Darlie Routier: The story of a woman convicted of murder after two sons' killing [NIGHTLINE] — Transcript

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1. 0:06What's your name?
2. 0:07Devon.
3. 0:09The Routiers were a typical family.
4. 0:12Darlie was viewed by those who knew her
5. 0:14as a very doting mother.
6. 0:21The Routiers seemed to have everything
7. 0:22until one night in June of 1996.
8. 0:26When I went to sleep everything was
9. 0:28perfect.
10. 0:30When I woke up it's been a nightmare
11. 0:32ever since.
12. 0:33What woke you up?
13. 0:34My little boy, Damon.
14. 0:37He was pressing on my shoulder and he
15. 0:40was saying Mommy.
16. 0:43Darlie has always maintained that there
17. 0:46was a man in the house that night.
18. 0:48Darlie says that strange man attacked
19. 0:50her.
20. 0:51I could see like the outline of a man
21. 0:55that was going through the end of the
22. 0:58living area into the kitchen.
23. 1:01There was a sound of glass breaking.
24. 1:05I stood up and I started to walk to the
25. 1:08kitchen and there was a knife laying
26. 1:12down on the ground right outside the
27. 1:14utility room.
28. 1:16I picked it up. It was just like an
29. 1:18instinct.
30. 1:19And at that time I could see Devon
31. 1:24laying face up.
32. 1:26And I flipped on the lights and I
33. 1:27remember screaming and screaming for
34. 1:29Damon.
35. 1:30I run down the stairs and she meets me
36. 1:32at the bottom of the stairs. She's
37. 1:34trying to tell me that Devon is hurt.
38. 1:36Devon, Devon, Devon, Devon, Devon,
39. 1:38Devon, Devon. I mean she just the the
40. 1:40look on her face is just startling.
41. 1:43Hello, 911, what is your emergency?
42. 1:45Devon is killed.
43. 1:46Ma'am?
44. 1:47He He just stabbed me and my children.
45. 1:50What?
46. 1:50He just
47. 1:51stabbed me and my children.
48. 1:53WHO DID?
49. 1:54THE MAN IN THE
50. 1:58Police spent much of the day
51. 1:59meticulously investigating the crime
52. 2:02scene.
53. 2:04When the police were there, they saw a
54. 2:06cut screen in the garage, which seems to
55. 2:09indicate that someone cut the screen
56. 2:11from the outside, stepped through the
57. 2:13screen,
58. 2:14and headed for the main part of the
59. 2:15house.
60. 2:17And they found bloody footprints on the
61. 2:18kitchen floor,
62. 2:21broken glass,
63. 2:23bloody fingerprints,
64. 2:25and blood everywhere.
65. 2:28She said that she'd fought off the
66. 2:29attack. The only description of the
67. 2:32attacker was a white male wearing dark
68. 2:34clothing.
69. 2:37About a week after the murders, on June
70. 2:3814th,
71. 2:40the Routiers hold a birthday party at
72. 2:42the cemetery for Devon, who would have
73. 2:43turned seven that day.
74. 2:46And a local television station went out
75. 2:47and caught it.
76. 2:49Happy birthday to you.
77. 2:52They sprayed silly string, which took
78. 2:54maybe 20 seconds. They sang happy
79. 2:57birthday, and you hear Darlie and Darren
80. 2:59both saying,
81. 3:00Love you, Devon and Damon.
82. 3:02Even though we're sad because Devon and
83. 3:04Damon aren't here,
84. 3:06we try to hang on to what we can to keep
85. 3:09to get us through these times.
86. 3:11And I recall how shocked I was at the
87. 3:14sight of that. And I wasn't the only one
88. 3:17who was shocked.
89. 3:18I was really taken aback by her
90. 3:20demeanor.
91. 3:21I tell you, as a parent, I found it
92. 3:23disgusting.
93. 3:26So, a couple of days after the birthday
94. 3:28party, we get a phone call. Need you to
95. 3:30come up to the station. We hopped in the
96. 3:33car, we ran up there, and we were
97. 3:34excited that
98. 3:36they that they were getting close to
99. 3:38catching who did this.
100. 3:39At approximately 10:20 p.m. this
101. 3:41evening, investigators from the Rowlett
102. 3:43Police Department
103. 3:45arrested Darlie Routier.
104. 3:47We believe that the white male suspect
105. 3:50described by Darlie Routier as the man
106. 3:52that attacked her and murdered her
107. 3:54children never existed.
108. 3:56We also believe that the wounds present
109. 3:58on Darlie Routier were self-inflicted.
110. 4:02I swear I did not hurt
111. 4:05my children. I swear.
112. 4:12Darlie Routier was charged with two
113. 4:13counts of capital murder. If convicted,
114. 4:16she could face the death penalty.
115. 4:19One thing that investigators found very
116. 4:21suspicious was a very odd comment that
117. 4:24Darlie made on the 911 tape regarding
118. 4:27fingerprints.
119. 4:28There's a knife with BLOOD
120. 4:30OVER THERE AND I ALREADY TOUCHED IT.
121. 4:32ALL RIGHT, IT'S ALL RIGHT. IT'S OKAY.
122. 4:34DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING, BABY.
123. 4:35She's got two children dying in front of
124. 4:37her. Oh, that
125. 4:39thing that comes to her mind is
126. 4:40fingerprints.
127. 4:41Common sense tells me no mother would
128. 4:43ever make a statement like that. The
129. 4:45only inference we could draw was she was
130. 4:47setting up why you're not going to find
131. 4:50any intruder's fingerprints on there.
132. 4:52When she said, "Don't touch anything."
133. 4:55it clicked in my head, you know, "Oh my
134. 4:58gosh, I've just touched
135. 5:01a piece of evidence."
136. 5:02I left the knife
137. 5:03laying on the floor.
138. 5:03There's the knife. Don't touch anything.
139. 5:06I ALREADY TOUCHED
140. 5:07EVERYTHING.
141. 5:11THE STRONGEST EVIDENCE OF innocence are
142. 5:15the photographs of Darlie.
143. 5:18In all the murder cases I've tried, I've
144. 5:19never seen a self-inflicted wound in the
145. 5:22neck like that.
146. 5:24I mean, just a fraction of a millimeter
147. 5:26more, then she would have bled to death.
148. 5:29Everyone agrees that Darlie had wounds.
149. 5:32But, the prosecution and defense see
150. 5:35them very differently. Prosecutors
151. 5:38believe she wanted to make it look like
152. 5:41she'd been attacked.
153. 5:42It was a superficial wound. It just cut
154. 5:44the skin.
155. 5:46You look at the injuries to the boys,
156. 5:48deep stab wounds that went through their
157. 5:49entire chest and back area.
158. 5:52Because we don't have a live witness to
159. 5:55contradict the story, what we're going
160. 5:57to have to rely upon is the physical
161. 5:59evidence in the crime scene to do that
162. 6:01for us.
163. 6:05An adult's athletic sock was found with
164. 6:07a small blood stain from both boys in
165. 6:09the alley a few doors away.
166. 6:13The sock down the alley is probably the
167. 6:14most important piece of evidence in this
168. 6:16case.
169. 6:17The investigators were coming up with
170. 6:19all these conclusions about what
171. 6:20happened inside the house.
172. 6:22And then one cop found a bloody sock.
173. 6:25And the blood belonged to two people,
174. 6:28Damon and Devon. How did that sock get
175. 6:31down there?
176. 6:32It's always been our belief that Darlie
177. 6:35Routier placed that sock in that alley.
178. 6:37If she had done this crime, why wouldn't
179. 6:39she just throw it in the backyard or at
180. 6:41the end of the driveway
181. 6:43where it could clearly be found
182. 6:45immediately by the police?
183. 6:47This case is going to trial.
184. 6:50They reached a verdict at 3:50. We're
185. 6:51just waiting to get into the courtroom
186. 6:53now to find out what it is.
187. 6:55The jury deliberated for 7 hours before
188. 6:58it was announced that there was a
189. 6:59verdict. So, everyone came rushing back
190. 7:02to the courtroom.
191. 7:05The verdict was guilty.
192. 7:07Darlie, do you have any comments? Is
193. 7:09there anything you would like to say?
194. 7:10I didn't murder my children.
195. 7:13Very quickly after Darlie was handed a
196. 7:16death sentence, she arrived at women's
197. 7:18death row. She's been there ever since.
198. 7:24Coming in post-conviction, my focus is
199. 7:26on new things. What are the things that
200. 7:28we can find out now that that couldn't
201. 7:30be done back then?
202. 7:31A crucial piece of evidence in this case
203. 7:34is a bloody
204. 7:36fingerprint found near the scene. And
205. 7:39identifying who that print belongs to is
206. 7:43absolutely critical to whether there's
207. 7:45another suspect involved in this crime.
208. 7:48The state has always taken the position
209. 7:50that it didn't have sufficient points of
210. 7:52comparison, they call it, to run that
211. 7:54through the FBI's database. It could
212. 7:56well be the print of the person who
213. 7:57actually did this.
214. 7:59So, we filed a motion for discovery. We
215. 8:02asked for a DNA testing of a number of
216. 8:04materials, including the sock.
217. 8:06The federal court judge, Judge Ferguson,
218. 8:09actually granted us the ability to run
219. 8:11the 85J fingerprint through the
220. 8:13database.
221. 8:15But, the state of Texas was opposed to
222. 8:18doing that.
223. 8:19We've been waiting on that for about 9
224. 8:21years now.
225. 8:23That could be the piece that makes the
226. 8:25whole case crumble.
227. 8:26Even if my name is cleared and I'm
228. 8:28exonerated,
229. 8:30there's no winning for me.
230. 8:34Because nobody can give me Devon and
231. 8:35Damon back.
232. 8:40We should note there's still no
233. 8:42execution date set for Routier because
234. 8:44of additional court-granted DNA testing.
235. 8:48Hi everyone, George Stephanopoulos here.
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