Evil Lives Here

I've always wanted to tell my side.

And...

it feels good to be able to tell

my story after holding it in for so long.

The people that say that I lied,

they're right, I did lie on the stand for Todd.

But...

for everyone that says that I am a liar,

I just say that,

you know, you don't know me.

A lot of people will think Todd's innocent when he's not.

I know how Todd was,

and I don't really care what people say.

As long as I know the truth, I could care less.

Everyone's so worried about,

"Texas executed an innocent man"

when they did not execute an innocent man.

I know Todd is guilty.

You don't know the whole story.

You don't know my life with Todd,

but I hope after watching this, you do.

This is the truth.

It's crazy that the first day I ever met him,

there was a red flag, and I dismissed it.

The first time I met Todd,

I was working at a Dairy Queen.

I was a senior in high school.

Hey.

He goes, "Aren't you Stacy?" I said yes.

He said, "Don't you drop that white pickup?"

I said, "Yes, I do." He says, "Don't you live in

those apartments?" I said, "Actually, I do."

At the time, I never thought about

how did this man know all this stuff about me already,

and I had never seen him a day in my life?

But it's like I had already been... being followed

and watched.

And he said, "Well, my brother wants to go out with you,

and I said, "Well,

why don't he can ask me?" And he said, "Well, he's shy."

Um, yeah, sure, we can hang out.

When I met them that evening,

Todd was the one that started talking to me.

And actually, the whole evening,

he talked to me the whole evening.

His brother actually never talked to me.

So it was Todd that I ended up dating.

He seemed like a really good person.

He was so nice to me.

And he showed me so much attention.

Years later, I had asked his brother about,

"Hey, you know, Todd told me that he come in

and asked me, uh, to go out with you, actually,"

and he had told me

that, "No, Stacy, that's not true.

I didn't know you."

After everything that's happened, I see so many

red flags that I just dismissed, so many.

This is a photograph of me and Todd.

Um, this actually was taken on Todd's 20th birthday.

That was the day he changed.

That's the day I told him I was pregnant with Amber.

I was 18. I told him I was pregnant, and he said,

"You better not be."

He goes, "You know, I didn't ask for a kid.

"I don't want a kid, and I don't want a wife.

That's not the life I want."

So I'm sure that's why

I don't look so happy in this picture.

Todd never

pushed me, shoved me, slapped me, anything,

until after I told him I was pregnant for the first time.

I was running a bath.

We were talking about something.

I was thinking maybe it's time you look for work.

And I just don't think he liked my answer.

And he just kind of pushed me.

But when he pushed me, he pushed me over the bathtub,

and I said, "Todd, why did you push me like that?

I could have a miscarriage," and he just said, "Well,

that wouldn't be a bad thing,"

and I was just like, "What?"

So it was a shock to me for him to even push me.

But then to say that...

It was heartbreaking.

But he was my first boyfriend, my first on everything.

He was my first, and I did love him.

I was in love with him,

and I guess I overlooked the little things that really

were big things that I shouldn't have overlooked with him.

I don't wanna be a single mom raising a child.

I want him here. I want him to love his daughter

and love me, too, the way I love him.

I wanted to do whatever I could just to keep my family together.

I realized I was pregnant again.

Amber was eight months old, and I went to the doctor.

They did a sonogram, and I was pregnant with twins.

- Hey. - Hey.

I went home, and Todd came through the door,

and I said, "Hey, I am pregnant with twins."

Are you kidding me?

Again?

I didn't even want the first one.

And he starts arguing with me.

He starts pushing me,

gets on top of, and he was hitting me.

I had never had no man beat me.

No one ever beat me like he was doing.

Well, I reached over to grab that phone to call 911,

and he took the phone out of my hand.

He starts beating me with the phone.

I mean, he beat me with a phone so badly,

he broke the phone.

And then he stops, and he reaches for Amber,

and he says, "Give me that kid.

I'm taking her. She's mine."

I didn't know what he was gonna do.

I kind of throw myself up against her.

I said, "Over my dead body," and he said, "Well,

that can be arranged."

Careful what you wish for.

He just looked, like, so mad.

Like he could have killed me.

He looked so evil.

I chose not to call the cops, because I was still young,

and I guess I thought I don't want any more problems.

I thought maybe if I did call the cops,

maybe they would arrest him,

and then I'd have to deal with him when he got out.

So I just wanted it to be over.

I didn't want to deal with him,

so I chose not to call the cops.

I said, "Get out of my house."

Well, it was about a month or so, six weeks.

We talked. Hey, apologized.

He said, "I don't know why I did that.

"I'm so sorry. I could never apologize

enough to you for what I have done."

And I believed him.

I'm fixin' to have the twins.

He's... acts like he's excited now about it.

You know, everybody makes mistakes.

So I let him back in.

I didn't recognize all the evil in Todd,

because I... I loved Todd.

And a lot of times, love is blinding.

It blinds you from the truth.

The twins were two months old.

I thought Todd was having an affair,

because he was disappearing a lot.

He was saying he was at work at times

when I would find out that he wasn't.

And that's what started the fight that night.

Are you calling me a liar?

- Is that what you're saying? - Of course not.

You know that's not what I meant.

He started cussing me and yelling, started pushing

me around, and then Todd started hitting on me.

I don't owe you an explanation.

Stop, don't!

And he held me down, and Todd beat me

until I seen stars.

When a woman has a baby,

you can start hemorrhaging, and I started bleeding real bad.

Todd put me in the bathtub.

I tried to tell Todd, you know,

you've got to call my mom or call...

Take me to the hospital, 'cause I could die.

I said, "I have got to go to the hospital."

No. Uh-uh.

Nope. Refused to let me go.

I stayed in that tub all night.

I honestly just thought I was gonna die.

I thought that was it.

I guess I'd fallen asleep in the tub.

I woke up, and Todd was just sitting there.

I don't know how long he had been sitting there watching me.

I can still today see his face.

He said, "Did you learn your lesson?"

I said, "About what?" And he said, "About talking back to me.

"You don't talk back to me.

"I told you every time you talked back to me,

"this is what's gonna happen to you.

"You've gotta learn, Stacy.

You've gotta learn to act right."

I was terrified of Todd, and I knew that if I ever

was to call the cops at that time that I would...

be punished by him.

And he would tell me, "You'll never

leave me, I'll never let you leave."

This is a photograph of the twins.

This is actually the very first

picture I ever took with the girls.

I was so scared, because they were so little.

I would ask Amber, you know, "Which one's Kameron?

Which one's Karmen?" And she could pick 'em out.

She was a good big sister to 'em.

You can see how young I am in it.

When the twins were born, I was 20 years old.

I always think, you know,