00:00:14
Amy wrote, "Shadows are created around us whenever something or someone blocks the light. We are created to live in the
00:00:23
light. He is calling me out of the darkness. Turn toward the light and the truth. Truth.
00:00:37
Amy's outlet was her journaling. She wrote to me about the Bible and having faith. I believe that her faith was
00:00:45
important to her because she lived by her faith. She was the salt of the earth, genuine and loving.
00:00:55
I found out that Amy had passed in a phone call from our mutual friend. >> The next sentence, [music] I found out
00:01:06
how she had passed. It's not a phone call you know you want to get. >> 911 is recorded. What's the address of
00:01:14
your emergency? >> Hi, this is Brian Tanya. I'm at North Road. My wife just shot herself. Can you
00:01:20
send me some help? >> All right, Brian. We'll get him right out there. Okay. >> I remember my supervisor telling me, "We
00:01:32
have a death investigation in Westfield and it's a police officer's wife." That was a rarity to me. I had not
00:01:43
experienced a case like that. >> She's gone. God. >> Okay. Are you sure? >> Yes. Yes.
00:01:53
Brian's role at the Westfield Police Department. He was their uh evidence guy in the detective bureau.
00:01:59
>> We both knew Brian. >> He was very well respected. >> When you walked in the Fion house, what
00:02:08
did you see? >> Then I walked into the dining room and that's when I observed the body of Amy
00:02:15
Fion and a pool of blood on the floor >> with a gunshot to the right side of her
00:02:20
head. I saw the 45 caliber [music] Smith and Wesson firearm on the stairs that led to
00:02:30
the breezeway. There was a police radio, paperwork, mail, and so forth. Chairs pushed about. And on top of this dining
00:02:37
room table, you had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich intact on a plate. You had an empty plate that had some blood
00:02:45
smear on it. >> What was Brian's demeanor when you arrived? >> He seemed like he was in a state of
00:02:50
shock. He was looking straight ahead. >> Just she snapped. >> The gun just exploded. Just so quick,
00:03:00
hesitate at all. I'm the only one that could make her that angry. >> I offered him my condolences. I told
00:03:07
Brian that, you know, that I was going to conduct a thorough investigation, that it was going to be by the numbers.
00:03:13
>> Is it standard for the district attorney's office to be involved in a suicide investigation? Yes. Part of our
00:03:21
duties at the district attorney's office was to investigate all deaths. What can this deceased tell us about
00:03:31
what happened right before she found herself in that state? So, I'm taking in everything that I can
00:03:40
about that scene. And I saw the entry wound to her head. It didn't seem right in that moment. How
00:03:53
would something like that happen? >> [music] [music] >> It It was 1 p.m. on May 8th, 2018 when
00:04:44
Massachusetts State Police detectives arrived at a farmhouse in Westfield. 51-year-old Amy Fanan laid dead in the
00:04:51
dining room from a single gunshot wound to the head. Detective Mike McN. >> Amy was essentially in a pile of blood
00:05:01
that was beginning to congeal under her left side. Amy's husband, Brian Fanan, a
00:05:07
detective in the Westfield Police Department, had called 911 minutes earlier, reporting that his wife had
00:05:13
shot herself. The dining room, rearranged to accommodate medical personnel, was in disarray as detectives
00:05:20
worked to identify clues of what may have happened. >> There was a blood spatter around that
00:05:26
window frame from that dining room into the breezeway. There was a pair of glasses that looked like it had some
00:05:33
kind of red brown spatter on it. >> And then there was the bullet. Detectives Brendan Oll and Mike
00:05:43
Blanchett. >> The actual projectile was in that front enclosed porch area. The spent shell
00:05:50
casing was still in the dining room. >> We could see the direction that it traveled through Amy's head.
00:06:01
That round impacted that dresser, came to arrest right around there in the breezeway.
00:06:08
>> Brian was sitting in a chair with his back to the wall and he's with the chief
00:06:12
of police from the Westfield Police Department who's talking with him. Everyone was [music] in a state of
00:06:17
shock. >> Everyone, including Amy's brother, Eric Hansen, who told detectives that he had
00:06:23
just finished playing disc golf behind the house when he heard Brian's cry for help. And that's when he walked into the
00:06:30
house, saw Amy on the floor, a [music] gun next to her, and Brian holding Amy's hand.
00:06:36
>> So, he picked up the gun himself and moved it out of Brian's reach >> because he was worried about Brian's
00:06:43
state of mind, having just lost his wife. >> Yes. >> What kind of gun was used? >> It was a Smith and Wesson uh MMP45,
00:06:52
Brian Fion's duty weapon. >> Did that give you any pause that it was Brian Fion's weapon? Yes, it gave me
00:06:58
pause. At [music] this point, I know that I'm going to really do a detailed investigation.
00:07:04
>> To avoid conflict of interest, ul said he decided that his unit, the Massachusetts State Police, would be the
00:07:10
sole investigators and he wanted to get Brian away from the house to get a statement.
00:07:16
>> I asked if he would accompany me to the Massachusetts State Police barracks in
00:07:19
Russell. And I took a uh tape recorded statement from him. Tuesday, May 8th, it's 2:41 p.m. I'm with Brian Fion.
00:07:28
Brian, um, do you understand I got a recorder on right now? >> Yes. >> Brian told Detective Oul that he left
00:07:35
his office at the Westfield Police Station around 11:45 a.m. and drove to North Road to meet his wife, who was on
00:07:42
her way home to prepare their lunch. >> What was she making? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Brian said that when
00:07:50
he arrived, they continued an argument from the night prior. An argument that had gotten pretty heated that evening.
00:07:57
>> Oh, when you say heated, I guess what? >> Just uh I don't know. She just uh was very
00:08:05
angry. >> What was the argument about? >> Um I'm retiring soon. We're discussing what
00:08:12
each of us expects retirement to be. Brian said he told Amy that he didn't want to spend his retirement maintaining
00:08:21
their 200-year-old home, which Amy still loved. They also discussed their aging dog and his reluctance to get another
00:08:29
one. >> Yeah, I don't want to be tied down by a dog. >> She always wants to have a dog. I want
00:08:34
to travel more than she does. >> According to Brian, that afternoon during lunch, Amy told him she had
00:08:40
scheduled them to attend a family member's play. on the day Brian wanted to attend [music] a disc golf
00:08:46
tournament. >> I just said, "No, I don't like that stuff. Why would you commit me when
00:08:52
you're without asking?" >> That's when, according to Brian, things soon took a turn for the worse.
00:08:58
>> I took my gun out of the holster and put it on our hutch because I had to use the
00:09:04
bathroom. >> Where's the hutch located? >> In the dining room. Brian said he closed
00:09:09
the bathroom door and when he came out, Amy had the gun in her hand. >> She has the gun pointed up to the right
00:09:16
side of her head. What did you hear her say? >> I think she said, "I guess you don't
00:09:20
want it's you don't want me around or you don't want to be around me." >> Was she seated or
00:09:25
>> No, she stood up. She was standing. Okay. >> According to Brian, he was four to 5t
00:09:30
away when he tried to stop Amy from pulling the trigger. >> Tried to get to her.
00:09:37
I almost did. The gun just exploded. Just so quick at all. I just went over and I just held
00:09:46
her hands. >> Just held her hands. >> 911 recorded. What's the >> Ryan called 911 and yelled out to Amy's
00:10:00
brother, Eric, for help. >> Eric, uh, what is how do you spell your last name? Hansen. H A M S E N.
00:10:09
>> Eric told detectives that Brian said he and Amy had been having a tense argument.
00:10:14
>> And she grabbed the gun. He just was so distraught. >> Are you saying what they were arguing
00:10:21
about? >> No, I was just trying to consolate. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.
00:10:28
>> Amy's death had shocked the Westfield community. My name is Stephanie Barry and I'm a
00:10:35
reporter for the Republican in Springfield, Massachusetts. Amy's maiden name was Hansen. She came from a fairly
00:10:43
large family. She and her sisters were all known as some of the prettiest girls in school, some of the smartest, and
00:10:50
some of the nicest. It was 1983 when 16-year-old Amy met 19-year-old Brian Fannon. Fion came from
00:10:59
a long line of police officers and politicians. And in Westfield, the Fian name was a source of pride.
00:11:07
>> The Fanions were kind of like the Kennedys of Westfield. They were well regarded.
00:11:14
>> Brian and Amy tied the knot [music] in 1985, and the couple eventually had two
00:11:19
children, Travis and Victoria. Amy's close friend, Terry Lardi, says Amy loved being a stay-at-home mom. Amy's
00:11:28
focus was raising her children. She thought that being a parent was [music] the best job in the whole world. The
00:11:35
Fians, deeply committed to their faith, dedicated their lives to God and community service, with Brian serving as
00:11:42
a church deacon and working as a missionary to build wells [music] in Mexico. After 30 years of marriage, the Fians
00:11:51
were planning their next phase of life when those plans derailed. Is there any knowledge that Amy Fine had any mental
00:11:58
health issues or suffered from depression? >> So I I asked Brian and u he mentioned um
00:12:04
many years earlier when she was having some psychological issues and was on medicine for a period of time. Other
00:12:11
than that nothing nothing recent. >> But what Brian did stress was that Amy had bouts with anger.
00:12:19
>> She had a temper but she hid it well from everyone but me. She she only got that angry when we were alone.
00:12:28
>> Midway into the interview, Detective Oul asked Brian if there were any female
00:12:32
friends in his life. >> I have a woman who lives in Pittsfield that I met recently.
00:12:40
I did a mission trip to Mexico and we became good friends. >> What's that lady's name?
00:12:46
>> Corey. >> Does she have a last name or Corey? >> Nolles. K N O W L E S. You guys aren't going to contact
00:12:56
her, are you? For Detective Oul, Brian Fan's admitted friendship with another woman raised
00:13:14
questions. Ryan had told detectives that Karen Nolles, known as Corey, was a fellow
00:13:23
missionary at a nearby church. The two met in November 2017 on a mission trip in Mexico, and a friendship developed,
00:13:32
but it had never gone beyond that, an emotional affair. He said there was some flirting, but he qualified it that it
00:13:40
wasn't >> sexual >> a sexual. It was not a his term was it was not a friends with benefits.
00:13:48
>> At the end of the interview, Detective Oul asked Brian to turn over his personal phone.
00:13:53
>> I turned off the recorder and that's when Brian told me, he said, "You're going to see [music] some things
00:14:00
on there and it's not what it appears to be." >> A red flag for you? Yeah, there are
00:14:05
several red flags. As a an investigator, you have to keep an open mind. >> Within a week of Brian's interview on
00:14:14
May 14th, 2018, Amy's wake was held. Brian planted a tree in nearby Stanley Park in his wife's memory.
00:14:31
But the investigation into her sudden death was just beginning. Detectives recovered a treasure trove of deleted
00:14:39
text messages from Brian's phone. There were just hundreds of texts that expanded
00:14:52
the relationship that he was having with Cy. On May 7th, the day before Amy died,
00:15:00
Brian and Corey exchanged 72 text messages until 9:47 p.m. that evening. In one exchange at 9:23 p.m., Brian
00:15:12
writes, "Good night, my love. I hope you have wonderful dreams of amazing days and nights to come." And Corey responds,
00:15:20
"Good night, my love. I will dream of you and all that the future holds for us. The next morning at 10:30 a.m., Corey
00:15:32
texts, "When can I hold you again?" To which Brian responds, "Not soon enough." Turning into a very long morning
00:15:43
and within an hour or two, Amy Fannon is dead. >> Yes. >> Heading for a female party who possibly
00:15:53
intentionally shot herself. police in route. >> Brian has not been entirely truthful to
00:16:06
us at this point and so we want to speak with him again. >> On May 17th, 2018, 3 days after Amy's
00:16:16
wake, Brian Fannon arrived at the district attorney's state police office for another round of questioning. Brian,
00:16:23
so we just needed to, you know, clarify some things. We know you're Miranda, right? So, I'm going to read them off
00:16:28
this form. >> The other day, you didn't do this. Has something changed? >> So, you're not you're not under arrest
00:16:34
or anything. >> Well, I know that. >> And on that same day, across town, detectives met with Corey Nolles to
00:16:41
learn more about her involvement with Brian. >> If somebody was to say, "Who's Cy? Who
00:16:47
are you?" Corey Nolles, a 48-year-old wife, grandmother, and member of her church's choir, told detectives that
00:16:54
Brian's friendship helped her work through a troubled second marriage. >> Brian's very easy to talk to. Nothing
00:17:01
but affirmation and love, and I'm here for you. >> But over time, their relationship moved
00:17:09
from friendship to flirtation. >> Did I feel passion for him? Absolutely. By April 16th, 2018, 5 months into Brian
00:17:18
and Cory's relationship, their texting gave way to something more intimate when Corey visited Brian's house before they
00:17:24
left for volunteer work. >> Was that the first time you were intimate that you kissed on that April
00:17:30
day the 16th? >> Yeah. >> And then where was that? >> Once the kitchen >> cuz I got there before Amy got home.
00:17:38
Corey told detectives that by late April, she and Brian were having passionate makeout sessions in her
00:17:44
truck. Brian left work early, met up with Corey in Westfield at Stanley Park, and they
00:18:00
made out. There was some sexual touching, >> but according to Corey, Brian could not
00:18:06
perform. a little bit more light because I'm still married to to Amy. >> We've seen the text messages.
00:18:14
>> In all honesty, Brian, it looks like it's a lot more than a friendship. You know,
00:18:19
>> I know it escalated and I'm completely embarrassed by it, ashamed of it, and shouldn't happen.
00:18:26
>> But a lot of people have affairs and >> correct >> don't kill their wife. >> Correct.
00:18:35
Detective Oul then asks Brian to go back over his statement of what happened, beginning at the moment when Brian said
00:18:42
he placed his gun on the hutch and went inside the bathroom. >> All right. So, you come out of the
00:18:49
bathroom, right? And she's at the table. Where where just indicate like where between the table and the hutch
00:18:55
>> in a chair right there? >> I don't know if she was sitting or standing. I think she was standing.
00:19:01
>> I mean, she interesting. >> Now, when we were trying to get these stepbystep details, he seemed to be
00:19:10
wavering. >> So, you come out of the bathroom. Okay. And then what's the first thing that
00:19:17
happens? >> I just remember her saying that that you obviously don't want me around.
00:19:23
>> And then Detective Oul asked Brian to demonstrate what Amy did with the gun. >> Just remember seeing her hand come up
00:19:30
with towards her head. >> Yeah. So she puts it to the side of her head. >> Yes. >> Okay.
00:19:35
>> And and where was the gun when it went off? Was it the same to her head? >> But there is a problem. What Brian did
00:19:42
not know was that a CSI report and Amy's autopsy results had arrived. >> The gunshot entrance wound was not
00:19:51
consistent with a self-inflicted wound. >> Fair to say it took this case in a whole
00:19:56
new direction. >> Yes. During the second interview with Brian Fion, detectives Zo and Blanchett found
00:20:17
themselves facing a challenge that tested their experience as investigators. >> This is not a a normal interview for
00:20:25
myself and Mike. We've done thousands of interviews. You know, we're pretty good
00:20:29
at it, but it's hard >> when it's a police officer because he knows exactly how we work.
00:20:39
It was a difficult interview. >> There's a problem. I'll be straight. >> Detectives laid out what they considered
00:20:44
to be crucial evidence in their investigation. >> There's no indication whatsoever so far that she had a gun
00:20:54
close to the side of her head. >> I'll get wrong cuz she did. because I saw it. I didn't have it.
00:21:00
>> You know, >> how do you say there's no indication? >> Well, I mean, that's what that's what,
00:21:04
you know, that's what it's showing us right now. >> The medical examiner listed Amy's manner
00:21:11
of death as undetermined. And combined with CSI findings, investigators did not believe that Amy
00:21:18
died of a self-inflicted wound. I mean, there's no doubt she was shot. But but the question is from what
00:21:26
distance? >> It was right freaking there. I'm telling you. Do what you need to, but I'm
00:21:34
telling you, it was right there. >> In Amy's case, distance mattered. This is because with self-inflicted gunshot
00:21:42
wounds, debris known as gunshot residue is expelled from the firearm and leaves [music] a distinct pattern on and inside
00:21:50
the wound known as stippling as demonstrated here. >> Like Brian, you you understand like guns
00:21:56
and stippling and all that stuff. >> I do and I can't. >> There's none on her, Brian. There's none
00:22:01
on her. >> There has to be cuz the gun was there right freaking there. >> There's none honor.
00:22:10
then they're wrong. I'm telling you, they're they're flat out wrong cuz it was right freaking there.
00:22:15
>> The other option is you got pissed and you're a foot [snorts] or few feet away
00:22:19
and you shot her in the head and she's sitting eating her sandwich. >> Didn't happen.
00:22:23
>> Didn't happen. >> Did not happen. >> With Fion's affair exposed and CSI reports in [music] hand, detectives
00:22:31
suspected Fannon had likely shot his wife, but they still needed more evidence. On May 24th, 2018, detectives
00:22:40
obtained a search warrant for Fion's home. And when detectives arrived, >> Brian asked if I was there to arrest
00:22:48
him, and I told him I wasn't. And then he asked me if I thought he did it. >> Were you surprised he asked you that?
00:22:56
>> I was noting it. I didn't know how to feel, and I didn't answer his question.
00:23:02
Detectives took additional measurements to analyze the trajectory of the bullet.
00:23:08
Fan's home electronics were confiscated and at the same time his desktop computer and laptop at the Westfield
00:23:15
Police Station were seized for data extraction. Do you see any signs that Brian Fan
00:23:22
planned to kill his wife? Any evidence that points to that? >> We see a totality of all the evidence
00:23:30
here. um we're not the factf finders. Um we're we're detectives. So we we collect
00:23:35
all this information and then it's going to be presented. Someone else is going to make a determination on that.
00:23:43
>> And that someone would be Hampton County Assistant District Attorney Mary Sandstöm. New to the homicide division,
00:23:50
Sandstrm had arrived in Massachusetts by way of New York. >> Is it fair to say you were a fish out of
00:23:55
water a bit? [laughter] It's always um hard not being from the area in which you prosecute. Uh it's a
00:24:04
very small, very intimately connected town. So yes, you're never at an advantage where you don't know everybody
00:24:12
by name. >> Adding to the difficulty, Brian Fannon is a detective. >> Yes. >> And respected
00:24:19
>> very much in in that community. As spring gave way to summer, Corey ended her relationship with Fion. And by
00:24:27
early 2019, Fannon retired from the police force. The investigation into Amy's death continued.
00:24:35
>> We're still trying to get some testing done because we want to have as strong a
00:24:39
case as possible before we go in before the grand jury. >> And a complication in the form of a
00:24:44
letter was among the case files. Amy's family members expressed their unfailing support of Brian Fionan, [music] saying,
00:24:51
"We are certain Amy took her own life." The letter was signed by Amy's siblings [music] and even her own mother.
00:25:01
>> That's got to be tough for you. >> It's an awkward position for a prosecutor where your victim family
00:25:07
isn't supporting you. It was an odd spot to be in. >> An odd spot perhaps, but not a
00:25:13
deterrent. On November 6th, 2019, 17 months after Amy died, detectives arrived at Brian
00:25:21
Fan's door. >> Brian came to the dining room door pretty quickly as I recall it. And he
00:25:28
said something to the effect of, "Come in." Then Mike Blanchett began to describe to Brian, "Brian, we have an
00:25:35
arrest warrant for you." >> Police say Brian Fion told them [music] that his wife shot herself with his gun
00:25:41
while he was at home on a lunch break last year. I remember telling him, "Put your hands
00:25:47
behind your back." I took out my handcuffs. >> Through their investigation, they only
00:25:51
solidified their suspicion that Brian pulled the trigger. >> He was eating [music] assorted nuts, was
00:25:57
uh popping some in his mouth, and as he put his hands [music] behind his back, we let him drop to the floor. We
00:26:03
transported Brian to the Russell State Police barracks and he's processed, photographed,
00:26:11
fingerprinted. stands accused of killing his wife in what was originally reported.
00:26:16
>> I assess the feeling of despair on Brian's face like I can't believe this [music] is
00:26:22
happening. Stephanie Barry, a crime reporter at the Republican newspaper, recalls the
00:26:41
unusual scene that played out 15 miles away in Springfield, Massachusetts, inside the Hampton County Superior Court
00:26:49
in early November 2019. There's no one who spent any amount of time in Westfield who didn't know who
00:26:56
Brian Fan was. It was a pretty full house and the kind of palpable shock remained throughout the entire
00:27:05
proceeding. >> Fannyon, who appeared for his initial arraignment, entered a plea of not
00:27:10
guilty, and sitting right behind him were members of both Brian's and Amy's family. I can't think of another
00:27:18
instance when I've seen the family of a victim sticking up for the accused murder of their loved one.
00:27:29
>> And despite the absence of support from members of Amy's family, Ada Sandstöm
00:27:34
continued to build her case. >> What was Amy Fion like? >> She sounds like a fairy tale.
00:27:41
giving, selfless, completely dedicated to her family. >> According to Sandstöm, the night before
00:27:49
Amy died, she was making a gift for an upcoming baby shower that she planned to attend and was texting her daughter,
00:27:56
Victoria. Did anyone ever say that Amy was ever suicidal? >> She wasn't a person who was ready to
00:28:03
die. Amy was healthy. She was happy. >> What do you think Brian Fan's motive was?
00:28:10
He was ready to start a new chapter of his life that did not include Amy Fanion. He's chosen his life partner in
00:28:16
Corey. Amy's the only thing standing in the way now. >> And that's always the million-dollar
00:28:21
question. Why not divorce? >> He can't divorce Amy for how he's going to be seen in this community. Divorce is
00:28:28
public, but in his mind, murder doesn't have to be. The trial started today for a former
00:28:34
Westfield police officer who's accused of murdering his wife. >> On February 23rd, 2023 in what would be
00:28:42
Westfield's most publicized case, Brian Fan's trial began. He faced a life sentence for the first degree murder of
00:28:49
his wife. 48 Hours made several interview requests to Brian Fion, his attorney Jeffrey Brown, as well as
00:28:56
family members of both Amy and Brian, but never received a response. This is a big case, a lot of attention. How are
00:29:03
you feeling? >> For any trial, you're always nervous. And this was probably the most
00:29:09
high-profile case I've ever done. >> Opening statements revealed conflicting accounts of the circumstances
00:29:16
surrounding Amy Fan's death. >> The defendant was a deacon at Wyven Union Church and an officer for the
00:29:23
Westfield Police Department. The evidence will show that while the defendant was repulsed by continuing his
00:29:29
marriage with Amy, he couldn't divorce her either, leaving him trapped. And once that evidence is before you, I will
00:29:37
ask you to find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. >> Fion's defense focused on Amy's anger
00:29:44
issues and claimed she suffered from anxiety. Brown alleged that on the day of Amy's death, an argument over Brian's
00:29:52
retirement plans and his refusal to attend a family member's play pushed her over the edge.
00:29:59
In the days before Amy shot herself, Amy was very mad at him. He had to tread lightly around Amy for fear of setting
00:30:07
her off. And at the conclusion of the evidence in this case, outlast that you find Brian Fion
00:30:14
not guilty. Thank you. >> Anna Hansen, Amy's younger sister, was the first witness for the prosecution.
00:30:22
She was the only family member who signed the letter of support that willingly testified against Brian
00:30:28
Fanion. Anna stated that during the investigation into Amy's death, her brother-in-law confided that he was
00:30:36
worried about searches he had conducted on his computer. >> I asked him what that search was, and he
00:30:42
said, "How to make a murder look like a suicide. He specifically said he searched quote how to make a murder look
00:30:49
like a suicide. >> Those were his exact words. >> Anna told the jury that when she asked
00:30:54
her brother-in-law why he made this search, Fion told her that Amy asked him to do it after they watched a CSI show.
00:31:02
It was a show that Anna questioned if Amy had ever watched. >> Did she ever state that she liked those
00:31:08
shows? >> She never shared that with me. The prosecution's next witness was Fion's
00:31:14
former lover, a divorced Corey Nolles, now Corey Hasty, who told the jury that Fion was concerned about ending his
00:31:22
marriage. >> Did the defendant ever talk about what could happen to him if he were to
00:31:26
divorce Amy? >> Yes. If Amy was to ever leave, excuse me, or he'd have divorced her, that she
00:31:35
would take him for everything that he's got because he wouldn't y stay on retirement.
00:31:40
The prosecution called Tom Forest from the cyber crimes unit. All of Fion's devices were examined, but it was Fion's
00:31:47
office computer that produced some curious results. Forest said Fion visited >> common and dangerous poisons, which drug
00:31:56
causes the most deaths each year, 16 common household items that could kill you.
00:32:02
But it's only when this affair starts up that all of these incriminating searches
00:32:08
start to appear. >> Carbon monoxide, the invisible killer, household poisons, common prescription
00:32:13
overdoses. >> And 11 days prior to Amy's death, Fion used his office computer to view a news
00:32:21
report on YouTube called What Gunshot Residue Tests Tell Us. >> He wasn't assigned to any active
00:32:29
investigations in April and May of 2018. that would necessitate looking up gunshot residue.
00:32:34
Nobody in the Westfield Police Department does gunshot residue testing. >> I was trying to keep a very open mind
00:32:40
about what the evidence was going to show, but I didn't think that was great news for Brian Fion.
00:32:46
>> Morning. Detective John Shrine, a ballistic expert and a crucial witness for the prosecution, testified that
00:32:53
Amy's wound was not self-inflicted, citing the absence of gunshot residue near the wound coupled with the
00:33:00
trajectory of the bullet. Shrine concluded that Amy Fannon was shot from a downward angle and at a distance of at
00:33:07
least 18 in, not at close range as Fion had claimed. Could you form an opinion as to whether or not the defendants
00:33:17
firearm was discharged at a distance of 18 in or greater? >> Over 18 in without anything intervening. That's
00:33:27
correct. >> After 12 days of testimony and 27 witnesses, the prosecution rested. But
00:33:35
waiting in the wings was a defense poised to introduce a significant element [music] that could potentially
00:33:41
unravel the DA's case. Any prosecutor who's not worried about a defense probably isn't a good prosecutor.
00:34:01
Defense attorney Jeffrey Brown, whose client faced life in prison, launched a counterattack
00:34:08
when he cross-examined Fan's former lover, Cory Hasty. According to this state, Fion's affair was the primary
00:34:16
motive for murdering his wife. But Hasty admitted to the defense that when she ended their relationship, Fion
00:34:25
didn't try to stop her. >> When ultimately you ended it with Brian, his response was, "Okay." Isn't that
00:34:35
right? >> To my recollection, >> he didn't say to you, "Oh my god, I killed Amy for you and you're leaving
00:34:42
me." He never said that, right? >> Correct. >> And what about the websites? Detective
00:34:48
Forest from the cyber crimes unit said Fion visited >> carbon monoxide, the invisible killer,
00:34:55
common and dangerous poisons, 16 common household items that could kill you. >> The defense argued that some of the
00:35:03
websites he visited were related to an aging house, an old wood burning stove, and the potential hazards it might pose
00:35:10
to a young family member. Did you know that the Fions um were beginning to have a young niece, a child stay in their
00:35:18
home during that time frame? >> No, I did not. >> But what the defense couldn't reconcile
00:35:23
were Fion searches about gunshot residue days before Amy's death. And there was Amy's sister, Anna, the only family
00:35:31
member who willingly testified for the prosecution. >> She claimed that Brian told her he
00:35:37
searched how to make a murder look like a suicide on his computer. You didn't find any sites that were
00:35:45
searched or visited relating to the terms how to make a murder look like a suicide. Isn't that true?
00:35:52
>> That is true. >> The defense narrowed its focus and scrutinized Amy's personality
00:36:01
by cross-examining Amy's own mother, Patricia Taran. >> Did your daughter Amy have a temper?
00:36:10
Yes. >> A temper, according to Amy's sister, Holly, that would typically be directed
00:36:17
toward [music] her husband. >> Well, did she snap at Brian in front of you? >> She would. I was embarrassed for it. You
00:36:27
don't usually talk to your husband kind of in that way. Maybe the you reprimand a child, but not a husband.
00:36:38
But would Amy's temper lead to an impulsive decision such as grabbing Fion's gun? According to Amy's son,
00:36:45
Travis, it would. I could easily picture or envision her grabbing the gun impulsively to make a
00:36:56
point that she picked it up intending to complete a trigger pull and and shoot herself.
00:37:04
But what would explain the [music] lack of gunshot residue on Amy? >> Her wound is consistent with a
00:37:10
close-range gunshot wound. Based on >> Alexander Jason, a senior certified crime scene analyst testified for the
00:37:16
defense. [music] >> That's the foundation of the whole prosecution. And this whole idea that it
00:37:21
had to be 18 in because the absence of gunshot residue is not valid. >> Jason says the lack of gunshot residue
00:37:29
was not due to distance. It was due to Amy's hair. What could Amy Fion's hair have told us?
00:37:38
>> Amy Fion had very dense, thick hair that will block the gunshot residue. >> Jason's research effect of hair on the
00:37:47
deposition of gunshot residue was published by the FBI's forensic science journal in 2004. Jason says there could
00:37:55
have been gunshot residue, commonly known as GSR, embedded in Amy's hair. The crime scene analyst did not test her
00:38:03
hair. >> What they should have done is taken the hair and then analyzed those little
00:38:08
specks to see if their gunshot residue or not, which was a mistake. >> Jason's testimony was limited at trial.
00:38:16
To support his theory, he and his daughter Juliana met us at a gun range in California to demonstrate what may
00:38:22
have happened to Amy Fion. and I'm going to fire two times. >> Using a 45 caliber gun and ammunition
00:38:30
identical to what was found at the scene, Jason fired a single round into a mound of hair backed by a ballistic skin
00:38:36
simulant. So, you just shot a 45 caliber gun 3 in away through hair. >> Yes. Amy Fion had considerable hair,
00:38:46
maybe more dense than this, where the bullet entered. and the hair will act as a filter and prevent the gunshot residue
00:38:54
from reaching her skin. >> For comparison, Jason positioned the gun at the same distance using identical
00:39:00
ammunition and fired into the skin simulant without hair. >> I pull this away. >> Wow.
00:39:08
>> You can see there's a big difference. Look at that. That's a very clean wound.
00:39:12
That's a very dirty wound. >> That's incredible. All from the hair. >> All from the hair. The hair acted as a
00:39:19
filter. It's >> pretty fascinating. While Jason believes this scenario is what happened to Amy
00:39:25
Fion, he stopped short of saying whether or not Fannon killed his wife. >> Filtered that stuff out.
00:39:31
>> But what he does believe is that basing the case on the absence of gunshot residue is wrong.
00:39:37
>> And he should not be convicted on that basis. That's my bottom line. After 40 witnesses and 15 days of
00:39:47
testimony, >> closing arguments, >> she raised the gun up to her head in a fit of rage and in effect caused her own
00:39:57
death. >> This defendant murdered Amy Fannon with deliberate premeditation. >> On March 21st, 2023, the jury got the
00:40:08
case and after 2 days of deliberations, the verdict. person. What say you? Is the
00:40:15
defendant guilty or not guilty? >> Guilty. Guilty of what? Guilty of what degree?
00:40:22
>> Brian Fannon was found guilty of the firstdegree murder of his wife Amy Fannon
00:40:29
and sentenced to life without parole that same day. Brian's side of the aisle just collapsed
00:40:38
in sobs. These people loved Brian and sincerely thought that he was innocent. For assistant district attorney Mary
00:40:55
Sandstöm, Fion's conviction [music] was bittersweet and hard one. >> It's never a [music] victory. Amy Fion
00:41:04
should be here. she should be with her daughter and son and her now [music] grandchildren and she's not.
00:41:13
And it was all for [music] nothing so that Brian Faniel could enjoy his life and
00:41:22
end hers. Was the Ferris family a happy family? No. >> A wealthy man's murder leads to a
00:41:42
mother's unthinkable accusation. >> I want everyone, especially my children, to know I didn't do this. I know who
00:41:49
did. >> 48 Hours is all new. CBS Next and streaming on Paramount Plus. This is definitely one of the stranger
00:42:14
cases I've covered. It seems like it comes right out of a novel. On November 12th, 2012,
00:42:25
Jake Nolan set out to the office and home of Dr. Michael Weiss. Jake had with him a duffel bag with a
00:42:38
massive sledgehammer, a stake knife, zip ties, and he's walking through the streets of Manhattan with this.
00:42:46
>> When you walked into Dr. Michael Weiss's office with that duffel bag, with the
00:42:52
weapons that were inside. >> What did you intend to do? >> You know, I intended to kill him.
00:43:04
>> This is not a who done it. He did what he was accused of doing. But the big question was why?
00:43:14
I saw Jake Nolan brainwashed by Dr. Pamela Buckbinder, >> an Ivy trained psychiatrist.
00:43:21
>> She's brilliant. >> I would have done anything for Pamela. >> It happens so slowly that you don't
00:43:27
really recognize this growing feeling inside of you that one day you wake up and say, "I'll kill for this woman."
00:43:36
>> By the end of this manipulation by Dr. Bookbinder, [music] Jake Nolan had become weaponized
00:43:44
to attack [music] Dr. Weiss, the man with whom she had been fighting over custody of her son.
00:43:52
>> They hated each other and in turn she made me hate him. She had already told me that she wanted me to hit him over
00:43:58
the head playing like you know Maxwell Silver Hammer by the Beatles repeatedly in the house.
00:44:05
>> Maxwell [singing and music] made sure >> Jake Nolan suffered from bipolar disorder. He had these learning
00:44:15
problems. He had personality problems. >> Pamela took someone who she knew was severely mentally ill and she morphed me
00:44:22
into whatever she wanted me to be. And I obeyed just like a puppet. >> She used him for her own benefit. She
00:44:31
sacrificed him. His office door was open and I see Michael sitting in a chair. I think this is really when I became
00:44:41
fully psychotic. I don't buy Jake's story that he was brainwashed and manipulated. He knew
00:44:48
exactly what he was doing. >> And do you believe that each step of the way Jake could have made the decision to
00:44:55
leave? >> Of course he could have. >> And Dr. Bookbinder claims that she had no involvement at all in this. [music]
00:45:03
That anything Jake Nolan did, he did completely on his own. >> 911. Where's emergency?
00:45:08
>> Hi. I can hear someone out in my hallway screaming in pain, but I don't know what's going on out there, and I'm
00:45:12
afraid to go out. >> And what was so odd about this is he didn't [music] try to flee. Jake Nolan
00:45:18
starts snapping selfies of himself covered in blood. I mean, who would possibly snap a selfie
00:45:27
of themselves right after they tried to murder someone? Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music]
00:46:08
[music] [music] >> There's never going to be a night I don't fall asleep feeling awful for what
00:46:31
I've done. >> To this day, Jake Nolan insists his mind was not his own when he set out to kill
00:46:38
Dr. Michael Weiss at his office on November 12th, 2012. >> The knife was in my pocket and the
00:46:46
sledgehammer was over my shoulders. He sees the sledgehammer and charges at me and I reached for the knife.
00:46:55
Here I am with this knife and the guy's bleeding and I'm bleeding and I'm thinking, "Oh my god, this is
00:47:02
terrifying. It's as if I woke up from a bad dream." After Jake stabbed him, Dr. Weiss fought back furiously. Both men
00:47:11
ended up in the hallway of the Manhattan high-rise. >> 911 emergency. >> There's guys screaming like crazy for
00:47:18
help. Both men were rushed to the hospital where Jake was placed under arrest for
00:47:27
attempted murder and handcuffed to his bed. In the weeks ahead, Jake's bizarre story unfolded. His claim that he had
00:47:36
been manipulated to kill by his own cousin, psychiatrist Pamela Bookbinder. My experience with Pamela looking back
00:47:47
was incredibly frightening. Incredibly frightening. >> Jake's target that day, Michael Weiss,
00:47:56
was Pamela's ex-boyfriend and another psychiatrist. Do you believe he was brainwashed?
00:48:03
>> Yes. >> To be honest, I try and come in here as little as possible because it's just too
00:48:11
many memories. Debbie and Jim Nolan. Jake's parents are devastated. >> He is basically a really good kid who
00:48:23
doesn't have a mean bone in his body. >> Nolan, it's a pleasure to meet Jacob. >> When we met Jake in the summer of 2016,
00:48:30
he seemed rational. >> I've been on meds now for over a year and a half that have finally worked for
00:48:36
me. >> But he says that wasn't always the case. Jake's parents insist that to understand
00:48:43
how and why their then 20-year-old son could have been conditioned to kill, you have to go back to his childhood.
00:48:54
>> Jake was our third and our youngest child. He was a absolute delight. He was gifted. He was smart. He liked to invent
00:49:02
things. >> But Jake also had problems. By the age of five, he was diagnosed with ADHD,
00:49:12
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. [music] >> There was something with him that just
00:49:18
wasn't the same as everybody else. And we started to notice significant changes in his personality and his demeanor
00:49:26
around the ages of 14, 15. >> What did you see? >> He went through these large mood swings.
00:49:34
Still, Jake had moments of brilliance while in high school in Miami. He made news after he won a prestigious [music]
00:49:41
contest, co-inventing a study tool app for iPhones called Flash Me. >> And then a month later, I couldn't get
00:49:50
out of bed. My parents bribed me with everything to get out of bed. Please get out of bed. Please get out of bed, Jake.
00:49:56
You got to go to school. Please go to school today. Don't miss another day of school. Jake was then diagnosed with
00:50:02
depression and anxiety. These episodes worsened to the point where at the age of 17, Jake threatened to kill himself.
00:50:12
He got a butcher knife from downstairs and he took it upstairs to his room and he said he was going to kill himself.
00:50:21
We were terrified. >> Jake was hospitalized and was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Bipolar
00:50:29
disorder is a severe and chronic mental illness that's characterized by severe mood swings.
00:50:37
>> Psychiatrist Dr. Sasha Bardday has evaluated Jake for the defense. >> Swings that go from deep, dark, suicidal
00:50:46
depressions to periods of incredible elation, grandiose ideas, poor judgment. He's a mess. He's such a prisoner of his
00:50:56
own mind that he can't he can't get anywhere in life. >> There's not a day that goes by that I
00:51:05
don't think of killing myself. >> By the time Jake was in college, doctors had prescribed some 30 medications to
00:51:11
treat him with little success. >> Some of these medications change brain chemistry, do they not?
00:51:18
>> Well, these are powerful psychotropic medications. His disorder, his problems
00:51:23
were so profound, sometimes he's taking four, five, six medications at once. >> Jake admits he was also doing illegal
00:51:31
drugs and drinking, barely making it to class. The Nolans thought their prayers had been answered when Dr. Pamela
00:51:39
Bookbinder, Debbie's own niece, offered to help. >> We thought this was great. I adored Pam.
00:51:46
>> You trusted her? I trusted her with my most prized possession, my child. >> The plan, Jake would live part-time with
00:51:53
Pamela in her Manhattan apartment. She would give him therapy sessions and monitor his meds.
00:52:01
In return, she proposed he helped take care of her then four-year-old son, Calder, in spite of Jake's mental
00:52:09
illness. >> Pamela and I had formed a relationship when I was really young. I mean, this is
00:52:14
my cousin. This is someone I really knew and I entrust everything into this one woman. I mean, this woman is going to
00:52:20
save my life. >> By all accounts, the plan seemed to be working. [laughter] >> I thought he was very happy and I
00:52:30
thought he was quite stable. >> So, you guys must have felt everything's coming together here. Thank you.
00:52:35
Finally. Thank you. Right. But the Nolans now say sending their son to live with Pamela was the biggest
00:52:46
mistake they have ever made. [music] >> It's a total horrible nightmare. >> To hear more of the 911 calls, join us
00:53:00
on Facebook at 48 Hours. When Jake Nolan went to live with his psychiatrist cousin, Dr. Pamela
00:53:22
Bookbinder, he had no idea he'd end up on the front lines of a physical [music] and psychological war.
00:53:31
>> The relationship between Dr. Bookbinder and Dr. Weiss was very toxic from the
00:53:36
outset. >> Reporter Rebecca Rosenberg has covered the case for the New York Post.
00:53:42
>> The relationship was on again, off again. There were allegations of domestic violence on both sides.
00:53:49
>> It definitely got physical. >> Roland Asdo is an attorney for Dr. Michael Weiss. Is it true that Pam once
00:53:58
attacked Michael with broken glass? She was arrested and charged with an assault. He receives stitches. I mean,
00:54:08
there's physical proof that he was attacked. >> Is it true that Michael Weiss has also
00:54:15
been arrested in the course of this war with Pam? >> Yes, Pamela contended that Michael
00:54:23
threatened her or attempted to assault her. In each incident, the charges were dismissed. But the war of the
00:54:33
psychiatrists moved onto another battlefield, the courtroom, [music] as Pamela and Michael fought over the
00:54:41
custody of their son. >> These are two psychiatrists. Couldn't they talk it out?
00:54:47
There was no communication. But back during the times when he and Pamela were communicating big time, Michael Weiss
00:54:56
attended [music] family parties, including Jake's bar mitzvah. >> Pamela and I just want to wish you
00:55:01
congratulations on your bar mitzvah. Um, we're both so happy for you. >> We were inspired by all of the speeches
00:55:08
about opportunity and charm and character, and we think you have them all. And that [music]
00:55:15
makes it even more incredible that Jake would target him. >> This is a man who respected me and who I
00:55:24
respected greatly. >> Michael and Pamela never married and broke up for good soon after their son
00:55:34
[music] Calder was born. >> Ready? >> Yeah. >> When Calder was four, Pamela asked Jake
00:55:40
to be her child's godfather. Shortly before she took Jake in, Jake's mother is convinced. That is when Pamela began
00:55:50
to manipulate his mind. >> Jake had been feeling so bad about himself. And here all of a sudden, I'm
00:55:58
so important to Calder. Everything I do has to be right. >> Yeah. >> This was a kid that I loved more than
00:56:06
life. >> Jake wants a normal life. Defense psychiatrist Sasha Bardday says Pamela
00:56:15
knew how to give Jake the life he craved. >> He wants to be a successful, respected
00:56:23
family man with a nuclear family and a happy life. >> There's a photograph of the [snorts]
00:56:29
three of you in bed basically in your underwear. What should we take from that picture?
00:56:36
>> I guess that just goes to show you the level of comfort that I really felt there. It was not unusual in the morning
00:56:42
for her to invite me into into bed with Calder and I and to share that familiar moment. You know, really feel like a
00:56:49
family together. >> But Dr. Bardday finds these images deeply troubling. >> When you think that you're seeing
00:57:00
pictures of essentially a a a patient and his psychiatrist, it's really horrific. It's really
00:57:07
creepy. Just as troubling for Jake's family were text messages discovered on his cell
00:57:14
phone. >> Let me read to you some of the texts that Pam Bookbinder sent to Jake. You're
00:57:22
just the most fun person to love. You're so beautiful. She'd call him lovey sweet
00:57:28
Jab. You are remarkable. You are brilliant. I have so many thoughts about you. >> Well,
00:57:36
this is almost sickening. And there was never any romantic or sexual relationship ever between these two
00:57:43
people. So what this is is all mental manipulation. >> I miss you terribly. She would say when
00:57:52
you were away. That sounds romantic. >> You know it does. I don't know what her intentions were to
00:58:02
this day. I wouldn't be able to tell you. And as Pamela was apparently building Jake up, he says she was tearing Michael
00:58:11
Weiss apart, claiming Michael was refusing to pay Cers's child support and worse.
00:58:18
>> She had me convinced that he was being molested at his father's home. >> How many times did she say this? Was
00:58:24
this repeated over and over? >> Oh, this was every day. >> Has Michael Weiss ever ever abused his
00:58:33
son in any way? Absolutely not. Michael worships that child. >> Jake, what real evidence did you have
00:58:40
that Michael was sexually abusing his son? >> There was no evidence. >> But at the time, Jake says that's how
00:58:48
Pamela was able to pull him into the plot to kill Michael Weiss. >> Part of the indoctrination process was
00:58:56
[music] to get Jake to participate in developing the plan. And the plan, if you believe Jake,
00:59:04
was horrific. >> Pamela was determined for me to torture Michael before killing him. She wanted
00:59:11
me to inject him with some, you know, poisonous chemicals. She wanted to burn him alive in front of a group of people.
00:59:19
>> Jake's story is dramatic, but is it true? Despite Jake's accusations, he was the only one charged.
00:59:28
But Michael Weiss sued Dr. Bookbinder for the attack. And in court papers, she calls the claims against her utterly
00:59:36
baseless and states, "I never asked Mr. Nolan to attack or harm Mr. Weiss." >> Dr. Bookbinder also claims that there's
00:59:45
no smoking gun here. There there's no evidence of emails or text messages that show that she and Jake plotted this
00:59:54
together. You can't deny the footage that shows her in Home Depot buying a sledgehammer.
01:00:00
>> Jake insists this surveillance video at a Home Depot in New York City proves his
01:00:06
claims. That's Pamela standing next to him, paying for the very tool that police
01:00:14
would find the next morning on the floor of Michael Weiss's office. Jake, there's no one that really
01:00:24
disputes that you suffer from mental illness. But could you have another problem as well? Could you be a
01:00:31
sociopath? >> No, I could not. Had I never met Pamela Bookbinder, this wouldn't be my story.
01:01:01
As Jake Nolan's eyes opened on the morning of November 12th, 2012, the day he was supposed to kill Michael Weiss,
01:01:10
he says he wasn't alone. Pamela was there in bed rubbing my back, telling me how much she loved me, that I
01:01:19
was a savior, that I was the greatest person ever, that no one else understood her.
01:01:26
>> Just the night before, Pamela had bought this sledgehammer at a Home Depot in New
01:01:31
York. >> That is Pamela Bookbinder paying for the sledgehammer. She's right there. She has
01:01:36
cash in her hand >> with plans Jake claims [music] of having him bash her ex-boyfriend in the head.
01:01:43
>> You know, I intended to kill him. >> Jake says that Pamela's [music] loveydovey mood quickly changed
01:01:51
as she allegedly packed [music] a duffel bag with weapons. >> She was hysterical, crying tears as she
01:01:57
put the sledgehammer into a duffel bag with a kitchen knife. like she's packing a a bag to head off to school, except
01:02:04
this is to head off to a murder. >> Exactly. >> And there was one more item that was
01:02:11
vital to the scheme. >> The night before she had provided me with the map and how to get into his
01:02:16
apartment. She handed me that. >> This map, which Pamela drew herself, showed the multiple entrances of Michael
01:02:24
Weiss's building. Michael's attorney, Roland Asdo. Do you believe essentially this was a battle
01:02:33
plan map? >> I believe it was a map that Jake was provided to allow him to get access to
01:02:41
Dr. Weiss's apartment without going through the normal security measures. >> Pamela says she never gave Jake the
01:02:51
knife and that the map was given to Jake to help care for Calder. It had the daycare
01:02:58
where he was going. It had Dr. Weiss's building. >> Jake says Pamela said goodbye that
01:03:07
morning with just one goal in mind. >> Today is the day. Life is going to be so much better after
01:03:16
Michael is She used the word terminated. After Michael is terminated. >> Clutching that handdrawn map.
01:03:27
Jake headed to Michael's [music] Midtown Manhattan high-rise. >> He kind of scoped out the building on
01:03:33
different sides. It had two separate entrances. Entered through the business entrance.
01:03:39
>> Jake signed in, writing that he was heading to a tutoring center in the building called Bright Kids. It was
01:03:46
marked on the map. He didn't even bother using an alias. >> They signed in with my own name.
01:03:53
Remember, I was willing to die for this woman. I wasn't trying to hide anything.
01:03:59
>> Jake went straight to the 12th floor and walked in on Michael in the middle of a session. Jake left the office
01:04:07
[music] and waited in a stairwell while Michael finished with the patient. What are you thinking to yourself?
01:04:14
What's going through your head? >> I think I was really nervous. I think I wanted to back out, but I didn't have a
01:04:21
means to do it because I couldn't go back [music] to Pamela without this done. I felt like I had no choice. After
01:04:29
the patient left, Jake asked Michael for some financial forms for Calder School.
01:04:35
Pamela claims picking up those forms was the only reason Jake was there. But Jake
01:04:41
says it was Ola Ruse to distract Michael while Jake went to the restroom to prepare.
01:04:49
I grabbed the sledgehammer. I put the knife in my pocket. From here on out, it's it's um I
01:04:59
remember bits and pieces. >> But according to Michael Weiss's attorney, Michael remembers it all too
01:05:06
well. >> Jake came out of a bathroom in Michael's office and hit him with a sledgehammer.
01:05:12
Michael managed to duck just in time, missing the full brunt of the 10 lb tool. Still, the sledgehammer made
01:05:21
contact with his shoulder. That's when Michael says Jake reached for the knife. >> That's when I first stabbed Michael
01:05:29
Weiss. And then from there on out, it was just it was a fight. >> And then he stabbed Michael seven or
01:05:36
eight times in various places. the stomach, the back, the chest. >> Michael, who's 6'3 and 205 pounds,
01:05:47
managed to overpower Jake >> on the ground standing up. You know, I got stabbed multiple times.
01:05:55
I thought this I thought that someone was bound to die. >> The two men stumbled into the hallway
01:06:01
where neighbors heard the commotion. >> I think it's a psychologist, so we might
01:06:05
have had a client who went nuts. >> Good morning, man. hand colon the patient breathing.
01:06:09
>> Yeah, but I got a lot of blood. You're losing a lot of blood. >> Then as he sat on the floor bleeding,
01:06:16
Jake lifted his cell phone and took that selfie. >> Why did you take a selfie? >> You know, we were sitting right next to
01:06:24
each other and I was reporting back to Pamela like, "What do I do next?" >> Jake says Pamela didn't respond. A short
01:06:34
time later at the hospital, Jake tried texting her again. >> This is what you wrote. In hospital,
01:06:41
please come. Michael bleeding badly. Same. I walked into office. He stabbed me with my knife in the heart.
01:06:51
>> This time Pamela answered with a single word. Where >> there was no plan for after the attack.
01:07:00
I think it was Pamela's plan to just dismiss me and like, oh well, he tried to kill him, he lost. You know, try
01:07:08
again later. I mean, I really believe it's her plan to try again later. Hospital records say Jake was in a manic
01:07:16
state after the attack. Pamela eventually showed up at the ER, but was not allowed to see Jake.
01:07:24
>> I was in full-blown psychotic episode. I was heavily medicated on morphine. Michael Weiss suffered multiple cuts to
01:07:33
his upper torso and legs. He was stitched up and released from the hospital. Jake was still recovering from his own
01:07:42
wounds to his chest and hand when the reality of his arrest for attempted murder hit him.
01:07:52
Could Jake have backed out of the attack? See more of the crime scene photos at 48 hours.com.
01:08:09
After his arrest for attempted murder, Jake Nolan spent 4 days recovering in the hospital. He then appeared before a
01:08:16
judge and was freed on $200,000 bail pending trial. Jake was allowed to fly [music] home to live with his
01:08:25
parents outside of Miami. >> Ready? What would you have said to Calder one day if he asked you why did
01:08:31
you kill my father? >> I don't know. >> I gave everything for this child. I was willing to kill someone for this child.
01:08:41
That alone can only show how sorry I feel when he finds out about this later on in life.
01:08:49
>> But what of Pamela Bookbinder? Soon after the attack, Michael sued for custody of their son, claiming Pamela
01:08:57
was the mastermind. A family court judge considered the evidence in that case, including the Home Depot images, and
01:09:05
granted Michael Weiss full custody of Calder and barred Pamela from any contact for 5 years. The evidence showed
01:09:14
and the family court agreed that Pamela was involved in the plan or plot to attack and kill Michael.
01:09:22
>> Despite the evidence presented in family court, Pamela was still not criminally
01:09:28
charged in the attack. Why not? The district attorney's office will not comment. But Michael Weiss's attorney
01:09:35
thinks part of the problem is the key accuser in this case. Jacob, because he contends that he has
01:09:44
this history of mental illness, is perhaps not the most reliable witness for the prosecution.
01:09:52
Jake spent much of his time awaiting trial in and out of treatment centers for both his mental problems and drug
01:09:59
and alcohol addictions. Despite those efforts, his life almost came to a tragic end in May 2015. What happened
01:10:09
that caused you to be in this hospital bed? >> I tried to kill myself. I tried to take
01:10:15
my own life. >> This time, Jake ended up in a coma after poisoning himself. >> This was probably the worst day of my
01:10:24
life because they told us they didn't think Jake was going to make it. >> [music]
01:10:31
>> Finally, in March 2016, three and a half years after the attack, Jake's trial
01:10:38
gets underway in New York. >> The prosecution portrayed Jake as kind of a spoiled rich kid.
01:10:44
>> Just one of many challenges for the defense. >> Jake Nolan was a very unreliable
01:10:50
narrator of this event. For one thing, it wasn't until weeks after the attack that Jake claimed Pamela had manipulated
01:10:59
him. Another problem, >> he gave at least three different versions of what happened. Each was
01:11:07
meant to cast him in the [music] most innocent light possible. >> In one version, Jake tried to put the
01:11:13
blame on Michael Weiss. >> When the first responders showed up, he immediately pointed the finger at Dr.
01:11:18
Weiss and said, "He stabbed me." In another account, Jake told investigators he never swung the sledgehammer.
01:11:26
>> This was a big hammer. I couldn't even lift the thing up. >> Jake claims he only brought the
01:11:30
sledgehammer and knife because he was afraid of Michael. Perhaps most stunning of all, a third
01:11:39
version. >> He claims that Dr. Weiss pulled the sledgehammer out of his bag and attacked
01:11:44
him first with it. So that really doesn't make any sense. I mean, how would Dr. We rise even know that the
01:11:51
sledgehammer is in the bag. >> Jake has said he had been convinced the attack on Michael was the only way to
01:12:00
save Calder. But at trial, prosecutors hinted at another motive. Michael Weiss had taken out a $1.5
01:12:09
million life insurance policy. >> The beneficiary was his son, who probably at the time was three or four
01:12:17
years old. But there was a catch. Just 3 days before the attack, Michael agreed to make Pamela the policy's irrevocable
01:12:26
trustee. >> What does that mean in English? >> Irrevocable means can't be taken back.
01:12:31
>> So if Michael dies, >> if Michael passed away, the child would get the $1.5 million, but she would be
01:12:40
the person that controlled the money for the child. Jake insisted he had no clue before the
01:12:47
attack that money may have been involved. >> I had no idea Pimla never mentioned that
01:12:53
to me. >> Her plan was for you to kill him. >> Mhm. >> But the most damning evidence came from
01:12:58
Jake himself. The prosecution psychiatrist interviewed Jake before trial and clips from the exam were
01:13:06
played to jurors. in one a shockingly frank discussion about another item Pamela bought at Home Depot.
01:13:15
>> What was it? Zip ties for >> She wanted me to like torture Michael. Um, which I didn't tell her, but I wasn't
01:13:23
down to do that. >> So, you were down to kill, but not torture. >> Yeah. >> Okay. What did she want you to do to
01:13:29
torture him? >> She wanted me to cut off his balls. She said >> that was a line too far for you.
01:13:34
>> Yeah. >> How come? I don't know. I've never heard anyone before. >> The prosecution saw this as a stunning
01:13:43
admission. On tape, at least, it appears Jake was a willing participant in planning the attack and could draw a
01:13:51
line when he wanted to. >> The crux of the prosecution's argument here is that this is not some babbling
01:14:01
idiot that didn't know which way was up. I think I was in control up to a degree,
01:14:08
but the deal was to kill Michael Weiss. The deal wasn't to torture Michael Weiss.
01:14:14
It might seem like Jake is splitting hairs, but one of Jake's lawyers, Steven Brownstein, says that's exactly how
01:14:22
Jake's mind was working. In fact, it's why he and his legal team argue a risky defense, diminished capacity. You're
01:14:31
going to have to admit that your client did the crime, but his capacity to establish the intent, the motive to
01:14:38
commit that crime, he lacked and therefore he should be found not guilty. >> I understand that the prosecution feels
01:14:46
that clearly Jake never had a gun to his head. In my opinion, psychologically speaking, he did.
01:14:53
>> Dr. Sasha Bardday, who testified for the defense at trial, says Pamela had replaced Jake's free will with her own.
01:15:02
>> It's very much like a cult where there is a shaping of the person's thought processes to meet the cult's ideals.
01:15:11
It's a small cult. It has two people in it. There's the cult leader, Pamela Bookbinder, and the cult member, Jake
01:15:17
Nolan. >> Jake never takes the stand. Pamela Bookbinder never even set foot in the courtroom. Neither side called her
01:15:30
to testify. In March of 2016, after a twoe trial, the jury began its deliberations.
01:15:41
In less than an hour, >> the jury comes back. We have reached a verdict. Guilty.
01:15:48
>> Guilty of attempted murder. It's unjust. I'm no harm to society. >> And a little over 3 months later, the
01:15:59
judge describes the attack as an act of extreme brutality and violence and sentences Jake Nolan to 9 and a half
01:16:08
years in prison. >> You're in just such shock. >> I was like somebody just crushed me from
01:16:15
from top to bottom. Just just totally took my heart right out of me. And what of Michael Weiss, the man Jake
01:16:23
Nolan would have killed if the murder plot had succeeded. >> He's been traumatized by this.
01:16:31
>> I know what I did was very serious. [music] But there is also another party that
01:16:36
needs to take responsibility, too. >> And that person is >> Pamela Bookbinder. >> And her role in this sorted case is
01:16:44
about [music] to take Let's >> Wait till she comes down. >> A dramatic turn. Pamela Bookfinder,
01:16:50
Peter Vans from 48 hours. >> No, she's not. >> I have a simple question. Why did you
01:16:54
buy that sledgehammer? Pamela Bookbinder, the most talked about woman during Jake Nolan's trial,
01:17:14
had always managed to elude the public. But we caught up with Pamela about 4 months after Jake Nolan was sentenced.
01:17:23
>> I have a simple question. Why did you buy that sledgehammer? >> You know what?
01:17:28
>> You can answer that question. >> Were you going to do some home improvement or were you buying a murder
01:17:34
weapon >> of her face? >> I can touch. Get it out of her face. Get it. >> Pamela, you can answer that question.
01:17:40
But on October 19th, 2017, almost 5 years after Michael Weiss was attacked, the law finally caught up with Dr.
01:17:50
Pamela Bookbinder. Bookbinder was arrested at a friend's house outside Syracuse, New York. She
01:17:57
was charged with secondderee attempted murder and firstderee attempted assault. The Manhattan District Attorney accused
01:18:07
Bookbinder of masterminding the plot to send Jake Nolan to murder her ex-boyfriend and the father of her son,
01:18:16
Michael Weiss. >> My name is Pamela and I'm not guilty. >> At the time, Jake Nolan would not
01:18:22
comment on Pamela Bookbinder's arrest, but Michael Weiss's attorney did. >> I was not surprised when she was
01:18:29
indicted and arrested. The prosecutor's office said months ago during the Nolan's trial that they thought she was
01:18:38
involved and I think the evidence against her is significant. >> Pamela is innocent. I'm telling you that
01:18:46
>> Pamela Bookbinder hired two top New York defense attorneys, Ronald Fishetti and
01:18:51
Eric Fron. >> Pamela Buckbinder had nothing to do with that. who say that this video of
01:18:57
Bookbinder buying that sledgehammer is just a sideeshow. >> Pamela Bookbinder is an educated
01:19:04
psychiatrist, not WY Coyote. She didn't plan to orchestrate a murder with a sledgehammer that the man couldn't pick
01:19:10
up. >> Bookbinder's attorneys argued before two judges that their client should be
01:19:16
granted bail, and her family offered to put up a $1.5 million bond to guarantee she wouldn't run off. This despite the
01:19:25
fact that when she was arrested, she had in her possession her passport, birth certificate, and her son Calder's
01:19:33
expired passport. >> The entire world has fallen on this woman periodically, methodically over
01:19:41
the last 5 years. And what did she do? She engaged counsel. She engaged a bondsman. She stayed around and made no
01:19:49
attempts to flee. Her attorneys contend that the case has essentially been solved and that Jake Nolan is the sole
01:19:57
perpetrator. He >> admitted everything. >> When you walked into Dr. Michael Weiss's
01:20:03
office with that duffel bag, with the weapons that were inside, what did you intend to do?
01:20:14
You know, I intended to kill him. Bookbinders legal team later pointed to what they say is an incriminating
01:20:24
[snorts] new piece of evidence found buried in their legal file. A note allegedly written by Jake Nolan
01:20:33
to his mother Debbie after the attack in 2012 as he recovered in the hospital. It
01:20:39
reads, "Pamela has nothing to do with this." >> This man acted completely on his own.
01:20:48
So, it's a very, very crucial piece of evidence. >> Remember, Jake's defense team said he
01:20:53
wrote this letter while he was in what his doctors called a manic state and heavily medicated.
01:21:00
>> That note probably can't be admitted into evidence. In any event, cuz it's hearsay.
01:21:05
>> After the judge heard these arguments, he refused to grant Bookbinder bail. She was ordered held in New York's
01:21:14
notorious Riker's Island jail. where she remained for 5 years through legal wrangling and the pandemic. Then
01:21:25
on September 7th, 2022, in a pre-trial hearing, she made a stunning announcement. She accepted a deal to
01:21:34
spend 11 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to attempted assault and
01:21:40
a lesser charge in connection with Dr. Weiss's attack, seemingly bringing her case to a close.
01:21:50
But just one month later, Bookbinder turned her routine sentencing on its head with her lawyers telling Judge
01:21:57
Farber that she wanted to withdraw her plea. She claimed on the day she agreed to the deal, she was exposed to mace on
01:22:06
Riker's Island. She did not take her medication and she inadvertently got a contact high when someone was smoking
01:22:15
drugs on her bus ride to court. But Judge Thomas Farber would have none of it. He ordered the plea deal to stand
01:22:23
and the sentencing to continue. Dr. Weiss showed up to make a victim's impact statement. He did not want to be
01:22:31
recorded while he read his remarks, telling the court that he suffers from PTSD and that he believes Bookbinder has
01:22:39
so much hatred for [music] him that she will do anything in her power to harm him even after she is released from
01:22:47
prison. >> Prosecutor Joel Seidman was next and he did not hold back. >> I think it's necessary to make the
01:22:57
record straight. The defendant tried to have Dr. Michael Weiss murdered. She hated his guts. She sought to destroy
01:23:06
him because of their failed relationship. She stood to control $1.5 million in life insurance on his life in the name
01:23:15
of his son. She >> Bookbinder attorney had heard enough. >> Objection, your honor, has nothing to do
01:23:22
with the underlying allegations in this case. It's a sentencing, not a lynching.
01:23:26
>> I I understand, Mr. Mr. France, but I don't control what the DA says at sentence.
01:23:31
>> And Sidaman kept going. >> She's on video. Her all of her genius in terms of academic genius didn't mean
01:23:39
that she could outwit the NYPD who immediately went to Home Depot when they saw the sledgehammer and they knew where
01:23:45
it came from. And she sent Jacob Nolan with a map. >> Bookbinder's lawyer finally had his
01:23:52
chance to speak. Well, that was a rather unpleasant experience following a negotiated disposition.
01:23:58
The bottom line is her pleading guilty is not a license to step on her throat and just say whatever you want. That's
01:24:07
an injustice. She stands ready for sentence. Your honor, >> Miss Buger, you can speak if you wish
01:24:13
to. You don't have to. >> She was brief. >> If there was one true statement Mr. Seidman said, I missed it.
01:24:19
>> Judge Farber had the final say. There can be no doubt that if you plot to bash
01:24:25
somebody's head in with a sledgehammer that the intent is to cause his death. >> He then reminded everyone that he
01:24:32
presided over Jacob Nolan's trial back in 2017. >> The compelling and powerful evidence at
01:24:40
that trial supported Mr. Nolan's account that Miss Buckbinder planned to brutally
01:24:46
murder Dr. Weiss. Barber then sentenced Bookbinder to serve 11 years in prison. And he also issued an order of
01:24:55
protection for Dr. Weiss. And just before officers took Bookbinder away, she turned to her family and friends who
01:25:04
blew kisses at her. Defense attorney Monica Neeshain says [music] that in 2027, Pamela Bookbinder will be free to start
01:25:14
her life over and even reach out to her son. >> There's no question about her love for
01:25:19
her son. >> [music] >> a son with secrets. >> He just lied to everybody. >> His parents vanish. You know, cars go
01:25:40
off the road. Things happen. What happened to the Haldersons? Not making any sense. It's taking weirder and
01:25:46
weirder turns. >> Nobody saw this coming. 48 hours next on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.
01:26:07
There's a saying here in Minnesota, Minnesota nice. And that Minnesota nice only goes so far. And Heidi Fergus, she
01:26:16
went all the way. She was genuine and she loved deep. >> She definitely lived a life of love.
01:26:24
That was the mark that she left and that's hard to let go. >> You know, this is a a terrible, terrible
01:26:33
incident. You know, we're hoping to find other physical evidence that might help
01:26:37
us lead us in a direction toward a suspect. The morning of April 25th, 2010, at 6:30 a.m., Heidi Fergus calls 911.
01:26:48
>> Someone's trying to break into my home. >> She tells the state patrol dispatcher
01:26:52
that someone is trying to break into her house and she's trying to give her address.
01:26:57
>> 1794 Mini Haha Avenue. >> While she's on the phone, you can hear a loud noise
01:27:04
and the phone goes dead. >> Well, I don't know where she went there. Approximately a minute later, Nicholas
01:27:10
Fergus calls 911, says that he and his wife have both been shot. >> Okay. Are you in St. Paul, sir?
01:27:21
>> St. Paul fire paramedics took Nick out to the ambulance and transported him to
01:27:25
Regent's Hospital. He had been shot in the leg. Heidi was struck in the back as she was trying to flee towards the
01:27:31
kitchen. It was a shotgun blast that killed her right away. The shotgun was laying inside front door area. There's a
01:27:39
little foyer. Nick gave a brief story. He heard somebody fiddling around with the door
01:27:46
and that he then armed himself with a shotgun and that Nick and the intruder struggled over the shotgun. The
01:27:52
responding officers uh went up and down the block trying to talk to neighbors. >> I was next door housesitting when the
01:28:00
crime happened. Really, all I heard was kind of this agonizing yell of, "You shot her. You shot me."
01:28:11
>> It never felt right. The story never made sense to me. He tells investigators
01:28:17
that he grabbed a shotgun, loaded it with two shells, and then proceeded to have Heidi go down the stairs in front
01:28:23
of him towards the very door that this alleged burglar was at. Why you would send the unarmed person down in front of
01:28:31
you is beyond me. To me, there were only two people in that house when Heidi was
01:28:38
killed. >> And they were Nick and Heidi. In order to believe that Nick killed Heidi, you have to believe that a good
01:28:46
man with no history of violence killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life for no reason. That's
01:28:53
what you have to believe. We can't get there. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Well, this area of St. Paul, where Heidi
01:29:48
and Nick Furkus [music] lived, I would characterize as generally a quiet neighborhood.
01:29:54
>> Back in 2010, 9 years before she took charge of the Furkus case, Detective Nicole Cypes of the St. Paul Police
01:30:02
Department was a patrol cop who worked this neighborhood. >> Do you remember first hearing about the
01:30:08
Fergus case? >> I do. >> Okay. Hey, are you? >> It was early on a Sunday morning.
01:30:17
>> The 911 call was at 6:30. >> Nick Fergus's story of a burglar didn't make sense to Cypes.
01:30:24
>> Most people are home at 6:30 on a Sunday morning, especially in a family neighborhood like that. The last thing
01:30:30
that most burglars want to encounter are people. >> Did police ever have any luck tracking
01:30:36
down the intruder that Nick described? >> No. >> You know, I'm looking. I didn't see
01:30:41
anybody come out of that house. Brandon O'Connor was housesitting next door to the Fircasses and taking care of
01:30:49
kittens. >> I was woken up by the kittens kind of walking around. Some noise caught my
01:30:54
attention, so stuck my head out the window, kind of listen. >> Brandon says he recalls hearing a
01:31:01
muffled argument coming from the Fergus's house, listening through an open window.
01:31:06
>> That's when I ended up hearing what sounded like gunshots. Around this time, Brandon said he also heard that voice
01:31:15
crying out. >> Kind of this agonizing yell [music] of, "You shot her. You shot me. Uh, please,
01:31:24
please, [music] no." Something along those lines. And then then it was done. >> First responders rushed to the scene.
01:31:33
There was nothing they could do for Heidi. She was pronounced dead. Nick was rushed to the hospital. and treated for
01:31:41
a gray gunshot wound to his leg. He seemed not to be sure whether or not Heidi had been killed.
01:31:48
>> Like I said, we'll do our best to find out how how Heidi's doing. >> Hours later, Nick was transported to the
01:31:56
St. Paul Police Department. >> Then Nick and I started to have our conversation in the conference room.
01:32:02
>> Sergeant Jim Gray took Nick's statement. >> You know, I know this is a very traumatic situation, okay? and I'm just
01:32:07
going to try and ease into it. Okay, so >> Nick said the couple ordered in food the
01:32:13
night before and watched the movie Avatar. [music] They went upstairs to their bedroom
01:32:18
around 11:00 p.m. The next morning, Nick got up around 6:00 a.m. to get a drink of water from the bathroom.
01:32:26
>> Go back to sleep and just kind of fullfully sleep for 10 or 15 minutes and then [music] I heard the screen door
01:32:32
open. kind of let it go for a little while, but then I started hearing >> filling with our doororknob.
01:32:38
>> And is Heidi still sleeping then? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Like a rock. >> Nick said he retrieved his shotgun from
01:32:44
the closet. >> I keep two shells for it just in case things get weird. So when I heard things
01:32:50
this morning, I did load it and then I wake up Heidi. >> Okay. >> According to Nick, he told Heidi someone
01:32:57
was trying to break in and to call 911. as she spoke with the dispatcher. >> Someone's trying to break into my home.
01:33:04
>> They headed downstairs so they could get out of the house. >> What address are you at?
01:33:09
>> All right. So, you going first down the stairs or is she is she behind you or is
01:33:13
she in front of you or what? Um, she's in front cuz I'm kind of trying to move her along quickly.
01:33:19
>> Nick said as they passed by the front door, it burst open. >> Guy that was there, I think he he
01:33:25
grabbed the barrel. I don't remember exactly what happened, but the gun went off. So my finger slipped onto the
01:33:31
trigger. >> Nick told Sergeant Gray during the struggle over the weapon. The gun fired.
01:33:38
>> Striking Heidi, who he said was in the kitchen. >> Okay. So the guns >> gun's here. Chest high.
01:33:44
>> Yep. You and I are like this. >> Yeah. >> And then the gun goes off. >> Mhm. I I mean I know it hit Heidi. I
01:33:49
just I know it did. She was running away, so I definitely hit her in the back. It
01:33:53
>> hit her in the back. >> Yeah. >> I couldn't believe it. I I didn't want to believe it.
01:34:01
>> It can't be true. That's There's no way. >> Katina and Marcus Sarzen mentored Heidi
01:34:07
at Calvary Church. >> I think she's one of those uh people that you [music] can't not like.
01:34:13
Everyone liked Heidi. >> She genuinely loved people. She was the life of the party. Always finding fun
01:34:21
ways to engage people and u she was very loyal. The couple met at the church and
01:34:28
in 2005, Heidi, 20, and Nick, 22, got married. >> Nick Fergus had a very warm and engaging
01:34:36
personality, always smiling. He carried himself with confidence, and he had high character,
01:34:42
high integrity in the church. That was the reputation he'd built for himself. >> But just a few hours after Heidi's
01:34:49
death, Sergeant Jim Gray found himself questioning Nick Fergus's account. He couldn't figure out why the couple would
01:34:56
leave the safety of their bedroom. >> You come upstairs, you know, hate I hate to tell you this, but my house, you
01:35:03
know, I'm justified in killing you if you come break in my house. >> Yeah. And I guess
01:35:07
>> Nick explained that the couple had a plan in place. >> If they were ever in a precarious
01:35:12
situation, they would avoid a confrontation [music] and escape to their car in the garage
01:35:17
and get away. If we can save ourselves, let's let's do that instead of getting into a situation where
01:35:23
>> his story didn't make a lot of sense to me. >> Sergeant Gray started probing into their
01:35:29
marriage. >> You guys uh have any problems or anything like that? >> Most just the normal stuff like um you
01:35:36
know stresses about finances and quality time, >> vacations, all that stuff. >> Yeah.
01:35:45
>> But you guys aren't behind in the bills or anything. We have in the bills um which is a little stressful. In fact, we
01:35:51
were planning on moving tomorrow. Um moving where? >> Well, we hadn't figured that out yet. We
01:35:56
were and and this is a a hard it's a hard place for us. We were foreclosing or we forclosed on our
01:36:05
house. >> Nick revealed they were behind on their mortgage payments and just 24 hours away
01:36:12
from being evicted from their home. Well, that's kind of I mean [snorts] kind of close notice.
01:36:17
>> It is. And I think the reason is cuz we're both kind of dealing with the shame of the whole thing.
01:36:22
>> Gray says his suspicions were raised. And minutes later, he was struck by the
01:36:27
way Nick asked about Heidi. >> Well, I just want to know the final answer. The final answer on Heidi.
01:36:39
She did make him. I figured that. I mean, >> is that typically how someone asks if
01:36:47
their loved one or spouse has been killed? >> Not only is that not typical that that's
01:36:52
how they'd ask it, but they wouldn't wait an hour and 40 minutes into this conversation to [music] ask that
01:36:58
question. I've watched the interview obviously numerous times. And I understand people react to trauma
01:37:05
differently, but this was different than what I'd seen. Anybody that's watched that
01:37:11
interview cannot help but be struck by Nick's demeanor during it. [music] >> And that demeanor was
01:37:16
>> this was just another day. This was something he had to get through. >> Skeptical of Nick's story, Sergeant Gray
01:37:23
confronted Nick about what happened that day. >> Nick, I you know, part of me wants to
01:37:29
ask you this question. Did you have anything to do with this? >> No, absolutely not.
01:37:35
>> Okay. >> Absolutely not. >> All right. Why is there a party that wants to ask that?
01:37:40
>> Well, Nick, I'm I'm a police officer. Okay. I got to ask got to ask the tough
01:37:44
questions. All right. >> After the interview, Nick left the police station. That day, investigators
01:37:54
returned to the Fergus home with a search warrant. Gray says it did not look like anyone was planning to move
01:38:01
out the next day. >> Nothing was packaged up at all. The closet was still full of clothes. We
01:38:07
noticed that there was still food in the refrigerator. >> And there was something else that
01:38:11
investigators questioned. >> We didn't see any signs of forced entry into the house.
01:38:16
>> Based off of the physical evidence at the scene, his version of the incident couldn't be plausible.
01:38:25
>> What do you think of Nick's story about the intruder? Chat now on Facebook and
01:38:29
X. 107 investigation. >> 48 hours after Nick Furus said an intruder shot and killed his wife Heidi,
01:38:45
police went back to the crime scene to check out his [music] story. >> He told us that there was a life and
01:38:51
death struggle inside the house. >> But Sergeant Gray says the evidence at the crime scene didn't match Nick's
01:38:58
account. >> There was a vase, uh some receipts, a beer bottle, and none of that was
01:39:02
knocked over. So, that kind of raised suspicion to us that if there was such a struggle, why wasn't any of this stuff
01:39:08
knocked over? >> Sergeant Gray says he examined the front door for signs of a break-in and did
01:39:15
notice some markings, >> but it wasn't anything new that would lead us to believe that uh the door had
01:39:20
been forced open the day of the murder. >> In his interview, Nick said he heard someone fiddling with the front door
01:39:28
>> from upstairs. >> Like, what are they doing? I mean, just going like this. Yeah, kind of like
01:39:33
that. >> Yeah, just shaking the knob and >> shoving the door. >> That day, Sergeant Gray and his
01:39:39
colleagues did a reenactment. >> Morning, April 27th, 2010. >> To determine if they could hear the
01:39:46
front door shaking from the bedroom. >> We're in the bedroom looking. >> Sergeant Shackle and Sergeant Wright
01:39:50
were upstairs in the bedroom. >> I'm at the front door. So, let me know when you guys are ready. I'll I'll try
01:39:54
the knob for 15 seconds. Then >> we are ready. They could not hear me filling with the
01:40:05
door. >> Sorry. >> Sergeant Gray says he also doubted Nick's story about the couple's eviction
01:40:12
[music] and a scheduled move the day after Heidi was shot. >> There didn't appear to be anything boxed
01:40:19
up or packaged up to go. There were a few empty boxes in the dining room area. There was not a grand
01:40:27
stack of boxes or anything for that matter that would lead us to believe that they were going to pack up all in
01:40:33
one day. >> Meanwhile, Heidi's mentors from Calvary Church, Marcus and Kina, were learning
01:40:40
the details about her death and the eviction. >> It It just didn't add up. It just
01:40:47
something wasn't right with that story. It seemed so out of the ordinary that she would be moving and not have
01:40:54
notified anyone, not have anything prepared for that because she planned things [music] out and she liked things
01:41:01
to be orderly. On April 30th, 2010, 5 days after her passing, Marcus and Kina attended
01:41:10
Heidi's funeral. >> Yeah, the atmosphere at the funeral was there was a lot of emotion. At the
01:41:16
funeral, Marcus and Kina say they were struck by Nick's demeanor. >> I remember going through the receiving
01:41:23
line and shaking his hand. There was no grief showing. >> It just felt like he lacked emotion.
01:41:32
>> Marcus says he went as far as asking some of the couple's friends if Nick could have shot his wife.
01:41:38
>> And the answer I got was no. There's no way that Nick killed Heidi. He loved her. There there's just no way he could
01:41:44
have done that. and I just wasn't so sure about that. >> From what we gathered during our
01:41:51
investigation, Nick and Heidi were in a loving relationship. There was no problems or issues that anybody saw.
01:41:59
>> Your first impression upon meeting Nick Furus is no way in the world could he
01:42:05
have committed a violent act. The day after the shooting, Nick's family hired attorney Joe Friedberg, who
01:42:12
advised Nick to stop talking to the police. >> It didn't take long to realize that he
01:42:20
was being looked at as a suspect. >> When investigators asked Nick to sit down with their artist to draw a sketch
01:42:28
of the intruder, Freiriededberg advised him not to. >> They were going to use it as an
01:42:34
opportunity to further interview him. Instead, Nick and his attorney hired their own sketch artist.
01:42:42
>> It was quite odd that Nick would work with a private sketch artist >> and brought that drawing to police.
01:42:49
That's the original. >> And at that point, we were basically told that Nick would not be answering
01:42:55
any more questions with regards to our investigation. >> Investigators released Nick's sketch to
01:43:01
the public, but it didn't generate any leads. They kept working the case. Nick moved out of their home a few weeks
01:43:10
after Heidi's death. Two months later, he began a friendship with the sister of one of Heidi's best
01:43:18
friends, Rachel Sanchez, [music] who was going through a divorce. At the time, I
01:43:23
thought because we shared something traumatic, there was a deep connection there. because I had come out of [music]
01:43:29
something traumatic myself in a relationship. I think Nick seemed to be handling [music] things well. It felt
01:43:37
like he was very grounded. He was with his friends a lot and they were processing together. So, I [music] think
01:43:44
just his his steadiness was an attractive quality. >> Rachel says the two bonded over their
01:43:52
faith. [music] They began dating in the spring of 2011. At the time, God played a big part in my life. And I think
01:44:01
that's another quality that I saw in him, that he he loved God like I did. >> One year into their relationship, Nick
01:44:09
proposed. >> I knew it was coming. We had looked at rings beforehand, so it wasn't really a
01:44:14
huge surprise. >> And a few months later, the couple married. They started a family. We did
01:44:20
have kids [music] pretty quickly >> and soon were the parents of three children.
01:44:26
>> He absolutely loves his kids so much. >> Andrew and Emily Ericson are friends of
01:44:32
Nick. They say for a long time, Nick didn't talk much about Heidi's murder. >> It just didn't seem like there was a lot
01:44:38
of room for his grief during that time. >> But they say when he did talk about it,
01:44:44
his story was always the same. >> What did he tell you? >> Same thing. He's always told everyone
01:44:50
from the first day, same thing he'd tell you today that someone was breaking into
01:44:55
the house and they were going to try to get out and there was an altercation and
01:45:02
tragically Heidi was killed. Investigators still did not believe that story. But 5 years after Heidi's death,
01:45:12
with little movement in the case, they finally got a break. Someone called in a tip. There was somebody that looked
01:45:19
exactly like the sketch >> and put a name to Nick's sketch. Somebody called said, "I have an
01:45:25
experience with this guy. I think I know who it is. After five years without a break in
01:45:43
Heidi Fergus's murder case, out of the blue, a tipster called police with a name
01:45:51
after seeing this sketch of the suspect. But there was a problem, says investigator Cypes.
01:45:57
>> He was already in prison on the date of Heidi's death. Nick's second wife, Rachel, says her
01:46:06
husband rarely talked about the case being solved. But >> I had asked him, "Are you going to put
01:46:12
effort into seeing if you can find the person that did this?" He didn't reach out to anyone as far as I know. I know
01:46:19
that from his lawyers, he was told to just stay silent. >> Police found it odd Nick never checked
01:46:25
in. through four investigators in this case. He never contacted one of us to ask the status.
01:46:32
>> Was this case ever considered a cold case? >> It wasn't ever considered a cold case
01:46:36
because >> prosecutors Rachel Crocker and Elizabeth Lawman joined the investigation in 2015.
01:46:42
>> There just was not a lot of new information coming in. >> Heidi's family would check in on her
01:46:50
birthday. Is there anything new development? And there would be new developments when detective Cypes took
01:46:57
over Heidi's case in 2019. >> Seems her fresh set of eyes really made a huge difference.
01:47:03
>> It was absolutely critical. >> I think Cypes definitely restarted something. >> Cypes dug deep, reviewing the entire
01:47:11
case file, [music] including an examination of a financial timeline she compiled with the help of the FBI. I had
01:47:19
the [music] luxury of looking back on all of these things several years later. Cypes learned Nick worked at his
01:47:26
family's carpet installation business. They were contractors for Home Depot. Heidi was a clerk at a financial
01:47:33
services company in St. Paul. Their combined income was about $70,000 a year. >> They seemed like they were on top of all
01:47:42
the bills before they bought the house. But Lawman says the home purchase in 2007 strained the couple's finances
01:47:52
>> and that home was just too much for them. >> By the time Heidi died in April of 2010,
01:47:58
the couple was deeply in debt. >> He had not paid the mortgage in 22 months. >> In fact, the couple had lost their home
01:48:07
to foreclosure and would be forced to move out. But Cypes discovered Heidi [snorts]
01:48:13
apparently had no idea. After reviewing the couple's texts and emails, Cypes saw no evidence Nick ever
01:48:21
told Heidi they were in financial trouble. >> There was no communication between
01:48:26
[music] the two of them to indicate that she had any idea the depth of their financial issues.
01:48:33
I was able to determine through the foreclosure and eviction attorneys [music] that there was no paperwork
01:48:39
Heidi had signed, that nobody had ever talked to Heidi. Nobody met Heidi. Heidi didn't go to the eviction hearing on
01:48:45
March 8th, 2010. >> Cy says Nick and Heidi's family and friends didn't know the couple had to
01:48:52
relocate. >> And if she was serious about moving, she would have gotten the day off.
01:48:57
>> So, she was planning to go to work. >> Yes. Why do you think he kept her in the dark
01:49:03
so long? >> Shame. I believe he was concerned about the shame of what he had done, how it
01:49:08
would look, that he couldn't come clean with her. You know, it had gotten too big at that point.
01:49:14
>> And when Cypes talked to the couple's friends, she learned why Nick wanted to
01:49:19
hide their financial situation. >> He was described by his friends as being wise and being the person that [music]
01:49:26
they would go to for advice. Nick Furkus really presented as somebody who had some of those bigger, tougher
01:49:33
life questions figured out. What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of relationship do you want to have with
01:49:39
God? What does [music] that tell you as you're investigating the case and you see someone in that type of personality?
01:49:48
>> It just became easier to see that this was someone who did not want his friends, his family to know the extent
01:49:56
to which he had failed. CYP says she discovered more of Nick's lies when she learned about a
01:50:03
conversation Heidi had with a friend just the day before she died. >> Heidi had [music] talked to us about how
01:50:10
Nick had told her that they were victims of identity theft. It was somewhere around $180 to $200,000 worth of
01:50:16
identity theft. Wasn't true. They weren't the victims. This was all untrue. But as Cypes [music] tried to figure out
01:50:25
if there was a connection between Nick's lies and Heidi's death, she learned Nick
01:50:31
and Rachel had divorced. I remember very well when Nikki sides came to my door. [music]
01:50:37
>> And that Nick had also kept secrets from her. Did Rachel ever say anything about
01:50:43
why their marriage dissolved? >> She did. There were financial issues between the two of them. Nick was lying
01:50:52
about a lot of things. >> This is a story that's happened before and it didn't end well. That terrified
01:50:58
me. Could there actually have been an intruder? >> After spending 19 months digging deep
01:51:25
into the Fergus case file, reviewing crime scene photos, 911 calls. >> Do you remember what he was wearing?
01:51:33
>> And Nick's video interview. >> She was running away, so I definitely hit her in the back. Investigator Nicole
01:51:39
Cypes had come to one conclusion. >> What really matters is what happened in that foyer and there was no third
01:51:47
person. >> You never found anyone else's DNA. >> No. No DNA evidence, no physical
01:51:52
evidence, no sign of a struggle. To me, there were only two people in that house
01:51:58
when Heidi was killed. >> And they were >> Nick and Heidi. As part of the new investigation, Cypes
01:52:07
reached out to Nick's second wife, Rachel. What did she know? >> In 2020, she came to my door. And I was
01:52:16
like, why are you here? And she was like, to talk about Heidi Fergus. >> At first, Rachel, then divorced from
01:52:22
Nick, says she was reluctant to talk. >> You're asking for a lot when you get involved in something like this, and I
01:52:29
didn't want to, but I also knew that it was the right thing to do, and it was for truth. Rachel told Cypes Nick had
01:52:36
lied about their finances during their marriage. >> I found a letter saying that we hadn't
01:52:42
paid our property taxes and that we were going to get evicted in 2020 if we didn't pay them. And when I saw that, I
01:52:49
was like, "Oh no." Like, he was definitely repeating the same things as he did with Heidi with me. During that
01:52:59
time, Rachel says Nick's dishonesty started to make her question whether he had also lied about Heidi's death.
01:53:07
[music] And I said, "We got to sit down and talk." Rachel secretly recorded the conversation on her phone. Your actions
01:53:15
have caused me to just distrust you completely. If there was going to be a confession, I was going to make sure
01:53:21
that I could prove that he said it. And the fact that your lying was so easy for you to do in front of me
01:53:29
over and over and over makes me think >> that I could murder my wife. >> That you could lie about something.
01:53:38
>> That I could murder my wife. >> Yes. >> When I listen, I think this silence kills me.
01:53:52
He's angry at me. How dare I think those things? Why aren't you saying you didn't? Tell
01:54:00
me I'm not right. >> Rachel later shared the recordings with investigator Cypes.
01:54:06
>> The behavior that he exhibited in his marriage with Rachel was almost duplicative of how he hid things from
01:54:12
Heidi. >> We cannot let this man be out on the street any longer. For prosecutor
01:54:20
Elizabeth Lawman, the time had come to act. >> I told Sergeant Cypes, "We're charging
01:54:26
him. Let's do it." >> 11 years after Heidi was shot to death on May 19th, 2021, a St. Paul police SWAT team arrested
01:54:36
Nick Furus at his house and charged him with secondderee murder. A grand jury ultimately indicted Fergus
01:54:44
on first and seconddegree murder charges. Our minds were absolutely blown. >> Heidi's friends, Marcus and Kina, were
01:54:54
relieved. >> It's hard to to say. I don't know what emotion you even put to it. It's hard to
01:54:58
say excited. >> I felt grateful. We don't understand. >> Nick's friends, Emily and Andrew, you
01:55:04
have to believe that a good man with no history of violence killed the woman that he loved more than anything in life
01:55:11
for no reason. That's what you have to believe. We can't get there. After remaining free on bail for almost two
01:55:18
years on January 27th, 2023, Nick Fus went on trial. Prosecutors would not be allowed to call
01:55:28
Nick's second wife, Rachel, to testify or use her tape conversation with Nick. The judge ruled her testimony and the
01:55:37
recording had no bearing on the case. >> I went into it with an open mind. Natalie Michael served on the jury.
01:55:46
>> Did he appear like a man who would kill his wife? >> No, he did not. A lot through the trial. He was putting
01:55:54
his head down. When they showed the photos of the two of them together, you know, he seemed like he really was in
01:55:59
love with her. >> I think Nick was someone who lived two lives. >> Prosecutors presented an unusual motive.
01:56:07
They told the jurors Nick Fergus staged a burglary because he was desperate and ashamed. His secrets were about to be
01:56:15
revealed to Heidi and everyone else. All of his kind of cards of lies are about to crumble. He would have been exposed
01:56:24
as a complete failure, a liar um to his friends and community and instead he's a
01:56:30
victim. He walks away from this supported by his friends, supported by his family.
01:56:38
>> Nick had no reason. >> Nick's lawyers Joe Freedberg and Robert Richmond say that simply makes no sense
01:56:45
as a motive. >> There was nothing about murdering the woman who everyone agreed he loved that
01:56:53
would help his situation. And they say the state's contention that Heidi didn't know about the couple's finances simply
01:57:00
was not true. >> Nick said she was in on all of the major decisions. He would say to us that
01:57:09
they're making Heidi out to be an imbecile. >> At first, I was wondering how she
01:57:16
couldn't know about the finances or some of the foreclosure, some of the things happening. But Natalie Michael says the
01:57:23
prosecution's case did not hinge on motive. >> The prosecution said it really is. Was
01:57:29
there an intruder in the house or was there not an intruder? >> It was our position that there had been
01:57:35
an intruder exactly the way Nick described to the police on the 911 call. >> Somebody has broken shot
01:57:45
>> at the scene. The information that Nick gave at the scene is that this intruder
01:57:49
came into the house >> at the hospital. >> He just came in >> and to Sergeant Gray
01:57:55
>> guy that was there. I think he he grabbed the barrel. >> Nick's lawyers say police didn't find
01:58:01
the intruder's fingerprints or DNA at the scene. Because as Nick told investigators in his interview at the
01:58:07
hospital, >> what else can you describe from him? >> The intruder was wearing gloves.
01:58:12
>> Gloves. He's wearing gloves. You don't always leave DNA and especially when your hands are covered.
01:58:20
>> So, what am I looking at here? >> But prosecutors say there was something else missing from the scene besides
01:58:26
fingerprints. >> This is a physical model to scale that was created by the FBI. >> They used this model to show the jurors
01:58:35
there was no evidence of a struggle. >> I felt that it was very important for us
01:58:39
to be able to recreate how small that entryway is. >> [music] >> Let's say the intruder gets in. They
01:58:46
have this struggle >> and they have this life and death struggle right in this area with nothing
01:58:51
disturbed >> on the table. >> Exactly. And then Heidi gets shot square in the back in a very clear shot.
01:59:00
>> This animation created by the FBI shows that the bullet that killed Heidi was
01:59:06
most likely shot from shoulder level. The height at which Heidi is shot fits exactly on Nick's shoulder to aim and to
01:59:13
fire. >> Nick's attorneys say there was direct evidence that showed there was an
01:59:20
intruder. >> In fact, there were tool marks in the door, which would be consistent with
01:59:27
someone wedging a screwdriver between the frame and the door. Attorney Joe Friedberg says Fergus's next door
01:59:37
neighbor, Brandon Okconor, testified he heard a voice. >> You shot her. You shot me. Uh, please,
01:59:44
please, no. Something along those lines. >> That means there must have been another
01:59:50
person in that house. Nick was talking to a third person when he said that. But prosecutors say Brandon may have
01:59:59
misheard Nick while he was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. >> He is screaming about being shot and he
02:00:11
did that over almost 7 minutes. >> Stay on the phone with me. Okay. >> Nick Fus did not take the stand. After
02:00:23
an 11-day trial, the case went to the jury. >> If there's anything in this case,
02:00:28
there's reasonable doubt. >> Yeah. >> See more evidence from the case at 48 hours.com.
02:00:52
It was a hard fought litigated trial. >> As the state and Nick Fergus's defense team presented their closing arguments
02:01:00
on February 10th, 2023, >> we had great we thought circumstantial evidence that what Nick said happened
02:01:07
did not happen. >> Attorneys on both sides were hopeful the jury would make the right decision. It's
02:01:14
not enough if you have a hunch. There was no direct evidence that Nick murdered his wife.
02:01:25
>> In her closing argument, prosecutor Crocker said [music] Fergus shot Heidi while she was on the phone with the 911
02:01:33
operator. >> Someone's trying west. So that call does end with a very very loud noise and the call goes dead and we
02:01:44
believe that that's the gunshot. [music] >> According to phone records, 65 seconds
02:01:49
passed from that moment until Fergus made his 911 call. >> Somebody is broken. >> Crocker reenacted for jurors what she
02:02:01
believed Nick Fus did before he made that call. I walked over in the courtroom to roughly as far as Heidi
02:02:08
would have been on the ground, crouched down, turned her over um to check for a pulse to be sure that she was in fact
02:02:15
deceased. Walked back over, picked up [music] the firearm, and demonstrated how he could shoot
02:02:23
himself and call 911. >> Where is the guy that shot you? >> At 65 seconds, there was more than
02:02:29
enough time for all of that to happen. To prove their theory, Fergus shot himself in the thigh. [music] They point
02:02:35
to marks left by shotgun pellets at the bottom of the front door. >> When he shot himself, we believe that
02:02:45
Nick was about um here, which is how you would brace yourself, [music] probably against the door if you're doing it to
02:02:52
yourself. >> Of his reasonable suspicion, >> but Fergus' attorneys challenged the
02:02:57
65second time [music] frame. Attorney Robert Richmond says phone records also show Fergus misdialed two numbers
02:03:05
[music] before getting through to 911, making it impossible to shoot himself. [music]
02:03:10
>> What they reenacted was 65 seconds, which was ignoring the two [music] miss dials which happened at 38 seconds. The
02:03:20
fact that we cannot find the intruder is not evidence that there was no intruder.
02:03:28
And if anything, because of the next door neighbor, because of the tool [music] marks, because of the 38
02:03:34
seconds, we feel that the evidence supports [music] that there was an intruder. >> This isn't blind belief.
02:03:43
>> Nick's friends Emily and Andrew were convinced the prosecution failed to prove Fergus was the shooter.
02:03:50
>> We were open to hearing inconsistency of what Nick said, but that didn't happen.
02:03:56
On February 10th, 2023, the jurors got the case and in 5 hours returned with a verdict.
02:04:05
>> My last text to Nick was, "It has to be innocent. There's no way that they got
02:04:10
to guilty this quickly." We rushed to the courthouse and we were so wrong. >> Nick Furkus was found guilty on two
02:04:19
counts [music] of murder, premeditated and intentional. I believe justice was served.
02:04:26
>> Marcus and Kina were in the courtroom when the verdict was read. >> Justice may have been slow, but
02:04:32
fortunately the jury got it right. It feels like this is the beginning of healing. It's the beginning of a of a
02:04:40
new chapter. [music] >> Heidi's mom actually said that for so many years they had to live with Nick
02:04:46
Fergus's narrative and they knew it was wrong, but they just didn't have another
02:04:51
narrative. and to finally be able to have him finally held accountable, it it meant a lot to us.
02:04:59
>> For Sergeant Cypes, there is still the mystery of what led to the couple's financial problems.
02:05:06
>> We weren't able to definitively say what the money was spent on. Does that frustrate you greatly? I think it would
02:05:13
help complete the picture for some people. On April [music] 13th, 2023, Nick Fergus was back in court for a
02:05:20
sentencing hearing and to hear victim impact [music] statements. >> Growing up, Heidi was the quintessential
02:05:27
little sister to me. >> Heidi's brother, Peter Ericson. >> Because of the lies we were told as
02:05:33
early as the day after her murder, "It's been virtually impossible to find closure to our grief." [music]
02:05:38
>> Fergus refused to admit guilt. I do maintain and will maintain to my dying breath my innocence of this crime. My
02:05:45
body stands condemned to serve another man's sentence, but my soul my soul remains free.
02:05:56
>> Judge Leonardo Castro imposed the maximum sentence. For it is the sense [music] of law and judgment of this
02:06:02
court that you be committed to the commission of corrections for the remainder of your life without the
02:06:10
possibility of release. >> Good luck to you, sir. Godspeed. [music] >> My kids are always what I think of
02:06:18
first. >> Fergus's second wife, Rachel. >> They lost in this, too, [music] because
02:06:24
one day they had a dad that they thought was somebody and the next day he's not that person anymore.
02:06:29
She often thinks about Heidi, too. >> I like to think I have a connection with Heidi.
02:06:36
She didn't [music] get to have the voice that I have now. And so, I can only hope
02:06:41
that my [music] voice is something she would be proud of. Heidi was a genuine, [music] loving,
02:06:49
sincere young woman who wanted to live life to the fullest. She wouldn't want people to become [music] bitter or angry
02:06:59
because of what she had to experience. [music] I think that Heidi would want people to choose to love regardless of
02:07:08
circumstances. CBS next Saturday. 48 Hours brings you backtoback episodes all summer long.
02:07:29
Next week, social media clues. >> Johnny Alteringer would answer a dating app and disappear.
02:07:35
>> She would track his location. >> 48 hours prime time double feature next Saturday on CBS streaming on Paramount
02:07:42
Plus.