Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
All right, you guys, we are jumping into an ad and I wanted to let you know that listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception, along with popular podcasts and exclusive Audible Originals. All-in-one, easy app.
app. Enjoy Audible anytime while doing other things, household chores, exercising, on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. You guys, since becoming an Audible member, I've found it so easy to fit more stories into my day. Recently, I've actually been listening to Twilight on audiobook and it's been a game changer during my daily walks.
So there's more to imagine when you listen. New members can try Audible now for free for 30 days with your first audiobook included. Visit audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500. That's audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days.
All right, probably not expecting me to start this ad, but I'm gonna start this ad. The Skims ad. And let me tell you about something that Peyton's been wearing. The Skims Soft Loungewear is amazing. Feels great.
- Payne wears it, she looks great, she feels great. - Okay, it has completely transformed my lounge wear game. I love everything I own from Skims, you guys know this, so does my husband, especially my new pieces from the Soft Lounge Collection. And I kid you not, you guys, it is soft. It is the softest fabric.
It makes me feel both confident and comfortable. And it's not just lounge wear. It's actually the first thing I reach for no matter what my plans are for the day. And my favorite piece is the soft lounge tank paired with the fold over pant. You guys, I have tried every ribbed tank on the market. Nothing beats this one and it looks so adorable.
with the pants set. It is like just the most comfortable go-to outfit and the soft lounge sleep set. I have two of them and it is like sleeping on a cloud. It feels good. You feel put together at the end of the night. You guys, it is lightweight, comfortable and stylish. I live in it. - Also, if you're thinking about getting it for your significant other, just do it. They'll love it.
Shop the Skims Soft Lounge Collection at Skims.com. Now available in sizes extra, extra small to 4X. And if you haven't yet, guys, be sure to let them know that we sent you. So when you go to checkout, please don't skip this step. After you place your order, select Murder With My Husband in the survey and select our show. The drop-down menu that follows, it's a great way to support the show. It lets them know we sent you. Again, you guys, go get murdered.
the soft lounge from Skims. The entire collection is so good. And then let them know Murder With My Husband sent you. Okay, we love you. Bye. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. We just want to remind everyone that we will be at the Pinners Conference in Sandy, Utah on November 6th and 7th. And
And we would really, really, really love to meet just even one of you. It would make it so worth it for us. I know it's not technically a meet and greet and that's not the reason we're going, but I would seriously just cry if I even got to meet one of you. So we're really, really excited for that. So if you are local to Utah and you want to come see us, please, please do. Yeah, we think it'll be really fun actually. Yeah, I'm nervous, but I'm excited.
So we had a couple DM requests asking that if Garrett could take a little bit of time at the beginning and say anything that comes to his mind or talk about his week or something. I guess I didn't realize how big of a deal he was to you guys. So Garrett, it's your time to shine. You got anything to say? I wasn't prepared for this. My name is Garrett. I'm 26. I'm 26.
I like Cheez-Its and I like sports. That's basically it. There you have it, folks. I'll keep doing this every week so you can get to know Garrett a little bit more. So our case was suggested in by jer.robinson on Instagram. So thank you so much for sending it in. I'm really, really excited to get to tell Garrett this case.
Our case sources are Wikipedia, ABCnews.co, KUTV.com, Newser.com, TheSun.co.uk, KHOU.com, NBCnews.com, and TweedDailyNews.com. So let's jump into it. On July 9th, 2014, Ronald Lee Haskell headed to his ex-wife's sister's house in Harris County, Texas.
He had been raised in San Marcos, California, and lived in Alaska until 2004. He was voted as class clown in high school, as well as both prom and homecoming king. Were you ever voted as anything in high school? Nope. Were you? Yes, I was voted as drama queen. Wait, really? Well, it was with Wes. So my best friend Wes, he's a boy, and we were super dramatic in high school. We just had such a fun time together. And yeah, we were both voted drama queen and king together. That's pretty funny. So...
Haskell married Melanie Lyon on March 15, 2002 in Orange County, but they moved to Logan, Utah in 2006 and lived there until 2013. So in 2014, when he arrived at his ex-sister-in-law's house in Texas, he was dressed as a FedEx delivery man. Haskell had previously worked as a delivery man, but this was just a costume at this time.
He rang the doorbell, and when his 15-year-old niece, Cassidy Stay, answered the door, she didn't recognize her ex-uncle. She hadn't spent a lot of time with him, as his marriage with her aunt was violent and toxic. Ronald Haskell and Melanie Lyon had divorced on February 14th that year. Melanie had moved to Houston after.
Before the divorce, Haskell had faced domestic violence charges after dragging his wife out of bed by her hair and beating her up in front of their four children. Oh my gosh. Needless to say, Ronald Haskell was not a very good man. On July 8th, 2003, just about a year before he showed up on the Stay family's doorstep, Melanie had actually taken a protective order out against her husband and gained full custody of the kids after the divorce.
Afterwards, Haskell moved back to San Marcos to live with his parents, where just a week before heading to Texas, he duct-taped his own mom to a chair in her garage and threatened to kill her.
So just a rewrap of our timeline. Haskell and Melanie get married. They have a very violent marriage. They decide to get a divorce. And in the violent marriage, he was beating her up. It was horrible. They get a divorce on February 14th. Did he never go to jail for any of the domestic violence? No, the charges were dropped and just like...
Because he pled guilty, they were lowered to like just a misdemeanor or something like where you wouldn't serve time for. Okay. So they get divorced and she gets custody of the kids and he moves back to California to live with his parents. At which time he ties up his mom, threatens to kill her and then leaves California to evade the cops because he just tied up his mom. And when he leaves California, he runs off to Texas and is now at his wife's sister's house where his wife's sister's daughter lives.
has answered the door. Okay, got it. Cassidy, the daughter, told whom she thought was a random FedEx delivery man that her parents weren't home to sign for the package he was delivering.
A little note here. My mom used to tell me and my siblings that if she or my dad weren't home and an adult came to the door to not answer, but if we did answer the door by accident to never tell them that they weren't home, just tell them to come. They couldn't come to the door right now, but they could come back later. Obviously, this is nothing against the family in our story. This is just a helpful tip for those listening. Don't ever let your kids tell another adult that there's no adults in the house. Yeah.
Haskell turned around after hearing that 33-year-old Katie and 39-year-old Stephen Stay weren't home. That's interesting that he would turn around knowing they weren't home. Granted, we haven't gotten to this story yet, but I assume his intention is to go in there and do something. Yeah. So I actually wrote this because I too was unsure why he turned around, but I'm guessing it's because...
The parents not being home wasn't according to his plan. Like he was hoping that they would be home or that one of them would answer the door. And so he just panicked and left because not even a few minutes later, Ronald Haskell walked back up to the stay family's front door, rang the doorbell again. And when the teenage daughter Cassidy answered once again, he told her who he was. He was like, I'm your uncle. This made Cassidy really nervous because why had he lied the first time?
Why was he wearing a FedEx outfit when he wasn't a FedEx delivery man? She also knew that the divorce between him and her mom's sister was ugly. And so she just had an uneasy feeling. She's like, why is he here? Yeah. Listening to her gut, Cassidy tries to close the door on her ex-uncle. But Ronald Haskell came there with a purpose and forced his way into the house anyways.
Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your...
I made that up. I went off the ad. Let me go back to the ad read. The best way is to uproot your entire life. Drop your... Oh. You literally followed the ad. I didn't read the rest of that. Drop yourself in the middle of a new country and figure it out from there. I just want to let everyone know that's what I did. But... That's what I did. It worked. If you're not ready for that, you can still learn a new language the next best way, and that is with Babbel. See...
Speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the science-backed language learning app that gets you talking. Wasting hundreds of dollars on private tutors is the old school way of learning a new language. Babbel's 10 minute lessons are quick and handcrafted by over 200 language experts ready to get you talking your new language in three weeks because talking is the key to really knowing any language.
Designed by real people for having real conversation, Babbel gets you talking. You guys, I actually use Babbel to brush up on Spanish when we travel. I love it. It is so easy. And then I can actually kind of keep up with what's going on. And with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. So there's no pressure. Buy Babbel and travel.
Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash husband. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash husband spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash husband. Rules and restrictions may apply.
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms.
and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. Peyton and I love Shopify. We have been using it for, I mean, I've been using it for six years now, so many years, and it's amazing. It just keeps getting better and better with more updates. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.
Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband. Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work. You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out. That's
That's how it was for me, so I cleared out my cabinet and reset my health with CBD from CB Distillery. CBD Distillery's targeted formulations are made from the highest quality clean ingredients, no fluff, no fillers, just pure effective CBD solutions designed to help support your health.
In two non-clinical surveys, 81% of customers experienced more calm, 80% said CBD helped with pain after physical activity, and an impressive 90% actually said they slept better with CBD. I have personally used CBD before to help me sleep. I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping and I couldn't figure out what to do to help. And honestly, CBD did help. And if that's something you're struggling with, give it a try. Check it out.
If you struggle with a health concern and haven't found relief, make the change like I did to CBD Distillery. And with over 2 million customers and a solid 100% money back guarantee, CBD Distillery is the source to trust. You guys, we have a 20% discount to get you started. So if you've ever wanted to do CBD, now is the time. Visit cbdistillery.com and use code husband for 20% off. That's cbdistillery.com.
.com code husband, CBD distillery.com code husband.
At this point, Cassidy knows something is very wrong. Haskell gathers her and her siblings and moves all of them into the living room. Cassidy, the 15-year-old, turns on Netflix in order to ease the panic of her siblings who are obviously scared. What? Sorry, what year are we in again? 2004? 14. Oh, 2014. Yes. Okay, you said Netflix, so I wanted to make sure I got the year right. 2004, just watching Netflix. Yeah, I was like, whoa, what? No, 2014.
Her siblings are 13-year-old Brian, 9-year-old Emily, 7-year-old Rebecca, and 4-year-old Zachary. And they're all gathered in the living room watching Netflix that Cassidy turned on in order to ease them because there's this random guy in there that's forcing them into the living room. That's so scary. Yeah.
They sit and wait, waiting for their parents to come home and meet the same fate they had. Eventually, both Katie and Stephen stay, arrive home, only to be met by Ronald Haskell and his loaded gun. So he had a gun this whole time. He ushers the parents into the living room with their five children and ties all of them up. Haskell then forces all of them onto their stomachs in a line.
Do you know if they had a gun by chance? Not like with them right there. I don't know if they had a gun in the house, but none of them had it on them. Okay. What did Haskell want? He told them that he wanted them to tell him where his ex-wife was, but it didn't matter what they said. His true intentions became clear. He was on a rampage after the divorce from his wife and planned to kill all of her family that he could. The stay family just happened to be the first ones.
When Katie, the mom, realized what was going on and that no matter what her family told Haskell, he already knew what he was going to do with them, she knew she had to do something. She stood up and tried to fight him off. But remember that she's tied up.
So she didn't get very far before Haskell raised his gun and shot her in the head. No way. Holy crap. I wasn't expecting that. Her kids are horrified. Cassidy throws her hands over her ears, shuts her eyes and screams. Cause like, what are you supposed to do? Yeah. I can't even, my mind can't even comprehend that.
Ronald Haskell then does what he came there to do. He moves down the line of the stay family. He shoots every single family member in the back of the head execution style because they're laying there on their stomachs, remember?
As soon as he's confirmed that all family members are dead, he goes back outside, carjacks the family's car, and flees. Someone's got to hear this, right? There's probably, what, seven gunshots? So, 13. Oh. Because he shot a couple of them multiple times. Oh. It comes out later in trial that the delivery, the box he was using to pose was actually a silencer for his gun. Oh, okay. So he had a silencer on.
Haskell is heading to his wife's parents' house next. They were next on his hit list. The Stay Children's grandparents' house. When all of a sudden, he's surrounded by police. No way. How had they found him? Now, if this part doesn't tell you how immature Ronald Haskell is, I don't know what does. Surrounded by law enforcement after just murdering an entire family, including children, for absolutely no reason, Haskell decides to try and evade the police.
He takes off, and a chase ensues. About two dozen cop cars are chasing Ronald Haskell through town, where they end up being able to disable him with a spike strip. They end up in a cul-de-sac around 7 p.m. that's only actually three miles away from where the Stay family lay dead.
They blocked him in with two armored cars, but that still wasn't enough for Haskell. To further prove his narcissistic behavior, he proceeds to use a cell phone to communicate with the police while holding his pistol to his own head. This standoff lasted for three freaking hours. So kind of an interesting or I guess random question.
why can't the police do anything when he's holding his own gun to his head after he just killed people? Yeah. I mean, kind of a weird question, but you see where I'm trying to get with it. It's a common thought, but even if he's a danger to him, so I mean the same thing happened with OJ. Yeah. OJ led the police on a chase solely because he,
They said he was holding a gun to his head because even they don't even want to lose one more life without a fair trial. Does that make sense? Yes, that makes sense. So they can't let him hurt himself or others in the process of arresting him. I guess it's frustrating because he just killed...
people, innocent people for the whole family for no reason. Oh yeah. And now just like it's immature. Well, literally this is what I said. I'm like, this makes me so mad because I'm upset that he can sit there and act like a child for three hours while the stay family is all gone. Just three miles away. Yeah. That's horrible. That's so ridiculous, but that's just the way it is.
Ronald Haskell is taken in and informed just how the cops had found him so fast. A 911 call had come in earlier that day from a 15-year-old girl who claimed that her ex-uncle had shown up at her house, killed her whole family, and was headed to her grandparents' house next. What? That's right. Cassidy Stay, who answered the door so innocently earlier that day, had lived through the attack.
and had gone on to call 911 after playing dead until her uncle left her house that day. No way. She had thrown her hands up when he shot her in the back of the head while she was laying on her stomach, and the bullet had actually hit her finger because it got in the way and so it only grazed her head. She immediately faked death
and sat there with all of her actually dead family until the murderer left, at which point she then escaped to a neighbor's house to call police and tell them that he was headed to her grandparents' house next. I have so many questions. How did she not scream in pain after the bullet had hit her finger? I know. So it goes on later to say that she...
said that there were angels telling her what to do in that moment. And so she was screaming like as he was going down the line, obviously all the kids were screaming. She was screaming. And then she said a voice just told her to be quiet. And so she did and she had her hands up over. And so this part kind of confuses me because it says she's tied, but I'm wondering if her hands are tied in front so she can still use her hands to cover her ears. Yeah.
And that when he shot her she felt it because it like her finger got in the way It didn't hit her head because it hit her finger And she said it like at which point her body just went limp And she said at that point she automatically knew that she just had to pretend that she had died Yeah, I mean, I assume she was in shock too and everything. Yeah, but so because how do you not scream? Yeah, like when you know, you just got hit by a bullet, but you lived and
Like, how do you not freak out? That is so crazy. Especially when you know. And then for her to have to sit there. I mean, she goes into detail about what sitting there was like, but it was kind of gruesome. So I'm not going to go quite into detail. But she just had to sit there with all of her other family who was actually dead and pretend to be dead as well until her uncle left, which is just horrible. Yeah. That is horrible. No one should ever, ever have to go through that.
That's so crazy. She was taken to the hospital immediately and released only two days later because only her finger had taken the serious injury. Ronald Haskell was charged with six counts of capital murder on July 10th, 2014.
It wasn't that hard when Cassidy was a witness and identified her uncle. So July 10th, keep in mind, that's only two days after this all happened. What's the difference between capital murder and just first degree murder? So first degree murder is any type of murder that's premeditated. We know that first degree. Capital murder is when you can be charged with the death penalty because you live in a state that does capital punishment, which in Texas you can use the death penalty. So they're calling it capital murder. Got it.
When in the courtroom getting his charges announced against him, Haskell collapsed and had to be wheeled out in a wheelchair. I guess he wasn't such a macho murderer at this time in the courtroom because when they're announcing, oh, you killed this and this and this and this, he just collapses. It makes me so mad. To even begin, the trial was a lengthy process because the defense was pleading the insanity defense. So they were saying he did it because he was insane at the time.
When you do so, you have to go through the long process of investigating someone's mental health, which can be dragged out. So this took a long time before they could actually start the real trial.
Cassidy's grandparents, whose lives had essentially been saved by her heroic act to call and inform police that Ronald was heading to their house next, have since applauded their granddaughter. According to Dan Good, Ryan Owens, and Megan Kennelly with ABC News, they said, "'We are in awe of her bravery and courage in calling 911, an act that is likely to have saved all of our lives. She is our hero.'" Because keep in mind, he was going on to kill the rest of the family.
So if she hadn't have lived and called cops and said he's going to this house next, he might have gotten to the three or four more houses. Yeah. Once the trial eventually started in September of 2019. So five years later. Oh. Cassidy bravely testified for two hours on stand about what happened to her and her family that day at the hands of her ex-uncle.
She said that when she recognized him after he told her who he was, she immediately told him not to hurt them. She just knew that he was there for a bad reason. According to Juan with KUTV, Cassidy also told jurors while her siblings were watching Netflix and they were waiting for their parents to get there, she told Haskell all of her siblings' names and ages in hopes to appeal to his humanity.
She thought if he knew their names and ages, he wouldn't hurt the kids. This is heartbreaking. It's so sad. It really is. Because she's sitting there going, she knew he was going to hurt them. Yeah. So she's like, maybe if I tell him about the kids, he won't hurt the kids. Which is just, no 15-year-old should have to think that. Ah, this is so heartbreaking. Cassidy claims that Haskell told her mother he was coming to get his kids back.
She says she was screaming as Haskell went down the line shooting, but a small voice told her to be quiet. We talked about that. When she slowly got up after hoping that Haskell was for sure gone, she noticed that her father's body was guarding her littlest brother, Zach, as if he was trying to shield him from the inevitable bullets coming their way.
And so this part's kind of sad because at first you think that the dad maybe hopped on top of the little boy to try to, when he realized what was happening. But what actually happened was the dad was shot first and the little boy ran over to him and crawled under him because he was scared, but he still shot him anyways, which just goes to like, wasn't like it was just some body sitting there. He had to shoot like they were,
They were reacting. They were moving. They were screaming. It was chaos. Yeah, I think I'm just still thinking about the whole insanity plea. And that's just such a cop out. It is. Like, I don't want to be...
I guess rude to those that might actually be quote unquote insane, but this just feels like such a cop out to me. Oh yeah. Well, we see a lot of people take this plea as soon as they realize they're in trouble. Yeah. Um, Cassidy actually ended her testimony by claiming that Haskell was not disoriented or frantic during your deal. She feels like he knew what he was doing. It was definitely all him and that he wasn't insane at the moment.
Ronald Haskell's attorney declined to cross-examine her, which is actually a really good thing because a lot of victims, when cross-examined, have to relive a whole bunch. I mean, it's already hard enough to testify, but then to be cross-examined and have everything you say questioned is super hard. And his attorney declined to do so, which is actually super beneficial for her. Why do you think that is? Do you think he just knew that? I mean, anything she was going to say was most likely going to hurt his client. Yeah. Because how do you, I mean, her whole family was killed. Totally. Yeah.
It came out at trial that Ronald Haskell actually stopped at Sonic before heading to the grandparents house, which is how the cops stopped him before he got there, which is just disgusting. Like he's on this, this hit list. And in the middle of the two, he's like, Oh, I'm going to go. I'm going to go get a corn dog. Yeah. So gross.
Ronald Haskell claimed at trial that he had three different voices in his head telling him to kill them and that at night a half bison, half man would stand over him. So he like dived in head first to this insanity plea.
Jurors deliberated for eight hours, which spanned over two days, and came back in rejection of Ronald Haskell's insanity defense. Cassidy was present when the verdict was read, had her hands clasped in a prayer stance beforehand. She immediately wiped away tears as it was read that he was guilty and hugged the prosecutors.
In October of 2019, Ronald Haskell was sentenced to death after Cassidy gave a strong victim impact statement. She talked about moving on and forgetting Ronald Haskell.
So he's currently on death row, supposed to be put to death by lethal injection. Yeah, because it was just in September, correct? That he was... Yeah, in 2019. 2019. The elementary school that the younger two attended held a memorial for the family as well as a GoFundMe for Cassidy that had more than 16,000 donations totaling around $406,000 for her. Wow, that's awesome. At the memorial, Cassidy told people that she knew angels were protecting her during the incident and telling her what to do.
According to Matt Cantor with Newser.com, she also informed everyone that in her favorite book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore claims that happiness can be found even in the darkest times. This led Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling to reach out to Cassidy with a letter and a package. Elizabeth Armstrong Moore with Newser says, the letter is handwritten in purple ink in the style of Dumbledore, according to the Telegraph, while the package includes a signed copy of the book, a
a wand, an acceptance letter to Hogwarts, and a list of supplies needed for the famous school. Dang, what a strong woman. Honestly, that's just so crazy. Cassidy is now engaged and attending school here in Utah.
And that's the story of Cassidy stay the stay family. That's a crazy one. I didn't expect it to be. I mean, it was obviously a murder story, but it was also a survivor story. You know what I'm trying to say? Yeah, no, totally. I think this case did kind of catch a lot of headlines solely because she survived the attack. I mean, it might've caught headlines because it was a full family annihilation basically, but,
But no, I mean, I just think you can't even put yourself into her situation, having to lay there while all of that is going on. And she goes into more detail about what that situation was like. And I'm not reading it here because it,
Like I can't, it's unfathomable. It's heartbreaking. And I can't handle that. But just for her to number one have been shot, like the bullet grazed her head was in her finger. So she shot, she's only 15 and to get up, like not even knowing for sure that the murderer is gone, run to the neighbor's house and immediately tell the cops he's going here next. Not I'm dying. I'm dying. Like she had enough conscious thought to be like, he's going to hurt my grandparents next. So you need to get there.
Dang, that sucks that he almost left, but then turned around and went back. I know. That's just, that's so weird. Would the outcome have been different if the parents had been there when he tried to come in and it wouldn't have just been kids? I have no idea, yeah. I don't know. I mean, also though, thank goodness he stopped at Sonic because that also probably saved the grandparents' life because he might have beat the cops there. Oh, yeah, for sure. So, I mean... Yeah, it's so crazy that...
It's sometimes so hard to explain these words. I just keep using crazy over and over. I'm sure listeners are like... That needs to be on your merch when Garrett comes out with his merch line. That's so crazy. That's so crazy. That's crazy. But it is. I mean, I don't know how else you explain it. It's just mind-boggling. Yeah, it really is. So reminder that we will be at the Pinners Conference November 6th and 7th. We would just...
Love to see anyone there. Also, we will be posting images on our social media for this week's story. Go ahead and follow us, Murder With My Husband, on all of our social media accounts. And yeah, we'll see you guys next week. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye. Bye.
