Michael Perry was one of the youngest death row inmates ever executed in Texas. At just 19 years old when he committed the crimes, he was far from the hardened criminal most people picture on death row. His last words, his last meal, and the horrifying reason he ended up in the death chamber have shocked people around the world. He killed three innocent people over something many of us use every day without a second thought—cars.
On October 24th, 2001, two teenagers decided they needed better transportation. What happened next would shock even seasoned detectives. In less than 24 hours, Michael Perry and his friend **Jason Burkett** turned a quiet Texas community into a crime scene that still haunts investigators today. Three victims: a 50‑year‑old nurse, her 16‑year‑old son, and his 18‑year‑old best friend—all dead because two young men wanted to drive something nicer.
But here’s the twist that makes this case even more disturbing. Both killers were caught. Both confessed. Both were found guilty of the same crimes. Yet only one of them would die for what they did together. The other is still alive in prison today, eligible for parole in 2041. How does a judge decide which teenager lives and which one dies? What happened in that courtroom that saved one killer’s life while sealing the other’s fate?
Michael Perry never had a fair start in life. His teenage birth mother gave him up for adoption. His adoptive parents loved him deeply, but they had no idea what they were getting into. By first grade, doctors diagnosed Michael with **attention deficit disorder**. His mind couldn’t focus and he couldn’t sit still. But that was just the beginning of his problems.
By seventh grade, he was diagnosed with **oppositional defiant disorder**. By eighth grade, it was **conduct disorder**. Each label was just a more technical way of saying the same thing: Michael was becoming dangerous. His adoptive parents tried everything—counseling, therapy, mental hospitals. Nothing worked. Michael stole his mother’s jewelry and tried to sell it. He crashed the family van into a mailbox.
He broke into neighbors’ homes just to destroy things, tearing wallpaper and carving up wooden trim. When regular schools couldn’t handle him, his desperate parents sent him to **Boys Town** in Nebraska, a reform school for troubled kids. But even there, Michael’s darkness showed through. After just three months, he made a threat that chilled everyone who heard it.
He told a staff member, “You people work here. I don’t know why people like me are going to rape or kill your kids.” They immediately moved him to the locked section for four months. But Michael wasn’t getting better. He was getting worse. His parents made one last attempt to save him. They sent him to **Casa by the Sea**, a private treatment center in Mexico for American kids with serious problems.
Michael graduated high school there, but the moment he turned 18, he walked away from the program and never looked back. What happened next was a nightmare. Michael ended up homeless on the streets of San Diego. With no ID, no job skills, and no idea how to survive, he made choices that would haunt him forever. An older man offered him shelter in exchange for sexual favors.
Michael later admitted, “If I had the choice between starving or selling myself, I’m going to sell myself.” Drugs became his escape. He stole prescription pills and sold them to feed his addiction. When his adoptive parents offered to let him come home if he got a job, Michael chose the streets instead.
Jason Burkett’s childhood was pure horror from day one. His mother used methamphetamine while pregnant with him, damaging his brain before he was even born. After birth, she neglected her children, often leaving the oldest sibling to raise the younger ones. But the real monster in Jason’s life was his father, **Delbert Burkett**.
Delbert was a career criminal who turned their home into a war zone. Jason watched his father beat his mother regularly. He saw him shoot her with a pellet gun. On at least one occasion, he witnessed his father rape his mother. The abuse wasn’t limited to his mother. Delbert beat Jason and his siblings regularly. The older siblings, damaged by their own trauma, passed the violence down to Jason.
Their house ran on food stamps and fear. Despite all this horror, Jason still looked up to his father. That’s how twisted his world had become. The man who destroyed his family was still his hero. In the months before October 2001, Michael Perry and Jason Burkett found each other. Two broken 19‑year‑olds with nothing to lose and everything to prove.
They bonded over drugs, crime, and a shared anger at the world. Michael was already spiraling fast. In May 2001, police arrested him for shooting at a house—just firing bullets at someone’s home for no reason. By October 2nd, he was arrested again for trying to use a fake prescription to get 100 Xanax pills. He was clearly desperate for drugs and money.
Jason was dealing with his own demons. Years of watching his father’s violence had taught him that taking what you want was normal. Hurting people to get it was just part of life. Together, they made a dangerous combination. Michael had the reckless anger. Jason had learned that violence was the solution to every problem. Both were broke. Both were addicted. Both were running out of options.
That’s when they started talking about cars. Nice cars. The kind people drove around the wealthy neighborhoods near Lake Conroe. Michael and Jason were tired of walking everywhere or borrowing beat‑up trucks. They wanted something better, and they knew exactly where to find it. The conversation that would doom three innocent people probably started simple: “We need better rides.”
But in the minds of two damaged teenagers with no moral compass, that innocent wish became a deadly plan. Neither of them had any idea that their desire for better transportation would end with three bodies and two very different fates.
**Sandra Stotler** had built a good life for herself and her son. At 50 years old, she worked as a nurse at Conroe Regional Medical Center, helping sick people get better every day. She was the kind of person who dedicated her life to caring for others. Sandra lived in the **Bentwater** subdivision near Lake Conroe, one of those gated communities where people moved to feel safe.
Beautiful homes, well‑maintained lawns—the kind of neighborhood where kids could ride bikes without parents worrying. Sandra had worked hard to give her 16‑year‑old son, **Adam**, this kind of life. Adam Stotler was a typical teenager. He had friends, went to school, and was close to his mother. Like most kids his age, he loved cars.
His mother had bought him a white **Isuzu Rodeo** to drive. Nothing too fancy, but reliable transportation for a responsible kid. Sandra herself drove a red **Chevrolet Camaro**. It wasn’t the newest model, but it was sporty and eye‑catching. To Sandra, it was just her car. To Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, it represented everything they wanted but couldn’t have.
**Jeremy Richardson** was 18 years old and Adam’s best friend. He was the kind of kid who was always welcome at the Stotler house. Sandra treated him like a second son, and Jeremy looked up to Adam like a younger brother. On October 24th, Jeremy was just hanging out with his best friend, probably planning their weekend like any other teenagers.
Maybe they’d go to a movie, drive around town, or just play video games. Normal teenage stuff. Jeremy had no idea that two strangers had been watching the Stotler house. He didn’t know that someone had decided his friend’s family had too much and needed to be robbed. He couldn’t have imagined that wanting to help someone in trouble would cost him his life.
From the outside, the Stotlers looked like they had everything Michael and Jason wanted: a nice house in a safe neighborhood, two decent cars, a stable family with money to spend on good things. But what Michael and Jason saw as wealth was really just the result of Sandra’s hard work. She wasn’t rich. She was a single mother who worked long hours at the hospital to provide for her son.
The cars weren’t luxury vehicles. They were practical transportation for a working mom and her teenage boy. The tragic irony is that Sandra probably would have helped Michael and Jason if they had just asked. As a nurse, she spent her days helping people in crisis. If two troubled teenagers had knocked on her door asking for food or help finding jobs, she might have tried to point them in the right direction.
Instead, they saw her as a target. They reduced a caring mother and her innocent son to obstacles standing between them and the cars they wanted. On October 24th, 2001, Sandra was probably thinking about her next hospital shift. Adam was probably excited about his plans with Jeremy. Jeremy was just being a good friend. None of them knew that two desperate teenagers had already decided their fate.
Michael Perry and Jason Burkett thought they had a simple plan. They would drive to Sandra Stotler’s house in Jason’s girlfriend’s truck and ask to spend the night. Simple. Friendly. Nothing suspicious about two young guys needing a place to crash. The plan was straightforward: wait for the family to fall asleep, quietly take the car keys, and drive away with both the red Camaro and the Isuzu Rodeo.
By morning, they’d be long gone, and the Stotlers would just file an insurance claim. Nobody was supposed to get hurt. That’s how they justified it. When they arrived at Sandra’s house that evening, everything seemed to be going according to plan. Sandra answered the door and recognized Michael. He was an acquaintance of her son Adam. She was polite, even welcoming.
But then Sandra told them something that changed everything: Adam wouldn’t be home for another two hours. This created a problem. The original plan required the whole family to be asleep. With Adam gone, they couldn’t just hang around the house for hours without raising suspicion. Sandra might call her son. She might start asking questions.
Michael and Jason started to leave. They got back in the truck and began driving away. But somewhere between Sandra’s front door and the street, desperation took over. They had come this far. They had seen the cars. They knew Sandra was alone. Why wait for the perfect moment when they could just take what they wanted right now?
Michael and Jason parked the truck down the street and walked back to Sandra’s house. In their minds, they had crossed a line. They were no longer just thieves. Jason would distract Sandra at the front door while Michael snuck inside through the garage. Michael grabbed a shotgun they had brought with them. The plan was no longer about quietly stealing keys. It was about eliminating whoever stood in their way.
Michael crept through Sandra’s house like a predator. He knew the layout well enough to find the laundry room, where he hid and waited. Sandra had no idea that death was lurking just a few feet away. Michael knocked on the back door from inside the house. When Sandra came to see who was there, he was ready.
The first shotgun blast hit Sandra before she could even process what was happening. The woman who spent her days saving lives at the hospital was suddenly fighting for her own. But Sandra was stronger than Michael expected. Even with a shotgun wound, she tried to get up. She was still fighting, still trying to survive. That’s when Michael fired the second shot.
This time, Sandra didn’t get back up. Michael and Jason covered her body with sheets from her own home. They loaded her into the truck like she was a piece of furniture. Then they drove to **Crater Lake** and dumped her body in the water, watching it sink beneath the surface. But they weren’t done.
Michael still wanted that red Camaro, but he couldn’t find the keys anywhere in the house. Sandra’s murder had been for nothing if they couldn’t get what they came for. So they made another decision that would seal their fate. They would come back later and get both cars from Adam when he returned home.
Michael and Jason drove to Conroe and picked up Jason’s girlfriend, **Kristen Willis**. Now there were three of them in the truck, heading back toward Bentwater, where Sandra’s body was already growing cold in Crater Lake. The gated community presented a new problem: they didn’t know the entry code. They couldn’t just drive in. So they parked outside the gate and waited for Adam to come home.
While they sat in the dark, they came up with their story. They would tell Adam that a friend of theirs had accidentally shot himself in the woods and needed help. It was the kind of emergency that would make any decent person want to help immediately. When Adam’s white Isuzu Rodeo finally appeared at the gate, **Jeremy Richardson** was with him.
The two teenagers had probably spent the evening doing normal things—maybe a movie, hanging out, or just driving around. They had no idea they were driving toward their deaths. Michael and Jason flagged them down with their fake emergency story. A friend was hurt in the woods. They needed help right away. Could Adam and Jeremy follow them to where their friend was bleeding?
Adam and Jeremy didn’t hesitate. When someone needs help, you help them. That’s how they were raised. That’s what good people do. They followed the truck toward a wooded area, probably talking about how they could help, maybe worried about how bad the injury was. Kristen stayed in the truck. She would later say she was scared of Jason, but she didn’t warn the boys.
She just watched as they walked into the woods with two killers. What happened next was pure evil. Jason Burkett shot Jeremy Richardson first. The 18‑year‑old probably never saw it coming. One moment he was trying to help someone, the next he was dying on the ground. Then Jason walked back to where Adam was and asked him a chilling question: “Did you hear those gunshots?”
Adam must have realized something was seriously wrong. But Jason told him he would take him to his friend. Still hoping Jeremy was okay, Adam followed him deeper into the woods. That’s when Jason shot Adam three times. The 16‑year‑old who had gone to help someone died next to his best friend in the Texas woods.
Two teenagers who had their whole lives ahead of them were now just bodies on the ground. Michael walked over to Adam’s corpse and rifled through his pockets, taking his wallet and car keys as if he were shopping. Then he and Jason drove away in the Isuzu Rodeo, leaving the two dead boys behind. But they still weren’t finished.
They drove back to Sandra’s house, and Michael finally got what he had killed for—the keys to the red Camaro. With Sandra dead in the lake and her son dead in the woods, Michael Perry finally had his prize. He drove off in the Camaro while Jason followed in the Rodeo. Then, as if three murders weren’t enough for one night, they went to a nightclub to celebrate.
For two days, Michael Perry thought he had gotten away with triple murder. He drove around in Sandra’s stolen Camaro like it was his own car, probably feeling proud of what he had done. But on October 26th, his luck ran out. A police officer spotted him committing a traffic violation in the red Camaro. When the officer tried to pull him over, Michael panicked and led police on a high‑speed chase.
The chase ended when Michael crashed the car and tried to run away on foot. Police caught him quickly, and when they searched his pockets, they found **Adam Stotler’s wallet**. Michael was so arrogant that he gave police Adam’s name when they arrested him. He was booked into jail as Adam Stotler and released on bond.
The next day, October 27th, a horrifying discovery changed everything. Someone found **Sandra Stotler’s body** floating in Crater Lake. The nurse who had dedicated her life to helping others was now a murder victim. Police immediately started looking for her son Adam and her missing cars. They had no idea that Adam was already dead in the woods or that his killer had been arrested using his name.
On October 29th, Michael’s paranoia reached a breaking point. He showed up at Kristen’s house with a loaded shotgun and pointed it at her head. His words were chilling: “I have already killed somebody. It’s not going to hurt me to kill anyone else.” Kristen was terrified, but she didn’t call police. Not yet.
The final act came on October 30th. A Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy spotted the stolen Isuzu Rodeo at a truck stop. Michael and Jason were inside, probably thinking they were safe. They were wrong. Their killing spree was about to end. And their real nightmare was just beginning.
When police finally cornered Michael Perry and Jason Burkett at that truck stop, their desperate escape attempt told the whole story. They hit a sheriff’s deputy with the stolen car while trying to flee, but the officer managed to shoot out their back tire. The Rodeo crashed into a nearby store, and both killers tried to run on foot with their shotgun. They didn’t get far.
At the police station, detectives read Michael his Miranda rights and began questioning him. What happened next shocked even experienced investigators. Michael didn’t just confess. He gave them every gruesome detail of the triple murder. He told them exactly how he hid in Sandra’s laundry room with the shotgun. He described shooting her twice when she came to the door.
He explained how they covered her body with sheets and dumped her in Crater Lake. He walked them through the lie they told Adam and Jeremy about their friend being hurt in the woods. Most chilling of all, Michael described watching Jason shoot both boys and then stealing Adam’s wallet and keys from his dead body. He even told them about going to the nightclub afterward to celebrate.
The confession was so detailed that only someone who was actually there could have known these facts. Michael knew things about the crime scenes that hadn’t been released to the public. He knew exactly where the bodies were found and how they had been killed. But the confession wasn’t the only evidence against him.
Crime scene investigators found Michael’s DNA on a cigarette butt underneath one of the victims. Physical evidence doesn’t lie, and it placed Michael Perry at the scene of the murders. However, Michael’s story started changing almost immediately after his confession. Once he realized how serious his situation was, he began claiming that detectives had forced him to confess.
He said they physically intimidated him and coerced him into admitting to crimes he didn’t commit. Then Michael tried a different strategy. He started blaming everything on Jason. According to his new story, Jason was the real killer who manipulated him into being there. Michael claimed he was just an innocent bystander caught up in Jason’s violent rampage.
The problem was that the evidence didn’t support this. His DNA was at the crime scene. His confession contained details only the killer would know. Witnesses had seen him with the stolen cars and the victims’ belongings. Most damaging of all, Kristen was ready to testify about what she had witnessed that night. She had been in the truck when they lured the boys to the woods.
She had seen Michael threaten her with a shotgun afterward. She knew the truth about what both men had done. Michael could change his story all he wanted, but the evidence against him was overwhelming. To simplify the legal process, prosecutors decided to try Michael Perry and Jason Burkett separately for different murders.
Michael would be tried for killing **Sandra Stotler**, while Jason would be tried for killing **Jeremy Richardson**. Both faced the death penalty. Michael’s trial began in February 2003, more than a year after the murders. The prosecution’s case was devastating. They played Michael’s detailed confession for the jury, showing how calmly he described shooting an innocent woman in her own home.
The DNA evidence was undeniable. Michael’s cigarette butt found at the crime scene proved he had been there. Crime scene photos showed the brutal reality of Sandra’s murder. Kristen testified about what she had seen and about Michael’s threats afterward. Her testimony painted him as a cold‑blooded killer with no remorse.
Michael’s defense team argued that his confession had been coerced by police. They claimed he was young and scared and had been pressured into admitting things he hadn’t done. But the jury didn’t buy it. After just two hours of deliberation, they found Michael Perry **guilty of capital murder**. The sentencing phase took longer.
The jury had to decide whether Michael deserved to die for his crimes or spend life in prison. They deliberated for six hours before reaching a decision. Michael Perry would be executed. Jason Burkett’s trial eight months later followed a similar pattern. The evidence against him was just as strong, and he was also found guilty of capital murder.
But something different happened during his sentencing. Jason’s defense team brought in family members and psychologists to testify about his horrific childhood. They painted a picture of a young man broken by years of abuse and neglect. Then they did something that would save Jason’s life: they brought his father, Delbert, from prison to testify.
Delbert had been serving time for indecency with a child. He was a broken man who finally understood the damage he had done to his family. Standing before the jury, he begged them to spare his son’s life. “I was a horrible father,” Delbert told the jury through tears. “I failed my son and my family.” The courtroom fell silent as this career criminal took responsibility for creating the monster his son had become.
Two women in the gallery broke down crying. Jason later said this was the only time during the entire trial that he became emotional. Seeing his father finally acknowledge the pain he had caused was overwhelming. The jury deliberated on Jason’s sentence and returned with their decision. By just **two votes**, they chose life in prison instead of death.
Two killers. Same crimes. Different fates. **Lisa Baillon**, Sandra’s daughter, watched both trials with mixed emotions. She had lost her mother and her brother to these two killers, and she wanted justice for both. When Michael Perry got the death penalty, she felt it was appropriate. But when Jason got life in prison, she was frustrated.
At the time, Texas didn’t have life without parole, which meant Jason could potentially be released after 40 years. “All the testimony proved to me was that Burkett was irreparably broken,” she said. But broken or not, he had still helped murder her family. The community in Montgomery County was shaken. People in Bentwater started locking doors they had never locked before.
The randomness of the crime—three people killed simply for their cars—made everyone feel vulnerable. Years later, the case caught the attention of filmmaker **Werner Herzog**, who made a documentary called *Into the Abyss* about Michael Perry’s final days on death row. Herzog interviewed Perry extensively but concluded that the evidence of his guilt was overwhelming.
Despite the attention and the appeals, Michael Perry continued to maintain his innocence right up until his execution day. He never admitted what everyone else knew—that he was a killer who had destroyed three families for two cars.
Michael Perry spent nearly nine years on death row at the Polunsky Unit in Texas, never once taking responsibility. While other inmates found religion or accepted what they had done, Michael stuck to his story: he was innocent, framed, a victim of the system. His lawyers filed appeal after appeal, trying every legal argument they could.
They claimed his confession was coerced. They argued he didn’t have effective legal representation. They said he was too young to fully grasp the consequences of his actions. But Texas courts weren’t persuaded. One by one, every appeal was rejected. In a final attempt to stop his execution, Michael’s lawyers focused on the medical examiner’s testimony about Sandra’s time of death.
The examiner had said Sandra died on October 26th, but Michael claimed he was in jail that day on a traffic charge. His lawyers argued this proved he couldn’t have killed her because he was locked up when she died. They demanded a new trial based on this supposed new evidence. The problem is that forensic science isn’t an exact clock—especially when a body has been in water for days.
Determining the precise time of death becomes nearly impossible. The medical examiner’s date was an estimate with a range, not a precise timestamp. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed the argument and rejected it. So did the U.S. Supreme Court. Every judge who looked at the case reached the same conclusion: Michael Perry was guilty, and his execution would go forward.
As July 1st, 2010 approached, Michael’s options ran out. His adoptive father had died just weeks earlier, adding another layer of grief to his final days. Even then, facing death, Michael refused to admit what he had done. At 6:03 p.m. on July 1st, 2010, Michael Perry was strapped to a gurney in the Huntsville death chamber.
Through the window, he could see the families of his victims watching him. His adoptive mother, **Gail Perry**, was there too, crying for the son she had tried so hard to save. As the lethal drugs began to flow through his veins, Michael gave his final statement. “I want to start off by saying to everyone involved in this atrocity that they are all forgiven by me,” he said, his voice breaking.
Even in his final moments, Michael called his own execution an “atrocity”—not the murders he had committed, but the punishment he was receiving. He was still casting himself as the victim. Looking at his mother, he said, “Mom, I love you.” Then, thinking of his father, who had died weeks earlier: “I’m coming home, Dad. Coming home, Dad.”
A single tear rolled down Michael’s right cheek as the drugs took effect. He gasped four times. His breathing slowed and then stopped. At 6:17 p.m., nine minutes after the injection began, **Michael James Perry** was pronounced dead. He was 28 years old.
Lisa Baillon watched the execution with mixed emotions. She felt sorry for Michael’s family, but his final words confirmed everything she believed about him. “When he said he forgave us, I knew justice had been served today,” she told reporters. “I needed to look into his eyes and see if he was the monster I had made him out to be. When he said that, I knew that he was.”
Sandra’s mother, **Mary Ann Bach**, felt relief after nearly nine years of waiting. “We can all have peace now,” she said simply. The families had watched Michael Perry die, but their pain would never fully disappear.
Today, **Jason Burkett** is still alive in a Texas prison, serving his life sentence. He won’t be eligible for parole until **November 1st, 2041**, exactly 40 years after the murders. He’ll be nearly 60 years old if he ever gets out. In 2018, Jason’s girlfriend was arrested for trying to mail him methamphetamine in prison. Even behind bars, he was still connected to the drug world that helped destroy his life.
Delbert Burkett, the father whose emotional testimony helped save Jason’s life, died in prison on June 6th, 2022. He was 66 years old and had been serving a 40‑year sentence for indecency with a child. Ironically, for years he had been imprisoned across the street from his son. The victims’ families continue to live with their loss.
Lisa raises her daughters while keeping the memory of their grandmother Sandra and Uncle Adam alive. Jeremy Richardson’s family still mourns the 18‑year‑old who died trying to help someone. The case raises difficult questions about justice and mercy. Two teenagers committed the same crimes together, but only one paid with his life. Was that fair?
Does childhood trauma excuse murder? Can someone be so broken by their past that they can’t be held fully responsible? These questions don’t have easy answers. What we do know is that three families paid the ultimate price for what happened that night in October 2001.
How did two 19‑year‑olds become triple murderers in a single night? The answer isn’t simple, but it begins with broken childhoods and choices that kept getting worse. Michael Perry had loving adoptive parents who tried everything to help him. Jason Burkett had a violent father who taught him that hurting people was normal. Both ended up as killers. Their different backgrounds led to different outcomes in court, but the result for their victims was the same.
The randomness of this crime is what makes it so terrifying. Sandra, Adam, and Jeremy weren’t targeted because of anything they did. They died because they had decent cars and were unlucky enough to cross paths with two desperate young men. Think about that. Three people lost their lives because two teenagers decided they wanted nicer transportation.
A nurse who saved lives every day. A 16‑year‑old boy just trying to help someone in trouble. An 18‑year‑old who died alongside his best friend. The case also shows how childhood trauma affects people differently. Jason’s horrific upbringing earned him just enough sympathy from a jury to spare his life. Michael’s troubled but less extreme background didn’t save him from the death chamber.
Three families were destroyed on October 24th, 2001. The Stotlers lost a mother and a son. The Richardsons lost their teenage boy. Even the Perrys lost their adoptive son—to his own choices and to the justice system. All of this happened because two teenagers decided they deserved to drive nicer cars.
The ripple effects of that night are still being felt. Jason sits in prison, possibly for the rest of his life. The survivors carry their grief and trauma decades later. A community learned that evil can strike anywhere, even in the safest neighborhoods.
If this story made you think about how quickly lives can change forever, remember this: crime never helps you. It destroys you and everyone around you. Be satisfied with what you have. Be careful of bad friends and bad influences. And if you follow anyone—follow Christ alone.
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