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Nancy Grace
Miley Cyrus and the Stalker; Mom Leaves Newborn in Dryer
Aired September 10, 2012 - 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, LA. "Hannah Montana" superstar Miley Cyrus, a love-crazed man wielding scissors attacks, caught on tape. We have the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Frightening alleged stalking incident involving Miley Cyrus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Caught on tape. It was all caught on tape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police department. Step out of the gate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man goes after Miley Cyrus, jumping over her security fence, brandishing a pair of scissors and telling police he needed to see her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police respond to a 911 call of a prowler at the Hollywood home of Miley Cyrus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police department. Show me your hands!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All I have is scissors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say the best way to describe this man is delusional.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He not only told the police that he and the pop star were long-time friends but that they were also married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am. She`s my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the third time the singer has been targeted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Richmond suburbs. He races home from work for his grieving wife after she gives birth to a stillborn baby girl. Shock of a lifetime! Daddy hears their cat caught in the dryer, but it`s not the cat on permanent press speed dry. It`s the newborn baby girl, double bagged and left to die.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say Angela Jenecka (ph) gave birth to a baby girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When officers arrived there with rescue personnel from fire and rescue, they did see and deal with a female who had just given birth to a child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say she tried to kill her newborn daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say the husband came home to clean the apartment. He thought he heard the family`s cat. But when he opened the dryer door, he would be in for the surprise of his life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Discovered the infant inside a plastic bag wrapped in a pillow case sitting in the dryer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight, live, LA. "Hannah Montana" superstar Miley Cyrus, a love-crazed man wielding scissors attacks, caught on tape. We have the video.
Straight out to Rob Shuter, columnist with the HuffingtonPost. You know, somebody as famous as the "Hannah Montana" superstar Miley Cyrus, I would think would have basically impenetrable security around her home. How did somebody get in?
ROB SHUTER, HUFFPOST COLUMNIST: Well, she probably thought she had that, too, Nancy. Lots of Hollywood stars think they are very safe. This incident has proved that they are not. And lots of people are looking at their security. He got in behind a closed security gate at 4:00 in the morning and terrified everybody in that house.
GRACE: You know, speaking of 4:00 in the morning -- interesting that it`s in those early morning hours when it has been shown that victims are the most vulnerable, not immediately at lights out between 10:00 and 12:00, but more in the hours between 1:00 and 5:00 o`clock in the morning, specifically, the sweet spot for criminals between 2:00 and 4:00 in the morning when you`re in a deep sleep.
A lot of people start waking up around 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00 o`clock. Even if not the victim, neighbors may be waking up, going to work to avoid traffic, going out for jogs, taking their dogs out. It`s in those late night, early morning hours when crimes typically go undetected.
And you`re saying he came in at what, 4:00 AM, Rob Shuter?
SHUTER: That`s when he was detected. At 4:0 AM in the morning is when he was on her private property behind that closed gate.
GRACE: OK, let`s talk about her property. Where is it, and what kind of security devices did she have? And I understand he was wielding scissors, Rob Shuter?
SHUTER: You`re absolutely right. He was found with scissors in his back pocket -- very, very scary stuff. She lives in California in the hills in a beautiful mansion. It is a closed mansion. She has a massive wall around it and a very, very large security gate that you need a password, a code, to get into. He did not have this code. People are saying he might have even jumped over her fence.
GRACE: To Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer. What do we know about this guy, Jason Luis Rivera? He`s 40 years old and he`s in love with Miley Cyrus? What is she, 18 or 19 years old, Ellie?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right. She`s 19 years old, Nancy. This guy has a criminal record from Texas, where he apparently either still lives or used to live. He`s got a couple of charges for trespassing, multiple arrests for marijuana possession. We also found his social media, his Facebook, MySpace. He considers himself a poet, apparently, and he`s written...
GRACE: Whoa-whoa! Wa-wait! What? A poet?
JOSTAD: A poet, correct.
GRACE: Let me guess. Does he feature his poetry on line?
JOSTAD: Yes, he does. He has...
GRACE: OK, I want to hear it. Is it, like, I want to kill Miley Cyrus? Is that what his poem is called?
JOSTAD: Nothing that blatant. These are all kind of -- I would call them sort of pseudo-spiritual poems about love, things like, Love is everlasting M (ph), the eternal essence in our -- or shall I say his universe, I love, love, love, let us all who have love share our love, those kinds of things. But this guy is posting multiple poems a day about love on his site. He also...
GRACE: So I guess that means he doesn`t have a job, if he`s sitting at home on the sofa writing poems and putting them on his, what, his Facebook? What, on Twitter? Doesn`t he claim he`s Miley Cyrus`s husband?
You`re seeing the video that we obtained of him at Miley Cyrus`s home trying to get in. He was wielding scissors in an attempted attack on Miley Cyrus. There`s some video from "GMA." Didn`t he say he was her husband?
JOSTAD: Yes, he did, Nancy. He said, She`s my wife. He said they`ve been friends for five years. And you know, he claimed he knew her. He was just going to see his, I guess, wife.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Tammy, Ohio. Hi, Tammy. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I just had a question. You basically kind of answered half of it, about her having a wall or some sort around her home. Now, is this also a gated community of other houses? And if so, why was it so easy for this man to get in?
GRACE: OK, Ellie, what do we know, gated community? And are they thinking that he jumped over the fence to get into Miley Cyrus`s mansion?
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy, it does sound like he may have jumped the fence. If you see external pictures, you know, she does have a pretty high -- looks to me to be maybe seven, eight-foot gate out in front her house, as well as this wall surrounding it.
GRACE: OK, Ellie, you are telling me about his criminal history, but hold on. To you, Dave Mack, morning talk show host with Clear Channel WAAX. I see that one of those offenses is fleeing a cop in 2008.
Now, if a cop is chasing you, that means you did something, or you know, in the perfect world, you did something before the cop chases you. So what did he do, and what exactly is his record?
DAVE MACK, WAAX CLEAR CHANNEL: Well, his record in Texas -- not out in California, but back in Texas -- that`s where he`s got possession charges for marijuana, trespassing, fleeing the cop. I assume that was on a drug charge when he was just trying to get away. Nothing extremely violent, but again, those were all in Texas. Now we`re out in Los Angeles.
GRACE: We`re taking your calls. Out to Catalina. Hi, Catalina. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I am, like, so awesome to speak to you right now. I`ve been a fan for years, and you`re just such an inspiration to me.
GRACE: Thank you, dear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re just incredible.
GRACE: What is your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just wondering how they found the guy in general. Like, did they have security guards that were outside that found him, or one of her family members?
GRACE: Rob Shuter, what do we know?
SHUTER: What we know is that relatives of Miley`s were at the house. They called 911. The police got there immediately, found this gentleman hiding in the bushes, and that`s how they caught him.
GRACE: Everybody, "Hannah Montana" superstar Miley Cyrus -- a scissors-wielding love-crazed nut gets through security -- an attack by this man against Miley Cyrus.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An alleged stalker brandishing a pair of scissors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police department. Step out of the gate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police department. Show me your hands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your hands on the wall. Put your hands on the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Constantly going through this drama, drama, drama.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He not only told the police that he and the pop star were long-time friends but that they were also married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m a friend of Miley Cyrus. I am. She`s my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police department. Step out of the gate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police department. Show me your hands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands on the wall. Put your hands on the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m a friend of Miley Cyrus. I am. She`s my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got any weapons on you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Well, I have scissors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In the last hours, we are learning more and more about a man wielding a pair of scissors, attempting an attack on "Hannah Montana" superstar Miley Cyrus. This guy, a 40-year-old love-crazed freak, gets through security, gets to the home of Miley Cyrus.
We`ve been doing a little bit of investigation. Let me see Rob Shuter, Ellie Jostad and Dave Mack. All right, my own personal investigation -- take a listen to some of his lyrics of his poems. "My love. My love is a rise. My love is a rose. My love is uprise. My love is uprose." OK, I don`t know what that is. "My love is a prize. My love is a prose. With heights to the heavens to the depths of the valleys," blah, blah, blah, blah, "and the rainbow goes."
OK, I think we also need a shrink on this one. Rob Shuter, he`s posting all of these poems on Blogspot -- "a hidden (ph) valley, my love, with tears" Oh, I got to read "With Tears." I don`t want to miss that. So explain to me what we know about this guy, Rob Shuter.
SHUTER: We know at the moment very little about him. We know he`s a 40-year-old fan of hers. We know that he thinks he is married to her. He said that very clearly on the video. And we know he has a rap sheet from his time in Texas. At the moment, he`s still being held, but the story is still developing there exactly about (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Well, let me give you a little update, Rob Shuter. I`m sure you`ve heard all of Shakespeare`s sonnets, but have you ever heard "Like a Light"? "Hello, my secret love, goodbye enclosure. In the opening of a bud, rosebud grow moonshine and the poppers (ph) flow. Goodbye, goodbye, and I`m out like a light. Still alone and lonely though."
This is the kind of crap he`s writing as he is trying to break in on the "Hannah Montana" superstar Miley Cyrus, who`s roughly 21 years younger than him, with a knife. Now -- excuse me, scissors. This is what I don`t get.
I want to go out to Ayonna Johnson, director, legal advocacy, Women`s Resource Center. Why was he out to start with? He`s already had all these trespasses, fleeing from cops. Why is he out and wandering around to break in on Miley Cyrus with a pair of scissors?
AYONNA JOHNSON, WOMEN`S RESOURCE CENTER (via telephone): Nancy, he has an unrealistic sense of self. He has a completely unrealistic idea of what`s happening here. All logic and rationale is completely eradicated from the picture.
And so what we know is that stalkers are selfish, pathologically selfish. They`re jealous. They see things that are not there, and everything is exaggerated and heightened. It`s all about them. So there`s a lot of narcissism played out here. It`s all about his wishes, not about hers, not about security, not about any boundaries that were placed before him. He`s pushing all of those boundaries down.
GRACE: Well, obviously, Sheryl McCollum, Ayonna is correct -- Sheryl McCollum, a crime analyst, director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute -- Sheryl, another poem that`s clearly about Miley Cyrus. I know your little girl is probably at the age where she loved "Hannah Montana."
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: Sure.
GRACE: "I`ll take sorrows and sadness." Oh! All right, it goes on and on. I`m not going to bore you with the whole poem. But it goes on to talk about the two seas and your wealth is the toast of the seas, whatever that means. It`s all about Miley Cyrus. Now, here you`ve got a guy with a record.
MCCOLLUM: Yes.
GRACE: Why does he have a pair of scissors breaking into Miley Cyrus`s home?
MCCOLLUM: He`s going to cutting her phone line. He`s going to cut her security cord, or he`s going to attack her. We learned this from Rebecca Schaeffer (ph). This guy`s already over her security wall. This guy had a weapon on him.
And again, if he`s already breached her security and he`s telling people they`re married, he is so delusional, he is nothing but a threat and needs to be taken extremely seriously, Nancy.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Elizabeth Parker (ph), former Florida prosecutor, Mickey Sherman, criminal defense attorney and author of "How Can You Defend Those People?" Teresa Ross, defense attorney joining us out of Atlanta.
Mickey, Mickey, Mickey, this is the type of case that graduates, OK? It graduates from criminal trespass. It graduates from fleeing from a cop to an outright aggravated assault. And here he is with his foot in the bedroom window of Miley Cyrus, teen American superstar.
Do any of these names ring a bell, Mickey Sherman? Jennifer Anniston, maybe so, but who`s Jason Payton? Her stalker. Sandra Bullock. Let`s see it in full, please, Liz. Sandra Bullock. The name Thomas James Weldon, her stalker. Madonna, Robert Dewey Hoskins her stalker, Paula Abdul, Jodie Foster, famous stalker, John Hinckley, Jr. He tried to kill the president to impress Jodie Foster. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rebecca Schaeffer, Uma Thurman, Alec Baldwin, David Letterman. You`re familiar with that one, Mickey. John Lennon, Jesse James.
All right, you`ve had the shoe on the other foot, Mickey Sherman. Weren`t you involved in the Letterman case?
MICKEY SHERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When that woman would break into David Letterman`s house and claim that she was his wife, he would hire me to go to the court and express his wishes as to what the state would do. And he showed nothing but compassion. He recognized, as should people here, that the woman -- the man is a crackpot, as you said and someone else said. Not every stalker...
GRACE: Except she wasn`t wielding scissors. This guy is.
SHERMAN: He had scissors in his back pocket. What did he do to wield the scissors? What was he going to do, cut her father`s mullet?
GRACE: Well, I know this...
SHERMAN: I mean, there`s no...
GRACE: I doubt he was going to leave them there, Mickey Sherman. What about it, Parker?
ELIZABETH PARKER, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Nancy, what a scary combination. Not only is he fixated on Miley, but he`s delusional. And he comes, as you say, with the scissors, and maybe he was going to hurt her and then try to be the hero and try to rescue her. Either way, it was an absolutely dangerous combination, and he needs to be locked up for a very, very long time.
GRACE: Teresa Ross?
TERESA ROSS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, we have no idea why he had the scissors. And for some type of stalking, it would have to be a course of conduct which is a repeat...
GRACE: Teresa? Teresa?
ROSS: Yes?
GRACE: Trust me. When a guy has his foot in your bedroom window with a pair of scissors, I`m not going to ask why, all right? I`m just going to, if I see him, wrestle him to the ground and make sure he`s arrested. So why does not concern me, Teresa Ross.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police respond to a 911 call of a prowler at the Hollywood home of Miley Cyrus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police department. Show me your hands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A man claiming he was a friend of the 19-year- old singer was reportedly lighting candles and throwing himself against an outside wall of the gated property.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He is creeping into her home, wielding a pair of scissors. How he got through what many people believe to be impenetrable security for the "Hannah Montana" star, Miley Cyrus, the cops don`t even know that yet. But if you go on line to his Blogspot -- listen to this. "With Tears." "With tears in hand like puddles of rain, the years of a man are a puzzle of pain."
All right! And the lawyers tell me they don`t know what he was up to.
Evan in Kentucky, what`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn`t this not the first that time this happened with her? I mean, why isn`t she -- I thought this happened a few times before with her. Why isn`t she taking more better measures to protect herself?
GRACE: Evan in Kentucky, why are you blaming the victim? Why are you blaming Miley Cyrus? What`s with you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean, she`s a celebrity, and if this has happened before, why isn`t sure more secure?
GRACE: So it`s her fault. Ellie Jostad, what do we know about security measures at the home?
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy. Well, she does have that security gate. There`s apparently a password you have to use to enter the home. She has security staff there. We don`t know for sure if it was one of them or if it was relatives. There`s varying reports about who exactly called police. But she does have security, Nancy. So hopefully, they would have been able to protect her had it gone any further.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say Angela Jenecka (ph) gave birth to a baby girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When officers arrived there with rescue personnel from fire and rescue, they did see and deal with a female who had just given birth to a child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say she tried to kill her newborn daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say the husband came home to clean the apartment. He thought he heard the family`s cat. But when he opened the dryer door, he would be in for the surprise of his life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Discovered the infant inside a plastic bag wrapped in a pillow case sitting in the dryer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She told him the full-term baby was stillborn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a medical professional would take the baby once she delivered. Police say that didn`t happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The female that was not there did not call for any medical assistance for the child.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The newborn daughter, sitting in the drier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: We are taking your calls. We are live.
Richmond. This mom says that she gives birth to a stillborn baby. When dad gets home to comfort her, he races home from work. He believes that the cat has somehow gotten into the drier. Well, it`s not the family cat that`s on Perma Press dry cycle, it`s a baby girl. An infant baby girl.
We are taking your calls. Out to Jay Hart joining us from WRVA, Richmond.
Jay, the mom -- did she tell her husband and everyone else that the baby girl was stillborn?
JAY HART, REPORTER, AM-1140 WRVA: The only thing that she told her husband, and apparently told investigators as well, was that she had a baby in utero that had died. And the prosecutor in arraignment said that some mystery doctor, which she alluded to, had told her that she needed to carry this dead child to full term. She told her husband this, and her husband believed it.
And on August 25th, her husband was somewhere else, his whereabouts not yet revealed. But she called her husband, said that she had given birth to the stillborn child and had some people come in and take the body away. Husband came home that evening to help her clean up. Several hours later is what the testimony is at this point in time. And of course this is only through arraignment that we know this.
We don`t know the full details at this point. But as you heard in the report, that husband was helping clean things up and heard some sort of sound in the drier, thought it was a cat who had gotten trapped in there. Went into the drier, opened it up, found a pillow case. Inside the pillow case a plastic bag and inside the plastic bag the couple`s eight-pound baby.
GRACE: Let me tell you something, Jay Hart. Eight pounds is a full-term baby. Eight pounds. I mean Lucy, my little Lucy, came into this world at two pounds, and her twin brother at five. Eight pounds is a fully developed baby.
And Jay Hart, joining us from Richmond, WRVA, is telling us that the baby was not only wrapped in a pillow case, but a plastic bag, left to die.
We are taking your calls. April, hi, April, what`s your question?
APRIL, CALLER: Hi. Actually I have to switch up my question. I`m wondering, does he have any other children?
GRACE: Good question. I know that she has a son.
Jay Hart, I believe her son is, what, 8 years old?
HART: Their son is 8 years old. She was a stay-at-home mother. And there was a private custody hearing after the initial court appearance. Of course we were not told what the result of that was.
GRACE: Where is the mom?
HART: Mom is still in jail. She is --
GRACE: As she should be.
HART: Her initial hearing, her initial appearance in court, she was ordered held without bond, but of course mainly because she is charged with attempted murder. And the judge kept her in prison -- well, in jail and now she is undergoing a bond hearing now that she`s been able to lawyer up.
GRACE: So there`s a chance that this mom might walk.
Sheryl McCollum, crime analyst, director of Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, clearly leaving the baby for dead in the drier with a double bagging the way it was --
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST, DIR. OF COLD CASE INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, POLYGRAPH ANALYSIS EXPERT: Right.
GRACE: It could have been death through the drier or it could have been asphyxiation. I mean I`m not sure what temperatures driers get up to during the Perma Press dry cycle, but that alone, the heat would be enough to kill the baby, much less being suffocated inside two bags.
MCCOLLUM: Sure.
GRACE: Have you ever noticed that when people commit these crimes on children, and sometimes on adults, they put them in bags. I remember tot mom triple bagged Caylee.
MCCOLLUM: Right.
GRACE: And we see it over and over, it`s a recurring theme, that the victim is double and triple bagged. What`s that about, Sheryl?
MCCOLLUM: It`s probably the fluid on the child. They`re trying to stop any evidence as she goes up and down the stairs trying to figure out where she`s going to hide this child and she finally decides she`s going to put the baby in the dryer. This case clearly was premeditated because she told the husband prior that the child had already died. There was no evidence in the home that anybody was about to bring a newborn in there. There`s no crib, there`s no clothes. There`s no anything. It`s clearly premeditated and it is a miracle that that child survived.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Alma in Virginia. Hi, Alma, what`s your question?
ALMA, CALLER FROM VIRGINIA: Hi. How will she be able to plead insanity if she`s already raised a baby?
GRACE: You know what, Alma, in Virginia, hold on just a moment because you know that`s exactly where they`re going to head, insanity. We have seen it over and over again. Death of children by family appliances. I know when you first hear that, it may make you laugh, but listen to this, Tiffany Hall drowned children by putting them in the washing machine.
China Arnold put baby in the microwave. Killed her baby. Joshua Mauldin, baby in the microwave. Chance Kracke put 7-month-old in freezer while he was high on meth. Sharlyn Singh put 11-month-old girl in the oven. Lindsay Fiddler claims on 911 baby in full wash cycle.
Elizabeth Otte, baby in the microwave. Kenneth Pierott, suffocated child, put in oven. Washing machine, tot -- toddler put in the washing machine by the babysitter caught on video.
It happens over and over again. That`s what I don`t understand. We just saw this a couple of months ago where these two babysitters were responsible for putting a baby there in the washing machine at the Laundromat. And now this mom -- but what Alma is saying is about premedication and the insanity defense.
Elizabeth Parker, Mickey Sherman, Teresa Ross -- Mick, I just don`t see how with all of the premeditation, laying the groundwork to kill the baby by saying the baby was stillborn, that she had to carry the baby for a period of months, and I`m going to go to the doctor, Gwenn O`Keefe, that`s absolutely not true when you have a stillborn baby inside you that you`re going to carry it for X amount of time. That`s not true.
So she was telling all these lies, Mickey, leading up to putting her child in the drier.
MICKEY SHERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "HOW CAN YOU DEFEND THOSE PEOPLE?": You know, she`d have to be crazy to do that, don`t you think?
GRACE: No.
SHERMAN: You make the -- absolutely. Premeditation --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: I think you have to be evil.
SHERMAN: Premeditation does not trump an insanity defense. You can plan to do something crazy. And you know the long -- laundry list you gave of other people, how many of those people were found not guilty by reason of insanity?
GRACE: To Teresa Ross, defense attorney, weigh in. And so far none of them have been found not guilty by reason of insanity, FYI. Go ahead, Teresa.
TERESA ROSS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I`m right there with you. I think that that just bolsters her insanity defense, the fact that she made all these crazy statements before. Also the fact that the drier wasn`t turned on and the fact that the baby -- there`s no evidence that shows that the baby`s head was covered by the plastic is definitely going to help the mom.
GRACE: Do you have evidence that the baby`s head was not covered in plastic? Because my reports show she was double bagged in the drier. Parker?
ELIZABETH PARKER, FORMER FLORIDA PROSECUTOR AND VICTIMS RIGHTS ADVOCATE: Nancy, insanity is -- she didn`t know the difference between right and wrong. If she didn`t know the difference between right and wrong, why would she lie and why would she cover up the crime? Why wouldn`t she tell her husband the truth?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: More in 90 seconds, but let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant Anthony Gabriel Green, Yorktown, Texas. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, parents Cornell and Patricia. Seven brothers and sisters. Widow Lindsay. Two daughters.
Gabriel Green, American hero.
And tonight hello from friends Brenda, Eva and computer whiz and mom of two, Molly.
And happy birthday to one of the sweetest people I know, Donna. Married to Steve, mother of twins, Zack and Ned.
And happy birthday to our show star and director, and newlywed, Brett.
We`ll be back in 60 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Angela Janecka is behind bars. She lives here on Aloe Court in Henrico County and police say she tried to kill her newborn daughter. Officers received a call saying there was a medical emergency at the residence. Detectives say Janecka`s husband had discovered the infant inside a plastic bag wrapped in a pillow case sitting in the drier.
According to investigators, Janecka told her husband that the child would be stillborn and a medical professional would take the baby once she delivered. Police say that didn`t happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Husband gets home. Wife calls him. He races home. He`s in a panic to see her. She`s grieving. She has a stillborn baby inside of her, she says. Later he hears what he believes to be the cat trapped in the -- in the drier. It`s not the cat on permanent press, it`s a newborn baby girl, double bagged, left for dead.
We are taking your calls. Clark Goldband, who is it that called 911?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Nancy, it was actually the father who called 911. And the way this went down was, as soon as the father realized that it wasn`t the cat, that it was the baby, he called the pediatrician`s office of his 8-year-old son. They weren`t there, it was an answering service. But the answering service immediately calls 911.
GRACE: Dr. Gwenn O`Keefe, pediatrician, founder, CEO of pediatricsnow.com, joining me out of Boston. Dr. Gwen, question. Why would anyone suggest if you`ve got a stillborn baby that you have to go ahead and carry it for however many -- 10 more weeks?
DR. GWENN O`KEEFE, M.D., PEDIATRICIAN, FOUNDER & CEO, PEDIATRICSNOW.COM: That`s almost unheard of in today`s medical climate. And against the American College of OB/GYNS` recommendations, Nancy, if you`re close to term that might happen, if it`s the mother`s wishes, but not if you`re in the 20-week period. First off, your body would go into labor naturally. Secondly, you`d have all sorts of complications. The mother would have been induced, so this is really odd.
GRACE: And we are just hearing in the last hours that she goes up for a bond hearing. She wants out. What happened?
Jay Hart is joining us there on the scene in Richmond. I understood that this woman, Angela Marie Janecka, asked the judge for bond. What happened?
HART: She was seeking bond. She has been denied and new information came out today that the couple had actually gone up to northern Virginia to seek an abortion but was denied because she was too far along in the pregnancy.
GRACE: Do we know how far along the baby was? Out to you, Stacey Newman, how far along was she with the baby?
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, it`s our understanding that she told her husband that this baby was stillborn or, I should rather say, not alive in her body, Nancy, for 20 full weeks.
GRACE: I know that he went to try to get an abortion. To Tim Jaccard, founder of National Safe Haven Alliance. All they had to do was drop the baby off at a Safe Haven, right?
TIM JACCARD, FOUNDER, NATIONAL SAFE HAVEN ALLIANCE: Right.
GRACE: Why try to kill it in the drier?
JACCARD: The Safe Haven law was a way -- was set up to prevent something like this from happening. All she had to do was either call one of the crisis centers or just bring the baby to the hospital, police or fire station, and relinquish the baby safely and -- and then leave and there will be no questions asked and she`ll not be faced with this right now. One of the --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: In the --
JACCARD: Yes.
GRACE: In the last hours -- everybody, joining me is Tim Jaccard with the National Safe Haven Alliance to save children just like this little infant. In the last hours, mommy actually goes to try to get a bond after she leaves her baby for dead in the drier.
We are taking your calls. Straight out to -- Sondrea in South Carolina. Hi, dear. What`s your question?
SONDREA, CALLER FROM SOUTH CAROLINA: Hi. First I want to tell you hello and I really -- you`re wonderful for the things you do. The thing I want to ask you is the dad -- and all the dads in the world need to start getting more involved in these pregnancies and in the babies, but who has the baby now? Does the dad still have the baby? Have they taken the baby? What`s going on with the baby now?
GRACE: Clark Goldband, where`s the baby?
GOLDBAND: Our understanding is CPS still has custody of this newborn. However, dad has custody of the 8-year-old boy.
GRACE: To Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist, New York. Dr. Saunders, help me out here.
PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: There`s no indication that this woman is crazy. There`s no indication that she has postpartum depression. The simplest explanation is usually the right one. She didn`t want the baby, she went for an abortion. If women don`t attach to a baby they treat them like things, like objects, and they do things like put them in the microwave because they hate being burdened with them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Tonight the big question is why an infant baby girl was left to die in the family dryer. We are taking your calls. Out to Tracy in Georgia.
Hi, Tracy. What`s your question?
TRACY, CALLER FROM GEORGIA: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
TRACY: I love you and I love your show. I just wanted to say that. You`re the best.
GRACE: Thank you, sweetheart.
TRACY: Listen. This lady, she`s pleading insanity? You know, she leaves this baby in the dryer, you know. Insanity to me is she turned the dryer on. That`s insane. I don`t see how she can plead insanity. But she`s going to get the same amount of jail time as if she did turn that dryer on. But she needs to go under the jail. She don`t need no bail, nothing. They shouldn`t give her bail or anything. That is a sick, sick lady.
GRACE: You know what? I agree with you 200 percent. And the reason -- unleash the lawyers. Parker, Sherman and Ross. The reason, Mickey Sherman, that I`m saying there`s not going to be a legitimate insanity defense is because we see her premeditating, planning it out. We know she didn`t want the baby, because she tried to get an abortion. Now I`m not going to fight with anybody about abortion. It`s legal in this country. All right? That`s not the issue.
The issue is when you have a child and then you try to murder it. So we know she tried to have an abortion, she was turned down. Drove out of state. Get abortion and didn`t work. All right. Comes back, says she`s carrying the baby stillborn, that it`s already dead. That was a lie. And then the father finds the baby left for dead in the dryer double bagged.
So I see premedication, Mickey.
SHERMAN: I don`t think premeditation necessarily negates an insanity defense. Isn`t she going through psychiatric testing at the order of the judge right now? Clearly there`s other people, responsible people who have questions about insanity.
GRACE: No. Clearly her defense attorneys said the same thing you guys are saying. And the judge, out of an abundance of caution, has ordered testing. I`ve got a pretty good idea what that testing is going to say, Mickey.
SHERMAN: At the least it`s going to say she has some diminished capacity. Not everyone deals with stressful situations as the best person in the world. You make bad decisions.
GRACE: Like murder?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Janecka was charged with attempted murder and child neglect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have seen this charge before. But I can`t say that I`ve seen it based on the circumstances.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He opened the dryer door. Police say there was the newborn still alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The mother apparently had been plotting and planning this for some time when she was turned down for an abortion. The baby found left for dead in the family dryer double bagged.
Josh, Ohio, what`s your question, Josh?
JOSH, CALLER FROM OHIO: Hi, Nancy. Normally I love you and I think you`re great. But I just think you`re wrong today. I don`t agree. I think she is totally crazy. I mean look at those pictures and look at what she did. She looks like she`s crazy --
GRACE: What`s crazy about the pictures? She`s got on a football jersey. What`s crazy about that? There she is smiling with the other baby.
JOSH: You don`t just put your kid in the dryer. She`s absolutely insane.
GRACE: Well, you don`t, I don`t.
JOSH: Why, insane people do. Not a normal person.
GRACE: Actually, a lot of perfectly normal people murder their children. She just happened to have tried it with the dryer. All right? And apparently the judge agrees. Didn`t he, Jay Hart, WRVA? Just deny her bond? She actually went before a judge and tried to get out of jail?
HART: Yes. In fact, she was denied bond on the first hearing and now she`s just been denied bond on a bond hearing. So she gets another shot at court in November.
GRACE: You know, that`s what`s going to be working for her if this goes to trial. The fact that people cannot conceive, they cannot comprehend of a mother of all people doing this to their child. That`s going to win the day at trial.
Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist, explain. Why is it that we so desperately want to make -- including me -- want to make excuses for moms that murder or try to murder?
SAUNDERS: Because it`s unconscionable for us to think about a mother being malignant and trying to murder her baby. We idealize motherhood and mothers should be good.
GRACE: Well, Patricia, I think of my own mother who would have died before she let anything happen to me or my siblings. And when you talk about mothers and want to charge mothers, this is what the defense is betting on, that people when they think mother, they think of the person that loves them the most in the world. Their own mother. So it`s very difficult to conceive of. All I can say is praise the Lord this baby is alive and in state custody tonight.
Everyone, "DR. DREW" up next. But I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
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