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Nancy Grace
12 Girls Found in Man`s Home; Did Married Assistant Principal Murder Teacher?; Victim Found in Ditch Near a Sugar Cane Field. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 20, 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. Something isn`t right, says a neighbor who calls police on a man who`s holding 12 little girls, 6 months
to 18 years old, in his home, including -- bombshell tonight -- a 14-year- old little Amish girl who was, quote, "gifted" to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police removed 12 girls, including an infant, they say were living in this house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weeds growing out front, covering the house, boarded- up window.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charged with sexually assaulting at least one of the girls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say she gave birth to two of Kaplan`s children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Had her first baby when she was just 14.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Did a married assistant principal murder the pregnant "teacher of the year" he`s having an affair with?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former teacher of the year, Lintel Washington (ph)...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seven months pregnant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot and killed, dumped in Eberville (ph) parish.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators made the gruesome discovery and used dental records to identify the missing teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was in love with her killer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Something isn`t right, says a neighbor who calls police on a man who we believe was holding 12 little girls, ages just 6 months old
to 18, there in his home, including a 14-year-old little girl who is, quote, "gifted" to him by her own parents?
And let`s just kick it all off, Jean Casarez, CNN correspondent joining me there outside this house of horrors. You know what? It`s so easy for us
here in America to talk about other cultures and other countries and child brides and how little girls are mistreated in other countries, where this
is going on right here in our country, right under our own noses!
Jean, you`re on the scene. Take it from the beginning. Explain to me how the police didn`t know or say they didn`t know this guy has 12 little girls
in his home, and he`s gotten one of them pregnant at least twice?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Nancy, there`s so many facets to this story. Let`s start with the facts as we know them, according to
police and prosecution documents. It all came down on Thursday, last Thursday. You`re right, the house is right behind me.
You see the blue doors? Well, neighbors are saying it was blue doors. He had a blue van. There was a blue light in the back yard. But what they
were most concerned about was that here is a man alone that has 12 young women, including what police now know was an 18-year-old.
Now, they got a tip. Police will not tell me where they got the tip, but they tell me the tip was that the oldest, who is now 18, was actually
gifted to this man at the age of 14 years old because the couple that had her as a biological daughter, they had financial difficulty they had to get
out of, that the man, Lee Kaplan, now defendant Lee Kaplan, who lived in the house behind me with the 12 girls -- that he gave them money, helped
them out of that financial strait.
And he got in return a 14-year-old, a 14-year-old who the probable cause affidavit says he then had sexual relations with and she had two children
now ages 3 and 6 months, Nancy.
GRACE: You know, Jean, another issue is I don`t know exactly how old the little girl was when she was gifted to him, but I know, based on my own
calculations -- and I`m a lawyer, not a mathematician -- but she conceived the baby, her first baby, when she was 14. How long she had been in that
home? Did her parents just hand her over on a silver platter when she was 13, when she was 12? I don`t know. But I know this. I know there were 12
girls that were held captive in this home.
Jean Casarez is there on the scene with me right now. And joining me also out of Feasterville, Pennsylvania, Kevin Rihl, a neighbor of Lee Kaplan.
Kevin, thank you for being with us.
KEVIN RIHL, NEIGHBOR OF LEE KAPLAN: Thank you for having me.
GRACE: You know, Mr. Rihl, you had suspicions something was horribly wrong in that home for some time. What did you observe?
[20:05:00]RIHL: Well, it was about five years ago, actually, that I noticed the girls were living there. And another neighbor and I had many
nuisance problems with him. He was very much a nuisance neighbor. One of the things being it smelled like he was always burning trash. It was
either outside -- we couldn`t even open our windows. I had to close my kids` bedroom windows.
His chimney caught fire. He started doing (INAUDIBLE) We were calling the fire marshal, the fire police all the time. And his chimney caught fire
two years ago, and he wouldn`t let the firemen into his house.
So when we started having these nuisance problems with him about three years ago, I said to my neighbor, Who are these girls? I know he`s never
had girls there before. Who are these girls?
And he told me at that time, they were still -- before all the nuisance problems, when they were still friendly with each other, that Mr. Kaplan
had said they came from this family that had 15 kids. They couldn`t afford to take care of them anymore. So they sent three over.
I said, Why three girls? Who`s going to send three girls to a middle-aged man`s house that is not family? And as the nuisance problems stacked one
on top of the other, I started realizing something`s wrong here. These kids are not acting like normal children would interact.
GRACE: What do you mean by that?
RIHL: They were never outside...
GRACE: Why do you say -- oh, that`s what I want to hear. Why were they not normal children?
RIHL: Well, they were never outside playing. I never saw them get on a bus, get on a school bus stop, have a bus stop in front of their house. If
I was in my neighbor`s back yard, which is adjacent to his -- I waved to them one time as my kids are young, as well, and they put their heads down
and scurried into the house.
Any time somebody would come outside, they`d go inside. Like I said, were never outside playing. They were doing laundry, hanging up clothes or
outside, he had them working, and always in these long, what I had described as, like, a Mennonite dress, maybe like a "Little House on the
Prairie," sometimes yellow, sometimes blue, from shoulders to ankles.
And they -- when the police asked me how old are these girls, I said, Somewhere around 6, 9 and 11, but when I see them another time, they look
like they`re different ages. Now I know why. There was 12. None of us had any idea that there was that many kids in there. We never saw more
than three at a time.
GRACE: Mr. Rihl, question. When did you first call police?
RIHL: Last April, we actually went to the township building and...
GRACE: I`m so mad I could chew a nail.
RIHL: ... and we sat down...
GRACE: What I`m saying, Mr. Rihl -- Mr. Rihl, hold on just a moment.
Jean Casarez, I am so mad I could chew a nail in half right now! Why is this just breaking now when he contacted them in April?
And you know what else, Jean? We`ve been doing a little bit of digging, and it`s my understanding police were called possibly as long as five years
ago. What`s the truth, Jean?
CASAREZ: The truth? What police tell us is that they may have gotten some calls from the police. They don`t say an in-person visit, but they do say
that the only thing that was said was there were some Amish girls living at the home. And the police are very strong saying, We had no probable cause.
We weren`t told anything was out of the ordinary except they were Amish girls, and there was no way we could have gotten a warrant and we couldn`t
get inside.
GRACE: OK, that does not make sense to me, that somebody bothers to call police and say, Hi, there`s some Amish girls in my neighborhood. I find it
very difficult to believe that that`s all that was said.
And not only that, Jean, I have reason to believe that there were calls possibly five years ago, three years ago. And now Mr. Rihl tells me that
he called back in April? Let me check. Oh, my goodness, it`s almost July. Why is this just cracking right now?
Back to you, Kevin Rihl. So what did you tell police?
RIHL: So what I told police -- and this was actually in person because my neighbor and I went down to the township building and we sat down with a
police chief and two detectives. They wrote down everything that we said. And we were talking about the nuisances that we were having with Mr.
Kaplan.
And in addition, the biggest priority were these girls. And I never once even mentioned the word "Amish" to them. I just said there was these girls
there. I know they`re not his. I gave them the story of what he had said, they came from this family out near Lancaster, PA, who couldn`t afford to
take care of them. I told them all the activity that I saw going on there and how they were never outside playing.
[20:10:00]I said, But the thing that gets me the most is their demeanor, because they did ask me, Do you think there`s abuse going on? I said, I
can`t say that there is. I`ve never seen any inappropriate action. I don`t have concrete evidence.
I said, But their demeanor screams abuse. It doesn`t take a rocket scientist to be able to figure out how a child is supposed to be acting and
interacting with other people. When you put your head down and scurry away when there`s other kids around, something`s wrong.
GRACE: You know, Mr. Rihl, what you are describing is bringing back a very vivid memory to me. One -- not the first, but one of the first child
molestation cases I ever prosecuted, a mother allowed her rich live-in to molest all of her girls.
And I remember one of the little girls -- beautiful. I remember going out to find them, and I found them, and one little girl was about 3 years old.
And I remember she wouldn`t look up at me. And I took my hands around her face and I said, Hey, sweetheart. She looked up, and then she immediately
looked down. She couldn`t meet your eyes after all she had been through.
And what you were seeing, Mr. Rihl, is a classic example, a classic indicator that something is horribly wrong. Now, you`re saying that they
would see you and then run in?
RIHL: Correct. Yes. Like I said, they would only be outside to play -- or to work and never outside playing. And if they saw people come out,
whether it be me in the yard playing with my kids or the other neighbor, they`d go running inside as soon as they saw somebody else come out. And
to me, that`s not -- that`s odd. That`s not normal, you know?
GRACE: You know, another thing...
RIHL: And I did have the...
GRACE: Wait. Go ahead, sir.
RIHL: I was going to say that another thing -- a couple weeks later, after I went to the police station, they did call me back. And they said, We`re
looking in -- we talk about all the nuisance problems with him. He`s not going to do that anymore. And as far as the kids go, he said that they`re
being home schooled and that he`s of some kind of Amish religion.
And I said, That`s BS. He`s hiding behind that to be able to do everything that he`s doing. They said, Well, that`s what he`s claiming.
GRACE: You know what? It`s not just him, Kevin. It`s not just him that needs to go to jail for the rest of their life as a stop on their way to H-
E-L-L.
Jean Casarez, what about the girl`s parents? I`m not -- justice will not be served until both the father and the mother go to jail for gifting this
crazy guy with their girl! And I have reason to believe all these other girls are their children, Jean. They just handed over a flock of little
girls to this guy to molest as he wanted to.
CASAREZ: Nancy, to add to that, on Thursday, when they finally did execute the search warrant in the home right behind me, Savilla, who is the
biological mother of the 18-year-old -- we know that, Savilla Stoltzfus -- she was present in the home. They arrested her at the very same time. She
has the most minor of charges, endangering the welfare of a child. Daniel Stoltzfus, the biological father, was arrested we believe in Lancaster
County. And then, of course, Lee Kaplan was arrested right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:17:45]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Children all in blue dresses, never outside the house, regularly looking so scared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An anonymous tip led police to 51-year-old Lee Kaplan`s home. They found 12 girls there from 6 months to 18 years old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The oldest was allegedly given to him by her very own parents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Given to him by her very own parents. How long has this been going on right under our noses? And the parents are just as responsible as the
molester himself, if these allegations are true. And my question is, what took so long?
Listen to what a neighbor says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been seeing the man that lives there, was living there. His appearance in general alerted me, the fact that he had
small children with him that were significantly younger than him. I had never seen anybody that looked like a wife.
He drove a beat-up cargo van that was this, you know, electric blue color. Also, his house had shutters that were the same color blue. There`s a
light shining in the back of the house that is the same color blue. And the children all wore blue dresses.
They always had very flat affects, I guess, if you will, which I interpreted as very sad, fearful. You know, I couldn`t tell if they were
unkempt. The dresses always just hung, long blue dress, long hair. Yes, they just, you know, appeared to be Amish-looking, but then we`re not in an
Amish area. So it was very out of place. The whole situation was just very unusual and felt wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: If it had not been for Jen Betts (ph) -- that was her call that went to police that you were just listening to. And joining us now another
neighbor that goes to police, Kevin Rihl.
This would still be going on. What we believe has happened is that a little girl at the oldest of 14 -- she could have been younger. She could
have been 13. She could have been 12, for all we know. But we know at age just 14, she gives birth to the first of this guy`s children. Then another
one.
[20:20:06]She`s been living in this home for at least four years. Then the same parents, quote, "gift" their other girls, 10 -- nine other girls in
all. That`s 10 girls plus the two little girls that the 14-year-old gives birth to, all captive in Lee Kaplan`s home.
Jean Casarez, he did everything he could to isolate them. There were never deliveries to the home. He wouldn`t even let the fire people in the home
when his chimney caught on fire. He claims he home schooled them, in what, the birds and the bees? At times, he would take them to some hot dog joint
up the street, and the people there referred to the little girls as his wives.
So how could it be that this goes on for this long? And how do I know he didn`t molest all the other children, Jean?
CASAREZ: Let me just add to some local color here. We just talked to the owner of that local restaurant, who says that he hasn`t been there in about
two years. But when he did come in, he did bring at least some of the young girls and they wore their dresses.
He said that he was very religious and that he would quote biblical verses when he was in there, and that it was his opinion from what this man said,
defendant Kaplan, that he wanted to protect the young women from the horrors of this world, and that`s why he told him that he was home
schooling them.
Now, somebody at the Dollar Tree, where he frequented with three of the oldest young women, said that everybody thought something was off and they
couldn`t understand why no one in the neighborhood hadn`t called authorities because the girls wouldn`t look or talk. They`d look at the
ground.
GRACE: Well, why didn`t they call authorities?
Listen, tonight, anyone hearing this story, if you believe even remotely that a child is being hurt or a child is being molested, you have got to
call police.
We now know that 10 girls, little girls, being held captive in this home with the collusion of the parents. How many years have they endured his
molestation, everyone wondering why somebody else didn`t call police? Well, thank God Jen Betts and Kevin Rihl did.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:26:44]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus claim Kaplan helped them save their farm so they, quote, unquote, "gifted" their
daughter, who was 14 at the time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stoltzfus told police he knew Kaplan fathered children with his daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police in Pennsylvania finding 12 young girls living in a 51-year-old man`s house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Jean Casarez joining us there on the scene, Feasterville, Pennsylvania. So Jean, tell me what is happening now. Where are the girls
now?
CASAREZ: They`re with social service agencies. And today has been a really big day because they were interviewed for the first time from law
enforcement. They brought in people to help with the dialects, if they didn`t want to speak English but wanted to speak a bit of the Amish
dialect, did everything they could to make these young women comfortable.
They believe that this will give a lot more information. And first and foremost, they really want to find out if these are the biological children
of Daniel and Savilla back in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
GRACE: Solomon Jones, morning host, WURD, joining me in addition to Jean Casarez. Solomon, I don`t see any kidnapping charges on the other
children. It`s not just the then-14-year-old girl that became pregnant twice. What about all the other children?
SOLOMON JONES, WURD: Yes, absolutely. And the parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, say that those are their children, and police, I believe, are
still trying to confirm whether or not those other children belong to that couple. But the interesting thing is that the mother is found there with
Kaplan. And so those parents are the key to the answer to what`s going on with those other children.
GRACE: You know, Ashley Willcott, certified child welfare law specialist, what they did was they basically sold their children in exchange for the
note on the farm. That`s what they did. And the mother and the father need to go straight to the penitentiary and stay there!
ASHLEY WILLCOTT, CERTIFIED CHILD WELFARE LAW SPECIALIST: Nancy, it`s 2016. Children are not property that can be sold. They`re not chattel. And
that`s what these parents have done. They`ve committed a crime. They sold their children. They gave them away. They can`t do that.
Not only that, but clearly, this mother and this father knew what was going on. She was found in the home. She knew what was happening to her
daughter. She did that to her daughter.
This child`s been abused by this man. These police cannot believe that these other children belong to these parents. They need to do testing, DNA
testing to see who the parents of these other children are. We don`t know who they belong to. We don`t know who the parents are.
GRACE: And to Kevin Rihl, the neighbor of Lee Kaplan -- Kevin, I know that it just burned you alive knowing that something was wrong, not able to
prove it, calling police, and just every night putting your head on the pillow, going, I know something is wrong just in the house next door.
RIHL: Yes. Yes. I have a 4-year-old daughter myself and two other boys younger than that. And I wouldn`t even let them near that yard. And I
couldn`t imagine somebody gifting their child, no matter what age they are.
[20:30:01] I couldn`t imagine somebody doing that to my daughter. I mean, it`s just unfathomable that somebody would do that. That`s not love, you
know? That`s -- I just -- it`s sick. It`s sickness, is what it is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Crime-victim-turned-crime-fighter Hayley Dee is back in "Murder in the Courthouse."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The unstoppable prosecutor digs in to track down a killer. But could she wind up the next victim? Find out in the third book
in Nancy`s best-selling series.
GRACE: Portions of proceeds go to Help Find Missing Children!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Preorder your copy now on Amazon, barnesandnoble.com and more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:35:00] GRACE: Did a married assistant principal murder the pregnant teacher, the teacher of the year, that he`s allegedly having an affair
with?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Death of Lyntell Washington and their unborn baby.
Washington`s body was found near Rosedale, just over one week after her 3- year-old was found near a bloody car prompting a frantic missing person`s investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only two words that I did come up with, is heinous and senseless.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me right now from CNN affiliate WAFB is Kirin Chawla. Kirin, thank you for being with us. It`s hard for me to understand exactly what
has happened here, but what I believe has happened is that the mother of a 3-year-old little girl`s body has been found in Louisiana in a ditch near a
sugar cane field, she was about seven months pregnant at the time of her death.
She was shot in the head. And now, there are allegations that the baby that she was carrying belongs to an assistant principal, a married assistant
principal. What more, Kirin, can you tell me? How did police find the body?
KIRIN CHAWLA, CNN AFFILIATE WAFB REPORTER: The body was actually found with the help of that 3-year-old child. And I believe this is a case that stands
out because that 3-year-old child was pretty much the key witness in this specific case.
She said some specific things to police that `Mr. Robbie` hurt her mom. And at that time they didn`t know who Mr. Robbie was and later they were able
to figure out that that was the suspect and that her mom was `sleeping.`
She heard a `bang` and that her mom`s in the lake. That kind of helped police piece that together that what had happened and that`s how they found
this body.
GRACE: Joining me right now is a very special guest. It is Kala Marks. Ms. Marks is actually the wife of the suspect, the assistant principal, Robert
Marks. And she is here because she believes her husband is innocent. Ms. Marks, thank you for being with us.
KALA MARKS, WIFE OF SUSPECT, ROBERT MARKS: Hi. Thank you.
GRACE: Ms. Marks, explain to me your reasoning. Oh, also with her is Lionel Lon Burns, the attorney for Mr. Marks. Mr. Burns, thank you for being with
us as well. Ms. Marks, tell me why you`re so convinced your husband is innocent.
MARKS: He`s a loving husband, a loving wife. I just don`t see how he could do it. I`m really just at a loss for words.
GRACE: I know you must be. That`s a lot, a lot to be slapped with, the fact that your husband is charged, A, for having an affair and, B, for a murder.
MARKS: Yeah.
GRACE: Did you know the victim in this case? Did you know Ms. Washington?
MARKS: I did not.
GRACE: OK. Now, it`s my understanding that your husband, the assistant principal, worked in the same school with her, is that correct?
MARKS: Correct.
GRACE: OK. Did you have any idea that they were having an affair?
MARKS: I did not. I did not, not one clue.
GRACE: And today, as of today, do you believe that they were having an affair?
MARKS: Honestly, I really don`t know what to think.
GRACE: OK.
MARKS: Or what to feel. I hope not. But I`m not sure.
GRACE: When you first found out that your husband is charged not only in the murder of this pregnant teacher of the year, but that he apparently had
been having an affair with her and she`s pregnant with his baby, what did he tell you?
LIONEL LON BURNS, ATTORNEY FOR SUSPECT, ROBERT MARKS: He told her absolutely nothing, Nancy. In fact, he exercised his right to remain
silent.
The very interesting thing about this is that we`re hearing Mr. Marks said this, Mr. Marks said that from the Baton Rouge Police Department, but had
he said anything, the first thing he would have told them was `I`m actually Dr. Robert Marks, and again, get me an attorney.` He`s made no statement,
and at no time did he waive his right to remain silent. And look at the witness that they have in this case, Nancy, it`s a 3-year-old child.
GRACE: Please put him up.
BURNS: The 3-year-old child said `Mr. Robbie put my mom in the lake.` When the remains of the victim in this stage were recovered -- and we express
our sympathy to the victim and her family as she has not been buried to this date. When the remains of the victim were discovered, they were
nowhere near a lake or near any water body. So the Baton Rouge Police Department has already discredited their only witness ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Hold on just one moment, sir.
BURNS: Yes, ma`am.
[20:40:00] GRACE: Just so you know, since I know that you are the attorney for Mr. Marks, every jury that I`ve ever had, when I put up child
testimony, including children as young as 3 years old, believe the child.
Now, let`s take a look, Justin, if you don`t mind, at the field, the sugar cane field where the dead body was found. Do you see that water right
there? Because I saw a boat just then. If I can circle back to that, that`s exactly what I wanted to see because for a child who sees something like
that, they may very well believe that that`s a lake, not a ditch full of water. So just before I fight with you ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: Nancy, you`re putting words in the child`s mouth. You`re putting words in the child`s mouth.
GRACE: And so are you.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: That`s not what the child says.
GRACE: But before I can argue about what the child said or didn`t say, I want to go to Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert.
Ben, what do we know about the defendant, the defendant`s cell phone, Mr. Marks, or as his lawyer has corrected us, Dr. Marks. Dr. Robert Marks. What
do we know about his cell phone?
BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Well, Nancy, we know that on Wednesday night, Dr. Marks` cell phone and Washington`s cell phone were in
Baton Rouge. We know they were in Baton Rouge. We don`t know if they were together but we know at 9:45 p.m. that night, both those phones are 20
miles away in Rosedale.
And then at 10 o`clock, both those phones moved back from Rosedale back to Baton Rouge. We know those phones were together, Nancy. It doesn`t state -
you know, these cell phones are 20 miles apart. It doesn`t state that they were together but it`s awfully circumstantial that the phones go from Baton
Rouge, 20 miles to Rosedale and then 20 miles back, Nancy.
GRACE: Hold on. Ben Levitan, are you telling me that the defendant, the suspect, Dr. Robert Marks` cell phone was in the vicinity where the
victim`s body was found?
LEVITAN: Yes, it was, Nancy.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: OK, hold on.
LEVITAN: ... it was at the body.
GRACE: Hold on. To Ms. Marks. Ms. Marks, I don`t want to be the one to give you this information, but did you know that their cell phones were
traveling back and forth to the same locations including his -- your husband`s cell phone near the location of her dead body the night that
she`s killed?
BURNS: You would be asking her to make comments on the facts of the case and at this point ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: No, I`m asking her ...
BURNS: ... I`m asking her not.
GRACE: ... does she know what Ben Levitan just told me?
BURNS: Right. Your communications ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Has anybody told you that?
BURNS: ... expert just told you it`s circumstantial. Nancy, it`s circumstantial.
GRACE: It is circumstantial. You`re right. But I`m asking ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... his wife did she know that?
BURNS: Do you know what the law in Louisiana on circumstantial evidence? You must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Remember, Dr.
Marks is innocent until proven guilty. If I listen to you ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You left something out, sir.
BURNS: ... I think he`s already convicted.
GRACE: You left something out of that, sir.
BURNS: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: The hypothesis of guilt must be discluded -- discarded unless ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: Nancy, you don`t know Louisiana law, with all due respect.
GRACE: I`d like to finish, sir. Unless and until the state pierces that. And my question to Mrs. Marks is not a comment on the evidence. And sir,
let me correct you on one thing. I have tried probably over 100 felony trials and taken pleas in around 10,000 cases. So don`t come schooling me,
sir. But what I was trying to ask Mrs. Marks before I corrected you on the Louisiana law, is if anyone had told her about that cell phone information.
MARKS: I found out on the news. I didn`t know.
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former teacher of the year, Lyntell Washington ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seven months pregnant ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... shot and killed and dumped in Iberville Parish. Investigators made the gruesome discovery and used dental records to
identify the missing teacher ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was in love with her killer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight with me is probably the defense`s most powerful weapon against the charges that an assistant principal murdered a co-worker with
whom he was having an affair.
A lady that has a 3-year-old little girl who was found covered in her mother`s blood. Now, this secret weapon is the defendant`s own wife. Ms.
Kala Marks is with us. She is Dr. Robert Marks` wife. And she firmly believes -- and she`s extremely credible. She`s believable. She`s
beautiful. She`s articulate. And she`s believable. She says her husband is not guilty. Ms. Marks, the night that -- Ms. Washington was murdered, where
was your husband?
MARKS: He left to go watch the basketball game with a friend.
GRACE: What friend was that? Did you know the friend?
MARKS: I did not.
GRACE: Did he give you a friend`s name?
BURNS: She doesn`t know the friend, Nancy.
GRACE: Thank you, but I don`t believe you are her so could you let her answer? If she ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: Obviously, she`s my ...
GRACE: ... doesn`t know the name ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: ... client`s wife. I`ve gone through this story with her many, many times, and she does not know the person.
[20:50:00] GRACE: Did he give her a name?
BURNS: Please ask her your next question.
GRACE: So I guess that means you`re not going to let her answer whether he gave her a name or not. That`s fine with me because she ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: She doesn`t need a name, Nancy ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... could be asked then on the stand.
BURNS: ... with all due respect.
Hn202050
BURNS: ... many, many times, and she does not know the person.
GRACE: OK, I`ll move to my next question since ...
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: She doesn`t want to be battered ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... you don`t want to answer that. Did he come home that night, ma`am?
MARKS: Yes, he did.
GRACE: Do you remember what time he came home?
MARKS: It was about 12:15-ish. I was in the bed sleeping and I woke up and I realized he wasn`t home so I called him. And it just so happened he was
coming in the neighborhood.
GRACE: Did he have on the same thing that he had on when he left?
MARKS: I really didn`t pay attention to when he left. And when he came home, I was in the bed, sleeping. I was just worried that he was on his
motorcycle at night and where was he at 12:00?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: During the time that he was gone, Ms. Marks, did he contact you, text you, call you from the game?
MARKS: No, he did not.
GRACE: Is that normal?
MARKS: Yeah, sometimes. If he knows I`m in the bed, sleeping.
GRACE: You have children, correct?
MARKS: Correct.
GRACE: And how old are they?
MARKS: Three and 6.
GRACE: Let me understand something. To Dr. Michelle DuPre, Forensic Pathologist joining me out of Columbia. Dr. DuPre, isn`t true that an
unborn child, a fetus, can be taken from a dead mother and that fetus can be tested DNA and compared to suspected father and mother, of course, we
know the mother -- suspected father and determine is that the father? Is not that true?
DR. MICHELLE DUPRE, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Yes, Nancy, that is true. Again, depending on the condition of the fetus.
GRACE: Let me ask you this, Kirin Chawla, WAFB, the weather conditions were really bad as far as decomposition. A high of 93. It was rainy. I mean,
we`re talking about Baton Rouge. Do you know the condition of the body?
CHAWLA: And this was - the condition of the body was one that, it is very tough to describe.
The weather even right now here in Louisiana is very hot, very humid. So this body was in a ditch for at least five to six days. It rained
significantly around that time. It was very humid and the temperatures were in the 90s.
And this is a gravel road off of a sugar cane field. So, it is not somewhere just right off the road. This is an area where animals could get
to as well, and alligators.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Did an assistant principal murder his pregnant lover who happens to be the teacher of the year, leaving behind her 3-year-old little girl?
Unleash the lawyers, Randy Kessler, Atlanta; Seema Iyer, New York. OK, Randy Kessler, you hear the wife, Kala Marks, you hear her lawyer who has a
very good reputation in that jurisdiction. What is your defense, Randy?
RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: My defense is right now, the real culprit could be getting away. You`re spending all this time focusing on one person
who is not saying anything based on a 4-year-old who said that he admitted to the killing? Why would he admit the killing ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Seema?
KESSLER: ... to a 4-year-old?
SEEMA IYER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Three-year-old, Nancy, cannot be sworn. They can`t testify to the grand jury. They can`t testify at trial. And sorry,
Nancy, I don`t want a witness who doesn`t know the difference between a lake and a field. So ...
GRACE: For your information, 3-year-olds can testify. To Dr. Greg Cason, weigh in, Greg.
DR. GREG CASON, PSYCHOLOGIST: Real snake in the grass type of guy who has manipulated everybody around him including -- including his own wife. And
Nancy, you could see it was very sad that she`s very easily manipulated even when you said she was beautiful, she cracked a little smile.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Well, she is.
CASON: I mean, this is just very sad.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: And that can be ...
(CROSSTALK)
CASON: She is beautiful and it is very sad.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: The jury will probably believe that she is sincerely speaking from the heart. Stacey Newman ...
CASON: Yes, I agree.
GRACE: ... what more do we know about the evidence in this case?
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Note that not only was the child covered in blood, but the Toyota of Ms Washington was also covered in blood
spatter. We know she was shot in the head, but police have yet to recover a gun in the case.
GRACE: We are on the case.
Let`s honor American heroes, 9-year-old Florida boy and teen neighbor save a 3-year-old girl from drowning. The girl goes underwater for minutes
before she is pulled out by the cousin. The teen uses CPR she learned in school and saves the tot. Tonight, they`re American heroes.
I`m wearing purple today for Alzheimer`s Association, raising awareness through their longest day campaign. Go to alz.org.
And I want you to see what we did. Me and my family and the U.S. Supreme Court where I got sworn in by the U.S. Supreme Court justices. There`s my
mom and the twins and all the wonderful people we met today at the United States Supreme Court.
Now, while we were there, we got to go to the President`s Church, St. John`s, and we even got to sit on Abraham Lincoln`s pew. He would go there
every Sunday night alone and leave by himself.
All I can -- oh, and there`s Eleanor Odom who was my sponsor to the U.S. Supreme court. I just want you to know that it is so inspiring to see our
justices at work.
Thank you to our guests and 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
