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A Killer's Mistake Season 1 Episode 5

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Transcript
00:00Every investigation is like a jigsaw.
00:03Each piece offering new evidence as a picture of a suspect emerges.
00:08But which one will reveal the killer's mistake?
00:12If a guy like Kent McGowan wants to kill you, he's going to kill you.
00:42He just managed to do it under the color of law.
00:45I guess this one.
00:49911 County, what's your emergency?
00:51They are trying to break into my house, please!
00:57So Kent McGowan, he was charming, he was likable.
01:01He was obsessed with being popular.
01:03And who is Joseph Kent McGowan? Who are you?
01:06Who am I as a person?
01:08Well, an innocent man, that's for sure.
01:10This was his chance.
01:13His chance at being that super cop that he always wanted.
01:18Hold it, please!
01:20What are they doing?
01:21They're just okay, it's okay.
01:23I said drop the gun, drop the gun.
01:26Ma'am?
01:27It looked like a clear case of self-defense.
01:30So to send Officer Kent McGowan to prison,
01:33investigators would have to uncover a killer's mistake.
01:36We will show you all your fortune.
01:57It just brings you all your glory.
01:58Old Oaks, Harris County, Houston.
02:19This road was the scene of a violent death.
02:22Homicide is not what you'd expect here.
02:25People are wealthy enough to pay for police cars to patrol the neighbourhood.
02:29This way you have a fully certified Texas peace officer with full arrest powers that can conduct traffic stops,
02:36arrest people and has the full authority to truly protect you in that neighbourhood.
02:41It's an excellent concept.
02:44These are the guys driving around providing a visible police presence,
02:48particularly in a very affluent suburb like Old Oaks.
02:53Guys like Officer Kent McGowan.
02:55He sees himself as more than a patrol car policeman, issuing tickets and keeping an eye on big houses.
03:07He is someone who has spent his life dressing to be an authority.
03:15He has ambitions. He wants to be a celebrated detective.
03:19We know Kent McGowan is a man who likes to wear a uniform.
03:23He was in the Air Force. When he leaves, he begins volunteering as a police officer.
03:27It's not often that the Texas Correctional Facility Authorities and the prisoners inside agree to a TV interview.
03:36Joseph Kent McGowan did.
03:38A career cop.
03:40This is not where he saw himself ending up.
03:42To be honest with you, when I was a little boy, I despised bullies, thieves and liars.
03:47I always had, as a little kid, I had this issue with bad guys.
03:51And I just kind of, that was the trail which life led me.
03:55And that's, that's, that's why I went to the Air Force when I was, excuse me, 17.
04:00Because that was about the, the youngest place you could be a policeman.
04:03Officer McGowan's beat, hold Oaks, not the sort of area which will yield him the opportunity to excel, to be a hero cop.
04:13He has the S on his chest as if he's Superman. The cop's cop.
04:19Brian Harris spent decades as a top homicide detective in Texas.
04:23He knows how policing works and the level of experience that an officer is expected to have for each assignment.
04:31He was assigned what's called a contract.
04:33His beat, basically.
04:35Very quiet.
04:36Not much police action is going to take place there.
04:40But he's assigned there until he gets enough time on and seniority where he can put in for another assignment.
04:47Whether it's investigations or to a more crime-ridden area.
04:51But that's the area where he's there, patrolling.
04:53And there's not much crime that happens in that neighborhood.
04:56So, little chance for Officer McGowan to make his name.
05:04Until the events of a humid weekend in Houston take unexpected turns.
05:09Deputy McGowan is patrolling this relatively quiet neighborhood.
05:15But at the same time, his ear is to the ground.
05:18He probably knows, okay, who are the little troublemakers?
05:21Who are the ones that get in trouble, etc.
05:24Officer McGowan pulls over a young man called Michael Schaefer.
05:30And so, he makes a traffic stop.
05:32And the kid is scared.
05:34The patrol officer senses an opportunity to get himself an informer.
05:39If Michael can tell McGowan something useful, he'll let him go.
05:42And he starts inquiring.
05:45I hear there's stolen guns going around.
05:48Michael, nervous, anxious to avoid getting in trouble with the police, offers to help the officer.
05:53Kent McGowan now has his informant.
05:56Every good officer needs an informant on the streets, even in leafy old oaks.
06:02So, now you have Michael.
06:05He's just a kid, teenager, barely an adult in the laws of Texas.
06:09But what can Michael tell Officer McGowan as an informer?
06:14He feels pressured, so he go turns to his friend.
06:17Hey, do you know where I can get a gun?
06:19And Jason gets him a gun.
06:22Jason Aguilar, 17, is no stranger to trouble.
06:27Jason's no angel.
06:28He's not a choir boy.
06:31McGowan arrests Jason and hears a story which then escalates what had been an arrest for a traffic misdemeanor
06:37into something completely different.
06:42Jason Aguilar told me when we were working, he said,
06:44hey, I can buy you a fully automatic laser-sided Uzi for $3,000.
06:48And at the time, a bunch of automatic weapons were showing up in that area.
06:51Some drive-bys or whatever.
06:53And he told me for three grand, he could sell me a fully automatic from some guys he knows.
07:00Officer McGowan's case is getting bigger.
07:03Jason is going to spend the night in a cell.
07:05Earlier, his mother, a lady called Susan White, had left this note.
07:11Call me if you need me.
07:12I love you.
07:14Her mother's love was about to show itself.
07:16She heads to the police station.
07:18When she comes over there, she goes, I need to talk to my son, whatever.
07:20I say, hey, he's going to jail.
07:21He'll be able to call you in a few hours.
07:22She was clearly intoxicated.
07:25Officer McGowan wasn't about to negotiate.
07:28It looked to him like Jason could be part of a gunrunner's ring,
07:31providing Houston's underworld with Uzi's.
07:33It's an opportunity for recognition and potential promotion.
07:37And it had fallen right into Officer McGowan's lap.
07:41What better way than to stand out to your supervisors,
07:45to stand out to the sheriff or whoever are your bosses,
07:50than to be this super cop, this great cop,
07:53or even to the neighbors and the people you serve in that community,
07:56to be the one that's crushing crime,
07:59crime that they didn't even know existed in their neighborhood.
08:02He tells his colleagues,
08:04I've got evidence here of a gun cartel operating in this suburb.
08:08I'm going to crack it.
08:09The day after Kent McGowan had arrested Jason,
08:12there was a further sinister development.
08:14He hears that Susan White had threatened Michael in phone calls
08:17between her and Michael's mother.
08:19She started saying,
08:24Do you know Michael Schaefer?
08:25He's a snitch.
08:26Don't you know what happens to snitches?
08:27Don't you watch TV?
08:28And Houston snitches get killed.
08:30Those are the exact words.
08:31She told me she's a freaking nut, is what she said.
08:34She's a nut.
08:34She's crazy.
08:36And then I said,
08:36Do you think that she's capable of killing your son or having her son killed?
08:39Yes, I do.
08:41And I said,
08:41We're going to go ahead and pick her up on a retaliation warrant.
08:44She said,
08:44Good, get her off the street.
08:47He interprets a general conversation as a specific threat
08:52and then goes from people can get killed to you can get killed.
09:01In McGowan's mind,
09:03he now felt certain that he should get an arrest warrant and fast.
09:07My name is Jim Mount.
09:09I was formerly employed as an assistant district attorney in Harris County, Texas,
09:12and I was one of the prosecutors who was involved in getting a warrant for Deputy McGowan.
09:20I prepared an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant for Susan White's arrest on a retaliation case.
09:29So he met me about 3 o'clock in the morning at a division of the DA's office called Intake,
09:36and he and I spoke, and based on what he told me,
09:39I prepared an affidavit that he swore to is true and correct.
09:43A traffic misdemeanor had escalated to a crime involving gun running
09:48and even, according to McGowan, an underworld threat of retaliation.
09:52He was absolutely certain that Susan White presented a danger,
09:58an actual danger, to the informant that had been used to buy what he said was an Uzi submachine gun.
10:05Officer McGowan had waited a long time for this moment,
10:10taking down the head of a gun running ring which was flooding Houston with Uzi submachine guns.
10:17And who might be the leader of the gang?
10:20Someone superficially living the life of a homemaker in leafy old oaks.
10:26Susan White.
10:27A sale of one single handgun suddenly becomes a big gun running, organized crime, mafia-type scenario
10:38where the don of the mafia is a middle-aged housewife.
10:43Officer Kent McGowan was en route to the office of District Attorney Jim Mount.
10:48He wanted an arrest warrant for Susan White, who he said had threatened the life of her son's friend, Michael Schaefer,
10:55a snitch who'd caused son Jason to be picked up by police.
11:03Informants in Houston, she told Michael's mother, don't live long.
11:13A snitch who'd caused son Jason to be picked up by police.
11:15Informants in Houston, she told Michael's mother, don't live long.
11:21She told Michael, a snitch that had been killed by the police.
11:25The initial district attorneys are going to say, yes, we will help you write this affidavit
11:32because this person is so dangerous.
11:35We cannot have people retaliating against our witnesses.
11:39We're not going to allow that to happen in Harris County.
11:45He told me that Susan White was a person who was going to support her son and knew what
11:52he was doing.
11:53And so I guess in his mind, she was also part of this sale of this machine gun.
12:01He never told me in great detail about why he thought she was such a bad person.
12:05It was sort of conclusory.
12:07She's a bad person.
12:08You know, she's somebody that we've got to get.
12:16McGowan, a neighborhood patrol officer, wanted to be in at the arrest of the possible gunrunner
12:20as Susan White, a woman masquerading as Miss Middle America.
12:28After midnight, I'm talking about everything done.
12:30I went in and it was after midnight, I spoke to Jim Mount.
12:33And he said, yeah, by the time I got the paperwork and all that done, it was like 3.30 or 4 o'clock.
12:38He was adamant that he wanted to arrest her himself.
12:43Again, that's not unusual.
12:47So that in and of itself didn't make me think something was wrong.
12:51Because not only now does he have Jason, the gunrunner, now he's going to go after the big boss, the leader of this big gunrunning cartel that operates in an affluent neighborhood.
13:04And I just told him, look, you can't get it done tonight, you can't get it done tonight, you're going to have to get it done later.
13:10And he seemed to be chafed about that, he was a little upset about that, and he said he was going to call a sergeant and then figure something out.
13:17But he was very, very clear that he was going to be the one to arrest her.
13:21This is the arrest warrant Officer McGowan needed.
13:24He arranges for two deputy sheriffs to accompany him to Amber Forest Drive, Old Oaks, home of Susan White and her son Jason, who was fast asleep upstairs.
13:37It's after midnight, August 25th.
13:41On arrival, he calls her to ask Susan to surrender.
13:44She makes no reply to him.
13:47She's already on the phone.
13:49She's called 911 to complain about people outside her door.
13:53911 County.
13:54What's your emergency?
13:55I don't know.
13:56I don't know.
13:57I don't know.
13:58I don't know.
13:59I don't know.
14:00Officer McGowan didn't know she was making the call.
14:03And so I'm out there on the scene, we're knocking on the door for 15 minutes out there.
14:07Who's there?
14:08He, accompanied by two colleagues, prepares for so-called dynamic entry, breaking down the
14:14door.
14:15I've always done dynamic entry, run a warrant to keep this from happening.
14:18Keep somebody from flushing their drugs, you know, grabbing a gun, hiding or whatever.
14:22But I figured, being this wealthy lady and with the neighbour, I didn't know.
14:25I didn't know she was a nut.
14:27At police headquarters, the 911 call continues.
14:31Susan White has been transferred.
14:33We have the transcript to clearly understand what Susan White said that night.
14:45She sounds confused.
14:46She was in a deep sleep when she heard men outside.
14:59The door gets kicked in.
15:05She's on the phone.
15:06She hangs up the phone.
15:07Ma'am.
15:11McGowan and two other officers rush in.
15:13McGowan later says he sees Susan White with a gun.
15:16I saw her go from right to left.
15:18So we had our weapons on.
15:19I look and she's in the corner, she's holding the gun.
15:22And he opens the bedroom door to be confronted by this woman who's holding a gun and pointing
15:28right at him.
15:29Well, I came in, she had the gun at waist level.
15:33And she never said a word.
15:35Never.
15:36She said nothing.
15:37She had a gun at waist level and it's true.
15:39I mean, I was tunnel vision, I see the gun pointing right at me.
15:42This woman, Susan White, what he believes is the ringleader of a gun cartel.
15:47And she's pointing a gun straight at him.
15:49She was standing like this in the corner.
15:52And the bedroom was like, the door was right here.
15:54And the door opened like this.
15:55And there was a, on the chest of drawers, the TV and a converter box on it, if I recall.
16:00Show me what she looked like.
16:01Huh?
16:02Show me what she looked like.
16:03She was standing with a gun just like this.
16:05He fears his life is in danger and that his deputy's life is in danger.
16:09I saw her for maybe three seconds.
16:11I'm holding her three times.
16:12Drop the gun.
16:13Drop the gun.
16:14She doesn't.
16:15She continues to point it at him.
16:17I told her a second time, she kind of, she kind of turned and pointed it right at me
16:22with the proverbial Mexican standoff.
16:24About 11 feet away, I think it was.
16:32You know, I told her a third time.
16:34When she did that, she had it like this.
16:37She just squared at me.
16:39And she pulls the gun like this.
16:41And then that's, and then put her finger on the trigger.
16:43That's what I told her a third time.
16:44So he fires.
16:45Believing his own life and that of his two deputies is in danger, Officer Kent McGowan fires
16:51three times at Susan White.
16:53First round struck her in the chest.
16:56And she started to go like this.
16:57The second round was behind it and hit, and went through the arm and stuck right in the chest.
17:00Another bullet hit her in the head.
17:04She was dead.
17:08Brian Harris has heard the recording of the incident picked up via the 911 call made by Susan White.
17:14What you hear on the tape, you hear the entry being made.
17:20How many is there?
17:21I don't know.
17:22Would they please?
17:23What are they doing?
17:25They're just broken.
17:26Okay.
17:27He uses an old method of assessing how long it took to travel from banging down the door to the bedroom of Susan White.
17:33Six seconds.
17:35Would they please?
17:37What are they doing?
17:381,001.
17:391,002.
17:401,003.
17:411,004.
17:421,005.
17:431,006.
17:44Ma'am.
17:48Susan is dead.
17:50She's been shot.
17:52By who?
17:53Deputy McGowan.
17:55Now, Susan had six seconds to live from the point that the door got kicked in to the time that Deputy McGowan sees her in her bedroom.
18:03He's a hero.
18:07He's cracked a big case.
18:09It's been his ambition for years to do this.
18:11He's been telling people, one day I'm going to break a really big case, and here he is.
18:16He's shot the leader of a gun cartel.
18:18She's dead.
18:19I did what I had to do to say my life and the life of Deputy Wrong and Malloy at that moment.
18:22That's what I did.
18:24As far as Kent McGowan's concerned, he's done his job.
18:27He's a hero.
18:28Case closed.
18:29But McGowan had not told the whole truth.
18:32What was the killer's mistake yet to be uncovered?
18:36Today, the murder rate in Houston stands at around 250 years.
18:54In the early 90s, it was nearly double that.
18:57A north side, south side gangland feud accounted for many of that number.
19:01The death of Susan White, now a suspect in gun running who had allegedly aimed a pistol at an officer, was not immediately big news.
19:10Officer Kent McGowan had done what he had to do no more.
19:14Deputy McGowan, right after the shooting, is freely talking to other people about what he had to do, what he felt he had to do.
19:24He's creating this hero cop, how he saved his fellow deputies, how he saved his life.
19:30That it was this profile and courage of how he behaved, quote, under fire or potential of fire.
19:37He goes back to the police office.
19:39He's very proud of what he's done.
19:41He's boasting about it even.
19:42Officer McGowan's conscience was clear.
19:47Susan White had threatened to have one of his informants killed.
19:51An informant who had revealed that Susan's son, Jason, had sold him a gun.
19:55And according to Kent McGowan, Jason Aguilar had also revealed he could get an Uzi submachine gun for $3,000.
20:02Yeah, that's what they were telling me, yes.
20:04I didn't know Susan White, so I didn't know if she was a nut or not.
20:06I'm going by what my informant said.
20:07I couldn't question him on a serious situation like that.
20:10I talked to Michael Schaefer a number of times that night.
20:13Excuse me.
20:14And his mother, Jeannie Jakes.
20:16And they told me, yeah, that she's a nut.
20:18That kid was terrified.
20:19He was calling me 911 911 the whole time.
20:22But reading the statements given by colleagues, it's clear that the story does not add up.
20:28And Kent McGowan's post-shooting attitude was a concern, too.
20:32At first, his colleagues are like, yeah, you've done a good thing.
20:35But they're like, you've just killed someone and it's a woman.
20:38That's not a normal reaction to killing someone, even if they were the ringleader of a gun cartel.
20:44That's a big red flag.
20:46As a homicide detective, and I've investigated numerous officer-involved shootings,
20:51from officers being killed to officers being involved in shootings,
20:54I have never, ever in 21 years had an officer that actually bragged about what they did.
21:02I have always seen officers that are fairly quiet.
21:07We make sure they get some counseling, some psychological counseling.
21:11It's a traumatic event.
21:13It's not natural for a human being to take another human being's life.
21:17Kent McGowan, his actions after the shooting, the things he said, huge red flag.
21:24What's wrong with this guy?
21:26Some colleague officers reported another troubling detail of McGowan's post-incident behavior.
21:32He had asked for the casings of the bullets that he'd fired when the autopsy was complete.
21:37And then what he requests of the detectives, the trophy, he actually asks for the shell casings from his shooting scene,
21:50so he can use them on display.
21:53Who would do such a thing?
21:55It's twisted.
21:57It's scary to think that you have a law enforcement officer that would be out on the street that would want to,
22:04almost as if it's a World War II ace where they put markings for every person they shot down.
22:10It's very disturbing as a fellow law enforcement officer that Kent McGowan would actually look at this as a trophy.
22:19The killing of a human being as a trophy.
22:22Most murders involve killers who know their victims.
22:26More often than not, they're over relationship issues or money.
22:29As detectives evaluate evidence, they speak of breakthrough moments,
22:33the realization from one fact which emerges that a killer has made a mistake.
22:41From the moment that the Kent McGowan began to brag about his exemplary behavior
22:45in protecting his fellow officers from the dangerous Susan White,
22:49his version of events began to unravel.
22:52Susan White was on nobody's radar as a gunrunner.
22:56Apparently there's this big gun cartel in this affluent suburb of Houston.
23:01It's a woman. She seems like a regular mum.
23:04Being that this neighborhood had little to no crime, most people would think is a great thing.
23:11But if you have a young officer that is trying to be this superhero in their own mind,
23:21they can create a fantasy that's just not there.
23:24The kid at the corner street smoking a joint.
23:30That's a huge major drug trafficker attached to a cartel.
23:34Somebody is speeding. That's a possible stolen car for them.
23:39So they take what some would consider minor or non-violent offenses and they really blow it up.
23:46Now if you take Kent McGowan's situation, you're talking about a sale of a gun, a handgun.
23:53And a sale of one single handgun suddenly becomes a big gun running, organized crime, mafia type scenario.
24:08And then the reason McGowan had given for needing an arrest warrant began to crumble.
24:12Michael Schaefer's mother Jeannie Jakes, 165 miles away in Austin, Texas,
24:16did confirm that the couple had spoken in general about the trouble that their sons had caused
24:20and that Michael might be better served not becoming a police informant.
24:24But this was not a heated conversation between adversaries.
24:27Jason's mom calls Michael's mom.
24:30No different than two kids who get in a fight in a schoolyard
24:34and parents are going to talk to each other.
24:37I take it as a conversation in generalities, not a specific threat.
24:43So you have two grown women talking to each other and Jason's mom reaches out and says,
24:49you know what, what is Michael crazy getting mixed up with this guy?
24:53I mean, you know, in the real world, people can get hurt.
24:57People have even died from doing stuff like that.
25:00If Deputy McGowan had simply told me that Susan White made a phone call to someone in another city and said,
25:06informants in Houston don't live long, that by itself would have been completely insufficient for me to draft a warrant for him.
25:13No judge would have signed it. No prosecutor would have accepted a charge against her.
25:18As for the suggestion that Uzi submachine guns were part of that night's story, it simply wasn't true.
25:24As Kent McGowan gave evidence to investigators replaying events for them to assess what had happened, something else emerged.
25:31McGowan knew Susan White before that night's events, and she knew him well enough to be frightened that he was outside the door.
25:40So you can, but get McGowan away from my house. Get McGowan away from my house.
25:52I want him out of my yard, off my property.
25:56A transcript was prepared of what Susan White had said, and soon it was confirmed she and McGowan had history.
26:03Susan White says she first encountered Kent McGowan because he kept pulling her over for speeding tickets.
26:15She says what he was really doing was hitting on her.
26:18Perhaps McGowan felt that sort of behaviour was a perk of wearing a uniform.
26:22Kent McGowan is somebody that isn't going to sit real well with the term no.
26:29And so when he's out in that neighbourhood, he's wearing that uniform.
26:33And there's a couple of things you need to remind yourself when you're a young cop.
26:37Are you really that good looking?
26:39Suddenly you're wearing that uniform, you have all kinds of ladies and people hitting on you.
26:44Go back in plain clothes, you're really probably not that good looking.
26:48And are you really that smart?
26:50People twice your age now are asking you advice.
26:54You haven't been on earth that long to be that wise.
26:57But that uniform brings a lot of that.
26:59But that also sometimes can give a false sense of confidence.
27:04And I believe Kent fell into that category.
27:07And he had this single, beautiful, good looking lady.
27:11Certainly why would she spurn his advances?
27:14When she says no, that's maybe perhaps her way of flirting with him.
27:19So because Kent McGowan couldn't accept the word no,
27:22or didn't have enough common sense to see that she wasn't interested,
27:26he kept pursuing her and pursuing her.
27:29He pursued her often enough for her to mention her concerns to one of his senior officers
27:34and to urge the operator at the end of her 911 call at night to send help.
27:39Who's there?
27:41Okay, do you need a deputy out to your house?
27:44They are trying to break into my house, please!
27:48And she's scared.
27:50She believes this guy's gonna kill her.
27:53He has made unlawful entry into her home.
27:56What are they doing?
27:58They just broke in, okay.
28:00All she knows in her head is Kent McGowan, and he's here to kill me.
28:05Ma'am?
28:07Just days after the shooting of Susan White in an apparent justifiable act of self-defense,
28:23Kent McGowan had become a murder suspect.
28:26There were anomalies in his story.
28:29He had claimed the involvement of an Uzi submachine gun in his inquiries.
28:33Not true.
28:34To get an arrest warrant, he had claimed Susan White had suggested his informant might get killed.
28:40That claim appeared fanciful at best.
28:43And a big mistake made in his version of events.
28:46He had not told the district attorney that Susan White knew McGowan, and had complained about him harrison time.
28:53Uh, well, several complaints, and I need to know. I'll tell you immediately.
28:57McGowan denies that he knew Susan White, though he accepts she may have known him.
29:03Well, you know what? Maybe she was stalking me. I've been asked that.
29:07What was true?
29:09Was officer Joseph Kent McGowan a hero cop or a killer in a uniform?
29:14And if so, what was the mistake that would uncover him?
29:33Who was Kent McGowan? Investigators wanted to know more about their 27-year-old colleague.
29:39Kent McGowan, I would describe as a gypsy cop. Somebody who was a narcissist. Somebody who truly believes that they themselves are that superhero.
29:54McGowan kept losing his jobs. The records uncovered show a chequered career rap sheet.
30:04He gets a job as a police officer. Things don't go well in the police force. He's accused of sexual harassment.
30:10People say he has violent tendencies. He's a shirker. He's quite lazy, actually, even though he says he wants to be a hero.
30:17He's heard making comments about women, disparaging comments about women.
30:22He loses his job as a police officer. He then volunteers to be a police officer. He loses that volunteer position. He volunteers again.
30:30He's desperate to keep on wearing that uniform and to keep having the power that that uniform provides.
30:35Kent McGowan has always refuted the claims made about him by officers who uncovered his career records.
30:42This is what he told us about the times he got fired, like when a complaint was made about him by a female officer.
30:51See, that's not true. That's what happened. Do you want me to go ahead and explain?
30:55Or when he was let go as a police volunteer after complaints from the public.
30:58See, that's not true either.
31:01So then you went to precinct four? Right.
31:03And you were fired there after two months after a civil rights complaint?
31:06See, that's not true either.
31:08So you're saying the investigations against you at Houston Police Department, not true?
31:13No, there was some minor investigations. That was it. It was, I think, three of them.
31:19As for the sexual harassment claims, it was not just Susan White who'd leveled complaints against him.
31:24It was a former colleague, too. But McGowan maintains he was the victim.
31:30There was some female officer who was stalking me back then, and she was crazy.
31:35I told her she needed to back off, and, you know, I talked to her after work.
31:38There are already questions about his attitudes towards women.
31:42He's previously been accused of sexual harassment.
31:45And here he is, shooting dead a woman who he has a history with.
31:52Who detectives believed was clear.
31:54They took McGowan's plausibility and charm as a cover-up for the truth.
31:59Some of the most violent killers I dealt with in 21 years of investigating homicides were charming, were so likable in that interview room.
32:09You wanted to like them.
32:11But I wasn't a fool. I knew that in a second they would kill me without even thinking twice.
32:17So Kent McGowan, he was charming. He was likable.
32:21He was obsessed with being popular. He was obsessed with being that super cop.
32:26And that's what made him so dangerous.
32:29He would do anything to portray himself as that superhero.
32:33Character evaluations are one thing. If a jury was to convict Kent McGowan as a killer rather than believe he's a cop acting in self-defense, detectives needed more.
32:45They began to forensically analyze McGowan's portrayal of what went on during the six seconds from when he entered 3407 Amber Forest Drive and when he shot Susan White.
32:55Well, I came in, she had the gun at waist level. And she never said a word. Never. She said nothing. She had a gun at waist level. And it's true. I mean, I was tunnel vision. I see the gun pointing right at me.
33:09McGowan said in evidence that Susan White was standing by her bed, facing him, square on, and holding a gun in her right hand.
33:18So I said, drop the gun, drop the gun.
33:20She was facing you, square on.
33:22Yeah, well, at first she was. Yeah, she was like this. And she had it like this pointed right at me.
33:26I said, drop the gun, drop the gun. And I said the second time, she comes up and she points the gun. We're at the proverbial Mexican standoff.
33:34And I saw the, she had the weapon indexed. Her finger was not on the trigger. Her finger was not on the trigger at that point.
33:40And that's why I was watching the trigger. I knew if she put the, if she touches the trigger, I'm going to have to shoot her.
33:45I told her, I said, I told her a third time. I see her put her finger on the trigger and I hollered a third time, drop the gun.
33:50I see her squeezing the trigger and I fired three rounds and she falls.
34:03She falls face down and then Morong went underneath me and jumped on top of her.
34:10Cause we didn't know if she'd been hit or not. I mean, the room's full of smoke, the alarm's going off.
34:14And I'm going to the radio call for a supervisor in an ambulance.
34:17Well, at first we run up to her and she was on her right, on the left side and the gun was still in her right hand.
34:24The gun was still in Susan's right hand.
34:29There's a big problem for officer McGowan at this point in his evidence.
34:34Susan was a lefty. I venture to say that Kent McGowan didn't know that.
34:40But Susan White was left handed. Why would she be holding her gun in her right hand?
34:44And if you're lefty, you're going to have, if you were to follow Deputy McGowan's story, you would have the gun in your primary hand.
34:54For the most part, you would have it in your left hand.
34:57When you look at the angle of the bullets, the wounds on her body, it doesn't match the scenario of somebody holding a gun in their right hand.
35:08So right there, when you do the physical autopsy on someone, that also is a roadmap of what happened.
35:15So an autopsy is done on Susan and the angle of the bullet, the location of the wounds,
35:21they do not match whatsoever the scenario of Susan holding a gun in her right hand.
35:32The angle of the bullet and the location of Susan White's injuries did not support McGowan's statements.
35:40If she was standing square onto McGowan, his shots should have entered her body in a direct straight trajectory.
35:46When she had the gun, when she was standing there, I said, drop the gun, drop the gun.
35:50That's what I told her. She goes like this, and when she pulls it up, when she does it, she had it like this.
35:54She just squared at me. And she pulls the gun like this, and then put her finger on the trigger.
35:59That's what I told her a third time.
36:01If you listen to Deputy McGowan, they have guns pointed at each other. It's a standoff.
36:07He had to fire before she fired first, and the guns were leveled right directly at each other.
36:14However, Susan's wounds on her body, the wounds going from right to left, that's an indication she's turning.
36:25Maybe hanging up the phone, turning, what? Or whatever's happening, but she's in a turning motion.
36:31And the way the angles of the wounds are, the way the angle of the bullet to her head is, that angle, that autopsy, that's a road map.
36:41When they do the bullet analysis, what they find is that the bullets, the strong evidence the bullets entered the side of her face and the side of her body.
36:48That's completely at odds with what McGowan is saying.
36:51That is not consistent with the Deputy's story that they were face to face, guns pointed directly at each other.
36:59You see, the wounds itself, that physical autopsy, totally disputes what Deputy McGowan states.
37:06District Attorney Jim Mount was part of the system that issued the arrest warrant, so allowing McGowan the chance to shoot dead Susan White.
37:21Now, what I believe happened is that I was giving him permission to go into her house and kill her.
37:27He is now certain that he would have found a way to kill her, with or without the cover of a warrant.
37:32Nevertheless, that night would have been different if Officer McGowan had not had this crucial piece of paper.
37:40Clearly, he wanted to be able to arrest her, to go into her house, have a legal basis to go into her house.
37:47And that's what I provided him, and what a judge provided him.
37:52That's, you know, that's why I say, if a guy like Kent McGowan wants to kill you, he's going to kill you.
38:00He just managed to do it under the color of law.
38:04Did I identify themselves as police?
38:06Yes.
38:07But that, they were, I was in my bedroom, my bedroom sleeping.
38:11And there was somebody, they looked into my window.
38:15They said manipulation.
38:17Who's breaking into your house?
38:19I don't know, they say they are detected.
38:22I have been detected by one of them.
38:25How many is there?
38:26I don't know, but please?
38:29What are they doing?
38:30They just broke in, okay.
38:34Ma'am?
38:35Kent McGowan was his own worst enemy.
38:39Loose lips sink ships.
38:41He wanted to be that super cop, so he brags about what he does.
38:45He, perhaps fabricates, in his own mind, creating this huge scenario of what took place in the shooting and the gun running, how he got this really bad person.
38:57And he's this super cop.
38:59The fact that the trophy bullets raised suspicion.
39:03Raised suspicion more than what an autopsy would do.
39:06So now you have an autopsy where the initial investigators are at the scene.
39:10They're observing his behavior.
39:12They hear about some of the comments he makes.
39:16Bells and whistles start going off.
39:18Now they look at the autopsy.
39:21They are comparing the trajectory of the bullets on Susan's body to the statement that Kent McGowan makes.
39:29Which causes them to go back and look at the affidavit.
39:33Wait a minute.
39:34This affidavit says a whole bunch of stuff.
39:37And the scene is not telling us that.
39:40This is just a homeowner.
39:42Perhaps with a gun in their own house like so many other Texans or Houstonians have.
39:49This is not some major gun runner.
39:51As a prosecutor, when you have police officers come into your office in the middle of the night and tell you,
39:56Hey, I need you to write me an arrest warrant for someone.
39:59You have to believe what they tell you.
40:01You have to take it as the truth.
40:03Otherwise, the system grinds to a halt.
40:05So, not knowing Deputy McGowan, I believed that he was going to tell me the truth.
40:10And I relied on what he told me.
40:12Turns out that it wasn't.
40:14McGowan was found guilty by a Texas jury.
40:17An appeal based on a technicality was granted.
40:20But he was found guilty again.
40:22But, you know, in retrospect, he got convicted twice.
40:27How can anyone think that he really is not guilty?
40:30I mean, seriously.
40:33So, what was the key turning point that led to the charges of murder levelled against Kent McGowan?
40:42What was the killer's mistake?
40:44For Brian Harris, it was not a what, but a who.
40:48Kent McGowan himself.
40:52Kent McGowan's biggest mistake was thinking that he had the character and the ability to wear the badge on his chest.
41:02That man never should have been a law enforcement officer.
41:07With 20-20 hindsight, it's pretty clear to me that this is a guy who probably should never have been a police officer.
41:14Should never have been in a position to run an arrest warrant on someone who he apparently had a personal grudge against.
41:21When you wear that badge, you represent, that's why it's called a shield.
41:30It's a shield to protect others.
41:32It's a shield of honor.
41:34It's a shield of integrity.
41:36It's a shield of service.
41:38You take an oath to lay your life down for others, to serve other people.
41:43Kent McGowan's oath was to himself.
41:45He wore that badge to serve himself, to glorify himself.
41:51His biggest mistake was thinking he truly could be a police officer.
41:57He was a crook with a badge, is how I look at it.
42:07Kent McGowan was not given a mandatory life sentence.
42:10He is due for release in 2022.
42:13He still maintains his version of events.
42:15That night is true.
42:18I've got to go.
42:19I know you've got to go, and I appreciate it.
42:21Okay, thank you.
42:22Hey, I'm innocent.
42:23Donald wants the truth.
42:25I'm not, I'm not done.
42:26I'm still working.
42:27I'm trusting you.
42:28Bye-bye.
42:29Bye.
42:30Hey, how do you, we'll give us the mic back here.