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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield

Beating Victim`s Mother Testifies; Family Murder-Suicide Near Chicago; Search For Mother; Courtroom Outrage; Agony in Court. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired March 14, 2017 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[20:00:00] LISA BLOOM, HLN HOST (voice-over): A former porn star`s mom loses it in court.

ERIN MACKINDAY, CHRISTY MACK`S MOTHER: The incidents that I saw, I really wish I would have shot you.

BLOOM: Breaking down during emotional testimony against the MMA fighter accused of nearly beating her daughter to death, her revelations about the

escalating violence she says she witnessed by the man known as War Machine.

MACKINDAY: I believed he would eventually kill her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have three deceased individuals inside the apartment, one adult male and two teenage girls.

BLOOM: A dad and his twin daughters dead, the teens` mom shot. But the shooter was no intruder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just shot and killed my two kids and I shot my wife.

BLOOM: Police searching for the mom who walked into this grocery store with her 2-year-old daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re not able to take care of the child yourself, there`s better options than leaving it here.

BLOOM: But walked out without her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we asked, Sunny, who`s that? She said, Mommy. She got all, like sad-faced.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He did not murder one person! There were two lives taken.

BLOOM: Sentencing for a teenager convicted of carjacking and killing a pregnant mom of four.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My daughter had no face. It was burnt completely off!

BLOOM: A judge orders bailiffs to shock a defendant in court for talking out of turn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Use it!

BLOOM: That judge was fined and is off the bench, but now is also facing a big lawsuit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLOOM: Hello, everyone. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE. I`m Lisa Bloom, a civil rights attorney at the Bloom firm, and I`m guest hosting tonight for

Ashleigh Banfield.

A stunning admission in a Las Vegas courtroom from the mom of a former porn star who says she was nearly beaten to death by an MMA fighter known as War

Machine. He`s on trial for the attack and rape of Christy Mack back in 2014.

The images of the beating Mack suffered are hard to look at. She had bruises all over her body. She had a broken nose and orbital bone, several

lost teeth and a lacerated liver. She testified for two days about that night inside her home, revealing the disturbing details of the attack that

she says War Machine delivered not only to her, but to a friend, as well.

Well, on the stand, Mack`s mother, Erin MacKinday, testified about how her daughter changed while dating the former fighter, the escalating violence

during the relationship and the fights she witnessed while living with the couple. MacKinday says she was scared that War Machine would kill Christy

if things continued between them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you regret now, you know, not stepping in and going to the police?

MACKINDAY: No. The incidents that I saw, I really wish I would have shot you. That`s my retrospective. I wish I would have shot you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Wow. Spoken like a mom. Joining me now, Rachel Stockman, editor- in-chief of Lawnewz.com, Dr. Devi Nampiaparampil -- something like that -- a clinical associate professor at NYU school of medicine, and attorneys

Misty Marris and Troy Slaten. Welcome to all of you.

Rachel, let me start with you, and I want to talk about some texts, some very unusual texts I think that came from Christy`s phone the night of this

beating. Take a look at this. At about 2:49 AM from Christy`s phone, "They tried to screw me over on the convention. I`m not going now."

Christy`s mom says, "Oh, no. What happened?" Then Christy`s phone says, "They tried to change the deal. Screw them. I`m going to sleep. Love

you. Night." Mom says, "Love you, too."

Well, the question, Rachel, is did that really come from Christy, or did that come from War Machine? What do you think?

RACHEL STOCKMAN, LAWNEWZ.COM: Well, the prosecution in this case is trying to argue, and pretty successfully has shown evidence of, that this was

actually War Machine who took over Christy Mack`s cell phone after that brutal beating and texted Christy Mack`s mother to kind of deflect the

situation and make sure she wasn`t on guard to what may have just happened, thinking her daughter was perfectly fine, when in reality, she was there

bruised, bleeding and searching for help.

BLOOM: And Troy Slaten, let`s take a look at the texts that War Machine then sent to Christy`s mom not long after, at about 4:51 AM. He says,

"Today check on Christy ASAP. She doesn`t have her phone. Go to her house. Go to her house. Check on her. The cops already came. Go to her

house."

[20:05:08]And eventually, Christy`s mom says -- oh, I`m sorry, War Machine says, "There was a huge fight when I came in. The guy she was in bed with

came at me." I think that`s significant. Christy`s mom says, "What time did that happen?" War Machine says "2:00 AM. I only contacted you to see

if she was OK and have you check on her."

So some other guy. What do you think, Troy Slaten? Is this trying to set up a defense maybe that the other guy is the one who did the beating?

TROY SLATEN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Sure, he was trying to set up the defense of mutual combat, or even self-defense. The fact is, War Machine did this.

This young lady ran from her house naked, with a lacerated liver, her teeth knocked out and the bones in her face broken. This was attempted murder,

Lisa.

BLOOM: And so Misty Marris, defense attorney, let me bring you in. What do you think is the best defense here? Because it seems to me there is a

powerful mountain of evidence against War Machine in this case.

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. Well, the defense has been trying to paint this narrative and poke holes in the prosecution`s case. And

they`ve done that by saying that prior to this interaction between War Machine and the victim, the victim was sending text messages. She sent a

naked photo. She was enticing War Machine to come over.

And they`re trying use that to poke holes and to raise reasonable doubt because War Machine has never said the assault took place. The question

is, does he have a good defense to the attempted murder charge, which is the most serious charge on the table?

BLOOM: Yes. And you know, I`m still back on the night of this very brutal assault. And I think that the jury is going to go over all of the evidence

very carefully from the night of that assault.

And so as we said, Mom has testified, Mom being Erin MacKinday. And we have some sound from her testimony when she was calling War Machine. Let`s

take a listen to what she said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACKINDAY: I tried to call him because I couldn`t text fast enough. I just woke up. I was trying to read those and try to process out of a

straight sleep, What am I looking at? What -- my mind is trying to catch up to everything that`s going on. And so I tried to call him and I said,

What`s going on? And he goes, We got into a fight and I had to beat her up.

And from that point on, I just -- I think I hung up the phone. I went and told my boyfriend, You`ve got to get up now. He`s done something to

Christy. Move your car so I can get across town. My boyfriend said, Oh, God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Can you imagine you get a call like that about your daughter? I mean, I`m a mother. I have an adult daughter. She`s very calm when she`s

testifying about it on the stand, but you can see the emotion. You can see what she was going through getting that middle of the night call. I mean,

really, every mother`s worst nightmare.

On the stand today was a doctor, and so Dr. Devi, I`m going to come to you to ask you about this. There was a doctor, Dr. Sax (ph), who testified

that maybe it was only two punches to the face. I think we have that sound. Take a listen to Dr. Sax.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are the injuries that Ms. MacKinday sustained to her face consistent with two blows in rapid succession?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that that is very possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Dr. Devi, first of all, if a doctor is testifying to the defense that maybe it was only two punches to the face, I don`t think it`s the

strongest defense in the world. But do you think, from a medical perspective, can you tell how many punches there were to a face by

examining -- oh! -- this poor woman`s face?

DR. DEVI NAMPIAPARAMPIL, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, she has two black eyes. The reports say she had a nasal fracture. She also has blood coming

from her nose and she has broken teeth, so it`s very unlikely that it was two blows to the face, but it`s possible. There is a point in the skull

where you hit it kind of at the bridge of the nose, you could actually break that bone and then you could break the bones that form the sockets of

the eyes and cause black eyes.

So it`s possible, but it`s a very precise point, and I think it`s very unlikely.

BLOOM: And we have Dr. Sax, as well, saying on cross-examination, Well, you know, did I say two punches to the face? Maybe it`s considerably more.

Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s possible it could be 10 kicks to the leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s possible it could be 100 kicks to the leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is absolutely no way that you can tell how many kicks were to that leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there`s absolutely no way you could tell how many punches were done to that face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So when you say it`s possible -- I mean, I can tell you it`s possible she was hit 150 times, and you would say it`s possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So the fact that you`re saying it`s possible two, that it was two, I mean, I can literally say any number to you and you

could say it was possible.

[20:10:04]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: As a trial attorney myself, I got to tell you that`s a pretty good cross-examination of an expert witness. You know, doctors don`t like to be

absolute. They don`t like to say this is what happened. They like to say what`s possible or what`s probable or what`s consistent with those

injuries.

So Dr. Devi, we have, Maybe it was two, that`s possible, punches to the face. Maybe it was 150 punches to the face. That`s possible.

I mean, how close can we get from a medical perspective to ascertaining exactly what happened here?

NAMPIAPARAMPIL: Well, I don`t think it`s two, and I don`t think it`s 100 to 150. But definitely, these are serious injuries. I mean, I would worry

in this -- you know, in this person, does she have a concussion? Does she have some long-term injuries from having that kind of bruising? I would

have worried at the time if she might have a skull fracture, as well, just looking at someone with those types of injuries.

BLOOM: Well, those pictures are absolutely horrifying. And Troy Slaten, put on your hat as a former prosecutor. How are you going to argue this

number of injuries issue? Is it even significant?

SLATEN: My reaction to the jury, Lisa, is, So what? This is a trained MMA fighter. He is a professional at beating people up. That`s what he does.

So whether it`s 2 hits, 10 hits, 20 hits, it doesn`t matter. My reaction to the jury is, So what? He beat her up, and it looks like from the extent

of her injuries that he may have tried to kill her.

BLOOM: And that`s the argument and he is charged with attempted murder. And I`m here to say, as a women`s rights lawyer and victims` rights lawyer,

there is no amount of punches to a woman`s face that are acceptable, not even one. And you certainly don`t say "Just two." It was only two. Not

acceptable. I think the jury is going to feel that way, too.

Well, twin girls killed, the 16-year-olds` father and mother shot. But she says their murders weren`t random. She says the motive was revenge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God!

911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, where are you at?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Oh!

And a high-speed chase caught on video, but not on police or TV station choppers. Officers say the suspect posted this high-speed pursuit on

Facebook Live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: Police are investigating a bizarre double murder inside a luxury apartment in a Chicago suburb, beautiful twin girls just 16 years old

murdered, their mom and dad both suffering gunshot wounds. But you won`t believe who police say pulled the trigger and their possible motive.

Plus, a violent end to a standoff in LA when police used a fire hose to get a suspect out of his minivan. But it didn`t end there. Why the officers

are now being investigated for using deadly force once he got out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:17:23]BLOOM: Twin teenage girls and their father shot and killed in their luxury apartment just outside of Chicago, but police say this crime,

the murders of 16-year-old Brittany and Tiffany Coffland, was anything but random. Offices say neighbors called 911 after hearing gunshots inside the

family`s unit.

However, those weren`t the only calls. You see, Dad called, too.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911.

RANDALL COFFLAND, SHOT DAUGHTERS, WIFE, COMMITTED SUICIDE: I just shot and killed my two kids and I shot my wife. I`m going to shoot myself now. I`m

going to kill myself now, too.

911 OPERATOR: Sir, sir...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My two girls are dead and I`m going to kill myself.

911 OPERATOR: Sir, sir, sir...

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLOOM: Oh! Officers say Randall Coffland shot and killed the girls, and then he did turn the gun on himself. But there was another 911 call made

while Coffland was on the phone. Mom dialed in, too.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911.

ANJUM COFFLAND, MOTHER: (INAUDIBLE) Help now!

911 OPERATOR: Where do you need help at?

A. COFFLAND: St. Charles.

911 OPERATOR: Where in St. Charles?

A. COFFLAND: Oh, my God, my husband shot my kids. Oh, my God. Call 911 now!

911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, what address are you at?

A. COFFLAND: Oh, my God!

911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, where are you at?

A. COFFLAND: God!

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLOOM: That`s right, officers say Randall Coffland shot his estranged wife in the legs while he murdered his own beautiful daughters so his wife,

Anjum, would have to live with the grief of their deaths.

Rob Martier is an anchor for WGN radio. He joins me from Chicago. Rob, I don`t know how you make any kind of sense out of this horrific story. How

is the family responding to this horrific tragedy?

ROB MARTIER, WGN (via telephone): Well, quite frankly, with disbelief. In one clip, I don`t know if I heard in the 911 tapes that you just played,

but also was of Randall Coffland, the father, saying to his estranged wife that, I want you to live and suffer like I did, end quote.

So it was really a macabre scene in St. Charles, which is a quiet little community just about 40 miles outside Chicago. In fact, the Fox River runs

right through the middle of town. It`s a beautiful setting, and something like this certainly came as a shock to many in that neighborhood.

BLOOM: Well, I think the thoughts and the prayers of the nation are with your community and with this family. It`s absolutely horrendous.

Troy Slaten, I want you to take a listen to the mom`s 911 call where she talks about being shot in the leg.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

[20:20:06]911 OPERATOR: Where are you shot at?

A. COFFLAND: I don`t know, my legs.

911 OPERATOR: And you`re in apartment 406, correct?

A. COFFLAND: Yes! Brittany, Brittany, Brittany!

911 OPERATOR: Are you safe where you are?

A. COFFLAND: He shot me.

911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, are you safe where you are? Do we know where he is?

A. COFFLAND: I`m going into shock!

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLOOM: You know, Troy, as a former prosecutor, I`m sure you`ve dealt with many victim, family members. This mom, so brave that even though she had

been shot, she has the fortitude to call 911. Of course, she`s upset. Of course, she`s hysterical. I think there are times in life when it`s

appropriate to be hysterical, and I think this is one of them, Troy.

SLATEN: Those screams that we heard earlier could only be described as blood-curdling screams.

BLOOM: Oh!

SLATEN: And the person that did this, her husband, now deceased, is the epitome of both evil and cowardice to kill his daughters and then to kill

himself for the express purpose of forcing his wife to live with this memory forever and with the damage by shooting her in her legs is

unthinkable.

And it`s -- it`s -- the only -- the only one good thing out of this entire ordeal is that they won`t have to have the pain of standing trial.

BLOOM: We have more of the mom`s 911 call. She talks about going into shock. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

A. COFFLAND: He killed my girls. He just (EXPLETIVE DELETED) killed my girls!

911 OPERATOR: OK, ma`am, and I can help you, but I need you to calm down. Where is he?

A. COFFLAND: He`s in a bedroom. I don`t know what he`s done. (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK. Is he still in the apartment?

A. COFFLAND: Brittany! Brittany! (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: What`s his name?

A. COFFLAND: Randy.

911 OPERATOR: Randy? What`s his last name?

A. COFFLAND: Coffland. I`m going into shock. I`ve lost a lot of blood.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLOOM: We have to do something about domestic violence. Misty Marris, after all of these decades of saying there is no excuse for domestic

violence, all of the prevention programs, still we have cases like this where dad takes a gun, shoots his two beautiful teenage daughters, shoots

himself, shoots his wife in the legs to make her suffer. What can we do as a country to stop seeing cases like this?

MARRIS: Absolutely. Domestic violence is a huge problem, and we need to prevent these types of incidents from moving forward. What you have to do

is, if you`re a victim of domestic violence, you must step forward. You must seek help. Authorities cannot help you if you stand alone.

Don`t be embarrassed. Don`t be ashamed. This is an epidemic. And the only way we can fight this is by working with police and with agencies that

are there to help. So I implore anyone, anyone who has an issue with domestic violence to come forward and stand strong.

BLOOM: And I think that we can all agree, prosecutor, defense, whatever side of the table you practice on. I represent a lot of domestic violence

victims. But it doesn`t matter. We all agree that you have to speak out. If you see something, say something.

And in this case, the neighbors did that. We have a bit of the sound from the 911 from one of the neighbors. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911, you have an emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. We need an ambulance for unit 406.

911 OPERATOR: OK. Yes. We already are on the way. What`s going on?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says her girls are dead.

911 OPERATOR: Who is this person, do we know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh. I think it`s the mother.

911 OPERATOR: The mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it`s the mother, and she`s sitting in a pool of blood. I can see blood coming out from behind her.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLOOM: You know, Troy, one of the things that struck me is when we heard the dad`s 911 call earlier in the segment, he was the calmest of anyone.

He as if he was talking about another normal day, I shot my daughters, and I`m going to take my own life. What do you make of his very, very calm

tone and demeanor on that call?

SLATEN: It`s somewhat maniacal, Lisa. This is not a person who was of sound mind. And if he somehow survived, I imagine that his defense would

be one of insanity. Somebody killing their two grown daughters and -- or 16-year-old daughters and turning the gun onto his wife and to himself is

not somebody who`s dealing with a full deck of cards.

BLOOM: Well, clearly, Misty, he was trying to harm his estranged wife. They were separated. He said, according to one report, he wanted her to

suffer like he`d been suffering. And if you want to make somebody suffer, boy, you know, killing her two beautiful daughters and shooting her in the

legs, that`s going to do it.

[20:25:10]I don`t know how much hope we have for her emotionally to be able to recover from something like this. It seems to me it pushes the bounds

of what a human being can recover from.

BLOOM: Well, absolutely. But hopefully, she will seek some help. She`s absolutely going to need help to get through this terrible incident. And

the fact that this man took those two beautiful girls off this earth for that selfish motive, it`s absolutely deplorable. And my heart goes out to

her and her family to make it through this tragic time.

BLOOM: Yes. She`s going to need her family and her community to rally around her for a long, long time.

Well, on another subject, it`s been one month since the disappearance and murder of Indiana teens Liberty German and Abigail Williams. They were

dropped off at an abandoned bridge one afternoon in February for a hike. Then they never showed up later that day when a family member came to pick

them up. Their bodies were found in a wooded area the next day.

Since then, police have been desperately trying to track down their killer or killers as the community remains on edge. And it`s this man that police

are calling a suspect in their killings. Take a close look. They`ve been trying to ID him ever since.

Authorities are also looking to identify a voice heard on a video that Liberty recorded on her cell phone. It`s the voice of a man saying just

three words, "Down the hill." Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Oh! Chilling. Well, just last week, Liberty`s grandfather spoke out urging everyone to take just one minute to really study that photo and

listen to that voice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A phrase that was jokingly attached to Libby in our family from asking her to pick up her shoes, her school backpack, her 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Police say since then, tips from the public have jumped 200 percent. As of this week, the number of tips was up to 13,000. Police say

every tip is important and they urge anyone who may know anything to call them.

A standoff between the police in Orange, California, and an allegedly armed suspect ended dramatically Sunday night, and now it`s under investigation.

Michael Perez (ph) was pulled over for a traffic stop, but officers say he refused to get out of the minivan. They also say he had a gasoline can and

a lighter in the vehicle with him.

You could see Perez talking with some officers as two other officers approach his car on the passenger side and then shatter the window. They

then hit his van with a fire hose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officers could smell the gasoline, and at some point, he actually poured some gasoline onto a rag. And they knew at that

point they had to put a plan in motion. I`ve never seen it before. It was creative. It was well done. And unfortunately, it worked for getting him

out of the car...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Sure did. Well, once Perez got out of the car, the situation took a deadly turn. He allegedly had a knife on him and the threat resulted in

an officer shooting him in the parking lot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don`t know if he was going to commit suicide, if he was going to set the car on fire. All of those things were a possibility,

and we wanted to avoid that happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Michael Perez was treated at the scene, but later died at the hospital. The shooting is being investigated.

And there seems to be no limit to what people will decide to put up on Facebook. Last Thursday, it was a high-speed police chase that was

streamed out live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) I`m gone (ph) forever, man. I`m sorry, man. I`m here to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Yes, that`s Erasmo Hernandez (ph) allegedly fleeing the Pasadena, Texas, police. According to CNN affiliate KPRC, officers were trying to

serve a narcotics search warrant at his home when he fled the scene. After cops tried to pull him over, the chase began. It went on for more than 30

minutes before Hernandez`s car got a flat tire and he was taken into custody.

He`s charged with evading arrest, and the video could be used against him when it goes -- when he goes to trial. Yes, no kidding, it will definitely

be used against him.

California cops are working to track down this woman, a young mom who allegedly abandoned her 2-year-old child in a grocery store. Breaking news

on the search, plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:30:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Use it!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: A man shocked inside a courtroom, and now the victim is suing the judge.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: Police in California hope this

[20:35:00] surveillance video helps them track down a mom they say abandoned her 2-year-old daughter at a grocery store. Officers say the

woman walked into the "Food for Less" in Riverside on Sunday and while inside the store, the little girl wandered off, but mom never looked for

her. She finished her shopping, paid for her groceries, and then walked out.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just playing around, she didn`t know better because she is really little. She was just going around and everybody in the store was

kind of just like looking, why is this child running around alone? Like, where`s her mother? We stopped there right on her mom. And we picked her

up. And we asked honey, who`s that? She said, mommy. She got all like sad faced, like sad faced, and we just looked at each other, our hearts kind of

just broke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: And just a short time ago, police I.D.`d mom. They say the woman in the surveillance video is 31-year-old Cindy Vilaysane. And we have joining

us now Ryan Railsback, the public information officer for the Riverside Police Department. Ryan, you have some breaking news on this case right

now. Tell us the latest.

RYAN RAILSBACK, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER FOR THE RIVERSIDE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Yes. Just within about the last hour, someone from the public

at a local bank here in Riverside spotted the mother, Miss Vilaysane, and officers responded, they were able to detain her. So, she is being

questioned by detectives as we speak.

BLOOM: And how did you I.D. her as the suspect?

RAILSBACK: Well, once we put out the information through social media to the press, it was actually community members, people from the public, that

called our detectives and let them know who they believed it was -- who it was. And so they were able to narrow it down and we were able to identify

the mother.

BLOOM: And I also understand that the little girl, the little 2-year-old girl, was asked to look at that same surveillance video when she was taken

in by a store employee. And she was able to point to the woman who was her mother. Is that true?

RAILSBACK: Yes. The employee showed the officers the video and had the girl with her and they showed her an image of, you know, the mother on the video

and the little girl was able to say mommy and point her out.

BLOOM: And you know, Ryan, we see that image of the little girl walking, she looks like a happy little girl doing, you know, cute little walk right

behind her mom. She doesn`t -- at least from this video, she doesn`t look like she`s in any distress and yet her mom seems to have intentionally left

her at the store based on all the accounts. What do you make of this? What do you think is going on here?

RAILSBACK: Well, it`s not very common at all for, you know, any parent, let alone a mother, to leave a small child like this intentionally anywhere,

but now that we do have her in custody and she is safe, now our detectives can talk with her and figure out what`s really going on with her.

We don`t know yet if she was having some type of breakdown. I`m sure there is something that led her to do what she did. So hopefully detectives will

be able to figure that out and.

BLOOM: Well, that`s what I was wondering, does this mom have any history of psychiatric issues, drug or alcohol issues?

RAILSBACK: Well, she does have contacts for mental health here with our police department and local mental health facilities. She does also have

contacts -- prior cases with Child Protective Services. So, they`re going to review all that and see if that played, you know, any part of what she

did inside the store.

We don`t have any reason to believe just watching the video and kind of listening to some witnesses that she was having any type of breakdown at

the time she left, but we don`t know what was going inside her head, so hopefully detectives will be able to talk with her and we can figure that

out.

BLOOM: And we have some sound actually from one of the witnesses in the store who talked about what she observed. Take a listen to this.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw this lady and her daughter was running around. And I looked at her, I was like, hey, your daughter`s running crazy. Said, yep,

she`s always doing that. It`s sad, it`s heartbreaking because, like, I don`t see how any human could abandon her child. That`s, like, a human

being.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Yeah, so Troy, is this the kind of thing where you would charge the mom with a serious crime or would you want to get social services involved

for her?

SLATEN: Well, I think the most important thing is what`s in the best interest of the child first off, and the reports are that the child is safe

in child protective custody.

BLOOM: Thank God.

SLATEN: That`s the most important thing. And then we need to look at the mom and see what was going on. Was she on drugs? Was she having a mental

breakdown? Was she involved in some sort of dangerous domestic situation where she was actually trying to protect the child from something more

dangerous? I don`t know. And that`s why the investigation is going to unfold and we`re going to see exactly what was going on and how on earth a

woman could leave a child like this because there are so many other options.

BLOOM: Yeah.

SLATEN: I mean, if she could not care for the child, she could put the child up for adoption

[20:40:00] or there`s so many other things that she can do.

BLOOM: Well, it`s not that easy. Actually, I`d like to see more resources for parents who can`t handle a child. But in many cases, you can go to the

local police department if nothing else. And Misty Marris, to you, you know, this is the kind of woman who gets really hated by the community. She

leaves her 2-year-old in a store. I mean, the mind reels with things that could have happened to this little girl. How do you defend somebody like

this assuming that she`s charged with a serious crime?

MARRIS: If she`s charged with child abandonment, the question hinges on was it willful? That`s a key element of the statute. As we said, we simply

don`t have enough information here to make that determination. If she does have a mental health issue, if she was having a breakdown, if there was a

drug abuse problem, then we`re not going to have the evidence we need to go for a willful charge and we`ll have a strong defense.

The most important thing as everyone has said is that this child is protected. She`s with ACS. They`ll be looking for next of kin to take care

of the child while they make this mental health assessment of the mother and determine what exactly happened in this incident.

BLOOM: Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Well, a 16-year-old boy convicted of murder allegedly smiles in the courtroom as his victims` family detail

their pain.

[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: A family devastated after a pregnant mom of four was carjacked and killed in Michigan. Police say Amanda Benton was 5-1/2 months along when

she was reported missing in late September. Just two days later, police found her body in a vacant house in southwest Detroit. She`d been savagely

beaten with injuries to her head and abdomen. Her neck snapped. Her body set on fire. It didn`t take long for police to track down her alleged

killers.

They arrested 23-year-old Jacob Barnes and 16-year-old Jeremy Lee. Officers say the pair carjacked Benton, tossed her in the trunk of her own car, took

her to the abandoned home, and beat her until she died. Just unimaginable. And despite being just 16 years old at the time of the crime, Jeremy Lee

was charged as an adult with murder. He pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and at yesterday`s sentencing hearing, Benton`s family

members talked about the pain that Lee has caused.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to make this clear, he did not murder one person. There were two lives taken in the worst way I could have ever

imagined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s not a night I don`t hear her calling, daddy, help me. Daddy, help me.

BLOOM: Benton`s parents also told the courtroom that mutilating their daughter`s body didn`t allow them to say good-bye.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then to burn her so we can`t even have a proper good-bye to her. Why burn her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter has no face. It was burnt completely off.

BLOOM: A judge sentenced Jeremy Lee to 25 to 60 years in prison for the murder. His alleged partner has yet to go to trial. And stoking the fires

of an already on-edge courtroom, during Lee`s hearing, at least one of our affiliates witnessed Jeremy Lee smiling at relatives. Some in the court

even said it looked like family members were trying to get him to laugh. I just can`t even get my mind around that one.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLOOM: Tom Benton is Amanda Benton`s father and he joins me from Gladwin, Michigan. Thank you so much, Mr. Benton, for joining us. How is your family

holding up?

TOM BENTON, FATHER OF THE VICTIM: It`s -- it`s been hard. It`s been real hard. This is something that is -- just we can`t -- we can`t wrap our mind

around it.

BLOOM: I don`t think any of us can. And yet you found the strength to go into that courtroom and to speak directly to the young man who`s

responsible for the death of your beautiful daughter. I am always so amazed at how the family members of victims of violent crime do that. You know,

the rest of us complain about our petty little problems every day. You found the courage to go in and do that. How did you do that?

BENTON: I did it for my daughter. It was hard. I won`t lie. You know, I wouldn`t wish this on anybody. This is the hardest thing this family, her

mother and I, have ever faced. I mean, it`s devastating and, you know, the courts wanted us to make an impact statement and I tried to put down in

words, but you really can`t explain exactly how this affects you. You know, it has totally devastated this family.

[20:50:00] BLOOM: Yeah. I don`t think there are sufficient words in the English language for what you and your family have gone through, Mr.

Benton. And listen, we are looking at pictures of your beautiful daughter. We`ve talked about how she was a mother of four. She was pregnant. But we

don`t want to just think of her in her final hours as a crime victim. Can you tell us what your daughter was like as a human being?

BENTON: My daughter was one of the nicest people you`ll ever meet in your life. She was so kindhearted. I mean, so kindhearted to everyone. She would

do anything to help anybody. And I really mean -- I`m not saying that because she`s my daughter. She -- you know, she was out there feeding the

homeless in Detroit and I didn`t even know that. I knew my daughter had a big heart and a good heart. I`ve seen her here in Gladwin take food out of

her own home and feed, you know, a needy family or go to the store and spend her last dollar to buy a needy family groceries.

I`ve actually seen my daughter take off her jacket and give it to someone that needed one and her go without one. That`s the type of person my

daughter was. She loved her kids. She loved them so much. I mean, I don`t know what pictures you`re looking at, but if you look at my daughter and

her pictures, she`s smiling in every single picture.

BLOOM: Well, you know, her smile lights up the screen. Every picture that we see. It`s obvious that she was not only beautiful on the outside, but

beautiful on the inside. I mean, that`s really extraordinary, giving the coat off her back, going and feeding people. We`re just so terribly sorry

for your loss, but thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Benton.

BENTON: I thank you.

BLOOM: And our hearts go out to your family.

BENTON: I thank you.

BLOOM: Misty Marris, one of the things that happened in that courtroom is the smiling, the smiling of this 16-year-old young defendant while this

family is talking about their pain. What do you do with a defendant like that when you`re representing him and he`s behaving so inappropriately in

the courtroom?

MARRIS: Well, usually before you are at your sentencing hearing, you go through all this with your client and you say not to engage in any of that

conduct, but there`s some things that a defense attorney can simply not control. And if you have somebody that`s going to sit in there and smirk,

the best you can say is, the judge is going to notice. And I think that the judge noticed here. We have a 25 to 60 year sentence for someone who pled

guilty, who, you know, is 16 years old. So, the eyes are on you. The judge is not immune to your conduct.

BLOOM: You know, Troy, I generally do not like the idea of trying and sentencing juveniles as adults. There are very few countries in the world

that still do that. We are one of them. But this is the kind of case that tests those of us who don`t like it because of what this 16-year-old did,

beating this woman to death, burning her body, smirking in the courtroom. If you`re in that courtroom as the prosecutor, are you going to call the

jury`s attention and the judge`s attention to that kind of behavior?

SLATEN: Well, this is now in the hands of the judge, and I most certainly would. You can`t underestimate, Lisa, the importance of victim impact

statements. To have the judge hear from the mother and the father, the family members, how this has devastated their lives. The victim, she can`t

speak for herself, she can`t speak for her 5-1/2-month-old baby that was in her stomach. So having the mom and the dad speak for her is so important.

And yes, normally I don`t advocate having minors tried as adults, but if there was a case where it was appropriate.

BLOOM: This would be it. Wouldn`t it? Well, I hope the community just wraps itself around this family going through such an ordeal. A man shocked

inside a courtroom is now suing the judge. He says that the judge wasn`t punished enough and he has 5 million reasons why.

[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: A Maryland man who received an agonizing electric shock in court at the order of a judge is now suing that judge for more than $5 million.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Warning, the video you are about to see is disturbing. So a deputy activates the stun cuff on the defendant, Delvon King. King was apparently

talking over the judge and the impact is immediate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Use it.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Going to take five.

BLOOM: Oh. After the shock, you heard the judge say, he`s going to have the court take a five-minute break. The civil suit against Robert Nally, now

retired from the bench, says the shock violated King`s rights and made him suffer grave injury including pain and panic attacks. The former judge had

previously pled guilty to a misdemeanor civil rights charge and he received a year of probation and a $5,000 fine. We`ll be right back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: Thanks for watching tonight. I am civil right attorney, Lisa Bloom. See you back here tomorrow night at 8:00 for PRIMETIME JUSTICE. "FORENSIC

FILES" is up next.

END