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tv   Lockup Wabash  MSNBC  June 22, 2013 6:00pm-7:01pm PDT

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it requires skill and training to operate safely as well as a fair amount of luck. that is all for this edition of "caught on camera." due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. did you just trip over something? >> i don't remember. >> you don't remember. did somebody help you fall? >> a suspected inmate is covering up his own brutal beating. >> i don't like using the same room that everybody else uses because i'm bringing their funk in my cell. >> two cell mates shared deeply
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disturbing charges. >> when i was younger i was a very, very bad person. something was broken. i ended up buying a chainsaw and cut canning the corpse into about 15 different pieces. >> one victim's mother still lives the nightmare. >> i go by a dumpster and wonder if that is one of my father's last resting places. ♪ >> plucked from death row, another inmate tries to make a difference. >> at the end of the day life is about choices. all of this stuff is an illusion. ♪
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♪ indiana's wabash valley correctional facility houses nearly 2200 inmates. more than one third of them are doing time for serious violent crimes. unless isolated in solitary confinement the vast majority of inmates live in two-man cells. pairings are critical and avoiding a volatile mix of cell mates is a constant challenge. >> we try to not put people that is doing life with people that goes home next year or blacks with whites or white supremist with somebody that might have a child molestation case just to avoid the con liquidity. >> even with careful screening conflicts can still arise with cell mates. >> a guy in the infirmary with
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several injuries to the facial and head area. he is saying he just had a seizure so we will go over and try to talk to him. i think they discovered he may have been assaulted with a hot pot. we will talk to him and see if he is willing to talk at all. >> the victim is curtis cash who is serving a 29 year sentence for burglary. >> cash. what's up with you, man? you can sit down if you want to. sit down. that is a pretty nasty fall. did you get dizzy? >> yeah. >> have a seizure? >> i don't remember. >> have you ever fell like this before since you have been here? >> no. >> first time? >> yeah. >> do you have any medical conditions that would make you fall? >> no. >> just trip over something? >> i don't remember now. >> you don't remember. did somebody help you fall? >> no. >> no? is it safe to assume that probably something more than you falling happened that you
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just don't want to talk about? who do you live with? >> woods. >> woods? >> yeah. >> what is his first name. >> i don't know. >> how long have you guys lived together? >> about eight months. >> eight months and you think you are safe to go right back to the same cell you was in? >> yeah. >> you don't think you will fall again? >> no. >> you think nor whatever reason you fell this time for is over with and you won't fall no more? >> should be, yeah. >> you understand where i'm coming from. we got to protect you. >> i fell. leave it at that. >> don't want to talk about what happened then? >> trying to get medical attention, man. >> i'm going to get you all fixed up. they done some x-rays. all right. >> he reported that he had fallen in a cell which is typical in prison. instead of these guys wanting to snitch on anybody they will say they fell or had a seizure or hit the head playing
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basketball. it looks like his jaw is possibly broken. maybe the orbital was fractured. staff seems to think something was done with a hot pot. there was a hot pot broke in the cell found and the cell mate is in cuffs. we will talk to him and see what he has to say. >> the cell mate is dane that woods, serving 7 0* years. >> apparently there was an incident in your cell. that is what i'm here to talk to you about. pretty substantial injuries for just falling. >> i'm sure that the man -- >> a lot blood in the cell. >> a pretty good gash. >> how did the hot pot get broke in your cell? >> because it was --
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he might have told me he fell and he might have told meow beat the [ bleep ] out of him. >> if you are running around here assaulting people and i'm convinced you did this. it is not a simple fall but you are not going to man up and tell me why it happened and what happened? it is not the truth at all and we both know it. i'll make different housing arrangements for you if you don't want to actually tell me what was going on. he is maintaining the story that nothing happened and that he didn't do anything and the guy fell. so at this point you you know
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we will go in and i will go look at the cell and see what it looks like. >> while violence between cell mates is always a possibility in prison for phillip stroud and curtis mcground living together has had the opposite effect. >> is that the nasty diabetic. >> why don't you put a cookie on -- >> that is not like -- >> i got to get rid of this stomach. >> dear heavenly father, lord, we thank you for this meal. >> oh o, kurt. kurt is a good brother, man. he is a gentle giant. he brought a lot of balance into my life. we have been cellies for almost two years. >> stroud never imagined he would have a cellmate. >> he used to be housed on indiana's death row living alone in a cell awaiting execution. >> i'm in prison for three
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counts of murder. three counts of robbery. two counts of dealing in cocaine. it has been three year -- i spent three he years on death row. when on arrival, half a million dollars score. it was a residence, a safe. three people, three innocent people end up losing their lives when they didn't have to. they didn't deserve to. >> stroud's victims were contractors working at the home stroud and his accomplices robbed. stroud ordered the men tied up and then shot each in the head with a pistol. >> when i first walked on death row, the thing that hit me
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first was the silence. the absolute silence. walking on there was like the type of silence that takes you in. the type of silence that is listening to you, watching your every move to see how you are going to respond to it. i came on the unit 23 years old. trying to project courage and confidence and strength but on the inside i was upset. i was confused. and i was afraid. the thing i remember the most was the cold concrete floor underneath my bare feet and just sitting on the edge of that bunk, man, and i just broke down and started crying. and crying for all the people that i hurt. crying for justice. crying for my mother. you know what i mean. and during those three years, seven men, you know, were executed. they lost their lives.
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>> a change in indiana's capital punishment laws saved stroud from joining them. his sentence was commuted to three life terms without the possibility of parole. but stroud's salvation did not immediately make him a better inmate. >> i was -- i was the chief among all singing songsers. i was the -- among all sinners. i was the bully's bully. i would make things move the way i wanted to make them move. >> that all changed when found himself sharing a cell with mcgrud. >> me weeing a mellow type guy i'm low ski. guys come through me to help straighten them out a little bit. >> he started to thin out a
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little bit. >> bald head brothers is in. i'm trying to tell you, man. >> he changed a whole lot. i'm proud of myself that god used me to work with him after his reputation around the prison and on the street i'm thankful that i could be used and i got the a brother like this that brought so much balance to my life. >> just as he credits mcgrown with helping him become a better man stroud says he is determined to pay it forward. he spends his free time tutoring other inmates like tee tino austin who is trying to earn his ged. >> what would be the answer? >> to the left. >> right. don't get pissed now. >> we are just here trying to offer critical thinking skills. conflict resolution. ways to settle disputes without resorting to violence.
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just use the platform and then the credibility that we do have from our past lives to try to effect positive change on these youngster's lives in here and on o the streets. >> you are doing good, man. you catch on quick, for real. >> coming up, two cell mates with two unthinkable crimes. and later. >> what have you seen so far? >> prison surveillance footage provides a new view as investigators try to figure out what happened to curtis cash and whether his cellmate should bare the blame. i was just a concerned mom, with a crazy dream. a wish that there was a company that i could rely on, that did all of the hard work for me. i'm jessica alba, and the honest company was my dream. [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped a million businesses successfully get started, including jessica's. launch your dream at legalzoom today. call us. we're here to help.
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at indiana's wabash valley correctional facility most of the jan inmates live in two-man cells and like any people
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sharing close quarters, friendliness is vital. >> why are you sleeping with your hands -- sweeping with your hands? >> i don't like using the same broom that everybody else uses because then i just bring their funk into my cell. >> when do you think we going to do the spring cleaning? >> not going to be today because i'm already cleaning the floor. >> i will probably make time for it over the weekend. >> do it sunday. just plan on sunday. >> cell mates for about a year, joshua and dustin might have different priorities but you they share the sigma of having is separately committed unthinkable crimes. >> from day one i have known that the thing things that i he done even among criminals was way, way off, you know, into the deep
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end. when i was younger, i was a very, very bad person. something was broken and i didn't think like other kids my age did. >> trowbridge was 14 years old the day he committed the heinous crimes that brought him to victim. he was high on inhalants. his victim was a 69-year-old female neighbor who was working in the backyard of her trailer home. >> i see that her front door is open and me being the person that i was that clicked, okay, go get some money and that was my in debt when i went up -- intent when i went up in there and she came in and she actually scared me when she came in because i didn't know that she came in.
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and i attacked attacked her. and sex wally assaulted her and i killed her. and i robbed her. and then i left. the poor woman didn't stand a chance. >> prosecutors determined that trobbridge not only strangled his victim but sexually assaulted her after her death. he was sentenced to 77 years for robbery, murder and abuse of a corpse. he has already served 15 and with good behavior could be out of prison by age 50. he currently lives in wabash's protective custody unit which houses inmates whose lives could be at risk in general population due to the nature of their crimes.
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trowbridge's cell mate joshua bean shares the same circumstances. murder and abuse of a corpse. he is serving 68 years. the victim was his ex-girlfriend heather norris. >> it was a toxic relationship. it was love/hate and i still very much love h her. >> throughout the couple's three year relationship, heather told her family that bean was physically abusive and even though bean faced a pending trial on domestic abuse charges he says he wasn't abusive. >> it is predicated on a lie. the lie is that we had a violent relationship. i'm not saying i'm without fault but as far as what happened with her death worst
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case voluntary manslaughter. best case self-defense. >> bean insists the couple had an argument and heather came at him with a knife. >> i was able to get ahold of her forearm and try to pry the knife out of her hand and even still after i had the knife she continued to come for it. that kind of caught me off guard and in the heat of the moment i reacted. i stabbed her in the side right here. >> but according to court records bean confessed to a friend that he stabbed her several times and slit her throat. >> no one knows for sure because the body was never recovered. >> i decided to do something with the body. i thought creamation. at the time i didn't know the specifics behind it. so i made an attempt to burn her body.
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a botched attempt. i ended up buying a chainsaw. >> that is what people can't get past is what happened after. >> coming up, the mother of josh bean's victim speaks out. >> i go by a dumpster and i wonder if that is one of my daughter's last resting places. >> but first. >> it looks like he tried to clean the blood up before the staff arrived. blood on the bedding and some of the back window. >> investigator littlejohn tries to determine if one cell is an accident scene or a crime scene. and -- ♪ >> saved from death's row, phillip stroud leads the choir. she got a parking ticket... ♪
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at indiana's wabash valley correctional facility the m
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huskers cell block has been put on blockdown, limiting movement of all inmates until investigators can determine the cause of curtis cash's severe facial injuries. both cash and his cell mate dane that woods claim cash simply fell but enternal affairs investigator frank littlejohn suspects a coverup. >> the suspect probably told the victim you better not tell on me, say you tell. typical in these types of situations. nobody falls and receives those kind of injuries. >> the havinger suspects he might have used a hot pot to injure his cell mate. >> the hotpot was down in the trash. >> littlejohn's next step is to investigate the cell itself. >> looks like obviously you can see probably a little blood here. looks like he probably tried to clean the blood up actually before the staff arrived. there is blood on the bedding. some of the back window.
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it was probably a little struggle. it looked like he already packed his property. that is typical when something happens they pack their stuff up so the officers don't get things mixed up or whatever. he is ready to go to segregation. he knew he would be going. >> littlejohn also checked cell house surveillance foot and. he wants to eliminate the possibility of nebraska and oklahoma state else entering the cell. >> nobody comes in and nobody goes out. >> nobody has been in or out between breakfast and lunch. >> nobody in or out. >> you will see the officers are at the cell. this is offender cash, the offender with the injuries and this is the cell mate coming out. >> the video doesn't show anything as far as an assault taking place. it does show that nobody entered or exited the cell other than the two and they didn't come out for breakfast
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and didn't come out for lunch. so whatever happened obviously happened inside the cell. >> woods was taken to a high security cell block where he will be locked in a single person cell 23 hours a day pending the final results of the investigation. >> put that on. >> they put us in a room. ever it is really hard. really hard. especially if you are not -- especially if they have seizures in the cell, you get blamed for it. >> coming up, joshua bean faces new troubles following a shakedown.
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>> methamphetamine. >> and later, his victim's mother talks about the brutality of her daughter's murder. >> i have nightmares that heather's last moments was calling out for me to help her. hey. they're coming. yeah. british. later. sorry. ok...four words... scarecrow in the wind... a baboon... monkey? hot stew saturday!? ronny: hey jimmy, how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? jimmy: happier than paul revere with a cell phone. ronny: why not? anncr: get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.
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here is what is a happening. two people dead after a dramatic crash at an air show? ohio today. nobody in the crowd hurt. a wildfire in southwestern colorado has grown to more than 60 square miles. fire officials say the ones fast moving blaze has slowed down and they are optimistic they he can protect the tourist town of south fork at this time. more news later. due mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised.
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♪ ♪ life without parole is a hard pill to swallow ♪ ♪ i can feel the tension when it is robbing in the building ♪ ♪ no where left for you to hide ♪ ♪ only two ways out the wall or suicide ♪ ♪ this ain't the place you want to be because prison life is hard ♪ ♪ locked up, locked up, everybody locked up ♪ ♪ this ain't the place you want to be because prison life is hard ♪ ♪ locked up, locked up everybody locked up ♪ ♪ this ain't the place you want to be because prison life is hard ♪ ♪ stay free keep it real ♪ peace >> though phillip stroud will
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never live life beyond the fences he has found another means of liberation. ♪ music to me is more important than food. more important than water. more important than anything. makes me free. just makes me free. >> stroud leads the prison choir. they perform during sunday church services and at is special events. and his cell mate curtis mcgrown has been a constant source of help and inspiration. ♪ you made a choice you should have made a change ♪ ♪ no where left for you to hide ♪ ♪ i almost made it fate ♪ i suggest you stay away from here and follow god ♪ ♪ i know it is hard out there on the streets but prison life
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is harder ♪ >> this is one of the best ones i heard him sing right there. >> raps a lot and sings a lot. he will be waking me up wanting to write a rap for church. i look at myself as like a mentor towards him. >> what position will you have me playing in the choir? ♪ >> i can't do that. >> you look like you can do that. >> that is only -- that would be gone. >> that is stereotyping. just based on your stomach. >> that's all right. it will be gone. >> um-h'm. ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ >> once awaiting execution on death row, stroud is now serving three life sentences without the possibility of parole for murder. >> i have been using my street
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credibility to power my testimony, my music just to try to influence them in a different direction because i am mindful there is a lot o of people who do look towards me. ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound ♪ >> it has been 11 years since the cold blooded triple h murder that brought stroud to prison. he has had a clean conduct record and says he is committed to becoming a new man. one very different than the one who use used to wreak havoc one streets. >> if you have something and i want it whether it was your girlfriend, your car, your money, your territory, whatever, if i wanted that i was coming to get that. if you tried to come get it from me i was coming to get you. if i'm coming to see you, it
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was over with. usually i would probably be the last person that you will see, you know. i was the nuclear option. ♪ >> at the end of day, life is about choices. all of this stuff is an illusion. the life i led on the streets, gangope dealing, the ban banking and getting drunk and getting high in you want to keep for real you got to make better choices than the one i made. that life will lead you down three choices. death. life in prison or empty existences on the streets. >> while stroud use uses musico escape the restraints of prison, many others turn to
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drugs. and despite the efforts of staff drugs are smuggled into the prison. trafficking and abuse pose security problems. corrections officers conduct surprise shakedowns to find and confiscate drugs. today's tort is the protective custody unit. >> two-man teams. bring them out and set them down. >> 504. >> remember, these guys are on protective custody so a little space between them. >> among those to be searched are two of wabash's more high profile inmates, joshua bean and dustin trowbridge.
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>> open 504. >> shortly after bean and trowbridge are allowed back into their cell corrections officers return to administer the drug tests. >> we test for 8 different drugs. morphine, oxy, amphetamines, methamphetamines, cocaine and marijuana. >> the containers are designed with a drug detection patch that provides immediate results. >> bean. i have you positive for meth am feet mean. want that sent out to the lab? >> sent it to the lab. there is no way. >> if an inmate tests positive he can request a second test in
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an outside lab. bean is confident it is the result of the prescription drug he is aloued to take. >> i'm on wellbutrin. send it to the. >> getting narcotics or anything like that back here is next to impossible. so, i don't have a doubt when it goes to the lab i'll be all right. >> for bean, a positive drug test could result in a transfer out of the protective custody unit where the high profile nature of his crime, the murder of his ex-girlfriend and destroying her corpse could make him a target among other inmates. >> i haven't been anywhere either in the county are in a prison that i hadn't run into somebody who knew who i was. that kind of thing follows you everywhere. i tested positive for pot maybe a year or two ago and they took
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me to a disciplinary unit and i was over there for maybe a half hour and i had four or five people say look, you know, if you don't get out of here we are just going to straight stab you. >> coming up, investigators reach conclusions on both curtis cash and joshua bean. did you i did. email? so what did you think of the house? well it's got a great kitchen, but did you see the school rating? oh, you're right. oh hey babe, i got to go. ok. come here sweetie, say bye to daddy. bye daddy! have a good day at school ok? ok.
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control unit as internal affairs completed its investigation. >> it appeared upon the scene when we arrived that cash had been assaulted by woods with a hotpot. he had sustained some lacerations to his face. multiple bruising to the neck and all over his body where it appeared to us that he had been kicked. >> but both cell mates are sticking to the same story, that cash's injuries were the result of falling down in the c. >> because of the lack of cooperation from th alleged assailant and the alleged victim, we did not file any external or internal charges on mr. woods or mr. cash. >> both of these guys have a lot of years left in prison so it is normal for the victim not to talk. he doesn't want to be labeled as a snitch. there is the probability he would be assaulted in the future.
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he a maintaining the story that he fell and you can't make him talk. >> woods is is released and returned to general on lakes. he has been given a new cell assignment in another housing unit. >> you have got to get along in here. you have got to. >> we get along great. >> have you seen cash since the altercation? >> no, he is on the other side of the prison. >> didn't you guys leave on good terms? >> of course. >> over in the protective custody unit, joshua bean has received word on his ongoing investigation. after testing positive for methamphetamines during a recent shakedown, bean requested that an outside lab conduct its own test. the results came back negative, backing up bean's claims. >> i take wellbutrin. and pretty much everybody that
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takes wellbutrin in here tested positive for methamphetamines. i knew i hadn't been doing anything. >> open your mouth. thank you. >> although the prescription drug often creates problems whenever he is tested, according to bean it has become his lifeline. he says he needs the medication to cope with the anxiety and stress of weeing incarcerated for the murder of h his girlfriend. >> and just when i think i have a grip on it, these wounds or scar tissue i thought was healed just opens back up all over again, you know. and i'm, you know, sometimes even parksly in tear consider partially in tears. stripes i want to hit the off switch when i don't have one. there is no on and off to this kind of stuff. it happens when it happens and i just got to deal with it. >> on the eve of his 30th
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birthday bean's cellmate has spent nearly half of his life in priso prison for murdering d sexually assaulting a 69-year-old woman. he, too, attempts to make peace with the past. >> i didn't used to like myself. i had a lot of hatred towards my isself for a long time. on the back of my arms it says freak of nature. >> that would mean freak. that is nature. i started seeing things completely different. and i changed. i don't want to say it is because i found god or anything like that because that truthfully that all came afterwards. i didn't really get religious or anything until years after i figured out what a piece of crap i really used to be. >> when coming home, i could never ask you to forgive me for
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the horrible things i did to you. >> dustin and joshua reach out to the woman they not only murdered but whose bodies they desecrated. >> i never wanted anything than you love. i never would have hurt you. >> but the mother of bean's victim has a very different account. >> i know that heather was beaten by him at least four times. every parent wants the safest and healthiest products
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more than 2,000 inmates are housed behind the walls of the wabash valley correctional facility. but housing assignments are temporary as these two cellmates found out. they were moved from their larger corner cell to a smaller one on the other side of the unit. >> why did they move you out of the corner area? >> did you see the dude in that cell now?
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>> he is a bit bigger. he needed that cell a bit more than we did. >> they moved you out of that cell because there was a bigger guy moving in? >> it was a handicapped cell. we are both kind of small. i'm bigger than him but the guy bigger than me needed that cell more than me. they looked like they was in a matchbox when we moved in here. >> but for stroud the only thing that changed is the view. >> to me it's all prison. you know, that's how i look at it. whether the cell was ten times this size or half this size i might have been in worse situations. i just look at it like we are still in prison and can't go home. the only environment that really matters is this environment right here, you know what i mean. i got a nice view. i got a view that i look at now and it's really -- >> step over here so you can see.
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>> to any young person or anybody who think that coming to prison is cool or whatever. come here. that's what i got to look at for the rest of my life. those wires. that might be the closest that i ever get to freedom is close but it's far away. that's what lockup is. that is what my extended stay is like. that's for real. that's real life. it's not high like in the movies. it ain't none of that, man. this is my bed. when i look out the window that's what i see. >> dustin trowbridge keeps a unique record of the many cells he's occupied over the last 15 years. >> i wrote down where i was every birthday since i been here. 15th was in the drunk tank in the county jail. 16th was in the cell above me.
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17th was on the right side. 18th was on the right side. >> trowbridge has decided to mark his 30th birthday by writing a letter to the elderly woman he robbed, murdered and sexually assaulted. >> i can never ask you to forgive me for the horrible things i did to you. i cannot yet forgive myself. i am sorry i stole your sense of security when i snuck in your home and stole your sense of accomplishment and endeavors. i am sorry i stole your dignity. i'm sorry i stole you from your loved ones when i very cowardly took the life that god gave you. there is no words that can ever express how sorry i am. to those who knew and loved [ bleep ] i'm sorry and will not ask for giveness either. ask for forgiveness either. i know i have hurt you in ways i
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have just begun to understand. i hated myself for over a long time. every day for over half my life not a moment has gone by when i didn't hang my head in guilt and shame. that's it. >> why did you feel the need to write that? >> well, i think it was -- this was as much for myself as it was for anybody else's sake. i know this is going to sound kind of silly but i really didn't -- couldn't comprehend death until someone i knew -- until i had experienced that loss. and it -- it kind of put things in a completely different perspective when my grandma died. trowbridge's cellmate wrote a
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letter to his victim, heather, his former girlfriend who he stabbed to death. >> dear heather, i can't push these emotion to the darkest place in my mind any more. i suppressed so much. your parents think i abused and beat you on multiple occasions and your friends think i controlled and forced you to be with me. i'm so far from abusive sometimes i find it beyond belief how i wound up where i am. i never wanted anything other than your love, babe. i never would have hurt you. yet you are dead and i might as well be. >> but debby norris, heather's mother, says that bean is a liar. >> i know that heather was beaten by him at least four times, four times that were pretty bad. one time she ended up going to the hospital after a beating. two of those beatings she pressed charges and he was
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arrested on one charge, and the other charge was pending when he killed her. >> debby norris did not allow her daughter to die in vain. after heather's death she led the effort that resulted in the passing of heather's law which made domestic violence education a requirement in indiana high schools. >> i'm trying to educate the young people on what a healthy relationship is and the signs they need to look for and what to do and that there are people out there that care and there are resources for them to turn to. when you're in an abusive relationship and you decide to go back, you are going the hear the words, i'm sorry. i've changed. i'll never do it again. i love you. and you want to believe it. so you end up going back and i believe that's what heather did.
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>> i mean, she loved me. i know she did. when she -- when she was -- after she got off me i had stabbed her right here, she lay down. i laid her in my arms and before she died she said i love you and those were her last words. >> during his sentencing one of the things that he did say was heather's last words were that i love you, josh. i will never believe that. i have nightmares that heather's last moments was calling out for me to help her because she had done that so many times before. i don't see where this would have been any different. >> one fact that is indisputable is that bean attempted to get
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away with murdering heather by dismembering her body with a chainsaw and placing the parts in trash dumpsters throughout indianapolis. heather's body was never recovered. >> i go by a dumpster and i wonder if that's one of my daughter's last resting places. i see black trash bags and it makes me sick. i hear a chainsaw and i have to get away. so much is different, obviously. he took heather's life. but he took mine. he took her dad's. he took her family's. he took her friends'. nobody is the same. nobody has ever stopped missing heather.
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due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. am i evil? yes i am. >> one inmate walks a fine line between heaven and hell. after a decade in confinement -- >> it just strips the humanity away from you. >> one of indiana's most infamous inmates moves to general population. >> i couldn't believe it with his reputation that he has. >> serving 100 years for a heinous crime, aer

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