00:00:04
- [Bianka] Hey,
here goes Lauren. And she's all embarrassed. - Aw, thank you!
- Aw!
00:00:10
- Aw!
- Aw! - Oh it's adorable! Oh it's got a necklace on. [indistinct] [camera clicks]
00:00:19
[whimsical music] - Flashing a peace
sign and the duck lips. That's pretty common
in pictures for her.
00:00:27
One of her early
selfies I think, is when she realized she
could take such good selfies.
00:00:33
- Lauren was just so friendly,
she talked to everybody. She knew so many people.
00:00:37
I was always amazed like,
"How do you know her?" Or like, "How do you know him?"
00:00:41
Just a social butterfly,
that's how she was. - She was probably one of the
most popular girls in school.
00:00:48
And it wasn't because she
was in the popular crowd or anything, it was just
because of who she was.
00:00:54
- She used to stay up
late at night in her room trying to help her friends. She was just the most caring,
00:01:02
compassionate person
I've ever met in my life. [sirens wailing] - People were starting
to run down the street.
00:01:08
One of our neighbors went by
and stopped and said something. - [Chris] Police
raced to the scene
00:01:13
to find two
13-year-old girls shot. - I run in just in a
panic and I'm like, "They said kids are down."
00:01:20
And he's like, "What?" And I couldn't wait,
I just took off. [tense music] - You don't know if it's
gonna be a mass shooting
00:01:28
or somebody's running around
shooting students or you know, if this is a a one-time deal.
00:01:33
- I just thought,
"This is crazy. There's a thousand
kids at that school. Whatever happened, it's not her.
00:01:37
It can't be her." And I don't know who
answered her phone, but I just heard
somebody screaming.
00:01:43
- So I run down the
street as fast as I can. All I saw was people everywhere. [tense music continues]
00:01:50
- There was no logical
reason that we could think of to where someone would just
gun down a 13-year-old girl.
00:02:00
- We stayed here
because, you know, it was a good place to
raise kids and it's safe.
00:02:04
You just gunned
down my daughter, [tense music continues] a stranger, we
don't even know you.
00:02:12
She don't know you. [tense music continues] - That was the first day
that we didn't wake up
00:02:17
from a nightmare, we
woke up to a nightmare and we've been waking
up to one ever since.
00:02:22
[tense music fades] [gentle piano music] - [Lauren] Daddy. - [Bianka] Yeah, Daddy.
00:02:47
Did you get a picture taken? Do you have that
one [indistinct]. - [Vern] Cheese!
00:02:52
[gentle piano music continues] - [Vern] That's the haircut
that you dreamed about.
00:03:06
It's like I'm
watching a home movie. - I had a premonition,
I'm gonna start crying.
00:03:12
It's one of my
favorite pictures. That was Christmas,
her Christmas outfit. - That's the one she was wearing
when she saw Santa Claus.
00:03:21
[gentle piano music continues] - When I was pregnant, I
knew it was gonna be a girl
00:03:27
'cause I know I dreamed of her. It was so real, this dream. Behind a old fashioned
camera, you know,
00:03:34
the kind that you
crank with a handle and there was this little girl. So at first I didn't know
who this little girl was.
00:03:44
She had the short bob, she was about seven or eight
years old and it was Lauren.
00:03:50
- [Lauren] Hi, this is
Lauren, your favorite host. My name is Lauren. Mine is Fruity Patootie.
00:03:58
- And I just knew
it was our daughter 'cause she had pulled
on Vern's pant leg, on his jeans, she
was pulling it.
00:04:06
And she looked up and
she said, "Daddy." And it was over. And I just knew that
was our daughter.
00:04:16
[gentle piano music
continues and fades] - And as soon as they pulled
her out, I was in love.
00:04:22
Everything I could
have hoped for. [camera clicks] I just kinda spent a few minutes
just looking into her eyes,
00:04:29
she was just staring back. Kind of just in
disbelief that we finally had the daughter that
I had always wanted.
00:04:42
She was beautiful, the
most beautiful baby. She was just full of life. A lot of my most
precious moments with her
00:04:51
were just knowing when
I'm coming home from work in the afternoon that
she would be waiting.
00:04:56
When I pulled up, she's
already opening the door and hugging my leg. - Oh gosh, she was so funny.
00:05:03
I mean, this was like
every day she'd come out, she'd liked to surprise us, come out of her bedroom
and dressed all crazy.
00:05:13
She'd have this crazy
makeup on and big eyebrows and she'd put on this
like costume, you know,
00:05:20
from Halloween or a
pair of weird pajamas and come out and you
just start laughing.
00:05:25
I mean, she just had
you laughing in tears or my stomach would hurt so
bad from laughing with her.
00:05:31
[somber music] She was just fun, just random. And I loved that about her. You know, she was unpredictable.
00:05:40
Just never knew what
she was gonna do. [somber music continues] - The last time I saw
Lauren was Thursday night
00:05:48
[camera clicks] before that Friday. And I was going to bed, and I kissed her on
the top of her head.
00:05:59
And I told her I loved her
and told her goodnight. - Vern goes to work and
he leaves before us.
00:06:04
[somber music continues] Lauren was running late, my friend took her
to school that day.
00:06:14
And so I was telling
Lauren, getting on her like, "You need to hurry.
She's waiting, you know.
00:06:17
Can't keep her waiting." But I did give her a kiss
and told her I loved her. And it was a beautiful day.
00:06:24
It was almost like
spring weather. It was just a beautiful day. And I went to work
00:06:31
and I even posted
a selfie that day and said, "Life is good." [somber music
continues and fades]
00:06:41
[edgy music] - It was fairly early
in the school year, school had just started, and it was the Friday
before the weekend.
00:06:51
She and her best friend, Makayla were walking home from school. And what Makayla said was
they were talking about boys
00:06:56
and what they were
gonna do that weekend. And just typical
13-year-old conversation
00:07:01
and just having a good time, smiling and laughing and joking. And other children
from the junior high
00:07:05
were also walking
in the alleyway. [edgy music continues] - I'm waiting for
Lauren to get home,
00:07:16
I know it should be soon
and a truck pulled up. My friend goes, "Is
Lauren home yet?"
00:07:23
And I'm like, "No, why?" And she said, "Kids are down!" All she said. - I heard the front door
open and I heard Bianka
00:07:35
or I saw her run and I didn't
really know what was going on, so I got in my truck and
I started to follow her.
00:07:40
[edgy music continues] - So I run down the
street as fast as I can. All I saw was people everywhere
and the crime scene tape.
00:07:53
[sirens wailing] I didn't know about, you
know, her friend being shot. I didn't know about anything
with gunshots at all.
00:08:05
But I keep looking. I look down and my
daughter's laying there... [edgy music continues]
00:08:14
on her back. Her head was turned this way,
so she is looking right at me, and she's the only one I see.
00:08:29
[edgy music continues] I knew she was gone.
I can't explain it. I knew she was gone.
00:08:37
And I know I was screaming, I guess really loud
and horrible screams. But I know I was calling
her to come back.
00:08:46
I felt like she was
going to the light and I was trying to get
her to come back, you know.
00:08:50
"Don't go, please come back." And nobody was working on her. She was just laying
there by herself.
00:09:02
I couldn't understand why. [edgy music continues] - Probably went into shock. But all I remember is like
00:09:12
a white cloud
everywhere, like a fog. And just seeing
her laying there. - And I know I kept asking,
"What happened? what happened?
00:09:23
Someone tell me, please
tell me what happened." I don't know who said it,
but someone just said,
00:09:28
"She was shot." I think I went to my
knees at that point and people were
trying to hold me up
00:09:36
and I couldn't go to my baby. - They let me ride in the
ambulance in the front seat.
00:09:43
And I kept looking back,
just telling her to hang on. I heard them say, "I
have a heartbeat."
00:09:49
And I thought, "Oh
my God, she's alive, they have a heartbeat." I didn't know at the time,
00:09:52
it was just an
artificial heartbeat, but I thought she
was still alive. So when we got to the hospital
00:09:57
and they took her into the room, Makayla's mom was out
there in the hallway. And I just remember
hugging her and telling her
00:10:06
that I was praying for Makayla,
that she would be all right. - I found out about Makayla,
00:10:12
I believe when I
got to the hospital. Someone yelled out,
"She was shot!" And that's all the
information I had.
00:10:20
It started I got in
this room by myself. I'm pacing around. And then finally Vern comes
in and I'm telling him
00:10:27
that Lauren didn't make it. And he's just like, "No, no, no. They were working on
her in the ambulance.
00:10:34
They were working on her." I said, "We're in this room.
She didn't make it Vern.
00:10:40
I'm telling you." [edgy music continues] I don't know how long
before the door opened
00:10:47
and I think it was
a couple doctors, maybe two or three
people walk in, they just shook their heads.
00:10:57
"Didn't make it." And that was it. [edgy music continues and fades] - [Chris] Shots are
fired in an alley
00:11:07
just off the 5100 block
of Kingston Avenue. Police race to the scene to
find two 13-year-old girls shot.
00:11:15
[gentle piano music] I was in the newsroom at Channel
6, here in Wichita Falls. [gentle pulsating music]
00:11:24
So we heard the call go out
as it went out to police that there was gunshots. That we had two victims.
00:11:31
We had a reporter and a
photographer on the way. We dispatched them immediately
just to get to that direction
00:11:36
so that we could find
out more information. When the news came out,
the city felt shock.
00:11:42
Everyone was in shock. Everyone wanted to know
where their kids were at that moment.
00:11:47
We had a killer on the loose. - Once I get there, there's a lot of chaos
because this was so unusual
00:11:54
for Wichita Falls and they
didn't have a suspect. I talked to the head
detective and they update me
00:12:01
with information of what
they know about the case. People were crying and upset.
00:12:07
You can only imagine parents, their children were walking
home and they hear on the news
00:12:12
that two young
children had been shot. - It was one of the first
times that I've been mayor
00:12:17
that the community
altogether paused. It's like the community
banded together. It didn't matter if you're
a Republican or Democrat,
00:12:22
if you're black or white,
they wanted to get it right. Bring this killer to justice.
00:12:30
[lilting piano music] - When we got here,
I just remember having to go into her room,
00:12:37
which she was not the
neatest kid in the world, and it was just a mess. But I just remember going
and laying down on her bed
00:12:42
and just crying. [lilting piano music continues] - What in the world
would motivate someone
to just drive up,
00:12:54
roll down their window,
point a gun out the window, and then just open fire
on a 13-year-old girl
00:13:00
walking home from school. There was no rhyme
or reason at all, as to what was behind it.
00:13:08
- The police, you know, had
come to our house to talk to us. They went in Lauren's
room and took, you know,
00:13:14
her phone and took her
iPad and all this stuff. Get any kind of information, see if it's someone she was
messaging or knew or, you know,
00:13:22
to look at all the text
messages and all that stuff. And then a police
officer did tell me that,
00:13:27
"I'm just gonna be
honest with you, we may never catch
who did this." And I just looked at him like,
00:13:36
like he, I can't,
I don't, I don't... How do I even take that? I'm like, "What do you mean?"
00:13:42
He goes, "We may never catch
who did this to your daughter." [solemn music] [somber music]
00:13:57
♪ Are you ready to find a
place together with...? ♪ - Lauren was my mini-me. She was taller though,
she got taller than me.
00:14:07
[camera clicks] So she couldn't wear my
shoes anymore. I was happy. I was like, "You can't wear
my shoes anymore, Lauren."
00:14:15
- [Bianka] Good job.
That was awesome. - 'Cooler than penguin feet.' That's what I like to say about
Lauren, she was very cool.
00:14:23
After Lauren had been murdered, there was a lot of
outpouring from her friends and some of their parents.
00:14:30
One lady had written
to another lady about her son was a transfer from
one junior high school in town
00:14:36
to another to where Lauren went. And on the first day
that he went there, he was kind of really
worried about lunchtime.
00:14:42
He didn't know anybody. So he went into the lunchroom
that day and sat by himself.
00:14:47
I guess within a few minutes
Lauren had gone over to him and introduced herself and
invited him to sit with her, so.
00:14:55
That kind of stuff, and it still makes me cry
to think about it, just... I didn't know anybody
like that in eighth grade.
00:15:02
Eighth graders weren't
usually that nice. When I was in eighth grade, I don't remember eighth grade
00:15:07
being full of
really nice people. - That kid will never forget it. I mean, it meant so much to
him that Lauren did that.
00:15:15
But that's just what she did. You didn't have to tell her
to do anything like that,
00:15:20
she just did it. So to hear all those, you
know, stories after the fact, you know, we're just so
proud of our daughter
00:15:31
and I just can't even tell you. [dismal music] - [Chris] Lauren Landavazo
does not survive.
00:15:41
Makayla Smith is rushed to
the hospital and recovers, and a manhunt begins. [quiet music]
00:15:52
This is the area that Lauren
and Makayla were shot at. And from what we understand,
00:15:56
they were coming
down this sidewalk, walking home from school. And the car pulled
up right behind us,
00:16:01
pointed a gun out the window,
opened fire and killed Lauren, shooting her 14 times.
00:16:07
Eight of those shots were fatal. [quiet music continues] - It kind of burst my bubble
to tell you the truth.
00:16:12
'cause we don't have
this in our community. Situations like that
happen, you know,
00:16:15
in Chicago or LA or
in New York City. Those things don't happen here. But it was a reality
check that those things
00:16:21
can happen here
in Wichita Falls. [quiet music continues] - Makayla Smith was shot in
the chest and she turned around
00:16:29
and she said she could
see Lauren laying there and she could see her feet. And she called her name a few
times, but she didn't move.
00:16:37
There were kids all
around that saw this. This was a very public murder. [quiet music
continues and fades]
00:16:44
- There were a lot of
children that witnessed the crime that officers
had to talk to.
00:16:49
And it becomes difficult
because they're so young. [contemplative piano music] You're dealing with 12,
13-year-old children
00:16:57
that had just seen
something so horrific that they never
expected in their life.
00:17:01
[contemplative piano
music continues] - Anyone who's ever interviewed
a traumatized child,
00:17:07
particularly one
that just witnessed their friend be gunned down
and shot in front of them,
00:17:12
knows that it's not something
that comes through quickly. Asking the questions alone
can be so traumatizing.
00:17:20
A child will just cry
and scream and shut down. [contemplative piano
music continues]
00:17:26
- We didn't know at the
time, but Lauren's friend, Makayla Smith had actually
locked eyes with the killer.
00:17:32
[pulsating music] She had a description. He had shaggy brown
hair, that he was younger
00:17:36
and he was a white male. So that's what we
were looking for. [pulsating music continues]
00:17:40
- We were working very hard
to get descriptions out via social media, on
air, every avenue,
00:17:47
trying to bombard
literally, the community with information so that
we could find who did this.
00:17:56
At that point, no one knew
if he was still out there. No one knew if he
was in the area,
00:18:01
if he'd gone away, nobody knew. - Makayla saw him
right in his eyes. And that's what she
recalls, you know.
00:18:09
Thank God she had
that information and thank God she survived. How many people in
town have shaggy hair
00:18:15
and they're young men? I mean, tons of 'em. - They didn't have any
leads, for one thing.
00:18:21
They had two different
description of
vehicles, you know. A black truck and a
SUV, different color.
00:18:27
That's about all they had. - The police alerted the
community about the vehicles
00:18:32
and let us know if
you've seen any vehicles matching either of the
black truck with the chrome
00:18:37
or the gold SUV. We had no success on that. - There was an appetite to
get this guy behind bars
00:18:44
as fast as possible. I'm not kidding, everybody
was looking for that car. They wanted justice done.
00:18:54
[haunting electronic music] - By Sunday, around 11 o'clock, I received a call from
the Sergeant Detective.
00:19:06
He thought that Makayla
Smith might have gotten a good enough look at him. They might be able to
employ a sketch artist.
00:19:13
In 24 years, I've
never okayed that. And for the first time, because
we had nothing to go on,
00:19:19
I said, "Yes." [haunting electronic
music continues] - Sketches in crimes
could be an asset
00:19:24
if the description is
clear and accurate. And you can get a
description out that people
00:19:31
can actually visualize and
help police getting them to a suspect a lot quicker. But could also come
with a lot of risks,
00:19:38
if your witness is
misremembering something. And that now becomes
canonized in this sketch
00:19:44
and people immediately assume
that this sketch is accurate. In this case, the primary
witness was a child.
00:19:52
And so when accuracy
of the description and the impact on the
public is so paramount,
00:19:58
there was a lot
riding on this poor, young, traumatized girl. [tense music] - Within an hour of me
okaying a sketch artist,
00:20:12
unbeknownst to me, a
woman and her fiance were going to look at
the makeshift memorial
00:20:19
that people in the
community had made. And about that time,
a gold SUV slowed down
00:20:27
and stopped and
then continued on. And it matched the description of one of the suspect vehicles.
00:20:34
[tense music continues] They ended up following that
gold SUV and a young white male
00:20:41
with shaggy hair got
out of his vehicle and he looked nervous and
he was looking around.
00:20:46
Went to the passenger side
and retrieved an item, which was a long item
wrapped in a blanket
00:20:52
and what they believed to be the end of a rifle
sticking out of that. [pulsating music]
00:21:07
He came out without that item that looked like a rifle
wrapped in a blanket. And so she called 911
and they asked her
00:21:16
to take down the license
plate, which she did. So then she calls
that into dispatch.
00:21:22
And it's a suspect that matches the description
of Makayla Smith. And there's reasonable suspicion
to pull that vehicle over,
00:21:31
that that might be the suspect. [pulsating music continues] - So there was a police officer
that was just down the road
00:21:37
that heard the call, that immediately got
behind the vehicle, followed it for a minute,
00:21:42
and then pulled it over
on a traffic violation. [sirens wailing] [pulsating music
continues and fades]
00:21:51
[eerie music] - The patrol officer
asked for consent to search the gold SUV,
which the driver consented
00:22:14
because unbeknownst to
the police department, he'd already cleaned
out the vehicle.
00:22:18
So the officer
searches the vehicle, they find a brass shell
casing from a weapon.
00:22:28
And in the meantime
he'd found a backpack. He searched it and he
found brass knuckles.
00:22:35
And in the state of
Texas at that time, brass knuckles were
a prohibited weapon.
00:22:39
And so the driver then
was placed under arrest. My first reaction was relief because of the safety
of the community.
00:22:48
And you just wanna say,
"Heck yes. We got him." [anxious music] - We got word there was
gonna be a press conference
00:22:55
and the chief was gonna do it. And all I could think
was, "They caught him." He's gonna tell us
that they've got him.
00:23:02
I just knew it. And sure enough, the police
chief came out and said, "We've arrested a suspect
and his name is Kody Lott."
00:23:10
[anxious music
continues and fades] - [Chris] 20-year-old
Kody Lott is arrested after a traffic stop
on Southwest Parkway.
00:23:17
Police find a gun,
among other things, believed to be evidence that could have been
involved in the shooting.
00:23:22
[gentle music] - Two days after,
rumors start happening. And I do remember someone
coming up with a picture
00:23:31
of this guy, and I am like,
"Who the hell's that?" Like, "Who is that?" And she goes, "This is
the guy who killed Lauren.
00:23:39
This is him." - The fact that they caught
him and the woman who saw him and called the police was all
because of Lauren guiding us
00:23:48
and making sure that
we got justice for her. To me, that's Divine. And from the moment
that this happened,
00:23:57
I feel like I have been guided
from above by my daughter. And I know that she
had everything to do
00:24:03
with that woman being
there at that time to see what she saw. [gentle music fades]
00:24:09
- Kody Lott was not
on anybody's radar. He was pretty much a loner. He didn't have a good
employment record.
00:24:17
He did drugs and he
just was a young male that was dysfunctional. - The process begins
as he's taken downtown
00:24:27
and they start to
ask him questions. - I did not ... - Kody Lott has the
right to remain silent.
00:24:33
He doesn't have to
give a statement. He decided he wanted to
talk to the detectives
00:24:38
and they asked him
about the murder and the aggravated assault. He denied it. And for 45 minutes he
lied to the officers.
00:24:45
- [Officer] Then tell
me about it now man, because I wanna clear you
and get you on your way.
00:24:50
But if it's the opposite...
if you were there and you have any
information about it,
00:24:58
then tell me right now, man. 'Cause you know, I don't wanna get you hemmed up in
something that you didn't have
00:25:05
anything at all to do with. You know what I'm saying? - So, it looks like he
knows that he's busted
00:25:10
and he is trying to
get himself out of it. But I notice here a
detective is speaking
00:25:16
in a very soft voice. He's not yelling,
he's not screaming, he's not acting
angry in any way.
00:25:23
What he's trying to do is
start that rapport going to where the defendant thinks
00:25:27
that they have a
relationship enough that he can get him to
tell him what he has done.
00:25:34
And if you notice, Kody
Lott has his arm crossed, that's defensive. He wants to hide something.
00:25:39
And when the detectives
see him opening up, they know it's working. After about 45 minutes, the
detectives do their magic.
00:25:50
They're really good
at what they do. And they finally saw a way in and ended up getting him
to confess to the murder
00:26:00
and aggravated assault. - I saw her. I drove
by her in my car like a couple days before and
I made eye contact with her
00:26:06
and her eyes looked like
gems or something to me. Like that was all, I was like,
00:26:10
"How could someone have
such beautiful eyes?" And like I just said, "What's
up?" to her as I drove by.
00:26:15
I just, you know,
said, "What's up?" I didn't mess with
her or nothing, I just drove by her and I said,
00:26:20
"Dude I'm not gonna let
nobody else enjoy that." - So you pretty much
knew where her routes...
00:26:26
- Oh yeah, I had watched
her for about a year, man. For a year, I had seen her
walking with her boyfriend.
00:26:32
I hadn't had access to a gun. - For four hours, he talked to
detectives about everything.
00:26:38
Everything that had
happened that day, everything that had
happened since then. - He then ends up
slowly confessing to
what he did that day,
00:26:50
that Friday that he
murdered Lauren Landavazo and injured Makayla Smith. - They stopped in their tracks,
is what I'm trying to say.
00:26:55
They stopped in their tracks. And Lauren looked at
me like I was joking, or she kind of looked at me
like, "Oh, please," you know?
00:27:02
She kind of just like
turned her head like that with a kind of
smirk on her face.
00:27:05
And that's when I
decided, my eyes changed and I just like, felt,
I was like, uh huh.
00:27:10
- [Officer] And you
fired at her first? - Yeah, I fired at her. And then when her friend was
like right beside her man.
00:27:17
I pointed up and I did aim at
Lauren, but not at her head. Like, I thought it would
jam on me or, you know,
00:27:22
you would think a
gun would jam on you. But I was just pulling that
trigger as fast as I could.
00:27:26
It sounded like it was
da da da. And I shot... - It was hard to fathom
everything he was saying.
00:27:32
He was talking like
he was proud of it. There was almost a proud
presentation, if you will,
00:27:37
from him about when
he was shooting her and explaining it to the police. How he was using the gun,
00:27:44
and how he made sure he
was in the right place and that he could get
the gun out of the window
00:27:48
so he could shoot it. I mean, it was calculated. - After watching the confession
00:27:58
and seeing how cavalier he was in his description of the crime. Describing it, like
I would describe
00:28:08
my experience at a vacation. He was almost enjoying it. He's very animated and excited.
00:28:15
He was reliving it
quite enthusiastically. - He was telling detectives,
he had talked to the devil.
00:28:21
He had said that it wasn't
'a senseless killing'. He was mad about that. He wanted us to report
it as an assassination,
00:28:29
a calculated assassination. - In Kody Lott's confession, he talked about having
watched Lauren walk home
00:28:38
from junior high, from school
for approximately a year. And when she was
in seventh grade,
00:28:45
she had a boyfriend
and he wasn't happy about her having a boyfriend. - Just get ready man.
This is a story, okay?
00:28:51
So just have patience. Let me finish if you don't mind. I've had a problem, you know,
with females for a while now.
00:28:57
You can ask anybody I
know and they'll tell you, "Absolutely, that's
something Kody would do."
00:29:02
They'd say, "Absolutely he
is, he has hate in his heart." I'd seen that girl
walking multiple times
00:29:07
with her boyfriend. And her boyfriend was just
a little punk looking kid that wasn't no man.
00:29:12
So it kind of just sparked
a jealousy in me, man. And... - Despite the fact
he'd never met Lauren,
00:29:19
he had never met Makayla. They didn't know
who Kody Lott was. But he watched them from afar,
00:29:24
from his parents' apartment
through the window. And he was a lonely, selfish, terrible person, evil person
00:29:35
that didn't think about
anything but himself. His whole confession
was really about him.
00:29:40
- It's just all these
girls were just ignoring me and disrespecting me. And all I ever wanted
was an opportunity
00:29:47
to be respectful and
treat a girl right. - It just made no sense
to anyone to do that.
00:29:57
He was mad that he was not
gonna be her boyfriend. It was just a sick feeling. It was sick to read
it, it was sick.
00:30:04
It was sick to report it. I mean, you just didn't
feel good at all. It was just upsetting,
very upsetting.
00:30:13
- Never heard of him. Total stranger. Kody Lott was 20-years-old. Our daughter's 13, no way.
00:30:25
You know, and they weren't
friends on Facebook, on any social media. There was no links
whatsoever to this person.
00:30:34
He fixated on her. He watched her walk
home from school. He watched her for quite
a while apparently,
00:30:41
and planned the murder. - I remember seeing
the picture of him, how evil he looked
and just like nothing.
00:30:47
He looks like nothing. He's a little coward. If he had tried to
take Lauren, you know,
00:30:55
go and grab her and
try to take her, she probably would've
kicked his arse. But he had the power of
life and death that day
00:31:01
'cause he had a assault rifle. [somber music] - We knew that from the
time that he was arrested,
00:31:08
that he had some
mental health issues. He was diagnosed in 2015 with
schizoaffective disorder.
00:31:16
And so from the very beginning
we knew we were going to have to look for things
like him covering the weapon,
00:31:22
him throwing the
weapon in the field, him retrieving it, him lying. We started making a list showing
00:31:29
that Kody Lott knew
right from wrong. - We know that Lott had
a previous diagnosis
00:31:35
of schizoaffective disorder. So that is a combination
of schizophrenia and an affective disorder.
00:31:41
Schizophrenia is a state of
psychosis where people typically hear voices or they
have paranoid delusions.
00:31:48
And an affective disorder
is related to mood. So people who suffer from this either are quite depressed
or they're quite manic
00:31:54
or they can be overexcited
and disinhibited. But crucially,
despite all of that,
00:32:01
I still think he knew what
he was doing was wrong because he tried to
cover up his tracks.
00:32:07
- Kody Lott told them he
drove away from the scene. He got on a highway and
he stopped at a field
00:32:13
that he was familiar
with, went into the field, hid the weapon in
a place he knew
00:32:18
he'd be able to find it later. Then he went to Archer City, which is about 20 minutes
south of Wichita Falls.
00:32:26
Met up with the girl he knew and they went to her
house and did drugs. It wasn't until Sunday
that he went back
00:32:36
and retrieved the weapon, then ended up taking it back
to put it back in his stepdad,
00:32:41
I believes, gun locker
that was in that apartment. It was clear because
of his actions
00:32:48
that he knew what he
had done was not right. That it was against civil
norms and against the law.
00:32:58
[gloomy music] - Merry Christmas.
- Thank y'all. - Love you.
- Thank you. - [Bianka] Love you, Prucia.
00:33:09
[camera clicks] [gloomy music continues] - After Lauren had been
murdered, nothing was important.
00:33:15
Nothing mattered anymore. Work didn't matter,
money didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
00:33:19
[gloomy music continues] - I don't remember
much about the funeral. Vern was so busy
doing the service
00:33:29
and I was totally outta
the picture, honestly. I was in the background. I didn't know really
what was going on.
00:33:37
- There's things you have to do. You have to plan
your child's funeral. Something you never thought
you would have to do,
00:33:43
to plan a funeral. How you're gonna sum up your
child's life in an hour, an hour and a half,
two hours, whatever?
00:33:51
How you gonna do that? - Had to wait a couple years
before the trial happened. I was anxious. I was scared.
00:34:02
You know, I was thinking, "What if they don't
find him guilty? What if something's messed up?
00:34:06
What if they didn't
do something right?" I mean, I was scared. I mean, I really didn't
know what was gonna happen,
00:34:11
the outcome. [pulsating music] - I first saw Kody
Lott in the courtroom and he was physically how
Makayla Smith had described him.
00:34:32
He was very thin,
white, young male. He was 20-years-old,
shaggy brown hair. Didn't communicate very
much in the courtroom.
00:34:44
And he's exactly the profile of a young killer in Texas that commits stranger offenses.
00:34:55
And I say that because
the profile typically, like you have at
these school shootings
00:34:59
or these mass shootings, is
typically a young, white male. - [Judge] Kody Lott. - They started that
trial with children
00:35:09
coming to the witness stand
that had seen this happen, which to me is
just unfathomable.
00:35:16
But, I think we were all
ready for this trial to start. And from the moment that
the district attorney,
00:35:22
Maureen Shelton of Wichita
County opened her mouth, that jury was ready to listen.
00:35:30
- My concern from the very
beginning is that the jury would feel sorry for Kody Lott.
00:35:34
He was a very young
offender, he had drug issues. [edgy music] And his mental illness
was the major concern.
00:35:44
He was found incompetent
to stand trial before the September trial. So he was sent to a maximum
security mental institution
00:35:53
to regain his competency
before we went to trial, so he could have a fair trial.
00:35:59
- While Kody had
schizoaffective disorder, that may have led
him to have ideas and think that he
needed to kill somebody.
00:36:09
The fact that someone would
even have murder on their menu that they could enact,
00:36:16
that has nothing to do
with mental illness, that has to do with his
need for power and control.
00:36:21
- And treat a girl right. Because I knew this girl
was gonna end up drunk, getting raped in a couple years,
00:36:26
and there's all kinds
of evil going on, man. So in my mind, I saved her
from the evil of this world.
00:36:31
And also it was kind of
a sacrifice to the devil because like I've been
talking to the devil a lot
00:36:36
and he's the one that
told me to do that because I was sitting
there with the gun
00:36:40
and I was watching them. I was watching out the window,
man, waiting for them...
00:36:46
She had been walking
by herself every day. [melancholy music] - Kody Lott gave many reasons.
00:36:53
He said that he was angry because he didn't
have a girlfriend. He was angry because
he was jealous
00:36:58
because she's so beautiful. He sacrificed her to God
so he could have a mansion and all the drugs
that he wanted,
00:37:07
as a gift. So he's had a lot
of different reasons besides just the
devil made him do it.
00:37:16
- Hey, Kody Lott was never able
to justify what he had done because it's unjustifiable.
00:37:22
And his statement
made it all about him. And that somehow Lauren
was his possession,
00:37:27
even though he'd never
had any interaction with her and Makayla at all. He was just selfish, you know,
and didn't get beyond that.
00:37:35
- When I first saw him, he
just looked so scary and evil. He's never said he is sorry.
00:37:40
He's never said anything
to Makayla's family or us. [melancholy music continues]
00:37:52
- When we saw him
after they had put him into the state
hospital, medicated him,
00:37:56
when he came back into court
for that first hearing, I was immediately struck by
the difference in his face.
00:38:01
He didn't look evil anymore. He didn't have that same
evil look on his face. He looked scared, he looked
like a scared little boy to me.
00:38:07
That's what he looked like. And I actually felt
bad for him that day. I pitied him, I
felt bad for him,
00:38:14
until I watched his confession. Until I watched and
listened to the doctors talk
00:38:18
about how he still
had really no remorse for what he had done. And that's when I knew
00:38:23
that I'll never forgive
him for what he did. - On top of all that other
evidence that we play,
00:38:30
we also have to play
the in-car videos that are in patrol
cars that day. And you could hear Bianka
Landavazo arrive on scene
00:38:40
and it's that blood-curdling
scream the jury got to hear. And it was very emotional.
00:38:46
And that was my strongest
piece of evidence, I think, to bring out the
emotion of the jury
00:38:53
because they were all
parents themselves. And it's emotional and it's
the last thing the jury heard
00:39:00
and it brought tears to my eyes. [melancholy music fades] [somber piano music] - The day he was found
guilty, we knew it was coming.
00:39:13
It was something that we
had known for two years. The only thing that was
surprising was how fast it was.
00:39:19
Within an hour,
was no time at all, that they were able to come
back with those verdicts.
00:39:24
So God bless Tarrant
County Juries. - Kody Lott was found guilty
of first degree murder
00:39:30
and was sentenced
to life in prison. And then he was also found
guilty of aggravated assault
00:39:35
with a deadly weapon
and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for that. [somber music continues]
00:39:42
- I'm glad that he was found
guilty and he did get life. But life in Texas is only 60
years, which I didn't know.
00:39:50
[somber music continues] That's not justice, to me. [somber music continues] - In 30 years he's eligible
for a parole hearing.
00:40:02
It doesn't mean he's
going to get it, but he can have a parole hearing after he serves 30
years, day for day.
00:40:08
That to me is not good enough. But it's the same law that
I was sworn to uphold,
00:40:13
I couldn't do anymore. Lauren was a sweet, kind
soul that had he stopped and talked to her and
said he needed help,
00:40:22
she would've talked to him. And that's what's so
ironic about all of this is she was just
such a nice person.
00:40:29
Had he gone up to her, I think she would've
talked to him. - Today we are in front
of the McNiel Junior High.
00:40:36
This is kind of the place
right now in her life where she'd be 20-years-old. But this is as far as
she got, eighth grade.
00:40:43
First week of eighth grade
is as far as she made it. The spot that we're coming
up on is the memorial horse
00:40:51
that they put up in her
honor after she was murdered. It was actually
not just for her,
00:40:55
it was for Makayla as well. So that makes it
kind of special. It's not just a symbol
of what we lost that day,
00:41:02
but it's a symbol of... - Hope.
- Of hope, yeah. - After Lauren's death,
this community rallied.
00:41:11
They came together. They guaranteed that she
would not be forgotten. And you know, you can still
say her name in this community
00:41:20
and people know exactly
who you're talking about. - Lauren didn't
get to get married,
00:41:24
she didn't get to
graduate college. She didn't get to
develop friendships like we all got to develop.
00:41:30
You know, that's tough. That's tough for a community. No parent should
bury a young child.
00:41:34
It makes you cherish your family and the time you have
with your family. - For parents who are going
through what we're going through
00:41:41
to have a murdered loved one, I wouldn't wish it on
anybody, and it's difficult.
00:41:50
But I think what's
helped us the most is to find the positive. We were able to find that,
you know, with Lauren's Law.
00:42:01
It has to do with
capital murder in Texas, you have to be under 10 for
it to be capital murder.
00:42:06
And we didn't know that until
this happened to our daughter. She was 13, so it was
not capital murder
00:42:13
and that's why he'll be
eligible for parole one day. - Lauren's Law raised
the age now in Texas
00:42:19
where if you murder a child
between the age of 10 and 15, you are eligible
for life without the
possibility of parole.
00:42:29
- When I first met Bianka
and Vern, they were broken. I watched them sad,
I watched them mad.
00:42:35
I've watched them work
to be better people, if that's even possible. I watched Vern confront the
defendant in the courtroom
00:42:43
and the thing that stuck,
excuse me for crying, but the thing that
stuck in my mind
00:42:50
was he told the defendant
in the courtroom, "Everything you said in
your statement was a lie,
00:42:54
except two things that
my daughter was beautiful and she was an angel." And he was composed as can be.
00:43:03
And he was a parent that
day to Kody Lott in a way, it was just kind of
a strange dynamic.
00:43:10
- It's actually not the last
picture I have of Lauren, but one of the last. That night is the one where
she's going to kiss me
00:43:18
and you can't
really see her face in the last picture
I have of her. [camera clicks]
00:43:25
- You know, looking
back on all that and the way that she lived, and so adventurous and
spontaneous and random
00:43:32
and always wanting
to go somewhere. It's like she wanted to
see what life had to offer.
00:43:38
She wanted to go
out and explore. She wanted to try new things. And it's almost, you know,
to me, her soul knew.
00:43:45
Her soul knew she didn't
have a long time here. That's just how I felt. And so Lauren just
lived, you know,
00:43:53
the fullest life she
could in a short time. - If the world were full
of people like Lauren,
00:44:00
we wouldn't have problems. We wouldn't need laws,
we wouldn't need guns. She was just a pure soul.
00:44:08
She was pure love, purest love I've ever met. [camera clicks] Anybody who knew her,
knew how kind she was,
00:44:16
how loving she was, that's what she'll
always be remembered for. Just ability to bring a smile
to your face no matter what.
00:44:26
- Like I told her
before she passed, I think she would
be helping people. Whether it be a therapist,
you know, counselor,
00:44:34
I just really feel like she
would've been helping people. I just know she
would've done good.
00:44:41
We always told Lauren
that wherever you go, that's where we're
going and we're right.
00:44:49
We know where she's at
now and we're going too. We'll catch up with her. [melancholy music]
00:44:59
- [Bianka] All right,
Merry Christmas. Until next year. [melancholy music fades]