that s the way he explained it. by shooting? right. he said he realize his wife died was dead or dying and then he went and called 9-1-1. police recovered two guns from the scene. brett s 410 revolver, the gun he kept on his safe and used to shoot bryan. in bryan s hand, police found a nine millimeter pistol that had been used to kill tammy. near bryan s body was his open gym bag with ammo and an empty magazine clip, clearly visible on top. to investigators, it looked like brett parker had fought for his life, shot a man in self-defense and had just lost his beautiful wife. the big question was why. why would such a good friend turn on them? one of the first questions i asked him was, what was his
Relationship with this man? he said, could i talk to you in private. and that s when he told me that he was a sports bookie. brett worked a day job as a full-time medical salesman. but on the side he had been a bookie for years. everbody knew that. did it concern you or was it just it was small town. that was something that i didn t even think about. and brett was not the sopranos break your leg style type of bookie was bright a gentle bookie? oh, very, very. everybody says that he delivered his money. brett was a good bookie. brett also told investigators that bryan capnerhurst, the man he had
To know that the parker marriage wasn t what it seemed. brett had strayed. once with an out of town woman and several times with a local bank teller. lindsay mullins testified that they met, they texted, and that he shared some confidences about his marriage. he said that he slept upstairs and she slept downstairs. but the parkers had more problems than just brett s affairs. they called ben staples to the sand, a parker family friend. what did you know about the marriage? well, as the years went by, she was unhappy. she had conversations, we had conversations. brett did not believe in god and going to church. that was important to her. to them, that revealed another bit of evidence about the parker s shaky marriage. this one a bombshell. did your relationship become more intimate. yes. at approximately how long ago was that. about three years ago. and did that end?
Would ve written the whole thing clean for him? yes. you never put any pressure on him? no sir. and that life insurance policy the prosecution suggested was a smoking gun? the insurance agent testified brett wasn t even all that interested in a policy on tammy. did you attempt to sell him insurance on his wife? yes. were you successful in selling him insurance on his wife? i was not. tammy had taken out the insurance on her own, and instead of claiming a dime for himself, brett had already signed the insurance money over to his kids. did he tell you directly that he wanted this money to go to the children? yes. and remember those downstairs blinds? the ones with the gunshot residue the prosecution said had been left by brett before bryan even arrived? proof that he killed tammy ahead of time and then look through the blinds to see bryan coming? they stated that, but they didn t prove it. a defense expert suggested the fine particles were drifted to that blind, even days later.
Brett held firm, sticking to the story he first told investigators. did you think it was important to tell the police truth? i did tell them the truth. i told them what was happening in that house. and that is the truth, and i believe, as i see it, that the evidence proves it. when the prosecution asked him about his infidelities, brett insisted his feelings for tammy never wavered. you testified you love tammy, you still love her to this day? i do, i will love her till the day i die. despite their troubles, brett said the love for tammy was always there. you would never do anything to hurt her? never heard her. i would never hurt tammy. never have. it was time for closing arguments in the case of the people versus brett parker. i ask you, with all my heart and all the love and faith i have in our jurisdiction, send brett back to his family. don t let this injustice
when the prosecution tried to enter that as evidence in court, the defense successfully objected. brett s attorney told us it was just a family habit to leave the toilet seat up to make things easier for their young son. he has a six-year-old child. every time the child comes in from school, he runs to the bathroom right away. brett and his wife always put the seat up. he hears shots fired in his house and he is going to think about putting the toilet seat up? it s an automatic reaction if you do it every day. it was explainable behavior. the motive was flimsy said the defense. now it attacked the states forensic evidence. the defense use the amount of gunshot residue found on brett s hands to undermine the theory that bright had shot his wife with one gun, and his friend with another. arguing there just wasn t enough gun residue on his hands to have fired both weapons.
Here s what s happening. last night, georgia senator raphael warnock and former football player herschel walker faced off in the first televised of debate before election day. it s one of several nation wide to control which party takes control of the senate after midterms. and the department of defense announced an additional but to support ukraine s defense needs. bringing u.s. funding to more than three billion dollars. now, back to dateline! dollars welcome back to dateline. i m craig melvin. brett parker was heading to trial, charged with a double murder of his wife tammy and their friend bryan capnerhurst. brett admitted shooting bryan in self-defense, though he claimed it was only after bryan
Murdering his wife, and then he murders the friend and leaves him with a legacy of having murdered somebody. he wanted to perpetuate this lifestyle. he wanted to continue to gamble. he wanted to enjoy the girlfriends. and tammy was a hindrance to him. he felt like this is was his way out. in court, the ugly accusations seem to get to brett, as the medical examiner testified about tammy s fatal injuries. brett said he fell ill and was rushed to the hospital. brett was back however the next day, to hear the prosecution present evidence it said proved he planned the murders, framed his friend and then covered it up. here s how they said he did it. first he shot and killed his wife in that upstairs office. then at 12:25 pm, brett s own
Wife dead. listen to me, i understand you are very upset. but is your wife, is she breathing? no. and there was more to the story. brett had killed the perpetrator in self-defense. i shot him. i think i killed him. veteran investigator stan smith headed to the scene. what is your first interaction with brett parker? he was sort of heavy breathing. at one point in time he lays down on his back, as if he is suffering, almost in pain. inside stan smith walked into a gruesome scene. the body of brett s wife tammy was in a bathroom. and lying nearby was a man named bryan capnerhurst, dead in an alcove not far from the safe where brett kept his money. it appeared tammy parker was seated at the desk in the office area and that the shooter shot her from the back. half of her torso was inside the bathroom, half was in the office area. so, she definitely tried to flee.
Just shot and killed, was in the bookie business, too. as a matter of fact, he worked for brett. bryan was also an unlikely bookie. a former high school athlete, he was a family man who worked for a county recreation commission and coached kids sports teams. tammy had spoken kindly of him. i think she thought he was a nice guy. she must have thought a lot of him because he was in her home. with her children around, and tammy was very protective of her children. and i think she trusted him? right. exactly. tammy had always looked out for him. getting an extra large for him, taking care of him. but investigators found out there had been a problem in that bookie business, and it all boiled down to money. brett owed bryan a good chunk of the profits, $20, 000, and he had been slow to pay up. bryan was going to go for their basically until brett i have had enough of this, you only money. smith learned that bryan capnerhurst had money problems. so, it looked like he went to the parker s to demand money he was owed and take whatever else was in the safe. tammy had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. what do you miss most about tammy? her laugh. just her being. she would always call. she always made sure we had our girls nights out. we haven t done that since she was killed. it was all so sad.