The Sugar Land Conspiracy

An All-American Family Is Gunned Down In A Bizarre Plot

(CBS)  This story originally aired Oct. 20, 2007.

For John Flores and his best friend Kevin Whitaker, life was sweet in Sugar Land, Texas. "Sugar Land is very middle class/upper class, white collar," Flores explains. "It's a nice place, everything's new. You hang out with your neighbors. You hang out with your neighbor's kids."

But as correspondent Peter Van Sant reports, that sweet life was shattered on the night of Dec. 10, 2003, when Kevin and his family were gunned down in their home.

Marshall Slot was the lead detective assigned to the case. "It looks as if it’s a burglary gone wrong. You know, family coming home from dinner. It's plausible that they could have surprised a burglar," Slot says.

But as Slot combed through the Whitaker home, he realized things weren’t adding up. "In the master bedroom the dressers all had drawers open on them, but they were all open equal distance. It was very neat and orderly," Slot explains.

Slot began to suspect the burglary had been staged. "None of the items of value inside the house had been moved around; the electronics, laptops, jewelry, none of those items typically taken in burglaries," he recalls.

And then there was the murder weapon: it was the Whitakers' own gun. "The gun safe had been pried open and it was in a very isolated part of the household," Slot explains. "This is looking more and more like this person knew this gun was here and obtained it for a specific reason."

Slot turned his attention to the family's history, hoping it might provide some answers. He started with Kent Whitaker's relationship to his wife Trisha.

"We met on a blind date," Kent remembers. "Walked in her house and … I didn’t know what I was expecting but she came down and I thought I've never had a blind date like this before and we hit it off very well right from the start."

Within a couple of months, Kent says he realized he was in love with Trisha. And the feeling, he says, was mutual. Later, the couple would have two sons, Bart and Kevin.

The Whitakers were doing well. Kent was a successful account, Trisha, an elementary school teacher. "Trisha had a great rapport with children. Parents adored her. The staff adored her. She was just fun," remembers Barbie Harrington.

Harrington and Peggy McLane, Trisha's close friends and coworkers, knew her true love was being a mom. "They were everything. That’s all she talked about. She loved those boys," Peggy remembers.

Bart, the eldest, did well in school and had a quirky sense of humor. "He seemed like a nice kid. He was fun. He was witty. He was respectful," Peggy says. And she says he was a good son.

Bart shared a passion for biking with his dad. "It turned out to be a sport that we both loved. He and I would spend hours and hours on training rides and organized rides," Kent tells Van Sant.

Kevin was the sensitive one. "Kevin was man at a young age. He would not back down from injustice. But he would be so quick to forgive," Kent says.

Then came Dec. 10, 2003. "Bart was supposed to be graduating from college," Kent remembers. "He called and said he was through with his finals and he wanted to go out to eat and celebrate."

"We all celebrated. We laughed. We told some jokes. We teased each other and took some pictures and gave Bart his graduation gift, which was an expensive watch," Kent recalls.

After dinner the Whitakers headed home, where they were met with unimaginable horror: four shots were fired. "I start praying and I said, 'Father, you know, if it's my time to die, I'm ready. It's ok. But protect my family,'" Kent remembers. "It was just awful."

Cliff Stanley, the first person on the scene, remembers finding Kent lying down. "I went up to him and he was shot. And says, 'I'm bleeding very badly,'" Stanley says.

Stanley then went to check on Trisha. "She was still alive. She was kind of moaning," he says. "I said, 'What happened?' And Tricia said, 'He shot us.'"

But Stanley says Trisha didn't say who the shooter was. Bart was lying in the living room, wounded. Kevin, Stanley says, was dead at the scene.

Kent, Trisha, and Bart were rushed to the hospital but Trisha didn't survive.

"I lost a friend that taught me how to be a better teacher and a better mother. She was just a really good person and I miss her so much," says Trisha's friend Peggy, crying.

[katzjoshua]

"Whitaker hopes he can persuade the Texas jury to forgive his only living son, but first his son must convince that same jury that he is no longer a threat to anyone - inside or out of prison."

Bart has already been sentenced to death. I know you''re trying to build up suspense and hype for your program, but this is really disingenuous and shoddy writing.

[sal567]

What would drive a man to murder his own mother and brother is beyond comprehension but I will defer comment until I know the whole story. It must be riveting.

[blathersby]

Actually, Kent forgave Bart because that''s what God wants him to do. He did not do so out of any agenda.

[darladavis37]

Don''t know how someone could do something like this. That is just mean and cruel even if not your family member. My best friends Brother in Law is the lead detective on this case.

[jjcardenas]

This is truly sad, our coach is the lead detective on this terrible tragedy, and unfortunately this affected a family and a community. I pray for The Whitaker family now, more than anything that Kent will find that he is not alone. He has proven incredible strength and faith, for that I believe God has him in his sight. God Bless.

[barbbberry]

I hope someone points out to Kent Whitaker that Bart will be more likely to deal with his soul situation alot sooner with a death penalty than he would have if he had gotten a life sentence. And forgiveness does not mean "escape from consequences". Bart can be forgiven, but that should not mean he should escape the consequences of his actions. That is both an Old and New Testament teaching. See 1 Tim 1:8-11, which speaks specifically of those who kill their fathers or mothers....

[spiffyh2o]

Our family just watched this family''s tragic story. Kent Whitaker immediately reminded us of Elisabeth Ellior and her book, Through Gates of Splendor ~ the true story of five young missionaries who were savagely killed while trying to establish communication with the Auca Indians of Ecuador.
Just as we marveled that those young widows could muster a true spirit of forgiveness which ultimately melted the hearts of the their husband''s murderers so that they accepted Jesus and salvation, we marvel at Kent''s faith.

We know that his forgiveness is not a logical thing, but a spiritual thing. If he hasn''t already, Bart will accept Jesus and one day join his family in Heaven because of the spirit of forgiveness.

May Kent''s candor in stating that forgiveness is a gift from God coupled with Kent''s true forgiveness of his son''s sin will melt the hearts of those who watched the show tonight. We pray that the same gift of forgiveness given to Elisabeth Elliot and the other wives some 40 years ago and was given to Kent in the hospital in 2003, will flow over the viewers so that hearts will be opened to the ultimate gift of salvation,too.

We are proud to call Kent our "brother" in faith.

[slim1h2o]

We see this every day, and it still surprises me, how on earth can somebody kill their family is beyond me.

It''s disgusting, and sad how some people treat others.

[shamrocker6]

With all due respect to the religious conscience some folks tend to hold on to, even in the worst of circumstances, Bart was NOT one of them! He knew he would/could never be like the rest of his family, and he hated THEM for that. He hated his life (with them) so much, he wanted to erase EVERYTHING and start living life his own way.

The money was his only means to just walk away, but he''d have to kill for it. I don''t believe he feels the least bit of remorse.

God knows us best. The Final Judgement is His.

[zootallures2]

"all had drawers open on them, but they were all open equal distance. It was very neat and orderly," Slot explains."

Neat and orderly... Like a controlled demolition, maybe? A Conspiracy? Must be the police are tin foil hat loonies too?

[Krazcarl]

What kind of pain must a farther feel when he looks at his creation and know he is responsible for the death of of those he loved the most, The man has truly walked in the footsteps of god and has my respect.

[ivyman1]

For some reason I have an hunch that the husband was involved in the murder of his wife and son. He was warned by the police prior to the slaughtering of his wife and son and dismissed it so easily. I hope the prosecutor would looking into his social life, especially the inconvenient woman or women, and other possible motives. Did he have a deal with his "surviving" son about the insurance money?

[drdavedmd]

Bart obviously deserved the death penalty. This is because if he doesn''t deserve it, then who else will? How many more people do you have to kill to receive the death penalty. It doesn''t not matter what the defence had to say, really. This is such a heinous crime, that it just desecrates all of humanity. He also showed no remorse, really. If I were on the jury, he would have been sentenced to death without an deliberations.

I can understand that the father still loves his son. This is the nature of bringing up a human being in this world, but when you bring up the devil, you have to give it up. I feel sorry for the father. He did not deserve to die twice. Now he has to live the rest of his life all by himself. This is such a tragic story. However, on the bright side of things, these murderers are behind bars. Justice was served.

[Krazcarl]

ivyman1...I believe it was our conquest of the moon that was why Kennedy was assassinated and I have green man under my bed that steals my stuff. Are you so stupid to believe a educated man would have his son kill the family your insane get help now.

[savdavid]

when are you going to do REAL news? this is a sordid tale fit for tabloid TV like FOX.

[myidoncbs]

More exploits of those W-A-C-K-Y Christians! The tabloids are full of ''em!

I LOVE how they always talk about "respect". This kid had it, for sure:

"He seemed like a nice kid. He was fun. He was witty. He was respectful," Peggy says. And she says he was a good son.

Yeah, that''s a real "good son" allright! I''m glad to know that Christianity really works to turn sinners into "good" people. Oh what a wonderful world it will be when Bush leads us into Armageddon and Jesus comes back to dispatch all the non-Christians to hell, after a 1000 year period of unspeakable suffering for all! Yahoo! and Yippie Ki Yay!

"Spare the rod, spoil the child", they preach. I''ve mentioned this before: punishment does NOT create "respect"; it creates fear and loathing and resentment... the perfect precursors to murder!

(I don''t know if that was the problem here, ''cause I couldn''t stand to read more than a couple of pages of this tabloid junk. But I thought I''d just mention it, since corporeal punishment is always championed by the "Christians".)

Oh what wackiness we concieve, when first we practice to believe!

[Krazcarl]

SAVDAVID...This is real news a crime was committed and they gave us the details that''s called reporting I for one am pleased the story of the murderers dad was inspirational. I can''t imagine having to deal with something like that. Pops showed us how to be a man if you get nothing out of this story your brain dead every once in a while you hear of a man that has more class than yourself this is one. Every once in a while a man will show you dignity. Guess that''s over your head reread the article gain some insight of what is to be a man I think you need it.Helped me I walk in his shadow.

[texas_tech09]

ivyman1 as well as others who are critizing this family. u have no right and savdavid, this is REAL. i was very close to everyone in this family, so dont go on judging them! i loved and cared for everyone of them, including Bart. Trisha was my kindergarden teacher and she pretty much became my second mom. No one could have seen this coming, if it had been your family you know you would have thought the same thing. So don''t you dare talk *** about this family!

[jdubincali]

texas tech...I''m sure this hurts BUT, I''m not surprised to see wacko "christians" in doing this. I like the comment by zootallures...we have a major conspiracy on a global level that needs to be dealt with. Back to this story, I feel bad that this could happen, but I also feel that wacko "christians" are going to do wacko things...killing their own parents, purposely fly planes in building and attack innocent, sovereign countries. Brain washing has "blow back". I''m glad he got caught, I would look into the husband too. But we have a unjust war going on...wake up and see the death our "christian" leader is causing AND you''re supporting. By the way, I''m Christian too...I just happen to think.

[Krazcarl]

texas_tech09....Hows dad doing?

[drew30319-2009]

Last year my teenage daughter was murdered. My comments are based on my personal experience and the beliefs that I now hold related to her murder.

(1) I believe that the victim (in this case, the father) should have more say in the punishment that the DA pursues. If he strongly feels that the death penalty is inappropriate then he should have the ability to "veto" the pursuit of such. If we truly allowed for LIFE in prison then the impact on society would be negligible. Life in prison would be, in my estimation, much worse than a quick and painless death.

(2) I do not believe that murderers or sociopaths are born, rather they are bred. I do not intend to paint this poor father with a broad brush, rather I''m attempting to point out that a great effort is required to overcome society''s sense of entitlement.

Drew Crecente
Jennifer Ann''s Group
www.JenniferAnn.org

Fight Teen Dating Violence!

[dveezy]

crzmeat:

"He seemed like a nice kid. He was fun. He was witty. He was respectful," Peggy says. And she says he was a good son.

Yeah, that''''s a real "good son" allright! I''''m glad to know that Christianity really works to turn sinners into "good" people. Oh what a wonderful world it will be when Bush leads us into Armageddon and Jesus comes back to dispatch all the non-Christians to hell..."blah...

First of all thats'' crazy. I lived with the guy who pulled the trigger for over a year and before this incident he never hurt a fly nor showed any signs that he would EVER do anything like this.In no way am i justifying his actions because what he did was horrible and evil, but this type of action is not always forseeable. Maybe in Bart''s case it was, but not always. I don''t know what the deal is with that whacko radical christian stuff, but i think they just wanted the money.

[ammie119]

This was an amazingly badly written article.

[texas_tech09]

sadly i have not talked to mr. whitaker. ive wanted to see him but im not sure if i could handle it. i had been so close to this family, that its still too much to bare...

jdubincali- why the hell does everyone point to Kent? Kent loved Trisha SO much, he wouldnt DARE do anything like this to his family! He is a big in Faith and I look up to him for that.

I also agree with someone else on here. I belived Bart should have gotten life. For the longest time, I wanted who did this to get the death penelty but once I found out it was him, I changed my mind. The reason being though, is I believe that life in prison, would be more of a punishment than death itself. He would have to sit there thinking of what he did, each and every day of his LIFE. I believe thats punishment enough, not the death penelty.

[junycuqui]

This is such a horrific story!
I pray for this man''s family, that they will be able to continue on life.
I can understand the father in forgiving his son.
We all of us have the right to do what we want and although we may regret the choices made, still the consequences of the choices made must be paid.
Being a Christian does not mean you don%u2019t have to pay for the wrong choices carried out!
And this is just my point of view:
The death penalty is just an easy way out for criminals, although life in prison is suction to tax payers, these criminal should pay back to society with EXTRA HARD work for spearing their life and providing food, clothing and shelter! etc...

[skeezix06]

Not that we''ll ever know, but I have to wonder how his mother would have approved of her son being given the death penalty. I suspect not. But like I said we''ll never know.

[patriot12436]

drew30319
I have to disagree. The jury listened to what the father felt and made their decision. Someone this sick should never be returned to society. With the flukes in our judicial system i think this is possible. My parents always favored my sister. I didn''t care. I grew up without supervision, came and went as i wanted, never got into trouble, joined the military the day after graduation from high school, made a career in the military and law enforcement, graudated from college. At 55 i realized if i didn''t get away from my parents it was going to kill me . I walked away and had a heart attack two months later. I have no relationship with my mother. I went to my fathers funeral because my daughter wanted to go. I had no feelings for a man i never knew. After all of this i can honestly say the thought of killing my parents never entered my mind once.

[patriot12436]

zootallures2
And where did you take your forensic classes at ?

[gypsylady7]

Wish I hadn''t fallen asleep during the show!

[gypsylady7]

I did see the video of him on the stand, texas_tech09. He didn''t seem to really show remorse. He seemed cold. I doubt he''ll think about what he did. He''ll probably spend more time thinking what he should have done better, to get away with the crime!

[tngreen]

"This was an amazingly badly written article."
------Posted by ammie119 at 04:20 PM : Oct 22, 2007

I totally agree. I had to read the first page twice to figure out that half of the family survived the shooting. I couldn''t figure out they had managed to get an interview with the dead father! And other items were a jumble as well. I think our schools of journalism are not doing such a great job--I see lots of problems with CBS'' online news articles, from grammatical errors to badly written pieces that make it hard to extract the information.

[roscoezzz]

This young man is going to be put to death. He is an evil, manipulative, hateful sociopath. If he was a good and decent kid, then when did he turn into the Omen? That''s the question that I have. Also, What did he do all those 4 years when he wasn''t in college? I''m sure hating and planning Death!
Forgiveness is the most powerful weapon against Evil because it''s Love. I applaud this father for trying to reach his son who really is on the dark side. I can''t imagine how this father feels. He has lost everything in this life. But, through it all is his forgiveness. Good for him.

[mambisa-2009]

This was the most remarkable story I''ve seen on "48 Hours." It''s not often that a show like this spends so much time talking about forgiveness and Christian faith. Mr. Whitaker is a shining example of how every Christian should live his life. Shame on those bloodthirsty prosecutors who could only see notches on their guns for having wrangled a death penalty for Bart Whitaker.

[newsreader57]

I havae to agree with some of the other comments that this article was written horribly. I had to reread the beginning several times. Then I decided to read some of the comments to see if anyone else had a problem understading who got shot, and who was telling what.

[dugudr]

I knew first hand with a socialpath, they just never going to get it. Why don''t the police do a sting which set things straight. but I''m pretty sure it still wouldn''t make a diff to the father and one thing for sure is he going to stupidven. Even w a sting this is bound to happen. Family are just almost impossible to think one of their owns can turn on them. But the father is just and impossible man. I bet if the guy gets out the father is a dead man.

[dugudr]

I knew first hand with a socialpath, they just never going to get it. Why don''t the police do a sting which set things straight. but I''m pretty sure it still wouldn''t make a diff to the father and one thing for sure is he going to stupidven. Even w a sting this is bound to happen. Family are just almost impossible to think one of their owns can turn on them. But the father is just and impossible man. I bet if the guy gets out the father is a dead man.

[dugudr]

Bart should be forgiven in hell that is. I have no relation what so ever to the lead dectective in this case.

[Bible-Prophecy]

THE FULFILLMENT OF BIBLE PROPHECY

Jesus Christ said, "A man's enemies will be the members of his own household."
(Matthew 10:36).

Jesus Christ said, "Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death."
(Matthew 10:21).