Disgraced Page #9

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through your heart.

If I ever meet him in public,

I don't care how old he is,

I don't care how weak I am,

I'm going to knock his teeth in.

They thought he paid for

his scholarship

by selling drugs because,

you know, this is off camera,

but he was selling drugs.

He sold to all the

white guys on campus.

[Kondelis]

Oh, yeah.

I mean you don't think,

yeah, he was the worst.

[Kondelis]

I know, but I'm telling you,

but I mean, that's why...

but, you'll never be able

to use this.

[Kondelis]

Because they were so busy

hanging me.

[Kondelis]

They knew all that stuff.

That's why they never, the

police never went after me

with a felony or a

misdemeanor or anything.

He was rampant and all

the players knew it.

What they would do...

[Kondelis]

I know, but that's because

of the moment.

These guys would come

to his door...

[knocks]

They'd knock on his door

and everybody's in

playing video games.

And Patrick would take them in

the back room, sell the stuff,

come walking out, get back

into video games.

And so, that's why the next day

when it says Coach Bliss

went after and talked to the

players because I wanted the

players to go and tell the

police what they've

been telling me.

But, it's never going to

reach the light of day.

[Kondelis]

[Bliss] Well, this-- the

reason I came up with it

is because now Underwood,

Underwood-- he was chasing it.

And so, when I heard he was

chasing it, I just dovetailed

my excuse right in with his.

In fact, there is an article...

[Kondelis]

[Bliss] I jumped on that

bandwagon.

And I don't mind saying that.

[Kondelis]

[Bliss] Uh, but, the reason

I jumped on it and I wanted

the players to come in and

that's when I told them

about the talking points.

Because I said, you guys just

tell these investigators

what you know because again,

this isn't right

and I'm bad for doing it,

but if they'll just say what

they've been telling me

all the time,

I might escape and at that time,

I'm not thinking clearly at all.

I'm just trying to, you know,

grovel for high ground,

you know, from drowning.

[Kondelis] Well, let me

ask you this, then...

[Bliss] You know, and I-

I apologize for--

I just can't go there.

I ended up settling with the

Dennehy family and I--

because they made a civil suit

against me and it's not for

a lot of money or anything

like that.

But, I just, it was easier

to make it go away.

[Kondelis]

[Bliss] Um, but because,

I mean, I didn't do anything.

I said bad things about

their kid, but...

But, you know, unfortunately,

the parents also knew

that he was a drug- druggie.

So, I mean...

[Kondelis]

[Bliss] What I did is, I got

in the mud with the pigs,

you know, and I- and I paid a

price and the pigs liked it.

[laughs]

low dramatic music

[Irvin] My representation of

Carlton ended when he was

brought back to Texas.

[Segrest] He waived extradition

and agreed to come back,

so that was no problem.

He was appointed lawyers.

He had no money to hire

his own lawyers.

Generally, it's unusual to have

two defense lawyers appointed

in just a murder case, two in

a capital case is required,

but Judge Allen appointed

Russ Hunt and Abel Reyna,

his defense lawyers.

They were going to make a very,

very formidable adversary

in the courtroom.

It was going to be something

you would want to see

on television.

So, they asked, and the judge

granted, a motion to have

him examined for competency

to stand trial.

He was evaluated and then he was

committed to the state hospital

until he regained competence.

In almost any jurisdiction,

you try to have three people

to evaluate the competency

of that individual.

You want three because 2-to-1,

there's not going

to be any ties,

but when you have three

doctors, like in Carlton's case.

Three highly educated,

well-trained individuals

that make a determination that

there is evidence of psychosis,

of severe impairment, that

this person is not competent.

It just doesn't get

any better than that.

You number one, start focusing

on a defense of insanity.

At some point in time, we find

out that a doctor makes a

determination that Carlton

is competent to stand trial.

[Segrest] They said that Carlton

has a psychosis, NOS,

not otherwise specified, that

he did have a mental disease.

Yeah, you deemed my client

competent to go forward

and proceed to trial,

but by the way,

I want you to take all those

psychotropic medications.

I want you to stay on the meds.

I want you to stay on the meds

that are affecting your brain.

We became convinced that

Carlton was certainly

guilty of the murder and some

of his self-defense claims

weren't corroborated by

the physical evidence

that came along later.

So, what actually happened

out here was

Patrick was shooting away

and Carlton was behind him

and Carlton shot him in the back

and the bullet came

out the front.

The second one was here to here,

so he shot him while

he was on the ground.

[muffled gun shot]

I have no doubt in that and the

evidence pretty much shows that.

low dramatic music

[Segrest] I was convinced

that we had enough

evidence to convict.

After Carlton regained

competence and Reyna

and Mr. Hunt tried to convince

me that it would be in the

best interest of everyone...

and this may be where I

have a memory of people

playing the Baylor card.

And it may have come from them,

both Abel went to Baylor

and Russ, I think went to Baylor

law school, that they wanted

to plead it and they were

willing to plead for 30 years.

"This is making Baylor look bad.

This is making Baylor look bad.

Can't we just plead it,

get it over with."

In Texas law, 60 years is

equivalent to a life sentence.

He's wanting to plead guilty

and if he's not insane

at the time and if he was

not acting in self-defense,

then I think he needs

closer to the 60 years

and they wanted to split

the difference half...

you know, give him half a

sentence, so to speak

and I thought that was not just

under those circumstances.

Whatever Baylor's mess, they

made it, was not going to be my

problem and that-that-that offer

was ultimately rejected.

low dramatic music

Somewhere in the push to go

to trial, I was approached

by one or both the

defense lawyers and they

threw a question at me:

"What if he pleads guilty,

open to the court

and lets the judge assess

his punishment?"

There was no deal with the

prosecutor's office

for a sentence for

Carlton Dotson.

That was never there.

It kind of came as a surprise

to me, their willingness,

I-I basically questioned their

veracity at that point,

whether they were

talking true to me

or if they were just pulling

my leg and they assured me

that they were willing to do it.

The judge that initially

was going to hear the case,

had gone on vacation.

And a juvenile court judge was

going to fill in for his cases.

I think he's a Baylor-Baylor-

Baylor grad too.

That's when Carlton

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