48 Hours - "48 Hours" Live to Tell: The Vendetta - Encore

Episode Date: September 1, 2019

A judge and her son are ambushed in front of their home. Shot multiple times, the judge refuses to be intimidated and works to stop other attacks. CBS News' Jim Axelrod reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. We are never going to be the same. Driving at night is never going to be the same. And we all feel that it never should have happened. I was the first female district judge to be on a criminal bench in Travis County.

Governor Bush appointed me in 1999. I think the fact that I was expecting twins brought a lot of attention to the whole process. Attorneys, please approach. I treated people in my courtroom with respect and kindness and patience, but firm when I needed to be. The defendant stands charged with the offense of capital murder. I knew that there was a potential threat because of the high-risk people that I'm seeing every day. The decisions I make every day, someone's not going to leave happy. It was a Friday. I had family and we're gonna go to the football game, you know Texas football on

Friday night. Will and I and my sister drove. It was just like any other night. We always went to the football games every Friday night. My cousin and aunt were coming in town, so I was excited to see them and have a good night. It was rainy, so after halftime, we decided to head home. Will had his learner's permit, so he drove. My mom was next to me in the passenger seat. My aunt and cousin were in the back. So we drove up to the security gate,

and we drove into our driveway. And as we were pulling into the driveway, I saw a leaf bag that was blocking the gate. And we thought it was strange. I thought it was a prank. And so we got out of the car. Got out and picked it up and then started to walk down towards the street with it. I saw someone start to kind of walk down the street. And I noticed he was dressed in all black and I thought it was a little weird.

And then all of a sudden, he just started running straight at me. And so I turned around and ran back to my mom's side of the car. And then he pulled out a gun and started shooting. I think he shot four times through the driver's side window. I scooted down as far as I could in the seat, and I protected my head with my arm and my hand. I can remember thinking, I'm going to die in front of my own son. Travis County 911.

Hey, hello, hello, hello, we just got shot at. Is anybody injured? My mom is. Please hurry, this guy just went up to the car and shot my mom. I got called by one of the supervisors in the homicide unit who told me there had been a shooting and that the victim of the shooting was State District Court Judge Julie Kosurik. When you're a judge, you potentially have a lot of enemies. She'd sent a lot of people to prison. There are potentially hundreds, if not thousands,

of individuals who might hold a grudge against her. We didn't know who did this. And it just shows you that you never know who it's going to be. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder,

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Opening the door was almost like opening a Christmas present, because when I opened it and saw she was alive, I was really surprised. And I said, I'm okay. Because when he opened the door, he was screaming. It's okay, Mom. It's okay. It's okay. And she told me she was okay, and that was a little shocking at first.

And then when she looked up and I saw blood everywhere I knew that she was not okay. And I assured him that I was conscious but I was afraid for us to stay near that car. I wanted to get away from that car so that they couldn't come back and shoot us all. So Will and my sister and my nephew got me out of the car and got me up to the porch. And my sister said to me as I was laying on the porch, you are quitting that job. And the pain is like never anything like I felt before. It was excruciating. And I had a bullet behind my neck

that was just under my shoulder, and I knew I couldn't move. And once we got up to the porch, Mary thought she was going to die, so I kind of just told her goodbye. I mean, Will said goodbye to me. He, I told him I loved him. And we just waited for the police to come.

It seemed like an eternity. Once I heard the sirens coming, I ran down to the street. Where did he go? He went down that way. He's dressed all black. I thought maybe we can get the guy who did it, and then I don't have to spend the next however many years worrying about who it was if she does die or even if she doesn't. A police arrive and I told one officer that I was a judge and I felt like it was related to my work.

I knew that if I could remember and if I made it, I had to remember every second of what was happening. And once the shots were over, I turned to look behind me and I could see a car speeding away. And it was a gray sedan. I wanted whoever did this to be apprehended. I head out to where her house is at, where the shooting occurred.

By the time I got to the scene, the judge had been transported to the hospital. The judge's car is in her driveway. One of the windows is shot out. There's lots of blood in there. We ended up finding four cartridge cases that matched up essentially to what the information we were getting from witnesses, both the witnesses who were there in the car and other, you know, neighbors who heard the shots, that there had been about four to five shots. Judge Kosurik had many small gunshot fragments.

She had extensive wounds over her left shoulder, her face, her scalp, her right forearm, her left hand, her left forearm. But she was awake and she was stable. The judge's husband, Kelly, and Will's twin sister, Mary Frances, rushed to the hospital. Will arrived later after answering questions from police about the shooting. When I walked into the hospital, I still had her blood on me. And my sister came up to me and she was really upset. And my dad was in there and I hadn't seen him since it happened. The bullet wounds with Judge Kosurik were a large number of small wounds, some larger wounds.

All of them had this liquid copper metallic material within them. I had not seen anything like that before. I got a call from her doctor, just a very desperate call. And her doctor was like, what the hell did she get shot with? I described this particular bullet and this was a sort of unique ammunition, especially designed to be frangible, meaning that it comes apart, you know, when it strikes flesh, it comes apart. The bullet is meant to cause the maximum amount of damage. While four bullets were shot, the judge had hundreds of gunshot fragments and wounds.

In between surgeries to remove the fragments, Judge Kasurik spoke with police. As someone who's heard every type of criminal case, she knew any clue, anything she could recall, could be important. I told the police I'd had two hang-up calls the day before I was shot, and it was odd. And the week before, it was Halloween weekend, then I noticed this man that was dressed in street clothes jogging by and staring at me as I was putting up my Halloween decorations. And I waved at him and smiled, and he just stared at me. It was odd, but you know, it doesn't mean someone's going to try to kill you. And a manhunt this morning for the gunman in the shooting of a Texas judge.

I heard it on the news the next day. I was just horrified.... Judge Kucerec didn't get shot because she's Julie. She got shot because she was doing her job, and that's a real threat to the rule of law and the judicial work. ... I'll tell you, when you're leaving the courtroom late at night and you're walking through a dark

parking lot, you're looking over your shoulder differently than you were before Julie got shot, because it could happen to me. I remember Sunday night, some friends came in to see me and I felt hot. I didn't feel good. Judge Kosurik became critically ill on the second day of her hospitalization. She developed a high white blood cell count which is a marker of infection and a high fever as well. And we knew we needed to take her to the operating room in order to explore the wounds. In the operating room it became apparent really quickly that she had a really bad infection, and we knew that there was a significant chance

that she might die. And it wouldn't have been safe to wake her up and to let her breathe on her own, so she was in a medically induced coma and had a tube that was breathing for her. I was going there every day to see her, so I knew that she wasn't... medically induced coma and had a tube that was breathing for her. I was going there every day to see her so I knew that she wasn't, I mean you could tell she wasn't doing well by looking at her most of the time. I tried not to think about her possibly dying during that because I figured that if we'd

already made it through that main event of it then we could get through the infection. After the first couple of operations she became less, and we were able to wake her up and take her out of that medically induced coma, and she was able to breathe on her own. I woke up, and I felt like I was in the depths of the earth. I have never felt that much psychological pain. My husband walked in. I said, how am I going to get out of this hole? I am in a hole. And I don't know how to get out.

And he said, take one day at a time. We're going to get over this. I was so fearful that I wasn't going to be able to get my life back. I was worried for my children. I would have dreams about it every night. Couldn't sleep. Didn't want to go outside at night. I really stopped hanging out with my friends for a while after that. The guilt that I felt of choosing a profession that put my son and family in harm's way.

There were times that I wanted to die. I felt like I was damaged goods and that my family would be a lot better off without me. They would be safer. Because we didn't know if it was going to be a continuing threat. because we didn't know if it was going to be a continuing threat. I mean, it would be hard to live your life with someone out there not knowing who was trying to kill you. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly?

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app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. The hospital stay was horrific. I had open wounds on my whole arm and my face. The judge's left index finger was severely injured. She had an infection that involved the bone and it became apparent that she would have a much more functional hand if we amputated that finger. I just remember coming out of surgery one day and they were saying, we took off your finger. And it's got some deformities that I will live with the rest of my life. And I'm just happy to have an arm and a limb and to be able to use my hand.

Judge Kucyrk was pretty remarkable and her family was pretty remarkable too. And I know this was an incredibly difficult time for her. She was thinking a little bit about herself, but I think she was thinking more about the well-being of her son and what her son had gone through. She mentioned that many times during the hospitalization. I questioned the security of my family, whether I could go back to work and feel like my family was going to be safe.

In this particular case, this is a public official. She's well known. Her name is in the paper all the time. She's also a wife, a mother, a member of the community. Just because she's a judge, you can't ignore the fact that this could be just an ordinary motivation. It could be a husband trying to get rid of a wife. So these questions had to be asked.

In the hospital, her husband agreed to sit down with me, and I grilled him about all those things. I very quickly got the sense that that's not where it's at. I know that my probation officers and prosecutors, they were combing files when I was in the hospital. I was inundated with people giving us all sorts of names. I received a call from an investigator at the Travis County District Attorney's Office, and he told me that a couple weeks before they had received a tip

saying that a particular person named Chimney Onyeri was planning to shoot a judge in Travis County. After the shooting happened, an additional tip came in from the same tipster. Now she's saying not only did he say that he was going to, but now he's bragging that he did. We were very focused on Chimney Onyiri. He was from Houston, a clean-cut, nice-looking kid. Mr. Onyiri came before me on a motion to revoke probation. He's a 28-year-old who spent a considerable amount of time on his criminal activities. It was one of those criminal activities that first landed O'Nerry in Judge Kucerec's courtroom

in 2012. It involved fake credit cards. O'Nerry was given probation. He came before her again in 2015 to revoke his probation due to new fraud charges. The judge kept him on probation pending a trial. It was a very, very ordinary case. Or so the judge thought. She would later learn O'Nere was far more than a common

criminal. He was running a complex financial criminal enterprise, and he wanted to make sure the judge wouldn't shut it down. I had found out that Mr. Onyere's girlfriend had known that he was planning to kill me and had called the district attorney's office and she didn't use my name but she said Chimney Onyari was planning on killing the judge. The district attorney's office investigator determined that she wasn't credible, never spoke to me, never told me of the threat. That was a mistake. I mean, they should have alerted the judges right then and there. It seems to me like that's Investigations 101, of they would let me know about the threat.

It was disappointing. I would have been much more alert. There were signs in my neighborhood, had I known in addition that this threat had come in, I would have completely changed what I was doing and my family. What we learned is that when Onyeri walked out of that hearing in Judge Kusurik's court, the first thing he said is he's going to kill her. Now Chimney Onyeri is number one. So now we have to find Chimney Onyeri. Once I learned that Onyeri was our suspect, we also learned from the same informant that Onyeri was bragging about a murder he did in Houston.

It was the murder of a man who allegedly assaulted O'Neri's father. Now that this informant was coming forward to give information, they felt they had enough to charge him. And before I could even make it to Houston, the marshals had him in custody. A person of interest is in custody. He has been booked on an unrelated murder charge by the Houston Police Department. I got an alert on my phone that said they found a suspect because I had turned on news alerts to see if they'd caught him or not. Once I saw his face, I'd have dreams and he was in it and he was trying to shoot me.

Sometimes I'd have dreams where I could feel the bullets going into my back and I'd have dreams and he was in it and he was trying to shoot me. Sometimes I'd have dreams where I could feel the bullets going into my back and I'd wake up and sweating. I realized that he was probably watching us for a while and figuring out what he was going to do and when he was going to do it. It felt like your whole life was violated. He was arrested only three days after the shooting. And that held him in Houston for a significant period of time while the investigation continued. O'Neary was a strong suspect in Judge Kucerec's shooting, but authorities did not yet charge him. They were working to build a larger federal case involving not just Judge Kosurik's attempted murder,

but fraud and racketeering charges as well. It was a criminal ring with more than a dozen co-conspirators. When I talked to Onyiri, in terms of Judge Kosurik, you know, he absolutely denied any involvement in the shooting, that he would never do something like this. We had to have more evidence. We had to have an airtight case. When I went to talk to Onyari in Houston when he was arrested in Houston homicide, he denied

being involved in any way in the shooting. And this case wasn't going to be a confession case. It was clear from that point we were going to have to prove everything that we were going to charge him with. There was the tip that he had actually shot the judge, and that's pretty good, a pretty strong clue that he was a significant suspect. Of course, one person saying something like that is not good enough, and it's not certainly going to prove someone guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

So a lot of what went on then for the next months really was to try to corroborate the tip, and there were many things that helped corroborate the tip and there were many things that helped corroborate the tip among them ultimately was his phone which had been recovered in the car at the time of his arrest when he was stopped by police in Houston he destroyed his cell phone and when I say he destroyed his cell phone he ripped his cell phone in half and And fortunately for us, when he ripped it in half, he didn't break the storage card that was inside. So once we got the phone records,

we could see that Onyeri was in Austin during the time of the shooting. I found out later that for a month, he had driven to Austin on four or five occasions and sat in front of my house and watched us come and go. He stalked her the same way that a hunter would stalk its prey, the same way law enforcement would surveil a bad guy in a case. He followed her. He learned about her, he researched her, he was able to track her movements, know where she was, knew about her family, and enlisted other people

to try to gather evidence as well about her. It ranged from things like pictures of Judge Kucurek's car as he was following her around here in Austin, pictures of the high school that her son went to. And one of the pictures he took was of peacocks. It turns out there's a park near the judge's house that they call Peacock Park. And I guess he doesn't see too many peacocks, uh, roaming around the streets of Houston. So it must've been a novelty.

And so he snapped a picture of it. That helped as well because the judge, as soon as she saw those pictures, she knew right away where he was. We have pictures of Agneri at the Motel 6 in Austin. We have pictures of Agneri in a hardware store in Austin. He was there buying gloves that investigators believe were part of his plan to shoot the judge. And as the guy is ringing these up, which by by the way, he's paying with a stolen debit card, as the guy is ringing this up, Onyari's taking them out and he's putting them on. And he's like, oh, these are great.

She got shot on November 6th and got out right before Christmas. Judge Kucurek was in the hospital for 40 days. Had 25 to 30 operations. After Judge Kucurek left the hospital, she still required pretty extensive work in order to recover. This included hand therapy, extensive physical therapy, and multiple other operations as well. And she was pretty vulnerable because she couldn't even stand up really at the time.

I didn't really like it because I felt like she could sit in the hospital and be safe all the time and being at home would make it easier for somebody to get her and finish it if they wanted to. We were moved to a safe location. We had the SWAT team as watching over us, patrolling with us 24-7 for 18 months. As a judge, I run every four years,

and I don't know at what point, but I told my husband, you know, I have to file for re-election. And my sisters and brothers did not want me to go back to work. And I didn't initially. I thought about it long and hard. I knew she had to talk to her family about that. I knew that was going to be a hard conversation. And she was eligible to retire. And so I wasn't sure what she was going to do.

I questioned why I had gone into this line of work. And I mean, I'm coming face to face with the highest risk people in our community every day. So I called her over to my chambers after she was kind of on her feet. And I said, Judge, I want to tell you two things. First, the judiciary stands shoulder to shoulder with you. Please know that 3,000 judges in Texas are completely on your side. Second, do you want to stay? And if you do, do you want to help be a leader in advocating for greater judicial and courthouse security?

And I said, absolutely. I do. I want to use this experience to help other judges be safe. experience to help other judges be safe. When someone does something like this to you, you just want to fight to get everything back that you had. So I had to go back, I felt like, to show that judges will not back down in the face of violence. I was very proud of her. very proud of her. When I stepped back in that courtroom, it was one of the happiest moments of my life, walking out and seeing all my friends and co-workers there. It affirmed what I knew that I needed to do. All of the goodness and love that's poured out far outweigh any evil in this world.

The whole time, I wanted to make changes. I did not want this to happen again to anyone. They were going to draft legislation and create a court security committee and come up with ideas. We introduced the bill in early January in 2017 and we had named it the Judge Julie Kucurek Judicial and Courthouse Security Bill of 2017 and we were very proud of that name. It's very hard to do much to make judges completely secure but there are a lot of things that makes it more difficult for somebody to find you. You can change your address on your

driver's license, on your voter records, and use a business address instead of the home address. Another piece of the legislation needed to be paying attention to each and every threat. And as I told him, I think it was very therapeutic for Will and I to do this together. It made us feel like we were making a positive impact. The Judge Julie Kucyrk Judicial and Courthouse Security Act of 2017. I thought maybe I would try and use my side of it to help because I really didn't want that to happen to anyone else. Madam Chair and members, I'm Will Kucerec. I'm 17 years old and I'm in favor of Senate Bill 42.

To see a young man like that take on that big of a cause, it was just stirring. I always thought that the violence that she saw would stay in our inner courtroom, but on November 6, 2015, that all changed. Made a huge impression on the legislators. Sent Bill 42 to finally pass. As the judge and will work to keep judges safe, investigators work to bring Judge Kucerec's case to justice. The Houston D.A. dismissed the murder charge there,

saying it would help expedite the handling of Oñeri's other offenses. Through our investigation, we were able to determine that he was basically creating his own little organized crime ring. And he was making money, which he liked to show off, as seen in this video found on his phone. In December of 2016, federal prosecutors indicted Oñeri for his criminal conspiracy and the attempted murder of Judge Kucerec. He was charged with 17 counts, ranging from racketeering to identity theft to witness tampering. from racketeering to identity theft to witness tampering. We spent years working on the case and getting it into a position that it was ready for trial. Today the trial began for the man accused of shooting a Travis County judge.

The trial started in late March of 2018. Hello, hello, hello! We just got shot at! This guy just went up to the car and shot my mom. It's hard to listen to, frankly, to hear a 15-year-old thinking that his mother is going to die right in front of his face. But we thought that was an important way to start. but we thought that was an important way to start. They called me in and I walked in and I saw all the people in the courtroom. I was excited to get it done, really.

That was one of the hardest moments. It was almost as hard as the shooting, having to watch him testify. It was painful. Well, I didn't like looking back on it at all, but I was happy that I could get it right. I felt tremendous guilt that my child had to go through this, and I was nervous for him, but he did beautifully. We had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill her.

The best evidence of what was going on inside of Chimney on Yerry's mind were his texts that showed his interaction with his friends and colleagues. He had been in her courtroom only a few weeks before the shooting, and his texts made it pretty clear when you read them. Almost immediately after walking out of her courtroom that day, he started using expletives to describe her. He described how much he hated her and how mad he was. And almost immediately after that, he started looking for her.

The evidence showed that the defendant had selected a kind of what they call frangible round. And what it's designed to do is hit flesh and open up and cause the maximum amount of damage. Best way to see how it works is to see it in action. The FBI's lab fired similar rounds through similar materials. The slow motion depiction of that round hitting a window was important for us to show the jury so they could understand the nature of the injuries that the judge suffered. When we first heard about Chimney Onyeri, we were told no one would ever testify against him because he had a

reputation in Houston that would preclude anyone from flipping. Onyeri had been arrested in the past for murder and for robbery, and one of the ways that he got off was that he got the word out to all the witnesses, if you testify against me, it's going to be bad for you. We ended up having over a dozen people who decided it was in their interest to testify against him rather than sit next to him. We were able to have them testify to show their level of knowledge about, not just in the shooting, but in the criminal enterprise that O'Neary was running. It was important to end with the victim being able to describe what had happened to her.

I testified about that night. Words can't describe how this has affected our family and me, but I tried to articulate it the best that I could. Just minutes ago, Shamino Nyeri admitted he fired a shot at Judge Julie Kosurik's car, which he says he thought was empty. His argument for the attempted murder was accident, essentially, that he had come to Austin because he was mad and that he intended to scare her by firing rounds into her vehicle.

He did not know she was inside. He said he was just trying to scare me. But I think the evidence showed that when you shoot someone from four feet away with a handgun and aim it at their heads, that you intend to kill. He didn't care if she was a judge or not. He looked at her as an impediment to his business, essentially, and he was going to take that impediment out. It was a month-long trial. Trying to figure out what a jury's going to do and how they're going to do it and when they're going to do it is folly.

I anticipated they would be out for a significant period of time just because of the length of the trial. It was very stressful not knowing and having it in the jury's hands. And so I sat and tried to not second guess. They were out about a day, approximately a day, day and a half before they reached a verdict. Today, a jury found Chimene O'Yeri guilty for shooting Judge Julie Kosurik back in 2015. It's guilty, guilty on all counts. When they actually did find him guilty and I was there, that's when I felt a lot of relief for the first time since it had happened.

It was a tremendous relief when the trial was over. I didn't realize the pressure that it would have put on me physically and emotionally and on my family to have that over with because we had been waiting for a long time. Chimney on Erie faced a minimum of two years in federal prison and a maximum of life. This was an attack on the system and that the message that needed to be sent to the community, to anyone thinking of doing something like this,

is this will not be tolerated, period. Our informants continued to be in danger. Judge Kossert continued to remain in danger as long as there was a possibility he was getting out. So the question was, what would be his punishment? Hear more of the emotional 911 call at 48hours.com. I felt like if he would try to assassinate a judge, he will try to kill anyone. I would not recommend a sentence.

I think that's solely within the court's discretion. I know it's a difficult job from personal experience. It's never easy to sentence another human being to prison. But I really wanted to have safety for my family and the community. Chimney and Yuri was sentenced to life in prison. I am so proud of the way these agencies came together to show that the justice system will prevail, and that's why I came back to work in the first place.

We didn't celebrate that he got life in prison. We just were relieved that was over. I don't hold any vengeance or hatred towards him, but I want him to be in a place where he will not hurt anyone else. It just feels so good to wake up in the morning and know that my family is safe from Mr. O'Neary and his associates. It's not something that keeps me up at night. Sometimes it does, but not always. I've just kind of gotten used to it because it's something that I've lived with for a while. Our family will never be the same, unfortunately. We don't have the carefree Our family will never be the same, unfortunately. We don't have the carefree feelings that we used to have. I have this picture of our family in Colorado

three months before this happened. And I remember that hike like it was the best time of our lives, because it was so free and so safe. I long to feel that way again. We're getting there, but it's a process. I'm more aware of what's going on around me, which sometimes is not a good thing because it's hard to have a good time

when I'm always worried about that. Going off to college was hard because I was worried something would happen to my parents while I was gone. It's taught me how easy it is to lose people around you and how easy it is for something to happen that you never would have expected to happen. Please, I'm sorry, please. He was the hero in this whole thing.

He showed tremendous courage. But he did his best to save my life and protect me. But he did his best to save my life and protect me. If Will had not have stayed by my door, the passenger side, the shooter could have come directly up to my window. But Will stood firm and would not let him get close to me. You know, a 15-year-old boy should not have to do that. Some people might look at my hand as scarred and, you know, skin grafts, but I think of it every day as my heroic hand.

It saved my life, and it shielded my head and my throat and my eyes from all that shrapnel that hit me on that night. Judge Kucerec is doing extremely well. She's living her life. She's actually probably doing better than I would have anticipated. I felt like I would never be able to go anywhere by myself again. And at night, the feelings of, it haunts you. It haunts you. But I've been through a ton of therapy.

It brought me back to being able to do things that I did not think that I would ever be able to do again because I was so afraid. I was frozen by fear. These are letters from people that came in after the shooting. I call it my wall of support. People that I don't even know sent me letters and that's, you know, judges, fellow judges from other states, inmates, some that I had sentenced. When I think about how long I was in the hospital and where I was and how far I've come, and this is just a reminder,

these letters will stay up as long as I'm on the bench. She's an inspirational person, and many people would have decided, you know what, the amount of money I make in the public sector is not worth risking my life and I don't ever want to get back on that bench again. It's a credit to her that she had the courage and the ability to get back up there and do her job. What will Judge Kucyrk's legacy be?

I think it will be, first, that she was a good judge. But nobody will ever forget that she got shot. She has really turned that terrible situation into something that has made the state a better place. I don't know what my legacy will be, but if I were to go today, it would be the Judicial Security Act as far as my professional life.

And I don't know what life holds. I'm gonna be on the bench for a lot longer and I will go wherever this leads me to help people. And I will go wherever this leads me to help people. Other states are now following Texas' lead, moving to improve judicial security. Judge Kucurek plans to seek re-election in 2020. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.