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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Mind-Boggling Murder-for-Hire Plot; Wild Standoff with Kidnapping Suspect

Aired March 14, 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, breaking news. A jaw-dropping Hollywood murder-for-hire plot has beauty consultant to the stars behind bars, charged with trying to hire a hit man to murder a business rival she thought was out to get her. But in a mind-boggling twist, cops say the woman`s close friend was, they believe, the one secretly sabotaging her. Tonight, that BFF is also facing possible criminal charges. He`s been arrested, but he hasn`t been charged yet. What`s going on?

Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A murder-for-hire plot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am utterly shocked. I`m completely shocked.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One esthetician wanted another killed to protect her business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seeking help in fulfilling a rape fantasy. Was Hollywood esthetician...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would never occur to me, that Dawn would threaten anyone at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She sought to hire someone to kill that business competitor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Los Angeles is reeling over this. Tonight shock in Hollywood, as beauty salon owner Dawn DaLuise is held on $1 million bail. Now, she`s famous as the skin specialist to the stars. Her client list reads like an A-list Oscar party. Jennifer Aniston reportedly just one of the many, many stars she has served as a skincare guru.

But cops say when a rival beauty salon called Smooth Cheeks opened up a few doors down, the competition drove Dawn crazy. Cops say Dawn thought her competitor, and neighboring salon owner, Gabriel Suarez, seen there, wasn`t just stealing her business, but also posting explicit and raunchy Craigslist ads, claiming Dawn was seeking a man to fulfill her rape fantasies, even listing her address to direct potential males to her doorstep.

Cops say Dawn went into a rage and tried to contact an old friend, a former NFL player, to murder her competition. Cops arrested Dawn and charged her with solicitation of murder.

But then they say they uncovered another shocking secret. Her competition did not post those dangerous rape fantasy Craigslist ads. Cops suspect and believe it was Dawn`s own friend, Edward Feinstein, the same friend who cops say was their secret informant. He was then arrested for stalking Dawn. We have to point out he has not yet been charged. We are trying to reach him, or his attorney, and we are having a hard time doing that. We can`t find him. He is invited on any time.

Straight out to the Lion`s Den. I want to go to Alexis Tereszcuk, RadarOnline.com`s entertainment editor. You have broken so many of the developments, the wild developments on this case. What is the very latest?

ALEXIS TERESZCUK, ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, RADARONLINE.COM: You know, Jane, we`ve certainly broken so many. We have known Dawn for years at Radar Online. She, in fact, was friends with Dr. Frank Ryan, the plastic surgeon who performed the ten surgeries on Heidi Montag. She spoke with us about his untimely death. She`s somebody that we`re very familiar with.

But she has been arrested in probably the craziest story I`ve heard in a while. If you`re looking at her mug shot, this is not at all the woman that I`ve known for years. She was always beautiful. She never had roots in her hair. She never looked this disheveled.

But she was under the impression that her rival esthetician just a few doors down in her building had put these ads online. And they were horrific. What they were saying was that she wanted to have a rape fantasy, so it was asking people to come to her house, with her address, and rape her. But she would be complicit in it. It`s like a "Law & Order: SVU" episode.

She told her friend about this. She told this friend that she had hired somebody, an NFL player, to kill him. This friend was a little suspect about it. He kept saying, "Don`t do anything illegal. Make sure you`re not going to get caught." The friend was the one who actually put up the rape fantasy ads.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow! He`s been arrested. But he`s not charged with anything; I want to make that clear.

TERESZCUK: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But you`re essentially saying that she thought her business rival was posting ads, basically inviting strange men to come to her doorstep and rape her, when in fact he wasn`t doing that at all. It was her BFF, according to cops.

Now, why would he do that? What motive -- and again, we`ve tried to reach this BFF, this friend of this woman. And this man, he`s invited on anytime. We want to hear his side of the story. Because I can`t understand why a friend would say, hey, your rival`s doing something that`s really horrible, posting Craigslist ads saying, "Hey, come and rape this woman. Here`s her address." And in fact, it was him, Allegedly, purportedly, according to police. Why would he do that?

TERESZCUK: Well, it seems like perhaps he wanted to be her savior. She was turning to him for help. And so he was creating all this drama, upsetting her, and then he could be the one that would step in and save the day.

Now, he is not the one that she allegedly hired to kill her neighbor. But he`s the one that instigated it all. So he was able to cause the trouble and then fix the problem for her. It`s a really twisted thing. And what he was arrested for was stalking her. So he`s really in a lot of trouble, as well.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This case is right out of a crime thriller. I mean, it`s got one twist after the next. In a wild case of betrayal, as you heard, cops say it wasn`t Dawn`s business rival, Gabriel Suarez, but rather Dawn`s good friend, Edward Feinstein, or maybe I could call him a frenemy, posting those twisted Craigslist ads, suggesting Dawn wanted a man to come and fulfill her rape fantasies. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe that he helped to convince her that the person who was actually responsible for what he had done was her business competitor. And as a result, she sought to hire someone to kill that business competitor, the wrong person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Lisa Lockwood, investigator, author of "Undercover Angel," the woman who is charged -- again, the Craigslist ads allegedly said this woman, Dawn, wanted help from a man who should come to her house and act out a rape fantasy. OK? Cops say this woman, Dawn, was understandably afraid for her own life and afraid for the lives of her daughters. So could she actually blame the entire thing on this former friend?

LISA LOCKWOOD, INVESTIGATOR/AUTHOR: Well, my question is this: what came first? It`s such a tangled web. You know, with the horse and the carriage. What -- what came first? Was she initially upset that he became a competitor?

Now, throw Feinstein into the mix. What was his role? Did he have a vendetta against her, and he just decided to play both sides in order to get even with her? Did he start sending them to Suarez initially, and then as retaliation, to be the savior, as we`d mentioned earlier, go ahead and send them to DaLuise?

Now did DaLuise decide she wanted him murdered before all the cyber stalking had occurred? Because that`s going to be the key to all of this.

And now we`ve got Feinstein saying, "Oh, I`m going to work for the police now, and not be charged, become the informant." So they`re going to have to look at all of the evidence prior to this. They`re going to look at e-mails. They`re going to look at the first time cyber stalking had occurred, when did it happen to Suarez and when did they initially start to file the complaint for cyber stalking? How long did they wait?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dawn`s locked up behind bars on $1 million bond. Right now, as we speak, she is in jail. The so-called Hollywood beauty expert spent decades building up her super-successful skincare salon in Southern California. She`s been mentioned in huge magazines. Her neighbors are shocked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am utterly shocked. I`m completely shocked. That would never occur to me, that Dawn would threaten someone, at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, this woman`s clients include, reportedly, A-list stars: Jennifer Aniston, Nikki Minaj, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christina Ricci. I mean, she was named one of the best facialists in Los Angeles.

But still, I mean, you -- I spent 18 years in Hollywood. There are beauty related stores every three feet. I mean, the idea that this would escalate into a murder-for-hire plot is really almost beyond comprehension.

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes. And it makes her sound like such an idiot, because if you`ve got such a great business and you are the go-to person for the stars, why would you even jaywalk? You know, for risking your entire wonderful career? This is so crazy.

Here`s the problem, though. Dawn has a big problem. Because motive matters most, as you pointed out, for both Feinstein and for Dawn. And if Dawn was really worried, so worried about those cyber stalking notes about getting raped, that she thought it was appropriate to kill a guy, how come she didn`t call the cops? I mean, it`s not only a dumb thing to do. If somebody`s stalking you online, you don`t just kill them. You call the police. Because they can actually put a stop to that. She didn`t do that.

So the implication is, she was really just trying to get rid of competition. And that`s not good news for her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, this is a very nasty story, all the way around. Because what apparently developed was a war that was carried out on Craigslist. You`ve got to wonder if something like this happens more often than we know.

Radar Online says text messages from Dawn allegedly revealed that she planned to make Craigslist ads of her own, baiting men to show up at her business rival`s door for sex. Quote, "I`m putting a posting up about him wanting sex on CL," which means Craigslist, "this week. I am putting together a CL ad to run soon, directing guys to Gabriel`s front door. No need to call first. Just show up. I`ll be waiting in bed with blindfold on."

Now, Radar says the text messages even reveal Dawn planned to go down to the local Starbucks to concoct this so that IP address could not be traced.

I`ve got to bring in a shrink here. Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist, let`s say she thought that -- which is not true, that this guy who was the competition, the new guy on the block, was out to get her, what kind of a reaction is that?

RAMANI DURVASULA, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Judgment is not this woman`s strong suit. Over and over again, as one other person said, she thought someone was making these threats, and so she threatened to get him killed? You go to law enforcement.

And the fact of the matter is, the fact that she`s leaving this text message trail and all of this, again, her judgment was really, really impaired.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But Ramani, let me jump in and ask you this.

(CROSSTALK)

DURVASULA: ... fantasy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want you -- I want to get inside her head. I know you`re not a lawyer.

DURVASULA: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m going to ask from a psychological perspective. There are people, and we see them around us in our daily lives, create conspiracies, make things very complicated, concoct wars, where none of it`s necessary. Why do they do that?

DURVASULA: OK. You know, I`ll tell you what it is. It`s a by- product, honestly, I think, of being very narcissistic. It`s being childlike, and a narcissist is a child. This is a fantasy. I hate to say that people`s fantasy is that they`re going to kill someone who`s bothering them, but that is the fantasy. I`m going to get rid of this person.

And usually, you can do that legally. She went really primitive and really dark. It feels like the actions of somebody very narcissistic and very immature. It`s that simple.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Is this her with Gary Busey, Alexis? OK, so she`s hanging out with a lot of stars. And she is right in the center of the whole Hollywood power vortex. And she`s one of those people who`s made a name for herself by associating herself with big names. And now she`s behind bars, right now. In jail. She can`t make the $1 million bond yet.

Stay right there. We`re just getting started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would never occur to me that Dawn would threaten someone, at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She sought to hire someone to kill that business competitor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A murder-for-hire plot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am utterly shocked.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One esthetician wanted another killed to protect her business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seeking help in fulfilling a rape fantasy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would never occur to me that Dawn would threaten someone, at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She sought to hire someone to kill that business competitor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dawn DaLuise, there she is. She actually came to Hollywood as a model. She eventually like many people in Hollywood who start out as actresses or models, they come up with another career. And she became this esthetician to the stars. And many big names. And now she`s behind bars accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her business competitor who she thought was out to get her, but cops say was actually her own good friend who was out to get her. And he was also arrested, accused of stalking. He hasn`t been charged yet. He`s invited on any time.

Now cops say Dawn tried to specifically hire another big name, an ex- NFL star by the name of Christopher Geile, to kill her competitor. Cops say Geile did absolutely nothing wrong and is another innocent person dragged into this sinister plot.

One of Dawn`s friends came forward with this text message saying, quote, "I found someone who is going to take Gabriel out. His name is Chris Geile, and he`s an ex-Detroit Lion quarterback. He`s 6`7" and 315 pounds. He`s on my F-book -- my Facebook page."

Now, I want to go to Alexis Tereszcuk. That text, this is the business rival who did nothing wrong. That text was from Dawn. So what happened with this football star? He`s done nothing wrong. I mean, just because somebody contacts you and shows bad judgment, allegedly, doesn`t mean that you had anything to do with it.

TERESZCUK: Exactly. He was not -- he did not agree to kill this man. He didn`t agree to be a part of this scheme at all. She is the one who was bragging to her friend, Feinstein, that she was going to hire him and that she was going to have him kill her rival.

This is after, as you said, she posted was these -- was planning on posting these ridiculous Craigslist ads, having him attacked the same way she felt she was being attacked.

After Feinstein published these ads, they were actually sex ads, and they actually had her face, allegedly, on different bodies of women. And that was what she was so enraged about, thinking that her business rival had done this to her. They were very explicit photos of her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brian Claypool, criminal defense attorney, honestly, this is a Lifetime movie that has not been made yet. But it`s very bizarre. Does she have a defense saying, "Well, look, these horrible things were being done to me. I thought it was my business rival. I had no idea that cops would later tell me it was this guy, my so-called friend." Is that a defense to try to hire somebody to kill someone?

BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Jane, what I find interesting here is Feinstein turns out to be an informant for the Los Angeles county sheriff`s department? He has a prior record of fraud, identity theft. So my issue here is, we have to find out...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I can`t independently confirm that. I don`t know that. But go ahead.

CLAYPOOL: Well, we have to find out when Feinstein became possibly an informant. Because if that`s the case, then there could be a possible defense for DaLuise for an entrapment issue, entrapment defense.

The second point I want to make here is, I`ve looked up the elements for solicitation to commit murder in California, Jane. And you`ve got to have evidence that she actually promised money, or gave money or a service to this other man to actually carry out the murder. I haven`t seen any evidence to support that yet.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Wendy Murphy, as a former prosecutor, do you think, let`s throw it out then?

MURPHY: We do need to know a little bit more about what was said to this NFL guy and what he said back to her. If he was cooperating with cops, you know, I`m sure there`s more to the story, because she`s been arrested. In other words, there`s got to be more evidence than what we`ve been reading so far.

You know, I was thinking that she might actually have a defense of this was obviously a joke, because who would be stupid enough to put this stuff in writing? Because she isn`t an idiot; she`s a business woman. But she did put it in writing. And joking is not a defense in this case.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. But hold on a second.

MURPHY: It doesn`t matter if you plan to kill somebody for the wrong reasons.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Philip Snyder -- criminal defense attorney Philip Snyder, I could send a text to a friend, "You didn`t show up last night. I could kill you." That`s not a solicitation for murder. This was a lot different than that.

PHILIP SNYDER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s not a lot different. Solicitation for murder, they must be in lala land. Ironic this happened in L.A.

Because an idle threat means nothing. That is not solicitation for murder. It`s crazy that it`s gotten this far.

There are two main witnesses. One is the football player who said categorically that "I was not involved in this." There was no money exchanged or no follow-up communication.

And independent, look at Mr. Feinstein, who`s an informant, has a prior criminal history. This case is going to fall out in a very, very bad way for the Los Angeles Police Department.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, forget about it. It`s West Hollywood.

Next, a wild car chase you`ve got to see to believe. A police dash cam rolling as a knife-wielding suspect grabs a little baby and uses the child as a human shield. It is a horrifying story. We`re going to bring it to you. Caught on tape, on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they pulled them both out of the car and extinguished the fire they set in the front of that vehicle. They saved that baby`s life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Little Bailey was 8 months old. Ashley Spring ran into a Brentwood store, looking for help.

High-speed chase, driving in the wrong lane. Swerving, holding her hostage. And starts repeatedly stabbing himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They saved that baby`s life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, a child abduction leads to stunning gut- wrenching car chase like you have never seen before. It`s all caught on camera.

Pittsburgh cops say this guy, 21-year-old Jared Brown-Garnham, took off with his ex-girlfriend`s 8-month-old baby -- that`s right, this innocent, precious child -- after having an explosive argument.

Now we`re going to take you through it. It starts with the surveillance video of this mom screaming hysterically, throwing herself on the ground, begging for help, claiming that this ex of hers was threatening her and her kid. She`s frantic; she`s panicked. That`s when cops say her ex takes off and leads everyone on a wild car chase with the little toddler -- this woman`s little toddler in the back seat.

You can see the suspect swerving lanes, losing control. Then, boom, ultimately watch this. Boom, right into a chain-link fence.

But the chase gets even wilder. I`ve got to warn you, this is extremely graphic. You see this suspect grab the baby by her arm, pull her right into the front seat, and then he starts stabbing himself repeatedly. He`s stabbing himself, right there. Cops say he was also taunting them, screaming, "Kill me, kill me," while using this innocent baby as a shield. How terrifying.

Eventually, cops were able to break through the back windshield and fire at the suspect, holding the baby, boom. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They pulled them both out of the car and extinguished the fire that started in the front part of the vehicle. They saved that baby`s life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to the Lion`s Den. The baby, we`re happy to say tonight, miraculously survived this horrific ordeal. That child recovering from minor injuries to her neck. So, Lisa Lockwood, private investigator, is this cop a hero?

LOCKWOOD: Absolutely a hero. The way that cop handled it, I`m going to tell you right now, that was one of the most intense things that I have ever witnessed. And I`m so glad they had camera footage to follow that. Because police are often under scrutiny for cases like this.

And now we actually have a clean (UNINTELLIGIBLE), a crime against a person, an actual abduction, and we could see him using that child as a shield.

That police officer had one goal, and that one goal was to take him out, stop that threat immediately. And he proceeded to do so. He`s an absolute hero.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops say they didn`t shoot through the window, because the glass would have shattered and could have hurt the baby in the process. Even when the suspect was repeatedly taunting them, screaming, "Kill me, kill me," while stabbing himself. Back out to "the Lion`s Den" again.

Was this what you call suicide by cop, Wendy? Somebody wants to end their own life, but being too much of a coward to do it themselves, they take a baby, use the child as a human shield, stab themselves and then scream to the cops, "Kill me." I mean...

MURPHY: Yes. I mean, that`s exactly the note I wrote, "Suicide by cop." The curious piece to this story is the baby. I mean, suicide by cop actually happens every once in a while. And it`s weird. You know, I mean, who -- if you want to commit suicide, why make the cops do it? And why not just go do your thing, jump off a bridge?

And then in this case what`s weird is, if this guy knew he was going to die, or wanted to kill himself or wanted the cops to kill him and he`s got this baby there, and he`s this gruesome anyway as a human being, why didn`t he kill the kid? It would have been easy. I`m so glad he didn`t. And the injuries to this baby are so disturbing to look at.

But look, you know, how can you blame a cop for doing anything in that situation, anything?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy, I do not blame the cop. Look at the blood -- look at the blood and the scrapings on this little child, on her cheek.

First of all, I want to go to Romani Durvasula, psychologist. This is a very young child, a baby. An infant, you might say. Will she remember this? Will this traumatize her? Is she just too young to really understand what was going on?

DURVASULA: I really think that she can be OK. But what`s going to be really important is that she`s consistently back with her caregiver. The odds of her remembering any of this, very slim. She`s very, very young. And so I think for her, it`s really consistency, her usual routine, all of that. But someone as young as this, the odds of their being a traumatic fallout from this are pretty slim.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I hope you`re right. And you know, we criticize police officers sometimes. We question them sometimes. But in this case, I agree with our panel: this officer was a hero. Made a decision in a split second to save this child`s life and take out this madman. Boom! Way to go.

Next, a bizarre twist in the deadly movie theater shooting. You remember the whole texting movie theater shooting. Well, now we`ve got a stunning new development that puts a whole new spin on the case of the man who killed a dad who was out on a date with his wife, and just wanted to check up on his daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He staggered two seats over, fell on my son and I. I asked my son to go call 911, which is what he did. He thought it was in the movie. He said he was a nurse, jumped down and started pumping the gentleman`s chest until the paramedics arrived. That`s what happened today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. So that`s the guy`s blood that you have all over you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His blood? His blood, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This happened so damn fast. I guess you could say I was scared (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t believe people would bring a pistol -- a gun to a movie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, come on buddy. Breath

NICOLE OULSON, WIDOW: It is so hard and so unbearable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no justification for what happened in there. As soon as I pulled the trigger, I said, "Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, shocking new developments in that infamous Florida movie theater shooting. Just released documents claim the shooter, ex-cop Curtis Reeves, was actually texting his own son just minutes before he shot another moviegoer, complaining that that man was texting. Is that the ultimate in hypocrisy? Does this clue uncover also the real motive for what cops say is a cold-blooded murder?

Curtis Reeves is an ex-cop. He`s an older guy, he`s a senior citizen. He`s accused of gunning down a young father and husband named Chad Oulson because that dad had the misfortune of sitting right in front of this old man and had texted during previews. He wanted to find out if his daughter was ok.

But this guy, 71-year-old Curtis says, "Oh, this guy scared me. I`ve never been so scared in my life. That`s why I pulled out my gun and fired a shot into his chest, killing him." The ex-cop says Chad became enraged after the cop said, "Hey, put your cell phone away," in the movie theater. The shooter claims Chad then responded by screaming at him and hitting him in the face with something, possibly a cell phone.

Here`s what the shooter told cops right after he fired that deadly shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURTIS REEVES, ON TRIAL FOR CHAD OULSON`S DEATH: It scared the hell out of me. I thought the guy was fixing to beat the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He never told you that -- right.

REEVES: The aggravated position, the distorted face, the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) and stuff like that. I don`t think I`ve ever had anybody get in my face like that. I haven`t been that scared since I`ve been retired. Nobody`s ever scared me. This guy scared me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And he`s a cop. He says he`s so scared. This surveillance video shows the very moment the shot was fired in the movie theater. Does the ex-cop`s story match up to what we see on the videotape? We`ll analyze that in a minute.

But first, straight out to the "Lion`s Den". Now we`re hearing the shooter who was furious that the guy in front of him was texting, had texted his own son moments before the whole argument. My head is exploding, Philip Snyder, criminal defense attorney, from the sheer hypocrisy of it all.

PHILIP SNYDER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Why is everyone focusing on the texting part? What the case boils down is whether Mr. Reeves was in fear of great bodily harm as a result of this other individual that he says was threatening him, throwing popcorn at him and punching him in the face.

I think a lot comes down to his character and the fact that he was a 20-year law enforcement officer, who his wife says has never pulled out the gun on anyone. I think it`s going to go a long way with the jury.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, please, Joey Jackson -- saving the best for last. Go ahead Joey, because my head is exploding with the hypocrisy. I`ll say it again. You`re complaining about somebody who`s texting in front of you, but you just finished texting yourself. It`s previews -- the movie hasn`t even started yet, so you shoot the guy in front of you who just did what you just did?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Do as I say, not what I do and as I do. And the problem is, that there`s a significant disconnect between his outrage -- you`re texting, the previews, this is a movie -- between what he`s believing is inappropriate, and what he does himself. And that, of course, is not the only problem with the case.

The additional problem is the disproportionate use of the force here. And in addition to that, Jane, you have the unreasonableness as to his conduct in addition to that you also have his story. We heard half of it, or we heard some of it that we had right there. He also said if he had to do it over again, he wouldn`t do it.

And then when they interviewed his wife, separately of course, she didn`t see any threat. She didn`t see any popcorn. This is an outrage. And you know he faces a minimum mandatory of 25 years, based on his age, of course, that`s life in jail.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Ramani Durvasala, clinical psychologist, this is my psycho babble moment. I don`t think this guy was really upset about the texting. I think he was upset because his son hadn`t shown up at the movies. To meet him the way he was supposed to. And that`s what the text revealed.

RAMANI DURVASALA, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The new information we have is that the guy who shot somebody for texting was texting himself with his son, hey, essentially, where are you. And the son later revealed he was late to get to the movies because he decided to stop and wash his truck. And he actually walked into the movie theater right as the gun battle erupted.

So in my mind, people are never angry about what they say they`re angry about. This is an old codger who`s angry because his adult son is disrespecting him. His anxiety-ridden, where`s my son? The movie is getting ready to start. Then he sees somebody up there and says, "Oh, you`re texting, I`m going to direct all my anger at you," a stranger and kills him.

DURVASALA: Yes. Well, staying with the psycho babble, Jane, we call that displacement. You take your anger at one thing, you put it on another. This also seems like a guy who didn`t tolerate inconvenience very well. I mean I think he may have been inconvenienced by his son. He did what he needed to do.

And so he had his convenience and then when someone else was in his way or in his face, he just had no way of regulating that. And that makes me wonder if this guy wouldn`t do something like this again. Again, it`s just like I look for behaviors that repeat and I agree with you, Jane. Call it psycho babble all you want, but that may very well be the dynamic underlying this so he could do it again.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The biggest problem -- it`s not the first time this guy did this. He allegedly got angry with somebody else over texting at the very same movie theater, on another occasion, another movie even perhaps, and reported that person to the usher as well. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I put my phone away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife put the phone away, turned around, fine. But we noticed that in the aisle, this guy, and he`s still talking with the usher and pointing at us and angrily, you know, shaking his hands and everything. We`re like, wow what`s his deal? So I think he wanted us to know that he`s the one that reported us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And as the night went on, he just glared and glared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brian Claypool, to me, that`s got to be in the prosecution`s case. This guy did this before. He`s a busy body, self- important, crotchety old man.

BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right, Jane. They have to show the prior incident, because I have to be upfront with you, when I heard that he wasn`t texting, I kind of felt like maybe this guy has some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder because of the years he worked on the police force. He was a police captain. Maybe this was an acute event that just triggered him having to defend himself.

I actually felt a little bit of sympathy for this guy when I heard the latest information.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What?

CLAYPOOL: But wait a minute. Now that I hear he had an incident three years prior, that`s why the prosecution has to bring it out to show he has a pattern, history and propensity for being violent and aggressive.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, in the interview audio tapes, this shooter seems remorseful admitting if he could do it all over again, he wouldn`t have done it. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REEVES: Good heavens, I didn`t mean to do it. I guess you could say I was scared (EXPLETIVE DELETED). There`s no justification for what happened in there.

As soon as I pulled the trigger, I said, "Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED)." But again, I`m 71 years old, I don`t need to be messing with a younger man. If I had it to do over again, it would never have happened. We would have moved but we don`t get do overs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, you know, when I hear people I was scared bleepless, it reminds me of like the Michael Dunn case. There was gun, well, maybe it was a stick. Maybe he was getting out. It`s like, isn`t that the first line of defense when you`re caught doing something wrong like, "Oh, I was scared, I`m the victim here?"

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes. I mean, come on. He was a cop for all those years. He`s scared of popcorn? I don`t think so. You know, I am a bit of a texting hypocrite, I have to say, I yell at people who text while driving and every once in a while I pull it up at a red light. So I don`t like the nature of the hypocrisy here.

But I agree with you that there had to have been more going on and I think he was not only angry with his son. Remember he got up from his seat and went to the manager and came back with nothing. So the manager probably said, "Take a break, sir. Get off your high horse, sir. You`re a rule-driven hot-headed cop with nothing to do because you`re in retirement. All the rules don`t matter right now. The movie hasn`t damn started yet, shut up." And if that`s what the manager said to him --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- which he should have --

MURPHY: -- and he went back, probably steam was coming out of his ears.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think that he has a mental disturbance. And I don`t know how you diagnose it. But think about it, clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasala. Think about it at home. How would you diagnose this retired police honcho who keeps going to the movies and telling other people what to do? Is he lonely? Is he --

DURVASALA: Jane --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Don`t answer, don`t answer, don`t answer. We`re going to get to it on the other side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OULSON: Just to think that in the blink of an eye, my whole world just got shattered into a million pieces. And now I`m left trying to pick them up and put them all back together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she said "That was no cause to shoot anyone." And then he leaned back around and stuck his finger out, you know, as to, you know, scold her and said, "You shut your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mouth and don`t say another word."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s look more closely at the surveillance video from inside the movie theater. It seems to show the shooter sit down presumably after he went to complain to the manager about Chad Oulson, the guy sitting in front of him texting during previews. Then we see what appears to be a hand come into the screen. And it looks like popcorn is thrown. And then out of nowhere, Curtis seems to pull out his gun and fire that deadly shot.

The defense played their own version of the surveillance tape at a bond hearing. And this is it -- it`s closer and it`s a loop. And they say it shows a cell phone. Let`s look very closely. I`m looking, too. A cell phone being thrown at this 71-year-old former police honcho`s face. I don`t know. What do you see?

Joey Jackson, what do you make of it? This is his defense. He said, "Hey, I thought -- it was a cell phone that hit me and I was terrified."

JACKSON: You know, the reality is Jane, whether it`s a cell phone or whether it`s popcorn, I mean you can make the argument that certainly a cell phone could be more problematic in that it hurts or what have you, or you could misconstrue it as maybe it`s a weapon being thrown at him. But either way, what he did, you know, that is the shooter, is just completely disproportionate to what it called for under those circumstances.

So however you spin that tape, it represents problems for him, whether it`s a bail hearing, or whether it`s a trial.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ramani Durvasala, you`ve had a chance as a clinical psychologist to think of what is this guy`s problem that he`s so concerned with what other people are doing in a movie that hasn`t even started yet?

DURVASALA: Ok. Jane, as a psychologist, I`m going to tell you out of the gate, this is an older gentleman. The first thing you`ve got to do is rule out anything due to aging, whether it`s dementia, whether he`s had a stroke, whether he has Alzheimer`s disease or anything that could impair his insights.

When people get older, in some ways what we see sometimes is that their traits intensify. So this is a guy who always had a short fuse. It may have been shorter. You know, so that kind of thing, the insight can tend to go away. I think he lacked insight, he lacked judgment, and his fuse is really short. I think this is how he`s always been. It`s just probably gotten worse as he got older.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know what; it`s a cautionary tale for all of us. I mean I`m scared to do anything. You want to trample over me? You want that seat? Oh, yes go ahead, take it.

More on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hey, little Foxy, big news for animals just like you: the criticism of big agriculture escalating as consumers demand change. Even cutting-edge fast food chains are embracing the new ethos and looking at where our food comes from and thinking, what happens to animals in the process?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That exploding cow woke up a sleeping beast. The American public now wants to know what the hell is going on with their food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That (inaudible) and Chipotle`s controversial new series "Farmed and Dangerous". Got to check it out, the scripted series is an indictment of factory farming.

Tonight California voters have banned intensive confinement of farm animals which a lot of people call institutionalized cruelty. I am talking about big gestation crates. I`m talking about veal crates. I`m talking about battery cages that egg-laying hens spend all their lives in.

As of January 1st -- this coming January -- they are all banned in California. The state went even further and said if you want to sell eggs in California, they cannot come from these horrific environments that lock hens in tiny battery cages. They can`t spread their wings, they can`t turn around.

Now Big Ag is fighting that. Leading the charge, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, he`s suing to try to overturn the new rule in federal court. He claims, "at stake is whether elected officials in one state may regulate the practices of another state`s citizens who cannot vote them out of office," end quote.

Straight out to Paul Shapiro from the Humane Society of the United States. Paul, tell us what`s going to happen on January 1st and why is Big Ag fighting it so hard?

PAUL SHAPIRO, HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES: Jane, in the egg industry, most hens are kept in these tiny cages where they can`t even spread their wings for their entire lives. As you noted, in California, starting January 1st, that is going to be prohibited as is the sale of show eggs from birds who are in these horrific conditions.

Attorney General Chris Koster in Missouri is now trying to curry favor with his own state`s big agribusiness interest in preparation for his own gubernatorial run by suing to overturn this law.

The fact of the matter is, Jane, states have the right to pass laws regulating the sale of products who they find to be offensive to their own moral values and to be threat to public health and food safety. That`s exactly what California has done here. California has a right to do it.

In fact, Missouri has done the same thing with other laws that it has on similar topics within its own state. Koster`s lawsuit is an affront to common sense values about preventing cruelty to animals and it`s the height of hypocrisy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Look at these animals. Does anybody really want to be involved with that? Do you want to co-sign that? Do you want to eat something that results from that? Of course not, Americans are decent people.

And now the secret is out about factory farming thanks to the Humane Society of the United States, thanks to PETA, thanks for Mercy for Animals doing these undercover investigations. You know, they say well, it`s going to cost more. It`s going to cost a penny more, and it`s actually better for human health, too, Paul.

SHAPIRO: Indeed. Chris Koster from Missouri wants to force his substandard eggs from Missouri on to California consumers even though the California legislature has declared that those eggs are repugnant to the state`s moral values and are a threat to human health and food safety. The fact is that studies cage confinement of laying hens increases the risk of salmonella within those operations compared to cage-free conditions for those hens. That`s why California took this move and it has the right to do it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We have to leave it right there, but do something. You`re the consumer. You can make the change.

END