WEBVTT - S1: E25 – The South Louisiana Serial Killer, Part 2 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.200 During the early two thousands, women in bad and Rouge 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:08.760 lived in constant fear of the South Louisiana serial killer. 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.240 Police found Gina Wilson Green strangled to death on September 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:14.480 twenty fourth of two thousand and one, and her home 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.520 in May police found Charlotte Murray Pace stabbed to death. 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.000 He had just completed her MBA at LSU and with 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.720 the proximity of the Pace in Green murder scenes, female 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.360 students were terrified. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.640 That terror grew when Pam Kinnemore became the third victim. 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.720 Kinnemore disappeared from her Badenburge home in two thousand and two. 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.320 Days later, her body turned up in Whiskey Bay under 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.200 the Iten after investigators determined that the suspect was most 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.760 likely as serials formed a task force their goal to 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.720 find the man who had spread so much fear across 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:51.640 South Louisiana. 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.000 With at least five victims. The task force had a 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.160 big job to do, but it would be a small 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:03.640 police department outside Baton Rouge that ultimately would solve this case. 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.280 I'm slung glass and this is the conclusion of the 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:13.280 South Louisiana serial killer. On American homicide. A note that 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.240 this episode contained some graphic content. Please take care while listening. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.080 In two thousand and three, the Baton Rouge PD was 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.240 actively hunting a serial killer, someone who was able to 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.120 get in and out of victims' homes without forcing entry. 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.800 DNA connected him to five women, but authorities did not 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.399 know who the killer was, so they asked for help. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.800 The Baton Rouge PD invited detectives from numerous suburban police 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:48.440 departments to a meeting share information about other unsolved cases. 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:53.280 They hoped hearing about those cases could unlock a connection. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.320 You know, people wanted to saw because, I mean it 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.560 was very bad at the time, very scary. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.760 Detective David McDavid attended that meeting. 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:05.760 Women here they were afraid. They afraid to go out walt, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.000 they were afraid to go shopping, They were afraid to 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.799 go anywhere by themselves. You saw parents questioning if everyone 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.680 to send their daughters to LSU because several of the 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:16.640 crimes happened close to LSU campus. 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:21.200 Detective McDavid worked for the Zachary Police Department, a small 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.440 city about fifteen minutes north of Baton Rouge. 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.480 Zachary's on the Outskirts I mean, we've probably in my 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.760 career had ten or lesser. 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.760 Murders, and he felt like one of those murders might 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.480 be the work of the serial killer. The case involved 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:40.920 a divorced mom named Randy me Brewer. In nineteen ninety eight. 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:43.240 The police found a trail of blood at her home, 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.840 but no sign of Randy. Based on the evidence, the 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.400 police believed Randy was killed and then removed from her home. 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.240 The body was dragged from the bedroom throughout the house 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:56.959 and through the dining living room area, and you could 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.919 see where the body was set outside the front door, 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.760 and her child was left there at the house. 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.400 Police believe Randy's three year old son was asleep at 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:08.880 the time his mother was murdered. 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.320 The child had walked over to the neighbor's house and 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.919 wanted to come over and play, and the neighbor, you know, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:16.800 let's go ask your mama, and he said, well, my 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.440 mom was not there. The neighbors walked in and were 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.440 blood in the house everywhere. You know. One thing that 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.680 really bothered us is the killer looked in on the child. 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:28.320 You could see where he went into the bedroom with 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.480 the blood droplets on the child's door. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.960 The police never found Randy's body, but they found the 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:36.640 killer's DNA at the scene. 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:38.440 I told my partner said, you know who it is. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:40.720 There was no doubt in our mind it was Derrick Toddley. 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:45.600 Derek Toddley. He was the suspect in Randy's murder, and 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.760 he was also someone the Zachary PD had dealt with 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:49.760 for years. 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.720 He was committing burgeries as a juvenile, breaking in the homes, 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.800 peeping tom but he also had a violence side to him. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.480 He beat up on some people, so he spent a 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.960 little time in jail, but you could see the pattern 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.720 progressedly getting worse as time went on, and he just 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:06.080 get more violent. 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.360 Derek Toddley went from being charged with peeping into women's 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:15.080 homes to stalking and beating up multiple women. The Zachary 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.280 Police got a tip that Derek Toddley had something to 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.560 do with Randy mean Brewer's murder, and since they had 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.040 previously arrested him for peeping into homes in this same 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:30.719 neighborhood where Randy lived, detectives questioned him and searched his home. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.719 The whole time. You know, he acted like he was 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.440 in you know, he didn't do nothing wrong. The look 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.240 he had. You could tell he was you know, he 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:43.159 was just evil. Just talking to him, my hair stood 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:44.520 up on the back of my neck. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.200 Halfway through their search of his home, Derek Toddley told 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.680 the cops to leave. He lawyered up and stopped cooperating 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:56.280 with their investigation, and that's where things ended. Detective McDavid 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.000 told the Battermange PD how they never had enough evidence 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.240 to charge Lee, but they kept an eye on him, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.840 and based on how the serial killer was operating, he 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:11.560 believed it was Derek Todd Lee and Lee drove a 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:12.200 white truck. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.800 Trucker had saw a white truck on the Whiskey Bay 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.680 Bridge with what appeared to be a white male with 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.240 a nicket female in the passioner's side, and you know 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.560 that's what was given to the FBI profilers who come 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:25.440 up with a profile. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.760 Detective McDavid shared why he thought Derek Todd Lee was 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.520 the serial killer. If you remember, the serial killer was 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:35.680 thought to be a white male with a white truck, 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.440 but the bat and Rouge team did not pursue the 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.360 lead because Derek Todd Lee was black and didn't fit 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:43.039 the profile. 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:45.360 People look at the serial killer as a white male 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:47.400 and that's where people got thrown off. In this case, 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.960 here they were looking for a white male. It bothered 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:51.920 me somewhat, but there was no doubt in our mind 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.920 it was Derek Toddley. We knew that he was doing stuff. 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.240 If we could get his DNA owness and connect him 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.200 to the crime, I knew we can get him arrested, 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.240 get him off the street. So he began to be 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:03.159 our main focus. 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:07.640 The Zachary PD continued to do surveillance on Derek todd Lee. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.640 In the following spring, he was back to his old trecks. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.680 I got a call from lady here in town and 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.239 she stated she'd been jogging every morning. A white truck 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.080 was following her, So, you know, we did some surveillance there. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.520 We never did see him, but you know, we showed 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.880 her a picture and she swore him down. That was 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:27.680 him that was following her in a white truck. 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.159 Investigator searched around her home and found some bootprints right 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.320 outside her window, leading them to believe someone had been peeping. 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.080 Evidently he saw her and kind of got attached onto 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.320 her and was watching her, probably finna make his movie. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.039 He was very careful and how he got in the 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:48.800 area and got back out without being seen. 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.880 Law enforcements suspected Derek Toddley, but once again they didn't 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.720 have enough to arrest him, so they tried a different approach. 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.040 They still had that DNA evidence from Randy meet Brewer's 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.440 house and wanted to test it against Dereck todd Lee's 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.440 but they needed a judge to sign off on a 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:13.280 subpoena to get that swab. So they put together a 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.440 timeline of the unsolved murders and compared it to what 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:18.520 was going on in Derek todd Lee's life. 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.720 What vehicle he was driving, what job he was working at? 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.760 Was a body found during that time? Was he fired 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.720 from his job? Was he laid off? So with that 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.360 I began seeing a pattern with Dereck todd Lee. 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.720 The pattern showed the traumatic events in Dereck Toddley's life, 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:40.920 like getting fired or filing bankruptcy. Well, they all happened 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:45.600 right before the serial killer struck. Was it simply a coincidence? 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:47.960 Detective McDavid didn't think, So. 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.200 I knew Rodney in there was Derek todd Lee. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.840 His team presented the information to a judge and the 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.559 judge ordered Derek Toddley to be swapped. Almost three weeks later, 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.640 Active McDavid got a phone call from the Task Force. 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.720 Look, we just want to let y'all know the DNA. 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:07.320 Y'all got his a confirmed match. 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:12.360 Derek todd Lee's DNA match the DNA found on all 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:18.000 five victims. I mean, the small group from Zachary Louisiana 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.720 had unmassed the South Louisiana serial killer. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:28.320 This has been the most serious case, tough case that 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.520 I've ever worked on. I mean the stuff he did 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.480 where he dumped the bodies at and the bayou's and waterways. 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.920 I mean, he was smart and just the stress and 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.280 what this area went through, in the Baton Rouge area 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.600 and the citizens of the state went through because I mean, 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.880 he was everwhere, com many crimes. He just didn't know 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:48.199 where he was going to show up next. 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.040 And that was their next problem. Nearly three weeks had 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.959 passed from the time they swamped his DNA to when 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.480 they got the results. So when police went to arrest 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:02.880 Derek Toddley, home appeared to be abandoned and a foreclosure 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:04.959 notice was stuck to the front door. 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.280 I think the day we got his DNA, he took off. 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.080 The man believed to have killed five women in South 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:16.360 Louisiana over the course of eighteen months, had again slipped 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.320 out of reach. That's when the Baton Rouge police chief went. 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.000 On TV an arrest ward has been issued for the 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:28.360 arrest of Derek todd Lee. He is to be considered 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.920 armed and dangerous and authority should be notified immediately. 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.480 That began a nationwide man hunt. 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.400 I said, look, I'm days. If he knows he's about 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.400 to be called, he's probably from the kill again. Y'all 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.400 need to find him. 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.160 Just one day into a nationwide man hunt for Derek Toddley, 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.040 police arrested him without incident in Atlanta, and when his 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.400 mugshot hit the news, all of South Louisiana couldn't believe it. 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.600 Well, none of this matches anything the police had told 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.760 us for a very long time, and it just didn't 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:10.360 piece together and it didn't make sense. 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.360 Journalist Melinda de Lott had covered the story for nearly 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.000 a year. Most of that time, she reported that the 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.160 police were looking for a white male in a white truck. 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.959 The police in Baton Rouge led people down a lot 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:31.160 of rabbit trails that ended up not being credible, so 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.480 they got a lot of blowback about that. The police 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:37.760 chief and a lot of other people who had been 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.640 very engaged in that case got very defensive of what 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.480 they had done and how they had handled it. There 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.840 was just a lot of mishmash of emotions. It was 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:54.240 relief for the families because I knew how much they 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:58.440 needed to see somebody arrested for this, And there was 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:03.200 just a lot of frustration vented at the batter Uge 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:08.120 police department because this police officer in Zachary is the 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:12.760 one who sought the DNA swab of Derek Todd Lee 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:17.200 and ended up being the person who connected all the murders. 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.400 At the time of his arrest, Derek Todd Lee was 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.199 thirty four years old. He was married, He even had 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:30.679 children and a girlfriend on the side. Here's Prosecutor Dana Cummings. 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.720 And I found that really bizarre that somebody that was 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:38.360 actually married in relationships was doing that. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.439 The profile said that this was someone who would be 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.480 a loner, and this was a man who was surrounded 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.760 by women. You've a married father of two who also 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.760 had a girlfriend on the side, charged with killing a 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.440 handful of women in South Louisiana. 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.200 You know you can understand people that do things in 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.360 like heat of passion. Somebody walks in and finds their 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.520 spouse cheating, you can understand that you don't like it, 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.000 but you can understand that they may lose it, and 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.160 they may get emotional, and they may do something that 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.040 they regret later. But I don't remember anything that I 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.600 learned of him to say, oh, well, no wonder, no 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:17.440 wonder he did that. 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.640 Derek Toddlee was born in South Louisiana. His troubles began 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.320 at the age of eleven, when he first started peeping 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:30.240 into the windows of girls. Growing up, he attended special 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:34.720 education classes. He later dropped out of school and married 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.640 his high school sweetheart. A year later, she accused him 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:43.920 of abusing her. Journalist Melinda Delotte interviewed people who knew 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:44.720 Derek Toddley. 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:46.880 People said nice things about him. 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:51.720 His neighbors, for example, called him polite, friendly, and well dressed. 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.640 So despite how he came across to people, he clearly 0:12:55.720 --> 0:13:00.360 had a background of some disturbing behavior regarding women, because 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.839 he had been arrested before for trespassing and peeking in 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.800 the houses and stalking as part of the peeping Tom 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:14.040 kind of allegations and then he was accused of beating 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.440 up a woman, like some sort of fight in a bar. 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.000 He was convicted and he was sentenced to jail for 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.760 that one. You know, hindsight's always twenty twenty. But like obviously, 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.760 there was a trail of some arrest records that probably 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.360 could have drawn some attention if they knew they were 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.000 looking for a black man. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.480 By two thousand and four, Derek Todd Lee's DNA connected 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.120 him with the murders of two more people, another LSU 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.840 grad student and a twenty eight year old woman from Zachary. 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.440 There was now seven women that Lee was accused of killing, 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.560 but prosecutors decided to only try the cases they believed 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:53.360 had the best shot at winning. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.920 I'm John Stinkfield. I'm prosecutor and los Ana. Since nineteen 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:03.440 seventy one, I specialized in trying capital murder cases in 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.560 East Batton, Rugs Parish, and I had three people actually 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:08.280 executed that I prosecuted. 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.160 In the fall of two thousand and four, Derreck Todd 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.800 Lee stood trial for the murder of Murray Peace. She 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.720 was the twenty two year old LSU grad who was 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:23.640 sexually assaulted and stabbed eighty one times. John Sinkfield was 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:24.680 the Lee prosecutor. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.480 I give the knowledge. It's like a gold miner. A 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.360 gold miner's got to work where there's goal. A murder 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.800 prosecutor's got to work where their murders. In Baton Rouge 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:36.360 was a good place for my career. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.680 In this case, the prosecutor was seeking capital punishment. 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.000 And I had no problem asking these jurors to return 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.920 a death penalty against derreck todd Lee based on the 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.360 evidence that I thought proved beyond a reasonable doubt until 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.040 Moorrow certainty that he had committed all these crimes. 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:59.920 Throughout his trial, Derek Todd Lee sat quietly and appeared motionless. 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.080 He was represented by a team of public defenders. 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:08.160 You may have heard bad things about public defenders, but 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.560 not in this case. He had a top notch team. 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:16.360 In fact, neither the lead defense attorney nor the prosecutor 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.480 had ever lost a capital case. 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.000 They set it up as a mano a mano contest, 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:27.720 almost like a sporting event, and headlines were two very 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.080 experienced lawyers will face each other off tomorrow in the 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.680 Batteryge court room. Neither one of them has ever lost 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.040 a capital case. In this case, one of them is 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:38.720 going to lose. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.720 After weeks of jury selection and a short delay from 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:46.200 a hurricane, the case involving the murder of Murray Pace 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:48.440 began in October two thousand and four. 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:52.360 In that trial, I had some hard decisions to. 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:57.720 Think, specifically whether to calls my witnesses who reported seeing 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.960 someone outside of Murray Pace's home. 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.640 There's three or four witnesses that claimed have seen Derrick 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.200 Todd Lee in that area around her condo in the 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.760 day's previous to the assault and murder, but they had 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:16.280 given some descriptions that didn't exactly match, so they had 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.920 some vulnerability, I thought, and then I made a decision 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:25.000 one night during that trial not to use the eyewitnesses, 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.000 to go just with the DNA. 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.160 For the first few days of the trial. That's what 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.680 the prosecution did. They called witness after witness to speak 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:35.920 about the DNA evidence. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.400 We put on the DNA evidence, only have them put 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:46.360 on a defense saying that our criminalists who were examined 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:50.800 the DNA evidence were young and inexperienced, that there were 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.080 some sloppy procedures in the lab, that a swab was 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.480 found in one of the boxes, which was related to 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:01.320 the cases that our computer systems that analyze this evidence 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.960 was old and out of date, and there was some attempt, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.880 you know, like possibly to frame him or something like that. 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.520 As the defense attacked his DNA evidence, it left the 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.160 prosecutor second guessing his strategy. 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.680 I've eliminated three or four five witnesses, and I put 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.760 on this powerful case of the DNA only to sit 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.479 there and pray that my career wasn't going to go 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.480 straight out the window because I had never seen a 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.600 DNA defense like that, and you're praying that the jury 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:37.040 don't buy. 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.560 The prosecution saved their star witness until the very end. 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.720 That's when they called the forty six year old nurse 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:46.560 named Diane Alexander. 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.800 Diane Alexander explained what it was like, in her words, 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.120 to be attacked by Dereck Todd Lee and survived. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.280 Diane reported being attacked by Derrick Todd Lee during the 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:04.119 summer to and two. It happened inside her home about 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:08.000 an hour outside that en rouge, and her testimony was 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:12.840 huge for prosecutors. Although we don't have that audio. Diane 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.400 described the attack on a series called La Gospel Beats. 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.159 There was a knock at the door, so when I 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.880 opened the door. There was this fair, complexed young man 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.119 standing outside my door. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.960 Diane said she didn't recognize. 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.080 The man, and he said, Hi, my name is Anthony. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.720 I'm looking for the Montgomerys and I'm supposed to do 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.160 construction for them. 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.199 Diane told him he must be at the wrong house. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.160 She didn't know the Montgomerys, and. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.639 He said, do you think your husband might know? And 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.520 I knew my husband was at work, but I just 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.000 told him my husband doesn't know who these people are. 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.399 And then he asked Diane one more time, are you 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.359 sure your husband doesn't know who those people are? 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:58.920 I said, look, my husband's not home. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.639 The blue all hell broke loose. He was strong, he 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.639 was bigger. He pushed his way in her door and 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:12.399 attacked her. Within just a few seconds or minutes, he 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.280 had her down, trying to strangler with a phone cord. 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.520 His intentions was to rape and kill me. That was 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:21.600 his intentions. 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.040 Over the next few minutes, he struck Diane on her 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.879 head and stomped on her chest, all the while he 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.520 threatened to stab her in the eye with his knife. 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.480 And in my left ear, he whispered. He said, I've 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:36.520 been watching you. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:39.040 And then all of a sudden, the sound of a 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.119 car pulling into the gravel driveway made him. 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.600 Freeze, and not long after my son showed up. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.399 Diane's son was a college student who came home early 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:54.520 that morning. He chased the man but lost him. He 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.840 reported seeing his mother's attacker drive off in a gold 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:02.200 colored sedan with a big telephone court hanging out the window. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:07.520 In a dramatic moment, the prosecutor asked Diane for her attacker, 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.960 who claimed his name was Anthony, was in the courtroom 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:11.400 that day. 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.560 She looked right at Dereck todd Lee and she said, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:16.600 that's him. 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:20.800 It was powerful testimony, but things wouldn't go as smoothly. 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:33.720 During cross examination, jurors heard several DNA experts describe how 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.520 Derek todd Lee's DNA was found on the victim murray pace. 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.240 As you can imagine, that testimony was complex, but when 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.200 Diane Alexander took the stand, she provided something no other 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.960 witness could do. She described how Derek tod Lee was 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:56.160 able to get inside her home. Here's prosecutor Dana Cummings. 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:58.080 So he goes to the door and he's asking her 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.000 questions and asking her I'm looking for somebody, and she 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.359 said he was very very polite at first, well spoken, 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.840 I mean, that's the way he came across. And then 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.000 when he said, well, ask your husband, and I think 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.760 she said he's not home or something to that effect, 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.679 and that's when he just changed his personality, forced his 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.840 way into the trailer and started attacking her, just viciously, 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.199 tried to rape her, but her son drove up. She 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.840 had like a gravel driveway, and he drove up the 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:34.159 driveway and Derrek Tuddley got up and ran. And her 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:39.520 testimony was very compelling because the science is great, but 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.919 to hear somebody actually describe how he operated and it 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.159 just made sense in all the other cases. 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:51.640 And Diane's testimony came with another key piece of evidence. 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.840 He used a cord, a phone cord to try to 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:00.800 strangle her, and that phone cord when he left, he 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:01.520 grabbed it and. 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:02.440 Took it with him. 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.320 As a matter of fact, the son who came home 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:11.120 described a cord hanging out of the vehicle. And that's 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:16.760 important because three days later he attacked Pam Kinnemore. 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:21.639 Diane Alexander was attacked on July ninth. Pam Kinnimore was 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:25.680 attacked and killed July twelfth. Pam's body was later found 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:26.440 in Whiskey Bay. 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.919 They're looking out there at Whiskey Bay and on a 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:34.520 like a roadway there is a cord, and sure enough 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:38.199 they were later able to match it to the cord 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.439 that was back at a Diane Alexander's house. So that 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:43.359 was a nice little piece of evidence, because, you know, 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:45.520 it was fine to have the DNA, and DNA is 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.800 such incredible evidence, but it was also nice to have 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.919 a little bit different piece of evidence that will corroborate that. 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.639 During her time on the stand, Diane was calm and 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:59.879 spoke matter factly. Here's lee Prosecutor John Sinkfield. 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:04.040 After she testified, if I'd had any doubt about the 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:07.480 DNA part of the parts of the elements to myself, 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:08.640 I said, this case. 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:13.520 Is over, but it wasn't. During cross examination, Diane slipped up. 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:17.359 She gave conflicting information about what Derek Tidley wore the 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:21.479 morning he attacked her. The defense also questioned why Diane 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:25.560