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Nancy Grace
Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Trial; Honor Student Stabbed Dead in Her Own School; Is "Prom Killer" Set to Walk Free? CNN Hero Helps Ex-Offenders Get Back on Track; Woman Missing After Father Found Murdered; Remembering American Hero Florida Deputy John Kotfila. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 17, 2016 - 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. Hulk Hogan, six-time heavyweight champion, known to fans as "superdestroyer," to Japanese fans
as "Ikiban," to legal eagle as Terry Bollea, in court and ready to tango, dressed in solid black, a cross necklace, signature bandana, Hulk Hogan
declares war over a bootleg Hulk Hogan sex tape.
Bombshell tonight. Torpedo in the courtroom. The woman whose husband allegedly puts her up to sex with Hulk Hogan sobs on the stand, insisting,
I didn`t know we were being taped.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The jury heard much more from Heather Cole, the woman seen on video having sex with Hulk Hogan.
HEATHER COLE, ON HOGAN SEX TAPE: (INAUDIBLE) I thought that I didn`t have anything to say about it (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Prom season approaching all over America, but not for gorgeous 16- year-old Marin (ph) of Jonathan Law (ph) High, the honor student stabbed dead in the hallway of her very own suburban high school by her would-be
junior prom date, angry because she says no to the prom.
In the last hours, a sweetheart deal. Is the so-called prom killer set to walk free? And did the teen girl victim warn the school before her murder,
and they did nothing?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He asked her to prom. And she said no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sixteen-year-old Marin Sanchez (ph) had been fatally stabbed in a stairwell at school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This defendant said, Arrest me. Arrest me. I did it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Multiple lacerations on her neck, chest and face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, a 7th grade girl in, quote, "grave danger" after her father is found murdered, the little girl gone.
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Hulk Hogan, six-time heavyweight champion, known to fans as "super destroyer," as "Ikiban," to legal eagles as Terry Bollea, in
court, ready to tangle, dressed in solid black, cross necklace, bandana. He declares war over a bootleg Hulk Hogan sex tape.
Bombshell tonight. Torpedo! The woman whose husband puts her up to sex with Hulk sobs on the stand insisting, I did not know we were being taped.
First thing, let`s go straight into the courtroom. On the stand, Heather Cole Clem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cole says she did not know her husband at the time, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, was secretly videotaping the sex act in their
home.
COLE: I saw (INAUDIBLE) after the encounter at our house with Mr. Bollea (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Adam Winer with CNN affiliate WFTS. On the stand has been Heather Cole Clem. She is now going by her maiden name, Heather
Cole, as she has divorced Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.
I want to, first of all, talk about what actually happened, according to Heather Cole. I mean, did she know that they were being taped, videotaped?
And why was she having sex with Hulk Hogan?
ADAM WINER, WFTS CORRESPONDENT: Great questions. You know, in fact, she says that Hulk Hogan was the one making sexual advances to her. They both
say that they didn`t really know each other all that well, even after she and Bubba the Love Sponge got married.
So at some point, they developed a relationship and that led to sex. Now, she is claiming that her own husband egged her on to have sex with Hulk
Hogan. She says that he set her up with different sexual partners during their marriage. They -- she openly said during this video deposition they
had an open relationship. And so she said that perhaps Hogan was basically doing what other men had done before with her, is have sex with her.
[20:05:06]Now, the clear difference here is that in the past, she said she was aware that she had been taped, but that in this case, she did not know
that she was taped.
GRACE: OK, that`s interesting...
WINER: And that`s a bit of something that people have been skeptical of, Nancy.
GRACE: I would say it`s a dichotomy, to say the least, if that`s the word you were searching for. Adam Winer joining me there at the courthouse,
WFTS.
Chris Spargo, reporter with Dailymail.com, let me try to digest what this woman is saying. Number one, Chris Spargo, I thought that her demeanor on
the stand was believable. She seemed to have ready answers all the way through. She started crying when she was describing what happened, that
she was embarrassed.
But the dichotomy that Adam Winer is pointing out, we`ve all noticed it, Chris. She said that -- let me see a picture of this husband, Lova (ph)
the -- the Love Sponge -- Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. He`s apparently a shock jock on the radio, and after all this, still has his job. There he
is. So she is married to him.
Now, let me understand, Chris Spargo, Dailymail.com. Cole says -- Heather Cole says her husband would set her up -- it`s like a date -- with various
men to have sex, and she went along with that -- that`s a whole `nother can of worms -- but that she knew on some of the prior occasions, Chris Spargo,
he did video her with the other man. Is that right?
CHRIS SPARGO, DAILYMAIL.COM: That`s correct. The two had an open marriage. She said that he would videotape her with other men and she`d be
well aware of it.
GRACE: Well, hold on. Chris Spargo, now, you`re a crack reporter with Dailymail.com, and you`re throwing around the term they had an "open
marriage." That doesn`t really sound open to me, that when the husband wants to watch her having sex with some other man, he sets it up. It`s not
like she`s out dating whoever she pleases under the guise, the shroud of marriage.
It sounds like he`s pimping her out -- I mean, is there a nice way to say that, setting her up to have sex with other men, so then the benefit to him
is watching them on video?
SPARGO: That`s certainly the appearance, it seemed, yesterday when she was on the stand. She was very emotional and said she didn`t know she was
being filmed and that she couldn`t even watch this video, that when she saw the first few seconds, she made him stop.
GRACE: I`m glad you said that. I`m glad you said that. I`m glad you said that because, Adam Winer, let`s follow up on what Chris just said -- Adam
Winer joining me at the courthouse.
This is the wife right there, Heather Cole. She was married to this shock jock, radio shock jock, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Adam Winer, I found it
believable when she said, I never even watched the whole thing. I couldn`t watch it. He started showing it to me about two weeks after I had sex with
Hulk Hogan, and I was so upset and -- I got upset and I couldn`t even watch it.
To me, that sounds believable.
WINER: She used the word embarrassed, ashamed.
GRACE: She used the word embarrassed.
WINER: She was very quiet. You could hear her, and you`re seeing her there in that video. Yes, she used the word embarrassed. And you see
she`s talking very quietly.
You know, obviously, we are used to some loud personalities in this case, Hulk Hogan, Bubba the Love Sponge. These guys are professional media
people in general. They really know how to put on airs. Heather I think doesn`t really appear to have that side of her, perhaps less of a show
person, if you will, and therefore probably isn`t in a position to fake it, if you will, on the stand.
And I think you kind of really see the shame that she had in talking about this incident in her life.
GRACE: Well, and there`s another thing. Unleash the lawyers. Joining me out of Maryland, Robin Ficker, defense attorney, and out of Atlanta, Mindy
Smith (ph), defense attorney.
Let`s go to Robin Ficker. Ficker, this is not a topic to take sides on. I want to talk about your legal opinion. I would think that legally and
emotionally, many people -- now, this jury is four women, two men. I don`t think a lot of these women are going to be able to relate to willingly
going along -- I mean, if their husbands came and said, Hey, honey, can you go have sex with Robin Ficker and let`s video the whole thing, they`d
probably come after you with a frying pan to the head, OK, number one. So a lot of the women probably cannot relate to this scenario.
But I bet they can relate to everybody doing something that they`re a little embarrassed about, and it`s even worse when the whole world knows
about it. So her making a sex tape -- I mean, that`s not against the law. But then it getting broadcast -- I doubt that she bargained for that, Robin
Ficker.
[20:10:09] ROBIN FICKER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Disagree. This guy was a real target, Hulk Hogan. He had millions. Who has a videotape system in their
bedroom? We have them outside to see people trying to burglarize us. Who has it there?
She knew it. She slept in that bedroom every night with many different men. She has no shame, no morals, and she`s a little actress now, when she
sheds some tears when they`re coming after her for big bucks.
GRACE: Well, I don`t know when you turned into the morality police, but I`m glad to know that is your new position. OK, actually, what you did do,
Robin Ficker -- I`ll give you credit. You jerked me out of my dream that I was in that maybe this woman was telling the truth.
Because -- let me go back to you, Spargo, and Adam Winer, joining me there at the courthouse. Adam Winder, to you, WFTS. What Ficker said just made
a lot of sense. She has been taped many, many times before. She knew there was a camera in the bedroom, there for security reasons, and she knew
where the camera was. Apparently, it was in, like, a closet or a chifferobe or an armoire or where the clothes were. She had to know it was
open. So she`s claiming she didn`t know anything about it.
Let me ask you this. What is the significance of her not knowing about it, and more important, about Hulk Hogan not knowing he was being videotaped?
WINER: I was going to say, ultimately, you know, whether or not she knew is really about whether or not she played a part in setting up Hulk Hogan.
And so maybe she knew, maybe she didn`t. They`re certainly trying to damage her reputation, and her response to all of this being that she had
nothing to do with any of it and is claiming ignorance to the whole scenario.
But even if she didn`t know for sure there was a tape, she seems to have at least been aware that there could have been tape and it could have been
recorded.
GRACE: Yes.
WINER: So ultimately, what this comes down to is, Did Hulk Hogan know?
GRACE: Exactly.
WINER: And did she kind of drag him into this? Did he knowingly go into this? And I think that`s where this really...
GRACE: Right because...
WINER: ... is really why the defense is going after her character and bringing her down that way.
GRACE: Yes, they really -- they have to. Chris Spargo, Dailymail.com, the crux of it is this. If she knew about it, does that mean Hulk knew about
it? And if Hulk knew about it, then he doesn`t have a leg to stand on and a $100 million lawsuit, Spargo.
I don`t think Hulk knew about it because I don`t think he would know about it, and then go to court and potentially perjure himself asking for $100
million. So that`s the significance. If he knew about it, then this whole case fails.
SPARGO: Well, the thing is, too, the way the recorder worked, apparently, the person who was operating it, if it was her, he would have likely seen
her start it. So that would make it very hard for him to say he did not know he was being recorded.
GRACE: Everybody, Heather Cole, the woman on the Hulk Hogan sex tape, sobs on the stand, I didn`t know we were being taped. Do you believe her?
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heather Cole testifying she and Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, did not know they were being filmed by her
husband at the time, radio shock jock Bubba Clem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
COLE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were any (INAUDIBLE) cameras with other men recorded during the time you were married to Bubba?
COLE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from ABC`s "GMA."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:17:55] TERRY "HULK HOGAN" BOLLEA, PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER: Bubba handed me a condom and...
COLE: I was asked if I (INAUDIBLE) by Mr. Clem.
BOLLEA: And my gut`s telling me that this was off. Bubba, you`re not filming this, are you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Bubba Clem ever inform Mr. Bollea that a sexual encounter that you had with him was being filmed?
COLE: I`m not aware of any conversation.
BOLLEA: He lashed into me. I`m your best friend. I would never do that to you. And it just kind of, like, froze me in my tracks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cole`s saying she slept with Hogan at the request of Clem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You eventually had sexual relations (INAUDIBLE)
COLE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you recall (INAUDIBLE) number (INAUDIBLE)
COLE: To the best of my knowledge, I think three times that I remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heather told the jury that she was not a fan of Hogan talking about the sex video publicly.
COLE: I thought that I didn`t have anything to say about it (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from ABC`s "GMA" and Bay (ph) News 9.
Welcome back, everybody. Battle is on in a St. Petersburg courtroom, Florida, Hulk Hogan, known as "Ikiban" in Japan, as Terry Bollea to legal
eagles, in court, declaring war on Gawker Web site after they publish a portion of a sex tape taken by Hogan`s former best friend, Bubba the Love
Sponge Clem, Hogan having sex in the video with Heather Cole Clem.
To Chris Spargo, reporter, Dailymail.com, I mean, how many times can the woman say on the stand, I did not know about the release of the video?
You know, another interesting thing, Chris Spargo, Dailymail.com, nobody seems to know how this ended up on the front door of Gawker Web site. And
-- can I see Spargo, please?
[20:20:06] You know, Spargo, I notice that Gawker keeps saying, We printed this story and we put the sex tape in there because we were doing a very
in-depth study on how people react to and why people make sex tapes, and this was just an example.
That is BS, OK? That`s not true because the very title of the article was "Hulk Hogan sex tape not safe for work." Don`t watch it at work, you`ll
get in trouble. Look. Watch this. That`s what the whole thing was about. And yet they still say, Hey, we don`t know where it came from. It just
showed up on our doorstep. Really?
SPARGO: It is still very much unclear where the video did come from or how Gawker came to get it. What is known, though, at the time of them
publishing the video and the clip, they had been talking about the video for a few months and multiple sites had talked about the video existing,
just no one had actually published it or had their hands on it.
GRACE: Put him back up again! Spargo, there`s a very -- you`re right but there`s a very big difference in somebody going, Oh, there`s a sex tape of
Chris Spargo floating around out there, and you going, No, there`s not, is there? And then suddenly, one day, your mother calls you, Chris Spargo,
and goes, Chris, I just watched a sex tape of you.
It`s a very different thing for people to be bandying it about and then suddenly, it shows up and they get millions of viewers.
Let me ask you this, Adam Winer, WFTS. How is Hogan doing? How is he coming across, Hulk Hogan?
WINER: Actually, just a moment ago, as the trial was -- for today, was letting out, I ran into Hulk Hogan. I`ve run into him a few times during
this process here in downtown St. Petersburg. And I just caught an elevator with him the other day, for instance.
He`s had -- been pretty -- pretty good spirits this entire time. He`s showed a bit of a sense of humor in the mornings. When he`s come to the
courtroom, he has been joking about how fit he is and how ready for a rumble he`s been.
And just today, he was saying that he thinks everything is going, quote, "as expected," and he thinks the truth is ultimately going to come out.
That`s what he just told me about a couple hours ago here in downtown St. Petersburg. So he`s had a pretty rosy outlook, through all this.
But I got to say, it`s got to have been awkward for him. We`ve been watching him watch himself watch videos of other people talking negatively
about him or saying that he`s lying.
GRACE: Right.
WINER: So it has been definitely an awkward, uncomfortable situation.
GRACE: Well, you know what? I`m going to let the viewers decide. Here`s Hulk Hogan under oath.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLEA: (INAUDIBLE) when I was approached, it was a phone call. And to the best of my recollection, Bubba and Heather were together in a car, and
Bubba asked me over the phone. Heather called me "Hootie (ph)" once in a while as a joke because that was the name of his dog, just joking around as
a friendly joke.
And he would say, Hey, Hootie, Heather says she wants to see you naked or Heather wants to have sex with you or Heather wants to see the size of your
penis. And it started out like that, you know, where it was kind of like joking around, but it was -- it caught me off guard. You know, it was very
weird because I had never been approached like that in all the time I knew him, you know? And I`d been around him a lot in my environment, and I just
was not -- it caught me off guard when he first approached me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:27:40]BOLLEA: I was completely humiliated. Gawker had put some sex tape up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tape.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Web site Gawker posting a secret video of him and his best friend`s wife.
BOLLEA: Heather says she wants to see you naked. Heather wants to have sex with you. Heather wants to see the size of your penis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s suing the site for $100 million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They say, This is news. This is like Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton. It`s the sex tape. And people have the right to know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Yes, people have the right to know. I don`t know if I agree with that. And I`m anxious to find out what a St. Petersburg jury is going to
say.
You know, we just covered the case of a beautiful young sportscaster, Erin Andrews, who was secretly videoed naked coming out of her hotel at the
Vanderbilt Marriott, and everyone was up in arms, as was I.
And now that it`s Hulk Hogan, everybody thinks it`s a big joke. Why? Because he`s a wrestler? Because the media and legal elite think he`s just
a big joke?
Well, guess what? Lady Justice is wearing a blindfold. She doesn`t care if it`s a nun, a priest, a virgin or Hulk Hogan. If your privacy has been
violated intentionally, then you can sue, and you should win. That`s the bottom line.
This is all about whether a jury believes Hulk Hogan. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOLLEA: It was kind of like a group hug. And then Heather just kind of started walking to the bedroom, pulling my hand, and I walked with her. It
felt really crazy.
And Bubba walked in right behind us and goes, OK, you guys, I`m going to go to my office. And here`s a condom. Bubba handed me a condom. And it was
-- all of a sudden, it was just so weird and so crazy. My gut was telling me that this was off, this was wrong.
And like, from the feeling I had, I said, Bubba, you`re not condoning this, are you? And he just lashed into me. What the hell is wrong with you, I`m
your f-ing best friend. How dare you say that to me? I would never do that you. And it just kind of, like, froze me in my tracks. And that`s
how I ended up staying in that situation. I just -- everything was just so surreal. It just -- it -- that`s how it was.
[20:30:00]
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: But Stacey Newman, I mean, he is a grown man. The guy takes his wife in there, hands her over to Hogan and hands him a condom.
But he`s a grown man. He doesn`t have to fall into the bed, does he? I mean he did this on his own. There`s a sex tape and now he`s burned. That`s not
-- put Stacey up, please.
That is not the issue. This is not, as Ficker would have it, a moral vendetta. This is the law. Sleeping with her is -- we are not talking about
whether that`s right or wrong, okay? I`m not in that business.
Violating his privacy, that is the business. And just because he commits adultery, that does not mean it should be broadcast by Gawker. Do you think
the jury, Stacey, you have been watching every single word of the courtroom, will the jury take it out on Hulk Hogan because he slept with a
married woman and his divorce was not final?
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, this jury is made up mostly of women.
GRACE: Yup.
Newman: So, that could be an issue for him, but I`m understanding this jury was completely riveted by Heather Cole`s testimony. So that could be the
key that works in his favor because she said on that tape he knew nothing about the tape being recorded and there`s still that mystery, as you said,
about who actually distributed this video to Gawker.
Grace: Yeah. Well, we know -- we don`t think it was Hulk and Love Sponge never took the stand, did you notice that, Stacey? He pled the Fifth. And
the judge either would struck (ph) the jury this afternoon.
The man at the center of all of this, next to Hulk Hogan, is Bubba Love Sponge, Clem, who took the video, we think. He took the Fifth. Nobody got
to bring him on. Nobody got to question him. And I`ll tell you what, Stacey -- can I see Stacey, please?
Stacey, I think the reason they did that is because neither side wanted him. Because he`s radioactive. No matter what you ask, if he could go
ballistic, and you don`t know what he`s going to say on cross. So, nobody would touch him with a 10-foot pole, Stacey, that`s why we didn`t see him.
NEWMAN: Well, that could be why we didn`t see him, but this actually maybe could have worked to Gawker`s favor if he did take the stand because just
by getting up there and refusing to ask questions, could show you are guilty.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Prom season approaching all over America, but not for gorgeous 16- year-old Maren of Jonathan Law High. This honor student girl stabbed dead in the hallway of her very own suburban high school. By whom? Her would-be
junior prom date, angry, because she says no to the prom.
In the last hours, a sweetheart deal? Is the so-called prom killer set to walk free and did this teen girl victim warn the school before her murder
and they did nothing?
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say high school junior, Maren Sanchez, was attacked by a classmate. She was slashed in the neck, chest and face. They
say the attack happened at a stairwell at her school around 7:00 in the morning.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight to Steve Kalb, reporter with the Connecticut Radio Network. Steve, thank you for being with us. Could we start at the beginning? What
happened?
STEVE KALB, CONNECTICUT RADIO NETWORK REPORTER: The report goes like this. Apparently, it was Christopher who asked Maren if he could take her to the
prom. She said no. He was upset, came back and -- it was the next day -- and slashed her and stabbed her and killed her.
Then, went to the school and said -- was asked and said, I did it, arrest me.
GRACE: Everybody, you are seeing shots of this young girl, this teen girl, honor student who turned down an invitation to the prom.
Tonight, we are learning not only is there a sweetheart deal in the works for this guy, could essentially walk free in less than half the time the
law calls for.
But not only that, did she tell a guidance counselor that she was afraid of him, that he`d been acting erratically and was focusing a lot of his anger
on her? And they did nothing? Steve, joining us from Connecticut Network, what do we know about that?
KALB: What we know is that she informed the school that, in fact, she was concerned. The school is now one of those being sued in a complaint because
they told his parents, they told Christopher`s parents, the guidance counselor did, but didn`t do anything else.
Christopher was out of school for a week, and then came back. And apparently all of the checks that were supposed to be in place to ensure
that nothing happen to her, at least from the appearances at this point, fell through.
GRACE: Stunned. I mean, you take your child to school, you watch them go in the door, you assume they are safe. And here, this little girl had told the
school she was afraid of Plaskon, afraid of telling him no. and they did nothing? And she is stabbed dead, a bloody death, lying in a pool of blood
right there in the school hallway? This is what her family says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:40:00] EDWARD KOVAC, MAREN SANCHEZ`S COUSIN: Maren should be celebrating at her prom this evening with her friends and classmates.
Instead, we are mourning her death and we are trying as a community to understand the senseless loss of life.
ELIZABETH FESER, MILFORD SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS: Vibrant, very, very involved in Jonathan Law High School, an incredible contributor, someone
who is loved and respected by both her peers as well as her students.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Joseph Scott Morgan joining us tonight, Certified Death Investigator, Professor of Forensics at Jacksonville State University. Joe
Scott, you have studied the injuries and the mortal knife wounds to her. What did you learn?
JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, CERTIFIED DEATH INVESTIGATOR, PROFESSOR OF FORENSICS AT JACKSONVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY: This is a slashing, Nancy. This is an
excruciatingly painful, painful death where she was left to bleed out in a stairwell. She`s slashed across the surfaces of her face, the anterior neck
and also her chest as well.
She essentially bled to death, exsanguinated. This is not a quick death. She would have been left to lay there and essentially, the life just
leeched out of her body, in this environment which our children are supposed to be safe.
GRACE: Justin Freiman, help me understand why he is getting to plead Alford. In other words, he has gone into court, Justin, and he is neither
confirming nor denying that he did this thing, and the judge is considering sentencing him to less than half of what he could get on this.
Let me tell you something. Justin, it would be a cold day in H-E-double L, that I would take an Alford Plea, and I`ll tell you why, Justin. Because
later on, when you want to use that guilty plea to a similar transaction, there`s no record that they ever said under oath, I did it. I plead guilty
to it.
What they do, Justin, is they go in court and they go, I neither admit nor deny that I did it, but I will accept a sentence. That`s what they do. It`s
the easy way out. Once in awhile you have to do it but it`s not a good idea. So not only is this Plaskon guy not ever having to admit he did
anything wrong, he`s showing no remorse whatsoever, he`s going to get less than half the time behind bars that he could get? Is that what the judge is
really thinking of?
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s right, Nancy, and you are correct. All he does is say, I`m not going to fight the charges. So that`s
it. What they`re asking for -- the prosecution is supposed to be asking for 25 years behind bars, which is the very low end.
But, with the time he`s already served, which is about two years and only having to serve there about 60 percent before coming up for parole, he
could actually be out in as little as 13 years.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops say this boy, Christopher Plaskon, a former boyfriend, viciously stabbed the beloved high school student to death in
front of students in the school hallway, all because she allegedly turned him down to be his date to the junior prom.
It`s 7:15 a.m., Jonathan Law High School, kids pouring into the halls. Our affiliate, WTIC, reports court records reveal Plaskon was bitter after
being jilted by Maren. His friends telling cops he was fuming and wanted her to pay, reportedly saying he wouldn`t mind if Maren was dead or hit by
a bus.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: That is from "Crime Watch Daily".
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He asked her to prom and she said no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This 16-year-old Maren Sanchez had been fatally stabbed in a stairwell at school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chris (ph) then said, "Arrest me, arrest me, I did it."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Multiple lacerations on her neck, chest and face.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: It`s 7:15 a.m. at Jonathan High School, when this young girl is attacked and murdered. Why? Because she said no to a prom date. To Justin
Freiman on the story, Justin, everyone is getting ready to go to the prom, and this happens. What I don`t understand is what the school is saying. She
told the school that she was afraid of this guy. And they did nothing?
FREIMAN: Well, according to the lawsuit they didn`t do anything. All they did was talk to his parents. But they didn`t stop him and according to this
lawsuit, he had gone to the school with this knife and he had been hurting himself and we`re told that he might hurt others as well. And yet,
according to the lawsuit, they just didn`t do enough. And that`s why the family is blaming them.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Robin Ficker out of Maryland, and Mindy Smith out of Atlanta. Mindy Smith, what could possibly be the school`s defense?
If she told a guidance counselor she was afraid of this guy, now she`s dead.
MINDY SMITH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, what she actually told the guidance counselor was that he was suicidal and that he had been cutting
himself. Yes, a guidance counselor is a mandated reporter under the laws of Connecticut as with most states, but how would the guidance counselor know
to make the jump that, oh, he`s going to hurt other people.
I mean, a lot of adolescents have known problems. A lot of adolescents are unstable, it`s a transition for teenagers. So, then the guy disappeared
from school -- the kid disappeared from school for a week.
Assumably (ph), his parents took him to an in-patient facility to get monitored. He was released and he came back to school. How could anyone
know or should have known or could have foreseen that this would happen to this poor young lady?
GRACE: Everybody, you are seeing video from YouTube. You know, Steve Kalb, with the Connecticut Radio Network, I understand that she was afraid of him
as well.
[20:50:00] KALB: Yes. She was. She was afraid of him. In the lawsuit looking that I was just sort of looking over here, there is a requirement
that the school create some sort of safety plan for her, which, at least, according to the paperwork I have, that didn`t occur and that`s why they
are suing the Board of Education and also suing the city of Milford.
GRACE: Everyone, this CNN hero once had a brush with the law, went on to become a chef, today helping other ex-offenders get back on track.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON CHROSTOWSKI, CNN HERO: Coming home from prison after someone`s done their time, everyone deserves that fair and equal second chance.
CHROSTOWSKI: So, my left hand moves, my right hand follows.
CHROSTOWSKI: I see that opportunity that someone deserves. I can see it and I can feel it, and I have been given the gifts to fight to make sure that
that door does get opened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: How does Brandon open that door? Watch Brandon`s story at cnnheroes.com and nominate a 2016 CNN hero.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One very important factor in this is, as you can see, the actual face of this particular individual cannot make out. The tape was
going to be very important, it`s going to be the profile of this individual, the body, the gait in his run or walk. It`s going to take
somebody that actually knows this individual to probably be able to identify him and give us some additional guidance or direction as to how to
pursue this individual.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A seventh grade girl in "grave danger" tonight. Her father has been found murdered and the little girl is gone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A father murdered, his daughter gone. Her story sending shockwaves through Mayde Creek students.
CLINT MCRAE, WALKER COUNTY SHERIFF: Right now, we portray that she certainly is in grave danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Jeffrey Boney, associate editor with the "Houston Forward Times". Jeff, thank you for being with us. This little girl`s
father is found dead and she`s gone, correct?
JEFFREY BONEY, "HOUSTON FORWARD TIMES" ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Absolutely, Nancy. His body was found burned Monday morning outside of Houston, Texas and his
pickup truck was burned, too. Police believe that she was with him at the time and was now kidnapped.
GRACE: Guys, in the last hours, as we go to air tonight, we have obtained grainy surveillance video that may be the key to cracking this case. Now,
watch carefully.
You`re seeing a heavyset male running across the video towards the back. Keep watching. Keep watching. Is this the perpetrator? Take a look.
Tonight, we are on the hunt for a man we believe that kills this little girl`s father, Adriana`s father, and takes Adriana. There he is. The
heavyset male walking away from the camera. Is it a lot to go on? No, it`s not.
But right now, that`s all we`ve got. Look at this guy. Look at this guy. Look at this video. There you see. Is this a second perp? Jeffrey Boney,
joining me from the "Houston Forward Times", what do we know about this just received surveillance video?
BONEY: well, what we know is the person seen running from the scene in the video footage, and there is really not much more to know, but the public is
really being asked to help identify this individual. I know that the FBI and Texas EquuSearch have joined forces to conduct a search in undisclosed
locations across the greater Houston area to seek to try to find out exactly where this 14-year-old girl is.
GRACE: And her father murdered. Matt Zarrell on the story. Matt, you have been working hard to get more facts. What do we know?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: So what police are saying now is the person in the surveillance video that it will take an individual that`s
familiar with this person and knows the suspect in order to identify him, will take someone familiar with the body profile, trying to identify the
suspect. The police desperately, desperately need the public`s help to identify this guy.
GRACE: So someone that knows him will recognize him. Jeffrey Boney, "Houston Forward Times", tell me how the whole thing unfolded. It all
started around 1:00 a.m. on a Saturday in Katy, Texas, which is a Houston suburb. What happened, Jeff?
BONEY: They shot him, they burned his body, they left his body in a separate location and they took the vehicle to another spot, burned that.
And his daughter is believed to have been with him.
GRACE: Won`t you please help us find Adriana? The tipline, 936-435-2400.
Let`s remember American hero Florida Deputy John Kotfila, Jr., 30, killed in the line of duty. He sacrificed his own life blocking a wrong-way driver
with his cruiser, to save a young woman on the way home from work. A Westfield State grad from a family of police officers, served Hillsborough
County Sheriff`s. Parents, John and Theresa; sister Katelyn; brothers, Michael and Patrick. John Kotfila, Jr., American hero.
And happy anniversary to Helen and Harold, celebrating 60 years together. Their lives of community service at Wesley Glen Ministries, three children,
ten grands, four greats, two on the way. Helen and Harold, what a love story. Happy anniversary.
"Forensic Files" up next. Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. Nancy Grace, signing off. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8
o`clock sharp, Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
[21:00:00]
END
