Transcript of Secrets in the Ashes

Tonight on Dateline.

It can't go down as a homicide. It can't go down as anything but an accident.

She wanted me to kill her husband. She sent me a picture. Like, here he is. Go get him.

I have to go through the crying and the whole widow process.

You can hear her complaining that she'll have to be the grieving widow.

It would all just be an act. It gave me chills. It made me think, this is something she's done before.

You started to dig deeper.

You find some posts taking your suspicions to a whole new level.

Oh, yes.

I thought back to the affair. It made me question her part in my aunt's murder. There was a fire. She didn't make it out. What do you say to a six-year-old who just lost his mom?

We had zero evidence on the house and lots of suspicion, my own included.

Just when you think the story couldn't get any bigger, it just goes on and on.

This could have been the perfect crime.

It could have been the perfect crime.

Secret recordings and two sinister murder plots was one woman at the center. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Datelive.

Here's Andrea Canning with Secrets in the Ashes. I'm never going be able to rest and be happy unless he's just somehow gone.

You're listening to something we rarely get to hear.

Something's going to happen, because that's my only way out.

A murder plot being hatched.

If there would have to be a silence, so there's no sound, and the shot would have to be just right. Like, whatever is going to happen, it has to happen, number one, when I'm at work or somewhere else where I can verify that I'm there.

A deadly plan and an unlikely mastermind behind it.

I knew that she was a terrible person. I didn't know that she was that heartless.

I found Facebook pages online where people complained about her by the hundreds.

Hundreds?

Hundreds.

My initial thought really was karma.

It was an early June morning in 2003. Mildred Pew was heading to the grocery store in Goliad, Texas.

You're driving with a friend, and you see something. Yes.

We see smoke. And the closer that we get to the smoke, then we realize that there's a house on fire.

In front of the burning house, a child.

I looked out and I saw a little boy, and all he had on was his underwear.

Mildred jumped out of the car and ran over to help.

And the little boy said, My mommy's in that house. Can you get her out?

That little boy was John Michael Burdette, just six years old. He'd awoken moments before to a terrible sound.

Screaming. I'm being woke up to screaming.

And it's your mom.

This is my mom screaming, The house is on fire.

His mother, 31-year-old Patricia Lee Mills, was in the next bedroom.

She just, Get out.

And were you screaming anything back to her?

What do I do? I mean, I want to go run towards the front door, but couldn't because the whole wall was on fire.

The living room was engulfed in flames, blocking the front door.

There was some quick thinking that was going to happen here.

Yes, ma'am.

I got away from it. You ran and tried to take a different route out?

I went through my bedroom window. My bedroom window was the furthest away from the fire. Tossed my toy box out the window. My toy box went out, and I went in after it.

Once out, John Michael wanted to go right back in to save his mom. Mildred told him to stay put. She approached a window.

I could hear this woman's voice.

What's she saying? I don't know.

I don't know what she was saying. But I was trying to assure her that that little boy wasn't still in the house. Oh, my gosh. And so I told her to hold on.

The front of the house was engulfed in flames, so Mildred ran around to the back, but the door was locked from the outside. There was a padlock?

There was a padlock on the outside of the back door.

By now, two men had stopped to help. Together, Mildred and the men were able to force the back door open.

Oh, wow. So are you able to go into the house, or is there too much smoke?

We opened the door and black smoke billowed out of the back door. Inside, Patricia Lee had gone silent.

I think the smoke got the best of her.

What is the little boy doing while this is happening?

Standing there watching it burn because that baby was watching his mama die.

Do you remember that feeling of being helpless and standing there watching?

I very much remember just feeling absolutely like I could do more, but I can't because I'm going to hurt myself.

Firefighters arrived and put out the blaze. They found Patricia Lee in the front bedroom. She was gone.

You got a call from your mom one morning with some really bad news.

I was home alone, and my mom called.

Jessica Leverts is John's cousin. She was 18 when she got the news about her aunt Patricia Lee.

And I said, Mama, what's wrong? And she said, There's a fire. And I said, Okay. And she said, John made it out. And I said, What about Lee? She got real quiet. And I said, Mama, what about Lee? And she said that she didn't make it out and that she was gone, but that John was okay.

Patricia Lee's husband, Delbert Mills, was at work when the fire started. He arrived at the scene to learn his wife was dead and his son was outside in an ambulance.

My dad pulls up and jumps in the back of the ambulance, and he looks Stone cold in my face, and your mom's dead.

My son is six right now. You were six. I know exactly how a six-year-old behaves and processes everything, and I can't even imagine you in that situation. Hearing that about your mom and also having just gone through a fire.

Yeah, I mean, my thing is at 6: 00, you don't even really know what death is. No. And being told somebody's dead is like, what does that mean?

You just know your mom's never coming home.

And you just know that she's gone, and you don't know why, you don't know how.

So sorry.

Later that day, Patricia Lee's family gathered to comfort one another.

As soon as I saw John, I grabbed him and I held on to him.

What do you say to him?

His whole world is gone. He just kept telling me. He said, The house caught on fire. And I said, I know, baby. He kept saying that he tried to get her out. He said, I couldn't get her. And I said, Well, you're little. It's okay. Mama understands. It was a lot.

And a lot more was about to come.

What was your mom's reaction?

She dug her heels. She dug her heels, and she kept pushing.

You made it your mission to start warning people about her.

Absolutely.

She surprises you with a big ask.

She did.

I mean, I don't want you to be coordinating it, but I need your help finding with someone.

Investigators were sifting through the charred timber, trying to figure out what started the fire that took Patricia Lee's life. They quickly surmised the old wood frame house, just 530 square feet had been a fire trap. Danny Madrigal was a detective with the Goliad Sheriff's office.

Everything in the house had burned down to a crisp. You know, walls, furniture, you name it. Everything had... It was A very intense fire inside.

One door was blocked by a bed, another locked from the outside. The only available door was in the living room where the fire was at its most intense. Patricia Lee never made it out of her room. The official cause of death was smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.

This was a death trap for Patricia Lee.

It was, yes. Yes, it was.

Everyone agreed it was a miracle that little John Michael had managed to escape through a window.

I was a mama's boy.

John Michael was an only child. His dad, Delbert, drove a truck for a septic tank company while Patricia Lee stayed home with John.

What things would you do with your mom?

We'd play outside. We'd go to the park. We'd just ride around together. Just spend time together. We'd watch TV together. We would do almost everything together.

She was a big sister that I didn't have. I don't know how I would have gotten through a lot of what I did without her.

What did she help you through?

Normal teenage stuff. We would talk boys, we would talk everyday life, school. Lee really was that person that would give shoes off her feet, the clothes off her back. If she had a penny, the only penny to her name, she would give it to you. She really was a genuine person with a heart of gold.

Patricia Lee met Delbert in Church. He was originally from Arkansas and said he'd been out east attending the West Point Military Academy. The two were married in 1996. A year and a half later came John Michael.

How badly did she want to be a mom?

Very, very much so. So when she did get pregnant, she was so over the moon.

You call your mom, even at that young age, your best friend?

Yes. She was always there when I needed her.

Now, John Michael would never see his mother again. That evening, just hours after the fire, Delbert shared Patricia Lee's wishes for her son.

Delbert had came to my mom shortly after and told my mom that he and Lee had had a conversation, that if anything happened to either one of them, that my mom would get John.

Your mom agreed to take John in?

She did.

So you ended up getting taken in by your mom's sister, your aunt?

Yes, ma'am.

Did you feel loved by your aunt and your family?

Yes.

As John Michael and Patricia Lee's family struggled with their grief, fire marshals finished their investigation. They concluded the blaze had started in the living room where they found three kerosine lanterns in a pile near a coffee table. But the report described them as decorative only and not in use.

The fire department does come to you with a conclusion.

That it was inconclusive, that they couldn't determine a cause of the fire.

So the conclusion was no conclusion.

No conclusion.

Patricia Lee's family knew the report was wrong about one thing. Those kerosine lanterns in the house were not just decorative. They were in use. Delbert insisted using the lanterns as lights to save money on electricity.

Those lanterns were used all the time. He didn't like to run the electric. In order to move from room to room, you'd have to have a lantern. Lee would have to make sure that dinner was cooked before sundown. Otherwise, she would have to cook using a lantern. If you had to go to the bathroom, you had to grab a lantern if there wasn't already one in there.

There's probably 10, 14. I don't know how many. There was a lot. Some hung on the ceiling, some sat on the table.

Which is unusual.

Yeah, there's a lot of lanterns for such a small house, especially that we lived in.

The report had one more surprise for Patricia Lee's family. It's final recommendation, this case should be closed.

And they were going to leave it at that. They weren't going to look into it anymore.

And was that case closed?

For them, it was.

But for Patricia Lee's family, the findings left them reeling, as would what happened next.

Delbert came to my mom and told her that he was marrying Allison.

After the fire that killed his mother, Patricia Lee, John Michael was adjusting to life with his aunt, Sharon, and his cousins.

Was he really processing what was happening being six years old?

I think he processed it as much as he could. My mom and I would talk to him about mommy's in heaven and that she was always going to be watching over him. What do you say to a six-year-old who just lost his mom?

That person is no longer around, no longer coming around, no longer there. You can't call on them when you need them. You can't talk to them. You can't reach out for them.

Yeah.

The adjustment was painful and slow. It was a different story for his father.

You get some bombshell news. Not too long after the fire.

Delbert came to my mom and told her that he was marrying Allison.

It was just six weeks after the fire, and Delbert was already engaged. There would soon be a new Mrs. Mills. Allison was Allison Newman, a divorced mom who shared custody of three young girls with her ex.

Allison was always very outgoing.

Keisha Ringland was a neighbor of Allison's who babysat for her daughters.

She was very kind and compassionate. She was somebody that was so easy to talk to.

Allison was no stranger to Patricia Lee's family. She had briefly dated Delbert's brother and had lived with Delbert and Patricia Lee before the fire.

Allison came to stay with you.

Yeah, she stayed with us probably two months, three months.

There was no bed for her or bedroom?

No, she had a mattress on the floor in my bedroom.

Allison had been living with a boyfriend while her ex took care of the girls. When that relationship went south, she needed a place to stay.

The boyfriend kicked her out sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then she ended up in Goliad with Lee and Delbert.

And they gave her a place to stay?

Correct.

As friends? Yes.

But not just friends, according to what Patricia Lee told her niece.

She woke up in the middle the night, walked into the living room, and caught Allison and Delbert in a very compromising position on the sofa. Were they having sex? Yes.

Right under her own roof.

I mean, there's no hiding it. It was in the living room.

Allison immediately moved out.

Literally woke up one day and the mattress wasn't on the floor anymore, and the lady who was sleeping on my floor was just gone. I'm like, Okay, well, got my room back.

Did anyone say anything about why she was gone?

No. That was in February. Four months later, Patricia Lee was dead. Now, Delbert and Allison were married.

I would guess that didn't sit well with you and your family. No. What did that say to you about everything?

It just solidified what I already knew, that he never really cared about my aunt, that he never really loved her, that he didn't love his son, he didn't love John.

I'm like, What the hell? I mean, I'm excuse my language, but what the hell?

It was so quick.

I was still trying to process the loss of my mom. How can you process it that fast?

In the coming months, John would see his father less and less, and then not at all. And Delbert wasn't done with making changes. He was soon spotted driving a new truck around town, courtesy of a $15,000 life insurance policy he'd taken out on Patricia Lee before she died.

And he took that and bought himself a truck.

A new truck, a new wife. Delbert seemed to be living a new life altogether.

Made me question whether or not the fire was a way to get rid of Lee so that he could be with Allison. Did he do this?

That's a scary place to be to start thinking that because this fire is undetermined.

Patricia Lee's family read the fire marshal's report and noted who had told the marshal those lanterns were decorative only. Delbert himself.

He swore to them that they were just decoration. He didn't know how they were all in a pile, that they were never, ever used.

The family knew that was a lie and suspected Delbert was trying to cover up something.

Did you think maybe Delbert then had put all the lanterns together on purpose?

There was no other explanation for it.

Jessica's mom, Sharon, took her suspicions about Delbert to the Goliad Sheriff's Department.

She starts telling them how she felt like this was deliberate. She's like, I really would like for you all to look into this. They took her her statement.

But neither the sheriff nor the fire marshal saw reason to reopen the investigation. Delbert had an ironclad alibi. He had been at work when the fire started, a 20-minute drive away. There was no way he could have set the fire. The case remained closed.

What was your mom's reaction when she's being told all of this?

She dug her heels. She dug her heels, and she kept pushing. She wasn't going to let them stop her.

Your mom was just getting started.

Yeah.

And she was going to hear from an unlikely source who seemed ready to help.

And he blurted out that if I left him, that he would do the same thing to me that he did to Patricia.

The investigation into the fire that killed Patricia Lee was officially closed, but her family had questions and suspicions. They thought her husband, Delbert, was somehow to blame.

What was your dad like?

He wasn't in Sunshine the Rambos. He was me.

What would he do to you?

Hit, scream, yell, just call your names and all kinds of other things.

And to your mom?

I remember him breaking her nose. We were at one of their friends house, and they got into an argument.

And you saw it?

Mm-hmm. I called the cops on him.

You called police?

Yes. I was like, five.

Wow.

Delbert is a very narcissistic autistic person, very selfish, very abusive in every way possible. So physical, mental, sexually, any an abusive way that he could be, he was.

Jessica says Patricia Lee once threatened to leave Delbert, and he responded with a threat of his own.

Without even a single second, Delbert spoke up and said the only way she'd be leaving is in a body bag.

With little help from the Sheriff's office, Patricia Lee's sister, Sharon, began her own investigation into the fire.

She studied the pictures. She would talk to different people that had any contact with Delbert, and she would just start writing everything down, and she would build a case of her own.

Two frustrating years passed.

Delbert is free to go about his life.

Walking around like it was nothing. Walking around like he hadn't just lost a wife, walking around like he hadn't almost lost a child. He was just going around, living his everyday life, and he was living it with Allison.

Then, in June of 2005, help came from a surprising source, Delbert's new wife. Allison reached out to Patricia Lee's sister with a story, and Sharon encouraged her to go tell it to Detective Madrigal.

You're married to who? Delbert Hill. How long have you all been married? Almost two years. Almost two years now? Okay. I did interview Allison when she came in. She said that her and Delbert had had an argument.

She now has something pretty explosive to say.

Yes. He blurted out that if I left him, that he would do the same thing to me that he did to Patricia.

Allison told the detective that Delbert went on to explain how he set the fire to ignite after he left the house.

He told me that before he left for work, that morning, he purposely set a cigarette, a lit cigarette, I guess, up against or by some wiring that he made sure that it was faulty down, pulled down to where he knew it would cause a spark. What of the, I guess, their kerosine lamps, and took the top off of it, imported around the area to where he said that he knew it would set fire after a while. And he left for work.

Allison's essentially giving you a confession here. I mean, it's secondhand from her, but she's saying that he confessed.

Yes.

A couple of weeks after that interview, the detective had a plan for what to do next.

I contacted her and felt that we needed to get her wired and try to have her have a conversation with Delbert and get him to say something incriminating.

Detective Madrigal says she refused to wear a wire. Apparently, whatever fight she'd been having with Delbert was over.

She told me, Well, you know what? Maybe he really didn't say what I told you he said. So she recanted what she had told me.

Jessica heard from her mom that Allison backed off out of fear.

She pulled back saying that she was scared that Delbert was going to come after her and her kids.

Detective Madrigal never questioned Delbert.

I think people watching will say, Why didn't somebody bring Delbert in and just put him on that hot seat and just go at him like they do, sometimes up to eight hours with suspects?

We could have done that, but you don't want to ruin that one chance you got. If he denied everything, what do you have? A he said, she said situation. If I really felt that I could have cracked this case by talking to Delbert, I would have done so.

The red hot lead went nowhere and the investigation went cold again. The years piled up, but Patricia Lee's sister never stopped pleading with the Sheriff's office to keep digging into Delbert. A long time.

She almost gave up.

Why didn't she?

That was her sister. That was her baby. And she knew. She knew that he did it. It was just cracking that door and having someone see what she was seeing.

That someone was about to enter the investigation investigation, and stories from the past would soon get everyone's attention.

Delbert told me that he knew a way that he could get rid of my husband and make it look like it was an accident.

Seven years after the fire that killed Patricia Lee, a new sheriff was elected in Goliad County, Texas. He had Constable Mike Thompson, a retired homicide detective, take a look at the case file. Thompson set up a meeting with Patricia Lee's sister, Sharon, who pressed him to investigate Delbert.

Is she really desperate at this point for help and feeling like you're maybe her final chance to get something done.

I think she had been desperate for several years. She felt like nobody was listening.

And now here you are listening to her.

I think that was one of her comments. I think he's actually taking notes.

Thompson suspected arson, but had his work cut out to prove it. No physical evidence had been collected from the fire scene. And by 2010, there was no scene.

When I got involved, this is basically what I had to work with, an empty lot, no house, no structures.

With the lack of physical evidence, this is really coming down to who you're going to be able to get to talk.

Yeah, it all came down to people, word of mouth.

The family handed over all the information they'd gathered, and Jessica told Thompson about something strange Delbert had said to her the night of the fire.

He was telling me how he just didn't understand. I said, You don't understand what? How the fire started? He said, No, I don't understand how John got out. I put plexiglas so thick on those windows, and I cocked it up so much, a grown man couldn't kick those windows out.

Did you say why would you do that?

No, I didn't ask him why. I looked at him and I said, Well, be grateful that he did get out. Yeah. And he just looked at me and he didn't say anything else.

You want to be hearing from a father, Thank God he got out, not, How did he get out?

That's what you'd think. That was not reaction.

The constable also met with Allison's friend, Keisha Ringland, who had a story about Delbert.

It was the holidays of 2007. My husband and I had gotten into a really, really, really bad fight.

Keisha went over to Delbert and Allison's house for support, and she says this is how Delbert offered to help.

Delbert told me that he knew a way that he could get rid of my husband and make it look like it was an accident. And he was like, I can kill I can set the apartment on fire and make it look like an accident. I remember thinking to myself, who would say something like that? What are you thinking about what Keisha is telling you? I mean, these are very damning statements.

She's repeating what I've been hearing from other people about Delbert.

Thompson had been going through the file and found other witnesses who'd been interviewed years earlier.

Would you state your name, date of birth? Sherry Lynn Denell.

Sherry Denell was Allison's cousin by marriage. Years earlier, she told Detective Madrigal that she heard a drunk Delbert boasting about killing his wife.

He was talking about putting boxes in front of the doors to block her way. Delbert said he had turned the gas on when he left to work that morning.

And of course, Investigator Thompson listened to the interview with Delbert's wife, Allison.

He would do the same thing to me that he did to Patricia.

Allison had recanted, but now She and Delbert were divorced. You bring her in.

I brought her into my office. We talked.

Allison told Thompson her original statement was true.

So this is a big deal, the statement that she's making. Yes.

He actually told her, I'll do to you what I did to Patricia.

The constable brought his case to then DA, Mike Sheppard.

He has pieced together with little pieces of evidence a case that strongly suggests that Delbert Mills killed his wife. He had talked to all the peripheral witnesses who helped put the full picture together.

So you're all in agreement, let's bring in Delbert?

Yes.

Does that happen?

It does happen. Would you spike your name? Delbert A. Mills.

A Texas ranger named Todd Reid and a second investigator questioned Delbert as Thompson watched from another room.

Got my stuff ready for work and everything. Left the house probably Roughly about 6: 30.

Delbert said he left Patricia Lee and John sleeping safely with no sign of any fire. He got to work by 7: 00. Sometime after 8: 30 came the call. His house was on fire.

The time I got there, the firetrucks was there. There was an ambulance there.

He said he flagged down a first responder.

And she told me, she said, Delbert, Patricia didn't make it. Yeah, it still chokes me up to talk about it. And I said, It can't be.

Delbert starts the interview by saying he still gets choked up just talking about it.

Yeah.

Did you buy that?

I don't think that was a real emotional reaction. I thought he was staging it. Torty, you Like, start the fire.

I have no idea, and that's what I want to know. You must have some idea. From what I can gather and stuff, from what I've been told, it was an electric fire. Did you burn the house? No, Daniel. I did not. As I knew it was an electric fire, and that's what I was told. We know for a fact that you told several people that you burned that house down and killed your wife. No, I did not.

Are they lying?

Yes, they're lying.

The story that he and Allison started their relationship before the fire, he tried to deny that, too.

I don't remember whether I kissed her or not. If I did, I never did get caught because Patricia didn't catch me kissing her.

Did you hear what she just said?

I said, I know what I just said. I said, If I did, I never got caught. Never got caught. So you're saying you did? No, I'm not saying I did. I'm not saying I didn't because I don't remember.

Delbert agreed to come back a week and a half later and take a polygraph.

Delbert took the polygraph. Delbert failed the polygraph. The failure of the polygraph is telling me as district attorney, we probably got our guy. But I can't show this to a jury. We've got to get a little more.

After investigators told Delbert he failed the polygraph, they questioned him again, and now his story started to change. Maybe he did have an idea how the fire started.

Put a cigarette in the ashtray or on the ashtray, on the witch.

Where was the ashtray?

Set on the coffee table. When I went out the front door, when I slam on the front door, that lamp fell. If that lamp would have fell, it would have hit the couch, it hit the coffee table. I think that's what started the fire. It's still hard to admit that I may have started that fire.

Of particular interest to investigators, where Delbert says the fire may have started, the living room.

In his statement, he pinpoints the actual origin of the point of fire, which is one of the few things we had that was useful from our fire investigation. He would not have known that. That was not public record.

Only the killer would know.

Only the killer would know that.

Though Delbert had told multiple stories over the years about how he started the fire, investigators had a theory of their own.

What we surmise he did was put a candle in the pool of Lantern oil and let it burn down.

Giving him time to get to work before the fire started. Investigators had heard enough. Eight years after Patricia Lee's death, Delbert was arrested for first-degree murder.

How good did it feel making that call to Sharon?

It's pretty good. You don't get that opportunity every day.

You get emotional just thinking back?

At times. What gets you so- Don't tell anybody. You'll ruin my reputation.

Delbert was in jail at last, but a question remained.

There's no way he did it by himself. There's absolutely no way.

I always thought she's more involved than anybody really knows. Yeah. I don't see how she could not be.

It was 2011, eight years after her aunt Patricia Lee's death, when Jessica got a call.

My mom called, and she said, They got him. And I said, They got Delbert? And she was like, Yeah, they just arrested him. Mike just called me. She just cried. We sat on the phone, and I remember her saying, We got Emily. You can rest now. Hmm.

This was a long time coming.

It was a long time.

John Michael was a teenager when his father was arrested.

If he did this, he had to know that he You were in the house, too. You were in the house as well.

That I was going to be in the house, too. It's disturbing.

To kill your wife, but then to potentially kill your young son.

I guess that's what happens when you want to Want to move on with your life with somebody else?

And investigators had questions about that somebody else.

She struck me as just a squirly witness. She'd flip flop. She had at one time exonered generated Delbert before vigorously trying to get him convicted.

Over the years, Allison had offered up information to help the investigation, but Constable Thompson asked her to take a polygraph.

Did she agree to it?

She agreed to take it.

How did she do?

She showed deception. She failed it.

If the investigators were right that Delbert lit a candle in a pool of lantern oil to construct an alibi, it was a clever plan.

Delbert wasn't smart enough for that. Allison was. Delbert wasn't. Delbert just acted it out.

Delbert didn't have much education. No.

Though Delbert now denies Ever claiming he went to West West Point. Jessica says he lied about his education.

Not a lot of people get into West Point, but that was part of Delbert. He was a pathological liar.

So was Delbert just the brawn while Allison was the brains? Even though there was no hard evidence linking Allison to the crime, that was Jessica's theory.

I felt like she was the one that came up with the idea to set this fire and for him to get to work so that he'd have an alibi.

Do you think Allison played a role in your mom's murder?

Oh, definitely. I mean, they were having an affair together.

I always thought she's more involved than anybody really knows.

Yeah.

I don't see how she could not be.

And there was something else in the case file that pointed to Allison, something her cousin by marriage, Sherry, had said back in 2005.

Sherry had some pretty damning statements to make about Allison that she says Delbert told her.

Delbert told her that they had planned He said that he was glad the bitch was David, that he's glad that Allison had thought of a plan to kill her, and that he went ahead and done it. Her and him wanted to done it together.

This is the first person, really, to bring Allison into this in a big way.

Into the actual planning and execution of the fire, yes.

But prosecutor Sheppard knew that part of Sherry's story about Delbert couldn't be used in court. It would be hearsay and inadmissible.

I mean, as hard as Mike worked on this case and as many people as he talked to, at the end of the day, we had zero competent evidence on Allison. Lots of suspicion, my own included, but no evidence.

Allison was never charged with anything relating to the fire. Delbert Mills went on trial in January of 2013, waiving his right to a jury in favor of a bench trial. After just three days of testimony, the judge gave his verdict. Based on the evidence before that time, you'll give the office a son. Guilty? Guilty.

What was his reaction to that in the courtroom?

He just hung his head. The whole trial, he looked like a whip dog, and that did not change when the verdict came out.

Delberg was sentenced to life in prison.

Sometimes it takes a while.

I mean, it took 10 years, but it got it.

It got done.

You gave just a heartbreaking victim impact statement in the courtroom. You faced your father.

I had to. I mean, that was the only time I'd be able to ask him that question, face-to-face.

Why didn't you take away what you wanted to address him?

The truth is believe that love with him.

Without her heart and my soul, my love dear. Why?

Why? Why did you have to take the one person who loved me more than anything?

That unanswered question hung in the courtroom and hung over the lives of everyone who knew John Michael and his mother. And in the years ahead, the questions would only multiply.

There are going to be people who find what you're saying right now despicable.

And Allison, she would chart a new life as as entrepreneur, podcaster, and politician.

Hi, everybody. I'm Allison Salinas, and welcome to Citizen Watch.

But what was her next plan?

Something's going to happen, because that's my only way out.

Can you see, though, the similarities between the two cases? You're the common thread?

Seven years after Delbert Mills was convicted of murder and about 300 miles north of that Goliad County courthouse, James Turrentine's phone pings with a new message. He didn't recognize the number, but when he opened it, the name rang a bell.

It was something along lines of, Hey, this is Allison. I don't know if you remember me.

It was Allison Mills, Delbert's ex-wife.

She was my first real girlfriend.

James dated Allison when they were in high school. Now, nearly 30 years after their teenage breakup, she was reaching out.

How random was that?

Very random. It was such a long time to go by.

What does she want? Just to reconnect?

She wanted to spend a lot of time discussing our lives, where we've been in the past 28 years.

What had been going on in your life, and what did she say had been going on in hers?

I'd been living my life. I'd been through some things, but she told me that she had been married a couple of times, and she told me that she had been married to a guy who had murdered his wife.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

What questions did you have when she told you that her husband had been convicted of murder?

I thought it best not to ask a lot of questions. It seemed more appropriate to me at the time to express sympathy because that's a lot to deal with.

Did she tell you what had happened?

She said that he locked her in the house instead of the house on fire. That was the extent of it.

A few years after Delbert was convicted, Allison left Texas with her three daughters and started over in central Illinois. She had a new life and a new name. She was now Allison Salinas, remarried to a contractor named Patrick Salinas.

She told me she was an entrepreneur. She said she was selling things online. Kind of made it sound like life was great for her.

Allison had gone to college and was active in her new community in Greater Peoria.

I'm going to talk about a few things going on.

She hosted a political podcast.

Hi, everybody. I'm Allison Salinas, and welcome to Citizen Watch, where your voice matters.

And she told James She had political aspirations herself. She made a primary run for the US Senate, trying to get on the Republican ticket.

Allison was running for US Senate?

Mm-hmm.

What did she tell you about that?

She said that she wanted to change things in the country, and it surprised me.

The local news covered a series of rallies Allison organized to support police.

We need to bring out the human side of these cops to show them they're just like us. They're no different than us.

I thought that's bold to be out in the public spotlight like that, but I wish her the best of luck.

The campaign ended before she could get on the ballot. She dropped out, cite a cancer diagnosis.

She told me that she had been a cancer survivor, and then a few months, I guess, into our conversations, she mentioned that the cancer was back.

James, as Allison told him, she couldn't afford her treatments. She asked him for money.

That just seemed rather suspicious. When I didn't answer her texts right away, she responded with, Wow, like I had done something wrong.

Like you weren't jumping to say, I'll give you the money.

Yes, trying to make me feel guilty. To me, that just seemed really manipulative. I told her, I said, This feels like a scam to me. I'm not going to do it.

After this whole asking for money for cancer, you decide to do a search?

Yes.

What did you find?

I found Facebook pages online where people complained about her by the hundreds.

Hundreds?

Hundreds. Just one after another after another.

One of those people on Facebook was a woman named Kate Elliott. Kate first met Allison at a church in Peoria's East Bluff neighborhood. They were both volunteering to help plan a community fundraiser.

Was she new to town at this point? Very. Okay, so how did she even hear about it?

There were flyers passed out through the neighborhood, and there's a Facebook page that also asked if you have any ideas for a fundraiser. We're all meeting at a church.

Her idea was a concert?

Yes. She wanted to call it the East Bluff Jambury. She came in and said that she had connections, and she was going to have Nelly, Brad Paisley, and Gwen Stefani come to our little 250 seat Amba Theater.

Kate knew immediately that it sounded too good to be true.

Allison started talking about, And Brad Paisley is going to be from this time to this time, and Nelly from this time to this time.

She started googling the artists and saw they were booked to be in other places the day of the fundraiser.

I'm telling her these things, and she goes, Oh, my God, I'm going to message their PR people right now. And she gets on her phone and starts typing away. I said, You're messaging their PR people right now? She was like, Yeah. She's like, I can't believe this. I said, Let me see. And she needed to go to the bathroom, and she went to the restroom.

Did she come back?

She did not.

Kate was convinced Allison was planning some scam, and the ease with which Allison pitched her A-list lineup told her this wasn't the first. With a degree in criminology, Kate trusted her instincts and began investigating Allison's past.

You made it your mission to start warning people about her.

Absolutely. I made a Facebook post that had every scam I could find about her, and I left that public.

Which is how she and James connected. But what they knew about Allison was just the beginning.

You find some posts that are taking your suspicions to a whole new level.

Oh, yes.

By the time Kate and James started comparing notes about Allison Salinas in 2022, Kate had posted her story about the fundraiser on Facebook. In response, she heard from dozens of people with similar allegations about Allison.

Over the years, there's been so much more that's come out, and she's never stopped.

Right. Your allegation is she would organize a fundraiser, promise big names, sell tickets, then not deliver.

Absolutely. I want to talk about this gala for the men and women in uniform.

Allison was to host a charity gala honoring first responders as part of her Senate campaign. She booked the event with venue director Patty Green.

So this was the event space. This was the event space, what it was to look like with the red, white, and blue. She wanted it very nice, over the top. I mean, it was all orchestrated perfectly because because she had down to the menus what they were going to do. All those little touches. Exactly.

Tickets sold for $125. Allison said proceeds would go to local first responders. But a few days before the event, Patty said she started getting calls from concerned guests.

What were they asking? They were saying, Is this event really happening? Because we're not getting any information from her. She's not returning our phone calls. And are you trying to reach out to her again? Oh, yes. Then she wouldn't answer my phone calls. She wouldn't answer my email. So she's ghosting you. You're 100% ghosted at that point. And there's this big event that is supposed to happen. Absolutely.

According to the contract, Allison owed the venue nearly $10,000.

She asked me to be her public relations manager.

Brandy Dunn says she worked on Allison's Senate campaign for months. She and her husband, Michael, were also supposed to work the gala.

Were either of you paid for your work?

No.

Never. Not a dime?

Not a dime.

Not a single dime.

How much money were you owed?

$12,000.

The Dunn sued Allison, hoping to recover their losses. Allison's campaign released a statement contesting the amount. The suit is still pending.

So my name is Allison, and I'm a four-time cancer survivor.

And remember how Allison asked James for money for her cancer treatments? Kate thinks it's all part of a con.

My daughter Mary, she is completely in love with Clos Malone, and I just want to see if anybody can get this out to him and give him a shout out so he'll see it. She would love to see him.

You claim she used the cancer to get perks. Absolutely. She got VIP treatment at Tiffany concert?

She got a VIP treatment. She definitely did.

You could see her with the singer.

On stage, behind stage.

Allison has said publicly that she's She's eaten several types of cancer.

You believe Allison was lying about her cancer?

Allison can't even keep track of how many times Allison's had cancer. Every time something goes wrong, she has cancer. So she stopped the Senate campaign because she had cancer. She stopped the bakery because she had cancer.

The bakery, as in the Busy B's bakery, a business Allison started after her failed Senate run with financial backing from family.

The bakery, not the best reviews all the time?

It was dead in the water before she opened.

So you think she wasn't... They weren't even making the products.

90% of things, no. And the ones that she did make, you can tell she made them. It looks like a three-year-old helped.

Busy bees closed after a few months. Family members who invested in the bakery say Allison lied to them about the business and has yet to repay their money. And former employees filed claims with the State Department of Labor saying they were never paid. Allison defended herself on the local news.

I told them I would figure it out and make sure their time was what it was, and I would get back to them. No, I didn't give them the time because I don't know how long it's going to take.

Allison's criminal record shows one conviction for theft by deception in the state of Illinois, as well as convictions for theft and forgery in Texas. Kate was keeping track of other allegations against Allison and digging around in her past.

You find some posts that are taking your suspicions to a whole new level. Oh, yes.

Both Kate and James saw news reports about the murder of Patricia Lee Mills down in Texas.

You see people mentioning this murder on social media. Allison had already told you about it?

Yes.

You're reading about it, and then she's told you her story. How are things adding up to you?

Things did not add up. Then I found the court documents where a lot of the testimonials when he was discussed. And yeah, it was clear she had lied to me.

What James saw contradicted what Allison had been telling him about her relationship with Delbert.

She's telling you that she only got involved with him after after his wife died.

Yes. She told me that she met Delbert Mills a month after the fire.

Kate's background in criminology drove her to build a timeline.

I ended up going back and looking up the dates of her marriage, and With it being within 90 days of his wife dying, she had a hand in it.

You believe that?

Firmly.

It was quite a leap. From con artist to potential killer. Investigators back in Texas could never prove it. But for Kate and James, what happened next made their suspicions hard to ignore.

She surprises you with a big ask.

She did.

I'm never going to be able to rest and be happy unless he's just somehow gone. James Turrentine believed Allison Salinas was a con artist, and he wondered if his high school ex was more involved in that murder down in Texas than she let on.

Did you confront her with that at all? No. Why not?

Because I wanted to maintain the status quo with her to where she felt that she could trust me and tell me if she was planning any new scams, what was going on with her.

James has Allison texted and called him relentlessly for months. A lot of the discussion was about her husband, Patrick.

What was she saying?

She said that he didn't pay any bills, that he didn't really work very much. She referred to him as stupid as though that was his actual name.

You say she love bombed you?

Yes.

How so?

That I was the gold standard, that I was the one. She painted a very romantic picture.

Allison also texted selfies to James.

Regular selfies Is there any suggestive pictures trying to win you over?

She did, in fact, send me notes, if that's what you're asking.

Did you ever bite?

No.

Never? No.

But yet she believed that I was in love with her.

She sounds like she's right out of a lifetime movie.

She does.

Like a lot of lifetime movies, things took a very dark turn.

She surprises you with a big ask.

She did. She She wanted me to kill her husband.

Patrick, the husband she'd been complaining about.

How does this even come up?

It started with subtle remarks, things like, I wish he would just go away and never come back. It progressed from there into full-blown conversations about orchestrating this man's death.

If she is being truthful, her husband's life could be on the line.

It is. She sent me a picture of him and said, There's your pick you need, as though that's what I need to know who he is, what he looks like, so that I can go up there and kill him.

What did you say to her when she asked you to do this?

I told her I'm not going to kill him. She, at that point, instead wanted me to find someone else and hire that person to kill him.

This is Officer Williamson, Peekin Police. Just my body cameras on.

James reached out to police in Peekin, Illinois, and spent more than 15 minutes telling an officer the story.

She's like, Well, if you have some money, why don't you hire me a hitman or something like that? It needed to look like that.

You see him and be traced to her.

Do you know if she has any mental disabilities or anything of that nature. I'm trying to figure out the seriousness of this.

To be perfectly honest with you, So I'm not a medical professional, but I do have my own suspicions.

I'm going to document everything that you're telling me, but my advice to you would be not contact her at all anymore. I would just block her number.

Here again, if I do that, I think she's going to know something's up. I don't give her a reason to come down and cause problems for me in Texas or who knows, whatever else.

Yeah. Well, If you don't want to cause any issues by blocking her, then just don't respond to her.

I mean, blocking her calls, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's just over.

Yeah, that's not an end.

She can just find someone else.

Absolutely, she can.

If James was waiting for the peak in police to take immediate action, he was in for a disappointment.

Months went by, and I never heard back from anyone. And it was at that point that I came to the understanding that I was on my own.

He did have Kate on his side, and together they wondered if Allison's own words might get investigators attention. So James developed a plan. Use an app on his cell phone to secretly record his conversations with her.

I have to work in about 30 minutes, so I'll call you in a few.

Once James hit record, it wasn't long before Allison was offering detailed scenarios about how to kill her husband, Patrick.

It's not about the fact that he's alerted to self-ass. But even that's too iffy. Because it takes a while for it to react, so he would have time to get help.

So instead, she suggested luring Patrick to a remote location where a hitman would be waiting.

I have to position him in a place where there's nobody at, but something happens. If there's anything involved, a gunshot, there wouldn't have to be a silences, so there's no sound. The shot would have to be this, right?

Right.

Once again, Allison asked James to find a killer.

I need your help finding someone.

Well, that's not guaranteed. I mean, it's not like I have assassins on speed dial. You know what I mean?

I know that.

She chuckled like this is just such a laughable situation. There was nothing funny about it.

On these recordings, she's very calm and collected and matter of fact. Like she's having a conversation about where you should go eat lunch. Yeah.

It was very callous the way they should discuss these things.

I don't know what it's going to cost. Am I at the social? I don't know. But I'll do what I got to do.

Allison seemed to be thinking of all the angles. She suggested they start to withdraw cash in small increments to pay a hitman, a strategy to avoid suspicion.

First time, you do 60 or 80 or 100 even. Don't kick your mouth the same because then that looks suspicious. And over time, you pulled out $40, $50 here, $100 here. Eventually, you have that $5,000 in cash now.

She talks on these recordings that you have about how important it is that it not trace back, and she gets very detailed.

The first thing she wanted to discuss was how she would alibi out. She always had to have that plausible deniability every time. That was first and foremost on her mind.

Like, whatever is going to happen, it has to happen, number one, when I'm at work or somewhere else where I can verify that I'm there.

A work alibi was familiar to Allison. Her ex, Delbert, used it himself when Patricia Lee died in that fire. Allison also talked about the role she would have to play if and when the plan succeeded.

The thing that's going to suck is I have to go through the whole morning process and the whole client crying and the whole widow process.

You can hear her complaining that she'll have to be the grieving widow? Mm-hmm.

She said that she would have to act like she was upset, and it would all just be an act.

What do you think when you hear all of these things that are being said on these calls?

I knew that she was a terrible person. I didn't know that she was that heartless when she said, I'm going to have to play the grieving widow for a while, and oh, boo-hoo. And it was just so cold. I'm never going to be able to rest and be happy unless he's just somehow gone.

Allison had no idea James had recorded the calls, but she was about to find out, along with thousands of strangers who would hear every word, not to mention a few people back in Texas who knew Allison all too well.

My initial thought, really, was karma.

In the years after his father's conviction for his mother's murder, John Michael struggled to find his way.

There was substance abuse. I mean, that's how I dealt with it. I was trying to run for my problems, and that's the way it happened.

He eventually got clean, got married, and had two daughters.

I'm not the easiest to deal with, but my wife does a very, very good job at it. And I'm pretty sure every step of the way, my mom is there helping her.

John Michael had lost track of Allison. The woman he always suspected had a hand in his mother's murder. He had no idea that two complete strangers had become I'm obsessed with exposing Allison's plot to kill her husband.

It can't go down as a homicide. It can't go down as anything but an accident.

James and Kate's mission had reached a tipping point. They thought they'd recorded enough evidence to put Allison in prison for a long time. But since police hadn't taken an interest in the case, James put together highlights of the calls, and Kate posted them on Facebook.

Something's going to happen now because that's my only way out.

None of you know me.

James also used an AI-generated voiceover on the clip to suggest this might not be the first time Allison was involved in a murder plot.

I can't help but notice some similarities between my situation and the murder of Patricia Mills in Victoria, Texas.

Within a couple of hours, we had 7,000 views, and then it just kept going.

Most importantly, presumably the police are going to see this video. Yes.

And hear about I tagged them in the post.

Oh, that'll do it.

That'll do it.

Thirty-six hours after that video was uploaded, I got a phone call from Detective Palmer with Beacon PD.

There you go.

Hi, This is Detective Palmer with the Peacon Police Department. I have to let you know, just my phone calls are recorded. I'm not sure why. It was never followed up on before, but I am very, very interested in all of what was going on in this situation.

She apologized to me for them not taking it seriously before. She said that she had been assigned to the case and that she was going to investigate.

Now you had their attention. Mm-hmm.

I'm sorry that it took this long for us to jump on the information. It definitely fell through the cracks and shouldn't have, but I am going to do my best to look into all of it.

This time, the police moved at warped speed. In a matter of just days, the detective had done a deep dive into Allison Salinas, listening to the recordings, interviewing James and Kate, and reading up on the murder of Patricia Lee. On July 22nd, 2025, Allison came in for an interview.

I just want to make sure that you understand the severity of how things could have played out. Oh, I do. I'm not oblivious to what could have happened, and I'm really glad it didn't. I don't want harm to come at anybody, and I really don't. Words were coming out of my mouth, and it was just words. When you say it's just words coming out, though, you were thinking through all of the possible is that you could get caught. You were thinking through all of those minute details. That's the part that alarmed me. Well, it never alarmed anybody. But I definitely didn't mean any of it. It looks like you were talking about the possibility of finding somebody to murder your husband. That's what it at least- That's what it looks like in the moment. In that moment. I get that. But understand, I don't want anybody to be hurt, ever. There's still consequences for having those conversations. So the seriousness behind how you were in the context At this point, you're under arrest.

Speaking PD, one female, solicitation of murder.

She's compliant.

How are you feeling because of what you did? She has now been arrested.

I felt a sense of relief. I thought this will finally be over.

I have a side of nerves. Patricia Lee's sister, Sharon, died two years earlier, but others and her family found poetic justice in Allison's arrest?

My initial thought, really, when I saw what the charges were, was karma. It may have not been for her part in my aunt's murder, But at least there was something coming to her, finally.

You had one question after Allison's arrest in 2025. Mm-hmm.

What's the statute of limitations on murder?

You're thinking about your mom.

Always. Always will be.

Incredibly, the one person Allison chose to call after her arrest was her husband, Patrick. Yes, Patrick, the man she was accused of plotting to kill.

I love you. I love you, too. Bye-bye.

Bye.

Patrick has stood by Allison. He agreed to sit down with us to defend his wife.

I don't believe what they say. I don't believe that she is a bad person. She's put me in front of everything, even our kids sometimes. So therefore, I have no reason to believe that this is where her true heart is.

She's your ride or die. Mm-hmm.

We've been through so much, and we're still here.

There are going to be people saying, Come on, Patrick, wake up. How can you defend this woman? How can you defend your wife when it's right there in these calls, these things she's saying? What is your response to that?

You don't know her. They don't know her. Nobody knows her the way that I do.

To him, Allison was a victim of James.

I don't have anything bad to say about Allison, and I haven't listened to none of those tapes. It's not necessary. I already know what's going on here.

You're never going to listen to it.

I'm not going to. It's not... There's There's no reason for it. He was selectively talking to her and trying to manipulate her and get in her head. He got in her head to the point to where she started talking about this stuff.

Patrick says Allison was manipulated. What would she say to us?

There are some people who feel that if you're capable of asking James to kill Patrick, that you were capable of asking Delbert to kill Patricia Lee.

For Allison Salinas, it was a dramatic fall. Once an entrepreneur and Senate candidate, she was now charged with plotting to kill her husband, Patrick. From behind bars, she agreed to talk to us.

I didn't want to I hurt my husband, not truly. I didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

He says that he is with you forever, despite it all, that you are his ride or die.

That's my baby.

You do love your husband?

Very much. He's my soulmate.

Allison says she was going through a rough time with Patrick when she first reached out to her old high school boyfriend, James.

I didn't ask for anything except for him to be nice, for to be loving. That's all I wanted, is I wanted to be loved.

James says that you initiated the possibility of being together, that it was you, that you love bombed him, you sent him nude photographs of yourself, and that he wanted nothing to do with a romantic relationship. That's a lie.

That's a bold-face lie. Wow. Okay.

Allison says she went to Texas where they consummated their romance in a hotel room. James says that never happened.

He was able to manipulate my feelings. He played on my emotions.

You said some pretty bad things in those calls about Patrick. I'm never going to be able to rest and be happy unless he's just somehow gone. You talked about using a silencer, that he's allergic to shellfish. Maybe it could look like he had an allergic reaction and died.

Yeah, those were all things that James brought up, and he made me believe. But in my head, you're going to understand my mental stability at that point, too. That plays a big part. I've been on medication most of my life.

Allison, you do know what was said on those calls looks bad.

Just because it looks bad doesn't mean that that's the whole story. People need to know what really happened. People need to know the manipulation.

In Illinois, the charge against Allison was about a theoretical murder. But as for the actual murder in Texas committed by her ex, Delbert Mills.

That was a horrible, horrible situation. Delbert is probably the worst human being I've ever met.

The family says you started this affair before Patricia Lee died.

See, that's not true. We didn't start seeing each other until shortly after and got married three months after. That ended up being one of my worst mistakes.

Did you have any involvement in the murder of Patricia Lee?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That was horrible what happened there. And that little boy did not deserve to lose his mother.

Can you see, though, the similarities between the two cases? You're the common thread.

See, I don't see it like that, though. I see it like I had problems with my husband, and When some other man stepped in and played Night in Shining armor, but I never really wanted to hurt my husband.

There are some people who feel that if you're capable of asking James to kill Patrick, that you were capable of asking Delbert to kill Patricia Lee?

No. Not at all. To me, that's an insane thought because I don't want my husband dead. I never wanted him hurt. I never wanted anything to happen to Allison claims the charges against her are tainted because of something very ugly she learned about James.

You say that James is not to be trusted.

Well, yeah, I know that now.

You have specific reasons for saying that.

I found out he's a registered sex offender, and I found out he lied to me for two years.

Allison and Patrick brought up something very sensitive that you, claims are a convicted sex offender and that you are not to be trusted.

Okay. So 20 years ago, I was charged with a sexual offense, and when I completed probation, the charge against me was dismissed. I am not a convicted felon.

They claim that you essentially manipulated a young girl to get what you wanted, that you are capable of manipulating anybody, including Allison.

I choose to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. Yes, there is something terrible that I did in my past. I've done right by society since then.

This was a very serious thing that you did?

Yes, it was. I made the decisions that brought me to the situation that I'm in today.

Why should people trust you now, believe you?

Because I believe in atonement. I believe in redemption. I believe it is possible to change.

James says he was never the mastermind trying to convince Allison to kill her husband, and the recordings of their conversations prove it. He says Allison, with her long history of alleged cons, is the real manipulator.

You've been accused of taking money from firefighters, police, veterans, duping the people all around you for money.

What do you want to know other than I didn't do it?

There are many, many, many accusations.

Accusations.

So you've never stolen a dollar from anyone?

No. I don't know.

Then just everyone else is lying but you?

It's not everyone's lying. There's more to the story than that.

How's there more to the story?

It's a lot of allegations, and nobody can seem to prove anything. It's just allegations.

Allison says she is a cancer survivor and denies allegations she faked any illness.

I've had cancer. I beat it. That's how there is to clear it up.

Allison says Kate is an internet troll out to get her, and James joined in her campaign of spreading lies.

They keep replying the same things to try to keep it in people's head to make people hate me. When I opened my bakery, my first customer walked up to me and said, I'm in here because of the hate.

Kate also said that you sold frozen pastries at the bakery that you didn't even make yourself.

First of all, I never once said that I baked everything fresh. 90% of what I did make was homemade. Made killer brownies, made killer cookies, made killer cupcakes.

That's an interesting choice of words. Well- Interesting way to describe it.

Sorry. I don't mean it like that. I mean, they were just very good.

No, it's just given why we're here.

I mean, they were very delicious.

What do you say to anyone who feels like you're blaming everybody but yourself?

I'm not blaming everybody but myself. I'm filling in the holes that nobody cared to listen to. I just want the truth out there. It's all I want.

Hundreds of miles south in a Texas prison, Allison's ex-husband, Delbert, is also claiming his innocence. And after two decades, he's ready to reveal the person he says is responsible for the fire that killed Patricia Lee.

You have to know there are going to be people who find what you're saying right now despicable.

There's always more to the story. To go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, listen to our Talking Dateland series with Lester and Andrea, available Wednesday.

Charged with solicitation of murder, Allison Salinas was facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, if convicted. But the state offered a deal, plea guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. After consulting with her public defender, she took it and is serving a 16-year prison term.

You accepted a plea deal?

Because I was told I had to, yes.

What was said to you?

I was told that if I even thought about having a jury trial, you're going to get 30 years. He scared me into a plea deal. He told me that was my only hope, so I agreed.

I feel like it should have been a lot more. I do feel like had she gone to trial, had there been a jury, she would have had a longer sentence.

John Michael is glad Allison is behind bars.

Karma's a bitch. You get what you deserve.

Is she diabolical? Is that how you would describe her?

No, that's not I'll just use the word evil.

Evil. You think she's evil?

She is evil.

What did you think when you heard that she was indicted in Illinois?

Well, I'd like to tell you I was shocked, but I was not. I thought, Well, that tracks. That tracks.

Delbert Mills, the man DA Sheppard prosecuted for the murder of Patricia Lee, is serving a life sentence in a prison outside of Amarillo.

Why did you decide to sit down and talk with us?

To get the true story out there.

What is the true story?

The true story is I really don't know what happened that day.

Did you kill your wife?

No, ma'am. I did not.

Did Allison have anything to do with the death of your wife?

That I do not know. I was not there.

Despite those claims of ignorance, Delbert says he does know who is responsible for the fire and has kept it a secret for more than two decades.

From what I was told, by a six-year-old boy, and I swore to him in the back of the ambulance that day, I'd never tell another living soul, but I'm going to tell you.

This is your son you're referring to?

Yeah, this is my son. He said, He set the couch on fire, playing with a lighter at the end of it, which probably in turn, set the curtains on fire, set the wall on fire, that burnt the house down, that killed his mother.

So now you're blaming your son?

No, I'm not blaming my son. I'm telling you what my son told me when he was six years old in the back of an ambulance.

Well, it sounds like you're blaming your son. You have to know there are going to be people who find what you're saying right now despicable. Based on all the statements that you made to people about killing Patricia, now you're saying that you think it was your son.

No, I'm telling you what my son told me in the back of an ambulance.

Okay. Why believe you?

Why not believe me.

Why not? Because there's witnesses who have said that you told them terrible things about Patricia Lee and that you confessed to starting the fire.

I can understand that, too. I didn't do it. I could have been bragging about something I didn't do.

Could have been or didn't.

Probably did a couple of times.

Delbert has professed his innocence for years, but he never implicated his son until now.

I swore to him that I'd never tell nobody else, and He's my son, and I'll protect him to my last dying breath.

If you're protecting him, why are you telling me?

So the truth can be known.

You know, your son has been through hell. I know he has. Now you're saying this, and you're acting like you're trying to be this good father, that you're protecting him, and you're not.

Basically, what you're telling me, I should have said this from the start. I should have told somebody.

Well, sure. If it's the truth, this feels so unfair to him to be doing this right now. I have to tell you, as a parent- I know it feels unfair. It feels really awful.

I don't know whether it's true or not or whether he was just scared, but that's what he told me.

That's the only thing I I don't think you're going to win Father of the Year anytime soon.

I know that. I ain't trying to win Father of the Year. If he really wants to know what happened. Son, the only thing I can tell you is you get hypnotized, remember that day, and see whether what you told me is true or not. Other than that, I don't know.

This sounds like a bunch of bull crap, Delbert.

I know what it sounds like.

We showed John Michael what his father said about him.

That he set the couch on a bar, playing with a ladder at the end of I'm going to stop right there.

I feel like I'm done because he's blaming me.

After composing himself, John Michael returned.

If you can blame a six-year-old for killing his mother when you're the one that actually did it, you don't have a heart. That's the most cold-hearted thing you can do. It's so infuriating. It makes the blood boil.

John Michael's anger extends to Allison, too. He'd like to see her prosecuted for his mother's murder. But the current district Attorney in Goliad says that won't happen unless credibly Well, new evidence emerges.

Would you like to see the Goliad district attorney take another look?

I say no, because it's been so long and we've gone all this time.

Yeah.

And my aunt deserves to rest in peace.

It's been a struggle, but John Michael has found a measure of peace for himself.

Your mom would be really proud of you.

Yes.

You turned your life around.

I had to. It was either to turn my life around or end up in the ground.

These days, John Michael dedicates himself to his role as husband and father and holds tight the memory of his best friend, the mother he lost so many years ago.

She was the first person to show me what love was. I mean, how can that not be your best friend? She might not be here physically, but she's here in my mind. She's here in my heart.

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.

Thanks for joining us.