Dateline NBC - The Widower Ep. 1: “My Wife’s Been Shot”

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

The murder of a Las Vegas wife and mother pits detectives against her wily husband who has many secrets and four dead wives.

What is it about you and women, Tom? I love women. I love all women. That's why it's weird to think yet that this would come about. 911 emergency. My wife's been shot and there's a guy in my house and I shot him. Oh, I shot and shot and shot and shot. Thomas Randolph is the only person that could tell us what happened because the other two people that were there are dead.

It looked like it might have been a home invasion robbery, person that could tell us what happened because the other two people that were there are dead. It looked like it might have been a home invasion robbery, but in fact, there were some things that were not right about it. Thomas Randolph had a lot of secrets. It wasn't easy digging all of them up. He'd been married six times and four of his wives are dead. These women come up dead. He comes up with mine. I had nothing to do with any of it. He's evil. I'm not no saint. We have to stop him. His gig is up.

I'm the victim of this. He's really a sick son of a bitch. And now it's the Tommy Show live from Las Vegas. Boom, boom, boom Put your hands on your head right now Put your hands on your head What did you do to my mother? I love you, Tom

I love you, Tom I'm like, beautiful Am I beautiful? Who gonna come?1, emergency. My wife's been shot, and there's a guy in my house, and I shot him. Is he hurt, too? Huh? Is he hurt, too? I hope he's dead. Okay.

My wife's hurt really bad. What's your name? What's your name, sir? Tom. Tom. It was, say, probably about 10 o'clock on May 8th of 2008. I was at home. I was with my family. And I got the call from my sergeant.

I grabbed my notebook real quick, and I came back to the phone. I said, shoot. Where is your wife in the house? She's in the halls in the bedroom. She's been shot bad. Where is she shot at? Do you know? I think in the head. Oh, God. Oh, no.

The very first thing that I was told from my sergeant was that we had a woman down in the house and that there was an intruder that had also been shot. Metro officers responded to a 911 call from a man who said an intruder was inside his home. There was a robbery and a home invasion in progress at his residence here on Rancho Santa Fe. There are two dead bodies inside the house, one being the wife of the homeowner, and her name was Sharon Randolph. And the other was the intruder, Mike Miller,

who was dead inside the garage. We're initially briefed by the patrolman who got there and encountered the homeowner, who we determined his name to be Thomas Randolph. Police tell us that 57-year-old Sharon Randolph was shot and killed by the burglar. Metro says her husband struggled to get the gun away from the suspect. He succeeded, then shot and killed the burglar in the garage. There was a ski mask laying on the floor not far from Mike Miller's body in the garage. There was a ski mask laying on the floor not far from Mike

Miller's body in the garage. Next to him, there was an open bag where you could see there was a substantial amount of jewelry. As we walked into the hallway, you could see Sharon Randolph laying on her back. There was a bag of takeout food from the restaurant that they had been to. Her purse was laying next to that. There was a gun laying on the floor. We looked into the master bedroom. There were several drawers that were open. There was every indication that somebody had come into the house and had gone through their property in order to take it. I was at home.

Got a phone call from a good friend of my mom's and she was watching the news and said she saw shooting happened on the street. And she says, your mom's street? I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's my mom's street. And I knew it had to have come from my mom's house. So I drove over to my mom's. I saw the cop cars and lights. I knew. I saw the cop cars and lights. I knew.

I just knew. Maggie. I talked to my mom. About six, like two and a half hours later, she's killed. You okay, Tom? Been a long day. This is my partner, Ken Hardy. Hi, sir.

Two other detectives from homicide that were on my squad brought Mr. Randolph back to the homicide section to conduct an interview with him. You had told us that you had employed a person by the name of Mike. Is that correct? Yes. Tom Randolph told Detectives Mogg and Hardy that he knew Michael Miller. He had him do some handiwork around his house. And how long have you known Mike?

Four to five months, maybe. Did Mike know you guys were going to dinner tonight? Yeah, yeah. He told us that he had taken Sharon to have a dinner at a local casino right down the street. So you go home, and when you arrive at the house, tell me everything that happens. I pull up in the driveway. Does she get out in the driveway or in front of the house? She got out of the driveway.

And you enter the house and what do you see? Sharon laying on the floor. What was the first thing you thought when you saw Sharon laying down? I thought she'd fallen. When we initially looked at the evidence that we had, it looked like it might have been a home invasion robbery. He was a hero. But in fact, there were some things that were not right about it.

I didn't see the red flags. Should've. I said, Sharon! Sharon! I just remember her showing up to my front door with, and I was like, who is this guy? She says, Tommy and I got married. I said, oh my God, you didn't. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a police officer. It's the Lord's work.

You know, there's not a lot of people that are willing to do it, but I feel honored to be, you know, part of bringing some justice to the victims' families. It's a difficult thing for them not only to lose their loved one, but to go through the whole process. They're almost, in a sense, victimized again. But you have to think about, you know, what's Colleen thinking? I was about five and a half months pregnant with Katie. We just found out a few weeks before that I was having a girl, which was super exciting, especially for my mom.

They say you should put a helmet. What is it, a helmet? It's a helmet. Well, it's a helmet for me. It's a helmet for me. It's a helmet for me. That's cute. She was looking forward to it big time. I mean, she's always wanted a girl grandchild, so she was really, really happy. I mean, she was already out shopping for little pink dresses.

It sucks. I've only got a couple of friends, and I don't have any brothers or sisters. So my mom was my buddy. I grew up in New Jersey, just me and my mom. She took good care of me. It was hard in Jersey. It was hard, just me and my mom and not a lot of help. So I moved to Vegas so my mom could have a better job opportunity.

She went to beauty school, got her license, and did hair. And she was the only one that ever cut my hair. Ever. Tommy was from Utah. I think she said match.com to me. She really didn't say much about him. A little bit of what he did, you know, like a special ed teacher. But he wasn't working when they got together.

I just remember her showing up to my front door with him, and he just, he looked crazy with the long, scraggly blonde hair. I mean, it was really long. And I was like, who is this guy? So my mom was very happy. They were doing a lot of things together, going places, traveling. He had a boat back then. So they were doing a lot of things together.

My mom had a lot of friends. She confided more in her closer friends, like Alice. I met her at the hair shop. We were hairdressers there. She would say the funniest things, and she was just so down to earth. I just loved that about her. Sharon says, oh, I've got a picture of this guy that I want to meet. And she pulls it up on her computer. He's on a motorcycle, and he's got this long curly hair.

And I'm looking at him, and I said, is he Sharon? Is he a woman? I mean, he looks like a woman. And she goes, oh, no, no. She says, he's really all man. They just had a lot of conversations. Then he comes to Vegas, and she and he go to a concert, a rock concert. And, well, that was great. I mean mean she just fell in love with him

now Sharon had told me that in his past he was a truck driver he was a master carpenter he was like a jack-of-all-trades of things, you know. He wants to take her on a cruise to Baja, California. So she goes on this cruise, which was like three days, and they come back, and she says, just Tommy and I got married. I said, oh, my God, you didn't. Police tell us that Sharon was shot and killed by the burglar. Her body was found lying in a hallway. We learned that there were neighbors close by that heard the gunshots,

and one in particular across the street several houses away. I heard a gunshot right where that truck's pulling up. I heard the gunshot come from that area. I knew it had to be like one of these houses right here across the street, because it was like boom, boom, you know, I heard it. Told my friend he's on the line and just, I said, oh, did you hear that?

It was a gunshot. Mark Bartlett didn't see the shooting. He just heard the gunshots. Based on the scene, Thomas Randolph was the only person that could tell us what happened inside the house, Thomas Randolph was the only person that could tell us what happened inside the house because the other two people that were there are dead. He kind of rushed up on me a little bit and that's when I just pushed him and

boom boom just kept right on going. Boom boom boom. Boom! Boom! Boom! We came up with an idea to do what's called a video walkthrough. We do this to get a clearer understanding of where the armed confrontation took place. He agreed to do that. My name is Tom Randolph, and it's my understanding we're doing a walkthrough of the house. We came back to the house at 8 30 at night exactly a week later he gave us blow by blow everything that happened i stopped the car about there we start opening the door up he explained to us how sharon had gotten out of the vehicle went inside the house sharon gets out then we had him walk through he ended up coming into the door. I open it up.

I get right here and Sharon's laying in the floor, face down. Her head's just barely, I mean, barely in the bedroom with that. I said, Sharon! Sharon! I thought I just seen like a shadow or something over this way. Right there. Just thought, no this ain't cool. I reached right up here. He ducked into the office, retrieved a 9mm semi-automatic. He said that when he came back to the door he was confronted by a masked intruder.

He described him, he had a ski mask on. I'm coming out about the same time too and about right here. And he kind of rushed up on me a little bit and that's when I just pushed him, boom, boom, boom. And he started going out toward the shed. I don't know how many times I shot him, but I just kept right on going.

Boom, boom, boom. And he just lay in there. And then started coming back down this way. He wasn't moving. He, ugh, some noise. Thomas Randolph came back into the hallway. Sharon, Sharon. He'd come up to an open doorway

and then just kind of jump his head in to see if there was something in there. What are you doing when you're doing this? I'm just kind of trying to see if anything else is going on, you know, like there's anybody around. Then after that, he said he went over and got the cordless phone. I called 911. They have a conference. His wife was shot in the head. He needs medical advice. Sir? Yeah. Is she awake? No. Okay, let's focus on your wife.

Put her flat on her back. So I tried to roll her over several times and I couldn't get her over. Okay, put her flat on her back. He was very dramatic. He's making these loud grunts and noises that we did hear on the 911 call. He was duplicating them. And about the third time, it jerked enough that she got up kind of straight up,

and I could just kind of push her over. Okay. Don't tear her head back. Listen, okay? Okay. Metro, tell your units to go in any way they can. When he got to the end of what he was telling us, then I had a big list of questions. Turn around and he was coming down. The thing that I wanted to focus on the most was that relationship between Randolph and Miller when the shooting started.

So when you first fired, he's right in this area. Yeah, probably. Maybe a little more that way, maybe a little more this way. When you're back here and you squared off on him, you still had his mask on? Yeah. If he'd had his mask off, you'd have known it was Mike, right? Oh, yeah. And I was still shotting. I was still shotting. It wouldn't have mattered a bit. It seems like I shot him again, maybe like about right here. And then he started turning like this toward the door.

And I just, I shot and shot and shot and shot. I may have emptied the gun. I don't know. We didn't have forensic evidence. We didn't have forensic evidence. We didn't have physical evidence that the shooting occurred inside that hallway. There was one casing in the hallway. Maybe a single round was fired as they were leaving the house and entering the garage. But most of the shooting happened inside the garage. One of the other problems is on the night of the shooting,

in the interrogation room, Thomas Randolph told the detectives that he didn't hear the shot that killed Sharon Randolph. Did you ever hear any shots? I didn't hear anything, but that's, I'm really deaf. When we listened to the 911 call. Is he alone? Yes, well, as far as I know, I didn't, I just heard a call, he contradicted himself.

He told dispatch one thing, that he'd heard the shot, and then he told detectives that he hadn't heard it. The other big problem that we had was the timeline. Thomas Randolph told us that he had taken Sharon to have a dinner at a local casino right down the street. We checked that. We checked the Santa Fe video surveillance. They did have dinner at the restaurant. They gambled. They left the casino. He told us that they went to a gas station to fill up. We checked the video surveillance at that particular gas station, confirmed that they did fuel up the car. The video surveillance shows them leaving the parking lot of the gas station at 826 and some change. We're looking at 830 when they arrived home. Sharon got out of the car and walked

into the house. By the time he finished parking the car and walked into the house she was already laying on the ground. So all told how long do you think it took from the time you opened the door to you being on 911? Two, three minutes maybe. Two, three minutes total? Yeah. We have Mark Barlett across the street saying that he thought he heard the five gunshots

at 830. I told my friend he was on the line and I said, I didn't hear that, it was a gunshot. We were able to check his phone records. That was 833. Well, the 911 call didn't come in until 845 and some change. So we were talking about 12 minutes. It didn't match up. None of it matched up.

You're like my best friend, dude. Tom Randolph said a lot of things. It's just for shock value. I like you. You I don't like you I don't like I don't know why Thomas Randolph came into our office in early June. If you had to sum up Sharon in one word, what would you say? She's f***ing wonderful. Best thing that ever happened to me. Nicest lady I ever met. Tom was quite different in that second interview.

He was definitely much more expressive. How would you sign yourself up? I'm a cocky f***er. Always have been. But I'm also really nice and generous. I'm a smart f***er. I should have been on the dream team. I always wanted to be a lawyer.

Really? Yeah. No, I worked for the lawyers for a long time just as an investigator, as paralegal, ran a lot of their law offices. We confirmed that later on that he worked with criminal defense attorneys. Having that conversation with Tom Randolph was important for us to learn more about his relationship with Mike Miller. Is there anything at all that happened that day that made him believe that he needed to get into your house that night? I did. I took $20,000 out of the bank. I had $20,000 transferred. He's been with you then when you've had large amounts of cash. I've always had large amounts of cash, but yeah.

Why don't you think he shot you? He was trying to shoot me. I've told you this over and over. He was trying to shoot me. Tom Randolph said a lot of things. It's just for shock value, to see how we would respond. I'm trying to. I like you. You I don't like, by the way. I don't know why. I just don't like you. And I said, that's okay. I don't take it personally. It was interesting. There was a relationship that Thomas Randolph had developed with with Detective Mogg. I've talked to you more than anybody I've talked to in Las Vegas since I've been here rather than Sharon and Pauline and the grandkids. So you're like my best friend dude. Shouldn't have secrets. Right? Shouldn't have secrets, right?

Shouldn't have secrets? That's right. What do you mean? Everybody's got secrets. Something else nice, because you know what? Unless you come and just tell me I'm under arrest or you just really need to talk to me to clear something else up, I'm probably not coming back out of here for at least 30, 40 days. You think we should tell you you'm under arrest or you just really need to talk to me to clear something else up I'm probably not coming back out of here for at least 30 40 days I think we should tell you you're under arrest no because if you are you f**ked up you f**ked up this one's an easy one for you this

one's an easy one for you because the forensics is there it has uh it has its issues at the end of the interview we're getting ready to walk out. It's not that I don't trust you, but I think I'll take my bag with me. Just an extra dig. Is your wife good looking? What do you think? To kill for. I think that's a Freudian slip. I think that was just a little peek at his hand.

He just showed us a little peek at his hand. He needs to be safe. I need some sugar. Come on, silly man. You want a cookie? I need some sugar. Come on silly man. After my mom died, I called Randolph. I said, what did you do to my mother? And he said, I didn't do anything to your mother. Michael shot and killed your mother.

And he hung up on me. Cold. Cold. Just cold. I just acted like everything was normal, that we were family still. Tommy called the house. He left me a couple of messages. I called me and I said, I am just going to try my darkest to bug up and get the cleaning done and try to save us some money to get this house for sale, I acted like I thought he was innocent and he was the hero.

I said that we were still family. That he was still grandpa to my kids. That was really hard. That was really hard. Hi, hit me up. I'm calling. Oh, this is just chat. It's right there.

I just... Okay. It makes me feel better when I hear your voice. Love you. See you later. Bye. And then he popped up with this will, and I saw it. He thought with his will that he was in control of everything.

Everything was his. But a couple days after my mom died, her best friend Alice gave me another will. She writes it out. I'm watching her do it. And we go to the notary and have it notarized. And she gives it to me, and she says, if anything happens to me, Alan, she says, please give this to Colleen.

She had left the house to Colleen. She had suspected something that she would go behind his back and change everything and leave it to me. So my will was valid, and his was no longer valid, which really upset him. Then I started getting really nasty phone messages. You know, it's really weird. We sit there, and we talk about the house. I can see it in your eyes. You're a fly in the air. Yeah, good message.

I mean, as far as I know, he's still in Utah. He might be on his way to Vegas now. I stopped talking to him. This is the very last message, maybe two, three days ago. Hi, I was actually calling to apologize for getting so upset with you, but that's what happens when people look me in the eyes and lie to me. Now the lawyers are going to get all the money. I still get half the house because I'm married to your mama.

I forgive you. I'm sorry I called you bad names. See you. Bye. He didn you. I'm sorry I called you bad names. See you. Bye. He didn't realize I had a will. Yeah, he thought he was in control and in charge of everything. And he doesn't like it when a woman takes control away.

We were convinced that Miller was the one who fired the shot that killed Sharon Randolph. Why did he do that? He said he had got a 9mm. Mike said he got that from who? He got that from the white guy. So, back to Miller. After the second interrogation, we got just a limited amount from Tom Randolph about the relationship that he had with Mike Miller.

We were convinced that Miller was the one who fired the shot that killed Sharon Randolph. The question was, why did he do that? Even though Mike Miller was a victim in the fact that he was killed, he was also a suspect. We learned that his family was in North Carolina, and we made arrangements to go out there and conduct interviews in person. Right now we're in Charlotte, North Carolina. We're here to talk to Rufus Miller.

It's Michael Miller's brother. You have arrived. Hey, how you doing? Hi, Rufus. How you doing? I'm sorry. Dean O'Kelly with MOG. Please meet you. I'll grant you the birthright.

Thank you. You can see on this bitch, my brother worked all his life. Well, we're sorry for your loss. And tell me a little bit about your conversations with Mike and what went on with him and this man. Do you know his name? The person he was hanging out with or associating with? I don't think I know was a Thomas, a Tom.

Tom? Yeah. Okay. How did he meet Tom? Do you know? Say he was on the street corner, and he pulled up to him and asked if he wanted to do some work. Was he supposed to be doing, like, regular work for Tom? Handyman.

Was he getting paid then for what he was doing? Yeah, he was getting $600 a week. Okay, for doing work around, around Tom's place? Yep, with the RSA and jobs. Do you say how often he had contact with this man, Tom? It was all the time. Did you ever know your brother to have a gun? Nope.

I don't know how y'all would feel if it was one of y'all loved ones. You know what I'm saying? My brother wouldn't kill nobody. That's just like saying me. You know what I'm saying? Rufus didn't believe his brother was capable of that. And yet we knew, based on the evidence, that he had actually killed Sharon Randolph. He shot her in the head. We were leaving the interview, and Rufus told us that Mike had another brother. You got a brother? I had another brother. Yeah, Rico Miller. Where's

Rico? He's at home. So we made arrangements to go over and talk to Rico. Come on in. Rico. Okay. You were in communication with Mike between while he was out there in Vegas? Yeah, talking to Mike from that Monday to that Wednesday. Before this happened? Yes, sir, because it happened that Thursday. Right. What happened?

Tell me about the conversations you had with him. Well, he was saying he was doing good out there. He was working for that white guy. What did Michael tell you about him? He might not say nothing bad about him. Excuse me. No, take your time. You're fine. Rico was overcome with emotion

but he told us too he told us something interesting at some point that Tom Randolph gave Mike Miller a 9mm that he'd given him a handgun well Mike told me he said he had got a 9mm I don't know what kind of 9mm

it was Mike said he got that from who? he got that from the white guy. Why did he give it to him? I never didn't know. I don't know, sir. Approaching left turn, followed by a right turn.

One of the most interesting people that we ended up talking to on the trip was Judy Archie. Approaching destination on the right. A friend of Michael Miller's. She had known him for about 15 years. Judy, hi. This interview is being conducted at Judy Archie's residence, 926 hours. Judy, you understand this interview is being recorded? Judy Archie's residence, 926 hours.

Judy, I understand this interview is being recorded. Is that okay with you? Yes, sir. You were friends with Michael Miller, is that correct? Mm-hmm. About how long ago did you meet him? It was about 15, 16 years. Okay, so you're pretty good friends with him?

Mm-hmm. And at some point he moved out to Las Vegas? Yep, he said he was moving out for a better life. And what did he tell you? Did he give you a call after he got settled in? What was he talking to you about? He always talked about the man he met at the store. And I kept telling him, I said, Mike, something ain't right about that man.

Again he called. He said, he told me he wanted me to kill his wife. I said said for what he said i don't know he told me he wanted me to kill his wife he said that that's all the man was talking about killing his wife killing his wife you know and i didn't ever understand it you know and i was like why go to the police with this. Did he ever tell you anything that he was supposed to get out of that? I mean, what would it benefit Mike to kill this man's wife?

I don't know what he was going to give Mike because he never did say. Okay, he never told you about this? Uh-uh. To go to the Carolinas and have Judy Archie tell us that there was conversations that she had with Mike about Tom Randolph wanting him to kill his wife, it was a validation for me. We had gotten the information that we wanted at that point about Mike Miller. There was more that we needed to know about Tom Randolph and his past. It was clear it was the tip of the iceberg. We had a theory, and that's this.

Thomas Randolph created and groomed a person that would be willing to kill for him. When we started looking into Tom Randolph's past, the more that we learned about him and learned about his history, the whole investigation changed. I was going to need my partner. I'm a two-man partner with Rob Wilson. You know, at the time this happened, we were the longest running partnership in homicide for a long time. What could be more important than my phone? I can't imagine. It's almost like a marriage, really. You start to think alike. You start to finish each other's sentences sometimes. It's really cool when you get it working right. Rob was on vacation when we caught this case,

so he wasn't at the scene. He wasn't involved in the interviews. He didn't do any of that. He called me and he said, I tell you in my heart, I know that he's guilty. I needed him up and running and up to speed in the case. And he was immediately. I had a lot of confidence in Rob, especially in his investigative skills. In reading your report, it's a pretty comprehensive report, but I think that we left some things hanging in the investigation.

The two of us hit the ground running. It's like putting together a puzzle. We had a theory that we believe was well established by the evidence, and that's this. Thomas Randolph had intentionally married Sharon with the sole purpose of cashing in on life insurance policies when she died. We ended up ultimately finding four life insurance policies that Tom Randolph had taken out on Sharon, totaling about $360,000. We believe that Tom Randolph met Mike Miller at a convenience store, struck up a conversation with him,

and that being the manipulator that Tom Randolph is, immediately recognized that he had somebody in front of him. He created and groomed a person that would be willing to kill for him. And that's what he found in Mr. Miller. So we believe that Randolph took Sharon out to dinner for Mother's Day as part of the ruse to allow Miller to go into the house and prepare. That's one of the eerie aspects of this case. As they're walking together out of the casino holding hands, he knows within a very short period of time she'd be dead on the floor in her house.

Now Mike's at the house. He's probably in the backyard. We knew he had a key. This clock hinges down right here, and apparently, from what we're told from Tom, is that the gun was kept inside the clock here. So apparently Mike knew where that was. He was laying in wait in the hallway bathroom until Sharon came into the house by herself,

as prearranged by Thomas Randolph. And as soon as she walked into this area here, where her head was positioned right here, right in this area, that Miller fired that shot. Michael Miller had a ski mask with him doubtless now that he knows that Sharon's down and that a friendly, his confederate is coming in through that door that he takes his mask off, he relaxes as Miller started to walk through the garage door to leave with Thomas Randolph behind him

Tom Randolph fired the first shot, the ambushed him we found the ski mask right here on the ground Randolph behind him. Tom Randolph fired the first shot. They ambushed him. We found the ski mask right here on the ground, away from the body. There were no bullet holes in the ski mask. There wasn't any blood on the ski mask. It's huge that there's no blood or bullet holes in the ski mask because Tom Randolph said he still had it on his head. How's the ski mask get where it was? With no blood, no bullet holes. We both were very confident that Thomas Randolph was guilty, but being able to prove it in a court of law is something different.

There was a lot more to Thomas Randolph than we knew. I never in a thousand years thought that this would develop into what it developed into. We went to Washington State, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Utah. What really became important was his past history. Police arrested Thomas Randolph on charges of murder. He asked me if I would kill somebody for money if I knew I could get away with it. These women come up dead.

He comes up with money. Love you, Tom. The most significant thing that we found out about Tom Randolph, Sharon was actually his sixth wife. He's really a sick, suffering bitch. Trouble gonna come. Out of those six wives, four of them were dead. Put your hands on your head right now.

Put your hands on your head. I'm on the ground. That's not to me. Oh.