September 2019, Cowlitz County, Washington. Dawn Rolfe walks out of a friend’s house, opens her friend’s car, and picks up a pistol — and a detective arrests her on the spot.
Her explanation: it was all just drunk talk at the bar. What she doesn’t know is that the friend she’d been drinking with had gone to that detective after their very first conversation — and, according to the friend, Dawn had already told her exactly what she would say if she ever got caught.
This is the story of one sentence. Dawn Rolfe said it to the detective, to a jury, and to three different courts. Before trial, prosecutors wouldn’t go below twenty years. This video shows what “just talk” ended up costing her.
