Deadly Divorce, Part 1

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Speaker 2 Now a special two-part edition of 48 Hours.

Speaker 4 You can get married and divorced in Reno

Speaker 4 probably in the same week

Speaker 4 and lose everything you have in a matter of minutes.

Speaker 5 Darren?

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 4 Wait. The Charla and Darren Mack story was a story of explosive love.

Speaker 6 Smile honey.

Speaker 4 It's really good-looking people, a lot of money.

Speaker 4 A lot of sex.

Speaker 4 And high, high, high emotion.

Speaker 4 And eventually,

Speaker 4 murder.

Speaker 4 I'm Amanda Robb, and I'm a writer, and I grew up in Reno, Nevada. Darren Mack is handsome, large in life, very charismatic, was an extraordinarily wealthy man.

Speaker 4 He worked in and around gaming in that he owned a pawn shop.

Speaker 8 That's why we've been here for 40 years.

Speaker 9 And if you don't believe us, just ask anybody who's done business with us.

Speaker 10 Everyone loved Darren. He had that personality that you wanted to be around.

Speaker 4 Darren Mack was married to a 39-year-old woman named Charla. She was a stop and stare, beautiful brunette.

Speaker 4 Absolutely gorgeous woman.

Speaker 11 She was the most positive, upbeat, friendly, happy human being you would ever meet.

Speaker 4 I would say that Darren and Charla Mack were a pretty explosive cocktail.

Speaker 12 Passion and volatile and passionate and volatile and not a whole lot in between.

Speaker 11 She admitted that she did some things that she wasn't proud of

Speaker 11 in an effort to save her marriage.

Speaker 4 They got increasingly into adventurous sex during their marriage.

Speaker 11 It was a roller coaster.

Speaker 12 When it went wrong, it went really wrong.

Speaker 4 So when his wife left him, it was a terrible blow.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Judge Weller was hearing their divorce case.

Speaker 13 He felt Judge Weller wasn't listening to him.

Speaker 10 He was angry at the court system.

Speaker 15 The shooter entered the parking garage shortly after 10.30 on June 12th.

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 4 Darren is somebody who doesn't like to lose.

Speaker 12 Losing is unacceptable.

Speaker 10 She was going to take all his money and everything that he owned.

Speaker 15 Shooter's vehicle drove up to the fifth floor.

Speaker 4 We all have the means to murder somebody every day.

Speaker 4 99.9% of us will never ever do it.

Speaker 15 We know that the judge was shot at about 11.05 and the vehicle flees the parking garage immediately.

Speaker 17 SWAT teams locked down around 10 square blocks of downtown.

Speaker 16 The judge was rushed to the hospital in critical condition as police.

Speaker 4 After Judge Weller was shot, suspicion almost immediately fell on Darren because Darren had been so contentious with the judge.

Speaker 3 It could have been anyone who shot Chuck Weller.

Speaker 4 If Darren was capable of shooting a judge, what did that mean for his wife, Charla?

Speaker 6 Smile, honey.

Speaker 15 Caught in the crossfire.

Speaker 3 Tonight's 48 hours mystery.

Speaker 7 We are now seeking Darren Mack, M-A-C-K.

Speaker 11 I'll never forget that day and how it felt.

Speaker 2 June 12th, 2006.

Speaker 7 He has not been found yet. He has not been arrested yet.

Speaker 11 Just the panic that hit me immediately when I heard that they were looking for Darren Mack.

Speaker 12 The minute his face was on the news, I knew.

Speaker 6 The story is unfolding almost by the minute.

Speaker 2 The people of Reno were glued to their televisions following the brazen shooting of family court judge Chuck Weller.

Speaker 11 My thoughts immediately turned towards Charla and her whereabouts. And I thought we have to find her.

Speaker 2 Ann Mudd and Christine Liebert desperately tried to reach their friend, Charla Mack.

Speaker 12 And immediately I got that little feeling in my stomach.

Speaker 13 They were convinced Charla was in danger.

Speaker 12 You're just pacing because there's what are you going to do?

Speaker 18 Perhaps she could still be alive.

Speaker 11 Then they announced on the radio that they've also found a body.

Speaker 7 That victim is now identified as Charla Mack, the estranged wife of Darren.

Speaker 12 That was probably the scariest moment in my entire life, just to realize that my

Speaker 6 beautiful friend

Speaker 6 wasn't there anymore.

Speaker 4 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 she was more explosive than he was you know she was she was fire.

Speaker 2 Writer Amanda Robb reported on the Mack case for Marie Claire magazine.

Speaker 4 They were high profile in the community. They knew everybody.
Everybody knew them.

Speaker 2 Amanda and Charla went to the same high school in Reno.

Speaker 4 She wanted to be famous more than anything. That really was her dream, to be famous.

Speaker 21 Her body was found at the Florida Lee apartments.

Speaker 11 I don't think this is how she imagined being famous, though.

Speaker 2 Long before Charla ever met Darren Mack, she pursued her dream of an acting career. Leaving Reno behind, the teenager moved to Los Angeles.

Speaker 4 Got herself two roles in two films. One was a film with Drew Barrymore.

Speaker 2 That's Charla pushing the gurney.

Speaker 4 And one was a documentary with Diane Keaton.

Speaker 18 God has helped me

Speaker 7 through

Speaker 7 everything.

Speaker 4 God is wonderful.

Speaker 2 Charla eventually gave up acting and moved back to Reno. When she began dating Darren, they seemed a perfect match.

Speaker 4 Darren Mack is a handsome, charismatic millionaire. He takes very good care of himself.

Speaker 2 Friends say they also shared an interest in a self-awareness training group called the Landmark Education.

Speaker 4 He liked going to seminars about improving himself all the time, achieving his goals. which is money, money, money, money.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 4 They lived large. She drove Alexis, he drove a Hummer.
They had fancy things, fancy jewelry.

Speaker 6 Oh, it was... Fabulous.

Speaker 2 But Darren Mack had been down the aisle before.

Speaker 4 I knew his first wife, Debbie.

Speaker 3 And what was she like?

Speaker 4 Oh, she was a lovely girl. She was very quiet, very sophisticated.

Speaker 2 Darren and Debbie had two children together, but the marriage did not end well.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 9 Smile, Charla.

Speaker 4 And Charla was on his side at the time.

Speaker 2 Darren had joined custody, and for a while, at least, he, Charla, and his kids seemed to be one big big happy family.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 2 But their clean-cut family image was a far cry from their private lives.

Speaker 5 Charla was a very sexual person.

Speaker 12 She did not have sexual inhibitions, and that was something that she shared with her husband and how great for her husband.

Speaker 4 They became sort of a fixture on the strip club circuit in Around Reno.

Speaker 4 Then it moved up into swinging.

Speaker 9 Charlotte, smile.

Speaker 4 Then they actually went to swinger conventions in California, Arizona, and Mexico where there'd be group sex parties. They called it sexing.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, what does that mean?

Speaker 4 Sexing. Sexing is when you go to the swinging clubs.

Speaker 2 But things changed after their daughter Erica was born in 1997.

Speaker 11 Erica had a very normal life with her mother. Movies, play dates, sleepovers, parties.

Speaker 11 That was Charla's life.

Speaker 2 Charla told Darren she was no longer interested in swinging.

Speaker 4 She didn't like this lifestyle. She did it for a while because it was really important to Darren.

Speaker 4 but that she tired of it.

Speaker 2 As the marriage began to crumble, letters and emails we obtained document an increasingly abusive relationship.

Speaker 11 She was a petite, tiny woman, and he was a very big, buff guy.

Speaker 5 Strong.

Speaker 2 But it wasn't Charla who claimed to be the victim. It was Darren.

Speaker 2 Fifth place winner in the Mr. Nevada bodybuilding contest.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 4 Went on and on and on for six pages like this.

Speaker 2 He claimed to be afraid of her.

Speaker 12 Well, I think that's ridiculous.

Speaker 12 He's this guy that goes to the gym, works out, and is muscular.

Speaker 12 It just seems ridiculous to me.

Speaker 10 We're so much more stronger than women, they can't believe that we'll be physically abused.

Speaker 10 Dan was physically abused by his wife.

Speaker 2 Darren's friend Michael Small says that despite his imposing stature, Darren Mack lived in fear.

Speaker 10 He was very scared of her. I was with him a couple of times when she called and threatened him.

Speaker 2 So he wanted to end the marriage because he was battered.

Speaker 10 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.

Speaker 2 But Charla was apparently looking over her shoulder too.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 4 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

Speaker 18 they had no heat.

Speaker 2 Family court judge Chuck Weller ordered Darren to pay Charla ten thousand dollars a month until the divorce was settled.

Speaker 2 But Darren thought the ruling and the judge were unfair and wouldn't give an inch.

Speaker 12 Anything that she got was something that he lost,

Speaker 12 and he just wasn't going to lose.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 24 Round 911, there's been a gunshot. The congratulator said he heard the shot go kind of over his head.

Speaker 5 i've just been advised that we have shots fired possible snipers this is breaking news

Speaker 16 rental police 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.

Speaker 2 Detective Detective Ron Chalmers joined hundreds of police officers to shut down the city while SWAT teams fanned out searching for the sniper.

Speaker 16 The shooting came from the other side of the river.

Speaker 2 The judges down and hear it. Reno Gazette reporter Martha Belisle hurried to the scene.

Speaker 18 There were people who were hiding in different businesses and restaurants.

Speaker 18 They were trying to get people off the street because they didn't know if the shooter was still going to be shooting.

Speaker 18 They didn't know where he was.

Speaker 7 Heavily armed police quickly made their way through nearby buildings.

Speaker 15 You're looking up, you're checking buildings.

Speaker 23 We could at least narrow down the area the shot came from because the bullet went through a glass window.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 16 Possibly.

Speaker 5 Possibly shot originated at the parking garage. Heading in a ex-parking garage advice.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 12 Family court judge Chuck Weller shot while working in his chambers at about 11.

Speaker 2 It was just minutes after the shooting when police got a break.

Speaker 15 Darren's friends said that he was very concerned for Charla and Phil Daniel.

Speaker 2 A childhood friend of Darren Mack's met with police and had a disturbing story to tell.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 4 Somehow, Darren lured Charla into his garage.

Speaker 4 The daughter upstairs heard a dog yelping and told Darren's friend, I think your dog is yelping.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Osborne said Darren brushed past him with his hand wrapped in a towel with a weird look on his face, not saying a word.

Speaker 15 A few moments later, the dog came in, covered in blood.

Speaker 4 And he became incredibly frightened and said to the little girl, we have to leave. They left.

Speaker 2 Osborne put Erica in his car and started driving. Minutes later, his cell phone rang.
It was Darren.

Speaker 4 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.

Speaker 2 Mack took his daughter aside and spoke to her for a few minutes.

Speaker 27 Darren Mack

Speaker 27 may have realized that that was going to be the last time he'd see his daughter, at least as a free man.

Speaker 2 He then drove off on his own.

Speaker 3 If he thought that maybe Charla had been injured that morning, why would he allow Darren Mack to see the little girl?

Speaker 19 Well, I think that Dan,

Speaker 15 Osborne, felt that he probably owed the Mac some gratitude.

Speaker 26 He was an employee for the Mack family. Whether it's poor judgment or not, whether it's fear or not, he chose to allow Darren to see his daughter.

Speaker 2 Based on Osborne's story, police rushed to Darren's condo.

Speaker 15 As we looked around the property a little bit closer, we found three droplets of blood in the driveway near the garage door.

Speaker 2 Behind that garage door was Charla Mack's lifeless body.

Speaker 4 She was found in his garage wearing no shoes or socks

Speaker 4 with seven stab wounds.

Speaker 4 When you're being stabbed or you're dying, you curl into fetal position to try to protect your core.

Speaker 4 This was a desperate woman who was curled up like a baby, trying not to die.

Speaker 2 A search of Darren's condo turned up incriminating evidence.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 19 It refers to ending the problem and then it also referred to certain weapons that he would need to fulfill those plans.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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,

Speaker 2 a silver Ford Explorer is photographed entering the parking garage.

Speaker 2 We retrace the path police believe the Explorer took that day.

Speaker 15 The shooter's vehicle pulled into the parking garage, drove up to the fifth floor.

Speaker 15 Moments later, 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.

Speaker 27 I think he knew what he set out to do on June 12th, and he followed his plan piece by piece.

Speaker 2 So this wasn't just an explosion of violence.

Speaker 27 Well, I believe it was a calculated explosion of violence.

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 2 How far is the courthouse from this parking structure?

Speaker 26 This is approximately 170 yards.

Speaker 2 It would take some skill as a marksman to shoot that distance and to hit your target.

Speaker 19 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.

Speaker 2 The fallout from this horrifying day. One shooting.

Speaker 20 Judge Weller is recovering from gunshot wounds under guard in an undisclosed location.

Speaker 2 One murder. Did she fear for her life?

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 18 It's a homicide investigation right now.

Speaker 7 The prime suspect, Darren Mack.

Speaker 2 And one disturbing question.

Speaker 5 I absolutely was afraid.

Speaker 2 Where is Darren Mack?

Speaker 12 He's a scary human being.

Speaker 7 Police say federal and local agencies are looking for Mack all over the western United States.

Speaker 20 The judge is reportedly under guard in a local hospital. Police aren't giving out many details.

Speaker 2 Day two.

Speaker 2 45-year-old Darren Mack is a hunted man.

Speaker 2 With a nationwide search underway, he is heading south and flying under the radar.

Speaker 28 This is not a violent man. He is a good person.

Speaker 2 His cousin Jeff Donner goes on television to make an impassioned plea.

Speaker 28 If Darren is listening, if he's watching,

Speaker 28 we love him.

Speaker 24 We care about him.

Speaker 2 Darren called Donner just minutes after Judge Weller was shot.

Speaker 28 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.

Speaker 2 That courtroom belonged to Judge Chuck Weller and what went wrong in Darren Mack's mind was just about everything.

Speaker 2 Tell me about Darren's frustration with the family court system, specifically with Judge Weller.

Speaker 10 He felt Judge Weller wasn't listening to him. He also felt that Charlotte's attorney was lying about everything that he was filing, but Weller was letting him get away with it.

Speaker 2 Michael Small was one of Darren's closest friends. You're not uncomfortable saying out loud that Darren Mack is my friend.

Speaker 10 No,

Speaker 10 I love Darren.

Speaker 2 Even in light of these charges, these heinous crimes that he's charged with.

Speaker 10 Innocent until proven guilty.

Speaker 2 Small and Mack had a lot in common. Both men were in the midst of bitter custody fights.

Speaker 10 We sat side by side, really really trying to do right by kids and family.

Speaker 2 And both men appeared before Judge Weller.

Speaker 2 Small says his own experience in Weller's courtroom sheds light on Darren's intense frustration.

Speaker 10 I think I understand what he's going through inside of him better than anyone out there.

Speaker 29 I want to talk right now about how this child is going to be delivered.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 10 I'm not a lawyer. I don't confess to know the law.

Speaker 6 All I know,

Speaker 23 I will do anything to protect my children.

Speaker 2 Judge Weller's hands were tied.

Speaker 29 This court does not have jurisdiction in this case.

Speaker 2 When Small missed the deadline to return the boy, a Florida judge threw him in jail for 45 days.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Both men blamed Judge Weller, and both men started a campaign against him.

Speaker 10 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.

Speaker 2 Something big like what? Like a judge being shot? No.

Speaker 10 We never talked about that. We never thought about that.
We never wanted anyone to get hurt.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 18 Judge Weller had twice as many peremptory challenges as the other other family court judges.

Speaker 2 Martha Belial specializes in legal affairs for her newspaper. What kind of criticism have you heard about Judge Weller?

Speaker 18 That he tended to make decisions quickly, wouldn't hear both sides.

Speaker 2 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?

Speaker 18 I don't know that that's been shown.

Speaker 2 To the best of your knowledge, he didn't have any clear bias.

Speaker 18 I don't know that he had a bias.

Speaker 2 Just two weeks after the shooting, Judge Weller had recovered and held a press conference, but he wouldn't address the Mack case.

Speaker 30 In every case, as much as we try to avoid it, oftentimes there are winners and losers.

Speaker 30 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.

Speaker 2 What did Darren Mack say to you about Judge Weller?

Speaker 3 Well, he said he was an anti-father's rights judge.

Speaker 2 Dean Tong was part of Darren Mack's divorce legal team. He says Darren was a difficult client.

Speaker 3 He seemed like a guy who would have trouble listening to others. He wanted to basically call the shots.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 6 Smile, y'all.

Speaker 3 He wanted to still continue to do what he was doing, which was the sex-winging on the side.

Speaker 2 Did you explain to him in very clear terms that

Speaker 6 he

Speaker 2 could jeopardize this case? Absolutely. And what did he say to you?

Speaker 14 You know, he took a deep breath and said, well, we'll address it. We'll talk about it.

Speaker 2 Apparently, Darren didn't take the warning seriously.

Speaker 4 Thank you for calling the World Famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch.

Speaker 2 In fact, he later took a trip to the famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch to celebrate his impending divorce.

Speaker 21 Oh, we all flocked to the parlor.

Speaker 21 We all want a shot at that one.

Speaker 17 Hello, I'm Kitty.

Speaker 12 Hi, I'm Brooke Taylor.

Speaker 11 Hi, I'm Mia Morgan.

Speaker 21 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.

Speaker 12 I'm having fun.

Speaker 21 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.

Speaker 11 And it was your average everyday divorce party.

Speaker 2 But back at home, the party was over.

Speaker 3 When it comes, you know, 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.

Speaker 2 Judge Weller had asked Darren and Charla to try to reach some kind of financial agreement on their own so he wouldn't be forced to do it for them.

Speaker 2 They did hammer out a deal, but when that fell apart, the judge stepped in and ordered Darren to pay up.

Speaker 4 He had to pay her a lump sum of $480,000,

Speaker 4 out of which she was supposed to buy a home and a car.

Speaker 4 And then over the next five years, she was supposed to receive $10,000 a month in spousal support.

Speaker 2 What was his state of mind?

Speaker 10 Disillusionment? Frightened? Could not believe this was was happening. I mean he was about to lose a lot of his money.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Do you think Judge Weller's rulings against Darren Mack pushed him over the edge?

Speaker 10 I can't say Darren did this. Do I think Judge Weller's rulings, attitude, all that is enough to push someone over the edge?

Speaker 3 100%.

Speaker 10 Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 Is Darren Mack capable of murder?

Speaker 3 We all are.

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Speaker 12 Should we all be huddling somewhere and hiding? Should our kids be walking in front of the windows?

Speaker 2 It's been four days since Charla Mack's body was discovered inside Darren Mack's garage.

Speaker 11 I was very frightened.

Speaker 2 And there's still no sign of Darren.

Speaker 11 If he murdered Charla with his daughter in the house, you don't know what he's capable of.

Speaker 2 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?

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 2 But you were the next target.

Speaker 2 Mark Phillips was Charla's boyfriend at the time of her death. What did you do to protect yourself?

Speaker 8 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. I always had everything double locked.

Speaker 8 I just don't understand why she went in there.

Speaker 6 She knew better than that.

Speaker 2 While Charla's friends and family were lying low, we've highlighted those areas of La Paz. The search for Darren Mac was now an international manhunt.

Speaker 2 Reno investigators working with the FBI were tracking possible Daranak sightings in Mexico.

Speaker 2 A couple of unverified reports came in at this resort in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.

Speaker 2 It would have been familiar territory for Darren since he'd been here the year before for a swingers convention.

Speaker 18 People would walk around without any clothes on.

Speaker 18 They would have sex freely in the open.

Speaker 2 Newspaper reporter Martha Bellisle went to Mexico trying to retrace Darren's steps and met hotel employee Virginia Delgadillo, who claimed she met a man fitting Darren's description.

Speaker 23 He was looking at like

Speaker 23 just standing here and

Speaker 23 just like, what is your name or something?

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 27 They conducted several interviews and canvases. However, they were unable to ultimately determine if it was Darren Mack that was at that resort.

Speaker 2 Then exactly one week after he disappeared came the shocking announcement that Darren Mack, hiding somewhere in Mexico, wanted to surrender.

Speaker 12 A break tonight in the Darren Mack case.

Speaker 33 Earlier this week, Mack contacted District Attorney Dick Gammick by telephone.

Speaker 25 and expressed a desire to surrender.

Speaker 2 Dick Gammick, a longtime Mack family friend, is Reno's district attorney.

Speaker 25 He did express to me that he called me because I'm the only one he trusts in the system.

Speaker 2 While he was still in hiding, Darren's family had retained two high-price defense attorneys.

Speaker 14 There's no question about the fact that we have our work cut out for us.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 10 his

Speaker 2 ex-wife, Charla.

Speaker 14 You won't get me to tell you that.

Speaker 3 Nor me. That's not in dispute, is it? I think everything in the case is in dispute.

Speaker 2 But what's not in dispute is they see Darren as a man pushed to the limit.

Speaker 14 I mean, if I had a dollar for every time somebody said to me, this guy must have just snapped.

Speaker 2 Do you think he went temporarily insane that morning?

Speaker 12 He's a completely capable human being

Speaker 12 who makes bad choices and excuses.

Speaker 2 But a series of emails Darren sent while on the run reveal a disturbing picture of this man.

Speaker 2 For example, in one message, he holds himself up as a martyr for the Father's Rights Movement, saying, remember,

Speaker 2 they want me as a sacrificial lamb. They want the pleasure of executing me.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 What does that say to you?

Speaker 3 What does that suggest to you?

Speaker 14 And if that isn't a clear example

Speaker 14 to a lawyer or my colleague to have psychiatric analysis of our client, that's what that says to me.

Speaker 2 After days of negotiations, Darren finally agreed to surrender the next morning at the U.S. Consulate in Puerto Braarta.

Speaker 2 But will he go peacefully?

Speaker 33 Reno police officials have been working with the FBI inside of Mexico to facilitate the return of MAC to the United States.

Speaker 2 June 22nd, 11 days after that violent rampage that shook the city of Reno.

Speaker 2 Police anxiously await the surrender of the man they believe responsible.

Speaker 33 Mack, who is believed to also have been using the names of Darren Stone and John Smith.

Speaker 2 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 Riarta.

Speaker 18 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.

Speaker 2 Darren's last night was spent in this stark Mexican jail cell.

Speaker 2 A dramatic reversal of fortune for a man who was accustomed to living the high life.

Speaker 15 And Darren Mack has now stepped out of the vehicle.

Speaker 19 We can hear some of the press photographers.

Speaker 2 What prompted Darren Mack to surrender?

Speaker 27 The only thing that I can think is that

Speaker 27 he was obsessed with exposing what he believed were Judge Weller's injustices.

Speaker 2 Darren Mack was carrying $36,000 in cash, 20 credit cards, and a suitcase full of evidence.

Speaker 27 A pair of shoes with some blood spatter were in the suitcase. Some other clothing with what appeared to be bloodstains were in the suitcase.

Speaker 2 Did you analyze the bloodstains on the clothing?

Speaker 27 Yes.

Speaker 18 And who do they belong to?

Speaker 27 The DNA profile matches that of Charlotte Mack.

Speaker 2 Darren Mack was charged with the murder of his wife and the attempted murder of Judge Weller.

Speaker 9 This case had all the hallmarks of overwhelming evidence.

Speaker 2 Las Vegas Special Prosecutor Christopher Lowy is handling the case.

Speaker 9 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.

Speaker 2 Darren has pled not guilty to both crimes.

Speaker 14 I believe that he's not guilty of these crimes.

Speaker 2 You do admit, though, you have your work cut off for you.

Speaker 15 People need to remember that Mr.

Speaker 14 Mack came back voluntarily so that he could present his defense.

Speaker 2 From the sound of it, Darren Mack's attorneys may be making a case for self-defense.

Speaker 14 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.

Speaker 2 Darren hinted at this in an email he sent to Reno DA Dick Gannett while negotiating his surrender, claiming it was Charla who was the aggressor in that garage.

Speaker 12 She would never try to attack Darren or do anything like that.

Speaker 12 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.

Speaker 2 Darren Mack's attorneys may also raise questions about his state of mind.

Speaker 2 He's immensely incompetent.

Speaker 14 It's not for lawyers or prosecutors to decide. It's for experts.

Speaker 2 Co-prosecutor Robert Daskas thinks insanity will be a hard sell.

Speaker 13 You look at the

Speaker 13 object, if you will, of his hostility, he went after the two people he had a motive to kill.

Speaker 13 He went after Charla Mack, 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.

Speaker 2 And the defense will need to work around that so-called to-do list, which could show premeditation. What do you make of this?

Speaker 6 I'd have to know who wrote it.

Speaker 2 Cryptic list here.

Speaker 14 I'd have to know who wrote it before

Speaker 2 Darren wrote this.

Speaker 14 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?

Speaker 2 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?

Speaker 3 As we speak, it's zero. He has no money.

Speaker 2 Yeah. How is that? I understand that he was worth anywhere from $9 to $12 million.

Speaker 3 He's in bankruptcy.

Speaker 2 So you're taking this case on pro bono?

Speaker 14 No.

Speaker 14 He has a lot of friends and family that care about him a great deal.

Speaker 2 After the violent events of that June morning, many still wrestle with the fallout. Custody litigation expert Dean Tom.

Speaker 2 What has this case done to the father's rights movement in this country?

Speaker 3 It certainly slapped me in the face. You know, how dare you be a martyr for this, for what we've worked so hard for.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Does she know about the circumstances surrounding her mother's death?

Speaker 11 Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 She knows that her father has been charged with her mother's murder. Yes.

Speaker 11 But she also

Speaker 11 hears a lot of comments

Speaker 2 from

Speaker 11 Darren's friends and family that try to instill doubt in her mind. And so now

Speaker 11 she has made the comment: Well, we don't know if my daddy killed my mommy.

Speaker 18 She said maybe the cat did it.

Speaker 2 So, Darren Mack sits in jail waiting to tell his side of the story.

Speaker 2 The twists and turns of this case are just beginning.

Speaker 6 Stay tuned for part two, tomorrow.

Speaker 6 Now streaming.

Speaker 1 Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery.

Speaker 11 We don't know what we're looking for.

Speaker 1 Their bodies are the scene of the crime. No symptoms and history are clues.

Speaker 11 You saved her life.

Speaker 1 We're doctors and we're detectives. I kind of love it if I'm being honest.
Solve the puzzle, save the patient.

Speaker 1 Watson, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus.

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Starring Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner. Has sway in these worlds.

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Speaker 4 You're an ex-con who ran this place for years.

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You're about to have a plague of outsiders descend on your top. Let me tell you this.
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Speaker 1 Mayor of Kingstown, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus.