Trial Story - Betty Broderick (1992)

[Music] in this episode of trial story betty broderick shoots and kills her ex-husband and his new wife she pointed the gun at them and she pulled the trigger five times is she the victim of a cruel ex-husband or is she a calculating killer the way he treated me was just so awful and so cold in this episode of trial story from opening statements to the verdict a woman scorned the murder trial of betty broderick [Music] my study was great i thought he was fun he was smart he was he was the man that i chose to devote my life to this man she says was her life but she says this man was also her ruin there really are no words to describe what you feel when you find out your husband's having an affair she says he took the kids took the money and took the house he got sold custody no visitation that meant i had no rights to ever see my children again then she took his life i mean it just was an explosion just i moved they moved the gun went off and it was like ah and it was that fast now 43 year old elizabeth ann broderick known as betty stands trial for murder the story starts in 1965. dan a student at cornell medical school and 21 year old betty beseglia marry after a four-year courtship betty later works to put dan through harvard law school they move to california they have four children kim lee danny and rat dan and betty broderick soon cut a high profile image in san diego betty a society wife and perfect mother dan head of the san diego bar association making a million dollars a year as a malpractice lawyer but he is also allegedly having an affair with his assistant then 22 year old linda culkina when betty broderick confronts her husband about an affair he denies it and she says calls her crazy betty and dan go through a bitter divorce linda and dan get married in the spring of 1989. seven months later at 5 30 a.m on the morning of november 5th 1989 betty broderick gets in her station wagon and drives to the house of her ex-husband using her daughter's keys she sneaks inside and shoots and kills dan broderick and his new wife betty broderick turned herself into authorities later that day what occurred in the private world of betty and dan broderick that led to his death other circumstances which justify betty's actions jack early betty broderick's defense attorney told us his strategy he hopes to convince the jury that betty broderick was an emotionally battered woman who in the heat of passion panicked and pulled the trigger that dan broderick drove her to commit the act by pushing her psychologically until she felt there was no other way out but the prosecution has a very different story undisputed evidence is that elizabeth broderick the defendant shot and killed two people as they lay helpless in their sleep kerry wells assistant district attorney in san diego is arguing that this is a clear-cut murder case she and prosecutor paul burkhoff claimed that broderick was a domineering and vengeful wife unable to accept her failed marriage and that when betty broderick pulled the trigger she planned she premeditated her ex-husband and linda cocaine's death a premeditated murder doesn't require weeks and weeks of intricate planning it requires only that a deliberate considered decision to kill be made before the actual killing she pointed the gun at them and she pulled the trigger five times and this is not an automatic this is a revolver you have to pull the trigger each time in order to shoot this gun and you will see that it's not a particularly easy trigger to pull and you'll also see that every one of her shots was aimed to kill but dan was still alive and reaching for the phone it's at this point that the evidence will show how clearly the defendant's intent was to kill these two people what she did was to walk all the way around the bed over to where dan was lying to where as she later told someone she could hear him gurgling in his own blood and what she did was she picked up the phone and ripped it out of the wall literally tearing the cord in half and she did it in her own words so he couldn't save him there would be no chance to call for help the evidence will show and the bottom line is she killed two helpless people because she hated them and that is murder thank you defense lawyer jack early disputes that profile of betty broderick you will realize and you'll see the facts will show that it's a housewife that's on trial you'll see dan broderick probably one of the most powerful and influential people in this community is still here [Music] and still has control jack really says that dan broderick used his legal leverage to drive betty broderick crazy what you will hear from the evidence in this case that she was hit by an avalanche and the avalanche was one of litigation and the easy thing that people will say is betty why don't you get on with your life why don't you go to work she didn't have her children she didn't have her assets she didn't have a life early says betty broderick went to talk with her ex-husband out of frustration not with murder in mind but suicide that when she confronted him in a moment of passion she pulled the trigger the testimony will show that she did not go over there with the intent to kill daniel broderick and linda colquina broderick but from her own mouth and from all the circumstantial evidence the testimony will show that the reason that she went over there is to stop a situation that was putting her where she was and letting people know where she was and what they had done to her and i think that after you hear all the evidence you will reach the appropriate verdicts in this case thank you the stakes are high for jack earley and his client if the jury believes that betty broderick was driven to her crime that she acted in the heat of passion due to years of abuse by her husband then she'd be guilty only of voluntary manslaughter which carries a sentence of three to 11 years in prison but if the jury believes that betty broderick planned to kill her ex-husband and his wife then she'd be found guilty of murder in the first degree which carries a sentence of 25 years to life good morning ladies and gentlemen this isn't the first time a jury will hear the case of california versus broderick betty broderick has stood trial in judge thomas whelan's courtroom before for the same crime the prosecutor was carrie wells the defense attorney was jack early but after more than a month of testimony jurors could not agree on the verdict they came back deadlocked judge wieland declared a mistrial one year later betty broderick stands trial again before the same judge with the same lawyers arguing essentially the same case so what's changed the jury seven men and five women this time has been selected with the lessons of the first trial in mind in fact the defense has succeeded in allowing one juror to be seated who admits to having considered killing his former wife this time jack early will be paid with public funds instead of by betty broderick and this time as she later tells us prosecutor carrie wells will be more aggressive in confronting betty broderick on her story while wells has presented the physical evidence that she says proves that betty broderick premeditated the murders her case really depends on credibility not on physical evidence to that end wells calls her star witness betty broderick's own daughter to testify against her good morning mrs broderick morning are you the daughter of the defendant elizabeth roger yes can you tell us how old you are 21 tell us if you can at this point how you feel about your mother um well i love her but i'm mad at her and why is a picture because i don't like things that she's done do you feel at all that you have some sort of obligation to take sides in this case no you understand that your only obligation as a witness is to tell the truth your honor the world can match that excuse me do you understand that your only obligation as a witness in this case is to simply tell the truth yes and that's no matter which way your answer cuts or you think it cuts you just tell the truth right how do you feel about your father right now your objection overall well i still love him and miss him can you describe for us whether from your observations whether your parents had a happy marriage well at the time i didn't think much of it but they fought a lot so no i didn't think of having marriage at all did from your observations did you ever think that they appeared to be happy together at the time or now uh at the time i was too young i really wasn't paying any attention how about but no no why is it that you say now that you don't think your parents ever had a happy mother because as far as i could remember back they were fighting and saying they were going to get divorced [Music] you indicated saying they were going to get divorced who was it that would say to you they were going to get divorced my mom and what would she say to say um your father and i are going to get a divorce who do you want to live with during this time while you were growing up before your parents separated did you ever see your dad beat or hit your mother no was there any violence between the two of them well but at each other yes did your mother ever do anything violent towards your father i never saw her hit him but she would scratch him and stick her fingernails in his arm but that's item i didn't see her hit him were there ever any incidents where she threw anything at him yes can you describe one night at dinner he came in late and um well i don't know if that was the whole issue but she threw a ketchup ball at him across the table and then one time we went to dinner and we got back and well we went out for pizza and we got back and she threw a stereo and then she threw this thing this marble thing that has a little i think i think you you grind something in it or something who threw that and that's pretty much awesome was there a time that you recall when your mother burned your father's clothes yes um can you describe how she went about doing that she the room was overlooks the backyard she went in and took all the clothes and threw them out back over the balcony end of the grass and then she dumped the drawers out and then she went down and put gasoline all over the place and lit it on fire and then she poured black paint all over the rest of it while your mom and dad were married did your mother ever appear to be afraid of your dad no did she ever say anything to you about being afraid of him no she's bigger than him she was she would laugh about that she would laugh about the fact that she was bigger than him said yes yes under gentle direct examination kim broderick tells of how she and her siblings were victims of a messy divorce she says her mother left the kids at dan's doorstep one at a time can you describe how it was that that you ended up over there um well it was on easter the night before easter and mom and i got an argument because i had this friend over that i wanted her to take home and we had just been at warren springs and she didn't want to take her home she was tired so she said no then we got an argument so i went back into my room and then mom came in and said that that pack up and leave the shoes she didn't want me there anymore i can go with that so then i packed up a lot so you picked up your clothes and did did she take you over to your dad's house yes at some later point did either of your brothers or sister come over to coral reef my brother danny came over the next day on easter and then my sister liam rhett came over a month or two later how was it that danny was brought over he was fighting with rhett mom had enough of it so she told him to pack up and move with me did she actually bring him over yes what was the what was his emotional state when he was brought over he was really upset he didn't want to come over there was he crying yes carrie wells now introduces an important piece of evidence betty broderick's own voice on an answering machine a conversation between broderick and her then 11 year old son danny he's just getting money yeah that's right then if he knows that then how come he doesn't stop because he says stupid giving her the money but that money is mine i earned it i earned it for 20 years of hard work and total [ __ ] for that yeah but you're never going to see us again don't you care about your family besides the stupid money i care perfectly about my family then how could you you won't just shut your mountains so we can come over there somebody else is on that phone and i don't care i know i don't care either i took absolute perfect care of my family i was the best mommy in the whole world and the best wife in the whole world it's not my fault your father said i care about my family [Music] and don't care who we see he keeps me seeing a totally different girl would make a difference well i guess you're a real california kid congratulations you're going into scrambled eggs you've been living with him too long you all that's what you tell me okay what else do you care about besides your money and that your share of your share of things to own what do you think person instead well you're not gonna be a wonderful person to very many people you don't stop saying those bad words and you are my former kids that he took away from me for christmas and put you on an ugly no on easter you sent me over there on easter and a couple hours more than they were over just been having a here time ever since no we haven't they have the horrible that means you keep on saying the bad words and we're never going to be able to come over there if you don't stop and if you don't stop it just shows me that all you care about is your money the the things that your mother was saying in that conversation that we just heard that the names that she was using to refer to your father the name she was using to refer to linda for those kinds of things unusual for her to say no that's what she called them did she talk that way often yes that's what you call them all the time so as far as as her part of that conversation that was not an unusual uh way for her to talk or for her to refer to to your dad or linda you have one hell of a nerve dumping the kids here on the sidewalk and zooming away without making any attempts to communicate with me about my plans for the weekend make me sick with both of you return my call right away thank you stop going long enough to return my call unless messages on the machine with the maid with the secretary etcetera etcetera i have very important things to ask you you're making me mad i'll kill you um did did you ever talk to your mother about not leaving the messages not leaving vulgar messages like that ask her not to do it yes okay and what would her response be i get it she's gonna leave the messages if she wants to it's because they didn't communicate anymore so i mean that was her way to tell him what she wanted to tell him that day had to tell us what she needed to tell us and that's that was her way of communicating was your dad afraid of your mother yes she afraid of what she might do yes did he put in a security system as far as you know in his house yes when we moved in there was a system and i think then he got it updated so there was a security system and and how about gates up in the front of the house yes that was after the car incident after your mother drove the car through the front door right then he put gates up on the outside and you had to know an access code so you could get in okay did um did your mother ever threaten to kill your dad yes can you tell us about that well she would say so that you really didn't believe her though she like say well i'm gonna kill the son of a [ __ ] that kind of stuff and then but i never really took her seriously shouldn't really elaborate on it like exactly when she was gonna do this or how she was gonna do this but she said that she was gonna kill him and then she'd also just say things like that she wish you would just die that she wasn't gonna kill him but she really wanted him gone did she ever say anything about shooting him yes what did she say she said she was gonna shoot him that that was around the wedding time that she said she was gonna shoot him and she was gonna shoot him in the head and then she said some number but i don't remember what the number was like i'm gonna shoot him so many times in the head prosecutor carrie wells reads from betty broderick's diary there is no better reason in the world for someone to kill than to protect their home possessions and family from attack and destruction you have attacked and destroyed me my home my possessions and my family you continue to repeatedly attack and steal and destroy you are the sickest person alive a law degree does not give you license to kill and destroy nor does it give you immunity from punishment no one will mourn you that's something that your mother wrote is that correct yes was your father attacking and destroying you and your possessions in your family me yes no was he attacking and destroying your mother's possessions or a person no let me ask you a little bit about um your father and your observations of how your father treated you and and treated the kids not what other people had to say but what you observed yourself how how did your father treat you he treated us really well he was he wasn't too good at the fathering stuff at first but then he got better and he didn't really know how to show us emotions and stuff he wasn't perfect but he was a really good dad and he tried hard did uh how did he treat the boys danny and rick wow really well i think they got along great did he love him yes very much it was hard because i mean it's always hard i guess when parents get divorced because there's always a tug-of-war back and forth but particularly hard in our circumstance and um but it's as far i mean as much as i could tell they got along great and i know dad adored him did um did he love your sister lee yes did you have any question in your mind that he loved you no the prosecution then turns to the day of the shooting kim broderick at school in arizona received two calls from her younger sister lee who was with their mother what did your mom say is unicorn um i knew okay i said i asked her what had happened and she said that she went over there and that she shot but she wasn't sure if she hit anybody and then she said okay i don't know what she said first but then she said um you know i had to do it honey i couldn't let him win but one of us had to go was one or the other uh i couldn't see handle what he was doing to me and you all anymore he was destroying us you know i had to do it kim broderick's stark portrayal of her mother will be a tough one for the defense to challenge but defense attorney jack early uses his cross-examination to suggest that kim broderick is biased against her mother you talked about the time when your mother used to talk about divorce and asked who you were going to go with remember that yes and you used to tell your father you you were did you used to tell your father you were going to go with him he said you didn't have to you have to answer that did you then i think i told him dad and i didn't talk about that much but i think i did tell him once that i wanted to live with him when you were brought over to your father's house to live you thought it was inappropriate for your mother to have you live with your father is that correct no i thought it was inappropriate for her to single me out and kicked me out of the house the um so you wanted to stay with your mother well i thought if she didn't want the children that she should handle it differently and maybe talk about it rather than pack up and ship somebody out the um sometime after the homicide did you ever tell somebody that you felt it was your job to come to court and tell a different story than your mother was no i did not did you ever say that there was a need for a different version to come out than your mother was given no i said that mom wasn't telling the truth and that i was gonna have to go to court and testify because mom wasn't telling me that's what i said so it's uh you felt that that was your function to come in and and tell what the truth is is that correct not my function but it don't if no one else was there then and i'm the only person would know then i i assumed that i would have to come in and do that later jack early questions kim broderick about her testimony in the last trial and if she knew about the relationship between her father and linda coquina remember being asked a question about linda's name being brought up [Music] but it was never a fact never that nothing about an affair was ever brought up remember being asked that my mom yes being asked that in particular but remember testifying in the trial don't you yes that's charlie but i've done a lot of things between them and now and i don't remember ever exactly everything that i said okay well the time that you testified at the trial you were trying to be as truthful as you could [Music] impeachment defense attorney jack earley's harsh cross-examination is a gamble he has risked offending the jury by attacking a person who the jury may see as a vulnerable witness meanwhile the prosecution's just getting warmed up carrie wells calls to the stand an intimate observer of the broderick family linda david was a housekeeper for dan broderick after the divorce when you would have conversations with mrs broderick did she ever talk to you about her feelings about dan and linda yes can you describe would that be occasionally often all the time most of the time she had a lot of hate for her former husband and mostly that's what she would talk about how much she hated him things that had gone on between them in the past things that were going on between them in the present um that type of thing when you indicate that she had a lot of hate for mr broadway do you how did you know that what what would she say that's what she said a lot of hatred for him a lot of name calling a lot of threats fairly aggressive or violent language did she say anything about dan and linda or what she wanted to do as far as dan and linda were concerned in that conversation when i said i thought that the court situation was all settled and behind them she said that she was sure that dan and linda would like her to just go away and leave them alone and let them live in peace but that wasn't going to happen and she said that she was going to continue to make dan miserable and make his life a living hell or kill him the state calls another housekeeper robin to testify about betty broderick's effect on her children did you ever specifically overhear a conversation that she had with her son rhett that was very upsetting to rat yes i did she um told rhett to get she wouldn't see rhett if she didn't get the out of the house referring to linda okay if if who wouldn't get linda out of the house if rhett wouldn't get i don't want to use that word again that's fine all right she um [Music] she would the stipulation is she wouldn't see rhett unless rhett would get linda out of the house he was completely distraught over that he he was very upset was there something that that he did after that particular conversation yes he did he was so upset he went upstairs and he locked himself in the bathroom i thought he was using the restroom he was too quiet for a while i knocked on the door and asked him if he'd come out and when he came out he had scissors in his hand and he had taken clumps of chopped clumps of hair out of his head and saying he wanted to get the pain out of his head his mom put in his head it's been tough going so far for betty broderick the prosecution has painted her as an obsessed ex-wife out for revenge to bolster its case kerry wells calls a family services mediator dr ruth roth worked on behalf of the children during the broderick divorce while trying to resolve the couple's custody battle she had some surprising sessions with betty broderick she was just very angry and at that point i let her run with it i thought that if she got to say all the things that she wanted to say that were that i thought were pent up inside then i could get to the agenda that um i needed to deal with okay and so i let her go okay and and then what happened i toward the end i told her that it seemed to me more to attempt to mollify her that she had been uh the primary parent that she had been what i call a stay-home mommy and but it seemed to me that regardless of what happened probably by the end of this mediation she could get the kids back and what was her response to that she got even angrier okay what did she say she said quote i'm not going to be a single parent of four kids he'll die first what do you recall how you responded to that probably said what and she went on what did she say she said the less i see them or hear from them the better no bother no kids end quote comparison to all of the people that you've dealt with mediating child custody disputes and obviously seeing different variations of anger where would you put elizabeth broderick she may be the angriest person i ever saw one of the top two anyway was betty broderick the cold-hearted woman that prosecutors would have the jury believe the state calls the second child of betty and dan broderick lee prosecutor paul burkhoff questions lee about betty broderick's call to lee the morning of the incident what time was it approximately approximately around 7 am did you answer that phone call yes i did it wasn't the line it was my mom what did she tell you she said she was in trouble and she needed my help what else did she say she told me that she shot my dad she shot the son of a [ __ ] she wanted to come to my house i told her to come once she got there did your mother tell you more about what went on yes what did she tell you she told me that she had she thought she had shot my dad but she what she didn't know because it was dark and drapes were drawn she wasn't sure she said she shot the gun one time but it fired five or six times she told me that she didn't know what had happened because the drapes were drawn it was completely dark i was asking her if um she had heard anyone if there was any screens or blood or anything like that she told me that she didn't think that she had hurt my dad because he had sat up and said um all right you shot me i'm dead but what the prosecution may have gained could be overshadowed by the defense's cross-examination the picture lee broderick paints is a very different one from her sister kim's do you remember how your family was before they split up was it appear to be you a happy family sad family yeah overruled you can answer that um before my parents separated i thought we had a really happy family the you indicated that your mother often when she would get mad those those her statements would include a lot of times she was going to kill him yes i mean would she how would she say that would you say he's making me so mad i could kill him or would it all differ or it would all it would all differ but it all referred to her not not being able to go on like this and if things kept going the way they were going she was gonna have to kill him okay the um and i take it that that would be an expression she'd been using for a long time yeah she she would tell all of us she was gonna kill us if we wouldn't do what you said like take out the trash or i'm going to kill you but we didn't take it seriously of course did um would uh linda ever call your mother names in front of you she wouldn't use profanity but she would call her fat and stuff like that crazy things like that but she wouldn't use bad language would she uh say that to about your mother in front of the boys well if we were sitting at the dinner table and linda started to talk about my mom my dad would tell her to stop because it made my brother's very upset if linda sat there and called her fat and crazy and things my brothers would get upset so my dad asked would ask linda not to talk about my mom at the dinner table or in front of my brothers did you ever hear your brothers asking your mother if she was crazy yes though lee and kim broderick's accounts about the family vary what emerges from both is clearly a family ripped apart by divorce but as the prosecution rests its case it's tried to keep the family drama in the background and betty broderick's behavior in the four carrie wells has hit on several themes throughout her case that betty broderick was a woman scorned a bad mother and most important for the state's case that betty broderick committed an act of calculated murder now it's defense attorney jack early's chance to counter those claims he calls his most important witness betty broderick herself begins with the first years of dan and betty broderick's relationship what were the discussions that you had uh with mr broderick about being married about getting married as soon as i started going out with him he wanted to get married okay and um was that something that both of you talked about yes we talked about it a lot and what did you tell him i told him that you know i wasn't even thinking about marriage i had to get my college degree and at that point i was only starting my second year of college and he said that i could do both that i could marry him and finish my college degree but i didn't want to do that i wanted to do it one at a time because i thought each thing was rather a full-time job and uh during the uh time that the two of you were uh dating were you working yes i always worked okay and was mr broderick working at that time know it was mostly going to school and studying okay and were you uh in any way supporting that relationship monetarily with mr broadway i had a lot of spending money because i had a lot of jobs and stuff so i had social spending money dan dan only had tuition money and you know his school money so yeah i had a lot yes i had a car and i had disposable income and it was my turf it was he'd never been to new york before so i knew everyone and where to go and what to do and yeah i use my mind after the uh during the honeymoon and after you were then married was there a a change in the relationship between you and mr broderick yes very much so and what was that change well what a dating relationship is entirely different from a marriage and during the dating relationship i had my own job and my own money in my own car and i lived with my parents and i had some freedom and stuff and after the wedding he was in charge of everything and i moved in with him and he took charge of the bank books and the paychecks and everything and i more or less had to do it what he said where were you uh where were you living during the uh that third year in medical school when we first got married i moved into a dormitory room with dan which was a little teeny tiny room that had joined another room by a teeny tiny bathroom and it wasn't designed for two people to live in it when uh when you and dan were courting and married was he someone you loved [Music] yes we had a lot of fun it's very nice the now during that period of time um uh what did you expect of a a husband of marriage expected them to be nice and be supportive and be the father of my children and that we live happily ever after now was that a decision that you were willing to to live with him going to law school rather than going out and practice as a doctor yes that was that's fine with me whatever you wanted to do and why was that because that's a wife's job you know whatever the husband wants to do it was my job to support him emotionally and you know psychologically and great let's do it so we did it as defense attorney jack early carefully questions his client she remembers when she first began to doubt her husband's actions and was there a reason that you uh discussed with mr broderick the fact that he was away from the home a lot how you felt about that any discussions at all it was constant discussions i felt that i felt that he was really neglecting myself and the children i i felt i spoiled him in the early years by not expecting him to do anything with us because of the schooling and then after he got a regular job i kind of expected him to get involved and be home on weekends and be home at night and to have a little more time for us and he didn't have very much time for us jack early questions broderick about a church-sponsored retreat the couple went on in 1976 where they discussed and wrote down in a journal their expectations for their marriage and during the time that you were at the american counter did you talk about what you wanted out of a marriage definitely that's what it was for okay and what did you tell if you wanted out of a marriage i wanted him to spend more time with us that's all i wanted did you tell them what kind of did you ever tell them what kind of physical things that you wanted i wanted a sofa for the family room because we had this black leather chair that he would sit in all the time and i just didn't feel we ever got really close to one another so yeah i wanted a sofa for the family room that was my big desire in 1976. and did dan talked to you about what he wanted out of marriage yes or what he wanted for you what did he tell you he wanted he apologized for for not spending time with us and said what he needed in life were to reach these financial goals that he had set for himself way way back and only when he reached those financial goals would he then have time to be a nice person to me and the kids and to give us time but i had i had to give him more time and stick with them until he reached those financial goals and when when he got there then it was all going to be rosy and it was all going to pay off it was all going to be wonderful but i had to be patient because he had to do that first and uh did you agree at that point in time to stick it out with him and stay in california based on the things that he promised me yes did he make uh at that time any uh promises reducements as to how he would be with a family as time he would spend with the family at home he was supposed to in in the book you know we're supposed to you're supposed to make improvements but he just further apologized and said you know he'd really like to get together you're supposed to get together 10 minutes a day after a marriage encounter to enhance the intimacy in your marriage he said you know i'd really like to do it but i'm just too busy i have depositions and i'm busy busy busy busy and i just you know i just don't have time for this when is the first time that you can remember the year you can give it to us where you you felt that your family did not have any major financial problems or there would actually be a some spending discretionary spending money i never had any idea of what was in bank accounts or how much we owed or anything so this is just my impression my impression was that in 1981 dan was purchasing and buying stuff and so we had some money not a lot of money in 81 and that's the first year i felt we had any money at all now at this point in time whereas were you also you and dan doing more things socially the progression from 1981 to 1983 was extremely rapid in so far as money from 1981 to 1983 by 1983 we had a lot of money in fact money was to become a central issue in the divorce by 1983 broderick says she noticed a significant change in their relationship i wasn't even home an hour and i knew something was wrong he didn't greet us at the door he wasn't happy to see us he was just acting very strange and that was about that was late at night when i came home with the children and we had to go to a wedding the very next day in laguna beach so we got all dressed up and drove to laguna beach it was during that ride up there that i heard what was wrong he thought our house was tacky he thought our friends were boring he thought i would he said i was old fat ugly boring and stupid and he had never said anything like that before okay that time were you fat i didn't think so okay and at that how did you feel about yourself at that time before i started saying those things i thought i was a competent person doing the right thing in life i was proud of my husband my house my family i was very high energy i've always been very high energy had lots of friends lots of activities i was a great cook i was a hostess i i just i was pretty satisfied with how i was doing in life was there a change for that in the fall of 83. in september of 83 he came home and he said that he had hired someone and i was very very happy about that i thought a release valve where he'll have more time for us and someone to help him because he had been so grouchy and under so much pressure and i thought it was from too much of a workload and so he told me that he hired someone and did he tell you uh who he hired yes he told me he hired linda colquina who had formerly been the girl in the in the lobby of the building who answered the phones while betty broderick testifies about her disintegrating marriage the defense is building its argument that dan broderick in fact provoked his own death she testifies that she grew suspicious of dan broderick's relationship with linda culkina even as he denied it and that she became possessed with pleasing her husband did you believe him when he told you uh at the time when you would talk to him about not having an affair with linda coppin yes i always believed everything he told me and before this point in our long-term marriage by this point i've never never doubted what he told me before if he told me he was at meetings he was at meetings if he told me he was out of town at depositions that's where he was but all of a sudden every time he started telling me that he was working late and he was going out of town and he was doing this and that i was suspicious that he was with linda colquina and that he was lying did you try to do something to about the things dan said that were wrong with you sure i tried to um i i wouldn't say i tried to look like linda colin kina i didn't do that i just tried to not be old fat ugly boring and stupid so i couldn't do anything about old and i lost weight and i went down to a sickly thin and i i didn't think i was boring but i quit all my society things and tried to stay home and give him more attention and um i just tried to really cater to him i tried to become perfect for him so he'd have nothing to complain about at all did you do anything medically about making yourself look younger dan sent me to some client that he had to um get wrinkles off my face and i got braces on my teeth because i have a little tiny crooked tooth here i just i let my hair grow longer like it used to be in college it was real long hair and with the kids i let it get a little shorter so i let my hair grow longer and i just tried to look as much as i could like i used to look when i was 19. while the family house was being prepared for sale the brodericks temporarily lived in a rental dan announced he was moving out and did you talk to him about your did he say anything about your marriage or what was going to happen no when i asked him about linda as i did again on april 15th i asked him you know what did he do for our anniversary and he said he went out with someone else he kept denying that that he was even dating linda he never even admitted he went on a date with linda but according to broderick they were still planning to buy a house together and she believed the marriage could be saved finally broderick says her husband confessed well he told me the truth he finally told me the truth now and what did he tell you all he would tell he wouldn't tell me any details or anything else all he told me was i was right i've been right all along and how did you how did that make you feel well it kind of made me feel feel better that at least i knew the truth but it made me feel like that he had taken really gross unfair advantage of me for a long time switching you know now i'm now i'm standing in this house that's empty my kids are gone i have no money i have no control i mean it's a little late to be telling me the truth and you know and then i've got all this stuff going on in my mind about typical dan broderick you know don't even begin negotiating until you're sitting on their chest you know and knock someone to their knees and i've been really badly used and abused by a liar for over two years i was very upset and very angry about it and he wanted to take me to a mental institution that was his answer to me getting upset broderick says her husband had taken over the family house with linda culkina and had taken the kids and who had custody of the children at that time there was no custody arrangement he had they were physically living in coral reef because that was the only roof we had that they would could be happy under and safe under and then he got a restraining order in october of 85 and he used that as a custody because if i couldn't get within 100 yards of the house where my kids were i couldn't get to see my kids so he i didn't realize it until a long time later that that's what happened he used the restraining order as a custody order and i shouldn't i mean that shouldn't have happened i did i was defiant and i did go see the kids as much as i could but i was very scared because he was threatening to every time i came within a hundred yards of my own house to see my own kids that i was liable to be thrown in jail there were constant everyday problems with the children i was hysterical being separated from them i didn't like the babysitters i thought they weren't being cared for i thought they were being neglected they missed me i miss them broderick says she went to confront her husband the day she says he sold their family home out from under her did you return to the house at some point in time yes okay and what did you do when you returned to the house i banned my car into his front door okay and um when you uh why did you run your car into uh into his front door i was extremely hysterical i was totally upset i was crying i the biggest thing that bothered me was you know besides the sale of the house the biggest thing that bothered me was that the way he was treating me you know this is uh the man that was supposed to take care of us and that i trusted in all that baloney and uh i went to him for answers and the way he treated me was just so awful and so cold and just non-communicative like it was just it was just like screw you you know just die get out of my life go away he had no respect for me at all then rodrik relates a series of events that she says drove her to the brink now also in 1986 did you did you start receiving uh things anonymously in the mail yes okay and what sort of things did you receive i received a picture of dan and linda at a party with a sticker on it to eat your heart out [ __ ] were there other things you got in the mail besides that i would get white envelopes type written addressed to me with cut out newspaper ads for wrinkle cream and weight loss clinics and things it was all exactly the same time as that but separate envelope finally jack early asked about the events leading up to the killings betty says she received yet another legal paper about her ongoing custody dispute what did the letter say to you the letter said to me don't don't read the letter just tell me what you remember the letter saying to you it said to me that you're going to jail that you're going to be fined that linda's going to screw around with the machine again and keep you from your sons for the next two weeks going to play her games again it's going to drive you crazy and that's why she's doing it it meant that um that seeing the boys was going to be put off and put off and put off and i just stood there and i i felt so sorry for my boys that they were missing everything in childhood and i already mentioned that dan that uh danny was 13 and so you know the older the kids get and we miss all these things like halloween and stuff those moments are forever forever gone and they're never coming back and so um this meant to me that i was not going to get the kids for the whole school year probably and then i was going to waste money fighting in court about stupid things and that dan was just going to jerk me around and mess up the money undoubtedly with the fines and then how was your mental condition then i had been beaten down for so long so many times that i felt that all the resources a person draws on when they're in trouble that i had over the years exhausted all those resources i i couldn't it was six years into this i couldn't call my family and say oh mom look what he's doing to me now i couldn't turn to any friends and for help i couldn't i had already tried every um civil agency in this town i had tried child abuse i had tried battered women i had tried the district attorney's office for help i had tried the city attorney's office for help i had called the aclu i had called halt i had called now i had you know when you're in trouble and you're looking for help and you're crying for help and screaming for help you try all these avenues and i had already exhausted those avenues i felt so victimized and then i was angry and this is all happening at once in my brain you know i'm explaining it one at one time and one thing at a time now but it's all happening at once and it's like why are they doing this why the hell are they doing this to me now why can't they just leave me alone why can't they let me get control of my life and get my kids and just have a peaceful normal life i didn't know what kind of sick jollies they were getting out of driving me crazy and i was saying to myself you know what do they want out of me what the hell do they want out of me now what do i have that they want and the only answer i could come up with was that they wanted to just drive me crazy they were just it was sadistic what they were doing there was nothing else that i could give these people to get away from them what were you going to do when you went to dance i was going to ask him for the kids and to just leave me alone and if he wouldn't agree at all i was just going to kill myself in his house not down at the beach and not at my house and i had been contemplating suicide for a long time it's in it's in the diaries it i mean i was ex i was extremely despondent in what was going on in my life here because i couldn't handle it and i i knew that if i had killed myself it was going to be in front of dan broderick so that if he couldn't just say see i told her she was crazy i had nothing to do with it when you got to dean's house did you take the gun with you yes and what was the purpose of taking that every time i went to dan's house in in the past i'd get this you know 10 seconds or i'm going to call the police or once i got there to talk to dan and linda was in the window saying you want me to call the police and stuff so i want i brought the gun with me initially to make them have to talk to me and if they said they were going to call the police i'd say no you're not did you plan to do anything if they didn't talk to you i told you yes i if they wouldn't it just wouldn't deal with me and wouldn't give me the kids i was just going to kill myself okay did you go into that did you then go into their bedroom yes and what did you do when you went into their bedroom well the motion that i made although i don't think it was a big motion the movement that i made into their bedroom woke them up and they moved and somebody screamed called the police and i said no and i just fired the gun and this big noise went off and then i grabbed the phone and got that fell out of there but i wasn't even in that room i mean it just was an explosion just i moved they moved the gun went off and it was like ah it was that fast now at that point in time when you left do you know whether anyone was hit no i thought dan was after me okay had did now the dance say um did do you remember dan sitting up in bed and saying okay you shot me i'm dead no have you ever said that have you ever repeated that to anybody i know lily says i said that so i must have said that but i heard lily say i said that i don't remember that it's been a rough few days on the stand for betty broderick but her real test could be the cross-examination prosecutor kerry wells wastes no time in launching in you have obviously testified for the last couple of days since last thursday or so and during the course of those couple of days while you've been testifying you have done a fair amount of crime on the stand during your testimony uh it is true is it not that during the last round uh when you would return to jail after testifying that you would laugh about having cried in front of the jury no that's not true that's not true isn't it true that you told deputy woods a deputy at the las salinas jail that when you cried the jury just ate it up no absolutely not you never made any statement to that thought no i never never did i couldn't have made that statement isn't it true that when you talked to deputy woods that you told deputy woods for example one day after testifying that it was a good day today i had the jury eating out of my hands kerry wells argues that betty and dan broderick were never happily married challenging the picture defense attorney early painted in his direct exam it is true that you had discussed divorce on many occasions with dan broderick during the course of your marriage i don't know no we didn't discuss divorce you threatened divorce on many occasions the same way i've been said to have threatened to kill him yes well you didn't just threaten to kill him you did kill him well and we did get a divorce yes and you threatened divorce even in the first year of your marriage didn't you and probably to kill him in the first year of my marriage too yes carrie wells hammers away at inconsistencies in betty broderick's testimony is it not true mr frederick that in the year of 1987 after the court ordered support of sixteen thousand dollars the dan broderick paid for every cent that he was ordered by the support by the court to pay and he paid it in the first week of that year it's not my recollection in the beginning in that first month he played with us somehow and i had to have the court order redone because of this little loophole that's my recollection but he was court ordered to pay that money so he had no choice but he filed an appeal because he didn't want to pay it prosecutor wells grilled broderick on a series of incidents that she says show broderick's hatred toward her former husband now it is true in 1985 after the separation when dan broderick moved back into the coral reef house that you did vandalize the coral reef house yes on october 19 1985 you threw two bottles of wine through large through a large window you shattered a sliding glass door up into the television set broke the cover on the stereo smashed two lamps i threw the bottles through the window on that saturday morning when dan took red away but that's all i did the rest of the stuff is lies always has been you didn't recall breaking the window at the coral reef house either when you went over there to burn the carpet until you were shown the photographs correct no i didn't and when you were shown the photographs that you had broken the window then you remembered that you had broken it no i don't i don't really remember being there no so you still don't remember the fact that you broke the sliding the sliding glass door at coral reef when you went over there that day no but i'll believe i did it well zeroes in on betty broderick's treatment of her children particularly the language she used around them you said before that you thought it was just water off the duck's back no big deal that you talked like that to your children that's what i mean over the years it had no effect on anyone of any kind isn't it true that every single person who knew you and who knew what was going on told you it was having a tremendous effect on these children like who no you didn't just call in those words you were it was how you used the words it was how you use the words to destroy the the children's self-esteem the children's self-esteem yes i'm not with you on this uh what are you talking about how about when danny asked you what the name broderick meant when he was doing a project for school and had to talk about what his last name meant and you told him that it meant and when he told you mom come on be serious i have to do a pro a a project for school you told him it means do you think that has anything to do with a young boy's self-esteem about his own name i don't recall this at all argumentative sustain kerry wells finally leads betty broderick to the morning of the crime what exactly did you expect to accomplish by confronting him on that sunday morning at 5 30 in the morning i wanted him to give me the kids okay and so you felt that by breaking into the house and confronting him in his bedroom at 5 30 in the morning that he was going to be inclined to think at that point that you ought to get the kids he's going to be inclined to listen to me okay you did see dan and linda on the bed when you entered the room correct i have no recollection of seeing them at all well how would you know whether linda or dan moved if you didn't see them i know now who was where and i know that i i had the impression then that she was closest to me but i don't remember seeing her well you can't have an impression about something unless you saw it you brought the gun for a show of force you brought the gun to make them listen to him right but when you entered the room you didn't use the gun for a show of course you didn't use the gun to say hold it i want to talk to you buster you shot i didn't have a chance you didn't have a chance what do you mean you didn't have it because it all happened so fast i'm telling you i didn't it wasn't a thought process i moved they moved the gun went off and it was over that fast when you pulled the trigger obviously that was a voluntary action on your part you voluntarily pulled the turtle i don't remember voluntarily pulling the trigger no okay we have we have two different kinds of actions that people can be involved in one is involuntary like your heart beating or your or your pupils dilating we don't have any control over that when somebody pulls a trigger you have control over that it's your brain telling your first finger to pull the trigger right honor the question that's argument well are you suggesting that you had some sort of uh epileptic fit that made your finger uh go pull on that trigger or did you voluntarily pull the trigger your honor objection where was the gun when you walked into the room how are you holding the gun i don't remember it were you holding it pointing at them as you walked into the gun into the room i don't think so i think so you had it in my right hand and how was it when it was in your right hand were you walking in it with the down butt to your side again i didn't even walk in i entered that room that's how when you entered the room how were you holding the gun i would have assumed at my side i don't know okay and so when linda moved you had to bring that gun up and point it at her to shoot her didn't you right i'm gonna objectively she's asking you guys overall to match that the reflex action didn't make the gun go off in the floor did it no like that so you pulled the gun up and you pointed it at linda to shoot her didn't i didn't point it at anything in particular was the gun pointed at linda's chest when it shot her i don't know i'm telling it was dark i didn't see linda i couldn't have pointed at anybody's chest after seven days on the witness stand betty broderick finally steps down while jack early may have suffered a setback he continues calling a parade of suburban san diego women to testify on behalf of betty as the good wife and mother would you see uh betty with her children yes i did and how was she when she was around children absolutely beautiful just they loved her she loved them and uh but he wanted the kids to be back with her she wanted to provide them a environment where a parent was in the household all the time with them i was she was a very creative mother um she they were basically the focus of her attention and her energy she had been a teacher and that's all she knew and that's all she ever wanted to be was a mother and a teacher so she interacted beautifully with children and enjoyed them and i i don't remember her not in sweats and cookie dough and paintings and i i was amazed at how much she could do in a day because i her her interaction with children is excellent while character witnesses are important to jack early's case so are experts who can testify to betty broderick's state of mind he calls a psychologist who testifies that broderick suffered from depression as a result of the way she says dan broderick treated her a turning point in the trial comes when an expert on emotional abuse dr daniel funken is blocked by the prosecution from testifying as he had in the first trial that betty broderick was an abused woman obviously the court is taking a position at this time though his testimony wasn't barred it was so limited by the judge that the witness himself decided not to take the stand and finally the defense rests its case his betty broderick the victim of an abusive man who killed in a moment of passion or is she a calculated murderer for a second time a jury will retire to deliberate on the fate of betty broderick in california there is a thin line between first-degree and second-degree murder to find betty broderick guilty of first-degree murder the jury will have to find that she deliberately intended to pull the trigger after reflecting on her actions for second-degree murder only that she intended to pull the trigger with no deliberate planning for voluntary manslaughter the jury must only be convinced that the trigger was pulled in the heat of passion depending on what the jury decides assuming a conviction betty broderick could be sentenced to prison for as little as three years or for the rest of her life after four days of deliberation the jury returns mr mcallister i understand the jury has reached a verdict would you give the forms to my bailout please we the jury in the above entitled cause find the defendant elizabeth ann broderick guilty of the crime of murder and fix the degree thereof as murder in the second degree victim daniel broderick we the jury in the above entitled cause find the defendant elizabeth ann broderick guilty of the crime of murder and fix the degree thereof as murder in the second degree victim linda broderick and we further the jury's verdict elizabeth ann broderick guilty of two counts of second-degree murder jurors told us that a turning point in the trial was betty broderick's cross-examination when her credibility was seriously undermined by prosecutor carrie wells and the jury told us the verdict was a compromise one juror said that she believed broderick and tried to hold out for manslaughter she only agreed on second-degree murder to avoid another mistrial the verdict means that betty broderick must be sentenced to 15 years to life for each count the question will she serve time for each or can she serve them at the same time thomas j whalen judge presiding so the stakes are high once again two months later at this sentencing hearing my sentencing decision in this case is based solely on the evidence that i heard during the course of the trial and solely upon the laws of the state of california so for count one she's sentenced to the department of corrections for a term of 17 years to life betty broderick is sentenced to consecutive sentences amounting to 32 years to life in prison is she reconciled to spending the rest of her life in prison i don't think that she is in a position now to understand what that is i don't think that she's been battling for so long i don't think she's got to the point of contemplation about what does this really mean two years from now or three years from now or four years from now she's still dealing with the immediate so much that it's very it's going to be it's going to take a while for her to understand that barring a successful appeal betty broderick will be nearly 60 years old before even being considered for release from prison for court tv i'm cynthia mcfadden [Music] you

Channel: As Close to Crime

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Length: 73min 19sec (4399 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021