Into the Abyss

- Reverend, you're on duty today.

Can you think- just think about the man

whom you are going to encounter in an hour from now,

less than an hour from now.

- I really am going there without any expectations.

I'm going there to experience what God has prepared for me,

for him, for all of those involved,

and I don't preconceive anything.

Not today.

I will let that happen as it occurs,

as time gets there.

We have a loving, caring,

forgiving, merciful God,

and in time of joy and in time of need,

in time of trial or tribulation,

God is always there for us.

I want to make that presence to them.

- And technically when he is led to the gurney,

what is your duty then?

After everything is completed,

as far as the preparation,

then I walk over, and I stand as he has allowed me to stand.

I always ask permission to be able to stand at his feet

and hold his ankle,

and I move toward that position,

and I place my hand on his ankle,

and then that's what-what I do

until death occurs.

- And if there is no family interested

in taking care of the body,

the condemned men would end up right behind you?

- Yes, they end up here at the state cemetery,

and they're buried by the state.

No names on the crosses, only numbers.

- Why does God allow capital punishment?

I don't know the answer.

I believe that there's always a purpose

why God allows things to happen.

God has created so many things in this world.

I play golf sometimes.

I love to be on the golf course,

because one thing I do, I put my phone on a silent mode.

I go out there sometimes by myself with no distractions,

and I can see the beautiful grass.

I can see the squirrels, from time to time, running.

Sometimes the deer are running.

Sometimes I look across the golf course,

and I see a cow or a horse, and-and I-and I stop,

and I acknowledge life.

Life,

the things that God has created.

- Please describe an encounter with a squirrel.

An encounter with a squirrel,

I was driving the golf cart, and I was on the golf-

on the cart path, and I saw two squirrels.

They were chasing each other, and as I was getting closer,

they were running across the cart path,

and I put on my brakes,

and they stopped in the middle of the cart path

and looked at me, and I said, "How about this?"

"If I wouldn't have stopped,

"I could have run over one of these squirrels.

Their life would have ended."

And that reminds me...

of the many people that I have been with

in their last breath of life,

and due to bad choices and mistakes in their life, they-

their life is taken away in that moment.

So life is precious, whether it's a squirrel

or a human being.

So I will sometimes meditate on that experience.

Make a little noise, and the squirrels will take off

and continue their life,

but I cannot do that.

For someone on the gurney,

I cannot stop the process for them.

But I wish I could.

Good, yeah.

You are not wired yet,

so we have to wire you first.

Michael Perry, now from all of us,

the whole team here,

we would like to offer our condolences.

Your father passed away.

Right, on the 10th.

My dad died 13 days ago.

13 days ago.

Yeah, on June 10th.

- But you will die or you are scheduled for execution...

Right.

- In only eight days. - Yes, sir.

How are you doing?

- You know-you know, I'm a Christian, so, you know,

I believe that, you know, paradise awaits

one way or the other, so I tell people all the time,

I'm either going home or home, so...

I'm either going home to the world or home to God,

so I-you know, as the days get closer,

I can feel the pressure on my shoulders.

They call it clinical depression where I just start having

less motivation to do things, less energy.

You get frustrated at the- at the system.

How can they not see, you know, my situation is wrong?

You know, I used to write all the time

and have a lot of energy,

and I just don't have it anymore.

I just feel like I've been beaten down.

- I have the feeling that destiny, in a way,

has dealt you a very bad deck of cards.

It does not exonerate you,

and-and when I talk to you,

it does not necessarily mean that I have to like you,

but I respect you, and you are a human being,

and I think human beings should not be executed.

- Mm-hmm. - As simply as that.

Right.

- Lieutenant, this looks idyllic and safe.

- Well, and you would think that.

This is a gated community, obviously.

The houses that are out here are very large houses,

very expensive houses,

and you would think that this is-

this is a very quiet area,

and you would, I guess, associate that with security.

But this house right here is actually the house

where Sandra Stotler was murdered.

This is where Michael Perry and Jason Burkett

parked out on the street

and went in and- and murdered her.

At the time that we found her,

she was actually baking cookies,

and there was evidence of that.

There was-there was cookies out.

There was cookie dough out.

So she was in the process of that when she was killed.

- But apparently the first plan was not murder.

- Well, and that was something that we were told,

that initially the- the boys were all-

when I say "boys," Michael Perry, Jason Burkett,

Adam Stotler, and Jeremy Richardson-

they were acquaintances

through, you know, some mutual friends.

They weren't really friends themselves,

but they-they were acquaintances,

and what we were told was- is that they came here

with the intention of trying to get Adam Stotler

to allow them to stay the night

by telling them they didn't have a place to stay,

and they were going to try to get the keys to the car

and steal it.

That's what they were after,

was the red Camaro that was in the garage.

Upon going to the door and talking to the mother,

and she said that they were out, the boys were out,

and so they left,

and that's when their plan changed,

that they were just going to kill her and take the car.

So they went back up to the door,

and the garage was open,

and the door going into the house was open.

Michael Perry, by his own admission,

entered that garage door and went into the laundry room

at the time that Jason Burkett knocked on the front door.

And as their truck was out here,

he told them that the truck wouldn't start

and they needed to call someone to come and assist them.

So she let him in the house to use the telephone,

and while he was doing that,

Michael Perry stepped out of the laundry room

and knocked on the back garage door,

which made her come and answer it,

and he stepped out from the laundry room from behind her,

and that's when he shot her.

The actual garage door itself was open

when our deputies arrived on the scene.

The master bedroom,

which is in the back part of the house

behind the garage over here,

they went in, and they took the top bedding,

the blanket and the- the top sheet,

and that's what they wrapped her in.

They brought her out, put her in the truck,

and they drove her out to Crater Lake

to dispose of her body.

And how does it happen?

Was it drugs?

- You know, I don't know that there was ever

any direct evidence as far as, you know,

drugs relating particularly to this case.

I mean, honestly, it was just- you know, they had a car.

You know, this lady owned a car that they wanted,

so, you know, it was-

unfortunately, you know, people died for a theft.

Other than it being dark,

this is pretty much the way it was

that night when we came out here.

You'll see all kinds of debris and trash here, as I said.

This is-was pretty commonly used for a dumping ground.

They've pulled lots of vehicles out of-out of Crater Lake.

We've had, actually, a few other bodies