00:00:23
911, what's your emergency? He calls 911 and he's yelling into the phone, "Help me! Help me! He shot me!"
00:00:30
This is the actual transcript from the 911 call. Yes. So, he's running through the vineyard.
00:00:39
>> running through the vineyard and the shooter is in the truck coming after him, shooting out the
00:00:46
window. This is crazy. Crazy. Who are these guys? These guys were a couple of rich,
00:00:56
ambitious wine lovers who wanted to be in the business and own their own vineyards. Look, I have pictures. Here's
00:01:03
Emad. Emad Taofilous. He's a smart guy from Silicon Valley who loved Hollywood, even financed a movie. And here's the
00:01:12
other guy, Robert Dahl, an operator who people said could make money grow on trees. Well, in
00:01:19
this case, vines. Take one, A-mark. My name is Jonathan Kesselman. I'm a filmmaker. JIMMY FASTFOOD IS A
00:01:27
TERRORIST. I WAS directing a film and Emad [music] was the principal investor in the film. Emad made his money in
00:01:33
Silicon Valley and then was looking for other things to invest in? Yeah, I think, you know, he he made a good
00:01:39
living, wanted to invest his money into things he was more passionate about, movies, wine.
00:01:48
Robert Dahl, did he come with a dream? Oh, definitely. He really did have >> [music]
00:01:55
>> the vision of having some form of a winery. Robert made me feel like we'd been
00:02:03
friends forever. Upon first meeting? >> first No, within like the first 10 minutes. He was a very nice
00:02:11
outgoing, hardworking guy. So, it seemed [music] like a good guy to partner up with. Absolutely.
00:02:18
One time, I don't know how I ended up on the back of his motorcycle and he looked
00:02:23
out and he pointed at this mansion. I mean, he said, "You know what? Greg and I are going to make so much money
00:02:28
that he's going to be able to buy a house like this for you someday." Everything seemed to be going great. Oh,
00:02:35
it was It was awesome. Yeah, perfect. Until it all went wrong. >> Yes. And this is over [music]
00:02:42
money. This is over money. $800,000 in a gym bag? Broken dreams. Broken dreams. Who lives? Who dies? It's an incredible
00:02:56
tale of wine, money, and murder. >> [music] [music] [music] >> 48 Hours: Grapes of Wrath.
00:03:35
We have a male saying, "Help me! Help me!" The advice of something saying that he
00:03:41
has been shot again twice now. It was a showdown between two millionaires. Robert Dahl and Emad Taofilous.
00:04:01
Wild tales of a shocking murder in the Napa Valley. A bitter money dispute ends in an execution-style [music]
00:04:07
shooting. This all started at Dahl Vineyards on Solano Avenue. The victim was I mean, just look at this place, Napa
00:04:20
Valley. Who wouldn't want a piece of this? >> [music] >> That's what these two men wanted and
00:04:25
they went for it, but it ended in murder. So, we came here to figure out what happened. And what we discovered is
00:04:31
really interesting. It turns out that no less than four people thought that they
00:04:36
could have ended up targets of the killer, too. Could have been me running through the
00:04:40
vineyard and ducking from flying bullets. I was probably number one on his list to kill. My first thought was
00:04:47
that could have very easily been Greg. What do you think would have happened if you were there?
00:04:53
I think he would have killed me. Hold on. Let's just slow down for a second. How do you get from two
00:05:00
ambitious guys trying to make it in the wine business to a murder mystery with four or five other [music] potential
00:05:07
victims? Well, we found a guy who can explain it all. Because his family has worked in these
00:05:15
valleys for generations. And he says he could have been a victim that day, too. So, is it customary [music] if we visit
00:05:23
to open a bottle of wine? >> way that you can visit. Sure. >> Going to have some wine?
00:05:31
So, cheers. Cheers. Meet Dominic Foppoli. Pretty close to royalty around here. Me and my brother
00:05:39
and two sisters were the fourth generation of our family to be involved. I mean, our great-grandfather started
00:05:45
doing this with grapes and making some wine in the early 1900s. Now, he and his brother and sisters and
00:05:50
friends run the Christopher Creek Winery. We've known each other for all of our lives and so we are family above
00:05:56
and beyond. Are there a lot of dreamers who [music] come here? Oh, yeah, big time. Tech
00:06:02
tycoons, Wall Street guys, rock stars, movie people >> [music] >> and they all want to come and have a
00:06:07
slice of this. And a lot of people see the the glamorous side of it without, you know, seeing [music] the
00:06:14
the hard work that goes into it. The blood, sweat, and tears that it really takes to get to the point we're at right
00:06:20
now of drinking a great bottle. How tough is it to break in? It is very, very tough unless you're coming with a
00:06:26
lot of money. And then there's the matter of trust. Doing business in the wine country is
00:06:32
often very personal. You know, their word is their bond. Shake their hands, you look in their eye, and you're good.
00:06:38
You bond with a person and then maybe go into business with them. Absolutely. That's a huge, huge part of it. So, cuz
00:06:43
you need to know that you can you can trust that person. But, as we'll find out, watch out if that bond is broken
00:06:51
because the stakes are high. The money makes people crazy. Lou Perdue is a tech entrepreneur and the most respected wine
00:06:59
writer in Napa. Money is intoxicating and when you mix money and wine, I think you get intoxicated to the second or
00:07:06
third power. How often does it happen that somebody comes in with a lot of money and not so much knowledge about
00:07:14
wine, but just wants to be a part of this? Every day. Every day. Back in 2011, a guy named Robert Dahl
00:07:23
was about to get drunk on all that money. He decided to leave Minnesota, where he
00:07:29
had an [music] unglamorous mold removal business, and become a Napa Valley [music] wine
00:07:35
entrepreneur. He had a booming voice. He was always the loudest guy in the room. Just a big
00:07:40
presence. >> Yeah, big presence. Miles Davis is an electrician who worked for Dahl almost
00:07:45
from the beginning of his time in Napa. You were friends with him initially when
00:07:50
he was doing what business? Selling and buying grapes. Selling and buying grapes. That's one way of saying Dahl
00:07:56
was in the lower end of the wine business. He wasn't making fine wines. He was bottling no-name wine, making what they
00:08:04
call shiners. The shiner is a bottle that doesn't have a label and then he'd sell you that
00:08:10
fruit. You put your own label on it. Was he a good salesman? A great salesman. Oh, he could sell anyone. So, the wine
00:08:15
didn't even have to really be that good, he could sell it? Well, it never was really that good. And he talked a good
00:08:21
game. >> a great game. And you knew enough to know that he didn't know a lot. I knew
00:08:25
that he he had a good line of BS, which which is which is fine and it made him funnier. Was part of his charm that he
00:08:33
could BS? Yeah, I loved it about him. Dahl had moved to wine country with his wife and three children.
00:08:40
>> [music] >> His family's amazing. They're just wonderful people. His wife's a very
00:08:45
sweet, loving woman. The kids are amazing. In fact, they call me their godfather.
00:08:51
Within a couple of years, his bottling business was a big success and Dahl liked to show it. He showed up at my
00:08:57
office with $10,000 and said, "Let's buy a Harley." I'm sorry? He showed up at my office and
00:09:03
with $10,000 in cash and said, "We're buying a Harley. You pay me back in the next few months or whenever."
00:09:10
That's Robert. He was he was all about stuff like that. Did he seem concerned [music] about
00:09:15
money? >> No. Never. So, it was in 2011 that Robert Dahl took his next big step toward his dream of
00:09:24
making it big in the wine business. He linked up with that prince of the wine country, Dominic Foppoli.
00:09:31
>> [music] >> I had met some people from Asia who were looking into getting into importing
00:09:37
California wine. Foppoli [music] was young. He didn't have his own personal vineyard yet and he needed more product.
00:09:43
I couldn't literally package wine fast enough cuz I didn't have my own facility. And so, I met Robert. He was
00:09:49
very new to this, but he was willing to to work really, really hard and he had a genuineness
00:09:54
that he could project that made you want to trust him, made you want to like him.
00:09:58
Over the next year, Foppoli and Doll became close. We got to dinner and and [music] hang out. And as a friend, he
00:10:04
was always there. I could text him at 11:00 at night and he'd get back to me. Business was good, and one day [music]
00:10:10
Doll made him a proposition. He called me up and said, "Hey, there's uh [music] this place in your neck of the woods."
00:10:16
They'd buy their own vineyard. And so, I came over and I met him here and I looked at this view and the vineyards,
00:10:23
and literally an hour after sitting down with them, we drank a bottle of wine on
00:10:27
this on this deck, I said, "I'm in. Let's do this." Foppoli staked [music] everything he had
00:10:33
on this partnership, even his house. You know, I said, [music] "This is something
00:10:37
I'm going to do. I'm going to have to go all in and I need you to be all in, too." And he said,
00:10:41
"I got you." Foppoli didn't think it would be a stretch for Robert Doll. I assumed that this [music] was a fun
00:10:47
little side project for him. I never had any reason to doubt that he was doing tremendously well.
00:10:53
Did you feel like he had your back? Oh, completely. There was not I didn't doubt
00:10:57
for a second. But almost as soon as the vineyard deal with Foppoli was closed, Doll was
00:11:03
looking for the next big thing. Sharing ownership in a vineyard wasn't good enough. He wanted to be the boss. To do
00:11:11
that, he needed new partners. And then he found just the man he was looking for.
00:11:17
A man with connections [music] to the bright lights of Hollywood. With a gym bag full of money.
00:11:36
I directed a film called Jimmy Vestvood American Hero. Uh It's a comedy. >> comedy starring a comic named Maz
00:11:44
Jobrani. I'm Jimmy. Jimmy Vestvood. Like Clint Eastwood, but Vestvood. [laughter] Very funny film.
00:11:52
Hello, is there a car? Director and screenwriter Jonathan Kesselman was shooting the film's wedding scene when
00:11:59
one of the extras struck up a conversation. While we're sort of uh in between setups, uh we started talking. He said,
00:12:05
"Hi, I'm Emad. I'm the investor in the film." And just a really nice guy. We chatted. Emad Tofighbakhsh was a young
00:12:11
businessman from Silicon Valley. What kind of actor was he? Um >> [laughter] >> He was a better humanitarian than an
00:12:18
actor. Um He was a good extra. He was very good. >> [laughter] >> He He hit his marks. Emad was principal
00:12:24
investor in the film. He put up about $200,000, and Kesselman became friendly with him.
00:12:31
He was like a business person in tech, and I think he was excited to be not a corporate guy anymore. He had sort of
00:12:36
made a lot of money, and he was tired of it and wanted to sort of explore other things in his life, things that he had
00:12:39
passion for. One of those passions was film. The other was wine. Emad invited his new film director
00:12:47
friend and his wife to the fancy home he owned near the wine country. It was just, you know, [music] "I love wine.
00:12:53
You guys like wine? Let's go wine tasting." We He actually gave us his bedroom. His bedroom was very flashy.
00:12:58
Like his bathroom he had redone. Like there was a television inside the mirror in the bathroom. Like he was very
00:13:02
excited about his bathroom. But wine was more than a passion for Emad. It was a driving ambition.
00:13:10
In 2011, Emad Tofighbakhsh got to know Robert Doll. And they talked about the [music] dream
00:13:16
they shared of making it big in the wine business. But this story isn't just about wine,
00:13:22
it's about cash. Close to a million dollars in cash. Now, if you're wondering what that looks like, well, so
00:13:28
are we. So, we got some Hollywood prop money, which looks a lot and feels a lot like the real thing.
00:13:34
And this is how Robert Doll did his next deal. $800,000 in cash in a gym bag. The money came from that movie investor,
00:13:44
Emad Tofighbakhsh. In 2013, according to Emad, Robert told him that returns on his investment would be big. And if he
00:13:53
invested cash, he'd get [music] better deals. Emad was jumping into business with
00:13:58
Robert Doll with both feet. It sounds like the perfect match. Robert, who supposedly knows about wine
00:14:07
but doesn't have the money, and then Emad, who doesn't know a lot about wine but has the cash.
00:14:12
>> Exactly. Remember, Doll had already started a vineyard business with Dominic Foppoli.
00:14:19
But that wasn't enough for him. Shortly after Doll's partnership with Foppoli began, it ended. There'd been
00:14:26
problems. Now, Doll wanted his own thing. He wanted his name on the bottle. Emad was going to make that happen. His
00:14:34
investment, which now totaled $1.2 million, would help launch Doll Vineyards. Emad
00:14:42
was finally a player, and Doll was center stage. Welcome to Doll Vineyards in lovely
00:14:49
Yountville, California. He's a salesman. It's a show. Did people seem like they were having a good time?
00:14:55
>> always. He pours good wine, and he pours it well, and generously? Generously, and
00:15:00
and it was it was a nice product. He did a nice job on that winery. And the business prospered so much that
00:15:08
Doll was soon able to repay Emad part of his investment. And that's the thing. Everything that
00:15:14
Robert Doll touched seemed to be turning out golden, and it was happening so fast. Now, armed with Emad
00:15:22
Tofighbakhsh's money, Doll was on his way to being everything he wanted to be, the big man in Napa.
00:15:30
Did he exude confidence? >> confidence. Oh my gosh, like nobody I've ever met before in my life.
00:15:38
That same year, Doll started up another brand new business with that Napa couple, Francine and Greg Knittel.
00:15:45
This is just an abstract vineyard scene. >> They'd been pursuing their passions in
00:15:51
Napa for years. Francine did her art. >> So, Napa clearly inspires [music] you. Yes, definitely. And Greg's construction
00:15:59
business. >> This is one of our custom remodels. Oh, this is beautiful. Built some of the
00:16:04
area's nicest homes and tasting rooms. Oh, look at the ceiling. It's like the Sistine Chapel.
00:16:10
Some of this stuff I feel like we can't show on television, but Life was good. Every time we come home, we just say to
00:16:17
each other, "Look at where we live. We're so blessed." [music] And there was no hesitation when the new
00:16:24
guy, Robert Doll, came into their lives. He was very outgoing, charismatic, hard working.
00:16:31
>> Very hard working. So, it seemed like a good guy to partner up with. Absolutely.
00:16:35
Oh, yeah. Doll and the Knittels started a craft beer brewery, a business that created
00:16:40
fancy handmade beers. Greg was a handy partner for Doll. His construction company built the brewery.
00:16:48
What did he promise you? Well, that we would have an operating a reputable business that
00:16:55
we would be able to hand off to our kids. And he pointed at this mansion that's right off Silverado Trail. And he
00:17:01
looked back at me and he said, "You know what? Greg and I are going to make so much money that he's going to be able to
00:17:05
buy a house like this for you someday." The business was off to a good start. They added a brewpub. I mean, we had
00:17:15
the best beer ever. Our restaurant was booming. The brewery was brew I mean, like within like three or four months,
00:17:22
like it was incredible. It was incredible. Francine and Greg even became close friends with Doll and his
00:17:28
wife, Janelle. >> everything together for a year. And it was boot like it was going really well.
00:17:33
Like really, really well. He liked to live well. You know, he couldn't live in a 3,000 square foot
00:17:40
house. It had to be a 5,000 square foot house. It was all about looks. >> He didn't have to have one brand new
00:17:46
motorcycle. He had to have two brand new motorcycles. I'm sure that [music] you'll play the
00:17:51
video of him at the after the Napa earthquake. In fact, I have that video right here.
00:17:55
This was taken after the 2014 earthquake in Napa. If an East Coaster's thinking about coming to Napa for harvest season
00:18:02
to have some nice wine and have a few dinners, is it time to call that vacation off? Oh, absolutely not.
00:18:08
Everything is back going in wine country. It's a great time to visit wine country, see some grapes being crushed,
00:18:14
taste some fresh juice, and really take in the wine lifestyle. Man, listening to him, it almost sounds
00:18:19
like he could be the mayor of Napa. But things aren't always exactly as they appear to be.
00:18:25
Remember Dominic Foppoli, Doll's former partner? >> [music] >> Dominic had been running the winery, and
00:18:31
Doll was running the books. You know, we're selling a bunch of wine. I mean, >> [music]
00:18:35
>> the winery was a hit, but there wasn't enough money to keep paying our bills,
00:18:39
which I didn't understand. I didn't get. Where's the money going? Where's the money going? Where's the money going?
00:18:45
That was the question plenty more people in the wine country were about to start
00:18:49
asking. >> [music] [music] [music] >> By 2014, the new Doll Vineyards seemed to be taking off.
00:19:22
Robert Doll and Emad Tofighbakhsh, the two ambitious entrepreneurs, were living their dreams. Robert himself running the
00:19:30
show. >> Greetings from Doll Vineyards. And Emad, silent partner, providing the money.
00:19:35
Enjoy. But what Emad didn't know was partnerships with [music] Robert Doll had a way of turning sour.
00:19:43
Remember Robert's first vineyard, the one he shared with Dominic Foppoli? One day, Dominic got a phone call from
00:19:50
their lender. I'm starting proceedings on you guys. Foreclosure proceedings? >> Foreclosure? Yeah, cuz we had we had
00:19:57
missed our our our first payment to him as far as the winery. So, I called Robert and he said, "You shouldn't be
00:20:04
worried about that. I've got all that covered." And I said, "Are you kidding me?" Foppiano went ballistic. This is my
00:20:09
dream and we were successful in everything we were doing. His life savings and reputation were on the line.
00:20:15
He had to get rid of Doll. >> So, my family and and my partners my my brother and my my best friends and came
00:20:22
around and said, "We'll do whatever we need to do and and let's let's get this guy out." Foppiano
00:20:28
got control of the vineyard, but he had to pay Doll to go away. He was bitter. You know, I introduced him as my
00:20:35
partner, my friend. So, I brought him into that that circle of trust that we have here. Everybody open welcomed him
00:20:40
with open arms because I vouched for him. I had never been burned before. I was I was naive. And it turns out
00:20:48
Foppiano [music] wasn't the only one. No one that ever put money into something that he was doing was ever going to get
00:20:54
anything back. Steve Birch knows. He's a winemaker who worked for Doll. Back when Doll looked like he was the
00:21:01
golden boy of wine country, Birch introduced him to celebrities. For the comic and TV personality Adam Carolla,
00:21:08
>> much for enjoying this. he bottled a sangria called Mangria. We made money on
00:21:13
it, but I know that there was a significant amount of payment for that that Adam never
00:21:18
received. And there was the rapper E-40. You a loser? Nope. Winner? >> Yep. He had Doll package some wines for
00:21:26
his label, Earl Stevens Wines. We started his product and it went really well, but I know he wasn't he wasn't
00:21:32
paid either. Nope. And there was Birch himself. >> I left with him owing me a lot of money.
00:21:37
Can you give me a ballpark? Yeah, we'll say it was well over $10,000. The same thing happened to Doll's
00:21:46
friend, electrician Miles Davis. Doll owed him $15,000. Did you ever see that money? No.
00:21:55
But you were friends with him again? Yeah, cuz he's a great Yeah, I'm fine with that. I mean, it
00:22:00
wasn't about the money. It was about you know, there was concerns that he was in
00:22:04
trouble. So, I I didn't feel like my little 15,000 was anything to worry about. Cuz he was
00:22:11
getting underwater. >> Yeah. Did you say anything? No. No. No. Did you figure he'd find a way
00:22:20
out of it? Yep. I hoped he would. And then there was Francine and Greg Canitle. Just a few months after the successful
00:22:30
debut of the brewery they started with Doll and a well-known brewmaster, the business started slipping. I got the
00:22:37
first inkling that Doll wasn't what he says he was >> [music] >> because a friend of mine went to his
00:22:43
brewery and I put quotes around that because the friend of mine liked craft beer and
00:22:49
he wasn't making beer at his quote unquote brewpub. Apparently, by the time Lou's friend
00:22:55
stopped by for a drink, the brewery was no longer making its own beer. He wasn't
00:23:00
making beer at the brewery? No, he was buying uh kegs from somebody else. And when this friend of mine came face
00:23:08
to face and told him about that, he he just went ballistic. Like he'd been found out.
00:23:14
>> Like like he had been found out. Doll's partners, Francine and Greg, say they didn't know what Doll was up to at
00:23:20
the brewery and they were shocked when Doll came in one day and announced he was shutting down the whole thing.
00:23:27
Robert's sitting there and he goes, "Guys, the brewery's not making enough money. I'm going to close the doors."
00:23:32
Francine and Greg say they not only lost $250,000 of their own money, they'd encouraged
00:23:39
friends to invest, too. And unlike Miles Davis, they felt personally betrayed by
00:23:45
their friend Robert Doll. What gets to you the most? Somebody that we trusted had this
00:23:53
capability, had this I mean, Robert knew the whole time going to pretty much screw us over.
00:24:03
But no one felt more ripped off than Emad Tofilis. He thought he'd invested more than a million dollars in a
00:24:10
vineyard. Instead, Doll diverted the cash, spending it on his lavish lifestyle, the brewery business, just
00:24:18
about anything else. Doll had stopped paying back the money he borrowed and Tofilis hired a lawyer.
00:24:26
He was angry. He wanted his money and he wanted to find out everything he could about Robert Doll.
00:24:33
You amassed a pile of information about Robert Doll. This is the pile of liens that Robert had against him. Civil
00:24:40
judgment from Ford Motor Company, 19,000. Allied Building Products Company, 61,000.
00:24:47
53,000. 7,900. >> Oh my goodness. So, Emad hired Don King, who has her own special niche in Napa
00:24:54
Valley. Well, I'm a private investigator here in Napa and I was an FBI agent for
00:25:00
10 years. >> An FBI agent? >> Yes. So, you can smell a rat. Well, >> [laughter] >> I like to put rats in prison, anyway.
00:25:10
Don started digging. So, he was just not paying his bills. I mean, he was just like, you know, charging credit cards.
00:25:17
Here's the Federal Credit Union, 53,000. And then you get into his lawsuit. A lot
00:25:23
of what Don discovered happened back in Minnesota during the years before Doll came to Napa, but to Don, it told a
00:25:30
story. You know, this is the theft one of his theft charges. One of his theft charges?
00:25:35
>> had a he had two. This was the theft by swindle. He actually was convicted of
00:25:40
theft by swindle. He was. Thefts and swindles got Doll thrown into jail not once, but twice back in
00:25:49
Minnesota and left him a convicted felon. I mean, this guy was a criminal. Now, here in the wine country, Doll
00:25:56
seemed to be scamming again. Every time [music] he'd get a business investment, the money seemed to go right into his
00:26:03
pocket. Was this kind of a a Ponzi scheme? Yeah, to some extent. I mean, except that no one got paid. Usually in a Ponzi
00:26:10
scheme, the first people in get paid. But in this case, No, no. >> did. It was It right, Robert got paid,
00:26:16
but Robert spent all the money. >> [music] >> In 2014, wine reporter Lou Perdue began
00:26:23
to uncover [music] the swindles Robert Doll was pulling right here in Napa Valley. He started blogging what he
00:26:30
found >> [music] >> and guess who responded. >> And those are his comments. >> Robert Doll. Those are his his comments
00:26:36
and then he starts to rant paragraph >> Oh, I see this the caps in red. >> by paragraph
00:26:45
>> Oh my goodness. >> everything in big red capital letters just keeps coming. >> Oh my goodness. And it comes
00:26:55
>> like one of those magic scarves. >> and it comes just ranting and ranting and ranting. I think I measured this at
00:27:02
26 ft. And what did this say to you? This says to me the guy's was off his nut. Things were really heating up. Both
00:27:12
sides were suing and it looked as if things were headed for a showdown. Emad was just like so crazed and he was
00:27:20
becoming like a desperate [music] man. Oh my gosh. I mean, I used to get 10 15 20 phone calls a day.
00:27:43
Emad Tofilis was angry, [music] very angry. He wanted his whole investment back, but it wasn't looking
00:27:50
good. How desperate was Emad? He was a desperate man. On a scale from 1 to 10, he was about a 9. He was not going to
00:28:01
let someone like Robert Doll take advantage of him and bully him into being submissive. Attorney David
00:28:09
Wiseblood. Emad came to me saying, "I have this problem." So, I looked at it and said, "Yeah, you
00:28:15
have a problem." So, we devised a strategy. That strategy was to hammer Robert Doll in court
00:28:24
and force him to pay up. So, the strategy was file a lawsuit in Napa to basically get control of the
00:28:33
collateral and to prevent stuff from disappearing. That collateral was mostly the wine
00:28:41
tanks and all the equipment used to make the wine. >> [music] >> And what happened? Robert didn't roll
00:28:46
that well. What happened, I had in a 4-month period, 19 court appearances in the Napa court, which is crazy. I mean,
00:28:55
the short answer is the Napa court issued an injunction against Robert saying, "You can't sell inventory,"
00:29:02
which in effect should have shut down his winemaking and wine selling operations. That all belongs to Emad,
00:29:09
basically. >> Right, pretty much. Even though Emad was winning in court, Robert Doll was doing
00:29:14
everything he could to cheat. >> [music] >> He was even secretly taking equipment
00:29:19
and trying to sell it off. Robert at that point had started hiding >> [music] >> equipment, hiding whatever he could. He
00:29:25
started moving stuff. But Robert Doll's attorneys, Jasmine Dwall and Kusha Barrack him, There's a
00:29:33
lot more than the [music] headlines. say Doll was a clever businessman, but he was no crook. You think Robert's mindset
00:29:41
was, "I'm going to take this, but I'll be able to pay it back and everything's going to be okay."
00:29:46
>> Absolutely. I think he had every intention to pay back the entire loan. Robert got a hold Dahl's lawyers
00:29:57
believed Dahl was a stand-up guy. That [music] classic all-American risk-taking entrepreneur who puts it all on the line
00:30:05
and at the last minute comes out a hero. The business was growing. And it was not a Ponzi scheme or
00:30:15
a house of cards. I was shown a document that says Robert Dahl was convicted of swindle in Minnesota. If you look at
00:30:22
that document again, you will see that that goes back to when he was about 19 or 21 years old or so. But still, people
00:30:29
look at that and say once a con man, always a con man. Robert definitely had his share of failed ventures before as
00:30:36
well. But you don't think that proves that he's a thief. Not at all. A thief takes
00:30:42
money and runs with it. A thief doesn't go to the court. He was a risk-taker and
00:30:46
when you take risks, sometimes you end up harming other people as well. But our system is set up for that.
00:30:56
In the wine business, Dahl's lawyers say sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And they insist [music]
00:31:02
Emad Tofilis was the real villain in this business deal. You think this was a scam for Emad? Absolutely.
00:31:10
How would one come up with that much cash and why? It's still a mystery where all that cash
00:31:19
came from. But Dahl's lawyers say Emad was so angry, he was determined to destroy
00:31:27
Robert Dahl's business. His barrels of wines were taken. His cars were taken. His [music] brewing
00:31:33
systems were taken. He was in an impossible place. With no business to operate, Dahl
00:31:41
couldn't earn any money to pay off the debts he owed to Emad and others. And then, surprisingly, there was a
00:31:52
breakthrough. It looked as if Emad might get more of his money back. The lawyers had come to a deal and Emad
00:32:00
and Robert were going to get together to hammer out the details. Robert wanted to
00:32:04
meet here at his vineyard. I went to my office Monday morning and I got a phone call from Emad. David,
00:32:12
you have decided to go to winery. On that morning, I was on the phone and Emad's attorney was on the phone. Emad
00:32:21
and Robert were there in person. Their attorneys joined them on a conference call. There was a definite agreement on
00:32:28
what was going to be paid to Emad. It was just so eerily calm. It was eerily calm. It was eerily calm.
00:32:36
But then, Robert Dahl rocked the boat. And he said, "Well, I don't give an ass what the lawyers negotiated. This is my
00:32:44
offer." What seemed to be a nearly done deal suddenly started unraveling. Which was
00:32:50
several hundred thousand dollars less than what was agreed to. The lawyers felt it was a breakdown that
00:32:55
Emad and Robert should deal with themselves. They were both business savvy and this was something that they
00:33:00
both could have easily handled. So both lawyers got off the phone. Both expected
00:33:04
to hear right back from their clients. 20 minutes go by. We had no idea what was going on.
00:33:15
I don't hear from Emad. I was expecting a call. Then I got an email saying there was a
00:33:22
shooting. I got a call from Mr. Weissbluth. He said, " Kusha, tell me this didn't
00:33:29
really happen." You thought Emad lost it. I thought Emad lost it. >> We both thought that.
00:33:49
That's the winery up at the end of the road. >> Yeah. Up at the end of the road. On
00:33:54
March 16th, 2015, Emad Tofilis and Robert Dahl [music] had finally gotten together to try to settle their ugly
00:34:02
dispute. They'd been meeting one-on-one in a room inside that barn over there at
00:34:08
Dahl Vineyard. The lawyers were on the phone on a conference call. But just a few moments after everything started,
00:34:15
they hit a snag. Emad wanted to settle it and Dahl wanted to settle it. But something went wrong. Clearly they
00:34:28
can't come to an agreement down there in the vineyard. Not only couldn't they come to an agreement,
00:34:35
all hell breaks loose. There's a burst of gunfire and evidence shows the men come tumbling out of the
00:34:42
barn. One has a gun. He's firing. The other man is wounded, running for his life
00:34:50
into the vines. They can't agree and suddenly one person takes off down down these rows like in between these grapes
00:34:58
here. >> Running through here. Right. Emad and Robert both take off, one hunting the other. Running down the row,
00:35:07
being pursued by the other one who is shooting at the the guy who became the victim. He's shooting through these
00:35:15
grapes just as the guy's running. It's a wild chase, something out of a movie. The hunted man desperately dials 911.
00:35:24
>> He's calling 911 as he's running through the vineyard. >> He's still running even though he's been
00:35:29
shot. Right. >> So what does the shooter do? The the shooter knows he can't catch the the
00:35:34
victim. So he goes back to the winery, gets in his car and drives over hoping to cut the victim off as the
00:35:47
victim runs out. As the victim gets here, he tells 911 that he can see the deputies arriving here. So he's
00:35:57
saved. He can see the deputies. And the shooter comes around, gets out of his car and shoots the
00:36:07
victim in the head with a fatal shot as the police cars are arriving. So he the shooter gets out, stands basically
00:36:15
stands over the guy? Yes. Delivers the coup de grace. While the sheriff's deputies were right there. The
00:36:22
sheriff's deputies were arriving right at this corner. And this is where it all ended. The
00:36:30
winery these two men had dreamed of building together. Emad Tofilis was lying dead on the
00:36:36
ground, murdered by Robert Dahl. He knows it's all over. I mean, he knows that no matter what he does, he's been
00:36:46
caught. He can't talk his way out of it. So he gets in the the vehicle, drives up a terrible road here where
00:36:54
there are very few outlets and as the police are closing in on him, he shoots himself in the head and kills himself.
00:37:02
Kills himself. All over. The final bad life choice on a crooked life that's led all the way
00:37:13
back to Minnesota. It's hard to say what set Robert Dahl off that day. It certainly seems the
00:37:20
crime was premeditated. Dahl had brought a gun and remember he was a convicted felon and he wasn't allowed to own one.
00:37:27
And at that final meeting, he pulled out a bizarre document that he wanted Tofilis to sign, a document that seemed
00:37:33
almost insane. That was basically a manifesto that Emad was trying to ruin his life. This
00:37:43
was supposed to be a confession by Emad that it was all a hoax and it was all his fault.
00:37:48
>> So the idea is Robert pulls out this crazy manifesto and says, "Sign this." And he pulls out a gun and says, "Sign
00:37:58
this." There was evidence that Dahl may have been ready to kill more people. Duct
00:38:04
tape, flex cuffs, a tarp, [music] gloves, and there was ammo, more than 750 rounds. A
00:38:12
magnetic gun holder that goes on a car. >> to hide the Yeah. To me, that is a murder kit. I mean, plain and simple. I
00:38:22
think he was trying to figure out how to kill the people that had brought him down.
00:38:29
And that theory fits what we've discovered here in Napa. In the course of our reporting, so many people told us
00:38:35
they too could have been victims. There was Don King, the dirt-digging private eye.
00:38:41
Could have been me running through the vineyard. Could have been. Lou Purdue, the dogged wine journalist.
00:38:48
I think I was probably number one on his list to kill because I was the guy who blew the whistle on everything.
00:38:56
Francine and Greg Knittel who filed a criminal case against Dahl. My first thought was that could have very easily
00:39:02
been Greg. And Emad Tofilis' attorney, David Weissbluth. It certainly could have been me.
00:39:08
And I'm sure that it would have been. >> [music] >> There was even that prince of the wine
00:39:11
country, Dominic Foppoli. You think he would have killed you, too? Oh, yeah. Finally, we were left with one more
00:39:19
question. This month's wine club shipment includes our How could Robert Dahl have convinced all these people to
00:39:25
believe in him? >> Robert Dahl was an Academy Award winning actor when it comes to convincing people
00:39:32
to trust him. How did he not get found out? Nobody checked. People like this, they keep Exactly.
00:39:38
>> moving. Destroy somebody else's life for their own good, their own benefit. >> [music]
00:39:46
>> Emad Tofangs murder haunts almost everyone he knew in the wine country. You think about this case every day? I
00:39:53
do. Yeah. Two years, two years pass? Dominic Foppoli says back when he and Doll were still partners, he tried to
00:40:02
warn Emad. I said, "I want to give you a heads-up I'm having all these issues with Robert." You warned him? Yeah, we
00:40:09
sat here on this deck and you know, and and talked. How did you hear about what he did? Somebody pulled up their
00:40:15
phone and and they they showed me the article of what had happened. I was just in shock and immediately, I mean
00:40:21
honestly, I started I started crying and and it was a mix of guilt because I guess I didn't do enough
00:40:27
to warn Emad about him. Jonathan Kesselman, the director, felt deeply about Emad. He was a really sweet, kind,
00:40:34
generous guy and and and I just felt I just felt I needed to say that, you know, just so that it's on the record.
00:40:40
You know, there's some sort of legacy of Emad where, you know, he was remembered.
00:40:42
He was a good person. >> [music] >> As for Robert Doll, he may have showed up in Napa with a grand vision.
00:40:51
But in the end, he brought his dreams and those of so many around him crashing down. He wanted [music]
00:40:58
to be that guy that had a vineyard and had wine with his name on it. He wanted to live the life of the big
00:41:05
fish. He was a little fish. This is not your typical wine story. No, it isn't. And one that we don't want to hear about
00:41:17
around here again, for sure. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Real people,
00:42:04
real crimes, real life drama. In the mid-1980s, a young funeral home director named Bernie Tiede
00:42:18
came to the little East Texas town of Carthage. [music] It's beautiful. Yes, I love the people
00:42:26
here in Carthage. Carthage is just a small town of 6,000 people. A lot of people got very wealthy on oil and gas.
00:42:35
There's a lot of little widows in town who have a lot of money. None more so than Mrs. Marjorie Nugent.
00:42:42
Bernie Tiede was running [music] a con on my grandmother. He picked up a gun, shot her four times in the back,
00:42:53
and then he buried her in her own deep freeze. My name is Bernie [music] Tiede. You may have heard about me.
00:43:01
They did a movie about me called Bernie. Jack Black was going to play you? Yes. Richard Linklater is my favorite
00:43:11
filmmaker I've ever worked with. All right, cut. I'm Rick Linklater and I directed the
00:43:18
movie Bernie. But there was something about this story that stayed with me and I think it was that relationship, the
00:43:24
Miss Nugent-Bernie relationship. And the Bernie Tiede that you know, is he a good
00:43:28
man? He's the sweetest guy, you know, he's a great man. Very complex character. Is that part of
00:43:36
what attracted you to this film? The thing about playing Bernie is that he's lovable
00:43:45
and it's really important to Bernie >> [singing] >> that he be loved. And I can relate to that.
00:43:58
I have a little bit of that in me, too. You know, this would be funny if it wasn't so damn sad.
00:44:04
Apparently, >> [music] >> Marjorie was tough. She was violent, hateful, and just mean.
00:44:12
She was very loving. I miss her. Bernie stole $3.8 million from my grandmother and then he put four
00:44:19
bullets in her back at close range. How did this happen? And that was what the movie explored.
00:44:25
She didn't have a lot of friends. She didn't have a lot of people around her to take care of her and to love her. And
00:44:32
that's where Bernie came in. Did she ever look at you, Bernie, and say, >> [music]
00:44:37
>> "Bernie, I love you"? Well, we often told each other that, yes. She was a wonderful woman and didn't deserve to be
00:44:44
executed by Bernie Tiede. I have to live with this every day of my life. And I don't like that.
00:44:55
I think the film is asking the question, can the nicest person in the world I don't like thinking ill of Marjorie.
00:45:04
be capable of the worst act? >> [music] [music] [music] >> Let's go back and start the Bernie story
00:45:38
from the beginning. Where'd you grow up? Well, right here in East Texas. One way or another, Bernie Tiede has
00:45:48
been dealing with death and darkness since he was 3 years old. My daddy and my mother, they had a car accident and
00:45:55
my mother was riding in the passenger's side of the car and uh um daddy never forgave himself for that.
00:46:05
His mother dead, his father started drinking hard and died when Bernie was just 15. So, a lot of death had occurred
00:46:13
in our in our family. Things only got worse for Bernie. He claims he was molested by his own uncle, Elmer Doucet.
00:46:21
12 when my uncle began molesting me. Doucet has always denied Bernie's allegations. Did it darken your world in
00:46:30
some way? Yes, it did. Bernie learned first-hand that the wounded, lonely, and those the dead
00:46:39
leave behind need comforting. This was Bernie Tiede's world. I guess you could say that's true, yeah. Carlton
00:46:48
Chambliss is the owner of Hawthorne Funeral Home where Bernie worked for 9 years. He was very successful here at
00:46:55
Hawthorne's and as a funeral director overall. He could do everything. He could. He was talented. He could do
00:47:00
everything from makeup, hair. He could sing. He could preach. Even out coloration
00:47:05
and then apply highlights. It would just be part of what inspired director Richard Linklater and actor Jack Black
00:47:13
to collaborate on the darkly comic movie Bernie. Too much color does not make one
00:47:18
look more alive. [music] He was on a lot of people's list to literally sing them
00:47:22
to heaven. He knew how to take care of families. He could connect that quickly. >> connect, yeah, exactly.
00:47:31
>> [music] >> So, it wasn't long after 27-year-old Bernie arrived in Carthage back in 1985
00:47:37
that everyone seemed to know him. From the dusty dirt roads One of his excellent qualities was he was a gourmet
00:47:44
cook. where Jack Payne and Ira Bounds live I think that he was well thought of amongst the little old ladies in town.
00:47:53
And at Koemer's Famous Barbecue He taught our Sunday school. He preached a funeral for us. Even down at the
00:48:00
courthouse. Did you know Bernie Tiede? Yes. Where local legend, District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson, ruled back
00:48:08
then and still rules today. Everyone sensed something good had come to town. You think, "Gee, I'm glad this
00:48:16
guy came here. He's an asset to the community." Everybody loved Bernie. >> [singing]
00:48:26
>> Well, I enjoyed singing in the choir and then I got active also in the school
00:48:30
here in the drama department. I was acting and and and doing in plays. And you were oftentimes the star.
00:48:36
>> Oftentimes, oftentimes, yes. Did you feel loved in this community? Very much so. I felt very much loved. Local
00:48:43
ladies, Lisa and Susie Cockerell, sum it up simply. He was a god. He was almost I
00:48:49
mean, almost. People really saw him like that. Yeah. He's got a warmth. Got a magnetism. Just
00:48:55
a super generous, sensitive guy and is is everybody's best friend. Bernie Tiede always had that human touch. He knew
00:49:04
just what to say to bring a smile to anyone who needed it. So, when a grieving, vulnerable widow came here to
00:49:11
the Hawthorne Funeral Home, Bernie saw an opportunity to do what he did best. In 1990,
00:49:22
the town's leading banker and oilman, Rod Nugent, hard-nosed, tough, but fair businessman, dies. Skip Hollandsworth
00:49:32
covered the case for Texas Monthly Magazine. And Bernie is in charge of his funeral. I embalmed his body and got him
00:49:41
ready for the funeral. And Mrs. Nugent arrives. And I met with her about the arrangements. Marjorie Nugent would one
00:49:48
day be portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Shirley MacLaine. I saw her to the graveside. We had the funeral
00:49:56
service there and then I took her back to the car. Are you thinking to yourself, "Well, we've parted ways. We
00:50:02
did some business and never shall meet again?" Well, no, cuz that's not how I I conduct
00:50:10
funerals. As I often do with the widows, widowers, check on them, go by the house, make sure they're all right. Did
00:50:17
they appreciate your your dropping by? Oh, very much so. Wouldn't you know, I was thinking about
00:50:23
you. >> Oh, thank you. These times can be hard. Well, Marjorie wasn't a huggy type person. Ruth Cockerell would
00:50:31
come to know as much as anyone in Carthage about the friendship of Bernie and Marjorie. Well, we were first
00:50:38
cousins. Were you guys close? >> We got pretty close. Could Marjorie be difficult?
00:50:43
I think any of us can be difficult. I mean, there's an old setting hen sometimes.
00:50:49
>> [laughter] >> In small towns anywhere, your reputation is not often defined by who you are.
00:50:56
It's by what people think of you. And so, the reputation did get around that Mrs. Nugent could be cantankerous. Could
00:51:02
Marjorie be mean? Yes, sir. She could. And another thing, newly widowed 74-year-old Marjorie Nugent was loaded
00:51:15
with cash. She would kind of be a call it a blue blood. As much as $6 million. Some soaps and a little bubble
00:51:23
bath to soothe you in the tub? Bernie Tiede wasn't about to be turned away. Come in.
00:51:29
Oh, that would be my pleasure. I felt sorry for Marjorie. I really did. And soon, Marjorie and Bernie were seen
00:51:42
on the scene, the odd couple of Carthage. We'd go to the Cherokee Club. We would go to the Jalapeno Tree here in
00:51:49
Carthage. Yeah, they were they were a pair. And it wasn't long before Marjorie wanted more than a part-time dinner
00:51:57
date, and Bernie complied. She asked me to leave the funeral home. She just wanted more and more and more of me
00:52:05
around. She actually hired Bernie and paid him a salary. There's this notion out there that you were attracted to
00:52:12
Marjorie's money. Yes, um I'm aware of that. I That was not part of the deal. That was not part of my wanting to be
00:52:21
around Marjorie. There's members of Marjorie's family that tell a different story. Bernie Tiede is What? A
00:52:30
thief. Just 2 hours up the road in Dallas, These are some of our old family photos
00:52:36
of my grandmother. Three proud granddaughters Everything that has been said about her is not her. have a very
00:52:43
different take on just why Bernie was befriending Marjorie. He saw her as a mark.
00:52:50
>> [music] >> He stole her money. When he was about to be found out, he shot her and killed [music] her.
00:52:58
That's the real story. >> That is the real story. Is [music] this case about money?
00:53:22
Yes, it is. How so? I think that defines everything. The majestic gates swung open to a
00:53:30
kingdom of riches, and Bernie Tiede rolled right in. I think the fatal mistake my grandmother
00:53:38
made is she ended up buying a $30,000 headstone from Bernie Tiede. From that moment, he marked her.
00:53:49
Within months of meeting at her husband's funeral, Bernie was full-time at Marjorie Nugent's eye-popping home.
00:53:56
Helping her with anything that she needed help with. Make her coffee. Make sure she was up, she was all right.
00:54:04
>> [music] >> He was there He was there for her. They loved each other. >> Yeah, Bernie loves everybody. And I
00:54:10
think he's the one person in the world in that era who could feel that from Marge when no one else could. I never
00:54:16
thought of them as lovey-doveys. Never. Just just just together, just friends. I never saw them kiss.
00:54:26
You never did? Nope. And DA Danny Buck probably never would because there was something about Bernie
00:54:32
that made folks wonder back then. I'm a gay man, and it's hard [music] to be a a gay man
00:54:39
and being out in a small town. Did Marjorie know you were gay? We never discussed it. Never discussed?
00:54:45
>> No. So, what was the attraction? She's 42 years older than you. Right. He was
00:54:50
targeting wealthy women. Well, I think the attraction for Marjorie was uh the same as it was for
00:54:57
everybody else in town. He was just a a lovable guy. When you spend time with him, you want
00:55:03
to hang out with him. Less than a year after her husband's death, Bernie and Marjorie started
00:55:10
hanging out big-time, trading in the backroads for Broadway. We'd go up on Friday
00:55:17
morning and then come back on Sunday. Saw Broadway shows. We had a lot of fun together.
00:55:25
Bernie Tiede, the mortician who made about $24,000 a year, now had access to Marjorie Nugent's 10,000-sq-ft
00:55:34
mansion in Carthage, her checkbook, and a world of opportunity. They went on great adventures together. Now, wave hi.
00:55:44
Hello. They had a ball together. They traveled the world. We went to Washington, Baltimore, and
00:55:51
then took a a cruise down the East Coast. We went to Germany, England, Scotland, and Wales, to Egypt. I went to
00:56:02
the pyramids. We just went everywhere. Was she having a good time? She was having a great time.
00:56:11
He was her man-servant. Is it too busy? The guy hired to take care of her every need. Clipped her toenails, all the uh
00:56:22
nitty-gritty. And for Bernie, the perks kept piling up. Marjorie showered him with cash,
00:56:29
clothing, cars, even flying lessons and planes to go with it. And in turn, Bernie gave gifts to the
00:56:40
good people of Carthage. He provided money, he provided scholarships. Doing good. Doing a lot of
00:56:47
good in Carthage. Turns out he was generous with Mrs. Nugent's money. He was kind of the conduit to her
00:56:55
generosity, to her better angel. She spoiled me rotten. But the Nugents say their grandma never needed Bernie or
00:57:03
anyone to teach her kindness. My grandmother was a loving, sweet woman. And she was kind?
00:57:13
She was. She was kind and she loved telling stories. This is really eye-opening, guys, to
00:57:19
talk to you. This is really eye-opening. In '93, like we went there and she opened the
00:57:26
door and she hugged me and she kissed me like eight times. But whatever Marjorie's affection for her
00:57:32
granddaughters, the stakes were about to change. Marjorie Nugent filed a new will, leaving everything [music] to
00:57:40
Bernie and nothing to her family. Did you encourage her to do that? No, she brought that to me
00:57:48
one day and it was in 1991. Why would she do that? Well, I felt like she could felt like she could trust me, I guess.
00:57:58
It was on one of the next family visits to Carthage that the Nugent women got a hint of how deeply Bernie had moved into
00:58:06
their grandmother's life. Flash forward to 1994. We go to see her and she opens the door
00:58:13
and she goes, "I don't know who you are." And I go, "What do you mean you don't know who we are?" And she goes, "I don't
00:58:20
know who you are." She's like, "You need to leave." And we went in and there were pictures
00:58:25
of Bernie everywhere. And we said, "Who is this? You know, Nanny, who is this?" And she
00:58:32
said, "Well, he's my friend." And the thing that disturbed me was that all of the pictures of my grandfather
00:58:38
were gone. For Shanna, Alexandria, and Susan, Grandma Marjorie's new behavior was disturbing. She was like a
00:58:47
schoolgirl in love. And the motives of her new companion deeply suspect. We believe that my grandmother was in love
00:58:54
with Bernie and believed that he was in love with her. When was the last time you guys saw your grandmother alive?
00:59:02
That visit in '94. And now they worried that Bernie was well on the way to tricking Marjorie out
00:59:09
of millions. I think it's the perfect example of a sweetheart scam um that I have ever seen. My grandmother
00:59:18
believed he loved her. How do you know that? Cuz I saw her. But Bernie tells a different story,
00:59:26
claiming that after 5 years attending to Marjorie, the relationship had soured. And that even though he had his own
00:59:34
modest home, he felt trapped by Marjorie and wanted out. Bernie claims Marjorie's
00:59:40
24/7 demands had turned into an abusive relationship. She was very mean-spirited, very
00:59:50
abrupt with me, very um Could she be abusive? Yes, very much so. In some ways was was her place his gilded cage and
00:59:59
she closed the door on that cage? >> Yeah. >> [music] >> We were in a heated discussion about I I I told
01:00:07
her I said I just I've got to I can't do this anymore. And I said I can't be your
01:00:11
friend anymore. I just can't do this. Go ahead, desert me. She was very distraught. You can't leave me. You're
01:00:17
not going to leave me. No one has ever left me. I know you hate me. So I backed my car out of the garage and
01:00:25
by the time I got out there she had locked the gate on me. So I finally just I said, "Okay, I won't leave you. I
01:00:30
won't leave." Well, just park your car, jump over the gate, run, you know, whatever. But Bernie is not one built
01:00:36
for conflict. I think he takes it as his fate. I can't get away from this woman. The door's
01:00:42
right there, Bernie. But it's not as simple as that. People get trapped. [music] People get
01:00:47
trapped. No exit, [music] no way out. And at least according to Bernie, feeling like Marjorie Nugent's
01:00:56
[music] prisoner reminded him of the abuse he says he suffered as a boy. And in some ways did you feel trapped in
01:01:05
this relationship just as you had been trapped with your uncle? Yes. Yes, I did.
01:01:13
I [snorts] think he is a killer. I think he has no remorse. I don't believe a word that comes out of the man's mouth.
01:01:31
>> [cheering] [applause] >> Bernie Tiede claims it pains him to recall how controlling
01:01:41
and cantankerous Marjorie Nugent could be. I don't like the things that she did,
01:01:47
but I don't like talking about them either. Personally, I think he's pure evil. Let's move now to November 19th, 1996.
01:01:58
Tell me about that day and what from your perspective led to the tragedy. I had gone out to the house to make
01:02:06
coffee early, 7:30. [music] Got her up. That's enough of that, assistant. I don't want you to talk
01:02:13
about the shooting. >> This is attorney Jodi Cole. She would eventually become a big part
01:02:20
of Bernie Tiede's life. This is all public record. >> not want him to talk about the shooting.
01:02:25
And how his story would be told. >> That's enough. [music] Yet when we spoke with Bernie, Jodi Cole stopped him from
01:02:32
telling those grizzly details, hard facts everyone from Carthage to Hollywood now knows. Shot her in the back four
01:02:41
times. Shot her dead >> [music] >> with this .22 caliber rifle. The first bullet in her back makes her
01:02:49
paralyzed, so she falls straight down onto the concrete. He shoots her again. He then walks straight up to her body,
01:02:56
puts the nozzle to the gun to the back of her and shoots it two more times. Those graphic details would be missing
01:03:05
from the movie. I remember right before we shot that scene, I went up to Jack Black and I said, "Have you ever killed
01:03:10
anyone in a movie?" Like this. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the hardest scenes in the movie.
01:03:17
Marjorie? You see a scene like that in the script and you circle it in the calendar when you're going to shoot that
01:03:22
and you you think about it a lot. Marjorie, can you say something? Oh, no, no. No, no, no. Jesus, no. No, no. What
01:03:28
have I done? I'm sorry that that happened in my life. I caused the death of somebody that I
01:03:36
loved. Days turned into months as Bernie kept his awful secret. And Marjorie's family,
01:03:44
they began to wonder what had become of Grandma. I started asking my dad, "Have you heard from Nanny? I can't get her.
01:03:52
And, you know, maybe she's on another trip. She'll call you when she gets back." And the Nugent women, all busy
01:03:59
college students at the time, This was Christmas. It's my grandparents. admit there was a reluctance to reach out to
01:04:06
Grandma Marjorie. We had this strange encounter in 1994 where we didn't feel welcome. And every
01:04:13
Sunday he'd come sit right beside me and give me a full report on Marjorie. And what were you thinking to yourself?
01:04:19
>> I'm thinking you're lying. That's what I'm thinking. I just made up one thing
01:04:23
or another. You told one she had Alzheimer's, another she was in the hospital. This is a a difficult time. And Mama
01:04:32
would tell us what he had been saying. And and it's like, "Mama, are you crazy? He's either got her locked up in the
01:04:40
house, poisoning her, or he's already killed her." If I had gone to the police and then been proven wrong,
01:04:48
I would have been left out of Carthage because people thought so much of Bernie.
01:04:59
So, week after week, month after month passes, Marjorie's nowhere to be seen. 9 months.
01:05:06
9 months. It was August 18th, 1997. The Nugents had finally shared their concerns with the local sheriff.
01:05:19
I get a call from my dad. He and I drive down. >> [music] >> And it's clear that no one's been there
01:05:29
for a very long time. So, where was Marjorie Nugent? I wanted to check the freezer. My grandmother was a child of
01:05:38
the Depression, so you didn't waste food. >> Turned back up the hallway. So when
01:05:42
Alexandria and the sheriff's deputies got to the house, she knew exactly where she wanted to go. She walked down this
01:05:50
hallway. Alexandria knew that if her grandmother had left the house, she would have put everything she kept in
01:05:56
the refrigerator in a freezer located inside this pantry. She opened the door and there it was. It
01:06:04
was so quick. It was like I walked in and I said, "There's tape on the freezer." And this is freezer.
01:06:12
She untaped it and raised it up. And threw the lid open. And there was the top of Mrs. Nugent's
01:06:18
head. And I looked at my dad and I said, "They found her." And he just kind of did
01:06:26
this. And all I wanted at that moment was my mom. Do I regret the fact that I didn't rush
01:06:36
down there to stop him from doing this? Yes, because that's what you do when you
01:06:42
love someone and you find out that the person that they were in love with shot them four times in the back and you
01:06:48
think, "How could I have saved them?" While a motive remained unclear, there was zero mystery about the prime
01:06:57
suspect. Bernie's name was top of list. Bernie was easy to find. He was right in
01:07:04
Carthage, at home, when the sheriff's deputies showed up and brought him in for questioning. I was so relieved when
01:07:12
they came for me. Had arrested me. It felt like this big weight had been lifted off my shoulder.
01:07:21
How could you come to my house, eat my food, and sing hymns and my cousin over there in the deep freeze?
01:07:36
It's grim when, you know, you see an old lady on video being pulled out of a freezer. Those are images that stay with
01:07:43
you. And then I think it took 2 days to thaw her out and for them to do an autopsy.
01:07:48
Strange. Yes. That same day, Bernie Tiede confessed to Panola County Sheriff's deputies that he
01:07:55
murdered Marjorie Nugent. There wasn't a question in anybody's mind. Everybody knew. I think you're right.
01:08:02
>> Danny Buck Davidson would charge Bernie with first-degree premeditated murder
01:08:07
and seek the ultimate penalty. Life. Life in prison. Maximum sentence. And that's when this twisted Texas tale
01:08:16
really got strange. People in the community were coming in saying Bernie was a real good guy. If he killed her,
01:08:23
he had a reason for doing it. Poor Bernie. He had his groupies. Bernie had his groupies? Yep. Some
01:08:30
people are saying, "Hey, let him go." Some people are saying, "No, put him away for life."
01:08:35
You just have never seen a story [music] like this come across your desk, ever. And people still want to talk about it.
01:08:42
They're still mystified about [music] what really happened on that November afternoon that led Bernie to shoot her
01:08:49
four times. I stay in the garden with him. Bernie Tiede had preached and comforted
01:09:09
>> [music] >> and sang his way into this proud small town's everyday life. >> [singing]
01:09:16
>> He held a special place in the hearts of many people in Carthage, Texas. Some
01:09:21
folks even suggested Bernie was next door to the angels. And I said, "He's an angel, all right.
01:09:28
>> [snorts] >> He's an angel of death." Your job is a prosecutor. You got a man who's admitted he put four bullets in
01:09:34
the back of a little old lady. Put her in a freezer and kept spending her money while she was dead.
01:09:40
And you have a community saying, "Leave him alone." That's What would they say? Go easy on Bernie.
01:09:47
It happened so often, he asked for a change of venue, and he got one. The trial of Bernie
01:09:54
Tiede for murdering Nugent was moved 50 miles away. And in February of 1999, Danny Buck told his tale to a jury who
01:10:05
had [music] never heard about Bernie. I thought it was greed and betrayal. That's what I sold to the jury.
01:10:14
Bernie's defense was that he killed Marjorie in an act of passion, that her murder was not premeditated. I don't
01:10:24
know what happened that morning. The jury did not relate to him. They related to
01:10:31
me. The trial lasted less than a week. How long did it take this jury to make its
01:10:38
decision? I think it took them maybe 20 minutes to find him guilty. [music] Nine years after he met Marjorie Nugent
01:10:48
at her husband's funeral, Bernie was sentenced to life in prison. Which is the top max
01:10:55
sentence. And I felt pretty good about it. I deserve time. I've done a particularly horrible thing, the worst
01:11:04
thing in my life. Case closed, except for this. Richard Linklater couldn't get the tale of
01:11:13
Bernie Tiede out of his head. I ended up attending the trial and started thinking of this, that maybe
01:11:19
there's a movie here. Rick and Skip Hollingsworth wrote the Bernie screenplay and brought it to Jack
01:11:27
Black. >> [snorts] >> And he said, "Hey, I never told you about this thing that I've been obsessed
01:11:31
with, this story about this fellow Bernie Tiede." And so I said, "Let me read this thing."
01:11:39
Jack Black became so intrigued, he agreed to play the lead role. But not before he and Linklater paid a
01:11:48
visit to a Texas maximum security prison to try and understand just who Bernie Tiede really was. I wanted to come and
01:11:58
meet you. I still think it's important if uh if I want to play a real person, that I should meet you. I love to be
01:12:07
around people. I'm just a people person. Black wanted to know what made Bernie tick, right down to what he felt in the
01:12:15
days after he murdered Marjorie. Well, that must have been incredibly stressful.
01:12:20
That period when the walls were closing in. Yeah, no earthly idea. It was absolutely horrendous.
01:12:28
If you're playing a person and you have access to them, you got to go see them. It's just one of the rules of the game.
01:12:33
I'm very appreciative of them coming to meet me. And I have to stay here unless something changes. Oh, there's one man
01:12:40
in particular I can think of I'd sure like to talk to. The movie Bernie also featured Matthew McConaughey as Danny
01:12:46
Buck. Danny Buck's coming to get you first. Could you actually escort him out of
01:12:50
here, please? In April 2012, it premiered in Rick's hometown of Austin. Critics loved it. I KNOW
01:12:59
YOU HATE [screaming] ME. THIS idea that my grandmother was a monster is ludicrous. The Nugent family
01:13:05
thought it was beyond offensive. It was a complete lie. It was devastating to us. I mean, they
01:13:13
took the most awful part of our lives and just laughed about it and joked about it.
01:13:20
>> It's like he cast a spell over the entire area. And now, the Bernie Tiede story was about to take yet another
01:13:27
bizarre twist that began right at the movie premiere. A little feisty lady comes up to me and says,
01:13:36
"I bet there was some, you know, crazy stuff going on at the trial." She's appeals lawyer Jodi Cole, and
01:13:42
after watching the movie, she got a hunch that the trial of Bernie Tiede had been a miscarriage of justice. I want
01:13:50
the world to know that Bernie Tiede is a good person and that this outcome is unacceptable.
01:13:59
I said, "Look at that, he snaps." And so I thought, "Why did he get a life sentence?"
01:14:05
She asked Linklater if he had the transcripts from Tiede's 1999 murder trial. He came with his boxes of
01:14:13
transcripts. Put it on her desk and said, "I don't know. Have at it." Jodi poured
01:14:19
over the files, knowing that Bernie's life sentence hinged on Danny Buck's argument that the murder was
01:14:26
premeditated. And within a couple of weeks, she had come to see me. Is there a miracle that's about to occur? Yes,
01:14:34
and Jodi Cole did a lot of work toward that miracle happening. All right. Marjorie?
01:14:48
Marjorie, are you okay? That morning, [music] I felt like I wasn't a part of the shooting. 16 years after he shot
01:14:57
Marjorie Nugent dead, Bernie painted a picture for defense attorney Jodi Cole about how he felt [music] that awful
01:15:04
morning. I felt like I wasn't even there, and I have learned that that is called a dissociative episode. I think
01:15:12
it's a classic case of a kind of a disassociated moment. >> That's what this whole case hinges on.
01:15:17
A dissociative episode, the new age psychological term would break the case against Bernie Tiede wide open. When
01:15:26
they are overwhelmed with stress and emotion, they actually disassociate, which is leave their body.
01:15:37
And Bernie's body, the theory goes, killed Marjorie without his mind taking part. And he shot her?
01:15:44
>> Yes. Involuntarily. The Nugent family [music] would have their own take on Jodi's ideas. Not connected with
01:15:52
reality. Thoroughly confused. This woman had been abusing him for a very long time, and his body acted in a way to end
01:16:01
that abuse. Bernie also confided in Jodi what he says is his darkest secret about
01:16:08
that childhood sexual abuse he claims he suffered at the hands of that uncle. Jodi brought the findings to the DA, and
01:16:17
he was sold. >> What do you conclude in terms of why this murder occurred? The child abuse.
01:16:25
And the abusive relationship. I think that he did not plan on killing her. Danny Buck says if he had to do it all
01:16:35
over again, he would have sought a much lighter sentence. >> 20 years would have been the maximum
01:16:40
sentence. Not because Danny Buck want 20, it's what the law says. Danny Buck then went to bat for the
01:16:49
killer he had once helped convict. And on May 6th, 2014, Bernie Tiede's life sentence thrown out.
01:16:58
A new sentencing [music] trial is ordered, and Bernie is released from prison for the time being. Lots of
01:17:05
miracles have happened in my life. The next miracle was in the parking lot. Mr. Linklater picked me [music] up, and we
01:17:11
drove to Austin. The real-life Bernie Tiede just got out of an East Texas prison. Oh, this is Bernie's little
01:17:18
apartment. He lived down here. He put me up in his apartment at his home. In some ways, did Bernie become part of
01:17:26
the family? Yeah, very much. I mean, did you ever babysit your kids? Yeah. In Austin, Bernie went about creating a new
01:17:34
life, all on borrowed time. He joined the gay men's choir. >> In the time of King Herod, he became a
01:17:40
regular at Pastor Sid Hall's church. >> Our folks surrounded him like mother hens, just loving him.
01:17:49
He is definitely feeling the uh ecstasy of freedom. Well, my first thought is, how is this
01:17:59
happening? The Nugent granddaughters found it all beyond belief. Richard Linklater
01:18:06
conned. Richard Linklater is just as conned as my grandmother was. >> [laughter]
01:18:12
>> I think I'm pretty unconable. I think Danny Buck got enthralled with Hollywood. I'll say
01:18:18
that's BS. Before the sentencing trial, Danny Buck recused himself. He was replaced by two prosecutors
01:18:27
determined [music] to put Bernie Tiede back behind bars. >> This was just a straight-up execution. I
01:18:34
think he's conned Hollywood and he's conned the whole judicial system. Jane Starns and
01:18:39
Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner weren't buying it. >> [music] >> Bernie didn't have a dissociative
01:18:46
episode. This case is about abusing elderly vulnerable people. It's about abusing Marjorie Nugent
01:18:54
financially, and it's about just cold-blooded murder. What do we have in front of us here? We have just small
01:19:01
portions of the paper trail. Lisa Tanner would allege Bernie regularly forged Marjorie Nugent's signature. He was very
01:19:08
good at signing her signature. Manually manipulated her bank accounts. This is what he showed Marjorie,
01:19:15
>> [music] >> but this is what he We have 14 of these. Altered her brokerage statements. The original of
01:19:22
this document is literally a cut and pasted dummy'd up statement. All of this He's pocketing her money. Both while
01:19:30
Marjorie was alive and after Bernie had killed her and stuffed [music] her in her freezer. The numbers ended up being
01:19:38
approximately $3.8 million total. Bernie's motive for murder came into focus. He was about to be found out
01:19:47
about. In April 2016, after 2 years of freedom, Bernie Tiede's new sentencing [music] trial began. Is
01:19:59
the jury here and ready to go? It was moved to Henderson, Texas because Bernie still had so many friends and fans in
01:20:07
[music] Carthage. >> What began with the state, Ms. Tanner? Lisa Tanner put Bernie in her sights.
01:20:13
>> This is a real case with a real murderer. He did that. And Hollywood. >> going to talk about that in a
01:20:20
non-fictionalized, non-Hollywoodized kind of way. Hollywood means, you know, lack of
01:20:28
morality. Thank you, guys. But, I took that really personal cuz I don't live in Hollywood. I'm an indie Texas director.
01:20:36
Richard Linklater was called to the stand to defend his friend. I think he's an incredibly nice, generous man who,
01:20:46
you know, did a horrible thing. The director and those who loved Bernie argued he had paid his dues [music] with
01:20:54
time already served. 16 years? Yeah, I'd say he's served enough time. And Bernie's uncle, under oath, denied
01:21:04
ever having molested Bernie. You're saying never? Never. But, did admit writing him a letter
01:21:10
sexual in nature. Bernie did not testify at the trial. I mean, I just there there are just some questions that don't
01:21:19
have any answers. Two dramatic versions of Marjorie Nugent's murder have now been told. One
01:21:29
on the big screen, the other in a courtroom in Henderson, Texas. The question now is, who will the jurors
01:21:36
believe? Sudden passion, dissociative episode, snapping. When he took that gun and pointed it
01:21:47
down straight to the ground and put it in her back, that justified a life sentence then.
01:21:53
Bernie, are you a danger to society? [music] Not sir, not at all. The jury goes out to deliberate.
01:22:00
Alexandria, what's going through your mind? You know, at that moment, all you can do
01:22:07
is pray. On April 2nd, 2016, some 26 years after he met Marjorie Nugent, the jury once again sentenced
01:22:23
Bernie Tiede to 99 years in prison. For 99 years of life. Everyone in that courtroom knew
01:22:34
that my grandmother was not me. She did not deserve to die and that this man deserved to go away for the rest of his
01:22:41
life. When I heard 99 years, I mean, it was just it was devastating. Back in prison for life?
01:22:53
It's very discouraging. Now, what's as certain as his life sentence is this. Deep in the heart of Texas, Bernie Tiede
01:23:06
is loved. Even today, is there a Bernie [music] Tiede fan club in Carthage? Yes.
01:23:15
Not as big as it once was, but it's here. >> [music] [music] [music] >> It's like [music] ghosts.
01:24:29
You just see the ghosts of them everywhere. If you close your eyes, can you still
01:24:38
see it? All of it. The focus of the case is Michelle Renee. She was living with her her daughter,
01:24:56
Bria. They were living in a kind of a secluded house. Does it feel like 22 years?
01:25:04
Sometimes it does. Sometimes [music] it feels like a lifetime ago. Sometimes it feels like it was last week. I asked the
01:25:11
FBI to take Michelle back to the house to help reconstruct probably the most traumatic night of her life.
01:25:20
We came in the door, I put the groceries away, went in the kitchen. Michelle was a single mom. She was a
01:25:27
bank manager, somebody who worked hard to gain a job of position of trust and respect.
01:25:33
It had been such a long day and I was just excited to be home with Bria. We were on the couch. It was just the two
01:25:41
of us. I was sitting here. She was right beside me and we were playing Game Boy.
01:25:46
A group of individuals put Michelle under surveillance knowing she was a bank manager and they devised
01:25:52
a plan. And we just heard this huge the the sound, just the biggest >> [music] >> noise from behind us and we I turned to
01:26:04
look and just saw three people. They were all lined up one right after the other just rushing in, running in
01:26:11
the door >> [music] >> at like SWAT style and they had their guns and they were all in black.
01:26:16
And I just screamed super loud. My daughter screamed super loud. At that point, my daughter took off this way,
01:26:25
>> [music] >> but two of them came to me, put guns in my face. One guy grabbed me by the back of my
01:26:32
head, forced me down in front of the couch that was right here. They bind her up with duct tape. They put her
01:26:39
7-year-old on the ground and bind her up with duct tape and they tell them that if they don't cooperate, they're going
01:26:46
to be killed. They're going to be shot. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. They let me turn around and see my
01:26:54
daughter laying face down on the floor right here by the door. Um face down with her hands tied and her
01:27:03
feet tied. Um Right there on the ground. I heard my daughter say, "Are you going
01:27:12
to kill my mommy? And are you going to kill me?" And they said, "No, not if your mommy does everything that we tell
01:27:19
her [music] to do." They said, "You're going to rob the bank for us or we will kill you and your daughter
01:27:24
will be first." >> [music] [music] [music] >> The only monsters that had ever scared
01:28:20
Michelle Renee's 7-year-old daughter, Bria, were make-believe. But, on November 20th, 2000, just a day before
01:28:28
three masked men broke in. She just calls me, "Mom, there's somebody outside the window."
01:28:34
I looked out there. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anybody. So, I just brushed it off.
01:28:39
Michelle had chalked [music] it up to her child's imagination. But, this time was different. She saw them
01:28:47
looking through the window. They were there the night before. The same men now held Michelle and Bria
01:28:53
at gunpoint in the living room. The gunmen said they'd been following the 35-year-old bank manager for months.
01:29:02
It was very much that mind control thing that they were doing, that we know everything about you. Michelle would
01:29:10
recount the events inside the house for investigators. And we're going to be here all night with you to make sure you
01:29:16
know exactly what you're going to do or you will die. Throughout the night, the ringleader
01:29:22
gave specific instructions about how he wanted Michelle to rob her own bank the [music] next morning. We're going to go
01:29:29
over this again. This is what you're going to do. When Brinks gets there, you're going to get Brinks' money. As
01:29:34
she huddled with Bria on the couch, now duct-taped, Michelle could hear him talking to a woman on [music] a two-way
01:29:40
radio. Money one to money two, were there >> called each other? They called each
01:29:45
other money one to money two. Money one was the ringleader. Around 11:00, [music]
01:29:51
the voice on the walkie-talkie got his attention. Car coming up the driveway, the roommate's there. It was their
01:29:57
roommate, Kimbra. And they put the gun right here in her face, right up her nose, and said, "Don't make us use
01:30:05
this." I pushed the guy's hand out of her face and said, "Don't do this. Don't hurt
01:30:11
her." And he just pointed it right at me and said, "Don't ever touch me again." Michelle realized this might be the last
01:30:19
night she ever spent with her daughter. It was almost morning. He just rubbed her hair so she could try
01:30:26
to get some sleep. Wondering if that was going to be the last time I was going to get to touch
01:30:31
her hair and see her sleep was pretty tough. In the morning, the nightmare would
01:30:38
continue. It was like 6:00 a.m. He said, "Get up. It's time [music] to get ready for
01:30:43
work." >> I got dressed, started doing my hair when he came in and stopped me. And said, "We need to put the dynamite
01:30:51
on you now." Michelle, her roommate Kimbra, and Bria would all be strapped with dynamite. Then money one showed
01:31:00
Michelle what looked like a doorbell. This is a detonation device. [music] One false move, I push this button. You will
01:31:06
disintegrate. Your daughter will go first. And they sat me right here and said, "Now we're going to take your daughter."
01:31:13
The gunmen put Bria in her bedroom closet. I was just telling her I'd be right back.
01:31:20
And everything's going to be fine. "Be brave, Mommy." That was the last thing she said before I walked out to go
01:31:29
to the bank. Did you feel brave? No. As two of the gunmen stayed in the house, money one
01:31:35
handed Michelle a briefcase stuffed with a duffel bag before he crouched in the back of her Jeep.
01:31:41
With dynamite on her back and a gun [music] to her side, she drove to work. So you pull up into your spot. What does
01:31:49
he tell you before you get out of the car? Don't don't this up. And the Brinks truck came at 8:50? I believe right
01:31:56
around 8:50 was the drop right over here. That's when Michelle grabbed her briefcase and headed to the vault. I
01:32:05
brought my teller in the vault with me and said, "I'm getting ready to clear out this vault or
01:32:11
my daughter and I are going to die. This is what's happened all night." >> whispered to her, "I have dynamite on my
01:32:16
back." >> Yes. >> Yeah. I whispered I pulled my shirt up. And then you just opened up the duffel
01:32:20
bag and started shoveling in money. >> I did. My heart was racing. My Am I fast enough? Michelle's colleagues would
01:32:27
alert the authorities, but not before she walked out with [music] $360,000. Just get to the Jeep, hurl it in the
01:32:36
Jeep. And go. >> And just do what's next. Money one directed Michelle to get out a few
01:32:42
blocks later. And then I would find my Jeep down the street. She found her car and raced
01:32:49
[music] home. I don't know if Bria's going to be there. I don't know if she's going to be alive when I get there. And
01:32:55
I went to open the door and I was just screaming and hello, hello. It was eerily silent.
01:33:06
And I just heard Bria and I remember screaming, "We're back here. We're back here." Bria was still in the closet,
01:33:11
right where Michelle had left her. What was that like to hear and see her? Oh my gosh. She was alive. I did it. We
01:33:20
did it. We didn't die. Probably the happiest moment of my life, but then I could still see the panic on
01:33:27
her face. The dynamite's still on me. Before leaving, the gunmen had ripped the dynamite off of Kimbra and Bria. So
01:33:35
they cut it off of Michelle's back before [music] running to the nearest neighbor. I opened the gate, went down
01:33:41
the hill real fast, helped them up to the house. Rick Brown lived up a steep hill. I called 911 right away.
01:33:51
Sheriff, how may I help you? Yes, uh some neighbors of ours were held hostage. I need somebody out here right
01:33:56
away. Soon the place was crawling with investigators from the FBI, San Diego Sheriff's Department, and the bomb
01:34:03
squad. This is the dynamite that was taken off of um Michelle. San Diego prosecutor Tom Manning would
01:34:11
lead the task force investigating the case. They quickly [music] figured out the
01:34:15
dynamite was fake. They realized that it actually is two painted dowels or broomstick handles.
01:34:24
But as you can see from a distance and the lighting, plus it's on your back with the stress of the situation, you're
01:34:29
not going to take a chance that it isn't real. But during the very real 14 [music] hours they were held hostage,
01:34:35
Michelle had held on to any detail that might help identify the attackers. Remembering details [music] is just sort
01:34:43
of this part of my DNA about people. That was kind of my superpower. Details like money one's eyes. And when I turn
01:34:52
the light on to go to the bathroom cuz and I saw his eyes in there. I said I said that those eyes were at my desk.
01:34:58
Those eyes were at my desk today. Oh my god. Michelle says it was a man with whom she'd had an odd encounter at the
01:35:06
bank hours before being taken hostage. And he sat [music] at my desk for a really long time asking sort of the same
01:35:14
questions over and over. And then a woman walked in >> [music] >> and said, "Chris, we need to get going."
01:35:20
And they got up and left. The man had handed Michelle his business card. And the name on the business card was
01:35:28
Christopher [music] Butler. After hours of police questioning, Michelle and Bria were sent to a hotel.
01:35:51
Michelle called her brother Dave. It didn't sound like her. It was someone, you know, heavily traumatized.
01:36:00
Dave, who lived 3 hours away, rushed to his sister's aid. What I saw when I opened that door, it
01:36:08
scared the daylights out of me. "Are you okay?" And she would shake. How about Bria? Same thing.
01:36:17
In the days ahead, Michelle struggled to hold it together for her daughter. She was the strongest person for me.
01:36:25
While investigators wanted answers. They grilled her [music] about that odd encounter with Christopher Butler.
01:36:34
Why was he in the bank? What was he saying he was there for? He came in to say that he was a potential [music]
01:36:41
client and that he wanted to talk about investments. Before Butler handed Michelle his business card, a woman he
01:36:49
introduced as Lisa came in and whisked him away. "Hey Chris, we need to go." It was the same voice Michelle says she
01:36:57
heard later that night on the walkie-talkie. They kept saying it over and over. Check
01:37:03
my desk. Get that card. >> Get that card. I know that it's them. >> Through that card, they started the
01:37:08
investigation. The FBI soon discovered Butler was a convicted felon with a history of
01:37:15
robbing banks. They figured out where he was staying and then the team that I worked with set up surveillance.
01:37:23
Butler and his fiance, Lisa Ramirez, lived in a house just a few miles from the bank. Some of the people in the
01:37:29
house were telling the police who was there when they planned it. Within days, detectives identified the two other men,
01:37:36
Christopher Huggins, There was a big guy, maybe maybe 6' 4". He's a gang ties. And the man who'd held
01:37:45
a gun to little Bria, >> [music] >> a gang member called Bones. Real name, Robert Ortiz. Ortiz was a
01:37:53
connection who got the guns. On December 1st, they decided to arrest Butler and Ramirez during a traffic stop.
01:38:03
In the glove compartment was a weapon. It's a It's actually a BB gun. If you look at that in a stressful situation,
01:38:10
that looks as real as it can get. What they find when they popped the trunk? >> Plethora of evidence. All this.
01:38:15
>> All this. They found the the black bag that Michelle described the money being
01:38:19
carried in. Uh several pairs of black gloves and um a homemade ski mask. >> Oh yeah. Look at the eye holes there.
01:38:30
Yeah. Mhm. But they clearly cut themselves. Michelle's credit cards were all found in the trunk of the
01:38:36
vehicle. And then of course the money straps from the bank. Also in the trunk, that doorbell detonator.
01:38:44
And there was even more at the house. They found all the ingredients to make the fake bomb. There were broom handles
01:38:52
which were cut up into small dowels which actually were used in [music] making the the fake dynamite. They also
01:38:59
recovered the the actual spray cans. Ramirez's fingerprint was on one of those cans. It was crazy. I've
01:39:06
never seen that much physical evidence left at a crime scene. They They they'd gotten away with it.
01:39:11
>> Yeah. One thing investigators didn't find on Butler and Ramirez, any of the bank's
01:39:17
$360,000. But, after arresting Huggins that same day, they did recover 93,000 of the cash
01:39:26
that he'd stashed away. Huggins confessed and said that he'd already spent several grand on a trip to Vegas.
01:39:33
The fourth suspect, Robert Ortiz, was on the lam. When authorities arrested him 3 months
01:39:41
later in Wisconsin, Ortiz still had $32,000 of the bank's money and gave a full confession. Did Huggins and Ortiz's
01:39:50
confessions corroborate each other? Yes, very much so. >> So, did Huggins and Ortiz's confessions
01:39:57
corroborate what Michelle had told investigators? >> Yes. Almost identical. Butler denied
01:40:03
everything, even when confronted with direct evidence. His thumbprint on the fake dynamite
01:40:10
sticks. And we got fingerprints that are yours that link you to the bank robbery.
01:40:17
I didn't do anything. I wasn't involved with the bank robbery. He tried to protect Lisa.
01:40:24
Lisa wouldn't have been involved in that. But, Lisa was about to start talking. She admitted she was the female
01:40:30
voice on the walkie-talkie. I was trying to tell you She even took credit for the idea to use
01:40:38
fake dynamite and kidnap the bank manager. I honestly have no idea what that was about.
01:40:44
Eight months ago. Huh? Jokingly, mine. Lisa said they'd split the money three ways, but that her and Butler's share,
01:40:52
more than $100,000, had been stolen. >> [music] >> And to everyone's surprise, she said
01:40:58
Michelle was in on the plot. Everything that they had told me that what she was saying Lisa was talking
01:41:07
about. Walked out of that, um, thinking, "Okay, Lisa's Lisa's the mastermind behind all
01:41:13
this." And, um, is it possible Michelle's involved? Manning says ultimately he knew Michelle
01:41:21
was innocent. The first time I interviewed her, she had Bria with her. And I I I saw that bond and
01:41:26
relationship. And when she left, I went, "She's not involved in this." But, that
01:41:31
wouldn't be enough in court. San Diego County Sheriff's Detectives Rudy Zamora, Dale Martin, and Randy
01:41:38
DeMers would have to [music] rule Michelle out as a suspect. Every time we pushed a button, she would
01:41:47
react in a way a true victim should. They recreated the dynamite packs and strapped them on Kimbra, Michelle, and
01:41:57
Bria. She was very upset. And Michelle was emotional when asked to revisit the horrific
01:42:06
details of the kidnapping. And then they I had to put her in there, I think. Shut the
01:42:16
Shut the closet. She was shaken up. I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. When Michelle did those
01:42:22
reenactments, were her story, Kimbra's story, and Bria's story consistent? Yes, completely consistent.
01:42:30
>> In fact, investigators couldn't find any evidence Michelle was involved. Still,
01:42:36
they worried. She was not our normal victim. As they took a deep dive into Michelle's
01:42:42
life, what did they find out about Michelle's past? >> She didn't hide anything. Including the
01:42:47
fact that for years she had worked as a stripper. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed by any of
01:42:54
that. Michelle says it was one of the choices she had to make for survival at a young
01:43:00
age. I ran away at 15. I worked really, really hard to get to where I was. With no high school
01:43:07
diploma, she had climbed the corporate ladder all the way to regional vice president before taking the bank manager
01:43:13
job to be home more with Bria. And while you were working at the bank, you were still dancing, still stripping for a
01:43:21
while? >> for a while. The money was really great. But, more worrisome were things that
01:43:27
went directly to Michelle's credibility. She falsified resumes, claimed she had various experience, various education,
01:43:35
which she didn't have. Bounced a check, filed for bankruptcy. >> Right. It doesn't look good.
01:43:40
>> It doesn't look good. And if you're a defense attorney, you're licking your chops.
01:43:45
Oh, it was the best verdict I ever got in my life. By spring of 2001, the suspects were in
01:44:01
custody awaiting trial for kidnapping and bank robbery charges. But, Michelle and Bria were still reeling from that
01:44:08
night of terror. I could still hear them. I could still hear the the sounds. I couldn't get it to turn
01:44:18
off. I just wanted to hide. I thought they were going to find us. They were going to kill us still.
01:44:27
In June, Michelle decided to move Bria to Alaska to live with her grandmother. I was going to fly her up there
01:44:35
and get her to safety. I was going to figure out what to do from there. After a few days, Michelle says she had an
01:44:42
epiphany. To go back to San Diego and get rid of everything I could possibly get rid of
01:44:49
and drive back to Alaska. With a dog, Come here. some cash, can do this on a budget. and a camcorder, Today
01:44:59
is July the 6th. she embarked on a 9-day drive On my way, baby doll. to the last
01:45:05
frontier. You had a deadline. I had a deadline. Bria's birthday was in 9 days. And I promised her I'd be back before
01:45:15
her birthday party. That's when Michelle and Bria say they began to heal. Did you feel safe in
01:45:24
Alaska? Safer. I could be a kid again. Happy birthday to you. [singing] By the time they returned to San Diego a
01:45:33
year later for the trial, Michelle says she was ready. There was so much evidence, there was no
01:45:40
way I thought that this trial was going to be anything but slam dunk. Butler and Ramirez would be tried first.
01:45:50
When her case came across your desk, what did you think at first? She's guilty. You thought she's guilty?
01:45:58
>> Well, yeah. Herb Weston, who represented Lisa Ramirez, had a problem. His client
01:46:04
had confessed on camera. There was a female voice that came on the walkie-talkie.
01:46:11
I was trying to tell If they played that tape, saying that she wasn't involved would have been difficult. Weston
01:46:18
proposed a plea deal hoping to save Ramirez from a potential life sentence. But, the prosecution turned him down. We
01:46:26
thought we would definitely get state the key statements in that she was involved.
01:46:31
>> But, since Ramirez had also implicated Butler, the judge ruled her entire statement inadmissible.
01:46:40
>> [music] >> We now can at least argue to the jury that she wasn't involved. Without her
01:46:47
confession, the case against Ramirez relied almost entirely on Michelle. A fact Manning was keenly aware of
01:46:56
during his opening statement to the jury on June 3rd, 2002. Remi told the jury that this case was about credibility.
01:47:04
Right. Michelle's, uh, background was was going to be an issue. I knew there were issues, but I believed her. And you
01:47:12
thought the jury would believe her. >> Right. But, not if the defense had its way.
01:47:17
What was your strategy going into trial? My strategy was to beat the hell out of
01:47:23
the victim and show all these inconsistencies that the victim is saying. It got very
01:47:29
confrontational. I was really, really off. That played right into Weston's hand. Angry
01:47:37
witnesses don't come across as credible. I was treated like I was the criminal. During his cross-examination, Weston
01:47:45
implied Michelle was lying about recognizing Lisa Ramirez's voice on the walkie-talkie.
01:47:52
Wait a minute, ma'am. I've looked at all this stuff. Isn't this the first time you've said that? In fact, he pointed
01:47:57
out it wasn't in any of the FBI reports. But, Michelle insists she told them. I did. I 100% did. And Manning says she
01:48:07
identified Lisa's voice to him before taking the stand. Does it bother you that Lisa actually
01:48:14
admitted that that was her voice on the walkie-talkie? The fact is it was Lisa. >> But, that's not the issue. For me, it
01:48:21
made a great opening to attack her credibility. Weston then grilled Michelle about bait
01:48:29
money, the traceable bills banks keep in their vaults to trap bank robbers. You didn't take the bait.
01:48:35
>> Did not take the bait money. >> Why not? They said no funny money. You say that's suspicious, that she must
01:48:41
have been in on it. >> Correct. Maybe worst of all for Michelle, Weston questioned her maternal instincts. Would
01:48:50
a mother run to a place where her daughter was if she believes that I have a bomb on my back? She wasn't sure
01:48:58
whether her daughter was dead or alive. Don't you think it's possible that she wasn't thinking straight? Sure.
01:49:04
But, also what could be true is she knew there wasn't a a bomb and so she didn't have to worry about
01:49:10
it. Did you feel like you were on trial? I 100% felt like I was on trial. >> I would be sitting in the front row and
01:49:18
all I could think about was it's going to take me maybe 6 seconds to get from this point to the offender.
01:49:25
That is how I rate I was. >> Day after day listening to this. Listening to this.
01:49:30
>> Is it fair to beat up the victim? Absolutely. While Weston hammered on every decision Michelle made that day,
01:49:37
the attorney representing Butler went after everything else. What was the worst thing they asked you? About my sex
01:49:43
life. They were trying to paint me as somebody that was irresponsible, a selfish, terrible mother that would do
01:49:53
anything for money. And they picked apart Michelle's finances. She's in financial distress
01:50:02
and that could be the motive. Isn't it kind of odd that we're talking about motive when we're talking about a
01:50:06
victim? It is. The defense in the case was to make Michelle a culprit here. After Michelle's grueling
01:50:15
3-day testimony, it was Christopher Butler's turn. He protected Lisa on the stand claiming
01:50:23
Michelle was the mastermind and that they'd had an affair. I was shocked. It's almost laughable. What was his
01:50:31
story about how the two of you met? From what I understand we met at a grocery store and that I recruited him.
01:50:38
Butler claimed that he'd gone to Michelle's house that night with Huggins and Ortiz. He said that in the early
01:50:44
morning hours while smoking pot, Michelle brought up the bank robbery idea again and decided they should do it
01:50:51
that morning. His evidence of this, his proof of this? Zero. If any of this were
01:50:56
true, he would have thrown Michelle down in a heartbeat in his interview. The jury deliberated for 5 days before
01:51:04
finding Butler guilty of the bank robbery and Briane Kimbrough's kidnapping, but
01:51:10
they hung 9 to 3 on the charges of kidnapping Michelle. When we talked to the jurors, you know, we discovered it
01:51:16
was one juror who completely believed Butler and the other two jurors were unsure. And they found Lisa Ramirez not
01:51:26
guilty on all counts. Oh, it was the best verdict I ever got in my life. Mind-boggling. The fact that it was her
01:51:33
idea to do this to a mother and a child and laughing and proud of it. How involved do you think she was in this?
01:51:41
>> Very involved. The investigators kept saying she she was the brains of the outfit.
01:51:45
>> So the brains of the outfit walked. Right. The second trial would go very differently with Huggins and Ortiz
01:51:53
easily convicted. In so many of the stories that we tell the ending is the conviction.
01:52:01
But in your case, in a lot of ways that's just the beginning. All righty. Is it working? Yes.
01:52:22
If you close your eyes, can you still see it? Okay. All of it. I can still see all of it.
01:52:31
Even though the men who had terrorized [music] them were now serving multiple life sentences
01:52:37
Michelle and Bri would never be the same. There's aspects of that night that are
01:52:44
going to be with me for the rest of my life. They were treated for post-traumatic
01:52:49
stress disorder for over 2 years. They had their guns. Michelle says dealing with the break-in led to a breakthrough.
01:52:58
There was two choices. [music] Call them monsters and stay angry and blame everything in my life on them
01:53:05
or I can take this other road. >> [music] >> The best thing I could do for Bri is to
01:53:09
be an example. Enjoy the book. Michelle wrote a book which was made into a TV movie
01:53:17
and she and Bri went on speaking tours to discuss their experience with trauma. A lot of people coming out of this would
01:53:24
want to just forget about it, put it behind them, but you and your mom talked openly about it. Yes.
01:53:30
And I think it was the best decision for us. We're speaking out about [music] our
01:53:34
experience. I was showing people that it's not always the end all be all when something bad happens to you. You can
01:53:42
come out of it stronger. 1 2 3 4 And by 2011 she really turned the corner and started enjoying her life
01:53:50
again. The girl who had hidden from everything was a high school senior and competitive
01:53:56
cheerleader. She loved it. It was her absolute passion. You're thriving. You're living the
01:54:04
dream. You said you dreamed of this. You were living the dream. I was. Then suddenly
01:54:11
senior year in December I started feeling a little off. I was dropping things. Showed up at my work at
01:54:19
6:00 dragging her leg going Mommy, something's really wrong. Something's wrong. I don't know what's happening.
01:54:25
And I said Mom, I'm really scared. They had [music] no idea Bri was in for the fight of her life.
01:54:33
We rushed her to the hospital >> [snorts] >> and they started pricking [music] her
01:54:38
leg and she couldn't feel it. And her heart rate started going crazy. Oh my gosh.
01:54:46
By [music] 8:00 p.m. that night, I was paralyzed on my left side, couldn't talk, couldn't swallow, blind in my left
01:54:51
eye. We found abnormalities in the brain is all they could tell me that night. It almost sounds [music] like there's
01:54:58
that same feeling that you had of helplessness that you had the night that you were held hostage. Completely.
01:55:05
The next morning Bri was diagnosed with an acute onset of multiple sclerosis, an
01:55:10
autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own tissues. Based on the scans, she has tumefactive
01:55:18
MS which is not only rare in and of itself, but people Bri's age at 18 rarely get MS. [music]
01:55:26
Bri says she was told she might never walk or talk again. Just like that. >> Just like that.
01:55:35
My life just ended again. I was 18 trying to go off to college, do cheer in college
01:55:43
and that was never going to happen for me. So much of your healing had been talking
01:55:50
and now you couldn't talk. Now I couldn't talk. I couldn't feed myself anymore. She had
01:55:58
to relearn all of that. Up. Good. But it was as if they'd been training for this
01:56:03
for years. Do you think in some way what happened to you when you were 7 prepared you for
01:56:11
battling MS? >> Yes, I think it made me strong enough to go through what I went through with MS. It was here we
01:56:19
go again. Here we go again. Bri would spend 6 weeks in the hospital. Two to three times a day of physical
01:56:28
therapy occupational therapies speech therapy. After she could talk again she turned to me and said
01:56:38
kidnapping was a piece of cake compared to this. Do it again. And just as with the kidnapping, Bri
01:56:46
wanted [music] to inspire others. She wrote her college essay from her hospital room, from her wheelchair.
01:56:52
[music] It is my hope that my college experience And said I'm going to college. I'm going
01:56:58
to [music] be the first person in my family to graduate college no matter what. I now know that there is no time
01:57:04
to waste. Life can change so suddenly. She chronicled her journey on her Facebook page.
01:57:11
Bri, I I love you. She fought tooth and nail every [music] single day for every single step she
01:57:20
took. She walked out of the hospital. This time it was Michelle doing the cheerleading. Hi Bri.
01:57:28
The rehab started in the hospital, but the real rehab was Michelle. Constantly on her. We're going to do
01:57:37
this. It's okay. Good job. We were a total team. We just ended up going into full gear. We lived in a
01:57:44
house with stairs. >> Good. That was really good. She couldn't do stairs anymore.
01:57:49
So once again, you're out of a home that you've been living [music] in. Yeah, and
01:57:53
I had to become her full-time caregiver for about a year and a half, 2 years and
01:58:00
rebuilding our life again. Despite the odds 4 5 6 she made it to college. She relapsed three times her
01:58:08
first year in college and had to come home but she did it. >> She follows in her mom's footsteps.
01:58:13
Teaching her how to get her foot to stay on the line. And with the tenacity and the never give up philosophy that they
01:58:21
have. Lift your knee up. Ready? Go. [music] Bri is walking, talking proof. So they told you you never walk again?
01:58:29
Yeah, I would never walk again, never see again, never anything like that. And I would say I beat the odds.
01:58:36
>> [laughter] >> Yet again. Yes, exactly. But 20 years after their world first came [music]
01:58:42
crashing down they'd be faced with the unimaginable once again. Christopher Butler could be released.
01:59:07
>> It's been over 20 years. What stands out about this case in hindsight? [music]
01:59:13
The victims. From the very beginning, the case hit close to home for prosecutor Tom
01:59:21
Manning. The fact that there was a a little girl. My daughter was the same age as Brea
01:59:27
when this happened. Nearly 20 years later, in June 2020, Christopher Butler was up for parole.
01:59:36
He's the one who lied about me. Manning made sure he was at the hearing. And you had a plan going in.
01:59:44
I did. He saw a chance to set the record straight by asking Butler about the story he'd told on the stand.
01:59:53
I told Michelle if I felt it was right, I was going to go for it. What did you think about that?
01:59:59
Go for it. Ask away. Even though that's risky. It's a little risky. This guy could go to the grave with these lies.
02:00:07
The risk paid off. Butler recanted his whole story, admitting he and Michelle never had a relationship. How did that
02:00:16
feel to hear that? Mhm. It's about time. I wanted everybody who ever doubted me to read this parole transcript. I want
02:00:27
to blast it all over the internet. That there was never ever a chance that I would ever ever have been involved in
02:00:35
anything like this ever. Brea says >> [music] >> it's a bittersweet victory for her mom.
02:00:43
Feels good, but it's a little too late. You can search my mom's name and it can come up on the internet. You can't take
02:00:50
that back. Why has it taken [music] so long to come clean? And it's probably because he had
02:00:56
an opportunity to be free. Even [music] though Butler was unequivocal that Michelle was not
02:01:03
involved, >> he still hasn't really taken responsibility. He blamed his old flame,
02:01:08
Lisa Ramirez. But Butler said he was sorry for what he'd put his victims through, and even
02:01:16
said he'd read Michelle's book more than once. He said some of the passages in your
02:01:22
book really got to him. Yeah, on the road trip to Alaska, I really started to think about what it would be like to try
02:01:29
to just understand. Michelle says that's when she started to wonder about the people
02:01:38
behind the masks. This is someone's son. This is someone's brother. This is someone's grandson.
02:01:45
What happened to them in their life that got them to the point where they thought
02:01:50
the only option was to attack a mother and her daughter. Do you accept Christopher Butler's
02:01:56
apology? I do. Yeah, 1,000%. I appreciate him finally being honest after all [music] this time.
02:02:05
I hope he keeps digging deeper. Yeah, I forgave him a long time ago and I accept his apology.
02:02:12
But neither Brea nor Michelle want Butler released. He's already been denied parole twice.
02:02:19
The irony isn't lost on Dave. All he really did is free everybody else he's held hostage with his life.
02:02:27
In a very weird way, I could breathe, like an exhale finally after all this time.
02:02:37
While they don't believe Butler has changed his ways, they feel very differently about the
02:02:43
other two men who held them hostage. They confessed. [music] They take accountability for what they
02:02:50
did, and that's a big [music] thing. Are you actually rooting for these guys to succeed at this point?
02:02:56
>> Yes. Yes. They were younger than what I am now. If they are doing the work, I want
02:03:03
nothing but the best for them. Especially Robert Ortiz. At the sentencing, Robert Ortiz is the
02:03:11
only one that turned around and looked at me and said, "I'm sorry." >> [music] >> He mouthed it.
02:03:16
They wrote to Ortiz back in 2011 and received a reply 9 years later. Out of respect for him, I'm not going to
02:03:27
say everything that's in the letter. >> [snorts] >> I can say that it's beautiful, it's heartfelt, and I can't
02:03:34
wait to see where that leads. This is the young man who held a gun to your daughter's head. Yes.
02:03:44
And she spoke at his parole hearing. In his favor. There's my puppy. We're road-tripping.
02:03:51
In the meantime, Michelle has written a follow-up book So, we're on our way. about the road trip that changed her
02:03:58
point of view. Great morning. Really great morning. It is about healing. It's called 9 Days, which is how long I
02:04:06
was on the road to Alaska. It is possible to forgive. I do believe that through this terrible tragedy, it's
02:04:15
possible to see beauty again. That something beautiful was meant to come about. Alaska!
02:04:23
It has built [music] these people into these incredible human beings. And through it all, they say they
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wouldn't change a thing. Even the kidnapping. So, if you look back at the last 20
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years, >> [music] >> what is this journey been about? Raising a remarkable daughter.
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It's the best thing I've ever done in my life. It's be her mom. [music] It seems like both of you look at this
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at least a tiny bit as a gift. >> Mhm. Yeah. I wouldn't change it. It gave us a chance to build the bond
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that we have today, and it's just gotten stronger. Yeah. >> [music] [music] >> I can only describe it as evil,
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something horrible. From 48 Hours, this is Train to Kill: The Dog Trainer, The Heiress, and The Bodyguard.
02:05:40
>> He couldn't control his obsession. Who was the hunter and who was the hunted?
02:05:45
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