“Are you gonna kill my mommy? Are you gonna kill me?”
Michelle Renee mentioned these are the primary phrases she heard from her 7-year-old daughter Breea after three masked gunmen broke down their door in San Diego County, California, on the night time of Nov. 21, 2000.
Renee says she had overlooked her daughter after the intruders threw them to the ground and sure them with duct tape. When she was lastly in a position to search for, she noticed Breea “face down, with a gun to her head.”
The gunmen took their time explaining why they have been there. They informed her they’d adopted her for months.
“It was very much that mind control thing that they were doing, that, ‘we know everything about you,’” Renee mentioned, together with the truth that she was a department supervisor at an area financial institution.
Lastly, the ringleader informed Renee what they needed.
“You’re gonna rob the bank for us,” she recalled them telling her. “Or you will die, your daughter will go first.”
“48 Hours” contributor Tracy Smith takes us into this uncommon case in “The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee,.” now streaming on Paramount+.
All through the night time, Renee mentioned she heard the ringleader speaking to a feminine voice on a walkie-talkie. The girl known as him “Money One,” and he or she was “Money Two.”
The next morning, Renee, her roommate and Breea have been strapped with dynamite. Renee mentioned they informed her they may detonate inside a 10-mile radius if she made one false transfer. Breea could be positioned in a closet whereas Renee drove to the financial institution —with the ringleader crouched at the back of her automobile. By the point the financial institution opened at 9 a.m., Renee walked out with a duffel bag crammed with $360,000.
Recovered cash from the financial institution theft.
North County Superior Court docket
As soon as the gunman took off with the money, Renee raced house, unsure what she’d discover as soon as she obtained there.
“I don’t know if Breea’s gonna be there,” Renee recalled pondering. “I don’t know if she’s gonna be alive when I get there.”
When she lastly arrived the gunmen have been gone, and Breea was nonetheless within the closet the place Renee had left her.
In a reenactment for investigators, Michelle and Breea Renee are seen sporting the pretend dynamite that the intruders strapped to their backs.
North County Superior Court docket
The ringleader had forgotten to take away the dynamite from Renee’s again. After analyzing it, the bomb squad found it was pretend. Tom Manning, a prosecutor within the San Diego County District Legal professional’s Workplace, informed “48 Hours” that it was simply two broomstick handles that had been minimize up, painted and taped collectively to seem like dynamite.
Through the 14-hour hostage state of affairs, Renee had acknowledged the ringleader’s eyes as a result of he had posed as a buyer on the financial institution earlier that day, and he had left behind a enterprise card earlier than a feminine companion had whisked him away.
“My brain was going, ‘Oh my gosh, don’t let him know that you know,’” Renee mentioned.
The lead would assist investigators crack the case.
“Through that card, they started the investigation,” Renee mentioned.
The enterprise card contained the suspect’s actual title, Christopher Butler. The FBI quickly found Butler was a convicted felon with a historical past of robbing banks. By surveillance, they discovered Butler residing in a home along with his fiancée Lisa Ramirez, the identical girl who had include him to the financial institution. When Butler and Ramirez have been arrested 10 days later at a site visitors cease, investigators discovered bodily proof tying them to the crime, together with a BB gun that matched one of many weapons Renee had described, the ski masks with cutout eye holes, Renee’s bank cards, and the cash straps from the financial institution.
Kidnapped and threatened with dynamite, financial institution supervisor pressured to commit $360,000 theft to avoid wasting her daughter’s life
17 pictures
On the home, investigators discovered “all the ingredients to make the fake bomb,” Manning mentioned, like cut-up items of a brush deal with that had been painted, and cans of purple spray paint, together with one with Ramirez’s fingerprint on it. Butler’s fingerprint would later be discovered on the pretend dynamite itself.
“It was crazy, I’ve never seen that much physical evidence left at a crime scene,” Manning mentioned.
Butler denied every thing to police and tried to guard Ramirez. However throughout her interview, Ramirez admitted to authorities she was concerned within the plot, and that she was the feminine voice on the walkie-talkie. She even took credit score for the concept to make use of pretend dynamite and kidnap the financial institution supervisor. She additionally informed detectives the cash had been cut up 3 ways among the many suspects, however that each her share and Butler’s had been stolen. However throughout that interview, Ramirez additionally falsely claimed that Renee had been in on it.
“We walked out of that thinking, ‘OK, Lisa’s the mastermind behind all of this. And, is it possible Michelle’s involved?’” Manning mentioned.
However finally, Manning mentioned, he knew Renee was harmless.
“The first time I interviewed her, she had Breea with her,” Manning mentioned. “And…I saw that bond and relationship. And when she left, I went, ‘she’s not involved in this.’”
There was additionally all of the proof to corroborate Renee’s account. The opposite two suspects, Christopher Huggins and Robert Ortiz, had given full confessions, neither implicating her.
Christopher Butler and Lisa Ramirez, aka “Money One” and “Money Two,” in courtroom throughout their June 2002 trial.
Zuma
In June 2002, Butler and Ramirez could be tried collectively within the first of two trials.
“There was so much evidence, there was no way I thought that this trial was gonna be anything but… a slam dunk,” Renee mentioned.
Manning mentioned the DA’s workplace was assured that Ramirez’s key statements about her involvement could be allowed into proof.
Even Ramirez’s lawyer Herb Weston admitted that it didn’t look good for his consumer — she had confessed on digicam. Weston informed Smith he thought Ramirez was responsible when he first obtained the case, and supplied the prosecution a plea deal, which they rejected.
“If they play that tape, saying that she wasn’t involved would’ve been difficult,” Weston informed Smith.
However to everybody’s shock, and Weston’s delight, since Ramirez’s statements additionally implicated her co-defendant Butler, the decide dominated your complete interview inadmissible.
“We can now argue that she’s not involved,” Weston defined.
With out Ramirez’ assertion, the case towards her relied closely on Renee’s testimony. In courtroom, the protection would assault her credibility, and even counsel she was complicit within the financial institution theft.
“I was treated like I was the criminal,” Renee mentioned.
Manning remembers that “it got very confrontational.”
Weston informed “48 Hours” his technique was to “beat the hell out of the victim and point out all the inconsistencies the victim is saying.”
He implied Renee was mendacity about recognizing Ramirez’s voice on the walkie-talkie the night time she was held hostage, mentioning that it wasn’t in any of the FBI experiences. However Renee insists she informed them, and Manning argued Renee did establish Ramirez’s voice earlier than she took the stand. However Weston argued that despite the fact that his consumer had admitted the voice was hers, the jury didn’t know that.
“That’s not the point,” Weston mentioned. “For me, it was a great opening to attack [Renee’s] credibility.”
Weston mentioned it was suspicious that Renee hadn’t taken the bait cash — traceable payments banks preserve within the vault to lure financial institution robbers. Renee defined, nonetheless, that she was not going to take the possibility that she might get her daughter killed, particularly because the gunmen had instructed her “no funny money,” she mentioned.
Possibly worst of all for Renee, Weston solid doubt on her maternal instincts, questioning why she would return to the home, realizing she was strapped with dynamite that would presumably explode. However Manning mentioned Renee’s actions made full sense, given the stress and the stress Renee was beneath to drag off a financial institution theft to avoid wasting her daughter’s life.
Whereas Weston hammered on each resolution Renee made that day, Butler’s lawyer picked aside her monetary historical past, and even requested her about her intercourse life.
“They were trying to paint me as somebody that was irresponsible,” Renee mentioned.
“A selfish, terrible mother…that…would do anything for money,” she added.
In line with Manning “the defense was to make her a culprit.”
A teary Michelle Renee in courtroom.” I used to be handled like I used to be the felony,” she mentioned.
ZUMA
After Renee’s three grueling days of direct testimony and cross-examination, Butler took the stand. He continued to guard Ramirez as he had in his police interview, however now he informed a brand new, elaborate story, one during which Renee masterminded the financial institution theft. And he claimed the 2 of them had beforehand had an affair. He mentioned they’d met at a grocery retailer, and that Renee had recruited him for the financial institution theft.
Manning admitted it was jaw-dropping testimony, however contended it was all a lie and that the protection didn’t current any proof to corroborate Butler’s claims.
“If any of this were true, he would’ve thrown Michelle down in a heartbeat in his [police] interview,” Manning mentioned.
However regardless of the outlandish story, it will appear the protection had completed what they got down to do. After deliberating for 5 days, the jury discovered Butler responsible of the theft and kidnapping of Breea and their roommate, however hung 9-3 on the costs involving Renee’s kidnapping.
Manning mentioned one of many jurors had fully believed Butler’s story, whereas the opposite two have been uncertain. Butler would nonetheless obtain a number of life sentences for all the opposite costs, however Ramirez would stroll away a free girl. The jury discovered her not responsible on all counts.
“Mind boggling” Renee mentioned. “The fact it was her idea to do this to a mother and a child and laughing and proud of it.”
“It was the best verdict I ever got in my life,” Weston mentioned.
Despite the fact that the opposite two suspects could be simply convicted at their trial a number of months later, Renee mentioned she felt revictimized by the protection’s techniques.
“Is it fair to beat up on the victim?” Smith requested Weston.
“Oh absolutely, absolutely,” Weston replied.
Manning mentioned the jury obtained it flawed on Ramirez. He believed she was “very involved…The investigators kept saying…she was the brains of the outfit.”
It could take twenty years, however the fact would finally come from an unlikely supply.
In January 2020, when Christopher Butler turned eligible for parole beneath California sentencing legal guidelines, Manning noticed a possibility to ask him concerning the story he’d informed on the stand. Butler recanted his whole testimony, admitting he and Renee by no means had a relationship.
“It’s about time,” Renee mentioned. “There was never, ever a chance…that I would…have been involved in anything like this.”
Butler was denied parole, however Renee was free.
“In a weird…way, I could breathe…I could exhale, finally, after all these years,” she mentioned.
Robert Ortiz was granted parole in January 2021.
Christopher Butler was granted parole in December 2024.
Christopher Huggins was granted parole in March 2025.
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