03x06 - A Bad Day

[bunniefuu]

I'd say it was a big deal,

but it was a a very sobering event.

It was nearing five o'clock

in the afternoon

and, uh, I drove out to the airport.

Then I saw the airplane out on the tarmac.

Nobody really knew

exactly what had happened

other than that

this guy had robbed a pharmacy.

And he had a young hostage

inside the plane.

I think everybody was kinda learning

as they went along,

not knowing exactly what was gonna happen.

It was very, very quiet.

Until there was g*nf*re.

Not that many things happen

in a small town like this.

We've had some homicides,

you know, in and around the area,

but this was a big deal.

Everybody was shocked

by what had taken place.

There we go.

One, two, three, four, five

Thank you.

See, I never would've got that.

My name is David Cameron Keith.

I'd never committed a violent act

in my life before that day.

It was the worst day of my life.

The worst decisions of my life

led to that moment, but

it is what it is.

It's not something I can take back

just because I'm sorry for it.

My dad?

He was an excellent man.

He was an excellent attorney.

He just wasn't much of a father.

He drank a lot.

He was one of those functional alcoholics.

Very functional.

And they talk about preachers' kids

gettin' in trouble

just because they're preachers' kids.

The same is probably true

with attorney kids.

We were not really well supervised.

I tried alcohol when I was eight,

nine years old, if not sooner,

because my father had parties.

c*ck parties.

I probably got drunk a couple of times

in front of them,

but I don't remember them

ever disciplining me.

I was just

furniture,

if you will.

It didn't make me feel

like I was too wanted.

And I got into drugs.

Drugs just made it easier

to bear some of those emotional traumas.

It started off with, let's say,

the the usual drugs, like marijuana.

But I didn't have to go too much longer

to get really involved

with needles and amphetamines.

I was just growing up difficult

until 20 years old.

After that I was a little bit more

involved in the criminal side of life.

And never took advantage

of the surroundings

and of the life we'd been given

and do something with it.

I put a needle in my arm.

That's what I did with it.

That period of my life

went from bad to worse.

I was a dope fiend.

I wasn't working.

We had no plans of working.

I was burglarizing drugstores at night,

and selling the proceeds

to people in Spokane.

There was nothing violent about it.

I was a delinquent, if you will.

That was my activities.

And that should have provided

the necessary income, but it didn't.

I was using too many of the drugs.

I knew one thing, I had to pay the rent.

I had to be able to pay for food.

A wife and three kids can't be

We can't be, uh,

living materially with no income.

I just knew I had to do something

I hadn't done before.

So I went out that morning,

drove around western Montana looking for

a store that looked "comfortable,"

if one could use that word.

I robbed the drug store there.

I didn't think I'd do did a good job,

so I raced out of town.

I get out back on 93

and a police car tries to pull me over.

I'd just been out of prison

for a couple of months at that point,

and instead of submitting to that arrest,

I drove my car into a parking lot

of a small convenience store.

And I ran into the store.

I was looking for a shield.

I don't know how I came up

with these thoughts.

I'd never done this kind of thing before.

I came through the door and I saw

a movement off the corner of my eye,

and I knew that whoever was making

that shadow in the corner of my eye

wasn't going to be my shield,

so I fired a g*n in that direction.

And then I put my g*n

on the back back of the head

of a smaller

what turned out to be a 13-year-old boy.

We get in the boy's father's pickup truck.

And some police procession

pretty much followed us to the airport.

I was trying to escape.

And been trying to escape for hours.

The police sheriff agreed

to provide me with a plane and a pilot

in exchange for the kid.

And I thought, if I got in the plane

and the plane took off,

that the pilot

would take me over the Rocky Mountains

I would have let the pilot free

and I would have gone on my merry way.

Yeah right, merry way.

No more wife, no more kids.

All that stuff

had been going through my head.

At the airport,

there was police cars

all around the airplane,

you know,

backed off a hundred yards or so.

The pilot was there

on the ground with the plane.

I had no intention

of k*lling that first hostage, the child.

I'd been thinking

that as soon as I let go of the kid,

I'm going to be shot

and my life is gonna be over.

Well, for some reason that didn't happen.

Once we got in the plane,

I had my g*n on the pilot, a new hostage.

And I was hopeful that maybe

I would actually live through this night.

That nobody would get shot.

Pilot takes about a half an hour

trying to start the plane.

But while this while this was going on,

unbeknownst to me,

other sheriff's deputies

were underneath the plane

letting the air out of the tires.

That plane wasn't going to go anywhere.

The negotiating process had me

leaning out the doorway of the plane,

talking to these to the sheriff.

And one time when I leaned out,

the sn*per that was perhaps 50 yards away,

thought he had a clear shot at me.

So he shot me.

I'd been severely wounded.

I could tell that this wasn't going well.

I was going to be dead pretty quick.

My life was going to be over.

I thought to myself,

"I'll sh**t the pilot."

"'Cause I don't want to go alone tonight."

I didn't want the loneliness, just

It wasn't a well-thought-out,

spiritual, or anything, concept.

Just, uh, I didn't want to go alone.

After I shot the pilot,

I put down my g*n

and started backing out of the plane.

And that was my last conscious memory.

I believe I got shot at the doorway

of the aircraft when I got out.

I was shot point-blank

in the back of the head.

Most people don't live when

they're shot in the back of the head.

Here I am, 38 years later.

Imagine that.

That I could laugh about this? I'm sick.

Huh?

I regret it with every ounce of my body.

It may not sound

like there's much regret in me.

Believe me, there is.

I didn't wake up that morning

thinking that I would go out

and k*ll somebody that day.

I wish I would have stopped and said,

"Wait a second."

But no.

There was

The feeling

The feeling chip was not activated,

like Delta on Star Trek.

Jesus.

I wish I would have cared.

Emotions had never really

been a part of my adult adult life.

And they weren't really a part of it then.

I don't like looking too deeply at myself.

I shouldn't say I don't like it.

I just don't usually do it.

There's not much to like there.

There's nothing right about it.

Well, that's really not true.

What was really right about it

was the pilot volunteering for that child,

to take the place of that child.

That was about the only right thing

that happened that day.

If I could fake up tears right now,

I would.

But I can't.

I miss my father.

It's almost funny to say after 38 years.

Whenever you lose your parents,

you miss 'em. You know, at whatever age.

I'm George Shryock.

I'm the son of Harry Lee Shryock.

The long-term effects of what happened

to his death and and, uh

were very hard

for all of us. For all the family.

Our grandchildren, his grandchildren,

our children. They missed him.

You know, we knew him.

We still know who he was.

They don't.

I wish my boys

would have had, uh, his influence.

So, that's a That's a regret. So

Well, my father came

from a humble background in Ohio.

He'd always, growing up, had visions,

almost Peter Pan-like, of flying.

And, uh, and so when he was 20,

he he joined the Air Corps Cadet program.

My father spent 30 years in the military

in three theaters of combat

in World w*r II, Korea, and Vietnam.

But he retired at 51.

Of course, he was decorated

for seeing a lot of combat.

He was really a good pilot.

He left this note on the counter

'cause my mom wasn't home.

She went by Dee and he went by Lee.

"A hostage situation south of town."

"I have to fly the sheriff

down to look it over."

"Lee."

I experienced a lot of anger

for a few years.

My wife thinks I'm still really angry.

I can't say that I'm really angry.

I'm neutral. It's just, Keith has to deal

with himself and his maker in his own way.

He's obviously highly intelligent.

He could have made

moral and ethical decisions,

when he came to age.

And, uh, as far as his remorse

It's difficult for me to believe,

uh, given his history.

Keith was hell-bent. This was

this didn't happen just that day.

It was a ten-year collision path

with destiny.

It's an individual decision

to forgive one person for their acts.

Some people can't forgive and some people,

is a way to cleansing the soul.

My brother is a result of his childhood.

He wouldn't be what he is today

without his childhood

setting him on that path.

My name is Bruce Keith,

and I'm the older brother of David Keith.

When I saw him in the hospital

with the tubes, and the wires,

and the, uh, screens

with the heartbeat on,

it's pretty daunting to look at when it's,

you know, a close relative, certainly.

And you might see it on TV

once in a while,

but when it's in your real life,

right in your face, it's difficult.

Nobody knew

if he was really going to live or die.

I mean, he was on a life support system,

and then the next thing I heard was,

he's got a trial date.

Because you don't try somebody

that's rehabbing from trauma.

You have to wait

until they can defend themselves a bit.

He had a lot of pressure on him

to show up before a judge after

this horrific thing, and face the music.

When he stood up in court

and pled guilty to his charges,

I understood why he did that.

As part of taking responsibility.

Sitting in the courtroom and listening

to the judge, uh, pronounce sentence,

I remember the words of the judge

quite distinctly. He said,

"Son, you've really

broke the bank on this one."

How many, uh, people have ever heard

of two death penalties

getting handed out in the same courtroom?

I think David's, uh, punishment

as handed down by the judge,

was not the the right thing.

I don't think, uh, k*lling anybody

is a a worthwhile endeavor.

I don't know

if I even processed it for years.

But

You certainly know

you'll never see him again,

except behind bars.

He chose the guilty path

because he knew he did it,

so he's being honest

with himself and with the court.

He'll never never not be sorry for it.

He understands

that he brought it all on himself.

He understands he's paid a heavy price

for his actions.

So, is he a danger to society?

I hardly think so.

I would really like to see him

released and thrive.

It's possible.

There's not a question

of an innocent person here.

There's no question who did it.

There's not mistaken identity.

But it's like they say,

the Irish don't see black and white

because they see

all the colors in between.

That's my problem, I see all the colors

in between in a story like this.

My name is Jim Manley.

I'm the district court judge

for the 20th Judicial District,

which is the jurisdiction

in which this case was handled.

David Cameron Keith

was sentenced to death in this courtroom,

at that table over there.

When the sentence was announced,

I don't remember him uttering any sounds

or making any scene or

or showing much emotion.

Through every step of the procedure,

he sat here and was stoic,

and you would have never guessed is

that this serious a sentence

hanging over his head.

It's almost unheard of

for somebody to plead guilty

if they know that the death penalty is

on the on the table.

Unless they want to die.

So it was surprising.

But on the other hand, he had no defenses.

The homicide crimes did meet

the criteria for the death penalty.

As long as human society has existed,

there's been a need for retribution, and

I understand that part of it.

On the other hand,

the existence of the death penalty

doesn't really reduce homicides.

However, if I have to follow

the letter and the spirit of the law,

as the legislature hands it down

I very well might sentence him

to the death penalty today.

Even though, personally, I don't really

I'm not really in favor of it.

Governor Swindon studied the file,

talked to everybody involved,

went over to the prison,

sat down eye-to-eye with him

and talked to him for some time.

And at that time, it's my understanding

David Cameron Keith had become a Christian

and was going around

talking to high school groups

about crimes, and drugs,

and convinced the Governor

that he was remorseful.

The Governor weighed all of that

and commuted his death sentence

to life in prison

without possibility of parole.

First time I ever remember

a Montana governor

commuting a death sentence like that.

It's my understanding David Cameron Keith

has presented a number of faces

to to different people

over a period of time.

I don't know

which is the real David Cameron Keith.

But, if he is indeed sincere,

and remorseful about what he did,

and if the victim's family,

uh, is consulted,

I wouldn't object to him

being released on parole at this point.

Hmm.

When I think about Dad, I'm proud.

I'm not proud of the mistakes he made

but I'm proud that,

through it all, he he loved us,

in whatever capacity he could.

I don't believe he was

a violent person in any

any part of his being, uh,

but I have seen people

with drug addiction backed into a corner

and virtually do anything they can do to

get their fix

to be able to deal with with life.

I know without a doubt,

that it wasn't premeditated.

It wasn't out of malice, it was

"Oh my God, I'm freaking out here

and I don't know what to do."

This is probably the only, like,

real photo that I have of me and him.

We actually got this photo enlarged,

that we have on our stairway

going upstairs.

I've only got to know him being in jail.

Even though he's been in prison

the whole time, he's been great to me.

For somebody that's been incarcerated

as long as he has been incarcerated,

I've never seen somebody so positive,

and still wanting to make a difference,

and still wanting to be,

uh, you know, part of my life,

and learn things that I like,

and, you know, get pictures of my kids.

We pretty much talk on a weekly basis.

Everybody, regardless of their mistakes,

deserves a chance.

They are humans, regardless.

I think he's served the time

that he's served for the crimes

that he's done, but, uh,

I also understand

that he took somebody's life away.

I never really thought

about the victims

until now.

Uh, I don't know, because it was

I was nine,

and I didn't have the capacity

to even think about, you know,

the victims in all of this.

But if they ever met him

or spoke with him,

I think they

they would forgive him.

David Keith, I found him

to be interesting to talk to.

I've been around people

who commit homicides

and, you know,

he didn't fit the profile for that.

If you met David in a restaurant downtown,

you'd think he's a fairly normal,

pretty intelligent guy.

He wasn't a dumb young man.

He just made bad choices.

I'm Dennis Jones, and I was correspondent

for the Missoulian Newspaper.

I covered the David Keith, Harry Shryock

situation that devolved at the airport,

and, uh, continued to follow that case

until it was resolved.

David said it was just a bad day,

which is an understatement.

I talked with David in numerous interviews

and we continued to have a relationship,

in terms of him wrote me notes.

I wasn't aware

that any other people interviewed him.

They had access to him as much as I did,

but it got to the point where

he wouldn't talk to anybody else,

except me.

He wrote a lot of personal things

in his letters about his feelings

and very very transparent.

And they all seemed to be,

you know, pretty honest.

I don't think he was trying

to, uh, to impress anybody.

I do think he, uh, was remorseful

for what he'd done.

I think a lot of it had to do probably

with him trying to express his guilt.

Hell, I've been lying to myself for,

what, a dozen years?

Lying to everybody else about it,

actually.

Pleading guilty, taking the trial on,

I was just trying

to throw my mercy on the court

and hoped that I'd get

a little leniency as a result.

The judge wouldn't have to waste

all that time, and money, etcetera.

Maybe he wouldn't give me a death penalty,

because I was surely guilty.

It was all about me, myself, and I.

Have I been sufficiently punished?

Well, the courts

don't seem to think so. And

I don't know what to say about that.

I sincerely think

that I've been over-punished.

You haven't seen that b*llet hole

in the back of my head, but

I was shot point-blank

in the back of the head.

For some reason,

that just doesn't seem to be right.

But, sour grapes.

I put myself in that position.

And it is what it is.

Well, it's the first time I've heard

David Keith in a long time.

Uh, if I'm hearing it correctly,

was that he said

he was gonna

try to stay off death row

by pleading guilty.

Now, he said that's his motivation.

Back then, he made it sound like

he was going to assume responsibility.

You know,

there are some sidebars to to everything.

Maybe that was partly true

that he wanted to assume responsibility,

but at the same time, it was a

manipulative kind of thing to,

as he said,

"keep me off of death row."

It sounds almost like he's, uh,

you know, gone back in time.

Sounds a little more aggressive

now that he's had a lot of time

to think about it, you know.

He's on a different page.

He's thinking about David Keith,

not Mr. Shryock and his family.

And to that extent, it is disappointing.

There's nothing right about it.

That's really not true.

What was really right about it

was the pilot volunteering for that child.

That was about the only right

thing that happened that day.

If I could fake up tears right now,

I would.

But I can't.

I regret k*lling Mr. Shryock

from the bottom of my heart.

It's not something that I had intended

even five seconds earlier.

Because I wasn't planning on sh**ting

somebody at that moment in time.

I was trying to escape,

and been trying to escape for hours.

David Keith said, "I wasn't trying

to hurt anybody, I was trying to escape."

It's a little hard to believe.

In one day, he held up

a drug store at gunpoint.

He stole narcotics.

He evaded capture.

He attempted homicide,

sh**ting at a store owner.

He kidnapped his son,

held him at gunpoint.

Took my father hostage, uh

and committed homicide.

All in one day.

And that's just to cap off

a ten-year career as a sociopath.

Literally in crime for a decade,

in and out of prison.

On parole.

But he talked

his way out of those things, uh

So, he spent a lifetime

honing these criminal skills.

And, it had to end in tragedy.

Does he believe his remorse?

That would be a good question.

Uh, for somebody with such

sociopathic tendencies,

and and who's fairly glib,

and and, uh, and obviously articulate.

Is it believable?

You know, I'm It really isn't to me.

He's a real con guy.

And and if he could make a play

to get some special dispensation

and get the governor to make

some change in his sentence, he'd do it.

To the day I die,

I'll be sorry for k*lling Mr. Shryock.

More than half my life

has passed since that day.

I've wasted so much

of my time and energies

in a prison.

Yet, I deservedly needed to be punished,

but this

I can do other things.

I'd like to be able to be a witness

to my grandchildren,

so they'd never go as far off track.

I can be honest with people.

And want to be honest with them,

I can, I want to be honest.

Does he believe his remorse?

That that would be a good question.

For somebody with such

sociopathic tendencies,

and and who's fairly glib,

and and, uh, and obviously articulate.

Is it believable?

I'm It really isn't to me.

I'm thinking a sociopath would

probably be a good description of me.

But, I was a completely different

human being back then.

That doesn't excuse what I did,

but I think I've paid the penalty for it.

If I could take it back, I would.

But we all know that can't happen.

I can honestly say that,

from the bottom of my heart,

I am sorry.

Mm, sorry, I just

There are some things,

I know when, if I try to force words out,

it's gonna be a crying fest.

And

I don't desire

anybody to take pity on me, etcetera.

I'm a changed man.

Society shouldn't have to support me

for the rest of my life.

Give me a chance to do so.

What I've missed out on in life

could fill a book.

Probably a hundred times over.

You, me, everybody.

We all make mistakes.

Don't waste your life like I did.