Joseph Zeiler

The last 30 years I've been violent. I am un-violent, you know?

So he's gonna break in there and try to stab me. He said, pulled knives on me before. I'm scared of him, man. He can be violent and, you know, the last 30 years I haven't been violent. I haven't been violent, you know. All I want to do is live in peace in my house. Let's hear that part one more time.

Okay. Were you born here? I was born in Illinois, boy. Where then? I have a hard time with my memories.

No, ma'am. Doesn't look familiar to me.

I don't leave my house. Joseph either didn't remember or was lying. And it's always a careful balance detectives walk when they're interrogating. It's like lighting a fire.

I pray and do that myself on my own every evening.

I don't remember ever being a burglar or burglarizing.

I don't remember being any kind of burglar at all. I have issues with memory. I don't remember...

No, I don't like children. I have a normal relationship with my wife, and I'm very happy to stay at home.

I haven't seen them other than now that you're putting them here on the table. Well, look at him.

I've been with my girl 26 years. I love her. I got her pregnant. I've done my best with him. I really try to do my best with him. He just drinks nonstop. Just nonstop. I mean, it's all the time. And I understand I'm guilty too. I drink, but I don't drink every day. And it's just gotten too much, man. Their son and his girlfriend both worked, so the income was appreciated.

Well, you'd be wrong because I don't know who they are. I know I'm not wrong. I don't recall ever seeing this girl before. You've seen her before? No. Kurt's telling the truth. You've absolutely seen her before. OK. I don't recall seeing her before.

I don't carry any weight.

I am looking at her. Then tell us the truth about what happened. I have no idea what you're talking about. I've never seen that girl before in my life.

No one deserves what happened. Correct. I don't even know what happened to her, so I don't know what she's implying.

That should be breaking your heart right now. Again, I don't believe I've ever seen either one of these girls. I don't really know what you're implying here.

I don't remember any of that conversation. I've... I mean, you're saying that I said all that stuff, but I can't remember saying it. I don't remember the full procedure of what they did to me. Okay.

Okay.

No.

But the bickering wasn't. Well, this is his very first girlfriend since high school, and she's 45. She's a lot older. She's been working with him, trying to tell him, you know, right from wrong and how you're supposed to treat your parents, you know, but he berates her, and he's mean to her, and he don't hit her, but he is very verbally abusive to her mostly.

I can take you up on that soda. It'll probably be the last one I ever get.

I don't think people inherently start out bad. I think, you know, it's just a product of years of environment, product of your environment.

After about three or four, he starts getting belligerent. You know, and then about six, then he starts getting derating and bully-like, you know. And I'm just sick of it, you know. I'm scared of it. The last time he beat me up really well, he lumped me up real good. And, you know... How long ago was that? It was a couple years ago. And, you know, what happened was...

Well, you can't blame other people for your reasons, and I would never begin to try to. make any kind of excuses for, you know, anything like that. It's not just that people just don't start out inherently bad. It's just the way it is. Nobody's born with the bad stuff in their mouth.

I never really kind of raised him with any physical discipline, you know, like old school way my father raised me. You don't talk back to your father. You don't disrespect your family. Or you get smacked. Or you get smacked. And, of course, you can't do that no more, you know. And it's just been building forever. The last time he beat the shit out of me, you know, I kept my hands at my side.

The only way my DNA could have gotten there was me sleeping with Jan Cornell and Leanne Deller.

I mean, I was here in December of 89. I testified to that earlier. And what I believe happened is I slept with Jan Cornell and Leanne Deller and they were just too much of a pig not to wash their sheets.

Well, she's calling me a rapist and a murderer, so what, I can't write that? I mean, she's calling me a rapist and a murderer, and I'm calling her a pig for not washing her sheets.

I said something that pissed him off. His mood changed instantly at the bar. He started acting dark and, you know, belligerent. So he got home and his mother asked him, please, I got to go to work tomorrow. Please, you guys, please do not fight tonight. Don't cause any trouble tonight. I need to get some sleep. She hadn't had no sleep.

So we went in our bedroom, laid down, everything was smooth, and they started fighting, you know, and I just had enough. I hit them.

It was quick, you know, it was to the point. While we were at it, he started biting me. You know what I mean? I mean, he started gnawing on me. He bit me here on the finger first, then he bit me on the arm. Then he tried to bite me right in my jugular vein. And, you know, I had it. So I punched him in the face a couple times, got off him. I thought it was done. The girls thought it was done.

But he's one of them people that won't, he don't never let nothing go. I was done. It was done. And I had enough, you know, and I figured it was time to give him the ass whooping he needed. I'm sorry. You know, that's the way my daddy did me. And I finally had enough, man. I'm 54 years old. And I figured if I don't whoop his ass now, he's going to walk all over me the rest of my life. So I did.

I whooped his ass. I gave him a good ass whooping. He deserved it. He needed it. And then I walked away. I got up, went in my room, closed the door.

I didn't realize that I'd actually hurt him with it. I mean, it's a Pelican, for Christ's sake. I can't get away from them. The only way I can get away from the noise in that house is to go out in that room and turn that air conditioner so I can't hear nothing. And that's why the officer was asking me. I didn't hear any sirens. I didn't know there was traumatics there.

I actually just, I don't even think I, I seriously didn't even think I hit them with the pellet gun.

LATVIA

I mean, I walked away. They told me to stop, and I stopped. My girl tells me to stop, I stop.