The Acid Killer: This Psychopath Reenacted An Execution In His Jail Cell – thaison8386

The Acid Killer: This Psychopath Reenacted An Execution In His Jail Cell

You have this lure of the new, of the exciting. >> If you get in trouble a little bit, you might as well go the whole mile with it. >> He has a charisma. He has a uh these qualities that you will draw you to him. >> The thing that stood out to me about this case was the psychological brutality. in the early morning of September 12th, 2000 on the outskirts of Indianapolis, Indiana, police and firefighters are dealing with a mysterious ious blaze.

It’s a vehicle and the damage is extensive. Inside the trunk, they found a body. >> They ran the plate on the vehicle, which was a 93 Mercury Cougar, and it came back to Robbie Bot. Robbie is a 45-year-old bachelor who lives in Morsville, Indiana, 20 miles away. Officers head to his home. The bot home was uh actually secured with the exception of the rear door.

They thought that was odd. We just found the general state of the house in in disarray and ransacked. The beds were unmade. uh clothes strung about the house. Our feelings was at this point that there was something that happened here. >> Officers learned Robbie Bot was an aircraft mechanic who was meticulous about detail and kept a tidy home.

Clothing had been gone through, strung about the bedroom. The medicine cabinet had been gone through. It appeared that the entertainment center and the TV had been taken. There was a couple messages on the answering machine from Robbie’s place of employment wondering where it was at. >> There’s also an ominous piece of rope.

Whoever was responsible tried to cover their tracks. >> All the doorork knobs, the tabletops, the countertops have been all been wiped down with a wet cloth. There was also a vacuum done of the the bed clothing. I thought that was peculiar. We processed the scene for fingerprints uh and was able to come up with several latent prints.

>> Where did he work at? What kind of work did he do? >> He was an airplane mechanic. He loved his job. He was very meticulous person. >> The things that they [music] took, I can’t imagine why they had to trash the house the way they >> When investigators [snorts] met with the bot family, uh they pointed very specific things that was missing.

 There was a train set that was taken. Uh there was some tools taken out of the garage. Uh the entertainment center, the TV, the stereo system. There was some mirrors taking uh a specific list uh of things that was missing that they knew. >> A neighbor noticed a gray Corsica parked sideways in the driveway. >> They thought that was very, very odd.

 It was loaded with with a lot of uh property inside. >> At the morg, the medical examiner confirms the charred remains are those of Robbie Bot, but he didn’t die in the car fire. Evidence showed that Robbie Bot was killed by a gunshot wound to the back. He also showed signs of being strangulated. >> The murder hits the news.

>> I [snorts] just plead to you people to please give us the help that we need. >> 911. What is your emergency? >> The following day, a landlord in the nearby town of Speedway calls the police. >> I said, “This is uh Mike Sherick. I own a property here on 11th Street and uh I believe that [music] I have a crime scene here.

>> He was cleaning out a house after evicting two tenants and found a wallet under the couch. >> I have Robbie Bot’s wallet and credit cards. The man that was murdered a few nights ago and burnt in the back of his car. When officers arrive, the landlord takes them on a disturbing tour of the property. The first thing they noticed was a a real acidic smell coming from the the house.

 Um, [music] and when when they looked down, they noticed that there was a brown substance all over the floor in different areas. >> Another puddle over here. >> We got a couple puddles. >> I found a jug of muratic acid had been poured down the stairs. Muriatic acid doesn’t eat away the blood. What it does is it masks the presence of the blood.

>> But a gruesome trail remained. >> Droplets of blood went from the upstairs down to the steps and all the way through the basement leading to a a closed wardrobe that was lying on its back underneath the stairwell. Inside the wardrobe was the pillow that appeared to have two gunshot holes in it. They found a spent bullet.

>> The casing looks like not >> Yeah. >> Uh the bullet itself had what appeared to be human blood on it. >> Investigators also find Robbie’s missing property. >> Got a ledger here. >> Hey, didn’t they say something about some mirrors, too? >> Three mirrored pictures that were above uh the fireplace in Robbie Bot’s house.

There was vacuum cleaners. um along with a train set and a Pioneer stereo and speakers. >> It also seemed like the tenants went on an unusual shopping spree. >> I walked in through the premises uh found a lot of belongings that really one if they were theirs they should have taken them and two you’ve got bags full of suits and clothing that wouldn’t fit Josh.

The landlord identifies the former tenants as Joshua Maxwell and his girlfriend Tessy McFarland. A background check reveals Maxwell was released from prison months earlier. He had a girlfriend with a kid and uh needed a place to stay and needed some work. And so I had informed him that I had a house here in Speedway and that it needed to be cleaned out for the Formula 1 race and said it’s going to be $600 at the end of the job.

 um you can stay here. He was excited about it. >> But Maxwell didn’t clean up and only added to the mess. I said, “We’re 2 [snorts] weeks out and you still don’t have this carpet pulled up. You’ve moved a bed into my location. Uh you have a refrigerator that’s destroyed the lenolium floor and you’ve got your family sitting out on the front porch not doing any work.

 Um this isn’t acceptable.” >> [snorts] >> Two days later, the landlord went seeking money for the damage and planned to order them out. >> Yeah. >> Tessy came to the door and nothing but a blanket. I was shocked. She seemed possibly even high. >> The money’s right inside. Just in the bedroom. Just come on in. >> I’m going to wait right here.

>> No, it’s okay. Just come on in. >> She’s like, “Well, you should come in for a minute. Josh is laying in bed. He’d like to talk to you.” I go, “Well, tell Josh to get out of bed and come talk to me at the door. I’m not coming in.” I said, “I need the $200 for the floor.” She came back with the money and $5 bills.

>> Want you guys out in the morning. Leave the key behind. >> Just hours later, Robbie Bot’s body was found inside his burning car, and Maxwell and McFarland are long gone. It really wasn’t a who done it at that point. It became a where were they? In 2000, police in Indiana are searching for Tessy McFarland and Joshua Maxwell, wanted for questioning about the murder of aircraft mechanic Robbie Bot.

His body was dumped in the trunk of a burning car after he was shot twice and then strangled. Both suspects have troubling pasts. Maxwell was born in 1978 in Indianapolis. His father was a violent drug addict. >> He was really abusive, you know, not just to me, but to everybody. I mean, he was abusive with my mom, whooped on her, beat her up.

 [snorts] >> I mean, he just put he embedded fear in everybody. You know, my sister is me, my mother. >> This is the type of thing that could have an influence on someone’s future behavior. It could send the message to him that women are less than men, women are not as important as men, and that it’s in some way acceptable to denigrate or to dominate women.

 being [snorts] a kid, there wasn’t nothing I could really do, you know? So, it was just the fact that I mean, me starting out running away, that’s how my life of I guess crime, if you want to say how it started. >> Maxwell was in and out of custody. He had numerous girlfriends and fathered two children, but that didn’t dissuade him from his life of crime.

 In May [music] of 1997, he was arrested for burglary and sentenced to 3 years behind bars. He hooked up with Tessy McFarland in 2000, shortly after being released. She was born in 1979 and grew up in Waker, Indiana. >> My biological father passed away when I was two in a car accident. My mother remarried when I was approximately five, five [music] and a half.

 And um my stepfather raised me with his children as his own. >> When Tess was in grade school, she was, you know, funloving, you know, everybody liked her. [music] She was in activities. She played softball. That was the tomboy in her. I think she made really good grades until she got to high school. I lost interest in high school mainly because I don’t think there was one subject that kept my attention.

 I was hanging out with an older crowd and they didn’t like school so I didn’t like school. McFarland became a shadow of her former self, addicted to cocaine and desperate for her next fix. In 1997, McFarland pleaded guilty to attempting to cash checks she stole from a home where her mother worked as a housekeeper. She was put on probation.

But in 1998, despite being 8 months pregnant, McFarland was back in trouble. She stole [music] again, this time a co-worker’s wallet and cash and used their credit card to buy some gas. She was sentenced to eight months home detention and ordered to undergo regular drug tests while raising her newborn son, JJ.

In 2000, McFarland split with the father of her child and tried to make it on her own. At this point, I’m just trying to keep my neck above water as far as paying bills and making sure he has everything that he needs. >> Struggling to get by as a waitress, McFarland swallowed her pride and became a stripper.

>> And I did not know that she was doing that until I was getting ready to take her to work one day. And she had me take her to the brass flamingo. And I just baldled my eyes out and just told her, you know, I said, “Just can’t believe you’re doing something like this. this is not how I raised you.

 And she’s mom is just to get me out of a spot right now. >> When she met Joshua Maxwell, there was instant attraction. >> What drew me to Josh was his personality originally. He’s one of those people, I would say, that when he walks in a room, people notice him. He He just has that aura about him. I remember, you know, first time that I seen her, it was like there’s something there.

 There was uh there was a there was a feeling there instantly. And later on, we talked about it and it was kind of a a mutual thing. >> Maxwell had this persona that uh he was bigger than life. Um he definitely had a a strong personality and the weaker individual would be drawn to him. McFarland’s mother was quick to warn her about Maxwell after learning about his past.

>> My stepdaughter Jill called and asked me if I knew Josh and I told her no and she said, “I think you need to do a little bit more investigation on him because I don’t think that he’s good for Tess.” >> I’m one of them, man, that you either going to love to hate or you going to hate to hate. >> And she said, “Well, he’s just a player.

” She said, “I’ve known several girls that he has kids by and um he don’t pay child support for any of them. He doesn’t work. Uh he’s only been out of prison 6 months.” >> Despite her family’s protests, McFarland and her son moved in with Maxwell at the Speedway rental property. >> He seemed very remorseful um that he, you know, wanted a second chance in life, an opportunity to, you know, turn his life around, [snorts] get a place to live, and make an honest living.

Two days after the discovery of Robbie Bot’s body, prime suspects Maxwell and McFarland are feeling the heat. >> Mom. Mom. No, I’m fine. I I’m Yeah, I’m with Joshua. >> Tessa, I heard on the news that there was something about a murder. You’re not involved in that, are you? >> McFarland’s mother tells detectives about a strange call.

>> She said, “Mom.” She said, “Something’s come up.” >> I said, “What in the world have you done?” And she said, “Mom, I don’t know.” She said, “Everything got so mixed up.” And I said, “What do you mean mixed up? There’s a person dead. What have you done?” She was, “Mom, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how all that happened.

” And she goes, “I just know that Josh went in the kitchen to get a drink of water or something in the kitchen and when he came back, that Robbie guy was all over me.” >> Get off of me. >> What’s going on? >> Nothing, man. >> And Josh got mad. >> This is weird. I’m getting out of here. Think you’re going? I’m leaving, man.

This is just Did he touch you? Did he touch you? >> I said, “Then what happened?” Then that’s when she just started breaking up and crying. And then that’s when Josh got on the phone. >> Nancy, this is Josh. I am so sorry. I I did not mean to get Tess involved in this. >> But sorry or not, they would soon attempt to do it all again.

>> Anything you want, please. >> In September of 2000, Joshua Maxwell and Tessy McFarland are on the run. wanted for the murder of an Indianapolis man, aircraft mechanic Robbie Bot. They’re trying to hide, but not from everyone. Investigators interviewed a former girlfriend of Joshua Maxwell. During the interview, she stated that um she had received 11 or 12 different phone calls from Maxwell indicating that he really screwed up, he had killed a guy, and that um he and Tessy were on the run. Maxwell told her to watch the

news and start collecting newspaper articles. >> Investigators believe that Ba possibly may have been abducted. >> In their own minds, they are celebrities at this point. And it takes on a certain air of romance, a certain air of the fantastic that their lives are not humrum. They are not dull. They are fugitives.

 They are a kind of new Bonnie and Clyde. As the investigation continues, detectives find a crucial new piece of evidence in victim Robbie Bot’s home. A pizza receipt containing Maxwell’s phone number and address. >> That turned out to be pretty significant. Uh because they put Maxwell, at least at this residence, >> when the investigators found the pizza receipt in Mr.

 Bot’s home, they realized that this was not a a a chance crime, that this was a planned crime. Officers discover Robbie’s credit cards were maxed out. >> Robbie Bot was taken for all purposes on a shopping spree by Maxwell McFarland. >> The trio hit numerous stores with some of what happened caught on tape. Store security personnel used their surveillance cameras to track Mr.

 Bot and Maxwell and McFarland in the store. What they saw was something very chilling. >> Robbie bought state of mind while they were on this shopping spree. Basically, you could see a distance in his eyes. Um kind of like he’d been up all night. That type of uh kind of a staring out in space type look.

 Um he was basically just pushing the cart with no expression whatsoever. While McFarland and Maxwell were basically just grabbing items off shelves. >> They were buying luxury items. They were buying things to decorate a household with. they were buying formal suits. So, I think this is a kind of game for them. [music] They’re controlling this person.

Uh they’ve turned the tables on this person and they’re very comfortable using them for their own ends. Mr. Bot never took his hands off the off the shopping cart. But what he did when Maxwell and McFarland stepped away, he looked straight up at the security camera and mouththed the words, “Help me.” Only after the police went to the store to to get the security tapes did everybody realize to their to their horror that Mr.

 Bot had had tried to notify somebody. A month after Robbie Bot’s murder and a thousand miles away, a child in San Antonio, Texas is playing behind a strip mall and finds a man’s body. He was blindfolded and shot in the top of the head. His hands were tied behind his back by a phone cable and also I believe by [snorts] the string cord on the um sweatshirt.

Well, it looks almost like an execution just because he could not have put up any kind of struggle. The victim is Sheriff Sergeant Rudy Lopes, who worked at the county jail. His wife had reported him missing just hours before. He was last seen leaving his parents’ house the previous day. An autopsy reveals Rudy Lopes was killed by a single bullet to the head.

[snorts] >> Early speculation was obviously that a robbery had taken place because his vehicle was missing. Um, in addition, his wallet was not found with him because of the way the hands were tied that looked like a kidnapping. Also, >> investigators get an early lead. They found several people from a karate studio that had been in class that night that saw a pickup truck behind the strip center that matched that of Mr. Lopes.

Witnesses pointed out that there was a woman with bushy hair and also a guy with glasses in the pickup truck. >> Police seek help in tracing the missing vehicle by entering details into the National Crime Information Center database. If it’s found anywhere in the country, you’ll get a hit and you can determine then who has it and whether it has been stolen.

>> Police again look for a possible money trail by examining Rudy Lope’s bank records and security video. >> Two withdrawals had been done the night the murder had happened. It appeared to be his truck with a female driving the truck and making the withdrawals. It just makes sense that he would have been there because if he’d given them a bank card, he could have given them a false number.

 And this way they could ensure that they could get the money out of the bank. >> The police are notified that a car had been parked outside this mall for 4 days, just 10 minutes from the murder scene. They ran the plates and found out it had been involved in a homicide out of Indiana. They searched it and found paperwork with the names of Joshua Maxwell and Tessy McFarland on them.

[snorts] Our theory was that that’s where Rudy Lopes met him. And that’s of course where they took him hostage or perhaps went voluntarily with him but then took him hostage so that they could have his vehicle. Yeah. >> The fact that they have killed a law enforcement officer, taken his truck, fits in with this kind of nihilistic dream that they have.

 They [music] don’t care at this point. At this point feel they can do what they want. >> We knew that they were suspected of a murder in Indiana had fled. So we didn’t know whether they were in Texas or not. It’s a big state. There’s lots of places to hide, but we simply had no idea where they were. In October 2000, Joshua Maxwell and Tessy McFarland are wanted for killing aircraft mechanic Robbie Bot in Indiana, an offduty sheriff’s officer Rudy Lopes in Texas.

>> We believe that Mr. Lopes had been under the control of Joshua Maxwell and Tessy McFarland for some period of time. We believe he was killed just to silence him. Law enforcement agencies across the nation are on the lookout for Rudy’s stolen pickup truck, which turns up 1,700 miles away in San Francisco, California.

>> It’s about 4:00, the beginning of rush hour. Some patrol officers see a vehicle run a red light. So, they decide to pull the vehicle over. They do. They get out of the car and approach the vehicle. As the officers reach the truck, Maxwell hits the gas and a terrifying pursuit ensues. >> He’s going down the wrong way down oneway street.

 He’s going up on the sidewalk. He’s sideswiping cars. He’s making abrupt turns. Drives through the back of Hollow Justice and through the police parking lot there. Shots are being fired and next thing they know, the police officers are are engaging a pursuit right their own parking lot. >> Go faster. You’re silly now.

 GO GO GO GO GO [screaming] and I knew that I had been shot and he said, “No, no, no. It’s probably just glass. I feel like I’m on fire.” And at that point, I had pretty much given up on life, period. [music] So, I just told him, “I want you to tell my mom and my son that I love them.” And that’s when he kind of freaked out.

 He was like, “No, no, no. I don’t want you to die. Please don’t die on me. Police don’t die. >> By now, two dozen police cars are trying to apprehend them. >> It is a dangerous situation for the police officers involved. They could get shot at any moment. >> After 20 minutes of chaos, the pursuit finally grinds to a halt.

>> He’s stuck in traffic, surrounded by police units, and he surreners. >> At that time, they discovered that Tessy had been shot one time. [music] McFarland is rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. Maxwell is hauled off to police headquarters for questioning. >> He is compliant, cooperative with us and very forthcoming >> and willing to confess to everything.

>> And then what’d you do after you covered him up? >> How many times you shoot? >> Twice. Joshua Maxwell admitted his involvement in what had happened here in Texas. He also talked about what had happened in Indiana. >> He is young. He is brash. He is self assured. And when this came to an end, he was essentially spent.

 This isn’t [snorts] someone who knows their rights inside and out and feels that through the legal system they can somehow catch a break or manipulate it. smacking him in the face with pistols and putting pistols to his head in his mouth and have to do too much of it. >> Five weeks after Robbie Bot’s body turned up in a burning car, Maxwell finally reveals their wicked plans for him.

>> He wants to talk to me. Okay. Okay. Rob, did I tell you? Yeah, I she’s up for anything, man. I told you >> Maxwell and McFarland met Robbie Bot on a meet line or a telephone chat line. We assume that there was some sort of sexual suggestion there with the ad that Mr. Bot responded to. >> All right, bye. >> Got him.

 Got him. Me and Tess, we kind of uh we real sexual people, you know, and it uh came to light that she was open to a lot of things, [music] you know, as I was too. The guy that [snorts] uh you know, Robbie bought, she met him on a chat line. So, we met him, talked to him on the phone, and uh eventually he came to our place.

 And that was the first time that we met him. >> Their decision to lure men for sex with the intent of robbing them was something that they both felt worked for them. It was going to be exciting. They were going to be not just use these men for sex, but [snorts] also use them and get financial reward out of it. So, in a sense, it’s a best of both worlds for them.

>> Once they gained Robbie’s trust, the three of them started partying together. But things [music] got out of hand. >> I left for a little while. >> I said, “GET OFF OF ME, JOSHUA. [screaming] JOSHUA, >> I’M LEAVING. I MEAN, this is too weird.” Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What’s going on here? >> Him and [snorts] her kind of had like I wouldn’t say what you would call a tussle or u um you know, like something real physical.

 You know, it it was like she was trying to get away from him and he was trying to get away from her kind of thing. and she was hollering for me when I came back into the house. So my initial reaction was to grab, you know what I mean? And he was trying to get away. He was trying to get away for a reason. And she was shook up. I mean, that was obvious.

 So I took him to the basement, you know. I whooped on him a little bit right there. You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you, boy? Could you? You don’t have to do that. No. >> Please don’t kill me. >> Please don’t kill me. Oh, please don’t kill me. Oh yeah, I won’t kill. I won’t kill. It’s um a kind of classic defense that’s raised for um acting in a violent fashion that you say that you were somehow defending a woman’s honor by attacking her asalent.

>> But Maxwell wasn’t satisfied. The three of them returned to Robbiey’s home where his abductors grabbed whatever they could take. When the trio returned to the rental house, Robbie’s harrowing ordeal intensified. Yeah, I turned my back for 30 seconds and YOU’RE ALL OVER MY GIRL. >> Maxwell and McFarland kept Mr.

 Bot locked up in a wooden box by having his hands and feet bound. They closed the box and held it tight with a long PVC pipe to make sure that he couldn’t escape when these two wanted to to leave the home. >> But Maxwell and McFarland weren’t finished with Robbie yet. the idea that I came up with that uh well, we’re going to take you out and you’re going to max out these credit cards.

>> After spending his money, there was only one thing left to do. >> It was embedded in my mind at an early age. >> Didn’t think you were going to die today, did you? Come on. Yeah. Goodbye. If you get in trouble a little bit, you might as well go the whole mile with it cuz it’s the same in the end. There’s just no way getting around this.

You know, I took it upon myself, go down there in the basement and kill him. After Mr. Bot was murdered downstairs, they took his body upstairs and put it in the back of Mr. Bot’s own car. Then Maxwell and McFarland tried to clean up the evidence of the crime by spreading myriadic acid. [music] >> They probably felt that burning the car would cover up any type of evidence left behind at that scene.

 So I think when they left, they might have felt fairly comfortable about getting away with this. >> They removed the bullet eventually after about 10 and a half hours of me being in the hospital. I was in recovery for approximately 6 to 10 hours [music] and then they took me to San Francisco jail. [snorts] >> McFarland tries to minimize her role in the murders.

 She tells investigators she feared her lover and that’s why she agreed to go on the run and sign over custody of her 2-year-old son to Maxwell’s mother. >> There was just nothing I could have done to stop Josh from doing what he was going to do. Period. and and my own life was in danger and my family’s lives were in danger. >> Her [snorts] whole thing was, “What about JJ? What about JJ?” I let her know that she was going with me.

 You know, she was leaving JJ at my mom’s house. And my friend knows where he’s at. So, if anything happens to me, if you go to the police any kind of way, he knows where JJ is at. [clears throat] is history >> and I didn’t really give her a chance to even say goodbye to him. >> The couple headed south. >> We was in Florida for probably about a week.

>> During that time, they took video of themselves, much of it X-rated. >> Those videos show Maxwell is an engaging, charismatic, [music] intelligent person. He’s also a cold-blooded killer, but he’d be the first to tell you that. After a couple of weeks in Florida, Maxwell and McFarland headed west to San Antonio, Texas.

By now, they were out of money, but knew just how to get it. Joshua [snorts] Maxwell and Tessy McFarland had taken an ad out in a weekly newspaper um dealing with sexual encounters and we believe that Rudy Lopes contacted him through that. >> Rudy Lopes thought he was meeting two new friends for some harmless fun >> and [snorts] um you know it didn’t happen like that.

[screaming] In October of 2000, suspected killers Joshua Maxwell and Tessy McFarland are in custody after a high-speed police chase and shootout in San Francisco. >> In the midst of it, just shot. >> Maxwell is revealing details of their cross-country crime spree. [screaming] He says offduty Texas Sheriff Sergeant Rudy Lopes was lured through a magazine advertisement.

McFarland blames Maxwell for setting the trap alone. >> And I do not know for the life of me how Josh got in contact with Mr. Lopes initially. I just know that at some point in time he did. >> There’s something about you. >> Tell me more. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> I got good taste, don’t I? Yeah. [laughter] You got good taste.

>> We um got him to come out to the hotel. we were staying at and uh that’s the first time that I met Rooted Lumps. >> He never [music] said anything about being a police officer. >> The unsuspecting victim bought McFarland lingerie. >> A neglige had been purchased, I believe, the day or two days before [music] his death.

 A person who appeared to match Mr. Lopes’s description had been there with two other people, a male and a female. >> But Maxwell wanted much more. You said you were going to get what I’m supposed to get >> and set the trap. >> What are you supposed to get? You’ll see what you get. And that’s all we want. >> Really? >> Yeah. That’s what it is.

>> Up with the phone call. >> I’m already on the run, so resort to what I know. Resort to doing what I’ve done to make money. >> Hold his hand. >> I’m voted. >> All right. Yeah. Not so tough now, are you? Come on. >> Stay down. >> They raided his bank account. This was actually his bank that he banked at, not just a ATM.

>> Tell her 55522 55. Yeah. Better be right. >> Got it. >> Once they got what they wanted, Maxwell decided to get rid of Rudy Lopes. >> He had to have been terrified. His hands were tied behind his back, bound by wire, and it was tight. It wasn’t loose. In addition, he was blindfolded. He had to have known as he’s being led through the fence that he’s going through a fence because he would have had to step over the board to get there.

 You don’t have to do this. I don’t have to do this. This is crazy. >> And then as he’s being led down the hill in the dark, he had to have known he was about to be executed. >> He was trying to get away and I wasn’t letting him get away. >> I wasn’t there. You know, I had no physical ties to the actual crime scene at all.

McFarland claims she played no physical role in the actual murders, but investigators don’t buy her claim that she was powerless to prevent them. She was by herself with Mr. Bots in Indiana at the store and she had done nothing to assist him and then of course here in Texas and then fleeing to California with Joshua.

 There’s no way he could have kept her under his immediate control for 40 or 50 days while all this was going on. It just simply is not worthy of belief. >> Pessie makes the decision that this is something she wants to do. [music] I do not believe she is coerced to go on this. I believe that she certainly looks up to Joshua Maxwell.

 At no [music] point at any time during this spree that takes them to Florida, to Texas, [music] and to San Francisco does she ever try and call the police. Does she ever try and leave? But I believe willingly stays with Joshua Maxwell. Maxwell and McFarland are extradited back to San Antonio to face capital murder charges in the shooting death of Sergeant Lopes.

The Texas case was prosecuted first for two reasons. One, there was a law enforcement officer that was killed in that case. Second, it was a death penalty case. Indiana’s case was not a death penalty case. >> More than a year later, Maxwell’s trial begins. The prosecution presents an overwhelming litany of evidence against him.

>> It is very rare that you’ll try essentially a serial murderer. This was one of the most cold-blooded offenses I’ve ever tried. >> Two guards testify that Maxwell would stand in his cell mocking Rudy Lopes and reenacting his murder. went back down in the basement. You didn’t rehabilitate me. You created me.

The jury also sees the video Maxwell and McFarland made while on the run in Florida. He blames the prison system for helping to shape his character. I think that the prison system certainly will take bad situations, bad individuals, and may make them worse. But he had a lengthy record of juvenile transgressions that was escalating, and it was that very escalation that landed him in prison um when he was 17 years old.

>> The defense also suggests Maxwell’s childhood experiences damaged him emotionally. Joshua Maxwell’s defense team offered two types of evidence in an attempt to mitigate [snorts] what he had done. One of them was that at the age of 11 or 12, he found out that he had been adopted. The other thing was that he had a poor childhood and that his father drank, did drugs, and was abusive towards Joshua and the rest of the family.

>> The jury deliberates for just a few hours [music] and finds Maxwell guilty. He is sentenced to death. The following year, McFarland is also intent on pleading not guilty in Texas. But as the jurors take their seats, she accepts [music] a plea deal. Tessy [snorts] McFarland entered a plea of guilty to capital murder in return for arguing that she to wave the death penalty and a life sentence.

 If Tessy had fully gone to trial, we have every belief that we would have obtained a conviction of capital murder. We don’t believe there was any evidence that the jury would have found that would found her guilty of anything less. >> In 2003, Maxwell is extradited back to Indiana to stand trial for the murder of Robbie Bot.

>> I contacted the district attorney’s office down in Texas to make sure that the conviction against Maxwell was going to be u sustained upon appeal. It was. And we decided here in Indianapolis at the Maring County Prosecutor’s Office to continue our prosecution in order to ensure that Mr.

 Maxwell would never ever walk the streets again. The jury finds Maxwell guilty [music] of firstdegree murder, criminal confinement, and arson. He is sentenced [music] to 95 years in prison. [snorts] McFarland pleads guilty to criminal confinement and arson. She is sentenced to 30 years to run concurrent to her Texas sentence. The thing that [snorts] stood out to me about this case was the psychological brutality that was inflicted upon Mr.

Biden. What he had to endure for over a day was something that’s just unimaginable. >> What’s driving them? There certainly is some greed here, but I think more than the greed, it was the excitement. It was the kind of Romance of the Fugitive. McFarland is currently incarcerated at Gatesville Prison, Texas, and will be 63 before becoming eligible for parole.

She still maintains she was powerless to prevent the killings. If I felt like at any point in time I could have prevented those actions and I [music] could have prevented them people from losing their loved ones, I would have. I truly would have done everything in my power to stop that before it ever started if I felt like I could have done anything.

 [music] Um, I can never replace those people in their lives. Um, my my time here will never bring them back, you know, nothing like that. >> Joshua Maxwell is sitting on death row at Livingston Prison, Texas. He was consistently inconsistent. He could not hold a job. He could not follow through on relationships. He could not follow through on obligations.

And so these are constant uh traits that are associated with a kind of antisocial personality disorder. >> Despite the carnage and chaos they cause together, Maxwell and McFarland retain a special bond. I don’t have any ill feelings towards Josh. Um, [music] and probably never will feel, you know, horrible towards him or wish any bad things upon him.

>> My thoughts about Tess right now, you know, I still love her. I still love her very much and she’s a big part of my life. I regret the fact that uh I guess that’s probably like my biggest regret in all of this is that she’s sitting where she’s sitting and she shouldn’t be.

 I could say I’m sorry, but that don’t bring him back. You know what I mean? I’m really already dead. I mean, I’m walking that extra mile, so just live my life. Do, you know, do what I can while I can. >> Reconstructing the criminal behavior of these individuals um to me suggests that of sociopaths. And a sociopath is someone [music] who doesn’t care about other people.

 Someone who continually uses other people as [music] a means to their ends. Someone who doesn’t have remorse, doesn’t have guilt, doesn’t have empathy. They committed these crimes for no reason, if only for their own amusement, and then moved on throughout the country. It seemed to me that they knew exactly what they were doing and they wanted to to live their life as if they were something bigger than who they were.