I hope you die in jail and burn in hell!. He insisted that what Rastegar told him in the homicide office was the same and consistent with what he said out on the porch. Lord is a striking green-eyed woman, with wavy auburn hair that sweeps down past her shoulders. But, Jaffe added, Burnside didnt wave the gun around. And now you have this thing where he was spending a lot of money on his friend, but he didnt spend near as much money on your birthday. He said that he couldnt handle disappointing me on top of all the financial stress and tax problems that he was enduring.. A 9mm Beretta was also on the floor about five feet from where Burnsides body had been. (For a philosophy class, she wrote a paper on Socrates being sentenced to death under false charges.) Had she washed up with towels before the paramedics and police arrived? Lord hired Don Tittle, a high-profile Dallas lawyer who specializes in civil rights litigation, to file a lawsuit against Thompson, which he did in late 2011. Schuette and Tatia R. Wilson. But the man I loved is gone forever. Leave them blank to get signed up. A light drizzle was falling in the early morning hours of May 9, 2010, when detective Dwayne Thompsonpulled up in front of a modest home on Spring Grove Avenue, in a tree-lined neighborhood in North Dallas. Lord spent the next four days at her mothers home in the Dallas suburbs, lying in bed, taking sleeping pills. What he needed was irrefutable evidence pointing to Lords involvement in the shooting. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. She needed pills to go to sleep. Alternative . | Store When the lab report on the gunshot residue was completed, it wasnt much help either. Or maybe, as Thompson theorized, Lord had missed some of the residue on her hand and her shirt when she cleaned herself up after pulling the trigger. As Tatia Wilson, one of the City of Dallas attorneys representing Thompson, explained to the jury in her opening statement, Sometimes homicide detectives may make mistakes in their evaluation of the evidence. I went into the kitchen and he was on the floor and there was blood. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said he brought thousands of offenders to justice, bringing closure to victims and their families. | Articles I want him held accountable. They couldnt get the dishwasher installed because of a broken valve, which sent water all over the floor, so they took a break. Nearly a year after the shooting, a grand jury met and heard the evidence. There was something else that didnt seem right: drops of blood leading into another room. I dont remember the exact words that were used, he told Lundberg. Look at it! Every time she tried to answer a question, she said, he cut her off and called her a liar. John, who had already been informed by Jaffe about the incident, could barely maintain his composure. Testimony continues Friday, during which Lord may take the witness stand. She also said that when he got angry, he could be a little scary and that he threw stuff in the house. She would usually ignore him when he got into one of his moods, but this time it had only made him angrier. Description: Hephzibah Olivia Lord, age 36, sued Dallas homicide detective Dwayne Thompson on civil rights violation theories under 42 U.S.C. She was arrested in 2010 for the . According to news reports and witness testimony of what happened in that interrogation room, Thompson suddenly became aggressive in his questioning, yelling accusations at a weeping Lord, things like You shot him! Still, Thompson had only a theory. Lord seemed to be trying to control her breathing. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? The officer looked at the notes he had jotted down. City attorneys are defending him, saying he acted in good faith and without malice. You realize, dont you, that if I didnt have money from my family to fight back, I could have been wrongfully convicted, fighting this from prison. texasmonthly.com And Im a person who thinks your behavior tonight doesnt add up. He pointed his finger at her. There was no sign that he had struggled with an assailantno bruises or scratches on his skin, no scuffed knuckles. And a handful of Burnsides friends have reunited with Lord, saying they now believe that she had nothing to do with his death. Shearin asked if Thompson had mentioned that an inebriated Burnside had shown the Beretta to his friend that night. Its so ridiculous. He was so compelling in front of the cameracajoling witnesses to open up and then lashing out at a suspectthat he looked like a television actor playing a detective. The lawyer was reluctant to open the door. Burnside had been involved in a couple of accidents. The Dallas City Council on Wednesday approved a settlement of more than $1 million to a . HEPHZIBAH OLIVIA LORD The case was then sent to the Internal Affairs division for an administrative review. If the review, which is ongoing as of press time, finds that Thompson violated departmental policies, he could be fired, suspended, or demoted. We understand that people get upset, get scared, get angryand when all those emotions are happening at once, people do things., He paused and kept his eyes on Lord. He also had run up some debt: he owed a rental car company money for crashing one of its vehicles, and he had received letters from the IRS demanding that he pay more than $50,000 in back taxes. An expert witness with expertise as both a retired officer and homicide detective from the same police department, testified on Lords behalf. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? Thompson, a 21-year veteran of the Police Department, has been a homicide detective since 2006. By the end of the interview, Thompson had returned from his lecture and walked into the room. When Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must solve without the victim's body. Thompson asked why there was so little blood on her hands and arms. Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). Rastegar again tried to explain what he had heard Lord say that night. When Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must solve without the victim's body. Lord was charged with murder a month after her boyfriend shot himself. One of his tasks was to take boxes of cold-case files out of the death room, where all homicide files are kept, and haul them to a storage area in city hall. He also said he had seen Burnside act recklessly with a gun only two or three times over the past fifteen years. Lord explained that Burnside had taken them out from underneath the sink when he was trying to install the dishwasher. The Reid method has been challenged as being primed for pushing people to give false confessions and many argue that it should not be used by law enforcement agencies. I did not kill my boyfriend. She said that he was a big drinker and that he could sometimes be reckless. He can go so far as to lie to a suspect to try to obtain a confession. He was not a depressed type of person at all. Thompson has still destroyed my life and hes still out there working cases. Or maybe Mikey did it, Jaffe said. Why try to make money off Michaels death?. At the end of the interrogation, he had discarded her like trash.. Although she had her own apartment, she was planning to move in with him as soon as he finished remodeling the house. He saw no high-velocity blood spatter. Then, on June 5, his phone rang. I mean, she got no-billed. Jaffe said he had been at the house earlier that evening, helping Burnside install a dishwasher while Lord was painting the doors and baseboards, and that he had left before midnight. Thompson looked at his notebook, where he had written down the calls Lord had made on her cellphone. Nevertheless, as far as Thompson was concerned, that did not eliminate her as a suspect. Filing in behind him were at least a dozen of his fellow homicide detectives, there to show support. . In his lectures, he often told other officers that to find out why a killing had taken place, it was as important to study the life of the victimvictimology, he called itas it was to study the behavior of the criminal. A bullet hole was in a wall near the ceiling. She claimed that Thompson show a reckless disregard for her rights in having Plaintiff arrested in 2010 for the shooting death of her . Tired of fighting, she stopped talking to Burnside and went into the bathroom to take off her makeup. But Lord insisted he had a good heart. She was on an airplaneon her way to California. A Shooting on Spring Grove Ave: When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home in 2010, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend had pulled the trigger. Veteran Dallas police homicide detective Dwayne Thompson is on desk duty pending an internal investigation. It was Lundberg, who had gone to Parkland to examine Burnsides body. In this interrogation method, its deemed acceptable to manipulate through accusations of guilt through an aggressive protocol of nine steps. Maybe, Jaffe speculated, when Burnside and Lord had started arguing, he had declared that he was never going to marry her, which sent Lord into a tailspin and led her to grab the gun. But when she realized how serious his injury wasI think I saw a spot on his head, she saidshe called 911 several times. . . On August 6 Brown signed the report, and Thompson was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. When Shearin called Lord with the news, she thanked him for all he had done for her, but then she said something else. Thompson repeatedly asked Lord during the interview why she waited seven minutes to call 911 after trying to reach a friend of Burnsides by phone. She liked pampering him, waiting on him hand and foot so that he could focus on building his company. It was now 5:44 a.m. She appeared to be so despondent that a jailer thought she needed to be put on suicide watch. Bring on the Shiplap? On the floor was a pool of blood along with bloody towels. He was wearing a T-shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. Shearin questioned Lord about the drops of blood around the house. Lord seemed shocked. I believe that with all my heart.. When Shearin asked if he had told anyone that there was blood spatter on Lords clothing, he replied, I may have said it, but I dont know whether I said it or not. Shearin then asked about the trajectory of the bullet through Burnsides skull. And then theres Jaffe, Burnsides best friend, who says he remains convinced that Lord is hiding something. She works at a clothing shop, making $14 an hour, far less than what she was earning when she was in the mortgage business. Lord glanced at Thompson and he glanced back. Every day, dozens of times a day, I think about that talk and how I wish I could take it all back, she told me. Burnside died from a gun shot wound from a 9 mm Beretta handgun. How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire. Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson and the homicide team investigate the brutal double murders of two friends shot and burned beyond recognition in the trunk of a car. But he stayed in the bedroom, pacing, walking around, yelling at me, screaming, angry. Finally, after he couldnt get her to respond to him, he left the room. That wont be possible, said Thompson. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. "It was a good experience," Thompson says, "It kind of launched me into police work." Reddit - Dive into anything. Lets make a bad thing right. His fellow detectives nicknamed him D-Train. Testimony. But, said Lundberg, there was no sign of blood spatter on Burnsides right hand or arm. She helped him with his finances, reminding him to pay his bills and to keep his spending in line. I wasnt going to leave him, she said, her voice breaking. It found that two particles characteristic of primer gunshot residue had been discovered on the back of Burnsides right hand and that one particle characteristic of primer gunshot residue had been discovered on the back of Lords left hand. You did! (For a more complete description of the interrogation, check out Dallas Morning News coverage from the day that the jury was shown the interrogation videotape.). The officer shrugged. Summary: Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson and the homicide team investigate the brutal double murders of two friends shot and burned beyond recognition in the trunk of a car. I did start dating a guy not long ago, she said after the waiter left. She cooked, she cleaned, he was happy.. How are you going to explain that to his family? Why wasnt that enough? Burnsides father showed up to let her in, and when Lord tried to tell him she had not murdered his son, he cut her off. I cant say any more, but its insane.. She fell to her knees and said it was an accident and that she didnt mean to shoot him. All we want is for Olivia to go through a criminal trial, said John Burnside, sitting with Cindi in their East Dallas home. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. Dressed in one of his dark suits, Thompson strode toward his seat. No, she said again. I grabbed him and held him.. The jury determined Friday that Dallas homicide Detective Dwayne Thompson showed a reckless disregard for the civil rights of 36-year-old Hephzibah Olivia Lord. (Thompson still hadnt told anyone outside his office about the discrepancy.) Im a person who just lost her boyfriend, Lord wailed. 4. | Sign In, Verdict Corrections She walked to the front of the chapel to look at Burnside in his casket, and her legs nearly buckled as she said his name. Because that is the only thing that makes sense.. He sustained a fatal contact gunshot wound to the right temple. An officer came over to Thompsons cubicle and handed him Lords and Jaffes cellphones. In 2008, when the producers of The First 48, a reality series on the A&E network about homicide detectives in big-city police departments, came to Dallas to film some episodes, they were riveted by Thompson. As Lord hugged Tittle and members of her family, Thompson stood at the defense table, his mouth open. Shearin ordered Lords cellphone records and received more good news: there was no seven-minute gap in her calls. The detective told him that he was doing what he could. The day after the shooting, he had checked the records and discovered that there was no seven-minute gap on Lords cellphone between the calls to Jaffe and 911. According to Lord, he became obnoxious and sarcastic, which often happened when he drank. Its insane, he was overheard saying one afternoon at a restaurant near the police department. There were too many unanswered questions, he said. His voice got even softer. 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