Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 3: Somebody that beautiful, now love in that kind the contention ways,
there's something wrong.
Speaker 4: Already moved was best. I don't realize that.
Speaker 1: They say you build it and they will come.
Speaker 5: I don't know who said that.
Speaker 1: It's probably in a movie or something. Anyway, we built
it about nine months ago. It's called Sword and Scale Television.
There's nine episodes available right now, and there's many, many
more coming next year. We made it for true crime
fans like you, because we're true crime fans as well,
so we wanted to make a TV show for the fans,
buy the fans in a way that leaves out all
the cheesiness of Hollywood, all the bad actors. Put it
that way, and it gives you just a solid true
crime story. Right now, it's once a month, and I
know we said we're going to do two a month,
but that's just on me. That's my fault. I've I've
been crashing. I've been unable to keep pace, and unfortunately
there's only one of me and I can only do
so many things. Unfortunately, when you get to a certain size,
you spend most of your time running a business being
a CEO rather than a podcaster. It's just the way
it is. When you get to a certain size, you
just have to hire people, and you have to manage people,
and you have to manage people that manage people, and
so on and so forth, and then you become a CEO.
And it sucks because I don't want to be a CEO,
but there we are. We all do things we don't want.
Speaker 5: To do in life. Anyway.
Speaker 1: What I was really trying to say is just go
watch it. You know, you could try it, and if
you don't like it, you can unsubscribe at any time.
It's really easy. You don't need to contact support or anything.
You can just do it on your phone. So if
you liked your crime, the place to find it a
Sword and Scale dot com. It's usually a lesson you'll
learn when you're young. Anything worth having is worth the
effort to get it. You have to work hard to
achieve the things you want in life. It won't just
be hand to you. And this lesson is mostly true. Sure,
there are people out there who never learn this lesson
and everything is handed to them. But if you see
one of these people come face to face with opposition,
watch out, anger and chaos will ensue. You see, the
lesson isn't really about working hard. You can work hard
and still fail. The lesson is really about learning the
fact that sometimes you just can't have what you want.
I know, I know, I know. It's hard. It's hard
to come to terms with such a reality, but it's true.
So the quicker you accept it, the better off everyone
will be. Because what happens is that with this eventual realization,
though certain entitled few revert to the mentality of children.
Children rarely act rationally or logically. Instead, they act out
without regard for the calamity that they will cause. September two,
twenty sixteen, was a day like any other. By three pm,
it was eighty four degrees and cloudy, in which it's
off Falls, Texas. On the south side of town. The
school bell rings at McNeil Middle School and a flood
of children pour into the sidewalk streets and alleyways. One
such kid, thirteen year old eighth grader Mikayla Smith, looks
for her friends before starting her walk home.
Speaker 6: I met Carr first Sus in front of the school.
Speaker 7: And Renault and Alani didn't walk home that day, so
we walked across the big field that we had and
we saw I saw Lauren on the and I called
her name and see if it was here when we
met up with her.
Speaker 4: We caught up with her while she was walking.
Speaker 1: Many kids walked home in the city of around one
hundred thousand people. This was the first year sixth grade
was offered at McNeil, and the neighborhood streets were filled
with children more than normal. Mickayla caught up with her
friend Lauren Londevaso to lament over the first few weeks
of school.
Speaker 6: We're talking about school and college.
Speaker 7: We don't have any classes to get yeah, but Alex
here in the hallways and stun usday high due time passing.
Speaker 1: The neighborhood surrounding McNeil Middle School was full of single
family homes very close together. There were sidewalks, but many
kids chose to take the alley that separated backyards as
their route home.
Speaker 6: And stopped playing more than dumpsters. Okay and Lauren.
Speaker 7: She started walking ahead of us, so she stilled meet
up with her boyfriend took of him.
Speaker 6: So she was right about.
Speaker 1: A mere block from school. The girls stopped to part
ways her boyfriend.
Speaker 8: She was not secre.
Speaker 1: On the next street over, a boy named Garrett had
just made it to the intersection when the car flew by.
Speaker 6: It was a gray, oldish.
Speaker 1: He was on the sidewalk waiting to cross the street
when he saw the tahoe stop in front of the alley.
From his perspective, he only saw one person, Lauren.
Speaker 2: On the corner like one of the confree was and
I could only I was.
Speaker 4: Always okay, I think this is an alleyway riot. There
was like a fence covering every other girl exceptor.
Speaker 1: Just as Lauren waved by to her friends and turned
to walk away, a vehicle pulled up abruptly. Further down
the alley were three other students, Elijah Hope and.
Speaker 9: Crystal Lawrens, stopped and under the car.
Speaker 10: We just stood there because we thought Lauren avocanovera gets
picked up.
Speaker 1: It wasn't uncommon for kids to get picked up on
their route home, but something about this vehicle seemed strange. Garrett,
on the next street over, noticed the window on the
tahoe was down. Then he noticed something else, and then.
Speaker 4: Did you see anything unusual? Come out of that that
window that was down on the driver's side.
Speaker 6: Don Okay.
Speaker 1: Elijah Hope and Crystal saw the gun too, but didn't
immediately recognize the danger.
Speaker 4: At first, I.
Speaker 11: Thought it was a paintball gun or a baby gun,
because teenagers liked to play pranks and all that.
Speaker 1: Then they heard the sound.
Speaker 6: When I think back to it, it's all silent.
Speaker 10: I just sopped them firecrafted and he didn't really think
anything of its.
Speaker 1: Garrett, the little boy on the street corner, recognized the
sound immediately. His father was a cop.
Speaker 4: I heard about four or five or seven bunchuns. Did
you see what happened to Lauren? She found out all.
Speaker 1: Around Suddenly, Elijah Hope and Crystal knew this was no prank, so.
Speaker 7: We didn't think any of it until Lauren fell and
Mikayla Brandon.
Speaker 1: Chaos erupted in the alley and the surrounding streets as
the tahoe sped away. Some kids froze while others ran
for their lives. Elijah, Hope and Crystal ducked into Hope's backyard,
but the back door to her house was locked. Garrett
took off fronting and started banging on his neighbor's doors
frantically to find help.
Speaker 4: So were you knocking on the door trying to get help?
Speaker 6: Were you scareds? Had you ever seen anything.
Speaker 4: Like that before? Never?
Speaker 1: After the sound of gunshots stopped, Elijah, Hope and Crystal
slowly ventured back into the alley.
Speaker 9: Well, we went back outside into the alley to see
what had happened, and we had We saw.
Speaker 4: Lauren on the ground where she had fallen, and we
also saw me Kayla.
Speaker 9: She looked like she was out with her phone trying
to dial and emer.
Speaker 6: I asked her if she was okay, and she said no,
and like we had some of we saw my blood.
Speaker 9: And so it was like calment woe, like we were
asking what was going on and we asked him for
it was like a real gun or what she said, Yes,
she was on the trying and she was at the
hole the hand of her work.
Speaker 4: Human shot.
Speaker 9: And so at that point then I I kind of
got over the shop of the it and it was
moren't frightened at that point, and so I pulled out
my phone and I called my dad.
Speaker 10: I looked back towards the other side of the alley,
towards the apartments and I thought I saw that car,
but I wasn't sure, so I told Hope to get her,
and I ran past everything to the front of hostelse
to go get her mom do unlocked back door.
Speaker 1: In the aftermath, the kids were at a loss for
what to do. Most called their parents, but Crystal risked
herself to keep her friends safe. She had to run
past her fallen classmate.
Speaker 10: I just really didn't want to look at her because
I was scared.
Speaker 6: Once her mother answered the doorway.
Speaker 10: I hugged her and I cried a little bit, and
then I told her Hope was in the yeackyard nearby.
Speaker 1: Navy and Army veteran John Lewis heard the shots from
his backyard and sprang into action.
Speaker 12: That was actually in my backyard on my padeo, and
I was prepared of my daughter's thirteen ins Pirthday party.
Speaker 1: His backyard was just on the other side of a
privacy fence from the alley. Luckily, his daughter hadn't taken
the alley that day.
Speaker 12: Normally she walks down the alley, but as she did
on that day, how did she get come back?
Speaker 4: She actually went down Kingston.
Speaker 12: She just bought her bicycle and she didn't want to
pop the tiger, so she didn't drive it on the
alley because it was glass. So she took Kingston Street
and wrote.
Speaker 4: Her bike down that way.
Speaker 1: He was about to head inside when he heard the shots.
Speaker 12: As I went to open the door. Gunshots, and well,
I got took the place. Lowlibert semi automatic kind of
a weapon was fired, and all milfaturings I ever had
kind of kicked in. The first one was a shot,
and then a second later.
Speaker 4: Maybe is when they all just let loose, They all
of them. When we got fired off in a rapid succession.
It was fast. It was real fast, three to five seconds,
maybe all of them.
Speaker 1: Maybe his military training kicked in. He even recognized the
sound of the gunshots and was able to identify the
caliber as a twenty two.
Speaker 12: Twenty two has kind of a short crack sound to it,
the nine millimeter has. It's a little heavier and a
little more chunkier.
Speaker 1: Ever found knowing this was when kids started to get
out of school. He was worried for the other children
in the community.
Speaker 12: I actually dropped the cups and I knew the kids
were getting out of school.
Speaker 4: I knew the direction, which was the shops are coming
from those alley.
Speaker 12: I dropped the cups and I instantly ran to out
of six foot private defense and I jumped over my
six I climbed up and.
Speaker 4: Jumped over my six foot five spence up all the fence.
I hit the ground so hard that my foot.
Speaker 12: Blobs came off my commute, and I didn't realize that
until after the.
Speaker 4: Place had arrived.
Speaker 1: This man, in the face of danger, sprang into action,
jumping his fence and landing in the alley so hard
it blew his flip flops. With this experience in battle,
both in the Navy and the Army, it didn't matter
that he was barefoot in the alley. He looked for
anyone that was hurt.
Speaker 12: I saw Lauren Well. I didn't know her name at
the time. I thought I just saw a young girl
laying there, and I ran to her. And as I
ran to her, after tippling the events, I ran to her,
carrying out like a tunnel vision.
Speaker 4: When I did and I ran, I didn't know. I
didn't live in the cars.
Speaker 12: Everyone was just kind of not there and.
Speaker 4: I ran there. I don't know if there was not
a shooter. I didn't know.
Speaker 12: I just knew there was kids. I saw a little
girl laying there, and when I approached Lauren. When I
got to Lauren, the military tank kicked in where.
Speaker 4: I was supposed to. You know, he says, the situation.
Speaker 12: See what's going on in an active shoot or other
other people wounded. Checked the person that you come upon.
And I noticed that I'm not a doctor and not
a nurse, not an arm or anything but my training,
I know when the sun is gone there signs you
look for one. Is there blood like a MASSI amount
of blood so the heart stops, is not going to
push the blood around.
Speaker 4: I didn't see much of any out the way she
the way she was laying.
Speaker 12: If I never quick leaves her wrist was in a
pig position, or anybody most conscious or was alive, they
wouldn't want there to be in that kind of position.
Speaker 1: He wasn't a doctor or a nurse, but he could
tell Lauren wasn't with us any longer when he looked
into her eyes. He was sure.
Speaker 4: When I approached Lauren, I knowed it's hard. I don't
want your time. I noticed that.
Speaker 12: In what we refer to in the army when I
was the territory as the death place or the death stare,
death knowing the entry.
Speaker 4: Like when I got there, it just tried of like
going into.
Speaker 12: A bowl, a bowl, and it felt just like that.
Speaker 4: Just I didn't hearing something, really I didn't.
Speaker 12: It's just it was a flat feeling words, you know,
something that just died or something just happened.
Speaker 1: It was too late for Lauren, but John could still
help Mikayla.
Speaker 12: And I heard a child off and I left. So
it come down from the alley saying another traveling shop.
And I looked up and that's when I saw Mikayla.
She was standing there and I ran to her and
I put laying her down.
Speaker 1: By this time John's daughter had arrived to witness the chaos.
Speaker 12: When I laid her down, my daughter was there and
I yelled at her, give me something to pull your
holes with it. And so I got ran to the
house and it felt so fast, and I looked at
it Lauren or Mikayla. I said, your champ even go,
You're gonna be fine. We're gonna get you fixed up.
Speaker 4: You're a champion.
Speaker 12: And by that time I looked up the hand from
my daughter with the rating to you know, stop the braining.
Speaker 1: Michaela was bleeding, but she seemed to be okay. She
was conscious and coherent despite the shocking events. That's when
the enormity of the situation dawned on John.
Speaker 12: That's when I kind of came to a little bit
more and realized that all hell's breaking loose. There's just
people everywhere, kids crying, you know, women crying, men, everybody's crying.
Speaker 4: They're all over the place.
Speaker 12: And I tried to stop everybody try to get him
away Lauren, and people are trying to come out of
the AIE. I try to stop them.
Speaker 1: I just have to say, this guy is a hero.
He was on SENE long before the first responders or
the police, and thank god he was. But there was
nothing that could be done for Lauren. As the chaos
of the scene peaked, classmates and citizens alike looked on
in horror as the once vibrant Lauren, the girl they
all knew, lie lifeless at the end of an alley.
A regular warm afternoon in Wichita Falls, Texas, became a nightmare.
McNeil Middle School students would never forget thirteen year old
eighth grader Lauren Londevaso had been gunned down just to
block away from school. Her close friend Michayla Smith was
also shot, but would recover the havoc on that street. Corner,
though was still unfolding. On the next street. Sarah Servantes
saw Garrett running for his life and immediately knew something
was wrong.
Speaker 13: As I was riving Downstower, there's a young male running
Downstower towards my vehicle and I pulled it through his
off I mentioned, then there's something wrong there stories why
was writing this is a strange and close both ways
on his seat at Bourn.
Speaker 1: When she first saw Garrett running, her mind went to
the more likely scenario that he was running from school bullies,
But when she got to the stop sign and saw
someone lying in the alley, she knew that was more serious.
Speaker 6: And what did you do down into the morn?
Speaker 13: I usually I thought maybe should hit by a vehicle.
Then that was my first thought. Yeah, I kind of
went through other scenarios and maybe someone attacked her because
there a lot of kids screaming, and I just gotta
run through a lot of things that may have happened.
Speaker 1: Regardless of the reason, she knew she had to try
and help. She pulled up to the alley, told her
children to stay in the car, and approached Lauren to
see if she was okay.
Speaker 6: I asked her to think, did you think she was more.
Speaker 13: Than I'll be passed at the point her eyes first
still open and there was a large wound forehead.
Speaker 6: She is she's doing for buying.
Speaker 14: Her bread in her arms.
Speaker 1: Everything happened so fast, in a matter of a few seconds.
The shots were fired and Garrett ran, John jumped the fence,
and Sarah saw Garrett fleeing as she approached the intersection.
At the same time, Elijah and Hope were ducking into
her backyard, while Crystal ran around to the front. By
the time Sarah Servantez approached Lauren, it had been barely
more than a minute since the shots were fired. Right
behind her was Jamie Lopez.
Speaker 15: When I turned on a Trinidad, I saw.
Speaker 16: The first noticed a lady standing at the corner kind
of hysterical, waning her hands, and I saw a girl
laying in the alley opening of the alley, so you know,
immediately I pulled over to seeing what had happened and.
Speaker 6: I can help him do anything.
Speaker 1: Jamie was a home health nurse and had medical training
and knelt down to try.
Speaker 13: To help her to see if she was okay, And.
Speaker 16: She was up moving and started trying to look over
and I got her turned over.
Speaker 15: She was laying old her stomach, so I turned her
over to start looking and I was taxing to start CDR.
Speaker 6: I remember.
Speaker 17: Seeing there was a futtle run about and where her
heart would have been, and thinking, I'm gonna I don't
know if I'm going to do more damage or not
if I start this on this girl set up where
it went.
Speaker 18: And about that time is when Mittagola started running from
that app coming down from the alley, yelling that she
had also been shot, that she needed help.
Speaker 1: Realizing Lauren's condition, she decided to focus on Mikayla.
Speaker 6: There really wasn't it too before And because I could
tell when iver swept up then do you remember her
eyes were open or globe?
Speaker 4: They were open pretty blue? Was she's gone?
Speaker 17: There were so many people and everyone was staring, and
I just felt bad that everyone.
Speaker 4: Was just staring at their light.
Speaker 6: So I kind of play and try to cover up
a little bits.
Speaker 1: Jamie had some first aid supplies in her car and
began helping Mikayla. Sarah Servantez was unable to help and
place the first nine to one one call. You don't
know what out anymore. Sarah was barely holding it together,
but she knew how important it was to relay as
much information as possible to first responders.
Speaker 6: And playing around and leading.
Speaker 1: You did not hear the claiming her coming her nice.
Speaker 16: Fire me know where she's leading from?
Speaker 7: However, I really her.
Speaker 1: Is she's rereading right now?
Speaker 7: Okay, she's been.
Speaker 4: Laying around.
Speaker 1: Cat You touch her and hold of the touch.
Speaker 6: Where she's formed taking.
Speaker 1: In this tight knit community. It wasn't long before the
news spread through the neighborhood. Michaela wounded and dazed, called
her mother.
Speaker 11: I hear her her phone, Testine, So I'm thinking that
maybe she had but and so I'm yelling her name
to pick up and till then she finally and said
she was yelling my name from that first woman. I
thought maybe she was getting into an altercation with another student,
and I know that's not her, and so I kept
telling her to calm down.
Speaker 6: And I can't under so interesting, and I asked her
to do that so much time.
Speaker 4: And I thought, what's going on?
Speaker 6: And then that's when she got home.
Speaker 19: Soon shot mama, And I asked the mother and she
said someone shot me and I was like what, and
just went renish.
Speaker 6: And I kept asking her.
Speaker 4: You don't remember her? She said, Mommy, no shot the chest.
Speaker 6: She said, is not.
Speaker 1: Mummy, I got shot in the chest. Imagine hearing that
from your child. Mikayla's mother dropped everything and left her
job as an elementary school teacher to rush to her daughter.
Michaela's mother had already made it to the scene when
the Landavaso's got word that something had happened.
Speaker 4: I heard her commotion outside.
Speaker 20: I heard, I'm not sure her neighbors and something about
kids beating.
Speaker 4: Down and then as I was trying to process that,
I heard beyonda just the way she said it, something.
Speaker 3: About kids, and there was just something in her voice
saying something something was wrong, sometimes wrong. And as I
was kind of about her room to try to find
out what was going on, I.
Speaker 4: Heard the front door close, and by the time I
got to it, the uncle wasn't there.
Speaker 3: And just when I went outside, she was already running
down the street and I was.
Speaker 4: Kind of called, after.
Speaker 18: Where you going?
Speaker 21: What are you doing?
Speaker 1: Vern Londevaso didn't know what was going on or where
his wife was running. The only clue he had was
something about kids being down and the sound of fear
in his wife's voice before she bolted out the front door.
He hopped into his truck and started driving.
Speaker 4: Someone was driving down there in the corner. I remember
at one time stopped and the.
Speaker 3: Truck and PA thinking everything kids at that school, it's
not her game.
Speaker 4: Bear stopped and called her cell phone and I don't
know anything me rang on one time, but.
Speaker 3: Somebody answered the phone and instantly what I heard was screaming.
Speaker 4: In at the time that it was beyond.
Speaker 3: The screaming, but uh, I heard somebody screaming her name,
and the way she was screaming, Uh, I knew, I knew,
I instant knew it cold and I just knew.
Speaker 4: I got another truck and I walked down to the corner,
and as soon as.
Speaker 8: I got to the corner, I could see, uh the
crime scene tape.
Speaker 4: And as I turned the corner that.
Speaker 16: What I I woul.
Speaker 4: Almost say that tunnel vision, everything seems kind of like
there was a white fog on everything except for uh,
what were in I saw load lying there.
Speaker 3: And she wasn't covered that I was moving around her, and.
Speaker 4: I just remember standing at the crime scene tape. They
wouldn't let him go to her. And I could hear
Ganda screaming in the background, but that was about all
I could hear. Uh, and just looking at her in
wonder and uh, I can how can I not do anything?
How come she used to be.
Speaker 1: Powerless? Verne watched from a distance as first responders finally
started to treat Lauren Quickly, the two girls were put
into an ambulance headed for the hospital.
Speaker 20: Went into the ambulance and as were sitting there and
they were working on her, and that was something back.
Speaker 4: That was the first time I had noticed the blood.
I didn't noticed she was on there, but I know
I could see her hair hair to think, you know,
that's that's But also where I heard it was.
Speaker 1: Lauren's parents, Vern and Bianca held onto a thread of
hope as they rode with their daughter to the hospital.
But when they got there, they were let into a
family waiting room. Bianca feared it was because because their
daughter was gone.
Speaker 4: Oh and he did come in.
Speaker 8: When man came in, the old her me, he's started scream.
Speaker 4: I was trying to tell her it's not that they're
just here that took.
Speaker 8: Us what they're going to do, and and has someone
they told us.
Speaker 4: That she was going.
Speaker 1: Most people who knew Lauren knew how special she was.
Speaker 21: Always something about Lauren. And I know all parents have
that to him about their children. There's something special about
that child. But even in comparison to my sons that
there was just something about them.
Speaker 4: And everybody I don't.
Speaker 20: Heard explained that she seemed so much wiser than her years.
She always said I remember even being two or three
years old and looking over and then seeing her looked
at me, and the way she was looking at me,
that there was something going on behind there.
Speaker 4: And I just think she was just so much more advanced.
Speaker 20: I think even think the child would be as far
as her compassion for people, her kindness of just how
tender she was with other people, very.
Speaker 6: Kind and open.
Speaker 22: My good.
Speaker 6: She was very positive about him.
Speaker 22: You could help but love her and not just us,
not just a family. But she made friends so easily,
you know, and or we heard the kids at school
would just almost idolized her that she was so popular.
Speaker 4: Probably would't many of the promised. It was just how
she interacted with people, especially other children. How kind she
looks to them. I never thought her once be.
Speaker 21: Mean to somebody, say anything, quite the opposite.
Speaker 4: She went out of her way if she knew if.
Speaker 3: Somebody was child, she might have her way to reach
out to that person.
Speaker 23: Definitely a happy, beautiful girl.
Speaker 22: She had a big heart.
Speaker 23: It's always helping her friends. If you're having a bad day,
she was the uplift.
Speaker 4: She was very well loved.
Speaker 1: Lauren made a positive impact on anyone who knew her.
She always wore a smile when she looked at you
with her beautiful blue eyes, and you just knew she
genuinely cared with the loss of a community sweetheart. The
police were pressed to solve this attack. They needed to
speak with Mikayla and hear her recollection of events.
Speaker 7: I remember he stopped in Alice. We all kind of
just like stopped walking, and I was paying attention to him,
and I was looking at him, and like he looked
up at me. We made eye contact for a few seconds,
and then he turned and like he got his webband
and he pointed it at me, and as I was moving,
I got hit, and like I thought, I got hit
in the middle of my chest. And I couldn't breathe,
and Kyral was asking me if I was okay, and
like I couldn't speak, and I was waiting at her
to go, and kind of like motioning for everybody else.
Speaker 1: Mikaela heard the w shift shots after she was hit.
After she motioned for the other children in the alley
to run, she wondered why no one else was being hit.
Little did she know that Lauren took the brunt of
those shots. She relayed to the police what she remembered
about the man or boy who did it.
Speaker 7: I see between my kid twenty cirt like seventeen eighteen.
He had brown hair and it was like shaggy, kind
of shaggy, big, and he had acne and he had
a big nose.
Speaker 1: She said. She locked eyes with the killer and he
was a white male between the ages of seventeen and
twenty with unkempt, long brown hair, acne, and a big nose.
But where her memory failed her was the vehicle he
was driving.
Speaker 6: And can you just ride the vehicle? It was a
blood truck.
Speaker 7: And it had a silver those silver bars that she
was step on to get in.
Speaker 1: As the police addressed the public about the shooting, They
initially released the description that Kayla gave them.
Speaker 2: Just right before three point thirty pm, we received a
nine one call in the reference to check welfare and
reference to shots fired call in the fifty Kingston actually
in the alleyway. When we arrived on scene, we located
one subject that had suffered what we believe right now,
keep in mind, this is all still new, it's still
just occurring. We saw we have two individuals that were
suffered from a parent's gunshots. From what I was told
right now, both victims are female. Suspect information the only
thing that we have at this point is possible suspect
driving a black SUV, black truck type vehicle, White male,
shaggy brown.
Speaker 1: Here, Mikayla recalled the killer was driving a black truck,
but her memory was flawed. Everyone else saw gold suv,
except for John, the guy who jumped the fence. He
saw both the gold Suv and the black truck. Not
knowing which description was accurate or if maybe there were
two shooters, they released both vehicle descriptions to the public.
The shooter was a young, white male with shaggy brown hair,
acne and a big nose, driving a gold colored SUV,
most likely a Chevrolet Tahoe or a black Dodge truck.
In a couple of days that followed the shooting, there
wasn't a person in Wichita Falls who didn't know of
the tragedy and the description of the killer. The community
banded together to memorialize Lauren at the sight of her
death with her favorite color purple happens to be my
favorite color too. People who didn't even know her came
to pay their respects, like Joe Anne and Bostino Ramirez.
Speaker 6: Yes, we heard it on the radio and the news.
Speaker 4: Who they were looking for?
Speaker 24: It was pretty widely spread throughout news media and social media.
Speaker 17: Was it on?
Speaker 6: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 14: Plastina wanted to go look at a memorial where they
had started putting morals up for Lauren.
Speaker 4: I did not.
Speaker 14: It was a bad situation and we didn't really know her,
or we didn't know her at all.
Speaker 6: But he wanted to go and just take a drive
a find it.
Speaker 1: It was hard for any citizen of Wichita Falls to
not be moved by the tragedy, even if they had
no connection to Lauren at all.
Speaker 14: We drove through the neighborhood trying to find where the
memorial was. We kind of got lost, take some streets
we didn't know, and we ended up on Trinidad where
the memorial site it is.
Speaker 1: When they found the memorial, there were crying people everywhere,
not wanting to get in the way of those who
likely had a personal connection with Lauren. They waited in
the truck and.
Speaker 6: We just didn't want to get out of the truck
and you know, be in.
Speaker 14: The way, So we just kind of pulled over to
the side to you know, just wait, maybe able to
clear and then we could see.
Speaker 4: But we never knot that chance.
Speaker 6: Okay, and why did you not get that chance?
Speaker 14: Why we were waiting fun Stato, you know, we said, well,
look out for a vehicle, you know, just to make
sure we don't see the vehicle going by. And we
saw a vehicle drive by as it was the description
of the sub.
Speaker 6: It was a gold sub.
Speaker 14: We saw that it was a young white male that
they were possibly looking for.
Speaker 6: We kind of just followed them.
Speaker 14: He turned into Uncle turn Daddy turned into right into
the apartment complex, and of course we followed.
Speaker 1: They didn't even know Lauren, but when they saw a
vehicle and driver matching the description of the news, they
decided to follow him. He drove past the memorial and
stopped at an apartment complex mere feet away from the alley.
Speaker 14: He went to the back passenger door. He opened the
door and he proceeded to get what looked like a
rifle or something. He tucked it up under his arm
like he put the butt.
Speaker 6: Of the gun underneath.
Speaker 14: With the blanket some then the wrap it up and
he like ticket towards the apartment complex.
Speaker 1: They had the suv, the driver and now the rifle.
Joanne called nine one one.
Speaker 4: Immediately I grabbed a pin that was in Faustino's check.
Speaker 14: He just scribbled it on the palm of my hand
so that I could while we were.
Speaker 6: Calling, let the police. You know the license plate number?
Speaker 4: What color ink was that?
Speaker 6: It was a purple ink.
Speaker 1: She wrote down the license plate number in purple ink,
Lauren's favorite color. What a coincidence. Perhaps her spirit lives on.
Speaker 7: We were driving a lot of the accidents that happened
at Trendad and came back and we.
Speaker 13: Pulled into a certain road and it goes to the
saut the apartment and then.
Speaker 6: As a kid that just.
Speaker 13: Drove up in a tapo a jaggie hair and hats
and he got it.
Speaker 4: Looks like enlartment.
Speaker 7: He had it wrapped in clothes and rankings and he
was trying to get it off in a hurry, and
he just went into apartments.
Speaker 1: They were parked a little ways away and watched while
they waited for police to arrive. The suspect exited the apartment,
now without the rifle. He got back in his suv.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's leading, going.
Speaker 4: Is becoming out the foreignment complex.
Speaker 1: They expected him to exit the complex the way he entered,
but they lost him when he used an exit on
the other side, almost like an episode of Keystone Cops,
or perhaps a more modern version would be Reno nine
one one. Still, police knew his approximate location and they
had his license plate number. So why put in the
work when you have surveillance? After all, it was only
a matter of time before he would be caught. And
if you're on the government payroll, then what's the rush.
Moments later, the police made a traffic stop of the
gold suv with the shaggy driver. He pulled over and
cooperated with the officers. They asked him to step out
of the vehicle and they padded him down. Then they
searched his SUV, but there was no gun. But they
did find a belt buckle in the shape of brass knuckles,
and there was enough to arrest him on misdemeanor charges
of weapon possession and bring him in for questioning. Twenty
year old Cody Lot didn't work and wasn't in school.
He lived in Seymour, Texas, about a fifty to sixty
minute drive southwest of Wichita Falls. He did have shaggy hair,
acne and a big nose. He was thin and kind
of looked like an evil Timothy shallow May if that helps. Actually,
I'm not sure if the real Timothy Schallo May is
good or evil. So timminy Timothy Shallo May is walking
around these days, he asked me. I don't even know
what that means. Anyway, don't take my word for it,
just google the two people. Cody Lot is his name,
with two teas at the end, he claimed the only
reason he was in town was to feed his mother's
dog while she was on vacation. That and pick up
some money she'd left for him. After all, you know,
like I said, he didn't work at all. He denied
that anything related to guns would be in his vehicle
and explained that since an incident last year, his family
kept guns away from him.
Speaker 25: But like I said, I used to be able, like
kindly get away in the villain, but like it was
an incident that happened my son or where I had
it to a sideport for two months.
Speaker 26: Ever since then my grandmas had the villains and so
of the lake room.
Speaker 4: By no way you have access or township.
Speaker 5: Up in that way.
Speaker 1: The incident he so casually refers to was an armed
standoff with deputies in Seymour, Texas. His parents reported that
he was at his grandmother's threatening to shoot folks. That's
a quote. The event warranted the Texas Rangers and three
officers from the Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigation Division.
One of the CID officers was a hostage negotiator and
quickly talked Cody out of the house. He was later
ordered to get treatment and diagnosed as bipolar and paranoid schizophrenic.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, there's no connection between crazy people
and murder. Just keep telling yourself that, Oh, let's not stigmatoise.
He knew about murder. He fit the description of the suspect,
and he was driving an SUV that also matched the description,
but he was adamant that it wasn't him. The police, though,
knew something Cody didn't, and it had to do with
what else they found in his tahoe.
Speaker 4: Anything else.
Speaker 24: Well, they found a spent twenty two shell case.
Speaker 7: Hmm.
Speaker 1: It only took a moment for Cody to explain away
the shell casing. He had been shooting a year ago.
He was being cooperative, just not very helpful.
Speaker 27: Girls with her somebody and then whoever did this, we
don't want that to happen to anybody else. Probably, I mean,
from my experience, who ever did this probably needs some help.
Speaker 28: Now.
Speaker 27: What happened to the girl's terrible Whoever did to this
definitely need some help, man.
Speaker 4: And I'm talking about some serious psychological help.
Speaker 27: And how are they going to get that unless we
can find out you do.
Speaker 1: That and help with Does anyone else get the feeling
that they are talking about him? He claimed to be
a loner and only his mother cared about him. He
claimed his father molested him and beat his mother. He
had a long list of run ins with the law
and seemed to be spirally into a life of drugs
and crime. To the police in addition to everything else,
he seemed to fit the profile of someone who would
randomly shoot two little girls. Of course, he continued to
deny having anything to do with Lauren's death.
Speaker 4: I always say that brother.
Speaker 25: He's got a long brown hair, and like like, oh,
they didn't say something about you might come by and
give a gun you can, I'd find out, she Tullabean
over text message, she's a joy might come by ride.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 28: I don't.
Speaker 26: I'm not trying of like in the bus and I
might tell you. I bet I've the verses at you.
But he's just like I've tried to seek out who
he come in and I'm kind of got screwed up.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to throw my step brother under the
bus or anything, but you should definitely look at him.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: The police didn't believe it for a second. Remember they
had a witness who saw Cody with the rifle. They
started to press harder you were.
Speaker 25: And at the same time all this happened, and now
he didn't tell you that seriously.
Speaker 1: Because yeah, he finally admitted he was on Trinidad Drive
the day of the shooting, but he was still claiming innocence.
Cody wanted to talk first, but he needed to be
assured that he would be in solitary confinement. He didn't
think he could handle being in prison with real men.
So when officers guaranteed they would make that happen, he
began a new story.
Speaker 25: He get ready, this is the story of a size
that patients the finishing.
Speaker 4: You know, well, I'm not going to fucking had many
They might overdial that has nothing like out following.
Speaker 26: You know, femails for a while now and anything you
can a seen boy on. Absolutely, that's something cold with you,
they would say, absolutely, he is he as hating the
sort of at though I talked about you, Asham, and
I've seen that grows up in munch of the times
of putting other.
Speaker 4: Friend and work and who was just oldly with chunk
with your kids. That wasn't no man.
Speaker 26: So at the time of just started je seeing me man,
and I thought that was the way I.
Speaker 1: Was going to handle with He had seen Lauren walking
with her boyfriend. He described the boy as a little
punk looking kid. That wasn't no man. Those are his words.
Remember that we're talking about two thirteen year olds. Their
relationship sparked off a fit of jealousy in them, and
he decided to shoot her. What a romantic If you
think this doesn't make any sense yet, just wait, It's
only gonna get worse. Twenty year old Cody Lotte only
tried to lie for a little while before the excitement
of sharing his story got the better of him, and
he confessed that's what simple people do. They just offer
up everything all at once. They can't keep their stupid
little mouth shut, so they blab and blab and blab.
Cody Latt admitted he was the only one who shot
Lauren and Mikayla, but his reasoning for why he did
it was even more baffling than the act itself.
Speaker 4: More specifically, I mean, what did you do then?
Speaker 5: What what happened?
Speaker 4: Well, on the day before an article stud and I
was going to just do approach the girl, and I thought, man,
the rocket, I'm a beastful man. I go stucking real
with go. So the a that end cased me.
Speaker 26: You know, I was felling a nice handwaythro nothing. You know, well,
I tried, you would be nice to men, they said,
Azon says crazy.
Speaker 4: The benefinition of crazy is just refuting.
Speaker 28: The same thing.
Speaker 4: So as I get the obvious.
Speaker 14: Thing that I guess just you know.
Speaker 29: Me being look at how I do whatever, meeting and
nice is there's something that amazing being deep you you know,
I have the show us nothing else to because it's
like it's just Elvis girls who just ignored me, a
vicious secting me and I either wanted was an opportunity
to be the set for the entry of her.
Speaker 1: He tried to explain that he first thought about introducing
himself to her, but then remembered how young she was.
This too, pissed him off. This is where his rationale
begins to get a little twisted. It's important to remind
everyone that a sign of schizophrenia is disorganized thinking. Somehow,
he went from the thought of her being too young
to the idea that trying to be nice to her
or any girl wasn't going to get him anywhere either,
so he had to change tactics. Sure, if being nice
to a girl doesn't get her attention, the next logical
step is to kill her.
Speaker 26: There's anything I just plopped in my head and I said,
you know what I want to.
Speaker 24: Do in this book and do this is he gets
something out of my h I start her. I ain't
to go by my car like a couple of days before.
Speaker 4: I mean I planed out a little here. I looked
like like gins or something.
Speaker 24: To me like that, I was like out something else
like you a BLI so you you pretty much knew
what we're oh man.
Speaker 4: I gotched over about a year and then for a
year I had seen her their grand that I had
access to a join it.
Speaker 1: He watched her for a year from his mother's apartment
every day, building on his infatuation with her.
Speaker 4: You never did, I never even spoke into it this.
I mean I just saw he would look good about.
Speaker 24: Man, and she matches my absolutely matched my distribution of food.
Speaker 4: I wanted to Cuba prep. Yes, and she was too young,
I know, but she was a trap.
Speaker 27: I've never had the opportunity to even get in a
fres other girl that's not beautiful like I've seen those
on them like.
Speaker 26: I hate the mean the crushes is never way I
ever have lost.
Speaker 4: STI bonds about this girl right on.
Speaker 24: I kind of girl I've ever seen and have that
purchase story of porn dyos.
Speaker 1: He pined for a woman and when the women his
age wouldn't have anything to do with him. Lauren got
caught in the crosshairs. He found me barely pubescent girl beautiful,
but he equated Lauren's beauty to the women in porn videos.
If you're thinking this guy couldn't get any more out
of touch, I think again.
Speaker 24: So I told you, girl, I wasn't wearing loss.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 4: I was born a prophecy.
Speaker 10: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: I mean, I was like, man, it's son of the devil.
This was a deep man, It's so spiritful.
Speaker 26: So I go, I have to know, hey, man, I
had it no, but you felt me like, this is awesome.
Speaker 4: I had the pasion about it. Page you know, I
need nothing but cattle here. And I don't care what
people said.
Speaker 24: She you know, people said my she she never even
thought a chance in life was with iver head like
trust me, I'm sure she said that that her innocence
was gonna slowly start being plunge.
Speaker 4: Is you know what that always say? No, he goes
up onish you.
Speaker 26: It's like she would have been up going like a
clowdy being rave, or she there would have been.
Speaker 4: Something all worse than what I did would have happened
to her.
Speaker 24: So I thought I was just gonna go ahead and
stay of her from the needles of the world.
Speaker 1: If he couldn't have her, the only thing he could
do to save her from the evils that he knew
would eventually befall her, he had to, you know, sacrifice
her to the devil. Because all of that shit makes sense.
Speaker 4: I felt like I need to prove I.
Speaker 13: Was a man.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you that.
Speaker 25: I know.
Speaker 4: I didn't know how else think of about it. You know,
I'm gout. I went a head and they went about
it about it, you know, you know what.
Speaker 26: Finally wants to show all off to you about fine,
who want to show with pain that's been got warned?
Speaker 4: Tweaty and Alice and other.
Speaker 1: He was glad he did it so people could feel
his pain. What a little bitch boy? Would I love
a couple of minutes with this kid in a locked
room with no cameras.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a fantasy.
Speaker 1: Eventually he would express some regret, regret that he didn't
kill her instantly so you didn't have to hear her scream.
Speaker 4: But her scream was it was the saint, And I'll
beat about that to day.
Speaker 1: Add up, he said he never intended for her to suffer.
He only wanted for her to die. He didn't regret
what he did, only that he should have done it differently.
Speaker 27: Think about that, Michelle already has killed myself, so I
should feeble and shot in the cell.
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Cody, I'm sure that there's plenty of people
in Wichita Falls that feel the same way. It's not
surprising that after Cody admitted to finding the thirteen year
old Lauren attractive, they found several images of child pornography
on his phone. One of the images was confirmed by
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as being
that of an eight year old engaged in a sexually
explicit act. Cody was arrested and charged with murder, aggravated assault,
possession of a prohibited weapon, and three counts of possession
of child pornography. This guy is going to have a
lot of fun in prison when the inmates find out
not only had he killed a kid, but that he's
also interested in them sexually. You hear that inmates at
the Skyview Unit in Rusk, a creeshional institution that's part
of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. You hear that guys.
His name is Cody Lot with two teas. Anyway, Cody
wasn't charged with capital murder, which meant the death penalty
was off the table at the time. The law in
Texas only allowed capital murder charges to be applied under
a few circumstances, including causing the death of a child
under the age of ten, but Lauren was thirteen.
Speaker 28: I hope that Cody Lot gets the fullest senates he
can and it's a shame that the death penalty can't
be can't be instated. I don't want him to get insanity,
because he clearly thought it out, probably for a long time.
Speaker 1: Two years after the murder, the trial finally began. Cody's
hair was longer, and somehow he was even thinner. He
looked kind of like white Jesus on meth or Jared Leito.
Of course, his defense tried to play the insanity card,
but Cody wasn't as crazy as he sounded. Well, he
did suffer from a mental illness, and maybe it played
a part in his plan. He thought about committing this
crime for a year. Surely there were moments of lucidity
within that year, a year of opportunities to decide, Nah,
I'm not going to kill her. Maybe I'll just place
some Xbox instead, and after he fired his gun into
an alley full of middle schoolers, he tried to get
away with it. He ditched the gun and then went
back to retrieve it when he thought he was home free.
The bottom line, he knew at the time of the
murder that it was morally and legally wrong. In court,
he sat still, seemingly detached, as the terrified children recalled
the events of that day.
Speaker 22: I just hope he has a long, miserable life in
that prison. I hope he never seen a free moment,
and I hope he lives a long time and maybe someday,
when he's old and gray and maybe dan he'll show
some remorse where he's not seen any signs of that
so far. You know, watching him in court, he's not
He's just emotionless, and I think that's in negative of
how he committed such a hand heinous crime and shows
no remorse for it.
Speaker 1: After five days of trial, in less than an hour
of deliberation, the verdict was guilty. Then he was sentenced
to twenty years for the aggravated assault on Mikayla, ten
years for each count of child pornography, and a life
in prison for the murder. Of Lauren. He is, though,
eligible for parole on September third, twenty forty six, a
day that's quite fitting because it's one day after the
thirtieth anniversary of Lauren's death.
Speaker 30: He robbed so many people, so many kids out there
that day of their innocence, And.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it feels two years. Sometimes it feels like it
was just yesterday. Sometimes it feels like it was a
million years ago. But we've had this day in.
Speaker 30: Our sight since that happened, hoping that the person responsible
for so much suffering would finally face justice for that
and have to do some suffering of his own. The
result of today it doesn't bring Lauren back.
Speaker 4: It doesn't make us miss or any less. It doesn't
make your death any less tragic.
Speaker 30: There is a kind of a closure that you get
when you know that the person responsible is gonna is
going to suffer.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't good enough for the Land of Aso's.
They sought to change the law that governed capital murder charges.
They wanted to raise the age requirement from ten to
fifteen so that killers like Cody Lot in the future
would be able to be sentenced to death. It's something
that keeps coming up over and over again. But I
don't think anyone can truly understand the importance of the
death penalty unless you've had someone taken from you like this.
The need for revenge, the need for justice, for accountability
is overwhelming. Even though you may not agree with the
government killing citizens, this is a case where the citizens
themselves demand it, and they did it too. The following year,
on the day before the third anniversary of her death,
Governor Abbott signed Lauren's Law into effect, raising the age
limit to fifteen years of age.
Speaker 9: I'm going to be signing Cineville seven nineteen, which is
known as Lauren's Law.
Speaker 20: But we all agree that they're nothing more vulnerable, nothing
more precious than our children, and we have to be
able to change laws to.
Speaker 23: Reflect that there are to be future victims that are children.
This is for them, and I know our daughter would approve.
Speaker 1: Hopefully, Cody Lott will never get out of prison. Why
should he. The effects of what he did linger in
the minds of her family and friends. It will until
they're dying day, So why shouldn't he have to suffer
until his Crystal suffered panic attacks After the event, many
kids were no longer allowed to walk home from school.
Michaela will always be reminded of the violent end of
her beloved friend every time she feels the bullet fragment
still inside her chest. The devil didn't make Cody Lot
kill Lauren. That's silly. Stop believing in fairy tales. You're
an adult. That was just how his drug riddled brain,
which wasn't too great to begin with, rationalize the guilt
he felt for doing such a thing. He didn't hear
voices shouting commands. He didn't talk to the devil. He
certainly didn't talk to God, that's for sure. He was
just a leech to his mother, a parasite.
Speaker 4: To his community.
Speaker 1: He was an uneducated, unemployed, lazy piece of shit who
thought the world owed him something. Does this sound familiar yet,
because it describes everyone we've ever talked about over the
last eleven years now. And when the world didn't hand
him a girlfriend, he didn't wonder what he was doing wrong,
And of course not, no, why would you? Why would
you do that? Why not just blame everyone else instead,
blame the world around It's not me, it's everybody, it's
everything right, right? You know how this pattern of thinking
perpetuates and wiggles its way into our brains, every one
of us, not just idiots like Cody. This entitlement, this
sense that somebody owes you something. It's cancer. This is
the result of cancer. Cody Lot never learned the lesson
that sometimes you just can't have what you want.
Speaker 7: You just can't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work that way. But then again, it's not
like he even tried to work hard and make a
life for himself. Now, no, that'd be too hard. Instead,
why not take it out on poor Lauren, to which
a good life just seemed to come naturally. A senseless
act committed randomly that only made sense in one man's mind,
but affected those kids and their families for the rest
of their lives. Why blame yourself when you can blame
the world instead. Speaking of being disappointed, this is our
last regular episode before I take a much needed break,
which I promise you is very necessary. We'll have one
more plus episode before we go. We'll see you right
back here next year for season twelve.
Speaker 5: Stay safe st st st st st st st
Speaker 19: St st stand the st st st stand statist sta