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Nancy Grace

Pregnant Mother and Unborn Baby Stabbed to Death, Father Shot

Aired September 27, 2010 - 20:00   ET

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


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Texas. A beautiful young school nurse, nine months pregnant with a baby boy, at home on a Sunday night, attacked there in her own home, stabbed over 20 times, even stabs to Mommy`s stomach. The pregnant nurse fights the attacker, crawls out for help, shielding her stomach. Mom and unborn baby airlifted to the hospital. Mom and baby fight to live. They lose the battle. Neither mother nor child live.

Bombshell tonight. Did the dying mom manage to utter a clue to police? And the father, he`s found dead miles away. COD calls (ph) the death -- gunshot wounds. Tonight, who murdered Mommy Leiah Jackson and her unborn baby boy?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see the trail of blood on her driveway as she ran for help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leiah Jackson, the 27-year-old, was in the prime of her life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elementary school nurse`s aide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was in night school to get her master`s degree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And would soon become a mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eight-and-a-half months pregnant with a baby boy, stabbed more than 20 times here at her home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She passed (INAUDIBLE) no pulse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The unborn child did not survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A few miles away, Jackson`s fiance was found shot to death in an apartment complex.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The baby`s father, Yancy Daniels (ph), found shot to death.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police spent hours here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Searching for clues that might lead them to the suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoever did this didn`t have a conscience.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now police are working to link the two crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, a Florida nurse was trusted and beloved, seemingly devoting to her life making others feel better -- well, all except for her husband, that is. He felt pretty bad after police say wifey orders a hit on him! Thanks, nurse, nurse from hell!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was a trusted nurse practitioner.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shock and disbelief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty-three-year-old Kimberly Alters (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her patients certainly can`t believe it. I can`t believe it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tried to hire a hitman to kill her husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alters handed over a picture of her husband and $125 to buy a handgun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wanted her husband shot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alters offered a $40,000 Harley-Davidson when her husband was dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But cops say the hitman was actually an informant who tipped them off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The person immediately called police and agreed to work as a confidential informant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) busted by police, Kimberly Alters arrested, charged with solicitation to commit murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, two counts of possession of a controlled substance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. A beautiful young school nurse, nine months pregnant with a baby boy, at home Sunday night, attacked there in her own home, stabbed over 20 times, even stabs to the stomach. Tonight, who murdered Mommy Leiah Jackson and her unborn baby boy?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their loved one, Leiah Jackson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This young lady was in the prime of her life. She was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stabbed over a dozen times in her home. Her family says as she was attacked, she struggled to protect her baby, but it was too late.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The attack left Leiah Jackson and her unborn son dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Later that morning, the baby`s father was found shot to death at an apartment complex miles away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He apparently came from off the premises, ran into the complex and collapsed and died in the bushes near the center of the complex.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The young woman they called naturally beautiful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The nurse`s aide at an elementary school stabbed 20 times in her home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For a human being to do this to another human being, he must not have a conscience or a heart.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened here is connected to the crime scene here in the 6300 block of West Airport. Around 10:00 this morning, police found a man dead. Police spent the day coming the area near this apartment complex and searching for clues back here at this home that might lead them to the suspect. Meanwhile, relatives and friends were searching for answers of their own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Straight out to Joe Gomez joining us from Houston, Texas, from KTRH Newsradio. Joe, who -- who -- would stab a pregnant mother, nine months pregnant? And you can see by the wounds that she was trying to protect herself. I understand there are defensive wounds, which I take to be wounds inside to the palms, to the arms, possibly to the knees when she`s curling up. She tried to live. Who would stab her in the stomach?

JOE GOMEZ, KTRH NEWSRADIO: That`s a question we still don`t know the answer to, Nancy. Clearly, this was a crime of passion. She was stabbed over 20 times with a butcher`s knife. A burglar who was trying to rip off a television wouldn`t do that to a pregnant woman, certainly.

Right now, that question is still alive. We know that when she left her apartment after suffering that gruesome attack, collapsing on her mother`s doorstep -- her mother living in an apartment just down the street from her -- she was bleeding to death on her mother`s doorstep. Her mother said that she, Jackson, told her that the killer, the person who had stabbed her, was apparently a cousin of her boyfriend.

She was then airlifted to a nearby hospital. Of course, now we`re finding out that her boyfriend was also brutally murdered. Thirty minutes before her attacked happened, he was brutally shot, his body not discovered until later Sunday morning.

GRACE: We are talking your calls. Out to Jessica in Maryland. Hi, Jessica.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I love your show! Your children are so beautiful!

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want...

GRACE: John David is now 47 pounds and Lucy is 40 pounds. And I can still carry them both at the same time. I don`t know how much longer that`s going to last. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wanted to know, do they know if the pregnant woman had any enemies, or the boyfriend had enemies?

GRACE: Well, you know, Jessica, we were just talking about that right before we went to air. I can guarantee you this, Jessica. Leiah Jackson did not make any enemies there at the elementary school nurse station where she worked. So I doubt very seriously it`s anybody connected to her.

For those of you just joining us, a nine-months-pregnant mother there in her home on a Sunday night about 1:00 AM, tries to fight off an attacker. She is stabbed over 20 times, including stabs that are deemed to be defensive stabs. She crawls out of the house, shielding her stomach, trying to save the baby. Who killed pregnant mom Leiah Jackson?

Back to the phone calls. To Dawn in Washington. Hi, Dawn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. Hi, Nancy. How are you?

GRACE: I`m good dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re the best!

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was wondering if there was a way the boyfriend might have something to do with it and he might have killed himself?

GRACE: Well, I don`t think, due to the nature of his wounds, that it was a suicide. But joining me right now is Paul Penzone, former sergeant, Phoenix PD, child advocate. Paul, what do you make -- there`s no way that this guy killed himself. You can`t kill yourself -- you can`t commit suicide with multiple gunshot wounds. It doesn`t work that way. One shot, you`re out.

PAUL PENZONE, FMR. SGT., PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT: Additionally, it looks like he was trying to flee or go for help during the process of when he died. But this is -- if you just challenge (ph) or something, go through the motion of stabbing somebody 20 times, that is extremely personal and angry. So this was somebody that was definitely connected. He stating something about the cousin before she died is admissible in court, so there are very strong lead to begin with, but they`re going to have to find some evidence to tie everything together. But this was very, very personal.

GRACE: Remember, this was at 1:00 AM at night. It was dark in the home. All the lights were off. She tried to tell cops what happened, which leads me to a legal problem called a "dying declaration." Can what this dying mom said, what she uttered in the last moments of her life, trying to point the finger at her killer -- will that be allowed at trial?

We`re taking your calls. Take a look at Leiah Jackson. The tip line, 713-222-TIPS, 713-222-TIPS.

Out to the lines. Jan in Illinois. Hi, Jan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I have been trying to get ahold of you for over two years!

GRACE: Well, thank you for calling in. You know what? We`re going to add line in the control room because I want to hear what you`ve got to say. What is your question, Jan?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I was wondering if there was any -- if she had any enemies or anybody that she knew of that was an enemy or was this...

GRACE: Jan, I`m going to go back to that question. It was the same question Jessica asked, and we never really got to the bottom of it. I`m glad you re-asked the question because, clearly, this was an intended victim. It`s not like, as Joe Gomez pointed out earlier, somebody came in to steal the television set and they happened to see her. No. They would have either dropped their ill-gotten booty and run out the door, or they would have pushed her down. I don`t see them taking the time to stab a pregnant mother, nine months pregnant with her baby boy, stabbing her to death, 20 stab wounds that we know of.

To Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer. Let`s answer Jan and Jessica`s questions. What do we know so far about potential enemies?

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, we don`t know anything about enemies. From what we hear about this young woman, Leiah Jackson, she was not only working as a school nurse, she was putting herself through night school. She was trying to get her master`s in counseling, well liked by everybody. It doesn`t seem like either of them had any enemies that we know of.

GRACE: When was when the baby due, Ellie?

GOMEZ: Well, they say she was over 8-and-a-half months pregnant, so in just a matter of days or weeks, Nancy.

GRACE: Was this her first child?

GOMEZ: First baby. She was carrying a little boy.

GRACE: I guarantee you she was not going to make it nine months. No, no, no. Look at that tummy. This baby was on the verge of joining us. A pregnant school nurse attacked in her own home, stabbed 20 times. As hard as paramedics tried, even airlifting her and the unborn baby child to a hospital, they did not make it.

Unleash the lawyers, Vikki Ziegler, family law attorney in New York, Courtney Anderson, defense attorney, Austin, Alan Ripka, defense attorney, New York.

Out to you, Courtney. You`re the Texas lawyer. And isn`t it true in Texas, the death of an unborn child constitutes its own separate homicide, which screams death penalty?

COURTNEY ANDERSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The short answer to all of that, Nancy, is absolutely yes. Certainly, a baby that was that far along is a viable person on their own. It`s just heart-breaking. And certainly, Texas has a reputation -- we lead the nation in death penalty cases.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was expanding the family that Leiah Jackson`s loved ones were looking forward to doing. Instead, they`re now dealing with a loss. Relatives say the 27-year-old, who was 8-and-a-half months pregnant with a baby boy, was stabbed more than 20 times here at her home. The unborn child did not survive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leiah Jackson, who was 8-and-a-half months pregnant with a baby boy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This young lady was in the prime of her life. She was 8-and-a-half months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was stabbed over a dozen times. You can see the trail of blood on her driveway as she ran for help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She made it to her mother`s front door and banged on the door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As she was attacked, she struggled to protect her baby, but it was too late for the 27-year-old and her unborn baby boy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened here is connected to the crime scene here. A few miles away, police found a man dead. Jackson`s fiance was found shot to death in an apartment complex.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They believe the murders are connected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would somebody want to do this to this beautiful human being?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Back the lawyers. But first, to Dr. Janet Taylor, not only a medical doctor but also a psychiatrist. Dr. Taylor, earlier, Joe Gomez from KTRH Newsradio pointed out that he believed this was a crime of passion. What do you mean by crime of passion? And why would you decide for that in this case, if you, in fact, agree with Gomez?

DR. JANET TAYLOR, PSYCHIATRIST: Well, typically, a crime of passion is between people who know each other, which is what 70 percent of crimes are. So either it`s fueled by jealousy or rage or just a need to kill someone. In this case, clearly, it seems like her murderer did know her, just based on the fact how brutal it was, how terrifying, and then the connection with her fiance, who also got killed. So I agree it probably was a crime of passion. It was not a random break-in, but it was between two people who knew each other and had some history.

GRACE: But what do you make of the number of stab wounds? What does that say to you, Doctor? It says something to me.

TAYLOR: Well, it`s -- it`s terrifying. It`s rage-filled. I mean, this is someone who not only wanted her die, they wanted her to suffer and also to kill her unborn child. I mean, most adults, if they have a beef with another adult, they`ll take it up with the adult. But to kill her and her unborn baby really is someone who`s just brutal and vicious and it`s a horrific crime.

GRACE: To Paul Penzone. For those of you just joining us, this young mother, a 27-year-old mom pregnant with her first child, nine months pregnant with an unborn baby boy, attacked in her own home as she`s there sleeping in the dark, stabbed over 20 times, including stabs directly to her stomach. Why, why, why would anyone do that to Leiah Jackson?

We are taking your calls. But to you, Paul Penzone. What do you make of the nature of the wounds? Because the nature of these wounds says something very, very critical to me. This was not random. This was someone who was acting out of rage. And the motivation is something deep inside. This was not somebody she didn`t know. This is almost what we call a sweetheart murder, which means you`re in close proximity to the person. It`s hand to hand. It`s almost an intimate killing, many psychologists have called it.

PENZONE: Absolutely. And I`ve seen them like this in the -- in my experience. When they`re that up close and personal, and as I said earlier and your previous guest said, that brutality, that many stab wounds, even if you were to go through that motion, it`s extremely exhausting. So that person had something inside them that they wanted to take out on that victim and on that victim`s child because it was personal for them.

And you look at the other crime where it was a shooting, if it`s the same suspect, that one is an anger statement. But this one here for this young lady, the terror she went through was very personal for that suspect and it had some history to it for the suspect`s case.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Robbie in Louisiana. Hi, Robbie. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, Nancy. First I have a comment and a three- part question.

GRACE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First of all, I wanted to let you know that I retired from law enforcement 18 years ago. And I discovered your show. I never miss a show. And you have been -- kind of encouraged me to go back into school. I graduated a month ago in forensic science at 52. And I`m going back to work in law enforcement next month. So thank you.

GRACE: Well, God bless you! You got a calling. God sent you a message and you`re answering. Way to go, girl! What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. OK. First of all, one thing that kind of puzzles me. Everybody has cell phones. I mean, if she could crawl out to get help, why she couldn`t dial 911? Number two, I find it odd that the boyfriend is murdered. We don`t know, I don`t know, if his wounds were self-inflicted. Don`t know if he killed her and...

GRACE: Well, I tell you right now, he did not kill himself. It would be physically impossible to shoot yourself that many times. You couldn`t continue shooting. So I can answer that question right here.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Right. That`s why I find it so odd. Then why are -- why did both of them die?

GRACE: I agree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) found together, OK?

GRACE: I agree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then the witnesses, if she`s screaming after being stabbed, surely somebody had to have heard something. I`ve lived in apartments before, and believe me, you can hear everything going on above you and beside you and...

GRACE: Hold on. Hold on. I may have the answer to that. I know it was a fourplex. When they say apartment, it was a fourplex. So I don`t know how far away she was from somebody else. I don`t know if people had their air-conditioners on. Do you have one more question, Robbie? Am I missing one?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, the stabs. I mean, surely, if she was able to crawl out, surely, she could have murmured something to the medical staff or police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leiah Jackson was in the prime of her life, according to her cousin. She was in night school to get her master`s degree and would soon become a mother. Now the thought of the young woman who always filled others with laughter brings them to tears.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A 27-year-old woman, eight months pregnant, was stabbed multiple times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stabbed more than 20 times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She struggled to protect her baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The attack left Leiah Jackson and her unborn son dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see the trail of blood on her driveway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She managed to make it to her mother`s home next door, where she reportedly told her the attacker was a cousin of her baby`s father. Later that morning, the baby`s father was found shot to death at an apartment complex miles away. Now police are working to link the two crimes, and a person of interest is in custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Let`s go out to the lawyers, Vikki Ziegler, New York, Courtney Anderson, Texas, Alan Ripka, New York.

Courtney, you reminded us about Texas`s record with the death penalty, right up there with Florida and California. Vikki Ziegler, weigh in.

VIKKI ZIEGLER, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Oh, absolutely. This is going to be triple homicide. This fetus, this unborn fetus, is considered an individual under homicide fetal laws. I think that absolutely they`re going to charge this individual once they arrest somebody. We don`t know if this person of interest is the actual person that did this to her poor woman, her unborn child and her fiance. But I think they`re going to definitely, definitely go for a triple homicide, capital murder case.

GRACE: Well, OK, if the same person didn`t kill both -- for those of you just joining us, a 27-year-old pregnant mom, pregnant with her first child, an unborn baby boy, Leiah Jackson, who was the school nurse at an elementary school, found stabbed over 20 times in her own home, there alone in the dark as she lay sleeping, attacked. Many of her wounds were defense wounds. She crawls out of the home, trying to save the baby.

To Alan Ripka. What about it? People are asking about enemies, but how many enemies is a school nurse going to have?

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it may not be an enemy of hers. Like she said, it was her baby`s father`s cousin. Maybe this cousin...

GRACE: Oh, please! Put Ripka up! What -- this just sounds just like the Colombian drug lord that Mark Geragos tried to -- wait. No, no, no. I`m getting them confused. No, that`s what O.J. Simpson`s lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, said, the Colombian drug lord? No, no. It`s all getting confused. They -- all defense attorneys blame a drug lord.

RIPKA: No, not a drug lord.

GRACE: Is that where you`re going?

RIPKA: No, Nancy...

GRACE: That this wipeout of the entire family because somebody didn`t like the husband?

RIPKA: This is classic revenge, well planned out, two people, boyfriend and girlfriend, and their baby, by someone who hated them both, or hated one of them and used that, killing both of them, to hurt that one person.

GRACE: Paul Penzone, how likely is that?

PENZONE: (INAUDIBLE) I hate to agree with a defense attorney any day of the week, but taking out the child means that that suspect may have felt betrayed in some way and wanted to harm one or both of them and figured, If I take out all three of them, I`m really going to send my point across because they were so emotion. It`s horrific. But he might be right in some sense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s not here with us anymore. She made it to her mother`s front door and banged on the door and related to my aunt that -- she told who had done this. Whoever did this didn`t have a conscience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Their loved one, Leiah Jackson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This young lady was in the prime of her life. She was 8 1/2 months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Stabbed over a dozen times in her home. Her family said as she was attacked she struggled to protect her baby. But it was too late.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The attack left Kea Jackson and her unborn son dead. Later that morning the baby`s father was found shot to death in an apartment complex miles away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He apparently came from off the premises, ran into the complex and collapsed and died in the bushes near the center of the complex.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The young woman they called naturally beautiful. A nurse`s aide at an elementary school stabbed 20 times in her home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For a human being to do this to another human being, he must not have a conscience.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: We are taking your calls. I want to answer the earlier questions from Robbie in Louisiana. But first to you, Dr. Titus Duncan, what were these wounds, what were the effects of these wounds on Leiah Jackson, 27-year-old mom, nine months pregnant?

DR. TITUS DUNCAN, M.D., GENERAL SURGERY, ATLANTA MEDICAL CENTER: She was mostly stabbed from the back and depending on how deep it was penetrated, if they got into a major vessel, like the (INAUDIBLE) or aorta, a tremendous amount of blood loss.

The baby could have been loss by two means. Number, if she lost a lot of blood, the baby could have died asphyxiation by not getting enough blood supply. If they did stab her in the belly, the baby could have actually died as well by direct injury to the baby itself.

GRACE: Out to Ellie Jostad, let`s us -- answer Robbie in Louisiana`s question. How far was she from the other apartments. Why didn`t anyone hear screams?

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Right, Nancy. Well, this is a four-plex. It almost looks like four houses that might be connected by one wall. But apparently nobody heard her screaming.

Now the other thing that`s interesting, too, is that the boyfriend`s body wasn`t found until almost nine hours after police say he was shot. So we don`t know if a witness heard that gunshot in the middle of the night.

GRACE: And what about calling 911? I assume in the middle of attack, you`re just trying to get out.

JOSTAD: Right. We don`t know if she had a phone with her, how close she was to the phone. We don`t know where in the house this took place. But she apparently had -- her only option was to run out of her house and run to her mother`s house where her mother called 911.

GRACE: OK. Personal question to you, Ellie Jostad. Where do you power up your cell phone or your BlackBerry at night?

JOSTAD: Usually either in the kitchen or in my bedroom.

GRACE: OK. I was just trying to figure out where this mom would have powered up. If she would have thought, while somebody is standing over her bed with a knife to go to the cell phone.

OK, back to the lines. Katherine in Kansas, hi, Katherine.

KATHERINE, CALLER FROM KANSAS: Hi.

GRACE: Hi, love. What`s your question?

KATHERINE: I was wondering, was her fiance affiliated with any gang or gang members?

GRACE: Not that we know of. Joe Gomez, KTRH Newsradio, what do you know?

JOE GOMEZ, REPORTER, KTRH NEWSRADIO: Yes, right now, we don`t know if he was affiliated with any gangs or if he had a drug problem. Really this guys is --

GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

GOMEZ: Is really mysterious.

GRACE: Gomez. Gomez. Gomez.

GOMEZ: Yes.

GRACE: Now the caller asked about gangs. And I was just waiting. I thought it`d be a defense attorney. So I`m kind of surprised at you, Gomez, to suggest that the boyfriend is somehow a gang member and that`s why this happened to this woman.

You`re just putting it out.

GOMEZ: No, no. I wasn`t trying to suggest that he was a gang member. I was saying that -- at this point, we don`t know if he had any affiliation with gangs or if, you know, drugs may have played a factor or anything like that. I mean a lot of this guy`s habits are mysterious. We don`t know really anything about him.

GRACE: OK, Courtney Anderson, why is it when you see a family wiped out like this, the mother and the baby, and we saw it in the Lacey Peterson case, that was the claim. It was a drug, it was a Hawaiian drug gang.

That was the claim in the Lacey Peterson case that the defense made among many, many other outlandish defenses. And the O.J. Simpson case, of course, Johnnie Cochran, god rest his soul, argued that a Colombian drug lord killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

I mean it just goes on. Now why do we always assume or we let people just come up with a fabrication it`s a drug -- it`s a drug lord. That`s ridiculous.

COURTNEY ANDERSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, look, there`s a lot of bogeyman out there, right? There`s a lot of things that it`s easy for people to be scared of and --

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Yes, because they don`t want to think it can happen to you.

ANDERSON: You know, and -- well, none of us do. I mean I`m listening to this, I`m sitting here in Texas, and I`m thinking, my goodness, when I go home tonight, I`m going to sleep with one eye open. I mean it`s just -- it`s terrifying. It absolutely is. I mean I commend this young lady for, you know, being so brave and running for help and speaking out --

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Crawling. She`s crawling, Courtney.

ANDERSON: When the killer Selena --

GRACE: Yes.

ANDERSON: When Selena was killed here in Texas, in Corpus Christi in 1995, she also -- she also, with her very last breath, spoke out and said it was Yolanda Saldivar. I mean she also used a dying declaration.

And my good, I mean, you know, I`m a woman, I live alone. I think about these things and you just think wow. That as a defense attorney --

GRACE: Another thing, Courtney.

ANDERSON: If you --

GRACE: I recall when I was -- of course the twins came so early, I was around seven months pregnant, and I could hardly make it. Of course I didn`t realize that I was sick in addition to it all. But they had to bring me into work in a wheelchair, a wheelchair, to get from my car to this anchor chair. A wheelchair.

And I get right back in that wheelchair and get home. And I`m just thinking, this lady, nine months pregnant, trying to vend off an attacker. Now if that is not a death penalty case, and I know you`re a defense attorney, Courtney Anderson, I don`t know what is.

What about it, Ripka?

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Definitely a death penalty case. One hundred percent.

GRACE: Out to the lines Colleen in Texas, hi, Colleen.

COLLEEN, CALLER FROM TEXAS: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

COLLEEN: OK. Actually it`s funny. I`m actually a registered nurse studying forensics, too. And I guess this is (INAUDIBLE) question. My question is that, they`re saying that she was stabbed with a butcher`s knife.

GRACE: Yes.

COLLEEN: When I think about a butcher`s knife, I think of a meat cleaver. So I`m thinking how much force was needed to stab --

GRACE: Good question.

Joe Gomez, KTRH, what do we know about the weapon? I was thinking more of just -- there you go. Thank you, Elizabeth.

A butcher knife. And another thing I`m wondering, did the perp come into the home with knife, Joe Gomez? Or did he actually get it out of the kitchen? I`m telling you it`s a he. All right? Just take my word for it.

Did he get the weapon out of the kitchen?

GOMEZ: That`s a good question. You know police haven`t said. Police haven`t, you know, told us if there was a butcher knife missing from the kitchen. This person had walked in there with the butcher`s knife ready, well, you know, it`s premeditated murder. This person, let`s say, came in this house, attacked her with a butcher`s knife, she was trying to guard her baby.

That was the most heart-wrenching part of this story is that -- she had the wherewithal to try to protect her unborn baby son. Getting all those puncture wounds in the back and then crawling outside to her mother`s side.

GRACE: Just thinking, Joe Gomez, about that knife. Unless the perp, if there were a crime of passion, as you have suggested, you have asserted, I bet you anything he didn`t think to wear gloves. If it`s a crime of passion. And that means, that knife would be covered not only in fingerprints but bloody fingerprints.

GOMEZ: That`s right, Nancy. And the police right now are saying that they`re testing DNA. I`ve got that information before I can on air.

GRACE: Do they have -- do they have forced entry? Joe, do they have forced entry?

GOMEZ: They`re not telling us if they had forced entry yet. They`re still investigating the crime scene, is what they`re telling us. He won`t (INAUDIBLE) any information.

GRACE: And you`re saying -- I`m sorry. Did you also say that they`re testing DNA? That means that the perp either molested her or got stabbed himself. That commonly happens when you`re stabbing with a knife and your hand goes down the blade.

GOMEZ: That`s right. They`re testing DNA. And we`ll know -- I mean the -- we`ll know the results of that presumably later in the week. Imagine if they find out the result of this DNA and they have perhaps a suspect, I mean, they`re talking to somebody in custody, if they test his DNA we could have a match by the end of this week.

GRACE: You know, Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer. Back to you, Ellie. A lot of people have just called in and said what enemies did they have. I mean come on. How many enemies can a school nurse have?

JOSTAD: Right. And it sounds like she`s worked at -- in the school district for her whole career. She`s worked there over six years they say. She went to school in this school district. It doesn`t seem very likely that she had any kind of nefarious activities going on.

GRACE: And I can guarantee you this. The first thing a defense attorney is going to do, any defense attorney worth of salt or her salt anyway, is to try to get the dying victim, the mother, the nine months pregnant mom, her dying declaration suppressed, thrown out of evidence because it`s hearsay.

What is hearsay? When someone -- when you let in evidence from someone that is not in court to be cross-examined. She will not obviously be in court to be cross-examined. But what about the exception, Vikki Ziegler? The exception to the hearsay rule called dying declaration.

VIKKI ZIEGLER, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "YOUR PREMARITAL SURVIVAL GUIDE": Absolutely. The exception to the hearsay rule will allow the state to bring in her mother to absolutely testify regarding Leiah Jackson`s last words. Her dying words. The only person that she was able to tell potentially who did this to her and her fetus.

GRACE: This was as this pregnant mom, just 27 years old, a school nurse, is being air lifted through the sky to try to save her life and the life of her unborn baby boy, nine months pregnant. Did she utter a clue to cops?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know why anyone feels they have a right to do this to anyone. For any reason. I don`t know.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The hearing was short and Alters did not talk with her attorney before the judge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was no doubt in my mind that she`s absolutely guilty as charged.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Judge set a $300,000 bond for the five charges she was arrested on.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Law enforcement said when Kimberly Alters met with the would-be hit-man, she allegedly discussed the best time to kill her husband. She suggested October might work best when she and her kids would go to Bush Gardens in Tampa.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: According to the police report, Alters approached a man at the Wellness Center last Friday and asked him to kill her husband. During that conversation Alters offered a $40,000 Harley Davidson when her husband was dead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: During the conversations police say she told the informant she wanted her husband shot and gave him a picture of her husband and then $125 for a gun.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The person immediately called police and agreed to work as a confidential informant.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Busted by police, Kimberly Alters arrested, charged with solicitation to commit murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and two counts of possession of a controlled substance.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Man, it`s nurse-o-mania tonight. Here is a beloved and well- respected nurse who has been practicing her nursing for years, seemingly devoting her entire life to making others feel better. Except for her husband, of course.

He felt pretty bad when he found out, police say, his own wife, Kimberly Alters, ordered a hit on him.

Out to Erin Maloney, reporter, CNN affiliate WINK. She`s there at the Renaissance Wellness where Alters worked before she`s arrested for hiring a hit-man?

Welcome, Erin. What can you tell us?

ERIN MALONEY, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WINK: Well, Nancy, I can tell you I`ve been in here all day talking with people who knew her. And they`re nothing short of shocked right now. It actually all started right here at her place of employment.

Police say this is where she first approached the man asking him if he could kill her husband, all for a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Coincidentally the same one that`s still sitting in his driveway right now.

That man then went to deputies, told them what had happened. That`s when they started this weeklong sting. That is when they finally figured out she did want to carry this out and she did want to kill her husband.

GRACE: OK. I don`t get it. Erin Maloney, joining us from WINK, joining us right there at Renaissance Wellness Center where the nurse worked.

No, no, no. I heard about the Harley, Liz. I`ve seen the Harley. I want to see the nurse. How would you like, you know, the last vision you see before you drop off to sleep is this nurse hovering over your head, knowing that she`s hired a hit, a murder for hire?

Erin, who`s the person she approached?

MALONEY: Well, right now, police are not telling us who this confidential informant was. A lot of her friends think it may be a patient here but we don`t know and deputies say they`re not ready to tell us anything until we hear about discovery until we get more information about the case.

We`ll then get those surveillance videos and we`ll get to hear those wiretapped conversations and hear more about who this man was and why she approached him in the first place.

GRACE: What is Renaissance Wellness? What can you tell me about that? It looks kind of fancy.

MALONEY: Well, it`s a place -- we actually talked to her boss today. They -- she`s a chiropractor. And there were doctors in there that help people for a variety of different reasons and this woman, she`s in a --

GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait, wait.

MALONEY: -- twenty years now.

GRACE: Wait. Dr. Janet Taylor, what`s laser aesthetics?

DR. JANET TAYLOR, PSYCHIATRIST: Well, laser aesthetics is what you can use to remove things like warts or pimples or blemishes. And in some cases maybe even do some face tightening. So just a way that people can go in and try to look better.

GRACE: What is face tightening?

TAYLOR: Well, I mean if you had, like, wrinkles or you wanted to look better. I mean it`s -- you know, you`re seeing it more in strip malls and just trying to appeal to our youth oriented culture where people want to go in and maybe get a quick fix.

GRACE: Hey. Liz, run that by me again. I didn`t see that there behind Erin Malone. What did it say? No, no, no, not that. Where it says the nature of the center. There`s an advertisement about -- yes, anti- aging medicine. Laser aesthetics.

What does that have to do with wellness? Maloney?

MALONEY: I`m actually told that`s not what she does. She`s a chiropractor. I went in to her office today and she had everything standard in a chiropractor`s office. To my knowledge she does not do any kind of laser treatments like that. There are waste in the office. Different kinds of -- just, you know, general health and wellness things to help people out. It doesn`t appear that she was working with lasers on anybody.

GRACE: Alexis Weed, our producer on the story. Alexis, what do you know about the marriage?

ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes, Nancy. She was married for - - we don`t know how many years. However, the couple, she and her husband, the would-be victim, they have three teenage children together.

GRACE: So if they`ve got three teenage children together. Oh, man. Can you imagine what those children are going through tonight?

What do you know about the proceedings? How far have they progressed? Has she been arraigned? Has she been formally charged, Alexis? What do we know? Because a formal indictment may very well named the would-be hit- man.

WEED: Nancy, she`s not been arraigned yet. She is sitting in jail right now in the county. She`s charged with solicitation for murder that carries a life sentence. She also is charged with carrying a firearm during the commission of a felony. And she was also charged with possession of controlled substances.

When police pulled over Alters in her vehicle, these items were found in her vehicle, these items were found in her vehicle and that`s when the charges went down.

GRACE: OK, Alexis. Let`s go back to what Maloney has told us. Tell me how the whole thing went down. Take me up to the time of arrest.

WEED: Right, Nancy. Well, Alters was allegedly at the place where she worked. She`s a nurse. She solicited person -- an unidentified person at this point, who then contacted deputies and then a sting was set up.

And police say in their affidavit that all of this is on video. It`s all on audio. They say they have every step of the way and they`re ready to make their case. But she`s not yet been arraigned.

GRACE: OK. I`m missing a link. So was it the initial person she approached that`s caught on audio and video? Or did he/she introduce the nurse to a hit-man?

WEED: No, it`s the actual person that was approached by Alters. We understand it`s a male and that person contacted deputies, and that he cooperated throughout the course of this investigation. And that`s how investigators got it on tape and got it on video.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Theresa in Massachusetts. Hi, Theresa.

THERESA, CALLER FROM MASSACHUSETTS: Hi, Nancy. How are you?

GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?

THERESA: Could it have been something to do with an insurance policy? I mean it makes no sense to take a life at all. Especially not for a motorcycle. I think she deserves to be turned into the police like where she is.

GRACE: I think she does, too. And of course, a lot of people are going to say, what did the husband do wrong? Why did he deserve to die? Look, apparently the marriage was not going well, but murder alert, everybody, murder is not an alternative to divorce.

So what do we know? What`s the answer to that, Alexis Weed?

WEED: You know, we don`t know, Nancy. We -- that`s the question tonight is what was wrong in this marriage? What could possibly have been wrong that she would want to hire a hit-man and -- at the place where she works nonetheless.

GRACE: And what do you know about the pills she had with her, Alexis?

WEED: Yes, Nancy. She was carrying pills. She was carrying 59 Xanax pills. She was also carrying pills for -- that would normally be used to treat ADD, a.k.a. Speed, and they were not in containers that were not marked as they should have been.

GRACE: Sounds like she may have stolen from the practice.

WEED: Could be.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I talked with that confidential informant today over the phone. The person tells me the meeting happened here in the parking lot of Sam`s Club.

The informant says Alters handed over a picture of her husband and $125 to buy a handgun. The informant was wired at the time and they tell me deputies have an audio and video recording of that meeting.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls, out to Emily in North Carolina. Hi, Emily.

EMILY, CALLER FROM NORTH CAROLINA: Hi, Nancy, it`s nice to see you back.

GRACE: It`s nice to be back. I tell you, we had the greatest time. I would tell the twins every day to go down to the ocean that Ariel the mermaid and King Triton and the crabs were waiting for them to come down to the water.

EMILY: I`d love to see that red hair.

GRACE: And then -- and then one day when we were down by the water about, 30 feet out, just 30 feet, a dolphin went by. I thought they were going to --

EMILY: That`s so beautiful, isn`t it?

GRACE: It really was. What`s your question, my love?

EMILY: OK. Here`s my question. OK. All right. I`ve got a question and I`ve got a comment.

GRACE: OK.

EMILY: My question is -- well, OK, I`ll make my comment first. My comment is, all these women are going out, picking up these guys left and right, asking them to kill their husbands, not knowing who they are. Offer them --

GRACE: So what are you saying, Emily? She should hire a more discreet hit-man?

EMILY: There`s also money and it`s just happening so much now.

GRACE: You know --

EMILY: I don`t understand.

GRACE: It really is. Hold on just a moment.

Alexis Weed, you`ve got Kyron Horman`s stepmother who allegedly did that.

WEED: Right.

GRACE: You`ve got Dahlia Dippolito, the workout enthusiast/hooker who is charged with it. I mean they are. There is a rise in women trying to hire hit-men to kill their husbands.

WEED: Yes, Nancy, we see it here all the time covering these cases, and certainly this is akin to Dalia Dippolito and like it`s being repeated.

GRACE: It`s an epidemic.

Everybody -- and Ellie, as you are being a newlywed, we`re going to let us say a word of warning to you.

Everybody, let`s stop and remember Marine Private 1st Class Nathan Clemens, 20, Winchester, Tennessee killed Iraq. Awarded Purple Heart. Loved military and joined right out of high school.

Played drums in the church of his praise band. Known as the guy who dropped the church`s new digital camera in a bucket of paint. Leaves behind parents David and Linda, sister Megan, niece Haley.

Nathan Clemons, American hero.

Thanks to our guests, but especially to you for being with us. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, goodnight, friend.

END