Deep in the woods, a family lives in fear.

What are you going to do if they come back of a threat from strangers?

Daddy will protect us. Daddy won't let anything bad happen to you. So when the strangers arrive, a father takes matters into his own hands. I hear crack, crack, crack. Gunfire, the terror, the bullets. It was like shooting fish in a barrel was exploding, just complete chaos. Someone is killed in a vehicle for him, it was bad, worse than anything you would see in a movie. Sometimes I've cried for my dad. Was this a murder every day I think about what I could think of as my kids.

What about My kid? I.

It was in the dark that the fear began in the dark with the sounds of the black night around and that it grew and grew, it terrorized our family, our friends who was out there in the dark here, miles and miles in the primeval woods, so far from safety, from civilized protection, they could just come onto our property and invade our lives.

But on a summer night deep in the California Sierra, the terror came out of the dark, came after them to take everything.

The terrible, desperate chase, it's awful. And and now the question, what really happened out there in the DA? I still feel like I need to go help him. It seems so innocent now, closed up, dead quiet, empty in that place at the end of a 100 yard dirt track that snakes off a lonely country road deep in the Sierra Nevada. But that was not how it was or was ever meant to be. Now, before it happened, before that summer night in July of 2011, it was well, let them tell.

It is a magical place.

It's awesome. It's fun. To Seattle Winter, we would do a snow ball fight and then we would come inside and even have some hot cocoa.

These are the 100 children. DARlAN is the eldest, then Georgia and little Gregory. Mostly they lived in Reno, Nevada.

But this this at the end of a two hour drive into the woods. This was the place they lived.

You go on hikes and there is like a lake that was very close to it. And we especially fish when it was pretty much awesome.

Here they discovered a world far more magical than any city could ever be. It was their father's cabin, really, Chad Ball read. Chad's grandparents built the cabin in the 70s when he was just a baby.

My children were definitely the daddy. We love the place. They've all grown up diapers all the way through, going up there, you know, fishing, boating, you know, swimming.

Mind you, this was truly remote. Their only electricity came from a generator. There was no cell phone service, no phone at all, which was just fine with Chad's wife, Kerry.

It was very enjoyable to be away from the phones and traffic and, you know, work.

This is where Chad taught his children how to exist in the natural world. How to catch a fish swim in a mountain lake, feel safe in the dark is an amazing father.

He loves his children so much. He's my best buddy. He's really funny and he's really loving him. He likes people to laugh.

What the children saw the world and certainly their retreat here in the country is a safe place for them, just as it should be. And keeping it that way was Chad's particular preoccupation. Chad worried a lot about safety, about security, which may have come in part, at least from his time in the military. He was, he said, an Army Ranger, one of the elite few, though like a lot of vets, he seemed to carry some baggage.

There's just some things I'd rather not talk about and and things that I've tried to get over.

I guess Kerry didn't pry, let him deal with it his own way between himself and the Lord.

He loves this country. He fought for our freedom. It means a lot to him. Now, between the children and whatever was out there, the woods were only their parents, the nearest sheriff's office, almost an hour's drive away, had to be your own policeman.

That was how you felt? Yes. Well, to protect ourselves, there was nobody else there to protect us. And out here, that was no idle worry, breakdowns are not uncommon in the isolated cabins up here in the wilderness. And there's all the cameras have been broken in now numerous times. One of the most recent ones, somebody just pretty much ransacked the whole place. There's something very invasive about that, too. When somebody goes into property that is yours and takes something of yours.

It is it's not just invasive. It robs you of security.

Security was why I carry a revolver daughter how to use it and stalked the cabin with guns, including a favorite is they are 15. I like his military weapon, security and pleasure.

What's the attraction of those?

I think it's just the fun and shooting them has just now been able to put the 30 round magazine and set up a target and just go at it.

Chad planted signs at the edge of his property by the road, stern warnings to Would-Be vandals and thieves.

And he watched vigilent didn't rest easy, especially because one of those break ins had been just that very year.

And if he did fall asleep, it was very likely and every every noise would wake you up. Very easily. The Fourth of July weekend, 2011, The Walland Reeds were joined by some friends who set up a little campsite on the property near the road. Just enjoying each other's company or hanging out, but early in the Saturday morning, about two a.m., Chad was jolted awake while and I heard all this yelling and commotion and sound like somebody who was fighting.

And I looked down and I saw this spotlight being shined all over the place. I was like, what the heck is going on? And then I walk out and as I'm looking down, this car goes speeding away.

Chad hopped in his truck, drove to the end of the driveway.

That's when I noticed one of the solar lights have been taken, a solar light, one of several attached to metal poles marking the edge of the property.

A cheap item, but still.

Why would somebody want one of those? I don't know. When morning came, Chad inspected his friend's campsite near the bottom of the property where those footprints of strangers around their trailer put us on edge.

You know, basically high alert, the commotion, the stolen light, the footprints of people who had no business being there. The children picked up the anxiety.

I remember asking my mom, what are you going to do if they come back and what would happen if somebody got hurt?

To witness your children. Scared like that. And insecure, and you as a parent have failed. You know, that's how I felt was as a father is a is a person that is supposed to protect your family and all they could do is offer words, honey, if they come back.

Daniel, Daniel protected Daniel. Take care of it.

A promise he attempted to keep. What happened the next night would change all their lives. I picked up the pistol, was in my car folder and pointed out to know. Saturday morning, July 4th weekend, 2011, Chatwal and Reid and his family were on edge. Strangers had come very close, middle of the night, strangers who stole a solar light. It may have been tramping around in their property. And suddenly the cabin felt more remote, the woods less like home.

The children, they ask, what if they come back and come all the way up to their cabin? What if so what? You say Daddy will protect us. Daddy, you know Daddy won't let anything bad happen to you. It was scary. It was scary to me.

Then that afternoon, while Chad was away on an errand, Kerry looked out the window and there was a jeep heading up the long driveway driven by a young man she did not know.

He sat there for a while and like he was looking around for something.

I had the kids stay down. Out of sight, so so they wouldn't be seen. Was he lost looking for help? She took no chances. She reached for the gun child and taught her how to use. I had my revolver and I was headed towards the door and then whoever it was backed up and drove away.

So what did that do to your level of anxiety that weekend? Oh, I have high rent. Oh, yes, that evening.

Still on edge, carrying the kids, watched a movie and fell asleep on the couch. Chad sat outside with his visiting friends who had set up camp on his property.

We were just sitting there on the porch kicking back, relax and be.

And the story of what happened next is both complex and disputed.

It was nine or 10 p.m. So Chad, when his friends noticed a car and then they said it just shut off his headlights and pulled up out of the driveway, what was going on that car the night before the jeep that came up the drive that very afternoon and now strangers were out there again.

I picked up the car that was sitting. It was sitting right there.

Next to me is a 15 Bushmaster. He fired a warning shot.

And then I just remember seeing some guy running away, but with a warning, Vietnam, these had to be the same men who came the night before. Now, here they were a second time.

These guys were bad news and said, I'm going to try to catch up to these guys, you know, get them, you know, catch them, get their license plate or get their information or something, you know, because it was apparent that this was more than just we're here to play and joke around with you.

Chad jumped in his truck and gave chase barreling up, twisting mountain, road it up to 50 miles an hour. As I was coming up behind them, somebody leaned out the passenger side of the vehicle and was shot in a million power spotlight. I mean, it was just blinding. And then next thing you know, I was looking up. I see these three flashes and then I hear crack, crack, crack, crack. It was a sound of gunfire.

It sound. Chad knew very well you've been in the army, remember? So I did it. I picked up the pistol. It was in my cup holder chambered around and pointed out the window and, you know, let off a few rounds. Did you hear anything? Not that I could tell. Now, someone in the car ahead through solar lights out the window, then waved something like a piece of plastic, something shiny flying out, you know, or hanging out a window.

And we kept on proceeding back in the cabin.

Terry, latents on the couch with three kids sleeping beside her.

I was just like in my mind, thinking, where are you? Come home, you know, is everything OK? I hope everything's OK.

Chad was still in hot pursuit, seven point six miles, they went careening up the winding country road until the car took a quick turn onto a remote dirt road. Chad right behind. They did some fishtails, you know, like they slid the car. And at one point the passenger door started to open up. And I thought, you know, these guys are going to get out.

They're going to you know, they're going to come at me, the dirt road dimpy into a meadow. And the car suddenly made a 180 and it looked like they were coming straight out.

Yeah, like looking like an assault right.

Where they're going to shooting RAM one in military and police.

That's what we call an escalation of tactics until somebody, you know, either backs down or the threats neutralize the other car kept coming.

Chad grabbed the AR 15 and I just showed you out the window and fired off. Where were they compared to you? So they were coming this way. They were right. Right beside you. Right. Right. How many shots? I don't recall.

Just just let it go. Right.

Chad watched his enemies driver's side window blow out. Glass rained down on the menno. The stranger's car veered across the grass and came to rest on the dirt road. I drove over to him and he's yelling at them. And I just remember this as young boys saying, I give up, give up, give up. Sorry, but, you know, please don't kill me.

It doesn't make you feel very good to have somebody pleading and begging for their life, Child Protective Fury lesson for a moment that I remember him yelling, I have a three month old daughter.

And I also could think about was my kids thinking, you're yelling at me about your daughter and look what you just did, you know, what about my kids? Did you ever consider my kids?

Who were these men in the car? What did they want? You're in the dark. Miles from nowhere, what had just happened and what was about to. Monitor reporter shooting back home, Chad faces the reality of what's happened. I just remember this last look on her face and I was just saying I'm sorry.

Late evening, a remote mountain meadow in California's high Sierra is 15 at the ready shot, Walter Reed approached the car full of men he believed had been terrorizing him and his wife and his children and his peace. He carried his rifle just like the Army trained did. I was at the ready if they came out of that vehicle and made any any movements, you know, I could see their hands and approach the vehicle as he checked out the inside, clearing it, as they say, in the military.

He saw the driver had been hit.

He was hunched over the steering wheel. And then when I got in to the driver's side of the vehicle, he was laid back and his head was down. I mean, I didn't check for a pulse or anything like that, but there was a bullet wound in his neck. Were they somebody others were wounded also.

Right at that point in time, I didn't know that, you know, any of the men in the car, who they were, why they'd approached this home. But once he saw they no longer posed a threat, he said he told the man he'd do what he could to find help for them.

I said, I'm going to go call the sheriff. And he drove the seven and a half miles back to his cabin.

As you're driving back, as you're now trying to figure out what the hell you've done and what was going on in your heart, your mind, your soul, an assessment, somebody is either dead or dying.

Something very serious has happened here. What steps do we go through? None of that drive was occupied, was it?

Oh, my God. What the hell am I done?

No, no, no.

When he pulled into the driveway, Chad was greeted by his friends. They had seen him race off into the night. Now he told them what happened and they said, I caught up to them, you and they shot at me. I shot back. And I think I killed one of them. And at first, everybody was like, I am just laughing and stuff like that. And I said, no, I think I killed one of them.

Chad's wife, Kerry, up in the cabin with the kids, couldn't tell what Chad was saying outside.

It felt like much longer than it actually was for him to get out of the truck and to sit inside the cabin. And then he came inside and she's like, well, you know what happened? I said, you took off after and.

I think I killed one of them. He was so upset, he he looked as if he continued to talk that he would just not be able to maintain any composure whatsoever. And I just remember.

Just remember looking at my. And. I couldn't tell what the look was about. Whether, you know, it was. A relief. From her or. It was a. Well, who are you? Maybe it was some kind of accusation, I guess. And, you know, I just remember just this last look on her face I've never, ever seen in my entire life. And I was just saying, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But what should he do?

Chad wasn't exactly sure.

He turned to his friend Jason, who's was I mean, I could go back and one of us could go and make a phone call and one of the if you go back and help him. Jason's like now going back would be a terrible idea. And he said, we need to go and call nine one one. Remember, their cabin didn't have a telephone. So Carrie got dressed and then she and Chad and their friend drove the winding road down the mountain toward the main highway, perhaps nine miles down, hunting for a spot with cell phone reception.

We had to drive her almost three quarters the way down to where I normally get reception. And I called out and I got in through and right. As you know, I was talking to a lady. The call dropped and then I had to drive down a little bit farther. We were able to make a call out there.

Hello. How can I help you? Yes, I need a report of shooting a shooting. Yes, of course.

You know, dispatch like, what's your address? No addresses where you got on. And Plumas County by Antelope Lake.

He was concerned, he said, about getting help for the wounded. To my mind, was his how are they going to find these individuals? How are they going to get there to help them?

I mean, they're out in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road, this northern stretch of the Sierra Nevada. It is an up and down world of river gorges and mountain peaks, difficult to forge and far from any towns or resorts. The few deputies on patrol are scattered over a vast wilderness. And so it's not altogether surprising that one of the first lawmen to respond to Chad's 911 call turned out to be a game warden. What is surprising is who was riding with him?

A photographer of all people, one of the first to reach the scene of the shooting and the images he captured. It was bad, worse than anything you would see in a movie, I'll tell you that. Caught on camera, the horrifying real life scene that first responders found. I just remember seeing this hand come up out of the grass and everyone was like, whoa, we got to hand.

In the high Sierra. The life of a game warden is a solitary one hours of driving alone, backcountry roads alone, warden sound everything from bear poachers to pot farmers and its prey that sometimes shoots back. That lone justice angle attracted a reality show which said a photographer named Ben Staley to the little town of Quincy.

I'd been in the Quincy area for a couple of months, getting all kinds of trouble with the California game wardens.

It was the 4th of July weekend. Late on the Saturday night Staley had been taping with a game warden since daybreak, was ready to pack it in. Urgent call, went out over the radio. Shots fired. Don't worry.

All we really knew is some bad stuff had happened. Some people had been shooting at each other. We're speeding to get there, to perhaps break it up, perhaps stop it, perhaps save lives. You don't really know.

They didn't know, in other words, that they were responding to the 911 call to Chad Wollen lead after his armed confrontation with six men on a dark road running through a meadow while racing to the scene, Staley and the warden met up with a sheriff's deputy.

Then over the radio came a new twist. Two men, possibly wounded, had been found wandering through a campground.

So we go to this campground and sure enough, you know, we all hop out and then there's there's like two guys in the middle of this campground with blood on them. One of the sheriff takes them. They cut them off and take them right there. And then these guys are like, look, our friends are hurt. And they give us directions to where the incident occurred.

The meadow that is the dirt road where the shooting took place, a place so remote that without those directions, they might never have found it.

As they drove through the night, they listen to the chatter the way it was very chaotic.

Nobody knew exactly what was happening. Nobody knew if there was, you know, multiple people shooting at each other. If it was two people shooting at each other. It was all these conflicting reports coming in over the radio. It's really scary.

They lay in the and we're now joined by a total of three deputies. The makeshift team convoyed to the meadow, geared up for a possible shoot out. They found a lone vehicle, its windows blown out.

I want you to stand up and say we shot footage of the encounter, which later became part of the official public record.

Right away, there's two guys coming towards with their hands up. One guy's limp and really bad. He was shot through the leg. They're both bloody and cut up. They both looked really freaked out.

Then Staley saw something strange poking out of the middle floor. I just remember seeing this hand come up out of the grass.

I went up to the right here right now and everyone was like, whoa, we got to hand. Staley recorded everything.

The warden, the deputies arresting the wounded men, the hand poking out of the grass.

And then the young man who was connected to that had his right calf shredded by a bullet and turning it hit his leg. But the sheriffs in the warden's right away saw that he had it on too tight and he'd had it on too long and was very painful.

And they took it off and he was bleeding a lot this badly wounded man, plus the others, May five. But there was one more. And then there was another guy in the back seat who was, I guess, the driver. He was a lot worse off, but he was talking he was moving his mouth, I could hear sounds I couldn't make, I couldn't make any words out, you know, but it didn't look good.

The driver had been shot in the head.

It was worse than anything you would see in a movie. This was so violent. And so, Gary, what happened here, sorting it out fell to Detective Steve Perry and Chris Hendrickson, it was very confusing for all the officers responding. They were all under the impression that the suspects were in the meadow, in the car and maybe armed and officers treated them as such.

Adding to the confusion, the remote location, multiple locations in two gentlemen at the campground. We have four gentlemen down at this potential crime scene and then they have missed a wall and read with another detective in another spot. Officers, ambulances, helicopters coming in. It's very chaotic, very chaotic.

That night, deputies led by Sergeant Perry Mitchard, a few miles from the meadow, listened to his account of the chase and they started shining the spotlight back at me.

And the next thing you know, there's all these muzzle flashes. Do you think they were firing on you? Yeah, they're firing back at me.

But while Sergeant Pepper was talking to Chad, some of the other detectives were out in the meadow looking for the weapon or weapons those young men must have fired at Chad. They searched the car. They searched around the car.

They looked all around the meadow. They found nothing. But then there's a big meadow and those are very deep and very dark woods, some of those young men did run. They got to dump the gun out there somewhere, but they didn't all run, went up to the right here, remember the one shot in the leg, the one whose hand they saw sticking up, who was found bleeding out in the meadow? He didn't bleed out. He survived.

His name is Justin Lewis Smyth Lewis.

And he is about to give us his account of a July 4th weekend on a dark and lonely road in the high Sierra. Confusion and terror, a very different story of those shots in the dark.

The next thing I know, glass is exploding. It's just complete chaos. It ended in a black meadow in the high Sierra, barely illuminated by a pair of headlights, sheriff's deputies, guns drawn, approached the car, preparing for a possible shootout with gunmen.

Instead, they found shooting victims, three of them severely wounded. Somebody makes their way over towards the car and says.

It was my shot in the right leg, bleeding profusely, the belt he used as a tourniquet, it placed just above his knee, possibly saved his life at that point, it's pretty obvious to me I might lose my leg. I mean, I'm not sure how long had gone by, maybe an hour and a half.

And there were other victims. A bloody and baffling scene for the deputies. Who were these men?

How did they provoke a violent confrontation with Army vet Chad Walter Reed? Chad and his family said they'd been terrorized, but that was not the story Lewis Smith had to tell.

Lewis's version began an hour's drive away and Susanville, California, population almost 18000, home to two state prisons, two movie theaters. And on July 4th weekend, 2011, the restless young man in search of fun. There was Lewis, of course, and his very best friend, a 20 year old junior college student named Rory McGuire.

He was the center of attention wherever he went. All eyes were on Rory. In fact, right from the start, that amazing shock of red hair at birth surprising even his own mother, Carol, if his name was going to be Colin. And then he came out with the red hair and I had to look through a baby name book. And I found the name Rory, which means Red King and Irish. And so hence Rory, Colin McGuire.

And that red hair came with a personality to match. There was only one Rory, and everyone knew who it was. He was vivacious. He was creative. He was exciting. He was funny. He was the life of the party, entrepreneurial to trying to start a mobile car washing business with a friend.

Rory had all the equipment. He had printed up business cards. He was passing out flyers. We would talk every day, almost every detail laugh about little things. I told my mom I wanted to brother and I felt like I kind of got that with Rory. Anyway, that Friday night, July 1st, Rory and Lewis were joined by four other young men in search of a party they'd heard about.

We were looking for a friend of ours, brother, who was having a gathering up.

I had a little black girls up there. Somebody said, so here's what they did. They all squeezed into Rory Seabury, drove to the lake but couldn't find the party. So they got up to a little mischief up there by the lake with a spotlight.

One of them brought the kind of plugs into a cigarette lighter.

We stopped at the top of a canyon and we're shining the light down on a campsite. And a bunch of people came out yelling. They were mad and anyway, so everybody kind of got a kick out of that. Then one of them remembered some crazy warning signs he'd seen by the roadside, wanted to show his buddies they found them, trained the spotlight on them.

And one of them says, warning, you are entering Oros, see the arrow, see something to do with this red blooded Christians.

Only others will be deadly.

Force will be used, deadly force, red blooded Christians only. Were they kidding? Seemed almost like a dare. One of them hopped out of the car. He grabs a solar light and ripped down one of the smaller of the two signs and comes running back in.

And then we we took off from the jeep like maybe four or five bucks still. Why do you take the solar? Like, did he say? No, I think it was assumed it was just some sort of random act of vandalism that I guess young kids would do. And then the noisy car full of young men rolled back home and they all went to bed.

The following evening was Saturday, July 2nd. And sure enough, there was a second chance. Same lake, new party.

So, again, a bunch of young men piled into Rory McGuire's Chrysler Sebring and went and met up with two others at the Chevron gas station where we bought, I think, a bottle of blueberry vodka and a couple 40 ounces of beer to take with us.

And we get about halfway up the grade and we approach the property again, the wall and read property.

Suddenly, Rory, stop the car. And again, one of the group jumped out and stole two more silver lines. Ten seconds pass or so.

And right as Cesar was getting into the car, I heard what sounded like a gunshot.

Rory hit the guys was somebody shooting at us? They asked each other. Looks a little freaked out, looked out the back window. I turned around just to see a truck behind us getting.

Yeah, I can pretty much tell that that meant business. And right after that, I remember seeing a green laser traveling around in the car with us. A green laser. A laser from a gun, we assume. Yes. So it's like you can't believe it now. They're not going to shoot us. People don't shoot other people, you know, not for this. And right after that, I hear pow, pow, pow. And then everyone saw you heard nothing on the trunk of my car.

Yes. They tried blinding the shooter with their spotlight. Didn't seem to help. Meanwhile, this whole time we've been trying to call nine on one and there's no service. And so many suggest we wave my white t shirt out the window with wave this. Maybe he'll stop. Exactly. Yeah, we were trying every technique we could to have them stop. So he was just kept. Oh, throughout the whole rest of this trip, there's flurries of shots being taken out of this desperate now rushing along the road.

He did not know Rory suddenly took a wrong turn.

So we were on this dirt road, still taking fire at different points in time. And he's still chasing us. And eventually what I hear always says this road just came to an abrupt stop. And so he's trying to flip around, trying to get away, said loose, get around the truck, get out of the middle.

They were trapped.

Do the next thing I know, glass is exploding everywhere, hitting us in the head with the car still moving at that point. Yes. And it's just complete chaos at that point. That was when. When I got shot, that felt like he kind of came over my leg when the car finally came to a stop. Those who could read, I said, come on, let's go. And I looked up and Roy had his face and his chest.

And I'm pretty sure he said I can't and right at that moment, I saw the laser light again and at that point the gunman approached. Wounded, trapped, they can only wait where's the shooter coming to finish the job? He starts to circle around the car the whole while he's pointing the gun at us. In a remote forest meadow in the dark, a tiny green dot probe, the interior of Rory Maguires immobilized Chrysler Sebring. The laser sight was back, its green dot, a roving bull's eye.

Luis Smythe crouched, wounded and immobile in the back seat. Watch the green dot move across his body, waited for the gunman to finish him off.

He kind of starts to circle around the car the whole while he's pointing the gun at us, looking like a SWAT team or something like that come in. When he comes up, he says, shoot at my house, I got kids or something like that.

And we said, we didn't shoot your house. We wouldn't do that. So the gunman pointed the gun right at me.

And I said, look, we didn't shoot your house. Please just call an ambulance and took off. Certainly relief some of the friends had run for cover during the shooting. Now they return to the car. But to watch, they were alone in the dark and their friend, the driver, Rory, was clearly in bad shape. My friend has just been shot and it's her time shot. We just assume we're going to get back in the car.

We're going to get out of here and go get help. Somehow they managed to move Rory to the back seat of the car, but when one of them turned the key, the car wouldn't start. This just kept getting worse and worse.

No car, no cell service, no idea exactly where they were. No idea where help might be. No idea if they'd survive the night or if the gunman was going to come back. Two of them volunteered to run out into the blackness for help, see if they could find a cabin or a ranch house where they might find a working landline. Question was, would their friends still be alive when and if they got back?

So I decided it's time to check on my leg when I pulled my pant leg down. It sounded like somebody poured a ton of water on the ground. Just splat. My calf was basically exploded in like numerous pieces stuck in place, easy targets.

If the gunman returned, we had fear that he was going to come back and finish the job. Some of the young men decided the car was more targeted and refuge and hid in the tall grass of the meadow. They didn't feel comfortable staying at the car and I don't blame them. But now the two best friends, Lewis and Rory, were trapped in the dark. Lewis laid down on the ground property's wounded leg against the car, tried to keep talking to Rory, who was lying in the back seat.

Rory was shot in his head. He could barely talk, but when he did, it was jumbled. It was horrible. He would call out my name a lot. I told them. I guess I just naively that I feel your pain, he was able to reply to something, you have no idea. My whole leg had become numb from my knee down. And then shortly after that, my left leg started going numb and then the rest of my extremities, until eventually it reached my lips and then got to the point where I was like, well, maybe, maybe I'll die.

I just about then Lewis saw headlights appear in the distance and eventually somebody makes their way over towards the car and says it was the sheriff's deputies. And that's when Lewis Wheatley stuck his left hand up out of the meadow grass.

I laid there on the ground for a while and somebody was holding on to my leg trying to stop the bleeding. And so they were sticking their hand in my wound. And I'm surprised I could still feel pain because my leg had gone numb so long ago. All that remained was the pain.

I can't feel my leg at all because of the pain. So what I remember was I got loaded into a paramedic and at this point just major relief.

Rory was airlifted out to a hospital in Reno. He was barely alive, no longer conscious.

Telling the story was not easy for Lewis and sorry, folks, his anxiety was not hard to understand, but what didn't make sense, how his account differed on some very key points from that of Chad. Warren Reed, the man who confronted them, for example, had accused the young men of firing first during the car chase.

Next thing you know, as I'm looking up, I see these three flashes and then I hear crack, crack, crack, crack. But according to Lewis, that never happened. What's more, he said Chad didn't seem worried. They have a gun when he approached their car.

Did he at any point say, are you armed or do you have a gun or throw your weapon away or anything like that?

Nothing like that. Which is kind of confusing, seeing as he accused us of shooting at his house. But he was pointing the gun at us like we were armed.

So he came up to the car and said, were you the one shooting at my house? Yes. He didn't say shoot at me in the car.

No, I can't remember. Chad told the police the young man shot at him during the chase.

The air that night say, why were you shooting at me in the car or you shot at me in the car or anything like that? Nothing like that.

No. Did you have a gun? Did anybody in the car have a gun? Did you own a gun? No.

The police were looking for a gun, of course. Couldn't just take somebody's word for it, but neither could they. Nor could we ignore one more big discrepancy between Lewis's story and Chad's. Remember, in his interview, Chad said he told Lewis and his friends when he left him in the meadow that he was going to get help.

I said, I'm going to go call the sheriff.

But that's not what Lewis heard.

Oh, he said he remembered quite clearly what their assailants said just before he got into his truck to leave.

He said, If I ever see any of I'm kill you guys, police try to figure out who's telling the truth about the confrontation. And you come back. I was a ranger and they soon find Chad's camp is changing. I think it finally sunk in that he was going to get caught in the story. There is safe to say no way on this earth a mother can be adequately prepared for the news Carol Starcher was about to receive. It was Sunday morning, July 3rd.

She had just gotten a message call back.

Now, I knew something was wrong, something was wrong, and I called back immediately and I just couldn't believe it so quickly.

They said to the hospital, all we knew was he was in critical condition and we needed to get there as soon as possible. And that's all they would tell us.

So, Carol, heart in her mouth raced along the highway to Reno and her son Rory. That same Sunday morning, Chad and Kerry's children woke up to the sound of strangers rummaging through the cabin and search through our stuff.

And they took all four guns. And I was I was crying when I woke up because I didn't know who they were. Must've been terrifying.

Yeah. And then the strangers told them their parents were explaining things to the police.

And I knew my dad had it under control. He was very smart and thoughtful.

In fact, all night chatted, but a deep conversation with detectives from the police county sheriff's office. I told them, explain to me what had happened.

And he very upset going over again and again what happened at the cabin, on the road, in the middle here. Chad explained what was in his mind when those men seemed to be terrorizing his family, how he decided he had to do something to protect his kids and get the sons of bitches get their license plates.

Not to after this with military training, who, you know, react. They're training to do the crackdown for cars, jets, I was a ranger. I told Detective Steve Perry how the man in the car had fired at him out in self-defense. He fired back.

He talked about that was his training that he had received from the military to continue to follow the threat, to neutralize the threat, got into a zone and needed to neutralize the threat he felt got into a zone, a zone like a military term.

Yes.

And I served five years in the military to kill people on the other side of this world, kids in my state.

Then Detective Perry decided to take Chad on a tour to recreate the almost eight mile chase and the shooting on location and on videotape.

You come out of your driveway and we drove with Mr. Walland, read from his cabin in my vehicle, videotaping, and he took us right back here to the meadow here from here.

That stretch when they saw. The him shooting at me right back in here is when I fired. When you come back this way, back in this corner right here, yeah, Chad made it quite clear he used a small pistol, 380 caliber, to return fire during the chase. He told us he knew exactly where he shot from. So we get out and I'd mark that area so we could go back and search that area for casings. Then the cops took Chad down that dirt road which led into the meadow.

And there they could plainly see that other officers had already marked several shell casings in the meadow. And abruptly, Chad's story changed.

They had spent many hours with him that night questioning him, asking him if any other firearms had been used and continually said no. And then at the very end of the the interview and the drive, then he finally did tell us that there was another gun used.

That's what he saw on the ground as they all did two to three caliber casings, the kind that would come from an AR 15 assault rifle, which had finally admitted he knew. Here in the meadow, and prior to that, had you shot the two to three of them at any other time? And then his story changed again. He admitted he fired the AR 15 just before he got to the meadow. How about behind this when you when you shot at them coming off the dirt road?

But you I take that back. That is one shot that they are the first time. Were you moving when you did that? Yes, sir, I think it finally sunk in that it was all going to come back to him and he was going to get caught in his story. Why the initial reluctance? Well, perhaps because the AR 15, which Chad bought legally in Nevada, was illegal in California, though Chad said he didn't know that at any rate.

Now, Chad detailed how he used the rifle again, what he saw Rory's car make a sudden U-turn and thought that they're going to get out of the engagement. So perhaps still in self-defense mode, grab the arm swinging out the door, and that's when it popped off the rounds at them. They are OK. So when they drove past you going back this way, they were shooting with the arrow then? Yes. And so there it was Chadds story.

But as Detective Pay listened, something seemed off.

Just somewhat odd the story as it unfolded each each time we talked to him and it's somewhat changed. Then that morning, Detective Pay heard from his colleague, Chris Hendrickson, who had spent his night talking to those young man. Rory McGuire, now in surgery, wasn't able to talk, but the other five said Detective Hendrickson, he talked to them separately, told exactly the same story, how they stole the solar lights, were chased, tried to surrender, and then made a wrong turn.

Rory McGuire didn't know this area that well, and the kids realized after they passed it that they'd miss this turn right here that goes goes down to Antelope Lake. Why Antelope Lake, because the man told Detective Henrikson there were cabins there, people safety. That's what they believe. They believe that they would be just a few minutes from safety.

But the main thing those young men told Detective Hendrickson was they did not shoot at Chad while agreed. In fact, they assured him they didn't have a gun. Did you ask them did you push them on there? Oh, I pushed them.

I said, listen, if there was a gun, you need to tell us. I mean, if you had a gun and were shooting back, you would be in your right as defending yourself because you're being shot at. They would always say, no, no, there was no gun.

I guarantee you, later that morning, detectives went out to the meadow and discovered some fascinating evidence. For one thing, shards of broken glass, which clearly mark precisely where the car was when Chad blew out the windows. Curious, it wasn't exactly where Chad said it was and something else, Rory's car must have hit a rock during its rush through the meadow just after it made the U-turn farther out in the meadow, and it started draining the oil out of the car and left clear as a giant magic marker, a brownish black trail through the long grass of the meadow.

Interesting. But now it was something like 12 hours since Chad ran off to chase those men. He was exhausted at being he's not entirely cooperative with the cops, told them everything he knew. He's ready now to go home to his wife, Carrie, and their three kids. So what happened next is something he did not expect. He was arrested for attempted murder and also assault with a deadly weapon.

As the Fourth of July approached, Jacquelyn Reid was booked in the local jail. That any outcome be worth? Well. Yes, it could and was about to be for everyone. Grief and shock as a mother finally finds out what happened to her son. It's horrible.

The nurse immediately her face, she looked at me. I knew.

Here's why people move to the high Sierra to get away from the city, it's constant pressures, it's regular explosions of violent crime, or at least that's how it was for Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister, who moved to his new job in the county seat of Little County, California, after years of prosecuting the worst that Oakland had to offer. He came for the crime, the family values. Now, here he was fielding calls in the local sheriff's office about an extremely violent act which the shooter himself freely admitted to were small enough, where any type of homicide that occurs, I get called right away.

So how much did you have to do with the decision to charge him everything?

And from what the detectives told him, what happened seemed pretty clear today.

Hollister he chased those boys seven point six miles and he shot to kill.

And so before Sunday, July 3rd was half gone, Chatwal and Reed was booked and strip searched and locked up in the Plumas County jail. The charge, attempted murder.

What was that like when they took him? It's very hard. For them to take my husband away didn't expect it. You know, I as far as you know, I've never I never expected for us to be apart. In such a manner I never envisioned being. Away from my husband back in the woods, Chad Cavin, the detectives who arrested him, prowled the property still decorated in Fourth of July. Monte, looking for evidence they are 15, was inside on the on the gun rack.

There was also a closet inside the cabin that contained large amounts of ammunition for various guns, shotguns out on the edge of Chad's property out near the road.

The detectives found that unusual no trespassing sign you were entering the RNC, the site said, which meant the Republic of Chad. This is a restricted area. Only red blooded patriotic Christian Americans are authorized for access. The use of deadly force is authorized for use on those found in noncompliance. Young men of the car thought it was some kind of joke that way, now at the very same time, still July 3rd, the driver of a shot up car, Rory McGuire, was in a Reno hospital.

His mother, Carol stars are by his bedside in the ICU as he lay with a bullet in his brain was horrible.

I didn't know what critical condition meant, so I really didn't know how critical meant.

Probably not to make it. And the nurse immediately her face, she looked at me.

I knew. But it was weird, said Carol, when she saw Rory lying there unconscious and he actually looked perfect. I was very shocked, except for the plate that they placed over his head where the bullet went in, I. I just remember him as looking like he was asleep, so you can probably hear him every day, I think of that.

Think of that every single day.

Rory's father, Carol's ex-husband, Dave McGuire, came to tried not successfully to hold back his soaring rage as a soldier. Did this. I put myself in that same scenario.

And if I needed to, I would defend myself. But once it's over, it's my responsibility to. To render aid, this is not a battle zone. This isn't some hick town in California, around the same time at the jail in Quincy, an hour and a half away, child placed a telephone call to his father. To call, of course, was recorded.

I just got freaked out on the kids. People spread around. I just I just lost it just when we went into a little bit of. And so they got out of control. But as the hours stretched through the night into July 4th, Chad began to see more and more clearly, but he was not to blame. Those men shot at him and he never set out to hurt anyone.

I can honestly sit there and say, I didn't get my vehicle. I didn't sit there at the moment. I had the AR 15 saying, I'm going to pick this weapon and I'm going to go down there and I'm going to kill these guys.

Heck, now, no way. There ain't no way.

In fact, Chad, it was really he and his family who were the victims here. If they had never shot at me, there'd be no reason for a gun. It would have no reason for me to fire, to shoot, to use the fire in my mind frame, these people are trying to kill me.

Kerry visited her husband in jail to tell them that she was in his corner and would always be no matter what.

Do you wish that he just kind of stopped along the way somewhere and said, to hell with it, just let them go and come back? No, because he wouldn't have this problem now. Yeah, I guess to a point, as far as a problem being that my husband is not at home. But we would still be in fear that these people would come back to our to terrorize us more. He was protecting us. It was making sure that we were safe.

And then there's the long holiday weekend wound down. It got even worse for all of them. Rory McGuire died. He hemorrhaged a couple hours after we got there.

And that was that was the end. He was gone. He was brain dead at that point.

It used to seem like that happening to you.

I still feel like he's in the meadow. In the car, in the meadow, I still feel like I need to go help him. They changed his life forever, forever. He'll never be the same. And a few hours later, the loving husband, doting father, Army Ranger Chad Wollen Reed, was now an accused murderer.

They took me back down to the booking area. If you're being charged with first degree murder. What did that feel like?

I can describe when you look at the word murder and it describes. Heinous, premeditated, malicious aforethought. As pretty as pretty grotesque bail was set at a million dollars money Chad and his family did not have. But out there, out in the wider world, a new issue is emerging called Stand Your Ground. But also a certain attorney discovered there were some tiny specks of evidence at the crime scene that just might set free. And was there something else that might, through Chad, fired in self-defense?

They found the three 380 casings that were not from Jack Gun.

For most of two years, often twice a week, Gary Warren Reed drove back and forth through the high Sierra to visit her husband in the Plumas County lockup. Easy, any of it? Horrible.

It's just the worst being without my husband and the children being without their father. It's just it's unimaginable.

And the children stayed home and worry mostly. Sometimes they've been frightened and cried for my dad.

And when he's sick, I cry hard because I don't know if he might die from it. He's sick or he'll be OK.

But the very same time, Rory McGuire's mother, Carol, cried for her son. The future, an expectation gone forever. What do you think is the appropriate thing that should happen to this man?

Never step foot outside a prison ever again, not be able to see have not have conjugal visits with his wife, not not be able to see his children go through birthdays and marriages.

And because I now am cut short of all of that with my son and a little quinsy stuck in his cell jahad all the time of the world to think about why he did this trickle effect of war if he never had a gun, was no one would ever happen.

But then something just grabs me inside and say. They were wrong. They scared your family. Chad found himself fuming about the first degree murder charge against him, felt his alleged victims were the ones in the wrong, that they deserve to be stopped. Absolutely. They don't deserve the right to do that.

To people fuming is possibly all Chad might have done, except a prominent defense attorney named John Olson heard about Chad's predicament and saw the way he believed to set him free. The sort of Stand Your Ground idea. Yeah, yeah, California doesn't have a Stand Your Ground law per say, like some states do, but there is a state jury instruction that says a person under threat has a right to stand his or her ground and even pursue an assailant. Chatwal and Reid said attorney Olsen is just the sort of person for whom that defense was intended is.

Not a gang banger is doesn't have a criminal record. He has a good, clean military record.

Chad began looking forward to a trial, turned down a deal from the DEA.

There's a story to be told. There's things that need to come out. I think that trial will. B, a rather awakening. But first, they had to choose a jury, which would be a fight in pretty little quinsy, a place composed of gun only country folk and liberal big city transplants.

There were a lot of letters to the editor of the local paper, and I think they were pretty evenly divided between people saying the state ought to reimburse Chad the cost of his ammunition. And people saying, you know, I moved up here from the Bay Area to get away from all this and people shouldn't have guns and they shouldn't shoot guns.

When the trial began this past summer, Olson seemed satisfied with the jury. He got could go either way.

But my desire is to walk him out of that courtroom. Take him by the elbow and lead him out of the courtroom, turn him over to his family.

Here's how Olson presented his Stand Your Ground defense in his opening to the jury Shora, because he was fired and he also told the jury his client was a protective family man, doing what he felt he had to do as a father after those menacing visits to his house after this Friday.

And they were afraid. And I think it sets the tone for his state of mind. He wanted to protect those two. Sweet little girl. Yes. You want to show the jury the sweet little girl she wanted to protect? Sure. Fair enough. And some of the jury wept as 12 year old DARlAN repeated the story she told us about the night the men came to their property.

I remember asking my mom, what are you going to do if they come back and what would happen if somebody got hurt?

Well, they say they said that everything was going to be OK. And the.

My dad is here to protect us. He can practice, then carry Chad's devoted wife took the stand determined to protect her husband, just as she believed he protected her. That night was in effect of this incident on you and your husband. It scared us tremendously.

And that's the reason Chad chased those men, said Carrie. He was no monster. What was his mental? Distraught over shame. Great. He makes the whole case will boil down to whether Chad was fired upon and shot back in self-defense, Olsen said the evidence backed Chad up.

I think pretty well proved that there was a gun in the victim's car and that they fired at Chad.

The young man in that car, not exactly a Boy Scout, said Olson.

Well, the police asked these people if they had guns and they said, no, we wouldn't carry guns. We would never carry guns.

And one of them, we have a Facebook page displaying both a gun and a knife, and it must have had a gun that night, said Olson, because on the route of the chase, investigators found three shell casings, casings that did not match any of Chad's guns.

The interesting thing, though, is they said they shot at me three times and they found the three 380 casings that were together that were not from each gun corresponding with the three shots.

And there was another truly stunning clue collected on the night of the shooting, said Olson. According to his forensic expert, there was gun residue inside the young man's car and even on some of their hands.

Somebody shot out of that car because because of the gunshot residue in the car, the lack of bullet strikes on that side of the car and the gunshot residue on the hand. The person who was riding shotgun, if you will.

And why did Chad keep shooting at the car after it made a U-turn?

Very good reason that his attorney, if they turn around and we're coming back out of there, those two cars would be on the same track with a car coming right at him. And he's been fired on already, coming back up back towards him.

He thinks they're firing on him again, declined to take the stand in his own defense. So the jury didn't get to hear him say he did the right thing, did what he had to do when he squeezed the trigger. Is it possible you were wrong? So a case for self-defense, any jury would have to take seriously, and thus prosecutor David Hollister's big challenge. Time to bring out a little ammunition, a literal trail of evidence through the grass, a sticky, brownish black mess that told a fascinating story.

Rory's best friend comes face to face with the man who shot him.

When I looked down, my heart kind of jumped. Hey, it's Chris Hayes this week on my podcast, why is this happening? I'll be talking with writer Wright Thompson about nostalgia, memory, the South and Bourbon.

One of the things that really blew my mind during this book is finding out that Kentucky, for instance, was in the union. You know, of course, bourbon, which is the most nostalgic and mythologized of old drinks. Of course, bourbon is made in a place that now pretends it lost a war. It actually won. So when you're looking at the South, you do need to understand the power and seductiveness of mythology and always be aware of the fact that if you aren't looking out for it, it will get you.

That's this week on why is this happening? Search for why is this happening wherever you're listening right now and subscribe. The old Plumas County courthouse, solid and lovely in the autumn sun, has pride of place here on Main Street in Quincy, California. Inside, up on the top floor is an overworked DA's office, all too accustomed to the limited funding abilities of a small county, a fact of life David Hollister had to consider very carefully as he prepared to prosecute Chatwal and Reed for first degree murder.

We better do this case right, and we'd better do it once, because that's about our only shot at it. We sure we've pretty much burned our budget for trials for the year. Trouble was, this was a difficult case from the start.

The defendant, after all, was not just a family man, the father of three adorable children. He was, as he told the detectives, ex military, once an Army Ranger, you don't get to be one of those without good judgment and real character.

And on top of that, there was that wild card jury, people who needed to be persuaded that Chad showed bad judgment and very poor character laser geometry.

The evidence is going to show that the defendant was not in imminent danger when he fired those shots. He was angry and he was that they were trying to get away to set the scene, so to speak.

Prosecutor Hollister's showed the jury the video shot by that reality show cameraman now part of the public record our coverage.

This was graphic stuff right there in Living Color, the bloodied bodies of injured and apparently terrified young man, the officers trying to attend to their medical needs.

You know, how important was that video?

It gave the jury a true understanding of the horror that happened that night. I mean, you've got Lewis Smith with his leg propped up and the ticket there and you've got Roy McGuire in the back seat with with a horrible head injury. I mean, that's something I can't capture in words.

Lewis Smyth, the young man you met earlier, was a key witness for the state. Remember that bullet from Chad's AR 15 shredded Lewis's leg. He was frankly lucky to keep the leg and survived the night.

Did you see the defendant sitting over there in the courtroom?

I only looked at him once or twice. My heart kind of jumped and I knew it was.

Lewis has been a nervous wreck since all this happened.

He told us and in court he was no less nervous as he told the jury about seeing the green laser gun site, about the flurries of shots fired by the defendant, about the young man's efforts to end the car chase.

First of all, they thought they drove as fast as they could. They threw out the solar lights. They held a white T-shirt out the window. If you want to look at a textbook definition for doing everything you can to power, to withdraw, to say no more were done, they did it.

And yet, said the prosecutor, Chad kept right on shooting. He told the detectives, you know, I think that might have been a white flag. I don't think there's any question. Those kids did everything they could to give up. But here's the thing.

If the young man fired a chad first as the defense went to a lot of trouble to prove, then maybe Chad's reaction was reasonable. But did they fire a gun? Did they even have one? Remember those three non chad shell casings found on the road that the defense made such a big fuss about?

Couldn't have been from the young man, said the prosecutor. And how did he know? Simple law of speed vs. gravity.

You're telling me these kids are fleeing at 50 miles an hour? You're telling me that they fired three shots. The casings are a foot and a half apart at 50 miles. That's all. That's crazy.

But remember, the defense forensic expert was clear there was gunshot residue in the young man's car and on some of their hands proving they must have fired a gun, must have to, which David Hollister replied, nonsense.

That defense expert must not have been privy to all the evidence, the gunshot residue, who really wasn't gunshot residue.

It was elements that could make up gunshot residue. Any time a car is hit with that many high velocity rounds from from an AR 15, you're going to expect to see led now.

Yes, but expert versus expert matter of opinion. How would a jury know what the state needed was something that would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Chad was lying about what happened out there in the night and seemed like maybe they had just exactly that.

Remember Chad's insistence that the car came straight at him through the meadow as if for a final showdown and it looked like they were coming straight out?

Yeah, I make us look like an assault, right? Looks like they were attacking Ryan. It was just my my frame of mind was is that these people are coming back to shoot at me. They had swerved my. Vehicle out of the way of their vehicle. I mean, they're coming straight back at me, we're nose to nose. But as the prosecutor told the jury, evidence found in the meadow told a very different story. The detectives took us there to show us.

Remember how the young man's car hit a rock, cracked open the oil pan. The dripping oil left a distinctive trail. And then we could see the oil that had been laid down by Rory McGuire's car using that trail of oil. The prosecutor had an animation created which showed the car was not heading toward Chad's truck, but instead was heading around it away from Chad. And where Detective Hendrickson is standing is about where they travel past. And then he started shooting at their car.

How do they know where the car was when it was hit by the shattered glass of its windows? Some of it still here marking this spot. And the glass told the story, do they say about the true intentions of Chad won't read his shot? Placement was very, very well placed. It was head height shooting at the windows of the vehicle. One went low into the rear passenger door, which then went into Justin Smyth's leg. But most of the shot placement was all high and height.

In other words, Chad wasn't shooting to disable the cars and the prosecutor, the evidence suggested he was shooting to kill the occupants even as they were trying to get away. Was the defendant in imminent fear of death or great bodily injury so that he immediately had to use deadly force? Unequivocally, the answer is no.

So what attitude in your mind did he have when when he took after those kids?

The last words he said before he got in the truck was, I'm going to go get those sons of bitches. And I think he meant it. The prosecutor felt confident, but in a town divided over guns and self-protection, who could be sure what the jury would decide? This is exactly the kind of case that leads to hung juries. Absolutely, absolutely. And that's a fear. In that case, Chad could walk since little Quincy couldn't afford to try him again.

And then just as the trial came to its end, a long shot bit of information finally landed in D.A. Hollister's mailbox. Oh, my. I don't think there's any other way to put. The twist, no, so coming. It was very clear the defendant had lied about something he just didn't lie about. It's not often that a gift drops in a person's lap manna from heaven. Exactly when it's most needed, which in this case, just as the trial was wrapping up, was a carefully sealed official looking package addressed to Plumas County D.A. David Hollister.

Candidly, I give credit to the detectives. It asked them to track down Chad Walland reads military records just to confirm his background.

It was something that he simply felt like we had to follow through on.

Remember throughout Chad's interview with police? He talked again and again about his army career.

That's what military training you react, implying that what he did in that meadow, he had first done under enemy fire overseas.

And I served five years in the military.

I kill people on the other side as well, kids in my state, maybe even that he'd been having some sort of flashback.

I never been in Europe and I was a ranger.

It took nine months, many of them ensnarled in military red tape. But now here were the records and what they revealed was nothing short of shocking in here was confirmation that Chad was in the army. All right. But that's about all that was true. He was not a ranger. He had not fulfilled his commitment.

He had not served overseas. He had not been in combat overseas. He had not killed people on the other side of the world and not done any of those things.

In fact, the army asked Chad to leave. You discharged him for forging sick leave papers and bringing a personal firearm into the barracks. And this was perhaps the worst for wearing a combat infantry badge and a ranger time and other such badges. When all of those things which the jury had been made to believe about Chad's military service, based on his own statements to police, were all lies.

It was very clear the defendant had lied about something he just didn't lie about. Sure. And if he can lie about that. Absolutely, his talk about I only fired three shots, I used the pistol, all these other lives added up the liar, said Hollister, who shot those young men out of anger, pure and simple.

You don't get to chase the person down and kill him.

That's not self-defense.

But defense attorneys stuck to the heart of their case. It was, said John Olson's partner in his closing argument, a clear case of self-defense.

He was placed in reasonable fear of imminent danger or death by the actions of the occupiers. Why are you on the road when they were shooting and then when they were in the meadow and came back in self-defense or murder?

To wait for a jury's decision is a kind of agony for both sides. Rory McGuire's dad still struggling with an inexpressible anger.

The justice system can't give him what I feel he has coming.

And no amount of jail time will will fix it.

Those sweet, sad, innocent little kids.

Right, that he is always sunny and he's always loving you.

But thanks a lot.

OK, and you miss him.

Yeah. That part is pretty obvious before the jury even got the case.

Chad's wife, Carrie, told us she already knew what the outcome would be. I mean, in your heart of hearts, do you think the jury will say not guilty?

I know that the Lord has told me that Chad will be home, but then any other thought?

Can I imagine him being away from us? No, no, it hurts that that thought those words hurt my heart. Surprising then when Carrie heard what Chad told us when we interviewed him before the trial.

Where are you going to be acquitted? No. I'll end up spending the rest of my life in prison. You believe that? Absolutely. Well, I think that, uh. I don't my faith in the legal system. Is seriously being shaken. I think the majority of people have a negative opinion about my. Of course, no one could know the way the jury would go, especially in a town divided by quinsy, you're holding your breath the whole time, whether it's your first trial or your fiftieth.

They didn't have to hold their breath very long, less than a day.

We the jury in the above entitled cause, find the defendant, Richard Reid, guilty of a Tuit murder, first degree required guilty of first degree murder in the gallery.

Rory's mom began sobbing two years of pent up heartbreak.

I knew we couldn't fix what had happened, but maybe we'd give her just a little sense of justice.

I'll never have a friend like that again or somebody I considered a brother. That's a sweet picture. Louis told us it's his duty now to keep Rory's memory alive for himself and for Carol, who's in his life now for good. I love Carol and I think she she loves him back.

There's always a place for me at home and we can't stop talking about him. She's happy. I was front row seat to his life and I'm able to tell her about it at his sentencing hearing.

Chad, address Rory's family. I know there are no words that I can offer that will give you a relief from the pain you experience every. And now his sentence, 84 years to life. A little cabin, that piece of paradise is empty now, sold to pay legal bills. We have fond memories. We do. And now there's there's no good memories to be had, but we can hold on to the ones that we have. And seven point six miles away, out in the mountains, snow has begun to blanket the meadow, hiding the only remnants of what happened, a few shards of glass and the Little Rock to mark the spot where a young man with so much potential.

Was wasted. Part of me feels that Rory is fine. What do you say Rory is fine. He's not in the meadow and he's not in that hospital bed and he's not on that road trying to get away from the shooter. He's not afraid anymore. So he's he's fine. You hear on the news, the Florida man, they're not very bright thing that the Florida man did in Florida in general is kind of unique, a perfect place for big mansions, exotic cars, for imperfect crimes.

Alarm going off, two people were dead. Outrageous homicides, you've got to see it to believe it, the perps being idiots left the phone. There does not happen in real life.

Florida man murders a two night special event January 9th at 7:00, kicking off oxygens. Nine Nights of twisted killers.