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Nancy Grace
Infant Dies at Overcrowded Day Care; Possible Missing 2-Year-Old Baby Myra Sightings
Aired March 12, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEAN CASAREZ, GUEST HOST: We begin tonight with breaking news out of Greenville, South Carolina, a day care turned into a house of horrors. A 3-month-old baby girl is dead, 14 other children hidden in the basement, and police are saying tonight that toddlers were left roaming the day care alone, left around hazardous chemicals, liquor and a loaded gun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police get a call about an unresponsive 3-month- old at an in-home day care center.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It made me feel kind of heart-sickened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they arrive, they get a big surprise.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Deputies say she was hiding 14 children in her basement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A child unsupervised in the yard and two toddlers alone in a bedroom with a loaded gun on a bookshelf.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And we go to Camden, Mississippi. A 2-year-old toddler girl reportedly playing outside with her sisters vanishes in broad daylight. Now, in the last hours, have there been credible sightings of baby Myra at a Memphis hotel?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... to the Discovery Inn, where Memphis police and the FBI checked in after reported sightings of a missing toddler.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She saw a baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That looked like her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, that looked like the one she saw on the news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The possible sightings in Memphis...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And tonight to Los Angeles suburbs, a 19-year-old computer whiz accused of a bloody shooting spree inside his family`s $3 million mansion. Police are saying tonight the teen student guns down his own parents in cold blood, then opens fire on his sister and his little brother, leaving the 8-year-old boy paralyzed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ashton Sachs shot at his parents and little brother as they slept, and he fired at his 17-year-old sister but missed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ashton Colby (ph) Sachs, the 19-year-old son of the deceased victims.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The murder weapon has been recovered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And caught on tape tonight, a 28-year-old Ohio murder suspect wanted in the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend. He ends up naked at the jail, then attacks an officer. It is all caught on video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After Mitchell (ph) appeared to be settled, corrections officers relaxed the straps and took him out of the chair. Mitchell made the wrong move.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He sucker-punched one of our corrections officers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And Good evening. I`m Jean Casarez, in for Nancy Grace. Thank you so much for joining us.
We do go straight to Greenville, South Carolina, and a day care turned into a house of horrors. A baby girl`s death leads police to 14 children hidden in the basement.
Let`s go to Joe Gomez, investigative reporter with Newsradio KRLD. Joe, what happened?
JOE GOMEZ, NEWSRADIO KRLD: Jean, this is a shocking story. Police arrived to a call about a response -- an unresponsive 3-month-old baby girl in a crib. And when they got there, they found out that was just the tip of the iceberg. They found 14 children in this home day care in the basement, along with the owner`s teenage daughter. They found one -- at least one toddler wandering out in the yard by herself, and then they found two kids locked up in the master bedroom with a loaded gun nearby!
But that`s not it, Jean. They also found liquor in the kitchen cabinet, along with all sorts of other dangerous chemicals, and there was not a childproof lock on that cabinet, Jean.
CASAREZ: And Joe Gomez, what we are learning tonight is that there were a total of 23 children in that day care.
To Justin Freiman, NANCY GRACE producer. There were 23 children in that home, in that day care that she had. According to what she was registered for, how many children should she have had?
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): She`s only registered to have in-home day care, which means she could have up to six children in the home at any time.
CASAREZ: All right, back to Joe Gomez. The fact is, there was a day care, 23 children. But I want to focus on that precious little baby you were looking at because that little baby, 3 months old, in a crib, was found dead in that home. And that is one of the reasons we`re covering this story tonight.
Joe, tell me the circumstances about this little baby.
GOMEZ: Yes, they found her unresponsive in the crib, and later, they pronounced her dead. Now, we don`t know how she died. The coroner is still looking into that.
But what police are looking at is perhaps there was unsafe sleeping conditions. Maybe there was something in that crib that we don`t know, Jean, that may have led to this precious little girl dying possibly in her sleep. I mean, it`s a very tragic story. The fact that she had -- this woman had 23 kids on the premises and this little girl in the crib. How could she possibly pay attention to all of these children at once? So she may be facing several charges on top of all the charges she`s already facing, which include violating a day care license, child neglect and obstructing justice, Jean.
CASAREZ: We have a very special guest tonight joining us out of Greenville, South Carolina. It is Deputy Drew Pinciaro. He is the public information officer from the Greenville Country sheriff`s office. Thank you so much for joining us, sir.
DPY. DREW PINCIARO, GREENVILLE, S.C., SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): Thank you for having me, Jean.
CASAREZ: Where does the autopsy results -- where do they stand? Do you have any idea what the cause and manner of death is at this point?
PINCIARO: No, we don`t. At this time, we`re still waiting on the coroner`s office to release the actual cause of death. Investigators are obviously still working on the case and speaking with several other parents (INAUDIBLE) involved with this.
CASAREZ: What`s taking so long?
PINCIARO: They`re just making the rounds. And there`s obviously -- like you said, there was 23 kids found in the home, so they`re just speaking with neighbors and other parents, just trying to ascertain as much information as possible.
CASAREZ: Now, we have learned, Deputy, that they are awaiting the results of a toxicology screening. I mean, my first question to you is, why are they doing a toxicology screening to begin with?
PINCIARO: As far as that, I can`t answer that. Coroner`s office would have to answer that. But usually, in a situation like this, they take every -- every action possible to try to rule out any possibilities, just to make sure that maybe the child didn`t ingest anything or -- you know, that was harmful.
CASAREZ: Can you confirm that there were stuffed animals and blankets and different things in the crib with this 3-month-old baby?
PINCIARO: As far as right now, the investigation they`re doing (INAUDIBLE) actually -- there was nothing in the crib with the child (INAUDIBLE)
CASAREZ: Nothing in the crib. Absolutely nothing in the crib.
OK, let`s go to our lawyers. First of all, Danny Cevallos joining us, CNN legal analyst joining us from New York, and Parag Shah, who is a defense attorney joining us out of Atlanta, Georgia.
First of all, Danny Cevallos, this is brand-new information because we had heard that there were stuffed animals or blankets or something that may have contributed, right, to the death of this child unexpectedly in a crib. You, as a defense attorney, hearing that there was nothing in the crib -- do you think that absolutely absolves this day care owner from any criminal responsibility as to the death?
DANNY CEVALLOS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: No, not at all. At this point, we are miles away from figuring out causation. But I will say this. The facts we`ve heard so far, that they found alcohol, cleaning supplies in the home, even a gun -- right now, a million Americans are out there saying, Geez, that sounds like my house. Those things by themselves, just mere proximity, do not a negligent or criminally negligent household make. If they did, half of our country or maybe more than that would be criminals.
CASAREZ: But there`s a big and vast difference here -- to Parag. She had a day care. That means she had a duty. She had a duty to every child in her home. She was registered as a day care owner. She wasn`t licensed, which means that she could only have up to six children. She had 23 children.
But I don`t care if she had two children in the home. If she had liquor and cleaning supplies and they were not -- did not have child-proof locks -- she had a loaded gun exposed in the master bedroom, where two children were found. She has violated that duty of care some would say on a criminal level.
PARAG SHAH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Any violation of her duty is a civil matter that can be dealt with in a civil arena. It doesn`t not add -- does not add up to causation to link her to any type of criminal offense.
CASAREZ: I want to ask Deputy Drew Pinciaro, who is joining us tonight from the Greenville, South Carolina, sheriff`s department. What are the charges she is facing at this point?
PINCIARO: She was charged with child neglect, obstructing justice and the violation of a day care license.
CASAREZ: OK. And child neglect. Child neglect because she was the owner of a day care and violated on a criminal level a duty of care to the children that she was responsible for?
PINCIARO: Basically, in this situation, obviously, she was only registered for DSS (ph) to care for six children. The fact that she took on responsibility of having 23 kids, and also having the alcohol with no child locks on the cabinet, as well as having a loaded firearm lying in the master bedroom, where two children were unattended -- that`s where the child neglect comes into play.
CASAREZ: Justin Freiman, explain to everybody the fact that she was registered, she wasn`t licensed as a day care owner, the differentiation there. And she had been held responsible in the past for having too many kids, right?
FREIMAN: That`s right. If you`re registered, you can only have up to six kids there. And you just fill out some paperwork, and they do a background check. But if you`re licensed, then you get the unannounced visits to the home, which she was not subjected to unless there was some kind of a problem filed. And about six years back, she was in trouble for having over six kids in her home.
CASAREZ: Now, is not it true, Joe Gomez, that she is being charged with obstructing justice because of several things she allegedly did during the time that investigators were searching her home?
GOMEZ: That`s right, Jean. We understand that she initially told investigators that she only had six children in the home, when, in fact, she had the alarming number of 23. And we also understand that she wasn`t cooperating with police, which, if she had 23 kids in the house, 14 down hiding in the basement -- well, it`s no wonder why.
CASAREZ: To Deputy Drew Pinciaro from the Greenville Police Department joining us. Where is she tonight as we speak, Pamela Wood, this day care owner?
PINCIARO: As far as March 8th, she was -- she satisfied her bond and was released from the Greenville County Detention Center. So I would imagine she`s back at her residence.
CASAREZ: And her bond was $11,000. Can she continue on with her day care now?
PINCIARO: I believe as far as for right now, she was suspended for now.
CASAREZ: Is there a possibility the charges will be upgraded in this case? Because there is a dead little girl that was found in her home under her care.
PINCIARO: Yes, in the event that the coroner`s office and the autopsy reveals that actions that she did caused the death of this child, then yes, charges would be upgraded.
CASAREZ: And when we come back, a 2-year-old toddler girl reportedly playing outside with her sisters vanishes. In the last hours, have there been credible sightings of baby Myra?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: We now go to Camden, Mississippi, and the desperate search for a 2-year-old toddler girl vanishing from her own home. Law enforcement is saying tonight they believe she is alive. In the last hours, there have been credible sightings, it is believed, of baby Myra at a Memphis motel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... for reported sightings of a missing toddler, Discovery Inn.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More (INAUDIBLE) and looking for Myra.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because she saw a baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That looked like her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officials in Madison County, Mississippi, have conducted extensive searches and believe the child may have been abducted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is certainly our goal to find her at the soonest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know what was going on, but they say the 2-year-old girl was in her hotel room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Let us go straight out to Chris Davis, joining us in Jackson, Mississippi. He is with the News Mississippi Radio Network. Chris, law enforcement believes that this little girl is alive, and people are saying they have seen her. Explain.
CHRIS DAVIS, NEWS MISSISSIPPI RADIO NETWORK (via telephone): Well, yes, Jean. In fact, that came yesterday afternoon and yesterday evening, these sightings at the Discovery Inn motel, which is in South Memphis. Apparently, someone who looked a lot like 2-year-old Myra Lewis was seen with a man at the motel. And there were some day care workers were working next door, some of the ones who called that in to police, not one, not two, but actually three different people sighting this little girl, who looked a lot like the one in the picture.
CASAREZ: Now, everybody, this little girl was allegedly abducted from her home in Mississippi. But it is in Memphis, Tennessee, where this motel is.
Clark Goldband, I want you to go over again that not one, not two, but three people working at or staying at the motel saw this little girl`s picture on television and believed that they saw her with a man.
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Jean, that`s right. And even according to some reports, that man, according to the 2-year-old girl, when she was approached, was her Daddy.
Now, these witnesses claim the girl stayed in her room most of her time at the motel. However, one time she left the motel, and an employee says they saw the news and they compared the girl and what they saw in the news, and they thought that was Myra.
But the first thing we thought of, Jean, is how far away is this from the home where Myra went missing? Well, take a look behind me. We`re talking 175 miles, and that is almost a straight shot right up to the north, from Myra`s home up to the motel. So you can see 175 miles, certainly a drivable distance of about four hours, Jean. But now the big question is, a white vehicle has since left that motel. It`s the only description we have, a white vehicle. And where is it? Law enforcement trying to find out. Nobody knows.
CASAREZ: And everybody, you might remember, last week, Nancy did this story because this little girl allegedly had been abducted from her home. And this is brand-new information now coming in that this little girl may have been seen at a motel which is in Memphis, Tennessee, as Clark said, some distance from her home.
But I want to go back to Chris Davis from the News Mississippi Radio Network. I want to start from the beginning to refresh everybody`s memory because this little girl, when she was last seen alive, it`s believed she was playing on her front lawn, right?
DAVIS: Yes. The mom gets ready to go to the grocery store. She pulls out of the driveway. She sees Myra supposedly going back inside the house with her siblings. Now, apparently, the dad never saw the little girl come back in the house, and that was the last time anybody saw her. So right after that, some volunteers came and helped them look. And then about 4:00 o`clock -- that was about 10:00 o`clock in the morning. 4:00 o`clock, law enforcement and a whole army of volunteers start to cover the area, and they covered about four square miles and turned up nothing.
CASAREZ: And the FBI is getting involved. Of course, you`re dealing with two states now. But they are offering -- and this is brand-new -- a $20,000 reward for finding this little girl. Look at this little girl. Look at her picture, look at her face, look at her hair.
Clark Goldband, do we have any description at all? Are authorities saying what this man may have looked like that allegedly she was with at the motel?
GOLDBAND: Jean, authorities aren`t saying much of anything. All they will say is they`re aware of the tips they continue to receive, and they will respond accordingly. Now, we also know there was another tip called in, Jean, from as far away as Washington state. Again, authorities confident the girl is alive. However, citing the ongoing investigation, they`re not elaborating.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The toddler disappeared after her mother said she left her with her older sisters. But when she came back, the 2-year- old was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, who would do such a thing? She`s just a baby. I mean...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not been able to turn Myra up at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was (INAUDIBLE) at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The possible sightings in Memphis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This, whoever you are, just please just turn her over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Try to help find this baby alive because we do want this baby alive, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And here is the latest. This little girl abducted, allegedly, from her home a few days ago is now being said to possibly be with a man in a white car. Three different people either working or staying at a motel in East Memphis, Tennessee, believe they saw her. But here`s the thing. She called this man Daddy.
I want to go to Eris Huemer, who is joining us tonight. She a psychotherapist out of Los Angeles. We do know, Doctor, that her father is at home. Her father is in Mississippi. This man, we don`t think, could possibly be her father.
Can someone brainwash someone, a little girl 2 years old, so that she will say this man`s her father?
ERIS HUEMER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Yes, that`s one of the things. Let`s say that she is -- she was kidnapped by this man. And what a person does who kidnaps a child is they want power. And what they do is, is they manipulate the little children into believing that they`re somebody good. So they might be giving her toys to play with, playing imaginary games, dress-up. It`s all in the grooming that a person does. And let`s say they could possibly be a pedophiliac. So -- a pedophile. So this child could be in some extreme danger right now, if that is, in fact, the case.
CASAREZ: Danny Cevallos, is there a concern, though, to place emphasis on this alleged sighting? Three people said they believed it was the little girl. Now, the first person worked at the motel, had seen a picture of the little girl on television, saw this little girl and immediately called authorities. That`s credible, Danny, don`t you think?
CEVALLOS: It sounds credible at this point, but it underlies -- or it underlines the fact that it`s exceedingly difficult for children, adults, anyone, to simply vanish into the ether. So I think is -- we`re starting to see evidence that maybe she was simply abducted, and we can start to look towards the fact that she may not -- she be alive, hopefully is alive, and that these different witnesses` eyewitness accounts may, in fact, be credible.
On the other hand, a child, even from a distance, may not -- may look like any other child to the -- to an observer that`s not familiar with the missing child to begin with. So it`s too early to draw any conclusions, but it is at least pointing in a particular direction.
CASAREZ: Parag, very, very quickly, are you concerned at all that police are not giving a description of the little girl at this motel or a description of the man that she was with? Because three different people saw him.
SHAH: Yes, I think the police need to be more aggressive and get the message out there. How are we going to find this little girl if they don`t come out there and say what this man looks like, more about this young girl? I think the police need to be more aggressive here.
CASAREZ: All right. When we come back, a teen student accused of gunning down his own parents, then opening fire on his little sister and his brother.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: To the Los Angeles suburbs, a 19-year-old computer whiz accused of a bloody shooting spree inside his family`s $3 million mansion. Police say the teen student guns down his own parents in cold blood, then opens fire on his little sister and his little brother. He`s leaving the 8-year-old boy paralyzed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nineteen-year-old Ashton Sachs killed his mother, Andra, and his father, Brad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ashton Colby Sachs, the 19-year-old son of the deceased victims.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And allegedly tried to shoot his eight-year-old brother to death. That boy is now paralyzed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To us, it was a true whodunit in the beginning. Very little evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Let`s go out to Jill Ryan, investigative reporter. First of all, this is not just any family. This is a family that has a lot of money, because I saw their home, and it is a mansion out there. Just start from the beginning and tell us what authorities believe happened.
JILL RYAN, REPORTER: Well, it is a family that`s come from sizable wealth, and they`ve made most of that from real estate. But going back to the beginning of this story, police reports indicate that Ashton`s parents, Andra and Bradford, they were shot to death in their Orange County mansion as they slept. The 19-year-old college student then allegedly went after his younger brother and sister. He shot his eight-year-old younger brother, which caused him to be paralyzed. Luckily he missed his 17-year- old sister. She escaped unharmed.
CASAREZ: Michael Christian, Nancy Grace producer, I think what makes this case similar to some we have covered, Michael, as Jodi Arias, but police are saying that he didn`t live in the area. He was going to school up in Seattle?
CHRISTIAN: That`s right, Jean, he was going to school in Seattle, which is roughly 1100, 1200 miles away. It`s really interesting, because he was not -- Ashton Sachs was not originally a suspect here. This was, as we`ve heard, a rich couple. They had a lot of business dealings, lots of companies, lots of real estate investments, and some people did not think that they were the nicest people in the world, the best business partners. So it was known that they had some business enemies, and that`s who police originally looked at. It was only later that they started to look at Ashton.
CASAREZ: And, everyone, police are saying that this young man, this son, drove from the state of Washington all the way to Los Angeles -- you saw it, 1200, 1300 miles -- and in the middle of the night went into his home and was able to then allegedly shoot to death his parents as they were sleeping, and then shoot his brother, his little sister, missing his sister.
And we do have a very special guest tonight. It`s a family friend to help us understand what he says was a loving family and just the family dynamic here. Monte Burghardt is joining us, a family friend out of Laguna Negel, California. Thank you for being here.
MONTE BURGHARDT, FAMILY FRIEND: Hi. How are you?
CASAREZ: I`m fine. This is Orange County, California. I know it well. I`m from that area. How did you find out that your good friends were dead?
BURGHARDT: Well, it was Tuesday morning. I happened to be at a local grocery store, and at the counter was a stack of Orange County Registers, our local big paper. There I was looking at the faces of my clients and friends on the front page, mystery of a double homicide unsolved. I guess I felt like I got kicked in the head, the sternum and the groin all at the same time. That was a defining moment there when time stood still for me.
CASAREZ: You know, Monte, tell us about this family, because this is Bradford and Andra Sachs, a very wealthy couple. I believe they had a lot of real estate holdings, right?
BURGHARDT: Absolutely, and I handled most of their real estate, commercial and residential, in the Orange County area.
CASAREZ: Tell us about their son.
BURGHARDT: Well, I sold them a house --
CASAREZ: The one we`re seeing on the screen there, the one charged with murder.
BURGHARDT: Ashton?
CASAREZ: Yes.
BURGHARDT: Well, I hadn`t interacted with him over the last several years because I -- his parents and I worked together just strictly on real estate. That was just full-time. But prior to that, around the time I sold them the home in 2009, in 2010, when he was basically 15, 16-ish, he was just an obnoxious, you know, very bright, practical joker sometimes too. Not being, you know, being the victim myself of some of his practical jokes, I was -- didn`t appreciate it at the time, but it was all in fun.
I don`t have a clue what could have happened to him between then and now. He`s now 19, I understand. I have not been around him. I don`t know how he`s matured, in what direction.
CASAREZ: What were some of the practical jokes that he did? I think one was shooting you with a water gun?
BURGHARDT: Well, we had a big pool party, housewarming party. The house is huge, it`s got multi levels. The hard deck of the pool was below the spa, which held about 15 people and a cascading waterfall about 25 feet above the pool. He was up there with this squirt gun the size of a bazooka that held about two gallons of water. He delighted in shooting at me when I wasn`t paying attention, you know, back of the head, or back of the back. I was all dressed in my nice clothes, enjoining the entertainment with a date at the time, and I just looked like I just got out of the pool. You know? I did appreciate it, it was fun. He laughed, I chased him, couldn`t catch him. He did that a few times, kind of terrorized me at the party. And that`s what I remember. The frustration I had. I tried to look good and it wasn`t looking like that.
CASAREZ: What did you ever hear about the family dynamic? Because how many kids were in the family? They also adopted two children, right? One who is now paralyzed, allegedly at the hands of Ashton.
BURGHARDT: Well, you know, we`re innocent until proven guilty, but it`s not looking good for the --
CASAREZ: I`m asking for the family dynamic.
(CROSSTALK)
BURGHARDT: Andra was absolutely very protective and so into her children and Ashton as well. She always really -- he was kind of the apple of her eye, I would say, and I think Landon (ph) was the apple of her right eye, because he was a cute, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy. When he was adopted, he was only four years old, and I got to spend time with him, and he was really wonderful. Miles (ph), the oldest was quite, a gentle type kid. Big --
CASAREZ: Monte, here`s the question I bet you wake up in the middle of the night asking yourself, which was why. Why would he do that?
BURGHARDT: It couldn`t be for money because they were well taken care of. All their properties were in LLCs for their children, so they were all going to be well taken care of for the rest of their lives. I just can`t see that -- they had need for nothing.
CASAREZ: Here`s something else we are learning, that shortly before Ashton Sachs was arrested, he and his brother had filed to be the guardians of the remaining children that had survived. We`re going to have more on that in just a minute.
But to tonight`s case alert, stunning surveillance video shows a female suspect stealing a Ford truck, allegedly kidnapping two small children inside. Their mother runs out of the store to try and stop who police say is the kidnapper, 49-year-old Natalie Holm.
Holm manages to get away, but abandons the truck and allegedly tries to steal another car near a golf course before she`s arrested. The two little girls, 4 and 5 years old, are safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Homicide investigators arrested Ashton Colby Sachs, the 19-year-old son of the deceased victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We interviewed him at length, and then he was placed under arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the time of the killings, deputies said the suspect did not force his way into the house, and that the Sachs were shot in their bed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: 19 years old, college student, Seattle, Washington, now charged with the murder of his parents in California. This case as it stands now is eligible for the death penalty. I want to go to Jill Ryan, investigative reporter, because here`s one important fact that law enforcement is saying, that Ashton Sachs had purchased the gun that was allegedly used to kill his parents?
RYAN: That is true. We have confirmed that he, in fact, purchased a gun. We`re not sure exactly when he did that or where he did that at this point, or what type of gun. That information has not yet been released.
CASAREZ: To Dr. Joye Carter, who is joining us, chief forensic pathologist from Marion County, Indiana, who is joining us, actually, from San Diego, the heart of where this case is happening right now. Forensically speaking, the gun, because somehow or other, they initially thought it was business associates, but then they turned their attention, law enforcement, to the son of this couple. Forensically speaking, is that what could have led to these charges?
DR. JOYE CARTER: Absolutely. They`re going to look at who purchased the gun, who had the gun. And if the son is the one who purchased the gun and used the gun, they`re going to look at that evidence, physical evidence, and try to track when that gun was purchased. That`s important.
CASAREZ: Michael Christian, Nancy Grace producer, do we have any idea when and where this gun was purchased?
CHRISTIAN: Obviously authorities have a theory about it, but they have not released that information, Nancy. We do know, however, they say they have the gun that they believe was used in this alleged crime.
CASAREZ: Do we know, Michael, where they found the gun at all?
CHRISTIAN: I`m sorry? Say that again, please?
CASAREZ: Do we know where they found the gun?
CHRISTIAN: They have not released that information.
CASAREZ: All right, very interesting. Eris Huemer, psychotherapist joining us tonight from Los Angeles. Just help us explain a family that appears to be rational, normal, obviously wealthy. Their son drives all the way from Seattle, purchases a gun allegedly at some point -- I mean, that in the minds of prosecutors is premeditation, special circumstances.
HUEMER: Yes, it is. And oftentimes when this happens, the mental illness goes undiagnosed until after this sort of crime is committed. So the anger that Ashton must have had for his parents is absolutely unthinkable for most of us looking in, but there definitely is some sort of mental illness happening, and it was probably undiagnosed.
CASAREZ: All right. Danny Cevallos, obviously one does not commit a crime like this. Mental illness is definitely where the defense will be going. What should they be doing right now, because he has been charged, he is awaiting his arraignment. What does the defense need to do?
CEVALLOS: This case is very similar to the Menendez brothers case of many years ago. There are a lot of similarities. You have what appears to be an open and shut case of premeditation. I would look for the defense to start rounding up all kinds of experts and all kinds of evidence that this boy had suffered some kind of emotional trauma at the hands of those same parents. I don`t know that it will necessarily work, but right now the way the facts are lining up, you`re looking for what they call in California the imperfect self-defense. Develop the idea that because of some long- term abuse, this defendant had to do what he did as a form of self-defense. Even if he was unreasonable in doing so and mistaken as to the belief that his life was in danger.
CASAREZ: And even though he was 1300 miles away, that`s exactly where I was going, not living in the state.
CEVALLOS: It`s an uphill battle.
CASAREZ: It is an uphill battle. Jill Ryan, tell us about he and his brother applying to be the guardians of the children that survived.
RYAN: We`re still learning new details. It seems new ones are coming out just about every hour. At this point investigators told us they found Ashton and they found his older brother Miles in San Diego. They were with their younger siblings. That`s where they applied, they filed paperwork to become the legal guardians. Ashton was taken into custody. We know he was questioned there, but he was returned to Orange County, and that`s where he is being held without bail.
CASAREZ: To Parag Shah, how likely do you think this is a death penalty case? They are alleging special circumstances in California, which is a requirement for that death penalty.
SHAH: I`m hoping this isn`t going to be a death penalty case. Because when you have children like this, 19 years old, committing acts like this, you know, we hope that these type of kids can be rehabilitated. And if there is a possibility he can be rehabilitated or if there is some mental illness, these are the kinds of people we don`t want to give the death penalty to. We want to try to rehabilitate him and give him life in prison to try to one day, hopefully, be a member of society. But no, I don`t think this is a death penalty case.
CASAREZ: On the other hand, he`s 19 years old. The U.S. Supreme Court allows the death penalty with someone of that age, and he went into his own home, got in there, high security at that home, and he shot, allegedly to death, his two parents as they slept.
When we come back, a 28-year-old Ohio murder suspect ends up naked at the jail. And then he attacks an officer. It is all caught on tape.
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CASAREZ: A 28-year-old Ohio murder suspect wanted in the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend ends up naked at the jail. Then he attacks an officer. Take a look at this video.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take a look at this. Surveillance video reveals a suspected murderer naked in a chair, but when guards attempt to let him out of the seat, he appears to punch an officer. The officer then strikes back, causing other officers to come running. What happened? And why was this man naked in the first place?
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CASAREZ: We`re going to talk more about this video, all right, to understand it, this naked video, but I want to show you a victim. Her name is Melissa Nilson (ph). Look at this beautiful young girl. Melissa Nilson was in her 20s. She had a little boy. She had graduated from school. She was trying hard to be the best mother she could be. Law enforcement is saying that the naked man in the video, he allegedly killed her point blank in her front yard.
I want to go to Melissa Neeley, who is joining us from Cincinnati, Ohio, a reporter with 700 WL Radio. This beautiful girl lost her life allegedly at the hands of the naked man in jail?
NEELEY: Yes, that`s right. Brian Mitchell, in this incident, he was being processed into the Montgomery County Jail on multiple charges.
CASAREZ: Melissa, I want you to watch this, I want you to look at this right here, okay? Because there are six, seven, eight, nine officers that arrive and then one moving the chairs, as you can see.
NEELEY: Yes, that`s right.
CASAREZ: But this man right here, the reason he was restrained, Melissa, in his chair was because -- and Clark Goldband, correct me if I`m wrong, he started banging his head on the glass.
GOLDBAND: Yes, Jean, you`re right. What we`ve learned from reports is authorities are currently saying this gentleman you see on the screen behind me was smashing his head on the side of the glass. For his own safety, authorities then put him into this special restraining chair. And because authorities say he was a threat to himself, he was stripped naked in the chair. Then what you just saw on your screen occurred after the authorities tried to take him out of the chair. You see the before behind me. Jean, take a look at this. We advance on to the next screen, and here`s the after. And you can really appreciate it side by side. Let`s put that up. You can see the before and after. Here you really see under the eyes big deep heavy bruising. Why the bruising? Authorities say it`s because he swung at an officer first. The sheriff says he`s reviewed this tape, and, Jean, he says he stands by his man. He`s done nothing wrong. He was simply defending himself.
CASAREZ: And the moral of the story is you don`t strike out at jail guards when you`re sitting naked in the chair.
Liz, I want to start this video from the beginning, because I want to show people how they had him restrained in what looks at first glance like a wheelchair, but it is just a chair, so that he will cause no harm to himself or others.
And there he goes, down, and the result is he`s got two black eyes. But officers have to act very quickly because is it not true that someone can actually escape when they are in that situation? Okay. We`re going to go to break and we`re going to talk more about this case and also someone who was a very close friend of Melissa Nilson who lost her life.
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CASAREZ: And we`ve been showing you this video of 28-year-old Ryan Mitchell naked in jail. He hits the jailers, jailers subdue him. But let`s get to the real heart of this story. Her name is Melissa Miller. Her brother is joining us, because Ryan was in jail because he allegedly point blank shot Melissa in the head and killed her. Jonathan Nilson, thank you for joining us. Your sister is so beautiful. As we look at pictures, she was young and so alive and so ready to begin her life. Tell us about her.
JONATHAN NILSON, BROTHER: That she was, Jean. She was a wonderful person. She had a heart of gold. She didn`t judge anyone, gave everybody equal opportunity in life.
CASAREZ: And I think what you`re trying to tell me right there because Ryan had quite a rap record. This wasn`t his first stint at the rodeo in jail. Why do you think she was even dating him?
NILSON: Honestly, I can`t speculate. She saw the good in everyone, you know? I think that`s pretty much as simple as it is. She saw the good in everyone. She gave everyone a chance. It didn`t matter what your past history was, there was always an opportunity for you to change. That`s how she felt about life and people.
CASAREZ: What were her conditions of her death? Was she out in her front yard?
NILSON: She was in her front yard and her son was in the living room. Her son didn`t see anything, thank goodness, but he was there. He was stuck in the house for a little while while police handled everything.
CASAREZ: Wow. Unbelievable. How did you find out?
NILSON: We received a call -- actually, my parents received a call. I had just happened to call almost immediately after they had received the call, and they said something was going on, so I went ahead and drove over there as fast as I could.
CASAREZ: Psychotherapist Eris Huemer, quite a good girls fall for bad guys.
HUEMER: You never know what the case is here. There could have been, you know -- there`s definitely a person who has this sort of history of abuse, there`s always a honeymoon phase where they can whisper sweet nothings into your ear and make you really fall for them. So that`s probably what happened. He seems to have a history of a lot of crime going on, and so she -- like her brother said, she saw the best in him in hopes that he could be that prince charming that at times he played out to be.
CASAREZ: All right, very, very sad. Tonight, everyone, we stop to remember American hero Army Staff Sergeant John Cleaver, 36 years old from Marysville, Washington. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He`s from a military family. He loved flying planes and learning new languages. He leaves behind his parents Ronald and Theresa, his brother Ron, his sister Rhonda and two sons. John Cleaver, a true American hero. Dr. Drew is coming up next.
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