WEBVTT
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M m.
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A wall Street line, shackle change, Oh someome gird, it's
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calling my name.
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There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice
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as the hill Stream game Rainbow three.
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Come here by me to die.
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Inside these walls, inside the wild.
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Han't went more girls as I'm.
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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Blundy and Gulla, a
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podcast one hundred and forty two years in the making,
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the complete story of America's Bloody Is Prison. I'm Jim Chapman,
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and today I'm bringing you a story involving a current
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Death Row inmate by the name of Dale Craig, who
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in nineteen ninety two murdered a team by the name
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of Kip Gullet. Now there's a reason for the timing
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of this particular episode, and that is because Deal Craig
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is in the news again this past week, as the
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Supreme Court has made a ruling saying a lower court
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has to hear from the state to make a determination
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if Dal Craig should have the opportunity to seek parole.
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And that's after Craig, who was originally sentenced to death,
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has already had his sentence changed from death to life
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without parole and then life with parole confused yet, Well
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that's okay. I'm going to bring it all to you today. Now,
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what led to this crime, the convention, the change in sentence,
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and the reconsideration for parole, that's what we're going to cover.
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So I'm going to take you back to September fourteenth
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of nineteen ninety two, and I'm going to tell you
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about an LSU student by the name of Kip Gullet
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who was eighteen. This particular night, Kept Gullet, he pulls
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into his parking spot at Kirby Smith dormitory. He had
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a Ford Bronco. It was really nice truck. He pulls in.
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It was late at night, near midnight as a matter
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of fact, and he was tired. He had been visiting
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a female friend at this time, and he's just ready
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to get back to his dorm and go to bed.
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He was a good kid, a freshman at LSU. He
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was really just starting out on his own in college.
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He had just left home. So as soon as he
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parks and he gets out of his Ford Bronco, Dale Craig,
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who incidentally was with three other people, he rushes up
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to this freshman and right off the bat he hits
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him with the butt of a revolver in the face.
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That got Gullet's attention immediately, and at gunpoint, Dell Craig
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orders Gullet into the backseat of his Bronco, and he
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orders his companions, those guys with him later identified as
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Zebby Berthelot, James Laverne, and Roy Morier, to get into
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the bronco with them. They all get in. They ride
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around the Baton Ruge area at midnight this night for
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nearly an hour, trying to decide what to do with
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Kip Gullet. Now, according to later court testimony, Gullet was
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understandably scared shitless. He was crying, He was begging for
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his life the entire time. As a matter of fact,
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he would put his hands over his face and cover
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his eyes and say, man, I haven't seen any of y'all.
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I don't know what you look like. Please let me go.
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He would beg these fours guys for mercy. He would
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tell them his family was rich and they would pay
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these guys for his safe return, just anything he could
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think of to keep these guys from killing him. All
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during this hour long ordeal, dal Craig would just sit
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there and would just torn him. Why you cry and
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why you being a whimp and all this kind of stuff.
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Well maybe it's because you've got a freaking gun pointed
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at my head. But that tells you what kind of
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person Dale Craig is. So, while this is going on,
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the other three accomplices, they're not as agreeable as Deal Craig.
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He was asking them what should we do with this guy?
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They were saying, Hey, why don't we just beat him
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unconscious and leave him somewhere. We don't have to kill him.
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And at one point during this back and forth with
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these guys, according to them, Deal Craig seeing like he
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was going to go along with that. Okay, we'll bring
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him somewhere and we'll just beat him up and knock
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him out so that he can't get up and go
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immediately to police, and we won't kill him. And according
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to these guys, that's what they assumed Dale Craig was
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going to do. So they eventually drive to a construction site,
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and this construction site is in what's known as the
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Kenilworth area of Baton Rudge, and it was there that
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they all exit that Bronco and Deal Craig tells one
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of the accomplices, Zebi Birthlot, to hand him a nine
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millimeter pistol. Zebi Birthalot does that and deal Craig along
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with the guy by the name of James Laverne, they
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march this eighteen year old, good kid, college student with
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his whole life ahead of him. They march him eighty
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feet into this construction site. At that point, Laverne takes
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the butt of his gun and he hits Gullet in
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the back of the head. In this knocks Gullet to
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the ground, and Gullet, if you can picture this, is
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kind of on all fours trying to get back up,
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and he was almost out of it. I would assume
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he was almost knocked out, and he kind of just
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sinks back down into the ground. And Laverne said at
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that point he just walks away and he's assuming that
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was it. This kid was practically knocked out. And here
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we go back to the bronco that we're going to steal,
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right But at this point, Dale Craig, he kneels down
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by Gullet. As he lays there, he's frozen in fear.
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He is actually in by this point the fetal position,
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and Dale Craig fires three bullets at point blank range
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to his skull, killing the eighteen year old. But del
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Craig's not done. He then stands completely up and he
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fires two more shots in to Kip Gulling just for
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the hell of it. That's how evil this sm bitch is.
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The four of them, they then drive away from the
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scene and these other three guys, according to them, they
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were like, why did you kill him? That was not
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the plan. I thought we were just gonna knock him out.
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Now we're all gonna be screwed, et cetera. And del
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Craig tells them, hey, man, I panicked because during the
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ride this kid overheard one of the assailants mentioned the
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name of another assailant, and del Craig said, hey, I
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was worried that he was going to be able to
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identify us just by hearing names. So that was his
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reasoning for shooting this kid over and over and over again,
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execution style in the head. Mind you now. According to
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these other guys, after they left the scene, del Craig
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also told them quote, I love you all. You are
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all my boys, but if you say one fucking word,
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I'll kill you too, they said. He then turned to
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Roy Moyer, and he said, quote, I told you I
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was hard. Del Craig then turns to the group and says,
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while we're at it, should we go kill anybody else,
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and then, in an attempt to be funny, answers his
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own question by saying, Nah, the game warden may be
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pissed if we keep leaving bodies in the woods. So
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Del Craig then drives to his home in this in
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this Kid's Bronco whereas girlfriend friend, she was at his
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home and he tells her in detail the entire crime.
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His girlfriend and he they then devise a plan on
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how to get away with this shit, and their plan
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was they were going to drive that bronco to Bogolusa,
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Louisiana the next day and somehow get rid of it. However,
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the next day, just prior to leaving, he changes his
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mind and he tells her, hey, we're just going to
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destroy the bronco. So the first thing he does is
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he rips the stereo out of that bronco, and his
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intention there was he intended to sell the stereo, the
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cor stereo and then accompanied by his girlfriend James Laverne,
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who was one of the guys with him, when this
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murder went down, and his mother, of all people, his
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own mother, They were all in a separate car. They
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follow him as he takes the Bronco to the Mississippi
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River levee in Baton rage In the group sets and
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on fire.
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In the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper
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secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias,
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a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Dereck todd Lee was
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a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was
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a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming smile,
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led a double life that would unravel in a series
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of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and
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the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and
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murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare,
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igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was
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just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer eventually
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known by just three letters, would reveal not only the
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depths of Derek Toddley's depravity, but also the resilience of
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those most affected by his evil acts, the families, and
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the survivors. This is DTL.
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DTL can be found by Searching Unspeakable, a true crime
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podcast by Kelly Jennings wherever you listen to podcasts, Episode
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one dropping November three. So obviously, now you've got a
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car on fire in Baton Ridge on the levee. And
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it was not long before the East Baton Ridge Parish
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Sheriff's office gets a call and get a call and
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the caller says, hey, there's a car on fire on
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the levee in Baton Ridge. And they start investigating this
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arson and they discover that the owner of this Bronco
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is a man with the last named Gullet, and it's
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actually Kip Gullet's father. And they call the father and
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they say, hey, your bronco is on fire on the
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Mississippi River levee. And the father says, well, I bought
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the vehicle, but that's for my son. He's an LSU
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freshman at LSU and he drives that car. He actually
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lives on LSU's campus. Now, y'all, this is at the
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very infancy of cell phones. I mean, it was like
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beepers and pagers at this point in time in the
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early nineties. So his dad he starts paging his son NonStop.
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He calls the dorm, etc. To no avail. He cannot
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get in touch with his son. I can only imagine
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the panic that was going through his dad's mind. So
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his dad obviously very concerned by this point, he contacts
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the LSU police and he lets them know that he
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was unable to kate his son. Almost simultaneously, at this point,
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deputies were investigating reports of a body found at a
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construction site in the Kenilworth area of Batan Rurage, and
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officers for both investigations. They realize relatively quickly that the
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burned bronco and the body at that construction site were
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related and that body was identified as Kip Gullet. So
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at that point police also have a tip called in in.
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The tipster stated that Dale Craig, along with Laverne Berthelot
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and Moawyer were involved in the murder of Kip Gullet.
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So police give this information and they quickly go arrest
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the four suspects and listen to the ages of these guys.
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Del Craig at that time was seventeen years old. Now
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he was turning eighteen, in just a few days, less
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than a week from the time that this crime went down,
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and that would come into play later. James Laverne was nineteen,
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zebbi Berthelot was sixteen, and Roy Moyer was just fifteen
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years old. Can you believe that? So these guys they
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get questioned, and Moyer, he's fifteen, He's in a ship
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pile of trouble. He knows it. He admits to everything.
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He just totally confesses, and they get a search warrant
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for Dale Craig's home, and at del Craig's home they
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find the stereo equipment for that Bronco, as well as
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the victim's keys. So very early on, police already have
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a ton of evidence, including confessions, and all four of
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these guys are charged with first degree murder. So I'm
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gonna fast forward a bet because all of these guys
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had trials. But that's not what this particular episode is about.
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We'll get into that in a second. But all these
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guys had trials or they cut deals with prosecutors, and
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here are the results of that. Dale Craig gets sentenced
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to death first agree murder. He gets the death penalty.
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Zebbie Berthelot was sentenced to twenty years in prison after
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he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and that was a deal,
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a plea deal that prosecutors made with him to get
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him to testify again. It's Dale Craig. Roy Mourrier was
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sentenced to twenty years in prison after he pleaded guilty
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to manslaughter and again he agreed to testify against Craig
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and James Laverne. He was sentenced to life inside Bloody
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and Gola or second degree murder. Apparently he did not
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cut a deal or they felt like they had enough
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and just didn't offer him one. Remember he was the
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guy that hit kept gullet in the head and knocked
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him down just prior to deal Craig executing him. So
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he gets life inside of Bloody in Gola. And all
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of these convictions were in nineteen ninety four, So off
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they go to serve these sentences and it's in two
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thousand and five that something shocking happens when Dale Craig
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he gets resentenced from the death penalty and death to
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life in prison with no parole. So how did that happen? Well,
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roper Versus Simmons stipulated that if you were juvenile when
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you committed a crime, you could not be sentenced to death.
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So that made Dale Craig's sentence unconstitutional because remember he
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was seventeen, but he was only a week from eighteen
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when he committed this crime, and that opened the door