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Nancy Grace
Murder Suspect Gets Makeover in Jail
Aired November 08, 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. Outrage in Knoxville, Tennessee! A spa day for a female inmate convicted in connection with the double murders and sex tortures of a happy young couple -- what, a makeover at the taxpayers` expense? After a beautiful U of T co-ed and her boyfriend`s date night turns deadly when they`re carjacked, they`re kidnapped, they`re sex tortured, both of them, for hours on end, then both brutally murdered, convictions go down on the one woman and three men responsible.
Bombshell tonight. Those cases reversed on appeal. But in the last hours, just as the new trial is set to begin, it is so ordered, torture murder suspect 23-year-old Vanessa Coleman shall receive a new do, a spa day makeover, says the judge! What`s next, Judge, a mini-pedi?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s like living in a nightmare that never ends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were in the wrong place at a deadly time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-three-year-old Chris Newsom, their son, his body discarded beside railroad tracks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The body (INAUDIBLE) is burned, no shoes (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chris was on a date with his girlfriend, Channon, when they were carjacked and murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Channon was tied up and removed to a trash can. Chris was tied up and removed to the train tracks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ordered by a judge for a defendant charged with being involved in the torture and murder of a defenseless 21-year-old student. A hairdresser is now legally allowed to come into the jail and fix what reports call a cherry red prison dye job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They feel no remorse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hate them more and more every time I see them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight, live. Outrage in Knoxville, Tennessee! A spa day for a female inmate convicted in connection with the double murders and seemingly endless sex tortures of a very happy young couple?
Those cases reversed on appeal. But in the last hours, just as the new trial is set to begin, it is so ordered that the torture murder suspect, 23-year-old Vanessa Coleman, shall receive a new do, a spa day makeover ordered by the sitting judge!
All right, so let me go to you, Jamie Satterfield, "Knoxville News Sentinel," covered all four trials. Jamie, we`ve got three men and one woman convicted in connection with carjacking this young couple, a University of Tennessee co-ed and her boyfriend. He`s leaning in to kiss her good night in the car, suddenly, they`re carjacked.
And that starts an odyssey of basically hell for this couple, both of them repeatedly raped, both the man and the woman, the young woman, the co- ed and her boyfriend. Then he has a sweatshirt wrapped around his head. He`s shot multiple times dead after he`s been raped by this bunch. And then they set his body on fire.
She is raped over and over and over and over. They try to make her drink bleach. They pour bleach on her body and her genitals to get rid of evidence. And she actually suffocates because she is compacted into trash bags, her knees touching her chin as she suffocates in a trash can.
And this young woman, Vanessa Coleman -- she`s along for the ride. In fact, she even cooks breakfast for the killers. She`s convicted. I think I`ve got us up to date. Explain to me why she`s getting a spa day makeover behind bars, Jamie.
JAMIE SATTERFIELD, "KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL" (via telephone): Well, the last time she came into court, she had gotten a dye job in prison through a cosmetology department there in the women`s prison, and it was horrible. It was -- it looked like somebody had taken Kool-Aid and dyed her hair with it, which I`m told they do sometimes. They also use Jell-o to dye hair and...
GRACE: Jamie?
SATTERFIELD: ... it looked awful...
GRACE: Jamie? Can I ask you a question?
SATTERFIELD: Sure.
GRACE: OK? I know you`re saying that her cherry red do she got behind bars looks awful. I wonder how the victims` bodies look tonight. I wonder how awful they look. And I`m worried about her hair?
SATTERFIELD: Well, absolutely. Sure. I mean, the families are livid over this, as is our sheriff. He had to take a guard away from his normal duty to stand guard over her while she got her hair done.
GRACE: Yes, I don`t understand it. You know, Jamie Satterfield, the murders of this young University of Tennessee co-ed and her boyfriend were two of the worst scenarios I`ve ever heard. And let me tell you something, Jamie. I`ve tried a lot of murder cases. I`ve seen a lot of horrible scenarios. This is one of the worst, what they did to those two young people.
Give me the scenario, Dave Mack, morning talk show host, Clear Channel. What happened to the victims in this case, Dave Mack?
DAVE MACK, CLEAR CHANNEL: Nancy, they were broken, beaten, stabbed, raped, every horrible thing you can imagine. You described it at the top of the hour. The sickest part of this, Nancy, when you look at all the articles that have been written, so many times, the author of the article has to stop describing because it`s the worst-case scenario of anything they`ve ever imagined or heard of.
And it just kills me. It breaks my heart to think of the families having to deal with the hair job, a dye job, when their children have been destroyed by these people. It`s disgusting what happened to them.
GRACE: I think until you really -- I basically summarized the facts because I did not want to go into what is truly some of the goriest details of murder that I`ve ever heard. And this young lady right there was along the whole time.
In fact, Ellie Jostad, it was her, I believe her boyfriend, his brother and one other guy that were involved in all of this?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes, that`s right, Nancy. And Vanessa Coleman admitted that she even cooked breakfast for the guys that morning, the male defendants. She said that she made them oatmeal, sausage, eggs, I think. But you know, her claim all along...
GRACE: Wa-wait, wa-wait, wa-wait! Please, Ellie -- let me see Ellie, please. There she is. So they`re all in the house there together, raping and torturing, not only the U of T co-ed...
JOSTAD: Right.
GRACE: ... the female victim -- that would have been Channon Christian, age 21 -- but also raping and -- anally raping the boyfriend.
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy.
GRACE: So that goes on basically all night long.
JOSTAD: Yes. That`s right. Channon Christian -- you know, his -- these crimes that were committed against her went on for almost 24 hours, almost a full day, Nancy, that she was held captive in that home.
And you know, she -- unfortunately, you know, the injuries to her body, the bruises she sustained, the beating -- this was a brutal attack on both her and her boyfriend.
And you know, Coleman, the female defendant, her excuse was always, you know, I wanted to call police. I wanted to get away, but the other defendants were actually holding me captive there, as well.
GRACE: Right! OK. And they forced her to cook a gourmet breakfast for the murderers the next morning! Ellie, could you please explain to the viewers how this co-ed actually died?
JOSTAD: Yes. And it`s horrific. I`ve got to warn everybody, it really is truly awful, about the worst thing you`ll ever hear.
So Channon Christian and her boyfriend are carjacked at gunpoint, tied up, blindfolded, taken to the alleged ringleader`s house, where then the male victim, Christopher Newsom, is separated from the girlfriend. He is raped repeatedly. He`s eventually taken to some railroad tracks where he`s shot, his body set on fire.
The whole time, his girlfriend is still back at the house, also being raped repeatedly, being beaten by the defendants. She is -- has bleach poured on her to try to destroy the evidence. She is eventually -- her body put in plastic bags. She`s still alive at the time, according to the medical examiner`s testimony -- still alive, eventually dies from suffocation from being in those plastic bags and being stuffed into a garbage bin at the home.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Burke Strunsky, Eric Schwartzreich, Lewis Gainor. First of all, to you, Eric Schwartzreich. After that chilling scenario, she wants a spa day. And the judge orders it. I don`t believe that`s covered under the Constitution.
ERIC SCHWARTZREICH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Grace, you need to take a deep breath. Here`s what`s covered under the Constitution, a fair trial. We don`t bring defendants in courtrooms in shackles and handcuffs. This is here day. She is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Now, even though this is a redo, it`s a new trial, she`s entitled to go into that courtroom and look presentable, not have the cherry dye hair job that she got in the jail. It might sound outrageous, but it happens.
Justice is a balance. The victims need their day in court and the defendant needs their day in court, and we need to make sure that she gets a fair trial. And if that means presentation in how she looks -- and by the way, Nancy, she`s paying for that hair job in that motion.
GRACE: Eric?
SCHWARTZREICH: So I know you`re outraged by it but she has a right to go in front of the jury looking presentable.
GRACE: I`m asking to you stick to the facts. And if you want to make this a personal argument between me and you, I will have your mike cut and have you taken out of the studio.
Now, you`re saying that she`s paying for the hairdo. But isn`t it true, Burke Strunsky, that the jail is having to pay for two armed guards to watch her, to give her a private room, and to pay for everything associated with her spa day for her trial in connection with the murder of two defenseless people? Isn`t that correct, Burke Strunsky?
BURKE STRUNSKY, PROSECUTOR: That`s exactly correct. Resources are being taken away to guard her, to assume this woman`s going to bring in things that could be used as weapons, scissors and such. So she clearly is -- they`ve clearly, like, taken resources away from other areas of the jail.
GRACE: To Lewis Gainor, defense attorney, joining me out of Chicago. Lewis, can you actually name the name of one case where a makeover has been ordered by a judge before a murder-related trial begins? And I`m not talking about when somebody gets a suit to wear to court or presentable clothing, or they get to take a shower and comb their hair. I`m talking about a makeover. Please name one case, Lewis Gainor.
LEWIS GAINOR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I regret I can`t name a single case where this has happened before. But that doesn`t mean that the judge shouldn`t allow it because at the end of the day, there`s a reason we don`t bring the defendant before the jury shackled. There`s a reason we don`t bring them in in stripes is because that would make the jury assume they`re guilty.
GRACE: I`m not arguing...
GAINOR: We do the opposite, we presume they`re innocent.
GRACE: ... with you about them wearing prison clothes or shackles. I understand that.
To Gary Christian, a special guest joining me tonight. He is the father of Channon Christian. Mr. Christian, I`m a crime victim myself. And if I had thought the murderer of my fiance got a spa day before he came to court, I don`t think I could have taken it on top of everything else!
GARY CHRISTIAN, FATHER OF MURDER VICTIM (via telephone): I agree.
GRACE: What was your reaction when you heard about this, Mr. Christian?
CHRISTIAN: Well, Nancy, I think -- naturally, I think it`s ridiculous. You know, the other defendants in these cases, they`ve been in prison just like she has, and when they come in the courtroom, whether I agree with their hairdos or not is not really that important to me. But you know, they didn`t come in with their head looking like somebody caught it on fire.
She chose to do that. That`s her personality. That`s who she is. And what they`re doing now is going too far, just like, in my opinion, most of the justice system. She go 10 miles for the defendants` rights, but the victim has no rights.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chris and Channon were the victims in the murder. They should have never been put on trial. And I can`t say this in a court of law, but I`ll say it to you. They didn`t deserve it. They did nothing wrong. And today they got their justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We should not have had to get up there and defend our kids the way we had to do. It was totally unnecessary, but it was something that was -- that had to be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: She takes part in the double murder of this beautiful young couple, but now she gets a spa makeover before she goes to court? With me, victim Channon Christian`s father, Gary Christian.
Mr. Christian, what were you saying before we went to commercial break?
CHRISTIAN: Well, just that, in my opinion, they should leave her like she chose to look. She -- nobody forced her to paint her head red. That`s her personality. That`s who she is.
And in my opinion, we`re -- we`re -- you know, those attorneys were talking a while ago about not taking their clients into a courtroom because they didn`t want to influence the jury and make the jury seem like they`re guilty because they`re in shackles.
Well, that`s influence on a jury. And when you turn around and do what they`re doing to this girl and changing her appearance completely, what is that? I mean, that`s influencing a jury that she`s something that she`s not.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A defendant charged with being involved in the torture and murder...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carjacked, kidnapped, both were raped repeatedly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coleman`s attorneys are asking the judge to exclude pictures of the victims both before and after their deaths.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They murdered them. I mean, the facts are the facts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A hairdresser is now legally allowed to come into the jail and fix what reports call a cherry red prison dye job.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven`t slept for five-and-a-half years. There`ll be no difference. I mean, there`s not a second of a day that goes by that we don`t still think about what they did to our daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`ll both go to our graves fighting for justice for Channon and for Chris because you can`t separate the two. And they deserve justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Josephine in North Carolina. Hi, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question to you, Miss Nancy, is this. I work for a living, and I got to pay to have a defendant that is guilty -- we know what she did -- have a makeover when I can`t even afford a makeover and I`m at work?
GRACE: Let me tell you something, Josephine. I watched my mom work all day and work all night when she got home. A lot of nights, she was still scrubbing the bathroom floor as we went to sleep. Same thing with me, work, take care of the children. I`d hate for you even to see these nails, you know? I don`t have the time to have a makeover like this woman is having.
Frankly, I don`t care. But it galls me, Josephine in North Carolina, that she is getting a makeover to vogue in the courtroom for a jury after what she did to this girl. And there`s no doubt about it. She has already been convicted. The only reason there was a reversal is because the judge the first go-around was addicted to prescription drugs. So all the cases were reversed. Thanks, Judge!
To you, Wendy Whitman. I`d like to have you weigh in.
WENDY WHITMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, first I`d like to say it`s an honor to be on the same show with Gary Christian. I have the utmost respect for him. He`s just an amazing person. And his quest for justice for his daughter, Channon, is now entering its seventh year in January with, unfortunately, not very good results.
And what he said is true. What Schwartzreich said is wrong. Altering a defendant`s appearance in a manner that does not reflect how they normally put themselves together equates to lying to a jury, and it`s time defense attorney were prevented from lying to juries.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chris and Channon were the victims in this murder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Knoxville police believe they were carjacked, kidnapped and taken to this house. Both were raped repeatedly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That hurts me a lot, that his future was taken away by some animals for no reason at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were both taken to that house on Chipman Street, Chris and Channon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Christians feel like there`s no end in sight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`ll both go to our graves fighting for justice for Channon and for Chris because you can`t separate the two. And they deserve justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. A disturbing twist in a double murder and sex torture slaying case, that case reversed after a jury convicts. And now on the eve of trial, a retrial at our, the taxpayers` expense -- you`re seeing the young University of Tennessee college co-ed that was carjacked along with her date that night, repeatedly sexually tortured and then murdered, both of them.
And now the one woman involved in those murders is getting a spa day makeover by the judge`s order!
You know, Ellie Jostad, you`ve got two judges here. The first one conducts a whole death penalty murder trial high on -- what was he on, Xanax? Prescription drugs?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Yes. Xanax. That`s right, Nancy. Xanax.
GRACE: So all the cases -- there he is. Richard Baumgartner. Baumgartner.
JOSTAD: Yes.
GRACE: All right. He was getting the drugs through some defendant female he met and struck up a relationship with in drug court.
JOSTAD: Yes.
GRACE: All right. That`s not enough. That`s a headline in itself. But now the second judge orders this one right here, the woman involved in the murders, Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood, orders a makeover. Why? Because she chooses to have her hair dyed red behind bars.
Now if it hadn`t been done at the jail house salon, what are the other methods of dying your hair behind bars. What comparison do we have, Ellie?
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy. Well, when we first heard about this, you know, heard that she dyed her hair behind bars, we were thinking maybe it was one of these Kool-Aid hair -- hair dye jobs that they do in jails where you essentially take, you know, the Kool-Aid packets that you`d make a drink out of and you pour, you know, the powder in with a little water. Make a little paste out of it. Mix a little hair conditioner in and then paint that on your hair, you know, 20 minutes later you`ve got that color, reddish hair.
However, apparently they`ve got a cosmetology school there behind bars and that`s -- it was the jail professionals that did her hair dye job.
But you know, we`ve seen this before with other defendants, like the Menendez brothers, you know, first show-up in court wearing these slick suits. Next time you see them they`re wearing these soft and fuzzy sweaters. You know, it`s something that`s certainly happened before.
GRACE: Well, I remember the makeover of Susan Smith who was convicted -- there`s the Menendez brothers. Ouch. All right. Then there was Susan Smith. I will never forget the way she looked at the time that she drove her little boys strapped into a car seat into a lake so they could drown to death. And how much she looked like the perfect soccer mom when she was at trial.
You saw Scott Peterson get a makeover. Of course, there is tot mom. You know, who -- ouch. Who could forget tot mom and her blue mini dress and go-go boots and her push-up bra. And then she looked like the front of an Ann Taylor catalogue by the time she got in front of the jury.
I mean, it goes on and on and, oh-oh oh, Lindsay Lohan. There`s a good one. Oh, dear. Well, I can show you more pictures of Lindsay Lohan in a pair of hot pants but you don`t want to see that.
But the makeovers are incredible. And I`m not -- I`m not saying it`s wrong, Ellie, for someone to wear street clothes, a suit, whatever they want to wear, to have their hair pulled back. But for the judge to order a makeover, a spa day makeover, behind bars for this, in my mind, convicted killer?
I want to go out to Caryn Stark, psychologist. I can only imagine how this is making the rest of the family feel. You`ve got mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers involved in both of these two young people`s lives.
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Nancy, they deserve justice. The families deserve justice. The murdered kids deserve justice, not hair-dos. And what`s happening to the family -- and I feel so sorry for Gary Christian -- is that they already had been through a terrible trauma. Each time they have to hear this story over and over again, they get traumatized again.
You know how when you have a terrible image in your head and then you have to like tell yourself not to think about it, don`t think about it when you`ve been through something terrible. Well, they can`t not think about it because they have to keep hearing about rape, torture, murder. It is terrible.
GRACE: And to you, Dr. Vincent Dimaio, former chief medical examiner, Bexar County. Joining me tonight out of San Antonio.
Dr. Dimaio, the death that these two endured at her hands is -- they`re horrible. Pouring bleach down her mouth, all over her body, all over her genitals in order to erase DNA evidence? What torture did she endure, Dr. Dimaio?
DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, M.D., FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, BEXAR COUNTY, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Well, it is like pouring lye down into your mouth. How would you like lye eating away at the lining of your mouth and then off your skin? That`s what it is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s like living in a nightmare that never ends.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Chris was on a date with his girlfriend Channon when they were carjack and murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And taken to this house. Both were raped repeatedly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn`t deserve it. They did nothing wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three bullets put in Chris, has his hands were bound, has his legs were bound. Gag in his mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: His body discarded beside railroad tracks.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Apparently suffocated after being stuffed into a trash can inside the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not two, not three, not four, but five trash bags. And then just to make sure, let`s tie another trash bag around the face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to the lines, Donna in Tennessee.
Hi, Donna. What`s your question?
DONNA, CALLER FROM TENNESSEE: I have a statement. Kudos to you for bringing this to light. I can speak for probably most of Knoxville because I am a Knoxvillian. This case was horrific. These parents are having to live this over and over and over again.
GRACE: We`ve had judges dismissed. This has been awful. We need to give these defendants who have been charged with murder and who did murder these children what they deserve. They don`t deserve makeovers.
GRACE: You know what? You`re right, Donna. And the fact that there`s going to be a retrial of the taxpayers` expense. But to just put the poisonous icing on top of the sour cake of a makeover for this woman after what they did to this pair? I don`t understand how the people of Knoxville don`t rise up in revolt and get this judge off the bench, Donna.
DONNA: We have already gotten one judge taken off of the case. The parents` nightmare, I can`t even imagine. I am a parent of three. I can`t imagine what they go through. I pray for them daily. They should not have to endure anymore. Those parents should have to endure nothing else.
GRACE: You know, back to you, Wendy Whitman, and thank you, Donna in Tennessee.
In all the years that we have covered cases, and me trying cases, this is one of the most horrific scenarios I`ve ever heard, Wendy.
WENDY WALSH, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST AND CO-HOST OF "THE DOCTORS": I`ve been obsessed with this case since I heard about it. It has never gotten the media attention it deserved, and Channon and Chris have never gotten the justice that they deserved and the families have never gotten the justice they deserved.
And there`s something radically wrong in this country if murders like this can take place and end up in such a legal mess with at least two judges involved and just ridiculous behavior. And that`s America`s shame.
GRACE: I want to go to Burke Strunsky, Eric Schwartzreich, and Lewis Gainor, our lawyers joining us this evening.
You know, Burke Strunsky, I`ve stood by and covered a lot of cases. I`ve tried probably more cases than I`ve covered. All we really have is our justice system. That`s what sets us apart from every other country in the world. And when we see it fail, there is really nowhere to turn to. I mean this can`t be appealed. It`s going to be done. And it is not guaranteed under the constitution.
Please explain what is guaranteed. And what has been interpreted under our constitution to be a fair trial. Certainly not a makeover.
BURKE STRUNSKY, SENIOR DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "HUMANITY OF JUSTICE": Absolutely not. She should get the same treatment that every other inmate in that prison gets. She clearly had her hair dyed in prison. She can have the same hair dyed back to another color in prison as well.
And I think this sets a slippery slope. It is horrible precedent. As you`ve indicated in the beginning of your piece here, what`s next? I mean, have a tailor come in? Have a manicurist come in? Have a aesthetician come in. I mean, at some point you have to say no. Everybody in prison gets the same treatment. We don`t make these special accommodations. Certainly for people that are accused of really the worst crimes that are out there.
So I think it`s a really bad precedent for this judge and really an insult and a kick in the teeth to these families who have already suffered.
GRACE: Out to the line, Karen in Texas.
Hi, Karen. What`s your question?
KAREN, CALLER FROM TEXAS: Well, first of all I have a statement to make. For one thing I hope some of this will get back to that judge. And my question would be, why on earth would a judge allow this? These people are monsters and probably look like it. So why make them visually more innocent looking?
GRACE: Why is that, Lewis Gainor?
LEWIS GAINOR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I`ll tell you why. Because the last thing we want in America is for courts to convict people based on the way they look. That`s the last thing we want because . That would allow guilty people to go free and innocent people to be convicted. We want the courts to convict people based on evidence. Not based on hair-dos.
GRACE: You know, speaking of that, Lewis Gainor, and to you, Eric Schwartzreich, and Burke Strunsky, isn`t it odd that on some of the counts, the original jury found this woman Vanessa Coleman not guilty. And they found her guilty on other counts. Now all the guilty counts were thrown out because the original judge was high on drugs. But the not guilty counts stayed in place. Isn`t that odd?
ERIC SCHWARTZREICH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy --
GRACE: So it`s like the defense is getting to have their cake and eat it too, Eric.
SCHWARTZREICH: Nancy, the only worse thing than being as sober as a judge is a judge that`s high. Is a judge that`s intoxicated. You`re entitled to a constitutional right to have a fair and impartial magistrate. This judge who conducted this was high.
GRACE: I agree. Nobody is arguing with you that the judge was high on drugs. And the case should be reversed. What I`m saying is, the not guilty stayed in place. The not guilty stayed in place. She is not getting retried on those counts. She is getting retried on lesser counts and that is wrong.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were in the wrong place at a deadly time. The couple were en route to watch a movie at a friend`s apartment in this complex.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Chris was on a date with his girlfriend Channon when they were carjacked and murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Channon was tied up and removed to a trash can. Chris was tied up and removed to the train tracks.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Knoxville Police believe they were --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me right now, the father of one of the two murder victims, 21-year-old Channon Christian, in the prime of her life. The University of Tennessee co-ed.
Sir, thank you for being with us. Do you remember the moment -- I do -- that you learned she was dead?
GARY CHRISTIAN, FATHER OF VICTIM CHANNON CHRISTIAN: Absolutely.
GRACE: What happened?
CHRISTIAN: Well, when we determined that she was missing, we were talking to the police department. And basically we were told if we wanted anybody looking for her, that we needed to go look for her ourselves. Because she hadn`t been gone long enough. So we did exactly that. We got ahold of the phone company and got the tower that the phone had pinged off of last. And a friend of mine met me down in that area and showed me where that tower was. And we just -- my son and I and two vehicles started looking for the vehicle.
Then some other friends of Channon`s and Chris` showed up and started helping us look. Well, we found the four runner and then we went to the FBI. We went trying to get some help, trying to find our daughter. And nobody could help us. So we just ended up going down to that area again and started searching through high grass and we knew that they had found Chris` body, or a body on the railroad track, and we assumed that that would be Chris and then a lot of friends started showing up and the next thing I know I had a small army down there looking for her.
We were looking through abandoned buildings and everything else. And then the sheriff`s department got involved and they sent a search and rescue team in with the police department and once they figured out it was the body on the tracks was Chris, they assumed then that Channon was missing and they were starting to look for her.
It was -- it was like waking up to a nightmare and whether you`re asleep or awake, it doesn`t matter. You`re still in that nightmare every day. And we`re going on seven years now, trying to get justice for our kids. And the justice system is just so messed up that -- I mean, I`ve told people before, I don`t think it can be fixed. I think you`d have to gut it and start over.
GRACE: Mr. Christian, I`m looking at photos of her, along with the boyfriend, Christopher Newsom. They had been out on a regular date night, they`d only been dating a couple of months, and news accounts say that he was leaning into the car to kiss her good night when they -- defendants carjacked them.
What can you tell me about Channon? What was she studying? What was she like in life?
CHRISTIAN: Channon -- she loved kids and she -- whatever she would have done, and how far she would have gone in school after she graduated her four years, I`m not sure, but she would have done something to work with children. And she was a good student. She made great grades. She held down three jobs at one time. She was -- had never been late to one of them.
She had never done -- she had done drug screens for one of her jobs three times, I think, in the last 12 months of her life. She was a good, clean kid. She loved her family, and boy, did she love her friends. She cared more about people than you can possibly imagine. I`ve seen her sit up all night talking to her best friend whose dad passed away and just consoling her, but she would do the same thing if somebody`s boyfriend and them broke up. She would stay up with them, talking, and trying to help them work through problems.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Hey, the show is not over. We`ll be back in 60 seconds. But now we remember American hero, Marine Lance Corporal Nigel Olson, 21, Orem, Utah. Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, selected Marine Corps Reserve medal. Loved military history, video games, camping, hiking, parents Todd and Kim, five sisters, three brothers.
Nigel Olsen, American hero.
Please stay with us.
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GRACE: Stephanie in California, hi, dear, what`s your question? .
STEPHANIE, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hey, this is in regard to the girl that got the makeover in prison.
GRACE: Yes.
STEPHANIE: That is just ridiculous. She must have -- she must know somebody to get that special treatment.
GRACE: Well, all she did was get in front of the right judge, Stephanie in California, and hopefully the voters will be able to fix that little problem.
To Dave Mack, morning talk show host, Clear Channel.
Dave Mack, what this young couple went through was unthinkable. It`s one of -- one of the worst murder scenarios I`ve ever heard.
DAVE MACK, MORNING TALK SHOW HOST, CLEAR CHANNEL WAAX RADIO: You know what, Nancy? You could tell how bad it was because it was so tough to describe in any kind of way where people could read about it. That`s how bad. I`ve actually read the in-depth reports from police, and it is worse than what we`ve been talking about. The fact that the family has had to endure so much with this crime, Nancy. And now this last bid about working about the girl`s hair color is just ridiculous.
GRACE: You know, Ellie and Wendy, when I look at that trash can and think that this girl was crunched up in that trash can -- out to you, Wendy Whitman. You know, the death penalty is too good for them, much less a spot A makeover.
WENDY WHITMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: I believe Channon was 5`8". That gives you a perspective of what she went through and I think I`d like to remind the viewers that she died with her eyes opened after enduring impossible to wrap your brain around what her last 24 hours were like. And she was with a group of people who were torturing her willingly.
GRACE: Everyone, we are on the case and hoping for justice.
Next, ABC`s hidden camera hit "What Would You Do?" I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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