Cooper Maul (3:06)

Well, what do you got for us today, Jonathan?

Jonathan Hirsch (3:08)

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

Cooper Maul (3:27)

I love any story that makes me do that.

Jonathan Hirsch (3:29)

Yes. And I think by the end of this, it'll be interesting to hear how you feel like what you would do in the situation and what all of you would do as well. So let's go for it. Coming up after the break, the story of the Sugarland murders. So our story starts with the Whitakers. They're this upstanding, churchgoing family. They live in a brick house. They have community ties that run super deep, and they have these two boys that are on their way to adulthood.

Cooper Maul (4:09)

They're like a sitcom family.

Jonathan Hirsch (4:11)

Yeah. Kent is this successful professional, and Tricia is a devoted mother. He's. Yeah, they sort of sound like cookie cutter in a way. It's much more complicated than that, but at least it always is. And on the surface, though, you see this wonderful family. They have a likable younger son, Kevin, and then Bart, who's a little bit older, is on the verge of graduating from college and moving into adulthood. In their church, in their community, Kent is this sort of fixture. He's known to be gentle, full of faith. He talks oftentimes about forgiveness. He says that, like, when terrible things happen, people would come to him and ask for his advice, and he would often tell them about the values of trust, trust in God and having faith to get through the worst of times. And then what happens to him has to be something that would test even the most faithful of people. Ken actually wrote a book about this, and he talks in, like, very philosophical terms about what had happened to him. And, you know, he talks about how everything that he went on in his life sort of brought prayer, forgiveness, and faith and the winding roads of his life together and into the light, but not before experiencing considerable darkness along the way.

Cooper Maul (5:31)

To me, it's almost as if it's like everything that he's practiced and preached is now going to be tested, Right?

911 Operator (5:37)

Yeah.

Jonathan Hirsch (5:38)

It's like that point I was making earlier about this kind of being like a moral tale. There's an element to the story where it. Because of Kent's voice and his perspective, it just has this very strong philosophical bent. It almost blurs the lines between what happened and how he feels. At least when you read his book, it's really quite remarkable in that way. Okay, so this case begins in December of 2003. Bart, the oldest boy, has just told his parents that he finished his college exams and is finally graduating from Sam Houston University.

Cooper Maul (6:11)

And if anyone thinks it's weird to graduate in December, it's not. I graduated.

Jonathan Hirsch (6:16)

Did you really?

Cooper Maul (6:17)

Yes.

Jonathan Hirsch (6:17)

Okay.

Cooper Maul (6:17)

It's not always in the summer.

Jonathan Hirsch (6:18)

Yeah. And so he's very excited. His family is also very excited because they weren't ever sure if this would happen. He had had some ups and downs. So they quickly arrange a celebration that night at Papa Dough, which is like the seafood chain restaurant in South Texas. They bought him a Rolex watch.

Cooper Maul (6:37)

Dang.

Jonathan Hirsch (6:38)

And a cake to mark the milestone. So this was, like, a fun event for everybody around, and it must have

Cooper Maul (6:43)

been a huge deal for them. That's like. That's a big gift.

Jonathan Hirsch (6:48)

Yeah. Yeah. They're definitely a well to do family, but a Rolex is a Rolex, whoever's paying for it. So at the restaurant, Kevin is joking around. Tricia is said to have been beaming. Kent relaxes for the first time in a long time because they had had some rocky years. And look, I totally get that, like, as the dad of two boys, like, if one of your oldest son is about to graduate from college, like, you're like, oh, thank God. Okay, we made it.

Cooper Maul (7:18)

I was definitely the kid in my family of, like, is this gonna happen? Is she ever really gonna get it there? But, yeah, we did it. Yeah, it was a big deal.

Jonathan Hirsch (7:28)

You can imagine that sense of relief and comfort that the family felt now. Like, hindsight. Of course. Right?

Cooper Maul (7:33)

Yeah, absolutely.

Jonathan Hirsch (7:35)

So they pose with the cake, they smile. Bart gets the Rolex. They talk about the future. But what they don't really know is that the future is very short. So the family goes home, and this is like any other night. They walk up to the front door. There's no outside signs of danger anywhere. Tricia, the mom, walks up to the front door first. She's sort of leading the pack. She opens the door, and when she opens it, she's confronted by a masked man.

Witness/Neighbor (8:04)

Nightmare

Jonathan Hirsch (8:07)

fires a round straight into her, and she falls back and Then this individual proceeds to fire a single round into every one of the Whitakers that are there on the porch. And all of a sudden, in a matter of seconds, the entire family is mowed down and lying in a pool of blood.

Cooper Maul (8:27)

Yeah. What a turn.

Jonathan Hirsch (8:29)

It is shocking and terrifying. The shooter runs from the house directly after doing this out the backyard, jumps over the fence and disappears with a getaway driver into the night. But not everybody is dead from this attack. Kent is roughly still aware. He sort of raises his head. He sees his wife's blonde hair on the floor. And he also hears her coughing, sort of a wet cough. So he knows that her lungs are filling with blood. So she probably doesn't have a lot of time left. The neighbor heard the shots, rushes over and calls 91 1. The paramedics arrive. Kevin's dead on the scene.

911 Operator (9:19)

911. Someone has just shot another. Who's been shot? Trisha and Kit. Who shot them? We don't know. Someone in the mask. What kind of injuries do they have? I don't know. They just been shot. Hang on just a second. We've got them calling on another line. Sherlock. 911, state emergency. I've been shot. Who's been shot? It's my mom and my dad. My brother. Hold on one second, sir. Engine one, all, we have one subject right now. Apparently the whole family's been shot. Stand by. Is this Teresa or Kent? Bart. The son. Okay, Bart, where is your wound? In the arm. My shoulder. I think I can. Only my arm. Okay. Who else has been shot in the house with you? I can't see. Who else was in the house with you? We were walking in the house. My brother and my mom and my dad. Okay, I need you to hang on, Bart. I've got help on the way, okay? Do you know who shot you? No. Okay. Your neighbors were telling me that he had a mask on. Is that true? I think it's dark in here. Okay. Do you think he was burglizing your home or are you guys having problems with somebody? Oh, God, I don't know. How many shots did he fire? Bart? I don't know. Can you tell me anything about him at all? Did he sound black, white, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, maybe black? I don't know. I couldn't. Okay, when he left, Bart, did he leave out your back door? Yeah, I chased him that way. He let. You chased him out towards the back door? Yeah. Okay, Bart, where were you when he shot you? In the living room. Slow down. Okay, they're on the way. Where Are you in the house right now? I'm in the living room. You're in the living room. Okay. Do you see the officer's. Bart? Yeah. Okay, that's the officers coming in. I'm going to go ahead and disconnect with you. Okay? Okay. Thank you.

Jonathan Hirsch (11:07)

The mom dies at the hospital, and Kent and Bart are medevaced to the hospital and brought into surgery. Emergency surgery.

Cooper Maul (11:17)

That flight there must have been surreal.

Jonathan Hirsch (11:20)

It is. He talks about it. He's like having this wild moment of recollection of what had happened over the course of. Not like his life was flashing before his eyes, but he was remembering, like, these times that he had spent with his family when they had gone on this river rafting trip in Colorado.

Cooper Maul (11:39)

It was like a supercut of memories.

Jonathan Hirsch (11:41)

A supercut of memories is a perfect way to describe it. It's almost like cinematic the way he's, like, recalling his own life and you just. You feel for him in that moment. He has no idea what's going on. Yeah. And he starts praying and he says, father, you know, if it's my time to die, I'm ready. It's okay. But protect my family.

Cooper Maul (12:04)

Yeah. Because even though Kent and Bart are still alive, they're not totally in the clear, Right?

Jonathan Hirsch (12:09)

Yeah. And he's not in this moment understanding necessarily what is going on. But by the end of the night, the dust settles a bit. And what's clear is that two members of the Whitaker family are dead, two of them are alive, and there's no clear explanation for why their family would have been massacred.

Cooper Maul (12:30)

Yeah. Like, make it make sense.

Jonathan Hirsch (12:32)

So the lead investigator, Marshall Slott, said that that night when we got home from the church, we got the call of the quadruple shooting, and that just doesn't happen here in Sugarland.

Cooper Maul (12:43)

I don't even think I've heard the term quadruple shooting.

Jonathan Hirsch (12:46)

Yeah, that's a first for me, too.

Cooper Maul (12:47)

So in the initial investigation, what kind of questions are they asking? Like, what was the motive of these shooters? Were they trying to take stuff?

Jonathan Hirsch (12:54)

There's a lot to sort of sort through in something like this because there's the shooting, there's an active crime scene, and then there was what appeared to be a robbery. But when they start to look into it, that doesn't really make sense. Right. Like, the valuables weren't touched. So the place doesn't look ransacked.

Cooper Maul (13:13)

It looks staged.

Jonathan Hirsch (13:14)

It looks like it could have been staged. And the investigator sort of even alludes to that. He said in the master bedroom, the Drawers, an armoire. All the drawers had been open, but they were all sort of, like, at an equal distance.

Cooper Maul (13:27)

Weird.

Jonathan Hirsch (13:28)

Like he had pulled them out together, like, one after the other. Like it was set. Yeah. Like it was part of the job he had to do. Each one, none of the items of value inside the house had moved around. He said the electronics, the laptop, the jewelry. None of those items that are typically taken from a burglary were taken.

Cooper Maul (13:46)

Given that they, you know, got Barda Rolex, they probably had some really nice stuff in there.

Jonathan Hirsch (13:50)

Yeah, and they did. I mean, it was a nice house and a nice neighborhood. A place where things like this don't happen to a family, where you don't expect something like this to happen. I mean, people's heads were spinning.

Cooper Maul (14:01)

Yeah, I bet.

Jonathan Hirsch (14:03)

So if the shooter wasn't a robber, then what on earth did this man have against the family? That's sort of your next line of thinking, Right?

Cooper Maul (14:11)

And, like, given what you've told me, they're this, like, upstanding Christian family. They don't necessarily seem like the type who are, like, in bed with criminals or having affairs or anything like that. I mean, what do they think?

Jonathan Hirsch (14:22)

It can't possibly be personal. Right? I mean, that is something they need to look into. You never know. You just never know who might see you as a target, as sort of one of the morals of this story, I guess. But by all accounts, as they start to ask around, they're not seeing these people sort of in bed with criminals having affairs or, you know, stepping out or betraying each other in ways that would be super evident or would be, like, the foundation of a motive. So I guess at first, like, the investigators are kind of at a loss.

Cooper Maul (14:54)

Yeah, they don't have a lot to go off of.

Jonathan Hirsch (14:55)

Yeah. It seemed like every piece of evidence that we collected, we ran into dead ends left and right.

Cooper Maul (15:03)

So this all happened really fast. So to catch everybody up, this night began as a celebration for Bart's graduation and ended in bloodshed. The entire Whitaker family gunned down. Two of them have survived. Kent and Bart. So what's up with them right now?

Jonathan Hirsch (15:19)

So they're in the hospital. They're both going into surgery. Kent is barely holding on physically and emotionally. He's lost his wife, he's lost his youngest son, and his older son is wounded and in a hospital bed just down the way from him at the same hospital. And as a man of faith, you know, he, like, searches for meaning. You know, he's, like, telling himself, God must have left Bart alive for A reason maybe to rebuild, maybe to carry on the family in a way that he couldn't quite understand at the moment. So he started, his head starting to spin about trying to figure out how to make sense of what has happened to them without yet understanding or contemplating who precisely would have done this.

Cooper Maul (16:08)

You know, I'm not really a religious person, but something I've always really envied about people with faith is that in these moments that just feel so dark and heavy, that they have this sort of groundedness or this thing to kind of hold on to.

Jonathan Hirsch (16:22)

Right? Yeah. Like the impossible can happen to you, and you can find a way to make it make sense. And honestly, if you were to just imagine the impossible happening to you and your family, this seems like the thing that would be impossible.

Cooper Maul (16:37)

Oh, this would be my undoing.

Jonathan Hirsch (16:38)

Yeah, me too. Me too. I can't imagine what I would do in this situation or how I would even start to make. Try to make sense of it. It's really a remarkable kind of moral fortitude, you know, that Kent has in that moment. Okay, so the investigators are beginning to look into this. They're contacting all of the different people associated with the family. They contact the college where Bart was just graduating, and they discover something interesting. This is the first wrinkle. Bart hadn't been a student at Sam Houston University for years.

Cooper Maul (17:14)

So the whole party was just a sham.

Jonathan Hirsch (17:16)

It was entirely a pretense. You know, he's on academic probation since his freshman year and didn't complete the credits needed to graduate.

Cooper Maul (17:28)

So when the cops find this out.

Jonathan Hirsch (17:29)

Yeah.

Cooper Maul (17:30)

Did they tell Kent?

Kent Whitaker (17:31)

Yeah.

Jonathan Hirsch (17:32)

I mean, that's what they do. They go straight to Kent. They tell him what happened, and he's stunned and terrified. And not just that his son lied about this so completely, but that now the cops would be focusing on Bart instead of whoever really killed his family. You know, he says, what were you thinking? Like, you lied to us about being in school. You weren't even near graduating. How could you have done that? And in retrospect, he said, like, I must have been an idiot. How could I possibly have not seen this? But the truth is, we didn't know that there were lies.

Cooper Maul (18:12)

Well, yeah, And I think parents see their kids in a certain way, that it's almost incomprehensible that they'd be capable of doing something like this. I mean, I'll tell you. I mean, I. I lied to my own parents about being enrolled in college when I wasn't. Yeah, really. And it's one of those things where it was like I thought I would re enroll and get some credits and then did lie. Just kind of spiraled out of control.

Jonathan Hirsch (18:35)

So you just didn't tell them and, like, hoped that you would kind of figure it out. Is that what the.

Cooper Maul (18:39)

Yeah. And then two years went by of, you know, I'm in college where I was not, and I had a moment where I had to come clean to them. But these are these moments where, like, these little tiny things that you think you're just gonna get ahold of.

Jonathan Hirsch (18:51)

Right.

Cooper Maul (18:52)

The lies just buying you a little bit of time, can really spiral out of control. And I can. I can understand that. And you don't really know how to get back on track.

Jonathan Hirsch (19:00)

Yeah. See what I mean about the moral tale? Like, you can actually see it from different perspectives, too. Like, I can imagine the things that I kept from my parents as a young person, the things that I didn't feel like they would approve of or appreciate you. Like, you can both see how somebody would keep a lie like that, and it would get worse and worse. And in your case, too, like, kind of like snowball. And then as a parent, I can imagine Kent looking at that situation and removing the possibility that his son had anything to do with this from his mind, leaving it sort of in the furthest corner, because he would never want to imagine that his son had something to do with what had just happened.

Cooper Maul (19:43)

Yeah. I mean, our minds protect us from those types of thoughts.

Jonathan Hirsch (19:46)

They really do. And what would you do in that situation differently than to think, this couldn't possibly be my son? In fact, it's getting in the way.

Cooper Maul (19:56)

Yeah. And there's, like, investigation. What? The correlation between, oh, because you lied about college, you've done something else terrible is a little bit of a stretch.

Jonathan Hirsch (20:04)

Yeah. But from a homicide detective's perspective, they're looking at this family that's cookie cutter, everything's perfect, and he's the fly in

Cooper Maul (20:11)

the ointment sort of thing.

Jonathan Hirsch (20:12)

Exactly. So Kent wheels himself to Bart's hospital bed after he finds out what happens. Right. And confronts him about the college lie, worried that it's going to derail this investigation. Bart apologizes profusely. He says the work got so demanding. He was under so much pressure. He always intended to go back, but just could never really quite get it together. He didn't want to disappoint his parents. So all the things that we were just talking about. Right. Like, he didn't want to be in that situation. Yeah.

Cooper Maul (20:42)

There's a lot of shame there.

Jonathan Hirsch (20:43)

Right. So, yeah. Kent Gets it right. Like, Bart was afraid of failing and didn't want to accept it and didn't want to come forward with the truth. So as they're recovering from their surgeries, the father and son attend a joint funeral for Kent's wife, Bart's mom, his brother, their son, in the same church where Kevin's high school graduation had been celebrated.

Cooper Maul (21:12)

Not that long ago, another super cut in his head comes in, I'm sure,

Jonathan Hirsch (21:17)

And he describes it. He's sort of having these flashbacks moments where he's, like, remembering the good times. Right. While also having to very much be in this moment. Like, I would have fully disassociated if I were him. Yeah. It must have been a surreal experience to have to bury your family like that and then try to move on.

Cooper Maul (21:39)

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

Jonathan Hirsch (21:46)

Well, the case is, as far as Kent is concerned at this point, a little bit stalled out. They want answers about what had happened. And there does seem to be some questions about Bart and his involvement. But Kent also describes there were some open theories there that he felt weren't being explored. So he had questions at first about the Sugarland Police Department's investigation. So, for example, the night before the shooting, his youngest boy, Kevin, had this friend, a girl, who had come over near the house, like, in her truck, and they had sat in the car together, and she had sort of confessed to her feelings for Kevin, which Kevin did not reciprocate. And she was pretty upset about all of that, on top of the fact that she had a boyfriend at the time. So there was, like, a messy relationship situation that happened just the night before.

Cooper Maul (22:49)

I think we've all been rejected. Right? Like. Or at least I'm speaking for myself.

Jonathan Hirsch (22:52)

Oh, no, no, no. That's fair.

Cooper Maul (22:53)

But being denied, you know, a date or, you know, I don't love you anymore, a young girl, to me doesn't like, track that she's then in 24 hours, gonna go execute Kevin's whole family just because he doesn't want to date her.

Jonathan Hirsch (23:06)

Yeah. No, I mean, and there were some questions. Maybe the boyfriend of this girl might have had something to. And then the second sort of question mark is she shows up at the scene the next night.

Cooper Maul (23:18)

No, that's a bad look.

Jonathan Hirsch (23:19)

Without a car. So nobody really knew how she got there. So that was, like, one of the theories. But again, so circumstantial. It's just sort of like the kind of thing I can imagine in his Shoes you're thinking about and playing over in your mind when you're trying to find answers.

Cooper Maul (23:35)

Well, and you're probably grasping for anything to not make you think that it could have been your kid.

Jonathan Hirsch (23:41)

Right, Exactly. He's looking for any answer. And apparently there had been a shooting that had happened not far from their house that night, and there were some questions about whether or not this could be connected to that shooting. They were just trying to find answers. And I think he felt at first like maybe they were just too focused on Bart and not on what some of the other possibilities were, and he

Cooper Maul (24:06)

didn't want him to be, like, fall victim to any kind of tunnel vision.

Jonathan Hirsch (24:09)

Yeah. And victims, families go through, have to endure this kind of uncertainty during a homicide investigation because, you know, detectives can only tell the families so much. But then, like, if there are gaps in what appear to be the way that the investigation is being pushed forward, like, the stakes couldn't be higher for a family, like, wouldn't they want to actually get in the mix there and try to, you know, try to find answers? It. I can understand how frustrating that must have been.

Cooper Maul (24:44)

So none of these theories are sticking. All they really have to go off of is the Bart lie.

Jonathan Hirsch (24:49)

Right.

Cooper Maul (24:50)

And I'm sure they're imagining, if he's capable about lying about not graduating and being enrolled in school all this time, what else is he capable of lying about?

Jonathan Hirsch (24:59)

Right, Exactly. They're starting to look into that piece of it. And shortly afterward, they do get a tip, the police do, from a former roommate of Bart, Adam Hip. He walks into the police station and reports that Bart had tried to recruit him to help kill his family.

Cooper Maul (25:16)

All right.

Jonathan Hirsch (25:17)

Yep, we're there. Two years ago. So police detectives are definitely having some of their initial thoughts confirmed here about Bart's involvement in the shootings. He claimed that he'd briefly roomed with Bart at school and that Bart had made mention of having his family murdered all the way back in 2001.

Cooper Maul (25:45)

And what was in it for them?

Jonathan Hirsch (25:48)

The motive. I mean, the motive was that he expected to inherit a significant amount of money, roughly a million dollars. So Hip states that Bart even offered him a cut of the money. You know, like, this was a deal that they'd put together. He says, you know, I didn't know. I'm not proud of it. But for the simple fact that I was kind of interested to see how far he would take it.

Cooper Maul (26:13)

That's honest.

911 Operator (26:14)

Yeah.

Jonathan Hirsch (26:14)

I mean, that's a dangerous game of chicken you're playing there, my friend. But certainly you can imagine somebody approaches you with information like that. It's also kind of dangerous. Like, do you say no to this person? Are they going to hurt you?

Cooper Maul (26:30)

Exactly. I mean, you're realizing that your roommate is very, you know, not who you probably imagined he was, Right?

Kent Whitaker (26:35)

Yeah.

Jonathan Hirsch (26:36)

You've been unwittingly, like, roped into a criminal conspiracy at that point. So what do you say?

Cooper Maul (26:41)

Yeah, I don't know.

Jonathan Hirsch (26:42)

The plan fell apart, though, because another friend of theirs had heard about this plot and had, like, warned Bart's parents. Yeah.

Cooper Maul (26:51)

So they, they had some inkling that he was, you know, having maybe these are intrusive thoughts or something's going on with them where he's capable of at

Jonathan Hirsch (26:59)

least thinking about these things, ideating on the possibility. And I think Kent had dismissed some of those earlier situations as just teenage angst. Yeah, exactly. He didn't really connect the dots until much later, obviously.

Cooper Maul (27:14)

Well, the penny is definitely dropping now.

Jonathan Hirsch (27:17)

Okay, so detectives are digging into Bart's old roommate Adam and what he reported. And as they were doing that, they discovered this was not just like a one off comment, but a pattern of behavior. He had reached out to other roommates as early as December of 2000 to try to orchestrate some kind of ambush plot inside of the house similar to the one that happened. That was successful, except in this case, the home alarm went off when they were inside the house, and when the relatives approached, they didn't enter the house.

Cooper Maul (27:56)

So there's a version of this where it could have happened years before it did.

Jonathan Hirsch (27:59)

Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, it's so clear that this person had been planning this as they start to unravel and hear from different people, even planning this, for a long, a long time.

Cooper Maul (28:12)

You know, what I can't help to think about is like, how do you even tee this conversation up amongst friends? Like, hey, guys, we stand to make some serious money here.

Jonathan Hirsch (28:23)

Quick question for you.

Cooper Maul (28:23)

Yeah. Requires killing my whole family. I mean.

Jonathan Hirsch (28:27)

Yeah.

911 Operator (28:28)

How.

Cooper Maul (28:28)

How do you even begin?

Jonathan Hirsch (28:29)

Yeah. It's unfathomable, but it's definitely premeditated, you know, and you think about, like, how cases are adjudicated, right? Like, did a person commit a murder, first degree, second degree, third degree? Was it premeditated? Was there a plan? Was it willful? This has to be the most willful plan I've ever heard of in a murder case.

Cooper Maul (28:53)

Yeah. I mean, Bart is not a survivor here. He's the mastermind.

Jonathan Hirsch (28:57)

Yeah. And it was long in the works. It just fits and starts before he found the right way to do it.

Cooper Maul (29:03)

So crazy. So, I mean, the first couple of guys he approached about this, you know, weren't necessarily game, or some of them were, but it didn't work out.

Jonathan Hirsch (29:13)

Yeah.

Cooper Maul (29:14)

How did he pull it off this time?

Jonathan Hirsch (29:16)

So he had two friends who were willing to go along with him in this plan. Chris Brashear and Steven Champagne. Chris told the cops that Bart had wanted to make it look like a robbery. He asked them to shoot each of his relatives and him.

Cooper Maul (29:32)

So Chris was the shooter, and the other guy, Steve, I'm assuming, was the getaway driver. Did they talk to him too?

Jonathan Hirsch (29:37)

He did. And after the cops questioned him, Steve led them actually to a bag that had been dumped at a local lake, Lake Conroe. And it contained tools that they were able to verify as being tied to the crime.

Cooper Maul (29:50)

Chris and Steve essentially are confirming this was a conspiracy.

Jonathan Hirsch (29:53)

Yeah. That they had acted together as Bart's accomplices. So the shooter and the getaway driver are arrested. Did you see them leave Papa Dogs?

Witness/Neighbor (30:04)

Oh, yeah. So then I pretty much followed him home. They pulled in the driveway. I just kept going. Somewhere around the world, block behind, like, one block over. And then within a minute, Chris came walking, like, out to the car and got in the back seat. He said that Bart's brother had walked in first. And then Chris shot him. He said before he shot him, he thought he smiled. Then Chris shot his mom and then shot Bart's dad in the shoulder.

Cooper Maul (30:37)

So at this point, I'm assuming investigators are seeing the years long, you know, solicitation. Yeah. The graduation lie and the successful December ambush in 2003 as one continuous murder plot.

Jonathan Hirsch (30:51)

Yeah. And meanwhile, while all of this is sort of being sorted out by investigators, six months after the murder, the father and son are trying to have some kind of a normal life.

Cooper Maul (31:05)

Yeah. I don't really know how anything goes back to normal after that, but.

Jonathan Hirsch (31:08)

Right, but they're still sort of in their minds in this kind of grieving process. Right. He doesn't know much about what the cops are gathering in the case against Bart, and he doesn't really think that his son is a mastermind behind a criminal conspiracy to have his family slaughtered. It just doesn't even enter his consciousness that that would be what is going on. Then something does happen, though, that starts to open him up to the truth.

Cooper Maul (31:35)

Okay.

Jonathan Hirsch (31:37)

So one night, Bart is going out dancing with his girlfriend, and he never comes home.

Cooper Maul (31:43)

So he just leaves his dad high and dry in their time of need.

Jonathan Hirsch (31:48)

Yeah. Kent wakes up in the morning and discovers that $7,000 in cash is missing along with his son, and he has no idea where he is.

Cooper Maul (31:58)

This is getting interesting.

Jonathan Hirsch (32:00)

Yeah, I mean, that's when the tables kind of start to turn for him.

Cooper Maul (32:02)

He's probably putting the pieces together here.

Jonathan Hirsch (32:04)

Exactly. His son, who had troubles with the law in the past when he was younger, had had ups and downs along the way, had lied about graduating for college. Maybe he had something to do with this.

Cooper Maul (32:16)

Yeah, now he's missing. So cops are probably realizing they've got the right guy, right?

Jonathan Hirsch (32:21)

Yeah, they just let this culprit slipped through their fingers while they were developing the case. So the hunt is on.

Cooper Maul (32:28)

But when Bart disappeared, did he leave any sort of trace?

Jonathan Hirsch (32:30)

He did. He abandoned his SUV at an airport parking lot, and he crossed into Mexico. Disappeared into one of the small border towns.

Cooper Maul (32:39)

Classic.

Jonathan Hirsch (32:40)

He uses his cash and goes by a different name. They don't know this at the time.

Narrator/Producer (32:47)

Cerralvo, Mexico. It's a world away from Sugarland, Texas. And that's just fine with the American stranger who suddenly lands here looking for work and a new identity.

Jonathan Hirsch (32:59)

Before he abandoned his dad, he had done some planning for this life initiative. He is. And that's how Bart became somebody new who went by the name of Rudy Rios.

Cooper Maul (33:12)

How the hell did he get that name?

Jonathan Hirsch (33:14)

He had basically convinced a friend of his to let him steal his identity for a price as a coworker. The co worker agreed. So he picks up work at a furniture shop and charms the neighbors with stories about being wounded in combat. Which is how he explained his bullet wound.

Cooper Maul (33:33)

He's got a story for everything.

Jonathan Hirsch (33:35)

He told me his name was Rudy.

Narrator/Producer (33:37)

But their newfound friend is no Rudy at all. He's Bart Whitaker, prime suspect in the ambush of his entire family back in Texas.

Jonathan Hirsch (33:49)

For nearly a year, he's living in this town. He's seen as this, like, charismatic New American. And the Texas authorities are searching high and low for Bart Whitaker. So for nearly a year, he's living this life in a Mexican town. He's like the charismatic new American. And authorities are out there looking for Bart Whitaker.

Cooper Maul (34:19)

But he's Rudy Rios.

Jonathan Hirsch (34:20)

Exactly.

Cooper Maul (34:21)

When did the cops eventually zero in on the guy?

Jonathan Hirsch (34:24)

So the story does have an ending. They find him through the help of the guy who had originally let him borrow his name and identity. Rudy Rio. Yeah. He finds out about this warrant and the call for information that includes, you know, money, if anybody can help to, you know, advance the investigation. So.

Cooper Maul (34:48)

So Rudy cashed out twice off of Bart, but he advanced both the person being investigated.

Jonathan Hirsch (34:56)

Yeah.

Cooper Maul (34:56)

And the Investigators investigating him.

Kent Whitaker (34:59)

Yeah.

Jonathan Hirsch (34:59)

So it's the first time I've ever heard of a criminal conspiracy to kill your entire family. It's also the first time I've heard of somebody double dipping in this way on the front and the back end of the criminal conspiracy. He definitely is the one probably made out the best out of this whole story.

Cooper Maul (35:17)

And he leads them to Bart.

Jonathan Hirsch (35:19)

He does. And so the Mexican officials work with U.S. authorities to bring Bart back to Texas to face capital murder charges.

Cooper Maul (35:29)

And his dad.

Jonathan Hirsch (35:30)

Yeah. Coming up, investigators dig for answers, and devastating secrets surface. You know, it's sort of interesting to think about what was going on in Bart's mind at the time, because here's somebody who committed this heinous act who, in a way, is running from the authorities because he feels like they're zeroing in. But it also feels in an odd way, and maybe I'm just too wrapped up in Kent's own version of the story that he was running from his dad.

Cooper Maul (36:08)

Yeah. Like he couldn't face him.

Jonathan Hirsch (36:09)

His dad thoroughly believed that he wouldn't have been involved in this. Believes in forgiveness.

Cooper Maul (36:14)

And Bart is living it with him every single day. Probably think, look, every time he looks at him, he knows exactly what happened here.

Jonathan Hirsch (36:23)

Yeah. It's almost like. I can't imagine living with that. It's almost worse than living with the realities of what happened to you, is living with that kind of a lie.

Cooper Maul (36:31)

But he has no choice now because he's arriving back to Texas in shackles.

Jonathan Hirsch (36:35)

He's the mastermind of a massacre, and he's going to have to face justice. He's also, as you said, going to have to face his dad. So Bart is brought back to speak with his father, and he tells him, I accept full responsibility. This is all my fault. I did this from beginning to end. And this is where sort of drives at the heart of this being kind of a moral tale. Kent does something that I still can't imagine having the ability to do myself, which is he forgives Bart for what happened.

Cooper Maul (37:14)

I can't say I'm surprised by that based off what you've already told me about Kent. But what I can say is, I don't think I could do that.

Jonathan Hirsch (37:22)

Yeah, I don't know if I could do it either. So he said, like that first night in the hospital, I forgave everyone who was involved in this. It is a gift of God that allows me to do this. I think he gave me the gift so that when I found out that it was my son, it would be A legitimate forgiveness. Almost like God was sort of priming him to forgive his son for something that would be unforgivable.

Kent Whitaker (37:49)

That night, God met me in a hospital bed As I was wrestling with my faith, wondering why this had happened. He led me to a choice where I asked him to help me forgive the person, whoever it was.

Jonathan Hirsch (38:05)

You know, Cooper, when we've been talking about this case, I keep thinking back about my favorite novel when I was a teenager, which probably says a lot about me. It's Crime and Punishment.

Cooper Maul (38:14)

Yeah, it totally tracks.

Jonathan Hirsch (38:15)

Yeah. Dark Russian novel about murder and crime. Anyway, for those who haven't read it before, the main character is this guy Raskolnikov. He's this poor student at a university in St. Petersburg, and he develops this theory that superior individuals can transcend moral laws if the person deserves it. Basically, you can kill someone without feeling guilt or regret. You can kind of sit above morality and he commits the crime of murder, but then is consumed with guilt and regret and can't really transcend the human emotion that is associated with taking the life of another person. And in a way, I kind of feel like this story is the reverse of Crime and Punishment because it tells the story of someone who can forgive a willful, planned act of murder. And that's Kent, of course. And it just makes you think, because I don't know if I would be able to. To see past that. But it's very clear to Kent what his moral purpose is after he finds out that his son did this.

Cooper Maul (39:29)

Yeah. And I think when it's your own family, it really complicates it, Right?

Jonathan Hirsch (39:33)

Yeah. I mean, you got skin in the game. Like, there's a little bit of a bias when it's your kid.

Cooper Maul (39:38)

Definitely.

Jonathan Hirsch (39:40)

But I think what's sort of interesting, what kind of comes next for Kent is he understands the consequences that are at play. But what he does feel the state should make a determination about is the life of Bart. So he believes his son should accept responsibility and serve the appropriate prison sentence for that crime. But he doesn't believe that his son should be put to death.

Cooper Maul (40:11)

But this is Texas.

Jonathan Hirsch (40:12)

This is totally not the kind of place where you want to test that law.

Cooper Maul (40:16)

So in a way, Kent's, like, new mission here has become twofold. Like, he has to accept his son as guilty, but also fight to keep him alive.

Jonathan Hirsch (40:28)

Coming up, a capital murder trial and a shocking decision.

Cooper Maul (40:44)

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

Jonathan Hirsch (40:49)

Right.

Cooper Maul (40:50)

Bart has been brought back to Texas, and suddenly the story Is not about him like, running or being a fugitive anymore. It's a reckoning, essentially. He's here to face what he did, his dad and the state.

Jonathan Hirsch (41:05)

Right. Yeah. And so we're in, like, 2007 at this point. A few years after the crime, Bart goes on trial for capital murder in Fort Bend County. Chris and Steve, his accomplices, are also charged with their charge separately. So prosecutors lay out the full arc in the criminal trial. Right. Like the years of recruitment attempts, the faked graduation, the staged burglary, the coordinated shooting, and of course, the oddest gap year in history, Bart's flight to Mexico under an alias.

Cooper Maul (41:35)

Not a lot of reasonable doubt here.

911 Operator (41:37)

Yeah.

Jonathan Hirsch (41:37)

And this case is fascinating to sort of walk through the trial and everything leading up to it. The prosecutor, Fred Felkman, he said during the trial, there's this term they use in psycholingo. Psychobabble of sociopath. In other words, a person who knows he's doing something wrong but doesn't really care. The old time Texas thing was, he's a mean old son of a bitch. Okay. They knew what they were getting into, and they weren't about to mince words, regardless of the sort of nuanced moral territory that Kent was trafficking in.

Cooper Maul (42:15)

Yeah. Just because these certain principles apply to the church, they definitely don't apply to the court.

Jonathan Hirsch (42:22)

Exactly. And this other prosecutor was sort of saying, like, this is an act of betrayal. This is. It doesn't get any worse than this. The law has to be commensurate with the crime.

Cooper Maul (42:33)

Yeah. And I. You know, while I have a certain amount of respect for Ken's forgiveness and attitude through this, like, he's gotta know that a conviction at this level, like, is straight to the death penalty in Texas.

Jonathan Hirsch (42:47)

Yeah. And, I mean, he's up against a governor who historically has not been particularly keen on commuting these kinds of sentences. So after six days of testimony in the trial, including evidence from Steve, the physical items that were recovered from Lake Conroe, the record of Bart's lies, the jury deliberates for just a few hours.

Cooper Maul (43:11)

Yeah. Does not surprise me at all.

Jonathan Hirsch (43:13)

Yeah. I mean, they knew what they were up against. So they find Bart guilty of capital murder. And during the penalty phase, Bart actually took the stand, which is really interesting. He said, I'm 100% guilty for this. I put the plan in motion. If I had not done so, it would not have happened. I mean, nothing more unequivocal than that

Cooper Maul (43:38)

as a Captain Obvious statement.

Jonathan Hirsch (43:41)

Right. And so maybe he had hoped that that would provide some Degree of leniency in the sentence, the jury sentences him to death.

Cooper Maul (43:51)

So you had mentioned that his accomplices, Chris and Steve also had their own trials.

Jonathan Hirsch (43:55)

They did. And, you know, Bart received the death sentence. The men who helped him, they get very different deals. You know, Chris was the masked gunman who actually shot the family. He pleads guilty and is sentenced to life in prison with no execution date. And then there's Steve, the getaway driver. He receives a 15 year sentence, which sort of gives him a chance to one day walk free from all of this.

Cooper Maul (44:21)

I mean, you can't really help but notice that, like, three young men, like right at kind of the start of their life here.

Jonathan Hirsch (44:26)

Yeah.

Cooper Maul (44:27)

Made just awful decisions that took either their whole lives away or a lot of life away. I mean, just awful.

Jonathan Hirsch (44:35)

What a waste.

Cooper Maul (44:36)

Yeah.

Jonathan Hirsch (44:36)

You know, what a shame. And what a waste. So Kent testifies in the trial, but he also speaks publicly after the verdict comes down to let people know that he had forgiven Bart for the shootings and that he was very much opposed to the death sentence ruling. And he was sort of saying that, like, he's the only surviving member of his family and that would just multiply the loss.

Kent Whitaker (45:05)

He's the last living member of my family. And if this execution proceeds, it's going to mean that the state of Texas is going to take him from us in a way that nobody wants.

Jonathan Hirsch (45:20)

So on the one hand, the criminal justice system is there to sort of make sure that the punishment and the crime match each other. Right. But we're also supposed to be doing this on behalf of the victim's families. And here's a very unique situation in which the victim is both a survivor

Cooper Maul (45:39)

and a loved one.

Jonathan Hirsch (45:40)

Yeah, a loved one and an advocate for the person on trial. So it puts the state and Kent in a tricky situation.

Cooper Maul (45:53)

You know, no kidding.

Jonathan Hirsch (45:55)

He spends the next decade traveling around writing, appealing to anyone, honestly who will listen to him, that the state has to seek mercy for his son, not just vengeance.

Cooper Maul (46:14)

And this is the decade that would have been Kent's, like, empty nest. Golden years with his wife being spent advocating for his murderous son.

Jonathan Hirsch (46:21)

The entire trajectory of his life becomes defined by this event. Appeal after appeal fails. And then finally, the time has come.

Cooper Maul (46:32)

Right.

Jonathan Hirsch (46:33)

Early 2018. Now breaking tonight, we are less than one hour out from Bart Whitaker's scheduled execution. Whitaker will be put to death tonight

Cooper Maul (46:42)

at 6 o' clock for the murders of his mother and brother unless Governor Greg Abbott decides to side with the state parole board's recommendation to spare Whitaker's Life.

Kent Whitaker (46:52)

Still no word from Governor Greg Abbott's office as to whether he will accept the parole board's recommendation. Prison officials say until they are absolutely certain they have heard the final word from the governor's office or the Texas Attorney General's office as to whether there are any last minute appeals out there, they will not move forward with this execution. Even though it is scheduled for 6pm

Jonathan Hirsch (47:14)

Bart has an execution date. And the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has never commuted a death sentence before.

Cooper Maul (47:24)

Yeah, why would Bart be any different?

Jonathan Hirsch (47:26)

But in February 2018, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously recommends commuting Bart's sentence to life without parole, citing, among other things, Kent's plea and the fact that the trigger man was not sentenced to death. So why would the leader in the conspiracy be okay?

Cooper Maul (47:51)

Ken must be so relieved.

Jonathan Hirsch (47:53)

Well, the recommendations are only advisory. So the governor has to step in and say, hey, don't take this man's life. So the process carries on. Right. The day of the execution arrives. Bart is moved to the death chamber. He's served his last meal. He's strapped onto the gurney. He says goodbye to Kent.

Cooper Maul (48:16)

The governor is like really making them sweat here.

Jonathan Hirsch (48:18)

It's down to the wire. There's 40 minutes before the scheduled lethal injection when Kent receives a phone call. Abbott is granting clemency, commuting Bart's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the first ever motion like that from the governor, this is.

Kent Whitaker (48:42)

This is Texas. This doesn't happen. And I'm just so encouraged that the system has worked. This was the right thing. This was the right thing to do. And I'm grateful to the pardons parole board for recognizing that there was truth here that was kind of hidden away through the legal process.

Jonathan Hirsch (49:12)

And it's fascinating. Right? Like, not everybody agrees with this.

911 Operator (49:16)

I'd like to see the execution go ahead. And that's saying a lot for someone who opposes the death penalty.

Cooper Maul (49:22)

Yeah, I mean, there's going to be strongly held opinions about this.

Jonathan Hirsch (49:27)

So when Governor Greg Abbott stepped in

Kent Whitaker (49:29)

to commute that sentence, Vasik says that concerned him to then just toss that aside and say even though the jury heard the evidence and said this is what ought to happen, I don't know how it can not diminish the role of the jury. He hasn't gotten any trouble. Unfathomable that they're claiming that he can't change. If that were the case, then every religion on earth would be a waste of time.

Jonathan Hirsch (49:58)

Yeah. I'm curious what all of Y' all think when you hear this story, like, do you believe that justice was served here? Would you have done the same thing as Kent? There's so many questions.

Cooper Maul (50:07)

Well, yeah, and this is a very hot topic of debate is the death penalty.

Jonathan Hirsch (50:11)

Yes. So Bart leaves death row for this maximum security unit, and he begins to serve his life without parole. He starts to study. He's writing a lot. He continues to express remorse. He was a very messed up young man, he says, and deserves punishment that's self aware.

Kent Whitaker (50:31)

When he told me that he had forgiven the shooter, I was shouting inside, well, what if that. What if that's my fault? And, of course, I didn't have the courage to say anything at the time.

Jonathan Hirsch (50:41)

Yeah. And Kent continues to visit his son and speak publicly about, you know, forgiveness and all of that. And he's, you know, says that, like, arguing for sparing Bart's life is a better reflection of his and Trisha's values than the execution ever would have been.

Cooper Maul (50:59)

Hmm, interesting point.

Jonathan Hirsch (51:00)

So Kent goes on to write a book about this, which we've been talking about before, Murder by Family. It's an incredible read, and I would encourage all of y' all to take a look at it. Something that's sort of funny about Kent is, like, in the book, he's also weaving in all of these biblical stories and metaphors. And one of them that sort of stuck out to me, that seemed to be, like, resonant for him was the story of Absalom. Absalom was the son of the king of the David in the Bible, and he had apparently, like, organized a rebellion against his father, but he, like, failed and ultimately died. And in a way, Kent saw his son as this sort of rebellious figure who was, like, misguided in his rebellion. And so it just, like, reinforces, as you're reading and hearing about this, that Kent is kind of this armchair philosopher of his own life. And, you know, quite thoughtful.

Cooper Maul (52:01)

Yeah. And able to make meaning from everything.

Jonathan Hirsch (52:03)

And so, like, looking at this story, you know, the last image of this is not the sort of cruel justice that comes with the lethal injection of Bart, but it's actually the story of a father and son finding a way to restore their own relationship and life while their son lives a life of repentance for what. What he had done.

Cooper Maul (52:31)

Yeah. You were not kidding about this one. Being a thinker.

Jonathan Hirsch (52:35)

I mean, what would you do? Would you be able to forgive someone you loved? A sibling?

Cooper Maul (52:42)

I waver back and forth throughout this whole entire time. Right. I think the family piece really does complicate it for me.

911 Operator (52:49)

Right.

Jonathan Hirsch (52:50)

It kind of reminds me of some of the cases where you see family inserting themselves. I mean, most recently, I think there were a lot of questions about Gabby Petito just sort of came to mind and how the, you know, for those who aren't familiar, I think most of y' all who are listening to this probably know about the Gabby Petito case. A girl goes missing, her boyfriend ends up being sort of viewed as the potential assailant and his parents come in

Cooper Maul (53:19)

and really protect him.

911 Operator (53:21)

Yeah.

Cooper Maul (53:21)

And then there's not a good look,

Jonathan Hirsch (53:22)

evidence of them communicating with one another before, you know, she, you know, during the time that she disappears. And you have to imagine that, you know, the love for a child is so strong, love for your family is so strong that you would do anything to protect that, even if it goes against the grain of your own instincts. And in this case, I feel like Kent's love for his son is so strong that his own, that and his own moral sense sort of lifted him above the ideas of the sort of human world of crime and punishment.

Narrator/Producer (54:08)

Thanks so much for joining us on Crime Scene. This show is a production of Sony Podcasts and the binge. Thank you to everyone who makes this

Cooper Maul (54:15)

show happen happen each week.

Narrator/Producer (54:17)

Also, we love journalism. These stories are deeply informed by the reporting that has brought these cases to light. We stand on the shoulders of giants. To learn more about our sourcing, check out the extensive bibliography listed in our show notes. Be sure to like subscribe and follow wherever you watch or listen. You can get exclusive content from us and over 50 jaw dropping true crime series Ready to binge? Binge ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge on Apple podcasts or go to getthebinge.com to explore all the true crime stories included in your subscription. And now before you leave us, Jonathan sat down with Lyndall Marks from Killer Story, our new series on the binge to talk about her career as a journalist and how she used one of the worst moments in her life to affect real change and to solve a crime. We're going to play a little sneak peek from that conversation here. You can hear the entire conversation by subscribing to the binge on Apple podcasts or Patreon or go to getthebinge.com to access over 60 jaw dropping true crime series ad free right now.

Lyndall Marks (55:23)

And I have to say that when I heard the podcast, when I listened to the podcast and I heard my friend from university, Annie, describing what she saw, I'VE never spoken to her about it. And then you guys interviewed her, and she described what happened when she walked into the room. I remember seeing her face and the sort of initial shock on her face when she saw me. But I hearing the words come out of her mouth about how I was just swollen and bloodied, and my eyes were, like, black and blue. And that was tough. That was tough to listen to. And that made me quite emotional just to listen to that and actually to know that my girls were listening to that. So that was hard. But I'm grateful to be able to tell this story because I really want to empower other women not to fall into being a victim, that you can rise above it. And, you know, for me, the great pleasure is telling stories of other victims. The reason I didn't come forward earlier to tell this story is because for me, you know, this was a story. This was just a, you know, a story that I did at the time. But I, very quietly, independently, without telling anybody at A Current Affair, without telling anybody that I was interviewing for the Sabrina story, that I had been a victim.

Jonathan Hirsch (56:53)

Right.

Lyndall Marks (56:54)

I never told anyone because I was doing my job as a journalist. But deep down, I knew that what was driving me to want to tell her story was this pure instinct, this gut feeling. Something has happened to her. Something is wrong. And I beg other people to really trust yourself, advocate for those feelings you have. Because I had lawyers saying, don't you dare tell this story. You know, we'll get sued. Which they would have if Preston hadn't been convicted.

Jonathan Hirsch (57:28)

If you didn't.

Lyndall Marks (57:30)

Yeah, if I was wrong. And, you know, I had the lawyer saying to me, you better be right about your effects, little marks. And I'm like, yes. Shit. It was scary. It was a scary time. But I just. Jonathan, I just felt deep inside this is. Something has happened to this girl.

Cooper Maul (57:48)

Yeah.

Lyndall Marks (57:49)

Is it. Is it a victim feeling for another victim? Is it just empathy? Is it wanting to find closure for other victims, which in this case was the family. They're victims. But I think you just develop this empathy as a victim that you can actually go on, rise above it and do a lot of good and tell those stories.