“They put us both on the ground. I said ‘I love you.’ She said ‘I Iove you,’ and that was it.”
The teen who went on a Bonnie and Clyde crime spree with his 13-year-old girlfriend is speaking out for the first time.
He said, "What I did was not smart by no means. I could have went about it a million different ways!"
Eighteen-year-old Dalton Hayes and girlfriend Cheyenne Phillips have been compared to the legendary outlaws.
Their two-week-long crime spree across five states riveted the nation last month. At one point, they were spotted on surveillance video in one Wal-Mart in South Carolina.
"There was no Bonnie and Clyde, it was nothing like that," Hayes told Dr. Phil in an interview.
Dr. Phil asked, "They killed people, they killed law enforcement people, and you didn't do anything like that?"
Hayes responded, "No way!"
Dr. Phil asked, "You never threatened anybody with a gun. You never shot anybody, you never killed anybody?"
"Yes," Hayes said.
Hayes admitted the 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway is one of his favorites.
Hayes told Dr. Phil, "Bonnie and Clyde were kind of like two people I really liked. I watched the movie Bonnie and Clyde several times. I think news broadcasters blew it out of proportion."
Hayes claims he believed his girlfriend was 19-years-old, not 13, and pregnant when he skipped bail on a burglary charge and went on the lam with her.
They were finally cornered asleep in a stolen SUV in Panama City, Florida. Fortunately, it ended peacefully. Not the bloodbath of Bonnie and Clyde fame.
"They put us both on the ground. I said 'I love you' and she said 'I love you, too' and that was it."
Dr. Phil responded to the interview with Hayes, saying, "What struck me is how powerful the impulse was with this kid and how willing he was to throw caution to the wind."
In this court appearance last month, Hayes vented his fury when he saw cameras in the court. He even showed his cockiness by addressing the judge by his first name, Harold.
He said, "Harold, I'm not saying no disrespect to your courtroom or nothing but I'm not staying here with that media."
Dr. Phil added, "He's not someone that you find evil in spirit, he's someone you'd say 'he just doesn't get it.'"
