Small Town Murder - The Trashy Tragic Murders - Victor, West Virginia

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

This week, in Victor, West Virginia, a wild story unfolds, after a couple is found completely burned in a house fire. Police quickly realize that the couple had already been murdered, when the fire was set, but who could've done this, in such a rural area? Luckily, the kills told just about everyone they knew about it, including friends, and one of their wives, who turns out to be unhappy in the marriage. This all leads to a trio of idiots, who have more meth than sense, and let their paranoia get the best of them!!   Along the way, we find out that fiddles & banjos are definitely not the same thing, that even if you've been broken up with someone for a long time, you never know if they want to murder you, and that fire doesn't erase shotgun blasts!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!   Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod   Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and Choochoo! Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petro Gallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another wild crazy West Virginia edition of Small Town Murder Express.

And this is back in the hollers and places. Never heard of any of these places. It is. This is exactly. what you'd expect from this. It's crazy stuff. We'll get into all that and more. First of all, though, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for live shows. They are available right now. Get them while they're hot. September 18th, Milwaukee at the Pabst. We have released more tickets. There are more tickets left now. Wow. I think we released the last 50 that we had, like, as they keep for holds for us.

So we said, sell them. Let's go. So there's another 50 tickets. If you've been wanting to go there, It's been sold out. So there's your opportunity. Minneapolis the next night, September 19th at the state theater. Then Dallas on October 3rd. And then October 16th and 17th is San Jose in Sacramento. And then Terrytown and Boston on the 13th and 14th. And Terrytown's almost sold out.

That was just about sold out. So I think it's 95% sold or something. So get your tickets for that right now if you'd like to go to that. Shut up and give me murder.com. Also check out crime and sports, which we think you'll love. It's just a crazy. You don't have to like sports. It's just a crazy story every time.

And then also, of course, your stupid opinions where you can find out why you don't want to go to strip clubs in Columbus, Ohio. So do that as well. Your opinion matters. It really does. Well, not really to us, but to others possibly. To that show it does. For that show, it matters a lot. Patreon.

Get yourself Patreon. If you want more stuff, Patreon.com slash crime in sports, just like the name of that other show there. What that is, all you need is $5 a month or above, and you get every damn thing we put out, everything. First of all, you're going to subscribe and immediately get almost 400 back bonus episodes just like that to binge on. And then after that, every other week you get two new ones, one crime and sports, one small town murder, and you get every damn last drop of it. So this week, which you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to talk about the worst stadiums of all time. Fine. Don't have to be a sports fan.

Everybody's been to a stadium and went, this place is kind of. a shithole. Why do we pay so much to get in here? Then for small town murder, Donner Party, it's time. Let's everybody put on your, your bibs and get your knife and fork and salt and pepper ready because it's time to, uh, you're going to need extra salt. If you get the wrong bib. Oh boy. That's right. So patreon.com slash crime in sports. Now on top of that, you'd say, well, that's plenty for five bucks. Not for you guys. No, no. For you, it's not enough. We also gave you all our shows, crime and sports, your stupid opinions, and small town murder, both episodes, all add free with your Patreon, add free, and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. So you can't beat it.

That said, I think it's time, everybody to sit back. What do you say here? Clear the lungs, arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we?

Yeah. We are going to West Virginia. Uh-huh. Oh, baby. We're going to Victor West Virginia, which I... Take us home. I'm sure you, you've never heard of it. I don't even think John Denver knew about this fucking place.

It was back there. He'd have been like, country roads are one thing, but when you get back in the hollers, it gets kind of hairy. So I don't, you know... Those are bumpy. Those are... I like country roads that connect to another road, not just die in a mountain somewhere. So, no.

Victor, West Virginia. It's kind of south-central... kind of West Virginia, just in the middle of nowhere. It's about two hours and 20 minutes to Morgantown, West Virginia, north. About four hours to Lexington, the other direction, to Kentucky. Then about 40 minutes to Nettie, West Virginia, which is our last West Virginia episode, episode 685, The Secrets of Murder Pond, which I remember that's, West Virginia never lets us down. No.

This is in Fayette County, area codes 304 and 681, which is strange. because it's a very small place. The population here, now this isn't in the town proper. The town proper is nowhere near this many people. This is the entire zip code, which is all I could find stats for. Zip code 25938 has 1,328 people in it. Wow. Very small.

Median household income here, well below the national average, 41,319. Not great. Oh, yeah. Median home cost here, also much lower than the national average. 181,600 bucks. Okay. So it's like you live in 2003, essentially, if you work. It's still not good.

No, it's not great. A little bit of history here. Now, because these places, you're like, how the hell do people decide to live in the middle of nowhere? Apparently, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad came through the gorge in 1873 and unlocked the new river coal field. So that's why. Now, Fayette was briefly, this county became West Virginia's leading coal-producing county in a state where that's literally all they have there. They do, yeah. So, yeah, they had a huge disaster there in 19, between 1930 and 1935.

It's called the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster. Weird. Okay. Apparently, here, this is a Union Carbide drove a three-mile diversion tunnel through high silica, sandstone for a hydroelectric project feeding a metals plant. Okay. Now, workers, most of them were recently arrived black workers from the South that came up for this particular job, higher during the Depression, too.

So, I mean, during the Depression, you'll do anything and go anywhere for any work. They had them drill and blast. There was no respiratory protection despite silica being a thing you're drilling through. So acute silicosis killed hundreds very quickly. Silicosis? Silicosis. Silicosis. I read big articles in the newspaper about this and what happened like years later.

Estimates range from 476 to 764 deaths based on this. Who even heard of silicosis? Who heard of inhaling that much silica? You know what I mean? I wouldn't even think that was a thing that could happen. Why would you do that? How. Bodies were basically buried hastily or just shipped away.

The company minimized it. You know, what all the companies did back then. What the fuck happens when you get silicosis? Apparently, you drop dead pretty quick. I don't know. I mean, that's the shit that sucks moisture out of your shoes when you have a packet. So imagine that in your lungs. Yeah.

Oh, bud. The thing that says do not eat, do not eat all over it. Right. Imagine it doesn't say anything about crushing it up and blowing a line of it, though, right? I don't think that'd be good for you. Probably not. I think so. They also called it tunnelitis, this whole thing. Say again, they call it what?

Tunnelitis was the, what they called everything. Gross. Things to do, bridge day. Oh, yeah. It's bridge day, everybody. Fuck that day. The new river gorge bridge is easily accessible for major interstates. This is how they advertise to come here.

It's within a day's drive for two-thirds of the American population. Basically, if you leave east of the Mississippi, it's within a day's drive, so you should come here. Go spend 20 hours in a car to come to Bridge Day. There's some races, shuttles, into the gorge, bus rides. Nothing is going on until 3 o'clock when there's a Bridge Day chili cookoff. Fucking A. Okay, in downtown Fayetteville. Fayetteville, sorry.

Then Bridge Day ends at 3 o'clock when the... Sure does. And then at 5 o'clock, Route 19 reopens. Oh, yeah. They got to close the whole road. You can't get through the bridge for this. Now, their rules are no dogs, no coolers, no folding chairs, no bicycles, skates, skateboards, wagons, weapons, fireworks, illegal drugs, or alcoholic beverages.

No booze at Bridge Day. There will be no fun here. There's also the Appalachian string band music festival. Just string banding it up and happy there's a bridge. It's because it got you somewhere, right? That's what the celebration of the bridge is. I suppose. They're so frightening.

You could take things with commerce. I don't know. Yeah, you hate bridges, I know. Oh, man. The string band music festival, five-day mountain top gathering of musicians and friends with contests, concerts, workshops, square dances for camping. Yeah, my favorite. Wow. They attract more than 3,000, presented an audience of more than 3,000 musicians and string band lovers of all age.

We have banjo contests of different ages. There's the youth old-time banjo contest, the senior old-time banjo contest, which I feel like they would have an obvious advantage. Yeah. Then there's an open old-time banjo contest. Then there's a fiddle contest. They differentiate between banjos and fiddles,

which I know they're different things. One's got a bow and one doesn't. But still, you know, that's just funny. One's listenable. The other's not. The other is horrifying. The other is something that Steve Martin has chose to take his career in a direction of for some reason. What the fuck, Steve?

There's also gentle yoga, which is the way. You don't expect that at a mountaintop string band festival. Is there aggressive yoga? I think so. Come on, let's go. Bend, you fucking pussies. Get your pussy over your head, bitch. Let's go.

It's aggressive yoga. Okay, sorry. You aggressive slurs. Yeah, absolutely. There's a flat foot dance workshop, a lumberjacks jam with Bruce Ziff. Oh, yeah. Your guess is as good as mine. Fiddle finals and then square dance with callers, L. Kelly and H. Johnson.

You know, they've got to tell you how to dance because you don't know how to. Is that as a big of a deal as like an auctioneer? Is it as much talent? I don't think you have to talk as fast, but you have to have a dance. You can make people do any old dumb shit, though, which is the fun part. You have total control over them. That would be fun. The best square dance caller is the guy that can occupy the entire time, like an auctioneer, right?

I would assume so. And then finally, the concert from China to Appalachia. Uh-huh. That's the concert. That's it. China to Appalachia. I don't know anything about it or why it's there or what the fuck's going on. I doubt they have anybody from China there.

There's also the square dance that they have the one after that. Juanita Fireball and the cliff top drifters are going to be the band. that you're dancing too. That said, let's talk about some murder. What do you say here? Let's get in. This place has nothing happening. I think we've set the scene, right?

You know where we're at. This is sad. Wow. Okay, let's go to Sunday night, November 6th, 2016. So only 10 years ago. Pretty new here. Now, Willis Branch Road. Okay.

This runs off into the hills near Victor's here and then it has a road that goes out that's Willis Branch that goes up into the holler here and then there are and that's a small road and then there are several like even tinier roads that kind of go out into the holler too that are even more backwards like this is a wild place this is like it's the middle of nowhere so this goes off into the hills here this is kind of a narrow hollow. Everybody knows everybody in this type of place. I mean, this is imagine a street where there's no other streets.

It's just you. So, they all know each other. This is like groundhog for breakfast in the same kind of area here. This night on November 16, or 6th, 2016, on the Sunday night, a house is on fire up the holler here on Willis Branch

Road. Fire crews come, takes a minute to get out here. A little bit, yeah. Takes a minute for it to be reported, too. So fire crews come down. They get the flames down. They, you know, get it all out. And they come inside and they find two bodies in the wreckage.

Obviously, you're hoping it's an unoccupied structure. But they find, no, they find the bodies of a man and a woman, both adults here. And so they're like, holy shit, this is terrible. They might have probably. Awful. They might have been sleeping. It's just, you know. Smoke inhalation and then you burn.

Burn them up. Yeah. And it happens. It's an old. These are not like up to code. Yeah. These are holler houses up in the middle of nowhere. So, I mean, these are a lot of older houses, and this is a particularly older house, electrical, not up to snuff.

November. Good fire. Good warming fire. Get your house on fire. On a cold night. Could have a space heater going. Who knows? You know what I mean?

So anyway, a corporal J.S. signer investigated this structure. The address, I guess I can give it now because no one's driving up here. 2730 Willis Branch Road is the address of the fire here and if you look up just do a Google search you will see it'll give you a general like here's the road and you'll see how in the middle of nowhere it is

so they find this man and this woman that are at this point two it's just skeletal remains they have been I mean the fire has taken them the flesh has been burned it was a rager of a fire absolutely

and so they figure out the skeletal remains based on process of elimination of who lives there. And that is a man and a woman. So it makes sense. So we figure out who it is, and it is a boyfriend, girlfriend, couple. Stephen Lee Skaggs. Yeah. S-K-A-G-G-S.

Like Bogs. Absolutely. Yeah, they do a duet of Lido together. It's fucking excellent. You should see it. They do it at the string band festival. Lido. Yeah.

I don't know how much that I can sing without getting copyrighted, but that's fine. It's a terrible song anyway. That would be the shame. To get something pulled down for singing something so awful would be a... That would be terrible.

At least if we were singing something cool, it'd be like, ah, come on, we're complimenting it. But this is like, you got taken down for singing Lido? Why would you do that? You got copyrighted for something awful. God damn.

fucking for lead you couldn't not sing lido you idiots what is wrong with you jesus um so stephen lee scags he's born august 26th nineteen eighty six so uh he's 30 at this point yeah young guy he's born uh from beckley west virginia which we've discovered before his parents are stephen and carry now his parents got divorced at some point and he grew up with a stepdad as well he has brothers okay now stephen is named after his father Not first and middle, just first. So that's Stephen. The other two brothers are named Sawyer and DeAngelo,

which is strange for a very white family in the middle of nowhere. It makes no sense. Just big fans, Jen. Big fans. DeAngelo, yeah. I'm like, what the hell? DeAngelo Skaggs. DeAngelo, which sounds like a defensive lineman.

Like, oh, you know, holy shit, the Broncos drafted DeAngelo Skaggs. He's going to fucking be after quarterbacks this year. I wonder if that's DiAngelo's last name, though. It is. No, no, the real guy. Oh, yeah, I think it is, scags. He's also related to boss. Yeah.

You wouldn't think by looking at them, but really, it is. DeAngelo actually wrote Lido as a very small child. So now, Stephen was into wood stuff. Four-wheelers and camping and hunting and outdoor shit. That's why he lives up a holler in the middle of the woods. He goes to the Baptist Church locally. For a job, by the way, up here, there's not a lot of corporate white collar work up here. No.

He's a logger, which is... Yeah. In 2016. Yeah, dude. That's a... Wow. First of all, you go, holy shit, we still have people taking logs down by hand. Yes.

And second, it's fucking dangerous. You bet. Dangerous job. I mean, everything in West Virginia job-wise will kill you. It's just the way it is. Yeah. That's particularly dangerous. Yeah, there's reasons that we have entire groups of people that are built on just making sure you don't kill yourself at work.

Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, that's what they're there for. Because a lot of people got killed at work. Yeah. It was the reason why they exist. Because way too many got killed at work. Yeah. You want to, without that, you end up, they tell you to go into a fucking hole in a mountain and don't tell you it.

all silica. That's what happens. So 2003, Stephen's dad dies. Oh, no. So, yeah, a little bit after that, his mother lives down in Atlanta with his stepfather. And Wilbert is his stepfather, by the way. With a tea. Wilbert. Yeah, not Wilbur. Wilbert. And his brother Sawyer's living in Beckley, where they're from, and DiAngelo lives down in Atlanta, you know, because he's got to make the hits down there.

Yeah, he's got, that's where we're all. We're all. the R&B is done, really. What's the last time that motherfucker's been mentioned? He should be thrilled about this. Yeah. Germain Dupree is down there to produce him. It's a very set up. He should be thrilled.

Hey, DeAngelo, we should sing a song of yours. But again. Congratulations on still being alive, I hope. I think. Fuck knows. I hope. Who knows? And God knows what he's been accused of or anything else.

Yeah. We don't know. If not. We haven't given up. We apologize, DeAngelo, and we hope that you're doing well. Especially if you're not cause being women out there. Yeah, we apologize a lot for that. So 2012-ish, he gets a girlfriend, Stephen does.

He hooks up with Stephanie Ann Wilburn. She's at this point, Stephanie Ann Waters from an ex-marriage, but she's born Stephanie Anne Wilburn. So Stephanie Waters is what she goes by here. Stephen is dating a woman. Stephanie and Stephen. Luckily, he's a V, Stephen. She's a, so that at least helps.

What I'm angry about is that her last name is Wilburn? Wilburn, yeah. That's fucked up. Why is that fucked up? Is she not the one that burned? Oh, Will Burn. Yeah. That is horrendous.

Yeah, it is. I don't know why that did not click in my head at all. That is the worst. I think because the whole, this is like one of the first times I read it as Wilburn. I've been, in my mind, she's Stephanie Waters the whole time. But that is absolutely, you're a hundred. percent right. You're a thousand percent right. Absolutely. The Kennedys should change their last name to Will crash. Will die young. Crash. I mean, it's only one guy crashed. Will die tragically.

Yeah, we'll die tragic. November 23rd, 1985 is when she's born. Which speaking of the Kennedys, wasn't it November 22nd when Kennedy got shot? So there you think that's true. Yeah. Well, 20 years earlier, but 23 years earlier. So she's born in Charlotte. Her parents are Anna and Stephen, and she has a brother named Stephen, and now she's dating a Stephen. So her dad, brother,

and boyfriend are all named Stephen. And that's not confusing at all. Name is Stephen. And his dad's name of Stephen as well. Well, he's dead, so his dad's dead. So we've flushed out one Stephen anyway. A lot of creativity around here. Not a lot. Now

she has some tragedy in her lifestyle. Oh, no. And that might explain how she ends up in the holler doing some things that she's doing because apparently she has, and she's not, you know, 85, she's only 31 years old. Young moment. At some point, she has a young daughter that dies. I can't figure out, can't find out how or anything else, but she had a daughter, don't need to give her name, obviously. But she has a daughter who dies.

So she has had 30 years old, she's had a dead kid already, which, you know, outside of the 18, that doesn't happen very often. And she also has two sons who don't die. So that's good. Who didn't die. Now, the only doing some background on her, I found a LinkedIn that I don't know if this belonged to her because LinkedIn will leave people up forever no matter what, even if they've been dead for 10 years. I found a Stephanie Waters from a town she lived in in West Virginia, and it says her company

is Mrs. Septic. So she might be Mrs. Septic. I'm not sure. She could possibly be Mrs. Septic. If not, everybody should give Mrs. Septic a call and have them check out your tank. It's a gal that owns a septic company. Mrs. Septic. Yeah.

Not Ms. Septic or Ms. Septic. Mrs. Septic. I'm married to Mr. Septic. We have a very nice relationship. Now, so now we know who burned back to the fire. This is November 6, 2016. Again, the police arrive, and with the assistance of fire marshals and everything else, they're able to determine, And once they get it out at first, they find the bodies and they think this is tragedy.

Then they investigate and realize that an accelerant was used. And this was an – That's applied in this house. An intentionally set fire in the bedroom where they were as well. Okay. So they wanted these – whoever did this wanted these bodies to not make it past this fire. So they said gasoline had been poured or placed in the bedroom area and the living area where the bodies were found. Rarely in there.

Yeah. Weird. Yeah. So they said that the other thing, though, here that they noticed, the medical examiner then takes a look and establishes that both people were already dead before any flame was late. Yeah. Otherwise, they're tied up because if there's gasoline set on fire, you rarely stick around. You know, you usually go, oh, we should get out of here. We should.

Yeah. They don't just sit in their, like, recliner and wait for it to take them usually. Yeah. And it's usually before the fire. You smell gasoline, you get the fuck out of it. I smell that. What is that, gas? That's not good.

So they find out that both had been shot in the head with a shotgun. Oh, boy. So this is a very intentional thing here, and somebody covered up. And according to the medical examiner, the murders happened at least two days prior to the fire. What? They were murdered, left in the house. No one fucking noticed for two days. And they came back and torched it?

And then someone came back and went, we should probably torch this joint before these, you know, to, I guess, rid evidence is the way to do it. So it's ruled an arson and intentional double murder. Yeah. So this is bad. You assume that somebody that sets a fire in a house is trying to, A, dispose a body and evidence. But everybody, I've never heard of a fire in a house with dead people in it. that they just wrote it off. You know what I mean?

They find the bullet holes. They do that. They do. Every single time. They end up finding it. Yeah. The problem is it does burn off a lot of evidence. Sure.

If there was DNA evidence, fingerprints, hair, anything like that. Solving, yeah. Solving the murder makes it tough. Yeah, they can tell it's a murder, but solving it, homicide detectives hate to go to an arson fire because they go, fuck. Number one, figuring it all out is one thing. and then proving that someone intentionally set a fire when there's no way to forensically do that. You have to have someone see them walk up to the house

or the gas can or have somebody admit it, basically. Otherwise, it's really hard to prosecute it. Well, how'd they do it, James? Well, let's find out. Stephanie's mother here have said, quote, to get my daughter in ashes, I never believed this would happen. Besides, despite my name being Wilburn,

I did not expect any of this. had no idea, could not see the foreshadowing. No. So they said a fire, you know, obviously this is tragic. And Stephen's mother said you live in a small community because you want to think it's safe and private. But then there's these two assholes with a podcast to show us that it's not at all. It's very dangerous everywhere. They remind us twice a week.

Twice a week to watch out for the people close to you, essentially. Like a lot of like news shows and stuff, they want to scare you with strangers. you don't go outside. This is when they're going to run. It's never that. Ours is like they'll get you while you're sleeping, motherfucker, and it'll be your own people.

It's like 94%. It'll be probably your children. They'll murder you. Either your children, whoever you love the most, that's probably who will murder you. This is basically how we tell you. So he said,

because we think it's safe and private, but then you have something like this and I think it's shaken the entire area. So they said the community's on edge. People are freaked out. They don't know if this is just some madman. They don't know if this is targeted. They don't know what the hell.

going on. All they know is it's an arson and, you know, these two have been killed. This nice couple, it's been together for five years. So the two mothers got together to look for justice based on their shared experience of both loving people named Stephen. Yeah. That's it. So. And the grief of yeah. Everything. Yeah. So Stephen's mom said someone with enough nerve to commit this type of crime needs to be punished because what's next? They're still out there. We don't know who they are and who else they're going to kill. Exactly.

Which is a fair point. Yeah. So they said they're working with police to find out who is responsible. Stephanie's mom said we need answers to help the state police to find out who has done this terrible act. So they're begging the community for any kind of info. They said any little thing can help. And it could be something that someone doesn't think is significant, but it could be the missing puzzle piece that police are looking for. Right.

So they said, how could anybody live with themselves? How could anyone sleep at night after doing this horrible act? So their families, again, this is Stephen's mom, said, if you know something, please come forward. As a family, we need some kind of closure. And the West Virginia State Fire Marshal's Office offered a reward for information leading to the arrest. In the kingly sum, in 2016, not 1916, of $5,000. please help us solve a crime for two months more. Yeah, for very little money, essentially, in these days and times.

How about a little more can we pony up for this? How often do you have an unsolved arson murder in this area? Horstous murder, yeah. Yeah, probably not. So they investigate, they identify several persons of interest, and we'll find out why in a minute here, through numerous interviews, because they talk to everybody that they knew. up and down the holler, friends, family, acquaintances, whatever. This investigation's going to go kind of cold, though, because it's about a year, which is weird for an arson. But for about a year and a half, it's going to take for them to figure anything out.

There's a Facebook post on August of 2017, so almost a year later. This is from Crime Stoppers of West Virginia posted, saying, who murdered Steven Skaggs and Stephanie Waters? West Virginia. We want to know who murdered them, or who murdered Stephen Skaggs and Stephanie Waters, and then set their house on fire with their bodies inside, exclamation point. If you can identify the suspects slash suspects or have any information related to this crime, contact us immediately. So, and they kind of go through a couple points of how they found them and that sort of thing. So a year later, they're still asking on Facebook for help. So that's not good. That is where everything gets solved.

It's stuck. At least people think it's solved. By the end of a comment section, you can really go, yeah, I think we solved this thing when you've done nothing. It is crazy what they're doing with social media these things. Wow. My God. Speaking of social media. Yeah.

So going through some of Stephanie's social media posts here, they find out that she has an ex-boyfriend that lives very close by. You know how this is Willis Branch Road? Yeah. He is Brian Willis. Oh, is he in the Willis tree? And he is, yes, he lives on that road. So we would assume that, because that's how they would name roads after these families. Probably part of his family from hauling years past.

Holler, holler back at your years there. A holler generation. Jesus Christ, the family holler tree. So the conflict and jealousy here that they find that apparently after they, this relationship it ended. Stephanie had been posting, and there's been some acrimony on social media about how Brian Willis was jealous,

and they were not a good breakup, and he was jealous towards Stephen Skaggs and all this type of shit. But this was, like, from a couple years back. But it was still there, and he still lives close by. So it's something they want to look into. So Brian Stephen Willis, again, Stephen, middle name, he's born July 1988.

He lived in Victor right on. on that road, same street, ex-boyfriend. He's kind of a, just a schmuck. He's not a logger. He's kind of a small town. There's small time scumbag. He sells weed. He sells Coke.

He sells meth. Oh, boy. Does whatever he can to make ends meet. You know what I mean? Just bouncing through life in the hills of West Virginia. That's it. Just making it worse up there for everyone. Or making it tolerable.

We told you to make it work. Yeah. Either worse or tolerable, depending on how you love. look at it, I suppose. So we've also, they start looking into him and people he knows and a friend of Stephanes told the police that, well, not only did they have some beef previously, but recently they've had that beef was all over with the jealousy and all that. But Stephanie owed Brian Willis a bunch of money for drugs, is what they say.

That's a friend of Stephanie's that says this. Like, I don't know, she doesn't have any enemies or anything, but she did owe her ex-boyfriend a bunch of money for drugs. That's the only person I could think of that could possibly have anything to beef with on her. Now, Brian also got married here about a month and a half after the murders. On December 21st, 2016, he married a woman named Delana. Okay? She's important in this. This is the only reason why I'm telling you here.

then another person here, Ryan McCloskey, who's a friend of Brian Willis's, he comes forward and says that I know who killed the, I know who killed these people. Oh, well, we got five grand for you, McCloskey.

It wasn't Brian, though. No? Wasn't Brian. He said the Gills killed him. The Gills. Gills, the Gill family, which we'll get into in a second, over stolen drugs and tools

that they stole from the Gills. Gill's and the fact that they thought that or they think that Stephanie was a confidential informant for the police as well. Oh. So she owes money. She's an informant and she stole drugs and tools from the Gills. Right. Okay.

According to this guy, Brian told Brian Willis went to McCloskey and said, look, the Gills killed those two. And I quote, helped give them advice as to how to clean up the, evidence. So Brian is involved in this, but this guy's saying that the Gills did it and then Brian advised them on how to try to get away with it. Okay. We'll get five on pump two and solve your problems. Solve it all. So that's where we are at this point. So okay. Right after that, Charles Gill is arrested. Now Charles Gill is about 22 years old at this point. 21-ish. So he's very young.

And the other Gill that's involved is his dad, Everett Gill, who's 52. So we got a father and son team here. Okay. So they arrest Charles Gill. Charles Eli Gill is his name. And he's a friend of Brian's, Brian Willis. And he says, well, yes, we did this. Yes, we were all involved.

He said it was the Clean Air Act. And they go, huh? Like the Environmental Protection Agency? And they go, no, no, no, no. We had this thing that we called the Clean Air Act because apparently Brian had told Charles and his father Everett that he was going to prison here, that Charles is going to be going to prison with Brian for a long, long time.

Okay. So Brian told Charles that apparently the police, quote, had paperwork on the three of them, meaning Everett 2, for Brian selling weed and for us, meaning Charles and his father of making meth, because we're in the hollers here. So they could, what about the clean air now? We'll get to that. Okay.

He said, the Clean Air Act. And they said, what the fuck are you talking about? And he said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we're going to get there. So they're shutting down all the coal plants. It's crazy out there. I got to make a tunnel through the silica. That'll do it.

So he said that they had wired buys on him, meaning Charles, and that they got records of Charles signing for pseudofed boxes, which you have to do to get them. You have to sign for the pseudofedrine at the pharmacy, quote unquote. Because of the meth. So, yeah, they have him basically buying a bunch of sudofet and then have wired buys of him selling meth that he made with the suitorfed. So it's a clear front to back of I make meth and sell it. Now, Charles admitted to the police that he shot Stephen and Stephanie. He said, but he said, my father and Brian were also involved in the whole plan. Okay.

Now, Everett says, Dad, here is 52 at the time. he said that the victims here, Stephanie and Stephen, were, quote, getting on drugs pretty heavy in everything, and they got to steal in my tools, everything I owned, about $10,000 worth. So these two are owing money for drugs. They are confidential informants, according to them, and now they're stealing all the tools. $10,000 worth the craftsman, whatever the fuck that means. All of it.

Yeah. everything I got. So, all my robies. So then he brought up the Clean Air Act. What? And he said that Brian were told him that the victims were informants working for the police. And he also heard Brian complain that Stephanie had ripped him off as well. Now, the Clean Air Act is what they discuss, quote, countless times, according to the Gills.

Which is to kill these two. To clean, because they're pollution. They're polluting the holler. that's what they call them pollution so we need to it's the clean air act to get rid of all the pollution they've got like gangster talk up there

yeah this is for some reason a 30 year old who hangs out with a 21 year old and they both hang out with a 52 year old and they're all making meth and shit and this is they're coming up with fucking euphemisms here and they go to the police

and just spill everything yeah they brought Charles Gillen and they're like look this person told us this this and that Charles like, yeah, we did it. Here's why. Clean air act. Clean air act, that's right.

And then if dad came in, he's like, see, we had to clean air act. They're like, we keep hearing about this. So Charles spills exactly what happened. I mean, exactly what happened here. He said, this is the night of the murders, not the night of the fire, because those are two different nights. Okay. Charles says that he and Brian were, quote, really drunk that night. Having consumed, this is amazing.

Cocaine and liquor. at Brian's house for at least 10 hours. Oh, man. That's a bet. See, to keep that going for 10 hours, you need Coke and booze because you got to, otherwise you get too drunk and tired. You got to have some Coke and balance it out.

They partied for 10 hours and then said, let's go do something. Let's get, you got a gun? I'm sure. You know who's been pissing me off lately. Not let's go do something. No. Let's go do something.

Let's go do two people. Life-changing activities right now. Yeah. So this is his quote. Quote, we was just really drunk and just partying, but Brian kept pushing it on me. He brought it up again like he had thousands of times before that they had to go or we're going to go to prison. And he kept pushing it that night. Like he had been and he said it in his mind that that night we was going to go down there and kill him.

what the fuck and you're sitting around like and I guess if you're Charles you're like because people Coke talk is Bip Bip Bip Bip yeah people say all sorts I'm going to start a business

they don't go start the business so you know what I mean like you don't expect he's going to go kill these people maybe at the time he's talking and you just think he's running his mouth so at Brian's direction Charles said

he put he and Brian put tape on the so they quote would leave no traces, meaning no footprint so you could identify their soul patterns, and they left the house. Okay. Taped up shoes left the house with a sawed-off 20-gauge shotgun, and he said Brian had a 9-millimeter Ruger pistol. Yeah. So they leave the house, coked up, drunk, tape on their shoes, both arm now.

Wow. This is a bad idea. They arrived at the residence, Stephanie and Stephen. Charles said he knocked on the door, but no one answered. So, quote, he just opened the door. The door opened right up. I just turned the knob and it just opened right up. That's how they operate.

I'm going to say, it's really weird. A lot of times if you just push up a window, it'll just fly open. It's real weird. I just turned. I just operated a doorknob. It was real weird. I just turned the key. The car just started right up.

It was crazy. I'd never seen nothing like it before. What I understand here is it was not locked. Yeah, this is what we're dealing with, though. Someone who says, I just turned a knob, it open right up. Okay. And I seen Stevie Skaggs laying there, and whenever he was just sitting in a chair about like a camping chair, and whenever I went in, I just, I shot him right in the head, up through the nose into the head.

He is okay his His furniture is camping equipment That's horrible Yeah And then you just Let's start with the camping equipment furniture As this man is sitting in a folding chair You shot him in the nose

Up the nose Wow Up into his head He just walked in Stephen was there And he was just like sitting there And he just walked in and shot him I mean like

Oh my God Jesus Christ Okay Charles then Charles fired the shot as Brian was quote coming in right behind me then Brian

fired two shots with his Ruger toward Stevie but Charles was unsure whether it hit him or not they're in a fucking tiny living room of a of a holler house

how bad of a shot are you and he's not moving not like he's a moving target here the cops have determined they were shot with shotgun. So that means you missed. You missed, stupid. It's from right there, which is pathetic.

So next, Charles walked back into the back bedroom where he found Stephanie sleeping in bed. A shotgun blast did not wake her up. And two nine millimeter shots. Three gun shots, including a kaboom fucking 20-gauge shotgun blast, which is loud. That's loud. The dream of sleeping the way she sleeps. I'm saying. We were jealous of a deaf woman a couple weeks ago.

This is, I'm a little jealous of this, too. This lady's got all her senses, as far as we know. Well, yeah, I'm jealous of sleeping off a meth buzzer, whatever the hell's going on here. Whatever it is. Whatever it is. He said that he, quote, shot Stephanie right in the head. Charles walked out of the bedroom, but Brian instructed him to, quote, make sure she's dead, even though he just shot her with a shotgun at point blank range in that.

He said, so he, quote, loaded the shotgun again. Oh, boy. And I went back in and I shot her again and I walked back out. Okay. The two then left the residence and hid their guns and ditches on the way back to the home. Right. Just on the side of the road there. At Brian's house, Brian threatened that if Charles, quote, mentioned it, anything about it,

Brian was going to kill me or my family. Now, that's crazy because I'd be like, you're threatening me. I just blew two people away, shot him. the head. You missed a guy from four feet away. You should be afraid of me at this point. I'm the murderer. You're a pussy. And I'm dumb as shit because I just threw away

a shotgun that they can't trace. I'm not very bright and you're a pussy. I'm dangerous. I'm dumb and dangerous. I bet there was definitely some blood on it though. Yeah, that's probably true. Yeah. I want to get rid of those. So then dad, Everett, apparently

within a few days Brian told Everett that he and Charles went down there and they opened the door and went in there and they was high and passed out

Stephanie Waters in the bed Stevie Skaggs on a chair and they shot them both and Brian said he shot Stevie in the head with a 9mmeter and recovered his casing hit his cuff on his pants so his cuff caught the casing

yeah so he ended up hey look at that I saved the evidence good. Now, that's when they were like, what do we do with the evidence? We got all this evidence. We got clothes with blood on them. We got a whole body's in a house. Nobody's found yet. So Charles then said that the day after the murders, he and Brian discussed the need to get rid of the evidence at the home. Okay, at the victim's home. So Brian provided Charles with gas and oil. and Charles said, quote, like two days after murdering them,

he dumped gas, a mixture of gas and oil throughout the house, lit it on fire, and left the door open, make sure that shit burns, which is, right, get that. That's, yeah, don't want it to go out. Don't want to suffocate that bad boy.

You need it vented, yeah. Wow, that's extra cold, though. Let's make sure this is a good oxygenated burn here. Really good at something. Yeah. Wow. Everett, testified later on that, quote, all he remembers is seeing a gas jug at Brian's house and that he

ordered Charlie to go down and burn the evidence in the house. And Everett testified later that Brian, quote, threatened me, my family and everything. Everything. Well, you're an adult. You're 52 years old. Right. You're going to let this guy threaten you? What are we talking about here? You're going to threat, you're ordering my son to go burn the evidence and then you're threatening my family. I think me and my son are going to murder you and kill you and put you up in the hills somewhere, right? Yeah, there's two of us. Yeah, we'll put you in the house and burn it up too. Fuck it. Why not? Like, there's two of us. Yeah, one's 52. That's not an old man. It's someone who could definitely handle his business, probably. How do you get to this place? That's the thing.

Well, this is fucking crazy. Funny you should ask that, because I'll tell you exactly how we just got to this part where Delana ends up explaining everything. Okay. A little bit better. Delane O'Brien's new wife, who, by the way, they'll be divorced in the next two years. I'll bet. So, yeah. She said that in late October and early November of 2016, the Gills, Charles and Everett, frequented Brian's home while she was staying there.

And she overheard them discussing problems that the Gills and Brian had with the victims. So she was there while this was all brewing. She said, quote, Everett got mad because Stephanie Waters, she was doing things, showing her body and stuff for pills and money, and she quit. And she quit.

She quit showing it? She quit. Apparently, yeah, apparently so. She quit showing her body and stuff for pill. What is N stuff? Wow. For pills and money and she quit. I got a feeling we don't want to know that.

I don't think we want to know what N stuff is. Quote, so he got mad about, about it. Well, yeah. Okay, sure. And Stevie Skaggs had stole some tools from Charlie and Everett. So, Brian's wife here heard them reference the Clean Air Act. And she understood that to mean that the three men were going to kill Skaggs and Waters. and she also said that Brian had told her that he had loaned Stephanie $1,500 to purchase methamphetamine, which she had not repaid. Okay. So she hears all this in the next month they get married. This is a month before they get married.

Everybody out there is married. Do you remember planning your wedding or doing all that? Imagine if. Wasn't it lovely. Oh, everything. Okay. Yeah. They're their centerpieces.

They're all set. Everything's good. And then your boyfriend's like, listen. Well, you know. I'm going to audition some bands today. Well, after we burned down the house of my ex-girlfriend who I lent $1,500 for meth from, and my buddy's dad's kind of mad at her because she stopped showing her body and stuff for pills and money. What the fuck is happening in this fucking town?

Oh, boy. Now, she has some more details. She recalled that on the night of the murders, Brian and Charles left Brian's house at about 9 p.m. and returned about 9.45. Very efficient. Although Brian and Charles told Delana that they were going to kill Mr. Skaggs and Ms. Waters, Delana, quote, didn't really believe it. But she did observe Charles with a 12-gauge sought-off shotgun and with her boyfriend with a 9mm Ruger. They're leaving the house at 9 o'clock at night walking toward the direction of the place

where they said they're going to murder people with murder weapons, but I don't think they'll do it. And they're back within 45 minutes. That's either they chose not to or holy fuck, these are horrifying people. They didn't even stop to like talk about it for a minute afterwards. They're just, well, that's that. The two returned home with those same guns. And when they returned home, Charles, quote, banged on the door and was like, we just went down there and blew their face off.

Let us in. How about extra no now? I'm definitely not letting you. He's shouting. shouting it. These idiots also. Who else are you going to tell? I can't believe it took a year for this to happen. That's what I mean. A year of this police force. No, whatever, but they can't be that great if this took a fucking year to figure all this dumb shit out. So they banged on the door. We just went down there, blew their faces off, let us in.

Brian then told Delana that, quote, he shot Stevie Skaggs twice after Charlie did and showed her, quote, a slug that was mashed up and he said that it went out of Stevie's head and hit him and hit his kneecap. How the fuck? What route did that bullet take? I mean, he was sitting. So I guess just aimed down at him? How big is this guy? How would he go out of his head, head down his knee to his kneecap?

If you shot him from behind, I guess? Back of the head while his knee was there. He said he shot him in the face from the front. That was the shotgun. So this guy's saying that he didn't. miss with the 9mm. Well, he's telling people that, but I think he's just, you know. He's hit the war.

I'm important, too. I think that's this guy. He wants people to think he's a badass. It's matched because it hit the wall. Let's be honest. Yeah. Well, and also, too, if you're going to go to prison forever for murder, you might as well actually have everyone think you're tough, I guess.

It's the only benefit you're getting out of this. Yeah. So, anyway, hit his kneecap before he picked it up. Delaney also said that Brian and Charles burned the close. they were wearing at the time of the murders. The only smart thing they've done. She also heard Brian and Charles discuss burning the victim's residence, quote, they said they was going to go down there and burn them in the house down so that would get rid of the evidence with an oil and gasoline mixture.

She said she observed the flames as the residence was burning. She said, quote, before we seen flames up in the sky, I don't know why that makes it sound like she thinks it's mystical or something and before we've seen flames up in the sky Charles had come right back to our house and said that's what he had done

Charles confirmed to Brian that he had quote set them on fire and got rid of it got rid of it everything he's he set the bodies on fire that's where the fire started he poured the accelerant directly onto them and in the living room probably poured

it on the evidence of the blood in the chair. I'm sure. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. She also said, man, this is, she's got a lot of information. She knows everything. She was there. They were telling her effort. They were yelling at it. I just blew people's face off. Let me in. Like, fuck, man. Unbelievable. She also said that she saw Brian, quote, rifle the barrel of his Ruger with a drill. Oh, different holes in it. Change the scoring. Yeah.

Yep, exactly. She, now, the only thing with her is she won't be allowed to testify to anything that happened after they got married. She can only testify to shit previous to December 21st. That's why I made sure to make the date. So that's luckily, including the murder and cover up and everything. Luckily, they did everything before he got married. None of the other stuff. He's like, damn it, I knew we should have had a Halloween wedding.

It would have been so much fun. We could have worn costumes. and she couldn't have testified against me. It would have been great. What a bachelor party. Wow. She said also limiting her testimony to conversations they had prior to marriage, she recounted that Brian, in discussing the murders, said that the victims, quote, got what they deserved.

Gross. Yep. And she said that she married him despite knowing what he had done because, quote, she was afraid of him and knew that she was stuck there anyways. that's imagine being that's sad honestly i feel bad imagine being so stuck in your life feeling so stuck where you're like well i guess i'll just marry a double murderer who sells meth up in the holler here in west virginia because i'm stuck here anyways 30 year old loser yeah fucking horrible she explained that she was stuck because brian was quote physically mean to me and he told me that if i married him and then I can't testify against him.

He knew that. Well, he's seen TV shows from back in the day, but what he doesn't know is the nuance of that law, which is different in every state, number one. And West Virginia's actually is pretty blanket, but only after you get married. That's the thing. He didn't realize that part. It doesn't mean I can never say anything about him ever because we're married. That's not how that works. So what has he been doing since the fire, Brian?

Laying low. A whole year. You know, maybe canoodling with his new wife in there. No. Okay. June 25th, 2017, while he knows all this was going on, he, I don't know if this is, I believe this is him based on the town and everything. Apparently, he had a baby with another woman at this point. I mean, the baby would have been conceived three months before he got married, two months before he got married.

So, I mean, it's all pretty nebulous at this point. Yeah. But it was a bachelor, James. He was murdering and fucking. Four pounds, 14 ounces. I don't know. So small kid. What?

Small kid, four pounds 14 ounces. Small. That's half the size of a normal kid. You got to put that fucker in an incubator for a while and let him cook a little more. That didn't come out the hospital for a few months. Yeah. October 23rd, 2017. Brian's doing some wild shit.

Okay. He tried to rob. a man at gunpoint on Hopewell Road and Victor. Yeah, he's arrested for holding a man at gunpoint and attempting to rob him, the sheriff said. Apparently, officers arrived around 6 p.m. Sunday at a residence on Hopewell Road and Victor, where deputies found a 45-year-old victim who said he'd been held at gunpoint by an individual demanding drugs. Oh, he wants drugs. He's trying to rob drugs. He's trying to Omar the situation here.

Meanwhile, I don't think this guy had it. Apparently, a man who was accompanying the subject, Brian, searched him, searched the guy for drugs or a weapon. But after failing to find anything, Brian and his whatever compatriot here, I'm assuming possibly Charles Gill, fled the scene. But this guy knows Brian. So the deputies identified him as Brian Stephen Willis. Oh, we know that moron. Yeah. He's an idiot.

This is like 1954 crimes. And they're doing this in 2017. Well, to be fair, it does feel like it's about 50 years behind up in the hills here. But still, this is like... Unbelievable. He's trying to pull off like some black and white crimes, like some shit from the 20s or something. Yeah, like some depression-era shit here. Some wild shit in Oklahoma or something.

He was arrested without incident charged with one felony count of attempted robbery and one count of brandishing a deadly weapon, and he's being held on $50,000 bond. So he needs $5 grand. He apparently got the $5 grand. Somehow somebody bailed him out because we know that because he's definitely out on November 19, 2017,

when he does some more insane shit, okay? By the way, charged with first-degree robbery and attempted first-degree robbery on that one. Okay. This day, November 19, 2017, Rodney Ray Rose, who's 36 years old, This is an Anstead on River Road under the overpass of the U.S. Route 60. Jesus, under the overpass.

Nice location. Like trolls and crackheads. Okay. Fucking freeway blowjob givers. Yeah. Yes. An Anstead man was in critical condition Monday morning after being shot in the face and torso Sunday night. Right. That's Rodney Ray Rose.

Surviving it. He did. Yep. Being shot multiple times in the upper torso and facial area while under the U.S. 60 overpass. Okay. The shooting left him hospitalized, obviously. You don't go home from that. And he recovered, apparently, from his wounds.

Fascinating. Which is amazing. According to the sheriff, Rose left River Road and was able to drive himself to a nearby Shell Station to seek help, even covered in bullet wounds. Rose told the deputies, they go, who shot you? I mean, like Biggie said, who shot you? And he said, Brian Stephen Willis from Victor lives up on Willis Branch, Roe. Stop shooting people you know, you fucking idiot.

Stop it. Shooting people who know where you live. They know you so well. God damn it. This guy was left with permanent injuries to his face and body, unsurprisingly. But yeah, he identified Brian as the shooter. And so now he's arrested and held without bond. He's arrested at his home at 2195 Willis Branch Road.

So you can do the math. The other one's not very far from it. We gave you the other address before. It was a 2000 block thing too. So this is a felony, malicious wounding, attempted murder. Yeah. You name it. All the biggies.

All the biggie. All the good ones there. So I guess the deputies also arrested Delana after discovering her connection with the shooting, which is what made her spill her guts about everything else because they got her in there. She was arrested on a felony count of malicious wounding and was remanded for $50,000 as well. Brian attempted murder, attempted robbery in the first degree, malicious assault, assault during

the commission of a felony. And he brought his wife to do it. Brought his wife, come on, baby, we're going out robin. Wanted an endangerment involving a firearm conspiracy to commit a felony and Delaney and got attempted murder, attempted robbery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit a felony. And there's also a Carrie L. Willis, I assume a relative. Probably. Also, conspiracy to commit a felony, grand larceny, two counts arrested at the same time.

So, yeah, he's got a lot going on. Now, by the way, the ballistics, a firearm and toolmark examiner with the state police forensic laboratory confirmed that toolmarks had been placed inside the barrel of a nine millimeter rougar. owned by him and recovered from him, but they found the gun, by the way, in an effort to obliterate the rifling. So he tried to fuck with the barrel, so it doesn't come back a Ruger, basically. Okay. Now, Willis, what does Brian have to say? Well, he gives a couple of statements.

Oddly, none of them incriminate him. Real weird. His first statement, he said, I don't know. I wasn't there. Charles killed everybody and did everything. I don't know, nothing about nothing. Oh. So they go, come on, Brian.

We don't buy that. We think they're there. So then he said, all right, I was there. Yeah. All right. Now, I was there, but Charles was responsible for the murders. Yeah. And he said that apart from the Gill's, quote, posturing, he had no knowledge of Charles' specific intention when they got to the home that evening.

He goes, I didn't know what we were going to do. We just walk around with shotguns. Yeah. Charles said something about killing people. I mean, most of the time, no, most of the time you come to my door, you're carrying a shotgun, right? Yeah. Come to your house, shotgun over the shoulder like Elmer Fudd. That's how I do it.

Such a strange thing to just carry. It really is. It's really aggressive. So September 2018, okay, the Gills here, or I'm sorry, this is, Brian is going to plead guilty to the robbery and attempted murder of, of, Rodney Rose there. Okay. He gets, you, sir,

may fuck off 30 years for the robbery and 3 to 15 for attempted murder, which seems backwards. But it's a good... You tried to kill a person 3 to 15.

You robbed them 30. Huh? Yeah. You can replace shit. What are we talking about? But that's a good sentence to hang on to him and make him sweat out

the other one. Because the next one, you're in forever. unless you make a deal. They're going to hang on tight here. So he's sentenced, yeah, he is pretty fucked here. Now, May 9, 2019, there's a grand jury. They return indictments against Brian and Charles for the murders and also a conspiracy

charge against Everett. October 2019, you know, Charles is admitting to everything and ready to plead guilty. Now they plead. Everett pleads guilty to conspiracy and Charles pleads guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and one count of second-degree arson if they testify against Brian. Oh.

Even though he's the trigger man, which makes no sense whatsoever. So part of the plea agreement is the testimony as well. March 2021 is the Willis murder trial. They have all the evidence. They have his wife testifying about everything. They have Charles and Everett testifying. about everything. Other people testifying about everything, Breyer acts. It's all in that.

They've chosen that this is the dangerous one of the group. Yeah, they have. They said he's the, he's the trouble starter here. He's the guy. He continues to make trouble around here is the thing. Yeah. He's the straw that stirs the drink here. And we take him out of this. It might be better. So Everett and other witnesses all testify that Brian helped Charles commit the murders, that he bragged about shooting them, and that Willis had the, personal motives the most against these guys, even though these guys said they stole my tools and all that. Seems like everyone's in this pretty evenly, and I think everyone should get this. Everybody did something, so you're all a part of this. That's what it seems like. Well, the jury deliberates for about three hours here. They come back

with guilty, two counts of first-degree murder and arson and weapons charges. Not good. Sentencing is 2021. The jury deliberates for a while. Then they return. Now there is a verdict. You can either have mercy or no mercy, which is death penalty or not. They give you, sir, may fuck off.

Oh, I'm sorry, there is no death penalty. It is either life with parole or life without parole. Okay. They give a recommendation of no mercy. Put them down. Get the leg, Johnny. That's right. You, sir, may fuck off two life sentences without parole.

consecutive to each other and consecutive to his other charges. So when he's done with 30 and 3 to 15, then he gets two consecutive life. Oh, and on top of that, another 20 consecutive for arson as well. He just got 100 years. He's got, well, wait till I tell you his end date, it's amazing. I've never seen this number before on a state. He even put it in there is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. So the reaction, Stephen's cousin here said very, very, very happy.

I think justice has finally been served after having to wait about four and a half years for it. They said that family members said that Stephanie had two little sons. They said two little boys were left without a mother and they said the family has struggled, but now they're doing better. They said it's really affected our family in a negative way, but it's also brought us closer together. the gills who pled guilty they're also sentenced Charles is sentenced he's 24 at this point

you sir may fuck off 40 years in prison so that's pretty good even voluntary manslaughter they didn't let him off easy 40 years in prison for that in the second but he can get out

he's yeah it's only 24 even if he does the whole 40 he can get out now ever his dad who's 57 at this point a little more he is sentenced this is just conspiracy to commit murder or arson. And you, sir, may fuck off

up to five years in prison. Oh, wow. That's it. Up to five years. That's making a deal right there. That's incredibly lenient. Then again, they needed their testimony to put Brian away. Otherwise, Charles did everything,

and that's that. Now, they're under the post of them getting sentenced. I found a Facebook post under that, a comment that made me laugh. This is going to be very bad for us off the next book. I got a feeble. Oh, I'm sure.

This is from someone else named Stevie, by the way, which is crazy. Everyone in this fucking story is named some Stephen at some point. Okay. Good. Rot in there, Stevie or rot in there. There is T-H-E-I-R, by the way. Right. I'm surprised they can spell that there.

They just put T-H and let it auto-fill. Let it populate. Now, this is, by the way, no punctuation whatsoever. So good, rod, in there. Stevie or Steph did not deserve that at all. I hope they get what's coming to them. I hope the drugs was worth it, you bunch of trash. All three of them was sick in the head.

And them two gills should have gotten way bigger time than what they got. Trash, trash. That's amazing. Trash, trash. I love it. All right. May 2020. That's what they're going to call me in you.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Trash, trash, trash. Because we talked about this trash. Yes, they are trash. And by the way, the other people, I don't care if you can fucking show your body for pills. You can do fucking meth in the hills. You do whatever you want. You still can't get murdered.

So we feel bad for these people. Yeah, they weren't possibly the greatest citizens in the world. But who gives a shit? They weren't bothering anybody. They don't deserve it. He fucking shot up the nose. That's crazy. Weren't bothering me, Annie.

You know, do your thing. Maybe they would have figured it out eventually. So anyway, he appeals saying the court, basically the court failed to disclose a connection between his lawyer and a witness that never even testified. So it's like, well, that doesn't fucking matter at all. And then he also claims that his wife's testimony was in violation of the marital confidence privilege, which says that neither husband nor wife should. without the consent of the other be examined in any case as to any confidential communication made by one to the other while married, nor shall either be permitted without such consent to reveal in testimony after the marriage relation ceases and any such communication made

while the marriage existed. So it's while you're married, and once there's a third person there, by the way, it's like with your lawyer. There's no confidentiality once there's someone else in the room anyway. So if he came in with Charles and said, we just did that, that's not marriage confidentiality anyway. So there you go. Stephen is buried at the rest lawn, which is a great name for a cemetery. Rest Lawn Memory Gardens in Victor. Brian and Charles are still in prison. Brian is, well, I'll save Brian, actually. Charles here has a parole date on January, or I'm sorry, July 9th,

2008. Charles is actually up for parole at that point. Yeah, so that's that. Now, Brian, offender number 362-2158, located at NCC, his projected release date, January 1st, the year 5,000. Why put that? Why not put 50,000? What's the difference? The year 5,000. That is funny. It's pretty funny.

It's got to be discouraging for him to check on it and be like, Jesus, 5,000, shit. That's a long time. looking that is a daunting-ass date to look at it. No shit. And I think I've been buried and sleep forever long. And I think I figured out by these why he had Charles with him. Stephen or Brian 5-8150. He's a little guy.

Charles 6-300 pounds. Holy shit. That's why he had him with him. That's absolutely right. So there you go. There's West Virginia. Did I tell you West Virginia never lets us down with crazy shit? But that's a crazy-ass story.

Hope you enjoyed it. And, yeah, we want to reiterate, too. Not really, not trash and Stephen and Stephanie here. They were mining their business in their own homes. But everybody's got a vice and sometimes addiction leads you down shitty paths where you steal. But you don't fucking kill somebody over the thievery. Fuck no. So if you like this story, if you like anything about the story, get on whatever app you're on, give us five stars.

It helps a ton if you're on Netflix. Thumbs up. thumbs up. Put your thumbs up. Two of them. Jam two in there. You don't even know. You can do that on that. Stack them. We're good. Tell them. That was great. Do that. Definitely

head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Tickets for live shows. Milwaukee, September 18th at the Papps, just released 50 tickets. Those were all our hold. So now it's, that's it. That's what there is out there. Then the next night, Minneapolis, on September 19th at the state theater, still tickets available for that. Dallas, October 3rd, October 16th, San Jose, October 17th, Sacramento. Terrytown, New York, November 13th, almost sold out to, and Boston on November 14th. Shut up and

give me murder.com. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you find all of the bonus material. $5 a month or above is all you have to be. You get everything we put out. And I'm talking as soon as you subscribe about 400 bonus, back bonus episodes you've never heard. Binge on those immediately. New ones every other week on top of that. Can't beat that shit. This week, which you're going to get for crime in sports, which you get access to, of course. We're stadiums of all time. We've all been in bad stadiums.

Then for small town murder, Donner Party, everybody. Sharpen your knives and your forks. We're going to pull up some snacks and some jerky and eat that and digest. And digest the story. So there we go, everybody. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that. And on top of that, you get everything we put out all of. shows all ad-free.

And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show as well. You want to follow us on social media. Very easy to do that. At Small Town Murder on Instagram. At Smalltown Pod on Facebook. You want to find us on there or any information. Shut up and give me murder.com is the place to do that. Keep coming back and seeing us week after week.

And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye.