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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Young Nurse Knifed to Death by Mystery Man/Baltimore Cops Indicted for Abuse of Power. Aired 8-8:30p ET
Aired March 02, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We really want to find who did this to her so they can`t do this to anyone else.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST (voice-over): A crime so random, everyone`s on edge, friends and family of a Nashville nurse begging to find her killer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No tip is too small.
BANFIELD: She`s the second nurse from the hospital to turn up dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snuffs out the life of someone else for so little of monetary value.
BANFIELD: Police on the hunt for this man with the telltale rips in the back of his jeans. Somebody knows who he is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These officers, they`re 1930s-style gangsters.
BANFIELD: Seven Baltimore cops accused of being crooked, all from the same task force.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where there`s smoke, there often is fire.
BANFIELD: Stealing money and guns, faking reports and draining the city by cheating on overtime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Betraying the trust of the community, disgracing your fellow officers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re going to do everything we can to bring you to justice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got somebody laying on the ground in the median south of you guys.
BANFIELD: Night vision play-by-play from the sheriff`s chopper-cam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s crawling on all fours.
BANFIELD: On the hunt under cover of darkness for a suspect who thinks he can outsmart the cops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just rolled on his back. He`s laid down right in the ditch, on the shoulder.
BANFIELD: So did the deputies get their man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you can`t go like that!
BANFIELD: Who can forget that punch?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can`t hit her like that!
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: The right hook lost the officer his job, but his next bout will be in a courtroom.
The woman at the center of the astronaut love triangle breaks her silence to "Inside Edition."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do still have anxiety.
BANFIELD: Still haunted 10 years after her rival wore a diaper to drive across the country and attack her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If somebody were to sneak up on me, I`d jump out of my skin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re going to add six ounces of butter...
BANFIELD: The murder of a popular chef sends shock waves through town.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Female states she just shot her husband.
BANFIELD: What could have led the mother of his kids to this point?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was an altercation. I just need the police. If anybody can call, please call right now.
BANFIELD: Turns out there was another mother of his kids who got the same Valentine`s present she did.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
Anytime that somebody dies unexpectedly, especially at a young age, it`s shocking, but when that death is violent and completely random, it is
something very different. The whole community can be rattled by it. And that is what they`re feeling in Nashville tonight because 23-year-old
Tiffany Ferguson was not supposed to die so young.
And why she died so violently is a complete mystery tonight. Police are baffled by her killer`s motive, yet they do admit they have some strong
leads in the hunt for him. Tiffany was a critical care nurse about to take a day off and go home to see her family. But just before dawn, a
mysterious man slipped into the apartment that she shared with her roommate and stabbed her to death in her own bedroom.
Tiffany`s colleagues at the hospital where she worked and her friends from her hometown talked about what a tremendous loss this is for the community.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAYTON WILBANKS, MUSIC MINISTER, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH: She had a sweet spirit and a giving heart and she loved people. She loved life. She was
always full of life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Police believe a man seen trying to break into cars right near Tiffany`s apartment is, in fact, the man who entered her unlocked apartment
and killed her. But it is the complete randomness that has friends and family even more shaken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMMY WALLACE, SENIOR PASTOR: I`m going to tell you I don`t know that I`ve ever had anything that affected me personally any more than this, that
somebody just goes in and for so little of monetary value, snuffs out the life of someone else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: As for the murder suspect, police have given us this surveillance video to try to help track him down. And there are some
interesting clues. In fact, as you look at this man, he`s wearing a hooded zip-up sweatshirt, walking across what looks to be the apartment complex`s
gated entrance. Under the hoodie is a T-shirt with some of a logo on it. You`ll see that as soon as he turns around.
[20:05:00]I want you to take a really close look at the jeans that he`s wearing because this is what stands out. They are very unique. Look
closely. There are rips at both the knees, not just on the front where you normally see them, but also on the back, rips in the back of the knees of
the jeans. Look closely. See that pattern? It stands out, and somebody might recognize that. Somebody might know those jeans are unique, and that
someone may be able to help solve this crime, God forbid, before it happens to someone else.
Lauren Ferguson is Tiffany Ferguson`s cousin, and she joins me from Laredo (ph), Tennessee. Lauren, I am so sorry for your loss, and I`m so thankful
that you`re here to help share your cousin`s story.
First of all, what are you learning about the hunt for the person who did this to Tiffany?
LAUREN FERGUSON, VICTIM`S COUSIN (via telephone): We are not hearing anything except for what we`re seeing on the news. We just need more
people to come forward and to just pay attention to that clip so we can get this person caught.
BANFIELD: And we`re going to continue running that clip. We ran it all of last night`s segment on this program. We will run it on this segment
because I agree with you. I think there is something to those jeans that stands out and someone might know something.
Oftentimes, Lauren -- or Laura (sic) -- when we are dealing with, you know, minimal amounts of information from the police, it`s hard to string
together the motives, the why. But one thing we do know is that this does seem to be completely random. Both your cousin`s roommate and your cousin
seem to have no connection to this man, is that correct?
FERGUSON: We don`t know. That`s the understanding that we have.
BANFIELD: So Lauren, what about Tiffany`s night? As we understand, she was going to take the day off and come back to your hometown to see your
family. Do you think there`s any connection between that day off and what happened?
FERGUSON: No. We -- our family is very close. We get together probably once a week, if not once every two weeks, and we all eat and just have a
good time. And that was nothing out of the ordinary for Tiffany.
BANFIELD: So she would have done what was sort of a normal thing to do every two weeks, take a day off, maybe come home, drive the couple of hours
to see you all. So that`s not out of the ordinary. Have the police shared with you and your family what was stolen from the apartment?
FERGUSON: No. We really don`t know. Like I said, we only know what we see on the news.
BANFIELD: Is this a source of frustration for you and your family? Are the police at least helping you understand why they`re staying so tight-
lipped?
FERGUSON: We just want something to be done. We just want the person to be caught. That`s all we`re asking for.
BANFIELD: And Lauren, we look at the pictures of your cousin, and Tiffany is, without question, a stunning girl. There`s just not a picture of her
where she isn`t beautiful and smiling. Even her eyes have a smile to them. We`ve seen a couple of comments from friends and co-workers, but you know,
from her -- her close family members, tell us what kind of girl your cousin was.
FERGUSON: Tiffany was one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. She was the closest thing to an angel on earth that you could ever meet. She`s
so fun to be around. As soon as she came in the room, we would just cut up and act silly, and everyone would just have a good time.
She just wanted to take care of other people. That`s why she became a nurse. She had a passion for it and that was definitely what her calling
was. She was selfless. She was always helping others, whether it was giving meals to the homeless or money or whatever. She went on a mission
trip to Guatemala with her nursing class. I mean, it was just always about what she could do for other people.
BANFIELD: Lauren, how is...
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: I`m sorry to interrupt. How is Tiffany`s twin sister and her other sister doing?
FERGUSON: I mean, heart-broken, as you can imagine. No one knows what to do. We`re just all in shock.
BANFIELD: And what about her parents? How are they managing?
FERGUSON: Just the same.
BANFIELD: Well, I mean, it is such a mystery, and I hope for your sake and all of Nashville that they are able to find this man and that you are able
to at least get some answers to extraordinarily perplexing questions. Lauren, please, our hearts go out to you and your family. Please give them
our best. And thank you for being here tonight.
FERGUSON: Well, thank you so much. Just get the word out there for us.
BANFIELD: And we will. And that video continues to play. If you see anything about that video that looks familiar -- again, focus on those
jeans. If that stands out, the rips in the back of the jeans, the shirt with the T-shirt design on the front -- he pulls out a cell phone. It
appears to have a flashlight on it and looks on the ground for something.
[20:10:10]Darrin Porcher`s a retired NYPD lieutenant and criminal justice expert. He`s joining me now live (INAUDIBLE) Darrin, one of the things I
wanted to ask about was that picture of the cell phone use. So often, when we have a suspect and we have a cell phone, we can triangulate where they
were at that particular time. This is right at the, you know, beginning of dawn. It`s around 5:00 o`clock in the morning.
Can you go the other way? Can you find out whose cell phones were active in the area at that time? Can that be a clue to finding him?
DARRIN PORCHER, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE: It could be, but it`s more like finding a needle in a haystack because we take in consideration this is a
housing development coupled with a roadway. Whenever some -- anyone is entering that are, it`s going to bounce off of that cell phone tower.
That`s what`s going to make it more of a challenge.
But one of the first things that I would look at if I was investigating this case is, I`m going to look for latent prints. Latent print
information is something I can gain in, I want to say, maybe an hour to two hours tops, whereas the DNA evidence takes longer because the DNA check
goes through not just the state database but the federal database. Oftentimes, that can take upwards to 30 to 40 days.
BANFIELD: So interesting you should mention that because they actually did do a search warrant on that murder scene, and they lifted carpet samples,
they lifted fingerprints like you mention. They lifted DNA evidence, and then something that can only be characterized as additional evidence that
they`re not telling us about.
I am curious about this. We have not heard of a reward that`s been put out for this person. I`m surprised. You know, maybe you can weigh in on what
characterizations have to exist before a police department will put out a reward when you`ve got a video that`s so significant like this.
And they`re also not really talking. The Nashville police -- we`ve begged them to come on the show and help us to, you know, get that story out, get
that video out, and they`re not doing that. So I`m curious what that means.
PORCHER: One thing that`s interesting about this case is we have an individual that`s going from a petty larceny, attempting to break into
cars, that progresses to doing -- to committing a homicide and a burglary. That is somewhat of an aberration. So that`s an assessment that the police
are going to have to make. So when we go -- when we take in consideration a reward, this is dependent upon the fears within this community and how
imminent (ph) it is this police department believes in capturing this individual.
BANFIELD: Couple things to just note. Tiffany chose to live in that community -- and this is according to her cousin, Lauren -- because it was
safe, that her family had all toured (ph) to her apartment. They loved this area. They believed this is a great spot for her. She loved that
area.
Now that family is planning her funeral, which is now set for Saturday. And if you travel through her hometown, Laredo, tonight, you`ll notice blue
ribbons are tied all around Laredo. It`s a small town, just about 1,500 people, and they all are very close and they are all rocked by this story.
We`ll continue to watch this. And when we find out something from the police in Nashville, we`re certainly going to share it with you as they
look for that person.
Want to take you to Florida now, detectives releasing some video from surveillance cameras there that they hope can help them to catch a couple
of killers -- in fact, killer home invaders.
So watch as you see this -- this blue Chrysler pull up to a house. Two men get out. And you can see them very stealthily creeping around the back.
One creeps up the stairs here on the side of the house, then a guy in a red hoodie follows in behind. You can see him appear. They decide that that`s
not the door for them. So instead, back down the stairs. Both of them decide to head towards the back deck.
And once they get to the back deck, that`s when you notice they mean business because they have their guns drawn. Watch as they sort of duck
below windows as they walk by. They peek into windows. They walk all the way towards where they find a door on that deck that they think maybe they
can breach. And they were right because as soon as they get to it, you`re going to see them. They`re going to breach that door. And very sadly,
there is a family inside. The only thing that the sheriff`s deputies can tell us about these killers is what they were wearing, hoodies and masks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAUREN LETTELIER, MARION CO. SHERIFF`S OFFICE: It`s a shocking video to watch, to watch them go in there, and they definitely go in there with a
motive to kill.
We`re looking for anybody that notices, you know, who these people may be, the way they walk, what they`re wearing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So as you look at that video, here are some other pictures to take in. These are the victims, Andy Falkler (ph) and his 18-year-old
stepson Bailey Zilo (ph). They were killed in this home invasion robbery. And there is now a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to the
arrest of those two people, who not only killed those two but did so in front of that child`s mother. And apparently, the mother at one point,
according to reports, was also being threatened.
[20:15:05]It is a terrifying scenario, and that is the result. Those two people lost their lives, and those two in the video are somewhere out there
tonight.
You know, this sounds like a little like an episode of "The Wire" or even the movie "Training Day," if you`ve seen it. But the charges against seven
police officers are all too real in this next story. How the feds say the officers robbed and cheated the city of Baltimore and the people living in
it of hundreds of thousands of dollars. You`re going to meet them in a moment.
And a manhunt for a suspected car thief using night vision cameras. It look like a video game, tracking down their man complete with a deputy
chopper play-by-play.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) on the shoulder. He`s crawling on all fours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: An Arizona cop caught on video punching a woman in the face during an arrest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) have a warrant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you can`t hit a girl like that!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, you can`t hit a girl like that, it turns out. You probably remember this guy. We showed you this video before on the
program. He did lose his job. But we also have another update. He has a brand-new appointment, and it`s in front of a judge.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:44]BANFIELD: In a city where emotions are still raw between police and its citizens, a city that shook with violent riots two years ago over
the arrest and the death of Freddie Gray, seven Baltimore police officers have now been accused of doing the unthinkable. All seven of them are
members of the department`s gun trace task force, and they are in a world of trouble.
A federal indictment is accusing them of scheming to steal money, as much as $200,000 in just one single case. The feds say that they stole property
and drugs, but that some of those victims were innocent people who were not committing crimes. The allegations are that the cops did this by detaining
people, by entering the homes, by conducting traffic stops, but serving fake search warrants and even billing for unworked overtime. And we`re not
talking just a little, we`re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Baltimore`s police chief is calling the charges a punch in the gut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF KEVIN DAVIS, BALTIMORE PD: These officers, they`re 1930s-style gangsters as far as I`m concerned. The misdeeds and the criminal
misconduct that they`re engaged in shocks me as much as it does anyone in this room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Phil Yacuboski is a reporter and an anchor for WBAL. He joins me live from Baltimore. Phil, I`m not entirely sure that you have
recovered from the riots in your town, from dealing with officers and indictments and in the end of that and the settlements and the money, and
now this.
PHIL YACUBOSKI, WBAL (via telephone): Yes, it`s been certainly a heck of a 24 hours here in Baltimore as the city learned about these seven police
officers, which have been arrested for, like you said, the unthinkable. Many people in this (INAUDIBLE) and over course, all over the country,
expect police officers to be good citizens and to be good cops. And as the police chief said -- today, he said these are bad cops and dirty cops. And
he said, We`re going to get them off the street.
BANFIELD: So the U.S. attorney for the district of Maryland where you are had a couple of choice things to say, as well, but then got kind of
specific about some of the theft. And I want you to hear from Rod Rosenstein about a couple of the things he detailed when they announced
this really ugly situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROD ROSENSTEIN, U.S. ATTORNEY: One of the instances, the allegation -- the largest allegation actually is that they stole $200,000 from one victim,
and the smallest one was a couple hundred dollars from a fellow who had earned it in a legitimate business. This is robbery. This is not
legitimate law enforcement activity. I think it`s important to make that point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So Phil, the thefts -- I mean, I remember reading some of these details in the release from the federal government, that they would
actually, like, play along with one another and set up these kind of sting things, where they would pretend to be people other than they were and
enter people`s homes and literally take bundles upon bundles of money out of one particular case?
YACUBOSKI: That`s right.
BANFIELD: The shakedowns seemed to sort of have no -- no particular MO, though. I mean,they were taking money from -- from 20 bucks to, like,
this, $200,000 from one guy..
YACUBOSKI: Yes, it really is, again, the unthinkable. If you read the charging documents here, one of the cases is up to, as you said, $200,000.
Another situation was involving a guy who had an automobile business, and he would buy automobiles for cash at auction. He worked at a nursing home
here in Baltimore city, along with his family. And he was shaken down by them, allegedly, for, you know, a lot of money, thousands upon thousands of
dollars.
In another instance, they actually went to a storage facility where the money was taken out of socks and shoeboxes, again from what the federal
government had to say here. So yes, it was tens of thousands of dollars that a lot of people had stolen from them.
BANFIELD: And so as we see the racketeering indictments -- by the way, racketeering is one of those things where most Americans would say, What is
racketeering? It`s just this huge catch basket of getting guys on this kind of ugly gangster sort of business.
But I was amazed by the -- well, the aliases that many of these cops allegedly were employing, like G Money and Lil Brill and Chewy and
(INAUDIBLE) and Munch and Lieu. And I mean, it was not lost on the officers who are prosecuting this. They said this was like a `30s-style
gangster unit.
[20:25:04]YACUBOSKI: Right. That`s what the police commissioner said today. In fact, Detective Gonda (ph), who was -- essentially, if you read
through this, sort of like the, quote, unquote, "ringleader" of this group -- you know, he`s accused of dealing drugs and -- and -- when you read the
wiretaps that were released in those court papers, yesterday, he had all kinds of language that he used about how he would set up sting operations
and they would sell drugs and (INAUDIBLE) steal drugs allegedly from one person and deal it to the next and all of the cash funneled to all
different types of things.
And by the way, there`s the overtime issue here. Aside from all of the issues with the drugs and the guns and all of that other stuff, there`s the
overtime problem. All of these officers are accused of racking up $400,000 in unused overtime. Some of these officers almost doubled their salaries,
according to these charging documents.
BANFIELD: We`re putting up the graphic right now. You know what? We`re putting it up right now so people can actually see the salary versus how
much they made in overtime. And you`re right, in many cases, it was almost entirely double. In other cases, it was like another 50 percent as much.
I want to bring Darrin Porcher back into this conversation, and also bring in Joey Jackson and Heather Hansen, both defense attorneys, to sort of sift
through where they go from here. First and foremost, Darrin, as a cop and a retired detective, there is this blue wall of silence, and it seemed that
lot of these guys were allegedly making sure that no one ratted out the other.
And they are charged with obstruction in this, as well, because they were sort of making sure the stories were all the same, making sure that we say
this instead of this so that, you know, we got our stories straight.
It`s got to be really hard to prosecute cops because these guys are on the inside!
PORCHER: Well, I was a lieutenant in internal affairs bureau in the NYPD, and one of the issues that I see here is there is a strong cultural
disconnect between the executives and the officers that are committing these acts. The police department needs to implement a proactive mechanism
in combatting corruption, as opposed to being reactive.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: They need to supervise the overtime. You need to get your overtime cleared before you charge it because I don`t know how you get to
and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars before someone says, This looks weird.
Joey Jackson, real quick, great question from one of our producers today. What happens to convictions that these guys might have been involved in?
Because there could be dozens upon dozens of people who are convicted by dirty guys, allegedly dirty guys.
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It turns it upside down and on its head. Where`s the credibility? What can you rely upon? And you know, look, I
don`t have an issue with overtime, but doing overtime or saying you`re doing it while you`re on vacation, or while you`re shopping or while you`re
gambling, that`s another matter.
And I`ll tell you something else.
BANFIELD: Oh, man!
JACKSON: It will not be difficult to prosecute these officers because what the federal government does is they build their case, then they arrest you.
So they have you on wiretap. They know where you are. They know where you`ve been. They know what you`ve done. And so with this paper trail,
it`s hard to overcome.
BANFIELD: So...
JACKSON: And it just sets such a terrible stain on wonderful police officers who do a great service for communities.
BANFIELD: And Heather, they apparently were stinging this for a year. So they got lots and lots of -- shall we say reams and reams of tape. But the
question is, you got some guys who are accused of being a part of it and you got other guys who were massively involved in it, plus drug offenses.
They not only wee allegedly stealing drugs from drug dealers, but then dealing them themselves! We`re talking heroin that resulted in death! So
we`re looking at a big range for this guys, right?
HEATHER HANSEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, and that it`s. You`ve got to take each of these people separately and you have to have each of them have
their own defense attorneys because there are some that were only minimally involved and maybe not involved at all, and there were others who were
really the ringleaders. And I think it`s important to sort of step back and say that some of these gentlemen may not actually be guilty. These are
just indictments. Nothing has been proven. And I think that at least two of them weren`t actually present at the majority of the interactions.
BANFIELD: But one year of being, you know...
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: Oh, man!
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: Wait until we get that case...
(CROSSTALK)
JACKSON: Convicted by their own words.
BANFIELD: Oopsie!
All right, hold on, guys, got another story I want to share with our audience about a police officer landing on the wrong side of the law.
You may remember that back in January, Jeff Bonnar (ph) quit the Flagstaff, Arizona, police force before he could be fired because of this whole
punching thing, punching a woman as he was trying to arrest her. And it was on tape back in November. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You cannot arrest me until I know I have a warrant!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you can`t hit a girl like that!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you videotape that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hell, yes (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can`t hit her like that!
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: That cell phone video went viral. And now former officer Bonnar is facing criminal charges. He`s been indicted on two counts of aggravated
assault. Quite possibly that will be evidence in the case.
In Florida, a late-night fight in a WalMart parking lot turned into a manhunt that left one of the suspects with nowhere to hide. And I say that
quite literally because the police got an assist from the helicopter unit and that awesome thermal night imaging camera is like a video game. So take
a peek.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Air One, do you copy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got somebody laying in the ground on the median south of you guys. Sorry, not the median, on the shoulder. Crawling on all fours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About a half mile south of the accident. I`ve got somebody crawling in the ditch on the shoulder. He just rolled on his back.
He`s laying down right in the ditch, on the shoulder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m going to stand by with the car (inaudible) they`re heading down there (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Careful. Right there. Right there. Out your passenger window.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Yep. There you see the cops arriving. Suspect is hiding and you see his hands up. He knows the jig is up. Hands in the air, crawling
through the mud. He actually heads towards the officers and finito. 35- year-old Dustin Arnold booked and charged as accessory after the fact to grand theft. And I think yet again that video might play into the case.
It was a close call for a Nevada state trooper who had pulled over a driver for speeding, a passing big rig ended up losing control and dumping over a
thousand pounds of beer all over the highway and whoa, what a close call for the driver and the cop. Take a look.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just as I ask the question, I hear the sound that always gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, brakes locking up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Semi-truck, full of beer, just -- there`s beer all over all the travel lanes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just picking up my uniform at the dry-cleaners and then I was soaked head to toe in beer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Dangerous being a police officer, not just the guy in the car, you don`t know who he is, but this semi whole and the beer behind you --
that was -- luckily everyone was okay. Nobody was hurt. And reportedly, that driver who was pulled over in the first place who was about to be
ticketed for speeding, it was his lucky day, it was a smelly car, but he got to escape the ticket.
BANFIELD: A two-timing TV chef is allegedly killed by one of the ladies that he has been dating after she finds out he gave his other girlfriend
the exact same Valentine`s Day gift. And the woman caught in the middle of the astronaut love triangle, well, she is finally speaking out. Ten years
after the fact. And talking about what it`s been like living in fear and how she ultimately got her man.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Is there anything and I do mean anything that would get you so upset, fill you with so much rage that you would hop in a car and drive 900
miles in a diaper to confront someone? For more than 99 percent of us, that answer would be no. But in 2007, the answer was yes for NASA astronaut,
Lisa Nowak.
Captain Nowak drove those 900 miles from Houston to Orlando while wearing a space diaper to cut down on bathroom breaks. Nowak was going through a bad
breakup with yet a third astronaut and was trying to get that new lover Colleen Shipman out of the picture.
So she made the long trip and she attacked Captain Shipman with pepper spray in the parking lot of the Orlando Airport. It was all captured on
surveillance video. Captain Shipman after that attack is now talking. She told "Inside Edition" even 10 years later, she`s still not over this
attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLEEN SHIPMAN, NASA ASTRONAUT LOVE TRIANGLE VICTIM: I do still have anxiety. I do still look over my shoulder a lot. It was absolutely
debilitating. I didn`t leave the house for a six-month period at one point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: That`s Colleen Shipman and guess what? She ended up marrying that third astronaut, Bill Oefelein. That`s the couple at their wedding. See
what he`s wearing? Flight suit, down the aisle. There they are. And now they live a long way away from Houston and a long way away from Orlando. If
you recognize the snow and the outfits, that is Alaska. And that is where they had made their life.
Victoria Recano interviewed Colleen Shipman and she joins me live from Los Angeles. What a great story. I mean, 10 years later, you always want to
know the where are they now, Victoria. But did you get a sense that she`s good, she`s rebuilding her life, that she is managing just fine now?
VICTORIA RECANO, REPORTER AT INSIDE EDITION: Yeah, she absolutely is. In fact, her and Bill are really enjoying themselves because they have a 5-
year-old son and they are, as you can see, very happy in the wedding photos there. She talked to me about the day he proposed.
[20:40:00] And she also talked to me about the day that they met. She said she crashed a party and he came in and he swept her off her feet.
BANFIELD: So, I mean, it`s obvious if you`re the victim of something like this that you don`t forget it. And I really like the question you asked her
about sort of how she girds herself and how she sort of prosecutes her daily life. And I was surprised by the answer. I want to play a sound bite
from your interview. Have a look.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
SHIPMAN: To this day, I`m always armed. I`m armed all the time, 24/7. If somebody were to sneak up on me, I`d jump out of my skin, and I can`t help
it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Ten years and she still feels that way. She`s written a book, is the book loosely, heavily based on her experience? What do you know about
it?
RECANO: It really isn`t based on her experience. She wrote it because she said that it was a way for her to work through her feelings. And it was a
way for her to process the fear and sort of set a framework for everything that she went through.
And it starts out as a mystery and then it sort of leads into a paranormal type of characters. And it really -- it turns into something totally
different. But for her, she said, writing is about meditation, and really a form of therapy, if you will, for her.
BANFIELD: I remember covering this story, I mean, everybody remembers it is the astronaut who drove in the diaper. I mean, that`s really what branded
the story and made it so crazy. These are rocket scientists, you know. But the moment that Lisa Nowak did the mea culpa in court and apologized.
It was a strange apology, but I want to play it so everybody can remember how this thing all buttoned up, and how she ended up with just one year
probation and two days already served in jail in the plea deal. Have a listen to Lisa Nowak`s apology.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
LISA NOWAK, FORMER NAVAL FLIGHT OFFICER AND NASA ASTRONAUT: The past six months have been very difficult for me. My family and others close to me. I
know that it must have also been very hard for Colleen Shipman, and I would like her to know how very sorry I am about having frightened her in any way
and about the subsequent public harassment that has besieged all of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So I`m going to restate that. I don`t think that was in court. Because you don`t have the paparazzi in the courtroom. But that certainly
part of her mea culpa in that deal. So I kind of went back over the text of it and I thought wow, it is an interesting thing to start off with, the
past six months have been difficult for me and my family and people close to me.
It might have been hard for Colleen Shipman too. Does Colleen and her husband, Bill, do they think about her? Have they had any contact? Do they
know anything about her? Do they know where she is? Is she a part of their lives at all?
RECANO: She is not a part of their lives. In fact, when I asked Colleen about wanting to speak with her in any way and what she would say, she said
years ago she used to ask the question why. And she said -- and it would go through her mind over and over again. Would have, could have, should have,
what was happening.
But at this point, she`s moved on. Both her and Bill have found peace and she is on a day-to-day basis trying to live through the fear and anxiety
that she`s really been on this long process of healing.
BANFIELD: Yeah.
RECANO: She`s been using writing to do and which is why she did this book.
BANFIELD: And of course, you know, Victoria, it wasn`t just the crime, it was the sensationalism around it. I mean, they were swept up in a huge
national crazy story. It`s nice to know that they`re happy and they got that baby and she`s moving on. Great interview. Thanks for coming in to
share with us. I appreciate it. Thank you.
RECANO: Thank you.
BANFIELD: I love "Inside Edition." Say hi to Deborah Norville for me. She`s adorable.
RECANO: Absolutely.
BANFIELD: Okay. All right. Victoria Recano joining us with her terrific interview with Colleen Shipman. A popular TV chef, shot and killed in the
how and the why are total doozys (ph). Why the investigators say two identical Valentine`s Day gift receipts for the very same present but for
two very different ladies, might just be the motive for murder.
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Valentine`s Day is one of those holidays that can be tricky even when you`re in a good relationship. But if you are in a situation where
your significant other has another significant other, it becomes pretty difficult. And if that person happens to give you the very same gift, as
the other Valentine got, well, then that`s when it becomes possibly deadly. Because that`s what police say happened to a two-timing TV chef in
Bakersfield, California and we`ve got all the details straight ahead.
In just two weeks, we`ll gonna introduce you to the fist CNN Hero of 2017. So that means right now. We are on the hunt for all of those amazing people
that do such great all over the world. Here`s Anderson Cooper to tell you how you can nominate the hero in your life.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready to ride?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bring it in, girl.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN NEWS SHOW ANCHOR: Every year, CNN Heroes honors every day people doing extraordinary work to change lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So proud of you.
COOPER: We`ve crossed the globe to tell the stories of these amazing heroes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, go on right to the end.
COOPER: But we can`t do it without you. We need you to tell us who you think should be a CNN Hero. Look how far we`ve (inaudible). You can
nominate someone in just a few simple steps. Go to cnnheroes.com and fill in the forms to tell us about your hero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible).
COOPER: It`s that easy. You can help make your hero a CNN Hero. Shine some light on their amazing work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: When someone is murdered, the first question that most people ask is why did they do it? And police say in California, their latest case is a
first for them. Chef Ray Ingram was shot and killed inside the home of his girlfriend, a girlfriend of more than 25 years, by the way, with whom he
had a grown child, so a family.
But the investigators say they did not have to look very far for the accused shooter because they say that girlfriend, Michaele Bowers, told
them, right there on the scene that she had shot Chef Ingram.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, I have an emergency here at my home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you need police or medical?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. What`s going on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was an altercation. I just need the police. If anybody can come, please come right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. What`s going on, ma`am?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just please bring police, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need to give me more information.
BANFIELD: I guess that means no. But no matter, when the police arrived, they say that Ms. Bowers seen here in a court appearance admitted that she
had shot her long-time boyfriend Chef Ingram and said this, I just shot my children`s father. When the police went inside the home, they said they saw
the chef in the master bedroom face down with a single gunshot wound to the neck. He was pronounced dead right there on the scene.
Weird thing is no evidence of a struggle in the home. But there was this broken vase at the front door. Police believe that she had been standing in
the hallway leading into the bedroom when she allegedly pulled the trigger. Ms. Bowers was detained without incident and now, she is facing a first-
degree murder charge. But we`re still back at the beginning, why, why, why, would someone do that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And the answers the officers think might actually have been found on her cell phone. It was a photo of a receipt from Valentine`s Day that
show that Chef Ingram didn`t buy just one Valentine`s Day present, he bought two, and he didn`t really discern between the two girls. He bought
two identical gifts, identical gifts. The same flowers, the same mugs, and the same balloons.
One for Bowers and one for another woman that Ingram apparently had been dating for several years and with whom also had a child. So there is that.
Hmm. Joey Jackson is here. Heather Hansen is here. You know, you look at that, and you kind of say, first-degree murder, it makes sense but as a
defense attorney, do you think heat of passion if she found a receipt and if she found out this had been going on?
HEATHER HANSEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think I would go for some sort of domestic struggle. I`m not so sure there wasn`t a broken vase. There was
one event in their history where the police have been called and made press charges. So I wouldn`t be surprised if we see perhaps some sort of an
argument that there was a history of some violence in this relationship.
JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN AND HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Here is the problem.
BANFIELD: By the way, the balloon, you know how both of the babies` mamas got balloons, it was still in the hallway.
JACKSON: Yes, it was. Yes, it was. Here is the big problem. From a prosecution`s perspective, I think it`s ironclad, you have motive, you have
intent, you have opportunity, and you have ironclad evidence. Motive. We talked about it, right? The Valentine`s Day gifts, the intent. She`s very
upset about that.
It`s one thing to engage in the heat of passion, it`s another thing to engage in retaliation. Opportunity, he was there. Evidence, she calls and
otherwise says, I shot him, and gives that admission. It`s an easy case for the prosecution in my view.
[20:55:00] BANFIELD: Let me give you a little more information on the other lady. I cannot believe this happened. Look, Bowers had been with him for 25
years, they had an adult child together. That`s a family.
JACKSON: Right.
HANSEN: Sure.
BANFIELD: And this other girlfriend apparently had been with him for eight years and had a 4 year old. That`s a family. And she only just found out
about this last year. Maybe the receipt was what put her over the edge.
JACKSON: It was horrific. It will do crazy things to your mind but it doesn`t give you an excuse to kill someone.
HANSEN: Yeah, (inaudible) defense.
BANFIELD: Joey and Heather, thank you so much.
HANSEN: Thank you, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: Thank you, everyone, for being with us. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. See you back here on Monday night. Have a great weekend.
[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
