Convicting.a.Murderer.s01e02 (Sharing Wives)

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Phone calls, testimonials and interviews reveal new details about the case of convicted murderer Steven Avery.  #documentary #netflix #truestories   Related Keywords: Convicting a Murderer: Episode 2 Convicting a murderer episode 2 watch online free Convicting a murderer episode 2 dailymotion Convicting a murderer episode 2 full episode Convicting a murderer episode 2 release date Convicting a Murderer episode 3 Convicting a murderer episode 2 download Convicting a Murderer episode 3 full episode youtube Convicting a Murderer where to watch Convicting a murderer watch online Is Convicting a Murderer on Netflix Convicting a Murderer Episode 2 Convicting a murderer summary Convicting a Murderer Reddit Convicting a Murderer episode 3 watch online free Convicting a Murderer download Convicting a Murderer Daily Wire Convicting a murderer episodes watch online free Convicting a murderer episodes watch online Convicting a murderer episodes download Convicting a murderer episodes free Convicting a murderer episodes dailymotion Convicting a Murderer where to watch Is Convicting a Murderer on Netflix Convicting a murderer episodes youtube Convicting a murderer sharing wives full episode Convicting a murderer sharing wives ep 2 Convicting a Murderer episode 3 Watch Convicting a Murderer episode 2 online free Convicting a Murderer episode 6 Convicting a Murderer episode 10 Convicting a Murderer trailer Convicting a Murderer episode 5 Netflix documentaries crime Netflix documentaries 2024 Netflix documentaries New Best documentaries Netflix Netflix documentaries History award-winning documentaries on netflix Netflix Documentaries kidnapping Best Netflix documentaries reddit

Transcript

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00:37So is the mic on?

00:38Yeah.

00:39We're all set?

00:40Okay.

00:41Let's talk about your past.

00:42I understand you had a history of cruelty to animals in 82,

00:47something like lighting a cat on fire.

00:50I'm a cat lover.

00:52Don't get me wrong.

00:54But I hate that fucking cat.

00:56I would probably kill the damn thing myself at this point.

01:00That cat has caused problems.

01:03I've lost close friends over me falling into this cave.

01:08The thing with the cat was pretty crazy.

01:11And I know, like, people on the Internet say,

01:13oh, it means nothing.

01:14It was young. It was a cat.

01:16Keep your hand down if no one ever did anything silly

01:20when they were younger.

01:23It's shocking, I think.

01:26That's why we have animal cruelty laws.

01:28You know?

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02:51One night, Stephen Avery and a few of his buddies

02:53decided to throw a cat into a fire.

02:56I had a bunch of friends over

02:58who were fooling around with the cat.

03:00Making a murderer actually allows Stephen Avery

03:03to explain it himself.

03:05I tossed him over the fire,

03:08and he lit up to me.

03:10The documentary offers a sympathetic explanation.

03:13Court records describe torture.

03:16He described it as he threw the cat over the fire

03:19when, in fact, the police report states

03:21something much more sinister.

03:23It wasn't an accident at all.

03:25Lori and Stephen weren't living at the Avery Salvage Yard

03:29at that point, and everything I can find

03:33shows that it was his idea to burn the cat

03:36and that he decided to start the fire,

03:40and he chased the cat to catch it.

03:43Imagine a grown man, a married man, a father,

03:48and one night he's hanging out with his friends.

03:50They're around a fire.

03:52They're having some beers, having a good time,

03:54and he turns to his friends and he says,

03:56I have an idea. Let's burn the family cat.

03:59So he captures the cat,

04:01and then he douses that cat in flammable liquid.

04:05And then he told the friend to pick the cat up

04:07and throw it in the fire.

04:09It doesn't condone that Stephen was a part of it,

04:11but he wasn't the one that actually did it.

04:20And then at least according to his supporters,

04:23it wasn't him that actually threw the cat into the fire,

04:26so you can't blame him.

04:54He was a part of it, but he did not do it per se.

04:57Somebody else actually turned themselves in and confessed

05:00and said, you know, it was that Yanda person.

05:12Stephen's parole officer said that

05:14when the cat jumped out of the fire,

05:16he poured more gasoline on it

05:18because he didn't want it to suffer longer.

05:23When it crawled out, Avery threw it back.

05:35Oh, he was surrounded by a bad cast of characters.

05:38Oh, it was the friends that influenced him poorly.

05:41Excuse after excuse after excuse.

05:46The idea that he would explain it

05:48is he fell in with the wrong crowd

05:50when he was the one who was applying

05:52this flammable liquid to a family pet

05:55just didn't equate with what I had been led to believe.

06:01It's a pretty big deal,

06:03and I think actually flipped a lot of people right off the bat

06:06to say, oh, you know, that's a sign of bad stuff to come.

06:12What is it that's said about individuals

06:14that can harm innocent animals?

06:16What is the common understanding of what those individuals

06:18are capable of later in their lives?

06:21Sometimes people say that cruelty to animals

06:24is a precursor, like a first early sign,

06:28of violence toward humans.

06:30So a lot of people have made that connection.

06:34You know, that was only a one-time deal,

06:36and once I stopped hanging around with them people,

06:40I didn't have no problem then.

06:43You mentioned briefly the story of his dog.

06:47His dog ran away,

06:49and he went to go get his dog, a German Shepherd,

06:53and he brung him back all bleeding.

06:56He was hanging onto the chain out the door

06:59and dragging it down the road.

07:02So the dog ran away, and he punished it

07:04by dragging it back home?

07:06Yep, yep.

07:07Well, yeah, it was all scunnel.

07:10I don't think a lot of us knew

07:12about the incident with the cat.

07:14More was coming out through that week of the search

07:17about his prior criminal record,

07:19and then we started learning kind of more and more

07:22about how he behaves and how he potentially reacts.

07:27Avery describes himself as an impulsive man,

07:30a person who acts out of his own free will.

07:32He's a man of his word.

07:34He's a man of his word.

07:36Avery describes himself as an impulsive man,

07:38a person who acts out of anger,

07:40an individual who possibly would be better off

07:42if he thought before he acted.

07:45Well, in 85, didn't you run a...

07:47Yeah, my cousin off the road.

07:49It was your cousin?

07:50Yeah.

07:54On the record, in the matter of Avery v. Manitowoc County,

07:57would you raise your right hand, please, to be sworn in?

08:00I do solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give

08:02will be the truth, the whole truth,

08:04and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

08:06Yes.

08:10Santa Morris was a neighbor of Stephen's,

08:13and sort of a relative.

08:15They really weren't blood relatives.

08:17Your father's sister married an Avery?

08:21No, my father... Yeah, yeah, right.

08:28I think the stuff with his cousin

08:30and running her off the road,

08:32that was kind of surprising when I found out about that.

08:34That seemed like not something you just do.

08:38Well, why did you do that?

08:41She was running with rumors

08:44that we're out there running naked

08:46and me and the wife were having sex

08:48in the middle of the road and everything.

08:50So I figured I'd just scare her,

08:52and that was it of that.

08:56I mean, you're a young dad, you got a wife,

08:58you got little kids,

09:00your name is basically being dragged through the mud.

09:05You have this nasty rumor going on

09:07in a rural area to a guy with 70 IQ

09:10who is, you know, prideful now.

09:12He's not that, you know, punk anymore,

09:14so he wanted to defend his, basically, honor.

09:18He did have anger issues,

09:20he did act on impulse,

09:21and he didn't really think through clearly

09:23what the consequences would be of his actions.

09:27I just feel like in a lot of ways

09:29Sandra Morris was the catalyst

09:31that started a lot of this.

09:33Without Sandra Morris,

09:35we're not all talking right now.

09:38Free dancing!

09:40Free dancing!

09:42Free dancing!

09:44Free dancing!

09:46Free dancing!

09:48Free dancing!

09:50Free dancing!

09:52Free dancing!

09:54Free dancing!

09:56Free dancing!

09:59I'm Christine Branson

10:00from Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

10:02Like everyone else,

10:03watched the documentary

10:04when it unfolded in December of 2015,

10:06and I think the evidence just shows

10:08that at the very least,

10:09Stephen should be given a new trial.

10:12Making a murderer

10:13had just come out before Christmas,

10:15binged the entire thing,

10:17and was absolutely appalled

10:19at the fact that both men

10:20were still in prison.

10:21I know Christine's been working on the case

10:23for a very long time,

10:24probably as long as I have.

10:27I unearthed a ton of information,

10:29and it kind of solidified my position

10:31in this case and with the family.

10:33She was very close to the Avery family,

10:35I think, right off the bat.

10:37They are near and dear to my heart.

10:39They are strong people.

10:41They have endured

10:42more than their fair share of hard times.

10:45We want justice!

10:48Megan organized the first rally.

10:51No DNA!

10:53For me, it was such an eye-opening experience

10:56watching the documentary,

10:57and I had to do something

10:59and get involved in some way.

11:01I reached out to someone

11:03that was running a Facebook page

11:05and asked if they needed help.

11:08I was close with the family.

11:12We both helped to organize

11:13the following rally,

11:15which was June 2016.

11:17We both eventually kind of

11:20collided in our efforts.

11:22We just kind of complimented each other

11:24and built a relationship that way

11:26and have been buddies ever since.

11:30Okay, I'm Brenda. Nice to meet you.

11:32Hi, you're Christine?

11:33Hi, Christine. Nice to meet you.

11:39What do you guys know about Sandra Morris?

11:41Just what was in Making a Murder.

11:44In 1985, were you personally friendly

11:47with Stephen Avery?

11:49No.

11:50In fact, you actively disliked him.

11:53Is that right? At that time?

11:56Yes.

11:57Okay.

11:58And you weren't quiet about it?

12:03In Making a Murder,

12:05we hear that Sandra did not like Stephen Avery

12:08and made up lies about what Stephen Avery

12:11was doing in the neighborhood.

12:13What did you perceive her as?

12:15Spent a great deal of time in the bar.

12:18Okay.

12:19Which indicates she might drink a lot.

12:21Was there a period where you were

12:24spending time in a nearby tavern

12:27and talking about Stephen Avery?

12:29I might have.

12:32I might have went to several taverns.

12:35She's going around telling people at bars,

12:37okay, this is a really credible lady, by the way,

12:40chilling in bars all the time, right?

12:43Making a Murderer strategically edited

12:45portions of Sandra's testimony

12:47to make it sound as though

12:48she was talking about Stephen Avery

12:50at a bunch of different taverns all across town,

12:53which simply wasn't the case.

12:56I might have went to several taverns.

12:58Were you going to several taverns at the time?

13:00I don't know.

13:02I don't remember talking about...

13:05I don't know what you mean.

13:07In the actual deposition,

13:09Sandra doesn't even know what he's referring to.

13:12In reality, he was asking her

13:15about one specific situation

13:17with one person, Sandra's cousin.

13:21Did you talk to a woman named Myra Lee Stick

13:24in a tavern about what you said

13:26Stephen Avery had been doing to you?

13:29Yeah, I think so.

13:31So when she was talking to this girl about it,

13:34that girl was actually there with Stephen.

13:37And I looked at him and I says,

13:39why are you doing this?

13:40And he looked right at me and he says,

13:43oh, you look, you like it.

13:46Do you have a belief about what caused him

13:50to start doing this to you

13:52in the summer of 1984 or the fall?

13:55No, no.

13:56You don't know what his motive may have been?

13:58No.

13:59I will say that I felt like Sandra

14:01had an axe to grind with him for whatever reason.

14:15Sandra just happens to be married at the time

14:18to William Morris, the deputy sheriff.

14:22He was actually one of the reserve officers

14:26for the county of Manitowoc.

14:29Just because you're married to law enforcement

14:32doesn't give you the right to take

14:34somebody's name down like that.

14:36That was just wrong.

14:39Sandra was married to the deputy in the MTSO.

14:43That was it.

14:44That's Judy's fate.

14:46Ma'am, I'm going to show you a report

14:48about Stephen Avery in decent exposure.

14:53It indicates that there was a complaint

14:56received September 20, 1984.

15:00It says that he has been known to masturbate

15:04on the hood of the car as she is driving past.

15:08Do you see that?

15:09Yes.

15:12In making a murder, the civil attorney

15:14questioning her in that deposition

15:17asked her about the things that she said.

15:20Did you tell that to the police?

15:22Um, I didn't put it in that many words.

15:27He didn't masturbate on the hood of my car,

15:30but he did come out in front of my car

15:33and he was doing his thing.

15:38Kelly asked her, did you see him masturbating?

15:41And what did you say?

15:42Well, not really, but he was like right there

15:45ready to go, you know what I mean?

15:47Holding his thing or whatever she said.

15:50It then says he has had sexual relations

15:53with his wife out on the lawn.

15:55Dad, I have nothing.

15:56Let me just finish the question.

15:58While all the neighbors are home in the daytime

16:02and able to watch.

16:04Dad, I didn't say it all.

16:06From hearing what you're hearing in making a murder,

16:09what are you assuming?

16:10I'm assuming that she is reading a statement

16:13she made to police that she is now going back on.

16:18Allegedly, neighbors had witnessed Stephen

16:21out on the lawn having sex with Lori, his wife.

16:25So one of them made an anonymous phone call

16:29on September 20th of 1984.

16:32The neighbors in this area are concerned,

16:35you know, can something be done?

16:37And either he didn't catch it or Sander didn't catch it,

16:41but in making a murder, he was reading the things

16:44that the anonymous neighbor said

16:47like it was Sander saying it.

16:49Do you have any explanation for why whoever is writing this

16:53might say that you said that?

16:55I don't know.

16:57She didn't say that.

16:59The anonymous neighbor said that.

17:01It says this is about you calling up.

17:08The witness has already identified herself

17:11as the speaker here.

17:12I don't know if I did call all this.

17:15I didn't call this in.

17:17I discredited Sandra to make her look like she made it up

17:22is how I felt.

17:23The point of it is that she wasn't the one

17:25making the stink about it and had the vendetta against Stephen

17:28and went and made this report.

17:30Somebody else did it and they followed up with her

17:32and asked her about it.

17:33You're exactly right.

17:36He might have done something, I don't know.

17:38I will say this, I'm sure there was something that was done.

17:42Was it as bad as she said?

17:44The way they portrayed it, it seemed like she was taking it further,

17:49but I don't know.

17:51Do you remember the morning in January

17:53when you were forced off the road by Stephen?

17:56Yes.

18:00I was going to work past his house and down the road

18:04and I got towards the end of the road, there's a hill,

18:07and all of a sudden I look in my rear-view mirror

18:10and I see these headlights coming

18:12and they're coming really fast.

18:14And all of a sudden he hit the back of the car.

18:18He described as colliding, their cars collided.

18:21He actually ran her off the road,

18:23exited his vehicle with a rifle, pointed at her,

18:27and ordered her to get into his vehicle.

18:29That's an abduction.

18:31And he said, get into my car.

18:34And I says, no.

18:35And he says, I told you to get into my car,

18:37shut yours off and get into mine now.

18:41He ordered her to get into his car.

18:44I mean, you just don't know what could have happened.

18:48They don't show any of her emotion.

18:50And I says, no, and I begged and pleaded,

18:52and I says, I have my child on the front seat.

18:56I says, I'm not going to leave her here to freeze to death.

19:01You don't see that in making a murder.

19:04Her daughter was in the car.

19:06They left that out completely.

19:08I says, just let me get her to my mother's house or wherever.

19:13And I says, I'll go with you and do whatever you want.

19:16I said, just please let me get her safe.

19:20So then he finally nodded his head yes, and I got into my car.

19:25And I started driving away, and he followed behind me.

19:31He followed her to the stop sign, and she turned right,

19:35and she didn't know if he was going to wait,

19:37she didn't know if he was going to follow her, she didn't know.

19:40And I kept looking in my rearview mirror,

19:42and he was stopped there, and he didn't follow me.

19:45And he turned around and went back home.

19:48But obviously she went right there and called police.

19:51And I told my dad what he did, and he said,

19:53just call 911 and call 911 on him, you know, call the police on him.

19:59So I did.

20:02When he ran a woman off the road and had her at rifle point,

20:06they pretty much made Steven to be the victim

20:09and her to be the perpetrator, the cause of it.

20:14She's the victim.

20:15She's the one that should have been telling that story as a victim.

20:19Steven did a lot of stupid things, but he owned everything he did.

20:25Yes, he did.

20:26He admitted everything he did.

20:29Did he admit the Sandra Morris case?

20:32Yes, he did.

20:34When making a murder,

20:35they talk about how much Steven Avery took accountability.

20:39His cousin Kim Duquette says,

20:41Steven always took accountability.

20:43He always did.

20:44But he always, always owned up to everything he did wrong.

20:47He never said, no, it wasn't me.

20:50And I find that very interesting

20:52because in the Sandra Morris case, he denied it.

20:56Can I just run this by you guys?

20:58They show up, Steven pretends he's sleeping.

21:01I seen him come to the door and he went,

21:04yawned like he just got up.

21:07And he claimed he wasn't home.

21:10A very smart officer went and felt the manifold on the car

21:16on a very cold day, and it was warm.

21:20Then he goes in the house, they search,

21:23and the officer pulls out the rifle

21:26underneath one of the kids' beds.

21:29And it's cold.

21:30So he did complain when he was at the sheriff's office.

21:34He lied about it initially until he was busted.

21:37And he, you know, how are you going to explain that?

21:40I think your knee jerk reaction

21:42when a cop questions you is to lie initially,

21:46at least for the first few moments.

21:48In the interview, he said himself that he grabbed the gun.

21:53He did.

21:55Once they got him back to the station,

21:57after initially denying, yeah.

21:59Once he got found out, he accepted his punishment.

22:03Right, right.

22:05The Making a Murderer filmmakers took the liberty

22:07of forming their own narrative about the Sandra Morris incident.

22:10I think the impression to many viewers

22:12was that Sandra was somehow the bad guy.

22:14We now know that that wasn't the full story,

22:16so the question is, why would they do that?

22:18Why would the filmmakers make a woman

22:20who's been run off the road for doing absolutely nothing

22:23look like a villain?

22:24Well, I think the reason is pretty obvious.

22:26They needed to paint Sandra in a poor light

22:28because they needed to justify Stephen pointing a gun at her.

22:31That's also probably why they omitted the fact

22:33that he ordered her into his car,

22:35because they still needed Stephen to somehow be the victim.

22:38He ended up receiving six years incarceration

22:42for reckless endangerment

22:44and felon in possession of a firearm.

22:48I talked to Sandy Morris at Harps Lake.

22:52Because I used to bartend out there when I was younger.

22:55And she just brought up about how she knew Stephen

22:59and that he tried running her off the road or something.

23:02That's pretty much all she told me about it.

23:05She was in a good place, so.

23:08Her good place was that he was in prison,

23:11so she didn't need to worry about him no more.

23:17Your case was pending when Stephen Avery was arrested

23:21for having allegedly assaulted Mrs. Bernstein.

23:24Is that right?

23:26I believe so.

23:28That Sandra Morris thing, I think what it did for me was,

23:32it kind of had the whole idea

23:34of why the police had their eyes on Stephen Avery.

23:38Stephen Avery was wrongfully convicted in 1985

23:42for the assault of Penny Bernstein

23:44on a beach in Manitowoc County.

23:46This is the case that made Stephen Avery

23:49a public figure in Wisconsin.

23:52He tried for years to prove that he was innocent,

23:56and he was undoubtedly innocent.

23:58Throughout the trial, Avery maintained his innocence.

24:01At his sentencing, he said,

24:03I wish they'd catch the guy, whoever did it,

24:06because I didn't do it, honest to God.

24:09It was a very violent attack.

24:12I mean, they describe it, she wasn't raped,

24:15but she was assaulted pretty brutally.

24:18I was thinking, you know,

24:20Avery hadn't graduated to the violence like that,

24:24so that bothered me.

24:26Stephen went to trial, and he was found guilty

24:30and sentenced to 32 years in prison.

24:33And Lori left behind with the 5 kids,

24:37and he wanted her to send him porn.

24:41There were naked pictures that she sent me.

24:45He would take a magazine,

24:47circle the ones he wanted a picture of,

24:50and then she'd recreate those pictures.

24:53So what she would do is she would have one of her kids

24:57take the picture for her

24:59and then send these pictures to Stephen.

25:01So her children had an active role.

25:04Lori, I think, was at her wit's end

25:07with having 5 kids and having no money

25:09and not having a husband to help take care of them.

25:12So she also sent some letters that talked about

25:16I'm going to kill the kids and myself.

25:18She threatened suicide.

25:20These kids are nuts, they're driving me crazy.

25:23Lori, she wrote some pretty bad things, right?

25:26Because, well, they're taking care of the kids

25:29because she would always complain to him

25:32that she can't handle it, she can't do it.

25:354 of Avery's kids that are under, oh my gosh, 4?

25:40That's a lot of work.

25:42I would imagine that would get pretty stressful.

25:45So Stephen felt that it would be better

25:48for someone in his family, possibly, to help her.

25:53In looking through various police reports,

25:55online articles, witness statements,

25:57you really start to get an understanding

25:59of how Stephen treats his family members

26:01through various allegations that were made

26:03by people that knew him personally,

26:05like his brother Earl, who definitely had a lot to say

26:09Tell me what Stephen asked you to do.

26:12Just to try to take care of Lori the best I could

26:17and to take care of his kids.

26:20But I was only 14, 15 years old, but I tried.

26:25Earl took care of Lori, took care of Stephen's kids.

26:29You're a kid, you're supposed to be going to school,

26:32enjoying your life.

26:33I don't know how to say this, but I mean,

26:36he would call on the phone,

26:38and he would tell Lori to do stuff to me, sexual,

26:44and I'd have to do sexual things back to her,

26:47and it just went more and more.

26:50Lori and Earl had a sexual relationship.

26:53He would ask to stay on the phone and listen,

26:56and he would enjoy it too, over the phone.

26:59I said, why are you having the responsibility

27:01to take care of some other person's wife and kids?

27:05Well, so she wouldn't leave.

27:07He did this for his gratification.

27:11No, that was about it.

27:13That's what I believe anyway.

27:23How did it end?

27:25My wife.

27:27I didn't even know that there was a Stephen Avery that existed

27:31until after probably two years of being married.

27:351990, I think, I first met him.

27:39Earl's mom was going to go visit him,

27:41and I told her, I said, well, who are you going to go visit?

27:44She goes, Stephen?

27:46I said, who is that?

27:48She goes, my son?

27:50And it's like, well, do you want to meet him?

27:52I said, well, no.

27:53I said, why would I want to go trotting off to the prison?

27:56Well, then Earl had me go up there and meet him.

28:00You told me this one time too,

28:02that she wasn't a big fan of Stephen's,

28:04and something happened when she went up to see him at jail.

28:07Yeah, he tried to talk to her sexually.

28:12We went there, and we visited a couple times,

28:15and somehow they decided that they were going to set it up

28:18that I was going to be Stephen's girlfriend.

28:21Dolores and I went by ourselves,

28:24and she sat on one side that only had one chair,

28:28and she goes, well, you can sit on the side with the bench.

28:31I said, well, where is Stephen going to sit?

28:33She goes, well, he can sit next to you.

28:36And Stephen was talking to me, and he goes,

28:38well, don't you know we share wives in this family?

28:42And he tried to touch her or something underneath the table,

28:46and she just flew off the handle.

28:49I looked at him and said, well, I'm not being shared by nobody.

28:52And I told Dolores, I said, well, I'm ready to go home now.

28:55It was the last time I went to go see Stephen.

28:59He would write her letters.

29:02About what?

29:04About getting with him and leaving me when he got out.

29:08I received one, him asking me,

29:11he wanted to have a relationship with me,

29:13and then he would write in there bizarre things

29:17of how he could be my husband and Earl could be my side thing.

29:22And I told Earl, I said, this is just bizarre.

29:25We need to get a hold of the correctional officer

29:28and tell them that they need to stop the letters

29:30going out for certain people.

29:34When talking about Stephen Avery,

29:37I felt as reporters we had a real duty

29:40to as much as we could look into his claims.

29:44But I also felt like we had a real duty to figure out who is he.

29:49You know, he's in there for 18 years.

29:51Well, what was he doing?

29:53Is he holding Bible study in his cell?

29:56Stephen, I think, started to realize that

29:58Lori was going to probably divorce him at some point.

30:02In 1987, his wife filed for divorce,

30:05which apparently angered him.

30:07This is a photocopy of an Easter card

30:09that Stephen Avery sent to his children in 1988.

30:13I requested through the Department of Corrections his prison file,

30:17and there were some cards that he had written to his children.

30:21Happy Easter. Daddy loves you.

30:23When I get out, I'm going to kill Mommy.

30:25And I thought, oh, good God, what is going on here?

30:28Like, who sends their kid an Easter card like that?

30:31Daddy will get Mom when Daddy gets out.

30:34The same card sent to his sons reads,

30:36Daddy will be out soon,

30:38and Daddy will pick you four kids up and run and run.

30:41I hate Mom. She will pay.

30:43That's one of the letters that made me kind of cut all contact.

30:49If you love somebody, you don't threaten them like that.

30:52When I saw these letters, my jaw just hit the floor.

30:55I mean, does this really sound like the kind of letters

30:58that are being written by somebody who just simply does not have it

31:01within his capacity to harm someone?

31:04The fact that he was making threats to his wife

31:06and that he was going to kill her

31:08or that her car wasn't going to run one day and things like that.

31:12And I just remember going to work the next day,

31:14and I said, OK, I got the file, and this is what was in it.

31:17And they said, great, put it on TV at 5 o'clock.

31:21And I said, I was hoping to kind of work on this for a little bit.

31:26CBS 5's Anjanette Levy joins us right now in our Green Bay studio

31:29with more on the issues she's been working on this whole day.

31:31Anjanette.

31:32Tom and Erin, this stack represents 18 years of Stephen Avery's life,

31:36everything from correspondence to records of Avery's visitors

31:39along with incident reports.

31:42I had not seen or heard about that side of Stephen Avery

31:46until I picked up that prison file.

31:50How did you start writing her these letters?

31:52I mean, they're pretty scary.

31:54And it went on for a really long time.

31:56Yeah.

31:57It's just with all the stuff happening,

31:59I'm in there for something I didn't do, and she knows it.

32:02I know some stuff, you know, you write down and you just let it go.

32:07You know?

32:09Do you think that writing that stuff, did that make you feel better?

32:14Well, no.

32:17I feel that I'm trying to win her back.

32:21Most people wouldn't think that was the way to get your wife to take you back.

32:26She went through a lot of stuff, too.

32:28You know, making the threats and telling her,

32:31you don't do this, you don't do that.

32:33When I get out, I'm going to kill you.

32:36Stephen and Lori did eventually get divorced in February of 88,

32:40and Stephen was not very happy with that.

32:44He sent letters to the judges to say this is wrong,

32:47Lori should be looked at for welfare fraud.

32:51The kids, they come up with bruises on them,

32:54and that really kind of backfired on him

32:56because Lori was doing much better with the kids,

33:00and they were doing well.

33:02However, they also investigated the visits when the kids see Stephen.

33:10The kids did not like going to see him.

33:13The children reported being poked and pinched during their visits.

33:16Stephen does this to discipline them

33:18or as a method of playfully teasing the children.

33:21The children, however, believe that Stephen sometimes goes too far and hurts them.

33:26Did he beat the kids?

33:28Mostly Jason, the one that wasn't his.

33:35Jason is Lori's biological son, not Stephen's,

33:40and Lori left the kids with Stephen and came home,

33:43and his front teeth were missing.

33:46Allegedly, it turned out to be that he punched him in the face, this child.

33:53He was always mean to him.

33:56Yeah, he would lay in him pretty good.

34:00Do you feel like your dad was disciplining you,

34:04or do you believe that he was just out of control?

34:07A little bit of both, in a way.

34:09I was just tired of it, to know you're going to go up there and get spanked,

34:13and finally we actually got our visitation pulled.

34:17Manitowoc County Judge Fred Hazelwood terminated Avery's rights

34:21to visit with his children in prison in 1993

34:24since Avery was describing in detail his plans to use a gun to murder their mother.

34:29There was some testimony that you were telling the kids

34:32you were going to kill her with a gun and do all this.

34:35Did you do that?

34:37I don't know what I said.

34:40I don't remember what's all in them.

34:42He also sent them photographs depicting how he planned to sexually mutilate her.

34:48You don't remember telling the kids that you were going to cut out their mom's private parts and kill her?

34:56I can't, no.

34:58You know, they were young.

35:00I figured they didn't know how to read,

35:03and she'd be reading it anyway, you know.

35:08I think I was the wrong way to do it.

35:10There's a side to Steven where he does not obviously deal with stress

35:15in the way that a lot of people would.

35:18The stress of being incarcerated,

35:20obviously there was some issues that he felt he was still trying to control his wife or his children or what have you.

35:27That's all I wanted to do, scare her.

35:30Because I didn't want to be alone.

35:32You know, I wanted to feel something when I got out and she was there.

35:37And it doesn't mean he's guilty of murder,

35:40but it certainly showed me a different side of him.

35:46Lori Avery, after divorcing Steven, married Peter Dassey.

35:49Peter Dassey was previously married to Barb, Steven's sister.

35:53He's also the father to Brendan Dassey and his three brothers.

35:58Lori was already afraid of Steven,

36:00and when it was announced that Steven was being released,

36:02Lori and Peter were two people that were not very happy about it.

36:07Years later, Lori even told the officers during the Hallback investigation

36:11that if Penny Bernstein hadn't wrongly identified Steven in 1985,

36:15she believed that Steven would have killed her.

36:17She believed that Penny saved her life.

36:20After 18 years behind bars, Steven Avery is a free man.

36:26In 2003, he was finally able to have DNA testing

36:31prove that one of the pieces of hair that was left after the rape kit was performed

36:38belonged to Gregory Allen.

36:42It became a huge part of my life.

36:46It became a huge story in Wisconsin when he was freed.

36:51It was a story that was in the news for a long time with the efforts to compensate him.

36:56To make up for those 18 years,

36:58some lawmakers believe Avery should receive nearly a half million dollars in compensation.

37:04You hear a lot of the times that he was in prison for 18 years for a wrongful conviction.

37:11While Avery did serve time for a rape,

37:13he did not commit,

37:14six years of that 18-year sentence was for an incident in which he ran a woman off the road

37:19and pointed a rifle directly at her.

37:22To be clear, six years of those were for the Sandra Morris case.

37:27I feel badly for anybody who spends time in prison for something they didn't do.

37:31You know, obviously the system is very flawed.

37:35Penny Bernstein was crushed.

37:38Absolutely devastated.

37:40There are nights when I go to bed and feel like, you know,

37:43it would be a blessing if I didn't wake up in the morning.

37:47She said the day she found out about Stephen Avery being wrongfully convicted,

37:51that it was worse than the day she was assaulted.

37:55But for all her guilt, she knows she didn't make this mistake alone.

37:58So she told the task force she wants to help fix the system that failed Stephen Avery.

38:04We need to take a look at the procedure, the process,

38:08the way decisions were made 18 and 19 years ago.

38:15When it became clear what the ramifications were,

38:20a lot of people were very disappointed in law enforcement

38:26because it reflected on all of our community.

38:29People were irate.

38:32It was the talk of the area, how this could happen and why.

38:36You know, was there negligence? Was there malicious intent?

38:41So we took the case to the Wisconsin Attorney General, Peg Lautenschlager,

38:47to conduct an independent investigation of the circumstances

38:51and whether any ethical or even criminal violations were committed.

38:56The Department of Justice investigated found mistakes, but no crime.

39:01Had the Sheriff's Department taken more time in exploring potential suspects

39:05prior to the photo array and live lineup,

39:08it is possible that Alan's photograph might have been included in the photo array

39:13or that Alan himself might have been in the live lineup.

39:17The Department of Justice investigated found mistakes, but no crime.

39:21They conclude that there is no basis for a criminal liability.

39:24There's no basis for any ethics violations.

39:27There's no finding of any constitutional violation.

39:31DNA was not available at that time.

39:33Research on the problems with witness identification was not available at that time.

39:39I was really deeply disappointed in the Wisconsin Attorney General's view

39:44and basically whitewashed it.

39:48Stephen really didn't have any relationship with his kids, the boys, at all,

39:52even after he got out.

39:54No. No.

39:56Stevie and Billy.

39:58I don't know if they didn't believe in him.

40:00I don't know.

40:03Only one of the three men in the photo array

40:06was a member of the Wisconsin Attorney General's team.

40:10Stephen was a member of the Wisconsin Attorney General's team.

40:14I don't know.

40:16Only one of his five kids talks to him.

40:19I barely see them.

40:21Just every once in a while I see them downtown.

40:24That's about it.

40:25They looked out of the way.

40:28He had a relationship with Jenny for a little while

40:31and all of a sudden she wouldn't come out by him at all.

40:35So I don't know what happened there either.

40:38Lori wrote that Stephen gave Jennifer hickeys.

40:41That was in a place before.

40:43Yeah.

40:44Jennifer came home one time and she had hickeys on her neck

40:47and he thought it would be funny.

40:51I might have heard it but I don't remember it.

40:53I don't remember it.

40:56How did he treat Barb?

40:59Once in a while they got in scraps and he kicked the shit out of her.

41:03I remember her nose and everything bleeding that one time too.

41:06They hit her against a wall but in the kitchen.

41:12Stephen Avery had a very well established pattern of abusing women

41:16and yet despite all of the evidence of this

41:19you had people that would stand by him.

41:21They'd say, oh we're not making excuses for him.

41:23We're not making excuses.

41:25But that's exactly what they were doing

41:27and that's exactly what they continue to do.

41:29You think about his background

41:31You think about his background, his circumstances.

41:34We're not sticking up for him whatsoever.

41:37But I think what we're looking here is the type of crimes he did.

41:41He never attacked people.

41:44He never raped women.

41:46He never bashed people up.

41:48He took property.

42:01I personally would like you to talk to us a little about your relationship with Stephen

42:05and the abuse that you took.

42:08Well at first it was good until I found out about Marie.

42:13How did you find out about Marie?

42:16Oh boy.

42:18She kept calling his phone

42:20and I asked him, well, why does she keep calling you?

42:24And we argued about that.

42:26And I asked him, well, why does she keep calling you?

42:30And we argued about that.

42:33And then he told me that he slept with her.

42:36Did he say that or did he say he had sex with her or what did he say?

42:40I believe he said he fucked her.

42:44Tonight, accused murderer Stephen Avery could soon face more criminal charges.

42:49Brown County District Attorney John Zukowski is reviewing a sexual assault allegation made against Avery.

42:57And then after that's when he started beating me

43:00because I told him that he's sick for sleeping with her

43:04and having anything to do with her because she is his niece, blood or not,

43:11and a minor.

43:20Coming up on Convicting a Murderer.

43:22Authorities in Manitowoc County received a sexual assault complaint against Stephen Avery.

43:26He has an established pattern of behavior.

43:29And when it comes to this particular scenario, we are talking about a minor.

43:38And I asked her about it and she says, we're just horsing around.

43:41I said, Marie, come on.

43:44This is not horsing around.

43:46Stephen really does have a classic victim mentality.

43:50What do you think about this latest allegation?

43:54Even when he is being the aggressor, he always points to what's being done wrong to him.

44:05Do you ever threaten your parents?

44:07He said if I ever left him, he'd burn our house down with them in it.

44:16CONVICTING A MURDERER

44:46CONVICTING A MURDERER

45:16CONVICTING A MURDERER

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