After the First 48 S10 E03
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FunTranscript
00:00The following program documents a real homicide case.
00:09The investigation, the pursuit of justice, and the lasting impact on the loved ones left
00:14behind.
00:15The victim was sitting in the back seat.
00:21The bullet hit him in the back of the head.
00:23Man, your friend got killed today, and we want to go find the person that did it.
00:28I never intended for none of this to be like that.
00:31Blaine deserved this.
00:33Everybody was shocked by this murder.
00:34He had such a great heart.
00:36The relationship that Blaine had with people in the neighborhood was motivating them to
00:40help us find his killer.
00:42He is going to be northbound on Memorial from 27.
00:44As soon as the police lights come on behind him, he runs.
00:47Where'd he at?
00:48Where'd he go?
00:49He was acting all crazy, you know, just drunk, wild.
00:52He told me that he'd gone.
00:55What does that mean to you?
00:58That Shane's friend did not want to testify.
01:00If she refuses, we're going to have a real tough time making our case.
01:03That really could put the prosecution's case on thin ice.
01:09For those most affected by a homicide.
01:11I'm missing.
01:12I do.
01:13I'm missing a lot.
01:15The first 48 is just the beginning.
01:19This is the story of the fight for justice in the weeks, months and years after the first 48.
01:39At a convenience store on the west side.
01:42911, what's the address for your emergency?
01:44Looks like I have a white male, yellow shirt, black jeans.
01:48He's out in the parking lot.
01:50He's near a vehicle.
01:52He's frantic, yelling for help.
01:54I'm not sure what's going on.
01:56Okay, we have officers on the way.
02:01First responders find a man in the backseat of the car, shot in the head.
02:06The victim's at the hospital.
02:08There's a possibility he may not survive.
02:10It's been seven years since this case, and I'm not on the police force anymore.
02:15But I loved my job.
02:17There is a bond there that I'll never have with anybody else.
02:19That's why Tulsa solves 99, 98% of their murders.
02:23It's because of that teamwork.
02:26What's going on?
02:28Looks like the victim was sitting in the backseat.
02:31The bullet shattered the rear window and hit him in the back of the head.
02:35He's bleeding.
02:37He's bleeding.
02:39He's bleeding.
02:41He's bleeding.
02:43He's bleeding.
02:45He's bleeding.
02:47He's bleeding.
02:49He's bleeding.
02:51He's bleeding.
02:53He's bleeding.
02:55The bullet hit him in the back of the head.
02:57You can go one of two ways.
03:00You've either got a random drive-by type kind of situation,
03:03or, did our victim have some beef with somebody and it was intentional?
03:07What's the victim's name?
03:10Blaine Wells is the victim.
03:1423 year old Blaine Wells was born and raised in Oklahoma.
03:19He was the oldest of four children, who'd recently lost both of their parents.
03:23their parents. No casings here? No, there's not much here other than the car.
03:31Jimmy Turpin is the witness. Jimmy, the driver, and another friend who was in the
03:37car had been taken to headquarters. He's saying the shooting happened about a
03:42quarter mile down the road. Okay.
03:47The primary crime scene is an access road between two car dealerships. They
03:54gotta have video at that entrance, dude. We were hoping to get the crime on video
03:59for a suspect vehicle. I mean, anything. What's happening?
04:04Supposedly, this is where it all started. The only thing we found was this one casing.
04:12If we spoke to the security guard, there's probably not gonna be a camera.
04:20That catches us. I was pretty frustrated. There was almost no fiscal evidence, but
04:26we just started assessing what do we need to do next, who do we need to talk to, and then
04:30kind of go from there. An investigation, it's fluid. It consistently changes. If
04:39you've done this a lot and you're good at it, that's not an issue. You have to be
04:44able to change with the facts and circumstances. Two hours in. Jimmy's the
04:52most important witness that we have because he's in the vehicle when Blaine
04:58gets killed. So we were hoping to get a lot of info, you know, with a suspect
05:02description, car, and hopefully find out some kind of motivation for Blaine's
05:06murder. I mean, just kind of tell me what was going on today prior to all this
05:13happening. We had just left the casino. I want to say 5.30 almost. We went back to the apartment.
05:21Jimmy says he went with Blaine and their other friend who was in the car to get
05:26more money for gambling. We pulled out the apartment. When we did, I seen a car
05:31come to a stop sign. I don't know exactly what kind of car it was. He
05:37described the car as a white car with front end damage. And we pulled out. I'm
05:44looking in the rear view and I noticed that he gets behind us. All right. And
05:48then I come to that stop sign. He stops about a car lane behind us. So I rolled
05:55down the window and I'm thinking, who the hell is this following us? And I
06:00stick my head out. And by the time I stick my head out, he's getting out the
06:03car. I seen the pistol in his hand. I turned around, you know, and I was going
06:10to gun it. Next thing you know, it's like, bang. That's when the shot was
06:16fired. And I just took off, you know what I'm saying? What did he look like? I
06:22want to say he was over six foot, about shoulder length hair, white guy, white
06:26guy, parted in the middle and he had on all green. He was slender. And he was
06:32wearing all green? All green.
06:35Why would anybody be doing this? I don't know. That's what I'm saying. You're
06:41always trying to gauge if the person you're interviewing is trying to hide
06:45something, tell the truth. He was very detailed in his answers, but I felt like
06:50Jimmy was holding something back. Tell me about Blaine. All right, well, Blaine
06:56was real, real close. I really love him, man. He's a good kid, you know what I'm
07:01saying? When Jimmy's emotional in the interview, it shows that Jimmy really
07:06believes that Blaine's an innocent guy. He's been trying to stay clean. He was
07:11actually getting ready to leave and go to Arizona. Just getting away from this,
07:16you know what I'm saying? A bunch of madness. The drug scene in that part of
07:21town at the time, there was a lot of meth. So drugs being a motive are always
07:27in the back of your mind.
07:30If there's anything else surrounding this, you know, if there's dope involved,
07:35we need to know everything, okay?
07:43Me and my little nephew, Josh, we're doing dope.
07:48Where did Josh come into all this? Did he ever leave with you guys during any of
07:52this? He did leave. He says Josh went to sell some pills. With a dude named Cody.
08:00They were supposed to meet up, and I don't know if Josh did him wrong, but I...
08:07Yeah, all right, he was gonna rip, I guess, Cody off. He's gonna rip him off.
08:13He's gonna rip him off. So we were like, oh, boom, we're on the right track.
08:18This drug deal goes down where this Cody kid gets ripped off by Josh for a hundred
08:23bucks. Like, me and Blaine didn't have nothing to do with that. But you know when
08:29somebody's... A lot of times people are so worried they're gonna get in trouble for
08:33the drugs, they kind of start to lie about the murder investigation. We didn't
08:36care. We just want to solve the murder. Is this your phone? Yes. Okay. You mind if I
08:41look through your texts and stuff? And I don't know if he would have ever told us
08:44had we not found the text messages with Cody.
08:49So you guys are talking, like, all day. And he keeps asking you about, you got this,
08:54you got that. Right? Yeah. You understand what we're saying here? Yeah, you're saying that.
09:02I'm saying you set this up. We were frustrated. We needed a lead. And the longer you wait,
09:09the harder it is. Man, your friend got killed today. And we want to go find the person that
09:17did it. So quit making us sift through the bull**** and just tell us the **** truth.
09:24See, Cody hit me up for pills. And Josh was like, well, let me rip him off, basically.
09:33Jimmy admits he set up the drug deal between Josh and Cody.
09:37I guess they met up at QT. And that's where the deal went down.
09:43What did Cody look like? Taller fella. I mean, slender, typical white guy. But it wasn't Cody.
09:51Maybe there's more than one possibility as to why this happened. But that's pretty big.
09:55Yeah. People getting ripped off on dope on the west side. People don't like that.
10:00What we're learning is that Blaine's just hanging out with the wrong group of people.
10:04I never intended for none of this to be like that. Nobody ever does, man.
10:08Nobody ever does. But that's how we end up. Sit tight.
10:16If you were targeted for ripping off somebody for dope or money,
10:20you know, and maybe Blaine wasn't the target, maybe you were.
10:24Blaine deserves this. I'm sorry.
10:33So this is me and Blaine. We were having a dance off. He whooped my butt at that dance competition.
10:47He won hands down. He was so fun to be around, so cool to be around. Everybody loved my brother.
10:55It's kind of hard not to. He was my number one. I looked up to him because he was an amazing big
11:02brother. These photos are all of good times that we had. We were really happy kids.
11:09But after both their parents passed away from illnesses, Blaine turned to drugs.
11:15I think that he took it possibly the hardest out of us, but he turned it around because he's seen
11:23us kids struggling and he knew that we needed him. So he got clean, got him a new job. He was
11:30working. He was, you know, try to be there for us. When you look at these photos, tell me the
11:37feeling you get. I get joy with them because I get to see my brother again. But it also is kind of
11:46sad because I know he's no longer here and I can't bring him back.
12:03Three hours into the investigation. We're going and then all of a sudden they're behind us and
12:09they're telling us all the way down to the other stop sign. The second witness was also in the car
12:15with Jimmy and Blaine. And you try to use that to verify everything that Jimmy said. I see the gun
12:22in his hand on the side and I tell Jimmy he's got a gun. Go. He's got a gun. Go. What did he look like?
12:29I want to see between five, five and five ten. Okay. He had an all green outfit on. His hair
12:38was either a dark brown or black. Blaine's friend also describes the suspect as having
12:44shoulder length hair. You know a guy named Cody? Yeah, Cody Wilkins. You think that guy could have
12:50been Cody at all? Cody's got short hair cut like you. Okay. Sit tight, okay? We felt after talking
12:59to the second witness that it did corroborate a lot of Jimmy's story, which is good for us.
13:04So this is Cody. Jimmy and the second witness, they don't think that Cody could kill somebody.
13:10But that doesn't mean that Cody didn't have a friend, pick somebody with him,
13:13that would actually do the job.
13:18While the warrant squad searches for Cody and Josh,
13:24Frazier gets an update from the hospital.
13:29As of right now, there's no brain activity. You know, they're just kind of waiting on
13:34talk to the family before they make any decisions.
13:38My dad told me years ago, that was somebody's little kid at some point.
13:43So you focus on the family. You just have to keep going.
13:47So, man, yesterday, did Jimmy say anything about meeting some guy at QuikTrip about some pills or
14:11something? I got dude at QuikTrip. I got dude. And what's this guy's name? Cody.
14:18So what kind of car was he in when he was there?
14:33Did he start blowing you up?
14:38Can I look through it?
14:41What was this, never did you wrong, karma is a bitch?
14:44That's right after I did it. That's right. He was just trying to watch your back.
14:57Wow. Sit tight, man.
15:00Some of those text messages that we saw in Josh's phone were incriminating,
15:04that Cody was going to want to do some kind of harm to Josh and Jimmy.
15:08The question is, is he mad enough to want Josh or Jimmy dead?
15:15And now we're later. What's up, man? Not much.
15:21We find the Cody kid who we're thinking, hey, this may be our guy.
15:25Can you just kind of tell me about what happened yesterday?
15:28When I got ripped off? Yeah.
15:30Josh. He gives the exact same version of events, says, yeah,
15:34I just got screwed out of $100. Man, I'll be honest with you, dude,
15:39we looked through his phone. Some of the text messages you sent him, man, were pretty.
15:43I know. I was mad at the time. It was $100. Yeah.
15:49We thought we got him, like, he's going to break, right? And this thing's done.
15:53What I want you to be honest about is if you maybe called somebody and said,
15:58hey, can you go get my money back? Now would be the time to tell me.
16:04You could see his heart beating out of his neck. He was sweating through his shirt.
16:08When it happened, I tried to call Jimmy. No answer. I tried to call him Josh back.
16:13No answer. I just ignored my text.
16:17After you got ripped, where did you go? I went home.
16:23Cody says after that, he went to bed.
16:28I don't know more. That's the thing. You guys, you're making me nervous because you're making
16:32me feel like I did something when I didn't even do anything. I'm not a gangster. I don't do that stuff.
16:37Eventually, we're able to verify he has an alibi. He wasn't anywhere near the scene.
16:44At that point, we're able to eliminate Cody. He's good for now. Thank you.
16:52At the end of all that, we were like, now what? We had motive. Now we have nothing.
16:56So, you know, we were right back to square one.
17:00Sucks to just go home, but it's kind of where we're at right now.
17:08Over the next day and a half, the team continues to chase down leads.
17:22We started getting these Crime Stoppers tips because the entire neighborhood wanted us to
17:26find the killer, like, fast. Everybody that we talked to had nothing but good things to say
17:31about Blaine, and they wanted to help. They said, we want to do the right thing. We want to be able
17:36to help you put this person in jail. Then, about six hours prior to the first 48 hours,
17:47Blaine's family decided to take him off the life support.
17:52It hurt so bad when I lost him because when he died, I wasn't even in Oklahoma,
17:58and they was trying to keep him hooked up until I got into town so I could see him,
18:05and I never got that option.
18:16Five days after Blaine's death.
18:18Thanks, buddy. That's it.
18:20Justin and I had gotten some information that there was an
18:23inmate in the Tulsa County Jail wanting to talk about Blaine's murder.
18:30How do you know Blaine?
18:31And I was a school teacher. He was my boy. He was never in trouble in his life.
18:37The relationship that Blaine had with the inmate was motivating them to help us,
18:41which you don't see a lot in a homicide investigation.
18:45Okay. I mean, you care about him?
18:47Yeah, I love that dude.
18:48Well, just anything you've heard as to why this happened, we need to know.
18:52I think it's the Irish Mob, really.
19:07Why?
19:08Because women fight women.
19:10The inmate was part of the Aryan Brotherhood, and the Irish Mob and the Aryan Brotherhood
19:15have this rivalry about turf and dope and women, and they clearly were trying to hurt each other.
19:21Every time we see each other, we do it. It's Saturday night.
19:24Just hours before the shooting, outside a car wash,
19:27he got into a fight with some members of the Irish Mob.
19:31All right, well, we f***ed all three of them.
19:32Yeah.
19:34Have you ever seen those guys in a car at all?
19:36No.
19:38What kind of car were you riding around in?
19:40The inmate says after the fight, he left with a friend in a silver car.
19:45That's what I said.
19:47He felt bad about Blaine.
19:57Almost kind of some guilt, like it was his fault that Blaine ended up getting killed.
20:01He gives them the nickname and description of his friend,
20:04the one who was driving that silver car.
20:07All right, man.
20:13The wheels were turning.
20:14The Irish Mob, they wear green.
20:16Clearly, we got a suspect wearing all green.
20:20There's a chance that these idiots just got the wrong freaking car.
20:24The inmate believed it was kind of a mistaken identity.
20:27We're kind of at a dead end on a lot of this stuff.
20:29Let's follow this one and see where it goes.
20:34Fraser and Ritter head to the car wash to see if it's got surveillance cameras.
20:39He said the actual physical altercation occurred in front of this car wash.
20:45But then I look over to my left and sure enough is the car that the inmate had described
20:53and the person whose description was also very unique.
20:58And I'll be damned, the inmate's friend kind of falls on our lap at the car wash.
21:05At that point, you're like, you got to be kidding me.
21:07Maybe this is going to pay off.
21:11So what happened the other night?
21:13The inmate's friend saw him punch a member of the Irish Mob who goes by the nickname,
21:18Little Man.
21:19What'd that guy look like?
21:26Not what we were looking for.
21:28We wanted, you know, long hair, part down the middle.
21:33Little Man lives in an apartment with some other members of the Irish Mob.
21:37Who are they?
21:38Uh, Vanderpool, Shane.
21:41Shane Vanderpool?
21:49Do you ever see those guys in a car?
21:56Everything that Jimmy and the second witness described
21:59was falling in line with what the person in the car wash was telling us about Vanderpool.
22:08Part down the middle, short length hair.
22:1738-year-old Shane Vanderpool grew up in Tulsa and earned a GED.
22:22He has 13 prior felony convictions for assault with a dangerous weapon,
22:27drugs, and possession of stolen property.
22:31He's got the hair.
22:32He's got the car.
22:33We felt pretty good about Shane.
22:38Four days later, we figure out Shane's phone number, apply for his phone records,
22:47get them back, do some location stuff.
22:50630 on the 21st, this guy's hitting at a tower right here.
22:56And sure enough, his phone is in the area at the time of the murder.
23:03This will help if he says he wasn't there.
23:05We learned that Shane had felony warrants out for his arrest,
23:08and so we decided we'd pick him up.
23:11His appearance, I think, has changed from his 2014 booking photo quite a bit.
23:17So if we book him on his warrant, we can take a picture of him here,
23:19put that in the photo lineup.
23:2512 days after Blaine Wells was killed.
23:28I haven't seen anything yet.
23:30We gathered some information about the department out west
23:33that was noting out for Shane Vanderpool.
23:44We end up seeing who we identified as Shane Vanderpool jumping in a Chevy Impala.
23:53I got eyes on him here.
23:55He is going to be northbound on Memorial from 27.
23:58The driver we're looking for is Shane Vanderpool.
24:03Go, man.
24:17Get up.
24:18You're just gonna run.
24:19As soon as he got lit up, as soon as the police lights come on behind him, he runs.
24:28Where's he at?
24:30Where'd he go?
24:33I covered the murder of Blaine Wells,
24:42and we have covered lots of cases involving Irish mob members.
24:46When I first came here in 1992,
24:48we were just starting to hear about the Irish mob,
24:51and they weren't taking very seriously at first,
24:53but then quickly they start becoming more organized.
24:56They are doing armed robberies.
24:57They're doing carjackings.
25:01This is the apartment where we found Shane.
25:03In this apartment, there's a lot of drug trafficking,
25:05a lot of drug sales, probably some gun sales too.
25:08Not that they were really smart about what they did and how they operated.
25:12They do things in broad daylight.
25:14They do things where there's witnesses.
25:16They're not good at getting rid of their evidence.
25:18They're not good at trying to get away with a crime.
25:22Just last year, the feds did this huge bust,
25:25and they got 125 Irish mob guys,
25:28and they recover hundreds and hundreds of pounds of meth.
25:32And 200 guns.
25:34And hopefully it put a big dent in the Irish mob.
25:37I do think there is hope that it gets better,
25:39because the good people are fighting back,
25:40and police are doing everything they can as well.
25:43But it's an ongoing battle.
25:44I've lost him. He was out of my sight.
25:59It was frustrating is the word I can use on TV, I think.
26:04I just had to watch for traffic.
26:05By the time I looked back at him, he was out of my sight in his vehicle.
26:11We set up a perimeter from where Shane ran from.
26:14Grid searching through the area, trying to find him.
26:22Hey, I've got him over here.
26:23I just happened to see him walking down a sidewalk in the neighborhood.
26:27He's walking away. He's on his cell phone.
26:29Car's parked.
26:33It's definitely risky.
26:34I mean, we're following a murder suspect.
26:36This guy's going to run.
26:40He's jumping the fence going south.
26:44Oh, dog's out.
26:45We ended up getting canine.
26:58Booyah!
27:00Boom. Good deal.
27:02He is in custody.
27:04We were excited.
27:05And when we finally put our hands on him, we were like, oh, my gosh, this, you know,
27:10this has got to be the guy.
27:11At that point, we were going to go directly to our witnesses,
27:15Jimmy and the second witness, in hopes to get a positive identification.
27:24There's a lot of circumstantial stuff.
27:26You know, his description, the phone records.
27:28But that's not going to be enough.
27:30You've got a victim that looks at the pictures and is like, that's the dude that did it.
27:35It's pretty good.
27:37Jimmy, I got some pictures to show you.
27:39See if you recognize anybody out of these photos.
27:41Come on.
27:46It looks like him.
27:48That looks like him?
27:51But it seemed like he was younger.
27:53It looks most similar to that guy?
27:55Yeah.
27:56OK.
27:58Jimmy's ID of Shane Vanderpool was good, but was it immediately, this is him?
28:04No.
28:05He picks this guy out of six people, but he doesn't want to say 100% for whatever reason.
28:10If I'm a defense attorney, that's one of the things I would jump all over.
28:14On a murder charge, well, you better have something else to back it up.
28:17That's one of the things I would jump all over.
28:19On a murder charge, well, you better have something else to back it up.
28:23I'm gonna head to her now.
28:25The case now hinges on the second witness IDing Shane as the shooter.
28:31We'll see.
28:31Here we go.
28:32Moment of truth.
28:47Good ID on Mr. Vanderpool.
28:51Once we get those positive identifications, do we have enough to charge him?
28:54Absolutely.
28:55But we do not have enough to prove that he's guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
29:00So we're gonna go interview him, and hopefully we can get a confession.
29:09Shane, man, wake up, buddy.
29:11We walk into the interview room, and he's dead asleep.
29:14Have a seat, bud.
29:15You know, there's that old saying, too, the guilty sleep.
29:20Well, man, we're investigating a shooting.
29:25Do you know what shooting I'm talking about?
29:28No idea?
29:30Happened the morning of February 21st.
29:34You remember what you did that day?
29:39What motel did you go to?
29:42Yeah.
29:43He said he was at some hotel on the other side of town, out east.
29:46We had a lot of information, cell phone towers, witnesses putting him out west.
29:51So he was, you know, he lied.
29:55OK.
29:55What kind of car were you in?
29:59That's what the second witness and Jimmy described.
30:02It's a white car.
30:04What if I told you that people saw you in a different place Sunday morning?
30:08I agree.
30:11Man, I know you weren't at the motel on Sunday morning.
30:18I'm asking you.
30:22I'm telling you you weren't.
30:24I know you weren't.
30:29No, I'm not going to argue with you.
30:33OK, Shane.
30:34I'm done.
30:34I'm done.
30:35I'm done.
30:35I'm done.
30:35I'm done.
30:36I'm done.
30:36I'm done.
30:37OK, Shane.
30:45We got him locked into a story.
30:48He was in 31st and Memorial, and his phone records say different.
30:51He was at 51st and Union.
30:53Sometimes a lie is just as good as a confession, so.
30:57And we're going to book him for murder.
31:01I always kind of look at these as phases.
31:03Like, you get your probable cause, and you know he's your guy.
31:07But then you have to think about all the other stuff you got to do to get ready for court.
31:13Thank you, guys.
31:17There are a number of things that are on a prosecutor's dream checklist
31:20that we were missing.
31:22Juries like to have things to hold and see and feel.
31:27We needed something more than just a guy with long hair.
31:31We needed something a little extra, or else we're going to be in a world of hurt.
31:37She's kind of pissed off because he's kind of ignoring her.
31:48Before handing the case off to the district attorney.
31:51We searched Shane's phone following his arrest, and we found a lot of great stuff.
31:57Shows a picture of this shirt, a green shirt.
31:59Days after the murder, one of Shane's friends texted him.
32:03And it says, look, this is the shirt you wore that one morning you popped old dude off.
32:09Work in murders, you hope and pray and keep your fingers crossed for
32:12those little gifts that you get every now and then.
32:14That's pretty good stuff.
32:16It's awesome.
32:18This is where the case really blew up for us.
32:33These are pictures from Shane Vanderpool's phone hours before he shoots Blaine Wells.
32:45You can see Shane Vanderpool in his green shirt,
32:49which matches the description of the suspect given by the witnesses at the scene of the murder.
32:55And this is the screenshot we recovered February 21st
32:58of the news on Sixth Story of Blaine Wells' murder.
33:03When they are looking through Shane Vanderpool's phone,
33:06they see that he has gone to our website to see what information we're reporting about that murder.
33:12Shane was texting this picture to his friend, insinuating that he had done this.
33:17It's like, click, picture, here's where I've been.
33:20In my opinion, he's bragging about it.
33:22Why else would you send that?
33:24So has Shane confessed to this person, told him that he did it?
33:28So finding the person that sent the text message about the shirt
33:31and talking to them about being a witness is essential.
33:49Two weeks after Blaine's murder,
33:53the friend who Shane was texting agrees to be interviewed.
33:57He got the room for you?
33:58He did.
33:59He had gotten her a hotel room right around the time of the murder.
34:17When the friend woke in the morning, Shane still wasn't back.
34:22So she texted him wondering where he's at.
34:29He beat his gutter, dude.
34:31And what does that mean to you?
34:33I didn't believe him, man. I don't believe it.
34:36Well, what does that mean to you?
34:37He killed Owen.
34:42Killed whatever that kid's name was.
34:46It's just so overwhelming.
34:50I'm tired of crying.
34:52You're doing the right thing.
34:55I'll be right back.
34:59After this interview with her, we're ready to move forward
35:01with wrapping it all up and giving it to the DA's office.
35:07Shane Vanderpool was pretty well known as somebody who
35:11was high ranking in the Irish mob.
35:13And once we had the packet from Detective Fraser,
35:17I thought the case was incredibly strong.
35:20What Shane's friend gave us essentially was a confession.
35:23I'm the guy who did it.
35:25But the problem was Shane's friend didn't want anything to do with us,
35:28didn't want anything to do with our case.
35:30But we needed her testimony.
35:31We needed her to stand up for her community and do the right thing.
35:44One year later, the trial of Shane Vanderpool begins.
35:49This was the first case that I had ever had jury duty for.
35:53So I took it very seriously because someone's life is in your hands.
36:01The state calls its first witness.
36:04Jimmy's testimony was critical to the case because it lays out for the jury
36:09what some of those last moments were like for the victim.
36:14And the emotion that Jimmy demonstrated for the jury about how much he loved his friend,
36:18how much he cared for his friend was frankly heartbreaking to see.
36:22But on cross-examination...
36:25The defense really attacked his memory of what had happened.
36:31Did you really see what you say you saw?
36:33Were you able to identify particular features of the car?
36:36Was the bumper damaged?
36:37Was it not?
36:38And Jimmy struggled a little bit.
36:41Well, if he's not certain about the car, what else is he not certain about?
36:46I felt bad for Jimmy because you could tell he wanted to help his friend.
36:51He wanted to say the right thing, but you don't know, you don't know.
36:58When Jimmy's not sure about the car, it might have introduced some reasonable doubt.
37:04After Jimmy's testimony, Shane's friend was going to be incredibly important.
37:09But Shane's friend did not want to testify.
37:12If Shane's friend refuses to testify,
37:15we're going to have a real tough time making our case.
37:18We're going to have a real tough time convincing the jury
37:20that that particular long-haired guy was the guy who pulled the trigger.
37:32The thing I hoped to get out of Shane's friend was a confession
37:35straight from Shane Vanderpool's mouth.
37:37And coming from somebody who's his friend, that would be pretty powerful.
37:43But we were very worried that Shane's friend wasn't going to show up to testify.
37:47Getting somebody like her to take the stand and doing it in front of the defendant
37:52is an incredible act of courage.
37:55So seeing her there was an enormous relief.
37:59But getting her in that room was step one.
38:01Getting her story out was going to be an enormous step two,
38:05and I wasn't entirely sure how that was going to go.
38:12Shane's friend testified that Shane told her kind of the whole story on how it happened.
38:17Shane Vanderpool is coming from the apartment over here,
38:20sees the victim's vehicle with Jimmy and Blaine and the second witness
38:26leaving their apartment.
38:28And unfortunately, I think it was kind of a coincidence.
38:32They're almost neighbors, right?
38:33And they come out and Vanderpool thinks he sees,
38:37you know, possible Aryan Brotherhood gang members.
38:39And as they're stopped at the stop sign,
38:41that's when Shane Vanderpool gets out of the car, points the gun,
38:44pulls the trigger, you know, striking Blaine Wells in the head.
38:48Her testimony corroborated everything that happened in that murder.
38:52The only person besides the two eyewitnesses that would know that information is the killer.
38:58But on cross-examination...
39:00The point the defense tried to raise was that Shane's friend and Shane had only met
39:06two days prior to the murder.
39:10And he tried to question whether or not his client really would have
39:14made the kind of heartfelt confession that she testified to the jury that he had made.
39:21You want this jury to believe that a man that you've known for less than 72 hours
39:25confessed all of this stuff to you?
39:28Yes, I do want them to believe that.
39:30It is the truth.
39:31It comes across as incredibly strong, believable,
39:36and I think should send a message to the jury about the strength of her testimony.
39:40But the defense isn't finished yet.
39:43Shane's attorney questions Detective Ritter.
39:46When we made contact with Shane's friend,
39:48we found a small amount of methamphetamine in Shane's friend's purse.
39:54So the defense started hitting on why Shane's friend wasn't arrested for this meth.
39:59So you didn't arrest her because she was giving you information?
40:02We had not made any deals with Shane's friend at all whatsoever in exchange for her testimony.
40:07But they're trying to imply maybe Shane's friend might be willing to do this because
40:10they're just trying to save their own skin.
40:14So at this point, I think all of the jurors were questioning a little bit.
40:18Well, maybe the defense is right.
40:21And that really could put the prosecution's case on thin ice.
40:26I have never once felt like I knew 110% what a jury was going to do.
40:31And this case was no different.
40:34Shane behaved, to me, very nonchalant.
40:40He didn't seem remotely remorseful.
40:45When the jury came back, they told us that their verdict was that Shane was not guilty.
40:50For somebody who had the number of convictions he had for some pretty serious offenses,
40:55and because of the absolute senseless nature of this murder,
40:59I felt life without parole was absolutely appropriate for Mr. Vanderpool.
41:03I thought that was the right thing to do in a situation like this.
41:08I also felt that the jury's judgment was responsible for the fact that this was the
41:13of this murder, I felt life without parole
41:16was absolutely appropriate for Mr. Vanderpool.
41:20Blaine had a lot of friends,
41:22and all the things that he had either done for people
41:24or the relationships he had with people
41:25resulted in a successful conviction.
41:28You know, maybe that was Blaine kind of looking down
41:30and helping out from afar.
41:32Eight years after Blaine's death.
41:45I miss him. I do. I miss him a lot.
41:51It don't help in any way knowing that,
41:54you know, he was mistaken identity
41:57because at the end of the day, it still happened.
41:59But my brother is not gonna want me crying over him.
42:05He wants me to live to the fullest, and I know he does.
42:10So I'm trying to hold up to that and be that way
42:15because I think in the long run, it will help my siblings.
42:19And I definitely don't want his memory to go faded away.