Dateline NBC - 10 Minutes to Sunset

Episode Date: November 17, 2020

When pediatric dentist Kendra Hatcher is found dead in Dallas, Texas, police uncover a complex plot that leads them on an international manhunt. Keith Morrison reports.

I'm Lester Holt. Tonight on Dateline, young, accomplished, and in love, she had a whole city at her feet and a murderer outside her door. I heard a shot. Pow. There's a guy running with a mask right in front of me. Dallas, 911. Where's emergency? There was a call of a female in a parking garage. They believed that she was shot. The car door was open and I saw her just laying there. And she wasn't moving? No, not at all. It was devastating. I didn't see how that could even be possible. People like Kendra don't get shot. You're like, who is this person that just executed

my sister? On the night that we released the still photo, he told me, I think this is my ex-girlfriend. She was a master manipulator. The amount of people involved in this crime shocked me. These aren't sane individuals that can commit a murder and then make a heart out of the blood money. How much money was it? $500. To kill somebody?

To kill somebody. Here's Keith Morrison with 10 Minutes to Sunset. At the end of a lazy day, as summer shifted into September, and a sinking sun threw long, dark shadows across the center of Dallas, a young man named Hashim Saad had just spent the day, his day off, at home in his father's place,

this gleaming apartment building called Gables Park 17. No work, no nothing, so just hanging around at the house all day. And from here to 16-year-old eyes, the world around looked fine indeed. Dallas Uptown. Hip, young, professional, safe. That's a pretty nice building, isn't it? Mm-hmm. I would agree with you on that one. Just then, ten minutes to sunset, a white Camry made its way into the neighborhood,

young woman at the wheel. She slowed down, turned in at the entrance to her parking garage, Gables Park 17. At precisely the moment Hashim and a friend were riding down the elevator. So we go downstairs. You know, once we get downstairs, we open up the doors. And froze. You could hear just screaming.

Screaming? Just straight up screaming. Followed, said Hashim, by the bark of some kind of gun. Was it obvious that was gunshots? Yeah, I knew that like right away. Right away. Right when they did it. I was like, really?

And then entire screeches. Adrenaline pumping. Hashim raced for his car. Pulled out his phone. 911. Hi, someone just got shot in the parking lot of the Gables Park 17. All I heard was screaming and then a loud pop. And then I saw her and screeching tires. Could you tell if they were men or women in the car?

I think a man. Like, I'm pretty sure a man. Like, he looked like a... Did he look like he was black, white, or Hispanic? He was white. They had tinted windows. I couldn't see exactly who they were. Didn't see anybody in it? No. I saw two people.

Police arrived. This is their body cam video. They got cameras that come in and out of this place? Yeah, they're checking on it right now. Okay. The victim was on the first floor level behind a row of cars. They're down there. Okay. She was lying on the cold gray concrete of the starkly lit garage. Young, dark hair, dressed in what looked like doctor scrubs. There's one homicide detective for the entire city tonight. The man he was referring to was Dallas PD Detective Eric Barnes.

He got the call at home. I had just taken a bite of supper when the phone rang. It was one of those things, take a bite of your food, put it back down, give everybody a hug and a kiss, and I'm back in the car jumping into detective mode. Detective Barnes made his way to the uptown building and immediately wondered how the killer got into that garage. This activity didn't happen out on the street like random boom, boom, boom. It was somebody went inside to make this happen.

Yes, this parking garage is designed for residents or visitors of the apartment complex. So it's gated and shielded from the outside street and outside community. The young woman had been shot at close range in the head, like a pro might do it, except... One of her car doors was open, and there was a magazine to a firearm laying next to her body. That's pretty unusual in a shooting, isn't it? It is.

Somebody got out of there too fast and left something behind? Yes. I assume that possibly it was a shooting, isn't it? It is. Somebody got out of there too fast and left something behind? Yes. I assumed that possibly it was a robbery, and during the exit, the robber got a little anxious and released the magazine. What was missing that made it look like a robbery? The victim's purse was taken.

As Detective Barnes was getting a good look around, the duty prosecutor showed up, Justin Lord. I started thinking, well, this is an odd place for a robbery to take place behind a secured gate in a parking garage. It almost looked like a mob hit or something. It looked like an execution. And then they figured out who she was, and it made no sense at all. We ran the license plate of the vehicle that the victim was laying next to, came back to Kendra Hatcher. Kendra Hatcher was a pediatric dentist in the Dallas area,

and she lived in the apartment building. Thirty-five-year-old Kendra K. Hatcher, they discovered, was popular, accomplished, respected. She had a reputation for doing volunteer work with poor children. Why would anyone want to kill her? She was going on vacation the very next day. How did you find Anna? Well, we spoke with her boyfriend. Kendra's boyfriend was a doctor,

a dermatologist, Ricky Pattiagua. He told Detective Barnes he'd just been in her apartment, texting her. Left for a while, then came back, showed up after the shooting. He was waiting for her to arrive, and he actually went to a taco shop in the area while he was waiting on Kendra to text him back. When Ricky returned to the apartment complex, he was stopped from going inside by the doorman. Detectives met him and broke the news. Ricky seemed genuinely upset, distraught, said Detective Barnes. But he'd been close by, very close to the murder of his girlfriend.

Did that seem curious to you? There was nothing that I wanted to rule out at the beginning. Including also, of course, that Jeep Hashem saw speeding away out of the parking garage. Who was in it? Who made a kind-hearted pediatric dentist a target for murder? No one close to Kendra had a clue. When we come back...

People like Kendra don't get shot. I didn't see how that could even be possible. Police pressing for any leads. If I knew anybody who could do this, possibly somebody from her past. Did you have any ideas at all? I had no idea at all. In a parking garage in an upscale Dallas apartment building, crime scene investigators surrounded the prostrate body. Kendra K. Hatcher, pediatric dentist and all-around good person.

Already the news was flashing around the country. Kendra's brother, Neil, was in California on business when the call came. The call came in around 10.30 Pacific. I didn't sleep that night. And the ride home was long and tearful. Ride home to? Vegas. Five hours. In Maryland,

Kendra's friend, Dr. Tammy Pantano, was with the patient when she was called to the phone. They'd been fast friends, almost like sisters, these two, since their days in dental school. Of all the bad news you might have received, that would probably be the last thing they'd think of. I picked up my phone and I just kept pressing her name and pressing her name and hearing the voicemail over and over again.

Just praying for her to pick up that this was some kind of horrible mistake. It wasn't. I didn't see how that could even be possible. Like, people like Kendra don't get shot. They don't, they're not murdered. It was devastating. A Dallas friend, Kim Vaughn, heard some bad thing had happened, raced to Kendra's apartment, and found out there that she was dead.

I didn't know what to think or what to do. All I could do was sit on the floor and cry. Kendra's life had seemed so good Her career as a pediatric dentist Her promising new relationship with a handsome young doctor The city she'd fallen in love with If you knew Kendra, Dallas would have been her scene She liked the city life

Yep, and what a good change from being rural Rural and happy in a big active family just outside a little town called Pleasant Plains, Illinois. The school we went to was a small farm school and Kendra would sit there with a pillow and rock, watched her study, and she'd study all the time. Except when she was cheerleading and playing volleyball and going on missions to build churches and volunteering for all kinds of things.

How'd she find time to do all that stuff? I don't know. She did it. She managed it. I couldn't. She was on a different level when it came to just being awesome. And she wanted to be a dentist. Kendra was such a happy person. So much life. You couldn't even be in the same room with Kendra when she laughed

and not laugh yourself because it was so contagious. During school breaks, Kendra went to Ecuador to perform dental work for the poor. She interned in a practice that helped poor kids in Kentucky. That's what really kind of hit home, her desire to work on kids. Which is just what she was doing in her adopted city, Dallas. She loved what she did. She was great with kids. And that takes a special kind of patience that not everybody has. So it does. Her nieces and nephews certainly knew that. At just nine, Neal's daughter Josie braved the first all-by-herself flight of her life to spend a week in Dallas with her aunt KK. I was like, I don't know if I want to go, and I was like, no, I want to see Aunt KK.

Aunt KK, Kendra K. What did you guys do together that trip? We immediately got ice cream. We got our nails did, and went shopping a lot. What was that like spending that weekend with her? Very, very fun. We went to Legoland and we went to the pool every single night and got snacks. And she met Kendra's boyfriend, Ricky.

What were your impressions of him, Ricky? He was very, very nice, and he was quiet. They cuddled a lot, like they would watch movies. Yeah. And they'd always be next to each other. As they were supposed to be the night of the murder. Instead, Ricky and Kendra's friend Kim were listening to Detective Barnes ask his questions.

If I knew anybody who could do this, possibly somebody from her past, or someone she's dated. Did you have any ideas at all? I had no idea at all. Did he tell you anything else? He didn't give me a lot of details, because I think they were still collecting evidence at the crime scene. Including the one piece of evidence Barnes needed right away. Do they got cameras that come in and out of this place?

Yeah, they're checking on it right now. Surveillance tapes. He had them next day. And there it was, his first real lead. I think it was a black Jeep Cherokee. Sure enough, a Jeep Cherokee speeding out of the garage around 7.45 p.m. Hashim had said he saw two men inside, both wearing masks. But a grainy still photo from the video showed something else.

The driver was a woman. Coming up, the owner of the Jeep comes forward. I just want to help you guys out. Get to the bottom of it. Did he have any idea why his car might be involved in a crime like that? He told me he loaned his vehicle to his friend, Brenda Delgado. A murder investigation about to go in a whole new direction when Dateline continues. The day after the cold-blooded murder of Kendra Hatcher, Dallas police detective Eric Barnes took stock. He had one big bleed.

That was the video from the garage showing a Jeep Cherokee leaving the crime scene. But he had nothing else. Motive? Unknown. Driver of the Jeep? Unknown. And the shooter who apparently dropped a magazine of bullets near Kendra's body? Not a clue. We weren't able to actually recover any prints off of it, so we're back to square one again. Square one meant going frame by frame through the video captured by multiple cameras in the garage. One of them showed how that Jeep got in. They waited for a resident to come to gain access and they followed them in to the parking garage. Another security camera captured the hazy image of an unknown person approaching Kendra's car. Male, female?

It was hard to tell at the time. It was just a dark color silhouette. Then you see the black Jeep reverse out of the parking space and the silhouette runs back to the black vehicle in a hurry. Gets in and they take off. Gets in and they take off. The closest thing the detective had to an image of a suspect was an unidentified woman driving a Jeep. So we felt like in order to get the public's help

in getting either the vehicle identified or the driver identified, we needed the media to help us out by getting these still shots out to the community. Ms. Hatcher parks her car. So Dallas police called a press conference. If they've seen this vehicle, we'd like them to call 911, report it to Dallas police. All police could a press conference. All police could do, really. That and then wait and hope that in a city of millions of vehicles, somebody recognized this one.

Fat chance. But then, someone did. This someone. He told them his name was Luis Ortiz and that he was a mechanic, owned his own shop, and that he recognized the Jeep. Recognized it because that Jeep was his. I just want to help you guys out, get to the bottom of it. Were you surprised?

I was a little surprised. I didn't really know what was his motivation for coming in and didn't know if he was involved. You didn't kill this young lady, right? No, sir. I had no reason to. Okay. But if he didn't kill Kendra, if he wasn't involved,

what was his Jeep doing in that parking garage? As to that, said Luis, he was as much in the dark as the detective was. Said the evening it happened, in fact, the very moment it happened, he was sitting at a restaurant miles away having dinner with a friend. And his Jeep? Did he have any idea why his car might be involved in a crime like that? What he told me was he loaned his vehicle to his friend Brenda Delgado.

Brenda Delgado, said Luis, was a longtime family friend, good person, professional, trustworthy. She was also the person he was having dinner with. That's why I'm very upset at Brenda. Luis said he didn't know whether Brenda lost it or lent it or what, but he was sure, having seen that photo, that the car fleeing the crime scene was his. He knew that he needed to come in and talk to help clear his name.

Did you take him off your suspect list once he was finished talking to you? No. No. But he certainly did need to talk to this Brenda Delgado. So they called her. She came. No complaints. The detective told Brenda what Luis said about the Jeep. They said that you dropped your car off at his shop and that you borrowed a vehicle of his. No, it wasn't me. It was Crystal. What?

Luis must have been confused, said Brenda. No, it was her friend Crystal Cortez who borrowed Luis's Jeep. Wasn't her at all. She'd known Crystal just a month or so, said Brenda. She seemed a bit of a lost soul. Single mother, struggling to make it. But nice. So, said Brenda, she took the girl under her wing. And, yes, Crystal borrowed the car. What kind of car did she borrow? It was that car. Crystal borrowed that car?

Oh. Okay. Weird. Was it confusion? A mix-up? Or was somebody lying? The detective asked Brenda, call Crystal. Ask her to come down to the police station.

And not long after, here she was. My name is Detective Barnes. Thank you for moving in to talk to me. No problem. No problem. Helpfully, Brenda was still there. Luis, too. So now there were three people in three different interview rooms with three different stories. We don't normally get that lucky, but that night I was fortunate to be able to go, and Brenda said this, and then go to Crystal. Crystal said this.

I'm coming right back. Literally walked back and forth between the two interview rooms. About six to eight feet apart. Barnes knew Brenda could not have shot Kendra in that parking lot. Because at that very time, she and Luis were having dinner. But Crystal? Her story made the detective sit up in his chair. Yes, she said she did have Luis's Jeep.

In fact, she said she had her six-year-old little boy in the car with her, asleep in the back seat. And... I did go in the back seat. And... I did go in the parking lot. But not to commit murder, said Crystal. Oh, no. She and her son were just lucky to get out of there alive. Coming up, a tale of terror. Heard a shot.

I have my son in the back. There's a guy running with a mask right in front of me. He stops. He looks dead at me. I'm shaking literally at this point. And then, miles away, police find another car and another clue. Titan worked his way down on the center console, and at that point, he gave me a positive alert, which is he sits. Crystal Cortez sat with Detective Barnes in a Dallas police interview room and told a terrifying story. She had borrowed Luis's car so she could take her son to a park not far from Gables Park 17. And yes, she admitted, as a non-resident, she sneaked the Jeep into the garage, intending to leave it there while she and her boy walked to the park.

And then she heard the unmistakable sound. I heard a shot. Pow! I have my son in the back. So I said, no, you know what? Let me get out. I'm coming out. There's a guy running with a mask right in front of me. He stops. He looks dead at me. And I'm just like horrid.

I'm shaking literally at this point. Crystal said the man was holding a gun and a purse. She said she sped out to get away. Detective Barnes stopped her. I know that what you're telling me is not true. Knew it because he had that video. Showed the Jeep had parked and someone got out. So then Crystal, sitting cross-legged in her chair and getting animated,

admitted she'd fudged a little. Said the incident was really even more terrifying for her and her little boy. The man pointed a gun at her, jumped in the car, carjacked them. He didn't put the gun to my head, okay? I'm sorry. He did. Okay. I'm fearful for my life. Who put it to you? I don't know his name. I don't know nothing about him.

I don't know anything. You can check my... I can take a polygraph. I'm willing to, honestly. Crystal said the man told her to drive to the back of the parking lot where he got out and robbed and shot a woman and then forced Crystal to drive a few miles away where he jumped out and disappeared. Why didn't you call 911? Because I didn't know it was on the news until yesterday that I found out. I mean, you knew somebody got shot?

I'm scared for my life. Barnes told her he didn't buy that either. She spent hours in here, in this cold, accusing little interview room. And bit by bit, Crystal Cortez inched toward the truth. Finally, confessed. Sort of. She wasn't carjacked, and her son wasn't even in the car. finally confessed, sort of. She wasn't carjacked, and her son wasn't even in the car. No, she was there to rob somebody with a guy.

He was just going to go in and take her purse. That was all he was going to do. Well, when you asked the guy why did he shoot her, what did he say? She was being stubborn and didn't want to give him the purse. He said, well, you better not say anything because I'm going to kill you and your son. And now she just wanted to go home to her little boy. Didn't understand that her mothering days were over. Crystal was arrested and charged with capital murder.

And the guy, the gunman? Crystal didn't have much to say about him beyond being African-American, skinny, with dreadlocks. And she offered a name. She said Lamar. She said Lamar. So what did you do with that? We just kept hitting at details.

Tell me what Lamar looked like. Where does Lamar live at? What does Lamar drive? She said she didn't know his last name or where he lived, but she helped a police artist come up with a sketch of this Lamar Drive. She said she didn't know his last name or where he lived, but she helped a police artist come up with a sketch of this Lamar. This is kind of a no-stress deal. We're going to draw a picture.

So here's what Barnes had. A drawing, a name, whether real or not, and whatever Crystal's phone records might tell him. Oh, and one more thing. She knew his car, a blue Chrysler Sebring. By now, Dallas police had called in the FBI

and asked agents to trace a cell phone number Crystal had used to call this Lamar. Special Agent Jason Ibrahim. We obtained a federal tracking warrant. Just so happens that today Crystal revealed the information about the car. FBI agents had followed that phone, Lamar's phone, to this Dallas apartment complex. Where? What do you know? There was a blue Sebring sitting in the parking lot. So they watched the car, and a man approached.

The man Crystal described could be... Bingo. the car and a man approached the man crystal described could be bingo his name wasn't lamar by the way it was love of all things christopher love you see some crazy not long after mr love was sitting with detective barnes apparently unfazed did you lead with we've got you here on a murder rap so tell us everything everything. No, I didn't. I started off very slow and just building rapport. He was very detached. Playing Mr. Cool. Playing Mr. Cool.

So, a little small talk, a bit of this and that. Here's the thing, man. And then the detective got down to business. Asked Love straight out, was he involved in Kendra's murder? I know I didn't murder nobody. There's not no white Dennis. Love was in this room for many hours. He didn't break. And though

they searched his apartment and that blue Sebring high and low, they could not find a gun. So Barnes was stuck. And then, odd thing, the day the Sebring was in the police impound lot, pure coincidence, an ATF special agent named Dan Cossie paid a visit to demonstrate the unique talents of his dog. This is canine Titan. He is a Labrador retriever.

Titan, said Cossie, is a walking explosives detector and, yes, good at finding hidden guns. After the demonstration, I was approached by a couple homicide detectives. He said, could you assist us with a search warrant? To show what he did next, Agent Cossie gave us a demonstration. He hid a training device in this car, one that mimics the smell of gunpowder, and gave Titan the command. That's our gun. Boy, show me, show me, show me, show me, show me, show me. Sure enough, Titan found it. And on that day with detectives...

I gave him the command to search. Titan jumped into the Sebring, and in a matter of seconds... Titan worked his way down to the ashtray area on the center console, and at that point, he gave me a positive alert, which is, he sits. The detectives would go where Titan's nose had pointed. After all, it was their case,

and Cossie and Titan had to go. As I'm driving away, I see one of the detectives running after me, yelling at me that my dog had found a gun. Deep under the dashboard, squirreled away under layers of metal and plastic, was a.40 caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic. Ballistics would match it to the gun used to kill Kendra. Stars aligned. Divine intervention. At that moment, Love was still with Detective Barnes in a cold police interview room wrapped in a pink blanket.

Rather than confront Love right away, Barnes ordered lunch. And then, just in time to give him indigestion... We did a search warrant on your car. He broke the news. And we found a gun in your car. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, I found a gun in my car. Under the center console? Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, I found a gun in my car. Under the center console?

Mm-hmm. This gun right here. You ever seen that gun before? Yeah. Yeah? Whose gun is that? It's mine. And then, Love's story changed.

At first, he denied knowing Crystal. Now, he used her to explain where he got the gun. But he didn't use it to shoot Kendra, he said. Girl. From what girl? Crystal. He bought it from Crystal. Mm-hmm. But he didn't use it to shoot Kendra, he said. No, that was Crystal. Mutual finger pointing. But love wasn't going anywhere either. He, too, was charged with capital murder. Which left one huge mystery to solve.

And that led him back to Kendra's boyfriend, Ricky. It was perhaps the key to it all. Coming up... Boyfriends, as you and I know, are frequently exactly the person you want to look at as a potential person of interest. That's correct. And this one seemed reluctant to turn over his cell phone.

I mean, honestly, I don't know what the right thing for me to do is right now. When Dateline continues. In a complex murder investigation, progress comes in fits and starts. Detective Eric Barnes had started out with just a surveillance camera photo of a woman in a Jeep. The Jeep's owner, Luis Ortiz, had been cleared. Now he had two people in custody, Crystal Cortez and Christopher Love, both charged with capital murder. But Detective Barnes knew perfectly well these two were not the whole story. They had no connection to Kendra. They had to be working

for somebody. Who? Why? I was looking for anything that could have possibly connected me to a motive. So Detective Barnes doubled back to someone who was actually at Kendra's apartment complex the night of the murder, her boyfriend, Dr. Ricky Paniagua. Boyfriends, as you and I know, are frequently exactly the person you want to look at as a potential person of interest, right? That's correct. From the beginning, when the detective met Ricky, the doctor's grief and distress seemed very genuine. But the detective wanted to clarify what he was doing when Kendra was murdered. Kendra's brother, Neil, asked him that question point blank that very night.

You yelled at Ricky? I was being accusatory. They were on the phone. Hours after his sister was killed, Neal was beside himself. So what did you accuse him of? I said a lot of things, but my main premise was, if you had anything involved with this, I was on a war path. Ricky persuaded Neal that he was innocent. But later, when Detective Barnes got his turn to ask the questions,

right away, it got awkward. Am I being recorded right now? Yes. Okay. You should have asked that up front. I didn't realize that. And then he asked Ricky for his phone. And Ricky seemed reluctant.

It does pique my curiosity and what it is that you don't want to disclose. No, I know. And that's why I'm like, I mean, I don't know what the, I mean, honestly, I don't know what the right thing for me to do is right now. Okay. I'm not saying no at all. He wanted to cooperate, he said,

but friends and family were advising him to get legal advice. Barnes told them what the options were. There's two ways that I can go about retrieving the phone. One is through your consent. Two is with a search warrant. So then I am a suspect then? No. You don't have to be a suspect in order for me to write a search warrant.

Ricky agreed to hand it over. This has been so difficult on every level of management of all. I don't want to hold up anything. He told Barnes there was sensitive information on that phone about patients, and that's why he hesitated. Made sense. Anyway, Barnes was also hearing from people who knew Ricky and were sure he had nothing to do with the murder.

He is such a kind soul, and he didn't... He did not deserve to be mixed up in this. Ricky and Kendra had met online just four short months before the murder. The first date almost didn't happen. She wanted to cancel. Nervous? Not nervous, just because she had other terrible dates from online. And I was like, just go and see how it goes.

The worst case is it's another failed date. So she went. She went. And then she came back and she was laughing because he ordered chocolate chip pancakes. And she thought it was weird that a guy ordered that on a first date. But it worked out. Certainly did. Sort of love you might get once in a lifetime, if you're lucky.

Photos of them together looked like they'd been a couple for years, not months. In one, Kendra was wearing a sweatshirt that read, I'm with Dreamy. I'm sure it was intentional that she wore that sweatshirt with him. Kendra told friends she was going to leave Dallas and move to California with Ricky where he'd found a job as a dermatologist. He complimented Kendra very well. He has this kindness about him and she immediately fell for Ricky and fell hard. The next step for the two seemed a foregone conclusion. I was like, you really think that

you're going to be getting married here? And she was like, well, don't go getting a bridesmaid's dress, but that's where, that's where we're looking. Had he even started a wedding fund? They would have had the happily ever after that, that everyone wants. One that Ricky would never have. And here with Detective Barnes, as he talked about Kendra, Ricky's professional reserve abandoned him. Because of how similar we were, from a professional standpoint, from a spiritual standpoint,

from... I mean, from just so many levels. And then Ricky grappled with guilt about another woman. Two weeks ago, I would have said, no, I mean, she's a good friend. You know, honestly, I wouldn't have thought that I would never, I would have not thought that she would be key. She? The key to what, exactly?

Coming up, a big clue to the why of this murder. Well, now you got your motive. Yes, it's starting to come together. The investigation of the murder of Dr. Kendra Hatcher was a process of inclusion and, just as important, exclusion of possible suspects. Detective Barnes had no doubt Crystal Cortez and Christopher Love were included. But Kendra's boyfriend, Dr. Ricky Paniagua? There was nothing that led his direction as being a suspect. Nothing that pointed to him as having any involvement. It all came down to one urgent question.

Why? Why kill Dr. Kendra Hatcher? The two in custody had no reason, no motive, beyond some kind of payment possibly. So Barnes knew someone else must have wanted her dead. But who? You never know where you're going to find that smoking gun. Curious thing. Day after the murder, Ricky got a phone call from an old friend. He let her know that, hey, my girlfriend has been killed. I'm going through a lot right now. Then, a little while later, Ricky was watching the evening news. He saw that press conference and the photo of the Jeep with the woman driving.

Could it be? He called Detective Barnes. He told me that, hey, I think this is Brenda Delgado, my ex-girlfriend, in this still photo. Brenda Delgado? She was his ex-girlfriend?

It just looked like her, said Ricky. Thing was, she was the old friend he'd just been talking to on the phone, telling her about the murder. And then that photo. But in times of stress, the mind plays tricks. He was wrong. That was not Brenda in the surveillance video. It was Crystal. And nothing in Brenda's background seemed to suggest she would be involved in a murder. What did you find out about her? I found out that she was in dental hygienist school. Unlike

Kendra, who grew up in small-town Pleasant Plains, Brenda had grown up poor in a rough part of Dallas, known as Pleasant Grove. She was a child of immigrants, making something of herself. At the time of the murder, Brenda was on the verge of becoming a certified dental hygienist. Friends from dental hygiene school, like Teresa Contreras, remember meeting Brenda when the two were new students together. They'd been asked to give presentations to introduce themselves to the class. What stood out to you about her presentation? Well, she kind of straight out the bat introduced us to Ricky. Dr. Ricky Paniagua. She kind of, to me, felt like she was showing off,

oh look, I have a boyfriend that's a dermatologist and we're going to get married. She showed off a promise ring. But at some point, Brenda began to struggle in her classes and failed one, putting her behind. It was right when Ricky had broken it off. She kind of told me, you know, he's dating someone else, but it's not a big deal. In fact, Ricky had stayed in touch with her. Stayed friends after they broke up. Good friends, he thought. She had a very tough time after her breakup with Ricardo.

How long did they go out together? A couple of years. They lived together for a while. She helped him while he was going through school. They had a very, very close relationship. So she was investing in him because she thought this was her man for life. Yes, yes, she did.

Well, now you got your motive. Yes, it's starting to come together. But remember, the night Kendra was murdered, Brenda was out to dinner with her friend Luis. In fact, when Barnes asked about her alibi, she had a receipt ready, pulled it out right away. It was at the top of her purse, and it was in pretty pristine condition.

Not a lot of folds or wrinkles in it. Oh, I have an alibi. Here it is. There you go. But then there was still the issue of the Jeep. We said he loaned it to Brenda, not Crystal. Meaning, meaning something. Barnes tried to get some more information from the two people who were in the Jeep to see if they would implicate Brenda.

Bundled up in a pink blanket in the cold interview room, Christopher Love climbed up tight. When did you meet Brenda? I ain't never met Brenda. So he kept after Love for hours. And sure enough, eventually, Love leaked. He said Brenda promised him a big payoff. To rob Kendra, not kill her, just take her purse.

Brenda sought him out, he said, and convinced him she was, get this, not a dental hygienist, but a cocaine cowgirl. A member of a Mexican drug cartel. She told you she was from the cartel. She said she'd get you whatever you want. Barnes was hearing Love aspired to be a big-time drug dealer, but Brenda was no cartel member. She wasn't even quite a dental hygienist yet. So naturally, Detective Barnes confronted Brenda.

And straight-out denial. I have no motive. I have no motive. You have plenty of motive. Motive is what drives something. What drives you? Sometimes it's hate. Sometimes it's love. Sometimes it's greed. In this situation, I don't think it was greed. I think it was hate. And no pink blanket would comfort a freezing cold Brenda as Barnes tried to find her soft spot. Maybe he didn't want a dental hygienist anymore. Maybe he wanted a dentist. But for whatever reason, you weren't good enough for him.

And that's a hard pill to swallow. It is very hard to swallow for you to be able to look in the mirror and say, what is it that she has that I don't have? I mean, I don't have any feelings like you were saying. I really don't have any. Like, I didn't even know who the girl was. No, said Brenda. It wasn't her.

It must have been Crystal. But when Barnes told Crystal what Brenda said, he got the confirmation he was looking for. I finally confronted her with, Brenda told me you were involved. Mm-hmm. And that was the breaking point for her where she actually admitted that, you know,

she went there for Brenda. Brenda pretty much set everything up. That'd feel pretty good to get that. Yes, it did. So now the alleged shooter and the getaway driver had both fingered Brenda. But they weren't exactly salt-of-the-earth reliable accusers. So...

We didn't have the evidence that we needed to charge her. He was convinced Brenda was behind it all. Leaving Barnes to track down everything he'd need to build a solid case, it all takes time. Well, he'd see her again at some later date when he was ready. And then he'd put her in handcuffs. At least, that's what he thought. Coming up, how wrong he was. Brenda left the country.

How soon? I believe a day or two after the interview. She's gone? Gone. And later, revelations of a plot way bigger than anyone knew. It's pretty disturbing to me that people knew about this and made no effort to stop it. When Dateline continues.

Eric Barnes had seen just about everything in his years with the Dallas police. After interviewing Brenda Delgado, all his experience told him she orchestrated the murder of Kendra Hatcher. As for her ex-boyfriend Ricky, now the scales had fallen from his eyes. Ricky was very blunt. There's no doubt in my mind that Brenda did it. Right. I have zero doubt about that.

Right. I have zero doubt about that. Right. But unlike Crystal Cortez, Brenda hadn't broken in the interview room. Without something more, some more solid evidence, Barnes felt he couldn't arrest her for Kendra's murder. We determined that it just wasn't the right time to charge her with murder. A mistake or a legal necessity? Either way, result was the same. Because after she walked out of the police station, Brenda did what every homicide detective dreads. Brenda left the country.

How soon? I believe a day or two after the interview, she was squirt. She's gone. Gone. What do you think when you heard that? I can't say that I was extremely surprised by it. Despite her absence, the investigation continued and Brenda Delgado was formally indicted for murder seven weeks after Kendra was killed. Investigators say this woman, Brenda Delgado, hired Love to kill Hatcher. A warrant is out for her arrest. She is a fugitive wanted at this point for capital murder. So where could she be? Again, Dallas police called in the FBI. Special Agent Jason Ibrahim. Her father indicated to the Dallas Police Department that she got on a bus and fled to Mexico.

Mexico, where she had a big extended family all over the country. And pretty soon it was obvious she wasn't staying in any one place for very long. We would receive information about kind of where she was at or where she had been, but we always seemed to be a few cities behind. It had to be frustrating, I think. It is. It's frustrating. And then they heard about a sighting. A woman who certainly looked like Brenda in Mexico City.

For once, she seemed to be staying put. This individual would come out periodically to hang laundry or take out the trash, but was always wearing a hat, sunglasses, a hooded sweatshirt. And at the time, the weather wasn't such that you would be wearing a hooded sweatshirt. So it was very suspicious. And then, when she tipped off, quite suddenly... She just disappeared. Where did she get the money to do this?

We believe her family members were sending money via Western Union. So back in Dallas, Detective Barnes worked on the family, tried to get them to cooperate. But... They had a hard time accepting that she could do something like this. Did they put themselves in a position where you contemplated charging them? Yes, we did.

But they held off. Allowing the money to keep flowing gave Special Agent Ibrahim a trail to follow. We were more interested in trying to track the money to the town where she was staying at the time. So months went by. I didn't know if she would be brought to justice here since she fled to a different country. Kendra's brother, Neil, had lost hope.

Did you think they'd ever catch her? No. And then, seven months after Brenda fled, the FBI elected to pull out the big gun. Today we are announcing the addition of capital murder suspect Brenda Delgado to the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list. Brenda became only the ninth woman ever on that list. It wasn't long after we had a press conference and announced that she was on the list and that there was a reward for her being caught that we began getting tips. Ah, yes, the reward, $100,000 for information leading to her capture. That's when I was like, well, that's quite a large sum of money.

Oh, it got someone's attention all right. Things started happening then. Coming up, an agreement could bring Brenda home. It was arranged that she was to have walked across the bridge at Laredo, Texas. But yet again, things don't go as planned. Your whole deal blew up? The whole deal blew up. Amazing what an appearance on the FBI's most wanted list will accomplish.

That, and a little added pressure from Dallas Police Detective Eric Barnes on a family that seemed determined to keep Brenda Delgado out of the arms of the law. How close did you come to actually arresting members of the family? Well, we actually were in the planning stages of drafting up the proper paperwork. And that was when things began to happen. For one thing, defense attorney George Milner joined the story. I made contact with the DA's office.

They got the FBI in. We had these late-night conference calls. To negotiate Brenda voluntarily coming out of hiding and returning to Texas. I was making contact through the family to try to get her back. It was arranged that she was to have walked across the bridge at Laredo, Texas. That would look better for her. Well, that was the motive I had. I mean, I want to be able to say,

and here is video of her voluntarily coming right back to Texas. But Detective Barnes had very little faith Brenda would actually walk across that bridge. I never really believed that she was just going to willingly say, here I am, come get me. And then FBI Special Agent Ibrahim got a tip, and it looked good. The FBI alerted their Mexican counterparts, who moved in. They apprehended her in very short order. Kendra's brother Neil was on an airplane, just landed, got a text. And I don't know who the lady was next to me,

but I asked her for a hug. I needed that. I was pretty elated. Brenda's attorney, not so much. Your whole deal blew up? Whole deal blew up. Instead, Brenda sat in a Mexican jail. Mexico will not extradite anyone facing a possible death penalty,

so prosecutors chose not to seek it. And six months after her capture, Brenda was returned to Dallas to await trial for murder. NBC station KXAS was there waiting for her. Brenda Delgado had nothing to say as FBI agents walked her into the Dallas County Jail. But before any trials could start, prosecutors Justin Lord, Glenn Fitzmartin, and team leader Kevin Brooks tried to persuade Crystal Cortez to plead guilty and testify against Brenda and Christopher Love. Not so easy.

We sat down with her once. It was obvious she wasn't being truthful with us. So they waited. Let her think. Perhaps she considered her potential sentence. She was eligible for the death penalty, but... And then? About a month before Christopher Love's trial, she finally owned up and gave us everything that we needed. for the death penalty, but... And then? About a month before Christopher Love's trial,

she finally owned up and gave us everything that we needed. Crystal pleaded guilty and flipped, avoiding the death penalty. The state now had someone who knew it all. Brenda's plot to kill Kendra, the planning and stalking and the execution to do with Christopher Love. So when Love's trial began in October 2018, prosecutor Kevin Brooks told the jury. At their very first meeting, Brenda asked Christopher Love if he'd be willing to kill

Kendra Hatcher. And without any hesitation, he says yes, in exchange for a combination of drugs and money. Photos of Kendra hung next to the witness box kept a silent watch on the proceedings. Crystal Cortez, the state's star witness, told the jury what Love did. He gets the pistol and he exits the vehicle. And I hear Kendra scream, help, help, help me. And then I hear the shot's fired. Titan initially jumped up in the vehicle.

Then prosecutors called that ATF agent, whose dog, Titan, sniffed out the gun in Love's car. And a forensics expert who matched the gun to the murder. And speaking of that gun, literally, was Christopher Love himself. The jury heard a recording of a phone call he made to his girlfriend from jail. You know she shot that girl with that gun. You should have got a new Too late, indeed. To the prosecutors, it amounted to a confession. They hoped the jury would see it that way. And that they would also see what the real-life consequences of murder can be.

I'm sorry. This was Kendra's mother, Bonnie, telling the jury how she heard from Kendra's sister. She said, Mom, it's Kendra. And I said she was shot. And I'm like, what? What do you mean she's shot? I just ran outside and screamed. It took the jury three hours. We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment. Love would get the death penalty.

Now, the alleged mastermind, Brenda Delgado, her turn in the dock. And that would be quite a story indeed. Coming up, would a jury believe that Brenda had convinced a pair of near strangers to commit murder. The fact that these three came together in such a short amount of time, in such a violent way, reasonable people have a hard time, I think, putting that all together. When Dateline continues. Prosecutors had successfully convicted the man who shot Dr. Kendra Hatcher. But Brenda Delgado, the alleged mastermind,

her case was much more circumstantial. The state had no physical evidence linking her to the murder, and she had an alibi. And they'd have to get a jury to believe that Brenda, a dental hygienist-to-be with no criminal history, recruited two people she barely knew to commit murder. The fact that these three came together in such a short amount of time, in such a violent way, reasonable people, I have a hard time, I think, putting that all together. In June 2019, Kendra's family and friends were back

to relive each awful detail for a second time in this Dallas County courtroom. Once you get over one, then it seems like there's another one to do. So getting the trials behind us was an important part for us to move on. For her friends, too. Tammy Pantano and Kim Bond were there every day. Why was it important to be there? To make sure that we got justice for Kendra. The Brenda Delgado who entered the courtroom, dark business suit, glasses, did not look at all like the stylish young woman she once was.

Any concern that a jury would look at her and say, oh, she was not capable of that sort of thing? I thought that after they heard the details, there's no amount of makeup that you can put on to cover up that monster. Little tales which added up to a story about an obsession. How obsessed was she with this guy? I mean, how? Completely.

Completely obsessed. And the guy was simply oblivious. My name is Dr. Ricardo Paniagua. But now, he would testify through undeniable grief and guilt. I have no doubt that he's carrying a lot of guilt. And he probably will, I imagine, the rest of his life. You know, Kendra's

dead because of someone that he at one point in time was in a very close relationship. As he testified, Ricky avoided looking at Brenda. While she appeared laser-focused on him. How long did you stay with each other? Approximately two and a half years. Did it turn into a somewhat serious relationship?

Yes, sir. Then, after they broke up, Brenda had a way of just showing up. Like when Ricky enrolled in salsa class. Apparently her effort succeeded. Then after class we started to practice. And that reintroduced each other into our lives. And eventually we decided to give the relationship another try. They got back together for a while before breaking up for good a couple of months before Ricky met

Kendra. But they stayed friends, said Ricky. He helped Brenda financially. He even let her stay on his phone plan. In his mind, he was trying to maintain a platonic relationship. Even though we're not in a relationship anymore, we can be friends. No idea, said the prosecutors, that she was watching him, stalking him, even on the jogging trail. She'd just appear. At the time, I thought it was just coincidence. Coincidence? No. Brenda was actually tracking Ricky using the Find My iPhone app.

Always knew just where he was. Remember, he'd kept her on his phone plan. Also on her phone, this photo of Ricky and Kendra together. She was stalking him online. Had access to his email, his passwords, tracking his Facebook account. And during all the time he was dating Kendra, Brenda still had, and apparently used, a key to Ricky's apartment. She would know when he's not at the apartment. We believe that's when she's showing up, gathering information. Kind of creepy.

Yeah. Ricky had no idea. He was focused on Kendra. And he shared the good news with Brenda, his friend. I sent an email to Brenda specifying that I was in a relationship that was going very good. Which was about the worst thing Brenda could hear. I think that's when the ball started really rolling that things had to happen to get rid of Kendra Hatcher.

With Kendra in his life now, Ricky asked Brenda to remove her stuff from his apartment. And he dropped her from his phone plan. That was August 31st. Two days later, Kendra was dead. Luis Ortiz told the jury he loaned Brenda his Jeep. But he had no idea what it was being used for until he saw it on the TV news and confronted Brenda, who asked him straight out to become part of a cover-up. It's best for you to just hide it and probably paint it a different color if you want to

help you pay for that paint job. Instead, Luis called the police, and the plan began to unravel. So, just one terrible idea that went further that Brenda may have intended? No, not at all, said the prosecutors. Brenda tried to recruit others, too. Like this guy, a friend of hers. What did she ask you if you could get it?

For a gun. A handgun, yes. And this acquaintance from high school. What did she ask you? Find you anybody that can just hurt someone. He even asked a cousin to use this baseball

bat, introduced as evidence. What specifically were you supposed to do with that baseball bat? She wanted me to hit her. Another was Brenta's friend, who lived with her just before the murder. This plot was the most bizarre. First she wanted Ricky in a coma with a bat. Also for Kendra Hatcher, an injection needle to put it in the back of her neck. She just wanted to eliminate Kendra Hatcher or

even both of them. The roommate, like the others, said no, they wouldn't do it. But none of them went to the police. It's pretty disturbing to me that people knew about this and made no effort to stop it.

All the while, Brenda was stalking her victim, watching her, even as Kendra, carefree and unaware, entertained her niece Josie during her July visit. If that little girl had been there a little bit later, that could have been bad. Yes, I think the plan was already in motion at that point, so whoever was there would have been a victim as well. And then along came Crystal,

a single, unemployed mom who only had known Brenda for a month. Poor, troubled, easily manipulated. Brenda is a master manipulator. She was able to figure out what is it that this person is seeking, and she was able to play on those needs. Now, here in court, Crystal, in exchange for a deal avoiding the death penalty, promised to reveal everything. But truth so apparent can quickly collapse, exposed as a self-serving lie.

Would Crystal tell the truth? Would the jury believe her? Coming up, Crystal details a string of head-snapping schemes for killing Kendra, from drugs. One was to inject her with heroin. Another one was to inject her with a sedative. To weapon shopping online. I made a phone call to this person on social media and I asked if they had a silencer for 40 Smith and Weston. Would jurors buy any of it? Here she was, wearing a green jumpsuit in the pallor of the county jail. The star witness against Brenda Delgado.

Can you please state your name? Crystal Cortez. It had taken some doing to get here. Before she pleaded guilty, Crystal had tried out a whole catalog of full-out lies, half-lies salted with a little truth, excuses, prevarications. But now, the terms of her plea agreement were very clear. Tell the whole truth and nothing but,

or face unpleasant consequences. Prosecutor Glenn Fitzmartin would ask the questions. Are you guilty of the capital murder of Kendra Hatcher? Yes, I am. Is Christopher Love guilty of the murder of Kendra Hatcher? Yes, he is. Is Brenda Delgado guilty of the murder of Kendra Hatcher? Yes, she is.

Cold and detached, Crystal talked about the motive, a motive as old as time. Why did she want to get rid of Kendra Hatch? Because she was envious of her. It was never a robbery plan gone awry, she said. She knew from the beginning this was going to be a murder. She and Brenda discussed methods. One was to inject her with heroin.

Another one was to inject her with a sedative. And the other was to kill her with heroin, another one was to inject her with a sedative, and the other was to kill her with a gun. Initially, Crystal herself agreed to do the murder, but the two thought it better to get help. At a neighborhood gathering, they found that person, Christopher Love, and enlisted him on the spot. And what was Christopher Love supposed to get? He was supposed to get drugs and money out of it. So with the plan in motion, Love got a.40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun

to be used in the murder. Crystal set out to add to it. I made a phone call to this person on social media and I asked if they had a silencer for.40 Smith & Wesson. To confirm her story, prosecutors played an odd clip of video found on Brenda's cell phone.

Seemed accidental, this recording. Brenda's driving. Her passenger, Crystal, is describing the silencer she wants. No, a silencer for a.40. So I believe that as she's driving, she's trying to take a picture of this sunset. And at the same time, Crystal is next to her on a phone, talking to this unknown individual about buying a silencer for this gun. Crystal said they ultimately decided against the silencer.

They'd been stalking Kendra already, following her to and from work, figuring out how to get into her luxury apartment's garage. When another vehicle who had a parking pass would come in, we would go in. They worked on Brenda's firm deadline, said Crystal. Kendra would have to die before Labor Day. Brenda had hacked into Ricky's phone and knew they were going away. When they returned, they were to visit Kendra's family so Ricky could meet them for the first time. So you all knew that they were planning

on taking a trip to Mexico on September 3rd? Yes, Labor Day weekend. They would murder Kendra in her apartment parking garage when she arrived home from work. They decided love would be the shooter. Crystal would drive. Because he didn't know Dallas very well, and I did.

Then, the morning of September 2nd, Crystal said she and Brenda went to Louisa's shop to borrow the Jeep. Then she dropped Brenda off at a library. She'd be seen, study, part of her alibi. Later that afternoon, Crystal and Christopher Love parked near Kendra's dental office. As soon as she leaves, we follow her, but we lose her in traffic. So we beat her to the apartment complex where she stayed. With Love crouched down in the backseat of the Jeep, Crystal followed a resident's car into the garage, parked the Jeep, and then they waited. Ms. Kendra comes in, and she parks Caddy Corner to where we park.

And Christopher Love gets off the vehicle through the driver's side in the back, and he approaches Kendra, and I didn't see him kill her but I heard the shots fired. I backed out and when I backed out he ran into the jeep with Kendra's belongings. And remember that infamous picture from the surveillance camera? Is that you and that driver? Yes. And here in this grainy video, said the prosecutors, that's Crystal driving up to Luis's place to return the Jeep. And Brenda arrived.

And they looked at the coach purse they'd stolen from Kendra. The day after the murder, said Crystal, she and Brenda paid off Christopher Love in cocaine and weed and cash. Crystal got a payoff too, $500. She curled the bills and made a heart shape and took a picture. Then, selfie time with Brenda. They'd gotten away with it, hadn't they? And the day after that, they were called downtown by Detective Barnes. Did you tell him the truth? No.

Did you lie? Yes. But now, said Crystal, now she was telling the truth. She'd lied before to protect Brenda, she said. Brenda, who she'd known for one month. I felt like if I didn't show my true friendship to her, she would just walk away and just throw me under the rug like everybody else did. So was she telling the truth now?

It wouldn't be so easy for Crystal when the defense got its turn. In fact, it had some surprises in store to try to prove she was still lying. Coming up, a plan to expose Crystal's duplicity during the trial. She lied about her own cell phone. Of course, she doesn't know that we've got that.

And you caught her in a lie. Caught her in a lie. When Dateline continues. If you asked defense attorney George Milner how you could tell if Crystal Cortez was lying, he'd probably use the old joke. If her lips were moving, his defense was an offense. Attack, attack, attack. The state's star witness.

She lies when it matters. She lies when it matters. She lies when it doesn't matter. And he had a point. Crystal lied again and again. Milner's argument was one of those lies finally clicked. But the truth, suggested Milner, was that Crystal and Christopher Love, and they alone, for reasons of their own, murdered Kendra Hatcher.

Dr. Hatcher is dead and she should be. But she is not dead because of murdering Don Cagney. She is dead because Crystal Cortez saw an opportunity to rob, and then the robbery went bad, and Dr. Hatcher ended up dead. True, he agreed, the state story about a homicidally jealous ex was compelling, but it was circumstantial and it depended on the word of a known liar. The only absolute direct proof that Brenda had anything to do with it

was Crystal Cortez Here's how it went with Crystal on the witness stand as you get Hopelessly caught and on one line you start telling another one, correct? sometimes When I was being interviewed because I didn't know what to say and what not to say. You certainly knew you weren't telling the truth. Correct. Then Milner got into specifics. You specifically told Detective Barnes that you never went into that garage.

Yes, it's true that I told him that. And that was a lie, wasn't it? Yes, it was. And that whopper about being carjacked? Did you look Detective Barnes right in the eyes and say, I was scared for my life and for my son's life? Yes, I did. She lied about the shooter's name, too.

It certainly wasn't Lamar. She even looked at a photo lineup and what, picked the wrong guy? Yes. Oh, she knew. Of course she knew, because, Milner argued, she enlisted him, not Brenda. There was no direct communication of any sort from Brenda's cell phone. There was never a text. There was never a call or anything directly to Christopher Love. And remember, Crystal had said Brenda told her she was connected to a Mexican drug cartel. If she has even the most remote connection to the cartel, I never heard of it. Anyway, all that planning she and Brenda supposedly did, yet they never discussed what to tell police

if they got caught? I didn't have a backup plan, and she told me she was going to Mexico. Not true, said Milner. There was no backup plan and no plot with Brenda. Instead, he argued, Crystal and Love planned to rob Kendra, and when it went bad, they knew the focus would be on Brenda. If anything ever happened to Dr. Hatcher, it ain't you who's going to get blamed. Brenda Delgado is the one they're

going to look at because she wants to still be with Ricky. True? I would say yeah. For Crystal Cortez. And finally, Milner produced his own cell phone expert saying he could prove Crystal was still lying here in court. The expert combed through the cell records for the phone Crystal turned over to detectives when they questioned her two days after the murder. Are you able to determine whether Crystal Cortez gave them the physical phone that she was using on the day of this murder? It was a different phone. She lied about her own

cell phone. Of course, she doesn't know that we've got that and that we have our own expert to show that her story is a lie. And you caught her in a lie. Caught her in a lie. And even with that, said Milner, she got a deal that took the death penalty off the table and gave her a chance at parole someday. It gives the motivation for her to say anything to get herself out of the mess that she is in. Brenda Delgado, the woman actually on trial, declined to testify. And with that, the defense rested. So was Brenda really such a mastermind, or was she an innocent woman? Up to the jury now. Coming up, Kendra's family and investigators on pins and needles. I will

put that prosecution team up against anybody else in the country. But you never know about a jury. You don't. Over the course of two trials, you could see the pain and exhaustion on the faces of Kendra Hatch's family. Now it was to end with the jury's verdict in Brenda Delgado's trial. Regardless of the outcome, there would be no justice for them. Kendra was gone. This was the only justice they could hope for.

Envy is Brenda Delgado's deadly sin. Envy makes you want to destroy that other thing. That's what was in the heart of Brenda Delgado. When you come back with your message to that woman, the message needs to be, lady, you're never going home. She's lying to you. But it would be a poor message for justice,

said defense attorney George Milner, to rely on a liar like Crystal to convict Brenda. She is still lying to you today, and her story is still evolving almost four years after the murder of Dr. Hatcher. The evidence here shows that there is clear reasonable doubt, and under our law, that means not guilty. It was just before 11 when the jury went out. Members of the jury, we stand in recess until you reach unanimous verdict.

All rise. Kendra Hatcher's family steeled themselves for the wait. It had taken only three hours to reach a verdict for Christopher Love. Kendra's brother, Neil, thought this would take much longer. What made you think that? The shooter. I thought that was pretty much in the bag. Brenda's was a little more worrisome in my mind

because of the extreme lengths he went to cover up her tracks. At the end of his long investigation, Detective Barnes prepared to wait, tried to be optimistic. I would put that prosecution team up against anybody else in the country. But you never know about a jury. You don't. Jurors would be sending out for lunch soon. Kendra's family may not have had the stomach for it. Spectators began drifting away. Attorneys were still chatting in the courtroom. When a light came on from the jury room, a signal, a question?

It wasn't. And then all of a sudden, the prosecution team came in and said, there's a verdict. It had been, what, 18, 19 minutes? I've been a homicide for seven years, and that's the fastest time that I've had so far. Kendra's family and friends rushed back to their seats. Shoulder to shoulder, they steadied themselves.

We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment. Guilty. From Brenda Delgado, no reaction at all. On the opposite end of the courtroom, a flood of emotion from Kendra's family. Later,

Kendra's brother Neil met some of the jurors. The conversation wasn't anything about the case. It was compassion. How did they show that? Hugs. They all have a special place in all of our hearts. Defense attorney George Milner was left with one conclusion. It is nothing short of a wholesale rejection of your case.

I mean, 18 minutes. The jury had spoken. Now it was time for Kendra's family. Her mother, Bonnie. You, Brenda Delgado, have earned your spot on this earth behind cold steel bars for the rest of your miserable pathetic life and if justice could have handed you a death sentence. Make no mistake, I would have been there front and center. Brenda Delgado, please stand. With the death penalty off the table, Brenda was sentenced to the maximum,

life in prison without the possibility of parole for capital murder. For her cooperation, Crystal Cortez was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the lesser charge of murder, but eligible for parole after serving just half of that. Kendra's brother, Neil, addressed her. I think what you did was incredibly stupid. I do want to tell you that I appreciate your testimony. I can't say I forgive you, but maybe over time that's something that I could do. Forgive maybe, forget never. Certainly, Tammy Pantano, that great friend from dental school, will not.

It didn't bring me the peace that I was hoping for. And I don't know how I'll ever get that. I'm glad that I was there with Kendra's family. And it gave me a chance to get to know Ricky. And so those are things that I felt were healing

for me. And Ricky? People heard a lot about him and Kendra. How they were destined for marriage. Probably children. Things that will never be now. I know I'm hurting and I know he I can only imagine he's hurting more. With all he's been through we weren't terribly surprised that Ricky declined our interview request. But he did share this from Kendra, a quote she'd sent him during those four short, heady months they had. And then my soul saw you and it kind of went, oh, there you are. I've been looking for you. And there she was. And now?

It's bittersweet. The memories are good, but then the fact that there won't be any more of those memories is hard. Hard for Kendra's brother, too. People like her don't come around very often. And it's a shame that she isn't here, because she had a lot to do, a lot more to do. But ask Neal's daughter Josie about her Aunt KK.

Not here in person, true, but doing a lot, even now. Have you tried to be like her, somehow, to keep her memory alive? I mean, I felt like I was already kind of like her, in some way. What do you mean by that? By always, always trying to have a smile. Just like Aunt KK. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.

Thanks for joining us.