00:00:04
JONATHAN: Well, here we
are in Hampton Court. And this has been just
a wonderful place.
00:00:13
[PIANO MUSIC] LAURA: Philip was a kind
and gentle person. RONDA: He was
so well-mannered and
00:00:29
polite and interacted
in such a loving, caring way with everyone. He lit up the room
with his smile.
00:00:41
JONATHAN: If you look
at these pictures, you can see what
a free spirit Philip was, how effervescent
and bubbly
00:00:47
he was, how happy he was. And he had his whole
life ahead of him. On June the 11th, Philip went
out for his walk, and that was
00:01:03
the last time I ever saw him. [SIREN WAILING] MARK: We had a young gay
man that was beat to death,
00:01:11
left to die, and we didn't
have a lot to go on. RUSSELL: It was starting
to look a little difficult
00:01:17
as far as us making an arrest. It was getting a little cold. MARK: A crime of this level
of brutality was a shock to me.
00:01:34
RONDA: It made no sense
to me at all why anyone would want to hurt Philip. There was no sense to it.
00:01:42
MARK: When all
the information came out, I was shocked that it was
done just because he was gay.
00:01:53
LAURA: You would hear about
hate crimes on the news, but it never happens to me.
00:01:58
It never happens to my family. Well, it did. It happened to us. It happened to Philip.
00:02:08
[SOMBER MUSIC] RONDA: Philip was born
February 25th, 1978. He just seemed like a perfect
size for me to hold.
00:02:38
And I just remember
treasuring those moments of cradling him and rocking
him and watching him develop.
00:02:47
LAURA: The first time
I saw him, he just had this little scrunched
up look on his face
00:02:53
like he wasn't sure being here
was such a good idea after all. But he was so, so cute.
00:03:04
RONDA: This was when
Philip was a baby, and that is my dad
holding him on the table
00:03:10
at our house in Tucson. LAURA: He was raised in Tucson,
and lived on Apple Tree Lane.
00:03:19
- This is Halloween, and we
were going trick or treating, and I was in charge
of holding Philip.
00:03:29
He was dressed up. I can't tell what he was,
but he's holding his pumpkin. And just fun days in Tucson.
00:03:40
We just had an unspoken
love for each other that just came naturally, and
we enjoyed our time together.
00:03:49
Our-- our young lives were
spent with very happy memories. LAURA: Philip wasn't
a typical boy.
00:04:09
He wasn't very rambunctious. He didn't want to play sports. He was more interested
in listening to music.
00:04:18
He didn't raise a lot of fuss. He didn't get
in fights at school. He was just a calm, quiet kid.
00:04:28
RONDA: When we were growing up,
being gay wasn't talked about. I don't even know if I
really knew what gay was.
00:04:35
It wasn't a common topic. LAURA: Growing up in the '80s
in Tucson, it was a very
00:04:45
conservative kind of town. If someone was gay, they
would have a hard time. It was not acceptable to--
00:04:56
to my parents. It wasn't acceptable
to Philip's parents. It was just not spoken
of because it wasn't allowed.
00:05:11
RONDA: I'm sure it was
very difficult for Philip to come out in 1993. I don't remember necessarily
being shocked or surprised.
00:05:22
I still loved
him, and it didn't change a thing about
the way I felt about him. LAURA: When he did come out,
he did not get much acceptance
00:05:34
from his parents,
and he left home as a teenager because of that. BRYANNA: Back in the 1990s,
it was still stigmatized.
00:05:45
It was still
considered unusual. Some people were
very accepting. Others were very not.
00:05:51
There was still a lack
of understanding, a lack of willingness
to accept. LAURA: Shortly after he
came out and had left home,
00:06:02
my mom was there to make
sure that he was OK, that he'd found
a place to live, that he was with good people.
00:06:18
JONATHAN: I met Philip
outside the IBT bar in 1999. I found Philip to be
very confident.
00:06:28
I thought, he's very
sophisticated and very directed, knew
what he wanted, knew what he was
looking for, and I
00:06:36
was very impressed with that. After we met that night, we
were constantly together.
00:06:46
He had his own apartment. He had a job. We spent essentially all
of our free time together.
00:06:55
When Philip moved
in with me, then I knew, this is the real thing. We would rent movies and watch
them at home, and just
00:07:04
most of the time,
just being together, whatever we were doing,
going food shopping
00:07:09
or running errands,
going to the bank, those chores, which
were such drudgery, became something I was
anxious to do because I
00:07:19
could do it with him. I was smitten. I was hook, line, and sinker. RONDA: I remember
Philip was living
00:07:31
with his partner
Jonathan in Tucson and that they were happy. LAURA: I think Jonathan was--
00:07:40
was a good place
for Philip to be. It was a safe home. It was someone who
loved him for who he
00:07:50
was and wanted to be with him. JONATHAN: I realized that he
was estranged from his family.
00:08:11
I think his mother wanted to
have a relationship with him. I think she was sad that they
didn't have a strong bond.
00:08:20
So when I encouraged him
to reach out to them, they responded, and, in fact,
would even invite me along
00:08:31
with him to things
like a Christmas party or events like that. So it made a tremendous
difference in his life
00:08:40
when he kind of got
his family back. RONDA: Philip did a lot to show
his love towards his dad.
00:08:49
Took him to lunch and spent
special time with him, which, of course, meant
a lot to my uncle,
00:08:57
and it meant a lot
to me that Philip had that kind of a heart. LAURA: They saw
that with Jonathan,
00:09:07
that he had someone
who loved him and someone he could spend his
life with, and that, I think,
00:09:14
enabled them to see that being
gay isn't the end of the world. It's just the beginning.
00:09:24
RONDA: He went to work
for American Airlines, and I was so proud of him. He was traveling and enjoying
life, and I was happy for him.
00:09:38
JONATHAN: After Philip
got his job at American, we were starting
to take plane trips,
00:09:44
and it changed his
whole attitude, from living in a small town his
whole life to seeing the world.
00:10:00
The first major trip
we made was to Bermuda. We had a wonderful time,
and Philip was in heaven.
00:10:06
I think it was the--
the happiest week of his life. LAURA: We would
email now and again.
00:10:13
He would tell me
a little about his job and that he was getting
to do some traveling.
00:10:22
JONATHAN: Here we are in the
Admiral's Club in Chicago on our way to England. This was the highlight
of my life, this trip.
00:10:31
Philip was in heaven, sitting
in those first class seats. I'd never seen
anything like that.
00:10:39
There's Philip,
sitting in the seat. He's playing with his TV,
trying to get it to work.
00:10:49
I never flew first class
before I met Philip. That was a new
experience for me. That's something I couldn't
have done on my own.
00:11:01
We're driving along
the sea route. Philip is doing his best
to drive in this crazy place.
00:11:09
And he was immensely
proud of that. Here comes Philip. This little walk in the forest
is just delightful.
00:11:20
When we got back from
our trip, our relationship was on a whole different level.
00:11:25
And I knew at that point
that this was it for me. This was my life. And I believe he
felt the same way.
00:11:33
We were so happy. And we went about
our normal lives. - Are you done with that thing?
00:11:49
JONATHAN: Three weeks later,
Philip returned from work, probably around midnight.
00:11:56
Philip's job at American
Airlines was a reservationist, and I know that that
can be very, very hard,
00:12:04
because people are upset. They're not getting
their flights. Their flight was delayed.
00:12:07
There's a problem. He would be quite keyed
up when he would get home. What he would usually
do in that case
00:12:15
is take a walk around
the neighborhood. He loved the quiet
of the night. So Philip said goodnight to me
and went out for his walk,
00:12:27
and that was the last
time I ever saw him. - When I first received
the call about this case,
00:12:43
I was at home. It was early in the morning. The information I got
over the telephone
00:12:47
was that a passerby
had walked by and seen an unidentified male
laying in the street,
00:12:53
and they thought he
had been hit by a car, so they called 911. The scene was in the middle
of the road on Fifth Street,
00:13:00
between Hoff Avenue
and Third Avenue. MARK: There was so much blood
that they could not determine
00:13:10
what the injuries were. RUSSELL: When
the paramedics got there, they saw the seriousness
of the injuries to his head
00:13:16
and determined this
was not a car crash. It was not consistent
with being hit by a car.
00:13:21
It was, in fact, an assault.
So they grabbed him and ran to the hospital with him.
00:13:28
MARK: When I arrived
at the scene, I saw the police officers. I saw the-- everything
was blocked off.
00:13:32
I saw the tape. RUSSELL: When we came down
here to see the scene, he had already been
transported to the hospital.
00:13:45
What was left was a large
pool of blood with clothing that had been cut
off the victim,
00:13:51
and some bandaging
from the medics that arrived to treat him. MARK: They were taking
photographs of the scene.
00:13:58
They were looking for evidence. They were checking
for surveillance. They were looking
for witnesses that
00:14:03
may have been in their homes,
heard something, saw something. And this was early hours in
the morning, so a lot of people
00:14:08
are asleep. RUSSELL: All
the evidence that we found belonged to the victim. His blood, his clothing.
00:14:14
There was no other
evidence found that would point
to anybody else that was responsible for this.
00:14:19
While we were at the scene,
looking it over, we were told that
the victim had, in fact, died of his injuries.
00:14:37
I went to the hospital
to actually get a look at our victim. He had suffered serious,
serious injuries to his head,
00:14:46
to his skull, at least two
of which penetrated the-- the skull and into his brain.
00:14:53
His head was heavily bandaged. His eyes were swollen shut. They were black and blue
from all the blood
00:14:59
draining down into his face. Because of that,
homicide detectives are now involved to determine
how he got injured like that.
00:15:10
MARK: The Tucson
Police Department has to find out who he is. That was the next
important thing.
00:15:16
JONATHAN: I woke up,
and Philip was not home. His car was parked in its spot,
and I thought, this is odd.
00:15:26
He's not here. And I was starting
to get concerned. RUSSELL: I arranged to have
fingerprints taken from him,
00:15:35
since we didn't know who
he was, and also arranged to have a photograph
taken of his face in case,
00:15:41
we could get him
identified just by showing a photograph around. But he didn't look anything
like he did in real life.
00:15:50
BRYANNA: He was hit
in the head with a baseball bat almost 20 times. His injuries, to his
face in particular,
00:15:56
were so horrifically terrible
he was unrecognizable. RUSSELL: After his fingerprints
were taken at the hospital,
00:16:06
he was eventually identified
by a fingerprint comparison. Apparently, he had
been in the system
00:16:11
from some other prior
contact with the police. BRYANNA: He had very
minor infractions
00:16:17
for traffic related offenses. Luckily, his fingerprints were
in their system, otherwise,
00:16:21
he may have gone a long time
without being identified. RUSSELL: Once Mr.
Walsted was identified,
00:16:28
we were able to track
down his next of kin, which was his mother. The police department were
able to make contact with her
00:16:35
and explain to her
what happened, and notified her of his death. Notifying people of a death
of one of their relatives
00:16:51
is never an easy one. JONATHAN: I got a telephone
call from my cousin saying, we heard something
on the radio,
00:17:00
and we were just wondering
if Philip is all right. And I said, well, no, he's not.
00:17:07
He-- he did not come
home last night. They said, well, there's
been a report of a murder.
00:17:23
MARK: I remember Philip's
mother told police that he was gay
and he was living with his partner
in downtown Tucson,
00:17:30
which was blocks from the
location where he was found. JONATHAN: I immediately went
down to the police station,
00:17:38
and that's when I found out
that it was, in fact, Philip who had been murdered. LAURA: The email came in, and I
saw it was from my sister.
00:17:52
I'll never forget what it said. She said, I don't know
how to tell you this, but Philip is dead.
00:18:00
He was robbed
and beaten, and he died. RONDA: Learning that Philip
had died, I'll never forget it.
00:18:16
It's basically like you're
melting into the Earth and the world is
spinning around you.
00:18:22
It's so tragic. It was such a horrible
piece of news. LAURA: It was like being
run over by a truck.
00:18:31
It was a huge emotional blow. I just remember I cried
and cried for probably an hour.
00:18:42
JONATHAN: The feeling
was indescribable. It was like,
my life is over too. I'm finished.
00:18:49
Why even carry on? This-- this was-- I'd found this wonderful
man who I was planning
00:18:57
to spend my life with. All my plans, all my dreams,
all my aspirations revolved around him.
00:19:04
And that was gone. I was a mess. I was a wreck. RUSSELL: When we
determined Mr. Walsted was
00:19:16
living with
somebody, that person became a person of interest. MARK: Initially,
he is a suspect,
00:19:21
because that's the first
thing they're going to do. They're going to turn
their eyes on the partner.
00:19:29
JONATHAN: I went
to the police station and talked to the detectives. They told me that it-- he was
probably beaten with a 2 by 4.
00:19:39
They clearly did not
want to say a bat. I guess they did that
to see my reaction.
00:19:50
RUSSELL: When Jonathan
came to the station, he was very professional. He knew why I wanted
to talk to him.
00:19:55
Yes, he was nervous,
but he was very forthright, telling me everything I
wanted, answered questions
00:20:01
that I hadn't had
the answers to. - We talked for, I'd
say, maybe an hour. And I think during
that period, the cops
00:20:15
realized it couldn't
possibly have been me. - What he did was
tighten up a timeline.
00:20:24
He had indicated that Philip
had worked to a certain time, got home late, had a beer,
said he was going to go out.
00:20:30
I think from
the beginning, they were starting
to minimize anything he had to do with his crime.
00:20:40
Nothing of importance was
found by the police at Jonathan and Philip's home. The information
we had, they were
00:20:46
living a normal, happy,
fun life together. RUSSELL: I had
gotten information that he liked to frequent
a bar on 4th Avenue.
00:21:06
It's called IBT's. MARK: IBT's is
primarily a gay bar, but it's also a dance club.
00:21:15
All kinds of people
go in there to have fun and drink and dance. RUSSELL: We talked to people
in IBT's, the customers and
00:21:22
the security people
that were there. They didn't have a lot
of background for me
00:21:26
other than they had
seen him in there a lot. They talked, but it was very
minimal according to the people
00:21:31
that we spoke to. The security people knew him
just as a frequent visitor to the bar, but they
didn't socialize with him.
00:21:40
You could probably
consider it was getting close to a dead end. Nobody could give
us any information
00:21:45
about his activity that night. In our attempt to find
some more leads and talk to people
who knew Philip,
00:21:53
we went to his
place of business and talked to several of his
co-workers, and none of them
00:21:58
could give us anything but a
little background information about their time
socializing with him
00:22:04
within the work environment. MARK: There was no
surveillance, no eyewitnesses that were known to the police,
no cameras, no ring
00:22:13
cameras, no porch cameras. None of that stuff. No witnesses that came forward. Just one 911 caller saying
that he had found a man
00:22:25
bloodied in the middle
of the road. You don't have
anything to go on, and your sole witness is
the partner, who was asleep
00:22:34
at the time, and everything
that he told them appeared to be correct and true. LAURA: It was
very difficult not
00:22:46
knowing if the person that had
done it would ever be caught. Somebody needed to be held
accountable for what they had
00:22:54
done, and we didn't know who. RONDA: I remember just
being so sad for my aunt. It was extremely
devastating to watch
00:23:22
her try to deal with the pain. MARK: The local weekly
paper picked up the story,
00:23:40
and flyers were put out
asking the public for its help in solving this crime. The mother of an eyewitness
came forward,
00:23:48
saying that her daughter
had information, eyewitness information on the
homicide involving Philip.
00:23:54
That was a huge, huge
break in the case. It was so big that
the detectives all immediately rallied
to find out what this woman
00:24:04
knew about the homicide. - We needed to talk
to this girl. We needed to find her.
00:24:11
I asked officers in that area
if they could locate her, and They brought her
to me at the station,
00:24:16
where I interviewed her. MARK: The young woman
did tell the police that she saw a picture
of Philip in the newspaper,
00:24:36
and that she also
recognized the photograph from a driver's license. RUSSELL: She told me that
on the morning of June 12th,
00:24:43
she was with a person
she identified as David Higdon,
and they were just driving around in his truck.
00:24:54
- David Higdon was
a 20-year-old who lived in Tucson, who had just
recently been released from
00:24:58
prison for burglary,
drug charges, and aggravated assault. He
was known to have a very bad
00:25:05
temper, he was very angry, and
it was predictable that another offense was bound to happen.
00:25:13
MARK: They ended up
parking the pickup truck, sitting on the tailgate
of the pickup truck
00:25:17
when the victim
came walking by. They engaged in some
conversation. Philip stayed at the tailgate
of the pickup truck.
00:25:25
She ended up getting
into the cab, and that's when,
a short period of time later, she looked
in her rear view mirror
00:25:33
and saw Higdon beating
him with a baseball bat. - [SOBS] RUSSELL: She heard
David yelling at Philip,
00:25:55
and at that point,
Philip took off running with David in pursuit. They went around the corner
out of this girl's sight,
00:26:02
but she could still
hear what was going on. MARK: She told
the police that she could hear the sound
of the baseball
00:26:18
bat striking the victim. Higdon came back
a short time later carrying items from
the victim, and
00:26:24
she identified at some point
as being his watch, his shoes, keys, and driver's license.
00:26:48
MARK: She was very
emotional, she was crying, she was distraught,
and she said she believed that Higdon
had done this to Philip
00:26:55
because he was gay. RUSSELL: I asked her what
had happened after David got back to the truck.
00:27:07
She said that they eventually
went back to David's house. David took all the items
that he had taken from Philip
00:27:14
into the house, and he
had a discussion with his brother,
who then tells him how to get rid
of DNA evidence and
00:27:22
that he shouldn't
even have brought that stuff back to the house. She said he also used
the victim's driver's license
00:27:28
to cut lines
of cocaine, and that he keeps his driver's license
in a top drawer of a toolbox.
00:27:36
When I asked her
why she didn't come tell me about this
information, she said she was afraid of David.
00:27:59
MARK: The police, with
this information they had, identified who Higdon was
and where he was living,
00:28:05
got a search warrant
for his house. RUSSELL: We'd set
up on surveillance at David's residence.
00:28:13
At approximately 1:00 AM, David
drove back up in that white pickup truck that matched
the description that this
00:28:18
young lady had told me about. And that's when we
made a plan to make an entry into the house.
00:28:25
We had to force the door open. We made his entry inside,
where we found David, his brother, and his father.
00:28:34
MARK: Once a search
warrant is served, everyone is removed from
the house, taken to the station
00:28:37
to do follow up interviews. Detectives remain on scene,
searching for items, identifying items.
00:28:43
Photographs are taken, and
the items that are important, are of evidentiary
value, are collected,
00:28:47
and they are taken
to the evidence and properties section of
the Tucson Police Department.
00:28:51
At the same time,
other detectives are attempting to interview
his brother and David Higdon,
00:28:57
who is the suspect in the case. RUSSELL: Officers recovered
Philip's driver's license.
00:29:04
We found an aluminum
bat with blood on it. We found some shoes that had
blood speckles on it, jeans
00:29:10
also with some blood spatter,
as well as Philip's glasses. MARK: The brother of David
Higdon was interviewed first.
00:29:18
Initially, he denied
knowing anything, but eventually he
told the police that his brother did come
home and admitted to him
00:29:25
that he had hurt somebody. RUSSELL: We went
to interview David. I advised him
of his rights, and
00:29:34
he said he wanted an attorney. So once that happens, we
stop asking questions. - David Higdon was arrested
on first degree murder charges,
00:29:46
and he was transported,
booked into the local jail, and held on a $1 million bond.
00:29:52
I think there was a huge
relief in the community that someone was
arrested and in custody
00:30:00
for the brutal
slaying of Philip. LAURA: We still didn't have
a whole lot of information
00:30:08
about Higdon, other
than what the police had been able to tell us, that
he wasn't accepting of gays.
00:30:18
He wasn't accepting
of people of color. RONDA: When I found out that it
was just a random stranger that
00:30:26
decided to kill Philip
because he was gay, I didn't understand that. I-- It is hard to fathom
that there's that much evil
00:30:40
in somebody's mind. JONATHAN: I knew
that there had been a lot of crimes
against gay people,
00:30:47
so it was a-- it was a shock
that it was my partner, but it was not a surprise. MARK: People did want this
to be classed as a hate crime.
00:31:13
As time went on,
we got more and more bits of information that
supported it as a hate crime.
00:31:22
RUSSELL: I had
gotten information about David's affiliation with
the white supremacist groups
00:31:26
within the prison system. Letters had been
intercepted that he wrote, which alluded to being
part of the white supremacist
00:31:33
groups, the Aryan Brotherhood. Those letters were shipped to
the county attorney's office.
00:31:41
MARK: Once we had all
the information necessary, including from the young
lady, confirmation that Philip
00:31:46
was actually gay
and the compilation of all that information together, it
was classified as a hate crime.
00:31:54
So while incarcerated,
he did get a tattoo with lightning bolts,
and they were colored in.
00:31:59
The important
part about that is when anyone who's
associated with this gang darkens in their bolts, it's
because they have committed
00:32:07
a homicide of one
of the classes of people that the gang is against. We used that
information later on
00:32:16
to show that that's another
reason he was guilty of the homicide,
because he followed
00:32:21
the protocol to let
the world know, I'm a killer for the cause. David Higdon's trial for murder
started on January 13th, 2005.
00:32:41
The trial lasted 11 days. JONATHAN: David Higdon saw me
sit down in the witness chair.
00:32:50
I looked at Higdon. You could see what
kind of person he was. RONDA: Being
in the courtroom and
00:32:57
hearing the details of Philip's
murder was devastating. It was extremely painful.
00:33:05
I remember just being so angry
at the guy that we were all having to go through that,
and that he was being defended,
00:33:17
and that he actually
thought he had a defense against killing Philip. MARK: The defense
for Mr. Higdon
00:33:32
argued that he didn't
do the killing, that the state's
evidence was weak, that the state's
evidence was not
00:33:38
enough to support a conviction
for first degree murder. We had witness interviews.
00:33:45
All the items we'd collected
from Higdon's house, including the bloody bat, bloody
shoes, bloody watch, driver's
00:33:51
license of the victim. Statements from
the brother saying that he had used the bat,
he had beat somebody
00:34:00
and he was covered in blood. We identified Higdon
as a white supremacist who hated certain people.
00:34:08
Jewish people, people of color,
homosexual people, and only wanted one breed
of people to continue,
00:34:16
and that was the white breed. - It was very difficult
for me to look at him. I thought it was just
an evil presence.
00:34:29
MARK: I found
an expert in the world of skinhead, white supremacist,
neo-Nazi, Aryan Brotherhood,
00:34:40
a person who had actually been
in that lifestyle for 12 years and had walked away from it.
00:34:45
I asked him if he could
testify as an expert, and he agreed to do so. The fact that we had an expert
to talk about white supremacy
00:34:53
and why they don't like certain
classifications of people, gay people being one of the
classes, what it means to have
00:35:01
tattoos on a body
from the white supremacist organizations. All that information
is evidence.
00:35:09
We put it all together,
we segmented it, and we put it on a piece
by piece by piece by piece.
00:35:14
And at the conclusion,
we got a verdict. RUSSELL: On January 27th 2005,
David Higdon was convicted
00:35:29
of first degree murder. RONDA: I did not see any
remorse in this man's eyes or demeanor.
00:35:38
I don't believe that he
was remorseful at all. MARK: In March of 2005,
the day of the sentencing,
00:35:47
Higdon arrived in court, and he
shows up with a skinhead, I thought, this guy
will never quit.
00:35:54
He hasn't gotten it. He's never shown remorse. He doesn't care. This is the life he chose.
00:36:00
This is the life he wants. Nothing else matters
except himself. LAURA: We had all written
impact statements of what
00:36:17
Philip's loss had meant
to us, and the prosecutor used much of that. His mother spoke
at the sentencing,
00:36:28
and she did a beautiful job. - He was sentenced by the judge
to natural life in prison.
00:36:41
JONATHAN: When we
heard the sentence, it was a great relief. Philip's mother was
in the courtroom,
00:36:47
and when the judge said
life without parole, she just let out a, yes! And that's how I felt.
00:37:05
LAURA: I met some of the-- the gay community when I went
to the sentencing hearing.
00:37:12
They were there because they
were family too. And they lost
a brother and a friend.
00:37:25
BRYANNA: Since Philip
Walsted was murdered, The Tucson Police
Department has actually
00:37:29
taken several steps
to try to eradicate hate crimes in their community. One was that they had
the safe places policy, where
00:37:38
people that are different
sexual orientations and are feeling
threatened know there
00:37:43
are certain businesses
and places they can go to seek refuge, to be safe. They now have liaisons
that are specifically
00:37:51
trained on how to communicate
most effectively and take these reports, and
to be the most understanding
00:37:57
and compassionate
with people that already feel so vulnerable. RUSSELL: I find it
heartbreaking, you know,
00:38:04
that somebody that young had
so much more life to live, and it was taken away from him.
00:38:12
It's not right. It should never be right. They didn't deserve it. People are people
with different choices
00:38:18
and different
thoughts, and they shouldn't be killed for those. JONATHAN: Well, we're
on our last hour now,
00:38:26
so I'm going to get a sunny
view from our balcony. RONDA: There's a memorial
for Philip in Tucson.
00:38:35
There's a big tree
there and a park bench, and family members
and loved ones have visited it over the years.
00:38:49
MARK: It had a profound
effect on me. I do think about the case. I drive by this
memorial, and I glance
00:38:55
over that and think about it. JONATHAN: I left Tucson
a few days after the trial,
00:39:02
and this is the first
time I've been back. I haven't even
seen the memorial. LAURA: It's a place
I can go, and
00:39:13
I can remember
spending time with him, and it's a place
for good memories. - We've lost somebody
that will never
00:39:27
know what their future was. We'll never know what
their potential was. We'll never know what
value they could have
00:39:32
provided to the community. It's important
for Tucson to remember. JONATHAN: Coming back here
has been very hard for me.
00:39:44
Seeing our old house where we
lived together for three years, seeing the memorial, it's
been very, very hard for me.
00:39:52
But I'm-- I'm glad
that I did it. RONDA: I know
that losing Philip has been a devastating
event in his mom's life.
00:40:14
I know that she is,
to this day, devastated. Philip was just a sweet soul. JONATHAN: What I miss about
Philip was the simple things
00:40:41
we used to do together. We just enjoyed each
other's company, and I knew that it would
never happen for me again.
00:40:51
I never even tried
to meet anybody again. I knew that part
of my life was over. - I would have loved for him
and Jonathan to have--
00:41:09
to have built
their life together and to have perhaps gone
on to have children. It would have
been so wonderful.
00:41:26
RONDA: I miss his quiet
spirit, his funny little side jokes, and just
the sweetness of who he was.
00:41:43
I miss that we didn't
have more time together. LAURA: When I met
my wife, it was
00:41:57
the first same-sex relationship
either one of us had been in, and it surprised the heck
out of us both, I think.
00:42:06
But I do wish Philip had-- had lived long enough to see
me find happiness with my wife.
00:42:18
Whether it was, you know, him
poking fun at me and saying, I knew, I knew it. I could see him do that.
00:42:29
That would be great. JONATHAN: I asked Philip
if he wanted to get married. He thought that was
silly in those days,
00:42:41
but it was not the thing
that it is today. I would have been happy to. LAURA: I want Philip to be
remembered for being kind and
00:42:59
joyful, for the love
he had for Jonathan, for the love he
had for his family, because he was taken
from us, and I don't
00:43:12
want anybody to forget him. JONATHAN: We're about
to get on the road. Be seeing you.
00:43:31
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