Stream It Or Skip It: ‘I Am A Killer’ Season 6 on Netflix, A Docuseries With More Confessions From People Convicted Of Murder  

The true crime docuseries I Am a Killer returns for its sixth season with six new episodes for Netflix, and further adherence to what has always worked in this format: first-person interviews with people who were tried and convicted for murder, complete with inmate designation numbers and conversations in a jailhouse environment. A mother who killed her own cousin, a man who says racial profiling is responsible for his incarceration, and considerations of how an abusive childhood could lead to later in life violence: as always, I Am a Killer Season 6 allows those profiled space to speak. But is that the final word on a murder? Maybe not.  

I AM A KILLER – SEASON 6: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “Every street gang, they live by different codes. And it’s like, once you become a part of them, that’s like a family to them.” This is Candie Dominguez speaking, who is also known at her Texas correctional facility by her inmate number, 02244431.

The Gist: “When I took to the streets, I was looking for acceptance.” That’s Dominquez’s summary of her early life in San Antonio, TX, when she left home at eight years old before getting involved with the Texas Mexican Mafia, an infamous local gang, by the age of 15. Speaking with her unseen interviewer from a room at the prison, in the usual style of I Am a Killer, Dominguez says she was as much a product of her environment as she was a person trying to outrun it: the violent incident that led to her incarceration occurred in the same house where she was trying to raise her five children. 

Dominguez’s story is at the center of the two-part story that opens Season 6 of I Am a Killer. As the facts of her case unfold – Dominguez, her boyfriend Daniel Lopez, and another man were charged in the 2014 murder of Jose Menchaca, Dominguez’s cousin, in the house where she lived – we also meet Dominguez’s daughter, Brenda Galvan, and the attorney representing her, Tony Jimenez. Though he’s now retired from the force, Tre Serrano was the responding officer to the murder. (“The smell got stronger and stronger.”) And Joshua Somers was the prosecuting attorney on the case, in which Dominguez was sentenced to 30 years in prison while Lopez got life.

Were those sentences fair? And is Candie Dominguez telling I Am a Killer the whole truth about her side of the story? It’s normal for this series to present the person sentenced with an open microphone in an unjudged space. It’s also normal for Killer to interview people on the other side of the case, like victims’ families or law enforcement officials. But in Dominguez is family with the victim. And for that matter, the man who she says actually did the deed – Lopez, who was her boyfriend at the time – now tells the Killer cameras that he was set up. Uh-oh!

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The two-part Peacock docuseries Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Tapes features a previously-unheard interview with the serial murderer who became known as The Night Stalker. And is it possible that the true crime industry has found a fresh angle on the unsolved 1996 murder of JonBenét Ramsey? A new Netflix docuseries says yes.       

Our Take: The two-part opening salvo of I Am a Killer is not something the true crime docuseries has done before in its successful six-season run for Netflix, so that’s a new wrinkle. But otherwise, the series maintains its house style with a rigidity that’s admirable. I Am a Killer always emphasizes the first-person quality of its narrative. It doesn’t employ gotcha questions, or suspect context, or any external questions at all really, which offers its subject a kind of clean slate to be heard. As that version of the story unfolds, Killer also brings in police sources – footage from the scene, recordings of witness interviews, courtroom action – and usually supports it with testimonials from family or other loved ones. This creates a dry, steady and satisfying approach to true crime, which as a genre has seen its popularity inspire new ways to sensationalize and shock.

There is always a hinge here, too, and Season 6 is no different. I Am a Killer will allow its profiled person the space to speak. (“I feel like they came for me harder than they did everybody else,” Candie Rodriquez tells her interviewer.) But inevitably, there is also a corresponding later-episode moment. An opposing view, another voice, more questions to confront. Which is where Killer is at its best, because it’s never clear how much the people speaking know about what is being said elsewhere. If “He Said/She Said” was added to “I Am A Killer,” the title of this crime series wouldn’t be as catchy. But it would be nearly as true.

Sex and Skin: None, but be aware that I Am A Killer includes frank descriptions of violence, and discussions of physical and sexual abuse.

Parting Shot: As season 6 of I Am a Killer teases the second installment of its two-part lead episode, it’s with questions about Candie Dominguez’ side of the story. “Candie? She’s evil…” 

Sleeper Star: The straightforward descriptive titles in I Am a Killer are never obtrusive, never pushy – they allow the true crime angle the series is working with to reveal themselves at a solid pace and in good time. 

Most Pilot-y Line: Tre Serrano describes the scene the night officers responded to Candie Rodriguez’s house. “The evidence detectives came out. I didn’t think that it could get worse than having human remains in a Tupperware box. But this was only the beginning…”

Our Call: Stream It. With its sixth season, true crime heads will find more of what I Am a Killer does well. With that bold title, what you expect is sensationalism in all its grisly detail. Instead, Killer presents all the sides of a story it can, cites primary sources wherever possible, and gets out of the way, the better for its audience to draw its own true crime conclusions.  

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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