Savage Son (13 page)

After a few more casual conversations like this, Bart escalated the plans. “He started bringing more details to the table,” Steven recalled. Bart started talking about “the times it should take place. Bart started talking about exact methods of killing, how we could do it, and how we could get away with it.”

Bart was determined that the murders should occur during the Christmas holidays. “If we do it around Christmastime, it would look more like a botched burglary, like someone breaking into my parents home to steal Christmas gifts. That way, the police would be less suspicious and wouldn’t think of it as a setup crime. We can do this, Steven.”

It was then, and only then, that Steven knew that Bart was truly serious about killing his family. “It was when his conversations turned from ‘this could happen’ to ‘we can do this,’ I knew he was for real.”

Strangely enough, Bart never came straight out and asked Steven to help him murder his family. But he would always include Steven in his hypothetical plans of plotting the murders.

The conversations picked up and were engaged in every day for several days. By the end of August, Steven Champagne realized that his new friend wanted his help to wipe out his entire family. Unsurprisingly, Steven was completely against the idea.

One night in the beginning of September, at a bar in Conroe, Bart finally came out and directly asked Steven to help kill his family.

“I need your help, Steven,” Bart stated, almost as an afterthought. “I cannot do this without you.”

“I know, Bart. I get it,” Steven responded, somewhat annoyed. He felt like Bart was simply pestering him now, and he was getting upset.

“So, can I count you in?”

“No!” Steven declined vehemently. “I don’t want anything at all to do with this!”

“C’mon, Steven, don’t you want to rest easy, knowing that you have all the money you need?” Bart cajoled.

“Bart, I don’t want to talk about this,” Steven replied sternly. He was trying to concentrate on a game of darts.

Bart, however, persisted. “I know you want to try this. I know you want to see if we can pull this off,” he interjected in between Steven’s dart throws.

Steven tossed a dart, which went askew and stuck into the bar’s wall. He turned around, obviously infuriated, and yelled at Bart, “I don’t want to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life!” Other patrons in the bar stopped to take notice. “I don’t want to have anything to do with it!”

Bart calmly nodded his head and ignored the nearby customers. He was certain they had no idea what the two young men were talking about.

Steven hoped his outburst would put Bart on the spot, that someone in the bar would know he was up to no good, and that Bart would finally let the whole thing disappear. He believed it worked when Bart finally dropped the subject, grabbed his things, and took off from the bar.

September 2003
Harbour Town
Willis, Texas

Just a few days before Bart and Steven got into it at the Conroe bar, Chris Brashear moved in with Bart at the townhome. Chris was going through a difficult patch in his life, mainly because he had lost his job at the Bentwater Yacht & Country Club.

Bart had a spare bedroom in his townhome, which he gladly offered up for Chris to crash in until he was able to pick himself back up.

Steven thought Chris Brashear was a “normal, regular young man.” He also believed him to be a bit of a “slacker and a goof,” based on Chris’s wardrobe preference, which consisted of baggy T-shirts and baggy blue jeans. He also described him as “kind of laid-back,” but “a hard worker” when it came to his job at the restaurant. It came as a surprise to Steven that Chris quit.

Steven liked Chris when they first met at Bentwater.

He noticed, however, that Chris seemed to have changed after spending time living with Bart. It was not necessarily for the worse, though. Steven noticed that Chris had begun to change his style and his personality to resemble Bart more closely. He dressed nicer, in what Steven deemed “preppy clothes,” such as well-pressed slacks and button-down long-sleeved oxford shirts. He was wearing clothes that were much more expensive than what Steven was used to seeing him in, which he found unusual since Chris was no longer employed.

Steven also noted that Chris “started to carry himself in a more intelligent manner.” He described Chris as being “more disciplined” and that he had been “speaking different, proper,” or more intelligently. Steven also noticed how Chris was even beginning to mimic many of the things that Bart did or said. It was like watching a little Stepford buddy.

Steven definitely considered Chris to be more of a follower, not a leader. He was definitely a follower of Bart Whitaker.

With Chris living on the same street as Steven, the two young men began to spend more time together. Though Steven sensed that Bart was closer to Chris than he was to him, Steven and Chris became friends as well.

The two young men bonded over guitar. Chris knew how to play and Steven had always wanted to learn, so the two started hanging out a lot together, with Steven learning a few licks from Chris.

Bart always seemed to be working, so Chris and Steven were able to spend lots of time together, developing a friendship. Steven soon felt as if his relationship with Chris was even better than the one he had with Bart. Indeed, he considered Chris to be a better friend than Bart.

September 2003
Harbour Town
Willis, Texas

Steven Champagne stood in the middle of his patio, smoking a cigarette. He was simply enjoying a bit of peace and quiet for the evening. As he took another drag off his cigarette, he spied Bart and Chris heading in his direction. His two friends seemed somewhat serious. They approached Steven as if it were simply a regular evening together.

After some idle chitchat, Bart and Chris both stood erect and faced Steven. Bart spoke up first. “We need you to drive.”

Steven looked at his friend quizzically.

“You need to be our wheelman and pick Chris up,” Bart continued as he nodded toward his roommate.

“What are you talking about, Bart?” Steven responded with a question.

“Chris is going to do it, and I need for you to be the one who picks him up and makes sure he gets out of my parents’ neighborhood, without getting caught,” Bart almost commanded.

Steven had somewhat expected this conversation. Instead of speaking up and angrily denying his part in the scheme, Steven said nothing. His silence equaled acquiescence, and was as good as a yes in Bart’s mind. The conversation ended almost as quickly as it had begun.

After several minutes of standing outside, Steven finished his smoke.

“Let’s head over to my place,” Bart stated. He was ready to iron out some details with his newest recruit.

Inside Bart’s townhome, the two henchmen settled into Bart’s plush couch cushions as he poured drinks.

Steven looked up at Bart as he returned with glasses in hand. “Chris has agreed to do it,” Bart confirmed Steven’s suspicions. “We want you to drive him there and to pick him up after it’s done.”

Chris also looked at Steven as if to gauge his reaction.

“You then need to drive Chris back here,” Bart continued.

“Bart, I told you, man, I don’t want any part in this.” Steven declined the offer.

Despite having just believed that Steven had agreed, Bart was nonchalant about his friend’s response. “I understand, Steven.” Bart poured him another drink and added, “But there is going to be a large amount of money in it for you if you help us out.” He nodded toward Chris. “I understand, Steven.” Bart was practically cooing his assurances. “I’m sure you must be very confused about this whole scenario.”

“No, Bart, I’m not confused,” Steven answered, and the tenor of his voice rose. “I told you, I don’t want to have anything at all to do with this!”

Bart tilted his head down and then lifted it up to look toward Chris. The mute communication conveyed a bond between them. They both turned to look directly at Steven.

“You’re already a part of this, Steven.”

Steven felt like one of the pod people from
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
He was trapped, and had no way of escaping.

“You already know what we’re going to do,” Bart added ominously. “You’ve been conspiring to do this with me, just as much as Chris has. As far as the police would be concerned, you’re just as much as involved in this thing as we are. You will be considered an accomplice as well. You might as well get on board with us.”

Steven was stunned. He had always thought Bart just wanted to vent about his family. He thought he was being a good friend by lending an ear. Instead, he had been sucked into Bart’s malefic plan of mayhem.

“You’ve been a part of this since day one.” Bart was basically threatening his friend. “If we get caught, you will go down as well. And your sentence will be just as bad as ours, even if you don’t participate directly in it.”

The unveiled threat was now out on the table. Steven had no clue which way to turn. He was caught. As far as he knew, there was no way out.

As time went by, Steven never bothered to look up the law that Bart had quoted him. He never bothered to turn Bart in, or give an anonymous tip to the police. He simply believed his friend was telling him the truth about being a conspirator. As a result, he kept his mouth shut and became a willing participant in a crime that would destroy an entire family, and his own life as well.

“All right,” Steven relented. “I’m in.”

Bart nodded, a slight grin on his face. His crew was set.

September/October 2003
Harbour Town
Willis, Texas

The treacherous trio began to make specific plans as to how they wanted to kill Bart’s family.

The plan was basically the same exact plans that Bart had devised before, but had failed with Adam Hipp, Justin Peters, and Will Anthony. Drive down to Sugar Land. Bart would convince his family to go out to dinner. Steven would follow them to the restaurant and notify Chris when they had finished eating dinner. Chris would lie in wait inside the Whitakers’ home and kill the entire family upon their arrival. He would wound Bart in the process to make it appear as if Bart were innocent. Chris would then escape through the back door and hook up with Steven for their escape.

Bart began to make sure the tiniest details were attended to, to make everything go off without a hitch this time. He did not want any of them to use their regular cell phones, for fear of them being traced back to the crime scene. Bart planned out their routes from Willis to Sugar Land and back. He wanted everyone to stay off the tollway, known as Beltway 8, for fear that the ever-present eye-in-the-sky cameras would document their travels. They were to drive only on the freeways.

Bart informed the two young men that he would leave a door unlocked at his parents’ house, thus allowing Chris instant access. Bart informed Chris that his younger brother, Kevin, kept a gun in a lockbox upstairs in his room. Chris was to enter the house, head upstairs, pry open the gun lockbox, and retrieve the weapon.

To Steven, it appeared as if Bart and Chris had already worked out most of the details of the ambush. Steven was merely along for the ride, so to speak. They informed him—in no uncertain terms—that he was the driver. His sole responsibilities were to get Chris to Sugar Land, watch the family as they ate, alert Chris that they were coming home, pick Chris up, and then deliver him back to Willis in one piece.

It sounded easy enough. Maybe he could do this, after all, he thought. Maybe, since he was not the one calling the shots or aiming the shots, he could justify his actions. Besides, he really could use the extra money.

He did, however, find it unusual that Bart never came up with a definite dollar amount for their participation in the killing of his entire family. Steven found it even stranger that he personally never asked Bart how much money he was going to be paid. He also thought it strange that Chris never specifically asked Bart how much money Bart would pay him, either. Steven simply figured that all three men would move in together and live life like rich bachelors.

Once the plans were set into motion, Steven tended to lay low. None of the three guys spent much time together, as they had done during the summer and early fall. “It was more secluded,” Steven recalled. “We didn’t hang around as much. It was just more of Bart checking in to make sure that we were not talking [to anyone else]. That we were still in on the plan.” Bart would continually call Steven to make sure everything was all right and to see if there was anything he needed. Bart seemed to be checking Steven’s “state of mind” to make sure his friend was “not running to the police.”

Bart needed everything to be perfect, which meant he needed his crew to be focused and not willing to crack under pressure.

If anything, Bart’s constant surveillance of Steven made the latter more nervous and paranoid. He recalled a bizarre phone call he received at work one day in October.

“Hello,” Steven answered his cell phone. The number came up as Bart’s.

“Today is the first day of the systematic destruction of your life,” Bart mysteriously intoned. He immediately hung up before Steven could respond.

Steven had no idea what Bart’s cryptic message meant. He only knew it just made him a bit more freaked out than he already was.

Steven began to receive more and more similar calls from Bart, who would never explain what he meant, or what he was trying to get at. “I believe he felt he had to prove that he was smarter than everybody else,” Steven theorized.

Bart was not above physical intimidation, either. He confronted Steven one day in an attempt to make sure he was still on board. “Getting cold feet?” he asked his friend.

Steven did not answer.

“You know,” Bart informed him, “I know where you live.”

Steven took it as a joke. He knew Bart’s sense of humor was usually very dry and somewhat morbid. He assumed Bart was merely messing with him a bit to lighten the mood. Again, he did not respond, merely nodded.

Bart looked Steven directly in the eye and, in a less than jovial tone, said, “I know where your mother lives. I know where she sleeps.” He grinned, and left it at that.

Steven was not quite sure what to make of Bart’s statements. He deduced, however, that if Bart was willing to go to great lengths to murder his own parents, he probably would not hesitate to bat a white eyelash to take out Steven’s mother. Bart’s thinly veiled threat against Steven’s mother finally did the trick for him. He knew he was in way too deep.

“I took it as, if he was willing to kill his own parents, he would not hesitate to kill mine. Also, if I brought any more attention to what was going on, or if I opened my mouth, or if I called the cops,” their lives would be at risk as well.

Steven Champagne was very afraid of Bart Whitaker.