Candy

Candy Montgomery.

Good morning. Come on in.

Why thank you, Betty. Good morning to you.

I just come by to pick up your daughter's bathing suit

- for her swim lesson. - Oh, yes, of course.

Now, did I hear you got yourselves a new puppy?

Can I see him?

Dogs are out in the yard. Come on back.

Oh, got the sewing set up, so we'll go through the garage.

All the sewing was here blocking the doors.

Uh, see this here?

This, uh, the day's newspaper had the date on it.

Uh, Friday, June 13th, 1980.

Is that Jack Nicholson?

It's a review for The Shining.

The Shining?

It's a movie with an ax murder.

You don't say.

Huh.

- Denny? - Mm-hmm.

So that there's the ax.

When they get back to here,

all the chit-chat leads to an argument.

〝You're having an affair with my husband, you hussy.〞

Well, now, the husband said

the wife didn't know about the affair.

Okay, or, uh, 〝You think you're so special

going on your family vacation.

You ain't special. I'm screwing your husband.〝

〝Well, guess what? I'm pregnant,

so he ain't leaving me. So suck on that.

Take your swimsuit and get.〝

- And then went back inside. - Right.

So now I'm fuming. The affair wasn't over.

I mean, who are we kidding?

Or at the very least, I ain't over it.

And her being pregnant means my dreams are dead

and she's the one that killed her.

An ax is a weapon of opportunity, not planning.

So I see it, I grab it,

I come up right behind her, and then... whack.

Which causes my sunglasses to bust a lens,

which falls under the cabinet there.

But you moved it before you shot it, right?

- So we can't use it. - Dang.

Yes, sir, but you should know it was there.

There was no blood found in the garage.

Well, that's because she falls

into the utility room this way.

With the rest of her glasses landed here by the freezer.

- Right. - See?

And then...

well, that's when she really went to work on her.

Uh, sorry. Excuse me.

- Denny, you wanna... - Oh.

There you go.

All right. Like this.

Forty-one times.

- Twenty-eight to the head. - Mm-hmm.

Now, Mrs. Gore did put up a fight, as you can tell

from the defensive wounds on her hands

and all the blood that was on the walls and the machines.

And then this here, where we cut out the linoleum,

that's where we got the footprint

to Mrs. Montgomery's shower shoes.

Now, gentlemen...

An offense like this, it don't happen without passion.

And further proof to that is Mrs. Gore's eyes

were chopped out.

Now, that's something usually indicative

of a homosexual killings, gay lovers,

'cause they'll do... now, sometimes they'll

chop out people's eyes and things like that,

uh, especially if they're having an affair

because they say, 〝I don't want you having any eyes

for anybody other than me.〝

I don't know. I ain't a psychiatrist,

so I couldn't begin to explain the thought process on that.

But in this case, it's, 〝I don't want you having eyes

for Allan 'cause I still have eyes for him.〝

And the wounds on Mrs. Montgomery?

Medical examiner says probably cause for the bruises

on her legs is the ax coming down

and the handle hitting her legs.

- Right. - Oh.

I mean, we all learned not to do that

in Scouts, right?

But ladies don't know that.

- Got herself in the toe once. - Mm-hmm.

Lucky she didn't chop it off.

And, uh...

and then when she was done, she took a shower,

tried to wipe up the mess with a towel,

but misses her own fingerprints in blood, which we got.

Dead to rights.

And then she just...

She just walked out the door and, uh...

She walked out the door and left that baby in that crib

crying for her mother for 13 hours.

She's, uh, a monster.

Well, she's got two choices.

She could plead not guilty, in which case, we got her...

We got her fingerprints, her blood,

and her hair at the scene...

Or she could plead insanity, but no jury's gonna buy that

seeing as she took the kids to the pool and the movies

and just went about her day.

There's a third option.

She could plead self-defense.

Well...

Son, if we're having an argument,

and you go grab an ax,

the argument ends right there. I'm out the door.

We can finish this discussion on the telephone.

Yeah, two people, one ax.

You come at me with an ax,

as soon as I get it, I'm no longer defending myself.

- Right. - Yeah.

Please, God, let them plead self-defense.

How the heck you gonna argue that?

Hmm?

They'll believe me because they want to believe me.

We just need to give them something to hang their hat on.

Candy.

What did you do?

Tell me.

Candy. What did you do?

Betty Gore died on Friday the 13th,

the same day that the movie Friday the 13th came out.

The Gore house is the 13th one from the corner.

Uh, the body was found 13 hours after her death

and Candy was arrested 13 days later.

You can... you can draw your own conclusions

as to the meaning of it all.

And her last name is Gore.

I'm changing my last name to 〝Livesforever.〞

Well, I heard that one of the jurors

is on the same softball team as Don Crowder.

Well, I heard Judge Ryan

delayed his retirement for this.

And he wants a conviction.

I just think that she's obsessed

with her perception in the community.

Betty found out that she was screwing Allan,

threatened to tell, and that's why she hacked her up.

- She's a narcissist. - She's innocent!

- All right, hon. - You didn't have to come, Tom.

- I ain't gonna miss this. - It's not a show.

- Mm-hmm. - It was a drifter!

Don Crowder. Guy's an ambulance chaser.

What's he doing with a murder case?

He's a showman. Loves attention.

I've run into him a couple of times.

Loves to talk about playing in the Cotton Bowl.

Hey, look, start with Allan Gore.

Hit them with the emotion of the devastated husband,

the destruction of a family by a scorned mistress.

How could they come back from that?

Yeah.

Is it her?

- Excuse me. - All right. Come on.

- You ready to fight? - Yes, sir.

We know you're innocent, Candy.

We love you, Candy. Stay strong, Candy!

You're guilty!

We love you, honey. We're here for you.

You're innocent. WOMAN: Candy!

Love you, Candy!

She's guilty!

She should be in jail!

All right. Now, before we begin,

counsel will recall back on the 11th day of July,

this court issued an order restricting news releases

and prohibiting counsel from discussing this case

with any members of the news media.

So this morning, I'm up in my office,

and I walk over to the window and look down,

and there is Mr. Crowder

conducting a press conference with the television media.

So what do you have to say about that?

Your Honor, I thought the order was lifted.

If I am in error, it is an innocent error.

Furthermore, let me ask you this...

Sir, you're not asking this court a question.

I asked you if you want to make a statement.

So now this court finds you in contempt.

Your punishment is a $100 fine

and 24 hours in the Collin County Jail.

But so your confinement doesn't interfere

with the proper representation of your client,

I'm gonna suspend your sentence.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Until the day of the conclusion of the trial.

All right, now are you ready to enter a plea?

It's up to you.

Candace Montgomery.

You stand charged with the first-degree felony offense of murder.

So, how do you plea?

Not guilty.

And how would you describe your relationship