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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Hunt for Killer; Urgent Search for Missing Girl; Naughty, Not Nice; X-Rated Body Armor; One More Thing. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 08, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:01] (JOINED IN PROGRESS)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, PRIMETIME JUSTICE SHOW HOST: .. In a ditch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would appear like this. She said exactly like that.
BANFIELD: But it was all an elaborate scheme.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They actually go through the steps.
BANFIELD: To convince his wife, her hitman did the job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said again I wish he`d disappear.
BANFIELD: But thank God those killers were actually cops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said she was tired, she was fed up.
BANFIELD: And those photos were fakes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody intervened. She might find somebody that will follow through with it.
BANFIELD: A cashier robbed at a dollar store. A mother of six, she followed his every command handing him the cash and fast. So why on earth
did he kill her anyway? And how close are the police to finding him?
Nineteen years old and gone without a trace. A stunning beauty chasing dreams in New York City may instead be in the hands of sex traffickers.
You know the old expression, don`t bring porn to a knife fight? Yeah, we`d never heard that one either, but this guy may have used it as body armor.
And cops say you don`t want this Santa Claus coming to town. It turns out his corn cob pipe may have actually been a crack pipe. It gives new
meaning to jolly old St. Nick.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is Primetime Justice.
Divorce can get messy, but it doesn`t often end up this dirty, with one party in a shallow grave in the Texas desert. But in this case, there`s a
twist. The man in this picture only looks dead, but he is very much alive and well, or as well as you can be when you`ve had to stage your own murder
to prove your wife wanted to kill you. Ramon and Lulu Sosa have been happily married five years, even opening a gym together.
But things got rough when the money got tight and Lulu didn`t think divorce would be enough. When she apparently wasn`t getting her way with more than
half of the assets, she went the route of a hitman to get all of the assets. And she might have gotten away with it, too, if it weren`t for one
critical mistake. She needed the help of someone to find a hitman and unbeknownst to her the guy she asked ended up being a pal of her husband.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe in my heart that if nobody intervened, she might find somebody that will follow through with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So that friend broke the news that his wife wanted him dead and the two of them went to police and came up with this, the brilliant idea to
fake his murder. Cue that Oscar-worthy makeup and the Broadway winning sets. And voila, a ditch in the desert became the scene of the crime, a
very haunting photo shoot. Creepy when you look at it because it looks so real. When Lulu saw these pictures, of what looked like her dead husband,
she smiled.
I guess you could say the joke is now on her because she`s in prison stripes. And she`ll be wearing them for upwards of 20 years. Ramon Sosa,
the man in those pictures, joins me now very much alive from Houston. Ramon, thank you for being with us tonight, and thank you for being with us
all on this planet. I`m so glad you`re OK. But are you really I mean OK given what you`ve just been through?
RAMON SOSA, WIFE HIRED HITMAN TO KILL HIM: It was a very, very tough situation that I went through. It was a horrible situation that I went
through. I live day to day. It`s been what, two years now, but I try to move to turn the page now, but it still haunts me sometimes just to think
about what happened to me.
BANFIELD: I think understandably so, Sir, when I saw these photographs today. I felt sick. I mean, honestly, they`re so realistic. And I think
my next thought was how did you feel when you looked at those photos and when you`re looking at them right now?
SOSA: When I was in that grave, I was thinking a lot about my family, about my mother and father, and my kids, because obviously, they were going
to see -- at some time, they were going to be able to see these photos. And it was going to be tough on them. It was very tough. And even when I
look at them now, they still haunt me. There`s photos that if it wasn`t for that young man that saved my life by telling me what was going on, that
could have really happened. And I would not be here right now for my family, for my kids.
BANFIELD: And, Ramon, I got to be honest, it sounds like one of the more incredible coincidences of any crime that a covert the fact that she would
seek out help from a man she had no idea that you knew. How did that happen?
[20:05:01] SOSA: Well, yeah, it was a young man that I -- that was part of my gym about 10, 12 years ago. And he became -- he had problems back with
the law, and he had just gotten out of jail and a gang member and all that stuff. And I helped him, I helped him to get out of trouble. I was to him
like a father figure. He was very close to my family, my kids. So he always stayed in my gym with me and helped me. And 10, 12 years later,
this happens, he walks into a conversation where my ex-wife is talking about killing. And he heard that, and at that instant, he took the
initiative to tell her, you know what? I know who can do the job. And that`s when we did our investigation and he told me.
BANFIELD: And tell me -- tell me about that, that investigation because he decided to record the next interaction with her. And what happened in that
interaction?
SOSA: Yeah. We`ve met after he told me what was going on. We met and we came up with a plan that he said, you know what, I`m going to see how far
she is willing -- she really wants to go with this. So what I`m going to do is put my cell phone in my pocket and I`m going to record her. And sure
enough, we recorded as much as we could. Then we got a little recorder we bought and got more tape of the audio. And even at one time, we bought a
TracFone, and we`re texting, acting like he was just telling her that the hitman were on the other side texting. And she had no idea the whole time
she was texting, the person that she was texting was me. I played my own hitman.
BANFIELD: And did she give your friend cash to buy a murder weapon, to buy a gun?
SOSA: Yeah. During the investigation, when we were texting back and forth, I texted to him or her while they were together, I texted, you know
what, I need at least $200 to get this hit. I need to buy a dirty gun. And because she wanted the hit done quickly, I said, well, I need to find a
dirty gun, it will cost $200. But I need the money ASAP. So she gave him $200 to buy the gun.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: Can I just ask you when you think about the timing -- the timeline of these events, what was life like, you know, at home? Because
I`m guessing that she came home from this deadly conversation in what, a sporting goods parking lot and said, hi, honey, I`m home. What was it like
living with her at this point?
SOSA: Yeah, it was -- it was like sleeping with the enemy. I would sleep with one eye open honestly, knowing what was going on and how this person
that we`re at one time married and in love and she wanted to kill me. She had no idea that I already knew what was going on. And it was very
horrifying. And nobody -- I can tell nobody, nobody knew about this except the young man and me and then the police when we went to them.
BANFIELD: Well, it is hard to believe looking at these pictures of you from your wedding. I mean, it just looks like you know a match made in
heaven, and the happiest of couples. Take me now to the point where you and your friend have this recording where she handed over $200 for a dirty
gun to do the job. And you head right off to the police station. What did they say to you next?
SOSA: We feel we had enough evidence to go to the police and let them take over. And that`s what happened. We went to the Montgomery County Precinct
where I live. And sure enough, they did an investigation. They called in the FBI, the State -- Texas State Police, the rangers, and they put a plot
together to arrest her basically. And that`s when they came up with the idea, you know what, we`re going to bring our own hitman. And that`s when
they did their own investigation. She thought she was talking to a hitman, but the hitman was actually an undercover police officer.
BANFIELD: And the idea was to sort of have you made up, you know, into this sort of image, what we`re seeing on the screen right now. Were you
onboard with this sort of all along? I mean, I can imagine on paper it sounds great, and then you`re in the makeup chair, and then you`re marching
out to desert you know shirtless and lying in a grave. Were you OK with this all the way along?
SOSA: Yeah, when they told me about the picture, I was a little questionable about it because I thought we had enough evidence with our
investigation, you know, all the evidence we had turned in, and with all the investigation the police department had already, I feel like that was
enough. But they came to me and said, you know what, we`re going to take a picture of you dead in a grave. And I said, repeat that again. They said
yeah, we`re going to take a picture of you dead in a grave. Because they felt that she was a beautiful woman, she`s never been in trouble with the
police, never had a record. And if we were to go to trial, they felt that maybe we had a jury pool that might have felt sorry for her. And so, they
wanted to do something that was dramatic, so when she saw that picture and when the undercover officer`s car and looked at it and laughed and thought
she just hit the lotto because.
[20:10:20] BANFIELD: That`s what she said?
(CROSSTALK)
SOSA: Well, that`s what it looked like. No, no, I`m saying that`s what it looked like to me when I saw the video. Because she saw the picture -- the
police officer showed her the picture of me being dead, that was proof that they had done the job, she paid him the last $2000 for the hit. And she
was laughing and smiling and walked out of there happy. And I took it like it hurt me a lot because to me, she thought she had hit the lotto now I was
dead, now she could live happily ever after with the money.
BANFIELD: And this is a lot of what it is about, the divorce had to be her way. It wasn`t good to go 50-50. She wanted more and this was the way she
was going to get it all. Let me ask you something. Oftentimes and I`m sure since you`ve had a lot of back and forth with the police on the
machinations of this case, the police will try everything they can, so that never looks like entrapment, so that they can`t get off on a technicality.
And in that respect, they offered her an escape route when they said to her -- you correct me if I get it wrong here, but does she -- does she want you
to be beaten up. And she said, no, I want him dead. She had the choice to get out of it on tape, correct?
SOSA: Exactly. They gave her an opportunity to basically bail out. The undercover officer, in one of the audios asked her, do you just want us to
beat him up, you know? She said no, I want him dead. He`s better to me dead. So right there, they knew that she was for real.
BANFIELD: And your friend really corroborates that. I want to play for our audience just this -- just this moment that your friend reflects on the
idea that that she truly just wanted you to disappear and maybe not ever have any evidence that you were ever even around. Have a look at what he
said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember she says she was tired, she was fed up. She said, again, you know, I wish he`d disappear. Whenever she said that
again, I said disappear like this. And she said, exactly like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Ramon, you know, I`m sure it`s difficult for you to hear that even though this case has been dispensed with, she pled to criminal
solicitation of murder, a second degree felony. She`s been sentenced to upwards of 20 years and the evidence is right there on the screen,
Montgomery County Jail. There she is in court facing the reality of what she did. But ultimately, this is what she felt it was worth, her down
payment for your murder included $500 in cash, four men`s watches, which I`m assuming were yours, black boxing gloves, key chain with black stones
on it, a man`s wedding ring, again, I`m assuming it was yours, and a metal charm. Were those your things and were there more payment to come after
the deed was done?
SOSA: Yes. She was very cold blooded. She gave them cash upfront, cash down payment of -- and then the rest of the payment she made with my own
jewelry. And then, she also offered them one of our vehicles. And the day after the hit, she offered what was supposed to give him the rest in cash.
BANFIELD: You loved her.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: You know, you loved her at one point. Those photos are unmistakable in your wedding images. Do you still have any feelings for
her?
SOSA: You know, I`ve turned a page, you know. When she was sentenced, I went to the sentencing. And I had to express myself to her, although she
did not look at me, she did not say one word to me, and not even looked -- not even one time to look at me. They gave me the opportunity to speak to
her. And I told her, and I told her just, you know what, we`re not perfect. I told her that I forgive her for what she did. I forgive, but I
don`t forget. God will take care of you. The law is the law. And they will do what they have to do. But I had to get that out of my system
because I felt like that rage inside of me wouldn`t let me live right. And I just wanted to let her know.
She was a woman that came to this country for the American dream. She had it all. She became an American citizen, her kids became American citizens,
her mother became an American citizen. She had a beautiful home. We had all the toys you wanted. And she gave it all up. It was just a simple
divorce, she gave all that up.
[20:15:01] BANFIELD: And by the way, that American dream that she got was all because you gave her that American dream. You know, I just want to ask
you one last question. Did she ever at any point along this process, in pleading to this, so that it wouldn`t be a much higher charge, a first
degree felony, which would land her possibly in jail for a whole lot longer, did she ever offer up an apology in any way to you at any point?
SOSA: Never. She -- the times that we went to court at hearings, she never even looked at me, had any kind of gestures to even suggest that I`m
sorry for what I did. But one thing I`d like to say before we go is that I`m here today alive because, for me, this young man that helped to save my
life, 10, 12 years ago, he came out of the problems that was coming through the jail, the prison, and the gang and all that stuff. And I helped him
straighten his life out. And 10, 12 years later, he returns the favor by saving my life. And to me, I take it like God put an angel in my -- in my
path to save my life. And he`s my angel. I will forever -- will forever hold this man in my heart for saving my life.
BANFIELD: Well, I wouldn`t downplay your role in that, Ramon. Obviously, what you`ve done is pay forward right back to you. And a lot of that
angel`s behavior was because you started that ball rolling being an angel in the first place. I`m really glad that you`re with us. And you`re a
great guy. And anybody who finds you, they`re really lucky. Thanks for being with us tonight.
SOSA: Thank you very much for having me. It`s a pleasure.
BANFIELD: Ramon Sosa, I`m so glad, like I said, he survived that.
An armed robbery at a Dallas Dollar General turned deadly when a suspect shoots and kills the clerk even after she cleaned out the register for him.
He had the money, but he shot her anyway. And he is still out there tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:21:34] BANFIELD: Closed until further notice. That`s the sign that hangs on the door of the Dollar General Store in Dallas, Texas. A customer
(ph) a single mother of six was heartlessly shot dead on Monday night by a robber who got everything he wanted, all the money in the register, and he
got it quickly. And yet, he killed her anyway. And he is still on the lose.
The surveillance footage shows exactly what happened. The suspect entering the store before he puts a duffel bag on the counter, gun drawn, appears to
move out of frame for a bit. But then, when he comes back you can actually see Gabby Simmons there, just out of frame collecting all the money she can
for him. She seems quite panicked when that gun is aimed right at her face, understandably. Then she hands over the duffel tray before he grabs
the bag and he bolts, but it was actually in that split second that police say he shot her once in the chest anyway.
Gabby had reportedly just quit her job after being robbed one month earlier, but she went back to that job because she needed money to pay the
bills and to buy Christmas gifts for those six kids. And she ended up paying with her life. She died just after she got to the hospital. A
beloved member of the community with regular customers who loved her and six children she adored and vice versa. Reportedly, she even took that job
there because four of her little kids go to school right across the street.
But thanks to this man, six little children are without a mother tonight. And the youngest one of those children is just 7 months old. So if you
think about it, that child will really never know mom. Kate Delaney is an investigative reporter and syndicated radio host, and she joins me live
from Dallas. Kate, please tell me that the police have some kind of a lead on this monster. He`s on video. He`s got really unique features and
clothing. Please tell me they`re getting somewhere on this story.
KATE DELANEY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Boy, Ashleigh, I wish I could tell you that. That would be fabulous news. And they`re supposedly circulating
everything they can out there. A lot of people are looking at the surveillance footage that you`ve been showing and you described he has
definite features that you can sort of see and he has this cut-up jeans and the dark colored hoodie and the black tennis shoes, and you see that he has
a baseball cap on. They haven`t found any evidence of him or he threw things off or anybody that`s seen anything, hide or hair of him. So the
police say, as of now, from what I was told, from a detective, is they really don`t have any good leads. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward and
they`re really canvassing the neighborhood, but nothing yet.
BANFIELD: And that reward by the way is not small. Right now, it is upwards of $15,000, is that correct?
DELANEY: Yes. And climbing.
BANFIELD: And there`s that video. There he is. You can see how distinct -- distinctive those -- well, the clothing that he`s wearing is. And
because, Kate, you know, you just said they don`t have much to go on, that`s us then. That means the community has to have all hands on deck and
all eyes on their surroundings.
So to that, let me just put up a description if I can of what the police have told us that you might not be able to spot so clearly. Jeans that
have slashes on both legs. That is unique. You can see those slashes if you look closely. They go all the way down the leg of the jeans. His
hoodie was a dark hoodie. The shoes, black and white athletic shoes, but here`s the clincher. That ball cap. It`s turquoise or teal. And it has
sort of one of those metallic stickers still on it, at least what it appears on the -- on the bill of that ball cap. And the gym bag that was
used was royal blue and it had stripes on it as well.
Kate, there were other people in the store. Did they -- did they give any kind of indication that was helpful to the police in finding clues and
tracking this person? Because it seems on the video that this was lightning fast, maybe upwards of 25 seconds.
[20:25:37] DELANEY: Yeah. I think you nailed it there. It so -- it happened so quickly. It was such a shock, such a surprise that nobody
could add really more details to what you clearly just showed us with the description. There was nothing else that anybody in the store added.
BANFIELD: So is it correct that this particular store has been robbed 10 times in just the last year alone?
DELANEY: Yeah, 10 times. That shows you that poor Gabby, she really was desperate to have money for her family because you mentioned the six kids,
and with the holidays are coming up. And she and her fiance were actually going to move back to Mississippi. So this was probably one of her last
couple of weeks to work there.
BANFIELD: What about security? I mean, if the store is robbed 10 times in a year, you would think that there would be some kind of security measures
that were implemented there. We heard that while this store was being built, there was plenty of security around the construction site. Did they
continue the security presence when the store just opened for business?
DELANEY: No, no security to my knowledge. And I asked that question several times and was told that, no, there was no security there. They
didn`t have security inside, outside, patrolling, any of that.
BANFIELD: We have reached out to Dollar General to ask about that, to get any kind of comment, any kind of reaction at all about this story. We
didn`t receive any word back by air time. We`re going to continue to see what we can get from the store itself about this. Kate, if you can stand
by for a minute, I want to bring in Chris Simmons. Chris is Gabrielle`s brother. He joins me from Macomb, Mississippi. Chris, can you hear me OK?
Chris, are you there? You know what, we might -- Chris, can you hear me?
CHRIS SIMMONS, GABRIELLE SIMMONS` BROTHER: Yes, ma`am. I can hear you. Can you hear me?
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: Yeah, I got you now. Thank you. It was touch and go for a minute there. Chris, I`m so sorry to be talking to you under -- under
these circumstances. This is such an appalling, appallingly sad story about your sister, Gabby. First and foremost, before I get into some of
the details of the story, I`d like you to tell me a little bit about her.
SIMMONS: She was a genuine person, you know. I mean, she had a good personality. I mean, we had 12 years apart. So ever since she was young,
she wanted to be a mother. She had six kids and she was prove to be a good mother. She actually left you know Mississippi, you know, to Texas would
be better for her kids or whatever (inaudible) and you know to provide for them. And it`s just tragic that she lost her life on the clock trying to
provide for them.
BANFIELD: I mean, her kids are just so adorable. We`re seeing these lovely photographs of them. And, of course, I think what most people would
think right away is where are they? Who is caring for them? What`s their circumstance with mom gone?
SIMMONS: Well, actually, I have a child, and my child actually stays in Dallas and, you know, the mother of my child, she is actually keeping them
right now until we get everything, you know figured out or whatever because we`ve got to get the body shipped back down here and get the funeral
arrangements and everything. So right now they`re staying with her and she`s taking care of them.
BANFIELD: So the last child that she -- her sixth baby, correct, 7 months old? Really quite a tiny little baby still, right, 7 months old?
SIMMONS: Yes, she is.
BANFIELD: So, Chris, what we`ve -- what we`ve come to understand is that she had a very difficult pregnancy with this last child.
SIMMONS: Correct.
BANFIELD: And while she was going through that, she mentioned to her fiance, who by the way, fiance who is effectively dad to three of the kids
and a father figure to all six because they`ve been together over a decade.
SIMMONS: Right.
BANFIELD: She said to him, that if anything should happen during this pregnancy -- because it was such a high risk pregnancy, would you please
make sure that all the children stayed together.
SIMMONS: That`s right.
BANFIELD: Did she -- oh, has he been able to articulate this? How is anyone going to be able to take on six babies?
SIMMONS: And that`s the thing. Like I will feel like the store -- like you said, the store had been robbed 10 times before. And I feel like it
was their fault because they didn`t do anything for the safety of their workers or the people shopping in there. The place had been robbed ten
times.
Like you said, she needed money or whatever, because she had quit a month before this, whatever, and she just went back to work because they had got
robbed before and she was scared for her life, but she had to go back and get money for a bill and get stuff for Christmas for her kids. So she went
back to work and ended up losing her life at work.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, PRIMETIME JUSTICE SHOW HOST: Chris, can I ask you something about the reports that she was thrilled to get this job at this
store because it was right across the street from four of her children`s elementary school, so she could be close to them.
SIMMONS: Right.
BANFIELD: Are those four kids going to be going back to that school knowing full well the murder scene of their mother is across the street? Or will
they be going back to Mississippi at some point sooner rather than later?
SIMMONS: I think that the goal is to, you know, get to the father and, you know, the kids to move back to, you know, Mississippi, so they all can be
together. And, you know, so she won`t have to -- at least not replay that scene over in their head and trying to see the store or anything anymore
because they`re so close. She tried to get everything in walking distance. She just got a vehicle or whatever, but we want them to come back to
Mississippi where family is at.
BANFIELD: Chris, your sister did everything that murderer asked her to do. She complied --
SIMMONS: Right.
BANFIELD: -- with everything he asked her to do at lightning speed. She handed over the entire tray from the register, not even taking the time to
take the money out. She just gave him the whole tray. And yet he killed her anyway. And now it`s up to the police and the community to try to track
him. But if he`s watching tonight, do you have a message for him?
SIMMONS: I would love to let him know he took a good person away at a young age. He took six kids, you know, they no longer have a mother. You know,
the baby is seven months old and she barely knows her mother. And he was a coward for doing that. She did everything. I hope it eats you up and you
turn yourself in. I hope somebody knows you. I`m reaching out and I appreciate this because we`d really like justice for my sister because she
didn`t deserve to die like this.
BANFIELD: God bless you and your family, Chris. I wish you the best as you try to move forward through this extraordinary time especially with those
six little babies. Thank you so much for helping us understand a little bit more about who your sister was.
SIMMONS: Thank you.
BANFIELD: I want to bring in Pat Ford, if I can now. Pat was a friend of Gabby Simmons. She`s also the founder of Dallas Community Fellowship
Incorporated. Pat, you know, gabby looked up to you as a mentor, as we understand. And there you are in a community that has been begging for
help, that has been begging for safer streets, and a community that feels as though there`s just no army behind you. How are you going to move
forward through this extraordinary circumstance you all find yourself in?
PAT FORD, VICTIM`S FRIEND (via telephone): I really don`t have a choice, you know, because God plays a large role in my life and the battlefield is
where I have to be. It`s very sad tragedy thing to happen to Gabby. That very day her baby, the school age, was in the center and it`s just really
sad, but I just have to keep moving forward and hoping and praying that we can give them support so this tragedy don`t have to happen again.
BANFIELD: And Pat, in the more immediate needs of the community, they have to find this man who is on the loose. But --
FORD (via telephone): Yes.
BANFIELD: -- you and many of your colleagues have said the streets are overrun with people like this or at least who he may be allied with. Are
you concerned that many of whomever he is with right now might consider snitches get stitches and thus won`t come forward and turn him in?
FORD (via telephone): They`re probably afraid themselves because we don`t know who is working with him. Is the really sad thing. So I mean, that will
be probably one of the most frightening
[20:35:00] things for someone to actually step up and identify who he is. So we really don`t know. We really don`t know.
BANFIELD: Pat, our thoughts are with you and all of her family and friends. We should mention there`s a gofundme page. You can certainly look up
Gabrielle Simmons. If anyone needs that help, it`s her six little children right now. Pat, thank you very much for helping us shed light on this
story.
I should remind our viewers as well, crime stoppers let you give anonymous tips. So you don`t even need to feel like a snitch. If you know that person
with that extraordinary description, those slashes in his jeans and that teal or turquoise baseball cap, just know full well he just robbed us all
of Gabby Simmons. And he robbed those six kids of their mom. But he got all the money he asked for.
A beautiful girl disappears in New York City and her family is worried that she may be the victim of sex trafficking. Who on earth would take her and
why at a moment she was thrilled to finally hit the big apple?
[20:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: When a 19-year-old girl goes missing, police will often consider that she`s a runaway as the first option. But when a 19-year-old girl goes
missing days after moving into her first apartment of her own in New York City, you start to wonder if maybe it was something else, because in the
case of a stunning young woman named Corinna Slusser, there are very worried reports that she may be a victim of sex trafficking.
She was last spotted at this low-budget motel in Queens early in the morning two months ago. But she has totally disappeared from social media
where her friends and family say she was an active poster.
Solomon Jones is a morning show host for Praise 107.9 FM and he joins me from Philadelphia. This is a very strange disappearance. A young woman who
seemed to be so thrilled with life and so thrilled with hitting the big apple and then just almost completely vanishing. What more do we know about
the details?
SOLOMON JONES, MORNING HOST, PRAISE 107.9 FM (via telephone): Well, we know that on September 7th, three days before her last Instagram post, she
posted pictures of that apartment that you mentioned in Queens and tweeted that it was her very first apartment all to herself in New York, she`d
never been happier in her life, that it was a forever dream that had been accomplished.
So she seemed like she was in a great state of mind. She had everything going for her. And then September 10th, she posts the last picture of
herself on Instagram. It says that she`s in the Bronx, and nobody hears anything from her after that. And the family thought it was strange when
she didn`t show up at her grandfather`s funeral, which was in Florida.
And so, they said that her behavior had been strange right before then. She was saying she didn`t have any money, she couldn`t get there. It just
seemed off to them. And now a month later nobody has seen or heard anything from her since they saw her coming out of that low-budget motel again in
Queens.
BANFIELD: I`m going to get to that motel in a minute, but I found that tweet you`re talking about, Solomon. And I`ll tell you what, I kind of feel
like I lived this dream myself. Arriving in New York City, finding that apartment, taking a picture, sending it home and saying, look, I found
where I`m going to be on my own.
And this is what she said. My first apartment all to myself in NYC. Never been more happier in my life. Forever dream accomplished. And this is one
of the last things that she was able to actually put out on social media. And like we said earlier, she was active on social media. One thing I`m
trying to wrap my head around, Solomon, in this mystery, in this disappearance, she has a lot of photographs and she is a beautiful woman.
JONES (via telephone): Yes.
BANFIELD: But many of the photographs are not selfies. Many of the photographs someone else is taking the pictures of her. And I`m wondering
if any of those people
[20:45:00] who have taken the photos for her have been helpful in trying to sort of track last steps, last people she was with. And by the way, this
image that we`re seeing right now is one of her last images, and she actually changed her profile picture to be that photo. But what do we know
about other people in her life?
JONES (via telephone): So, relatives told reporters that she met a man in March and moved out to New York to be with him. She called him daddy.
Police now believe that man may actually be her pimp. About a month before she went missing, she filed a complaint against this man. He was 32.
Remember, she`s 19. When he allegedly grabbed her neck, pushed her against a wall when she demanded that he hand over $300 that she said was stolen
from her. And so police are not really identifying who this guy is because they believe he might be the key to finding where Corinna is at this point.
BANFIELD: And listen, I`m always really, you know, cautious when there is a person who could very clearly be the victim of a crime. There`s no police
report, there`s no documentation, there`s no allegation even from the police or those who know her that she was in the business of prostitution.
It is curious, however, that she was at this hotel that $50 an hour, it`s sort of retro and old, nondescript, across the street from a cemetery.
You can look at it on the screen and judge for yourself what kind of establishment and certainly with an hourly rate, people`s minds usually
cruise right to one area. But let me put up her description if I can. I don`t care what she did for a living. Nobody deserves to be a victim of
crime. And so if you have seen her, blond hair, blue eyes, about 140 pounds, 5`6" to 5`7".
And then there is this very significant feature. She has a black flower tattoo right down the middle of her chest. While you don`t see it in this
photograph, the police have released it. That`s sort of the less X-rated way of showing it to you.
The black cutouts, you can imagine that`s her upper chest area, but that is what Corinna Slusser`s tattoo looks like, which could possibly be quite
helpful to find her. And my thanks very much to Solomon Jones for helping us sort of work through these last details.
You know, most people only look at dirty magazines, but there is this one guy who decided to use them as X-rated body armor. We`ll explain what we
mean by that and show you more pictures. And it is not even Thanksgiving yet, but jolly old St. Nick was busted and got a mug shot after police
found let`s just say not a corn cob pipe along with his Santa suit.
[20:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: I hate to even say this since it`s not even Thanksgiving, but Christmas is almost upon us. Little more than six weeks away which means
that guys who look like this are about to enter their busy season. This one in particular, this is Charles R. Smith, in his full Santa ensemble, his
beautiful red coat, hat and that full snowy beard. He really looks the part, but does he play the part well?
Because this is also a photo of Mr. Smith after he was arrested for a laundry list of different drug charges. New Jersey police say they found a
crack pipe, empty bags of crack and heroin and hypodermic needles in his car when he was pulled over, and he also had his Santa costume in that car
in plain view, which brings me to defense attorney Robert Gottlieb who joins me now live.
So here is the rub. When you have a guy like that who gets hauled in for something so egregious when you think about all the kids that he spends his
time around, does he get a bit of a break because he does the job of Santa and that`s considered to be pretty good community service for a lot of
people?
ROBERT GOTTLIEB, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think a judge is certainly going to take that into consideration. Obviously, being Santa is a seasonal job.
He clearly had to earn a living in other ways. It`s a very short period of time. So --
BANFIELD: You don`t think he might get a break or does it help or hurt him, because if you`re Santa, you`re really shouldn`t be doing this stuff or if
you`re Santa, well, you got something good going for you?
GOTTLIEB: Yes, I think a judge will take it into account. Listen, it really depends on the drug and whether or not there is any indication he has been
a local dealer. You know, any time as a defense attorney, if I can represent somebody go into a courtroom and my client is -- generates some
sympathy or even laughter as opposed to looking like a mean, terrible individual, I can tell you, it helps.
BANFIELD: It helps, OK, we`ll watch.
GOTTLIEB: I don`t discount that.
BANFIELD: So, there`s this other story, Robert, and I`d love you to help me navigate this one. An Oklahoma guy apparently getting into a knife fight
with one of his neighbors on Sunday. I think they say that this has to do with him being kicked out of the trailer park where he lived, but 49-year-
old Donald Gaither ended up booked on one charge of assault.
It was not the four knives that he had on him that was so intriguing, it was how he tried to protect himself. Gaither had taped old school dirty
magazines like "Playboy" to his body, we assume as a bit of body armor in case he got knifed back.
He told the police that he was in "survival mode" and learned about self defense hack, not on Pinterest (ph), but instead while he was in prison.
So, here is what I am guessing, Robert, this is a kind of
[20:55:00] premeditated piece of evidence, isn`t it?
GOTTLIEB: Well, it certainly is, but it`s somewhat absurd. You know, he obviously just wants to keep those magazines close to him. So, rather than
keep them in a drawer somewhere, he keeps them wrapped around him. I guess you could make that argument.
BANFIELD: Can you believe he picked porn magazines? What a way to get yourself in the national headlines. You couldn`t have picked like "Home &
Garden," you know?
GOTTLIEB: Yes, but if you think about it, if you`re going to do it, if you`re really going to do it, to protect yourself, you have to do more than
just cover your belly button area. You know, people --
BANFIELD: Cover your ---
GOTTLIEB: You cover your heart, you know.
(LAUGHTER)
GOTTLIEB: That`s where these types of vests usually go, they cover your heart.
BANFIELD: Hold that thought. We got one more thing. That mundane task that even presidents of the United States can`t get out of, coming up.
[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Hey, one more thing tonight, guess who got called for jury duty? None other than President Obama, reporting in Chicago. Look at that.
Everybody has to do service, even President Clinton and President Bush did it too. He didn`t get called, though, but he did a lot of glad-handing.
You gotta do your service.
Thanks for watching, everyone. Forensic Files begins right now.
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