Killer Cases: Ex-Girlfriend’s Obsession Turns Deadly — The Story of Brenda Delgado

it's in a a area that we call Uptown and it's full of very expensive Apartments nice restaurants no all I heard was screaming and then a loud popped and then I saw her laying on the floor and Kendra was the All-American Beauty captain of her High School cheerleading team this was just it just didn't make sense so at this point we're asking for the Public's assistance in identifying and locating that vehicle and any occupants that may have been in that vehicle at the time normally when we bring people in that are suspect and murder investigations they're super nervous and kind of closed off and guarded Brenda was the exact opposite of that would you say it's a big coincidence that your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend ends up dead all Brenda could talk about was Ricky and Kendra and how she wanted someone to hurt Ricky or Kendra today we are announcing the addition of capital murder suspect Brenda Delgado to the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list why did she want to get rid of Kendra because she was envious of her I couldn't imagine who would do it I couldn't imagine who would hurt her who the hell do you think you are [Music] Brenda okay your wife is in a bar you said she's under this is what he's going to tell you know how to get out of that situation and I grabbed the gun trying to find the first place to put a body no sir the only thing they could do was kill him you want to say anything we the jury and Def find the defendant [Music] emergency hi uh someone just got shot in the parking lot of uh The Gables Park 17 in the P1 they got cameras that come in and out of this place yeah they're checking on right now okay did you see someone that was shot uh yeah no all I heard was screaming and then a loud popped and then I saw her laying on the floor and there was like red like blood coming out of her neck and her phone's on the floor her car door is open I don't know what happened she has a she has a police badge on her sunor watch where you step stay back over there for me okay just to let you know there's one homicide detective for the entire city tonight he knows about this I just arrived home and it was uh one of those things where I made a quick U-turn hopped in my car and started headed back to Dallas when Dallas homicide detective Eric Barnes got the call he was surprised about the location of the shooting it's in a area that we call Uptown and we don't normally have a lot of violent crime in that area and it's full of very expensive Apartments nice restaurants reporter skip hollandsworth covered the case from the start for Texas monthly this is an upscale world where there are no shootings in the parking garage there is no desperate acts done by people this was just it just didn't make sense [Music] initially the first thing that came to mind uh was that it was probably a robbery we found out her name was Kendra Hatcher she had moved to the Dallas area where she was working at a pediatric dentist office in Irving Texas Kendra was the All-American Beauty captain of her High School cheerleading team she was a devoted Christian she was my um yoga student she was amazing she was beautiful outspoken just the beautiful smile and you know why her cannot believe a her you know why has to be her we got surveillance footage from the parking garage it was kind of grainy but we were able to determine that there was a vehicle that pulled in kind of circled the garage for a little bit and parked near her vehicle or parked where her parking spot was uh prior to the shooting during the time that Kendrick came in and parked she had been in her parking space for maybe two seconds before an individual got out of the back of this vehicle and walked towards her car and we believe that was the shooting want to talk about the homicide that occurred on Cedar Springs last night and so at this point we're asking for the Public's assistance and I identifying and locating both that those that vehicle and any occupants that may have been in that vehicle at the time Kendra's boyfriend Dr Ricardo panaga was the first to respond and he informed me that the individual that he saw um on the surveillance footage and from the still photo uh reminded him of his girlfriend Brenda Delgado his ex-girlfriend he told me that they dated um for a couple years that they actually lived together they broke up prior to him uh uh dating Kendra and then the homicide tipline got a call from an auto mechanic who said he was the owner of the Jeep Cherokee coincidentally once I started talking with him he brought up Brenda's name again and so she was having mechanical issues with her car so he provided his Jeep as kind of a loner vehicle for Brenda things are starting to line up pretty quick and and I'm thinking Brenda is definitely someone we need to talk to like I said I appreciate you coming down and talk to me yes sir of course tell me what I can help with okay Brenda Del gam was the daughter of a Mexican factory worker who came to Dallas so she could get a good education she wanted to go to college but her parents couldn't afford it so she decided to become a dental hygienist she uh went to an Evangelical Church she was very loyal to her family to her friends she didn't drink too much she didn't flirt too much of course I'm working a murder investigation yes um young lady was killed on Wednesday and I am I'm the guy that's assigned to the case um your name came up in the investigation so I wanted to sit down and talk with you kind of can I how did my name come up I okay I'll explain all of that to you yes yes I want to know normally when we bring people in that are suspects in Murder investigations or Persons of Interest in Murder investigations they're super nervous and kind of closed off and guarded and and Brenda was the exact opposite of that she was very friendly um she was she appeared to be trying to build a personal relationship with me at the same time I'm trying to build one with her I I am second I like that yeah I had a uh I am second bracelet um that I we you know I was volunteering as part of an organization uh to help out with the kids that were are arrested for violent crimes and she immediately started telling me Oh I'm a member of that I believe you know in Jesus and and she was trying to build a bond with me through my religious affiliation I'm part of it all my family they're True Believers and I want to cooperate I want to know what's going on and I want you to okay well I would be I would be 100% honest with you that's what you can count on for me and I will be too she of course told me that you know she knew about the murder um based off of the news but she had no idea who came Hatcher was this is the picture of young lady that got K never seen her before I've never seen her okay you know she's a uh she was a dentist mhm um I don't have like no idea who he's who she is who she who she's dating in the name like I have no idea he just kind of said hey like I'm seeing someone but Brenda had a solid Alibi she had been at a library all day studying with a classmate for her dental technician's license okay and I studied from maybe 12 all the way to like about six and then to a Chili's restaurant with another friend all right you said you have the receipt in your bag yeah yeah I can show you let's get that y please I thought I can give you other numbers I and she had a receipt at the very top of her wallet that she was ready to hand off you know you close out at actually it was later 857 okay you close out at 857 it was a little too good do you mind if I hang on to this go ahead no yeah keep it I don't need it but it did prove that it could not have been Brenda seen on the surveillance video driving the Jeep Cherokee and then Brenda said she knew who was driving the car that day a friend of hers named Crystal no it wasn't me it was crystal the girl that took me okay cuz I didn't have a car so did Crystal borrow a vehicle yes Crystal Crystal borrow a vehicle to take me to the library okay so where did Crystal borrow one of his cars yes what did she what kind of car did she borrow it was that car Crystal borrow his Jeep okay that that car I think yeah that car that je that used to show me the picture yeah there was very little resistance at all when I asked about who Crystal was and if I could get a phone number she was ready to to serve Crystal up on a dish and soon Crystal was in an inter intergation room down the hall from Brenda with her own story to tell we kind of had a game of cat and mouse [Music] going we are digging for new details this morning in the murder that has shaken a Dallas Community this murder has really rocked their sense of security at this point no word on who the suspect or suspects May Be detectives have been out all night and throughout today canvasing the other businesses in the area looking for additional evidence surveillance footage what have you talking with residents talking with potential Witnesses and now at the Dallas Police Headquarters a kind of Texas twep was underway in interrogation room number two Brenda Delgado wrapping herself in blankets in the air conditioned room with an airtight Alibi and claiming total ignorance of what happened down the hall in interrogation room number four a woman named Crystal Cortez a friend of Brenda's and a challenge for detective Eric Barnes her stories were all over the place and she's a pathological lar but Crystal Cortez readily admitted being the driver of the Jeep Cherokee tied to the murder scene she gave me three or four different stories about where she was at how she ended up in the parking garage what happened once she got in the parking garage her first version was that a masked man forced her to do it the guy gets in my seat and he puts the gun right here my son's in the back my son is in the back my instinct is I'm I'm just shocked and nervous as anybody else you know that sounded like something out of a Hollywood script and murders just don't happen like that so one of the things we used to kind of defeat that story was the surveillance footage the footage showing she made no effort to take off once the gunman left the car one of the last stories that she told me was that Linda hired her to go to this parking garage and she wanted Kendra Hatcher's purse and specifically her ID card all for just $500 and some drugs according to Crystal and now I have a money exchange for a robbery that took place and the shooter is in the car so now we have a capital murder I had enough to put Crystal in jail at [Music] that so I couldn't wait to get back in the room with Brenda now now I actually have some uh some teeth and and actually some traction on this investigation and just got done talking to Crystal we had a very interesting conversation and I know that you haven't been truthful with me okay so I know what this is about and so what I'm asking you for is for the truth I mean that's the truth I was not driving okay I know you weren't driving I know you weren't there I know who was driving I know Crystal was driving M okay and I know what happened okay and I know what the agreement that you made there was no agreement I mean no agreement so now I start going back to to work on Brena I didn't quite have enough I need a little more from her something that I could to use against her to to arrest her would you say it's a big coincidence that your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend ends up dead and your friend ends up driving in the same parking lot that this happens at around the same time that it happens in a jeep that you borrow I think I I Crystal borrowed the Jeep I think that's one we're we're getting cuz I wasn't she needed the car okay but even that okay the young lady that ends up dead her boyfriend the relation is you you to him to her Crystal ends up in this parking garage your friend your friend's jeep your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend all three of those things point back to you that is you you're the common theme in all of these things so what I'm asking you is how do this happen the Mr ni guy routine was out the window and I needed to shake her up a little bit because emotionally she was still unbothered you know she was still playing the sweet and innocent role this isn't rocket science people will put this together very [Music] fast that's why I'm asking you why no I'm telling you I this is I didn't do anything I have no motive I have no motive you had plenty of motive there's plenty of motive I think it was hate I think you hated the fact that you weren't good enough no that's the truth and sometimes the truth hurts you weren't good enough for Ricky maybe maybe he didn't like the way you looked I didn't maybe maybe something you did got on his nerves maybe he didn't want a dental hygienist anymore maybe he wanted a dentist maybe he wanted maybe you just weren't good enough for him maybe his standards were a little bit too high for you but for whatever reason you weren't good enough for him and that's a that's a hard pill to swallow I mean I don't have any feelings like like you were saying I really don't have any like I didn't know even know who the girl was I had no idea that's not true you know who his girlfriend is just like you knew where he was taking his salsa lessons at because you follow him her ex-boyfriend the doctor had told detective Barnes that Brenda suddenly showed up where he was taking salsa L and then suddenly showed up on a running path where he was jogging Crystal has no reason to want her dad you know who has the motive you know who has the motive you know what Crystal's motive was to make some money to feed her kid and I can understand that you took advantage of that no yes she did yes you did you took advantage of her and you paid her to do your dirty work no that's not true I told you it was just very casual I never had I have have no motives for this guy no motives for who for Ricky there's nothing there's nothing there there's there's no motive so why do you want his girlfriend de I don't I didn't even know who he was seeing I don't even know who he was dating okay you don't know you don't know wait a second just get my attorney at this time because I don't think we I mean there's not there's I just need my attorney because you're not understanding me that you're not listening to me you're not understanding me I have no here's the thing it's either yes or no it's either yes we can continue this conversation or no you need your attorney I knew that I had the right person but prosecutors told Barnes he still did not have enough to charge Brenda Delgado with murder so the best they could do was hold her for out standing traffic tickets and due to uh crowding issues at the jail they expedited the amount of time that she was uh held there so she wasn't held too long just several hours within 48 Hours of her being at our office being questioned on this Murder She was in route to Mexico today we are announcing the addition of capital murder suspect Brendon Del of did the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list and announcing a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to her arrest Delgato should be considered armed and dangerous given her alleged crime involved the use of a firearm she became one of the few women in American history who was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list once I found out she left the country I shifted my focus more into figuring out who my gunman was detective Barnes discovered there was a common number in the phone records of both Brenda Delgado and Christal Cortez and I'm interviewing Crystal and I show her the phone number and she tells me that's his number that is the shooter's number his name was Christopher love known to police as a smalltime marijuana dealer this a Miranda warning you had the right to remain silent not make any statement at all I think uh we may have had him in the interrogation room somewhere between 21 and 22 hours in total a dances Dennis female Dennis white female named Kendra Hatcher was killed in the parking garage the game thing do me okay I don't even know where that's at I white Den I be serious well I'm just saying you know and what about someone named Brenda or Crystal yeah you know you ever seen this girl is she white she's Hispanic she looks white got light skin I don't know her though you don't know her okay what what this I don't know these people are they white or mey love repeatedly denied being the man in the surveillance video even denied that he owned a gun I ain't threw no guns I ain't had no guns I ain't shot no about all right hey man do me a favor TI right back Love's car had been towed into the Auto Pound and after first failing to find a weapon an ATF explosive smelling dog named Titan happened to be there for a demonstration and Titan L him straight to the gun it was under the on the passenger side of the vehicle just underneath the center console we did a search one on your car M and we found a gun in your car M oh yeah I found a gun that in my car in the under the center console mhm that's G right here you ever seen that gun before yeah you have whose gun is that that she good okay tonight we announce the arrest of Christopher love the person we have identified as having shot Dr [Music] Hatcher so now the murder board looked like this Brenda Delgado at the center alleged to have hired Christopher love and Crystal Cortez to murder her ex-boyfriend Ricky's new love her rival Kendra Hatcher friends and family told reporter skip hollinsworth how Brenda's breakup with Ricky took over her life all Brenda could talk about was Ricky and Kendra and how she wanted someone to hurt Ricky or Kendra she was falling apart she was descending into this darker world that she had never been in and when police finally downloaded Brenda's phone they found dozens of pictures of Kendra and Ricky what Ricky didn't know was that Brenda had a kind of spy operation going on she had access to his iCloud to his text to his phone calls and she realizes they're going to Cancun and she wants to kill Kindra before Ricky gets the chance to take her to Cancun and suddenly Brenda the Christian girl who had raised herself on her own bootstraps had a team of Hit Men ready to help her out for $500 to kill her romantic rival Kendra was gunned down the night before she and Ricky were scheduled to fly to Cancun before being taken away to jail Christopher love had one last question when yall going to get Brendon we going to work on getting BR man hey y going to work on it y'all need to go get it y'all came and get me what that y'all came got me y'all need to be going to get her we're going to get her cuz she puzzle y the the top of the puzzle y need in speaking with him he told me that Brenda promised him a lifetime supply of cocaine and drugs I think he was overpowered by the idea that he was going to be the next biggest drug dealer in Dallas the murder trial of Christopher love took only a few days and he faced the death p after rejecting a deal for him to testify against brenon love was very adamant that he didn't want to take anything he was not interested in uh testifying against anybody but Crystal Cortez had accepted a plea deal for 35 years and she was the main witness against love uh one of the plans were to inject her um with the needle another plan was to shoot her directly and um another plan was to kidnap her and did Mr love have a plan that he preferred um he pretty much said that it would be easier just to kill her with the gun Crystal obviously was the glue that put the whole case together the videotape was the strongest evidence certainly but Crystal came in and and pointed and and put together the pieces in the background for uh everything that took place State's exhibit 110 do you recognize this Photograph that's my hand with money and it that's my what my hand with money in it the $500 in bills arranged in the shape of a heart okay and what's the significance of this money um that was my payment for completing the task of driving Christopher love kill KRA Hatchet and I'll never forget interviewing crystal in the jail and I said why would you do that a murder for $500 and she said you don't know what it means to be broke do you the cross-examination of Crystal Cortez was brutal all only thing it means anything to you is saving Crystal Cortez no sir well what means something to you ma'am it does mean that there will be Justice for Kendra Hatcher oh so all of a sudden now you're worried about Justice for Kendra Hatcher yes sir the jury took three hours to reach its verdict on Christopher love sir has the jury reached unanimous we had your own and is your verdict is follows we the jury unanimously find the defendant guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment and that is the unanimous verdict of the jury thank you sir for your deliberations at the sentencing Kendra's sister Ashley spoke for the family back in Illinois her family will never be the same this doesn't happen in Central Illinois we didn't know that evil like this existed she was full of life and full of love and just gave everything she had to everybody and when I heard that this had happened to her and know I'm getting off topic but I couldn't imagine who would do it I couldn't imagine who would hurt her because nobody disliked her nobody would have heard of her that knew her I have SE from the jury Mr love would you stand please sir shall be confined until the director of that institution receives an order by this court to carry out the sentence of death by legal injection good luck to you [Music] sir and now the focus shifted to Brenda Delgado a $100,000 reward on her head and there's people that'll give up their own mother for $100,000 So within a few hours we were were able to get some credible tips on where her location was and after 6 months on the lamb in a small town in Mexico Brenda Delgado had been tracked down and extradited to the United States to stand trial for murder detective Barnes was at the airport when she arrived you know my eyes were saying I told you I was going to get [Music] you and now to Texas where a second person is on trial over the alleged love triangle murder for high plot which left a young dentist dead the Christopher love trial was almost like a appetizer Brenda was the main course serve to the ad your client ple guilty or not guilty your honor not guilty thank you she had her hair back and she was wearing thick glasses she looked scholarly she looked harmless she looked like a librarian good morning ladies and gentlemen Dallas County assistant District Attorney Kevin Brooks delivered the opening at the end of this trial we will have shown me beyond all reasonable doubt that Kendra Patcher is dead and she's dead because of the actions of one person or the planning of one person the desire of one person sitting right there I think the prose ution was really buttoned up it felt to me like they were smart juror Casey Miller had his eyes on Brenda throughout the opening statement she had a stone cold face just sort of sat and stared defense lawyer George milder knew the case would hinge on the testimony of Crystal Cortez who he said was The Mastermind of a robbery gone bad I expect these police and everybody going to say well Crystal didn't have Crystal fortez didn't have any motive to kill her really robbery is a motive that Crystal is a liar Beyond imagination she lies when it matters she lies when it doesn't matter she lies over things that are irrelevant She Lies over things that no one will believe the end of this trial and ask you to cut this woman loose find her not guilty and send a loud clear message to the state of Texas we don't believe Crystal Cortez and we sure don't believe her Beyond a reasonable doubt I'm G to ask you find Brenda Delgado not guilty because she is not guilty thank you to lay the groundwork for cryistal Cortez the prosecution wanted to show there were others Brenda had also asked to carry out attacks including her cousin Moses Martinez this appear to be the baseball bat that she showed you I think yes sir what specifically were you supposed to do with that baseball bat she wanted me to hit her and Brenda's roommate Jennifer Escobar [Music] she she told me that first she wanted Ricky in a coma with the bat the bat that is right in front of me um also prendra Hatcher um an injection near to put it in her back of her neck she just wanted to eliminate Kender Hatcher or even both of [Music] them you introduce yourself to the J please yes sir uh my name is uh Dr Ardo paga now the man at the center of the love triangle testified he had no idea that Brenda had been stalking him when he kept running into her at the time I thought it was just coincidence no idea of the anger and jealousy building up in Brenda after their breakup we were platonic friends and Ricky had been staring straight forward and refused to look over in that direction and finally had to you see Brenda elado in the courtroom today yes sir and Brenda who had been staring straight forward turned at looked at him can you in our sense difficult can you point to her and describe an article of clothing that she work and just for a few seconds they locked eyes she's at the end of the desk and she's wearing a a dark [Music] jacket we this witness identified the defended Court pass youly square or affirm that the testimony you shall give in this car will be the truth yes ma'am thank Crystal's testimony was very important she was very believable to me she admitted on the stand that she was part of a capital murder plot she admitted that she drove the vehicle are you guilty of the capital murder of Kender Hatcher yes I am is Christopher love guilty of the murder of Kender Hatcher yes he is is Brenda Delgado guilty of the murder of Kendra Hatcher yes she is Will Brendon Delgado discuss Ricky and Kendra Hatcher to you yes what was the discussion she wanted to get rid of Kendra Hatcher and why did she want to get rid of Kendra Hatcher because she was envious of [Music] her and then describing what was happening in the parking garage as seen on the surveillance camera footage Miss Kendra comes in and she Parks caddy corner to where we Park and Christopher love gets the off the vehicle through the driver's side in the back and he exits the vehicle closes the vehicle and he um approaches KRA and I didn't see him kill her but I heard the shots fired he ran into the jeep with uh Kendra's belongings her purse um and a Nikon camera why does he have those it because Brenda wanted it to make it look like a robbery gone back did you get paid for this yes I did what did you get I got $500 and who who PA who paid you friend and that was in exchange for committing this this murder of Kender hat yes we find that you're lying to us if we were able to confirm that that what you're telling us is not truthful you understand the consequences of that yes I will possibly face a death penalty that's the part that's really key and I can't wait for the the defense to cross-examine her that's what we're all waiting for because this is the prosecution star witness their whole case really really centers around this woman let's take a quick break we'll be right back right now Crystal Cortez on the stand under cross-examination so the defense is pulling out all the stops to discredit her testimony you said you did not tell the whole truth you recall that yes I told them half the truth as you get cornered like a rat you start telling another object to the characterizations of Mr Miller as you get hopelessly caught in a one lie you start telling another one correct sometimes when I was being interviewed because I didn't know what to say and what not to say the more the defense tried to poke holes in her story The More I believed her and it was really apparent to me that she was like a 20-some year old uh single mom she was not the Mastermind of anything she was not the brains behind anything Christopher love is obviously a very horrible evil person true I would say so yes and if you were going to do something if you saw an opportunity to Rob some rich girl and get all the money Whatever She's Got What greater opportunity than for you to Rob Dr Hatcher with Christopher love knowing that if anything ever happened to Dr Hatcher it ain't you who's going to get blame Brenda Delgado is the one they're going to look at because she's told everybody but Santa Claus that she doesn't like Dr Hatcher and she wants to still be with Ricky true I would say yeah [Music] pass did you introduce yourself to the jury and SP your name to my name is Eric Barnes in the final two days of the trial lead detective Eric Barnes took the jury through his interrogation of Brenda Delgado it's inside the Dallas Police Headquarters homicide unit in room 2 what does she appear to be doing right right now I'll put it on makeup I believe so at this point what we're about to see is after 2 hours approximately 2 hours of your interview Miss Del yes what do we hear her say right there oh there was a couple times that I made eye contact with her and I just wanted her to know that you know you may have trick some people but I wasn't going for it we are at the point in the trial where the defense is going is obviously resting its case we do not intend to call Miss delgado's witness I would have loved to hear from Brenda Delgado I would have wanted to hear what she why she fled their theory was that she was an innocent victim that she was set up by Crystal Cortez but then so you stayed in Mexico for 6 months on the run until you made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted what she was doing down there if she was truly innocent none of that showed up at the [Music] trial good morning ladies and gentlemen good morning genuinely I do want to tell you we want to thank you for your time attention his TR that beautiful soul Kindra Hatcher she didn't know this way Dr panaga he's broken up with her he's moved on he's let her know that he has a new girlfriend he's not in the love triangle the only person in a love triangle is her and it's a love triangle she created didn't have to [Music] happen the fact that it did happen is ridiculous Kindra haer's home she's home right now she's home in a box when you come back with your message to that woman the message needs to be lady you're never going [Music] home I don't know why people do what they do I don't know why Crystal did what she did I think we all know she's a fairly despicable human being because if it goes down who would think anything but Brenda Delgado did this she was with her I heard her tell people all these things they're not going to blame me I don't have any motive to do anything to Dr Hatcher but Brenda sure does the evidence here shows that there is clear Reasonable Doubt and under our law that means not guilty ask you to find Brenda Delgado not guilty because under our law of the evidence she is not guilty thank you members of the jury we stand in recess until you reach unanimous for somebody suggested that we just take a sample vote to start with and somebody else said let's raise our hands I said let's know let's write it down on paper we did that calmly and quietly that first vote was 12 to zero uh Some People Prayed I'm not a religious person I just sort of sat quietly some people meditated and then uh a few minutes later I said you know if you guys are ready let's press the button it had been only 20 minutes all right s seated I ask the presiding jur if the jury has reached a unanimous verdict yes and is your verdict as follows we the jury unanimously find the defendant guilty of capital murder is charged in the indictment it is thank you ma'am uh because of the nature of the case I'm going to ask you individually for your verdict I'll start on the bottom row the chair closest to the gallery and go 1 through 12 yes guilty your honor yes guilty your honor 12 times right down the row uh Mr uh ner your client having been found guilty of capital murder is there any reason that law was she should not now be sentenced no you're not I felt that if anyone deserved a death penalty in this case I thought Brenda Brenda qualified for it but despite the verdict Brenda's decision to flee to Mexico had effectively saved her life Mexico's extradition policy means you cannot be brought back to be tried under the death penalty r del Poli stands the jury having found you guilty of capital murder you shall be transferred to the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice wherein you shall be confined for the rest of your natural life good luck I think Justice was done I think if Brenda had not fled to Mexico she would have gotten the death penalty before being taken away she was required to hear from Kendra Hatcher's sister and mother I take comfort in knowing our God has given our Kindra the ultimate spot in heaven a spot in which you will never see you Brenda Delgado have earned your spot on this Earth behind Cold Steel bars for the rest of your miserable pathetic life my 5-year-old is her god daughter and I'm pregnant with our third that will never get to meet Kendra because of you because of your evil because of your Envy as they so perfectly put it no matter how envious you were of any human being does not give you the right to destroy Lives Many Lives your own family's lives our lives Kendra's lives my children's lives who the hell do you think you are Brenda it's rugged country it's very it's some of the rugged country in North America my son's name is Dylan red yeah and his dad texted me a little while ago and said he could not find Dylan you know in the back of your mind that it's not going to end Gooding bring Dy home if you show us today show where he's at today I guarantee I'll cut you loose but Tom I can't help you with that because I don't know where dyan's at I want everybody to know how much I love that boy I want you to do something to find Dylan I don't like you I hate you and you have been nothing of a father I was horrified the pictures are you know of Mark in women's clothing are the photos genuine no they are not when I laid eyes on that skull I just I knew knew in my heart it was Dylan here just keep your hands up don't move bu okay he uh was I think shocked and surprised he thought he was off the hook I felt it was about damn time you love your father I still hav [Music] I [Music] I I wish I didn't have to be here [Music] okay your wife is in a bar so she's going this is what he's going to tell you to get out of that situation and I grabbed the gun trying to find the first place to put a body no sir the only thing they could do was kill him you want to S you anything we the jury and find the [Music] defendant please sit there dispatch hi my name is elain redwine and um my son jillan red wine was visiting his dad up in Durango and his dad texted me a little while ago and said he could not find Dylan 13 years old okay so he's staying with his dad and what's the dad's name Mark Mark red wine um does he have any idea where he may have gone no not according to him no and I was very scared for my son I mean my son wasn't even there for 24 hours and he's missing I mean that doesn't happen I just got in my car and had to go to Durango cuz I lived 6 hours away and try and find my [Music] son it's rugged country it's very it's some of the rugged country in North America and my concern was the the weather for the that night was supposed to go below freezing I wound up being out till 1230 1:00 that night and one of the notable things that I saw is that uh Mark never came out never talked to me and he wound up turning all the lights off in his house and like he went to bed which is very unusual usually somebody would light up the house like a beacon so what we'll do is uh we'll give you up within days hundreds of people had volunteered to help search for Dylan red wine some people for the terrain up the hill some for between the lake and the road Dylan's Father Mark pushed for the search to Center on the area around a Mountain Lake Dam about 7 miles away he described Dylan as a big fisherman that he loved to go fishing all the time he said that um he couldn't find his fishing pole and that the fishing pole was missing and that he like to go fishing down by the dam and we're walking along the edges of this road trying to find possibly Dylan's backpack volunteer Kathy Barry recorded the search around the dam for a Facebook page dedicated to Dylan the terrain was really steep um the road along the lake it just drops straight down on the side and goes down into the water down onto the bank 's mom is in front of me and she's doing pretty good she's holding it together pretty good and you always feel the worst because he's not there but we always tried to keep hope because I felt if I lost hope you know then everybody else would as well um but you know as a mom you know in the back of your mind that it's not going to end good and you guys are friends of Dylan right yeah right and Ryan you were the last person to talk to Dylan on Sunday night right yes and so tell me what was going on you guys were just texting and uh he sounded really excited to come over he was actually supposed to stay the night but decided not to for some reason I don't know why and then we decided that he would just come over at 6:30 in the morning that's just what he asked and I I said that was fine and so I said in alarm and I woke up in time and he never showed up so anything else you guys want to say about your friend Dylan hope it comes home soon yeah hope it comes home soon people would come out ask what they could do did you check here did you check here where a kid might be nothing loving God we pray first and most of all for Dylan we know that you are aware of where he is and what his needs are and so we pray for him now when I think of the word Dylan the first thing that comes to my mind is perfect and for this to happen to him is just horrible cuz he doesn't deserve it Dylan's Father Mark spoke about his son in the past tense I want everybody to know how much I love that boy and how much I cared about him he was such a wonderful boy he met everything and unfortunately his mom and I don't see eye to eye on things and I wish that could change I asked him I said did you and Dylan get into a fight and he said no and I said well Dylan wouldn't just leave or run away without either texting me or Corey the first thing I told Mark you know is this is your responsibility and we got to we got to find him um what' you do with Dylan soon sheriff's deputies and the FBI were asking Mark redwind the same question and the family Blame Game escalated obviously it's no secret that I I believe that lane could be involved in this you know I don't know how she would do it I don't know who else she would have involved with it but I can't help but think that there's possibility that she had some involvement he had some really bad answers at the end of the first interview uh because he he blamed Elaine Dylan's mom for his dis for Dylan's disappearance and said it's probably her fault and he thought that Dylan had just run away because of problems with the lane Dylan had flown into Durango to spend the Thanksgiving week with his father as part of a court-ordered visitation he did not want to go I mean he was okay going um because he wanted to see his friends in that area but my mom was pretty sick with cancer and we knew it would probably be her last Thanksgiving and Dylan really wanted to spend it with my mom I called my lawyer and you know said what can I do and she said really nothing it's a court order you know you really need to put him on the plane it did not appear that this was a happy reunion um even in the airport when Dylan first got off the plane there was no Smiles there were no hugs the first first stop was a Walmart to buy some movie DVDs you know in the cameras in the Walmart Dylan and Mark are not together shopping together Dylan is texting the friend he had wanted to spend the night with [Music] Ryan so Dylan's already asserting himself to say he's there on a mandated visit but he doesn't want to spend time with Dad the last time Dylan was seen alive was after he and his father left the Walmart stopped for a hamburger and headed to Mark's home uh as Mark describes it they're not real warm towards each other at first but they start rough housing you know I asked a couple times was anybody hurt in this thing and no no nobody's hurt at 9:46 that night Dylan's phone stopped [Music] working bring home bring Dy home Bry home Bry home bring home two months after Dylan disappeared his mother Elaine and brother Corey joined a protest outside Mark red win's home our where is our Cory's getting ready to do another interview well right now you know um he was the last person to see him and he's not you know helping out with you know um giving us answers that we have questions to so until we can put all the attention back on Dylan we got to get it off the last person to see Dylan and right now he's making it as hard as he can to get the attention off of him there's still a lot of doubt in me that he didn't have anything to do with it so you think he did have something to I do with the FBI's help sheriff's deputies carried out a c search warrant on Mark Red win's House his eyes were bloodshot but it didn't seem like he was crying to me it looks staged uh is like he was looking like he was emotional the cab dogs uh alerted to human remains um the odor of human remains within Mark's Mark red win's house and the back of his uh pickup we knew something had likely happened in the house when he said the rough housing no one was hurt our thoughts were something else had happened and that the rough housing was explaining something else and to move forward was to take the polygraph and Sheriff's investigator Tom Cohen pressed red wine to come clean after delivering the results of a light detector test you've taken it once Elaine took it once she passed it and you failed it he was found to be deceptive uh specifically to the question of do you know where Dylan red wine is is and he failed miserably if you lead us to him I absolutely guarantee you that I would not arrest you today if you told me where Dylan is today and you take me to Dylan show me where he at we'll drop you back off at your car at your house and we get Dyan back and you go on with your life because what's more important is we want him back home I want that if you show us today show show where he's at today just bring us there I guarantee you I'll cut you loose I'm not going to arrest you today but Tom I can't help you with that because I don't know where D's at and I think you do I know you do if you fell down down accidentally and hurt himself when he freaked out and panicked and you put him somewhere you know um it's it's better to get in in front of this than to have somebody down the road find him and then oh what do we do now now he's in a shallow grave this doesn't look good last scene by dad or you can just tell us where he's at and work work with us and we'll deal with all the the other stuff later I'm not going to sit here and admit to you that I've done something that didn't happen that I didn't do and if that's what you're waiting on then we're going to be waiting a long time for that I got all the time in the world I just when's enough enough what I mean when is it going to be too much for you to hide and Mark red wine had a lot to hide as investigators would learn from his other son Corey we were in Cleveland we were on a a trip with Mark um we were you know went to I believe a baseball game that day Mark was asleep late at night in the hotel room Dylan had borrowed his father's computer Cory Cory come here I got to show you these pictures we came across a deleted file um it showed all the pictures that had recently been deleted I was horrified the pictures are you know of Mark in women's clothing I think he's got a red shirt on um wearing women's panty ho and underwear um you know and he relieves himself in his diaper and you know he cleans it you know with his mouth and that's when I pulled out my cell phone um and just took a few few pictures of of what was on the laptop it's a place my mind never dreamed of you know going let alone seeing it you know in my own father you know so um it you know it's it's a terrible thing I'll have in my mind forever I told Dylan after we we saw the pictures you know you we got to keep this between me and you I didn't want Mark knowing that we had those pictures and we knew about it but 13-year-old Dylan as sweet as everyone said he was never held back if something bothered him he didn't like to be quied so if he if he felt a certain way he would make sure that you knew how he felt he was just honest and to the point they had gotten into an argument about me and my mom being a good example for Dylan and Dylan wanted those pictures to show Mark you know what we had seen him as [Music] I could feel the frustration and the the fire through you know of in Dylan um so I knew he was really upset I ended up sending those pictures to Mark after Dylan had asked for him I wish I wouldn't have sent them at all that's that's Dylan trying to get some power so he can go up against dad like he had seen his older brother do and so we believe that's what happened and Dylan has that that uh as he would call weapon against Mark uh and it's a pretty good one frdy take it this is going to be a changing day in your life but with Dylan still missing Mark's secret was about to become very public and become a key part of the investigation as a likely motive Elaine Corey and Mark redwine all agreed to appear on the Dr Phil show holding nothing back I don't like you I hate you and you have been nothing of a father I want you to do something to find Dylan Dylan is everything me my whole world involves around Dylan are the photos genuine no they are not so that's not you in the photos no I'm not arguing that it's my face in the photos what I'm arguing is the fact that they were fabricated because it was actually I believe that Elaine and Corey were coming into my house and rumaging through my things and going through my personal belongings when I traveled out of town I came up with a scheme that had to be so out rageous that they could not talk about it and that's exactly what I got out of that did I ever intend to be sitting here on your show having this conversation with you or them absolutely not so you're saying they broke into your house and fabricated these pictures no no no no no I fabricated the pictures and left them available I never let on to anyone but I think that's when I knew that Dylan was no longer alive just by Mark's remarks and his body language and his actions um it may me fear the worst this is a really serious serious matter among the millions of people who watch the red wine family on Dr Phils program thank you for being here today so long were the authorities back in Colorado who obtained the videos as possible evidence it brought Mark forward um and and put him um at the center of uh of the controversy so well what are your thoughts on that whole thing I think it was a public format for Elaine and Cory publically accus me of doing something with Dylan and I I expected too much from Dr Phil the Dr Phil show resulted in hundreds of leads and tips but but none panned out I mean everything leads back to you Mark I mean we have systematically ruled out a ton of people you say everything that you do in life is is for dealing you want to do right for doing just take us two and cut you loose that's what I want to know to you probably doesn't seem that way but actions speak louder than words Mark I don't think you're a guy who has a mean Bower's body that would purposely do something like that but you know if it was an accident um you know we could work with that you can't undo something that has gone horribly wrong but you can make amends for something that you did wrong you can always ask for forgiveness all right well I'll take that all into consideration they didn't have that Smoking Gun there was not enough information we didn't you know you don't go forward on a criminal investigation with no body and I think it was very difficult for people to believe that a father could kill a son you know I mean fathers don't just kill their sons the winter weather had shut down much of the search effort for Dylan once snow hits the High Country you can't get up there nothing nothing all winter especially on middle Mountain where we want to search they closed the mountain in the winter so you can't even get up there but once the snow melted The Searchers were finally able to access the middle Mountain Area um my stepfather caught him up on the mountain early one morning and I got the call that uh Mark was de cited coming off middle Mountain Road and that's what turned our attention to Middle Mountain Road uh 35 handlers Dog Handlers numerous dogs we had ATV Searchers we had horseback Searchers we had repelling teams come in it was a a 4-day search uh it was um during that search that a Nike Air Jordan size seven youth was found that was the Breakthrough the shoe appearing to match the one Dylan was seen wearing in the Walmart surveillance video uh the next day uh we had the the search dogs the human remain dogs in that area they one dog alerted on two bones while those two bones were being collected I looked down and found a long bone the bones were Dylan the this is investigator Tanya gbri this is a phone call to Mark redwine this Mark hey Mark it's Tanya Hi how are you I'm wonderful how are you oh I'm Liv in the dream the dream are you intoxicated Mark nope not at all okay then why are you talking to me like that because because you can't seem think no deeper than the surface uh he told me to pull my head out of the sociopath ass and that women are only good for one thing and it's not cooking and cleaning cuz I'll be honest with you T I don't think you're capable handle a really don't you think it's pretty amazing we found any remains up on middle mountain in the middle of nowhere you know 2% of Dylan's remains do not constitute him being found so you know what yes it does he's dead we know that now if we hadn't gone up there and looked we wouldn't have known that so 2% of Dylan's remains constitutes him being found I'd like to find the rest of him but yes we know know what happened we know he's no longer with us but there was still no skull no Cranium which would likely hold the clues to Dylan's cause of death Mark made a comment to me several times about how there had only been 2% of Dylan's remains found so they can never prove he was murdered but other bits and pieces of the investigative puzzle began to fall into place Mark said that he when he was moving his four-wheeler out of the garage uh he found the fishing pole in the garage uh which isn't possible it had been searched and photographed and I don't know know where it came from but it was back the feudal search around the lake and the dam had all been based on the supposedly missing fishing pole the fact that he had tried to use this Ploy uh and then was foolish enough to say that he had found it you know just indicated that he was being very dishonest with law enforcement and then in 2015 almost 3 years after Dylan disappeared hikers found a skull about a mile away 6 M by Road from where the other bones had been located when I laid eyes on that skull I just I knew in my heart it was Dylan there was no question I had no question about it and that was in 15 I thought okay now we're going to move forward and again we still didn't move forward um so in 2017 a lot of stuff changed in llata County the election that year brought a new district attorney Christian champagne who had been working on the case as a deputy district attorney the new DA just pressed forward and said you know we're going to get a grand jury and let's see what a grand jury says and I just told them to stick with us it was going to be a long road it was going to take a while but that we were going to get to justice for Dylan here over here the grand jury returned an indictment of red wine for second deegree murder and childood just keep your hands up don't move by okay Mark was in Washington state working as a trucker when the indictment came down do not move he uh was I think shocked and surprised uh a warrant for murder second for you I'm sorry I have no idea what that's about he had become pretty confident that we were never going to bring charges against him that we had never developed any evidence against him so he thought he was off the hook I felt it was about damn [Music] time we are live in Colorado where the case is about to proceed against Mark redwind in the second degree murder case in the death of his 13-year-old son Dylan red wine did not face the more serious first-degree murder charge which carries a mandatory life sentence here in Colorado first-degree murder requires plan or Premed ation ahead of time we did not have evidence that he plotted to to kill Dylan uh so second degree murder and child abuse resulting in death were the right charges for our case it had been almost 9 years since Dylan had disappeared but for his mother Elaine it seemed like yesterday spend a couple minutes telling the jury about him okay D was sweet he was funny um he was charismatic he was um very empathetic he really cared about people and their feelings um very sweet sweet voice off there tissues to the left if you need them you have water with you he Mark red wine in the courtroom here today yes he's wearing a blue shirt and gray suit there was plenty of eye contact and I am not afraid of him anymore and so I refuse to look away all I'm showing you what's been previously mid in evidence of equals one 2 and three can you take a look at those please I've seen those a million times what are those they're pictures of danan his friend Adam and Joe taken the day before he left to visit his father see any injuries sores or cuts to his face or lips no and then her final unanswered text messages to Dylan how's it going son you okay all right m h I know this is I can only imagine how hard this is I'm really sorry thank you the final text message in this exhibit what do you say in that text message this h I said Dylan please be safe mom is here to come get you son is Elaine had been unrelenting in her efforts to point a finger of blame at her ex-husband you were the last person to see Dylan that's been confirmed and that became a defense line of attack on cross-examination I've always said that I believe that he had a hand in Dylan's disappearance yeah okay and you've told that to a lot of people okay sure I mean you don't have to go anymore they know your answer you've gone on national television and iterated that opinion correct Y and you've iterated that opinion to law enforcement correct yes and you've iterated that opinion to um Facebook platforms correct yes do you recall making any comments on the Facebook page arrest Mark redwin no you recall making any comments on arrest in prison Mark redwine Facebook page no you know you're talking about The Grieving mother uh of of a Lost Child a murdered child uh and to try to attack her and trash her character um and say that she was you know making this about a vendetta revenge against Mark I think really fell flat now the jurors were about to see the compromising photos of Mark redwine and we showed them for a very specific and limited purpose which is to show that there was conflict and a potential motive um for for Mark to lash out against Dylan um for Dylan to have confronted his father with these photographs and that that would have been an example of uh some of the conflict that could have led to Mark lashing out could you please start by introducing yourself to the jury by your full name Cory Allen redwin was there a point in time when Dylan used the defendant's computer yes did he find something on the computer yes can you explain to the jury what he found um he found pictures of Mark dressed in women's clothing um wearing a diaper um taking selfies of him wearing the clothing um wearing the diaper um eating the feces that was in the diaper um and uh just that's pretty much it how did he react to seeing those photographs of his father um he was pretty disgusted Dylan lost uh um any reasons for him to look up to to mark that day and then prosecutor showed the jury a clip from the Dr Phil show you're saying they broke into your house and fabricated these pictures no no no no no I fabricated the pictures and left them available so is there any reason back then for him to plant photos like that for you or for Dylan no do you love your father Yes you wish you're here under different circumstances seeing your father Yes to this very day how do you feel about him I still love him I I I wish I didn't have to be [Music] here not all jurors would believe that's a motive for murder a motive to kill your own child if they see a picture of you crossdressing on a computer that is going to be a hard sell if well if that were all there was the jury wants to hard evidence that this man killed his son so the prosecution actually recreated Mark red win's living room in a courtroom down the hall and brought the jury in they could see the layout they could see the distances uh and they could see the actual pieces of evidence um with their own eyes there was blood on the couches there was blood on the floor there was blood on the coffee table and at least one of the deposits was 100% Dylan red win's blood that was probably some of our strongest evidence and that area was right in here for this deck but Dylan was a frequent visitor to his father's home and the prosecution witnesses could not say when the blood had been left there or that it meant a crime had been committed having been to over 1,000 crime scenes you know how to find evidence of violent struggles and fights correct if it's present yes and in your initial walkth through I want to focus your attention on that you didn't find any evidence of a violent struggle or a fight or blood liing event in your initial walkthrough correct that is [Music] [Music] correct this is a model of a human skull the final days of the trial focused on who or what killed Dylan redwine the significance is that I believe that this is associated with one trauma but the defense focused on the fact the skull was found in an area where bears and mountain lions roam freely obviously some sort of sizable animal bit left puncture marks on that part of the cranium coyote Fox Bear Mountain Lion um yes you can't rule out that this fracture comes from either a bear getting really after the the cranium and biting down on it and crunching on it so we knew that they wanted to make that the center of their case and the center of their attack on us and that an animal or something caused in nature could have been responsible for the fractures on the skull you know we have bear we have mountain lion uh but the generally they don't move their prey more than about a quarter of a mile Dylan's skull was found more than a a mile away from his other remains it's possible that a bear could carry a skull that far too physically right yes and it's possible that a mountain lion could carry a skull that far physically right physically yes have you ever seen anything like that in your career uh Bears and Lions no they were never able to put together the pieces to make a plausible argument about how Dylan would have gotten up on this mountain side uh in shorts and a t-shirt um and and been attacked by wild animals uh in in the middle of November it just didn't it just didn't make sense all eyes now are on Mark redwine to see his reaction to see if he would Testify the jurors they're watching the defendant very very closely to see what his reactions look like to watch him as the Witnesses are talking about Dylan's murder Dylan's remains I mean a normal father that lost a son would have completely fallen to pieces and he never even reacted at all he never shed a tear red wine opted not to testify at its core this is a simple and tragic case a damaged and deteriorating relationship that turned deadly on November 18th 2012 you know Dylan knows about the poop picks as he calls them I could show them to you but you remember them ladies and gentlemen think about the impact they had on his 13-year-old son do you think it would have taken much Dylan to use them in November to bring them up to talk about them we know that Dylan's murder was not caused by an accident we know Dylan's murder was not caused by a bear because of all the evidence that comes before and everything that he did after and all it took was a spark to this man's end Dylan's life ladies and gentlemen when you're ready Mr ban may please the cour red Juan's lawyer Justin Bogan delivered the defense closing arguments We Stand shoulder toosh shoulder Mr Mark red one because it's our honor to stand with someone who's wrongly exed and the evidence is so thin And the emotions are so hot so we have government cases based on the pictures they introduced the pictures as evidence they want you to believe that these pictures will provide some Enlightenment to you about the motive that they ascribe to Mr redwine for killing his youngest son whom he loves do not fall for that the prosecution likes these pictures a lot more than they like the tangible and scientific evidence in this case they like those pictures more than they like the fact this uncontested damage by animals of the remains the marks on the cranium are consistent with animal damage they are creating this narrative about rage and anger and photos and deteriorating relationship and they want you to latch on to this story because the actual physical evidence in the case does not support that Mark redwine killed his done the trial had lasted for 5 weeks the jury returned its verdict in 6 hours Mr red would you please stand up jury verdict count number one murder in the second degree lead the jury find the defendant mark redne guilty of count number one be quiet please count number two child abuse we the jury find the defendant Mark redwine guilty of count two child abuse he knows what he did he knows I think he deserves to die I mean his son died and I think he needs a equally horrible death but there is no death penalty in Colorado and the sentence for second degree murder ranges from 16 to 48 years people would bring forward El Lane Hall I'm really nervous though it's okay bear with me Dylan was 13 years old when he took his life when I think about what happened that night it breaks my heart to think about Dylan looking up at his dad knowing he's a killer he is my killer it breaks my heart and I wonder what were you thinking then when you saw his big old blue eyes I I I mean I don't even think that it phased you I'm just glad that we are free from you and that you will not be free to hurt us anymore thank you your honor Mark may have physically taken him and I can't change that but what I can do is tell the world how a 13-year-old young man stood up to his then 50-year-old father and said all the things I regret never saying Dylan is my hero and became more of a man in 13 years than Mark has in 60 do you wish to tell me anything before sentencing no your honor I do not but redwine had expressed his thoughts on the trial in a statement to the probation office you wrote The Following and this is a quote from what you wrote innocent of all charges miscarriage of Justice fake conviction sham trial I have trouble remembering a convicted criminal defendant that has shown such an utter lack of remorse for his criminal Behavior the community needs to be uh protected from you you need to be removed from society for a long period of time I'm going to sentence you to 48 years on both counts with 5 years of corle they are to be served concurrently Deputy Robinson take the defendant back to jail thank [Music] you I don't think closure is a real part of losing somebody personally I can't move on from my son I can't just close the chapter and prect pretend he never existed so I mean I'll always be sad I'll always mourn his death um and I'll always celebrate his life she and her family never gave up on trying to get Justice for Dylan you know thank you for coming out [Music] just in Colorado alone there's 1500 cold cases that have gone unsolved and so the message that I want to send to those families to those law enforcement officers that are working on these cases and to the prosecutors that are considering whether to come forward into court and bring these charges is to keep fighting and never give up [Music]

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 417,851

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: jRKGVY1cMOE

Length: 84min 58sec (5098 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024