05x14 - Broken Promises

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: when a popular high school teacher

Was found dead of a g*nsh*t wound,

Investigators believed it was an accident.

This is jan. ...

But an audiotape recorded by the victim

Just days before his death

Raised serious questions that required answers.

Historic durham, north carolina,

Is both a big city and a small town,

Best known as the home of duke university

And its world famous medical center.

But it is also a close-knit southern community

Where families stay for generations.

Woman: great place to raise a family.

You look around for communities throughout the country

That have wonderful school systems, great parks,

Great recreational facilities for children and families,

And you'll find that here.

Narrator: at durham high school,

Russell stager was a popular baseball coach

And driver's education teacher,

A man respected by faculty and students alike.

Jennifer joyner was one of russ stager's students.

Joyner: all the kids who needed advice

Or needed someone to talk with

About their problems,

Coach stager-- his door was always open,

And he just meant a lot to the kids there.

Narrator: after college, russ stager married

His high school sweetheart jolynn.

Woman: russ was a very gentle, compassionate,

Caring, full-of-life human being.

He embraced life.

He had a very tender heart.

Narrator: unfortunately,

Stager wasn't as successful in his personal life

As he was in his professional life.

After years of marriage, russ and jolynn divorced.

Narrator: less than a year later,

Russ married

A -year-old widow barbara ford.

He adopted her sons brian and jason.

Man: he took in barbara's sons as his own.

He loved them. He cared for them

And treated them like they were his own sons.

Narrator: barbara worked as a secretary

At duke university medical center.

Russ continued to teach and coach.

He worked weekends in the national guard

And, with his new wife barbara,

Taught sunday school in their church.

By all outward appearances,

Russ and barbara stager lived a storybook life.

But all that changed

In the early morning hours of february , .

[g*nsh*t]

[Siren]

Just as the night shift was ending,

Police got an emergency call

Of a sh**ting at the stager home.

Russ stager was found sprawled on his bed

With a b*llet wound to the back of his head.

He died hours later in the hospital.

Man: she kept saying-- she kept making the comment,

"I kept telling him about those damn g*ns.

I kept telling him about those damn g*ns."

Russ, couldn't we just keep that g*n in the drawer at night?

Narrator: barbara stager said that russ

Slept with a . Caliber p*stol under his pillow

Because of some recent burglaries in the neighborhood.

Just before dawn,

Barbara said she was awakened

When one of her sons went into the bathroom.

Barbara was worried

That russ might mistake her son for a prowler,

So she tried to remove the p*stol

From underneath russ' pillow.

[g*nsh*t]

When she did, the g*n accidentally fired,

sh**ting russ in the back of the head.

The death was ruled an accidental sh**ting.

Mccoy: he was a mentor, he was a baseball coach,

He was a likeable guy

To so many children at a durham high school,

And they felt a sense of loss.

They felt a sense of shock.

They felt a sense of disbelief.

What has happened to the guy that we loved?

When I first heard it, I couldn't believe it.

I was like, "no, not coach stager."

He was a great coach and everything.

When I heard it on the news, I felt sorry in my heart.

Narrator: history had unfortunately repeated itself.

In a bizarre coincidence,

Barbara's first husband had died in a sh**ting accident, too.

He was cleaning his . Caliber p*stol

When it accidentally went off,

sh**ting himself in the chest.

Barbara stager was now a widow once more

Because of a sh**ting mishap.

Narrator: a few hours after russ stager's death,

Detective rick buchanan went to the stager home

To ask some routine questions.

When he got there, barbara stager's father

Was removing the bloody sheets, pillow, and bedspread.

Since the death had been ruled accidental,

The bedding was not considered evidence.

It was buchanan's first interview

With barbara stager.

Buchanan: she was a little withdrawn, perhaps,

But she was not overly friendly.

She was not "boo-hoo"

All the way through the interview.

Narrator: barbara stager repeated her account

Of her husband's death,

Saying the g*n went off accidentally

As she pulled it from under her husband's pillow.

She told buchanan that her years of marriage

To russ had been happy,

That he was a great father to her young boys.

Buchanan: something wasn't right.

I couldn't put my finger on it.

I didn't know exactly what it was,

But it still wasn't enough

To indicate anything other

Than an accidental sh**ting.

Narrator: the news of russ stager's death

Was particularly troubling to his first wife jolynn.

Snow: my reaction was, it was no accident,

And that's what I said to my parents.

And I remember my dad said,

"You can't know that it was no accident.

You can suspect, but you can't know."

And I said, "no. I know that it was no accident."

Jolynn wrote a letter to police

Because russ often confided in her.

Russ told her that barbara removed large sums of money

From their bank account

And that he suspected barbara

Was having sexual affairs with other men.

He had once caught her

Kissing another man in a parking lot.

When investigators looked

Into barbara stager's background,

They learned some surprising information

About her first marriage.

Evenson: her first husband had died in bed

And was k*lled at the business end

Of a . Caliber p*stol.

And so now we have a lady

Who has had husbands k*lled in bed

With a . Caliber g*n,

And on both occasions, she was present.

Narrator: barbara's first husband larry ford

Had been cleaning his . Caliber p*stol

When it accidentally discharged,

sh**ting him in the chest.

Although the death of larry ford

Had been ruled an accident,

His family vigorously fought

To have the case investigated

As a possible m*rder.

But the ruling was never changed.

Barbara inherited larry ford's entire estate,

And suspicions remained.

Investigators now had another suspicious death

And more questions about the same woman.

Snow: I desperately wanted to know that truth.

I wanted a full-blown investigation.

If it was accidental, I wanted that to be known,

But if it was not accidental, as I so suspected,

I wanted that to come out, too.

% Of what we do is common sense,

And then we apply the other % to law.

And if it looks like a duck,

Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck,

By god, it's going to be a duck.

Narrator: was it possible

That barbara stager was not unlucky at all

But was in fact a serial k*ller?

Narrator: the death of barbara stager's

First husband larry ford by an accidental,

Self-inflicted g*nsh*t wound to the chest

Had officially been declared an accident,

And after years, the case had long been forgotten.

But shortly before his death,

It had clearly been on the mind

Of russ stager, barbara's second husband.

Russ stager told his ex-wife jolynn

That he feared for his own life.

Snow: he also knew that her first husband had died

Under somewhat mysterious circumstances,

And so when he put all of that together,

I think he was a little concerned for his safety,

But mostly he felt paranoid.

Narrator: according to barbara stager,

The g*n under her husband's pillow

Had gone off accidentally

As she tried to remove it.

Barbara said the g*n had a hair-trigger

And that she had barely touched it

Before it went off.

Firearms expert eugene bishop

Performed what's known as a trigger-pull test

On the g*n.

Weights are attached to the trigger

In one-pound increments

To measure the force required to pull the trigger.

The g*n had a -pound trigger pull,

Which is no hair-trigger.

Deliberate force would be required

To fire the g*n--

A contradiction of barbara stager's story.

In the autopsy,

Medical investigators discovered another discrepancy.

The trajectory of the fatal b*llet

Was not consistent with barbara stager's account.

The b*llet struck russ stager's head

In a downward angle.

Barbara claimed that the g*n fired

As she pulled it from under the pillow,

Which would have sent the b*llet

In an upward trajectory.

Buchanan: the angle of the trajectory

Would indicate that she was above and behind russ

When the shot was fired.

So the autopsy was inconsistent

With the story she was telling.

Narrator: the spent shell casing was found

Just inches from the g*n, near russ stager's head.

Eugene bishop test-fired the p*stol

And found that it ejected shell casings

To the right and rear of the sh**t,

Which meant, if barbara's version was correct,

The shell casing should have been found

Somewhere in the middle of the bed.

Bishop: as far as the story concerned,

It was not what she was saying.

Her story did not coincide with my findings.

Looking at the crime-scene pictures

Of the cartridge case itself,

Where it was laying on the bed,

It could not have been fired as she said it was fired.

Narrator: when any firearm is discharged,

Dust, oil, and gunpowder

Are expelled from the barrel.

If barbara's version was correct,

Powder burns would have been present on the sheets.

The sheets had been removed by barbara's father

Immediately after the sh**ting

And had been laundered.

But powder residue can be identified

Even after fabrics have been washed.

When the sheets were examined,

Scientists found no evidence of gunpowder residue.

With all of these contradictions,

Detective rick buchanan asked barbara stager

To demonstrate on videotape what happened

On the morning of the accident.

Oh, I'm standing face-to-face with the k*ller.

I know it, but she don't know I know it.

Narrator: with the detective playing the part of russ stager,

Barbara stager re-creates her version of the story.

And I don't know how it was in my hand.

I have no idea if I touched--

I don't know. I don't know.

Narrator: and almost immediately,

She realizes there are inconsistencies.

Well, wait a minute. That wasn't quite...

Ok. And then I started getting up.

Ok. That's how it was.

I started getting up with it in my hand,

But I don't know how I had it in my hand.

Ok.

Ok.

Buchanan: she's repositioning the body in the bed with her,

Trying to make it fit her story,

And she can't do it.

She's a lying-ass bitch...

And that was probably vocalized

As I watched the video

And replayed and replayed it and replayed it.

There was no doubt at all

That she intentionally shot and k*lled russ stager--

No doubt whatsoever.

Narrator: police also doubted that russ stager,

A member of the united states national guard

With weapons training,

Would have placed a loaded p*stol under his pillow

With the safety turned off and cocked

With a round already in the chamber.

This, along with barbara stager's

Videotaped re-creation,

Was enough to convince investigators

That russ stager's death was no accident.

But investigators were not prepared

For the next clue in the case:

A message from the victim himself.

Man on tape: this is russ stager.

This is jan. , , Minutes of :.

I started to get up

To get it out from under there,

Heard the noise, the shot...

Narrator: evidence was mounting that russ stager's death

Was not the accident claimed by his wife barbara,

But if she had k*lled him in cold blood,

As police suspected,

They needed to find the motive.

For that, they looked into the couple's financial records.

Though the stager's had a modest income--

Russ was a schoolteacher; barbara, a secretary--

Barbara was known for spending extravagantly,

And the couple was deeply in debt.

Evenson: we learned that barbara

Had become involved in some debt.

And this apparently was without russ' knowledge.

It appeared to be credit card debt, among other things.

Narrator: records of the stager's bank transactions

Were sent to forensic documents examiner

Durward matheny.

He compared russ stager's known signatures

To signatures found on that second bank loan,

As well as his will,

Which had been revised

Only months before his death.

Matheny: they brought to me a will.

They brought me some checks and other documents

That--they're signed with the name russell stager,

But that--it was not his signature.

On the will, I determined

That it was a simulation of his signature--

In other words, someone trying to make it

Look like his signature.

Narrator: if russ stager hadn't signed these documents,

Who did?

Evenson: there was actually forged checks,

Where russ stager's account was being drawn upon,

And the money was being deposited

In barbara stager's account.

So all of the financial evidence tended to show

That barbara was in debt and russ did not know about it.

Narrator: the beneficiary of the forged life insurance policy

With a payout of $,

Was none other than his wife barbara stager.

Narrator: the final piece of evidence in the case

Came from a most unlikely source.

At durham high school,

One of russ stager's students was cleaning a gym locker

When he came upon a cassette tape.

The voice on the tape was one he recognized immediately.

Man on tape: this is russ stager.

This is january , , minutes of :.

Narrator: the tape was recorded

Just days before russ stager's death.

On the tape, he confided his belief

That his wife barbara was planning to k*ll him.

Stager: the last few nights,

Barbara has woke me up

And gave me what she said was aspirin.

She stood there to see if I took it.

I did not take it.

Narrator: russ stager went on to question

The allegedly accidental death

Of barbara's first husband.

Stager: the first one, I don't know what happened,

But according to his parents,

There was some foul play going on.

He supposedly accidentally

Shot himself in their bedroom.

My question is, did her husband larry ford

Accidentally sh**t himself?

Sometimes I wonder.

Evenson: listening to that tape was surreal.

I had never, ever experienced anything quite like that

In prosecution--

Where you try a case, a person for homicide,

And yet the victim, who you represent,

Who has no voice in the courtroom,

Is now telling you what he is feeling,

Experiencing, and worried about

Immediately prior to his execution, so to speak.

Narrator: investigators now had

Both evidence and motive.

Barbara stager was arrested

On a charge of first-degree m*rder.

Here, these will help you sleep.

Narrator: prosecutors believe that barbara stager

Had been planning her husband's death for weeks...

First with poison,

And when that was unsuccessful,

With a g*n.

Shortly before dawn,

Prosecutors believe that barbara

Removed the . Caliber handgun

From its usual place in the dresser drawer...

Walked over to her sleeping husband

And fired into the back of his head.

The b*llet entered at a downward angle.

She was also standing above the bed,

Which explains

The lack of powder burns on the bedding.

To stage the scene,

Barbara placed the spent shell casing

Just inches from her husband's head,

Which was a mistake.

If the g*n went off

As she pulled it from under the pillow,

As she claimed,

The shell casing would have ejected to the right

Towards the foot of the bed.

The angle of the b*llet,

The placement of the shell casing,

The lack of powder burns,

The forged will

And life insurance policy,

And, most damning of all,

Russ stager predicting his own m*rder on audiotape

Made a compelling case to jurors.

Buchanan: without the forensics of this case,

There would have been nothing but theory and speculation,

And you can't prosecute theory and speculation.

You've got to have physical evidence.

That's where the forensics came in.

Narrator: barbara stager was found guilty

Of first-degree m*rder

And was sentenced to death.

Her sentence was later reduced

To life in prison after an appeal.

Snow: I think those of us who cared so deeply for russ

Ranted and raved and felt this was so unfair

To take someone so special and so kind.

There's never an answer to why.

There's never an answer to why evil wins sometimes.

Narrator: prosecutors also suspect

That barbara stager was responsible

For her first husband's death,

But with her current life sentence,

They see no need for further prosecution.

Evenson: this case was a terrible tragedy.

A good man--not just one, but --are gone.

And they're gone forever

Because of the criminal conduct of barbara stager.

And our court system worked.

It uncovered the truth,

A verdict was rendered,

And justice was done.