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Evil Lives Here - My Child the Killer (2026) Season 1 Episode 3
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Short filmTranscript
00:02check how many times i've been arrested in the last eight years but nobody tried to kill me
00:07because all the tried to kill me they were all trying to kill me and i was shooting at anything
00:14i said no one's gonna help me i'm gonna have to take care of this myself
00:20and this is i still feel guilty about this part and i pray to god my son never sees this
00:28but i was gonna shoot him in the back of the head i had in my mind this is the
00:33only way to stop him
00:38i was gonna take him out to the woods and i was just gonna put one in his head
00:43and leave and i was going to be okay with going to jail i knew it was wrong but i
00:52had to do it
01:07cleveland heights police officer jason west was shot and killed while responding to a street
01:12fight police say the shooter is 27 year old timothy halton
01:30it's so chilly
01:38oh my goodness can i have a minute please oh wait
02:00oh my god oh my god why why why why
02:08that's what i tried to prevent
02:13that's what i tried to prevent
02:20that's what i tried to prevent
02:24so
02:51Timmy was my big sweet teddy bear that morphed into a monster.
02:58I love my son dearly, but if I would have killed him, Jason West would still be alive.
03:14I don't know how bad this is going to sound, but if it were Timmy that was killed, I would
03:24have preferred that.
03:28You did what I thought you were going to do, and I couldn't stop it, and it's hard.
03:36It's hard to wrap your head around it because he's still my baby.
03:39He's still my baby, and now he's a murderer.
03:44As a parent, you always blame yourself.
03:46You always question, did I do enough?
03:48What could I have done different?
03:50I mean, he was just so adorable.
03:52And those cheeks that he had, you know, growing up, everybody would just squeeze.
03:59I have a lot of happy memories.
04:01I just have a lot of sad ones, too.
04:30I had no desire to have children.
04:34None whatsoever, it was not in my plans.
04:38I just wanted to go to school.
04:42I didn't tell anybody at first that I was pregnant.
04:46My mom wanted to know by whom, and I told her the organ is at the church.
04:52And so I had to get married to save the church embarrassment, to save me embarrassment.
04:58There was nothing to be happy about.
05:02The way I looked at my unborn child is how am I going to love this baby when I don't
05:06want
05:07kids?
05:07I'm a kid myself.
05:09But then they put that baby on my chest, and it just, I felt the joy of motherhood then.
05:18I did.
05:19I just instantly loved him.
05:22And I told him, I want to protect you, protect you with everything I can.
05:28And nobody's going to hurt you.
05:30You're my baby.
05:38Oh, my God.
05:41Oh, my God.
05:4516.
05:46My little baby.
05:4717.
05:48I felt this love, and I had never felt before.
05:53And I was so happy with this part of my life.
05:59I devoted all my time to him.
06:17Married at 16, two kids by 17, divorced at 18.
06:22I didn't know how to do this thing.
06:23I didn't know how to raise children.
06:27They were being raised along with me.
06:32I just knew I had to love them.
06:34I knew I had to protect them.
06:49I go upstairs, you know, and check on them.
06:52He's not in the bed.
06:55I was scared.
06:56I was like, what happened?
06:58I ran all over the house looking for him.
07:02I ran everywhere, checking the bathrooms.
07:04I had never been so scared in my life, because I'm thinking the worst.
07:09And then, I don't know, an inner voice said, look in the closet.
07:15And I looked, and I see my clothes are pulled down.
07:23And then, I see his hand sticking out.
07:27He was all curled up with the clothes.
07:30He had pulled my clothes down to make a blanket, so he was covered up.
07:36And I felt such a relief.
07:40I wake him up, make sure he's okay.
07:42And I'm trying to talk to him, and it's like he's looking past me.
07:48And I'm like, what is wrong with him?
07:51I don't know how to explain it, but I had the weirdest feeling.
08:00Eventually, it just became an every night thing.
08:03I would see him walking down the hallway, and I would follow him, and I would talk to him.
08:08He wouldn't say anything.
08:11And his face, it was just a blank stare.
08:14Just a blank stare.
08:16And it made me question, is there a demon in there?
08:20You know, I know there's God, and I know there's the devil as well.
08:24I was terrified.
08:35One day, I smell something really foul, and I'm looking around, looking around.
08:39Finally, I check under the bed, and it's just a shoe box, and the smell is stronger.
08:45And I open up the shoe box, and there's a bird inside, dead, cut open.
08:55And it disgusted me.
08:57That disgusted me.
08:59It really freaked me out, because it's like, why is there a dead bird in a box with a knife
09:04under my son's bed?
09:05What is he doing?
09:12And so finally, I called him in, and I asked him, what is this?
09:17And he didn't answer me at first.
09:20And I said, Timmy, this bird is dead and cut open.
09:25I said, did you do this?
09:28And he said, yes, I did it.
09:30And I was just putting it out of its misery.
09:34I just did not want to think that my son could be cruel.
09:39I was totally freaked out, because this is not normal.
09:44I don't know what it is, but it's not normal.
09:51It kept happening.
09:52It kept happening.
09:57So, of course, I'm like, oh, this is bigger than I thought.
10:00And I did not have a clue of what to do, and I was frightened.
10:07I just knew something was wrong with my son.
10:13Because I had heard that, like, psychopaths, they start off by killing animals.
10:21I never asked if he regretted it or felt bad.
10:26I was really scared to talk about it with him.
10:30I was afraid.
10:32I didn't want to hear what the answer was really going to be.
10:38But I didn't want him to say, oh, I have fun doing this.
10:41I like doing it.
10:42I like the bloods hurting out.
10:43I didn't know what was going to be said.
10:45So I just didn't ask.
10:49I knew something was wrong with my son, but I didn't know what.
10:53And it was like, well, maybe it is a demon.
10:56I made every excuse up you can.
10:58That's what parents do.
10:59That's what mothers, especially.
11:00That's what we do.
11:01We will make up an excuse and stick with it.
11:05We love our babies so much, and we want the best for them.
11:11We don't want to think the worst.
11:13But I didn't know what was coming next.
11:22Halton is accused of shooting and killing Cleveland Heights police officer Jason West.
11:27Officer West never pulled a gun on Halton.
11:30He did not have the chance.
11:31Halton shot Officer West as he arrived on scene.
11:42I do still cry about it because it wasn't the life I had planned for my child.
11:47I mean, no one wants their child to be a killer.
11:51It was kind of shocking to the system and something I'll never get over.
11:57You see the light we're approaching is right after the next light.
12:03There's a sign in memory of investigator Jason D. West.
12:10I drive past it going to work and coming from work.
12:18As he lived in one of these houses here, you know, that sign may not mean anything to a lot
12:25of people.
12:26And it means a lot.
12:29That sign is there because my son killed him.
12:33I say a quick prayer and drive right past it.
12:37I don't know.
12:38I don't know.
12:49I don't know.
12:51I don't know.
12:51I don't know.
12:52I don't know.
12:54I don't know what is happening.
12:57The sun is there because it is.
12:58It is as we can get inside the house.
13:02It is as we can think of it.
13:06I used to love dressing them up.
13:11He was such a happy kid, so happy, so polite, so loving.
13:20He and his sister were so close.
13:23I mean, she loved her brother.
13:25They were best friends.
13:27They were.
13:30But then he changed.
13:47I'm getting her ready for her bath.
13:50And she has a bunch of marks on her thighs.
13:54I asked her, what is this?
13:56Did you get bitten by something?
13:59And she's just like, no, no, no, no.
14:01And she tried to cover up real quick.
14:03And after a long pause, she said, Timmy made this shocking toy.
14:09And he shocks me.
14:11Like, what do you mean, shock you?
14:12He burns me.
14:13And he told me if I tell you, he was going to get me.
14:19He had tied her to the chair.
14:22And I don't know how he did it, but he would take wires out of a radio,
14:26and he would shock her.
14:30It became real in that moment.
14:34Because now you're hurting your sister, physically abusing her.
14:43I didn't want to whoop my children.
14:45But there was no stopping me.
14:48You've been whooped.
14:50Even whooping him.
14:51He had no emotion.
14:56You spank him.
14:57And it's not one of those things where I'm going to keep spanking you harder
15:00just to make you break.
15:02But no, he was very emotionalist.
15:09After I whooped him, I just went to my room and cried.
15:13It was really hard for me to handle that I gave birth to someone that could be so cruel as
15:27to do this.
15:28And I just couldn't understand it.
15:33It's not exactly what I was dreaming of as a parent.
15:48A couple weeks later, I come home early from work, and she's in a chair.
15:54I said, is he shocking you?
15:56Is he doing it again?
15:58And she said, yeah, mommy, yeah, mommy.
16:00And then Chrissy told me, as he was shocking her, the louder she yelled or screeched, the more he laughed
16:12about it.
16:16There was a range of emotions from fear to hurt that she's going through this to anger.
16:27So I tried to talk to him.
16:29But I was trying to get down to the bottom of it.
16:31Why do you like hurting things?
16:34Why?
16:34Why do you like inflicting pain?
16:37What kind of joy are you getting here?
16:39And he would just look at me.
16:41I don't know why.
16:43I don't know why.
16:45I would never get an answer.
16:47And I was like, this is not normal.
16:51What is wrong with my son?
16:55I was terrified because no parent, first of all, wants their child to be bad, but to be violent.
17:04And for no reason other than the reason that's in his head.
17:11There was a time where the family could say, oh, we have to pray it away.
17:16We have to pray it away.
17:17We've got to pray that demon away.
17:18You know, but they wanted to do literally an exorcism, you know, in the church.
17:25I know there's a God, and I believe there's hell also.
17:30There was something evil inside of him.
17:42It's my baby.
17:44Okay.
17:48Hello?
17:48Hello.
17:49This is a free call from an inmate at the Allen Correctional Institution.
17:57Hey, baby.
17:58Hey, Ma.
17:59How you doing?
18:00I'm doing good.
18:01What's up?
18:02Nothing much.
18:03I miss you.
18:03I miss you, too.
18:05I miss you, too.
18:05I have to get your food box for you.
18:07I haven't forgotten.
18:09Oh, okay.
18:10I love you.
18:11I love you, too.
18:11I miss my hugs.
18:14Yeah, I need one right now.
18:16You're gonna need one right now?
18:17Okay, thank you.
18:18Yeah.
18:19What you been up to?
18:20I haven't been up to nothing.
18:22How you been?
18:23Uh, I've been okay.
18:24Just, I've been good.
18:26Um, just doing little projects, you know, around the house and everything.
18:32Oh, okay.
18:33All right, baby.
18:34I'm gonna get back to work now, okay?
18:37All right.
18:37I love you, too.
18:39Bye-bye.
18:39Talk to you soon.
18:41Bye.
18:42Go ahead and sleep.
18:43So he knows...
18:44All right, this is take two, ABC Mark.
18:46He knows what you're doing, right?
18:47No.
18:48He doesn't know what you're doing?
18:50So you're gonna tell him now?
18:52Mm-mm.
18:53You're not telling him that you're doing this interview.
18:57Why?
19:04Well, my son is very sensitive, and I know for a fact he's ashamed and embarrassed of the things he
19:15did.
19:16I know it hurts him, and this will hurt him.
19:20So once again, you're a mother protecting him.
19:23I have to.
19:24I have to protect my baby.
19:25He's gonna be 45 on March 30th.
19:28He's still my baby, though.
19:32He's still my baby, though.
19:32You never stop loving them and do a lot of forgiving and hope they forgive you for the things, you
19:40know, as a parent that you might have done wrong or that they didn't agree with.
19:45But no, you never stop loving them.
19:49It just makes my heart that he's in there and he's never coming home.
20:09I received a call at work, and it was the principal of the school, and they requested that I come
20:19up immediately.
20:19And I was like, well, what's wrong? What's going on? We'll talk to you when you get here.
20:25By the time I got there, he's sitting in a straitjacket in a chair that's locked down to the floor.
20:35I just saw a little baby in a straitjacket. Are you serious?
20:39But I'm scared because I'm like, what did he do?
20:46So apparently, one of the teachers asked him about his father, which was a sore subject with him.
20:58And he just tackled her.
21:04So security got him off her. He's kicking, screaming, throwing things, tearing up the desk and everything.
21:12And they ended up putting him in a straitjacket.
21:15Mind you, it's a school for children with behavioral issues, so they're used to seeing things.
21:22But they said this was extreme. My son was violent.
21:40Oh, this one. I think he's about 15 on this picture.
21:50And all of a sudden, he was happier.
21:53He had finished all his high school courses.
21:56And the teacher submitted an application for college, and he was accepted.
22:01Timmy said, don't tell my mom. I want to tell her.
22:03So he came home and told me. He was so excited.
22:07He was on cloud nine. He was on cloud nine.
22:11He said, finally, I did something right.
22:13I was so proud of him.
22:16And he was so happy that I was proud of him because he had caused me so much heartache and
22:21pain.
22:24It gave me so much hope.
22:26And it's like, finally, it was the time where I was like, okay, he's getting it together.
22:46He started getting violent. And with each episode, the violence was worse than the last time.
22:58And it just kept escalating and escalating.
23:07Oh, my God.
23:08Oh, my God.
23:08Well, you're really trying to make me cry, aren't you?
23:14a slow violent descent
23:20uh okay they have here his run-ins with the law
23:28bare-chested timothy halton jr punches and kicks a 60-year-old man who walks past his home
23:34the man is hit on the side of the head his jaw inside halton yells at the bloodied man to
23:42get
23:42out of here at this time he's 20 years old and they would hang out at the mall and he
23:53just start
23:54punching people in the head for no reason this is an incident just the next day july 9th 2000
24:05police get a call from halton's screaming sister who has locked her brother out of the house
24:10this orally conduct charge is later dismissed
24:17that was part of the problem
24:21no matter what he did no matter who he hurt
24:25they dismissed him he just got one slap on the wrist after another
24:45so i'm sitting there they bring him in and he's in a straitjacket and i thought what did he do
24:54to get
24:55back in the straitjacket they told me he had been attacking the nurses and i'm trying to act like
25:02okay this is normal okay i'm just happy to see him
25:08they kept it at a short visit it was time to go and they said i had to leave first
25:15so i started walking away and all of a sudden i hear all this commotion and timmy's straitjacket and
25:23all this knocking people out he was just like using his shoulders and his head and kicking and
25:29literally attacking everyone
25:36and i asked the doctor he just said we suspect your child has schizophrenia we're not 100 sure but we
25:47believe he might be suffering from schizophrenia but i will never forget that face and the way he
25:55looked back it was not my son i swear to god and it's so hard to make anyone believe but
26:03i was
26:03looking at a devil
26:15i look at pictures of timmy all the time especially when he was younger
26:24i love looking at his baby pictures because he was so fat and chubby and adorable of course
26:35mothers we don't think our kids ever grow up
26:38we still keep them as a baby i'm still thinking this is my sweet timmy
26:43my son was morphing into something i did not recognize
26:47it just wasn't timmy it's two people there
26:52he was always sweet he was always polite he was always kind
26:56he would morph into a whole different being
27:02i mean the way he walked the way he talked the way he looked at you
27:07it was scary
27:17you are always on edge because you know something's gonna happen you can never let your guard down
27:24at this time there were many episodes he would walk around the house just screaming it was an awful
27:31awful awful awful sound
27:34it was so scary
27:37he punched holes throughout my entire house
27:42my daughter was terrified of him at this time and she had the new baby
27:47and at this point she was scared to sleep alone so her and the baby would sleep with me
27:53that's when we started going to bathroom together
27:55me her and the baby
27:56we get in that bathroom
27:59it was nice that we slept in that bathroom
28:03because each episode was worse than the last
28:11my daughter couldn't stand living with him out of fear
28:14she's like mommy he's gonna get us if we kick him out
28:19the situation was so hopeless
28:22i was like my daughter can't live like this
28:25i have a granddaughter now
28:28she's not gonna go through what my daughter went through
28:32i bought a gun because i needed to protect my daughter
28:39it was going to be timmy or chrissy
28:51i just rushed home and when i got there i see blood on the wall
28:58and i got my gun out my purse
29:02and i was listening at the same time as i was walking up the steps
29:07i didn't know if he was still in the house i just knew there was blood on my wall
29:12and so i go to the bedroom and i'm at the door
29:17and i don't want to twist this door now but i know i have to
29:20because i didn't know what i was going to see behind that door
29:26so my hand was on the door for what i'd seen before eternity
29:31and i just twisted and opened it
29:37i didn't see anything
29:39and i'm like chrissy
29:43she said mommy i'm in here i'm in the cubby hole we made a cubby hole
29:53and so i slid the fake wall away and she's like i don't know where timmy is mommy i don't
30:01know he was howling he was acting strange he kept saying he was coming after me and so i had
30:07me and me and the baby hid in here at that time she had a
30:10already called 911. when the police got there they searched the house they searched
30:14around the house they couldn't find timmy
30:16but they found a cut-up cat and that's where the blood
30:21came from
30:23i was beyond words it's not getting better it's worse
30:28and you have no conscience about it that scared me in itself
30:51it got to the point where i was so powerless
30:55i felt like i am losing my mind
30:59and i said no one's gonna help me i'm gonna have to take care of this myself
31:05tell him come on let's go for a ride
31:07and we're driving and we're talking and everything and my plan
31:11was to just go sit
31:13it's it's a park called forest hills
31:17and we were just gonna go sit there
31:19as we did often
31:22and i was gonna
31:24and i was gonna timmy look over there look over there
31:29i couldn't face him and do it not that it made any better
31:36i was gonna shoot him in the back of the head
31:45this isn't something i wanted to do this is something i felt i had to do
31:50i got a picture of my daughter and picture my daughter
31:55but i literally had it pointed at him and i was a good shot
32:01my hands were trembling i just dropped it
32:07fell to my knees
32:12and we were letting out this horrible horrible horrible scream
32:16i mean it just came out of me and he runs back and he's like mommy what's wrong what's wrong
32:23what's
32:26he didn't understand why i was crying i never told him but at that point i couldn't i just couldn't
32:35do it
32:36i couldn't do it
32:49even in the best circumstances parents always question did i do the right thing did i make
32:54a mistake by doing this why couldn't you stop him
33:00you don't know what you're going to do until you're in that position until you have to address
33:08something and at times you still don't know what you're going to do but you try to make the best
33:11decision
33:14it seemed like no matter what i did i was wrong
33:18it's not getting better it's worse
33:22i could have stopped it if i would have
33:27killed him then jason once would still be alive
33:43that's when the judge put him on probation a four-year probation where he had to stay medicated
33:51monitor stay off drugs alcohol see his psychiatrist social worker counselor whoever
33:59you know take a drug test and if you didn't and if he didn't do that he was going to
34:05jail that would
34:06be a violation of his probation and he would go straight to jail
34:13that was a miracle
34:17and i noticed the big difference he worked six days a week he was so proud of himself
34:23he bought a brand new car he finally moved out of my house bought clothes had a girlfriend and it
34:32just
34:32made me feel so good i was like finally after one year he came home
34:42he's like they took me off probation and i said well what does that mean
34:48so i called the probation officer and i said what do you mean he's off probation he's thriving on
34:56probation he's finally got somewhat of a life and she said well that's why he's doing so good he doesn't
35:02need to be on probation anymore and i said well what about his medication what about his shots oh that
35:08ends
35:08too i was like are you serious don't you have his records if you don't get his records i said
35:16look
35:17it over reconsider please reconsider you're going to keep letting my son go until he kills somebody
35:23and that's exactly what's going to happen he's going to kill somebody
35:36his childhood friend called me i think it was around 8 30 that's saturday morning
35:44and he's like timmy shot a cop last night timmy shot i'm like what
35:48timmy shot a cop we don't know where he is we don't know where he is he ran off we
35:52don't know and i
35:56i let out this scream the news said that he was still at large and so i called cleveland
36:06heights police and i told them who he was you know i said that's my son timothy halton
36:20i called the police station to turn my son in because it's murder i mean he killed someone and
36:30it may not have stopped there and there was no way i could deny that at that point i'm the
36:41mother
36:42the cop killer and my son killed someone i just start crying on the phone and i said
36:52sir i'm sorry for your loss he said i'm sorry for yours too it was chilling it was i can
37:02still feel
37:02the chills now it was it was very chilling and that was it he just hung up i'm sorry for
37:09yours too
37:17the jaw said that i tried to kill a cop who just ran into my tried to run into my
37:20truck pulled me in
37:22the driveway blocked me off jumped out and pulled his gun on me all crazy for no reason halton at
37:27times saying he didn't do anything other times saying he acted in self-defense then admitting his
37:42crying wow what do you see when you look at that picture how am i looking at this picture of
37:54this
37:54grown man and i just see my baby still see my little baby in his eyes a lost life
38:08i know people gonna hate me when i say this but i see a victim as well
38:12i do and i don't care who gets mad but i shouldn't have had to have begged and pleaded and
38:24ran all around
38:25the city to try to get a shot to prevent him from hurting people how is that acceptable in society
38:46after the incident i was fearful of retaliation
38:53from my whole family i mean he's behind bars and we're still out here
39:00and i would be so ashamed i would walk with my head down hoping they didn't recognize me
39:07because my face was plastered everywhere you know and i couldn't sleep at night i was terrified i
39:15was and i was scared for him as well he's the monster i'm the monster's mother
39:28it's an awful feeling
39:32it's something that you never get over you know for the family for jason's family you know i remember his
39:42birthday february 10th i grieved for his mother on mother's day his sister he had one sister just like my
39:50daughter i feel for them because there's nothing i can say or do to bring jason back
39:57it's just
39:59an awful feeling it's not a day i thought that goes by that i don't think about it them what
40:06happened my
40:06son and his situation i'll always question what was in his mind because i've never gotten a clear answer
40:15is my son evil or is he mentally ill and can you explain the difference no one wants a child
40:26to
40:26murder anyone you never think of that it's part of the possibilities when they grow up and become a
40:32teenager get a girlfriend get married have children themselves as awful as it sounds i wish
40:41i wish that timmy had died that night instead of jason
40:52that would have been a better outcome
40:55that would have been a better outcome for everybody
41:13i use my hands to suffocate my kids who did you use the belt on babies
41:22i can understand why people look at me the way they do that i raised monster
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