01x01 - 30 Years

[bunniefuu]

[man] What is a fair punishment

for m*rder?

[ominous music plays]

Thirty years ago, I k*lled a man.

And for that crime,

I was sentenced to death.

If I would've been ex*cuted,

I would've deserved it.

But God, I like to believe,

had a bigger plan and a purpose for me.

People are gonna say:

"You should've died. You're not worthy."

But God is my judge and my jury.

I just ask that people give me a chance.

Open your heart some time.

Don't be so pre-judgmental.

I'm a walking miracle,

whether you wanna accept it,

or whether you don't.

You can't take that from me.

[opening theme music plays]

[crickets chirping]

[crows cawing]

[cawing continues]

[door slams shut]

[man] Okay, I'll sit up

a bit more on the chair.

Is that good?

[rustling]

[interviewer]

Dale, can you see me?

Yes.

My name is Dale Wayne Sigler.

I was born

May the 10th, 1967.

[slow electronic music plays]

[Dale] I was born in

Danville, Illinois.

[wind rustling]

In order to understand the whole story,

you have to understand

where it all originated from.

My mother was first married

with two other sons.

My father met her when she

was going through a lot in her life.

She was 15 years old

when she first got pregnant.

And my mother was really a child

trying to find her purpose

and place in life.

A child having children.

[dog barking]

[Dale]

My father, he ended up losing his job.

He became

very despondent,

very frustrated.

And he'd become real a*usive,

so that trickled down to his kids,

to my mother.

[passive electronic music plays]

[Dale] I've seen my mother

get beat up so bad by my father

that

her eyes were black and blue.

Lip split.

Go to sleep with a butcher knife

under her pillow.

'Cause she was afraid that

either

[exhales deeply]

[voice trembles]

either her,

or one of us kids

were gonna get hurt critically.

[sniffs]

[soft piano music plays]

[Dale] Things happened

in my childhood that,

you know, traumatized me

for the majority of my life.

At the age of ten, I was molested

by someone in the family.

And that's something that I held

in my heart all my life.

And I couldn't talk to anyone.

Every time I tried to,

you know, it was rejection.

One time, I tried talking to my mother

about what I went through as a child,

and my mother couldn't deal

with the severity of it,

and it was just overwhelming,

and she went in her room

and shut the door.

And at that time, it just--

it just ate me up inside.

Then and there,

I just went all the way downhill.

[ominous music plays]

[traffic rushing]

[Dale] When I moved to Texas,

I fell back off into drugs

and stuff again.

Hooked on cocaine,

methamphetamines, intravenously.

Smoking speed, drinking.

Living on the streets,

robbing, stealing, jacking.

Did whatever I could do to survive.

Life just seemed like it was over with,

and at that time,

I told the Devil, I said:

"You might as well have your way.

Let's see what you can do, Devil,

because God don't care."

[ominous music continues]

[Dale] That day that I walked

into that Subway shop,

a lot of things changed.

[hurried ominous music plays]

[Dale] I went in there,

and said: "Now get up

and go empty the cash register."

I told him to get the money

and put it in a bag.

He was so terrified,

he run to the back room.

[ominous music continues]

When he run to the back room,

I ran back there.

When he turned around, I shot him.

Six times in the chest.

[somber music plays]

[voice trembles]

I took John's life selfishly.

[sniffs]

I'll forever have to carry

that pain in my heart,

for taking him away from his family.

[sniffs]

I just wanna say to Mrs. Zeltner

and her family that I apologize

with my soul and my heart.

[somber music continues]

[sirens blaring]

My name's Tommy Lenoir.

In 1990, I was a homicide detective

with the Arlington Police Department.

I've worked a lot of murders

in 26 years in the homicide unit,

and you just never forget

cases of this nature where

they're just so absolutely senseless

and brutal.

[slow brooding music plays]

[Tommy] We're now at the location,

at the Subway, where the

capital m*rder occurred,

back in April of 1990.

When we went into the Subway,

the victim was found in a pool of blood,

in the office area located

at the back of the sandwich shop

[dramatic music plays]

[Tommy] The fact that

a m*rder occurred during the course

of a robbery is not unusual.

We see that all of the time.

The mere brutality of this case,

the, what appeared to be execution-style

k*lling of this victim,

that's what made this remarkable.

That's what took this to a higher level

than other cases of this nature.

[Tommy] This was overkill.

He was shot more times

than he needed to be shot.

He was also shot in a very cowardly way.

He was shot in the back.

And then when he fell to the ground

and was helpless, probably already dying,

he shot more.

Well, that's what overkill is.

It's someone who is, uh

enjoying what they're doing.

You can tell that they really are taking

pleasure into the pain

and suffering that they're creating.

[dramatic music plays]

[water rushing]

[man]

From the moment I got involved,

I was convinced that the real issue

and the real battle in this case would be

what is the appropriate punishment

to give Dale Sigler?

We felt at the time, it was appropriate

to seek the death penalty because

there was a possibility

that if we waive the death penalty,

that he could in fact

be paroled after 15 years.

And we just didn't think

that was enough time.

All murders are bad,

there's no such thing

as a good m*rder, but,

the facts and circumstances of this case

were particularly heinous, I thought.

[Greg] John Zeltner,

at the time he was m*rder*d,

was about three or four weeks shy

of his 31st birthday.

The manager that we spoke with

and the fellow employees

that we spoke with

about John Zeltner,

all described him as

a hard-working employee, a nice young man.

[crickets chirping]

[Greg] Dale Sigler knew

that John Zeltner was gonna be

at the Subway sandwich shop working alone,

but he chose the Subway sandwich shop.

And he chose to rob somebody

who actually knew him.

[ominous music builds]

[Greg] And Dale Sigler went

into the sandwich shop, sat down,

had a conversation with John Zeltner,

bummed a cigarette off of John Zeltner.

You know, talked about a few things.

Uh and then just minutes later,

summarily executes him

for whatever money

was in the cash register.

That's pretty cold-hearted, in my mind.

[ominous music plays]

[Greg] I think Dale, in his state of mind,

when he went in there, thought:

"Don't leave any witnesses",

and Dale knew that John Zeltner

could identify him

and tell the police within five minutes

after he walked out of that

Subway sandwich shop that:

"Hey, the guy that robbed me,

believe it or not, is a guy I know.

His name is Dale Sigler."

Sometimes the most simplest

of explanations

is in fact the best explanation.

[soft dramatic music plays]

[electricity buzzing]

[ominous music plays]

I went to death row in '91.

[lock clicks]

[Dale] When they came and got me,

they put me on a chain with everyone else.

Started walking towards death row

and, uh

when we hit the hallway,

one of the officers said:

"Dead man walking", like on Green Mile,

like it was a joke or something.

You know, that's

when it really hit me,

the ramifications of my choices.

[door slams shut echoing]

I turned my life around

when I went to death row.

On death row that first day,

I cried out to God.

I said: "God, my whole life

you've been there for me.

You reached out to me

when I was a child."

I said: "God, manifest your life, please.

Show me that you're all-powerful.

Allow your light to shine on me, God.

Show me that I have a purpose."

[inmates chattering]

[Dale] That's when I started

hearing a little voice,

telling me:

"Just be still, it's gonna be okay."

And, uh

that was

that was God.

So I started striving to try

to not give up.

[Dale] If I would've been ex*cuted,

I would've deserved it.

But God, I like to believe,

had a bigger plan and a purpose for me.

[Dale] I've been incarcerated now,

27 years,

five months.

I came in here when I was 21 years old.

A lost, disturbed child.

I'm a 50-year-old man now,

that has striven to better himself,

to rehabilitate himself.

I see God daily.

I study God's word three

to four hours every day.

I try to mentor the people.

I try to reach out to people.

My whole destiny has been paved

before me by the word of God.

I'm living testimony

and a walking miracle.

All praise and glory

to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

and from now on, I will walk in His grace.

[Greg]

The most unique thing,

I think, about this case,

is why the case got reversed.

I would have to say that Dale Sigler's

probably a very lucky man,

because but for this

change in the jury selection law

that they applied retroactively,

I think there's a very high likelihood

that Dale Sigler would've been ex*cuted

sometime in the 90's

in the state of Texas.

[machine creaking]

-[machine creaking]

-[cow mooing]

[soft piano music plays]

[birds chirping]

[woman] Angel, Tilly, somebody.

Come on.

Tilly!

The first time I met Dale

was at the Wayne Scott Unit

in Angleton.

I was there visiting my stepson

when Dale walked through the door.

Pete introduced us, and it was like

this was a really

sweet man.

Come here. Mama's good.

Oh, that's my girl.

You hungry? Huh?

My name is Carole,

and I'm 71 years old.

I live by myself in a mobile home

in rural Texas.

Miss Kitty is probably around 16,

maybe 17 years old.

She is the old lady of the house, like me.

And I have three others.

This is Ebony.

She's the one I found in the cemetery

and raised her from basically a newborn.

That's my girl.

I've always been a person

that wanted to help the helpless,

and the discarded ones.

I guess it's always been

part of my nature.

It's like they need me,

and to a point, I need them.

Huh.

And it's basically

the same way with people.

[Carole] Dale and I became pen pals

when my stepson asked me if I would

write to him.

So we've been writing back and forth

to each other for nine years.

I probably have somewhere

around 200 plus letters from him.

[soft piano music plays]

He always starts his letters

off to me the same-- [inhales]

the same way:

"God bless you and keep you always

within the loving grasp of His hand."

[Carole] "I am here at Carol Vance Unit."

This is when he first got there.

"But I'm excited

to get started in the program.

I was given a job in the laundry

but haven't started yet."

[Carole] Our relationship

developed over the years.

I was able to go visit him,

and so we got to know each other more.

He really doesn't have

anybody else in Texas, so

I kind of stepped in to be there for him.

And that's when

he started calling me "Mama Carole".

I was-- I am his

second mom, according to him.

[soft music continues]

"Dear Mama Carole

[voice trembles] God bless you

and keep you always" [exhales]

"God is good, Mama."

[Carole]

Between visits and letters,

we have really opened up to each other.

"You are a precious gift

from my Heavenly Father.

My guardian angel,

wondrously poised

within God's gracious love."

And he wrote on here: "831."

And that stands for

eight letters, three words

one meaning:

"I love you."

[Carole] He's a special man.

[bell ringing]

[train whistling]

[birds chirping]

[guitar music plays]

[Carole]

I can't remember exactly when Dale

asked me if

it was okay for him

to parole to my house,

but I could tell

when he first started to ask me

he was very shy about it,

because I think he was afraid

I would say: "Oh, no, no, no."

[Carole] I had my reservations

for a moment,

but then I thought:

"Well what's the right thing to do?"

Uh, and I basically

quickly asked God for,

you know, an answer,

and God was saying: "This man needs you",

and,

that's why I went ahead

and said: "Okay, yeah."

[Carole]

That's all I wanna do, is just help him

start over.

[wind howling]

[crickets chirping]

[pensive piano music playing]

Put it around my neck?

[interviewer]

Well,

today you got some news.

Yes, sir, uh

Today I found out that, um

I'm getting ready to go home.

Uh [sighs]

[sniffs]

Tuesday.

Uh

This is my 30th year incarcerated.

And it's

it's such a blessing,

'cause I never thought

that I'd see this day.

I was just overjoyed.

Uh still am

emotional.

A little fear,

[voice trembles]

'cause I've been gone so long.

I just praise and thank God

that he's given me a second chance.

[slow guitar music playing]

[Dale] The hardest thing is gonna be

actually trying to adapt,

because I've been isolated

in a small community

inside of a community.

People tell me all the time

that you really can't fathom

what life is like,

what society's like,

how much it has changed.

People have told me that they went

to the mall, and the colors

and the movement just made them sick.

I mean, when I was out there,

there was no cell phones.

I mean, there's so many things

in society that were non-existent

when I walked in here.

[Dale] Carole Whitworth is a blessing,

because without Mama Carole,

I wouldn't have a place to call home.

[sniffs]

Mama Carole is a rock.

She's a good old country girl,

but she's strong,

she has integrity,

love, honor.

I mean, she is just such a blessing to me.

[wind rustling]

[Dale]

I know it's gonna be an uphill battle.

People will believe that you're a monster,

that you're an animal,

that you have not changed,

that you cannot change.

But one day, those hearts will change.

I firmly believe that,

because I'm not the lost, disturbed,

emotional child that I once was.

I'm a grown, focused,

purposeful individual, man of God now.

[Dale] I just ask that people

just give me a chance,

because time is a revealer of all things.

[soft piano music playing]

[water running]

Johnnie Bill was one of the nicest people

you'd ever meet.

He'd be sitting over there,

drinking Keystone beer,

making somebody laugh,

telling a joke or something.

Definitely a people person.

My name is Forest Allan Zeltner.

Johnnie Bill's actually our half-brother.

He was my father's

firstborn son.

[Forest] His name

was John William Zeltner,

named after my father,

but everybody that knew him

called him Johnnie Bill.

[Forest] Johnnie Bill sought out us,

and we were able to meet him.

Instantly, there was a bond

and connection between me and him.

We were very close.

[Forest] John was just a fun-loving guy.

Everybody wanted to be around him.

He lived to help everyone else.

You know, a lot of people

that knew my brother

knew that he was g*y,

and that he was open about it.

My father knew it,

everybody in my family knew it.

We were all accepted of it,

and we just realized that's Johnnie Bill,

and that's the way it's gonna be,

and he's

just Johnnie Bill. Still love him.

My name is John Harlan Zeltner.

Johnnie Bill, he come into my life

when I was about 16 years old,

you know, and we talked on a daily basis.

I mean, every day.

Never had a cross word.

Not one time, about anything.

That's rare, you know.

[chuckles]

[soft guitar music plays]

[Forest]

Yeah, we really miss him a lot.

You don't realize how fast life goes.

You think your time here is forever,

it's really not.

At any given moment, you could be

out.

Next minute, you could be dead.

[water running]

[Forest] It was hard. It was really hard

hearing that your brother is now dead.

It was very hard for me,

it was very hard for my father,

and it was very hard

for my younger brother.

I was pissed. Yeah, I was pissed.

I mean, I had some thoughts in my head,

that I would have liked

to have done, but I didn't.

[John] When I heard that he got

death sentence, I was happy about it,

but at the same time,

I wanted the death sentence

to happen right then and there.

I wanted him gone.

When I found out he wasn't gonna get

death sentence, that it went back to

pissed off again.

He shouldn't be alive.

Now he gets to walk?

No. I don't feel the system's

done right there.

[brooding music plays]

[Forest]

When I found out he was paroled,

it was like the nightmare

starting all over again.

We weren't even notified.

Nobody told us.

Nobody said anything about it.

[Forest] I really believe

the justice system failed us.

[John] I think it's bullshit.

I think the state of Texas needs to

reevaluate their whole judicial system,

you know, 100%.

You k*ll somebody like that,

you should never see the light of day.

Never.

I believe he is a huge risk to society.

I believe he will k*ll again.

Soon.

[crickets chirping]

[dog barking]

[Carole] This is Dale's room.

It's gonna be a lot bigger

than what he's used to.

[Carole] For Dale,

he's always

gonna have that label of being a m*rder*r.

And a lot of people

are not gonna give him

the opportunity or the chance

to let them see the type

of person he is now.

My family had their reservations.

Their main concern is he k*lled somebody,

so he might k*ll me.

They've actually said,

"Are you nuts? Are you crazy? Why?"

They don't understand why.

They're gonna take some convincing.

So how long has Dale been in prison?

Thirty years.

-For what?

-m*rder.

Who'd he-- No

-Huh?

-I don't know.

How many times you went to see him?

I went to see him

maybe three or four times?

I've been to see him twice

No, three times

since he's been locked up

at this unit he's at now.

I know you have concerns and all that.

You were afraid that

since he m*rder*d somebody,

that he would m*rder again.

You know, he would k*ll somebody again.

And uh-uh.

He won't do that.

In prison right now,

they call him "The Gentle Giant".

-Really?

-Yes.

-[Shannon] Love you, Granny.

-I love you, too.

[Carole] Bye, baby. Mm.

[Carole]

Everything's gonna be just fine.

Y'all come over and see Dale,

and visit with him for a bit.

You'll be fine.

-Let me know when he gets here.

-I will.

[Shannon]

Carole, she's a good lady. She's nice,

so I guess she sees the good in people.

She'd rather they be good than bad.

She's good-hearted,

and I just don't want the guy

to be some crazy, try to k*ll us,

or her, or anyone.

I don't think he's gonna do that--

You don't even know him,

so how do you know?

People change.

Not really.

[dramatic music plays]

I got up at four,

for the alarm was going off,

and I felt like I had just gone to sleep.

I thought: "Really? Already."

I can feel the emotions building.

[chuckles]

And it's like:

"Calm down, keep it under control,

everything's gonna be great."

But I know when I get there,

and I actually see Dale,

that it's gonna hit me full force then.

Definitely is gonna be

a special moment that

we'll never forget.

[dramatic music continues]

[Carole] I've had

this fleeting kind of moments of

doubt.

It might hit me for a moment,

then I just put it out of my head.

I don't wanna think

that I made the wrong decision.

Well, we're just now

coming up to the unit,

so [sighs]

This is the turn.

[Carole] I don't know how to explain it,

but I feel that he has changed, and

he's not that man anymore.

I feel it deep down inside.

Everything's gonna be fine.

It's gonna be perfect.

If Dale is doing all this

to take advantage of me,

then he's got his reward waiting for him

on Judgment Day.

[closing music plays]