Statements from sons held in killing of Pahrump mom heard in court

“I’m so sorry,” the 17-year-old said on video, pausing to catch his breath. “I’m so sorry.”

Prosecutors played the footage in a Pahrump courtroom Friday afternoon. A Nye County detective first recorded it with his body camera on the July night that the teen was first arrested, suspected of fatally beating and stabbing his adoptive mother, Dawn Liebig, 46.

Her biological son of the same age, Dakota Saldivar, was also arrested in connection to the crime that night. Authorities have said both confessed, but the Friday hearing marked the first time any of those conversations were played for the public.

“I didn’t want to do it at first, but I was like, all right, all right,” an emotional Michael said on video.

Changing stories

Liebig initially had been reported missing. But on the night investigators talked to the teens about her disappearance, Michael’s story began to change, the body camera footage showed, and detectives soon learned Liebig was dead.

Michael first described her death as an assisted suicide, noting that she was “always in pain,” the footage showed, and she asked the boys to kill her.

Some time later, his story changed again. This time, he described a plan initiated by his brother, Dakota, according to the footage.

Their mother was asleep on a couch in the family’s living room just before the July attack began, Michael said. He went first, stabbing her in the neck. The woman awoke at that moment.

“And then, right away, she started screaming, ‘No,’” Michael said. “She was like, ‘No, no, no.’ I think she said it three or four times. And then, from there, she started, ‘Stop.”

But he didn’t stop, Michael said. He stabbed her about five more times.

“I did feel really bad for doing it,” he told detectives. “I really did. But I didn’t, I didn’t stop.”

Then his brother, who had been scared to make the first blow, took over, Michael said.

“I started freezing up,” Michael said. “But Dakota, man …”

Michael told police his brother hit Liebig on the head with a hammer about 20 times. A detective asked if their mother was still responsive when this was happening, and Michael said, “Yes.”

“He used the hammer to hit her several times until he hit her so hard the hammer flew out of his hand,” Michael added, according to the footage. “And then that’s when he pulled out the knife and started stabbing her in the back of the neck.”

‘We got fed up with her’

It was Michael who told detectives that night where Liebig’s body was buried. An investigator who testified Friday said when police pulled up to the spot, they could immediately smell decomposition. She was found buried nearby in a shallow desert grave.

Just like Michael, Dakota at first insisted his mother was missing. But when investigators told him his brother had confessed, Dakota’s story changed, too, according to separate body camera footage.

“We got fed up with her because it was just nonstop yelling, screaming, you know,” Dakota told police, the footage showed.

His story was similar: The boys waited until their mother was asleep to attack, Dakota told police.

“I was thinking that the hammer would go through and puncture the brain and that she would just be out,” Dakota added. “But, of course, those things didn’t go as planned. She fought.”

He described a 25- to 30-minute struggle with his mother, during which she called to her sons to help. Dakota guessed that was because she didn’t realize her sons were the ones attacking her.

“And then,” Dakota added, “the last thing she said, I think, was, ‘Is this real?’”

As the videos played, the boys silently sat still in the courtroom, sometimes glancing down at their wrists, latched with silver handcuffs.

The hearing continues Thursday morning at Pahrump Justice Court.

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby.