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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Billionaire Beats Coed, Claims Self Defense; Watts Case, Family Autopsy Reports To Be Made Public. Aired 6-8p ET
Aired October 15, 2018 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just showed up in the lobby. Looks like she is been beaten up. She is crying, she said her boyfriend tried to kill her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A stunning young student is beaten bloodied. But her ex says he did it in self-defense, saying she started the fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the boyfriend there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now he is fighting back with a lawsuit. Claiming she is destroyed his reputation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does she say where he is or what he looked like or anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she didn`t.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But will the 911 calls tell a different story? The alleged victim joins us live. Plus can you record your own death? Because
the journalist at the center of an international mystery just might have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Turkish newspaper claims Khashoggi`s Apple watch recorded his own death.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which means Shanann Watts could have too. The very pregnant wife of an alleged killer husband!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one even knew we wanted to believe it was him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So how exactly could an Apple watch help determine how she died?
SHANANN WATTS, VICTIM, WIFE OF CHRIS WATTS: That is a good picture of us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not to mention who killed the kids.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re angels.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what haunting image might Chris Watts have seen in his tool box? While cops say he was busy dumping his children`s bodies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a good mechanic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This as a pitched battle is waged over the autopsies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s still more questions than answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then, can cold medicine make you murder?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I killed my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean by that? What happen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a dream. And then, I turn on the lights and she is dead on the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the reason this man gave for stabbing his wife to death. 123 times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I took more medicine than I should have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What medicine did you take?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cough and cold, because I know it will make you feel good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now he is learning his fate. See if you agree with his sentence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, HLN CRIME AND JUSTICE: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is Crime and Justice. There are some things
more than a few of us are guilty of. Like faking happiness on social media, because let`s face it. A lot of the pictures we post only show the
happy side of the story and sometimes, they are outright fabrications. Life isn`t always picture perfect and no one might know that better than
the young woman who is going to join us tonight. She decided to post her story on Instagram, raw and brutal. Because this is no cute picture. This
is a picture of domestic violence or at least that is what the police call it. After she says her boyfriend beat her, allegedly kicking her in the
head, strangling her before punching her, trapping her in a bathroom from which she eventually escaped to call 911 in a hurry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police. Ma`am, what`s your location?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma`am, where are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma`am?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: After that phone call ended, this man was picked up, Eric Bretz and he is now charged with domestic violence, but he is not owning up to
it. He has a whole other version of what happened that night that starts with a swing that came from his girlfriend, he says, and he is not just
saying that he was forced to fight back in order to defend himself. He is also fighting back with words. Because he and his extremely rich family
are threatening to sue her for ruining their reputation.
I want to speak now with Ray Caputo, he is a reporter with 96.5 WDBO, as well as Melissa Gentz, who joins me with her first exclusive television
interview, about the night she says Eric Bretz beat and strangle here.
Melissa is also joined by her attorney, Marc Johnson and Dan Larson. Ray, first take me back to the story before we get Melissa to tell us from her
perspective what happened, how this began and how it got such momentum online.
RAY CAPUTO, REPORTER, NEWS 96.5 WDBO: Sure, well this incident happened in September. Shortly after she had posted pictures of herself on Instagram.
[18:05:05] Now Melissa will tell you, she already had a pretty large Instagram following, but this Instagram post quickly picked up steam.
Mainly in her native hometown of Brazil. That is where both the victim and the suspect are from. And from there, a Brazilian news media site had
picked this up. It`s been viewed over a million time of these injuries that were allegedly caused by Mr. Bretz.
An on top of that, the Instagram -- her original Instagram post has been viewed a quarter of a million times. Now Ashleigh, I got to point out that
on the day that this happened, Eric Bretz was one of 16 people arrested for domestic violence in Hillsboro County. This story would had certainly slip
through cracks. Melissa would have been another victim, but by her being courageous and sharing this story on social media, the world is seeing her
injuries and this has been kind of taken out of the shadows and a bright light has been shined upon what happened to her.
BANFIELD: Not only seeing the injuries, but hearing them. It sound as they`re being inflicted. Melissa, thank you for having the courage not
only to tell your story publicly, to post those photos, but then also to do this exclusive interview with us tonight. I thank you. I thank your
attorneys, Marc and Dan, as well. But may I ask you, Melissa, what prompted you to take that giant leap, and put those photograph online?
MELISSA GENTZ, VICTIM: I was very embarrassed on everything that I was going through. I didn`t want to involve my friends, but after the last
brutal thing that happened to me, I decided to share my story with the people ever closest to me and my sister`s friends actually started sending
it to their friends and it became viral. And when I found out I`d be able to help women out of this sad situation, out of abusive relationships, I
decided to share a picture of my face. Because I didn`t want to be embarrassed.
BANFIELD: It is astounding, it sounds to me though this wasn`t maybe something you had intended to be massively public. But that it just went
that way. Was there any time Melissa where you were worried that the tooth paste was out of the tube and that you didn`t want to be this poster child
for this terrible, terrible crime?
GENTZ: I was very afraid in the beginning. And the thing is that I`m not an Instagram star. I didn`t have a big following. I`m a fellow biology
student. I`m a pre-med student and I decided to share my story. I didn`t even imagine that so many people would be touched by it, but I actually
gained all of my followers, because of what happened. That is something that has really touched me, because I hadn`t ever shared anything about my
life the way that I did.
BANFIELD: So, Melissa, whenever there`s a charge and your ex, I`m assuming ex, at his time, your ex-boyfriend Eric Bretz, 25 years-old is now
officially charged with domestic battery by strangulation, he is facing five years in prison, his bail was $60,000. He is free as we are to
understand on bail. He is had to surrender his passport because of course, he is a Brazilian national. He was I think part time living in Miami. He
had several homes as we understand it and an extremely wealthy family. I am going to get to that part of this, next sort of twist in the story in a
moment.
But first, I want to play for our audience if I can, some contemporaneous evidence, because so much is made about women who are attacked or women who
are raped and how much evidence is there in this story. And as it turns out, you`ve shown your photographic evidence, but there`s also your 911
call, that we just played and then there`s the door man. The door man in the apartment building who saw you flailing, running down into the lobby
wearing just your pajamas and bloodied and beaten and he called 911. I want our audience to hear his version of what he said. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s going on there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve got a lady just showed up in the lobby. Looks like she is been beaten up. She is crying, said her boyfriend tried to
kill her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s she wearing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang on. She is wearing like a pajama top and bottom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the boyfriend there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does she need an ambulance?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we want EMT`s, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did she say where he is or what he looks like or anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she didn`t.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. We`ll be there soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So, Melissa, from your perspective, tell me what happened next after the door man called 911. And you are in the lobby in your pajamas
and the police arrive. What happened next?
GENTZ: I was laying on the floor, because I felt very dizzy. I was nauseous, because my head was hit on the floor so many times. I was
covered in blood and I didn`t know how to reach my friends or my family.
[18:10:03] Because my ex-boyfriend had kept my cell phone with him. So two girls actually came up to me, who had walked into the building and they sat
by my side and they told me that they knew how I felt. One of them told me that she was already in an abusive relationship in the past, so she told me
that she`d sit there with me until the cops arrived. And then until the ambulance was there.
BANFIELD: So I`m going to read some of the things that the police have in their report. Of this night and I`m sorry this is hard for you to relive
this. I think it`s critical that the audience hears what the police also recorded as their evidence of what they found that night. The defendant
continued to batter the victim by grabbing her hair and striking her in the face multiple times with a close fist. He proceed to toss the victim
around the room by her hair as well as hitting her in the face with a bottle of Pedialyte. We can see the photograph there of your hair from the
next day, that was obviously looks to me as a result of what the police reported you had suffered that night before.
I want to also play now if I can a recording that you took some time earlier, it`s not a part of this incident. But it sounds like a very
violent incident that happened prior to this one. And as I understand it, Melissa, correct me if item wrong, this is also related to him taking your
phone. The whole fight started because he had taken your phone from you and you recorded him on your lap tap. And as I understand it, you had a
specific reason why you wanted to record what was happening on your laptop. I`m going to ask you about that after I play this. But this is Eric Bretz
and Melissa and you`ll hear it in Portuguese, because Eric speaks Portuguese as well as English and you`ll see the subtitle of what he is
saying to her in an earlier fight. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC BRETZ, SUSPECT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: You think you`re the man in the relationship, but you were not. You are the woman. You have to accept that. It`s hard to even read that
and believe it. It is real. Can I ask you why did you record on your laptop what was happening?
GENTZ: I decided to record this argument because I wanted to show his mother. I had reached out for help. I was in a relationship with Eric,
because I loved him and I thought that I`d be able the help him so I recorded our conversation and I sent it to his mother.
BANFIELD: So I`m going to also read again from the police report, because this speaks to the moment that you were in the bathroom trying to call 911
and as you`re reporting to the police says you were not able to complete that call. It was cut off because he had broken down the door. There`s a
photograph of that bathroom door. And I`m going to read about that moment from the police report and show that photograph. The victim was able to
enter the bathroom in an attempt to call 911, but the defendant kicked open the bathroom door to prevent her from contacting 911. She attempted to run
out of the bathroom, but the defendant continued to restrain her. To see the bathroom door broken in that manner, Marc, I`ll ask you to jump in this
conversation as her one of her attorneys. The notion that --
MARC JOHNSON, ATTORNEY FOR MELISSA GENTZ: Thank you.
BANFIELD: The defendant in this case is saying that this was a case of self-defense. That he was defending himself against this. Has he said why
the bathroom door is broken down if this is case of self-defense?
JOHNSON: No, that is a real telling piece of evidence because, you know, it shows the aggression and the violence in which he was trying to get to
Melissa. Who was behind a locked door? At that moment in safety, but he broke down the door and he got in.
BANFIELD: So then also, Dan, I`d like you to step in on the other twist in this story. It is not typically a twist that we see. I think it may be
why a lot this story has gone so viral, but for the fact that the photos of Melissa are so unnerving and that is there`s been a threat made against
your client, against Melissa, of libel and of ruining the family`s reputation. Of ruining Eric Bretz`s reputation, even though he is been
arrested and charged and mug shot like anyone would be in a circumstance like this. So can you speak to this threat and has it materialized into an
actual lawsuit?
[18:15:21] DAN LARSON, ATTORNEY FOR MELISSA GENTZ: No, it hasn`t materialized into an actual lawsuit. It was a threat made by his Miami
attorneys and he says on behalf of Mr. Bretz`s family and Mr. Bretz and she didn`t take this threat lightly. She knows that the family has means. And
has a lot of power in Brazil and so then that is why she sought out attorneys and that is how she found us.
I can tell you, any attempt to bring an action against her is going to fail and this is a good example for everyone to see why when we hear about women
who don`t want to come forward after a beating or a sexual assault, it`s because the victim gets victimized many times and that is exactly what`s
happening here, because this guy viciously beat her, he strangle led her between his thighs and while she was gasping for air, he is pouring
Pedialyte into her nose and mouth. And he has the nerve to hire a lawyer and I don`t know what he told his lawyer or didn`t, but then the lawyer
sent out a press release and called this fake news. We say bring it on.
BANFIELD: I want to read from some of that. First and foremost, with regard to this notion that they`re calling Melissa, Melissa`s story
libelous and slanderous. They actually used those words. Mr. Bretz and his family will prosecute Miss Gentz for her slanderous and libelous
actions. They will seek to recover damages for the harm to his and his family`s outstanding reputation. We reached out to Eric Bretz`s attorney
several times last week and he was very cooperative with us. He worked with us last week. We reached out several times today. He has not been
able to get back to us today, but I do have this statement.
This is from a prior time, sometime last week I believe. And this is the version that Eric Bretz gives in this entire story. He says this through
his lawyer. Some of the indisputable facts and evidence supporting Eric`s innocence are Melissa Gentz claims she was strangled and struck in the face
multiple times. However, physical evidence reveals no sign of trauma to her neck. Evidence will show that Melissa Gentz was drinking and consuming
drugs prior to the incident she has alleged.
Evidence will show that Melissa Gentz attacked Eric Bretz sending him to a hospital. Melissa, do you want to respond to what Eric`s attorney has sent
out in a statement?
GENTZ: Absolutely. One of the first things I wanted to make clear is that he strangled me between his legs. He put me in between his thighs, started
to impede any air from going through my throat and was beating me and pulling my hair out at the same time. And I simply tried to fight back.
But I was trapped in between his legs. He was pulling my hair out, grabbed a bottle of Pedialyte, smashed it on to my face and started to drown me
because I was caught in between his legs. So I had to pretend that I was dead. I thought of my parents and I said, there`s a chance that I`m not
going to make it out right now.
So I`m going to try because he was so focused on hitting my face and pulling my hair out and disfiguring everything that I had that I just said
I`m over this. And I had to let go. And I pretended that I was dead. At that point, he grabbed me, he threw me on to the floor as if I was a
garbage bag. He kicked me. And when he saw that I was passed out, that is when he turned around. And was tired of beating me.
BANFIELD: I am so sorry for what you have gone through. And I would like to continue telling your story. If you could, Marc and Dan, stay with us
on it. And let us know if there is in fact, just one thing, anybody can send a letter. Happens all the time. It`s one thing to threaten libel.
It is one thing to suggest you`re going to sue and ruin someone. It is another thing to take civil action and I want to know if that happens,
because in this particular story, I think --
JOHNSON: It`s going to happen.
BANFIELD: It would be unbelievable. Do you think it is going to happen?
LARSON: Maybe not file, but it`s going to happen. Yes.
BANFIELD: What do you mean?
LARSON: One day we`ll take his deposition, we`re going to videotape it and you`ll have something that you would be able to put on your show on your
show.
[18:20:04] JOHNSON: He`ll get his chance to talk under oath.
BANFIELD: Well, like I said, thank you very much for telling the story and for being public about it. It is not easy to go on television, especially
if you gone through the trauma that you`ve gone through. It is certainly not easy to show those pictures, either side. So I appreciate you shining
a light on this extraordinary scourge of our society and that is not only the domestic assault, but the secondary victimization, he is innocent until
proven guilty. We have invited him on the program. We have tried to reach him and we do still invite him on. Thank you to all three of you. I
appreciate it.
LARSON: Thank you.
JOHNSON: Thank you for having us.
GENTZ: Thank you, Miss Banfield.
BANFIELD: Coming up next, the latest in the Chris Watts murder case. The fight continuing over the autopsies. As the Judge denies the D.A.`s effort
to keep them secret. So what does that mean? And we just got word that the Weld County Coroner is now asking for that autopsy to remain sealed so
what does that mean? And hear what else they`re asking for as well as the Apple watch rears its head again and not just in Colorado. Somewhere long
and far from here, but very significant. Tell you about that, next.
[18:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: You use it to get texts on the go, you track your beats per minute and of course you use it to tell time. But could you use an Apple
watch to prove your own murder and whether somebody is covering it up? That is the question at least one media outlet is asking right now overseas
after the mysterious disappearance of a journalist now presumed to have been murdered. Maybe even dismembered with a bone saw at the hands of a
government. But there`s something that just might shed some light on this gruesome international mystery. And that is it right there.
The Apple watch, because that journalist was wearing an Apple watch and it just might have been recording and subsequently transmitting whatever
happened in that consulate. And if that sounds familiar, it should. Because 6,000 miles across the globe, and away from that grizzly story,
there is also some strange dark hope in the Apple watch where a working pregnant mom in Colorado wore what seemed to be the exact same model as
that presumed dead journalist and guess what. That mom, well her husband had an Apple watch, too. That same husband the police have taken to
calling her killer. The question is, whether Chris or Shanann Watts, whether either of them was wearing that Apple watch the morning that she
was killed along with their two young daughters.
We were first to confirm that indeed, the authorities in Colorado are taking a deep dive into that evidence. Into the Apple watch. But they
might just be busy looking at the Watts` tools, also along with the tech. Because the police say Chris Watts was a mechanic who dumped two bodies in
two oil tanks and he certainly did had a quite a tool box in that very same truck. The same truck he allegedly turned into a hearse and clues like
that could be huge right now. And the fight continues over the autopsies as well. Now as the Judge denies the D.A.`s efforts to keep those
autopsies a secret, but now there is yet a brand-new twist and it is just minutes old.
With me now, Alexis Tereszcuk, senior reporter with radar online. Also technology expert, Marc Saltzman, he is the author of Apple watch for
dummies, also defense attorney, Darren Kavinoky, he joins we as well. Hot off the presses, guys. As if we haven`t gone back and forth on these
autopsy results enough, we are now learning that the Coroner in this case has filed a petition to keep the autopsies private. In conjunction with
the D.A., so all of this wrangling back and forth, the judge saying you can`t keep them private, it`s up to the Coroner now. Well, now the Coroner
has made that decision to file that request.
So for now, it looks like we are not going to get the autopsy results from this particular crime. But Alexis, it just goes to show how specific the
evidence must be in this particular crime. And that is not the only evidence that is being kept under wraps. We`re not even allowed to know
what typically public information is, Jailhouse visitors. What do you know about that?
ALEXIS TERESZCUK, SENIOR REPORTER, RADARONLINE.COM: So, the list of Chris Watt`s (inaudible) has been sealed. A judge ordered it sealed. The thing
is, the prosecutors are able to have it, but it comes in a sealed envelope and they are not allowed to be told things like the psychologists and the
doctors meeting with Chris Watts, because that could be potential witnesses. So information is even being kept from the prosecutors. And
that everything is under sealed. It is very secret here. The prosecutors are arguing that they need to know everything that is in there, because he
could be talking to people about the crime. The defense is saying nobody needs to know, but about the autopsy, the prosecutor doesn`t want this
information out there because they say it could taint the jury pool. They don`t want people to know how these three people were killed. Shanann and
the two daughters, Bella and Celeste.
BANFIELD: They mentioned jury pool, but I think it was also telling they mentioned future interviews with potential witnesses. They don`t want,
those people who have yet to be question, to be learning things on television and then accidentally suggesting they know them as their own
information, which I understand.
The other issue with the jailhouse interviews, I find really astounding, because the way it sounded to me was that the judge said, you can`t keep
the stuff under wraps, but if the defense wants to redact some of the professional visitors who have come, who might be defense witnesses, well
then they can just redact those -- you know, the defense can redact the professional names off the jailhouse log, but still, we still don`t get to
benefit from this.
No one is releasing them to us even though it seems the judge has said they can`t be kept under wraps. Darren Kavinoky, I want you to jump in here with
the whole battle over the autopsies.
I get it. JonBenet Ramsey`s autopsy wasn`t released for months and months and months.
DARREN KAVINOKY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right.
BANFIELD: But what is the significance in this story for keeping those autopsies under wraps?
KAVINOKY: Well, excuse me, Ultimately, you have attention between the public`s right to know in a particular case and somebody`s right to
privacy. Certainly, that information has to go to defense lawyers. Defense lawyers have a right to those autopsy results in order to explore any
potential defenses in their case.
But the public doesn`t have a right to get all of that information until it is made public in a courtroom setting. And there you`ve got a judge who`s
able to control the flow of information to limit the public, only learning that information that`s relevant in this case public court case.
BANFIELD: Yeah. It`s frustrating no matter what when this is such a high profile crime. Marc Saltzman, I want you to comment on this story if you
will for me because the notion of the Apple watch was something we saw in Shanann`s videos and it got our team of producers here wondering, gosh,
couldn`t that be evidence? Couldn`t there be recordings? And through sort of deep digging into the technology of the apple watch and interviews with
experts like you, it turns out that stuff does record and it does go to the cloud no matter what you do with the watch. You can bury that watch in a
shallow grave, but that material will still stand.
And lo and behold, Marc, the story of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi national, a "Washington Post" columnist, never emerges from the Saudi consulate in
Turkey. And the stories begin to evolve that the Turks think that he had an Apple watch and that he may have actually recorded his own murder. It`s not
out of the realm of possibility, is it?
MARC SALTZMAN, TECHNOLOCY EXPERT: No, it`s not. It is technically possible to record audio, not video with the Apple watch. And as you mentioned, it
is automatically synchronized to your iCloud account which is an online storage box, if you will, or to a nearby phone.
So, even if they destroyed the Apple watch, which looks like that with its little microphone in it, yeah, it could be too late already. The
information has already been sent. There are ways to record it with what Apple has built in already or with free downloadable apps that are just
like for your smart phone, but they exist for Apple watch that let you record even more footage, audio recordings and synchronize it for sure.
BANFIELD: Yeah. I knew Jamal Khashoggi. I hate even using past tense at this time, but he`s the kind of guy who would have been smart enough to hit
record before he went into that consulate. He was worried enough to tell his fiancee, stay outside here and make sure you alert the authorities if I
don`t come back out, which he did not.
But he would have been smart enough to get that Apple watch rolling and I just hope that the bluetooth was strong enough to go back to the phone
which he left with that fiancee. I thank all three of you for your insight into that story. Of course, we don`t know if the Apple watch will apply to
the Watts case, but we know they`re looking from a source close to the case.
Stand by, all three of you, if you will. Matthew and Lauren Phelps seemed like a picture-perfect couple. Young newlyweds, just starting their life
together, until the night Matthew says he took too much cold medicine, and then lo and behold woke up to a bloody nightmare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I have blood all over me, and there`s a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Can you see her from where you`re at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Yeah, it`s so bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): There`s so much blood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: He was right. It was bad. Lauren was dead. And Matthew is now finally speaking out about what happened that awful night and boy, does he
look different. We`ll show you, next.
[18:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Maybe you`ve made this same mistake. Taking a little too much cold medicine. Because when you`re sick, you`re just desperate for relief.
But that usually results in getting very sleepy, not being sentenced for murder.
Tonight, Matthew Phelps knows his fate more than a year after killing his wife, after he says he took too much cold medicine. But their bedroom was
pretty damn appalling for something he called an accident.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[18:40:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Tell me exactly what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I think I killed my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): What do you mean by that? What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I had a dream. And then I turned on the lights and she`s dead on the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): How?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I have blood all over me, and there`s a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Think he did it? Well, Matthew Phelps would eventually admit that he did it. And admit that in a courtroom, pleading guilty to first-
degree murder. This kid, aspiring young pastor. With apparently quite a dark side. Because he didn`t just kill his wife, he stabbed his wife 123
times. And he did not seem very upset and he did not seem very sorry when he started talking to the 911 operator.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK. Stay on the phone with me, I`m getting her an ambulance, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I can`t believe this. I can`t believe this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): When did you wake up to find this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I don`t even know what time it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): All right. Stay on the phone with me, sir. I`m going to ask you a few questions, OK? I`m getting some help to you. Are
you with the patient now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Yeah, I can see her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK, how old is the patient? How old is your wife?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): She`s 29.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK, is she awake at all right now? What makes you think she`s dead? Is she awake?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): She is not breathing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Oh, my god.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK, do you think she`s beyond any help?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I don`t know. I`m too scared to get too close to her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK. Just stay on the phone with me, sir. I`m here with you. I`m here with you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I`m so scared.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Joining me now, Josh Shaffer, reporter for the Raleigh News and Observer and Darren Kavinoky, attorney, still with me.
Josh, I want to start with you because you were in court for this guilty plea and this sort of remarkable transformation of what Matthew Phelps once
looked like to what he now looks like a year later. His hair grown long. A full beard. Certainly not that little clean cut, young pastor from his mug
shot the night he was brought in. Do you have any idea as to why this transformation happened?
JOSH SHAFFER, REPORTER, THE RALEIGH NEWS AND OBSERVER (via telephone): Yes. His attorney said that knowing he was going prison, he wanted to make
himself appear older and tougher. He clearly feared other inmates and didn`t want to appear as baby faced as he did beforehand.
BANFIELD: And were you shocked at this plea agreement where he just fessed up and said he did it and agreed to first-degree murder and a full life in
prison?
SHAFFER (via telephone): I was not shocked because by pleading guilty to first-degree murder, he avoided the death penalty. It`s unclear whether or
not a jury would have given him the death penalty. It is very rare in Wake County, but that was the deal and those were the terms, so he is facing
life without the possibility of parole.
BANFIELD: Little difficult when you have the 911 call, right? Honestly, I just want to play a little more because this is the first time time we`re
ever hearing it unadulterated, but this is the part where he literally tells the 911 caller that there`s so much blood and yet so much of it is
dried on him, which means she`s been dead a while or at least she has been stabbed a while. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Can you see her from where you`re at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Yeah, it`s so bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): There`s so much blood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK, all right. I`m going to stay here on the phone with you until help gets there, OK? Just don`t touch anything,
just look at your right. Is she breathing at all, is her chest moving or anything going on with her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): NO.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): The blood is dried on me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It`s dried?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): The blood is not wet on me. The blood is dry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I don`t know what -- oh, my god.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): All right. We are going to at least try to help her, OK?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[18:45:00] BANFIELD: When we come back after the break, Darren Kavinoky, I have this question for you. Apparently, he had quite an addiction it
seems to video games. I`m going to ask you about that after the break and why that may have played into this. Are you ready for that?
KAVINOKY: Sure.
BANFIELD: Come right back after the break.
[18:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: We`re still talking about the want to be pastor who allegedly took too much cold medicine before murdering his wife. Now 28-year-old
Michael Phelps will be spending the rest of his life behind bars rather than behind the pulpit. But he dodged the death penalty even after stabbing
his young wife, Lauren, 123 times. Funny how he seems emotionless until five minutes into his 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Are you right by her, Mr. Phelps?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Oh, my god. I mean I can see her but -- oh, my god.
(CRYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Stay with me, sir. I know this is upsetting but we are going to try to do as much for her as you can if
you`re not sure that she`s gone, we`re going to try to help her, OK? Just listen carefully -- just listen, OK, sir. First look at her right now. Tell
me what you see, is the chest moving, is she breathing, anything at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): No, she`s not moving at all.
(CRYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Oh, my god.
(CRYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Mr. Phelps, Mr. Phelps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): She didn`t deserve this. Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I understand. I understand. But right now, we just want to make sure we`re doing as much as possible.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Darren Kavinoky, before the break, I asked you about another sort of wrench in this case that had to do with video gaming. I called him
Michael, but his name is Matthew, Matthew Phelps. Tell me about that twist, about the video game affliction that he seemed to have.
KAVINOKY: Well, there`s some suggestion that there was a significant video gaming problem, and so significant, in fact, that he was spending more on
video gaming than the couple brought in in income. So, apparently, this was really the root of the discontent in the home.
She was exploring, taking some drastic measures to curtail his video gaming and it seems that a lot of this discord may have been in response to that,
which is, obviously very troubling and once again, though, it really circles back to what we heard may be the driving force in the plea bargain
that we learned about, which is simply avoiding the death penalty.
BANFIELD: Well, when you have that --
KAVINOKY: A financial component certainly --
BANFIELD: The financial component. You have that motive of draining the checking account and having $1200 worth of iTunes and Xbox subscriptions,
not something you can get around easily. I just want to play this last moment of Matthew Phelps crying in the 911 call, but here he was in court.
Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW PHELPS, SENTENCED TO LIFE PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE: I feel like a monster. Darkness consumed me until I was blind to the path I have taken
and death to my own cries for help. That darkness caused me to do the unimaginable, to take a life that was not mine to take.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Quite something to be hearing that if you`re, you know -- I feel like a monster. You are. Darren, thank you for all you added. I do
appreciate it. Josh Shaffer, thank you for your reporting as well. I have this other story. It`s the song that defines Bill Clinton`s 1992
presidential election campaign. Remember it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don`t stop thinking about tomorrow. Don`t stop thinking about --
BANFIELD: Yeah, it`s hard to forget it. You heard it over and over. And it just might be what sums up Lindsey Buckingham, what he was thinking when he
decided to file suit against Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac for kicking him out of the band.
[18:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Members of the band Fleetwood Mac famously didn`t always get along, more often than not wearing their hearts on their sleeves in many of
their top ten hits, in fact.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can go your own way. Go your own way. You can go on your own way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Well, now, Lindsey Buckingham, who famously wrote that kiss off about band mate and ex-girlfriend Stevie Nicks, is suing Fleetwood Mac for
making him go his own way. The band replaced Buckingham for their upcoming tour, and his suit claims that he`s going to lose an estimated $12 million
in anticipated income.
Buckingham is suing for breach of contract, saying that he`s fully capable of working the tour. Fleetwood Mac for their part says that they are
looking forward to their day in court and presumably their day up on stage.
[19:00:01] What is with that band? They are so good and so messed up. Next hour of "Crime and Justice" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve got Leigh (ph) - just showed up in the lobby, looks like she`s been beaten. She`s crying, saying her boyfriend tried to
kill her.
BANFIELD: A stunning young student is beaten and bloodied.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma`am?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me.
BANFIELD: But her ex says he did it in self-defense saying because she started the fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the boyfriend there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
BANFIELD: Now he`s fighting back with a lawsuits claiming he destroyed his reputation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has she said where he is or what he looks like or anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she didn`t.
BANFIELD: But will the 911 calls tell a different story? The alleged victim joins us live. Plus, can you record your own death? Because the
journalist at the center of an international mystery just might have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The (INAUDIBLE) government take it`s newspaper claims to show his Apple watch recorded his own death.
BANFIELD: Which means Shanann Watts could have too. The buried pregnant wife of an alleged killer husband.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody even knew or wanted to believe it was him.
BANFIELD: So how exactly could an Apple watch help determine how she died?
SHANANN WATTS: For the picture is that. I will take a picture of us.
BANFIELD: Not to mention who killed the kids.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the last is unusual.
SHANANN WATTS: Oh.
BANFIELD: And what haunting image might Chris Watts have seen in his tool box while cops say he was busy dumping his children`s bodies?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a good mechanic.
BANFIELD: This as a pitched battle is waived over the autopsy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`re more questions than answers.
BANFIELD: And then, can cold medicine make you murder?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I killed my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What -- what do you mean by that? What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a dream, and then I turned on the lights, and she`s dead on the floor.
BANFIELD: That was the reason this man gave for stabbing his wife to death, 123 times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I took more medicine than I should have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What medicine?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I took coricidin, cough and cold because I know it will make you feel good.
BANFIELD: Now he`s learning his state. See if you agree with his sentence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Good evening, everyone, I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is "Crime and Justice."
There are some things more than a few of us are guilty of, like faking happiness on social media, because let`s face it, a lot of the pictures we
post only show the happy side of the story. And sometimes they are outright fabrications. Life is not always picture-perfect, and no one
might know that better than the young woman who is going to join us tonight.
She decided to post her story on Instagram, raw and brutal. Because this is no cute picture. This is a picture of domestic violence, or at least
that`s what the police call it. After she says her boyfriend beat her, allegedly kicking her in the head, strangling her before punching her,
trapping her in a bathroom from which she eventually escaped to call 911 in a hurry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DISPATCH: Tampa Police 911. What is the location of your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help. Send someone immediately.
DISPATCH: Ma`am, what`s your location?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me. Help me.
DISPATCH: Ma`am, where are you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help me. [INAUDIBLE].
DISPATCH: Ma`am.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: After that phone call ended, this man was picked up, Eric Bretz. And he`s now charged with domestic violence, but he is not owning
up to it. He has a whole other version of what happened that night that starts with a swing that came from his girlfriend, he says, and he`s not
just saying he was forced to fight back in order to defend himself. He`s also fighting back with words because he and his extremely rich family are
threatening to sue her for ruing their reputation.
I want to speak now with Ray Caputo. He is a reporter with 96.5, WDBO as well as Melissa Gentz who joins me for her first exclusive television
interview about the night she says Eric Bretz beat and strangled her. Melissa is joined by her attorneys, Marc Johnson and Dan Larso.
Ray, first take me back to the story before Melissa to tell us from her perspective what happened. How this began and how it got such momentum
online.
RAY CAPUTO, NEWS 96.5 WDBO, REPORTER: Sure. Well, this incident happened in September shortly after she had posted pictures of herself on Instagram.
now, Melissa will tell you, she already had a pretty large Instagram following, but this post quickly picked up steam, mainly in her native
hometown of Brazil. That`s what both the victim and the suspect are from. And from there, a Brazilian news media site picked it up. It`s been viewed
over a million times of these injuries that were allegedly caused by Mr. Brett, and then on top of that, the Instagram, her original post, has been
viewed a quarter million times.
Now, Ashleigh, I got to point out that on the day this happened, Eric Bretz is one of 16 people arrested for domestic violence in Hillsboro County.
This story would have certainly slipped but the cracks. Melissa would have been another victim, but by her being courageous in sharing this story on
social media, the world is seeing her injuries and this has been - kind of taken out of the shadows and a bright light shined upon what happened to
her.
BANFIELD: Not only seeing the injuries, but hearing them, it sounds as they are being inflicted. Melissa, thank you for having the courage, not
only to tell your story publicly, to post those photos, but then also to do this exclusive interview with us tonight.
I thank you. I thank your attorneys, Marc and Dan, as well, but can I ask you, Melissa, what prompted you to take the giant leap and put those
photographs online?
MELISSA GENTZ, ALLEGED ABUSE VICTIM: In the beginning, I was very embarrassed of everything that I was going through. I didn`t want to
involve my friends. But after the last brutal thing that happened to me, I decided to share my story with the people that were closest to me, and my
sisters` friends started sending it to their friends, and it became viral. And when I found out that I`d be able to help women out of this sad
situation, out of abusive relationships, I decided to share a picture of my face. Because I didn`t want to be embarrassed.
BANFIELD: It`s astounding. It sounds to me as though this wasn`t maybe something you intended to - to be massively public, but it just went that
way. Was there any time, Melissa, you were worried that the tooth paste was out of the tube, and you didn`t want to be this poster child for this
terrible, terrible crime?
GENTZ: I was very afraid in the beginning, and the thing is that I`m not an Instagram star. I didn`t have a big following. I`m a biology student.
I`m a pre-med student, and I decided to share my story. I didn`t even imagine that so many people would be touched by it, but I actually gained
all of my followers because of what happened, and that`s something that really touched me because I had not ever shared anything about my life the
way that I did.
BANFIELD: so, Melissa, whenever there is a charge and your ex-boyfriend, I`m assuming ex at this time, your ex-boyfriend, Eric Bretz, 25 years old,
is now officially charged with domestic battery by strangulation. He`s facing five years in prison. His bail was $60,000. He is free as we are
to understand on bail.
He`s had to surrender the passport because he is a Brazilian national. He was I think part time living in Miami. He had several homes as we
understand it in an extremely wealthy family.
GENTZ: Yes.
BANFIELD: I`m going to get to that part of this next sort of twist in the story in a moment. But first, I want to play for our audience, if I can,
some contemporaneous evidence because so much is made about women who are attacked or women who are raped, and how much evidence is there in the
story, and as it turns out, you have shown your photographic evidence, but there`s your 911 call we played. And then there`s the doorman. The
doorman in the apartment building who saw you flailing, running down into the lobby wearing just your pajamas and blooded and beaten, and he called
911. I want our audience to hear his version of what he saw. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DISPATCH: What`s going on there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve got a lady that just showed up in the lobby. Looks like she`s been beaten up. She`s crying, said her boyfriend tried to
kill her.
DISPATCH: What`s she wearing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang on -- she`s wearing, like, pajama top and bottom.
DISPATCH: Is the boyfriend there with you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
DISPATCH: Does she need an ambulance?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we want the EMTs please.
DISPATCH: Did she say where he is or what he looks like or anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. She didn`t.
DISPATCH: All right. We`ll be there soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So, Melissa, from your perspective what happened next. After the doorman called 911, and you are in the lobby in the pajamas and police
arrive, what happened next?
GENTZ: I was laying on the floor because I felt very dizzy. I was nauseous because my head was hit on the floor so many times. I was covered
in blood, and I didn`t know how to reach my friends or my family because my ex-boyfriend had kept my cell phone with him. So two girls actually came
up to me, who walked into the building, and they sat by my side, and they told me that they knew how I felt. One of them told me she already was in
an abusive relationship in the past, so she told me she`d sit there with me until the cops arrived. And then until the balance was there.
BANFIELD: So I`m going to read some of the things that the police have in their - in their report of this night, and I`m sorry that this is hard for
you to relive this. I think it`s critical that the audience hears what the police also recorded as their evidence of what they found that night.
"The defendant continued to batter the victim by grabbing her hair and striking her in the face multiple times with a closed fist. He proceeded
to toss the victim around the room by her hair as well as hitting her in the face with a bottle of Pedialyte." And we see the photograph there of
your hair from the next day that was obviously looks to me as a result of what the police reported you had suffered that night before.
I want to also play now, if I can, a recording that you took sometime earlier. It`s not a part of this incident, but it sounds like a very
violent incident that happened prior to this one, and as I understand it, Melissa, correct me if I`m wrong, he -- this is also related to him taking
your phone. The whole fight started because he had taken your phone from you, and you recorded him on your laptop. And as I understand it, you had
a specific reason why you wanted to record what was happening on your laptop. I`m going to ask you about that after I play this, but this is
Eric Bretz, and Melissa, and you`ll hear it in Portuguese because Eric speaks Portuguese as well as English, and you`ll see the subtitle of what
he is saying to her in an earlier fight. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
ERIC BRETZ (TRANLATED IN ENGLISH): Why are you so dumb? Stop being stupid. You have no idea of anything. I already told you. Stop being
dumb.
GENTZ (TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH): I asked you not to take the phone out of my hand like that.
BRETZ (TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH): You do not accept the man who has more dominance than you. You do not accept, you think you`re the man of the
relationship. But you`re not, you`re a woman, you have to accept that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: "You think you`re the man in the relationship, but you are not, you are the woman. You have to accept that." It`s hard to - it`s hard to
even read that and believe it`s real. Can I ask you, why did you record on your laptop what was happening?
GENTZ: I decided to record this argument because I wanted to show his mother. I had reached out for help. I was in a relationship with him
because I loved him, and I thought I`d be able to help him. So I recorded our conversation, and I sent it to his mother.
BANFIELD: So I`m going to also read, again, from the police report because this speaks to the moment that you were in the bathroom trying to call 911
and as you`re, you know, your reporting to the police says you were not able to complete the call. It was cut off because he broke down the door.
There`s the photograph of that bathroom door, and I`m going to read about that moment from the police report and show the photograph. "The victim
was able to enter the victim in attempt to call 911, but the defendant kicked open the bathroom door to prevent her from contacting 911. She
attempted to run out of the bathroom, but the defendant continued to restrain her."
To see the bathroom door broken in that manner, Marc, I`ll ask you to jump in this conversation as her, one of her attorneys. The notion -
MARC JOHNSON, ATTORNEY FOR MELISSA GENTZ: Yes, thank you.
BANFIELD: -- that the defendant in this case is saying that this was a case of self-defense, that he was defending himself against this, has he
said why the bathroom door is broken down if this is a case of self- defense?
JOHNSON: No, and that`s a selling piece of evidence because, you know, it shows the aggression and shows the violation in which he was trying to get
to Melissa who was behind a locked door at that moment in safety, but he broke down the door and got out.
BANFIELD: So, then, also, Dan, I`d like you to step in on the other twist in the story. It is not typically a twist that we see. I think it may be
why a lot of this story has gone so viral, but for the fact that the photos of Melissa are so unnerving, and that`s that there`s been a threat made
against your client, against Melissa, of libel and of ruing the family`s reputation, of ruining Eric Bretz`s reputation, even though he`s been
arrested and charged and mug shotted like anyone would be in a circumstance like this. So can you speak to the threat, and has it materialized into an
actual lawsuit?
DAN LARSON, ATTORNEY FOR MELISSA GENTZ: No, it hasn`t materialized into an actual lawsuit. It was a threat made by his Miami attorneys, and he said
on behalf of Mr. Bretz`s family and Mr. Bretz`s and she did not take the threat lightly. She knows that the family has means, and has a lot of
power in Brazil. And so that`s why she sought out attorneys and found us.
I can tell you any attempt to bring an action against her is going to fail, and this is a good example for everyone to see why when we hear about women
who don`t want to come forward after a beating or a sexual assault, it`s because the victim gets victimized many times, and that`s exactly what`s
happening here because this guy viciously beat her. He strangled her between his thighs while gasping for air, and he`s pouring Pedialyte into
her noise and mouth. And he has the nerve to hire a lawyer.
And I don`t know what he told his lawyer or didn`t, but then the lawyer sent out a press release and called this fake news. We say bring it on.
JOHNSON: Yes.
LARSON: Bring it on.
BANFIELD: So you know what? I want to read. I want to read from some of that. First and foremost, with regard to this notion that they are calling
Melissa, you know, Melissa`s story libel and slanderous. They used those words. "Mr. Bretz`s and his family will prosecute Ms. Gentz for her
slanderous and libelous actions. They will seek to recover damages for harm to his and his family`s outstanding reputation."
We reached out to Eric Bretz`s attorney several times last week and he was cooperative with us. He worked with us last week. We reached out several
times today. He`s not been able to get back to us today.
But I do have this statement. This is from a prior time. Sometime last week, I believe, and this is the version that Eric Bretz give him his
entire story. He says this through the lawyer.
Some of the indisputable facts and evidence supporting Eric`s innocence are, "Melissa claims she was strangled and struck in the face multiple
times. However, physical evidence reveals no sign of trauma to her neck. Evidence will show that Melissa was drinking and consuming drugs prior to
the incident, she has alleged. Evidence shows that Melissa Gentz attacked Eric Bretz sending him to the hospital."
Melissa, do you want to respond to what Eric`s attorney sent out in the statement?
GENTZ: Absolutely. One of the first things I wanted to make clear is that he strangled me between his legs. He put me in between his thighs, started
to impede any air from going through my throat, and was beating me and pulling my hair out at the same time, and I simply tried to fight back, but
I was trapped in between his legs. He was pulling my hair out, grabbed the bottle of Pedialyte, smashed it on my face and started to drown me because
I was caught in between his legs. So I had to pretend I was dead.
I thought of my parents, and I said, there`s a chance that I`m not going to make it out right now. So I`m going to try because he was so focused onto
hitting my face and pulling my hair out and disfiguring everything that I had, that I just said, I`m over this, and I have to let go, and I pretended
that I was dead. And in that point, he grabbed me. He threw me on to the floor as if I was a garbage bag. He kicked me, and when he saw that I was
passed out, that`s when he turned around and was tired of beating me. So - -
BANFIELD: Well I am --
GENTZ: -- and the fact --
BANFIELD: I`m so sorry for what you have - for what you`ve gone through, and I would like to continue telling your story, if you could, Marc and
Dan, stay with us on it, and let us know if there is, in fact.
JOHNSON: Sure.
BANFIELD: Just one thing, anybody can send a letter, happens all the time, it`s one thing to threaten libel. It`s one - it`s one thing to suggest
you`re going to sue and ruin someone. It`s another thing to take civil actions, and I want to know if that happens because in this particular
story I think that Marc would definitely be --
JOHNSON: Oh, it`s going to happen.
BANFIELD: -- unbelievable. Do you think it`s going to happen?
JOHNSON: They may not file it, but it`s going to - it`s going to happen. Yes.
BANFIELD: What do you mean they may not probably going to happen?
LARSON: One day, we`ll take his deposition. One day, we`ll take his deposition. We`re going to videotape it. And you`re going to have
something that you`d be able to show on your show.
JOHNSON: Yes, he`ll get a chance to talk, under oath.
BANFIELD: Well, like I said, thank you very much for telling us this story and being public about it. And you know Melissa, it is not easy to be on
television, especially going through the trauma you`ve gone through. Certainly not easy to show those pictures either, so I appreciate you
shining a light on this extraordinary scourge of our society, and that is not only the domestic assault, but the secondary victimization. He is
innocent until proven guilty. We have invited him on the program. We have tried to reach him and do still invite him. Thank you all three of you. I
do appreciate it.
JOHNSON: Thank you for having us.
LARSON: Thank you very much.
GENTZ: Thank you. Thank you Ms. Banfield.
BANFIELD: Coming up next. The latest in the Chris Watts` murder case, the fight continuing over the autopsies as the Judge denies the D.A.`s efforts
to keep them secret. So what does that mean?
And we just got word that the well county coroner is asking for that autopsy to remain sealed, so what`s that mean? And hear what else, they
are asking for as well as the Apple watch rears its head again, and not just in Colorado, but somewhere long and far from here, but very
significant. Tell you about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: You use it for texts on the go. You track your beats per minute, and use it to tell time. But could you use an Apple watch to prove
your own murder and whether somebody`s covering it up? That is the question at least one media outlet is asking right now overseas after the
mysterious disappearance of a journalist, now presumed to have been murdered, maybe even dismembered with a bone saw at the hands of a
government. But there`s something that just might shed some light on this gruesome international mystery, and that`s it, right there, the Apple
watch.
Because that journalist was wearing an Apple watch, and it just might have been recording, and subsequently transmitting whatever happened in that
consulate. And if that sounds familiar, it should, because 6,000 miles across the globe and away from that grizzly story, there is also some
strange dark hope in the Apple watch where a working pregnant mom in Colorado wore what seemed to be the exact same model as that presumed dead
journalist. And guess what? That mom, well, her husband had an Apple watch too, that same husband the police took to calling her killer.
The question is whether Chris or Shanann Watts, whether either was wearing that Apple watch the morning she was killed along as their two young
daughters. And we were first to confirm that, indeed, the authorities in Colorado are taking a deep dive into that evidence, into the Apple watch.
But they might just be busy looking at the Watts` tools also along with the tech. Because the police say Chris Watts was a mechanic who dumped his
bodies in two oil tanks and he certainly did have quite a tool box in that very same truck, same truck he allegedly turned into a hearse and clues
like that could be huge right now, and the fight continues over the autopsies as well.
Now, as the Judge denies the D.A.`s efforts to keep the autopsies a secret, but now there is yet a brand new twist, and it is just minutes old. With
me now, Alexis Tereszcuk, Senior Reporter with Radar Online, also technology expert, Marc Saltzman. His the author of "Apple Watch for
Dummies," also Defense Attorney (INAUDIBLE) joins me as well.
Hot off the presses guys. I think have been gone back and forth on this autopsy results enough. We are now learning the coroner in this case filed
a petition to keep the autopsies private. In conjunction with the D.A. So all of this wrangling back and forth, the judge said it`s not private, it`s
up to the coroner now, and now the coroner`s made that decision to file that request. So for now it looks like we are not getting the results from
this particular crime.
But this goes to show how specific the evidence must be in this particular crime, and that`s not the only evidence that is kept under wraps. We`re
not allowed what`s typically public information. Jailhouse visitors, what do you know about that?
ALEX TERESZCUK, RADARONLINE.COM, SENIOR REPORTER: So the list of Chris Watts` visitor has been sealed, a judge ordered that sealed. But the thing
is the prosecutors are able to have it, but it comes in a sealed envelope, and they are not allowed to be told things like the psychologist and the
doctors that are meeting with Chris Watts because that could be potential witnesses, so information that`s even being kept from the prosecutors, and
everything is under seal. It`s very secret here because the prosecutors are arguing that they need to know everything that`s in there because he
could be talking to people about the crime.
The defense is saying, nobody needs to know, but about the autopsy, the prosecutor does not want this information out there because they say it
could taint the jury pool. And they don`t want people to know how these three people were killed. Shanann and the two daughters.
BANFIELD: But I think it was telling they mentioned future interviews with potential witnesses. They don`t want those people who have yet to be
questioned to be learning things on television and then accidentally suggesting they know them as their own information, which I understand.
The other issue with the jailhouse interviews though I find really astounding because the way it sounded to me was that the judge said you
can`t keep that stuff under wraps, but if the defense wants to redact some of the professional visitors who come, who might be defense witnesses,
well, then, they can just redact those -- you know, the defense can redact the professional names off the jailhouse log, but, still, we still don`t
get to benefit from this. No one is releasing them to us, even though it seems the judge has said they can`t be kept under wraps.
Darren Kavinoky, I want you to jump in here with the whole battle over the autopsies. I get it, John Bennett Ramsey`s autopsy wasn`t released for
months and months and months, but what is the significance in this story for keeping those autopsies under wraps?
DARREN KAVINOKY, DEFENSE LAWYER: Well, excuse me, ultimately, you have a tension between the public`s right to know in a particular case and
somebody`s right to privacy. Certainly, that information has to go to defense lawyers, defense lawyers have a right to those autopsy results in
order to explore any potential defenses in their case, but the public doesn`t have a right to get all of that information until it`s made public
in a courtroom setting. And there, you`ve got a judge who`s able to control the flow of information to limit the public, only learning that
information that`s relevant in this public court case.
BANFIELD: Yes, it`s frustrating, though, no matter what, when this is such a high-profile crime. Marc Saltzman, I want you to come in on this story
if you will for me because the notion of the Apple Watch was something we saw in Shanann`s videos, and it got our team of producers here wondering,
gosh, couldn`t that be evidence, couldn`t there be recordings? And through sort of deep digging into the technology of the Apple Watch and interviews
with experts like you, it turns out that stuff does record, and it does go to the cloud no matter what you do with the watch. You can bury that watch
in a shallow grave, but that material will still stand. And lo and behold, Marc, the story of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi national, a Washington Post
columnist, never emerges from the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, and stories begin to evolve that the Turks think that he had an Apple Watch and that he
may have actually recorded his own murder. It`s not out of the realm of possibility, is it?
MARC SALTZMAN, TECHNOLOGY EXPERT: No, it`s not. It is technically possible to record audio, not video, with the Apple Watch, and as you
mentioned, it`s automatically synchronized to your iCloud account, which is an online storage box, if you will, or to a nearby phone. So, even if they
destroyed the Apple Watch, which looks like that, with its little microphone in it, yes, it could be too late already. The information has
already been sent. There are ways to record it with what Apple has built in already or with free downloadble apps that are -- just like for your
smart phone, but they exist for Apple Watch that let you record even more footage, audio recordings and synchronize it, for sure.
BANFIELD: Yes. I knew Jamal Khashoggi. I hate we`ve been using past tense at this time, but he`s the kind of guy who would have been smart
enough to hit record before he went into that consulate. He was worried enough to tell his fiance, stay outside here and make sure you alert the
authorities if I don`t come back out, which he did not, but he would have been smart enough to get that Apple Watch rolling, and I just hope that the
Bluetooth was strong enough to go back to the phone, which he left with that fiance. I thank all three of you for your insight into that story.
Of course, we don`t know if the Apple Watch will applies to the Watts` case, but we know they`re looking from a source close to the case.
Standby, all three of you, if you will.
Matthew and Lauren Phelps seemed like a picture-perfect couple, young newlyweds just starting their life together, until the night Matthew says
he took too much cold medicine, and then, lo and behold, woke up to a bloody nightmare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW PHELPS, MURDER SUSPECT: I have blood all over me, and there`s a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it.
OPERATOR: Can you see her from where you`re at?
PHELPS: Yes, and it`s so bad. There`s so much blood.
OPERATOR: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: He was right, it was bad. Lauren was dead, and Matthew is now finally speaking out about what happened that awful night, and, boy, does
he look different. We`ll show you, next.
[19:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Maybe you`ve made the same mistake, taking a little too much cold medicine, because when you`re sick, you`re just desperate for relief,
but that usually results in getting very sleepy, not being sentenced for murder. Tonight, Matthew Phelps knows his fate more than a year after
killing his wife, after he says he took too much cold medicine. But their bedroom was pretty damn appalling for something he called an accident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPERATOR: Tell me exactly what happened.
[19:40:02] PHELPS: I think I killed my wife.
OPERATOR: What do you mean by that? What happened?
PHELPS: I had a dream, and then I turn on the lights, and she`s dead on the floor.
OPERATOR: How? How?
PHELPS: I`m -- I have blood all over me, and there`s a bloody knife on the bed. And I think I did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Think he did it? Well, Matthew Phelps would eventually admit that he did it and admit that in a courtroom, pleading guilty to first-
degree murder. This kid, aspiring young pastor, with apparently quite a dark side because he didn`t just kill his wife, he stabbed his wife 123
times. And he did not seem very upset, and he did not seem very sorry when he started talking to the 911 operator.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPERATOR: OK. Give me a minute. OK. Stay on the phone with me. I`m getting her an ambulance, OK?
PHELPS: I can`t believe this. I can`t believe this.
OPERATOR: When did you -- when did you wake up to find this?
PHELPS: I don`t even know what time it is.
OPERATOR: All right, stay on the phone with me, Sir. I`m just going to ask you a few questions, OK? I`m getting some help to you. Are you with
your wife -- are you with the patient now?
PHELPS: Yes, I can see her.
OPERATOR: OK. All right. How is the -- how is the patient? How is your wife?
PHELPS: She`s 29.
OPERATOR: OK. Is she -- is she awake at all right now? What makes you think she`s dead? Is she awake?
PHELPS: She`s not breathing.
OPERATOR: OK.
PHELPS: Oh, my God.
OPERATOR: OK. Do you think she`s beyond any help?
PHELPS: I don`t know. I don`t -- I`m too scared to get too close to her.
OPERATOR: OK. Just stay on the phone with me, Sir. I`m here with you. I`m here with you.
PHELPS: I`m so scared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Joining me now, Josh Shaffer, reporter for The Raleigh News & Observer, and Darren Kavinoky, attorney, is still with me. Josh, I want to
start with you because you were in court for this guilty plea, and this sort of remarkable transformation of what Matthew Phelps once looked like
to what he now looks like a year later, his hair grown long, a full beard, certainly not that little clean cut young pastor from his mugshot the night
he was brought in. Do you have any idea as to why this transformation happened?
JOSH SHAFFER, REPORTER, THE RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER (via telephone): Yes. His attorneys said that knowing he was going to prison, he wanted to make
himself appear older and tougher. He clearly feared other inmates, and didn`t want to appear as baby faced as he did as beforehand.
BANFIELD: And were you shocked at this plea agreement where he just fessed up and said he did it and agreed to first-degree murder and a full life in
prison?
SHAFFER: I was not shocked because by pleading guilty to first-degree murder, he avoided the death penalty. It`s unclear whether or not a jury
would have given him the death penalty. It`s very rare in Wake County, but that was the deal and those were the terms, so he is facing life without
the possibility of parole.
BANFIELD: Little difficult when you have the 911 call, right? I mean, honestly, I just want to play a little more because this is the first time
we`re ever hearing it unadulterated, but this is the part where he literally tells the 911 caller, that there`s so much blood, and yet, so
much of it is dried on him, which means she`s been dead awhile or at least she`s been stabbed awhile. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPERATOR: Can you see her from where you`re at?
PHELPS: Yes. And it`s so bad. There`s so much blood.
OPERATOR: OK. All right. I`m going to stay here on the phone with you to help you get through OK. Just don`t touch anything, just look at your
wife, is she -- is she breathing at all? Is her chest moving, and anything going on with her?
PHELPS: No.
OPERATOR: OK. We`re going to -- we`re going to at least --
PHELPS: The blood is dried on the --
OPERATOR: Is it dried?
PHELPS: The blood is about wet on me. The blood is dried.
OPERATOR: OK.
PHELPS: I don`t know -- I don`t know what I have done.
OPERATOR: All right, well, at least, we`re going to at least try to help her, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: When we come back after the break, Darren Kavinoky, I have this question for you, apparently, he had quite an addiction, it seems, to video
games. I`m going to ask you about that after the break, and why that may have played into this. Are you ready for that?
[19:45:10] KAVINOKY: Sure.
BANFIELD: Come right back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:50:02] BANFIELD: We`re still talking about the wannabe pastor who allegedly took too much cold medicine before murdering his wife. Now, 28-
year-old Michael Phelps will be spending the rest of his life behind bars, rather than behind the pulpit. But he dodged the death penalty even after
stabbing his young wife Lauren 123 times. Funny how he seems emotionless until five minutes into his 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPERATOR: Are you right by her, Mr. Phelps?
PHELPS: Oh, my God, I mean, I can see her but oh my God.
OPERATOR: Stay with me, Sir. I know -- I know this is upsetting but we`re going to try to do as much for her as you can. If you`re not sure that
she`s gone, we`re going to try to help her, OK? So, just listen carefully.
PHELPS: Oh, God.
OPERATOR: Listen, OK, Sir? First, just look at her right now. Can you tell me what you see? She -- is the chest moving, is she breathing,
anything at all?
PHELPS: No, she`s not moving at all. Oh my God.
OPERATOR: Mr. Phelps. Mr. Phelps.
PHELPS: She didn`t deserve this. Why?
OPERATOR: I understand, Sir. I understand. But right now, we just want to make sure we`re doing as much as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And Darren Kavinoky, before the break, I asked you about another sort of wrench in this case that had to do with video gaming. I called him
Michael but his name is Matthew, Matthew Phelps. Tell me about that twist, about the video game affliction that he seemed to have.
OPERATOR: Well, there`s some suggestion that there was a significant video gaming problem, and so significant, in fact, that he was spending more on
video gaming than the couple brought in in income. So, apparently, this was really the root of the discontent in the home. She was exploring,
taking some drastic measures to curtail his video gaming, and it seems that a lot of this discord may have been in response to that, which is obviously
very troubling, and once again, though, it really circles back to what we heard maybe the driving force in the plea bargain that we learned about,
which is simply avoiding the death penalty. Which there`s a financial component, certainly --
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: Well, when you have that, you know -- the financial component, you have that motive of draining the checking account and having $1200
worth of iTunes and Xbox subscriptions. Not something you can get around easily. I just want to play this last moment of Michael Phelps -- or of
Matthew Phelps rather. Excuse me. Crying in his 911 call, but here he was in court, have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHELPS: I feel like a monster. In fact, darkness consumed me until I was blind to the path I have taken, and death to my own cries for help. That
darkness causing me to do the unimaginable, to take a life that was not mine to take.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Quite something to be hearing that, that you`re, you know, I feel like a monster. You are. Darren, thank you for all you`ve added. I
do appreciate it. Josh Shaffer, thank you for your reporting as well. I have this other story, it`s the song that defined Bill Clinton`s 1992
presidential election campaign. Remember it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don`t stop thinking about tomorrow. Don`t stop thinking about --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Yes, it`s hard to forget it. You heard it over and over and it just might be what sums up Lindsey Buckingham, what he was thinking when he
decided to file suit against Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac for kicking him out of the band.
[19:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Members of the band Fleetwood Mac famously didn`t always get along, more often than not wearing their hearts on their sleeves in many of
their top 10 hits, in fact.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, now, Lindsey Buckingham, who famously wrote that kiss off about bandmate next girlfriend Stevie Nicks is suing Fleetwood Mac for
making him go his own way. The band replaced Buckingham for his upcoming tour and his suit claims that he`s going to lose an estimated $12 million
in anticipated income. Buckingham is suing for breach of contract, saying that he`s fully capable of working the tour. Fleetwood Mac, for their
part, says they`re looking forward to their day in court and presumably their day up on stage. What is with that band? They`re so good and so
messed up. What a shame.
We`ll see you back here tomorrow night 6:00 Eastern. "HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED" With Hill Harper begins right now.
END
