Page 3 - Dylan Spellman News Today

Even named the person who had hired him. if youre wondering, the letter does not mention dylan spellman. all of it was a twist as big as texas. coming up -- the mysterious letter. could this be the smoking gun police had been looking for? >> immediately, i knew this was something very big and very important. >> when "dateline" continues. just hit me on the old horn. man: toms my best friend, but ever since he bought a new house... tom: its a $10 cover? oh, okay. didnt see that on the website. ...

>> why lie about that unless youre involved in the crime? >> sure. so i mean, that definitely raised more suspicion. >> chavez then told spellman police found his dna just 30 feet from where the girls were shot. thats when he says spellmans demeanor changed. >> he asked me, you know, what are the consequences? and i said, well in texas, you know, this is a death penalty kind of case. >> and then dylan spellman asked about a deal. >> normally, any person thats innocent isnt going to ask for a dea...

>> david strickland did not do this. >> sam smith had the last word. dylan spellman, might have been under suspicion, but ultimately he had nothing to do with this crime. david strickland, he said, was the man holding the gun. >> shooting both of these girls for no identifiable reason as all. hes certainly a psychopath. >> the prosecutor never offered the jury a possible motive. christine says shes sure it was about her sexual orientation. whats the reason? >> in the letter that he supposedly tr...

Here again is josh mankiewicz with "a texas twist." >> day by day, inch by inch, kristene chapa walked a steady, if uneven, road to recovery. >> i couldnt move my left side. i couldnt move my hand or my arm, my legs. i had to relearn to swallow. >> you dont give up, do you? >> i dont. i try to stay motivated. >> so did detective roland chavez. he, too, was making progress. the cigarette butts and drink can collected from the crime scene had just given him his first major break in the case. >> wh...

Looking at. >> for example? >> the use of numbers. >> remember, kristene had said the shooter referred to her and mollie as girl one and girl two. >> he used numbers in that other crime? >> yes. they referred to each other by number in that particular crime. >> the similarities between the two crimes didnt end there. >> in the nevada home invasion, were the victims bound? >> yes, they were. >> hes got to be number one on the list at this point. >> he definitely jumped to the top. >> by that time...

For chris mel mucher having him arrested. for the confidential details in the letter -- >> this is small town texas. theres any number of places that information could have come from. >> what about the lab report showing the gun matching the shell casings found at the scene? >> we had our expert who said its inconclusive. theres no way you could say for sure. >> police, they said, should never have taken their sights off the real shooter. >> they had the right guy. >> dylan spellman. you think t...

>> we start trying to get background on dylan spellman. >> some quick computer searches revealed spellman had a criminal past. >> dylan spellman had just been convicted of a violent crime. >> yes. >> an armed robbery in nevada. >> yeah. >> that nevada armed robbery occurred in 2010, a year and a half before the shootings. spellman and some accomplices broke into a home in a las vegas suburb and held a family hostage before robbing them and taking off. >> anybody get killed? >> no. >> and at the ...

We have no usable prints. the only thing we have are cigarette butts, a monster can, and suspicion. >> it didnt help that chavezs one eyewitness to the shootings could not identify spellman from a photo lineup. >> it was very hard because the suspects all looked the same. >> and then there was the matter of mr. spellmans height. >> hes big. >> hes what, 68"? >> 68". >> remember, kristene said the shooter was quite a bit shorter than that, 58", maybe 59". >> for me, it was always the difficulty o...

While detective aaron veuleman continued trying to strengthen his case against dylan spellman, investigators in neighboring sinton, texas, received a mysterious letter addressed to kristene chapas dad. >> immediately i knew this was something very, very big and very important. >> the letter-writer described himself as a hit man hired by the person who shot mollie and kristene. he wrote, the gunman had sought his services to finish the job and make the only witness to mollies murder disappear. >>...

Hired him. if youre wondering, the letter does not mention dylan spellman. all of it was a twist as big as texas. texas. coming up -- the mysterious letter. could this be the smoking gun police had been looking for? >> immediately, i knew this was something very big and very important. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues