he begged donna not to call the police. but she did. and he confessed. he was convicted of misdemeanor assault and he was put on probation. but as the years went by he attacked five other women in similar ways, including his kidnapping victim and now being questioned by austin police about a murder including zip ties, murder and said he knew nothing about it saying the similarities with earlier incidents are coincidences. is disgusting to hear you talk about being a devout christian and how much you turned your life around when one after another this whole thing goes back to similarities that i am sure are coincidental back in 1989. 1991, 1992. you are this reborn christian? you are going to sit here and lie about it. the truth was at that point police could only prove patterns of behavior, patterns that tony insisted he broke when he became a born-again christian.
two years after diane s happy, vibrant life was so suddenly asphyxiated, her friends gathered again for a murder trial. friends and a whole group of women that never met each other, or diane. you can see that they were all attractive women. it looked like he had a type. it it was obvious what the man was looking for. the same determination to testify against tony russo, born-again christian, happily married man. the case against him, not so easy. it was the most complex murder case that i have ever tried. that is because without hard evidence linking tony to the
life was so suddenly asphyxiated, her friends gathered again for a murder trial. friends and a whole group of women who had never met each other or diane holik but you could see they were all attractive women. looked like he had a type. it was obvious what this man was looking for. everyone had the same look. reporter: and the same determination to testify against tony russo, music minister, born-again christian, happily married man. but the case against him, not so easy. the most complex murder case, definitely the most complex murder case i ve ever tried. reporter: that s because without hard evidence linking tony to the murder or even putting him in diane s house, she d have to assemble all the jagged puzzle pieces of coincidence into a coherent pattern for the jury. when you re getting ready for trial, you put it together almost like a play. you know, what are you going to tell them first? so you script it out.
what he was about to tell us about his role in the murder of diane holik would be god s truth. that jury comes back and says guilty. what s that like? devastating. when you re innocent, it s devastating. reporter: innocent? yes. and so i hear from the warden that you have you got your bachelor s in divinity. yes, sir. if i had to spend the rest of my life in here, i want to use it for christ. reporter: throughout our talk, he wore his christianity like a badge. and like an accusation. i notice that in the media they love to sensationalize any christians or people who claim to be christians that somehow they just got some hidden secrets in their life. and reporter: but your victims were christians, too. saying you re a christian and being a christian are two different things. reporter: you are saying you have to be totally honest to be a christian? you don t have to be totally honest but there are things in
you re this reborn christian? and you re going to sit here and lie about it? reporter: the truth was at that point police could only prove patterns of behavior. patterns tony insisted he broke when he became a born-again christian. but really? so the detectives set up a little trap and asked him if his fingerprints could possibly be found on a real estate flier. have you ever handled a real estate flier for a house for sale in west austin? no. then your fingerprints shouldn t be on there? correct. reporter: even as tony insisted otherwise, they had already received the test results from the real estate flier saved by that woman. thank you, lord, tony russo s fingerprints were positively on that flier. reporter: what happens in the gut? we knew it was him. we weren t able to put him anywhere. now we had him dead to rights. reporter: true, they had him recently in the home of a woman who had been terrified by his