Greed and Murder | 48 Hours Full Episodes | Forensic Files

911, what's your emergency? He calls 911 and he's yelling into the phone, "Help me! Help me! He shot me!"
This is the actual transcript from the 911 call. Yes. So, he's running through the vineyard.
>> running through the vineyard and the shooter is in the truck coming after him, shooting out the
window. This is crazy. Crazy. Who are these guys? These guys were a couple of rich,
ambitious wine lovers who wanted to be in the business and own their own vineyards. Look, I have pictures. Here's
Emad. Emad Taofilous. He's a smart guy from Silicon Valley who loved Hollywood, even financed a movie. And here's the
other guy, Robert Dahl, an operator who people said could make money grow on trees. Well, in
this case, vines. Take one, A-mark. My name is Jonathan Kesselman. I'm a filmmaker. JIMMY FASTFOOD IS A
TERRORIST. I WAS directing a film and Emad [music] was the principal investor in the film. Emad made his money in
Silicon Valley and then was looking for other things to invest in? Yeah, I think, you know, he he made a good
living, wanted to invest his money into things he was more passionate about, movies, wine.
Robert Dahl, did he come with a dream? Oh, definitely. He really did have >> [music]
>> the vision of having some form of a winery. Robert made me feel like we'd been
friends forever. Upon first meeting? >> first No, within like the first 10 minutes. He was a very nice
outgoing, hardworking guy. So, it seemed [music] like a good guy to partner up with. Absolutely.
One time, I don't know how I ended up on the back of his motorcycle and he looked
out and he pointed at this mansion. I mean, he said, "You know what? Greg and I are going to make so much money
that he's going to be able to buy a house like this for you someday." Everything seemed to be going great. Oh,
it was It was awesome. Yeah, perfect. Until it all went wrong. >> Yes. And this is over [music]
money. This is over money. $800,000 in a gym bag? Broken dreams. Broken dreams. Who lives? Who dies? It's an incredible
tale of wine, money, and murder. >> [music] [music] [music] >> 48 Hours: Grapes of Wrath.
We have a male saying, "Help me! Help me!" The advice of something saying that he
has been shot again twice now. It was a showdown between two millionaires. Robert Dahl and Emad Taofilous.
Wild tales of a shocking murder in the Napa Valley. A bitter money dispute ends in an execution-style [music]
shooting. This all started at Dahl Vineyards on Solano Avenue. The victim was I mean, just look at this place, Napa
Valley. Who wouldn't want a piece of this? >> [music] >> That's what these two men wanted and
they went for it, but it ended in murder. So, we came here to figure out what happened. And what we discovered is
really interesting. It turns out that no less than four people thought that they
could have ended up targets of the killer, too. Could have been me running through the
vineyard and ducking from flying bullets. I was probably number one on his list to kill. My first thought was
that could have very easily been Greg. What do you think would have happened if you were there?
I think he would have killed me. Hold on. Let's just slow down for a second. How do you get from two
ambitious guys trying to make it in the wine business to a murder mystery with four or five other [music] potential
victims? Well, we found a guy who can explain it all. Because his family has worked in these
valleys for generations. And he says he could have been a victim that day, too. So, is it customary [music] if we visit
to open a bottle of wine? >> way that you can visit. Sure. >> Going to have some wine?
So, cheers. Cheers. Meet Dominic Foppoli. Pretty close to royalty around here. Me and my brother
and two sisters were the fourth generation of our family to be involved. I mean, our great-grandfather started
doing this with grapes and making some wine in the early 1900s. Now, he and his brother and sisters and
friends run the Christopher Creek Winery. We've known each other for all of our lives and so we are family above
and beyond. Are there a lot of dreamers who [music] come here? Oh, yeah, big time. Tech
tycoons, Wall Street guys, rock stars, movie people >> [music] >> and they all want to come and have a
slice of this. And a lot of people see the the glamorous side of it without, you know, seeing [music] the
the hard work that goes into it. The blood, sweat, and tears that it really takes to get to the point we're at right
now of drinking a great bottle. How tough is it to break in? It is very, very tough unless you're coming with a
lot of money. And then there's the matter of trust. Doing business in the wine country is
often very personal. You know, their word is their bond. Shake their hands, you look in their eye, and you're good.
You bond with a person and then maybe go into business with them. Absolutely. That's a huge, huge part of it. So, cuz
you need to know that you can you can trust that person. But, as we'll find out, watch out if that bond is broken
because the stakes are high. The money makes people crazy. Lou Perdue is a tech entrepreneur and the most respected wine
writer in Napa. Money is intoxicating and when you mix money and wine, I think you get intoxicated to the second or
third power. How often does it happen that somebody comes in with a lot of money and not so much knowledge about
wine, but just wants to be a part of this? Every day. Every day. Back in 2011, a guy named Robert Dahl
was about to get drunk on all that money. He decided to leave Minnesota, where he
had an [music] unglamorous mold removal business, and become a Napa Valley [music] wine
entrepreneur. He had a booming voice. He was always the loudest guy in the room. Just a big
presence. >> Yeah, big presence. Miles Davis is an electrician who worked for Dahl almost
from the beginning of his time in Napa. You were friends with him initially when
he was doing what business? Selling and buying grapes. Selling and buying grapes. That's one way of saying Dahl
was in the lower end of the wine business. He wasn't making fine wines. He was bottling no-name wine, making what they
call shiners. The shiner is a bottle that doesn't have a label and then he'd sell you that
fruit. You put your own label on it. Was he a good salesman? A great salesman. Oh, he could sell anyone. So, the wine
didn't even have to really be that good, he could sell it? Well, it never was really that good. And he talked a good
game. >> a great game. And you knew enough to know that he didn't know a lot. I knew
that he he had a good line of BS, which which is which is fine and it made him funnier. Was part of his charm that he
could BS? Yeah, I loved it about him. Dahl had moved to wine country with his wife and three children.
>> [music] >> His family's amazing. They're just wonderful people. His wife's a very
sweet, loving woman. The kids are amazing. In fact, they call me their godfather.
Within a couple of years, his bottling business was a big success and Dahl liked to show it. He showed up at my
office with $10,000 and said, "Let's buy a Harley." I'm sorry? He showed up at my office and
with $10,000 in cash and said, "We're buying a Harley. You pay me back in the next few months or whenever."
That's Robert. He was he was all about stuff like that. Did he seem concerned [music] about
money? >> No. Never. So, it was in 2011 that Robert Dahl took his next big step toward his dream of
making it big in the wine business. He linked up with that prince of the wine country, Dominic Foppoli.
>> [music] >> I had met some people from Asia who were looking into getting into importing
California wine. Foppoli [music] was young. He didn't have his own personal vineyard yet and he needed more product.
I couldn't literally package wine fast enough cuz I didn't have my own facility. And so, I met Robert. He was
very new to this, but he was willing to to work really, really hard and he had a genuineness
that he could project that made you want to trust him, made you want to like him.
Over the next year, Foppoli and Doll became close. We got to dinner and and [music] hang out. And as a friend, he
was always there. I could text him at 11:00 at night and he'd get back to me. Business was good, and one day [music]
Doll made him a proposition. He called me up and said, "Hey, there's uh [music] this place in your neck of the woods."
They'd buy their own vineyard. And so, I came over and I met him here and I looked at this view and the vineyards,
and literally an hour after sitting down with them, we drank a bottle of wine on
this on this deck, I said, "I'm in. Let's do this." Foppoli staked [music] everything he had
on this partnership, even his house. You know, I said, [music] "This is something
I'm going to do. I'm going to have to go all in and I need you to be all in, too." And he said,
"I got you." Foppoli didn't think it would be a stretch for Robert Doll. I assumed that this [music] was a fun
little side project for him. I never had any reason to doubt that he was doing tremendously well.
Did you feel like he had your back? Oh, completely. There was not I didn't doubt
for a second. But almost as soon as the vineyard deal with Foppoli was closed, Doll was
looking for the next big thing. Sharing ownership in a vineyard wasn't good enough. He wanted to be the boss. To do
that, he needed new partners. And then he found just the man he was looking for.
A man with connections [music] to the bright lights of Hollywood. With a gym bag full of money.
I directed a film called Jimmy Vestvood American Hero. Uh It's a comedy. >> comedy starring a comic named Maz
Jobrani. I'm Jimmy. Jimmy Vestvood. Like Clint Eastwood, but Vestvood. [laughter] Very funny film.
Hello, is there a car? Director and screenwriter Jonathan Kesselman was shooting the film's wedding scene when
one of the extras struck up a conversation. While we're sort of uh in between setups, uh we started talking. He said,
"Hi, I'm Emad. I'm the investor in the film." And just a really nice guy. We chatted. Emad Tofighbakhsh was a young
businessman from Silicon Valley. What kind of actor was he? Um >> [laughter] >> He was a better humanitarian than an
actor. Um He was a good extra. He was very good. >> [laughter] >> He He hit his marks. Emad was principal
investor in the film. He put up about $200,000, and Kesselman became friendly with him.
He was like a business person in tech, and I think he was excited to be not a corporate guy anymore. He had sort of
made a lot of money, and he was tired of it and wanted to sort of explore other things in his life, things that he had
passion for. One of those passions was film. The other was wine. Emad invited his new film director
friend and his wife to the fancy home he owned near the wine country. It was just, you know, [music] "I love wine.
You guys like wine? Let's go wine tasting." We He actually gave us his bedroom. His bedroom was very flashy.
Like his bathroom he had redone. Like there was a television inside the mirror in the bathroom. Like he was very
excited about his bathroom. But wine was more than a passion for Emad. It was a driving ambition.
In 2011, Emad Tofighbakhsh got to know Robert Doll. And they talked about the [music] dream
they shared of making it big in the wine business. But this story isn't just about wine,
it's about cash. Close to a million dollars in cash. Now, if you're wondering what that looks like, well, so
are we. So, we got some Hollywood prop money, which looks a lot and feels a lot like the real thing.
And this is how Robert Doll did his next deal. $800,000 in cash in a gym bag. The money came from that movie investor,
Emad Tofighbakhsh. In 2013, according to Emad, Robert told him that returns on his investment would be big. And if he
invested cash, he'd get [music] better deals. Emad was jumping into business with
Robert Doll with both feet. It sounds like the perfect match. Robert, who supposedly knows about wine
but doesn't have the money, and then Emad, who doesn't know a lot about wine but has the cash.
>> Exactly. Remember, Doll had already started a vineyard business with Dominic Foppoli.
But that wasn't enough for him. Shortly after Doll's partnership with Foppoli began, it ended. There'd been
problems. Now, Doll wanted his own thing. He wanted his name on the bottle. Emad was going to make that happen. His
investment, which now totaled $1.2 million, would help launch Doll Vineyards. Emad
was finally a player, and Doll was center stage. Welcome to Doll Vineyards in lovely
Yountville, California. He's a salesman. It's a show. Did people seem like they were having a good time?
>> always. He pours good wine, and he pours it well, and generously? Generously, and
and it was it was a nice product. He did a nice job on that winery. And the business prospered so much that
Doll was soon able to repay Emad part of his investment. And that's the thing. Everything that
Robert Doll touched seemed to be turning out golden, and it was happening so fast. Now, armed with Emad
Tofighbakhsh's money, Doll was on his way to being everything he wanted to be, the big man in Napa.
Did he exude confidence? >> confidence. Oh my gosh, like nobody I've ever met before in my life.
That same year, Doll started up another brand new business with that Napa couple, Francine and Greg Knittel.
This is just an abstract vineyard scene. >> They'd been pursuing their passions in
Napa for years. Francine did her art. >> So, Napa clearly inspires [music] you. Yes, definitely. And Greg's construction
business. >> This is one of our custom remodels. Oh, this is beautiful. Built some of the
area's nicest homes and tasting rooms. Oh, look at the ceiling. It's like the Sistine Chapel.
Some of this stuff I feel like we can't show on television, but Life was good. Every time we come home, we just say to
each other, "Look at where we live. We're so blessed." [music] And there was no hesitation when the new
guy, Robert Doll, came into their lives. He was very outgoing, charismatic, hard working.
>> Very hard working. So, it seemed like a good guy to partner up with. Absolutely.
Oh, yeah. Doll and the Knittels started a craft beer brewery, a business that created
fancy handmade beers. Greg was a handy partner for Doll. His construction company built the brewery.
What did he promise you? Well, that we would have an operating a reputable business that
we would be able to hand off to our kids. And he pointed at this mansion that's right off Silverado Trail. And he
looked back at me and he said, "You know what? Greg and I are going to make so much money that he's going to be able to
buy a house like this for you someday." The business was off to a good start. They added a brewpub. I mean, we had
the best beer ever. Our restaurant was booming. The brewery was brew I mean, like within like three or four months,
like it was incredible. It was incredible. Francine and Greg even became close friends with Doll and his
wife, Janelle. >> everything together for a year. And it was boot like it was going really well.
Like really, really well. He liked to live well. You know, he couldn't live in a 3,000 square foot
house. It had to be a 5,000 square foot house. It was all about looks. >> He didn't have to have one brand new
motorcycle. He had to have two brand new motorcycles. I'm sure that [music] you'll play the
video of him at the after the Napa earthquake. In fact, I have that video right here.
This was taken after the 2014 earthquake in Napa. If an East Coaster's thinking about coming to Napa for harvest season
to have some nice wine and have a few dinners, is it time to call that vacation off? Oh, absolutely not.
Everything is back going in wine country. It's a great time to visit wine country, see some grapes being crushed,
taste some fresh juice, and really take in the wine lifestyle. Man, listening to him, it almost sounds
like he could be the mayor of Napa. But things aren't always exactly as they appear to be.
Remember Dominic Foppoli, Doll's former partner? >> [music] >> Dominic had been running the winery, and
Doll was running the books. You know, we're selling a bunch of wine. I mean, >> [music]
>> the winery was a hit, but there wasn't enough money to keep paying our bills,
which I didn't understand. I didn't get. Where's the money going? Where's the money going? Where's the money going?
That was the question plenty more people in the wine country were about to start
asking. >> [music] [music] [music] >> By 2014, the new Doll Vineyards seemed to be taking off.
Robert Doll and Emad Tofighbakhsh, the two ambitious entrepreneurs, were living their dreams. Robert himself running the
show. >> Greetings from Doll Vineyards. And Emad, silent partner, providing the money.
Enjoy. But what Emad didn't know was partnerships with [music] Robert Doll had a way of turning sour.
Remember Robert's first vineyard, the one he shared with Dominic Foppoli? One day, Dominic got a phone call from
their lender. I'm starting proceedings on you guys. Foreclosure proceedings? >> Foreclosure? Yeah, cuz we had we had
missed our our our first payment to him as far as the winery. So, I called Robert and he said, "You shouldn't be
worried about that. I've got all that covered." And I said, "Are you kidding me?" Foppiano went ballistic. This is my
dream and we were successful in everything we were doing. His life savings and reputation were on the line.
He had to get rid of Doll. >> So, my family and and my partners my my brother and my my best friends and came
around and said, "We'll do whatever we need to do and and let's let's get this guy out." Foppiano
got control of the vineyard, but he had to pay Doll to go away. He was bitter. You know, I introduced him as my
partner, my friend. So, I brought him into that that circle of trust that we have here. Everybody open welcomed him
with open arms because I vouched for him. I had never been burned before. I was I was naive. And it turns out
Foppiano [music] wasn't the only one. No one that ever put money into something that he was doing was ever going to get
anything back. Steve Birch knows. He's a winemaker who worked for Doll. Back when Doll looked like he was the
golden boy of wine country, Birch introduced him to celebrities. For the comic and TV personality Adam Carolla,
>> much for enjoying this. he bottled a sangria called Mangria. We made money on
it, but I know that there was a significant amount of payment for that that Adam never
received. And there was the rapper E-40. You a loser? Nope. Winner? >> Yep. He had Doll package some wines for
his label, Earl Stevens Wines. We started his product and it went really well, but I know he wasn't he wasn't
paid either. Nope. And there was Birch himself. >> I left with him owing me a lot of money.
Can you give me a ballpark? Yeah, we'll say it was well over $10,000. The same thing happened to Doll's
friend, electrician Miles Davis. Doll owed him $15,000. Did you ever see that money? No.
But you were friends with him again? Yeah, cuz he's a great Yeah, I'm fine with that. I mean, it
wasn't about the money. It was about you know, there was concerns that he was in
trouble. So, I I didn't feel like my little 15,000 was anything to worry about. Cuz he was
getting underwater. >> Yeah. Did you say anything? No. No. No. Did you figure he'd find a way
out of it? Yep. I hoped he would. And then there was Francine and Greg Canitle. Just a few months after the successful
debut of the brewery they started with Doll and a well-known brewmaster, the business started slipping. I got the
first inkling that Doll wasn't what he says he was >> [music] >> because a friend of mine went to his
brewery and I put quotes around that because the friend of mine liked craft beer and
he wasn't making beer at his quote unquote brewpub. Apparently, by the time Lou's friend
stopped by for a drink, the brewery was no longer making its own beer. He wasn't
making beer at the brewery? No, he was buying uh kegs from somebody else. And when this friend of mine came face
to face and told him about that, he he just went ballistic. Like he'd been found out.
>> Like like he had been found out. Doll's partners, Francine and Greg, say they didn't know what Doll was up to at
the brewery and they were shocked when Doll came in one day and announced he was shutting down the whole thing.
Robert's sitting there and he goes, "Guys, the brewery's not making enough money. I'm going to close the doors."
Francine and Greg say they not only lost $250,000 of their own money, they'd encouraged
friends to invest, too. And unlike Miles Davis, they felt personally betrayed by
their friend Robert Doll. What gets to you the most? Somebody that we trusted had this
capability, had this I mean, Robert knew the whole time going to pretty much screw us over.
But no one felt more ripped off than Emad Tofilis. He thought he'd invested more than a million dollars in a
vineyard. Instead, Doll diverted the cash, spending it on his lavish lifestyle, the brewery business, just
about anything else. Doll had stopped paying back the money he borrowed and Tofilis hired a lawyer.
He was angry. He wanted his money and he wanted to find out everything he could about Robert Doll.
You amassed a pile of information about Robert Doll. This is the pile of liens that Robert had against him. Civil
judgment from Ford Motor Company, 19,000. Allied Building Products Company, 61,000.
53,000. 7,900. >> Oh my goodness. So, Emad hired Don King, who has her own special niche in Napa
Valley. Well, I'm a private investigator here in Napa and I was an FBI agent for
10 years. >> An FBI agent? >> Yes. So, you can smell a rat. Well, >> [laughter] >> I like to put rats in prison, anyway.
Don started digging. So, he was just not paying his bills. I mean, he was just like, you know, charging credit cards.
Here's the Federal Credit Union, 53,000. And then you get into his lawsuit. A lot
of what Don discovered happened back in Minnesota during the years before Doll came to Napa, but to Don, it told a
story. You know, this is the theft one of his theft charges. One of his theft charges?
>> had a he had two. This was the theft by swindle. He actually was convicted of
theft by swindle. He was. Thefts and swindles got Doll thrown into jail not once, but twice back in
Minnesota and left him a convicted felon. I mean, this guy was a criminal. Now, here in the wine country, Doll
seemed to be scamming again. Every time [music] he'd get a business investment, the money seemed to go right into his
pocket. Was this kind of a a Ponzi scheme? Yeah, to some extent. I mean, except that no one got paid. Usually in a Ponzi
scheme, the first people in get paid. But in this case, No, no. >> did. It was It right, Robert got paid,
but Robert spent all the money. >> [music] >> In 2014, wine reporter Lou Perdue began
to uncover [music] the swindles Robert Doll was pulling right here in Napa Valley. He started blogging what he
found >> [music] >> and guess who responded. >> And those are his comments. >> Robert Doll. Those are his his comments
and then he starts to rant paragraph >> Oh, I see this the caps in red. >> by paragraph
>> Oh my goodness. >> everything in big red capital letters just keeps coming. >> Oh my goodness. And it comes
>> like one of those magic scarves. >> and it comes just ranting and ranting and ranting. I think I measured this at
26 ft. And what did this say to you? This says to me the guy's was off his nut. Things were really heating up. Both
sides were suing and it looked as if things were headed for a showdown. Emad was just like so crazed and he was
becoming like a desperate [music] man. Oh my gosh. I mean, I used to get 10 15 20 phone calls a day.
Emad Tofilis was angry, [music] very angry. He wanted his whole investment back, but it wasn't looking
good. How desperate was Emad? He was a desperate man. On a scale from 1 to 10, he was about a 9. He was not going to
let someone like Robert Doll take advantage of him and bully him into being submissive. Attorney David
Wiseblood. Emad came to me saying, "I have this problem." So, I looked at it and said, "Yeah, you
have a problem." So, we devised a strategy. That strategy was to hammer Robert Doll in court
and force him to pay up. So, the strategy was file a lawsuit in Napa to basically get control of the
collateral and to prevent stuff from disappearing. That collateral was mostly the wine
tanks and all the equipment used to make the wine. >> [music] >> And what happened? Robert didn't roll
that well. What happened, I had in a 4-month period, 19 court appearances in the Napa court, which is crazy. I mean,
the short answer is the Napa court issued an injunction against Robert saying, "You can't sell inventory,"
which in effect should have shut down his winemaking and wine selling operations. That all belongs to Emad,
basically. >> Right, pretty much. Even though Emad was winning in court, Robert Doll was doing
everything he could to cheat. >> [music] >> He was even secretly taking equipment
and trying to sell it off. Robert at that point had started hiding >> [music] >> equipment, hiding whatever he could. He
started moving stuff. But Robert Doll's attorneys, Jasmine Dwall and Kusha Barrack him, There's a
lot more than the [music] headlines. say Doll was a clever businessman, but he was no crook. You think Robert's mindset
was, "I'm going to take this, but I'll be able to pay it back and everything's going to be okay."
>> Absolutely. I think he had every intention to pay back the entire loan. Robert got a hold Dahl's lawyers
believed Dahl was a stand-up guy. That [music] classic all-American risk-taking entrepreneur who puts it all on the line
and at the last minute comes out a hero. The business was growing. And it was not a Ponzi scheme or
a house of cards. I was shown a document that says Robert Dahl was convicted of swindle in Minnesota. If you look at
that document again, you will see that that goes back to when he was about 19 or 21 years old or so. But still, people
look at that and say once a con man, always a con man. Robert definitely had his share of failed ventures before as
well. But you don't think that proves that he's a thief. Not at all. A thief takes
money and runs with it. A thief doesn't go to the court. He was a risk-taker and
when you take risks, sometimes you end up harming other people as well. But our system is set up for that.
In the wine business, Dahl's lawyers say sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And they insist [music]
Emad Tofilis was the real villain in this business deal. You think this was a scam for Emad? Absolutely.
How would one come up with that much cash and why? It's still a mystery where all that cash
came from. But Dahl's lawyers say Emad was so angry, he was determined to destroy
Robert Dahl's business. His barrels of wines were taken. His cars were taken. His [music] brewing
systems were taken. He was in an impossible place. With no business to operate, Dahl
couldn't earn any money to pay off the debts he owed to Emad and others. And then, surprisingly, there was a
breakthrough. It looked as if Emad might get more of his money back. The lawyers had come to a deal and Emad
and Robert were going to get together to hammer out the details. Robert wanted to
meet here at his vineyard. I went to my office Monday morning and I got a phone call from Emad. David,
you have decided to go to winery. On that morning, I was on the phone and Emad's attorney was on the phone. Emad
and Robert were there in person. Their attorneys joined them on a conference call. There was a definite agreement on
what was going to be paid to Emad. It was just so eerily calm. It was eerily calm. It was eerily calm.
But then, Robert Dahl rocked the boat. And he said, "Well, I don't give an ass what the lawyers negotiated. This is my
offer." What seemed to be a nearly done deal suddenly started unraveling. Which was
several hundred thousand dollars less than what was agreed to. The lawyers felt it was a breakdown that
Emad and Robert should deal with themselves. They were both business savvy and this was something that they
both could have easily handled. So both lawyers got off the phone. Both expected
to hear right back from their clients. 20 minutes go by. We had no idea what was going on.
I don't hear from Emad. I was expecting a call. Then I got an email saying there was a
shooting. I got a call from Mr. Weissbluth. He said, " Kusha, tell me this didn't
really happen." You thought Emad lost it. I thought Emad lost it. >> We both thought that.
That's the winery up at the end of the road. >> Yeah. Up at the end of the road. On
March 16th, 2015, Emad Tofilis and Robert Dahl [music] had finally gotten together to try to settle their ugly
dispute. They'd been meeting one-on-one in a room inside that barn over there at
Dahl Vineyard. The lawyers were on the phone on a conference call. But just a few moments after everything started,
they hit a snag. Emad wanted to settle it and Dahl wanted to settle it. But something went wrong. Clearly they
can't come to an agreement down there in the vineyard. Not only couldn't they come to an agreement,
all hell breaks loose. There's a burst of gunfire and evidence shows the men come tumbling out of the
barn. One has a gun. He's firing. The other man is wounded, running for his life
into the vines. They can't agree and suddenly one person takes off down down these rows like in between these grapes
here. >> Running through here. Right. Emad and Robert both take off, one hunting the other. Running down the row,
being pursued by the other one who is shooting at the the guy who became the victim. He's shooting through these
grapes just as the guy's running. It's a wild chase, something out of a movie. The hunted man desperately dials 911.
>> He's calling 911 as he's running through the vineyard. >> He's still running even though he's been
shot. Right. >> So what does the shooter do? The the shooter knows he can't catch the the
victim. So he goes back to the winery, gets in his car and drives over hoping to cut the victim off as the
victim runs out. As the victim gets here, he tells 911 that he can see the deputies arriving here. So he's
saved. He can see the deputies. And the shooter comes around, gets out of his car and shoots the
victim in the head with a fatal shot as the police cars are arriving. So he the shooter gets out, stands basically
stands over the guy? Yes. Delivers the coup de grace. While the sheriff's deputies were right there. The
sheriff's deputies were arriving right at this corner. And this is where it all ended. The
winery these two men had dreamed of building together. Emad Tofilis was lying dead on the
ground, murdered by Robert Dahl. He knows it's all over. I mean, he knows that no matter what he does, he's been
caught. He can't talk his way out of it. So he gets in the the vehicle, drives up a terrible road here where
there are very few outlets and as the police are closing in on him, he shoots himself in the head and kills himself.
Kills himself. All over. The final bad life choice on a crooked life that's led all the way
back to Minnesota. It's hard to say what set Robert Dahl off that day. It certainly seems the
crime was premeditated. Dahl had brought a gun and remember he was a convicted felon and he wasn't allowed to own one.
And at that final meeting, he pulled out a bizarre document that he wanted Tofilis to sign, a document that seemed
almost insane. That was basically a manifesto that Emad was trying to ruin his life. This
was supposed to be a confession by Emad that it was all a hoax and it was all his fault.
>> So the idea is Robert pulls out this crazy manifesto and says, "Sign this." And he pulls out a gun and says, "Sign
this." There was evidence that Dahl may have been ready to kill more people. Duct
tape, flex cuffs, a tarp, [music] gloves, and there was ammo, more than 750 rounds. A
magnetic gun holder that goes on a car. >> to hide the Yeah. To me, that is a murder kit. I mean, plain and simple. I
think he was trying to figure out how to kill the people that had brought him down.
And that theory fits what we've discovered here in Napa. In the course of our reporting, so many people told us
they too could have been victims. There was Don King, the dirt-digging private eye.
Could have been me running through the vineyard. Could have been. Lou Purdue, the dogged wine journalist.
I think I was probably number one on his list to kill because I was the guy who blew the whistle on everything.
Francine and Greg Knittel who filed a criminal case against Dahl. My first thought was that could have very easily
been Greg. And Emad Tofilis' attorney, David Weissbluth. It certainly could have been me.
And I'm sure that it would have been. >> [music] >> There was even that prince of the wine
country, Dominic Foppoli. You think he would have killed you, too? Oh, yeah. Finally, we were left with one more
question. This month's wine club shipment includes our How could Robert Dahl have convinced all these people to
believe in him? >> Robert Dahl was an Academy Award winning actor when it comes to convincing people
to trust him. How did he not get found out? Nobody checked. People like this, they keep Exactly.
>> moving. Destroy somebody else's life for their own good, their own benefit. >> [music]
>> Emad Tofangs murder haunts almost everyone he knew in the wine country. You think about this case every day? I
do. Yeah. Two years, two years pass? Dominic Foppoli says back when he and Doll were still partners, he tried to
warn Emad. I said, "I want to give you a heads-up I'm having all these issues with Robert." You warned him? Yeah, we
sat here on this deck and you know, and and talked. How did you hear about what he did? Somebody pulled up their
phone and and they they showed me the article of what had happened. I was just in shock and immediately, I mean
honestly, I started I started crying and and it was a mix of guilt because I guess I didn't do enough
to warn Emad about him. Jonathan Kesselman, the director, felt deeply about Emad. He was a really sweet, kind,
generous guy and and and I just felt I just felt I needed to say that, you know, just so that it's on the record.
You know, there's some sort of legacy of Emad where, you know, he was remembered.
He was a good person. >> [music] >> As for Robert Doll, he may have showed up in Napa with a grand vision.
But in the end, he brought his dreams and those of so many around him crashing down. He wanted [music]
to be that guy that had a vineyard and had wine with his name on it. He wanted to live the life of the big
fish. He was a little fish. This is not your typical wine story. No, it isn't. And one that we don't want to hear about
around here again, for sure. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Real people,
real crimes, real life drama. In the mid-1980s, a young funeral home director named Bernie Tiede
came to the little East Texas town of Carthage. [music] It's beautiful. Yes, I love the people
here in Carthage. Carthage is just a small town of 6,000 people. A lot of people got very wealthy on oil and gas.
There's a lot of little widows in town who have a lot of money. None more so than Mrs. Marjorie Nugent.
Bernie Tiede was running [music] a con on my grandmother. He picked up a gun, shot her four times in the back,
and then he buried her in her own deep freeze. My name is Bernie [music] Tiede. You may have heard about me.
They did a movie about me called Bernie. Jack Black was going to play you? Yes. Richard Linklater is my favorite
filmmaker I've ever worked with. All right, cut. I'm Rick Linklater and I directed the
movie Bernie. But there was something about this story that stayed with me and I think it was that relationship, the
Miss Nugent-Bernie relationship. And the Bernie Tiede that you know, is he a good
man? He's the sweetest guy, you know, he's a great man. Very complex character. Is that part of
what attracted you to this film? The thing about playing Bernie is that he's lovable
and it's really important to Bernie >> [singing] >> that he be loved. And I can relate to that.
I have a little bit of that in me, too. You know, this would be funny if it wasn't so damn sad.
Apparently, >> [music] >> Marjorie was tough. She was violent, hateful, and just mean.
She was very loving. I miss her. Bernie stole $3.8 million from my grandmother and then he put four
bullets in her back at close range. How did this happen? And that was what the movie explored.
She didn't have a lot of friends. She didn't have a lot of people around her to take care of her and to love her. And
that's where Bernie came in. Did she ever look at you, Bernie, and say, >> [music]
>> "Bernie, I love you"? Well, we often told each other that, yes. She was a wonderful woman and didn't deserve to be
executed by Bernie Tiede. I have to live with this every day of my life. And I don't like that.
I think the film is asking the question, can the nicest person in the world I don't like thinking ill of Marjorie.
be capable of the worst act? >> [music] [music] [music] >> Let's go back and start the Bernie story
from the beginning. Where'd you grow up? Well, right here in East Texas. One way or another, Bernie Tiede has
been dealing with death and darkness since he was 3 years old. My daddy and my mother, they had a car accident and
my mother was riding in the passenger's side of the car and uh um daddy never forgave himself for that.
His mother dead, his father started drinking hard and died when Bernie was just 15. So, a lot of death had occurred
in our in our family. Things only got worse for Bernie. He claims he was molested by his own uncle, Elmer Doucet.
12 when my uncle began molesting me. Doucet has always denied Bernie's allegations. Did it darken your world in
some way? Yes, it did. Bernie learned first-hand that the wounded, lonely, and those the dead
leave behind need comforting. This was Bernie Tiede's world. I guess you could say that's true, yeah. Carlton
Chambliss is the owner of Hawthorne Funeral Home where Bernie worked for 9 years. He was very successful here at
Hawthorne's and as a funeral director overall. He could do everything. He could. He was talented. He could do
everything from makeup, hair. He could sing. He could preach. Even out coloration
and then apply highlights. It would just be part of what inspired director Richard Linklater and actor Jack Black
to collaborate on the darkly comic movie Bernie. Too much color does not make one
look more alive. [music] He was on a lot of people's list to literally sing them
to heaven. He knew how to take care of families. He could connect that quickly. >> connect, yeah, exactly.
>> [music] >> So, it wasn't long after 27-year-old Bernie arrived in Carthage back in 1985
that everyone seemed to know him. From the dusty dirt roads One of his excellent qualities was he was a gourmet
cook. where Jack Payne and Ira Bounds live I think that he was well thought of amongst the little old ladies in town.
And at Koemer's Famous Barbecue He taught our Sunday school. He preached a funeral for us. Even down at the
courthouse. Did you know Bernie Tiede? Yes. Where local legend, District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson, ruled back
then and still rules today. Everyone sensed something good had come to town. You think, "Gee, I'm glad this
guy came here. He's an asset to the community." Everybody loved Bernie. >> [singing]
>> Well, I enjoyed singing in the choir and then I got active also in the school
here in the drama department. I was acting and and and doing in plays. And you were oftentimes the star.
>> Oftentimes, oftentimes, yes. Did you feel loved in this community? Very much so. I felt very much loved. Local
ladies, Lisa and Susie Cockerell, sum it up simply. He was a god. He was almost I
mean, almost. People really saw him like that. Yeah. He's got a warmth. Got a magnetism. Just
a super generous, sensitive guy and is is everybody's best friend. Bernie Tiede always had that human touch. He knew
just what to say to bring a smile to anyone who needed it. So, when a grieving, vulnerable widow came here to
the Hawthorne Funeral Home, Bernie saw an opportunity to do what he did best. In 1990,
the town's leading banker and oilman, Rod Nugent, hard-nosed, tough, but fair businessman, dies. Skip Hollandsworth
covered the case for Texas Monthly Magazine. And Bernie is in charge of his funeral. I embalmed his body and got him
ready for the funeral. And Mrs. Nugent arrives. And I met with her about the arrangements. Marjorie Nugent would one
day be portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Shirley MacLaine. I saw her to the graveside. We had the funeral
service there and then I took her back to the car. Are you thinking to yourself, "Well, we've parted ways. We
did some business and never shall meet again?" Well, no, cuz that's not how I I conduct
funerals. As I often do with the widows, widowers, check on them, go by the house, make sure they're all right. Did
they appreciate your your dropping by? Oh, very much so. Wouldn't you know, I was thinking about
you. >> Oh, thank you. These times can be hard. Well, Marjorie wasn't a huggy type person. Ruth Cockerell would
come to know as much as anyone in Carthage about the friendship of Bernie and Marjorie. Well, we were first
cousins. Were you guys close? >> We got pretty close. Could Marjorie be difficult?
I think any of us can be difficult. I mean, there's an old setting hen sometimes.
>> [laughter] >> In small towns anywhere, your reputation is not often defined by who you are.
It's by what people think of you. And so, the reputation did get around that Mrs. Nugent could be cantankerous. Could
Marjorie be mean? Yes, sir. She could. And another thing, newly widowed 74-year-old Marjorie Nugent was loaded
with cash. She would kind of be a call it a blue blood. As much as $6 million. Some soaps and a little bubble
bath to soothe you in the tub? Bernie Tiede wasn't about to be turned away. Come in.
Oh, that would be my pleasure. I felt sorry for Marjorie. I really did. And soon, Marjorie and Bernie were seen
on the scene, the odd couple of Carthage. We'd go to the Cherokee Club. We would go to the Jalapeno Tree here in
Carthage. Yeah, they were they were a pair. And it wasn't long before Marjorie wanted more than a part-time dinner
date, and Bernie complied. She asked me to leave the funeral home. She just wanted more and more and more of me
around. She actually hired Bernie and paid him a salary. There's this notion out there that you were attracted to
Marjorie's money. Yes, um I'm aware of that. I That was not part of the deal. That was not part of my wanting to be
around Marjorie. There's members of Marjorie's family that tell a different story. Bernie Tiede is What? A
thief. Just 2 hours up the road in Dallas, These are some of our old family photos
of my grandmother. Three proud granddaughters Everything that has been said about her is not her. have a very
different take on just why Bernie was befriending Marjorie. He saw her as a mark.
>> [music] >> He stole her money. When he was about to be found out, he shot her and killed [music] her.
That's the real story. >> That is the real story. Is [music] this case about money?
Yes, it is. How so? I think that defines everything. The majestic gates swung open to a
kingdom of riches, and Bernie Tiede rolled right in. I think the fatal mistake my grandmother
made is she ended up buying a $30,000 headstone from Bernie Tiede. From that moment, he marked her.
Within months of meeting at her husband's funeral, Bernie was full-time at Marjorie Nugent's eye-popping home.
Helping her with anything that she needed help with. Make her coffee. Make sure she was up, she was all right.
>> [music] >> He was there He was there for her. They loved each other. >> Yeah, Bernie loves everybody. And I
think he's the one person in the world in that era who could feel that from Marge when no one else could. I never
thought of them as lovey-doveys. Never. Just just just together, just friends. I never saw them kiss.
You never did? Nope. And DA Danny Buck probably never would because there was something about Bernie
that made folks wonder back then. I'm a gay man, and it's hard [music] to be a a gay man
and being out in a small town. Did Marjorie know you were gay? We never discussed it. Never discussed?
>> No. So, what was the attraction? She's 42 years older than you. Right. He was
targeting wealthy women. Well, I think the attraction for Marjorie was uh the same as it was for
everybody else in town. He was just a a lovable guy. When you spend time with him, you want
to hang out with him. Less than a year after her husband's death, Bernie and Marjorie started
hanging out big-time, trading in the backroads for Broadway. We'd go up on Friday
morning and then come back on Sunday. Saw Broadway shows. We had a lot of fun together.
Bernie Tiede, the mortician who made about $24,000 a year, now had access to Marjorie Nugent's 10,000-sq-ft
mansion in Carthage, her checkbook, and a world of opportunity. They went on great adventures together. Now, wave hi.
Hello. They had a ball together. They traveled the world. We went to Washington, Baltimore, and
then took a a cruise down the East Coast. We went to Germany, England, Scotland, and Wales, to Egypt. I went to
the pyramids. We just went everywhere. Was she having a good time? She was having a great time.
He was her man-servant. Is it too busy? The guy hired to take care of her every need. Clipped her toenails, all the uh
nitty-gritty. And for Bernie, the perks kept piling up. Marjorie showered him with cash,
clothing, cars, even flying lessons and planes to go with it. And in turn, Bernie gave gifts to the
good people of Carthage. He provided money, he provided scholarships. Doing good. Doing a lot of
good in Carthage. Turns out he was generous with Mrs. Nugent's money. He was kind of the conduit to her
generosity, to her better angel. She spoiled me rotten. But the Nugents say their grandma never needed Bernie or
anyone to teach her kindness. My grandmother was a loving, sweet woman. And she was kind?
She was. She was kind and she loved telling stories. This is really eye-opening, guys, to
talk to you. This is really eye-opening. In '93, like we went there and she opened the
door and she hugged me and she kissed me like eight times. But whatever Marjorie's affection for her
granddaughters, the stakes were about to change. Marjorie Nugent filed a new will, leaving everything [music] to
Bernie and nothing to her family. Did you encourage her to do that? No, she brought that to me
one day and it was in 1991. Why would she do that? Well, I felt like she could felt like she could trust me, I guess.
It was on one of the next family visits to Carthage that the Nugent women got a hint of how deeply Bernie had moved into
their grandmother's life. Flash forward to 1994. We go to see her and she opens the door
and she goes, "I don't know who you are." And I go, "What do you mean you don't know who we are?" And she goes, "I don't
know who you are." She's like, "You need to leave." And we went in and there were pictures
of Bernie everywhere. And we said, "Who is this? You know, Nanny, who is this?" And she
said, "Well, he's my friend." And the thing that disturbed me was that all of the pictures of my grandfather
were gone. For Shanna, Alexandria, and Susan, Grandma Marjorie's new behavior was disturbing. She was like a
schoolgirl in love. And the motives of her new companion deeply suspect. We believe that my grandmother was in love
with Bernie and believed that he was in love with her. When was the last time you guys saw your grandmother alive?
That visit in '94. And now they worried that Bernie was well on the way to tricking Marjorie out
of millions. I think it's the perfect example of a sweetheart scam um that I have ever seen. My grandmother
believed he loved her. How do you know that? Cuz I saw her. But Bernie tells a different story,
claiming that after 5 years attending to Marjorie, the relationship had soured. And that even though he had his own
modest home, he felt trapped by Marjorie and wanted out. Bernie claims Marjorie's
24/7 demands had turned into an abusive relationship. She was very mean-spirited, very
abrupt with me, very um Could she be abusive? Yes, very much so. In some ways was was her place his gilded cage and
she closed the door on that cage? >> Yeah. >> [music] >> We were in a heated discussion about I I I told
her I said I just I've got to I can't do this anymore. And I said I can't be your
friend anymore. I just can't do this. Go ahead, desert me. She was very distraught. You can't leave me. You're
not going to leave me. No one has ever left me. I know you hate me. So I backed my car out of the garage and
by the time I got out there she had locked the gate on me. So I finally just I said, "Okay, I won't leave you. I
won't leave." Well, just park your car, jump over the gate, run, you know, whatever. But Bernie is not one built
for conflict. I think he takes it as his fate. I can't get away from this woman. The door's
right there, Bernie. But it's not as simple as that. People get trapped. [music] People get
trapped. No exit, [music] no way out. And at least according to Bernie, feeling like Marjorie Nugent's
[music] prisoner reminded him of the abuse he says he suffered as a boy. And in some ways did you feel trapped in
this relationship just as you had been trapped with your uncle? Yes. Yes, I did.
I [snorts] think he is a killer. I think he has no remorse. I don't believe a word that comes out of the man's mouth.
>> [cheering] [applause] >> Bernie Tiede claims it pains him to recall how controlling
and cantankerous Marjorie Nugent could be. I don't like the things that she did,
but I don't like talking about them either. Personally, I think he's pure evil. Let's move now to November 19th, 1996.
Tell me about that day and what from your perspective led to the tragedy. I had gone out to the house to make
coffee early, 7:30. [music] Got her up. That's enough of that, assistant. I don't want you to talk
about the shooting. >> This is attorney Jodi Cole. She would eventually become a big part
of Bernie Tiede's life. This is all public record. >> not want him to talk about the shooting.
And how his story would be told. >> That's enough. [music] Yet when we spoke with Bernie, Jodi Cole stopped him from
telling those grizzly details, hard facts everyone from Carthage to Hollywood now knows. Shot her in the back four
times. Shot her dead >> [music] >> with this .22 caliber rifle. The first bullet in her back makes her
paralyzed, so she falls straight down onto the concrete. He shoots her again. He then walks straight up to her body,
puts the nozzle to the gun to the back of her and shoots it two more times. Those graphic details would be missing
from the movie. I remember right before we shot that scene, I went up to Jack Black and I said, "Have you ever killed
anyone in a movie?" Like this. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the hardest scenes in the movie.
Marjorie? You see a scene like that in the script and you circle it in the calendar when you're going to shoot that
and you you think about it a lot. Marjorie, can you say something? Oh, no, no. No, no, no. Jesus, no. No, no. What
have I done? I'm sorry that that happened in my life. I caused the death of somebody that I
loved. Days turned into months as Bernie kept his awful secret. And Marjorie's family,
they began to wonder what had become of Grandma. I started asking my dad, "Have you heard from Nanny? I can't get her.
And, you know, maybe she's on another trip. She'll call you when she gets back." And the Nugent women, all busy
college students at the time, This was Christmas. It's my grandparents. admit there was a reluctance to reach out to
Grandma Marjorie. We had this strange encounter in 1994 where we didn't feel welcome. And every
Sunday he'd come sit right beside me and give me a full report on Marjorie. And what were you thinking to yourself?
>> I'm thinking you're lying. That's what I'm thinking. I just made up one thing
or another. You told one she had Alzheimer's, another she was in the hospital. This is a a difficult time. And Mama
would tell us what he had been saying. And and it's like, "Mama, are you crazy? He's either got her locked up in the
house, poisoning her, or he's already killed her." If I had gone to the police and then been proven wrong,
I would have been left out of Carthage because people thought so much of Bernie.
So, week after week, month after month passes, Marjorie's nowhere to be seen. 9 months.
9 months. It was August 18th, 1997. The Nugents had finally shared their concerns with the local sheriff.
I get a call from my dad. He and I drive down. >> [music] >> And it's clear that no one's been there
for a very long time. So, where was Marjorie Nugent? I wanted to check the freezer. My grandmother was a child of
the Depression, so you didn't waste food. >> Turned back up the hallway. So when
Alexandria and the sheriff's deputies got to the house, she knew exactly where she wanted to go. She walked down this
hallway. Alexandria knew that if her grandmother had left the house, she would have put everything she kept in
the refrigerator in a freezer located inside this pantry. She opened the door and there it was. It
was so quick. It was like I walked in and I said, "There's tape on the freezer." And this is freezer.
She untaped it and raised it up. And threw the lid open. And there was the top of Mrs. Nugent's
head. And I looked at my dad and I said, "They found her." And he just kind of did
this. And all I wanted at that moment was my mom. Do I regret the fact that I didn't rush
down there to stop him from doing this? Yes, because that's what you do when you
love someone and you find out that the person that they were in love with shot them four times in the back and you
think, "How could I have saved them?" While a motive remained unclear, there was zero mystery about the prime
suspect. Bernie's name was top of list. Bernie was easy to find. He was right in
Carthage, at home, when the sheriff's deputies showed up and brought him in for questioning. I was so relieved when
they came for me. Had arrested me. It felt like this big weight had been lifted off my shoulder.
How could you come to my house, eat my food, and sing hymns and my cousin over there in the deep freeze?
It's grim when, you know, you see an old lady on video being pulled out of a freezer. Those are images that stay with
you. And then I think it took 2 days to thaw her out and for them to do an autopsy.
Strange. Yes. That same day, Bernie Tiede confessed to Panola County Sheriff's deputies that he
murdered Marjorie Nugent. There wasn't a question in anybody's mind. Everybody knew. I think you're right.
>> Danny Buck Davidson would charge Bernie with first-degree premeditated murder
and seek the ultimate penalty. Life. Life in prison. Maximum sentence. And that's when this twisted Texas tale
really got strange. People in the community were coming in saying Bernie was a real good guy. If he killed her,
he had a reason for doing it. Poor Bernie. He had his groupies. Bernie had his groupies? Yep. Some
people are saying, "Hey, let him go." Some people are saying, "No, put him away for life."
You just have never seen a story [music] like this come across your desk, ever. And people still want to talk about it.
They're still mystified about [music] what really happened on that November afternoon that led Bernie to shoot her
four times. I stay in the garden with him. Bernie Tiede had preached and comforted
>> [music] >> and sang his way into this proud small town's everyday life. >> [singing]
>> He held a special place in the hearts of many people in Carthage, Texas. Some
folks even suggested Bernie was next door to the angels. And I said, "He's an angel, all right.
>> [snorts] >> He's an angel of death." Your job is a prosecutor. You got a man who's admitted he put four bullets in
the back of a little old lady. Put her in a freezer and kept spending her money while she was dead.
And you have a community saying, "Leave him alone." That's What would they say? Go easy on Bernie.
It happened so often, he asked for a change of venue, and he got one. The trial of Bernie
Tiede for murdering Nugent was moved 50 miles away. And in February of 1999, Danny Buck told his tale to a jury who
had [music] never heard about Bernie. I thought it was greed and betrayal. That's what I sold to the jury.
Bernie's defense was that he killed Marjorie in an act of passion, that her murder was not premeditated. I don't
know what happened that morning. The jury did not relate to him. They related to
me. The trial lasted less than a week. How long did it take this jury to make its
decision? I think it took them maybe 20 minutes to find him guilty. [music] Nine years after he met Marjorie Nugent
at her husband's funeral, Bernie was sentenced to life in prison. Which is the top max
sentence. And I felt pretty good about it. I deserve time. I've done a particularly horrible thing, the worst
thing in my life. Case closed, except for this. Richard Linklater couldn't get the tale of
Bernie Tiede out of his head. I ended up attending the trial and started thinking of this, that maybe
there's a movie here. Rick and Skip Hollingsworth wrote the Bernie screenplay and brought it to Jack
Black. >> [snorts] >> And he said, "Hey, I never told you about this thing that I've been obsessed
with, this story about this fellow Bernie Tiede." And so I said, "Let me read this thing."
Jack Black became so intrigued, he agreed to play the lead role. But not before he and Linklater paid a
visit to a Texas maximum security prison to try and understand just who Bernie Tiede really was. I wanted to come and
meet you. I still think it's important if uh if I want to play a real person, that I should meet you. I love to be
around people. I'm just a people person. Black wanted to know what made Bernie tick, right down to what he felt in the
days after he murdered Marjorie. Well, that must have been incredibly stressful.
That period when the walls were closing in. Yeah, no earthly idea. It was absolutely horrendous.
If you're playing a person and you have access to them, you got to go see them. It's just one of the rules of the game.
I'm very appreciative of them coming to meet me. And I have to stay here unless something changes. Oh, there's one man
in particular I can think of I'd sure like to talk to. The movie Bernie also featured Matthew McConaughey as Danny
Buck. Danny Buck's coming to get you first. Could you actually escort him out of
here, please? In April 2012, it premiered in Rick's hometown of Austin. Critics loved it. I KNOW
YOU HATE [screaming] ME. THIS idea that my grandmother was a monster is ludicrous. The Nugent family
thought it was beyond offensive. It was a complete lie. It was devastating to us. I mean, they
took the most awful part of our lives and just laughed about it and joked about it.
>> It's like he cast a spell over the entire area. And now, the Bernie Tiede story was about to take yet another
bizarre twist that began right at the movie premiere. A little feisty lady comes up to me and says,
"I bet there was some, you know, crazy stuff going on at the trial." She's appeals lawyer Jodi Cole, and
after watching the movie, she got a hunch that the trial of Bernie Tiede had been a miscarriage of justice. I want
the world to know that Bernie Tiede is a good person and that this outcome is unacceptable.
I said, "Look at that, he snaps." And so I thought, "Why did he get a life sentence?"
She asked Linklater if he had the transcripts from Tiede's 1999 murder trial. He came with his boxes of
transcripts. Put it on her desk and said, "I don't know. Have at it." Jodi poured
over the files, knowing that Bernie's life sentence hinged on Danny Buck's argument that the murder was
premeditated. And within a couple of weeks, she had come to see me. Is there a miracle that's about to occur? Yes,
and Jodi Cole did a lot of work toward that miracle happening. All right. Marjorie?
Marjorie, are you okay? That morning, [music] I felt like I wasn't a part of the shooting. 16 years after he shot
Marjorie Nugent dead, Bernie painted a picture for defense attorney Jodi Cole about how he felt [music] that awful
morning. I felt like I wasn't even there, and I have learned that that is called a dissociative episode. I think
it's a classic case of a kind of a disassociated moment. >> That's what this whole case hinges on.
A dissociative episode, the new age psychological term would break the case against Bernie Tiede wide open. When
they are overwhelmed with stress and emotion, they actually disassociate, which is leave their body.
And Bernie's body, the theory goes, killed Marjorie without his mind taking part. And he shot her?
>> Yes. Involuntarily. The Nugent family [music] would have their own take on Jodi's ideas. Not connected with
reality. Thoroughly confused. This woman had been abusing him for a very long time, and his body acted in a way to end
that abuse. Bernie also confided in Jodi what he says is his darkest secret about
that childhood sexual abuse he claims he suffered at the hands of that uncle. Jodi brought the findings to the DA, and
he was sold. >> What do you conclude in terms of why this murder occurred? The child abuse.
And the abusive relationship. I think that he did not plan on killing her. Danny Buck says if he had to do it all
over again, he would have sought a much lighter sentence. >> 20 years would have been the maximum
sentence. Not because Danny Buck want 20, it's what the law says. Danny Buck then went to bat for the
killer he had once helped convict. And on May 6th, 2014, Bernie Tiede's life sentence thrown out.
A new sentencing [music] trial is ordered, and Bernie is released from prison for the time being. Lots of
miracles have happened in my life. The next miracle was in the parking lot. Mr. Linklater picked me [music] up, and we
drove to Austin. The real-life Bernie Tiede just got out of an East Texas prison. Oh, this is Bernie's little
apartment. He lived down here. He put me up in his apartment at his home. In some ways, did Bernie become part of
the family? Yeah, very much. I mean, did you ever babysit your kids? Yeah. In Austin, Bernie went about creating a new
life, all on borrowed time. He joined the gay men's choir. >> In the time of King Herod, he became a
regular at Pastor Sid Hall's church. >> Our folks surrounded him like mother hens, just loving him.
He is definitely feeling the uh ecstasy of freedom. Well, my first thought is, how is this
happening? The Nugent granddaughters found it all beyond belief. Richard Linklater
conned. Richard Linklater is just as conned as my grandmother was. >> [laughter]
>> I think I'm pretty unconable. I think Danny Buck got enthralled with Hollywood. I'll say
that's BS. Before the sentencing trial, Danny Buck recused himself. He was replaced by two prosecutors
determined [music] to put Bernie Tiede back behind bars. >> This was just a straight-up execution. I
think he's conned Hollywood and he's conned the whole judicial system. Jane Starns and
Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner weren't buying it. >> [music] >> Bernie didn't have a dissociative
episode. This case is about abusing elderly vulnerable people. It's about abusing Marjorie Nugent
financially, and it's about just cold-blooded murder. What do we have in front of us here? We have just small
portions of the paper trail. Lisa Tanner would allege Bernie regularly forged Marjorie Nugent's signature. He was very
good at signing her signature. Manually manipulated her bank accounts. This is what he showed Marjorie,
>> [music] >> but this is what he We have 14 of these. Altered her brokerage statements. The original of
this document is literally a cut and pasted dummy'd up statement. All of this He's pocketing her money. Both while
Marjorie was alive and after Bernie had killed her and stuffed [music] her in her freezer. The numbers ended up being
approximately $3.8 million total. Bernie's motive for murder came into focus. He was about to be found out
about. In April 2016, after 2 years of freedom, Bernie Tiede's new sentencing [music] trial began. Is
the jury here and ready to go? It was moved to Henderson, Texas because Bernie still had so many friends and fans in
[music] Carthage. >> What began with the state, Ms. Tanner? Lisa Tanner put Bernie in her sights.
>> This is a real case with a real murderer. He did that. And Hollywood. >> going to talk about that in a
non-fictionalized, non-Hollywoodized kind of way. Hollywood means, you know, lack of
morality. Thank you, guys. But, I took that really personal cuz I don't live in Hollywood. I'm an indie Texas director.
Richard Linklater was called to the stand to defend his friend. I think he's an incredibly nice, generous man who,
you know, did a horrible thing. The director and those who loved Bernie argued he had paid his dues [music] with
time already served. 16 years? Yeah, I'd say he's served enough time. And Bernie's uncle, under oath, denied
ever having molested Bernie. You're saying never? Never. But, did admit writing him a letter
sexual in nature. Bernie did not testify at the trial. I mean, I just there there are just some questions that don't
have any answers. Two dramatic versions of Marjorie Nugent's murder have now been told. One
on the big screen, the other in a courtroom in Henderson, Texas. The question now is, who will the jurors
believe? Sudden passion, dissociative episode, snapping. When he took that gun and pointed it
down straight to the ground and put it in her back, that justified a life sentence then.
Bernie, are you a danger to society? [music] Not sir, not at all. The jury goes out to deliberate.
Alexandria, what's going through your mind? You know, at that moment, all you can do
is pray. On April 2nd, 2016, some 26 years after he met Marjorie Nugent, the jury once again sentenced
Bernie Tiede to 99 years in prison. For 99 years of life. Everyone in that courtroom knew
that my grandmother was not me. She did not deserve to die and that this man deserved to go away for the rest of his
life. When I heard 99 years, I mean, it was just it was devastating. Back in prison for life?
It's very discouraging. Now, what's as certain as his life sentence is this. Deep in the heart of Texas, Bernie Tiede
is loved. Even today, is there a Bernie [music] Tiede fan club in Carthage? Yes.
Not as big as it once was, but it's here. >> [music] [music] [music] >> It's like [music] ghosts.
You just see the ghosts of them everywhere. If you close your eyes, can you still
see it? All of it. The focus of the case is Michelle Renee. She was living with her her daughter,
Bria. They were living in a kind of a secluded house. Does it feel like 22 years?
Sometimes it does. Sometimes [music] it feels like a lifetime ago. Sometimes it feels like it was last week. I asked the
FBI to take Michelle back to the house to help reconstruct probably the most traumatic night of her life.
We came in the door, I put the groceries away, went in the kitchen. Michelle was a single mom. She was a
bank manager, somebody who worked hard to gain a job of position of trust and respect.
It had been such a long day and I was just excited to be home with Bria. We were on the couch. It was just the two
of us. I was sitting here. She was right beside me and we were playing Game Boy.
A group of individuals put Michelle under surveillance knowing she was a bank manager and they devised
a plan. And we just heard this huge the the sound, just the biggest >> [music] >> noise from behind us and we I turned to
look and just saw three people. They were all lined up one right after the other just rushing in, running in
the door >> [music] >> at like SWAT style and they had their guns and they were all in black.
And I just screamed super loud. My daughter screamed super loud. At that point, my daughter took off this way,
>> [music] >> but two of them came to me, put guns in my face. One guy grabbed me by the back of my
head, forced me down in front of the couch that was right here. They bind her up with duct tape. They put her
7-year-old on the ground and bind her up with duct tape and they tell them that if they don't cooperate, they're going
to be killed. They're going to be shot. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. They let me turn around and see my
daughter laying face down on the floor right here by the door. Um face down with her hands tied and her
feet tied. Um Right there on the ground. I heard my daughter say, "Are you going
to kill my mommy? And are you going to kill me?" And they said, "No, not if your mommy does everything that we tell
her [music] to do." They said, "You're going to rob the bank for us or we will kill you and your daughter
will be first." >> [music] [music] [music] >> The only monsters that had ever scared
Michelle Renee's 7-year-old daughter, Bria, were make-believe. But, on November 20th, 2000, just a day before
three masked men broke in. She just calls me, "Mom, there's somebody outside the window."
I looked out there. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anybody. So, I just brushed it off.
Michelle had chalked [music] it up to her child's imagination. But, this time was different. She saw them
looking through the window. They were there the night before. The same men now held Michelle and Bria
at gunpoint in the living room. The gunmen said they'd been following the 35-year-old bank manager for months.
It was very much that mind control thing that they were doing, that we know everything about you. Michelle would
recount the events inside the house for investigators. And we're going to be here all night with you to make sure you
know exactly what you're going to do or you will die. Throughout the night, the ringleader
gave specific instructions about how he wanted Michelle to rob her own bank the [music] next morning. We're going to go
over this again. This is what you're going to do. When Brinks gets there, you're going to get Brinks' money. As
she huddled with Bria on the couch, now duct-taped, Michelle could hear him talking to a woman on [music] a two-way
radio. Money one to money two, were there >> called each other? They called each
other money one to money two. Money one was the ringleader. Around 11:00, [music]
the voice on the walkie-talkie got his attention. Car coming up the driveway, the roommate's there. It was their
roommate, Kimbra. And they put the gun right here in her face, right up her nose, and said, "Don't make us use
this." I pushed the guy's hand out of her face and said, "Don't do this. Don't hurt
her." And he just pointed it right at me and said, "Don't ever touch me again." Michelle realized this might be the last
night she ever spent with her daughter. It was almost morning. He just rubbed her hair so she could try
to get some sleep. Wondering if that was going to be the last time I was going to get to touch
her hair and see her sleep was pretty tough. In the morning, the nightmare would
continue. It was like 6:00 a.m. He said, "Get up. It's time [music] to get ready for
work." >> I got dressed, started doing my hair when he came in and stopped me. And said, "We need to put the dynamite
on you now." Michelle, her roommate Kimbra, and Bria would all be strapped with dynamite. Then money one showed
Michelle what looked like a doorbell. This is a detonation device. [music] One false move, I push this button. You will
disintegrate. Your daughter will go first. And they sat me right here and said, "Now we're going to take your daughter."
The gunmen put Bria in her bedroom closet. I was just telling her I'd be right back.
And everything's going to be fine. "Be brave, Mommy." That was the last thing she said before I walked out to go
to the bank. Did you feel brave? No. As two of the gunmen stayed in the house, money one
handed Michelle a briefcase stuffed with a duffel bag before he crouched in the back of her Jeep.
With dynamite on her back and a gun [music] to her side, she drove to work. So you pull up into your spot. What does
he tell you before you get out of the car? Don't don't this up. And the Brinks truck came at 8:50? I believe right
around 8:50 was the drop right over here. That's when Michelle grabbed her briefcase and headed to the vault. I
brought my teller in the vault with me and said, "I'm getting ready to clear out this vault or
my daughter and I are going to die. This is what's happened all night." >> whispered to her, "I have dynamite on my
back." >> Yes. >> Yeah. I whispered I pulled my shirt up. And then you just opened up the duffel
bag and started shoveling in money. >> I did. My heart was racing. My Am I fast enough? Michelle's colleagues would
alert the authorities, but not before she walked out with [music] $360,000. Just get to the Jeep, hurl it in the
Jeep. And go. >> And just do what's next. Money one directed Michelle to get out a few
blocks later. And then I would find my Jeep down the street. She found her car and raced
[music] home. I don't know if Bria's going to be there. I don't know if she's going to be alive when I get there. And
I went to open the door and I was just screaming and hello, hello. It was eerily silent.
And I just heard Bria and I remember screaming, "We're back here. We're back here." Bria was still in the closet,
right where Michelle had left her. What was that like to hear and see her? Oh my gosh. She was alive. I did it. We
did it. We didn't die. Probably the happiest moment of my life, but then I could still see the panic on
her face. The dynamite's still on me. Before leaving, the gunmen had ripped the dynamite off of Kimbra and Bria. So
they cut it off of Michelle's back before [music] running to the nearest neighbor. I opened the gate, went down
the hill real fast, helped them up to the house. Rick Brown lived up a steep hill. I called 911 right away.
Sheriff, how may I help you? Yes, uh some neighbors of ours were held hostage. I need somebody out here right
away. Soon the place was crawling with investigators from the FBI, San Diego Sheriff's Department, and the bomb
squad. This is the dynamite that was taken off of um Michelle. San Diego prosecutor Tom Manning would
lead the task force investigating the case. They quickly [music] figured out the
dynamite was fake. They realized that it actually is two painted dowels or broomstick handles.
But as you can see from a distance and the lighting, plus it's on your back with the stress of the situation, you're
not going to take a chance that it isn't real. But during the very real 14 [music] hours they were held hostage,
Michelle had held on to any detail that might help identify the attackers. Remembering details [music] is just sort
of this part of my DNA about people. That was kind of my superpower. Details like money one's eyes. And when I turn
the light on to go to the bathroom cuz and I saw his eyes in there. I said I said that those eyes were at my desk.
Those eyes were at my desk today. Oh my god. Michelle says it was a man with whom she'd had an odd encounter at the
bank hours before being taken hostage. And he sat [music] at my desk for a really long time asking sort of the same
questions over and over. And then a woman walked in >> [music] >> and said, "Chris, we need to get going."
And they got up and left. The man had handed Michelle his business card. And the name on the business card was
Christopher [music] Butler. After hours of police questioning, Michelle and Bria were sent to a hotel.
Michelle called her brother Dave. It didn't sound like her. It was someone, you know, heavily traumatized.
Dave, who lived 3 hours away, rushed to his sister's aid. What I saw when I opened that door, it
scared the daylights out of me. "Are you okay?" And she would shake. How about Bria? Same thing.
In the days ahead, Michelle struggled to hold it together for her daughter. She was the strongest person for me.
While investigators wanted answers. They grilled her [music] about that odd encounter with Christopher Butler.
Why was he in the bank? What was he saying he was there for? He came in to say that he was a potential [music]
client and that he wanted to talk about investments. Before Butler handed Michelle his business card, a woman he
introduced as Lisa came in and whisked him away. "Hey Chris, we need to go." It was the same voice Michelle says she
heard later that night on the walkie-talkie. They kept saying it over and over. Check
my desk. Get that card. >> Get that card. I know that it's them. >> Through that card, they started the
investigation. The FBI soon discovered Butler was a convicted felon with a history of
robbing banks. They figured out where he was staying and then the team that I worked with set up surveillance.
Butler and his fiance, Lisa Ramirez, lived in a house just a few miles from the bank. Some of the people in the
house were telling the police who was there when they planned it. Within days, detectives identified the two other men,
Christopher Huggins, There was a big guy, maybe maybe 6' 4". He's a gang ties. And the man who'd held
a gun to little Bria, >> [music] >> a gang member called Bones. Real name, Robert Ortiz. Ortiz was a
connection who got the guns. On December 1st, they decided to arrest Butler and Ramirez during a traffic stop.
In the glove compartment was a weapon. It's a It's actually a BB gun. If you look at that in a stressful situation,
that looks as real as it can get. What they find when they popped the trunk? >> Plethora of evidence. All this.
>> All this. They found the the black bag that Michelle described the money being
carried in. Uh several pairs of black gloves and um a homemade ski mask. >> Oh yeah. Look at the eye holes there.
Yeah. Mhm. But they clearly cut themselves. Michelle's credit cards were all found in the trunk of the
vehicle. And then of course the money straps from the bank. Also in the trunk, that doorbell detonator.
And there was even more at the house. They found all the ingredients to make the fake bomb. There were broom handles
which were cut up into small dowels which actually were used in [music] making the the fake dynamite. They also
recovered the the actual spray cans. Ramirez's fingerprint was on one of those cans. It was crazy. I've
never seen that much physical evidence left at a crime scene. They They they'd gotten away with it.
>> Yeah. One thing investigators didn't find on Butler and Ramirez, any of the bank's
$360,000. But, after arresting Huggins that same day, they did recover 93,000 of the cash
that he'd stashed away. Huggins confessed and said that he'd already spent several grand on a trip to Vegas.
The fourth suspect, Robert Ortiz, was on the lam. When authorities arrested him 3 months
later in Wisconsin, Ortiz still had $32,000 of the bank's money and gave a full confession. Did Huggins and Ortiz's
confessions corroborate each other? Yes, very much so. >> So, did Huggins and Ortiz's confessions
corroborate what Michelle had told investigators? >> Yes. Almost identical. Butler denied
everything, even when confronted with direct evidence. His thumbprint on the fake dynamite
sticks. And we got fingerprints that are yours that link you to the bank robbery.
I didn't do anything. I wasn't involved with the bank robbery. He tried to protect Lisa.
Lisa wouldn't have been involved in that. But, Lisa was about to start talking. She admitted she was the female
voice on the walkie-talkie. I was trying to tell you She even took credit for the idea to use
fake dynamite and kidnap the bank manager. I honestly have no idea what that was about.
Eight months ago. Huh? Jokingly, mine. Lisa said they'd split the money three ways, but that her and Butler's share,
more than $100,000, had been stolen. >> [music] >> And to everyone's surprise, she said
Michelle was in on the plot. Everything that they had told me that what she was saying Lisa was talking
about. Walked out of that, um, thinking, "Okay, Lisa's Lisa's the mastermind behind all
this." And, um, is it possible Michelle's involved? Manning says ultimately he knew Michelle
was innocent. The first time I interviewed her, she had Bria with her. And I I I saw that bond and
relationship. And when she left, I went, "She's not involved in this." But, that
wouldn't be enough in court. San Diego County Sheriff's Detectives Rudy Zamora, Dale Martin, and Randy
DeMers would have to [music] rule Michelle out as a suspect. Every time we pushed a button, she would
react in a way a true victim should. They recreated the dynamite packs and strapped them on Kimbra, Michelle, and
Bria. She was very upset. And Michelle was emotional when asked to revisit the horrific
details of the kidnapping. And then they I had to put her in there, I think. Shut the
Shut the closet. She was shaken up. I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. When Michelle did those
reenactments, were her story, Kimbra's story, and Bria's story consistent? Yes, completely consistent.
>> In fact, investigators couldn't find any evidence Michelle was involved. Still,
they worried. She was not our normal victim. As they took a deep dive into Michelle's
life, what did they find out about Michelle's past? >> She didn't hide anything. Including the
fact that for years she had worked as a stripper. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed by any of
that. Michelle says it was one of the choices she had to make for survival at a young
age. I ran away at 15. I worked really, really hard to get to where I was. With no high school
diploma, she had climbed the corporate ladder all the way to regional vice president before taking the bank manager
job to be home more with Bria. And while you were working at the bank, you were still dancing, still stripping for a
while? >> for a while. The money was really great. But, more worrisome were things that
went directly to Michelle's credibility. She falsified resumes, claimed she had various experience, various education,
which she didn't have. Bounced a check, filed for bankruptcy. >> Right. It doesn't look good.
>> It doesn't look good. And if you're a defense attorney, you're licking your chops.
Oh, it was the best verdict I ever got in my life. By spring of 2001, the suspects were in
custody awaiting trial for kidnapping and bank robbery charges. But, Michelle and Bria were still reeling from that
night of terror. I could still hear them. I could still hear the the sounds. I couldn't get it to turn
off. I just wanted to hide. I thought they were going to find us. They were going to kill us still.
In June, Michelle decided to move Bria to Alaska to live with her grandmother. I was going to fly her up there
and get her to safety. I was going to figure out what to do from there. After a few days, Michelle says she had an
epiphany. To go back to San Diego and get rid of everything I could possibly get rid of
and drive back to Alaska. With a dog, Come here. some cash, can do this on a budget. and a camcorder, Today
is July the 6th. she embarked on a 9-day drive On my way, baby doll. to the last
frontier. You had a deadline. I had a deadline. Bria's birthday was in 9 days. And I promised her I'd be back before
her birthday party. That's when Michelle and Bria say they began to heal. Did you feel safe in
Alaska? Safer. I could be a kid again. Happy birthday to you. [singing] By the time they returned to San Diego a
year later for the trial, Michelle says she was ready. There was so much evidence, there was no
way I thought that this trial was going to be anything but slam dunk. Butler and Ramirez would be tried first.
When her case came across your desk, what did you think at first? She's guilty. You thought she's guilty?
>> Well, yeah. Herb Weston, who represented Lisa Ramirez, had a problem. His client
had confessed on camera. There was a female voice that came on the walkie-talkie.
I was trying to tell If they played that tape, saying that she wasn't involved would have been difficult. Weston
proposed a plea deal hoping to save Ramirez from a potential life sentence. But, the prosecution turned him down. We
thought we would definitely get state the key statements in that she was involved.
>> But, since Ramirez had also implicated Butler, the judge ruled her entire statement inadmissible.
>> [music] >> We now can at least argue to the jury that she wasn't involved. Without her
confession, the case against Ramirez relied almost entirely on Michelle. A fact Manning was keenly aware of
during his opening statement to the jury on June 3rd, 2002. Remi told the jury that this case was about credibility.
Right. Michelle's, uh, background was was going to be an issue. I knew there were issues, but I believed her. And you
thought the jury would believe her. >> Right. But, not if the defense had its way.
What was your strategy going into trial? My strategy was to beat the hell out of
the victim and show all these inconsistencies that the victim is saying. It got very
confrontational. I was really, really off. That played right into Weston's hand. Angry
witnesses don't come across as credible. I was treated like I was the criminal. During his cross-examination, Weston
implied Michelle was lying about recognizing Lisa Ramirez's voice on the walkie-talkie.
Wait a minute, ma'am. I've looked at all this stuff. Isn't this the first time you've said that? In fact, he pointed
out it wasn't in any of the FBI reports. But, Michelle insists she told them. I did. I 100% did. And Manning says she
identified Lisa's voice to him before taking the stand. Does it bother you that Lisa actually
admitted that that was her voice on the walkie-talkie? The fact is it was Lisa. >> But, that's not the issue. For me, it
made a great opening to attack her credibility. Weston then grilled Michelle about bait
money, the traceable bills banks keep in their vaults to trap bank robbers. You didn't take the bait.
>> Did not take the bait money. >> Why not? They said no funny money. You say that's suspicious, that she must
have been in on it. >> Correct. Maybe worst of all for Michelle, Weston questioned her maternal instincts. Would
a mother run to a place where her daughter was if she believes that I have a bomb on my back? She wasn't sure
whether her daughter was dead or alive. Don't you think it's possible that she wasn't thinking straight? Sure.
But, also what could be true is she knew there wasn't a a bomb and so she didn't have to worry about
it. Did you feel like you were on trial? I 100% felt like I was on trial. >> I would be sitting in the front row and
all I could think about was it's going to take me maybe 6 seconds to get from this point to the offender.
That is how I rate I was. >> Day after day listening to this. Listening to this.
>> Is it fair to beat up the victim? Absolutely. While Weston hammered on every decision Michelle made that day,
the attorney representing Butler went after everything else. What was the worst thing they asked you? About my sex
life. They were trying to paint me as somebody that was irresponsible, a selfish, terrible mother that would do
anything for money. And they picked apart Michelle's finances. She's in financial distress
and that could be the motive. Isn't it kind of odd that we're talking about motive when we're talking about a
victim? It is. The defense in the case was to make Michelle a culprit here. After Michelle's grueling
3-day testimony, it was Christopher Butler's turn. He protected Lisa on the stand claiming
Michelle was the mastermind and that they'd had an affair. I was shocked. It's almost laughable. What was his
story about how the two of you met? From what I understand we met at a grocery store and that I recruited him.
Butler claimed that he'd gone to Michelle's house that night with Huggins and Ortiz. He said that in the early
morning hours while smoking pot, Michelle brought up the bank robbery idea again and decided they should do it
that morning. His evidence of this, his proof of this? Zero. If any of this were
true, he would have thrown Michelle down in a heartbeat in his interview. The jury deliberated for 5 days before
finding Butler guilty of the bank robbery and Briane Kimbrough's kidnapping, but
they hung 9 to 3 on the charges of kidnapping Michelle. When we talked to the jurors, you know, we discovered it
was one juror who completely believed Butler and the other two jurors were unsure. And they found Lisa Ramirez not
guilty on all counts. Oh, it was the best verdict I ever got in my life. Mind-boggling. The fact that it was her
idea to do this to a mother and a child and laughing and proud of it. How involved do you think she was in this?
>> Very involved. The investigators kept saying she she was the brains of the outfit.
>> So the brains of the outfit walked. Right. The second trial would go very differently with Huggins and Ortiz
easily convicted. In so many of the stories that we tell the ending is the conviction.
But in your case, in a lot of ways that's just the beginning. All righty. Is it working? Yes.
If you close your eyes, can you still see it? Okay. All of it. I can still see all of it.
Even though the men who had terrorized [music] them were now serving multiple life sentences
Michelle and Bri would never be the same. There's aspects of that night that are
going to be with me for the rest of my life. They were treated for post-traumatic
stress disorder for over 2 years. They had their guns. Michelle says dealing with the break-in led to a breakthrough.
There was two choices. [music] Call them monsters and stay angry and blame everything in my life on them
or I can take this other road. >> [music] >> The best thing I could do for Bri is to
be an example. Enjoy the book. Michelle wrote a book which was made into a TV movie
and she and Bri went on speaking tours to discuss their experience with trauma. A lot of people coming out of this would
want to just forget about it, put it behind them, but you and your mom talked openly about it. Yes.
And I think it was the best decision for us. We're speaking out about [music] our
experience. I was showing people that it's not always the end all be all when something bad happens to you. You can
come out of it stronger. 1 2 3 4 And by 2011 she really turned the corner and started enjoying her life
again. The girl who had hidden from everything was a high school senior and competitive
cheerleader. She loved it. It was her absolute passion. You're thriving. You're living the
dream. You said you dreamed of this. You were living the dream. I was. Then suddenly
senior year in December I started feeling a little off. I was dropping things. Showed up at my work at
6:00 dragging her leg going Mommy, something's really wrong. Something's wrong. I don't know what's happening.
And I said Mom, I'm really scared. They had [music] no idea Bri was in for the fight of her life.
We rushed her to the hospital >> [snorts] >> and they started pricking [music] her
leg and she couldn't feel it. And her heart rate started going crazy. Oh my gosh.
By [music] 8:00 p.m. that night, I was paralyzed on my left side, couldn't talk, couldn't swallow, blind in my left
eye. We found abnormalities in the brain is all they could tell me that night. It almost sounds [music] like there's
that same feeling that you had of helplessness that you had the night that you were held hostage. Completely.
The next morning Bri was diagnosed with an acute onset of multiple sclerosis, an
autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own tissues. Based on the scans, she has tumefactive
MS which is not only rare in and of itself, but people Bri's age at 18 rarely get MS. [music]
Bri says she was told she might never walk or talk again. Just like that. >> Just like that.
My life just ended again. I was 18 trying to go off to college, do cheer in college
and that was never going to happen for me. So much of your healing had been talking
and now you couldn't talk. Now I couldn't talk. I couldn't feed myself anymore. She had
to relearn all of that. Up. Good. But it was as if they'd been training for this
for years. Do you think in some way what happened to you when you were 7 prepared you for
battling MS? >> Yes, I think it made me strong enough to go through what I went through with MS. It was here we
go again. Here we go again. Bri would spend 6 weeks in the hospital. Two to three times a day of physical
therapy occupational therapies speech therapy. After she could talk again she turned to me and said
kidnapping was a piece of cake compared to this. Do it again. And just as with the kidnapping, Bri
wanted [music] to inspire others. She wrote her college essay from her hospital room, from her wheelchair.
[music] It is my hope that my college experience And said I'm going to college. I'm going
to [music] be the first person in my family to graduate college no matter what. I now know that there is no time
to waste. Life can change so suddenly. She chronicled her journey on her Facebook page.
Bri, I I love you. She fought tooth and nail every [music] single day for every single step she
took. She walked out of the hospital. This time it was Michelle doing the cheerleading. Hi Bri.
The rehab started in the hospital, but the real rehab was Michelle. Constantly on her. We're going to do
this. It's okay. Good job. We were a total team. We just ended up going into full gear. We lived in a
house with stairs. >> Good. That was really good. She couldn't do stairs anymore.
So once again, you're out of a home that you've been living [music] in. Yeah, and
I had to become her full-time caregiver for about a year and a half, 2 years and
rebuilding our life again. Despite the odds 4 5 6 she made it to college. She relapsed three times her
first year in college and had to come home but she did it. >> She follows in her mom's footsteps.
Teaching her how to get her foot to stay on the line. And with the tenacity and the never give up philosophy that they
have. Lift your knee up. Ready? Go. [music] Bri is walking, talking proof. So they told you you never walk again?
Yeah, I would never walk again, never see again, never anything like that. And I would say I beat the odds.
>> [laughter] >> Yet again. Yes, exactly. But 20 years after their world first came [music]
crashing down they'd be faced with the unimaginable once again. Christopher Butler could be released.
>> It's been over 20 years. What stands out about this case in hindsight? [music]
The victims. From the very beginning, the case hit close to home for prosecutor Tom
Manning. The fact that there was a a little girl. My daughter was the same age as Brea
when this happened. Nearly 20 years later, in June 2020, Christopher Butler was up for parole.
He's the one who lied about me. Manning made sure he was at the hearing. And you had a plan going in.
I did. He saw a chance to set the record straight by asking Butler about the story he'd told on the stand.
I told Michelle if I felt it was right, I was going to go for it. What did you think about that?
Go for it. Ask away. Even though that's risky. It's a little risky. This guy could go to the grave with these lies.
The risk paid off. Butler recanted his whole story, admitting he and Michelle never had a relationship. How did that
feel to hear that? Mhm. It's about time. I wanted everybody who ever doubted me to read this parole transcript. I want
to blast it all over the internet. That there was never ever a chance that I would ever ever have been involved in
anything like this ever. Brea says >> [music] >> it's a bittersweet victory for her mom.
Feels good, but it's a little too late. You can search my mom's name and it can come up on the internet. You can't take
that back. Why has it taken [music] so long to come clean? And it's probably because he had
an opportunity to be free. Even [music] though Butler was unequivocal that Michelle was not
involved, >> he still hasn't really taken responsibility. He blamed his old flame,
Lisa Ramirez. But Butler said he was sorry for what he'd put his victims through, and even
said he'd read Michelle's book more than once. He said some of the passages in your
book really got to him. Yeah, on the road trip to Alaska, I really started to think about what it would be like to try
to just understand. Michelle says that's when she started to wonder about the people
behind the masks. This is someone's son. This is someone's brother. This is someone's grandson.
What happened to them in their life that got them to the point where they thought
the only option was to attack a mother and her daughter. Do you accept Christopher Butler's
apology? I do. Yeah, 1,000%. I appreciate him finally being honest after all [music] this time.
I hope he keeps digging deeper. Yeah, I forgave him a long time ago and I accept his apology.
But neither Brea nor Michelle want Butler released. He's already been denied parole twice.
The irony isn't lost on Dave. All he really did is free everybody else he's held hostage with his life.
In a very weird way, I could breathe, like an exhale finally after all this time.
While they don't believe Butler has changed his ways, they feel very differently about the
other two men who held them hostage. They confessed. [music] They take accountability for what they
did, and that's a big [music] thing. Are you actually rooting for these guys to succeed at this point?
>> Yes. Yes. They were younger than what I am now. If they are doing the work, I want
nothing but the best for them. Especially Robert Ortiz. At the sentencing, Robert Ortiz is the
only one that turned around and looked at me and said, "I'm sorry." >> [music] >> He mouthed it.
They wrote to Ortiz back in 2011 and received a reply 9 years later. Out of respect for him, I'm not going to
say everything that's in the letter. >> [snorts] >> I can say that it's beautiful, it's heartfelt, and I can't
wait to see where that leads. This is the young man who held a gun to your daughter's head. Yes.
And she spoke at his parole hearing. In his favor. There's my puppy. We're road-tripping.
In the meantime, Michelle has written a follow-up book So, we're on our way. about the road trip that changed her
point of view. Great morning. Really great morning. It is about healing. It's called 9 Days, which is how long I
was on the road to Alaska. It is possible to forgive. I do believe that through this terrible tragedy, it's
possible to see beauty again. That something beautiful was meant to come about. Alaska!
It has built [music] these people into these incredible human beings. And through it all, they say they
wouldn't change a thing. Even the kidnapping. So, if you look back at the last 20
years, >> [music] >> what is this journey been about? Raising a remarkable daughter.
It's the best thing I've ever done in my life. It's be her mom. [music] It seems like both of you look at this
at least a tiny bit as a gift. >> Mhm. Yeah. I wouldn't change it. It gave us a chance to build the bond
that we have today, and it's just gotten stronger. Yeah. >> [music] [music] >> I can only describe it as evil,
something horrible. From 48 Hours, this is Train to Kill: The Dog Trainer, The Heiress, and The Bodyguard.
>> He couldn't control his obsession. Who was the hunter and who was the hunted?
Follow and listen on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

48 Hours investigates cases involving money and greed. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Grapes of Wrath," "The Mortician, The Murder, The Movie" and "The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee."

00:00 Grapes of Wrath 42:04 The Mortician, The Murder, The Movie 01:24:03 The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Emad Tofighbakhsh is murdered by Robert Dahl over a financial dispute in Napa Valley's wine industry.

Key points

The Stakes of Wine and Money. The intertwining of money and wine leads to dangerous outcomes.
The Brewing Betrayal. Doll's brewery fails to produce beer, shocking his partners.
Dahl's Criminal Past. Dahl's history of theft and swindling comes to light.
The Shocking Murder. Emad Tofilis is shot dead by Robert Dahl during a settlement meeting.
The Dark Side of Bernie Tiede. Bernie Tiede's life is marked by tragedy and darkness from a young age. 'Things only got worse for Bernie.'
Bernie's Generosity or Manipulation?. Bernie showered Marjorie with gifts, but was it genuine affection or a calculated move? 'He was kind of the conduit to her generosity.'

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The money makes people crazy.

A stark warning about the effects of greed.

6:48WatchFeb 28, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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