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Nancy Grace
Mom Murders 6-Year-Old and Dad. Aired 8-8:30p ET
Aired August 04, 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, live, Lakeland, Florida. Bombshell tonight. Does a 25-year-old mom murder her 6-year-old little
girl and her own father, stage an elaborate disappearance of the two, all in a bid to hold onto a new boyfriend?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing`s more horrific than the murder of a child, except when it`s done by a parent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jessie murdered her father and her daughter, and then left their bodies inside of his home for days before putting the
remains in a duffel bag and then dumping them in the back of a neighbor`s shed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, North Carolina, a so-called spoiled brat, UNC junior, gets tanked up on booze with a fake ID, kills three -- three! --
including a 6-year-old little girl, in a fiery wrong-way crash. Outrage tonight, spoiled brat kills three people, then walks free after Mommy and
Daddy put up a million-dollar bond. I`m sick!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Troopers say Kanye (ph) was driving north in southbound lanes of I-85 in Orange County, the wrong way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In court, attorneys argued to get the college student back home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eventually hitting another vehicle, killing three and injuring another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, upscale Rockford, caught on video, the shocking moment an angry dad tries to run down a group of middle schoolers for
bullying his little girl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Viral Facebook video of a man trying to run over a dozen Rockford kids, Roy Williams (ph) in his Dodge Durango, accelerating
toward the kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Revving his engine to speed up. He was just going after everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And American songbird Whitney Houston`s only child, Bobbi Kristina, found face down in a bathtub at mom Whitney Houston`s condo,
survives months in a coma, but then loses her battle to live, Bobbi Kristina pronounced dead, a criminal investigation ongoing.
Upsetting and shocking news tonight. A photo of Bobbi Kristina`s body lying dead in her casket has sold to the highest bidder, allegedly six
figures.
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight.
Bombshell tonight. To Lakeland, Florida, in the suburbs there. Does a 25-year-old mom murder her 6-year-old little girl and her own father,
then stage an elaborate disappearance of the two all in a bid to hold onto a new boyfriend?
The first thing that raised my suspicion here was the time between the moment we think the 6-year-old daughter disappears and the moment that she
is reported missing by Mommy several weeks later.
Take a look at this little girl. Meredith Jessie (ph) is a 6-year-old little girl -- there she is with a little pixie haircut -- who goes
missing, reported missing two weeks after she`s last seen. This 6-year-old little girl is dead. Why? Because Mommy wants a new boyfriend to stick
around and the price of loved and sex with a new boyfriend is her daughter`s life? And you know, throw in her own father`s life to boot?
Straight out to Angie Oliver, the news director at WLKF. It`s almost too much for me to take in. Let`s start at the beginning because this is
like a ball of string that`s got to be unraveled. When did the 6-year-old little girl go missing?
ANGIE OLIVER, WLKF (via telephone): Well, as you mentioned, Nancy, a horrific case. It started out as a missing person`s case, and there were
weeks passed between the time she was missing or reported missing and the time she was found and determined to be killed by her very own mother.
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing a shot of 25-year-old mom Cheyenne Jessie. Her father, Mark Weekly, and her little girl, Meredith Jessie, a
6-year-old little girl, 1st grader -- as school year starts all around the country, this little girl should be buying her school clothes and getting
her pencil case together. But no, a funeral is planned for her and her extended family mourning her death. Why? Because Mommy`s got a new
boyfriend?
To Andrea Oliver again, WLKF. So the little girl goes missing. Who`s the last one to see her alive?
[20:05:05]OLIVER: Well, as it turns out, the little girl was with Daddy. And they apparently had a relatively decent relationship. The
little girl was with Daddy. He was very much on scene when all of this started to unfold. And there are indications that Mommy was also present
and possibly the last person to see both of them alive.
GRACE: Wow. You are seeing shots of Mom right there, you know, looking straight at the camera. Take a look at that, seemingly a normal
mom. There had never been complaints about her before. Her little girl`s body has been found, along with the body of her father. Now, how does a
woman take on not only her child, but her own father, and leave them both dead?
Rita Cosby, investigative journalist and also ABC host -- Rita, what are the facts? How did the whole thing start?
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Well, Cheyenne Jessie said she went over -- first she told authorities that she went over and dropped off
her daughter at her father`s house. And then, as you point out, nothing happened until, suddenly, relatives were asking, Where is the daughter?
Where is the father? What`s been going on?
Two weeks go by, and then she calls 911 and says her daughter has vanished and that her father sent text messages to her boyfriend saying,
I`m going off. I only have one year left of my life. I have cancer, and I want to spend it with my granddaughter.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait! So suddenly, the father, the grandfather, develops a serious terminal illness that no one
else knew about?
COSBY: Exactly. According to these text messages that they claim the father sent to the boyfriend. Now, it turns out the question is...
GRACE: Hold on, Rita. Hold on just a moment. I`m being joined right now out of Winter Haven, Florida, by Sheriff Grady Judd, the Polk County
sheriff. Sheriff, thanks so much for being with us.
GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY SHERIFF: I`m glad to be with you, Nancy.
GRACE: You know, Sheriff, I`ve covered a lot of homicides and I`ve prosecuted a lot of homicides and put a lot of bad guys behind bars. But
the thought of a 6-year-old child`s body and the baby`s grandfather -- it`s -- it`s overwhelming to me. This little girl -- look at her. She`s being
taught how to fish one minute, the next minute, we find out her body has been discovered.
Now, it`s kind of tough for me to understand, Sheriff, that motive for murder would be because you want a new boyfriend? You want to hold onto a
new boyfriend? Really?
Why do you think that may have been a motive? What leads you to think that? And by the way, the boyfriend is not implicated in this at all. He
doesn`t have anything to do with this.
What makes you think that, Sheriff?
JUDD: Well, we heard a lot of stories from her when all of this started to unfold. And we had relatives and friends say, you know, she
really, really needed and wanted this boyfriend. Her father was saying, You`ve got to keep your daughter under control. The boyfriend was saying,
You need to get your child under control. The father said, you know, Why is it that I don`t have any trouble with your daughter, only you do?
Nancy, at the end of the day, all indications are at this point in the investigation she didn`t like her baby daughter, this beautiful 6-year-old
girl. She just didn`t like her, and she was afraid that this was going to...
GRACE: Didn`t like her? What`s not to like? What`s not to like?
JUDD: She`s beautiful. And not only...
GRACE: OK, that right there is breaking my heart, Sheriff.
For those of you just joining us, a 25-year-old mom is suspected in the murder of her 6-year-old little girl and her own father in a bid to
hold onto a new boyfriend. Well, no offense to the boyfriend, Sheriff, but what`s so great about him that you would want to kill your own daughter?
JUDD: Well, quite frankly, even the boyfriend and his parents loved this little child. So it was a manifestation in her mind, we believe. She
didn`t like the child and hasn`t liked the child for a long time. Now she`s got this new boyfriend that she`s infatuated with. She doesn`t want
to lose him. He`s saying, You got to get your baby under control. You`ve got to give her direction.
And at the end of the day, this was her solution. She murdered her father and murdered her baby, shot the baby in the back of the head one
time with a firearm.
GRACE: You know, I understand that she has concocted some theory about self-defense.
Andrea Oliver joining us, along with Rita Cosby and Sheriff Grady Judd. I want to go back to you, Andrea Oliver, WLKF. What is this
business that she is claiming that she was defending herself?
OLIVER: Absolutely. So what...
GRACE: Against a 6-year-old girl?
[20:10:00]OLIVER: She claims she -- her dad was moving to Georgia because, as we heard, he had cancer and everything. And so he wanted to
take the baby to Georgia to visit family members. She goes over there. They get into a scuffle, she says. The dad says she`s just like her mom,
or accused her of being just like her mom. They got into this fight. He supposedly pushed her, shoved her in the chest, slapped her upside the
head.
And at that point, a knife in her pocket fell out. The dad tried to use the knife. At the same time, the little kid runs into the room. He
then takes the knife that he was trying to use to stab her and stabs the 6- year-old. She said she was defending herself. That`s why she had to shoot him.
GRACE: Everyone, you`re seeing scenes of the crime scene right now as it is processed. We are learning, in a quiet suburb of Florida, a 6-year-
old child`s body has been found, along with the body of the child`s grandfather. And tonight, Mommy is under suspicion for double murder, all
in a bid to keep her new boyfriend.
Now, we saw something like this with the Susan Smith case, when Susan Smith murdered her little boys in an effort to get a new boyfriend that was
young and single and didn`t want a ready-made family. Susan Smith doing jail time right now.
I want to go to Dr. William Morrone, forensic pathologist, medical examiner and toxicologist. Dr. Morrone, here`s my question. Let`s analyze
Mommy`s story. Mommy says that she was arguing with her own father, the child`s grandfather, about this new boyfriend, OK, that the fight
escalates, that the father knocks her over, and the pocket knife happens to fall out of her pocket. And the father seizes it. And as he is trying to
stab her, he stabs the little girl in the neck.
All right, a pocket knife usually has a blade of what, maybe an inch- and-a-half or two inches. Could it have done all the damage that she`s claiming?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER/FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Pocket knifes traditionally are not sharp enough and don`t have the size of the
blade to do that kind of damage. There may be another knife involved. Plus...
GRACE: Well, hold on. Dr. Morrone, I`m with you on that. There may be another knife. My point is, of course there`s another knife! And she`s
lying. Her story about whipping out her one-inch pocket knife doesn`t match the forensic evidence. That`s my point. There had to be another
knife. And if there is another knife, the Mommy is lying. And Mommy, ergo, is a double killer.
MORRONE: and the whole idea of stabbing another person in self- defense -- if you`re in harm`s way, run away. Stabbing a child that he`s supposed to be taking care of doesn`t make any sense. If you dummy this
whole thing down so I can try to understand it, it doesn`t make any sense. She`s lying all over the place.
GRACE: And to top it all off, Sheriff, it`s my understanding that we believe she got the idea for the whole double murder of her 6-year-old
child and her father from an episode of "Criminal Minds." Let`s take a look at that.
That`s CBS "Criminal Minds."
Unleash the lawyers, Kirby Clements and Kisha Hebbon, Kisha Hebbon defense attorney out of New York. She got the idea to murder her daughter
and her father and hide their bodies from "Criminal Minds"?
KISHA HEBBON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Look, Nancy, we don`t know this for a fact. This case seems to be based on rumors and assumptions, and we all
know as attorneys, you can`t prosecute someone based on those things. It`s going to be up to...
GRACE: There`s two dead bodies. Did you forget about that?
HEBBON: There`s two dead bodies, but we don`t have a confession. We don`t know if she was acting in self-defense. We would need the prosecutor
to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
GRACE: OK, you know what? Wa-wa! Wa-wa! OK, stop. Kirby Clements, all right, let me remind you, Kirby, you used to be a prosecutor before you
started making all that big money as a defense lawyer. Self-defense against a 6-year-old? You know, I`ll deal with Kisha Hebbon in a minute on
that.
But back to "Criminal Minds." She apparently got the whole idea from "Criminal Minds."
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you know, Nancy, I got to tell you, there`s so much wrong with this story that I`m perplexed. Number
one, let`s examine the fact that she didn`t have any injuries to herself.
GRACE: Could you just address "Criminal Minds," please?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... that one thing?
CLEMENTS: As for "Criminal Minds," Nancy, I -- if she had the idea to put bodies in a bag from "Criminal Minds," OK, that makes sense. But I
don`t think she got the idea to murder who father and her daughter from "Criminal Minds."
[20:15:00]GRACE: Well, where do you think you get a body, Kirby? You have to kill the person to get a body. Everybody, you`re seeing...
CLEMENTS: No. No, you don`t.
GRACE: ... CBS "Criminal Minds."
CLEMENTS: No, Nancy, you don`t have to kill to get a body. That body -- those people could have been killed by someone else. That`s what I`m
trying to tell you. This story doesn`t make any sense.
GRACE: Oh, so somebody else killed her daughter and she put the body in a bag! OK, Kirb. (sic)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the face and this is the eyes of a cold- blooded murderer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police serving a search warrant discovered blood- stained floors and furniture with slash marks. The house reeked of a foul odor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can`t understand in our minds how someone could murder their 6-year-old baby girl and murder her dad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He`s right. Take a look at this picture of Mommy. This is 25-year-old Cheyenne Jessie. And you just heard the sheriff, Sheriff Grady
Judd in Winter Haven, Florida, say, "You`re looking into the eyes of a cold-blooded killer."
It`s kind of hard to take that in. And now we learn Mommy got her murderous plan from an episode of "Criminal Minds." Look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:20:08]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He can`t help you. He`s weak. Confess!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is just a tiny snippet from CBS`s "Criminal Minds." And if you go on line and look, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of CBS
"Criminal Minds" episodes. And it seems like every other one, they`re hiding a body. And according to people inside the investigation, that was
Mommy`s idea.
But that`s not all. Sheriff Grady Judd, is it true, as part of the investigation, you have learned that Mommy, Cheyenne Jessie, made --
allegedly made incriminating statements to her boyfriend?
JUDD: Oh, yes. And she confessed to us, as well. She only said it was a defense of protecting herself from her father. Yes, she has made
incriminating statements to us. And she went back and put the bodies in the totes four or five days later, by her own admission, after they began
to decomp in the house and create quite a smell.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Kirby Clements and Kisha Hebbon. You know, when I asked you about the theory she got the idea to hide the bodies
from "Criminal Minds" on CBS, and you just went off on a tangent and started talking about, We don`t have a confession. Did you hear the
sheriff -- did you hear the sheriff just tell you -- this is CBS "Criminal Minds" -- that she did confess?
HEBBON: Well, Nancy, let me correct myself. She confessed, but she said that it was self-defense. And to me, we have to have the prosecutor
prove that this was this woman`s intent to murder these people. If she says self-defense, we need to hear her out and look at all the evidence.
GRACE: Well, if it was self-defense, then, Kirby, why didn`t she call 911 and say, My father just tried to kill me, or my 6-year-old daughter
just tried to kill me, and I had to defend myself?
CLEMENTS: Well, Nancy, now, several things.
GRACE: Oh, you know what? I saw you laughing because it is laughable.
CLEMENTS: No, it...
GRACE: It is laughable to claim...
CLEMENTS: No, what`s laughable...
GRACE: ... that a 6-year-old child, you had to kill them to defend yourself.
CLEMENTS: No, because that presumes that she was saying -- she never said in her statement, by the way, that the 6-year-old attacked her. She
was trying to defend herself against her father. And so when she shot at him, the 6-year-old would have been killed during that encounter, according
to the story that she`s told.
So not -- so don`t twist it, Nancy. I know as a prosecutor, you learn that skill, as well, to twist those words up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:26:44]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheyenne Jessie killed her own child, 6- year-old Meredith Jessie, and her own father.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you murder your baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheyenne buried them in that shed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Not only that, Mommy has now just come out of the courtroom asking for bond to walk free. This after the body of her 6-year-old little
girl, Meredith Jessie, and of her own father, Mark Weekly, found stowed in plastic tote bags in a shed.
So to Sheriff Grady Judd, the Polk County sheriff, joining me out of Winter Haven, Florida. Sheriff, how does she have a leg to stand on to ask
to walk free? I would have done a back flip, if I were you.
JUDD: She really doesn`t. And we`ve got her for two counts of first degree murder. And that`s a no-bond offense, and that`s why the judge
reconfirmed.
And in fact, you know, when you allege this and then you report them missing two weeks later, and you go back in the meantime and you move the
bodies -- and Dad`s shot 12 times in the head and stabbed in a close pattern over his heart, which means, obviously, he wasn`t fighting or those
stab wounds would have been all over the body00 we know we have a good first degree murder case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:32:30]
GRACE: Live to North Carolina. A so-called spoiled brat, a UNC junior gets tanked up on booze with a fake ID, and kills three people,
including a 6-year-old little girl in a fiery wrong way crash. Outrage tonight, the spoiled brat who kills three people walks free after mommy and
daddy put up a million dollar bond. I`m just sick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Witnesses tried to stop Kania from getting behind the wheel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He fought physically with at least one of those people, knocking at least one of those people to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Later police say Kania would drive the wrong way down I-85 in Orange County, eventually hitting another vehicle, killing
three and injuring another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to the news director, WCHL, joining us Blake Hodge. Blake, thank you for being with us. The little 5-year-old girl
that was mowed down in this, by the so-called spoiled brat, she was holding ashes in an urn, is that correct?
BLAKE HODGE, WCHL NEWS DIRECTOR: Well, what we`ve been told is that the 6-year-old Janice Beard was in the back seat with another child, a 9-
year-old, and that she ended up through the force of the crash being around her mother, who was also in the vehicle and kind of holding on to her, who
was also killed in the crash. I`m not sure about --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: What do we know about that?
ZARRELL: You have -- the victims are driving, you have 49-year-old Felicia Harris is driving, and 46-year-old Darlene McGee is in the
passenger seat. They`re actually on their way home for a memorial for McGee`s mother. McGee, reports say, was holding the urn with her mother`s
ashes at the time of the crash.
GRACE: Three people dead in a fiery wrong way crash. I mean, back to you, Blake Hodge, news director WCHL. How drunk do you have to be to be
going the wrong way on a highway like this?
HODGE: He was going the wrong way on the interstate, and according to court records so far, and what the district attorney has said, at least six
miles that he was going the wrong way. The district attorney`s office in Orange County, North Carolina, has told us that the blood alcohol level was
a .17 the night of the crash. In North Carolina it`s .08 legal limit to drive, and he`s under 21 years of age, so of course anyone under the age of
21 with any alcohol in their system is not allowed to legally be on the roadways of North Carolina. So even based off of the adult over 21, he was
more than double the legal limit, and there were 911 calls of people reporting driving him the wrong way, and to quote the 911 caller, not --
GRACE: Almost 10 miles going the wrong way on this busy interstate. Finally in a fiery wrong way crash, killed three people, including a 6-
year-old little girl. One of the occupants carrying an urn with their mom`s ashes in the car. You know, what are three lives worth? What are
these three lives worth? That`s the question.
With me right now, Lieutenant Jeff Gordon, the PIO of the North Carolina Highway Patrol, Lieutenant, thanks for being with us. What
exactly happened in the crash? How did that crash occur?
LT. JEFF GORDON, PIO, NORTH CAROLINA HIGHWAY PATROL: Well, basically, I can tell you, Nancy, one of the issues that we`re still looking at is
that we`re trying to locate exactly where this gentleman got on to Interstate 85, and to kind of put it in context for your viewers, this is
located between the cities of Durham and Chapel Hill. Just as the gentleman stated earlier, that vehicle did travel six miles, we had
numerous people making 911 calls to our communication centers, trying to get this gentleman to stop.
GRACE: I can just imagine. I can imagine driving along in my minivan with my children in the back and seeing this guy tanked up on booze coming
straight at me the wrong way. And what`s more, are there allegations -- with me Lt. Jeff Gordon, from North Carolina Highway Patrol, Matt Zarrell,
Blake Hodge, Blake, isn`t it true he got all the booze with a fake I.D. just to top it off?
HODGE: He definitely showed a fake -- according to court documents, he showed a fake I.D. to officers after he was pulled from his 2005 Jeep
Wrangler, and then there had been reports of court documents after they looked into it, that he had been to two restaurants in Chapel Hill and have
receipts from those restaurants, and there was beer in the car with him. The assistant DA --
GRACE: What is he doing in a wheelchair? Did he get hurt?
HODGE: He suffered a broken right ankle, broken left foot and a broken left arm.
GRACE: I couldn`t hear you, you said a broken arm and a foot?
HODGE: He has a broken right ankle, a broken left foot and a broken left arm, according to his attorney.
GRACE: Well, according to his attorney. And he wheels into court in a wheelchair. All right. Not judging. Dr. William Morrone, how much
booze had he downed to have over twice the legal limit? I mean, he was soused, and now he`s walking free on bond?
MORRONE: Well, you`re going to need at least four drinks an hour of hard liquor, but that doesn`t even include any possible toxicology, if he
was taking any additional drugs.
GRACE: Brad Lamm, addiction specialist and the founder of Breathe Life Healing Centers, joining me out of San Diego. Brad, thanks for being
with us. Now, Brad, first of all, you are an addict, you were a hardcore addict, so you know what it`s like. This kid, I`m not sure was an addict,
he was just totally tanked up on booze, and apparently his parents have bailed him out on a million dollar bond.
LAMM: Well, it`s not a surprise. A lot of people drink and drive, and that`s why we`ve seen standards toughen across the United States. The
legal limit has gone down, Nancy, but it lowers inhibitions, so you tell yourself, I`m going to be okay to get home. So this kid got in the car,
sadly, you know, the consequences right now are the loss of lives, and that can never be changed. My hope is he gets into treatment.
GRACE: Gets into treatment? How about gets into a jail cell?
LAMM: Yes, no, I totally hear you.
GRACE: Okay, brad. Brad. Okay, I appreciate where you`re coming from, I do.
LAMM: Yes.
GRACE: And you know I support you, but there are three dead bodies, including a 6-year-old child.
LAMM: I hear you. I think it`s likely he`ll end up in prison.
GRACE: And not only that, Matt Zarrell, isn`t it true, his friends begged him not to drive? Where all had he been drinking that night? And
can any of these establishments be sued?
ZARRELL: Well, the friends -- let me start with the friends. The friends told police that they tried to stop Kania from driving his car.
They physically tried to stop him, he actually knocked one of his friends down, and then got in the car and drove away. He went to two different
establishments, and Nancy, both of those establishments right now, are under investigation for other alcohol related incidents with other
underaged drinking.
[20:40:00]
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Kirby Clements, Kisha Hebbon, all right. let`s throw this one to Kisha again. Kisha, he`s over double the legal
limit. I`m sure the two of you are going to refer to this as an accident, all right, but let me ask you, was it an accident when he continued
drinking the first time he had a drink? And the second time, the third time, his friends begging him not to drive. He goes to the next place,
boozes up there, has a fake I.D., was it an accident that he got behind the wheel while his friends begged him not to do it?
HEBBON: Well, Nancy, any time someone drinks and drives, they have criminal culpability. But in this case, I seriously doubt that the second
degree murder charge will stick, because he didn`t have the intent to kill anyone. He acted in a reckless manner, by driving while being intoxicated.
GRACE: Hold on. I`m sure you`re familiar with depraved heart?
HEBBON: Absolutely.
GRACE: Where you have an abandoned and malignant heart. What that means is for instance, I get behind the wheel at 90 miles per hour and
drive through a street fair. I may not mean to kill anybody, but I have a depraved indifference to human life.
HEBBON: I disagree with that in drunk driving cases. I don`t think his mens rea was there to say, OK, I don`t care, I`m going to go kill
someone --
GRACE: You throw a little Latin at me. Mens rea? I haven`t heard that since law L-one, first year of law school.
HEBBON: Nancy, if I was his lawyer, I would plead him out to a manslaughter charge, and I think that`s what`s going to happen here.
GRACE: Kirby, let`s talk about mens rea, the Latin phrase we just threw around. I used to love it when defense attorneys would speak Latin
to the jury. OK? So what that means is that there`s no specific intent to kill, but the whole point of the second degree murder charge is that you
don`t need specific intent to kill with a second degree. It is depraved and malignant, abandoned heart, that`s the theory here, that driving wrong
way down an interstate, resulting in a fiery crash killing three, is indifference to human life. That`s the whole point, you don`t need mens
rea under the law for this charge.
CLEMENTS: I think you`re correct in the context you put it. But we have to also consider several other factors here.
Number one, after he left his friends, he went to two other establishments, so two other sets of businesses served this man alcohol,
not thinking he was that intoxicated. So I would suggest to you that perhaps he could -- as he understood it, he was not that intoxicated.
GRACE: Whoa, the whole group went. Look at the facts again, look at the facts. The whole group went -- you`re right, they disbanded later, but
they -- Matt Zarrell, did the whole group go?
ZARRELL: They went to both establishments with Kania, yes.
GRACE: Back it up, Kirby, good try.
CLEMENTS: No, it`s a great try, because at the end of the day, we still get down to the fact, and obviously he shouldn`t have been driving.
I concede that 100 percent, and we can`t point out the fact that the friends were going to take the keys. That still takes it off of him, but
he didn`t have that mens rea, Nancy, there`s your Latin there again. Not guilty, that`s English for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:47:20]
GRACE: Live, upscale Rockford, caught on video, the shocking moment. An angry dad tries to run down a group of middle school kids for allegedly
bullying his little girl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First he went after the kids with a cane. Police say Williams got back into his car and went after them in his SUV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reversed, and then came through the sidewalk, and he went after all the kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least 20 kids that were here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I want to look at the video, okay? Take a look. Let`s look and see, right up off the street, right by the fire -- does he hit the fire
hydrant? Forget the fire hydrant, what about the little girl. All right, daddy off the road in an SUV, chasing down middle school students. Why?
Trying to run them down why? Because some of them had bullied his little girl. He went after them, take a look, here we go, in slow mo here comes
daddy up off the street. Going after the students he believes bullied his little girl, and they are running. Running for their lives as daddy goes
after them.
Straight out to Rita Cosby, investigative journalist, ABC host, Rita, what happened?
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: This happened in Rockford, Illinois, and it was outside an elementary school, Nancy. And this little
girl, his daughter, a 13-year-old girl, was apparently picked on by other girls, and one of the girls even hit the daughter, according to the father.
So then the father comes back to the school, and says, I`m going to get even.
First he brings out a cane, Nancy, and goes after two girls with a cane. The girls run off, and then he hops in his Dodge Durango, you can
see it there, and goes after them, and then goes after another group of kids.
GRACE: There you see dad running down middle school kids he thinks picked on his daughter. Is he coming back for more? Is he coming back to
run them down? There you see the video, all caught on video. Tiffany Sanders, psychologist, joining me out of Chicago. Tiffany, a lot of
parents feel the frustration of their child getting picked on, their child being made fun of, their child being bullied. What went wrong?
[20:50:00]
TIFFANY SANDERS, PSYCHOLOGIST: What went wrong was, the father didn`t show the little girl problem solving skills. What he instead showed her
was aggression is how you manage conflict. He was completely irrational. He was deranged, he was delusional, he could have killed someone. I
suspect he had a psychotic episode that was triggered by his daughter saying, hey, dad I was bullied, and he went into such an aggressive mode
that he just taught his daughter to do that as well.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Kirby Clements and Kisha Hebbon. All right, Kirby. A psychotic break? That`s not going to work in court. I
understand it`s an excellent theory by Dr. Tiffany. But a psychotic break, that`s basically the I snapped defense, which is not really a defense.
It`s a translation, I got mad and I came after you, that`s the defense. What else can you give me, Kirby? What are you going to do with it, it`s
on video?
CLEMENTS: You know what, Nancy, the video, the first part of it, when all the kids are close by, he`s going very slow, the part you have to worry
about is when he accelerated, but there was no one directly in his path, he sped up, he wasn`t running anyone down. At best, these are going to be
misdemeanors, not the serious felony charges he`s facing right now. And also, look, the kids are following him, these kids aren`t scared of this
guy. They`re chasing him down.
GRACE: No, no, no, no, no, the one kid with the cell phone is trying to get the video. I`m a little surprised that you`re saying that, oh, he
was only going 35 miles an hour versus 55 miles an hour, when he`s trying to run down middle schoolers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:55:40]
GRACE: Upsetting and shocking news tonight, a photo of Bobbi Kristina`s body lying dead in her casket has sold to the highest bidder,
allegedly six figures.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Emotions ran high at the funeral for Bobbi Kristina Brown.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bobbi Kristina Brown was thrust into the spotlight at a tender age.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unresponsive in a bathtub.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Face down in the bathtub.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Life also cut short by pain and tragedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Alan Duke, editor in chief of Leadstories.com. Alan, please tell me that this is just a rumor, that it`s not true?
There`s so many reports swirling that a photo was taken in the private funeral ceremony for Bobbi Kristina. A photo of her in the casket, and
it`s now sold.
ALAN DUKE, LEADSTORIES.COM: I believe it`s true, and I`ll tell you why. I`ve been in the business a little while, and I`ve had sources call
me offering to sell me things, in fact, just recently, I had members involved in this trying to sell me things -- not this picture but other
things -- for tens of thousands of dollars. I wouldn`t pay for it, but this happened with Whitney Houston, and it`s no surprise it`s happening
now. I can tell you, I talked with a Brown family member source who told me today that none of the Browns sold it, and they`re pointing the finger
at the Houstons, and the Houstons are commenting. I think we`ll probably be able to figure out by who is silent, as far as what tabloid has gotten
it, what tabloid is not talking about the picture being sold, that`s usually a hint as to where it will pop up.
GRACE: So, Alan Duke, I understand the families between the Houstons and the Browns are all pointing the finger at each other, but by doing
that, they seem to be exonerating anybody that was working in the church or performed the ceremony. Any of the people handling the hearse or driving
cars. I mean, there had to be other people around, but the families are focused on each other.
For those of you just joining us, apparently someone in that private funeral ceremony of Bobbi Kristina Brown took a picture of Bobbi Kristina
in the casket, on view, her body in the casket, and it`s sold for reportedly over $100,000. So the families are blaming each other, Alan,
and that exonerates anybody else, right?
DUKE: Maybe they`re pointing the finger at the other side, because they expect the other side to do it, but don`t really know. I don`t think
anybody who didn`t do it really knows who did it, but I think we`ll be able to triangulate and figure it out at some point, it`s really still a mystery
who sold Whitney Houston`s photo.
GRACE: You mean after all this time we don`t know who sold Whitney`s photo? Of her in the casket? I understand this is all coming from, Stacey
Newman, TMZ, they`re the ones that originally reported, and they are sticking by their guns, that this happened.
NEWMAN: Oh yes, they`re sticking by their guns that this happened. And they even had a figure on it, $100,000 for this photo. This is eerily
similar to what happened to Bobbi Kristina`s mom, Whitney Houston.
GRACE: When does it end, after all that happened to Bobbi Kristina, losing her life at such a young age, so easily avoidable. And now this.
Everyone, I want to tell you about two California deputies, heroes tonight after rescuing a driver from an oncoming train. Samataia (ph)
County deputies Lance Whitted (ph) and Eric Ruppel (ph) risking their lives Monday night in Sunnyvale, where they were literally standing on the
tracks, alerting the train to slow down as Ruppel pulls a man to safety seconds before the train crashes into his car. Lance Whitted, Eric Ruppel,
American heroes.
Happy birthday tonight to Athens friend Eva, isn`t she beautiful? My thank you tonight to our guests, but most of all to you for being with all
of us, inviting us into your homes. I`m Nancy Grace, signing off for tonight. See you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good
night, friend.
END
