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Nancy Grace
Nick Hogan`s Mother Praises Sheriff
Aired June 10, 2008 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, former "Wrestlemania" and reality TV superstar Hulk Hogan on the ropes, and it`s all caught on tape after a disastrous drag racing crash fueled by alcohol, leaving a 23-year-old Iraqi war veteran with irreversible brain damage. In court, Hogan`s family begs for mercy, but then caught on tape blaming the nearly comatose victim, whining about the justice system, and even trying to land a reality TV show to rake in the money off the crash.
When a judge denies Hogan`s demand for early release, Hogan sues the sheriff for releasing jailhouse tapes. Hogan upgraded to a cushy cell tonight within Pinellas jail featuring cable TV, phones, recreation time, library books, regular visits with family and friends, a snack bar, even Playstation.
Just released, Hogan`s jailhouse roommates and Hogan`s disturbing new pen pal. And tonight, exclusive photos and details about the victim, a former Iraqi war vet, who turned a double tour of duty, now facing life on a ventilator.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HULK HOGAN: You know, this whole thing is going to smooth out real quick there, so you know, just hang tough until it gets smoothed out.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nick Hogan Bollea is moving on up to a deluxe jail cell, complete with other inmates. For almost a month, Hulk Hogan`s son, Nick, stewed in the slammer all by his lonesome. And we all heard him complain about it in those infamous jailhouse phone calls.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
NICK BOLLEA: When the door closes -- there`s no windows at all, and, like, I can`t -- I can`t see out or anything. So like, if I knock on the door or anything, I don`t know if anyone can hear me or anything. I`m, like -- I`m really freaking out!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So now instead of freaking out in isolation from the rest of the world, Nick can forge uplifting jailhouse friendships with some fellow inmates.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nick probably feels like he`s at the Ritz- Carlton because he`s no longer in solitary confinement. He`s officially in a room with three other juvenile inmates -- and a television!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While Hogan reads fan mail from jail, plays video games, makes phone calls, reads books and visits with family, his friend, Iraq war vet John Graziano, battles for his life at a veterans` hospital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, the mystery surrounding two precious little schoolgirls found brutally murdered in a ditch. There in their quiet close-knit community tonight, we piece together the evidence. Who would murder little Taylor (ph) and Skyla (ph)?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirteen-year-old Taylor Pascal Placker (ph) hosted a sleep-over with her best friend, eleven-year-old Skyla Whitaker (ph), the two deciding to play in a rural area near their home, taking a commonly traveled dirt road to get there. But when Taylor`s family couldn`t reach her, they became worried, Taylor`s grandpa traveling the road, making a shocking discovery, the two girls found dead in a ditch, each shot multiple times in the head and chest, police searching for clues on how the best of friends ended up murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn`t have thought from the worst-case scenario just -- just a haphazard shooting, to they possibly walked down to meet someone, to possibly walked down there -- even though it`s a short distance, they may have interrupted something going on. So we`re looking at everything right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were both from the city and they moved out here several years ago to get away from the violence, you know? Out in the country -- how could something happen to your child out in the country?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Tonight: Former "Wrestlemania" and reality TV superstar Hulk Hogan on the ropes, Hogan and family caught on tape blaming the nearly comatose victim, whining about the justice system and the release of jailhouse tapes. And now Hogan`s jailhouse roommates and his disturbing new pen pal. Tonight, exclusive photos and details about the crash victim facing life on a ventilator.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The inside details on Nick Hogan`s new jail cell, his new cellmates, and exactly how Nick is serving out his sentence for that street racing crash that severely injured his friend, John Graziano. Nick was moved from solitary confinement, where Nick had said he was freaking out from all the isolation.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
NICK BOLLEA: It`s all you do. You just sit there and think, and there`s nothing to think about.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nick`s sharing his cell with at least two other juveniles. One, Santiago Langston (ph), was arrested for allegedly fleeing a police officer. The other, Christopher Johnson (ph), is locked up for allegedly violating probation on a robbery charge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Outside jail, Hogan`s family appears to be changing their tune. While there`s a lawsuit against the sheriff for releasing shocking jailhouse conversations between the Hogan family, with their son now out of confinement, Linda Hogan says she think the sheriff is doing a great job.
LINDA BOLLEA: The sheriff`s department has just been amazing at trying to take care of Nick. I mean, I guess they have to keep him in for 30 days for assessment, and the fact that they moved him and he`s happy to be in there and do what he`s got to do.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
NICK BOLLEA: I would do anything to get out of this room!
LINDA BOLLEA: I know. It`s, like, imprisoning you by yourself is almost beyond what you deserve, don`t you think?
NICK BOLLEA: Yes.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But at the heart of it all, a comatose victim is still fighting to survive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My brother is in a veterans` hospital. We don`t know when he`s coming home. We`ve been there for nine months, Nick. You`ve been there for less than a month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And what`s more than that, to add insult to injury, he`s probably getting out in October, doing barely five months in a cushy cell there in the Pinellas jailhouse. Now he`s even got Playstation, not that that`s a felony crime, but please, all the whining! Get over yourself!
Out to Rory O`Neill with Metro Networks. Rory, what`s the latest?
RORY O`NEILL, METRO NETWORKS: Well, good evening, Nancy. There`s the latest on a lot of different fronts. First, on the cell conditions he`s in now, he is in that pod system, where there are four cells surrounded by a common room. In that common room is the TV and the Playstation that you talked about. And he does now have two cellmates, one of them serving four months for eluding a police officer, the other doing a full year on a probation violence.
GRACE: How did Playstation make its way into the Pinellas County jail?
O`NEILL: That`s an excellent question. I suppose it`s just something to try to kill time. They get an hour a day of this recreation time that they`re allowed in the common rooms.
GRACE: OK. So between Playstation, a snack bar, regular visits with family and friends, cable TV, phone use unlimited up until lights out -- doesn`t sound that bad to me.
I want to go to Noah Levy, senior editor with "In Touch Weekly." Noah, thank you for being with us. I understand that Linda Hogan is breaking ranks with the rest of her family and actually siding with the sheriff. What`s with that?
NOAH LEVY, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": Well, definitely. I mean, right now, it sounds like Linda`s trying to make nice. I think she`s realized the mess that they`ve made of this situation. Maybe she met with a public adviser, a media -- you know, someone who works in the media, to help her out. But she`s really making nice, trying to make it seem like they`re not complaining about the entire situation because that was so bad.
GRACE: You know, it`s amazing to me that this guy is going to be out, most likely, in October, what with good time. I believe you get one day off for every seven days you`re behind bars in Pinellas.
I want to go to a special guest joining us tonight -- everyone, we are taking your calls live -- a man that served in Iraq and boot camp with the victim in this case, you know, John Graziano. Joining us tonight, Robbie Keisler. Robbie, thank you for being with us.
ROBBIE KEISLER, SERVED IN IRAQ WITH GRAZIANO: Yes, ma`am. No problem.
GRACE: Tell me about John.
KEISLER: A great guy. He didn`t deserve this. A great personality, a fun guy to be around, real caring, took care of just about everybody around him.
GRACE: What do you mean by, He took care of everyone around him?
KEISLER: Just when anybody was having problems in Iraq (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: With us tonight is a friend that served alongside John Graziano not only in Iraq but also in boot camp. What was he like in boot camp, Robbie?
KEISLER: Well, you couldn`t really tell in boot camp. It was fast- paced, never really got a chance to talk to people, so I wouldn`t know too much about boot camp.
GRACE: Tell me about in Iraq, then.
KEISLER: (INAUDIBLE) great guy (INAUDIBLE) just about every day, always trying to (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Why did he decide to join the Marines?
I think I`ve got Robbie Keisler with me. Liz, let me know when you get that connection back.
Also with us tonight, Dr. Ross Bullock. He`s a neurosurgeon joining us out of University of Miami. Dr. Bullock, thank you for being with us. I know that you have reviewed what we know about Graziano`s injuries. What would a day in his life be like, Doctor?
DR. ROSS BULLOCK, NEUROSURGEON, UNIV. OF MIAMI: Hi, Nancy. It would be a real hard thing for somebody who`s not used to taking care of such a person to conceive of. You know, he would need to be cared for 24/7, toileted, bathed, fed, take out of bed, put back into bed. You know, he`d be dependent on all care, and it`s really a tough thing for a family to deal with a situation like that.
GRACE: Right now, Dr. Bullock, we know that he can squeeze when someone squeezes his hand. Does that necessarily mean he is aware that they are trying to make contact with him? Can he hear?
BULLOCK: It`s really hard to know, you know? And there`s very few ways to objectively know that. But the squeezing may be a reflex. Sometimes it is. If the person is actually able to do that, maybe that`s their only way of communicating with the outside world, the only motor response they have. So it`s really hard to know. But practically, it still means that there`s an awful long way to go and a long road to recovery to come, and it`s already been nine months.
GRACE: Doctor, I know that they move him, I would say, every couple of hours, and that is to avoid pressure points. Aren`t pressure points bed sores?
BULLOCK: Yes, ma`am. That`s exactly what they are. And so, you know, the patient can`t move themselves to try to avoid pressure sores, and pain occurs from laying still all the time. So of course, you have to move such people all the time to stop that from happening.
GRACE: And it`s my understanding, having dealt with many, many victims who have been incapacitated in this manner, when you lie in a bed like that for hours and hours on end, first you get a bruise, a bed sore, then it actually turns into a sore, a scab that can become infected, and actually getting someone so sick they die, like Christopher Reeve.
BULLOCK: Yes, that can happen. It`s less common in neurotrauma cases, brain trauma cases, than spinal cord injury cases, but it`s a terrible thing. And so the quality of the nursing care is really a big determinant on preventing those kinds of things from happening.
GRACE: you know, Doctor, The family told us that they have decorated his room with photos and mementos. Does he even see that? Is he aware of it?
BULLOCK: You know, we wonder that all the time, those of us who deal with such folks, and we never really know. We never really know. But my guess is probably not, that they don`t -- that they can`t perceive that.
GRACE: We are taking your calls tonight. Let`s go out to Barbara in Oregon. Hi, Barbara.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I have a question...
GRACE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... or kind of a comment. OK, Linda`s on the phone with her son, Nick, in jail, boo-hooing about not being able to go out on to the boat, you know, going over to Orlando, getting in the Escalade. Now, John lived with them, and I was curious on why they haven`t even brought out, like, memories of John, and you know, how much fun that was to have him be on the boat and living with them and getting in the Escalade and obviously hanging out with them.
GRACE: You know what, Barbara? That is an excellent point. Now, the other night, I had their lawyer, an excellent trial lawyer out of Reno, on with me, and he swore that they were full of remorse, that they had raised all this money to give to the charity to give to the family. Well, the family says they haven`t gotten any of the money, and from what I`ve heard on the phone, the phone tapes -- no remorse. We`re still waiting to get that from the lawyer.
Let`s go to Dr. Lillian Glass, psychologist and author. Why don`t we hear that? If they have all this remorse, where is it?
LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Who knows where it is. We need to see remorse because this is really the end of their career in terms of how people perceive them. This is a horrible thing that happened because we`ve really seen who they are. It was shocking because this was the truth. We really saw how cold they were and how unsympathetic they were, and it was a real turn-off.
GRACE: Hold on. One thing -- I can understand them on the phone with their son, sympathizing, going, yes, it`s terrible, I know it`s terrible, I wish this wasn`t happening to you. I understand that. But never do we hear anything about the victim.
GLASS: Exactly. And talking about the young man`s mother the way they did and talking about how it was his karma -- that`s unconscionable! That is just unconscionable.
GRACE: I want to go back out to Rory O`Neill with Metro Networks. How soon is Hogan going to get out of jail?
O`NEILL: Well, it`s interesting. You brought up before, he has this -- he can earn these days off. If he serves a full month, I believe he gets five days off, and he gets one day off for every seven days served. So total, he could cut the sentence down just on good time some 33 days and he could be out of jail as early as late October.
GRACE: Rory, what can you tell me about his job behind bars?
O`NEILL: He works in the property division. It would be the personal belongings of the inmates themselves. He does custodial work, cleans up, moves boxes around and that type of thing. It`s a relatively long work day, I suppose. Their day does start very early at 3:30 in the morning with breakfast, but he spends a good portion of his day in that personal property division.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Kim in California. Hi, Kim.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. You do such an excellent job.
GRACE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a quick question. Nobody seemed to -- nobody as yet has brought up the question, is this Nick Hogan going to get his driver`s license revoked for three years after he gets out of jail?
GRACE: Excellent question. Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, Raymond Giudice. Also with us out of New York, veteran trial lawyer Paul Batista, defense attorney and author. Ray Giudice, what about it?
RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, generally, on a serious case like this, let`s say it was in Georgia, there would be somewhere between a three and a five-year license suspension. The judge could have also suspended his driving privileges as a condition of probation.
GRACE: What about it, Paul?
PAUL BATISTA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Same thing would happen here, Nancy. It would be a very long license suspension. He has more to worry about, of course, from the civil lawsuit that undoubtedly is going to filed against him.
GRACE: Speaking of Linda Hogan, take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA BOLLEA: The sheriff`s department has just been amazing at trying to take care of Nick. I mean, I guess they have to keep him in for 30 days for assessment, and the fact that they moved him and he`s happy to be in there and do what he`s got to do. At least he`s got company. He`s got to finish out his time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
NICK BOLLEA: It wouldn`t even be that bad if I can see other people. I can`t. I`m in some (DELETED) suicide ward, and there`s some crazy (DELETED) singing and tapping on the walls.
LINDA BOLLEA: Oh, no. Oh, God!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: There is other sound where we hear Mrs. Hogan claiming that the victim`s mom doesn`t care about her son, even cursing. So it`s refreshing to see her have an about-face at this juncture.
Out to the lines. Brenda in West Virginia. Hi, Brenda.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. You know what? I just cannot believe that all of this stuff about -- why did Nick`s parents give him a car like this? This is a 17-year-old child. And I have two sons that are 19 and 25, and you know, I feel so sad for the victim`s family, and God forbid that one of my boys would ever do that or hurt somebody like that. I just don`t know how I would live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
LINDA BOLLEA: She`s not sad. She`s just acting angry like she just wants the money. John never meant anything to her or Ed. It`s just sad because I really appreciated you kids, and I just miss John and I miss you, too. And it`s, like, she`s not suffering. I am! I have the loss. She doesn`t give two (DELETED)
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
NICK BOLLEA: I miss going to the Sandpearl with you.
LINDA: I know! I`m at the beach all by myself! It`s not the same!
NICK BOLLEA: I miss sitting out on the water on the boat with you. I miss just getting into the Escalade and going to Orlando.
LINDA: I know, baby! We`re going to do all of that, OK? We`re going to do everything, but...
NICK BOLLEA: I wrote down...
LINDA: ... we`re not going to do it here in (DELETED) Florida!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, boo-hoo. Well, surprisingly tonight, we learn not only was the sentence extraordinarily light, just eight months behind bars, but now he`s going to be out likely in October.
After being moved to a cushy part of the jail, now he has an unusual and disturbing pen pal. Who is it, Noah Levy?
LEVY: Well, Nick Hogan has been hearing from Stephanie Ragusa. Now, let`s remember, Stephanie`s been held up because of her awful situation, an embarrassing situation with her, sleeping with a younger student. Now Stephanie writes to Nick Hogan. And is this a publicity ploy? I`m not quite sure, but it sounds like more bad news, and it sounds like someone definitely wants to be in the headlines.
GRACE: Lillian Glass, why?
GLASS: Well, once again, her pathology is being revealed. She needs attention. That`s why she went with a young -- or went after a young boy to begin with. And now she`s reaching out to another young boy, Nick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My brother is in a veterans` hospital. We don`t know when he`s coming home. And he`s been there for nine months, Nick, and you`ve been there for less than a month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
NICK BOLLEA: Will you work on that reality deal for me and get that thing lined up so the minute I walk out of wherever I walk out of, it`s there, boom?
HULK HOGAN: Can you do it while you`re on probation?
NICK BOLLEA: Yes. Of course.
HULK HOGAN: Yes. OK. You want to do it with Pink Sneakers or you want to do it with someone else?
NICK BOLLEA: I want to do it where I`ll make the most money.
HULK HOGAN: Well, then, you need to do it with me, Jason and Eric.
NICK BOLLEA: OK.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Hey, probation? No problem!
We are taking your calls live. Out to John in Rhode Island. Hi, John.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, I just want to congratulate you on the twins. They`re beautiful.
GRACE: Thank you. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have one of my own, so it`s great to see you with...
GRACE: John David held a bottle and drank from it for the first time today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow! That is amazing. That`s great.
GRACE: What`s your question, love?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I was wondering, how long have the victim and Nick -- like, how long have the family been friends? How did they get to be friends?
GRACE: Excellent question. What about it, Rory O`Neill? What do we know?
O`NEILL: Well, to answer my fellow Rhode Islander`s question, it was about -- Nick -- John Graziano had been staying at the Hogan home basically for about six years. They have a long history. They`ve done a lot of the racing (ph) projects together in the past. So the two have known each other since, really, they were very young children.
GRACE: Out to Sheryl McCollum, former director of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Georgia. You know, this guy`s going to be out in five months, and we hear no remorse in these phone calls, nothing about driving under the influence or the crash.
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, FORMER DIR., MADD GEORGIA: Not at all. And I`ll tell you something else, Nancy. As a mother, you have a son, I have a son. I haven`t heard Linda say once that, Nick, that could have been you. We could have lost you, as well. She`s not even now try to teach him. They`re letting him sue the sheriff. They`re saying, Let`s get a reality show, let`s, you know, flip off the camera at the jail, you know, play, you know, the Playstation. Wait a minute!
GRACE: You know, Sheryl, for every DUI that`s caught, how many times have they driven drunk, statistically?
MCCOLLUM: Oh, a hundred. A hundred, Nancy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: After complaining since day one about his isolated jail conditions, Hulk Hogan`s son is in a new cell and he has company. But the only apparent thing Hogan has in common with his new cell mates is age. While all are juveniles, it`s Hogan`s first real stint in jail. Plus he was linked by topnotch attorneys in court, unlike his cell mates who have rap sheets and had public defenders.
Outside jail, Hogan`s family appears to be changing their tune. While there`s a lawsuit against the sheriff for releasing shocking jailhouse conversations between the Hogan family, with their son now out of confinement, Linda Hogan says she thinks the sheriff is doing a great job.
But at the heart of it all, a comatose victim is still fighting to survive.
NICK HOGAN, HULK HOGAN`S SON: I`m in like a cell half the size of my bathroom, with like no windows and like crazy people tapping on the walls next to me and stuff and I can`t do anything like there`s no -- you can`t leave your cell. You just sit in there all day and you go out for 10 minutes to take a shower and then you can make one or two phones calls.
They`re being lenient with me, letting me make a few phone calls but I mean, it`s like definitely different than, you know, what we talked about. It`s -- you know, I don`t know. It`s crazy. I would rather have done something else than, you know, take this.
HULK HOGAN, WRESTLEMANIA AND REALITY TV STAR: OK. Well, you got to mizzen up just a little bit.
N. HOGAN: Yes.
I miss going to the Sandpearl with you.
LINDA HOGAN, MOTHER: I know. I`m at the beach up all by myself, it`s not the same.
N. HOGAN: I miss sitting out in the water on the boat with you. I miss getting into the Escalade going to Orlando.
L. HOGAN: I know, baby. We`re going to do all of that, OK? We`re going to do everything.
N. HOGAN: I wrote down.
L. HOGAN: We`re not going to do it here in (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I`ve got to be in my cell all day
Ray Giudice, isn`t that what jail is?
RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s right, Nancy. It`s rough. And now he`s in a jail room with two guys who have rap sheets, so it`s no party. But let me just hold out.
GRACE: But they`re juveniles.
GIUDICE: Let me just hold out hopes for all those that want to punish him more. He`s got almost five years probation, Nancy. I`d lay dollars and dimes that he will not make it. He will get revoked. And if more than one year of his probation is revoked, he goes to the Florida prison system, and that will not be a party.
GRACE: Man, you know what? You`re not kidding.
What about it, Batista?
PAUL BATISTA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "DEATH`S WITNESS": Well, he`s on verge of -- you know, he`ll have to go to an adult prison if he`s remanded on probation. He could be in, as Ray points out, for many years of pain and punishment and we haven`t heard the end of the story in terms of what this kid is going to face in his life.
GRACE: Let`s go to Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI.
Mike, weigh in.
MIKE BROOKS, FMR. DC POLICE DETECTIVE SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: Well, Nancy, I -- you know, Ray and I were discussing this. That`s five years. That`s a long time. His parents might only see him picking up trash along Florida highway routes.
GRACE: Five years is not a long time compared to Graziano. He`s got life on a ventilator.
BROOKS: Very true. But five years in a state system is a whole lot different than it is in a county system, Nancy. A whole lot different. He`s complaining now, boy, he`s going to be having crocodile tears if he goes to the state`s system.
GRACE: Well, I`ve got to tell you something. Unlimited phone access up until bedtime, recreation, a snack bar, commissary, visits from family and friends, Playstation, cable TV. You know what? That`s not so bad, Brooks.
BROOKS: No, it`s not so bad now.
GRACE: That sounds like me on vacation. Sitting around, catch a little cable TV in the middle of the day.
BROOKS: Well, I wouldn`t go that far, Nancy, but.
GRACE: I mean.
BROOKS: Keep in mind. I`ve been in a lot of different prison system all around the country. Prison is prison. Yes, it seems like this isn`t the worst prison in the world, but again, go to the state system, a whole different world.
GRACE: Well, you know what? I think that`s putting it mildly. Thank you, Mike Brooks.
I want to go back to Robbie Keisler joining us. He served in Iraq and bootcamp with the victim in this case, John Graziano.
Robbie, thank you for being with us. Why did Graziano enter the Marines?
ROBBIE KEISLER, SERVED IN IRAQ & BOOTCAMP WITH JOHN GRAZIANO: I`m sorry, I didn`t hear you.
GRACE: Why did Graziano enter the Marines?
KEISLER: He said it`s something he`s always wanted to do. And I mean, bootcamps, squad leader, he was made for this.
GRACE: You know, you and John served together in Ramadi and he was in the truck in front of you when a roadside bomb detonated. What happened?
KEISLER: Yes, ma`am. We were driving, a roadside bomb exploded in between us. He was hit a little bit, I was hit a little bit, and after it happened, I was trying to get in touch with him over the radio and before I could even get a response back, he was already at my door making sure I was OK. So that`s just -- that tells you how good a guy he is.
GRACE: What did he want to be after his two tours in Iraq? What did he want to do with his life?
KEISLER: (INAUDIBLE) He wanted to be a firefighter. Would want to.
GRACE: I heard firefighter or police officer.
KEISLER: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: Have you gotten to visit him in the hospital?
KEISLER: I have, yes, ma`am.
GRACE: What was it like to see him now?
KEISLER: It`s not fun.
GRACE: Do you think he realized you were even there?
KEISLER: I can`t -- I`m not going to comment on.
GRACE: Yes.
KEISLER: . be that as it is.
GRACE: Tell me about -- I know he`s very devoted to his girlfriend Ashley. That`s his picture we`re seeing. Did he ever talk about her?
KEISLER: Yes, ma`am, seven months straight.
GRACE: I know that they had plans to marry. Was he looking forward to that?
KEISLER: I`m not going to comment on that.
GRACE: Do you know why he decided to do two tours in Iraq?
KEISLER: I`m not exactly sure on that. I do know at one point he was trying to get back on the perimeter with me. That`s the last I heard about it.
GRACE: You are seeing photos of the victim in this case. This is what it`s all about right here. This man. Two tours of duty to protect us in Iraq, wanting to be a firefighter. That was his career goal.
Planning to get married to his longtime girlfriend Ashley. They loved to go on weekend camping trips, spent all their time together. She visits him all the time there in the hospital.
This is what the case is about. It is not about the tapes, where Hogan and baby Hogan are whining about the jail. This is what happened. This is what crime is about. This young man, probably paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Back to Dr. Ross Bullock, neurosurgeon at the University of Miami, what is the likelihood, Dr. Bullock, that he will recover?
DR. ROSS BULLOCK, NEUROSURGEON, UNIV. OF MIAMI, NEUROTRAUMA EXPERT: Real slim, Nancy. I think that, you know, having been in this state for nine months, the likelihood of getting back to independent recovery -- I don`t know the specifics of Mr. Graziano`s case, but in general, it`d be very unlikely that he would get back to independent recovery, being able to enjoy the things that the rest of us enjoy as part of life.
GRACE: You know, I was told that they`re able to take him outside in a wheelchair. They don`t know if he realizes he`s outside, realizes he`s in the sunshine or not.
Doctor, do you think he is aware of what has happened to him?
BULLOCK: We never know that. That`s the real problem, is communicating. But as far as -- most people can judge, probably not, probably not. Probably not aware of any of those things that have happened before, because the whole cerebral cortex usually is not functioning in someone like this.
GRACE: You know, Sheryl McCollum, this brings me back to all the days that I handled felony prosecutions and would deal with crime victims all the time and it hurts so much to see a young, vibrant man like this and the only thing we can do is seek justice.
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, FMR. DIRECTOR, MADD GEORGIA: Absolutely. You`ve got a young man that served his country, only to want to come home and keep serving and protecting us.
And so I agree with you, Nancy. It`s our job now to serve and try to protect him and his rights.
GRACE: Right now we, as always, salute our troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to send out a special salute to my daughter, Private First Class Monica Powers of the United States Army.
Congratulations on your graduation from AIT and the beginning of your military career. I love you and I can`t wait for you to come home.
I would also like to say thank you to all the brave men and women who are going through basic training in AIT. Thanks to each and every one of you as you begin your service to our nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Oklahoma police are looking for the killer of two young girls. The bodies of 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker were found Sunday afternoon by one of their grandfathers near their hometown of Weleetka, just east of Oklahoma City. State investigators say both girls were shot multiple times.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I don`t know how this could be random. Each child was shot multiple times.
Out to Randy Renner, morning host of KOKC Radio.
Hi, Randy, what`s the latest?
RANDY RENNER, MORNING HOST, KOKC RADIO: Well, Nancy, the latest is the OSBI, the State Bureau of Investigation and the sheriff`s department over there in Okfuskee County had a news conference this afternoon.
Last night the sheriff indicated that perhaps they had some suspects. Today, though, the word is that there are no suspects and no person of interest. At least no one that`s real solid in the case here.
They`ve talked to the -- the investigators have talked to an awful lot of people, trying to track things down on this, and they have said that they all.
GRACE: Well, Randy.
RENNER: . have alibis, but they`re not all quite.
GRACE: Tell me what happened. I want to hear the facts surrounding the shootings.
RENNER: As we understand it, the two girls were best of friends, Taylor and Skyla. Taylor, 13 years old, Skyla, 11 years old. Each was the only girl in their respective classes at school. So they were best of friends. They were having a sleepover -- about to have a sleepover at Taylor`s house and they go up and down this country road, out where they live.
They`ve been up and down it many, many times, down to a bridge is where they were going. Now one of the little girls liked to collect turtles. They were both really into animals. So -- you know, it`s a Sunday afternoon, it`s a nice day, they went for a walk down to the bridge at about 5:00 in the afternoon.
The grandfather of one of the girls tries to call one of them on her cell phone, asked them to come back to the house. Didn`t get an answer on the phone. He decides, well, you know, it is just right down here by the bridge, I`ll just go get them.
He, unfortunately, made the horrific discovery of both little girls in a ditch. They`d been shot to death. And it`s my understanding that he used the cell phone of one of the girls then to call 911 and then the emergency responders came, Okfuskee County, and then they got ahold of the OSBI, the State Bureau of Investigation here.
And the investigation was really -- especially in the early stages, they had to do this fairly quickly, because we were having -- a rainstorm was about to move in. And as you guys are aware, collecting this evidence is critical at that point and they wanted to get this done, so they brought in a lot of people, there were some volunteers, the Okfuskee County Sheriff`s Department, police from the area there, and collected as absolutely as much as they could and they believe that they`re in pretty good shape there.
Then the rains came and washed away some of the evidence.
GRACE: Right.
Also joining us tonight, a very special guest. You all know Mark Klaas. He`s a child advocate. He is the founder of BeyondMissing.com. His daughter, Polly, was abducted and then murdered from a sleepover.
Mark, thank you for being with us. Respond to what you`re hearing, and what`s your advice for the parents?
MARK KLAAS, BEYONDMISSING.COM, FATHER OF MURDER VICTIM POLLY KLAAS: Well, first of all, I`d like to offer my condolences to these families. I know exactly what they`re going through and it`s about the worst circumstance you could possibly imagine.
I think what has to happen at this point is, you have to realize there`s a homicidal maniac lose somewhere in that community. This probably didn`t come in off the highway, it`s probably somebody local. People should keep their families and their children very close vest. Take them to and from school, make sure that they stay close to home until this thing is resolved one way or the other.
And I believe the investigators should be looking at family. They should then be looking at people very close to the family, peripheral contacts, and then possibly that so-called stranger -- that stranger scenario.
But in a community of only 1,000, I think they do probably have a very limited -- a very limited pool of suspects.
GRACE: Mark, you`re absolutely correct. In a small area like this, I mean, how likely is it that someone is going to come into town, come into the area, a very rural area, that`s why they moved there, for the safety of their children, take target practice on two little girls on the side of the road? I agree with you, it`s somebody local.
Out to Jessica Brown. She is the PIO with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Officer, thank you for being with us. What can you tell us about the evidence?
JESSICA BROWN, PIO, OKLAHOMA STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: We found quite a bit of evidence there at the scene, but as you know, until we can get that tested at our brand-new crime scene laboratory, then we`re not going to know what it can tell us.
So we`re waiting for those tests, but in the meantime, we`re investigating by interviewing many people, as we have talked about, family, friends, anyone from that area. We do believe it`s possibly someone who lives in that area. So we do believe that someone in that area committed these murders and probably has told someone else.
And that`s why we have this $10,000 reward from OSBI and then other money from the community, hoping that that will entice someone to come forward and let OSBI know or other law enforcement know what happened here.
We`ve got to get this person off the streets before he does it again.
GRACE: And to Mike Brooks -- Mike Brooks, I`ve seen a lot of cases where you actually could do something with the shoe prints. All right? In fact, do I even have to say O.J. Simpsons and the Bruno Mollies. It can be done. And thank God they got out there before that rain hit to take shoe prints.
You turn them into a cast, basically, like a cast on your arm and can use them at trial if you can match them up to something. What do you make of the shoe prints?
BROOKS: I make a lot of the shoe prints, Nancy, and also the tire impressions whether -- they`ll make a plaster cast of that. They teach everybody to do that and it comes up very, very well, were detailed, little nicks and everything in the tire.
But also, Nancy, they were talking that they also could possibly have shell casings at the scene. And which shell casings, you also could have possible fingerprint evidence.
Now also at the news conference today, the OSBI said that there could also be some DNA evidence. So it sounds like they got a lot of forensics there at the scene.
GRACE: They got DNA evidence. Very interesting. I`d like to find out how that happened.
Very quickly, out to Dr. Marty Makary. The girls were shot multiple times -- these two little girls. Is there any way to determine which shot what first, Dr. Makary?
DR. MARTY MAKARY, PHYSICIAN, PROF. OF PUBLIC HEALTH, JOHNS HOPKINS: They can look at the degree to which the blood has clotted or become firm, because the original blood becomes firm quickly.
They`re also going to be looking at entrance and exit wounds to determine the size of the ballistics, and whether or not they were shot at close range or from a distance.
So there`s a lot of information in the forensic evidence.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Investigators are working through the night to gather evidence on this rural road in Okfuskee County. This is where they say two girls just went of a walk and then someone murdered them. It happened just a half a mile away from one of the girls` home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I want to go straight back out to Randy Renner with KOKC Radio. You told me there was a possible suspect?
RENNER: Well, last night, the sheriff of Okfuskee County indicated in an interview -- he said we have some suspects. Now maybe the sheriff was -- had a little bit of wishful thinking there.
GRACE: Yes.
RENNER: . and after a lot of interviews.
GRACE: OK. So that`s not correct.
RENNER: . and talked to a bunch of people. And now they`re not very sure. They -- in fact, today they said we have no suspects. We don`t even have a person of interest.
GRACE: OK.
RENNER: However, what they did say is the alibis aren`t really matching with everybody just yet.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Sheeba in Illinois. Hi, Sheeba.
SHEEBA, ILLINOIS RESIDENT: Hi, hi, darling. My question is, is there no place that is safe for children (INAUDIBLE)?
GRACE: You know what? You know what, Sheeba? I grew up in a very rural area.
Out to Jessica Brown, joining us from the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigations. You know these people move there. One of the reasons was to have a safe upbringing for their children.
What`s the crime rate?
BROWN: Very low there, as you can imagine. I came from a small town, too. We walk the streets all the time without any fear. And if this can happen near Weleetka, Oklahoma, believe me it can happen anywhere.
So really, the moral behind the story, among many, is to keep your children close, because you cannot trust anyone anymore.
GRACE: You know what, Jessica? Or should I say Officer, as a new mother, believe me, I will.
Thank you for being with us. And to you, too, Mr. Renner.
Let`s stop and remember Army Staff Sergeant Chad Barrett, 35, Saltville, Virginia, killed, Iraq, on a third tour. Awarded two Army Commendation medals, Army Achievement medals. Never met a stranger. Loved the University of Tennessee, volunteers, racing, boating, fishing, camping, karaoke, and working on car stereos.
Leaves behind parents Linda and Ronnie, two brothers, two sisters, widow Michelle, two sons, one daughter.
Char Barrett, American hero.
Thanks to our guest but most of all to you for being with us. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, good night, friend.
END
