00:00:03
SAM DOUGLAS: In the United
States of America, the world's most
murderous prisoners
00:00:09
are locked behind bars. The state with the highest
number of inmates is Texas, and one of them is arguably
the deadliest of them all--
00:00:21
Billy Joel Tracy. MARK ADCOCK SR: Billy Joel
Tracy is at a level of evil like almost no one before.
00:00:30
Human life means
absolutely nothing to him. - He viciously attacked
a 16-year-old girl.
00:00:37
LYNN LAROWE: He choked her. He tried to smother
her with a pillow. He beat her
into unconsciousness.
00:00:44
Once she was subdued,
Tracy basically dropped her out of a window. Billy Joel Tracy
is an opportunist.
00:00:53
He waits, and he plans. And it's like a cat
waiting to pounce. SAM DOUGLAS: Even behind
bars, Billy Joel Tracy
00:01:01
poses a threat to everyone. PAUL BRITT: I
don't think he had any consequences for anything.
00:01:22
I mean, honestly,
when I grabbed him, I thought I grabbed
the devil for a minute.
00:01:26
SAM DOUGLAS: His
reputation is that of a cold, calculated killer. KEN DAVISON: He hammered
on him with a 20-inch slot bar,
00:01:34
caved in the back
of his head, and then threw him down the stairs. LYNN LAROWE: I don't know if
you can design a prison that's
00:01:40
so restrictive that he
won't find a way to defeat the security and kill someone.
00:01:47
SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy
currently sits on death row awaiting his final punishment. PAUL BRITT: Billy Tracy
deserves the death penalty
00:01:55
every day and twice on Sunday. - Some people don't believe
in the death penalty.
00:02:01
I think the death penalty was
made for Billy Joel Tracy. [theme music] SAM DOUGLAS: The Texas
Department of Criminal Justice
00:02:32
has 104 prisons,
known as units, spread out across the state. The Barry Telford Unit,
which opened in 1995,
00:02:43
houses the most dangerous
and volatile inmates. - The Telford Unit is a maximum
security prison, and it houses
00:02:55
approximately 3,000 offenders. - The Barry Telford Unit
houses inmates from G1 to G5.
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It's a classification
level for inmates. And then you have
administrative segregation offenders.
00:03:08
The worst of the worst
would be a way to describe the prisoners
that are in ad seg.
00:03:12
JAMIE MORGAN KANE: They put you
in administrative segregation when you have been deemed to be
a threat to the institution,
00:03:18
safety and security of staff
or inmates, or both. MARK ADCOCK SR: They're
allowed out one hour per day,
00:03:25
and they're placed
by their cells into an individual
recreation room. MARK ADCOCK JR: It's loud.
00:03:33
It's chaotic. You deal with inmates with
severe psychological issues. You deal with inmates who have
just given up on everything.
00:03:40
They will hurt you
if they have the chance. SAM DOUGLAS: One
prisoner who spent most of his time
in ad seg because he's
00:03:48
classified as extremely
dangerous is Billy Joel Tracy. LYNN LAROWE: He managed
to get a hold of a welding rod
00:04:05
that he converted,
you know, probably sharpened it to a point,
and he used that to stab
00:04:11
a guard in the shoulder. PAUL BRITT: He can
play a part where you kind of trust
him a little bit,
00:04:19
and you think he's a good guy. And I think he played that
part a couple of times
00:04:24
and convinced people that he
wasn't as dangerous as he was, and that's when
people got hurt.
00:04:29
SAM DOUGLAS: No one is safe
when he takes a dislike to you. LYNN LAROWE: Tracy slipped
a hand free of his cuff
00:04:43
and continued to deliver
blows into his head and face like one
would wield a hammer.
00:04:51
KEN DAVISON: How he
could just beat somebody until they're lifeless
and then walk back to your cell
00:04:57
like you just went
out for a smoke. LINA HAJI: Tracy is probably
one of the most dangerous
00:05:01
individuals on this planet. He's shown sexual violence. He's shown physical violence.
00:05:07
What makes Tracy
so evil is that when you look at his victims,
it really appears
00:05:12
that no one is off limits. SAM DOUGLAS: Billy Joel Tracy
was born on November 30, 1977,
00:05:28
in Wisconsin. While still
an infant, his parents moved him to Dallas, Texas. LYNN LAROWE: Billy
Joel Tracy didn't have
00:05:39
the most perfect upbringing. His parents both suffered
from mental health issues.
00:05:43
There were allegations
of physical abuse. There may have been a lack
of emotional support for him.
00:05:50
LINA HAJI: When you have
a dysfunctional household as a child, there's already
a built-in instability
00:05:56
in your life. You're not sure where you're
safe or where you're unsafe.
00:06:02
You likely don't have
a lot of structure or direction or rules. It has the capability
of completely changing
00:06:10
the trajectory of your life. - In his adolescence,
Billy Joel Tracey's mother
00:06:17
institutionalized him
in a psychiatric hospital. He didn't seem to really
have any clear indicators
00:06:23
of a serious mental
condition that would warrant hospitalization,
but his mother put him there.
00:06:32
LINA HAJI: If your family
has shown you that societal
norms don't matter, by the time you're
12 years old and
00:06:40
you're in a psychiatric
hospital, there's a huge potential for
you to already be rebellious.
00:06:45
SAM DOUGLAS: After spending
his early teenage years making repeat visits
to the hospital,
00:06:51
Tracy eventually returned
to live with his parents, but in 1994, at the age of 17,
his mother kicked him out.
00:07:06
- He had to try
to earn his own way. He had to find a place to live. - To have a 17-year-old with
such a dysfunctional childhood
00:07:18
come out of a psychiatric
hospital, be kicked out by his mother,
and now he's essentially still
00:07:25
a child being thrown
into the real world, that's a recipe for disaster. SAM DOUGLAS: Just a few
months later, Tracy had
00:07:34
his first run-in with the law. LYNN LAROWE: He was
facing felony charges. He threatened
a witness in the case.
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The most serious crime
for which he was convicted at that point was retaliation.
00:07:46
That can involve taking some
sort of action against somebody in, basically,
retaliation for something
00:07:53
that they've done
that you didn't like. SAM DOUGLAS: After serving 20
months of a three-year sentence
00:07:59
for the crime, Tracy was
paroled in July 1996, returning to live
in Dallas, where
00:08:06
he found himself an apartment. One evening, he invited
a friend over for drinks,
00:08:14
who brought with
him his girlfriend, 16-year-old Kasey Kuhn. - He invited Kasey
Kuhn and her boyfriend
00:08:23
over to his apartment to, you
know, drink beer, smoke weed, and just generally hang out.
00:08:31
Throughout that evening, Billy
Joel Tracy had been making some sexual remarks to Kasey.
00:08:37
She just sort of blew him off. She felt safe with
her boyfriend there. SAM DOUGLAS: Later
that night, Kasey and
00:08:45
her boyfriend left Tracy's. Kasey returned home where
she lived with her mom.
00:08:51
LYNN LAROWE: She
was in her bedroom. She was dressed for bed,
and she heard some tap-tap
00:08:57
tapping on the window. And it was Tracy. She told Tracy,
you know, go away, but Tracy was able to gain
access to her bedroom.
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He began disrobing, took off
his shoes, took off his shirt. And she pled with him to leave,
but he began to assault her.
00:09:18
He choked her. He tried to smother
her with a pillow. He beat her
into unconsciousness.
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LINA HAJI: He is showing
signs of narcissism. His needs come first
before anybody else's.
00:09:35
There's also an element
of a need for control and power here. Because this is
her private home.
00:09:41
This is her bedroom. This is her body. And yet none of that factors
into his decision making.
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SAM DOUGLAS: Thinking
Kasey was dead, he dropped her out
of the bedroom window and jumped out after her.
00:09:57
He picked her up
and carried her to his car, placing her in the passenger
seat footwell
00:10:03
before driving off
towards Rockwall County. LYNN LAROWE: Billy Joel
Tracy realized at some point
00:10:11
that Kasey was still alive. He stopped the car,
assaulted her again, and then he drove
her to a wooded area
00:10:19
where we believe he
was planning to kill her and conceal her body. It's in the middle
of the night,
00:10:30
and as he's out there
in the woods, just by chance, a couple of patrol officers
happen to see the car parked
00:10:38
at the side of the road. PAUL BRITT: My name
is Paul Britt, and I was a city of Rockwall
police officer in 1998.
00:10:46
I think I was about six
months in on being on my own when I came up on Billy Tracy.
00:10:52
I was on night shift. It was 4:13 in the morning. I was driving
north on Ridge Road
00:10:57
and happened to see a white Kia
Sportage parked off in a field next to the railroad track.
00:11:02
And so I pulled in behind it,
let dispatch know I was there. As soon as I opened
the door and stepped out, I
00:11:11
heard someone say, "Help me." And I had never heard
something almost so forlorn and just desperate.
00:11:17
I mean, it still
makes my hair stand up just thinking about it,
because I can hear it still.
00:11:21
And I popped my flashlight up
and looked into the tree line over by us, and I
saw Billy Tracy.
00:11:27
SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy approached
Officer Paul Britt. LYNN LAROWE: Tracy
lunged at him.
00:11:34
The two began
to struggle physically. Tracy was a young 20-year-old
man in excellent physical
00:11:41
condition with
training as a boxer, prison fights
under his belt, and he's fighting with
a police officer
00:11:48
who was pretty young himself. PAUL BRITT: I think
at the time I was 30 or 31. I just remember
we were fighting,
00:11:54
and I had called for backup
and didn't hear anything. We weren't like going
to sit down between rounds.
00:12:00
We threw punches
for six minutes. We threw kicks for six minutes. He cut me. I have a little
divot right there.
00:12:07
And I could feel the blood
starting to run down. I was scared I
was going to die,
00:12:12
and that's when
my sergeant showed up. SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy immediately
fled into the woods.
00:12:18
Paul was ready to give
chase, but stopped when he saw Kasey Kuhn move. PAUL BRITT: I thought
she was already
00:12:29
dead, just almost a ghost. I've never seen anybody
like that before, and I've seen a lot of stuff.
00:12:35
I just remember her whole
nightgown was coated in blood, and I really only
remember seeing,
00:12:39
like, one tooth in her mouth. And her face was
swollen beyond belief. SAM DOUGLAS: Kasey was
rushed to the hospital
00:12:46
and a manhunt for Billy
Joel Tracy began. Alerts were issued
throughout the Rockwall area
00:12:55
whilst a helicopter was
deployed to track him down. LYNN LAROWE: Tracy
was on the run,
00:13:03
and he hid
in a variety of places. He was just breaking
into houses. During the day, he would slip
in, and he would steal cash.
00:13:13
He would steal jewelry. He would take some food. SAM DOUGLAS: 11
hours later, Tracy
00:13:19
was discovered hiding
in a house in Rockwall, 55 miles away from the scene
of the attack in the woods.
00:13:27
- He had hidden in a closet. I mean, he'd even, like,
made himself a little pallet
00:13:32
to sleep on, and was
discovered when the homeowner and her daughter
came home one afternoon.
00:13:43
He did not attack
them, but obviously they alerted authorities. SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy
ran out of the house
00:13:50
and along a road through the
neighborhood, with authorities hot on his tail. PAUL BRITT: At 3
o'clock, dispatch
00:13:59
called me and said, we
got him, and that he took off and was a straight shot. People were chasing him across
to the other house where
00:14:05
he climbed onto the roof. LYNN LAROWE: Law enforcement
has surrounded the house.
00:14:10
Rather than surrender,
Tracy shouted, "Bye-bye," and did basically, like,
a backflip off of the house,
00:14:18
falling and injuring himself. PAUL BRITT: There was a tree. There was a freshly tilled
flower bed surrounded
00:14:26
by concrete everywhere. And he hit the tree and the
freshly tilled flower bed. SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy was arrested
and taken into custody.
00:14:37
Miraculously, 16-year-old
Kasey survived. LYNN LAROWE: She
was unrecognizable after that attack.
00:14:45
She had a broken orbital
bone around her eye. There were cigarette burns
on her ankles and feet.
00:14:54
She was beaten and bruised. They had to put a metal
plate in her face. LINA HAJI: What
she went through
00:15:03
was absolutely horrific. There's no doubt in my mind
that it will probably affect
00:15:08
her for the rest of her life. SAM DOUGLAS: 20-year-old
Billy Joel Tracy was placed
00:15:20
in Rockwall County jail. He was charged
with the kidnapping and aggravated
assault of Kasey Kuhn,
00:15:27
as well as assault
on Officer Paul Britt. - He was a straight pain
in the ass in the jail.
00:15:36
He would make
human waste bombs. He would pee and put feces
in cups, throw it at people.
00:15:43
He would try
to fight the jailers. He would throw
things at them and just wear out the call button
in the dispatch of the jail.
00:15:53
SAM DOUGLAS: Six months
later, in July 1998, Tracy's trial began. Officer Paul Britt was
brought in to testify.
00:16:02
PAUL BRITT: I just
stared at him. He didn't want to look at me. I think he never
expected to be caught.
00:16:08
And he's mad that he got
caught and he couldn't beat me. SAM DOUGLAS: Billy Joel
Tracy was sentenced
00:16:15
to two life sentences
for the attack on Kasey Kuhn
and an additional 20 years for the attack on Paul Britt.
00:16:24
He was sent to Allred prison
unit based near the town of Wichita Falls. - There's no denying
that Texas has
00:16:35
one of the most scary prison
systems in the United States. There are units that don't
have air conditioning,
00:16:42
and in the summertimes
in Texas, the stifling heat
is killing inmates. They are tough, and the worst
of the worst wind up in them.
00:16:50
- I believe there are
about 100 different prisons in the state of Texas,
probably one of the largest
00:16:55
in the United States. LYNN LAROWE: At the Allred
unit, Billy Joel Tracy at first
00:17:02
was allowed to live
in general population. Tracy began to really
show that assaultive side,
00:17:10
and he kept winding up
in administrative segregation. He would just get into
altercations with an inmate.
00:17:16
If they had a dispute
over something, it would wind up physical. As for the staff, he
would make their lives
00:17:23
a living hell by doing things
like flooding his cell. I think he just was
generally menacing.
00:17:33
- This is not somebody
who's going to say, well, I got caught,
I'm in prison.
00:17:37
I should now change who I am. For somebody with
a criminal mindset, that's only going
to flare up more.
00:17:44
If anything, it
gets exacerbated. Because now you're
in a controlled environment,
00:17:48
so now you're angry
because you're not free. You're being told what
to do all the time.
00:17:53
You're in a confined space. Prison for most people is
a deterrence, not for Tracy.
00:18:00
JAMIE MORGAN KANE: Inmates
take great pleasure in guards' discomfort. It was not unusual
back in the day
00:18:06
when we had Zippo
lighters and lighter fluid for guys to squirt lighter
fluid on the back of a guard's
00:18:12
uniform as he walked by,
and somebody down the road would throw a match
and set him on fire.
00:18:18
- Tracy committed
at least 27 assaults. It was just misconduct after
misconduct, misbehavior
00:18:26
after misbehavior. When you are serving
a life sentence, I think it was pretty
easy for Tracy to look at,
00:18:33
what have I got to lose? SAM DOUGLAS:
Following an attack on a correctional
officer, Tracy
00:18:41
was transferred to the Clements
Unit in Amarillo. - He would behave
for long enough
00:18:48
to get into a less restrictive
environment within the prison. But once in that less
restrictive environment,
00:18:55
it was only a matter of time
before he did something that left someone injured. In November of 2005, while
at the Clements Unit,
00:19:10
Billy Joel Tracy was
in general population, and the inmates were all
sort of milling about,
00:19:17
outside of their cells. Officer Katie Stanley is simply
walking by doing her job,
00:19:25
and Tracy just leaps on her and
is just pummeling her, brutally attacking Officer Stanley.
00:19:34
SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy stabbed
39-year-old Katie Stanley with a shank multiple
times, puncturing
00:19:41
her lungs and leaving her
fighting for her life. - He lost the knife
in her body.
00:19:46
He proceeded to kick
and stomp on her, leaving shoe imprints on her face and body.
00:19:53
He attacked her. And then he tried to throw
her over that railing, but was unable to do so, I
think, before he ran off.
00:20:02
She was so covered in blood
that when her fellow officers arrived to render aid to her,
they didn't know if they were
00:20:09
treating a man or a woman. That's how messed up
she was physically. SAM DOUGLAS: When questioned
about his motivation
00:20:21
behind the attack, Tracy
said that his toothpaste had been confiscated. LINA HAJI: This is a woman in
a position of authority who's
00:20:46
capable of telling him
what to do, when to do it, how to do it. He already has
a hatred for women.
00:20:53
He's already violent. He already hates authority. So a female correction
officer is really
00:20:57
the perfect target for him. - I believe Tracy intended
to kill Katie Stanley. Tracy has a penchant
for picking out
00:21:05
people he deems
to be vulnerable, people he thinks he can for
sure get the upper hand with.
00:21:12
SAM DOUGLAS: Despite
her injuries, Officer Stanley made a full
recovery, continuing to work
00:21:18
as a correctional officer. Tracy was transferred to the
Robertson Unit in Abilene.
00:21:27
LYNN LAROWE: The prison
began to handle him even more carefully. Billy Joel Tracy's life
was lived completely
00:21:34
in administrative segregation. He had these
security designations that were there to put the
correctional officers on alert,
00:21:43
that he was an extremely
dangerous inmate, and that he should be
handled with caution
00:21:49
and not by an officer alone. SAM DOUGLAS: For the attack
on Officer Stanley, Tracy was sentenced to an
additional 45-year prison term.
00:22:02
- Tracy is capable of behaving
when he wants to behave and then waiting for the exact
moment to pounce,
00:22:12
when he can attack
and do the most damage. SAM DOUGLAS: Now locked up
in solitary confinement,
00:22:20
Tracy was no longer
seen as a major threat until he found a way
to attack again.
00:22:29
- In January of 2009 while
at the Robertson unit, Correctional
Officer Brian Lomas
00:22:35
was there to transport
Tracy back from the shower
area to his cell when Tracy attacked Officer
Lomas with a weapon he had
00:22:47
constructed from plastic
disposable razors that inmates are given to use. He slashed him
all over his face.
00:23:05
Doctors had to use
over 200 stitches to put him back together. He's got scars from being
slashed across the face
00:23:15
with razor blades. Officer Lomas's face
will never be the same. SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy,
now 33 years old,
00:23:25
was convicted of assaulting
a public servant. Another 10 years was
added on to his sentence.
00:23:33
Tracy was moved again, this
time to the Hughes Unit in Gatesville. LYNN LAROWE: He's just
racking up more and more time
00:23:44
as he's shifted from
unit to unit to unit within the state of Texas. I can't imagine that
that 10-year sentence
00:23:53
for assaulting Brian
Lomas had really any impact on Tracy whatsoever. LINA HAJI: I think he
probably wanted to kill,
00:24:03
but I also think that
he wanted to inflict harm, pain, and torture. Whether he kills them or not is
almost inconsequential to him.
00:24:23
SAM DOUGLAS: Billy
Joel Tracy was now serving two life sentences
plus an additional 75 years
00:24:30
for ongoing violent assaults. Following a failed prison
escape in April 2014, Tracy was moved for a fourth
time to the Telford Unit
00:24:41
based in New Boston, Texas. MARK ADCOCK JR: The Barry
Telford Unit can house approximately 2,900 inmates.
00:24:51
There is an administrative
segregation. There's general population. It's more known in the state
as a rougher prison.
00:25:00
My name is Mark
Anthony Adcock Jr. I was the video
surveillance sergeant at the Barry Telford Unit
where Billy Joel Tracy
00:25:06
was incarcerated. My father had worked
there, and I was working on my criminal justice degree.
00:25:14
MARK ADCOCK SR:
My name is Mark Adcock. I'm a former captain
of corrections at the Barry Telford Unit.
00:25:20
I was pleased when
my son went to work for the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice.
00:25:26
MARK ADCOCK JR: We were
one of the first prisons in the state of Texas
to have full access
00:25:31
to video surveillance. But I want to say there's
three to 400 cameras on the Barry Telford Unit.
00:25:37
The cameras are designed
to deter dangerous activity from inmates. SAM DOUGLAS: Under the watchful
eye of the security cameras and
00:25:47
Mark Adcock was
36-year-old Billy Tracy, who was being housed in ad
seg in complete isolation.
00:26:00
- My first interaction
with Billy Joel Tracy was he had gotten a
disciplinary case for something
00:26:06
fairly minor, but I had
to go get his statement. All offenders who come in,
I look over their records,
00:26:13
so I was pretty well-versed
in what he was capable of. MARK ADCOCK JR: Billy Tracy
was not a very tall inmate.
00:26:21
I would say he's
probably 5'8", 5'10". But he was very hulking,
very muscular, very fit.
00:26:28
Probably not a lot of body
fat content on him-- worked out a lot. LYNN LAROWE: He
had probably spent
00:26:36
a total combined
number of years in administrative segregation. What did he have to do
for 24 or 23 hours a day?
00:26:44
It really seems to me
that he used his time to work out, bulk himself
up, get very, very strong,
00:26:51
and to think of new
and inventive ways to attack and assault. SAM DOUGLAS: Working
alongside the Adcocks was
00:27:03
Officer Timothy
Davison, a 47-year-old father of two from Chicago. KEN DAVISON: My name
is Ken Davison.
00:27:14
I'm the brother of Tim Davison. My brother and I were
very close growing up.
00:27:19
Tim was my younger
brother by nine years. And we would go
fishing, and we would take my daughters camping,
and we spent a lot of
00:27:27
time together. He was a man of honor,
and he loved his children. He was the type
of person that would give
00:27:33
you the shirt off his back. He would help you
in any way he could. SAM DOUGLAS: Tim had
relocated to Texas
00:27:40
after securing a job
as a correctional officer at Telford prison. His brother, Ken, was already
working there teaching inmates.
00:27:51
One of Tim's colleagues
was Mark Adcock Jr. MARK ADCOCK JR: I
was an instructor
00:27:57
in the training course, so I
met him right at the beginning of his training. You could tell that he was just
a decent, good human being.
00:28:05
And then after he got
through with training, he went to work
on my dad's shift.
00:28:11
MARK ADCOCK SR: Mr.
Davison came to my shift, and he was a quiet man. He never complained.
00:28:17
He always showed up for work
on time, ready to work, and he was always
eager to learn.
00:28:23
He was a joy to me
to work with. - Tim had never worked
in a prison before. It was long hours.
00:28:29
They were 12-hour shifts. He just constantly talked about
spending time with his kids,
00:28:34
and I got the sense that
Tim was enjoying his job and that he had a passion
for helping people.
00:28:40
SAM DOUGLAS: While
working in ad seg, the solitary confinement
section of the prison,
00:28:45
Tim had had fleeting
interactions with Tracy. On the morning
of July 15, 2015, Tracy was in the exercise yard.
00:29:00
MARK ADCOCK SR: He had gone
outside for his one-hour rec, and then his one-hour
rec was over.
00:29:05
Mr. Davison handcuffed
him and escorted him back toward his cell. And it was only, like, maybe
30 feet from the recreation
00:29:15
to his cell, and then right
when he got to his cell, he had slipped out
of his handcuffs somehow.
00:29:22
And that's when
the attack started. They were fighting
back and forth some, and then the slot
bar that he held
00:29:28
fell off Mr. Davison's
body onto the floor. And the offender was
on top of Mr. Davison.
00:29:34
He grabbed the slot bar and
started beating him with it. LYNN LAROWE: That
metal tray slot bar
00:29:42
is a pipe about that big round,
and it's about 16 inches long. You're talking about
a piece of steel.
00:29:48
The pipe is used
to insert into a hole next to a slot in the inmate's
prison cell doors,
00:29:55
and it causes the little
slot window to pop open. I mean, it's like hitting
someone almost with a hammer.
00:30:02
It's brutal. It's a very effective weapon. - I don't know how
many times he hit him.
00:30:08
I try not to think about it. - After beating him
into unconsciousness, Billy Joel Tracy picked
up Timothy Davison's body
00:30:18
and hurled it down the stairs
towards a gathering crowd of other
correctional officers
00:30:24
and then sprayed the air
with pepper spray so that it would be difficult
for them to walk up there.
00:30:32
- He just walked like he was
taking a walk in the park up to his cell. He didn't slam the door.
00:30:39
He just shut it. So he was very calm. Mr. Davison was not a very big
guy, so he chose him, I think,
00:30:47
because he thought he was
going to be an easy target. SAM DOUGLAS: Tim Davison
was rushed to the hospital
00:30:56
by helicopter. The prison was immediately
placed on lockdown, and Tracy was taken
to a secure holding cell.
00:31:06
Video surveillance
sergeant, Mark Adcock Jr, was immediately called in. MARK ADCOCK JR: I got through
the security checkpoint,
00:31:13
and they kind of briefed
me, hey, this happened. Go lock down the cameras. Got on my camera system.
00:31:19
I backed up the time, and I
looked at what happened. There was camera angles
of here, here, here,
00:31:24
all angles of the camera. You could just see everything
from six different angles
00:31:29
as it was happening. That's the first
time that anybody had ever seen the incident.
00:31:36
So right now you got Billy
Tracy-- he's being escorted up the stairs by Officer Davison.
00:31:41
He's holding on to him. He's going up to the thing,
telling them to open the door.
00:31:45
And you can see
when he's coming up those stairs that he's
fidgeting with his right arm
00:31:50
behind his back. It's hard to say what he's
doing, what he's not doing.
00:31:54
He has handcuffs on. - When the cuffs were put on,
they were not double-locked as they're supposed to be.
00:32:01
And, you know,
Tracy obviously has had decades of experience
with handcuffs, and somehow he managed
to defeat those cuffs,
00:32:10
slip a hand free. - And then he comes
around, and when Davison turns his back to open
his door, cell number 66,
00:32:21
he attacks him. It was the worst
thing I'd ever seen. SAM DOUGLAS: For Tim's
brother, Ken,
00:32:31
the day had started
like any other. KEN DAVISON: July 15, 2015,
I got up about 6 o'clock
00:32:40
in the morning, had a cup
of coffee with my brother. He went off to work. Then late morning my phone
rang, and it was my wife.
00:32:48
Somebody had told
her that he was hurt, and I needed to go
to the hospital to see him.
00:32:53
And it just all
spiraled from there. I just thought maybe he
had a knock in the head,
00:33:00
and he was going to be fine. We'd be laughing
about it tomorrow. When I got to the hospital,
I was there maybe 20 minutes,
00:33:08
and then I hear
my hysterical wife screaming, running down the
hallway, and said he was dead.
00:33:14
I just never thought
that he would be dead. MARK ADCOCK SR: The staff,
as well as the entire unit,
00:33:23
was absolutely
devastated, devastated. It's heartbreaking
to lose a fellow officer,
00:33:32
and to lose him in that way
made it 100 times worse. - They got him to CHRISTUS
St. Michael Hospital
00:33:50
in Texarkana, Texas,
which is the closest medical facility there was. I think he was pronounced dead,
you know, within an hour or so
00:33:59
of arriving at the hospital. His injuries were
just too extensive. They were not survivable.
00:34:06
- They put seven pints of blood
in my brother in the helicopter ride to the hospital,
and it all poured
00:34:13
out of the back of his head. - What was the need in this? What was the purpose of this?
00:34:18
Why did this get to this point? It makes you realize
that this is a real job, and this is something that
could happen every single day
00:34:25
in the United States. SAM DOUGLAS: 37-year-old
Billy Joel Tracy had just brutally killed father
of two, correctional
00:34:41
officer Tim Davison. He was now being held
in a holding cell. MARK ADCOCK SR: We had
staff monitoring him,
00:34:52
you know, 24 hours, constantly. And he was running his
mouth how bad he was and how, you know, I'm
going to do it again.
00:35:00
He wasn't remorseful
or anything. SAM DOUGLAS: He was
taken for questioning.
00:35:20
- He doesn't attribute
value to human life. He's not capable
of thinking, oh, my gosh,
00:35:27
I just ended a man's life. What is his family
going to think? He has an inability
to feel empathy or remorse.
00:35:57
MARK ADCOCK JR: Billy
Tracy knew what he was going to do that morning. When he woke up, he knew he
was going to, if he could,
00:36:02
and the opportunity
presented itself, he was going
to attack an officer. The reasons for that--
00:36:07
I do not know. SAM DOUGLAS: News of the murder
soon reached the press. LYNN LAROWE: I was in the
newsroom at my former job,
00:36:16
and we were all shocked. I believe this
is the first time that a correctional officer
with the Texas Department
00:36:23
of Criminal Justice had been
killed in seven or eight years. It certainly had never
happened at the Telford Unit,
00:36:30
not in my experience
as a reporter. SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy was
charged with the murder
00:36:41
of Tim Davison,
whose death affected everyone in the community. KEN DAVISON: Timothy's
funeral service,
00:36:50
it was heart-wrenching. It was humbling. It was about 3,000 or 4,000
people showed up for that.
00:36:57
There were people there
that really cared. After his death, the governor
asked for the flags
00:37:04
to be flown at half staff
until he was laid to rest. They awarded him
the Medal of Honor.
00:37:11
- He earned the right
to have that type of funeral. Everybody was somber,
and the community
00:37:18
was still in shock about it. Timothy Davison
was a good man who was killed by a evil person,
a coward, a opportunist.
00:37:30
SAM DOUGLAS: A grand jury
indicted Billy Joel Tracy with capital murder. After two years of pretrial
proceedings, his trial began.
00:37:42
Extra security was required to
contain this unpredictable and volatile prisoner.
00:37:49
LYNN LAROWE: They
installed a giant bolt to the floor underneath the
defense table in the courtroom
00:37:56
so that they could
shackle Tracy while he was
sitting at the table so that he could
not get up and run.
00:38:01
That's how concerned they
were about his behavior. I think everybody expected
him to be convicted.
00:38:08
I think the only question
was, would the jury impose the death
penalty, or would
00:38:12
they give him life without
the possibility of parole? KEN DAVISON: Being in the same
room with him, I don't know,
00:38:20
maybe I'm struggling
for the right words. It's an emotion that people
shouldn't have to have.
00:38:27
LYNN LAROWE: When I saw Billy
Joel Tracy in a courtroom, it kind of made the hair stand
up on the back of my neck,
00:38:34
I have to admit. Something about him--
he just gave off a vibe. Like, I'd sooner kill
you than look at you.
00:38:42
MARK ADCOCK SR: He did not
seem remorseful at all. He just sat there. He didn't really say
nothing or had no emotion.
00:38:50
He just looked like he was at
a movie or something, you know. LYNN LAROWE: Tracy's
reasoning that he
00:38:58
gave for attacking Timothy
Davison was that he claimed Davison owed him
a cell phone and
00:39:05
that he had paid
him $500 for it, but there was really no
evidence to support that.
00:39:11
SAM DOUGLAS:
The video surveillance footage of the attack was
screened to the courtroom.
00:39:17
- When we pushed play
to the time the video ended, you could feel, like, there was
a different energy in the room.
00:39:24
They just witnessed something
that nobody should have to witness, but they'd also--
00:39:28
I think it made the trial
real at that point. LYNN LAROWE: It
was very quiet, but
00:39:37
there was a palpable just sense
of revulsion and of sadness. I can still see that video
playing in my mind's eye.
00:39:47
It will never leave my mind. And it is one
of the most, if not the most, disturbing
piece of video footage I
00:39:56
have ever watched in my life. But you also heard a few gasps. Some of the jurors
were literally
00:40:03
wiping tears from their eyes. KEN DAVISON: Heartbroken
to watch that video. When you see somebody
you love and care
00:40:11
for that they're
so disfigured from a beating, nobody should have
to go through that.
00:40:21
MARK ADCOCK JR:
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice
implementing the video surveillance
system, and
00:40:25
it coming to the Telford
Unit when it did, was one of the greatest
things that could have happened as far
as procurement of evidence
00:40:34
against an offender
in probably TDCJ history. There's no way that somebody
could look at that and be like,
00:40:41
I don't know if that's him. SAM DOUGLAS: After
a five-day trial, Tracy was found guilty
of capital murder.
00:40:50
In the sentencing phase,
the jury deliberated for less than an hour
before sentencing
00:40:57
the 39-year-old to death. LYNN LAROWE: What else
do you do with him? He is the textbook example
of a case that, in Texas,
00:41:05
is ripe for the death penalty. Billy Joel Tracy was stoic when
the verdict of guilt was read.
00:41:14
MARK ADCOCK JR: It
was a good feeling. It's hard to say it
wasn't a good feeling.
00:41:18
Happy. Everybody's hugging. Justice for somebody whose
life was taken from them.
00:41:25
- Our family kind of all
congratulated everybody. People felt relieved. We felt that maybe the healing
process could start.
00:41:35
But you don't get your brother
back, so Tim's gone for good. JAMIE MORGAN KANE:
I think that if you
00:41:46
feel the person is so bad
you can never, ever, ever, ever let him out again,
I think the death penalty is
00:41:53
far kinder to them and far
cheaper for society than to keep somebody
on death row.
00:42:00
If they can't live
in the society and you can't have them
out of the society,
00:42:04
what do you do with them? SAM DOUGLAS: For those
who knew Tim Davison, his death has had
a lasting impact.
00:42:20
- I can't help
but feel a little bit responsible because he
worked directly for me,
00:42:26
and I made the rosters
out that placed him that day on that pod. Every year on that
date, I think
00:42:34
about it pretty much all day. KEN DAVISON: The loss
of my brother is like a hole in my heart.
00:42:40
I feel so fortunate to be able
to take my brother the weekend before he died up to see his
daughters for the last time.
00:42:49
I got to snap one picture of
him hugging his two daughters. It's such a tragedy
to have him taken from you,
00:42:55
like, so suddenly that
I don't know that you're ever totally healed from that.
00:43:03
SAM DOUGLAS: Tracy is currently
being held at the Polunsky Unit in West Livingston, where
he'll remain until his death
00:43:12
warrant is issued. - The day of his execution,
a moment, two or three seconds after it, I'll say,
OK, it's good now.
00:43:21
But right now,
he's still living on Texas taxpayers' dimes. So he hasn't gotten what he
deserved yet, but he's close.
00:43:29
KEN DAVISON: I have
two family members that if we're allowed
to go watch the execution,
00:43:34
they would wish to be there. I have other family
members that don't want to.
00:43:39
I'd like to have
a front row seat. I just hope I don't
die of old age first.
00:43:48
MARK ADCOCK JR: If you
look at Billy Tracy's MO, every incident he's ever
had in the state of Texas,
00:43:53
always women, older
guys, 16-year-old girls. That's what he does. He's a coward.
00:44:00
He's not a tough, strong man. - I believe that
Billy Joel Tracy is a danger to everyone he meets.
00:44:07
He may act like he's
your friend for a little while. He may follow all
the rules to a T,
00:44:14
but eventually, he's
going to strike. And he's going
to strike with a plan,
00:44:18
and he's going to strike
with a deadly plan. [theme music]