04x01 - Family Matters

[bunniefuu]

- [intriguing music playing softly]

- [birds chirping]

[woman] The twin bond does exist.

Identical twins start out as a whole.

And then they split.

And become two people.

When this happened to her,

it's like I'd lost my other half.

My other half's gone.

[man] It's a terrible experience

to feel like

you don't have nobody there for you.

Nobody wants to take you in.

For me, the perfect home environment

would have been

someone to be there to love me,

take care for me, and, uh

just having a sense of family.

[discordant music playing eerily]

[birdsong]

- [man] It's all good? Okay.

- Mm-hmm.

My name is Anthony Standifer.

I've been incarcerated since 2010

for second-degree m*rder

and first-degree robbery.

[country guitar music playing]

[Anthony] My childhood was

I wouldn't say the typical childhood.

My mother was addicted to drugs

for as long as I can remember.

My father, even though I knew who he was,

he never chose to claim me as his son.

So I would see him from time to time,

but, you know,

he would just treat me like

a nobody.

Even though my mother was on drugs,

she was very loving.

Some of the best experiences I've had

was with her.

[gentle piano music playing]

You know, she took me

to different states, traveling with her,

being out on the lake, fishing.

So, I would say

I've had good memories with her, you know?

But she was in and out.

I would see her, you know,

for a day or two,

then I wouldn't see her

for a couple of weeks.

[uneasy music building]

[Anthony] You know, I ended up

going into foster care

because I was living with my auntie

and she felt like

she couldn't deal with me.

So, she just threw all my stuff

in a trash bag

and took me down

to Division of Family Services,

and gave me over to the State.

For a kid to be, you know, just

thrown away like that

from his family

and

it felt like no one loves him.

Yeah, that was definitely

one of the worst times of my life.

At the time, she had sobered up

and got off drugs.

She'd remarried, and I thought

that it would be a good opportunity

for us to be together.

For us to finally have a chance

to be a family.

But, once I moved back to Kansas City,

uh, that is definitely

when all the trouble started.

Her husband at the time had a son.

He was 16,

and he had been involved with gangs.

Also, I had a brother,

my half-brother, with

through my mother.

He'd been involved in gangs.

They were definitely role models to me.

I didn't really have

any role models at that time.

And

I definitely looked up

to a lot of the things they did.

If they were selling drugs,

I wanted to sell drugs.

Um, if they was robbing,

then then that's what I wanted to do.

I was at a place called

McEwan School for Boys.

Something like a juvenile penitentiary.

And, um

I got called in to the office

and so, she hands the phone over to me,

and it was my mother.

And she tells me that, uh

that my brother had been m*rder*d

that night.

Yeah.

When I left juvenile,

you know, um

now with my brother gone, you know,

I wasn't the same person.

Um, I adopted an attitude

that I didn't care

about anything or anybody.

And

once I adopted that attitude,

and that mindset,

it allowed me to do

whatever I want without having no regard

to the consequences.

I just didn't care anymore.

[somber acoustic guitar playing]

I wasn't working.

She wasn't working,

so we was in desperate need of money.

I was out one night,

and I got a call from a guy

that I'd previously been

involved in robberies together.

His name was Jay Nicks.

And he calls me and says,

"Hey, do you wanna rob this drug dealer?"

I said, "Well, how much is involved?"

He says, "About 80 grand."

"And the guys have, like,

50 or so pounds of marijuana."

I say, "Yeah."

So I get off the phone with him,

make another call

to a guy that I know, DJ.

Me and DJ,

we get in the car, we head over

to to meet Jay Nicks.

Jay Nicks hands me a piece of paper.

He says, "There's three addresses on it."

He says, "The house should look like this,

and the guy's driving

an orange Dodge Magnum

on some 24-inch rims."

He says, "You can't miss it."

I said, "All right." He gives me the g*n.

So, we're driving around the neighborhood.

We can't find the addresses.

We can't find this orange Dodge Magnum.

So, I get out

and I start scouring the neighborhood

on foot.

I end up finding the house.

I call Jay Nicks.

I say, "Hey, I found the house,

but there's no Dodge Magnum out front."

I said, "What other kind of car

do they have?"

And he names the car

that's identical to the one

that's in the driveway.

So, me and DJ,

we go to the front of the house,

and we kick the door in.

Once we kicked the door in,

the front room was pitch black.

But I could see somebody.

DJ grabs the person

and slams them down to the ground.

Once I reach for the lamp and turn it on,

I see a woman.

Once I seen that it was an older woman,

I immediately knew

that this was the wrong house.

I take the g*n, and while she's

on the ground I stand over her.

I tell DJ,

"Well, finish searching the house,

maybe we're mistaken."

He comes back, he says,

"There's nothing back there."

So

I'm thinking, now, that

I just got off parole.

I don't want to go back to prison.

She's seen my face.

So, I thought

"Okay well, Imma k*ll her."

[night chirping]

[Anthony exhales] I stand over her,

and pull the trigger.

One time.

And, um

[sighs]

[sobs]

[sniffs, exhales]

[exhales]

I ask myself,

"Why did I do that?"

And

every day, there is no answer

that makes sense.

[birdsong]

[car door opens]

[closes]

- Hi.

- Hi.

- [woman 1] How are you?

- [woman 2] Good. How are you?

[indistinct chatter]

No, we can use this

for the chicken fried steaks.

- Here you go.

- [woman 3] Okay.

[woman 4] Are they still hot, Sharon?

You brought the food.

You sit down and relax.

- [woman 3] That looks good.

- [woman 4] Absolutely.

[woman 2]

We were a very tight-knit family.

We did everything together.

[indistinct chatter]

[woman 3]

They're trying to make me fat at work.

[woman 2]

We didn't necessarily have everything,

but we had everything we needed.

And I couldn't ask for better.

- Do you want some salad?

- Hmm?

Do you want some?

[woman 2] My name's Dana Crowl.

Beverly's my mom.

Growing up, my family was mainly me,

my brothers, and my sister, with my mom.

Our parents were divorced,

so we didn't see him as often

as we probably would have liked to.

But, Mom was our support.

She did everything for us.

My mom was very nurturing. She

was probably the huggiest person

I've ever met.

- Always touching you.

- [Dana] Holding your hand.

If you're sitting there,

she's just like this

"Sweetie."

You do the same thing though.

- You do. Yeah, you do the same thing.

- [man] Yeah.

[Dana] She never made us

feel like we were bothersome to her.

I think it's important

to let your kids know you want them

and you want them around you.

She joined the police in 1976,

and she worked

at the Independence Police Department.

She was a records clerk.

She helped officers write their reports,

so she heard everything bad that happened.

And we didn't get to do anything

because she wasn't gonna have

her kids out there causing trouble.

The day I found out about Mom

was March 19th, it was a Friday.

I was getting ready for work.

It was about twenty after 7:00.

And my phone rang,

and it was my brother-in-law Steve,

and he said,

"I just talked to Aunt Barbara."

"She asked me

if I could stop by your mom's house."

"Something doesn't look right over there."

And I turned onto her street,

and I could see

that the screen door was standing open.

And I stuck my head in.

I didn't even walk into the living room,

and I could see her laying there.

And I just leaned back out

and closed the door.

And I had my phone in my hand

and I called 911.

And it wasn't two minutes later

that officers were there.

The impact of losing our mom on my family

has been immeasurable.

I It's so big,

I can't even really explain it.

She's like a guiding soul in my life.

Every day I drive by the cemetery,

I say hi to her.

Every morning I tell her good morning.

I don't like to use the word "monster,"

but there it is.

In my heart, he's a monster.

In an ideal world, he will die behind bars

and never see the light of day again.

- [night chirping]

- [indistinct chattering]

[intriguing music playing]

I don't know

what made him pull the trigger.

I wish I did.

Maybe I'd understand a little better

and be able to forgive him, if I knew why.

It's a mindset I will never understand.

That's not the world I grew up in.

I think he was raised in a world

where that was just the way things are.

And part of me feels bad for him

living in a world like that, but

you don't have to be

a product of what brought you up.

You can make a different choice,

and I don't think

he made a different choice.

And he had the option

to not live the life he lived.

[intriguing music fades to silence]

[dog barking]

[woman] Let's go.

Say hi to the guys.

I'm Susan Thompson,

I'm Anthony Standifer's auntie.

Come here, Diamond. Come here, girl.

Say hi.

Anthony grew up midtown,

in the middle of the hood.

It was a rough area.

Anthony's dad was very controlling.

He was just very a*usive,

very, um Putting his mom down,

putting him down.

"You're nothing, your mom's nothing."

He just went through

a lot of verbal abuse.

And I think it affected Anthony

in a big way, you know.

He had experienced

the violence in the home, you know.

He had experienced the drugs.

Anthony's dad left the house

when little Anthony

was about three or four.

And, from that,

everything just kind of went downhill.

Anthony's mom would allow the drug-pushers

to take over her house, you know?

Her house would become the spot.

She was in the streets,

she was doing drugs,

she was here, she was there.

She was everywhere, you know?

You couldn't put your hand on her.

It just wasn't a healthy situation.

My mom took little Anthony on.

It lasted maybe a month or two,

and my mom was

moving out of town

and I was left with little Anthony.

I also had six children of my own.

One of my sons had cerebral palsy.

He didn't walk or talk.

So I wasn't in a position

to devote my attention

towards little Anthony,

as far as what he needed.

'Cause he definitely needed one-on-one.

This kid's been exposed to a lot,

you know what I'm saying?

And I didn't want that sh*t to rub off

on my kids at the house.

This particular day I was like, "Hell, no.

I ain't gonna be able to handle him."

"So I'll go down here

to the State building,

Juvenile Justice Center."

And I tell 'em, "Hey, yo, I got this kid."

"My sister's on drugs, you know?

You guys need to get her a court order."

This is what I'm thinking.

They're gonna get a court order,

drag her in here,

make her get herself cleaned up

and I'm gonna have her and her son

and I'm gonna reunite them back together.

And that wasn't the case.

She never responded to the courts.

Little Anthony then went into foster care.

And, uh

he was molested in foster care.

[dark music playing]

It breaks my heart to know that, uh

that I even had anything to do

with what he was subjected to.

Had I never put him

in the State's custody,

you know, we'd probably have

a whole different young man today,

because all that did was made him

even more messed up in his head.

He started hanging out with street guys,

older guys than him, doing things.

It just was like

an adrenaline rush for him.

He was easily influenced.

He was uh, gullible.

He wanted to belong.

They made him feel loved

in a way that we have never have.

So I could easily see

how he went along with the plan.

We've never made him feel that.

[poignant piano notes playing]

From the time the kid hit the pavement,

he was labeled "bad."

From the time they knew who his daddy was,

he was labeled "bad."

From the time they knew

his mom had an addiction,

he was labeled "f*cked up."

You know? And so on and so forth.

And then we wonder why.

"How do people grow up and act like this

and do things like this?"

Well, hell

take a look at the whole picture.

And then ask yourself,

"What did you do to help him?"

"What did you do?"

Nothin'.

I did not want anything to do with him

because I was mad at him

'cause I didn't understand.

But now I sit here before y'all,

and it's like, "Yeah,

all of us," you know?

We failed him.

We failed him,

as a whole. It's not this person,

that person, or that person.

His dad, his mom, this

We, as a whole, as a family, failed him,

you know what I'm saying?

[man] Gangs provide comfort.

It provides a family that you don't have.

People become your brother.

Some people become your father figure.

They try to teach you

how to do things right.

But, you know, we're knuckleheads.

That's why we joined the g*ng.

My name is Valentino Barraza.

I've known Anthony Standifer

since we was 14 or 15 years old.

You know, and now to this day,

we're still friends.

And we'll probably be

still friends to the end.

Anthony, as a g*ng member,

his character was more of, like

like, super crazy.

You know, it's like,

he was always ready,

whether it was to rob somebody,

or steal some cars.

I ain't never seen him scared of nothin'.

I don't care what it was.

If we was gonna go in a house

full of people with g*ns,

he'd be the first one

going through that house. [laughs]

You know, he was a crazy individual.

Very crazy.

Like, unstable.

Yeah, I feel bad for what happened

and everything, you know?

My condolence to their family

and everything.

But, whenever you're committing a crime

where there's home invasion or anything,

you know, sometimes

people don't want to leave

no type of evidence and

and witnesses, I mean

When you go to w*r,

there's casualties no matter what.

Whether it's

whether you find the enemy,

or just bystanders.

[somber music playing]

[man] This crime ranked high on the list

as being a very heinous crime.

This lady was basically ex*cuted

in her house.

My name's Michael Johann.

I'm a retired detective of the

Independence, Missouri Police Department,

and I was the lead detective

on the Beverly Crowl homicide.

[sighs deeply]

[car door closes]

[Mike] Coming back here after 11 years

triggers some emotions.

There was no reason to k*ll her.

I just felt like

we had to get these people,

'cause if you can kick a door open

in the middle of the night

and k*ll a little defenseless lady,

who's next?

[door opens]

[Mike] Okay.

Anthony, I think you'll remember myself

and Detective Ken Forrester?

My name's Mike. Uh, just to reiterate

- I gave you your rights earlier today.

- Mm-hmm.

[Mike] You signed 'em.

You still remember those rights?

You still have a right

All those rights are still in effect.

[Anthony] Listen,

the bottom line is this

The bottom line:

your a*s is in deep doo-doo.

[Anthony] I don't know how. These people

are implicating me in something

[Mike] You know what? You

[video stops abruptly]

Anthony obviously came in

lying and denying everything.

- Where is this evidence?

- Some of it's in your house.

[Ken] We're not gonna go over

all this evidence.

Of a of a m*rder?

Of a m*rder? No. I don't think so.

Ain't no m*rder

'cause I ain't did no m*rder.

Yeah, you did.

- You did.

- [Anthony] I'm already guilty

[Mike] He was a very difficult person

to interrogate.

First of all, why'd I k*ll this lady?

[Ken] Tell me

you weren't there that night.

There, where?

- [Ken] Where the lady got k*lled.

- Listen

- [Ken] Tell me you weren't there.

- I was not there.

[Ken] That's bullshit

[Mike] He's been in and out of prison.

He knows the ropes.

You're not gonna be able

to use emotional tactics with him,

and get him to feel sorry for the victim

or anything like that.

So we presented him with facts

that kept showing him that

we could prove he was the perpetrator

of this homicide of Beverly Crowl.

We don't deal with

- Okay, okay, okay

- We don't deal

What can I do to prove to you

that I'm giving you my word as a man?

What do I have to do?

I'm telling you, I'm not owning

[Ken] Anthony, you're asking questions.

[Mike] Later on during the interrogation

he asked to see his girlfriend.

And we told him that

that could be arranged.

She had given a complete confession

and had implicated Anthony in the m*rder.

Then it became a bargaining tool

that we used.

We told him, "You're not seeing her

till you give us something."

"You're gonna have to tell us something

about the m*rder of Beverly Crowl

before we even allow you to see her."

That's when he seemed

to let his guard down some

and he started giving us details

about the m*rder that he had committed.

Who searched the house?

I did. I did.

Okay. Then what?

And I knew it was the wrong house.

I knew it.

Without a doubt.

[Mike] And you shot her?

Yes or no?

- Yes or no?

- Yeah.

[Mike coughs]

[Mike] My thoughts about Anthony Standifer

as a person

is that he's a cold-blooded

psychopathic k*ller.

He ex*cuted Beverly.

After he ex*cuted her,

he got back in the car

with his accomplices and said that

chalk another one up on his belt.

So there's a strong possibility

that he's k*lled before.

[man] Once we become older,

you know what gives us joy?

Seeing our nieces, and our grandchildren,

and our children

laugh with their children,

and their children's children.

That is the greatest joy in the world.

And when my nephew Anthony

m*rder*d that lady,

he stole that from her.

Anthony wanted to try to live

that particular lifestyle.

If you live that particular lifestyle,

that's what that

particular lifestyle brings.

Violence brings violence.

It's just that simple.

It's not complicated.

Several years after his brother's m*rder*d

by one of his friends, high,

Anthony walks into a house,

doesn't find a dope dealer,

finds some old lady and murders her.

Murders beget murders.

That lifestyle begets that lifestyle.

Hopelessness, despair

not having

a group or organization that says to you,

"We have a place for you

amongst our ranks."

"And you can move up through the ranks."

The the more violent you are,

the faster you will move up in the ranks.

Well, there's nothing cool about

sh**ting people and murdering people,

and scaring children.

Being a g*ng member

is not like [chuckles]

being a bus driver.

It's not a safe occupation.

I keep seeing these videos

where they glamorize.

[mimics] "I got a car,

and I'm gonna be a dope dealer,

and I got hookers, and I got hoes."

"I got parties and I'm gonna"

[normal voice] Okay.

Right.

You're gonna do all of that.

Right.

Okay. Good luck with that.

I love my nephew.

I love him today.

Nothing will ever stop me from loving him.

I don't care about his crazy father.

I don't care about his crazy mother,

or any other of the crazies in his life.

I love him.

I will always love him.

But what he did

was heinous and unforgivable.

Period.

[woman] When he made that choice,

he not only affected Beverly,

it affected her family,

it affected him,

it affected his family,

friends.

A ripple effect

that just goes on and on and on.

My name is Barbara Lou Draper.

Beverly Sue Crowl was my twin sister.

I was the oldest by ten minutes.

When we was growing up,

we were basically together all the time.

When you saw one, you saw the other one.

It confused people,

and they didn't know which was which.

There was a few times

when we were older and dating,

we switched on 'em.

[chuckles] Guys.

That was fun.

[chuckling]

Just typical kids, you know.

We were close.

We've always lived in this town.

I've lived here several years,

then the house across the street

came up for sale and

and she bought it.

And moved in.

I would look out the window

and she'd be out there in the yard,

putzing around doing something.

I talked to her every day.

She would call over here,

invite me over for supper.

"Be quick," she'd say.

And that's what happened that night.

I'd been over there. She called me

over for supper, and I went over.

We sat there and had supper,

and we watched television.

She told me she had two bananas

laying on the kitchen counter,

I'll never forget 'em, they were dark.

Said she was gonna

make banana bread in the morning.

And, anyway she watched me home.

We waved at each other at the front door.

That's the last time I saw her.

My thoughts on the person that did this

not very high.

I don't think much of him.

But I realize that, you know,

he's a human being like the rest of us,

but that doesn't excuse what he did.

'Cause he had a choice,

and he didn't have to make that choice.

The values and morals

that we were raised with,

I think that teaching

goes generation to generation.

Or it should.

'Cause, you know,

Mom and Dad's older,

wiser,

lived through more stuff.

And kids need

younger people need to listen to 'em.

'Cause the kids, I think,

are better off for it.

It's all in the raising.

It's all in the raising.

[birdsong]

[woman] Drugs have taken a toll

on my life.

It's just another escape.

That's all it is.

Escaping the reality

of some chaos or pressure on your life.

It's nobody's responsibility but your own.

[gentle piano music playing]

My name's Cassandra Jenny Reed,

and I am Anthony's mother.

Me and Anthony,

our relationship was wonderful.

Always making each other laugh.

When I couldn't get out of bed,

Anthony, at five years old,

Anthony would bring me breakfast in bed.

He got up got up on a chair,

pulled a chair up to the stove,

and scrambled me some eggs.

And went outside and got

some of those little yellow daisies,

and put them on a tray,

and bought it with

He was just that thoughtful of me.

"Mama, you gonna be okay," he said.

"Here, you need to eat."

I'm telling you,

he's always been amazing to me.

I've missed a lot of time with Anthony.

'Cause I

I had to get away from here.

So, and, uh

I couldn't take him with me.

I can truly, honestly say

if I hadn't abandoned him when I did,

when I left him with my family

'Cause they always called him bad.

And he knows I've not ever called him bad

you know.

I think that has

That has a lot to do with it deep down.

[voice breaks] Okay, I'm through.

I can't do this no more.

[takes breath]

[ethereal music playing]

[geese honking]

[Anthony] I don't have any hard feelings

towards my family

on the mistakes

that they made in raising me.

You know, I [hesitates]

I guess they just didn't, you know,

know any better.

[Anthony exhales]

I don't want to solely

put it on upbringing.

That's definitely

a strong contributing factor,

but I have to take accountability,

you know,

because at that time

when I committed this crime,

I was 25 years old.

So, I knew right from wrong

and I knew what I was doing was wrong,

so I had a choice,

and I chose not to do the right thing.

How can I take another person's life

unjustifiably for

senselessly and no reason,

and not regret that?

To think that I could k*ll a person,

you know, just because

they saw my face, is ludicrous.

And I

can't wrap my head around, like, what,

excuse my language,

what the hell was wrong with me? [laughs]

And to make those kind of decisions,

you know, um

[sighs] It's it's just disgusting.

I sincerely apologize, you know, and

I wish I wish

Every day I wish I could go back

and do something different.

[Mike, on tape] My thoughts

about Anthony Standifer as a person

is that he's a cold-blooded

psychopathic k*ller.

He ex*cuted Beverly.

After he ex*cuted her,

he got back in the car

with his accomplices and said that

chalk another one up on his belt.

So there's a strong possibility

that he's k*lled before.

I have not k*lled anyone before.

I think if that was true then

I would be convicted of another m*rder.

You know, I think

that's just a way to paint a picture

and try to put me in a box.

Everybody that was involved

at that police department with the case,

they all knew her

because they worked with her.

They said that

she was like a mother to them.

So, you know, that's why I believe

the detective has such strong feelings.

I can't change opinions.

What I can change is my behaviors,

by being, you know, uh

a good person, so to speak.

But, being in here, how do you know

how do you know

that I've become a good person?

How do you know that I've changed?

You know, I can sit here

and tell you that. But

you will never know

until I am released, right?

And then I'm a productive

member of society.

I have to do, you know,

the right thing every day

and just, you know, and

and know that's good enough.

[man, on tape] This is where I live,

this is where I exist.

I swung right up over his shoulder,

into the side of his neck with that blade.

I was terrified.

I just took somebody's life.

[woman] The scariest thing in the world

is to know that somebody else

is holding your life in their hands.

All that's holding my face together

is metal plates.

[man, on tape] I'm a very,

very dangerous man.

I didn't say that I k*lled those people,

I said that they were dead because of me.

[man, on tape] I am who I am

Just a k*ller.

[closing theme music playing]