The Carjacking | Bloody Angola Podcast

0:05 M m. A wall Street line, shackle change, Oh someome gird, it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice as the hill Stream game Rainbow three. Come here by me to die.

0:49 Inside these walls, inside the wild. Han't went more girls as I'm.

1:31 Hey everyone, and welcome back to Blundy and Gulla, a podcast one hundred and forty two years in the making, the complete story of America's Bloody Is Prison. I'm Jim Chapman, and today I'm bringing you a story involving a current Death Row inmate by the name of Dale Craig, who in nineteen ninety two murdered a team by the name of Kip Gullet. Now there's a reason for the timing of this particular episode, and that is because Deal Craig is in the news again this past week, as the Supreme Court has made a ruling saying a lower court has to hear from the state to make a determination if Dal Craig should have the opportunity to seek parole.

2:21 And that's after Craig, who was originally sentenced to death, has already had his sentence changed from death to life without parole and then life with parole confused yet, Well that's okay. I'm going to bring it all to you today. Now, what led to this crime, the convention, the change in sentence, and the reconsideration for parole, that's what we're going to cover. So I'm going to take you back to September fourteenth of nineteen ninety two, and I'm going to tell you about an LSU student by the name of Kip Gullet who was eighteen. This particular night, Kept Gullet, he pulls into his parking spot at Kirby Smith dormitory. He had a Ford Bronco. It was really nice truck. He pulls in.

3:14 It was late at night, near midnight as a matter of fact, and he was tired. He had been visiting a female friend at this time, and he's just ready to get back to his dorm and go to bed. He was a good kid, a freshman at LSU. He was really just starting out on his own in college. He had just left home. So as soon as he parks and he gets out of his Ford Bronco, Dale Craig, who incidentally was with three other people, he rushes up to this freshman and right off the bat he hits him with the butt of a revolver in the face.

3:56 That got Gullet's attention immediately, and at gunpoint, Dell Craig orders Gullet into the backseat of his Bronco, and he orders his companions, those guys with him later identified as Zebby Berthelot, James Laverne, and Roy Morier, to get into the bronco with them. They all get in. They ride around the Baton Ruge area at midnight this night for nearly an hour, trying to decide what to do with Kip Gullet. Now, according to later court testimony, Gullet was understandably scared shitless. He was crying, He was begging for his life the entire time. As a matter of fact, he would put his hands over his face and cover his eyes and say, man, I haven't seen any of y'all.

4:54 I don't know what you look like. Please let me go. He would beg these fours guys for mercy. He would tell them his family was rich and they would pay these guys for his safe return, just anything he could think of to keep these guys from killing him. All during this hour long ordeal, dal Craig would just sit there and would just torn him. Why you cry and why you being a whimp and all this kind of stuff. Well maybe it's because you've got a freaking gun pointed at my head. But that tells you what kind of person Dale Craig is. So, while this is going on, the other three accomplices, they're not as agreeable as Deal Craig.

5:40 He was asking them what should we do with this guy? They were saying, Hey, why don't we just beat him unconscious and leave him somewhere. We don't have to kill him. And at one point during this back and forth with these guys, according to them, Deal Craig seeing like he was going to go along with that. Okay, we'll bring him somewhere and we'll just beat him up and knock him out so that he can't get up and go immediately to police, and we won't kill him. And according to these guys, that's what they assumed Dale Craig was going to do. So they eventually drive to a construction site, and this construction site is in what's known as the Kenilworth area of Baton Rudge, and it was there that they all exit that Bronco and Deal Craig tells one of the accomplices, Zebi Birthlot, to hand him a nine millimeter pistol. Zebi Birthalot does that and deal Craig along with the guy by the name of James Laverne, they march this eighteen year old, good kid, college student with his whole life ahead of him. They march him eighty feet into this construction site. At that point, Laverne takes the butt of his gun and he hits Gullet in the back of the head. In this knocks Gullet to

7:11 the ground, and Gullet, if you can picture this, is kind of on all fours trying to get back up, and he was almost out of it. I would assume he was almost knocked out, and he kind of just sinks back down into the ground. And Laverne said at that point he just walks away and he's assuming that was it. This kid was practically knocked out. And here we go back to the bronco that we're going to steal, right But at this point, Dale Craig, he kneels down by Gullet. As he lays there, he's frozen in fear. He is actually in by this point the fetal position, and Dale Craig fires three bullets at point blank range to his skull, killing the eighteen year old. But del Craig's not done. He then stands completely up and he fires two more shots in to Kip Gulling just for the hell of it. That's how evil this sm bitch is.

8:24 The four of them, they then drive away from the scene and these other three guys, according to them, they were like, why did you kill him? That was not the plan. I thought we were just gonna knock him out. Now we're all gonna be screwed, et cetera. And del Craig tells them, hey, man, I panicked because during the ride this kid overheard one of the assailants mentioned the name of another assailant, and del Craig said, hey, I was worried that he was going to be able to identify us just by hearing names. So that was his reasoning for shooting this kid over and over and over again, execution style in the head. Mind you now. According to these other guys, after they left the scene, del Craig also told them quote, I love you all. You are all my boys, but if you say one fucking word, I'll kill you too, they said. He then turned to Roy Moyer, and he said, quote, I told you I was hard. Del Craig then turns to the group and says, while we're at it, should we go kill anybody else, and then, in an attempt to be funny, answers his own question by saying, Nah, the game warden may be pissed if we keep leaving bodies in the woods. So Del Craig then drives to his home in this in

9:57 this Kid's Bronco whereas girlfriend friend, she was at his home and he tells her in detail the entire crime. His girlfriend and he they then devise a plan on how to get away with this shit, and their plan was they were going to drive that bronco to Bogolusa, Louisiana the next day and somehow get rid of it. However, the next day, just prior to leaving, he changes his mind and he tells her, hey, we're just going to destroy the bronco. So the first thing he does is he rips the stereo out of that bronco, and his intention there was he intended to sell the stereo, the cor stereo and then accompanied by his girlfriend James Laverne, who was one of the guys with him, when this murder went down, and his mother, of all people, his own mother, They were all in a separate car. They follow him as he takes the Bronco to the Mississippi River levee in Baton rage In the group sets and on fire.

11:19 In the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias, a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Dereck todd Lee was a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming smile, led a double life that would unravel in a series of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare, igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer eventually known by just three letters, would reveal not only the depths of Derek Toddley's depravity, but also the resilience of those most affected by his evil acts, the families, and the survivors. This is DTL.

12:18 DTL can be found by Searching Unspeakable, a true crime podcast by Kelly Jennings wherever you listen to podcasts, Episode one dropping November three. So obviously, now you've got a car on fire in Baton Ridge on the levee. And it was not long before the East Baton Ridge Parish Sheriff's office gets a call and get a call and the caller says, hey, there's a car on fire on the levee in Baton Ridge. And they start investigating this arson and they discover that the owner of this Bronco is a man with the last named Gullet, and it's actually Kip Gullet's father. And they call the father and they say, hey, your bronco is on fire on the Mississippi River levee. And the father says, well, I bought the vehicle, but that's for my son. He's an LSU freshman at LSU and he drives that car. He actually lives on LSU's campus. Now, y'all, this is at the very infancy of cell phones. I mean, it was like beepers and pagers at this point in time in the early nineties. So his dad he starts paging his son NonStop.

13:37 He calls the dorm, etc. To no avail. He cannot get in touch with his son. I can only imagine the panic that was going through his dad's mind. So his dad obviously very concerned by this point, he contacts the LSU police and he lets them know that he was unable to kate his son. Almost simultaneously, at this point, deputies were investigating reports of a body found at a construction site in the Kenilworth area of Batan Rurage, and officers for both investigations. They realize relatively quickly that the burned bronco and the body at that construction site were related and that body was identified as Kip Gullet. So at that point police also have a tip called in in.

14:39 The tipster stated that Dale Craig, along with Laverne Berthelot and Moawyer were involved in the murder of Kip Gullet. So police give this information and they quickly go arrest the four suspects and listen to the ages of these guys. Del Craig at that time was seventeen years old. Now he was turning eighteen, in just a few days, less than a week from the time that this crime went down, and that would come into play later. James Laverne was nineteen, zebbi Berthelot was sixteen, and Roy Moyer was just fifteen years old. Can you believe that? So these guys they get questioned, and Moyer, he's fifteen, He's in a ship pile of trouble. He knows it. He admits to everything.

15:47 He just totally confesses, and they get a search warrant for Dale Craig's home, and at del Craig's home they find the stereo equipment for that Bronco, as well as the victim's keys. So very early on, police already have a ton of evidence, including confessions, and all four of these guys are charged with first degree murder. So I'm gonna fast forward a bet because all of these guys had trials. But that's not what this particular episode is about.

16:28 We'll get into that in a second. But all these guys had trials or they cut deals with prosecutors, and here are the results of that. Dale Craig gets sentenced to death first agree murder. He gets the death penalty. Zebbie Berthelot was sentenced to twenty years in prison after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and that was a deal, a plea deal that prosecutors made with him to get him to testify again. It's Dale Craig. Roy Mourrier was sentenced to twenty years in prison after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and again he agreed to testify against Craig and James Laverne. He was sentenced to life inside Bloody and Gola or second degree murder. Apparently he did not cut a deal or they felt like they had enough and just didn't offer him one. Remember he was the guy that hit kept gullet in the head and knocked him down just prior to deal Craig executing him. So he gets life inside of Bloody in Gola. And all of these convictions were in nineteen ninety four, So off they go to serve these sentences and it's in two thousand and five that something shocking happens when Dale Craig he gets resentenced from the death penalty and death to

18:04 life in prison with no parole. So how did that happen? Well, roper Versus Simmons stipulated that if you were juvenile when you committed a crime, you could not be sentenced to death. So that made Dale Craig's sentence unconstitutional because remember he was seventeen, but he was only a week from eighteen when he committed this crime, and that opened the door for recents and the result of that recentence was life in prison with no parole. Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today?

18:45 Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you what happened in New York. It cannot be as crazy as the case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should do a podcast about it, and with that we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts. Simply by searching Crime Wire Weekly or clicking the link in the description of this podcast. Now, it's important to note I keep hammering this down, but he was just six days from his eighteenth birthday when this went down.

19:31 Then there's another shocking event when in twenty twenty three, the Supreme Court citing Montgomery versus Louisiana as well as Miller versus Alabama, they rule that if you were a juvenile and you were sentenced to life in prison in the state of Louisiana, it was unconstitutional to not get a shot at para. So you couldn't be sentenced to life with no parole. Essentially, you would have to serve twenty years to become eligible for parole. Now, due to the fact that del Craig had been incarcerated for well over twenty years by this point, he would actually be eligible for parole right out of the gate. This was determined by the First Circuit Court of Appeal in Louisiana. However, yet another change in this case when just a week ago the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed that twenty twenty three decision made by the First Circuit Court of Appeal, and that opened the door for the state to at least argue to the First Circuit the appellate Court that del Craig should not have a chance at parole. So let me just make this cleaner for you up, because I know it can be confusing. In twenty twenty three, Judge

21:05 Ebony Rose, she re sentences Craig from life with no parole to life with the possibility of parole because he was a juvenile and they'd already been pulled off a death row and that sentence changed to life in prison because he was a juvenile. So this is two strikes of luck for this guy. The Age appeals that and says, bullshit, this guy should never have a chance at parole. In the appellate Court dismisses the state's appeal at that time. They basically say it's legal and this is the law, and we're not even going to hear your case. So the state then appeals that decision by the Appellate Court all the way to the Supreme Court and they say they should have to hear the case. In six out of seven Supreme Court judges they rule that the first Circuit must at least hear the case, and they can't just dismiss it. They can't tell the Attorney General's office, you don't even get a right to argue in front of us and tell us why Dale Craig doesn't deserve pro now. The only dissenting judge in the Supreme Court Louisiana Supreme Court was Chief Justice John Weimer. So does all this mean that dal Craig will get parole. Well, the short answer is no, even if the appellate court

22:35 upheld his shot at parole, even saying the State of Louisiana argued this to the appellate court and they said, well, we don't buy your argument. We think that he should get life with the chance at parole at least a hearing. It doesn't mean he's going to be granted parole. But to me, even the fact that this this guy gets a shot at parole, I don't like it. It's like granting this guy a second shot at life. His victim did not get a second shot at life. Why should he now, hopefully with the chance to at least argue the reasons why Dell Craig does not deserve a chance at parole. By the state's attorneys at least the first circuit, we'll be able to consider the risk involved in letting this guy out into the free world. And anytime you get a chance to co op for parole, you always you know there is a risk there that you can get out. It's happened. And here's an interesting tidbit of information for you regarding del Craig inside of Bloody in Gola, and I'm gonna tell you quickly about an escape attempt that he actually had when he was on death row. Now, these death row inmates, like really all inmates, they got twenty four hours a day to think about nothing but

24:10 how the hell to get out of prison, right, escape style, that's all they got to do. And especially with death row, it's a very moundane life. Boring af Well, when you're on the other side of carrastions, you know that an unoccupied mind can sometimes be a dangerous thing, So you try to keep the minds busy at the very least somehow. In one way Louisiana State Penitentiary tried to do this was to allow inmates on death row dominoes. Seems harmless enough, right, play some dominoes with yourself. Well, what Louisiana State Penitentiary officials didn't realize was that in the old death row the welds that were used on the cell bar were hollow.

25:02 And while they did not realize that, apparently the death row inmates did at some point, with Dale Craig being one of those inmates. And as Kathy Fontau told it to me, and y'all, Cathy is a legend here in Louisiana Corrections. In a former assistant warden at Bloody and Gola, she said, one day, while Dale Craig was housed in death Row, she was giving a tour and she passed by Dale Gregg's cell and he was standing up and he was facing the tour group, and he was kind of holding on to the bars, if you can picture that. Now, when you're a warden, an assistant warden, even a CEO, you become accustomed to these inmates' habits. And one thing about dal Craig was he almost was never up at his cell door like that. Primarily he laid in the bed all the time. So she kind of took nighte of that right away as very strange. Well, as officials would discover later, Dale Craig had managed to cut through those welds in his cells, and they would also discover later it took over sixteen hours to cut through those welds.

26:27 And the dominoes that were given to these inmates to pass the time, he had disguised them to look like part of the cell doors, and he placed them where those welds would have been had he not cut through those. So when Warden Fonteau was with that tour group and they were walking down you know a picture of the Green Mile or whatever, they're walking down that tier and he was in front of his cell door holding on to the cell door. He was actually holding the cell bars to make sure they didn't fall out while the tour group walked by. That's some wild shit right there.

27:14 You heard. Inmates will come up with anything if given time, and all they have in there is time. But there you have it. When I came across this story, y'all, it just sickened me. The way that Dale Craig just executed this young man that had nothing but his future in front of him disgusted me. And he's gotten off death row that was changed to life in prison. Now they're trying to figure out certain people how he can get a shot at parole. Give me a fucking break. So frustrating, but there you have it. And look, this needs to be mentioned. Speaking of death at Bloody and Gola, the docu series DTL is releasing Monday, November three on Unspeakable, a true crime podcast by Kelly Jennings. Of course, she's been on Bloody and Gola several times. I know many of you that listen or familiar with her familiar with the show, but some of you aren't. I executive produced this series. It covers notorious serial killer Derek Todd Lee as told by Kelly Jennings. And this is a highly produced listener experience. It is unlike anything I've ever done, anything that Kelly's ever done, and I'm telling you it is absolutely fire. You're gonna want to hear every bit

28:48 of it. As I said, it's actually coming your way Monday, this upcoming Monday. If you're listening to this episode of Bloody and Gola when it drops, if you're not, November thirty is one episode one drops. It'll drop every Monday throughout the series. I'll link Kelly's podcast in the description of this podcast, so that if you're not familiar with her, go follow her. If you love this show, you'll love her show. There's no doubt about that. There's no one out there more thorough than Kelly Jennings when it comes to getting details on cases. So check that out. And until next time for Bloody and Gola, a podcast one and forty two years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest prison. I'm Jim Chapman, Peace.

29:53 A Wall Street line, shackle, chain Jack, Oh gesome Gird. It's calling by the name. There is no. Mercy and it's been a tentery juice as the Hillstream Game, Rango, the Three. I'm in by me to. Die inside these walls, inside the wild.

30:34 And when theirs I know, it's so bloody. Angle Obody, Angle, the Pact and b