Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 2 Episode 7 (March 8, 2025) Full Episode 720HD
Categoría
🎥
CortometrajesTranscripción
00:00I don't think there are very many murder cases like this one.
00:11The horror of what happened is something that nobody ever expects.
00:23And everything about it, the way the night started from the defendant's point of view,
00:27that he was just out shooting animals and shooting stop signs, I grew up doing that.
00:34But the way it evolved from that to end up shooting and murdering a game warden is crazy.
00:41I got involved in this case because the elected DA of Wharton County, which is close to home
00:46where I'm from, Matagorda County, had never tried a death penalty case before.
00:51So these are the people I grew up with.
00:54This is my world.
00:56When I met Justin's family, I'm pretty sure I cried a lot because they're wonderful people.
01:01And anyone who met Justin's family would want to get justice for them.
01:18I'm a Texas game warden.
01:19And we work where people hunt, where people fish.
01:25Our biggest focus is going to be making sure everybody's got their license and their permits
01:29and everything that they're supposed to have in order to do that legally.
01:32Our job is a little bit different than most law enforcement.
01:34Most of the people we deal with don't break the law.
01:36The flip side of that, though, is during hunting season, everybody we check has a gun.
01:42In Wharton County, there are two game wardens.
01:45And as game wardens, we work predominantly alone.
01:50And that night, I called my partner, Justin.
01:55We were close.
01:56We got along really good at the academy.
01:57And I said, OK, so where are you going?
01:59And he said, I'm going to go up to Garwood area.
02:01And I said, OK.
02:02I said, where do you think I should go?
02:04He said, man, I'd go up there to the Bernard Prairie.
02:06When we noticed that a lot of the street signs had been shot, like significantly shot.
02:12You can tell it's pretty current, recent activity.
02:14That's one of those things that we kind of look for in the off season,
02:17because there's not a whole lot going on.
02:18And the shooting from a public roadway in Texas is illegal.
02:21He said, maybe sit up there somewhere.
02:23Maybe you'll catch somebody.
02:24And so that's where I headed.
02:26I got up on County Road 279, and I parked my truck, turned all my lights off.
02:31Normally, I would sit on that road for two hours and not see a car.
02:35But I saw a truck turn off Highway 90 coming towards me, driving extremely slow.
02:42That's kind of a clue for us that there might be up to no good.
02:46So I'm sitting in the truck, and I'm watching him through binoculars, and he shoots.
02:52My immediate thought was, this is the guy I'm looking for.
02:57As I was approaching him, we were face to face, which is not ideal for a police stop.
03:01Ideally, I'd be behind him so I could see everything in front of me.
03:05And when he's slowly rolling towards me,
03:08initially, I thought maybe he was just getting closer so we could talk.
03:11Instead, he just slowly drove past my truck.
03:16I was just going to write him a ticket and send him home.
03:18Class C misdemeanor, just like getting a traffic ticket or running a stop sign.
03:22And he takes off.
03:22I was kind of shocked.
03:24This isn't normal.
03:26Now I got a guy that's not stopping.
03:27Failure to yield.
03:27So that's serious.
03:28We just up to charge.
03:33When a suspect takes off the way he did, you have to chase him.
03:37What are you going to do?
03:38Let people just get away with it when they're doing it?
03:40Get away with it when they take off from you?
03:42And what kind of precedent does that set?
03:45That's how you handle it.
03:46The game warden is pursuing a vehicle in the area of Eagle Lake,
03:52Colorado County, Wharton County, Lissy.
03:56We jump on Highway 90.
03:57He was driving really fast, like over 100.
04:01And my truck can't keep up.
04:04County deputies and the state troopers also joined in.
04:07Luckily, a constable was able to catch up to him.
04:11Constable was able to get behind him and call on the license plate.
04:15And it comes back to a James Garrett Freeman.
04:20You really had to watch your speed so you didn't lose control of your vehicle.
04:31We need to try to get him stopped somehow.
04:33We need to try to get him stopped somehow.
04:35And really, the only way that we can see so far to do that is to get stop sticks.
04:52We tried to spike the vehicle several times,
04:55and it's almost like he knew where we were at because he would go the other way.
05:02That's good. You want me to try to block him off here or try to let him pass?
05:12Justin asked, hey, do you want me to block his vehicle?
05:14And I don't know what officer came over the radio and said it,
05:17but he's like, hey, it's your truck.
05:19And Justin did use his vehicle to block the road.
05:22When he hits Justin's truck, now we have assault on a police officer.
05:27We've just upped the charge to a felony.
05:30Once he struck the truck and kept going, I knew that, you know,
05:34this was very serious because he was not giving up easy.
05:41We drove around the same area for almost a week.
05:44We drove around the same area for almost a week.
05:46We drove around the same area for almost a week.
05:49We drove around the same area for almost an hour.
05:54What was going through my head was this guy is from the area
05:57because he's staying close and doing circles and taking the same roads.
06:01We're setting up at 279. If he comes back this way, we'll be set up.
06:10I could see the troopers set up, and there was really nowhere for him to go around.
06:15And he ended up hitting the spikes.
06:17There was a little relief because now I'm like, OK, this is going to end.
06:21Let's get this guy in custody and get him in jail.
06:253132 vehicle stopped.
06:27You don't know what's going to happen, but it's pretty repetitive.
06:30They either stop and give up or they get out and run.
06:32And this night was different.
06:44I drew my pistol and tried to put rounds somewhere that direction.
06:58There was a point where he disappeared behind his truck into the cab.
07:03And at that time, I'm like, I just got to try to hit this guy.
07:05And I start firing through his back window.
07:10He reemerges from the truck, and this time he starts shooting with a rifle.
07:15God damn!
07:21You could tell it was an AK-47 or an AR just the way it sounded.
07:33I didn't want to get caught behind my door.
07:34Doors don't stop bullets.
07:36And so I wanted to have something solid between me and him.
07:39And so I retreated back to get behind Justin's truck.
07:46Justin flanks me.
07:48He's trying to get a clear shot.
07:50I can see him down in the ditch.
07:53And so as Justin and Freeman exchange gunfire.
08:09I look over and I see Justin's laying on the ground.
08:20So I ran out to him and uh...
08:39I wanted to make sure he's okay.
08:42And when I got to him and we went...
08:56And uh...
09:00And the shooting stopped.
09:05I saw the suspect running away from us.
09:08And first thing I thought was there's a tree line that I knew was there.
09:12And at that point, I'm thinking if he gets in that tree line with that rifle, we're in trouble.
09:19And I just had to take a deep breath and I shot two more times.
09:27And that's when I saw him drop.
09:29Once he's down, me and my sergeant were able to clear the vehicle and secure the suspect together.
09:37Once we get him secured, I could hear, which I think was Blackburn saying,
09:41hey guys, Justin's been hit and he's hurt really bad.
09:49Somebody finally took over for me doing CPR.
09:54And uh...
09:55For me doing CPR.
09:58And uh...
10:00I knew Justin wasn't in a good spot.
10:04I think I asked somebody if the gunman was down and out.
10:14I said, you just shot one of my brothers.
10:16And he had no expression, nothing to say to us.
10:20And he had that blank stare on his face like he didn't care.
10:23Like he was so angry that we caught him.
10:28I wanted to make sure that Justin got justice.
10:37He didn't have a violent past.
10:40He had some sort of fantasy being the aggressor in a shootout with the police.
10:49It is a story unlike anything I've ever heard before.
10:52Weekends this month are all new on Oxygen True Crime.
10:55With new episodes of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler.
10:58I've been called dramatic and theatrical.
11:00But it works and that's what matters.
11:02New York homicide.
11:03Chelsea used to be a much rougher neighborhood.
11:06Snapped killer couples.
11:08We're kind of dealing with a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
11:10And fatal family feuds.
11:12He was trying to intimidate my mother.
11:14He's a monster.
11:15Weekends this month.
11:16What's going to happen next?
11:17Only on Oxygen True Crime.
11:22After a wild shootout.
11:24The first responders were desperately trying to save game warden Justin Hurst's life.
11:30While the shooter James Garrett Freeman is arrested and transported for his injuries
11:36to a nearby hospital.
11:38Game warden Justin Hurst is lifelighted via helicopter
11:42to the best trauma center around in Houston.
11:45And the Hurst family is notified of the shooting.
11:49We were staying with Justin and his wife.
11:52He and Amanda.
11:53And Kyle.
11:54He was four months old at the time.
11:58Amanda went into Houston.
12:00So her and I were going to get the baby set.
12:05I really thought Justin was going to beat me home.
12:07But he wasn't there when I got home.
12:09And so I thought, well, he probably saw someone with a spotlight.
12:14Or someone called for backup on something.
12:17So I went ahead and went to bed.
12:18And sometime in the night, maybe two o'clock or so,
12:21there was a knock at the door.
12:23And when I opened the door and I saw Justin's captain there,
12:26I pushed him and just pushed him and pushed him.
12:28And I was like, nope, go away from my door.
12:30I don't want to talk to you.
12:31I tried to shut the door on him.
12:33I knew whatever he had to say, it wasn't going to be good.
12:38The captain said, Amanda, he said, Justin's been shot.
12:43We need to get dressed and go to the hospital as fast as we can.
12:48All I could think was, we're brand new parents.
12:51This can't be the end.
12:53We got to the hospital.
12:55And the doctors said we did everything we could.
12:59But he was gone.
13:04When he was a young kid, Justin was interested in the outdoors.
13:10Later on, he graduated from A&M and went to work for Texas Parks and Wildlife.
13:19Justin and I met, I was in college still, and he was already working for TPWD.
13:25I spent my first summer as his intern.
13:28We worked together banding model ducks, tagging alligators.
13:32Justin wasn't an attention seeker.
13:35He didn't like the focus to be on him.
13:38Very easygoing, very lighthearted.
13:42We dated for three years and spent a lot of time just doing outdoor activities.
13:46The first time he made me a homemade chicken fried steak with homemade biscuits,
13:51I knew I'd hit the jackpot.
13:55Justin and I were married in April of 2001.
14:00It was perfect.
14:02And then he was accepted into the Game Warden Academy.
14:06It's an honor, really, to become a game warden in Texas.
14:11In Texas.
14:13Justin was kind of our top cadet.
14:18He taught us waterfowl identification as a cadet.
14:22He had a passion for ducks and geese and waterfowl.
14:30Kyle was born in November of 2006.
14:36He was so excited about being a dad.
14:42And he never got the chance.
14:47Justin's birthday was March 17th.
14:49And when he was killed, he made it 20 minutes into his 34th birthday.
14:56I kept asking God, why did you take my son?
15:02He had so much to offer.
15:05Why?
15:12Game wardens have a very dangerous job.
15:15What I used to know about game wardens from sitting out at the deer lease,
15:19opening night of deer season, knowing that they sneak up on you to check on you,
15:23catching you at night.
15:23If you're out spotlighting, looking for coons to shoot, which is what we did growing up,
15:28you're on the lookout for game wardens.
15:30But I would feel like the main thing you think when you see one is you just want to
15:33flee or run away.
15:35You sure never think a shootout is going to happen.
15:37The night this shootout happened, it was involving a couple of different law enforcement
15:41agencies.
15:43There are 254 counties in Texas, except for the five largest.
15:48All the other counties typically call in the Texas Rangers for their expertise and their
15:54assistance.
15:54So the Texas Rangers take the lead in this investigation too.
16:00I got to the crime scene before daylight.
16:03And once the sun comes up, we start putting markers at every piece of evidence.
16:09Freeman, he used two weapons, a Glock 357 SIG, and he had an AK-47.
16:17We also have the defendant's truck.
16:21We find out that he has multiple weapons in his truck in addition to the weapons he used.
16:26We also have all the vehicles there, which are evidence.
16:33Over a dozen bullet holes in my truck.
16:36I had one go through the windshield and exit behind my headrest, the back window.
16:44He was shooting where I should have been or where he thought I was.
16:49After the crime scene, I go to the hospital where Freeman is being treated and talk to
16:55him about why he did it.
16:57Freeman was shot four times in the extremity.
17:00But his condition at the hospital was surprisingly good.
17:05He had some through and through wounds, but those were doing fine.
17:08He had to have surgery on his ankle, but he was doing well.
17:12And he was very coherent, ready with rights.
17:16And he talked to me without really any hesitation.
17:21And I asked him what was going on that night.
17:23He said, I decided I was going to go out and do a little night hunting with my .22
17:28and shoot an opossum or something like that.
17:31After he shot one, the next thing he knew, he had lights on him and a game warden was
17:36there.
17:37And then he ran.
17:58The thing is, you do outrun him, you're not going to outrun the radio.
18:01He had no outstanding warrant or he didn't have a lot of violations of the law on his
18:07record.
18:08He just decided that he was going to try and run.
18:11And then at the point in time where he couldn't run anymore, he decided that he was going
18:16to have a shootout.
18:17This is kind of your opportunity to tell your side of the story and what was going on with
18:21you that, you know, caused you to do this.
18:25Because from what I understand, this is not your nature.
18:27I don't know why I did what I did.
18:29I can kind of remember what my thought was.
18:31What the hell are you doing?
18:32You know, you're going to get shot.
18:35You're not going to, you know, just run away from it.
18:38We were watching the video.
18:39When you jumped out, I mean, you look like you knew what you were doing with that pistol.
18:44Well, I mean, I shoot a lot of cows.
18:46There is one of my favorite things to do.
18:50He told me he didn't really understand why he did what he did.
18:56But accepted that responsibility for what he did.
19:01It's a very tragic thing.
19:03An officer was killed.
19:05The officer died.
19:08Name it is, I guess, in person.
19:12Maxwell, man, his wife just had a baby.
19:15How do you feel about that?
19:18Terrible.
19:20Wasn't no reason for it.
19:21I mean, after Texas Ranger David Maxwell interviewed James Garrett Freeman at the hospital,
19:28he was officially charged with capital murder under Texas law.
19:32He's facing the death sentence.
19:35This case is different because you have a defendant who I found out later he didn't
19:40live a life of crime, but one night in his life, one night of God knows what was going
19:47on in his head and a whole world was changed.
19:52Just by stupid decisions.
19:55And there are consequences for every one of those decisions.
20:01I'm Kelly Seigler, and I make this promise, the same promise I make to all victims.
20:06I won't quit and I will not give up.
20:09I will do what needs to be done.
20:11I always have.
20:13In 2007, the man in charge of our office, the DA's office in Harris County, basically
20:20imploded for lots of reasons.
20:22The office was in chaos and no one knew what was going to happen next.
20:27Some friends encouraged me to run.
20:29So I ran.
20:30I campaigned.
20:32I got into a runoff and then I lost the race for DA.
20:37I really felt defeated.
20:38I felt like a loser.
20:40I found myself thinking, what am I going to do?
20:43Because the lady who beat me was never going to keep me and I was never going to work for
20:47her.
20:48And then a friend of mine named Ted Wilson was friends with Josh McCown, the elected
20:53DA of Wharton County, which is close to home where I'm from, Matagorda County.
20:58And Josh called Ted to say, I need some help on this death penalty case.
21:02I don't have the experience.
21:03I've never tried one before.
21:04Do you know anyone who can help me out with that?
21:07And Ted came to me one day in my office and said, Kelly, what do you think about working
21:12with the Wharton County DA?
21:13And I went, home?
21:16What?
21:16Yeah.
21:17Heck yeah, I'll help him.
21:19I grew up in Blessing, Texas, which is in Matagorda County.
21:23I think growing up in a small town is the most wonderful way to grow up.
21:27Makes you friendlier.
21:29It makes you more honest.
21:30It makes you more open.
21:32The county north of Matagorda County is Wharton County.
21:37I know Wharton County so well.
21:39I have cousins from all over the whole county.
21:41I can tell you the mascots of all the high schools because of all the football games
21:45we played with everybody there.
21:46I spent summers in Wharton County.
21:48It is like home.
21:54So I went down there to meet with Josh before I quit my job officially at the DA's office
22:00and walking into that courthouse, you know, you have to remember that I'd spent my whole
22:04career in Houston at our courthouse.
22:07So I'm pretty sure they were all eyeballing me, wondering how it was going to be because
22:11I would have been doing the same thing.
22:14This is a woman who's tried 19 capital murder cases and gotten convictions in every one
22:19of them.
22:19So we hired Kelly as special prosecutor.
22:25I came to work my first day and started reading the file.
22:29It was pretty easy to understand who Justin Hurst was.
22:32He grew up wanting to be a biologist because he loved nature and animals and the water
22:38and all that.
22:40And then the rest of his life story with Amanda and his son and his parents and everything
22:44about him, you couldn't find a more righteous victim in law enforcement than Justin Hurst.
22:51James Garrett Freeman, most people called him Garrett, grew up in Wharton County, born
22:56and raised, liked to hunt and fish.
22:59I know lots of boys that go night hunting and they have guns and they're drinking beer
23:03and things could go crazy.
23:04That's what I thought.
23:06He must have been really drunk, right?
23:08But Freeman wasn't.
23:11So that part never made any sense.
23:14James Garrett Freeman's family hired Stanley Schneider to represent him.
23:19I know him very well.
23:20At that point, tried three cases against him.
23:22He is a big city lawyer.
23:24He's also not even from Texas.
23:26I've seen him in the courtroom.
23:28I've seen how he talks to people.
23:29I've seen how he talks to jurors.
23:31There's no way Stanley's approach and personality is going to play in Wharton County.
23:38And in a capital murder like this case, you had the death penalty.
23:42Everybody knows what that means.
23:44But then the legislature enacted a new law and you have, for the first time since 2005,
23:51life without parole.
23:54I think it's a very good thing that we now have this option because every crime and every
23:57defendant and every victim is so different.
24:00In the beginning, Josh McCown, as the elected D.A., with the family say so, offer life without
24:07parole.
24:09Every time I've heard of a family that stands up and says, I don't need the ultimate punishment
24:14for my loved one.
24:15I can show a little mercy.
24:17That's a rare thing.
24:19Normally, it's a death penalty for killing a law enforcement person.
24:23But we did not want the law enforcement people that were involved to have to go through all
24:29the trial and relive that night over again.
24:34But the defendant and his counsel refused it.
24:39Then after I was officially on the case, all of a sudden, Stanley then wanted to revisit
24:45the offer of life without parole.
24:48And at that point, Josh called Justin's family back into his office with me to see what they
24:53thought about it at that point.
24:55I remember whenever I first got involved with the case, when I came to Wharton County and
25:00met Josh that first day and he told me about his relationship with all of y'all, I could
25:04tell already that that relationship was different than anything I'd ever seen before.
25:08Just being small town and local, like, I mean, we all just knew each other.
25:11So when it happened, I mean, it didn't just happen to us.
25:14It happened to Becky and I.
25:16It happened to all of us.
25:17It happened to all of us.
25:18It happened to all of us.
25:19It happened to all of us.
25:20It happened to all of us.
25:21It happened to all of us.
25:22It happened to all of us.
25:23It didn't just happen to us.
25:24It happened to Becky and it happened to Josh and it happened to a lot of Wharton County.
25:28Right.
25:29Well, they also all saw what you went through.
25:33I do have to tell you, though, that when we sat in Josh's office and you were writing
25:38on a yellow notepad, do not ask me why I can remember that detail, but you were writing
25:42like crazy, asking me details about that night.
25:45And you sat there and I'm thinking, all I can think is this big time lawyer from Houston.
25:50You know, I'm sure she's got her stuff together, but how is she going to be able to relate
25:55to us?
25:55And you sat over there and listened to me tell my story and you were sobbing and just
26:00writing and sobbing.
26:02I was like, holy cow, she's got it in her soul.
26:07And then when you told me you were from Blessing, Texas, I was like, she's mine.
26:13This is my girl right here.
26:14I remember the first time I met y'all to talk about, can we resolve the case without
26:20a trial?
26:21You remember that day?
26:22Yeah.
26:22And Josh, more than I've ever seen any prosecutor do, left a lot of, not the final decision,
26:29but a lot of it up to y'all.
26:31I remember we, you know, what our decision was that we would give him the offer of life
26:41without parole.
26:42And do you know, do you know why he didn't take it?
26:45No.
26:46I think that this lawyer thought that he was going to beat the case because Josh didn't
26:50have death penalty experience.
26:54I think that that was a very significant part of how that all played out.
26:59I remember you saying, then we've only got one way to go.
27:04When you choose to kill law enforcement, the people whose job it is to defend us and protect
27:12us, and you do that ultimate step, you have to be looking at the ultimate punishment.
27:19I mean, but there are people that disagree with that.
27:23The family felt like they had left life without parole as an option for plenty of time, and
27:29they didn't want to do that anymore.
27:32And they were ready to proceed with going through a trial and seeking the death penalty.
27:43I've been prepping for this case for about a month, and now it's finally time to pick
27:47the jury.
27:49Everybody in Wharton County expected Josh and me to get the death penalty.
27:56And the only thing we had to do wrong was pick one bad juror.
28:00It's got to be unanimous.
28:02And we had to try the case for guilt and punishment.
28:06So one of those jurors, this round or this round that says, I just can't do it, we've
28:11lost.
28:14We started opening statements that first day.
28:17The courtroom was pretty packed.
28:18My goal was to tell a story about that whole night and how it all went down.
28:23And so we started with the way Freeman went out that night to go night hunting.
28:28Scott Blackburn tried to pull him over and how it progressed into how he was able to
28:32load those weapons before he stopped.
28:35He knew when he got out of the car that he was going to start firing.
28:40And then the way he parked his car to try and take out not just Justin Hurst, but six
28:47other cops and walk the jury through that so they would understand the calculated, pre
28:53meditated massacre that Freeman tried to orchestrate that night.
28:58I've never seen someone five foot tall fight like a bulldog like Kelly Sigler.
29:05Stanley Schneider and Lee Cox give their opening statements where they lay out suicide by
29:10cop, which means that in that moment on that night, he wanted the cops to shoot him because
29:16in that moment he was depressed.
29:19That was going to be his defense.
29:21There are people who attempt to draw out an officer and put them in a difficult situation
29:28where the officer believes they have to shoot.
29:31I think that could apply here, but one has to be able to try and establish that through
29:37past suicide attempts, through obvious depression.
29:42If Stanley Schneider is successful in making the jury believe this all happened because
29:48of suicide by cop, Garrett Freeman could be found not guilty of capital murder, not guilty
29:54of murder, not guilty of anything.
29:57In the process of going over the evidence and deciding what we're going to present,
30:01what we're not going to present, we as a team made the decision not to present the
30:05confession.
30:07From what I understand, this is not pure nature.
30:09I'm about to help him get it.
30:10My thinking was, along with Josh's, why would we use that?
30:14We'd rather have him take the stand if he wants to tell his story.
30:17Then he would have to undergo cross-examination and explain everything else.
30:27When you see the video of what happened, that's all you need.
30:36I wanted to make sure that everybody on the jury understood all the things that were going
30:41on strategically on the side of Freeman and the cop.
30:48Freeman was crouched down below the line of the truck bed, shooting directly at Justin.
30:57Justin was drawing Freeman's fire so the other officers could move out and they could
31:04then fire on Freeman.
31:06Had he not done that, the loss of life would have been tremendous because he was showing
31:12no mercy.
31:17I truly believe I'm here because of him.
31:21I feel like he saved my life and the others.
31:26Josh McCowan was the one who took me on the stand.
31:29And we went through the video, the way he positioned the truck.
31:35It's just what we teach our officers to survive.
31:39And as he was firing on the officers, he worked his way down and worked his way back to Kev,
31:46which is his best cover, when he fired the last shot.
31:49That's someone who's counting.
31:51That's what we teach our police officers to do, to count your rounds, make sure that
31:56you don't run out of ammunition when you don't have cover.
32:00He's very experienced and very practiced.
32:03I found out when I interviewed him that he practiced almost every day with his weapons.
32:10My theory is that he kind of fantasized about being in a situation like this.
32:19Why did he do it that night?
32:21Nobody knows.
32:23He did everything in his power to provide himself with the best angle, best cover.
32:29Nothing in his actions indicated in any way, shape or form that he was trying to kill himself.
32:35God damn it!
32:39To me, it was important that every single officer involved in the chase that night,
32:44in the shootout that night, for each of them take the stand.
32:47And I wanted the jury to see that those men who testified in that trial,
32:52it changed their lives forever.
32:55There are many lives that were affected by the actions of Freeman on that day.
32:59And every officer out there was traumatized by what happened that day.
33:05People get this idea that cops just want to get in shootouts and have all the glory.
33:10And that is far beyond the truth.
33:13I would not wish this on anybody, any officer,
33:15to have to even shoot somebody in their career, much less have their partner get killed.
33:22Scott Blackburn is the person who is the beginning of this story.
33:27He's the other game warden who was best friends with Justin Hurst.
33:31Scott Blackburn was probably the most important fact witness.
33:35You want to make sure when you're laying out this whole crazy way it went down to the jury,
33:40that they understand what all was going on in Scott Blackburn's mind
33:44as it started all the way until it ended.
33:48And you try your best to put into evidence all the little actions and steps that Freeman took.
33:55I demonstrated how Freeman was using his guns.
34:00When he came out with the pistol, he took what we kind of call a military stance
34:04or a law enforcement stance, aiming at my vehicle and Sergeant Tierney's vehicle,
34:10and he was going back and forth.
34:12Kind of a sweeping motion from vehicle to vehicle.
34:16The tricky part with Scott was that he was so involved, invested, and traumatized.
34:23And it was just painful to watch him have to tell the story.
34:25When I testified, I wear this, I call it an end-of-watch bracelet.
34:31And so it has Justin's name on it, and the day that he died.
34:39But when the defense cross-examined me, we watched the entire dash cam video together
34:44and critiqued every single thing I said.
34:49I think that Scott Blackburn and all the other officers involved that night
34:55that they all did a wonderful job and there wasn't a person in the courtroom
34:59that doubted one word that they had to say.
35:01When Josh and I arrested our case, we both thought that it was going very, very well.
35:08Stanley had the Freeman family testify to the fact that Freeman
35:14had no violence in his background, and this was not him.
35:20The world of people that knew Freeman was a really nice group of people.
35:25His parents were wonderful from everybody you talk to.
35:28We were dreading that because we knew they were going to be good witnesses, and they were.
35:34They tried their best to explain what happened that night,
35:37but I think the question that we all had, and maybe they had too, was,
35:42but why? Why? What was going on to make him do this?
35:47And I don't think any of them had that answer.
35:53Dr. Jerome Brown was called by the defense as an expert to try and establish
35:59even better this theory of suicide by cop.
36:03The test that Dr. Brown administered to Mr. Freeman is essentially a risk assessment survey
36:09for characteristics that mental health professionals have identified
36:14as tending to elevate or decrease a risk.
36:18Personal responsibility, substance abuse, familiarity with firearms,
36:23all of those things are involved in those assessments.
36:27I know Dr. Jerome Brown very well, and I've cross-examined him before.
36:32And Stanley should realize that if he's going to call a shrink to the stand,
36:35I'm going to read the paperwork.
36:37We got a chance to look at his records on James Garrett Freeman,
36:41which showed that he wasn't significantly depressed,
36:44which is huge if you're going to claim suicide by cop.
36:48Kelly really crossed him hard.
36:53And when Dr. Brown was through, he was out the back door real quick.
36:57He didn't talk to anybody.
36:59I'm pretty sure they were regretting putting him on the stand.
37:04We were in there through the entire time.
37:07It went on for...
37:08Three weeks.
37:09Three weeks.
37:10We watched the young man.
37:12He showed no emotion.
37:15There was no expression on the kid's face.
37:20The trial was dreadful.
37:21Brought back all the pain all over again.
37:27I remember telling the jury that he tried his hardest to massacre seven cops.
37:34That would have been the worst law enforcement massacre in American history at that time.
37:40It's not real complicated, ladies and gentlemen.
37:43He didn't want to go to jail.
37:45And when you kill a cop after you tried to kill six other cops,
37:50if that's not capital murder, then what the hell is?
37:56What happened to her was everything we feared didn't even work.
37:59This is a nightmare.
38:00Saturdays.
38:01Prosecuting a murder without a body is difficult.
38:04Kelly Siegler is back.
38:07The jury deliberated and came back with a verdict in about four hours.
38:11It matters where people are from.
38:14And these people in this jury, they're from Wharton County, Texas.
38:18And I thought I knew then how they were going to appreciate how this crime went down.
38:22And they weren't going to put up with it.
38:23And they didn't put up with it.
38:25And that's what their verdict was.
38:27He was found guilty.
38:30It was a relief to hear the verdict.
38:34There was no joy on our part in hearing that.
38:41Getting him found guilty of capital murder is what we were expected to do.
38:45The real challenge here was always, but does he deserve the death penalty?
38:51Once we start part two of the trial, we didn't have a lot of evidence.
38:55He didn't have prior crimes where we're going to bring in victims or cops.
38:59It was more about what is the defense going to do now,
39:02if anything, to make a jury think,
39:04I don't want to give him the death penalty for any reason at all.
39:11The defense brought in Dr. Deneen Milam, a different psychologist,
39:16to talk about her testing of Freeman and what she saw.
39:20And I remember reading her paperwork thinking,
39:23oh, I don't know that I would put her on in the punishment phase of the trial.
39:28Because on cross-examination, I was able to show the jury
39:32that buried in all of her paperwork was also the finding that when you test Freeman,
39:37he has impulse control issues, he has anger issues.
39:41That's the last thing you want to be able to introduce into evidence
39:44in the capital murder case when the issue before the jury is,
39:48are you going to be a future threat?
39:49Well, the most common future threats are the people that can't control their anger.
39:54He's a continuing threat to society because no one who knew him his entire life
40:01could have predicted what he did that day.
40:05That means nobody could say with any certainty that he wouldn't do this again.
40:14We waited overnight for a verdict for the death penalty.
40:18And that next day, the jury came back around right before lunchtime.
40:24And gave him the death penalty.
40:26It's bittersweet.
40:28You feel horrible for his family, for Freeman's family, because now they've lost a son.
40:35But yet you feel a sense of justice for the Hurst family.
40:40Because this person who took their son away can't do that to anybody else.
40:47Before I ever even came on board, Garrett Freeman was offered life without parole.
40:53And he didn't take it.
40:55Had he taken it, he would still be alive today.
41:08When I think about y'all's case and the trial,
41:10the thing that stands out to me is what happened after the death penalty verdict came down.
41:17And the jury had left.
41:19Do y'all remember what happened?
41:20I remember hugging his family.
41:23His parents.
41:24James Garrett Freeman's parents, they had nothing to do with what their son did that night.
41:29And they paid the price for that.
41:31What they went through, too, is really, really sad.
41:36To bury their child, and especially after making such a poor decision, you know?
41:41I know.
41:42God, no mom should ever have to go through that.
41:46You know, our community loved on us.
41:47And it held us at high esteem at all times.
41:51And I can't imagine being on the other side of that.
41:55She wasn't on trial.
41:56She didn't make the mistake.
41:59They were just normal people like us, you know?
42:03After Justin's death, of course, you know, you go through a roller coaster.
42:06And I was livid how anybody could just take such a sweet soul and gun him down like that.
42:13And then it took a while for me to realize that it was never anything personal.
42:17Because the guy didn't know Justin.
42:19And how do you know Justin?
42:21There's no way he could have done that.
42:22Because Justin was just a good person.
42:25He was a good, wholesome person.
42:27My God, what a wonderful man.
42:29There was nothing bad about Justin.
42:34There's not a day go by that you don't think of Justin.
42:38That's the way it will always be.
42:41To have that actual father figure take you hunting and fishing,
42:45teach you how to tie ropes and fishing line, it's not there for me.
42:51But she's been here my whole life, helping me through all of it.
42:56She does her hardest.
42:57Yep, you've done good, haven't we?