They Thought It Was His Wife : Paul White — Transcript

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1. 0:09On June 8th, 2007, Diane Johnson was doing  her job, delivering mail in St. Charles,
2. 0:15Missouri when she stumbled across a horrifying  scene. When she got to a commercial building on
3. 0:211st Capitol Drive, she delivered mail to each  of the businesses until she got to unit 295.
4. 0:27That was the location of a Brooke Auto Insurance  franchise owned and operated by Robert Eidman.
5. 0:33There she saw Robert lying on the floor in a pool  of blood, so she ran out to the road and flagged
6. 0:39down a police officer. After the officer rushed  to the scene, Robert was determined to be dead
7. 0:44and it was clearly a homicide. It was clear that  Robert had died from a gunshot wound to the head,
8. 0:50but what wasn’t clear was exactly why. When  detectives started digging into the Eidmans,
9. 0:56they discovered a similar murder  and a secret, second life.
10. 1:01This is Monsters
11. 1:28Robert Eidman, who went by Bob, was born  on July 18th, 1958, in nearby St. Louis.
12. 1:35He was described as an outgoing young man who had  a bit of a defiant streak. He met a woman named
13. 1:41Diane Boelling in high school and they got married  in the mid 80s. The couple never had any children.
14. 1:48Bob had been selling insurance for decades  and Diane worked in nutrition for St. John’s
15. 1:52Mercy Medical Center. Bob decided he wanted to be  his own boss so he opened a franchise of Brooke
16. 1:58Auto Insurance about a year before his murder.  People who knew him said that the business was
17. 2:04struggling and he was worried about its future.  He specialized in providing insurance to high risk
18. 2:10individuals and some believe he may have been  being a little too risky with his clientele.
19. 2:15He would often accept monthly payments in cash and  store the money in a locked cabinet in his office.
20. 2:21Theft was definitely a motive the  investigators considered early on.
21. 2:27Homicide detectives were called in to  investigate the murder where they found Bob,
22. 2:31lying on the floor of his small commercial office.  It was a building with a number of businesses,
23. 2:36ranging from the small insurance office  to a medium sized Mexican Food Market.
24. 2:41There was a row of businesses on the upper level,  where Bob’s office was, then if you drove around
25. 2:46to the other side of the building, there was  another row of businesses on the lower level.
26. 2:52Bob had been shot three times with one bullet  grazing his chin, a second bullet hitting him
27. 2:57in the neck and one hitting him in the head.  A ballistics technician later determined the
28. 3:02most likely murder weapon was a Glock 9mm.  When the investigators searched the office,
29. 3:08they found about $200 in cash in the cabinet  drawer, but when they searched his body,
30. 3:13they noticed that his wallet was not on him.  It was not located anywhere in the office.
31. 3:19The unit directly under Bob’s office was a  printing business run by Debra Kennedy who
32. 3:24told investigators that she had heard at least  two loud bangs at about 12:00pm that day. People
33. 3:30in the other businesses in the building as well  as a nearby apartment complex were interviewed,
34. 3:35but said they hadn’t heard or seen anything. The  market next door to Bob’s office hadn’t heard the
35. 3:41gunshots, but they did have a surveillance camera  at the back of the store that pointed to the front
36. 3:46door. When investigators watched the footage, they  saw the postal worker deliver the mail at 12:38pm.
37. 3:54When they ran the footage back, they saw what  they believed was a white Ford Focus drive by
38. 3:58the door at 11:50am, then it drove by  again, a little slower, at 11:54am,
39. 4:05just before Debra Kennedy had heard the  shots. So, investigators started looking
40. 4:10into any connection Bob might have had with  someone owning that make and model of car.
41. 4:15With thousands registered white Ford Focuses  in the state though, it wouldn’t be easy.
42. 4:21While that was happening, Diane had arrived at  the scene after being notified of her husband’s
43. 4:26murder. Two detectives gave her a ride to an  assisted living facility where Diane could
44. 4:31inform Bob’s parents about his death in person.  While driving, they also interviewed Diane where
45. 4:37she immediately made an alarming statement.  She said, “I have to tell you guys something.
46. 4:43I don’t want you to take this as a confession or  anything, but the same thing happened to my dad.”
47. 4:49On April 6th, 1984, 51-year-old Jerome Boelling  was shot in his home in St. Louis. He was a
48. 4:56patrol officer for the St. Louis Police Department  and was rushed to the hospital, but died of his
49. 5:01injuries. His wife, Lenora, Diane’s mother, told  the police that someone had broken into the home,
50. 5:08found Jerome’s service revolver, and shot him  with it. The first officer on the scene would say
51. 5:14Lenora didn’t seem distraught about her husband’s  condition and investigators found the story about
52. 5:19the intruder finding Jerome’s service weapon  unlikely. Lenora said she had seen a black man
53. 5:25stalking their house in the days before the murder  and in the home, they found a note that said,
54. 5:31“this is for you pig, for what you’ve done to  me.” It seemed strange that the assailant was
55. 5:37prepared with a note, but not a weapon. Lenora was  arrested and charged with her husband’s murder.
56. 5:44While she was awaiting trial, she moved in with  Bob and Diane and Bob wasn’t a fan of having
57. 5:49a possible murderer in his home. Friends said he  would lock the bedroom door at night when he went
58. 5:54to bed because he was scared of his mother-in-law.  But in the end, Lenora was acquitted of the murder
59. 5:59as, despite the case being strange, there was  no evidence that she had killed Jerome. Two
60. 6:05decades later, Diane would be under suspicion of  killing her husband just like her mother had been.
61. 6:12While Diane was being driven to her in-laws,  the detectives asked standard questions.
62. 6:17They asked about Bob's daily routine and of course  if she knew of anyone who wanted to hurt him.
63. 6:23They also asked about insurance policies and Diane  told the investigators that she knew that she had
64. 6:28a small policy through her work and that Bob might  have also had a small policy, but that she wasn’t
65. 6:33sure about the details. Bob’s father would confirm  that he knew about a life insurance policy on Bob
66. 6:40for $5,000. Investigators would later learn that  Bob actually had life insurance policies that
67. 6:47would pay out a total of $300,000, but they didn’t  know if Diane had lied or if she didn’t know about
68. 6:53them. Authorities also became suspicious of Bob  and Diane’s relationship when they learned that
69. 6:58a man named Michael Mann was living with them and  that Bob had been going out of town frequently
70. 7:03to meet a friend. But before they dug into that  lead more, there was a major break in the case.
71. 7:11A few days after Bob’s murder, a white, four  door, Saturn was found abandoned after it
72. 7:16had crashed less than a mile from Bob’s insurance  office. The investigators had thought the vehicle
73. 7:22in the surveillance footage was a Ford Focus, but  the models were similar enough that they believed
74. 7:27it could have been the Saturn that had crashed.  Especially since one of Bob’s business cards was
75. 7:32found inside the vehicle. When a detective ran  the registration, it came back to a man named
76. 7:38Travis Endsley and records showed that he had  an insurance policy through Brooke Insurance.
77. 7:43It also showed that he had a record for driving  under the influence. As the detective headed to
78. 7:49Travis’ apartment to question him, he radioed  in to have the vehicle checked to see if it
79. 7:54was reported stolen. He was told that Travis  had just called in to make that very report.
80. 8:01When he arrived, Travis said he was sure that  he had parked his car in the parking lot of
81. 8:06his apartment before going inside and going  to sleep. When he went outside that morning
82. 8:11to get some breakfast, he realized the car  was gone. He had the key and he ensured the
83. 8:16detective that he had locked the door when he  parked. Then he told them that he had recently
84. 8:20gotten insurance from the guy that was murdered  and wasn’t sure who to call to make a claim.
85. 8:27It sounded like Travis was on the level, but  if someone had just stolen his car, then they
86. 8:31wouldn’t have been able to use it to murder Bob,  as that was two days prior. The detective asked
87. 8:37if he could look in his apartment and Travis  agreed. Inside Travis’ bedroom, the detective
88. 8:43double checked that everything in the room was his  and Travis said yes. Then the detective picked up
89. 8:48a Red soccer jersey with white lettering with  what looked to be blood on it. When he asked
90. 8:54Travis what shirt he had been wearing the day  before, Travis said he was wearing that jersey.
91. 8:59Travis was placed under arrest and as  he was taken out to the police vehicle,
92. 9:03he was informed that the authorities had his  car at their impound lot. At that point, Travis
93. 9:09likely believed he was caught driving under the  influence once again, but things were much worse.
94. 9:16Once at the police station, Travis admitted  that he had been out driving the night before
95. 9:21and crashed his car just up the street  from his apartment. When the detective
96. 9:25asked why he didn’t call the police, he said he  didn’t want to get caught driving drunk again.
97. 9:30The detective asked him if he had been  injured in the crash and Travis said no,
98. 9:34but when he was told about the blood on his shirt,  he posited that the airbag deployed and it caused
99. 9:39a bloody nose. He said all he remembered  was being in a daze and stumbling home.
100. 9:45When the detective asked about Bob’s business  card, Travis said a friend recommended Bob because
101. 9:50he dealt with high risk insurance and Travis fit  that category. I know, you’re shocked. Authorities
102. 9:57were skeptical of the story, but after testing the  blood and having it only come back as a match to
103. 10:01Travis and then verifying his alibi for the time  of the murder, he was marked off the suspect list.
104. 10:08He was still punished for driving under the  influence and leaving the scene of an accident.
105. 10:13With that lead gone, investigators went back to  digging into Bob’s past and when they started
106. 10:18working their way through his browser history  and emails, they were shocked at what they found.
107. 10:23After getting the warrants to service providers  for the various information, the first thing
108. 10:28they received was his internet history. The three  websites that stood out were geared toward finding
109. 10:33sexual partners. Two of the three were actually  owned by parent company Adult Friend Finder.
110. 10:42Investigators also found communication for  various sexual services through the local
111. 10:46newspaper's adult services classified section.  Similar communications were found to have happened
112. 10:52through Craigslist as well. What stood out to  the investigators was that it seemed that Bob
113. 10:58was looking for sexual opportunities with other  men. After going through Bob’s emails and phone
114. 11:04records, they found one person who stood out  more than others, a man named Kurt Kreissler.
115. 11:10When detectives interviewed Kurt,  they learned that he had met Bob on
116. 11:13a telephone dating service in October of 2006  and since they lived about three hours apart,
117. 11:19they would regularly meet in Columbia, about  100 miles or 160 kilometers west of St. Charles.
118. 11:26Kurt said that he had never met  Diane, but she did know that they
119. 11:29were “friends” and that Bob would spend the  occasional weekend in Columbia with him.
120. 11:36Kurt said that Bob and Diane did get in a fight  about him in February. Detectives were curious
121. 11:42because when they asked Diane if there had been  any problems in their marriage, she said no.
122. 11:47When Diane was asked about the argument, she  explained that she had seen some emails that Bob
123. 11:52had sent to Kurt and she believed they were fairly  intimate. She said she didn’t mean in a sexual
124. 11:58way, but Bob had been telling Kurt about private  problems that she had not heard him mention to
125. 12:03her. She felt hurt and said they had discussed  the situation, but claimed it wasn’t a fight.
126. 12:09During the interview, she asked the detective if  her husband was gay. She explained that she had
127. 12:14asked him outright after finding the email and he  had said no. He told her that Kurt was just a work
128. 12:20friend. Since Kurt was on a surveillance video at  work three hours away at the time of Bob’s murder,
129. 12:27he was cleared as a suspect, but the idea that  Diane might have suspected an affair along with
130. 12:32the insurance payout she hadn’t told them about  pushed her to the top of their suspect list.
131. 12:38Authorities asked Diane to take a polygraph, which  she did and the results were deemed inconclusive.
132. 12:45Otherwise, there was no evidence that Diane had  killed Bob or had him killed and investigators
133. 12:50were at a dead end. The case was cold for about  three years before detectives got a new lead.
134. 12:58When Bob’s clothes were collected from the coroner  after the murder, on a whim, a forensic technician
135. 13:03decided to swab the inside of Bob’s back pocket,  where Diane said he normally kept his wallet.
136. 13:09Investigators were sure that someone had reached  into his back pocket to steal his wallet and
137. 13:14there was a chance that person had left some skin  cells or sweat behind. In 2010, two DNA profiles
138. 13:22were pulled from the swab from Bob’s back pocket.  One was Bob’s, but the other was an unknown male.
139. 13:30When it was put into the system, it returned  a result the same day and it wasn’t anybody
140. 13:35who had been mentioned in the investigation.  The DNA belonged to a man named Paul White.
141. 13:41And Paul was not hard to find as he was serving  time in prison on a forgery conviction.
142. 14:36Something stupid. Probably the most  common motivation for crime in the world.
143. 14:42Paul White was born on October 15th, 1976,  and seems to have lived in the St. Louis area.
144. 14:49His criminal record started at a young age with  him verifying at the beginning of his interview
145. 14:53that he went straight from his mother’s house  to prison the first time. That conviction was
146. 14:58for armed robbery committed in early 1994,  when he was 17-years-old, which resulted in
147. 15:04a 15 year prison sentence. While in prison,  Paul started dating a woman from St. Charles
148. 15:10named Cherie Nelson and they ended up getting  married a few months before Paul was released.
149. 15:15After being released on August 9th, 2006, he  moved to St. Charles. Through his wife he met
150. 15:21a man named Cleo Hines and the two started  hanging out. While Paul was still in prison,
151. 15:27Cherie got insurance on her vehicle through Bob.  Then they went back multiple times after Paul
152. 15:33was released to change the policy and then get  insurance on other vehicles. So, they had repeated
153. 15:38business with Bob. That made it suspicious  when Paul initially claimed he didn’t know Bob.
154. 15:44He didn’t recognize the name and saw two different  photos before he admitted he might look familiar.
155. 15:50The detectives went to the correctional facility  to interview Paul on September 27th, 2010,
156. 15:56and before he was brought in, they put a camera  in the room. Though it wasn’t necessarily hidden,
157. 16:01they didn’t tell him the interview was being  recorded. They went over timelines, ensuring
158. 16:06that Paul was available at the time of the murder.  He was out of prison and his work schedule did not
159. 16:12provide him with an alibi. Then they tried to see  how much Paul would admit knowing about the crime.
160. 16:18Obviously, he denied knowing Bob, but after  getting into his and his wife’s history with
161. 16:23Brooke Insurance, he changed his story. When the  detectives started poking around to see how much
162. 16:28Paul knew about Bob accepting cash payments,  he tried to make it seem like he had no idea.
163. 17:21While reviewing evidence from the scene, it was  discovered that some auto insurance paperwork had
164. 17:26been found sitting on Bob’s desk. That paperwork  was for insurance policies written in late April
165. 17:32of 2007 for a 2005 Chevy Malibu and a 1998 Chevy  Monte Carlo operated by Cherie White, Paul’s wife.
166. 17:42The down payment and broker fee for that policy  was paid with a credit card, like Paul claimed
167. 17:47during his interview. That wasn’t the only  policy Cherie had though. In September of 2006,
168. 17:54she had gotten insurance on a 2004 Jeep Liberty.  Now, if you’re married or living with someone, the
169. 18:00insurance policy will assume that person will also  drive the vehicle and it could affect your rate.
170. 18:07At that time, Cherie had signed a clause saying  Paul would not be an insured driver, so I think
171. 18:12that was her car at the time and she eventually  got different cars later, and I think Paul ended
172. 18:16up driving one of those vehicles. That policy  was rewritten in early April, possibly to then
173. 18:23include Paul, but it’s not clear what exactly was  changed. Bob’s records showed that on April 2nd,
174. 18:30$185 was paid in cash to start the policy. So,  the fact that Bob did accept cash payments at his
175. 18:37office was known to Paul. It’s believed that Bob  saw Paul approaching the office and remembered him
176. 18:44from having done business with him multiple times  in the previous nine months. He quickly grabbed
177. 18:49the paperwork from his files so he would be  ready for whatever Paul was there to talk about.
178. 18:55During his interview, Paul suggested that the  paperwork could have been out because Cherie
179. 18:59made a payment, but there was no record of  a payment by Cherie being made that day.
180. 19:04When they interviewed her later, she said  that she always paid in person at Bob’s
181. 19:08office with either cash or a credit card and  she had not been there the day of the murder.
182. 19:13The detectives did something kinda weird in  their interview, though. They had matched the
183. 19:18DNA found in Bob’s back pocket to the DNA  taken from Paul when he was sent to prison
184. 19:24for his current sentence, but they didn’t tell  him about the match, at least not right away.
185. 19:30They claimed they needed to get a DNA sample from  him to compare to the DNA in Bob’s pocket and the
186. 19:35reason they were asking him was since there  was a record of him being in Bob’s office.
187. 19:40They gave him some story about needing to  have taken the sample themselves to make
188. 19:44sure it couldn’t be questioned in court, which  may be true, but it sent up red flags for Paul.
189. 19:50He was not buying the story and he had also  noticed the camera they had set up in the room.
190. 19:56Eventually they realize he was calling their bluff  and they show him the report that indicated that
191. 20:00his DNA that was collected by the department of  corrections matched the DNA recovered from Bob’s
192. 20:06back pocket. Paul was sure that there was no way  that his DNA could have been in Bob’s back pocket.
193. 22:28Paul continued to admit he understood what  the DNA report said, but he claimed it was
194. 22:32impossible that his DNA was there. And  it would be one thing if they were lying.
195. 22:37Investigators are allowed to lie to a  suspect in order to get a confession.
196. 22:42These investigators would do just that in order  to get information from another person later.
197. 22:47They weren’t lying about the DNA though. There  was DNA, possibly a combination of skin cells
198. 22:53and sweat inside Bob’s back pocket that came  back a match to two people: Bob and Paul.
199. 23:00There were very few reasonable ways Paul’s  DNA could have gotten inside the pocket.
200. 23:05If the DNA was outside, he could have brushed  up against Bob or maybe they brushed up against
201. 23:10the same thing. Inside though, Paul would have  either had to reach into that pocket or maybe he
202. 23:16had handled something that Bob later placed into  his back pocket. Which one seemed more likely?
203. 23:23Paul was relentless at denying any  involvement and most of it didn’t make sense.
204. 24:46His defense was that he wouldn’t risk  going to prison for a few hundred dollars,
205. 24:51but he was literally in prison for forgery where  he had stolen a few hundred dollars. He makes it
206. 24:58sound like his current time in prison had made  him realize a few hundred dollars wasn’t worth it,
207. 25:04but the crime he was serving time for happened  after he robbed Bob. So all this defense has
208. 25:09done was to show that it was absolutely possible  he would have committed the robbery at the time.
209. 25:15Another poor attempt to  defend himself went like this.
210. 26:09Officer, sure I committed armed robbery, then  forgery, then forgery again, but you have to
211. 26:16trust me that I didn’t commit any other crimes. He  tried to make himself sound better by saying this.
212. 26:40The detective implied that he committed murder  because he didn’t want to leave a witness,
213. 26:44like his previous robbery. And to be fair,  Paul responded by saying he had confessed
214. 26:49before the clerk had IDed him, but the  point is that he had that knowledge.
215. 26:55The next time he planned to rob someone,  it was reasonable he might think, “that
216. 26:59clerk was going to ID me in court, I’m going  to make sure that doesn’t happen this time.”
217. 27:06It didn’t matter though. Paul was adamant that  he was not responsible for the murder and he
218. 27:10finally agreed to give the detectives another DNA  sample. According to Paul, the fact that he had a
219. 27:17record for armed robbery and theft, he had been  to Bob’s office, a surveillance camera picked up
220. 27:23a white Ford Focus at the time of the murder, his  friend Cleo Hines had purchased a white Ford Focus
221. 27:29about a month before the crime, and his DNA being  inside Bob’s back pocket were all a coincidence.
222. 27:37Not only that, but Cleo had been pulled over not  long after the murder driving the white Ford Focus
223. 27:42and Paul was in the car with him at the time. They  noted that the car had Illinois plates on it and
224. 27:48in the surveillance video, the plates weren’t  clear enough to read, but they looked like they
225. 27:53were Illinois plates, not Missouri plates. It  turned out that, when Cleo purchased the car,
226. 27:59he couldn’t afford to register it, so he put  some old plates from his girlfriend’s car on it.
227. 28:04Not surprisingly, he was eventually pulled  over for having expired registration.
228. 28:10By that time Paul was interviewed, Cleo was  already at the station awaiting questioning.
229. 28:15When the detectives spoke to him, they  told him the lie that I mentioned earlier.
230. 28:39Now, that was more of a lie of omission.  The detectives told Cleo his car was on
231. 28:44camera and they made it sound like it was more  definite than it was. It looked like his car,
232. 28:49but he believed the video showed it was definitely  his car. Because of that, he quickly confessed to
233. 28:55what had happened, but he said Paul forced him  to participate. Cleo lived with Paul and Cherie.
234. 29:02According to him, he worked the night shift,  so on June 8th, 2007, he was asleep in his room
235. 29:08when Paul came in and pointed a gun at him. When  Cleo was asked what type of gun it was, he said
236. 29:14it was a Glock 9mm, the same gun suspected in the  murder. He said Paul made him get up and drive him
237. 29:20somewhere. He said they first went to a Walmart  and Paul was going to follow someone out to their
238. 29:26car and rob them, but he changed his mind. Then  he told Cleo to drive him to the insurance office.
239. 29:33They pulled around the first time and Paul was  looking into the window to see if Bob was there.
240. 29:38Then they pulled around again and  Cleo stopped in front of the office.
241. 30:55Cleo told the detectives that Paul had been  wearing a pair of white cotton gloves when he
242. 30:59went into Bob’s office. That was likely why Paul  was so sure he hadn’t left DNA behind, but he did.
243. 31:06Again, the detectives weren’t lying and experts  believe he left skin cells on the outside of the
244. 31:12gloves when he handled them before putting them on  and then transferred them into the pocket when he
245. 31:17grabbed the wallet. They also explained it was  possible for sweat to soak through the cotton.
246. 31:23Nowadays, investigators are able to get DNA  from such small amounts, that even wearing
247. 31:28gloves is not a guarantee that you won’t leave  evidence behind. You won’t leave fingerprints,
248. 31:34but there could still be DNA on the gloves  from you touching them while you put them on.
249. 31:41Cleo claimed that they went straight to a casino  and Paul lost the stolen money in about an hour.
250. 31:47Apparently, Paul had a bit of a gambling  problem. Cleo said that Paul gambled all the
251. 31:52time and he had won some money a few times, but  more often lost. Investigators ended up finding
252. 31:58out that in the early morning hours before the  murder, Paul had lost $1200 at Casino Queen. When
253. 32:05they spoke with casino security, they confirmed  that Paul bought in at the blackjack tables with
254. 32:11$1200 at 2:20am on June 8th and then cashed  out with zero dollars only 25 minutes later.
255. 32:19It’s believed he became desperate to find some  money to return to the casino with to try and win
256. 32:24back the $1200 he had lost. Cleo said that they  eventually left the casino and went back to their
257. 32:30apartment where Paul used a charcoal grill to burn  the gloves and Bob’s wallet. Cleo said that all of
258. 32:37Bob’s credit cards and his ID were in the wallet  when it burned. Paul had only removed the cash.
259. 32:44When the detectives went back to Paul on  September 29th and told him that Cleo had
260. 32:48given them a full confession, he claimed Cleo was  lying, which would be important for later. Paul
261. 32:54continued to deny any involvement in the murder  and the detectives left with no new information.
262. 33:01It was when they returned on October 14th with an  arrest warrant that Paul finally changed his tune.
263. 33:07Paul claimed that he had been there during the  murder, but he had not been the one who killed
264. 33:11Bob. According to Paul, he and Cleo both went  into the office and demanded money from Bob.
265. 33:18When he didn’t hand any over fast enough, Cleo  shot him once and demanded money. When Bob claimed
266. 33:24he didn’t have any, Cleo shot him again. Paul said  he was surprised and warned Cleo that he was gonna
267. 33:30kill Bob, so Cleo responded by firing the fatal  blow to the head. Paul said he reached into Bob’s
268. 33:36back pocket, took his wallet and they left. But  that version of events left a lot of questions.
269. 33:42Like, if Cleo had committed the murder, why  wouldn’t Paul have said that when he learned
270. 33:47that Cleo had confessed? He was told that Cleo had  pointed the finger at him for murder and his first
271. 33:53instinct was to say he was lying? Why would he  say that if Cleo had been the one who killed Bob?
272. 34:00I know it’s impossible to know for sure,  but during Cleo’s interview, it just feels
273. 34:04more like he is genuinely describing what he  believed happened second hand as opposed to
274. 34:09someone describing what happened and pretending to  have only heard the details. If that makes sense.
275. 34:16It feels to me like Paul was the one who pulled  the trigger and that Cleo wasn’t in the office,
276. 34:21but Cleo was not without fault. A detective  asked him why he didn’t leave when Paul went
277. 34:26into Walmart. Then why didn’t he leave when Paul  went into the office? I do feel like Cleo wasn’t
278. 34:33the shooter, but I feel like he wasn't forced into  the crime as he wanted investigators to believe.
279. 34:39At the end of the day, it became very clear that  Diane had nothing to do with her husband’s death.
280. 34:53Paul denied knowing anyone named Diane and  it seemed like he was genuinely confessed
281. 34:57by the question. I think it’s likely he  believed that this Diane person may have
282. 35:02said something incriminating about him so  he wanted to remove any connection to her.
283. 35:07Obviously, investigators didn’t want to  rule out the possibility that Paul had
284. 35:11killed Bob for Diane, but he clearly had no  idea who she was. When Paul finally admitted
285. 35:17to being involved with the murder, his defense  was that Cleo had pulled the trigger. If Diane
286. 35:23had hired him to murder her husband, it seems  like he would have flipped on her at that point.
287. 35:29It turned out that Diane hadn’t known about  the larger life insurance policy on Bob and,
288. 35:33yes, there had been a recent strain on  the marriage involving Bob’s affair,
289. 35:37but she hadn’t known how serious the affair really  was at the time and it wasn’t a motive a murder.
290. 35:43Paul White pleaded not guilty and went to  trial where the jury only deliberated for
291. 35:47two and a half hours before finding him guilty  of first degree murder and first degree robbery.
292. 35:53Paul was given a life sentence without the
293. 35:55possibility of parole for the murder  and a life sentence for the robbery.
294. 36:00Cleo Hines entered an Alford Plea which meant he  was not admitting guilt, but accepted that there
295. 36:05was enough evidence to convict him. That plea was  for second degree murder and first degree robbery
296. 36:10and Cleo was also given two life sentences, but  they both came with the possibility of parole.
297. 36:16His first chance at parole will be in 2034.
298. 36:21Paul ended Bob Eidman’s life for a few  hundred dollars, which is bad enough.
299. 36:26But he also destroyed the lives  of the people who loved Bob.
300. 36:29A ripple of suffering because Paul couldn’t  control himself in a casino. If you find
301. 36:35yourself struggling with a gambling addiction,  there are places you can go to seek help.
302. 36:40Don’t turn into a monster and try to solve your  problems at the expense of other people’s lives.