A Killer Uncaged

What is a fair punishment

for murder?

Thirty years ago, I killed a man.

And for that crime,

I was sentenced to death.

If I would've been executed, I would've deserved it.

But God, I like to believe, had a bigger plan and a purpose for me.

"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.

Okay, I'll sit up a bit more on the chair.

Is that good?

Dale, can you see me?

Yes.

My name is Dale Wayne Sigler.

I was born...

May the 10th, 1967.

I was born in

Danville, Illinois.

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.

My father, he ended up losing his job.

He became...

very despondent,

very frustrated.

And he'd become real abusive,

so that trickled down to his kids, to my mother.

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...

either her,

or one of us kids...

were gonna get hurt critically.

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.

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."

That day that I walked into that Subway shop,

a lot of things changed.

I went in there,

"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.

When he run to the back room, I ran back there.

When he turned around, I shot him. Six times in the chest.

I took John's life selfishly.

I'll forever have to carry that pain in my heart,

for taking him away from his family.

I just wanna say to Mrs. Zeltner

and her family that I apologize

with my soul and my heart.

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.

We're now at the location, at the Subway, where the...

capital murder 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

The fact that

a murder 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

killing of this victim,

that's what made this remarkable.

That's what took this to a higher level than other cases of this nature.

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.

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 murder, but,

the facts and circumstances of this case were particularly heinous, I thought.

John Zeltner, at the time he was murdered,

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.

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.

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.

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

"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.

I went to death row in '91.

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,

"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.

I turned my life around when I went to death row.

On death row that first day, I cried out to God.

"God, my whole life you've been there for me.

You reached out to me when I was a child."

"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."

That's when I started hearing a little voice,

"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.

If I would've been executed, I would've deserved it.

But God, I like to believe, had a bigger plan and a purpose for me.

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.

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 executed

sometime in the 90's in the state of Texas.

Angel, Tilly, somebody.

Come on.