The former mortician serving a life sentence for the death of a rich East... (Associated Press) 
 
 Bernie Tiede's freedom Tuesday was part of an agreement with the same district attorney who prosecuted him for the death of his 81-year-old longtime companion, Marjorie Nugent, who disappeared in 1996 and was found dead in a freezer in Carthage nine months later. Tiede was set free after a judge who recommended his prison term be reduced set a $10,000 bond. Tiede still faces a theft charge for spending Nugent's money after her death, but Davidson said nothing will move forward on that until the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approves the sentence reduction in the slaying case. The former mortician serving a life sentence for the death of a rich East... (Associated Press) 
 
 Bernie Tiede smiles after a court hearing granting his release at the Panola County court house in Carthage, Texas, Tuesday, May 6, 2014. Tiede's bond was set at $10,000 and after posting bail, he was released to go live in Austin with filmmaker Richard Linklater, who co-wrote and directed the 2012 dark comedy "Bernie" that was inspired by the case and starred Jack Black in the title role and Shirley MacLaine as Nugent. Image 3 of 10 Panola County Sheriff's Office deputy Robert Henderson, left, esorts Bernie Tiede, 40, from the San Augustine County Jail into the San Augustine County Courthouse, Thursday, Feb. 4, 1999 in San Augustine, Texas. Panola County District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson agreed with Tiede's appeals attorney, Jodi Cole, who said he deserved a lighter sentence because he was sexually assaulted as a child and also had an abusive relationship with Nugent before her death. The story made statewide headlines, largely because many citizens in Carthage rallied around Bernie after his arrest, claiming he was a gentle, loving person and that Mrs. Nugent was the meanest woman in town. Photo: RON HEFLIN, AP Image 10 of 10 Texas killer made famous by Jack Black movie goes free 1 / 10 Back to Gallery 
 
 Bernie Tiede, the Carthage man who fatally shot a wealthy widow in November 1996 and was later sentenced to life in prison for the crime could be freed on $10,000 bond, after the DA who prosecuted him agreed to free him. Nugent's corpse was found at her Carthage home nine months after her 1996 disappearance, wrapped in a sheet inside a freezer among packages of frozen corn, pecans and meat.  Of all the murders that have taken place in Texas, it is hard to imagine one stranger and more macabre than the November 1996 shooting of Mrs. Marjorie Nugent, a wealthy 81-year-old widow in Carthage, Texas, by Bernie Tiede, the 39-year-old former assistant director of a Carthage funeral home. Psychiatrist Edward Gripon, who examined Tiede in January, testified Tuesday that Tiede and Nugent had a complex and abusive relationship. According to Texas Monthly, Tiede told investigators after Nugent's body was found in 1997 that the widow had grown to be "mean and demanding" and that he kept her on ice in the hopes that he could one day give her a nice funeral. The Austin-based film director Richard Linklater used a Texas Monthly article I wrote about the case as the basis for the 2011 comic movie Bernie, starring Jack Black as Bernie, Shirley MacLaine When her body was finally discovered by police, Bernie quickly confessed to the crime, explaining to the county sheriff that Mrs. Nugent had become so “mean and demanding” that he felt he had no choice but to shoot her. “A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison, where he should remain.”
– Bernie Tiede, the Texas mortician-slash-murderer made famous when Jack Black portrayed him in Bernie, was released yesterday—to go live in the garage apartment of Richard Linklater, who co-wrote and directed the 2011 movie. Tiede, who in 1996 killed his longtime companion, wealthy 81-year-old widow Marjorie Nugent, was originally sentenced to life in prison. But his appeals attorney argued that his sentence should be reduced because he was sexually assaulted as a child and Nugent (played by Shirley MacLaine) was abusive toward him; her body was found 9 months after she vanished in a freezer in her garage. The DA who originally prosecuted Tiede agreed, the AP reports, and Tiede was freed on $10,000 bond. The state criminal appeals court still needs to formally sign off on the reduction. A psychiatrist who examined Tiede explained that he killed Nugent in a "brief dissociative episode," and that the murder was not planned. Tiede, now 55, "doesn't come across in examination at all as a person prone to violence," he testified yesterday. "That set of circumstances ... is not going to re-create itself." The sexual abuse Tiede suffered at the hands of an uncle between ages 12 and 18 had not been divulged during the trial—a lawyer who decided to investigate the case, with Linklater's blessing, after seeing the movie discovered Tiede had been abused, Texas Monthly explained in a January article. Linklater—who has always been adamant Tiede is no longer a threat, the Houston Chronicle notes—volunteered to take Tiede into his Austin home, and the judge ordered Tiede to get counseling for the abuse he endured.