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[Music]
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on this episode of women behind bars
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one woman is convicted of killing a man
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she contacted through an online dating
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service
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it just happened so fast into a blink of
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an eye
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it appears that she had some bottled up
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rage
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from being rejected she was extremely
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out of control and it was a violent
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death
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then patricia donnelly tells her story
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she pled guilty to the murder of a
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stranger she enticed in a swingers club
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she was standing behind him and she took
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her purple bra off that she was wearing
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and that's when she all of a sudden
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threw this brawl around his neck and
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tightened it up and choked him to death
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my intention was to
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have sex do whatever with this man get
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the money
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and get michael out of jail two women
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who snapped in fits of rage
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two brutal crimes these are the stories
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of alicia williamson
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and patricia donnelly
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on august 5th 2003 police received a
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dire 911
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when police arrived at the mobile park
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home they found 40-year-old robert
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atkins jr
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a computer maintenance expert stabbed to
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death 27 times
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everybody was extremely emotional
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everybody was in disbelief 37 year old
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alicia williamson
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a single mother of two confessed to the
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horrific killing
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it just happened so fast into a blink of
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an
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eye it appears that
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in this case she had some
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bottled up rage from being rejected
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was alicia williamson a time bomb
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waiting to explode
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or did she kill in self-defense
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alicia williamson was born to carolyn
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mcbride and willie conley
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who was 12 years older than carolyn she
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was a teenage mother and i think it was
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hard on her
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having two small kids at such an early
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age the family lived in the projects
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west of downtown birmingham
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when alicia was three years old her
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mother divorced her father
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and told her children he was dead as a
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single mother
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now in her 20s alicia's mother wasn't
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home often to care for her children
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my mom if she wasn't working you know
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she was out
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having fun young and free
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alicia watched over her younger brother
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as they grew up
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one christmas i remember that
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we were probably as poor as you were
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going to get and she basically recycled
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something from the year before but she
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made me like a necklace
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and she gave it to me and says hey you
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know here's a christmas present for me
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she just wanted to make sure that you
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know i had something
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when alicia was seven years old the
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family's financial status stabilized
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her mother married an entrepreneur who
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adopted alicia and her brother
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two years later their mother gave birth
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to a girl she named angela who looked up
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to her big sister
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alicia was fun and caring and
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loving four years after angela was born
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their stepfather died of a massive heart
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attack again
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alicia's mother was left to support her
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kids
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then during alicia's teens an incident
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occurred that would shatter her
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self-esteem
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and contribute to her depression as an
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adult i was
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raped by one of my cousins
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and it was not just once it was more
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than once
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alicia said she told her mother who did
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not believe her until she learned her
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daughter was pregnant
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she took me somewhere to have abortion i
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can't even remember what i remember
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it wasn't good to make matters worse
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alicia discovered that although her
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mother worked as a city transit bus
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driver
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she had other ways of making money and
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coping with her life
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i found out in my junior year high
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school that my mom was doing drugs
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despite the pressures at home alicia
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studied nursing at college
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but dropped out to take care of her
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mother and sister
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when she was 22 she got pregnant by her
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boyfriend
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freddie lee motley who she says
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physically abused her
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one time he punched me in my stomach so
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i had started having problems
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after that i went to
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my last checkup before my delivery and i
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had a std
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that he had given me in spite of the
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abuse
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they married in february of 1988 just
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before their son freddie junior was born
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we stayed together until my son was
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about
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eight months in 1989 alicia's personal
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life took an unexpected turn
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when she found out that her mother had
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lied about something important
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an aunt told alicia that her biological
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father was not dead
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but was living in southern california
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and had a family of his own
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i called him and we talked and so he
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sent for me
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i found out we have a lot of ways of
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life
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we're both quiet we're not really
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talkative
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unless you know the conversation is
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really interesting
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in december 1991 alicia gave birth to
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another child she named nakia
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those are my miracle babies because um
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they always told me i was gonna never
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have children
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but almost two years later alicia
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suffered a devastating loss
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when her biological dad with whom she
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had reunited three years earlier
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died
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without my dad there i could talk to him
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about anything
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no matter what although times were tough
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for the single mother
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she still managed to help her younger
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sister with her children
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when i had my daughters she
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i'm a single mom she helped me out a lot
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taking my burden away from me
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while she lost her own father alicia
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married her daughter's dad terence
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williamson
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and relocated to atlanta but just four
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years later
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the couple separated he couldn't come to
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a grip that he was a married man and
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married man do not stay out all night
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the rejection from two husbands weighed
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heavily on alicia's diminishing
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self-esteem
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to lift her spirits she tried to buy a
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new car she could not afford by forging
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a check
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stolen from a woman she took care of
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there are people who want things
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more than they can have and that was at
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the time
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my sister's thought process that need to
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have
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landed alicia in jail when she was
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arrested for check fraud in smyrna
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georgia
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in june 2003 and that's when her
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downward spiral began
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it just seemed like everything in my
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life was just going so wrong
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when women behind bars continues i hit
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him
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twice in the head she claimed that mr
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atkins attacked her
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choked her she grabbed a barbell struck
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him in self-defense
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in june 2003 alicia williamson a single
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mother with a history of two failed
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marriages
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and suffering from depression had
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recently been released from a two-week
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sentence in jail for forgery
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i had just gotten out of jail for like
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two weeks i want all everything to be
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taken care of trying to get things in
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order
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feeling lonely and depressed when she
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got out alicia looked for companionship
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on an internet dating website my ad it
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was just
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telling what kind of person that i was
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and um
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what i'm looking for and a friend and
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that's somebody i could
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go out to dinner with we saw the site we
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saw her pictures
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they were very very very sexy very
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showing
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a lot alicia found robert atkins jr
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a former air force officer and high
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school football star
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whom she had briefly met at a job fair
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the year before
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he's the type of person that would open
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the door for you you know if you're
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getting out the car
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he would run around and he'd open the
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door for you he's a true gentleman
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the divorced father had moved to the
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charlotte suburb three years earlier to
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be closer to his 17 year old son
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james the young man was living with his
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mother linda bond
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three hours away he was a good father he
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was a good dad
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uh he's yeah he's great
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he's always watching football all the
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time or he's a big star trek fan too
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so that was definitely good robert
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is what you would consider a nice guy he
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um
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he loved women he loved prince he made
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me feel safe
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robert was also a celebrated officer who
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had been stationed in england and italy
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during his eight years with the air
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force
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i think maybe he felt that that would be
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a good opportunity
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for him to see the world he didn't have
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not evil bone in his body he just
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he wanted to help people alicia and
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robert
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frequently spoke on the phone it was
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strange and we really didn't date
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i talked to him it was like he was a
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confidant for me
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this was just on the phone after a month
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of soul-searching conversations with
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robert
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alicia found herself trusting her new
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friend completely
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he was really nice i mean he was a
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really nice person before
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he was living in suburban charlotte
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north carolina but decided to drive to
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atlanta to see alicia
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he was just listening to everything you
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know that was happening in my life and
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he was just like
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okay do you want to come to charlotte
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and start over
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to alicia robert's offer to help her
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start a new life
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seemed irresistible i think that
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miss williamson had been rejected
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going through a divorce
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looking to start fresh coming to
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charlotte
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i don't believe she said that they had
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any sort of intimate relationship
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i just wanted a new start where nobody
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didn't know me and i could
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just start all over i guess she would
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help with the bills
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that's not his type of person robert
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dates very quiet women when i saw her in
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another picture
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she's total opposite of what he likes
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although alicia says that robert made no
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promises of an intimate relationship
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authorities believe that she might have
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harbored hopes for more than just a
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friendship
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we did recover her journal
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and stated she loved robert so we know
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that there was a relationship in her
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mind
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that she wanted to have with robert
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atkins
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alicia figured she would bring her 11
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year old daughter nakia to north
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carolina once she landed a job
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in the meantime she had a relative care
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for her and left without telling the
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rest of her family
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on july 27 2003 alicia moved in with
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robert atkins
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after a phone relationship only a few
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weeks old the first day
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it was good alicia says that she
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concentrated on her job search
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i had put in resumes at different places
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to work and
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actually the lady had called and said
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she wanted to interview with me
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she was really pleased with my resume
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but
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by the second of nine days that alicia
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lived with robert
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she claims things began going downhill
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it was just crazy
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i could ask him things and
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he wouldn't answer me he did answer me
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it was in a harsh way
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i thought it was strange she called me
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one day and wanted me to enroll her
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daughter in school
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she then told me she was
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in north carolina and she could not get
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back
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and i asked her why she could not get
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back and she was like i explained
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late i just can't get back but i need
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you to enroll
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my daughter in school in the meantime
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robert had second thoughts about
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inviting alicia to stay with him
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he and a former girlfriend had decided
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to get back together
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but in order for their relationship to
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work he told alicia
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that she would need to move out she was
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being told
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that he didn't want her living at his
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place if there was any relationship that
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was going to happen between them
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it wasn't going to take place now
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it was like he was a different person
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like
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dr jekyll mr hyde he just changed
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i needed to go to the store because i am
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a diabetic and i
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i needed food and he did not want to
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take me
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to the store cooped up in robert's home
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and away from her family
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alicia felt isolated and betrayed she's
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supposed to be my friend and
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friends don't treat each other like that
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alicia says she saw some signs of this
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change a week earlier while robert was
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driving her from atlanta to charlotte
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he didn't even want me to stop to the
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drugstore to get my medication
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the medication she needed was an
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antidepressant which she says she took
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to stay focused
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so i had to email my sister to send me
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my medicine
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through the mail
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after nine days of living with robert in
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a platonic roommate situation
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alicia was becoming depressed and
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confused because she was without her
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antidepressants
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having low self-esteem at that time i
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wasn't
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really thinking the tension between them
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had grown
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since robert had asked alicia to leave
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if i was on a computer
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talking to my sister you need to stay
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off my computer
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robert decided a solution to getting
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alicia out for good would be to pay for
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a hotel room
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until the end of the month but when he
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returned from work around nine that
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evening
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he did not discuss that option with her
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instead according to alicia
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he erupted in anger when he realized
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that she had been working on his
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computer
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she had used the computer that he had
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fixed for her
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and she had locked it down preventing
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him from using it
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she claimed that mr atkins attacked her
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choked her
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probably she said he may have kicked her
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in the stomach
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although alicia claimed she was
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defending herself what happened next
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would indicate
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she suddenly went out of control alicia
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remembers what she was thinking
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i didn't want to be hurt too bad you
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know
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verbally and some physical with my first
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husband
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i didn't want to live like that it just
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seemed like everything happened so fast
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he grabbed my arm and bent it back she
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grabbed a barbell struck him in
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self-defense i hit him
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twice in the head so
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as i was turning around he grabbed me
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by my ankle and
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i remember i unblended my jeans and i
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crawled out of my jeans
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and i ran after that broke up it looks
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like that she went into the kitchen area
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got a knife
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returned i jumped across the counter and
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i grabbed the first thing i saw and that
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was a knife
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she stabbed him on his left side
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the left shoulder area he had some
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stab wounds on the right side
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of his facial area
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then he also had stab wounds on his back
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he said it was hard it's the last thing
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i heard him say
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then after that everything else are
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blank robert lay dead on the floor in a
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pool of blood
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he would have bled to death uh you know
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within moments
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from the injuries that he sustained
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during the attack
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when women behind bars continues i don't
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have anything to say to elisha
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may god have mercy on her soul and later
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a brief encounter with a stranger in a
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swinger's bar turns deadly
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on august 5th 2003 alicia williamson
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fatally stabbed robert atkins jr
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her roommate of nine days after the two
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got in a heated argument
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she then called 911
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[Music]
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was i'm not sure
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detective terry brandon responded to the
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crime scene with his partner
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that area was just extremely bloody you
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could tell that the victim had lost
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a lot of blood aspirated blood was seen
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on the
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wall in a window blind police arrived
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they found mr atkins in a hallway there
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in this mobile home
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they noted and it was confirmed by the
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medical examiner he had suffered
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multiple trauma injuries as well as stab
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wounds
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[Music]
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we believe that the victim was sitting
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at his desk and
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was working on a computer with his back
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to the rear of the door
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where she would have entered she walked
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in
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picked up a barbell and hit him in the
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head
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when investigators first interviewed
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alicia she lied about what happened
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she said it looked like he may have been
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robbed
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what she was saying just wasn't adding
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up and she came off of it and said that
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she would tell the truth
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alicia then claimed that she stabbed
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atkins in self-defense
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i did not believe that she acted in what
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she seemed to be claiming to be perfect
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self-defense
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there was a lot of rage and anger that
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she
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exerted upon the victim she was
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extremely out of control and
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it was a violent death
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the medical examiner's report showed
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robert suffered 27 stab wounds
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to my knowledge i only stabbed him three
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times but the option said 27.
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police charged 37-year-old alicia renee
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williamson
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with the murder of robert atkins jr
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atkin's sister
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denise did not buy alicia's defense that
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her brother attacked her
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he was not aggressive at all no he was
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very
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quiet laid back you know very calm
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alicia has always been very timid
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she's never been the type of person
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to even ball of her fist at anyone
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it was unbelievable
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everyone was stunned it was a lot of
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built up
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anger not only from him
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from way back when
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it was just releasing it she had some
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bottled up rage here she is being put
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out again
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by someone that she thought maybe was
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going to help her and
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maybe have a relationship with
00:20:11
investigators theorized that robert's
00:20:13
rejection
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might have been the spark that ignited
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alicia to snap
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alicia believes it was the final blow in
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a series of failed relationships
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and the past alleged physical and mental
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abuse in her life
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the news of the murder came as a shock
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to both families
00:20:28
i don't have anything to say to alisha
00:20:31
may god have mercy on her soul
00:20:35
i was working on a project in the
00:20:37
charlotte area
00:20:39
and i got back to my hotel when i turned
00:20:41
on the news
00:20:43
and then popped up this report and her
00:20:45
picture
00:20:46
here's my sister right here alicia
00:20:48
williamson on the news
00:20:49
um being held for murder i told him his
00:20:52
father died
00:20:56
i don't i'm not crying for that
00:21:02
but i'm crying because james's face
00:21:09
i first found out i
00:21:12
i definitely couldn't take it as i broke
00:21:15
down tears
00:21:17
during the week after the murder police
00:21:19
allowed james his mother and other
00:21:21
family members
00:21:22
to gather robert's belongings they tried
00:21:24
to look for answers to why his life was
00:21:26
taken
00:21:27
from what we saw in the bedroom she had
00:21:29
like a little notebook
00:21:31
and in the notebooks she had wrote mr
00:21:33
mrs atkins
00:21:35
mrs lisa atkins mr mrs robert and alicia
00:21:38
you know she just went
00:21:40
page to page to page hearts
00:21:43
kisses in her mind she thought that
00:21:45
things were going to happen
00:21:47
between them and that she was coming
00:21:50
here to start
00:21:51
a new life and that
00:21:54
he was going to take care of her and
00:21:58
their relationship had deteriorated to
00:21:59
the point that
00:22:01
he just told her he couldn't help her
00:22:02
anymore he wanted her out
00:22:05
that could have been part of what
00:22:07
happened was
00:22:08
being a victim of her past days after
00:22:10
alicia was arrested
00:22:12
linda bond and robert atkins younger
00:22:14
sister jennifer
00:22:15
visited her in prison according to linda
00:22:18
his sister was curious about the woman
00:22:20
who killed her brother
00:22:21
we had posed as missionaries from the
00:22:24
church of god linda said robert atkins
00:22:27
sister jennifer was quiet during the
00:22:29
visit
00:22:30
she was a little shaken but she she was
00:22:33
okay
00:22:34
i think in her heart she had to see you
00:22:37
know to put an
00:22:38
end to it if you want to see this evil
00:22:41
but evil is not what they saw
00:22:43
she came out in that suit i said it's
00:22:45
campy she looked like a little girl she
00:22:46
was a little short
00:22:47
i thought i was beat this mean you know
00:22:51
she looked like a sweet young girl
00:22:55
alicia says she was never told they were
00:22:57
from a church and suspected they might
00:22:59
be robert's relatives
00:23:01
they seemed like they was there out of
00:23:03
concern but
00:23:04
i knew deep down they wasn't
00:23:08
after the short visit alicia found out
00:23:10
that linda and jennifer
00:23:11
were relatives of the man she murdered
00:23:18
for a second degree murder under north
00:23:19
carolina law for someone with no record
00:23:22
like miss williamson the maximum one
00:23:25
could get
00:23:25
it'd be around 16 years with a minimum
00:23:28
13.
00:23:29
but the judge presiding over alicia's
00:23:31
case took into consideration that she
00:23:33
had no violence in her past
00:23:35
and that she was the mother of two
00:23:36
children
00:23:42
i thought the judge imposed a fair
00:23:44
sentence based upon her lack of record
00:23:47
the circumstances which she claimed
00:23:51
caused her to take mr atkins life
00:23:54
justice was not served
00:23:55
she only got 10 12 years
00:23:58
you know she took a life a life for a
00:24:01
life
00:24:02
she took my brother's life she should do
00:24:04
life
00:24:05
i'm sorry for their loss
00:24:09
i really am because they lost
00:24:13
a person and so did we he definitely
00:24:16
went to a better place
00:24:17
it's just you know the way you went
00:24:20
since she's been in prison
00:24:21
alicia has taken classes in business
00:24:23
management parenting
00:24:25
and domestic violence i'm sorry about
00:24:27
how things had happened
00:24:29
if i could turn back the hands at times
00:24:31
and do things differently i would
00:24:34
it's just that i can't
00:24:38
change what happened i played that
00:24:41
scene in my head over and over and over
00:24:43
and over i feel like then i'm giving her
00:24:47
another chance that society has given me
00:24:51
another chance
00:24:52
for her good behavior alicia has allowed
00:24:55
day passes to see her family
00:24:56
outside of prison she also has been
00:24:59
chosen for various work assignments
00:25:01
throughout her years
00:25:11
when women behind bars continues no
00:25:13
matter what i do
00:25:15
it's never going to make mans i cannot
00:25:16
say i'm sorry for this
00:25:18
and fix it he had a mother she will
00:25:21
never see her son
00:25:22
and i did that
00:25:25
for more information about women behind
00:25:27
bars go to wetv.com
00:25:39
on the evening of june 15 2000 23 year
00:25:42
old patricia donnelly entered
00:25:44
san souci a swingers club in north
00:25:46
dallas
00:25:47
searching for someone who would trade
00:25:48
sex for money she needed money to bail
00:25:50
her husband out of jail
00:25:52
donnelly found a stranger 43 year old
00:25:54
carrie taylor a local from the dallas
00:25:57
suburbs
00:25:57
who was interested in her offer they
00:26:00
went to her apartment a half hour away
00:26:02
when they arrived she changed her mind
00:26:05
she had
00:26:06
got him in her house and she
00:26:09
had him out of the van and
00:26:12
choked him to death
00:26:17
patricia confessed to strangling taylor
00:26:19
by using an
00:26:20
unusual murder weapon she said she
00:26:22
snapped and just
00:26:23
tightened the bra down and just kept
00:26:25
hiding until he was dead
00:26:29
was patricia donnelly a cold-blooded
00:26:31
killer or did a spontaneous sex act
00:26:33
turn deadly
00:26:38
[Music]
00:26:44
from the very beginning patricia
00:26:45
donnelly's life was atypical
00:26:48
i grew up believing that my grandmother
00:26:49
was my mother
00:26:51
and my mother was my sister until i was
00:26:54
about seven years and then my
00:26:55
grandmother told me
00:26:56
that my mom was my real mom and she was
00:26:58
my grandmother her grandmother raised
00:27:00
her because she felt her own daughter
00:27:02
patricia's mother
00:27:03
was too unstable to care for a child she
00:27:06
had problems with depression
00:27:09
took a lot of pills just was not stable
00:27:13
even though patricia's depression was
00:27:14
hereditary she did not feel comfortable
00:27:17
talking to her grandmother about how she
00:27:18
was suffering i've suffered depression
00:27:20
since i was 10 and i would write that
00:27:22
down
00:27:22
in my journal but when she found it
00:27:26
she was mad and i would suffer
00:27:28
consequences whatever i loved was taken
00:27:30
away
00:27:31
it was a cat or a dress or whatever
00:27:35
her grandmother's alcoholism spilled
00:27:37
into patricia's upbringing as well
00:27:39
even as a baby she was drinking alcohol
00:27:42
alcohol in the bottle to make her go to
00:27:43
sleep at night
00:27:46
i was drinking peppermint shops from
00:27:49
aging
00:27:50
i was probably addicted at 10 years old
00:27:53
she grew up in the clubs every night her
00:27:56
grandmother was an avid alcoholic and
00:27:58
her mother was a drug
00:27:59
i had a lot of bro problems my
00:28:01
grandmother she taught me to play the
00:28:02
piano
00:28:03
how to sew how to cook she was awesome
00:28:06
in that regard
00:28:07
and she loved me but then when she would
00:28:09
get drunk it would
00:28:11
turn totally different if i made her mad
00:28:15
i remember walking past the panel my
00:28:17
face would be cut out of the pictures
00:28:19
or she would cut up my favorite dress
00:28:25
but according to jason donnelly
00:28:27
patricia's former husband
00:28:28
alcoholism was not the only problem she
00:28:30
faced as a child
00:28:32
she even told me she was raped that her
00:28:35
grandmother allowed men to come into the
00:28:36
house and
00:28:37
use her for sex i've been sexually
00:28:40
assaulted or abused when i was six
00:28:44
by my uncle he really wasn't my uncle
00:28:48
the depression drinking mental and
00:28:50
alleged sexual abuse in her childhood
00:28:52
all contributed to a suicide attempt at
00:28:54
age 10.
00:28:56
i still to this day don't know why my
00:28:58
great-grandmother was on halidol
00:29:00
it was liquid and i didn't exactly know
00:29:02
what it was but
00:29:03
i knew i wasn't supposed to take it so i
00:29:05
drank it
00:29:07
and it sent me into shock patricia moved
00:29:10
from one relative's home to another
00:29:12
in her early teens i know petty ended up
00:29:14
in foster care because she had so many
00:29:16
problems as a child
00:29:18
at age 17 patricia met jason donnelly
00:29:20
who was a plumber's assistant
00:29:22
she arrived unexpectedly at his
00:29:24
apartment in abilene texas
00:29:26
in 1993. one morning my cousin knocked
00:29:29
on the door at six o'clock in the
00:29:30
morning and told me they needed this
00:29:31
girl to come stay a couple days
00:29:34
jason took patricia in she lived there
00:29:36
for six months before he asked her to
00:29:38
marry him
00:29:38
i asked jason to wait and not marry her
00:29:41
at that time
00:29:42
but he kind of ran off and got married
00:29:47
patricia's mother-in-law weda heath was
00:29:49
suspicious of her right from the start
00:29:51
kind of mysterious yeah she kept to
00:29:54
herself quite a bit
00:29:55
[Music]
00:29:56
in 1994 shortly after they were married
00:29:59
jason enlisted in the air force
00:30:01
they lived at the shepherd air force
00:30:03
base in texas
00:30:04
the following year patricia became
00:30:06
pregnant and in september 1995
00:30:09
she gave birth to a baby boy she named
00:30:11
nyland
00:30:12
at first i was not happy about being
00:30:14
pregnant i'd never been around children
00:30:18
and i was scared when neil was born i
00:30:21
didn't know
00:30:22
anything jason was gone 12 hours a day
00:30:25
after she had him she went right into
00:30:27
postpartum depression
00:30:29
and we started having all kinds of
00:30:31
problems
00:30:33
it wasn't until they had been married
00:30:34
for a while that i started finding out
00:30:36
the things that she was doing
00:30:37
that i thought were wrong like going out
00:30:41
and being with other men drinking and
00:30:44
doing drugs
00:30:45
and being very deceitful to jason
00:30:49
according to her former husband patricia
00:30:51
would also sniff paint
00:30:53
which made her hallucinate she had an
00:30:55
illusion she told me she saw the angel
00:30:57
of death face to face trying to kill her
00:30:59
she had been tough and pain i could come
00:31:01
in the house and smell
00:31:02
strong smell of paint patricia admits to
00:31:05
getting high on paint fumes and drinking
00:31:07
she also blames herself for being
00:31:09
physically abusive to her former husband
00:31:11
and cheating on him i was very young and
00:31:13
i should not have gotten married at age
00:31:15
17.
00:31:16
i was not promiscuous in high school
00:31:19
but as soon as i got married i was one
00:31:22
time we got an argument
00:31:23
and she said i'll break all the dishes
00:31:25
in the house if you if you say anything
00:31:27
else
00:31:28
and i did i said one more thing and she
00:31:30
she took every dish in the house and
00:31:31
busted it
00:31:35
patricia acknowledges that she was
00:31:36
ill-equipped for motherhood since she
00:31:38
did not grow up in a nurturing
00:31:40
environment
00:31:40
i feel like i was the best mother i
00:31:42
could be
00:31:45
with what help i had what i knew
00:31:52
her former mother-in-law said patricia
00:31:54
often left her son
00:31:55
at her house she just wasn't able to
00:31:57
take care of him
00:31:59
and then when he was just a few months
00:32:01
old she brought him to me and told me i
00:32:03
could have him
00:32:03
but she didn't want him
00:32:08
jason got patricia on medication for
00:32:10
depression and the marriage stabilized
00:32:12
in 1998 she gave birth to a second son
00:32:15
she named him joseph i don't think
00:32:18
any mother is perfect
00:32:22
i never abused them physically
00:32:25
emotionally or mentally relatives said
00:32:28
when patricia was lax in taking her
00:32:29
medication
00:32:30
she would return to drinking and drugs
00:32:33
as a result
00:32:34
the marriage completely fell apart right
00:32:36
after joseph was born
00:32:37
just as she met michael carl weighed he
00:32:40
was a cousin of one of jason's friends
00:32:42
on the military base where they lived
00:32:44
patricia was smitten with him i guess he
00:32:46
was more of the bad boy
00:32:50
but he was intelligent if you caught him
00:32:52
on a
00:32:53
normal basis he was a pretty pretty
00:32:55
decent person
00:32:57
he seemed like he really cared about her
00:32:59
and loved her but then he would go
00:33:00
through
00:33:01
really violent periods in november 1999
00:33:05
jason and patricia were divorced with
00:33:07
jason getting custody of their two sons
00:33:09
patricia and michael moved together to
00:33:11
denton texas
00:33:12
a half hour north of dallas we had a lot
00:33:15
of the same likes
00:33:17
as jason and i did not
00:33:21
so that's what attracted me to him it
00:33:24
was an attraction that would prove
00:33:26
fatal when women behind bars continues
00:33:30
that's one of the worst ways to die is
00:33:33
by strangulation
00:33:35
but it's not normal for a woman to
00:33:37
strangle a man
00:33:46
in the fall of 1999 23-year-old patricia
00:33:49
donnelly and her husband
00:33:50
jason divorced jason got custody of
00:33:53
their two sons
00:33:54
nylen and joseph and brought them to
00:33:56
england where he was stationed with the
00:33:57
air force
00:33:59
patricia moved north of dallas texas
00:34:01
with michael carl wade
00:34:02
who became her common-law husband on
00:34:04
valentine's day two thousand
00:34:06
they were what we in texas called common
00:34:08
law married
00:34:10
common law means if you present yourself
00:34:12
as man and wife then you are
00:34:14
believed to be man and wife they never
00:34:16
had a license
00:34:18
but they were married when she called
00:34:20
herself patricia wade
00:34:22
heather disney was patricia's neighbor
00:34:24
at the thomas street apartments
00:34:26
in denton texas where they became close
00:34:28
friends
00:34:29
she was very very sweet she was
00:34:32
very low tempered and
00:34:34
[Music]
00:34:36
just always wanted to give to other
00:34:37
people always wanted to help everybody
00:34:39
out
00:34:40
she said the couple was always fighting
00:34:42
about money or about michael going out
00:34:44
with his friends
00:34:45
he would say that she came after him she
00:34:47
would say that he would come attack her
00:34:50
but at the end result she was always the
00:34:52
one that was beat up
00:34:54
and then the next day it was like
00:34:56
nothing ever happened and there was
00:34:57
always an excuse for
00:34:59
where the bruises came from she would
00:35:01
just say i should have just
00:35:03
left but she never did leave
00:35:06
on june 12 2000 a fight between the two
00:35:09
was extremely violent
00:35:10
i had heard trish screaming
00:35:13
and walked in the door and she had come
00:35:16
out and she had blood
00:35:17
just coming down her head really bad and
00:35:20
she was trying to get away
00:35:22
heather said she went to a neighbor's
00:35:24
apartment and called the police
00:35:26
she had told the police that she had
00:35:27
slipped getting into the bath and
00:35:30
busted her head on the bathtub spout and
00:35:33
i told the police
00:35:34
that's not what happened he's
00:35:37
he was in there beating up on her police
00:35:40
charged michael with assault
00:35:41
and brought him to the denton county
00:35:43
jail they set bond at 250
00:35:46
patricia frantically tried to get
00:35:48
michael out of jail but she did not have
00:35:50
the money
00:35:51
i wanted to bail him out because i loved
00:35:52
him and i wanted to show him what
00:35:54
unconditional love was
00:35:56
she ran around asking everybody if she
00:35:58
could borrow
00:36:00
ten dollars here twenty dollars just
00:36:01
trying to get the money together to get
00:36:03
them out
00:36:03
and nobody would come up with the money
00:36:05
or even attempt to
00:36:06
the only way she could think of to get
00:36:09
the money
00:36:10
was to uh was to hire herself out for
00:36:13
sex
00:36:15
on the night of june 15 2000 patricia
00:36:18
and a friend went to the san souci
00:36:20
swingers club in dallas
00:36:21
looking for someone to pay patricia for
00:36:23
sex her friend found carrie taylor
00:36:26
clean-cut neon sign installer who was
00:36:28
eager to pay patricia for her services
00:36:31
he was just a good nature person
00:36:33
everybody liked him he had
00:36:35
a lot of friends
00:36:38
carrie who was divorced from his high
00:36:40
school sweetheart lived on his parents
00:36:42
large farm with his three brothers
00:36:44
he would speak to his parents several
00:36:46
times a day
00:36:47
he'd probably give people's shirt off
00:36:49
his back if he
00:36:51
if they asked him for it yeah he was
00:36:54
kind
00:36:55
he he was nice to me
00:36:58
according to patricia her plan was
00:37:00
simple and pragmatic
00:37:01
my intention was to have sex do whatever
00:37:05
with this man get the money and get
00:37:07
michael out of jail
00:37:08
we went to a lake i remember drinking
00:37:11
some beers
00:37:12
and then we went back to michael's in my
00:37:14
apartment patricia says she knew that
00:37:16
carrie wanted to be tied up
00:37:18
so she arranged her furniture to
00:37:20
accommodate him the way my
00:37:22
living room was set up the couch was in
00:37:23
the middle of it and so the door was
00:37:25
behind it
00:37:27
so she took the shoestrings out of her
00:37:29
husband's
00:37:30
shoes the couch was moved away from the
00:37:34
wall slightly and she cut a slit
00:37:36
behind the couch and there are springs
00:37:37
and framework that run down there
00:37:39
so she had carrie reach his arms over
00:37:42
his head
00:37:43
she tied his wrist and then tied them to
00:37:46
the back of the couch
00:37:48
patricia told police that carrie began
00:37:50
to squirm because she took so long
00:37:52
she was standing behind him and she took
00:37:55
her purple bra off that she was wearing
00:37:57
and kind of danced in front of him a
00:37:59
little bit naked
00:38:00
went behind him and asked him if he if
00:38:02
he wanted to be tied up more
00:38:05
but then patricia claimed she could not
00:38:06
go through with it the thoughts in my
00:38:08
head
00:38:09
i did not want to i didn't want him to
00:38:12
be there
00:38:13
i hadn't gotten any money yet i just
00:38:16
wanted all of it to go away
00:38:20
patricia says she was also angry over
00:38:22
the way her two marriages turned out
00:38:24
and furious with her mother it all came
00:38:27
out in a flood of rage
00:38:29
i think all my anger from everything
00:38:31
probably from
00:38:33
way back yonder came out
00:38:37
on that man
00:38:40
when anger wells up it's sometimes not
00:38:44
controllable
00:38:45
and that's when she all of a sudden
00:38:47
threw this brawl around his neck and
00:38:49
tightened it up and choked him to death
00:38:55
it didn't seem real i remember walking
00:38:57
back
00:38:58
pacing and crying but it did not seem
00:39:01
real
00:39:02
the following day having just killed a
00:39:04
man and still without cash
00:39:06
patricia called a friend to help her pay
00:39:08
michael's bond he put it on his credit
00:39:10
card
00:39:11
and i went and got michael out of jail
00:39:14
and told him we have a dead body in our
00:39:16
apartment
00:39:17
when he got home sure enough there was a
00:39:20
dead body rolled up in the carpet
00:39:22
inside the living room so he kind of
00:39:24
freaked out
00:39:26
that afternoon patricia's neighbor
00:39:28
heather came to the apartment
00:39:29
when i went in there the next day her
00:39:31
living room walls were spray painted
00:39:32
like a black color
00:39:35
she wouldn't make eye contact if you
00:39:37
asked or anything
00:39:38
she had this smirk smile on her face
00:39:41
this
00:39:42
evil really evil smile
00:39:45
almost zombie-like just kind of assume
00:39:48
that
00:39:49
she had sniffed too much pain
00:39:53
heather also noticed that the apartment
00:39:54
furniture was moved around
00:39:56
and the bedroom carpet was cut out i
00:39:58
went ahead and sat down
00:40:00
and sat on the carpet that was rolled up
00:40:03
the body was still rolled up in the
00:40:04
carpet from a day earlier
00:40:06
heather left without noticing police
00:40:08
believe a day or two later
00:40:10
patricia and michael put the body in the
00:40:12
back of carrie taylor's dodge intrepid
00:40:14
and drove three hours to athens texas
00:40:16
where she grew up
00:40:18
they had wrapped the body in a leopard
00:40:20
comforter and dumped it in a ravine
00:40:22
next to a swamp michael told me get rid
00:40:24
of his car
00:40:26
and i did not patricia continued driving
00:40:29
carrie taylor's car
00:40:30
for almost a month then on july 14 2000
00:40:34
police stopped her in denton texas for
00:40:36
stealing gas
00:40:38
investigators had no idea what they were
00:40:40
about to discover
00:40:41
she was vague on what she was doing with
00:40:43
the vehicle at one point she said that
00:40:44
she was
00:40:45
buying the vehicle from carrie taylor
00:40:48
the car was traced to taylor whose
00:40:49
parents had reported him missing on june
00:40:52
23
00:40:52
2000 detectives held the mother of two
00:40:55
at the county jail for questioning and
00:40:58
after five days
00:40:59
she confessed to the murder patricia
00:41:01
took investigators to the secluded
00:41:03
ravine where she dumped carrie's body
00:41:05
all we had were bones we collected about
00:41:08
98
00:41:09
of the bones which in a rural area where
00:41:11
you have wild animals is very good
00:41:14
but we found the bra in the area where
00:41:18
the bones were found
00:41:20
the bones were sent to a forensics lab
00:41:22
for identification
00:41:23
when the lab confirmed the remains
00:41:24
belonged to carrie taylor police
00:41:26
notified his mother and the rest of the
00:41:28
family
00:41:29
she was horrified when she found that
00:41:31
they were not going to have
00:41:33
a body they had bones they did not have
00:41:38
their son if somebody's planning to kill
00:41:41
somebody
00:41:42
and they shoot them from
00:41:45
20 feet away 100 yards away
00:41:48
it's not as personal as strangulation
00:41:53
you're right there to the last gasp
00:41:58
that tells me that she's a very cold
00:41:59
person
00:42:01
july 14 2000 police charged patricia
00:42:04
donnelly with murder
00:42:06
and michael carl weighed with evidence
00:42:08
tampering
00:42:09
he went to trial eight months later
00:42:13
the thing that he did was wrong was when
00:42:15
he found out about it
00:42:17
he did notify the authorities he never
00:42:20
indicated that he ever
00:42:21
helped dispose of the body but he
00:42:24
admitted that he backed the vehicle
00:42:26
that he rode uh in the vehicle with her
00:42:28
when she disposed of the body
00:42:30
that in and of itself is sufficient
00:42:48
no matter what i do it's never going to
00:42:51
make mans i cannot say i'm sorry for
00:42:53
this
00:42:53
and fix it he had a mother she will
00:42:56
never see her son
00:42:58
and i did that no nobody else did it no
00:43:01
matter what i've gone through my
00:43:02
childhood
00:43:03
no matter what michael did to me it
00:43:05
doesn't give me permission to take a
00:43:07
life
00:43:08
i hope that she eventually finds peace
00:43:12
when patricia went to prison her son
00:43:14
joseph was one
00:43:15
and nielan was three they were too young
00:43:18
to
00:43:19
even obtain any type of understanding i
00:43:22
explained to neelan
00:43:24
in little kids terms mommy's in timeout
00:43:27
he understands a lot more now
00:43:30
the 32 year old mother has not seen her
00:43:32
sons in eight years
00:43:34
but they no longer wonder where she is i
00:43:36
tell them the truth i debated over that
00:43:38
for many years recently i've told them
00:43:40
everything
00:43:42
patricia is at a prison in gatesville
00:43:44
texas she creates cards for neyland and
00:43:47
joseph
00:43:48
and says she thinks about her family as
00:43:50
well as carrie taylor
00:43:51
i know that i wrecked their life i have
00:43:53
an impact on my children's life
00:43:56
by not being there so i know the damage
00:43:58
that i've done to
00:43:59
everybody's life i accept responsibility
00:44:02
i don't blame it on
00:44:04
because this happened or that because i
00:44:05
make my own choices
00:44:12
[Music]
