The Pickaxe Murder Case | Behind the Interview with David Scott

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Investigative journalist David Scott is back. He's confronting more convicted killers inside of America's most secure prisons. And in this weekend's episode, Scott conducts one of his most shocking interviews with a man who killed, mutilated, and scalped his own close friend.

[00:00:19]It's my darkest killer interview yet.

[00:00:22]Nobody wants to be your friend if you treat your friends the way you treated your best friend.

[00:00:28]Right? A window into sheer madness.

[00:00:31]Well, I mean, I'm not going to get all butt-naked and rush about it.

[00:00:36]No, thank you.

[00:00:37]Hacker County 911. He's laying in the bedroom on the bed bloody. There's blood all over the kitchen and there might have been a murder.

[00:00:45]And the forensic phenomenon known as overkill.

[00:00:49]So, the minute he walked in that house, before he started chewing your ass or anything, you don't already make that I'm going to hit this [ __ ] Or did you get mad? I'm simple.

[00:00:58]Pretty good shot. Maybe a novel. He was probably incapacitated after the first strike.

[00:01:06]Why did you keep hitting him?

[00:01:08]I thought I could either call 911 or I can kill him.

[00:01:12]And I said, "I'm just going [music] to kill him."

[00:01:14]What happens when a killer won't stop at death?

[00:01:20]Joining us now to discuss this episode and what we can expect is investigative journalist David Scott. David, good to see you. I I got to tell you, when we were seeing the previews of the entire season of Interview with a Killer this this season, that particular part of the premiere was chilling. I didn't know what we were going to expect from this defendant, and now this is the episode where we'll see all of it. Tell us what you can about what we're going to see.

[00:01:47]Well, this probably is the most chilling or darkest interview I've done uh for this series yet. Um a textbook case of what forensic scientists call overkill Uh when killing and death isn't enough to satisfy the murderer's appetite for for cruelty. And and in this case we get a real window into just the sheer madness of of overkill.

[00:02:15]The the defilement of the of the corpse goes on for for 3 days. It's part of what makes this category of homicide so special and so particular for for for forensics. But yes, you're going to see I think I think the the depths of depravity and and it's it's a it's a chilling sight.

[00:02:36]You know, it can be challenging to do an interview like that with someone even keep them on task for what you're trying to get out of the interview. So let's listen to more of it and I of course have more questions about it David.

[00:02:48]Stand by.

[00:02:50]Was he sleeping when you attacked him?

[00:02:52]Yes, sir.

[00:02:53]Defenseless?

[00:02:55]Uh I hit him like somewhere in the head and he said and I hit him again.

[00:03:01]When he hollered it was a mercy killing from then on. I mean I'm sorry. It can't be a mercy killing if you inflict >> place. Correct.

[00:03:11]But why make one more stomach to feed when our mouths to feed?

[00:03:18]What do you mean by that?

[00:03:19]There's a a person over there that we have to tube feed.

[00:03:23]Or you have to die.

[00:03:25]I'm sorry, but the tube feeder has to die.

[00:03:29]Does that make sense to you?

[00:03:31]More than anything in the world, bro. Is this the voice in your head that you were hearing that night?

[00:03:36]This is my psyche in general. So the voice that you were hearing is you? It's It's me.

[00:03:44]It's Maybe it's God himself, herself.

[00:03:49]The voices in his head David, that's something that he told police almost immediately. Did mental health as an issue come up for his defense at all in this case?

[00:03:59]Well, it's interesting. You know, the his defense attorneys did try to mount an insanity defense.

[00:04:06]But because the the the crime went went on for so long, for 3 days after the murder, and because it was punctuated by rational acts. For example, he was able to come out of the zombie-like state long enough to have a have dinner with his mother the night of the murder. He was texting women from the victim's phone trying to sort of lure them into a sex trap. There was a lot of evidence of, you know, perverse but rational thinking on his part that undercut the insanity defense. And so, under under Texas law, he had no claim to it. Oh, wow. I heard you mention in your questions to him about him thinking this was a mercy killing. Is that something that we're going to learn he told himself, or were there any elements to this that may have supported that at all?

[00:04:57]I don't think so. I think, you know, this is you know, this is a a troubling case because there's probably a Nicholas Camfield in every town lurking around, you know, languishing, untreated, unsupervised. And he was in fact in and out of jail for for many years, but just kept getting spit back onto the street.

[00:05:18]People in town knew to be to sort of stay away from him. But but nobody did anything about him and and got to the point where he was so unhinged.

[00:05:30]He trained his, you know, his his scorn on his best friend and murdered the man.

[00:05:38]I'm not going to sugarcoat anything, and neither should you.

[00:05:41]Everybody who's going to watch this is trying to figure out is Is being truthful, or is she holding back?

[00:05:49]Sorry, already crying. You don't seem sorry at all. Thank you. That's not a compliment.

[00:05:56]Are you a narcissistic sociopath?

[00:05:59]>> are an [ __ ] Interview with a Killer. [music] New episode Sunday 8/7 Central, only on Court TV.