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Nancy Grace
Three Murdered by Illegal Immigrant. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired August 17, 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 to Florida. Tragedy, an illegal immigrant with a rap sheet, including implicated in double
murder back home, assaulting a police officer, aggravated assault, theft by receiving, sneaks across the border and unleashes in the Ft. Myers suburbs!
Bombshell tonight. Three people dead at the hands of yet another illegal immigrant, including a pregnant mom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An undocumented immigrant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brian Hyde.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutors say he murdered...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scene was what we considered almost unimaginable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Autopsies revealed that all three victims died from repeated sharp force trauma to the head and neck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marilyn Ferris (ph) was murdered by, police say, two men.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the suspects is an undocumented immigrant.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want people to come into the country, but they have to do it through the legal process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live. From throwing punches to throwing helmets, NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart has a reputation for rage. Well, it all blows wide
only when conflict turns to tragedy. Stewart mows down fellow driver Kevin Ward, Jr., on the racetrack in front of thousands, caught on YouTube.
Tonight, the case landing in court among claims of wrongful death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hit by one of the sport`s greatest drivers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: NASCAR star Tony Stewart faces a wrongful death lawsuit filed by that family of the young driver that he hit and killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, Pembroke (ph) Park, caught on video, Mommy teaching her tot to steal tequila at the local liquor store! We have the video!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Broward sheriff`s office now on the move, trying to find perhaps the littlest, most unassuming shoplifter in south
Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She looks at the bottle that she wants, and the child stays in front of the bottle. She walks away to go talk to the
clerk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She tries to take the big bottle, but it`s too heavy for her. So she puts it back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Settles for the smaller bottle and heads out with the bottle behind her back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Live to Florida. Tragedy, an illegal immigrant with a rap sheet, including implicated in double murder, assaulting a
police officer back home, aggravated assault, theft by receiving, sneaks across the border and is unleashed in the Ft. Myers suburbs, three people
dead at the hands of yet another illegal immigrant, including dead a pregnant mother.
Joining me right now, Bob Alexander, anchor at Fox News. Bob Alexander, thank you for being with us. First of all, what do we know
about this guy`s rap sheet back in Belize?
BOB ALEXANDER, 92.5 FOX NEWS (via telephone): Nancy, this man fled his native country of Belize to avoid a charge of assaulting a police
officer. He was later tried in absentia. He was found guilty. He was given a six-month jail sentence that remains to be served. He was also
suspected of robbing a cell phone store. He was also suspect in a double murder down in Belize, but he was never charged. And it remains to be
heard why that charge was never laid by the police down in Belize.
GRACE: OK, well, let me understand this. So he`s found guilty on one charge. There is aggravated assault on a police officer, implicated in a
double murder, and he robbed a cell phone store. Then he sneaks across the border, comes to America, and kills three people? At least he`s a suspect
right now.
And there you see right there Ft. Myers suburbs. To Rita Cosby, investigative journalist. Who are the victims in this case? One of them a
pregnant mom?
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: And one of them is his aunt. The other one is his cousin, who was pregnant, six months pregnant, and her
boyfriend. And they all lived together in this home.
GRACE: You`re taking a look right now at the victims in these Ft. Myers suburbs that have been killed by yet another illegal immigrant.
So Bob Alexander, 92.5 Fox News, how did he get in America and make his way to Ft. Myers? What was his point of entry into the U.S.?
ALEXANDER: He came across Texas. He made his way to Florida because his aunt and his cousins were living here. She was actually trying to help
him get a GED equivalent so he could better his life, not knowing, I`m sure, all of the gruesome details of what he was accused of committing back
in Belize with all the crimes.
[20:05:04]GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing shots of the victim here, a pregnant mom, her mother, and the boyfriend. And the witness to all of
these three murders, her 18-month-old child there in the home. There you see a shot of the 18-month-old child who witnessed the three murders.
Bob Alexander, joining us from Ft. Myers. Bob, when did all of this happen, what time of the day or night?
ALEXANDER: This happened -- the time we`re not quite sure of because we waited to hear the police report talking about when the phone call came
from the husband to the woman that was murdered, Dorla Pitts. She was on the phone with him when she walked into the house, and he heard her scream,
Brian, what happened? What happened? And then the phone went silent.
The husband then called a neighbor, who had the neighbor rush over to see what had happened when he lost connection. He then saw the blood. He
then saw a body laying on the ground, and he then called 911. So timeline`s still being put together, but this whole thing being described
as gruesome and almost unimaginable, the crime scene itself.
GRACE: This is on the heels of other high-profile attacks by illegal immigrants on U.S. citizens. I don`t quite understand why ICE and local
governments are not working together to keep illegal immigrants with violent criminal histories in jail in their home countries. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) she was fighting (INAUDIBLE) gasping for every breath. And it -- she fought right up to the end. I wouldn`t
expect anything less from her. I have a little solace that I was with her, but I also have the overwhelming grief of a father (INAUDIBLE) she was
shot. This was evil, evil personified.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There you`re seeing a picture of Kathryn Steinle. Her father was speaking. In that case, Justin Freiman, what happened?
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Nancy, what happened in that case was once again, we have a story of somebody who was
illegally in this country and killed somebody.
GRACE: Now, in that case, the guy had come up from Mexico. He managed to steal -- got a stolen gun from a fed. And out of the blue,
Kathryn is walking along a pier in California with her father, and he opens fire on the pier, shoots Kathryn dead, discards the gun in a trashcan, and
then makes up all sorts of stories. I believe he said in that case, Bob Alexander, that he had come to the pier to shoot sea lions out in the
water, and that he shot Kathryn Steinle instead.
That`s not the only one. Just last week, we brought you the story of another illegal immigrant who comes here and kills a lady Air Force vet,
assaults her and murders her in her own home. And now this.
To Raul Reyes, immigration analyst, attorney and CNN opinion writer, thank you so much for being us. What do you make of this?
RAUL REYES, IMMIGRATION ANALYST: These crimes are all horrific, especially this one in Florida, given the absolutely brutal nature of the
attack.
But one thing that I think is important to remember is that these individuals, whatever their circumstances, whether they`re mentally ill,
deranged -- we don`t know all the circumstances -- they are not representative of the undocumented population. The overwhelming majority
of undocumented immigrants in this country are here basically to work and provide for their families.
And when we see these cases, for example, like the Kate Steinle case in San Francisco, I would also add, just as a counterbalance, I can tell
you of many other cases. For example, one of the first American soldiers who was killed in Iraq was undocumented. A young man in Colorado who
stopped a carjack in New Mexico was undocumented. One of the heroes of the Boston Marathon bombing who assisted people who were sounded was
undocumented.
GRACE: Sir...
REYES: So we have many other people...
GRACE: ... I`m not talking...
REYES: ... who are contributing to society in positive ways.
GRACE: ... about people that are contributing to society and those that are technically illegal. I`m referring to illegal immigrants that
have extensive criminal histories back home. And those countries, whether Belize in this case, Cuba in the past, open up their prison gates and they
allow those people to empty out of the jail and come to the U.S.
I`m not talking about the cases that you are referring to. I`m talking about convicted criminals in their home countries being unleashed
on the American public. That`s what I`m asking you about.
REYES: What I`m talking about is that these people are not representative of the greater population. However, that said, when we look
at these individuals, they actually -- this guy down in Florida, for example -- he actually fits three of the top new priorities for the Obama
administration for deportations.
[20:10:03]Number one, he has violent offenses. Number two, he is a recent arrival. The third priority is security threat, which I don`t think
is him.
So under the new priorities of the Obama administration, he would likely be targeted for deportation. The problem we have here, it`s not so
much an indictment of undocumented immigrants...
GRACE: Would you please put him up?
REYES: ... this is an indictment of our illegal immigration policy.
GRACE: I`m not talking about what politicians are stirring up in Washington, be it congressmen, be it senators, representatives, the
president. I`m talking about crime and law enforcement. I want answers what to do, not what Obama thinks he might do, or who is going to be
targeted. I`m talking about three dead bodies in the Ft. Myers suburbs! That`s what I`m talking about.
So telling me what is the plan in Washington is not helping this 18- month-old little girl who saw her mother...
REYES: Certainly not.
GRACE: ... murdered!
REYES: It`s not going to help those people because it`s too late. This has happened. But what can happen...
GRACE: You`re darn right! It`s too late!
REYES: ... is that going forward, these priorities -- immigration enforcement is a priority of the federal government. This is established
by the Supreme Court most -- as recently as 2012. That`s the way it`s historically been, and that`s the way the majority of Americans want it.
So with the problem we have in San Francisco and this Florida cases is when we have a lack of communication between the federal government and local
authorities. That may have been the case here...
GRACE: What lack of communication?
REYES: ... and basically, we have some type of bureaucratic problem...
GRACE: This guy came here...
REYES: ... that results in people being killed.
GRACE: ... with a criminal history and killed three people. In Steinle, he had a criminal history right here in the U.S.!
REYES: Yes, ma`am. And when we...
GRACE: He had a criminal history in the U.S....
REYES: And when we look at this man`s criminal history...
GRACE: ... and that city was determined to be a sanctuary city...
REYES: ... in San Francisco. He crossed the border about four times...
GRACE: ... where he could stay.
REYES: Each of these times, he was picked up by U.S. border patrol. He served five years in American prison. The problem in San Francisco was
not this undocumented immigrant being unleashed. The problem was that ICE in San Francisco...
GRACE: No!
REYES: ... failed to issue a warrant to the city of San Francisco...
GRACE: Put him up! Put him up!
REYES: ... and the city of San Francisco let him go.
GRACE: Actually, that`s not correct because, Mr. Reyes, ICE tried to get him. But there, the local government is deemed a sanctuary...
REYES: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: ... and the prosecutor and the judge pled down his case. So therefore, it was no longer a felony. ICE had their hands tied.
REYES: ICE still...
GRACE: It`s not ICE`s problem!
REYES: In the San Francisco case, although San Francisco is a sanctuary city -- however, a sanctuary city is not some type of haven for
undocumented immigrants. People can still be deported out of sanctuary cities. In a sanctuary cities, all that that means is that the local
government says to the federal government, You do your job, we`ll do ours.
In San Francisco, ICE still could have issued a detainer for that suspect. They did not.
GRACE: OK.
REYES: And the city would have been required to honor it. That was a failure of ICE.
GRACE: That was not a failure of ICE because they pled it down to a misdemeanor!
REYES: They could...
GRACE: They pled it down...
REYES: They could have still issued a warrant...
GRACE: ... to a case...
REYES: ... for his arrest to the local authorities...
GRACE: ... that ICE would not -- well, you know what?
REYES: They did not. I don`t know if it was overlooked...
GRACE: That`s what ICE tells me.
REYES: ... or if it was their error...
GRACE: That`s what you`re telling me.
REYES: ... but that`s not -- those are the facts.
GRACE: Right. That`s what you`re telling me.
REYES: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: That is not what ICE told me. And you`re also telling me what Obama plans to do. And I`m not singling out Obama...
REYES: It`s not necessarily what Obama...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: This is what the secretary of defense (sic) Jeh Johnson has announced will be the deportation priorities going forward.
GRACE: Going forward. OK, you know what? You`re right. Going forward.
So Bob Alexander, 92.5 Fox News, Reyes is right. That`s the plan going forward. Take a listen to what Trump said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And it was illegal immigration. They`re being decimated. They want it stopped. I want people to come into the country, but they
have to do it through the legal process.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And we can open up the legal process and make it go faster and all of those things, but it has to be a legal process. You can`t have
people just pouring into the country.
So I was out there and I was taking tremendous abuse, unbelievable abuse, actually. And people said, Would you apologize? Would you
apologize? And then there were tremendous crimes that were being noted after my speech. And then you had magnificent Kate from San Francisco
killed by an illegal immigrant who was forced across the border, back to us, in my opinion forced, by the Mexican government back to us, and that
was taking place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:19:19]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three victims found dead inside this Lehigh Acres home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brutally murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scene was unimaginable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bloodstains on the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An undocumented immigrant, 19-year-old Brian Hyde...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charged for the murder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hyde had human blood on his finger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also charged for the killing of the young couple`s unborn child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Three people dead in the Ft. Myers suburbs. Why? Because another violent illegal immigrant, this time from Belize, sneaks into the
country and unleashes on an innocent family, leaving not only three dead, one of those a pregnant mom, her 18-month-old little girl saw the three
murders.
[20:20:00]Tonight, I want to know why. Why was he here? Why wasn`t he in jail in Belize where he needed to be? And why was he wandering in
the Ft. Myers suburbs, waiting to unleash on innocent citizens?
With me, Bob Alexander from 92.5 Fox News, Rita Cosby, investigative journalist, and Raul Reyes, immigration analyst and lawyer. To all of you,
thank you for being with us.
Big question. I`m not quite sure how he ended up here and was never discovered. But I know, Justin Freiman, the way police found him was
because he was driving on the wrong side of the road.
FREIMAN: That`s right, Nancy. He was driving on the wrong side of the road, and he was arrested because of that. And then it was only later
they put things together and they realized, Wait a minute. This car is registered to the same place where these people were just killed. And then
they started putting the pieces together including some blood evidence on his pants.
GRACE: And isn`t it true -- to Raul Reyes, immigration analyst, CNN opinion writer -- there`s a big loophole. There`s a big loophole. You`re
telling me all about Obama`s plan. No offense to Obama or any of the other politicians making money up in Washington. But their loophole has cost
three more American lives. Isn`t that true?
REYES: Actually, that is correct. One of things that it might surprise people to know is that Immigrations Customs Enforcement,
Department of Homeland Security, as best they can, they do background checks and keep track of undocumented people who are here in this country
who may have a criminal record.
However, because of a lack of financial resources, there is no mandate that they do the same thing for people in Central America and Mexico,
China, wherever they`re coming from.
GRACE: Wait, wait.
REYES: So you can have someone...
GRACE: Can I -- can I just boil that down, Mr. Reyes?
REYES: ... who`s coming from Mexico with a violent record, and we don`t know even about it.
GRACE: Are you telling me the U.S. government and state governments keep track of illegal immigrants` crimes in this country, but not their own
country?
REYES: They have a mandate to do it in this country, but they do not have the mandate...
GRACE: If they find out...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... they`re illegal, why don`t they just send them home? Why are we even talking about illegal immigrants and their criminal histories
in the U.S.?
Unleash the lawyers, Kirby Clements, Atlanta, Alex Sanchez, New York. All right, Alex, when an illegal immigrant has their first criminal
offense, why aren`t they deported?
ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, they have certain defenses they could advance before the immigration and appeals bureau. But let me tell
you something, Nancy, about this particular case.
And I know this is not going to be popular, but the actions taken by this family partly contributed to their demise. First of all, they took in
this kid and they must have known about his criminal background in Belize. And on top of that, they were harboring an illegal immigrant in their own
house. So you know, it`s terrible what happened to them, but certain actions that...
GRACE: OK, so it...
SANCHEZ: ... they took contributed to their demise!
GRACE: I can`t say I`m surprised I didn`t see that coming. I don`t understand, Bob Alexander, how he got here to start with and how he went
under the radar until he murdered three people.
ALEXANDER: That`s what seems to be the big mystery down here in Ft. Myers, Nancy. No one is quite sure exactly how he made his way down here,
except for the fact that he did have family in the area, that his aunt decided to try to take him in and help him get the equivalency of a high
school diploma to try and better his life.
It may not have been known by the family members here all the trouble that went on down in Belize. But certainly, it seems like a failure by the
Belize government to let him out of that country when he was a suspect in a double murder, the robbery of a cell phone store and assault on a police
officer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All homicide scenes are normally violent. But even for us, this scene was what we consider almost unimaginable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:27:45]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nineteen-year-old Brian Hyde has been charged for the murders of Dorla Pitts, Starlett and Starlett`s boyfriend,
Michael Kelley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just knew something wasn`t right about him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Report states Starlett Pitts was six months pregnant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Later that day, Hyde in this car was stopped by Ft. Myers police for driving on the wrong side of the road. The report
says both he and the car were covered in blood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, three people dead in the Ft. Myers suburbs as a result of yet another illegal immigrant with an extensive criminal history
in Belize. We see this time after time after time.
I`m curious. To Rita Cosby, investigative journalist. Will he be facing the death penalty? We can`t deport him now. Belize probably won`t
do anything with him. So it`s now on us to seek the death penalty for these three murders.
COSBY: Right now, Nancy, he is charged with second degree murder. And by the way, he still has not admitted to the crime...
GRACE: Why is he charged with second degree and not first degree? And actually, in that jurisdiction, does the death of a -- the murder of an
unborn child -- does that count as a homicide in that jurisdiction because...
COSBY: It does.
GRACE: ... it could be four.
COSBY: It does.
GRACE: You`ve got the young mom, who`s the mom of an 18-month-old baby girl. You`ve got her mother who happened to be home at the time, her
boyfriend, and the unborn baby. That`s four murders. What do you mean, second-degree murder?
COSBY: Yes, a lot of people are surprised by that, although this is early on in the case and they are still trying to determine motive. It
could be possible that he could get eventually get charged with first degree.
GRACE: OK, unleash the lawyers, Kirby Clements and Alex Sanchez.
Motive? The state doesn`t need to prove motive. Whenever you have mass murder, which is more than one body, that meets a special circumstance
to seek the death penalty, Sanchez.
SANCHEZ: Yes, but the absence of motive is going to work to his advantage, right, because he`s...
GRACE: No.
SANCHEZ: ... going to argue he has...
GRACE: Motive`s irrelevant.
SANCHEZ: He`s going to argue, Listen, he did this -- or his attorneys are going to argue he did this because he suffered from extreme, you know,
mental deficiency. And they might get records from Belize showing when he was a kid...
GRACE: Really?
SANCHEZ: ... he had serious mental...
GRACE: You really think they`re going to get...
SANCHEZ: ... problems.
GRACE: ... mental deficiency records when we can`t even get his rap sheet? Are you serious?
SANCHEZ: Well, I think the attorneys will be able to obtain records from his school or his hospital. He may have been hospitalized. He may
have been on medication back there.
GRACE: You know, you`re making all this up.
[20:30:00]
SANCHEZ: I`m not making anything up. I`m just telling you what the potential defenses are.
GRACE: You don`t have any evidence he has a mental defect. Any at all.
SANCHEZ: We don`t have it now, but his attorneys will try to uncover that information, Nancy, you know that.
GRACE: Kirby?
CLEMENTS: I agree with him. And I want to add a couple of things here. One of the things we know is he was driving on the wrong side of the
roadway, and unless I`m wrong, I thought in Belize, they drove on the right side of the roadway as well. So clearly something was going on in this
young man`s mind that caused him to do these things, and I think that the`s absolutely correct. They will get those records. Because unlike the
government, they`re going to ask.
GRACE: Have you ever heard the term extrapolating? So, you`re taking -- hold on. You`re taking the fact that the was on the wrong side of the
road that he has a mental defect that will rise to the legal level of insanity?
CLEMENTS: No, that`s not what I`m saying.
GRACE: It is what you said.
CLEMENTS: No, that`s what you heard, but you heard wrong.
GRACE: Immigration analyst and CNN opinion writer, Raul, again, thank you for being with us.
What`s the likelihood we`re going to get these made-up hospital records from Belize? We can`t even get his criminal rap sheet. With him
skulking around in suburban Florida, he`s murdered three people that we know of, plus an unborn child.
REYES: Right. I would say it might be unlikely we`ll get his hospital or high school records. However, Nancy, Central America, that
golden triangle of countries, including Belize, those are countries where the criminal gangs are almost out of control. The government has a very
loose control of the country. It would be very easy in court to produce experts who can testify to the enormous trauma experienced by youth who
leave that country--
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was described as reserved. He certainly didn`t disclose any details about what occurred inside that home. Concealed that
information from us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were there any signs of struggle that you can talk about? Did the victims try to get away?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without going into too much details on wounds, they were sharp force trauma.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:36:30]
GRACE: From throwing punches to throwing helmets, NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart has a reputation for rage. Well, it blows wide open when
conflict turns to tragedy. Stewart mows down fellow driver Kevin Ward Jr. on the racetrack in front of thousands of people. Caught on Youtube.
Tonight, the case landing in court. Claims of wrongful death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He got out of his car, he ran out in the middle of the track.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could see someone get out, out of the car, started yelling, and all of a sudden, with the fencing, I couldn`t see, and
he disappeared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Let`s take it from the very beginning. So, Tony Stewart, can you take that in full, please? Tony Stewart in a race, and take a look at
this. There you see Kevin Ward Jr., just 20 years old. He comes out onto the racetrack, he`s pointing at Stewart, I think that`s what he`s doing,
over some conflict they had. Stewart runs right over him. You`re seeing video from Youtube. There you go. That`s the moment of impact. There`s
been a lot of argument. Could he have avoided Kevin Ward Jr.? Could he have gone the other way? Could he have moved over a couple of feet and
saved his life? On the other hand, what is Kevin Ward Jr. doing out on a NASCAR racetrack at speeds of -- I don`t know how fast. With me, Jeff
Bodine, former NASCAR driver, Daytona 500 winner. How fast are the cars going, Jeff?
JEFF BODINE, FORMER NASCAR DRIVER: On the yellow flag, caution flag, they`re going maybe 35, 40 miles an hour.
GRACE: Now, how fast are they racing?
BODINE: They`re racing, depends on the size of the track, but 80, 90, 95 miles an hour.
GRACE: Wow. Everybody, you`re seeing Jeff Bodine, former NASCAR driver and winner of the Daytona 500. Also with me, Meredyth Censullo,
investigative reporter, but first, take a listen to what Kevin Ward Jr.`s family has said. They are speaking out tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wish he never would have gotten out of the car. More than anybody. But I also acknowledge the fact that, if Tony
would have stayed low on the track and not gunned his engine, and headed for my son, my son would still be here. I don`t believe my son was
impaired. The civil suit is the only action we have left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You feel like Tony Stewart killed your son and got away with it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most definitely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony races every weekend. I know my son will never get to race again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can hear the acceleration on the tape. That`s Tony`s car accelerating. And (inaudible), he goes sideways, and
hits my son, and kills him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no doubt, he knew what he was doing. And that was Tony`s car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That was the family talking about the death of Kevin Ward Jr. on ABc`s "Good Morning America." And they said they could hear Stewart
accelerating his car instead of slowing down when Kevin Ward Jr. went out on the race track. So, Jeff Bodine, NASCAR driver, Daytona 500 winner,
what do you make of that claim by the family?
[20:40:00]
BODINE: Well, the claim is, should be that their boy got out of his car, ran down towards Tony`s car. And if Tony had been any lower on the
track, maybe Kevin would have ran down farther. Kevin actually ran into the wing of Tony`s car. Tony did not hit him with the right front wheel.
The wing actually hit (inaudible).
GRACE: Meredyth Censullo joining us. The family has come out that Tony Stewart accelerated instead of slowing down. That`s the question.
You`re seeing video from Youtube.
CENSULLO: Yes. So they`re claiming that under that flag (ph) caution, when drivers are supposed to slow down to between 30 an 40 miles
per hour, that under that caution, rather than slowing down, Tony Stewart actually accelerated, and in doing so, the rear of his vehicle hit Kevin
Ward Jr., who was walking down the track toward Tony Stewart`s car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want justice for our son. He had a great heart. He was a great kid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would come over to me, say, dad, can I have the new tires? I said, why do you want the new tires? He told me that the
young lad that got second could have beat me if he had new tires. And that was pretty hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is from ABC`s "GMA" exclusive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:46:00]
GRACE: Now, live, Pembroke Park, Florida. Caught on video, mommy teaching her to steal tequila at the local liquor store. We have the
video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The child must be 5 years old. She tries to take the big bottle. It`s too heavy for her, so she puts that back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She signals, then pushed the 1800 silver tequila back on the shelf. Tried grabbing the big one again, too heavy. Settles
for the smaller bottle and heads out with the bottle behind her back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I want you to see this video from the get-go. Let`s start it at the beginning. Liz, if you don`t mind. Just re-rack it. I want to see
it from the beginning. You see the mom and the little girl coming in the store. All right. We`re looking at 24/7 liquor store. Here is who we
think is the mommy, with a daughter who is believed to be between 5 and 7 years old. Now, here you go, pausing at the tequila area. The mom is
talking, the little girl is looking at what mommy just said. She obviously can read, so she`s got to be school age.
OK, mommy walking away, leaving her little girl -- we believe her little girl -- behind. The little girl selects a tequila. And it`s a
whopper, too, I don`t know how big it is. But the girl gets the tequila, and off she goes. OK, tries to hide it behind her back. Sees mommy.
Oops! Coast isn`t clear. Here, oh, yes, here she comes running back down the aisle with the tequila. It`s too big for her to carry. She picks
another one. Keep watching. Keep watching. Mommy standing guard, distracting people at the front of the store where the clerks are. Here we
go. She`s getting another bottle, and off she goes. This is at 24/7 Liquors, caught on video. And here we go. Keep watching for the change of
camera. Mommy teaching her tot to steal tequila. OK, sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. Hiding behind a box. And mommy gives her the okay, she`s out.
Gone. One last shot. Look at it from this angle. Watch this. She`s gone. Out the door. All these adult males coming in. The little girl
standing out here all by herself, and she races to the car. There she goes. You can see her out in the parking lot, getting in what we believe
is a white Impala. OK. Joining me right now, in addition to Rita Cosby, Stacey Newman and Paul Moutasots, the owner of the store. Let me go to
you, Rita. What do we know happened? Have we found the mom yet?
COSBY: We have not found the mom yet, and the mom was trying to pretend like she was just a typical customer. In fact, she bought a $2
bottle, one of those small little bottles of booze, and as you can see, she is kind of blocking the view from the clerk, so the clerk can`t see the
daughter backing up. And it was only until other customers came back in and said, there`s this little girl out there with this big bottle of
tequila, I think she stole the tequila, the mother then ran out to the car, came back and said, yes, that`s my daughter, but she didn`t take anything.
But then when the video came out, that`s when everything opened wide open.
GRACE: OK, with me now, the owner of 24/7 Liquors, Paul Moutasots. Sir, thank you for being with us.
PAUL MOUTASOTS, LIQUOR STORE OWNER: No problem. Thank you.
GRACE: You`ve seen the video. How did mommy manage to pull this off with her 7-year-old henchman?
MOUTASOTS: The way it looks, is, she was very prepared. She knew the layout of the store. She went straight where the tequilas were. She has
been there several times. My clerks have seen her before, but never seen her with her daughter. It was late at night, it was around 8:30 p.m., rush
hour, people were going out, they want to go out, they are coming to buy bottles.
[20:50:00]
So she knew where to stand, she knew exactly what to do, and she knew how to walk her daughter. For me, it`s very --
GRACE: The whole -- the whole thought of teaching your child to steal and steal liquor. Stacey Newman, how are we going to find this mom? First
of all, the $2 bottle, is there any chance it was bought on a credit card?
NEWMAN: It could have been, so that`s one clue. But also, we can talk to the owner, because this security system in this store, there is 15
cameras. And they have seen her before. They probably can get her license tag. I don`t think she is going to be on the run for very long.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, you just made me think of something, Stacey Newman, the license. So Paul Moutasots, every time she`s bought liquor in
the past, you had to see her driver`s license, right?
MOUTASOTS: No, we actually got a call and somebody did call us with her license plate.
GRACE: You got her license plates?
MOUTASOTS: We got the license plate of the car.
GRACE: And what was the car, was it a white Impala? Is that correct?
MOUTASOTS: Yes, it was.
GRACE: Quickly, with me is psychologist Greg Cason, joining me out of L.A. So you are teaching your child to steal booze at a liquor store.
That little girl is somewhere between 5 and 7 years old. Help me out.
CASON: Nancy, this is the definition of an unfit parent. From 5 to 7-years-old is actually when children learn the rules about the world.
They`re really in a concrete phase, and they start to learn what is right and what is wrong, and what they can do and what they can`t. This child is
now learning that this is a right thing to do within her family system. And there is no amount of counseling that can take this away. She has to
be removed from this parent and put in a better system.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Kirby Clements, Alex Sanchez. Obviously, the child needs to be taken away from mommy, what about it?
CLEMENTS: Well, I think taking away, at least the mother is going to need some parenting classes. I don`t know they will really take a child
from their mother over shoplifting.
GRACE: (inaudible) parenting classes?
CLEMENTS: Well, you`re going to take a child from her mother for stealing a bottle of tequila? No, you go to parenting classes. Maybe
there`s some intervention to make sure the mother is on the right track. You have to figure out what`s going on. We have no idea.
GRACE: On the right track.
CLEMENTS: She`s on the wrong track. We can get her on the right track.
GRACE: How do you teach somebody if they don`t know by now it`s wrong to take your 5-year-old girl to steal your booze for you? If they don`t
know that now, how are you going to teach that?
SANCHEZ: I would like to know more about this family structure.
GRACE: No, not insanity again.
SANCHEZ: I would like to know whether or not.
GRACE: You are giving me a headache.
SANCHEZ: Listen, this woman and this child could have been the subject of coercive tactics by an abusive husband or boyfriend. Let`s face
it.
GRACE: Okay. She doesn`t look abused by me. Hold on, very quickly, Michael Christian, there is a 12-year-old girl who has gone missing from
her home in Philly. What do you know?
CHRISTIAN: That`s right, Nancy, her name is Myasia McFarland. She disappeared from her home around 5:10 p.m. on Sunday. She lives in the
Germantown section of Philadelphia, and was last seen walking in her rear driveway behind her home. Myasia suffers from bipolar disorder. So it`s
particularly important to get this girl home.
GRACE: Guys, look at Myasia McFarland. She is just 12. Tip line, 215-686-3353.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:57:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Broward sheriff`s office now on the move, trying to find perhaps the littlest, most unassuming shoplifter in South
Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She lifts up the bottle she wants, and the child stays in front of the bottle. She walks away to go talk to the clerk. She
tries to take the big bottle, but it`s too heavy for her, so she puts it back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Settles for the smaller bottle and heads out with the bottle behind her back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A bottle of tequila. Was it worth it, mommy? To Dr. Tim Gallagher, forensic pathologist joining me out of Daytona Beach, Florida.
Dr. Gallagher, what would tequila do to a little girl, age 5 or 7, if she had a couple of glasses of that?
GALLAGHER: It wouldn`t have taken very much tequila to put somebody that young and that light in a state of coma, you know, drunkenness leading
to a state of coma. One glass of tequila, which may give an adult the state of euphoria, could certainly put somebody like that, like her, in a
very compromised medical position.
GRACE: So Rita Cosby, investigative journalist, Stacey Newman, Rita, what is mommy looking at? What are the potential charges here?
COSBY: There is a number of charges. First I of course have to gather in fact Crime Stoppers right now has a $3,000 award out for mommy.
GRACE: Wow. I`m worried not so much about putting mommy behind bars, but how this little girl lives, what is happening in the home, that`s what
I`m thinking of tonight.
You know what, let`s remember American hero, Michigan officer, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Green, III. 58, killed in the line of duty. He served
the Michigan Department of Natural Resources 19 years, Air Force, National Guard, Detroit police, 20 years. Parents Arthur, Jr. and Ruth, three
sisters, widow Carla, two sons and three grands. Arthur Green, III, American hero.
Drew up next. Thank you to my guests. But most of all, thank you to you for being with us and inviting us into your homes. Nancy Grace signing
off, see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, good night, friend.
END
