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[Music] o [Music] [Music] December 1999 I was in first grade my older sister Crystal and I were staying
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with friends in Del Rio Texas waiting for my family in Kansas to move there with
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us I was seven and my older sister Crystal was 10 and we were just moving down to Del Rio Texas to start a new
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life with our family I remember my sisters being kind of bossy and the age different was big and we just didn't get
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along very well we stayed at the Harris family's house and they had a big family the
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oldest son Sean then uh Justin Lori and Katie and they they lived kind of out in
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the desert like there wasn't a lot of people close to them it was off in the middle of
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[Music] nowhere I was sleeping directly across the hallway from the room Crystal and
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Katie were sleeping in I was going to sleep on the floor next to the bed but they didn't want me in there and and I
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was made to leave when I couldn't sleep in the room I was so mad and I remember I just laid in bed for like 2 hours just
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just fuming I was just so mad I wanted to be in that room I woke up to the sun coming through the
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window and I sat up and I saw a lady standing in my room that I didn't know and she just handed me a pair of shorts
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and a purple tank top and said put this on we got to go directly maybe five steps away from
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my door was just a stream of blood it looked like somebody was stumbling was holding on to things or was blood on the
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wall and just it was everywhere and then there was more outside I just remember seeing it all
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the way down the front steps and just off into the street I knew somebody was her I saw the
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blood I could see everybody crying everybody was frantic I just wanted to know what was going
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on on December 31st 1999 I had a phone call at close to 6:00 in the morning as I Was preparing to
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move from can us to Texas it was a VY emergency room asking me for my permission to lifel Crystal
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she had been attacked and I said absolutely LIF lighter where and they said San Antonio I didn't know anything other
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than Crystal had had her throat cut if I looked her in her eyes I would know if she was going to make
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[Music] it after first received the phone call regarding this attack and homicide at
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5:30 a.m. on December [Music] 31st when I walked into the crime scene which was identified as the Harris
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residence there was a bedroom which I learned two small girls were sleeping in on the floor was a deceased young girl
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uh the crime scene was extremely bloody um the murder victim was identified as 13-year-old Ken Harris who
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normally went by Katie Katie Harris was a very popular 13-year-old beautiful young girl who had
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everything in the world going for her a young girl who fought very bravely for her life and we knew a 10-year-old girl
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had survived Crystal sirls uh at that point in time we didn't know to the extent of her injuries uh and that was
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our only hope as far as any surviving [Music] witness when I got in her room I saw
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this little girl with all of these tubes and the one of the machines was was breathing for
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[Music] her she looked like this baby in this humongous bed and I looked her in her eyes and I
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said are you okay Angel mommy's here I knew that a guy had slit her wi pipe completely and nicked her vocal
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cords and then she kept asking me is Katie okay is Katie okay and I couldn't tell her I couldn't tell
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her anything it hurt all but I think just that Katie she helped me through everything her soul came up and like
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stayed with me as soon as I woke up from surgery I was ready to [Music] talk and my mom was like you know
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Crystal we have to wait till the police get there the detectives and things like
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that when we initially walked into the room we told Crystal who we were and uh at that point in time I assured Crystal
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that we are going to arrest the person or persons who did this to her and I at that point in time I was hoping I could
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back that up I felt like it was her story and when she was ready and comfortable she would tell me what she
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wanted to tell me about it [Music] we went to bed kind of late but I remember I woke up to like a
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[Music] scream I was on the top bunk of the bed and I just popped my you know popped my
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head up a little bit and I was looking around um I never set up fully or anything but the light was on so I could
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see I could see at the end of the bed um this scary guy he had scruffy hair long dark curly
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hair and a big scary long bushy beard that you know just took over his whole face and then his eyes were just dark
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and and [Music] mean but then I I saw that Katie had blood on her and that he had a knife in
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his hand he had a knife across her throat and his hand on her mouth and he just cut her
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throat she fell to the ground he still didn't notice I was in the room and he was getting ready to
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leave he opened the door almost had the light off looked one last time and and he saw me looking at
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him I was trying to scoot to the right side of the bed cuz he was on the left he just reached over and cut my throat
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like this and then I just remember laying there and the light turning off and I heard the door
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shut I was laying there thinking has he been to the other rooms does he know that the whole family is here you know
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is everybody hurt are they all dead and so I got on my hands and knees and I was
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crawling across the floor in the bedroom and I came across Katie on the floor she
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was kind of making um a gasping noise or maybe she was choking um but then I was trying to
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comfort her I I laid next to her rubbing her back and and that's when I realized
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I couldn't talk cuz all I wanted to say was everything's going to be okay everything's going to be okay but I
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couldn't and then I mean as soon as she stopped making those noises I had this feeling you know get
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out of here get up come on go don't lay here go it was dark outside I was in my pajamas
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no shoes nothing and I just decided I saw a light in the distance I was like that's my goal that's where I need to be
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um I just got on the road and walked really slow to that light really all I could think about was
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just get to this house just get to this house just get to this house and I just banged on their door and I I hear a
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gentleman he's like who's there who's there you know I can't and I can't talk so I'm just banging as hard as I can on
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the door and then he opens the door I have a little girl just rang my [Music] doorbell I'm lucky to not be in that
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room and I'm lucky to have an amazing sister that could handle being in that room I wouldn't have made it like
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Crystal did we had a forensic artist that was stationed in Midland Texas at the time
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she was contacted and brought to University Hospital I couldn't get the picture out of my head and it amazes me
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how good that they sketched it compared to how we really looked at the time because it was so perfect uh we entered
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Crystal's room uh woke her up and I explained to Crystal I told Crystal we have a photo lineup and if you see the
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man that uh was in that residence that that did this to y'all please put your finger on him you could see her eyes
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moving from one individual photograph to the next and then you could see that she
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came back and and focused in on one photograph and I was standing beside her when she did this and Crystal took her
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right index finger and put it on the photograph of Tommy lils [Music] [Music] Tommy Lind sales at that point in time
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became our number one suspect [Music] once we received the a positive identification from Crystal we uh turned
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around and headed back toward Del R which is a 2 and 1 half hour drive from San Antonio the valy County Sheriff's
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Office had handled Tommy Lind sales before on on some accusations that were made U there in Del Rio against him
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when we got to Tommy Lynn residence uh it was approximately 5:30 in the morning uh we knocked on the door it was opened
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we went right on in and we're met near the front doorway by Tommy ly sells his comment
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was I'm glad I finally got caught I was tired of doing this and then we told him
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he was under arrest for murder the murder weapon was an 11-in butcher knife it had been sharpened
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throughout the years so many times that it was such a thin blade and it was recovered Beyond his residence where he
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told us he had discarded the [Music] knife I remember the phone ringing in the room
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and me answering it and them telling me that they had caught Tommy Lin cells and I remember turning to Crystal and
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telling her and she was like yeah but at that point it wasn't about him it was about
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Crystal we would take uh walks in the morning and afternoon and Crystal was walking along with her IV and stopped to
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get a drink of water and the the water fountain of course they're kind of shiny and that's the first time that she
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saw her neck was in the water fountain and so then she you know like she I knew she wanted to get to a mirror
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she cried for a little bit but she knew that it would get better I think it it brought back some
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of what she was going through she was like Crystal it it happened there's nothing
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we can do now but look you're here you know and he's caught and then and think if this would have never happened he
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would still be out there who would he be hurting right now I'm just lucky people
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you know say I'm brave and and everything no I'm just lucky once Tommy ly sales was taken to
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the valy county sheriff's office he was very willing to cooperate with us confessions were obtained from him as
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well as his agreement to do a walk through of the crime scene you're doing this walk through with your own free
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will oh yeah okay I thought this to be very odd uh hear this guy is under arrest for for murder and attempted
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murder and his willing to cooperate with us to basically nail the nail in his coffin I walked over here L and behold
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the window was left open that night which allowed access a lot easier then I came over here and there's
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a little girl sleeping here [Music] [Music] and I stood here for a minute and then
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then I looked in here and there's a two girls sleeping in here he explained which where the girls were lying uh he
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explained he walked over to the bottom bunk where Katie was lying I I cut her bra and and I cut the out of
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her uh whatever she was wearing I stabbed her here and then she like jumped back and then then
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I and I walked over here and I went like this we felt like the motive in this murder and an attack on crystal uh was
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sexual assault we did find out that Sals was Associated and and friends with the
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Harris family and uh we feel like he specifically targeted Katie uh it it's frightening
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that sales had also made a comment that he actually thought about killing the six people that that were in the
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trailer one of the things that the um Rangers offered for me to kind of get a better idea of what Crystal had gone
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through to to hopefully help her more in the recovery is to get to go through the
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crime scene and see with my own eyes what actually had happened when I saw the crime
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scene I literally felt like my legs were going to fall out from underneath me the
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blood there was so much blood everywhere and it was all crystals except for that
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one area where Katie was where she laid and died [Music] the little handprints of my
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daughters I just can't even describe the helpless feeling that I felt but I needed
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to go through that so I knew her every step so that I could better be there for her in the long run
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[Music] you following Tommy's arrest and and on the way to jail he he was pretty quiet
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and what kind of took us back more than anything was his comment I guess you want to know about the other
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murders I asked the Rangers if I could sit on on that interrogation not knowing what their answer would be
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but I'm a smart enough journalist to know that um in all the years I've worked in the news business I never sat
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in on interrogation and I guess it's a reporter's Instinct uh to ask for things that they normally can't have in all my
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years of Investigations I I've never allowed journalists in the same room with suspects but we knew at that this
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point in time that that we could use assistance from getting his story out Nationwide uh in hopes of finding other
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victims who possibly could could have survived I sat in an interrogation room for hours listening to Tommy lyells go
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from state to state to state uh talking about the people he killed the men he killed the women he killed the children
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he killed this is two females and it happened in ' 91 close to cab Creek that's when I realized we were dealing
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with a serial killer a cold-blooded serial killer daddy told me a long time ago that man
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tells no tell I remember that to this day we spent the next nine months with Sals on additional homicides that he
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claimed to have committed in the months and months that we spent with Sals we have confirm that
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he has committed 22 total murders you know you cover a story like this I have to tell you it if you have children
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um you place your children in in in in their situation they were helpless they were sleeping uh they were totally
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vulnerable and you've got this deranged killer climbing through the window with a knife that knife was the ugliest
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looking knife I've ever seen in my life I don't think it gets any scarier than that people were happy to know that this
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man was no longer going to be in society this man was no longer going to be able
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to kill men women and children [Music] again going back to Kansas was a relief but at the same time I knew that I had
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to eventually go back to Texas and testify in front of him um but you know I was ready I felt ready to do it I
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wanted to [Music] the trial took place 9 months after the murder and and the headline here was
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that 11-year-old Crystal Sirles was going to be the key witness the star witness for the
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prosecution we knew that it was going to be explosive we knew that it was going to be emotional particularly for uh
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Crystal CS because she had never Tommy ly cells since the night that he came to that house and slashed her
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throat and she didn't know how she was going to react several days prior to the trial
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Crystal was introduced to my two young daughters simply because I thought it might be a way for Crystal to put her
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mind at ease and and take her away from what she was going to have to go through
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and she stayed at us stayed with us at our residence uh and what made things even
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harder was is that she would wake up during the middle of the night and and sit up in bed
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screaming and uh knowing that she was having nightmares about it and I walk over here I cut
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this uh Tommy's defense attorney he knew that he had a killer he was representing
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a killer and um his only strategy was to try to keep Tommy lels off a death row I felt fine to know that I had to
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eventually see him because I felt like he couldn't conquer me you know he had his chance and he obviously you know
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didn't do what he wanted and and now look at him he was going to be in that trial room because of me and I liked
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feeling that power I just had such a mindset that this is what I wanted to do um and this what I had to do I put my my
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thoughts towards Katie like this is for Katie this she deserves this the day I had to testify I you know
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I woke up I can do this I can do this I said mom don't cry please don't cry if I see you in the crowd balling
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you're going to distract me you know no you're going to make me upset please don't and then when they called me down
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I was like I'm ready I'm ready they you know said do you want to walk by him um you could either walk by him or just
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walk through this door and get on um the stand and I said I want to walk by him I
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am I'm not scared of him to see her walk into that courtroom with her chest out as she took the
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witness stand uh she was there for business and uh she did it cuz his hand was over her
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mouth whose hand was over her mouth his hand but when I got up there and then had to talk that's when my nerves came I
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had to point him out and look at him and say that guy the man with the blue jacket and the
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glasses yes that's whenever I realized that guy is right there now Crystal if you need for me to
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stop at some point in time I'll stop I tried not to focus any attention on him though after I just had to point him out
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he he was making me nervous he was shaking his leg and wouldn't even look up at me or
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anything what was a defendant doing and what was Katie doing kti was okay he was it was just really overwhelming at
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that point my emotions took over and and I couldn't answer any more questions when I seen Crystal break down on that
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stand I wanted to run up there so bad and hug her and tell her it's going to be okay
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but I'd made that promise to her the night before that I would not break down and it was the hardest thing I'd ever
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done in my entire life so they had to do a recess for 15 minutes and pull me aside they just
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pulled me to the back room my mom ran back there my you know attorney and everybody was just back there saying
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Crystal you're almost done you can do it you can do it I wiped my tears and I went right back out there and I was I I
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was on I was on it I did it I had to walk in front of the the jury and point out my scar and I had to
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you know lay on this table that um and showed how I popped my head up is this how you were lying down
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this out of this whole experience with sales that was probably the most difficult to sit ha
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sit there and have to listen to U because you realize just exactly what she had to go through what she had
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to do to try and survive can you tell us why you had your hands up close to your
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neck because I saw what he did to Katie and I was scared he was going to do it to me I I think um Garcia the defense
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attorney was taken with Crystal CS after Crystal testified he was smart enough not to try to cross-examine her in a
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vigorous fashion you're a brave young woman thank you no more question for him to just say I don't have any
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questions for you I was like really you know okay really you know you don't want
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to ask anything he even his attorney just made me feel good about the whole situation like even though he had to be
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there to defend him that he was still on my side as soon as I stepped off the stand
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I felt so good and relieved very relieved just pressure off my shoulders I got through this
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I'm fine you know and we're going to find out what's going to happen to him as soon the jurors went out to deliberate
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um it was I don't know it was kind of an eerie feeling for a lot of people who were close to this trial because no one
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thought it would be long but no one thought it would be as short as it was either when they came
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back with the verdict it was an hour and 10 minutes [Music] they came back the jury walked into that
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courtroom and announced to the court that they had found Tommy lenells guilty there was silence in the
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courtroom and then there was relief uh when the verdict came in after the verdict came in uh the only question
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was whether Tommy lyells would receive life in prison or whether Tommy lels would be put to death
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we didn't know it at the time and even up to and even after the trial we didn't know that Crystal was keeping a lot
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inside she was she had a secret and um and we wouldn't find out until much later what it
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was there's not a doubt in my mind that has lost a lot if not most of her childhood she really has been a Survivor
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her whole entire life with more than just Tommy linel I don't think that this tragedy
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would have turned out the way it did unless she was brought up the way she was because it made her think it made her
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strong and when the tragedy happened she knew what to do before it all really happened um Pam
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and I we started using drugs before we knew it we were on a huge roll R coaster ride the drugs just
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kind of took over we were getting in little bits of trouble here and there with the
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law we were really fighting really bad I wanted a family I wanted a normal life I didn't want the drugs and
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everything that comes with that lifestyle so I filed for divorce she just up and moved away she
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got cleaned up in the meantime I had the girls some tough times there Crystal was
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amazing from age 67 she was the mom she took care of everybody my dad would sleep for days at
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at times um and I had to take care of my little sisters I me being in second grade they're younger than me they were
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babies um changing my sister's diapers or feeding them um getting them to bed and getting myself up for school in the
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morning [Music] I was kind of I I say it as a joke but it's true I was the stinky kid in class I mean I was
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late to school every day I didn't really ever have time to take a shower I never
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wore matching clothes I walked to school you never saw my parents or my sisters or anything I was just the random girl
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at school way before the attack I just remember Crystal taking care of me she was there always she was the backbone in
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our family for a really long time she was the strong one and she was little Crystal took on the mother the Father
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the everything roll she did everything for our [Music] family she always did everything she
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cleaned the house and cooked for us and she always cared about us more than she cared about
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herself when she got clean my mom decided to take us girls with her and she came and picked us up from my dad
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and at that point my dad was still choosing to do the things that he you know he was doing before I couldn't quit
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using I couldn't quit dealing I I became mad at my dad like you're choosing this
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over us this doesn't make any sense you know do you not love us I remember for a couple weeks just
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listening to the other kids outside that they played with they were coming over asking for him I had to tell them they
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were gone we were gone for quite some time and then in that time frame he got caught for what he was
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[Music] doing when my dad went to prison she was mad at him for a really long time and
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she stopped taking his calls and she was just angry because she felt why can't you be here Dad why can't you help me
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and he couldn't and it made her mad whenever you know the attack happened um and I knew that my dad
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couldn't come it it devastated me I wanted him to be there just like my mom was but I knew that he couldn't be
00:33:41
eventually as years went on people were curious like oh yeah you know where was your dad you know stepping back out of
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the situation and then it's kind of like well he wasn't there [Music] I um was in Ada County Jail I'd been
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there about 3 months I got a visit at 10:00 a.m. which uh it's not visiting time I remember
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walking down the hall and at the end of the hall I could see my mom and my sister I sat down and my mom proceeds to
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tell me that Crystal had been attacked I I just can't express the emotions they just started pouring
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out it's probably a good thing I was locked up though so I'd have killed that son of a
00:34:48
Tommy Linds was convicted of capital murder and then the state went into phase two of of this capital murder
00:34:57
trial well we're shooting for the death penalty you know that's what we want for
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him to get and then we're like is that really what we want you know we're not the type of people to ever wish wish
00:35:08
death upon anybody the judge gave the case to the jury the jury went out and deliberated
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and uh within a few hours they came back in and uh they decided to give Tommy Lin
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cells the death penalty he has done his fair share where he deserves it but took me a long time
00:35:30
to realize that I've never been the type of person to feel good about something so bad you know it was weird it was very
00:35:38
awkward certainly the jury wasn't aware of the gruesome details and and all the other homicides that sales has committed
00:35:49
and it's almost as if you feel like when he received that death penalty he's getting the that death penalty for all
00:35:56
the other homicides he's committed I thought he he received exactly what he what he deserved I mean
00:36:02
Sals is is an animal inside a human body it was time for us to get back to everything as normal as possible we had
00:36:18
lost that but that's what we were fighting to get back [Music] I believed in Crystal from the beginning
00:36:38
I knew she went through her phases I knew she was sad but I knew I knew her and I knew she would come through it
00:36:44
there was no doubt in my mind there was no doubt in my parents' mind Crystal was
00:36:48
going to come through this because that's who Crystal was my mom and my two younger sisters and me all slept in the
00:36:54
same bed um probably for like 2 years and uh I slept not very [Music] good they would be sleeping and it would
00:37:05
be like 5:00 in the morning and I'm still awake just with my eyes open I'm not necessarily scared but I'm thinking
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if somebody comes in this window I'm going to go out this window if somebody comes in this door I'm going to go out
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this way I just had like a game plan and another weird thing was that I whenever that my family was sleeping I
00:37:24
would fill them just make sure that they were alive just [Music] breathing when the incident happened
00:37:35
with Crystal it was like a slap in the face that was the door that opened up that just said it just woke me up
00:37:44
said do you love your kids or not he was in jail for 3 years I honestly started forgiving him whenever
00:37:55
he got out he was on on the right path and I was very proud of him um he came you know to my graduation Crystal
00:38:04
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Floyd our relationship today is is a kind of a struggle she's now I feel like
00:38:28
she's still a kid and since I was locked up for a while you know I haven't been there as
00:38:37
to be a dad so now I think I'm overdoing it I I I need to back off a little bit but we're we're doing better every
00:38:48
day we do better he's making up for it he is slowly but surely everything's coming
00:38:55
together and I'm just lucky that I have this second opportunity or we both do to
00:39:00
um you know become father and daughter again she's proud of herself but she just finds it hard to be happy about
00:39:09
what she's done when Katie's dead I mean no matter if she puts this man away no matter if he's put to death no matter
00:39:16
what anything Katie's still dead and Crystal has done everything she can but she can't change
00:39:24
that of course I think about Katie I think about you know if she was here would we would we still be friends what
00:39:31
would she be doing maybe what would we be doing [Music] um but in the same sense I try not to
00:39:39
think about it too much it would make things too hard I think about this case basically
00:39:50
10 years after the fact simply because I drive by this crime scene almost daily uh have to pass by going to my Ranch uh
00:39:59
and there's not one time probably that I don't look over there and and look at that window that sails climb
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[Music] through it's such a beautiful thing to see her with her sisters even today she
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still is like a mother to them I take it back I take it back after the attack we became way closer it makes
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you realize what you have and how fast you can lose it and I will never ever say bye to my sister mad I will never
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say good night to her mad and I'll never ever be mad at her [Music] again so laughing I don't ever think
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about Tommy L cells I don't ever ever give him the time a day he's he's dead to me just
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it makes me really thankful that's what he did he didn't ever bring me down at all and these are happy tears just I'm
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just glad to be [Music] here once you cover a story like this it becomes a part of you the people people
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become a part of you virtually everybody Z you're a hero yeah yeah what do you think about
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that I don't know I don't think I'm a hero exactly I think I'm just really really
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lucky I've never met a youngster that brave before in my life I know a lot of adults who wouldn't be able to deal with
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that hi I'm doing great it's so good to see you again good to see you too I could
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consider him part of my family family part of that tightnit group I guess you could say so uh what about you
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got a boyfriend yeah they said to me that I helped them through this um no they helped me get through it because they
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were so strong together [Music]