Transcript of Sharon Hurt

In the suburbs of Nashville, a singer's husband is brutally murdered.

He had two gunshot wounds, one through the ear canal and one in the back of his ear.

He had been literally executed and left in the passenger seat of a vehicle.

Police learned this isn't the first attempt to take his life.

He thought he had a blowout, and then he starts seeing his blood everywhere.

There was a small red car that had pulled up beside and shot him with a shot gun.

The investigation uncovers an adulterous affair.

She took a job as a secretary for him.

I think it was pretty obvious to everybody that she was sleeping with him.

But a sting reveals motives more complicated than a love triangle turned deadly.

He I'm listening to every damn thing you and I are saying right now. I just needed to talk to you about that damn gun, and I need you to help me.

The life insurance policies increased to $250,000.

I think she got dollar signs in her eyes, and to hell with everything else.

How can they do this to get away with this? I'm not guilty.

It's a crisp winter morning in the rural town of Goodletsville, located 15 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee.

Goodletsville is a small town that's been there since probably the 1850s. It was a railroad stop. The people were working-class, churchgoing type of folk.

On the morning of December 20th, 1991, a commuter spots a man slumped inside a vehicle by the side of the road and immediately goes home to notify police.

My sergeant and another detective responded to the seat, which is on a rural road north of Gullisville.

Detectives inspectives approach the vehicle with caution and quickly realize they have a crime scene on their hands.

It's fairly easy to see that there's a dead guy in a car.

The body was left in the passenger seat of a vehicle.

He had two gunshot wounds, one through the ear canal and one in the back of his ear on the left side.

If someone has shot twice, obviously, he did not commit suicide. He had not been there very long.

It was very little evidence inside the car or very little evidence on him. There was nothing that would suggest that he had been robbed. The victim had a wallet on him and had driver's license in that wallet, and it gave his address in Goodlesville.

The man's license identifies him as 52-year-old Charles Donald Hurt.

I Obviously, someone had been in the car. There was no indication that his body had moved or been jostled, and that led officers to believe that he was shot in the car at that location. We knew that from the location of the gunshot wounds and the position of the body, that Don Hurt had not had a chance to move, defend himself. Homicides in Goodlasville were quite rare, and particularly one where someone has Apparently been literally executed. So this was from the very start, all hands on dead.

After Nashville police collect what evidence they can, detectives travel to Dawn's home to speak with his wife, Sharon Heardt.

They, of course, had contacted her by phone and let her know that he had been found. When she called me and told me that Dawn had been killed, I immediately went to her house. She was stunned. Accidents happen, car wrecks happen. Murder's intentional. I don't know what would motivate somebody to want to do that to Dawn. Something did not feel right.

Don Hurt, as he was known to friends, was born in Nashville on July 20th, 1939.

My daddy was born here. I think everybody in my family was born right here. He was a mama boy. He always kept everything clean for his mama because his mama had five boys, and he was the one that took care of stuff in the house.

Don's love of family never went away, and in his mid-20s, he got the chance to start one of his own.

My mama was Nancy Kirby. I'm not for sure when they really got married, but I think my mama was young. I had my sister, and then she had me. We had just about anything he wanted. My Daddy always made sure we had something on the table to eat, and most time he was cooking it.

Donald was a happy man. He was jolly.

He was always carrying on and cutting up, and I think he was just happy with life.

Unfortunately, the marriage only lasted little more than a decade, but the ending was amicable. Even though they had divorced, they had remained friends and talked. With a good job and a kind heart, Don didn't stay single for long.

I was, I don't know, 11, 12 when I got a divorce. My Daddy met Sharon and I reckon they went together for about a month or two or three, and then they got married. My dad was, I think he was head over heels for her.

Sharon Wiley was born on March 30th, 1953, in Frankfurt, Kentucky, one of eight children raised on a family farm.

Mom actually grew up out on Georgetown Road, out there at the old family house.

She has half siblings from her mom, and she has half siblings from her father. He had five children besides her and Marcy.

Sharon and Marcy were just a year apart in their age, and they were besties. Marcy was very studious, very intellectual, very driven to succeed.

Sharon was intelligent, but in a whole different way, she was people-oriented.

As Sharon entered into adulthood, her larger-than-life personality made her a natural performer, and she loved to sing, especially gospel music. She loved to put little groups together, little ensembles and do different harmonies.

I remember before she got into church, she would sing in the dance halls, a grand old opry type of feel. Her focus was on gospel music, but she always wanted to make it.

While pursuing music came naturally to Sharon, matters of the heart did not.

My father was between tours in Vietnam when they got together. He went back for his second tour, and then a little later, I was born. My younger brother, my half brother, was from a marriage that she had to a man named Ron Deringer. They got together right after I was born.

Mom and dad met. She was a waitress, and she caught dad's eyes, all I know. And it went from there. I would say in between '72 and '73, somewhere in there, is when they actually got married. Chucky is three years older than me. I was born in '73.

Ron and Sharon set out together to make her dreams come true. Music was her dream, but it was also her comfort.

Late '80s, they decided they were going to buy a bus and hit the road. My mother talked to me into quitting and moving to Tennessee. She's going to be a star.

But the realities of pursuing a music career put a strain on the marriage.

We were living on the bus, and you can't have a kid and a mom and dad living on a bus. It was rough. And then dad, he just come and asked me one night, Do you want to stay or do you want to go with me? I'm going with you. I'm going back to Kentucky. So we left. I was still young. I was only 14, 15 years old. My other brother stayed down with her, Chucky.

The bus and the tension over all the money. That was the beginning of the end. There was a point where it was, Okay, I'm done. I had had enough. And so I went into the army.

Eventually, we heard that her and Roni had split. After recording one gospel album, Sharon's dream began to fade.

She made an album. She worked hard on it, but it never went anywhere.

By her late 30s, Sharon's goals still seemed impossible to grasp, but she would get another chance at love.

She was working as a cashier at a grocery store in Nashville. Don was a truck driver, and he made deliveries to that grocery store, and that's how they met. Dawn was head over heels in love with my mother. Everything I saw out of that man was complete devotion to her.

He seemed like a great guy.

Really nice guy.

He treated her well.

Three years into their marriage in 1991, their happily ever after comes to an abrupt end, as Sharon learns of her husband's violent death.

There was a detective or maybe two that came to her house, and I told them that She was not in any shape to talk to them. And so they were like, Okay, can we come back tomorrow? And I was like, Yeah, let her calm down. Let her absorb this and then come back.

The next day, Sharon agrees to sit down with detectives and tell them what she knows. She says the last time she saw Dawn was around 07: 00 PM on the 19th, the night before his body was found.

Sharon told the police that her husband had met up with someone at a flea market to purchase a handgun.

Sharon says Dawn never came home that evening, prompting her to report him missing the following morning.

When he did not come back at the appointed time, she became worried over his absence.

Police had just started processing the missing person's report when Dawn's body was discovered. Sharon gives detectives one more piece of information that piques their interest.

When the police were interviewing Sharon Hur, one of the key things the police learned is that he had been shot before. And apparently, she had no details whatsoever about the shooting and what might have caused someone to try to kill him.

Sharon says they were just trying to move on from the incident, but detectives plan to dig into these claims further. At the same time, an officer is sent to the flea market to gather intel, but comes up empty.

It was such an unusual situation from the start. From there, the police focused on who had a motive to want Don hurt dead.

Coming up, detectives learn more about the previous attempt on Don's life.

He knew if he didn't make it to the rest area on top of the hill, he'd probably be dead.

And his family suspects someone close to home.

We're just trying to tell him, Daddy, look, wake up, smell the roses. None of this adds up right.

Nearly 48 hours after 52-year-old Don Hertz' body was discovered, Nashville police learn there was a previous attempt on his life. While police dive into their files for more details on the incident, they line up interviews with Don's loved ones, and the autopsy becomes available.

Based upon the autopsy report, the time frame that his time of death would have been fairly narrow.

The medical examiner estimates the time of death to be between 7: 30 and 08: 00 PM on the 19th.

There was still one bullet inside of it, And then one partial bullet found inside the car, both of which proved to be a 38 Special. Probably killed him instantly.

According to Sharon, Don left the house alone, leaving police to speculate how he ended up in the passenger seat.

The shots had come from different angles. It was as if the person had moved and/or possibly could have handed the gun to someone else who fired a second shot. One of the wounds was a contact wound, which means that it was placed literally against the skin. The other was a near contact, which literally means it was very, very close. If a killer gets that close to someone, that indicates that he knew who killed him. So who did Don Hurt know? Did Don Hurt have enemies? Did he have debts? Did he have anything that would have cost him his life?

The medical examiner's autopsy report confirms part of Sharon's story.

She did tell the police that he had been shot previously.

As investigators track down the police records related to the shooting six months earlier, they speak with Don's family for their accounts.

My Daddy was going across Tennessee River. All of a sudden, he thought he had a blowout, and he said he started seeing this blood everywhere. So he pulled over. This is like four o'clock in the morning. He knew if he didn't make it to the rest area up on top of the hill, he'd probably be dead. He even drove with one hand, shifting gears and steering. He lived through that. They finally caught us, said my daddy was at the hospital.

When police spoke to Don at the time, he reported catching a glimpse of a vehicle just before he heard the shot. A red firebird heard.

There was a small red car that had pulled up beside him and shot him with a shotgun. It nipped the top of his shoulder and it went between his jawbone. This certainly gave us rise to try to find that red car and find out who it was.

The police had investigated that matter and had determined that it was a targeted shooting. The blast was from what was determined to be a subo, a projectile fired from a shotgun, as opposed to shotgun pellets. At the time, the police pursued family interviews and an investigation into what was going on in Don Hertz' life. But Don Hertz said that he did not want to carry on with the investigation, and that effectively ended the case. The wounds that Don Hertz suffered, put him in the hospital for several days and caused him to be unable to work for quite a while. So that did place a financial strain on the Hertz family. There was a bank interruption, filing that had occurred shortly before his killing.

From their visit to the Hurt residence, investigators find it hard to believe they had many money problems.

She seemed to really not have been lacking for anything. She had a new car, she had jewelry, she had essentially anything that she would want.

Dawn's family members also shed light on his relationship with Sharon.

The road began with finding out what was her marriage like? What was their life like together.

According to his loved ones, Dawn was completely smitten by Sharon's beauty and talent. But her attraction to him seemed motivated by something else.

This is going to sound as bad as anything I'm going to ever say about my mother, I guess. But I think that when she started the process of leaving Ron Deringer, she was hunting for money, and Dawn made a really good living.

I think that she was using Dawn as a means to an end to support her music career.

Dawn's family tells investigators that their life together hadn't lived up to Sharon's expectations.

I don't think she wanted to come back home a failure. She tried to be a star, and she didn't make it. But she did find a rich man to marry. It's the way I take it.

Dawn's loved ones reveal to investigators that Sharon apparently found a new admirer over a year before Dawn's death.

Sharon worked for Loews, and that's how she met Joe Roe. He came in there to buy a lawnmower, and he had a better job for her being a bookkeeper.

She took a job as a secretary for Joe. He owned an electric company there in Nashville.

The family tells detectives their relationship was not as professional as Sharon led on.

I think it was pretty obvious to everybody that was close to him, even Don's children, that she was sleeping with Joe Roe.

Sometimes she wouldn't even come home for two or three days in real. You don't stay all day long and all night long at work unless you're doing something. It's crazy. Right in front of my father, right in front of everybody, it was like a big bell ringing in my head.

During interviews with the family of shooting victim, Dawn Hurt, detectives learn the relationship between his wife, Sharon, and her employer, Joe Rowe, had crossed a line.

The investigators learned he provided her with funds to buy a pink Cadillac and had really been a part of her financial life in paying her cash under the table.

Though investigators are hesitant to approach Joe until they know more.

We've been getting the information from Don's family, but if you thought somebody was involved in something, you have to be a little careful questioning them because you could step over that boundary. So you really have to have your investigation put together.

When detectives take a closer look at the Hertz finances, they discover Sharon made another questionable decision shortly before Dawn's first shooting.

The life insurance its policies, the amounts, initially began when Dawn and Sharon were married or shortly thereafter. The initial policy was $100,000 for Dawn and $50,000 for Sharon. Before the shooting in West Tennessee, the policy was increased to $250,000 for Don.

Well, after my father got shot, he canceled it. And what I I was told Sharon went back and re-opened his insurance or got it back going. And my father didn't know nothing about that.

Now that Dawn has been shot and killed, the family is convinced Sharon was involved in the first attempt on Dawn's life, confirming their suspicions from six months earlier.

My daddy was at the hospital. It took me about 45 minutes to an hour to get down to where he was at at the hospital. And lo and behold, Sharon's sister Marcy and her husband was there. They was about three hours away from where I lived. They lived in Severeville. And ain't no way in God's green earth that they can get there before we could get there. I think they're the one who pulled the shotgun on them and shot him.

My heart hurts mother had what I would call the mother's instinct that they were not there because they cared about his well-being. She felt there may have been an attempt to kill him at that time to finish the job.

You got this thing for morphine. They kept on pushing the button morphine, morphine, morphine. That's when my grandmother started hollering and sharing Aaron Marci and her husband, who was asked to leave. He said that he's not for sure who shot him. And we was trying to tell him, Daddy, look, wake up, smell the roses. I said, none of this adds up right.

With Don downplaying the incident, the investigation into the first attempt on his life was never solved. And after reviewing the facts, detectives on Dawn's murder case suspect Sharon, Marcy, and James may have returned to finish the job, but have nothing directly connecting them to Dawn's murder. However, a few days into the investigation, they receive a new lead from someone who had driven past the crime scene before it was discovered.

She contacted us through crime stoppers and told us what she had seen.

She recalled that when she had passed by earlier, there were two cars at the scene. It struck her odd, as it was not a usual place where people would pull off and park. But the most striking thing was the car that was in front was, in her recollection, a pink Cadillac.

The witness says that when she passed by the spot again at 08: 45 PM, the scene had changed.

When she came back, she noticed the pink Cadillac was gone, but that the other car was still there.

Investigators ask the woman if she could identify the vehicle.

I put together a photo lineup of Cadillacs, one of which was Sharon Hertz car. I subsequently showed that to a witness, and she did pick out Sharon Hertz car.

Armed with this new information, detectives spend the next two months bolstering their evidence against Sharon and her potential co-conspirators.

This investigation took approximately 18 months because of the thoroughness of the police Department It's a hard man.

It's a circumstantial case. It's like building a brick wall. It's just one small piece of the entire puzzle that you have to look at in totality to end up getting an indictment and hopefully, subsequently, a conviction.

Investigators put a tap on Sharon's phone line, but it only proves Sharon's anger at the situation.

I think either 11 or 12 calls on telephone, which we recorded, It's perfectly legal in Tennessee.

Ed Miland, he listened to every damn thing you and I are saying right now. He ain't got a goddamn thing on me. I didn't kill my husband, and he just came... He's sorry.

Now they're trying to take what insurance we Well, they ain't getting it.

I'll fight them through hell back first.

While investigators keep a close eye and ear on Sharon, Dawn's children take matters into their own hands and file a lawsuit against her.

Me and my sister, we took it on ourselves to get a lawyer and try to prevent her from receiving the insurance money.

Coming up, investigators take a closer look at Sharon and her suspected lover.

He had filed for bankruptcy and wasn't reporting all his income.

And the details of a murder plot begin to unfold.

This is It's ridiculous. I know it is.

How can they do this to get away with this?

After After Don Hertz murder, detectives are heavily investigating his wife, Sharon, for her possible involvement. And Don's children have just filed a civil suit.

The civil suit filed against Sharon Hertz was ongoing at the time and also was consistent with current Tennessee law that provides that a person may not profit from their criminal actions.

Given the circumstances surrounding Sharon's potential involvement, the life insurance payout is put on hold. As investigators take another look at their evidence, among their lingering questions is why Don was in the passenger seat of his own car. A more extensive toxicology report becomes available and provides a possible answer.

Once they did a more detailed examination, they found out that he had Benadryl in his system, a very large amount of Benadryl.

The level was such that he could have and would have been incapacitated as far as being able to essentially defend himself or be able to be in control. He would likely have been able to move with assistance The amount of Benadryl in Don Hertz' system could really have only been placed in a drink by someone close to him. That would have been Sharon Hertz.

As suspicions surrounding Sharon continue to grow, detectives look further into Sharon's lover and employer, Joe Rowe. It seems that in December 1991, he, too, was in financial trouble.

I got a call from the lady who was a bookkeeper over in O'Hickey, Tennessee, and she told me that she was suspicious of Joe laundering money. He had filed for bankruptcy and wasn't reporting his company income. We obtained a search warrant for his business, and FBI agents went out and rated his business and determined he was, in fact, hiding assets from the bankruptcy court. Joe's in bankruptcy, so he's strapped for cash. So money would have helped him.

After concluding Joe Rowe had potential motive, police try to question him but discover he's fled the state and he's taken Sharon with him.

She was running. There's no other way to put it. She was running.

At that point, circumstantially is beyond a reasonable doubt. The DA and myself both thought that these were the only people that had the opportunity and the motive to commit this crime. So therefore, they were He was indicted, basically, on circumstantial evidence. Then we got an arrest warrant.

Fortunately, the civil case against Sharon provides detectives with an opportunity to apprehend the pair.

They had come back to Nashville for a court hearing on the insurance money. One of the other detectives saw their car. They stopped them out there.

Let me have your attention for a minute, okay? All right. I'm Lieutenant Hacket, Homicide Division. We'll place the votes over you under arrest for first-degree murder.

First-degree murder. That's ludicrous.

So this is ridiculous.

I know it How can they do this to get away with this?

I'm not guilty.

I don't think they were surprised. I didn't get any amazement. I think they knew what was coming.

On September 12, 1993, Joe and Sharon are both charged with killing Don Hurt and held on $300,000 bail.

His His attorney, which is a public defender, approached me and district Attorney Thurman about Joe getting out of jail because he had been sick twice in there and he was about to kill him. We said, Well, that's all well and good, but what are we getting out of?

In exchange for a lower bail amount, Joe agrees to come clean. Joe claims he has an airtight alibi for the night of Dawn's murder, but admits he provided the weapon used in the shooting.

Joe Rowe testifies that they, Sharon and her sister, Marcy Murray, and brother-in-law, Jimmy Murray, plotted to kill Don. They get a handgun from him. He knows they gave Don a drink laced with Benadryl, that they took him, they being Sharon, Marcy, and Jimmy, took Don out, walked him out to the car, got him in, drove him out, and came back and that Jimmy Murray at one point told him that he and Marcy had both shot Don with the same gun so that each of them would be equally responsible.

Joe was a willing participant. Of course, the plan was to get that $250,000.

Joe also agrees to record phone calls with the stories that can be used against them in court.

My damn, man. You doing all right? Yeah, I'm free. I just needed to talk to you about that damn gun and that goddamn God damn it. I need you to help me.

Well, just tell me the gun disappeared.

Part of the information Joe was able to get on the phone by talking to Jim was the fact that Marcy had purchased the Benner drill. Of course, being a nurse, she had knowledge that the Benadryl would have incapacitated Dawn, that she had bought it at a Pacific drug store in Hendersonville. Later on, we were able to contact that drug store and establish that she had actually been in there and had purchased Benadryl. It's a big deal.

Joe Rose's cooperation was important. It told the behind-the-scenes view that the jury needed to hear.

But we didn't know what was fixing to happen.

In the months following Joe Rose's confession, prosecutors strengthen their case against his alleged co-conspirators Sharon Hurt, her sister Marcy, and Marcy's husband, James Murray. According to Joe, the Murrays were also involved in the first attempt on Dawn's life.

The first shooting had been from someone firing a shotgun blast from a red firebird.

Sure enough, the couple have a red firebird registered to James, and that's not all that connects them to the first shooting.

With the assistance of the Severe County law enforcement officials, they assisted in serving search warrants on the Murray property, obtaining the car, and the shotgun. It was able to be matched as the gun used in the West Tennessee shooting.

On August 28, 1994, Marcy and James Murray are arrested in Franklin, Kentucky, and charged with murder. The following year, in July 1995, they stand trial alongside Sharon Hurt.

They did not have any physical evidence at all linking my mom to the crime. What they had was circumstantial and Jorel. That was it.

I thought the trial was a lot of him telling what he thought. A lot of what went on down through there, it just didn't seem like mom. And I really don't believe she was there for most of it.

The prosecution argues Sharon had every reason to want Dawn out of the picture for good.

Sharon's motive was to use the proceeds from this insurance to help with her singing music career in gospel music. Marcy and Jim, I think they were broke most of the time, didn't have any money. Anything that they could have got would have been beneficial to them, of course.

Marcy Murray, I really believe her motivation was that she loved her sister. And if Sharon Heard asked her to do something, she would do it. I believe Sharon Heard told the police that Don met some stranger at a flea market to buy a gun because she would have known they were going to find out that he had been shot several months before. And my speculation is that she was setting up essentially an alibi that he was trying to get a weapon for protection against this unknown person who was trying to kill him. The fact that Sharon Herd had called to say that her husband was missing was one of those interesting things that the police weighed in on. Her appearing to be at times a grieving widow, but at the same time, making sure that her insurance agent knew that she wanted to collect on the life insurance policy.

The defense, however, maintains all three of the accused are innocent and believe Joe Rowe made up his story.

They tried to point the fingers at other people, anybody but them, of course. They weren't admitting anything. So basically, their defense was, We didn't do it. Somebody else did.

After just two hours of deliberation, the jury returns with a verdict.

The trial resulted in all three defendants being convicted of first-degree murder. And all three defendants being convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for their actions that included the Benton County shooting.

Sharon received a sentence of life plus 24. Jim received a sentence of life plus 22. And Marcy received a sentence of life plus 20. And all three are still incarcerated.

I think justice was served in this case, absolutely. Don Hurt was, by all accounts, a decent, hardworking family man who had done nothing to deserve being killed.

The whole bunch were a tainted, to some degree and greedy.

The most guilty person be Sharon because she could always say, No, I'll just divorce her.

I think she got dollar signs in her eyes and to hell with everything else.

It's amazing how all that turned around over money, but it did. And she's paying for it. She's sitting down there paying for it right now.

After his co-conspirator's trial, Joe Rowe pleads guilty to conspiracy and is sentenced to 18 years in prison. But for Don Hertz' loved ones, it's a hollow victory.

I think he'd be very proud of his grandkids.

It's very unfortunate that he missed out on those things.

He was a good man and a bright, happy person and something we could use a lot more of in the world. Nobody deserves what he got. Nobody. All for just a love of money. All I got to say is the world is one less of a good man.