Oregon Man Executed After Hanging Out with Co-Worker’s Girlfriend

- There is no talking in out of it. - And what specifically did he tell you he was planning on doing? - No, she didn't. - Three lives collide in a small organ town, a jealous boyfriend. - Do you think I'd tell him or do you think I'm involved in killing him? - His volatile girlfriend. - He messaged you a couple of hours before and I think he was killed that he needed you to bring him as told me. What is he referring to? - They got him. - And the co-worker caught in the middle. - Do you think he was trying to make up Dominion? - I can tell you. - What begins inside a bakery spirals into suspicion, betrayal, and violence? - In the video basically shows the driver of the car killing me. - And at the center of it all, a deadly love triangle that leaves one young man dead and police hunting for his killer. - Why do you mean I'm a family man? Why would I go jeopardize it to kill this guy? - Did he release the problem? I should have just gone and gone from him. (whistling) - The penalty is death. - It's a family out of here. - Why am I? - I will have my attorney call you. - No, I believe you will. - In the final days of April 2024, police were already familiar with the Milwaukee apartment share by Cody James Denowith and his girlfriend, Dominique Marie Britt. A domestic violence call had brought officers to the door and Denowith spent a brief stint in jail. It was during that short time behind bars that Britt delivered a revelation. She claimed that Nathan Dean Anderson, Denowith's co-worker at a bakery chain, had sexually assaulted her. After Britt's allegation, Denowith was furious and he wanted Nathan Anderson dead. It's late afternoon on April 29th, 2024, on a quiet neighborhood street in Clackamas County, Oregon. Around 5.30 p.m., Cody Denowith finds Nathan Anderson. Denowith raises the six-hour and pulls the trigger. Three shots, tear into Anderson's abdomen. Neighbors hear the gunfire and rush to call 911. Paramedics arrive quickly and race Anderson to Oregon Health and Science University Hospital. Doctors attempt to save him, but it's too late. He's pronounced dead soon after he arrives. The news spreads fast. At the intersection where Anderson collapsed, friends and family begin to gather. Balloons, flowers and messages are laid at a makeshift memorial. For those who loved him, the loss was immediate and devastating. And while they mourn, the killer disappears into the night. The crime scene is chaotic, but detectives waste no time. Witnesses tell deputies they recognized the shooter. Cody Denowith. The connection between Denowith, Dominique Britt and Nathan Anderson gives investigators a clear direction from the start. Once a warrant is granted, they begin pulling data from Denowith cell service provider, call logs, text messages and timestamps. The phone data is damning. Text show Denowith had messaged family members before the shooting, asking them for help to kill Anderson. All had refused. But one thing was clear, this was premeditated. Forensics come back on the bullets and casings collected at the crime scene. They're consistent with a six-hour P365. Surveillance video from multiple angles around the scene confirms Denowith's silver sedan was spotted near the scene when the shots rang out. And it was missing its license plates. With witnesses, ballistics, digital records, and Dominique Britt's participation, detectives now have everything they need except their guy. One week after the murder, the hunt finally comes to an end. Detectives locate Cody James Denowith and place him under arrest. Detectives have their suspect. Now they want his story. On May 6, 2024, inside a small interview room at the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, the camera's role as Cody Denowith is brought in. First off, am I under arrest? Yes, sir, or what? The detectives remind him this room is wired with cameras in audio. This room's only on the airport, this is Alex. He's also an detective, OK? They read him his rights, then they start to probe. So we're investigating the death of a man named Hiner, how do you hear about that? Social media. Social media. It's not all the news I love. Did you know Nathan? Yeah, he's been a worker. He used to be a worker for you. I do. That day, when was that? Maybe a year ago. Yeah, we've hung out maybe two or three times since then. I helped him move from his mom's to an apartment complex. And his first time I heard from him about six months. When was that? Maybe a few months back. OK, yeah. When's the last time that you talked to him? Talked to him? Yeah. When I got out of jail, I talked to him. But his voice hardens, as he recalls, what happened while he was locked up. I guess he'd come over to my apartment, while I was in jail and ended up getting my girlfriend high and all sorts of-- yeah, I don't know the whole story. He wouldn't tell me it. According to Denowith, Anderson crossed a line. Do you think he was trying to pick up Dominie? I couldn't tell you if he wouldn't tell me. I tried to get the full story from him for a couple of days, and he kept getting all the arguments and stuff, and you know, cussing, and this, that, and the other. And it's on the Facebook if you've been on his. I'm sure you have since you're doing investigation. I'm sure that's probably why I'm here, because of all his threats and stuff, right? Well, I mean, I haven't seen it myself personally. But what kind of threats was he making to you? Just that he would end my life and this, that, and the other. And he doesn't-- I don't know him, and where he's from. He's from the cartel, and he's from GD, and he's this, that, and the other. And he'll wipe me clean and blah, blah, blah, and so lots of-- lots of drugs talking. OK. That's as good as you see him, like he was. No, he didn't. He was about-- he couldn't-- I don't know what he was doing. I couldn't tell you personally. How does that make you feel, brother? Did you feel for him? No, not at all. You know, he's-- in my eyes, he was like my little brother. I didn't know him on a personal level. But he's younger than me. We've been through some of the same things. He had his life on track there for a minute. And if he needed help, all he had to do was call. You know, I was always there if he needed help. So it's kind of-- I mean, it's kind of messed up that he went over to your apartment then, given the fact that it's not what you tried to help him out. Yeah, I mean, I didn't really mind. You know, I didn't think he was trying to pick up on her. But she couldn't remember what was going on because she was blocked out through him. And so I tried to get this story from him. And all I asked him was, hey, screenshot me in the messages that you guys had, that a way I can get some clarity on what the situation of what happened. And immediately, you just went into blah, blah, blah, blah. That blah, blah. Like, did it? Some simple screenshots. Like, what's the problem? What did you think went down with him? That she got taken advantage of. And I mentioned that to him on Facebook as well. You would see that if you took the look that you did not. And he did deny it, but he didn't confirm it. I felt like he's trying to protect something. And then it came down to just harming your cool off, man. And a couple days go by and I'm like, hey, are we cool? Like, are we both good? I know we're both hotheaded. Are we both good? It's like, oh, yeah, we're good. You know, this, that, and the other. And I couldn't tell you exactly how the conversation went forward. But, you know, we're like, we're both cool, that's, all right. Did you guys hang out together? No, we haven't hang out since. The teenagers go on and I see some stuff on Facebook from Kate to the post and then RIP and like, blah, blah, blah. And I miss it, her. You miss it, sure. I miss it, sure. And she said that the detectives aren't being clear on what happened, just that he was murdered. The detectives tighten the screws. One of the things that we found when we were investigating this is, Nathan's phone wasn't with his body when, when his body was found. Okay. And after his death, his phone actually traveled to the area of your apartment. Okay. Okay. Did you have Nathan's phone with you? No. No. How can I have it qualified to ever with him? Basically, what I'm getting at is, there's more surveillance images that we've collected and I'm fairly certain that you're involved in this. You think I killed him? Seriously? Yes. And if there's a reason for what happened, if he's threatening you and you know, I don't know, I wasn't there. You know what I mean? All I know is. I was. Yeah. Lawyer. Okay. Are you saying that you want to lawyer? Obviously, if you guys think I killed somebody, I need a lawyer. Okay. Fair enough. But the interrogation doesn't stop there, even after asking for a lawyer, Denna with just keeps on talking. Why is it that you guys think I killed him? Well, they still aren't investigating. Do you think I killed him or do you think I'm involved in killing him? I think that you're responsible. That I'm responsible for killing you. Yes. My guy's first handed, killed him. Okay. What are you trying to charge him with? Murder in the second degree and unlawful use of a weapon. Okay. Under what grounds? Based on evidence we've collected in our investigation. Do you have a reason on this question? Do you have a reason why we shouldn't be looking at you for this? Is there someone else we should be looking at? I mean, I couldn't tell you firsthand, there's somebody else, but me, who can wipe me? Denoweth pushes back, painting himself as anything but a killer. I'm a family man. I work hard every day to support my family. But the detectives have their theory and they hammer it home. So the what car had licensed plates on it, which it did and then on the day that Nathan was killed it didn't have license plates on it and didn't have license plates on it when you were arrested. You said? Yeah, I'm asking. Right now? Yeah. Yeah. So at some point in there, license plates came off of the car. The other reason someone would do that is that they were planning on killing Nathan and wanted to try to obscure their identity. So that's an element of premeditation, which is not a crime of passion killing. It's thought through premeditated crime and that's super interesting to me. Denoweth shrugs, weary and cornered. And you took them off, picked them up, and we have video of you picking them up. Um, picked them up, sitting down in a particular area in the alleyway there, you shot them, you drove off, you put the place back in your car. You wouldn't say you're going to place off your car unless you're planning on doing it. Premeditation. That's murder one. Is there any reason why we shouldn't be looking at murder one and be looking murder two and seven? You guys can look at whatever you want. You guys named escalators, right? So, I guess we're looking at an option one, which is a crime of passion, right? You got pissed at the moment and shot and killed them. Um, option two is you planned it ahead of time, which is much worse. Um, maybe option three is you meant to shoot them, but didn't mean to kill them. I don't know which one of those it is. Um, those are obviously. No, no, no, no, no, no, we're good, but there's a high hierarchy of bad, worse, worst, right? Which we kind of talked about. And this is kind of your opportunity to tell us which one of those it is because you're probably not going to get another one. And this is one of those deals where I don't want to tell your story for you. If you can tell it for yourself, but that's the option you're giving me. So it's up to you to tell us what happened or not tell us what happened. I think it's time to go lower down. Okay. Cause all three of those options are bad. I agree. Yeah. Where are you, where are you guys are? How long have you been tired over the jail? Oh, just a few moments. Okay, thank you. No worries. Finally, the weight of the accusations against him sinks in. The rest of her. It's not being arrested. Like I'm just probably like 20 years in prison. Second grade murder. What is it? What does it carry? Well, actually, we're now probably looking at more of the first degree murder. How to go from the second grade to first grade? Well, within five minutes. Cause of premeditation. Detectives have Cody's story. Defensive, flat, and full of denials. But now they want the other half. Two days later, on May 8th, 2024, they said his girlfriend, Dominique Marie Brett, down inside the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. And you really should Cody. What is Cody like? What's, what's he about? He's usually a very happy, like, chill person, a great dad, like, loves our kids, like, that's his kid, you know, his eyes. But he has his moments where he just is like, his down, like his mental, and he's in trouble with that his whole life. But he just has never gone on medicine because he doesn't want to be a zombie. He says, do you think it's like depression or is it psychosis? Yeah. Like, do you think he hears voices or something in his head? That's, I don't know. Why do you think that? Is there behaviors you can attribute to like, hey, that's an example of him being kind of mentally unstable? Yeah, like, uh, abusing me, I'm cheating on him when I'm like, home all day with your kids. I cook, I clean, I take care of the house, like, I'm with your kids or just like, thinking like, I'm being sneaky or thinking that everybody hates him or people are talking about him, just like stuff like that and it just gets worse and worse. Is he kind of spiral when he gets into those? Yeah, like this last month, completely different person. Okay. Yeah. Has there ever been any prior periods where he was like that? No, this is like the worst it's got. Like, yeah. Um, has there ever been, I know that there was a call at your apartment, um, on the 24th, Milwaukee police came out, um, who's an domestic violence call? That's what I know. Yeah, he was screaming and yelling. Any physical stuff that, right? Has there ever been any kind of physical abuse? No, not at all. Like, usually, that night he drank like a whole fifth and like a 20 minute period from the time he got off work to the liquor store to the house. What do you agree? Probably real, I think. Yeah. But, no, he'd usually, he doesn't ever yell at me, nothing like it's this month. He's just, you know what, what set it off or what, like, why he's been acting like that? No. I think him getting arrested the last time kind of just made everything worse. Like, within like the last two weeks, it's just been like, I don't know, bad, I guess, his mental health. I don't know. She recalls that night with Nathan Anderson, the night at the center of this whole case and a night, she can barely piece together. I woke up and everything was just like, and it hurt. Like, yeah, not like my whole body, like, was it hangover pain or was it different? Different pain. Like, my hangover pain was like, well, I had, you know, did you feel like something that happened to any of your intimate areas? Maybe, I don't know, might like, my whole body hurt. But according to like the cops when they showed up, I had blood on me from, I don't know, like, my knees still, you could see you still scraped up. So, I don't know, like, do you remember where that was from? You don't remember when Nate came over that night? No. No, that night is of blur. Then the conversation shifts to Denowith's intentions. Did Cody ever express any sort of ill will against Nathan Anderson? No, I think it just, whatever happened to me, if it happened, didn't, you know, the way that Nate was warning it, it seemed like something happened to me. And I think Cody just, I don't know, I honestly couldn't tell you. He didn't tell me that he was going to do anything. If he did anything, I just, I don't know, I'm like, my whole mind is like trying to like figure things out and like put pieces together. Let's stop the Cody, I know. It can be hard too because, you know, the only thing that I know from doing this job is that people will surprise you, you know what I mean? Did you have any indication that Cody wanted to do anything about Nate or that he was going to do anything crazy or anything? I know he was talking about wanting to beat him up. But detectives push and Brett gives them what Cody Denoweth wouldn't. Friday is what he had his mind set, that that's what he was going to do when there is no talking him out of it. And what specifically did he say? That I'm going to go shoot Nate. Okay, with the intention? I guess killing him? Okay. Yeah. Okay. So now you've given us more info. Tell us if you don't mind exactly what he said, when he said it, where you were when the conversation happened and what he said, his intent was going to be. Friday, I think, I don't know if we, I don't think we're on the phone. I think we were together. So maybe in the car, I think he just said that I'm going to go shoot him. That's what I'm going to do. Like there is no talking him out of it, at all, because he was just gone, like gone. So I guess, you know, the big question here is, if you knew the plan, why is Nate dead? There was no stopping Cody. I don't. No matter how many times I told him, if you do this, you're going to ruin your life. You know, your, your, your son's going to grow up about you. Okay. Did not, did not care. The detective zero in on the weapon. He messaged you a couple hours before Nathan was killed that he needed you to bring him as toy. The one from upstairs. Yeah. And I said, told him, sure, and then I called him and I said, no, I'm not bringing nothing to you. The gun probably. Did he really come and get the gun? Yes. Yes. And let me explain something to you that I don't want you to say something you can't take back later. And this is why I'm going to tell you this because one that that that he wouldn't get himself as you reach him doesn't make any sense. Based off the messages, it makes no sense. But beyond that, we've applied for court orders to get his phone records. Okay. Do you know anything about cell towers and how that stuff works? It's actually kind of confusing. So, so when we get the records back, we'll be able to tell because the more cell towers they are, the better information you get. Right. And there are a ton in any metro area, especially where you guys look. So, so when 10 to 100 looks at those records, he'll be able to tell that Nate drove up or didn't drive up and whether or not he went into house or not. So if it shows that he drove up in the drove away, I mean, you brought him to gun. So if that's what happened, this is the time to talk about it. So when talked to us about you bringing him to gun? - I did. - Where? - Where? - He was on the side of the street and I brought him the backpack and everything. - It was the peace investigators have been waiting for. The handoff of the murder weapon. - What did he do with the gun? - I don't know. I really don't know. I haven't seen it since then. - What did you do at the missions for longings? - It was at my mom's and he threw it away. Me and my mom and him, 'cause my mom had a trash bag. We walked to her trash and we threw away that bag. That was in the warrant, that he was looking. That you guys were waiting for. So I don't know if maybe the gun was in that backpack or something. I don't know, I just know he threw it away. - When he told you that he shot Nathan, what did he say exactly? - That he got, that he made the gun out of the car and he shot him and then he drove up. - And yet Brits said, when Denna with returned, he acted as if nothing had happened. - Well, this is a conversation like I'd be on. And he was completely normal. Like he didn't go and just shoot somebody. Like we went to McDonald's, the kids' food. We went back to my mom's, we watched the Smurfs movie, went to sleep, got to study at school. Like everything we do on a normal day. - The truth she had tried to avoid finally tumbles out. - I knew when he came into the house and got the gun. That's what he was gonna do. I knew. - When was the first time you said I'm gonna shoot and kill Nate? - And Friday is when he had his mind set. He was not gonna let it go and I just told him, okay, it needs to happen, it needs to happen. But you're gonna get caught. That's what I told him. There's no way I'm kidding away with. - So that terminology if it's gonna happen and if these happen, it's gonna happen, that's your acceptance of it. That's your verbal acceptance of yes and made deeds to die. Is there any other way to look at that? How responsible do you think you are? The name was murdered. - I think it's whatever happened to me, didn't it happen? I'll just be telling him, oh my God. - And understand what you're saying. And I think that, you know, I think you need to really tell us now about what really happened with you and Nate. - I don't, I 100% don't remember that night at all. I don't. Do you hear right now, do you think Nate raped you? - Yeah, probably. From what my bottom area looked like, yeah. - Do you think Nate ****ed you? And that's horrible. And that's not excusable. But it's also not a reason for murder. - No. - So from the time that it's that it happened, until the time that Cody killed Nate, murdered Nate, how many opportunities did you have to contact police and talk about that? - We did. - And you guys talked about that, didn't you? - About what? - Making a report. Tell me about that. - I told him, I should just go to the cops and make a report. No, I'm gonna handle it myself. I was like, no, I can, like, it happened to me, you know? I'm gonna handle it myself. You don't have, there's no proof that anything happened to you. - Well, I'm sorry that that happened to you. - It doesn't give him right to kill anybody. - No, not at all. - So either we're looking at one or two things happened. Either you were good to go with it from the beginning or this was your deal and you wound him up and you didn't do it. - No, no. - So which of those two is it? - I guess I was just like, oh, if you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it type of thing, you know? But I just. - For how long did you want Cody to kill Nate? - I did it. - Everything about this says that you did. - I did it. I was just, okay, whatever I could do. What did you want to do the thing? - At the very least, based off of everything we know now, you're a co-conspirator in his murder. - No, gone. - If not the originator of the idea of his murder. - No, no, no. - And I get that you're upset right now, but I'm gonna be honest with you from where I'm at. - You're not upset for Nate. You're upset because you got caught. - No, I aren't for Nate too. Like, did anything for this to happen? I should have just called the cops on him. - You could have made that call on Friday. You could have made the call on Saturday. - I know, every day. - You could have made the call on most of Monday. - All Sunday, most of Monday, okay? So this idea that you just sort of went with the flow, and I'm sorry, but it just doesn't track with the information we have. - Dominique Britt is taken into custody. Both she and Cody Denowith face charges of murder and unlawful use of a weapon. With the investigation now complete, the focus shifts from the streets to the courtroom. In December 2024, 27 year old Dominique Britt pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon. She sentenced to 150 months in prison. In April 2025, Cody Denowith pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter and first degree assault with a firearm resulting in a combined 27 and a half year sentence. For Nathan Anderson's family, the verdict brings a measure of closure. But no sentence, no judgment, could restore the life that had been taken far too soon. For Long Crime Investigates, I'm Kristen Thorn. (gentle music)