If I had my way,
Joseph James DeAngelo
would be shivering,
blindfolded,
naked and exposed
every moment from now on.
BOB: Four nights a week,
he can be awakened
by masked inmates.
His attackers
would repeatedly rape him
like these women were raped.
I would want
Mr. DeAngelo to suffer
for the rest of his life,
like my wife
has suffered with this
going on 42 years now.
GAY: My life was now
full of creases and wrinkles,
and no matter how hard
I tried to iron them all away
and press them
and smooth the lines,
make it function,
my life would never
be the same again.
-(ORNAMENTS CLINKING)
-There.
GRACE: I used to
always tell people
that, you know, it's the past
and I've just been trying
to move on.
But you actually don't.
There's always a reminder.
-Here's your ballet shoe.
-(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GRACE: Not talking about it
did affect me in the long run.
And it took me years
to actually, um
you know, go see someone
Where should I put this one?
after being attacked.
Down here?
I felt like the police
didn't want that kind of news
in the community.
I remember in one
of the papers, it just said,
"Girl, 15, cut
and robbed."
I wasn't, like, "almost raped."
I wasn't, you know, "stabbed."
And I thought
that was kind of like
a whitewashing of the story.
And then
a year and a half later,
Kathy Lombardo was killed.
Not even a block away.
REPORTER 10:
Just 15 minutes before,
she'd been seen going by
the alley where she was found,
a tall man following behind.
CHRIS LOMBARDO: One
of the theories about the case
was that the guy who did this
came from outside the community,
may have ridden
the L to Oak Park.
The Oak Park police
are seeking a subject
described as a Black male,
25 to 30 years of age,
six feet tall,
medium to muscular build,
wearing a blue bandana
around his head,
a yellow tank top,
dark shorts,
and knee-length athletic socks.
CHRIS: The other theory was that
it was someone she knew.
This grey house,
the second from the corner,
is the house
that Kathy and I grew up in.
My parents and younger brother
lived in this house
when my sister was murdered.
When the police arrived
at my parents' house
to start asking questions,
they were increasingly insistent
that my parents
or siblings and I should be
giving them information,
and they became increasingly
unpleasant about that.
They wanted us
to give them a name,
and they would knock on a door,
and the person would still
be wearing the bloody clothes
and say, "Yes, I did it."
They did a poor investigation.
The crime scene was trampled.
And the materials
were poorly handled.
And then, four months after
my sister was murdered,
they said,
"We have no leads,
no identified suspects,
and we're stopping
our investigation."
MICHELLE: The case has a lot
of tragic twists and turns
in terms of some dropped leads,
in my opinion.
Frankly, it just reeked
of bad police work
and possibly mishandling
of evidence.
So I connected
with this former detective
in Chicago named George Seibel.
GEORGE SEIBEL: I don't know if
being a cold case investigator
is what I do
or what I am anymore.
After I left
the police department,
I saw a large amount
of violence upon women
in the area of Oak Park.
It was not long after,
uh, Kathleen's death
that we started
looking at this stuff.
I have gone through
hundreds of articles.
And what I found was a pattern
of similar crimes.
On Memorial Day weekend
of 1978,
Rita Hopkinson was killed,
stabbed in an attempt
at sexual assault.
REPORTER 11: She was stabbed
six times in the chest
and slashed twice on the arm.
Her struggle started
at the top of these steps
and ended hundreds
of feet down the ramp
on this platform,
where she died.
GEORGE: A witness
described the attacker
as a clean-cut looking,
young Black guy.
And then there was
the jogger rapist crime pattern,
where there were
at least six rapes
in a forest reserve.
Immediately after that
slowed down and stopped,
another rape pattern began
along Washington Boulevard,
where there were
a number of rapes
with precisely the same
method of operation.
My theory is,
I believe that we're looking
for one lone offender.
CHRIS: When I learned that
there were so many, uh, rapes
and occasionally murders
that were of a kind
similar to my sister's,
I went to go talk
to the detective
who was assigned
to run the investigation.
He said to me,
"Oh, if we had the manpower,
we'd be working
on this every day.
There's lot of things
I could think of to do,
and I'd like to work on this,
but we don't have the staff."
-(PHONE LINE CLICKS)
-TIM UNZICKER: Hiya, Michelle.
It's the Oak Park
Police Department.
And unfortunately, not to add
red tape to your woes,
but I can't talk to you directly
about the case,
at least without you going
through, um, official channels.
(WIND WHISTLING)
MICHELLE:
You get a feeling like--
because I exclusively write
about cold cases--
there's really no reason,
because you're talking about
an old case,
that someone shouldn't
be able to, like,
share with you
certain details of the case,
because they want exposure.
And very rarely do I ever
encounter anyone who's like,
"I can't tell you
about that case."
GEORGE: At the time,
there was an immense effort
to sell Oak Park
as a progressive,
enlightened community
where all people hold hands
and dance in circles.
Unfortunately,
people were getting raped
all over hell and gone.
And maybe their comfort level
was that they couldn't stand
paying attention
to what was going on.
(CROWD CHEERING)
I'd like to live in Oak Park.
I think there's a lot to offer.
I'd like my kids
to grow up here.
INTERVIEWER 2:
I hope so.
I don't know,
if I find somewhere else,
I'm gonna always
come back to Oak Park.
-(CROWD CHEERING)
-(MARCHING BAND PLAYING) ♪
GRACE: I don't necessarily
blame the town.
But I was angry.
Because I felt like the police
or someone was just trying
to keep people
from being fearful.
And the more public involvement
in making sure
uh, crimes are solved,
the better.
-(KNOCKING)
-(DOOR OPENS)
MICHELLE: I just was trying
to get, you know,
to talk to local people
and stuff like that
GRACE: At some point,
I had received an email
-from Michelle.
-(COMPUTER BEEPS)
GRACE: She was trying to get
more information about my story.
But I didn't know if I really
wanted to talk about it,
and so I didn't respond to it.
And then, she died.
Without someone
like that pursuing this
this is never going
to get solved.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHRIS: At this point,
I don't have any real hope
that the Oak Park police
will devote resources
or energy to my sister's murder.
But I'm still somewhat hopeful
that this is a solvable case.
This crime affected
not just my life
and my parents' lives
and shortened my mother's life
and is something that
my brothers and I think about
every single day,
but it's something that touched
a lot of other people's lives
as well.
CHRIS:
And we're not the only ones
who want to find that person.
-Come on, Michelle.
Good job, guys!
MICHELLE: Two days
after the murder,
I walked over
to the crime scene.
I don't know
if this next part is true.
I remember picking up a chip
from a shattered Walkman
in the very spot
I heard her body was found.
Did I really?
Or is it a memory
I willed into existence,
giving color and movement
to a moment that lived
only in my head?
I don't know.
But I know that visit
to the crime scene
was the beginning,
the origin
of my obsession story,
for it was there
that I first experienced
the narcotic pull
of an unsolved murder.
I felt like I knew a secret,
and that secret
had changed me forever.
(MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SCHUBERT:
It has been 16,417 days
since Joseph DeAngelo
began his reign of terror.
REPORTER 12:
Over the past three days,
we heard from the women he raped
and from the family
of those he killed.
REPORTER 13: Now, this morning,
the finale
of a historic criminal case,
the sentencing will begin
in just a few hours.
DIANA BECTON: Finally,
we have arrived at that day.
The day when those
who have waited so very long
will hear that Joseph DeAngelo
will now serve the rest
of his life behind bars.
SCHUBERT: The greatest revenge
is to live your lives.
Know that the monster
of your childhood
or your younger years
is gone forever
and will die alone in the dark.
I've listened to all your
statements.
Each one of them.
And I'm
really sorry
to everyone I've hurt.
-Thank you, Your Honor.
-BOWMAN: Thank you, sir.
Mr. DeAngelo is sentenced
to a total of 11
consecutive life sentences
without the possibility
of parole,
plus an additional
life sentence,
plus an additional eight years.
This is the absolute
maximum sentence
the court is able
to impose under the law.
And while the court has no power
to make a determination
of where the defendant
is imprisoned,
the survivors
have spoken clearly.
The defendant deserves no mercy.
GAY: It's like the book
slammed shut
and it was done
and I knew
he wouldn't ever walk.
There's no right
to appeal or anything.
There's no right to appeal.
That was a big plus
of the, uh
of the plea agreement.
-GAY: Hello!
-KRIS: Hi!
-GAY: How are you?
-KRIS: Good.
KRIS: Good job, Gay.
KRIS: Go get your ball.
GAY: Had he gotten
the death penalty,
there would've been ten years
of additional, uh,
appeals and hearings,
and the case would still be
in the forefront of my mind.
BOB: And the sense of closure
from him being--
pleading to the charges,
et cetera,
you can probably move on better.
But I don't--
It's something we're stuck with
the rest of our life.
It's better,
but it's still there, you know?
-Hello, Cello. Hi. Hello, kiddo.
-Hi!
-Hi, buddy!
-How you been?
KRIS: For years
and years and years,
I had the same dream over
and over and over again.
And it was a dream that
something bad
was going to happen.
And I would scream.
And nobody could ever hear me,
so I would try to scream louder,
and I would scream louder,
and nobody ever heard me.
That has stopped for me.
Because I now feel
that my screams for help
were finally heard.
So, I had this shed
that was not pretty,
so I decided to paint it.
And then one day I said,
"You know, I'm gonna
put a tree on there.
And I'm just gonna figure out
how this could be
part of the journey
that I've gone through."
I've included
some really triumphant parts.
But also,
some really hard parts.
This burning mess right here
is my life at 15 years old.
The leaves represent new growth.
And as each year goes by,
I will come out
and add leaves to this tree.
And they are creeping into
where once was chaos
and sadness.
And as they grow
and they become more numerous,
I'm able to see
my growth as well.
Your personal growth
and support
and working hard
to get yourself back,
that's where
the true closure comes.
Because this turned out to be
a really good ending
to a very rotten story.
KRIS: We may have
different experiences,
but the result is the same,
and our healing is beautiful
as we all work, um, together.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MUSIC SWELLS) ♪
GAY: I'm still always
just taken aback at how many
survivors like us are out there
who feel their case isn't ever
going to be resolved,
and they think
they won't ever get to do
the sentencing hearing.
I feel like every victim
deserves justice
if it can be had.
And I hope that they can find
peace and resolution,
because eventually
that translates
into a societal change.
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
MICHELLE: A violent crime
never ends with a victim.
The singular act reverberates,
its wounds appearing
in other people,
sometimes months
and years later.
The pain ricochets.
But inside everyone lurks
a Sherlock Holmes
that believes
that given the right clues
they could solve a mystery.