True Crime All The Time - Napoleon Beazley

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

On the surface, 17-year-old Napoleon Beazley appeared to be an all-American kid. He was a star athlete in both football and track as a senior at his high school in Grapeland, Texas. He came from a good family, and his classmates elected him as the senior class president. But, under the surface, Napoleon was much different than the persona that he showed to everyone. Reports had him dealing crack cocaine and carrying a gun. He began telling friends he would soon be driving a Mercedes to school. On the night of April 19, 1994, Napoleon, along with Cedric and Donald Coleman, set out looking for a Mercedes to carjack. They followed 63-year-old John Luttig, and his wife Bobbie, into the driveway of their home. John was shot dead, all for an automobile.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the brutal and senseless crimes committed by Napoleon Beazley. His cohorts painted him as the ringleader and the triggerman. The physical evidence left little doubt that he was at the crime scene. He was convicted and given a death sentence. The case brought out many people who thought it was wrong to execute someone who was only 17 at the time they committed their crimes. Find out what happened to Napoleon as well as his partners in crime, brothers Cedric and Donald Coleman.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation information An Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your math skills have global potential. As an actuary, you'll solve some of the world's most pressing problems while helping people to live better lives. Become an actuary through the society of actuaries and work anywhere in the world. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 212 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And with me as always is my partner in True Crime, Mike Gibson. How are you?

I'm good, man. How about you? I'm doing well. Yeah? Yep. You started back to work this week. Tell me how it went. Man, I am back at work.

And you made it. Huh? You made it through? Well, I made it through. It was a little, you know, exhausting. Taxing. Yeah, which we kind of figured it would be. I think you figured that.

Hopefully it'll get easier as you go on. Yeah. Building back up to your normal, unbelievable resiliency. Awesomeness. Awesomeness. Yeah. So we got some new supporters. Good.

Let's give some shoutouts. We had Karen Rodriguez. Hey, Karen. Melissa Buecker jumped out at our highest level. Hey, Melissa. Kelly Bard jumped out of our highest level. Wow, thank you, Kelly. Imogene Jalen.

What's going on, Imogene? Heather Karam. Hey, Heather. Fannie Thompson jumped out of our highest level. What's going on, Fanny? Tess Wanziak jumped out of our highest level. Wazniak. We had Anne Krammig.

Hey, Ann. Bailey Allenbach. Allenbach. Jackie Sneed. Hey, Jackie. Shannon Rapine. out of our highest level. What's going on, Rapine?

Lariva Duckworth. Some duckworth in the house. Michelle Storm. Hey, Michelle. Cheyenne Hampton. What's going on, Cheyenne? Jason Hull. Hey, Jason.

Angela Sol jumped out of our highest level. Hey, Angela. Dean Allen Wolverine Engel. Well, just the Wolverines in the house. Yeah. Very fearsome. Yeah. Aaron Edwards.

What's going on, Aaron? And last but not least, Nathan. Good old Nathan. So we appreciate all that new support. And then if we go back into the vault, Gibbs. This week we selected Samara Jacobs. Yeah, thanks Samara. Yeah, been with us a long time. We appreciate all the support we get on Patreon. We had some great PayPal donations as well. Leslie Greason. Hey, Leslie. Adelaide LeBlond. Adelaide. That's the name I've heard in a while.

That's cool. Newman Wolf Traders. Wonder if Newman wants to get a hold of the Wolverine. Maybe. And Nancy Brooks. Hey, Nancy, appreciate it. So thanks to all of you. Gibbs right now on true crime all the time unsolved. We're talking about the disappearance of heiress Helen Brock. Yeah. So very famous candy company. Makes me want some candy now. It does.

And she was the heiress of this big fortune, disappeared. And we'll get into everything that surrounds the case. We certainly will. All right, Gibbs. Are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I'm ready, man. We're headed to Texas, and I know how much you like Texas. I do love Texas.

To talk about a 17-year-old named Napoleon Beasley, who, along with a couple of cohorts, made the worst decision that anyone can ever make. Essentially, these three guys and Napoleon in particular, you know, killed someone over a car, which is baffling. It really is. We'll get into all the details. Napoleon Beasley was born on August 5th, 1976 to Ireland and Rina Beasley. He grew up in the small town of Grapland, Texas, in an upper middle class family with his older sister Maria and his younger brother, Jamal. Now, I really didn't find a lot in Napoleon's background that I thought, okay, you know, this is

something that's really going to shed a lot of light on what he's going to go on to do. It seems to me as though he grew up in a loving two-parent household. There may have been some things under the surface, you know, with the family that weren't reported, but I didn't find them. So nothing shocking, nothing out of the ordinary that most people would go through that we could find. No, no, I just didn't see it. But in 1994, Napoleon was a senior in high school preparing to graduate.

He was a star athlete on the football and track teams. I know all about that. I was getting ready to say something you're very familiar with. Yeah. You were a star in a number of sports. Just not those sports. Wrestling. Just because I think you like the outfit.

Something about that singlet, the way it went on. Yeah. It fit really snug. That's what I've heard. He was set to join the Marine Corps after graduation. Gibbs, this was a kid who was very popular in school, you know, even elected president of his senior class. So I think that right there shows you how popular he was. Right.

That's essentially a popularity contest. It really is. You remember back in the day, people would put up signs, vote for so. Pedro? Vote for Pedro. Yeah. Yeah, speaking in Napoleon. Right.

But students, principals, coaches, they later came out and said Napoleon was a model student. They were shocked to find out about his crimes and said they never saw a single sign that indicated he could have been violent. No one came forward to say, you know, this was a kid who bullied others in school. When you looked at it on the surface, it seems as, though he was an all-around pretty good kid. Yeah, it really does. Now, what would come out later from some individuals is that Beasley had expressed a desire to steal a car. He had started carrying a gun. Some people said he even told them that he might soon be driving a Mercedes to school. It's a bold statement to say back in your high school days. Yes. When, you know, the

question is going to come up, hey, where are you getting this Mercedes? Some even said he was dealing crack. You know, so to me, when you boil all of this together, it makes what happened on the night of April 19th, 1994, even more baffling. You know, this kind of juxtaposition between what almost everyone who knew this kid said about him versus the few people that said he had been talking about committing a crime and that he was already on the wrong side of the law. It really is a baffling tucks up a position. Yeah. Or, uh, you said it.

Yeah. The night before the crime on April 18th, Napoleon Beasley was with his friend, Cedric Coleman. They were out driving. And Beasley told Coleman that he wanted to steal a car. He had a gun with him. But, and this is according to Cedric, Coleman was able to talk him in. to waiting a day, right, putting him off.

But it seems as though there was no stopping Beasley. It was just a matter of time before he was going to carry out this plan. Yeah, I think he had that vision and his head that this was what he was going to do. And there was nothing that was going to stop him. Yeah, I agree with that. So basically what this Cedric kid or guy did, he was a little bit older and we'll talk about that, is put it off for a day. That's what he did.

Because it's just the next night. Beasley borrowed his mom's red Ford probe and he headed out. He had with him a 45 semi-automatic pistol and a sawed-off shotgun. So, you know, when you hear things like that, not too hard to figure out that something bad is going to go down when you leave the house with a 45 and a sawed-off shotgun. Exactly. Beasley picked up 20-year-old Cedric Coleman and his younger brother, Domper, who was 18. So you have this trio driving around. They first headed to the town of Corsicana. At one point, Beasley spotted a Lexus and he said, okay, this is it.

I want to carjack this Lexus. They're following it and somehow they ended up losing it. So they drove to the city of Tyler, pretty good-sized city in Texas. Sure. It's not Dallas or Austin or Fort Worth or anything like that, but it's a pretty good-sized city. In Texas, they're all big cities. Are they?

In Texas. Because I don't believe Grapeland is. I think I read it's a, at the time, had about a thousand. But if you ask them, it's a big city. Because everything's bigger in Texas. When I go to Texas, I'm six foot three. That would be bigger than what you are. substantially. Substantially. So Tyler, Texas, they decided to pull into the parking lot of a Mexican

restaurant. And it was there in the parking lot that Beasley saw a Mercedes. So, okay, now I'm going to carjack this Mercedes. He got out of the car with the intention of pulling his gun on this guy who had just gotten out of the Mercedes. But I guess the man never saw him because he just walked into the restaurant before Napoleon could accost him. Yeah, that's the way to do it. Well, yeah, either he was oblivious to a guy walking towards him with a gun or, which is, I'm assuming what happened. Right. Or he saw it and he just casually strode into the restaurant. That's the way to try it. If you ever get, just keep walking, act like you don't see it. Well, you never know about Texans, man. You don't know who's got a gun. Well, you don't. That's true. He might have.

had his own gun and thought, hey, my gun's bigger than yours. So I'm not too worried, buddy. I'm not too worried. But I think what happened was he just didn't see this guy. And Napoleon thought he was going to get there, pull this gun on him, get the keys and take off in this Mercedes. But no, he just walked into the restaurant. And to me, Gibbs, that's one of those encounters.

You know, when you find out later on, because I'm sure this guy did, you have to think, wow, someone was watching over me. sure I was really lucky you know there's a bunch of different ways to look at it right you dodged what could have potentially been a fatal encounter absolutely he did yeah and we've had a number of people write in about their experiences with things similar to this right I've never had one myself so I really don't know what it feels like I have had some close calls with like car crash I've been in some car crashes. Yeah.

But I've had some close call calls where I've almost gotten clipped or something like that. You have that feeling, but that's right away. Sure. Yeah. Your adrenaline right through the roof. This is something that maybe he didn't find out for months and then or maybe even longer. Be like, you know, you're sitting across from somebody for a long time and you just don't see him anymore and you pick up the paper and you find out, man, they were all over the country

doing some not good things. Yeah. I'm waiting for that day. Yeah. As for now, we'll keep doing what we're doing. So apparently Napoleon was very upset that he tried to carjack this guy, but it didn't work out. So they all got back into the car.

Cedric was driving. And according to him, he wanted to head back home. And you're going to hear me talk a lot about Cedric and Donald and what they said happened because that's a big part of this case. but that's what he said. But Napoleon wasn't having it. And at a certain point, he said to Cedric, well, I guess I'm going to have to kill my driver. And he already has a gun.

Right. So Cedric later told investigators that Beasley pulled the gun on him. And Napoleon ended up getting behind the wheel of the car and they got onto the highway. It was on the highway that they saw a Mercedes-Benz owned. by John and Bobby Lutig. And this wasn't a new Mercedes. It was, you know, 1987 maybe. It was eight, nine, ten years old.

I don't know how old it was. Yeah. It was a little bit older model. Sure. But they began to follow the car. At one point, a Jaguar got between the probe and the Mercedes. Do you say Jaguar or Jaguar?

Because that's a big bone of contention between car people. It's Jaguar. I say Jaguar. Jaguar. But some people say, no, it's Jaguar. Probably really is an English accent. But because of this, Beasley had to make a decision, right? Did he want the Jaguar or did he want this Mercedes?

But remember, he had been talking about a Mercedes, right? He had been telling people, hey, I'm going to show up at school in a Mercedes. So when it pulled off the exit, they followed it to the Lou Tiggs home on. Regency Lane, 63-year-old John Lutig and his wife Bobby lived in Tyler, Texas. They had been married for 41 years and had two grown children. It's a long time. Yeah. Yeah. And I think as we all know, marriage isn't the easiest thing in the world. So to make it 40 plus years, that's something you should celebrate. Absolutely. You should. I mentioned it. They had two grown children, Michael and Suzanne. And what's interesting about Michael, I didn't get a lot of information on Suzanne,

but Michael was a federal appeals court judge. Impressive. Very impressive. And we'll talk about him a little later on in the episode because the fact that he held that position comes up. John had served in the Korean War. He had been a petroleum engineer. And at one point, he had start his own business. So, you know, he had done very well for himself, his family. And at this point in his life, he was living, you know, kind of a retiree, easy going life in Tyler with his wife Bobby. He had earned it. He'd worked very hard. Sure he did. John and Bobby were both very active in their church. They were well respected and well liked by everyone that knew them. As a Christmas present, John had enrolled Bobby in a night class at Southern Methodist University

in Dallas. She was studying to get a master of divinity degree. So again, I think right there shows you how active they were in the church, what, you know, how important their faith was to them. Now, some people might say, well, what kind of Christmas present is that? You enrolled somebody in a class. But that really wasn't the. big part of it.

She wanted to take the class. Sure. The big part was that, okay, I've enrolled you in the class. Every week, I'm going to, I'm John. Right. I'm going to drive you to SMU. Yeah. I'm going to wait for you and then I'm going to bring you back home.

Yeah. So when you look at it that way, pretty cool. Yeah. And it's something that she really wanted. She did wanted. Just like me wanting to take my additional language. courses. Yeah. I mean, the difference is I'm not offering to drive you on a weekly basis and wait for you to be done with them. No. Because undoubtedly, they would make you stay after class and do

extra work. Well, it is English 102. Yes. Yeah. And we know how English 101 went. And it took years to get through. I remember the community college saying, are you sure you want to keep signing up for this class? I'm like, absolutely. Gibby's like, I am not the type of guy to give up. That's right. Right. Won't do. I'm not a quitter. Not a quitter. Nope. Hey, T-Cat fans, if you're feeling overwhelmed right now, then you're a human being. There's a whole lot to be anxious about between the 24-7 news cycle, the pandemic, divisive politics. We need to take care of our mental health and work through our emotions with a licensed therapist. Talkspace is making therapy affordable and accessible for all because we all need extra support to feel our best. Talkspace has thousands of licensed therapists trained in overreesome. 40 specialties, including anxiety, depression, relationships, and more. No matter what, Talkspace will find you the right therapist to help you achieve your goals. And this is amazing. An entire month on Talkspace costs about the same amount as a single in-person session.

Talking to my friends is so different from talking to a licensed therapist who has the expertise and knowledge to give me practical guidance. Talkspace gives me the support I need at an affordable price. As a listener of this podcast, you get $100 off your first month with Talkspace. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com or download the app. Make sure to use the code TCAT to get $100 off your first month and show your support for the show. That's TCAT and Talkspace.com. But this drive to school and back, this is exactly what the Lutigs were doing on the night of April 19th, 1994,

when they were targeted by Napoleon Beasley and Cedric and Donald Coleman. As the Lutig's pulled into their driveway, Beasley pulled the car in behind them. What happened next is kind of pieced together by some of the testimony at trial. So Beasley got out of the probe with the 45 pistol in his hand. He ran up to John Lutig, threw him onto the ground, and fired a show. that hit him in the side of the head. For one thing, I didn't talk about it, but I mentioned the fact that he was a star athlete.

Right. I saw some reports that said, you know, he was benching three, three 50. Yeah, he was, he was a, he was a well-built, very strong individual. So not too hard to grab this 63-year-old man and throw him onto the ground.

But this shot, it didn't kill him. He was dazed. He was bleeding, but he wasn't dead. As this was going on, Bobby got out of the car and started running toward the garage. Beasley ran around the car and he fired a shot at Bobby at very close range and she fell to the ground. But she hadn't been hit, although Napoleon must have thought she had been. Somehow he missed her. But she played like she was hit. Yeah. She laid on the ground. Very smart. I think you and I have talked about that in, you know, other episodes.

So Napoleon walked back to John, stood over him. John Lutig put up his hand in front of his face. And Napoleon Beasley fired a shot that went through the palm of his hand into his head, killing him. He rifled through John's pockets for the keys to the Mercedes. And you have to picture this. He shot this guy in the head. Blood starts pouring out all over the pavement. As he's standing there going through this through John's pockets. Right.

The blood is pooling already all around him. He's literally standing in the blood. At some point, Donald Coleman got out of the car and he had the sought off shotgun. This is one of those cases. Like I said, this comes from testimony. Right. And you're talking about what certain people said happened. Are they downplaying the role that they had in it?

That all of that is. going to come into question at trial. Absolutely. Yeah. But Donald had this shotgun. Beasley asked him if the woman was alive. And Donald said, it looks like she's still moving. So Napoleon told him, quote, shoot the bitch.

And according to Donald, as he went to do it, he decided that he couldn't. So he told Beasley that he'd been wrong. He made a mistake. He looked again. She was dead. So he had a conscious, sort of. Yeah, he had a conscience or he was less than truthful later on. I mean, you know what I'm saying?

That's going to be one of the big questions. But you can say it's probably more truthful than not because he didn't shoot her. And Napoleon didn't shoot her. So that story does kind of line up with what ultimately happened. And of course, Bobby is going to be able to corroborate some of this too because she lives. So Napoleon believing that both are dead got into the Mercedes after he got the keys. I'm assuming Gibbs that the plan was for him to drive that car back. Right.

While Cedric and Donald drove the, uh, the pro. But it didn't go his plan for sure because Beasley crashed the Mercedes into a retaining wall while he was trying to back it out. The guy can't even drive. So this whole thing, Gibbs, I mean, it floors me. Number one, that anyone would shoot someone over a car, right? That's beyond imagination. But then you get this car and you floor it and reverse and run into a wall.

And it was damaged. I mean, really damaged because literally just a few blocks down the road. he decided to get out and just dump it there. Couldn't even drive it. No. Yeah. So he abandoned the Mercedes and jumped into the probe and the three guys drove back to Grapland. Like the murder was senseless when I was talking about it.

But when you look at it in totality, it seems like it's, you know, even more senseless. Yeah. To kill a person over a car, like you said, why? and then the fact that what you stole, you didn't even get to keep. One, you didn't know how to drive if you hit a retaining wall. Yeah.

You know, and the fact that you jumped out after going, you know, a few hundred feet, I don't know. So now we go back to Bobby. Bobby, who had essentially played dead,

got up after the three left, and she ran to a neighbor's house for help. While there, she placed a frantic 911 call that was later played in court, where she said, my husband's been shot, please hurry, please hurry. Now, her neighbor happened to be a nurse. And she ran over, but, you know, by the time she got there, I think she later said she knew right away with the amount of blood. And she said blood was streaming out of his mouth, probably checked his vitals.

There was just literally nothing anyone could do. She knew. Yeah. I think she knew right away. And obviously, police and emergency personnel arrived on scene and quickly figured out that John Lutig was dead. They found the Mercedes a few blocks away damaged with the couple's two dogs inside. So again, I think that tells you kind of how quickly all of this happened. They, you know, they had just pulled in. They hadn't even had time to get their dogs out when they were confronted by Beasley. right shot very quickly that's also a scary proposition it is scenario when you think about it makes me think about sometimes when they do the carjacking with the kids in the car you hear about how someone

carjacked and didn't realize there was a baby in the car or kids in the car until they got down the road yeah i get it i think you know those i normally think of happening at an intersection or maybe while somebody's getting gas or something like that this one you're pulling into your residence. And as we've talked about before, it's kind of like, oh, I'm home. I'm safe. This is my safe zone.

Sure, yeah. But you're not in the house yet. You don't have the doors locked. You know, how many people are scanning the rearview mirror to see if somebody's pulled in after them? It kind of goes to that keeping your head on a swivel and really knowing what's going on around you.

But sometimes you, get so comfortable, right? Yeah. You just do. And especially I think you do at your home. Or it's a routine you've done thousands of times, right? You turn the corner onto your street. I know for me, I press the button to the garage door and it's just wrote at that point. Like, I just know exactly how things are going to happen. Just don't need to worry about it, but you should. But I'm built a little different. You are. Because, I am not naturally paranoid. I was not as a kid as I've gotten older,

as I've gotten things that, you know, I'm trying to protect. I shouldn't say gotten, but my kids, my wife, I have definitely changed. I am, I'm not paranoid.

I'm just much more aware of my surroundings. And it shows because I know sometimes when, before COVID, when we would go, I have lunch together. other, you'd look at that guy at the other table and you'd be like, I know he can run a mile in under three minutes. I'm not quite Jason Bourne, but, you know, I do look at exits and I do try not to put my

back, you know, against certain spots that I can't see. Yeah, you make me sit in those spots. Yeah, I make you sit there. Yeah. So just days after the murder, these three guys are back home, right? I have no idea what's going on in their head. hit. A man is dead. They have to know that. But what Napoleon Beasley did was he confided in a friend. What did happen? That he, Cedric and Donald had killed a man and stolen his car. And he probably

said he killed a woman too because I think at that point he was under the impression that she was dead. So police got a tip through crime stoppers. which we don't hear about all that much. We talk about crime stoppers a lot. We do. Especially in our unsolved episodes. You know, there's a reward for a tip leading for information about a disappearance or an

abduction or something like that. But that's how police got the tip that Beasley and the Coleman brothers were somehow involved in the murder of John Lutig. They interviewed them. And all three lied to police, said they were not involved, which I think is fairly normal. Yeah. I don't think a lot of people right from the get-go admit that they've killed someone. Typically, no.

But there was no doubt, you know, as this evidence started to pile up as it was processed, that it pointed to their guilt. And about a month and a half after the murder, all three were. were arrested and held in jail on one million dollar bonds. That's big bond. Yeah. And I think it shows you how certain they were that these individuals were involved. I think it also shows you that they thought these people were very, very dangerous. Yeah.

They did not want them back on the streets. Well, if you're willing to just pull up on somebody by their garage and shoot them in cold blood. Yeah. You are dangerous. You're a dangerous individual. You're a danger to society. There's no doubt about that. A lot of newspapers reported that when Napoleon's father asked him if he was guilty.

After he was arrested, he said he was. But he wasn't telling the police that. On July 7, 1994, Napoleon Beasley was charged with the murder of John Lutig. The Coleman brothers were charged as well. But they also got some federal charges, carjack. other gun-related charges. The big thing was prosecutor said that they would seek the death penalty for all three. It is Texas.

It is Texas. They did kill someone. Now, the Coleman brothers were convicted in 1994 on federal carjacking and firearms charges in connection with the murder of John Lutig. Donald Coleman was sentenced to 43 years and nine months in prison. Cedric Coleman was sentenced to 40 years and five months. Right.

That's a very long time for carjacking and firearms charges. Yeah. But I think the key is in connection with the murder of John Lutig, right? It wasn't just carjacking. It wasn't just the fact that you had these firearms. You know how they do it. It's all, okay, in the commission of a capital, crime, a murder.

Yes. It all gets, what's the word I'm looking for, Gibbs? Consolidate it? Compounded. Compounded. You know, they just pile. Yeah. Everything gets piled on.

But they're not done. I mean, they're going to be tried for, for murder as well. Beasley's trial began in February 1995. And he drew an all white jury, which becomes important later on during the appeal process. But here's something I found. fascinating. Napoleon refused to enter a plea. He just wouldn't do it. So the court was forced to enter a non-guilty plea on his behalf. I'm sure that's happened. I don't know if I've ever heard of it happening, but I'm sure it's happened many, many times. I just wonder why his attorney said,

hey, it's not plead at all. I don't know if his attorney said that or he just wasn't willing to cooperate with the legal process at that point. Now trial, the prosecution laid out the facts of their case. They called Napoleon Beasley a lying, gun-toting car thief who killed people for their property who also deals crack cocaine. So that's how they summed it up. Coming out, hitting hard. Hitting hard. But I mentioned the fact that the evidence, right, pointed to him especially. They had bloody footprints that matched his footwear. They had his bloody palm print that was taken. from the Mercedes. They had spent shell casings that matched his 45.

A female relative of Napoleon's testified that she purchased two guns for him. He gave her the money. She bought the guns. She doesn't know what happened to him, but she had to admit that she bought the guns because he was only 17 years old. Well, sure. That doesn't bode well for him. No, it's not really great for her either, to be honest with you.

But I'm guessing that's why she agreed to cooperate. Yeah. Because if she didn't, they probably would have charged her with something to do with supplying firearms to a minor, which I assume is a felony. I would think it would. And she could have gotten quite a, quite a sentence out of that. Beasley's former girlfriend testified that she saw the two guns, entered as evidence, the 45 and the sought off shotgun in Beasley's possession. in April of 1994, along with about 20 to 30 rocks of crack cocaine. Crack rock.

Crack rock. And this is where, you know, the prosecution really hit the jury, offering up quite a bit of evidence that Napoleon Beasley had been selling drugs since the age of 13. That's an early age to be on that street, man. It is. It is. And I will definitely talk about it probably in the wrap up because I'm going to tell you right now, there are things about this case and specifically about Napoleon that I have a

hard time squaring up. And we'll dive into some of that. The prosecution also had the Coleman brothers, right? They took the stand with no promise of any type of immunity. And that's always big. Right. I'd like to point that out, whether they're getting some fancy deal or they're not promised anything. They painted Napoleon out to be the ringleader. They basically said he was determined to steal a Mercedes so that he could drive around in it, show it off. I did see some reports that maybe he had designs on selling it like to a chop shop and getting some money that way.

Some quick cash. Yeah. But I don't know how true that is. Well, but if you're going to do that, you really shouldn't be boasting about I'm going to have a Mercedes here the next day. Tell, you know, telling people he's going to be. Yeah, maybe he thought he's going to drive it around for a day and then, then, you know, parted out. I really don't know. I don't know the validity of that part of it. The Coleman brothers told the jury that Napoleon had told them he wanted to see what it was like to kill somebody. And then after the murder, they said he

told them that he would get rid of anyone who talked. Well, who's going to talk besides them too. Well, exactly. But actually, he's the one that ended up talking, if you think about it. Which is not surprising, right? Normie, it's the one that says, nobody talk about this. Is the one that talked. Yeah. The prosecution was also allowed to play for the jury, video taped interviews of the Coleman brothers that were done after their arrests. And some of that corroborated their testimony. And of course, Bobby Lutig testified against Beasley. And you know that would have been huge. Yeah, absolutely. So the defense has an uphill battle, as they do in many of these cases. What they did was they tried to punch holes in the testimony of the Coleman brothers by pointing

out inconsistencies in their police interviews. And there were some, right? Initially, they denied any involvement in any of it. And then later on, they changed their mind. They started giving information. The defense brought on some character witnesses. You know, some of those people that I talked about,

people from school, coaches, administrators, friends who painted a very good picture of Napoleon. Right? This is what I was talking about at the start of this case. When you look at his actions on the night of April 19th,

19th, 1994, and in the weeks and months leading up to it, they seemed to be at odds with what most people thought of him. People were shocked to find out that what they thought was this all American kid had killed someone in cold blood over a car. And really, if he wanted a Mercedes, he was that good of an athlete, he just needed to wait for the right university coming along. put some keys in a mailbox one day. Yeah.

Have your own Mercedes. Because there were plenty of schools handing out cars and money. And maybe they still do. I don't know. There's all kinds of accusations flying around. I think as more and more testimony came out, it became very clear, Napoleon Beasley was not the person that many thought he was. He didn't take the stand at his trial.

something that you and I often like to talk about. It's not surprising. I think if you had to put a percentage on it, most people don't. Most defendants don't. Do not. Yeah. In a capital murder trial. And you've done a good job over a number of episodes kind of laying out the reasons why that is.

His defense team couldn't argue that he wasn't there when John Lutig was killed. The evidence proved that he was. what they did argue was what exactly happened that night who pulled the trigger you know because if you think about it all of that information essentially came from the Coleman brothers I'm sure some of it came from Bobby but I don't know how much she saw as she was trying to you know kind of hide and play possum and she was in fear for her life I think a lot of it came from the Coleman brothers. So the defense did their best to paint them as not credible and say, okay, these guys have

a vested interest in pointing the finger at my client. Sure. Because they were there. How do we know they didn't pull the trigger or, you know, Donald didn't, Cedric didn't? But none of that worked. On March 13th, 1995, the jury of eight men and four women deliberated for about an hour before finding Beasley guilty of the murder of John Lutig. It's not a lot.

You know, I take that as, you know, they had pretty much made up their mind or most of the people in there were very sure going into it of his guilt. After listening to all the evidence, I don't mean before the trial started. Because really an hour,

that doesn't seem like a long time. No, it's not. It takes a while to even. vote, right, for the first time. You figured maybe they, uh, 35, 40 minutes looked at that case before they went to the voting process. Maybe.

And maybe the, the first vote came out guilty. Mm-hmm. There was no holdouts. Just that would seem reasonable. Because you're right. There's some time that I would think most juries spend in deliberation just talking about the case and the evidence and things like that. I think this case could have wanted to.

potentially another direction if Bobby died. If she was not there to testify, could have went in a different direction. Yeah. And to be honest with you, I didn't find a lot about her testimony. You know, I don't know how much it backed up the Coleman brothers.

It definitely was not good for Beasley. Yeah. It wasn't like she took the stand and said, oh, oh, no, it wasn't Napoleon who shot my husband. It was daughter. That guy.

Yeah. Yeah. But I think what you're saying makes a lot of sense. If Bobby dies and there is no living witness to what happened, then you're 100% one camp versus the other. He said, he said, he said. Yeah. At that point, you know, as a defense attorney, I would be saying, well, of course they're going to agree that my client did it. They're brothers. They're not going to turn on each other. It's unfair. It's two against one. They're going to turn on my client. Right. So after the jury found him guilty, they had the tough task of deciding whether Beasley should spend the rest of his life in prison or be sent to death row for execution. And I've never been in that spot. Gibbs, I can't imagine it's easy. It can't be easy to be part of a group that is making a decision of whether someone lives or dies.

Yeah. Now, some cases might be easier than others. you know, clear cut. If it's clear cut that, you know, someone committed the murder and it was only them and, you know, but even then, I think it's got a way on you just because you are making that decision or you're part of a group that's making that decision. Yeah. What you decided to do has that final impact.

It was just four days later on March 17th, the jury of eight men and four women deliberated for about two and a half hours before recommending that Napoleon Beasley be put to death for his crimes. So if you look at it, they deliberated for a longer period of time about the life sentence versus death than they did about his guilt. It was such a senseless crime. What was? You know, and I'm sure they wanted to look at, you know, what he did, but look at his age and go back. and forth and it would be tough. It would be tough. And maybe you hit the nail on the head because if if this guy was 25 years old,

maybe the deliberation doesn't take that long, but you are, you know, talking about a 17-year-old. Yeah. It would come out later that they based their decision on their belief that he intentionally killed John Lutig and if he was let out, he would most likely commit more violent acts. Well, like I said, I just, there was no reason to kill him to get the car. And he decided that he was going to kill somebody before he even got to the house. Yeah. If you believe what the Coleman brothers say, he had already said, I want to know what it feels like to kill someone. But you're bringing up a great point, which is if your only motivation is to get that Mercedes, there's no need to kill.

the 63-year-old man, you're much more powerful than him. You could throw him down, take the keys, and take off. But that wasn't enough. That wasn't the only thing for him. And if you believe he was the trigger guy, he already grazed him, but he decided to go ahead and kill him. And you know that it wasn't like an accident. It wasn't a, oh, we were wrestling and I shot the gun. No, he had his hand extended out, you shot right through his hand and to him. Yeah, the second shot, you really can look at it more as like an execution. Yeah, the guy was saying, don't shoot me, loading my hand out. Please don't shoot me. And you went ahead and shot him. Again, things that I'm sure the jury weighed. The judge agreed and sentenced Beasley to die by lethal injection for the murder of John Lutig.

Later on in 1995, the Coleman brothers both made plea deals on their charges of murder. They both pleaded guilty to capital murder and each received a life sentence. They also both pleaded guilty to the aggravated robbery of Bobby Lutig. For that, Donald received 24 years and Cedric received 20 years. So I think by making the plea deals, they escaped the death penalty. But what I found extremely interesting is that their sentences for these two things and the federal carjacking and gun charges, they were set to be served concurrently, not consecutively. So if they were to serve the minimum, no guarantee that they would, but let's say they were to serve the minimum, Donald could potentially be out in 52 years. and Cedric could be out in 50 years.

It's a long time to be in prison. It is a long time to be in prison. They would both be maybe around 70 years old. Right. When they got out. It's going to be again, I know we referenced it several times in the past. It's like Brooks getting out, you know, a shawl shank, you know. Yeah.

What are you going to do? The world changes dramatically in 50 years. Now, I think it's important to take a look at those sentences. and say, okay, is that fair? They didn't pull the trigger. Let's assume that because that's what came out at trial. If you assume that. Yep.

They were there. They were accomplices in some degree, some former fashion. A man lost his life. 50 years is a long time. It is a long time. And that's the minimum. There's no guarantee that when they came up for parole, they would be let out. They could serve the rest of their life in prison.

And of course, they could die of natural causes in the next 50 years. And you could argue for the one brother that didn't have the shotgun was just there on site. Like, look, I mean, yeah, I was there. I couldn't stop them. But I was part of it. I'm spending 50 some years in prison for that. Yeah, I'm going to talk about Cedric here in a minute because I got issues with Cedric. Yeah.

And I'll tell you what they are. But first, let's talk about Napoleon, Beasley. You know, obviously he went through a litany of appeals as all death row inmates do. The main arguments that his defense attorneys made, they were based on his age at the time of the crime, but they also brought race into it as well, saying that, you know, Beasley was black, his victim was white and he was convicted by an all white jury. All appeals were denied and eventually his case made its way to the U.S. Supreme court. Now, I get, okay, the guy, the kid's 17. At the time that he committed this murder,

you're going to argue that. And I get a defense attorney has to pull out all the tricks and, you know, can't leave anything on the table. You're fighting to save your client's life. So, you know, you're going to pull out the issue of race. But is it valid based on, you know, what this individual did and the evidence against him? it doesn't seem like it to me. I think the defense is trying to say, look, my client didn't get a fair shake because it was an all-white jury. And they just felt like it should have been more of a mixed jury. No, and I get that, right?

I think in a perfect world, you would want the jury to be more representative of different races. You know, you would want it to be a mixture. So, but again, I go back to the fact that a defense attorney has to be. bring out everything, throw everything at the wall. Sure. I still think it's hard to get around the evidence and the testimony and the fact you have a survivor. If it was like you said, just the Coleman brothers.

And you didn't have these people saying, okay, yeah, I saw him with the 45. I saw him with the sawed off shotgun. The shell casings match that 45. Right. that same weapon. They had the murder weapon. His bloody palm print is on the car. If you don't have all of that stuff, I could see maybe where an argument of an all white

jury railroaded my client could come in. But in this one, the evidence was just seemed to be so overwhelming that it's kind of, for me, hard to make that argument. Now, I'm not faulting the defense for making it because like I said, you're fighting for your client's life, you're going to throw everything out there. Oh, absolutely. You have to. But I think, you know, some of those things are also evidenced by the fact that none of the appeals worked. In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Beasley's appeal that he should not be executed because he was only 17 years old at the time of his crime. In the 10, 12 years leading up to this,

Gibbs, 14 people who had committed murder when they were either 16 or 17. were executed in the U.S. Half of those people were executed in Texas. Quite a bit. It is. Now, it doesn't surprise me because if you look at the executions overall, Texas is far and away above, you know, during that time frame, the second closest state. It's not even close.

I think I saw a statistic. I don't remember the exact numbers. So it doesn't shock me that half of them were in Texas. Now, there were a lot of states by this time who had changed their laws already saying, if you're under 18, we're taking the death penalty off the table. Yeah, it's not even an option. It's not even an option. Texas was not one of them at this point.

The vote on Beasley's fate was split three to three, which meant the execution would not be stopped. They had to have a majority to stop it. But this is not just your normal U.S. Supreme Court case. First of all, they heard it, which is abnormal. They don't, you know, they don't hear the majority of cases anyway. Three of the court justices recuse themselves from hearing the case. And the reason for this was Michael Lutig, John and Bonnie Son. We mentioned it.

He was a federal court judge. That's right. So all of the justices knew this guy. And the three that recused themselves, Scalia, David Souter, and Clarence Thomas said they were actually friends with him. So they did not feel comfortable ruling on this case. I guess over the years as he rose up through the ranks, Michael Lutig had clerked for Scalia. And then later on, he worked to help both Souter and Thomas through their Senate confirmation hearings. So he really knew these people very, very well.

Pretty tight in. Beasley said from death row, I don't like to give explanations or excuses. Whether I was 15, 16, 17, 21, 25, it should never have happened. He said he was remorseful for what he had done. But he was a changed person and he was no longer a threat to anyone. In a court hearing, he said, it's my fault. I violated the law. I violated the city and I violated a family. I'm sorry. I wish I had a second chance to make up for it. So, you know, when you look at that, he didn't admit to what he had done in the

beginning, but after years on death row, he did. And he was remorseful. You can argue whether that was real or not, who knows. I think there are quite a few death row inmates that change. You know, with those years on death row as their execution gets closer and closer. Sure. And I think especially somebody younger where they're not so set in their ways yet, maybe come around a little bit and understand that what they did was wrong. Or they understand that, hmm, I got a better chance of getting clemency or something like that if I admit what I did and play long.

I'm remorseful. Play long. Yeah. You can look at you can look at it. You can look at it that way too. I think what's not in doubt is that there were a lot of people who came to support Beasley. Now, they didn't support what he had done, obviously, but they did not believe that he should be executed. And you and I talk about this in death penalty cases all the time.

There's always those who protest against the death penalty at any execution. But I think because he was 17 at the time of his crime, that brought out a lot more people on his side, protesting against the fact that he should be executed. Yeah, I mean, I think we know that there's people that are executed that might not have even committed the crime. You know, I remember seeing a stat. I watched that, Just Mercy. Did you ever see that? With Jamie Fox, it's really good. But it's about, you know, getting some guys off with death.

down in Alabama back in the day. And at the end in the movie, they put, you know, they put those stats up. One of the stats was out of every 10 death penalty cases, one out of those 10 people is innocent. And that's too many. That's scary. Yeah. I mean, one is too many.

Yeah. There's no doubt about it. But Beasley wasn't saved. He was executed on May 28, 2002 by lethal injection. He reportedly didn't have a last meal. So we don't have that to discuss. And he didn't make a final statement verbally. When asked by the warden, if he had one, he looked toward John's daughter, Suzanne Lutig, who was in attendance.

And then he shook his head and he said, no. The lethal drugs were administered. He coughed a few times, gasped. It was reported that his head bounced up and down on the pillow. Kind of violent. Yeah. That seems like a sight that I really wouldn't want to see. it took about nine minutes for the drugs to end his life and he was pronounced dead at 6.19 p.m.

At the time of his execution, Napoleon Beasley was the 19th person executed since 1976 for a murder committed when that person was under the age of 18. He was the 11th in Texas. So again, just shows you the numbers in Texas versus all the other states. Yeah, much higher for sure. Prison officials released a written statement from Beasley after the execution. It said, I'm not only saddened, but disappointed that a system that is supposed to protect and uphold what is just and right can be so much like me when I made the same shameful mistake. Tonight, we tell our children that in some instances, in some cases, killing is right.

And then the statement ended with no one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious. I get what he's saying. Now, there might be some people on the side of the victim's family. Right. That would argue that. Maybe they wouldn't.

I'm going to go ahead and say, I think he had a little help writing this. Maybe. Maybe. It is pretty well written. And I get what he is saying. You know, I made a mistake. I killed someone. Now, you as the state, you're going to make the same mistake and kill me.

That's basically what he's saying. But it's a good way to drive the, you know, anti-death penalty message. Well, it is because I think that's what people that are opposed to the death penalty always say. And that's why it's, you know, I think he had a little bit of help drafting that. Oh, like from somebody, yeah, maybe. Yeah, one of the attorneys on his, you know, trying to work his appeal or something like that. Maybe. Again, it's never an easy.

topic, right? It's kind of like politics. You got people in this camp and you have people in this camp. Yeah. And you're not going to change the minds of either one most of the time. People are pretty entrenched in their camp. You will have the people that float in between. Based on the circumstances of a case.

Exactly. Yes. And I think there are quite a few people like that. Because I do imagine there are some people listening to this that say, normally I'm okay. I don't know if okay is the right word, but I agree with the death penalty in a lot of cases. I don't agree that we should be executing 17 year olds or people that were 17 when they committed their crimes. And then you're going to have some people that say no death penalty whatsoever.

And then you're going to have some people that say, I don't care that he was 17. He took someone's life and he deserved to die. I think you and I can respect all of those opinions. Absolutely. We can. More than 700 people showed up for Beasley's funeral. His mother, Renna, told the Fort Worth Star Telegram, at least he's free. Eight years is a long time to battle.

It was just too much. It was tearing us up inside. Now we're going to celebrate his life. He knew he disappointed us in April, 1994. and he's been trying to make up for it. We put our lives on hold for eight years. I never thought I'd ever go to a prison, let alone death row to see Napoleon. We were the perfect family.

We did everything by the book. If it can happen to us, it can happen to anyone. So, you know, I think you analyze that and go back to what I said in the very beginning. We didn't give a lot of background, but from what I understand, you know, he came from a good family. They had some money. I'm not saying they were rich, but, you know, it was described as middle or middle upper class. They were doing okay. Yeah. It's just one of the things, you know, as we're wrapping up this case that I struggle with, you know, not about the crime he committed. That was horrific. That was senseless. Killing a beloved husband and father over a car

or over anything for that matter. It's just mind boggling. I guess what I struggle with is, you know, who was this guy, really? Was he, you know, the good student athlete that many people knew him to be who just made the worst decision anyone could make and maybe sold some drugs on the side? And I struggle with that. You know, I think even from his own words, he didn't really want for anything. His family had some money. It was like he wanted his own money. I think he told someone one time that he was a very independent person. And he started selling drugs because he won his own money. He didn't want to have to ask for it from his family. So he was his own thing? Yeah. Yeah. Or was he deep down much darker, right? And it was just a

matter of time before he decided to kill someone. So I guess that's what I'm struggling with, right? Really bad and horrible decision making during a small, window of time, or did this guy have a dark passenger that no one knew about that emerged and he decided to take action? I can't figure it out. I just wonder, you know, because we know according to people close to him, as he was in prison over those years, he changed, you know. You wondered if, you know, and I always, not to sound cliche, but go back to the movie with Morgan Freeman, Shawshank, and he tells Andy if he could go back. And he could go back. And he, you know, in time. He would tell that young kid standing there not to do what he's about ready to do.

And you just wonder, you know, this guy feeling remorseful and wishing he didn't do what he did, you know, probably wants to, you know, go back in time and not do what he did. But I'm sure everybody on death row wants to go back and do undo what they did. But it's because they're on death row and they're about ready to be executed or they're in prison for the rest of their life. I don't know about that part because I think everybody would want to change their situation. I think some would. You think there's a lot of people that would say, no, I'd do it again. I think there's some really terrible evil people for sure that we've covered that.

I don't think they'd give a rats, you know, ass that they did what they did. I don't think they care about what they did. I think they care about the fact that they got caught. So they would undo it. Yes. And it doesn't mean they would never kill again. I guess that's what you're saying. Right.

I don't know about Beasley. I really don't. I also have questions about the Coleman brothers. Cedric especially. You know, I mentioned that we'd talk about him. He painted himself as an unwilling participant. But for me, that's hard to square. When you think about just the night before, he was with Napoleon Beasley.

And Beasley had laid out. his plan in full. So knowing full well what this guy wants to do, Cedric decided to go out with him the next night. And he decided to bring his younger brother along. That doesn't add up to me. No, it doesn't. You're telling me you knew he wanted to steal a car. He had made comments about the fact that he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone. And you're like, you want to go out tomorrow night? Sure. I'll go with you. Yeah, let me put you in a really bad spot. What do you think is going to happen? What do you think you're going to become part of? So I struggle with that. And then, of course, you have the question of the death penalty being carried

out against a person who committed their crime when they were 17 years old. Most of the world for quite a long period of time has sided with the international rights law that prohibits the use of the death penalty against people who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime. the U.S. was way behind most countries when it came to this. The U.S. Supreme Court looked at the issue in 1989, and I think at that point they ruled the cut off age at 16. Over the years, many states said, no, we don't agree with that. They pushed it. They bumped it up to 18, obviously not Texas. It wasn't until 2005 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it should be 18. And basically in their decision, they cited the fact that the U.S. was virtually alone in executing juvenile offenders.

So you have all these other countries that have said, no, we're not going to do that. And they've said it for many, many more years than what we have. We were kind of by ourselves in doing that. Like we mentioned, debate on both sides. You're always going to have that. I will say in that 2005 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court, they cited advancements in science around brain development and the fact that executing minors didn't seem to have worked as far as being a deterrent, right?

We have been doing it for so many years. It wasn't stopping 15, 16, 17 year old people from doing bad things. It wasn't deterring them. You're always going to have bad people. So that's it, Gibbs, for the case of Napoleon Beasley. You know, it was an interesting case to me. It's why I picked it, lesser known, a little bit off the map, but had some very fascinating aspects to it.

When you think about what this guy did, who he did it with, why they went with him, the fact that he was 17, and then some of the legal aspects of the case kind of jumped out at me. We got some voicemails. You want to check that out? Let's hear him. Hey, Mike and Giddy. My name is Matthew Walker. and I am a recent Patreon supporter,

but I've been listening to your podcast for like the last year, kind of binge listening occasionally until it gets to be too much, then I have to listen to something else, because, you know, you can only take so much negative stuff after a while. But anyway, I want to know if you guys can look into a murder that's close to my hometown, and I know the people personally. The guy's name was Keith Woods, 33, and he raped and killed his 15-year-old cousin, Melissa Rose, and I'd like to know more about it, but I know he did, like, a stint in prison,

and then he got out and went right back to doing whatever and did that crazy thing. But, yeah, so you guys are great, and I like the banner between you guys. You're funny, and I'm a welder, and I listen to you all day when I'm welding, so you keep my day going pretty good. But anyway, thank you for everything, and keep your job. going time ticking. Bye. Well, we appreciate that voicemail. And it's something that we'll definitely look into and see if we can find enough information to put together an episode on it. Because we get a lot of suggestions. We do. Gibbs. The problem is some cases are much more heavily

reported on than others. And you need that kind of dearth of information to be able to make an episode for Sure. Hi, Mike and Gibby. This is Tom from the Quiet State of Illinois. Used to call my brother-in-law, Gibby. Want to give a shout-out to his two daughters who'd listen, Christy and Becky. So I finally pried my wallet open,

and I joined your Patreon and watch my first video. First thing I noticed is Gibby does not have a wooden flat chair, but he is sitting up at your desk like an employee being punished. Give the guy a damn death out, huh? Anyway, love you guys, keep up the good work, and keep your hometown tickets. We appreciate all of our Patreon supporters. So he's talking about the weekly videos that we put out.

Right. And that is done on purpose. My chair is a good six to eight inches higher than yours. Yeah. So that I'm looking down on you. I'm already taller than you. As you always do. And that's the feeling that I'm going for.

You are being punished. You're at the principal's office, his desk. you're at the boss's desk. That's the kind of the vibe that we have here. And before the video started, the wooden slat chair used to be here, but then you got replacements because we were going live on video, you know. Those replacements have been here forever. Hello, Mike and Gibby.

This is Varun calling from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I'm a true crime fanatic and I've listened to most of your episodes and love every bit of them. Your chemistry and the taking verbal jabs at each other reminds me of the relationship I have with my best friend. and that's one of the reasons I love your podcast. I wanted to mention a couple of cases which don't necessarily involve murder, but are pretty big, to say the least.

One of them is the famous Silk Road and another lesser-known but fascinating one and global one, Operation Cathedral. I'd love to listen your take on those if possible. Anyway, one last thing. If Gibby can attempt a Nufi accent or do an Indian accent, I'll forever be in Ghibi. Stay safe and keep your own time taking thought. I actually can do both, but I'm saving them. Oh, okay.

So. So he's going to have to wait. Just a little bit. And be on the lookout for them. Yes. Okay. They're very good, though. We appreciate the voicemails for sure.

No mail, no new mail bag, but I didn't want to clarify the K-Barr Spork and the Star Wars Pop from last week. Remember, that was one that came in with no. Right. So it was Renetta Bresher. Oh, well, thank you. She reached out to me and said that she sent them, and I thanked her. They were really cool gifts. So remember her son played football.

We appreciate it. All right, buddy. That is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gabi, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.