Women Behind Bars - Season 4, Episode 3 - Til Death Do Us Part - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] hell have no fury like a woman's goal then start getting pissed off at him
so i just emptied both guns anymore they did really bad things to get drums i killed a man
i blew his face off if if if that's vivid enough for you cannibalism is not my choice
i was young i was beautiful i had the whole world in front of me the people here are miserable it's a
struggle in here every day i'm sitting on the death row how do you accept that i got my chance
and i blew it [Music] on this episode three women the prosecution was trying to present me
as a wife gone mad he was dead when i turned him over and i didn't want him to be dead i was the
getaway driver bob grabbed the bat mikey grabbed the knife their intimate confessions from behind bars i
found him bleeding from the head it just freaked out we just went in a downward spiral right back into the
drugs horrific crimes bob was stabbed to death inside the house this was a very brutal
killing from an enraged person [Music] [Applause] [Music] my name is belinda goff and i am an
innocent woman sitting in prison nestled deep in the ozarks are the small towns that make up carroll county
arkansas we are a step back in time in a good way as a region defined by deep-rooted faith
and southern hospitality it is also a hub for gospel music in 1989 stephen and belinda gough moved
here to pursue his dream of starting a gospel band a dream that would end in murder i just
started screaming because it was obvious he wasn't weak the early morning stillness of a summer
sunday was shattered as paramedics and police rushed to an apartment in green forest arkansas my husband the
man i loved the father of my children was laying on the floor bleeding from the head
there was no question that this man had been brutally killed thirty-two-year-old belinda goff told
police she woke up to find her husband murdered it was highly unlikely that she could
sleep through this brutal attack pieces of his skull and brain matter was bound as much as 12 feet from the body
it didn't take long before investigators zeroed in on the victim's wife belinda as their main suspect there was blood
found in the bathtub drone whoever killed this man took a shower and cleaned up although no
blood was found on belinda's clothing a polygraph indicated that she was not being truthful
oh no sir you are wrong i can't believe it there's no eyewitness there's nothing
that ties anybody directly to the homicide i'm not a violent person i'd never in a
million years would have dreamed i would have been charged for his murder belinda fagoth was raised in suburban
illinois in a strict but loving christian home i was quiet and really shy as a middle child i was usually the
peacemaker in high school a teen pregnancy derailed belinda's education at age 16 i gave birth to my daughter
bridget to support herself and her baby girl the single mom got her ged and worked factory and retail jobs then
she met steven goff the love of her life he was very charming he had a sideways sort of a smile that was very endearing
to me steve was a very charismatic guy some called him a people magnet steve was outgoing belinda was reserved kind
of the yang and yang i felt like my meeting him was ordained a three-month whirlwind courtship led to
marriage stephen and belinda had children from previous relationships and were eager to start a family of
their own after their son mark was born they set roots in arkansas where stephen pursued his lifelong dream
of starting a christian band my brother always had a passion for gospel music he was gifted and it soon became our
dream because i supported him in that but steven's life as a musician tempted him in ways that strained his
marriage stephen was a womanizer he wasn't the perfect husband in 1991 stephen performed in an ongoing
gospel show in nearby eureka springs and had an affair with a co-worker belinda who had just given birth to
another son threw her husband out only to take him back a month later we did counseling and decided we would
recommit to our own marriage that same year the gospel show closed and both stephen and belinda
took nine to five jobs at the local food factory where outgoing stephen made fast friends
he started drinking a lot him and his friends their relationship had a lot more struggles than either one
of them may have said to anybody before long gossip about her husband started getting back to belinda oh she
was extremely jealous she really wanted to control him very much belinda was checking up on him she
thought that there could be somebody else in the summer of 1993 belinda discovered
the rumors were true stephen was once again having an extramarital affair he was dating a woman my heart was just
broken the couple separated but stephen quickly returned to his wife and children
i wanted my sons to have their father and that's why i took him back my mother was very much in love with him
and she was she was going to make it work when the goths reunited in the spring of
1994 belinda says they were happy for a while we could laugh with each other and have fun with each
other steven was working on turning his life around he had quit drinking he had put
an emphasis on his family he loved being a dad he was really looking forward to getting
back with his kids but the marital bliss was short-lived as a series of random events gave belinda a
familiar sinking feeling we had been receiving a lot of hang-up phone calls where if myself
or my daughter answered they would hang up on the evening of june 11th 1994 all the goff children with the exception
of the three-year-old were sleeping over with friends with the place all to themselves
belinda planned a romantic dinner with her husband i had planned a dinner there was good
food just after the meal belinda says steven received a mysterious phone call and left their apartment it was a very
short phone call he said that he had to go he was going to go get some cigarettes
something didn't sound right with his voice and his demeanor when stephen had not returned by 10 30
belinda claims she went to bed i was disappointed we were having a good time the neighbors immediately above this
residence heard someone knock on the door from downstairs they heard a lot of banging
on the walls or ceiling the noises were so loud they were concerned about them waking their child
and after a moment things got quiet [Music] according to belinda when her alarm clock went off at 4
30 a.m she discovered her toddler in the bed and her husband dead in the living room
i found him laying on the floor bleeding from the head i just freaked out i started crying screaming
an ambulance rushed to the apartment within minutes when the paramedic got to the crime
scene mr goff's body was blocking the door the mt was able to just crack the door and hold it
open with some resistance to get mrs goff and the child out the position of stephen's corpse
wedged against the front door indicated that the killer could not have fled the crime scene
i had to physically move the body with the door as i entered the victim was laying on his back
where the door hinges to the wall the whole entire top of his head his skull was crushed police gathered
evidence that included two claw hammers from a closet and a drop of blood in the bathroom
drain investigators had already narrowed their sights on the grieving widow my first thought
was that the killer did not leave the apartment detectives asked belinda to submit to a polygraph
and the results indicated deception this says that you you hit me okay i do i did not hit my husband coming up
the evidence speaks for the dead it would make no sense for mr goff's blood to be in that terrain unless she had
killed him they prosecuted an innocent woman and later and he just said julie bob's
dead the words hit me harder than anything felt like i got shot in june 1994 stephen goff a 40-year-old
father and husband with a history of infidelity was found bludgeoned to death in his
living room the manner of the killing indicated such rage that the police quickly focused on
the victim's wife belinda as the primary suspect this was a very brutal killing from an enraged person eight to ten
blows on the top of his head they had already made their mind up it was i they had committed this crime
we tried to eliminate her as a suspect but we couldn't every piece of evidence had all come
back to her everybody was kind of hopeful that it wasn't her she always seemed to be
a good christian woman you know the prosecution took their time building a strong case against belinda
two years after stephen goff was found bludgeoned to death his wife went on trial for the murder
[Music] all the evidence we had at the time was circumstantial belinda maintained her innocence but the
prosecutors believed that the crime scene spoke volumes about the events of that night
and that no one else had the means the motive or the opportunity to kill stephen goff
she had rejected her plans for a romantic evening she suspected him of seeing another
woman at about 2am he came home an argument ensued over the suspected affair and he was hit from behind mr goff was
killed and the killer ms goff stood over him and continued to beat him but belinda maintains she
didn't know what happened to her husband he went somewhere he shouldn't have gone
and they followed him a puzzling element to the crime was the knock on the door heard by
neighbors the neighbors said that she heard some knocking on the front door why would steve knock on his own front
door at two o'clock in the morning when he had his keys to his house he didn't take the car and he didn't
take his keys and that's why he knocked on the door belinda and her defense team
argued that stephen goff was attacked in the living room while belinda and her toddler were deep asleep in the
bedroom witnesses testified that they heard a banging noise they said it was loud
enough they thought it was going to wake up their baby there's no way that uh she could have
slept through it my mother is a heavy sleeper there were times i had trouble waking her up belinda also claimed she
was still recovering from a hysterectomy and taking pain medication she was medicated and would have been
sleeping in a much deeper sleep than a normal person evidence from the bathroom added to the
prosecution's case against belinda the shower curtain in the bathroom was wet beads of water on the bottom of the
bathtub somebody had just taken a shower and when one of the detectives lifted the bathtub drainage trap
a bead of blood was running down one of his fingers liquid blood experts testified that the
trace of blood found in the drain did not belong to belinda or the children it was consistent with stephen goff's
blood although they could not prove it definitively it would make no sense for mr goff's
blood to be in that terrain unless she had killed him and cleaned up the defense said well maybe
cut himself shape far-fetched probably the prosecution's biggest argument however
was what paramedics and police noticed the minute they arrived at the crime scene
stephen goff's body blocked the doorway which in their view trapped the killer inside it was not
very wide of opening and i had to move the body even further to get through the location of the body the blood
splatter nobody left the residence that was our theory he was not blocking the door
my son and i went out the door the defense fought back by pointing out that no blood was found
on belinda or her clothing there was no way to beat someone to death with a blunt instrument and have no
blood as for the murder weapon the two hammers found in the apartment came up clean two hammers they were both
tested no dna no fingerprint no blood it could have been cleaned with bleach it could have been
cleaned with soap and water the theory regarding motive was easier to prove the prosecution was trying to present me
as a wife gone mad who just went over the brink i'm not a violent person people snap
people commit homicides that you wouldn't typically think would be a murderer a former friend of belinda's
anita bellafay provided damaging testimony melinda could get upset at the drop of a hat
especially if she thought you were crossing her she had kicked steven out of the house
he was having an affair and she said this will never happen again or i'll bash his head in like
and i was so shocked so it was a totally different belinda at no time did i ever have a
conversation with anita bellafay regarding anything let alone to threaten my husband
with beating his head in the defense countered that anita had incentive to lie because she owed belinda money she'd
help me out with the gas spill i don't know how that discredits me i wanted her so
badly to be innocent in fact others who knew belinda described her as peaceful she never
demonstrated any potential for that kind of rage the blending of i know is not capable of premeditated murder
belinda took the stand in her own defense but was unable to convince the jury she was innocent
i did not believe her story when she was on the stand her demeanor her defensiveness was very
damning she just acted like somebody guilty when i heard the word guilty my heart literally froze it shattered my
world when they said guilty that was some justice i never had a doubt about her ability to kill a man in
almost everything that they used to convict her there were other explanations i think the jury was impartial they
sized up this evidence and did their job i know they prosecuted an innocent woman
they will never admit they made a mistake in 2001 a judge granted belinda a new trial
based on the fact that her jury didn't hear testimony that could have pointed to a different killer
but the arkansas supreme court reversed that ruling and upheld her original conviction
belinda goff is currently incarcerated at the women's prison in wrightsville arkansas where she has
spent the last 15 years of a life sentence being in prison is not what the torture
is being torn from your children is uh torture my mother does not deserve to be where she is
stephen goff's family believes the rightful killer is locked up time has not healed their sense of loss
one of the things i miss the most about my brothers is laugh it's very difficult to relive his loss
and i don't think anybody would say that he deserved what he got coming up addiction leads to death
everybody is trying to help julie but there just comes a time when you have to let that person hit the
bottom mikey came stumbling towards my car screaming help me that he is covered in blood
[Music] bob was stabbed to death inside the house julie was involved in a home invasion that went horribly wrong
mikey came stumbling towards my car screaming help me help me covered in blood julie was
shooting heroin every day smoking a crack every night i don't think anybody was surprised that julie was involved my
name is julie ann sally's and i'm serving a five to ten year prison sentence it was after midnight on june 6 2010
when meredith a new hampshire village known for antique stores and upscale restaurants
became the backdrop for a violent killing the lakes region of new hampshire is an
idyllic spot dotted with villages that hearken back to the revolutionary war but even quaint new england has a dark
side here like in many american towns drug abuse is rampant there always seem to be
illegal use of drugs whether it's marijuana heroin crack cocaine julie sally's was a girl
from the right side of the tracks whose drug use landed her on the wrong side of the law
i was shooting up cocaine taking prescription pills selling drugs i was a mess julie was
going to doctors getting prescriptions you know she'd sell some she'd do some there was really never a time that julie
wasn't high raised in a loving home julie sally's lost her mother to cancer when she was nine years old having a
mother is what i missed i don't think that she has ever coped with losing her mother
i just stopped caring always had and i don't care i'll do whatever i want kind of attitude
julie got pregnant at 19 but managed to stay clean until her baby was born i remember
leaving the hospital with my daughter and just the feeling this wonderful feeling but her willpower
was no match for the addiction julie gravitated toward the wrong people i was just hanging out with
people that did drugs cocaine heroin pills when julie's father also died of cancer
it was a turning point when my father died things just kind of started to spin out of control once
drugs are in your life they take over and they consume your life i gave guardianship of my daughter to my
aunt i thought it would just be temporary as soon as i get my life straightened out
julie entered rehab but gave up after two weeks it got bad after that at her worst point
julie was shooting heroin every day smoking crack every night get high get more high get as high as
you can go to sleep and get up and do it all over again it was a desperate life she committed petty thefts in order to
get money for drugs she would steal things robbing cars writing bad checks even julie's family
and friends were targets it was hard to trust her leave her alone in your car she might go through your
pocketbook if she's in your house she might steal something worth value and sell it
my fax machine was gone my tv was gone i know how powerful that drug is you will steal from your own mother
inevitably her behavior caught up with her in 2004 julie was arrested for forging checks
she was sentenced to two years in jail i was 25 i was angry i didn't think that i
did enough to be there while serving time julie participated in a work release program there
she met a fellow inmate robert bob hart i knew he was in prison for for a robbery he was 17 years older than
me he was really polite sincere he'd opened doors for me despite the age difference
the two fell in love and moved in together once they were both released in 2006.
it was happy that first year and then we just kind of went in a downward spiral right back into the drugs after all the
lies and broken promises julie's relatives had given up on her you go from her to disappointed to mad
then like i want nothing to do with you family members become burnt out they feel like they're banging their head
against a wall everybody has tried to help julie but there just comes a time when
you have to let that person hit the bottom coming up a robbery ends in death i was guilty i
couldn't live with myself for what i did julie going to prison is a total blessing in disguise and
later he just started coming at me like a linebacker i shot him two more times and
then i took off out of the house after being released from prison for check forgery 26 year old julianne
sally's moved in with bob hart a convicted armed robber over the next four years strung out on
cocaine and heroin the couple committed petty crimes to support their drug habit
i did really bad things to get drugs it's like my mind wasn't even there on the night of june 5th 2010 julie's
drug fueled world came crashing down we had gotten some cocaine and mikey had showed up according to
julie 27 year old michael nukes was a friend of bob's who ran in the same drug circles mikey came in
and said i want to rob this guy he's got a ton of cocaine mikey just kept on telling us how easy it would be
and we decided that we would help him do the robbery bob started pulling out dark clothing items and face masks and
that's when it really changed changed over into how we're really going to do this
10 miles away 18 year old david rivera was sleeping soundly at midnight julie drove mikey and bob to
the town of meredith where they knew david was staying in an apartment the plan she says was to rob
david rivera of his cocaine stash and leave she parked the car and turned off the headlights
mikey's roll was supposed to be the lead guy and bob was his backup and i was the getaway driver bob grabbed
the bat mikey grabbed the knife they had put in their masks on and walked through the tree line down to the
house according to police once bob and michael were inside the home the situation escalated into a bloody
confrontation david rivera wakes up there's a man with a baseball bat and a mask on in his apartment there's
another man who comes in with a knife david struggles with both of those men eventually takes the knife
is able to stab michael robert hart is also stabbed after about 15 minutes or so i started
to get really concerned like what is going on and that's when mikey came stumbling towards my car screaming help
me help me he is covered in blood mike was injured badly with some several stab wounds she said
she could see the blood one in sheer panic and confusion julie drove mikey to the nearest help
a police station then went back to the crime scene to find bob i was thinking in my head i'll drop
mikey off to get help and i'll go back for bob she then returns to the apartment and
neighbors said she was driving up and down the street screaming that robert was inside
before long police pulled up and confronted a frantic julie at the scene of the incident she was
screaming that she couldn't find her boyfriend i was very uncooperative i mean i had
like psychotic behavior lashing out at the officers she was extremely volatile used extreme
profanity towards us detectives did not reveal to julie that a body had been found in the
apartment and that it was her boyfriend bob hart [Music] bob was stabbed inside the house and he
died that way julie was sent home not knowing what happened to bob but it wasn't long before a call from a
friend gave her the grave news and he just said julie bob's dead the words hit me harder than anything
felt like i got shot the crime made big headlines in the small towns of the area
i don't think anybody was surprised that julie was involved after bob was killed i knew i was going
to go back to prison i've never seen her so broken i mean she was devastated and i couldn't do
anything david rivera the intended victim escaped the scene with minor injuries michael nukes however spent several days
in the hospital recovering from his severe stab wounds soon after both michael and julie were indicted on
robbery charges julie decided that she wanted to come clean i was guilty i couldn't live with myself
for what i did and i figured to to speak the truth of what happened that night was the best way to to try to move on
julie pleaded guilty in december to cocaine and accomplished a burglary charges and
was sentenced to state prison michael nukes is currently awaiting trial he claims he did not plan the
robbery and that julie's version of the crime is untrue of course she's going to say that it was
mike's idea but we we strongly dispute that julie was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in the attempted
robbery of david rivera i'm just letting things take me to where they need to take me
trying to stay positive julie going to prison is a total blessing in disguise and i hope
that she starts getting some counseling for the stuff that she's been through there was some relief for the family
that she was off the street maybe get some help that she needs julie is learning to embrace life
without drugs it's not hard to get clean in prison you can't have drugs i definitely will be an addict for the
rest of my life but this has definitely triggered something inside me i truly do hope that she stays on this
path and cleans herself up i know that i'm a good person drugs really really mess up your mind they turn it to
mush i'd love to be with my daughter again i would like her to be proud of me someday i don't want her to be ashamed
of who her mother is coming up it began as a romantic rendezvous i just wanted a normal life to be with
somebody that i loved i thought leonard was that person and ended up a valentine's day murder
she didn't want to live without leonard and she was going to kill herself this story of cindy and leonard is like
a movie it's a story of money jealousy lust valentine's day you think of love in this case you have a murder she came
out from the bathroom and just shot him my name is cynthia tate villegas i was convicted of murder and i'm serving a
20-year sentence [Music] on valentine's day 2001 even a little town like alice texas had something to
fuss about roses were on special and candy and valentine's day cards sold out like hotcakes but for 37 year
old cynthia villegas cupid's arrow turned deadly and there was anything but love in the air at 11 am
a neighbor out for his morning walk noticed something out of place he had seen the vehicle parked what
appeared to be hidden is the way he described it with the sheriff's department they came to check
it out once police identified the owner of the truck deputies paid a visit to an address on county road 149.
they knocked on the door nobody answered but they didn't have a basis to enter the house later that afternoon
the wells county sheriff's deputies received a call that leonard villegas had been shot by his wife cynthia
9-1-1 what is your emergency it happened so fast he was dead when i turned him over and i
didn't want him to be dead when police returned to the house they discovered that cynthia villegas had
barricaded herself inside and was threatening to take her own life i just wanted to kill myself because i
just couldn't believe what had happened she didn't want to live without leonard being in her life and she had a gun in
her hand and she was scared very scared it took hours of negotiations but eventually cynthia villegas put the
gun down and came out there was a whole swat team and news crews everybody was outside when investigators
entered the home they found the body of cynthia's estranged husband 38 year old leonard
villegas he was lying dead in bed covered with a quilt there may have been some love between
them at times but it seemed like a love-hate mutually abusive relationship although the couple were newlyweds
everyone who knew them said their relationship was rocky he was very controlling
possessive he was a user and an abuser cynthia villegas refused to make a statement to police
soon after she was arrested and charged with murder born cynthia tate in 1963 viegas grew up a happy middle-class girl
in the small town of ricardo texas i was fortunate to have two parents at home we were a normal family growing up
had working parents we did what most families do at 16 cynthia was convinced she had found mr right we dated for two
years and then we got married by the time she was 22 cindy was a stay-at-home mom of two active boys
but she was feeling stifled in her marriage she was a den mother she was devoted to her kids
model citizen in 1999 cindy filed for divorce after 18 years of marriage she was free no longer forced to be a
dutiful housewife cindy made every effort to try and become her own woman she found herself for a little while and
she was very happy very involved with the family for the first time in years things were
coming up roses for cindy when she met leonard viegas through a friend the chemistry between the flush
divorcee and the handsome chemical plant worker was electric their relationship started off as a
loving relationship she was in love with him he was in love with her he was very attractive he was divorced
he and his first wife had four girls cindy was impressed that leonard appeared to be a doting father
my father was a dreamer he always had goals and ambitions and he couldn't wait to have grandchildren
it was always a bunch of adventures i guess with my dad around i just wanted a normal life to be with somebody that i
loved i thought leonard was that person when leonard wasn't being a dad he was busy romancing cindy at his ranch but
cindy soon realized that love had a price tag and she was about to get sticker shock
he wanted to start hay baling business so i bought a dodge pickup for him i bought
a john deere tractor hay baling equipment the money drain continued and before long she was paying leonard's
bills she bought him a tractor she bought him a truck she paid his child support if there was
something that he wanted that she didn't buy they fought he would throw his bits
until she would give in according to cindy leonard didn't just have expensive tastes and trouble with
money he had trouble holding his temper cindy was in an abusive relationship and not just physically
but also verbally mentally as the relationship between cindy and leonard deteriorated
the domestic violence increased the police had to be called there was instances where they both hit
each other you could tell she had been hit she had red marks but he had been hit too we would get in
arguments on the phone or if we did see each other we would argue and bite it just escalated
when cindy dug deeper into leonard's past she discovered that he had been violent with his first wife
there was an occasion where he held his ex-wife hostage the gun he had a gun pointed at us
my heart just dropped they never got back together after that coming up a last chance for love
ends in a brutal shooting i was still you know hopeful for reconciliation because i did love leonard
she didn't want to live without leonard she was going to kill herself in 1999 after she received a generous
divorce settlement 35 year old cynthia tate fell in love with leonard villegas although he worked at a chemical plant
leonard dreamed of turning his land into a profitable cattle ranch when cindy found herself footing the bill for
many of his ventures arguments about money turned into raging confrontations she was vindictive and that's wow
they had the problems with the money leonard villegas perhaps took advantage of her having
that money cindy had filed suit against him to retrieve some of what she had spent on him the
lawsuit was to be short-lived despite their volatile relationship cindy could not resist leonard for long
she made an impulsive decision and married him he sweet talked her into marrying him where he would not have to
give back or pay back anything i thought you know maybe we could make it work maybe if we moved out
of the area to a different place but their relationship had long ago become damaged beyond repair there were
numerous phone calls from cindy griping about leonard it's like why won't you just stay the hell away from
him after four contentious months of living together cindy declared that she and
leonard were finally through by january i've had enough i called my attorney and asked him to
meet me and that i was falling for divorce but cindy was still drawn to leonard and
continued to date him in secret because their quarrelsome relationship had polarized their families
cindy parked her truck in a neighbor's property because leonard's family didn't want her to be
with him they were going to have a rendezvous there at his house i was still hopeful for reconciliation because i did
love leonard when he came in from his chores cindy says they fell back into the same old
pattern we got into argument and i told him he was never going to change i was just
going to leave and just forget about everything according to cindy when she tried to leave
leonard lunged towards her he had taken my pistol from me some weeks before that and he had under
his pillow i thought he was going for the gun and i jumped up on the bed and grabbed the
pistol he started coming towards me and i panicked and i shot him in the shoulder
and he just looked at his shoulder and started coming at me like a linebacker and i shot him two more times and then i
took off out of the house cindy claims that she listened for signs of life but everything had gone eerily silent when
she re-entered the house it seemed like a bad dream i went back in and he had fallen on the bed i was freaking out he
was dead when i turned him over and i didn't want him to be dead [Music] it happened so fast instead of calling
9-1-1 cindy called her sister candy i could tell she was crying hysterical and she said i'm okay but i may not be
here when you get here i think she was contemplating taking her own life she loved leonard
leonard was no longer there alarmed candy clutched her car keys and shouted to her husband
to call police there was a red quilt that i put over him before my sister came in the house
i just didn't want her to see him according to candy when she got to the ranch cindy was in a
trance pacing compulsively with a gun in her hand i thought that i could just lunge and get the gun out of
her hand and then i thought you know that could go really south in a heartbeat i told cindy
we've got to get some help out here as deputies gathered at the scene cindy continued the standoff
i was just thinking a lot of crazy stuff at the time while news crews and swat teams stood by
candy and police negotiated after two hours cindy finally surrendered they took me in unmarked car to the
sheriff's department and my sister rode with me during her interrogation cindy failed to provide a motive or even
an account of what led to her husband's shooting when she didn't claim self-defense or
offer mitigating evidence she was promptly arrested and charged with leonard's murder
the prosecution's version is that cindy hit her vehicle snuck into the house hid in closet with
a pistol then he came home and laid down on the bed and she came out and shot him
while awaiting trial cindy was released on a 150 000 bond but within months cindy had a
new boyfriend and plans for a future that did not include prison she skipped bond and fled to mexico
she loaded her stuff in my dad's horse trailer and left she never called me from mexico i met
this guy and i got pregnant here i was waiting to go to trial he didn't want our child to be born into
all that kind of stuff so we decided that we were going to go to mexico when cindy failed to appear in court a
warrant was issued for her arrest i think she panicked buzz around town was that she was not going to win the
case u.s marshals with the help of mexican authorities were on the hunt in april 2002 cindy had a miscarriage
and a few weeks later after two months on the lamb the fugitive was apprehended as she went
about her daily routine they just pulled us over on the side of the road and they brought me back to
texas on may 25th 2002 cindy was extradited to texas considered a flight risk this time she
awaited trial behind bars my strategy was to portray leonard the way that he really was
as a violent person and a person who attacked her at trial cynthia's lawyer argued that she shot leonard in
self-defense to corroborate her claim cindy's attorney planned to use domestic violence reports
filed by leonard's first wife unfortunately the documents never materialized the
records mysteriously disappeared when cindy took the stand she detailed how she feared for her life
and even acted out for the jury the manner in which leonard pushed her and how she lunged for the pistol
she came across as someone who was going to get even and self-defense seemed to be contrived
the jury dismissed the self-defense claim as a desperate move by a desperate woman no one indicated
that she had ever mentioned she was attacked and had to defend herself against the attack by leonard there was
a motive of hurt not only because of the love that wasn't returned by mr villegas and the fact that uh he had
taken advantage of her and when she went to leonard's house she intended to kill him and
did exactly that when i heard the verdict it crushed me i really thought that that she would
she would get off on self-defense if she had gone to mexico she would have stood
a whole lot better chance of winning her case nine years later cynthia villegas still
can't wrap her head around what happened i still have nightmares about it i did love my husband
and i still do if i had to say one thing to women out there with domestic violence
don't keep going back on this point even leonard's daughters seem to agree it's not worth taking away somebody's
life and letting their children suffer and losing your life as well if i saw cindy i'd probably ask why she
didn't think how this would affect us my sisters and i lost our father but her children lost
their mother too after all this time that has passed i've learned to forgive her

Brief Summary

Three women share their stories of murder, addiction, and the justice system's impact on their lives.

Key points

Belinda Goff's Tragic Story. Belinda Goff, an innocent woman, sits in prison after being accused of her husband's murder.
The Brutal Murder of Stephen Goff. Stephen Goff was found bludgeoned to death, leading police to suspect his wife Belinda.
The Evidence Against Belinda. Circumstantial evidence led to Belinda being accused of her husband's murder despite her claims of innocence.
Belinda's Fight for Justice. Belinda maintains her innocence despite being convicted, claiming the evidence was circumstantial.
The Impact of Addiction. Julie Sally's life spiraled out of control due to addiction, leading to criminal behavior.
Julie's Downward Spiral. Julie's life takes a dark turn as she struggles with addiction and crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just started screaming because it was obvious he wasn't weak.

2:17WatchJan 12, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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