her that he had shot halee and had done it accidentally. and with those words donna hagan turned the trial upside down. instead of defending her son, she pointed the finger right at him. i mean, does that that that almost doesn t even really happen in tv dramas, because it s too hard to believe. right. nobody would do that. truth is stranger than fiction. isaiah s attorney mark phillips could not believe what he was hearing. i started sweating. i felt like i had been sucker punched. had she just torpedoed your defense? yes, she she said something that we couldn t expect, we didn t expect. and
heather collins became less hopeful. there was no direct evidence tying isaiah hagan to her daughter s murder. no gun. no dna. no eyewitnesses. nothing to prove isaiah was a killer. i was at the point where i was prepared for him to be walking the streets. prosecutor michael perry urged patience. we knew that we did not have enough evidence to convict at that point. but that s why you go to the end. there was one person in particular he wanted the jury to hear from donna hagan, isaiah s mom. the prosecutor had no idea what she d say on the stand. but he had reason to believe isaiah had confided in her that day at the police station about the night halee died. so the mom takes the stand, in your words, as a reluctant witness. yes. would a mother actually reveal something in that he told her if confidence? tell us what happened. i don t specifically remember what question was asked. but the answer that she gave was that isaiah had told
jury. we wanted to to show them that isaiah was the last person to see her alive, that he lied about her cell phone, that he had money problems, that he did a lot of things to cover his tracks. and the prosecution presented perhaps the most explosive piece of evidence they had, what investigators found when they searched the home of wandel and donna hagan. we were able to locate a towel from that home that was actually the the same make, the same model of the towel that was located at the soccer field. and there was something else investigators discovered. wandel owned several guns, but one of them was missing. did you think that maybe isaiah took it? it wouldn t be something that we would suspect because he he didn t like guns he didn t like guns was not comfortable around them. the prosecution told the jury that isaiah owed his father some cash and on the night halee died wandel sent a text to his son, got the money
as i sat there i, in that moment, had no idea how to how to address it. no one saw it coming. it was probably the first time that everyone in the room cried. it was an amazing gift. the judge called for a recess and cleared the courtroom. all sides left to absorb the enormity of what had just happened. heather drove to the soccer field to reflect. she honors halee by wearing the same tattoo her daughter once had. the prosecutor went home, humbled by a woman s confession. i don t know that i ve ever had more faith in the words coming out of somebody s mouth than than a mother that would actually say that against her son. you almost look like you re getting emotional. i am getting emotional. i m sorry. the defense attorney, on the other hand, got straight to work. he needed a new plan to save his client. when court reconvened, he called donna hagan back to the stand. his goal, to show the jury that she couldn t be believed.