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Nancy Grace
Van Der Sloot Possibly up for Prison Transfer
Aired June 25, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight in the disappearance of Alabama beauty Natalee Holloway, missing off her high school senior trip, Aruba. Aruban police refuse to make a case against judge`s son Joran Van Der Sloot even after he admits he hid the body. Tonight, live, Peru, Van Der Sloot kills again. Another girl meets him at a resort casino. Hours later, she`s dead, beaten, bloody, neck broken, partially clothed on Van Der Sloot`s hotel room floor. After a massive manhunt, Van Der Sloot captured.
Spine-chilling video of Van Der Sloot with 21-year-old Stephany just before she`s found dead. Bloody clothes from the murder found with Van Der Sloot on the run. We learn after beating her to a pulp and breaking her neck, he kicks back with a cup of coffee and Danish, inches from the dead body. His new nickname, "psychopath." Reports Van Der Sloot high on pot and loaded on Pisco sours the night Stephany`s murdered.
Van Der Sloot now declares, I was tricked. That`s right, the judge`s son claims he was framed by Peruvian police, forced into a confession. Also in a stunning claim, he says he`s the victim, Van Der Sloot whining his rights violated, including threats of torture. We learn coroner`s files reveal the dead girl`s fractures to the skull, severe injuries to the face and neck, and she was smothered, blood drenching the crime scene, the bedroom floor, the bathroom floor, the bed, the hallway.
We confirm DNA found under the dead girl`s nails, indicating a death match with the hulking Dutchman. We also learn from secret police files Van Der Sloot conducts a major clean-up in the bloody hotel room. When busted, he calls Mommy. On the heels of his claims of police torture, reports he`s set for transfer to an even more notorious prison, Lurigancho. Tonight, crime scene photos and photos of the dead girl`s hands and feet covered in bruises.
Bombshell tonight. Inside Lurigancho, Lurigancho prison even more reviled than Castro Castro. Marriage proposals pouring in from female fans, as Van Der Sloot`s mom claims it`s all because the media hounded him, suggesting he`s bipolar. We go to Aruba and learn authorities now set to head to Peru about Natalee. As Van Der Sloot`s story starts to fall apart, he also claims he was set up by the FBI, lured to Peru. That`s right, it`s the FBI`s fault. We debunk that theory tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": Officials tell us most likely this (INAUDIBLE) courtroom (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Murder suspect Joran Van Der Sloot is accusing police in Peru of violating his rights so he`d sign a confession.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I was confused and just wanted it to end."
CASAREZ: This is the small (INAUDIBLE) Joran Van Der Sloot (INAUDIBLE) It is very small, and normally, cameras don`t capture it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The petition claims Van Der Sloot doesn`t read Spanish very well. Even so, it says, he was forced to read and sign documents written in that language.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All this, he says, led to him being, quote, "tricked" into confessing to the murder of Stephany Flores.
CASAREZ: (INAUDIBLE) all by himself. The defense attorney is on the right, questioning the witness. The prosecution is on the left. And right in the center is the three-judge panel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... confessed killer...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I said to the taxi drive, I committed a homicide. I killed a person, and I want to get out of Peru."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re talking about a guy who is totally cold-blooded, totally narcissistic and totally unempathetic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can see, there`s a lot of local business right outside of Lurigancho. And there are many, many newspapers that are sold here. But there`s no issue of contamination of the jury pool because these trials are decided by judges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, a beautiful yacht captain heads to a luxury resort when she`s taken into custody. Tonight, she relives what she says was a nightmare. If this can happen to her on vacation, could it happen to you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yacht captain Stacey Brooks was getting ready to fly home when a confrontation in a hotel bar changed everything. Police were called to the hotel after the victim claims Brooks swiped at the glass she was holding, causing it to shatter on the victim`s face.
Brooks was tried and convicted of assault, electing to pay a fine rather than spending any more time in jail than she already had, claiming her time behind bars was a nightmare. Brooks alleges she was treated harshly by local police, made to sit on a bench for days on end with no access to sunlight. After returning home to Colorado, Brooks wanted nobody else to share her experience.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Tonight, as marriage proposals pour in to Joran Van Der Sloot from female fans and his Mommy blames it all on the media, we go inside Lurigancho, Lurigancho prison even more reviled than Castro Castro.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Joran Van Der Sloot trial will be held (INAUDIBLE) there are wooden benches (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A judge in Peru is deciding whether Joran Van Der Sloot should go free.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "They kept telling me, If you sign these papers, you`ll be extradited to the Netherlands."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "In my blind panic, I signed everything."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Murder suspect Joran Van Der Sloot files a complaint against Peruvian police...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I was framed. I was tricked. I was confused."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s police in Peru of violating his rights so he would sign a confession.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the small courtroom (INAUDIBLE) Joran Van Der Sloot (INAUDIBLE) statement before the judge, where he asserted a violation of due process rights. It is very small, and normally, cameras don`t capture it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They did find skin under Stephany`s nails. There`s definitely DNA under her nails.
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT, MOTHER: And he said, Mom, don`t be upset because everything will be fine. I know I`m innocent. I didn`t do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "If he killed Stephany, he`ll have to pay the price. I won`t visit him in his cell. I cannot embrace him."
CHRIS CUOMO, ABC NEWS: How do you think you`ve been portrayed in all this?
JORAN VAN DER SLOOT: I think I`ve been portrayed unfairly. I`ve been portrayed as a murder and a rapist and everything that I`m not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is Van Der Sloot talking to ABC back in 2006, denying anything to do with Natalee`s disappearance.
Straight out to Jean Casarez, standing by in Lima, Peru. Jean, you`ve been to Lurigancho in the last hours. What did you observe?
CASAREZ: Well, we got unprecedented access to the courtrooms at Castro Castro prison today. We started out at Lurigancho, and then we went the short distance to Castro Castro, went onto the property of the prison and was ushered inside the courthouse. We actually got to shoot for the first time. They`ve never allowed cameras.
But it`s that small courtroom that Joran Van Der Sloot was in on Monday when he actually refused to give that formal statement to the judge. Now, there`s Plexiglas in that courtroom, and normally, the defendant sits on the other side due to security concerns. But we learned that the judge allowed Joran Van Der Sloot to sit inside the well of the courtroom with the defense attorney, prosecutor and the judge. We asked why, and the answer was, Well, he probably -- the judge -- felt it was safe, and also because of that official Dutch translator, it was better if he sat inside with his translator.
GRACE: Ellie Jostad, what do you make of it?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, we`re also learning, though, that Joran Van Der Sloot is claiming that he was threatened with torture while he was being interrogated. Now, as you know, he`s filed a complaint against the Peruvian chief of homicide. He`s saying that he was under duress, that the translator there confused him, that police essentially railroaded him into this confession.
But we`ve also learned that his story is falling apart on another front. Now, you know Joran Van Der Sloot claimed that he was lured down to Peru by someone working for the FBI, a guy named Elton Garcia. Victoria Macchi actually obtained that statement from him, the statement that Garcia gave to police. He said that Van Der Sloot was just an acquaintance, that he met him there in Peru, he barely knew him. So this story that he was lured, he paid for everything for Joran Van Der Sloot, also falling apart right now.
GRACE: To Victoria Macchi. Victoria, what`s the latest on your end?
VICTORIA MACCHI, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, Nancy, what we learned today is that at the prison, they told us that the judge, Carlos Morales Cordova (ph), the judge who`s in charge of Joran`s case, actually ordered three psych evaluations this week. That would mean that there -- the state psychologist going to visit Joran and meet with him this week at Castro Castro. Now, we haven`t been able to confirm that those actually happened, but we saw the documents. The judge ordered them. And he was supposed to have met with him even this morning at 10:00 AM.
GRACE: Now to Rupa Mikkilineni. Rupa, what can you tell us?
RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, the latest in Aruba is that Aruban prosecutors this week have now formally requested -- actually, I should say drafted a formal request to the Peruvian government. This drafting of the document is in Dutch. It`s being translated into Spanish. And it`s to request that Aruban prosecutors and police investigators can go down to Peru to interrogate Joran.
Now, the interesting part of this document is that it hasn`t actually gone yet to the Peruvian government. It will probably be sent next week. But one of the issues that is still to be determined by the Aruban prosecutors is, when is the date? When will they go? They are now debating whether they will go earlier in July, or perhaps in a couple of more months, at the end of August, like they initially told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I realized Stephany had money, but I didn`t know about the cards or the exact amount of money. But she cashed in her chips for money before leaving the casino. After killing her, I took the cards and the money."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Did you take anything else, like jewelry?"
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "No, she didn`t have any jewelry. I only took the car."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could Joran Van Der Sloot set free? Is it possible?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have a misconduct complaint saying that the rights of Joran Van Der Sloot were abridged.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Van Der Sloot doesn`t read Spanish very well. Even so, it says, he was forced to read and sign documents written in that language and claims police pressured him to confess.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joran Van Der Sloot told him that when he was interrogated, there was a bucket of water and that they were threatening him every step of the way, saying, If you don`t make this declaration, your head is going to go in that water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... a psychological exam that calls Van Der Sloot, quote, "emotionally immature"...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... emotionally immature...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... very immature, highly dangerous...
GRACE: ... Mommy insisting Van Der Sloot is mentally ill and depressed.
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT: He was not upset. He helped the police as much as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Jean Casarez, I understand marriage proposals are pouring in to Joran Van Der Sloot. From whom?
CASAREZ: Well, that`s exactly what he`s saying to the "De Telegraaf" reporter in their newspaper. He`s saying that his own attorney is getting the marriage proposals. Now, we had earlier heard the Internet, but he doesn`t get Internet in the prison, so those letters would be pouring in to his legal counsel.
GRACE: Ellie, what do you know about these marriage proposals?
JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, women are reportedly sending Joran Van Der Sloot letters behind bars. He claims that one woman even tells him that she wants to have his baby.
GRACE: OK. Any idea who this woman is?
JOSTAD: No. I don`t -- I can`t imagine who this woman is. But we understand that these letters are coming from within Peru, according to Joran Van Der Sloot.
GRACE: OK. I want to go back -- I want to get off Joran Van Der Sloot`s marriage proposals and go back to the possible transfer from Castro Castro to Lurigancho prison, an even more reviled prison. Michael Griffith, you said this all along, that this was going to happen. Why? And why is it even worse than Castro Castro?
MICHAEL GRIFFITH, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, it`s like going from Alcatraz to Dachau. The Lurigancho prison is the toughest prison I`ve ever been in. They`ve got the Shining Path guerrillas there, many, many -- hundreds of them. There`s chaos during the day. Prisoners can walk around. They can have knives. They can get guns into this place. I had an inmate stabbed about 10 feet from me when I was visiting one of my clients on day. This -- this is Dante`s inferno. This is bad.
GRACE: OK. Regarding the prison conditions, what do you know Michael Griffith?
GRIFFITH: Well, they`ve got 600 prisoners to a dormitory. The rooms are about 25 by 15, where there are going to be about 35 prisoners. Seven or eight will sleep on the floor. The toilet is a hole in the floor. The showers for the 600 prisoners work once a week for 15 minutes. And the food are cooked in big vats, with water coming out of the ground. It`s strictly horrendous. They tried to keep me in there because I got back to the gate a little late one day, but for a couple of cigarettes, they let me out. He`s going to be a very unhappy camper, Nancy.
GRACE: To Clark Goldband. You have studied the difference between Lurigancho and Castro Castro. What can you tell us about the new jail we think he`s headed to?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: And Nancy, it`s clearly in the numbers here. The tale (ph) of the tape (ph) does not lie. It was built to house originally 3,600 inmates, but take a look at this. Now houses almost 10,000. And that`s almost three times the amount of inmates it was designed to hold.
In 1986, Nancy, in just one day, almost 125 prisoners were killed inside the jail itself! And that may be because there`s only 100 guards for almost 10,000 inmates! Three times a week, people can come to that jail, but as we heard from the attorney just moments ago, they are very open to bribery, including the guards. And also, turf wars very, very frequent in this jail. And we know that water is in short supply.
GRACE: Right.
GOLDBAND: Showers may only be once a week.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Karen in North Dakota. Hi, Karen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s just kind of an observation. I`m wondering, with his psychological evaluation, where he places no value on women, and then his first attorney is a woman, would you not feel fully justified in -- since this is someone with no value, to certainly say that you were misrepresented or poorly represented or not represented at all?
GRACE: To his claims of misrepresentation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
GRACE: Jean, fill us in on the claims. He`s claiming police framed him, that the FBI lured him to Peru, that this was a set-up, that his lawyer was ineffective. Did I mention torture and allegedly threatening to dunk his head in water? His Mommy says it`s the media`s fault, and she says, to top it all off, maybe he`s bipolar.
CASAREZ: Well, his claims are all of the things you just said. But Nancy, we spoke with his first lawyer. She was a female. It was actually his first two lawyers were females. And what she said was that when he first got back here from Chile, that they wanted to talk to him, and he said, No, I don`t want to talk, so she left. It was over. It was done. It was finished. Now there`s a confession, and it`s a brand- new attorney that`s on that confession.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "He should have gone for treatment in a closed clinic. He already needed psychiatric help back then."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I was tricked. I`ll explain later how it all happened."
"I went to Atlantic City, played blackjack and poker, drinking alcohol, Pisco sour and whiskey cola. I believe from 18:00 to 2:00, I played blackjack. And then from 2:00 to 5:00, I played poker. On May 30th at 2:00 o`clock, I was playing poker at the table with several people. Stephany Flores came by and started to play. I played for two, three hours, always in the presence of Stephany. At 5:00 AM, she said she wanted to play on line. She told me, Let`s keep playing. And from there, we went to the Hotel Tac, where I was staying. We took Stephany`s car. It was a 4-by-4 sports car, black."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn`t want to do it. The girl intruded into my private life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I was explaining to her that five years ago, I was accused in the case of a missing girl."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Van Der Sloot`s mother, Anita, says he`s mentally ill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "All of a sudden, she hit me. I don`t know why."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says her son was supposed to be committed to a psych hospital but fled instead to Peru.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are now learning that Joran Van Der Sloot`s mother is not only blaming the media for the murder, but it seems that she`s playing into his theory that it was all a set-up. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANITA VAN DER SLOOT: He was not upset. He understood the police. He was quiet. He was open. He helped the police as much as possible. He was willing to speak to the parents. He was willing to help with anything. And he had a kind of quietness over (ph), and he said, Mom, don`t be upset because everything will be fine. I know I`m innocent. I didn`t do anything. You know, in a very, almost naive way, he was very open with us, told us everything what happened.
He was an honor student. He participated in Model United Nations several times. He was a good speaker. He loves history, economics, politics. But his favorite subject is physical education, sports, and he`s an athlete, as well as in tennis and soccer, and he enjoys being active.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Anita Van Der Sloot breaks her silence again. Take a listen to this. And let`s go to the lawyers, Eleanor Odom, Michael Griffith, Daniel Horowitz, Peter Odom joining us tonight. Look at his state of mind. Is it normal? Does he have a personality disorder? Is there -- "This boy is chased five years. He did not have a normal life. Everywhere he came, people stared at him, bothered him. There was no place he was safe."
Eleanor, isn`t it odd that, in fact, he was safe? It`s just everybody around him, especially young women, that dropped like flies?
ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Yes, they`re the ones who aren`t safe. I think this is just an excuse, and his mother`s giving it to him. Of course, we`re not surprised to see a mother stand by her son, but the point is, he`s a psychopath and he`s a killer.
GRACE: What about it, Peter Odom? She also blamed the media.
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, this case is going to boil down to his mental state, potentially, mental illness, but more likely his mental state at the time of the killing. So the mother is just helping her son once again in his quest to...
GRACE: Michael Griffith...
PETER ODOM: ... make himself seem...
GRACE: ... in Peru...
PETER ODOM: ... like the victim.
GRACE: ... do they recognize mental disorders as a defense?
GRIFFITH: Yes, they do.
GRACE: Daniel Horowitz, what do you make of it?
DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think he`s got a great disconnect between his feelings and the way he presents himself. He`s like two people, a normal person, and then this guy who goes off. So there is a mental defense.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Joran Van Der Sloot is fighting his murder confession.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: His attorney says he`ll argue Van Der Sloot`s confession to killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez was coerced.
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Joran Van Der Sloot was led from his cell through the many gates to make his formal appearance before the judge in Juzgado, the court he was sent to. He was led up these steps and into a holding cell.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Joran Van Der Sloot is accusing police in Peru of violating his rights so he`d sign a confession.
CASAREZ: He sat right here on this wooden bench until the judge called him and then walked straight down to the small courtroom at the end of the hall.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That petition claims Van Der Sloot doesn`t read Spanish very well.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police pressured him to confess.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And the document alleges police violated his rights by opening his laptop computer without any court order.
CASAREZ: This is the small courtroom Joran Van Der Sloot was in when he made that formal statement before the judge asserting a violation of his due process rights. It`s very small.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: For those of you just joining us, out to Jean Casarez for the very latest.
CASAREZ: You know we were actually able to go into the gallery area, what officials told us is going to be the courtroom for Joran Van Der Sloot`s trial. It`s very modest by U.S. standards but there are wooden benches.
It is very public. People are allowed to come. In fact by law they have to come in and you know what we learned today? That the judge may actually order a reconstruction of this crime. In other words, hotel Tac where it all happened the judge may order Joran Van Der Sloot to go there and go through exactly what happened. He`ll then look to see if the confession corroborates with the additionally going to the hotel.
GRACE: Ellie, what do you think?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Nancy, I want to go back to some of the details about the crime scene and the condition of Stephany Flores` body when she was found.
We`ve learned that she was found by a hotel employee, someone who worked at the reception desk. The woman says when she walked in she could see that she was still bleeding from the nose, lying on the floor.
We got those exclusive crime scene photos that showed Stephany Flores` hands, feet very badly bruised.
Also we`re told that there was a lot of blood both on the mattress or on the bed as well as on the floor, the hallway leading to the bathroom. A very bloody crime scene.
Now in addition to finding that Stephany Flores had cranial fractures, that she had signs that she`d been smothered or strangled, we`re also learning, Nancy, that she had amphetamines in her system.
Now one question people are asking. Did she ingest those willingly or was she perhaps drugged by Joran Van Der Sloot?
Now there have been unconfirmed reports that Van Der Sloot told police he himself took amphetamines after the murder. So the question is if she did have drugs in her system, which we`re told she did, where did those drugs come from?
GRACE: Straight out to you, Jean Casarez. What did you learn?
CASAREZ: They allowed me to actually go out the back door of the courthouse to reconstruct where Joran Van Der Sloot walked when he walked from his cell into the courthouse down the hallway and into that small little courtroom.
When we were in the larger courtroom where they say the trial is going to be, a witness came in and started to take the oath before they testified and we were sitting down in the well of the courtroom and the judges motioned to us to stand up.
Everybody stands up when that oath is taken before the witness begins their testimony.
GRACE: To Victoria Macchi. Victoria, what`s the latest on your end?
VICTORIA MACCHI, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, ON LOCATION AT JUSTICE PALACE IN LIMA, PERU: Well, what we learned today from prison courthouse officials is that in general the prisoners who are on trial or who are giving testimony to the judge sit behind Plexiglas.
Now in this case on Monday when the judge met with Joran for his (speaking in foreign language) so they could talk about the case and Joran could give him his version, the judge requested that Joran be in that small courtroom with him with the attorney, the prosecutor, instead of behind the Plexiglas.
Now prison authorities are saying that the most likely reason for this is that Joran is -- requires an interpreter. A Dutch interpreter is provided by the Dutch embassy and is now registered with the (speaking in foreign language), judiciary system here.
And they didn`t want him alone behind that Plexiglas with the interpreter. They thought it best to have him in that small courtroom.
GRACE: Ellie?
JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, from some police documents and prosecution documents that we received this week or we obtained this week we`ve learned that when Joran Van Der Sloot was taken into custody he had with him a book about Al Capone and also currency from a number of countries.
Now looking through it he had -- money from Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Chile, Indonesia, the Philippines, Macau, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the U.S. -- U.S. dollars, as well as euros from his home in the Netherlands or other European countries.
Now we`ve also learned from those documents that Joran Van Der Sloot was given a psych evaluation. As Victoria said more have now been ordered. And it`s interesting because Joran Van Der Sloot`s mother has suggested that he may have some sort of bipolar disorder, a personality disorder, something like that.
But what this psychiatric evaluation said was that he does not show any psychopathological -- I`m sorry, psychopathological trauma that would impede him from perceiving and understanding reality.
So this document does not seem to suggest that he had some sort of mental problem that would lead to an insanity defense.
GRACE: Now to Rupa Mikkilineni. Rupa, what can you tell us?
RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, yes. I`ve learned something else that`s very interesting from both Aruban prosecutors and Dutch prosecutors. There is a special arrangement or agreement between the United States and Holland and the United States and Aruba which suggests that if an Aruban national or a Dutch national like Joran Van Der Sloot has American charges, federal charges like these federal extortion charges against him he can be tried in the United States.
He can be sentenced in the United States. And as you know he can receive if convicted a maximum of 50 years. However, he has the possibility to serve that time out in Aruba or in Holland under Holland laws or Aruban laws which are less stringent.
I don`t think their maximum is 50 years, Nancy.
GRACE: Back to you, Jean.
CASAREZ: We learned a little bit more about that alleged Colombian hit- man that is the neighbor of Joran Van Der Sloot in solitary confinement. We understand they`re talking a lot and although he got in there before Joran Van Der Sloot did, he also refused to give a formal statement to judge and that`s almost unheard of.
Normal procedure is you give that formal statement to the judge but the Colombian hit-man allegedly didn`t give one and Joran Van Der Sloot, his neighbor, now didn`t give one either.
GRACE: Victoria Macchi, I want to go back through what you advised us. The really bombshells about the DNA under Stephany`s nails and especially the cleanup that we now know took place in Joran Van Der Sloot`s hotel room.
MACCHI: Nancy, what we heard this week straight from the head of homicide at the Peruvian National Police is that they did in fact find skin under Stephany Tatiana`s nails. Now they haven`t processed this yet. We haven`t been able to get the results. But they definitely found skin. They had DNA samples from underneath her nails.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: I want to go straight out to Sheryl McCollum.
Sheryl, take a listen to what Victoria Macchi says about the cleanup of that hotel room.
Go ahead, Victoria.
MACCHI: Well, what we learned today from the police was that Joran did make an extensive effort initially to clean up the hotel room. He used the bed spread, the sheets. He tried to clean up all the blood.
He did a fairly good job but the thing is the police think that he didn`t panicked and didn`t know what else to do and he left everything, all the things he`d used to help clean up the blood -- all of the blood in Stephany that was everywhere in the room. He left the sheets and the bed spread all there.
GRACE: Sheryl McCollum, you`re the crime scene analyst. What does this mean to you?
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST, DIR. OF COLD CASE SQUAD AT PINE LAKE P.D.: He realized just how bad this was. There was too much to clean up. And if he did get all of this blood on the sheets and on the bed spread, how was he going to get them out of the room? In his luggage?
Then he was just going to contaminate everything in her luggage with her blood. He just -- might as well just leave it. It`s too much. It`s too big a job.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Michelle in Florida. Hi, Michelle.
MICHELLE, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi. How are you, Nancy?
GRACE: I`m good, dear.
MICHELLE: First time I ever talked to you. You are fantastic.
GRACE: Well, thank you.
MICHELLE: I have a comment.
GRACE: OK, go ahead.
MICHELLE: My comment is he made a statement that he -- he didn`t do it and that he`ll tell us later. Well, that`s after he figures out what he actually did. And also if he doesn`t value women very well, do they have women judges in Peru? Because I think it would be really fitting to have at least one or two on his panel.
GRACE: So far I`ve only heard about male judges.
Jean Casarez, any female judges?
CASAREZ: Oh, I definitely know that answer, Nancy. I saw a videotape yesterday of a court proceeding and the three-judge panel, it had a woman on it. There are definitely female judges here in Peru.
GRACE: Good to hear it. What do you make of what you`re hearing, Eleanor Odom, about the cleanup, everything?
ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Well, certainly it defeats a not guilty by reason of insanity because if he was insane at the time of the act then why would he clean it up? Because if he was truly insane then he would have thought it was OK to kill someone.
GRACE: What about it, Michael?
MICHAEL GRIFFITH, INTERNATIONAL LAW ATTORNEY/CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I don`t understand why this moron tried to clean up the mess. Doesn`t anybody understand that there is a dead body in the room with an eye hanging out and a broken neck? What is cleaning up supposed to prove?
GRACE: You know, Michael, I don`t know but I am so happy he cleaned up, Daniel Horowitz, or tried to, because it completely torpedoes any suggestion he was insane.
DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, it doesn`t, Nancy.
GRACE: Yes, it does.
HOROWITZ: No, it doesn`t. Insane people will do insane things and at the same time be very rational. You know you don`t just walk around like a blithering nut. I mean that`s one way people act insane. But mostly that`s in cartoons.
GRACE: Right.
HOROWITZ: Real insane people just act irrationally, kill, and then clean up. It doesn`t mean they`re not crazy.
GRACE: What about it, Peter?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I disagree respectfully with my colleague Daniel Horowitz. I don`t think this case is going to be an insanity case. He`s not going to claim he didn`t know what he was doing. He`s going to claim that he knew what he was doing but he acted impulsively, acted out of rage.
GRACE: Right now we are switching gears. A nightmare occurs on this woman`s vacation to a luxury resort. Could it happen to us?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yacht captain Stacey Brooks was getting ready to fly home when an altercation on a hotel bar changed everything.
Police were called to the hotel after the victim claims Brooks swiped at the glass she was holding causing it to shatter on the victim`s face.
Brooks was tried and convicted of assault electing to pay a fine rather than spend any more time in jail than she already had claiming her time behind bars was a nightmare.
Brooks alleges she was treated harshly by local police made to sit on a bench for days on end with no access to sunlight. After returning home to Colorado Brooks wanted nobody else to share her experience.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Stacey Brooks, boat captain, arrested in Turks and Caicos on a vacation. What happened?
STACEY BROOKS, BOAT CAPTAIN, CLAIMS HARSH INHUMANE TREATMENT BEHIND BARS: Hi, Nancy. I was arrested at the Gansevoort hotel and I ended up spending six days on a bench (INAUDIBLE).
GRACE: Well, other than sitting on a bench you`ve got quite the story to tell. What else happened?
BROOKS: Well, after I was arrested I actually -- at Gansevoort hotel I was the one that asked for security and asked for the police to be called. I had like four or five people ganging up against me at the Gansevoort hotel saying that I had attacked this woman.
I had tried to explain to the police that it was an accident. Police sided with them, arrested me, took me to Providenciales jail, and rather than putting me in a cell, left me on the bench next to the men`s cell for six days.
GRACE: Did your family know where you were? Did they have any idea what was happening?
BROOKS: The only way that I was able to get any phone calls out of that jail was because I was with two crewmates who had been on the yacht with me that I delivered to Turks and Caicos.
They were able to get phone calls out to a lawyer and also to my family. Without them, there is no way I`d be able to have gotten any phone calls out or any communication whatsoever.
GRACE: You know, to me it`s a miracle that you survived what you went through. And people travel abroad all of the time. People just like you. Maybe not as savvy as you. You`re a professional yacht captain. You`re a sailing instructor.
I want to go to Samantha Dash, joining us out of Turks and Caicos with the "Weekly News."
Samantha Dash, it`s very disturbing to a lot of us that an American could have been treated this way.
SAMANTHA DASH, COURT REPORTER, THE WEEKLY NEWS: Hello tonight, Nancy. It is indeed a privilege to be on your show. Definitely -- definitely I believe that Stacey did go through a hard time.
GRACE: But why? Why, Samantha Dash?
DASH: Well, from what I know is that she went to court and she testified and they found her guilty and she was shipped of to this prison where she spent all these days. You know, and --
GRACE: Stacey, how did you finally get out based on what Samantha Dash is telling us? How did you get out?
BROOKS: Well, basically I knew that reporters had started to gather outside of the jail. I think that they knew that an American tourist was there. And I actually snuck a note out to Samantha through my friends.
Samantha is actually the one who broke the story in Turks and Caicos. Talking about my conditions in the jail. I was eventually moved and flown every day between Grand Turk prison and my trial because I think because of Samantha`s story they knew what had happened in the jail and they had to transport me somewhere else.
GRACE: Everyone, this is what happened to an American citizen in Turks and Caicos. It`s a miracle that she made it back.
Stacey Brooks and Samantha Dash, thank you. And now, CNN Heroes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Losing my hair was worse than hearing I had cancer. Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You like it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So pretty.
Living with this life threatening illness, I am a whole new person. You just wonder if this could be your last day.
FRED SCARF, CNN HERO: Large here, small here. And we just put medium on the foot.
My best friend Trudy passed away when we were in high school and one of the things we really wanted to do was attend prom together and we never had a chance to do it.
I don`t want to forget her charm, how funny she was, how optimistic she was. I just knew I had to do something.
My name is Fred Scarf and I organize proms for teens who may not live long enough to attend their own.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, guys.
SCARF: You know, these battles go on for years and this is their life. They`re like continuing running a marathon and they`re never going to get a break.
These proms provide you with this break and Freedom Milestone captures kids` imaginations and they can put on a tux and just kind of have a night off and be themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I definitely feel a different intimacy with everyone. It`s so great to have just a good time and let loose.
CROWD: Fred, Fred, Fred.
SCARF: We`re going to get them all in the same place by the end of the day which literally is on the dance floor. And figuratively would be just enjoying themselves.
By the way, I hope you don`t mind I`m stealing all your girls right now.
She would say, oh, my gosh, Fred, I was laughing, hit me or something. I think she`d be very proud, yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and, more important, the people who touched our lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: As we literally go to air tonight, we discover that DNA absolutely has been discovered under Stephany Tatiana`s fingernails, indicating a ferocious struggle on her part to save her life.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The DNA results haven`t come back yet. He couldn`t provide that to me. He couldn`t confirm that it was Joran`s. There`s definitely DNA under her nails.
JOHN VAN DEN HEUVEL, REPORTER, DE TELEGRAAF, EXCLUSIVE JAILHOUSE INTERVIEW WITH JORAN VAN DER SLOOT (via phone): When I met him, he was amazingly relaxed. He laughed sometimes and he detached. Of course I asked him, did you murder Stephany Flores? He said, I cannot say anything about it, that`s the advice of my lawyer.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The stepmom of missing Oregon child Kyron Horman took a second polygraph test over the weekend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terry is the last known person to have seen Kyron before he disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 7-year-old Kyron Horman, he was driven to school by his stepmother.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He is the last person saying that she saw him walking down the hallway.
GRACE: A 7-year-old boy goes missing from his own school, his own classroom? It doesn`t make sense.
VAN DEN HEUVEL: He said that the police in Chile and Peru put mental pressure on to sign the reports.
CASAREZ: That his rights have been abridged.
VAN DEN HEUVEL: He said that they threatened him that they put his head underwater if he didn`t want to declare anything.
GRACE: He`s now whining about how police tortured him, blah, blah, blah.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Let`s stop and remember Marine Lance Corporal Christopher Adlesperger, 20, Albuquerque, New Mexico, killed Iraq. Awarded two Purple Hearts, Navy Cross. Remembered for his sense of humor. Always putting others first.
An avid runner and tae kwon do national champ. Loved outdoors, time with family, leaves behind grieving parents Gary and Annette, stepfather Phillip, grandparents, Rosella (ph), Jose, Wanda, brothers Matthew, and Phillip. Sister Leandra.
Christopher Adlesperger, American hero.
Thank you to our guests but a special to you -- special thank you to you and a special good night from New York control room.
Good night, everybody.
And good night from Georgia little crime fighters Hut and Caroline. Aren`t they beautiful?
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
