All language subtitles for Death.By.Fame.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-CBFM.[eng]

SARA: 99.999 percent
of Hollywood

is a window display.

It is a facade.

And every time a story
like that breaks,

we think, oh, my God.

How could this guy have had
these problems?

The brutality and gruesomeness
of this murder scene

definitely stand out.

definitely stand out.

I still remember
my heart pounding,

like I couldn't breathe.

SHAUNTAÉ: When you come in
contact with A-list celebrities,

jealousy kicks in.

We have two murders,

and they are eerily similar.

If it is even a coincidence,
I'm not sure.

And this was done
for the fame.

And this was done
for the fame.

[camera shutters clicking]

STEPHANIE:
It was around 4 p.m.

I just remember a gentleman
coming in, he was very calm.

He had on a black baseball
cap, a black T-shirt,

black track pants that had,
like, a lime green stripe down

black track pants that had,
like, a lime green stripe down

the side,
and black tennis shoes.

I just remember, because it was,
like, very put together.

He smelled of --
I wanna say aftershave.

So he was dressed really nice,

like, everything
was coordinated,

and he smelled fresh.

One of my other coworkers
at the time had told me

that he was part of
a boy band previously.

And this gentleman stepped up
to my window.

I asked him what he needed,

I asked him what he needed,

and at that point,
that's when it clicked for

me that this was something
out of the norm.

GLENDA:
We call it Wacko.

Because there's a lot of wacks
that come from Waco.

I met Catherine
in August of 2007.

I met Catherine
in August of 2007.

In college, she introduced
herself to me, she's like,

"My name is Catherine,"
but she went by Diamond,

so that's what I called her.

Her nickname was Diamond,

and Diamond is the type of
person that you're gonna

see her, you're gonna notice
her, she's gonna shine.

She's gonna make
her presence known.

She studied advertising design
and print,

but she made it known,
"I'm a model."

but she made it known,
"I'm a model."

[camera shutter clicking]

She was petite enough to be
a high fashion model.

She could wear anything,
and it

would look good on her,
you know?

And she rocked it to
the fullest.

She really did.
[laughs]

She did pageants,
she did fashion shows,

she did photo shoots, anything
that she can get her hands on.

I called her Team No Sleep.

She'd be on the computer
all night looking for

her next shoot.

her next shoot.

She would go to bed just
before the sun come up

and then go to class

and then come home and then
get ready for her job at night.

Like, she was gonna do it
by any means necessary.

She was a dancer,

and she would use her money to
book her flights to her shoots,

[camera shutter clicking]

and then she'd come back to --
to school

and then she'd come back to --
to school

and go to class
the next day.

She knew that
that's what she wanted,

to be in the light.

Catherine's story resonated
with me, because a large

majority of my own cases

are situations that have gone on
behind closed doors.

Catherine Martinez is
this stunning beauty who just

has this infectious drive,

but she's really banking
on her appearance.

but she's really banking
on her appearance.

So for someone like Catherine,
at that age with those looks,

it's a perfect place to be,

to be working in a nightclub
as a dancer

or to be in a bar
or a restaurant,

the traditional places
where these young

women would go to
get discovered.

They want to meet
that producer,

they want to meet the manager,
or maybe even their future

husband who might be famous.

I was concerned for her
dancing at the strip club.

It's a very rough
industry already,

and her safety afterwards,

you know, walking and being
outside by herself.

So I never wanted her to be
there alone.

I'd pick her up while
she was getting ready.

We were like best friends,
more like sisters.

The sisterly bond.

The sisterly bond came...

I was going through a rough
patch in my life, and, uh,

I didn't have nobody
to talk to,

and I had nowhere to go.

She gave us
somewhere to live.

She said,
"You and your son,

"you come with me, and y'all
just stay at my house until you

get it together."

I said,
"Okay, are you sure?"

She said, "Yeah."

She said, "Yeah."

And she gave us the bed.

She slept on the floor.

She gave us food.

Cathy was like this...
[laughs]

you know that birthday candle
that you

try to blow out,
and it won't go out?

You know, you blow it out,
and it'd light back up,

and you try to blow it out,
and it'd light back up again.

That's -- that's how she was
to me.

That's -- that's how she was
to me.

You know,
she'd never let you down.

She never let you down.

She gave you 110 percent.

GLENDA: Back in 2008,
when Catherine was working

at the club at night,
she met Russell Neal.

He would come and watch her
dance a couple nights a week,

and then he asked her out
on a date.

Catherine and Russell started
dating within the first three

Catherine and Russell started
dating within the first three

or four months that she
started working at the club.

Russell would do the whole
romantic thing, take her out to

restaurants, he had a brand-new
Lincoln at the time,

so, you know,
he would drive her around

in the brand-new Lincoln.

SARA: Russell was a music
producer when he met Catherine,

but Russell Neal was part of
the band Hi-Five,

you know, the '90s boy band,
one of the many.

Now here's a group, Hi-Five,
that not only just

reaches platinum,

but they're reaching
the pinnacle of being noticed.

From the early '90s,
Hi-Five became a huge success,

and part of their success was
that they were able to ride

the crest of a number-one record
not once,

not twice, but three different
times on the all-important

pop charts.

I was like...

you go girl, you know?

I'm -- I'm happy
if you're happy.

I'm -- I'm happy
if you're happy.

"The Kissing Game"
is one of the top songs.

Everybody loved that song.

One of my favorite movies was
"Sister Act," and there was

a song on the soundtrack that
I just could not stop playing.

♪ And I never should have
let you go ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

And it was Hi-Five,
and I was like,

oh, I love this song.
Yeah.

TYRONE: What made Hi-Five
unique was not

just their dance moves,
but their harmony, as well.

Russell Neal was one of
the good-looking people of

the group, and the girls kind
of swooned around him.

the group, and the girls kind
of swooned around him.

They were ahead
of Patti LaBelle.

They were ahead
of Deborah Cox.

They were ahead
of Ice Cube.

They were even ahead
of Salt-N-Pepa.

That tells you just how big
this group was.

But unfortunately,

there become stories,
and not good ones.

Toriano Easley
served time in prison for

Toriano Easley
served time in prison for

an unfortunate incident
where someone was killed.

And it just started unraveling
as an unfortunate amount

of events led to almost
the demise of this group.

SARA: Roderick "Pooh" Clark
had a car accident

and was paralyzed
and then later died.

Tony Thompson inhaled freon
and died because of that.

Another band member
drowned in Israel when

he went to save his niece
from drowning.

How much more could a group

How much more could a group

go through that
had so much promise?

It just seemed
as though this

group just couldn't
catch a break.

GLENDA:
When I first met Russell,

he seemed like an older guy,

but I didn't realize that
he was so much older than her.

She was 18 years old,
and he was in his 30s.

I didn't really get
a good vibe from him.

I didn't really get
a good vibe from him.

To my knowledge,
Russell did not have a job.

He was living off of royalties,
and also, he did

a lot of stock market
type things.

And then Catherine
had a car accident with

his Lincoln very early on
in the relationship.

[tires squealing,
crashing noises]

[distant sirens wailing]

The car flipped
about three times

and then slammed
into a tree.

He's running outside,
and he's like, "My car, my car,"

and I'm like, "My sister."

What do you think
is more important,

your car or my sister?

They had to airlift her
to the hospital,

and then once she got out
the hospital,

she's like, "He's so pissed
about the car,"

and it's like, okay,
he's pissed about the car,

and it's like, okay,
he's pissed about the car,

but you could have lost
your life.

After she totaled
his Lincoln,

she felt like she needed
to repay that debt.

And so she started
paying a lot

of everything that they did --
their living situation,

it was coming out of
Catherine's pocket.

I kind of was like, um,
I really don't like this guy.

SARA: Russell was like
a great catch.

SARA: Russell was like
a great catch.

He seems like this perfect guy
on the outside

and maybe even
on the inside,

but there's really something

deeply disturbing
about Russell's family.

So Catherine and Russell moved
in about after five months of

dating, and then
shortly after,

about a month or two after,
she ended up getting pregnant

with her eldest son.

She was very nervous --
as a child

growing up in
a single-parent household,

she wanted to make sure that
whatever child she brought into

this world had both mom
and dad growing up.

this world had both mom
and dad growing up.

She ended up dropping out of
college, because she wanted to

focus more on being a mom,

and they had two sons
about a year and a half apart

from each other.

There's something going on
with Russell's family.

So Ronald Neal is Russell
Neal's brother, and he meets

a beautiful woman,
she's 29 years old,

her last name's Magee,
and they get married,

her last name's Magee,
and they get married,

and they have children,

and this relationship
very quickly went bad.

In fact, Ronald once was
arrested for assault on Magee.

He would lock her up
in a closet.

He would beat her up with
a belt and a belt buckle.

It was very much overt
domestic violence.

At some point, Magee finally
had the courage to leave

At some point, Magee finally
had the courage to leave

the relationship,
and on that

same day where she filed
for divorce,

Ronald brutally attacked her
and shot her five times in

front of their child,
a 10-year-old boy.

[distant radio chatter]

[distant sirens]

At that point, I'm like,
something's not right

with that family.

You know,
I thought that was insane.

I thought that was scary.

My heart broke for their boy.

And to hear what was going on,

I cried for him.

I did, you know, because he's
begging for help, you know?

And all he could do was hear
his mom scream.

Why would you do that?

Just leave.
Just leave.

You don't have to go to
the extreme -- for what?

You don't have to go to
the extreme -- for what?

Ronald pled guilty
to first-degree murder.

He's sentenced
to 80 years in prison,

which is pretty much the rest
of his life, and in fact,

he's not eligible
for parole until

he serves at least
30 years of that.

GLENDA: That history
did alarm our family.

We had kept telling Catherine
to leave Russell alone several

times, but, you know,

she was really tied on to
the fact that she wanted to make

she was really tied on to
the fact that she wanted to make

sure her boys were raised
with a father in their lives.

Catherine was impressed
with the possibility that

he was going to be
a successful producer.

But Russell was definitely
posing as this rich guy

who just had it all

and was manipulating
and lying to Catherine

when they first met.

TYRONE: Russell Neal left
the group in the mid-90s.

He was having a problem
with the money

that he wasn't obtaining
from this group

and believed that he deserved
more than he was getting.

And instead of somehow
trying to find

a way to make it work
or make it right,

he decided to walk.

On the video,
"She's Playing Hard to Get,"

Russell Neal wasn't there.

He actually went on strike.

At one point,
he refused to tour

At one point,
he refused to tour

until they sat down to
renegotiate the terms.

And unfortunately,
that was probably one

of the worst mistakes
he ever made.

And instead of being
a quintet,

they became a quartet.

And this actually
worked out fine.

I never saw Russell Neal
do anything

more than what he did
for Hi-Five.

I never heard anything
on the radio,

never knew of anything in
which he produced.

Never knew that
he was associated

with any other groups
at that point.

I never saw him do anything
more than what he did

at the apex of his career
with Hi-Five.

SHAUNTAÉ: When you come from
a group like Hi-Five,

and you've performed at
Apollos and they're in

big stages,

and you come in contact with
A-list celebrities,

and then you find that times
are changing,

if you're going broke,

jealousy kicks in.

Me and Catherine, we did lose
contact for a little while.

Me and Catherine, we did lose
contact for a little while.

And the last time
I had saw her,

she was sitting
outside my job,

and she looked like
she hadn't slept in days.

Days.

And I walked up to her,

and I said,
"Are you okay?"

And she just stared, like she
can hear me, but she was just

staring into mid-space,
and I'm like, "Diamond,

can you hear me?"

She said,
"I'll be fine."

She was the kind of
person that

She was the kind of
person that

she tried to keep
her problems to herself.

She didn't want to put that
kind of energy on anyone else.

And I'm like,
"How are things with you?"

And she's like...

[distant shouting]

"I'm just tired of fighting."

That's what she would say.
She's like,

"I'm just tired of fighting."

She's all like, you know,
"I don't want to get into that,

but I'm just tired
of fighting."

You know, she'd change
the subject quick.

[distant shouting]

I would look at her,
read her body language,

you know, she wasn't happy.

you know, she wasn't happy.

She wasn't happy, you know,
in her love life.

You know, I guess, with him,

and or whatever personal
that was going on.

I'm like, well, you know,
I'm here if you need me,

and we parted ways again.

She came home one day
with makeup on

her eye, and she was
a beautiful girl.

She didn't need to wear makeup,
and she hardly ever

wore makeup.

So it was really shocking to
see her with foundation

So it was really shocking to
see her with foundation

on her eye, and we knew
something was going on.

We started seeing Catherine
covering up bruises.

Catherine would try to hide
the fights at first,

and she came to stay with us
for a while.

SARA: The unfortunate part is
that all of this was kept

very, very
behind closed doors.

Sometimes it starts
with just a loud voice,

then it gets
to some slapping,

then it gets
to some brutalizing,

and then it's too late.

You know, Hollywood
is smoke and mirrors,

and Russell Neal,

as it turned out,
is smoke and mirrors.

So Catherine and Russell
dated for about five years

on and off.

They broke up about three
times in the five years.

They decided to finally
separate back in 2013.

I think that Russell
was manipulating

and lying to Catherine
when they first met.

I think that he was
trying to pose as someone

I think that he was
trying to pose as someone

that he wasn't just
to kind of reel her in.

And Catherine eventually
caught on and was just like,

I don't want to be
a part of your fall.

I want to rise up,
and I'm not

gonna let you bring me down
with you.

The case definitely
affected me.

The case definitely
affected me.

It was very unique.

Russell Neal
is somewhat famous,

but that was way back in
the early '90s.

They kind of fell off, and he
really didn't have much success

after that,
and fast forward

about 23 years,
and at that point,

he was about 40 years old.

Their relationship
was falling apart.

She had moved on
and was living

the next stage of her life.

Was kind of a shooting star,
and she was

kind of on to new and bigger
and better things.

GLENDA: 2013 was a big year,
because that's the year

that she finally decided
to say, "Hey,

"it's over between me and you,
and I am going

to do my own thing."

SARA: Catherine really focused
on her career and motherhood,

and that infectious drive had

propelled her into continuing
her modeling career,

fitness training,
bodybuilding, you know, she won

fitness training,
bodybuilding, you know, she won

a couple of championships, and
she was training to be a boxer.

SHAUNTAÉ:
Her goal was to be a star.

That's what she wanted
and followed that, you know?

[camera shutter clicking]

Her star was
getting brighter.

So their custody thing is,
she had the boys 100 percent of

the time --
he would just come over

and watch the boys
as a babysitter

and watch the boys
as a babysitter

that got paid whenever
she needed

to spend extra hours
at the gym.

I was really upset --
I could not even imagine,

like, if my husband would say
that I need to pay him to watch

our own kids, he probably
wouldn't be a husband anymore.

So they lived in a condo
on the west side of town

So they lived in a condo
on the west side of town

in Houston with
their two boys.

But ultimately, I think that
Russell was on his way out

or Catherine was going
to be leaving

with the children,
because he was spending time

away from that residence,
as well.

GLENDA: I saw Catherine
on June the 30th.

She had came to Killeen.

She was going to one of
the clubs to promote

her modeling shoot,

and so they were both
at my mom's house,

and so they were both
at my mom's house,

and she was goofing
around and playing.

It was very relieving to see
Catherine so happy.

She had her spunk back.

She had, you know, her little
spark that she's always had,

and it was nice to see her
so happy.

It was kind of like the sister
that I always looked

up to, that I always needed to
be like her, was back,

and then Catherine had to
drive down to Houston.

Let me just, like, paint
the picture to what our booking

area looks like --
when you first walk into it,

it looks like when you walk
into a bank.

It's set up like tellers.

So I just called next to
window three,

and this gentleman stepped up
to my window.

I asked him what he needed,
and he just said,

"I got into a fight last night
with my wife.

"She is now deceased.

I'm here to turn myself in."

So in the 15 years
at that time that I had been

doing this,

it threw me for a loop
for a little bit.

It's just not part of
the norm.

And it's at that point that
I noticed he also smelled

really clean,

which is not the norm
for most of the people.

Like, you could tell
he smelled of...I wanna say,

like, aftershave.

like, aftershave.

So he was dressed really nice,
like everything

was coordinated.

And so I just automatically
asked him

for his name and date
of birth.

He gave me Russell Neal.

So I asked him again,
"Sir, what did you need?"

And he said,
"I'm here to turn myself in.

"I got into a fight last night
with my wife.

She's now deceased."

And so I called the city of
Houston and was like,

"Hey, look,
I believe there's gonna be

"Hey, look,
I believe there's gonna be

"a body at this residence.

"Can you just send officers out
to confirm there's a body

so we know that this is
a legit thing."

What's going on?
Why are you here?

Well, uh, my wife and I
got into an altercation.

[indistinct]

And she's deceased.

I can give you
the address.

And so police were operating
and conducting their

investigation solely on that
very simple few sentences,

but that did lead them to
the apartment.

but that did lead them to
the apartment.

That did lead them
to discover her body.

He covered her
with a sheet.

She had multiple
blunt force injuries to

the back of her head
and numerous stab wounds

centered on her back
shoulder area,

along with a number of
superficial injuries.

She had some defensive
injuries on her forearms.

She had some defensive
injuries on her forearms.

And it was very gory.

I've seen a lot of
murder crime scenes,

and there was a lot of blood
in this one.

The brutality
and the gruesomeness of

this murder scene
definitely stand out.

He left both murder weapons
at the scene in the open.

One of the murder weapons
was a tire jack,

duct tape both around a handle
on the bottom part of

duct tape both around a handle
on the bottom part of

the tire jack,
as well as the end of it,

as well as a knife.

And the fact that Russell used
two murder weapons told me that

this was calculated,

especially when you look at
the tire jack,

which was duct taped
around the handle.

[handcuffs clicking]

STEPHANIE: After we learned
that, we handcuffed him,

read him his rights,
and then escorted him back to

the sergeant's office.

My niece's grandmother called
me on my cellphone,

My niece's grandmother called
me on my cellphone,

and she's like,

"It's saying on the news
that she's been murdered."

And then I still remember
my heart just, like, pounding.

Like, I couldn't breathe.

And I was just like --
like, no.

Like, I just spoke to her --
like, that's not possible.

And she's like...

"It's Catherine," and I'm just
like, "Yes, it's Catherine."

"It's Catherine," and I'm just
like, "Yes, it's Catherine."

And she was one of
the sweetest souls

that used to say,

you know, like,
why not me? Like...

if I could switch roles
with her, I would have...

in a heartbeat.

I just felt like
she was an amazing mom

and just the soul
that has left us

and just the soul
that has left us

is hard to replace.

So if I could have traded
places with her, I would have.

I knew that it
was premeditated.

I knew that he planned it
perfectly to

make sure that
she didn't have a chance.

SHAUNTAÉ: And then on
Facebook Messenger,

a mutual friend says,
"You ain't hear?"

I said, "What are you
talking about?"

He said,
"Diamond dead."

I said, "No, she not.
I just messaged her."

I said, "No, she not.
I just messaged her."

He said,
"It's all over TV."

I said,
"You lying."

He said,
"It's all over TV."

I broke down.
I broke down.

I began to shake.

I began to cry.

You know, I just, I hit
the floor, and I just screamed.

And all I could do was scream
and cry and ask why, like,

And all I could do was scream
and cry and ask why, like,

she wasn't ready.

She had so much to go,
you know, so much to live for.

It just --
it still hurts.

It's more emotional
for me, because

I didn't get a chance to
really just thank her for

everything that
she did for us,

because she did a lot of stuff
that she did not have to do.

She really did.

The person that she was,
the goofiness, the spontaneous,

The person that she was,
the goofiness, the spontaneous,

the care that she had,
the help that she --

I mean everything
about her, anything.

She'd give you her last.

She'd help anybody,
a complete stranger, you know.

It's -- it's missing
the love that she had.

When the sheriff then realizes
he's the primary suspect,

Russell, he invokes
his Fifth Amendment,

he says he's not gonna
answer any questions

and that he wants a lawyer.

and that he wants a lawyer.

And that's pretty much
the fullness of my statement

until I'm able
to speak with an attorney.

By virtue of just making
that very short statement,

he placed himself
at the crime scene.

We just don't know
at what time.

GILBERT: So...
all the evidence suggests

that she died
in the early morning

hours of July 1, 2014,

but he didn't turn
himself in until

but he didn't turn
himself in until

the afternoon of July 2nd,

so by my calculations,
she was dead in

the apartment for almost
a day and a half.

When Catherine arrived home at
around 5 o'clock in the morning,

the kids were there,
and they were in their room.

They did wake up
when they heard

what they thought was Russell

spanking Catherine
and yelling at her.

[distant yelling]

At around 5:45, neighbors said
they heard loud bangs,

like somebody was nailing
something to the wall.

The kids were then
shuffled through

the living room in the morning,

and Catherine was in very good
shape when this happened.

But if you're being attacked
by a grown man

who has a tire jack in
his hand

and also possibly a knife
at the same time,

she wasn't able to fend
for herself long enough,

and the fact that
two separate weapons

were used,
presumably the tire jack

was used to strike her
in the back of the head,

and then, at some point,
he had the wherewithal to

switch weapons to the knife

and then begin to
stab her in the back.

I think it shows that Russell,
once he got started,

could not control himself,
and the rage and the anger

that he was feeling
when he was doing this,

he could not get it
under control.

I've already killed her,
but instead, he kept going

and going and going.

Nothing was wiped up.

The murder scene was left
practically intact.

There was DNA testing,

and his DNA came back on a lot
of things in the apartment.

There was never a question
that somebody else

could have broken in
and done this.

And he himself said
he got into

an altercation with his wife,
and she's now deceased.

GLENDA: And so we need
to find the boys

and get the boys --
are the boys okay?

Like, were they hurt?

Because I know that if
something happened

Because I know that if
something happened

to Catherine, she would

have tried her hardest to
protect her boys and make sure

that they were okay.

So as soon as the Houston
Police Department learned about

the murder
and sent somebody out,

it's determined
that afterwards,

the kids were then
shuffled through

the living room in
the morning.

Meanwhile,
Catherine's body was in

the living room
under a blanket,

and he had the lights off as
he shuffled them past.

So Russell took them
to school.

That's kind of
the question is,

how much did the boys
know happened?

They knew that they heard
something in the morning,

and when Russell came to the
room right after it happened,

the eldest son noticed what
he thought was ketchup on

Russell's shoulder.

And Russell told them,
"Don't say anything."

It was really hard for us to
know that both of the boys were

in the apartment

when the incident happened,
because they were traumatized

from having to hear their mom
scream for help.

The "who done it" was never
really an issue.

The only two adults in

that apartment were Catherine
and Russell.

So the biggest challenges
that investigators had was

piecing together the motive.

piecing together the motive.

SARA: But here,
we just don't know.

We just don't know
what happened that day

that led Russell to
brutally kill Catherine.

The idea that
you could kill your wife,

walk into the police
department or the sheriff's

station, and tell the half
truth, which is a big lie.

Not that she's dead, but that
she is injured and needs help.

Something doesn't add up
with him.

There was such
a stark contrast with

not only what he was saying,

not only what he was saying,

but how he looked
and how he acted

with what he had just done.

I think his plan was
very orchestrated.

He knew he was going to be
turning himself in.

He knew that his image was
going to be put out there into

the media,
and I think he realized,

like, I need
to get myself into the image

that I see in myself.

And so he prepared himself.

And so he prepared himself.

He used a straight edge razor
to shave his head.

He color coordinated
his outfit

with black from head to toe,

and black shoes
with neon yellow accents,

and a very, I think,
purposeful

message on his shirt --
it read "King."

I think he turned himself in
for the fame.

I think he turned himself in
for the fame.

He knew
it was going to be on

the news, and he knew it was
gonna blow up.

GILBERT: Russell appeared
to be very fixated

on his image --
inside their apartment,

he had this little work
station, and he had a pyramid of

quotes from various people,

like T.D. Jakes,
Shaka Zulu.

He had this manifesto
of what he wanted to become,

scribblings in
a notebook, really.

In the next five years, he was
going to become a billionaire.

In the next five years, he was
going to become a billionaire.

He was gonna go to business
school in New York, and he was

gonna take
his Series 7 tests,

and he was gonna make
all this money.

He had grand ideas of what
he thought he could become,

even though there was no basis
to support these pipe dreams.

SARA: There's really something
deeply disturbing

about Russell Neal.

It goes to that example
of how perfect his outside is

and how absolutely
broken his inside is.

and how absolutely
broken his inside is.

GILBERT: I think after
they started to separate,

Catherine was living
her best life.

She was experiencing more and
more success, having more luck

with fitness, modeling,
getting more opportunities.

So as their paths in life
continued to separate,

I think Russell saw
the writing on the wall.

She was dating this other guy,
and I think Russell's life was

slipping away before his eyes.

And there's evidence
he found out about

And there's evidence
he found out about

this new relationship that
Catherine was having.

There were texts that she
received from this other guy.

Presumably, Russell discovered
these text messages

and was waiting for her
to come back,

and Russell confronted her as
to what exactly happened.

And I think he took
this anger that was

building in him for months
out on her that night.

SARA: We have two brothers,
Russell and Ronald,

and we have two murders,

and they are eerily similar.

Both of them commit
these murders

in the presence of
their children.

They both killed
the mother of their children.

They were completely
heartless in

the way that
they acted afterwards.

the way that
they acted afterwards.

Is it a genetic issue?
Is it a nurture issue?

I don't --
I'm not sure.

But it's just a very,
very sad coincidence.

Even though the evidence is
overwhelming that

they're guilty,
they want to go to trial.

A lot of times,
people go to trial,

because there's always
a chance

because there's always
a chance

that the jury will find them
not guilty or it's a hung jury.

Originally, he did want
to go to trial.

But that was a bad gamble.

And it wasn't until his case
was first on the docket,

set for trial,
that I think

the reality of
a plea deal was actually going

to happen.

At the last minute,

we were finally able
to reach a deal.

Russell pled guilty
to 40 years in prison,

Russell pled guilty
to 40 years in prison,

and he waived his right
to appeal.

And Catherine Martinez's family
all agreed that it was

in the best interest of
the case and the children

that this is the way the case
would resolve itself.

SHAUNTAÉ: To me,
it's a slap on the wrist.

You know, I feel like
you really need to pay.

I'm happy
that he's where he's at.

That is a sense of justice.

But as far as his sentencing,
no, I don't feel --

But as far as his sentencing,
no, I don't feel --

mnh-mnh, I feel like
he should have got life.

I feel like he should be in

solitary confinement
the rest of his life.

GLENDA: We feel like he should
have gotten longer.

I really wish that...

he...

possibly just could
have disappeared.

I wish he would have just took
his own life.

I honestly -- I wish it would
have been a murder-suicide.

I honestly -- I wish it would
have been a murder-suicide.

SHAUNTAÉ: If I could say
anything to Catherine...

I love you, girl.

And I thank you

for everything.

I appreciate you.

Why didn't you call me?

Your boys are beautiful.

They're smart.

They're strong.

I'll always love her.

[inhales, exhales heavily]

I'll always think of her.

I just miss her.

I just miss her.