Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Young Mom of 2 on Morning Walk with Hubby MOWED DOWN BY ALLEGED BOOZER, NO ARREST

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Young Mom of 2 on Morning Walk with Hubby MOWED DOWN BY ALLEGED BOOZER, NO ARREST · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece, a gorgeous young Texas school teacher,
0:18
Speaker 1: the mother of two, loved like crazy by her husband.
0:27
Speaker 1: She is out in her own neighborhood with her husband
0:33
Speaker 1: taking a walk. This young mom went out of the
0:40
Speaker 1: blue a car Carren's across the road and mos her
0:55
Speaker 1: Katie down dead and breaks the husband's back. Now what
1:06
Speaker 1: wait up all night drinking whiskey, blows the point oh
1:16
Speaker 1: six and a breathalyzer. They guess what he's never done
1:23
Speaker 1: one day of jail time? What is happening in Texas?
1:33
Speaker 1: Why is this guy walking free? I don't get it.
1:37
Speaker 1: Why are there two little children, a boy and a girl,
1:40
Speaker 1: just like my boy and girl that every night go
1:45
Speaker 1: to bed and say where is mommy? That's what I
1:52
Speaker 1: want to know, Amy, and see Grace. This is Crime Stories.
1:56
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
1:59
Speaker 1: and Serious ExM one eleven. Are we gonna just stand
2:04
Speaker 1: by and let this happen? Well? You know, oh well,
2:10
Speaker 1: I don't know her doesn't matter to me. I don't
2:14
Speaker 1: take a walk in that neighborhood. If we let this
2:19
Speaker 1: happen to her and nothing is done about it, what
2:24
Speaker 1: about when it is you or your wife or your husband,
2:28
Speaker 1: or your child, your daughter that gets mowed down on
2:31
Speaker 1: the side of the road and nobody does a darn
2:35
Speaker 1: thing about it. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
2:42
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
2:44
Speaker 1: in serious x M one eleven. First of all, taking
2:49
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at k x II. On the
2:52
Speaker 1: morning of April twenty first, Katy and John Palmer went
2:55
Speaker 1: for a walk in their neighborhood. Fifteen minutes leader, their neighbor,
2:58
Speaker 1: Corey Foster, hit them from behind with his F two fifty,
3:02
Speaker 1: knocking them out of their shoes and throwing them yards away.
3:07
Speaker 1: What's your Name? John broke his back and somehow still
3:11
Speaker 1: managed to crawl over to Katie, who was unresponsive after
3:15
Speaker 1: a blunt force trauma to her head. R what learner it?
3:23
Speaker 1: Katie was flown by helicopter to a hospital. This is
3:31
Speaker 1: the body camera footage of DPS troopers from April twenty first,
3:35
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, the day that John and Katie Palmer were
3:38
Speaker 1: hit by an F two fifty pickup truck driven by
3:41
Speaker 1: Corey Foster while walking in their neighborhood. Katie was flown
3:45
Speaker 1: to a hospital and died there John broke his back.
3:49
Speaker 1: I was angered by what I saw. You are hearing
3:54
Speaker 1: our friends at k XII and joining me right now
4:00
Speaker 1: is a man who broke his back and somehow managed
4:04
Speaker 1: to crawl to his wife, the mother of his children, Katie.
4:10
Speaker 1: If you didn't know her name before, now Katie Palmer
4:18
Speaker 1: not just a wife, not just a school teacher, not
4:21
Speaker 1: just a mother. But now she stands for something. She's
4:25
Speaker 1: standing for something altogether different than before this killing. Now
4:33
Speaker 1: she stands for all the victims whose voices are never
4:37
Speaker 1: heard in a court of law. John David Palmer is
4:44
Speaker 1: with me, Katie's husband. You can find him on Facebook
4:46
Speaker 1: at Justice for Katie Palmer. John, thank you for being
4:50
Speaker 1: with us. As much as I hate asking you this
4:54
Speaker 1: on a personal level, Please tell us what happened the
4:58
Speaker 1: day Katie was made dawn. Yes man, um mister as
5:02
Speaker 1: I would like to say, thank you so much for
5:04
Speaker 1: discussing Katie's case. Thank you, and that that thank you
5:08
Speaker 1: comes from myself, my family, and my Kingdon So. On
5:13
Speaker 1: April twenty one, twenty twenty, I will Katie up to
5:18
Speaker 1: go for a morning walk with me. She had asked
5:22
Speaker 1: me the night before to wake her up she never
5:24
Speaker 1: went on morning walks with me, So when I woke
5:27
Speaker 1: her up on the twenty first, she wanted to go
5:32
Speaker 1: back to sleep, and I told her that I reminded
5:35
Speaker 1: her that she asked me to wake her up, and
5:37
Speaker 1: she got up again. That was the first and last
5:40
Speaker 1: time she ever took the morning to walk with me.
5:43
Speaker 1: I went to woke up our son, Brhadon and let
5:46
Speaker 1: him know that his mother and I were going to
5:48
Speaker 1: go out for a morning walk. Brandon would routinely walk
5:52
Speaker 1: with me in the morning, and I'm so thankful that
5:54
Speaker 1: he decided to sleep in and we let our daughter
5:58
Speaker 1: Bella did her up because she she's a late sweeper.
6:02
Speaker 1: So was this a Saturday, No, man, it was, It
6:07
Speaker 1: was not. It was during the weekday. And this was
6:10
Speaker 1: basically about the height of COVID, so you know, the
6:14
Speaker 1: kids were doing distance learning and my wife, as a teacher,
6:17
Speaker 1: was logging in and teaching her students remotely. So we
6:23
Speaker 1: started to turn to walk down our road, Glenwood Drive,
6:29
Speaker 1: which is a two lane road outside the city limits,
6:33
Speaker 1: paved grass on both sides, no sidewalk. M We started
6:38
Speaker 1: to walk west on Glenwood Drive and there's an old
6:42
Speaker 1: golf course by us, and we would normally go walk
6:44
Speaker 1: on that golf course because it had paid trails. Katie
6:47
Speaker 1: didn't want to there was some do on on the ground.
6:51
Speaker 1: She didn't want to get her legs wet because she's
6:53
Speaker 1: probably gonna go back and take a nap before she
6:55
Speaker 1: had to log in and remotely teach her her students.
6:59
Speaker 1: So we decided to keep on walking down Glenwood. There
7:02
Speaker 1: was a patch of undeveloped lots for houses, and she
7:08
Speaker 1: had noticed when she went to go walk with the
7:10
Speaker 1: kids in the afternoon that there was there was some
7:15
Speaker 1: killed your birds that were nesting on the ground. She
7:16
Speaker 1: studied ornithology in college and as a science teacher, loved
7:20
Speaker 1: science and nature, and so she was going to come
7:24
Speaker 1: and take me to where those killed deer were. So
7:26
Speaker 1: we walked over to these undeveloped lots and look that
7:30
Speaker 1: didn't see any and decided to turn back around and
7:34
Speaker 1: go home. So then we were heading east on Glenwood Drive,
7:39
Speaker 1: walking alongside the roadway and we got to that golf course,
7:46
Speaker 1: and that's when my neighbor, Corny Todd Foster crossed over
7:51
Speaker 1: the roadway and hit us boat from behind. Who wait, wait,
7:57
Speaker 1: waite John Palmer with me Katie's husband. You just said
8:03
Speaker 1: he passed over the roadway and hit us from behind.
8:08
Speaker 1: So you were walking on the side of the road
8:15
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of the roadway. Were you walking
8:18
Speaker 1: in the direction of the traffic on that side? Just man,
8:22
Speaker 1: So you're walking on the right side of the road, correct, Okay,
8:27
Speaker 1: And what happened? You said he driving his truck, crossed
8:31
Speaker 1: over at the roadway and hit you from behind. Explain
8:34
Speaker 1: explain that to me. So he left his house and
8:42
Speaker 1: he would later state that he couldn't see the minute
8:45
Speaker 1: he left his driveway, said that his windshield was fading,
8:50
Speaker 1: so he had locked a conversation on his windshield and
8:53
Speaker 1: couldn't see and started driving down Glenwood Drive blindly, and
9:00
Speaker 1: approximately three tenths of a mile later, So he was
9:02
Speaker 1: driving blind from three tenths of a mile, crossed over
9:06
Speaker 1: the roadway and hit us both from behind as we
9:09
Speaker 1: were walking alongside the road. Hit us so hard he
9:13
Speaker 1: knocked us both out of our shoes. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait,
9:19
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Mister Palmer with me is Ketty's husband with
9:23
Speaker 1: her at the time she was mowed down and killed.
9:29
Speaker 1: I've never in my life, had a live victim be
9:36
Speaker 1: able to tell me I got knocked out of my shoes?
9:40
Speaker 1: Can I tell you how many killings, murders, vehicular homicide scenes.
9:46
Speaker 1: I have gone to myself in the middle of the
9:49
Speaker 1: night and I see the victims shoes and I never
9:55
Speaker 1: really understood why are there shoes there? And I saw
10:00
Speaker 1: it over and over and over. What do you mean
10:04
Speaker 1: you got knocked out of your shoes? We were We
10:09
Speaker 1: were walking alongside the roadway and the impact caused us
10:15
Speaker 1: to come out of our shoes as we were walking.
10:18
Speaker 1: So Katie was knocked out of her shoes and I
10:20
Speaker 1: was knocked out of my shoes. She was sent approximately
10:23
Speaker 1: seventy feet and I was sent around seventy feet as
10:28
Speaker 1: well into the golf course. Take a listen, everybody to
10:32
Speaker 1: our friends. Dan Smith, DPS says Tuesday morning, Katie and
10:36
Speaker 1: her husband John were walking in their neighborhood on Glenwood
10:40
Speaker 1: Drive north of Dennison when they were hit by a
10:43
Speaker 1: pickup truck. John Palmer was taken to a local hospital
10:46
Speaker 1: and troopers say he is expected to survive. Katie was
10:50
Speaker 1: flown to a Plano hospital and passed away just before
10:53
Speaker 1: one Wednesday morning, a young person that this may such
10:56
Speaker 1: an impact on so many people and would have continued
10:59
Speaker 1: to do so had she lived. Had this guy Corey
11:03
Speaker 1: Foster point six breathalyzer le cops could still smell the
11:09
Speaker 1: booze on him as he changed his story from one
11:13
Speaker 1: thing to the next to the next, mowed them down
11:16
Speaker 1: from behind. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, John Palmer, you
11:38
Speaker 1: were knocked out of your shoes along with Katie. What
11:43
Speaker 1: happened next? So I was hit and I could see
11:48
Speaker 1: Teri's truck, his four f two fifty. Seemed like we
11:51
Speaker 1: were going about the same speed. And I hit the
11:55
Speaker 1: ground and rolled tried to get up. I couldn't get up.
12:02
Speaker 1: I felt like I had a ratchet around my my
12:04
Speaker 1: torso that was tightly. Couldn't stand up. And that's when
12:10
Speaker 1: I looked over and I saw Kate, Katie was She
12:16
Speaker 1: was resting on her left elbow and she was looking
12:20
Speaker 1: in my general direction, but looking over me, and she
12:24
Speaker 1: let out this um this this moan had a lot
12:31
Speaker 1: of pain in it. And I tried to get up,
12:36
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I started to yell for somebody to call
12:40
Speaker 1: the police, to call the cops. That's when I heard
12:44
Speaker 1: Cory Foster identify me by name, and he said something
12:49
Speaker 1: to the effect of, I'm sorry, John, I didn't know
12:50
Speaker 1: as you I couldn't see. Um. I'm crawling over to
12:56
Speaker 1: my wife because I can't stand up. I can't get
12:59
Speaker 1: up and get over to her fast enough. So I'm
13:01
Speaker 1: crawling over to her, and I'm yelling for somebody to
13:04
Speaker 1: call the police, to call the cops. I get over
13:07
Speaker 1: to Katie. I lay her down on her back, Um,
13:12
Speaker 1: this grace, and I saw that she wasn't breathing, and
13:15
Speaker 1: I was begging for her to breathe. UM. I just
13:19
Speaker 1: thought if she could only breathe, then everything was going
13:22
Speaker 1: to be fine. Um. And then she let out this
13:26
Speaker 1: gas for air, and I thought everything was going to
13:30
Speaker 1: be fine. And then she started to take breath, short, labored,
13:35
Speaker 1: shallow breaths, about every ten to fifteen seconds. At that point,
13:41
Speaker 1: a neighbor of ours had stopped. I had asked Corey
13:45
Speaker 1: what had happened, and she ran over and sat next
13:49
Speaker 1: next to us, and she was a very calming voice. UM.
13:52
Speaker 1: You know, we both were telling Katie to um. You
13:55
Speaker 1: know that she that she was going to make and
13:56
Speaker 1: everything was going to be fine, and That's when I
13:59
Speaker 1: saw that. Um. She she wasn't blinking her her eyes
14:04
Speaker 1: were fixed, they were staring straight up in the sky.
14:07
Speaker 1: And then I went from begging her to breathe to
14:12
Speaker 1: begging her to blink, UM, and she just didn't. And
14:18
Speaker 1: then UM, fairly quickly we started to hear sirens in
14:22
Speaker 1: the background. UM, I would stay. Within a reasonable amount
14:29
Speaker 1: of time, firefighters and e MS showed up on scene.
14:36
Speaker 1: They immediately started to care for Katie. UM. I saw
14:42
Speaker 1: I heard them talking about a helicopter and then they
14:45
Speaker 1: asked me if I had gotten hit, and I told
14:47
Speaker 1: them that I did. They loaded me up on a
14:50
Speaker 1: gurney put me in the back of an ambulance. That's
14:55
Speaker 1: the last time that I that I saw Katie that day. U.
15:00
Speaker 1: She was flown by a medical Evac helicopter to a
15:05
Speaker 1: trauma center in Plano, Texas, approximately sixty to seventy miles away,
15:09
Speaker 1: and I was driven to the local hospital and put
15:13
Speaker 1: in the IC. John, when did you learn Katie had died? Um?
15:23
Speaker 1: I'm to apologize if I get emotional, so I couldn't
15:32
Speaker 1: get any answers that day. Pardon me. You know, very
15:36
Speaker 1: shortly after what happened I kept on asking if anybody
15:38
Speaker 1: had any information on Katie, and no, no one did.
15:45
Speaker 1: I had gotten a call from a relative that had
15:49
Speaker 1: told me that she wasn't gonna make it. Told me
15:57
Speaker 1: that that the doctor said that there was nothing, that
16:03
Speaker 1: they could do nothing, And those are those are hard
16:12
Speaker 1: words for anybody to hear. M that's somebody that you
16:17
Speaker 1: love at your soulmate, your wife, mother of your children,
16:22
Speaker 1: somebody that you're going to spend the rest of your
16:24
Speaker 1: life with. It's not going to make it. Um. So
16:31
Speaker 1: I knew hours after that we were going to be
16:39
Speaker 1: without Katie. And then I got a phone call after
16:42
Speaker 1: I believe there was a doctor. They had to wait
16:44
Speaker 1: for um doctor to perform tests to verify that she
16:49
Speaker 1: was in fact brain dead, and that occurred the next morning.
16:54
Speaker 1: At one in the morning, I got a phone call
16:56
Speaker 1: from the trauma hospital stating that they had run tests
16:59
Speaker 1: and um Katie was in fact Brandon and that's what
17:03
Speaker 1: they and that's what they declared her bed. Yes name John.
17:09
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what you've been through and what your
17:15
Speaker 1: boy and girl are going through. I also cannot imagine
17:21
Speaker 1: what it must have been like to be and I
17:25
Speaker 1: see you yourself and not be able to get to her.
17:29
Speaker 1: That was that was one of the hardest things. Um.
17:36
Speaker 1: My kids were taken to Plano to go say goodbye
17:41
Speaker 1: to their mom, and I was sixty seventy miles away
17:46
Speaker 1: in the hospital bed. Um, I couldn't be there for
17:48
Speaker 1: them on the first day of their implife. No child
17:55
Speaker 1: should have to go through that. And you know, as
17:58
Speaker 1: a parent, you want to be there for your children.
18:03
Speaker 1: And it was very hard beating sixty to seventy miles
18:07
Speaker 1: away while my kid said goodbye to their mom. Guys,
18:12
Speaker 1: you are hearing Katie's husband, John Palmer, who had his
18:18
Speaker 1: back broken that day when he couldn't stand up to
18:21
Speaker 1: get to his wife, he crawled to her to try
18:25
Speaker 1: to keep her alive. Then he had to lay in
18:29
Speaker 1: a hospital bed in ice you while his children were
18:33
Speaker 1: taken to Plano, Texas to say goodbye to their mother.
18:41
Speaker 1: I want you to hear Trooper Tarif al Khatib talking
18:49
Speaker 1: to the driver Corey Foster. Oh I didn't sell an alcohol?
19:03
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I had. I had a couple
19:06
Speaker 1: of reekis last night, m but about six o'clock save
19:11
Speaker 1: seven o'clock. Yeah, that was a laking. She had. I
19:16
Speaker 1: mean I went to bed early. Okay, ump, So you
19:21
Speaker 1: hadn't helped me last yesterday. I mean, honestly, I don't know, okay, okay,
19:30
Speaker 1: I mean I wasn't about what time. I many I
19:32
Speaker 1: was up and down. My daughter has been running fever,
19:34
Speaker 1: so yeah, I meant I was up and down. Oh oh,
19:37
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm smelling it pretty strong coming from the
19:40
Speaker 1: red today. Is why I'm asking how late did you? God,
19:44
Speaker 1: I late you got your laughing. I was just taking
19:46
Speaker 1: a clock from uh huh. And the trooper goes on
19:49
Speaker 1: to say, I'm smelling it pretty strong coming from your
19:52
Speaker 1: breath today, which is why I'm asking how late did
19:57
Speaker 1: you stop? Quote I'm smelling it pretty strong coming from
20:01
Speaker 1: your breath today, And the guy Foster says, well, really, honestly,
20:09
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can tell you this. Everybody knows
20:12
Speaker 1: I'm a teetotaler, but I can tell you the very
20:15
Speaker 1: last time I had a drink. I want you to
20:18
Speaker 1: now take a listen to the troopers talking on the scene.
20:21
Speaker 1: What do you here? We can do him my name
20:26
Speaker 1: on the other too. That's her head right here. Yeah,
20:34
Speaker 1: I just think you're gonna be bending back like that
20:37
Speaker 1: there's nothing. I understand what happened to radar take um
20:43
Speaker 1: but they were on this side walking against traffic, but
20:46
Speaker 1: his windshields kind of fogged up, you know, and then
20:49
Speaker 1: he's going towards the sun and he said, I thought
20:51
Speaker 1: I hit a telephone call. How are you getting so?
20:54
Speaker 1: He said, he hit him hard? So didn't you brought
20:58
Speaker 1: me on that? Two things strike me right there, John Palmer,
21:05
Speaker 1: Katie's husband with me right now. He hit you and
21:08
Speaker 1: Katie so hard. Was such an impact. He thought he
21:13
Speaker 1: had hit a telephone pole. And I am also hearing, Oh,
21:18
Speaker 1: my window was fogged up. Oh I was driving in
21:21
Speaker 1: the sun. I'm already hearing different reasons why he couldn't see.
21:26
Speaker 1: He can't say when was the last drink he had.
21:30
Speaker 1: We know he was drinking whiskey into the night and
21:32
Speaker 1: he still smelled like whiskey at the time of the crash.
21:36
Speaker 1: I know he changes his story. Let me understand something.
21:40
Speaker 1: If he hit you so hard he thought he had
21:43
Speaker 1: a telephone pole, how fast are they saying he was driving? John?
21:48
Speaker 1: So they did discuss that. If you look at the
21:54
Speaker 1: body camera footage, They asked Corey Foster, truth asked Corey
21:59
Speaker 1: Foster how fast he was going and Corey Foster said
22:02
Speaker 1: fifteen miles per hour. Okay, well that's BS, which lie
22:06
Speaker 1: right there. That is another lie of course, of course
22:08
Speaker 1: that his story is riddled with with with lives. So
22:13
Speaker 1: the troopers were discussing that. They were discussing a conversation
22:17
Speaker 1: that Terif had with Corey. Camera one of the troopers
22:21
Speaker 1: laughed um and said, bs, he was going fifty and
22:27
Speaker 1: they all laughed and agreed that he was going fifty
22:29
Speaker 1: miles per hour. They were laughing, yes, ma'am. It was
22:33
Speaker 1: a very casual demeanor during the quote investigation you're saying
22:39
Speaker 1: the troopers said at the scene, the driver Corey Foster
22:45
Speaker 1: was going fifty mph, yes, ma'am. Did they ever bring
22:49
Speaker 1: out an accent reconstructions? And were their skid marks? Did
22:52
Speaker 1: he even try to slow down? No? Man, So DPS
22:55
Speaker 1: failed at reconstructing this this accident. They didn't even um.
23:01
Speaker 1: Grayson County hired a third party firm that's that's that's
23:05
Speaker 1: a dog documentation UM to recreat the crash. They had
23:10
Speaker 1: a hard time doing so because of the horrible investigation
23:14
Speaker 1: that Trooper Tree Falconty did on sing And to answer
23:19
Speaker 1: your question with regards to where their tire marks. No,
23:23
Speaker 1: Corey Foster came to a casual stop after he hit us,
23:27
Speaker 1: so there were no break marks at all. Guys, take
23:29
Speaker 1: a listen to the troopers talking at the saying of
23:33
Speaker 1: the crash. All this is caught on their body can Yeah,
23:37
Speaker 1: he lays down our site according to rhyme that lies here.
23:40
Speaker 1: He said, Yeah, he's his dogs. We got all the times.
23:43
Speaker 1: So see I thought he was out looking for the
23:44
Speaker 1: dogs with the city. He drinks all the time. Oh yeah,
23:47
Speaker 1: he said, Sunday mornings and o'clocke your craft over. Yeah,
23:51
Speaker 1: well that's what I'm wanting to know. What's in this
23:52
Speaker 1: jurne craft here that's sitting in the mood I can
23:57
Speaker 1: unlock it. Let me. I'm gonna get you the King
23:59
Speaker 1: David where you can start getting stuff into whatever. Did
24:03
Speaker 1: they analyze the drink? John, What was he drinking? We
24:07
Speaker 1: will never know. Um. I believe out the team smelled
24:12
Speaker 1: the cup and then handed it right back to Foster,
24:14
Speaker 1: so that was not taken in as evidence and that
24:16
Speaker 1: was not tested for um any type of alcohol at all. Nothing. Okay,
24:22
Speaker 1: you know what I know? He blows a point oh
24:25
Speaker 1: six I know they can smell booze on him. They're
24:29
Speaker 1: all saying, uh, Sunday morning, he'll have a beer crack
24:33
Speaker 1: to open ten am. But he's already said, let me,
24:37
Speaker 1: let me bring in. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author Red Flags,
24:41
Speaker 1: host of Today with Doctor Wendy KCBQ, author. You can
24:46
Speaker 1: find her at Wendy Patrick PhD dot com. Wendy, this
24:50
Speaker 1: guy already is driving, obviously too fast for conditions. He
24:56
Speaker 1: has been drinking. If they don't want to say he's
24:58
Speaker 1: point zero eight, fine, he's point zero six. He is impaired,
25:03
Speaker 1: and he's on the wrong side of the road. All
25:07
Speaker 1: that equals a vehicular homicide. You don't have to be drunklar,
25:12
Speaker 1: That's right, awten. The best evidence of driving under the
25:15
Speaker 1: influence is a driving, not necessarily the blood alcohol level,
25:20
Speaker 1: because think about it, someone who is under the influence
25:23
Speaker 1: is going to drive Accordingly, Reckless driving is circumstantial evidence
25:28
Speaker 1: of impairment, and this includes driving in a fashion that
25:31
Speaker 1: is not careful for the conditions. That appears to be
25:34
Speaker 1: the case here. I mean, think about a rain, sleet, snow, fog,
25:38
Speaker 1: whatever it is that makes it hard to see that
25:40
Speaker 1: requires careful driving. To do otherwise indicates impaired physical ability
25:46
Speaker 1: as well as impaired judgment. Yeah, I mean, Wendy, you
25:49
Speaker 1: don't have to What more do you need to know?
25:52
Speaker 1: The guy drives all the way on the other side
25:55
Speaker 1: of the road, going into oncoming traffic, most down to people,
26:01
Speaker 1: smells like booze? What more do I need to know?
26:04
Speaker 1: That is reckless driving? And Katie is dead. And this
26:10
Speaker 1: guy still has not been brought in front bop a jury.
26:15
Speaker 1: What is the prosecutor doing? What has he got it
26:19
Speaker 1: so straight up his rear end? Guys, you gotta hear more.
26:24
Speaker 1: You have to hear more of this. Take a listen
26:26
Speaker 1: to Trooper Tariff Katibe speaking to the supervisor on the phone.
26:32
Speaker 1: He flat out says, he goes, I can't I couldn't
26:34
Speaker 1: see which when I leave my house, I drove directly
26:38
Speaker 1: to the east and it was prior to this crash
26:40
Speaker 1: happened or after, And yeah, I couldn't see. I couldn't
26:45
Speaker 1: even see the road because I couldn't get the fog
26:48
Speaker 1: off my windshield and then the sun driving into the sun.
26:51
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, I get it he was blind,
26:53
Speaker 1: but I mean he's on the wrong side of the
26:55
Speaker 1: road too, you know, so yeah, I mean, yeah, that's it.
27:10
Speaker 1: I can't believe he was that high still today he said,
27:15
Speaker 1: He's like, man, I quit drinking like at eight o'clock
27:17
Speaker 1: last night, which I'm not really buying that to be that,
27:21
Speaker 1: you know, at this time of day, Then why didn't
27:24
Speaker 1: you charge him? Why didn't go in front of a jury?
27:27
Speaker 1: Guys taking us to our cut four our friend Jen
27:30
Speaker 1: Phillips k x II, which he passed with flying colors.
27:44
Speaker 1: He even took a breathalyzer test and blew a point
27:47
Speaker 1: zero six, under the legal limit. You are legally intoxicated
27:51
Speaker 1: when your BAC reaches a point zero eight in the
27:55
Speaker 1: state of Texas. To require a blood test in order
27:58
Speaker 1: to find a driver's blow at alcohol level, you need
28:01
Speaker 1: a warrant. Since Foster passed both tests, the trooper didn't
28:09
Speaker 1: request a warrant. He blew a point oh six. Joinning
28:13
Speaker 1: right now, special guests. In addition to John Palmer, Katie's
28:16
Speaker 1: husband Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor Alex Oddie is with us,
28:21
Speaker 1: the president of Mad Mother's Against Drunk Driving. Alex, I've
28:27
Speaker 1: got a point six I've got him flying into the
28:32
Speaker 1: wrong lane, claiming he couldn't see smelling like booze. What
28:39
Speaker 1: why aren't they prosecuting this case. Well, first, I just
28:42
Speaker 1: want to say, mister Palmer, I'm so very sorry for
28:45
Speaker 1: your loss, but you're right. You know what we're looking
28:48
Speaker 1: at is we are focused on whether or not someone
28:51
Speaker 1: is safetop rate of vible. He may not have been.
28:54
Speaker 1: At a point oh eight. We could not tell that
28:56
Speaker 1: he was impaired, and so he was safe to operate
29:01
Speaker 1: that vehicle, and it costs Katie her life, and that
29:03
Speaker 1: is so devastating. We have a problem across the country,
29:07
Speaker 1: but Texas is really in trouble with the drastic increases
29:11
Speaker 1: in UI desk just since twenty nineteen, almost eighteen percent increase.
29:16
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, we can do.
29:20
Speaker 1: Now take a listen to our cut eight our friend
29:23
Speaker 1: Dave Mack at crime Online, just four months after his
29:27
Speaker 1: wife was killed and he was left with a broken back.
29:30
Speaker 1: John Palmer testified in front of a Gracing County grand
29:33
Speaker 1: jury that will decide if Corey Foster will face trial
29:36
Speaker 1: for manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Talking about Corey Foster,
29:40
Speaker 1: John Palmer said, quote his own words were that he
29:43
Speaker 1: stayed up drinking whiskey the night before. He also told
29:47
Speaker 1: DPS officers that he probably shouldn't have been driving because
29:50
Speaker 1: of the condensation. After three hours of testimony, in just
29:54
Speaker 1: one hour of deliberation, the jury declined to indict Foster.
29:57
Speaker 1: You know, I can't help, but wonder what evidence was
30:00
Speaker 1: put in front of that grand jury. Did they know
30:03
Speaker 1: he blew a point six on a breadthalyzer? Because in Texas,
30:07
Speaker 1: a field administered breadthalyzer is inadmissible in court and can
30:12
Speaker 1: only be used for past fail evidence for further testing.
30:18
Speaker 1: Nobody did any further testing. When this was taken to
30:22
Speaker 1: the grand jury the first time this misgrace, there were
30:28
Speaker 1: again there's supposed to be twelve jurors in the grand jury,
30:32
Speaker 1: we only had ten. One person was sick. One person
30:35
Speaker 1: accused himself. When I asked the prosecutor carry Ashmore where
30:41
Speaker 1: the alternates were, he shrugged his shoulders and said he
30:44
Speaker 1: didn't know. This was presented again to nine partments attendance
30:48
Speaker 1: to the twelve. The accident reconstruction firm had completed pardon me.
30:58
Speaker 1: Their report was completed six days after the Green jury,
31:03
Speaker 1: so the Green jury was not given a finalized reconstruction
31:08
Speaker 1: report at all. In addition, the district attorney told me
31:13
Speaker 1: that they would subpoena foster cell phone records and look
31:17
Speaker 1: to see if there was distracted driving. Okay, none of
31:20
Speaker 1: those were done. It was only eighteen months later through
31:24
Speaker 1: civil discovery that we obtained his phone records his grace
31:30
Speaker 1: and found that he was in the middle of downing
31:33
Speaker 1: a call as he hit us. So if you stack
31:37
Speaker 1: everything up, if you stack them was his driving was
31:43
Speaker 1: visibly impaired. And he makes that statement that his windshield
31:47
Speaker 1: he couldn't see as soon as he left his driveway,
31:48
Speaker 1: which is three tenth of mile away from where we
31:51
Speaker 1: were hit. The cognitive impairment of the alcohol in this system,
31:56
Speaker 1: and again he blew a point in zero six fifty
31:58
Speaker 1: minutes after he hit us, Okay, so probably very close
32:03
Speaker 1: to a point zero eight. Also, he was manually dialing
32:07
Speaker 1: a number as he crossed over the roadway. So we
32:14
Speaker 1: got these phone records. We submitted those two the disc
32:19
Speaker 1: attorney's office. They reviewed them, and at this point we
32:23
Speaker 1: had a very contentious relationship with the disc attorney's office.
32:26
Speaker 1: As you could imagine, we had submitted those records to
32:33
Speaker 1: the Day's office and they said they would review him,
32:36
Speaker 1: and I got a phone call approximate. Well, I mean,
32:39
Speaker 1: I've got got a phone call one Monday at four
32:42
Speaker 1: thirty pm from Kerry Ashmore saying that they were going
32:46
Speaker 1: to take the phone records in front of the grand
32:47
Speaker 1: jury and set the grand jury wanted to move forward. Okay.
32:52
Speaker 1: That caught me off guard and I asked if I
32:55
Speaker 1: was going to be allowed to testify in front of
32:57
Speaker 1: this new grand jury. He said no, they were going
32:59
Speaker 1: to take the phone records in front of the grand
33:01
Speaker 1: jury and if the Grain jury wanted any additional information
33:04
Speaker 1: or evidence, then they would provide them with that. The
33:07
Speaker 1: phone call ended, Miss Race that that that didn't seem right.
33:13
Speaker 1: I tried to contact them again numerous times and it
33:18
Speaker 1: wouldn't take my call, so I had to text carry Ashmore,
33:22
Speaker 1: and through our text exchange, I basically ended the text
33:27
Speaker 1: by stating that if he wasn't going to allow us
33:30
Speaker 1: to testify in front of the Grain jury and have
33:34
Speaker 1: the witnesses, being the experts, that one third party that
33:38
Speaker 1: did the crash recreation and DPS back up there and
33:42
Speaker 1: show them the report, show them the cell phone records
33:45
Speaker 1: and show them everything that they did in the first
33:47
Speaker 1: grand jury, then I don't want him to move forward.
33:53
Speaker 1: Did not get a call back. He is and also,
33:57
Speaker 1: Miss Grace, I want to make sure you're aware that
34:00
Speaker 1: Bret Smith also acted as a defense attorney for the
34:03
Speaker 1: Foster family prior to be the elected BA He represented So, yes,
34:16
Speaker 1: ma'am he so Corey fostered his wife for driving late
34:21
Speaker 1: one night. The wife was driving, she was impaired, she
34:25
Speaker 1: was pulled over, She was charged with the DWI and
34:29
Speaker 1: Corey Foster was charged with public intoxication and their defense
34:33
Speaker 1: attorney was Bret Smith. That was never disclosed to us.
34:36
Speaker 1: We had to find that out on our own. Also,
34:41
Speaker 1: Bret Smith is related to the Trooper five marriage. Man,
34:47
Speaker 1: I tell you what, I just the feeling, the feeling
34:51
Speaker 1: of helplessness is overwhelming. Nothing is being done to avenge
34:59
Speaker 1: Katie his death. I mean, John, what are your what
35:03
Speaker 1: do your children say? When? When? When my children asked me? Why? Um?
35:08
Speaker 1: You know? Why Why is this man still still driving?
35:12
Speaker 1: Why has he not been held accountable? UM? That's Grace.
35:16
Speaker 1: What do I What do I tell him? What do
35:20
Speaker 1: I tell them? Um? Our system failed us and has
35:25
Speaker 1: continued to fail us by not holding courting Foster account.
35:44
Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, I want you to
35:51
Speaker 1: take a Listen to our cut five. This is Jen
35:54
Speaker 1: Phillips k XII. A breathalyzer test taken in the field
35:58
Speaker 1: is inadmissible in court and can only be used as
36:00
Speaker 1: a pass fail for further testing. Listen to this phone
36:03
Speaker 1: call he makes to a supervisor while on scene. I
36:06
Speaker 1: can't believe he was that ha still today he said,
36:10
Speaker 1: he's like, man, I quit drinking, like I hate o'clock
36:13
Speaker 1: last night. Even still, the trooper was not satisfied. Oh yeah,
36:18
Speaker 1: he said, Sunday morning to the coffee a beer bredday.
36:21
Speaker 1: Within an hour of arriving on the scene, the trooper
36:24
Speaker 1: drove Foster home. Okay, right there, Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor,
36:33
Speaker 1: Why did they drive him home? And said to the
36:35
Speaker 1: hospital to get a blood test. I would love to
36:37
Speaker 1: know the answer to that question, because that would be
36:39
Speaker 1: the logical next step, not just given the fact that
36:42
Speaker 1: he's below the limit, but the driving is such strong,
36:45
Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence of impairment you would want to know more. Yet,
36:49
Speaker 1: and you pair that with not only his admission of
36:52
Speaker 1: drinking whiskey, but the fact that it was still smell
36:55
Speaker 1: is still smelled it on its breath the next day.
36:57
Speaker 1: That is not normal over time, that and that one
37:00
Speaker 1: goes away. You know, that's part of common knowledge. So
37:03
Speaker 1: that would be part of why we would want to
37:06
Speaker 1: know the decision that they made, why home instead of
37:09
Speaker 1: the hospital They need to seek a warrant. Great, but
37:11
Speaker 1: that could have been the next step. Joining me right now.
37:13
Speaker 1: Joe Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of
37:18
Speaker 1: Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, star of a Brandy
37:21
Speaker 1: hit series Body Bags, with Joe Scott Morgan on iHeart
37:25
Speaker 1: and Beyond Joe Scott, this is so much bs. The
37:31
Speaker 1: guy is a point oh six. We don't know what
37:34
Speaker 1: his blood was because they drove him home and so
37:38
Speaker 1: to the hospital where they should have taken him. I
37:40
Speaker 1: don't know why this guy, Corey Foster got special treatment
37:44
Speaker 1: with John Palmer lying on the side of the road
37:46
Speaker 1: with a broken back and his wife Katie dead, their
37:49
Speaker 1: two children asleep at home. I don't get it. Explain
37:53
Speaker 1: to me. The point six, yeah, point of six is.
37:56
Speaker 1: In Texas legal limit for being enebriated for driving is
38:03
Speaker 1: point zero eight and he was under that limit according
38:08
Speaker 1: to the breathalyzer. But here's here's the problem. You don't
38:11
Speaker 1: know how much time has elapsed since Heath last took
38:17
Speaker 1: a drink. And what's going on chemically in anybody's body
38:22
Speaker 1: is that you're metabolizing the alcohol, so you're burning it off.
38:26
Speaker 1: And so the longer you wait, the longer you go
38:28
Speaker 1: down this continuum from that moment time when the fatal
38:32
Speaker 1: event occurred, when this vehicular homicide occurred, you're bleeding off.
38:39
Speaker 1: You're bleeding off this alcohol level that's in his system.
38:43
Speaker 1: And I've got a bigger problem with this, Nancy, than
38:46
Speaker 1: simply the breathalyzer result. Here's the problem. You've got two people.
38:52
Speaker 1: One is unfortunately deceased. You've got John who's laid up
38:56
Speaker 1: in the hospital with broken back, and it seems and
39:00
Speaker 1: so this would have warranted taking this individual into a
39:03
Speaker 1: hospital to do a blood draw, because not only are
39:06
Speaker 1: you looking for blood alcohol content in that sample, but
39:12
Speaker 1: the hospital will do something that's called you guys can
39:15
Speaker 1: look this up, but it's called a standard panel. And
39:19
Speaker 1: standard panel when you roll into the er is they're
39:22
Speaker 1: looking for any other substances in his system, Drugs, drugs,
39:28
Speaker 1: just say it. They're looking for pots for any kind
39:30
Speaker 1: of drug, for alcohol. Who knows what he was high
39:33
Speaker 1: on that wouldn't show up. And here's the problem. Once
39:39
Speaker 1: it's gone, it's gone. It's just like John had mentioned
39:41
Speaker 1: a moment ago, and I was, you know, as an investigator,
39:43
Speaker 1: I was just really struck by this. You know, criminals
39:46
Speaker 1: are going to do what criminals are going to do.
39:48
Speaker 1: But you know, there's a certain level of accountability that
39:51
Speaker 1: comes in when you're talking about vps and you're talking
39:53
Speaker 1: about the courts, and right now they have missed the
39:56
Speaker 1: mark on this case. And guys, we are talking about
39:59
Speaker 1: a beautiful young mom walking by the side of the
40:03
Speaker 1: road with her husband on a Sunday morning when suddenly
40:07
Speaker 1: a guy comes across the traffic to their side and
40:11
Speaker 1: mows them both down with such impact he thinks he
40:14
Speaker 1: hit I telephone, Paul. Now, let me tell you something
40:17
Speaker 1: else about grand juries, Wendy Patrick. That's one of the
40:22
Speaker 1: first things my boss, the longest serving DA in the
40:26
Speaker 1: country at that time, how to his young prosecutors learn
40:30
Speaker 1: you put up evidence to the grand jury. If you
40:33
Speaker 1: want them to indict, you put up the right evidence.
40:37
Speaker 1: If you don't want them to indict, which never happened
40:40
Speaker 1: to me. Of course you don't. Now there was a
40:45
Speaker 1: great trial lawyer named Erming Younger and he told he
40:48
Speaker 1: made this famous. A prosecutor can get a grand jury
40:52
Speaker 1: to indict a ham sandwich if they want to. And
40:56
Speaker 1: I argued till I was blue in the face. But
40:58
Speaker 1: I am telling you something is wrong here because the
41:03
Speaker 1: fact that we have just laid out should have been
41:06
Speaker 1: a vehicular homicide indictment. He doesn't have to be point
41:11
Speaker 1: zero eight. What he did was reckless, was a malignant heart.
41:17
Speaker 1: As we say in the law, Why has it this
41:20
Speaker 1: been charged? It's gotta be because that's what the projectutor wants. Well,
41:25
Speaker 1: when you look at what the grand jury did, you
41:27
Speaker 1: have to ask what evidence did they have? Exactly says
41:30
Speaker 1: we've all been talking about. They only can work with
41:33
Speaker 1: what was presented to them. So if there wasn't accident reconstruction,
41:37
Speaker 1: we don't have that ability to talk about how fast
41:39
Speaker 1: he was going, although circumstantial. That keep coming back to
41:43
Speaker 1: the you know what happened knocking someone out of their
41:46
Speaker 1: shoes to or that they fly seventy feet. I mean,
41:49
Speaker 1: you can imagine, probably don't need accident reconstruction to figure
41:53
Speaker 1: out how hard that was and just go back to
41:56
Speaker 1: that criminal negligence recklessness in a case like this, that's
42:00
Speaker 1: what they would be arguing. But it doesn't sound like
42:02
Speaker 1: the grand jury had that evidence. Doctor Angela Arnold joining
42:05
Speaker 1: me renowned psychiatrists out of Atlanta at Angela Arnold MD
42:09
Speaker 1: dot com, way Y and Angie. I'll tell you one
42:11
Speaker 1: of the most disturbing things to me that I've heard
42:13
Speaker 1: and listening to this was the lack of any kind
42:16
Speaker 1: of remorse in the voice of the man who perpetrated
42:21
Speaker 1: this crime. When none whatsoever, no remorse. I mean, he
42:25
Speaker 1: was just it was like he was standing there just
42:26
Speaker 1: trying to take up for himself. Well I couldn't see
42:29
Speaker 1: he just killed somebody. He might have killed two people,
42:34
Speaker 1: and he had ever complaint, lack of remorse, no remorse
42:38
Speaker 1: right like he didn't know what he had done yet. Guys,
42:41
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut thirteen, our friend Lauren Rangel.
42:45
Speaker 1: No words can describe the feeling that our family. It's
42:55
Speaker 1: been over a year since his wife's death. John Palmer
42:58
Speaker 1: says he hopes this footage will be new evidence that
43:01
Speaker 1: could go before a grand jury and help with the
43:03
Speaker 1: case against Corey Foster. What footage are you talking about,
43:07
Speaker 1: John Palmer So, Miss ms Grace. When we had originally
43:10
Speaker 1: got all this information from DPS through fully requests, we
43:16
Speaker 1: had only been given true falkative's body cam in his
43:20
Speaker 1: dash cam. We did not receive any of the other
43:24
Speaker 1: troopers body cameras. That came almost a year and a
43:29
Speaker 1: half later when we had to request that again. Then
43:33
Speaker 1: we were allowed to have that body camera footage. It
43:36
Speaker 1: seems to me like the grand jury did not see
43:39
Speaker 1: all of the evidence that we have even here at
43:43
Speaker 1: Crime Stories. And let me also point out that in
43:46
Speaker 1: nearly every jurisdiction in our country, you don't have to
43:50
Speaker 1: have a grand jury to bring down an indictment. There
43:56
Speaker 1: are other ways to charge someone other than with a
44:00
Speaker 1: grand jury. But I believe if a grand jury heard
44:02
Speaker 1: all the evidence that we're hearing today that does exist,
44:06
Speaker 1: that there would be an indictment, and it doesn't have
44:09
Speaker 1: to be for DUI vehicular hymns manslaughter. There are many
44:15
Speaker 1: other ways this case can be prosecuted and justice can
44:19
Speaker 1: be sought, not just for Katie, not just for John,
44:23
Speaker 1: but for her two children that are going to grow
44:25
Speaker 1: up wondering why nobody did anything. If you feel even
44:32
Speaker 1: remotely the way I feel, or the way that John
44:37
Speaker 1: Palmer feels, or the way his children will feel when
44:41
Speaker 1: they grow up and understand we all sat by and
44:45
Speaker 1: did nothing. I ask you don't just sit there and
44:50
Speaker 1: think about it. Do something. You can reach the District Attorney,
44:55
Speaker 1: Brett Smith, Brett Smith his number nine zero three eight
45:05
Speaker 1: one three four three six one repeat nine zero three
45:11
Speaker 1: eight one three four three six one now in that
45:17
Speaker 1: line Jams. You can reach his assistant at Williams s
45:24
Speaker 1: at CO dot Grayson dot Texas dot US Williams s
45:32
Speaker 1: at CEO dot Grayson dot tx dot U S. John Palmer,
45:43
Speaker 1: what is your message today, Miss Grace. I just want
45:48
Speaker 1: victims to know that they have a voice. I want
45:51
Speaker 1: them to know that it's okay to stand up. Um.
45:57
Speaker 1: We will continue to fight for Katie. We will continue
45:59
Speaker 1: to fight against this injustice. We will continue to make
46:03
Speaker 1: sure that those that have continued this injustice will be
46:08
Speaker 1: held accountable. When you wake up in the morning or
46:12
Speaker 1: will you go to bed at night, what feeling comes
46:17
Speaker 1: over you when you think about Katie. Katie is the
46:23
Speaker 1: last thing I think about when I go to bed
46:26
Speaker 1: and first thing I think about when I wake up loss.
46:37
Speaker 1: We were robbed of the future together, Katie and I.
46:41
Speaker 1: My children were robbed of the future with their mother.
46:46
Speaker 1: This community lost a very strong, smart woman that made
46:55
Speaker 1: a difference and would have continued to make a difference.
47:00
Speaker 1: You know, you just said that you want victims to
47:04
Speaker 1: know that they have a voice. Well, right now, thanks
47:09
Speaker 1: to the Grayson County, Texas District Attorney, Brett Smith, it
47:15
Speaker 1: doesn't feel that way. It doesn't feel like we have
47:18
Speaker 1: a voice at all. No, ma'am, no, ma'am. All we've
47:23
Speaker 1: asked for was was justice. Injustice for us would have
47:27
Speaker 1: been Corty Foster to stand trial in a criminal court,
47:33
Speaker 1: and that hasn't happened. And you know what, John, if
47:38
Speaker 1: some pettit jury, which a jury of twelve, decided to
47:41
Speaker 1: let him go, I won't like it, but so be it.
47:46
Speaker 1: But at least at least somebody had the backbone to
47:52
Speaker 1: take this case to trial and at least try to
47:59
Speaker 1: get a true verdict. That is all we are asking.
48:03
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, with John Palmer signing off goodbye, that