00:00:05
on this episode of women behind bars
00:00:08
he had a butcher knife in there he
00:00:09
grabbed that put it up to my throat
00:00:11
said he was going to cut my effing
00:00:13
throat she had what appeared to be
00:00:16
dry blood underneath her fingernails
00:00:19
and then when you remove the socks you
00:00:20
could actually see blood
00:00:22
in between her toes dried blood
00:00:26
then marian fake hasten tells her story
00:00:28
she is convicted of murder in the death
00:00:30
of her two-year-old daughter
00:00:32
the doctors immediately notified the
00:00:34
police that this looks like a classic
00:00:36
case of an abused child
00:00:38
i laid my head down and cried no she's
00:00:40
not dead no she's not dead
00:00:43
two women two brutal crimes
00:00:46
these are the stories of donna buchanan
00:00:49
and marion fake hasten
00:00:59
[Music]
00:01:13
on october 7th 2000 a 9-1-1 call led
00:01:17
police to the home of 80-year-old
00:01:19
charles cuveea
00:01:20
where his lifeless body lay on the
00:01:22
bloodstained floor
00:01:23
charlie got stabbed a total of 54 times
00:01:25
both to the back
00:01:26
into the chest as well as to the head
00:01:29
guvaya's 37 year old live-in girlfriend
00:01:32
donna buchanan quickly became a suspect
00:01:35
in the murder
00:01:36
he had been threatening to kill her for
00:01:37
quite some time if i had the choice
00:01:40
of being with him or going to prison for
00:01:43
the rest of my life
00:01:44
i would choose prison
00:01:47
that's just how bad it was
00:01:50
investigators believed buchanan's drug
00:01:52
addiction was the catalyst
00:01:54
for the fight between donna and charles
00:01:56
the night he was killed
00:01:58
we believe that the argument escalated
00:02:01
to the point where she took a knife
00:02:03
and stabbed him multiple times so she
00:02:05
can get her
00:02:06
drugs that she desired did donna
00:02:08
buchanan fatally stab
00:02:10
her boyfriend in a drug-induced rage or
00:02:13
was it self-defense
00:02:20
i grew up in portsmouth until probably
00:02:21
about eight years old
00:02:23
then my family and i we moved to
00:02:26
cumberland virginia and they had bought
00:02:28
a farm
00:02:29
donna was four years younger than i was
00:02:32
and she was like the child that was
00:02:34
always getting into something
00:02:35
one of my best memories christmas and
00:02:38
going camping in the mountains
00:02:40
every summer but donna says the good
00:02:43
memory stopped at age
00:02:44
12 when her relationship with her father
00:02:47
began to deteriorate
00:02:49
about that age it seems like um men
00:02:52
started paying
00:02:53
more attention to me older men the first
00:02:56
one was 18 years old
00:02:58
i was about 12 or 13.
00:03:01
after him the next one was 26 years old
00:03:04
and i was probably 13.
00:03:06
i ended up running away with him we've
00:03:09
gone i think two or three days
00:03:11
and then he brought me back my dad had
00:03:15
him arrested
00:03:16
because she was too young to be having
00:03:18
sex
00:03:19
[Music]
00:03:20
and he was married that's when my
00:03:22
ammunosity started towards my father
00:03:25
because there was no sex between us i
00:03:27
was still a virgin
00:03:28
so there could be no statutory rape so i
00:03:30
was very upset
00:03:32
a depressed teen donna was sent for
00:03:34
counseling
00:03:35
where she says a doctor gave her a
00:03:37
prescription for sedatives
00:03:39
at 13 years old she began her lifelong
00:03:42
habit of using drugs
00:03:44
i think that was my way of also
00:03:46
self-medicating myself
00:03:48
smoking pot drinking i just really
00:03:50
didn't care
00:03:51
donna would ditch classes and disappear
00:03:54
for days at a time
00:03:55
next thing i knew donna had run away she
00:03:58
went to school one day and
00:03:59
never come home that caused a lot of
00:04:03
distress in the family
00:04:05
we didn't know where she was
00:04:09
then somehow she came back
00:04:13
when donna was 14 she claims an incident
00:04:16
occurred that drove her away from her
00:04:18
parents home for good
00:04:19
and fueled her desire to do drugs my
00:04:22
brother-in-law picked me up from school
00:04:24
took me back to richmond which is about
00:04:26
close to 60 miles away from home
00:04:28
he ended up breaking me and that's how i
00:04:30
lost my virginity was
00:04:32
by his rape at first donna kept the
00:04:35
alleged rape a secret
00:04:37
i blame myself i guess that's what most
00:04:39
children do
00:04:41
that when something like that happens
00:04:43
after that
00:04:45
i remember thinking there was no sense
00:04:46
to go back home i didn't know what my
00:04:48
father would think
00:04:50
so my talk was you know just run away
00:04:54
she just skipped school and eventually
00:04:56
just got out of the road and started
00:04:58
hitchhiking
00:04:58
hitchhiking to texas and back to
00:05:01
virginia
00:05:02
she hitchhiked to florida that's where
00:05:05
she stayed
00:05:06
having nowhere else to turn after living
00:05:09
on the streets
00:05:10
donna moved in with her sister in fort
00:05:11
lauderdale and the husband who donna
00:05:14
claimed raped her
00:05:15
two years before that didn't work well
00:05:19
my sister was pregnant at the time there
00:05:22
was a lot of friction between me and her
00:05:25
donna told her sister that her husband
00:05:26
had raped her two years earlier
00:05:29
debbie didn't know what to believe to
00:05:32
her
00:05:32
you know every person that that came
00:05:36
into
00:05:38
her family's life she thought that that
00:05:40
person had raped her
00:05:42
i honestly don't know if anything
00:05:44
happened with tommy or not
00:05:46
but it was donna's wild ways that drove
00:05:48
the sisters apart
00:05:49
i was doing a lot of drinking and doing
00:05:51
drugs
00:05:53
there was drugs found in my house and i
00:05:56
told her
00:05:57
i don't want any of that around my
00:05:58
family you know and you're just going to
00:06:00
have to move out so she moved out
00:06:03
buchanan spent her late teens shuttling
00:06:05
around fort lauderdale
00:06:07
living in shelters and on the beach her
00:06:09
drug use escalated even further
00:06:11
she survived on the street as many young
00:06:13
runaways do
00:06:16
training their body for whatever they
00:06:18
can get that helps them to survive
00:06:20
heroin other drugs donna has been
00:06:23
arrested numerous times in the past for
00:06:25
drugs
00:06:26
she also has been arrested for
00:06:27
prostitution she's been arrested for
00:06:29
heroin possession
00:06:30
cocaine donna continued her drug habit
00:06:33
into her 20s while living with various
00:06:35
boyfriends
00:06:36
a lot of abusive relationships
00:06:40
a lot of beatings for men in 1991
00:06:44
donna's mother linda moved to florida
00:06:46
and the two decided to rent a condo
00:06:48
together
00:06:49
after my divorce and i moved there and i
00:06:51
lived with her briefly
00:06:53
their landlord was an elderly man named
00:06:55
charles gouveia
00:06:56
who sparked a fast yet unlikely
00:06:59
friendship with donna
00:07:00
he would come over and check on things
00:07:03
they started coming over more
00:07:05
mostly too when my mom wasn't there
00:07:08
charles told donna about his
00:07:09
granddaughter tina mancini who committed
00:07:12
suicide in 1986.
00:07:14
charlie always wanted to talk about what
00:07:16
had happened
00:07:17
with his granddaughter i reminded him of
00:07:20
tina
00:07:21
used to tell me the things tina liked to
00:07:23
do and would
00:07:25
call me tina sometimes they became
00:07:30
more than just friends donna and charles
00:07:33
and i didn't agree with it
00:07:37
but there was nothing i could do about
00:07:38
it in 1993
00:07:40
donna moved out of the apartment she
00:07:42
rented from charles and moved in with
00:07:44
him
00:07:44
in a fort lauderdale suburb she was 30
00:07:47
years old
00:07:48
he was 73. there was a big age
00:07:51
difference between charlie and me
00:07:54
age difference really never meant
00:07:55
anything to me i think
00:07:57
that with my sister having issues over
00:08:00
the rejection from
00:08:02
our dad she was looking for an older man
00:08:05
someone
00:08:05
who could take care of her because she
00:08:08
didn't know how to take care of herself
00:08:11
when women behind bars continues
00:08:13
you don't stab a man over 50 times to
00:08:15
protect yourself or because you're
00:08:16
fearing for your life
00:08:18
i'm not buying it
00:08:24
by 1993 thirty-year-old donna buchanan
00:08:28
craved stability
00:08:29
after years of drug abuse and unstable
00:08:31
relationships
00:08:32
still dependent on drugs she moved in
00:08:35
with her boyfriend
00:08:36
charles gouveia 43 years her senior
00:08:39
when i was with charlie at that point my
00:08:42
addiction was
00:08:43
very bad donna maintained that charles
00:08:46
not only enabled her drug habit
00:08:48
he used it to control her he would give
00:08:50
me pills a fact
00:08:51
he would go to doctors telling me needed
00:08:54
painkillers
00:08:55
he started even buying heroin for me
00:08:58
and here was a man who who said he loved
00:09:01
her but provided for her
00:09:03
in a way that made him completely in
00:09:05
control of when she woke up when she
00:09:06
went to sleep
00:09:08
where she went when she left the house
00:09:10
he used the promise of drugs if she
00:09:12
would behave
00:09:13
the removal of the drugs if she did not
00:09:16
that would basically made her a slave in
00:09:19
just about every sense of the word
00:09:20
to his his whims he got a safe because
00:09:24
he started getting so many bottles of
00:09:25
pills
00:09:26
and of course i didn't know the
00:09:27
combination or advocate he started
00:09:29
calling me drug addicts started putting
00:09:30
me down for taking pills but yet he's
00:09:32
the one that's supplying the bills
00:09:34
he had this thing about rescuing
00:09:37
you know women in distress so him taking
00:09:40
in donna and trying to
00:09:41
change her ways that sounds like my
00:09:43
father something that he would do
00:09:46
according to donna charles also saw the
00:09:48
drugs as a way to bring in additional
00:09:50
income
00:09:51
and he also sold the narcotics he got he
00:09:54
was like this is easy money
00:09:55
there was all the signs of of them
00:09:57
selling the drugs out of the house
00:09:59
everything from the receipts from the
00:10:00
doctors and the fake
00:10:02
prescriptions for every prescription
00:10:04
that was written he would falsify
00:10:06
for and go to four different pharmacies
00:10:08
with it he started confused which
00:10:10
pharmacies he was using so
00:10:11
he started making records of all the
00:10:13
pharmacies he used all the doctors to
00:10:15
use
00:10:16
where he had refills and everything as
00:10:19
buchanan found herself
00:10:20
increasingly dependent on cuveea the
00:10:23
tension between them began to escalate
00:10:25
this man was her friend
00:10:28
he was her support person the person she
00:10:33
went to
00:10:33
for everything and at the same time he
00:10:37
abused her terribly i remember getting
00:10:40
up one morning
00:10:41
getting ready to ask where i was going i
00:10:43
said i'm going to go see my mom there
00:10:44
before i go shopping
00:10:46
and that was the first time he hit me
00:10:47
and told me no no
00:10:49
you're not going he would physically hit
00:10:52
her
00:10:53
he would drag her by the hair he would
00:10:55
scream at her and threaten her
00:10:57
donna was so small that you didn't have
00:11:01
to
00:11:02
be very physically strong yourself i
00:11:04
guess he was 80.
00:11:05
he looked more like he was in his you
00:11:06
know late 60s he was always out working
00:11:08
in the yard
00:11:09
but guvaya's family denies buchanan's
00:11:12
allegations of physical abuse
00:11:14
i find it hard to believe he was abusive
00:11:16
because the age he was at that time
00:11:18
he was never physically abusive he was
00:11:20
just
00:11:21
very verbally abusive very scary
00:11:24
when he went on one of his rants it was
00:11:27
it was enough to scare a woman you know
00:11:28
to fear for her life
00:11:30
even though he wouldn't hurt her despite
00:11:32
the alleged abuse
00:11:33
donna could not seem to stay away from
00:11:35
charles several times
00:11:37
donna tried to escape and charles found
00:11:40
her
00:11:41
and brought her back now donna had
00:11:44
the drug habit that was difficult for
00:11:46
her
00:11:47
but she did try for rehabilitation i
00:11:50
used to sign myself in and out of
00:11:51
hospitals to get away from him that was
00:11:54
like a only place i could go that he
00:11:56
couldn't go
00:11:57
she had gone to our battered women's
00:11:58
shelter i believe several times
00:12:02
he had always managed to get her back in
00:12:04
short order
00:12:05
i think she kept choosing him because
00:12:09
she was afraid of what her choice would
00:12:11
be she was afraid of going back on the
00:12:13
street
00:12:14
she was afraid of getting off the drugs
00:12:16
i planned to leave him
00:12:18
to go to virginia for him not to know
00:12:19
where i was at my sister
00:12:22
and my girlfriend took me to the
00:12:24
hospital
00:12:25
i stayed in the hospital withdrew from
00:12:28
narcotics
00:12:30
i remember it was a very bad withdrawal
00:12:31
but i was able to do it
00:12:34
i was released and i remember i had no
00:12:37
place to go
00:12:38
my sister i think thought it was better
00:12:41
for me
00:12:41
to stay somewhere else
00:12:44
fun you know like stay in the salvation
00:12:47
army
00:12:47
or do that but that to me was like put
00:12:50
me back on the streets
00:12:51
i couldn't do it i couldn't
00:12:57
so i went back to you although donna
00:13:00
claims she never fought back
00:13:02
a neighbor witnessed otherwise you could
00:13:04
hear them from inside the house she just
00:13:06
sounded like a
00:13:07
crazy uh banshee out of control
00:13:10
and i would really never really hear him
00:13:12
yelling my mother was
00:13:14
worried that if charlie didn't kill my
00:13:17
sister my sister was going to kill him
00:13:19
because it was just so ugly there at the
00:13:21
house
00:13:22
the way that they were treating one
00:13:23
another
00:13:24
[Music]
00:13:28
for two days i hadn't slept i remember
00:13:31
he was playing a lot with the pills here
00:13:33
take these there no you're not going to
00:13:35
take them anymore
00:13:36
so i was like captain withdrawal half
00:13:39
out
00:13:40
yelling fighting hitting the last day i
00:13:43
went to
00:13:44
the bedroom to go to sleep a half hour
00:13:46
later he comes in there and starts
00:13:47
yelling at me
00:13:49
apparently he was working on the
00:13:50
computer and he was having a lot of
00:13:53
trouble with it
00:13:54
and he dragged her by the hair to come
00:13:56
in and help him
00:13:57
he had a butcher knife in there he
00:13:59
grabbed that put it up to my throat
00:14:01
said he was going to cut my effing
00:14:03
throat i told him at that point go ahead
00:14:06
he didn't so i went back to bed
00:14:10
but when he came back in the second time
00:14:12
he was in a rage i felt then that he was
00:14:14
going to kill me donna like most
00:14:16
battered women
00:14:18
reacted to the moment it was never
00:14:21
planned
00:14:22
and it was her attempt
00:14:26
to survive to protect herself we got to
00:14:29
the
00:14:30
office that time i reached for the knife
00:14:33
and that's when i stabbed him
00:14:38
i stabbed him repeatedly i guess i
00:14:41
snapped i don't know
00:14:43
donna buchanan stabbed eighty-year-old
00:14:45
charles gouveia
00:14:46
54 times women who are
00:14:50
abused one of the ways that they survive
00:14:52
is that they go into what we call a
00:14:54
dissociative state
00:14:56
that is their mind and their bodies sort
00:14:58
of get separated
00:14:59
and they're on automatic pilot and i
00:15:02
believe that's what happened with donna
00:15:04
the overkill or the numerous stab
00:15:07
wounds are because once you start in
00:15:10
that stage
00:15:11
you can't stop you don't stab a man over
00:15:13
50 times to protect yourself or
00:15:15
because you're fearing for your life i'm
00:15:17
not buying it i guess i felt
00:15:21
that if i didn't kill him he'd kill me
00:15:23
at that point right at the end all i
00:15:26
felt was fear
00:15:28
when women behind bars continues i was
00:15:30
in charge of murdering the first degree
00:15:32
i felt i deserved everything i got and
00:15:36
later in this episode of women behind
00:15:38
bars
00:15:38
marion fake hasten tells her story they
00:15:41
told me that she had died
00:15:42
i was just in shock no she's not dead no
00:15:46
she's not dead
00:15:51
on the night of october 6 2000 37 year
00:15:55
old donna buchanan who was addicted to
00:15:57
drugs and painkillers
00:15:58
fatally stabbed her 80 year old
00:16:00
boyfriend charles gouveia
00:16:02
according to buchanan gouveia who
00:16:04
allegedly had a pattern of abuse
00:16:06
held a knife to her throat and
00:16:08
threatened to kill her
00:16:10
in the immediate aftermath donna
00:16:12
panicked first thing i thought about was
00:16:14
killing myself
00:16:15
her solution was to take as many pills
00:16:17
as she could and to hope that that would
00:16:19
solve the problem once and for all
00:16:21
that didn't work so she really in
00:16:24
desperation
00:16:25
just started making phone calls to
00:16:27
different people not quite knowing what
00:16:29
to say
00:16:29
i talked to my girlfriend my sister my
00:16:32
mom on the phone
00:16:33
when she called um the night it happened
00:16:37
i could tell she was on drugs she first
00:16:39
told me she
00:16:41
just got home and something happened to
00:16:44
charlie
00:16:45
that someone had stabbed him and i
00:16:47
couldn't make any sense out of her
00:16:49
i said donna you didn't go anywhere
00:16:58
because he never let her go anywhere
00:17:03
she said don't worry mom
00:17:07
i changed my clothes but i left them in
00:17:09
a pile
00:17:15
i told her to call the police i kept
00:17:18
telling him
00:17:18
don't worry i didn't mess with the crime
00:17:20
scene you'll be able to tell
00:17:22
what happened i contacted the broward
00:17:25
county police
00:17:26
and let them know that there was a
00:17:28
concern
00:17:29
all right you need police fire medical
00:17:31
rescue oh yes ma'am
00:17:33
my sister lives in florida i'm calling
00:17:36
from virginia
00:17:37
okay her name is donna buchanan
00:17:41
the situation is a friend of hers who's
00:17:44
been on the phone with her
00:17:45
that said that charlie is dead that he
00:17:48
was murdered
00:17:49
my sister came home from the drugstore
00:17:52
and found him and would not call the
00:17:54
police
00:17:55
but my sister is also trying to commit
00:17:57
suicide as we're speaking
00:17:59
she's overdosing on medication the call
00:18:02
came in
00:18:03
after midnight probably in the area of
00:18:05
12 40
00:18:06
a.m i was dispatched as a backup unit
00:18:10
when deputies arrived donna buchanan
00:18:12
told the deputies that she was fine
00:18:14
that she wasn't going to overdose on
00:18:16
pills and that charlie govier was in
00:18:19
stuart florida
00:18:20
working we asked her if we could look
00:18:23
inside the house
00:18:24
that one room had a door closed and she
00:18:26
refused to let him in the deputy backed
00:18:27
out of the house
00:18:28
and began to look around the windows
00:18:30
through into the interior
00:18:31
and we noticed that all the awnings were
00:18:33
up except for
00:18:34
on the front bedroom on the side of the
00:18:36
house that was the only one that was
00:18:37
down
00:18:38
we found that to be kind of strange they
00:18:40
opened the awning looked inside
00:18:42
and that's where they saw charlie's
00:18:43
bloody body inside that room
00:18:46
the murder occurred in this room here in
00:18:47
the front the home office
00:18:50
now donna became a suspect detectives
00:18:53
took her to the broward county sheriff's
00:18:55
headquarters for questioning
00:18:57
i don't remember a lot from that point
00:19:00
on
00:19:00
she appeared upset but yet really wasn't
00:19:04
crying outwardly
00:19:05
wasn't showing emotion donna was wearing
00:19:07
a robe over a
00:19:09
set of pajamas she was disheveled and
00:19:12
she was out of sorts
00:19:13
she had what appeared to be dry blood
00:19:16
underneath her fingernails and then when
00:19:19
you remove the socks
00:19:20
you could actually see blood in between
00:19:22
her toes
00:19:24
dried blood her story initially to us
00:19:27
was that she went out and that she took
00:19:30
her dog for a walk came back to the
00:19:33
residence and found the door
00:19:34
jar so now when you get back in the
00:19:38
house what are you doing
00:19:39
i asked for charlie charlie where are
00:19:42
you
00:19:42
so i went there that's why he was little
00:19:48
what did you see uh as far as him laying
00:19:50
on the floor
00:19:57
[Music]
00:19:58
i said donna we have three versions of
00:20:01
what occurred
00:20:02
we need to know the truth we need to
00:20:03
know what happened she looked at me with
00:20:05
great interest
00:20:06
and then she gave a fourth version
00:20:11
then i got it first what happens once
00:20:14
you said you got the knife first what
00:20:15
happens then
00:20:16
this time friday whether
00:20:23
[Music]
00:20:26
we then transported her to jail where
00:20:29
she was booked for murder in the first
00:20:31
degree
00:20:33
meanwhile investigators processed the
00:20:35
crime scene
00:20:36
inside the room charlie had been stabbed
00:20:38
54 times
00:20:39
both to his back his chest and even to
00:20:42
his head there was blood
00:20:44
all around his area where he was at she
00:20:46
subsequently took off her bloody clothes
00:20:48
placed them on the ground along with the
00:20:50
bloody knife that she used to stab
00:20:51
charlie
00:20:52
and detectives also found evidence of
00:20:55
the extent of donna's drug habit
00:20:57
we discovered a safe that was in the
00:20:59
home office this is
00:21:01
right near where charlie was killed in a
00:21:03
safe was two white boxes
00:21:04
one box said xanax and the other box
00:21:07
said laura set the safe was open
00:21:09
both boxes were empty and there were
00:21:11
pills that were strong on the floor
00:21:13
near where charlie lie donna awaited her
00:21:17
fate in the broward county jail
00:21:19
i was in charge of murdering the first
00:21:20
degree my options at that time
00:21:23
i didn't really care i felt i deserved
00:21:26
everything i got
00:21:27
i just wanted it to be over the state
00:21:30
was still seeking the death penalty
00:21:31
against her
00:21:33
buchanan's defense attorney brought in
00:21:34
top psychologists in the field of
00:21:36
battered women to evaluate donna
00:21:39
donna was psychologically ver
00:21:42
in very great distress all of her test
00:21:45
results
00:21:46
showed a pretty serious impairment of
00:21:50
brain function
00:21:51
donna buchanan had four strikes against
00:21:54
her
00:21:55
there was neuropsychological impairment
00:21:57
there was a history of mental illness
00:21:59
there was a history of drug abuse and a
00:22:02
history
00:22:03
of being severely abused while donna's
00:22:06
legal team
00:22:07
felt they had a strong case of
00:22:09
self-defense the police
00:22:10
had a different theory we believe what
00:22:12
happened that evening
00:22:14
inside that residence is that donna
00:22:16
who's been on prescription drugs for
00:22:18
years
00:22:19
was having an argument with charlie
00:22:21
about getting more drugs
00:22:23
we believe in anger and rage that she
00:22:26
stabbed him to death
00:22:27
so she can get the drugs that were
00:22:29
contained within the safe
00:22:31
that's what the evidence suggests and
00:22:33
she's using
00:22:34
self-defense to minimize what she did
00:22:38
the defense believed that bringing
00:22:40
donna's case to trial was risky
00:22:42
because of his age and the fact that he
00:22:44
did have some physical frailties
00:22:45
we were concerned the jury might feel
00:22:47
that she was physically superior to him
00:22:49
and really didn't need to use the level
00:22:51
of force that she did
00:22:53
to repel his attack i didn't know if i
00:22:55
wanted to take it to trial
00:22:56
didn't know if i could handle a drop i
00:22:59
felt like i wasn't strong enough
00:23:01
so the state attorney offered me a plea
00:23:04
uh 15 years i took it at that point if
00:23:08
she had offered 25
00:23:09
30 40 i would have took it i didn't care
00:23:14
donna is currently serving her sentence
00:23:16
at gadsden correctional institution in
00:23:18
quincy florida
00:23:19
it's been a learning experience it's
00:23:22
given me a chance to
00:23:23
look at myself look at my life look at
00:23:26
my future what i want for my future
00:23:29
i wanted to use my time in prison to
00:23:31
educate myself
00:23:32
to give myself a better chance to if i
00:23:36
when i get out then i take care of
00:23:37
myself
00:23:38
never have to depend on a man again
00:23:41
donna is taking an industrial drafting
00:23:43
class and also tutors young girls
00:23:46
she's so interested in learning now and
00:23:48
teaching and helping others
00:23:50
to a lot of them there where she is now
00:23:51
she's like a mom they call her mom
00:23:59
i like who she is without the drugs
00:24:01
she's come a long ways from where she
00:24:03
started
00:24:04
yeah i've still got a ways to go but i'm
00:24:07
working to make myself stronger
00:24:09
on that i have no reason to ever
00:24:12
pick up a pill again despite the
00:24:14
progress she's made
00:24:15
donna still thinks of charles every day
00:24:18
i don't think there's
00:24:19
one day i don't wish i could tell him
00:24:21
i'm sorry but i can't
00:24:23
that has been more of a punishment than
00:24:25
prison ever could be
00:24:29
my father was was miserable to live with
00:24:33
but he didn't deserve to die i guess she
00:24:35
got what she deserved
00:24:36
but as a woman i just feel bad
00:24:47
next up on women behind bars a mother
00:24:50
faces murder charges in the death of her
00:24:52
two-year-old daughter
00:24:53
my knees buckled and i just started
00:24:55
crying i couldn't do anything else it
00:24:57
was not going to change anything
00:24:59
for more information about women behind
00:25:01
bars go to www.wetv.com
00:25:10
[Music]
00:25:12
on the morning of january 2nd 2003
00:25:15
police and emergency services responded
00:25:18
to a 9-1-1 call
00:25:19
that two-year-old serenity nicole miller
00:25:22
was not breathing
00:25:23
when baby serenity arrived at the
00:25:25
hospital the er doctor immediately
00:25:27
noticed that she had been dead for two
00:25:29
to three hours
00:25:31
the autopsy showed all this bruising
00:25:33
trauma to the head
00:25:34
and she was suffocated
00:25:38
police focused their investigation on
00:25:40
serenity's mother
00:25:41
24 year old marion fake hasten who had a
00:25:44
history of self mutilation
00:25:46
and her roommate 40 year old frederick
00:25:48
stegall
00:25:50
a convicted child abuser the mother
00:25:52
really showed no reaction
00:25:54
at all it was almost like she already
00:25:56
knew what happened
00:25:59
but marion claimed that serenity was
00:26:01
perfectly healthy when she left the
00:26:02
house that morning
00:26:04
and that her death must have been caused
00:26:06
from injuries from a fall
00:26:07
three to four days earlier it was
00:26:09
horrible
00:26:11
just to find out that i had just seen
00:26:13
her that morning give her a kiss goodbye
00:26:15
told her i loved her and then she's gone
00:26:20
my theory of the case was that either
00:26:23
she did it herself
00:26:25
or she knew that stegall had done it and
00:26:28
was an accomplice
00:26:30
did marion fake hasten participate in
00:26:32
her child's death
00:26:34
or did she unwittingly allow a convicted
00:26:36
child abuser to murder
00:26:38
her daughter
00:26:46
she was really quite a normal kid except
00:26:49
for being a tomboy and loving to climb
00:26:51
trees i spent a lot of my childhood
00:26:54
playing make-believe she was happy she
00:26:57
was adventurous
00:26:58
for a while she was just kind of an only
00:27:01
child
00:27:03
that changed when marion was 11. her
00:27:05
brother billy was born and suddenly the
00:27:07
family's attention
00:27:08
was on him i wasn't really keen on the
00:27:11
idea of having a baby around the house
00:27:14
but once i got to really start paying
00:27:16
attention to him
00:27:17
and he just he really stole my heart
00:27:21
[Music]
00:27:22
the following year the casons moved to
00:27:24
live oak florida
00:27:26
at suwanee high school marion struggled
00:27:28
to belong
00:27:29
high school was very weird because
00:27:32
everybody's trying to find that little
00:27:33
clique that they fit into
00:27:35
but she liked you know reading and she
00:27:37
liked rotc
00:27:38
marion also began dating but at a young
00:27:41
age
00:27:42
started a dangerous trend of trusting
00:27:44
bad men
00:27:45
i was raped when i was 14 by an
00:27:47
ex-boyfriend because he got mad at me
00:27:50
because i dumped him she blamed herself
00:27:52
she was depressed
00:27:54
and she had at one point mentioned you
00:27:56
know that maybe if she committed suicide
00:27:58
the hurt would go away
00:28:00
kayson coped with her internal misery by
00:28:03
self-mutilating
00:28:04
i would cut because i didn't know how to
00:28:07
let the feelings go
00:28:09
marion did her best to put the pain
00:28:11
behind her but could not break her
00:28:13
patterns
00:28:14
when she was in the 11th grade she tried
00:28:16
to escape
00:28:17
by marrying her high school boyfriend
00:28:19
james foley
00:28:20
we dropped out of school getting married
00:28:23
moving to
00:28:24
connecticut and starting a whole new
00:28:27
life
00:28:29
but the couple split after just six
00:28:31
months so marion returned to florida and
00:28:33
married another high school friend
00:28:35
jimmy miller soon after she discovered
00:28:38
she was pregnant
00:28:39
they said yeah it's a little girl and i
00:28:42
was so excited
00:28:44
serenity nicole miller was born on
00:28:46
january 30th 2000.
00:28:48
marion was enamored with her new
00:28:50
daughter she grew up to be a very
00:28:52
very very beautiful little girl
00:28:55
she was just just so full of life that
00:28:58
you couldn't help but just bubble over
00:29:00
if you got around her
00:29:03
marion loved being a mom and was
00:29:05
thrilled to learn she was expecting a
00:29:07
second child
00:29:08
i used this love of sitting there and
00:29:10
it's ready to have her head on my belly
00:29:13
then i just sit there and snuggle on
00:29:16
august 29
00:29:17
2001 marion gave birth to a son joshua
00:29:20
miller
00:29:21
but the happiness was short-lived the
00:29:24
following year she learned that her
00:29:25
husband
00:29:26
was arrested for a lewd and lascivious
00:29:28
act upon a child
00:29:29
under the age of 16. when he went to
00:29:32
jail
00:29:33
i sit down talk to his mom i said look i
00:29:35
said i'm going to divorce jim
00:29:37
my kids deserve better and
00:29:40
that's when all the mess started in
00:29:44
suddenly marion found herself a single
00:29:46
mother of two young children
00:29:48
with a husband in jail for child abuse
00:29:51
she got a job at a fast food restaurant
00:29:53
to support her family
00:29:54
but still struggled to make ends meet
00:29:57
you're sitting there trying your hardest
00:29:59
to provide for these children
00:30:04
desperate for financial aid she went to
00:30:06
the department of child and family
00:30:08
services
00:30:09
they placed her in a government
00:30:10
subsidized housing project
00:30:12
in live oak the apartment was right in
00:30:14
the middle crackdown
00:30:16
well at that time i had no choice
00:30:20
craving male attention and support the
00:30:22
single mother befriended frederick
00:30:24
stegall
00:30:25
a co-worker at the restaurant i asked
00:30:28
him i said
00:30:29
look i have two small babies and i need
00:30:32
somebody there helping me
00:30:34
and he said okay i don't mind
00:30:36
[Music]
00:30:38
stego moved in with cason and her kids
00:30:40
marion says she felt more secure having
00:30:42
a man in the house
00:30:44
and that the relationship was strictly
00:30:45
platonic
00:30:47
mrs cason said no that he was just a
00:30:50
roommate
00:30:51
according to him they were romantically
00:30:54
involved
00:30:56
kayson turned a blind eye to more than
00:30:58
just their relationship
00:31:00
he told me he uh one night that he'd
00:31:02
been to jail for fighting
00:31:04
frederick stegall had several charges of
00:31:06
grand theft
00:31:07
burglary aggravated stalking and
00:31:10
aggravated child abuse
00:31:12
he had already served time in prison for
00:31:14
aggravated child abuse
00:31:18
he had just gotten out when he met miss
00:31:21
cason
00:31:23
kayson claims she did not know about
00:31:25
stegall's criminal record for child
00:31:26
abuse
00:31:27
but prosecutors maintained she had been
00:31:29
warned
00:31:30
children and family went to miss cayson
00:31:34
and told her in no uncertain terms that
00:31:36
mr stegall could be around those
00:31:38
children
00:31:39
and all indications at the scene were
00:31:41
that he was living there
00:31:44
marion denies receiving a warning about
00:31:46
frederick and says that she never saw
00:31:48
him hurt her kids
00:31:50
i didn't dawn on me that you know he
00:31:51
might be a bad person because the kids
00:31:53
are liking
00:31:54
you know they call him uncle fred and
00:31:56
all that
00:31:57
and she was too protective over her kids
00:32:00
to let somebody you know come into her
00:32:03
house that
00:32:04
she knew had been in trouble i told him
00:32:06
i know hit role
00:32:07
i don't believe in spanking kayson
00:32:10
maintains her daughter never had any
00:32:12
bruises
00:32:13
and that she can only recall one injury
00:32:15
when serenity fell out of bed
00:32:17
three or four days before she died she
00:32:20
dropped her sippy cup coming down off
00:32:22
the little rails
00:32:23
she had bumped her head she had a little
00:32:25
bruise right here
00:32:26
and that was about it
00:32:29
[Music]
00:32:34
i got up that morning the kids were
00:32:36
already up fed him some cereal
00:32:38
i left the house serendi was doing fine
00:32:40
her little nose was just a little runny
00:32:43
kayson chose to trust frederick stegall
00:32:46
to watch her kids while she ran
00:32:47
errands after she left he said that
00:32:52
he put serenity in her bed because she
00:32:55
was crying and
00:32:56
whimpering and a little while later he
00:32:58
goes back to check on her
00:33:01
and she's unresponsive unconscious
00:33:05
stiegel carried serenity next door to
00:33:07
ask for help
00:33:09
it was 11 13 in the morning a 911 call
00:33:14
came
00:33:14
in four minutes later the
00:33:18
first responders are arriving
00:33:21
the ems workers had the child in the
00:33:23
back of the ambulance doing cpr
00:33:25
i could see the bruising on the child's
00:33:26
forehead and around her eyes
00:33:29
i reached out and touched her hand she
00:33:30
was very cool to the touch
00:33:32
i seen frederick stigall
00:33:35
standing there holding another small
00:33:37
child i approached him
00:33:38
asked him what happened and his initial
00:33:41
response to me is
00:33:42
there ain't been no child abuse here
00:33:45
when women behind bars continues i
00:33:48
wasn't even home
00:33:49
and i felt if i didn't do it then i
00:33:52
should prove myself
00:33:53
and i tried we had eyewitness accounts
00:33:57
of miss cason physically abusing little
00:34:01
serenity
00:34:02
when she was only six weeks old and this
00:34:05
lasted
00:34:06
throughout her lifetime
00:34:12
on january 2nd 2003 two-year-old
00:34:15
serenity miller stopped breathing
00:34:17
and was covered in bruises serenity was
00:34:20
rushed to the emergency room
00:34:22
just as her mother mary and fake hasten
00:34:24
arrived home
00:34:26
police officer walked over to me and he
00:34:29
says we had to take her to the hospital
00:34:31
she wasn't breathing
00:34:32
the mother really showed no reaction at
00:34:34
all it was almost
00:34:36
like she already knew what happened i
00:34:38
really wasn't paying attention
00:34:40
because i was so shocked here you have a
00:34:42
mother
00:34:44
whose daughter has just been carried
00:34:46
away
00:34:47
and miss cason does not ask what
00:34:50
happened
00:34:51
at chands hospital in live oak doctors
00:34:54
tried in vain
00:34:55
to revive serenity the emergency room
00:34:58
physician noticed that this child had
00:35:00
been dead between
00:35:01
two and three hours about four o'clock
00:35:05
that afternoon they told me that she had
00:35:07
died i laid my head down and cried
00:35:10
i was just in shock no she's not dead no
00:35:13
she's not dead
00:35:14
the doctors immediately notified the
00:35:16
police that this looks like a classic
00:35:18
case of an abused child
00:35:20
it didn't take long to center the
00:35:22
investigation in on two people
00:35:25
and one of them is mary and faye cason
00:35:28
and the other
00:35:29
was a man named frederick stegall
00:35:32
marion's roommate convicted child abuser
00:35:34
frederick stegall
00:35:36
had been watching serenity and her one
00:35:38
and a half year old brother joshua
00:35:40
the department of child and family
00:35:42
services intervened on behalf
00:35:44
of marion's little boy joshua wasn't
00:35:46
placed in foster care
00:35:48
until the investigation was completed
00:35:50
kasen agreed to help the police with
00:35:52
their investigation of steagle
00:35:54
she participated in a recorded phone
00:35:56
call with the intention of getting him
00:35:58
to confess
00:35:59
i bite you know the truth i know you
00:36:01
don't believe me either do you
00:36:03
i'm not blaming you for anything and
00:36:05
basically they're telling me you know
00:36:06
that i beat my child to death
00:36:08
and they said ask me that i took my fist
00:36:11
and
00:36:12
literally beat her in the head that's
00:36:13
what they're saying i did
00:36:15
you didn't like whip or anything did you
00:36:17
no i didn't whip her
00:36:18
i didn't do that i cooperated whatever
00:36:21
they wanted me to do
00:36:22
i couldn't get nothing out of him but
00:36:24
three different stories on how he had
00:36:25
found serenity
00:36:27
as investigators continued to view
00:36:29
marion as a suspect
00:36:31
they searched the residence she shared
00:36:32
with stegall
00:36:34
it was nasty there was
00:36:38
dried food and toys and stuff scattered
00:36:40
all over it
00:36:41
it was it was very unkept
00:36:46
inside the children's bedroom the
00:36:48
investigators noticed that one of the
00:36:50
beds was broken
00:36:52
that there was a blanket on it and a
00:36:54
piece of cardboard
00:36:56
and indications that someone was still
00:36:59
using that bed despite the unsightly
00:37:03
conditions of marion's home
00:37:05
it was her journal that most disturbed
00:37:07
investigators
00:37:08
we found this poem that
00:37:12
turned out to be written by marion fay
00:37:15
cason
00:37:16
now serenity died on january the 2nd
00:37:21
2003
00:37:22
this poem is dated january 1st 2003
00:37:27
this poem is entitled dark side
00:37:31
i see myself taking their life
00:37:35
i could do it without strife
00:37:39
i can see the blood run red i giggle
00:37:43
as i bash in their head
00:37:47
marion denied the poem had anything to
00:37:49
do with serenity's death
00:37:51
and i said i was just really upset about
00:37:54
the bad things that had happened in my
00:37:55
life
00:37:56
i was so depressed at that time
00:37:59
that i knew if i didn't write out my
00:38:01
feelings
00:38:02
i'd go back to cutting it was a pretty
00:38:04
bad point but it wasn't directed at
00:38:06
nobody
00:38:08
in addition serenity's body was sent to
00:38:10
the state medical examiner's office in
00:38:12
jacksonville
00:38:13
the findings corroborated the detective
00:38:16
suspicions what were the evidence we
00:38:17
could say
00:38:18
that this is a child that didn't die a
00:38:19
natural death this is child abuse most
00:38:22
likely smothering
00:38:23
but certainly there's head trauma as
00:38:24
well we're seeing all these injuries
00:38:26
and died really of an injury of a
00:38:28
swollen brain miss cason's statement to
00:38:30
the police was no
00:38:31
i did not hit her and i've never hit her
00:38:34
and
00:38:34
the only way i can explain those bruises
00:38:37
on her
00:38:38
is that she fell out of the bed a few
00:38:39
days ago so basically her story was
00:38:41
consistent with mr stegall's
00:38:46
the medical examiner's office did not
00:38:49
see those injuries occurring from from
00:38:50
falling from a bed
00:38:57
on july 28 2005 kayson and stegall were
00:39:01
indicted by a grand jury for felony
00:39:03
murder in the first degree
00:39:05
along with charges of child abuse and
00:39:07
neglect
00:39:09
kayson was arrested and placed in the
00:39:10
sewanee county jail
00:39:13
i didn't understand why it had come to
00:39:16
this my attorney told me it wasn't going
00:39:17
to come to that
00:39:18
it was just shocking was blown away
00:39:22
because of his previous criminal record
00:39:24
for child abuse
00:39:25
frederick stegall chose not to stand
00:39:27
trial
00:39:29
once you've done something that stays
00:39:30
with you no matter what
00:39:33
and that something else happens similar
00:39:35
to that
00:39:36
you're marked for life
00:39:49
i didn't do nothing i wasn't even home
00:39:52
i felt if i didn't do it then i should
00:39:54
prove myself
00:39:57
and i tried
00:39:58
[Music]
00:40:02
the timeline of this case is really one
00:40:05
of the main pieces of evidence against
00:40:07
miss cason she indicated when asked
00:40:12
that she had left the house
00:40:15
at a 10 56 that morning at 11
00:40:18
27 we know serenity is arriving at the
00:40:21
emergency room
00:40:22
when she's at the hospital they noticed
00:40:24
that really she'd been dead for two or
00:40:26
three hours
00:40:27
so by mrs cason's own admission that
00:40:30
would have put her home
00:40:31
when her baby died
00:40:36
kayson insisted that she never harmed
00:40:38
her daughter
00:40:39
but the prosecution presented evidence
00:40:41
and testimony that proved marion wrong
00:40:43
on both counts we had eyewitness
00:40:46
accounts
00:40:48
of miss cason physically abusing little
00:40:52
serenity
00:40:54
when she was only six weeks old and this
00:40:56
lasted throughout her lifetime
00:40:58
going back to the trial transcripts i
00:41:00
found out a lot of places where they
00:41:03
have not told the truth
00:41:06
on december 14th after less than an hour
00:41:09
of deliberation
00:41:10
the jury returned with its verdict
00:41:12
guilty on all counts
00:41:15
my knees buckled and i just started
00:41:17
crying either she did it herself
00:41:20
or she knew that stegall had done it and
00:41:23
aided and abetted him or was an
00:41:25
accomplice
00:41:27
and under florida law if you are an
00:41:29
accomplice you're punished the same as
00:41:31
the actual perpetrator so i guess the
00:41:34
jury concluded that
00:41:36
she was responsible for her death and
00:41:39
they found her guilty
00:41:48
[Music]
00:41:54
i was like oh my god this is can't be
00:41:56
true
00:41:58
but it was kayson is currently serving
00:42:01
her sentence
00:42:02
at lowell correctional institution in
00:42:04
ocala florida
00:42:05
i was so scared because everybody has
00:42:07
their little horror stories about prison
00:42:11
i can't say that it's bad here i can't
00:42:14
say that it's good
00:42:16
kayson has lost her appeals but still
00:42:18
maintains her innocence
00:42:20
she now believes frederick stegall
00:42:22
killed her daughter
00:42:23
in my own opinion because of what's been
00:42:25
stated in trial
00:42:28
i believe that she may have started
00:42:29
crying
00:42:31
and he hit her and then he held her nose
00:42:34
closed
00:42:35
over her mouth before
00:42:39
fred siegel came into her life the kids
00:42:41
did not have bruises
00:42:45
marian's son joshua miller is in the
00:42:47
custody of his paternal grandparents
00:42:50
the whole ordeal has devastated the case
00:42:52
and family
00:42:58
i love that baby
00:43:02
i love josh i love my dog
00:43:08
and it's all been taken away
00:43:16
she was just at that age to where you
00:43:18
could really
00:43:20
have fun with her and she was so
00:43:22
adorable
00:43:24
we'd go to walmart and look at little
00:43:25
dresses say okay next year she'll be big
00:43:28
enough at this one
00:43:30
and then all of a sudden those dreams
00:43:31
just died
00:43:36
i know she's in a better place
00:43:40
i know she's not going to be hurt
00:43:41
anymore
00:43:43
i know her pain is all over with
00:43:47
it's hard it's really hard if i don't go
00:43:50
back to court if i don't win my case i
00:43:52
can't have my son back
00:43:54
i have to do what i got to do to get out
00:43:56
of here to get my son back
00:43:58
to show him that his mommy does love him
00:44:01
and that i'll never leave him again
00:44:09
you
