Kristen Westfall

43m

The murder of a U.S. airman leads Las Vegas investigators down a twisted path to one woman's offbeat oasis and ties to an unusual fan club.


Season 25 Episode 10


Originally aired: May 12, 2019

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Transcript

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She was the pretty girl next door with dreams of building a family.

She was funny, very sincere, everything that you could ask for.

Then she met a bright young man looking to start over.

He was very giving, very passionate, and compassionate.

And he was ready to turn over a new leaf.

He was ready for a family.

So it seemed a natural fit.

But their natural fit is ripped apart when gunshots pierce the air outside a quiet country church.

It is a cold-blooded and vicious killing as any you'll ever want to say.

That evil just astounded me.

In the aftermath, authorities must uncover the truth, buried in conflicting tales of jealousy and rage.

We followed up on white supremacy gangs who said we were being followed.

Some of it seemed real cloak and dagger.

I told her, maybe you should just let this go.

And she said they'll have to kill me first.

Colemanil, Texas in Tyler County has a population of just under 600.

You know, everybody knows everybody because the schools are small, the communities are small.

I know just about 95% of the whole county, and our church is a happy church.

Just after high noon on Saturday, January 18th, 2014, the quiet of this East Texas village shatters with a frightening call to the sheriff's office.

What's going on?

I heard Sean.

I heard John.

I heard Sean.

Where are you at?

I'll call my bad discharge.

The operator immediately dispatches patrol units, but the area is very remote.

remote.

It's just a small brick church out in the Styx.

We responded from Woodville, and it was probably a good

18-mile drive out to the location from the sheriff's office.

Has someone been shot?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I

just took somebody out of here.

That lady was screaming, talking about gunfire and people being shot.

It's pretty dramatic.

She was so hysterical that the 911 operator couldn't understand her.

Another calmer witness comes on the line to try to provide more information.

Yes, this is Marie Winters.

Marie Winters?

Okay.

Is the person that's been shot, are they in the church?

No.

No, where are they at?

They're at block.

Okay, can you tell me what you saw?

I just saw a lady lying down on the ground.

That's all I could see.

Is the person that shot the gun, are they still on the property?

Now, do you know her name?

It's laying on the ground?

crystal

all right so was she the only one outside no her husband was outside with her okay who's her husband nathan maddox i think he may be the victim also

i would imagine that 17 minutes was excruciating wait locked in that office while they wait marie does her best to calm the original caller she advises not to go outside

at me.

Okay, who's that in there with you?

Lucia, West Five,

and a four-year-old baby girl.

When the deputies finally arrive, they spot two bodies, a man's and a woman's, outside the church.

The injuries were catastrophic.

They were horrific.

Without a doubt, they were deceased.

In this tiny, close-knit town, the first responders recognized the victims.

They had a white male and white female who we knew,

Crystal and Nathan Maddox.

Nathan and Crystal Maddox's love story had just begun, though they had met as kids growing up in small town, Texas.

For Nathan, It all started on October 5th, 1979, when he was born in Kirbyville, Texas.

He grew up that small-town, leave-it-to-beaver kind of atmosphere.

It was back when things were a lot simpler.

Nathan grew up fishing a lot.

That was a pastime, riding bicycles, playing with the neighborhood kids, baseball, and that type of thing.

People were just naturally drawn to Nathan.

If he went someplace, people just gravitated to him.

Everybody liked Nathan.

In small-town America, teens often get bored, and sometimes boredom breeds crime.

He just kind of drifted into doing teenage things, got in trouble some.

Not bad things, but just being mischievous around the community, knocking off mailboxes and things like that.

By the time Nathan was 19, his choices had grown worse.

Nathan experimented with drugs and he

ended up burglarizing some places in order to fuel his drug habit.

And so

he went to prison for that.

Nathan quietly served four years.

And when he was released, he had a plan to reinvent himself in a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

He started working in carpentry work and building houses and things.

He liked that sense of accomplishment.

He was ready to turn over a new leaf.

And the ladies in town began taking notice.

Nathan had this friend who was actually female, and she took him down to a bar and introduced him to a woman she knew.

19-year-old Kristen Westphal.

She had recently moved to town with her family, her father, Paul, her mother, Letha, and her brother, Cameron.

The whole Westphal family were very close-knit.

If you've seen one, you've seen them all.

It was always all four of them together.

Letha, Paul, Kristen, and Cameron.

Kristen was born and raised in Houston.

And then Kristen come to the country.

It was just like it was her natural element.

You know, she loved the outdoors.

Kristen and Nathan dated for about two years, then got married in 2006.

Nathan settled into the Westphal family dynamic.

pretty quickly because they were a close family, almost like a sealed unit.

Nathan just fit right in.

He loved Kristen.

You know, he loved Paul.

He loved Leta.

You know, it was like that he was meant to be in their family.

In 2009, Kristen gave birth to their daughter, Madison Nicole.

However, the little family's happiness was short-lived.

I think once the baby was born, everything went downhill from there.

Nathan and Kristen began arguing more and more.

And like a lot of young couples, it forced them apart.

They divorced in 2012.

Kristen had custody of Maddie and he got his standard visitation.

With all the tension in the relationship, Nathan did not end up seeing Maddie very much.

Then a bright new light entered Nathan's world when he ran into a childhood friend, Crystal Umphus.

Crystal didn't meet strangers.

She was just a beautiful soul.

She expected everyone to be her friend.

Crystal really stood out.

She was funny.

She was very sincere.

She was everything that you could ask for.

Crystal didn't really

have anything that she wanted to do in life other than be a mom.

From very early age,

that's all she would say.

When you grow up, what do you want to be?

I want to be a mom.

And Crystal got her wish.

Although her first marriage didn't work out in terms of romance, it did give her four amazing children to love.

Crystal was always just really positive.

I mean, she kept the positivity and always made sure that everything was okay.

Crystal was moving on, exploring life as a single mom.

That's when she reconnected with childhood friend, Nathan Maddox, whom she hadn't seen in several years.

As a child, she had had a crush on Nathan.

She would actually lay out in the front yard in the summer, hoping that he might come by and see her.

She called me after the first night that she and Nathan actually talked.

And,

well, after that, they really didn't part.

Crystal told me many times, he's my soulmate.

He's my one.

He told me that he was seeing somebody.

He said, it's Crystal Umphas.

I'd known Crystal all of her life, and she was an awesome person.

Two months after Nathan's divorce from Kristen became finalized, he and Crystal happily tied the knot.

Nathan wanted a family.

Crystal had four children.

All four of them called him Daddy.

When Nathan married Crystal,

I think he saw what a family life was with her and her children that she had.

And he wanted Madison the baby in his life.

Nathan began pressing his ex-wife, Kristen, for more time with his daughter, Maddie.

Since the toddler had not seen him much, she was wary at first.

So the court ordered the visits to be supervised until Maddie grew more comfortable.

Crystal was a stabilizing force in my son's life in the area of pursuing this relationship with Madison.

She really rallied around Nathan and let him know that, hey, there is a process to have custody.

I'm going to help you with this.

Now, Nathan and Crystal both lie dead, just feet from one another, at the doorstep of a small country church.

We have the FDs on.

They need to neutralize whoever the shooter is and clear the area to make sure the shooter or shooters are not still there.

Coming up, investigators worry they too might get ambushed.

We have no idea where the suspects are at that time, so we're very aware of our surroundings.

And a complex dynamic begins to emerge.

We discovered the connection from this family towards one of the victims at the scene.

In Cole Manil, Texas, in front of the sanctuary of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church, deputies have discovered the bodies of Nathan and Crystal Maddox.

The first responders clear the church, determining no one else is inside.

Simultaneously, other teams begin searching for suspects outside.

There's a lot of stuff going on initially.

We send teams of officers in different directions to secure the area.

There were fields across the way, so we covered the entire field in a grid search, clearing the woods.

As that search continues, homicide investigators discover an unexpected connection between witnesses and victims when they talk to the women who called 911, Letha Westphal and Marie Winters.

Everyone's scared and agitated, unsure of what's going on.

I've known Letha for a long time, so I'm working on calming her fears and trying to share information.

Chief Deputy Ryan knows that Letha is the mother of Nathan's ex-wife, Kristen, and little Maddie's grandmother.

Marie Winters is the court-ordered supervisor for the custody visit at the church that day.

Investigators asked Letha to walk them through what happened.

We got there, meet Maddie Dear, about 8:40.

Nathan,

it's from 9 to 12.

Okay, so everybody at the church was

you, Marie, Mason,

and Crystal.

Crystal and Little Maddie.

They brought a basket of all kinds of little art stuff in it.

The little necklace she's got on.

We sat on the floor and made it.

And we put a puzzle together.

They color her and crystal color together.

We sat there and played and we got to talking.

I looked at the clock and it said 1210.

Nathan looked at the clock and he said, oh we went over.

And I think it was 1215, 1220.

He kissed Maddie on the hand and he said, we'll see y'all.

And they walked out the door.

And me and Miss Marie are picking up everything, snacks and blankets and cutting the heat off.

All of a sudden, I hear boom, boom.

and I think I heard Nathan holler and I heard another boom.

They all knew there were shots fired.

Nathan and Christopher just walked out that door

and even the child recognized that something bad had happened.

Did you go check and see where the shots were coming from?

I heard it and I immediately thought of that baby standing beside me and I got her down on the floor.

That was my immediate reaction.

But Miss Marie's immediate reaction was she took off to the door and locked it.

And I'm saying to her, Miss Marie, what's going on?

And she said, go to the office, go to the office.

She said, Crystal's down.

I said, I need to help her.

And she said, no, get in the office.

Get in the office.

Miss Winters put them all in the office and locked the door.

Latha was hysterical.

And the baby was like a statue.

She was just white and just scared to death.

I called 911.

So nobody tried to get into the church.

Letha was inside and didn't see anything.

All she heard was some shots.

Letha explains that as they awaited help and while Marie was on with 911, she called her daughter Kristen and her husband Paul at home to tell them what happened and to make sure they were safe.

The stunned grandmother cannot add anything more.

Letha Westfall.

She got Maddie and protected her and didn't get anywhere near the doors to try and see anything.

She was strictly concerned about hiding.

When authorities interview Marie Winters, she confirms that after the shots rang out, she ran to the door and saw Crystal lying there.

She never saw who pulled the trigger.

When we get the initial statements, there was nothing to go on.

Nobody saw anything.

All they heard were gunshots.

There was no report of a vehicle driving away.

After the interviews, Tyler County Sheriff's investigators have the shaken women and little girl escorted to their homes, and they call in reinforcements.

We were able to get the Texas Rangers en route.

It being a double homicide, the Rangers like to be advised and

They have such a level of expertise in the field of investigation on homicides that we love using them when we can.

By the time the Rangers arrive, the immediate area has been cleared and the crime scene processing has begun.

Both victims had apparent gunshot headwounds.

Nathan, the male victim, also had a wound to his hip area.

Nathan also suffered a gunshot wound to his hand.

Unfortunately, we've seen our share of homicides, and there was no doubt.

It was definitely a rifle used in this crime.

The velocity with which the rifle rounds exit brings so much more trauma to the target.

They found one of Crystal's blue earrings laying under

Nathan.

So they knew she was shot first and he fell on their earring.

The next item recovered identifies the type of weapon used in the attack.

At the scene was a spent 30-30 shield laying in the seam of the joint of two pieces of concrete very close to the front steps on the south side of the canopy.

The shell's placement tells investigators the shooter must have fired from close range.

3030 estimate brush type gun that's used in East Texas for deer hunting.

It's a big heavy round.

Based on the witness testimony, and the few pieces of evidence discovered, authorities begin to create a theory as to what happened.

Crystal apparently walked out first.

She was six or seven or eight steps away from the church.

It looked like Crystal never saw any danger coming.

She was hit one time and it was catastrophic.

Crystal was shot first and then Nathan.

The first shot to Nathan was likely the one to his hip.

The wound to Nathan's hand indicates he tried in vain to protect himself from the second shot, the fatal one aimed at his head.

Nathan knew he was being shot because he put his hand up to block the ground.

He shot through his ring finger.

He winds up with a head injury that's also devastating, that ends his life at that point.

Investigators rule out robbery as a motive for the murders.

There's nothing taken.

There's nothing robbed.

Also, mistaking identity was ruled out from the proximity of the shooters to the victims.

They were up close and personal.

That leaves one explanation.

There was no reason to think that it was any other type of crime except a fully planned and intentional homicide.

Coming up, insiders suggest Nathan's past might have caught up with him.

Maybe his stories of leading a cleaner life weren't the gospel.

Maybe he had messed up, was back in the drug game.

She pointed to the Aryan Brotherhood as ones who probably did it.

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In Coleman Eel, Texas, Tyler County Sheriff's Investigators and Texas Rangers are investigating the double murder of Nathan and Crystal Maddox, who were gunned down outside a church after a custody visit with Nathan's daughter.

As authorities work the crime scene, a possible witness emerges.

There was a guy that happened to drive by.

I see all the law enforcement, so he stopped to talk.

They ask the man if he saw anything unusual that day, and he tells them an interesting story.

Just north of the church, there's a little dirt road called Boat Ramp Road.

The road goes down to a little camping place where people go down to hunt and fish.

They had had problems with people dumping illegal trash by his hunting camp, so he pays close attention to what vehicles are in the proximity.

And told them about this little black truck he saw parked with the hood up and all these traps and these big cages in the back.

The parked truck was about a quarter mile from the church.

We were able to establish the time that he drove through,

which was the time near about right before the 911 call came in.

The black truck being seen near the church just minutes before the 911 call raises the question: Was the driver involved with the shooting?

One of the benefits of policing a small town is that sheriff's investigators know what almost everyone in the area drives.

The only one in that area that drives a little black truck

with all these cages in the back is Paul Westphal.

Paul is the father of Nathan's ex, Kristen, and the husband of Lisa Westphal.

What Paul Westphal did was trap coyotes, put them in a cage, and sell them to other people to train their dogs with.

Authorities follow up on the lead.

They go to the Westphal's house soon after the shooting and, you know, check the house, make sure everybody is okay there.

When investigators arrive, they find the family in turmoil.

Paul is lying on the floor, injured.

Paul was on the ground with a cut on his head, having a seizure.

He'd had a stroke earlier.

It's where a lot of his health problems come from.

We had to get an ambulance there, and he wound up going to the hospital.

As a deputy escorts Paul to the hospital, authorities turn to Kristen and Cameron for answers.

They need to know why Paul's truck was seen near the church and begin by asking about the family's relationship with Nathan.

When did you and Nathan were y'all married?

On April 8th of 2006.

Kristen says that everything was great in the beginning.

She admits that things turned after she got pregnant.

Once I got pregnant with Madison, we started having a lot of issues.

She seemed like she was depressed because she was going to have a baby.

And they started started pulling apart.

About July or August, he decided that he was going to go to Montana to work.

And once he was up there, I filed for divorce.

Kristen then tells investigators that things got tense between her family and Nathan.

And one time, it got physical.

Nathan had gone over to the West Falls to pick up.

little Maddie.

On October 5th, it got to be a big mess.

He came in the house.

I wasn't there, but he came in to get Maddie.

Maddie seemed a little bit

shy and reluctant to go with him.

Letha said, no, you're not going to take Maddie.

There was an altercation.

And Nathan lost it.

He

shoved my dad, shoved him down.

He did hit his head.

Both Kristen and Cameron swear no one in the family would ever kill Nathan over it, especially knowing little Maddie was nearby.

And no matter what you done, how you've done it, nobody deserves to be murdered.

Investigators ask about the morning of the killings.

Kristen was with Paul, and they went to the store to, you know, to get

gas for his little old truck, and they was out running Cody traps.

What time did y'all leave to go check the traps?

I would say it was probably like 10.15-ish, and I know for a fact we were back at 11 because I came in and I looked at the clock, thinking my little brother should have had us bite up out of bed.

Cameron was asleep most of that morning of the 18th, according to him.

Did anything just seem a little off to you today?

No, sir.

Everybody acted normal.

You know, whenever my sister got me up this morning at 11, she was firm.

Do you have any idea who could have done this?

No, sir.

I don't know.

Like I said, Nathan's my ex-brother-in-law.

So I I don't know if he had any enemies.

I don't know.

He was a nice guy, though.

Then, Kristen reveals a secret.

What do you think happened to him?

I hate to sit here and make him sound like he was doing bad things or a bad guy.

I've heard that he owes a lot of money, and it all goes back to drugs.

Kristen pointed to the Aryan Brotherhood as ones who probably did it.

The Aryan Brotherhood developed and started as a gang in prison.

And of course, Nathan had been in prison.

I heard that he got a bunch of dope from them.

He was supposed to sell it and pay them back, and he never did.

She gave them names.

She actually did know some of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Following those interviews, authorities need to follow up on their two best leads, the Aryan Brotherhood and Paul Westphal.

After Paul is stabilized at the hospital, he tells investigators the same story Kristen did about the morning in question.

Paul said he was going to check his traps.

Every morning he'd check them and rebate them and things like that.

One of those traps had been near the church.

This might explain why the hunter saw Paul's truck on the side of the road.

Paul tells authorities where he and Kristen got gas that morning.

Authorities quickly follow up with the gas station.

We went and obtained video footage from that store, and we were able to identify Paul Westphal driving that truck at the convenience store and Paul inside that store.

Paul Westphal's alibi seems to be holding up.

So, was a ruthless gang responsible?

Maybe Nathan's stories of leading a cleaner life weren't the gospel.

Maybe he had messed up, was back on the drugs.

We followed up on three individuals in particular that had ties to white supremacy gangs.

Coming up, authorities interrogate the violent offenders.

I've known a lot of these gangs, they're pretty ruthless.

Ruthless enough to carry this out.

Someone may have been paid to take out Nathan and Crystal.

After Nathan and Crystal Maddox were gunned down in front of an East Texas church, Nathan's ex-wife Kristen tells authorities she thinks a gang called the Aryan Brotherhood was responsible.

Investigators haul in three gang members and question them about the shooting.

All three claim innocence and prove they could not have done it.

Everyone wound up with a pretty solid alibi for the time of the murder.

The gang members say the details of the murders also go against the gang's code of ethics.

They said, we will never do that at a church and we would never kill an innocent female.

He says, there's two no-notes right there.

Investigators find no connection between any gang and Nathan.

Nothing was there.

That was absolutely absolutely a false name.

Ruling out the Aryan Brotherhood, investigators turned to Nathan's loved ones to get their perspective on the dynamic between Nathan and the Westphal family.

The family says that Nathan really had put his old ways behind him, especially with Crystal by his side.

Since he got with Crystal, he has got him a job.

He's working.

He's been a good father.

He's not on the wrong path.

He's doing good.

This new information conflicts with the troubling picture Kristen painted in her interview.

Nathan's family explains that when Nathan tried to get more visitation time with his daughter Maddie, the Westfalls stonewalled him.

Nathan would go over and try to see Maddie.

Maybe it'd be scheduled and they would determine, no, this is not a good day.

He would be unable to see Maddie for months at a time.

Kristen would do her best to make sure that he wasn't able to.

And Nathan's family presents a different version of the altercation between Nathan and Paul Westphal.

They claim that in that incident, Nathan was merely trying to protect Maddie.

Paul tried to pull him away, and Latha had to hold the baby.

Nathan said that he was afraid the baby was going to get hurt, so he let go.

The witnesses saying that Paul was the attacker.

Nathan just overpowered him.

And it escalated from there.

As Nathan was leaving, Paul retrieved a rifle and

threatened Nathan.

Paul told him he was going to shoot him, told him he was going to blow his brains out.

Nathan's family explains explains that despite the threat, Nathan kept up his regular supervised visits, though the visits moved to neutral ground.

Lil Maddie really loved Nathan.

She was starting to warm up.

In fact, a judge recently ruled to end the requirement for supervised visitation.

Mount Carmel Church is set for the last visitation before he was going to have unsupervised visitation in his home.

The Westfalls have a time clock that they feel is counting down on them because the supervised visitations are coming to an end.

To unearth the truth behind the killings, investigators seek direct evidence tying the Westfall family to the crime.

In the family's own words.

We were able to obtain search warrants for their cell phones and all their text messages.

But it takes time for the cell phone companies to get that information together.

While authorities wait wait for those records, they receive news that changes the investigation.

At the autopsy, they discovered Nathan was shot once in the head with a 3030, and he was shot once in the hip with a 20-gauge shotgun.

Yeah, there was a second gun involved.

Investigators have their suspicions who the two shooters might be.

We thought strongly that the Westfalls were involved.

But who pulled the triggers and how did it all come together?

Authorities need more evidence and it comes in the form of the subpoenaed cell phone records.

We were able to get text from all the phones that we could find in the residence and this wound up giving us a lot more than we hoped for.

The texts tell the story right from the time the visitation began.

These text messages come out and then they see right at nine o'clock, Latha texted Kristen, they're here, which obviously meant that Nathan and Crystal had arrived at the church.

Paul and Kristen were staged locked and loaded and ready to do this.

The texts also reveal a stunning truth.

Kristen was the mastermind of the crime, orchestrating each of the players in an organized bid to kill her ex-husband.

Even as her daughter played with him inside.

During the visit, Kristen's texts demanded updates about what was happening in the church, and Letha complied.

Cameron was part of the texting, so he knew of the murders in advance.

As the visit drew to a close, there was a problem.

There was a couple of church members there mowing the church property.

There was a lot of discussion on those people leaving because they all knew each other and they didn't want witnesses.

The texts show Kristen was not going to let this opportunity to kill go past.

Kristen texted and said, hold him in there.

And Letha said, I can't hold him too much longer.

Investigators realize Kristen's orders are why Letha let the visit go longer than planned.

The texts reveal that just after 12.15, the mowers left.

Letha was sending texts, they're about ready to go.

Y'all get ready.

With her plan finally coming together, Kristen was poised to strike, her dutiful father at her side.

Immediately.

I mean, it was within seconds.

One minute, there's a text notifying people outside that they're exiting.

And then one minute later, we're on the phone with Ms.

Marie Winters

telling us that there's a shooting.

Well, I just basically just ran down the hall to the sheriff's office and read this.

We got them.

This is our first major step to connect the West Falls to this.

We got a warrant on all four of them.

A grand jury indicts the West Falls for organized criminal activity.

On March 11th, 2014, authorities gear up to arrest the family.

Somewhere down the line, they had information that we were coming.

We pulled into the house.

There was nobody at home.

Doors locked, car's gone, but there was a pile of leaves out in the yard that was burning.

So we had missed them by a few minutes.

And we decided we're not going home until we put them in jail.

On March 11th, 2014, investigators descend on the home of Kristen, Paul, Letha, and Cameron Westphal.

to arrest them for the murders of Nathan and Crystal Maddox.

But the family isn't there.

The search starts.

If we can find them, are they on the run?

We had no idea at this point.

The arrest team fans out looking for the Westfalls.

And we find out that they had traveled northeast of our county and they're supposed to be coming back.

So we parked near where the church is on that County Road 255.

Around 9 p.m., authorities spot the Westfall vehicle near near the Mount Carmel Baptist Church where the murders took place.

Now we can make a stop.

We activate the last.

They pull into the church.

One by one, the Westfalls emerge.

Cameron,

Lisa,

Paul, and Kristen.

That was just poetic justice that their last moment of freedom was right there where the crime had occurred and where they had killed these two people.

It was a powerful moment for our family, knowing that they got them.

It was a victory for our family.

Once in custody, the West Falls initially refused to cooperate.

In a situation like that, you keep them locked up where they can't share any more information.

They're trying to decide who might be the most likely to talk to us.

Then the next day, one of them talked.

It was Paul.

Paul confessed to the whole thing.

So you're telling me that you killed Nathan and his wife?

I shot her

and then I stepped out.

I heard a boom and then I walked over Nathan and I shot him.

Authorities believe they know who the second shooter was and press for confirmation.

You said you had the 30-30.

You shot Crystal in the head.

You heard a shot, but I heard a shot.

Yep.

It had to be, you know, it was just me.

All right, who did Kristen shoot?

Why was Nathan on the ground?

Well, that he must have shot in you.

Paul confirms that Kristen Westphal was the other shooter.

Your daughter shot the 20 gauge?

Huh?

And you shot the 30-30?

Yeah.

Once Cameron hears about his dad's confession, he comes clean.

He claims he played no part in the murder, but did help get rid of some evidence.

I took the guns

over to the pond,

put them in a bag, put some rocks in it, and I threw it in the pond.

Just like my dad told me to.

Letha Westvall Westvall pleads guilty to organized criminal activity and is sentenced to life in prison.

Paul Westvall pleads guilty to first-degree murder and is also sentenced to life.

Cameron Westphal pleads guilty to two counts of third-degree tampering with evidence and is sentenced to 10 years.

Kristen Westphal decides to fight the charges and takes her chances in court.

On August 9th, 2016, Kristen's trial gets underway.

The motive was custody.

Kristen let Letha know that there is a possibility that Nathan will get custody and you won't have Maddie in your life anymore.

Kristen convinced Letha and Paul the only way out was to kill Nathan and Crystal in order to have rights to Madison.

With testimony from Letha and Cameron and the text messages from that day, prosecutors detail how the murders went down.

On the morning of January 18, 2014, Paul, Letha, and Kristen had planned to kill

Nathan and Crystal.

This was the last meeting at the church, and so they knew they had to get Nathan out of the way.

Prosecutors argue that while Letha was with Nathan, Paul and Kristen were ready outside, armed.

They waited for Letha to tell them they were coming out.

And poor Crystal, she steps out first and she's shot in the head.

It was a devastating injury.

Kristen had the shotgun and shot Nathan in the hip.

Nathan went down at that point.

Paul walks over, puts the 3030 up close to his head and says, I told you I was going to blow your brains out.

And he pulls the trigger.

It is as cold-blooded and

vicious a killing as any you'll ever want to see.

According to prosecutors, Kristen and Paul jumped in the truck and fled home.

They woke Cameron up.

Kristen said, we killed him.

No remorse, nothing.

They were celebrating.

The defense team counters with their own version of the story.

Kristen testified, except she switched roles.

Kristen testifies that she was at home sleeping, and it was Cameron who left with Paul to go kill Nathan and Crystal.

To see her blame it on her brother and never flinch.

To see her look at the crime scene photos and never flinch, I think she certainly has a huge moral deficit in her being.

After the defense rests, the jury deliberates.

When they return, they announce their verdict:

guilty.

It was just the biggest relief to hear the guilty verdict.

We got what we wanted, but it doesn't bring Nathan back.

It doesn't bring Crystal back.

It's just putting her behind bars.

She can't hurt us again, but there's forever that scar.

What I do every day, I do it for my daughter and for Nathan.

I feel like it's up to me to keep them

alive in the memories.

Crystal's children are being raised by her mother.

Nathan's daughter, Maddie, is now living with Nathan's family.

Maddie is a loving child.

God has a way of protecting us.

And she's adjusted.

Maddie is doing well.

She's a pretty resilient young lady.

Kristen Westphal was sentenced to life in prison.

There is no possibility of parole.

For more information on Snapped, go to oxygen.com.

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