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Nancy Grace
Husband Tells Story of Hitman Attack
Aired November 21, 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 Hollywood. Husband and father of a 2-year-old little girl opens the front door of his home to look straight down the wrong end of a gun barrel. That`s right, he opens the door, and in a flash, he is gunned down, four shots to the face, the chest, the neck, hip and the right eye.
Bombshell tonight. The trail goes cold until the arrest of an upscale restaurateur leads straight to a $10,000 murder for hire plot, an actress, the ex-wife of Oscar-winner Joe Pesci, the mother of the victim`s 2-year- old little girl. Did Mommy order a hit on Daddy?
Tonight, with us live and taking your calls, the victim joins us. That`s right, after taking four bullets point-blank range, he lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Garrett Warren heard a knock on his door and a voice on the other side asking about his new silver Volvo parked in the driveway.
GARRETT WARREN, VICTIM: I opened the door and I peeked my head outside to see if my car had been hit. And when I did, he had a gun by his right side (INAUDIBLE) and he picked it up and he started shooting at me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three shots into his body, one more into Garrett`s right eye.
WARREN: To be honest with you, when a bullet hits you, you don`t really know that it hits you. It`s not like you see in the movies. And I stepped to the side and it hit me center mass (ph), it went right in front of my chest, passed by my heart and is now stuck in my ribcage right here.
And when the gun was placed at my head, the first thing I did was, when I saw him squeeze the trigger, I flinched, just like this, like a fighter would. And as I did this, the bullet hit me here in the eye, went straight through my eye and came out my ear and got stuck in the wall behind my head.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Live to Hollywood, a husband and father of a 2-year-old girl opens the front door and in a flash down he`s gunned down, four shots to the face, the chest, neck, hip and the right eye.
The trail for the shooter goes cold until the arrest of an upscale restaurateur leads straight to a $10,000 murder for hire plot, an actress, the ex-wife of Oscar winner Joe Pesci, the mother of the victim`s 2-year- old little girl. Did Mommy take out a hit on Daddy?
Straight out to Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer. Ellie, how did it all unfold? Take it from the very beginning.
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right. So Garrett Warren is just having a quiet evening at home when he hears this repeated ringing of his doorbell. He goes to the door, peeks in the peephole. This man keeps asking him, Is that your silver Volvo in the driveway? He thinks that, Maybe this guy hit my car.
So he opens the door. When he does that, the man, who he`d never seen before, he thought, raised the gun, shot him four times, Nancy, and like you said shot him in the neck, shot him in the hip, shot him through the right eye.
The victim`s 64-year-old mother comes out during the commotion, and the gunman actually fired a couple of shots at her. Luckily, he didn`t hit her, and she called 911.
GRACE: Whoa! Everyone, joining me right now and taking your calls -- he survived a hit. He opens the door to a hail of bullets. With me right now, Garrett Warren. Garrett, thank you for being with us.
WARREN: Thanks for having me on.
GRACE: Garrett, we`ve heard a lot about your story, and you`ve basically seen it all. You are a stuntman there in Hollywood. You`ve done it all. You`ve been in a ton of high-profile movies. We`ve all seen you. But this was the real deal. Tell us what happened.
WARREN: Well, you guys just pretty much put it in a nutshell just then. You know, it was that night, just put my daughter to sleep. I heard the doorbell ring, like, about six or seven times, really fast and frantic. I went out there, and he did the whole, you know, Is that your silver car in the driveway?
And eventually, I finally opened the door, and you know, he put four bullets into me, laying on the ground there. My mom tried to stop the bleeding. I called 911. They got there, and you know, did a great job. And sheriff`s department got there and asked me, you know, who did it and all that other stuff.
GRACE: You know, as usual, you`re being a tough guy. Everybody, with me and taking your calls is a Hollywood star, a stuntman, a star in his own right who survived taking four bullets point-blank. Tonight, did Mommy order a hit on Daddy? You have seen Garrett Warren many, many times in blockbuster movies, and he is with us now, taking your calls.
Garrett, when did it dawn on you that your -- the mother of your child may have been involved in the shooting?
WARREN: You know, the moment I was being pulled out of the house is when I had suspicions.
GRACE: Why?
WARREN: You know, there wasn`t anybody else in my life that had any kind of motive other than her.
GRACE: And that was all about custody?
WARREN: You know, custody, and also, you know -- you know, the fact of the divorce was a very heated divorce, as well.
GRACE: Well, you know, most of them are, Mr. Warren. But most of them don`t end in Mommy taking out a hit on Daddy.
Now, let me ask you this, Garrett. When you open up the door, the guy kept asking you, Is that your silver car, is that your silver car? Did you know instinctively that something was wrong?
WARREN: Yes, because he seemed very nervous, you know? He was on edge when he was asking me those questions, and you know, it made me feel like, Oh, I wonder if he did something wrong and hit my car.
GRACE: You know, Garrett, you have been in so many action movies. You know, there`s this whole list of movies you`ve been in. Now that you have been a victim of gunfire, that you have actually taken four bullets -- you looked down the wrong end of a barrel -- how does that compare to what you do in all of these movies?
WARREN: Well, you know, I think that`s -- it`s actually made me a better person in the industry. You know, I`m able to give first-hand experience of what it`s actually like to get shot. So if I`m in a scene in a movie and someone wants to see someone fly into a door when they get shot, you know, I`m the first person to say, Well, I can be honest with you and tell you guys exactly what happens when you get shot.
GRACE: Whoa. Now, this is crazy, but when the shooter missed you, did he say something?
WARREN: No. He never said anything to me. And it wasn`t the fact -- he didn`t miss me. He actually hit me, you know, center mass. You know, the first bullet was right dead center of my chest. And you know, it`s stuck in my ribcage (INAUDIBLE) right now. He never missed. All four shots he hit me with, all hits. It`s my mom, he missed, you know, twice. And then he was out because it was a revolver.
I can tell you that I think that it`s a part of the court documents and a part of the evidence -- I wasn`t privy to all of that because, you know, being a witness, you`re not allowed to know everything. But I believe that he was talking to, you know, someone, and he said to them, you know, Sorry, I missed, you know, I guess I`m not a good shot, you know? But I can tell you...
GRACE: Garrett, were you able to identify this guy?
WARREN: You know, that`s actually -- I thought I did identify the person, and then, you know, it came out that it wasn`t the person. However, my mother did identify the shooter, you know, right away.
GRACE: You know, Garrett, how, if at all, did this change your life?
WARREN: You know, it`s -- I`ll be honest with you, Nancy, and that`s a great question and it`s the biggest part of me that I try to bring about out of the whole thing, is the fact that after that happened, you know, when you sit on the ground and you are dying and you have time to think about it, let me put it that way, everything bad that you`ve done in your life comes back up.
So I learned to have a lot of forgiveness, a lot of -- I`ve forgiven anybody and everything that has ever happened to me or that will happen to me because, you know, this world`s not worth it. And honestly, when the day comes and I have to be judged, I certainly hope that I`m forgiven.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gunned down in his own home but lived to tell the tale. He knew his would-be killer was still on the loose. And Garrett was looking over his shoulder.
WARREN: I have a bulletproof vest on. I`ve invested whatever money I possibly can into all sorts of security around my house. I`m scared to death someone`s going to come back and finish it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And finally, he admits that he was one of the middlemen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miguel Keros (ph) admitted that while he wasn`t the shooter, he was in on the plot and that he was caught by his own carelessness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from NBC`s "Dateline."
Welcome back, everybody. He opens the door, looking straight down the wrong end of a gun barrel. That`s right, he opens the door of his home, his little 2-year-old girl just put to sleep a few doors behind him, and takes four bullets to the face, the neck, the torso. Tonight, he lives to tell the tale, and he is with us, Hollywood stuntman. Did Mommy hire a hitman to kill Daddy?
With me right now, Garrett Warren. You`ve got a lot of fans out there that are familiar with your stunt work in Hollywood. When you opened up that door and you sustained four bullets point-blank range, what was that physical sensation? Did you go into shock and did not feel it, or did you feel each and every bullet?
WARREN: You feel each one, but it doesn`t feel like you think. It just feels like someone tapping you on the chest. That`s all it does. You know, I guess I liken it to a magician pulling that tablecloth out from underneath all that -- you know, the plates. It moves so quickly that it doesn`t really throw you.
However, you know, when the time comes and it all settles and you decide that you`re going to fight and try to fix whatever`s wrong with you, the pain sets in and you hurt from head to toe.
GRACE: I know that you were shot in your right eye. And we have shots of you wearing a patch over your eye. Did you lose your vision permanently in your right eye?
WARREN: Yes. I have no eye. They`ve removed the eye.
GRACE: When you were laying in the hospital, trying to live, what were you thinking about?
WARREN: I was thinking about what would have happened if I died and where I would have gone. And you know, a lot of things do jump into your head. And it`s, Is there a heaven and a hell? And you know, I believed, you know, right afterwards that there is a heaven and hell, and trust me, I don`t want to go to the latter.
GRACE: Man, you`re not kidding. And you`ve got the daughter. You`ve got a daughter you`ve got to raise. What I didn`t realize is that she was there in the home with you when the shooting went down?
WARREN: Yes. I had just put her to sleep. It was the first time I was going to have an overnight with her.
GRACE: Oh, man! You know, every night, I go to sleep, Garrett, with my two children. And to think that you would not be around to raise her. Does she know that her mommy was responsible for this?
WARREN: You know, I`ve done a really good job of insulating her from the whole thing. She knows the story, but I have told her that, you know, in the end, I`m not the judge and nor is anybody else. You know, it`s between, you know, whoever really did do it and I. You know, I can tell her what I believe, but I try not to. It`s -- you know, look, Nancy...
GRACE: You know what? That`s very, very wise. Go ahead.
WARREN: You want your child to love their mother, no matter what. You know, they have to be raised with two parents, no matter what happens, good or bad. And I tell her that, you know, we all make mistakes. And you know, if it`s true that that`s what happened, then all she has to do is, you know, make up for the mistake and she`s OK and she`s forgiven, too.
GRACE: Does she ever get to see her mom?
WARREN: Absolutely. For the longest time, you know, she had visitation with her every other Friday. And right now, while she is, you know, away, she does get to speak to her on the phone as much as she likes. And I do get to take her to the facility for a visitation.
GRACE: Man, it`s hard for you to even spit it out, the jail.
WARREN: You know, it`s -- I have a daughter and I love her and I want her to be raised as normal as possible. So you know, it`s -- we all make mistakes and we all move on.
GRACE: You know what, Garrett Warren? You`re so right because your daughter is going to have her whole adult life when she can take in these facts and make a decision for herself. You are really doing such a great job getting your daughter through this. And that`s the main thing.
You know, you`re saying something that`s really interesting to me. You`re saying that after sustaining four gunshot wounds point-blank, you`re now convinced there`s a heaven and a hell. Why do you say that?
WARREN: You know, you don`t hurt, first of all, you know? And what happens is, you have a moment of clarity. You know, you have a moment of everything coming to fruition that you ever thought could happen when you`re dying.
And in that moment, you know, you -- and I don`t think that I`m any more special than anybody else. But in that moment, you know, I do believe that you`re given, you know, sights, let me put it that way, for lack of a better word. And you realize that, you know, even though you may pass on, you know, there won`t be an ending to who you are.
And I can tell you that, you know, a while ago, I got hit by an 18-wheeler and they brought me back to life, doing a stunt in a movie. And I came back from a different place, you know? It was a very, I guess, spiritual place, is what we`re going to call it, for lack of a better word also.
And my sister was there, who had passed away when I was younger. And I believe that the reason why I do live is because she`s, you know, pulling strings for me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: I woke up, and this eye that was ripped apart was like looking through a stained glass window. I could still see something through it. So it really made it seem like it was a dream or a nightmare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: For those of you just joining us, with me is a Hollywood superstar in his own right. You have seen him in "The Little Fokkers," "Avatar," "Transformers," one of my personal favorites, "Night at the Museum" -- and I want to personally thank you for that because my twins loved that -- "Dexter," another favorite, "Mission Impossible," another favorite, "War of the Worlds." This guy has been in so many blockbusters.
Let me ask you this, Garrett. First of all, I want to thank you again for being with us. Practically everything you have said is a story, in each sentence you have said.
But I want to ask you this, just out of my own natural curiosity. When you look back on your life with her, Claudia, before the shooting, were there any red flags? Was there any signal that she was going to try to have you killed?
WARREN: You know, Nancy, I`ll be honest with you, I guarantee you that anybody who`s married will have red flags that someone wants us killed.
(LAUGHTER)
GRACE: Oh, man, you can say that again! You can say that again.
WARREN: Yes.
GRACE: So you`re saying, yes, tons of red flags.
WARREN: You know, I can tell you that no matter what, in every relationship I`ve ever had with a girl, at one point, you know, when you get into a fight, they really do -- you know, and I`m sure guys do it, too. You know, the horns (ph) come out and the fire gets breathed. And you know, it looks like they want to kill you.
GRACE: Garrett Warren is with us. Garrett, before you go back to your movie set, I want to ask you your final thoughts. What do you want the viewers tonight, as we`re all heading into Thanksgiving -- man, you go a lot to be thankful for. What are your final thoughts?
WARREN: You know, the biggest thing I came out of -- I really was just a good stuntman. I was, you know, on the top of my game, but I became much more successful after this happened. And it`s not for the fact that I have a good story to tell, it`s for the fact that I learned how to get rid of a whole lot of revenge. I got rid of any desire to, you know, get back at anybody or anything.
And it made me realize that, you know, through that idea of just forgiving and forgetting, I was able to focus my attention on pursuing other things. You know, I wanted to just be better at the things that I was trying to go forward in my life. And then, you know, Nancy, you know, thank goodness, knock on wood, thank you, God, my career skyrocketed. That`s when all of a sudden I got "Beowulf" and then "Avatar" and then "Transformer" and all those other things.
GRACE: And what`s so amazing to me is that this hit was ordered on you. You sustained four bullets, including a bullet to your right eye. You lost your right eye. Your daughter was home at the time of the shooting. Your mother was there. She was nearly killed.
And through it all, you have -- like the phoenix, you`ve rised (ph) from the ashes and been here to join us tonight to tell your story. Garrett, thank you.
WARREN: Thank you. I appreciate it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was great in the beginning. However, it was definitely a roller-coaster ride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A custody battle allegedly causes a Hollywood actress to hire a hitman to kill her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said you were going to bleed, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) when one spouse says to the other, You`re going to bleed, it`s a sign there are bad times to come.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Warren was shot four times on the doorstep of his own home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would your brother, who`s never even met Garrett, want to kill him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know. (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would he tell us that you`re the one that asked him to kill and helped arrange it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever give your brother a large amount of money?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any amount whatsoever?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t think I`ve ever had a large amount of money.
JEFF PROBST, HOST: How many times did he hit you?
GARRET WARREN, VICTIM: Four times.
PROBST: So four bullets and one of them obviously went through your eye?
WARREN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five years after the shooting detectives arrested Claudia Haro.
WARREN: I did think to myself, you know, thank God, you know, finally I don`t feel crazy anymore.
It was great in the beginning. However, it was definitely a rollercoaster ride. You know, when things were good they were great. But when they were bad they were bad.
PROBST: After a year and a half of marriage they decided to split up.
WARREN: It was a heated divorce. And we really did try to do what was best for our daughter but at the same token what we thought was best for our daughter necessarily wasn`t what the other one thought was best for our daughter.
PROBST: A judge awarded them joint custody. One month later trouble came to Garret`s door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is from Jeff Probst, via CBS Television Distribution.
Everyone, thank you for being with us. Tonight as we head into Thanksgiving holiday this is a story you just can`t turn away from. This Hollywood dad opens the front door. Somebody is pounding, hey, hey, hey, is that your car out there? Is that your silver car? He opens the door to answer and looks down the wrong end of a gun barrel. He walks into a hail of bullets. He takes four bullets point blank including one through the socket of his right eye. He miraculously lives.
Tonight, did mommy order a hit on daddy? This while his mother and their little girl was there in the home to see her father gunned down and left for dead.
We are taking your calls. Our to you, Amy in New Jersey. Hi, Amy. What`s your question?
AMY, CALLER FROM NEW JERSEY: Hi, Nancy. I`m just wondering. You know, is there some history to what would prompt this woman to make such a drastic choice with the father of her child?
GRACE: Dave Mack, morning talk show host joining me from WAAX. Dave, I don`t believe there had been any allegations that he had ever abused her.
DAVE MACK, MORNING TALK SHOW HOST, CLEAR CHANNEL WAAX RADIO: No. She made allegations of a lot of things, Nancy, and none of them were true. It really was about a custodial issue and control of their daughter. She did not want to have shared custody. And when he got shared custody with her she was against it, didn`t like it, so she was going to take care of it.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Peter Odom and Darryl Cohen.
You know, Darryl, I`ve heard a lot of criminal defense attorneys who represents killers, child molesters, drug lords, say you know what, I`d rather represent a doper than to get involved in a divorce or a custody case because they will come shoot the lawyer. They will gun down everybody. You get a mom or a dad mad at you over custody of their child you better watch out and that`s just what happened here.
DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Not unusual, Nancy. That`s been my experience over the years. I`ve known lawyers that were killed because of this domestic. But here you`ve got a woman who obviously they didn`t have as much evidence on as they wanted or the plea deal that she got would not be what it is.
This is not unusual, unfortunately, in a very serious domestic dispute we call it family law where I think it ought to be family wars. I`ve known of lawyers who`ve been shot and killed, period. Not unusual. Not good but not unusual.
GRACE: Peter?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, Nancy, the criminal courtroom is a polite and civilized place compared to the marital courtroom. And I`m happy to be a criminal lawyer when I talk to lawyers like Darryl. That`s where you hear about. It`s marital court where you hear about pictures being thrown.
GRACE: You know, to Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner, forensic pathologist, joining me out of Madison Heights. How did this guy live?
DR. WILLIAM R. MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER; FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST, TOXICOLOGIST: It`s very simple. He was a blessed man. He was very lucky. But no major vessels were transected. No major arteries, no major veins. He took some damage to the bone and the bullet that`s in his chest is going to be a reminder forever. Either way he could have died. One inch either way. But he`ll have a good Thanksgiving.
GRACE: You`re not kidding. Out to the lines. Noel, Pennsylvania. Hi, Noel, what`s your question, dear?
NOEL, CALLER FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Hey, Nancy, how are you?
GRACE: I`m good.
NOEL: Great. I just wanted to know, were they divorced or were they in the process of getting divorced?
GRACE: Good question. Out to you, Ellie Jostad. What`s the story on that?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Nancy, it`s our understanding that they were in the process of getting a divorce and it was the custody that was really the key issue here.
When Claudia Haro found out that her husband was going to get shared custody even after she had made claims that couldn`t be substantiated, that he molested her that this happened.
GRACE: Out to special guest joining me out of L.A. tonight. The deputy D.A. out of L.A. that prosecuted this case, Hoon Chun, is with us.
Thank you so much for being with us. What do you make of her claims of molestation?
HOON CHUN, PROSECUTED CASE AGAINST EX-WIFE, CLAUDIA HARO: Well, I can tell you, Nancy, and thank you for having me. All I can tell you is that the judge, a neutral fact finder, in the divorce proceedings have found that the charges were unfounded. And as you can well imagine any judge in that context is not going to be restoring unsupervised visitation rights to someone --
GRACE: Right.
CHUN: -- if they have an inkling that there is any truth to these charges.
GRACE: Everyone with me tonight is a special guest, the man who prosecuted this case, Hoon Chun, deputy D.A. out of L.A.
Hoon, another question. How did you end up getting the proof on this case? Is it true that mommy talked her brother into getting involved in a murder plot by alleging child molestation and none of that was true?
CHUN: Yes. What -- eventually what happened is that her brother is the one that she approached, agreed to testify against her. And he said that the way that she got him to get into this is that she told him half a story. She told him about the accusations that she had made of child molestation but not told him the other shoe which is that the judge had found them unfounded. And so he was open let`s say that. He was open to helping her at that point.
GRACE: Hoon Chun is with us who prosecuted this case. Now how does Joe Pesci fit into this? I`m just thinking about him. I showed my children "Home Alone I" and we were loving Joe Pesci then all of a sudden name pops up in this case.
CHUN: Well, of course, Nancy, you know, there`s a difference between truth and fiction. I wouldn`t speculate about Mr. Pesci`s role if he had any at all.
GRACE: Is this his ex-wife?
CHUN: This is his ex-wife, this is the man that she was married to before she was married to Garret Warren.
GRACE: OK. So that`s his only involvement here. So he was married to her before. They get divorced. Then she hooks up with Garret Warren and orders a murder hit on him.
You know what`s interesting to me, Hoon, is do you believe that she knew her 2-year-old daughter was at home while the husband was being gunned down at the front door?
CHUN: No, I think that would be unfair to say because she was using two intermediaries. It was two middle men. There was her brother and then her brother eventually went to his drug dealing partner. And then the actual hitman was a family friend of that partner. So there were so many steps removed there. I don`t think there was a lot of coordination between Mr. Hernandez and Miss Haro.
GRACE: Well, but my question is, if the little girl wasn`t with her, if her 2-year-old girl was not with her, then the girl had to be with him. So how does she not know the baby girl was home?
CHUN: Because she wouldn`t have necessarily known exactly when the hit was going to go down. Right. Because she`s dealing again through middle men. And so there is not direct communication.
GRACE: Wow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: I`m bleeding pretty profusely and I`m trying to give 911 directions. And she`s asking me where I was hit. And I said, I have no idea where I was hit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A stranger rang his door bell, asked him about the car parked in the drive way, then started shooting at him.
WARREN: When a bullet hits you, you don`t really know that it hits you. It`s not like you see in the movies. And as I slip to the side, it hit me center mass, it went right in front of my chest, passed by my heart and it is now stuck in my rib cage right here.
The door bell started ringing at the front door to my house. And it rang frantically like six or nine times. Since I cracked the door open a little bit and I looked through and I said yes, can I help you? And he said, yes, is this your silver Volvo on the drive way? And I said yes, that`s my car. So I opened the door and peaked my head outside to see if my car had been hit and when I did he had a gun down by his right side, by his right leg and he picked it up and started shooting at me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from Jeff Probst show via CBS Television Distribution.
Thank you for being with us. As we head into Thanksgiving this guy has a lot to be thankful for. You`ve seen him in a ton of blockbuster movies, "Avatar," "Mission Impossible", "Night at the Museum," the list goes on and on and on. But all of that didn`t matter, when he opened the door to his home and took four bullets to the face and neck including through the right eye, through his eye socket.
His little girl sleeping just a few doors behind him. He lived to tell the tale. And as it turns out when the trail went cold finally a lead. Mommy orders a hit on daddy.
Out to the lines. Feliz in Florida. Hi, Feliz. What`s your question?
FELICIA, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hello?
GRACE: Felicia. Hi, Felicia. What`s your question?
FELICIA: Hi, yes, Nancy, I have a question. What evidence made the cops actually realize that she did it?
GRACE: Good question. Hoon Chun, the D.A., who actually prosecuted this case.
What was your key evidence?
CHUN: Well, the key evidence in the case -- I mean, there are several categories. One was the motive. Obviously the timing of this was during a contentious divorce proceeding. And, in fact, it was about six weeks after the judge had found the allegations of molestation unfounded and was about to restore unsupervised overnight visits. It was the fact that the gunman identified Garret Warren by his ownership of a car that had -- still had the dealer plates on it.
He`d just gotten that car. It was not public knowledge but she knew because of when they exchanged the daughter. She knew that he was driving that car. In addition to that -- yes, go ahead, I`m sorry.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: So you were saying in addition to that. What about ballistics and how did you finally crack the case, Hoon?
CHUN: Well, the case cracked open because initially the trail was cold. They had all gotten away with it. But she decided for whatever reason that it wasn`t enough to take Garret Warren`s eye. She wanted to finish the job and take his life. And so she went about trying to arrange for a finish the job type of thing. And, again, using middle men and there were notes passed. And one of those notes eventually was forgotten by one of the middle men, Miguel Quiroz, in the trunk of his car under the spare tire of the trunk of his car. He just forgot about it. And in a completely unrelated narcotics investigation because he was a narcotics --
GRACE: Wait a minute. I think I know where this is going.
CHUN: Yes.
GRACE: He gets busted for drugs and her note regarding the hit is in his trunk.
Hey, to you, Greg Danas, ballistics expert, G&G Firearms Experts, what will a 32 do to you?
GREG DANAS, BALLISTICS EXPERT, G&G FIREARMS EXPERTS: Hi, Nancy. A .32 caliber (INAUDIBLE) caliber, it`s a small cartridge similar to what folks would recognize as a Saturday night special type of caliber. High crime type of caliber gun because it`s small and compact. A .32 because of lack of mass and energy from the projectile and velocity would cause significant damage but not enough obviously for the sake of Mr. Warren`s life to maintain his life. That`s just dependent on the selection of the firearm. And fortunately for him the folks involved obviously didn`t have an idea of what they were doing.
GRACE: Expert in ballistics, Greg Danas, with us.
Out to the lines Joe in Florida. Hi, Joe. What`s your question?
JOE, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi, there, Nancy. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your whole family.
GRACE: Thank you.
JOE: I have a comment that leads into a question.
GRACE: OK.
JOE: Generally speaking you know how difficult it is for an insanity plea to succeed in court. Yet, can you imagine how crazy someone must be and there are any number of cases of people who hire hit people, and how crazy that must be to think they can get away with it? I think it is a bit of insanity. Even if it`s not --
GRACE: Well, hold on just a moment, Joe in Florida. Let`s go to psychoanalyst Dr. Bethany Marshall. What about that, Bethany?
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, I mean, the craziness here is an extreme personality disorder. And I think what happened, Hoon Chun shared me that in the two weeks prior to the final hit attempt she followed him keeping an extensive notebook documenting his every move.
So what I think happened was more like of a stalking profile where she was obsessed with him for having rejected her, and not gratifying her every whim, for taking the love of the child and she wanted to take him down.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever give him anything like paperwork?
HARO: No, not that I can think of. And no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So if we had, say, someone`s address written in your handwriting?
HARO: I don`t know. Not from me. I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She claimed to know very little about what her brother Manny Haro might have been up to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would your brother, who`s never even met Garret, want him killed?
HARO: I don`t know. That`s not -- I -- I --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would he tell us that you`re the one that asked him to kill and he`ll arrange it?
HARO: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever give your brother a large amount of money?
HARO: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any amount whatsoever?
HARO: I don`t think I ever had a large amount of money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Let`s go straight out to the reporter with "The Daily Beast," Christine Pelisek is with us.
Christine, again, thanks for being here. Does she ever show remorse?
CHRISTINE PELISEK, REPORTER, THE DAILY BEAST: No, I don`t -- I don`t think so. I mean, when she was at court she came in wearing her tight blue dress and high heels, black heels, and seems like she was upset more so about herself going to jail than anything else. I mean her attorney, Tom Mesereau, turned around and made a point to say, you know, she`s not pleading guilty, she`s pleading no contest.
And I mean, she hugged her boyfriend and all of the more crying out how they loved her, and all this bit. She didn`t seem like she was upset in any shape or form.
GRACE: Wait, who was crying out that they loved her?
PELISEK: Yes, they said -- Joe Pesci was in the courtroom at the time and so was a nun wearing a white habit, and a number of her friends. And so when she walked in, you know, she was, you know, holding the hand of the nun and holding the hand of her boyfriend. And she walked in and then she went to sit with Tom Mesereau who was, you know, sitting next to the prosecution.
And while she was sitting there, you know, her friends in the audience were sort of whispering and saying out loud, we love you, we love you. You know, things along that -- you know, along those lines.
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GRACE: We remember American hero Army Sgt. 1st Class, Glenn J. Whetten, 31, Mesa, Arizona, two Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts, six Army Commendation medals, served Iraq and Afghanistan. Mother Amy, brother Jedd, sisters Melinda and Julia, fiancee, Megan, daughter Ariana.
Glen J. Whetten, American hero.
And tonight happy birthday to Ohio friend, Pauline, mother and grandmother to two. And now as we head into Thanksgiving, an encore performance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN DAVID, NANCY GRACE`S SON: Happy thanksgiving.
GRACE: Lucy, can you say Happy Thanksgiving. OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: From our hearts to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.
Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern and until then, good night, friend.
END
