Troy Roberts
Appearances
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Better let that anger go, brother. David Hunt and Doug Lehner maintain their innocence to this day. Did you kill Sabrina and John? No. Did your brother mastermind these killings? No.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Both men admit they were drug addicts and thieves, but insist they would never commit murder. Both of you were described as sophisticated, savvy desperados.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Those dumb things Lehner did included stealing bed sheets from hotels. But this time, even with no physical evidence, he and the other members of the Hunk Group were facing the death penalty. It's ludicrous.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
On the eve of the Hunk Group's trial, there was a stunning development. And it involved that birthday gift Sabrina had intended to give her sister Andrea, a blanket. Apparently, the killer had unwrapped it and left semen stains that went unnoticed for years. Those stains could now be tested for DNA, a forensic tool that didn't exist at the time of the murders.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Police asked for blood samples from the accused. What did your attorney advise you to do?
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
And as they predicted, the DNA on the blanket did not match any of the men in the Hunk group. So in January 1993, all the charges were dropped.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
After their son John was murdered... Oh, it's so pretty. Dr. Richard Riggins and his wife Kate still had two younger children to raise, son Robert and daughter Carrie.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The lack of an arrest made it even harder. But by 2002, DNA science had advanced even more. The State Crime Lab was now routinely comparing DNA from cold cases to that of convicted criminals stored in a new database. When they uploaded the DNA from those semen stains on the blanket, incredibly, there was a hit.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The suspect's name was Richard Hirshfield. Local investigators had never heard of him, but they soon learned he had a very dark past. Who is Richard Hirshfield?
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
At the time of the DNA hit, then 53-year-old Hirshfield was in prison for molesting two little girls. Many years earlier, in 1975, he had been convicted of rape in Northern California.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
In 2006, 48 Hours spoke to his California victims, two sisters, Marge and Michelle, who didn't want their last names used.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
They were 22 and 16 at the time he entered their apartment, demanding money. when they told him they had none.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Hirschfeld served only five years in prison for that crime. He was paroled in July 1980.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
But this time, Hirshfield wasn't going anywhere. He remained behind bars in Washington in the child molestation case, while California investigators cemented theirs.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The answer to both questions was yes. Hirshfield once had friends in Davis who lived across the street from the condo Andrea and Sabrina shared. And that's where authorities believe Sabrina and John were abducted. So this was five days before Christmas? Yes. Most of the students had gone home?
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
And because this place was deserted, no one could hear their cries if they were abducted in the complex.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Investigators also learned that Richard Hirshfield had her brother, Joseph, who was living in this house near Sacramento at the time of the murders. It's just a few miles from where the bodies were dumped.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The next day, Joseph Hirschfeld got into his car and committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. The note he left behind was a bombshell.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Joseph's DNA was never found in the Riggins van, and no one knows exactly what role he played in the murders. But even with strong evidence, Richard's DNA and Joseph's suicide note, the case was moving at a snail's pace. It took 10 years to bring this case to trial.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The case had over 200,000 pages of discovery. Hirschfeld's defense team would file more than 200 motions and be granted many delays.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
And time took its toll. Sabrina and Andrea's father, George, received a devastating diagnosis. He had Alzheimer's.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Finally, in September 2012, 10 years after the DNA hit and almost 32 years after the notorious murders, the trial of Richard Hirschfeld was set to begin.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The now 63-year-old Richard Hershfield enters court in a wheelchair, barely resembling the menacing figure he once was. Why didn't you want to be in the courtroom to hear all that testimony? Some of it graphic in nature.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The prosecution has a powerful case against Hirschfeld, starting with the DNA match.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
...does not deny it's Hirshfield's DNA on the blanket, but insists it could have gotten there some other way. His DNA just magically appeared on its own on this blanket.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Prosecutor Dawn Bladet points out Sabrina's DNA was found mixed in with Hirschfeld's, evidence of a sexual assault.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Then there's Joseph Hirshfield's suicide note, implicating his brother Richard in the murders.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
It was 2002, shortly after the DNA hit, when investigators came calling. Lana sent them to Joseph's workplace.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The next night, Lana discovered her husband's body in his car, along with that suicide note.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The prosecutor reads only part of that note to the jury because the defense has succeeded in getting the most incriminating part redacted. What the jury doesn't hear or see is this. Richard did commit those murders, and I didn't kill anyone.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The prosecutor wants the jury to have no doubt which brother was capable of committing the murders. Judge Michael Sweet allows testimony from Richard Hershfield's other victims because of similarities in the crimes. The woman Hershfield raped in 1975, Marge, is eager to help put him away for good.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Marge takes the stand and confronts her rapist for the second time in 37 years.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Faced with such damaging testimony, defense attorney Parisi decides her best strategy is to point the finger right back at the Hunt group, in spite of the DNA pointing elsewhere.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The defense's star witness is a paid police informant who at one point committed robberies with David Hunt.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
48 hours agreed not to show his face. In 1987, detectives sent Ray Gonzalez to meet with Hunt associate Richard Thompson to try to get him to implicate David Hunt in the murders.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Although he was supposed to be secretly recording this meeting with Thompson, Gonzalez failed to get any of this alleged confession on tape.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
while Gonzalez spent a great deal of time on the stand saying he couldn't remember. For David Hunt, this is one case he'd rather forget. How does it feel right now with the Hunt group back in the news?
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
In the end, the defense never called on David Hunt to testify, and he was greatly relieved. He says he left his criminal life behind long ago and found redemption through his Christian faith.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Hunt is hoping to live to see his name cleared once and for all with a guilty verdict against Hirschfeld.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Sabrina and John's families are hoping they can help make that verdict happen.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The case against Richard Hirschfeld is about to be handed to the jury, and the stakes couldn't be any higher. He deserves death? Absolutely. You didn't hesitate? No. Prosecutor Dawn Bladet delivers an emotional closing argument.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
To cast doubt on the DNA, Linda Parisi suggests the blanket could have been contaminated through careless handling by investigators.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Blede doesn't mince words as she pounces on that other defense theory of how Hirschfeld's DNA might have gotten on that blanket.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Guilty in the murders of both John and Sabrina. It is a huge relief for the families.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
A private man, Dr. Richard Riggins has never so publicly shared the deep pain of his loss.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
While the prosecutor pushes for the death penalty, defense attorney Parisi hopes the jury will show mercy and spare Hershfield's life.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
And Parisi believes there's another reason her client cannot help being prone to violence.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Defense witness Dr. Douglas Tucker has studied MRIs of Hirschfield's brain.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
And as Judge Michael Sweet later upholds the death sentence, he directly addresses Sabrina and John's families. It is January 25, 2013, 32 years after the murders. You have endured so much.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
And the families are forever grateful to the prosecutor who finally closed this case, a case she herself will never forget. Did you make a silent promise to these young victims?
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
I'm Troy Roberts. The Sweetheart Murders. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but I've never covered a story quite like this. It's hard to imagine that it would take more than three decades to find the killer and bring him to trial.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Sabrina Gonzalez's mother, Kim, and her father, George, weren't sure they'd live to see the day.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Over the decades, Andrea Gonzalez Rosenstein has remained devoted to keeping her baby sister's memory alive. Tell me about Sabrina.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Andrea named her firstborn Sabrina, and after having her third child, she decided to adopt three more.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Back in the summer of 1980, Andrea was already attending the University of California at Davis when her sister moved in with her. Sabrina was excited to begin her own college career. That summer, Sabrina met John Riggins while working for the town's recreation department.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
John had been a popular high school athlete in Davis, but he stood out for another reason as well. When he was much younger, he had this mop of red hair that got a lot of attention.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Kate and Dr. Richard Riggins, an orthopedic surgeon, were proud of their son. John was considering following in his father's footsteps. Do you ever think about what kind of man your son would have become? He would have been 51 years old now.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The night of December 20th, 1980, Sabrina and John were expected at that surprise party for Andrea's 22nd birthday. But they never showed and never called.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Sabrina and John had been missing for 36 hours when police found the Riggins family van abandoned about 30 miles east of Davis in Sacramento County. Former detective Carol Daly.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
But a few hours later, Detective Daley received the call that the bodies had been found just under a mile away, discarded in that ravine.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
There were signs that Sabrina had been sexually assaulted. John had a head injury suggesting he fought to protect her. Eighteen, they're just children.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
I understand that you wake up in the middle of the night thinking of your son.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
The case became known as the Sweetheart Murders. Investigators from two counties mobilized to hunt down this sadistic killer, but they had no idea just how difficult that would be.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
As the town of Davis said goodbye to the two sweethearts, their chilling murders had police fearing a serial killer could be on the loose.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Investigator Ron Garverick is with the Sacramento District Attorney's Office.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Police received hundreds of tips. They even released this composite sketch of a suspicious man spotted in the area.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
This is the kind of rough brush that the bodies were found in? Yeah. It's just by luck that the officers found the bodies, right?
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
But the investigation went nowhere and the trail went cold. Year after year, the lack of answers only added to the family's pain.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Six years passed, and then a tip led police to revisit another double murder that happened around the same time to see if there was any connection.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
Like John and Sabrina, this college couple was abducted from a public place, killed execution style, and then dumped around the Sacramento area. But in this case, police quickly made an arrest and got a conviction. The killer was this man, Gerald Gallego, a violent sexual predator. But on the night John and Sabrina were killed, he had an airtight alibi. He was already in jail.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
And that's why police, looking at the sweetheart's case years later, arrived at an unusual theory that John and Sabrina's murder was a copycat crime committed by Gallego's friends to try and clear him.
48 Hours
A Tragic Journey
In 1989, nine years after the Sweetheart murders, police arrested David Hunt, Gallego's half-brother, who also had a criminal past. Believing he had help, they rounded up Hunt's wife, Sue Ellen, and his partners in crime, Richard Thompson and Doug Lehner. They became known as the Hunt Group. All four were charged with the murders of John and Sabrina.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
According to Darren, the fight escalated, and when he turned his back on her, Charla knocked him to the ground. Darren says that's when the gun he was carrying fell out of his pocket.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren says as Charla stumbled backwards, she stepped on the gun. He claims she picked it up and aimed it right at him.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren claimed the gun had misfired, which may or may not explain why there was no evidence of gunplay. And this is the first time, by the way, that prosecutors heard anything about a gun in the garage.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
According to Darren, Charla tried to pull the trigger again, but this time... He was ready for her with his knife.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Defense attorney David Chesnoff picks up Darren's story from that morning's crime spree.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
The defense says Darren went into that delusional state of mind after Charla allegedly put the gun in his face.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Chesnoff says they will prove Darren was still delusional when he managed to hit Judge Weller in a single shot from 170 yards away.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren's attorneys were trying a unique defense strategy, self-defense in the murder of Charla Mack, for the attempted murder of Judge Chuck Weller. Is Darren Mack insane? No. No.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren Mack still has supporters like Garrett Idle. Help me understand that line of thinking. If it wasn't for Judge Weller, Charlie Mack would be alive today?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Alicia Biddeson claims Judge Weller crossed the line with her too when she was before him for that custody dispute. How did Judge Weller conduct himself?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Alicia was then a captain in the Army, and she says Weller accused her of being upset because her child's father moved on.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
As his friends see it, Darren's own frustrations led him to that parking garage to send Judge Weller a message.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
What do you make of Darren Mack's claim that he didn't intend on killing Judge Weller? Do you believe that?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Thank you, Judge Charles Weller. In a rare turn of events, Judge Chuck Weller found himself on the witness stand.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Concerned, Judge Weller approached the head of the group and asked him about the negative blogs. Why is this happening?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Weller remembered this conversation and gave police the details from his hospital bed.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Now, it's the defense's turn to cross-examine the judge. And they begin by questioning his knowledge of the divorce case.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
But Garrett Idle says the tapes don't tell the whole story. And unless you've been through it, you cannot truly appreciate how it can drive someone to the edge.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
But even his number one supporter concedes Darren's approach was probably not the best way to bring attention to their cause. What do you think this case has done to your efforts for judicial reform?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Alicia says that won't stop her fight to try and improve the family court system. And it definitely won't stop her from fighting for the man she loves. Why are you still standing by his side after learning everything that's been put out there during the course of that trial? You know about the details of how Charlamac was slaughtered, and you're still there. You're still by his side.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
None of that changes the fact that this man brutally killed the mother of his child.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Smile, honey. It's been 16 months since Darren Mack killed his wife, Charla.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
16 long months that Darren says he spent anxiously waiting to tell his side of the story.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
His family and friends gathered for the first day of the defense's case.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
But over the weekend, there had been a change of plans. So instead of taking the stand.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Yes. He would admit to murdering Charla, and in return, he would have a better shot at parole.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
I have before me the written plea agreement. As part of the plea deal, Darren also admitted there was enough evidence to find him guilty of the attempted murder of Judge Weller.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
He also managed to take a parting shot at Judge Weller by praising Judge Herndon.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
And in a private meeting, he also thanked the men who were trying to convict him, Robert Daskus and Christopher Lawley.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren Mack announced he had fired his attorneys and wanted to withdraw his guilty plea.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
The high-profile attorneys were out, and local Reno attorney William Rustis was in. His first order of business was to try and get Darren a whole new trial.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Rustis claims his old attorneys, Chesnoff and Freeman, had coerced Darren into pleading guilty, and that Darren had agreed because he was confused, sleep-deprived, and dehydrated.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
So two months later, Judge Herndon hauled everyone back into a Reno courtroom to hear arguments for a new trial. And this time, the star witnesses were Darren's former attorneys. They took the stand to defend themselves and the dual strategy of self-defense and insanity.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
But David Chesnoff explains that it was Darren who insisted on the split defense.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
By calling his former lawyers to the stand, Darren waived his right to attorney-client privilege. So what he had told them could now be used against him.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren's case continued to unravel as his other former attorney reluctantly takes the stand.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
But under oath, Scott Freeman is forced to reveal that Darren never mentioned a gun in their initial conversation about what happened in the garage.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren told Freeman that he had thrown the gun into a dumpster. But when Freeman went to look, there was no dumpster, and therefore, no gun.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
That is correct. Is there any evidence to support his claim that she pointed a gun at him?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren insists he acted in self-defense and was coerced and confused when he took the murder rap.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
And defense attorney William Routzes makes a final plea to get Darren Mack another chance.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Even from behind bars, Darren Mack is still trying to get his way. there was his guilty plea, his attempt to withdraw the guilty plea, and the firings of his own attorneys. Is the circus over?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Now it's out of Darren's hands and up to the judge to decide if he gets a new trial.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
It's over for Darren Mack. He now has to face the consequences for his crimes. One month later, at his sentencing, both families have a chance to speak.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren's son from his previous marriage begs the judge for leniency.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren is also given one last opportunity to speak, and he does, for three hours, still insisting he acted in self-defense.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
And at one point, he even has the audacity to suggest that he is the one suffering.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Just one day before Charla Mack was murdered and Judge Chuck Weller was shot by a sniper, Alicia Biddison was out target practicing with her new boyfriend.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Throughout the course of the entire trial, Darren Mack never uttered the words so many had hoped to hear.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
The judge then offers advice to the grandmothers who are left to raise the lone survivor of this terrible ordeal, Erica Mack, now 10 years old.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
She noticed he was a pretty good shot. How good of a marksman is he?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Excellent. His name, Darren Mack. They met online, though not on a dating website, but on a blog filled with scathing complaints about family court judge Chuck Weller.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
They knew each other just three months before the family man was accused of murdering his wife, Charla. You're the person that was closest to him in the days leading up to the murder of Charla Mack. What was going through his mind? What was his mental state?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Alicia says that morning it never occurred to her that Darren could have been involved.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
So you're at work and you hear that Judge Weller had been shot. And what was your reaction? What did you do?
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
When Garrett Idles spoke to Darren that morning, he had no clue that within hours there would be a massive manhunt on for his friend.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Alicia never heard back from Darren that day. And by 4.30 that afternoon, she knew why.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
And at that time, did you also fear for your own safety? No. Her only fear at that point was whether she too was under suspicion, since they'd been together just the day before at the shooting range.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
The next time Darren and Alicia saw each other was for a jailhouse visit several weeks after his return from Mexico.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren Mack plans to testify at his trial about what drove him to kill Charla.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
And alone with Charla in that garage, it was she, Darren says, who attacked him. Since June of 2006, the murder of Charla Mack and the shooting of Judge Chuck Weller have been the talk of Reno.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
So when it came time for Darren Mack's trial more than a year later, the show went on the road to Las Vegas.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
A big part of the state's case would be these recordings from Judge Weller's courtroom showing the bitterness of the Mack's divorce. Over and over, they lie, lie, lie. This courtroom battle went on for over a year and a half, mostly about money.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
What do you want me to do? At one point, Judge Weller even threatened to throw Darren in jail when he violated a court order.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Prosecutors believe the idea to kill Charla may have been planted a couple of weeks earlier when Darren sat for this cable access interview with a father's rights advocate. Mack railed against Weller.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
And then there was this chilling remark from host William Wagner to Darren.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
At some point following this interview, prosecutors say, Darren took this advice a step further and actually wrote a to-do list for his crime spree.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Friends Anne and Christine say that morning began like so many others.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Less than two hours later, Darren Mack could check one more thing off that to-do list. As Judge Chuck Weller lay bleeding on the floor of his chambers.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Now it was Darren's turn, as defense attorney Scott Freeman opened with scenes of a very troubled marriage.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
The defense spared the jury no detail in describing the Mack's marriage.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
Darren told friends he started carrying a knife and a gun for protection. Yet in their last court appearance together, it was Charla who said she was afraid.
48 Hours
Deadly Divorce, Part 2
And now, for the first time, defense attorneys reveal Darren's version of events, the morning Charla and Darren were face-to-face in that garage.