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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Suspicious Death; Cult Leader Dead; Murder Trial Underway; Hot Pursuit. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 20, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... up next. See you again tomorrow.
JEAN CASAREZ, HOST, CNN: A handcuffed woman hit repeatedly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was no need to strike her.
CASAREZ: She was allegedly knocked unconscious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because a person`s handcuffed doesn`t mean that an officer would not have to fight back with them.
CASAREZ: Not by a perp but by a sheriff`s officer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He could have turned her around and held her in a transporting position.
CASAREZ: Now, she is suing and blaming his boss for the beat down, too.
CASAREZ: A mother falls out of a two-story window at home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just totally shocked.
CASAREZ: But the medical examiner says it was no accident. She was dead before ever plunging out the window.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something just didn`t feel right. This wasn`t a normal death investigation.
CASAREZ: Now, her teenaged son is charged with murder.
A security guard on trial. Charged with raping and killing a young woman inside the apartment building he was paid to protect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you the ever go inside the apartment 345.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not supposed to go into apartments.
CASAREZ: Now bombshell evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It established to be unmatch at that point.
CASAREZ: That could tip the scales in the prosecution`s favor.
This isn`t what most people do after a police chase.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands up.
CASAREZ: But it probably wasn`t such a good idea.
Good evening. I`m Jean Casarez in for Ashleigh Banfield. Thank you so much for joining us. This is Primetime Justice.
Tonight the sheriff`s office in Jacksonville, Florida, is in the hot seat, blamed for a pattern of excessive force after the release of a disturbing
video like this showing a woman taken down by officers three times in one day.
They say Myra Martinez was drunk when they arrested her, refusing to leave the gentleman`s club where it was her first day on the job. When she
resisted, the officer`s video shows they wailed on her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn`t do anything to you. I didn`t do anything to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Handcuffed at jail, she kicks at an officer and gets hit herself several times. This time she says she was knocked unconscious. And the
officer who hit her explained why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just keeps being disorderly. Irate, belligerent. Saying I`m going to come after you, your family, you guys are all wrong.
You all arrested the wrong person and then basically what most people have been arrested do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But most people do but basically intoxicated people is what you`re trying to say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So there`s other officers there that take note of her behavior as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Police say they reacted quickly, firing that officer the very next day and charging him with battery because the answer to belligerence
is not a beat down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE WILLIAMS, SHERIFF, JACKSONVILLE COUNTY: He could have turned her around and held her in a transporting position that they`re trained in back
over to the location to wait by the door. He could have stood there with her, but there was no need to strike her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: But that wasn`t all. Martinez says she was knocked around a third time by an officer, another officer who was trying to remove her nose ring.
Now she`s got a lawyer going after the sheriff saying he`s allowed this kind of treatment and it needs to stop.
But is it completely his or even the officer`s fault? With me tonight, Roger Henderson, he`s the news director for WBOB in Jacksonville, Florida.
Thank you for joining us. There are three different sites that this happened. The first is outside a gentleman`s club. Let`s go over that.
Roger, what happened there?
[20:04:54] ROGER HENDERSON, NEWS DIRECTOR, WBOB RADIO: Well, this young lady was 26 years old at the time. But apparently accepted a new job at a
gentleman`s club, had a few drinks and became intoxicated.
CASAREZ: A few drinks, hold on. A few drinks. Specifically four shots of 100 proof alcohol, right?
HENDERSON: Yes, that is what is being reported. And in addition to that they`re saying there`s a possibility that she may have been slipped drugs
involuntarily and that even, you know, added to her state of inebriation.
CASAREZ: Right. So here we`re seeing the officer strike. And he strikes her a lot. Why did he do that? What did she do before the video began to
roll?
HENDERSON: Well, they were trying to getter off the property. Apparently, the owner management of the gentleman`s club who wanted her removed by
police because she would not leave voluntarily. And I can only assume she was resisting arrest and not cooperating with the officers` request that
she leave the property. And I think they probably let their emotions get the best of them to be honest with you.
CASAREZ: We heard that she was kicking, we just saw that in the video. We also heard that she was biting at some point. Using I think her arms before
they put her in the restraint. So she was fighting this. no question about it. So then they take her to the intake area.
Let`s go to video for a second. All right. There is the intake area. And this now we`re coming into what looks like the third episode. They`re
having here, they`re doing a search, getting her clothes off. Then they want to get the nose ring off. She doesn`t want to comply with that.
So there we see the female officer. And the other officers move in. To get that nose ring off. OK. I want to go with John Phillips because he is the
attorney he has done many, many high profile cases. He is now representing this young woman as the attorney.
Talk to us about your civil suit that you are bringing now because of these three episodes. What are you alleging in this suit?
JOHN PHILLIPS, ATTORNEY: Hi, Jean, how are you? So we`re starting with a pure and simple 1983 breach of civil rights case and we`re also alleging
state law claims under Florida law for battery and just overall gross misconduct by these officers, particularly Officer Borisade.
CASAREZ: Right. And this officer Borisade was fired. He was charged with battery. I notice that you are suing the sheriff, but as an individual are
you suing the sheriff, and if so, why not the city and the department itself?
PHILLIPS: We alleged it as federal law requires, in the State of Florida, particularly in the city of Jacksonville, you have to allege against
Sheriff Mike Williams as the sheriff. So it`s in his official capacity. It`s as if we`re suing Jacksonville Sheriff`s office and the city. There`s
nothing for personal wrong doing. That`s how we have to allege it.
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: OK. So it`s procedural.
PHILLIPS: Yes, ma`am.
CASAREZ: OK. All right. Your client, tell us about her. She was on the first day of the job at the gentleman`s club. And she drank a lot of
alcohol. Did she quit, did she walk out, did they ask her to leave? How did this all begin?
PHILLIPS: Right. So they fed her shots, to quote, unquote, "loosen her up." Again, this is the gentleman club atmosphere. And then she doesn`t
really remember. She remembers being in the back room, the VIP room, so to speak and someone getting handsy (Ph) with her and she kind of said, no,
no, no, that`s not how I do this.
And she complained to the management and the management took the customer`s side and got belligerent with her. And as you`ll see in my complaint
there`s a host of back and forth. But essentially they forced her to leave without her purse which had not only a change of clothes but her I.D., her
key, her house keys and all of her personal items.
So they kicked her out but said, no, no, no, we`re keeping your purse. So it`s hard to trespass somebody when you don`t give them the ability to
leave.
CASAREZ: OK. So she`s in the parking lot. Officers arrive. They tell her she needs to get off the property. She`s drunk. Highly intoxicated. We see
her kick. Did she actually try to bite the officer?
PHILLIPS: The officer in the interview says that there was no biting, but she did -- she was upset. And her actions, you know, she didn`t act like
she should have acted. We`re supposed to respect law enforcement.
[20:09:56] But they took it way too far with the pummeling she got in the parking lot. And then, you know, more importantly, what happened at the
pre-trial detention facility where she was, again, asking for a lawyer...
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: Yes. Let`s look at this video. Sorry to interrupt.
PHILLIPS: OK.
CASAREZ: I really want the audience to see this video at the intake area of the sheriff`s department because I watched the video in full. And she
stands there, John, for almost an hour.
PHILLIPS: Right.
CASAREZ: And she`s just standing there and standing there, but I can tell that she is being -- and it`s not that video, it`s the intake video. I can
tell that she`s being very verbally aggressive with the officers. What`s she saying during that almost an hour?
PHILLIPS: She, you know, like some inmates who maybe had a couple of drinks, they talk about wanting a lawyer. And they talk about what they`re
going to do to you, you know, we`re going to sue you and you`ve arrested the wrong girl and asking why she was arrested. The African-American fellow
inmate in there, there`s also a video of her being -- of her interrogated after this.
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: This is the video right here. Watch this. Everybody watch this. Everybody watch this. OK. He puts her back in her place. She kicks, and
then he hits.
PHILLIPS: Repeatedly.
CASAREZ: Yes.
PHILLIPS: And then she`ll go, she`ll slump down eventually. Obviously, I don`t have the advantage of seeing the monitor. But she`ll slump down and
they will leave her there slumped down unconscious not moving for 15 minutes, and then an ambulance will come up, and the very same officer, the
very same officer that hit her tells the ambulance to go away, that he refuses her medical care.
CASAREZ: All right.
PHILLIPS: It`s appalling.
CASAREZ: Watching this video along with us is Darrin Porcher, you`re a retired NYPD lieutenant. First of all, I want to ask you, this officer was
fired from one day to the next.
DARRIN PORCHER, RETIRED NYPD LIEUTENANT: Right.
CASAREZ: Was that right? Should he have been afforded administrative leave...
PORCHER: It`s impressive.
CASAREZ: ... to hear -- I mean, they did interview him. But was it right to fire him from one day to the next, can you do that?
PORCHER: Well, it`s really upon the contractual agreement within that union that that department has. Was this an at-will termination? This was a
sheriff`s department. Generally speaking the sheriff`s department has different provisions in hiring than the municipal police department.
I give you an example, the NYPD, for example. So at this stage it`s really difficult to tell. But one thing that`s consistent, oftentimes when you see
officers that commit acts such as felonies, they`re terminated immediately. And I don`t want to say this was a felony, but this was a very serious
assault that occurred.
CASAREZ: When you have someone in custody that is kicking, allegedly biting or spitting, verbally aggressive, I guess you just have to take
that. But what should the officer have done in these circumstances?
PORCHER: Well, the first thing we need to remember is the police officer should be the avid professional. And being the avid professional one of the
things that you want to exercise is your usage of the minimum use of force necessary.
You have an assortment of nonlethal means that you can use on an individual such as pepper spray, things to that effect. Or even a taser in drive stun
mode, that`s when you, quote, unquote, "see the electricity" that just launches into a person and it temporarily disables the person.
I think that would have been the better course of action in restraining this particular individual as opposed to a series of punches, so to speak.
Because this is, when you look at someone being punched, you can inflict a long-term series of damage on that person.
CASAREZ: Right. Let`s listen right now to Borisade. He was, as the sheriff Officer Borisade fired the day after this happened. But let`s listen to
what he has to say in his own defense here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the Jacksonville Sheriff`s Department procedures state about suspects that are handcuffed? Are we allowed to
strike them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In what way? Because she was handcuffed, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And did you strike her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Did you strike her with an open hand or closed fist?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closed fist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember the amount of times you struck her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe it was three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Where did you strike her at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Near her stomach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: So he admits a lot, Margie Moe, defense attorney, he admits a lot here. Do you believe that it was right to fire him and immediately charge
him with battery, which is what they did?
MARGIE MOW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely. But it`s my understanding that he pled to an assault, which really bothers me because this was clearly a
battery. She could -- I understand that she kicked him, but she couldn`t even defend herself. She`s handcuffed and he`s just losing control of
himself and throwing punch after punch and inflicting injury on her.
And I`m especially bothered by the fact that she`s in the room and they`re doing the strip search, she appears to be cooperating, and then all of a
sudden they just yank her by the hair and start beating her again. This appears to be a policy that they have in this department. They`re
rightfully getting sued under 1383.
[20:15:13] CASAREZ: Right. John Phillips, is this one bad officer or do you believe that the training shows that it`s rampant in the entire
department?
PHILLIPS: Unfortunately, we`re seeing more and more aggressive officers in Jacksonville. This is my hometown. And there`s a lot going on. And one
thing that`s really telling you is do a deep dive about this is two officers say the cameras, the cameras, don`t punch her because of the
cameras. Not don`t punch her. But don`t punch her because of the cameras.
And that was the most disturbing part of this for me is that says that these cops are taught to avoid inflicting injury on suspects when cameras
are around.
CASAREZ: Very interesting comment. You`re right. State of mind shows right there, doesn`t it? Thank you very much.
A woman is found dead on the patio of her suburban mansion. It first looked like she fell from the home`s second story window. But now the evidence is
pointing in another direction. Why the medical examiner says this mother was dead before she even plummeted to the ground.
[20:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: Tonight a silent 16-year-old is accused of murdering his mother after officers found her body face up below a second story window.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN JORDAN, POLICE OFFICER, FARMINGTON HILLS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We started noticing that the positioning of her body was not what you would
expect from someone falling out of a window.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: It was immediately clear to officers that Nada Huranieh`s fall didn`t appear to be an accident. But now things are looking worse for the
son who prosecutors say is responsible. Because a key witness has testified that she was smothered before she fell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBEN ORTIZ-REYES, DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, OAKLAND COUNTY: Is it your opinion that she was dead by the time she came out of the window?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Mohammad Altantawi`s charges have now been upgraded from second to first degree murder. And he will be tried as an adult for allegedly
killing his mother. Though his attorney insists he is innocent.
Now I want to bring in Charlie Langton, he`s a reporter for WWJ Radio News talk radio 950 Detroit. You know, this is an interesting case. It`s really
interesting. Just give us the facts as we know them at this point.
CHARLIE LANGTON, REPORTER, WWJ NEWSRADIO 950: Well, this is the death occurred Monday August 21st. This is interesting because this is a very
wealthy area in Farmington Hills, Michigan. This is a mansion.
And when a police arrived on the scene they found that a woman 35 years old had supposedly fallen from the second story window of this mansion. But
then as the officer testified at the preliminary exam something just didn`t feel right to him. There was no blood on the floor, on the ground.
There was no blood on Mohammed, a 16-year-old that the officers said was giving CPR with one hand and calling dispatch with the other hand. And
his mood was no emotion but he was very alert.
Some officers found that unusual. And then the positioning of the body, unusual. And then when the medical examiner, the forensic pathologist
testified, the pathologist basically testified that there was bruises on the lips, there was hemorrhage under the skin and there was some bacterial
colonies in the lungs, all indications that the mother was dead before she was thrown out of the window of this mansion.
Combine all those things, and then up the charges from second degree murder to first degree murder for the 16-year-old. This is a very bizarre case.
CASAREZ: You know, Charlie, what do we know about the family? Because this is a mansion, just like you`re saying. A very exclusive area in Michigan.
And look at that. It`s a mansion. What do we know about the family?
LANGTON: This is a family that was actually going through a divorce. There are a Muslim family in this area. The mother, father again going through a
divorce. The mother then kind of became a little away from the Muslim, what you may be suspect, she became a fitness trainer. She didn`t wear the
traditional clothing of that -- that they wear.
She`s a mother of three. A little unusual although the father is not part of this case, not a suspect at least at this point in time. The 16-year-old
is the oldest of three children. Good student from what we understand to what we call the international academy and doing well. No criminal history
of any kind. A mystery about this family.
CASAREZ: And her estranged husband, the father, was not at home. And there were two sisters that were at home. You know, as we`re looking at this
mansion and we`re looking at the second floor, I mean, that`s quite a fall.
LANGTON: Yes.
CASAREZ: That`s quite a fall. And she fell, isn`t it right, Charlie, on cement not on grass which would have padded the fall a little bit.
LANGTON: A little bit, but what`s key to that, though, is that there was no blood. And if you believe the testimony from the forensic pathologist
would have indicated that there should have been some blood from that fall 20 plus feet up from that second story...
CASAREZ: And that`s the thing. You fall from the second floor all the way to the ground. Not a spatter of blood.
[20:25:00] Bobby Chacon, you`re joining us, a former -- you`re an FBI special agent. So you investigating this case, wouldn`t you first look at
the strange facts that someone falls and there`s no blood?
BOBBY CHACON, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Sure. Because if you look at what this is, it`s a death by blunt force trauma in effect, right? So she hits
that ground. It`s akin to being hit with a baseball bat or a brick. So you would expect the injury residue to be such that she was impacted with blunt
force trauma.
So if someone is hit in the head with a baseball bat you see bruising, you see abrasion, you see hemorrhaging, you see blood. And you don`t have any
of that in this. So this is akin to a blunt force trauma injury without any of the indicators that it was blunt force trauma. Also, you seem to have a
staged crime scene up in that bedroom.
CASAREZ: Right. That`s what I want to ask you. Because the window was up on the second floor. There`s a little step ladder. The win deck is close
by. So it looks like she`s cleaning the window at that very early hour.
CHACON: Right. And it doesn`t, this house in this neighborhood doesn`t seem like it`s the kind of place where the mother of the house actually is
up on a ladder cleaning windows. I`d be shock if they don`t have a cleaning woman or a cleaning service in that house on a weekly basis cleaning that
house.
Plus, the ladder that she was on was upright. There was no evidence that she clutch or grab anything or tried to clutch or grab anything as she was
falling out that window. Nothing was broken. Nothing was out of place in that room. When you fall out a window, you know, when you kind of tip over
on it, you can imagine someone trying to reach out and something is broken or something is tumbled on to the floor. There`s nothing like that. This
seems like a poorly staged crime scene.
CASAREZ: So Bobby, do you think because the medical examiner said that asphyxia, she was smothered to death, do you think that could have been
done and then her body was taken out to the cement area and she didn`t fall out the window at all?
CHACON: Either that or, you know, she was brought to that window and then pushed out to make it look, you know, like she fell. Either one of those. I
mean, I think -- I think...
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: But even if you`re dead, there`s blood in your body, right? And if you hit the ground and there`s an abrasion of some kind, there`s going
to be a little bit of blood.
CHACON: Right. And I think that a further look at the medical examiner, I would like to know whether at that there were any broken bones or anything.
Because something would have happened if she was pushed out of that widow. There would have been some kind of, you know, even her skull might have
been broken or something.
So it`s quite possibly that she was dragged out there and staged. Certainly the room was a staged crime scene. The ladder being there, the spray bottle
being sprayed on to the window, but no swiping, you know, her being cleaning that room at that hour, it`s all suspect. So it all doesn`t make
sense.
CASAREZ: And remember, this is a 16-year-old. Her son. Sixteen years old that`s being charged with first degree murder. Mohammad Alkantawi. Let`s
listen in court to what the defense is saying, because remember, two sides to every story. Let`s listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHANNON SMITH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I mean, you don`t know if she`s standing in the window leaning over, cleaning under it. You don`t know that,
correct?
JORDAN: No. But at this point I`m there investigating what may have happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: All right, Margie Mow, what do you think? I mean, doesn`t look good for this young man.
MOW: How do we know it`s him, though? It was a staged crime scene.
CASAREZ: They charged him right away.
(CROSSTALK)
MOW: But I don`t see any facts to support the fact that it was him. There were other people in the house. There could have been somebody who was
unhappy about the fact she wasn`t leading a traditional Muslim life and came in and attacked her. I have not seen any evidence that pinpoints this
crime on him, but yes he`s being charged and he`s being charged an adult.
CASAREZ: So rush to judgment you`re saying?
MOW: Possibly.
CASAREZ: Charlie, what do we know about that? Because there were two sisters in the home. And I think one of them called 911, right? Or they
found her, right?
LANGTON: Correct. The oldest sister did call 911. There were three people at home plus the mother at the time of this incident. The father was not
living there. But the defense attorney. I talked to him specifically. He said that this is it. His client is innocent. They`re going to prove that
he didn`t do this crime.
So I guess the link now when they continue this preliminary exam on the December 8th, they`ve got to link all these facts to Mohammad, to the 16-
year-old. At this time it looks like a staged killing perhaps, but did Mohammed do it. That`s going to be the question that they are going to have
to -- that the prosecutors are going to have to show at this preliminary exam coming up.
CASAREZ: And Charlie, prosecutors don`t have to show this, but did you hear anything in court that would go toward motive? Was there an issue
between the two of them, was he closer to his father, they were going through a divorce, I mean, why would he do something like this?
LANGTON: Absolutely nothing. Again, it`s first degree murder, they don`t have to show motive but there`s nothing in there that would indicate why
they didn`t have any evidence of fighting and from what we know this was not an unhappy family.
[20:30:00] But at this point in time we don`t have any indication that there was a problem in the family other than a messy divorce, although this
father did have quite a bit of money. So maybe that`s where the divorce is messy. But other than that with the children, nothing. Mohammad was, by
all...
[20:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... up next. See you again tomorrow.
JEAN CASAREZ, HOST, CNN: A handcuffed woman hit repeatedly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was no need to strike her.
CASAREZ: She was allegedly knocked unconscious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because a person`s handcuffed doesn`t mean that an officer would not have to fight back with them.
CASAREZ: Not by a perp but by a sheriff`s officer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He could have turned her around and held her in a transporting position.
CASAREZ: Now, she is suing and blaming his boss for the beat down, too.
CASAREZ: A mother falls out of a two-story window at home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just totally shocked.
CASAREZ: But the medical examiner says it was no accident. She was dead before ever plunging out the window.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something just didn`t feel right. This wasn`t a normal death investigation.
CASAREZ: Now, her teenaged son is charged with murder.
A security guard on trial. Charged with raping and killing a young woman inside the apartment building he was paid to protect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you the ever go inside the apartment 345.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not supposed to go into apartments.
CASAREZ: Now bombshell evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It established to be unmatch at that point.
CASAREZ: That could tip the scales in the prosecution`s favor.
This isn`t what most people do after a police chase.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands up.
CASAREZ: But it probably wasn`t such a good idea.
Good evening. I`m Jean Casarez in for Ashleigh Banfield. Thank you so much for joining us. This is Primetime Justice.
Tonight the sheriff`s office in Jacksonville, Florida, is in the hot seat, blamed for a pattern of excessive force after the release of a disturbing
video like this showing a woman taken down by officers three times in one day.
They say Myra Martinez was drunk when they arrested her, refusing to leave the gentleman`s club where it was her first day on the job. When she
resisted, the officer`s video shows they wailed on her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn`t do anything to you. I didn`t do anything to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Handcuffed at jail, she kicks at an officer and gets hit herself several times. This time she says she was knocked unconscious. And the
officer who hit her explained why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just keeps being disorderly. Irate, belligerent. Saying I`m going to come after you, your family, you guys are all wrong.
You all arrested the wrong person and then basically what most people have been arrested do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But most people do but basically intoxicated people is what you`re trying to say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So there`s other officers there that take note of her behavior as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Police say they reacted quickly, firing that officer the very next day and charging him with battery because the answer to belligerence
is not a beat down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE WILLIAMS, SHERIFF, JACKSONVILLE COUNTY: He could have turned her around and held her in a transporting position that they`re trained in back
over to the location to wait by the door. He could have stood there with her, but there was no need to strike her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: But that wasn`t all. Martinez says she was knocked around a third time by an officer, another officer who was trying to remove her nose ring.
Now she`s got a lawyer going after the sheriff saying he`s allowed this kind of treatment and it needs to stop.
But is it completely his or even the officer`s fault? With me tonight, Roger Henderson, he`s the news director for WBOB in Jacksonville, Florida.
Thank you for joining us. There are three different sites that this happened. The first is outside a gentleman`s club. Let`s go over that.
Roger, what happened there?
[20:04:54] ROGER HENDERSON, NEWS DIRECTOR, WBOB RADIO: Well, this young lady was 26 years old at the time. But apparently accepted a new job at a
gentleman`s club, had a few drinks and became intoxicated.
CASAREZ: A few drinks, hold on. A few drinks. Specifically four shots of 100 proof alcohol, right?
HENDERSON: Yes, that is what is being reported. And in addition to that they`re saying there`s a possibility that she may have been slipped drugs
involuntarily and that even, you know, added to her state of inebriation.
CASAREZ: Right. So here we`re seeing the officer strike. And he strikes her a lot. Why did he do that? What did she do before the video began to
roll?
HENDERSON: Well, they were trying to getter off the property. Apparently, the owner management of the gentleman`s club who wanted her removed by
police because she would not leave voluntarily. And I can only assume she was resisting arrest and not cooperating with the officers` request that
she leave the property. And I think they probably let their emotions get the best of them to be honest with you.
CASAREZ: We heard that she was kicking, we just saw that in the video. We also heard that she was biting at some point. Using I think her arms before
they put her in the restraint. So she was fighting this. no question about it. So then they take her to the intake area.
Let`s go to video for a second. All right. There is the intake area. And this now we`re coming into what looks like the third episode. They`re
having here, they`re doing a search, getting her clothes off. Then they want to get the nose ring off. She doesn`t want to comply with that.
So there we see the female officer. And the other officers move in. To get that nose ring off. OK. I want to go with John Phillips because he is the
attorney he has done many, many high profile cases. He is now representing this young woman as the attorney.
Talk to us about your civil suit that you are bringing now because of these three episodes. What are you alleging in this suit?
JOHN PHILLIPS, ATTORNEY: Hi, Jean, how are you? So we`re starting with a pure and simple 1983 breach of civil rights case and we`re also alleging
state law claims under Florida law for battery and just overall gross misconduct by these officers, particularly Officer Borisade.
CASAREZ: Right. And this officer Borisade was fired. He was charged with battery. I notice that you are suing the sheriff, but as an individual are
you suing the sheriff, and if so, why not the city and the department itself?
PHILLIPS: We alleged it as federal law requires, in the State of Florida, particularly in the city of Jacksonville, you have to allege against
Sheriff Mike Williams as the sheriff. So it`s in his official capacity. It`s as if we`re suing Jacksonville Sheriff`s office and the city. There`s
nothing for personal wrong doing. That`s how we have to allege it.
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: OK. So it`s procedural.
PHILLIPS: Yes, ma`am.
CASAREZ: OK. All right. Your client, tell us about her. She was on the first day of the job at the gentleman`s club. And she drank a lot of
alcohol. Did she quit, did she walk out, did they ask her to leave? How did this all begin?
PHILLIPS: Right. So they fed her shots, to quote, unquote, "loosen her up." Again, this is the gentleman club atmosphere. And then she doesn`t
really remember. She remembers being in the back room, the VIP room, so to speak and someone getting handsy (Ph) with her and she kind of said, no,
no, no, that`s not how I do this.
And she complained to the management and the management took the customer`s side and got belligerent with her. And as you`ll see in my complaint
there`s a host of back and forth. But essentially they forced her to leave without her purse which had not only a change of clothes but her I.D., her
key, her house keys and all of her personal items.
So they kicked her out but said, no, no, no, we`re keeping your purse. So it`s hard to trespass somebody when you don`t give them the ability to
leave.
CASAREZ: OK. So she`s in the parking lot. Officers arrive. They tell her she needs to get off the property. She`s drunk. Highly intoxicated. We see
her kick. Did she actually try to bite the officer?
PHILLIPS: The officer in the interview says that there was no biting, but she did -- she was upset. And her actions, you know, she didn`t act like
she should have acted. We`re supposed to respect law enforcement.
[20:09:56] But they took it way too far with the pummeling she got in the parking lot. And then, you know, more importantly, what happened at the
pre-trial detention facility where she was, again, asking for a lawyer...
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: Yes. Let`s look at this video. Sorry to interrupt.
PHILLIPS: OK.
CASAREZ: I really want the audience to see this video at the intake area of the sheriff`s department because I watched the video in full. And she
stands there, John, for almost an hour.
PHILLIPS: Right.
CASAREZ: And she`s just standing there and standing there, but I can tell that she is being -- and it`s not that video, it`s the intake video. I can
tell that she`s being very verbally aggressive with the officers. What`s she saying during that almost an hour?
PHILLIPS: She, you know, like some inmates who maybe had a couple of drinks, they talk about wanting a lawyer. And they talk about what they`re
going to do to you, you know, we`re going to sue you and you`ve arrested the wrong girl and asking why she was arrested. The African-American fellow
inmate in there, there`s also a video of her being -- of her interrogated after this.
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: This is the video right here. Watch this. Everybody watch this. Everybody watch this. OK. He puts her back in her place. She kicks, and
then he hits.
PHILLIPS: Repeatedly.
CASAREZ: Yes.
PHILLIPS: And then she`ll go, she`ll slump down eventually. Obviously, I don`t have the advantage of seeing the monitor. But she`ll slump down and
they will leave her there slumped down unconscious not moving for 15 minutes, and then an ambulance will come up, and the very same officer, the
very same officer that hit her tells the ambulance to go away, that he refuses her medical care.
CASAREZ: All right.
PHILLIPS: It`s appalling.
CASAREZ: Watching this video along with us is Darrin Porcher, you`re a retired NYPD lieutenant. First of all, I want to ask you, this officer was
fired from one day to the next.
DARRIN PORCHER, RETIRED NYPD LIEUTENANT: Right.
CASAREZ: Was that right? Should he have been afforded administrative leave...
PORCHER: It`s impressive.
CASAREZ: ... to hear -- I mean, they did interview him. But was it right to fire him from one day to the next, can you do that?
PORCHER: Well, it`s really upon the contractual agreement within that union that that department has. Was this an at-will termination? This was a
sheriff`s department. Generally speaking the sheriff`s department has different provisions in hiring than the municipal police department.
I give you an example, the NYPD, for example. So at this stage it`s really difficult to tell. But one thing that`s consistent, oftentimes when you see
officers that commit acts such as felonies, they`re terminated immediately. And I don`t want to say this was a felony, but this was a very serious
assault that occurred.
CASAREZ: When you have someone in custody that is kicking, allegedly biting or spitting, verbally aggressive, I guess you just have to take
that. But what should the officer have done in these circumstances?
PORCHER: Well, the first thing we need to remember is the police officer should be the avid professional. And being the avid professional one of the
things that you want to exercise is your usage of the minimum use of force necessary.
You have an assortment of nonlethal means that you can use on an individual such as pepper spray, things to that effect. Or even a taser in drive stun
mode, that`s when you, quote, unquote, "see the electricity" that just launches into a person and it temporarily disables the person.
I think that would have been the better course of action in restraining this particular individual as opposed to a series of punches, so to speak.
Because this is, when you look at someone being punched, you can inflict a long-term series of damage on that person.
CASAREZ: Right. Let`s listen right now to Borisade. He was, as the sheriff Officer Borisade fired the day after this happened. But let`s listen to
what he has to say in his own defense here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the Jacksonville Sheriff`s Department procedures state about suspects that are handcuffed? Are we allowed to
strike them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In what way? Because she was handcuffed, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And did you strike her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Did you strike her with an open hand or closed fist?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closed fist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember the amount of times you struck her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe it was three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Where did you strike her at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Near her stomach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: So he admits a lot, Margie Moe, defense attorney, he admits a lot here. Do you believe that it was right to fire him and immediately charge
him with battery, which is what they did?
MARGIE MOW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely. But it`s my understanding that he pled to an assault, which really bothers me because this was clearly a
battery. She could -- I understand that she kicked him, but she couldn`t even defend herself. She`s handcuffed and he`s just losing control of
himself and throwing punch after punch and inflicting injury on her.
And I`m especially bothered by the fact that she`s in the room and they`re doing the strip search, she appears to be cooperating, and then all of a
sudden they just yank her by the hair and start beating her again. This appears to be a policy that they have in this department. They`re
rightfully getting sued under 1383.
[20:15:13] CASAREZ: Right. John Phillips, is this one bad officer or do you believe that the training shows that it`s rampant in the entire
department?
PHILLIPS: Unfortunately, we`re seeing more and more aggressive officers in Jacksonville. This is my hometown. And there`s a lot going on. And one
thing that`s really telling you is do a deep dive about this is two officers say the cameras, the cameras, don`t punch her because of the
cameras. Not don`t punch her. But don`t punch her because of the cameras.
And that was the most disturbing part of this for me is that says that these cops are taught to avoid inflicting injury on suspects when cameras
are around.
CASAREZ: Very interesting comment. You`re right. State of mind shows right there, doesn`t it? Thank you very much.
A woman is found dead on the patio of her suburban mansion. It first looked like she fell from the home`s second story window. But now the evidence is
pointing in another direction. Why the medical examiner says this mother was dead before she even plummeted to the ground.
[20:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: Tonight a silent 16-year-old is accused of murdering his mother after officers found her body face up below a second story window.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN JORDAN, POLICE OFFICER, FARMINGTON HILLS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We started noticing that the positioning of her body was not what you would
expect from someone falling out of a window.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: It was immediately clear to officers that Nada Huranieh`s fall didn`t appear to be an accident. But now things are looking worse for the
son who prosecutors say is responsible. Because a key witness has testified that she was smothered before she fell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBEN ORTIZ-REYES, DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, OAKLAND COUNTY: Is it your opinion that she was dead by the time she came out of the window?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Mohammad Altantawi`s charges have now been upgraded from second to first degree murder. And he will be tried as an adult for allegedly
killing his mother. Though his attorney insists he is innocent.
Now I want to bring in Charlie Langton, he`s a reporter for WWJ Radio News talk radio 950 Detroit. You know, this is an interesting case. It`s really
interesting. Just give us the facts as we know them at this point.
CHARLIE LANGTON, REPORTER, WWJ NEWSRADIO 950: Well, this is the death occurred Monday August 21st. This is interesting because this is a very
wealthy area in Farmington Hills, Michigan. This is a mansion.
And when a police arrived on the scene they found that a woman 35 years old had supposedly fallen from the second story window of this mansion. But
then as the officer testified at the preliminary exam something just didn`t feel right to him. There was no blood on the floor, on the ground.
There was no blood on Mohammed, a 16-year-old that the officers said was giving CPR with one hand and calling dispatch with the other hand. And
his mood was no emotion but he was very alert.
Some officers found that unusual. And then the positioning of the body, unusual. And then when the medical examiner, the forensic pathologist
testified, the pathologist basically testified that there was bruises on the lips, there was hemorrhage under the skin and there was some bacterial
colonies in the lungs, all indications that the mother was dead before she was thrown out of the window of this mansion.
Combine all those things, and then up the charges from second degree murder to first degree murder for the 16-year-old. This is a very bizarre case.
CASAREZ: You know, Charlie, what do we know about the family? Because this is a mansion, just like you`re saying. A very exclusive area in Michigan.
And look at that. It`s a mansion. What do we know about the family?
LANGTON: This is a family that was actually going through a divorce. There are a Muslim family in this area. The mother, father again going through a
divorce. The mother then kind of became a little away from the Muslim, what you may be suspect, she became a fitness trainer. She didn`t wear the
traditional clothing of that -- that they wear.
She`s a mother of three. A little unusual although the father is not part of this case, not a suspect at least at this point in time. The 16-year-old
is the oldest of three children. Good student from what we understand to what we call the international academy and doing well. No criminal history
of any kind. A mystery about this family.
CASAREZ: And her estranged husband, the father, was not at home. And there were two sisters that were at home. You know, as we`re looking at this
mansion and we`re looking at the second floor, I mean, that`s quite a fall.
LANGTON: Yes.
CASAREZ: That`s quite a fall. And she fell, isn`t it right, Charlie, on cement not on grass which would have padded the fall a little bit.
LANGTON: A little bit, but what`s key to that, though, is that there was no blood. And if you believe the testimony from the forensic pathologist
would have indicated that there should have been some blood from that fall 20 plus feet up from that second story...
CASAREZ: And that`s the thing. You fall from the second floor all the way to the ground. Not a spatter of blood.
[20:25:00] Bobby Chacon, you`re joining us, a former -- you`re an FBI special agent. So you investigating this case, wouldn`t you first look at
the strange facts that someone falls and there`s no blood?
BOBBY CHACON, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Sure. Because if you look at what this is, it`s a death by blunt force trauma in effect, right? So she hits
that ground. It`s akin to being hit with a baseball bat or a brick. So you would expect the injury residue to be such that she was impacted with blunt
force trauma.
So if someone is hit in the head with a baseball bat you see bruising, you see abrasion, you see hemorrhaging, you see blood. And you don`t have any
of that in this. So this is akin to a blunt force trauma injury without any of the indicators that it was blunt force trauma. Also, you seem to have a
staged crime scene up in that bedroom.
CASAREZ: Right. That`s what I want to ask you. Because the window was up on the second floor. There`s a little step ladder. The win deck is close
by. So it looks like she`s cleaning the window at that very early hour.
CHACON: Right. And it doesn`t, this house in this neighborhood doesn`t seem like it`s the kind of place where the mother of the house actually is
up on a ladder cleaning windows. I`d be shock if they don`t have a cleaning woman or a cleaning service in that house on a weekly basis cleaning that
house.
Plus, the ladder that she was on was upright. There was no evidence that she clutch or grab anything or tried to clutch or grab anything as she was
falling out that window. Nothing was broken. Nothing was out of place in that room. When you fall out a window, you know, when you kind of tip over
on it, you can imagine someone trying to reach out and something is broken or something is tumbled on to the floor. There`s nothing like that. This
seems like a poorly staged crime scene.
CASAREZ: So Bobby, do you think because the medical examiner said that asphyxia, she was smothered to death, do you think that could have been
done and then her body was taken out to the cement area and she didn`t fall out the window at all?
CHACON: Either that or, you know, she was brought to that window and then pushed out to make it look, you know, like she fell. Either one of those. I
mean, I think -- I think...
(CROSSTALK)
CASAREZ: But even if you`re dead, there`s blood in your body, right? And if you hit the ground and there`s an abrasion of some kind, there`s going
to be a little bit of blood.
CHACON: Right. And I think that a further look at the medical examiner, I would like to know whether at that there were any broken bones or anything.
Because something would have happened if she was pushed out of that widow. There would have been some kind of, you know, even her skull might have
been broken or something.
So it`s quite possibly that she was dragged out there and staged. Certainly the room was a staged crime scene. The ladder being there, the spray bottle
being sprayed on to the window, but no swiping, you know, her being cleaning that room at that hour, it`s all suspect. So it all doesn`t make
sense.
CASAREZ: And remember, this is a 16-year-old. Her son. Sixteen years old that`s being charged with first degree murder. Mohammad Alkantawi. Let`s
listen in court to what the defense is saying, because remember, two sides to every story. Let`s listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHANNON SMITH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I mean, you don`t know if she`s standing in the window leaning over, cleaning under it. You don`t know that,
correct?
JORDAN: No. But at this point I`m there investigating what may have happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: All right, Margie Mow, what do you think? I mean, doesn`t look good for this young man.
MOW: How do we know it`s him, though? It was a staged crime scene.
CASAREZ: They charged him right away.
(CROSSTALK)
MOW: But I don`t see any facts to support the fact that it was him. There were other people in the house. There could have been somebody who was
unhappy about the fact she wasn`t leading a traditional Muslim life and came in and attacked her. I have not seen any evidence that pinpoints this
crime on him, but yes he`s being charged and he`s being charged an adult.
CASAREZ: So rush to judgment you`re saying?
MOW: Possibly.
CASAREZ: Charlie, what do we know about that? Because there were two sisters in the home. And I think one of them called 911, right? Or they
found her, right?
LANGTON: Correct. The oldest sister did call 911. There were three people at home plus the mother at the time of this incident. The father was not
living there. But the defense attorney. I talked to him specifically. He said that this is it. His client is innocent. They`re going to prove that
he didn`t do this crime.
So I guess the link now when they continue this preliminary exam on the December 8th, they`ve got to link all these facts to Mohammad, to the 16-
year-old. At this time it looks like a staged killing perhaps, but did Mohammed do it. That`s going to be the question that they are going to have
to -- that the prosecutors are going to have to show at this preliminary exam coming up.
CASAREZ: And Charlie, prosecutors don`t have to show this, but did you hear anything in court that would go toward motive? Was there an issue
between the two of them, was he closer to his father, they were going through a divorce, I mean, why would he do something like this?
LANGTON: Absolutely nothing. Again, it`s first degree murder, they don`t have to show motive but there`s nothing in there that would indicate why
they didn`t have any evidence of fighting and from what we know this was not an unhappy family.
[20:30:00] But at this point in time we don`t have any indication that there was a problem in the family other than a messy divorce, although this
father did have quite a bit of money. So maybe that`s where the divorce is messy. But other than that with the children, nothing. Mohammad) was by all
aspects that we know, a pretty good kid.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN AND HLN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And remember, we don`t know the prosecutor`s entire case. We don`t know what evidence they used. They
have to believe, should believe that they can prove this beyond a reasonable doubt by even bringing these charges and to upgrade it from
second degree to first-degree murder, they know something that we don`t. We will continue to follow this case.
Well, he was spending his life in prison after taking the lives of seven. Now Charles Manson is dead at 83. The 1960s cult leader gained momentum in
California, a self-proclaimed guru in the Summer of Love, but his ideas were dark. And while trying to start a race war, he directed his followers
to kill. The victims were two sets of people in Los Angeles. Shot and butchered to death including pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you Satan, Charlie?
CHARLIE MANSON, CULT LEADER AND MURDERER: Satan, yes, I`m terrible. I`m a terrible guy, yes. I`m awful, man. I move so quick you wouldn`t believe it.
I can move faster than most people can think about it, man. But what is Satan? Aboraxis, aboraxis (ph) to balance them both, roller skating, you
can`t go roller skate in a buffalo herd and all that, you know what I mean? You know, where is the balance?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Charles Manson was sentenced to death after a trial that captured the country, but he`s been in prison since California abolished the death
penalty. He died yesterday of natural causes. Tomorrow you can catch the CNN special report "Face of Evil: The Charles Mantson Murders" right here
on HLN at 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
A security guard on trial for murder accused of killing one of the young women who lived in the building. He was paid to watch. Now prosecutors say
they have the smoking gun proving he was in the victim`s apartment, something the defendant continues to deny.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Did you ever go inside apartment 345?
STEPHEN DUXBURY, SECURITY GUARD ACCUSED OF RAPE AND MURDER (voice-over): I`m not supposed to go into apartments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK, but did you go?
DUXBURY (voice-over): No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): No. OK. Have you ever been in apartment 345?
DUXBURY (voice-over): No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: The fate of a former security guard is about to be in the hands of a Florida jury. They could send him to prison for life as early as tomorrow
if he is found guilty of raping and killing a young woman who lived in the apartment building where he worked, a woman he was supposed to protect.
But the prosecution says Stephen Duxbury took advantage of an intoxicated young woman in her own apartment before strangling her and wrapping her
lifeless body in a comforter. Despite DNA evidence that ties him to the scene, he insists he didn`t step foot inside that apartment. And today the
jury got to hear his description of that deadly night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUXBURY (voice-over): I started sweeping floor by floor to find where she was, and eventually I was able to locate her because she was stumbling
around, crashing into the walls, her foot falls were just slap, slap, slap, slap. And she was just kind of -- she was wandering around aimlessly. At
one point she was at the front end of the building and her apartment which was 345 is actually on the other side of the building.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Captured on camera roaming the halls together, the former security guard explains he was just trying to help Sasha Samsudean back into her
apartment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUXBURY (voice-over): So I walked with her and we went out and we didn`t even go to any car because about five steps she`s like, wait, I think I
remember the code now. And then I`m like, OK, so we go back in. And then I bring her back to the thing and she starts trying to punch in codes and
it`s still not working.
At this point, I have to do, you know, I got to keep doing my job, got to do another sweep. So I`m like, you stay here and keep trying to do this.
I`m going to do another sweep. And if I come back and you`re still not in your apartment, we`re going to have to figure out how to deal with the
situation. When I came back, she wasn`t there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: But police thought this story doesn`t add up. It just doesn`t add up. And the interviews only got more intense from there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): You`re gonna have to tell the truth.
DUXBURY (voice-over): I am telling the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This will bother you. This will eat at you. It will eat at you the rest of your life. That I can guarantee.
DUXBURY (voice-over): What will eat at me the rest of my life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): That you`re not being truthful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: With us tonight, Ray Caputo. He is reporter from News 96.5 WDBO. Ray, defendant didn`t take the stand, but he didn`t have to, right? Because
the prosecutor put him front and center in that courtroom for that jury to watch. What would you say was the headline for the prosecution from his
interview with law enforcement?
RAY CAPUTO, REPORTER, NEWS 96.5 WDBO: Well, you said it already, it doesn`t add up, because we got all this physical evidence, and we heard from
Stephen Duxbury in his own words. It wasn`t just once. It wasn`t twice. It was multiple, multiple times.
[20:40:00] He said he`s never been in that apartment. So his story is not matching what police found. So, as you said, again, it doesn`t add up.
CASAREZ: What was his demeanor in that interview? Was he authentic? Was he obviously lying? What was it like?
CAPUTO: It`s hard to tell. You know, I`ve seen these interviews before. And I think that at first, Stephen Duxbury was pretty cool, calm and collected.
He offered up a lot of details. I think that he thought he might have had a chance of getting away with this.
But in subsequent interviews, you can kind of hear when the holes start to get punched in his story, how he becomes a little bit more nervous and the
tone of his voice picks up. And he can`t seem to remember details that he was spouting out, you know, in earlier interview.
So, you can tell in subsequent interviews as police start to close in on him a little bit more as a suspect, he does get more nervous. But, you
know, the very first interview he gave that we heard in court today, he was very cool, calm and collected.
CASAREZ: You know, Ray, we want everybody to look at a little bit of this, because the defense is saying that they got the wrong guy. He didn`t do
this. And he actually alluded to that in his first interview. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUXBURY (voice-over): I think I saw her again at some point later on in the evening. Again, I didn`t really document it because I wasn`t sure and there
was nothing suspicious about what she and the gentleman I saw her with were doing. They were just walking in the hallway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Are you sure it was her?
DUXBURY (voice-over): Not 100 percent sure because it looked like she might have been wearing something different.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Bobby Chacon, former FBI special agent with us tonight. You know, Bobby, forensics is an important part of this case. And it was found that
the thumbprint of this defendant was found on the toilet and on the nightstand.
BOBBY CHACON, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Right.
CASAREZ: I want you to listen to this, Bobby, then I`m going to come back to you because he says he was never in that apartment. Listen to his own
words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Did you ever go inside apartment 345?
DUXBURY (voice-over): I`m not supposed to go into apartments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK, but did you go?
DUXBURY (voice-over): No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): No. OK. Have you ever been in apartment 345?
DUXBURY (voice-over): No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: OK, Bobby, his DNA is found in the apartment and he says nope, never there.
CHACON: Yes. That`s a good bit of detective work right there. If you hear the detective, it seems very subtle, but if you hear him, he actually leads
him into that question and he gets him to verify and he asks it again. He wanted to make sure he gets it, you know, lock, stock and barrel, have you
ever been in that apartment? And when he says, no, then he says, OK, you`ve never been in there, and he says no again.
This is -- you know, when you have a person of interest, you want to lock them into things early like that just in case because at that point in time
they may have not had the forensic evidence from the crime scene back yet, but you`re locking that person in, so that later on when you do find
something, because not only do they find his thumbprint in two different places, they found his shoe prints.
They match the same shoes that he owns, the same size and type of shoe that he was wearing. So, this forensic evidence --
CASAREZ: And his DNA on her breast.
CHACON: And his DNA. And there were forensic countermeasures on the body that, you know, indicate somebody wanted to get away with it. So, you know,
he would have been probably better off saying because he was a security guard at some point he might have been in that apartment.
But now they locked him in to that initial statement. The detective did a great job of locking him in in the initial interview, he said he was never
in there. Now, how is he going -- how is the defense ever going to explain that away? It`s going to be interesting to see.
CASAREZ: And it`s going to be tomorrow because the closing arguments are tomorrow. We`re going to have that for you tomorrow night. But Bobby,
here`s the thing that so many people can relate to. People live in apartment complexes. They rely on the security guard for their safety to
actually protect them. And that night she probably relied on him to protect her.
Now, there`s one aspect in regard to the aftermath of this. He was off work. He should have been going home. And there`s video surveillance that
catches him taking two bags of trash out to the garage area and maybe to a dumpster. Listen to what he has to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): We have an issue.
DUXBURY (voice-over): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): What garbage did you take out that day?
DUXBURY (voice-over): Some trash I found on the way out after I turned in my report.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Where did you find it?
DUXBURY (voice-over): I think it was on the second floor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): On the second floor? Outside what apartment?
DUXBURY (voice-over): I don`t remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): You don`t remember? We have an issue. You didn`t report that, did you?
DUXBURY (voice-over): No, it happened after my shift was over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It was still a violation, right?
DUXBURY (voice-over): Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): And you never mentioned it?
DUXBURY (voice-over): No, it was off my shift.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): So you understand how that`s starting to look?
DUXBURY (voice-over): Yes, it doesn`t look good.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: So, Bobby, they had to look over that surveillance video before they talk to him. That was a really strong point brought out early on.
[20:45:00] CHACON: Sure. And his own supervisor even says it was very rare and very unusual for him to stay on after his shift. And also why is he on
the second floor after his shift? You would think that the ground floor is where the office is and he would have punched out and went directly home.
Why is he on the second floor after his shift ends?
CASAREZ: Yes.
CHACON: Why isn`t he reporting this stuff? So, I mean, he`s got -- there`s just no way to explain his way out of some of this stuff.
CASAREZ: But the devil is in the details and the defense has things to work on for that reasonable doubt. We`re going to continue with this story in
just a minute. Stephen Duxbury`s fate, it`s soon as I said, it`s going to be in the hands of the jury. But will his fingerprints in the victim`s
apartment and his DNA on her body be enough to send him to prison for life? Some say maybe not.
[20:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: We`re still talking about the former security guard accused of raping and killing a young woman in the building where he worked because
tomorrow it`s closing arguments and the case goes to the jury. If they find him guilty, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Stephen Duxbury says he never stepped foot in Sasha Samsudean`s apartment. He just helped her when she came home intoxicated and keyless. Prosecutors
say he strangled her to death, and they do have evidence on their side. Two of his fingerprints found in Sasha`s apartment and DNA on her breast
experts testified extremely unlikely to belong to anyone else.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDGAR PEREZ, FDLE DNA EXPERT: So this statistic exceeded -- it was greater than 700 billion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how do you -- can you call that a match?
PEREZ: Basically when it hits that threshold, since the world population is approximately 7 billion people, we`re looking at it as being a hundred
times the world population at that point. So it`s established to be a match at that point. The real statistical significance is 860 trillion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: The defense argues this evidence doesn`t prove their client murdered anyone. They`re so sure of it, they aren`t calling any witnesses.
I want you to listen to the defendant right now in this early on interview where he talks about that, I didn`t do it, but I think you think I did.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUXBURY (voice-over): When the whole bad things happen to good people, people panic. I know how that sounds and I know what that leads to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): What does that lead to?
DUXBURY (voice-over): It leads to next thing I know I`m a suspect, you guys think I did something bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: All right. Margie Mow, defense attorney. We don`t know where the defense is going to go with this particular issue because he definitively
says he wasn`t in the apartment. But his fingerprint is found on the toilet, fingerprint on the nightstand. Shoe print in the apartment.
His DNA is on her breast. There is other DNA in her bed that`s not his. There are no DNA marks under her nails, DNA. Is he going to have to admit
the defense in that closing argument that he was in the apartment at some point?
MARGIE MOW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely. And I think his denial isn`t so much I was never there. You have to remember, the interview was given
because he understood that he had to give an interview in order not to lose his security license.
And so when they asked him if he was there, his answer wasn`t no, I wasn`t there. His answer was, we`re not supposed to go into their apartments. So,
I think that he was there. I think perhaps he used the rest room maybe on a different night, maybe on that night, but there is no DNA to prove that he
is actually the killer.
I disagree with the smoking gun theory because there is none of his DNA on the bed sheet. There was other man`s DNA, but not his. There was bleach
used to clean everything up. He was wearing a blue uniform, there were no bleach stain on his uniform. I think that this perhaps was a consensual
sexual encounter that went badly for somebody other than the defendant in this case.
CASAREZ: But the videotape, the surveillance video doesn`t show anyone else coming into the apartment. They did not have surveillance video on the
hallways, but he`s really the only one that`s caught walking around that night in the early morning hours.
MOW: Well, from the video that we`ve seen. I`ve only seen video of him and her. I don`t know what other footage there is.
CASAREZ: The defense didn`t put on a case.
MOW: That`s not their burden. It`s the prosecution`s burden.
CASAREZ: No, but if they`re going to argue in closing arguments that it was someone else, they don`t have any evidence. Yes, they don`t have a burden,
but it would be nice to show somebody else walking around.
MOW: And that was probably a tactical decision on their part. But, again, I think there`s a lot of reasonable doubt in this case. And I wouldn`t be
surprised if there`s an acquittal or even a mistrial hung jury in this case.
CASAREZ: Bobby, what do you think is the strongest evidence the prosecution has?
CHACON: Well, it depends on what the jurors are looking for, right? So you have DNA, you have a lot of DNA. You have his fingerprints in there. And
the detective did actually get him to admit that he`s never been in that apartment. He did say he tried to be cagey about it, that`s what they`ll do
when they try to hide something.
He says I`m not supposed to -- the detective asked him, were you ever in that apartment? He says, we`re not supposed to go in there. That`s not an
answer. So the detective did follow up and say, so you`ve never been in that apartment, and he said no. He did get him to admit his story is he`s
never been in that apartment.
Also, if you look on the video, he describes her as being severely intoxicated. She may have been intoxicated, but me watching that video,
she`s walking around pretty good. She`s not slamming into walls.
[20:55:00] Her feet aren`t slamming on the floor. So, for an intoxicated person the way he described her as bouncing off the walls and her feet
slamming, it doesn`t appear in the video that she`s in that state.
CASAREZ: Right. Bobby, we`re going to have more on this tomorrow. We do need to go to break right now. But this case, closing arguments tomorrow.
There could be a verdict by tomorrow night. And he`s facing first-degree murder, sexual battery even though there was bleach all over her private
area and then also burglary. So, we`ll see what happens with that jury.
Still ahead, his dance moves may be on point, but this was definitely no smooth criminal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: If you`ve ever watched a high-speed chase, you know the ending can be anti-climactic. The driver simply surrendering after miles or hours of
what might be thrilling to some, but also pretty dangerous sometimes. One man in Houston, he wasn`t quite finished when police finally caught up with
him,
[21:00:00] stopping him with a spike strip. When they told him to put his hands up, he gives officers this show and he started dancing. Apparently
they tried to stop the driver for a traffic violation before he sped off and led them on a chase. They had to use a K-9 to put an end to the
choreography. That driver is now in custody , and his dance moves, they are all over the Internet.
Thank you so much for watching. I`m Jean Casarez, in for Ashley Banfield. We`ll see you back here tomorrow night , 8 o`clock sharp - Primetime
Justice.
How It Really Happened with Hill Harper starts right now.
END
