This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised. Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and Consequences, a true crime podcast. Welcome back, everyone to another episode of Crimes and Consequences. I'm Tanya and I'm Teleia, and we are a couple
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Have you heard about the Stay Family? No? I was thinking you were talking about the Mixed Day. No, isn't that Okay, isn't it? I think so? But nope, that's not the right one. Okay, Nope. And then I don't know, all right, No, I don't know what to tell me I will share with me. July ninth, twenty fourteen started off as just another beautiful summer day in suburban Houston, Texas, Okay. The Stay family consisted of seven people. There was mom and dad,
Katie and Stephen. Katie was thirty three and Steven was thirty nine, and their five children. Wow, five five they got more than me, I know. Wow. Fifteen year old Cassidy, thirteen year old Brian, nine year old Emily, seven year old Rebecca, and the baby of the family, four year old Zarachree. On this particular Wednesday, Katie and Stephen were out running errands and had left the children at home with the eldest, Cassidy. At the helm Cassidy and her brother's sisters. They were just hanging
out around the house and they lived in Spring, Texas. When the doorbell rang, Spring Texas. That sounds nice, it does, Cassidy answered it, and when she opened the door, there was a man dressed in a FedEx uniform. It's got a package, right. The man asked Cassidy to see her parents, and she said that they weren't home, and she closed the door. The man laughed, but returned a few minutes later. He again rang the doorbell, and again Cassidy answered, telling him her parents weren't
home. Hey, what part of my parents aren't? Oh, I'm not kidding. I mean, it's kind of creepy. She has to say it twice. When she opened the door, the man told her I used to be your uncle. What I was married to your mom's sister. Cassidy was weirded out just by this whole encounter, and for good reason, because when she tried to shut the door, the man forced his way into the home, and after he tied her up, tied her up. Yeah, where were the other kids? They're there? He tied Cassidy up, he made
her lay face down. He tied all of the children up. Oh my, it made them lay face down on the floor. And he said they were gonna wait for Katie and Steven to get home. Oh, those poor kids, they must have been terrified. Well, yeah, I would have just shit. Katie and Stephen got home and surprised, yep, surprise. And the man had a gun. So that's why they're complying. In case you're wondering, you know, it's not like he's like super overpowering them.
He's got a gun, so he's just scaring the shit out of them. And Katie and Stephen get home, and he also ties them up and makes them lay face down on the floor. Was he an uncle, Yeah, he was an ex uncle. His name was Ronald Lee Haskell, and so yes, it was true what he told Cassidy that he'd been married to Katie's sister, Melanie. The reason Cassidy didn't initially recognize him, in case you're wondering, like when he knocked on the door, it's because Melanie and Ronald
had lived in Utah for most of their marriage, far away. Yeah, and you know, they didn't visit much prior to the divorce. But when Katie and Stephen came home, they recognized. Oh, absolutely, they knew exactly who he was. He shit. Yeah. At the time of the home invasion, Ronald was living in California with his parents, and he moved there soon after he and Melanie divorced. And Ronald really held a grudge against
Melanie for divorcing him. And when he was at the stayhouse in July twenty fourteen, it was because he had come up with a perfect plan to get back at her. Oh no, he hurt the ones they love. He was going to murder her entire family. My he I know. And when he got to the stay house because Melanie is not there, obviously she doesn't live there, he had one thing on his mind. He wanted to find her because he decided he was going to go visit her after we wasn't she
in Utah? Nope, she had moved back to Texas after the divorce. Okay, So while this family of seven is laying on the living room floor, he demanded to know where Melanie was. He asked each family member, where's Melanie? And they said they didn't know, even though they's true, No, that wasn't true, but they didn't want right of course, right, I'm not going to give it up. And so when they answered that he didn't know, he started shooting each of them execution style. You got
five kids? You're telling me there's five kids? Yes. He shoots everyone in the head, even four year old Zachary Zaki was initially shot in the shoulder, which was a wound he could have survived. And when he was initially shot, he ran over to Stephen's body and Steven was already dead. But he's a little boy who's four, and he ran over there to try to like bury his head in his father's shoulder. I mean, he was
looking for some comfort. I'm sure the poor thing was just terrified. And and that's when Ronald delivered another bullet to the back of little Zachary's hide. I hate Ronald. Yes. After shooting everyone, Ronald left and this is when he was headed to Katie and Melanie's parents' home. He was determined, he's gonna annihilate the hole. He's gonna annihilate the whole family. Absolutely, yep, this is what's on his mind. He was determined just to continue
this massacre. While he's questioning everyone before he shot them all, he's telling them that this is what he's going to do. He's saying, you know, after I'm here, I'm going to your parents' house and I'm going to try to trackt Dow Melanie and I'm gonna kill everybody. So he's telling them what his plan is and that they're gonna die, right, and that they're gonna die. Before he left, little did he know there was still two
members of the Stave family who were still alive. Oh, and there was the hud Yes shot yes, fifteen year old Cassidy while she had been shot in the head, like you said, she had put her hand up to like that reflex, right, yeah, to try to protect Yes, but it usually doesn't work because it'll just go right through. I know, like you don't think about it. And it's like when people put their hands up
when somebody's like coming at them with a knife and everything. But when the bullet made contact with her body, the placement of her hand prevented it from going like straight into her head. It kind of severed her finger and kind of ricocheted a little bit, so it really just grazed her head. Wow, And she played dead. And I know we've talked about this. I don't know how you played dead when your heart is going a million miles an
hour and you I mean, I would have panic attack. I know, I'll be freaking out right to fake it, like I'm not sure my breathing would be out of whack, right, like you're just I don't know how anyone does it, but I know. But bless her heart, she did it. She did such a good job at it playing dad that Ronald thought
he killed her along with the rest of the family. But she only suffered a skull fracture and thankfully she was still alive, so knowing that uncle Ronnie was headed to her grandparents' home after he When he left the home, Cassidy ran to make the nine one one call. She was able to alert the police of what she had just witnessed in her own home and that Ronald was
headed to her grandparents home. She gave the nine one one operator her grandparents address, and the police headed that way, hoping that they could catch Ronald before he hurt anyone else. Yeah, get there in time, yeah, absolutely, thankfully. Using this information that Cassidy provided, the police were able to confront Ronald at her grandparents house and before he had the chance to exit his vehicle. He ended up, though, taking the police on a twenty
minute chase that involved about a dozen police cars. How do you think you're going to get out of that? I don't know. How do you think you'd think that eventually they're gonna be like, oh wait, my gas is low and just stop chasing you. Right. No, That's what I always think when people do that, Like, I always think I can't get away with that. Nobody gets away with that now with all those cars. But he does, and the chase ended in a cul de Sac in front of
a house that was about three miles from the stay home. During the chase, the police used a spike strip to stop the car that Ronald was driving. So they do the spike strip, and so that's when they're able to then block his car using two armored vehicles similar to like the big ones you see on TV. You know, So he's screwed. Oh yeah, he's caught. Yeah. One of the armored cars literally blocked his little sedan by driving basically on top of it. So he wasn't going anywhere. So that's
the end of the story. Yea, and thank you for watching. Not quite. While Ronald was trapped, he still had that pistol. It was a semi automatic pistol that he had, and he held it to his own head. So now they're having a standoff. So during the standoff, which lasted about four hours, of course, the police evacuate all of the homes nearby, and they spoke to Ronald on a cell phone. And after about four hours, like I said, he surrendered without anyone else getting her.
Okay, where's he gonna go? I mean, he's, like I said, he's fucked. And Cassie likely saved the lives of her grandparents that day. Who else survived though, I'm gonna tell you, okay, Like I said, she wasn't the only survivor. Initially, seven year old Rebecca survived the shooting. What to say, initially bec she succumbed to her injuries and
passed away at the hospital. Because you know, they did send an ambulance right away when Cassidy was on the nine one one call, and they took both her and her sister to the hospital, but unfortunately, Rebecca's injuries were so severe that she passed away. Cassidy remained in critical condition at Children's Memorial Herman Hospital for a few days, but she was finally released on July eleventh,
once they thought she was well enough to go. And her whole family has been slaughtered, right, her whole family, and she's only fifteen, except for her grandparents. Except for her grandparents. Oh my lord, I can't imagine living imagine living with that either, like a survivor's guilt. Oh she must. I hope she's getting help because this is just so sad. They were killed in front of her. It's one thing, you know, lose him in a car accident, but she's got the memory of that horrible
day. Well, you may be wondering what could have possibly triggered this whole horrendous event. Life seemed to be going great for Ronald and Melanie when they married on March fifteenth, two thousand and two, in Orange County, California. When after they were married, the couple moved to Logan, Utah. They had four children together. So he's the dad of four children. Yes,
he's the dad of four children. However, at some point Melanie filed for divorce, which was finalized on Valentine's Day in twenty fourteen, and that's when she had it to Houston to move back to be close to her family, and her sister Katie Stay helped her. The reasoning behind the divorce was because Ronald he had some anger issues. Ronald's an asshole. Yeah, I can already know that. In case you haven't realize he's got anger issues.
No, I didn't catch any of the Yeah during the mass shooting. Yeah, he would take his anger out in Melanie and his children. He would physically abused them. Yeah. Of course, Melanie bravely reported the domestic abuse and had a protective order put in place. He was charged with suspicion of domestic violence, assault and committing an act of violence in front of children in June two thousand and eight. Suspicion of domestic life. And maybe that's something
in like Utah that we don't normally have suspicion. You either did it or attempted to do it. I think the laws might be a little different. Okay. On one occasion, Ronald pulled Melanie out of bad by her hair and struck her on the side of her head in front of their children. When he was charged, he initially told the police I only pushed her. That's the only thing that happened. And he had no clue. He acted like he had no clue where these allegations were coming from. Say, why
would she say my husband that just pushed her. Yeah, he just pushed her. I mean. He ended up pleading guilty to the simple assault charges, but he pleaded not guilty to the charges of domestic violence, and once the play was obtained, the rest of the charges were dismissed and no jail time. He got no jail time for the assault. Did they still have the no contact order? Not yet? Peel not ye'all. Nope, it didn't come until little later on July eighth, twenty thirteen, the following day
after the charges were dismissed. That's when Melanie filed for the protective order against her then husband and didn't take her long to file for divorce a month later. So after he did that to her and she filed those charges and he went through the whole plea and stuff, did he live with her? No? No, she was like, I'm done, Yeah, I'm not her. In October of that same year, in twenty thirteen, Ronald and Melanie came to an agreement in their divorce. They agreed that the custody arrangements that
they had for the four children, they agreed on those. Melanie was going to have primary custody and Ronald was given visitation rights the weekend, one night during the week. No, because she was moving to Texas, and he got that's a big deal to be able to move. Yeah, And he ended up standing to California. Oh, he moved in with his parents in
San Marcos. For those who really knew Ronald and Melanie said, the two of them did seem to have a bit of a rocky marriage, but they just were really confused as to how this whole thing snowballed into like a family massacre. When they got the divorce, Melanie was just desperate to get away from him, and she would tell her sister Katie everything, and Katie was determined to get Melanie and her four children back to Texas so that she could
be near family. And because the parents are there too, right, is it your maternal grandparents. Yep, it's Melanie and Katie's parents. So she did what any good sister would do. I mean, you would help your sisters. Absolutely, she helped Melanie get away from this horrible man. And I'm sure there's more incidences of domestic violence and shit, and I'd be surprised if you didn't mention some stalking. Yeah, he was just a piece of
shit. And you know, Melanie's divorce lawyer was even fearful really for Melanie's safety. Her attorney's name was A Daniel Barker. He was just sickened when he learned what happened to you stay family, and he felt guilty because he felt like he should have at least seen an inkling of what Ronald to do. I know, if there's already an order in place, like for no contact or a PPO. There's nothing he can do, right, he said. He tried to like rack his brain trying to remember was there anything,
like any kind of clue maybe that I missed? And he said, you know, Ronald seemed like a decent person, even though he did have a feeling that there was some bad lurking underneath at all, you know, like he was like a ticking time bomb, but nothing like a psychotic no, no, And he didn't think Ronald was capable of doing something people you think are You don't really think, oh he's capable of wiping out a whole family, right right, Well, sometimes I have in some of our cases.
Yeah you're like, ooh, I don't know about this one. Yeah, like, oh, we better follow up with them, and I got to check them out and see where they're at in six months. So he was relieved when he found out that Melanie was going to Houston and that Ronald was moving to California, because he's like, okay, far apart. Yeah, there's states away from each other, hundreds maybe thousands of miles away from one another. So he's like, show, like everything should be fine. So
what's he allowed to take the kids to California with him. I don't know. They're probably just liberal parenting time when he's in Texas. I'm just being a lawyer being a lawyer. Yes, I'm sorry to Lee. I don't know the details of their divorce judgment judgment. I'm sorry to not look it off. Well, that's fine, I'll forgive you this time. That's one
thing I did not research. That's what I'm guessing. Yes, that's what I'm guessing too, because we are family lawyers and we have done long distance parenting time agreements and things, and usually it's the parents that moves outside of Michigan gets maybe longer time in the summer and they get maybe or if they come in the state, they can see the children. Yeah, exactly. So, well, he wasn't happy with whatever it ended up being. He
was just bitter at Melanie. The main reason he was mad was because Melanie went public with the truth. Yeah, the truth of the abuse abusive asshole. Yeah exactly, that's what he was most upset about. And everybody knew that he was a dick. So I mean, it's just call it like it is. Right. One week prior to almost completely annihilating the Stay family, Ronald's own mother, Carla Jean Heskell, she spoke to the police about
her son. Carla told the police that she needed file a restraining order against Ronald because they had had a ferocious argument. Is how she described it. His own mom, his own mom. He lived with his parents. During the argument, Ronald had forced his mom into the garage of the home. After she was in the garage, he tied her wrists together with duct tape. What a tap more than an Oh? I got into an argument with my mom. No, this is bad. He then taped her to a
computer chair. What he tapes her arms? He tapes you know, I can just imagine him, like going round and round the chair. Holy shit. He left her there for four hours. He threatened to kill her, like you're grounded. I know you're grounded, so grounded, I know you are grounded. Threatened to kill his own mom. Taped her to a chair. Yeah, duck tapered to a chair, and he threatened to kill her along with everyone else in the family. Wow, I mean he screamed at
her. He choked her until she passed out. What the And you want to know what the reason for the argument was. What she didn't make dinner bread. No, it was because Carla had told him she'd been in contact with his ex wife, Melanie. Okay, Melanie was a good person. It's not surprising that her in laws would want to keep INTI with her, considering she's got four of their grandchies exactly, it makes sense. But this information is way over the top. Ron I mean, Ronald, come on,
this information just set him over the edge. Who does that to their mom? You know, not your mama, And I mean, don't you want your mom to see your kids and talk to them maybe because I'm sure, like you know, if they're talking on the phone, has lost it. He's losing it. He's losing it. Absolutely. After the San Marcos police got done speaking with Carla in regards to her son, so he ended
up what letting her go. I'm sorry, ma, I guess I don't know what the aftermath was because I would be terrified, right, I'd be terrified, because, like you said, you were going to kill everybody. And he choked her mm hmm yeah until she passed out. So the police didn't go searching for him, and they can't find him because they want to bring him in for questioning. They check all the places where he normally hung
out. Wouldn't that be attempted murder? I don't know. Maybe we're choking somebody till they pass out, that's true, I'll get back to it. Definitely kidnapping, yeah, something assault, assault with the tendt to commit bodily harm. Sorry, I'm just thinking. Quits showing off for everyone to leo. I'm just trying to I'm just trying to sound smart, Okay. I
don't know. So. From the outside, everyone that knew the Haskell family thought they were just this perfect Mormon family trying to live their lives in Utah. Melanie was a great mom, Ronald was a great dad who loved his family. However, their secret life was exposed and everything just came crashing down when Melanie filed for divorce. Before I tell you more, we're going to take a break. She decided she wanted to move to Houston to have a
better life for her and her kids. You know, they would be happy, they'd be near family, and they would no longer have to see their mother and themself because he's beating his children too. He physically abused right. Another thing that probably set him off was he was unemployed. At the time of the divorce, but he was court ordered to give Melanie child support, son of a bitch, and for four children. Who was to pay. I don't have a job exactly. You gotta get one, Yeah, how
it works. Guess how much he was made to pay for four children twenty a week almost It was seven hundred and seventy three dollars a month, which was less than two hundred dollars a week. But you know, he had no idea how he's gonna pay it. Maybe get a job, like you said, No, that's an option. And you know he moved in with his parents. That just tells me is like no overnights when he's got to pay that much too? Yeah, yeah, I just thought it was very
little for four for four children. When he got to California, his parents weren't that happy to see him. I bet they were like, oh, great with us, that's great. Yeah, And he was suffering from depression. The anger and the depression completely took over his life after the divorce, according to some They said he would go on for days without eating or leaving
his bedroom at his parents' house, and the anger became too much. That day when his mother had defiled that restraining order to put what does Dad douz just be like, I know, where was Dad when this all happened. I don't know. His mom wrote in her application for that restraining order that if Ronald was to stay in the house, he was going to absolutely harm her. Again, she was convinced, but the application for the order was later dismissed. What when she failed to go through with it? But you
know what, even the prosecutor could have went on the change. I know. That's the thing like here here, when somebody off a domestic violence charge comes up, you don't have to like if I was the one being abused, I don't have to continue to pursue it. Like the prosecutor will pick it up. But then again they're going to lose their star witness. That's true, that's true, But it was dismissed. Well, it's hard mom with her son, I know, but I mean, he was over the
top. I'm sure she was scared shitless to live with him any further I would be you never know, he's gonna come get you, and he's threatened to kill you already. Anyway, Ronald was arrested for the murders of the stay family on the morning of July tenth, twenty fourteen, and he was charged with six counts of capital murder by the Harris County Sheriff's Office. He was held without bond, and the following day he made his first court appearance.
And oh boy, what a court appearance. This is gonna be one of those. Yeah. While the charges were being read against him, he began shakin. Yes, he's being arraigned. Yes, he began shaking uncontrollably. He ended up collapsing ah in the courtroom, and nobody's quite sure why. The deputies dramatic yes, right, like I don't know if he really passed out or not. Like it sounds like exactly, sounds like he's putting on some thee her. The deputies were able to lift him up to his
feet after he collapsed, and then he collapsed again. Yeah, that's my interpretation of his collapsing. And so once he couldn't remain upright, he had to be escorted out of the courtroom via a wheelchair. They gave him a wheelchair to sit in. This is an arraignment, I know, Like, this is what you did. These they're just charges, Yeah, they're just charges. Till up. You did it. Yeah, you did it.
He didn't collapse after you shot them all. I know it's here. The funeral for the murdered members of the State family was held on July sixteenth. Cassidy attended the service with her grandfather, Robert Lyon, by her side. She showed up with a smile on her face, but you know, inside her heart was broken, but she tried to remember like the good things about her family. Four hundred people showed up, so you know, there's hundreds of people there, and she's saying I love you to all of them,
and like signing. I know it was language. She said, I love you and sign language. So she's there and these six caskets I'm rolling in. She absolutely broke down. Yeah, as she witnessed this, aw man, I mean, her family, it's I want to cry thinking about it. I mean sad now, I know. And she did speak at their funeral, and she remembered them like she told little anecdotes about her family members
and things like that her brothers and sisters loved to do. She tried to really give everybody like a little glimpse of what they were like in life. And at the funeral, she was comforted by her remaining family. It's only fifteen, no, I know, it's just so sad. So she did tell everyone, you know, I am doing a little better after my injuries,
and she was working her way to having a full recovery. And she did tell everybody quote, I know that my mom, Dad, Brian, Emily, Beck and Zach are in a much better place and then I'll be able to see them again one day. He is a better stronger person than me. I know. I can't the strength she had to be able to do this. I don't even know me at my age, I don't even know if I could know. And this is just hair. I need a lot of Xanax or something. Many families spoke at the service, and they
did a lot like what Kssidy did. They spoke about Like for Katie, she just loved being a mom and she just had like this great sunny personality. And Steven always put his family first and it was lovely for the circumstances it was. It was nice memories that they all had. Cassidy just wanted her family to be remembered not for how they died, but for how they lived. Well. Okay, after years of delays. Ronald's trial finally began
August twenty six, two thy nineteen five years. Were they seeking the death penalty? Oh yeah, that's why hmm. The prosecution did everything they could to try to conveny and it's the jury that Ronald's murderous spree was based on vengeance. Yes. The first piece of evidence that the prosecution introduced to the jury was Cassidy's nine to one one call. On the tape, Cassidy told the operator that her entire family had been shot and that she needed immediate help.
The nine one one operator then asked who the shooter was and she said, uncle Ronnie. They make her testify, Yes, I knew it in the courtroom or by zoom. No, it was in the courtroom. There's pictures online of her testifying in the little witness box. Another person who testified was Sergeant Back, who was one of the police deputies from Harris County. He was the first to arrive at the scene. He testified just how surreal
it was. Yeah, And after he helped Cassidy, he checked the other victims to see if anyone was still alive, and that's when he discovered Rebecca and he had a body cam, and that video was shown to the court. Imagine being on the jury. Oh man, the odds top. I know they were family. I mean the jury was just stunned. I wouldn't want to see it. They got to see Cassidy. I mean, she's terrified. They see the bleeding. Yes, sure she's bleeding, because head
wounds bleed a lot. And even if she was just grazed, I'm sure there was tons of blood. It was just right. Anyway, it was bad when Melanie was called to testify, Poor Melanie. Oh, she must have felt terrible, right Gil oh man, I can't even imagine it. And during her testimony, she told the court that Ronald had warned her that her family would be murdered if she ever told anyone about the violence and abuse that she was suffering at his hands. She told the court that as soon
as she heard about the murder, she instantly knew it was Ronald. She said, quote he carried through on his promise to make me watch my family die. Mmmm, that's how you get people. Don't hurt them, hurt the ones they love. Yeah, that's just my weakness. My family worst fears for something to happen to someone. I love right, he's an asshole. I know. While she testified, she rarely looked in his direction and
she never mentioned him by name. She called him the defendant. She told the court that during her marriage, he forced her to be isolated from her family. I mean, it's typical abuse from family vis French troller, and she was afraid of him. She was terrified and it almost scribbled her. During the trial, the prosecution presented physical evidence from the scene, such as bullet casings, and they showed the jury very graphic photos taken of the victims
and the murder weapon. I mean, I can't believe he went to trial. Hello, there's this high speed chase with the police. I know, a nine one one call it dentifying him. I know, like you're being blocked in. You get a four hour stand off, and you think with the death penalty on the table, you think it was just taken a please complea for life in prison, no parole. No. His his lawyers, his defense was that he was insane, insane at the time of though.
Wasn't just say heat a passion, Yeah, insane, he was insane. Yes. One of the pictures that was shown was a bullet made its way into Steven's wallet, like it, he had it on him. So I don't think Ronald was just shooting everyone once. I think there was multiple shots because, like I said, like Zachary got in the shoulder, So I think he shot everyone a couple of times. I don't know. But even though I didn't find any like articles or anything that said that, but that's
what I think happened. It's my opinion. I mean, you're not a trained professional. I'm not a trained professional. I'm not a forensic analyst. But anyway, so we're yeardless of all this physical evidence, the phone call, the bullet casings, whatever tip mom. Yeah, like I mentioned, the defense strategy was to show that he was insane at the time of the attack. The defense told the jury that Ronald has since been sedated and treated
for mental illness. What mental illness, depression, anxiety. I think there was no like, oh he's paranoid, something serious, you know, or like bipolar disorder or something they went untreated for years or something. No, it was none of that. It was he's just didn't he drive from California all the way to Texas? Yeah, it had a long time to turn around. Yeah, it took him over twenty four hours to drive to Texas.
He had a lot of time to think about this. His attorney, Douglas Durham, stated that the State of Texas had this insanity statue and he was so certain the evidence was going to show that Ronald was under extreme mental incapacity. How can anybody do this for revenge? Let me tell you, he's gonna lose because State of Texas reach, Texas don't play. Texas don't play. Texas don't play. Texas don't play, and they have a very high standard to meet the for lack of a better term, insanity defense.
Yeah, yeah, you're not. You're not gonna win it. During the trial, it came to light that after Ronald drove from his parents home to Spring, Texas, and like I said, it was more than a day, he stocked Remember you mentioned stocking stocking in there. Yeah, he stocked the State family for two whole days before finally murdering them. Walleyside planned to present witnesses to plead their case. The most emotional testimony obviously came from Cassidy.
She was on the stand on day two of the trial, and the prosecution really did kind of a masterful job because initially, instead of just boom boomoom asking her questions about what happened, they had her tell about her family, oh and pull on the heart strings of the heart strings, and then
they did ask her about the attack. She said she remembered answering the door and there was a FedEx guy there and he was holding a white pillow that was covered in duct tape, and she said she was initially confused, like what is this? But he used it as a silencer. Was he dressed as a FedEx guy? He was us as a FedEx guy. And he actually worked for a company, like one of his prior jobs. He worked for a company that was contracted to FedEx, so he did have a FedEx
uniform. He was not a direct employee. He was contracted. But I'm trying to defend FedEx a little bit, but yeah, he was a contract employee. Ah, so angry right now, I know. And Cassidy described that before he started shooting everyone, she was just praying, praying and praying as they were being held at gunpoint. While she and her siblings are being held and they waited for her parents to come home. And while they're waiting, she's trying to talk to Ronald and try to relate to him, like
on a human level. Yeah, she started talking to him about her siblings. She told him how old they were. She said she was trying to appeal to his humanity. And yeah, she said, I didn't think someone would hurt kids if he knew their names and how old they were. A four year old dad, and he's a dad right with his own kids. And there have been studies done that this technique works. Yeah, sometimes it works sometimes, probably not with Ted Bondy, probably not, you know,
with some people. With some people, I think when you try to put the humanity and you know, we've done stories where like if you're captured by a serial killer or something, sometimes when you try to get to know them and relate, they start to loosen up. And I do as a human, not a nonjec. Yeah, exactly. But unfortunately it didn't work. It didn't work in this instance. Describing the aftermath of the shootings, Cassidy told the courtroom she remembered how the room smelled, that it just wreaked,
the smell of blood, and the air was just sour and hot. The atmosphere was heavy and as she's describing this. Ronald just sat at the defense table with just a stoic look on his face, and he had no reaction. But according to the defense, he was sedated at the time. Well, it would be a lot of xanax for me to have no reaction. Yeah, after the jury her that Ronald stocked the family for two days prior to the shooting. They knew for sure this is spree was premeditated. It
wasn't something. And of course and too he drove, he had like three or four days. I'm a passion passion. No, I'm so angry right now. Right, No, he knew exactly boiling up inside him. He's just probably getting angrier by the minute. He knew exactly what he was doing when he arrived at the stay home and executed them. Once the trial ended, the jury goes on to deliberate, and after only four hours it's going to say I didn't That wouldn't take very long. No, he was convicted
of first degree murder on all counts. That was time for them to decide on the sentence, and the sentence that they had available was the death penalty or life in prison. This is Texas. Yeah, So on October eleventh, twenty nineteen, the jury sentenced him to die by lethal injection. Again, it's Texas exactly, that's what Texas don't play. Texas don't play. I mean, I've never been there. I've heard it's lovely Texas. Don't commit a murder in Texas, right, I mean, of all places,
is that the advice? I yes, I don't know. For the week, don't commit a murder and murder, I guess do it in California because if you go on death row, you never yeah, you're never gonna You're never gonna be don't even have death row. Oh yeah, they don't have death row anymore. So I don't know anyway, I'm being sarcastic. Sarcastic, In case anyone didn't recognize my sarcasm, I did thank you. During her victim impact statement, Cassidy told the jurors that her family always told her
that Ronald only ever felt sorry for himself. It's probably true. She looked at him and told him, you know, she originally refused to believe that that he only had felt sorry for himself, because she thought, for sure he had to feel some sort of regret or sorrow for killing her entire family, but when she heard he had zero remorse, she said, something changed in sight of her. I'm sure she had to like look at it where she had to stop feeling like, he's got to feel bad, right,
Some people have no soul their class psychopaths. They walk around as if they're human beings. Yeah, but they're missing their soul. And she said, I just needed to have some closure in my life because I couldn't keep carrying this around. So she told Ronald to quote, my closure was the hope that you would feel bad. I no longer have the desire for closure because this is it. She know in her heart that the only person who would be able to help her heal would be God, and the only one that
would really truly punish him would be in the afterlife. So she turned to God with her anger and resentment. I'm sure there was some punishment in prison. Oh yeah, she just she said she was going to continue her life through and Texas doesn't sound like death rout anywhere. It doesn't sound good to know, but she told him, you know, I'm going to continue on
with my life. And at this point she's twenty and she's the mother of her own Oh, so she has a baby, and she said, I'm going to continue to live my life with happiness, and said, I'm going to forget about you, and I'm going to forget about this and I'm going to be happy. Wow. So Ronald Lee Heskell is currently living out his miserable life on death row at the L and B. Polunski unit located near Livingston, Texas. And he was probably only in his mid thirties, I
think when this happens. So he's got a long time to stay there. His poor kids too. Oh I know who's your dad? Oh he's in prison for annihilating my family. That's a shame. That's It's a terrible story. Lose, lose. So well, thank you everyone, Thank you everyone, Thank you Tanya, Thank you everyone for listening to today's horrible, horrible story. Family annihilation stories are fascinating. Yeah we did that one. Remember
where the mocking what was it? Remember mocking for mocking something? Mocking Hill Road? Oh? Yes, yeah, these are these stories are just they just I always wonder what it takes for someone to just snap like that. So I see I could see like someone snapping and killing like melody. I'm not saying you mean Melanie. Yes, Melanie, I'm not saying, but you can kind of sort of understand that, right, right, But a little four year old like ChIL children, what what? What's That's just an
evil what's going on here? That's just evil? Thought like I'm gonna hurt her so bad, I'm gonna make her live and think about what I did to her family for the rest of her life. I mean, that's just evil. That's evil, that is that is evil. If you haven't already, please hit the subscribe, follow like button whichever is positive button. Yes anything. If you would like to hear more episodes of our podcast, you can go to our website Consequences dot com and we have you can listen there.
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