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Nancy Grace

South Carolina Arrest Convicted Child Rapist

Aired March 17, 2006 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GUEST HOST: Tonight, breaking news. Captured just hours ago, a convicted rapist now suspected of victimizing two 17- year-old girls, is put back behind bars. The girls were taken out of their home as they slept, then attacked in a nightmarish underground dungeon.
Also tonight, Steven Avery, charged in the murder and mutilation of young photographer Teresa Halbach, faces new charges. Did Avery tell fellow inmates he was planning this crime?

Good evening, everybody. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, sitting in tonight for Nancy Grace. Tonight, dramatic developments in the brutal murder of 26-year-old Wisconsin photographer Teresa Halbach. New charges against Steven Avery, the man accused of assaulting, kidnapping and murdering Halbach when she came to take pictures at his auto salvage yard.

But first, breaking news tonight out of South Carolina. Police arrest a convicted rapist who is suspected of striking again, gruesome new attacks on two 17-year-old girls in a horrifying underground dungeon. Tonight, suspect Kenneth Glenn Hinson is behind bars again, captured just hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Darlington County deputies say they were extremely shocked by what they found Tuesday morning. In this Hartsfield (ph) home, they found an underground bunker where they say a convicted sex offender assaulted two young girls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are the kind of things you like to think doesn`t happen in a county such as this, or any rural county, but it just shows that these type things are coming home to rural America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s go straight out to Henry McMaster. He is the South Carolina attorney general. Thank you so much for joining us, sir. First of all, congratulations on the arrest. Great work. I understand we may have some local heroes. I understand -- and please correct me if I`m wrong -- that some of the neighbors were instrumental in capturing this man.

HENRY MCMASTER, SOUTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL: That`s what I understand, but I don`t have the details on it. Law enforcement over in that part of the state handled it. They did a great job. They`ve been working hard, and they ought to be commended.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, now, I`m just curious as to how all of this could have happened. I understand that this man allegedly -- and let`s face it, he hasn`t been convicted yet -- took these two 17-year-old girls, allegedly, out of their home one by one, and then took them to some sort of dungeon that he had created underneath his mobile home nearby. Now, how was he able to take one girl and then another girl?

MCMASTER: I don`t know the answer to that. What we understand is he`s accused of taking them one at a time. They were next door. It was after dark. Apparently, they had gone to sleep. And he took them one by one just next door into this, what you have accurately described as a dungeon. It`s a small room, five feet by eight feet and about four feet tall, underground, with a trap door and all that. And he duct-taped them up, and one by one, he`s accused of having raped them and then left them there and closed the place back up and left.

And after a total of about seven hours from the beginning to the end of that part of the ordeal, one was able to wiggle free and loosened up the duct tape on the other, and they kicked the trap door out and left and ran to the road and went to safety in a passing car.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I am looking at this video for the very first time myself, but it`s absolutely horrifying. Tim Stec, deputy U.S. Marshal, we are seeing video of, apparently, this dungeon that this man had created underneath his mobile home. Now, of course, he is not convicted. He is just arrested and suspected in this crime. But that dungeon is a dungeon. And what other purpose, we could wonder, would he have for it?

Tell us about this crime, Tim Stec. You are the deputy U.S. Marshal who`s been tracking it. How was he caught? Were neighbors instrumental in finding him?

TIM STEC, DEPUTY U.S. MARSHALL: Yes, ma`am, they were. We had offered a $10,000 reward early on because he was considered very dangerous, especially to children. And we actually were very fortunate that a neighbor actually called in after sighting him in her backyard. And again, it`s just a great job that we did and Darlington County did and SLED (ph). We were all three involved and were there at the scene when we arrested him. We were able to recover a weapon off of him and take him into custody without incident, we were on him so quickly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Investigative reporter Leslie Snadowsky, you have been tracking this crime from the very beginning. Tell us, paint a picture of how these two girls, 17-year-olds were allegedly taken from their home one by one, and how that could have happened because logic tells you, if you take one child, the other one wakes up and does something about it.

LESLIE SNADOWSKY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, these two girls were in a mobile home, a relative`s mobile home. And according to reports that I read, they were taken one by one. He crept in and he put duct tape over the first girl`s mouth, dragged her out to his trailer, which wasn`t to far away, to that shed, where that trap door was, where that tiny little closet space was, where they -- you know, he assaulted them, raped them one by one.

And after he was done with the first girl, he went back to the mobile home and got the other one. It was just very, very creepy. And in fact, some of the reports I read said that if they didn`t wriggle out of the duct tape and get out of there in the seven-hour period that they were left alone, they could have suffocated in there. But they did get out. They were able to kick down the front door of the shed and run to safety.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So I think we have heroes all around. We have heroes in the neighbors who helped find this guy. We also have two heroic young women who really used their smarts to get out of a potentially deadly situation.

Don Clark, former head of the FBI Houston bureau, these two women were there allegedly for seven hours. Now, if, in fact, they were assaulted numerous times, could this suspect face numerous charges of sexual assault for each victim? OK.

Well, we`re going to ask that question of somebody who always has the answer to everything, former prosecutor Wendy Murphy. Wendy?

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes. If it were only true. Jane, you know, one of the problems with child abuse prosecutions in this country is that too often, we don`t do exactly what you just said, which is prosecute somebody for one count for each time they touch, assault or penetrate a child. Too often, we give them what I call volume discounts, you know, so there`s a real possibility he will be undercharged. If he raped each child multiple times, there`s a real chance we`ll see only charges -- one charge for one child, one charge for another. And I hope that doesn`t happen.

This guy was a beast. Come on, Jane! You said there are a lot of heroes to go around. There are a lot of monsters on the side of the government, in particular, the judge who let this guy go, convicted in 1991 of raping at knifepoint a 12-year-old child. The government begged a judge to put him behind bars for the rest of his life under their civil commitment laws. The judge said, No evidence he`s dangerous, and off he went, unprotected, building dungeons. You`ve got to be kidding me! The heroes are all the over the place. The beasts are wearing robes!

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you raised so many important points. And the primary thing, Anne Bremner, defense attorney and former prosecutor, is how could you say that somebody who has already been convicted of putting a knife to a 12-year-old girl`s head and raping her is basically not likely to commit another crime? How could you say that he is not abnormal? Isn`t that the definition of being psychologically abnormal?

ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, absolutely, Jane. But here`s the thing. All pedophiles are child molesters, but not all child molesters are pedophiles. And in this case, a judge found a lack of evidence that he was likely to reoffend back at that time. A lot of people say the best prophet of the future is the past, but if that were true, if every single person who`s a child molester was going to reoffend, then everyone would be committed.

The fact is, each case has to be looked at, and statistically, with men molesting girls, recidivism, 14 percent to 20 percent. That`s (INAUDIBLE) Department of Justice. So the judge did the right thing, based on what he had before him at the time.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I have a feeling that Wendy Murphy doesn`t feel that way.

BREMNER: I know! I`m sure she doesn`t!

(CROSSTALK)

MURPHY: You`ve got to be kidding me!

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Eighty-six percent of offenders recommended for this treatment program are rejected. Why? Is it money?

MURPHY: Well, think about that. Of all the people who`ve done bad things to children, the government is saying, Please lock them up, we think they`re dangerous, and over 80 percent of the time, the judges are saying no. It is probably primarily a question of money. Who knows if it`s political ideology. I don`t know. I don`t care.

Look, Anne`s wrong about something. Predators, whether you call them pedophiles or not, they pick on kids. And the National Institutes of Mental Health funded a study not long ago, where they found on average, the average child molester has 117 victims over the course of his lifetime. And the recidivism rate she cited is a very short-term rate. It measured people only a few years after they get out of prison. And guess what? Most pedophiles, 90 percent of the time...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but Wendy...

MURPHY: ... never get caught! So you can`t look at those recidivism data.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Anne`s point is that -- are we going to lock everybody up? I mean, there are so many rapists, and we are already setting records in this country for the number of people we have incarcerated. Is that the answer, to lock everybody up?

And let`s go to Don Clark, former head of the FBI Houston bureau.

DON CLARK, FORMER HEAD OF FBI HOUSTON BUREAU: Hey, no, hat`s not the answer, to lock everybody up because everyone doesn`t need to be locked up. But in the case of these people going around raping 12-year-old kids, that`s a different set of circumstances.

And maybe if the law enforcement community, and myself when we were involved in these type of things, would try to prioritize these things from the worst to the least worst and try to figure out which ones of these that we need to keep behind bars or we need keep a tab on them. There is no question that people who rape little boys and little girls need to be kept a tab on. In some cases, they should not be let out of prison. And I think judges and everybody else who review these ought to take a look at the severity of the circumstances and the consequences of their crime before they make those decisions.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Elizabeth, I love when Nancy asks you a question, so I`m going to ask you a question. Do we have our clinical psychiatrist, Lawson Bernstein, with us tonight? OK. Well, we need a shrink, so I`m very happy you`re with us, sir.

LAWSON BERNSTEIN, CLINICAL PSYCHIATRIST: Sounds like it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean, this is a horrific crime, but the larger social implications this is, what`s happening in this country? Are we seeing a decrease in rape, an increase in rape? And why are these horrific, gruesome crimes so much in the news right now?

BERNSTEIN: Well, in terms of whether there`s a decrease or increase, I think it depends how you slice the data. I think we`ve become better at detecting these types of crimes. I think the threshold for reporting the crimes is much lower than it was years 20 or 30 years ago, when something heinous like this perhaps would go unspoken about for any number of years.

Why they`re in the news? You could probably answer that question or somebody in the media could answer that question better than I. They are sensationalistic. They are horrific. It`s much like passing a terrible car accident. As bad as it is, people turn and look. And I think those are the reasons why you see such a prevalence of this on the media.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re right, they are horrific and they are just bizarre. Take a look at what we`re seeing here, a dungeon built under a mobile home, Doctor. What kind of man does that? I mean, you dig ditches when you`re a kid in the backyard. Is this an infantile, juvenile person or is this some kind of sadistic serial killer? Allegedly. Remember, he has only been caught. He has not been convicted. He has a presumption of innocence.

BERNSTEIN: Well, this is a well-thought-out plan and it`s an elaborate plan. And often, what you see with serial recidivists is the plan becomes more complex and the accoutrements and the setting become more complicated as time goes on. And it certainly suggests a substantial degree of specific intent and pre-planning that went into this crime.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Lauren Leach, reporter for "The State" newspaper, you have been tracking this case from the very beginning. What I found so shocking about this is that this man has relatives in this neighborhood, two grand-nieces who said, Hey -- quote, "I could have been in that hole." He`s committing these crimes, allegedly, with his own neighbors being relatives.

LAUREN LEACH, "THE STATE": That is correct. I talked to his niece and his three great-nieces yesterday, and they`re all very shocked about what had happened.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And what about the fact that he apparently, according to published reports, had a woman who also lived with him in this mobile home, as well as her teenage son? Has anybody interviewed her? Was she aware of what was allegedly going on? Has she made any statements?

LEACH: I saw her yesterday when I was walking down the driveway toward the home, but she was not willing to talk at that time. And as far as I know, no one has talked to her since.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I want to go back to our psychologist, Lawson Bernstein. I, as a lay person, always find it bizarre when somebody is accused of rape and has a history of this nature, has a girlfriend. But that`s just my own sort of the average person`s stereotyping. This often happens. They...

BERNSTEIN: Well, yes...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: In fact, as somebody said, they often have a split personality, where they have two sides of themselves.

BERNSTEIN: Well, don`t forget this is not a sexual crime, in the sense of normal adult sexuality. This is an aberrant aggressive act. So what you often find with people with compulsive disorders is there`s the so-called normal life or the facade of normalcy, and on the flip side, on the dark side, what you find is an individual engaging in deviant and bizarre practices, which may be sexual, in terms of the act, but are not reflective of sexuality. They`re violent acts played out through the venue of sex.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Lauren Leach, reporter for "The State," what was your sense of this person from talking to neighbors? I`ve heard everything from, He was a loner, he looked you in the eye, but he didn`t speak. What were you hearing out there?

LEACH: I was hearing all kinds of things about him. One man I talked to did describe him as a loner and he also described him as a character, said that he would look at him, but he would never say anything. And this man did not seem surprised that this man was accused of committing something like this.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But the good news is, he is behind bars. He was captured. And very quickly, before we go to break, some heroes in your area, Lauren?

LEACH: Well, I wasn`t up there when he was captured today, but I`ve heard that some neighbors did see him on the street, walking out of the woods, and notified the authorities and they captured him. It wasn`t too long after I left from up there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, it takes a lot of bravery to do that and overcome your fear.

To tonight`s "Trial Tracking." A grand jury vote could come as early as today in the case of murdered 24-year-old New York grad student Imette St. Guillen. After hearing additional testimony, the panel is reportedly near a vote on whether to indict Darryl Littlejohn. He is the prime suspect in the case and former bouncer of the bar where Imette was last seen. Imette`s body was found brutally raped, beaten and wrapped in a blanket in a desolate area of Brooklyn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities say 48-year-old Kenneth Glenn Hinson lived very close to the teens, though their relationship is not known. They say he broke into their home in the middle of the night and kidnapped them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officials say Hinson brought the two victims to the small space he created under a shed, tied them up, sexually assaulted them and then left them here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, sitting in tonight for Nancy Grace. Forty-seven-year-old Kenneth Hinson was convicted of raping a 12- year-old girl in 1991. The South Carolina man got 18 years but only served 9 of them before being released. A review committee urged that he be committed indefinitely to a mental health facility for treatment, but a judge nixed that, saying prosecutors had not shown he was likely to assault again. Well, guess what? Now, tragically, Hinson is accused of -- what else? -- assaulting again, this time allegedly abducting two 17-year-old girls and raping them, allegedly, in an underground bunker. Tonight, there is outrage over the judge`s decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at me. Positive (ph) for Howard Marx (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marx (INAUDIBLE) take place today, April 22, at 0800 hours!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is the movie "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise. The premise? Psychics are used to predict future crimes, so that criminals can be arrested before they commit the crime.

Now, defense attorney Anne Bremner, that is science fiction. We don`t have...

BREMNER: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... crystal balls. So how are we to make a decision in a case like this? Because everybody`s second-guessing this judge.

BREMNER: Well, yes, exactly. And I love Wendy, and I always think, you know, we`re a lot alike. I always think there`s my side and there`s the wrong side. But you know, when you look at something like this, what you have to find is, it`s not just his sentence, Jane, it`s the fact is, once he finishes sentence, the judge had to decide and have evidence that he was likely to reoffend, actual evidence, not just a general belief that once a pedophile, always a pedophile, and then commit him for life. And that`s a different standard. He served his time and got paroled.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, South Carolina attorney general Henry McMaster, what do you say to that, that people are saying, Well, look, he`s not going to be able to predict the future, and he has to use the criteria that`s available to him.

MCMASTER: Well, that`s exactly right. The system failed these two teenage girls, and I`m afraid it`s still going to keep on failing. The first failure was when this man, who had raped a 12-year-old girl at knifepoint in 1991, got out after 9 years of an 18-year sentence. That`s wrong. If that sentence had been carried out, he`d still be in jail now and this clearly would not happened, if he`s the man that actually did it.

But the second failure in the system was when the two review committees, based on the evidence, said that he is likely to commit again. He has an abnormal mental condition, and he`s likely to commit this again - - two review committees did that. The same evidence went to the judge. The judge also had a psychiatrist`s report. And the judge decided that he would -- there was not enough...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you`re saying...

MCMASTER: ... evidence to show that he would like to recommit.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... that the judge goofed?

MCMASTER: Yes, I`m -- of course. If we wouldn`t have -- the attorney general at the time would not have sent the thing to the judge through his review committee unless he thought the evidence was solid that the man would probably recommit. The judge disagreed. It`s the judge`s decision. He made it. And if this man is the one that did it, we see the consequences of that now.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Thank you, sir. And of course, 20/20 hindsight is always perfect. But I get the point, absolutely.

To tonight`s "Case Alert." A gunman opened fire early this morning at a Denny`s restaurant, killing one man and seriously wounding another. It is the third fatal shooting at the restaurant chain in southern California this week. The 2:45 AM shooting happened after a fight between two large groups inside the restaurant. One victim re-entered the restaurant after being shot and then died inside. The other was taken to a hospital and was expected to survive. The gunman? Still at large.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say by the morning, the girls managed to free themselves from the duct tape and kick through the shed`s door to escape. Officials say they then ran toward the road, where a passerby took them to safety. As for Hinson`s sex offender status, the previous incident happened back in 1991. Investigators say Hinson served his time and followed the regulations and that there was just no way of predicting that something similar might happen again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The registry -- he had complied, and everything was as the law requires. We just can`t control people`s will and what people are going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, sitting in tonight for Nancy Grace. He served time for raping a 12-year-old girl but was put back on the streets of South Carolina despite efforts to send him to a treatment center for sexually violent predators. Now Kenneth Hinson is accused of doing it again, this time allegedly kidnapping and raping two 17-year-old girls in a below-ground bunker. Thankfully, these girls escaped and flagged down a car for help. And Hinson was caught just a little while ago. Neighbors said they had no idea that Hinson was a registered sex offender.

Former prosecutor Wendy Murphy, how is it beneficial to register as a sex offender, which he apparently did, if nobody knows about it?

MURPHY: Well...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: One neighbor there should have been something on his lawn.

MURPHY: You know, this does, I think, exemplify what`s silly about sex offender laws, that they don`t provide any protection at all. I mean, the point is that people should be notified, and the burden should be on the bad guy to let people know that he`s around because we`ve decided it`s important for the public safety that they know.

The thing, though, again, Jane, you know, if I hear one more person say, after another kid is raped by yet another guy who`s done it in the past, Oh, well, 20/20 hindsight -- hindsight is just the reverse of foresight. In other words, if we can look back now and say, Oh, now that we take a look at the guy`s life, we can see how this was to some extent predictable, isn`t that exactly the rationale for giving him a very long sentence and/or civilly committing him for the rest of his life?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. And Henry McMaster...

MURPHY: This is the part I don`t understand...

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... in our final seconds on this subject, you have said that you`d like to see parole eliminated because if he had done his entire 18 years, he would have still been behind bars tonight. You really mean that, eliminate parole entirely?

MCMASTER: Yes, ma`am, I sure do. I think it ought to be eliminated. I think when the judge issues a sentence, everybody in the courtroom -- the victims, the family, the press, everybody -- ought to be able to mark their calendar that that is when that man`s going to get out. We ought to abolish all that parole.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell sitting in tonight for Nancy Grace. A crime so horrific, it left a local deputy saying it was the worst he`s ever experienced. Wisconsin authorities say a beautiful 25-year-old photographer named Teresa Halbach was brutally raped, tortured and murdered by 43-year-old Steven Avery and a 16-year-old nephew. The nightmarish twist? Before this crime, Avery had become a symbol of flawed justice for being wrongly convicted of rape. Now prosecutors say Avery told his fellow prisoners he was planning a crime like this, even diagramming a torture chamber he wanted to build. For the very latest let`s go straight out to - - we`re going to actually start, I believe, with Kevin Braley, "Herald Times" reporter, who has been tracking the case from the very beginning and I understand that you were in court today.

KEVIN BRALEY, "HERALD TIMES" REPORTER: Is that correct. Thanks for having me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you for being here. What happened in court today? I understand a lot of developments sir.

BRALEY: Certainly. There are quite a few motions have been filed in the last couple of weeks regarding Stephen Avery`s case. The biggest one of course today was the bail modification hearing. The defense, Stephen Avery`s attorneys, wanted to try to get Stephen Avery`s family to be able to put up the land they own as collateral for the $500,000 cash bail. Of course prosecutors had a different thing to say about that when Brendan Dassey came forward with the statements a couple weeks ago. And in fact, the judge set bail at $750,000 cash up from the $500,000 cash bail.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And basically, that means because he doesn`t have that kind of cash, he is probably going to stay behind bars.

BRALEY: That`s correct. In fact, Mike Halbach, Teresa Halbach`s brother, spoke after the hearing today and took some offense at some of the statements made by Dean Strang, who is Avery`s attorney in the matter. Dean Strang told the court that Stephen Avery doesn`t like to be in jail. He doesn`t like missing Thanksgiving and he doesn`t like missing Christmas with his family and of course that he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Of course Mike Halbach took offense because his sister of course was not at Thanksgiving or at Christmas as well.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, as a matter of fact, we are very honored to have Mike Halbach, Teresa Halbach`s brother, with us tonight. Sir, I understand this has got to be the most nightmarish thing anybody can go through. I thank you so much for being here tonight. And all of our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family just so you know from the Nancy Grace show. What was it like to be in court today?

MIKE HALBACH, TERESA HALBACH`S BROTHER: It`s definitely not a place I like to be, especially having to be there with both of those court defendants. But it`s what I have to do to make sure what happened to my sister -- to make sure those defendants are brought to proper justice.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tell us a little bit about your sister, about her ambitions, her dreams, her personality, such a beautiful girl.

HALBACH: My sister -- yeah. My sister was a great role model in my life. She`s one of the smartest people I knew. After college, she started her own business taking photos of children. And I knew she loved children a lot. And I know someday she was hoping to have her own kids. And unfortunately, she can`t do that. * VELEZ-MITCHELL: Leslie Snadowsky, investigative reporter, what our other reporter was talking about, the bail being raised, had to do with some new information that`s come in in the form of a four-hour videotaped confession essentially from the nephew who allegedly participated as well. This is one of the most shocking documents I`ve ever read. It literally gave me nightmares last night. Tell us some of the gruesome details.

SNADOWSKY: It`s totally horrific. When I listen to things that Brendan said happened, just think about the anger that these two people must have had to commit all these things. Brendan comes over to his uncle`s house, knocks on the door to the trailer, hears a woman screaming help me, help me. Avery comes to the door all sweaty, said come on in and he actually asks his 16-year-old nephew do you want to have sex with this woman? Goes into the bedroom, this poor woman is handcuffed, has leg irons on. She`s naked. The young 16-year-old rapes her.

Then they go and watch TV for a while. Then they kind of plot how they`re going to kill her. They go into the bedroom. They unshackle her and they stab her, both of them. Actually, Avery stabs her and I believe Brendan cuts her throat. They cut her hair. They choke her, they punch her. They drag her to the garage. And then they take a .22 caliber rifle and they both shoot her, I mean I think over a dozen times. Then they actually burn her remains, conceal her car. They try to hide her license plate. They clean up the blood in the trailer and the garage and then Dassey, the 16-year-old goes home with bleach stains on his pants because of the bleach they`re using to clean up. I mean, scary terrible stuff when you read all this. Can you imagine being one of those investigators getting this type of statement?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I agree with you, it`s one of the worst. I`ve read a lot of criminal complaints that have included confessions and details. This is one of the worst I`ve ever read. It made me nauseous, actually. Len Kachinsky, you are the attorney for the nephew who gave this four-hour videotaped statement to authorities. Why do you feel now that it should not be allowed?

LEN KACHINSKY, BRENDAN DASSEY`S ATTORNEY: Well, we frankly haven`t had a chance to look at it yet. And in any sort of case like this, it`s a routine motion by the defense to keep out a statement made by the defendant. What we`re looking at, once I get the tape, which is probably going to be sometime early next week, is whether or not Miranda rights were given and whether or not there was any sort of overbearing pressure brought to bear by the police on Mr. Dassey.

We have to remember Mr. Dassey, who is 16-years old, has no prior criminal justice or juvenile justice experience and is also someone who was in special ed classes in school and someone who is easily influenced either by someone like Steve Avery or perhaps by the police. But when we see the videotape we`ll know. Wisconsin requires that all juvenile confessions now be videotaped. And that`s been the law in our state since July. This is one of the first cases I`ve had where that ruling by our supreme court has been useful.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: When you say he`s in special ed, what are you saying there? That he doesn`t have all his wits about him?

KACHINSKY: No. He has his wits about him, I`m sure. But he certainly has learning difficulties that are greater than that of the average person. How great they are -

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, what is his defense? I mean, you`re his attorney. This is a litany of horrors that he recites to authorities for four hours on videotape. I understand you haven`t seen it but we`ve all heard what`s on that tape. What`s his explanation? What`s your explanation?

KACHINSKY: Well, if the tape is accurate, an accurate recollection of what occurred, there is, quite frankly, no defense. Coercion under Wisconsin statutes is not a defense to first degree intentional homicide and it requires an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm. So our first thing we`re going to look at is whether or not the statement`s admissible, whether or not there were some sort of promises or threats made to Dassey to cause him to make that statement. Since it`s been preserved on videotape, we should be able to tell that soon after I get that, although there`s also other circumstances to consider.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Former prosecutor Wendy Murphy. The defense is fighting tooth and nail to keep that videotape out. Is that because if it`s entered, it`s curtains?

MURPHY: Yeah. And I give a lot of credit to this defense attorney for basically saying if it wasn`t coerced -- and there`s really no reason at this point to think that it was -- then there is no defense. I don`t hear that very often from defense attorneys. They`re often throwing smoke and mirrors all over the place. There`s nothing better than a confession. And it`s a very powerful confession that will also probably help to win a conviction against Avery if what appears to be true, which is that it matches up with the forensics and produces evidence that this boy could not have known about unless in fact it were true. So boy, if ever there was a nail in the coffin for Avery, this is it. And I think this kid is going down, too. I don`t see a defense either.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And let`s listen to Stephen Avery himself describing what he says is the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN AVERY: I`m innocent. I wasn`t doing nothing to harm nobody. I can`t figure that out. They hate me that much to frame me for a life bit? That ain`t me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did not kill Teresa Halbach?

AVERY: Not at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You didn`t assault her in any way?

AVERY: No. I wouldn`t do nothing like that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, "Herald Times" reporter Kevin Braley, explain to us the back story of framing. Stephen Avery talks about framing there. And apparently he served 18 years for a rape that it turns out, according to the DNA, he did not commit and he was later cleared. So he`s claiming a framing now, sort of in retaliation?

BRALEY: Well, that`s correct. He went to prison in 1985 for a rape that -- like you said, he did not commit. DNA cleared his name in 2003 and he was released. Upon that release, or, rather, a year later in 2004, he filed a $36 million civil lawsuit against the former sheriff of Mantua County as well as the former district attorney for his wrongful conviction. That case was actually just settled last month. He took a fraction of that. He won $400,000 in that suit, again started as a $36 million lawsuit. But, certainly, there has been some speak on his side that he`s being framed and set up because of the civil suit.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve been involved in this business for 33 years. And I`ve seen a lot of bad things in my investigation. But I think this tops the cake. To know that one human being can do this to another human being is beyond belief.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell sitting in tonight for Nancy Grace. Stephen Avery spent 18 years in jail for a rape DNA tests later showed he did not commit becoming a symbol of flawed justice, even inspiring a change in state laws. But, now, the 43-year-old Wisconsin man is accused of a sex crime so brutal, it almost boggles the imagination. The victim, 25-year-old Teresa Halbach, was allegedly put in leg irons and sexually tortured by Avery and a teenage nephew before being stabbed and slashed to death, difficult to even report. Halbach claimed he was being framed because he sued for wrongful conviction. But authorities say they have mountains of evidence against him. Former prosecutor Wendy Murphy, you have reviewed those mountains of evidence. Is this an open/shut case, or is this framing going to get in the way of telling that story?

MURPHY: I`ll tell you, it was a very solid case even before Dassey came forward, because we know, for example, that Avery`s blood was found in Teresa`s car, as was Teresa`s blood. We know that his DNA was found on her car key, which was located in his bedroom. I don`t know how you frame a guy by getting him to touch the car key. That`s so preposterous to begin with. And her car was buried on his property under bushes and materials. Let`s not forget, her parts were found on his property. Look, there`s a very solid case against him. But once Dassey comes forward to say, and I was there and I can corroborate everything the prosecution is saying, any potential statement about framing goes straight out the window.

I want to just say quickly Jane, this case sounds so similar to the Imette St. Guillen case in terms of the nature of the torture.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, absolutely, even the cutting of the hair.

MURPHY: Exactly and I want to just emphasize one thing, because it`s so important to the work that I do and to violence against women as an important angle and something this show, thankfully, features all the time. And I really appreciate that. Nancy does such a good job. Wisconsin has a hate crimes law. It covers religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation. Guess what`s left off the list. Gender, gender. We need to fix the law in Wisconsin, because according to police, he has a history of violence against women, which is one problem -- maybe we won`t see that proved. But he said, I`m going to get out of prison and go and torture and kill and rape women. I would say.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re bringing a point I want to bring up. I want to go to the psychiatrist on this because you raised an absolutely crucial point. Lawson Bernstein, he allegedly, according to some jail house snitches, said that he was planning this crime in jail, told them that allegedly. And even drew up allegedly a diagram of a torture chamber that he wanted to create. As a psychiatrist, I really look for some kind of guidance from you.

BERNSTEIN: Right. Well, actually - one of the other things that fascinated me about this guy was prior to the `85 rape, he was -- or the rape that he was exonerated of, he was convicted of killing an animal. One of the things we know from the psychiatric literature is that people who torture animals or act in a sadistic fashion have a marked predilection for sadistic behavior throughout the rest of their lives. So even though it sounds horrible, but perhaps trivial compared to the other crimes, it`s not. It`s a predictor of future behavior. Again, this man developed an elaborate set of circumstances that he wished to pursue and he talked about it at length with others. So, again, this is somebody with a well developed but aberrant interest. And it`s not about sex. It`s about hurting people. It`s about sadism, as played out through the sexual venue.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we just have to wonder why there are so many of these crimes that we`re hearing about and covering. And they`re so disturbing. As we go to break, Mike Halbach, your sister, hearing these, can you even -- can you even stand listening to this?

HALBACH: No. I mean, it`s very terrible to listen to. I know that it took some courage for Brendan Dassey to, you know, bring this information to light. But I wish he would have used that same courage on Halloween and perhaps my sister would still be here. And I don`t think there`s any reason why --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you so much.

HALBACH: No problem.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Before the break the keep Macon-Bibb beautiful commission along with keep America beautiful are sprucing up our Nancy Grace`s hometown of Macon, Georgia, for the annual cherry blossom festival. Nancy herself was on hand and pitched in by adopting part of Macon, Georgia`s avenue, which she will help keep beautiful by guess what, picking up litter four times a year herself.

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NANCY GRACE, ANCHOR: In all my travels, from every courtroom I`ve been in, every studio I`ve sat in, I`ve been in New York now for 10 long years and I can say there is no place like home. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Local news next for some of you. We will all be right back. And remember, Monday live coverage of the 73-year-old Vermont woman on trial for killing her 78-year-old husband, 3:00 to 5:00 eastern, Court TV. Stay with us as we remember Army Staff Sergeant Christopher Van Der Horn, 37, from Washington state, an American hero.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and more important the people who touched all of our lives.

Breaking news in the disappearance and death of 24-year-old grad student Imette St. Guillen. Blood found on plastic ties used to bind Imette has been matched to Darryl Littlejohn. The total of seven felony convictions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He feels that he`s a scapegoat.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A menace to society. What is he doing out, acting as a bouncer, sitting at the door. Isn`t that a little like the wolf -- the fox guarding the hen house? Hello.

Three decades after Army Dr. Jeff McDonald accused of murdering his wife and daughters claims he`s innocent. McDonald has always maintained crazy hippies are the real killers.

Are you kidding me. Acid is groovy, kill the pigs? That`s what he heard her say? McDonald, we did the DNA test. It matches you. Shh.

Does a seaside paradise community out of Daytona Beach, Florida, play home to a serial killer? Already three women murdered in just eight weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got to be careful. Of course I got all different kind of speeches before I came out here. They were like there`s a serial killer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daytona Beach police aren`t saying too much about what`s going on. They`re keeping everything pretty close to the vest.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Spring break is upon us. What is an easier target than a bunch of drunk high school girls?

An entire family of six vanishes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they didn`t show up, I knew something was wrong.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Husband and wife take a day trip to the Oregon coast along with them, two children and the in-laws.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter had never seen the ocean before.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All six of them, including the massive RV they were driving vanish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just wanted to get away for the weekend to have some peace and quiet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Motor homes don`t just go missing. Families don`t just go missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They found no trace of the family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can`t go and kick in somebody`s door just because they`ve been missing for a while.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would not just take off. They would not do that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We want to thank all of our guests tonight and thanks to you at home for tracking these important cases with us. Headlines coming up from around the world. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell sitting in for Nancy Grace and Nancy is going to be back here Monday night, 8:00 eastern. Until then, have a terrific weekend.

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