"The First 48" is a show that documents real murder investigations – a show that a Dallas attorney says nearly got his client killed last year.
Dallas Attorney Don Tittle filed suit Tuesday in state district court against Kirkstall Road Enterprises, the production company for the show that airs on A&E. News 8 is not revealing the identity of Tittle’s client because his life is still in danger.
“He was portrayed as a snitch and to make matters worse, his image was not completely concealed,” Tittle told News 8. “They did blur him somewhat. But for people that knew him, they knew exactly who he was. Literally within minutes of the episode airing, he began receiving death threats.”
Tittle’s client was shot four times in August 2015 in front of a barber shop by a man who he says had been repeatedly calling him a snitch for having appeared on the show. His client spent 10 days in the intensive care unit.
The episode "Safe House" aired on A&E in June 2014.
It was about the March 2013 murder of Jamaican-born Donovan Reid. He was killed on the porch of his Red Bird-area home. In his house, police would find nearly $1 million inside safes. Detectives would soon realize that Reid was a big-time drug dealer. The DEA determined from ledgers found that he had been involved in drug sales of $28 million over 11 years.
Three days after the murder, Dallas police questioned Tittle’s client.
On the show Detective Rick Duggan, the lead detective on the case, says a gang detective had received a call from a confidential informant who has information on Reid’s murder but is afraid to come forward. Duggan replies that guys like him need to “step up.”
A short time later, Duggan says he received a call from a detective who had a confidential informant who had information. As he’s saying this, Tittle’s client is shown sitting in the interview room and it cuts to Duggan walking into the room to interview him. His image is blurred and his voice has been altered.
Tittle’s client tells Duggan that an acquaintance named Clint Stoker told him that he and a man known by the nickname “21” had broken into Reid’s house. The narrator says that the suspects are known to “stalk drug dealers so they can rob them.”
“This is what he told me,” he tells Duggan. “There was supposed to be some pounds and some cash in the house. He said they broke in the house or whatever. He said, ‘We ran into two safes.’’’
He says Stoker told him that they left to get tools. When they returned, they thought the house was empty so they broke in again.
The witness tells Duggan that during the confrontation, “21” shot Reid.
“They’re going to go in and go in shooting,” the witness says. “They’re killers, man.”
Tittle contends that the editing falsely portrays his client as having willingly come forward, when in fact, police had tracked him down on a traffic stop and had taken in him for questioning. He says his client’s comments were also edited in such a way that it was misleading.
“In the neighborhood where my client lived at the time, if you’re perceived as a snitch, you’re likely to get killed,” Tittle says. “He contacted DPD and he let them know that he was being threatened, but he really didn’t receive a great deal of protection.”
According to court documents, Clint Stoker, one of the suspects in the murder of Reid, called the mother of Tittle’s client on the night the show aired, threatening him bodily arm.
“Your b**** a** son snitched on me,” he said, according to the documents. “I’m gonna do something to him.”
Stoker’s fingerprint had been found inside Reid’s home. Stoker told detectives that he had burglarized Reid’s home on the day of the murder but denied any involvement in the killing.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped a charge of capital murder against Stoker. He has since pleaded guilty to the burglary and to retaliating against Tittle’s client. He is currently in a Texas prison.
Then last August, Tittle’s client and a known gang member named Michael Scott got into a fight at a club, according to court documents. The records says Scott had been calling him a “snitch” and had been threatening him since the airing of the episode.
Tittle says his client went to police headquarters and was told that a detective would contact him later.
Before that could happen, according to court documents, Scott pulled up in a car outside of a barber shop on Metropolitan Avenue in South Dallas. The two men began arguing again. The records say Scott ran to his car and opened fire on Tittle’s client and a bystander. Tittle’s client later picked Scott out of a lineup.
Scott remains in the Dallas County Jail awaiting trial on aggravated assault charges in connection with the incident.
“I think ultimately it was good TV and he was expendable and that’s about all the concern they gave to it,” Tittle says.
Within days of Tittle’s client being shot, A&E removed the episode from its web site – too late for Tittle’s client who still has the bullets in his body. Dallas police stopped participating in the A&E show several years ago.