A TV bailiff accused of murdering his wife is determined to prove his innocence. Natalie Morales reports. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened on the night of the shooting?
Petrina says an officer told her her mother had died during a struggle with her husband. When he told you she didn't make it, it had to be very tough to hear that. It was.
But you held it together. I don't know. Something really weird happened to me. I don't know. It's just like I just kind of shut down. and everything just became really numb. I still have not cried.
Petrina says she regrets not seeing her mom for one last time.
I just didn't get that. And I'm like, man, so she just sitting in that closet just the whole time. So, oh my God, I'm crying.
Petrina never thought her mother's life would end this way. Her mother fell quickly for Renard.
It was like her first everything. That was her first house.
And it was Patricia's first marriage, Renard's third.
When we met, I did like, we kind of hit it off and stuff.
Five years after Patricia's death, Renard shared with us his feelings for Patricia.
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Chapter 2: Who is Renard Spivey?
We wanted to see if there was anything there to provide a motive for wanting her to be harmed or dead or that there was trouble in the relationship. It was a very loving relationship, as I could tell. But yet we know on that night, somebody went to bed angry. It looked like she went to bed angry. He did not.
48 hours after he was charged with the murder of his wife, Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Renard Spivey posted bond, $50,000.
I was in jail probably a couple of days.
And returned to the house he used to share with Patricia, where investigators believed he intentionally shot her. When you walk in that door, do the memories come flooding right back?
Well, as soon as you go in the door and then you go in the bedroom, bam, it hits you.
Renard Spivey insists his wife's death was an accident.
I love my wife. You know, I did everything for her. Anything she wanted, I always treated like my queen.
But Renard never gave a statement to police about how the events unfolded that night. And Patricia's family questioned the circumstances around her death and why Renard was free on bond. Patricia's cousin, Sybil Shepherd. I don't think that his bond was high enough for murder. Being a sheriff, I think he got a lot of privilege in that instance.
Patricia's loved ones call her the caregiver of the family.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
It's like a big closet. Where he showed us what he says happened.
He saw that she had her finger on the trigger. With his left hand, he grabbed her right wrist and put his right hand on the top of the gun to force it down. And she pulled back away from me. And when she did that, it shot, hit him in the left thigh. And as they fell, he grabbed her again and grabbed the gun and tried to twist it out of her hand. Her left hand came off. Okay, left hand comes off.
And the gun went off again and shot her in the chest. Then, DeGaran says the gun went off one more time and the third shot hit Patricia in the arm. Her hand by that time was in relationship to her body, almost vertical to her body. That's why when the bullet went in, it went in by her elbow, came back out and went into her chest.
DeGarren says the powder burn mark on Renard's right hand proves he grabbed the gun as Patricia fired. When the gun fires, This is where the gunpowder that's been fired comes out, and that's what burned his right hand. But there was something that puzzled the prosecutors, and they raised it at trial. Where's she at?
She's laying on the floor. In Renard's telling, he and Patricia were fighting at the entrance of the closet. But Patricia's body was found deep inside the closet. Prosecutors believe it was because he cornered her. Her body, as I understand. Her body. Where did it end up? Well, it ended up over in about the area that you are. But then after. And why, how did it end up here?
Because that's where they fell. Where she fell.
At trial, the defense team painted Patricia as the aggressor. And they point to her internet activity that evening to demonstrate, they say, that her frustration with her husband was building. At 2.49 a.m., Patricia posted this meme on Facebook. Characterize people by their actions and you will never be fooled by their words. At 2.59 a.m., Patricia is seen on camera for the last time.
At 3.01 a.m., prosecutors suspect Patricia had enough and you can make out her saying the words, it's the same thing over and over again. But DeGaran says it is not clear what Patricia really meant. Maybe that's what she said, but what did it mean? It's ambiguous. What is she complaining about over and over again?
At 3.03 a.m., Renard is seen in the kitchen, and then he goes into the bedroom. Four minutes later, at 3.07, you hear those three gunshots. They were in quick succession, inside of four seconds. And at trial, Renard Spivey told the jury his wife Patricia was the one firing.
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Chapter 4: What were the circumstances of Patricia's death?
My mom is not violent like that. It didn't make sense to me.
Instead, Petrina believes her mom was in the closet that night because she was packing.
I think she was trying to leave that night.
Prosecutors had Ezra Washington tell the jury about those phone conversations with Renard, where Renard talked about his frustrations.
I just want to give him the truth. Everything that came out of his mouth that I know
But the prosecutors ran into a problem. They say Ezra told them he spoke to Renard using apps on his phone, and they were unable to find records of those calls. DeGarren says he doesn't believe those conversations ever took place. Are you saying Ezra Washington, then, when he testified because he was a key witness for the prosecution, was he lying when he talked about those phone calls?
I wouldn't call him a key witness, particularly when we were able to show that there was no record of those calls.
He didn't talk to me. He lied. He didn't talk to me.
I mean, why would he make that up?
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