Mr. Mercedes (2017) s02e10 Episode Script

1 Previously on "Mr.
Mercedes" MONTEZ: Do you want to explain how he can walk after laying vegetative for over a year? I want a lawyer.
What did you do to me? The drug you're on is called Cerebellin.
I feel different.
You'll need another dose within three days.
Or? You'll weaken a-and most likely die.
We're here to see Assistant District Attorney Montez.
It's Hartsfield.
Put your hands up! Get on the ground! Put your hands up! Lou, you might not be safe here.
You think he's gonna come looking for me? - Guys, look.
- ANCHOR JEANINE: walked in voluntarily and surrendered himself without incident.
What? He's an affront to humanity.
He's got to be stopped.
- Not your job anymore.
- [Sighs.]
I'm told you don't deny crimping Brady Hartsfield's oxygen line.
- Is that true? - Do I need a lawyer? Brady Hartsfield entered the hospital as a psychopath.
He now represents something else to every single one of us hope.
BRADY: Greetings, Detective.
[Scoffs.]
This is surreal.
Well I deserve to be here, and you probably do since you tried to kill me, but in jail together? If I tried to kill you, you'd be dead.
I guess.
This is fucked.
- Never mind.
- The guy's already confessed.
Why risk even a whiff of prosecutorial misconduct This is not prosecutorial misconduct, and a confession from that fuck doesn't mean shit.
Why not? Because he's gonna be hiding behind insanity.
He was already laying the pipe when we questioned him.
Hodges knows how to push all the right buttons to get the real Brady Hartsfield to show up.
I am sorry.
No doubt.
I mean it.
The idea I could be the kind of person who would Clearly I was missing a chip.
The main thing I'm better now.
That's the plan, is it? Chip found, all better.
You know, you were partly to blame for the subsequent mayhem.
Was I now? You called me a fraud, a nothing.
You You accused me of fucking my mother.
- It hit a nerve.
- [Scoffs.]
You know, I sometimes wonder would Janey Patterson still be alive if you hadn't provoked me so? Provoked the old me, I should say.
The chipless you.
Do you want a face-to-face, Hartsfield? Let's do it.
Could you zoom in there please, Nancy? I don't like this.
I do not like this.
BRADY: The, uh The things I did, I understand your motives in wanting to bring me down.
Saying the right things.
Good for you.
I've apologized.
I've condemned the person I was.
I've denounced him.
We're on the same side now.
No hard feelings.
You really expect me to shake that thing? I'm I'm sure you'd rather kill me, but that would make you lawless, and we both know you're not that.
You so cherish your moral superiority.
That always pissed me off, you should know.
Never my intent to upset.
You know, the old me Mr.
Chipless he would've delighted in all of this bringing you down to his level.
It'd be the ultimate old-me masterpiece.
You sat there, knowing at the end of the day, you're no better than me.
Don't you mean to say "him"? Him.
Past tense.
Right.
Bill, I don't blame you in wanting me dead, okay? Is it Is it okay if I call you Bill? You had your chance at the hospital.
Um You have a chance again now.
Given what's in store for me, it could be win/win.
You'd like me to do it, wouldn't ya? I actually would.
But we know that isn't who you are.
Is it? No, it isn't.
- [Gasps.]
- Then again Shit.
[Gagging.]
[Gasping.]
- [Buzzer.]
- Move! Move! Come on! MAN: Go! Unlock it, unlock it.
[Indistinct shouting.]
Appeared to be choking on this little thing.
I had to dislodge it.
- Don't move! - He's got evidence.
MONTEZ: He's got evidence right there.
Plastics could be the death of ya.
We got evidence.
He was choking.
He was choking.
He was choking.
- Probably still is, any luck.
- Easy.
[Mississippi John Hurt's "I Shall Not Be Moved" plays.]
I shall not, I shall not be moved I shall not, I shall not be moved Just like a tree Planted by the water I shall not be moved I'm on my way to Heaven I shall not be moved On my way to Heaven I shall not be moved Just like a tree planted by the water I shall not be moved Oh, I shall not I shall not be moved I shall not, I shall not be moved Just like a tree planted by the water I shall not be moved [Music ends.]
What the fuck, man? People reveal their true colors under duress.
Good news is, he's still at home.
There's not a fucking thing changed about him.
That is not what we needed.
Well, that's what you got.
- Am I still arrested? - You might be.
For now, you're dodging a bullet thanks to me.
No more bullshit, okay? - Donna, thank God.
- Hi, Tony.
All good.
You're, uh You're processed out.
Okay, good.
His arraignment is slated for 2:00.
In the meantime, no talking to the media.
- Why not? - Because I said so, and because that asshole's lawyer is looking to put the cops on trial, and I don't need you spoon-feeding them sound bites.
Babineau's talking his face off everywhere.
- Would you help me with this, please? - Yeah, yeah, sure.
All right, and put a suit on, and just generally look better than you do right now.
Thanks for coming.
You know, I'm not a criminal attorney.
If they do decide to prosecute you, you're gonna have to find yourself somebody else.
Montez says that they probably won't.
- Are you okay? - Yeah, yeah, it's all right.
- Yeah, it's okay.
- You know what, Bill? Whether they press criminal charges or not, you could still face a ton of civil exposure, the least of which Brady suing you for assault and battery.
- At least he's behind bars.
- So were you.
Well, something happened in there.
- No shit.
- No, no.
Seriously, like, a bit of an eye-opener.
A what? An epiphany, actually.
"An epiphany.
" An epiphany? What are you talking about? Well, I I'd like to tell you about it, but Fine.
What What is it? Tell me.
Tell me the epiphany.
No, not now.
Can we have dinner? No, it's 11:00.
I'm not hungry.
- Tomorrow, then.
Whenever.
- [Scoffs.]
Fine.
[Indistinct shouting.]
The case of the People of Ohio vs.
Brady Hartsfield is set to begin imminently.
Public revulsion against Mr.
Hartsfield has not diminished even as almost three years have passed since the Mercedes massacre.
Surviving victims and family members of the victims have turned out for front-row seats to see this man brought to justice.
[Indistinct chanting.]
I'm not good with crowds like this.
Well, just suck it up.
Reminds me of the Arts Gala.
Well, try not to bash anybody's skull in.
Bill Hodges, Michelle Roberts, WPDK Milwaukee.
Can I get a comment? Free agency ruined baseball.
- That's all I got.
- Holly Gibney.
Um, I'm sorry.
I've got to go.
Sorry.
Case number 32432 People of Ohio vs.
Brady Hartsfield.
[Camera shutters clicking.]
Stop with the cameras, please.
Stop with the cameras.
Take your seats.
SHIELDS: Good afternoon, Your Honor.
Merrill D.
Shields for the defendant.
We will wave the reading of the charges at this time, enter a plea of not guilty.
[People murmuring.]
Antonio Montez for the People of Ohio, Your Honor.
In that this is a capital case, we will be opposing bail.
We do expect to be seeking the death penalty, and there is a risk The defense agrees to wave bail, Judge, and I would be remiss if I did not say this at the onset.
I do not mean to stand in this courtroom today to defend the heinous individual who drove a Mercedes sedan into a crowd of innocent people.
I see many of those people among us, some of their families - here with us today.
- You don't see my Janice, - and you don't see my granddaughter.
- [Indistinct shouting.]
JUDGE HELFRICK: Ladies and gentlemen.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Sir, please take your seat.
Mr.
Shields, this is not the time.
Yes, Your Honor.
You've waved reading and bail.
Any other matters before we conference? Yes.
At this time, the defendant, pursuant to Section 29215.
37 of the Ohio Revised Code, petitions the court for a hearing to determine my client's competency to stand trial.
- [People murmuring.]
- What?! Settle down.
- [Gavel bangs.]
- Settle down.
Your Honor, there is no mental deficit in play here.
We suggest there is.
If anything, Counsel and his team have been publicly touting how Mr.
Hartsfield's mental condition has improved.
More than that, Your Honor.
Preliminary medical indications are that Brady Hartsfield has been cured, and therein lies the problem.
In order for my client to assist in his defense, he needs to be here.
He isn't.
I need to converse with him.
I can't.
What are you talking about? We're talking about two different people, Your Honor.
There was the man who committed this atrocious crime let's call him "Mr.
Mercedes" and then there's the Brady Hartsfield sitting here with us today.
Mr.
Mercedes is gone.
He no longer exists and therefore cannot contribute to his defense.
- [Indistinct shouting.]
- Excuse me.
What? [Gavel bangs.]
Settle down.
Let me instruct all of you right now.
Any more outbursts, I will clear this room.
Counsel, I'm confused.
He committed these crimes because of a mental disability.
He's now cured of that mental disability.
And you maintain that his being cured means that he's incompetent to stand trial? - Exactly.
- Are you kidding me, Your Honor? I do not need to remind the court maybe I do you.
Legal incompetency does not mean mental impairment or insanity.
It means the defendant lacks the capacity to assist in his own defense.
The man sitting there cannot begin to understand, let alone defend, what the other man did.
Give me a break.
Before you go off accusing either me or my client of manipulating this process, Brady Hartsfield did not ask to be cured.
He did not consent to be drugged.
It is not this man's fault that his brain was experimented on and that he's no longer the person he used to be.
It's not his fault that he can't begin to comprehend the horrors that Mr.
Mercedes perpetuated, let alone defend himself for it.
There is no real meaningful mental connection between this man and the man who drove a car into a crowd of people.
[People murmuring.]
Your Honor, may I be heard? [Indistinct shouting.]
All right, all right, all right! - [Gavel bangs.]
- Let's settle down! - Stop with the cameras now.
- This will be my last warning.
Mr.
Hartsfield, this is not a time for you to speak.
I don't want this attorney or any other defending my actions.
The man who drove that car was me physically.
That person, whoever he was, should be locked up or, even better, put to death.
It's bad enough that I'm trapped in the same body.
The idea that my mind could revert to I'd rather be dead.
This is what I'm talking about, Your Honor.
Mr.
Mercedes is no longer among us.
[Indistinct shouting.]
JUDGE HELFRICK: Settle down! Bailiff.
- [Gavel bangs.]
- All right.
I want it quiet in this courtroom! Quiet! As crazy as it sounds, it's both a viable and valid legal argument.
If the defense can show that Brady Hartsfield has been mentally rebooted and the current version cannot contribute to the defense of his former self, then that meets the legal definition of incompetency.
Seriously? Do you think it's really possible? No, it's not.
He's the same person.
I saw it in the cell.
I saw it in the courtroom.
It's a brilliant ploy.
How can one be both brilliant and incompetent to stand trial? 'Cause the law is fucked.
[Knock on door.]
Ah, Jesus.
Speak of the devil.
We need to go for a beer.
Don't like the sound of that.
We need to go for a beer.
I take it you've seen the news.
Not like I can avoid it.
It's beyond fucked.
It's worse than fucked.
It's grotesque.
- Two beers please.
- You got it.
Tell me.
The way it usually works is, if a guy pleads insanity or incompetence and should he prevail, he still gets institutionalized.
He goes to a prison with doctors.
And? Here, it's a little flipped on its head.
If the basis for legal incompetency is that he's essentially a different person and that new person is deemed to be neither criminal nor mentally impaired, he can go free.
Beg your pardon? They're gonna claim that if he gets the Cerebellin and he remains nonviolent and sane They'd release him? Not today, not tomorrow, maybe not five years from now.
On policy, they'll hold him, but 10 years down the line He killed a bunch of people.
The old Brady.
- Oh, bullshit.
- Bill, they got cards to play the coma, the drug therapy, the the unauthorized surgeries.
They're gonna claim that the new Brady has been cured.
Fuck with the rebranding "cured.
" Look, call it whatever you want, okay? All I'm saying is that Brady Hartsfield is becoming a cause.
There's a swell.
Felix Babineau's in fucking Sweden right now meeting with those Nobel Prize pricks.
And after that, he's going to China.
Yeah, that's to avoid prosecution.
That's what that is.
Even so, his wife is getting booked on every cable show there is.
16 medical schools and counting teaching universities, no less are advocating that he be kept alive and studied.
And the Innocence Project is thinking about coming on if it can be medically proven that his brain was materially altered somehow.
Have to be fucking kidding me.
Mental incompetence and the law it's a rich man's out, and Brady's got a lot of money behind him.
That pharmaceutical company is funding his defense and his Cerebellin treatments.
I'm looking to face an army of expert testimony, and here's the kicker.
They don't have to prove incompetence beyond all reasonable doubt.
That's a prosecutor's burden.
All they have to do is show a preponderance of evidence, which is basically a sliver, that the old Brady is not the new Brady, and he wins.
I got half a mind to cut a deal for 10 to 15 years.
You've gone fucking mad.
The world's gone fucking mad.
The man is faking it.
- Faking it.
- I have to prove it.
Well, prove it, then, and don't be a fucking toad! Oh, sure, no problem, except that everyone that knew him back then is dead - his mother, his boss.
- Yeah, 'cause he killed them all.
Even so.
What about me? I knew him.
I interacted with him.
I knew him then.
I know him now.
I can testify he's the same fucking guy.
And how do you think that's gonna play, hmm? Isn't it true, Mr.
Hodges, that you were obsessed with Brady Hartsfield? Isn't it true, Mr.
Hodges, that you tried to kill him? Isn't it true that you think he's capable of mental control? Isn't it true, Detective, that you think my client inhabited the body of Library Al in order to kill the ADA's dog? - Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
- You'll hardly win the day, Bill.
Lou.
Sorry? Lou Linklatter.
She knew him better than anybody.
Plus, she's one of his victims.
In a courtroom? With him in the room, awake? The thing is you're in the best position to tell the court that he's the same person.
It's as simple as that.
[Scoffs.]
I'm not a I'm not a fucking doctor.
I-I'm not I mean, who who am I to judge Brady Hartsfield's sanity? It's different from sanity.
Insanity is, did he know right from wrong? Incompetence goes to, can he help himself at trial? And if he successfully convinces the judge that it's not him, that it's a different person Wait.
Are you Are you saying that he actually might get off? I'm saying that he may avoid having to go to trial altogether.
And if he avoids it on the grounds of being cured they might have to set him free.
What? It'll never come to that.
Worst case we get him civilly committed.
Oh, yeah, a hospital? 'Cause you both know how that turns out.
Which is why we need you to put him in prison.
- I can't.
- Lou.
You have to.
You knew the Brady Hartsfield that killed those people.
Whatever doctors or experts that they parade in that courtroom, none of them knew the old Brady.
You did.
Which means that you are the only one in any position to go into that court and say that he's still here.
Can Can I do it without being in the same room as him? For you to be able to say that the new Brady is the same as the old you have to spend some time with the new.
There's no other way out of this.
You know, I've always regarded the judicial process as being its own form of obscenity, but to see it used like that Are you gonna lay that obscenity on the defense attorneys? Oh, Jesus.
Here we go.
Hey, criminally insane death-row inmates are medicated all the time just to make them competent enough to be executed.
There's nothing more perverse than that.
Yeah, but this isn't that.
No, this would be the inverse.
Let me ask you, okay? All right? Just suppose this Cerebellin drug lobotomizes him in a way and the former Brady is no more.
Yeah, but I don't believe that to be the case.
I-I know, but let's suppose.
Let's just suppose it is.
So the old Brady is no more and the new one bears no real psychological or culpable-intent resemblance.
So what you're suggesting is that I go and I murder a load of people and then I get a prescription filled out and we call it a day.
That is not what this is.
- Yes, it is.
- No.
No, no, no.
Billy, they experimented on him when he was in a coma.
They operated on him.
They reverse-engineered Frankenstein, and there's a real possibility that the person we have is a law-abiding, sane one.
So it leaves us with the question what do we do with this man? Hmm? Do we punish him for what is essentially the crimes of someone else? - It wasn't somebody else.
- No, I know, I know.
I'm just Just suppose Just suppose that that I I Maybe I I just Maybe I should just go.
I really was looking forward to getting in beside you tonight.
What? - I can't.
It's just - Billy, I [Chuckles.]
I mean [Sighs.]
What? Tell me.
What is going on with you? Told you I had an epiphany.
Okay.
Well, was was it a sexual epiphany? Oh, for Never mind.
All right, all right, tell me.
What Go ahead.
Okay.
When he turned himself in Mm.
at first, I got really agitated.
I figured it was because I was pissed off I wasn't the one who got him, okay? And then after a bit, I started feeling a bit better.
I mean, I didn't even realize, but actually really a lot better.
You know, the agitation, I think, was because I didn't really trust that he'd been caught.
- I figured he was gaming it - Mm.
which, like, now, seeing everything that's happened Yeah.
pretty good assessment, I would say.
Pretty fucking accurate, if you ask me.
And so, um so, this this is the epiphany? No, I didn't get to - the fucking epiphany yet.
- All right, okay.
All right, I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
Go.
Tell me.
Anyway, I was sitting in jail after I decided not to choke him and it suddenly hit me that he really was caught.
I mean, caught caught.
It was all finally over.
Hmm.
Like a ton of bricks just hit me.
And my first thought was being home, feeding Fred, going into the shed, digging out me old paints Remember me old paints? Mm.
When was the last time you painted? - I know.
- Mm.
And you said to me, "After Brady Hartsfield, what then? What's the next obsession?" But, like, at that moment, when the thought took hold of him being over, I didn't say to myself, "Okay, who's next? What's next?" You know, my mind went, amazingly, to my fucking paints.
Mm-hmm.
There's not gonna be another one.
Brady was it.
I I was just looking to finish a job, okay? The job was him.
I felt like an empty sack of shit - when I retired - Mm-hmm.
because I was a failure.
You know what I mean? But I'm not fundamentally damaged.
I've been tormented, but torment pretty much limited to Brady Hartsfield.
Once he's over, that's it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is there's there's hope for me yet, you know? [Sighs.]
I-I just thought that that kind of sense of hope Would Would get me in the sack again? With any luck.
[Chuckles.]
Yeah.
That's it.
That's the epiphany.
There's not gonna be another one, Donna.
I can see this clear as day.
[Indistinct shouting.]
If one was to compare Mr.
Hartsfield's appearance, anatomical features, fingerprints, he is the same.
My research team has identified some isolated cases in which patients have experienced hyper-empathy after brain surgery.
Mr.
Hartsfield's cognitive development materialized through the administration of a next-gen drug called Cerebellin.
DR.
YOUNG: Well, it's clear that the Cerebellin - is directly affecting the - It is undeniable - that our ability to - But after meticulous - for epilepsy - what defines our humanity CORA: This drug, it saved Brady Hartsfield.
It transformed him.
And, more importantly, it can save others.
Is court over for the day already? Ugh, couldn't take any more of it.
Doctor after doctor saying he's a changed man.
The molecular structure of the brain bullshit.
It's beyond lunacy.
Well, like you say, we drove off the logic bridge a long time ago.
[Sighs.]
Hey, look, the judge isn't gonna fall for this.
We can only hope so.
Ida called.
Um, the gazebo's almost finished and so she wants to have a kind of a "gazebo is almost finished"-warming tea party? Well, that clinches it.
The world is totally fucking mad.
A mass killer stands to go free, but let's all go and have tea.
Well, it seemed important to her, so I-I think we should go.
Okay.
So, how's Montez doing? Best he can.
I think this could all come down to Lou.
Oh.
I certainly hope not.
I mean, she's not doing very well at all.
[Sighs.]
You're gonna have to hand-hold her, Holly.
She's the only one who can tell the court that the old Hartsfield is still among us the only one.
I know, but the idea of being alone with him is Well, that's where you come in.
No one knows anxiety from the inside like you.
We have to get her into that courtroom.
Was he really the same when you were in jail with him? I mean, he he was the same? He didn't strike me as altogether the same, but not altogether different, either.
Enough the same, that's for sure.
That's an unusual request, Mr.
Montez.
I get that, Judge, but for all the forensic psychiatrists, none of them have foundation on the issue of changed man.
None of them knew the old Brady Hartsfield.
Miss Linklatter did.
But in order to compare the old Brady to the so-called new one, she's gonna have to meet him.
Your Honor, this woman is obviously going to be biased.
I mean, she's a former victim of Mr.
Mercedes.
The court can take judicial notice of her biases, her fears, her post-traumatic stress associated with your client.
You simply cannot order a defendant to meet with a witness for the prosecution.
Of course I can.
This is a competency hearing.
Every doctor who ran a test on him was potentially a prosecution witness.
Moreover, before I even begin to consider letting a mass murderer off the legal hook, I'm gonna consider every piece of evidence that I can.
BOTH: Thank you, Your Honor.
He's shackled and handcuffed.
And there will be a camera on at all times.
Why can't there be a guard in the room? There can be if you want one.
Lou, we think you've a better shot at candor if you're alone.
Lou, you you can do this.
And if you get scared and you want a guard to go in, just touch your hand to your head, and that'll be the signal.
Someone will go in and help you.
I don't un I don't understand what you're expecting me to do here.
Just go in and talk to him see where it goes.
You can do this.
I know you can.
[Door unlocks, opens.]
[Lock clicks.]
[Breathing deeply.]
[Clears throat quietly.]
[Sighs.]
I suppose we should try and make eye contact.
I don't want to look at you.
I'm so sorry.
So you remember, then? I have a memory of seeing it of doing it.
Um I know it was this hand that held the knife, but it belonged to a different person.
You're just scamming this, Brady.
I'm sure that's what people think.
And I don't really care.
But I do care what you believe.
Why? You're a changed person, so we don't have a relationship.
I remember you us, and the the talks we had the way we, uh [chuckles.]
the way we goofed on Robi, anyone else that looked down on us and dismissed us.
You were the only person I talked to.
The shit we could do with computers.
We were gonna take over the world.
Remember? I still find it hard to imagine that I could've harmed you.
Harm me? You killed me.
[Sniffles.]
It's not like I didn't have friends, no family.
[Voice breaking.]
You were the only one that knew me and you got me.
You got me, and you fucking stabbed me.
[Sighs.]
You fucking killed me forever, Brady.
[Sniffles.]
All right, so you remember.
Then I'm assuming you remember why.
I was finishing a masterpiece.
You would've turned me in.
I thought, "Prevent that.
" Oh, yeah? One of the only times I felt.
When I drove over those people, I didn't feel.
[Sniffles.]
When I blew up the car, I didn't feel.
When I killed Robi I didn't feel.
And when my mother died I felt.
And when I did what I did to you, I felt.
I was every bit the monster they claimed me to be.
I was that.
But when I look for clues that I was more than that, I was capable of compassion, I think of my mother and I think of you.
[Breathing heavily.]
Fuck.
My lawyer says this is so you can testify that I'm still the same person - [Sniffles.]
- so I'll be held accountable.
He advised me to make sure you understand that I'm I'm not that person.
[Sighs.]
I'm gonna make this easy for you.
As much as I want to believe that the old me is completely extinguished, I still remember.
I remember you, how we were, and [Sighs.]
our friendship.
That portion of me is not gone.
He's still here.
So you can tell them that.
I'm still here.
I just want you to forgive me.
Are you still gonna call her? Have to.
The fact that she might be a sympathetic witness to the defendant only makes her that much more compelling.
All we need is for her to testify that he's the same guy.
She stands ready to do that.
So why the long face? [Chuckles.]
Well, another little development has popped up.
Now what? Evidently, the federal government is drafting a habeas petition.
They want Brady transferred to them.
What? Now? Why? Oh, you're gonna love this.
Public safety.
And not the good, old-fashioned, red-white-and-blue, lock-him-up public safety.
Rather the "Let's save millions of lives and billions of dollars in healthcare costs" public safety.
They want him transferred to Springfield, Missouri, so he can continue to be studied.
Before trial? Can that happen? I hope not.
This man is a monster.
Yeah, well, we make deals with monsters.
Whether they're terrorists, organized-crime members, drug dealers, we cut deals with killers every day.
It all comes down to whether more people are helped than harmed in the equation.
Yeah, that's exactly the shit that Babineau's wife is trying to sell on the TV.
You know, I desperately wanted this case.
I thought it would make me, that my career would skyrocket.
He's gonna fucking destroy me.
He has a knack for that.
He killed my fucking dog, too.
Get a new fucking dog.
Tell that to my family.
He killed my girlfriend.
- I'd like to propose a toast.
- Oh.
First to almost finishing the gazebo.
Oh, hear, hear.
And, by the way, it will be finished, - just FYI.
- Absolutely, absolutely.
After a year at Harvard, um I see the importance of working with your hands.
I mean, first of all, you understand - the hand/brain connection, right? - I do, yeah.
The hand is actually a cueing organ that teaches the cortex the kinesthesia of motor action, so Jesus fuck, can we just have a sip of tea without discussing the wonders of the human brain? [Sighs.]
Yeah, fair enough.
- You okay? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Scoffs.]
Well, I have a second part to the toast, and it's for you.
Ah, make me feel like shit now, why don't ya? - [Chuckles.]
- Hey, shh.
A little over a year ago, you came to me, needing help with your computer, saying you had, uh, vanishing e-mails, and I thought, "You're crazy.
" [Chuckles.]
And then you claimed that there were messages popping up on your TV screen, so I thought again, "You're crazy.
" Fast-forward a year later, you say a brain-dead guy is conscious.
Very fucking crazy.
Fast-forward again, you say that brain-dead guy in a coma is controlling people with his mind.
So fucking crazy, Bill.
And then he woke up, he escapes the hospital, and now they might possibly let him go for the greater good of society.
Very long toast, Jerome.
What I'm trying to say is I love you.
And the crazy ain't in you, old man.
It's this fucked-up world.
- Hear, hear.
- Yes, hear, hear.
- Cheers.
- All right, I have a toast now.
- Oh, wow.
- Okay.
They say, uh Somebody said it's not the destination, it's the journey.
- Who is it who said that? - I don't fucking know.
Somebody said it, all right? - Jesus, you let him bang on for ages.
- Well, I [Giggles.]
Look, however this ends, okay, however this ends I met you guys on this journey, and, uh and I love every one of ya.
All that stuff.
So that's the end of the toast.
Now can we drink before the tea goes cold? - Hear, hear.
- Cheers.
[Cups clink.]
[Indistinct shouting.]
MAN: Please take everything out of your pockets.
If you have a wristwatch on, place it in the bucket, please.
Thank you.
Wait.
Do I have to make eye contact with him? No, just answer the lawyers' questions.
You don't have to look at anybody specifically.
You know, if you feel yourself getting weak, you can just look at me.
Oh, I don't know if I can do this.
Lou, the hardest thing you'll ever have to do is be alone in a room with him, which you already did, okay, so you can do this.
I mean, when things get really hard sometimes, I tell myself that I'm gonna hold my breath for the rest of my life, which, of course, is impossible.
I mean, no one can hold their breath forever, but next to that, you know, everything seems simple.
So just tell yourself you're gonna hold your breath.
But don't.
But just, um, take breaths.
Just deep breaths.
[Exhales deeply.]
- Uh, Holly? - Mm-hmm? Stop helping.
- [Chuckles.]
- Sorry.
- REPORTER: Miss Linklatter.
- Just Sorry.
- [Camera shutter clicking.]
- Miss Linkla I'll break that thing right over your fucking head.
LOU: He's the same person.
- Are you sure about that? - Positive.
Is he totally the same person? No.
But he's the Brady I knew.
What did the two of you talk about? Our friendship mostly, the stuff we used to do on computers just stuff.
The two of you were good friends.
He was my best friend.
Did you talk about what he did to you? Yes and he showed remorse.
So he admitted that he was the man who stabbed you.
Yes.
He say anything else? Basically that he's changed a lot that he can't fathom what he did to me, but he remembered doing it and he took ownership of it.
And by ownership, you mean guilt.
Yes.
So when you were sitting in the visitors' room, you were sitting with a man who took responsibility and felt guilt for what he had done to you.
Yes.
Did he feel guilt for killing those people? That I don't know.
He said he didn't feel for them but that he felt for me.
And after talking to him, this was the Brady Hartsfield you always knew.
He seemed more human? But he's the Brady I knew.
And based on your personal relationship and experience with the defendant, did you form an opinion as to whether or not he had changed? Again, he's changed some.
He seems more compassionate, capable of remorse but he's the same sociopath who stabbed me.
[People murmuring.]
Did you form an opinion as to whether or not he understands what's going on in these legal proceedings? He understands.
Brady Hartsfield was [sighs.]
and is the most intelligent person I have ever known.
[People murmuring.]
Thank you.
JUDGE HELFRICK: Mr.
Shields.
You said he showed compassion.
Yes.
More compassion than you remember him showing when you were friends? Yes.
Did he shed tears in your meeting? He did.
Have you ever known Brady Hartsfield to cry before? - Not really.
- "Not really.
" This is a yes-or-no question.
Ever known him to cry before? - No.
- Mm-hmm.
So he was different that way.
Yeah, he was different that way.
In your meeting with Brady yesterday, did he strike you as a man of conscience? He did.
And, uh, during your friendship, did you ever accuse him of lacking a conscience? I may have said that a few times.
So the old Brady, you questioned whether he had a conscience, and the Brady that you met with yesterday is different? - Okay.
- So it's possible that Brady Hartsfield is fundamentally different than the Brady you knew as a work colleague.
Look, I said he changed some.
We've all changed.
I'll never be the same because of what he did.
He'll never be the same because of what he did and because of what was done to him.
But in my core, I'm the same as I always was, and so is he.
Well, the Brady Hartsfield I talk with says he can't recognize the Brady who committed these crimes.
He really struggles with the idea that he could've committed such acts.
Did, uh, you see that struggle in him yesterday? I did.
Thank you.
JUDGE HELFRICK: Redirect, Mr.
Montez? No, Your Honor.
Thank you.
You may step down.
LOU: Thank you.
I do not forgive you.
I do not.
[People screaming.]
REPORTER SMITH: We can confirm that Brady Hartsfield was pronounced dead at 3:06 p.
m.
by the county coroner.
Cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head.
And what we're learning, Jeanine, is that the weapon that was used by Lou Linklatter was, in fact, a 3-D-printable gun that she made herself.
And the ultimate irony? We're told Brady Hartsfield taught her how to make that weapon.
ANCHOR JEANINE: How was she able to get it into court? Because it was plastic, and even the bullet was ceramic, so the metal detectors were of no use.
And it's a wide variety of reactions, as you can imagine, but the overriding sentiment is relief.
Mr.
Mercedes is dead, and that makes a lot of people around here very happy indeed.
- Come on, guys! - Come on! Let's go! - Yeah! - Let's go! - Pass it! - Come on! Pass it! - Pass it! - Shoot it! Ahhh, look at you.
Monet in his garden.
Sort of.
Hey, hi.
Hello.
How are you? That's That's a really That looks good.
It's coming along.
- [Sighs.]
Thanks.
- Nice portrait of, uh, Fred.
Really? - I mean, what - What? I'm here.
Why don't you paint my portrait? I would love that.
I, uh I-I I could never capture your radiance.
- Oh.
Oh, my God.
- Look.
Look at this.
- Stop.
You are such a bullshit artist.
- [Laughs.]
- Stop! - What? I could Stop.
I don't have the skill.
Can't even paint a fucking tortoise.
Yep.
Probably see you later, then, I'd say, will I? Oh, sorry.
Okay.
I didn't realize I'm intruding on your, uh - your little artist situation here.
- No, no, no.
I didn't mean - No, no.
- Okay, no, you carry you carry on.
I know when I'm not wanted.
- I didn't say that.
- Oh, listen, I'm heading out to Seattle again to see Allie next week.
Oh, yeah? You, um You feel like joining? How'd she feel about that? Well, it was her idea, actually.
- Really? - Mm-hmm.
- Yeah! I'd love to.
- All right.
I'll send you my flight details.
All right.
Okay, all right.
Carry on, there.
Enjoy.
- Come on! Center it! - Go, go! [Indistinct shouting.]
[Ice-cream truck jingle plays.]
[Engine starts.]
[Shouting continues.]
BOY: Shoot! Shoot! [Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" plays.]