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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Mother Accused of Murdering Children in Exorcism; New Twist in Double Murder Mystery
Aired January 20, 2014 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, a horrific, incomprehensible double murder rocks a Maryland suburb. A 28-year-old mother faces two first-degree murders, and two attempted murder charges, after going on a deadly stabbing rampage, trying to perform an exorcism. Her target? Her own four innocent children.
Cops say she slaughtered her own two babies, ages 1 and 2. Slaughtered them with two knives. It included what looked like a paring knife. Their two older siblings, ages 5 and 8, are fighting for their lives in a hospital tonight, also suffering from stab wounds.
Good evening, I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live with this unthinkable story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two women trying to perform an exorcism on four young children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our heart goes out to them. My heart goes out to the family. Our heart even goes out to the mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kia loved those kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s everybody`s first reaction, "Oh, my God, how could this happen? How could they do this to a child?" But you don`t know what`s going on in someone`s mind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was nothing that made us think something like that was going on over here. It`s pretty awkward. The story`s shocking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any way related to spiritual things like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a mother allegedly claimed the devil was in her children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops found the two young bodies inside the house after a neighbor frantically called 911 to report blood spatter outside a car with a knife next to it.
Here`s my question tonight. Listen to the evidence and you decide. Did child services drop the ball here?
Now, the night before this horrific discovery, a very astute neighbor saw something and called cops. He complained that a child had been left alone inside a car outside the house. Well, by the time the cops got there, the kid had been yanked inside the home, and apparently, the women said to the neighbor, "Mind your own business," and they would not answer the door to the police.
The police had no legal authority to bust their way in, so cops called child services. And you know what child services reportedly told them? "Oh, well, we`ll proceed with this case tomorrow." Well, tomorrow was too late. The children were dead by tomorrow.
The killer mom had a history of mental illnesses. She posted on Facebook, talking about Satan in serious terms. OK? "The world is owned by Satan himself." OK? That`s what she posted on Facebook. Had child services immediately gone to Facebook, and looked at her Facebook page, they would have seen this woman talking about Satan. But apparently, they didn`t do that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To make this more shocking to me is that Kia loved those kids. They were confident and happy kids. You kind of get a feel for kids that are abused or neglected. And that just did not fit these children. I can`t comprehend it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, he can`t comprehend it, but I think the pastor`s radar is off. This woman had a history of mental illness. Now, there was another younger woman, 21-year-old Monifa Sanford also arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder. Cops said she was living in the home with the mother and four kids. I don`t know whether she was helping take care of the children or what.
We`ve got Jean Casarez on the line right now. She has just arrived in Germantown, Maryland, where this horror, this incomprehensible violence occurred. Jean Casarez, what have you learned tonight?
JEAN CASAREZ, HLN LEGAL ANALYST (via phone): We`ve learned so much, Jane. First of all, these two women are going to be in court tomorrow. Their initial court appearance on charges of first-degree murder.
But when officers arrived at the home, they first saw outside an open car door, a knife next to the car, and blood. Well, there were keys in the car. Those keys also got into the townhouse. So probable cause allowed them in. They went into the home.
And what they saw was the mother walking down the stairs -- this is a two-story home -- she has one her children, one of the live children wrapped in a blanket. Another woman is behind her, and she`s got a slash wound to her throat.
Officers go up the stairs, and what they found were two deceased babies, 1 and 2 years old, with multiple stab wounds all over their bodies, dead in the master bedroom.
In another room was a live little girl with multiple stab wounds. And just as you said, those two living children were transported to the hospital. We were told earlier today they remain in critical condition. She and her friend were arrested.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, the friend, the 21-year-old, is she the one, Jean, who had the slash marks on her throat, which would indicate possibly that she was a victim, as well? Or maybe tried to commit suicide after this horror? But she was charged with murder.
CASAREZ: She did have slash wounds on her throat. But officers told me today they still don`t understand that. They don`t know if -- if the mother was trying to kill her friend also, if those are defensive wounds, that the friend was trying to take the knife out of the mother`s hands, or if it was all an accident in everything that happened.
You know, neighbors said that around midnight Thursday night they started hearing noises. And at 5 a.m. in the morning they were still hearing noises.
And I asked where the stab wounds were, Jane. Because the autopsies have now been performed. They were all over the bodies. But mainly in the upper torso area, which you and I know that can mean intent to kill.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable. And I can also tell you, it can mean intense pain. And if you look at the mug shot of the mother, she`s got some kind of a mark on her face, Jean. Almost like, an injury occurred while committing this.
Stand by, Jean. Don`t go anywhere. Because you`ve got a lot of good information. And I know you`ve been working the phones, and doing some legwork there on the ground in Maryland.
Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor and author of "And Justice for Some," well, these little kids didn`t get justice. The -- it`s so upsetting that a police officer, a couple of them, were outside the home. An astute neighbor had called them and said, look -- this is the night before the carnage -- there`s a kid being left in a car.
And they get there -- and listen, I`m not saying cops should be allowed to barge into any home because we would all lose our rights if they could kick down a door anytime anybody called about anything, right? My neighbors could be calling about my dogs barking. The next thing you know they`re kicking in the dog -- door.
But the point is that they called Child Protective Services, and Child Protective Services reportedly said, "Oh, we`ll get on that tomorrow" -- Wendy.
WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes, you know, and you said at the beginning of the show, did social services drop the ball? Here`s the thing, they spiked it. They spiked the ball.
Because this wasn`t just a call from a neighbor saying, "I think children are being neglected. They`re dirty. The house is a mess. They`re crying." This isn`t even, "I saw the mother hit the kid." This is blood. Blood. And the knife. Next to a car. That belongs to this family.
When DCF arrives and that`s on the scene, you don`t wait until tomorrow. End of discussion. And they are the only ones who really had the power to, right then and there, go into the home, take the children away, do the investigation after you rescue these kids from a home where you found a knife and blood.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We live in a world where we can get a package transported overnight, FedExed. "Oh, I want it absolutely overnight, it`s important for me to get that product from across the country." But there`s this lackadaisical, "We`ll take care of it tomorrow" attitude when kids` lives are on the line? It`s outrageous.
Let me go to the phone lines because it`s lighting up tonight. Lisa, Canada, what do you have to say? Lisa, Canada.
CALLER: Hi, Jane. I just want to say, please, I think if child services, if this was their children, they would not have delayed a day to go there. They would have gone right away.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I agree with you. DeDe McGuire, radio host of "The Ride with Doug and DeDe" out of Dallas, we live in a culture now where things are getting faster and faster, more technological. Literally, they can look at my phone -- Amazon seems to know what I want to buy before I buy it. OK? But yet we can`t use that technology to save the lives of children?
Imagine if child services had said, "OK, you`re saying there`s a problem at this address. Let`s cross check the address," something that we do here on our show every day. We cross check addresses. Come up with a name, look on the Facebook, and you would have seen the reference to Satan. Let`s try to put up the reference that this mother made to Satan. She would have seen that. These are the two babies who are dead tonight. These are the two babies who are dead.
DEDE MCGUIRE, RADIO HOST: You know, Jane, I`m hearing your discussion, and the only thing I can say about this is, it`s very clear that from the Facebook postings and everything else that we`re finding out, that this woman has a history of mental illness.
Now, we`re blaming Child Protective Services for not protecting those children, but I just want to know, where was her family? Many times -- and this is the thing that happens, we`re all so ashamed that we don`t want to talk about it. We`ll say this family member is special or whatever we want to say. But the truth of the matter is, where were the extended family members? They know and knew that she had a mental illness, or was mentally unstable. Why didn`t they go take these kids out of the home?
They had firsthand knowledge. They`re related to her. So that`s my big question.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s a big question. But let`s jump in here and just explain a little bit what an exorcism is.
MURPHY: OK.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re not talking -- we`re not talking about just a crime of passion. This is something that had to have been planned out.
And I know we have a clip -- we actually have a clip from the movie "The Exorcist." So why don`t we play that clip so that you can understand. Because an exorcism is a ceremony to seek to expel an evil spirit by solemn ceremonies. This is not something you do at the drop of a dime or a drop of a hat. This has got to be planned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall, by any means...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me your name. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from the highest heaven into the depths of hell. In the name of our lord, I now command you, tell me your name!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Satan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Satan, enemy of the faithful. Give me your name, demon!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is a movie version of an exorcism. Look at these two innocents, these two babies who were killed. And two -- their older brother and sister fighting for their lives in a hospital right now as we speak.
Dr. Judy Ho, this was an exorcism performed with knives.
DR. JUDY HO, CLINICAL AND FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: That`s right, Jane. And this is the thing about exorcism. Before psychologists were an established discipline, people believed that mental illness was in the form of demon possession. And they did perform exorcisms to try to cure these people.
So I don`t know if this mentally ill mom, with her history of mental illness, actually believed that her children were messed up in some way and that she was saving them and trying to cure them. But these beliefs are still -- the demon possession beliefs are still prevalent in some countries today. And I don`t know if that was part of it. I just don`t know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What about the 21-year-old who was charged right along with her, was living in the house? Did she also go crazy at the same time, with the same crazy idea in her head? Something doesn`t add up.
HO: That`s right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the other side, we`re going to hear what the theories are about how two people could be involved in something so horrific, according to cops. Are they both crazy in the same way at the same time? That doesn`t add up. Stay right there. We`re taking your calls. Call me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A small memorial, stuffed animals, flowers, a plaque.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Terribly sad, obviously.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... sits outside this Germantown townhouse where 28-year-old Zakieya Avery is accused in the stabbing murder of two of her children and attempted murder of two others.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were no conversations that I know of, any way related to spiritual things like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Culture of violence, these two beautiful innocent, sweet children, dead. Their mother accused of performing an exorcism with knives on them, killing them in the process and injuring their two older siblings, who are fighting for their lives in the hospital right now. The red flags were there. This mom had moved a couple of times.
Apparently, everybody knew this mother and her name was Zakieya. That was her first name, that she had money troubles. She suffered from mental illnesses. Church members drove her to Sunday services. They were wonderful to her. They bought her family groceries and furniture. Some of them even drove her to counseling. But they didn`t know exactly what issues she was needing counsel on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We met them at a time of need. We got beds for them. They were sleeping on the floor. We got them some good beds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: These good people tried to help. But nothing could help these two innocents from the mental illness of their mother.
Jean Casarez, you are now live in Germantown, Maryland, where the community is shaken. What about the second woman who lived in the house and who`s got a slash mark across her throat? Why is she not a victim? Why is she also charged with double murder and attempted murder?
CASAREZ (on camera): Because they believe that she stabbed the children also, killing two, and wounding two.
You know, I asked the commander of high crimes here in Montgomery County, do you believe there was a leader and a follower? And they said, definitely, yes, they believe the mother was the leader and her friend was the follower.
But I also asked, you know, this theory of -- that there was an exorcism that they were performing, where do you get that from? They told me that they interviewed both women, and that`s what both of them said.
And I said, did you interview them together or separately? He said separately. And they both had the very same story. So they believe that the state of mind possibly was that they thought that the spirits were inside the children, and this exorcism had to be performed.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Lisa Lockwood, investigator and author of "Undercover Angel," it sounds like the older woman, the mother may have had kind of an influence, a Svengali-type influence, perhaps, on the younger woman. Because it`s the mom, the older woman, who had the history of mental illness.
LISA LOCKWOOD, INVESTIGATOR/AUTHOR: Yes. Well, like attracts like. So we have a situation where you have somebody younger who becomes the follower. They`re going to jump onboard with that. They`re going to find somebody who`s got an incapacitation like mental illness to be part of their band, their tribe, so to speak.
One thing I wanted to mention, though, about all of this is as far as the timeline, the neighbor initially said the child was left in the car. And I just want people to know, the police officers that responded to the scene did the best that they could with their investigation. Because Fourth Amendment rights, they cannot go into that house unless they believed that there was something imminent involved.
The knife and the blood was found the next day. And that`s when they had complete authority to enter that house. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, yes, I agree with you. And I did not say that the police officers did the wrong thing. They did the right thing. They called child services.
My question tonight was, did child services drop the ball? My point is that we`re dealing with a lot of people with mental illness in this country who have children. And so when the cops say, "Look, hey, child services, something`s going on here," you`ve got to check it out.
LOCKWOOD: Yes, I don`t...
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You don`t wait until tomorrow.
LOCKWOOD: Find out the name, the red flag, absolutely the red flag with Facebook, all of those things were huge factors involved with this. And why pass the buck? Why go ahead and launch that soccer ball, as someone mentioned earlier? That is their job. Why pass the buck to the next day? And Child Protective Services are really going to get a huge hit from this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is what I`m talking about. I`ll wrap it up with Wendy Murphy. It`s a mentality. It`s, oh, yes, we`ll take care of that tomorrow. When it comes to children, and in our world where things happen so fast, where someone can pull a gun in an instant, where somebody could stab somebody in an instant, there`s no waiting until tomorrow. That has to go.
MURPHY: Look, I`m so upset that I have a sore throat because I would be screaming at the top of my lungs if I could I`m so angry about this case. We know, and we know from the way stocks are monitored, for example, one insider trade happens, boom. People respond.
Kids don`t vote, they don`t have any money, and when their lives are at risk, we don`t care enough, because they`re not worth enough. That`s the ugly nature of the American Child Protective Services system in this country.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I agree with you. And if these children are not to have died in vain, child service -- protective services all across the country need to take a look at this, and say, "We are 24 hours," just like 911. Just like 411. "We are 24 hours. And we send out people immediately." Like emergency medical technicians.
Do you think you`d call an emergency medical technician and say, "My mother`s sick? And she needs somebody."
Do you think they`d say, "Oh, we`ll work on that tomorrow." No, they go right away. If Child Protective Services had moved in immediately, these children would likely be alive tonight. That is sad.
Up next, a man and his fiancee, and his brother. All these three, cops believe, are dead tonight, although they are still trying to identify the remains of one of them. What is going on here? Who wanted these three beautiful, well-loved people dead? What is going on behind the scenes? Who had a motive to want these three dead? Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, breaking news. Stunning new developments in an unbelievable murder mystery in San Diego. It was Christmas Eve when this beautiful 22-year-old woman, Ilona Flint, went out shopping with her 24-year-old fiance, Gianni, and his slightly younger brother, Salvatore. There are the three of them. They were dear friends.
The woman and her fiance`s younger brother ended up in a car together, and they were gunned down, both of them. At the same time, her fiance vanished. Well, now, cops have just discovered the fiance`s car over 100 miles away. Inside the trunk of that car, a badly decomposed dead man`s body the same age of the fiance. Is it the body of the fiance, Gianni?
Was this a love triangle gone wrong? Or -- well, listen to this. Cops say witnesses, several witnesses saw a suspect walking away from the Christmas Eve shooting who does not match the description of the fiance at all.
Did somebody want all three of these closely connected young people dead? And if so, why?
Here`s cops calling in the initial shooting at the shopping mall around Christmas Eve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... female that yelled she was shot and no further.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re going to have two victims on a 245 shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Witnesses here saw a male walking from the back of the victim`s vehicle and get into the car and drive away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to the Lion`s Den. So who wanted all three of these people dead?
I want to go to Lisa Bloom, legal analyst, Avvo.com. You know, at first you think, "Oh, well, maybe it`s the older brother, fiance got mad at his younger brother for hanging out with his girlfriend, who he`s going to get married to."
But then you find out somebody who has nothing apparently to do, or looks like those three, walking away and getting into a car right after the shooting. What do you make of it?
LISA BLOOM, LEGAL ANALYST, AVVO.COM: Right. It doesn`t sound to me like a love triangle, because all members of this alleged love triangle are now deceased. I mean, the fiance, it`s highly unlikely he shot himself and then put himself in the trunk of the car. That doesn`t make a lot of sense. So I can understand why that would have been a working theory until his remains were found. Now I think it looks like it was a third party.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: After Ilona and Salvador were shot, Salvador`s older brother, Gianni, the one who was going to get married to the woman, went missing. Now, the family, missing their two boys, begged for any information. Listen to this from "GMA."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need him to come home. We love you and miss you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This family devastated. Friday around 11:45 in the morning, Gianni`s car with a body in the trunk was found, but it was 100 miles north and east of where his fiancee and brother were executed. OK. They were -- if you know California, they were executed at a San Diego location. And the brother`s found all the way up in Riverside, which is on the outskirts of the Los Angeles area. That`s far away, more than 100 miles.
So Lisa Lockwood, investigator, author of "Undercover Angel," cops have not confirmed the identity. They haven`t said for sure it`s this young man. But it certainly would appear that it`s his car. It`s the same age. It`s just a badly decomposed body. But we can`t say for sure. What do you make of it?
LOCKWOOD: Yes. So what they`re going to do is they`re going to look inside of that trunk. They`re going to go through and try to collect evidence to find out if the gunshot wound, if it had taken place in the trunk itself. Is there blood spatter on the ceiling and throughout the trunk? Is there going to be gunpowder residue on his hand? To say that Gianni had done this, if it had happened to be a love triangle.
If it`s not, we`re really perplexed about it. Because if somebody had a great revenge plan against the three of them, and maybe wanted to extort some information and take him on a joyride for 100 miles and then executed him later, then we`ve got a whole different scenario. But right now we don`t even have the identification of the individual in the trunk.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, we ran the records on the whole family to find out is there any secrets? And no. No criminal records.
We understand that the young woman worked in the mall where she was shot. Look at this beautiful girl. Gorgeous.
And the older -- her fiance, the older brother, he`s originally from Utah. And his record show he`s associated with a specialty foods operation in Utah. Absolutely clean-cut. There is nothing here that would show that they had any association with anything. Maybe a traffic citation. That`s it.
MURPHY: Come on, Jane, you`re absolutely right. People are wondering about their secrets. And you`re absolutely wrong that you`re going to find secrets in a public records search. That`s the whole point. This looks like a hit. You know, you don`t have to read "The Godfather," every single version, or watch the movie to know that when bodies end up in trunks, that`s usually a hit. And, you know, they`re young.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good looking.
MURPHY: I don`t know whether they`re clean-cut or not. But this probably has something to do with drugs or somebody owed somebody money. That`s what it looks like.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me say this, this family is grieving, and I do not believe in blaming the victims. OK, these people...
MURPHY: I didn`t blame anybody.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I`m just saying, they have done nothing wrong as far as we can see whatsoever. They were the victims. They were killed; they were murdered. We`re trying to solve this.
MURPHY: No one deserves to die.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me say this. Cops say right after the shots were fired, a mystery man was seen walking away. Let`s listen to the dispatch call again. Then we`re going to describe the mystery man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... female that yelled she was shot and no further.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re going to have two victims on a 245 shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Witnesses here saw a male walking from the back of the victim`s vehicle and get into the car and drive away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. This mystery man described as mid-20s, 5`9", slim, tall, wearing a shirt with stripes on the sleeves, doesn`t look anything like the members of the family.
Dr. Judy Ho, do you have any thoughts of -- you know, and this mystery man got into the passenger side of the car. He was seen going into a car that looks like this. But not in the driver`s side. The passenger side. So there may have been two people who executed this couple at the mall.
HO: Well, Jane, this person definitely had an accomplice if he got on the passenger side. There`s somebody that at least knows about this murder if not was actually actively involved in it.
And you know what; I really do think that whether or not this was something that there was a hit because there was some secret in the family or this is just a complete tragedy that was an accident, we really need to focus --
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s not an accident. I can tell you right now.
HO: We need to focus on the family.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely we need -- this family`s grieving. But it wasn`t an accident.
HO: That`s right. And we need to focus on the family
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s for sure. It`s a mystery. Who wanted them dead?
HO: You`re right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And my heart goes out to the family -- my condolences. This is a nightmare that no family should suffer. We`re going to stay on top of it because it helps to solve a case, keeping media pressure on. And that`s what we`re going to do.
Tweet us about something completely different. We`re going to lighten it up here for a second. Tweet us your pet selfies -- #jvmpetselfies. Send them to hlntv.com/Jane.
Me, my pet and I, Kim and Sylar -- gorgeous couple, look at that. That`s love. And that`s a pit bull, probably a rescue. And Heather and Patti, how gorgeous and look at that regal face. And I`m talking about Patti, the dog, but Heather, too. Danielle and Scout -- beautiful.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHMAN: Break-ins in my neighborhood and there`s a real suspicious guy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just said he shot him dead. The person is dead -- laying on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Sanford Police Department is conducting a fair investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you following him?
ZIMMERMAN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok. We don`t need you to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, find George Zimmerman not guilty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Just when you thought neighborhood shooter George Zimmerman couldn`t surprise us anymore, he is shocking us again tonight. He has tweeted expletive-filled attacks against Florida`s governor and the woman who prosecuted him, Angela Corey, for killing Trayvon Martin. George flew into his latest rage after seeing the hit film "Lone Survivor" from Universal pictures. What does a movie about heroic Navy SEALs in Afghanistan have to do with a man who killed an unarmed teenager who was walking home after buying skittles and a soft drink?
George tweeted, quote, "Saw `Lone Survivor`. I`m even more proud to be an American. Thank you to men and women of the U.S. Armed forces and their dedicated families. I wonder if Governor Scott and Corey ever stopped for one second to think about the men and women who died to protect our constitution as they wiped their (EXPLETIVE DELETED) with it, bowed to pressure and maliciously prosecuted me solely because they are chicken (EXPLETIVE DELETED)."
Then somebody tweeted at him, "Chill. When you`re winning, you have nothing to prove." And then he responded, "PETA, no disrespect to chicken (EXPLETIVE DELETED), but I`m certain it has more common sense, principles and morals than Florida Governor Scott and Angie Corey combined."
You know Zimmerman in his fantasy brain appears to be romanticizing his own bad behavior. He sees this movie about heroes and then he turns himself in his head into a crusader for justice -- a patriot. In reality, he`s addicted to violence and drama. And he`s doing what every addict does -- rationalizing, minimizing, justifying his behavior so he can keep doing it.
Listen to what Zimmerman`s estranged wife Shelley said on ABC`s "Katie".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHELLIE ZIMMERMAN, FORMER WIFE OF GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: I certainly hope that there are no casualties. I hope that there`s no violence. But he does seem like a ticking time bomb. I know I`m certainly afraid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He`s a ticking time bomb, according to his estranged, soon-to-be ex-wife. Is he ticking down to some explosion?
Straight out to Lisa Bloom, author of the upcoming book, fabulous must-read, "Suspicion Nation: The Inside Story of the Trayvon Martin Injustice and Why We Continue to Repeat It". Lisa, what do you make of these tweets?
LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY, AVO.COM: You know, Shelley Zimmerman said something else that was very telling, that he thinks he`s invincible. You can see that in his tweets where they`re laced with profanity. He`s lashing out against the world. And he also does a couple of nice things. He rescues dogs, for example. Shout-out to our troops. Nobody`s all good or all bad.
But overall, if you take all of his tweets together, this is somebody who`s angry, who`s lashing out at the world and lashing out at the authorities who came after him for killing an unarmed teenager.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What about all the dramarama since his acquittal less than two months after George was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin in July? His estranged wife called the cops on him. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
S. ZIMMERMAN: He continually has his hand on his gun and he keeps saying "step closer". He`s just threatening all of us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Step closer and what?
S. ZIMMERMAN: And he`s going to shoot us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok.
S. ZIMMERMAN: He punched my dad in the nose. My dad has a mark on his face. I saw his glasses were on the floor. He accosted my father.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. You know, just one more example of dramarama. But he didn`t face any charges as a result of that. We`ll get to some more drama. Rolonda Watts host, "Sunday`s with Rolonda" -- this guy cannot just lay low. As the tweeter said back to him, "You won. Take your victory and get out of our face."
ROLONDA WATTS HOST, "SUNDAY`S WITH ROLONDA": Well, Jane, I think you said it best. The man is addicted to drama. And that`s part of it. Also, let`s face it, Twitter and the social media game is the new town square. It`s the place where you go and have feast for fodder. It`s also where you go and try to draw up support and get a big following. Right now on Twitter his following isn`t very big, so I could only imagine that with his drama-ridden self, he`s using all of these explosive accusations to try to drum up more drama, to get more tweety-pies, if you will because he`s an angry man.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the other side, is he suffering from guilt and subconsciously trying to get himself in a jam with altercation after altercation with law enforcement? We`ll analyze that on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
G. ZIMMERMAN: He said, "You`re going to die (EXPLETIVE DELETED). He reached for it. His arm was going down to my side. I grabbed it and I just grabbed my firearm and I shot him one time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s in my house breaking all my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) because I asked him to leave. He has his freaking gun breaking all of my stuff right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s his girlfriend. Remember, just after the altercation he had with his soon-to-be ex-wife and her dad, he has another altercation, this time with his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe. And Samantha called the cops on him.
Mark Starling, radio reporter, News 96.5, you`re down there in Florida, where all this is going on. Does he have a job? Does he do anything that does not involve just one drama after the next in that tweeting, comparing himself to heroes who fought for our country?
MARK STARLING, RADIO REPORTER, NEWS 96.5 (via telephone): You know, the only time we see surface of him is when the drama happens. You know, these tweets being the latest. You know, I don`t know what it`s going to take for him to just completely disappear at this point. I think he`s had a taste of the limelight, and he`s always had some sort of complex. And I think that goes back to the neighborhood watch syndrome, if you will.
You know, he`s never -- he never gets enough. He`s just too full of himself. I think these tweets are just one way for him to lash out without actually going out in public and getting in trouble, because he seems to be doing a pretty good job of that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, he seems very angry. He`s had two public altercations since his acquittal. We all know he shot Trayvon Martin. Is he a danger to the public?
WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: I don`t think so. I think it`s really a bad idea to give this guy this attention, frankly. You know, we`re complaining about him, and we`re giving him perhaps what he wants, which is a little bit of that hero vibe. Even though he`s wrong, you know, he`s clearly not a hero.
But if we keep paying attention to him, then at least the feeling for him is that he`s still important. So I just want to leave the guy alone. I want him to leave us alone. He has this O.J. quality to him, acting like a jerk so he gets on the news.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, the other O.J. quality, let me say, is that O.J., you know, many felt got away with murder and then he ended up behind bars for robbery. Is there a pattern there, Lisa Bloom, author of "Suspicion Nation" about this case?
BLOOM: Yes, you know, you mentioned Samantha Scheibe, his girlfriend, who said that he had choked her and threatened her with a gun. Now the two of them are tweeting with each other. He said, "Samantha, I don`t know why, but I always giggle when you savor something I write as you`re laying next to me." She says, "That`s why I do it. I love hearing you giggle." So these two are back together -- I think it`s only a matter of time before we hear more complaints again.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, water finds its own level.
Got to leave it right there because on the other side, we`ve got a breaking news story. I`m sorry, panel, if we didn`t get to everyone. My apologies.
We`ve got a breaking news story -- how you, the rest of the world, Caroline Kennedy, all banding together. Stay right there. We`ll answer it on the other side -- who we`re trying to help save the life of.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Time for Pet of the Day, send your pet pics to hlntv.com/jane. Pele -- oh, I love your hat. How adorable. And Daisy -- she says I`m just an all-American girl -- very, very beautiful and simple. And Spencer Tracy is a very complex, mysterious cat. Sasha and Jayla -- you look fabulous.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight the world rising up and saying no, do not slaughter the dolphins in the infamous cove in Taiji, Japan. Do not repeat the bloodshed documented in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove" from Lionsgate Films.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By the time they get to the lagoon, they are totally freaked out, stressed out to the max.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The world rose up when movie star Hayden Panatierre crawled sobbing out of the bloody waters of Japan`s cove. And now America`s ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late president John F. Kennedy is adding her voice tweeting, quote, "Deeply concerned by the unhumanness of drive-hunt dolphin-killing."
It`s a huge deal for the ambassador of the United States to go out on a limb, as Caroline Kennedy has done. Right on, Caroline. The clock is ticking right now.
250 innocent dolphins huddled, terrified in these waters behind huge nets cordoned off by Japanese fishermen who reportedly plan to slaughter them tomorrow. This angelic albino dolphin nicknamed "Angel" has captured the hearts of people around the world. Outrage reaching a tipping point with tens of thousands signing petitions to stop the slaughter and boycott Japan. Our calls to the Japanese embassy were not answered. Japanese fishermen have reported selected dolphins to be sold to marine parks and aquariums -- marine parks and aquariums. And those not pretty enough for those marine parks and aquariums are marked with a slaughter mark and they are killed.
Ric O`Barry of the Dolphin Project, you were featured in "The Cove" movie. What can -- how -- the world is rising up -- it`s supposed to happen tomorrow. Is Japan listening?
RIC O`BARRY, DOLPHIN PROJECT: Well, I think they`re going to start to listen now that Ambassador Kennedy has spoken out publicly. It`s caused a lot of interest from the media in Japan. There`s a lot of media in Taiji right now.
Yes, that was extremely helpful. We may be seeing a tipping point here. Because of this albino dolphin that was captured, and by the way, I looked at the footage of the capture, the dolphin`s mother committed suicide. I know that sounds strong, but if you look at the footage, you`ll see when the baby is taken away from the mother, she goes to the surface and she is looking around, completely freaked out, and then she takes a breath and sinks to the bottom, and she`s not seen again.
And I`ve been saying that for years, that many of these dolphins in the cove are committing suicide when they see what`s going to happen to them. And they do that simply by not taking the next breath. Every breath that a dolphin takes is a conscious effort, and if they think life is too unbearable, they simply don`t take the next breath.
And I`ve seen that for the last 11 years in the cove, and that`s what happened to the albino`s mother. Angel is the name of the albino. And the baby is at the Taiji whale museum in a tank right now.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask you this. How can we stop this slaughter? What can Americans do, Americans, caring people, to stop this?
O`BARRY: Well one of the most important things at this point --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s blood in the water, by the way. Go ahead.
O`BARRY: -- contact Ambassador Kennedy. You can find out her number by Google, and thank her for getting involved because it will encourage her to do more. She is in Tokyo. She is the ambassador. She can make waves, huge waves. So let`s thank her for stepping up and being the voice for these dolphins.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: God bless her. I`m so glad that she went out on a limb, really, to do that and to make that statement, and I understood that they were not covering this in Japan because they just felt, well, it`s traditional, we`re not going to cover it. But now that she`s commented, it`s actually forcing Japanese news stations to cover this.
O`BARRY: Exactly. I hope to meet with her back in Tokyo, and I can show her absolute proof that this is not traditional, it is not cultural. It actually started in 1969 in Japan, and that is not old enough to be tradition or culture.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me jump in here and say Melissa Sehgal of "Sea Shepherd" is in Taiji. Melissa, quickly, we`re hearing reports that the dolphin slaughter could start tomorrow. What a horror. What`s happening at the scene? We only have a couple of seconds.
MELISSA SEHGAL, "SEA SHEPHERD": I`m standing right here and actually some of the pod was slaughtered today. We don`t have an exact number, but all that`s left is a blood-filled cove right now.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, my god. Are there protesters? I know you risked your life. I`ve seen video of you being threatened and harassed. Look at the blood in the water. That`s blood. Ten seconds, Melissa.
SEHGAL: People need to stop visiting marine parks and supporting the captive industry, because that needs to stop.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. That`s the consumer. People who go to marine parks -- if you don`t like this blood, don`t visit those parks. Think about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Stay right there. In just one hour, I will go live on Dr. Drew as we go live to Taiji, Japan where the dolphin slaughter is under way.
Nancy`s next.
END
