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Nancy Grace
Jodi Arias Gets Life. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired April 13, 2015 - 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. We go live to the Phoenix courthouse. They meet up on a trip for work in Vegas and fall hard, but
when the flame burns out, they break up. She then moves 300 miles to get back together, to pursue him, even converting to Mormonism to get her man.
But then 30-year-old Travis Alexander found slumped dead in the shower of his five-bedroom home, shot, stabbed 29 times, his throat slit from ear
to ear, violence so brutal it resembles a mob hit.
Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, the trial judge hands down a sentence for lover-turned-killer Jodi Arias, her natural life behind bars,
no possibility of parole.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED OF MURDER: He was Still trying to attack me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jodi was the one that murdered my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this evil that sits in this room behind me!
ARIAS: It was I who was trying to get away, not Travis, and I finally did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope (INAUDIBLE) she will have some remorse!
ARIAS: Maybe I wasn`t badly -- as badly abused as Travis and his siblings were by their parents.
I did not drag Travis through the mud. I protected Travis`s reputation for years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don`t spare her (INAUDIBLE) mercy (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, North Charleston, graphic video surfacing after a 33-year-old white police officer, Michael Slager, pulls over a 50-year-old
black man over a busted tail light. By the time it`s all said and done, the driver, 50-year-old Water Scott, face down dead in the dirt from five
gunshot wounds to the back, the officer insisting Scott was fighting him for his taser. But it`s all caught on video. There is no taser struggle.
We have the video. Did 33-year-old white police officer, Slager, gun down a 50-year-old black man in cold blood?
Breaking tonight. In addition to damning dashcam video, in the last hours, we obtain shocking and stunning audio and video of the shooter,
Officer Slager, and what he says to other cops right after he guns down Mr. Scott, as Scott`s body`s still warm, laying in the dirt. And tonight,
demands the backup officer be arrested, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The adrenaline`s just pumping (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay in the car!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rest of what happens is out of view of the camera and is only picked up in pieces by Slager`s microphone. He sounds
like he`s running, and he can be heard yelling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taser! Taser! Taser!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shortly after that, Scott is shot dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, the trial judge hands down a sentence for lover-turned-killer Jodi Arias. That sentence, her natural
life behind bars, life without the possibility of parole.
Straight out to Jean Casarez, CNN correspondent, on the story. Jean, amazingly, when Arias had a chance to apologize, she did just the opposite.
Take a look, everyone. We`re going in the courtroom. Jodi Arias attacks Travis`s family in open court!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED OF MURDER: I think I would have testified to this in the 2014 trial. I do remember -- I do remember the moment when the
knife went into Travis`s throat, and he was conscious. He was still trying to attack me. It was I who was trying to get away, not Travis, and I
finally did. I never wanted it to be that way, Judge.
The gunshot did not come last, it came first. And that was when Travis lunged at me, just as I testified to and just as the state`s own
detective testified to years ago, before he and Juan got together and decided to change their story for trial.
As for not being abused, maybe I wasn`t badly -- as badly abused as Travis and his siblings were by their parents, but I didn`t consider it
abuse, either. I didn`t consider being beaten and hit and all those things abuse. That was discipline in my family. That`s how my parents were
disciplined by their parents. That`s why I didn`t consider those things abuse. I understand now that that`s abuse. So for Samantha to say that I
was not a victim of abuse is wrong because I was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:12]GRACE: And then, Jean Casarez, Jodi Arias turns around, looks at Travis Alexander`s family -- and you know they`re all seated on
the very front row -- and says, I tried to settle this thing. They wouldn`t, pointing at Travis Alexander`s family, attacking them.
You know, this was her chance, Jean, her golden opportunity to get down on her knees, lay prostrate in front of Alexander`s family and say, I
am sorry for what I did. I am sorry I killed Travis. But instead, she goes on the attack!
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you imagine the emotion that would have come from that, to bare her soul finally, to apologize. But
what this is -- this is a rebuttal argument to the victim impact statements. That`s what this is because she is going point by point to
refute what the family is saying.
And by the way, she suddenly remembered what happened in that bathroom. When I sat in that courtroom, Nancy, she didn`t remember it
under examination.
GRACE: You know, you`re right, Jean. Throughout her trial -- and joining me right now, Beth Karas, Karasoncrime.com, in court today.
All throughout the trial, she claimed she couldn`t remember. It was like she was in a fog. But Jean`s right. Today, she suddenly remembers
and she tells the judge -- I don`t know how she thinks this is going to help her. She says to the judge, Oh, yes, Travis was alive and conscious
when I stabbed him in the throat. I mean, how is that supposed to help her?
BETH KARAS, KARASONCRIME.COM (via telephone): That was actually very shocking to all of us in the courtroom. It was a packed courtroom, and I
was surrounded by many of Travis Alexander`s friends and family, supporters, all wearing blue in honor of him today.
And when her fog lifted today -- that`s what happened, her fog lifted -- she was able to recall that she was still fighting for her own life at
the time she slit his throat.
I`ve always maintained she slit his throat because he just wasn`t dying and he was three feet from the door outside of his bedroom. She had
to kill him before he got outside his bedroom. He had -- he stumbled down the 12-foot hallway. He was almost outside his bedroom, and it would have
been a very, very different case. She would not have been on the lam for several weeks had there been blood on the threshold of his bedroom.
GRACE: You know, you`re right. And Jean Casarez, you identified it the moment she said it. She now tells Travis Alexander`s family in the
sentencing today, her chance to apologize -- it`s not probative. This isn`t going to guilt or innocence -- her chance to turn and say, I`m sorry.
And instead, she blasts his family for not doing a plea deal, not agreeing to a plea deal. She blasted them. And then she says, I`m a victim.
She goes on to say Travis Alexander was alive and conscious when she stabbed him in the throat? You know, Judge Stephens was just staring at
her. What do you make of it, Jean?
CASAREZ: Well, I think slashing of the throat came almost near the end, so that means, if she remembers this, then she must remember it all.
And Nancy, I also think that this was ad-libbed. I don`t think it was planned because before she began to speak, she and Jennifer Willmot
conferred. There was a little bit of talking there. And I think it was spur of the moment -- I`ve got to get in there, I`ve got to say these
things because they`re wrong what they`re saying about me.
GRACE: Go back in the courtroom. Take a listen to what Jodi Arias says, pleading for her life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIAS: I want to respond to a few of the things that were said earlier. My legal team and I tried to settle this case on four different
occasions before trial. We tried two times before the 2013 trial. And what Samantha said was not accurate. I was not the one who refused to
settle.
It was Travis`s family who not only refused to settle and insisted on both trials, but then they bragged about it all over social media,
including posting a group photo on the steps of this very courthouse, holding out all of their thumbs down, refusing to settle.
As for not wanting the death penalty, it`s my firm belief that death would bring me untold peace and freedom. That`s my personal belief. If I
died today, I would be free and I would be at peace.
For years, that`s exactly what I wanted. But I had to fight for my life, just like I did on June 4th, 2008, because I realized how selfish it
would be for me to escape accountability for this mess that I created.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There she goes, claiming that Travis Alexander attacked her and she had to fight for her life, when two juries have rejected that.
She wasn`t the only one speaking in court. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to leave this courtroom in Arizona and this evil that sits in this room behind me! I want to remember my
brother, Travis Victor Alexander, as the man he was, a man of service, a man of love and inspiration, a man of God, a man who cared so much for
others.
[20:10:22]I want to lay my head down at night knowing his murderer will pay for his senseless murder at Perryville prison for the rest of her
life. Please. I prayed every single day before court that she would just come clean and tell the truth, stop murdering my brother again and again by
smearing his name, that she would just tell the truth. I hope (INAUDIBLE) that she could have some remorse, but she has shown no mercy for Travis nor
our family!
And what I`m asking of you, Judge Stephens, is please don`t spare her any mercy in her sentence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:15:46]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to leave this courtroom in Arizona and this evil that sits in this room behind me!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So sick to my stomach, knowing I was about to walk into the place my brother was brutally murdered in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) maximum sentence that you possibly could give her because she deserves nothing more!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is ordered the defendant shall be incarcerated in the Department of Corrections for the rest of her natural
life, with no possibility of parole.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: What will life be for Jodi Arias? In the last hours, the judge hands down the sentence finally, after multiple trials, multiple
sentencing hearings, life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
But don`t count Jodi Arias out yet. Between lovelorn suitors sending her money, making money from her artwork, it`s far from over for Jodi
Arias.
But in the last hours, heart-breaking, raw emotion in a court of law. Take a listen to Travis Alexander`s family as they beg the judge to
sentence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to leave this courtroom in Arizona and this evil that sits in this room behind me! I want to remember my
brother, Travis Victor Alexander, as the man he was, a man of service, a man of love and inspiration, a man of God, a man who cared so much for
others.
I want to lay my head down at night knowing his murderer will pay for his senseless murder at Perryville prison for the rest of her life.
Please. I`ve prayed every single day before court that she would just come clean and tell the truth, stop murdering my brother again and again by
smearing his name, that she would just tell the truth.
I hope (INAUDIBLE) that she can have some remorse, but she has shown no mercy on Travis nor our family! And what I`m asking of you, Judge
Stephens, is please don`t spare her any mercy in her sentence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to you, Tammy Rose with KFYI, at the courthouse. Tammy, what did you observe?
TAMMY ROSE, KFYI: You know, it was a very emotional sentencing hearing, when we heard three of Travis Alexander`s sisters and an aunt
address the judge, who said that they will not be able to get those graphic autopsy photos out of their head. And then they also said that they didn`t
feel that Jodi Arias was remorseful.
And then again, for her to get up and say -- and remember all of a sudden that she said Travis Alexander was conscious as she drove that knife
into his neck -- I mean, the reaction from family members -- you know, even when you think you`ve heard it all, everybody was just appalled as they
heard her address the judge.
GRACE: Well, another thing, attacking the family in the way that she did -- let`s go back in the courtroom. You hear Travis Alexander`s sisters
breaking down in tears.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But instead, he was brutally murdered by a jealous, obsessive person that decided for herself that if she couldn`t
have him, nobody else would, this person who once said she couldn`t think of anyone that didn`t love Travis, that if she killed Travis, she would beg
for the death penalty, the one who wrote in her journal that the person that did this sickening crime deserved a needle in their arm. What
happened to that? What happened to that, Jodi?
This road to recovery and repair our family is going on will continue. It doesn`t end here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And then -- to you, Jean Casarez -- the sister talked about when they heard that Travis was dead and they raced to his home, how some
of the sisters didn`t even have the strength to step into his bedroom.
[20:20:08]CASAREZ: You know, Samantha went into that because she was just about to go fishing and she got a phone call from her grandmother.
And she knew the tone of that voice and what it was because they`d had other deaths in the family and it was the same tone. And she made her way
to Arizona.
But I learned something that I hadn`t know. She said today in that sentencing that Travis had come to her wanting law enforcement advice
because she`s a police officer and he had said to her, What do I do? Because I believe this girl, Jodi Arias, has slashed my tires multiple
times.
GRACE: You know, I didn`t hear that, either, throughout the trial. Today was the first time I head that. We had all speculated that she was
the one that had slashed his tires, but we never knew that Travis Alexander himself was in fear of that very thing.
Listen to where the sisters, nearly doubled over in grief, describe going to Travis Alexander`s home and finding the crime scene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I knew in my heart within a matter of hours of finding out about Travis`s death that Jodi was the one that murdered my
brother.
We arrived to (INAUDIBLE) on June 10th. After three days of waiting, we got a call that the crime scene was cleared and we were allowed to enter
Travis`s home. I remember being so sick to my stomach, knowing I was about to walk into the place my brother was brutally murdered in.
We walked in the front door. Everything looked pretty normal. We started to walk up towards Travis`s bedroom, and I could barely breathe.
My poor little sister, Hillary, couldn`t even go in the room.
I remember the first step I made into his room, reality set in. I immediately noticed a large piece of carpet missing from the floor. I saw
a hole cut into the wall in the hallways leading to his master bathroom. I looked down the hallway, knowing where the shower was, and my heart sank.
My stomach started burning, my ears started ringing, and I could barely hear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:26:02]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said, Samantha, you need to call me. It`s very important. Travis is dead. I`m on the verge of puking.
ARIAS: Truly disgusting (ph) and I`m repulsed with myself. I`m horrified because of what I did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has shown no mercy on Travis nor our family! And what I`m asking of you, Judge Stephens, is please don`t spare her any
mercy in her sentence.
And most of the time (INAUDIBLE) in the shower (INAUDIBLE) because that`s where she -- she killed him! (INAUDIBLE) I`m shaking (INAUDIBLE)
and quickly get out of the shower! Judge Stephens, I know you`ve seen the pain that she put my brother through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There you hear Travis Alexander`s sister say she can`t even set foot in the shower now because it reminds her of Travis, her brother`s,
brutal slaughter in his own shower.
In the last hours, the judge hands down a sentence, a sentence of life behind bars without the possibility of parole on Jodi Arias.
To Jean Casarez. Where is she headed now? Where will she go?
CASAREZ: She`s going to Perryville. And I`ve got to tell you, Nancy, because she`s got a life sentence and not a death sentence, she`s got so
many more benefits! Now, when she gets there, she`s going to be pretty excluded from everybody else for quite a while. Her meals will be through
a slit in the door. She`s all by herself.
But there`s an outlet for a television and an outlet for electricity for a radio. She has to buy those things but can communicate. After a
certain amount of time, $80 a week at the commissary. She can buy things to enjoy herself with.
GRACE: You know, with me right now is Dave Hall, a dear friend of Travis Alexander. You know, Dave Hall, we know that Jodi Arias sells her
artwork for thousands and thousands of dollars. She has a Facebook and I think Twitter account going, where she communicates with the public. She`s
got a list of lovelorn men that write her and send her money.
How does that sit with you, knowing that within a period of months, she`s going to have all the benefits, basically, of general population?
DAVE HALL, FRIEND OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: Well, this is exactly why the Alexander family and friends close to Travis were in favor of the death
penalty. We realized that, most likely, it would take 20-plus years to actually get the death sentence executed. But we wanted her locked up and
confined and to actually pay for what she did to Travis.
And you know, to know that she can have, you know, all these benefits and be out doing artwork and in the general population, playing games,
watching television, visitation from family and friends -- it just doesn`t feel like justice was fully served today.
GRACE: And not only that, there`s some guy out there who actually wants to marry her.
With me is Dave Hall, a dear friend of Travis Alexander. Joining me right now is Barrett Marson, former director of communications, Arizona
Department of Corrections.
Barrett, thanks for being with us. What will life be like for Arias behind bars?
BARRETT MARSON, FMR. DIR. OF COMM., ARIZONA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS (via telephone): Well, it certainly won`t be a lot of fun. She`ll have to
redefine what fun is in her life. As noted, she can purchase a small flat- screen television which gets about a dozen channels.
But she`s going to be in her cell 23 hours a day for six days a week and 24 hours a day on the seventh day. She will not have a lot of human
contact with other inmates. She`ll get to go outside in rec in a holding enclosure for about an hour a day, take a shower. But she`s not going to
have, you know, that human contact that everyone talks about her craving.
GRACE: Kinsey Scofield, blogger, social media strategist, in court today, Kinsey, when I think about how very soon she will have amenities,
how after a period of time she`ll get more and more privileges, we know men send her money. She does this art work. She has Facebook. She has
Twitter. How does that jive with what you saw Travis`s family in court just this morning?
KINSEY SCOFIELD: Imagine what they`re going through. We can`t sit behind them for two years and not love them dearly and grieve with them.
But Jodi Arias really showed her true colors today, the fact that she got up there after Sam stated she wondered what her brother was going through,
she wondered what his last moments were like, and Jodi stuck the knife in deeper by saying he was still alive when she slit his throat. That was
such a sick thing to do. And she`s going to continue to harass the family and that`s what I`m concerned with. She`s going to continue to harass
them, she`s going to continue to try to be loud and obnoxious, and she`s not going anywhere. That`s what really upsets me. And that`s what really
concerns me.
GRACE: Jean Casarez, when it was all said and done today, Jodi Arias gets life behind bars without parole. We know that can turn on a dime.
Everything can change. Jodi Arias has beat the odds so many times. I don`t know how she does it, but she does. And it gives me the feeling that
I had when I would walk out of court after a hard-fought trial, and there would be a guilty verdict in a sentence. Everybody leaves with a broken
heart. This family, we all, well, other people keep talking about closure, closure, closure. You`ve got one sister that can`t even put her foot in
the shower, because she remembers her brother being slaughtered there.
CASAREZ: Everybody, everybody, Nancy, leaves with a broken heart. All these lives are destroyed. And that`s what, we know this, because
we`re in the courtroom and we see it. But not one person`s life will ever, ever, ever be the same. And as far as Jodi Arias, she will have appeals.
They`ve got about ten days to give notice of an appeal. So this will now start round two.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:36:40]
GRACE: Live, North Charleston, graphic video surfacing after a 33- year-old white officer, Michael Slager, pulls over a 50 year old black man over a busted taillight. By the time it`s all said and done, 50 year old
Walter Scott is face down, dead in the dirt, from five gunshot wounds to the back. Breaking now, in addition to damning dashcam video, in the last
hours, we obtained stunning audio and video of the shooter, Officer Slager, and what he had to say to other cops right after he guns down Scott. As
Scott`s body still lays warm on the dirt. And tonight, demands the backup officer go to jail too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott starts to get out of his car. The officer shouts a command. Less than 30 seconds later, Scott gets out of his car
and runs. The rest of what happens is out of the view of the camera.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now we believe that the video we are about to show was caught inadvertently on a dash cam. A dash cam police car video. All right,
let`s roll, and let`s hear what was being said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once I get here, it will be real quick. They`ll tell you you`ll be off for a couple days and they`ll come back and
interview you then. But they`re not going to ask you any questions right now. They`re going to take your weapon. We`ll go from there, that`s
pretty much it. The last time we had to wait a couple of days to interview -- official interview, a sit down and tell what happened. By the time you
get home, it`d probably be a good eye to kind of jot down your thoughts about whatever happened and once the adrenaline stops pumping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s pumping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: If you listen very carefully, you will hear Slager break out into laughter. Laughter as they are talking about the adrenaline pumping
through his body. To Kelly Golden, host at WSC. Kelly, thank you for being with us. Explain what all Slager is saying now. Keep in mind, 50
year old Walter Scott is still face down in the dirt. His body is still warm. What is Slager saying?
KELLY GOLDEN, WSC: Good evening, Nancy. Well, you`ll hear the general rundown there of what then Officer Slager should expect now that
he`s shot someone in the line of duty. A lot of course being made of a reference to the fellow officer in that recording of making of Slager`s
adrenaline pumping, that he needs to go home and write down the stuff of the day and the events, and assuming that he means calming down after all
this horrific chaos. Slager, unfortunately, you hear there laugh, you hear him saying oh, yes, oh, yes. Could be nervous laughter. Of course a key
question is what exactly was the officer nervous about? And we also have our former state attorney general questioning why in that recording you
hear the officer saying that he`s got a couple of days before he`s ever going to be asked any questions by investigators.
GRACE: Right.
[20:40:00]
Let`s go now to North Charleston, Julius Wilson who was actually going to court over alleged abuse by Slager, and his lawyer is with him, Nicholas
Cleikis. Thank you for being with us. Mr. Wilson, you are actually filing a suit against Officer Slager. Give it to me in a nutshell so I can
understand. What do you say happened?
JULIUS WILSON, FILED LAWSUIT AGAINST SLAGER: I was pulled over on a traffic violation.
GRACE: Yes, sir.
WILSON: For a brake light out. And I was told I was going to jail for driving on suspension, but I had a valid driver`s license at the time.
And that`s basically it.
GRACE: Hold on. (inaudible), he pulls you over, and I believe you had a Georgia driver`s license. What do you say happens after he pulls you
over?
WILSON: He -- he figured since, since the South Carolina license was suspended, he didn`t want -- he didn`t want to use proper protocol, since I
had a Georgia license, so he just took it to his own hands to arrest me.
NICHOLAS CLEIKIS, ATTORNEY: And Nancy, you need to know that the arresting officer is Officer Woods, and Officer Slager came up later to
assist Officer Woods, and when they pulled Mr. Wilson out of the car is when Officer Slager decided after he was about to be handcuffed to tase him
unnecessarily.
GRACE: That`s what I`m asking your client, Mr. Cleikis, Julius Wilson, you still haven`t told me, did Slager tase you?
WILSON: Oh, yes, Officer Slager tased me when I was laying face down on the ground.
GRACE: You were already laying face down on the ground when he tased you?
WILSON: Yes, ma`am. I was about to be put in handcuffs. He stopped officers from putting handcuffs on me, told them to move, then he tased me
in my back.
GRACE: Can you tell me, I`ve never been tased, what that pain was like?
WILSON: That -- that was a life-changing experience. So that was, it was pretty crucial. It was --
GRACE: Tell me, I want to hear, I want to know.
WILSON: Nothing I want to go through again. Hey, it was, whoo, it was an experience I don`t want to experience again.
GRACE: Was it, as soon as the taser was off you, does the pain go away? Does it shoot through your whole body? Does it leave marks on you?
Did it make you scream? What? I want to know.
WILSON: Yes. Yes. Yes, it made me scream. Yes. I screamed like a little baby, you know. It left marks like three prong holes in the back.
Had me all bloodied up. Ripped through my shirt. And oh, yes. The electricity, seemed like it ran, like a minute at least, and when it
subsided, then, I got a little boost of energy. So it was --
GRACE: Okay. I want to understand this. With me is Julius Wilson and his lawyer, Nicholas Cleikis, he says he was pulled over for a busted
taillight again, and Officer Slager said he didn`t have a valid license, but you did in fact have a valid Georgia driver`s license, which was proved
in court. Are you telling me that you are down on your face, and that is when Officer Slager asked the other officers to step aside, and he tased
you?
WILSON: Yes, ma`am. That`s exactly what I`m stating.
GRACE: And what did the other officers do?
WILSON: Nothing, I don`t think they had enough time to react. It all happened so quick. It all happened so quick. They had no time to react.
GRACE: What did you think when you heard about Mr. Walter Scott?
WILSON: I thought, when I, when they said the name, I said I knew that name from somewhere, from the police reports. And that`s when I said,
I called my lawyer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:48:35]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The video of Walter Scott`s shooting not only shows the end of his life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dash cam video now released, capturing the moment Officer Michael Slager pulls over Walter Scott.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, as you see in the banner at the bottom of the screen, cop`s nervous laughter after murder. I don`t know why it says murder. I
don`t know why it says nervous. Because what you hear is Officer Slager laughing, as they are talking about his adrenaline rush after the shooting.
I don`t know who thinks it`s nervous. I hear laughing. Maybe it is. Maybe it`s not. But what I know I hear is Slager laughing after the
shooting. I want to go to Dr. Ann Contrucci, a physician joining us out of Atlanta. What will we be able to tell from the five bullet wounds,
especially entry and exit?
CONTRUCCI: Nancy, I think this was just a pretty brutal killing. How quickly did he die? Good question. I think it depends on where all these
bullets hit.
GRACE: I know one went through the heart. .
CONTRUCCI: Yes. Then fortunately then, it was over very quickly.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Jeff Gold, Randy Kessler, also joining me Cheryl Dorsey and Greg Cason. To you, Jeff Gold, what you`re about to see
right now is the dash cam video that we obtained.
[20:50:07]
Jeff Gold, what`s your defense of Slager, this, as the backup cop now calls that he be arrested for claiming that he rendered aid and did not? And,
how did that taser get planted there? What`s your defense?
GOLD: That second officer may have a big problem. I`m still not sure about Slager. I`m still not sure exactly why the defendant was running and
what that was about. These things are in bits and pieces. And I do think it sounded like nervous laster to me, too, after this incident. So I don`t
know if it was or wasn`t. I don`t know why the state has jumped to charging him with murder so quickly. It`s the fastest I`ve ever seen an
officer charged with murder. What is the rush to do that?
GRACE: Funny you would say that, Jeff Gold. Randy Kessler joining me out of Atlanta, you see him on video gunning Mr. Scott down as he`s running
away. And then on this audio we just obtained, we think from somebody`s dashcam, you hear Slager laughing afterwards.
KESSLER: Right. You do see him shoot him, and had you not had the video, you would have thought maybe there`s a legitimate reason for
shooting him. The point is, when you have video, you know what happens. We don`t have the video of what was happening right before he shot him.
What was happening right before the video was turned on, that`s going to be where the reasonable doubt lies.
GRACE: Greg Cason, psychologist, that`s total BS, because you see Scott running. He`s unarmed. He doesn`t have a taser, which was first
said. He doesn`t have a gun. He`s on the run. What does it matter? What happened 30 seconds before? I don`t understand, what`s the frame of mind?
CASON: What`s the frame of mind of the police officer?
GRACE: Yes.
CASON: One can only think he thought he was in a great deal of threat. But I don`t know how someone can feel threatened by someone who
has their back to them and is running away from them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:56:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`ll tell you, you`ll be off for a couple days. They`re not going to ask you any kind of questions right now. They`ll take
your weapon. We`ll go from there. That`s pretty much it. The last one we had they waited a couple days to interview -- official interview, I sit
down and tell them what happened. When you get home, it will probably be a good idea to jot down your thoughts of what happened.
SLAGER: Okay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once the adrenaline stops pumping.
SLAGER: It`s pumping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Okay. I heard it again, to Cheryl Dorsey, retired LAPD sergeant, laughing. Now, HLN put this up, cop`s nervous laughter after
murder. I don`t know that I would infuse it with the word nervous. I just heard laughter.
DORSEY: Listen, Nancy, we understand there`s a certain amount of bravado that goes with being involved in an officer-involved shooting.
There are police officers, and I don`t know that officer`s heart, but certainly there are officers that live for that. There are officers who
want to work what they call a jumping division. They want to be where the action is. That`s code talk for I want to be in an area where I can abuse
people, where I can use excessive force because they don`t complain. That`s what I hear in that chuckle. If he were a gangster, he`d have a
tear drop tattooed under his eye right now.
GRACE: Jeff Gold, Randy Kessler. To you, Kessler. Other than Ferguson, I can`t even recall a time where I sided against a cop. But this
is on video. And for him to be laughing after, I mean, you guys are defending him, you`re claiming it`s nervous laughter. I didn`t hear that.
KESSLER: You know what, he does have an uphill battle. These other cases didn`t have eyewitnesses, much less video. O.J. Simpson, there was
no eyewitness. You got an eyewitness here and a video. So he has an uphill battle. The question is what caused him to feel like he had to
shoot him? We don`t see what happened right before he took off.
GRACE: Wait, wait, we do see what happened.
KESSLER: Not right before.
GRACE: We do see, to both of you, I see -- I see Slager has a taser in his hand. I see that. He said that Mr. Scott grabbed the taser. Well,
he didn`t, because Slager`s got it, not Scott. So why do you keep saying that?
KESSLER: We don`t know what else could have happened. Nancy, if you didn`t see this video, most of America would have assumed he had a reason
to shoot him. Now we see it looks bad for him. Video clears things up. We don`t have video of what happened right before. We don`t have that
video.
GRACE: So what, is my point. So what? Jeff Gold, because we`ve got the video of the time of the shooting. The guy is running. We just got
audio of him laughing about his adrenaline rush from gunning down Mr. Scott. People, give me a defense.
GOLD: Look, Nancy, we don`t know why he`s running. Think about this. Why is he running? What happened before that? Why is he running? I think
that the defense is going to be that he grabbed for the taser. Why else is he running?
GRACE: Right now, we have just played for you that audio of the cop laughing after. You know what, that`s going to be interpreted by a jury,
not by a banner that they stuck at the bottom of this screen, but by a jury.
Let`s stop and remember, American hero Marine Captain Robert Secher, 33, Germantown, Tennessee, Bronze Star, from a family of military vets, a
training facility named in his honor, parents, Elke (ph) and (inaudible). Four sisters, one brother. Robert Secher, American hero. Drew up next,
I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
