“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 evening of Nov. 21, 2000.
Renee says she had overlooked her daughter after the intruders threw them to the ground and certain them with duct tape. When she was lastly in a position to lookup, 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 that they had 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 a neighborhood financial institution.
Lastly, the ringleader informed Renee what they wished.
“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 evening, Renee mentioned she heard the ringleader speaking to a feminine voice on a walkie-talkie. The lady known as him “Money One,” and she or he was “Money Two.”
The next morning, Renee, her roommate and Breea have been strapped with dynamite. Renee mentioned they informed her they might detonate inside a 10-mile radius if she made one false transfer. Breea can 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 full of $360,000.
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As soon as the gunman took off with the money, Renee raced house, undecided what she’d discover as soon as she bought there.
“I don’t know if Breea’s gonna be there,” Renee recalled considering. “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.
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The ringleader had forgotten to take away the dynamite from Renee’s again. After analyzing it, the bomb squad found it was faux. Tom Manning, a prosecutor within the San Diego County District Lawyer’s Workplace, informed “48 Hours” that it was simply two broomstick handles that had been reduce up, painted and taped collectively to appear like dynamite.
Throughout 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.
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 faux dynamite itself.
“It was crazy, I’ve never seen that much physical evidence left at a crime scene,” Manning mentioned.
Butler denied all the things 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 thought to make use of faux dynamite and kidnap the financial institution supervisor. She additionally informed detectives the cash had been break 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.
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In June 2002, Butler and Ramirez can 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 can be allowed into proof.
Even Ramirez’s legal professional Herb Weston admitted that it didn’t look good for his shopper — she had confessed on digital camera. Weston informed Smith he thought Ramirez was responsible when he first bought 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 entire interview inadmissible.
“We can now argue that she’s not involved,” Weston defined.
With out Ramirez’ assertion, the case in opposition to her relied closely on Renee’s testimony. In court docket, 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 evening she was held hostage, declaring that it wasn’t in any of the FBI studies. However Renee insists she informed them, and Manning argued Renee did determine Ramirez’s voice earlier than she took the stand. However Weston argued that although his shopper 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 hold within the vault to entice financial institution robbers. Renee defined, nevertheless, that she was not going to take the prospect that she may 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, figuring out 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 underneath to drag off a financial institution theft to save lots of her daughter’s life.
Whereas Weston hammered on each determination Renee made that day, Butler’s legal professional 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.
Based on Manning “the defense was to make her a culprit.”
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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 wherein Renee masterminded the financial institution theft. And he claimed the 2 of them had beforehand had an affair. He mentioned that they had 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 might appear the protection had finished 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 fees involving Renee’s kidnapping.
Manning mentioned one of many jurors had utterly believed Butler’s story, whereas the opposite two have been not sure. Butler would nonetheless obtain a number of life sentences for all the opposite prices, 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.
Though the opposite two suspects can be simply convicted at their trial a couple 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 bought it incorrect on Ramirez. He believed she was “very involved…The investigators kept saying…she was the brains of the outfit.”
It could take 20 years, however the fact would ultimately come from an unlikely supply.
In January 2020, when Christopher Butler turned eligible for parole underneath California sentencing legal guidelines, Manning noticed a chance to ask him in regards to the story he’d informed on the stand. Butler recanted his complete 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.
