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Nancy Grace
Body Found in Search for Missing 3-Year-Old; Hailey Dean is Back in "Murder in the Courthouse"; University of Colorado Rapist Gets Sleep-Away Camp Sentence
Aired August 16, 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, live, Gaston County. During a frantic search for a missing 3-year-old little girl, we learn police say
they have a body they believe is missing 3-year-old North Carolina girl Jordan Ann Dumont.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police desperately searching for a 3-year-old North Carolina girl who vanished from her home. Cops say the mother`s boyfriend,
who was baby-sitting, last saw Jordan Dumont around 1:00 in the afternoon when he put her down for a nap. He also took a nap. And when he woke up a
few hours later, the front door was wide open and Jordan was gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Outrage! University of Colorado student convicted of rape, but the convicted rapist gets a sleep-away camp sentence for raping a helpless co-
ed, the girl, an American college freshman straight out of high school. Is it Stanford rape case all over again?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say Wilkerson (ph) offered to take care of a woman who`d had too much to drink (INAUDIBLE) party (ph). Instead,
documents state he sexually assaulted her, telling his friends she was passed out, and then claiming in court it was consensual.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he manipulated the system to get a lighter sentence?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight, to Gaston County. Breaking right now. During a frantic search for a missing 3-year-old little girl, we learn police say they have
found a body they believe is 3-year-old North Carolina girl Jordan Ann Dumont.
Let`s go straight to the police presser now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Gaston County Police Department has made an arrest in the disappearance and murder of Jordan Dumont, age 3, who was reported
missing yesterday at approximately 3:30 PM.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family during this most difficult time, and we`d ask that the media and others give them privacy so that they
have time to grieve over their loss.
Twenty-five-year-old Billy Joseph McCullen was arrested earlier today without incident at approximately 1:00 PM. He is currently in the Gaston
County jail charged with first degree murder.
Jordan Dumont was reported missing at approximately 3:30 yesterday. A massive search for her was undertaken by multiple agencies, federal, state
and local agencies, as well as volunteers.
Earlier, at approximately 11:00 AM this morning, human remains were located some distance from the home. With assistance from the FBI`s evidence
recovery team, the North Carolina SBI and Gaston County crime scene, those remains were recovered and have been sent to the North Carolina medical
examiner`s office for a more positive identification.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Dave Priest, morning show co-host, WRNN. Dave, thank you for being with us. I want to start at the beginning with this 3-year-old
little girl going missing. What can you tell me about Jordan Ann Dumont? How did she go missing?
DAVE PRIEST, MORNING SHOW HOST, WRNN (via telephone): Well, as you heard from the press conference, it sounded innocent enough. Jordan Dumont`s
caretaker, Willie McCullen, put her down for a nap about 1:00 o`clock yesterday afternoon. He said he also wanted to take a nap, so he did. He
woke up about two-and-a-half hours later, according to his 911 call, front door was open and little Jordan was gone.
From then, the search was on, as you heard, not just agencies but scores of volunteers scouring the area to try to find Jordan. And they couldn`t
until a little bit earlier this morning.
GRACE: Joining me, in addition to Dave Priest with WRNN, is Joe Marusak, reporter with "The Charlotte Observer." Joe, also, thank you for being
with us.
So everybody is out under the assumption that this child has wandered out of the home. She is a 3-year-old very curious little girl, as are all 3-
year-old children. And according to the boyfriend, the door was open. So I guess they were searching under the assumption -- I want to see the
picture of the little girl again, please. There you see the search efforts that have been going on for days now.
So Joe, I guess they were working under the assumption that she walked out the door?
JOE MARUSAK, "CHARLOTTE OBSERVER" (via telephone): Absolutely, Nancy, And that`s why we had volunteers showing up, just people from the communities,
all the way down in South Carolina were driving up to help.
[20:05:04]They were so distraught when they heard about this, they just wanted to help. And there were scores of volunteers, just ordinary folk,
going out there and trying to find her.
GRACE: Let`s take look at this map we made for you. There is a rabbit farm there at Bessemer City, manufacturing plant, family home where the
little girl was last seen, and we`ve highlighted where her remains have just been found as we go to air.
Back to Dave Priest joining us, in addition to Joe Marusak, Dave, WRNN. I want to get back to the mom`s boyfriend in the home. He puts her down for
a nap. He says he wakes up after his own nap and the door is open. Were there any other children in the home at that time?
PRIEST: Well, there was another child. We don`t know the age of the other child at this point in time, but according to the police report, the other
child was accounted for, unharmed, uninjured. No word on whether or not that child...
GRACE: Right.
PRIEST: ... was of an age to be able to give any other information.
GRACE: Michael Christian, isn`t the other child a 1-year-old?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s what we`ve been told. Yes, Nancy, 1 year old.
GRACE: OK. OK. And so Joe, back to you, "Charlotte Observer," Joe Marusak. Joe, so he takes a nap. Why is he in the home? What -- doesn`t
he have a job? I mean, what is he supposed to be doing? Why is he home?
MARUSAK: Police haven`t said. But I mean, it`s just that he was the boyfriend and he was watching his girlfriend`s kids. I mean, it seems...
GRACE: Well, just FYI, Joe, if I`m out working, my husband`s going to be out working, too, OK? And I don`t care if he`s digging a ditch or sitting
behind a desk. If I`m working, he`s going to have a job, too. That`s just that. But that`s a whole `nother can of worms.
MARUSAK: (INAUDIBLE) yes.
GRACE: Yes, you`d think. So Mommy`s out making a living, right? She`s out working at this time.
MARUSAK: We believe, yes. We believe.
GRACE: OK, to Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist joining me. You know, Dr. Bober, before I get into more specifics regarding the discovery
of this little girl`s body, you know the mom is going to be overcome with guilt because she goes to work, trying to support her family, and while
she`s gone, her baby goes missing. And they just found the body of a 3- year-old little child.
Now, you know, other news outlets will lead you to believe -- and I understand what they`re saying -- that some war on the other side of the
country, on the other side of the world, is more important than this. This is happening right here in our country. Our children are dying. Our
children are being mistreated, kidnapped, murdered. And to me, this is pressing.
I don`t understand why, Dr. Bober, a mom leaves for work and she comes home to find her child is gone, and tonight, it`s on our show that the body has
just been found.
Now, what kind of damage will that do to a mother for the rest of her life that she went to work and she wasn`t home to protect the baby?
DR. DANIEL BOBER, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: I mean, Nancy, it`s absolutely devastating. We see this happen all the time, whether it`s neglect or
whether it`s a criminal act. I mean, it shows why people say, you know, you don`t -- you can have a license to get married, but you don`t need a
license to be a parent. So parents really, really need to keep an eye on their kids. And this is a testament to why that -- why that occurs.
GRACE: Now, I do not believe in any way the mother is responsible...
BOBER: No, I don`t think so.
GRACE: ... for going to work. But leaving the baby this boyfriend? I mean, what do we know about this guy?
First, before I get on this guy, I want to talk about Jordan. So back to you, Joe. Everybody goes out. All these volunteers coming from --
actually coming from other states to find this little girl. Where do they find her, Joe?
MARUSAK: They found her about 500 to 750 yards from her home, about, north of her home. The police chief just is refusing to say whether she was
found buried, whether she was found, you know, under leaves. But he did say that she was deceased before her body was taken to where (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: So this is a secondary crime scene. Hold on. Let`s go straight back into that police presser. What can we learn?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an ongoing investigation, as we have many follow-ups that leads to -- to chase (ph) regarding the disappearance and
murder of Jordan. We`re asking anyone with information to please contact the Gaston County Police Department with information in regards to Billy`s
whereabouts in the past 24 hours. It`s important to the investigation.
[20:10:12]We believe that Jordan was deceased prior to her being placed where she was found, and that her death occurred in the past 24 to 36
hours. We have information that has led us to this and the fact that he is the cause of her death.
QUESTION: How far were the remains from the house? Can you give me an idea?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably within 500 to 750 yards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Dr. William Morrone, famed forensic pathologist, medical examiner, toxicologist. Dr. Morrone, I`m very interested, and they haven`t
given it to me yet, but when do I get it, I`m going to play it back for you, the 911 call. Because I`m very interested what this boyfriend has to
say. I want to hear what he says to the 911 dispatcher about the little girl being missing because you know, Dr. Morrone, he`s (INAUDIBLE) 911,
She`s missing. I just woke up from a nap. The door is open. I mean, we know that from the police report. So I assume the 911 call is consistent
with what he told police once they got there.
And now they`ve charged him with this, which means for two days, he`s been what? Out there looking for the body and pretending to the mom, the
mother, that he just wakes up and the door is open?
What am I going to learn from the body? Because did you hear what I believe Marusak just told me, that police, if you listen carefully, you
learn she was not killed in this location? That was a dumping site, a disposal area. That means it is at the least a secondary crime scene,
possibly a tertiary crime scene.
She, this child, was killed somewhere else. And right now tonight, they`d better be at that apartment combing it for forensics!
What can we get from the body, Dr. Morrone?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: So what you`re going to be expecting from them, like you said, two crime scenes. There`s the crime
scene of discovery, and there`s yet to be determined but likely the homestead is the primary crime scene. They`re going to look for signs of
assault, body fluids, trauma...
GRACE: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! I`m just a JD. OK, Morrone? You know that.
MORRONE: All right.
GRACE: I`m not ashamed of just being a lawyer. You`re the MD. Don`t come out with "bodily fluids." Why don`t you say exactly what you mean? Break
it down for me. Dummy down for me, Morrone.
MORRONE: Well...
GRACE: You`re talking about sperm.
MORRONE: If there is sexual assault here, there may be sexual assault semen and sperm in the home and at the secondary crime scene. But we also
want to know, what was the trauma? Was it blunt force injury? Was it suffocation? Was it stabbing? And those things, a violent criminal sexual
assault, so...
GRACE: Let me talk about bodily fluids, as you so euphemistically put it. That`s certainly like putting perfume on the pig, isn`t it, Morrone.
MORRONE: It is. It is.
GRACE: So let`s just be straight. What he`s saying is -- and just the very image this conjures up in my mind is horrible. When they perform the
autopsy on this child, they`re going to be for blood, semen, sperm, saliva, blood in every orifice of this child`s body, her mouth, her nose...
MORRONE: And (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Yes, everything. They`re going to be looking for cause of death. Was she hit in the head? Was she tortured? Was she asphyxiated,
strangled? Was it ligature? Was it manual? Or did somebody put a pillow over her face to kill this baby? And they`re going to know that. They`re
going to know that. Now, whether they tell us or not, Morrone, I don`t know. They may keep it secret for a while, but we`re going to find out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:18:38]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A missing 3-year-old girl who vanished from her home. Police searched in nearby woods throughout the night with four-
wheelers and bloodhounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not believe we`ve gotten the outcome that we were hoping for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You know, many people reported police had called off the search during the night. That`s not true. They told us that they worked through
the night, literally, in some cases, down on their hands and knees, digging through wet leaves and pine straw and dirt, slogging through the mud,
trying to find this little 3-year-old girl.
And now, according to police, the mother`s boyfriend knew the whole time that this little girl was dead because he killed her. While volunteers
came in from other states and other jurisdictions to try to find Jordan Ann, he knew all along. I wonder what he was doing all this time.
Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Robin Ficker, defense attorney out of Maryland, and Misty Marris, defense attorney out of New York.
Let`s start with Ficker because you know what? One of the first things I would tell that jury in my opening statement is while all these search
crews and people out there sweating and crying and digging through the trees and the mud to try to find this little girl, where was he?
[20:20:00]And I would like somebody to testify to what was he doing, sitting there watching the news, seeing if he was going to be on the NANCY
GRACE show? What was he doing, kicking back, having a beer, telling Mommy, Oh, it`s going to be all right?
That would be one of the first things I told this jury. Now, would you try and stop me, Ficker?
ROBIN FICKER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I wouldn`t try to stop you. But I`d point out that child care is a big problem, that the best person to have for
child care is someone who loves the mother and who loves her child. That`s who you want taking care of that child.
We know that little kids of 3 -- I have a 3-year-old granddaughter -- are like kitty cats in an apartment. You open the door, they go outside. They
go across the street where they could get hit by a car. They go down to the park.
GRACE: What are you saying?
FICKER: What I`m saying is, is that this man is presumed innocent, not presumed guilty, Nancy Grace, and the case has not been made. I haven`t
heard about DNA.
GRACE: That`s the best you got for me?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: We all know he`s presumed innocent until proven guilty. But I know this. I know that he is the one in charge of the child. And Misty Marris,
I see you shaking your head, nodding up and down. He`s the one there with the child. He`s the one that says he goes to sleep while he`s supposed to
be watching the children. He`s the one that calls police and says the child is gone, calls 911. She must have wandered out the door because it`s
open.
And now child has been found dead, and they say it`s obvious homicide. So what`s your theory, then, Misty, if he didn`t do it? What, somebody else
came in the apartment and got the child in broad daylight? Because the mom saw the baby in the morning. It`s gone by 3:00 PM, I believe, so in broad
daylight while he`s home, your theory would be somebody comes in the home, gets the girl, takes her out in front of God and everybody in the apartment
complex, what, carries her along out into the woods and kills her? Is that your theory?
MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, it`s an absolutely viable theory. I have not heard one piece of evidence in this case, other than the fact
that he was the last person to see the child, that would lead anyone...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: And the one home with her. And the one home with her, and the one to report that the door was open and that he coincidentally was asleep.
You know what? We`ll be right back with the information that we`ve got about why this man is charged with murder one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:26:38]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: North Carolina police have just located what they believe to be the remains of a missing 3-year-old girl who vanished
from her home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The boyfriend says that the last he saw the girl, he put her to sleep. Now, when he wakes up from his nap while Mommy`s out working, the
door is open and the girl is gone. She was given the description of curly, ash-blond hair, shoulder length, blue-green eyes, just 3 feet, 2 inches
tall, wearing bluejean shorts and a long-sleeved white shirt with Mickey or Minnie Mouse on it, reportedly has a birthmark on her back in the shape of
Hawaii. This little child`s body has just been found.
To Michael Christian, let`s take a look at this guy`s rap sheet. We`re talking about William Skip McCullen. Police -- oh! OK, pot, guilty, drug
paraphernalia, guilty, driving while impaired, that`s either on drugs or alcohol, guilty. And is it true -- hold on. To Joe Marusak, "Charlotte
Observer." How many times have police been called to this child`s home that we know of?
MARUSAK: Forty-nine times in the past three years.
GRACE: Dave Priest, it`s hard for me to believe that. "The Charlotte Observer" says 49 times in three years? Does WRNN confirm that? Is that
true?
PRIEST That`s what I`ve been hearing from some industry sources. But yes, it does seem that way. That`s a lot.
GRACE: I`m not saying that I doubt you. But what I don`t understand is why the mom would stick around with somebody calling -- causing so much
trouble, the police were called 49 times to this home. I mean, it`s everything from loud music to what?
What are the charges, Michael Christian? Why have police been in this home so much? It looks like a typical home. What`s happening?
CHRISTIAN: We don`t know, Nancy. They have not said, unfortunately, because boy, we would love to know that information.
GRACE: So Joe, what do we know about the reason the cops were called to the home?
MARUSAK: Well, the other reasons, according to the police chief, were -- he wasn`t very specific at the news conference, but he said anything from
noise disturbances to domestic to fat (ph). I have no idea what those -- you know -- but he did -- he said -- he made a point of saying he didn`t
know if any of the calls regarded child abuse.
GRACE: Well, we`ll find out. Dr. William Morrone, forensic pathologist, I find it very difficult to believe you go from zero to 150 mph in one day,
all right, that you go from never abusing a child to killing a child in one day. I`m curious.
So why do we not know the cause of death, and how long will it take, Dr. Morrone, for us to find out what happened to Jordan Ann Dumont?
MORRONE: Here`s where they`re giving us a clue by not telling us something and using the word, "remains." They`re not saying that they have a
beautiful little body of this deceased girl. They`re saying remains. There`s a really, really large chance that the trauma inflicted included
dismembering...
There is a really, really large chance that the trauma inflicted included dismembering this body, because when people are this -- so far off the norm
in society, they don`t think twice.
And he may have dismembered the body to cover up the trauma of the murder. So -- and the sexual assault. There`s so much wrong here, drug use, sexual
assault. You don`t use the word "remains." That is a very specific term that means, you know, they have some parts but they don`t have other parts.
GRACE,: Very astute, Dr. Morrone. I didn`t hear about a prior sex assault, but I saw plenty. Unleash the lawyers, Robin Ficker and Misty Marris.
Ficker, you do know that North Carolina is a death penalty state, typically lethal injection.
ROBIN FICKER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I agree that it is, yes. But I also would say that pot possession is a civil offense in many areas of the United
States, and there are millions of DUIs per year, many of these people have never harmed a child in any way.
GRACE: I`m not retrying him on those charges. I am telling you, and I`m telling you too, Misty Marris, that he is already charged with murder one.
And that is setting him up for one of two things, life without parole, the possibility of parole, or the North Carolina death penalty.
Now, what we`re waiting to find out is will there be aggravating circumstances? Is there a kidnap? Obviously, there is, because she is moved
from the apartment to this location.
Whether that be in life or death, will determine whether there was actual asportation or a textbook kidnapping.
Was she assaulted? Was she tortured? Joe Marusak, when do we believe the autopsy report will come out?
JOE MARUSAK, "THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER" REPORTER: Oh, it could be -- it could be a matter of months, unfortunately.
GRACE: And Dave Priest, why do you believe the police are playing it so close to the vest as to how she was found, obviously in a wooded area, but
was she buried? Was she clothed? Was she dismembered? Why are they not releasing any of that information, Dave Priest?
DAVE PRIEST, WRNN MORNING SHOW HOST: They said that the remains were partially concealed, so I don`t know what that means in cop speak but it
was partially concealed. But it only took hi about two hours from the time that they found the body until the time that they arrested McCullen, so
they had to have something on him and something really quick.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Crime victim-turned-crime fighter Hailey Dean is back in "Murder in the Courthouse."
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: Pre-order your copy now on Amazon, barnesandnobles.com, and more.
GRACE: My proceeds to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, go to murderinthecourthouse.com. Amazon books` Books-A-Million
pre-orders come with an autographed manuscript page from "Murder in the Courthouse".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Outrage tonight. A University of Colorado student convicted of rape. But the convicted rapist gets a sleep-away camp sentence. Repeat, a sleep-
away camp sentence for raping a helpless co-ed.
She is an American college freshman. She is straight out of high school. Is this a Stanford rape case all over again?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutors asked the judge to send Wilkerson to prison noting there was a public outcry the whole college student asking to
make him accountable for campus sex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The California judge sentenced the former student, 20- year-old Brock Turner, to six months in jail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... sexually assaulting a woman who passed out drunk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enos (ph) was tied on two separate rape cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rape charges were dropped. He ended serving one day in jail with one year probation ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Owen Labrie was convicted of five of the nine charges against him though he was not convicted on the more serious felony charges
against him of aggravated sexual assault.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Yet again, no offense, gentlemen who are watching our show tonight. But yet, another male judge goes easy on a convicted rapist? What -- what
is -- there he is. There he is right there.
District Court Judge Patrick Butler gives a guy a sleep-away camp sentence after a jury convicts him of raping an American college freshman. That
means she is what, 17 or 18 years old? First time away from home?
Tammy Rose, investigative reporter, I want to get into the facts of what this guy is convicted of. But the sentence is he has to spend his nights,
he has to go to sleep, I guess with his passy and a bankie (ph), at the county jail. He sleeps there but then he`s out all day to "work."
So basically, he goes and spends the night in the county jail. For what? How many months?
TAMMY ROSE, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, Austin Wilkerson commits rape and he gets no prison time. He is only going to spend the next two years in a
county jail on a work release program. And then following that, he`s on probation for the next 20 years.
So a lot of people in the community are outraged by the lenient sentence the judge gave him.
GRACE: And I can tell you this, Tammy Rose, and you can go ahead and put this in your pipe and smoke it, and you`re not gonna like it. They say two
years of sleep-away camp but he is out of jail all day long to work? And then he comes and spends the night there? They say two years? It won`t be
two years. He`ll be out before two years. He won`t even have to punch in at night. This guy is walking free. OK. Let`s get into the facts. Tammy, what
happened?
ROSE: Well, Austin Wilkerson told the victim and her friends that he would take care of her. Instead, he ended up raping her. This all happened back
in 2014 at the University of Colorado, Boulder after a St. Patrick`s Day party where her and his friends met up with each other and they went to a
couple of house parties.
Apparently, the victim got sick, so Wilkerson told the friends that he would take care of her, took her to his house which was nearby and that`s
where the rape happened.
GRACE: Annie Clark, executive director of End Rape on Campus, author of "We Believe You, Survivors of Campus Sex Assault Speak Out." Annie Clark, what
makes it even more pitiful in my mind is at first, the girl who -- I`ll tell you she is being punished because she had been drinking at a college
party, OK. Because when a girl goes to a party and she has a couple of drinks, just like all the guys do, and she becomes a sex assault victim,
somehow she is the bad person. It is her fault. OK?
So, he says, like Tammy Rose just told us, that he is taking her to -- she is throwing up -- to take care of her. She passes out and she can remember
bits and pieces of what happened and wakes up and sperm is all over her. OK?
Long story short, she is being punished because she was drinking at the party and, two, this is what breaks my heart even more, is that when she
started recalling what had happened, she felt like it was her fault. And that it was just kind of a drunk party thing and it wasn`t until she talked
to her family and a counsellor that she realized, this was not her fault. This is a crime, Annie.
ANNIE CLARK, "END RAPE ON CAMPUS" EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Yes. It`s absolutely a crime, and it is horrific. But what we know is that one in five or one in
four college-age women will be sexually assaulted before graduation, whether they graduate, drop out or transfer.
And so while this is horrible, and my heart goes out to this victim, it is not an anomaly, and that is what is so scary. It`s that just happened at
every college.
GRACE: Justin Freiman, also on the story. Isn`t it true, Justin, that at different phases, this guy is convicted of rape? He is getting sleep-away
camp but at different phases of the procedures, Justin. He gave so many different stories. He lied so many times. It is like the judge is out to
protect him and doesn`t even think about this girl.
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s right, Nancy. He goes from complete denial to admitting it, back to denying it. At one point in the
trial, they`re even blaming the victim, saying that she was making a lot of this up to distract from poor grades. She was worried her parents would be
angry about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say Wilkerson offered to take care of a woman who had too much to drink at a party. Instead, documents state, he sexually
assaulted her, telling his friends she was passed out then claiming in court it was consensual.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he manipulated the system to get a lighter sentence?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: So this guy is convicted at a jury trial. He took to it a jury trial. So the rape victim had to testify in front of a jury. He gets
convicted, and this judge, District Court Judge Patrick Butler, sentence him to chose a sentence of (ph) sleep-away.
In other words, he is free all day and at the most, for two years, 24 months, he has to sleep at night at the jail in a minimum security facility
at the jail. Now, let me understand this.
Tammy Rose, investigative reporter, I was just talking to Justin Freiman on the story. He gave so many different sentences -- I mean so many different
stories about what happened. He said it was consensual. Then he said that she was passed out. Then he said that it all happened and he wanted to
challenge his life. And that he confessed to what happened and wanted to be a new person and get a fresh start. What were all of his stories, Tammy?
ROSE: Well, not only was Austin Wilkerson very manipulative, there were so many contradictions starting with the police initial investigation where he
told police nothing happened, that there was no penetration, that he only masturbated and that he tried to kiss her and she said no. He tried to do a
sexual act on her and she said no, which is very interesting.
He remembers the victim saying no. However, even though the victim doesn`t remember saying no. Then at the pre-trial conference, he admitted that
there was penetration but that it was consensual. And then during trial, he said that the victim was basically making everything up. It was consensual
sex and that she was not drunk. So, so many stories from this person who is very manipulative, not only with the system but with the victim.
GRACE: Did he say on one of these occasions, Tammy, that the victim, the girl victim, a freshman, made the whole thing up so her parents wouldn`t
get mad at her because she started staying out of class after the rape? And she made this up so her parents wouldn`t get mad at her?
ROSE: She had a lot of anxiety, obviously and a lot of depression following this rape, so her grades were suffering. So, he turned it around all on her
and said she was making all of this up just to appease her parents why she was getting bad grades. But she was depressed. She was suffering anxiety.
She was the victim of rape.
GRACE: You know, Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist, I know I`m projecting here, but I recall my fiance, was murdered when I was in
college, just before our wedding. And I dropped out of school. I couldn`t think straight. I couldn`t eat. I couldn`t hear the radio. I couldn`t even
stand to hear a clock tick.
My mother had to stop the clocks in the house because I couldn`t stand to hear it. And so let me understand this, a jury convicts him of rape and he
turns that around, in written documents, to say his rape victim made the whole thing up to explain why she was missing class? What kind of -- mind
could do that?
DR. DANIEL BOBER, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: What you are talking about, Nancy are the effects of what we call acute stress disorder, and in women who are
traumatized the most common reason is sexual assault. And by him receiving such a light sentence, it is actually re-traumatizing her and not
validating the crime that occurred against her. So, this is just a horrible outcome for this victim.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARYN DATZ, BOULDER COUNTY DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This is a victim that was targeted because of the state that she was in. She was heavily
intoxicated.
I think it is one of the most serious crimes that we have of gender violence in our society, and I think we`re seeing a growing voice, a light
that`s being shined on these issues. I can tell you as a prosecutor, I certainly see the impact that it has on survivors of these crimes, and they
hope that there is a punitive component considered by the courts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Justin Freiman, before this judge, District Court Judge Patrick Butler, gave this guy sleep-away camp, where all he does is report in at
the end of the night in jail for just two years after he is convicted of rape, tell me how he came to this decision, Justin?
FREIMAN: Well, Nancy, one of the really interesting things is that he said that he spoke to people in the prison and jail system about what kind of
treatment Wilkerson would receive behind bars.
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, wait. So, he is -- what is it? So, he is worried about the effect of punishment on the rapist? Who did he talk to, Justin,
about the victim? The rape victim? Did he talk to rape victims or a violence counsellor like Annie Clark who has interviewed all these people?
Who did he talk to on behalf of the victim?
FREIMAN: I`m not sure about that but he did talk about whether or not this guy could be rehabilitated.
GRACE: Annie Clark, you are a rape victim. You have lived through what this girl has lived through. And so many other women, Annie, that have not come
forward and have never told anyone that they were molested. Women you would never suspect were sex assault victims. What does this do to victims when
they hear this?
CLARK: I mean, this victim-blaming language is so prevalent and is also dangerous. I can`t tell you how many people who we work with (inaudible) on
campus who come to us and say, you know what, my assault was bad but the way I was treated by my school, by the criminal justice system, by society
was even worse.
And so I think we have got a lot of work to do in those three areas. And unfortunately, that internal sort of blame is just a reflection of what
they hear in society. And I just want to be very clear and say -- sorry. But the only person responsible for sexual assault is the rapist. It
doesn`t matter what you were wearing or what you were drinking. It is that person`s fault and the rapist`s alone.
GRACE: Justin Freiman, there were some crazy stories the rapist gave about how the woman got sperm all over her body. What was it?
FREIMAN: One of the reasons he said is he masturbated in the bathroom and that she somehow must have gotten the sperm on her body from the toilet in
the bathroom. The bathroom she said she never went in.
GRACE: To Dr. William Morrone, forensic pathologist. So, how could she have contorted herself to get his sperm all over her from a commode?
MORRONE: It is next to nearly impossible. And we bring up the fact that when you use the commode, you use this end. When you`re sexually assaulted,
you use this end. He has got it all wrong. You can`t. There is absolutely no way that could happen.
GRACE: You know, it just makes a mockery of the whole justice system, what Judge Patrick Butler has done.
Let`s stop and remember American hero Sergeant Gary Reese, Jr., 22, Ashland City, Tennessee. A prankster who always found a way to make life fun.
Parents, Gary and Cathy. Gary Reese, Jr., American hero.
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.
END
