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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Woman Fugitive Run Over by Tulsa Police Cruiser; Search Continues for Teacher-Student Runaways; New Details on Manhunt; Las Vegas Strip Heist; High-Powered Theft; Mystery Shooting; Mysterious Disappearance; Dramatic Video. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 27, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[20:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show me your hand.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST (voice-over): One of Tulsa`s most wanted chased to the bitter end, her last fatal moments caught on dashcam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s running.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired! Shots fired!
BANFIELD: Wanted in a string of shootings, the gun still in her hand. Did officers have any other choice?
A voice of the missing, video surfaces of 15-year-old Elizabeth Thomas, the girl missing with her former teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to start from the back or do you want to start from scratch?
BANFIELD: Her family hoping someone might recognize her voice, that as police reveal how they secretly wrote to each other.
Shot dead at just 9 years old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a tragedy what happened to the little boy.
BANFIELD: But the suspects, people you would least expect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Significant efforts were made to scrub the house clean and remove evidence.
BANFIELD: How police say Mom and Dad tried to clean up and cover up.
Missing without a trace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s horrible!
BANFIELD: A 25-year-old mom vanishes, her 3-year-old son found wondering the streets all alone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s never done anything like that.
BANFIELD: Was she snatched against her will?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her kids need her.
BANFIELD: This little piggy went to market in a high-end Vegas heist. Masked robbers make off with jewels as the guests go into lockdown. So
will police find these animals?
Plus, talk about brazen, a thief caught red-handed stealing a power saw. A worker jumps on the hood of his car and is forced to hang on for dear life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
If you had to pick a name for a love story based in the South, you might choose something like Madison Dickson. It has an innocence, intrigue,
Southern charm.
Our lead story tonight is all about Madison Dickson, a young lady from Tulsa, Oklahoma, only this Madison has no charm, is far from innocent, and
you would be hard pressed to call her a lady. Ms. Dickson graced the most wanted list, a Bonnie and Clyde without the Clyde, as police have described
her. Her 24-hour crime spree left a wake of places robbed and people shot.
Here is her mug shot. That`s before police tracked down Ms. Dickson and moved in for the arrest. But Madison and her pal took off in a white
pickup truck, leading police on a chase until she bailed out of the car guns blazing.
What happened next might not come as a surprise. After all, a fugitive and a hail of gunfire right next to a playground usually results in one thing.
Only this takedown happened like few others, and it was all caught on dashcam video. It is disturbing, and it is not for kids.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s running.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired! Shots fired!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So that`s what it looked like from the dashcam video. Here`s what it looks like if you freeze the most critical parts. There is Madison
Dickson. You can clearly see her pointing a gun in her right hand towards the officers in that car.
There is another picture of Madison Dickson running, and in her right hand, clearly, you can see that gun. In the final frame, before she ends up shot
-- or she ends up down, you can see her with the gun poised and ready, three clear images before police use their cruiser and actually run down
Madison Dickson.
Some critical elements that you don`t necessarily see right away when you see the video playing out in real time, but mark my words, that is one
dangerous young woman, and with several people shot in just a 24-hour period, police were taking no chances.
I want to bring in Sergeant Shane Tuell. He`s the public information officer for the Tulsa Police Department. Sergeant, thanks so much for
being with us. First and foremost, how often do you have a young woman on the most wanted list?
SGT. SHANE TUELL, TULSA PD (via telephone): It`s happened before. It`s been a while, but it`s very unusual to have a woman end up on one of our
most wanted lists.
BANFIELD: And did you have a sense of this particular young woman, Madison Dickson, what she was like and what she could be capable of?
[20:05:04]TUELL: You know, the string of her criminal activities prior to us having this final contact with her pretty much dictated the kind of
person we were going to have contact with. She started her criminal activities with an unauthorized use of a motor vehicle from her parents,
which then led to her going to do a larceny at Best Buy and shooting at employees when they tried to stop here, and then on to Walgreens, where she
shot an individual that she`s trying to take a car from. And then she ends up shooting an acquaintance in the head when she tried to get his car.
And also, she (INAUDIBLE) trying to steal a tag and shot at the person that was trying to stop her or ask her what she was doing. So we pretty much
knew what kind of person we were dealing with when we tried to make contact with her.
BANFIELD: I`ve heard her described by your department as the Bonnie and Clyde without the Clyde. What`s intriguing, though, Sergeant, are some of
the images that we were showing. She`s positioned with a cross. She looks like she`s sort of any girl. She certainly doesn`t look like this
extraordinarily violent young woman that runs through a community next to what looks like a school playground, firing off bullet after bullet.
Why am I seeing this disconnect between these pictures and that young woman on that dashcam?
TUELL: You`re absolutely correct. I`ve seen several pictures of Ms. Dickson, and she looks just like any girl you would run into on the street.
She looks very nice and very unassuming. And what`s happened in her past or what errors that she made in her life that brought her to this point,
unfortunately, we`ll probably never know.
BANFIELD: I have been told that the maneuver that was used to take down Madison Dickson in those final frames of the dashcam is called a tactical
decision. Can you help me understand the notion of the tactical decision and why the cruiser was used to ultimately take down this fugitive?
TUELL: Absolutely. A lot of times, law enforcement -- we will do everything within our power to kind of control the situation, but there are
a lot of times when the suspect takes that ability away from us. And it`s the suspect`s actions that make us change our tactics.
And the officer`s tactical advantage in this case was to use his vehicle to protect himself, as well as the rest of the community, as you mentioned the
playground in the background. And stopping and exiting his vehicle at that point would have put him in more of a dangerous situation. So tactically,
he had to change and make a decision on how to stop this threat, and he used his vehicle to do so.
BANFIELD: Just before that happened, there was -- I want to play for our audience, the driver of the vehicle that Madison Dickson bailed out of, who
was also brought in, clearly, you know, being part of this at the beginning. Let me play for you what that sounded like. I want to ask you
about something on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walk backwards towards the front of my car! Keep walking backwards! Stop! Stop!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You tell me you don`t know she`s, like, one of the most wanted people in Tulsa?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Is she OK? I mean...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: No, not OK. She died. Sergeant Tuell, real quick, cooperating, right? She`s cooperating, that driver, family friend, not charged, yes?
TUELL: That`s correct. And I`m glad you mentioned that because as you hear in that video, the officers are giving her commands. She followed
those commands to a T.
BANFIELD: And she`s alive today.
TUELL: And that`s what we would expect of anyone. And she`s alive today. And we would expect that of everybody. But no, she wasn`t charged because
we could not prove that she knew that Ms. Dickson was a wanted fugitive.
BANFIELD: OK. I want to bring in Darrin Porcher, who`s a retired NYPD lieutenant and a criminal justice expert. Darrin, when I look at that
video, of course, as a layperson, I would think, Dear God, that seems like overkill using your vehicle to take down, you know, a fleeing fugitive like
that.
But the sergeant just said they kind of knew who they were dealing with. They kind of knew who this person was, and clearly, they saw that gun
blazing. Is that the kind of training, is that the kind of procedure that you saw textbook?
DARRIN PORCHER, CRIMINAL JUSTICE EXPERT: Well, different departments have different procedural guidelines. Here we have Madison Dickson, that
portrayed herself as a violent felon, and the officer believed that Madison Dickson posed a threat to anyone that was in that area. And he used his
police car. I`m a firm proponent in regress, erect what we refer to as a zone of safety, and deal with the person that way.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: ... a schoolyard next to it. This is a Saturday afternoon, around 2:24 in the afternoon. Who knows who`s playing in those -- who
knows who`s playing on those gym devices in the background, and she is running for broke.
[20:10:10]PORCHER: We clearly saw no passerbys or no pedestrians in the street. We had cars driving by. However, I`m a firm believer in bringing
and acquiring (ph) as many resources as possible. Therefore, you can bring that individual in as safely as possible, coupled with the officers`
safety.
BANFIELD: Yes, well, provided no officers get shot, you know, in the meantime...
PORCHER: That`s correct.
BANFIELD: ... because that gun was going all over the place.
PORCHER: That police car can be used as a barrier...
BANFIELD: As a weapon.
PORCHER: ... to prevent yourself from being shot because keep in mind, when you run the person over -- she can easily fire shots that can engage
that windshield of that car. And you don`t have any cover behind a windshield.
BANFIELD: Right.
PORCHER: That`s why I mentioned park the police car, get behind it...
BANFIELD: Would you have done the same thing?
PORCHER: I would not run that person over. I would have parked the -- but keep in mind...
BANFIELD: Seeing that gun coming around at that windshield?
PORCHER: I was a supervisor. I had 20 years in. So I had more experience to guide me through this.
BANFIELD: That gun was coming -- let`s see that still frame again. The very last shot of her, that gun is coming around squarely -- first of all,
there it is, pointed right at the officers coming for her, right? Here it is, she`s still running and she`s not dropping that gun. And in the third
frame, it`s coming around to those officers. And you`re saying you would not have neutralized her?
PORCHER: Absolutely. I would have parked the police car. I would have used it as an element of concealment. And that`s the way I would have
engaged this person.
BANFIELD: That -- that just scares the hell out of me looking at this! This woman was like Bonnie and Clyde. You know, what`s intriguing, though-
PORCHER: You should never engage someone by yourself when you have -- when a firearm is involved.
BANFIELD: I don`t think they had any choice. This seemed to be unraveling pretty damn quickly.
PORCHER: You always have a choice.
BANFIELD: So this is what`s so bizarre. You see these pictures, you hear this story, you hear the Bonnie and Clyde reference, you hear about the
trail of destruction in the last, you know, 24 hours of this young woman. By the way, shot a friend while stealing his car, shot him in the head...
PORCHER: Violent felon.
BANFIELD: ... leaving him in a coma. Violent...
PORCHER: Terrible person!
BANFIELD: Extraordinarily violent...
PORCHER: Terrible person!
BANFIELD: ... not afraid to use that gun. I want you to hear another side of her, friends of hers who seem to be in a program with her prior to this
incident you`re seeing on the screen, who describe an entirely different Madison Dickson. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) that it had all happened (INAUDIBLE) that was, no, not Madison. There`s no way. Like, this is a mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s just not the Madison that I knew.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Funny. Madison was really funny. She always had something funny to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was just so sweet. She always wanted to hug everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Joining me now, Joey Jackson on the panel. It`s a different person. And then all of a sudden, you start wondering how many people out
there like family members are going to have issues with what they just saw?
JOE JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yikes. Well, put it this way. Look, an officer has to assess the situation, and I defer to you, Darrin in being
out there. Look, you did it for what, 20 years, you say, you`re out on the streets? But I think the question comes down to, Do you act reasonably.
And if someone has a weapon and you feel that there`s an imminent threat, an immediate threat to your life, how are you going to act? So therefore,
I think at the end of the day, the investigation ensues, the officers are cleared.
This is a person who`s dangerous. They`re running with a gun. And the calculus really isn`t whether the person who has the gun, you know, has a
criminal history. It`s only if the officers are aware of the fact that she has a criminal history because then it represents...
BANFIELD: Well, they were.
JACKSON: ... a threat to them.
BANFIELD: They were going into the arrest.
JACKSON: If they are, then that`s even more of a justification for them to have done what they did. I mean, hindsight is 20/20. I`m sorry that, you
know, she -- she...
BANFIELD: Lost her life!
JACKSON: ... lost her life. But at the end of the day, you cannot have...
BANFIELD: Comply with the cops!
JACKSON: ... have a gun that you`re running with waving around.
BANFIELD: Yes. Exactly. You don`t...
JACKSON: Can`t do it.
BANFIELD: ... A, comply with the cops, and B, don`t be waving a loaded gun. Don`t be firing off...
JACKSON: Can`t do it.
BANFIELD: ... a bunch of shots. You know, you`re playing with fire, literally.
Joey, thank you. Darrin, thank you, as well Always good to have you.
The nationwide search for Elizabeth Thomas enters its third week officially as of today, investigators saying that they think she actually might have
changed the way she looks. And so because of that, they`re releasing a video of her so that you know how she sounds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH THOMAS: Do you want to start from the back or do you want to start from the front?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too many.
THOMAS: No, not too many.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t see what you`re (INAUDIBLE)
THOMAS: I`ll teach you. Give me the needle. Hold it on that side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: You`re going to hear more of this tape, more of Elizabeth`s voice. That`s here with her brother. That`s coming up in a little bit.
And then later, a mystery in Georgia, a real true mystery, a mother missing, her two young kids left behind, one of them just 3, and that 3-
year-old wandering the street.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:16:30]BANFIELD: Straight ahead, Tennessee police say that Elizabeth Thomas and her 50-year-old teacher, Tad Cummins, would use his school e-
mail account to send secret romantic messages to one another.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would immediately recognize that you`re reading communications between people that have a romantic interest in each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So what else was in those e-mails?
And then there`s this, a driver accidentally plowing through a North Carolina veterinary clinic. Hard to believe with what you`re seeing, no
one hurt and no animals hurt, either. We`ll tell you what happened and who it was behind the wheel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Two weeks doesn`t seem like a long time, but rest assured, it is an eternity if your 15-year-old daughter is missing and the lead suspect in
her kidnapping is a teacher more than three times her age. Elizabeth Thomas was last seen March 13th when a friend dropped her off at a
restaurant in Tennessee. Her former teacher, Tad Cummins, disappeared the very same day and he has now been charged with kidnapping her.
[20:20:02]Over 1,000 tips have come in but still no Elizabeth, no Tad, no credible sightings. But there is some new intriguing information to tell
you about tonight. Police have released some brand-new video of Elizabeth and in it, Elizabeth is demonstrating to her brother how to sew. They are
hoping at this point that someone can recognize Elizabeth`s voice because it`s possible her appearance could have changed by now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS: Like that. No, you`re going to do it like that.
And then you...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too many?
THOMAS: Do you want to start from the back or do you want to start from the front?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too many.
THOMAS: Not too many.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t see what you`re...
THOMAS: I`ll teach you. Give me the needle. All right, you hold it on that side. (INAUDIBLE) it can go about like that. And then you take the
needle -- all right, we`re going to have to go from the front of this. All right, take the needle. (INAUDIBLE) the point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And then there` is this. Investigators say Elizabeth Thomas and Tad Cummins were using his school e-mail account, his work e-mail, to
communicate with each other before they vanished. The district attorney in Maury County says they exchanged messages by reading each other`s draft e-
mails, perhaps thinking that those drafts couldn`t be traced once they were deleted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENT COOPER, MAURY COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They would save the message and let it save as a draft. The other person would log in, read the
message, and then delete it and write another message that was then saved as a draft. If you read them, then you would immediately recognize that
you`re reading communications between people that have a romantic interest in each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Romantic interest in each other, and that is the big concern tonight. James Bennett is the editor of "The Daily Herald." He joins me
live from Columbia, Tennessee. James, thanks so much for being on with us tonight.
First of all, more about these e-mails. And know that they`re being really cagy about the content of those e-mails, other than to say they were
romantic. Do we know anything more, details, what kind of things they were saying to one another?
James, can you hear me? Have we lost James Bennett? I think we`ve lost James Bennett. Unfortunately, I have been told that there is some pretty
nasty weather in that part of the country right now in Columbia, so it might be possible that we`ve lost him because of thunderstorms.
I want to bring in Joey Jackson real quickly. There was something very unusual that came out today, and as an attorney, I -- well, first of all, I
was seething and I thought maybe you can get me off the ledge.
JACKSON: The misdemeanor issue?
BANFIELD: Yes.
JACKSON: I flipped.
BANFIELD: OK, so here`s what it is. Since we`ve been covering the story for two weeks and the public has been helping by calling in all these tips,
everyone`s been thinking she`s 15. No matter whether she went away with him on her own because she fell in love with her teacher, she`s 15. She
can`t make those decisions. A 50-year-old man, that would ultimately be a kidnapping whether she was willing or not. And now I`m hearing maybe not
so much.
JACKSON: I disagree, Ashleigh, with the maybe not so much and the fact that they`re saying it would be a misdemeanor if she consented to it. The
fact is, is that 18 is the age of majority. What does that mean in English? It means you have to be 18 to make legal decisions as an adult.
If you`re not an adult, it`s not consensual. It`s an uneven relationship. He`s the teacher, she`s the student. As a result of that, there is undue
influence. She`s going to do and be coerced into doing what he says.
And so therefore, I do not agree with the legal analysis which suggests if she said, Fine, teacher, I`ll go with you, it`s a misdemeanor. I am one
who subscribes to the logic that because she`s 15, whether she says I`ll go with you teacher, or not, it is a felony. It`s kidnapping, period.
BANFIELD: Well, and look, the district attorney for Maury County was the one who said this, and I would assume that he can analyze his own laws very
clearly.
JACKSON: I get it.
BANFIELD: Why is there interpretation here?
JACKSON: I get it. Because the issue is this. I think there are those instances where you have to push the law to the limit. And the fact is, is
that -- and there`s two real things at play here because remember, she is not of the age of majority for purposes of sexual intercourse, either. So
if there`s any shenanigans between the two, he`s going to be held accountable for that.
BANFIELD: Well, he didn`t say that one would be (INAUDIBLE)
JACKSON: Absolutely not.
BANFIELD: He just said the kidnapping part could be tough (ph).
JACKSON: I respectfully disagree with the district attorney`s analysis. And I think if it were pushed into a court of law, I think the courts would
agree that at 15 years of age, you are not old enough to consent to have a 50-year-old teacher take you across the country or wherever they are,
period.
BANFIELD: Boy, you don`t have to convince me. I thought it was crazy when I heard it in the first place.
I am told that I think James Bennett is back on the line with us, the editor of "The Daily Herald." James, can you hear me?
JAMES BENNETT, "DAILY HERALD" (via telephone): Yes, Ashleigh, I`m here. Sorry about that. We`ve got strong thunderstorms coming through. Must be
affecting our phone line.
BANFIELD: That`s exactly what I assumed had happened when we lost your call.
Listen, I want to ask you really quickly, and I don`t know if you know the answer to this, James. But the police are telling us, the district
attorney is telling us that there were these e-mails that were written on the school e-mail system, on Tad Cummins`s e-mail system, where they would
both be able to log in and read drafts.
[20:25:08]They wouldn`t actually hit send. Perhaps they thought this was a secret way of being able to talk to one another without leaving a digital
trail. Well, guess what? You leave a digital trail.
But what`s in the e-mails? Do we know any details?
BENNETT: I think the e-mails are milder compared to what people may be speculating, but they do show the dark side of Tad Cummins. He knew what
he was doing. He knew what he was doing was wrong, and just shows that he was trying to hide it, I think, trying to carry on an inappropriate
relationship with here. He wanted to try to keep it a secret as long as they possibly could, and those draft e-mails in his mind were a way to keep
it secret. By not hitting send button, he thought he was being inconspicuous with it. But of course, any time you have a draft of an e-
mail, it is going to save.
BANFIELD: Yes. Guess he wasn`t smarter than -- than he thought he was. There`s an interesting report that came from ABC News, James, and I wanted
you to weigh in on it. They said that through communications with the family that Elizabeth in just days prior to her disappearance had actually
hidden from Tad Cummins at her job at Chick-fil-A ,that Tad Cummins had come to her place of employment -- again, she`s 15, but she worked at the
Chick-fil-A. And when Tad showed up, she asked a co-worker, Tell him I`m not here, and she hid in the bathroom.
That sounds to me like somebody who may not just a few days later willingly go off on some odyssey with a grandfather more than three times her age.
BENNETT: Well, if that report is true, that is certainly the case. Witnesses have told us here at the newspaper that Cummins came in there
more than just a few times. He was at Chick-fil-A very frequently. I would guess if Chick-fil-A has a video monitoring system there, that the
police may have in their hands video surveillance tape of him in there more than one or two times.
I had heard that he had been in there -- there were Instagram pictures of him sitting in Chick-fil-A that if you look at his Instagram page, there is
a photo, a selfie of him in Chick-fil-A.
BANFIELD: So real quick question for Joey Jackson on that one. Let`s just say we find Elizabeth. Let`s just say Elizabeth isn`t copping to the whole
idea that she went unwillingly.
JACKSON: Let`s pray we do.
BANFIELD: And let`s pray we find her. But if you have this instance where just days before, she`s hiding from this man -- there is this Stockholm
syndrome notion that if she spends two, three weeks with him on the run, he could convince her that this was a willing trip.
JACKSON: She`s going to support her accuser, exactly.
BANFIELD: Can you get back to this unwilling to go based on these actions just days before she disappeared?
JACKSON: Look, I`m one who believes -- and I say very firmly. Look, the law says that you have to be 18, period.
BANFIELD: Even if you don`t get your way on that.
JACKSON: Look, if I don`t get my way on that, I say because you add the extra layer of analysis, which you just did. How can you really say that
it was consensual when you have an uneven relationship? You have a teacher. This is not two teenagers who ran off in a love affair, Romeo and
Juliet. This is a teacher who told her stories.
Remember, he`s a CIA operative. He knows what he`s doing. Oh, my goodness, he`s involved in all these things. He enticed her. And as a
result of that enticement,, I would make the argument that it was not consensual because of what he did. He drew it out of her. So I don`t buy
that, Ashleigh, period.
BANFIELD: That`s a good point, the drawing out of here. There`s been a lot made about that.
Michael Christian is a producer of PRIMETIME JUSTICE. He`s been working on this story for a couple weeks now. Michael, there`s been a lot reported
about the grooming nature, and even the district attorney suggested that these romantic e-mails were very much of a grooming nature. And that would
probably, I`m guessing, go towards this notion that even if she were willing, she may not have been willing.
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, PRIMETIME JUSTICE PRODUCER (via telephone): That`s right, Ashleigh. You know, we don`t know exactly what all of their
communications were, so we don`t know exactly how much he, quote, unquote, "groomed" her. But we`ve heard from other people, people who know him this
could be a very controlling man. "Manipulative" is a word that`s being used. "Narcissist" is a word that`s been used. And so it doesn`t take a
great stretch of the imagination to think of somebody with a personality like that, you know, trying to get a 15-year-old girl a or 15-year-old
person to conform to what he wants and to basically control that person.
BANFIELD: Yes. Hey, do I have James Bennett on the line still? James, if you`re there...
BENNETT: I`m still here.
BANFIELD: I know the weather is bad, so I`m glad I still have you. There are 1,000 tips, roughly, plus or minus some, that have come in in two weeks
since Elizabeth`s been missing. Look, I`ve been at this business a long time, and when a teenager like, you know, gosh, I mean, name Elizabeth
Smart, name any of them -- there are thousands and thousands of tips that usually come in. 1,000 seems like a lot, but it really isn`t in the grand
scheme of things.
And I`m just wondering about folks in your community. Are they losing hope? Do they feel like things are drying up? Do they feel like the trail
has gone cold, if it ever warmed up at all?
BENNETT: You know, I think the mood of Columbia is still very hopeful. I don`t think it`s drying up.
[20:30:00] There is a thirst for justice. There`s no doubt about that. Small town people really rally around one another in a time of crisis like
this, Ashleigh. They pray and they comfort one another. And I think that`s certainly the case with Elizabeth Thomas. Columbia is enjoying a week-long
festival this week called Mule Day. There will be 1,000 people visiting the town.
Students are off on spring break so there may be distractions when it comes to this story. But I can tell you just from a small town experience, the
town is united around wanting to find her and I think that that`s going to continue to be a story that they are very interested in. They are going to
continue to call in their tips and the more you get the word out nationwide, the better the hope is of getting her back safely.
BANFIELD: Well, we`re doing it. We`re doing it tonight. And thank you for helping us do that. Really appreciate it, James. Good luck. I have
something else to tell you from another part of the country. Let`s take you to Vegas. An armed robbery on the strip this weekend and it was not your
typical heist at all. The four masked men were wearing suits.
They smashed into a jewelry store at the Bellagio Resort and they used sledgehammers to do it. And yes, you`re not seeing things. The suspects
making a run for it wearing strange masks. The odd part, the police say, one of them was in a pig mask. You can take a look at some of the shots
that show that the police also say there was a white cat mask and another one of the robbers wearing a panda mask. I don`t know.
Call me crazy but I think you can track where you buy those. Maybe they did because investigators have caught one suspect, Sebastian Gonzalez. He`s in
custody. The others fled on foot. The robbery sent Bellagio guests scurrying into the street. Nobody injured. No word yet on the price tag yet
for the stolen goods. But the investigation as you can imagine continuing.
Police in Texas are looking for a man and a power saw. I want you to see the moment a driver stops his car in a Dallas neighborhood, that red one
there. When he comes across a power saw at a work site. You can see the driver running up grabbing the saw. It`s worth over $1,000. A big deal.
He then takes off, but look, chased despite his best efforts to get away. Some of the crew actually chased after him and leap under the hood of the
car and then they don`t get off the hood. They come screaming down the street the opposite way and the guy still hanging onto the hood. A full
minute later.
But there, have a good look at that car. They are still looking for that car, still looking for the guy that ripped off the construction workers.
But look at these guys, they are so brave, no, no, you`re not taking my saw, that`s expensive, I`m getting on your hood. I`m not kidding. You have
to watch this in Real Time to realize off camera how long the guy was on the hood of the car and kept going. We are told he`s okay. Thank God.
Amazing video too. Still on the lookout for the suspect.
A 9-year-old, a 9-year-old shot and killed. The parents have now been charged. They say they didn`t do it. And the mom actually has someone else
in the house she says was responsible. Are you ready for this? His 2-year- old brother. We`ll look into that and find out why that story is somewhat fishy.
Also a very desperate search tonight for this beautiful young mother, missing now in Georgia, and the weird part is it`s just a sheer vanishing.
Gone. Without a trace. Except for the two little kids left behind, one of them 3 years old wondering the street. Wondering where mom is.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: When emergency reports of gunshots are called into 911, it is not often that the people hurt are kids. So in Phoenix, when the call came in
that a 9-year-old boy had been shot, his parents saying his 2-year-old brother had done it, they took a second look. At first, Wendy and Kansas
Lavarnia, those parents, were only charged with child abuse and gun charges, but police say mom`s story began to unravel.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
VINCE LEWIS, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT: Landon`s mother, Wendy Lavarnia, told officers that she was at home with
her four small children when Landon was shot, and that his father, Kansas, was not at home. The account given by Landon`s mother was not consistent
with the physical evidence found at the scene.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Yeah, that`s not good. And not only was her story fishy, but police began questioning dad whose story didn`t add up. First, when dad
named, Kansas Lavarnia, returned to the home, he had been out shopping, he strangely had a gunshot wound too to his upper arm. And then there was all
this evidence in the home of a cover-up and a clean-up inside that home.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
LEWIS: The inconsistencies and the account given by the boy`s mother combined with the role his father played in the delay of critical emergency
life saving care, while evidence was cleaned and removed from the scene, has led to the rearrest and charge of first-degree murder on both Wendy and
Kansas Lavarnia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So you heard it, both Kansas and Wendy are charged with first- degree murder. They are also facing child abuse and hindering prosecution in their son`s death. I want to bring in the Sergeant Vince Lewis. He is
the public information officer for the Phoenix Police Department.
[20:40:00] Sergeant, thanks for being with us tonight. What was your first clue that something about their story, about their little 2-year-old
toddler picking up the gun and shooting his 9-year-old brother, that it was just false?
LEWIS: Yeah, hi, Ashley. Thank you for having me. So in my 18 years experience, when I read the call that a 2-year-old supposedly shot a 9-
year-old, it speaks volumes and definitely draws your attention not only as an officer but a public information officer. I knew that this is going to
warrant a close inspection and a second look. So I immediately headed towards the scene to gather more information from investigators.
BANFIELD: So what kind of clean-up are we talking about inside that house?
LEWIS: Well, after they had processed the scene, after serving the search warrant and processing the scene, it was evident to the investigators, the
crime scene detectives, that there something incredibly terrible had taken place with lot of blood or trace amounts later discovered after a clean-up
or a scrub at the scene and removal of that evidence that taken place. So it was evident to them that something had taken place there.
BANFIELD: So she -- yeah, as I understand it, Wendy said that the gunshot went off and that she called 911 immediately and I think it was only two
minutes, right, before emergency crews were on the scene and yet, is it true you found clean-up evidence and blood residue in the master bedroom,
the master bathroom, another bathroom, a hallway, the kitchen, and several sinks? I mean, that`s a lot. That`s a lot of space and a lot of mess.
LEWIS: Including the trunk of the vehicle as well and the path leading to it. So the evidence that the detectives and investigators had found was
that blood was in those locations. It`s since been scrubbed clean and the evidence had been removed.
BANFIELD: All during that two minutes that the gunshot went off and emergency crews arrived?
LEWIS: Well, that`s what -- if we`re to believe Wendy.
BANFIELD: Yeah.
LEWIS: . the statements that she gave police.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: That`s hard to do in 2 minutes. Okay. Now, the other weird part of the story. Dad is apparently out shopping and correct me if I`m wrong,
sergeant, but he doesn`t get home for three hours after this happens and he`s got this big old wound in his arm. Can you help me understand what
that was all about?
LEWIS: Kansas and Wendy are married. They live together. That`s his primary residence. They have four children together. They have one vehicle. And in
the time that all of this had taken place, he doesn`t show up back to the scene until three hours after investigators have already arrived. He
arrived, he got a suspicious gunshot wound, and what appear to be (inaudible) puncture wounds (inaudible) gunshot wound. It was poorly
bandaged, poorly packaged. No professional standard first-aid practice was used there.
BANFIELD: So that`s weird. You`re saying that Wendy said, you know, my husband is not here, he`s shopping. Nobody dials him on the cell phone to
say there is an emergency at home, his son been shot, and instead he comes home three hours later with a bullet wound in his arm himself with some
really crude dressing on it. And if I read it right, what looked like a screwdriver had been taken to that bullet wound. I don`t know whether to
camouflage it or get a bullet out. I mean, am I on the right track here?
LEWIS: Yes, exactly. So we are looking at that gunshot wound and then of course something to camouflage or (inaudible) that wound.
BANFIELD: Wow. Joey Jackson, real quick. That`s what you call a series of bad facts in your business.
JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN AND HLN LEGAL ANALYST: You think? Yes, it is. This is what is going to happen. Either they are going
to blame each other, right? It was the wife, no it was the husband, or they are going to have a joint defense or in the alternative, if they don`t
blame each other and they do have a joint defense. The other thing is, one is going to take the blame and try to exonerate the other. So that`s how
you are going to see it play out.
BANFIELD: A real love story?
JACKSON: Absolutely. You know, I did it, I did it, she had no responsibility or they take a joint defense and they say look, it was an
accident, we didn`t do it intentionally or they just point fingers and whatever happens, happens in that courtroom.
BANFIELD: All of that so ugly. Thanks, Sergeant Lewis. We appreciate you with all your details and hope you get more as this investigation
continues. A 3-year-old boy, 3, sometimes still wearing diapers at 3, found wondering on the street all by himself about a quarter mile from home. Now,
Georgia police are desperately trying to find his mommy because he couldn`t find her, and she`s been gone since Friday. Where is she and what happened?
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Police in Georgia are looking for a mother of two who just vanished. Just disappeared. Without her two young sons. Something the
family members say she just would never do. Beatriz Espinosa has not been seen or heard from since Friday morning and friends and family agree that
she would never have left her sons this long.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s very unusual. She has never done anything like that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she went missing, like someone took her, just like give her back, you know, because her kids need her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So here is what we know. Police say that they were told she left with her 6-year-old -- she left her 6-year-old with family member to do
babysitting, but she did not come back to pick him up. What`s most troubling about this, is that she has this 3-year-old son and that 3-year-
old son was just found out wondering early Saturday morning at a shopping center, a little less than a quarter of a mile where they live, 3 years old
out by himself on the sidewalk. A large group of people gathered with police on Sunday
[20:50:00] to start looking for her and they just -- do it the old fashion way, right, search through the wooded area near the family`s home looking
for any sign of Espinosa. And so far, nothing. Tina Douglas is an anchor and reporter for News Radio 106.7. She joins me live from Atlanta. Tina,
this is like a real mystery. Just completely vanishing without a trace and a 3-year-old found wondering. Did they have any idea at leat where the last
point of contact was with Espinosa?
TINA DOUGLAS, ANCHOR AND REPORTER FOR NEWS RADIO 106.7: All they know is that she left her home with the 3-year-old on Friday morning going to a
class at a technology school in Gwinnett County, and that`s the last anyone has saw of her until the son was found.
BANFIELD: The little 3-year-old wondering and now we`re learning that her car is gone and that her cell phone is going straight to voice mail, which
usually means it`s shut off. Is that at least helpful to the police officers looking at this case because they got something to go on?
DOUGLAS: Well, it -- it`s kind of troubling, I think, for the police department because they really don`t have anything. There is no way of
contacting her. It`s a troubling sign to see that her phone is incapable of taking incoming calls or that it has been turned off or disconnected. That
I think for the police department is a troubling sign.
BANFIELD: What about surveillance video, Tina? I mean, you and I both know we`re being able to solve all sorts of things now because you can`t walk 20
feet these days without getting caught on someone`s surveillance video somewhere. Do they have anything like that?
DOUGLAS: From what we have heard, police have nothing of that sort. They haven`t shared it with the media. But they are really baffled about this
case and are trying to, you know, chase every lead that they get. I don`t think that they have any surveillance video from the scene. That has not
been made public to us.
BANFIELD: Okay. The one thing that leads me to wonder about what might have led up to this was a report that a friend gave to the police, and that was
marijuana and methamphetamine, that the friend said was found in a backpack at the home. Apparently, the friend turned the marijuana and the
methamphetamine over to the police but not the backpack and the police can only say was a colorful backpack. They are not saying it was a child`s
backpack. Do you know anything more about that?
DOUGLAS: Talking with Corporal Washington, he said they are trying to investigate and find out exactly more about the backpack. They can`t really
substantiate the report because they didn`t find the backpack. It was turned over to them. Even though I think they had a search warrant to go
into her apartment. But at this point, they can`t really prove the drugs belong to her or belong to anyone in that apartment. I mean, it was.
BANFIELD: The fact.
DOUGLAS: . brought to the police by someone who claims to be a friend of hers, and, you know.
BANFIELD: And roommate too, right, Tina? Like I hear there is a roommate too.
DOUGLAS: She did have a roommate.
BANFIELD: The roommate doesn`t say that everything was on the up and up in that apartment. She said there were a lot of men that used to come to the
apartment, you know, a lot of strange men. And that she had a boyfriend in his 30s from Mexico and I don`t think they have found him. Is that a lead
for them? Are they looking for these men or this boyfriend?
DOUGLAS: I think they are following up on everything. They know this boyfriend`s name, but the last word they received was that he was living in
Atlanta, that they were having a hard time contacting him, but they do have his name.
BANFIELD: So sad.
DOUGLAS: The other part of it from the roommate is that she did have a lot of visitors but her and the roommate obviously were not that close. They
didn`t communicate much.
BANFIELD: All right. Poor little kid. We`re seeing these two pictures of them. Tina, thanks so much. Let us know if you hear any more leads on this
mysterious disappearance.
Unbelievable video that came to us from the lobby of a North Carolina veterinarian office just after it was completely destroyed. Take a peak.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patty, are you okay?
BANFIELD: Not what you would expect on a regular day at work. A driver completely lost control of the car and blitzed through the wall. Here is
what is amazing. Despite all the whatever bombs, you`re hearing deep through the video, nobody was hurt and here is the more amazing thing.
Under that pile, somewhere, there are four puppy dogs. When we come back after the break, I`ll let you know how the puppy dogs fared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Do you had one of those days when you`re sitting there doing your job and something goes wildly unexpected? I can guarantee you it does not
come close to what happened at Noah`s Ark Companion Animal Hospital in Franklin, North Carolina. And before I roll the video, I want to stress
that nobody, no animals, nothing hurt in this unbelievable accident.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patty, are you okay?
BANFIELD: You hear them saying Patty, are you okay? She is. Patty, the office manager. Okay enough to find out that that ravel on her own and she
even made the call to 911 herself. And Patty was able to work for the rest of the day, not sure what doing, but she was okay. What you might not have
spotted were these puppy dogs. Look at them all. Four of them, three spotted on the video, four of them sleeping on their little puppy dog beds
when that car came flying in through the window.
Unbelievably. The puppy dogs were all okay as well. The driver, unreal. The driver for her part apparently mixed -- and we hear this all the time,
mixed-up the brake and accelerator pedal, but the driver was also able to walk away from this accident, so there is that.
[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
