Latest / NO FILTER / Ex adult film star accused of beheading father of her kids_ Mom of missing child arrested(MP3_160K)

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Ex adult film star accused of beheading father of her kids_ Mom of missing child arrested(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Sidebar presented by True Crime News,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: taking you inside the courtrooms of high profile and notorious
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: cases from across the country. I'm your host, Joshua Ritter.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I'm a criminal defense lawyer based on Los Angeles and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: previously an LA County prosecutor for over a decade. You
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: can find me on all social platforms at Joshua Ritter EESQ,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: or at Joshua Ridter dot com. We are recording this
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: on Monday, November tenth, twenty twenty five. In this week's episode,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a Florida family cleared of abuse claims after nine children
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: were seized from their home, plus the mother of a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: missing California child arrested on unrelated charges of false imprisonment.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: But first, a former adult film actress accused of decapitating
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: her ex to continue a relationship with her step son. Today,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: we are joined by Tara Mallick, a litigator, entrepreneur, and
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: legal analysts you can catch on media outlets across the country. Tara, welcome,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: how are you.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I'm well, Thank you Joshua for having me. I'm excited
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to be here with you.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Good. I have seen you do some other podcasts and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: other work. On commentating on giving your legal analysis on
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: cases around the country, and I've always thought, boy, she's smart,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: she really knows what she's talking about. And I know
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: that you are a still working attorney, so I'm very
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: grateful to have your time and looking forward to hearing
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on these cases. Let's just jump right in first.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: This one is Wild out of Henderson, Nevada. A former
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: adult film star, is facing trial for allegedly beheading her
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: ex and marrying her step son, Devin. Michaels initially plad
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: guilty to the murder of the father of her two children,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Willette, claiming she killed the man in self defense
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: when he attempted to coerce her into a sexual act. However,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: after a tearful proclanimation of her innocence, she withdrew the plea,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: opting to go to trial. While prosecutors say that Michaels
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: killed Willette to continue her relationship with her step son
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and husband, Devier Willette, Michael's defense claims that the step son, Devier,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: is responsible for his father's beheading. I hope we're all
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: following this. Attorneys for Michael's alleged that the woman asked
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: for a divorce from her step son to rekindle her
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: relationship with his father, sending Devier into a jealous rage.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: The Willette's head and the murder weapon have never been recovered.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Jurors will have plenty of visceral evidence to sort through
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: as they attempt to unfurl the twisted love triangle. Tara,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I think, well, this is one of those cases that
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: was probably going to land on a lot of people's
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: radar anyways, because of this bizarre love triangle and the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: beheading and the head has never been recovered. But I
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: know the first time I heard about it was from
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: her her statements in court and her demeanor in court
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: when she first entered a pleach. She was at the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: point of pleading guilty, being sentenced, moving on from this
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: whole thing, and she stood in court and was like,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't do this, and tears and I don't want
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to do this. And the prosecutor, to his credit, stood
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: up and said, you're, honor, I don't think we can
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: accept this plea. We're going to have to let her withdraw.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: My first question, I guess is have you ever seen
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: something like that before? Was what was going on? There.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Why did they allow her to withdraw that plea?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it was a really smart move on
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: the prosecutor's art. You know, as a prosecutor, I think
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: you always want to make sure that your pace can
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: withstand any sort of appeals later on as well. And
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: you know, my understanding was much like yours. She went
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: into court, she took a plea deal that had been
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: extended to her by the prosecutors, was entering a guilty
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: plea to I believe, second degree murder at the time,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: was on the verge of being sentenced, and wanted to
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: withdraw her plea, and the judge at that point was
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: going to refuse to allow her or did refuse to
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: allow her to withdraw her plea, saying that it was
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: knowingly involuntarily given. And that's when the prosecutor ended up
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: standing up and saying, you know, I think we should
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: just move forward to trial on this if this is
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: what her what she's alleging now, very unusual, I would say,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to get to that point and have it unfold like this. Certainly,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: you see a lot of post conviction type cases or
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: after someone is sentenced, where they'll make claims about you know,
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  Speaker 2: I really didn't know what I was doing when I
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: was entering a plea, or I was coerced, or it
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: wasn't voluntarily for these other reasons. But this, I would say,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: following the path of what seems to be really the
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: theme of this case, was very unusual.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I agree with you.
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  Speaker 2: I've seen.
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  Speaker 1: As a prosecutor, I can think of time where a
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: defendant was incredibly reluctant, didn't want to do it, and
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: from an outsider looking in, it can look as though, hey,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: we're making this innocent person plead guilty, and then you
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: might not realize the absolute mountain of evidence that you
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: have against this person. And they confessed and it's on
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  Speaker 1: videotape and everything else, and it's just this psychological thing
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: that they get to that point and they just don't
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: want to do it because they know that's the end
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  Speaker 1: of it. So I've seen that happen from a prosecutor's perspective.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I've dealt with some hesitation from a defense attorney's perspective.
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  Speaker 1: But what do you think made it different here that
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: everybody just felt like, you know, what she said too
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  Speaker 1: much at this point, we have to allow her to withdraw.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the way in which she presented it
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: in court. I think that again, there were some concerns,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: likely concerns about you know, what is this going to
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: look like on appeal if this goes up on appeal.
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  Speaker 2: I would put money down that it would have on
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: the same types of claims that she was an all
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: lowed to, you know, to withdraw her plea given the circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: So a smart move I think by the prosecutor's office.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, we'll see how this trial unfolds. It's
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: certainly a very unusual case, and I would imagine we're
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: going to be hearing some twists and turns throughout it.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Already it was difficult even summarizing that there.
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  Speaker 1: I felt I went through some twists and turns to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: that point, do you think these kinds of cases where
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: they're just kind of inherently messy and complicated and you
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: can't tell who's involved with who, and it seems like
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: maybe more than one person has a motive for the murder,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: do you think that leans into reasonable doubt, leans towards
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the defense's favor because it's just end of the dangers
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: just might be confused.
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  Speaker 2: I think so, certainly. I think that. You know, you
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: hear a lot about the empty chair defense. It wasn't me,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: It was this other person that wasn't charged, and they
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: were not a co conspirator. And in this case, sounds
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: like that's going to be the you know, step son
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  Speaker 2: slash husband. I can't even believe I'm saying that, but
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: you know, it's it's you know, an individual who was
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: not looked at, from what I understand, as a suspect
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: or pointed to as a suspect at any point in time.
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  Speaker 2: So it wasn't me, it was him. Types of defenses, absolutely,
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  Speaker 2: And you know, at some point in time, if you
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: don't have a compelling narrative as a prosecutor in your
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: case is messy. You really have a high risk of
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: losing these jurors who are going to go, well, I'm
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: not going to make that type of serious decision, you know,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: based on this if I have really any doubt, much
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  Speaker 2: less reasonable doubt.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I've always said that defense attorneys thrive in
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the world of confusion. They certainly don't want things being
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: clear to secures. At the end of the day. Interesting case,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: we will continue to follow it. We'll have to leave
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: it there for now. But just fascinating, both the history
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of how it ended up in trial and the actual
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: circumstances of the case itself. Now to Columbia County, Florida,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: where a family accused of heinous child abuse has found
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: vindication after prosecutors announced they were dropping all charges, claiming
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the allegations were unfounded. Married couple Brian and Jill Griffith,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: along with their adult children, Dallen and Liberty Griffith, all
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: faced charges of aggravated child abuse after one of the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: couple's adopted children made explosive claims to a mandatory reporter
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  Speaker 1: at a church camp. The headline seizing allegations included claims
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: of unprescribed drugging, slave labor, caning, and even placing the
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: children in cages. Prosecutors have since dismissed the accusations as
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: nothing more than quote salacious gossip after learning that the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: alleged victim had a history of violence against animals, adults,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: and other children, eventually causing the Griffith family to remove
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the child from the home. In the wake of the
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: initial charges, the griffiths nine children, including a mix of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: biological and adoptive kids, were all taken from the home
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and spread across foster homes in the state of Florida.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: While the Griffiths have been spared prosecution, it will takes
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: some time to renite their family and clear their names
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: in the court of public opinion. Terror This case is
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: so troubling to me, and in that summary that we
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: just went through, it doesn't really do justice to how
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the prosecutor, the prosecutor, the state's attorney really laid out
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the Department of Children and Family Services there in Florida,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: saying it was rife with finger pointing and contradictions and gossip.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: But these are people with incredible power. These are people
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: that if they don't do their job right, either a
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: person who's abusing children gets away with it or people
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: who are completely innocent and good parents might go to prison.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, tell me your thoughts on this. I'm just
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: so bothered by it.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, I agree, I'm with you on this one. I
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: think it's deeply, deeply troubling. And you know, part of
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: this too, was the question that popped into mind. I'm like, well,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: wait a minute, what kind of investigation was done? What
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: kind of one sided investigation occurred here that led to
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: these charges to begin with? When you think about the
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: collateral consequences of Like you said, these people hold great power.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: You know, you are in a position where you are
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: investigating some serious allegations with really vulnerable populations children. But
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: on the flip side of it, too, you are investigating
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: people that now have been splashed, their names splashed across
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: the news, their family names splashed across the news, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: they have to claw their way back here from what
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: is out in forever more in this public sphere. So
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: deeply troubling to me that there wasn't more of an investigation,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: and when the prosecutor had gone through some of the
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: explanations of areas that were unsubstantiated and explanations as to
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: what occurred or you know, some of these allegations around
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: punishment were it really begged the question what were they doing?
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: What was the department doing if not investigating and having
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: interviews and doing the digging that it sounds like the
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: prosecutor's office eventually did.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: And Terry, you make such an excellent point too, that
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: this isn't just about you know, people could look at
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: this and go, well, hey, no harm, no foul. They
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: didn't go to prison. They dismissed the case, like, you know, yeah,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: sorry that they were inconvenience for a little while, but
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: now they've are on the plasmon. But this is a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: bigger issue at play here, because when prosecutors bring charges
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and then have to unwind things like this, Yeah, you
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: can say, end of the day, everything worked out, but
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: that person's reputation may never recover from it. I thought
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: that was such an excellent point you made. There was
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a famous case involving a government official a couple of
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: decadies ago, who was cleared of criminal charges of fraud,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and in the press conference afterwards, he says to the media, Yeah,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: it's great, but what office do I report to to
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: get my repute back? And it's so true? And do
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you think I guess my question is do you think
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: something more can be done about that? Or is this
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: just a kind of a natural consequence and collateral effect
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: of these types of uh, you know, mischarged cases.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, unfortunately, I think what it does is
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: it puts the burden back on the person that was
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: falsely accused. Now they got to go back and they
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: have to go on the offensive. You know, maybe they
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: have to hire their own PR person, Maybe they have
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: to go and provide more public statements to drown out
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: the false information, to try and reclaim what they can reclaim.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: But I don't think that it, you know, takes away
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: the kind of the tentacles of suspicion. I think that
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: follows you. I think that's a shadow that ends up
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: following you. And you know how people will take a
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: piece of information, accurate or inaccurate, and they'll run with it.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: So I really feel for them. I think that this
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: is an incredible difficult situation, something that they're still going
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: to have to overcome, and they have small children, you know,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: and who knows what those small children are hearing and
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: what that does as far as you know, just issues
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: of psychological safety being with mom and dad again, and
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: I think that there are a lot of consequences here
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: and it's really unfortunate the way that this unfolded.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as you were speaking, I was thinking of Amanda Knox.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: She is the young girl that was accused of murder
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: in Italy and made nation worldwide headlines. You know, to
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: this day that they're still doing documentaries about it. There
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: was recently a kind of a dramatized mini series about
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: her whole story, and I saw an interview with her,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: and to your point, she talks about how to this
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: day people think she committed that crime, and another man
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: was found guilty and served prison time in Italy for
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: that murder. Yet even in spite of all that, the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: stink of it, the tentacles of it, as you say,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: she can't get it out from under, and it's like
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: she's forever. Whenever you bring up her name, you remember,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you know, if you don't follow it closely, you remember
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: something to do with it Italy and didn't she kill somebody?
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's all right, absolutely, it's almost it's a
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: life sentence and then of itself, right, I mean that's
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: going to follow you.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, sounds like bigger problems than we're able to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: solve here this afternoon, but we'll keep working on it.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Let's move to our final case. Out of Santa Barbara County, California,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the mother of a missing girl has been arrested on
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a charge of holding a person against their will. The
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: authorities say it's unrelated to the search for her missing child.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Nine year old Melody Buzzard was reported missing on October
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: fourteenth after an extended absence from school. Worried officials, authority
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: discovered that Melody was on a cross country trip with
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: her mother, Ashley Buzzard, with the child last scene on
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: October ninth in surveillance footage in an area between the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Colorado and Utah border. Police claim that Buzzard changed the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: plates on her rental car to avoid detection as she traveled,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: before eventually returning to her home in California on October tenth.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: When investigators contacted Buzzard about missing Melody, they claimed the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: mother was uncooperative, further raising suspicions. As the search for
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Melody continues. Buzzard has been arrested on a charge of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: false imprisonment, with police claiming they obtained information that Buzzard
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: prevented a victim from leaving a location against their will. However,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: they noted that the charges were not related to Melody's disappearance,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and officials have not commented further on the missing child's investigation,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: hoping to avoid impeding the search for Melody. To her
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: this is the case that has really heated up on
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: my radar. A lot of people are talking about this thing,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and I think it is It's understandable because it's the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: urgency of the moment, this girl is still not been located.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: We all want to know what's happening, and people are frustrated,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and they're saying, well, arrest her, go ahead and arrest her.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Her daughter's missing. My first question to you, though, is strictly,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: has she committed a crime at this point, putting aside
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: what she's been arrested for, which is unrelated, has she
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: committed a crime in relation to the daughter at this point?
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: No? No, I mean she hasn't. And that's the really
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: tough part of these types of cases. And I think
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: that's the really the big struggle is while we can
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: all guess as to what may or may not have occurred,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: but but we don't have anything, she doesn't have to cooperate,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: and so that's the situation that law enforcement is in,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: and I'm sure they feel extremely frustrated by it. And
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: when you're dealing with a small child who you know
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: is in need of an adult to take care of
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: them and look out for them, You're right, that sense
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: of urgency just goes through the roof when they're missing.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's shocking to many people because when you when
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: you break it down, it absolutely makes sense. There's nothing
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: illegal about taking your out on an unplanned road trip.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: There's nothing illegal about having your child wear a wig.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: There's nothing illegal. I mean, you can maybe argue changing
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the license plates, got some legal ramifications to it, maybe
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: truancy issues and removing her from school, But she has
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: not committed anything that police can break down her door
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and arrest her now. But they've done something clever here.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: They've found something to arrest her for. So walk us
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: through what we think is actually happening here with this
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: recent arrest.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I think what's happening is, like you said, it's
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: a clever move by law enforcement to figure out how
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: can they get more information from someone who has been uncooperative. Now,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: this is a different It sounds like a completely different crime,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: although we don't have a whole lot of details on
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: it at all. They're still in the investigation mode. But
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: certainly they could confiscate her cell phone. They could try
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: and obtain a warrant for her cell phone to track
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: down her location, for instance. Now that they have her
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: in custody, they can do an investigation as to a
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: more in depth investigation as to the crime that she's
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: charged with right now, but that might open the door
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: to additional information they would not have otherwise received or
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: gotten as a result of her non cooperativeness as it
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: came to her missing child.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: One more wrinkling all of this, I should explain so
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: people understand that if she were married, there could be
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: an argument by the husband of saying that she kidnapped
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: my child, and then we clearly would have probable cause
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: to go out and make an arrests and dump cell
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: phones and everything else they needed to do. Melody's father
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: tragically died when she was very young in a motorcycle accident.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: So the only person with soul custody of Melody is Ashley.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: And if Ashley wants to take her child on this
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: road trip and wants to dress her up in wigs
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: and wants to not cooperate with police when they're asking
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: where is she is she Okay. As awful as all
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: of that sounds, she hasn't really broken any laws per se.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: It's certainly not enough for them to lock her up
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and start, you know, conducting executing search warrants. And so
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I think I think you hit the nail on the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: head that well they found something. I mean, yeah, well,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: we'll have to see how how much that that underlying
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: case is even what there is to it. But they
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: found they found enough to get themselves a warrant for
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: an arrest, and I think they feel like they're going
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to just move from there. Fascinating case, troubling case, and
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: we really hope that it doesn't turn out the way
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: that a lot of us are starting to suspect that
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: it will. But tur thank you so much for coming on.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad that we were able to do this.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Like sir, I'm a big fan of you. H Can
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: you tell people where can they find out more about you?
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Sure? So? I'm on LinkedIn and with Smith and Malick
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Mallick and Malick Attorneys now and our website Night is
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: online and happy to chat with anybody about these cases
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: or anything else. And joshall always great to see you.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: I always have fun when we're on a show together,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: and happy to be here with you today and your audience.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I'm your host,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Josh Ritter. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: at Joshua Ritter EESQ. And if you want to hear
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: my thoughts and coverage on even more true crime cases,
• 20:22
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• 20:26
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• 20:28
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• 20:30
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• 20:33
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• 20:35
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• 20:39
  Speaker 1: us at the True Crime News Sidebar