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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Foul Play Suspected in Firefighter`s Disappearance; Accused Killer Breaks Down in Court; Day Care Suspect Interrogation; Female Teacher Caught with Student; PETA Under Fire

Aired February 27, 2012 - 19:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live from New York City.

A charming, handsome firefighter missing in Maine. As his family and police hunt for the father of two, secrets about his trip emerge. The very latest, next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, a Florida firefighter vanishes during a trip to Maine. Now cops suspect foul play. His car abandoned in a store parking lot. Cops have named a person of interest as a woman comes forward, saying fireman Jerry Perdomo was in town to see her. I`ll talk to the missing man`s close friend, live, tonight.

Then, another secret exposed involving a beautiful teacher and a young schoolboy. This time, a Texas middle-school teacher accused of having sex with a 15-year-old student. Why does this keep happening?

And tonight, the interrogation tapes. Jurors watch cops grill the man prosecutors say gunned down his lover`s husband outside a daycare center. He claims he was delusional, but does this tape show a calculated killer? We`ll show you the video and take your calls. Meantime, more fallout from the dead man`s wife, thrown out of court for making a scene.

Plus, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals fights back after a government agency says the organization is killing animals. We`ll give you the real story and tell you what you can do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jerry Perdomo, he was last seen February 5 after he drove up to Maine, telling his wife he was traveling there to help a friend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-three-year-old Daniel Porter. Authorities believe Porter and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Cheyenne Nowak, may have been the last people to see Perdomo before he went missing on February 16.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You never think it would happen to you. Never in a million years would I think I`d be hanging up missing posters of my brother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jerry has always been the perfect son, perfect husband, perfect father, the best to his community and serving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re missing a family member and we`re going to do everything possible to bring Jerry back.

TONYA PERDOMO, WIFE OF MISSING FIREFIGHTER: It`s been really difficult, but I miss him and I just want him to come home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, a web of secrets uncovered in a handsome firefighter`s mysterious disappearance. Cops say this popular fireman, husband, and father of two, Jerry Perdomo -- there he is -- drove all the way from Florida up to Maine, after telling his wife he had to help a friend move.

But then his trip turned into a nightmare. His rental car found abandoned in a Wal-Mart parking lot, over a week ago. His wife spoke out for the very first time, just a little while ago. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERDOMO: It`s been really difficult. But I miss him, and I just want him to come home. And our kids miss him. My daughter keeps asking about him. She stayed at a friend`s last night. She called me so we could pray together, to bring him back. And I just miss him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That beautiful wife has so many unanswered questions tonight.

Cops say they suspect foul play. And tonight, a person of interest has been named. You`re looking at him right there. He`s 24 years old. His name is Daniel Porter.

Porter`s father`s house was the last place Jerry was reportedly seen alive. Cops have been actually removing evidence from that home. Even -- get this -- taking out the windows of the home as well as removing pieces of carpet. What does that tell you?

But in a very strange twist, nobody knows how the missing man and that person of interest know each other.

Daniel Porter`s behavior after Jerry vanished is even stranger. Daniel and his girlfriend, Cheyenne, bought a car, sight unseen, paying with $20 bills, from a used car dealership, and then they fled town. Then they even left their old car at the dealership, saying they had a family emergency in Florida. But cops picked them up at Daniel`s mother`s house in Connecticut for questioning.

What do you think about all this? Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586- 7297.

Straight out to Jared Pliner, reporter for WVII. You`re tracking this case, joining us via Skype.

First of all, what`s so bizarre is this woman named Lisa, who has come forward to a local TV station saying, "He was staying with me, and he visited me regularly for the last ten months," claiming that the missing firefighter was having a relationship with her. What do you know?

JARED PLINER, REPORTER, WVII: Jane, good evening.

That`s right. There was an Orlando station. All Orlando affiliates were up in this area, covering this story. A lot of interest down there, as you can expect.

And then this crew was just hanging around the Wal-Mart in Bangor off Stillwater Avenue, and a woman drove up to them, very distraught, saying that she was Jerry`s girlfriend, that he had spent the night with her and had left to go help friends, and she never saw him after that. And that he had been coming up, driving 1,500 miles from Florida to Bangor, Maine, to see her pretty regularly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And this woman, again, she goes only by the name Lisa. She wants to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. I mean, this is very awkward. He`s a married man. She came forward to this local TV station to say she and Jerry have been romantically linked for ten months and that he visits her every month in Maine.

But Jerry`s wife, totally worried about her missing husband, seemed to be completely unaware of that. Here`s the news conference, just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERDOMO: I knew that he had a friend, but he has female friends. It`s nothing -- I can`t comment on the extent of their relationship, because I don`t know. I really -- I don`t know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, now, this woman, named only Lisa, claims Jerry was staying with her in Maine, but he left saying he had a meeting, but he`d be back for dinner. Well, Jerry never came back.

Now, Jerry somehow ends up at a house where the person of interest, Daniel Porter lives, and his girlfriend, you see there, is Cheyenne Nowak. Now, that`s the house where Jerry was last seen. It happens to be 28 miles away from the Wal-Mart where Jerry`s rental vehicle was found abandoned.

Wal-Mart surveillance video shows someone getting out and walking away from that car at 8:15 a.m., February 17. But it`s not clear who was leaving that car. And there is the Wal-Mart.

So I want to bring in Joe Gomez, senior investigative reporter, KTRH news radio. What have you learned?

JOE GOMEZ, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, KTRH NEWS RADIO: Well, Jane, it`s very interesting, because Cheyenne, the woman who supposedly last saw Jerry, she posted some very strange, cryptic messages on her Facebook page, saying something to the effect of she was very sorry for the loss and that she was so sorry that Jerry was missing, but there was nothing more she could do.

Additionally, Jane, what`s also interesting here is that Daniel and Cheyenne had both abandoned their vehicle, and then bought a new used car, paid in cash, and took off to Florida, alleging some sort of emergency, Jane. All very interesting pieces to this investigation.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you mentioned it. Cops hunted down Daniel and Cheyenne for questioning, and have only mentioned Daniel as a person of interest. And by the way, he`s invited on our show any time to tell his side.

But his girlfriend, Cheyenne, did have, as you referred to, Joe, this very eerie Facebook post. Quote, "I`m sorry for your loss. I`m sorry your friend is missing. It is a terrible thing. I am so sorry about this, but I can do nothing further. Night."

So I want to go out to Steve Moore, former FBI agent. We`re trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And I know this has to be very disturbing, obviously, to this wife, who -- I mean, my gosh, talk about a double whammy, right? First her husband disappears, and now she`s hearing about, oh, he was actually up there visiting another woman who claims that she was having a relationship with this guy. What do you make of all of it, Steve Moore, former FBI?

STEVE MOORE, FORMER FBI AGENT: Well, I think that the police are going to have to predicate their -- their investigation on the fact that people are claiming to be his girlfriend, a woman is claiming to be his girlfriend.

What you know now, if that`s true, is that he has kept something from his friends and his family, and if he`s kept one major thing like that, he could be keeping other things. This is one of those iceberg cases, where the deeper you look under the surface, the bigger things get. And I think we are nowhere near the end of finding out what was going on up there in Maine.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and we were supposed to be talking to Dave Williams, exclusively, who is a firefighter, a very close friend of Jerry`s. And at the very last second, first we were told he had a flat tire, and then we were told that his cell phone was very weak and had died. And that may very well be the case.

And we`ve also got to know this has got to be very, very upsetting for him, to be learning about all of these things that he did not know, as well as Jerry`s wife, with whom he is very close. And I know that -- that they`re very upset about it. So you can kind of understand that maybe they don`t want to talk about it, as all these explosive developments come to the surface, literally, within the last couple of minutes.

But, Dave, if you`re watching, we do want to hear from you, because the most important thing is to find out where this man is. And I`ve said it. I wrote a book called "Secrets Can be Murder." We`ve got to uncover all the secrets. Human beings make mistakes, but we need to know the facts if we`re going to find this guy.

Let`s go to the phone lines. Whitney, Tennessee, your question or thought, Whitney?

CALLER: Hi, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.

CALLER: I am thinking, you know, this -- this looks like this guy has rode off, probably with another woman. And it appears he may not even want to be found.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. That was an interesting point. Dr. Robi Ludwig, psychotherapist, a double whammy for the wife, a secret life.

DR. ROBIN LUDWIG, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Yes. Well, this poor wife, because not only is she missing her husband physically and has all the questions about where could this man be that she loves, she`s also finding out that he may also have a double life.

So the real man that she thought she was with is no longer even the man she thought she was with, because of these secrets that are getting revealed. So one can feel very, very sorry for her. She must be devastated and in complete shock right now.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we have other secrets that are coming up, which we`re going to tell you about on the other side of the break, involving this case, and take more of your calls.

And also coming up a little bit later, jurors hear an accused killer`s interrogation tapes. This is wild. The story he tells is nothing like the story he`s telling now.

But first, we`re taking your calls on the mysterious disappearance of firefighter Jerry Perdomo, 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERDOMO: It`s been really difficult, but I miss him and I just want him to come home.

And our kids miss him. My daughter keeps asking about him. She stayed at a friend`s last night, and she called me so we could pray together to bring him back. And I just miss him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of concern. A lot of pain. You know, it`s a family in turmoil.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`d never think it would happen to you. Never in a million years would I think I`d be hanging up missing posters of my brother. You know, you can`t -- how can you sleep?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What a bizarre story. This firefighter, who`s married, has two kids, says, "Honey, I`ve got to help somebody move," and he gets a rental car and drives all the way to Bangor, Maine. We`ve got a Google map to show you of that. My gosh, that`s 1,600 miles. I mean, who drives from Florida to Bangor, Maine?

But Jerry`s wife says if there was foul play involved, she was totally in the dark and said -- well, here`s what she had to say about their last phone call. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERDOMO: He called me to tell me that he was fine. We only spoke for a minute, because the reception was really bad. And he told me that he loved me and that -- to hug and kiss the kids. And then he told me that he would call me later, and I never -- he told me he loved me. And I didn`t hear from him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right. Well, then, then there`s a woman named Lisa, anonymous Lisa, that tells reporters, "Oh, hey, he was visiting me for the last ten months, once a month. And we were having a relationship." And she didn`t even know that he was married until recently.

And says Jerry left her house to meet up with some friends for a meeting and, within two hours, both of his cell phones were turned off. Now cops are going through the home of the place where he was last seen.

Got to go to Steve Moore. First of all, the fact that he has two cell phones.

Now, look, I got two cell phones right here, OK? But I am in the news business, so I always have an extra one. In case one dies, if there`s a breaking news story, I have a second one. But why would he as a firefighter need two cell phones?

And then I`ve got to add one other last piece to the puzzle. And that is that the girlfriend -- we`re going to get to this in a second, --of the guy who`s a person of interest was arrested for misdemeanor drugs five years ago. Your thoughts?

MOORE: Well, you`re absolutely right. Somebody who has two cell phones, that happens sometimes in law enforcement and firefighting. That`s not the usual. That`s not the norm. Usually two cell phones means that you don`t want the people who are talking to you on one cell phone to know about on the other or talk to them.

The other thing that`s suspicious is that the people bought the car the very next day and -- or that day and left. When people buy used cars for cash, what they`re trying to do is slow down the -- the record keeping on the car that they bought, so that they can drive that car out of state, and it will not come back to them. There will not be an APB out for that car.

That is suspicious; that is furtive behavior. And it indicates to me that it`s a problem.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Let`s go to the phone lines. John, Ohio, your question or thought, John? Hey, John?

CALLER: In the carpet on the Porter`s home, was there any evidence on them?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we don`t know that yet, but I have to say this, and this is an interesting part. The girlfriend of the person of interest -- the person of interest is staying at this house, OK? Where this firefighter was last seen. He leaves this mystery Lisa and says, "I`ve got to go to a meeting" and apparently goes to this house.

This guy, who`s the person of interest, has a girlfriend. The -- oh, Dave Williams has joined us.

OK, Dave Williams.

DAVE WILLIAMS, BEST FRIEND OF MISSING FIREFIGHTER (via phone):

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re the best friend of the missing firefighter. Thank you. I know this has got to be tough for you. We were talking about how tough this has to be you and his wife, all this information coming out, that she had no idea. What a double whammy.

Did you have any idea of what Dave, of what your friend Jerry was doing up there in Maine, that this woman comes forward and said, "Oh, I had a relationship with him. He`d visit me every month." I mean, is this a total shock to you?

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, I wanted to clarify first that, you know, he actually became a firefighter in 2009, and I was one of his training lieutenants, and that`s how I grew to know Jerry. I`ve known him since 2009 when he joined our department.

And you know, he`s just like one of those guys that, you know, he`s always smiling and happy. He`s got a great personality about him. And so for something like all this, this is very out of character. You know, it`s not abnormal for him to take trips to help people, you know. It`s just -- there`s a lot going on, it seems.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It does. And again, we`re -- we`re not trying to in any way embarrass the wife of the missing man, your dear friend, but we have to get to the truth. And sometimes you have to go through some unpleasant facts to get to the truth if we`re going to find out what happened to your friend.

Thank for joining us. We`ll be back in just a moment. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re talking to a very good friend of a missing firefighter, and the entire firehouse is in complete distress because they want to get their buddy back. We have to ask some unpleasant questions, but we don`t do it to be disrespectful. We do it to get to the truth. More in a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERDOMO: I knew that he had a friend, but he has female friends. It`s nothing -- I can`t comment on the extent of their relationship, because I don`t know. I really -- I don`t know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is the wife of the missing firefighter. Remember, this firefighter went all the way from Florida to Maine. He told his wife he was helping a friend move. Now there`s this woman, Lisa, who has come forward and said, "Oh, I was having a relationship with him and he visited me once a month, for the past ten months."

And we`re with Dave Williams, exclusive interview with this very good friend of the missing firefighter, a fellow firefighter. And I know that the entire firehouse devastated. They want to find their buddy. And I know you guys risk your lives. I -- I admire firefighters like no one else, because you risk your lives for others.

What do you think happened? Do you have a theory?

WILLIAMS: I don`t -- you know, at this time, our biggest thing is that, you know, you kind of touched upon it, too, is that we`re going to fires and all that stuff, and that`s the bond that we have right now. Is that we do the same job. We live together for 24 hours a day. Every third day we come together. And it`s a unique infrastructure, that it`s a family bond. You know, we live, we eat, we sleep together. And we do go to some pretty interesting calls. It really bonds us; it unites us. And it really creates a brotherhood and a sisterhood in our membership.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And some of you have gone to Maine, from Florida, where your firehouse is, to Maine to look for him. Tell us about the search.

WILLIAMS: Well, I was actually one of the ones that went up to Maine. You know, right now I`m missing a brother. And our goal is to get him back. And so we`re going to do anything -- it`s just like anyone else. It`s their brother, their sister, their mother came missing, what would you do? And we don`t really want to just sit back. We want to get out there and find out where he`s at.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Have you ever heard of this Daniel Porter? Again, we ask not to embarrass. Daniel Porter, who`s now the person of interest. Jerry was last seen at his house. There he is, with his girlfriend, Cheyenne.

And we have to say, again, not to embarrass, but to just -- we want to get to the truth, and this is what`s coming up. According to the mother of Porter`s girlfriend, Cheyenne Nowak, Cheyenne had been arrested for misdemeanor drugs five years ago.

And during the news conference, a reporter asked Jerry`s wife about whether -- possibly there could have been some prescription drug issues? And let`s hear to what she had to say -- that would have led him to this house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERDOMO: I don`t believe that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not?

PERDOMO: Because that`s not like him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dave, we`re not here to -- this poor missing man is not here to defend himself. So what do you know about his character?

WILLIAMS: Yes, he`s someone at the firehouse that he`s always got a smile and he`s always talking about his family. You know, that`s the Jerry that I knew. He knows my family; he knows my kids.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So there were no problems in the marriage that you knew of? Nothing public?

WILLIAMS: Nothing that I`m aware of.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And did you know that he was going to Maine all the time?

WILLIAMS: No, it`s not -- I`m not at his fire station, and again, you don`t have to work at the fire station to be friends throughout. Kind of a good example is when he became missing and we flew up to Maine to start doing what we could do up there to find him, it was awesome that the Bangor Fire Department membership came together with us. They were out there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re out of time, but I want to thank you, Dave, and I really hope we find your buddy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MICHELLE YOUNG PLAYING WITH CHILD)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jason Young has been charged with first-degree murder.

JASON YOUNG, ACCUSED OF WIFE`S MURDER: Michelle`s dead. I just fell. I just -- I broke on the inside. I`ve lost everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You told friends, didn`t you, that you felt like you didn`t have enough sex in your marriage?

YOUNG: Yes, ma`am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You told your mother that you felt like you didn`t have enough sex in your marriage.

YOUNG: Yes, ma`am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You told co-workers --

YOUNG: Yes, ma`am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That you felt like you didn`t have enough sex in your marriage.

YOUNG: Yes, ma`am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you love your wife while you were having an affair with Michelle Money?

YOUNG: Yes, ma`am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you love your wife when you were having sex with Caroline Sourby (ph)?

YOUNG: Yes, ma`am, I did love my wife.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: We`ll get to that trial in just a moment.

But first, an unbelievable day in another case, a very different side of an accused killer revealed. For weeks, we`ve been talking about oh, alleged murderer Jason Young and his double life -- that seems to be the theme tonight -- his lies, his affairs, his drinking, ok? He`s accused of viciously murdering his wife.

But today, the defense began trying to undo the damage, and we saw Jason, the defendant, break down in tears while his mother is on the stand. One by one, his family members testifying about what a loving, devoted family man he was and how his wife, Michelle`s death devastated him. Yes, this is the very death he is accused of causing.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATHER MCCRAKEN, DEFENDAN`TS SISTER: UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I came toward him, he just kind of sat up and just kind of put his head on his hand and I just put my arm around him and told him how sorry I was. And we just cried and I told him that Michelle was up in heaven, with that sweet baby boy, and was up there with our dad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, remember, he, this guy, is accused of being a cad, having affairs, drinking too much, and then planning a business trip, but secretly going and murdering his wife by viciously beating her to death and then going back to the hotel and pretending he was sleeping all along.

I want to go out to Beth Karas, correspondent for in session. You`ve been all over this trial. Basically, his family tries to come to the rescue today, talking about what a great guy he is, supposedly. How did that work with the jury?

BETH KARAS, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": well, I`ll tell you, I just have a very different sense of the jury from a couple of weeks ago, when they were hearing the beginning of or the essence of the state`s case.

Today they heard from Jason Young`s sister, her husband, so his brother-in-law. Young`s stepfather, a man his mother married when he was a little boy. His father died when Young was about 5 years old, and then Pat Young, his mother. She`s still on the stand. She`ll be back tomorrow.

All of them talked about Jason`s reaction when he learned that his wife was killed. Nobody said that he even asked any questions about, how did she die? Although he did express some surprise, his mother overheard him say, "Homicide", as she was talking to someone on the phone. "Homicide? No, not homicide."

But there was no testimony about him saying, "What are you talking about?" You know, "How did she die, how is my baby?" Although he did go with the family to Raleigh and he did go to get his daughter.

And I didn`t see any reaction from the jury. I mean, when Mrs. Young would try to -- she`s not Young now, but, his mother, when she tried to make something like, a joke or something, jurors didn`t crack a smile. She told a little anecdote about a young Jason Young mooning his 80-year-old grandmother, and I`m thinking, well, he was doing that as an adult too. He was doing it as a kid, and she was laughing and thought it was funny. "Why are you telling the jury this?"

That`s part of what was the state`s case about how he would act out and expose himself. He was doing it as a child. And she said everybody laughed and thought it was funny.

So jurors didn`t react. I don`t know what they were thinking, but they were not -- didn`t seem to be in sync with her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And this is, again, a man who`s on trial for murdering his pregnant wife who we`ve already heard testimony, he was having affairs. And he claims he was on a business trip and asleep in a hotel. But I think it`s very interesting, and does the jury pick up on the whole notion, that when he finds out his wife has been murdered, he doesn`t say, "Oh my gosh, how did that happen? What do you mean? Or how`s my child, my daughter," who was left walking around in the blood of her mother`s.

So I wonder if the jury is going to take that into account with their calculations. But it`s not just about breaking down and crying and going, "Oh, my God, no, homicide." It`s also about asking those questions that people would ask in that kind of situation.

So thank you so much for that, Beth Karas.

Now moving on to another fascinating, and I mean fascinating trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our whole family has lost its brightest light.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 36-year-old Sneiderman was killed right in front of his child`s preschool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Neuman, a Cobb County engineer, has admitted killing Sneiderman outside Dunwoody Prep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he`s talking about six-foot angels that look like Olivia Newton-John.

Mr. Neuman`s delusions rendered him incapable of differentiating right from wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Victim Rusty Sneiderman`s widow, Andrea. She allegedly was having an affair with Neuman. Prosecutors say that`s the motive for the crime.

ANDREA SNEIDERMAN, WIFE OF VICTIM: There was no affair. Who kills someone else`s husband?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you wake up together in Denver in Tahoe?

SNEIDERMAN: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to ask you this and this is where it gets - - I want to ask you a personal question, man to man, just between us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was your relationship --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many times did you call Rusty?

SNEIDERMAN: Call Rusty?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rusty.

SNEIDERMAN: Zero times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why didn`t you call Rusty?

SNEIDERMAN: Because they just told me something had happened to Rusty. What were the chances that he was going to answer his cell phone?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, what a case. Tonight, for the very first time, you will hear the accused day care shooter, Hemy Neuman, as he is grilled by cops for the murder of Rusty Sneiderman outside an Atlanta area preschool. The question is will the tapes prove Neuman was insane when he allegedly shot Sneiderman. In fact, he admits he shot Rusty Sneiderman, but says he was hearing voices -- the voices of Olivia Newton John and Barry White.

Up until now, the wife of the victim, Andrea Sneiderman, has been front and center of this trial, with long rants from the witness stand and a very public show of emotion when she hugged and kissed her good friend after that friend got off the witness stand. That little antic got Andrea Sneiderman kicked out of court and banned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY ADAMS, JUDGE: I am going to, at this point in time, direct that Miss Sneiderman be removed from this courtroom and not have any direct or indirect contact with any witness or potential witness. She is put on subpoena.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But today the focus was on Hemy Neuman and the day he was interrogated by cops, in January of last year. Investigators say they zeroed in on Neuman after discovering he had rented a Kia Sedona, matching the description of the car seen speeding from the shooting scene. And Neuman also happened to be the boss of the dead man`s wife, Andrea. Neuman has since admitted that he did shoot Rusty Sneiderman, but he says he was insane at the time. During the interrogation, he insisted, "I nothing to do with it." Nothing.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEMY NEUMAN, ON TRIAL FOR MURDER OF RUSTY SNEIDERMAN: I know but you read Miranda rights and it, it seems like it`s as if I`m a suspect. And --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re a suspect? Are you a suspect?

NEUMAN: I don`t think I need to be a suspect. I shouldn`t be a suspect. There`s no reason why I should be a suspect, because you`re reading my rights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, you`re shaking like a leaf. I got to wonder about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So let`s go to Jon Lewis, reporter for WSB Radio. You were in court today, what are the most shocking things to come out of this very lengthy, hours-long interrogation tape?

JON LEWIS, REPORTER, WSB RADIO (via telephone): Well, many things, Jane. First of all, it was the intensity in which they went after him. He went in there on the morning of January 4th, 2011. Police went to his house, asked him to come down, and he did. And the question we kept asking ourselves is, why would you agree to do this?

But he clearly did not think of himself as a suspect when he went in to see the police. It wasn`t until an hour into this 5 and 1/2 hour interrogation when police confronted with him surveillance footage, showing the Kia Sedona minivan that had been rented, and only two of those vans exist in Georgia in rental places and were rented at that time. So they knew it was him.

So when they said, how could it be that anybody else could have had this van, it had to be you? Right then is when the light bulb went on and that he realized, "They got me". So the next four hours were spent with Hemy Neuman sparring with police, them trying to get him to admit to it. They`re trying different tactics, appealing to his sensibility of you know, you`ll feel better about this, you`ll feel better, your family, what about your kids? Think about them.

And then about two hours into it, they tried to get him to implicate the widow, Andrea Sneiderman by saying, you know, if she comes in here and gives it up about you, this is your opportunity to beat her to it and give it up about her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Jon, let me jump in and play that part -- cops interrogating Neuman, asking him about his relationship with the victim`s wife. Remember, the prosecution says these two were having an affair and Neuman just wanted to get his competition out of the way.

Listen to Neuman`s response.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s your relationship with Andrea?

NEUMAN: Andrea and I are friends. She works for me, of course. So the first part relationship is, of course, she`s my employee.

You know, we connected. We`re friends. I find her attractive. In the future when I get a different job --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

Neuman: -- you know, I`d like to continue to develop the relationship. And she basically said, "No, I`m committed to rusty and it isn`t going to happen."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Andrea Sneiderman, there she is. She`s been thrown out of court. She also denies the affair, but her good friend said, "No, I think she was having an affair." And a bartender testified that she saw the defendant and this woman hot and heavy, making out, grabbing each other.

So prosecutors say that is the real motive, not that Neuman was cuckoo in the head and hearing voices of Olivia Newton John and Barry White.

Up next, a beautiful young teacher accused of having sex with a young boy. You won`t believe this one, seriously. And we`re taking your calls, 1-877-JVM-SAYS.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 28-year-old Katherine Camille Murray. She is charged with the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy. Murray was immediately removed from the class for an inappropriate relationship with a male student.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s very concerning to me that it could happen so close to our house and our neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve got kids here and I wouldn`t want it to happen to any of my kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess it happens everywhere, but you know, obviously, this hits a little close to home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s because it`s a person in a position of trust, that we trust our children with every day.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops say an eighth grade teacher was caught sleeping with a 15-year-old boy in his bed. Is this another case of pedophilia in our schools? She`s arrested and prosecutors say she was planning to flee the country.

Katherine Murray, 28 years old, a beautiful young teacher, who, according to cops, targeted a 15-year-old student of hers. A fellow teacher says she seduced this boy and kissed him in the classroom. And that he was in love with her. Poor thing.

This, if it did happen, is child sexual abuse. It doesn`t matter if it`s a boy with a woman, make no mistake, it`s just as serious. Cops say one Saturday night, this woman came to the boy`s house, they were discovered, allegedly, in his bedroom by his 12-year-old brother, who opened the door and saw her bra and a used condom on the floor. So he`s also a victim.

According to court documents, Katherine Murray was hiding under the covers, and when the older brother said, uh, Mrs. Murray, say hi to my brother, she said, "Hola". Ok, the local community in Houston, Texas shaken to the core.

Listen to what one mother said.

MEREDITH COOLEY, PARENT: I have a seventh grade son here at the school, and it`s very concerning to me that it could happen so close to our house and our neighborhood. However, I know that there are two sides to every story, and I do hope that the real truth comes out.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and this is a gorgeous, beautiful teacher, could have any man she wanted. She was married, but recently separated. So unhappy in her relationship, she goes after a boy, allegedly. It`s pedophilia if it happened. The student would be scarred for life. It doesn`t matter that he`s a boy, it`s just as serious.

Joe Gomez, senior investigative reporter, what do you know?

JOE GOMEZ, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, Jane, this is a crazy case. As you mentioned, this 15-year-old boy apparently caught in his own bedroom with this 28-year-old blond bombshell. Apparently his 12-year-old brother, who knocked on the door, walked inside and saw a used condom on the floor, as well as a tan bra. Meanwhile, teacher and the 15-year-old student are naked underneath the covers. She says "hola" to his brother, then "adios" as she leaves. And the kid tells his parents about it.

Now the woman is charged with sexual assault of a child. Jane, this is an extremely bizarre case.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, listen to what local law enforcement, the chief of police said about this case. Listen carefully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

C.A. BRAWNER, CHIEF, SPRING BRANCH ISD POLICE DEPT: You know, going through school, these kids may get infatuated with a teacher or whatever else and this one just got out of hand.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: This one got out of hand? Excuse me, chief. No, this isn`t about infatuation, Jayne Weintraub, criminal defense attorney, this is a cultural bias to excuse it as, well, it just gets out of hand, it`s infatuation when it`s a hot teacher. We saw this with Deborah Lefevre and a boy. There is a double standard because the victim is male. Don`t you agree or not?

JAYNE WEINTRAUB, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I do agree with you Jane. And I was thinking the same thing that she looks like Debora Lefevre in the sense that she`s also very young, very pretty. She`s 28, looking 18, herself. And maybe that`s part of her problem because obviously she does have a problem.

But more than that, you know, as parents -- forget even as a lawyer -- as parents we trust that our kids are going to be safe in school. We worry about kids going to the park or going, you know, around the block on their bicycles. We don`t worry about a classroom and it seems to me that that`s becoming more of a prevalent problem.

So I think it`s a community issue once again and I think that perhaps we`re not screening teachers or we`re not screening particular teachers.

(CROSSTALK)

WEINTRAUB: And maybe we do

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Robi Ludwig -- yes, psychotherapist, these pretty teachers often get involved. I think they`re used to the attention, and they get no more attention than from a pubescent boy.

ROBI LUDWIG, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Well -- and I think we need supervision in these schools because I think we need to assume when you have young teachers around adolescents, the hormones are going to be going. And if you have a supervisor to teach teachers how to not act impulsively, this might reduce the amount of crime we see.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Great idea.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Don`t go anywhere. We`ve got your laugh break coming up in one minute.

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CHARLIZE THERON, ACTRESS: They are beautiful, loving dogs just waiting to be adopted, dogs who desperately need homes. Think of it this way. If you choose a dog from the mall, a dog you could have saved from the pound will die and the pet shop will just keep on ordering more dogs to sell. But if you adopt an animal from a shelter, you will not only save her life you`ll also help end the suffering of countless dogs at puppy mills.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to say I have been a proud member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for decades. And I love PETA. I know for a fact having done many, many stories with them for years, decades, in fact, that PETA saves millions of animals by convincing companies to come up with alternatives to painful experimentation and offering different options by convincing stores to stop selling fur.

Nevertheless, the Center for Consumer Freedom published documents from the Virginia Department of Agriculture saying PETA killed 95 percent of the dogs and the cats that they took in last year.

However, this so-called secret was already exposed by PETA themselves. They actually put out a press release saying we had to put down more than 1,900 animals last year and they put out that press release three weeks ago.

Let`s take a look at what the animals that they had to put down looked like. And I want to warn you the photographs are extremely graphic but sadly this is just a little sampling of some of the disturbing cases.

Take a look at some of the injured and ill animals. That`s not it. We`re going to show you some photographs -- photographs of the injured and homeless domestic animals -- I`m talking about dogs and cats. We`ll get to this video in a second.

There it is. These are some of the animals that PETA had to put down that were brought in. And now, the Center for Consumer Freedom is going to town saying, oh, PETA kills animals.

So I want to bring in Lisa Lange, PETA`s senior vice president of communications and put this it context because the Center for Consumer Freedom has come after you and tell us what your thoughts are about that.

LISA LANGE, VP OF COMMUNICATIONS, PETA: Well, this is a front group for the industries we battle like the meat industry and the industries and abuse animals in the circuses. But what`s very sad here is that as you have shown in those pictures, PETA is a shelter of last resort. So, most of the animals we get are either too ill, they`re abused, they`re injured or they`re too aggressive to be able to adopt out. We also take in animals from people who have decided to make the heart-breaking decision of saying good-bye to their animals and we euthanize them for them, as well, when they can`t afford to go to a vet.

Our focus, though, at our headquarters in southern Virginia is on the poorer areas of northern North Carolina and southern Virginia where we`re trying to stem the tide of animals being born. So for example last year we spayed and neutered almost 11,000 cats and dogs. Overall we have spayed and neutered almost -- I`m sorry -- more than 80,000 but we`re swimming up tide. We can`t do it.

On a national level, it is a crisis. More than 3 million healthy adoptable homeless cats and dogs are being euthanized every year. And the blame for this needs to go squarely on the shoulders of the breeders, the pet stores and the puppy mills who are breeding animals to supply to pet stores and also to people who are refusing to spay or neuter their animals.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I want to say the Center for Consumer Freedom says they`re supported by restaurants, food companies and thousands of individual consumers. They`re invited on our show any time. We did ask them to come on, nobody was available to join us.

One the other side, we`re going to talk about this problem of breeders.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Again, the organization that is criticizing PETA is called the Center for Consumer Freedom. We reached out to them. They`re invited on any time at all to give their side and they say they`re supported by restaurants, food companies, individual consumers, companies - - who individuals who support us financially in case they want anonymity as contributors.

But let`s talk about PETA`s work building dog houses -- you see it there. PETA goes around the country building hundreds of free dog houses for dog that are left outside every year. They do in my opinion amazing work, tens of thousands over the years, sterilizations. The problem very quickly, Lisa, is that if people keep breeding for profit -- and I might have to finish this sentence -- there`re going to be more and more animals growing exponentially and we`re going to have to keep putting them to sleep so don`t shop. Adopt.

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