Defending Mrs. Shelton

0:04A special 48 Hours Mystery. She was a lot of fun when she wasn't trying to kill me. Strange things have happened to the men in Catherine Shelton's life. It was god awful. His apartment was set on fire. It's the worst thing I've ever been through. Another ex was found beaten to death. She says she's not to blame. Do you hurt other people? Well, I don't intend to. But Catherine Shelton admits she did shoot this boyfriend. That bitch shot me. She really, she shot me. Did we mention she's a criminal defense lawyer? What I try to do is get justice for the people who come to me. Richard Schlesinger on a story of murder and betrayal.

0:50It's Texas justice. You've got to see to believe. I wonder what it is about you, though, that men you've been in relationships with have ended up dead or shot at. 48 Hours Investigates. She's a bitch. 18K. The Law and Mrs. Shelton.

1:27Welcome to tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. I'm Leslie Stahl. Just say the name Catherine Sheldon to anyone who knows her. And watch out. We can't even repeat some of the words people use to describe her. One thing almost everyone agrees on is that she is a shrewd Texas lawyer who knows the law inside and out. Through three decades of controversy, she's always managed to come out clean. but is her past about to catch up to her? Richard Schlesinger went looking for the truth about Katherine Shelton and nearly everywhere he went there was bad blood.

2:08Hello? Hello? There's a righty-way on my front porch. She's been shot. You know who shot her? No, ma 'am. She's saying, please help me, please help me. There's still chasing me. She's saying that somewhere down the way her husband's been shot. It was this shooting outside Dallas that opened the latest act in a long-running melodrama of death and betrayal. It was the loudest sound I'd ever heard because it was so close. Marisa and Michael Hierro were shot at outside their home. Michael died at the scene, but Marisa lived and says she still remembers what one of her assailants said that night. She screamed, Shoot her.

2:49Shoot her again. Who screamed that? Catherine Shelton. Catherine Mahaffey Shelton is Marisa's former boss. She's a criminal defense attorney in Dallas. That's with almost no makeup on there. It's been more than four years since the heroes were ambushed, and Catherine has never been charged with the crime. She says that's because she didn't do it. I've never killed anybody. You are telling me right now that there's no way you're absolutely involved. I don't know anything about it. Absolutely no way. She thinks she's untouchable. And she has a right to think that now because she's done it again.

3:29Catherine Mahaffey Shelton was reluctant to talk about her past, but her life story is a Texas-sized saga that spans 30 years with accusations involving, among other things, pantyhose. Oh, this is pantyhose. A pistol and a porta potty. I don't ever look back at anything. Why would I? I think about what's going to happen next. I mean, life is an adventure. Life has certainly been an adventure for some of the men in this lawyer's life. Back in the 70s, one of her former boyfriends was bludgeoned to death. She shot another ex-boyfriend in the back. Still, another ex's apartment burned down. A man named with Catherine in a lawsuit was found with a bullet in his head, and a former client who accidentally hanged himself was found in Catherine's house, dead and naked.

4:25Do you have the sense of yourself in the middle of this sort of storm that seems to always be brewing around you? I'm in the middle of life, and I'm supposed to work through this and work these things out and do the best I can. It's not for me to reason why. She was raised in a middle-class family, and a friend says her mother called her Annie Oakley. I think anyone that has any connection with her needs to be afraid of her. Do you have reason to be afraid? I think I could, yes. Catherine Mahaffey was just beginning to make a name for herself when private investigator Kent Ferguson first heard of her.

5:11In 1979, Ferguson was hired by the family of a Houston doctor named George Tedesco to investigate his murder. He was beaten to death violently in his garage. His body was left there. Catherine had dated the doctor shortly after she started practicing law. When they broke up, she sued him for divorce, claiming to be his common-law wife. How long had they known each other? According to my investigation, they dated approximately three to four months. You say dated? Dated. I found no one who ever said that they lived together. Around the time Catherine's divorce case was filed, Tedesco reported someone had come into his townhouse and taken some property.

5:55Did he have any suspects in mind? Catherine Mojavey. He named her? Yes. Catherine admitted taking things from Tedesco's house, but called it community property. Then, about a year later, on the very day her divorce case was to be heard, Tedesco's battered body was found in his garage. The divorce was no longer an issue. But Catherine now claimed to be a common-law widow and went after the estate. She lost. That case was closed, but the murder case wasn't. No one has ever been charged. Personally, I doubt if it will ever be solved. Tedesco's family did file a wrongful death suit against Catherine and one of her clients, Thomas Bell.

6:45Bell had been caught with some of Tedesco's property. The lawsuit never made it to court, and neither did Thomas Bell. He was found shot in the head by a.357 Magnum. Police ruled it as a suicide as a result of playing Russian roulette. It was one more death of one more man associated with Catherine. She was never implicated in Bell's death, but it added to her reputation as a woman with a past. I've read all this stuff about you. I've read it myself. It's interesting. I wonder, who is this person? Boy, what an exciting life. Even before she began making headlines, Catherine was making a lasting impression on some of the men she dated.

7:31It was God awful. It's the worst thing I've ever been through. Attorney Ferris Bond briefly dated her in the early 70s. He says when it came to Catherine, breaking up was very hard to do. Probably the worst thing was burning my apartment, all my possessions. She stole my automobile and shot at me with a shotgun. Catherine has denied doing anything wrong to Ferris Bond. Bond says he finally got away from her by joining the Marines. Frankly, I didn't think that there was any way she'd follow me into the Marine Corps. Catherine didn't want to talk about Bond or Tedesco. There are some sorts of men who are really, really offended by me.

8:17But she admits she may be too much for some men to handle. I think it's my propensity to probably say exactly what I think to them at a certain point when I just can't hold it in any longer. Do you like that about yourself? No, because you're not supposed to do that. And hurting other people, there's nothing to be gained from that. Do you hurt other people? Well, I don't intend to. But just a year after Dr. Tedesco's murder, Catherine did hurt one man. I was looking for a little excitement in my life. And not just emotionally. I mean, she was a lot of fun. when she wasn't trying to kill me.

9:20I've got a little hearing at 10 o 'clock. Texas attorney Catherine Mahaffey Shelton began practicing law in the 70s. It was great to be a new lawyer and be going to work and having my own business. She caught the attention of fellow defense attorneys. At that time, I dare say, probably the prettiest criminal defense lawyer in the Harris County Courts. We'll meet you out in front. When she walks, you know those little bitty whirlwinds that go off the wings of airplanes? She has that kind of effect upon people. In 1979, when her ex-boyfriend was murdered, she attracted even more attention. Good shot.

10:01Particularly from one member of the press. Time to get serious here. Houston reporter Gary Taylor. She was a hot item at the courthouse. She was intriguing because of the mystery of her past and the danger. The danger that seemed to be lurking underneath. Catherine doesn't care to remember Taylor. I don't consider him a relationship or anything. He's nothing. All right. But Taylor finds Catherine unforgettable. It was like playing with fire. Have fun, get drunk. That's what it's all about. They started dating, and he says it was fun at first. When did you start seeing another side to her? Within weeks, she has a temper that comes out and she can't always control it.

10:51And he says she kept talking about the unsolved murder of George Tedesco, her ex-boyfriend, who was beaten to death. I heard her say this to several people. You better do what I say. You know what happened to George. Taylor went to his friends at the Houston District Attorney's Office who were still investigating the Tedesco case. He suggested he and his roommate could secretly record Catherine on the telephone, and the DA's agreed. One tape became notorious when Taylor's roommate played it in the courthouse press room. He needs to beg for my mercy before this is over with. Catherine is heard demanding that Taylor stop talking to the DA.

11:32He's got to beg for my mercy. I've never killed anybody in my life. I've never really wanted to. But he's doing so much today. The tape was always known in the press room as the exorcist tape. Taylor says Catherine was furious. She was very dramatic. She liked to tell me that I had entered the arena of death. Is that a quote? That's a direct quote. What was your response? I kind of laughed about it. I mean, I wasn't sure whether she was for real or not. Then, strange things started happening to Taylor. Like Tedesco, he discovered his home was burglarized. Catherine, he says, offered to help get back his belongings.

12:16She insisted that I come over to her place and that she would have the stolen goods delivered over there. He says when he got to Catherine's, she told him to look for his things in the bedroom closet. It was so outrageous, but I did it. I went back and I got in the closet. As soon as I got in the closet, the lights went out and I heard a gun click. He says he turned around and saw Catherine. She took a policeman's position like this. There was like a hazy look in her eye. It was a pretty spooky look. And she started telling me about how this was it, this was how it was going to end. Taylor says he tried to defend himself with the only thing available, a chair.

12:59I went straight at her with the chair like a lion tamer. She fired off a round. The bullet came through the chair and nicked me. I threw the chair at her. I ran down the hallway. He believed he was running for his life as he bolted for the front door. I opened the door, and that's when I felt the shot in the back. She blew me out through the door, and I can remember laying there on the ground thinking, that bitch shot me. She really, she shot me. He got up, he says, and started running again. Taylor ran three blocks before he got help. How badly were you hurt? The ER doctor kept saying, I can't understand why you're not dead.

13:40The bullet stopped a centimeter from my heart, but I was fine. I was sleeping in this front room here, and I heard the shots. Ralph Bile was Catherine's next-door neighbor. She looked like Farrah Fawcett. She's very attractive. Did you like her? Yeah. For how long? until she happened to shoot this reporter. Catherine was arrested and for the first time found herself facing a serious charge, attempted murder. The fiery defense lawyer now needed her own attorney. At her trial in 1980, they argued she shot Taylor in self-defense, and they said Taylor was a snake for making those secret tapes. Catherine never took the stand and the jury deadlocked.

14:28But at her second trial, Catherine testified. And the jury got an earful. Catherine's uncontrollable. When you ask Catherine the question, there's no telling what's going to come out of her mouth. Jim Skelton was an attorney in the case. Her attorney. One time I beat my head on the table. I bent over and was banging my head on the table. Why did you bang your head against the table? To try to shut her up. Catherine claimed Taylor held a gun on her and said she was trying to get away from him, even though Taylor ended up getting shot in the back. He knows what happened over there, and what I said on the witness stand was true.

15:04Did you have a gun? No, I did not have a gun. The jury reached its verdict in a little over an hour. Guilty. Catherine was sentenced to 10 years, but she never served one day. Her conviction was overturned on appeal, and rather than go through a third trial, she pled guilty to aggravated assault. She got probation, and she was temporarily barred from practicing law. Did you want her to go to prison? I didn't really care. I actually thought she would be in more agony if she couldn't practice law, because she reveled in this.

15:42Taylor still works as a reporter and has not seen Catherine for more than 20 years. She is out of his life, but still on his mind. So Taylor has put private investigator Kent Ferguson on a most unusual retainer. Basically, I've retained him to investigate my murder should it happen. Why have you retained him to investigate your murder? In case it happens. Catherine says Taylor recovered quickly. While I regret the incident and I don't go around shooting people, it was in the nature of a minor traffic accident. She still stands by her testimony, but doesn't care to discuss the details. How did you end up shooting them?

16:27Well, I'd rather not go into that because I really can't even remember to tell you the truth. She is far more interested in a more recent shooting

16:39and the man who's serving life for it. I'm here to try to do the right thing for somebody who deserves it. And that's the only reason I'm doing this. He's one of the people who are close to me, whom I care for and whom I love.

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18:11Catherine Shelton is annoyed that the man she shot 24 years ago is still talking about it. He just milked it for all it was worth. And I mean if somebody had shot at me in their own home, which is really a violation of hospitality, I'd wonder what kind of a guest I was to merit that kind of behavior. And she bristles at the notion that her relationships have eerie endings. I wonder what it is about you, though, that men you've been in relationships with have ended up dead or shot at. I've never been in a relationship with anyone who died while I was in a relationship with them. Both of my husbands are still alive.

18:56They were very normal people when I married them. And except for one of them, the situation they're in now, they're in normal situations. This is the husband in an abnormal situation. Clint Shelton, her current one. He's doing life for a murder he says he didn't commit. Did you expect to be, well, I mean, did you expect to be arrested? No, didn't expect to be accused, charged or arrested. How that happened is a long story. It begins in Mullen, Texas, the quiet town where Clint grew up. You don't have no red lights. Not a one. His father, Richard, still runs the family store, mostly hardware and feed these days, but it once was also a thriving gun shop.

19:50There were showcases through here. Run by Clint. I won't say every day, but almost every day he was selling guns. Then, one day in 1981, Katherine walked into Clint's store and into his life. I had taken a shotgun in to be repaired. And one thing led to another. Was it love at first sight? Well, I don't know about love, but... Lust at first sight? I don't know about that either, but... What was it? One thing led to another. We got married. And he just seemed like a, you know, kind of a man of the West type person. And this is such a hackneyed phrase. He was there for me. How was he there for you?

20:33He was there for me because it was when this shooting of the reporter thing in Houston was all going on. What attracted you to her? She was brighter than most of the folks around, brighter than just about everyone that lived where I was raised. She's intelligent. Don't think she's not intelligent. and she's mean to go with it. Richard Shelton never warmed to his daughter-in-law. She's a bitch. 18 carat. Clint and Catherine settled in Dallas. He found work where he could, sometimes working for the local constable. Catherine knew the rules. She convinced a judge to allow her conviction for shooting Gary Taylor to be set aside.

21:17No longer a felon, she went back to practicing law. What I try to do is get justice for the people who come to me. Michael Hierro came to Catherine as a client when he was charged with robbery. His wife, Marisa, went to work for Catherine and soon became the office star. She was simply indispensable. She would do everything for you that you needed done, whatever it was. She also took on a lot of immigration cases. But then, seven months after Marisa began working for Catherine, she left. Under what circumstances did she leave? I came back from the courthouse one day, and she and all of the staff were gone.

22:00Marisa opened her own immigration consulting business here in downtown Dallas. Soon, she and Catherine were accusing each other of scamming their clients. And things between them got downright nasty. She was threatening me. She was screaming at me. It was something from a bad dream, being tormented in a high school by some horrible person from a girl gang or something. She told me that I wouldn't live to see Christmas. Catherine denies she ever threatened Marisa, but someone was out to get the heroes. On the night of December 20, 1999, Michael and Marisa drove up to their new home in Rowlett, a Dallas suburb.

22:44Michael stepped out of the car and into an ambush. It just happened. He tells me, go, run. I don't even know how the door opened. This is the weapon that was used to kill Michael Hero. Detective Supervisor David Nabors says after shooting Michael Hierro, the masked gunman took aim at Marisa as she ran. He got a live round in there, closed the shotgun and then fired at her. It's like a fire leaving a gun. Striking her in the arm and upper chest and a couple of pellets in the face. Marisa says as she lay playing dead, she heard a familiar voice coming from a second masked figure, urging the gunman to shoot again.

23:28She said, don't be a pussy, do it. And he told her, I did, I shot her. When they left, she says she stumbled to a neighbor's for help. When the police get on the scene, the first things I say, Catherine, Catherine Shelton. Marisa eventually said it was Clint who pulled the trigger, but Catherine was calling the shots. She was wearing a mask. You didn't see her face. Why are you so certain it was Catherine Shelton? Because she spoke. She said it. I heard her voice. I heard her. A lot of other people thought the Sheltons were involved, and many of them called the police when news of the shooting got out.

24:08How many calls did you get implicating the Sheltons? I was in the vicinity of 20 that evening. But there was one call that quickly proved to be the most important. It was the call of nature. An officer felt the need to answer it and visited a nearby port-a-potty. I shined his flashlight inside the portal and discovered a mask and two latex gloves. The mask was made of pantyhose with a hole cut out for the eyes. This area was cut out by the lab to do DNA work. There were telltale hairs and saliva on it. The DNA went to astronomical numbers. Prosecutor Toby Shook had all he needed to indict Clint Shelton.

24:51The scientist said it was him, no doubt about it. Was your wife involved anyway, sir? But Catherine has never been charged. I didn't understand why they didn't arrest me, because remember, she was saying that I did it. Still during Clint's trial, her name and her feud with Marisa came up a lot. Catherine Shelton's name came up because that was what the motive was. Clint Shelton never denied putting the mask and gloves in the porta potty, but says he did it the night before the murder. His explanation is a little complicated, but here it is. He says he was planning to divorce Catherine and wanted to call Marisa as a witness in his case.

25:30He says he was lurking around here outside her house to make sure this is where she really lived. I mean, why did that seem like a good idea? To put on the mask and gloves? I didn't want her to be able to identify me. That's why I was wearing the mask. He said he wore the gloves in case he got too close to the house. I was going to touch the house possibly as I walked along it or the cars. I didn't want to leave any fingerprints. I mean, does that sound believable to you? Oh, you have to know him. You have to know him. You know, he's an odd man. He's his own man. He'll do it his way. Clint was contradicted by the porta potty cleaner, who testified that he cleaned the porta potty just hours before the murder.

26:12The day after, Clint said he discarded his mask and gloves. It was just a ridiculous story and it was just an attempt for him to cover up his guilt. It took the jury about three and a half hours to pronounce Clint Shelton guilty.

26:30What we told the jury in this case is when we have enough evidence to charge anyone else involved with this offense, we would do so. But Katherine is pushing to get the case back in court now in her own way. What's at stake in this trial for you? Well, what isn't? And she intends to name the person she says was really behind the murder. The person who is responsible for Michael Higuero's death is still walking around.

27:24To say that Catherine Shelton is at a stormy life doesn't really do her justice. A number of the men in her past, linked to her romantically or otherwise, have turned up dead. Still others have suffered bizarre mishaps and misfortune. But now this Texas lawyer is on the defensive again, suspected of helping to murder the husband of a former employee. Catherine's own husband was convicted of pulling the trigger. As you might expect, Mrs. Shelton is fighting back, using the law to her advantage. Here again is Richard Schlesinger.