Sons a monster. How could a son do that . But why, bart . This is the question everybody wants to know. Why . How could a father do the nearly impossible, forgive him . I dont understand it. I look it at it as a miracl the desire for revenge had gone. He wants to save his son no matter what. He had to go to that length to feel alive. We can all live twice. Im david muir. And im elizabeth var fwgas this is 20 20. Death row. It is ominous. It is cold. It is a place you look at it from the outside and you know what happens inside. Reporter in a race against time, 38yearold thomas Bart Whitakers final days are ticking down on death row. Now, he awaits a destiny that seems all but assured. Execution, by lethal injection. His father, kent, spends these final days in a desperate hunt for mercy. On this savoring what may be his last visit with his son in prison. As we were leaving, we put our hands up to the glass and he puts his hand up on the other side and we smile and say we love you. And then we left. Reporter in texas, a state that executes more prisoners than any other in america, kents is a fierce battle against the odds. His love, tested by a terrible twist of fate. The son he is defending plotted the murders of his wife, and his other son. Police say a masked gunman shot the whitaker family as they returned home from dinner. Mother, patricia and son, kevin, were killed. Father kent and son bart were shot, but survived. I am the single greatest victim in this crime and nobody has to convince me of how awful the crime was. Death penalty was the right choice in this case. Reporter the whitaker story began here, in sugarland, texas. Where the sweet smell of success brought them everything they desired. It was the sugar industry that transformed this suburban backwater into one of the wealthiest towns in texas. Sugar land is affluent suburb of houston an allamerican town, a small town. This is a city in which kids play in the street in their front yards, its a place where you want to raise your children. Get back in line you little nerd reporter the whitaker family videos paint a warm picture of a loving, prosperous home. Wave to daddy. Reporter tricia is a former teacher turned fulltime mom. Whos ready for christmas . Reporter every moment seems picture perfect. Brothers inseparable since birth. He looked up to me and wanted to be me. And, i thought that was so ironic because i wanted to be him. They played with each other from the time kevin was old enough to do it, up until the end. They still did stuff together. Look what you got. Reporter but who could imagine that inside that adorable little boy, was a ticking time bomb of rage. What was your relationship like with your parents . It was a good relationship. Reporter we first met Bart Whitaker in 2009, when bart spoke to former abc correspondent, Mary Fulginiti about his strange and violent journey. Your family tried to love you. It was idyllic, yeah. Hey bart, drive down to the stop sign for me. Reporter barts bond with his father, kent, was especially close. From the moment bart learned to ride a twowheeler, he and his father shared a passion for biking. We tried to figure it out one time and ended up with about 15,000 miles that we have ridden together. Reporter so how did the son of this loving family end up here on death row . I was always an independent child, and i think somewhere along in there can we stop for a second . Whats bothering you right now . Im just its all a lot, thinking back on those days. We had a pretty close family. In terms of what was going on inside of me, that was a little different. Never really fit ivery well with anybody, to be honest with you. I think Everybody Knows horrible things can happen, but you just dont expect it. Reporter december 10, 2003, a time for celebration at the whitaker residence where bart receives a extravagant College Graduation gift, a rolex watch. We thought we were celebrating the upcoming graduation of our son. He was supposed to be going to graduate school, going into law enforcement. We got ready for dinner, you know, and went to dinner. Lots of laughter, yeah we were happy and we were teasing each other and but then we did that whenever we were together. Reporter as they celebrate his graduation, only bart knows that an intruder has quietly entered their home. His deadly plot is about to begin. Entered the house with the key, and the alarm code. Reporter as kent snaps photos of his happy family, bart poses with his favorite dessert, bread pudding, decorated to mark the occasion. Tricia smiling with her sons. Yeah. I took that after we finished eating. I betcha no more than five or ten minutes before we left the restaurant, which is five minutes from our house. Reporter bart smiles. And yet, he knows that if everything goes as planned, in less than 30 minutes his brother, his mother and father will all be dead. I dont really know a better term for how i was feeling, other than i was on autopilot. I wasnt even aware of myself. We left the restaurant and drove back to the house. And when we came back, kevin led the way to the front door and trish was behind him. And when he stepped in, thats when the shootings happened. I went out to my car to get my cell phone. And i was walking back from the car when the first shots happened. I had been at church with my family eating dinner and had just gotten home and my pager went off, telling me to call the police department. Reporter Sergeant Marshall slot is a homicide detective. On any ordinary day, not much business for him in this town. Sugar land for years has been known as one of the safest cities in america. For the police, this is not something the likes of which theyve ever seen before. The dispatcher told me that four people had been shot, i initially thought she was joking with me. And i said, youre kidding, right . And she said, no. I need you to respond to sugar lakes. A family of four has been shot reporter but why would a kid who had it all try to kill both of his parents . Someones just shot my neighbor. Get over here. Reporter stay with us. Tay with us. And a gentle wavelike motion. Liberate your spine. Aflac and reach, toes blossoming. Not that great at yoga ya but when i slipped a disc, he paid my claim in just one day. So he had your back . Yup in just one day, we process, approve and pay. One day pay. Only from aflac im losing myust memind just a little so, why dont you just meet me in the middle in the middle about type 2 diabetes. With some surprising facts so you have type 2 diabetes, right . Yeah. Yes i do. Okay so you diet, you exercise, you manage your a1c . Thats the plan. What about your heart . What do you mean my heart . 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Your brother loved you, yes . Yes, maam. But you still decided to kill them. I did. Reporter a heinous crime committed on a whim says prosecutor fred felcman. With Bart Whitaker, theres no reason why. He just wanted to, and thats whats scary about it. He didnt need their money. He didnt need their love. They had never done anything to him. He just wanted to do it. Reporter on the night of his graduation dinner, bart charmed his family, playing the role of the gracious man of the hour, or was he . Youre smiling in this photo. This is like a halfhour before your family is going to get gunned down. What were you feeling in that photo . I was about as close to numb as a human being can get, i think. Reporter it was just after 8 00 when the whitaker family leaves the restaurant, and barts secret murder plot is unfolding as he expects, just as he and his unwitting family arrive home. The whitaker family suspects nothing, but as they enter the house, bart hangs back. Im on the front porch and, uh, i hear a shot, and then trish is saying, oh no, and then another loud noise, but i know you dont cant quite imagine this, but i didnt recognize them as gunshots. I didnt really understand what was happening. At the time, what were you feeling . Nothing. Nothing at first, and then the gunshots went off and shock. I walked up to the door. All the lights in the house were out, but the street light showed a single figure in a ski mask maybe six, eight feet away. My reaction was i wondered which one of kevins goofball friends is playing a trick on us with a paintball gun, and i just stood there, but a moment later, i was shot too. And before i could call out to see how if bart was safe, there was a fourth shot from inside the house, and my reaction was, my god, he shot all of us. Why . Reporter as shots ring out a Neighbor Calls 911. Someones just shot my neighbors get over here i know i ran into the house. They say i ran past my dad, but i dont even remember seeing him. Do you remember getting shot . I do vaguely remember making the 911 call. Ive been shot. Where have you been shot at sir . In my arm. Okay bart, who shot you . I dont know. That he went out the back door. I think i said that. I pulled up about three houses down, and i pull my weapon, and i start running through the yards to get to the whitaker house. Reporter first on the scene, Sugar Land Police officer phil prevost finds 19year old Kevin Whitaker dead where he fell, a single bullet in his chest. Tricia whitaker also dies of a single gunshot wound soon after shes airlifted to the hospital. Incredibly, Kent Whitaker survives the attack shot in the dhes chest. Also wounded, bart makes for a convincing fourth victim. Where are you in the house right now . In the living room. Okay. Do you see the officers, bart . Yeah. I asked him. I said, who are you . Who are you . And he said, im bart. He said, i live here. This is my house. So i figured he belonged there and said, wheres the bad guy . Can you tell me anything about him at all, bart . Did he sound black, white, hispanic . Maybe black. You had yourself shot as part of this plan. Was that your idea . Yeah. It was to distance me from the guilt. So you were trying to throw the cops off, in your mind. Yeah. Reporter and it works like a charm. The crime scene that i was investigating was a burglary gone bad where the victims were shot by the suspect, and the suspect fled the scene. Reporter homicide Sergeant Marshall slot thinks hes looking for a burglar with bad timing. We called out tracking dogs that night to in an attempt to track the shooter. Reporter the dogs pick up a scent in the house and follow it outside to a dead end. Sergeant slot scans the crime scene for anything that might lead him to the killer. He finds drawers pulled open as if by a burglar. A gun safe, pried open. Four spent shell casings, and on the kitchen floor, a 9mm handgun with four bullets missing from its clip. Investigators find no suspect fingerprints at the scene. They take the gun back to the crime lab for a closer look. Initially it was processed for latent fingerprints. Reporter investigator max hunter carefully tests the weapon and makes a hopeful discovery. A partial latent fingerprint was developed on the left side of the slide. It was a partial palm print, but, that palm print did not have enough information in it. We couldnt identify it to any one particular person. Reporter tracking dogs identify the shooters scent on the gun, but dna analysis comes back negative. It seems the killer made a clean getaway. It seemed like every piece of evidence that we collected, we ran into dead ends left and right. Reporter back to square one. Sergeant slot and his partner detective, billy baugh go to the hospital to interview the survivors, kent and Bart Whitaker. They were in separate rooms. So we first went to Kent Whitaker. Kent seemed somewhat at peace. He was obviously upset, but not crying, but he very much demanded that we catch who was responsible for committing this crime. Reporter lying in his hospital bed, Kent Whitaker is torn between emotional extremes. He wants revenge, but he also prays, asking god to give him the strength to do the impossible, and forgive whoever was responsible. And the moment that i did ask him to help me forgive, the strangest thing happened. This warm glow flowed over me just instantly, and i looked at my heart, and i realized that that desire for revenge had gone. Reporter the thought that it might be his own son he would need to forgive was the furthest thing from Kent Whitakers mind. When he told me that he had forgiven the shooter i was shouting inside, well, what if thats my fault, and i of course i didnt have the courage to say anything at the time. How do you face that . I dont know how to face that. Hiding it all from everybody else was sort of like hiding it from myself also. Theres also the fear of this place, you know. Reporter all of sugar land seems stricken with grief and outrage. More than a thousand mourners, including kent and bart, attend the funeral for tricia and kevin. At the whitaker family home, its a media circus. Get away from me reporter with the investigation hitting dead ends bart has good reason to believe hed gotten away with murder, but when we come back, the huge secret he couldnt allow his family to discover . How could he be so stupid . I just read him the riot act about how if he had been telling the truth he would not be a suspect. Applause] muhammad im going to become champion of the universe muhammad me with my beautiful, colorful personality. Muhammad im good looking, clean living, cultured, muhammad and i am modest. [laughter] muhammad i am so modest, i can admit my own fault. 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The drawers being pulled out like they were and not rifled through was not typical of a burglary scene. Reporter nor was the fact that the only thing missing from the house was barts cell phone. And the burglar leaves the gun, leaves all the electronics, but takes a cell phone that we couldnt find in the scene. That was a real oddity that stuck out in everybodys mind. Reporter its the Little Details that can be the undoing of one who would devise the perfect crime. The first clues for police arise out of the whitakers last supper. It was a celebration of barts announcement that he had just graduated from sam houston state university, but Bart Whitaker had not graduated from sam houston state. Reporter a tiny imperfection in barts plot that became a big crack. He had not even been attending the university. He was listed in their records as a freshman on academic probation. Reporter in sergeant slots mind, now bart is a person of interest. At the time you were celebrating this are you enrolled in college . I dont even remember. I dont think so. You werent graduating from college . Certainly not. No. Reporter bart lying to his parents about attending school when in fact he was hanging out in a townhouse they had given him as a present. We took that information immediately and went to Kent Whitaker first with it. Reporter kent is blindsided by his sons lie. I realized how could he be so stupid . I was so mad at him. I got in a wheelchair and wheeled down to his room and i just read him the riot act about how if he had been telling the truth he would not be a suspect. Reporter he may be a proven liar, but theres still no proof that bart is a scheming killer. But then a Police Officer raises a big red flag when he remembers a call to this house two years earlier. Trish and i were awakened by a phone call from the Sugar Land Police department telling us that waco police had contacted them that bart was on his way down here to kill us. It was something that a friend overheard bart talking to his roommate about and they concluded that it was a misunderstanding. Reporter misunderstanding or not in light of the murders it is significant to sergeant slot. Weve got the burglary scene that just doesnt look right. We now know that the son is not graduating from sam houston. Reporter and now a prior instance of an alleged plot by Bart Whitaker to kill his family. All those little pieces set off bells and whistles in our heads just thinking, we need to start looking at the son. Reporter they warn barts father who refuses to believe that his son might be involved. I didnt believe it for a minute. No. 57 00 7 54 p. M. Reporter indeed, sergeant slot was has a little more than a hunch about bart and a lot of questions. How might he have orchestrated this . Who might he have talked to to get this done . Was this something where he was planning for a big jackpot, a payout, somehow . Officer dubose is going to be playing the part of the suspect. Reporter so sergeant slot returns to the whitakers home for a vote reenactment of the murders with the two survivors, in identical arm slings. I hear bang and the next thing i realize is that im lying down like this. Reporter first with kent and then bart. I got shot and i fell back into the couch and onto the floor. There were no other witnesses. So my only two sources of information, one of them is the father of the primary suspect. One of them is the primary suspect. So that was a juggling act. Reporter then a huge break from an mystery man who walks into the Police Station one night. Adam hipp, a bank teller who went to high school with bart. And then he dropped some bombs on me as far as, hey, bart has contacted me before and asked me about making plans to kill his family. His father, his mother and his brother. Reporter adam hipp claims bart tried to recruit him as a shooter in an earlier murder plot. One of the plans that he laid out to me that he and bart had discussed was the exact mirror image of the actual crime scene. Reporter sergeant slot decides to hatch a plot of his own. He enlists adam hipp to trick his friend, bart, on a trapped phone line. He told me how your mom and brother were killed and how your dad and you were shot. All that was very similar to what one of our plans was. Adam, stop saying our plan. Okay. Stop saying that. All right. I was very, very, very afraid of what he had to say. Reporter on the phone tap bart agrees to pay adam 20,000 in hush money. Youll pay at least 20,000 . Yeah. All right, well work out the details. Reporter using a Courier Service he sends hipp a 250 down payment, but then he does something brazen, signing the waybill with the name of a murderer borrowed from a hollywood movie. Anyone could have worked for soze that was his power. Reporter kaiser soze, played by kevin spacey, is the criminal mastermind in the hit film the usual suspects. Latent fingerprints, thats what all those markers are. Every one of them on the package that was identified came back to Bart Whitaker. Reporter now, the police know they must warn Kent Whitaker about his son. We feel wholeheartedly that he is responsible for this and that you are living with a murderer. Reporter but, to protect the investigation sergeant slot gives no details to Kent Whitaker. I knew they couldnt show their whole deck of cards, but they could at least tell me something if they wanted me to believe them. Kents response to me was, you guys are either way wrong, or my sons a monster. Reporter despite the warning, kent lets bart move back home and for the next several months bart spends every free moment with his father, playing the perfect son, studying the bible. He appeared as if he was really listening. And i told him, bart, i cant read your heart. Youre either zero percent responsible or a hundred percent responsible. The point is that i love you. God has allowed me to forgive everyone involved. He truly forgave the person that did this. I mean, he was the first real christian that id ever met that really did what jesus christ told him to do. Reporter he asked you point blank, did you do it, bart . Yeah. Reporter and you said, no, dad. Yeah, i did. Reporter even though he was going to forgive you. Yeah, but its not that simple. I didnt want to cause that pain on me primarily and on anyone else, secondarily. So, i just was weak. I was a coward. He was lying to everybody, he was fooling everybody. He did not move out of the home. And, it was very soon after that bart went missing. Reporter seven months after the murders, barts abandoned suv is found Engine Running outside a houston apartment complex. And it was crushing because up until then, there was at least one member of my family that was still here. And now hes gone. Reporter but then a mystery man appears with evidence that would crack the case. Stay with us. And you look amazingly comfortable. When your vneck looks more like a uneck. , thats when you know, its halfwashed, add downy to keep your collars from stretching, unlike detergent alone, downy conditions to smooth and strengthen fibers. So next time dont halfwash it. Downy and its done. Proud partner of the olympic winter games. Discover card. I justis this for real . Match, yep. We match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. Whoo i got my money hard to contain yourself, isnt it . Uh huh let it go whoo get a dollarfordollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. Our Technology Helps block damage. Introducing new clairol nice n easy. Now with a new allergy gentle molecule and conditioners at every step. Natural looking color and 100 gray coverage. New clairol nice n easy. And with ancestrydna liveson sale for just 69, now is the time to discover yours. You can find out where you get. Your precision. Your grace. Your drive. And now, with more than 150 ethnic regions to connect to, only ancestrydna can put your greatness on full display. Save 30 now at ancestrydna. Com. Reporter cerralvo, mexico. A tough little town about 50 miles south of the border. Legend has it, mobster al capone once hid out here, and if it was good enough for scarface, it was good enough for another american stranger who suddenly showed up here looking for work and a new identity. Translator he caught my attention because he was different. He was a white guy. It was a very unusual thing because you dont see workers American Workers right here in a little town in mexico. Reporter Osvaldo Benavides and his close friend Ubaldo Salinas quickly accept the likeable man who says his name is rudy rios. He tell me the name was rudy. He was a nice person. So this guy, rudy, of course, is made up. He was a person, an identity concocted by Bart Whitaker. He didnt tetold us that he soldier. That was my legend down there. I was a soldier that was awol because i had been shot up and didnt want to go back. That was told from the very first minute i was down there in order to cover me. Reporter posing as rudy rios, bart begins turning up at church, and turning on the charm for a guitarist he meets there sindy lu salinas. Translator he would bring me flowers. Look i brought you flowers i thought he was so handsome and i dont know mysterious. Reporter she brings her new o meet her parents. Hes an immediate hit. Her father, homero, even hires him to work at the familys furniture store. Translator i ended up loving him like a son. Very, very much. Reporter sindy lu knows nothing of her boyfriends true identity. But one night she gets a terrifying glimpse. Its what he says while consoling her after she smashes her guitar during an argument with her mother. Translator he said, no, relax. Lets fix things. He said, dont be angry at your parents. If you want we can kill them. So i told him no, but its not a big deal. And thats the only time i felt a bit of fear, but i know maybe he said that so i would calm down, or to get me to laugh. Reporter but no one was laughing. Certainly not back in texas, where even Kent Whitaker was now beginning to believe the worst. When he ran away it kinda kicked the third leg out of the stool, that he must actually have been involved. By that point in time im thinking its pretty hard for me to extend any potential arguments against it. Reporter but investigators still had no physical evidence, no clue who fired the murder weapon, and no idea what happened to Bart Whitaker. I had nowhere to look for him and no leads to follow up on to try and find him. So that was disappointing at times. Reporter the investigation is cold, until a big break from two men who knew bart while he was pretending to be a college student. Almost two years after the crime occurred, steven champagne called me. Steven champagne was a marine in 2005, but back in 2003 when the murders occurred, he was a bartender. He worked with Bart Whitaker at the country club up near lake conroe. Reporter now champagne was pouring out secrets about himself, and barts roommate back then named Chris Brashear, two aimless guys at the time who were ripe for a payday. Bart promised them if theyd help him pull off an outrageous scheme. And when they came in the house chris was to shoot em all. That was absolutely the break we needed. Reporter champagne gives up the entire story of what happened on the night of december 10, 2003. What was barts part in the plan . He pretty much set it all up. How did you know which restaurant . Bart had told me before they left. Reporter as the whitakers unknowingly celebrate barts bogus College Graduation at a popular cajun restaurant, steve champagne watches from the parking lot. Meanwhile, barts roommate Chris Brashear hides in barts suv outside the whitaker home. At that point chris got out of the vehicle and entered the house with the key and the alarm code. Did you see them leave pappadeaux . Well, yeah. So then i pretty much followed them home. They pulled in the driveway and i just kept going just around the block, you know, one block over. And then in a minute, chris came walking, like, out to the car, got in the backseat. He said barts brother had walked in first. And, when chris shot him he said before he shot him he thought he smiled. And then chris shot his mom and then shot barts dad in the shoulder. And then, he acted like he wrestled around with bart and shot bart in the shoulder. You could characterize that interview as chilling. I dont think theres anyone who could watch that and not wonder how a person could be so cold. Reporter unaware of champagnes confession, Chris Brashear agrees to an interview but quickly becomes very uncomfortable. Im just gonna go. Is that all right . Yeah. Theres the door. Reporter so Sergeant Steven champagnes confession yields the one thing that links this trio to the crime. He mentions a key piece of evidence that only the police knew about a single glove dropped by the shooter, found beside barts suv. He knew about the missing glove. And, obviously, we had this glove in evidence already. So everything fit together just based on one small piece of evidence. Reporter but sergeant slot still has no physical evidence to link bart to the murders until now. Steven champagne explained to me that he and Chris Brashear had thrown items from the crime scene into a bag and thrown that off of a bridge that runs over lake conroe, near barts town home in willis. Reporter down below, a dive team discovers a duffel bag. In the soggy bag, a treasure trove of decomposing evidence. Its a windfall for crime lab investigator max hunter, beginning with an innocuouslooking plastic water bottle. You just go around the rim of the bottle. Reporter and even after two years in the bottom of a lake they were able to obtain a dna profile. From that swab, and that dna profile matched the dna profile for Chris Brashear. Reporter among the other items in the bag a rare brand of ammunition identical to the fatal bullets. A glove that matches the one found at the crime scene. A pry tool that matches the marks on the whitakers safe. And a badly damaged cell phone. A lab in england identifies Bart Whitaker as the owner. Finally, sergeant slot has the physical evidence he needs to link bart to the murders. This is definitely when we said, weve got it. Reporter but where is Bart Whitaker . Sergeant slot obtains an arrest warrant, but he does not know that bart now known as rudy rios is hiding in mexico. And then, the biggest break of all a phone call from the real rudy rios when we come back. In your noise cancelling trheadphones . Ry maybe not. Maybe you could trust you wont be next to a loud eater. eating potato chips loudly or you could just trust duracell. silence hows he getting the client loves him. But anyone can say, get 4 lines of unlimited data for 100 mo, plus up to 4 free lg fortunes when you switch. But hes got that hair. I am hair come here, little buddy. Smile. Youre on cricket. The unique formula with nourishing almond oil leaves skin smoother moisturized for 24 hours. Enjoy smoother skin and now try new Oil Infused Lotions moisturize with indulging scents oh theres one. A the sea cow manatees in novelty ts . Surprising. Whats come at me bro . Its something you say to a friend. Whats not surprising . How much money matt saved by switching to geico. 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I wasnt feeling much of anything but yeah, it was there. It was just on a level that i wasnt paying any attention to. He seems singularly without remorse and without even the beginnings of remorse. Reporter a classic sociopath says psychiatrist dr. Edward hallowell, of the Hallowell Centers in new york and boston. I was struck in the interview that he showed almost no emotion. Heres this young man whos done about the worst thing a person could do and its as if hes talking about the weather. Reporter that observation is confirmed in the confession of getaway driver, steve champagne. Did you ever see any signs of remorse in bart . No. Reporter and it gets worse. Champagne says bart also talked about wanting to finish the job and kill his father. Id love to have an outside perspective about why i think certain things. What if the diagnosis is that you are a sociopath . Well, then i am what i am. Reporter dr. Hallowell has never examined Bart Whitaker, but also sees a narcissistic personality. Its an extremely dangerous combination. Extremely dangerous, because you have no guide. You have no internal brakes. And you have this tremendous feeling of emptiness, so you want stimulation. I hate myself. I cant imagine im a narcissist. You want to somehow feel alive. And the normal things that make people feel alive, love, attachment, bonding thats all gone. I mean having these fantasies about murdering your family. He had to go to that length to feel alive. Reporter finally in september, 2005, the climax of unsolicited witnesses and police work, there is good luck that comes in the form of a phone call. The real rudy rios comes forward. This is the guy that Bart Whitaker has been impersonating. I know where he is at because its my family thats taking care of him. Reporter a busboy at the country club where bart worked, rudy rios tells police he sold his identity to bart and helped him escape to mexico for a couple of thousand dollars. Now hes prepared to sellout his friend for a 10,000 reward from police. But, if theres a reward, you know, i dont care. Ill turn his ass in. Im thinking, this is the break we need. When rudy rios gave me this information and it seemed to check out, i was ecstatic. Reporter Bart Whitaker is arrested in mexico. And, on the road back to sugar land, sgt. Slot has only one unanswered question for his prisoner. How did you get all of these people to do such horrible things for you . And bart responded to me that it was easy. All he had to do was give them what they wanted. What was yalls benefit for doing this . Bart said his family was worth a lot of money. He said he would give us millions of dollars. That was motivation for them. It was never about that for me. I didnt care about money. I had plenty of it. He had this amazing ability to inspire, persuade, cajole. To do something absolutely not in their selfinterest. I mean, to do something crazy you planned to have your family killed not once, right . I believe there were three separate occasions. But, why bart . This is the question Everyone Wants to know. Why . I wanted revenge for being alive, and i blamed them for that. I blamed them for who i was instead of blaming me. You blamed them even though the evidence points out that they really loved you and nurtured you and tried to give you everything that they could possibly give you. Yeah, but we really didnt connect on that level. I think he really believed that who we were loving was someone that didnt exist and that he was hiding behind a mask so that we would never find that out. Reporter next, as the last 40 minutes of barts life tick down yet another twist of fate. Most people come to la we came with big appetites. 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Baby, im losing myust memind just a little so, why dont you just meet me in the middle what can i do for you . Nothing. Reporter with father and son both back in texas, jailhouse phone calls confirm kents unwavering support of bart as he awaits trial. Well, just hang in there. Keep calling. I love you. I love you too. I walk in this room with the bullet proof glass between us and theres bart. And he said, dad, im so sorry. This is all my fault. And it was at that point i realized he was saying, i did it, im sorry, i want to confess. Reporter he believes his son has truly changed and repented and now feels genuine remorse. Hes an amazing man. And, whether or not im a person incapable of love, i am a person capable of feeling a very deep respect for that man. I love him to death. Forgiveness is absolutely critical if you want to heal from your loss. If you dont forgive, youre basically shackling yourself to the event you want to grow past. Reporter bart, how do you feel about your mother . I wish i could talk to her now. Id tell her im sorry. Id like to redo that whole relationship from start to finish and be able to really appreciate what she was sending me. If we could all live twice. Reporter two years after his arrest. A jury convicts Bart Whitaker of the murders of his mother tricia and his younger brother kevin, and sentences him to death. If victims rights means anything at all it should mean something even when the victim is requesting mercy and not just when the victim is requesting vengeance. Reporter earlier this week, kent took his fight to its final round, the texas board of pardons and paroles. The prosecutor unmoved. The father didnt want us to seek the death penalty. And hes the victim. However, i dont represent the victims per se. I represent the state of texas. Reporter kent, who has now spent more than a decade making the weekly drive to death row, asked his son be given a life sentence with no chance of parole. The odds were stacked against him. Since 1982, there have only been three commutations so close to an execution. But then now to our top story tonight, a death row fight for life. Reporter a phone call to kents lawyer with news beyond his best hopes. A unanimous vote to recommend clemency. A recommendation for clemency. Oh, my god. Its bizarre. Its surreal. And were just so encouraged that the system worked here. Reporter but that controversial decision isnt the final word. Would Governor Greg Abbott accept the boards recommendation . Kent goes to the governors office, but isnt able to meet anyone in person. He is a very law and order kind of guy and believes in the death penalty. Theres a lot of speculation here and i dont think anybody knows what the governors going to do. Reporter for the longest time, Governor Abbott did nothing. Bart is a dead man walking. He is taken to the death house. Prepped for the execution. Bart speaks to a chaplain. A last meal is served, chicken enchiladas. And then this just coming into our ears. We understand Governor Abbott has commuted the sentence of bart. Reporter and then, with barely 40 minutes to spare, for the first time in more than a decade, a condemned man gets clemency. It was overwhelming. Im so grateful, so grateful. Thank you all so much. He will spend the rest of his life in prison with no possibility of parole. Reporter for this father whos endured so much, the long bittersweet journey has come to a close. I may have actually have the opportunity to be in the same room with him touch him, shake his hand, hug him. Reporter the smallest gesture, promising to turn their past into a future together. Down the street. Look at mom. So if you had been the governor, what would you do . Carry out the original death sentence or commute it to life behind bars . Let us know on facebook and twitter. In the meantime, that is 2010 twn for tonight. Im david muir. Im elizabeth vargas. For everybody at abc news and 20 20, have a good weekend. Good night. Good night. Its time for the ultimate sleep number event on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. And snoring . Does your bed do that . Dont miss the final days of the ultimate sleep number event save 50 on the ultimate limited edition bed with adjustable comfort on both sides. Ends sunday. Visit sleepnumber. Com for a store near you