GASTON COUNTY, N.C.,None — Jurors in Gastonia heard a suspected serial killer casually tell police he killed two women.
The videotaped interview with Danny Hembree was shown at his trial for the murder of Heather Catterton. Prosecutors said they have video of Hembree walking through his mother's home, explaining how he killed those two women weeks apart in 2009.
Monday, in the videotaped confession, jurors heard him tell investigators he didn't need a lawyer. He just wanted burgers, a drink, and then he was ready to "get this over with." he told police.
Hembree showed little emotion as he watched his own confession. When asked why he choked and killed both women he first told invesigators he had no reason.
"I killed Heather because... I don't know I just did, just wanted to. Then I killed Randi for the same reason, just wanted to," he said in the video. Then he told investigators he killed them because they had sex with black men.
He said he even planned to kill Heather Catterton's boyfriend, who is black. "I was going to kill him, but he didn't show up till six this morning," he said. Hembree said he got both women to come to his mother's home in the
Chapel Grove community by promising to give them crack.
"I killed Heather downstairs in the laundry room and I killed Randi in my den. You'll find her blood all over the couch," he said. He said he killed 17-year-old Heather Catterton first. "I was going to try to haul her out that night, but there wasn't no hurry on it so I just stuck her in the closet," he said.
Hembree said he left the body there while he went to watch television and get something to eat.
While that part of the tape played, Catterton's cousin walked out of court and another relative cried.
Weeks later Catterton's murder Hembree said he killed Randi Saldona while his mother was reading in the kitchen.
"She just seemed like she wouldn't die," he said. Jurors heard him explain how he dumped both of their bodies in York County.
Near the end of the interview, a detective thanked Hembree for his him and he almost proudly told the officers around him, "Y'all would have never figured it out."
Jurors didn't hear everything Danny Hembree said; some of his confession was muted.