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Florida Couple’s Home Invasion Murder Caught on Camera · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Picture a sprawling 7,500 square foot compound. It's nestled right
0:06
Speaker 1: in the quiet tree-lined suburbs of Pensacola, Florida.
0:09
Speaker 2: Right, which sounds like this is a massive luxury home,
0:11
Speaker 2: but it was actually so much more than that.
0:13
Speaker 1: Exactly. This wasn't just a big piece of real estate.
0:15
Speaker 1: It was, I mean, it was essentially a custom-built fortress
0:18
Speaker 1: designed for a highly specific, very fragile ecosystem.
0:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, the family dynamic here is crucial to understand.
0:26
Speaker 1: Bud Billings, who is 66, and his wife Melanie, who
0:29
Speaker 1: is 43, lived in this compound with 13 adopted children. And,
0:33
Speaker 1: you know, many of these kids had severe special needs autism,
0:36
Speaker 1: Down syndrome, major developmental delays.
0:39
Speaker 2: So this house was rigged with a really complex network
0:43
Speaker 2: of surveillance cameras. And it wasn't just for security from
0:46
Speaker 2: the outside world.
0:46
Speaker 1: No, it was mainly to monitor the kids, right, to
0:49
Speaker 1: maintain this highly structured, supportive sanctuary they had built.
0:52
Speaker 2: Exactly. It was essentially a privately run facility operating inside
0:56
Speaker 2: a family home. I mean, they had dedicated therapy rooms.
0:59
Speaker 2: strict daily routines, and an environment totally optimized to care
1:03
Speaker 2: for a large, vulnerable family.
1:05
Speaker 1: And in the Pensacola community, Bud and Melanie were widely
1:08
Speaker 1: hailed as local heroes. I mean, they were taking on
1:11
Speaker 1: children that the rest of the foster system had basically
1:14
Speaker 1: left behind.
1:14
Speaker 2: They were saints to the outside world.
1:16
Speaker 1: But on Thursday, July 9, 2009, that entire carefully constructed
1:21
Speaker 1: sanctuary is completely shattered in a matter of minutes.
1:25
Speaker 2: Just completely destroyed.
1:27
Speaker 1: At roughly 7.0 p.m., Escambia County Emergency Communications receives a frantic,
1:33
Speaker 1: chilling 911 call, and it's not from the Billings' house.
1:37
Speaker 2: Which tells you something right away about the chaos of
1:39
Speaker 2: the scene.
1:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's from a neighbor named April Spencer. Because one
1:43
Speaker 1: of the Billings' daughters had actually sprinted across the lawns,
1:46
Speaker 1: absolutely terrified, and hammered on April's door.
1:49
Speaker 2: She was telling the neighbor that her mother and father
1:51
Speaker 2: had been shot.
1:52
Speaker 1: You can hear the sheer panic on the recording, as
1:56
Speaker 1: April tells the dispatcher that the parents are down in
1:58
Speaker 1: the primary bedroom.
1:59
Speaker 2: When the first responding officers arrive and actually breach this
2:02
Speaker 2: massive residence, the contrast is just, it's overwhelming.
2:06
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine.
2:07
Speaker 2: You have the innocence of this children's home mixed with
2:11
Speaker 2: the sheer brutality of a major crime scene. They find
2:14
Speaker 2: a heavy blood trail starting in the main living room
2:17
Speaker 2: and it leads straight down a hallway.
2:18
Speaker 1: Right into the primary bedroom.
2:20
Speaker 2: Exactly. And that is where they find Bud and Melanie.
2:24
Speaker 2: They have been executed.
2:26
Speaker 1: Melanie suffered three gunshot wounds to the head and one
2:29
Speaker 1: to the chest, and Bud sustained multiple shots to his
2:32
Speaker 1: legs and additional fatal shots to the head.
2:35
Speaker 2: It was incredibly violent. First responders knew instantly that they
2:38
Speaker 2: were beyond saving.
2:40
Speaker 1: Which brings us to the mission of today's Deep Dive.
2:43
Speaker 1: We are unpacking the raw, factual transcripts of the sprawling
2:48
Speaker 1: homicide investigation that followed this horrific night.
2:51
Speaker 2: Because this case, it goes in so many bizarre directions. Oh, totally.
2:54
Speaker 1: This isn't just about what happened to Bud and Melanie.
2:56
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a masterclass in how investigators untangle a
3:00
Speaker 1: web of lies, fake alibis and amateurish betrayals.
3:04
Speaker 2: We are going to look at the exact words spoken
3:06
Speaker 2: in the interrogation rooms, the physical breadcrumbs left behind.
3:10
Speaker 1: And the slow, inevitable psychological collapse of a wildly chaotic
3:15
Speaker 1: crew of conspirators. So, you know, imagine you are the
3:19
Speaker 1: detective walking into this house.
3:20
Speaker 2: It's a logistical nightmare.
3:22
Speaker 1: You have 13 traumatized children. multiple entry points in a
3:26
Speaker 1: massive house, and, as we'll find out, a massive fortune
3:29
Speaker 1: at play. Where do you even begin?
3:32
Speaker 2: Well, we're going to trace this investigation chronologically, starting with
3:36
Speaker 2: the immediate aftermath and the inner circle.
3:38
Speaker 1: Right, because the first 48 hours are crucial.
3:40
Speaker 2: Exactly. Then we'll move to the digital and physical clues
3:43
Speaker 2: and finally dive into the interrogations where everything just falls apart.
3:47
Speaker 1: To really understand how investigators untangled this web, You first
3:51
Speaker 1: have to understand the immediate dichotomy that presented itself to
3:54
Speaker 1: law enforcement.
3:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, the second they started looking into who Bud Billings
3:57
Speaker 2: actually was, the picture got complicated.
4:00
Speaker 1: Because a crime this coordinated, a double execution in a
4:03
Speaker 1: highly secure home, it doesn't usually happen to the local saint.
4:06
Speaker 2: No, it really doesn't. And that is the complex reality
4:09
Speaker 2: of Bud. At home, he's the beloved father of 13
4:13
Speaker 2: special needs kids.
4:14
Speaker 1: But professionally... He was a highly successful, absolutely ruthless used
4:20
Speaker 1: car financier.
4:21
Speaker 2: Right. He ran a company called Worldco Financial Services.
4:24
Speaker 1: He basically helped people with terrible credit buy cars. But
4:28
Speaker 1: he was known to be incredibly tough. I mean, genuinely
4:31
Speaker 1: feared in the local business world.
4:33
Speaker 2: When you are a detective standing in a blood-soaked bedroom
4:37
Speaker 2: and you find out the victim is a ruthless financier,
4:40
Speaker 2: That professional background is a giant flashing red light.
4:44
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this, because I look at the first
4:46
Speaker 1: 48 hours of any complex murder investigation almost like a
4:49
Speaker 1: Rorschach test.
4:50
Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it.
4:52
Speaker 1: Everyone in the victim's orbit projects their own suspicions, their
4:55
Speaker 1: own fears, and their own grudges onto the crime scene.
4:58
Speaker 1: With Bud's ruthless business practices, doesn't it make sense to
5:02
Speaker 1: look at his enemies list first?
5:03
Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, absolutely. People
5:07
Speaker 2: try to make sense of a senseless, violent event by
5:10
Speaker 2: pointing to the boogeyman they already know.
5:12
Speaker 1: And for the Billings family, that boogeyman was tied directly
5:15
Speaker 1: to Bud's money.
5:16
Speaker 2: Right. So police secure the kids at the neighbor's house,
5:18
Speaker 2: and they immediately begin interviewing the inner circle. They start
5:22
Speaker 2: with Justin Billings, Bud's adopted adult son, James Markham, Bud's son-in-law.
5:27
Speaker 1: And Justin gives investigators their first massive break. He points
5:31
Speaker 1: them straight to that home surveillance system we mentioned earlier.
5:34
Speaker 2: Which captured the entire breach. The footage provides an objective timeline,
5:39
Speaker 2: which is so rare to have right off the bat.
5:41
Speaker 1: It shows that at exactly 7.05 p.m., a large, distinctive
5:46
Speaker 1: red van pulls into the front yard. The doors fly open,
5:50
Speaker 1: and three individuals immediately exit.
5:53
Speaker 2: Two head toward a seated entrance, and one goes straight
5:56
Speaker 2: for the front door. Simultaneously, two more men emerge from
5:59
Speaker 2: the wood line near the front gate and enter through
6:01
Speaker 2: the side.
6:02
Speaker 1: Five intruders in total, moving with what looks like military precision.
6:06
Speaker 2: They breach the house and confront Bud and Melanie right
6:08
Speaker 2: in the main living room.
6:09
Speaker 1: Within seconds of the breach, Bud is shot in the
6:12
Speaker 1: leg and goes down hard. And Melanie is forced to
6:14
Speaker 1: watch as one of these masked intruders puts a handgun
6:17
Speaker 1: directly to her husband's head.
6:18
Speaker 2: It's agonizing. They're then forced into the primary bedroom, which
6:22
Speaker 2: notably is a blind spot. There are no cameras in there.
6:26
Speaker 1: A few minutes later, the intruders emerge on camera again.
6:29
Speaker 1: that they are carrying something heavy.
6:31
Speaker 2: It's a large square safe.
6:33
Speaker 1: They muscle this safe out the door, load it into
6:35
Speaker 1: the back of the red van, and speed off into
6:37
Speaker 1: the evening.
6:38
Speaker 2: So back at the police station, investigators are sitting with
6:41
Speaker 2: Justin Billings, scrubbing through this footage frame by frame.
6:45
Speaker 1: And Justin recognizes the body style of the van. He
6:48
Speaker 1: flags it as a Dodge, maybe a 3500 series, pointing
6:51
Speaker 1: out the flat front end.
6:53
Speaker 2: But when they ask him the million-dollar question, you know,
6:55
Speaker 2: who would do this, Justin has a very specific name
6:59
Speaker 2: ready to go.
7:00
Speaker 1: He points the finger at a man named Henry Tai,
7:02
Speaker 1: though everyone just called him Cab.
7:05
Speaker 2: Cab Tai was a former business partner of Bud's. He
7:08
Speaker 2: essentially acted as a translator and a middleman salesman when
7:11
Speaker 2: they were moving cars down across the border into Mexico.
7:14
Speaker 1: And according to Justin, this relationship had recently imploded in
7:17
Speaker 1: a very ugly way. Bud had accused Cab of stealing
7:21
Speaker 1: a significant amount of money.
7:22
Speaker 2: Justin even tells detectives he witnessed a screaming match. where
7:26
Speaker 2: Bud told Cab, if you needed money, you could have
7:28
Speaker 2: just asked, you didn't have to steal it.
7:30
Speaker 1: Wow. And Bud was actively suing Cab for theft, the kicker.
7:35
Speaker 1: Justin claims that the moment the murders hit the news,
7:38
Speaker 1: Cab tie just vanished.
7:40
Speaker 2: This suspicion is immediately corroborated by the son-in-law, James Markham.
7:44
Speaker 1: James runs Markham Automotive. Bud had essentially brought him into
7:47
Speaker 1: the fold to manage operations as Bud was trying to
7:51
Speaker 1: transition into retirement.
7:52
Speaker 2: So James sits down with investigators and really pulls back
7:55
Speaker 2: the curtain on exactly how Bud operated his empire.
7:59
Speaker 1: James explains that Bud floor planned other independent car dealers.
8:03
Speaker 1: And we should probably break that down because, you know,
8:05
Speaker 1: it sounds like interior design, but it's actually a pretty
8:08
Speaker 1: cutthroat financial mechanism.
8:09
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah. Floor planning is a type of inventory financing.
8:13
Speaker 2: Let's say you own a small independent used car lot.
8:16
Speaker 2: You don't have the cash to buy 50 cars at
8:18
Speaker 2: auction to fill your lot.
8:19
Speaker 1: So a financier like Bud steps in.
8:21
Speaker 2: Exactly. Bud provides the capital to buy the cars, and
8:25
Speaker 2: in exchange, Bud holds the title to every vehicle on
8:28
Speaker 2: your lot.
8:29
Speaker 1: So he owns them on paper.
8:30
Speaker 2: Yes. When you finally sell a car to a customer,
8:34
Speaker 2: you pay Bud back the principal amount he loaned you,
8:38
Speaker 2: plus his cut.
8:39
Speaker 1: And James tells the police that Bud's cut was 20%
8:42
Speaker 1: of the profit, the dealer got 80%, Bud got 20%,
8:46
Speaker 1: but Bud also financed the individual customers who had terrible credit.
8:50
Speaker 2: Which is where it gets really risky.
8:52
Speaker 1: James literally tells the cops that Bud was basically the
8:55
Speaker 1: loan shark of the county. I mean, he pulled credit checks.
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Speaker 1: He avoided traditional banks entirely.
9:00
Speaker 2: And if you defaulted on a loan, Bud would skip
9:03
Speaker 2: trace you.
9:04
Speaker 1: Skip tracing is essentially bounty hunting for debt, right?
9:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's the process of tracking down someone who has
9:10
Speaker 2: skipped town to avoid paying what they owe. It involves
9:13
Speaker 2: digging through public records, utility bills, contacting relatives.
9:16
Speaker 1: Sometimes physically tracking the person down to repossess a vehicle
9:20
Speaker 1: or demand payment.
9:21
Speaker 2: It is highly adversarial. When you build a fortune, skip
9:24
Speaker 2: tracing and floor planning subprime auto loans, you generate a
9:28
Speaker 2: massive list of people who absolutely despise you.
9:31
Speaker 1: And it's a cash heavy business. James confirms that Bud
9:35
Speaker 1: routinely walked around carrying massive amounts of physical currency. We're
9:39
Speaker 1: talking upwards of $ 20, 000 in a very specific black briefcase
9:44
Speaker 1: with silver clasps.
9:46
Speaker 2: And guess what investigators found sitting in the house at
9:48
Speaker 2: the crime scene?
9:49
Speaker 1: That exact briefcase. And it was completely empty.
9:53
Speaker 2: So the financial motive is established almost immediately. And James
9:57
Speaker 2: echoes Justin's suspicions about cab tie.
9:59
Speaker 1: He confirms that cab owed Bud over $ 100, 000, that checks
10:04
Speaker 1: have been bouncing left and right, and that Bud had
10:05
Speaker 1: filed a police report and a lawsuit against him.
10:08
Speaker 2: But the speculation from the family doesn't stop at a
10:11
Speaker 2: disgruntled ex-partner. Justin starts throwing out these wild, almost cinematic rumors.
10:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, he mentions that because he used to help his
10:18
Speaker 1: dad physically repossess cars in the middle of the night,
10:20
Speaker 1: there could be hundreds of angry locals.
10:22
Speaker 2: Then he says he made some calls to friends on
10:24
Speaker 2: the street, and he heard a rumor that a violent
10:26
Speaker 2: gang from Colorado had traveled down specifically to do a hit.
10:30
Speaker 1: A Colorado hit squad.
10:32
Speaker 2: Yep. And later on, an even darker rumor surfaces that
10:35
Speaker 2: Bud was secretly laundering massive amounts of illicit cash, for
10:38
Speaker 2: the Mexican mafia.
10:40
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to look at how detectives process
10:42
Speaker 1: this kind of information dump. On one hand, you have
10:45
Speaker 1: a highly coordinated five-man tactical breach of a secure compound
10:49
Speaker 1: ending in an execution and the theft of a safe.
10:52
Speaker 2: It genuinely looks like the work of a professional crew
10:55
Speaker 2: or a cartel. It completely matches the visual evidence on
10:58
Speaker 2: the tape.
10:59
Speaker 1: So they have to take the Mexican mafia or the
11:01
Speaker 1: Colorado gang theories seriously at this stage, right? If the
11:04
Speaker 1: guy is acting like a loan shark and moving large
11:07
Speaker 1: sums of cash, A cartel hit isn't entirely outside the
11:10
Speaker 1: realm of possibility.
11:11
Speaker 2: They absolutely have to log it and investigate it. But
11:14
Speaker 2: experienced homicide detectives maintain a very healthy skeptical distance from
11:18
Speaker 2: early family theories.
11:19
Speaker 1: Why is that?
11:21
Speaker 2: Because they know that traumatized people reach for the most complex,
11:23
Speaker 2: grandiose explanations. It's easier to process than a random or
11:27
Speaker 2: mundane betrayal.
11:28
Speaker 1: Ah, I see. A cartel hit makes the violence seem inevitable,
11:31
Speaker 1: like an unstoppable force.
11:33
Speaker 2: Exactly. Whereas a local dispute makes it feel preventable, which
11:36
Speaker 2: is a much harder pill to swallow when you're grieving.
11:39
Speaker 2: So they humor the cab tie and the cartel theories,
11:42
Speaker 2: but they keep their eyes open for the mundane mistakes
11:46
Speaker 2: that actually solve murders.
11:48
Speaker 1: Which is exactly what happens next. While the family is
11:51
Speaker 1: spinning tales of international syndicates and Colorado hit squads, the
11:55
Speaker 1: real break in this case doesn't come from an underworld informant.
11:59
Speaker 2: No. It comes from the most mundane place imaginable.
12:02
Speaker 1: The local classifieds.
12:03
Speaker 2: Realizing they have clear footage of the getaway vehicle, the
12:07
Speaker 2: police release high-resolution screenshots of the red van to the
12:11
Speaker 2: local media. They ask the public if anyone recognizes it.
12:14
Speaker 1: And the phone rings almost instantly. A local guy calls
12:17
Speaker 1: in and says, I know that van because I am
12:20
Speaker 1: the one who just sold it.
12:21
Speaker 2: He tells detectives it's a 1982 Dodge B250. A heavy-duty
12:25
Speaker 2: three-quarter ton van.
12:26
Speaker 1: But it is not a stealthy professional getaway vehicle. It
12:29
Speaker 1: is a complete Frankenstein of a car.
12:32
Speaker 2: The seller details exactly how distinctive it is. It had
12:35
Speaker 2: been wrecked in the 90s, so somebody had bolted on
12:37
Speaker 2: a newer 1989 chrome front grille that didn't quite match.
12:41
Speaker 1: The original red paint was heavily faded. There were massive
12:45
Speaker 1: patches of gray primer paint around the rear wheel wells.
12:48
Speaker 2: And the roof was literally patched with black tar to
12:51
Speaker 2: stop leaks.
12:52
Speaker 1: And the wildest detail, it used to be a solid
12:55
Speaker 1: metal cargo van, but a previous owner had taken a
12:59
Speaker 1: saw and crudely cut holes into the side panels to
13:02
Speaker 1: pop in some passenger windows.
13:03
Speaker 2: It is the most conspicuous, memorable vehicle you could possibly
13:07
Speaker 2: choose for a secret mission.
13:08
Speaker 1: Seriously. And the guy says he just sold it on
13:11
Speaker 1: Craigslist for $ 300 to a local woman named Terry Poff.
13:16
Speaker 2: So investigators immediately tracked down Terry Poff. She is entirely
13:21
Speaker 2: cooperative and seems genuinely bewildered.
13:23
Speaker 1: She explains she bought this $ 300 beater van to help
13:26
Speaker 1: out her son. She says her son has a large family,
13:29
Speaker 1: six kids actually, and his primary vehicle is on the
13:32
Speaker 1: verge of being repossessed by the bank.
13:34
Speaker 2: She just wanted to give them a way to get around.
13:36
Speaker 1: She tells the police that her son only drove the
13:38
Speaker 1: van once to take it to a mechanic and that
13:40
Speaker 1: it's been sitting parked ever since.
13:42
Speaker 2: And when they ask for her son's name, she introduces
13:44
Speaker 2: law enforcement to the man at the absolute center of
13:47
Speaker 2: this entire storm.
13:48
Speaker 1: Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr.
13:50
Speaker 2: Let's just refer to him as Patrick Jr. for the
13:52
Speaker 2: sake of clarity, as his father gets involved a little later.
13:55
Speaker 1: Good call. Terry directs detectives to the van, which is
13:59
Speaker 1: parked outside the trailer home of Patrick Jr. 's father,
14:02
Speaker 1: over on Palm Court in Gulf Breeze.
14:04
Speaker 2: Detectives roll up, and it is a perfect match to
14:07
Speaker 2: the surveillance footage. The grill, the tar on the roof,
14:10
Speaker 2: the cut-in windows, it's undeniable.
14:12
Speaker 1: They immediately secure a search warrant and tow it to
14:15
Speaker 1: the crime lab. And while the van is being towed,
14:18
Speaker 1: investigators place a call to Patrick Jr. and invite him
14:20
Speaker 1: down to the station for a chat.
14:22
Speaker 2: He agrees right away. And the resulting interrogation is one
14:26
Speaker 2: of the most fascinating displays of psychological grandiosity you will
14:30
Speaker 2: ever see on tape.
14:31
Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting. It is a masterclass
14:35
Speaker 1: in how narcissistic suspects attempt to control a narrative.
14:38
Speaker 2: Most people walking into a police station to be questioned
14:41
Speaker 2: about a double murder are nervous, defensive, or guarded.
14:45
Speaker 1: But Patrick Jr. walks in and immediately attempts to seize
14:48
Speaker 1: the role of the hyper-cooperative, upstanding community leader.
14:52
Speaker 2: He doesn't even wait for the questions to start. He
14:55
Speaker 2: just starts monologuing about his resume.
14:57
Speaker 1: He tells the detectives he runs a local martial arts
14:59
Speaker 1: business called Project Fightback. He claims he specializes in teaching
15:03
Speaker 1: abduction awareness, criminal countermeasures, and defensive tactics to vulnerable women
15:08
Speaker 1: and children.
15:09
Speaker 2: He is establishing a character witness for himself before the
15:11
Speaker 2: detectives have even formally accused him of a crime. It's
15:15
Speaker 2: a very specific misdirection tactic.
15:17
Speaker 1: He wants the investigators to view him as a peer.
15:20
Speaker 2: Exactly. A fellow protector of the innocent rather than a suspect.
15:24
Speaker 1: He actually brags that he and his wife recently received
15:27
Speaker 1: a Sertoma Award for their community service. He claims with
15:31
Speaker 1: a straight face that they had trained 20,000 kids in
15:34
Speaker 1: just two years.
15:35
Speaker 2: Which is mathematically absurd for a local martial arts guy.
15:38
Speaker 1: It's totally absurd. I mean, I compare Patrick's behavior to
15:41
Speaker 1: an arsonist helping put out the fire. He's too eager,
15:45
Speaker 1: too relaxed. He offers up completely unprompted connections to the victims.
15:50
Speaker 2: Which is the first fatal error of the arrogant suspect.
15:53
Speaker 2: He volunteers that he actually knew Bud Billings.
15:56
Speaker 1: He tells the detectives that he had met Bud twice
15:59
Speaker 1: in the past. He claims he pitched his Project Fightback
16:02
Speaker 1: program to Bud and that Bud was so moved by
16:05
Speaker 1: the cause that he just spontaneously wrote him a check
16:08
Speaker 1: for a $ 5, 000 donation.
16:10
Speaker 2: Which makes absolutely zero sense based on the profile we
16:13
Speaker 2: just established of Bud.
16:14
Speaker 1: Right. We're talking about a guy known as a local
16:17
Speaker 1: loan shark. A guy who skip traces poor people who
16:21
Speaker 1: miss a car payment. Bud Billings doesn't just hand over
16:24
Speaker 1: five grand with no strings attached to a guy he
16:26
Speaker 1: met twice.
16:28
Speaker 2: The detectives know this immediately, but they let him keep talking.
16:32
Speaker 2: They slide a photograph of the red van from the
16:34
Speaker 2: news broadcast across the table.
16:36
Speaker 1: Patrick looks at it, doesn't miss a beat, and admits
16:38
Speaker 1: it looks very similar to his van, but he insists
16:41
Speaker 1: his van is completely broken down.
16:43
Speaker 2: He says the heater is busted, the engine knocks when
16:46
Speaker 2: you shift gears, the belts squeal.
16:48
Speaker 1: He literally leans back in his chair and says, y'all
16:50
Speaker 1: are welcome to take it and inspect it, drive it
16:52
Speaker 1: if you can.
16:53
Speaker 2: Now wait, why would someone guilty willingly offer up their
16:56
Speaker 2: van for inspection and talk so openly?
16:59
Speaker 1: That's the million dollar question. Is he just hoping they
17:02
Speaker 1: won't find anything?
17:03
Speaker 2: It's deeper than that. It stems from a profound narcissistic
17:07
Speaker 2: delusion that he can outsmart the forensic process. Patrick believes
17:11
Speaker 2: that if he acts completely unconcerned, the police will interpret
17:15
Speaker 2: that lack of anxiety as a guarantee of innocence and
17:18
Speaker 2: simply cross him off the list.
17:19
Speaker 1: He thinks he can Jedi mind trick them by offering
17:22
Speaker 1: them the evidence.
17:22
Speaker 2: Yes. It's astounding. And he keeps digging. Unprompted, he starts
17:28
Speaker 2: volunteering his alibi for the exact day and time of
17:31
Speaker 2: the murder.
17:32
Speaker 1: Before they even ask.
17:32
Speaker 2: Yes.
17:33
Speaker 1: Yes.
17:34
Speaker 2: He gives a meticulous play-by-play of his Thursday evening. He
17:37
Speaker 2: talks about running mundane errands, heading over to his dad's
17:40
Speaker 2: trailer around 6.30 p.m. to discuss settling his grandmother's estate.
17:44
Speaker 1: He talks about calming down his dad, who suffers from paranoia,
17:47
Speaker 1: and then heading home.
17:48
Speaker 2: He is trying to build an impenetrable digital and temporal
17:51
Speaker 2: wall around himself. He told the detectives they are welcome
17:55
Speaker 2: to pull his cell phone records, they can check his
17:56
Speaker 2: Facebook page to see exactly when he was logged online
17:58
Speaker 2: that night.
17:59
Speaker 1: He is trying to bury them in data points that
18:01
Speaker 1: prove he was just a normal guy having a boring Thursday.
18:04
Speaker 2: But the detectives don't bite. They keep pressing him on
18:07
Speaker 2: his connection to the van and to Bud.
18:09
Speaker 1: And when Patrick realizes his charm offensive isn't working, he
18:12
Speaker 1: reaches for the rumors. He shifts gears and tells the
18:15
Speaker 1: investigators that Bud had unscrupulous business partners.
18:19
Speaker 2: Then he leans in, lowers his voice, and says he's
18:22
Speaker 2: heard chatter on the street that Bud was heavily associated
18:26
Speaker 2: with the Mexican mafia operating out of Alabama.
18:28
Speaker 1: And that Bud was secretly cleaning cartel money.
18:31
Speaker 2: He even cites his sources. He tells the police he
18:34
Speaker 2: watches the History Channel and the show Gangland, so he
18:37
Speaker 2: understands how these cartels operate and how they do hits.
18:40
Speaker 1: I mean, he is taking the exact rumors generated by
18:43
Speaker 1: Bud's business practices and trying to hand them to the
18:46
Speaker 1: police as a prepackaged Hollywood-style alternate suspect.
18:50
Speaker 2: He actually looks at the detectives and says, if you
18:52
Speaker 2: want to lead, that's what you want to lead on.
18:54
Speaker 1: It's incredibly bold.
18:55
Speaker 2: When a suspect vehemently pushes a highly specific, exotic alternate theory,
19:01
Speaker 2: especially one that conveniently explains a professional style tactical hit investigators,
19:06
Speaker 2: immediately know they're being played.
19:08
Speaker 1: Because innocent people don't do that.
19:10
Speaker 2: Right. People who are genuinely innocent might say, I don't
19:13
Speaker 2: know who did this, maybe a robber. They don't usually
19:16
Speaker 2: spin intricate webs about Alabama-based Mexican cartels unless they are
19:21
Speaker 2: trying to direct your attention away from themselves.
19:24
Speaker 1: The detectives finally call his bluff. They drop the pleasantries
19:28
Speaker 1: and say, look, we've got you with a red van.
19:30
Speaker 1: You admit you know our victim. Whether you like it
19:32
Speaker 1: or not, you're a suspect.
19:34
Speaker 2: And that is when Patrick's facade finally cracks. He gets defensive,
19:38
Speaker 2: claims the police are intentionally trying to get him murdered
19:41
Speaker 2: by the Mexican mafia by leaking his name.
19:44
Speaker 1: And he demands an attorney. So the interview ends and
19:48
Speaker 1: Patrick and his father are allowed to leave the station.
19:50
Speaker 2: Patrick walks out of that room entirely confident that he
19:54
Speaker 2: has muddied the waters enough to stall the investigation.
19:56
Speaker 1: But the reality of detective work is that lies create
20:00
Speaker 1: friction against reality, and friction creates heat.
20:03
Speaker 2: The police don't just file his story away. They immediately
20:06
Speaker 2: go out and test every single claim he made.
20:09
Speaker 1: While Patrick thinks he's a mastermind, the police go have
20:12
Speaker 1: a chat with Henry Kabtai.
20:13
Speaker 2: The very man the family suspected, and the man Patrick claimed,
20:17
Speaker 2: had originally introduced him to Bud.
20:19
Speaker 1: The detectives don't sugarcoat it. They tell Kab, now is
20:22
Speaker 1: not the time to play games. We're going balls to
20:25
Speaker 1: the wall on this.
20:26
Speaker 2: And Kab is remarkably transparent. He provides an airtight alibi
20:30
Speaker 2: for himself for the night of the murders, totally clearing
20:33
Speaker 2: his name.
20:34
Speaker 1: And then he starts explaining his history with Patrick Jr.
20:37
Speaker 1: And in one conversation, he completely dismantles Patrick Jr. 's
20:40
Speaker 1: entire universe of lies.
20:42
Speaker 2: Cab explains that years ago, he had been robbed while
20:45
Speaker 2: doing business down in Mexico. So he hired Patrick, who
20:48
Speaker 2: had a background doing amateur cage fighting, to give him
20:51
Speaker 2: private self-defense lessons.
20:53
Speaker 1: Eventually, Patrick wanted to open a brick-and-mortar dojo in a
20:56
Speaker 1: nearby town called Pace. And this is where the financial
20:59
Speaker 1: truth comes out.
21:00
Speaker 2: Cab reveals that the $ 5, 000 donation Patrick was bragging about
21:03
Speaker 2: to the cops. It wasn't a donation at all.
21:06
Speaker 1: It was an $ 8, 000 high-interest loan from Bud Billings to
21:10
Speaker 1: fund Patrick's dojo.
21:11
Speaker 2: Cab laughs at the idea of Bud making a donation.
21:14
Speaker 2: He tells Believe that Bud wouldn't give you a dime
21:16
Speaker 2: unless he was guaranteed to get 29 cents back in profit.
21:19
Speaker 1: The dojo loan was strictly business. But the dojo failed spectacularly.
21:24
Speaker 1: Patrick defaulted and couldn't pay the money back.
21:27
Speaker 2: Bud was actually getting annoyed and asked Cab to go
21:29
Speaker 2: find out what was going on with his money.
21:31
Speaker 1: Cab says Patrick kept dodging him, making up elaborate excuses
21:35
Speaker 1: about waiting on a massive lucrative government contract to train
21:38
Speaker 1: Coast Guard boarding crews.
21:40
Speaker 2: A contract that, shocker, didn't exist.
21:43
Speaker 1: Cab paints a deeply pathetic picture of Patrick's reality. Patrick
21:48
Speaker 1: isn't a community hero training 20,000 kids. He is a
21:51
Speaker 1: compulsive liar facing extreme, crushing financial ruins.
21:55
Speaker 2: Cab tells detectives he literally had to pay Patrick's residential
21:59
Speaker 2: power bill once because Patrick was so broke his electricity
22:02
Speaker 2: was being shut off.
22:03
Speaker 1: Patrick's mother had just filed for bankruptcy, and the bank
22:05
Speaker 1: was actively in the process of repossessing Patrick's red Ford Expedition.
22:09
Speaker 2: Suddenly, the motive snaps into brutal clarity. It is not
22:12
Speaker 2: an international cartel hit. It is sheer, desperate financial panic.
22:16
Speaker 1: Cab also confirms that Patrick knew exactly who Bud was,
22:19
Speaker 1: knew about the wealth he carried in that briefcase.
22:22
Speaker 2: And critically... knew about the new 7,500 square foot compound
22:26
Speaker 2: Bud had just built. The Billings house was a point
22:29
Speaker 2: of local gossip. Everyone in town knew about the extensive
22:33
Speaker 2: security system.
22:34
Speaker 1: Which naturally led desperate people to assume that Bud must
22:36
Speaker 1: be guarding millions of dollars in cash inside.
22:39
Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is the investigative pivot. The police stop
22:44
Speaker 2: looking at the mastermind and start looking at the weak links.
22:47
Speaker 1: CABTI provides the motive desperation, but they still need to
22:50
Speaker 1: connect Patrick to the actual crime scene.
22:52
Speaker 2: And that physical footprint was sitting out in the open
22:55
Speaker 2: at his father's trailer.
22:56
Speaker 1: While Patrick was spinning his cartel tales at the station earlier,
23:00
Speaker 1: detectives had gone to Leonard Sr.
23:01
Speaker 2: 's property. They got written permission from Leonard Sr. 's wife,
23:04
Speaker 2: Carol Brandt, to search the premises.
23:07
Speaker 1: They are walking around this well-worn, cluttered trailer, and a
23:10
Speaker 1: detective spots something completely out of place in the trash.
23:14
Speaker 1: A pristine, brand-new Walmart shoebox. Specifically, a box for a
23:19
Speaker 1: brand of boots only sold at Walmart.
23:22
Speaker 2: It seems trivial, but in an investigation, an anomaly is
23:25
Speaker 2: an anomaly. They take the box, match the barcode, and
23:27
Speaker 2: head straight to the local Walmart.
23:29
Speaker 1: They ask the loss prevention staff to pull the surveillance
23:32
Speaker 1: video for the exact purchase date listed on the receipt
23:35
Speaker 1: inside the box.
23:36
Speaker 2: And bingo, the video shows Patrick Gonzalez Jr. standing at
23:41
Speaker 2: the register buying the boots.
23:43
Speaker 1: But the crucial part is who he is with. He
23:45
Speaker 1: is not alone.
23:46
Speaker 2: No, he is with his young son and two unidentified
23:50
Speaker 2: black men.
23:50
Speaker 1: The security footage watches them leave the store and head
23:53
Speaker 1: to the parking lot. Patrick and his son get into
23:56
Speaker 1: his red Ford Expedition, and the two unidentified men get
24:00
Speaker 1: into a gold Ford Explorer.
24:01
Speaker 2: This tiny piece of plastic and cardboard completely shatters Patrick's
24:06
Speaker 2: carefully constructed timeline.
24:07
Speaker 1: He told the police he was a lone wolf just
24:09
Speaker 1: running errands and visiting his dad.
24:11
Speaker 2: The video proves he was actively mobilizing a crew, linking
24:14
Speaker 2: up with unknown accomplices just days before the home invasion.
24:18
Speaker 1: I just have to point out the irony here. Patrick
24:20
Speaker 1: thought he was pulling off a sophisticated hit. He thought
24:22
Speaker 1: he was executing a flawless commando-style operation that would baffle
24:26
Speaker 1: the FBI and be blamed on the Mexican mafia.
24:28
Speaker 2: And instead, he is completely undone by a $ 300 Craigslist
24:32
Speaker 2: van with tar on the roof and a literal trip
24:35
Speaker 2: to Walmart for shoes.
24:36
Speaker 1: At what point does a suspect's own grandiosity become their
24:40
Speaker 1: ultimate downfall?
24:41
Speaker 2: Well, grandiosity breeds this specific kind of carelessness. When a
24:45
Speaker 2: suspect genuinely believes they are the smartest person in the state,
24:48
Speaker 2: They focus all their energy on the theatrical lies, the
24:51
Speaker 2: cartel story, the fake alibi.
24:53
Speaker 1: And they completely ignore the mundane digital and physical realities
24:57
Speaker 1: of modern life. They don't think a shoebox matters because
25:00
Speaker 1: they're focused on the cinematic narrative.
25:03
Speaker 2: Exactly. So the police have their mastermind and they have
25:06
Speaker 2: visual proof of a crew, but they know Patrick won't confess.
25:09
Speaker 1: So they deploy a classic strategy. You go after the
25:12
Speaker 1: accomplices who don't have the psychological armor or the stomach
25:15
Speaker 1: for a capital murder charge.
25:17
Speaker 2: They bring Carol Brandt, the stepmother, back into the station.
25:21
Speaker 2: And the pressure immediately gets to her.
25:23
Speaker 1: She starts filling in the blanks. She admits she saw
25:25
Speaker 1: Patrick and a man she knows as Wayne Coldiron moving
25:28
Speaker 1: that red van around the yard.
25:30
Speaker 2: She confirms that Patrick is the one who brought the
25:32
Speaker 2: empty boot box into the trailer and specifically asked her
25:36
Speaker 2: to throw it away.
25:37
Speaker 1: She also inadvertently provides the cover story Patrick used for
25:40
Speaker 1: the van. She says Patrick and his friends were supposed
25:43
Speaker 1: to be fixing up the engine and so her husband,
25:46
Speaker 1: Leonard Sr., could use it for his pressure-washing business.
25:50
Speaker 2: This is significant, because Leonard Sr. suffers from severe brain
25:53
Speaker 2: damage and short-term memory loss, making him highly dependent and
25:57
Speaker 2: vulnerable to manipulation.
25:59
Speaker 1: Armed with Carol's statements, they bring Leonard Sr. into the box,
26:03
Speaker 1: and the older man completely breaks.
26:05
Speaker 2: The cognitive deficits combined with the stress of the interrogation
26:09
Speaker 2: shatter whatever loyalty he had to his son's plan. He
26:12
Speaker 2: confesses to everything.
26:13
Speaker 1: He places himself in the van. He names the crew,
26:16
Speaker 1: confirming it was himself, his son Patrick, his pressure-washing buddy
26:20
Speaker 1: Wayne Coldiron, and four black men whose names he didn't
26:23
Speaker 1: really know.
26:24
Speaker 2: He throws out names like Slim, Gene, Frank, or David.
26:28
Speaker 1: His description of the crime is terrifying because of how
26:31
Speaker 1: passive he claims to have been. He says he was
26:33
Speaker 1: just sitting in the driver's seat of the van.
26:35
Speaker 2: The doors kick open. The guys rush the house. And
26:38
Speaker 2: a minute later, he hears rapid gunfire.
26:41
Speaker 1: He tells detectives he was so terrified he almost soiled himself,
26:44
Speaker 1: praying they were just shooting into the ceiling to scare
26:47
Speaker 1: the homeowners.
26:48
Speaker 2: He also hands investigators a crucial piece of forensic evidence.
26:52
Speaker 2: He explains that after the murders, they drove the van
26:55
Speaker 2: back to his property and attempted to disguise it.
26:58
Speaker 1: They took a 50-50 mix of muriating acid and water
27:01
Speaker 1: and scrubbed the side of the van, hoping it would
27:04
Speaker 1: alter the faded red paint.
27:05
Speaker 2: It didn't work. It just left one side of the
27:07
Speaker 2: van red and the other side a strange chalky purple.
27:11
Speaker 1: So now police have a direct co-conspirator concession. They immediately
27:15
Speaker 1: arrest Wayne Coldiron.
27:17
Speaker 2: Wayne is brought in and he tries to run the
27:20
Speaker 2: exact same playbook as Patrick Jr. Total aggressive denial.
27:23
Speaker 1: He claims he was home all night with his girlfriend.
27:26
Speaker 1: He says the only time he left was to go
27:27
Speaker 1: to a BP or a CVS for cigarettes.
27:30
Speaker 2: But the dynamic has fundamentally shifted. The police aren't fishing
27:33
Speaker 2: for information anymore. They have a confession. They have zero
27:37
Speaker 2: patience for Wayne's lies.
27:39
Speaker 1: The lead detective step aside. and the state attorney himself
27:42
Speaker 1: walks into the interrogation room to handle Wayne.
27:45
Speaker 2: And that is a huge escalation.
27:47
Speaker 1: I read the transcript of this interaction, and it is intense.
27:50
Speaker 1: The state attorney doesn't ask questions. He uses the reality
27:54
Speaker 1: of the situation like a sledgehammer.
27:56
Speaker 2: He lifts one in the eye and says, I decide
27:59
Speaker 2: who gets the death penalty. The train is leaving the station.
28:03
Speaker 2: You are either going to tell us the truth, or
28:05
Speaker 2: we are going to convince you without it.
28:06
Speaker 1: The prosecutor systematically dismantles Wayne's hope. He tells him Leonard Sr.
28:11
Speaker 1: has already confessed and placed him inside the van.
28:14
Speaker 2: He reveals they lifted Wayne's fingerprint from the van door.
28:18
Speaker 1: He points out that Wayne mysteriously shaved his head the
28:21
Speaker 1: day after the murders to alter his appearance. And then
28:25
Speaker 1: the state attorney explicitly threatens him with the electric chair.
28:28
Speaker 2: He breaks down the legal aggravating factors right there in
28:31
Speaker 2: the room. He says it was cold, calculated, and premeditated
28:34
Speaker 2: because they planned it.
28:36
Speaker 1: It was committed during a violent felony, the home invasion.
28:39
Speaker 1: They killed two people instead of one.
28:40
Speaker 2: And the most shilling factor? They executed a man while
28:44
Speaker 2: his wife was forced to watch, which legally upgrades the
28:47
Speaker 2: crime to heinous, atrocious, and cruel.
28:50
Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for the listener? I mean,
28:53
Speaker 1: is it ethical for a prosecutor to threaten the electric
28:57
Speaker 1: chair to extract a confession? It sounds like a high-stakes
29:01
Speaker 1: poker game where the state holds all the cards, like
29:03
Speaker 1: a recipe for a false confession.
29:05
Speaker 2: It's a vital question. In many jurisdictions, lying about physical
29:09
Speaker 2: evidence is legal, but threatening an illegal punishment is not. However,
29:14
Speaker 2: in this case, the prosecutor is stating factual legal realities.
29:18
Speaker 1: Right, because first-degree double murder in Florida, with those specific
29:22
Speaker 1: aggravating factors, genuinely carries the possibility of the death penalty.
29:26
Speaker 2: Yes. It is intensely coercive, yes. but it is a
29:29
Speaker 2: permissible tactic because it forces the suspect to face the
29:33
Speaker 2: actual consequences of their situation.
29:34
Speaker 1: So it's about breaking their loyalty to the group.
29:36
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's the prisoner's dilemma in real life. It relies
29:40
Speaker 2: on isolated suspects weighing their own survival against their loyalty
29:43
Speaker 2: to silent partners. By showing Wayne that the train is leaving,
29:47
Speaker 2: meaning Leonard Sr. has already spoken, and claimed the leniency
29:50
Speaker 2: Wayne has thrust into a panic of self-preservation.
29:53
Speaker 1: If he stays silent, he takes the fall for the mastermind.
29:56
Speaker 2: Right. And the pressure cooker works. Wayne caves. But He
30:00
Speaker 2: uses what I think is the most common survival tactic
30:03
Speaker 2: in the criminal playbook.
30:05
Speaker 1: I was there, but I didn't shoot defense.
30:08
Speaker 2: Yep. He admits he was there. He confirms they met
30:11
Speaker 2: at the trailer. He places himself at the scene, but
30:13
Speaker 2: he desperately tries to minimize his own culpability.
30:16
Speaker 1: Wing claims he walked up to the back door, saw
30:19
Speaker 1: a child standing there, lost his nerve completely, and walked
30:22
Speaker 1: back to the van. He insists he never went inside.
30:26
Speaker 2: But to save himself, he gives the state the fatal
30:28
Speaker 2: blow against Patrick.
30:29
Speaker 1: Wayne confirms that when Patrick ran back to the van,
30:32
Speaker 1: he was holding a black 9mm automatic handgun. And Patrick
30:37
Speaker 1: explicitly announced to the crew, I iced both of them.
30:40
Speaker 2: So the older members of the crew have cracked under
30:42
Speaker 2: the weight of the potential consequences. But while they are
30:45
Speaker 2: singing to save their lives, the younger recruits are about
30:48
Speaker 2: to reveal just how compartmentalized and chaotic Patrick's plan truly was.
30:52
Speaker 1: This part is staggering. Over in Okaloosa County, which is
30:56
Speaker 1: roughly an hour east of Pensacola... Two young men walk
30:59
Speaker 1: into the sheriff's office and turn themselves in.
31:01
Speaker 2: 19-year-old Frederick Thornton and 16-year-old Rake Florence.
31:06
Speaker 1: 16 years old? A child essentially wrapped up in a
31:10
Speaker 1: capital murder case. Their story is wild.
31:13
Speaker 2: They claim they were recruited by a local mechanic named Gary,
31:16
Speaker 2: who was later identified as Gary Sumner, and a guy
31:19
Speaker 2: they knew as Stahls, Donnie Stahlworth.
31:22
Speaker 1: The teens claim they had absolutely no idea they were
31:25
Speaker 1: walking into a multi-million dollar vault heist. Or a cartel hit.
31:30
Speaker 1: They say they were recruited for a simple, run-of-the-mill drug ripoff.
31:33
Speaker 2: They were told they were just going to steal a
31:35
Speaker 2: quarter pound of weed from a local dealer.
31:37
Speaker 1: Their account of the night perfectly matches the physical evidence,
31:40
Speaker 1: but their perspective is entirely different.
31:42
Speaker 2: They describe getting into the red van, and they nail
31:45
Speaker 2: the seating arrangement. Stahl's in a white guy driving, Frederick
31:48
Speaker 2: and Rake in the middle seats, two others in the back.
31:51
Speaker 1: They say when the van pulled up to the massive
31:54
Speaker 1: brick compound, the older men suddenly jumped out with heavy
31:57
Speaker 1: weaponry and ordered Frederick and Rake to stay put and
32:00
Speaker 1: guard the van.
32:01
Speaker 2: They hear the gunfire. And when the crew comes sprinting back,
32:05
Speaker 2: Rake and Frederick say Patrick threw the safe in the back, announced,
32:08
Speaker 2: I killed them, and then turned to the terrified teenagers.
32:12
Speaker 1: He said if they ever breathed a word of this
32:15
Speaker 1: to anyone, he would slaughter them and their entire families.
32:18
Speaker 2: This raises an important question about how conspiracies actually function
32:21
Speaker 2: in the real world. We think of conspiracies as these
32:25
Speaker 2: unified groups where everyone knows the plan.
32:27
Speaker 1: Like in the movies.
32:28
Speaker 2: Exactly. The reality is strict compartmentalization. Criminals rarely share the
32:34
Speaker 2: full truth with their subordinates. Patrick sold different stories to
32:38
Speaker 2: different people based on what they needed to hear to participate.
32:40
Speaker 1: So to the teens, it was just a drug ripoff.
32:43
Speaker 1: To the older, desperate men like Cab or Wayne... It
32:47
Speaker 1: was a multi-million dollar vault heist targeting a money launderer.
32:51
Speaker 2: He siloed the information to control the participants.
32:54
Speaker 1: But the makeup of the crew he assembled is just absurd.
32:57
Speaker 1: You have a bankrupt martial arts instructor, his brain-damaged elderly father,
33:02
Speaker 1: a military anti-aircraft specialist, a mechanic, and two teenagers who
33:06
Speaker 1: think they're robbing a weed dealer.
33:08
Speaker 2: It is a dark, tragic, reverse Ocean's Eleven.
33:11
Speaker 1: Seriously. The environment of Donnie Stallworth's stalls is deeply unsettling.
33:16
Speaker 1: He wasn't some street criminal.
33:18
Speaker 2: No, he was an Air Force sergeant with 10 years
33:21
Speaker 2: of honorable service stationed at Eglin Air Force Base. He
33:24
Speaker 2: specialized in maintaining anti-aircraft systems.
33:27
Speaker 1: He had a real career, a family, a pension on
33:30
Speaker 1: the line. And when investigators finally track him down and
33:33
Speaker 1: interview his wife, she describes a man whose conscience is
33:37
Speaker 1: literally tearing him apart.
33:39
Speaker 2: She tells police that the day after the murders, they
33:41
Speaker 2: were sitting in their living room watching CNN. The story
33:44
Speaker 2: of the Billings murders flashes on the screen.
33:47
Speaker 1: She says Donnie's face just went blank. He grabbed his face,
33:49
Speaker 1: pulled his hands down hard, started rocking back and forth
33:52
Speaker 1: on the couch, and just blurted out, I did something bad.
33:55
Speaker 1: I know something about the stuff in Pensacola.
33:57
Speaker 2: The psychological weight of crossing that boundary from soldier to
34:01
Speaker 2: home invader just crushed him. His wife was horrified and
34:04
Speaker 2: told him he needed to turn himself in immediately.
34:06
Speaker 1: He was arrested and implicated alongside the rest of the crew,
34:10
Speaker 1: including the mechanic, Gary Sumner, who was picked up on
34:12
Speaker 1: a suspended license.
34:14
Speaker 2: So the state has rounded up the entire physical crew.
34:17
Speaker 2: But there is a massive gaping hole in the case.
34:20
Speaker 2: Where did the physical evidence go? Right.
34:22
Speaker 1: Where is the heavy safe they stole? Where are the
34:25
Speaker 1: murder weapons? And on a deeper level, how did Patrick
34:28
Speaker 1: justify executing two beloved parents to his inner circle without
34:33
Speaker 1: them turning on him immediately?
34:35
Speaker 2: To answer those questions, investigators turn their attention to a
34:38
Speaker 2: woman named Pam Long Wiggins. She is a 47-year-old local
34:42
Speaker 2: real estate agent and antique shop owner. And she happens
34:45
Speaker 2: to be a very, very close friend of Patrick Gonzalez Jr.
34:48
Speaker 1: They are incredibly tight. She refers to Patrick affectionately as
34:52
Speaker 1: her favorite girlfriend. They drank scotch together. They barbecued. Their
34:55
Speaker 1: families were intertwined.
34:56
Speaker 2: When investigators bring Pam in, they realize she is holding
35:00
Speaker 2: the keys to the physical evidence. To get her to
35:02
Speaker 2: open up, the state attorney makes a calculated legal move.
35:06
Speaker 2: They grant her use immunity.
35:08
Speaker 1: For listeners who might not know, use immunity is a
35:10
Speaker 1: very specific legal tool. It means the prosecutors promise they
35:13
Speaker 1: will not use the actual words she says in that
35:16
Speaker 1: interview against her in a future trial.
35:18
Speaker 2: Right. However, they can still charge her using evidence derived
35:22
Speaker 2: from her statements or from independent sources. It's a way
35:26
Speaker 2: to compel someone to talk when they are pleading the
35:29
Speaker 2: Fifth Amendment. usually to locate crucial physical evidence like murder weapons.
35:33
Speaker 1: And it works. Under the protection of use immunity, Pam
35:36
Speaker 1: reveals a staggering, infuriating level of involvement.
35:39
Speaker 2: She admits that on the night of the murders, just
35:41
Speaker 2: hours after the execution, Patrick called her and told her
35:44
Speaker 2: to meet him at her antique mall.
35:46
Speaker 1: He rolls up in an SUV accompanied by the black
35:49
Speaker 1: men from the crew, and they literally transfer a heavy
35:52
Speaker 1: two-foot square metal safe into the back of Pam's van.
35:56
Speaker 2: And her actions afterwards cement her role as an accessory.
36:00
Speaker 2: She doesn't call the police. She drives the safe home,
36:02
Speaker 2: has her 20-year-old son lug it to the back corner
36:05
Speaker 2: of her residential yard, and they physically bury it under
36:08
Speaker 2: a massive pile of landscaping bricks to hide it.
36:10
Speaker 1: But she doesn't stop at the safe. She also admits
36:13
Speaker 1: that she helped hide the entire arsenal used in the crime.
36:16
Speaker 1: She took three long guns, two Mossberg shotguns, and an
36:20
Speaker 1: AK-47 and drove them across the state line to hide
36:24
Speaker 1: them with a friend in Mississippi.
36:26
Speaker 2: She also took a handgun. and jammed it underneath the
36:28
Speaker 2: backseat springs of her red Buick GS that was sitting
36:31
Speaker 2: parked at a local mechanic's shop.
36:33
Speaker 1: She functioned as the quartermaster and the cleaner for the conspiracy,
36:38
Speaker 1: completely insulating Patrick from the physical evidence of his crimes.
36:41
Speaker 2: But throughout the entire interrogation, she plays the victim.
36:45
Speaker 1: Oh, I pushed back hard when I read her interview transcript.
36:48
Speaker 1: She claimed she was just shocked that she was trying
36:50
Speaker 1: to help a friend in a panic and that she
36:52
Speaker 1: had absolutely no idea anyone had been hurt until she
36:55
Speaker 1: saw the news on television the next day.
36:57
Speaker 2: Which completely contradicts the rest of her statement.
37:00
Speaker 1: Exactly. How does an adult woman hear her friend planning
37:04
Speaker 1: a home invasion, help hide the murder weapons, and then
37:08
Speaker 1: act shocked? In the exact same interview, she admits that
37:11
Speaker 1: for months prior to the murders, Patrick had been sitting
37:14
Speaker 1: in her living room, drinking her scotch and explicitly running
37:18
Speaker 1: robbery scenarios by her.
37:20
Speaker 2: She says he talked openly about the logistics of climbing
37:22
Speaker 2: the fences at the Billings compound, how to kick in
37:25
Speaker 2: the doors, how to locate the safe room.
37:28
Speaker 1: She even admits that a week prior to the actual murders,
37:32
Speaker 1: she agreed to act as a decoy driver during a
37:34
Speaker 1: dry run of the robbery. The only reason it didn't
37:37
Speaker 1: happen that night is because the massive security floodlights at
37:40
Speaker 1: the Billings house clicked on and spooked the crew.
37:43
Speaker 2: So how do these people sleep at night? It comes
37:45
Speaker 2: down to a powerful psychological mechanism called moral disengagement combined
37:50
Speaker 2: with confirmation bias.
37:52
Speaker 1: Moral disengagement.
37:53
Speaker 2: Yes. Most people cannot commit evil acts while viewing themselves
37:57
Speaker 2: as the villain. They have to construct a narrative where
38:00
Speaker 2: their actions are somehow justified or where the victim deserves it.
38:03
Speaker 1: And Patrick handed them that narrative on a silver platter.
38:06
Speaker 2: He did. Pam reveals to investigators that Patrick had spent
38:10
Speaker 2: months systematically assassinating Bud Billings' character to everyone in his circle.
38:15
Speaker 2: Patrick claimed Bud was an evil, horrible man.
38:17
Speaker 1: He spread vile rumors that Bud was a pervert who
38:20
Speaker 1: actively harmed the special needs children in his care. He
38:23
Speaker 1: repeated the lie that Bud was washing millions of dollars
38:26
Speaker 1: in blood money for the Mexican mafia.
38:28
Speaker 2: None of which was true. Completely fabricated. But it was
38:31
Speaker 2: exactly what Pam Long Wiggins and Leonard Sr. desperately needed
38:35
Speaker 2: to hear.
38:36
Speaker 1: Because if Bud is a monster, then robbing him isn't
38:38
Speaker 1: a crime. It's vigilante justice.
38:41
Speaker 2: Exactly. It allowed them to participate in the planning and
38:44
Speaker 2: the cover-up of a violent home invasion without feeling like
38:47
Speaker 2: the villains. They dehumanized the victims to justify their own greed.
38:52
Speaker 1: But the horrific, undeniable reality of what actually happened inside
38:56
Speaker 1: that house couldn't be hidden by Patrick's lies. To get
39:00
Speaker 1: the final truth of the crime, investigators had to interview
39:02
Speaker 1: the surviving victims.
39:04
Speaker 2: They brought in a specialist from the State Agency for
39:06
Speaker 2: Persons with Disabilities to gently interview the children who were
39:09
Speaker 2: present during the breach.
39:11
Speaker 1: Their testimony cuts through all the grandiosity, all the cartel theories,
39:14
Speaker 1: and all the moral justifications. The reality of the crime
39:18
Speaker 1: is cemented by Jacob, a young man with autism and
39:21
Speaker 1: significant speech challenges.
39:22
Speaker 2: It is heartbreaking. He communicated with the specialist through a
39:26
Speaker 2: mix of broken speech and sign language. He explained that
39:30
Speaker 2: his dad, Bud, was asleep in the bedroom snoring when
39:34
Speaker 2: two bad men in black masks violently kicked the door open.
39:38
Speaker 1: Jacob signs that his dad immediately got up. The men
39:41
Speaker 1: pointed their weapons and told Bud he was going to die.
39:44
Speaker 1: But Bud Billings, the man they all thought was an
39:46
Speaker 1: easy target, didn't surrender.
39:48
Speaker 2: Jacob physically demonstrated how his dad fought back, lunging forward
39:52
Speaker 2: and grabbing one of the masked intruders fiercely by the
39:54
Speaker 2: back of the neck in a desperate struggle to protect
39:56
Speaker 2: his wife.
39:57
Speaker 1: The intruder managed to break free, aimed his weapon, counted
40:00
Speaker 1: to three, and then opened fire on both Bud and Melanie.
40:03
Speaker 1: Jacob told the interviewer he heard his dad screaming, no way,
40:06
Speaker 1: no way, as he fell.
40:08
Speaker 2: And Matthew, the boy who was upstairs, reported hearing a
40:11
Speaker 2: loud knock, followed by seven massive booms echoing through the
40:14
Speaker 2: house and then the sound of his mother screaming.
40:17
Speaker 1: When you place the sheer innocence and trauma of those
40:19
Speaker 1: children next to the toxic, elaborate greed of the adults
40:23
Speaker 1: sitting in those interrogation rooms spinning lies about the Mexican mafia,
40:26
Speaker 1: it is a profound, sickening contrast.
40:30
Speaker 2: It highlights exactly what was destroyed for a safe that
40:33
Speaker 2: ended up containing nothing but family documents and prescription medication.
40:37
Speaker 1: The truth was finally out. The cartel rumors were dismantled.
40:40
Speaker 1: The lies were exposed. The justice system had to have
40:43
Speaker 1: the final word on this crew.
40:45
Speaker 2: And the justice system moved with a swiftness and efficiency
40:48
Speaker 2: that you rarely see in sprawling conspiracy cases.
40:51
Speaker 1: Despite Patrick Gonzalez Jr. 's endless desperate claims of innocence,
40:56
Speaker 1: his trial was swift.
40:57
Speaker 2: He tried every trick in the book in court. He
41:00
Speaker 2: argued there was no physical DNA linking his hands to
41:03
Speaker 2: the murder weapon. He claimed he was the victim of
41:05
Speaker 2: a massive coordinated conspiracy orchestrated by corrupt police and a
41:10
Speaker 2: biased media.
41:11
Speaker 1: But the jury saw right through the smoke and mirrors.
41:13
Speaker 1: After all the evidence was presented, it took the jury
41:16
Speaker 1: a mere five hours of deliberation to find Patrick Jr.
41:19
Speaker 1: guilty of first-degree murder and home invasion robbery.
41:22
Speaker 2: He was initially sentenced to death. However, years later in 2017,
41:26
Speaker 2: that sentence was reduced to life in prison without the
41:29
Speaker 2: possibility of parole.
41:30
Speaker 1: Why was that?
41:31
Speaker 2: It wasn't an exoneration. It was due to a Florida
41:34
Speaker 2: Supreme Court ruling that required a unanimous jury recommendation for
41:37
Speaker 2: the death penalty. Patrick's jury had voted 10-2 for death,
41:41
Speaker 2: so his sentence was statutorily reduced to life.
41:45
Speaker 1: The rest of the crew faced total devastation. Leonard Sr.,
41:48
Speaker 1: the father whose trailer served as the staging ground, took
41:51
Speaker 1: a plea deal for 17.5 years. He ended up dying
41:55
Speaker 1: in prison.
41:56
Speaker 2: Wayne Coldiron and the Air Force Sergeant Donnie Stallworth both
41:59
Speaker 2: took their chances at trial. Both were found guilty and
42:02
Speaker 2: sentenced to life in prison.
42:03
Speaker 1: The younger recruits, Frederick Thornton and Rake Florence, the teenagers
42:07
Speaker 1: who thought they were stealing weed, received 22 and 24 years, respectively,
42:11
Speaker 1: despite cooperating with the state.
42:13
Speaker 2: Gary Sumner, the mechanic, received 20 years.
42:16
Speaker 1: And Pam Longwiggins, the antique dealer who hid the safe
42:19
Speaker 1: and the AK-47. She refused to back down, went to trial,
42:22
Speaker 1: was convicted of being an accessory after the fact, and
42:25
Speaker 1: was sentenced to 28 years behind bars. She also died
42:28
Speaker 1: in prison in 2015. Cab tie.
42:30
Speaker 2: The man Patrick tried so desperately to frame from the
42:33
Speaker 2: very first hour, was fully investigated and entirely cleared of
42:36
Speaker 2: any involvement.
42:37
Speaker 1: And the surviving children, the ones who lost their sanctuary,
42:41
Speaker 1: remained together in the care of James and Ashley Markham.
42:43
Speaker 2: When you step back and look at the totality of
42:46
Speaker 2: how this was solved, it wasn't a single smoking gun.
42:50
Speaker 2: It was the overwhelming weight of the mundane footprint. The
42:53
Speaker 2: $ 300 Craigslist ad, the Walmart surveillance video, the co-conspirator testimony
42:59
Speaker 2: extracted through legal pressure.
43:01
Speaker 1: It was an airtight case that proved no amount of
43:04
Speaker 1: narcissistic grandiosity can defeat basic, methodical police work. It is
43:09
Speaker 1: the absolute finality of it all that sticks with me.
43:12
Speaker 2: Yes, the truth prevailed despite Patrick's smoke and mirrors.
43:15
Speaker 1: One man's massive ego, his greed, and his endless lies
43:19
Speaker 1: destroyed an incredible sanctuary and ruined the lives of literally
43:23
Speaker 1: dozens of people. his victims, their children, his own family,
43:27
Speaker 1: and his accomplices. We really want to thank you, the listener,
43:30
Speaker 1: for sticking with us on this intense deep dive into
43:33
Speaker 1: the human psyche and the mechanical reality of a homicide investigation.
43:36
Speaker 2: Before we sign off, I want to leave you with
43:38
Speaker 2: a concept that we haven't touched on yet, something that
43:40
Speaker 2: builds on everything we've discussed.
43:41
Speaker 1: Okay, what is it?
43:42
Speaker 2: We often obsess over the idea of the criminal mastermind
43:45
Speaker 2: in popular culture, the brilliant rogue who leaves no trace.
43:49
Speaker 2: But in the modern age, the concept of a mastermind
43:52
Speaker 2: is largely a myth.
43:53
Speaker 1: Because of technology?
43:55
Speaker 2: Yes. Look at your own life right now. Every single
43:58
Speaker 2: transaction you make, a Craigslist ad for a beater van,
44:02
Speaker 2: a quick swipe of a debit card for shoes at Walmart,
44:05
Speaker 2: the silent ping of your cell phone connecting to a
44:07
Speaker 2: tower on the highway, it all creates an unbreakable digital tether.
44:11
Speaker 1: Right. We leave breadcrumbs everywhere.
44:13
Speaker 2: In an era of total surveillance and data collection, pulling
44:16
Speaker 2: off the perfect traceless crime isn't just difficult, it is
44:20
Speaker 2: rapidly becoming a mathematical impossibility.
44:23
Speaker 1: That is a fascinating, chilling thought to end on. The
44:26
Speaker 1: next time you are out running errands, making a completely
44:28
Speaker 1: mundane purchase, or posting a photo online, just take a
44:31
Speaker 1: second and ask yourself, what story does your digital footprint
44:34
Speaker 1: tell about you? Because as we saw today, those tiny,
44:37
Speaker 1: invisible footprints have the power to shatter the thickest walls
44:40
Speaker 1: and the most elaborate lies. Keep questioning, stay insanely curious,
44:45
Speaker 1: and we will catch you on the next deep dive.