There were too many unanswered questions, he said. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. He was convinced Thompson had misled him, and on September 22, Quinton changed the cause of Burnsides death to undetermined. Quintons new ruling was definitely a boost for Lords case, but it was hardly enough to guarantee an acquittal. When Shearin called Lord with the news, she thanked him for all he had done for her, but then she said something else. She had started dating Burnside, the co-owner of a company that retrofitted homes to make them energy-efficient, about a year earlier. An officer came over to Thompsons cubicle and handed him Lords and Jaffes cellphones. Why did you wait seven minutes before calling 911? he yelled. When she flew back to Dallas, she went straight to Shearins office. In early May, word spread that the departments Public Integrity Unit had launched an investigation of Thompsons work on the Lord case. She appeared to be so despondent that a jailer thought she needed to be put on suicide watch. He spoke to her the way a loving father would talk to his daughter. (Thompson still hadnt told anyone outside his office about the discrepancy.) They can try too hard to make the existing evidence fit their theory as to who is guilty. We were joking around about somethingI dont remember whatand I said, Hey, wheres your Beretta? And he opened up [a kitchen drawer] and said, Its right here.. I dont want to answer that, she said. Lord claimed that Burnside, who was intoxicated, shot himself.Thompson rejected the theory that Burnside committed suicide and investigated the death as murder. Then Shearin got his big break. A 9mm Beretta was also on the floor about five feet from where Burnsides body had been. How are you going to explain that to his family? He also said he had seen Burnside act recklessly with a gun only two or three times over the past fifteen years. She said Burnside had been drinking heavily, and at some point, in the midst of the fight, he had walked into the kitchen and shot himself. Every time she tried to answer a question, she said, he cut her off and called her a liar. And, Thompson guessed, she had wiped down her hands and arms with the towels he had seen on the kitchen floor. He sustained a fatal contact gunshot wound to the right temple. Something did not add up. A few days after the funeral, Lord called Burnsides brother to ask if she could retrieve some of her belongings from the house. (For a philosophy class, she wrote a paper on Socrates being sentenced to death under false charges.) There was no way a person with an IQ above 65 could have concluded that Olivia had shot Michael.. He often said that victimology was the most overlooked part of a homicide investigation even though it could help explain whether a suspect was guilty or innocent. Jaffe said he had sped back to Burnsides home, arriving at the same time as the paramedics. For someone to say Dwayne maliciously would go after Miss Lord and try to set her up, I would say, You have the wrong guy, said Andrea Handley, one of the offices senior prosecutors. She claimed that Thompson show a reckless disregard for her rights in having Plaintiff arrested in 2010 for the shooting death of her . (2014) Brian, we got a problem, Thompson said. Outcome: Plaintiff's verdict for $800,000.00. She had always insisted that she had not fled from the police. Lord spent the next four days at her mothers home in the Dallas suburbs, lying in bed, taking sleeping pills. Or maybe in the midst of the argument, Burnside had pulled the Beretta out of the kitchen drawer for a second time, handed it to Lord, and said, in an effort to be dramatic, If you hate me so much, then just shoot me. And she did. That she didnt mean to do it.. But the man I loved is gone forever. Thompson studied Lord and Jaffe for a moment, then walked over to them. Ive never seen anything like it, Sanders said. Thompsons interrogation of Lord was videotaped. He told Thompson that his son had had the most positive personality of anyone he had ever met. He told the jurors that he didnt believe that Lord had shot Burnside. I wondered about the story Jaffe had told Thompson about finding her in the front yard, desperately saying, I wasnt going to leave him. January 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? And even if he took a shortcut or two, he adds, he didnt hide or invent evidence. I work cases because thats what I get paid to do., Tittle asked Thompson why he didnt seem particularly disturbed that Burnside was drunk and had showed off his Beretta on the night of the shooting. The lawyer was reluctant to open the door. Thompson testified that Lord had little blood on her hands and that she smelled of cleaning solution, which led him to believe she had washed her hands. I believe that with all my heart.. He wasnt stressed-out, Thompson said. For her part, Lord said that she would gladly give up any money in return for Thompsons being sent to prison. Self - Detective; 2009-2014 2 eps; Credits. At the end of the interrogation, he had discarded her like trash.. In that small house, she mistook the sound of a pistol shot for a glass falling to the floor? He is a Democrat representing District 96 in the Tennessee House of Representatives . Burnside died from a gun shot wound from a 9 mm Beretta handgun. 1983 claiming that she was wrongfully arrested for a killing that she did not commit, which landed her in jail for nine days. DallasJustice.com, Law offices of Michael Lowe, For a more complete description of the interrogation, check out Dallas Morning News coverage from the day that the jury was shown the interrogation videotape, Kim Sanders explained that the Lord interrogation was intimidation, Sanders also pointed out Thompsons failure to read Ms. Lord her Miranda rights, Michael Lowes Things to Know if You are Being Investigated for a Crime in Texas, Salinas v. Texas: Your Silence During Police Interrogation Does Not Get 5th Amendment Protection, Can Be Used Against You As Evidence Of Guilt To The Jury. The Hephzibah Olivia Lord by Detective Dwayne A. Thompson lasted for hours. They couldnt get the dishwasher installed because of a broken valve, which sent water all over the floor, so they took a break. HEPHZIBAH OLIVIA LORD Videos 1. Dallas Homicide Detective Dwayne Thompson revisits an empty plot of land where a grizzly double homicide had occurred years prior.Subscribe for more The Firs. Thirty seconds passed as she wept before she added, There are still nights when I drive by our home just to look at it. No, said Quinton, Thompson hadnt mentioned either of those things. Lord was 33 years old and worked as a loan officer for a mortgage company. Of course not, she said. Was there a chance he was involved in the shooting? I want him brought down.. When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home four years ago, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend, Olivia Lord, had pulled the trigger. She helped him with his finances, reminding him to pay his bills and to keep his spending in line. In an excited voice, he said that he had been told by his sons next-door neighbor that a neighbor who lived across the streetan attorney named Sheida Rastegarhad information that linked Lord to the killing. And if the young man had shot himself, wouldnt the gun have landed closer to his body? . Her parents hired an attorney named Joe Shearin, a former guard for the University of Texas Longhorns who had played in the NFL before becoming one of Dallass most prominent criminal defense lawyers. Dwayne Thompson (born October 6, 1950) is an American politician. Its difficult to go out in public without thinking someone is saying, Theres the girl who killed her boyfriend., Right at that moment, a waiter walked up, clearly taken with her, and asked if she was ready to order. She had desperately run from room to room trying to get better reception. He said that Michael had called earlier in the week, telling his mother, Cindi, that he was looking forward to coming over to their home for lunch on May 9, which was Mothers Day. Lord could hardly look at him. You said he was upset and he hollers and starts getting destructive, and the thing is, you said he gets scary. Merritt had an uncanny knack for catching killers. City attorneys are defending him, saying he acted in good faith and without malice. Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said he brought thousands of offenders to justice, bringing closure to victims and their families. Lord seemed to be trying to control her breathing. | Store When Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must s Read allWhen Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must solve without the victim's body. She wanted to not only vindicate herself but also make sure the public knew just what Thompson had done to her. The officer looked at the notes he had jotted down. Lord told her friends and family that Burnside definitely liked to have a good time. Its terrifying., Lords claim of innocence has been bolstered by Rastegar, who told me that he never said to Thompson or Lundberg, not even on his front porch, that he had heard her confess to shooting Burnside. Mitchell eventually told Shearin that she was willing to dismiss the charges against Lord. She works at a clothing shop, making $14 an hour, far less than what she was earning when she was in the mortgage business. Why the bottles of cleaning products and the bloody towels? Jaffe told him that Mikey was a good ol boy who liked hunting and fishing. Lord, who is now 37 years old, still lives in the same apartment, and she has barely spent any of the money she won in her lawsuit. A Shooting on Spring Grove Ave: When Michael Burnside was found dead in his Dallas home in 2010, detective Dwayne Thompson decided that the victim's girlfriend had pulled the trigger. Lets solve some murders, my brothers, he would cheerfully bellow as he barreled into the office at the beginning of his shifts. Then U.S. district judge Barbara Lynn gaveled the court to order. Compared with Thompson, Lundberg was a quiet man who wore glasses and spoke slowly. She identified herself as Olivia Lord, Burnsides girlfriend, and said she had just found Burnside lying on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to his head. Stars Heaven Bellinger Linda Carden Sheila Cooks See production, box office & company info Watch on A&E She certainly had not used them to wash herself off, she said. February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? After arriving at his house, which was a ten-minute drive away, he had received a call from Lord. Lundberg also took the stand, testifying that he too remained convinced that Lord was guilty of murder. Thompson is the one whos gotten away with the crime., Lord told me that she was not surprised to hear that the police departments Public Integrity Unit had ignored the civil jurys verdict and cleared Thompson. Will detectives be able to catch the killers before they strike again? In 2008, when the producers of The First 48, a reality series on the A&E network about homicide detectives in big-city police departments, came to Dallas to film some episodes, they were riveted by Thompson. Thompson wanted to find out if Lord, under such heated questioning, would crack. One of his tasks was to take boxes of cold-case files out of the death room, where all homicide files are kept, and haul them to a storage area in city hall. By the first of June, hed put aside Lords file to work on his other cases. He asked her why, after finding Burnside on the floor, she had first called Jaffe but then waited seven minutes before calling 911. Olivia, youre not telling me the truth, Thompson told her. She walked to the front of the chapel to look at Burnside in his casket, and her legs nearly buckled as she said his name. Hed been as tall as Thompson, with a lean, athletic build. Because that is the only thing that makes sense.. And in Cleveland, an argument among friends spins out of control when one of them makes a deadly decision. Michael Lowe is Celebrating Over 20 YEARS of Service. When the paramedics arrived, Burnside had faint vital signs, but he died shortly after reaching the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital. On May 14, five days after the shooting, Lord finally left her mothers house to attend Burnsides funeral with her family and friends. Or, asked Shearin, did Thompson say that Burnside was stressed about owing money to the IRS? He can go so far as to lie to a suspect to try to obtain a confession. A bullet hole was in a wall near the ceiling. Individuals have a right to counsel when they are being questioned, this is part of the Miranda warning. Please E-mail suggested additions, comments and/or corrections to Kent@MoreLaw.Com. All we want is for Olivia to go through a criminal trial, said John Burnside, sitting with Cindi in their East Dallas home. He then worked for a not for profit organization called "One Community" that's premise is to be a middle man between law enforcement and civilians. Detective Dwayne Thompson quietly retired from Dallas PD. And now you have this thing where he was spending a lot of money on his friend, but he didnt spend near as much money on your birthday. | Advertising By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, Stand with us in our mission to discover and uncover the story of North Texas, Jurors hear detectives aggressive interrogation during false arrest civil trial, Dallas-Fort Worth could see severe thunderstorms, large hail, tornadoes Thursday, Author of Texas drag bill says video of him wearing dress was a joke back in school, Judge rules in favor of Michael Irvin in request for expedited evidence in $100M lawsuit, Former DPD chief David Brown returning to North Texas after resigning as Chicagos top cop, Corby Davidson, radio co-host of The Tickets Hardline, has rare benign tumor, Frisco developer Homz raises $50 million to build big apartment communities, New apartment project coming for Allens downtown district, Smoke-filled Spirit Airlines flight from DFW Airport diverted after battery fire, Target plans new store in Oak Cliffs Wynnewood Village, Southwest Airlines ups its caffeine game by introducing in-flight bottled iced coffee, Ray Davis optimistic, anxious about Rangers season amidst tumultuous TV situation, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy addresses philosophical differences between him, Kellen Moore, Oak Cliff apartment project will bring affordable units, skyline view of Dallas, Ross Perot Jr.s Hillwood buys California NASCAR track for estimated $543.7 million. 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