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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Person of Interest in Publicity Murder Kills Himself; Visitation Held for Zahra Baker
Aired December 02, 2010 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARLOS DIAZ, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, a shocking twist in the Hollywood murder investigation of celebrity publicist Ronni Chasen as cops attempt to speak with a person of interest, he pulls a gun and kills himself in the middle of an apartment building lobby. Who is this mystery man? Cops say the investigation is not over. So are more suspects emerging?
Plus, a memorial service for little Zahra Baker. The 10-year-old`s remains were found and scattered near her stepmother`s old house. And new police reports reveal she could have been raped before her murder. Are cops getting closer to finding her killer?
Then drugs and Facebook in prison? This mother of a murder victim is furious after her son`s killer posts disturbing pictures of himself on the social networking site, posing with knives and doing drugs behind bars. How could this happen?
And the "Survivor" producer accused of murdering his wife on their Mexican getaway wants out of jail. His lawyer says he should get bail, because it`s unconstitutional to lock him up while he fights extradition. His wife`s body was found in Mexico eight months ago. What`s he still doing here?
ISSUES starts now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAZ: I`m Carlos Diaz in for Jane Velez-Mitchell. Tonight, another Hollywood shooting connected to the murder of famed publicist Ronni Chasen. This time it happened right in front of the cops. A man police called a person of interest in the Ronni Chasen murder shot himself as police tried to question him. But why?
Neighbors are identifying the shooting victim as ex-convict whose name is Harold. Apparently, cops had been watching him for some time. It remains unclear what exactly he had to do with Chasen`s murder. "People" magazine is reporting that Harold bragged to neighbors that he killed Chasen.
Now, how do we know he`s telling the truth? Maybe he just wanted attention. Maybe the guy could be crazy. Ronni Chasen, of course, was gunned down two weeks ago while driving her car across Beverly Hills after attending a movie premiere party.
So what led cops from the swanky Beverly Hills neighborhood to this seedy apartment building and this so-called person of interest? And why did he decide to shoot himself instead of just talking to the cops? Witnesses say it was a crazy scene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDDIE BURKE, NEIGHBOR: We were gone for a couple of hours, and as we returned, walking down the block here, all hell broke loose here in Hollywood. And the police were coming from all different angles, choppers in the air. And of course, they had surrounded the building, and unfortunately, a man took his own life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: So will this suicide help prove Ronni Chasen died in a contract killing? Or are cops back at square one, since their person of interest is now dead?
We begin with CNN entertainment correspondent Kareen Wynter.
Kareen, by the way, you`ve done a great job all day. I`ve been watching you since 5 a.m. this morning. You`re outside the apartment building where the person of interest killed himself. What are you hearing about this person?
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: This has been one mind-boggling -- can`t even get it out right -- mind-blowing case. What we`re hearing about this guy -- first of all, it`s been very, very frustrating covering this. The cops haven`t been out here all day to update us. There have been no news release, no presser.
And by the way, we found out from the coroner`s office a short time ago that that autopsy report that we`re waiting on on the guy who killed himself inside this apartment complex, Carlos, well, guess what? The press won`t be getting their hands on it. That`s because there`s a security hold.
So on that -- and we don`t really know a lot about him except that he`s a black male in his 40s. And neighbors, they have been sounding off all day on this -- about this guy. They say he`s a transient, that actually, he was just evicted from his apartment about three months ago. And get this, that he kept showing up, asking if people had been asking about him. Had the cops been by? And then bragging that he was about to get his hands on a huge sum of money, ten grand, for a job that he did. Didn`t elaborate. So this is a person with an extremely shady past.
And I want to add, too, Carlos, there`s been so much speculation because, again, cops, they don`t have any leads, no motives. They`re not really addressing anything in this case. So people are coming up with their own theories.
There`s a "New York Post" article that talks about -- and again, we`re trying to get confirmation here -- but it is just eerie that Chasen believed that there was someone who had been following her for the last several months, all the way back to March, shortly after the Academy Awards and that she reportedly now confided in a friend that she was terrified, just scared to death, had no idea who this was. But that she was extremely bothered by this.
So you know there are so many theories, even within her own circle, that this was planned, that this was definitely, definitely targeted, Carlos.
DIAZ: Cops were there waiting for this so-called Harold to return to the apartment building so they could talk to him. But the conversation didn`t get any further than, "Raise your hands."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. KEVIN MCCLURE, LAPD: The person that they were looking for showed up. They attempted to talk to the suspect. When they did, the suspect produced a handgun and there was a self-inflicted gunshot wound at that point in time, and the suspect was pronounced at the scene.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: Neighbors say Harold was an ex-con who served time for firearms and drugs and that he would rather die than go back to prison.
He apparently told people he was getting $10,000, but for what we don`t know. He`d also been recently evicted, but neighbors say he kept coming back to the apartment asking, you know, questions and talking to people.
Jim Moret, you`re an expert on these kind of things. You`ve covered so many cases like this. We really don`t know if this guy had any connection to Ronni Chasen, so what made him a person of interest?
JIM MORET, CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, "INSIDE EDITION": Well, we do know one thing. The police believed there was a question, because remember, they had to get a warrant. They didn`t just show up at this guy`s house, at the apartment where he was believed to have been staying.
I talked to several neighbors this morning. One neighbor said that he was frightening. He would talk to himself and answer himself, and he would do strange things in the hallway of the third floor, the apartment he used to live in. And she said he broke into her apartment one day and snuck up behind her, and her husband came in just in time and said, "What are you doing?"
Now, that same neighbor told me that he was bragging about killing that publicist, that high-profile case they`ve been hearing about. And he said he getting his hands on $10,000 and wasn`t going to have to live in this kind of place any more, would be able to move to a nicer place.
You know, and people there believed he had a gun. They didn`t know what kind of gun, but you talk about his criminal past. Police do feel there was a connection, but I talked to one investigator who said he does not believe this person acted alone. He didn`t have a car. He only had a bicycle. And the theory was that Ronni Chasen was shot in her car at the intersection of Sunset and Whittier in Beverly Hills and another car drove up alongside of her.
So police believe there`s somebody else who would be involved. But as we know from the reporters at the scene, they`ve been very tight-lipped about this.
DIAZ: You were there, though. You talked to people at the scene. I`m going to ask you this question, and I`ll pose this question to Kareen, as well, in a second.
I mean, when you talk to these people, it`s a very seedy part of L.A. How credible are these witnesses? Do you think maybe you`re talking to these people and, you know, it`s Hollywood, there`s a camera. You know, how credible are they about talking about this suspect?
MORET: They all had different stories but with a similar thread. They described a guy that was a little off. One neighbor said he would see him all the time because he would walk by his apartment on the way back to the suspect`s apartment. And he said he always wore gardening gloves, even shook hands in gloves.
They paint a picture of a guy who`s odd, who`s off, who was open about his criminal past, who was open about the fact he was coming into money. Different pieces but pick -- painting one picture of a guy who`s -- who`s off. I don`t believe all of these people are lying. I don`t think they have any reason to lie. Nobody was paying them for interviews, and I don`t think that they were particularly happy about the fact that this man killed himself in the place they`re living.
DIAZ: Kareen, keep us up to date here. Everybody is talking about a contract killing, Kareen. You`re out there. You`re on the scene right now, where this person shot himself. Does this seem like the kind of person and/or neighborhood where this elaborate contract kill would be planned?
WYNTER: Well, you definitely can`t rule it out. You know, you mentioned it is a seedy part of town. We`ve been speaking to neighbors, as well. And it`s very, very gritty. There are a lot of low-income people who live there, a lot transients, a lot of neighbors who say, "You know what? I cross these paths every day in and out of the lobby. And there is someone new every day." I`m sure they live there. But people just don`t have that close relationship.
And you know, it`s not really, really farfetched to think that there is something that could have happened there. But you know what? Also, I think we need to focus on, Carlos, whether or not this guy was connected. Did he pull the trigger? Was he just an accomplice?
Mental problems aside, he blew his head off. You know, what was he doing with a gun?
Police showed up. They said they wanted to question him. He was a person of interest. They were not naming him as a suspect. They didn`t come in with guns a-blazing. They, according to what their news -- their new conference earlier today, they said they came into the lobby and tracked him down and wanted to talk to him. And that`s when it happened. It just doesn`t add up.
DIAZ: You bring up a great point up right there. We`re going to talk about this after the break. Why in the world would someone kill himself when the cops just wanted to question him? It`s not like he hung himself in his jail cell after being there for weeks. The cops came up and said, "We want to ask you some questions." They said, "Put your hands in the air." The guy pulls out a gun and blows his head off.
We`re going to answer the question of why he would do that, coming up next. Everyone stay right where you are. We`ll get to the rest of my expert panel when we come back.
Also, outrage over a man serving a sentence for murder, updating his Facebook page from behind bars. What`s worse: this guy posting pictures of himself in prison doing drugs and holding weapons? What kind of punishment is that? The victim`s mother is furious, and she joins me to talk about it, coming up next.
We`ve also got more to talk about in the shocking twist in this Hollywood publicist, Ronni Chasen`s, murder. You don`t want to miss it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was two guys who were in there, middle aged, white, Caucasian males. And you -- kind of look like I`d interrupted a conversation. And so she said to come back later. That drew my suspicion. I did come back later, because I needed to get that fax done. And then they were still there. They were still -- she was still kind of nervous, still standoffish.
And I literally asked her, quote, "Is this the heat"? And smiling at her.
And she responded, quote, "Yes."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. TONY LEE, BEVERLY HILLS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Our detectives were here on a follow-up, and this person was a person of interest from the Chasen incident.
And that`s all we have at this point. As the captain mentioned, this person shot himself. It was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, pronounced dead later on. And the investigation is ongoing at this time. We`ve got nothing further to disclose about the investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: I`m Carlos Diaz in for Jane Velez-Mitchell. A shocking development in the investigation into the murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen.
A man that Beverly Hills police had zeroed in on as a person of interest shoots himself as they try to talk to him and take him into custody. Neighbors say he bragged about killing Ronni Chasen. So did he actually know something, or was he just trying to get some attention?
Let`s go out to Dee Ann on the phone lines right now from Illinois. Dee Ann, what`s up?
CALLER: Hi, Carlos. Thank you for having me on. I just wanted to mention, her name used to be Veronica Cohen, and her brother is Larry Cohen. And the thing that`s really amazing, just on the 26th there was another guy by the name of Steven A. Cohen who is a multibillionaire. He has a hedge fund. His offices in Connecticut were raided by the FBI.
Now, the reason I`m bringing these things up is the fact that there are questions of whether or not she was related to that guy. And maybe, you know, it was a possibility she was murdered because of the hedge fund.
DIAZ: There are a lot of -- there are a lot of different theories out there as to, you know, what could be the motive for murder.
Jeff Brown, let`s go to you, criminal defense attorney. When you see something like this and you see the exacting nature of this death, does -- as the defense -- as a criminal defense attorney, do you look at this as being something that`s more than just a random drive-by shooting?
JEFF BROWN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it looks that way. There was a hollow-tipped bullet that was used. Those aren`t usually used by just the average criminal on the street.
It also seems that the execution -- or the murder was done in an execution style with at least somebody else that was driving the car. So this seems to be a lot of people that are involved in this.
What we do know, though, from a criminal defense standpoint, is they don`t have probable cause to arrest him prior to that search warrant. It sounds like somebody is implicating him, but they don`t have that driver of the car. They don`t...
DIAZ: But Jeff, I know they don`t have probable cause, but the guy pulls out a gun and puts a bullet into his own head. I mean, when you hear that, that leads you to believe that he had something to do with something.
BROWN: No, it doesn`t. It leads you to believe that he had something to do with it. But unfortunately for them, this may lead them to a cold trail. It seems as if somebody is saying he was involved, that he was in that car. But they weren`t a witness to it. Because they would have arrested him, otherwise.
So it`s a lead that they`re pursuing. He now takes himself out of the equation. So they may -- this may be a cold case. But hopefully, that gun is going to lead them to something, some forensics or something that ties that to the weapon -- I mean, to the murder.
DIAZ: Well, TMZ reports Ronni Chasen left millions of dollars in her will, you know, kind of talking about what the caller had just called in about. Her estate is worth an estimated $6 million. She left money to organizations like Make-a-Wish and St. Jude`s Hospital, some relatives.
But she left one relative out of the will on purpose. The will states, "I have intentionally and with full knowledge of the consequences omitted to provide for my niece, Jill Cohen, also known as Jill Gatsby, except for the gift of $10." She had $6 million. She left Jill Gatsby, seen here, $10.
Now, Jill Gatsby is the daughter of Ronni`s brother -- brother-in-law. IMDb lists her as an actress, writer and producer.
Psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser, talk about how a family rift -- how can an aunt leave her niece out of the will and leave her just $10? What kind of message is that sending?
STACY KAISER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: I mean, it`s almost like the point of leaving a one-penny tip instead of a bigger one. The message that she`s trying to send is, "Be clear that I did not forget you. I deliberately left you nothing."
DIAZ: It`s unbelievable. I mean, you wonder what`s behind that. You wonder if that`s the reason that there is -- you know, that she`s dead today. A leaked coroner`s report is detailing more about Chasen`s death. They`re talking about hollow-point bullets. "The Hollywood Reporter" has said that Chasen has -- was likely shot from a vehicle that pulled up at the scene.
I want to go to Marc Harrold. You`re a former police officer. What`s your take about hollow-point bullets? Who uses hollow-point bullets?
MARC HARROLD, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Well, I agree with Jeff. You know, the good thing is that he didn`t shoot at the police. Because a lot of hollow-type bullets are the type that can go through some of the body armor.
You know, on this one, it didn`t seem like they were approaching him. It seemed like they were approaching him as a person of interest, and not really somebody they thought was a professional hit man. But I agree that the actual crime seems to be very professional. This guy wasn`t exactly leading the life of a professional hit man living where he was living. He`d been evicted; he`s waiting on $10,000, which really isn`t a lot of money for a high-profile murder for hire in Hollywood.
So I`d be surprised. I`d like to see what the basis of that warrant was to go in, I guess to search a place he`d been evicted from. And it also would be very interesting to see what comes back on ballistics from that gun.
DIAZ: I don`t want to trivialize this, all right? But we were talking about this in the newsroom today, and you kind of get the feeling, if you`ve seen the movie "Ghost," that this is kind of like that kind of feeling, where you have somebody, you know, who`s involved with this, who`s hired from someone who`s got power, if you will.
Kareen Wynter, you`ve been out there all day. Do you get that feeling, that maybe that this person, this Harold person, might have been hired by somebody?
WYNTER: Anything is possible. And that`s what makes this case so interesting. Police even acknowledge that -- acknowledging that, Carlos. They`re not ruling anything out. Maybe it was a hit. Maybe it was random. Maybe it was targeted. We just don`t know at this point.
But at the end of the day something significant led them to this property.
I mean, it`s like again, you`re familiar with this strip. You live in Beverly Hills. It`s about, what, seven, eight miles away? It`s a significant travel distance.
DIAZ: Kareen, thank you.
WYNTER: But they were here, looking for something.
DIAZ: Kareen, thank you so much. I appreciate it. You guys were great. Thank you to my fantastic panel. Stick around. We need you for some stuff later in the show.
Now, a killer`s Facebook page is causing outrage. Why? Because he`s posting pictures of himself behind bars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMILY DIETRICK, ZAHRA BAKER`S MOTHER: It`s very tiring. Not sleeping. Not eating. I`m trying to do my best for the two children I have with me. They`re what gets me up in the morning and out of bed and gives me a reason to get out of bed, because I have no hope for anything else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: Such a sad story.
Tonight, little Zahra Baker will be in the hearts of many as friends and strangers alike will come to Hickory, North Carolina, to a funeral home in her honor. The funeral home is honoring a visitation for the freckle- faced little girl, who quite simply stole our hearts.
For weeks police searched for her and found nothing. Then they found the prosthetic leg she wore because she lost a leg to cancer. Then they found another bone. Police are now investigating claims that Zahra was raped by multiple men, hit over the head, and then dismembered. Still, no one has been charged with her murder.
Let`s go straight out to Tara Servatius from the Tara Servatius show on WBT Radio.
Tara -- and by the way, this is the hardest story we`ve done on ISSUES in quite some time. We understand that Zahra`s mother -- excuse me, Zahra`s grandmother, the mother of Zahra`s dad, Adam Baker, is actually paying for all the funeral arrangements.
TARA SERVATIUS, HOST, RADIO TALK SHOW: Yes. That`s what we`re hearing. You`ve got to wonder what she thinks after what she`s seen in the news. We`re finding out more reports to DSF of Elisa Baker beating her that were detailed there in the warrants. Her son, Adam Baker, now accused by Elisa Baker of disposing of the prosthetic limb, of disposing of the body parts, of dismembering her, of doing all these things.
And Elisa Baker, so far the things she`s telling the cops are checking out. I wonder at what point Grandma is going to start asking some real questions that we`re all asking here about her son, Adam.
DIAZ: Yes, you know, Elisa Baker has gone to talk to the cops to say that Adam Baker, according to her, is the true monster in this situation.
Let`s go out to Dorothy in North Carolina. Dorothy, you`re there in North Carolina. What`s the mood like in the state as this little girl is laid to rest?
Dorothy, are you there?
All right. Obviously...
CALLER: Uh-huh.
DIAZ: Dorothy, are you there?
CALLER: Yes.
DIAZ: Dorothy, what`s the mood in North Carolina as they lay little Zahra -- Zahra Baker to rest?
CALLER: Oh, it`s just very -- I think it`s just very sad. It`s a very sad, solemn thing. Everybody thinks that`s a very sad thing what happened to her.
DIAZ: All right. Thank you so much for the phone call.
We were with flooded with comments on ISSUES on our Facebook page when we posted information on Zahra`s visitation. The funeral home told us there weren`t any flowers or teddy bears at the funeral home for Zahra. It`s true that the family asked for donations to St. Jude`s, but some of our viewers thought that Zahra should have flowers and teddy bears, too.
One wrote, "There will be pretty pink flowers there for Zahra from all of us."
Another said, "I will light a candle for Miss Zahra tonight in the memorial."
Let`s go back out to our guest, Tara. This is a situation where there are so many answers -- so many questions left unanswered. Where are we at in this case as -- as far as finding the true killer or killers in this case?
SERVATIUS: Well, quite frankly, as members of the public, we`re just baffled. We`re looking at Elisa and Adam Baker. There`s overwhelming evidence that they were involved, that time lines don`t add up.
You`ve got Adam Baker laughing in his 911 call to report his daughter missing. He`s less upset than he would be if he lost a wallet.
And so, you know, I had an attorney asking the other day on my show, "Hey, let`s get them for improper disposal of a body." Let`s get them for not...
DIAZ: Tara, got to leave it right there. Thank you so much
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DIAZ: Drugs and Facebook in prison? The mother of a murder victim is furious after her son`s killer posts disturbing pictures of himself on the social networking site posing with knives and doing drugs behind bars. How could this happen?
And the "Survivor" producer accused of murdering his wife on their Mexican getaway wants out of jail. His lawyer says he should get bail because it`s unconstitutional to lock him up while he fights extradition. His wife`s body was found in Mexico eight months ago. What`s he still doing here?
I`m Carlos Diaz in for Jane Velez-Mitchell.
And this story drives me insane. Tonight, status updates from the slammer. A grieving mother is furious that her son`s murderer is updating his Facebook page from behind bars. Cathy Lawrence says her son`s killer doesn`t deserve to live, let alone have a Smartphone in prison.
Check this out. Inmate Justin Walker is serving 30 years for gunning down a cop in 2006. This monster jokingly sang the song "I Shot the Sheriff" after murdering Sheriff Dwight Woodrell in cold blood.
Now after being in prison for five years, Walker somehow managed to smuggle a Blackberry into his cell. He`s been corresponding with friends, posting self-portraits of himself smoking pot and licking a knife on Facebook.
Walker used the name Justin Walker and has been on Facebook since at least November. How did he get a phone, a knife and weed past security? In his status updates, Walker complains about life behind bars saying there`s "long shower lines".
Really? It`s not the Ritz-Carlton, pal. It`s prison.
Moving on, on November 13th, Walker simply posted, "Chilling out." I bet you are. What else is there to do besides -- being behind bars besides smoke weed and post stuff on your Facebook?
This guy is living the life. Having a cell phone in prison, in a state prison, is a felony in Oklahoma. And he could face further charges.
We have on the line right now the murder victim`s mom, Cathy Lawrence. Cathy, first off, thank you so much for joining us. I am outraged by this. How furious are you right now about your son`s killer getting on Facebook in prison?
CATHY LAWRENCE, SON KILLED BY JUSTIN WALKER (via telephone): Well, I was not even aware of this until I was contacted by news yesterday. It`s very upsetting because, you know, my son was 36 years old when he was killed, left a wife with four children, the oldest only being 9 years old at the time. He left a loving sister who was -- her brother was her best friend. It was, you know, basically the final straw that put my mother in the grave. You know, things like that.
A community lost their innocence, I was told. You know, they said, we used to keep our doors locked until this happened or didn`t keep our doors locked.
It`s very upsetting because, you know, a person`s in prison because they did something wrong, and in his case did something more than just wrong; very, very bad. You know, I -- my thought is he should be in the ground where with my son`s at.
DIAZ: Right.
LAWRENCE: Instead of having all these -- I don`t know he`s got privileges so much because I do know in any prison system that items that are snuck in, you know, and things like that, even though I know security does their best to keep it from happening. It still happens.
DIAZ: Yes, but Cathy, I feel for you so horribly. You lose your son, he`s a brave sheriff. And then this happens. Justin Walker is behind bars on drug and murder charges in 2006. He shot your son, 36-year-old Pawnee County sheriff, six times near a rural Pawnee Oil Company where the sheriff interrupted a burglary.
LAWRENCE: Right.
DIAZ: Cathy, we`re hearing reports he was actually laughing and joking after your son`s murder. Is this correct?
LAWRENCE: That`s what was said at the trial. One of the men that was there at the time that this happened, you know, he said he jumped up on the back of the truck and was yelling and singing "I Shot the Sheriff", you know. I did not know even know at the time it was a song. But it apparently is a song. It was really upsetting.
DIAZ: Well, I can`t -- I mean your moral fortitude right now is amazing. I would be -- you`re hanging in there so amazingly.
Justin Walker has now been transferred to a maximum state pen and is being held away from the other inmates, basically in the hole for 23 hours a day. This guy not only --
LAWRENCE: That`s where he should have been in first place.
DIAZ: Yes. I mean yes, exactly. He shouldn`t be on Facebook. You should be in prison.
I want to go to Marc Harrold, you`re an attorney. You`re a former police officer. Marc have you ever heard of anything like this?
MARC HARROLD, ATTORNEY: Well, in a smaller degree. First of all, my condolences to the mother. I have no idea why he wasn`t already in a maximum security as a cop killer.
The other thing here is that makes no sense is -- I don`t want to disagree in any way -- I`m as pro-law enforcement as they get. They`re not doing all the security they can. They can`t be. The guy`s licking a knife, he has pot, he`s got some kind of homemade bong. They have all sorts of stuff, it`s not a uniform.
So it doesn`t look like it`s a real tight ship. They need to do a lot better job. They`re not doing everything that they can.
LAWRENCE: He was not in a maximum security facility. He was in a medium security prison.
DIAZ: Exactly. And now he is because the idiot, you know, is posting these pictures of him smoking pot with a shank in his hand, you know.
LAWRENCE: That`s what I had heard.
DIAZ: Yes. Exactly.
Stacy Kaiser, Cathy is so brave in this situation, but what does it do to a family when they lose their son and then to see the killer basically thumbing his nose at the family and society?
(CROSSTALK)
STACY KAISER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Well, you know that no parent in their right mind thinks that they`re ever going to lose their child before they pass away themselves. So that`s traumatic enough. And then to have them killed in cold blood and made fun of, that`s just another layer.
But what you`re hoping has happened once they go to jail is that justice is being served and not seeing that not only brings up all the grief but adds a whole layer of rage as well.
DIAZ: The guy was doing drugs behind bars. He is clearly seen smoking a joint inside his prison cell. Another shot of him shows him with a bong set to inhale the marijuana.
Attorney Jeff Brown, they`ve got to increase this guy`s sentence, correct?
JEFF BROWN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. And they obviously will.
What this illustrates to me, though, is that there is a problem here I think with security guards. I`ve represented security guards that have allowed stuff to get leaked into prison. I don`t think this is a question of somebody bringing it to him. I think this is a question of guards being paid and sneaking this stuff?
And it`s way too much stuff. They have to crack down on who`s guarding these inmates better so that this doesn`t happen. And then they need to start looking at these cells better. How can this guy have a cell phone and a shank and marijuana and nobody find this right away? They have to be doing a better job. I think it comes down to getting better people in there that are actually guarding these inmates.
I hope that this mother, that she takes this further and she asks that they actually bring forward a prosecution of who these people are, these guards are, that are allowing these things into the prisons.
DIAZ: Cathy, do you have any plans to try to take this thing further?
LAWRENCE: Well, like I said, I just found out about this yesterday, but I do want to know more about it. Yes, I was not aware and it`s wrong. I know those things do happen, and he`s right about things being brought into prisons.
Many years ago I interviewed for a teaching job at a prison; actually had a job and my children talked me out of going at the time. But that was one of the things that the review board discussed quite a bit, was the problems with things being snuck into, carried into, you know, one way or the other brought to prisoners.
You know, it`s an ongoing problem.
DIAZ: Well, you know, one of the most unusual things here was that Facebook took his page down when they found out that this was going on. And one of the people at Facebook was asked, what`s the policy about people using Facebook in prison? And they said, we don`t have a policy because --
LAWRENCE: I`m sure they don`t.
DIAZ: It shouldn`t be going on. I mean we don`t make policies for stupidity.
LAWRENCE: Right.
DIAZ: Cathy, I just want to say once again, you are an inspiration; your strength, the fact that your son was so brave in this situation. I want to thank you, Cathy, and the rest of my panel for coming on and talking about this.
LAWRENCE: If it helps others be more aware, the families, the citizens or the victims and the people in prison seems like they have all the rights and we have none. Something`s wrong with the system.
DIAZ: Cathy Lawrence, it was a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much.
Coming up, a surprising and sincere moment when the lead investigator in the search for three missing brothers says he actually met them before they disappeared. I`m going to tell you all about that.
Plus, the "Survivor" producer who Mexican authorities say killed his wife while they vacationed in Cancun thinks his arrest is unconstitutional and he wants bail. Did the judge make the right decision? Stick around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEAN BURGOS, SISTER OF MONICA BERESFORD-REDMAN: The Mexican authorities should not waste any more time and take all the steps necessary to conduct a thorough investigation. The U.S. and Mexican authorities must work together within their jurisdiction and take this investigation to the next level.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DIAZ: The "Survivor" producer accused of murdering his wife wants to be free to roam Los Angeles. Why not? That in a minute.
But first, "Top of the Block" tonight.
The police chief investigating three missing little boys in Michigan revealed today he actually met each of the brothers before and he spoke about one instance that sticks out in his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY WEEKS, MORENCI POLICE CHIEF: I was at their house on one occasion and Andrew came out and he saw me. And he says, "Hey, chief, how you doing?" I said, "I`m good. How are you?"
And -- but just a minute, he ran back into the house and he came back out and he had one of these toy police vests and caps. He said to me, and he says, "I`m going to be a police officer like you someday."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: It`s unclear why the chief met the boys, but he said he will do whatever it takes to solve this case. Let`s hope and pray the boys are found safe.
That`s tonight`s "Top of the Block".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your son is innocent and has been wrongly accused --
DAVID BERESFORD-REDMAN, BRUCE`S FATHER: I know my son is innocent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: I`m Carlos Diaz in for Jane Velez-Mitchell tonight. Breaking news: Ex-"Survivor" producer Bruce Beresford-Redman is denied bail, the hotshot Hollywood producer is behind bars for the murder of his wife, and that is exactly where he will stay as he fights a bitter battle over extradition to Mexico where this heinous crime took place.
It was a murder in paradise. Monica and Bruce were vacationing at the swanky Moon Palace Beach Resort trying to fix their troubled marriage. Monica found out Bruce was cheating but she gave him one last shot. She did not make it home alive.
Monica was viciously murdered, her body dumped in the hotel`s sewer. And as more and more gruesome evidence comes to light, it all seems to be pointing right at Bruce.
While Mexican authorities were investigating his wife`s death, he high-tailed it back to L.A., he got out of Mexico and went up to L.A. He was walking around free for almost a year, playing with kids, chatting with reporters.
Check this out from RadarOnline.com.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have anything to say to her family? Are you trying to get custody of your kids back?
BRUCE BERESFORD-REDMAN, ACCUSED OF MURDERING WIFE: No comment, I`m sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: Monica`s devastated family was furious that the man they believe bludgeoned and strangled Monica was prancing around L.A. Tonight a judge says he`s a flight risk and he`ll stay locked up. As terrifying new evidence comes to light, will Monica, described by friends as being bubbly, loving and full of life, will she finally get justice?
Alexis Tereszcuk, reporter with RadarOnline.com, you`ve been all over this story. Give me the very latest.
ALEXIS TRESZCUK, REPORTER, RADARONLINE.COM: Well, the judge actually as you said denied Bruce bail. Here`s the reason. He is apparently had an affair with this woman, Joy Pierce, who he worked with on a show before. She was the cause that his wife found out about that he was having the affair. She asked him to stop. He said the affair was over.
Well, guess what? She has been living at his parents` house for the last couple of months. So even though that his wife was dead, he has been holding up his mistress in his own home. We actually found evidence that she was staying at his parents` house. His parents have moved in with Bruce to take care of the children who they have custody with. But he`s apparently still carrying on this affair with this woman behind everyone`s back.
So the judge said, no way, you are a flight risk and he was not going to give him bail.
DIAZ: So let`s get this straight. He goes down to Mexico to save his troubled marriage. His wife accuses him, says, you`ve been cheating. They -- they allegedly get into an argument, they get into a fight, he allegedly kills her. And then he gets out of L.A. -- gets out of Mexico, comes back to L.A. and now he`s with that mistress right now?
TERESZCUK: Yes. You`re exactly right. She`s been living at his parents` house just a couple of miles away from the fancy house that he lived in with his wife and his children. And she`s been holed up there. And neighbors saw him -- they -- a subpoena was actually issued at the house for her.
That Monica`s sisters really want her to testify about what`s been going on. Because the whole thing started when the wife found out about this affair so they really feel like she holds a lot of key evidence that they need for this prosecution.
DIAZ: Well Alexis, tonight there`s tons of damaging and damning evidence piling up against Bruce Beresford-Redman. Hotel guests say they heard a woman`s screams coming from Monica and Bruce`s room on the night Monica was murdered. Bruce told hotel staff those noises were from a fight they were having about their children. He later changed his story and said the noise was from a game that they were playing with their 3-year-old son.
Bruce told hotel staff not to enter the room the day, all day, on April 5th, the day she died. On the day Monica was murdered, a key card was used to open the couple`s room at least nine times between 4:00 a.m. and 4:15 a.m. Bruce reported Monica missing at 7:00 a.m. that day.
Now a forensic expert found stains in the room that they believe are blood and Bruce had scratches on both hands, behind his ear, on his left shin, and his right ankle, which he said happened while he was climbing a slippery wall and swimming earlier on vacation.
Alison Triessl, this is not looking good. Alison, what -- how long could it be until a decision is made on whether or not he`ll be extradited back that Mexico?
ALISON TRIESSL, ATTORNEY FOR BURGOS FAMILY: Right, well, good evening. There is some clarification I need to make. As the attorney for Monica -- for Jean and Carla Burgos and I was in the courtroom. And that`s not exactly why the judge ruled that he should be detained.
His defense counsel had argued there were special circumstances in this case, that the kids needed him and that he needed to be there for them and that he was an upstanding member of the community. In addition, that he was not a flight risk.
And it was actually the fact that there were no special circumstances found and in fact the judge held that a lot of people who are arrested have children and that cannot be a grounds for why he should be released, and he shouldn`t benefit from the fact that if in -- if he did this, if he is the one that killed his wife, he can`t now claim that he`s a single parent.
And she also found, although she said she didn`t need to, that he was in fact a flight risk, that he had left Mexico after being told not to do so, that he had surrendered his passport and -- and when -- and an official ask that you surrender your passport, they`re telling you not to leave the jurisdiction and that he did. And so he was found to be a flight risk as well as there were no special circumstances.
(CROSSTALK)
DIAZ: Yes and Alison --
TRIESSL: That`s why the judge --
DIAZ: -- you bring up a great point, Alison. Because his lawyer was saying, well, you know, listen, his kids, you know, there -- there are -- he needs to be there for his kids. And basically, the -- the judge said, well, yes I mean -- he -- he did -- I mean, if -- if he did this, he did this to himself. Of course when there`s a death in the family, the kids are going to be distraught. There`s really are -- there`s no --
TRIESSL: No and it --
DIAZ: Go ahead.
TRIESSL: Yes and -- and you know, it`s a very -- it`s a very painful thing for her sisters to hear that he wants to be released, so that he can be with his kids when that`s really all their sister wanted.
She was a loving mother. She was a wonderful wife. And this was a senseless and awful killing.
DIAZ: Well, Alison --
TRIESSL: And for us, this has been seven months waiting for the day where he would get arrested.
DIAZ: All right Alison, stay right there. We`re going to come right back to you also. I want to bring Kim Serafin in on this.
Much more about the "Survivor" producer murder case and everything that`s going on around it, after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURGOS: My sister`s an American citizen, and she has left two very young children who had their mom brutally murdered. The criminal is at loose and threatening the well-being of society. Justice needs to be made for her and her children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: Tonight the ex-"Survivor" producer accused of brutally murdering his wife on a Mexican vacation was denied bail, will remain behind bars while fighting a move to extradite him to Mexico.
I`ll bring Kim Serafin in here. Kim, you`re there with "In Touch". You know all things Hollywood. You know, "Survivor" one of the biggest shows on TV. How startling is it that a producer from the show would be accused of such a heinous crime?
KIM SERAFIN, "IN TOUCH" WEEKLY: Oh, horrible. And not just "Survivor", "The Restaurant", "Pimp My Ride". He was involved in a lot of very high profile shows, reality shows not necessarily dark kind of programming really.
DIAZ: Right.
SERAFIN: This is really shocking. Really surprising, especially as all of these court documents are now coming out, detailing what witnesses are saying, detailing some forensic evidence. It`s really, really disturbing to think that he was part of the Hollywood community. Nobody I don`t think would have ever thought about this.
DIAZ: Well, Alexis Tereszcuk from RadarOnline, let`s talk about the kids in this situation. I mean here he has kids who didn`t ask to be part of this. What are you hearing? How are they holding up? How`s the family holding up?
ALEXIS TERESZCUK, RADARONLINE: From what I understand, the family`s been taking -- the sisters, Monica`s sisters, have been taking wonderful care of these children. They`re very close. It was a very emotional exchange the night that Bruce was arrested when the sisters brought the children back. It`s been quite devastating for them to have Bruce`s parents be the guardians of these children. They fought so hard to have custody of these little kids; there`s a little boy and a little girl.
And they were in Mexico when this murder happened. So they were not questioned by the Mexican police who said that they thought it would be too traumatizing for these little kids to talk about it. But they`ve definitely been through a really rough time.
They`re living in the home that they`ve grown up in so they do have a little bit of stability, but not a lot. It`s been really tough and heartbreaking for the whole family.
DIAZ: Well, new documents show Monica knew her husband was cheating on her. He admitted to having an affair. RadarOnline reports his mistress is a Hollywood casting agent. Monica went to Mexico to try to work things out with Bruce, even though her sisters begged her not to.
Let`s go to Alison on this. Alison, what was the relationship like between these two before they went to Mexico?
TRIESSL: It was very rocky, there were big problems in the relationship, as the media has correctly stated for a long time. Monica knew about the extra marital affair, she was not happy about it. She had confronted the mistress, she had confronted Bruce. She had, in fact, drained their account of money and changed the locks on the home.
She was prepared to end the relationship, but he convinced her to try and work it out. She was actually vacationing with the kids in Hawaii. And he called her and asked if she would come back and go with him to Mexico so that they could reconcile and make the marriage work.
And here`s somebody who loved her family, and loved her kids, and wanted to do everything to make the marriage work. So she agreed, despite her sisters` very strong objections, and unfortunately, this is what happened.
DIAZ: All right. Alison, thank you so much for joining us; also, Kim Serafin and Alexis Tereszcuk. Thank you to my fabulous panel for joining me tonight.
You guys are watching issues on HLN.
Much more coming up on other subjects tonight coming up after us. "NANCY GRACE" with much more on several topics; you don`t want to miss that. Right here on HLN.
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