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Nancy Grace
Mean Girls Beat 14-Year-Old, Post Video on FaceBook
Aired April 06, 2011 - 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 Pennsylvania. Real, live mean girls, a brutal all-girl gang attack on another teen, and it`s all caught on video. We have the video.
Bombshell tonight. Teenage girls turn thugs, stalk a schoolmate, then viciously attack, beating and kicking the girl even after the victim is down, groggy, disoriented, with a concussion, when she`s nearly run over by a car. And the attackers are so arrogant, they post the attack on FaceBook.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The girl in the black sweatshirt is just trying to make it to her Somerset (ph) home after school. Instead, police say, she was surround by bullies, three girls who won`t let up, while a boy captured the entire scene on his cell phone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave her alone!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just thinking, Why are they doing this, because it`s just a waste of time because they`re just, like, immature.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were pulling her down by her hair, throwing her in the traffic and then throwing her in, like, a ditch by a tree.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Minutes after the fight, the video was posted to FaceBook. The 15-year-old girl and her sister never fight back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight firefighters race to a two-story Indianapolis home -- it`s a tree-lined street -- after reports of a fire. They arrive to a shocking discovery, a woman severely burned over half her body, including face and torso. Prime suspect, her loving boyfriend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He set her on fire, burns over nearly 50 percent of her body, including her face and torso. Police find clumps of burned hair on the floor, in the bed, in the bathtub, a scorched red shirt found lying next to the bed, the carpet even burned around her bed, throughout her bedroom and home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He squirted her with lighter fluid and set her on fire!
GRACE: He set her on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man, 31-year-old Quinn Nelson (ph), is locked up, accused of a terrible crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quinn Nelson is accused of setting his girlfriend on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m getting accused of attempted murder for my beloved girlfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Nelson used some type of accelerant to set his girlfriend, Rebecca Muma (ph), on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The victim was here, outside the home, and they could tell right away she was in bad shape.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eventually, I believe that my skin will be returned to its old form.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight, live, Pennsylvania. Real, live mean girls, a brutal all-girl gang attack on another teen caught on video. We have the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) surrounded by three teenage girls. Police called them bullies. She`s pushed into traffic, falls, suffers a concussion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave her alone!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They pulled her down by her hair, throwing her into traffic and then throwing her in, like, a ditch by a tree.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re tearing up right now. Does it really make you sad?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were afraid your best friend was going to get hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Straight out to Joe Gomez of KTRH. Joe, what happened?
JOE GOMEZ, KTRH: Nancy, this shocking video, you know, it all began with, apparently, some boy gossip that turned bad. Right now, a couple of mean girls apparently chased another group of girls that they felt were...
GRACE: Hey! Hey! Hey!
GOMEZ: ... talking about them...
GRACE: Wait! Wait! Wait! Gomez, you may call them mean girls. I call them felons. This is an aggravated assault in any law book. Go ahead.
GOMEZ: That`s right, Nancy. Well, I mean, this group of bully teenage girls apparently followed another group of girls and then beat them horrifically in broad daylight in the middle of the street, then they posted the shocking video of the attack on FaceBook. It started after an extracurricular activity. These bully girls were chasing these other girls and...
GRACE: What extracurricular...
GOMEZ: ... they were trying to entice them...
GRACE: ... activity?
GOMEZ: ... a fight...
GRACE: What activity would that be, Gomez?
GOMEZ: Well, they were -- they were -- it was some sort of after- school program, Nancy. They were all together, and the bully girls realized that this other group of girls had apparently been talking about one of the girl`s boy crushes, Nancy. And so they didn`t take too kindly to that, so they chased the other girls and tried to...
GRACE: And this is all...
GOMEZ: ... entice them into...
GRACE: ... over a boy?
GOMEZ: ... some sort of a fight.
GRACE: You know, one thing I don`t like, Gomez...
GOMEZ: All over a boy!
GRACE: One thing I don`t like that you`re doing -- I think you`ve been sitting around watching a little too much afternoon movie, TV in the afternoon, say Saturday and Sunday, when they replay "Mean Girls." We`re not talking about, like, Alicia Silverstone or Lindsay Lohan. No, no. That`s not what we`re talking about. We`re not talking about pranks at school or somebody and their diet bars.
This girl was down on the ground, getting beaten in the face and the head well past the time she had already induced a concussion. She`s groggy. She`s disoriented. And these other girls are beating her and kicking her in the head. And then to top it all off, they`ve got, like, a gang cinematographer who`s videoing the whole thing. Take it from the top, Gomez.
GOMEZ: Well, you`re right, Nancy. I wasn`t trying to make light of it. This is horrific incident. I mean, this -- this -- this attack was brutal. These girls were trying to walk away from this other group of bullies, Nancy. And they caught up to them. And the ringleader of this group of bullies pushes one of the girls into oncoming traffic. Nancy, she nearly gets hit by a car!
But that wasn`t bad enough. The bully girl then grabs the victim by the hair, drags her to the ground, and they all start kicking her together! The girl`s 12-year-old sister tries to intervene, but she gets a punch in the face and her glasses are knocked off. Another friend tries to stop it. She gets attacked, as well, Nancy!
This brutal assault finally had to be stopped by two nurses who were watching at a nearby hospital. They broke it up. The girl who was dragged to the ground -- she suffered a concussion. And the three girls that attacked her -- well, they`re all now are charged with aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and a slew of other charges. They could be going to juvie, Nancy.
GRACE: Well, it sounds to me like they`re being charged with misdemeanors. When you say a fray, simple battery, simple assault. When you give somebody a concussion and you are beating them and kicking them in the head, that constitutes an aggravated assault. You know, a weapon doesn`t have to be gun or knife. I`ve prosecuted aggravated assaults, which are felonies, when fists and hands and feet were used. It doesn`t -- even cars. Doesn`t have to be a gun or a knife.
We are talking your calls. Out to Susan in Florida. Hi, Susan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call. I actually had a comment. And the problem in the state of Florida that we see here is the police and the state don`t do anything in an incident like this, and these are the kids and the people that grow up to be criminals.
GRACE: Joining me right now is a special guest, Joann Moorcroft. This is mother of the victims. Ms. Moorcroft, thank you for being with us.
JOANN MOORCROFT, MOTHER OF BEATING VICTIM (via telephone): Thank you for having me.
GRACE: What I don`t understand is the genesis of this entire scenario. What was the after-school activity they were all at?
MOORCROFT: They were at a program that`s called New Day in such -- we have such a small community. It`s a place where the children go, play pool, and it`s supervised. So it`s a good Christian-based program.
GRACE: Well, you know what?
MOORCROFT: That is why my children are allowed...
GRACE: Please, please, please, Ms. Moorcroft, don`t drag Christ into this whole thing because I got a feeling -- and I`m certainly not his spokesperson, but I got a feeling he wouldn`t be very happy about this whole thing. Ms. Moorcroft, I understand one of your daughters actually had a concussion. Think Natasha Richardson, who had the internal bleeding in the head and then died a couple of hours later. What exactly are her injuries? That`s extremely serious. And even after she`s down on the ground, groggy, disoriented, with a concussion, these girls keep beating her and kicking her in the head?
MOORCROFT: They did. She has suffered a concussion. She has a knee injury, which they were kicking her and stomping on her knee. And her wrist was injured when she tried to catch herself when she fell.
GRACE: To David Lohr, crime reporter with AOLNews.com. David Lohr, I was showing several scenarios earlier. Let`s see that again, Dana, please, where girl fights, if you can call them that -- it`s pretty euphemistic -- are on the rise, resulting in serious injuries, but not as serious charges. Why, David Lohr?
DAVID LOHR, AOLNEWS.COM: Well, Nancy, I spoke with the police chief in this case earlier today, and he actually filed a number of charges against these girls -- aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment, disorderly conduct and a few others. And his statement to me was that he`s so limited by the laws in the state of Pennsylvania that he couldn`t charge them as adults. If he could have, he would have.
And he`s actually considering two additional charges now against some of the girls for filing a false police report because when they were investigating this case, the attackers, some of them, had actually claimed that they were the victims and that this 15-year-old girl had attacked them. But you know, in this case, I think...
GRACE: Well, wait! That`s a headline, David Lohr. That`s a headline. You know, some of my staff were telling me they were hoping this was going to graduate into an aggravated assault, but you`re telling me the police chief has actually charged them with an ag assault.
And everybody, don`t be confused. The police can arrest you and charge you with what they deem is appropriate, but then the grand jury or the solicitor or the district attorney will make a formal charge. It may or may not be what the cops identify as the crime. So right now, we`ve got a felony in the mix. According to David Lohr, that felony would be an aggravated assault. That is an attack with the intent to do serious bodily harm.
Unleash the lawyers. Joining me tonight, famed attorney Gloria Allred out of LA, Darryl Cohen, defense attorney, Atlanta, former prosecutor., Raymond Giudice, defense attorney, Atlanta.
First of all, to you, Gloria.
GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS` RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Oh, yes, Nancy, absolutely. I agree with you that if she has a concussion and if she has other injuries, it is possible generally to charge a felony. So the question is, what is it in Pennsylvania law that they think stops them from being able to charge a felony? And why are they not charging, if they`re not, endangerment of a child, as well as harassment?
GRACE: Absolutely. Darryl Cohen, Raymond Giudice -- to you, Cohen. You`re a former prosecutor, a felony prosecutor. Everybody in that office -- I know, I came out of the same DA`s office -- had to do time in juvie jail, as we put it. In other words, you had to cut your teeth prosecuting juvenile crimes. We`re all familiar with the binding-over process, where juveniles are bound over to adult court.
What`s wrong? What`s wrong with these girls having a taste of adult court? This is a big crime. It needs a big sentence.
DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, I agree with you. It does need a big sentence. But the question is, is the crime of the magnitude that they need to be bound over? They definitely should go to juvies. There`s no question that they should spend time in juvie. And whether or not they should...
GRACE: OK, what about it, Giudice?
RAYMOND GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They could clearly be prosecuted as felonies. But why doesn`t the DA look at the gang statute? I guarantee if this was a group of boys wearing the same color hats and sweatshirts, they`d be under the gang statute and...
GRACE: You know what, Giudice?
GIUDICE: ... and prosecuted for felony.
GRACE: In the last seven years, that`s one of the most brilliant things I`ve ever heard you say. Long story short, are these so-called mean girls actually junior felons? They nearly killed a little girl. And tonight, they`re walking free. Why?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The girl in the black sweatshirt is just trying to make it to her Somerset home after school. Instead, police say, she was surrounded by bullies, three girls who won`t let up, while a boy captured the entire scene on his cell phone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave her alone!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! Stay own the ground where you belong! (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were pulling her down by her hair, throwing her into traffic, and then throwing her in, like, a ditch by a tree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. My question is -- this is clearly a vicious gang attack, but because the girls are, in fact, girls and they`re not wearing the Crips` or the Bloods` colors, they`re out free tonight. This little girl was nearly hit in oncoming traffic. One of the attackers threw her out into the street in oncoming traffic, this after the victim is beaten, groggy and disoriented, suffering from a concussion. It doesn`t stop there. They apparently have their own private videographer who then posts the video on FaceBook. We got the video from WTAE.
We are taking your calls live. I want to go back to Joann Moorcroft. Your daughter is beaten senseless. What is your reaction to her attackers being out of jail tonight?
MOORCROFT: I`m angry. They were never physically arrested. They should have been arrested that night after the police saw the video.
GRACE: Have you confronted the police about it?
MOORCROFT: I have spoke to the officers on a couple of occasions, and because they are juveniles, they have to handle it in a different manner, is what I`m being told.
GRACE: Well, Ms. Moorcroft, I`m sure you`ve heard of juvie jail for violent offenders. Yes, that`s why we have juvenile jail. We`re going back to the lawyers.
But first to the lines. Leslie in Indiana. Hi, Leslie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. This is just so terrible. I`m wondering if the victim could sue these other people.
GRACE: You know, she could sue them, but they don`t have a penny. What about the possibility of suing their parents? To Gloria Allred, Darryl Cohen and Raymond Giudice. What about that possibility, Gloria?
ALLRED: Well, it really depends on state law, Nancy. But definitely, they do have a civil lawsuit if they want to pursue it against the child. The problem is that even if they were successful, the child has no assets. There`s no money to collect.
GRACE: What about it, Ray?
GIUDICE: I disagree with Gloria on the assets. You sue the parents as the, quote, "next best friend" -- that`s the legal language -- and if you can get to the parents` assets for failing to govern their children and provide instruction and care, you can get to those assets. I think it would be a difficult case, but I think people should start filing those lawsuits.
GRACE: So bottom line, even if you don`t think there`s any merit, just file it anyway?
GIUDICE: No. No.
GRACE: Is that what you`re trying to say, Ray?
GIUDICE: Wait. No, no. Collection of a judgment doesn`t make the lawsuit meritless. On the grounds, there`s merit. I`ve filed lawsuits, and clients have said, I don`t care if I don`t get anything. This case has principle and merit and I want to pursue it. So that`s not what I said, Nancy.
GRACE: Darryl?
COHEN: I think the parents have to be accountable for what their children do. These kids didn`t just come out of a cocoon and start acting like felons. These kids did something or some things at home. And I agree with Ray, I agree with Gloria, I agree with you Nancy, they need to be sued. And even if there`s no assets to be gotten, the parents are accountable, and this may stop the next set of kids from doing exactly what these brats, these thugs, these criminals did.
GRACE: Well, see, that`s one thing I don`t want to do. To Susan Lipkins (ph), Dr. Lipkins, bullying expert and psychologist. I don`t want to call them brats because in my mind, that minimizes what they did. They pushed this girl into oncoming traffic, Susan.
SUSAN LIPKINS, PSYCHOLOGIST: You`re absolutely right. They`re bullies, and they need to be prosecuted.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Minutes after the fight, the video was posted to FaceBook. The 15-year-old girl and her sister never fight back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your kids walked away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They did. That`s what they`ve been taught to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you would have given them grief if they did anything else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would have. I don`t believe in any physical kind of violence at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Take a look at what is going down. This is a neighborhood probably just like yours, girls leaving an after-school function designed to help teens and nurture them when a gang attack on a helpless girl breaks out. She`s unconscious, down. But do they stop? No. They continue to beat and kick the teenage victim until she has a concussion, groggy, bleeding, disoriented. They then pull her up and push her out into the street in oncoming traffic.
To the mom, Joann Moorcroft. What happened when her little sister tried to intercede?
MOORCROFT: She was in the process of helping Aliya (ph) -- my daughter up off the ground, and one of the suspects punched her in the face, knocked her glasses off.
GRACE: Who are these girls? Did your daughter know them? Had there been some long-simmering feud? What was this all about?
MOORCROFT: They`re acquaintances. They knew them from school.
GRACE: What was the fight about? That`s what I want to know.
MOORCROFT: They were -- the suspects said something to my daughters about one of their boyfriends, and my oldest daughter said, I don`t like him. I don`t want anything to do with him. He`s a waste of my time. And it upset them, so they decided she needed to be taught a lesson.
GRACE: You know, I tell you that it`s our policy to keep juveniles` faces and identities secret, but since they posted themselves on FaceBook, I`m not that tempted to keep it a secret.
To Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer. Ellie, what more can you tell me?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, as David Lohr was explaining earlier, police may charge these girls with making false statements to police. They say that they were believing that the victims here were the instigators until they saw that FaceBook video. And then they realized that Mrs. Moorcroft`s daughters were not the instigators, it was this other batch of girls, who are now facing pretty serious charges.
GRACE: Well, I don`t know how they could say the victims were the instigators. They`re the ones with the concussion. They`re the ones being thrown into oncoming traffic, not the perp. And the shocker is that tonight, these junior predators are out from behind bars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The girl in the black sweatshirt is just trying to make it to her Somerset home after school. Instead, police say, she was surrounded by bullies, three girls who won`t let up, while a boy captured the entire scene on his cell phone. Minutes after the fight, the video was posted to FaceBook. The 15-year-old girl and her sister never fight back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Burns over nearly 50 percent of her body including her face and torso.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thirty-one-year-old Quinn Nelson is accused of setting his girlfriend on fire. With lighter fluid.
GRACE: Clumps of burned hair on the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Rebecca Mumaw`s face is horribly burned by, her family says, a man who had abused her before.
QUINN NELSON, ACCUSED OF SETTING GIRLFRIEND ON FIRE: That she told them that I did it. She gave them my name or something.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say Rebecca was found after being doused with lighter fluid and set aflame in the front yard of her house on Brookside Avenue.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police still trying to determine the motive for the attack. But Nelson reportedly claims he`s innocent as his girlfriend fights to live.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: If it wasn`t you who would want to set fire to Rebecca?
GRACE: Her estranged husband came to her office at T-Mobile and set her on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you try to tell the judge he had violated this protective order? Did you want to tell him what your husband had been doing?
YVETTE CADE, SET ON FIRE BY EX-HUSBAND: Yes, I did. I tried to show him physical pictures of the abuse. He`s intimidating my daughter. And he`s vandalizing other people`s property. I want an immediate absolute divorce.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`d like to be six-foot-five, but that`s not what we do here. you have to go to divorce court for that.
CADE: I take up to sometimes eight pills, vitamins, Anarex (ph) for itching, and several others that will prevent me from having panic attacks during the day.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We`re taking your calls live. The victim burned over -- nearly 50 percent of her body including her face and torso. Interesting how the attacker, especially male attackers who are burning female victims always burn their face.
Out to Michael Board, WOAI News. Michael, tell me what happened.
MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WOAI NEWSRADIO: Nancy, you know, we looked through the criminal history for Mr. Nelson.
GRACE: Hold on. Hold on, Michael. Michael.
BOARD: Yes.
GRACE: Wait.
BOARD: Yes.
GRACE: Let me see the control room camera.
Dana, question to you. Why do you keep showing me his tattoo of her name? I don`t care that he tattooed her name on his chest. It means nothing to me.
Go ahead, Michael Board.
BOARD: We dug through his criminal history, this loser has got a long criminal history including theft, burglary, drug possession and resisting arrest.
So, Nancy, just think about that when he says he didn`t do this. We`re also told by police when they caught him a few blocks away from the home, he had a can of charcoal lighter fluid in his pocket. So just remember this when he said no, I didn`t do this.
What we know is that Rebecca was found in her front yard, burns all over her body. Luckily you know she wasn`t, you know -- she was still a little confident when she got into the ambulance. She apparently told the paramedics that yes, it was Quinn. So put all these pieces together that paints a pretty bad picture for Mr. Nelson.
GRACE: What I don`t understand is how the whole thing got started. But this is what I know. I know that this young woman -- actually beautiful -- at this hour is clinging to her life. She`s in critical condition. She`s in a medically induced coma. Over 50 percent of her body covered in severe burns, charcoal lighter fluid used to set her on fire.
I`m talking about Rebecca Mumaw. Tonight fighting, just to live.
Joining me right now and also taking your calls is a woman that we know well. A survivor of a burn attack, an attempted murder by her own ex- husband.
With me, Yvette Cade out of our nation`s capital.
You are seeing now the attack on Yvette Cade. The husband comes into the phone company where she works. Take a careful look at the video we are showing you now. Here comes the perpetrator. He`s entering the store. Yvette at work, it`s just a normal day.
You`re seeing it from various angles. He then approaches her. She`s behind one of the counters. He looks to have possibly a Sprite or some other beverage in his hand. Then throws it at Yvette`s face.
Yvette Cade, I know you remember that moment. Tell us how long it`s taken you to make a come back.
CADE: I don`t think I ever have a full recovery. Just reading the article, I am very stressed out just seeing that he denied -- said he was guilty. My ex-husband, we were separated for 10 months and he said the exact same thing, that he didn`t do it. And he had a blank stare.
I watched the videotape of him talking to the officers and I couldn`t believe that he was adamant that he didn`t do it, even when he was locked up, he asked the police officers could he come be by my bedside, and that he loved me, and --
GRACE: That he loves you?
CADE: And my heart goes to the -
GRACE: That he loved you?
CADE: Yes. Yes.
GRACE: Yvette, all the statistics show that the single most dangerous time for a battered woman is when she tries to leave. You have been separated for 10 months.
CADE: Exactly.
GRACE: What spurred the attack on you?
CADE: I wasn`t answering his phone calls. I changed my cell phone number. I had the same house number, but I wasn`t answering the phone calls when I was at home. And from my understanding he was stalking me. Some of my neighbors said he would be out as early as 6:00 a.m. in the morning, watching my home and I didn`t know that.
GRACE: For those of you that don`t know Yvette, we first covered her story -- if I could see that video in full, Dana, please?.
When we learned about Yvette`s attack we immediately publicized it in an effort to let the world know the seriousness of domestic violence.
Here you are seeing video of Yvette trying, trying to recover after a brutal burning assault by a man she thought loved her more than anyone in the world at one time.
To Gage Lutes, joining us, WBIW 1340. Gage, what happened in the current case?
GAGE LUTES, NEWS DIRECTOR, WBIW 1340 AM: Well, police were called to her residence and they discovered Rebecca out in the middle of the street and she had been burned on over 40 percent of her torso and her face.
GRACE: Do you have any idea what started the incident, Gage? Why? Why? Did he do this brazenly in front of the home?
LUTES: No. Actually he said he wasn`t even there.
GRACE: Well, I know that`s what he says, Gage. All right. But where did the incident take place? That`s my first question. In the home? Outside the home? In the front yard?
LUTES: Yes, it took place in the home. It took place in the home and they found burnt pieces of hair and t-shirt from the bedroom leading to the bathtub.
GRACE: And we have no idea what spurred the attack, Gage Lutes, or do you?
LUTES: I`m not aware of any. I`ve heard possibly a feud of some sort.
GRACE: So obviously a dispute happened.
To Donald Schweitzer, former detective, Sta. Ana PD, joining me out of L.A.
Donald, you`ve seen cases like that many, many times over. It doesn`t have to be anything in particular. It usually occurs when the victim is trying to leave or resist an attack. But here we are hearing it likely started in the bedroom and then continued throughout the house.
DONALD SCHWEITZER, FMR. DETECTIVE, SANTA ANA PD: Yes, Nancy. It`s all about power and control. I think that tattoo on his chest did mean something. In that he believes that she belonged to him. And as you said, he wasn`t going let her go so she was probably trying to leave him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He set her on fire. Burns over nearly 50 percent of her body, including her face and torso. Police find clumps of burnt hair on the floor, in the bed, in the bathtub. A scorched red shirt found lying next to the bed. The carpet even burned around her bed. Throughout her bedroom and home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He squirted her with lighter fluid and set her on fire.
GRACE: He set her on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This man 31-year-old Quinn Nelson is locked up, accused of a terrible crime.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Quinn Nelson is accused of setting his girlfriend on fire.
NELSON: I`m getting accused of attempted murder for my beloved girlfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Nelson used some type of accelerant to set his girlfriend Rebecca Mumaw on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The victim was here outside the home and they could tell right away she was in bad shape.
CADE: Eventually, I believe, that my skin will be returned to its old form.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Police say they got a 911 call early on a Saturday morning. A man claimed he was a neighbor and sees Rebecca, a stunning young strawberry blonde, standing outside of her front yard covered in severe and critical burns.
Mumaw tonight in critical condition. Doctors saying she may not survive. She`s in a medically induced coma in (INAUDIBLE) Hospital. Burns over nearly 50 percent of her body including her face and torso.
Police find clumps of burned hair on the floor, in the bed, in the bathtub. A scorched red shirt found lying next to the bed. The carpet even burned around her bed throughout her bedroom and home.
Police say Nelson had been abused before.
We are taking your calls, to Lorraine in New Mexico. We`re talking about Rebecca Mumaw, tonight hanging by a thread, fighting for her life.
Lorain, what`s your question, dear?
LORRAINE, CALLER FROM NEW YORK: I mean hi, Nancy. I`m Lorraine. Just wanted to tell you to keep doing what you do, and my question is, had this man gone under any type of psychiatric thing in the past because only a crazy person would do something like this?
GRACE: Well, you know, as the street meaning of the word crazy, maybe he is but under the law you have to know -- not know right from wrong at the time of the incident to meet the insanity requirement and here he knows enough to lie to the cops when they come and find him. So he knows exactly what`s going on.
I`ve also learned a 911 call came from his cell phone. Did he snatch the cell phone from her as she`s trying to call 911?
We are taking your calls. To Dr. Gwenn O`Keefe joining us from Boston, founder and CEO of pediatricsnow.com.
Why do burns over about 50 percent of your body -- I mean her heart is working, all of her organs are working, but why the burns on your skin kill you?
DR. GWENN O`KEEFE, M.D., PEDIATRICIAN, FOUNDER & CEO, PEDIATRICSNOW.COM: Well, part of it`s location, Nancy, and part of it is just the extent of the burn. In her case they are over her torso and neck, so as the burn settles in it actually restricts her heart and lungs from doing their job and causes damage to her airway.
And a 50 percent burn just does not allow her chest to do its job mechanically. So you have to act fast and breathe for the patient and provide some heart support so that those organs don`t suffer any damage. But 50 percent causes just too much of a risk for infection and fluid loss and in a dangerous life threatening way that`s just from a biochemical point of view it just puts you in a life-threatening position just immediately.
GRACE: Tonight that case on hold for Rebecca Mumaw because police fear she will die as a result of this attack.
And back to you, Dr. O`Keefe, the suffering, a pained victim goes -- a burn victim goes through is horrific. There`s nothing like it.
O`KEEFE: There really isn`t, Nancy. It`s one of the most painful situations a person can go through, and that`s one of the reasons they put her in a medically induced coma. She`s just burnt too extensively through too much of her body. She was probably in shock when she walked outside and the injuries hadn`t set in but as soon as she went to the hospital the first thing they gave her was pain medicine because she was just probably settling into excruciating pain.
I`ve seen burn victims. And they are truly out of their mind in pain. It`s -- even with a small amount of burn and she was burnt over, you know, 50 percent of her body from the waist up. I can`t even imagine how she would tolerate that.
GRACE: Her family says when they go to visit her they are not even allowed to be in the same room with her. The likelihood of infection is so high. They have to just look at her through glass. She can`t be touched. She can`t be comforted. She can`t be spoken to.
Tonight the life of Rebecca Mumaw hanging in the balance. Police say her boyfriend set her on fire.
Out to the lines, to Michelle in New Hampshire. Hi, Michelle.
MICHELLE, CALLER FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE: Hi, Nancy. It`s always an honor to talk to you.
GRACE: Likewise, dear. What`s your question?
MICHELLE: My question is, was there any former domestic violence in the relationship?
GRACE: Absolutely, there was. Apparently she had her wrist --
MICHELLE: And was there a restraining order?
GRACE: -- broken and a dislocated elbow. I just got the rest of that question about a possible restraining order.
To Gage Lutes, with WBIW 1340, do we know about a restraining order in the past?
LUTES: Not that I`m aware of. But I can tell you that Quinn Nelson has a very long criminal history dating back to 1997 for various charges. Including drugs and driving under the influence.
GRACE: Well, not just that. Criminal mischief, fighting with a police officer, guilty. Disorderly conduct, DUI, burglary, public intoxication. I mean there`s quite a history. It dates all the way back to 1998 that I know of.
Back to the calls. Susan in West Virginia. Hi, Susan.
SUSAN, CALLER FROM WEST VIRGINIA: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?
SUSAN: First of all, I`d like to say we love your show.
GRACE: Thank you.
SUSAN: And I have a two-part question.
GRACE: OK.
SUSAN: What will he be charged with besides attempted murder and how much time could he be facing? And my second part is could he plead insanity and get a lesser sentence?
GRACE: Good question. Gloria Allred, Darryl Cohen, Raymond Giudice.
To you, Raymond. I understand of course there`ll be an attempted murder charge. But what else could he face?
RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Aggravated assault and not to be funny but arson. Not to be funny.
GRACE: Got it. And Darryl Cohen, what about the possibility of an insanity defense?
DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I don`t see any possibility of an insanity defense. Certainly he can raise it but this man knew what he was doing. You pointed out later that he`s denying that he did it. That is not insane. That`s a criminal mind and he`s got a love affair with the government. He`s got a love affair with prisons and that`s where he needs to be and that`s where he needs to stay.
GRACE: You know, Gloria Allred, her husband of many years just had passed away of 25 years last February. This is one of the first guys she dated following his death and this is what happened.
GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIM`S RIGHTS ATTORNEY, CHILD ADVOCATE: And this is so horrible. And I know that you feel for the victim and so do I feel for the victim. And, of course, where any woman may be the victim of domestic violence, she needs to report it to someone and especially the police as soon as it happens. And domestic violence only gets worse if in fact she was injured before by him, then that was a warning sign. But we`re not going to blame her. We`re going to feel for her.
GRACE: As we go to break, April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and today marks the National Day of Hope. Child Help is a national organization, raises awareness fighting for abused and neglected children. Founders Sarah O`Meara and Yvonne Fedderson.
For info on how you can join the fight against child abuse and neglect, go to childhelp.org.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YVONNE FEDDERSON, CO-FOUNDER, CHILDHELP.ORG: Ten years ago, there were three children who died every single day. Then it went up to four, and now it`s up to five children who die every single day.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Accused of a terrible crime.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 31-year-old Quinn Nelson is accused of setting his girlfriend on fire.
NELSON: I`m getting accused of attempted murder for my beloved girlfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Nelson used some type of accelerant to set his girlfriend Rebecca Mumaw on fire.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. To Dr. Susan Lipkins, psychologist out of New York.
Susan, what`s with him putting her name, Rebecca, on his chest via tattoo, and now this? OK. Is she sitting right down? OK. OK. Let`s see. OK, got it. Ready.
To Michael Board, with WOAI, I assume he is still behind bars tonight on a high bond of $200,000?
BOARD: Yes, he`s still behind bars. Attempted murder, $200,000. And when you look at his criminal history, this guy is not going to get out anytime soon. Nobody is going to post that kind of bond for this guy. So thankfully, he`s going to sit behind bars and go before a judge and have to explain himself on this case. Explain why when they found him he had a can of lighter fluid in his pocket. It`s more than just a coincidence, Nancy.
GRACE: And, Michael, her condition, we are told that she is still listed in critical condition in a medically induced coma to try to help her live and avoid this intense pain.
BOARD: Yes. They said -- the doctors say she`s got a long road to recovery ahead of her. You know thank God, Nancy, that she`s still alive in this case. Can you believe someone burned that much over their body? She is lucky, she is blessed to still be alive. She`s got a long road. But, you know, if she`s got friends and family around her. People I know listening to the show, watching the show, are going to be praying for her. There is always power in prayer. That`s what we have to do at this time.
GRACE: Quinn Nelson, age 31, in court in just a few days to answer up to charges of attempted murder.
Let`s stop and remember Army Private 1st Class Ricky Salas, Jr., just 22, Roswell, New Mexico, killed Iraq. Awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Loved golf, softball, hunting, remembered for a smile and as a handyman. Built a manmade golf course in horseshoe pit in Iraq.
Leaves behind parents Brenda and (INAUDIBLE), and three brothers, one sister. Son, Richard III, and daughter Jordan.
Ricky Salas, Jr., American hero.
Thanks to our guests, but especially to you, and a special good night from our Illinois friends, Don and Carol, winners of the Blessings in a Backpack Auction providing meals for needy children at school, who come to school hungry.
And happy birthday to South Carolina friend Kathy. Loves classic movies, reading, and her great love, her great niece Abby.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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