Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 42-Sean Vincent Gillis: Baton Rouge's Other Serial Killer
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The quiet neighborhoods of Baton Rouge, Louisiana became hunting grounds for a man whose ordinary appearance masked unimaginable darkness. Sean Vincent Gillis, often overshadowed by his contemporary Derek Todd Lee, committed a series of eight murders between 1994 and 2004 that left permanent scars on the community.
What makes Gillis's case so chilling is how thoroughly he defied the stereotypical serial killer profile. Raised by a loving mother, described by friends as smart and humorous, Gillis maintained a facade of normalcy while harboring grotesque fantasies. His victims spanned different ages, from 29 to 82 years old, and came from varied backgrounds – suggesting opportunity rather than type drove his selection process.
The horror of his crimes extended far beyond murder. Gillis strangled victims with zip ties, photographed their bodies, took souvenirs including body parts, and even engaged in cannibalism. Perhaps most disturbing was his habit of bringing victims to his home while his girlfriend worked night shifts, sometimes showering with their corpses. Despite showing her violent pornography, she never suspected the monster with whom she shared a bed.
His capture came through old-fashioned detective work – a rare tire track found near his final victim narrowed suspects to just 90 vehicle owners in Baton Rouge. When questioned, Gillis voluntarily provided DNA that matched evidence from multiple crime scenes, leading to his arrest in April 2004. During interrogation, he matter-of-factly confessed to all eight murders with disturbing detail.
Today, Gillis serves multiple life sentences in preventative segregation at Angola Prison, spending over 22 hours daily in isolation – a punishment that, given his preference for solitude, raises questions about justice for his victims. His case serves as a haunting reminder that sometimes the most dangerous predators are hiding in plain sight, appearing utterly unremarkable until their horrific secrets are revealed.
Today we're covering a case that left a permanent scar on the community of Baton Rouge, Louisiana the horrific crimes of Sean Vincent Gillis. This is Hold my Sweet Tea. Hey everybody, I'm Holly and I'm Pearl, and welcome to Hold my Sweet Tea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have some new listeners. Yes, we do Well, I say new listeners in new countries yes, we're so excited about that.
Speaker 1:New countries, yay yeah. So we got one about that. New countries, yay yeah.
Speaker 2:So we got one in Singapore Hawaiian Ying and then we have one in France, so be in the new podcast.
Speaker 1:Yes, we learned that just for y'all. I hope my Mandarin Chinese was good enough there. I was hoping that's how you pronounce it Hoan Ying Welcome.
Speaker 2:Right, I know I was like. We live in Louisiana, so all of our welcome signs say Bienvenue on them.
Speaker 1:Sure does Lots of French culture here yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's more common and less need to figure out. But I was like, hey, what's the French word for podcast? Surprise.
Speaker 1:Podcast, podcast, just podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure what the Mandarin word is, but you know, yeah, when I took French in high school, podcasting wasn't a thing Right, so didn't learn that one. My, my grandpa didn't teach me that either, because like my family is french, but um nope, so that was one I had to check out, had to kind of check it check it.
Speaker 1:Tammy right, a little throwback, throwback to the Beatrice case and thank you guys. We are like already on two of our stories. We've hit 200 downloads on those, so we are so happy. We're just waiting for the rest of them to get there. Yeah, we're growing slowly, but we're growing. So you know, make sure y'all are sharing and if you are our listener in Singapore and France, give us a holler.
Speaker 2:In your language, it's fine.
Speaker 1:We'll figure it out, we'll translate, we have Google, we do, we have it all.
Speaker 2:I'll apologize if we type back and Google translates something wrong. Right, oops, oops. Sorry, I don't want to steal your mom's duck.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Not at all. That would be my luck. I don't have a place for a duck. Sorry, no me either. You're like this? Duck can live in my bathtub, I guess, right, I guess. Duck can live in my bathtub, I guess, right, I guess?
Speaker 1:I have two bathtubs. I guess he can take one Right.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. So this week we've decided to be in a good old BR yes, the Red Stick and do some serial killers there. So at least we're back in Louisiana, but not in New Orleans, because I know we live there a lot Right.
Speaker 1:We live there a lot, a lot, cause we live there.
Speaker 2:So the fun thing about this and maybe it's not that fun is I know I worked in Baton Rouge when all this stuff happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, didn't live there, but we lived adjacent Like it was right there, and actually some of your guy Was what? Yeah, he, one of his victims was in Denham Springs, louisiana, but these two guys were on a killing spree together, not together, together. Not together, together, but at the same time About the same time yeah.
Speaker 2:So basically what happened was Derek Todd Lee, I think they had just like arrested him and the task force that they had assembled to catch him there was some like left behind people for that because they were still doing stuff for court purposes and stuff like prepping for trial and all that fun jazz that they ended up having to like kind of come back to and be like, hey, can you help us with this, because now we got more dead women right, even though he's locked up yep, he's locked up, yep, he's locked up.
Speaker 1:We have dead women and they did take some DNA from these other women that did not match Derek Toddley, correct, so then they're like okay, so now we're looking for somebody else, yep, and that somebody is Sean Vincent Gillis. That's who I am doing today.
Speaker 2:It was a terrifying time, that's for sure. You think, whew, they caught one. Yep, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Here's another, here's another. There's more people out there killing women in Baton Rouge.
Speaker 2:But wait, there's more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there wasn't a third. A third one, yes, and I don't recall his name at the moment. Me either.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is yours going to?
Speaker 2:be just a one-parter, yeah.
Speaker 1:Mine's going to be a one-parter. I know you're going to do two, so maybe I was going to say, maybe look at the other one and see, and then I'll do that one as well.
Speaker 2:So yeah, mine's definitely going to be two pieces, yes.
Speaker 1:So like I, so like I said, mine is, uh, sean vincent gillis. The other, the yes, he is known as the other baton rouge serial killer. I'm like you know, he could have btk'd it and gave himself a name.
Speaker 2:At least right something I mean that was like the least creative thing, right, but I was like uh okay, but kind of like btk.
Speaker 1:He did a lot of the same things he would strangle, he would torture, kill, mutilate. After the fact he did a lot of that. So he was really, he was raunchy, he was nasty with his crimes and stuff, but he ended up killing eight women in and around the Baton Rouge area between 1994 and 2004.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so his like a longer. I know they overlapped, but it was like they didn't start discovering all these other murders until after.
Speaker 1:You know his first one, he. There was a five-year gap between his first one and his second one, and then he just ran with it after that, Just went crazy, yeah, well, I mean, he was crazy already. Right, like in his early life. You know, on the surface it didn't scream like future serial killer here or anything. No, like animal killing or anything crazy like that?
Speaker 1:None of that. So he was born June 24th cancer, 1962. He was raised in South Louisiana by his mother, yvonne, and his grandparents. His father, norman Gillis, had abandoned the family soon after Sean was born, so he got daddy issues. Yeah, so he, you know he does have the daddy issues. Interestingly though, his father reportedly struggled with mental health issues, so maybe it was something that was passed down, because it you know that can't happen, and he was in and out of institutions.
Speaker 2:Well, his dad was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay. So Sean didn't even see his father again until he was 17. And this was about the time that his criminal record began with minor infractions.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know there was theft. There was just angsty 17-year-old stuff going on, just angsty 17-year-old stuff going on His mother. So his mother, yvonne, by all accounts, was like very good to him. She loved him deeply. Sean even had close friends in his youth, one describing him as smart, respectful, humorous he was. They always said he was like this funny guy, mm-hmm, easy to get along with all that stuff. Cancer yeah right, like he was just great. Cancer gets along with everyone. They have. You know, they have that. Oh, you can come to me and talk to me about anything, type.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, even if you don't know me, right, see me in the grocery and you're like hey, my mom, she and I'm standing there going. Why is this person telling me about their mother? Right, they don't even know my name. They're like I feel like I can talk to you. I don't know your name, I was just looking for some spaghetti sauce, do you happen?
Speaker 2:to know where the meatballs are. Or the one time there was a man who was like, standing next to me and I'm looking at vitamins and he's like, do you know where the enemas are? It's not for me.
Speaker 1:But do you know where they are? He had to throw that in.
Speaker 2:Then why are you asking me? I'm like first of all, I don't work here, right? You don't work here, sir. Secondly, you're standing in front of them, right? If you just?
Speaker 1:looked. Is that a pickup line, right oh?
Speaker 1:my gosh, that's hilarious. But yes, cancers are very friendly and very, you know, approachable people, smart, funny people, funny people. So he attended Redemptorist High School in Baton Rouge. He graduated, even went on to attend community college, and this is what I thought was funny. He got his certification in computers and I'm like what does that even mean today? It doesn't mean anything. So it basically back then, when you got your certificate in computers, you learn how to use a computer pretty much, or maybe work on them a little bit, you learn how to work on them and figure some stuff out.
Speaker 2:Now it's a degree in IT.
Speaker 1:Yes, so for a decade, from his early 20s to early 30s, he lived with his mother, his early 30s with his mother, until she moved to Atlanta for work. So she moved out of her house with her son, right, she's like I'm going to go to Atlanta. Well, he didn't want to go, so mom launched. But he didn't Right. So he chose to stay in Louisiana, receiving financial support from his mother.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, Even then.
Speaker 1:So she was still sending money, paying his rent, doing all that stuff while she went to Atlanta. However, beneath this seemingly ordinary facade, there were hints of something darker. Did you hear, andrew, in my voice?
Speaker 2:Well, well, well.
Speaker 1:If y'all haven't listened to Andrew on TikTok, go listen. Well, his mother didn't see it and most mothers don't. They're not going to go. I think my son's a serial killer. Others described Sean as prone to fits of anger. He got frustrated often. He got very frustrated about not having a girlfriend. So he was, you know, lashing out doing these things and his friends could see it, but his mother could. His criminal record, like I said, began when he was 17, in 1980, and he had trespassing also on there. Over the years, this small little thing escalated into traffic citations, dui's, possession of marijuana.
Speaker 2:Druggies Right, marijuana Druggies Right. Hey, newsflash guys, if you live with your mom into your 30s, you're probably not going to have a girlfriend. Right, I live with my mom, Like don't get mad Move out Exactly.
Speaker 1:But you know nothing in these early like brushes with the law could have predicted the monstrous path he could take. You might have thought you know he's just going to get put in jail for some criminal activity Something silly, stupid.
Speaker 1:Not being you know his descent into like serial murderness Right. So this began in March of 1994. This began in March of 1994. So within this time period that he was doing all of this stuff, he engaged in sexual assault, mutilation, dismemberment, even cannibalism of his victims. He wanted to see what they tasted like. He said he didn't like it a lot, but he did it anyway. He wanted to see. He often photographed his gruesome acts. He kept body parts as souvenirs and just all of this grossness happening. So his first victim was March of 1994. Her name was Ann Bryan. She was 82 years old and she lived in an exclusive retirement, home-like community called St James Place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very, very familiar with St James Place. I worked for a cleaning company that cleaned some of the places that when residents would move out of those areas.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you had to go in and clean them, or if they passed away or whatever, yeah.
Speaker 2:We would go clean the empty room before anybody else moved in and one of my employees' vacuums caught on fire in there.
Speaker 1:Maybe it was Ann Bryan. She was like Right.
Speaker 2:Catch on fire. It wasn't in 1994. No, definitely not because I was 14. Right, this was like way. After that, I didn't work until the next year. Right, and I didn't work there.
Speaker 1:But he had entered her residence with the intention to rape her. She was 82.
Speaker 2:My goodness, gracious, 82-year-old old and you're gonna be like. You know what.
Speaker 1:You know what that right retirement you know, and his thoughts are probably just like uh, she'd be easy to overpower, right, and that's what he figured. But he didn't, you know, figured that she would start screaming at the top of her lungs. So this became a thing of like oh my gosh, what do I do? So he slit her throat and he stabbed her 50 times. So I guess it was just more of a like oh my gosh, like I have to, you know.
Speaker 2:I have to kill her. Got to shut her up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when he slid her throat like she was almost decapitated when they discovered her body.
Speaker 2:So she definitely stopped screaming at that point. Why did he continue? He just kept stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, stabbing. He just went on a whole yeah, on a whole yeah.
Speaker 1:Hmm, and then sexually assaulted her body.
Speaker 2:So he necrophilia? Yeah, is what happened. Okay, so add that to your list, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you. So then this was okay. So his first one was March of 1994. So then he didn't kill again until January of 1999. So he took a little hiatus there.
Speaker 2:He must have got a girlfriend.
Speaker 1:Maybe. Actually he did later on. So this was his second victim. Her name was Catherine Ann Hall. She was 29 years old Now. Catherine was a lady of the night. She was a prostitute. She was 29 years old Now. Catherine was a lady of the night. She was a prostitute. She had to get her money somewhere. But that doesn't mean she's less important, Less important and you should go kill her, Right. So Gillis lured her into his car, you know, promising to pay her for oral sex. So when she got into the car and she started doing that, he strangled her with a zip tie like there's no release off that like a zip tie that's horrible.
Speaker 1:He stabbed her, he sexually assaulted her body and I guess part of his sick sense of humor. When he dumped her body and the police found her, he had placed her like sprawled out under a dead end sign on a road. What a jackass.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, but in her mouth they found a pubic hair with a root attached. Even better, yes, so they were like DNA, perfect, with a root attached. Even better. Yes, so they were like DNA. Yeah so, and this was still in, like 1999. Yes, dna, still not as advanced, but it was there. It's enough to work with. Yeah, so, they ran it through CODIS, but there was no match for a previous offender because he didn't do anything like this before Right.
Speaker 2:He had only had minor infractions, so there was no match for a previous offender because he didn't do anything like this before, right, he had only had minor infractions, so there was no like DNA taken of him, right, or anything like that.
Speaker 1:So then this was January. So then we move on to May of 1999. His third victim was Hardy Schmidt Schmidt Sorry, it was Schmidt 52 years old. I had a teacher with the last name Schmidt. I should know that.
Speaker 2:My dad's favorite girl. Well, my dad's girlfriend, that is my favorite. It is not his favorite, obviously, they broke up, right, but my favorite.
Speaker 1:Of his girlfriends.
Speaker 2:Of his girlfriends. Her last name was Schmidt.
Speaker 1:Nice. So he stalked hardy for three weeks. He was watching her routine because she would like to go jog over there by the lsu lakes really pretty area and everything really nice houses over there, so she would go and run. So he was watching her, watching her routine, seeing what she did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's one of those places I feel like everybody feels pretty safe, so it was like around five-something in the morning, Not a lot of people around at all. Hardy Schmidt went out for her run. Gillis struck her with his car while she was jogging, knocking her into a ditch. From there he like went down the ditch, got her zip tied like tie to zip, tied around her neck like he did with the previous one, and he put some like plastic wrap around there too, like he had around her neck. He put her in the car. He drove her to an isolated area where he sexually assaulted and killed her. He placed her body in a trunk, kind of like the trunk murders. He put her in a trunk and then put it in his car, his white Chevy Cavalier.
Speaker 2:For two days oh Drove around with her body in there, in this sweltering Louisiana Gross In May.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yuck, it's already freaking nasty out and then he dumped her body in Bayou. St James Parish, or St James Parish.
Speaker 2:Like how did nobody go by that car and still smell that?
Speaker 1:Right, oh yeah, like a few hours after you're going to start sinking in this heat.
Speaker 1:It's humid and gross out here Absolutely. So yeah, that was saint james parish in a bayou, sorry saint james place, and saint james parish like weird, yeah, interesting. So his next victim was january of 2000 and he was like really unarolled. Then he was like really unrolled. Then he was like okay.
Speaker 1:So here we go, joyce williams. She was 36 years old. He, you know, his seemed to be zip ties was his thing. So he killed her zip ties around the neck. Um, he took her body to his house. So he was dating his girlfriend at the time. She lived with him but she worked at a convenience store on the night shift. She didn't drive, so he had to take her to work and back. So no chance she's going to pop in. So no chance she was going to pop in. So he killed Joyce Williams, strangled her, mutilated her, all that stuff, brought her body to his home and reportedly ate parts of her. And then when they found her later, like her bones and stuff had saw marks where he had like been you know sawing parts off and stuff. Like just disgusting.
Speaker 2:Is this the one he showers?
Speaker 1:No, this is the next one. Oh, the next.
Speaker 2:Same month. I didn't realize he brought two holes.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, same month, same year. So that's what I said. He was on a roll. He was like boom, boom. He got another one, lillian Robinson, also known as Lillian Gorgum Robinson, 52 years old. He killed her. He took his body, her body, to his home where he showered with her corpse yeah and cleaned her off, like again his girlfriend's at work.
Speaker 2:So I'm wondering was it like a fantasy situation? I think, or was he because I don't feel like. Or was he trying to erase evidence? No, it was a fantasy thing for him.
Speaker 1:It was him, it was in his head and he, he was like we're going to shower together. So when I was watching a lot of the documentaries on this, his girlfriend said that they didn't have sex together. He didn't want to. It was a very platonic relationship. They lived together, they slept in the same bed together. They did not have a sexual relationship, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:So then, in October of 2000, marilyn Nevels, 38 years old. She was killed in a similar fashion, with Gillis taking her body to his house, showering with her corpse, and then he left it on the levee in Baton Rouge, mm-hmm, so again. So he showered with two of them, two, three of them to his house, so like he was bringing them in. So then, three years later, october 2003, this is where he killed Johnny May Williams. Now, he knew Johnny May Williams. Oh, he had previously worked with her, he knew who she was. She was 45 years old. He killed her with a zip tie. He also took parts of her body as souvenirs. He removed both of her hands at the wrist. So like I guess to think like, oh, I'm gonna take her hands off, they won't be able to identify her body, or something I don't know but at this point he's just running around doing all kinds of nasty stuff.
Speaker 2:Just yeah, not getting caught Like randomly weird things.
Speaker 1:Right, but then this is where you know.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm wondering if he didn't do some of this weird stuff, like he's trying to throw them off, like Right, this isn't the same guy, because this happened different, right, and but hello, the strangulation with zip ties makes it pretty obvious yeah, it's the zip ties like he.
Speaker 1:That was his thing that he used because it was easy. He didn't have to, like, put a rope around their neck or something and then that doesn't require him to be a strong man.
Speaker 2:He just has to be able to tighten the zip tie.
Speaker 1:yep, because there's no letting up with that. It's's there, it's stuck at that position. So then his last victim, february of 2004, donna Bennett Johnston, 43 years old. So, gillis raped and strangled her with a nylon tie wrap Maybe he ran out of zip ties. Right Wasn't prepared. Yes, he mutilated her body post-mortem, including slashing her breast, removing one of her nipples, gouging out a tattoo and severing an arm. This is the one he said that in his interview. The the back of the tattoo had fat on it and he wanted to know what it tasted like. He said it didn't taste very good, but I tried it anyway. Like, just matter-of-factly said it like that in the police interrogation when he was confessing to everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like there's nothing strange about that at all, so only three of these women they had his DNA from, so they knew that this guy had killed three women.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at least.
Speaker 1:They had this matching DNA, but again nobody matched it because he had never gotten into trouble.
Speaker 1:Right, no person so you know, he got a little sloppy. He left a tire mark, oh, when he dumped a body. So, going back to donna bennett, though, he took like 50 pictures of her uh-huh while she was being mutilated and all the stuff he did to her. He took all these pictures to keep as souvenirs so he could, like you know, get pleasure from like looking at them and remembering and was all that stuff like found when they arrested him?
Speaker 1:yeah, when they, when they went through all his stuff, they found body parts, they found pictures, little souvenirs, here and there, of all the stuff gotcha um. So in april of 2004, like I said, the tire tracks were found near the body of donna bennett johnson. This tire was sold in the baton rouge area and only about 90 of them were purchased.
Speaker 2:So that's a small pool, considering what it could have been yes, so.
Speaker 1:So they got on it like police were on it. They said, you know, they were daily going, did anybody find this person? Did anybody find this person? So they were. You know, state crime lab was like on it, trying to find every single person, going to find where this person lives, ask them questions and all that stuff, ask them questions and all that stuff. So they were able to narrow it down when they found that this particular tire was like, it was only manufactured within a three-year period, so that's why there were so few sold. Gillis happened to be one of the people who bought this tire. So there we go. So they went to his home. Um, they heard some noise because they went up to the front door there was nobody answering. They heard a noise from around the back of the house. So they walked around. They were like hey, you know, we were looking to see, you know, if anybody was home. And he's like oh, hey, you know, he just talks to him like a normal person, like he ain't even scared.
Speaker 1:Nothing, nothing to do with anything. So they ask him some questions. They ask him about the tires. They were like, hey, we're trying to investigate something. We found some tire tracks and all this stuff. Do you know this person? So that's you know. When they ask him if he knew donna bennett johnson, he's like no, I no, I don't think I knew that. Well, have you been in this area at all? And he's like yeah, I was in that area. I had turned around right there and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:So he put himself there.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. Yes, so they asked him some more questions and they asked him if he would voluntarily give a DNA sample.
Speaker 2:Sure, here you go, because he doesn't think he left anything.
Speaker 1:Not at all. He's like they don't have anything on me. It's been all these years, right. So they test, they took, they asked him if he would come down to the police station so they could ask a few more questions, so they could kind of keep him there and everything. So they asked. So the sample was a match to the evidence found on some of the victim's bodies. They went after they had asked him questions, cause it took a while for it to come back from the lab. Sure, they were trying to get it as fast as possible, right?
Speaker 1:So he had gone back home. His girlfriend at the time said that he never went to bed the same time she did, and that night he called her his snuggle bunny. He wanted to go to bed at the same time as her. So I think he knew, he knew it was coming. So police pounded on the door, came in and she's like what's going on? And they were like do you know that you're living with a serial killer?
Speaker 1:I'm like, if I did know right, would I be living here now I also read that he had shown her because he was, you know, he liked pornography. Uh-huh, he liked some pornography that had situations where women were tied up or things happening to them like that type of situation. Mm-hmm, he had shown her pictures and things yeah like snuff film.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he had shown her pictures and videos and things of stuff like that and she's like I don't want to see that, but it never occurred to her that he was out there doing this stuff to women, or just sit there and go.
Speaker 2:why the hell do you want to see stuff like that? That's messed up. What's wrong with?
Speaker 1:you? Yeah, so she really just never questioned it. Yeah, so you know.
Speaker 2:It's one thing to be into to have your kinks and I don't kink, shame people no. But I think when you start getting the, like snuff film type stuff. That is a line, yeah, a really ugly line.
Speaker 1:Very ugly. Gillis was taken into police custody on April 29th 2004. While in custody, he just kind of started sharing all the ghastly details as he confessed to these murders. And by that time they come back and match the three. Well then, three turned into eight.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you about the rest of it, right? So yeah, that's mine too, yeah that's my, oh no, that's mine.
Speaker 1:I killed her Yep. So soon after his arrest he was. He had correspondence with a friend of his and he said I'm still puzzled over the postmortem dismemberment and cutting.
Speaker 2:I really don't know what the hell is wrong with me that's the part that bothered you, right, that you did more stuff to them after they were dead. Yeah, but not the cutting and all that stuff, not the killing them initially, and dismembering.
Speaker 1:I just don't know what the hell's wrong with me. Wow yeah, Crazy, Crazy stuff. But like these are the minds of yeah, just their minds ain't right already?
Speaker 1:Not at all. In August of 2007, in West Baton Rouge Parish, gillis pled guilty to second-degree murder for killing Williams. He received a life sentence. Gillis was put on trial in East Baton Rouge Parish for killing Johnston in East Baton Rouge Parish for killing Johnston. However, the judge did not allow Gillis' taped confessions to be presented in court during his trial. Gillis had requested an attorney during the interview but was not provided with a lawyer because he continued to talk to investigators Like he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Speaker 2:After that he was like let me tell you everything, and I don't think that that's the fault of the investigator. Like, if he's going to keep talking, he's going to keep talking. Right, like that's not your fault. You told him he could have one, yeah, and he said, yeah, he asked for one and then still talked Like, okay, well then I still think it's very valid. Yeah, valid, yeah, we'll let the attorney get here when he gets here, and he can tell you to shut up.
Speaker 1:I guess, right, you do have the right to remain silent, but on july 25th of 2008, gillis was found guilty of first degree murder. The jury deadlocked on the death penalty a week later, so the judge judge handed Gillis another life sentence. On February 17th of 2009, gillis was once again sentenced to life after pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of Nevels in Lafayette, parish. Gillis wasn't tried or sentenced for any other murders.
Speaker 2:I think that's a common occurrence, because he had already had so many, but you know, despite the fact that they're guilty for all these other ones too. And I mean, at least he says, said everything, it's just. I guess they just get to a point where they're like, okay, well, we don't need to.
Speaker 1:And his story, the evidence, the DNA, it all corroborated and you know it was all there. So they were like he's already got all these life sentences.
Speaker 2:He ain't going nowhere.
Speaker 1:He's not going anywhere. There's no parole. So Gillis has been incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary since 2008. And that's Angola which is a very rough prison. Yeah, he is currently housed in preventative segregation at Angola due to him being a high profile inmate and labeled a serial killer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he he like um different races and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so ages races like he wasn't like, yeah, he didn't have a specific type like no type yeah, it was young, old, black, white, it didn't matter, he was anything. Yeah, like, whatever the mood struck him, he was like there it was or just the fact that, oh look.
Speaker 1:That looks like an easy victim, right, easy target, yeah. So preventative segregation is a maximum custody housing area, preferably like a cell, which may be necessary because the offender continued. You know, their continued president, their continued presence in general population is a danger um to the good order and discipline that's going on.
Speaker 2:So they don't probably a danger to himself right and to himself.
Speaker 1:I I mean Jeffrey Dahmer. He was killed. He wasn't put in segregation at all. Yeah, so you know his presence does. It poses a danger to himself, other offenders, staff, general public, all that stuff. At Angola they have two tiers in Camp F. Death row complex houses 38 of the more egregious inmates and 78 or more are housed in Camp D, for a total of 116. So they keep them.
Speaker 2:Separated from everybody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not able to do work detail, they're not able to mix in with the general population, so they're really isolated. They are able to, you know, talk to each other and kind of have like a little bit of time out.
Speaker 2:But nothing like the other prisoners.
Speaker 1:So he was. He was given a choice. He chose to be isolated. He didn't want to be in with the general population, so he he ends up spending like 22 to 23 hours a day with no external like stimulus. There's nothing, yeah, but he likes that cancer, yeah, it says. You know, when I was like reading the article, it says it's possible that gillis isn't being affected by all of this with his life in prison because of his ego and his narcissism.
Speaker 2:So it really doesn't matter to him yeah, I'm sitting here going. How punished does he really?
Speaker 1:feel Right, like not at all. Sounds like he's like content, what's the guy you did that? Like wanted to go there? Because he's like, oh, I can go garden, yeah, blair. And he's like, oh, I can go garden, yeah, blair. And he's like, oh good, I love gardening.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, and just content in everything Like how do you feel like justice was served at that point? You don't, Nope, Not at all. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel for the families, absolutely, they've got to be like this is BS and he is still there to this day, bushlager Right, living out his solitude life in a cell, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I love being by myself.
Speaker 1:I do too. I really do, but I mean everyone. So that's why I'm saying it wouldn't be a punishment.
Speaker 2:I'd be like woo.
Speaker 1:I mean occasionally. I do want to go out and like go to Target and get some Starbies or something, but you know, if I lived in a cell with my dog, I'd be like You're good. Can I have a comfy blanket, some scented candles?
Speaker 2:I have good like, can I have a comfy blanket, some scented candles I have. I can get books right. Right, I can read books, my pets, I'm good hey I get you thinking, you know I always go I wasn't made for prison, but I'm like when they start letting dogs come right.
Speaker 1:But maybe you know preventative segregation, that's the way to go. But that's the you know story of Sean Vincent Gillis. There's a whole lot more. There is a whole A&E documentary on him.
Speaker 2:Butchers of the Bayou which also has your guy in it that you're doing.
Speaker 1:There's lots and lots of interviews on YouTube of his whole confession, everything that he did. I didn't go into a ton of details.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's so much you can watch.
Speaker 1:But if you want to know more about him, absolutely go look him up. He is, like I said, right up there with BTK.
Speaker 2:And there's a lot more stuff about his victims and their lives, like his victims and their lives, and I know the first one. You were talking about Butchers of the. Bayou like a lot of family members actually participated in that one Right, so there's stuff you can learn about and Bryant yeah, and then I think it was.
Speaker 1:Was it Hardy Schmidt's family also? They, you know, they participated and there were several others.
Speaker 2:Yep. Very informative, yeah, and also very, very sad yeah.
Speaker 1:And he's very, very sick, absolutely In the head.
Speaker 2:Well, Well, well well.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to make the clip for head.
Speaker 2:Well, well, well, well, you're going to have to make the clip for this.
Speaker 1:Yes, with that part. Yeah, I know when we both did something Andrewski-like. I know it's Andrewski on TikTok.
Speaker 2:He also does reels and he's on Instagram and everything.
Speaker 1:He's also an attorney. He's hilarious. Yes he is hilarious. Y'all should go look him up.
Speaker 2:And all the women want to eat him up. Yep, absolutely, he's over there going. All the women love me.
Speaker 1:He's a good looking guy, but he is like the most down to earth funny guy ever. He's also a very. His natal chart is very aquarius. He has a lot of aquarius in his chart, which means god complex. So yeah, there you go, that's why he's an attorney, that's why he's in exactly.
Speaker 2:He has the god complex 100 so you'll have to, you'll have to tag him in our stuff, just so he can be like and if you haven't checked out Blanche Devereaux on TikTok, please go. Welcome to my closet. We can't even say the word welcome anymore without all of that, right?
Speaker 1:Trash. So many things, right, we say trash. She has merch too. Oh, speaking of merch, we have merch, we do have merch.
Speaker 2:We have merch. No one's bought any of our merch.
Speaker 1:It's been there for months. It's on Printify. Hold my Sweet Tea, Go check it out and we will put the link, as always, in the show notes. Show noties.
Speaker 2:I don't always put it in all of them, but they're in there. Some of them are too long and I can't fit it.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:You know what I'd?
Speaker 1:like to have A. Some of them are too long and I can't fit it. Yep, you know what I'd like to have A coffee. Wait, we have buy me a coffee. We do, but you don't necessarily have to buy us a coffee, it's just a little support. We would love some help buying new microphones, yes, so we can sound a little bit better. I mean, we sound beautiful, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I've gotten used to my voice on here, but it could be better. The clarity. You could feel like you're in the room with us.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You want to be in the room with us? You do.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:We're the best. Ask Patti Salzetta, who created our theme music. She likes being in the room with us. She loves us. She will stop singing yes To say hey Right From the stage when we walk in.
Speaker 1:So see, we're cool, right, and she sings with the band called Wonderkind.
Speaker 2:She sings with the band called Wonderkind. She also does like some stand-in stuff for Petty Betty and stuff like that too. Lots of people like using her. Oh, she's an amazing singer. Yeah, she does. Yeah, really good. Yeah, and she's just fun to watch because she's so silly.
Speaker 1:Yes, she always cracks me up. She's short and spunky, yeah.
Speaker 2:So always cracks me up. She's short and spunky, so go follow Wonderkind. It's W-U-N-D-E-R and the word kind spelled the way it always is on the book of faces, where you can also be following us and sharing us with your friends and your family and the strangers that follow you yes, and in case you don't know, family and the strangers that follow you.
Speaker 1:Yes, and in case you don't know, we are called Hold my Sweet Tea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere we are, it's either Hold my Sweet Tea or Hold my Sweet Tea Podcast, because somebody else used Hold my Sweet Tea like a yeah.
Speaker 1:Like go tell your mom and them Like All of them, All of them.
Speaker 2:Go to family reunion. You'd be like, hey, you guys listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1:And they'd be like where you at, in Louisiana, in the south.
Speaker 2:Yep, come get some crawfish. Absolutely, listen to the podcast. I want some crawfish now. Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:It's my bad, it's all good, it's all good.
Speaker 2:Spicy sausage Sausages. But anyway, follow us on the socials. Yep, send us messages there, absolutely. You can also email us at steeped at holdmysweetteacom.
Speaker 1:And Hold my Sweet Tea is a Drunken Bee production and you guys remember to stay safe out there. And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't quit. Keep sipping, don't quit.
Speaker 2:Keep sipping, just keep sipping, bye.
Speaker 1:Bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you you.