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Jealous' Ex Executed Teen Girlfriend After Tire-Slashing Rampage · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If a jury is asked to look at the cutting-edge
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: neuroscience of an underdeveloped 18-year-old brain, what they see is
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: basically a biological inability to control impulses.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Right, exactly.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Like they see a structural lack of executive function, a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: brain that is literally incapable of fully grasping long-term consequences.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: The science on that is pretty clear.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: But, and this is the massive conflict here, if that
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: same jury looks at an 18-year-old who takes the time
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to put on a tactical ski mask, who walks six
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: minutes in the dark through a quiet neighborhood, who forces
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: open a bedroom door and pulls the trigger of a
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: 9mm Glock.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: They don't see a biological misfire at all.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: No, not at all. They see a cold, calculated assassin.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. It is a completely different picture.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: And today, we are tearing apart that terrifying collision, the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: collision between biology, premeditation, and just, you know, sheer violence.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It's a heavy one.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It really is. We are examining a case that was
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: broadcast by the Law and Crime Network. It was reported
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Milner. And it features this deeply revealing and honestly,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: sometimes incredibly frustrating analysis from criminal defense attorney Dwayne Cates. Right.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: His perspective is, well, it's a lot to digest.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Definitely. And our goal for this deep dive isn't just
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to walk you through a true crime tragedy. We are
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: taking the anatomy of a horrific home invasion and completely
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: pulling it apart to see the gears turning underneath.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to really understand the mechanics of it all.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly. OK, let's unpack this. We are going to break
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: down the mechanics of a coercive, toxic relationship. We are
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: going to decode the vast legal chasm between circumstantial and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: direct evidence. And, you know, we are going to explore
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the incredibly uncomfortable reality of how the justice system actually operates.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: When the people involved are teenagers.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Because the friction between those two realities, like the biological
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: teenager and the legal adult, that is exactly where the
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: most intense battles in a courtroom happen.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: It's a total clash of worlds.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: It is. When you introduce the concept of brain development
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: into a trial that involves first-degree murder, the lines between
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: what is considered a mitigating factor and what is simply
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: calculated cruelty... get very, very blurred.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: And this case forces you, the listener, to look at
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the intricate how and the really dark underlying why of
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: a police investigation. It requires us to look at these
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: specific and sometimes counterintuitive strategies that defense attorneys utilize when
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: the facts facing their client are just unimaginably grim. Right.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: But before we can even begin to look at the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: legal chessboard, you know, the charges, the defense strategies, the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: game theory behind plea bargains, we have to anchor this
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: conversation in the human toll.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to start with the victim.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: We do. We need to look at what actually happened
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: in the early morning hours of November 8th in Avondale, Arizona.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Her name was Rihanna Kemp. Her friends and her family,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they called her Riri. And she was just 17 years old.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: 17. I mean, 17 is an age that is entirely
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: defined by potential. You are on the absolute cusp of
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: stepping into your own autonomy.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: You know, you're almost an adult, but you're still a kid.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And she was literally just months away from graduating. She
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: was a senior at Agua Fria High School. And based
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: on the details laid out in a verified GoFundMe page
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: set up by her family, you really get this vivid,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: undeniable sense of just how vibrant this young woman was.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: She seemed to have so much going for her.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: She really did. She had her trajectory covered. Completely mapped out.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: She was incredibly talented in music. She played in her
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: high school band. And she was equally talented in makeup.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Those are real passions.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And she was already planning her next steps, like
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: heading off to Arizona State University to continue playing in
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the band while simultaneously pursuing a career in cosmetology.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Which tells you, you are looking at a young person
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: who is grounded.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: She is not just drifting through her senior year. She
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: has passions. She is actively cultivating. She has concrete plans
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: for her future, and clearly she has a really strong
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: community around her.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And a massive personality to match that ambition, too. The
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: organizer of the fundraiser described her as someone whose heart
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: was immense. She was fierce.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I love that word, fierce.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the description noted that she was tiny in physical stature,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: but her spirit, like, tripled that. She was a fiercely
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: loyal friend, incredibly witty, funny, and deeply protective of the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: people she loved.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Just a beautiful life.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: And that bright, beautiful, mapped-out future was violently stolen from
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: her at around 6.30 in the morning at the Rio
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Santa Fe apartments.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And the way this crime unfolds, as detailed in the
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: initial court documents, it is basically a master class in
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: absolute psychological terror.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: It really is the stuff of nightmares.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: It's important to understand the spatial reality of a home invasion.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: It shatters the one environment where a person's guard is
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: completely 100% down.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Your own home, your own bed.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And the sequence of events here begins not in
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Rihanna's bedroom, but actually in her mother's.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Right, and I want you to put yourself in this environment.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Rihanna's mother, who is not named in the documents we
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: are reviewing, is asleep in her bed. It's 6.30 in
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the morning. Suddenly, she is jolted awake. Her bedroom door
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: is violently forced open.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Just imagine that shock.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Standing there, in the doorway of her sanctuary, is a
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: man dressed entirely in black. Black pants, a black hoodie,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and a mask covering his face, resembling a ski mask.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: And he is pointing a gun directly at her.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: The adrenaline spike in a moment like that is biologically overwhelming.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: You go from the deepest state of rest, like the
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: lowest heart rate of your day, to staring down the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: barrel of a firearm in a fraction of a second.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: The cognitive dissonance alone is staggering.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Because your brain can't make sense of it.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Right. The brain struggles to process an impossible lethal threat
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: suddenly existing inside. inside a locked safe space.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: And he doesn't just point the weapon. He actually pulls
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the trigger. And instead of a gunshot tearing through the room,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: there's just a sound, a mechanical click.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Wow. And that click is arguably one of the most
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: significant mechanical details in this entire case.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: It changes everything.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Both from a narrative standpoint regarding her survival... and a
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: legal standpoint regarding his intent.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Because she is instantly begging for her life. She's pleading
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: with this masked, silent intruder not to shoot her. And
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: he doesn't say a word. He just keeps trying to
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: fire the weapon.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: He pulls it again.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: He pulls the trigger again. It fails again. Whether it
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: was a jam slide, a misfire of the primer, or
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: maybe an empty magazine that he hadn't realized was empty
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: at that exact moment, the gun simply refuses to work.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Incredible.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Finally realizing the weapon is failing him, the man turns
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and runs out of the apartment.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: The sheer terror of that interaction cannot be overstated. I mean,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: this woman survived purely because of a mechanical anomaly.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: A fluke.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Literally a millimeter of difference in a firing pin saved
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: her life. But the psychological horror does not end when
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: he runs out the door. Because in that immediate aftermath
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: of survival, she is left with the agonizing realization of
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: what that misfire implies for the rest of her home.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Because initially she thinks Rihanna is okay. The logic in
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: her head is, You know, the intruder came into my room,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the gun didn't work, he fled.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Right, you think she just left the whole apartment.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly. She thinks her daughter is safely asleep in the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: next room, oblivious to what just happened. She calls 911
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to report that a gunman broke into her home and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: attempted to execute her. It is only after she makes
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that frantic call when she walks down the hall to
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: check on her 17-year-old daughter that she discovers the unthinkable.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: It's just devastating.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Rihanna has been shot in her bed. The bullet entered
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the right side of her head, near her temple, exited
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the left side, and hit her left hand.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: So the mother experiences the trauma of a near execution,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: followed instantly by the devastating, life-altering trauma of finding her
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: child mortally wounded.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: It's unfathomable.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: And from an investigative standpoint, the sequence of these events
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: really dictates the initial hours of the police response. How so? Well,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: the mother is a surviving eyewitness to a violent home invasion.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: She can describe the height, the build, the clothing. But
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: because the intruder was masked, she cannot positively identify his face.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Right. And this brings me to a massive question I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: had while reviewing this timeline. You read this sequence and
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: it plays out exactly like a horror movie. You wake up.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: The masked killer is standing there. But there is an
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: incredibly jarring detail here regarding the intruder's path through the apartment.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: You mean going to the mother's room?
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. If this intruder broke in specifically to target Rihanna,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: which we will get into shortly, why on earth did
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: he go to the mother's bedroom at all?
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: It's a huge point.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Think about the layout of an apartment. If your target
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: is the daughter, going to the mother's room implies a
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: completely different level of intent. Was he systematically moving room
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: to room to eliminate all witnesses in the apartment? Or
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: was he just in a state of pure chaotic rage,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: moving blindly through the dark and opening the first door
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: he found? Whoa.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Connecting this to the broader picture of the prosecution's theory,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: going to the mother's room and actively attempting to fire
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: the weapon suggests something deeply calculated and remarkably cold-blooded.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: It wasn't an accident that he opened her door?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: No. It heavily implies that the intruder was not just
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: there to commit a single isolated act of violence against
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: one person. It suggests a mission to eradicate the entire household.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: God, that start.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Or, at the absolute least... a calculated decision to eliminate
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: anyone who could potentially identify him, interrupt him, or call
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: for help. It shifts the narrative away from a targeted
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: heat-of-the-moment crime of passion and moves it toward a premeditated
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: mission to leave zero survivors.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Because he tried to kill the mother. He literally pulled
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the trigger, multiple times. The only reason she is breathing
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: is because the gun closed. instead of firing.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: And that leads to the tragic, irreversible outcome for Rihanna.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: She was rushed to the hospital by first responders. She
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: was initially declared brain dead upon arrival and she passed
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: away later that afternoon.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: It's heartbreaking.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: The immediate question for investigators and for you listening to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: this is how does a high school senior with such
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: a bright future someone who is just weeks away from
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: walking across a graduation stage, end up the victim of
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: such a brutally targeted attack.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: To understand the genesis of this violence, to understand how
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: a teenage dispute morphed into a fatal home invasion, investigators
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: have to rewind the clock.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Right. They have to look at the day before.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They have to look at the events that took
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: place just a few hours prior on the evening of
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: November 7th, leading into the early morning of the 8th.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: And this is where we introduce the suspect. His name
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: is Emilio Rivera. He is 18 years old. He is
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: an ex-boyfriend of Rihanna's. And here is a special detail
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: that changes the entire complexion of the case. He lived
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: incredibly close by.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: How close?
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: He lived roughly a six-minute walk away from Rihanna's apartment complex.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, that proximity plays a foundational role in the escalation
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: of domestic violence cases.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Because he's right there.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Yes. When an abuser or a volatile ex-partner lives that close,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: it removes the physical barrier of travel. It makes the
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: victim dangerously, constantly accessible. A six-minute walk means there is
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: virtually no time for an impulsive thought to dissipate before
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: the person can physically act on it.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And this relationship was not just strained, it was documented
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: as deeply toxic. According to detectives who interviewed Rihanna's mother,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: their relationship was so hostile and their arguments were so aggressive...
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: That the mother had officially banned Emilio from the apartment.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: She put her foot down.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: She drew a hard line. She did not allow him
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: inside her home.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Which sets up an immediate critical boundary violation when we
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: look at the timeline of that night. Right. The mother
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: has established a literal safe zone for her daughter. She
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: has used her authority as a parent to create a
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: physical barrier. And the suspect's actions later that night are
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: a direct, violent transgression of that specific boundary.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Let's track the escalation of this timeline, because it moves
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: terrifyingly fast. At 11 p.m. on November 7th, Emilio texts
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Rihanna asking to come over, and despite the mother's strict ban,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Rihanna agrees to let him in.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Which is pretty typical for teenagers, unfortunately, sneaking around the
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: parents' rules.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so at 11.45 p.m., he arrives at the apartment,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and almost immediately upon his arrival, a fright breaks out.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: And the nature of this fight is not a mystery.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Because Emilio himself detailed the confrontation to detectives during his interrogation.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Right. He admitted they fought.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: The catalyst for the argument wasn't a random disagreement. It
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: was entirely rooted in surveillance, jealousy, and control.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Because Emilio told police that he started snooping through Rihanna's phone,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: he was actively digging through her digital life, and he
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: claimed to police that he found evidence she had been
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: cheating on him.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And that digital intrusion immediately escalated into a physical confrontation.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Emilio admitted to the police that the fight got physical
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: in the apartment. However, he claimed Rihanna was the aggressor.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: He stated she was trying to hold him down, and
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: he specifically repeatedly denied ever hitting her.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Now, analyzing that statement requires understanding the psychology of minimization tactics.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Which are common, right?
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Incredibly common in domestic violence interrogations. The suspect admits to
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: being present at the scene. He admits to a physical
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: altercation occurring. But he carefully frames himself as either the victim...
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: claiming a much smaller 17-year-old girl held him down. Or
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: he frames himself as someone who showed immense restraint, specifically
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: denying that he struck her.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: So he's shaping the story.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: It is a psychological mechanism for controlling the narrative. He
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: is confessing to involvement in a dispute, which the police
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: likely already know about, while simultaneously attempting to strip away
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: his own culpability for any violence.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: According to his own timeline provided to investigators, he leaves
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the apartment around midnight. He says he goes and talks
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: with a friend until about 2 a.m.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: But whatever conversation happened, it doesn't calm him down.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: No, the anger doesn't dissipate at all. It stews and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: it mutates. Because between 2 a.m. and 3.30 a.m., Emilio
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: returns to Rihanna's apartment complex. But he doesn't go to
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: her door. He brings a kitchen knife with him and
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: he goes directly to the parking lot.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: This specific escalation-like, moving from a physical altercation inside an
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: apartment to to widespread property damage outside of it is
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: a crucial psychological pivot in the timeline of the case.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Because he takes that kitchen knife and he slashes two
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to three cars' tires. And the motive he explicitly gave
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the police for doing this is staggering when you break
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it down.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: What did he say?
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: He told them he slashed the tires because he didn't
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: want his ex-girlfriend to, quote, have the freedom to easily
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: drive around to see other men.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: The explicitness of that statement is chilling.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: It's so blatant.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Because it perfectly defines the core mechanism of coercive control.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: It is a textbook physical manifestation of domestic abuse. He
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: wasn't just damaging property in a vacuum. He was attempting
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: to literally physically trap her.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Taking away her car.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: By destroying her means of transportation, he is trying to
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: isolate her. He is trying to strip away her autonomy,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: her independence, and her freedom of movement. It is an aggressive,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: destructive act of possession. If she cannot drive, she cannot leave,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: she cannot see anyone else.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't stop with just isolating her. This is
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: where I have to push back on the idea of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: this being just a localized, targeted domestic dispute. He slashes
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: two or three cars. He goes back home around 3.30 a.m.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: He sits there in his house, and he decides that
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: slashing three cars was not enough.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Those are his actual words.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Those are his words. It wasn't enough. So he grabs
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the knife, and he walks back to the apartment complex again,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: and he just starts slashing tires everywhere.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: By the time he is done with the second trip,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: police say he slashed the tires of 14 different cars.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: In that lot. 14. That is insane.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: The property damage was estimated at over $ 2, 800 on the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: low end.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: It is a staggering, almost incomprehensible amount of collateral damage
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: for a dispute between two teenagers.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Think about the physical effort this requires. Slashing one tire, say.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Specifically targeting your ex's car. That is a crime of
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: targeted malicious revenge. It is controlling, but it has a specific,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: understandable focus within the context of his jealousy. Right.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: You can track the logic as warped as it is.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: But slashing 14 different cars in a residential parking lot
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, that is something else entirely.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: That is an indiscriminate, blinding rage. He is no longer
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: just attacking her. He is attacking the entire environment she
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: lives in. How does destroying the property of a dozen
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: random sleeping neighbors fit into a targeted domestic dispute?
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: It raises a profound question about the suspect's psychological state
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: during those early morning hours.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Because he's just out of control.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: The scale of the vandalism shifts the behavior from targeted
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: control to chaotic, destructive fury. Physically slashing 14 tires requires time.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: It requires significant physical effort. And most importantly, it requires
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: sustained anger.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: He had to keep that anger going for a long time.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: It showcases a profound inability to regulate emotions. He is
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: completely flooded with rage to the point where anyone or
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: anything in his physical proximity becomes a viable target for
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: his aggression. This inability to de-escalate this sustained period of
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: emotional flooding becomes a critical anchor point later when defense
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: attorneys start analyzing the neurological capacity of a teenager.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: So he is on this multi-hour rampage of vandalism. And
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: in a bizarre twist of fate, he was actually arrested
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: for the tire slashing on the exact same day of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the shooting.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: The police put that together fast.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: They connect him to the vandalism relatively quickly. But how
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: do investigators bridge the massive dap between a vandal and
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: a murderer? We have a suspect filled with rage. We
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: have a documented history of hostility. We have a massive
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: vandalism spree aimed at trapping the victim. But how do
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: you legally move from a slashed tire in a parking
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: lot to charging an 18-year-old with first-degree murder inside a bedroom.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: You have to follow the physical evidence.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: The vandalism is vital because it establishes motive, it establishes opportunity,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: and it establishes a highly volatile state of mind. But
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: motive and state of mind do not put a gun
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: in someone's hand. You need forensic proof to tie the
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: suspect to the fatal act in that specific bedroom.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Let's look at the physical evidence, because this is where
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the legal concept of circumstantial evidence comes into intense practical focus.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Let's start at the crime scene. In Rihanna's room, investigators
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: process the scene and they find a single nine millimeter
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: shell casing left behind.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: That is the first anchor point for the investigation.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: You now have the caliber of the weapon used to
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: commit the murder.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Next, they execute a search warrant at Emilio's home. And
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: remember the spatial reality here. His home is just a
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: six minute walk away from the crime scene. Inside his home,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: specifically hidden inside his mother's purse, investigators find a 9mm
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Glock 43 handgun.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Anchor point number two. You now have a weapon of
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: the exact matching caliber located in the suspect's immediate daily environment.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And alongside that gun, in the same search, they find
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: a ski mask.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Which perfectly aligns with the surviving mother's frantic 9-1-1. one
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: description of the intruder wearing something covering his face.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Then you look at the victim's injuries. The medical examiner's
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: findings are crucial here. Rihanna had a bullet wound that
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: went through her head and subsequently hit her left hand.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors explicitly note in the court documents that this trajectory
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: is consistent with a defensive wound.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: She had her hand up.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: She likely had her hand raised near her head, perhaps
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: shielding her face when the shot was fired.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: That is a deeply heartbreaking forensic detail. It implies that
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: she was at least partially awake or in the process
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: of waking up in her final moments. It implies a
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: terrifying awareness of the threat standing over her.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Now, despite all of this overwhelming context, the physical fight
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: over the phone, the 14 slash tires, the matching caliber
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: gun in his house, the ski mask matching the description,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Emilio sits in an interrogation room and admits to the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: tire slashing, but completely, absolutely denies the murder.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: He denies the whole thing.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: He denies even having any weapons on his person that night.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: And this is where the Law and Crime Network brought
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: in criminal defense attorney Dwayne Cates to analyze the strength
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: of the state's case. And his initial read on the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: evidence really threw me for a loop.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Because of what he called it.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Because Cates looked at all of this and called the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: state's case against Emilio weak.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: He did characterize it that way initially. And to understand
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: the mechanics of the justice system, it is vital to
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: understand why a defense attorney would look at that mountain
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: of context and still categorize the case as legally weak.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Just sounds crazy to a normal person.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Cates pointed out the foundational flaw in the prosecution's initial presentation.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: The surviving witness, Rihanna's mother, could not identify the shooter.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Because of the ski mask and because it was dark,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: there is no direct eyewitness placing Emilio's specific face behind
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: the gun in that bedroom.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have to reject that assessment entirely. Calling this
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: a weak case feels absurd when you look at the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: totality of the circumstances. We often hear the analogy that
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence is like waking up and seeing snow on
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the ground. You know, it snowed even if you didn't
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: see it fall.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Right, the classic law school example.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: But let's use a more accurate analogy for how the
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: law actually works. Criminals do not invite eyewitnesses to their crimes.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: The justice system is inherently built on circumstantial evidence because
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: people wearing ski masks in the dark are specifically trying
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: to avoid direct evidence.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: That's the whole point of the mask. Exactly.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: The defense's job is simply to introduce a single competing
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: narrative that fits the same circumstances. But if they find
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the murder weapon in his house, a ski mask that
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: matches the intruder's description... And he freely admits to being
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: at the complex hours earlier in a jealous, violent rage
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: destroying her property. How can any attorney stand in front
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: of a camera and call that weak just because nobody
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: saw his face under the mask?
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Because in the eyes of the law, the distinction between
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: direct evidence and circumstantial evidence is the exact battleground where
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: defense attorneys make their living. What Cates is arguing is
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: a matter of legal burden. Finding a gun in the
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: suspect's house is not legally the same as proving beyond
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: a reasonable doubt that the suspect was the one who
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: pulled the trigger.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Especially because the gun was found in his mom's purse,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: not in his pocket.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly. A seasoned defense attorney will immediately point to that
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: location and build a competing narrative. They will say to
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: a jury, my client did not have exclusive control over
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: that weapon. It was in his mother's purse. Someone else
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: in the house could have used it. Someone else could
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: have taken it while he was asleep.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: It creates that sliver of doubt.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Circumstantial evidence requires the jury to make an active inference.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: The jury has to mentally connect the dot between the
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: gun is in the house to Emilio actively held the
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: gun in the apartment. Direct evidence doesn't require that mental leap.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: If the mother testified, the intruder took off his mask
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: and I saw Emilio's face, that is direct evidence. Without it,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: the defense relies on the gap between the facts.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: But the circumstantial web they built is so incredibly tight.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, come on.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: It is tight, but you have to remember the timeline
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: of Cates' analysis. Initially, Cates didn't know if the ballistics matched.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: He posited that the police simply found a gun of
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: the same caliber.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Ah, okay.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Finding a 9mm when a 9mm casing was left behind
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: is suspicious, but it's not definitive proof. It's the exact
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: same gun. Millions of 9mm handguns exist. However... And this
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: is the turning point you're reacting to. During a later
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: court hearing, prosecutors announced that the ballistics did, in fact,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: definitively match. Boom. The unique markings on the shell casing
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: found in Rihanna's room matched the specific 9mm Glock 43
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: found in the mother's purse.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: So the gun in the house is definitively, scientifically the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: murder weapon.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: And the moment that ballistics match is introduced into evidence,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: the evidentiary web you mentioned doesn't just tighten, it transforms
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: into a steel trap.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Even Dwayne Cates had to walk back his initial assessment
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: of the case being weak.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I would hope so.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: He admitted on air that a ballistics match is a massive,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: often insurmountable step for the prosecution. People are convicted on
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: circumstantial evidence every single day in this country. Once the
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: ballistics match, the defense still has to argue that someone
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: else in that house took that specific gun, walked the
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: specific six minutes down the road, put on a mask
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: and committed the murder. Of Emilio's specific ex-girlfriend.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Which is just, it's laughable.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Given the admitted tire slashing and the established motives of
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: extreme jealousy, it is an incredibly difficult, almost impossible narrative
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: for a defense attorney to convince a jury to swallow.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: So with the evidence stacking up like a brick wall
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: against the suspect, the conversation and the legal analysis really shifted.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: It wasn't so much about if a conviction was going
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to happen, but what kind of conviction the justice system
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: would pursue. And that brings us to the legal chessboard
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and the specific charges filed by the state.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: The charges filed by a prosecutor tell you exactly how
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: aggressive the state intends to be and how they view
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: the psychology of the crime.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Right. Emilio was held on a staggering $ 1 million bond.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: And the state brought two massive, life-altering charges against him.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: First-degree murder for the death of Rihanna Kemp. And attempted
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: second degree murder for pulling the clicking gun on her mother.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: If convicted of first degree murder in the state of Arizona,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: you are looking at mandatory life in prison.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Which is the most severe penalty available short of capital punishment.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Charging first degree means the state believes they can prove
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: not just that he killed her, but that he actively
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: planned it. It requires forethought.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: And this is where defense attorney Dwayne Cates offered a
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: prediction that might be really frustrating for people to hear,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: especially when they look at the brutality of the crime.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: He suggested that this case will likely never see the
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: inside of a courtroom for a trial.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: He thinks it's going to plead out.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: He firmly believes it will end in a plea agreement.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: And not for first-degree murder, but possibly negotiated down to
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of roughly 20 to
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: 25 years.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: To understand why a case like this might plead out,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: you have to understand the mechanics of plea bargaining, which
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: are driven entirely by risk management.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: On both sides, right?
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Trials are inherently unpredictable. Juries are unpredictable. They can
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: latch onto the strangest details. A plea deal offers absolute
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: certainty for the state, a guaranteed conviction without the expense
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: and trauma of a trial, and it offers certainty for
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: the defendant avoiding a mandatory life sentence where they die
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: in a cell.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: I understand the game theory of a plea deal, but
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Kate's rationale for why the defense can negotiate this down
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: to second degree is what I really want to unpack.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: He argued that the defense could successfully frame this as
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: a heat of passion crime.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Right, the heat of passion defense.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: He pointed to the timeline, the cheating allegations found on
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: the phone, the snooping, the physical fight. He's saying the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: defense will argue, look, this was a young guy, his
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: brain is flooded with jealousy and betrayal, and he acted
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: in a heated, blinding passion.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Which highlights the fundamental legal difference between first and second
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: degree murder. First degree requires premeditation. It requires a plan,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: however brief. Second degree, in this specific context, implies an
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: intentional killing, but without the premeditation.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Just a snap reaction?
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Yes. A heat of passion defense argues that the provocation,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: in this case the fight and the perceived infidelity, was
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: so severe that a reasonable person would lose all self-control
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: and act purely on lethal, immediate impulse.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have to call a massive timeout on that
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: legal logic. I understand the textbook definition you just laid out,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: but let's apply it to the actual physical timeline of
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: this night. Heat of passion implies a snap decision right
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: in the moment, a split-second loss of behavioral control. But
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: let's look at what Emilio actually did.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Walk me through it.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: He gets into a physical fight at 11.45 p.m. He
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: leaves the apartment at midnight. He goes and slashes tires
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: at 2 a.m. He goes back home at 3.30 a.m.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: And then at some point between 3.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m.,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: he decides to walk six minutes back to the apartment,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: carrying a gun he presumably had to dig out of
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: his mother's purse, wearing a ski mask, and break through
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a door.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: You are highlighting the exact vulnerability in the defense's strategy,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: the cooling off period.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Exactly. If you have the time to walk six minutes home,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: rummage around in a purse for a Glock, put on
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: a tactical disguise like a ski mask so you aren't recognized,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and walk six minutes back in the dark, that is
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: not a sudden impulse. That is the literal, undeniable definition
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of a cooling off period.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: It shows planning.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: That is a planned, calculated mission. It's a tactical strike
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: on a sleeping household. How in the world can a
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: defense attorney sit in a negotiation room and argue heat
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: of passion with a multi-hour gap and a six-minute walk
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to the crime scene?
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Your logic is entirely sound. And prosecutors will argue exactly
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: what you just said with intense ferocity. They will map
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: out every single step of that six-minute walk for a
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: jury as definitive proof of premeditation.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: They have to.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: They will argue that every minute that ticked by between
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: the tire slashing at 3.30 a.m. and the murder at 6.30 a.m.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: was a minute he could have chosen to stay home,
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: put the gun down and go to sleep.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: So if the argument is that weak, why does Cates
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: even float the heat of passion idea on national television?
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Because defense attorneys are legally and ethically obligated to look
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: for absolutely any angle, any microscopic crack in the state's
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: narrative to negotiate the charges down a tier.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Even if it's a stretch.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Cates isn't saying heat of passion is a guaranteed winning
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: argument at a jury trial. He is saying it is
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: a narrative tool to be weaponized in a negotiation room
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: with a prosecutor. And he also pointed out a very common,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: highly effective prosecutorial tactic that explains the charges. What? Prosecutors
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: often charge a crime at the absolute highest possible level. Yeah.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: In this case, first-degree murder. Specifically, to leave themselves room
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: to negotiate down later.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. You are saying they might charge first-degree not
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: necessarily because they are dead set on taking a first-degree
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: case to trial, but Because charging it that high gives
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: them immense leverage over the defendant.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Precisely. It is a calculated psychological pressure campaign. Think about
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: the math of a plea deal. If a prosecutor starts
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: by charging second-degree murder and the defense wants a plea deal,
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: they negotiate down to manslaughter and suddenly the sentence drops
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: to maybe 10 years. Right. But by starting at first degree,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: hanging the absolute threat of mandatory life in prison over
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: an 18-year-old's head, the prosecution can say to the defense,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Take a second degree plea for 25 years right now
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: or roll the dice at a trial and never see
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: the outside of a maximum security prison again. That is heavy.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: It applies immense, almost unbearable pressure on the defendant to
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: plead guilty and accept the decades behind bars.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Which brings up a really uncomfortable but incredibly necessary aspect
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: of our justice system. We have to talk about the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: role of the defense attorney in these heinous, horrific cases.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Listening to Dwayne Cates talk about his job on the
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Law and Crime Network was fascinating.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: He has a very specific view of his role.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Because he wasn't defensive about representing someone accused of such
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: a brutal act. He had a very strong, almost stoic
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: philosophical stance on what his profession actually represents.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: He essentially framed his entire profession not as defending criminals,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: but as defending the Constitution of the United States.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: He used a specific phrase that really stuck with me.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: He said, we are the police's police. He argued that
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: if defense attorneys aren't there to ruthlessly scrutinize every piece
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: of evidence, every search warrant, every police interrogation tactic, the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: system devolves into what he called a Gestapo state, where
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: authorities can just kick down your door and take you
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: away without due process or justification.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: It is the foundational bedrock principle of the American legal system,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: even when the facts of a case are nauseating. The
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: burden of proof must remain entirely 100% on the state.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: No exceptions.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: The state has the immense power... to strip away your liberty,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: to lock you in a cage, or in some states,
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: to end your life. Therefore, the state must be forced
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: to prove its case beyond the reasonable doubt, utilizing only
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: legally obtained evidence.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: It's a high bar for a reason.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: The defense attorney's job is not necessarily to prove their
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: client is a good person. Their job is to ruthlessly
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: test the integrity of the state's case. If the state's
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: evidence holds up under that brutal scrutiny, the conviction is sound.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: If it doesn't hold up, The system worked to prevent
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: potentially convicting an innocent person or convicting someone based on
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: illegal state overreach.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: And part of testing that evidence involves engaging in brutal
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: fights over what a jury is actually legally allowed to
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: hear during a trial, which leads to one of the
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: most contentious points in this specific case, the tire slashing.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: This is a huge legal battleground.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Keats noted that from a defense perspective, the tire slashing
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: makes plea bargaining incredibly difficult because it establishes a clear,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: violent pattern of behavior that directed at the victim right
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: before the murder. But he also stated that if this
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: case went to trial, he would fight tooth and nail
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to keep the jury from ever hearing a single word
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: about the 14 slashed tires.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: This takes us into a deep dive regarding the rules
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: of evidence, specifically focusing on the highly debated legal concept
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: of prior bad acts.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: But keeping that from a jury feels completely counterintuitive. Let's
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: use an analogy here. Imagine you are asked to review
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: a movie, but the judge tells you that you are
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: legally not allowed to talk about the prequel.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, I like that analogy.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Your prosecution says, wait, the prequel explains exactly why the
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: villain is so angry in this movie. It establishes his
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: entire motive. But the defense argues, no, if you watch
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the prequel, you are prejudiced against the villain before this
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: movie even starts. The tire slashing is the prequel.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: It is the direct prologue to the murder. It establishes
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: his state of mind, his physical location at the complex,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: his escalating rage. How on earth could a judge logically
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: justify hiding that context from a jury?
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: It is one of the most fiercely debated areas of
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: criminal law. The rule against admitting prior bad acts exists
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: to prevent a very specific type of prejudice. The court
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: wants to prevent a jury from convicting a defendant simply
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: because they believe the defendant is generally a bad person
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: with a propensity to do bad things.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: They have to judge this specific act.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: The state has the burden to prove the defendant committed
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: this specific crime on this specific day, not that they
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: have a general history of being violent or destructive.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: But the tire slashing wasn't years ago. It was the
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: exact same night. It was hours before the murder in
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the exact same parking lot.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: And that proximity is exactly how the prosecution will fight
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: to get the tire slashing admitted into evidence. They will
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: argue it's not some random prior bad act from his childhood.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: They will argue it is part of the resgiste.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Resgiste.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: That is a Latin legal term that translates to things done.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: It means the continuous, unbroken sequence of events that forms
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: the crime itself. The prosecution will argue the vandalism is
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: inextricable from the murder because it establishes the escalating motive
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: and the lethal intent.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: You can't separate the two.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Cates is admitting on air that he would try to
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: exclude it because he knows if the jury hears about
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: the tires, the heat of passion defense completely crumbles. The
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: defendant suddenly looks incredibly dangerous, vindictive, and calculated. It's his
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: job to try and block that evidence. But as a
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: legal analyst, Cates knows a judge would very likely let
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: the jury hear about the tires because of how seamlessly
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: tied the vandalism is to the timeline of the murder.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: This entire legal chess match gets exponentially more complicated when
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: you factor in the ages of the people involved. We
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: are talking about a 17-year-old victim whose life had barely
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: begun and an 18-year-old suspect.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Some young, both of them.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Under the law, Amelia Rivera is legally considered an adult.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: He can be charged with first-degree murder. He can be
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: sent to an adult maximum security prison for the rest
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: of his natural life. But from a neurological, biological standpoint,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: both Cates and modern neuroscience point out that he is
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: not a fully developed human being.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: The intersection of neuroscience and the criminal law is fundamentally
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: reshaping how society and the courts view culpability, specifically for
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: young offenders. It asks us to separate cognitive knowledge from
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: behavioral control.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Kate specifically brought up the biology of the brain. He
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: pointed out that the human brain's impulse control center, the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: prefrontal cortex, doesn't fully form and mature until around the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: age of 25.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Which is well past 18.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: He argued that this undeniable biological reality leads to poor decisions,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: an inability to foresee long-term consequences, and in his exact words,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: bizarre results. He stated that this lack of structural brain
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: development acts as the primary mitigation strategy for young defendants
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: navigating the adult justice system.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: It is a profound point of tension in the courtroom.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: On one hand, you have a suspect who is 18. Legally,
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: society says he's an adult. He's capable of buying a car,
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: signing a legally binding contract, and voting. He cognitively knows
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: that murder is illegal and wrong.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Right, he knows the rule.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: But neurobiologically, the part of his brain responsible for executive function...
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: the part that pumps the brakes on aggressive impulses, the
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: part that steps in during high stress moments and says, stop,
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: think about the consequences tomorrow, is structurally immature. It simply
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: does not function like a 35-year-old's brain.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: So it's a physical deficit.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: Defense attorneys don't use this science to excuse the crime.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: They use it to explain the how. How does a
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: teenager go from a text message dispute over a cell
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: phone to a multi-hour vandalism spree to a fatal shooting
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: in a bedroom? The defense argues it is a catastrophic
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: failure of an underdeveloped neurological braking system, severely exacerbated by
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: the overwhelming emotional flooding of jealousy and rage.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: But how does the justice system practically balance that biological
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: scientific argument against the sheer calculated terror of what actually
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: happened in that apartment? I keep going back to that
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: six minute walk.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: The walk is the hardest part for the defense to overcome.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: I keep going back to the decision to put on
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: a ski mask. I keep going back to the mechanical
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: clicking of the gun as he tried to execute the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: mother in her bed. That doesn't feel like a teenage
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: brain simply failing to pump the brakes. That feels like
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: a brain actively, methodically plotting a lethal course through the dark.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: And that is the exact visceral argument the prosecution will
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: present to the jury to counter the neuroscience defendants. They
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: will argue that putting on a ski mask requires executive function.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: You don't accidentally put on a mask.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Sneaking into a house without waking the occupants requires executive function.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: It demonstrates a clear, undeniable awareness of consequence. You wear
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: a mask specifically so you aren't recognized. You aren't caught
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: so you don't face consequences.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: The forethought is just glaring.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: The profound tragedy of cases like this is that they
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: force the legal system to weigh the undeniable scientific reality
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: of an underdeveloped brain against the undeniable physical reality of
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: a meticulously executed atrocity.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: And while the legal system wrestles with these massive philosophical, neurobiological,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: and procedural questions, the families are left waiting in the wreckage.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Cates laid out a really grim, sobering timeline for what
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: happens next in this specific case.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: It's never a fast process.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: He said murder cases like this take years to resolve.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Years of pre-trial conferences and agonizing discovery phases, motions to
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: lower bond, and endless procedural delays. It is a slow, grinding,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: bureaucratic machine.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: The machine moves slowly by design because the stakes are absolute.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: When you are dealing with a potential life sentence, every
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: single piece of evidence must be heavily scrutinized. Every motion
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: must be meticulously filed and argued on the record.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: To avoid mistrials and appeals.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: This is done to ensure there are no grounds for
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: the defendant to appeal a conviction later based on ineffective
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: assistance of counsel or procedural errors. The system prioritizes thoroughness
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: over speed. But for the grieving family of Rihanna Kemp,
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: that legal thoroughness means living in a state of agonizing
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: perpetual limbo. They are unable to find any semblance of
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: closure while the procedural machinery slowly turns.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: It is a devastating reality for the people left behind.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: To bring this deep dive full circle, we have examined
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: how a bright, talented 17-year-old girl who had her whole
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: life and a college career waiting for her was taken
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: in the one place she was supposed to be safe.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: It's just an incredible loss.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: We've seen how a digital dispute over a cell phone
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: rapidly escalated into textbook coercive control, a massive multi-hour rampage
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: of property destruction, and ultimately, a fatal home invasion. We've
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: unpacked the fierce legal battles that lie ahead regarding the
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: weight of circumstantial evidence, the rigid definition of premeditation, and
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: the profound, uncomfortable tension between legal adulthood and adolescent brain development.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: It is a case that challenges us to look closely
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: at how our legal systems handle the extreme margins of
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: human behavior, especially when that behavior involves the young and
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: the volatile.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I want to leave you, the listener, with a final
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: lingering thought to mull over based on the forensic evidence
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: we discussed today. Defense attorney Dwayne Cates noted that the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: bullet hitting Rihanna's hand suggests a defensive wound. It suggests
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: she likely woke up in those final, terrifying seconds. She
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: likely saw her masked killer right before she was shot.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: It's a haunting image.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: If the defense ultimately stands in a courtroom and argues
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: that an 18-year-old suspect, brain development, and poor impulse control
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: legally mitigate his culpability, how does a jury or how
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: do you balance that biological scientific argument against the sheer
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: calculated terror of a masked intruder standing over a waking victim?
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: It's the ultimate question.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Does a neurological lack of impulse control truly excuse a
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: six-minute walk in the dark to commit murder? Or are
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: some actions so deliberate, so coldly executed, that biology ceases
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: to be a valid defense.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: It is a question that goes to the very heart
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: of how society defines guilt, intent, and ultimate responsibility.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us as we explore the Law
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: and Crime Network's reporting on this tragedy. Keep questioning the
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: systems around you, keep looking for the why beneath the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: surface of the headlines, and we will catch you on
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the next Deep Dive.