Deadly Power (2018): Season 1, Episode 4 - Fighting the Faith - full transcript

- She found the man

- She found the man
of her dreams.

- She saw that Fred would be

a good husband
and father figure.

- His career took him

deep into the halls of power.

- His connections ran
from the top to the bottom.

- They were
a seemingly perfect couple.

- He was the ambitious lawyer.

She was a beautiful, pretty,
nice stay-at-home mom.

- But then, everything changed.



- She was starting

to get too worried.

She didn't know
what he was involved in.

- He would be out of the house

early morning to late at night.

I think her first instinct

was to protect my brother and I.

- Fred was involved
with dangerous people.

- And it scared her to death.

- In the early 1980s,

Atlanta, Georgia was on
the verge

of transforming
into a thriving center

for business and culture.

The booming economy
attracted ambitious people



from all over the nation,

people like Sara Ambrusko
and Fred Tokars.

Sara and Fred
both found success,

wealth, and power
in Atlanta's new high society,

but the pursuit
of money and influence

can be
an intoxicating invitation

to an abuse of power.

- My mother, Sara Tokars,

was the middle daughter
of seven daughters.

Catholic family
from Buffalo, New York.

She was the daughter
of a surgeon...

My grandfather,
Dr. John Stephen Ambrusko,

and his wife,
my grandmother Phyllis.

- The kind of childhood
we had growing up

was just... oh, my gosh,
it was just so idyllic.

Sara was a trailblazer
of our family,

'cause she was the first one
to convince my mom and dad

that she wanted to go
to the public school,

and when she went there,

she became a cheerleader.

None of us had ever done
anything like that.

- After high school,
Sara's adventurous spirit

leads her all over the country,

first to Colorado for college,

then to Florida
for a teaching job.

In 1980, she falls in love

with a handsome
health club instructor.

Before long, the two marry,

and move to the booming city
of Atlanta

to start a new life.

- She started working
at different nightclubs,

doing public relations
and marketing.

She was always
able to promote things

and get people excited
about stuff,

make sure everyone
was having fun.

- But less than a year
into her marriage,

the fun-loving Sara
has her first major setback.

- Sara and her husband

started having lots of problems.

They were just fighting

and not getting along at all.

- Although the couple work hard

to save the relationship,

nothing seems to help.

- So she ended up divorcing him.

- The fact that
her first marriage failed...

I think, you know,
that definitely affected her.

- Newly single at 30,
Sara is brokenhearted

and fears she'll never have
the life she's dreamed of.

After a year of soul-searching,

hope shines again
when a familiar face

appears on the local news:

an up-and-coming prosecutor
named Fred Tokars,

who's also from Buffalo.

- I knew Fred from high school.

My sister, Karen,
dated Fred's younger brother.

- The first time I met Fred,

I was at
the University of Miami.

Fred was very charismatic.

He was basically
the big man on campus.

He was a leader,

and he was dream man

of the different sororities.

If someone would ask
who would be

the most likely to succeed,

it would be Fred Tokars.

- Fascinated by
her hometown hero's success,

Sara calls him up to say hello.

She's thrilled when
he asks her out on a date.

- He was a district attorney,

and so she was like,
"Isn't that great?"

"He's the guy
that fights the bad guys."

- He wanted to make something
of himself,

and he did it the hard way.

No shortcuts with Fred.

And he was not only ambitious,
but he was driven.

- This guy would get up
in the middle of the night

and go make sure
that some criminal's in jail.

He had the power
to do the right thing.

She liked that.

- Handsome, charming,
and powerful,

Fred offers Sara
a second chance at love.

- It was important for her
to impress my dad,

because I think she felt bad

that the first marriage had been

such a disappointment,

so she wanted
to make him feel better,

that things were gonna be okay.

- Sara's dream of a family
like the one she grew up with

finally seems within reach.

- I think she saw
in Fred's success

and his ambition
that he would be

a good husband
and father figure,

like how my dad was.

- Fred falls hard for Sara, too,

and in July, 1985,

less than a year
after their first date,

the couple marries.

They move into a sprawling home

in the affluent community
of East Cobb,

40 miles outside Atlanta.

- The house was impressive.

It was in a beautiful suburb,

with lots of property.

You could tell that someone
who was successful

lived in that house.

- And with the arrival
of their first son, Rick,

Sara and Fred's dream of
starting a family comes true.

- They just seem like
they had a great relationship.

They were like Ken and Barbie.

- While Sara
relishes motherhood,

Fred's career
takes a lucrative turn.

- Fred decided
to leave prosecution

and go into private practice.

He always felt that

he wanted to make
a lot more money

than you make as
an assistant district attorney.

He seemed to have
a real aptitude

toward figures,
tax law, and accounting,

and he was able to sell that

particularly to the businesses

that came to him
for representation.

- Fred soon adds
another feather to his cap.

- Fred had an "in"
with the court system

and with the
political structure in Atlanta.

He was a part-time judge.

That's an appointment
that's made by the mayor.

- For Fred Tokars
to be a city court judge...

Clearly, he had some influence.

- By 1988,
Fred's clout is growing,

and so is his family,

as Sara gives birth
to their second son, Mike.

- She was trying to recreate
that idyllic family life

that she grew up with.

- I just remember it
being a typical family house

with a lot of toys
around the living room,

and high chair there
for the baby,

and stuff like that.

- And with Sara by his side,

Fred's client list is growing
even more impressive.

His hard work is paying off.

- There were some
big-name sports stars.

- He represented
Evander Holyfield's wife.

- He introduced me
to a lot of his partners

at his office
in downtown Atlanta.

You could tell that...

they thought that this guy
was like Superman.

- From the outside, they did
look like that perfect couple.

He was the ambitious lawyer.

She was the beautiful,
pretty, nice stay-at-home mom.

Had those two adorable
little boys, a beautiful home.

- Fred Tokars is becoming

a powerful figure around town,

but his relentless drive

is starting
to affect his home life.

- I don't remember
my father being around.

He would be out of the house

early morning to late at night,

after my brother and I
had gone to bed.

- The time that
we did spend with them,

he seemed like
he did have a big ego.

You could never have
a conversation with him

where you go back and forth.

It was always just him
talking about himself.

- Fred then begins shifting

the nature of his clientele.

- He represented a lot
of drug dealers

and people like that.

- There's no doubt
that the clients

that he was representing
were unscrupulous.

He was
a criminal defense lawyer.

He was defending criminals.

- Sara support's
Fred's ambitious career goals,

but she can't help wishing
he worked with

more respectable clients.

- She was starting
to get too worried.

She didn't know
what he was involved in.

- Fred assures her
she has nothing to fear...

Until one day, when reality
hits home in a terrifying way.

- My brother found
a pistol under the floorboard

of the passenger seat
of the car.

- The dangerous world of Fred's

Atlanta criminal practice

has landed in Sara's
quiet suburban life.

- And it scared her to death.

Something was really wrong.

Something really illegal
was going on.

- All of a sudden, there was
just FBI detectives

and police.
I remember just, like, crying.

- Fred and Sara Tokars

once had
a seemingly ideal marriage,

but Fred has begun to represent

a more sinister clientele,

and then,
Sara's three-year-old son Rick

finds a gun in his father's car.

- It just really
was alarming to her.

There were just
these red flags going up.

She was worried
about the little ones.

And it was all just the opposite

of what she'd hoped it would be.

- I think her first instinct

was to protect my brother and I.

- Fed up with
Fred's dangerous lifestyle,

Sara makes a huge decision.

- She told him
that she wanted a divorce.

She was scared
and she was worried

for the boys
to be involved in all this.

- But Fred dismisses her.

- He wasn't going to let her
have a divorce

and then ruin this facade
of him and this family

and everything
he had worked so hard

to try to create.

- Unprepared
for a bitter divorce battle

with her powerful husband,
Sara backs down.

Fred then begins demanding
more control at home.

- He put her on a really,
really strict allowance.

When she would ask him,
"I have to go to the dentist,

or "the boys need
something extra for school,"

and he would just say no.

She was having
so much trouble with Fred

because he was being
so mean to her.

- He did not put
the family first.

I think he put himself first.

- Fred's power over Sara

is holding her
in an unhappy marriage,

and then she finds
new cause for concern.

- Lots of times,
the phone would ring

and if she'd pick up,
the person would hang up.

She was afraid that
Fred was having affairs.

- It's a painful discovery,

but could just be
the leverage Sara needs

to even the playing field
in divorce court.

She hires a private detective

to investigate
Fred's activities.

- She was convinced that maybe
if the private investigator

found some evidence about it,

she would be able
to get a divorce

and get the boys out of there.

- Fred had a lot of connections

within the police department

and within the legal community,

so with that knowledge,

I had to be very careful.

- Ralph follows Fred
to an apartment

in a nearby complex.

- I wasn't there ten minutes

when I kept seeing somebody

pulling the curtain back,
looking out at the street.

It was Fred, wanting to know
what I was doing there.

Maybe 15 minutes later,
a patrolman came up

and asked me what I was doing.

The first thing
that went through my mind

was Fred's contacts
within the system.

The officer may have been
a friend of his.

He knew
a lot of police officers.

- His connections ran
from the top to the bottom.

- Armed with the knowledge
that Fred is having an affair,

Sara again asks for a divorce.

- He would say, "I'm a judge,

"I know the police

"and I'm an attorney,

"and if you even try
to get a divorce,

you'll have the boys
taken away from you."

- Fred Tokars used that art
to intimidate Sara.

- But this time,

Sara is not backing down.

- She was gonna do
whatever it took

to protect those boys
and protect her family.

- I think she had made
her mind up.

"I'm divorcing this guy.

"I don't care what I have to do

to get me and my kids
out of this mess."

- Fred had a safe
down in the basement

that he always kept locked.

And somehow, she found
the combination to the safe.

And she found these papers.

When she looked at them,

it looked like
it was bank accounts

in the Bahamas,
in these different islands.

These accounts were for
hundreds and hundreds

of thousands of dollars,

and here she's desperate,
trying to get 20 bucks

to be able to pay
the kids' lunch money.

Red flags were just everywhere

that something was really wrong,

something really illegal
was going on.

She thought she finally had

something to get her and
the boys out and be safe.

- Sara contacted me again

and asked me if I would come out

and, uh, look at her home.

She took me to the safe.

And she pulled out
a handful of documents.

I said, "Sara,
I can't touch those.

I've got to watch
my P's and Q's."

- From what he saw
from the documents,

Ralph was concerned
that Fred was involved

in a lot more than
the normal divorce issues.

- This man is dealing
in something illegal.

- Even this private investigator

was scared off by Fred.

She was feeling
more and more trapped,

like she didn't know where
she could go to get help.

Who could she get to help her?
What could she do?

- Paralyzed with fear
that her children

will be taken away from her,

Sara decides not to risk
confronting Fred again,

and as the months
turn into years,

the relationship gets worse.

- Everybody thought
that they were

doing well and they were happy,

but in reality, it was
just a nightmare for her,

and she was so miserable.

- The memories that pop out

with the dynamic between
my mom and dad...

Primarily, it's fighting.

Heated arguments.

Slamming doors.

My mom crying.

- As the boys grow older,
Sara keeps an eye out

for the right time
to make her move

and escape from Fred's grip,

no matter how long it takes.

On Sunday, November 29th, 1992,

Sara and the boys
drive back home

after a Thanksgiving visit
with her family in Florida.

Fred had left the day before

to meet a client in Alabama.

- I remember being in the car,
backing out of the driveway.

We had this, like, tradition
at my grandparents' house

where anytime somebody left,
everybody that

was still there would, like,
come out in the driveway

and wave bye to everybody until
they'd turned this corner.

- My mom and dad stood out
in the driveway, waving,

and as Sara and the boys left,

they were all singing
"I'll Be Home for Christmas."

- We were in the back seat

riding back to Georgia,

watching movies.

Think it's, like,
an eight or nine-hour drive.

We pulled up into the garage.

My brother was sleeping.

We went to open up the door.

An individual
was inside the house.

Held a gun to my mom and I.

Back into the car. I

He's ordering her to drive

and giving directions.

"Go left there,"
"go right there."

- I remember looking up at him.

He was very forceful
and threatening.

- We got to a point
where he told my mom

to turn down a road.

My mom, for whatever reason,

didn't turn down that road.

He said, "Why are you trying
to with me?"

My mom said, you know,

"I'm not trying to with you."

- Sara Tokars and her two sons

had just returned home
from Thanksgiving in Florida

when a gunman
forced them back into the car.

- He said, "Why are you trying
to with me?"

My mom said, you know,

"I'm not trying to with you."

He proceeded to shoot her,
point-blank.

And he got out and took off.

My mom was slumped over,

uh, so I... I turned the car off

and sat there for...

you know, I don't know how long.

30 seconds, a minute, maybe.

I lifted her back
and was shaking her,

saying, "Mom, wake up, wake up,"

and after not getting
any response from her,

I knew she was hurt.

- My brother... he said,

"Mommy, you can't
die on us now."

He helped me
out of my seat belt,

and he and I

ran towards a house
with a light on.

We had to crawl through bushes,

and there was thorns,

but...

it was like nothing hurt.

- I kind of led my brother
to this house.

Luckily, there was people there.

They answered the door.

- Somebody called the cops.

Eventually, the police
showed up.

And I remember sitting
in the back seat of a cop car,

asking if our mom
was going to be okay,

and they said,

"Didn't look like
she was doing too well,"

and, uh...

Then I remember

being covered in my own vomit.

- With their father Fred

still in Alabama,
visiting a client,

Mike and Rick are taken in
by Fred's brother,

who lives nearby.

- I remember saying to my aunt,

"Oh, like, when my mom
gets out of the hospital..."

She said,

"She's not gonna
be at a hospital.

She died."

- I remember thinking

if our dad had been there,

he would've saved the day.

- Police head to the Tokars home

to investigate.

- When detectives
got to the scene,

there was a sliding glass door

from a patio area

into the kitchen

that was unlocked.

And in the master bedroom,
some drawers were open,

and there was
some jewelry laid out.

This led us to believe

that it was a burglary
gone wrong.

- After being notified
of Sara's death,

Fred rushes back to Cobb County.

- Sara's funeral
was about a week later.

It was there in Atlanta.

All the family flew in.

Fred was just really sad,

walking behind the casket,
wailing.

The boys were not
at the funeral.

They were just too young
for that.

There was massive, wall-to-wall
coverage from the media.

- You got Sara... I mean,
you look at her photograph,

she looks like
the cheerleader mom.

Everything, you know, looks like

"Ozzie and Harriet," you know?

And here, you know,
she's taken out of her home

and murdered
in front of her kids.

- That's why everyone was just
in such shock about it,

because everyone just loved her.

Who could do this to Sara?

- There was a lot
of pressure on us,

the police,
you know, to solve it.

But we found no prints

that would link us
to any suspect.

And worst thing is you got

an open homicide on your desk,

and I owe it to Sara,

owe it to the family,

I owe it to those two kids.

- From this very sketchy details

they had gotten
from six-year-old Rick Tokars

at that time, they knew

they were dealing with
a black male.

- We found that Sara
had been shot and killed

with a .410 shotgun.

No burglar
is gonna come in a house

armed with
a sawed-off .410 shotgun.

- We realized that this was not

the type of murders that we saw
in Cobb County in 1992.

- The whole thing
just stunk to high heaven.

The scene looked like
it was staged,

made it look like a burglary.

There were things
that a burglar would take

that weren't taken:

televisions
and things like that.

And it wasn't torn up.

It wasn't rummaged through.

And then, the alarm was off.

She goes in,
and this guy's in there,

and he takes her right back out

and gets her in a car,
tells her to drive.

You know, it...
It didn't make sense.

This thing is not
a burglary gone bad.

- This is an execution.

- There was some concern that

the very nature
of Fred's practice

could have spawned
an angry client, or

someone trying
to get even with Fred.

- I mean, it's common knowledge
these guys are gonna

cut your throat
for a buck, you know?

- He went through
all of these business partners

and all these associates

and all of these dealings
and his clients.

- Fred was involved
with dangerous people.

- And then,
Sara's sister, Krissy,

brings detectives
some shocking evidence,

copies of the documents
that Sara had found

in Fred's safe
three years before.

- Sara said to Krissy,

"Hang onto these,

"and if anything
ever happens to me,

just make sure you take them
to the police."

- We realized

this thing was more
than just a murder.

Fred was no stranger to the FBI.

He was, uh,
apparently on their radar.

- There was
an ongoing investigation

that actually had started
before the murder

that involved money laundering

through the utilization
of nightclubs

in the Atlanta area.

- Fred represented criminals.

Uh, most of them
were dope dealers.

Fred would set up these clubs
and then help them

with the money laundering
operation.

He would tell them how to do it.

- Intriguing as
the FBI investigation may be,

it sheds no light
on Sara's murder.

The case has hit a dead end.

Desperate for answers,
Sara's family and friends

put together a $50,000 reward
for any new information.

- Somebody knows who did this.
Somebody knows something.

- We got all kinds of calls,

and we ran
every one of them down.

- Most of them had no
information that was helpful.

- I was asked how many
suspects we had, and I said...

"I don't know.
Look in a phone book."

I don't know who did it.

- But one call comes in
that will change everything.

- Someone had come forward

to say that her brother...

Had been the one
who had killed Sara.

- Three weeks
after Sara Tokars' murder,

police get their first
big break.

- The police got a call
from Toozdae Rower,

and she said that
her brother, Curtis Rower,

had been the one
who had killed Sara.

- The 23-year-old ex-con

has been living with relatives
in Atlanta.

- They went to his home,
they found him

hiding under his bed,

and brought him to Cobb County.

- Curtis Rower's
nothing but a street thug.

Long criminal history,
long rap sheet,

typical low-level kind of doper.

During the interview with Rower,

uh, he wants to talk to his mom,

so I let him call his mom.

His mom tells him,
"Tell the truth."

- He admitted
that he killed Sara Tokars.

- We were like,
"Oh, thank God, thank God.

They finally caught somebody,"

but then when we heard
he's just some drug addict

and he lived in the city
of Atlanta...

We were just all so confused.

What was he doing there
and how did he even get there?

Why would he want to kill Sara?

- And then Rower tells us about

a guy named Eddie Lawrence.

- According to Rower,

he was introduced to Lawrence

by his sister Toozdae,

who works in Lawrence's office.

- Lawrence comes to Rower

with this deal about
doing this lick

on this... this woman.

Rower doesn't know
who these people are.

He doesn't know Tokars.
He doesn't know Sara.

- Almost immediately,

Eddie Lawrence was arrested.

He was brought in
for questioning.

He denied, uh, any
involvement in the murder.

But he readily talked about Fred

and their business relationship.

- Fred Tokars first met
Eddie Lawrence

when Eddie came to him
as a client.

- Eddie Lawrence was a con man.

Floating bad checks
all over the place.

- But something
in the fast-talking Eddie

caught Fred's attention,

and before long, the two
were business partners.

- Fred was actually
financing Eddie

in several businesses:

a real estate business,

a home improvement business,

an accounting business.

- Eddie reveals something
even more intriguing.

- Lawrence owes Tokars money.

- Eddie was saying something
like $75,000 to $150,000.

- Detectives press Eddie
about the debt.

- He wouldn't tell us anything.

He wouldn't say anything.

He was done talking to us.

- Police are able
to hold Eddie in custody

on an outstanding warrant
for passing bad checks.

Two days later,
Fred takes his boys to Florida

to visit Sara's family
for Christmas.

On December 23rd,

Cobb County police hold
a surprise press conference.

- We announce that
we've made two arrests

in connection with
the murder of Sara Tokars.

And, of course,
we release the names,

Eddie Lawrence and Curtis Rower.

- And that's when we all
just immediately erupted

and said, "Oh, my God, Fred,
Oh, my God!

Who's... who's Eddie Lawrence?"

All Fred kept saying is,
"Oh, they don't know

"what they're talking about.
He's a good guy.

They don't know
what they're talking about."

My dad goes to him,
"Fred, wait a minute.

"This guy's
your business partner.

"Why would he be involved
in Sara's murder?"

And he just walked away
and went downstairs,

and he wouldn't...
He wouldn't answer.

- Fred and his sons
go back to their hotel

for the night.

- The next morning,

the Ambrusko family

picked the boys up
to go to Busch Gardens.

Fred said,
"I don't feel like going."

- A few hours later,

Dr. Ambrusko
calls Fred to check in,

but there's no answer.

- Dad said he was
getting concerned.

It was just weird.

So my dad went back
to the hotel,

knocked on the door,

and there was no answer,
no answer.

Knocked on the door,
there was no answer.

So at this point, my dad
was really getting worried.

Something was really wrong.

So he called the police.

And then the police came
and broke down the door.

And I was just in shock.

- Less than a month
after Sara Tokars' murder,

there's another shocking twist
in the case.

Her husband, Fred,
has been found unconscious

in a Florida hotel room.

- Fred was lying on the bed.

- My dad gave him CPR
and tried to save him.

Then the ambulance came.

- They were able
to rush him to the hospital.

Dr. Ambrusko saved his life.

And there was a suicide note

saying he couldn't go on
any longer

with what was going on
in his life.

- He was trying to get some
sympathy, but it didn't work.

It just drew
more attention to himself.

- Fred's suspicious behavior

prompts detectives
to question him again.

- I mean, again,
you'd have to be stupid

not to... to see that,

hey, this guy's dirty.

- A week later,
facing intense media scrutiny,

Fred holds
a dramatic press conference.

- After taking
some back pain medication,

I became very depressed...

And started to think of the
lifestyle that I was losing.

Unfortunately, I did something
that put my life in danger.

I made a bad mistake.

- That was just horrifying
to us.

Why would he even talk
about his lifestyle?

Just seems so... callous,
and ugh.

It's just... it didn't make
any sense to any of us.

- I... it was just telling.

- I emphatically deny

any involvement
in my wife's murder,

and any suggestion that
I might have been involved

in any way deeply hurts me.

- All it did was confirm

that, you know, this guy's
into this thing up to his neck.

He's... he's good for it.

- I'm begging you

just to leave us alone.

- It's really starting
to unravel on Tokars.

- My dad kept saying,

"Who knew that the door
wasn't locked?

"Who knew that the
burglar alarm was turned off?

"Who knew what time
she'd be getting home

so they would be there,
waiting for her?"

- Tokars knew when Sara
was coming home.

Tokars knew the alarm
would be off.

Tokars knew
the sliding glass door

would be unlocked.

- Detectives take a closer look

at Tokars' alibi
from the night of the murder.

- He was in Alabama,
talking to a prisoner

in federal custody.

We interviewed the client.

Uh, "did you know
he was coming over here?"

"No, I didn't know
the guy was coming.

He just shows up
and wants to talk to me."

- Fred spent about
ten minutes with him,

just asking him how he was,
and then left.

So the alibi started
falling apart

when this became known
to the investigators.

- And then, a bombshell motive
comes to light.

- We became aware that Fred had

very substantial life insurance
policies on Sara.

- This is a homemaker.
She didn't have a career.

He was fighting to keep her

from having necessary things
to buy food

and toys for the kids,

yet he takes out
insurance policies

just months... weeks...
Before her death.

- And that's when we came
to the realization

that it had to be him
behind the whole thing.

We were just so scared.

We thought maybe
he wouldn't be arrested.

- We're convinced now
that Fred's arranged

for the murder of Sara Tokars,

but the truth of the matter is,

all we had was... Curtis Rower.

And he didn't know anything
about Tokars.

Lawrence,
he still wouldn't talk.

He still wouldn't say anything.

- Police hit a standstill
in the case,

so they call in Fred
for more questioning.

- On the surface, it certainly

looked like that he was
trying to be cooperative.

- However, the days
leading up to the homicide,

the days after the homicide,

suddenly he
couldn't remember things.

"I don't remember."
"I don't remember."

"I don't recall."

- And that's kind of
the way it went, you know?

- We all knew in our gut
that he was the one behind it,

and even the detectives knew,
but they couldn't arrest him.

- Without Eddie,
we had some problems

in the case,
there was no question.

- Lawrence felt that Tokars
was untouchable.

Tokars has got all his power
and everything,

and Tokars is not gonna
let Lawrence swing

on this thing.

- But by July of 1993,

eight months
after Sara's murder,

Eddie starts to sing
a different tune.

- He had two very excellent
defense lawyers

who realized that

the chances of
Eddie going to trial

and walking were not that good.

And I think Eddie felt that

"I could be facing
a death penalty case."

- So he does what he has to do.

- Eight months
after Sara Tokars' murder,

Eddie Lawrence
is ready to break his silence.

- He ultimately decided
to turn state's evidence,

and he did testify.

- Eddie tells prosecutors
that Fred approached him

about killing Sara
in the summer of 1992.

- She had found out
some information

about their businesses

and that she was gonna
destroy both of them.

Eddie would even say to him,

"Why don't you just pay her off?

"Give her some money and
divorce her, and move on?"

and Fred said, "No.
She's gonna ruin me and you.

"Eddie, you owe me this.

You need to take care of it
for me."

But Eddie was not
gonna soil himself with that.

He had to find somebody else.

- Eddie asked around for
someone who could do the job.

His own secretary,
Toozdae Rower,

connected him
to her brother, Curtis.

- What Tokars didn't bank on

was that Lawrence
would sub it out.

That... that's really
what unraveled this thing.

- Cobb County police and the FBI

obtain a joint warrant
for Fred's arrest.

It is now a race to track down
Fred and the boys.

Given his previous
suicide attempt,

they know the clock is ticking.

On August 25th, 1993,

authorities surround
Fred's condo.

- We were afraid
he'd kill the boys

and then kill himself.

When the detectives
called and said

that they were gonna
arrest Fred,

we were so scared.

- We know he's nervous,

we know he's suspicious,
we know that he's probably

looking out his windows
and things like that.

I mean, this guy's
going down for murder.

He's already tried
to kill himself.

So the biggest issue

was the safety of the kids.

- All of a sudden,
there was just heaps of

FBI, detectives, and police,

and I remember
just, like, crying.

I was like,
"Please don't arrest my dad."

- When they said
that they had arrested Fred,

and the boys were safe,

Oh, my God.

We... we were just so relieved,

and we were so grateful.

"Thank you, thank you,
thank you."

'Cause all she wanted to do
was keep them safe,

and it took all those months,
and now we knew.

Thank God. Thank God.

- Sara's family
takes custody of the boys,

while Fred's abuse of power

gets him indicted
for racketeering,

money laundering, and murder.

Three years later,
he finally goes to trial.

But the prosecutor's case
is built

on circumstantial evidence

and the word
of an untrustworthy witness.

- We knew we had Eddie
and had worked out a deal,

but, you know, those things
can always be backed out of.

- He's a con man.
He's a criminal.

Now, how do you show credibility

in the things that he did say?

Was it enough to convince a jury

that, uh... that Tokars
was behind it?

- Sara's family is desperate
for justice to be served.

They're afraid
that Fred would use

his power and his influence

and his knowledge
of the judicial system

to make sure that
he was able to get off.

- We, the jury,
find the defendant,

Fredric William Tokars...

Guilty of malice murder.

- Curtis Rower
and Eddie Lawrence

are also convicted of murder.

Rower is sentenced
to life without parole.

Lawrence is still in prison
and is eligible for parole.

- We did seek
the death penalty for Fred,

but two jurors
held out for life,

so he was given a life sentence.

- To be honest, I still am
a little disappointed

that he didn't get
the death penalty.

- It's been years and years, but

I still think about
those poor kids.

And Sara, she was a good girl,

a good person, a good mother.

Loved those kids.

Sad.

- As far as I'm concerned,
he's not even man enough

to admit what he did,

and seek forgiveness.

To me, that's a weak person,

who preys on weaker people,

who abuses their power.

I want nothing from them.

I want nothing to do with them.

And I'm embarrassed that

I even have
the same genes as him,

to be honest.

- You never really move on
from something like that,

but you learn
how to live with it,

and it just kind of becomes

a part of life.

- When she found the papers,

she did go to
these great lengths

to make copies of them,

and she was trying to reclaim

some power in that moment,
and trying to save the boys.

The most important thing I'd
want people to know about Sara

is that in the end,

all she wanted
was her boys to be safe.

She was so brave.

And it was her bravery

that saved the two boys.

- Fred Tokars used and abused

his connections
and command of the law

to grow his wealth
and expand his power.

Unwilling to put up with

Fred's dangerous manipulations,

Sara fought to bring

her husband's indiscretions
to light

and save her children,

even at the cost
of her own life.

Fred Tokars, a man who once used

was finally taken down by the
system.

A system he thought he was
above.

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