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Nancy Grace
Missing Missouri 12-Year-Old`s Body Found; Jodi Arias Back in Court
Aired August 26, 2013 - 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, live, Golden City, Missouri. First day of school, 12-year-old Adriaunna goes to the playground after with her two little sisters. It`s only 100 feet from home. Just minutes after the children spot a blue Ford Expedition cruising by, then Adriaunna gone.
In just one hour, 60 minutes, this family turned upside down, their lives now shattered forever. The body of the 12-year-old little girl discovered in a shallow grave just a few miles from that same playground.
Bombshell tonight. We obtain inside information tonight that the 6th grader brutally strangled and sexually assaulted. This as prime suspect, family friend 34-year-old Bob Bourne, Jr., claims the little girl runs and falls to her death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing 12-year-old girl Adriaunna Horton.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want your baby to be in your arms!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kidnapped in this Golden City park a short walk from her home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last seen getting into a man`s car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 4:55, she was seen getting into the vehicle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was playing with her sisters and two friends, and a guy pulled up and coaxed my daughter over to the vehicle and abducted her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Searching for this little angel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The news that a body was found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her body was located southeast of Golden City. Identification of Adriaunna...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kidnapped.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Allegedly by a man the family knew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He worked for me last summer on a job, a construction job. He was a neighbor. He lived less than a block behind us for a year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He committed a heinous crime that has been in and out of our court systems and has been in and out of jail. Why wasn`t he still there? How many chances does he get?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why he was even walking free, I don`t understand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s just a sick individual, and he`s dealt with swiftly and very sternly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a very heartbreaking, heartbreaking situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, we go to Mesa, Arizona. In the last hours, convicted killer Jodi Arias back in court in front of the cameras, smiling and mugging for reporters, while at the same time, she is demanding cameras be banned from the courtroom, tweeting, to bash me and the police, raising the price of her T-shirts and whining about life behind bars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: State of Arizona versus Jodi Ann Arias.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... that the defendant should be sentenced -- no unanimous agreement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The original jury could not come to a conclusion, life or death for Jodi Arias, so we believe a new jury will be empaneled to decide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The court is not prepared to set a trial date. I do need to review those motions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not about Snow White.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I couldn`t speak to Snow White, nor could I speak to the seven dwarfs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who`s going to come forward for her now? Would you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. My family is afraid for my life.
JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED OF MURDER: The evidence is very compelling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you kill Travis Alexander?
ARIAS: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not even about whether or not you like Jodi Arias. Nine days out of ten, I don`t like Jodi Arias.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is she standing there like a zombie?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you communicated with Jodi since the conviction?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, because I`m afraid to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is life or death at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. To Golden City, Missouri. We obtain inside information tonight. Little Adriaunna, just in the 6th grade, cause of death, a brutal strangulation. The little girl was sexually assaulted. This as the prime suspect, family friend 34-year-old Bob Bourne, Jr., claims the little girl runs and falls to her death.
We are live and taking your calls. Straight out to Michael Christian, investigative reporter. So she is strangled. I`m not sure if it was manual or ligature. This guy admits he was with her. Somehow, police end up at some kind of an empty home, an abandoned home. And he claims she runs and falls to her death.
Did I get that part straight? Did I miss something? Oh, and somewhere between A and Z, she`s raped?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, FREELANCE PRODUCER (via telephone): That`s correct, Nancy. According to what police have said, Bob Bourne, Jr., told them that Adriaunna fell, that he had taken her in the car, taken her to an abandoned or a vacant home, and that she fell.
GRACE: Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Back it up, Christian. He takes her to an abandoned home. So he gets a little 12-year-old girl off the playground, takes her to an abandoned home? For what? What`s he doing with a little girl at an abandoned home?
CHRISTIAN: Supposedly, according to what the defendant told police, he was trying to find Adriaunna`s father. He was asking her where her father was. Now, we know that the Horton family lives very, very close to the Hazel Park...
GRACE: A hundred feet.
CHRISTIAN: ... where Adriaunna was taken, so...
GRACE: A hundred feet! A hundred feet!
CHRISTIAN: Yes. One could assume he could have gone to the home if he made it to the park. But at any rate, he told police that she was trying to get away from him and she fell. He did then take them to where the body was eventually found. It was a wooded area just over the country line. Apparently, the body was covered with some brush and maybe some tree branches or some bark.
So he did take them to the body. But his story is she fell.
GRACE: I`m just -- I`m just beside myself trying to imagine on her first day of school, coming home, everything`s fine, she like her new teacher, she loves her class. She goes to her dad, she says, Can we go to the playground? He says yes. She goes with her two little sisters. It`s 100 feet from the home. In one hour, she is snatched, dead and buried. And now this guy says he took her to an abandoned home to question her as to where her dad was?
Unleash the lawyers, Renee Rockwell, defense attorney, Parag Shah, defense attorney. Parag Shah, first to you. Why take a little girl to an abandoned home to find out where her father is?
PARAG SHAH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, maybe he just wanted to question her and talk to her in a private setting, as opposed to out in the park.
GRACE: Why?
SHAH: Who knows why he wanted to do what he wanted to do, but that`s what he did and that`s what he said he did.
GRACE: You know, it`s always amazing to me how defense attorneys can just repeat a lie and then smile and act like it`s all OK. You know, Renee, I completely understand what your job is and Parag Shah, what your job is. Your job is to defend your criminal clients to the best of your abilities. As a prosecution -- as a prosecutor, you are to prosecute within ethical bounds to obtain a verdict that speaks the truth. So it`s a very, very different burden, Renee, is it not?
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It is, Nancy. But surely, you don`t think that some lawyer cooked that story up. We as attorneys don`t want him to say anything.
GRACE: Oh, OK, so -- put her back up, please! So your problem is not that he raped a 6th grader and strangled her and then lied to police.
ROCKWELL: I have a problem with that.
GRACE: Your problem is that he spoke at all. He should have remained silent because that`s what you just said. You`re upset that he didn`t remain silent.
ROCKWELL: No, Nancy. You said that we`re repeating a lie.
GRACE: Yes?
ROCKWELL: If he said that and then we`re repeating it. We didn`t -- nobody asked him to say that in the first place. You get your clients. They come into your door, and after they get to your office and plop themselves down or when you go see them at the jail, 90 percent of the damage is done, especially if they`ve sat down and started telling some kind of malarkey. He may have had a mental defense, Nancy.
GRACE: Oh, don`t even start! Stop.
Out to Darrin Wright. Before I hear anything about an insanity defense, which is where this is going -- Darrin joining me, KZRG -- what can you tell me about this piece of crap leading the police to her dead body?
DARRIN WRIGHT, TALKRADIO KZRG (via telephone): Well, according to statement of probable cause, Nancy, that`s exactly what Horton did after he was arrested about an hour-and-a-half after Adriaunna went and disappeared.
First, he denied picking her up at all. Then he admitted that, yes, he had taken her to the abandoned building and that she had tripped and fallen. Then he led police to the body. However, an autopsy afterwards showed that not only was she strangled, thus not matching up with Bourne`s story, she had also been sexually assaulted.
GRACE: I`m reading directly from the police documents that we obtained. And Bob Bourne, Jr., claims the little girl ran -- quote, "ran away from him, fell down and died as a result of falling."
Out to Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner, pathologist, toxicologist joining me from Madison Heights tonight. Dr. Morrone, I hate to waste that brain of yours on this moronic question, but I`m forced to read his statement that he gave police claiming that this child ran from him and fell and died from the fall.
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER (via telephone): It`s never a waste talking to you. And it is so clear, if a child falls, it falls usually on its knees or its butt. In an autopsy, a strangulation ends up bruising the muscles of the neck, breaking sometimes the spine, creating swelling and edema of the under-tissues in the neck.
And if it was a ligature -- that`s a rope -- there`s a furrow or a groove in the neck. And if it was hands, it only takes about double the pressure of holding a hamburger to compress and suffocate a child.
These signs are cardinal signs of suffocation or strangulation. Falling down does not make those things happen in the neck. You skin your knees, you bounce on your butt. That`s just totally different.
GRACE: You know, Dr. Morrone, just a thought -- her family having to come in and identify her body.
To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. You know, Marc, I almost dread asking you about this because with almost every case we cover, I think of your daughter Polly. But I want to hear your reaction to what we`re hearing tonight. I`ve got the police documents right here. I`ve got what he said to police. He led them to her body. Only he would have known that.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Sure. Well, Nancy, almost 20 years ago, 20 years ago on October 1st, another career criminal kidnapped a little girl, a 12-year-old girl in front of witnesses, took her about an hour away, raped her, strangled her and then buried her under a little bit of trash.
And there`s one thing I can tell you is that each one of these -- these -- these psychopathic pedophiles always try to get out of it. They try to talk themselves out of it. It was the devil that made me do it. It was the beer that made me do it. She fell down and hurt herself.
But the reality is, is that it`s inevitable that these guys are going to commit these crimes and it`s inevitable now that this guy will be tried, he will be convicted, and hopefully, if this is a death penalty state, he will get what he richly deserves, which is a seat on death row.
GRACE: Guys, you just heard Marc Klaas talking about another little girl that was murdered so many years ago, and he`s talking about his beloved Polly. That`s who he`s talking about. So when you hear him talking about the facts of this case or other cases, he has lived through it. Many of us on this panel tonight have lived through a similar situation.
You know what I noticed, Marc Klaas? I noticed that the body in this case of Adriaunna was covered up with leaves and limbs and sticks. You know, a random killer doesn`t do that. They just leave the body and get the hay out there. But if you know your victim, you want to hide the victim. It`s documented in practically every case where the victim has been covered up.
KLAAS: Oh, sure. And I think you`ll also find that he stalked the victim, that he knew exactly who he wanted and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with her, and he just waited his time and took his shot. And the result is she`s dead, and now we`re going to spend endless resources defending the undefensible.
GRACE: Marc, I`ve got to ask you something. Just for the brief moment when I first heard this girl was missing, I thought police had gotten on it in time, that they would actually possibly -- they might recover her alive.
KLAAS: Well, yes, I mean...
GRACE: I never get tired of reporting on these cases because I feel that maybe we can make a difference. But after losing Polly, how do you react when you hear about yet another child murdered like this?
KLAAS: Well, we`ve come a long way. There`s absolutely no question about that. Law enforcement has protocols. We have good laws like the Amber Alert. We have things like Megan`s law.
But the reality is, is that as long as we take career criminals and put them back out onto the street, there`s going to be crime in our society. And I think that the difference between a violent criminal and a non-violent criminal can be this much. It can be a purse snatching gone wrong. It can be somebody coming home during a house break-in. And that may be -- that`s it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was the first day of school and 12-year-old Adriaunna Horton decided to come here to this park with a group of her friends. Witnesses say they saw Adriaunna Horton get into a vehicle with a man known by the family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The body found in a small Missouri town is 12- year-old Adriaunna Horton.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somewhere along the line, we`re going to have to face reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crime occurred in Barton County.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was killed close to home and then dumped just across the county line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m just really devastated and heartbroke!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The entire family is devastated. We obtain inside information tonight. Adriaunna, a 6th grader -- it`s her first day of school. She asked if she could go to the playground with her two little sisters 100 feet away -- 100 feet away -- from home.
A blue Ford Expedition was cruising the playground. The two little sisters identified Bob Bourne, Jr., a 34-year-old family friend, by name to police. Her body has been recovered. She had been taken to an abandoned home where she was raped and strangled.
We are taking your calls. Matt Zarrell, what more do we know about the facts as they exist tonight?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, the coroner revealed to the local "Joplin Globe" that Adriaunna`s body was clothed. There had been a cursory attempt to cover her with limbs, bark and brush at the scene where her body was found.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s just a sweet little girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators now confirm that 12-year-old Adriaunna Horton`s body was found just east from where she was kidnapped in this Golden City park.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s so sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I am just learning that one of the reasons his wife became suspicious is because he didn`t show up at his anger management class that evening. What?
Michael Christian, investigative reporter, he was supposed to go to an anger management class and didn`t show up? Instead, he was killing a 12- year-old girl?
CHRISTIAN: Yes, we know that Bobby Bourne, Jr., has a -- has a record, Nancy, and a lot of that seems to be tied in with acts of violence and anger. We know that he assaulted his wife at one point in a parking lot. We know that he attacked a police officer at a police station, or the sheriff`s office, and literally had to be tasered.
So he certainly does have anger issues. Now, the big question here is, why was he out on probation. He has a record, and yet people complain that...
GRACE: Michael! Michael!
CHRISTIAN: ... every time he was in trouble...
GRACE: Michael! Michael!
CHRISTIAN: ... it didn`t seem to lead to anything.
GRACE: Michael, you and I have been covering the same cases since about 1997, and you say that like you`re surprised. Wow, why would he get out with a history? They always get out with a criminal history, Michael!
CHRISTIAN: Well, that`s certainly a question that the locals are asking tonight, Nancy.
GRACE: Hey, Michael, what can you tell me about alleged assault on his stepdaughters?
CHRISTIAN: Well, that seems to be a point of contention. He was convicted of assaulting his stepdaughter, who I believe was also 12. However, his wife and the daughter claimed that he actually didn`t assault her, that what he was doing was spanking her as a disciplinary action. They claim that the court records got, you know, out of whack, that it was over-exaggerated in court. They say in that particular instance, it really wasn`t abuse. However, again, we know he`s assaulted his wife and we know he assaulted a police officer. He`s really (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: You know, you`re right, Christian. Greg Kading, former LAPD detective and author of "Murder Rap" -- Greg, specifically what the police report said on the assault on his daughter, his stepdaughter, to which he pled guilty, I might add, Greg Kading, was that the other little daughter walked in and he was straddling the one stepdaughter and beating her.
That doesn`t sound like a spanking to me.
GREG KADING, FORMER LAPD DETECTIVE: Yes, it certainly doesn`t. And that`s probably why he was convicted of it. It`s not within the reasonable boundaries of what we could call acceptable punishment. So clearly, he`s got a conviction based on this type of violent activity and the other violent activity that`s been mentioned. This was, you know, not -- you know, not completely unexpected.
GRACE: You`re right, with a history like that. To Greg Cason, psychologist joining me out of LA -- Greg, question. I mean, he`s obviously a powderkeg waiting to ignite. But what is your thinking about who he picked? I mean, this is a girl he`s friends with the family. They know him.
GREG CASON, PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes, but that`s exactly why he probably picked this person because he had already had a beef with the father of the girl and wanted to exercise some sort of power play on that little girl. Also, there was opportunity, and he might have had some sexual desire for a little girl, and thus it all played out perfectly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: State of Arizona versus Jodi Ann Arias.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... that the defendant should be sentenced -- no unanimous agreement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The original jury could not come to a conclusion, life or death for Jodi Arias, so we believe a new jury will be empaneled to decide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The court is not prepared to set a trial date. I do need to review those motions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not about Snow White.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I couldn`t speak to Snow White, nor could I speak to the seven dwarfs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who`s going to come forward for her now? Would you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. My family is afraid for my life.
JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED OF MURDER: The evidence is very compelling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you kill Travis Alexander?
ARIAS: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not even about whether or not you like Jodi Arias. Nine days out of ten, I don`t like Jodi Arias.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is she standing there like a zombie?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you communicated with Jodi since the conviction?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, because I`m afraid to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is life or death at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. For those of you just joining us, Jodi Arias in the last 24 hours back in court, whining about life behind bars, raising the prices on her t-shirt. She`s taking time to publicly bash me and the police officers. Not only that, her key witness, Alyce LaViolette with a laundry list of complaints. Joining me tonight, Jane Velez-Mitchell, host on HLN, author of a new book, "Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias." You know, Arias in court today, as she`s mugging and smiling at all the cameras, shackled in black and white prison garb. At the very same time, she`s demanding that the judge not allow cameras in the courtroom for her trial. The trial is upcoming, where she will be retried on the penalty phase on her murder conviction for slashing the throat of her lover, Travis Alexander. So she`s smiling at the camera all the time, demanding the judge throw the cameras out of the courtroom. She doesn`t want the public to know the evidence, Jane.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN: Yes. And she famously, Nancy, did those post conviction jailhouse interviews, so she obviously loves the camera. And a big disappointment today. We thought we were going to hear what date this retrial on life and death would occur. Instead, we got more motions from the defense and more considerations of those motions to push it back again. Is this a strategy to postpone judgment?
GRACE: Out to Beth Karas, legal correspondent and investigative reporter. Beth, she had quite a few tweets. She was tweeting, bashing me and the police. Will she never learn?
BETH KARAS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: She`s not going to be stopped as long as she`s in that jail. She has not been sentenced yet. I don`t think she`s going to be conducting herself the same way once she goes to state prison, and we know she`s going to state prison. The question is whether she`s going to go to condemned prisoner death row, or whether or not she`s going to get a life sentence.
GRACE: New York, if you could pull the sound of LaViolette complaining about myself, Jane Velez, Dr. Drew. Let`s hear what LaViolette had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIOLETTE: I think this case was a perfect storm. I think you had Nancy Grace, Dr. Drew, Jane Velez-Mitchell, fueling hatred on the air.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You believe they fuelled hatred.
LAVIOLETTE: I absolutely believe they fueled hate. Nancy Grace laughed and made fun of the fact that I was in urgent care. Dr. Drew allowed people and my friends--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We have conducted an exhaustive search of CNN, HLN, other appearances that I made during the Arias case. Never once, Alyce LaViolette, did anyone on our program mock you. And I`m speaking directly to you, LaViolette, mock you for going to urgent care, not once.
Now, I did make a lot of hay out of the fact that one of your expert criteria was a speech that you give about was Snow White an abused woman, which in my mind undermines your credibility. As a matter of fact, let`s take a listen to some of the things I said about you, LaViolette.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This witness is going to be trouble for the state. She`s likable, she`s believable, she`s credible. She`s a very impressive witness, that`s true. She`s impressive. She`s articulate. She`s well spoken. There`s no doubt in my mind that Alyce LaViolette is a very intriguing witness.
They are ending with the testimony of a very solid, believable, credible witness and likable, Alyce LaViolette.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: So there, Alyce LaViolette, before you take the stand again, please be sure of your facts. Whatever you do, don`t lie under oath.
We are live and taking your calls. I want to go out now to special guest, Jay Beckstead, attorney for Travis Alexander`s family. What do you make of the defense demanding that cameras not be in the courtroom, Jay?
JAY BECKSTEAD, ATTORNEY FOR ALEXANDER FAMILY: Well, Nancy, good to be here. I love your show.
GRACE: Thank you.
BECKSTEAD: Speaking about the trial or the penalty phase, you know, I`m complying with Juan Martinez`s request not to comment about that. There will be plenty of time for that later. But I`m here to speak about Travis`s book that his family published, if you have any questions about that.
GRACE: What does the family hope to accomplish by publishing this manuscript?
BECKSTEAD: Well, at least three things. One of those would be that Travis had a strong desire to be published and to be a published author. And so his brothers and sisters wanted to publish his manuscript at least for that reason.
GRACE: What is it about? Jay, what`s his book about?
BECKSTEAD: The book is about helping others. It`s about some about Travis`s own story and how he rose from poverty and abuse to being a successful salesman and inspirational speaker and --
GRACE: Jay, question. We were just showing the book. I`d like to find out how the Alexander family is doing, because they were so beat down during that trial. And when the jury didn`t come back on sentencing, the look on their faces, I`ll never forget it. How are they doing? Are they digging in and getting prepared for the trial?
BECKSTEAD: Nancy, they are, I would describe them as the bedrock of America. They have been through so much, and it`s been, you know, more than five years on and off, the ups and downs, the travel, putting their lives on hold. This whole process has taken quite a bit out of all of them.
GRACE: Well, do they want the retrial or do they want a guilty plea, a deal?
BECKSTEAD: They want to proceed. They`re ready to proceed to give it another shot.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because of motions that were filed, the court is not prepared to set a trial date.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The judge actually said she needs until September 16th now to review recent motions --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To review the motions, give the state an opportunity to respond --
(CROSSTALK)
ARIAS: I didn`t mean to hurt him or anything, he said I`ll (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill you, bitch. I just couldn`t believe what had happened.
LAVIOLETTE: The things that were said to me, I`ve never had anyone in my life talk to me like that.
ARIAS: He went like that and he turned his head and he grabbed my waist.
JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: Ma`am, were you crying when you were shooting him?
ARIAS: I don`t remember.
LAVIOLETTE: For somebody they didn`t know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You know, there is a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking by all of the defense witnesses and the defense team. This is what we know. In the last hours, Jodi Arias back in court. She`s been whining about life behind bars. She`s raising the prices of her t-shirts. She also was smiling and mugging for the cameras today for reporters, all at the same time I`ve got the motion in my hand where the defense is insisting that cameras be thrown out of the courtroom. This is while she`s, on one hand, playing to the media, using the media, also wanting them thrown out of the courtroom so you cannot see what happens in court.
Also, motion to compel juror Twitter accounts. What is that all about, Beth Karas, investigative reporter, legal correspondent, what is that all about? To compel juror Twitter accounts, is this where she`s trying to frame the alternate juror for something?
KARAS: Yes, there was an alternate juror during the first trial who was actually tweeting, and even tweeted Mark Eiglarsh, who appeared on "Dr. Drew" regularly. He is not an employee, but he does appear regularly. She was tweeting him in March, April, May. She was including him along with a few others and saying innocuous thing. Nothing about her opinion, but still talking a little bit about the trial. so she clearly didn`t understand the judge`s admonition. I don`t believe the judge will grant this motion. I don`t think she is going to force all jurors to turn over their Twitter names so that the defense can monitor everything. I think she`ll just be more specific in her admonition. At least that would be my advice. I would not expect her to turn this over to the defense.
GRACE: To Susan Constantine, juror consultant, body language expert. You`re seeing Jodi Arias in court again today. Nothing has changed. She hasn`t learned a thing.
SUSAN CONSTANTINE, JURY CONSULTANT: Well, you know what, she still think she`s in control. She thought she was in control then, she thinks she is in control now. If we`re still seeing her smirk and smile, that`s telling you still to her it`s just a big joke.
And the other thing is, let`s talk about this Twitter account. We know now with this new technology age, this is really starting to become a problem. We are not really ready for this. And what`s happening right now is she`s been able to contact, grab fans out there, she`s communicating with. And this is very detrimental. These attorneys are smart, and they`re saying, hey, stay out of the camera. We`re going to make sure you stay out of the cameras, and we want to get into this with a strong fight.
GRACE: To Jane Velez-Mitchell, author of a new book, "The Secret Life of Jodi Arias." Jane, it`s an incredible book and I want to thank you for signing that copy for me. Got a question for you. She`s filed a lot of motions. She`s also bashed you and me and the police. You and I share something else now besides our friendship. We share a stalker who threatened to kill us. She made horrible remarks about the police arresting our stalker that tried, threatened to kill us and was en route, actually, to start with me, I guess. But she said nobody followed up with the threats on defense, who, defense witnesses or defense lawyers? That`s what it was. Jane, were any of those death threats ever documented?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Look, Nancy, in this age of social media, many people toss very harsh words around, and I would like to say first of all I want to thank you for writing the foreword to my book. I consider you my mentor. And the book was to set the record straight and tell the story that Travis would have told had he been alive today, speaking to his friends.
But there`s a lot of threats that go all the way around. You and I have both gotten perhaps the most serious threat of all, because it resulted in the arrest of a man, and he apparently had munitions on him. So if people want to toss around fear and threats and not being treated fairly, I think you and I could probably be first in line to make complaints. But we`re not complaining. We`re just doing our job and just letting the chips fall where they may.
GRACE: And I would like to point out that we became aware of the threats while we were covering the trial, and Jane, you certainly did not leave your spot where we were sitting right outside the courthouse. So, you know, let me go to the lawyers.
Unleash the lawyers. Renee Rockwell, Parag Shah, joining me. Both veteran defense attorneys. Renee Rockwell, you would think that at this juncture, Jodi Arias would have learned to stop the public tweeting about police, really about anything even remotely connected to her case, because it can all be used at trial.
ROCKWELL: It can, Nancy, but how are you going to put a cap on that? First of all, her biggest problem is her life is hanging in the balance now, and that`s what it`s really all about.
GRACE: Whoa, put her up. Her life is hanging in the balance?
ROCKWELL: Exactly.
GRACE: And she`s thinking about me and Jane Velez? What`s wrong with that picture?
ROCKWELL: But, Nancy, here`s what`s going on now. The fact that we`re talking about Twitter, that blade is going to swing both ways, because the judge is also going to be interested in what the jurors are doing with their accounts.
GRACE: Well, I mean, that`s what the whole motion is about, the juror Twitter accounts.
Parag Shah, you saw her in the courtroom looking for the camera all the time. She wants the cameras thrown out. Why the sudden change of heart?
SHAH: Well, she`s entitled to a fair trial, and she is not getting a fair trial because there are witnesses who feel threatened by the coverage that`s coming, and these witnesses need to testify during the penalty phase. And it`s not so much about the Twitter --
GRACE: There`s more than one way to skin a cat, Parag Shah. For instance, we saw in the Seacat murder trial, where he murdered his wife, he testified but he was never shown testifying. Would you think, possibly, Greg Cason, psychologist out of L.A., that the witnesses are afraid to be associated with Jodi Arias, because obviously her defense is a big lie?
CASON: Of course. No. 1, no one likes to be on a losing team, but No. 2, no one wants to be on the side of a liar. So absolutely. People are going to back away. They`re going to be like lemmings going over a cliff to get away from her. They`ll do anything to get as far as they can.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jodi Arias back in court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s in custody standing next to counsel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hair in a bun, the glasses, the prison stripes, the shackles.
LAVIOLETE: I was so sad that people want to hold such hatred for somebody they didn`t know.
ARIAS: I heard people can get closure. That`s the goal for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Closure. She wants closure. Today, Jodi Arias -- in the last hours, as a matter of fact, back in court. Out to you, Jane Velez. So many people have thrown around -- let me go to Jane and Beth at the same time -- the fact that everything was going to go down on the down low and there would be a plea deal and nobody would know about it until it was already over with. Obviously that`s not going to happen. Martinez is not going to take this laying down, Beth.
KARAS: No, it`s my understanding that this is not going to go away, taking death off the table. This will be a retrial. I`ve always predicted early next year. But maybe it will be this year. I do think it will take three months, so if it doesn`t start soon, it`s going to be next year.
GRACE: Jane, what about it?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think that the defense keeps filing these motions at the 11th hour, knowing that it`s kind of going to throw a wrench in the proceedings, hoping for another delay. And that`s exactly what happened. And I do believe that there are some in the powers that be that do want to have a settlement, whether it`s for financial reasons --
GRACE: I don`t know who you`re talking about, the powers that be. You can`t just blurt something out like that, Jane. What do you mean the powers that be want a settlement? The only person that wants settlement are Jodi Arias and her defense crew.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That may be true, but I`ve heard from some sources that there may be some rumblings of some others in the court system in general wanting to see this go away.
GRACE: Are you talking about Martinez?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No. I`m not talking about Martinez.
GRACE: Because unless you`re talking about Martinez, the rest don`t matter. If you`re talking about the calendar clerk and the court reporter and the court administrator, sure, they don`t want the hassle. Of course they don`t. I don`t blame them. But unless Martinez says I want a plea, then a plea ain`t happening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Everyone, Labor Day coming up. We celebrate a very special group of workers, working moms. Are you a working mom? Do you know one who deserves recognition, for hard work at home and at work? I want to hear from you. Send us a video explaining why you or your loved one is the best working mom in America. Five videos with the most votes win my signature handcuff necklace, earrings, t-shirts, the works. Details, go to nancygrace.com. After you go to the website, send in those videos.
Tonight we remember American hero, Army Specialist Justin Culbreth (ph), just 26, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal. Army Achievement Medal. Parents Walter and Sheryl. Sister Lauren. Widow Kimberly. Two sons, three daughters. Justin Culbreth, American hero.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jodi Arias in court in the black and white stripes. Her glasses, and her hair up in a bun.
ARIAS: I`m ready to meet my maker, but if that time should come, and if that`s their decision, it would drag on for years and years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You know, Matt Zarrell, I had some leftover bean soup heated up in an old cool whip container for supper. What about Jodi Arias?
ZARRELL: Well, Nancy, tonight Jodi Arias has a feast that includes soy lentils, mashed potatoes, spinach, orange. A dinner roll--
GRACE: Can you go a little slower? I want to take it all in.
ZARRELL: OK. Soy lentils, mashed potatoes, spinach, an orange, which I hope is fresh, a dinner roll, and Nancy, your favorite, a doughnut.
GRACE: She had a freaking doughnut? All right. She slashed his throat from ear to ear and she`s kicked back with a Krispy Kreme? All right, she needs to go back on trial.
Everyone, as we go to break, I want to give a special good night and congratulations to our friend, Ronny, who works with Publix grocery. Loves marathons. His latest, he ran a marathon in Brazil. Way to go, Ronny.
Dr. Drew up next, everybody. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp, Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
