I Am a Killer (2018–2020): Season 1, Episode 6 - Declared Competent - full transcript

[man] I don't know what's worse.

Being executed or spending
the rest of your life in prison.

I'm just sitting in limbo right now.

There is no hope once you're in here.

When you're guilty, accept it.

[man] If you ever thought
about taking somebody's life,

you better think about it long and hard.

'Cause to walk that road right there
is a lot of heartache.

You may think you're tough,

but, uh...

you really ain't nothing
if you're a murderer.



You're nothing.

[man 1]
And I walked up, I fired one shot.

And as I got closer,
I fired one more shot.

[man 2] She was shot through the cheek
and it stopped in her jaw.

[man 3] I drove him around behind a desk
and I stabbed him approximately 25 times.

[man 4] I couldn't believe it.

I just thought I can't believe
I just killed somebody.

[man 5]
I don't feel bad about it. [laughs]

[man 6] I started stabbing him,
stabbing the guy on the couch.

[man] This is U.S. 69, northbound,
out of Lufkin.

Right up on the north fringe
of Angelina County.

[Cooper] Thirty-two years ago,

almost to the minute,
it's about five minutes after 8:00,

I was headed in this direction
in a big hurry...



to the crime scene up here.

Calls of this nature,
that adrenaline kicks in

and, uh, you don't need
the morning cup of coffee.

You don't ask questions,
you just jump in the car and you respond.

All hands on deck.

Coming into the edge
of the little town of Wells.

It's like so many little towns
in East Texas.

Population well under a thousand
at that time.

Everyone knows everyone.

Weather's almost identical
to that morning.

Fall weather. Hunting season.

[crickets chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

[man] We moved around a lot
when I was young. Texas, Chicago.

Mom, dad, stepdads.

No solid family unit.

A lot of disruption.

I wasn't given much attention,

I was given free reign,
so I became a wild child.

[thuds]

I just had a "I didn't care" attitude.

I felt like nobody cared about me,
so why should I?

So I was just going to do as I please,

and that's basically the way
I lived my life.

My name is David Lewis, 52 years old.

I've been here
over, just a little, 30 years.

I was kicked out of the house at 16
and I was living on the streets

and the only way to provide for myself
was to become a thief

'cause nobody wanted to hire
an uneducated 16-year-old boy

that didn't have any skills.

So I stole.

Just took what I wanted. [chuckles]

[crickets chirping]

[Lewis] I believe I was 21...

20 or 21 when I moved to Lufkin.

It's a small country town.

I used to drink, I was an alcoholic,

and, uh, I smoked weed.

Took acid, pills, mushrooms,
whatever got me off,

but yeah, once I tasted the marijuana,
that was it for me, I was in love.

Helped me escape reality of life
and put me in another world,

in another state of mind,
where I could escape all this.

And then, when I got older,
it turned more into alcohol.

And once I became a drunk,
I just didn't care about nothing.

I was going to do whatever I wanted

and didn't care about the consequences.

Me and my friends would be out
late at night drinking and smoking,

and we'd just decide to go
burglarize something.

You know, what young boys did back then.
[chuckles]

Houses, stores,
whatever we could get into.

Living on the streets, you know,

you've got to do what you can do
to survive.

[crickets chirping]

That day, me and some friends,
we went down to the liquor store,

bought some beer,
and we decided to go fishing...

and while out fishing,
I found some mushrooms,

and I ate the mushrooms, drank the beer,

and by the end of the day,
I was pretty plastered. [clears throat]

So they dropped me off
at my grandpa's in Lufkin. [sniffs]

And, uh, I'm sitting there waiting on him

'cause we were going to go hunting
that night,

and it's taking him a long time
to show up.

And so when it gets dark, I get the gun
and I'mma go hunting by myself.

I was crossing behind Ms. Ruby's house

and I was planning to cut
through the backyard

and go down to a stream behind her house

'cause that usually where the deer
and stuff hang out at night time.

When I'm walking by,
I see the bathroom window's open...

and I don't see no car nowhere.

So, I crawl in
through the bathroom window.

[thuds]

I stand at the door
that goes into the hallway,

the hallway goes two ways.

The left goes to the kitchen,

and then the right goes
to a couple of bedrooms.

So I go into that bedroom
and that's where a gun rack is.

So I take the guns
and I roll them up in a bed sheet.

And as I'm coming out, somebody's coming
through a hall door from the living room.

I see the silhouette.

-I just raised the gun and pow.
-[gunshot]

She kind of turned towards me
and let out a loud scream.

And I struck her in the top of the head
with the barrel of the gun.

[thuds]

Then I flicked the light on
and seen who it was, and I'm like...

[sighs]

...man.

I thought the house was empty.

I didn't think anybody was in there.

I was kind of shocked,
I didn't even think.

I took the keys to the car
and the guns and left.

[car engine starts]

And I left the car parked
on the side of the highway.

[goats bleating]

I'm sitting in my grandpa's trailer,

smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee,
getting ready to leave,

when the police come across the highway.

[siren blaring]

I knew right then
that they were coming for me.

That they'd found Ms. Ruby already.

It rained earlier in the day

and I left footprints through the trail
in the woods

right up to my grandpa's trailer house.

My grandpa's girlfriend opened the door

and one of the investigators,
as soon as he sees me,

he tells the two polices with him,
"I think we got our man."

[siren blaring]

They take me to the police station,
asking questions,

and I just keep denying it.

But as soon as they try to implicate
my grandfather in it,

that's when I finally confessed,
told them I did it,

that he had nothing to do with it.

Oh, I figured I'd be in prison
a long time, 30, 40 years maybe.

But when I got my attorney and he told me
they were seeking a death penalty,

I'm like, "What? Death penalty?
What is that?"

And he told me what it was
and I'm like, "Oh..." [chuckles]

I really didn't think about death penalty
when I was free.

I didn't even know we had one.

I shut down all thought about the crime
until I was sitting in a cell,

and I started thinking about what I'd done

and what I was fixing to face,
and that's, that's when I broke down.

When I came to death row,
I just kept it locked up,

and, uh, I didn't really face
what I'd done until 2004,

and that's when it really hit me hard.

That's when I went ahead
and accepted the responsibility for it.

You know, whatever comes, I accept it.

Either life in prison or an execution,
either one I accept.

What can you do when you're guilty, man?

You don't have a hope or prayer
when you're guilty. [chuckles]

[dog barking]

This is the evidence box
of the David Lee Lewis trial,

back in '86.

Haven't seen most of this stuff since...

that day.

These are the glasses that Ms. Ruby had on

when she walked into her home that night.

Right lens is missing, right ear,

leg missing.

She still had these partially on her face
when I arrived at the scene.

And a round was fired,

went through right about here.

Struck her in the corner of the eye.

You have to quite often
kind of divorce yourself

from the physical aspects
of a scene like that,

if you can.

And you try to do the job

and document everything
and get everything ready.

And, of course, you're always thinking
ahead to the trial part of this situation,

anytime you're in that type of situation.

And... [sighs]

then you think about it later.

We got our big break, I think,
initially, when we found the footprints.

Casting of a shoe print.

This is a pretty good casting.

Heel, toe, trim.

Especially when you can mate it up
with the actual shoe that made it.

This was found at the rear of the home,
not far from where he gained entry.

And then things fell into place.

When we approached the residence
where Lewis was apprehended,

that's where they found the shoes
that matched the prints.

Um, sometimes, it's nice to be lucky.

Not quite as a good as a fingerprint,

but very, very strong
circumstantial evidence.

You know, a thief is a thief is a thief.

Not to get Biblical, but I'm sure
somewhere in that list of ten is,

I still recall from way back,

that there's one in there
about stealing and thou shalt not.

You go in with the intent
to do just a property felony...

and something goes horribly wrong
and somebody dies,

and it leaps all the way up through

all the various steps of different levels
of crime right to the very top.

The one that we hold most heinous,
which is capital murder.

Um...

Did he go there
with the intent to kill somebody?

No. [stutters] You're never going
to be able to convince me

or anybody else of that.

Did somebody die as a result of him being
somewhere where he wasn't supposed to be?

Yes, they did.
And an innocent person lost their life.

You look at it.
We've got 30 something years of...

back and forth...

lives torn apart.

Lives on the inside, lives on the outside.

And it fits on this one table.

[birds chirping]

[man] In David's particular case,
the evidence of guilt was overwhelming.

They had confessions
and they found evidence from the burglary

and the place where he was living.

The prosecution put on evidence
that David Lewis knew and understood

what he was doing
at the time the offense was committed.

I'm Jon Anderson.

I was born and raised in Lufkin, Texas.

I've practiced law here
for about 34 years,

and I was David Lewis's defense lawyer.

A capital murder jury at the time
this case was tried

is asked specific questions
in the punishment phase of the case.

One of those questions
is whether the defendant knowingly

and intelligently committed the crime,

and the other question is,
whether or not that defendant

is going to be a future danger to society.

Those are black and white questions
the jury is asked to decide.

The issue of mental competence

and the defendant's ability to understand
what it was he did,

those are not black and white questions
that are asked to a jury.

[Anderson] When you have someone
like Mr. Lewis, who is mentally impaired,

even if you read that defendant
his rights,

the question remains whether or not
he understands his rights

and he can make a knowing
and intelligent decision

to waive those rights
and to give a statement.

And so there was a strong argument
to be made for the defense

that he was not knowing enough
and understanding enough

to where he was making
a voluntary confession.

And so I'm asking the jury to consider

and to believe the difficulty
that David had from a mental standpoint

and to consider, based upon
his lack of understanding, in general,

to answer the questions in such a way,

that he's given life in prison
and not the death penalty. [woman] My son was born in '65.

And I had a very hard delivery.

I was in labor for 72 hours.

They had to forcibly remove him
with forceps,

which damaged his brain and his eyes.

And me being so young and stupid,

I didn't realize that
until he started going to school.

My name is Linda Lewis,
and I'm David's mother.

I was almost 18 when I had him.

This is David in school.

[laughs]

He's a cute little bugger.

[chuckles]

In the park playing with his ball.
[laughs]

He used to chase that ball around.

I can see him doing it now,
just a little bitty thing,

toddling around. [laughs]

Him and Linda, Christmastime.

Oh, yeah, he was a mommy's boy. [laughs]

Uh-huh, he is my first born.

He's my baby.

Still is.

I don't care how old he gets
or what he does,

he's always going to be my baby. [sniffs]

And I'm always going to love him dearly.

When he had homework to do,
you couldn't make him understand.

I mean, you could sit there
and you could explain it,

and show him and explain it and show him,

and he just didn't grasp it.

I knew that he was real shy

and stand-offish with other kids,

but I didn't...

I don't think I actually really snapped
to what was going on with him

until I had him in a private school.

About three months into it, they told me
that they couldn't do anything for my son.

And they wanted me to take him
and have him tested,

his mental capacity.

And that's when I found out
that he had problems.

And, um, there was nothing
that I could do about it

except try to keep him out of trouble
and try to teach him right from wrong.

And I did a pretty good job of that.
[chuckles] For the most part.

All I know is that everybody thinks
he's a monster, and he's not. He's a very loving, caring person.

[woman] "David Lee Lewis was given
the death penalty Tuesday night

by a jury that earlier found him guilty
of capital murder

in the shooting death
of Myrtle Ruby, 74, of Wells."

Wow.

That's been a long time ago.

And he's still alive 30 years later, yeah.
That's what's unbelievable.

My name is Rhonda Oaks.

I'm a former journalist
at the Lufkin Daily News.

I did it for 20 plus years.

I was born and raised in Lufkin, Texas,

and I'm proud to be a seventh generation
Angelina County resident.

It's always been a small community,
you know, very tight-knit community.

People are very religious,
and so you trust everyone.

And, you know, a crime like this,

it brings it home
that sometimes you can't trust everyone.

"The sheriff said Mrs. Ruby was killed
by a single shot to the head

from a 22-calibre rifle.

Mrs. Ruby apparently was killed
when she surprised a burglar

upon returning home from church
at about 9:00 p.m."

We rarely saw crimes like this committed.

It was a shocking event,
so it drew a lot of interest.

You know, you just wouldn't expect
that sort of crime to occur.

The jury was very serious and concentrated

on the decision of whether or not
he was mentally challenged.

They knew he was guilty.

They really listened to both sides
of the events

and tried to come back
with an impartial decision.

Looking back,

I don't think he seemed that remorseful.

In my mind, I think someone
who is mentally challenged,

they might be breaking into a house,
they might be stealing some guns,

and they might even hit the victim
over the head with the gun,

knock them out or whatever.

But when you choose to shoot someone
in the face, that's not a mentally--

You know, a mentally challenged person
will normally just run from the scene.

Um, he didn't, he chose not to.

And he chose to take her life.

And I think that that put him
into a class of criminals

that was a type
that we didn't see many of in east Texas.

I think it was a cold-blooded act.

[man] People like to think that
the diagnosis of intellectual disabilities

is something kind of like
if you break your arm, you x-ray it,

there's the break,
what you've got is a broken arm.

That's not how it works
with mental retardation.

It's a diagnosis in flux, it moves around.

There's quite a bit of discrimination
and, uh, myths and misunderstandings

that get in the way, uh,

particularly in the field
of criminal justice.

I'm Dr. Richard Garnett.

I've been involved in the field
of disabilities since probably 1968.

I was involved with David Lewis's case
in 2006 when I was asked to come in

and review his files
and review all of the material they had

from previous assessments
in previous situations,

schools, and psychologists, etc.

The material that was generated on him
back then

made it pretty clear that he had
a diagnosis of mental retardation.

[Garnett] Let's say you're testing
somebody

and you get a score, and the score is 70.

Well, that's the cut-off,
and if you're below that,

you're "retarded."

But that's not how you do it.

You look at that,
and you look at all this other material,

and you look at the adaptive level
that the person is,

and you try and pull all of it together
and see,

"Does that support a diagnosis
of mental retardation?"

And this part might not,
and this part may,

and this one you don't know
and this one sure doesn't.

And so that's the battle in court,

is to say my testing came up
with an IQ of 69,

prosecutor will come up and say,

"Well, the State's done
three or four different tests

and they are always in the 75 to 80 range,
so it can't be."

Well, that's because they're not given
the right tests,

they're not given them
by the right people,

they're not given them
under the right circumstances.

You know, mine were.

And I think deep inside,

the system has these people
already gone through the courts,

convicted of capital murder,
sentenced to death,

and by God we're going to do it.

If the judge in the end had been convinced
that David had intellectual disabilities,

then I think the automatic response

would be to, uh, vacate the death penalty

and convert it to life in prison
without parole.

However... [chuckles]

it was found that
we had not proved our case.

He's still there, so there must have been
some appeals that were instituted.

But they found that we did not present
an adequate case

to show that he had mental retardation.

-[birds chirping]
-[cows mooing]

[man] If life without parole
was the verdict and the sentence,

then I think the family
would probably be fine with it

if that's what the jury and the judge

found to be the best solution
for the crime.

So, I don't think any of us
are out for just, you know,

"This man's got to die."

Uh, you know, justice has got to be done.

My name is David Ruby.

I'm a nephew of Myrtle Ruby.

She grew up in the area.

We all went to church together
at the Falvey Methodist Church.

At the time this happened to Aunt Myrtle,
I had just moved back from St. Louis

and just got a phone call from my mom.

Someone had broke
into Aunt Myrtle's house.

She came home from church
and it was of course dark,

and came into the house
and evidently startled the person,

so they just shot her and murdered her.

This still makes no sense whatsoever.

Aunt Myrtle was a senior citizen.
Why didn't the person just say,

"Hey, I'm sorry,
I'm gonna walk out of your house."

I mean, she's not gonna beat him up.

If they wanted to steal something,
why didn't they just take it and leave?

I know my cousins still suffer with that.

How could they not?

It devastated them,
and it would devastate any child,

no matter how old you are,
it doesn't matter.

It's your mom.

[Lewis] When I was born,
my mom had trouble giving birth to me.

And... it gave me a mild retardation.

That's why I'm a slow learner.
[chuckles]

And school,
I just really didn't care about it.

[Ruby] My opinion on that is,

his mental capacity is not the issue,
his threat to society is the issue.

And whether he was a complete,
you know, lunatic

or a sane person,

to me, is not an issue,

because we want to remove people
from society that are a threat to society.

So, anyway, I don't buy it.

[man] When they told me
that Mr. Lewis was the suspect,

I thought, you know, "Why is this man
still running the streets?"

David Lewis was known for burglary.

He was also known
for narcotic use, thefts.

He had a history of criminal activity.

[indistinct radio chatter]

My name is Sergeant Ruben Gonzales,

and I'm with the Oyster Creek
Police Department.

[indistinct radio chatter]

[Gonzalez] On September 1st, 1986,

I received a call about the stabbing,
in the 1500 block of Avenue F.

I remember it was a clear night
that night.

The stabbing occurred
during the burglary of a vehicle,

and that the complainant came out,
observed the subject in between the cars,

observed his wife's purse

sitting in front of him
with the car door open.

And when the complainant yelled
at the suspect,

the suspect stood up
and stabbed him in the stomach.

I parked right here in the same place.

And the police officer was parked
behind the vehicles,

and, uh... the ambulance
was right behind him.

Hopefully there's not a dog! [laughs]

[car door closes]

After I completed my initial investigation
here at the house,

I started going to the neighborhood,

you know, talking to different people,
giving them the description,

and see if they had remembered
anybody like that or anything.

But that description matched
so many people.

Then approximately about two days later,

I received a call from Mr. A.L. Thompson
about the stabbing.

[Linda sniffs]

This is me
and my two brothers and my sister.

A.L., me, my sister,
and Danny, my brother.

You don't see me smiling in that picture,
because I'm sitting next to A.L.

My son idolized that man.

He just followed in his footsteps.

David was maybe ten, 11, 12 years old. A.L. used to sit and brag
about this man he beat the hell out of

and that man he stabbed
and this man he shot and shit like that.

And he never did any of those things,

but my son thought he did...

and I guess...

he just thought it was acceptable.

My brother could've helped him.

But instead of going the right way,
he went the wrong way

and he taught him things
that he shouldn't have taught him.

Since David wasn't mentally capable

of... thinking the consequences
about things,

and A.L. seemed to get away
with everything,

I guess he thought it was okay.

My son's always taken the blame
for everything, whether he did it or not.

Always!

And there are things
that he has gone to jail for

that I know for a fact that he did not do.

That I know that my brother A.L. did.

And that's why I asked him
who was with him when he did what he did.

He told me no one.

I keep hoping eventually
that he will tell me the truth

about that night.

But my brother A.L. instilled in him
that you don't rat on nobody.

You don't tell on nobody, period.

[birds chirping]

The call came into the police department
and it was out of the blue.

Uh, I didn't know Mr. Thompson.

As a matter of fact,
I couldn't even get an address from him.

All he told me is that his nephew
came to the residence,

and he was sweating profusely,
and was tired,

and the little bit of blood
that he had on his hand,

and he told Mr. Thompson
that he had stabbed somebody.

With the information that he gave me
and me checking the information,

uh, it was good enough to get
Mr. Lewis apprehended and arrested.

David didn't want to talk at first.

And I read him his rights.

I read him his rights
just to let him know that, you know,

I was going to speak to him
in reference to it and everything.

And he really didn't want to give me
very much information.

I said, "Let me tell you what happened
and you tell me if you did it or not."

I gave him the sequence
of the crime that was committed.

"This happened, this is you.
You ran.

You ran to your uncle's...

sweating, tired, blood on your hand..."

The only stabbing in Freeport that night.

Never did I tell him he did it.
Never did I tell him he didn't do it.

"Now it's on you if you're going
to tell me what happened or not.

I want your side of the story."

And all he said, when he looked at me,
he said, "Okay." And that was it.

He says "I don't want to talk anymore."
I said, "Okay."

So to me, when he said, "Okay,"
that was a confession for me. You know?

[Anderson] When I learned
that law enforcement

had taken a confession
to an unrelated stabbing

that supposedly was committed
by the defendant

before he came to Angelina County,

I would say livid is getting closer
to how I felt about that.

I was extremely angry.

That confession was taken
at a point in time

where I had already been appointed
as David Lewis's counsel

and so I'm on the record
as representing him.

So the law would require
if a confession is to be taken

after the defendant has counsel,

that confession requires the consent
of the defendant's counsel.

I was not notified of their visit here.

I was not notified of their intention
to take a confession.

The confession did come into evidence
and I can't help but think

that plays a role in what the jury sees
about future dangerousness.

Because if you got one event
in a person's life,

uh, that involves violence,

then that may be some indication
of what they're capable of doing

and what they might do in the future.

But if you have,
unrelated to that, another violet act,

then it's much easier for a jury
to imagine

that, yes, this person is going to be
a future danger to society,

and therefore answer that question
in the affirmative.

[crickets chirping]

[keys jangling]

[Gonzalez] On September 1st, 1986,
I received a call about the stabbing...

a complainant came out,
observed the subject in between the cars,

the suspect stood up
and stabbed him in the stomach.

Hmm. Yeah, yeah.

That was used against me in my trial.
[clears throat]

I was burglarizing another house.

And there was somebody asleep on the couch
and they come outside

and come around the back of the car.

So the only thing I could do
was pull my knife and stick them,

then I turned and ran.

I was a violent thug... [chuckles]

who didn't give a crap
about anybody but himself.

When my mom first asked me about it,
I told her I didn't do it,

I didn't know anything about it.

And then...

I think in 2008 or '09,

I told her that I...
that it was me that did it.

I think that's probably one of the reasons
she doesn't come to visit me anymore.

'Cause I lied to her, I disappointed her.

This crime here weighed so much on her

that I didn't want to tell her
about the other.

And finally I had to.

It was too much weight on my shoulders
and I had to get it off.

[Linda] A.L. used to sit and brag
about this man he beat the hell out of

and that man he...

David wasn't mentally capable of thinking
the consequences about things.

A.L. seemed to get away with everything,
I guess he thought it was okay.

Yeah, probably so.
I grew up with a bunch of bad influence.

Alcoholics, dope smokers.

It rubs off, but... [clears throat]

I have no excuse for my actions.

I did it, I'm guilty. You know.

A.L. was, uh, my idol, my hero.

He was, uh, the ultimate outlaw,
what I wanted to be growing up.

And I guess that's why I became a thug,
an outlaw, a hoodlum.

He was an outlaw, biker, tough guy.

He didn't steal or rob or kill.
He didn't do none of that.

I was a thief when I was a little kid.

I'd steal in stores,
steal candy and stuff.

I can go in a store
and see a pair of tennis shoes,

I'll just put them on, lace them up
and walk out, 'cause I want them.

[Gonzalez] During the investigation,
I received a call from Mr. A.L. Thompson.

All he told me is that his nephew
came to the residence,

and he made a statement to Mr. Thompson
that he had stabbed somebody.

I never knew that. I never knew
he called the police on me.

Let me tell you something.

In prison, you don't ever want
the snitch jacket on your back.

Ever, ever, ever.

That's worse than being a child molester.

[woman] But your uncle snitched on you.

I know, that's what hurts.

The material that was generated on him
back then

made it pretty clear that he had
a diagnosis of mental retardation.

There's quite a bit of discrimination
and, uh, myths and misunderstandings

that get in the way, particularly
in the field of criminal justice.

[Anderson] When you have
someone like Mr. Lewis

who is mentally impaired,

the question remains
whether or not he understands his rights

and he can make a knowing and intelligent
decision to waive those rights

and to give a statement.

[Lewis] Yeah, it's kind of too late
to use that now.

They say I'm not retarded,
so I guess I'm not.

It don't matter what the courts,
it don't matter what the judge or DA--

Once they have their minds set
on getting you, they're going to get you.

And, of course,
I understand that 'cause I'm guilty. If I was in their position,
I'd feel the same way.

When it comes to crime
and being a murderer,

you really have no excuse.

You know what you're doing.

Even though I was impaired,
I knew what I was doing.

Sure, I'm mentally impaired
and I was drunk, high on mushrooms,

but does it really matter?

I pulled the trigger and killed somebody.

And I can never give that life back.