Crime Scene: The Sugar Land Murders — When Kids Kill

And while you're waiting for the next series to come out here on the Binge,

I wanted to share with you an episode from our new weekly series, Crime Scene. It's hosted by myself and Cooper Mall, who you may remember from the Crimes of Margot Freshwater and Fatal Beauty. And each week, Cooper and I are stepping into the Crime Scene office. And we are breaking down a different case. So I'm just going to pop an episode of that series

“into your feed here. It's called the Sugarland murders. And I think you're going to like it.”

It has a lot of the same themes that you heard in Fatal Fantasy. I don't want to give too much away. But take a listen. And if you enjoy the series, you can find us on Apple, on Spotify, or on YouTube.

Just search for the Binge Crime Scene. And here it is, the Sugarland murders.

Could you forgive a killer for taking the life of someone you loved? What if that killer was also someone you loved? In 2003, a family in Sugarland, Texas was torn apart by a gruesome crime, a crime that left everyone on the scene with blood on their hands. Welcome to Crime Scene, the show where we tell the stories behind the world's most unforgettable crimes. A family gathering turned sinister. One December night in a wealthy suburb of Houston,

Kent and Trisha Whitaker sit across from their sons, Bart and Kevin, surrounded by daqueries, seafood platters, and a congratulations cake in chocolate frosting. But one of the members of this family didn't think of this meal as a celebration. More like a last supper. Today we're bringing the story of a family that was torn apart by a gruesome crime and an even worst secret. But it's also about the lengths that we go to hide things from the ones that we love.

“And when the truth is revealed in this case, it's more surprising than even the crime itself.”

From Sony podcast and the Binge, this is the story of the Sugarland murders. Hey, all, welcome to the crime scene office. My name's Jonathan Hirsch. I'm a cult survivor, turned documentarian, covering cults, crimes, and cons. And I'm Cooper Mal, a librarian, turned podcaster obsessed with all things true crime. And together each week, we're going to bring you some of our favorite stories. The ones that have stuck with us. And we're going to dig into the

case, both the criminal and legal aspects of it, but also all of the characters involved in the story, you know, the world that they inhabit. This series is part of the Binge, which is Sony's true crime podcast network. You'll probably hear me on it from time to time. You'll also hear a Cooper. And, you know, you can think about this as all the things that you love from the limited series that we make, but in one episode. Well, what do you got for us today, Jonathan? We've talked about

this case a little bit before. It's different than every crime story I've looked into for this one particular reason. It almost feels like a moral tale. If that makes sense, it's like a fable. You end up asking yourself some very serious questions about what you would do if you were in the

“situation. I love any story that makes me do that. Yes. And I think by the end of this, it'll be”

interesting to hear how you feel like what you would do in the situation and what all of you would do as well. So that's a secret. Coming up after the break, the story of the sugar limiters. So our story starts with the Whittakers. They're this upstanding church-going family. They live in a brick house. They have community ties that run super deep. And they have these two boys that are on their way to adulthood. They're like a sitcom family. Yeah, Kent is this successful professional and

Trisha is a devoted mother. Yeah, they sort of sound like cookie cutter in a way that's much more

complicated than that. But at least it's always is. And on the surface, though, you see this wonderful

family. They have a likable, younger son, Kevin, and then Bart, who's a little bit older, is on the verge of graduating from college and moving into adulthood. They're in their church in their community. Kent is this sort of fixture. He's known to be gentle, full of faith. He talks often times about forgiveness. He says that like when terrible things happen, people would come to him and ask her as advice. And he would often tell them about the values of trust, trust in God,

and having faith to get through the worst of times. And then what happens to him has to be

And he talks in like very philosophical terms about what had happened to him. And, you know,

“he talks about how everything that he went on in his life sort of brought prayer, forgiveness, and”

faith, and the winding roads of his life together and into the light. But not before experiencing considerable darkness along the way. To me, it's almost as if it's like everything that he's practiced and preached is now going to be tested. Yeah, it's like that point I was making earlier about this kind of being like a moral tale. There's an element to the story where it because of Kent's voice and his perspective, it just has this very strong

philosophical bent. It almost blurs the lines between what happened and how he feels. At least when you read his book, it's really quite remarkable in that way. Okay, so this case begins in December of 2003. Bart, the oldest boy, has just told his parents that he finished his college exams and is finally graduating from Sam Houston University. And if anyone thinks it's weird to graduate in December, it's not, I graduated in December actually. Did you really? Yes.

Okay. It's not always in the summer. Yeah. And so he's very excited. His family is also very

excited because they weren't ever sure if this would happen. He had had some ups and downs. So they quickly arranged a celebration that night at Papado, which is like the seafood chain restaurant in South Texas. They bought him a Rolex watch day and a cake to mark the milestones. So this was like a fun event for everybody around. And it must have been a huge deal for them. That's like big, that's a big gift. Yeah. Yeah, they were definitely a well-to-do family, but a Rolex is a Rolex

whoever is paying for it. So at the restaurant, Kevin is joking around. Trisha is said to have been

beaming can't relaxes for the first time in a long time because they had had some rocky years and

look, I totally get that, like, as the dad of two boys, like, if one of your your oldest son is about to graduate from college, like, you're like, oh, thank God. Okay. Yeah, I made it through. I was definitely, like, the kid in my family of, like, is this going to happen? Oh, yes. Is she ever really going to get it there? But yeah, we did it. Yeah, yeah. There's a big deal.

“You can imagine that sense of relief and comfort that the family felt now, like hindsight, of course, right?”

Yeah, absolutely. So they pose with the cake. They smile. Bart gets the Rolex. They talk about the future, but what they don't really know is that the future is very short. So the family goes home. And this is like any other night, they walk up to the front door. There's no outside signs of danger

anywhere. Trisha, the mom walks up to the front door. First, she sort of leading the pack.

She opens the door. And when she opens it, she's confronted by a masked man who fires around, straight into her and she falls back. And then this individual proceeds to fire a single round into every one of the widocurs that are there on the porch. And all of a sudden, in a matter of seconds, the entire family is mowed down and lying in a pool of blood. Yeah, what a turn. It is shocking and terrifying. The shooter runs from the house directly after

doing this, out the backyard, jumps over the fence, and disappears with a getaway driver into the night. But not everybody is dead from this attack. Ken is roughly still aware. He sort of races his head. He sees his wife's blonde hair on the floor. And he also hears her coughing sort of a wet cough. So he knows that her lungs are filling with blood. So she probably doesn't have a lot of time left. The neighbor heard the shots rushes over and calls 911. The paramedics arrive,

Kevin Zett on the scene. It's been shot. It's my mother. I guess you'll go this. All done. One second, sir. Engine one, all we have, one second, right now, apparently the whole family's been shot. Stand by. It just hurts that I can't. It's okay. But where is your wound?

“In the arm, I think I can't. Okay, who else has been shot in the house with you?”

Oh, I can't. Who else was in the house with you?

I need to hang on, Bart. I've got help on the way. Okay. Do you know who shot you?

“No. Okay. Your neighbors were telling me that he had a mask on. Is that true?”

Yeah. I think it's dark in here. Okay. Do you think he was burglars in your home? Or are you guys having problems with somebody? Oh, God. I don't know. How many shots did he fire, Bart? I don't know. Can you tell me anything about him at all? Did he sound black, white, Hispanic, Middle Eastern? No, you're black. I don't know.

I couldn't say. Okay. When he left Bart, did he leave out your back door? No, I'd say something that way. He let you take him out towards the back door? Yeah. Okay, Bart. Where were you when he shot you? Oh. I'm in the living room. Oh.

Floating on, okay. They're on the way. Where are you in the house right now? I'm in the living room. You're in the living room?

“Or, oh, go on clear. Okay. Do you see the officer's mark?”

Yeah. Okay. That's the officer's coming in. I'm going to go ahead and disconnect with you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. The mom dies at the hospital and Kent and Bart are metavacked to the hospital and brought into surgery emergency surgery. That flight there must have been surreal. It is. He talks about it. He's like having this wild moment of recollection of

what had happened over the course not like his life was flashing before his eyes, but he was remembering like these times that he had spent with his family when they had gone on this river rafting trip in Colorado. It was like super cut of memories. A super cut of memories is a perfect way to describe it. It's almost like cinematic the way he's like recalling his own life and you just you feel for him in that moment.

He has no idea what's going on. Yeah, and he starts praying and he says father, you know, if it's my time to die, I'm ready. It's okay, but protect my family.

“Yeah, because even though Kent and Bart are still alive, they're not totally into clear, right?”

Yeah, and he's not in this moment understanding necessarily what is going on. But by the end of the night, the dust settles a bit. And what's clear is that two members of the Whittaker family are dead. Two of them are alive, and there's no clear explanation for why their family would have been massacred. Yeah, like make it make sense. So the lead investigator, Marshall Slot, said that that night, when we got home from the church, we got the call of the quadruple shooting,

and that just doesn't happen here in Sugarland. I don't even think I've heard the term quadruple

shooting. Yeah, that's the first for me, too. So in the initial investigation, what kind of

questions are they asking, like, this, what was the motive of these shooters for the trying to take stuff? There's a lot to sort of sort through in something like this, because there's the shooting, there's an active crime scene, and then there was what appeared to be a robbery, but when they start to look into it, that doesn't really make sense, right? Like, the valuables weren't touched. So the place doesn't look ransacked. It looks staged. It looks like it could have been stage,

and the investigators sort of even alludes to that. He said, in the master bedroom, the drawers, an armware, all the drawers have been open, but they were all sort of like at a equal distance. Weird. Like, he had pulled them out together, like one after the other, like it was part of the set. Yeah, like it was part of the job. He had to do each one. None of the items of value inside the house had moved around. He said, the electronics, the laptop, the jewelry,

none of those items that are typically taken from a burglary. Yeah, we're taken. Given that they, you know, got barter Rolex, they probably had some really nice stuff in there. Yeah. And then they did. I mean, there was a nice house and a nice neighborhood, a place where things like this don't happen to a family where you don't expect something like this to happen. I mean, people's heads were spinning. Yeah, I bet. So if the shooter wasn't a robber,

then what on earth did this man have against the family? That's sort of your next line of things, right? And like, given what you've told me, they're this like upstanding Christian family they don't necessarily seem like the type who are like, in bed with criminals or having a fair is or anything like that. I mean, what do you find out? It can't possibly be personal, right?

I mean, that is something they need to look into. You never know. You just never know who might

see you as a target as sort of one of the morals of this story, I guess. But by all accounts, as they start to ask around, they're not seeing these people sort of in bed with criminals, having a fairs or you know, stepping out or betraying each other in ways that would be super evident or would be like the foundation of a motive. So I guess at first, like the investigators are kind of at a loss. Yeah, they don't have a lot to go off of. Yeah. It seemed like every piece of

evidence that we collected and we ran into dead ends left and right. So this all happened really fast.

in bloodshed. The entire Witterker family gun down two of them have survived, Kent and Bart.

“So what's up with them right now? So they're in the hospital. They're both going into surgery.”

Kent is barely holding on physically and emotionally. He's lost his wife. He's lost his young son and his older son is wounded and in a hospital bed just down the way from him at the same hospital. And as a man of faith, you know, he like searches for meaning. You know, he's like telling himself, God must have left Bart alive for a reason. Maybe to rebuild, maybe to carry on the family in a way that he couldn't quite understand at the moment. So he started his head starting to

span about trying to figure out how to make sense of what has happened to them without yet understanding or contemplating who precisely would have done this. You know, I'm not really a

religious person but something I've always really envied about people with faith is that in these

moments that just feel so dark and heavy that they have this sort of groundedness or this thing to kind of hold on to. Right. Yeah. Like the impossible can happen to you and you can find a way

“to make it make sense. Honestly, if you were to just imagine the impossible happening to you and”

your family, this seems like the thing that would be impossible. Oh, this would be my undoing. Yeah. Me too. Me too. I can't imagine what I would do in this situation or how I would even start to make try to make sense of it. It's really a remarkable kind of moral fortitude. You know, that can't has in that moment. Okay. So the investigators are beginning to look into this. They're contacting all of the different people associated with the family. They contact the college where

Bart was just graduating and they discover something interesting. Hmm. This is the first wrinkle. Bart hadn't been a student at Sam Houston University for years. So the whole party was just a sham. It was entirely a pretence. You know, he's on academic probation since his freshman year and didn't complete the credits needed to graduate. So when the cops find this out. Yeah.

“Did they tell Kent? Yeah. I mean, that's what they do. They go straight to Kent. They tell him what”

happened and he's stunned and terrified and not just that his son lied about this so completely. But that now the cops would be focusing on Bart instead of whoever really killed his family. You know, he says, what were you thinking? Like, you lied to us about being in school. You weren't even near graduating. How could you have done that? And in retrospect, he said, like, I must have

been an idiot. How could I possibly have not seen this? But the truth is, we didn't know that

there were lies. Well, yeah. And I think parents see their kids in a certain way that it's almost in comprehensible that they'd be capable of doing something like this. I mean, I'll tell you, I mean, I lied to my own parents about being enrolled in college when I wasn't. Yeah. And it's one of those things where it was like, I thought I would re-enroll and get to credits and then did lie just kind of spiral out of control. So you just didn't tell them and like hope that you

would kind of figure it out. Is that what the... Yeah. And then two years went by of, you know, I'm in college where I was not and I had a moment where I had to come clean to them. But these of these moments were like, these little tiny things that you think you're just going to get a hold of, the lies just buying you a little bit of time can really spiral out of control. And I can understand that. And you don't really know how to get back on track. Yeah. So what I mean about

the moral tale, like you can actually see it from different perspectives, too. Like, I can imagine the things that I kept from my parents as a young person, the things that I didn't feel like they would approve of or appreciate you. Like, you can both see how somebody would keep a lie like that and it would get worse and worse in your case, too. Like kind of like snowball. And then as a parent, I can imagine, can't looking at that situation and removing the possibility that his son had anything

to do with this from his mind, leaving it sort of in the furthest corner because he would never

want to imagine that his son had something to do with what it just happened. Yeah. I mean, our minds protect us from those types of thoughts. They really do. And what would you do in that situation differently than to think? Yeah. It would possibly be my son in fact is getting in the way. Yeah. And there's like the investigation. What the correlation between you know, because you lied about college, you've done something else terrible. Yeah. He's a little

bit of a stretch. Yeah. But from a homicide detective perspective, they're looking at this family

Exactly. So Ken wheels himself to barts hospital bed after he finds out what happens, right? And confronts him about the college lie, worried that it's going to derail this investigation. Bart apologizes. Um, profusely, he says the work out. So demanding, he was under so much

pressure. He always intended to go back, but just could never really quite get it together.

He didn't want to disappoint his parents. So all the things that we were just talking about, right? Like it didn't want to be in that situation. Yeah. There's a lot of shame there. Right. So yeah, I can't get it, right? Like Bart was afraid of failing and didn't want to accept it. And didn't want to come forward with the truth. So as they're recovering from their surgeries, the father and son attended joint funeral for Ken's wife, Bart's mom, his brother, their son,

in the same church where Kevin's high school graduation had been celebrated. Not that long ago. He's happy. Another super cut in his head. Exactly. And he describes it. He's sort of having these flashback moments where he's like remembering the good times, right? Well, also having to very much be in this moment. Like I would have fully disassociated if I were in. Yeah, it must have been a surreal experience to have to bury your family like that and then try to move on.

“They're trying to move on whatever that means in this situation. Yeah. What's going on with the case?”

Well, the case is as far as Ken is concerned to this point a little bit stalled out. They want answers about what had happened. And there does seem to be some questions about Bart and his involvement. But Ken also describes there were some open theories there that he felt

weren't being explored. So he had questions at first about the Sugarland Police Department's

investigation. So for example, the night before the shooting, his youngest boy, Kevin had this friend a girl who had come over near the house like in her truck and they had sat in the car together. And she had sort of confessed to her feelings for Kevin, which Kevin did not reciprocate. And she was pretty upset about all of that on top of the fact that she had a boyfriend at the time. So there was like a messy relationship situation that happened just the night before.

“I think we've all been rejected, right? Like or at least I'm speaking for myself.”

Oh, no, no, no, that's fair. But being denied, you know, a date or you know, I don't love you anymore. It does it in a young girl to me doesn't like track that she's then in 24 hours going to go execute Kevin's whole family just because he doesn't want to date her. Yeah, no, I mean, and there were some questions, maybe the boyfriend of this girl might have

had something to do with it. And then the second sort of question mark is she shows up at the scene

the next night. No, that's a bad look without a car. So nobody really knew how she got there. So that was like one of the theories. But again, so circumstances, it's just sort of like the kind of thing I can imagine in his shoes. You're thinking about and playing over in your mind when you're trying to find answers. Well, and you're probably grasping for anything to not make you think that it could have been your kid. Right. Exactly. He's looking for any answer. And apparently there

had been a shooting that had happened not far from their house that night. And there were some questions about whether or not this could be connected to that shooting. They were just trying to

“find answers. And I think he felt at first like maybe they were just too focused on part and not”

on what some of the other possibilities were. He didn't want him to be like fall victim to any kind of tunnel vision. Yeah. And victims families go through have to endure this kind of uncertainty during a homicide investigation because, you know, detectives can only tell the families so much. But then like if there are gaps in what appear to be the way that the investigation is being pushed forward, like the stakes couldn't be higher for a family. Like when they want to actually

get in the mix there and try to, you know, try to find answers. I can understand how frustrating that must have been. So none of these theories are sticking. All they really have to go off of is the Bart lie. Right. And I'm sure they're imagining if he's capable of outlying about not graduating and being enrolled in school all this time, what else is he capable of lying? Right. Exactly. They're starting to look into that piece of it. And shortly after word, they do get a tip the police do

from a former roommate of Bart. Adam hip. He walks into the police station and reports that Bart

So police detectives are definitely having some of their initial thoughts confirmed here about

“Bart's involvement in the shootings. He claimed that he'd briefly roomed with Bart at school”

and that Bart had made mention of having his family murdered all the way back in 2001. And what was in it for them? The motive. I mean, the motive was that he expected to inherit a

significant amount of money, roughly a million dollars. So hip states that Bart even offered him a cut

of the money. You know, like this was a deal that they'd put together. He says, you know, I didn't know. I'm not proud of it. But for the simple fact that I was kind of interested to see how far he would take it. That's honest. Yeah. I mean, that's a dangerous game of chicken you're playing there, my friend. But certainly you can imagine somebody approaches you with information like that. It's also kind of dangerous. Like, do you say no to this person or are they going to hurt you? Exactly.

“I mean, you're realizing that your roommate is very, you know, not who you probably imagine”

you was, right? Yeah. You've been unwittingly like roped into a criminal conspiracy at that point.

So what do you say? Yeah. I don't know. The plan fell apart though because another friend of theirs had heard about this plot and had like warned Bart's parents. Yeah. So I mean, they had some inkling that he was, you know, having maybe these are intrusive thoughts or something's going on with them where he's capable of at least thinking about these ideating on the possibility. And I think Kent had dismissed some of those earlier situations as just teenage angst. Yeah.

Exactly. He didn't really connect the dots until much later, obviously. Well, the penny is definitely dropping now. Okay. So detectives are digging into Bart's old roommate, Adam and what he reported

“and as they were doing that, they discovered this was not just like a one-off comment, but a pattern”

of behavior. He had reached out to other roommates as early as December of 2000 to try to orchestrate some kind of ambush plot inside of the house similar to the one that happened that was successful. Except in this case, the home alarm went off when they were inside the house and when the relatives approached, they didn't enter the house. So there's a version of this where it could have happened years before it did. Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, it's so clear that this person had been

planning this as they start to unravel and hear from different people. Even plan is for a long long, a long time. You know what I can't help to think about is like, how do you even T this conversation up amongst friends? Like, hey, guys, we stand to make some serious money here. Quick question for you. Yeah. Yeah. Requires killing my whole family. I mean, yeah. How do you even begin? Yeah. It's unfathomable, but it's definitely

premeditated. You know, and you think about like how cases are adjudicated, right? Like, did a person

commit a murder? First degree, second degree, third degree, was it premeditated? Was there a plan? Was it

willful? This has to be the most willful plan I've ever heard of in a murder case. Yeah. I mean, Bart is not a survivor here. He's the mastermind. Yeah. And it was long in the works. It just fits and starts before he found the right way to do it. So crazy. So, I mean, the first couple of guys he approached about this, you know, weren't necessarily game, or some of them were, but it didn't work out. Yeah. How did he pull it off this time? So he had two friends who were willing to go along

with him in this plan. Chris Brashier and Stephen Champaign, Chris told the cops that Bart had wanted to make it look like a robbery. He asked them to shoot each of his relatives and him. So Chris was the shooter. Yeah. And the other guy Steve, I'm assuming, was the getaway driver. Did they talk to him too? He did. And after the cops questioned him, Steve led them actually to a bag that had been dumped at a local lake, Lake Conro. And it contained tools that they were able to

verify as being tied to the crime. Chris and Steve essentially are confirming this was a conspiracy. Yeah, that they had acted together as Bart's accomplices. So the shooter and the getaway driver are arrested. Did you see them leave home? Oh, yeah. So then I had pretty much followed him home. They pulled him in trouble. I just kept going around the block behind. Like

Bart's brother had walked in first, and nothing. Chris shot him. He said before he shot him.

“He thought he smiled. And then Chris shot his mom. And then shot Bart's dad and the shoulder.”

So at this point, I'm assuming investigators are seeing the years long, you know, solicitation. Yeah. The graduation lie. And the successful December ambush in 2003 as one continuous martyr plot. Yeah. And meanwhile, while all of this is sort of being sorted out by investigators, six months after the murder, the father and son are trying to have some kind of a normal life. Yeah, I don't really know how anything goes back to normal after that. But

right, but there's still sort of in their minds in this kind of grieving process, right? He doesn't know much about what the cops are gathering in the case against Bart. And he doesn't really think that his son is a mastermind behind a criminal conspiracy to have his family slaughtered. It just

“doesn't even enter his consciousness that that would be what is going on. Then something does happen,”

though, that starts to open him up to the truth. Okay. So one night Bart is going out dancing

with his girlfriend, and he never comes home. So he just leaves his dad high and dry in their time of

me. Yeah, I can't wakes up in the morning and discovers that $7,000 in cash is missing along with his son and he has no idea where he is. This is getting interesting. Yeah, I mean, that's when the table's kind of start to turn. Yeah, he's probably putting the pieces together here. Exactly. His son, who had troubles with the law in the past when he was younger, had had ups and downs along the way, had lied about graduating for college. Maybe he had something to do with this.

Yeah, I know he's missing. So cops are probably realizing they've got the right guy. Right. Yeah, they just let this culprit slip through their fingers while they were developing the case. So the hunt is on. But when Bart disappeared, did he leave any sort of trace? He did. He abandoned his SUV at an airport parking lot and he crossed into Mexico, disappeared into one of the small border towns. Classic. He uses his cash and goes by a different name. They

don't know this at the time. Suralvo, Mexico. It's a world away from Sugarland, Texas. And that's just fine with the American stranger who suddenly lands here, looking for work and a new identity. Before he abandoned his dad, he had done some planning for this life.

“He's good at that. He is. And that's how Bart became somebody new,”

who went by the name of Rudy Rios. How the hell did he get that name?

He had basically convinced a friend of his to let him steal his identity for a price.

He was a coworker. coworker agreed. So he picks up work at a furniture shop and charms the neighbors with stories about being wounded and combat, which is how he explained his bullet wound. He's going to story for everything. Continuous name was Rudy. But their newfound friend is no Rudy at all. He's Bart Whittaker, prime suspect in the ambush of his entire family back in Texas.

For nearly a year, he's living in this town. He's seen as this like charismatic, new, American, and the Texas authorities are searching high and low for Bart Whittaker. So for nearly a year, he's living this life in Mexican town. He's like the charismatic, new, American, and authorities are out there looking for Bart Whittaker. But he's Rudy Rios. Exactly. When do the cops eventually zero in on the guy? So the story does have an ending. They find him.

Through the help of the guy who had originally let him borrow his name and identity, Rudy Rios. Yeah, he finds out about this warrant and the call for information that includes, you know, money, if anybody can help to, you know, advance the investigation. So Rudy cashed out twice off of Bart. But he advanced both the person being investigated and the investigators investigating him. Yeah. So it's the first time I've ever heard of a criminal

conspiracy to kill your entire family. It's also the first time I've heard of somebody double dipping in this way on the front and the back end of the criminal conspiracy. He definitely is the one

the Mexican officials work with U.S. authorities to bring Bart back to Texas to face capital murder

“charges. And his dad. Yeah. Coming up, investigators dig for answers and devastating secrets”

surface. You know, it's sort of interesting to think about what was going on in Bart's mind at the time because here's somebody who committed this heinous act who in a way is running from the authorities because he feels like they're zeroing in. But it also feels in an odd way and maybe I'm just too wrapped up in Kent's own version of the story that he was running from his dad. Yeah. Like he couldn't face him. His dad thoroughly believed that he wouldn't have been involved in this

believes in forgiveness and Bart is living it with him every single day. Probably think look every time he looks at him. He knows exactly what happened here. Yeah. It's almost like I can't imagine living with that. It's almost worse than living with the realities of what happened to you is living with that kind of a lie. But he has no choice now because he's arriving back to Texas and shackles. He's the mastermind of a massacre and he's going to have to face justice. He's also,

as you said, can have to face his dad. So Bart is brought back to speak with his father and he tells him I accept full responsibility. This is all my fault. I did this from beginning to end. And this is where sort of a drive's at the heart of this being kind of a moral tale Kent does something that I still can't imagine having the ability to do myself, which is he forgives Bart for what happened. I can't say I'm surprised by that based off what you've already told me about Kent. But what I can

say is I don't think I could do that. Yeah. I don't know if I could do it either. So he said like

that first night in the hospital, I forgave everyone who was involved in this. It is a gift of

“God that allows me to do this. I think he gave me the gift so that when I found out that it was my”

son, it would be a legitimate forgiveness. Almost like God was sort of priming him to forgive his son for something that would be unforgettable. That night God met me at my in a hospital bed as I was wrestling with my faith wondering why this had happened. He led me to choice where I asked him to help me forgive the person who whoever it was. You know, Cooper, when we've been talking about this case, I keep thinking back about my favorite novel when I was a teenager, which probably

says a lot about me. It's crime and punishment. Yeah, totally tracks. That hard Russian novel about murder and crime. Anyway, for those who haven't read it before, the main character is this guy, Raskolnikov. He's this poor student at a university in St. Petersburg. And he develops this theory

that superior individuals can transcend moral laws. If the person deserves it, basically you can

kill someone without feeling guilt or regret, you can kind of sit above morality. And he commits the crime of murder, but then is consumed with guilt and regret and can't really transcend the human emotion that is associated with taking the life of another person. And in a way, I kind of feel like the story is the reverse of crime and punishment, because it tells the story of someone who can forgive a willful, planned act of murder. And that's Kent, of course. And it just makes you think,

because I don't know if I would be able to see past that, but it's very clear to Kent what his

“moral purpose is after he finds out that his son did this. Yeah, and I think when it's your own”

family, it really complicates it, right? Yeah, I mean, you got skin in the game. Like, there's a little bit of a bias when it's your kid. Definitely. But I think what's sort of interesting, what kind of comes next for Kent is he understands the consequences that are at play, but what he doesn't feel the state should make a determination about is the life of art. So he believes his son should accept responsibility and serve the appropriate prison sentence for that crime, but he doesn't believe

that his son should be put to death. But this is Texas. This is totally not the kind of place where you

to accept his son's guilty, but also fight to keep him alive. Coming up, a capital murder trial and a shocking decision.

“So for everyone following, this is where everything is coming home, both literally and figuratively.”

Barit has been brought back to Texas and suddenly the story is not about him like running or being a fugitive anymore. It's a reckoning, essentially. He's here to face what he did his dad and the state. Right. Yeah. And so we're in like 2007 at this point a few years after the crime, Barit goes on trial for capital murder in Fort Ben County. Chris and Steve his accomplices are also charged with their charge separately. So prosecutors lay out the full arc in the criminal trial. Right.

Like the years of recruitment attempts, the faked graduation, the staged burglary, the coordinated

shooting, and of course the artist gap year in history, Bart's flight to Mexico under an alias.

“Not a lot of reasonable doubt here. Yeah. In this case, it's fascinating to sort of walk through the”

trial and everything leading up to it. The prosecutor Fred Feldman, he said during the trial, there's this term they use in psycho-lingo, psycho-babel of sociopath. In other words, a person who knows he's doing something wrong but doesn't really care. The old-time Texas thing was he's a mean old son of a bitch, okay? They knew what they were getting into and they weren't about

to mince words, regardless of the sort of nuanced moral territory that Kent was trafficking in.

Yeah, just because these certain principles apply to the church, they definitely don't apply to the court. Exactly. And this other prosecutor were sort of saying like,

“this is an act of betrayal. This doesn't get any worse than this. The law has to be”

commensurate with the crime. Yeah, and I, you know, well, I have a certain amount of respect for Ken's forgiveness and attitude through this. Like, he's got to know that a conviction at this level, like, is straight to the death penalty in Texas. Yeah. I mean, he's up against a governor who historically has not been particularly keen on commuting these kinds of sentences. So after six days of testimony in the trial, including evidence from Steve, the physical items that were recovered from like

Conro, the record of Bart's lies, the jury deliberates for just a few hours. Yeah, it does not surprise me at all. Yeah. I mean, they knew what they were up against. So they find Bart guilty of capital murder and during the penalty phase, Bart actually took the stand, which is really interesting. He said, I'm 100% guilty for this. I put the plan in motion. If I had not done so, it would not have happened. I mean, nothing more unequivocal than that. Yeah. Captain obvious statement. Right. And so

maybe he had hoped that that would provide some degree of leniency in the sentence. The jury sentence is him to death. So you'd mention that his accomplices, Chris and Steve also have their own trials. They did. And, you know, Bart received the death sentence. The men who helped him, they get very different deals. You know, Chris was the mask on men who actually shot the family. He pleads guilty in a sentence, the life in prison with no execution day. And then there's Steve,

the getaway driver. He receives a 15 year sentence, which sort of gives him a chance to one day walk free from all of this. I mean, you can't really help, but notice it like three young men, like right as kind of the start of their life here. Yeah. I mean, awful decisions that took either their whole lives away or a lot of life away. I mean, it's awful. What a waste. Yeah. You know, what a shame and what a waste. So can't testify in the trial. But he also speaks publicly after the verdict comes

down to let people know that he had forgiven Bart for the shootings and that he was very much opposed to the death sentence ruling. And he was sort of saying that like he's the only surviving member of his family and that would just multiply the loss. He's the last living member of my family. And if this execution proceeds, it's going to mean that the state of Texas is going to

there to sort of make sure that the punishment and the crime match each other, right? But we're

also supposed to be doing this on behalf of the victim's families. And here's a very unique situation in which the victim is, but the survivor and a loved one. Yeah. I loved one and an advocate for the person on trial. So it puts the state and Kent in a tricky situation. Yeah, no kidding.

“He spends the next decade traveling around writing appealing to anyone, honestly, who will listen”

to him that the state has to seek mercy for his son, not just vengeance. And this is the decade that would have been Kent's like empty nest golden years with his wife being spent advocating for his murderous son. The entire trajectory of his life becomes defined

by this event, appeal after appeal fails. And then finally, the time has come, right, early 2018.

Now, breaking tonight, we are less than one hour out from Bart Whitaker's scheduled execution. Whitaker will be put to death tonight at six o'clock for the murders of his mother and brother, unless Governor Greg Abbott decides to side with the state parole board's recommendation to spare Whitaker's life. Still no word from Governor Greg Abbott's office is to whether he will accept the parole board's recommendation. Prison officials say until they are absolutely certain

they have heard the final word from the governor's office or the Texas Attorney General's office has to whether there are any last minute appeals out there. They will not move forward with this execution even though it is scheduled for six p.m. Bart has an execution date and the Texas

“governor Greg Abbott has never commuted a death sentence before. Yeah, why would Bart be any different?”

But in February 2018, the Texas Board of Parts and Peroles unanimously recommends commuting Bart's sentence to life without parole, citing, among other things, Kent's plea, and the fact that the triggerman was not sentenced to death. So why would the leader in the conspiracy be? Okay, Ken must be so relieved. Well, the recommendations are only advisory, so the governor has to step in and say, "Hey, don't take this man's life." So the process carries on, right?

The day of the execution arrives. Bart is moved to the death chamber. He's served his last meal. He strapped onto the gurney. He says, "Good bye to Kent." The governor is like really making them sweat here. It's down to the wire. There's 40 minutes before the scheduled lethal injection when Kent receives a phone call. Abbott is granting clemency. Commuting Bart's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole

in the first-ever motion like that from the governor. This is Texas. This doesn't happen.

And I'm just so encouraged that the system has worked. This was the right thing. This was the right thing to do. And I'm grateful to the Plainsville for all board for recognizing that there was

“truth here that was kind of hidden away through the legal process. And it's fascinating, right?”

Like not everybody agrees with this. Yeah, I mean, there's going to be strongly held opinions about this. So when Governor Greg Abbott stepped into commute that sentence, Vasex says that concerned him to then just tossed that aside and say even though the jury heard the evidence and said, this is what all it happened. I don't know how Kent not diminish the role of the jury. He hasn't gotten any trouble and favorable that they're claiming that he can't

change. If that were the case, then every religion on earth would be a waste of time. Yeah, I'm curious what all of y'all think when you hear this story. Like, do you believe that justice was served here? Would you have done the same thing as Kent? There's so many questions. And this is a very hot topic of debate. The death penalty. Yes. So Bart leaves death row for this maximum security unit and he begins to serve his life without parole. He starts to study,

"deserves punishment." That's self-aware. When he told me that he had forgiven the shooter, I was shouting inside, "Well, what if that's my fault?" And of course, I didn't have the courage to say anything at the time. Yeah, and Kent continues to visit his son and speak publicly about

“forgiveness and all of that. And he says that like arguing for sparing Bart's life is a better”

reflection of his and Trisha's values than the execution ever would have been. Interesting point. So Kent goes on to write a book about this which we've been talking about before, murder by family.

It's an incredible read and I would encourage all of y'all to take a look at it. Some of

there's sort of funny about Kent is like in the book he's also weaving in all of these biblical stories. And metaphors and one of them that sort of stuck out to me that seemed to be like resonant for him was the story of Absalom. Absalom was the son of the King of David in the Bible. And he had apparently like organized a rebellion against his father. But he failed and ultimately died. And in a way, Kent saw his son as this sort of rebellious figure who was like misguided

“in his rebellion. And so it just like reinforces as you're reading and hearing about this”

that Kent is kind of this armchair philosopher of his own life. And you know, quite thoughtful.

Yeah, I'm able to make meaning from everything. And so like looking at this story, you know, the last image of this is not the sort of cruel justice that comes with the lethal injection of Bart. But it's actually the story of a father and son finding a way to restore their own relationship and life while their son lives a life of repentance for what he had done. Yeah, you were not kidding about this one being a thinker. I mean, what would you do? Would you be able

to forgive someone you loved a sibling? I waiver back and forth throughout this whole entire

time, right? I think the family piece really does complicated for me. Right. It kind of reminds me of

some of the cases where you see family inserting themselves. I mean, most recently, I think there were a lot of questions about Gabby Petito. Just sort of came to mind and how the, you know, for those who aren't familiar. I think most of you all who are listening to this probably know about the Gabby Petito case, the girl goes missing her boyfriend ends up being sort of viewed as the potential assailant. And his parents come in and really protect him. Yeah, and then there's not

a good love evidence of them communicating with one another before, you know, she, you know,

“during the time that she disappears. And you have to imagine that, you know, the love for a child”

is so strong. Love for your family is so strong that you do anything to protect that even if it goes against the grain of your own instincts. And in this case, I feel like Kent's love for his son is so strong that his own, that and his own moral sense sort of lifted him above the ideas of the sort of human world of crime and punishment. Thanks so much for joining us on crime scene. This show is a production of Sony podcast and the binge. Thank you to everyone who makes this show

happen each week. Also, we love journalism. These stories are deeply informed by the reporting that has brought these cases to light. We stand on the shoulders of giants. To learn more about our sourcing, check out the extensive bibliography listed in our show notes. Be sure to like, subscribe and follow wherever you watch or listen. You can get exclusive content from us and over 50 jaw dropping true crime series, ready to binge ad-free right now. By subscribing to the binge

on Apple Podcasts or go to getthebinge.com to explore all the true crime stories included in your subscription. And now, before you leave us, Jonathan sat down with Lindle Marx from Killer Story. Our new series on the binge. To talk about her career as a journalist and how she used one of the worst moments in her life to affect real change and to solve a crime, we're going to play a little sneak peek from that conversation here. You can hear the entire conversation by subscribing to the

binge on Apple Podcasts or Patreon or go to getthebinge.com to access over 60 jaw dropping true crime series, ad-free right now. And I have to say that when I heard the podcast when I listened

spoken to her about it and then you guys interviewed her and she described what happened when she

“walked into the room. I remember seeing her face and the initial shock on her face when she saw”

me that I hearing the words come out of her mouth about how I was just swollen and bloody and my eyes were like black and blue and that was that was tough. I was tough to listen to and that made me

quite emotional. Just to listen to that and actually to know that my girls were listening to that.

“So that was hard but I'm grateful to be able to tell this story because I really want to empower”

other women not to fall into being a victim that you can rise above it and you know for me the great pleasure is telling stories of other victims. The reason I didn't come forward earlier to tell this story is because for me you know this was this was a story this was just a you know a story that I did at the time but I very quietly independently without telling anybody at a corner fair without telling anybody that I was interviewing for the Sabrina story that I had been

a victim. I never told anyone because I was doing my job as a journalist but deep down I knew

that what was driving me to want to tell her story was this pure instinct this gut feeling. Right. Something has happened to her. Something is wrong and I I beg other people to really trust yourself advocate for those feelings you have because I had lawyers saying don't you dare tell the story you know we'll get sued which they would have if if Preston hadn't been convicted if you if you didn't yeah if I was wrong and you know I had the lawyer saying to me you

better be right about your faxlin remarks and I'm like yes shit it was scary it was a scary time that I've just Jonathan I just felt deep inside this is something has happened to the skull. Yeah is it is it a victim feeling for another victim is it just empathy is it wanting to find

“closure for other victims which in this case was the family the victims but I think you just”

develop this empathy as a victim that you can actually go on rise above it and do a lot of good until those stories.