Hidden Camera Solves Execution-Style Murder

Tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college. That's why she shops at BJ's Wholesale Club, saving up to 25% off grocery store prices. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home, road warrior mom. Home of the Save. Join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's. Home of the Save. Now your mom wants a location for your emergency. I need an ambulance. I just came into my friend's house and I found him dead. Do you think that he's beyond help? He's not breathing. He's not moving. He's gone. He's been like this, it looks like, for a minute. Did he have any medical issues? No, he was shot. Somebody shot him. Did it look like somebody shot him? Yeah. All right, I want you to wait outside in that vehicle, okay? Okay. All right. It's mid-December, and as the countdown to Christmas begins, so does a murder investigation. Officers from the Lansing Police Department are dispatched to an apartment complex on the southwest side of town. When they arrive at the scene, the caller is waiting for them. He identifies himself as Joe. What are we going to do with this? Are we going to just kind of put you in the back seat for a little bit? Okay. Is the door unlocked right now? It is open. It is open? What apartment number? It's the building over there. Okay. Okay. All right, let's just take three. Yeah. I think we're good. You guys want to hold? Somebody hold here. Yep. And then, Sarah, you come in, all right? This is your crime scene tech. Lansing Police, if you're in here, make yourself known. Ready? Ready? Watch your step. Is he underneath that cushion? Going right. Yeah. Okay. They tossed it. They were looking for something. Yeah. Coming across. Small room. Go ahead. Go ahead. He's under here? Yeah. All right, we're going to lift this. The victim is covered in blood and bullet wounds. Officers detect no signs of life. If you want to grab two medics, they don't need the whole engine crew in here and everything else. Come up here and go from there, okay? While they wait for paramedics to arrive, one of the officers briefs his colleagues. He looks like it's obvious, but I'm going to have two medics go up there, just as to say we cross that bridge and go from there, and then we've got, nobody's going in there except for those two medics. Okay. He's in the living room. The, uh, air mattress is flipped over and he's got a gunshot wound to the back and he's got trauma to his face. The whole gun, the whole, uh, apartment has been ransacked. Okay. So they were looking for something. All right. Um. Might as well keep out as many officers as we can too. Yep. So I don't, yeah. I'm going to let anybody fresh go in there. Uh, we're going to lock down the backs, the back doorway and nobody's going in the hall. Back at a squad car, another officer speaks with Joe. Take a seat right there. Thank you. So, so who is, who is he, is he your buddy or? Okay. Well, I'm, I'm sorry for your loss. What's his name? His name is Donovan Barfield. How long you guys been friends? Man, I've known him for about four or five years. What's his last name? Barfield. Why'd you come over here today? I came to grab some shoes. at all? Anything crazy going on upstairs or around your apartment? Yeah, you hear a lot of noise out back. There's a lot of noise out back? What time was that at? Two to three o'clock in the morning. Yeah. Okay. What did you hear? What did you hear exactly? A lot of people talking and stuff. A lot of people talking. Males, females? Well, I mean, bedtime one, three o'clock in the morning, I was sleeping. I heard a lot of people talking. Okay. Hey, sorry to wake you up if I did. We had an incident that occurred in the apartments right across the walkway. I was wondering if you may have heard anything last night. I heard some shooting, but I don't know what it was. I thought it was, I didn't know if it was, I wasn't about to look out the window. Yeah. What time was that? Uh, probably about, is it, I can't, maybe two to three o'clock in the morning. I don't know. So early morning-ish. Yeah, I believe that, but that's. Do you know how many gunshots did you hear approximately? I'm sorry, about like seven to eight. Seven or eight? Yeah. You hear anybody yelling or anything like that or just heard the gunshots? How was that? No, I just heard doors slamming and shoots. I look, I lay down. I'm sorry. I do not blame you at all. Not at all. That's crazy. I didn't know, but I was like, what in the world? I said, is there shitting out here? I said, I'm going to lay down on the floor just in case. Yep, I don't blame you. Officers also speak with the apartment complex's leasing manager and the maintenance man. Do you guys have video cameras or? We have camera, but I don't think they're working on the camera. The video and the laundry, they're working. And I don't know about this. Are they working on the? Outside of the laundry house? That's what we'll have to check to see if they're working. Unfortunately, the exterior security cameras are out of commission. But when detectives arrive and scan the crime scene, they identify an important clue. There are two different shell casings near Donovan's body. This signals they're dealing with more than one gun and possibly more than one shooter. Crime scene techs collect the evidence, and detectives proceed to the police station to speak with Joe. They start by asking him when he last saw Donovan alive. Last night I came over, I want to say, it's anywhere from like 7 to 8 o'clock. I was being changed to go to a memorial. 7 or what? Between 7 and 8 o'clock. I don't know exactly what time it was. But I had to change my clothes to go to a memorial for one of my friends that passed a couple years ago. So I got the rest. He was there. He didn't seem like nothing was bothering him or nothing like that. We talked for a second. I did. I left. That was the last time I talked to him or seen him. Okay. Joe says he spent the night at his girlfriend's place. And then the next morning, this morning I got up. I turned around and I came over. That's when I found him. I went in the crib. But as soon as I stopped, I stuck the key in the door. It just opened. So that kind of like threw me off. It was not locked. It was not locked. It was open. So I go in, close the door. I see, like, it's trash. You know what I'm saying? I went to go get some clothes and stuff. So I'm looking like, a few of my pair of my shoes are just there. Everything's gone. So I'm like, I'm calling his name. I call him Lou. So I'm like, Lou. Like, Lou. Lou. I don't hear nothing. So I walk in the hallway. I'm like, Lou. Screaming. Don't hear nothing. I walk back in the living room. I just happen to walk up a little bit. And I see him. Just paving the ground. Walked up to him. I touched him. He was hard. Touched his neck. He wasn't breathing. Did you call somebody when you got there? Were you talking on the phone or anything like that? I couldn't even call nobody because my Wi-Fi app, the Wi-Fi was messing with it. So I couldn't even. So I called out. Okay. 911 was the only person I could call. You found him. And how long after that did you call? As soon as I found him. As soon as you found him. We're here to figure out what the hell happened to Lou and hopefully get some justice for him, right? Now, having said that, we're not here to judge. People live lifestyles that, you know, sometimes we're not always necessarily proud of everything we've done in life. Right. And I'm not here to judge Lou. And we're not speaking ill of anybody that's deceased. But these things help us figure out what happened, right? Again, not here to judge. But I feel like maybe you could tell us something about his lifestyle that maybe led up to this. Am I right here? Yeah. He's from Detroit. Okay. He'd be in a lot of stuff down there. So I don't know if it could be something from there. Okay. Okay. Tammy regularly hauls. She gives stuff to her kids at college. Home of the Save. Open soon. BJ's, home of the Save. Football is back. And PrizePix is bringing out their best offer yet. On PrizePix, you can make all the picks you want, all in the same app. And now, PrizePix is available nationwide. Lock in for kickoff, because everyone and everything is on PrizePix. What you want? Download the PrizePix app today and use code SPOTIFY to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. PrizePix, run your game. Must be present in certain states. Visit PrizePix.com for restrictions and details. Because he never let me go down there with him. He'll never go out. If I do go down there, he won't let me go out with him ever. Because he'd be, he don't know nothing that happens to me. Gotcha. So, I know he'd be in some stuff down there. Down here. I know he do his little hustles on the side with the weed and stuff like that. Okay. As far as like him having problems with somebody or something like that. I ain't never known him to get into it with not one person up there. Okay. He keeps to himself. He's a real private person. Okay. Any other hustles besides weed and again? That's all I ever seen him do was weed. Okay. Let me just throw this out there. If something that he did in Detroit is the cause of this, that can help us solve this. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Hold on a second. So, if he mentioned, even if it's serious, he's gone. He can't get in trouble anymore. Even if it's serious. I know that you're trying to, like, is he inventing to me, like, you kill somebody or something like that? He didn't ever. I know he'd be into some shit on you, but I can just like pinpoint it and tell you. He tries to keep you clean of it. Yeah, he don't try to get me involved in all his shit on me. Yeah. Joe reveals Donovan had one vice he did know about. He liked to gamble. Gamble? Where at? Anywhere. Anywhere at Dicey. He might have some people over there that might shoot dice or something. This is what I'm thinking happened. He had somebody over, and they were shooting dice or something like that, and they got into it. That could be something that happened. Okay. But it has to be somebody who knew. Because he didn't say nothing to me about people have to go out or go anywhere and do nothing. But detectives aren't ready to rule anything or anyone out yet. Including Joe. Eager to learn more about Donovan. Since past, they reach out to his mother, Betty, in Detroit, and she agrees to meet with them. What do you think I need to know about Donovan to help me look into what happened? He smokes plenty of marijuana. Okay. Yeah. All right. I'm more than that. You know. We heard from his roommate that he likes, there's another activity that he liked to gamble at all? Yes. Okay. What type? Dice. Okay. We play cards. Is there anything in his past that, in either Lansing or Detroit, that could have led to this? I mean, I don't remember him telling me of any enemies or anything that he got back home. I mean, in Detroit. Betty mentions Donovan had a girlfriend in Detroit. Detectives speak with her, too. Do you know anything about his lifestyle that might lead him into something where somebody would want to hurt him, or he'd get into a heated argument with anybody, or somebody that could ruin him? Whatever troubles Donovan may have had, it seems he kept them close to his chest. But detectives know that cell phones can be a keeper of secrets, so they obtain a search warrant for Donovan's cell phone records. Donovan's text messages don't sound any alarms, but they do provide investigators with information. insight into his final hours. Before he was killed, Donovan spent the evening hanging out at a friend's house. Detectives make contact with the friends who were with him that night, including the young woman who gave Donovan a ride home. So like I took him home like when I dropped him off it was on the street like not like right in front of because I don't know I've never been over there so I don't really know where that is but like so I like dropped him off like on the street the side street and then he was school while you left him right yeah and he walked in and then and that's about I would say probably like 3 40 something because I didn't get home till like about four o'clock. What have you heard after the fact here? Um honestly I haven't heard like if anyone like nobody honestly knows who yet they've been like waiting for like little updates on the news to try to put two and two together. Then three days after Donovan was murdered, one of his friends and gambling buddies, 24-year-old Anthony Brown, reaches out to detectives. Anthony says he was at the hangout too and he's more than willing to come down to the station and provide as much information as he can about Donovan. Have you ever played Dice and Lou before? Yeah. All right um he's usually high roller. What's the most you ever you've ever seen Lou with? Big old stack. Um nice. He probably yeah he probably had about a couple hundred dollars on it. Okay that's kind of typical normal. Yeah. Anthony says while they were hanging out, Donovan floated the idea of a dice game. Looking at the top drawer so I look at the top drawer there's no dice. He didn't look at the other drawer so I look at the other drawer there's still no dice. So I'm like all right I don't care about shooting either. The dice game never happened but just like Joe, Anthony, James convinced gambling played a role in Donovan's murder. He shot dice a lot right so I'm gonna get him probably shot that's with the wrong person they probably set him up anything. Do you know who else Lou hung out or played dice with besides you guys? I mean everybody in Lansing knew Lou G because he likes to shoot dice so. He's famous in Lansing for shooting dice. What do you say? Yeah. Who do you think would have did this? Probably someone who wanted him or his money something. Him or his money? Did he do did he do something? Is he known for doing something dirty out there? No he's a pretty cool guy. Yeah just uh what happened because he flashed some money while he's playing dice. As detectives seek to identify more of Donovan's gambling associates there's a massive break in the case. According to one of Donovan's family members Donovan's killers were caught on tape. That footage is apparently stored on a laptop and the owner of that laptop is none other than Donovan's friend and former roommate Joe. So who's who is he? Is he your buddy or? Okay well I'm sorry for your loss. For detectives this revelation triggers a wave of suspicion. Why is Joe hiding this footage from them? Is he trying to protect himself or someone else? Detectives immediately bring Joe in for another interview and they don't mince words. Okay here it is. If I don't get that laptop you're going to be arrested for obstruction. Felon. Okay that's it. All right. That's your boy. That's your man. I'm the one getting death threats. I ain't doing nothing. At least tell me this okay? At least tell me this. For god's sakes you didn't delete it did you? You didn't delete it did you? Please tell me you didn't. Joe refuses to give a straight answer. So detectives try another angle. Think about it this way. Your boy Lou. He kept you out of stuff. He kept you safe. You went to Detroit. He told you to stay in the house while him and his boys went to a club. Hank joined BJ's Wholesale Club the day he became a father of 30. I coach football. Now coach Hank saves up to 25% off grocery store prices, 30 pounds of pasta, three cases of protein bars, 75 sports drinks. And that's just pre-game. He knows teamwork and BJ's knows savings. This is your home coach. Home of the save. Join for just $20 at BJ's dot com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer new members only. BJ's. Home of the save. Football is back and PrizePix is bringing out their best offer yet. On PrizePix you can make all the picks you want all in the same app. And now PrizePix is available nationwide. Lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on PrizePix. What you want? PrizePix. Run your game. Because you're just a target. He looked out for you. He kept his Detroit and he kept that part of his life away from you because he cared about you. Okay? And you're repaying him by up his homicide investigations. Have more love for your boy than that. For the love of God. Did you delete it? You did not delete it. Okay. Thank God. Give me that video. Give me the truth. Give me the names of the people that are threatening you. Give me the name of the mother killed me. And I promise you I'll do my job. Finally, Joe cracks. He admits he stashed the laptop at a friend's house for safekeeping. Joe calls his friend. Give me out the barbershop with it. Bro, I would never put you in that situation so you would get in trouble. Like, bro, you're doing me a favor. Like, for real. Please go get the computer. And officers are dispatched to retrieve the laptop. Meanwhile, Joe explains how that footage came to be. He says while he was living with Donovan, he installed a motion-activated camera on his laptop. After he found Donovan dead, he realized he'd left that camera on, and it captured Donovan's killer's ram. ransacking the bedroom. Frightened of retaliation, Joe took the laptop to his friend's house. Then he went back to the apartment and called 911. Police get the laptop, and the footage is a goldmine. In the video, two suspects are seen tearing through the bedroom, grabbing jewelry and clothes, including a brown leather backpack. At one point, one of the suspects, can be seen holding a gun. Then, for a brief moment, a third suspect comes into view. Now, detectives must identify and hunt down all three suspects, and their best bet is to go after the only one captured in a close-up. If detectives can figure out who he is, then he can lead them to the others. Fortunately, they don't have to look too hard. Thanks to an anonymous tip, the perpetrator is identified as 18-year-old Neil Prince. And when detectives scan Neil's Facebook page, they immediately clock a suspicious photo. On December 29th, 15 days after Donovan's murder, Neil posted a photo of himself, with a cryptic caption. Underneath the post, one of his friends responded, "We know what you do, killer." And Neil asked them to delete it. The next day, detectives arrive at Neal's home with a search warrant. As officers search the residence, Neal is taken into custody and transported to the police station. We're here to talk to you about a homicide, okay? That's what we want to speak with you about. Here's the deal. This homicide occurred on Bayview in an apartment over there. And that's over near the homes in Waverly. We know that you were over there. You were seen over there, and you were also on video over there. Why would that show up? I don't know. I thought you were on some video. That's not me. I didn't tell you I was on video. It is you. And like I said, the person saw you over there. That's somebody that knows and recognizes you. This is your opportunity to tell us what went on. We know you weren't the only one there. How was it there? As Neal continues to deny any involvement in Donovan's murder, detectives receive crucial intel. During the search of Neal's home, officers recovered stolen goods from Donovan's apartment, including his brown leather backpack. There's a dead man's property in your apartment that you've only lived in for a couple weeks, you're telling me. What? What property? I'm telling you that there's a dead man's property in your apartment. I'm telling you that I know that someone had put you in that area, and you're telling me that you weren't there. I know you were there, but what I need to know, Neal, is what happened. You're the only one who can help me with that. I need to know what happened. Beef jerky. Microwave meals. Laundry pods even they can't screw up. Home of the Save. Join for just $20 at BJ's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Football is back, and PrizePix is bringing out their best offer yet. And now, PrizePix. PrizePix is available nationwide. What you want? PrizePix. Run your game. I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't know what property you're talking about. For almost three hours, detectives grill Neal, but he refuses to come clean. I know I wasn't over there, so. Okay, well, I'm telling you, you were. But that's the story you want to stick with. Neal Prince is arrested and charged with first-degree murder and one count of felony firearm possession. Weeks pass, and detectives work overtime to try and identify Neal's co-conspirators. Then, a month after Neal Prince's arrest, the case takes a surprising turn. Sixteen-year-old Willie Fletcher comes forward and confesses that he's one of the other perpetrators. After his attorney negotiates a deal with prosecutors, Willie agrees to tell police exactly what went down and how. Willie says he and Neal were recruited. by the third perp, a.k.a. the mastermind, to ambush Donovan and steal his gambling money. On that fateful night, under the ruse that they were coming over for a dice game, the trio went to Donovan's apartment. Unaware it was a setup, Donovan let them in, and things quickly escalated. Willie says the mastermind ordered him to shoot Donovan in the back. Terrified, Willie followed orders. Then, Willie says he watched as the mastermind. fired two bullets into Donovan's head. Then, he ordered Willie and Neal to ransack the apartment. But it wasn't the jackpot they expected. All they scored were a couple hundred dollars, a couple pieces of jewelry, and some clothing. Afterwards, Willie says the mastermind threatened him and Neal. Keep your mouths shut or you'll be next. Detectives press Willie to reveal the identity of the mastermind. And that's when they realize Donovan's murder wasn't just an act of greed. It was a cold-blooded betrayal. According to Willie, the mastermind is none other than Donovan's friend and gambling buddy, Anthony Brown. He shot dice a lot, so I'm going to get in and probably shot dice with the wrong person and probably set him up, anything. On the heels of Willie's confession, Anthony Brown is arrested and taken into custody. Let's just get it out there, man. Let's just get it out there. What I'm saying is, you were there, s---ing sideways, and you f---ed up that. Even if you didn't mean for that to happen, it happened, and I can prove it, okay? That's the way I feel, but I'm going to lawyer something. Okay. Because I don't know much about the law, so I'm not going to keep you all off. All right. But Willie's confession isn't the only proof. It's the only proof detectives have of Anthony's guilt. Detectives also find incriminating Facebook messages Anthony sent to Neal Prince. Anthony Brown is charged with first-degree murder and one count of felony firearm possession. In 2021, he's found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Neal Prince is also found guilty of first-degree murder and one count of felony firearm possession. He is sentenced to life in prison without parole. Willie Fletcher is also convicted of first-degree murder and one count of felony firearm possession. Thanks to his cooperation with authorities, he receives a lighter sentence, 28 to 60 years in prison. At Neal Prince's sentencing hearing, Donovan Barfield's mother, Betty, addresses the court. Clutching a bag containing her son's name on it. Donovan's ashes. She says, quote, "I just want these young men to know they took a great man." Donovan's ashes. She says, quote, "I just want these young men to know they took a great man."