Law&Crime Sidebar - 5 Chilling Courtroom 'Confessions'

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

From unexpected admissions of murder to unsettling rationale on the witness stand, criminal courtrooms in Florida, South Carolina, New York, and California have witnessed testimonies that completely upended high-profile trials. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber revisits these unforgettable, case-altering moments that left judges, juries, and spectators stunned.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Jay Cruz, Christina O'Shea, & Andrew ZuckermanScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson, Heather Berzak & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I am a homicidal maniac. John asked me that if I believed his daughter was in grave danger, would I be willing to kill Christina Parcell for $5,000? Have you decided in your mind what you're going to happen to? I have. And what was that? That I'm going to have to dismember my dad to be able to move him out of the house. We're going to break down courtroom confessions that stay with us.

that stay with us, even years down the road. Those times when people said things, you not only couldn't believe, but that seriously impacted their cases in major ways. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. I want to talk about courtroom confessions. Those times that you cannot believe

what someone just said on the stand that can change everything in a case. They don't happen very often, so we figured, you know what, let's put together a compilation. of some of those moments. Now, I'm going to start with someone who to this day, I don't care how many years go by, I still have to mention because of how chilling and disturbing his admissions were, Scott Nelson. I am a homicidal maniac. He lit a firecracker. He lit a bomb. Let's go back to

June 2019 in Orlando, Florida. That's where then 55-year-old ex-con named Scott Nelson was on trial for the murder of 56-year-old local nanny, wife, mother, and grandmother, Jennifer Fulford. Now, authorities claim that Nelson burglarized a family's home back in 2017, kidnapped her. She was the family's nanny, the house manager. They say he stole her car, her bank card, took money out, and then killed her so she wouldn't be a witness. It was savage. Her body was found in a wooded area, bound with duct tape wrapped completely around her head. She had stab wounds to her back and chest, and at least two struck her heart. Brutal crime. And if that description wasn't terrible enough, Nelson gets on the stand at

his murder trial, he does not deny committing this crime. No, rather, he admits it. Who killed Jennifer Fulford? I did. Did she appear to you to be terrified? I can ask and ask her. I'm sure she, I'm sure she wasn't happy. Okay. I mean, how, you know? Screaming? No. Begging you not to kill her?

No. Well, you've had a knife this whole time, right? That knife we saw, that green and black knife? How are you supposed to carry someone and carry a knife at the same time? Or how are you supposed to, I mean, I think I left it in the vehicle. And then I had to go back and get it, I guess. Should I have dropped her off in front of OPD? Just the matter-of-fact way, the judge of the vehicle, the general fact way, the vehicle.

admitting this is something else. Now, he would say he doesn't remember the stabbing and he brought her out onto the field, not with the intent to kill her, but just to leave her, but he admitted he killed her. Now, Nelson, who had previously spent years behind bars for a bank robbery, claimed that he did all of this because he was left with no choice. He claimed his probation officer, Julio Dominguez, ruined his life, a life that he says has been riddled with pain and agony after being locked up for so long behind bars. Well, sir, I'll be very frank with you. Jennifer Lynn Fulford would be alive today,

had it not been for Julio Dominguez. I was employed in Winter Park for a painting company by a alleged Christian family who took it in their interest because I was such a dedicated, hard worker, allowed me to live at their employment. as well. Prior to that, I had been homeless after being released from federal custody, thrown to the street, homeless with no money. He made it a point to create a situation with my employer slash landlord, which is one of the same. And he got me thrown on the street

after months of suffering on the streets of Orlando. So what he did was notify your employer that you were on federal probation? No, actually, Ms. Burdick, what he did was I satisfied the courts and the probation officer's criteria. I told them that I was in prison and I named the felony and they were happy with that, the family. That satisfied the court. He took it upon himself to, as he called it, a third-party perspective

and he went to the owner and he used vulgar language and said, what are you blank crazy for letting this man live here? And you're going to let him work here? Get him out of here. And that got me thrown on the street. Being thrown on the street again for what? The third or was it the fourth time by the government, be it state or federal? And, you know, once you kick a dog enough times, they tend to bite back.

And really, they just don't care anymore. You don't know Reed Berman, right? Never met the man. And you don't know or didn't know Jennifer Fulford. No, I don't. There was nothing that either one of them ever did to you that would have resulted in you taking some sort of revenge on them for some moral cause.

I believe the term is collateral damage. Jennifer Fulford. An innocent woman who was caught up in this guy's life was just collateral damage? His rationale is thinking playing like he's the victim, okay? It's difficult to process. And in a case where the jury would have to decide life in prison or the death penalty, he had some final words for them too. Mr. Nelson, do you want to be sentenced to death?

Yes. I'm going to object. That's an improper question. Yeah. So Scott Nelson was convicted of the murder of Jennifer Philford. And despite his request to be put to death, jury didn't want to give it to him. Nope. Jury came back. Unanimous decision. He was sentenced to life in prison. Okay, next up, Zachary Hughes, February 2025. You have this Juilliard trained, highly skilled piano player. He's on trial for the murder of Christina Parcell out in South Carolina. She was a single mom, vet tech. It's another grisly stabbing.

Christina was found with more than 30 stab wounds. And bizarrely, rose. Pebbles were scattered around the home. So during his trial, Hughes gets on the stamp. You know what he does? He admits it. He admits he killed Christina but says he did it because he was convinced that she was allegedly sexually abusing her daughter. These were claims, by the way, that were unfounded.

At the end of September, beginning of October, 2021, did you conclude that you had to rescue And there was no underway. Yes, I did. And these are claims that he said were told to him by his friend, John Mello, Christina's ex. In May of 2021, what, if anything, did John ask you to do for him? Given the extremely grave nature of John's concerns for his daughter, especially while she was in the custody of, of her mother Christina Parcell and potentially being exposed to her mother's boyfriend, Brad Post, who John believed was a pedophile and is a pedophile.

Objection. Sustained. I instruct you to totally disregard the last comments made by Mr. Vendor. In Zach, we'll just, could you just tell this jury what John asked you to continue Yes Given his concerns John asked me

That if I believed His daughter Was in grave danger Would I be willing to kill Christina Parcell for $5,000? What did you say when he asked you that? I was shocked

and insulted by the request, and I gave him an immediate and unequivocal no. So he offered you $5,000 if you would kill Christiana Pursle and you said no. That's correct. At some point, did he revisit that subject? Yes. Did he make you another offer? Yes, he did.

How long after the first offer did he make? the second off I'm not certain but I would say maybe two or three weeks later tell this jury about that he was becoming increasingly more worried and distressed about the safety of his daughter I was as well the more I learned about this situation and everything and a lot more than what I've told you I was also sustained What was the second offer? The second offer, he asked me again, if I became convinced that his daughter was in danger,

would I be willing to kill Christina Parcell for $10,000? What did you, or how did you respond to that offer? I told him, John, there's no amount of money that would ever tempt me to do something like this. And I told him I was insulted that he even thought that would be something I would consider. So I told him I would never do something like this for money. I told him the only way I would ever consider taking action like this is if I was absolutely convinced that his daughter was not only in danger, but that the only way to rescue her from

that danger would be to take Christina Purcell's wife. And during his testimony, what he says turns this courtroom into a chaotic mess. Did you take another step to try to act on your concerns? Yes. And did you take that step at the end of September or beginning of October? Yes, I made a phone call to Child Protective Services, and I told them that I was a neighbor. So I told them that I had seen

being verbally and physically abused by her mother. And again, I made that up. That's not true. But I said it because I wanted to give an opportunity to have FaceTime in person with an agent from DSS away from her mother where she could tell them that her mother was sexually abusing her. Yes, Your Honor.

sustained. I had gotten this offer to go on this cruise ship, and I would have been leaving the country for a long time. Essentially, it was now or never. I had an opportunity to save her from a danger that I knew she was in, and that I knew it was not going to cease. And I just couldn't go on with my life and leave her to drown. Did you take Christina Parcell's life?

on October the 13th. Yes, because I believed it was absolutely necessary to save him. And I was right. Objection, Your Honor. It's the same. And he even went into detail about what he said he did. I brought a knife, and I brought a box

that was made to look like a gift wrapped box and a bunch of roses that I had bought the day before. I had come to the point where rationally I knew that the only way was going to be saved from what she was enduring was for me to take this route. My plan had been to try to knock her unconscious because I didn't want to cause her or anyone any pain. That wasn't my intention. I just wanted to say and to make sure that no one else who was a bystander would be involved in this or could be endangered in any way. So I tried while she was holding the roses to strike her on the head and knock her unconscious. It didn't knock her unconscious and I'd hardly struck her at all, to be honest.

So I tried again and the same thing happened. I just couldn't bring myself to strike her. And at this point, she realized that I was hesitating. And she began to try to move herself and to get away and to fight back. I don't remember how many times I struck her. I just remember that when it finished, we were on the ground. And I stopped striking her when she stopped struggling. I looked in a mirror before I left to make sure everything was in order,

and I saw that she had scratched my face in the struggle. And, of course, I realized that this could leave DNA. So I used the paint thinner to try to clean her hands. As soon as I left the house, I felt the most enormous wave of relief, wash over me because I knew from that moment on be safe, would be safe from the sexual abuse that her mother was perpetrating on her. And there is proof to that that the state is hiding from you. It's tough to be quiet. It's tough to think about, right? It's tough to understand. Well, you know what happens? So not only did a jury convict Zachary Hughes of murder and other charges

and he was sentenced to life in prison, but because of this test, testimony, hours later, the Greenville Sheriff's Office obtained warrants charging John Mello with accessory before the fact and solicitation. It was literally out of a movie or a TV show. Points the finger. Someone else gets arrested. It's crazy. Hughes legal team, by the way, is fighting to get him a new trial, so I got to tell you this story may be far from over. But let's go to the next one. I can't talk about chilling courtroom confessions or admissions without talking about another defendant on trial for murder, also out of Florida. James Scandarito back in 2018.

Then 49-year-old James Scandarito was charged with the first-degree murder of his father, 74-year-old James Scandarino, Sr., a former judge. His remains were found in suitcases and garbage bags that had apparently been thrown on a golf course, days after his son reported him missing. Now, the evidence, which included surveillance footage, showed that not only was the younger Scandarito, the last one with his father, but investigators were able to track him to the golf course. Also, it really didn't help him that this son was to receive approximately $800,000 as the sole beneficiary of his father's financial accounts. Now, you might be saying open and shut

case, right? Well, this son, this defendant took the stand. He said he didn't kill his father. No, he says they were partying together. They were doing cocaine. Left for a second, came back, found his dad unresponsive. He says he panicked. He was buzzed. He was drunk. He was high on coke. He was paranoid. Thought if he called police, he'd get in a lot of trouble for the drugs. So what does he decide to do? Well, he claims he tried to use a dolly to move his father's body into the bed. You have to kind of lift it up to turn it. And that's when, you know, problems occurred in terms of him starting to fall off the dolly, you know, me banging it into the walls. It was, it, I couldn't, I couldn't move it. I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't

balance him on the dolly and work it around the tight corner of the of the hallway. And I ended up just kind of falling and dropping, you know, the dolly with him on it and just kind of breaking down and trying at that point. And you have to hear it from James Scandarito himself as to what he decided to do next. It is disturbing. Have you decided in your mind what you're going to have to do? I have. And what was that?

That I'm going to have to dismember my dad to be able to move him out of the house. Do you leave him on the dolly, take to the dolly in the garage? Yes. Okay. And do you do that when you are dismembered? Yes. Okay. So you have heard the medical examiner talk about the fact that the body is cut from essentially back to front?

Yes. Okay. Does this body remain on the dolly while you are coming? Yeah, because I rolled the dolly over when I am doing the, dismembering of the extremities. And so you are cutting those portions that are fanging off of the dolly. Yes. Okay.

How did you sort of preying or step up to do to that? I mean, is your dad just praying there in the open? There's a space in front of the, of course, you've seen it all many times, If you have the refrigerator, and you come out of the garage on the left side, and if you look at the left side of the garage, there's a space there. So I had laid a clear tarp down. The dolly was on top of the cart, on top of the tarp. And then I had another tarp that went over the top of the dolly

and the plastic tarp that was underneath the dolly. And so when you are actually cutting the What? A saw. The electric saw or a hand saw? No, it's a hand saw. Okay, a hand saw that was at the house. Yes, it was hanging up in the garage. Add you this number or portion of the body,

what do you do with that portion? I take a garbage bag and I kind of cover, let's the the part the part that is being dismembered so when the the arm let's say is finally dismembered it's it's kind of falls into the the garbage bag and with those garbage bags individually what did you do with it when i uh ended up eventually ended up putting them all into three suitcases. Two cases that were at the house already.

Yes. Okay. How long does it take you to do that? It seemed like I was doing it all night. I mean, I know Dr. Mote said it was easy. And maybe it's not, you know, physically strenuous, but, you know, it wasn't. I would, it was not something that I, it was a quick, it was a long time.

Just taking a step back, this guy is not only freely admitting to chopping up a human body, but the body of his elder father, okay? Think about that. And you might be saying, well, of course, he was convicted, right? Open and shut case. You would be wrong. The jury actually acquitted him of the murder of his father. They did convict him of abuse of a corpse, but acquitted of murder.

Now, I remember covering this trial saying that story, that specificity, that detail, how he described it, the way he described it, what appeared to be the disgust in his face, the pauses. It seems the jury felt there was no way someone could make that up. They felt he was telling the truth, right? But he wasn't off the hook. I mean, James Scandarino was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Any confession that leads to justice is a good thing. But sometimes it hits harder when it's a cold case, when you don't have an answer or a suspect for years. And then when it comes out, that admission takes things to a whole other level.

Brings me to the Gilgo Beach serial killer, Rex Hewerman, the 62-year-old Long Island architect who pled guilty in connection with the murders of seven women. Melissa Bartholomey, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Marine Brainerd Barron. and Sandra Castia. He also admitted to killing an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, though he was never charged in connection with her death. But we're talking about a timeline of deaths from 1993 to 2010. These bodies found along Gilgo Beach. And for years, no suspects. There were a lot of theories. And Heurman wouldn't be arrested until 2023. Key pieces of evidence, cell phone data, credit card information, online searches, DNA from a discarded pizza crust. That was a key one. because prosecutors claim that a cheek swab from Hewerman matched DNA that was found on a pizza crust that was thrown out near his office in New York City.

And that DNA from the pizza crust was consistent with a DNA profile taken from a hair follicle found on a burlap covering or material used to tie up Waterman's body. Now, even though at first he pled not guilty, looked like he was going to take this to trial to fight the charges, he did in the end ultimately plead guilty to the murders. So when it came time for him to address the court at his sentencing on June 17, 2026, just got to say, kind of surreal to hear him say this. Mr. Hewoman, is there anything you wish to say before I pronounce sentence? Yes. Stand up. There are no words, like you said.

I'm responsible for what was said in this room step. The words I would say have no meaning. And I'm going to have a bridge there at this document. Speak up. You hear that speak up at the end? Think about him confessing, admitting to all of this after so many years. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And just one more footnote to that.

Heurman, as part of his deal, he has agreed to work with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit, where seemingly FBI profilers will get more insight into his crimes, his thought process. perhaps fill in some of the blanks that investigators have had for so many years. So we'll stay tuned if any information should come from that. I want to close things out with just an unbelievable series of admissions at a trial. It is about Robert Durst, the infamous real estate Sion, who went to trial for the 2000 murder of his best friend Susan Berman. She was shot in the head in her Los Angeles home, and it took over 20 years for Dirst to go to trial for her killing. And then, at the time, 78-year-old was infirm.

He was sick. He was confined to a wheelchair by the time he went to trial. Now, prosecutors claim he killed Susan to keep her quiet about what she knew about the disappearance of Durs' wife, Kathy McCormack Dirst, who disappeared in 1982. We'll have more on that in a minute. But back to the admissions in court, because that's the theme here. When I say admissions, let's just start with his attorney, okay, Dick Degarin, admitting, in his open. statement to the jury what Durst had denied for so long. What do I mean?

So first I want you to listen to what Durst had to say in an interview with a prosecutor years before the trial. You agree. You did not just find Susan's body and somebody else killed her. Did not find Susan's body. But then at his criminal trial, his own attorney, Dick DeGaron, says this. Bob Durst did not kill Susan Berman and he doesn't know who did. He did find her body shortly after someone and shot her in the back of the head.

He was coming to visitor for the Christmas holidays. That's how the trial starts. Durs found Susan's body. He was there, saw her dead. What? And then there's the cadaver note. So someone sent police a note alerting them to a body at Susan's house, the infamous cadaver note, right?

This is what Dirst previously said. He didn't write them, write the cadaver notes that were really right to the catap. Whoever wrote that note had to be involved in Susan's death. Okay. Makes sense, right? He didn't write it. Doesn't know who did it. Yeah.

Whoever wrote it probably killed her or was part of it because how else would they know that a dead body was in her house? How else would they know that she was dead? Well, then there's this admission from trial. But Bob showed up and found her dead. He panicked. He wrote the anonymous. So Robani would be found and he ran. Oh my gosh.

Do you know how shocking that was at the time? And this narrative was backed up by Durst himself when he took the stand. Bob, did you kill Susan Burma? No. Do you know who did? No, I do not. I'm shouting at you a couple of times. And I quickly ran to the...

to the bedroom where she was. Her eyes were closed. I reached all down. I squatted over her. Reach down. Grabbed her by her upper arms and lifted her up. How high did you lift her? Six inches.

Was she cold to the touch? Was she warmed to the touch? Could you tell? I put my hand over her. I might have left that out to see if she was breathing, see if I could feel breath and it's cold. Then I grabbed her by her arms and was thorough. Her head just hung down and I could see when her hair was in some kind of liquid. What was going through your mind? What did you think?

Like, I was going for my mind that she had fallen backwards, she had fainted or something, fallen down, had hit her head. I also thought, maybe somebody hit her in the back of the head. I did not imagine at that time that she had been shot. So what? What did you next observe? I wanted to go check the bathroom. The bathroom.

I wanted to check the other bed. If somebody had done this to the student, maybe he was still here and walked out the front door, shutting it behind me. Got in my car till you turn. Went south on bed.

to get you. We had to go to a pay room and dial 911. Did you do that? I got to a pay phone around for sunset

just before getting to sunset. I picked up the phone, dialed 911 and a lady's voice asked for my name.

I decided I did not want to give them my name. I was thinking of giving them a phony name. And then I was aware that my voice is very recognizable. And even without a name, who would have been doing the report? I decided that instead of calling nine more, I would send the police a letter telling them that Susan was dead in her house. Now, this episode is called shocking admissions, confessions, right?

I still cannot believe what Dirst said because I want you to listen to what happened when Ders was questioned by prosecutor John Lewin, who knew this case backwards and forwards. Did you kill Susan Berman? No. But if you had, you would lie about it, correct? Correct. How many instances of perjury do you think you have committed during your testimony in this trial? Mr. Durst.

Mr. Durst, you have stated previously that for the most part, you tell the truth, and I think you said that as an example, you have only lied about a couple of things. Is that correct? I thought we were talking about the now that's in trial. Now I'm talking about your trial here. And when you say several things, Mr. Durst, would you agree that several is more likely many? I would say five. Crazy, right?

And he caught Durst in these traps with his own narrative. So now you're saying that the killer was actually in the house when you were there? I believe the killer was either still in the house or in the yard when I arrived. Mr. Durst, haven't you testified that Susan's body was cold? I did not testify that Susan's body was cold. Quiet. I'm letting him look down. And so you're still in breathing.

See, you're quite a seal breath. He is so cold. Well, what do you have to say about that? Her breath fell, an ace felt cold. She's dead. What do you mean her breath felt cold? Was she breathing on you when you got there? No, she would not breathe.

So how can her breath be cold when she's dead? She's a stiff. I never said I would have to be fairly. Stop, Mr. Durs. Why did you say you never said you knew where Kathy was buried? How do you know Kathy's buried at all? Same like a logical step. Okay.

So as you can imagine, Robert Dirst was convicted of Susan Berman's murder and he was sentenced to life in prison. By the way, New York authorities then announced in October of 2021 that after all these years, he was now charged with the murder of his wife, Kathy. Problem with that, trial never happened because only a few months later in January of 2022, Robert Durst died in prison of natural causes. Well, there you go. Shocking confessions in court.

And as I say so many times, I am sure this will not be the last time we see these. Thanks so much for joining us here on Sidebar, everybody. Please like and subscribe. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.