48 Hours

Deadly Divorce, Part 1

March 26, 2025 50m Episode 821
Part one of the investigation into the murder of Charla Mack and attempted murder of Judge Chuck Weller. On June 12, 2006, Charla was found stabbed to death in her estranged husband's condo. Two hours later, a bullet was fired through the window of Judge Weller’s chambers, spraying him with shrapnel. The prime suspect in both attacks – Darren Mack – had vanished into thin air. “48 Hours" Correspondent Troy Roberts reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 8/8/2009. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Full Transcript

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Now, a special two-part edition of 48 Hours. You can get married and divorced in Reno probably in the same week.
And lose everything you have in a matter of minutes. Darren? Yes? The Charla and Darren Mack story is a story of explosive love.
Smile honey. It's really good looking people, a lot of money.
Woo, look at these. A lot of sex and high, high, high emotion.
And eventually, murder. I'm Amanda Robb and I'm a writer and I grew up in Reno, Nevada.
Darren Mack is handsome, larger than life, very charismatic, was an extraordinarily wealthy man. He worked in and around gaming in that he owned a pawn shop.
That's why we've been here for 40 years, and if you don't believe us, just ask anybody who's done business with us. Everyone loved Darren.
He had that personality that he wanted to be around. Darren Mack was married to a 39-year-old woman named Charla.
She was a stop-and-stare beautiful brunette. Absolutely gorgeous woman.
She was the most positive, upbeat, friendly, happy human being you would ever meet. I would say that Darren and Tarla Mac were a pretty explosive cocktail.
Passion and volatile and passion and volatile and not a whole lot in between. She admitted that she did some things that she wasn't proud of in an effort to save her marriage.
They got increasingly into adventurous sex during their marriage. It was a roller coaster.
When it went wrong, it went really wrong. So when his wife left him, it was a terrible blow.
In a state known for divorce, this was about as nasty as a divorce can get anywhere it was ugly it

was vicious it was mean judge weller was hearing their divorce case he felt judge weller wasn't listening to him he was angry at the court system The shooter entered the parking garage shortly after 10.30 on June 12th. That vehicle was captured on the video surveillance system inside of the parking garage, which is how we know what time the vehicle arrived and left.
Darren is somebody who doesn't like to lose. Losing is unacceptable.
She was going to take all his money and everything that he owned. Shooter's vehicle drove up to the fifth floor.
We all have the means to murder somebody every day. 99.9% of us will never ever do it.
We know that the judge was shot at about 11.05 and the vehicle flees the parking garage immediately. SWAT teams locked down around 10 square blocks of downtown.
The judge was rushed to the hospital in critical condition as police... After Judge Weller was shot, suspicion almost immediately fell on Darren because Darren had been so contentious with the judge.
It could have been anyone who shot Chuck Weller.

If Darren was capable of shooting a judge,

what did that mean for his wife, Charla?

Smile, honey.

Caught in the Crossfire, tonight's 48 Hours mystery. We are now seeking Darren Mack, M-A-C-K.
I'll never forget that day and how it felt. June 12, 2006.
He has not been found yet. He has not been arrested yet.
Just the panic that hit me immediately when I heard that they were looking for Darren Mack. The minute his face was on the news, I knew.
The story is unfolding almost by the minute. The people of Reno were glued to their televisions following the brazen shooting of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller.
My thoughts immediately turned towards Charla and her whereabouts. And I thought we have to find her.
Anne Mudd and Christine Liebert desperately tried to reach their friend Charla Mack. And immediately I got that little feeling in my stomach.
They were convinced Charla was in danger. You're just pacing, because what are you going to do? Perhaps she could still be alive.
Then they announced on the radio that they've also found a body. That victim is now identified as Charla Mack, the estranged wife of Darren.

That was probably the scariest moment in my entire life,

just to realize that my beautiful friend wasn't there anymore. They had two really big, big personalities.
Darren and Charla Mack were married in 1995. And from the beginning, everyone says, they had a chemistry that was undeniable.
I think when you saw the two of them walk into a room, they were explosive together. Charla just fired him up, you know.
She was more explosive than he was, you know. She was fire.
Writer Amanda Robb reported on the Mac case for Marie Claire magazine. They were high profile in the community.
They knew everybody, everybody knew them. Amanda and Charla went to the same high school in Reno.
She wanted to be famous more than anything. That really was her dream, was to be famous.
Her body was found at the Port-A-Lee apartment. I don't think this is how she imagined being famous, though.
Long before Charla ever met Darren Mack, she pursued her dream of an acting career. Leaving Reno behind, the teenager moved to Los Angeles.
Got herself two roles in two films. One was a film with Drew Barrymore.
That's Charla pushing the gurney. And one was a documentary with Diane Keaton.
God has helped me through everything. God is wonderful.
Charla eventually gave up acting and moved back to Reno. When she began dating Darren, they seemed a perfect match.
Darren Mack is a handsome, charismatic millionaire. He takes very good care of himself.
Friends say they also shared an interest in a self-awareness training group called the Landmark Education. He liked going to seminars about improving himself all the time, achieving his goals, which was money, money, money, money.
Darren Mack is the oldest son of a wealthy and prominent Reno family. His parents owned one of the largest pawn shops in the city.
When his father was killed in a plane crash in 1986, Darren became half-owner of the family business and according to court records, he was said to be worth almost $10 million. They lived large.
She drove a Lexus, he drove a Hummer, they had fancy things, fancy jewelry. Oh, it was fabulous.
But Darren Mack had been down the aisle before. I knew his first wife, Debbie.
And what was she like? Oh, she was a lovely girl. She was very quiet, very sophisticated.
Darren and Debbie had two children together, but the marriage did not end well. He would not stop fighting with Debbie.
She spent more than a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees, you know, just responding to him.

Smile, Charla.

And Charla was on his side at the time.

Darren had joined custody, and for a while at least, he, Charla, and his kids seemed to be one big happy family.

Darren liked to seem to be a devoted father, devoted husband.

He liked having a beautiful wife, a beautiful home. He liked looking very all-American, squeaky clean.
But their clean-cut family image was a far cry from their private lives. Charla was a very sexual person.
She did not have sexual inhibitions. And that was something that she shared with her husband and how great for her husband.
They became sort of a fixture on the strip club circuit and around Reno. Then it moved up into swinging.
Charlotte, smile. Then they actually went to swinger conventions in California, Arizona, and Mexico, where there'd be group sex parties.
They called it sexing. I'm sorry, what does that mean? Sexing? Sexing is when you go to these swinging clubs.
But things changed after their daughter Erica was born in 1997. Erica had a very normal life with her mother.

Movies, play dates, sleepovers, parties. That was Charla's life.
Charla told Darren she was no longer interested in swinging. She didn't like this lifestyle.
She did it for a while because it was really important to Darren, but that she tired of it.

As the marriage began to crumble,

letters and emails we obtained

document an increasingly abusive relationship.

She was a petite, tiny woman,

and he was a very big, buff guy.

Strong.

But it wasn't Charla who claimed to be the victim.

It was Darren. Fifth place winner in the Mr.
Nevada bodybuilding contest. He kept a diary in which he said that she kicked him in the testicles but missed, that she scratched his car, she yelled at him on the phone, she belittled him in front of his friends, went on and on and on for six pages like this.
He claimed to be afraid of her. Well, I think that's ridiculous.
He's this guy that goes to the gym, works out and is muscular. And it just seems ridiculous to me.
We're so much more stronger than women, they can't believe that we'll be physically abused. Darren was physically abused by his wife.
Darren's friend Michael Small says that despite his imposing stature, Darren Mack lived in fear. He was very scared of her.
I was with him a couple of times when she called and threatened him. So he wanted to end the marriage because he was battered.
That's a big part of it. It's a known fact he carried a gun because he was worried she was going to come and kill him.
But Charla was apparently looking over her shoulder too. One time he showed up at the house where she and Erica were and they had some kind of confrontation.
And he had her by the neck and was trying to strangle her. He was so angry with her.
In the end it was Charla who filed for divorce. Darren moved out.
The couple fought constantly over Erica but fought even more over money which Darren claimed was running out. He was cutting her off.
He canceled the credit cards. He wouldn't pay the utilities at their home.
She had to keep warm by fire because they had no heat. Family court judge Chuck Weller ordered Darren to pay Charla $10,000 a month until the divorce was settled.
But Darren thought the ruling and the judge were unfair and wouldn't give an inch.

Anything that she got was something that he lost, and he just wasn't going to lose. Thank you.
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It was just after 11 on that bright sunny day in June 2006 in downtown Reno when bystanders heard a loud bang echo off the buildings. Around 9-1-1, there's been a gunshot.
The construction worker said he heard the shot go kind of over his head. I've just been advised that we have shot fired possible snipers.
This is breaking news. We're in a place on the hunt right now for a sniper.

There was reports of at least one shot fired and maybe four or five. Northwest corner of the Justice Building, we have one window shot out.
We saw the glass, the window actually vibrating back and forth, looked like an earthquake. The dispatch call came out of a sniper-style shooting at the courthouse shortly after 11.06.
Detective Ron Chalmers joined hundreds of police officers to shut down the city, while SWAT teams fanned out searching for the sniper. The shooting came from the other side of the river.
The judge is down in here. Reno Gazette reporter Martha Bellisle hurried to the scene.
There were people who were hiding in different businesses and restaurants. They were trying to get people off the street because they didn't know if the shooter was still going to be shooting.
They didn't know where he was. Heavily armed police quickly made their way through nearby buildings.
You're looking up, you're checking buildings. We could at least narrow down the area the shot came from because the bullet went through a glass window.
I'm in the room where the judge is actually shot. The trajectory looks like it could be that parking garage is first in Sierra.
Possibly. Possibly shot originally at the parking garage.
Any units expect parking garage advice. It turned out only one bullet was fired that morning, exploding through the window of Judge Chuck Weller's chambers spraying him and his assistant with shrapnel.
Family court judge Chuck Weller shot while working in his chambers at about 11. It was just minutes after the shooting when police got a break.
Darren's friend said that he was very concerned for Charla and felt that... A childhood friend of Darren Mack's met with police and had a disturbing story to tell.
Dan Osborne told police he had been at Darren's home that morning when Charla dropped off their daughter. He and Erica stayed upstairs while Darren spoke to Charla privately.
Somehow Darren lured Charla into his garage. The daughter upstairs heard a dog yelping and told Darren's friend, I think your dog is yelping.
After the frantic barking went on for a while, Osborne told police he went to check on his dog. That's when he ran into Darren, who was coming up from the garage.
Osborne said Darren brushed past him with his hand wrapped in a towel with a weird look on his face, not saying a word.

A few moments later, the dog came in covered in blood.

And he became incredibly frightened and said to the little girl, we have to leave.

They left.

Osborne put Erica in his car and started driving.

Minutes later, his cell phone rang. It was Darren.
And Darren says, meet me at Starbucks. The friend who's completely flipped out at this point meets him at Starbucks with the little girl.
Mack took his daughter aside and spoke to her for a few minutes. Darren Mack may have realized that that was going to be the last time he'd see his daughter, at least as a free man.
He then drove off on his own. If he thought that maybe Charla had been injured that morning, why would he allow Darren Mack to see the little girl? Well, I think that Dan Osborne felt that he probably owed the Mack some gratitude.
He was an employee for the Mac family. Whether it's poor judgment or not, whether it's fear or not, he chose to allow Darren to see his daughter.
Based on Osborne's story, police rushed to Darren's condo. As we looked around the property a little bit closer, we found three droplets of blood in the driveway near the garage door.
Behind that garage door was Charlamac's lifeless body. She was found in his garage wearing no shoes or socks with seven stab wounds.
When you're being stabbed or you're dying you curl into fetal position to try to protect your core.

This was a desperate woman who was curled up like a baby, trying not to die.

A search of Darren's condo turned up incriminating evidence.

A note that on closer inspection, police believed to be a chilling, step-by-step guide to the day's bloody events. The media dubbed it Darren's to-do list.
It refers to ending the problem, and then it also referred to certain weapons that he would need to fulfill those plans. Police also found a rental contract for a silver Ford Explorer, and a crucial piece of the puzzle that tied everything together.
The to-do list had the phrase parking garage, if yes. Police reviewed surveillance video of the garage across from Weller's office, and sure enough, at 10.46 a.m., just 20 minutes before Weller was shot, a silver Ford Explorer is photographed entering the parking garage.
We retraced the path police believe the Explorer took that day. The shooter's vehicle pulled into the parking garage, drove up to the fifth floor.
Moments later, the vehicle made a three-point turn

and backed in so that the rear of the vehicle was facing

the Mills Lane Justice Center.

I think he knew what he set out to do on June 12,

and he followed his plan piece by piece.

So this wasn't just an explosion of violence. Well, I believe it was a calculated explosion of violence.
We know that the judge was shot at about 11.05. The video surveillance camera shows the Ford Explorer's rear hatch being closed at 11.05, and the vehicle flees the parking garage immediately.
How far is the courthouse from this parking structure? This is approximately 170 yards. It would take some skill as a marksman to shoot that distance and to hit your target.
It would take some skill, but Darren Mack has an extensive history in hunting, and I believe for somebody with his firearms background, this would be a very reasonable shot. The fallout from this horrifying day.
One shooting. Judge Weller is recovering from gunshot wounds under guard in an undisclosed location.
One murder. Did she fear for her life? Yes.

It's a homicide investigation right now.

The prime suspect, Darren Mack.

And one disturbing question.

I absolutely was afraid.

Where is Darren Mack?

He's a scary human being.

Police say federal and local agencies are looking for Mack all over the western United States.

The judge is reportedly under guard in a local hospital. Police aren't giving out many details.
Day two. 45-year-old Darren Mack is a hunted man.
With a nationwide search underway, he is heading south and flying under the radar. This is not a violent man.
He is a good person.

His cousin Jeff Donner goes on television to make an impassioned plea.

If Darren is listening, if he's watching, we love him. We care about him.

Darren called Donner just minutes after Judge Weller was shot. If he is responsible for this, he snapped.
He broke. The press needs to ask what went on in that courtroom that would make a good, loving, caring person like this possibly snap to this extent.
That courtroom belonged to Judge Chuck Weller, and what went wrong in Darren Mack's mind was just about everything. Tell me about Darren's frustration with the family court system, specifically with Judge Weller.
He felt Judge Weller wasn't listening to him. He also felt that Charlottela's attorney was lying about everything that he

was filing, but Weller was letting him get away with it. Michael Small was one of Darren's closest friends.

You're not uncomfortable saying out loud that Darren Mack is my friend?

No. I love Darren.

Even in light of these charges, these heinous crimes that he's charged with. Innocent until proven guilty.
Small and Mac had a lot in common. Both men were in the midst of bitter custody fights.
We sat side by side, really trying to do right by kids and family. And both men appeared before Judge Weller.
Small says his own experience in Weller's courtroom sheds light on Darren's intense frustration. I think I understand what he's going through inside of him better than anyone out there.
I want to talk right now about how this child is going to be delivered. Weller ordered Small to return his son to Florida where his ex-wife lives, an arrangement Small said would put the child at risk.
But a Florida judge had already rejected that claim. I'm not a a lawyer i don't confess to know the law all i know i will do anything to protect my children judge weller's hands were tied this court does not have jurisdiction in this case when small missed the deadline to return the boy, a Florida judge threw him in jail for 45 days.
The former actor was left to stew about family court in general and Weller in particular, a sentiment shared by Darren Mack. Both men were losing, both men blamed Judge Weller, and both men started a campaign against him.
We felt something big did have to happen in order for people to know what is going on, in order for light to be shed on the situation. Something big like what? Like a judge being shot? No.
We never talked about that, we never thought about that, we never wanted anyone to get hurt. Clearly, Weller was not a popular judge.
According to a tally kept by the County Bar Association, lawyers, when given the choice, chose to get Weller off their case. Judge Weller had twice as many preemptory challenges as the other family court judges.
Martha Belisle specializes in legal affairs for her newspaper. What kind of criticism have you heard about Judge Weller? That he tended to make decisions quickly, wouldn't hear both sides.
But being unpopular and having a bias are two different things. Did he have a reputation of making rulings that were more favorable to women in his court? I don't know that that's been shown.
To the best of your knowledge, he didn't have any clear bias. I don't know that he had a bias.
Just two weeks after the shooting, Judge Weller had recovered and held a press conference, but he wouldn't address the Mack case. In every case, as much as we try to avoid it, oftentimes there are winners and losers.
I can say that my job is to go into the courtroom and decide cases without bias, and that's what I have striven to do the entire time that I've been on the bench. What did Darren Mack say to you about Judge Weller? Well, he said he was an anti-father's rights judge.
Dean Tong was part of Darren Mack's divorce legal team. He says Darren was a difficult client.
He seemed like a guy who would have trouble listening to others. He wanted to basically call the shots.

Tong, who specializes in custody issues, warned Darren there are certain things that just won't sit well with any judge when it comes to deciding who gets custody. Smile, y'all.
He wanted to still continue to do what he was doing, which was the sex-winging on the side. Did you explain to him in very clear terms that he could jeopardize this case? Absolutely.
And what did he say to you? He, you know, he took a deep breath and said, well, we'll address it. We'll talk about it.
Apparently, Darren didn't take the warning seriously. Thank you for calling the world famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch.
In fact, he later took a trip to the famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch to celebrate his impending divorce. Oh, we all flock to the parlor.
We all want a shot at that one. Hello, I'm Kitten.
Hi, I'm Brooke Taylor. Hi, I'm Mia Morgan.
His friends brought him out here to play and have a good time. And he was like, you know what? I'm getting a divorce.
I'm having fun. I don't have no reason to worry about it.
To hell with her. You know, I don't need her.
I got these girls here. It was your average, everyday divorce party.
But back at home, the party was over. When it comes to court, people are very naive in this country.
They don't understand until it hits them on paper that a judge can alter your life in a New York minute. Judge Weller had asked Darren and Charlotte to try to reach some kind of financial agreement on their own so he wouldn't be forced to do it for them.
They did hammer out a deal, but when that fell apart, the judge stepped in and ordered Darren to pay up. He had to pay her a lump sum of $480,000, out of which she was supposed to buy a home and a car.
And then over the next five years, she was supposed to receive $10,000 a month in spousal support.

What was his state of mind?

Disillusionment, frightened, could not

believe this was happening.

I mean, he was about to lose a lot of his money.

Darren was ordered to make that payment up close to half

a million dollars to Charla.

But soon after that hearing, Charla Mack was dead. Do you think Judge Weller's rulings against Darin Mack pushed him over the edge? I can't say Darin did this.
Do I think Judge Weller's rulings, attitude, all that, is enough to push someone over the edge? 100%. Yes, sir.
Is Darren Mack capable of murder? We all are. Oh my God, it's the coolest thing ever.

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Should we all be huddling somewhere and hiding? Should our kids be walking in front of the windows? It's been four days since Charla Mack's body was discovered inside Darren Mack's garage. I was very frightened.
And there's still no sign of Darren. If he murdered Charla with his daughter in the house,

you don't know what he's capable of.

Darren's daughter Erica was now safely in hiding with family,

but Charla's friends were still on edge.

Were you afraid that Darren Mack was going to come after you?

Yes.

You were?

Yes.

But you were the next target.

Mark Phillips was Charla's boyfriend at the time of her death.

What did you do to protect yourself?

I always had the shades drawn in my house and walked through the backyard to see if any disturbances and windows or anything like that before I went inside.

Always had everything double locked.

I just don't understand why she went in there. She knew better than that.
While Charla's friends and family were lying low, we've highlighted those areas of La Paz. The search for Daramac was now an international manhunt.
Reno investigators working with the FBI were tracking possible Daramac sightings in Mexico.

A couple of unverified reports came in at this resort in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.

It would have been familiar territory for Darren since he'd been here the year before for a swingers convention. People would walk around without any clothes on.
They would have sex freely in the open. Newspaper reporter Martha Belisle went to Mexico trying to retrace Darren's steps and met hotel employee Virginia Delgadillo, who claimed she met a man fitting Darren's steps.
I met hotel employee Virginia Delgadillo,

who claimed she met a man fitting Darren's description.

He was looking at like, just standing here,

just like, what is your name or something?

And an airline pilot staying at the same resort

also reported he thought he had seen the millionaire fugitive.

FBI agents soon descended on the Mexican hotel. They conducted several interviews and canvases,

however, they were unable to ultimately determine if it was Darren Mack that was at that resort.

Then exactly one week after he disappeared came the shocking announcement

that Darren Mack, hiding somewhere in Mexico,

wanted to surrender.

A break tonight in the Darren Mack case.

Earlier this week, Mack contacted District Attorney Dick Gamak by telephone and expressed

a desire to surrender.

Dick Gamak, a longtime Mack family friend, is Reno's District Attorney. He did express to me that he called me because I'm the only one he trusts in the system.
While he was still in hiding, Darren's family had retained two high-priced defense attorneys. There's no question about the fact that we have our work cut out for us.
David Chesnoff and Scott Freeman took over the surrender negotiation. Let's be clear on what we're dealing with here.
Your client, Darren Mack, did kill his ex-wife, Charla. You won't get me to tell you that, nor me.
That's not in dispute, is it? I think everything in the case is in dispute. But what's not in dispute is they see Darren as a man pushed to the limit.
I mean, if I had a dollar for every time somebody said to me, this guy must have just snapped. Do you think he went temporarily insane that morning? He's a completely capable human being who makes bad choices and excuses.
But a series of emails Darren sent while on the run reveal a disturbing picture of this man. For example, in one message, he holds himself up as a martyr for the Father's Rights Movement, saying, remember, they want me as a sacrificial lamb.
They want the pleasure of executing me. In the same vein, he later writes that his story must get attention to save the hundreds of thousands yet to go through little Nazi Germany in the divorce industry.
What does that say to you?

What does that suggest to you?

And if that isn't a clear example to a lawyer or my colleague

to have psychiatric analysis of our client,

that's what that says to me.

After days of negotiations, Darren finally

agreed to surrender the next morning at the U.S. consulate in Puerto Vallarta.

But will he go peacefully?

RENO POLICE OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH The police officials have been working with the FBI inside of Mexico to facilitate the return of MAC to the United States.

June 22nd, 11 days after that violent rampage that shook the city of Reno.

Thank you. 22nd, 11 days after that violent rampage that shook the city of Reno, police anxiously await the surrender of the man they believe responsible.
Mack, who is believed to also have been using the names of Darren Stone and John Smith. There was a question whether Darren Mack would give up without a fight.
But in the end, the millionaire fugitive quietly turned himself in at a luxury hotel in Puerto Vallarta. He walked in around midnight and walked by the front desk, went to the phone bank, called his lawyer, walked back to the desk, and the officials came over and said, I think we're the people you're looking for.
Darren's last night was spent in this stark Mexican jail cell. A dramatic reversal of fortune for a man who was accustomed to living the high life.
And Darren Mack has now stepped out of the vehicle. We can hear some of the press photographers.
What prompted Darren Mack to surrender?

The only thing that I can think is that he was obsessed with exposing what he believed were Judge Weller's injustices.

Darren Mack was carrying $36,000 in cash, 20 credit cards, and a suitcase full of evidence.

A pair of shoes with some blood spatter were in the suitcase. Some other clothing with what appeared to be blood stains were in the suitcase.
Did you analyze the blood stains on the clothing? Yes. And who do they belong to? The DNA profile matches that of Charlemac.
Darren Mack was charged with the murder of his wife and the attempted murder of Judge Weller. This case had all the hallmarks of overwhelming evidence.
Las Vegas Special Prosecutor Christopher Lally is handling the case. When you look at the DNA evidence, the eyewitness evidence, the fingerprint evidence, all the forensic things that people look for in a case this one had.
Darren has pled not guilty to both crimes. I believe that he's not guilty of these crimes.
You do admit, though, you have your work cut out for you. People need to remember that Mr.
Mack came back voluntarily so that he could present his defense. From the sound of it, Darren Mack's attorneys may be making a case for self-defense.
Our investigation shows that this woman was violent and could get angry and do things that were inappropriate that may actually raise the question of self-defense. Darren hinted at this in an email he sent to Reno DA Dick Gammett while negotiating his surrender, claiming it was Charla who was the aggressor in that garage.
She would never try to attack Darren or do anything like that. Even if she would, which I don't think she ever would, she would certainly have never even considered it with her daughter around, ever.
Period. It just wouldn't have happened.
Darren Mack's attorneys may also raise questions about his state of mind. Is he mentally incompetent? It's not for lawyers or prosecutors to decide.
It's for experts. Co-prosecutor Robert Daskus thinks insanity will be a hard sell.
You look at the object, if you will, of his hostility. He went after the two people he had a motive to kill.
He went after Charlamac, with whom he was having a bitter divorce and a custody battle, and he went after Judge Weller, someone at least in Darren Mack's mind who was treating him unfairly. And the defense will need to work around that so-called to-do list, which could show premeditation.
What do you make of this cryptic list? I'd have to know who wrote it. You don't think Darren wrote this? I didn't say that, but I don't know who wrote it, and it hasn't been established.
And until I know who wrote it, how could I possibly speculate as to what the meaning of it was? As they gear up for trial, Darren's attorneys say they'll spare no expense to defend their client. But apparently it won't be easy.
What is your client's net worth? As we speak, it's zero. He has no money.
Yeah. How is I understand that he was worth anywhere from $9 to $12 million.
No, he's in bankruptcy. So you're taking this case on pro bono? No.
He has a lot of friends and family that care about him a great deal. After the violent events of that June morning, many still wrestle with the fallout.
Custody litigation expert Dean Tong. What has this case done to the father's rights movement in this country? It certainly slapped me in the face.
How dare you be a martyr for what we've worked so hard for? Released from jail and back home with his new wife and family, Michael Small would learn more about the case and eventually withdraw his support from Darren. As Darren awaits trial for the murder of his wife, Charla, their daughter Erica is now the center of a new custody dispute between her grandmothers.
Does she know about the circumstances surrounding her mother's death? Yes. Yes.
She knows that her father has been charged with her mother's murder. Yes.
But she also hears a lot of comments from Darren's friends and family that try to instill doubt in her mind. And so now she has made the comment,

well, we don't know if my daddy killed my mommy.

She said maybe the cat did it.