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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Second Day of Victim Testimony in War Machine Trial. Aired 8-8:30p ET
Aired March 09, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTY MACK, ALLEGED VICTIM: So he broke the handle off the knife and still continued to use the knife blade.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST (voice-over): A former porn star relives the nightmare.
MACK: He cut my head!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With the knife?
MACK: Yes!
BANFIELD: And breaks down while listening to her own 911 screams the night she and her boyfriend were nearly beaten to death.
MACK: I generally felt like I was going to die!
BANFIELD: The man on trial, MMA fight star War Machine, now in the fight for his life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody in the house knows who did it.
BANFIELD: And now police say they know, too. Manhunt tonight for two men they say killed a young pregnant mom asleep with her tiny baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gabriel Garza (ph) and Isaac Rozzo (ph) are currently wanted for the murder of Amber Baker (ph).
BANFIELD: On the run, but for how long?
Is this any way to speak to a judge?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: Gross defiance during sentencing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: A judge brings down the hammer on an abuser who sicced a pitbull on his girlfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: Think she was surprised by his attitude in court?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He hasn`t had any remorse towards me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those girls loved each other.
BANFIELD: For the first time since Abby and Libby were murdered on an Indiana hiking trial, family has a request.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really. Study the picture and listen to the audio clip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.
BANFIELD: Can you help find their killer?
Yet another thief targets a car getting gas, but the driver clings to his backpack and takes a thrashing from the robber. How to protect yourself
while filling up.
And remember this guy from New Line (ph) Cinemas "Elf (ph)?"
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Santa`s coming to town!
BANFIELD: One of this actor`s most memorable moments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take pictures with all the children.
BANFIELD: But now Fason Love (ph) might be remembered more for this small screen attack caught on tape at the airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
If you ever needed evidence that life really does imitate art, look no further than a dramatic courtroom in Nevada tonight and a violent
relationship that tangled sex and fighting and social media until it all exploded into a bloody attack that nearly killed two people, one a former
porn star, and the other a man in her bed when her ex-boyfriend walked in, an ex-boyfriend who changed his name to War Machine and is a prize-winning
mixed martial arts fighter.
Christy Mack, looking nothing like she does in her adult films, walked up onto that stand head held high. And the truth is, she`s lucky she can walk
at all. She`s actually lucky to be alive after the beating that she took in that bedroom three years ago. He broke her nose, he broke her rib, her
eye socket, he broke and knocked out teeth, lacerated her liver.
The violence, the abuse and the torture that she claims she suffered at the hands of War Machine echoed through that courtroom for hours, as did the
story of that thunderous attack.
Mack was in bed with Corey Thomas when War Machine found them. She says when he finished his attack on Thomas, he turned all of his fury towards
her. She says that beating lasted two hours and ended when he said there was no choice, that she had to die.
It was the worst of her beatings, plural. In fact, she talked about how his violence started small and got worse and worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MACK: In the beginning, it would just be, like, a slap in the face, and that would be it, or just choking me and that would be it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So when you say choking, we`ve already talked about choking, you know, in the bedroom, like consensual choking during sex.
MACK: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you consider that to be different than the choking you and I are talking about right now?
MACK: Yes, it would be very different.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you explain to me how?
MACK: This was not at my request. When we were having consensual sex, I would request him to choke me. He wouldn`t normally do it on his own
accord. But if we were in an argument and he became violent, he would just (INAUDIBLE) There was no sexual contact before or immediately after.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When he would choke you, how would he do it? Like, what mechanism (INAUDIBLE)
MACK: Usually, he would just use one hand to -- to choke me. I don`t remember him ever using two hands, but sometimes, he would put -- he would
put my neck in the crook of his arm and then put his other arm around it to hold me closer.
[20:05:04]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How often were these types of things happening, like the slaps or the chokes?
MACK: At first, they weren`t that frequent, maybe once a month. But as our relationship progressed, the violence progressed also.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ever fight back?
MACK: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not?
MACK: I felt physically intimidated and also very scared of him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Very poised, very articulate and very succinct and to the point, the facts from that stand but also a lot of tears, as well.
Rachel Stockman is the editor-in-chief for Lawnewz.com, and she`s been following this gavel to gavel. She`s with me now live. I watched all day
yesterday. I watched all day today. And there was something very different. As she got on the stand yesterday, that image showed her in
that beauty pussy bow -- that`s what they call it -- and the lovely outfit where you could not see a lot of her tattoos.
Today not so much, showing the tattoos on her neck, very evident on the arms. Is there something -- something sort of significant to that move?
RACHEL STOCKMAN, LAWNEWZ.COM: I will agree with you she looked completely different than she did yesterday. On the stand, you could fully see her
tattoos. Her hair wasn`t as perfectly coifed. It almost looked like she had just gotten out of the shower.
And interestingly enough, Ashleigh, the defense attorney actually asked her about this and said, Well, did the prosecution ask you to cover up your
tattoos? I noticed you had makeup on your face. I noticed you had a high collar yesterday. Did the prosecutor tell you to do this? Trying to kind
of insinuate in a way...
BANFIELD: What did she say?
STOCKMAN: And she said, No. She said, No, not at all.
BANFIELD: So this is what she normally, you know, looked like in much of her social media feed well before the attack. She was very blatant about
her tattoos. There`s one on her that says "Property of War Machine." She`s well known for posing in sexual, you know, sort of positions and
putting it on Instagram, always having her pets. I mean, these are kind of adorable photos, but there are a lot of pictures that are very sexy.
And this is all working its way into this trial. There`s another image from the courtroom that`s really interesting, as well, and that is War
Machine because as War Machine looks at the woman that he once loved, and maybe still does -- hard to tell, but it sure seems that way -- he actually
has been brought to tears several times during her testimony.
Here`s Christy Mack on the stand talking -- and when you hear it from her mouth, it`s a lot different than hearing it here on this set about what she
ended up with after that massive series of blows. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MACK: My eyes were swollen shut. I could open my right one a little bit. My nose was broken in multiple places. One of my teeth was out, the other
one was halved. I had a large bruise that covered pretty much the entirety of my left leg. I had a lacerated liver, which was (INAUDIBLE) surgery but
that was (INAUDIBLE) so it healed itself. I can`t think of any more right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have a blow-out fracture to your eye?
MACK: (INAUDIBLE) an orbital blow-out fracture.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Orbital blow-out -- yes, that`s better known as a broken eye socket. So there`s something to that list and there is something to those
pictures that I showed you because what she said happened next is actually the most chilling part of what happened in that bedroom, and it also leads
to the most serious charge that War Machine -- legal name -- is facing, and that`s attempted murder.
Christy Mack said that he looked over her, effectively, and said, See what you look like? See all those injuries? Well, that now means that I`ve got
to do something else. Here`s her words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MACK: He looks at me, and he says, Now I have to kill you. I`ve gone too far. You can`t be seen like this. Everyone is going to know!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you try to talk him down off of that?
MACK: Yes, I did!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you say?
MACK: (INAUDIBLE) nobody has to see. He said, I can`t take you anywhere because people will see. And then I told him, We can just tell people
we`re going on vacation. We can just tell my mom we`re going on vacation. And he said, Well, it`s not going to work because your mom has to come over
and take care of the dogs. And I said, You could drop the dogs off (INAUDIBLE) house so she doesn`t have to come over. (INAUDIBLE) She`ll
think I`m gone. And I kept trying to give him reasons (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who had your phone at this point?
MACK: He did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: He had her phone. That`s going to be critical. I want you to remember that because not too long from now, I`m going to bring you back to
that moment and why it is so significant in this trial. He had her phone.
There is a point in which this attack could have gone two ways, she could have died or she could have escaped. And guess what she did? She escaped.
And she talked about that on the stand, how she actually got away. And it was a very lucky moment. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:10:02]MACK: I could hear the metal in the drawers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you think was going on?
MACK: I believed he was getting another knife since the other one had broken. (INAUDIBLE) kill me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you choose to do?
MACK: I got up. And I (INAUDIBLE) and I went outside and went through the doors on my balcony where I had put the dogs out earlier. And I closed the
doors (INAUDIBLE) so the dogs wouldn`t come in and know that I had left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not let John know that you had left?
MACK: Yes. (INAUDIBLE) (INAUDIBLE) to the golf course in the back yard. And I knew if he -- if he saw that I wasn`t there anymore, this is the only
way (INAUDIBLE) could have gone!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still naked?
MACK: Yes. I had the blanket around me that he had thrown on me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: That`s what you call a really good witness. I want to bring in Marie Napoli and Danny Cevallos, our attorneys who are going to try to sort
through this with us. Rachel`s still with me, as well.
Remember that little nugget I just told everybody about, that she said she never got her phone back after that attack, after she escaped, that
dramatic escape off the balcony, over the fence, naked, wearing only that blanket that she could grab, covered in blood. That`s going to be
significant in a moment, too.
The significance of that was that somehow, Rachel, her phone sent text messages while she`s off begging for help, banging on doors and asking for
help.
Text message number one, OK? This is Christy`s phone sending a message to Corey, the other guy who was part of the attack, and she apparently says to
Corey, "Sorry, hope you`re OK. This is all my fault. Are you OK? He`s calmed down now. Can`t believe this happened. I`m so sorry. I`m so
sorry. I hope you`ll forgive me."
And then the next set of text messages to Corey, Corey is sending a message to her saying, "Are you OK?" And she allegedly answering back, "yes.
Corey, "Did he hurt you?" "He left." "No. Yelled." Corey says, "Please give me a call. I`d just like to know that you are OK."
So how could she possibly be sending those texts, Rachel, if she doesn`t have her phone and she`s running for her life?
STOCKMAN: Well, the allegation is that War Machine took her phone and texted Corey Thomas all that you just saw there on your screen...
BANFIELD: As a ruse to day, Don`t you come over here.
STOCKMAN: Exactly. Don`t -- I`m fine. you don`t need to check on me, even though you just got brutally beat. He didn`t turn his attention on
my. I`m fine.
BANFIELD: Yes.
STOCKMAN: However, something tipped Corey off that he knew it wasn`t...
BANFIELD: It wasn`t her.
STOCKMAN: It wasn`t here.
BANFIELD: She doesn`t use shorthand like, yes -- Y-A, ya.
STOCKMAN: Exactly.
BANFIELD: She doesn`t do that, right?
STOCKMAN: She was very proper in the way she texted, and he could tell something was off about...
BANFIELD: By the way, I believe that because she`s super proper on the stand. Danny Cevallos, you would not expect -- and I don`t want to, you
know, castigate her because of her profession, but most people would not expect to have such an articulate and beautifully-spoken young woman who is
from the adult film industry, who`s got sort of this very rough lifestyle and a rough, you know, past.
DANNY CEVALLOS, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: She comes off very well, and part of that also is how they`ve -- she`s cleaned herself up. It`s amazing in a
trial how much either with a witness or a client, a defendant, just by putting them in the right clothing, putting them in the right shirt, the
right tie, whatever...
BANFIELD: Yes, it`s not window dressing. She`s got the goods. She`s smart.
CEVALLOS: She`s got both. She`s got both. And she`s lived this case. She`s intimately familiar with...
BANFIELD: Yes.
CEVALLOS: ... the facts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marie, she`s a good witness.
MARIE NAPOLI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She is a great witness. She is very smart. To be successful in her industry, you can`t be a stupid woman.
BANFIELD: Really?
NAPOLI: So she has...
BANFIELD: I don`t think a lot of people would believe what you just said.
NAPOLI: Oh, no. She`s done very well in her industry. As in any industry, if you come to the top of your industry, you`re a smart woman.
And she`s very articulate.
BANFIELD: I`ll tell you what...
NAPOLI: And she knows how to dress herself when she`s on the stand.
BANFIELD: And she knows how to answer questions without too much and without too little. She, to me, is one of the best witnesses in my 30
years of covering trials, I have to admit. And that`s not hyperbole. I really am incredibly surprised and very impressed by this young woman,
especially let`s not forget, since she nearly died in a bloody pulp on the floor of her bedroom.
It was hours upon hours Christy Mack was forced in this courtroom to answer the prosecutor`s questions. They walked her through all of the abuse, all
of the beatings that she says she suffered at the hands of War Machine.
But how would she do, this incredible witness, once, all of a sudden, the friendly lawyer sits down and the not so friendly lawyer stands up? It`s
called cross-examination. That`s when the defense puts that couple`s sex life on trial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As part of the rules of your relationship, did you guys have what you called a sex slave?
MACK: He would refer to it as a sex slave. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, can you explain that to us?
MACK: Just someone for him to have sex with when I was unable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And never the three of you?
[20:15:00]MACK: We had plans for the three of us. But I don`t recall us ever even having a threesome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: I mean, to call it an intense courtroom is an understatement. We`re continuing to watch all that testimony from the former porn star
Christy Mack. Listen, this woman has been on the stand for two days now, hours upon hours, being asked to go back over all of this. Imagine having
to relive this, the beating that she got at the hands of her former boyfriend and MMA star.
Right back after this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MACK: I had to have my nose corrected. He had to rebreak my nose in a couple of spots to realign it. (INAUDIBLE) easier. I had to have at least
four oral surgeries, and I`m still going to lose several of my teeth over the next couple of months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:15]BANFIELD: Want to get you back into this courtroom for this absolutely electrifying testimony. I don`t normally say that. I mean,
testimony is testimony, right? But this? This is a former porn star named Christy Mack, and she`s something else. She`s been on the stand two days,
talking about just some unrelenting violence from her former boyfriend. And if you don`t know by now, that boyfriend is an MMA star, changed his
name legally to War Machine. There he is. There they are together, taking some selfies.
Lot of the questions that came from the prosecutors. She was great. But then, of course, you know how this works, the defense gets a crack, and
that`s harder to hold up under that. And it can be really uncomfortable. That cross-examination went something like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Part of the fantasy would have been the element (INAUDIBLE) correct?
MACK: Well, along with rape fantasy or role play, there is communication, consent and safety.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Ah! Did you hear that? I think you should get an idea of what that means. It means -- and you don`t have to be a betting man on this one
-- that the defense is going towards, Wait a minute, you were kind of into all this business, right, violence, rape, sex. All that stuff worked for
you. Not only did it work for you in the bedroom, it kind of worked for you in the boardroom, too, because you made your living off of rape and
violence and sex and sending out, you know, pictures.
And not just pictures like this. These are the sexy ones. These are the sexy ones. I want you to see some sexy and some kind of a little bit more
violent because there were a couple of photo shoots that Christy did with War Machine, and they show a whole different persona.
yes, like that, like violence is our thing! Like, I`m biting her everywhere! And she`s into it, and I`m into it. And it`s our show. And
here`s what we look like all tatted up, groping. And here`s how rough I am!
This is a photo shoot that I`m not putting on for you. This is a photo shoot that was put on for the jurors because it looks a whole lot like the
defense is trying to go in the direction of, Come on, Christy, all this business about you getting beat up, wasn`t this all part of the show?
Wasn`t this all part of you sort of making more money, getting more Twitter followers, Instagram?
I mean, I`m with you, folks. It`s crazy to think you end up in the hospital for that. But maybe not. You just need some reasonable doubt.
Rachel Stockman`s still here with me, Danny Cevallos and Marie Napoli here, too.
So here`s -- here`s one part of that whole equation that`s weird. Look, there`s a lot of it that`s weird. I`m going to go on the record saying
that. But some e-mails were read by the prosecutor in this case. They were e-mails from War Machine to Christy -- and I am not kidding when I say
this -- on the actual day of the attack. It was August 8th, 2014. This is what he e-mails her after the thrashing that she got! You`re not going to
believe it. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I love you so much. I can`t believe I did this. I`m hurting so bad. I plan to marry you. I thought you were being good to
me, and this hurts so bad. We can still be together. We can move to the country and breed snakes and just be with one another. I can forget and
forgive what happened, and so can you. I love you. I hope you`re OK. You`re my one (ph). I think of you 24/7. I love you. I hope you`re doing
OK. I have been so sad. I just (INAUDIBLE) ring and propose and make you my wife. I still love you (INAUDIBLE) in my thoughts."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Did you hear that? I know it`s a little crusty, a little hard to make out. But let me give you the highlights there. "I can`t believe
you did this." He`s saying this to her. "I`m hurting so bad. We can still be together. I can forget and forgive," all of this while War
Machine`s got big old crocodile tears in court.
Rachel Stockman, you can say anything you want as a defense attorney about their sexy, violent, you know, animated, image-driven love affair, but you
can`t tell me on the day she gets that kind of beating to get e-mails like that that the defense attorney -- I mean, it`s Everest for them.
STOCKMAN: Yes. It just really does not make any sense whatsoever why he would do this. And also, some of the things he was telling her during the
beating, too, were very disturbing -- I`m going to have to kill you now.
BANFIELD: Because you look so ugly and messed up, and I can`t possibly have you seen like this. They`ll know what I did.
STOCKMAN: Yes. But...
BANFIELD: I mean, that`s really sick!
STOCKMAN: It`s very sick. And so again, you know, that`s why the defense in this case -- again, they haven`t given their side yet. They haven`t
brought their witnesses out. But it`s a tough one for the defense kind of trying to paint her as this aggressive woman. Yes, she was, but like you
said, she got beaten to a pulp!
[20:25:06]BANFIELD: She got beaten almost to death. Look, she was in a hospital room for days upon days recovering. And the 911 call of her
screaming -- look, anybody can act. Look, she is an actress, too. Which brings me to this whole defense again. I`d like to say Danny and Marie,
but it`s really just Danny and Marie.
The issue of -- of -- how this whole thing got instigated -- it turns out that Corey, who`s now kind of an ex, is over helping her get ready for a
tattoo convention. And they`re kind of platonic, it seems. And he just falls asleep there. It`s not sort of in bed in the biblical sense.
But she texted a photograph of herself. And we have the picture. That`s how Corey looked after his beating. It`s just unbelievable. That`s what
War Machine did to Corey`s face.
But she sent a text message with this picture. It`s tricky to make out. And listen, when she sent it, it was a lot more clear. The image in court
was tricky for the camera. It`s a nudie shot. She sent this nudie shot to War Machine 20 minutes before Corey arrived. And with that text, it said -
- he said to her, I need that -- actually, he said, I need that, and she texted back, It`s all yours.
So for a defense attorney, I mean, that`s really ripe for mining. It`s almost as though she`s inviting this attack because it`s good for business.
NAPOLI: She definitely was inviting him to come over and to find her in bed with another man. And she knew War Machine, what he was like, who he
was. He had been arrested in the past for abuse. So I...
BANFIELD: I still think it`s crazy. It makes sense, but I still think it`s crazy.
NAPOLI: I think it`s crazy. Of course, it`s crazy, but...
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: Can I just tell you what -- what -- whoops! -- what her passes (ph) actually yielded in terms of Twitter followers? I don`t think they
did the best, you know, eliciting of this from the stand, but ultimately, she had under a million Instagram followers before the attack. She`s now
at 2.7 million. She now has 775,000 Twitter followers, the defense trying to say, This was good for your business.
You actually came up with an emoji company. Do we have those emojis, by the way? You actually came up with an emoji company showing yourself
beaten up! And you`ve been making money at a buck-99 to get that app! So now it`s starting to make a tiny bit more sense that if they can just get
one juror to say some people are OK with getting beaten up if you make money.
CEVALLOS: They don`t have a lot of options on the defense here, so they have to go -- they can`t deny that this happened. So they`re going for
what I see a lot in family court. You see the sort of fatigue. You see judges who, after a while, see these two people who fight, get back
together, get into violence, get back together. And after a while, they start -- these are judges and litigators saying, These two deserve each
other.
And that`s the kind of fatigue the defense is going to try and put on the jury. But it is -- it`s a long shot. It`s a huge long shot.
BANFIELD: It`s a long shot to get put into the hospital and to get the thrashing that they both got. It`s seems a bit weird that it was invited.
NAPOLI: I think that she wanted him to come over. And maybe...
(CROSSTALK)
NAPOLI: ... the thrashing was more than she expected to happen.
BANFIELD: Maybe. Maybe. By the way, I don`t think it`s legal to beat the hell out of someone and nearly kill them just because they`re OK with it.
I got to leave it there for a minute. I have a couple of other things that I want to bring up.
For nearly a month, I know you`ve been following this story in Indiana, the police have been asking, really begging for help in finding the killer of
the two teenage girls, those cute little girls who were abducted and murdered out on a hiking trail.
And in the days since their disappearance, they`ve been releasing some incredible evidence that really could help to find the man who did this.
Liberty German, Abigail Williams -- they released a picture of a picture of the man that Libby was able to snap on her cellphone. And this is the
prime suspect. Not long before this death, she got this picture, thank God.
Also, she was able to capture three words of audio, "Down the hill." And Libby was able to record them on her cell. They sound like this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Today, for first time since the murders, Liberty`s grandfather not only thanked the police and the community for their support, but also
made a plea to you about that sound and that image.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are too many ways to count how our lives will forever be impacted to share here today. I imagine most people listening
that have raised or are raising children now how kids can be. A phrase that was jokingly attached to Libby in our family from asking her to pick
up her shoes, her school backpack or coat, her first reply would almost always be, I will in a minute. We joked with her about this all the time.
I believe if she were able to speak, she would ask people please give her the one minute she always asked for to really study the picture and listen
to the audio clip. Someone out there knows this person or persons. He`s someone`s neighbor, co-worker, family member, friend, husband or
acquaintance. If and when any new information is released by law enforcement, please take another minute from your day to review all the
information and help us collect the pieces of this puzzle. Both of our families are requesting everyone to please help Abby and Libby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST OF CNN "PRIMETIME JUSTICE": At that news conference today, police did not release new information about the case, but they did
say this. It appears that those teenagers` deaths are not connected to the unsolved murder of two Iowa girls that we talked about this week on this
program. Those murders were back in 2012.
You might not immediately recognize actor Faizon Love`s name but you will probably definitely recognize his face.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible).
FAIZON LOVE, ACTOR: Okay. People. Tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.m., Santa is coming to town.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Santa! Oh, my God! Santa is here? I know him.
BANFIELD: My favorite scene in that movie. Sadly this isn`t a funny story though. The comedian known for his work in "Elf" is getting attention now
for a very different kind of performance. I want you to take a look at Mr. Love at the Columbus, Ohio airport at the valet service`s desk. According
to the incident report, Mr. Love was very mad before he even got to the desk and thought that one the employees was rude to him on the phone.
So one he got to the counter and asked to speak to a rep, you can see it got real physical, real fast. Right there, take a look. Apparently Love had
called the valet prior to his arrival, and he was upset when he was told how much money he owed for the service. Wow, that`s rough.
It ultimately ended up with him being arrested and then charged with assault. He was in court yesterday, pleaded not guilty, and even briefly
commented to reporters about that, but it`s not a good piece of video to have out there when you`re an actor or anybody else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: A young mother gunned down in her own home while her 4-year-old was sleeping right there, right near her. 4-month-old, actually, not 4-
year-old. And now police think that they know who did it. They know who shot and killed Amber Baker. Why they say her 17-year-old boyfriend is who
they`re looking for tonight?
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Got a great update I want to tell you about. It has to do with some video we`ve been showing you this week of a man spotted lurking
outside an apartment building in Nashville, Tennessee. And when you look closely at this video and zoomed in, you could see what looked to be some
very odd rip patterns on the back of his knees and his jeans.
Weird place to have rips. That footage was captured about the same time of night that a young nurse, 23-year-old, Tiffany Ferguson, was bizarrely
found stabbed to death in her own apartment. And since then, police have been desperately trying to find who that person is in the video. And now it
looks like we may have an answer. Police say that is 24-year-old Christopher Drew McLawhorn. They believe he is the one who stabbed Tiffany
multiple times after breaking into her apartment.
He has now been arrested. He is facing charges of criminal homicide and aggravated burglary. And here is what so great. It was that video, it was
that pointing out of that weird pattern in those jeans, those ripped jeans, that police tell us likely did play a role in identifying Mr. Christopher
Drew McLawhorn. So folks, thank you, thank you for paying attention, thank you for looking, and thank you for isolating what matters and what makes a
difference. You can actually help solve crimes this way.
For nearly two weeks, police have now been trying to figure out something else, another strange killing, a pregnant 20-year-old mom. Six weeks
pregnant and her 4-month-old baby was sleeping right there. Right nearby. Amber Baker shot inside her own apartment in Fresno. And all of this after
having a get-together with some friends.
Some of those friends say she got into an argument sometime before that shooting and now police are trying to track the two men that they say they
believe are involved in her death. And they say there is a third, a third person that they hope can give them some much needed information too.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY DYER, CHIEF OF FRESNO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Gabriel Garza who is 18 years of age and Isaac Razo, 17 years of age. Both of those individuals are
currently wanted for the murder of Amber Baker. Razo is the boyfriend of Amber Baker. The individual that was present but not wanted for the murder
is Jonathan Guizar. He is 19 years of age.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: All right. You`ve seen those three pictures. You know the three names. Amy Gill is a reporter for KMJ Radio. She is also an anchor. She is
live with me from Fresno. All right. I think the biggest question, Amy, is the motive. Look, she was pregnant. Is that part of this? There was some
talk about a tax return. Do we have any idea why this young mom was killed?
AMY GILL, REPORTER AND ANCHOR, KMJ RADIO: Well, unfortunately we actually don`t right now because Fresno police say that they really need to make
contact with these individuals before they can clearly establish a motive. I talked to Sergeant Larry Bowlan earlier today and he couldn`t confirm
anything about money being a motive or the pregnancy being a motive. He couldn`t even
[20:40:00] actually say with 100 percent certainty who is the father of the unborn baby as well.
BANFIELD: Okay. Since we are talking about relationships, the one on the right, I think, Razo. This is the person they`re looking for on your
screen. But the guy on the right, Isaac Razo, 17 years old, apparently her boyfriend. I just want to remind our viewers the victim here is the 20-
year-old mother of a 4-month-old and she is weeks pregnant and she has got a 17-year-old boyfriend. All of that kind of sounds strange, Amy.
GILL: It really does. I would happen to agree. It really sounds strange at this time as to what role Gabriel Garza plays in it as well as the, you
know, there is a warrant out for his arrest for murder as well. So police are really just trying to figure out.
BANFIELD: 18 years old.
GILL: . yeah, and police are really just trying to figure out how they can find these guys to be able to bring them in for questioning, to be able to
figure out what exactly happened inside that apartment.
BANFIELD: Yeah, I`m interested in that third guy too, Jonathan Guizar, but they are not saying that he`s connected to murder. They`re saying there are
robbery charges, a string of Craigslist robberies, they want to question him about that, maybe he knows something about what happened in that house
particularly in that bedroom. But what about others? Are they the only three we are looking at right now? There maybe some more arrests in this.
GILL: Sergeant Bowlan actually said today that there is actually a fourth person that they had already brought in for questioning, but there wasn`t
enough evidence to be able to charge him with anything. They didn`t identify him at a press conference yesterday because they had already been
able to bring him in for questioning.
And how they were able to establish all four of these people, was that they know for a fact, based on witnesses, based on the investigation, that all
of these people were inside the apartment at the time that the shooting occurred.
BANFIELD: Weird. That`s the strangest part, Amy. There are all these people. This woman gets shot, her baby is sleeping feet away. All these
people there, and it`s taking all this time to sort of, you know, identify the people we`re looking for. Keep an eye on this for us and come back and
update us when you know more.
GILL: Definitely will. Thank you so much for having me.
BANFIELD: Amy Gill. Great to have you too. Thank you so much. You know, usually when somebody is convicted of a crime, ask any lawyer, they say,
show some contrition, fella, at your sentencing. It could make the difference, right? Maybe even ask the judge to go easy on you, you know,
say you`re sorry. This guy, though, forget about it.
The jury convicted that man, Zachary Gross, of ordering his pit bull to attack his girlfriend. She ended up scalped, but he didn`t want to waste
any time in court on small talk.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
ZACHARY GROSS, CONVICTED OF ASSAULT: I always felt horrible for what happened. I don`t feel responsible. I maintain my innocence. It is what it
is. I`m not asking for your mercy, just give me the 20, you can lecture and we can go on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: You know that scene when you`re standing in court and you`re waiting to be sentenced, you`re facing against the judge and you`re just
assumed that the person in that position would be contrite and respectful. Do you imagine that they would mouth off and tell his honor to just go
ahead and get this thing over with in a rude tone? Because that`s what that fella in the stripes did. We are gonna take you into that Cincinnati
courtroom where that scenario played out and find out what that cost him by the way, because it`s a lot.
Next week, I love this part of what this company does. CNN Heroes 2017. We are gonna introduce you to the first hero. And why it`s so great is because
of all the stories that we had come through these stories, our 2016 hero of the year was Jeison Aristizabal. This guy dedicated his entire life to
helping kids with disabilities in Columbia.
It`s a tearjerker and heartbreaking and awesome on the same package. Jeison actually came to New York. He made this awesome visit to Jorge Munoz, who
is a fellow Columbian and a 2009 top 10 CNN winner. Jorge brings free meals to people in need every single night.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeison.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNTRANSLATED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Awesome story. I want you to find out what else happened when they met. It`s all on cnnheroes.com. While you`re there, you can also
nominate somebody that you think should be part of our big package of CNN heroes. And then next week, we are going to introduce you to the first CNN
hero of 2017. I just love those tapes that shows you particularly in that case disabilities mean nothing. You can be the CNN hero of the year 2016
and that was the case that you just saw there. Meet the next one next week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Sometimes the name of the description of a crime really doesn`t do it justice or convey the horror.
[20:50:00] But scalping isn`t just cringe worthy, it`s stomach turning, and it`s exactly what happened to Marilyn Stanley, a stunning woman, really
kind looks like a model in some of her pictures. But that young woman needed six surgeries. Look at her. She suffered permanent nerve damage in
an attack that was committed by her boyfriend, Zachary Gross.
Prosecutors maintained that when Stanley wouldn`t drop a knife she was using for self defense, Gross ordered his pit bull to set upon her, and
that it ripped off part of her ear and her scalp. After (inaudible) Stanley to stare at her own injuries in the mirror and mocking her, he then dropped
her off at 100 yards away from her mom`s house and made her crawl the rest of the distance carrying her own scalp in a plastic bag.
So what do you think he got for it? The jury found him guilty. And they recommended 20 years for a sentence. But during the actual sentencing
hearing, Mr. Gross wasn`t at least apologetic. He didn`t ask for leniency. He if fact just told the judge that he could take what was coming to him,
without all that extra, you know, talk.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
GROSS: I always felt horrible for what happened. I don`t feel responsible. I maintain my innocence. It is what it is. I`m not asking for your mercy,
just give me the 20, you can lecture and we can go on. I always felt horrible about this. Ms. Stanley says I didn`t do it but at the same time I
feel horrible for what happened. I want to say I`m sorry from the get-go but on the advice of my attorney, it just wasn`t the right time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: It wasn`t the right time, yeah. Maybe sentencing is the right time. I don`t know. Call me crazy. Melissa Neeley is an anchor and reporter
for 700 WLW. She joins me from Cincinnati. So, here is my thought that you could have heard a pin drop in that courtroom. But what kind of a reaction
did the folks in that courtroom have? The families? I mean, the people who were affected by all this when he did that?
MELISSA NEELEY, REPORTER AND ANCHOR, 700 WLW: I think that -- I don`t think they think very highly of this man to begin with. And I don`t think it`s a
surprise to anyone after the brutality that he showed towards Marilyn Stanley. I mean, what this mad did was gross. It fits his last name,
Zachary Gross.
BANFIELD: Gross, you`re right. Mr. Gross. And that`s what he did to that beautiful young woman Marilyn Stanley. In fact, I want to play for you one
month after the attack, Marilyn Stanley did an interview with HLN, and she talked about what happened to her. Even though her memory was slightly
stretchy. Here is what she said actually happened that moment.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
MARILYN STANLEY, SCALPED BY A DOG, UNDERWENT MULTIPLE SURGERIES: After he hit me, I ended up at some point in time in his bedroom on the floor and I
was getting bit by the dog and that`s why I didn`t really realize what it happened until after the fact. Because I just remember when my ear got beat
off. Never acted that way towards me before at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Just unbelievable. Here it is. This is the story in a nutshell right there. Her before picture and her after picture. She will never grow
hair back. She will have that permanent damage. I want to just add one thing, Danny and Marie. And that was that the judge was none too pleased
with this attitude. Not only did he get the full 20 years, he got an additional year for probation violation and then he just threw on an
additional 34 days for the contempt of court for that really despicable behavior, that rudeness.
I don`t know. Maybe he thought of this later. But he actually had to adjudicate for what`s gonna happen to the dog. The dog had been in an
animal shelter for all this time. And the county attorney said that the dog had to be kept alive during all this time because was evidence. And the
judge said destroy the dog. Period. Almost as to put a punctuation on this to him. Maybe not so much for the dog, but to him. Do you think that might
have been part of it?
DANNY CEVALLOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes and no. I think you`re on to something. At the same time, that is not a surprising
result. Once the dog ceases to be evidence, this is usually the remedy when dogs attack.
But I think that might have been a punctuation mark at the end of a very contentious sentencing hearing which I have to add happens a lot more often
than you think. There is something about people with impulse control problems at a sentencing hearing that they just can`t take it anymore and
they flip out, they can`t control.
BANFIELD: Marie, what might have happened to him had he actually been contrite and polite and apologetic and remorseful? What might he actually
have gotten?
MARIE NAPOLI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He might have had some leniency. There is no leniency. This man was arrogant. He made this judge angry, and the dog.
BANFIELD: What did it cost him, like an extra 10, an extra five, and extra one?
NAPOLI: It could have cost him -- I though it cost him extra year. I thought he was going to go with the 20 years.
[20:55:00] BANFIELD: Definitely got 34 with a contempt. But who knows what the judge would have done in the full 20 year or five, you know.
NAPOLI: You never know.
BANFIELD: You never know.
NAPOLI: You never know.
BANFIELD: Thank you, Marie Napoli. Thank you, Danny Cevallos as always. Thank you, everyone, for watching. Great to have you. Great insight,
appreciate it. Nice to have you with us. Make sure to come back here on Monday night at 8:00 for "Primetime Justice." Stay tuned because "Forensic
Files" is coming up next.
END
