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Behind that garage door was Charla Mac's lifeless body.
A search of Darren's condo turned up incriminating evidence. A note that on closer inspection, police believed to be a chilling, step-by-step guide to the day's bloody events. The media dubbed it Darren's To-Do List.
Police also found a rental contract for a silver Ford Explorer and a crucial piece of the puzzle that tied everything together. The to-do list had the phrase, parking garage, if yes. Police reviewed surveillance video of the garage across from Weller's office, and sure enough, at 10.46 a.m., just 20 minutes before Weller was shot, a silver Ford Explorer is photographed entering the parking garage.
We retraced the path police believe the Explorer took that day.
The fallout from this horrifying day. One shooting.
Day two, 45-year-old Darren Mack is a hunted man. With a nationwide search underway, he is heading south and flying under the radar.
His cousin, Jeff Donner, goes on television to make an impassioned plea.
Darren called Donner just minutes after Judge Weller was shot.
That courtroom belonged to Judge Chuck Weller. And what went wrong in Darren Mack's mind was just about everything.
Michael Small was one of Darren's closest friends.
Small and Mack had a lot in common. Both men were in the midst of bitter custody fights.
And both men appeared before Judge Weller. Small says his own experience in Weller's courtroom sheds light on Darren's intense frustration.
Weller ordered Small to return his son to Florida where his ex-wife lives, an arrangement Small said would put the child at risk. But a Florida judge had already rejected that claim.
When Small missed the deadline to return the boy, a Florida judge threw him in jail for 45 days. The former actor was left to stew about family court in general and Weller in particular, a sentiment shared by Darren Mack. Both men were losing, both men blamed Judge Weller, and both men started a campaign against him. We felt something big did have to happen.
Clearly, Weller was not a popular judge. According to a tally kept by the County Bar Association, lawyers, when given the choice, chose to get Weller off their case.
Martha Belisle specializes in legal affairs for her newspaper.
But being unpopular and having a bias are two different things.
Just two weeks after the shooting, Judge Weller had recovered and held a press conference, but he wouldn't address the Mack case.
Dean Tong was part of Darren Mack's divorce legal team. He says Darren was a difficult client.
Tong, who specializes in custody issues, warned Darren there are certain things that just won't sit well with any judge when it comes to deciding who gets custody.
Apparently, Darren didn't take the warning seriously.
In fact, he later took a trip to the famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch to celebrate his impending divorce.
But back at home, the party was over.
Judge Weller had asked Darren and Charla to try to reach some kind of financial agreement on their own so he wouldn't be forced to do it for them. They did hammer out a deal, but when that fell apart, the judge stepped in and ordered Darren to pay up.
Darren was ordered to make that payment up close to half a million dollars to Charla, but soon after that hearing, Charla Mack was dead.
It's been four days since Charla Mack's body was discovered inside Darren Mack's garage.
Darren's daughter Erica was now safely in hiding with family, but Charla's friends were still on edge. Were you afraid that Darren Mack was going to come after you? Yes. You were? Yes. But you were the next target. Mark Phillips was Charla's boyfriend at the time of her death.
While Charla's friends and family were lying low... We've highlighted those areas of La Paz. The search for Darren Mack was now an international manhunt. Reno investigators working with the FBI were tracking possible Darren Mack sightings in Mexico. A couple of unverified reports came in at this resort in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.
It would have been familiar territory for Darren since he'd been here the year before for a swingers convention.
Newspaper reporter Martha Belisle went to Mexico trying to retrace Darren's steps and met hotel employee Virginia Delgadillo, who claimed she met a man fitting Darren's description.
And an airline pilot staying at the same resort also reported he thought he had seen the millionaire fugitive. FBI agents soon descended on the Mexican hotel.
Then exactly one week after he disappeared came the shocking announcement that Darren Mack, hiding somewhere in Mexico, wanted to surrender.
Dick Gamick, a longtime Mack family friend, is Reno's District Attorney.
While he was still in hiding, Darren's family had retained two high-priced defense attorneys.
David Chesnoff and Scott Freeman took over the surrender negotiation.
But what's not in dispute is they see Darren as a man pushed to the limit.
But a series of emails Darren sent while on the run reveal a disturbing picture of this man. For example, in one message, he holds himself up as a martyr for the father's rights movement, saying, remember, they want me as a sacrificial lamb. They want the pleasure of executing me.
In the same vein, he later writes that his story must get attention to save the hundreds of thousands yet to go through little Nazi Germany in the divorce industry.
After days of negotiations, Darren finally agreed to surrender the next morning at the US consulate in Puerto Vallarta. But will he go peacefully?
June 22nd, 11 days after that violent rampage that shook the city of Reno, Police anxiously await the surrender of the man they believe responsible. Mack, who is believed to also have been using the names of Darren Stone and John Smith. There was a question whether Darren Mack would give up without a fight.
But in the end, the millionaire fugitive quietly turned himself in at a luxury hotel in Puerto Vallarta.
Darren's last night was spent in this stark Mexican jail cell. A dramatic reversal of fortune for a man who was accustomed to living the high life.
Darren Mack was carrying $36,000 in cash, 20 credit cards, and a suitcase full of evidence.
Darren Mack was charged with the murder of his wife and the attempted murder of Judge Weller.
Las Vegas Special Prosecutor Christopher Lally is handling the case.
Darren has pled not guilty to both crimes.
From the sound of it, Darren Mack's attorneys may be making a case for self-defense.
Darren hinted at this in an email he sent to Reno DA Dick Gamet while negotiating his surrender. claiming it was Charla who was the aggressor in that garage.
Darren Mack's attorneys may also raise questions about his state of mind. Is he mentally incompetent?
Co-prosecutor Robert Daskus thinks insanity will be a hard sell. You look at the
And the defense will need to work around that so-called to-do list, which could show premeditation. What do you make of this cryptic list? I'd have to know who wrote it.
As they gear up for trial, Darren's attorneys say they'll spare no expense to defend their client, but apparently it won't be easy.
After the violent events of that June morning, many still wrestle with the fallout. Custody litigation expert Dean Tong. What has this case done to the father's rights movement in this country?
Released from jail and back home with his new wife and family, Michael Small would learn more about the case and eventually withdraw his support from Darren. As Darren awaits trial for the murder of his wife, Charla, their daughter, Erica, is now the center of a new custody dispute between her grandmothers.
Yes, yes. She knows that her father has been charged with her mother's murder?
The people of Reno were glued to their televisions following the brazen shooting of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller.
Ann Mudd and Christine Liebert desperately tried to reach their friend, Charla Mack.
they were convinced Charla was in danger.
Darren and Charla Mack were married in 1995. And from the beginning, everyone says, they had a chemistry that was undeniable.
Writer Amanda Robb reported on the Mack case for Marie Claire magazine.
Amanda and Charla went to the same high school in Reno.
Long before Charla ever met Darren Mack, she pursued her dream of an acting career. Leaving Reno behind, the teenager moved to Los Angeles.
Charla eventually gave up acting and moved back to Reno. When she began dating Darren, they seemed a perfect match.
Friends say they also shared an interest in a self-awareness training group called the Landmark Education.
Darren Mack is the oldest son of a wealthy and prominent Reno family. His parents owned one of the largest pawn shops in the city. When his father was killed in a plane crash in 1986, Darren became half owner of the family business. And according to court records, he was said to be worth almost $10 million.
But Darren Mack had been down the aisle before. I knew his first wife, Debbie. And what was she like?
Darren and Debbie had two children together, but the marriage did not end well.
Darren had joined custody, and for a while at least, he, Charla, and his kids seemed to be one big happy family.
But their clean-cut family image was a far cry from their private lives.
But things changed after their daughter Erica was born in 1997.
Charla told Darren she was no longer interested in swinging.
As the marriage began to crumble, letters and emails we obtained document an increasingly abusive relationship.
But it wasn't Charla who claimed to be the victim. It was Darren. Fifth place winner in the Mr. Nevada bodybuilding contest.
Darren's friend Michael Small says that despite his imposing stature, Darren Mack lived in fear.
In the end, it was Charla who filed for divorce. Darren moved out. The couple fought constantly over Erica, but fought even more over money, which Darren claimed was running out.
Family court judge Chuck Weller ordered Darren to pay Charla $10,000 a month until the divorce was settled. But Darren thought the ruling and the judge were unfair and wouldn't give an inch.
It was just after 11 on that bright sunny day in June 2006 in downtown Reno when bystanders heard a loud bang echo off the buildings.
Detective Ron Chalmers joined hundreds of police officers to shut down the city while SWAT teams fanned out searching for the sniper.
Reno Gazette reporter Martha Belisle hurried to the scene.
It turned out only one bullet was fired that morning, exploding through the window of Judge Chuck Weller's chambers, spraying him and his assistant with shrapnel.
It was just minutes after the shooting when police got a break. Darren's friend said that he was very concerned for Charla and felt that... A childhood friend of Darren Max met with police and had a disturbing story to tell. Dan Osborne told police he had been at Darren's home that morning when Charla dropped off their daughter. He and Erica stayed upstairs while Darren spoke to Charla privately.
After the frantic barking went on for a while, Osborne told police he went to check on his dog. That's when he ran into Darren, who was coming up from the garage. Osborne said Darren brushed past him with his hand wrapped in a towel with a weird look on his face, not saying a word.
Osborne put Erica in his car and started driving. Minutes later, his cell phone rang. It was Darren.
Mack took his daughter aside and spoke to her for a few minutes. Darren Mack.
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