10x11 - Strong Impressions

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: The forensics
pointed to an accidental death.

But the circumstantial
evidence suggested

something more sinister.

Was it possible that an alarm
clock, some laundry and a trash

bag could explain the mystery
of a young woman's death?

[theme music]

NARRATOR: The United
States Air Force

has the most
technologically advanced

fighter jets in the world.

As a mechanic, Staff
Sergeant Ron Gillette's job

was to keep those jets flying.

He was good at it, too, and
worked at both the George Force

Base in California and the
Nellis Base in Las Vegas.

MARK RENNER: He
was very competent.

He would not have gone on so
many temporary duty assignments

to Nellis Air Force Base had he
not been very good at his job.

NARRATOR: Ron, his wife
Vicki, and their two children

made their home in California
where they both grew up.

On August 28, 1984,
Ron returned home

after running some errands.

At first glance, it looked
like his wife was sleeping

in bed with their
three-year-old son.

But when he looked closer, he
noticed she was unconscious.

A plastic laundry bag
was close to her face.

KELLY MAY0: said
that she passed out,

if you will, and lay on the bed,
and the bag fell on her face,

and when he got there, her
face was covered with the bag

and she suffocated.

NARRATOR: When
paramedics arrived,

they pronounced Vicki
dead at the scene.

She was 26 years old.

KELLY MAY0: She was
lying on her side,

and there was blood coming from
her mouth and her nose, which

indicated to us possibly
a drug overdose.

Ron was there.

Very distraught.

Crying uncontrollably.

Very upset.

NARRATOR: Ron told investigators
that Vicki had some problems

sleeping, so the night
before, at her request,

he put four sleeping pills
into her mixed drink.

It appeared that Vicki
lost consciousness

while doing the
laundry and rolled

over onto the
plastic laundry bag.

On the kitchen
counter, investigators

found a used glass
and an empty container

of an over the counter sleep
medication in the trash.

KEVIN POORMAN: We
then sent the drinks

off that were found in the
house to the laboratory

so that they could do testing
on it using a gas chromatograph,

mass spectrometer,
to try to identify

the presence of
dr*gs in the drink.

NARRATOR: And the only
drug that was found

was the over the counter
sleep medication.

The autopsy didn't reveal much.

-It was a typical
problematic case.

You've got somebody who's
dead, and the autopsy

doesn't really show very much.

Very non-specific things.

NARRATOR: The medical examiner
found some swelling in Vicki's

lungs, called pulmonary edema,
and a scrape on her upper lip.

But there was no
evidence of asphyxiation.

The cause of Vicki's
death was officially

ruled as undetermined.

MARK RENNER: I think the
original autopsy listed cause

of death unknown with the kind
of a question mark of liver

disease or liver failure as a
potential contributing factor.

NARRATOR: Ron's coworkers
corroborated his alibi

that he was working on the
morning of his wife's death,

and investigators
were about to chalk

this up to an
unfortunate accident.

PAUL TAYLOR: She did not have
any drinking or drug problems,

and that she was a loving
mother to her two young children

who, I believe, were ages
three and five at the time.

And there was no
evidence there to be

gleaned that would
explain her death.

NARRATOR: But Ron
Gillette, of all people,

wouldn't let the
investigation die.

MARY SANCHEZ: we were
at the funeral house,

Ron ran to the coffin
and fell on his knees

and started crying and
screaming, saying, Vicki, why?

Why did you do that to yourself
and to me and to my kids?

NARRATOR: The medical
examiner ruled the cause

of Vicki Gillette's
death as undetermined.

Even to cynical
investigators, there

was nothing to
indicate foul play.

-So we had nothing.

We had no m*rder w*apon,
we had no motive,

we had no evidence that a
m*rder had even been committed.

NARRATOR: Toxicology tests
performed during Vicki's

autopsy found sleeping
pills in her system,

and scientists estimated she
had consumed about 16 tablets,

not the four Ron
told them about.

But 16 tablets is a small
fraction of a fatal dose,

and it was entirely
possible that Vicki

had taken the pills herself.

Investigators did find
some suspicious items

in the Gillette's apartment.

First, there was an
alarm clock in the master

bedroom set to 3:00 AM.

And inside the plastic laundry
bag found next to Vicki's body

were clothes, but not
the kind you'd expect.

-I think there was
a shirt in there

that was still partially folded.

And so I smelled the
clothes, and they

had the distinct
smell of detergent.

These weren't old clothes.
This wasn't dirty laundry.

-That created all sorts of
eyebrow raising on our part.

So now we had what we believed
was a staged crime scene.

NARRATOR: Then a new
witness came forward

who saw something suspicious
on the morning Vicki died.

PAUL TAYLOR: There was a
neighbor who saw Ron waiting

on the steps for the
ambulance to arrive.

When the ambulance showed
up, then he started crying.

That was pretty compelling.

NARRATOR: And if
that weren't enough,

just 11 days after
Vicki's death,

Ron Gillette was spotted at a
local rental car agency when he

returned from a
trip to Las Vegas.

KELLY MAY0: She said, you
know that guy whose wife died?

He rented a car from me
not long after she died,

and he just brought
the car back.

Attached to the rear
view mirror of the car

was one of those
wedding decorations,

and attached to
his arm was a very

attractive young Hispanic woman.

They seemed very
close, very intimate.

NARRATOR: Investigators
literally couldn't believe it.

So they called Ron
to check the story.

-Ron said, yeah,
that's my new wife.

He said, I just married her.

She's a wonderful person.

He said, well, you know,
my children-- he told me,

my children really
need a mother.

They just need the mother.

They need someone
in their lives.

MARY SANCHEZ: could
not believe it.

I was like, I was waiting
for her, for the kids,

for my sister.

It was really sad.

It's just something that
you just can't believe it.

NARRATOR: Ron's
new bride, Sue Yen,

was a Nicaraguan citizen
living in Las Vegas.

Ron said he met
her a year earlier.

MARK RENNER: He was living
two separate lives-- the life

with his wife and children
at George Air Force Base,

and the life with
his new love interest

at Nellis Air Force Base.

And he was on temporary duty
assignment quite regularly.

-Interesting to note that
Sue Yen told us that she was

pregnant with twins, which was
another piece of this puzzle.

NARRATOR: Sue Yen said they
had been engaged for months,

and she had given
him an ultimatum.

KELLY MAY0: Sue Yen told Ron
that if you don't marry me

this time, in
September, it's over.

Period.

I don't want to see you anymore.

And Ron really loved her.

Very attractive young lady.

NARRATOR: Investigators
discovered that the wedding

invitations were mailed
before Vicki's death.

Sue Yen told police
that she was unaware Ron

had been lying to her.

-She said that she
knew nothing of this

and he told her that his--
Vicki had died of brain cancer

two years ago in Mexico.

-We knew Sue Yen had really
nothing to do with this.

She was a dupe.

-Usually you have a cause of
death and search for a motive,

but now we had a motive.

Now we had a motive, really,
in search of a cause of death.

PAUL TAYLOR: We believe that
Ron Gillette k*lled Vicki rather

than divorce her, because he got
so far in debt for the wedding

that he needed money to pay
off all his debt that he had

accrued in buying the wedding
ring, the wedding gown, and all

the wedding invitations
and the honeymoon.

He had a life insurance
policy on Vicki

in the amount of $27,000.

That would have paid
off all his debt

and given him some
money to spare.

NARRATOR: Investigators
now had plenty

of circumstantial evidence
to suggest homicide,

but little if any
forensic evidence.

Could a second look at
the Gillette's apartment

yield something useful?

MARK RENNER: Marrying this
other woman literally days

after he buries Vicki-- he
goes to Las Vegas and marries

Sue Yen and brings her back.

Brings her back after the
honeymoon to the same home

where Vicki has died
literally two weeks earlier.

And you're right.

You could not script that
and have it be believable.

NARRATOR: With
behavior like that,

investigators reexamined
the circumstances

surrounding Vicki
Gillette's death.

Kevin Poorman analyzed
the plastic laundry

bag found next to Vicki's body.

It was actually a trash bag.

KEVIN POORMAN: The forensic side
of me began to try to assess

what can we do with the bag?

What's the potential
value of the bag?

Is there any forensic
processing that

needs to be done with the bag?

NARRATOR: Ron Gillette
said he found Vicki in bed

with the plastic bag
on or close to her face

as if she had accidentally
rolled onto it and suffocated.

To test this theory,
investigators

look for facial oils on
the outside of the bag.

Poorman placed the bag
in an airtight chamber

and then introduced
heated super glue, which

adheres to any
skin oils present.

But he found none.

PAUL TAYLOR: I can't tell
you how disappointed we

were when he made
that phone call.

NARRATOR: But when
he got off the phone,

Poorman realized he had
made a crucial mistake.

-We realized that the
bag was inside out.

That because of the
way it's manufactured,

it's a pleated bag, and
there's a heat seal on one end.

When you pull it inside out,
it doesn't lay flat anymore.

NARRATOR: Poorman repeated
the super glue fuming test,

and this time he
found something.

-What we saw was
a large oval area

that at some point,
something oval

and presumably oily was present.

NARRATOR: When he examined
the bag with special lighting,

Poorman saw even more.

KEVIN POORMAN: Under
oblique lighting

is when I really saw
the facial features,

in particular the stretched
impression of the nose

area and the chin area in the
center of this large oval.

And I remember thinking
to myself at that point,

I wonder if we're looking at the
death mask of Vicki Gillette.

NARRATOR: Poorman searched
the forensic literature,

hoping to find
some way to confirm

that this was a
facial impression.

But he found nothing.

So he devised a test of his
own with trash bags which

were the same brand as
Vicki's laundry bag.

KEVIN POORMAN: And what we did
was have the volunteer place

their face on the bag, and we
pushed from behind their face

into the bag to create face
impressions, looking for not

only the actual transfer
of oils to the bag,

but also to see whether there
were any actual stretching that

was occurring in the bag itself.

NARRATOR: Poorman used
six different bags,

and each time, he increased the
pressure on the subject's face.

After the sixth
test, the volunteer

said the pressure
was so great she

declined to participate further.

Poorman looked at all
six bags, and only one

matched the stretch marks
found on the laundry bag.

It was the last one.

The one where the most
pressure had been applied.

This test proved that the
image on the laundry bag

was a human face, and was
created by extreme force,

not by accidentally
rolling onto it.

-And we got very
excited, because now we

had the m*rder w*apon.

This was huge.

NARRATOR: And a life-sized
photograph of Vicki Gillette

was a perfect match of the
image on the laundry bag.

Ron Gillette was arrested and
charged with his wife's m*rder.

PAUL TAYLOR: Never had a
plastic big with a face print

ever been used in any
m*rder trial ever.

The defense attorney called
it the shroud of Poorman,

but we just called it the death
mask, and that was our version.

This is the death mask
of Vicki Gillette.

NARRATOR: But prosecutors
wondered whether their trash

bag test would hold up in court.

Prosecutors believed that Ron
Gillette decided weeks, if not

months earlier to k*ll
his wife Vicki in order

to marry his Las Vegas
fiancee, Sue Yen.

Ron's telephone calls to Sue
Yen were proof of premeditation.

-Beginning in August, he started
calling from his home phone.

This was significant,
because we found out

that Vicki paid all the bills.

He started calling from
his home phone in August,

because he knew
she was not going

to be alive to open up
the bill and pay it.

NARRATOR: And investigators
found evidence

that Vicki's kneecaps had
been broken and surgically

repaired 18 months
before her death.

Ron admitted during
police questioning

that he was the culprit.

-Ron said Vicki had
dropped some pretzels,

and I became angry with her
and I pushed her to the floor

and broke her kneecaps.

So we have now an admission
of a propensity for v*olence

with his wife, some
domestic abuse,

which is helping us
sew this case up.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors say the
night before Vicki's death, Ron

Gillette crushed


and put them into Vicki's drink,
believing this would k*ll her.

Ron set the alarm for 3:00 AM.

[alarm]

And when he awoke, he
was surprised to find

Vicki still alive.

So he decided to suffocate
her with a plastic trash bag.

But her face oils
and the impressions

from her nose and chin
were left on the bag.

Ron turned the bag inside out,
filled it with clean laundry,

and placed it on the bed to make
her death appear accidental.

He then put his three-year-old
son into bed with his dead wife

to further mask the deception.

-And in so doing, a
completely heinous act, he

leaves the young son in
bed with the dead mother.

The son didn't wake up.

By the grace of
God, the son didn't

wake up and find
his mother dead.

NARRATOR: 11 days later,
with Vicki out of the way,

Ron married his fiancee Sue
Yen, and used Vicki's $27,000

life insurance to
pay for the wedding.

KELLY MAY0: What's interesting
is that they had already

sent out wedding invitations
to family members

while Vicki was still around.

They had ordered the cake,
they had set up the groomsmen

and the tuxedos and the dresses.

NARRATOR: At the
trial, the defense

claimed Ron was
telling the truth

that Vicki's death
was an accident.

Their position was that
the autopsy did not

corroborate the
prosecution's theory.

MARK RENNER: Our approach
from the defense standpoint

was to show that
there was no homicide.

That Vicki, his first wife, had
died of some kind of natural--

I want to say natural causes,
or at least unexplained causes.

That we were going to admit
that Ron had developed

this relationship
with Sue Yen while

on temporary duty assignment
at another Air Force Base,

but it was simply happenstance.

NARRATOR: And the defense had
a surprise witness-- a Navy

pathologist who
would be testifying

that there was no homicide.

but something happened
just before he

was to take the stand.

DR. CLARK: I was looking at the
slides, looking at the report,

going back and forth.

And suddenly I
said, wait a minute.

This case looks exactly like
another one I've seen recently

where a man died because
a car slipped off a jack,

landed on his chest, and
kept him from breathing.

NARRATOR: The evidence in that
case were small ruptured blood

vessels on the man's lungs.

Dr. Clark reviewed the
autopsy slides and found

the same bleeding in
Vicki Gillette's lungs.

DR. CLARK: Seeing
the little areas

of bleeding there is indicative
of pressure changes in the lung

that you see when
airflow is obstructed

through the nose and mouth.

NARRATOR: Dr. Clark
changed his mind.

He now believed Vicki
Gillette had been m*rder*d.

He told the defense
about this on the morning

he was set to testify.

-It was just like being
hit in the stomach

and having all the air
go out of your body.

NARRATOR: The prosecution
called Dr. Clark to the stand,

and his findings, along
with the trash bag tests,

convinced the jury.

PAUL TAYLOR: If we didn't
have that plastic bag,

we were screwed.

We could not prove this
without the plastic bag.

We had the m*rder w*apon.

I was the key to the
whole damn thing.

NARRATOR: Ron Gillette was found
guilty of first degree m*rder.

He was almost
sentenced to death.

But one juror held out, so he
was sentenced to life in prison

without parole.

Incredibly, Ron served only


before he was released
for good behavior.

He now lives in Las Vegas with
Sue Yen and their children.

-I didn't know.
I didn't know until he was free.

I didn't know until he was free.
-Does it anger me?

Yes.

Ron deserves to be in jail for
the rest of his natural life.

That's where he deserves to be.

He m*rder*d this woman
with callous disregard.

He had another life
he wanted to go on to,

so he took the mother
of his children

and his wife of some
years and just k*lled her

because he had
better things to do.