Natalie Morales
Appearances
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Usually there's a more clear-cut finish or ending to the story. In this case, he was acquitted. And I think the reason is because, again, jurors found reasonable doubt. Consultant Lisa Andrews again told us this all came down to the prosecution not proving their case in court. They didn't have enough evidence. And, you know, the jury paid attention. They did their jobs.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And it's interesting. I did. I did ask him, too, about that, because his training, you would think, is something that also would kick in that when you see somebody pointing a gun at you as a officer, you know, law enforcement, you're trained to deescalate the situation. I asked him about that when he said his training kicked in because he saw her finger was right on the trigger.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And he knew he had to get the gun out of her fingers because he knew that if there was any sort of pressure on that trigger, it would go off. And in fact, that's what happened.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Yeah. You know, it's always heartbreaking when you cover these stories. In this case, though, looking at Petrina, that's Patricia's daughter, and she looks just like her mother. I mean, they look like they could have been sisters, right? And they had such a close bond, such a close relationship. And Petrina talked about how much hope Patricia had when she married Renard.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Renard was her first true love, her first marriage, her first house that they bought together. I mean, she viewed this as sort of her happily ever after. So it's just such a senseless tragedy. And, and Petrina said she had not cried. And, and in the middle of doing the interview with us, she started to cry and she was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm crying.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
I think it was sort of cathartic for her, you know, having the resolution, even though it didn't go the way she thought it would go. She at least was sort of dealing with the emotions finally.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
How is Renard doing today? Trying to pick up the pieces of his life, too. As we said, he's mourning the loss of Patricia as well. He still says she was the love of his life. He's spending a lot of time with his grandkids, doing a lot with his church within his community. Renard is trying to turn what was a horrible tragedy now into doing positive work.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And he's volunteering most weekends for an organization called that is near and dear to him called Hoodies of Healing. It's an organization that helps to feed the homeless. And so he's very involved with that.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
That's our job to do that, to present both sides of the story. I think what the challenge was for the authorities was to figure out who the real aggressor was in this situation, who had the finger on the trigger when the gun went off. And that camera, by the way, right over the refrigerator, that's because... Patricia Spivey's father was living with them and he has onset dementia.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
So therefore, they always had the camera rolling just to keep track. His room was not far off from the kitchen. So that's why that camera was specifically placed there. But that footage gave us sort of a window into the the moments leading up to what happened that night. And again, it comes down to we know when things happen because you even hear the shots based on that security footage.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
But what we don't know is how that happened and who really had their finger on the trigger in those moments.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Well, you know, what Renard told us, because he did agree to an interview, you know, after he was acquitted, he thought that night there had been some tension building in the relationship.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And also on that security footage, you can hear it sounds like at one point where Patricia, before she went to bed, you hear in the background, Patricia said over and over again as if she's upset with him about something. but we don't know what exactly. And so in that time, something happened. Renard said,
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
He picked up her phone after she went to bed from her bed stand, went to the closet, looked at the phone, and that's when she confronted him, he says, with the gun at the front of the closet. And that's when he got very nervous because he knew it was fully charged and it doesn't have a safety mechanism on it. And if the finger is on the trigger, it can go off.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
So that's when he said he tussled with her to get control of the gun and the shots went off.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Yeah. System disarmed. Ready to arm. All right. All right.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Sir, we need to get back to your wife to continue the compressions. All right, ma'am. I mean, did he explain that? So, Ann Marie, yes, the operator is asking on the 911 call if he is in the bedroom. But he replies with yes, even though we see in the security footage from their kitchen that he is now walking to the garage. And he said it was to open the door for the first responders.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
So he's now removed himself from doing CPR on Patricia at that moment. And he didn't tell the operator that at the time. And it's important to remember, he himself had been shot in the leg. So we know that at that point, there was some trauma. And so he is giving her CPR. And he said... He felt he needed to go open the garage door to allow the first responders to enter.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
So that's how he explained it to us. He was like, I did what I thought I needed to do to best get the help that she would need.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
seems to carry the burden of what happened on that night and, you know, that he feels her loss. I mean, he says to this day he still loves Patricia very deeply. And I think what, you know, is most troubling for him is knowing that it was his gun that was charged and on the nightstand that ultimately led to this tragic death. he did want to talk. He wanted to tell us his side of the story.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And he wanted to, you know, I guess somewhat clear his name because with a lot of these cases, this happened right before COVID and COVID interrupted the legal process. So this case was put on hold for four years. So in the public eye, he was looked at perhaps as being guilty, even though he hadn't had his day in court yet. And he was eventually acquitted.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Yes. And we're just a couple of towns over from the Palisades fire and all around me, a lot of people have lost a lot. So my thoughts are with them. If, you know, there are also some technical difficulties as well in recording this because with winds the way we've had them for the last couple of days, if I freeze every now and again, I apologize. Right.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
It seems like a basic... necessity when it comes to figuring out whose finger was on the trigger. But it was his former service weapon. It was always right by the bed, charged, which in itself is the problem here. You know, this was a Smith & Wesson service gun, and the design of it, it doesn't have the typical safety mechanisms.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And defense attorney Dick DeGaran showed us how it could go off over and over again because it automatically recharges. Which, you know, is so scary when you think about that. But again, we don't know. The defense argued that the state never proved whose hand again was on the trigger. So that really came down to being crucial at trial and presented reasonable doubt for the jury.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
which I thought was surprising. Right. We poured over the medical examiner's report with CBS News consultant Lisa Andrews. She looked it all over for us. That was key to this case. And the medical examiner's report ruled it was a homicide. But what was unclear was the number of, you know, entry and exit wounds. They couldn't determine the amount of shots fired. Was it two shots?
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And you might hear the dogs barking in the background. And the dogs barking because there are a lot of people in the neighborhood making sure things are okay.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Dick DeGaran showed us with the actual weapon, that Smith & Wesson revolver, he reenacted what Renard told him happened on that night and the trajectory of the bullets. He kind of did this whole demonstration with me showing how they fought over the gun, how he was holding her arm, and the way the trajectory of the bullet would have entered her arm into her side and then hit her chest.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Also, the defense said, The number of shots really didn't disprove that it was an accident, given that this is a gun that is charged and can continually be fired and keep going. The prosecution, though, was arguing that it's hard to believe that multiple shots are fired, that it is an accident.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
One more thing, though, what was interesting, what you mentioned in the hour, is there was a fourth sound as well on the surveillance footage. It was unclear if it was another shot. The question, according to the state, was could it have possibly been Renard shooting his leg at that time, a fourth shot. But there was no proof of that. And the sound was so indistinct.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
The daughter talked about how Renard seemed to be controlling. Also, Patricia's cousin, Sybil Shepherd, who she was very close with, talked about Renard's alleged controlling behavior. Patricia had this annual cruise that she would do with Sybil. And after a time, Sybil said it became increasingly more difficult because Renard was always checking on them and just controlling and not letting them
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
have their fun. And Renard denied that. You know, he said, I let her go on the cruise. I let her, you know, she went on multiple cruises after we got married. So he denied any controlling behavior. Also, in regards to the steroid use, I asked Renard point blank, were you using steroids or were you using anything that altered your moods? We hear so much about rage.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
And he said he went to a doctor to treat low testosterone. He was prescribed pills and shots that he wasn't on steroids. So he denied that.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
looking across at the desk at a police officer, which could be very intimidating. And this is a girl, Kaplan says, who was scared she had been caught.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
You know, people fight. I think they knew, though, at this point they really didn't have a fighting chance because it was obvious that they had all at some point accepted responsibility and told police their roles in what happened and took the plea deal.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
Well, with her mother, Maggie Fryer, Maggie says they have a good relationship, that they talk regularly. And Maggie is an advocate for Ellie. She believes Ellie was a victim in all of this and really believed that Ellie was abused. Her sister, Sierra, she didn't want to tell us too much. Now, whether or not she believes Ellie's abuse claims, she said she preferred not to talk about that as well.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
But she said, my dad was a good dad. And she loved him very much and thought he was a great father to her. And she and Ellie are communicating. They talk to each other. They've been together. There are pictures of them together. So she told us it's sort of a complicated relationship, but she still, it seems, loves her sister and chooses to have a relationship with her.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
I think so. It's a thought-provoking hour. And we, of course, present all the evidence that we could present on both sides. And it's just heartbreaking. It seems like Ellie, given her situation in life, her parents were split up. You know, that destroyed her. We know that because her sister said it. The whole family dynamic changed.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
That said, she was very involved in planning, if not, according to police, possibly the mastermind of this whole operation to begin with. But Gavin and Russell were, you know, 19 and 22. They were young men now. who perhaps took advantage of a 15-year-old, as Aliza Kaplan points out, and maybe they were manipulating Ellie. So it'll leave you thinking. Indeed.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
It was a good 20 miles or about 30 minutes drive from the Medford Police Department headquarters. So it was a difficult area to get to because it was sort of a hilly, remote, wooded area. But it wasn't really, you know, something that they thought out. Investigators said they drove around for quite some time trying to figure out what to do.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
They had the, you know, Aaron's body in the back of the car wrapped up in tarp. But finally, they figured it out. Detective Ford, he says, Russell led him right there. And then he said, OK, stop. He's like, OK, he's right down there over the ravine. And sure enough, the police look down, they see a tarp. wrapped up.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
And once they knew they had a body, once they knew they had located Aaron Fryer, they were able to take that picture of that crime scene and they showed Gavin, look, we know, you know, where Aaron is now. We have a crime scene set up. We're getting a lot of information. Russell is telling us his story. What's your story? So the investigation moved pretty quickly.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
And after that, they were all pointing the finger at each other and blaming one another.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
Yeah, apparently they had, according to the police, different plans that they had written out. In fact, Russell seemed to be sort of the secretary of the group writing down and taking the notes of the plans. Ellie did, though, you know, in her handwriting, there's a note where she draws out the exact. It's a very small house where Aaron Fryer lived and Aaron was on the couch.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
when he was killed with the baseball bat. So Ellie had drawn the inside of the house, including where the motion detectors were, so that they knew where to go once, you know, Gavin and Russell were going to execute this plan. And there had been other plans, too, though. There was a plan, apparently, to chloroform Ellie's sisters, but also chloroform Aaron, and then...
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
They were going to take him in the car, in his car, and make it look like he crashed and had a car accident. And in fact, when they were going through with their planning, apparently there was a whole plan in motion the night before Aaron Fryer was actually killed where Gavin and Russell attempted to break into the house and unbeknownst to them,
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
Aaron's girlfriend was sleeping at the house on the time, and when they tried to break in, the girlfriend disrupted what was their plan to then kill Aaron. And investigators said there was even a plan at one point. They had talked about killing Russell's dad, and they wanted the Social Security benefits. And that morning after they killed Aaron Fryer, one of the things that police said
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
were able to glean from Russell and Gavin and Ellie was that they had gone to a Social Security office, and the idea was Russell was going to have Gavin become his rep payee so that he could then start getting the benefits signed over to him. And Once they get to the Social Security office, they realize this ain't going to work. And the Social Security office was closed.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
It was early in the morning, so they couldn't even do anything with that. So as you could see, they were kind of bumbling when it came down to what they were going to do after they got away with murder. And you said police spoke to Russell's dad? Police spoke to Russell's dad, and he said he wasn't concerned. He didn't think that Russell was actually ever going to try to kill him.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
So, you know, he didn't feel like it was too much of a threat to him.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
It appears they had planned probably for about three weeks or so beforehand, given, you know, the nature of the notes and the text exchanges back and forth between Ellie and Gavin. But we know that a few days before, based on Ellie's texts, that she had told Gavin that her father had sexually molested her.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
Now, you know, whether or not there's truth to that, we'll never know because Aaron isn't here to give his side of the story. You know, abuse claims are always very nuanced. But the police detectives, you know, they did look into that. They couldn't corroborate Ellie's stories of abuse. Her sisters were interviewed. They said their dad was a good guy.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
They didn't, you know, see any evidence or had never experienced any abuse, they said themselves. So, you know, it's hard to corroborate that. But the question was, was Ellie telling him that to give him the motive to go through with their plan?
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
We want to believe the abuse victim as well. And, you know, police, when they interrogated Ellie, she did say she was being abused. However, when they went about going through with their investigation, Ellie had told apparently three friends that she was being abused, but she never mentioned being sexually abused. So it's a very hard claim to corroborate. That said, you know...
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
She's a 15-year-old girl. We don't know what her father was or wasn't doing. But, you know, her sisters did say that Ellie's abuse claim, they thought, came from the fact that Aaron Fryer had made it forbidden that Gavin and Ellie could be together. And so Ellie was taking that as, you know, punishment and saying she was being abused. That's what her sister said.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
Right. And in his interrogation with Detective Ford, he says, you know, and I was protecting my unborn child. You know, he really believed because Ellie told him that she thought she was pregnant. Now, there was surveillance footage of them going into a store right after they had murdered Aaron Fryer, and she did buy a pregnancy kit at that time. So,
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
You know, we don't know what she really thought at the time, if she really thought she was pregnant or not, though. You know, again, police thinking that she was using everything she could, according to police, to try to manipulate the situation. They view her as the mastermind of the plot.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
You know, you can only imagine, you know, the detectives told me that they were all outside in sort of a conference room area. And the minute he You know, Russell starts talking to the camera and putting on what they called like a show. They all stopped and were watching and it was like a monologue to the camera. And so it was very bizarre behavior.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
That video actually got released on YouTube and had gone viral, you know, after the fact. But that said, Russell had given them so much information at that point. And you could see he is a talker and he likes to tell people what he knows. And so he was really helpful to the police early on in their investigation and allowed them then to use what he was telling them.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
to go back to Gavin and to go back to Ellie to get their sides of the story as well on, you know, what happened that morning and in the aftermath after they had killed Aaron Fryer.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
It almost seemed like it was like the Joker out of the Batman movie or something, just the way he was talking. Absolutely, absolutely.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
Yes. In the state of Oregon, it is legal to interview a minor like that. Police, the fact that they didn't let her mom know that she was okay, Maggie Fryer was very upset about that. I mean, she said... You know, at the point when she made the 911 call to first alert police to the situation, she reported Ellie and Aaron as missing.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
And so as the day went on, she told us that nobody ever called to tell her that we at least have Ellie in custody. And Aliza Kaplan, who is Ellie's defense attorney now, believes it was excessive, that they allowed this interrogation to go on for 10 hours. You see Ellie a couple of times saying she's tired, she's yawning, she wants to lay down.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
They, in fact, bring her a blanket and they put it on the floor. Kaplan points out that this is a 15-year-old who at one point even says, I don't want to talk, but then the police managed to get her to keep talking. So Kaplan says, you know, there are some there's some issues with the way she was interrogated, that this is just a child.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
And, you know, she should have been given a little more time and perhaps had a representative or an attorney present when she was questioned.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
She's trained to talk to children. I should point that out. Stephanie Jackson has all the right credentials to be doing that kind of questioning. The other thing we should point out Stephanie Jackson recognized early on that Ellie was lying through a lot of the interrogation. Ellie, from the start, when they asked her, what's your name? Is your name Ellie Fryer? She was like, no.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
She said she was older than she actually was. She said she was 18. So she did lie a couple of times. So...
48 Hours
Post Mortem | First Love, Then Murder
Well, you know, in the beginning, she pretended she had no idea what had happened and said she was just walking around with her friends and pretended she was concerned about her father. So she denied a lot in the beginning and she was lying from the start, according to the police. So Aliza Kaplan says, though, you can explain those lies away because here is a 15-year-old girl lying.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
So how is Justine's family doing today? I mean, they're incredibly brave. And I would say the Vander Schutts are among the strongest family I've met because they are taking what is such a horrific loss and their pain, and they're turning it into something positive and good. They have, along with the prosecutor's office, enacted Justine's law to help
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
Now, what was really intriguing about this is that, you know, had he not been eight or 10 feet above ground on a horse, he probably might not have seen that. But I loved being able to do the interview on horseback because, you know, that's how he saw it. And it also provided for us a A little bit of a different element and a way into this investigation than we normally do.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
educate teens in high schools across the state of California on teen dating violence, which unfortunately is becoming more prevalent, as we know, with social media. They're really trying to turn the page on something that was so tragic in their lives and really doing something powerful with it instead and really hopefully making an impact in a positive way to remember their daughter.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
We're all parents of teenagers, tweenagers even here. And, you know, you have daughters. I have a son who's 16 and an older son as well. And it is something that, you know, you don't necessarily really think about, you know, them getting into a toxic relationship like this that could lead to something so horrific. But there are telltale signs and there are red flags.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
And in hindsight, Justine's family, they're trying to point those out because there were signs of controlling behavior.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
Yes. Oh, my gosh. The horses are incredible creatures. They are... I think both of them were wild mustangs that had been, you know, tamed or broken. And the horse that Matt Scribner was riding, his name was Astro. And they were so... amazing to be on, but also so relaxed and chill, surprisingly, given that we had camera crews all around them.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
And also we use drones and we were a little concerned using the drones because, I don't know if you know this, but when they round up wild Mustangs, they fly helicopters over them. And so there was some concern that That the drone and that sound that they make, you know, that buzzing noise might freak the horses out a little bit. Thankfully, you know, we kept the drones far away from them.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
The horses seemed to be pretty fine with it. And so we got the footage that we needed and we were able to do the interview and it all came out great. Yeah.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
Yeah, they were very close friends. They lived together, as you said. And according to investigators, there was some history there with Brandon not liking Justine. And also, according to Christine, Justine's sister, Justine had believed that Brandon had been cheating on his girlfriends in the past, so she didn't like him either.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
So, you know, there definitely was this tense and toxic relationship in this sort of between Danny and Brandon and Justine being the one in the middle. According to Danny's testimony, he, at one point, was so heartbroken because he believed that Justine was cheating on him, he was thinking of taking his own life. But Brandon said, why kill yourself? Why don't you kill her instead?
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
Wow. As you heard there, Brandon sort of casting himself as a hero. The prosecution felt this was sort of a telling reaction because if Brandon was truly so fearful of Danny that he felt powerless to be able to stop him or to go for help, he should have cast himself as the victim in the letter. And his narrative was sort of like, I'm the avenger in her death, right?
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
And, you know, I'm going to do right by you. But yet he was witnessing her take her last breaths. He did nothing to stop that from happening. Absolutely.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
Yeah, Jeff Reinach, I mean, he is a skilled interrogator. And he told us that he usually has people write a letter to to the victims at the end or to their families. And so this is sort of part of his strategy, I guess, in a way to maybe see what they reveal, you know, in writing.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
And he said that, you know, it was almost as if he was trying to rewrite, as if Brandon was trying to rewrite his role in what happened.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
The Vandershoots did everything to include Danny. He had a key to the house. He was welcomed into their home whenever he wanted to come in. Don gave him a job at the Mercedes-Benz dealership where he worked. So he hooked him up.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
It is absolutely chilling. It's chilling. It is chilling. And I said to Guyane, like, I kept looking at his eyes, trying to read his body language, trying to get a sense of, you know, Where was his mindset? Like, what was he possibly thinking, being able to do that, go in front of the media the way he was, holding up her picture and saying, I did everything for that girl.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
And let's not forget, he had dinner with the Vandershoots on the night that he was planning to then take their daughter into that forested area and kill her. The level of... of depravity and sickness is just so outrageous.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
Yes, yeah, absolutely. And Matt Scribner, you know, he was key to the testimony in this case by giving investigators that timeline of when he saw this freshly dug hole and then saying, going back later and then seeing a mattress in debris covering that hole.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
I mean, he's serving a life sentence now. He wanted his life sentence. thrown out and to be resentenced as what they call an accessory after the fact. So basically saying, you know, I didn't mean to do this. I didn't take part in it. I just was there and it happened. Right.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Justine’s Voice
Seven times in seven years, they've been to court. You know, they took a plea deal because they thought that would be the easiest way to not have to relive the horrific details of their daughter's murder. And yet now they're having to do that over and over again.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Also, in regards to the steroid use, I asked Renard point blank, were you using steroids or were you using anything that altered your moods? We hear so much about roid rage. And he said he went to a doctor to treat low testosterone. He was prescribed pills and shots that he wasn't on steroids. So he denied that.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And you might hear the dogs barking in the background. And the dogs barking because there are a lot of people in the neighborhood making sure things are OK.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Usually there's a more clear cut finish or ending to the story. In this case, he was acquitted. And I think the reason is because, again, jurors found reasonable doubt. Consultant Lisa Andrews again told us this all came down to the prosecution not proving their case in court. They didn't have enough evidence. And, you know, the jury paid attention. They did their jobs.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And it's interesting. I did. I did ask him, too, about that, because his training, you would think, is something that also would kick in that when you see somebody pointing a gun at you as a officer, you know, law enforcement, you're trained to deescalate the situation. I asked him about that when he said his training kicked in because he saw her finger was right on the trigger.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And he knew he had to get the gun out of her fingers because he knew that if there was any sort of pressure on that trigger, it would go off. And in fact, that's what happened.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Yeah. You know, it's always heartbreaking when you cover these stories. In this case, though, looking at Petrina, that's Patricia's daughter, and she looks just like her mother. I mean, they look like they could have been sisters, right? And they had such a close bond, such a close relationship. And Petrina talked about how much hope Patricia had when she married Renard.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Renard was her first true love, her first marriage, her first house that they bought together. I mean, she viewed this as sort of her happily ever after. So it's just such a senseless tragedy. And, and Petrina said she had not cried. And, and in the middle of doing the interview with us, she started to cry and she was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm crying.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
I think it was sort of cathartic for her, you know, having the resolution, even though it didn't go the way she thought it would go. She at least was sort of dealing with the emotions finally.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And then what about Renard? How is Renard doing today? Trying to pick up the pieces of his life, too. As we said, he's mourning the loss of Patricia as well. He still says she was the love of his life. He's spending a lot of time with his grandkids, doing a lot with his church within his community. Renard is trying to turn what was a horrible tragedy now into doing positive work.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And he's volunteering most weekends for an organization that is near and dear to him called Hoodies of Healing. It's an organization that helps to feed the homeless. And so he's very involved with that.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
That's our job to do that, to present both sides of the story. I think what the challenge was for the authorities was to figure out who the real aggressor was in this situation, who had the finger on the trigger when the gun went off. And that camera, by the way, right over the refrigerator, that's because Patricia Spivey's father was living with them and he has onset dementia.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
So therefore, they always had the camera rolling just to keep track. His room was not far off from the kitchen. So that's why that camera was specifically placed there. But that footage gave us sort of a window into the the moments leading up to what happened that night. And again, it comes down to we know when things happen because you even hear the shots based on that security footage.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
But what we don't know is how that happened and who really had their finger on the trigger in those moments. Mm-hmm.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Well, you know, what Renard told us, because he did agree to an interview, you know, after he was acquitted, he thought that night there had been some tension building in the relationship.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And also on that security footage, you can hear it sounds like at one point where Patricia, before she went to bed, you hear in the background, Patricia said over and over again as if she's upset with him about something. but we don't know what exactly. And so in that time, something happened. Renard said,
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
He picked up her phone after she went to bed from her bed stand, went to the closet, looked at the phone, and that's when she confronted him, he says, with the gun at the front of the closet. And that's when he got very nervous because he knew it was fully charged and it doesn't have a safety mechanism on it. And if the finger is on the trigger, it can go off.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
So that's when he said he tussled with her to get control of the gun and the shots went off.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
So we need to get back to your wife to continue the compressions. All right, ma'am. I mean, did he explain that? So, Henry, yes, the operator is asking on the 911 call if he is in the bedroom. But he replies with yes, even though we see in the security footage from their kitchen that he is now walking to the garage. And he said it was to open the door for the first responders.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
So he's now removed himself from doing CPR on Patricia at that moment. And he didn't tell the operator that at the time. And it's important to remember, he himself had been shot in the leg. So we know that at that point, there was some trauma. And so he is giving her CPR. And he said... He felt he needed to go open the garage door to allow the first responders to enter.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
So that's how he explained it to us. He was like, I did what I thought I needed to do to best get the help that she would need.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
seems to carry the burden of what happened on that night. And, you know, that he feels her loss. I mean, he says to this day he still loves Patricia very deeply. And I think what, you know, is most troubling for him is knowing that it was his gun that was charged and on the nightstand that ultimately led to this tragic death. he did want to talk. He wanted to tell us his side of the story.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And he wanted to, you know, I guess somewhat clear his name because with a lot of these cases, this happened right before COVID and COVID interrupted the legal process. So this case was put on hold for four years. So in the public eye, he was looked at perhaps as being guilty, even though he hadn't had his day in court yet. And he was eventually acquitted.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
It seems like a basic... necessity when it comes to figuring out whose finger was on the trigger. But it was his former service weapon. It was always right by the bed, charged, which in itself is the problem here. You know, this was a Smith & Wesson service gun and the design of it, it doesn't have the typical safety mechanisms.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And defense attorney Dick DeGaran showed us how it could go off over and over again because it automatically recharges. Which, you know, is so scary when you think about that. But again, we don't know. The defense argued that the state never proved whose hand again was on the trigger. So that really came down to being crucial at trial and presented reasonable doubt for the jury.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
which I thought was surprising. Right. We poured over the medical examiner's report with CBS News consultant Lisa Andrews. She looked it all over for us. That was key to this case. And the medical examiner's report ruled it was a homicide, but What was unclear was the number of entry and exit wounds. They couldn't determine the amount of shots fired. Was it two shots?
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Dick DeGaran showed us with the actual weapon, that Smith & Wesson revolver, he reenacted what Renard told him happened on that night and the trajectory of the bullets. He kind of did this whole demonstration with me showing how they fought over the gun, how he was holding her arm, and the way the trajectory of the bullet would have entered her arm into her side and then hit her chest.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Also, the defense said the number of shots really didn't disprove that it was an accident, given that this is a gun that is charged and can continually be fired and keep going. The prosecution, though, was arguing that it's hard to believe that multiple shots are fired, that it is an accident.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
One more thing, though, what was interesting, what you mentioned in the hour, is there was a fourth sound as well on the surveillance footage. It was unclear if it was another shot. The question, according to the state, was could it have possibly been Renard shooting his leg at that time, a fourth shot. But there was no proof of that. And the sound was so indistinct.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
Yes, and we're just a couple of towns over from the Palisades fire and all around me, a lot of people have lost a lot. So my thoughts are with them. If, you know, there are also some technical difficulties as well in recording this because with winds the way we've had them for the last couple of days, if I freeze every now and again, I apologize. Right.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
The daughter talked about how Renard seemed to be controlling. Also, Patricia's cousin, Sybil Shepherd, who she was very close with, talked about Renard's alleged controlling behavior. Patricia had this annual cruise that she would do with Sybil.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | Deputy Spivey on Trial
And after a time, Sybil said it became increasingly more difficult because Renard was always checking on them and just controlling and not letting them have their fun. And Renard denied that. You know, he said, I let her go on the cruise. I let her, you know, she went on multiple cruises after we got married. So he denied any controlling behavior.
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
She is sitting at the table at one point. You walk over to her. What happens?
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Don't you talk somebody down, like as your police training is to de-escalate the situation?
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
That wasn't you shooting the fourth shot to then have a cover-up story. No, ma'am.
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Are you saying Ezra Washington, then, when he testified because he was a key witness for the prosecution, was he lying when he talked about those phone calls?
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
Had there been conversations about separation or divorce between you and Patricia?
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
When he told you she didn't make it, had to be very tough to hear that. It was. It was. But you held it together.
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
What was that like for you now being behind bars for somebody who had been on the other side of the law for so long?
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
When you walk in that door, do the memories come flooding right back?
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
At the time of Patricia's death, I understand you were still taping the Justice with Christina Perez show.
48 Hours
TV Bailiff Spivey on Trial
In the days leading up to the shooting, did it seem like things had intensified? Yes.
48 Hours
First Love, Then Murder
Ellie Fryer will be eligible for parole in 2032. She will be 30 years old.
48 Hours
First Love, Then Murder
Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.