01x04 - Kerry Lynn Dalton

[bunniefuu]

[somber music]

- [Gary] Kerry Lyn Dalton
was found guilty of m*rder

by way of t*rture, and
she got the death penalty.

- [Joanne] I was the only one
that saw the bloody pillow,

the knife with the scalp.

Melanie didn't deserve
to die that way.

- [Gary] Nearly everyone
involved were all involved

in the use of methamphetamine.

This was essentially trying
to put a m*rder case together

in an insane asylum.

- [Victoria] How do you have
a capital case with no body,

no weapons, no blood, nothing.

- [Jillian] I really
didn't get a grieve.

I didn't get closure.

Kerry Lyn took that for me.

She took it all.

[intense music]

[intense music]

- [Gary] On June 26, 1988,
Ms. May, the victim was bound.

Her head was covered.

She was injected
with battery acid.

She was hit over the
head with a skillet

and eventually stabbed to death.

Although most of the actions
that led to her death

were done by the
other individuals,

because Ms. Dalton led
in effect the m*rder,

orchestrated it.

She's responsible for
all of their actions.

[intense music]

[somber music]

- [Robert] My name
is Robert May.

I was married to Melanie.

If Kerry Dalton wasn't around,

I believe my wife
would be alive.

Melanie was a good person.

We have three children together.

When Melanie was sober, she
was more of a caretaker.

She loved these kids so much.

We wanted it to work out.

We were already addicts
when we first met.

We met at the Pink
Panther trailer park

in Slidell, Louisiana.

She had a daughter named Jill,

who looked like Shirley Temple.
You know.

She's real cute,

and we were 17 when I met
and 21 when we married,

and we had
two more children.

[intense music]

San Diego was a new
start for me and Melanie,

that was our intention.

We wanted to do better for
ourselves and the kids,

and we sobered up.

The first year
things were great.

We worked, we were
sober and we were happy.

We saved money as
we moved from there

down into Lakeside,
California, into an apartment.

And that's when we got
lost along the way,

in our addiction.

At that time San Diego
was a methamphetamine

capital of the world
in the '80s there.

I really hadn't
done methamphetamine

until I moved to San Diego.

The scene got really
big and intense,

and it spiraled outta
control pretty quick there.

I don't think we
lived there a year,

before CPS came
and got the kids.

That's really when
the domino effect,

as far as meeting people and
we just kind of fell into it.

[intense music]

I like Kerry Dalton.

She was fun.

We had some good times
as far as partying

and she would show up
my house all hours.

Her and Melanie didn't
get along very well.

But I never would've thought

that she would've ended
up murdering my wife.

There's a lot of different
things going on in that world,

and I had no idea how
dark it could get.

[intense music]

- [Joanne] June 26th, of 1988,

a m*rder happened at my house.

I live in the trailer
park in Live Oak Springs.

It's real rural, it's a
lot of cow pastures,

kind of rolling hills,
kind of secluded.

I'm kind of glad the
trailer is not here.

[intense music]

I met Kerry through
trying to get meth.

What I knew of her was this
nice person that I met,

I used to help her
take care of her baby

while she was getting high.

I had nothing bad
about her, I liked her.

But the Kerry Lyn Dalton
that I saw that night

was not the same person.

I had not seen her for years.

She went to prison for
burglaries and robberies,

and she came out a
different person.

She was hard.

The desolation here, this
is the perfect place.

- Commit a m*rder.

[intense music]

That night in 1988,
everybody was at my house,

Kerry, Melanie, TK,
and Sheryl Baker.

They ended up
starting to use meth.

It wasn't unusual for
people to come and get high

and spend the night, but
I was not high that day.

Kerry was the ringleader.

She was the shot caller,
telling people what to do

and how to do it, and
they were listening.

[intense music]

I had never met Melanie
May before in my life.

She seemed to be very
nice, kind of pale,

strung out looking, but
she seemed very scared.

[dramatic music]

Melanie came up to me, we
were washing the dishes,

grabbed the kitchen knife,
said she wanted to stab Kerry,

and then told me that
they're gonna k*ll me.

And I'm all like, thinking
like, she's this girl's nuts,

like, what are
you talking about?

I just thought the girl
was highing off her rocker.

[intense music]

The next morning,

TK and Sheryl dropped me
off at my friend's house.

The only people that
were left at my house

were Kerry and Melanie.

Couple hours later, TK was
supposed to pick me up,

never showed.

When I got home, I just
saw all my stuff outside,

the trash can was dumped
all over the ground,

and I pull out this
pillow full of blood,

and I'm all like,
"What the heck."

I walked inside,

Kerry was just gotten
out of the shower.

And I said, "What
happened here?"

And she's all, "Oh,
we got in a fight.

"We were playing with
the knife, I cut myself."

And then they get in the
truck and then they leave.

I didn't see Melanie anywhere.

Just started looking
around my house again,

and that's when I started
to seeing the m*rder stuff.

Stuff was missing,
stuff was moved.

I started seeing electric
cords that were...

You could tell us that somebody
was bound up and it was cut.

I had a chandelier
lamp in my room,

but there was no lamp anymore.

There was two bare wires.

Then the other room I
find this knife had hair

and skull on it.

Like a piece of scalp
and then long hair.

I knew something bad
happened to her, Melanie May.

There was no doubt in my
mind, she was k*lled that day.

[intense music]

[somber music]

[intense music]

- [Producer] Kerry
is 48 years old.

The mother of five children
ranging in age from 12 to 21.

Kerry was convicted of
torturing and murdering

another woman by injecting her

with a syringe of battery acid.

- [Kerry] I've been on the
roll a little over five years,

but I've been in
prison nine years.

- Do you have
feelings of regret?

- Definitely.

- [Joan] Or remorse for
all the things

- Defintely.
you did that all added up,

whether it was that
crime or not?

- Definitely.

Regret, shame,
remorse, of course.

I've committed armed robberies,
I've committed burglaries,

I'm by no means some angel poor

innocent picked
up out of society.

My life took me here.

And prison ain't cool,
I've been coming to prison.

This is my seventh
time coming to prison.

[dramatic music]

- [Gary] The m*rder of Ms.
May occurred on June 26, 1988.

Based on witness testimony,

there was three individuals
involved, Kerry Lyn Dalton,

Mr. Thompkins, and Ms. Baker.

[dramatic music]

- [Joanne] I was the
only one that saw

besides the people
that participated,

the bloody pillow, the
knife with the scalp.

I'm the only real witness.

So I was like, "I'm
gonna call the cops."

I didn't even know if I should,

because I was scared to death.

- [Elaine] Joanne calls
the police

and in that call,
she does not tell them

that Melanie is missing,

nor does she tell them that
she discovered evidence

relating to a violent crime,
instead she reports a burglary.

- [Joanne] The cop came
and his radio was going on,

and then my phone rang and I
was like answering the phone.

And I said to him,
"Turn that down.

"I don't want whoever
was calling to

know that you're here."

And I get a call from
TK and he says to me,

"Do you wanna be the next one?"

And I'm like, "Oh my God. Okay."

And I just hung up and
the cop's asking me,

"Who is it? Who is it?

I'm not telling them, I'm like
freaking out like, oh my God,

they could be out
there waiting for me,

and coming back to get me.

- [Gary] There was a sheriff's
deputy in the trailer

where the m*rder occurred
within hours of the m*rder,

and he detected no
physical evidence.

- [Elaine] There's no
sign of a burglary,

and he has no reason to
suspect that another crime

has taken place,
so he just leaves.

[somber music]

- [Joanne] At this
point in my life,

I was a functioning addict,

strung out on drugs,
mother of three kids.

I really couldn't
push saying anything

because I was in
fear for my life.

I was afraid to tell.

I was afraid to keep pushing it.

At that point, I called
my girlfriend and said,

"Somebody is gotta come and get
me. I gotta get outta here."

'Cause I was so afraid that
they were gonna come get me,

and so I left and I
left for two weeks.

[intense music]

After this night,

the rumors were that
they went back into town

and were bragging
everybody about

how they took care of
this rat and this snitch

and how they m*rder*d her.

They...I mean,

it known that they
did something bad at my house.

- [Robert] I knew about
the m*rder of Melanie

and who had supposedly
done it at this point.

I knew about it before
I got outta county jail.

They obviously went around
and just bragged about this.

I just, I checked out.
You know.

That was my wife.

I was very much in
love with her.

I didn't know what to do.

I got lost and you
know, lost myself,

just staying high and just
not wanting to feel anything

or think about it even,
'cause it was too...

it was too messed up.

I didn't m*rder them
for what they did to her

and I didn't cooperate
with the police,

and that's a hard
thing to live with.

That's been a hard
thing to live with.

Mark Thompkins, Sheryl
Baker and Kerry Dalton,

said after the fact
that she was a snitch

to kind of justify
what they did.

I still interacted
with Kerry Lyn

because I lived in Lakeside,

and she knew all
the people I knew.

It was one big click there.

I had Sheryl Baker
look at me and say,

"I should stop
looking for the body,"

meaning that she's gone.

She's gone.

- [Joanne] This should have
been a really big story,

but we were all drug
addicts and nobody cared.

Nobody cared.

[intense music]

[intense music]

[intense music]

- [Joanne] After all
this stuff happened,

I was in fear for a long time.

I had people tell me
what a snitch I was.

I had people wanting to
hurt me, to keep me quiet,

because I was a drug addict
living in this culture,

in this lifestyle,
being a snitch

is probably the worst
thing that you could be.

You snitch on somebody you're
taking care of in prison.

You're taking care
of on the street.

I was told there was a
$20,000 bounty on my head

to keep me quiet.

I mean, I lived in fear.

- [Elaine] Melanie
remained missing

for more than three years.

Police didn't look for Melanie.

There was no one demanding
that she be found.

[intense music]

- It was a hard
decision for me to make

'cause I had nothing
to gain from it,

and I got more to lose.

But I was at that point in
my life where I was tired,

I was tired of coming down.

I was tired of the people
that I was associated with.

I was tired of being
around all the problems

and the drama that
went with using drugs.

She was 23 years
old for God's sake.

She didn't deserve
to die that way,

nobody deserves to die that way,

and if I have to be her
voice, I will be her voice.

[intense music]

- [Elaine] While Thompkins
is locked up in jail,

he allegedly tells his
cellmate that he, Kerry Lyn

and Sheryl tortured
and k*lled Melanie.

The cellmate, as soon
as he heard this story

went straight to police.

- Based on Thompkins statements,

Kerry Lyn Dalton
triggered the m*rder,

Mr. Thompkins and Ms. Baker,

actually carried
out the homicide,

and it was through that
testimony the case was made.

- This is a photo album
that mom's uncle gave to me.

She was named after her
mother, Irene Jenkins.

- She looks like her too.

- And then that's her sister,
Barbara, and then that's mom.

I am Jillian, I am the
daughter of Irene May,

also known as Melanie.

Robert May is my stepfather.

He was married to my
mom after I was born,

and he is the father
of both of my brothers.

I got put into foster
care when I was five

and adopted at the age of seven.

At the time of the m*rder,

my mom was one visit away
from getting us back.

I had wonderful adopted parents,

but it didn't ever stop me

wondering about
my biological mom.

At the age of 12,
that hope died.

The DA was sending
the transcripts

to my adopted mother.

And she, unfortunately
wasn't smart enough

to realize her
daughter was nosy.

So she left them on her bed,

even though she kept
the door closed,

I read the details of how my
mother was brutally m*rder*d

at 12 years old.

I really didn't get a grieve,

it was a court case and
then it was radio silence.

I didn't get closure.

Kerry Lyn took that from me.

She took it all.

[intense music]

[dramatic music]

- [Gary] There were
three individuals

that the prosecutor
charged in connection

with Ms. May's m*rder,

Kerry Lyn Dalton, Mr.
Thompkins and Ms. Baker.

Mr. Thompkins pled guilty
to first degree m*rder,

Ms. Baker agreed to cooperate
with the prosecution,

pled guilty to
second degree m*rder,

Kerry Lyn Dalton
was the only one

who chose to go to trial.

- [Elaine] Kerry Lyn's
case was built entirely

on witness testimony.

Baker testified that she and
Thompkins left to go get drugs,

and when they returned,

Kerry Lyn had Melanie
tied to a chair

with a sheet over her head.

Sheryl says that Kerry
Lyn accused Melanie

of being a snitch.

Kerry Lyn showed
Sheryl some syringes

filled with battery acid,

at which time she instructed
her to inject Melanie with it.

- [Gary] Ms. May,
the victim was bound.

She was hit over the
head with a skillet

and then she was
stabbed numerous times.

The individuals then took
her body and dispose off it.

Her body was never found.

You very rarely see prosecutors
pursue a capital case

when there's no body,

primarily because it's difficult

to show special circumstances,

when there's not
a body available.

[gavel pounds]

In this case,

the two statutory
special circumstances

that were alleged
by the prosecutor,

were m*rder by lying-in-wait
and m*rder by t*rture.

- [Elaine] Even though
Mark refused to cooperate,

his confession was used in
the trial against Kerry Lyn.

- Prosecutor Dusick, used
Thompkins' statements

through a jailhouse
informant to prove

what's called the corpus
delicti of the m*rder.

That is that a
m*rder had occurred

that May have been k*lled,

and more importantly,
how she was m*rder*d.

That is what put the death
penalty into play in the trial.

[dramatic music]

One of the unique
aspects of this case

is that nearly everyone
involved, the bystanders,

the witnesses were all involved

in the use of methamphetamine.

It's well known what effects

that has on individual's brains.

People don't perceive
things the way

that normal people do.

They don't remember
'em the same way.

They don't react to
'em the same way.

And so this was
essentially trying

to put a m*rder case
together in an insane asylum.

[somber music]

[intense music]

- [Victoria] People
tell me I can't do it,

and this will never
happen for Kerry.

I can't give up.

She's worth not giving up on.

We lived in the LA area.

There were four of us
and Kerry is number two,

and I'm number three.

Kerry Lyn always had
a big personality.

Our childhood wasn't safe.

It was a home with holes in
the walls, broken furniture,

broken dishes, a lot of
yelling and screaming.

So Kerry was trying to
take care of herself,

try to stop the hurt.

But drugs get you in trouble,

and just one thing
led to another,

eventually she got pregnant
at 19, quit school,

she ended up in that
world, people who did meth.

- [John] Methamphetamine
is an extremely strong

central nervous system stimulant

that floods the pleasure
center of the brain,

and its probably the
most insidious drug

because it eats you
from the inside out.

You get mood swings, especially
when you're coming down.

People have anger issues,
they call it meth rage,

and they can become more capable

of sincerely ludicrous crimes.

[dramatic music]

[intense music]

- When they said there were
gonna go for the death penalty,

it was ridiculous.

How could they even accuse of
a m*rder? There's no evidence.

You can't have a capital case
with no body, no weapons,

no blood, nothing,

and no one even
declared deceased.

Our lawyers, public
defenders kept telling us,

"Don't worry, they
can't get a conviction.

"They've got nothing.

"Don't worry. Don't
rock the boat.

"Don't go to the news. It,
they only make it worse.

"The media will make it worse.

"They want to find a villain.

"They will make your
sister look bad."

But that's not what happened.

- [Gary] Kerry Lyn Dalton was
found guilty of conspiracy

to commit m*rder of m*rder,

and the jury found what
are called two special

circumstances.

One was that the m*rder was
committed while lying-in-wait,

and the other one was that
the m*rder was committed

by way of t*rture.

- The jury found her guilty
in two hours and 20 minutes.

- [Gary] The jury came
down with a death penalty

in this case,

because they determined
that Ms. Dalton

was irretrievable and
that what she had done,

the way she had done it,

and the life that she
led before that m*rder

merited the death penalty.

[somber music]

- Is it closure for me,

for Kerry Dalton to be
m*rder*d on death row?

No, I don't think she should
ever get outta prison.

She should die in prison.

- At the very beginning
of all of this,

I wanted Kerry Lyn Dalton
to get the death penalty.

I wanted to watch her die.

But now I feel that serving
the rest of her days in prison

will be just punishment.

[inmates chatting]

Nobody could have been
a bigger drug addict

or more dedicated to the
life than I was, seriously.

And I want people out there
that are living their life

as a drug addict,
teenagers or whatever,

to see me and know that
it's wrong, it's wrong.

It's a dead end,
prison is a dead end.

[dramatic music]

- Calling the matter the
court versus Kerry Lyn Dalton.

- I plan to focus on the
issue of prosecutorial error.

- Kerry's automatic appeal
didn't happen till 24 years

after she was sent to death row.

- The evidence in this case
was far from definitive.

- [Victoria] It
did take away two

of the four counts
of capital crimes,

but she has two still.

So she still has
a death sentence.

And at this time her
option is to appeal,

the other thing she
can do right now

is fire her public defenders
or whoever she has.

She can look for new lawyers.

[intense music]

- [Rhonda] I worked
with the California

department of
corrections for 15 years.

I was the public
information officer

and Lieutenant at Chowchilla.

There are about 20 women
on death row in California.

However,

it looks like governor
Newsom and the people

have voted to reform many
aspects of the prison system,

including condemned
row of reform.

- [Speaker] I moved
forward just moments ago

with an executive order,

advancing a moratorium on the
death penalty in California.

So we're in the
process now pushing

that population out of
the physical death row

and moving a number of people
into general population.

- When you've been
confined to death row,

and that's your...

that where you've lived
your whole time in prison,

there's a certain security
that those inmates

have grown accustomed to.

There's a certain routine that
they've grown accustomed to.

And then they've only been
around that set number of people

for all these years.

So I can understand
the reservation

of any condemned row inmate,
including Ms. Dalton,

moving from condemned row out
into the general population.

[intense music]

- [Speaker] When the voters
upheld the death penalty,

they also affirmed a
responsibility for CDCR

to actually move that
population on death row out

and to get them working.

As a consequence,

a number of people have
been moving out of death row

into general populations
throughout

the state of California.

This has been ongoing.

[dramatic music]

[intense music]

[bright instrumental music]

- Can you believe this?

Can you believe it? Oh
Victoria, so good to see you.

Oh, honey.

- We've been real fortunate
to have sister Helen Prejean

join us.

The sister is like the leader

of the entire anti-death
penalty cause.

- When you are on death row,

you receive a
thousand signals a day

that you're nothing more
than disposable human waste.

You are so hated by society.

You are so not worth living.

What people need to know
about persons on death row

is that they're persons.

Guilty or innocent,

nobody should be
k*lled by the state,

and that's the essential
personal human rights thing.

Let us go inside and talk.

It'll be great that
Kerry is gonna call.

[phone ringing]

Hello.

[phone beeps]

- Kerry Lynn, hi.

- Hi, I'm right here
by Victoria's side.

So good to talk to you.

- Helen and I are
talking right now today

about looking for
new lawyers for you. And...

- Well, we certainly...

I certainly would be too, Kerry.

You're doing great.

[dramatic music]

- [Helen] You know, the fact

that moratorium are
happening in states and say,

"Oh, there's no death penalty.

"Hey, we got rid of that."

There's all kinds
of ways of dying.

All the ways that
life is diminished.

'Cause no matter what you do,

no matter how you
change your life,

you can never get
outta prison again.

[intense music]

- [Robert] Your mother had a
rose tattooed on her chest.

- [Jillian] Oh.

- So that's why I
have the rose there,

and then I put
in loving memory.

- My relationship with
him is kind of estranged,

estranged because
throughout the years

he's been an addict
and for my own heart,

I have to distance myself
from things like that.

Do you think if she
hadn't been on drugs,

it would've been different?

- Absolutely.

It was different,
'cause the first time

when you guys were taken,

we got off drugs and
we did everything

we were supposed to do.

We got you back.

You were a wonderful,
wonderful, wonderful child,

and we both loved you very much.

And we just, we didn't
know how to do it properly.

- I think that's the most...

I've never been able to
hear my mom say that,

because-

- Well she said it, you
just don't remember it.

- I know, I know.

- But she said it.

- Ever since the first
time he contacted me,

I could just tell
he loved my mom.

He will never stop loving her,

and that's probably why
he is never remarried.

When you first contacted me
and you were expecting me

to be angry with you, I'd gone
through years of counseling,

and I understood that it was
a disease and that you guys,

even though you cared about us,

you couldn't overcome
the addiction.

And so there was no anger and
you couldn't have saved mom,

even if you tried,
could have been you,

could have been the two of you,

and I wouldn't be sitting here

being able to talk to somebody,

someone telling me that
my mother loved me,

because I never knew that.

So all the guilt and
the remorse you have,

you have to let that go,

because you've given me
something nobody else could.

So just remember
that you saved me.

- Love you.
- Love you too.

[intense music]