would buy the house and peggy would then have that instant cash? peggy thomas appeared to be the only link between jim huden and russel douglas, and it wasn t just a circumstantial connection, either. on page 14 of the murder weapon s owner s manual, investigators had found a fingerprint belonging to peggy thomas. troubling, but what concerned russel douglas brother and sister most was the fact that brenna didn t appear to be the least bit upset about the prospect of her friend peggy being involved in her husband s murder. he worked with her and you re not saying a peep, you know? if it was your friend, something, either disbelief or i can t believe my friend did this, i want to make sure they get punished. let s go get them. i said, you know, when you were really mad at russ did you ever say to peggy while you guys were working together that russ
decided to split the case and try jim and peggy separately. we needed jean to testify against peggy, but washington has a rule that you can t call a spouse against a defendant. if you try jean and peggy separately jean couldn t testify against peggy. more than a year after his wife had given him up, jim huden went on trial for the murder of russel douglas. the opening statement of the island county prosecutor set the tone. ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this case is about the assassination of russel douglas the day after christmas 2003. banks promised the jury that the evidence would show that jim huden and an accomplice had lured russel douglas to his death with the promise of a christmas gift for his wife
made him sound exactly like the guy jim had grown up with. exactly. what did jim say he was going to do? he said peggy s friend brenna approached him and she would share the insurance money with him. murder for hire. did you try to talk him out of this? i did. i thought he was just talking. i was hoping he d get over it. it had been a tough year for mr. and mrs. huden. the death of a childhood friend had sent jim huden spinning off into a hall of fame-worthy midlife crisis that ran the gamut from alcoholism and adultery to vague notions of murder. i just didn t think he would follow through with it. he didn t even know how to shoot a gun. . by christmas 2003, things seemed to have hit rock bottom. instead of returning with jean after their romantic reunion in las vegas jim had stayed out west.
25-year sentence if found guilty, but just before the jury began deliberations, jim huden s attorney reminded them one more time of those immortal words from the man of la mancha. ladies and gentlemen, when i started this trial i told you facts were the enemy of truth and i hope you wondered what that meant. you heard facts upon facts upon facts. i m telling you there are other conclusions that could be made from that evidence. soon enough, jim huden and his attorney would find out if anyone on that jury had reached one of those alternate conclusions and thus save it from having to spend the rest of his life in prison orange. coming up we, the jury the verdict and then the other moment everyone s been waiting for. peggy was clearly on the fence whether to accept a deal or go to trial.
said, you know, you also need to get an attorney for all your business affairs, so let me see if i can find somebody for you. the financial picture for brenna and the children was murky. russell and brenna had filed for bankruptcy a few years earlier. and though brenna owned her own hair salon in this upscale shopping center, russell had handled the business side of things. if there was a bright spot, it was that russell douglas had life insurance. i think he had about three life insurance policies, each one a couple hundred thousand dollars, i want to say. in fact, the face value of those policies was more than half a million dollars. that money would come in handy, particularly since brenna was under pressure to buy the house she had been renting from the woman who used to work at her hair salon. the landlady s name was peggy, peggy thomas. in those last dying days of