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Jane Velez-Mitchell
McCann Case a `Preplanned Abduction`
Aired October 15, 2013 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, a huge, huge breakthrough in the Madeleine McCann mystery. A fresh look at the evidence and the time line has taken this case in an entirely new direction.
Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live. Thanks for joining me.
Police are now saying the disappearance of the British 3-year-old child has all of the hallmarks of a preplanned abduction. That`s a quote. And they may even have the name of a possible suspect. But why now? Why the sudden break through six years later? Why has it taken this long?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing for six years, the British preschooler that captured the world`s attention.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Computer-generated sketches of a man they say was in the area at the time Madeleine vanished.
DCI ANDY REDWOOD, LONDON METROPOLITAN POLICE: He was a white man with brown hair, and the child that he had in his arms was described as being about 3 to 4 years of age with blonde hair, possibly wearing pajamas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Madeleine disappeared from her bed while her parents were eating at a nearby restaurant.
KATE MCCANN, MADELEINE`S MOTHER: She wasn`t in her bed, and that was the first time that I guess, you know, the panic kicked in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madeleine`s parents say they have never given up hope that they will find their little girl.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This case is not just a crime story. It has become a global worldwide obsession that has transfixed everybody for six years. Investigators released these new age progression photos of Maddie. Now, she was three when she vanished from her family -- British family`s vacation in Portugal. More than 1,000 tips have poured in since just Sunday, the day before yesterday, when suspect sketches aired on the BBC`s "Crime Watch."
The two sketches you`re looking at are of the very same man, a man that witnesses describe seeing the very night Maddie disappeared. But these sketches were made five years ago. Half a decade ago. Why are they just being released now?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REDWOOD: He was a white man with brown hair, and the child that he had in his arms was described as being about 3 to 4 years of age with blond hair possibly wearing pajamas, a description very close to that of Madeleine McCann.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now also tonight two people have now given cops the very same name for the man in the sketches. Is that the kidnapper? Why did this take six years?
Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297.
We`ve got an incredible Lion`s Den panel tonight. I want to start with missing child expert Marc Klaas, father of young murder victim Polly Klaas. You know what it`s like to have your child kidnapped and murdered. Now, do you think Madeleine McCann, we hope, is still alive, based on all of this?
MARC KLAAS, MISSING CHILD EXPERT: Well, they certainly seem to think so. It`s an extraordinary turn of events. It`s something that had gone so cold for so long will get this kind of attention. I`ve never seen anything like it.
And I think it can be attributed to the fact that the prime minister of Great Britain took a personal interest in this and asked Scotland Yard to look into it. But now it`s become not only multijurisdictional, but there are law enforcement agencies from around the world that are involved in this massive investigation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me tell you something. If what you`re saying is true, it`s that political influence caused investigators to put on a fresh set of glasses and take another look at this case, something they should have done a week after the Portuguese police messed this up and everybody was aware that they had messed this case up. Because they had blinders on. They were looking at the parents and the parents alone.
And I`ve got to tell you: One look at these parents, and I can tell you they had nothing to do with this. The mother is absolutely devastated. You`re going to hear from her in a second.
Now they`re suddenly saying, "Ooh, witnesses say, `Yes, we saw a suspicious man walking with a child,`" holding a child, a blond baby that fit Madeleine`s description of about 3 years old. That`s how old she was. He was walking from the direction of the McCanns` villa toward the beach or the town. Here`s what a detective told the BBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This could be the man that took Madeleine, but very importantly, there could be an innocent explanation. These are clear, and I ask the public to look very carefully at them. And if they know who this person is, please come forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Now, this suspect is described -- this is the same person, two different witnesses describing the same person. OK, 20 to 40 years old, short brown hair, medium build. Police say two separate individuals have come up with the same name in response to these sketches.
So Jon Leiberman, HLN contributor, investigator, why not release the man`s name, OK? Everybody in the world is looking for this guy. Release his name so we can all say, "I know Joe" or whoever he is. "Yes, he lives down the block."
JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I can tell you that`s something that law enforcement is thinking about right now. And I`ve spent time with different members of the McCann family, so I`m glad that they get a little glimmer of hope here.
But Jane, one reason why they`re not releasing the name is because they want to do some background work on this potential suspect first and not spook him, you know, before they get to do the investigative work that they need to do.
Now, the downside to all of this is, we`re really getting a clear picture of just how far behind police investigators are, because they actually released sketches of a number of different people, as well, who they want to identify from that night in this area.
And one of the big obstacles is, you know, this was a very transient area. This was a tourist area. People from all over the world came to this resort to work and to vacation and also, you know, different types of people were there during that time. So this is truly a worldwide investigation, and that`s why`s taking so much time, as well.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And we`re going to break down the old time line and the new time line in just a second.
But first out to the phone lines. There is so much outrage on this case. Michelle, Texas, what do you have to say?
CALLER: Well, I understand that they`re saying now that they have evidence that shows this is a preplanned kidnapping. But my question is how could -- how could a potential kidnapper possibly know that these parents would leave their three small -- very, very young children alone in the hotel room, giving them that window of opportunity to take that baby? No reasonable parent would do such a thing, because any number of terrible things could happen to the little children, left unattended.
Madeleine could have been frightened and wanted her mommy and wondered out the front door and gotten picked up and taken away.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, apparently, authorities are now also saying that there were two blond men that they saw loitering around the villa, the vacation apartment that the McCanns had earlier in the day or the day before.
But Wendy Murphy, that raises a good point. I mean, they don`t have a crystal ball. Unless -- and I don`t know this. That this was a nightly ritual where all of these British families vacationing together would all leave their kids and then they`d go around the pool to the tapas restaurant, which is right on the same part of the complex and have dinner and check on them repeatedly. How would they know that this child would be alone except for her two siblings?
WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, first, let me say that I don`t care, frankly. I don`t care about this nonsense breaking news nonsense about this story, because they`ve investigated how many hundreds of people over the years, and only one person has taken the fifth and refused to answer very basic questions on the grounds it might incriminate her, and that is the mom, Mrs. McCann, the beloved woman you think couldn`t possibly be involved, Jane, because you can tell by looking at her. Please.
What kind of mother doesn`t answer questions about things like this: What did you see when you walked into the room? What kind of mother? If you expect people to go hunting for your child`s killer, I think it might help if you answered questions first and, until you stop talking the fifth and stonewalling on your own role in this mess, don`t lie to the rest of us about how there`s a boogieman running around with your baby.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we actually have a sound bite of the mother describing exactly what he saw when she entered the room. We`re going to play that in a second. But I want to give Marc Klaas a chance to address that.
KLAAS: Well, listen, she was being targeted by the Portuguese authorities. There`s no question about that, and even the Portuguese authorities that at this point in time.
But I think it`s very clear, as you said, Jane, that over the course of the last several years, if Mrs. McCann wanted this to go away, she could very easily have done so by disappearing back into the woodwork. But she`s not done that. She`s launched and been involved in a very...
MURPHY: Marc -- Marc, your daughter was missing. Your daughter was missing, Marc. Did you take the fifth?
KLAAS: ... a very forward-moving campaign. A very forward-moving campaign to try to find their daughter.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: One at a time, please. One at a time.
MURPHY: Did you take the fifth, Marc? No.
KLAAS: No, I didn`t.
MURPHY: And what have you said every time I`ve been on with you? Marc Klaas says this: If it`s your child and your child is missing, you answer every question. You don`t do...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on. Let me say this. Wendy, let`s insert the fact that this was not happening in Great Britain or the United States. This was happening in Portugal. Now...
MURPHY: Too bad.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... she may have felt that they -- Well, no, wait a second. She may have felt that they were trying to hone in on her without justification and got nervous and said, "Wait a second."
MURPHY: Oh, my God.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: "I don`t want to get sucked in." Let me tell you something.
MURPHY: There is no basis for that. The Portuguese police did a good job. They`re being impugned.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No, they didn`t.
LEIBERMAN: No, they didn`t. They did a horrible job.
(CROSSTALK)
MURPHY: ... because she refused to cooperate.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No, no, no, no, no.
MURPHY: That`s a good reason to focus on a parent. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, I`m going to give John a chance to respond to this, because I don`t think there`s anything worse than losing a child and not knowing what happened to that child. But then to be accused and have a shadow cast over you the entire time, that`s got to be a form of torture that is in the depths of hell.
LEIBERMAN: Well, and let`s be clear: Since Scotland Yard took over this investigation almost two years ago, both of the McCanns have spoken extensively to investigators. And in fact -- I think you have a clip -- they also spoke to "Crime Watch U.K." in the piece, and she describes, you know, coming home and thinking that maybe she might have even seen the perpetrator now at some point.
MURPHY: They refused to testify in the Portuguese libel case that they brought. They refused to testify and be cross-examined.
LEIBERMAN: They were scared, Wendy. They were scared. They were in a foreign county.
MURPHY: Truth matters.
LEIBERMAN: They were getting the nails put to them. They were scared.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me tell you something. I -- I`ve lived in foreign countries. I spent almost a year living in Mexico. And if I had been the subject of an investigation where the police wanted to ask me questions, I`d say, "I`m not answering anything. Let me get my high-priced lawyer in the United States to come down here," because the rules in the game are different.
So I don`t think we can assume that, just because she didn`t want to answer questions when she`s in Portugal, that that means she did something to her child.
Listen, it`s an emotional case. We`ve all been invested in it for years. We`re trying to get to the bottom of it.
Stay right there. Got more callers. And on the other side, we`re going to give you this new time line. Yes. After six years they suddenly have a new time line. What`s that about?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
K. MCCANN: We`re doing everything we can, Madeleine, to find you. So many clues and very kind people have helped. Be brave, sweetheart. My only Christmas wish would be you`d be back with us again. And I hope and pray that will happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY MCCANN, MADELEINE`S FATHER: I`m not naive. I thought on numerous occasions the Portuguese police have assured us that they were looking for Madeleine alive and not Madeleine being murdered, and I don`t know of any information that`s changed that.
Of course the information and the way the investigation is going is about thoroughness and making sure that everyone is as confident as possible that that is the case. And Kate and I strongly believe that Madeleine was alive when he was taken from the apartment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Madeleine McCann`s parents talking. What hell they have lived through.
A new BBC "Crime Watch" special featured a 25-minute reenactment of the events surrounding little Madeleine`s disappearance. Cops say they`ve revised what they think happened that night. They`re hoping this new reenactment leads to a breakthrough.
This reenactment video shows Madeleine`s parents at dinner around the time cops think Madeleine was taken from their hotel room. At about 8:30 at night, Jerry and Kate McCann went to dinner with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant just on the other side of the pool. And at 9:05, Jerry checked in on Madeleine and her two siblings. They`re all around the same age. They were sleeping in their room.
And then at 10 in the evening -- now we`re learning -- this is the new stuff, a man is seen carrying a child in pajamas in the direction of the ocean, and the child is blond and the same age, approximately, as Madeleine.
Now at 10 p.m., around the same time Kate McCann, the mom, comes in and says, "Oh, my God, where`s my daughter?" Raises the alarm that her daughter is missing.
Right out to the Lion`s Den. I want to go to T.J. Ward, private investigator.
First of all, the idea that it took them six years to -- one of the reasons that they have this new time line is that there was somebody at 9:15 that they thought was suspicious, but now they`ve solved that. And that was just another British tourist. And forget about that.
So now they`re moving forward, and they say there`s this suspicious guy at 10 p.m. now. Well, first of all, why didn`t they investigate that, like, the week after this happened? But secondly, do you think that now this points to a preplanned abduction? And if so for what purposes?
T.J. WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: If they`re suspecting it`s preplanned they have to go back to the parents. Maybe the parents have been extorted. Maybe the wife has been extorted, the mother. Maybe she`s been extorted with something and she knows something.
You know, I worked the case with Natalee Holloway for years. And there was -- the law enforcement works under different principles in other countries. So if police have come up with new things and new evidence is coming in, they`re going to have to follow up with all these leads.
But the key is go back to the parents and sit them down. I don`t know if they`ve been polygraphed or whatever. I haven`t mention -- heard anybody mention anything about cameras at the -- at the facility where the child was. Was there any cameras? Did anybody go back and look and see..?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I haven`t heard anything about that. I mean, this is Portugal. And, you know, you have to realize, I have not vacationed in Portugal, but I have vacationed in Spain. And you have on the beach -- I`m sure it`s very similar -- the communities in sort of packs. Like you have the Germans on one beach. You have the English on one beach. And this was apparently an area where a lot of English, Brits would gather, and this was their -- their beach community.
WARD: Did they polygraph -- did they polygraph anybody? I`d use a voice analysis.
MURPHY: They said they would take a polygraph, and then they declined. Well, how convenient is that?
WARD: Well, if I had the voice analysis on them, I could -- I could analyze them with a focus tool without their permission and find out if they`re being truthful. I could find that out.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s go to the phone lines. Christina, Canada, what do you have to say about all this?
CALLER: Hi, Jane. I actually have a comment and a question. The comment is back in the early `90s there was a case in Belgium where a gentleman was caught kidnapping young girls. And his list of clients were wealthy and powerful. And when they had a request, he`d shop around, take a picture of a little girl, blond hair, blue eyes. And if it suited the client, he would kidnap the child. This is admitted.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, I think you`ve raised a very good point. I don`t want to stop you, but I want to go to Eric Schwartzreich. She has a point. OK. A whole bunch of Brits vacationing there. Now these two new suspects -- actually it`s the same person -- two photos of the men they`re looking for. Person who could very well be British. Fits the description of a Brit, as opposed to, necessarily, let`s say, somebody from Portugal, that he seems to have that look, per se. Could be a Portuguese man but we don`t know. But it could be a Brit.
So is it possible that a Brit would come, kind of loiter around with some other Brits, looking for a pretty girl? This Madeleine McCann is gorgeous; she`s a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous child.
Do exactly what this caller said, spot a beautiful child and plan to kidnap her when he cease the parents going on the other sides of the pool for dinner, and knows they`re going to come back and check. And then they leave again, boom jump in and grab the child?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course it`s possible. The problem here in this case is I think they`re a day late and a dollar short. It has been six years. And I heard Wendy make a comment that the parents aren`t cooperating. They`re in a foreign country where it`s been an inquisition, you have to advise them...
MURPHY: Oh, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You say, "Oh, please."
MURPHY: Stop insulting the Portuguese as if you`re better than the Portuguese.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are being questioned; they are being investigated. And they, so far, have been cleared.
The problem is that these pictures they`re releasing two years later, 20 to 40 years old, is...
MURPHY: You make them sound like barbarians. Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... it a Brit? Is it someone that`s Portuguese?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on. One at a time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have a problem with the investigation. It reminds me of the Benet [SIC] Ramsey case when all the focus was on the families and let all this evidence go.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy -- Wendy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first 24 to 48 hours were blown in this case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask a question as we go to break. What motive do these parents have to hurt this child? They have two other children they`ve raised very successfully. They have devoted their lives to finding this child of theirs that`s missing. What motive would they have to do something untoward?
And if they had done something unto untoward, wouldn`t they be the ones to crawl under a rock? I mean, why are they out there any baby. Think about it, and we`ll answer it on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I start to ask where her mommy was, and she couldn`t tell me that. And I wanted to give her a balloon, but she didn`t want that. She only want her mommy, she said. And she said that these people took her from her mommy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s somebody who thinks they saw this child. There`s been so many tips over the years, so many people who said, "I` have seen I`ve seen the child.
But remember with Casey Anthony there were many, many sightings of little Caylee when we know she was dead all along.
A lot of people questioned why Madeleine McCann`s parents would leave her and their two younger siblings in the room while they went out to dinner.
You know, if you look at this picture of this complex, the restaurant is so close, it`s rally on the other side of the pool, and the adults kept going back to their rooms to check on the kids during dinner. Listen to what Madeleine McCann`s mom had to say.
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
K. MCCANN: I think I was looking at Madeleine`s bed and then I couldn`t -- couldn`t make her out. And I then realized that she was not in that bed and I thought, "Oh, I wonder in she`s working up and went to our bed." She wasn`t in our bed. And that was the first time I guess panic kicked in?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Marc Klaas, president and founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation, the problem with the investigation, according to a lot of people, is that cops put their blinders on and focused on the parents. And it took them quite a while to officially clear the McCanns as suspects. But then you hear Wendy say, you know, they should have kept their focus on them. What say you?
KLAAS: Well, listen, the focus has to stay on the family until the family can be eliminated as suspects. And through a series of actions beginning with leaving the children in the room by themselves, the parents exhibited some pretty bizarre behavior. But I don`t believe for one second that they are personally responsible for having murdered or disappeared their child in any way.
If they had, as you said before the break, why have they acted lake they`ve acted for past six years and engaged this campaign to recover their child?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Quickly...
KLAAS: And then of course it`s an entirely different justice system than ours, and it`s one that I personally don`t have -- I`m not familiar with.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, Wendy, I want to give you a quick chance to respond.
MURPHY: Look, a couple of things. one, cadaver dog hits, both in the room and in the car the parents rented. The fact that Mrs. McCann refused to answer not one question, 48. And didn`t just say, "I don`t feel like answering. I refuse to answer because it might incriminate me," and she has never answered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s out there speaking right now.
MURPHY: Scott Peterson did a lot of media, too, but he refused to talk to the cops.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. I want Jon Leiberman...
MURPHY: Going on television is not good enough.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. I hear your point. Now Jon, I want you to weigh in.
LEIBERMAN: Here`s another thing that we haven`t addressed, is the fact that burglaries were up 400 percent in this area, as well, and the burglars were going in and out of windows, which is the exact same way that they believe, you know, Madeleine McCann was taken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burglars don`t take kids.
MURPHY: They don`t take kids.
LEIBERMAN: What I`m saying is, though -- no, no, no.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: There were also the charity collectors going around door to door that they were also worried about. There was also somebody who broke in, in that area a year before and stared at a couple of kids who had been in a room.
LEIBERMAN: My point was that Madeleine could have disrupted a burglary or something of that sort.
MURPHY: Oh, please.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I remember going skiing when I was a very little kid with my little dad, and he went and I had a little friend. And the two dads, me and my little friend went skiing.
And then after skiing, he -- my little friend and I were left in the room, and the two dads went to dinner. Maybe not the greatest parenting in the world, but people did it all the time when they grew up in a world where they didn`t feel like there were dangers lurking in every corner.
MURPHY: Jane -- Jane, you`re willing to -- you`re willing to judge her -- you`re willing to judge her for leaving the kids in the room but not for taking the fifth instead of answering questions that might help find her kid? Seriously?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you blame her for taking the fifth when there was an inquisition going on?
MURPHY: Because I can. Because I can. Because that`s her kid. And we all can.
LEIBERMAN: You can, but you`re a lawyer, as well. You need to wear your lawyer hat and your parent hat.
MURPHY: No. Not -- no. I only have to respect her taking the fifth and not use it against her if I`m a juror or a judge in a court of law. Not if I`m a human being.
LEIBERMAN: She`s out there, seeking, giving interviews.
MURPHY: Answer questions about your child. What the hell is wrong with you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scotland Yard is now involved. But if I may, if it were here in this country, they would get a list and look for every registered sex offender that was in that area.
MURPHY: No, they would not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They would.
MURPHY: They would focus on the mother who takes the fifth.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy, you`ve made your point.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... fifth if it were here.
MURPHY: Stop with the boogiemen.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m going to go to Canada. I`m going to Canada right now. Harrison, Canada, your thoughts on all this?
CALLER: Well, Jane, once -- I really love your program.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.
CALLER: I was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer for 20 years. I retired, and I have a background in geriatric (ph) nursing. What I would be looking at is -- well you`ve got to look at the quality of policing, just like I`m not good -- I`m not good for names, but your -- -- your the fellow on the left-hand side of the screen...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. You`re trying -- I think you`re trying to say that the cops botched it. And all police organizations are not created equal. We had seen Americans abroad get into terrible jams.
And look at that situation in Italy, for example, Amanda Knox where some guy, prosecutor comes in and says, "Oh, this was a sex game gone wrong" without any proof, a guy who has a history of turning everything into a satanic ritual. A guy who was -- and he was the prosecutor, in a previous case he accused two authors -- American authors writing a book on a case of being the killers.
I mean, it`s different in another country. I can understand somebody taking the fifth or not wanting to get basically hung.
A man confesses on Facebook to killing his wife and then he does something unthinkable -- absolutely unthinkable. We`re going to tell you about it next. And it will blow your mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Early this morning you turned yourself in to the South Miami Police Department, correct?
DEREK MEDINA, "FACEBOOK KILLER": Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And why did you do that?
MEDINA: Because I`m not a killer. It was self-defense. I honor my country, I honor my state, I honor my city of South Miami and I do not feel that I am guilty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did you do once you took that?
(inaudible)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Infamous for what he`s accused of posting on Facebook, Derek Medina can now be seen on camera.
MEDINA: She was trying to just tick me off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She won`t leave this room alive. He would later turn himself in to cops who say he confessed to taking Alfonso`s picture and posting it to his Facebook account and writing quote, "Rest in Peace -- Jennifer Alfonso".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight the really, really, really, really sick side of social media. And we`ve just gotten some tape in from court. We`re turning it around -- we`re going to show it to you in a second. 31-year- old Derek Medina denied bail at his hearing today and in jail tonight, accused of one of the most bizarre murder cases I can remember in -- actually I remember a lot but this one`s weird. Cops say he shot his wife repeatedly inside their Miami home and then promptly took out a camera and like, "Oh, let me take a picture of my wife`s bullet-ridden body and I`m going to post that -- let me see -- I`m going to post that on Facebook."
Warning, this is the photo and it`s blurred but it`s still very disturbing. Check it out. Can you believe he posted on Facebook? And that`s not all. He also posted this message, quote, "I`m going to prison or a death sentence for killing my wife. Love you guys. Miss you guys. Take care. Facebook people you`ll see me in the news, my wife was punching me and I`m not going to stand anymore with the abuse so I did what I did. Hope you understand me." End quote.
To which others responded by writing "What?" in caps with a lot of question marks. Now that`s appropriate.
In newly-released interrogation tapes this guy explains he posted the photo of his dead wife to alert his 10-year-old stepdaughter, the family of that young lady, that something was very wrong so that they would pick the child up. That`s right. This poor child is upstairs locked up in her bedroom the entire time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you take a photo?
MEDINA: So the family would know and be notified and they can rush over there and get my stepdaughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did you do once you took that photo?
MEDINA: Uploaded it on Facebook on her page so the family can see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What a nice guy. Isn`t that nice of him? Look at that pouty mug shot. He pleaded not guilty to second degree murder and he`s apparently going for self-defense -- that`s the rage these days -- claiming his 26-year-old wife Jennifer was threatening and punching him but the surveillance video that we have -- we`re going to show you from inside that home -- helped her (inaudible).
The video shows the couple moments before the shooting Medina walks into the kitchen and appears to be shoved by his wife. So he walks away and then he comes back, this time allegedly armed with a gun. Moments later shots are fired.
Straight out to the "Lion`s Den" -- I want to start with Eric Schwartzreich. He posts this photo of his dead wife`s body on Facebook allegedly to get his stepdaughter help. Do you buy that or is this a demented killer showing off his handiwork?
ERIC SCHWARTZREICH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don`t know if I buy it or if he`s setting up a defense. I mean today he had his bond hearing. It`s only been a matter of time that we`re going to have murders posted on Facebook. We have anniversaries, engagements, birthdays -- so I suppose why not murder.
The question today -- there was an (inaudible) hearing and it will determine whether there`s proof evident, presumption great to set bond. If the judge finds proof evident presumption great only in the judge`s discretion here in Miami can the judge set bond.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He was denied bail. He was denied bail. Apparently there`s a big uproar.
SCHWARTZREICH: Not a surprise. Not a surprise he was denied bail. But his defense is self-defense. He laid it out, set it out in the beginning. And the opposite, and the other case, here`s someone that waived the Fifth Amendment and, you know waived five and now everything, the coroner`s report is, you know, opposite of what he`s saying.
JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Right.
SCHWARTZREICK: So sometimes it does pay to lawyer up and to waive the Fifth Amendment.
LEIBERMAN: His words, Jane, are going to come back to haunt him because he told detectives and he bragged about the fact that he was 25-0 as an amateur boxer. So he`s saying that on one hand and yet he also wants police to believe that he was in fear of his life because his wife was punching him.
Not to mention, I went through the whole ME`s report here. I mean he shot her at point-black range. She has defensive wounds on her body, on her arms and not to mention he leaves the scene at one point, goes up to the bedroom allegedly to get the gun. And if he felt in fear at some point, he walks right past the front door of the house.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He could have left.
LEIBERMAN: He could have left the house.
SCHWARTZREICH: Now, this could be legitimate self-defense --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right. In the interrogation tapes this guy --
SCHWARTZREICH: -- but sometimes it pays to take the Fifth Amendment and not speak to the police or not post things on Facebook.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Is this something new that we just got in here? Because I know we`re waiting for something new. Is this it? Ok. Not yet. But we`re turning it around in a second.
Now in these interrogation tapes Derek Medina nonchalantly tells cops about the moment he pulls the trigger. Listen to this. Is this self- defense or is this sheer arrogance?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After she hit you in the kitchen --
MEDINA: I fired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many times?
MEDINA: I fired away. I shot her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many times did you discharge your weapon?
MEDINA: I want to say six to eight times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. Wendy Murphy, I want to go back to the photo he posted on Facebook after the killing. Again, you know, it`s graphic and we`ve blurred it but it`s a very strange position his wife`s in. Now authorities believe she was actually on her knees begging for her life before he basically --
WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- riddled her body with bullets. I see -- what I see in this guy is a lot of arrogance. Like "How dare you talk back to me. How dare you say" -- because apparently she said she`s going to leave him.
MURPHY: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you know what happens when a woman says she`s going to leave a guy, that`s the most dangerous moment of all.
MURPHY: Except they still need to know that it`s ok to leave and they just need to get help and maybe this woman didn`t have help. I hate the fact that women stay with guys like this out of fear that they might get killed. That`s a really good reason to leave. You just have to get your plan in place.
The creepy thing here is this was a guy who apparently -- from what I can tell was angry that she was going to leave him and wasn`t just going to stop her from leaving him but was going to kill her and was going to overkill her to make it clear that that was disrespectful to him. Forget what was respectful to her.
The weird thing though is because of his creepy reaction with the posting of the picture, offering up that it was self-defense and she was hitting him so he had to shoot her six times, the weird thing is I can see a lawyer turning that into proof of insanity because only a total nut bag would ever say something like that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know what -- she threw shoes at him. Do you know how women throw shoes at their husbands or boyfriends when they`re mad? They rip the shoe off and they go --
MURPHY: Not enough.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Exactly -- it`s not an excuse to be able to hit somebody. My gosh, if I shot everybody who pushed me or shoved me, I`d be a serial killer. I live in New York City. Every time I go out to get a cup of coffee somebody bumps into me. Every time I`m at the light, somebody bumps into me. That`s what we all do. I can`t go running around shooting everybody.
This is arrogance. This is "Oh, you think you`re going to leave me, I`ll show you. If I can`t have you, nobody can." That`s my opinion.
Let`s go out to the phone lines. Lisa, Indiana -- what do you have to say about this?
LISA, INDIANA (via telephone): Well, Jane, my Facebook -- my computer is not working and I just, you know, started watching this story. But my comment is a lot of people say, you know, when somebody kills somebody like this, they`re bipolar, they`re crazy. I don`t feel this guy is bipolar or feel that he`s crazy. I think that he is just sick. He thinks that he can get, you know, by with anything and he did that posting on her Facebook page telling her family, hey, you know what, look what I did, look what I did to your daughter, you know. It`s sick. And he`s just -- he`s an arrogant, excuse me, bastard is what he is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I agree with you and I think in his mind he thought, well, look, if I shoot her then I immediately take a picture and I post it on Facebook and then I turn myself in, I could claim self-defense.
In other words he`s learned enough by watching whatever crime shows, "CSI" on whatever, if I run or if I hide or pretend I didn`t do it they`ll catch me because technology these days. But if I just turn myself in and say "Yes, I did it. So what? It was self-defense that I`m going to get away with it."
No, you got another think coming, mister. Yes, you went right to the please. Yes you did not run, you didn`t hide. Yes you told the truth but you riddled your wife with six to eight bullets. Wake up call. You`re in deep trouble.
On the other side, police find themselves in the middle of a riot after they try to break up a college party. Kids, what`s the matter with kids these days, huh?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Your "Crazy Video of the Day". This is a booze- filled -- and I mean booze-filled -- riot near Western Washington University, an off campus party got a little out of control -- you think? Police tried to break it up. Not everybody wanted to cooperate -- that`s the understatement of the year. Some people started throwing bottles, cinderblocks, dinner plates, patio furniture at the police. We`re happy to say nobody was hurt but police have arrested at least three. More to come, we hope.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutors say MacNeill convinced his wife to have plastic surgery against her wishes and gave her a dangerous mix of prescription drugs. He later told police he found Michele unconscious in the bathtub.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your wife is unconscious.
DR. MARTIN MACNEILL, ALLEGEDLY MURDERED HIS WIFE: She`s unconscious, under water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From the beginning Alexis and her siblings didn`t believe their mother accidentally fell in the tub.
ALEXIS SOMERS, VICTIM`S DAUGHTER: They didn`t interview anyone. People never questioned my father. He was the physician, the attorney -- people didn`t want to question him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know how to do CPR?
MACNEILL: I`m doing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok. Do not take --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jury selection began today in what`s being called the next mega trial, years after a woman is found dead in her bathtub. Her husband -- a very respected doctor -- is accused of murder and it was their own daughters who led the charges again dad to have him arrested.
Dr. Martin MacNeill was booked for felony murder for his wife`s death which they`ve been investigating now for six years. The victim -- wife Michele MacNeill a former beauty queen. At first the coroner ruled that she basically drowned accidentally in her bathtub. But her devastated daughters did not believe that one second.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOMER: My mother told me, I was helping her wash her hair and she said, "Alexis, if anything happens to me, make sure it wasn`t your father."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Prosecutors say Dr. MacNeill killed his wife so he could be with his mistress, a woman named Gypsy -- yes Gypsy.
"NANCY GRACE" producer Clark Goldband, you join us now from the "NANCY GRACE" newsroom. What is the very latest on this case just getting started?
CLARK GOLDBAND, PRODUCER, "NANCY GRACE": Jane it`s good to see you. Over 100 perspective jurors are methodically being questioned right now one by one by the judge in chambers. And Jane these are not just any questions -- over 22 pages on this jury questionnaire -- questions about how they feel about extramarital affairs, plastic surgery and lying.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and I mean, the really critical thing is that she didn`t want to have a facelift and he allegedly pressured her into it and then insisted that she take a whole bunch of sedatives and painkillers afterwards which she didn`t really need.
GOLDBAND: Well and the prosecution, Jane, also claiming that Martin MacNeill was telling friends, family and church congregation members he only has months to live and was dying so couple that with him allegedly wanting his wife to get plastic surgery -- the state says it just doesn`t add up.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And then he allegedly tells the kids after his wife dies -- guess what, we have a new nanny and her name is Gypsy.
GOLDBAND: That`s right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: His mistress brought in to the home as the nanny. That is the definition of chutzpah. I think.
All right. Thank you, Clark. We`re going to be all over this case. Nancy Grace has the very latest. She`s going to bring you everything you need to know -- top of the hour, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
Now, a high school student says she was brutally raped. Cops say, yes. Yes, she was. So why was she and her family run out of their small town? It`s an outrage -- next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Time for "Pet of the Day". Send your pet pics to hlntv.com/jane.
Simon -- you are a diamond, Simon. And Ralphie -- to the moon, Elvis. Daisy -- tres chic, mademoiselle. Lulu -- she says yes, I`m just happy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: A horrific story of injustice inspires my rant tonight and, boy, am I ticked off about this. The rape of a 14-year-old girl has people across the country up in arms demanding justice.
Daisy Coleman says a 17-year-old boy assaulted her while she was passed out drunk and left her unconscious on the front lawn in the freezing cold. A lawyer for the boy`s family says he admitted having sex with Daisy but claimed it was consensual. The prosecutor dropped assault charge because he says Daisy refused to cooperate.
What`s going on here? The family thinks the reason the boy is getting off is because his family is politically connected. The prosecutors deny that. Daisy`s family felt forced to move because of what they called constant threats. She even attempted suicide -- the girl. Her mom was fired from her job. The home that they owned was mysteriously destroyed in a fire.
What the heck is going on here? Anonymous is now getting involved and they are planning a Twitter storm tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. Eastern in protest. We`re going to stay on top of this and keep you updated. Something doesn`t smell right.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And now our slice of happiness. A dog named Houdini. Yes, Houdini escaped from a Humane Society shelter by figuring out how to get out of his kennel and then opened two doors. In both cases he had to press down on the door handle and push the door open. Amazing there`s happy ending. The family saw the story and they were reunited.
Nancy`s next.
END
