Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Nursing Student Laken Riley beaten viciously, skull crushed: SUSPECT MAKES DEMANDS

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Nursing Student Laken Riley beaten viciously, skull crushed: SUSPECT MAKES DEMANDS · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:06
Speaker 2: A beautiful young nursing student, Lake and Riley, just twenty
0:11
Speaker 2: two years old, beaten so viciously, her skull is actually disfigured. Tonight,
0:22
Speaker 2: the suspect makes demands. Yes, the suspect makes demands. I'm
0:31
Speaker 2: Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being
0:34
Speaker 2: with us. A young nursing student goes for her routine
0:38
Speaker 2: morning jog around campus but never returns. It's so hard
0:44
Speaker 2: to imagine that this beautiful young nursing student, dedicating her
0:49
Speaker 2: life to helping others and the prime of her life,
0:53
Speaker 2: just twenty two years old, goes out for a jog
0:57
Speaker 2: and then ends up beaten so viciously, her skull is disfigured.
1:04
Speaker 1: What more do we know? Listen, she was.
1:07
Speaker 3: Found right next to a lake, next to the intermural fields.
1:10
Speaker 3: And my son is a sophomore at the University of Georgia.
1:14
Speaker 1: He actually parks there at the intermural fields.
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Speaker 3: And so around this lake is a pretty it's a
1:19
Speaker 3: pretty normal place for students, for people in the community
1:23
Speaker 3: of Athens, Georgia, to run around. And this was on
1:26
Speaker 3: a Thursday morning, you right in the middle of the week,
1:29
Speaker 3: nice weather, there at Lake Herrick and as the you know,
1:34
Speaker 3: Uga police chief was talking about and he says, he
1:37
Speaker 3: called this a crime of opportunity. So she went there running,
1:40
Speaker 3: we assume by herself.
1:42
Speaker 2: You're hearing our friend anchor, investigative reporter Jason Dennis, WTVM.
1:48
Speaker 1: And w X t X.
1:50
Speaker 2: Why is it that there is an epidemic of young
1:54
Speaker 2: female joggers ending up dead?
1:58
Speaker 1: What about Molly Timmyts? Do you remember that name? I do,
2:03
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it.
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Speaker 4: Listen, College student Mally Tibbets goes out for a jog
2:07
Speaker 4: in Brooklyn, Iowa. Police say on a country road, Christian
2:10
Speaker 4: Rivera sees Molly Tibbets out for her run, gets out
2:13
Speaker 4: of his car and runs alongside Molly.
2:15
Speaker 2: Okay, what about Eliza Fletcher in Memphis?
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Speaker 1: Remember that name?
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Speaker 4: Just a for four am? Eliza Fletcher is off on
2:22
Speaker 4: her regular early morning jog. The married mother of two
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Speaker 4: kindergarten teacher is an avid runner with times good enough
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Speaker 4: to qualify for the Boston Marathon. When Fletcher doesn't return
2:31
Speaker 4: home from her run, panic sets in. Her husband calls police.
2:34
Speaker 4: Surveillance video shows around four thirty am, while she jogs,
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Speaker 4: she's approached by someone who forces her into a dark
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Speaker 4: colored suv and drives off.
2:43
Speaker 1: Joining me from the field.
2:45
Speaker 2: Cheryl McCollum, founder of the Cold Case Research Institute, forensic
2:49
Speaker 2: expert and star of Zone seven. Cheryl McCollum does it
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Speaker 2: never and Lake and Riley minding her own business, trying
3:00
Speaker 2: to become a nurse like the nurse that saves my twins'
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Speaker 2: lives in Nick, You she can't even take a job
3:09
Speaker 2: on a campus where you think everything is safe. Her
3:14
Speaker 2: skull is bashed in and tonight the suspect, the chief suspect,
3:20
Speaker 2: is making his own demands. But can we get back
3:25
Speaker 2: to the epidemic of attacks on female joggers, Nancy.
3:29
Speaker 5: It seems to be part of the plan to attack
3:33
Speaker 5: these folks while they're jogging at the end of a jog,
3:37
Speaker 5: meaning they're tired, they're fatigued. They're not going to be
3:41
Speaker 5: able to put up a fight like they would if
3:44
Speaker 5: they had not already been exercising. If you look at
3:47
Speaker 5: where lake Len Riley ended up, that's at the top
3:51
Speaker 5: of a just major heel, so she was quite possibly
3:56
Speaker 5: extremely fatigued, even though we know he did fight that well, Cheryl.
4:02
Speaker 1: I disagree completely.
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Speaker 2: You say this is part of a plan, which means
4:07
Speaker 2: a thought out plan. I think they're no better than
4:13
Speaker 2: a predator, an animal. Toseph Scott Morgan joining me, Professor Forensics,
4:18
Speaker 2: Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon,
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Speaker 2: star of a hit series Body Bags. That Joe Scott
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Speaker 2: Morgan goes on and on and on and on. He's
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Speaker 2: a death investigator. Okay, he's handled over ten thousand death investigations,
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Speaker 2: just like Cheryl McCollum on the street every day is
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Speaker 2: a forensic expert.
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Speaker 1: These are not just talking heads.
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Speaker 2: They know what they're talking about, like the rest of
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Speaker 2: our panel. Joe Scott, I don't think this is part
4:45
Speaker 2: of a plan. He's going to think, oh, okay, I'll
4:48
Speaker 2: let her run twenty five minutes, then I'll try to
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Speaker 2: rape and beater skull in. This is no better than
4:54
Speaker 2: a hyena on the Serengetti waiting for the gazelle to
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Speaker 2: go to the watery hole.
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Speaker 1: He attacks, no thought to it, just like an animal.
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Speaker 6: Joe Scott, I think that going to this kind of
5:09
Speaker 6: animalistic perspective, I think that the reality is is that
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Speaker 6: it's almost at a promo level where they're seeking they're hungry,
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Speaker 6: and in his case, he could only be satisfied by attacking.
5:22
Speaker 6: And so that's going to be the planning that goes in.
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Speaker 6: And it's an you know, the chief had mentioned that
5:26
Speaker 6: this is a crime of opportunity, and so he would
5:30
Speaker 6: have been familiar with this area where he could track
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Speaker 6: this poor young lady and watch for that Opportunity's familiar
5:36
Speaker 6: with the landscape, the topography that Mac just mentioned relative
5:40
Speaker 6: to the grade out there moving about and where can
5:43
Speaker 6: you be secluded. So there has to be a few
5:47
Speaker 6: points to these elements that are involved so that he
5:50
Speaker 6: can successfully get away with this, and he almost did.
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Speaker 2: Nancy Animals, complete animals, and you know, back to you,
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Speaker 2: Cheryl McCollum, a long time colleague and the director of
6:01
Speaker 2: the Cold Case Research Institute. You know where I was
6:05
Speaker 2: this entire weekend this past weekend. I was out looking
6:09
Speaker 2: at colleges and universities for my children, John, David and
6:14
Speaker 2: Lucy Lynch and every place that Lucy liked. She's just
6:21
Speaker 2: a tiny little bitty thing.
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Speaker 1: All I could think about.
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Speaker 2: I looked down each alleyway and each walkway, and they'd
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Speaker 2: be beautiful with live oaks and blah, blah blah. Oh,
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Speaker 2: I could think about it's Lincoln Riley and my girl.
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Speaker 2: I mean, what do we have to do to stop
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Speaker 2: people like this guy.
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Speaker 5: One of the main things that stuck out for me
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Speaker 5: when I walked this scene and you sent me to
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Speaker 5: Athens was Lakeland did everything right, and so did her roommate.
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Speaker 5: It was broad daylight, there were people all around. She
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Speaker 5: parked at a known place with the band practices. Was
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Speaker 5: not alone there. Even when I was there days after
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Speaker 5: this murder, there were people jogging and hiking and in
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Speaker 5: kayaks in the pond and late. This was not a
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Speaker 5: place that was secluded and way off the beaten path
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Speaker 5: where she took a great risk. There was only a
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Speaker 5: small portion of this entire place where you were, you know,
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Speaker 5: had woods all around you, and where he could drag
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Speaker 5: her off of the pathway there into the woods and as.
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Speaker 1: The crow flies.
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Speaker 5: If you are where her body was found, it is
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Speaker 5: a straight shot to his apartment. And I'm going to
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Speaker 5: tell you again he picked this spot. He knew somebody,
7:41
Speaker 5: some unsuspected victim, was going to come.
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Speaker 1: By my place.
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Speaker 2: You're giving him so much credits, total bs.
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Speaker 1: He didn't pick anything.
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Speaker 2: He probably waited until she was near some trees, put
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Speaker 2: no more thought into it than that hyena out on
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Speaker 2: the serengetti, and then tried to rape her and beat.
8:00
Speaker 1: Her skull in to you.
8:02
Speaker 2: You know Andrew Stoltman joining US, high profile Chicago lawyer.
8:07
Speaker 2: He's an adjunct law professor at Northwestern. That's not shabby.
8:11
Speaker 2: You know how hard it is to get into Northwestern University.
8:14
Speaker 2: Co author of the book Waging War on Wall Street. Okay,
8:21
Speaker 2: I respect that, but you go on and get after
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Speaker 2: those white collar criminals. Can we talk about a human
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Speaker 2: hyena right now? I'm sure you have experience in criminal
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Speaker 2: law as well.
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Speaker 1: I've read your resume very carefully.
8:36
Speaker 2: How is it the prime suspect after what we know
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Speaker 2: happened to lacn Can you imagine the roommate.
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Speaker 1: Calling her parents.
8:47
Speaker 2: Have you talked to Lacln and that feeling the mom
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Speaker 2: and dad must have gotten where they're like no. And
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Speaker 2: now he jumps up in court and is making demands
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Speaker 2: about having evidence thrown out. Do you ever just just
9:03
Speaker 2: want to shoot your foot when you're sitting in court
9:05
Speaker 2: listening to this. If I could get my hands around
9:09
Speaker 2: his neck, I'd end up on the Nancy Grace Show.
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Speaker 1: Okay, Andrew Stoltman, why does.
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Speaker 2: He think he can make demands like throwing out evidence?
9:18
Speaker 7: Well, I think he's seen it done successfully in other cases.
9:22
Speaker 7: I mean, think about it, Nancy, how will to defend
9:25
Speaker 7: and get around the fact that his DNA was found
9:28
Speaker 7: underneath the victim's nails?
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Speaker 1: Right, that's cataclysmic to the case.
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Speaker 7: So he has to try to get this information out
9:35
Speaker 7: because if he doesn't, he's going to spend a very
9:38
Speaker 7: long time the rest of his life in prison. And
9:41
Speaker 7: by the way, I still can't figure out why the
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Speaker 7: prosecutors aren't pursuing the death penalty in this case because
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Speaker 7: of any reprobate. If any degenerate deserves it, it's this guy.
9:57
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
10:03
Speaker 2: You know, I want to talk about the way that
10:05
Speaker 2: her body was found, but let me go along chronologically.
10:09
Speaker 2: So the roommate realizes Lacon didn't come back from jogging.
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Speaker 2: She starts making calls, where's Lacon, Where's Lincoln. Laca's not
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Speaker 2: answering her cell phone.
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Speaker 1: Now listen to this.
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Speaker 3: There was a.
10:23
Speaker 1: Jacket, and what was the significance of the jacket? Why
10:27
Speaker 1: were you why did you believe it was related?
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Speaker 8: To them because I've never sold a jacket myself, but
10:33
Speaker 8: I was told by other law enforcement officials that there
10:37
Speaker 8: was blood and I believe hair on the jacket.
10:39
Speaker 1: What's of hair Licn's hair, Laken's hair on a jacket.
10:44
Speaker 2: So immediately, Cheryl McCollum, all the investigators start retracing her
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Speaker 2: steps trying to figure out where she was.
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Speaker 1: Then they look in a dumpster.
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Speaker 2: Thank Heaven, and yes, that's sop to look at dumpsters.
10:57
Speaker 1: I looked in plenty of them.
10:59
Speaker 2: And it stinks.
11:03
Speaker 1: It's horrible conditions.
11:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again there you have to get in it
11:06
Speaker 2: and dig through everything. But they were rewarded when they
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Speaker 2: find a jacket with hair on it that turns out
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Speaker 2: to be Lakin's jacket.
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Speaker 1: That dumpster yielded evidence.
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Speaker 5: Cheryl McCollum, it was brilliant Nancy. From the moment she's
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Speaker 5: reported missing at twelve oh seven, they find her by
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Speaker 5: twelve thirty eight. That's telling you how seriously law enforcement
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Speaker 5: took this. When they got to that dumpster and got
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Speaker 5: in it and found the jacket with the blood and
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Speaker 5: the hair, that's going to connect that person from that
11:42
Speaker 5: jacket to Lakeland. Then they also have her cell phone
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Speaker 5: you mentioned earlier, she attempted to call nine one one.
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Speaker 5: That's going to be real time stamped too. So now
11:52
Speaker 5: you're starting to build this case, your spart you know,
11:54
Speaker 5: you're starting to connect these dots that are going to
11:56
Speaker 5: be extremely important for trial.
12:00
Speaker 2: Right now is a very high profile investigative reporter and
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Speaker 2: anchor a WTVM and WXTX on this case from the beginning.
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Speaker 1: And I say case as opposed to story. This is
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Speaker 1: no story.
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Speaker 2: As Lacan's parents if this is some story, this is
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Speaker 2: real and they are having to deal with this every
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Speaker 2: day of their lives.
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Speaker 1: And now the.
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Speaker 2: Suspect is making demands. He's got a nerve. Jason Dennis,
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Speaker 2: I want you to tell me about the area. Thank
12:32
Speaker 2: you for being with us again. Jason, I really appreciate it.
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Speaker 2: You've been there, You're familiar with it. You know exactly
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Speaker 2: what happened. Tell me about the area where Laken was jogging.
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Speaker 3: Well, these are Nancy intramural fields that are commonly used.
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Speaker 3: I mean, there's forty thousand students at the University of Georgia,
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Speaker 3: including my son, and this is an area that's commonly
12:55
Speaker 3: used intramural fields. People park there, people walk from there
12:59
Speaker 3: to class, walk from class to there and often work
13:02
Speaker 3: out and and you know, it's beautiful weather in Athens,
13:05
Speaker 3: Georgia often, you know, for for a lot of the year,
13:09
Speaker 3: and so it's it's commonly used and it's not a
13:12
Speaker 3: place where you would go and feel unsafe. But unfortunately
13:16
Speaker 3: something like this puts, you know, a new kind of
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Speaker 3: fear in these you know, eighteen to twenty one year olds.
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Speaker 3: You know she you know, she was twenty two years old,
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Speaker 3: her body found at lunchtime right there in Athens, right
13:31
Speaker 3: along the trail, and it's heartbreaking and you know, her
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Speaker 3: family and friends filling the Core room just a few
13:36
Speaker 3: days ago, just tears strolling down their face. From what
13:40
Speaker 3: I understand as Jose Obara was requesting, you know, to
13:46
Speaker 3: throw out some of this evidence, you know, DNA evidence,
13:49
Speaker 3: social media evidence, fingerprint identification, wanting this to be thrown out.
13:53
Speaker 3: And what you know he mentioned earlier a slam dunk case.
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Speaker 3: And so it's it's heartbreaking to know that, you know,
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Speaker 3: this happened nine months ago and we're still dealing with
14:04
Speaker 3: you know that he is still free in terms of
14:08
Speaker 3: he hasn't been convicted yet. So that's I think what
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Speaker 3: is one of the most heartbreaking things I think.
14:15
Speaker 9: Searching for a suspect in the death of Lake and Riley,
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Speaker 9: officers patrolling the Argo apartment community see a Hispanic man
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Speaker 9: matching the description of the man seen in a surveillance
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Speaker 9: video putting a jacket and latex gloves with blood inside
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Speaker 9: a trash man on the apartment complex property. Twenty six
14:30
Speaker 9: year Police veit Sergeant Timothy Johnson says the man is
14:33
Speaker 9: even wearing an identical hat. Confronting the man, police learning
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Speaker 9: he is Diego Ebarra, the brother of Jose Ebarra. Asked
14:41
Speaker 9: for identification, he tells officers that he doesn't have an ID,
14:44
Speaker 9: but has a University of Georgia Food Services employee name
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Speaker 9: tag which reads Diego.
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Speaker 1: A beautiful twenty two year old comes face to face
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Speaker 1: with a predator. She dials nine to one one, but
14:58
Speaker 1: it's too late.
15:01
Speaker 4: Diego Ebara leads officers to his apartment, where he hands
15:04
Speaker 4: over his ID, a United States Permanent Resident card often
15:07
Speaker 4: called a Green card. The poor quality, as well as
15:10
Speaker 4: two separate birth dates listed on the card. It's quickly
15:13
Speaker 4: verified by Homeland Security to be a fake. Diego Ebara,
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Speaker 4: his brother Jose Ebarra, and two other men in the
15:19
Speaker 4: apartment are detained and held outside while police wait for
15:22
Speaker 4: a search waran for the apartment. The apartment is about
15:25
Speaker 4: five hundred yards from where Lakenriley was found.
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Speaker 2: Five hundred yards from where this beautiful nursing student was
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Speaker 2: found with her skull crushed and her clothes in disarray
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Speaker 2: from an obvious sex attack.
15:38
Speaker 1: It doesn't take long for police to realize that.
15:41
Speaker 2: These two related are members of a notorious gang out
15:47
Speaker 2: of Venezuela, trend de Arragua. Who is trend Arragua well
15:54
Speaker 2: number one. If you have seen headlines in the knees
15:57
Speaker 2: recently about gangs taking over apartment complexes terrorizing the residents
16:04
Speaker 2: in Colorado as them. They originated in a prison facility
16:10
Speaker 2: in Venezuela. They specialize in drug trafficking, human smuggling, murder,
16:19
Speaker 2: all sorts of extortion.
16:22
Speaker 1: They moved from Venezuela.
16:25
Speaker 2: To Chile and beyond, and now they're here in the US,
16:29
Speaker 2: in Colorado, in New York, in Texas, and in Georgia,
16:36
Speaker 2: where Laken lived with her roommate. So this is where
16:41
Speaker 2: the legal challenge arises right here. So how is it
16:48
Speaker 2: straight back out to an investigative reporter joining US Jason Dennis.
16:54
Speaker 2: What originally led police to this guy and to this.
16:59
Speaker 3: Apartment, A Bara allegedly, you know, was was lying in wait,
17:04
Speaker 3: like you mentioned earlier, and you know, allegedly sexually assaulted
17:08
Speaker 3: and killed Lake and Riley. But what led them to
17:12
Speaker 3: the apartment is they found that evidence in the dumpster
17:16
Speaker 3: and they you know, we were getting tips from people
17:20
Speaker 3: about illegal immigrants living there. His brother, the suspect in
17:24
Speaker 3: this murder case working at the cafeteria the donning An
17:28
Speaker 3: area of the University of Georgia unknowingly uh, being any
17:33
Speaker 3: illegal immigrant?
17:34
Speaker 2: Are you telling me that a member of the notorious
17:38
Speaker 2: Venezuelan gang Trenda Aragua is serving lunch and the UGA cafeteria.
17:47
Speaker 3: And the the problem here as well, this was you
17:50
Speaker 3: know obviously ten months ago, is that you know, they
17:54
Speaker 3: he was not vetted and and and and so they
17:58
Speaker 3: found out later that he had a fake green card,
18:01
Speaker 3: as I mentioned in that pre pro And so it's
18:04
Speaker 3: something that you know, that's the problem is that you're
18:07
Speaker 3: not checking people ahead of time and vetting them to
18:11
Speaker 3: see and because of those mistakes are made. Lake and Riley,
18:16
Speaker 3: two year old.
18:17
Speaker 1: Version student, This is what I understand.
18:20
Speaker 2: He is around all these young coz that can be
18:22
Speaker 2: as young as sixteen or seventeen when they go there.
18:26
Speaker 1: But Chris McDonough.
18:27
Speaker 2: Joining me, director of the Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective,
18:31
Speaker 2: and star.
18:34
Speaker 1: The Interview Room on YouTube.
18:37
Speaker 2: Do you know what I have to go through to
18:39
Speaker 2: even try to use a check at the grocery store.
18:43
Speaker 2: I to show ID, I have to show credit cards.
18:46
Speaker 2: You don't forget the check? Never mind, I'll just use
18:49
Speaker 2: a credit card. But this guy is serving food in
18:54
Speaker 2: the cafeteria where every single co ed is coming through
18:57
Speaker 2: freshmen and sophomore years.
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Speaker 10: Really, yeah, it's almost unbelievable, isn't it, Nassia. I mean
19:02
Speaker 10: the fact that this guy's part of a transnational organization,
19:07
Speaker 10: a criminal organization creating you know, drug pipelines into the
19:11
Speaker 10: United States.
19:12
Speaker 1: And by the way, at.
19:13
Speaker 10: Some point they're gonna they're gonna clash with the Mexican
19:17
Speaker 10: cartels if this thing doesn't get some you know, control
19:21
Speaker 10: over it. And so here you have this guy, you know,
19:24
Speaker 10: I'm part of this organization, like you said, you know,
19:26
Speaker 10: scoop and potatoes, you know, mash potatoes for the kids
19:30
Speaker 10: that are coming through the line. You know this is
19:33
Speaker 10: more than just he slipped, you know, through the cracks.
19:36
Speaker 2: Me think about it. Think about it, Chris McData. Let
19:40
Speaker 2: me ask doctor Chloe. This, doctor Chloe Carmichael joining us.
19:45
Speaker 2: Can't you imagine the looks they give those young girls
19:52
Speaker 2: going through that cafeteria line, and they are nothing but predators,
19:57
Speaker 2: human hyenas.
19:59
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, Nancy.
20:01
Speaker 11: Of course they would look at the co eds, the
20:04
Speaker 11: joggers as these you know, kind of pretty privileged, rich kids,
20:09
Speaker 11: easy pickings, easy prey for these animals. And I think
20:13
Speaker 11: it's really sick that they were actually allowed in there
20:16
Speaker 11: in the country, frankly in the first place, much less
20:20
Speaker 11: allowed anywhere near these young people that were just trying
20:22
Speaker 11: to get an education.
20:24
Speaker 2: I'm trying to make the connection about how they find
20:27
Speaker 2: Lincoln's body and then suddenly they're at this guy's apartment.
20:31
Speaker 1: Listen the email.
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Speaker 12: Subviig had a black in color baseball cap with a
20:38
Speaker 12: white Adida symple moment exactly as that of the suspect
20:42
Speaker 12: in the picture.
20:43
Speaker 1: At the Dompsters.
20:44
Speaker 9: While waiting for a search warrant to arrive, officers have
20:47
Speaker 9: jose Ebarra and his roommates detained outside the apartment. UGA
20:51
Speaker 9: Police Corporal Raphael Sion describes jose Ebarra as very quiet
20:55
Speaker 9: and very nervous. Sion also notices wounds on jose Ebarra,
21:00
Speaker 9: such as redness on his knuckles, a scratch on his
21:02
Speaker 9: wrist and arms, as well as redness on his forehead.
21:05
Speaker 2: So Cheryl McCollum joining me, Cold Case Research Institute Founder
21:10
Speaker 2: forensics expert Cheryl, So, somebody was doing a great job.
21:17
Speaker 2: They look at a dumpster, they find a jacket, it's
21:20
Speaker 2: got hair on it. But then they look at the
21:23
Speaker 2: video around the dumpster and they see matching outfits and
21:29
Speaker 2: they match it up to these two.
21:31
Speaker 5: Absolutely and Nancy again from where her body is.
21:35
Speaker 1: If you walk.
21:36
Speaker 5: Straight, you go right to that dumpster. They did that immediately.
21:40
Speaker 5: Then as they start, you know, walking around the neighborhood,
21:43
Speaker 5: people start pointing and then one witness was like, yeah,
21:46
Speaker 5: I think I saw him over there. They also then
21:50
Speaker 5: law enforcement continues across the street to the gas station.
21:54
Speaker 5: They looked at every single trash bend they could find
21:58
Speaker 5: in that entire area, and they piece this thing together
22:01
Speaker 5: so quickly. And let me tell you there's a photograph
22:05
Speaker 5: you can see. The command center is parked in front
22:08
Speaker 5: of his apartment door. They played this thing beautifully and
22:12
Speaker 5: so professionally and so quickly.
22:15
Speaker 2: Let's take a listen from Uga Police Sergeant Josh Epps
22:20
Speaker 2: about what led him to that apartment, because.
22:24
Speaker 8: I believe there's fair pabability. There's evidence of the murder
22:26
Speaker 8: inside there. He was seen leaving there. I'm aware of
22:29
Speaker 8: the evidence that was found in the dumpster, and it's
22:32
Speaker 8: not all the articles of clothing that that initial was
22:35
Speaker 8: wearing that day.
22:37
Speaker 13: We have a suspect in custody for Lakeland's murder. We
22:42
Speaker 13: are obtaining arrest warrants for Jose Antonio Abera, twenty six
22:49
Speaker 13: years of age. He lives here in Athens, but it's
22:55
Speaker 13: not a US citizen. He has been charged with the
22:59
Speaker 13: following malice, murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping,
23:15
Speaker 13: hindering a non to one one call, and conciering the death.
23:21
Speaker 2: Of another, even in line of the horrific attacks on
23:27
Speaker 2: lacn He is in court making demands what more evidence
23:33
Speaker 2: is there against him?
23:34
Speaker 9: Lesson, after hose Ebarro's arrest for the murder of lake
23:37
Speaker 9: and Riley, his thumb print is compared to a Layton
23:40
Speaker 9: print found on Lake and Riley's cell phone. It is
23:43
Speaker 9: the opinion of Athens Clark Police crime scene technician Tim
23:46
Speaker 9: Stewart that jose Ebarra is the source for the print
23:49
Speaker 9: found on the phone. The defense team for hose Ibarro
23:52
Speaker 9: plans to challenge this particular piece of fingerprint evidence the
23:55
Speaker 9: ties I borrow to the cell phone of Lake and Riley.
23:58
Speaker 1: So how is it destray out?
24:00
Speaker 2: To the veteran defense attorney Andrew Stoltman, how is it
24:04
Speaker 2: that when your fingerprint turns up on the victim's cell phone?
24:08
Speaker 2: How do you try to get that suppressed? One of
24:13
Speaker 2: the defendant's many demands.
24:14
Speaker 7: Well, I think you have to argue that the process
24:18
Speaker 7: of gathering that fingerprint and the related evidence was flawed.
24:22
Speaker 7: Either the police technician was sloppy, they didn't follow standard
24:26
Speaker 7: operating protocol. Because if that comes in, it's game, set
24:30
Speaker 7: and match, right, Because anni juror is going to sit
24:33
Speaker 7: here and say, wait a minute, how the heck did
24:35
Speaker 7: the defendant's thumb print get on the victim's cell phone?
24:39
Speaker 7: So that's just kind of another bullet in the chamber
24:41
Speaker 7: that kind of goes to the tapestry of guilt, as
24:44
Speaker 7: I like to call it. So they have to challenge
24:47
Speaker 7: everything with respect to the collection process to try to
24:50
Speaker 7: keep that out because if it comes in game set match,
24:54
Speaker 7: he's going to be convicted.
24:55
Speaker 1: Shedding a little light on the defendants demands in court.
24:58
Speaker 9: Listen, Jose Ebarra aims to challenge the evidence prosecutors plan
25:03
Speaker 9: to use a trial and if filed motions attempting to
25:06
Speaker 9: incriminate evidence that was seized through a search warrant at
25:09
Speaker 9: Ebarra's home. The defense is also challenging DNA and fingerprint evidence.
25:13
Speaker 9: The defense team for Jose Ebarra is claiming that after
25:16
Speaker 9: Ebarro was detained, a UGA detective got a search warrant
25:20
Speaker 9: for his apartment, which Ibarra's lawyers say was void on
25:23
Speaker 9: his face and issued without probable cause, while also being
25:26
Speaker 9: overly broad for what officers could look for and seize
25:29
Speaker 9: as evidence.
25:30
Speaker 1: We see this.
25:31
Speaker 2: All the time when a search warrant is obtained and
25:34
Speaker 2: they did obtain a search warrant before seizing items from
25:39
Speaker 2: the apartment. If they don't get a search warrant, cops
25:42
Speaker 2: don't get a search warrant. The claim is they didn't
25:45
Speaker 2: have a search warrant, this is no good. If they
25:47
Speaker 2: do get a search warrant, A typical challenge is the
25:50
Speaker 2: search warrant is overbroad?
25:53
Speaker 1: What does that mean.
25:54
Speaker 2: Let's say that I finally get fed up and I
25:58
Speaker 2: strangled Jackie right in the studio.
26:01
Speaker 1: A search warrant is executed on the studio.
26:05
Speaker 2: The search warrant could say any and all evidence that
26:10
Speaker 2: Nancy Grace ever did anything wrong in her life, that's overbroad.
26:15
Speaker 2: But when the search warrant specifically refers to the murder
26:19
Speaker 2: of a victim, as it did, how can that possibly
26:23
Speaker 2: be construed as overbroad?
26:26
Speaker 1: And let's get.
26:27
Speaker 2: Real, Andrew Staltman, is very rare that a search warrant
26:32
Speaker 2: is quashed and the evidence on the return is suppressed
26:36
Speaker 2: because of overbroad You got to do a little bit
26:39
Speaker 2: better than that.
26:40
Speaker 1: It is most certainly a hail Mary.
26:42
Speaker 7: And I think they're doing everything to try to keep
26:45
Speaker 7: that evidence out of the case because it is devastating
26:49
Speaker 7: to the case and to the defense of the scumbag defendant.
26:53
Speaker 7: And so yes, I think we're kind of going through
26:55
Speaker 7: the defense lawyer handbook, the playbook, throwing up every hail
26:59
Speaker 7: mayor they can. I don't expect it to be successful.
27:03
Speaker 7: That evidence is coming in. He's going to be convicted.
27:06
Speaker 2: The defense also argues there's no PC no probable cause to.
27:11
Speaker 1: Search the home. Bs listen ose.
27:14
Speaker 4: Bara's defense argues there's no probable cause to search the
27:18
Speaker 4: apartment and the warrant is overbroad in that it is
27:21
Speaker 4: seeking anything with DNA. Items seized include cell phones, which
27:25
Speaker 4: experts from the FBI analyzed. Prosecutors argue the cell phones
27:29
Speaker 4: were seized in good faith and the facts and circumstances
27:33
Speaker 4: discovered by police make it a reasonable search.
27:36
Speaker 2: Just Scott Morgan joining me, Professor forensicks, don't you love
27:38
Speaker 2: cell phones? Can we just enjoy the moment of remembering
27:44
Speaker 2: Alex and murdog on the stand being confronted with all
27:49
Speaker 2: the cell phone outa that places him at the scene
27:52
Speaker 2: of the double murder of his wife Maggie and son Paul.
27:56
Speaker 1: He's like rot Row. The cell phone evidence was damning.
28:02
Speaker 1: So in this.
28:03
Speaker 2: Case police go in pursuant to warrant Andrew Stoutman pursuant
28:08
Speaker 2: to a search warrant signed by a judge and they
28:12
Speaker 2: seese cell phones and a.
28:14
Speaker 1: Lot of other evidence.
28:15
Speaker 2: So what could be on the Defenan's cell phone or
28:20
Speaker 2: the relative cell phone.
28:22
Speaker 1: What do they want?
28:23
Speaker 2: It's got to be something, because the defense is trying
28:26
Speaker 2: so hard to get suppressed. If it didn't have any
28:30
Speaker 2: any probitive evidence on it, they wouldn't care. They say,
28:33
Speaker 2: bring it in, but no, they are fighting tooth and
28:35
Speaker 2: nail to keep that cell phone data out.
28:37
Speaker 1: What is it?
28:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, they are, And I think that you're going to
28:40
Speaker 6: discover perhaps that there are some really incriminating messages. Remember
28:45
Speaker 6: he's here with his brother and he understands. He has
28:49
Speaker 6: this kind of come to Jesus moment where he realizes
28:52
Speaker 6: how deep he's into this thing, starts communicating with people,
28:55
Speaker 6: and you see that throughout his actions. But Nancy, there's
28:58
Speaker 6: another piece to this relative to cell phone. The cell
29:01
Speaker 6: phone revealing something. Do you remember when this case first happened,
29:05
Speaker 6: how it was stated that Laken had an awareness that
29:11
Speaker 6: this was going to happen, and that she had initiated
29:13
Speaker 6: a nine to one one call. It had been put
29:17
Speaker 6: forth that the phone was taken from her, And I'm
29:20
Speaker 6: talking about the physical phone itself. If his thumbprint is
29:24
Speaker 6: on there, that's a damning bit of information. These two
29:27
Speaker 6: had never known each other, he wasn't known to use
29:30
Speaker 6: her phone, So how do you explain that away? Defense
29:34
Speaker 6: has to do that? And I'll give you one more
29:35
Speaker 6: if you like that one. You begin to think about
29:38
Speaker 6: this damning level of information. What did they say about
29:42
Speaker 6: him when they hooked him up on charges he had injuries?
29:45
Speaker 6: Did he not? We're talking about DNA relative to what
29:48
Speaker 6: may have been beneath her fingernails. Now we don't know
29:51
Speaker 6: how far out this exclusion or how much the defense
29:56
Speaker 6: is wanting to throw that data out and how that
29:59
Speaker 6: was collected. But both of those elements, and we're not
30:02
Speaker 6: even getting into the electronics stuff. We're just talking about
30:04
Speaker 6: physical evidence here that in and of itself is very damning.
30:09
Speaker 6: So I can see why the defense would want to
30:11
Speaker 6: do this. They're going to be drowning relative to the
30:15
Speaker 6: scale of.
30:16
Speaker 14: This, Naty can I jump in this, Yeral McCollum, I
30:20
Speaker 14: was just going I was just about to ask you
30:22
Speaker 14: your thoughts on what could be on that cell phone
30:26
Speaker 14: between the two of them, and what if he says
30:29
Speaker 14: I'm in trouble, I just killed a girl, or you
30:32
Speaker 14: don't know what's on there yet, is.
30:34
Speaker 5: What I do believe you're going to see those two
30:36
Speaker 5: phones in the exact same place for the exact same
30:40
Speaker 5: amount of time, and that's going to be from twelve
30:44
Speaker 5: seven to twelve thirty eight ish, and that's going to
30:48
Speaker 5: be the most damning those phones move together for a
30:51
Speaker 5: period of time.
30:58
Speaker 1: Crime stories with great ose.
31:05
Speaker 4: Ebarra is also charged with peeping through the window of
31:07
Speaker 4: an apartment in UGA's University Village building s and spying
31:12
Speaker 4: on an individual on the same day as Riley's murder.
31:15
Speaker 4: The person involved in that case is not Lake and
31:18
Speaker 4: Riley now the defense.
31:20
Speaker 2: Another demand in court is that the peeping Tom accusation
31:25
Speaker 2: be severed. In other words, they don't want the Lacan
31:30
Speaker 2: murder jury to hear anything about the peeping tom. Where
31:36
Speaker 2: this guy Ebarra is peeping Tom. It's alleged he is
31:40
Speaker 2: peeping Tom on another young woman just before Laken's murder.
31:45
Speaker 1: I bet he does want that thrown out to doctor
31:48
Speaker 1: Chloe Carmichael.
31:49
Speaker 2: All it takes is a renowned clinical psychologist like herself
31:53
Speaker 2: to explain the connection between peeping tom's and rapists, because
32:00
Speaker 2: it's a well known phenomena amongst prosecutors. Not all voyeurs
32:06
Speaker 2: peeping tom's are rapists, but I guarantee you, doctor Kloyd Chloe,
32:12
Speaker 2: that all rapists are voyeurs.
32:15
Speaker 11: Yes, to a certain degree, Nancy exactly. So there's actually
32:19
Speaker 11: also something called algolagnia, which is the anticipation that a
32:24
Speaker 11: sadist feels at the joy of their sick anticipation before
32:28
Speaker 11: they do an act of sadism. And there's also sometimes
32:31
Speaker 11: a certain amount of sucking and just simply sick logistical
32:35
Speaker 11: planning that a rapist needs to do before he can
32:38
Speaker 11: actually make his move. So the idea that this person
32:42
Speaker 11: you would be stalking her is not a surprise to me.
32:45
Speaker 11: And moreover, the brutality with which he murdered her, I mean,
32:48
Speaker 11: her skull completely crushed. This is somebody who obviously takes
32:54
Speaker 11: some kind of, you know, literal overkill pleasure in what
32:59
Speaker 11: he's doing. Wasn't, you know, physically disabling her just to
33:04
Speaker 11: accomplish a goal. He went above and beyond, and it
33:07
Speaker 11: suggests that he has kind of an animalistic drive there. Obviously,
33:12
Speaker 11: I would venture to say that this is not his
33:14
Speaker 11: first time doing something like this based on the brutality
33:18
Speaker 11: of this attack, and it's no surprise to me at
33:21
Speaker 11: all that the same thing he was caught with a
33:23
Speaker 11: peeping tom earlier in the day. It's also not a
33:26
Speaker 11: surprise to me that he would in the courtroom start
33:29
Speaker 11: making demands. I mean, first he you know, kind of
33:33
Speaker 11: rapes our borders. He comes in here illegally and then
33:37
Speaker 11: proceeds to literally rape our citizens. It's not a surprise
33:41
Speaker 11: to me then that he thinks he can turn the
33:43
Speaker 11: courtroom into his own playground as well. My guess is
33:47
Speaker 11: that he's laughing at our judicial system.
33:50
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum was like in sex assault that.
33:54
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and Nancy, I want to just tigging back on
33:56
Speaker 5: what the doctor was just saying. Here's a couple of
33:59
Speaker 5: crimes here that, if you look historically, are just called
34:03
Speaker 5: the wrong thing. One is joy riding. We don't call
34:06
Speaker 5: that stealing a car date rate, we should just call rape.
34:10
Speaker 5: And peeping tom is nothing more than stalking with a
34:14
Speaker 5: sexual motive. A peeping tom is a sexual predator, period two.
34:19
Speaker 2: Jason Dennis joining us WTVM and wxt X. Jason tell
34:24
Speaker 2: me about the alleged and I say alleged because none
34:28
Speaker 2: of this.
34:29
Speaker 1: Has been proven in a court of law.
34:30
Speaker 2: In fact, he's still presumed innocent until it has been
34:33
Speaker 2: proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jason tell me about the
34:37
Speaker 2: alleged peeping tom incident and the connected incident of him
34:42
Speaker 2: allegedly trying to force another young co ed's door open
34:45
Speaker 2: before Lakerim was found dead.
34:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, these are, unfortunately, you know, seen as crimes of
34:50
Speaker 3: opportunity because you have so many students, young co eds
34:54
Speaker 3: on this campus in Athens, Georgia, and he is lying
34:59
Speaker 3: in wait and watching uh, these young women younger than
35:04
Speaker 3: him and kind of picking his prey. And he is
35:09
Speaker 3: accused of or allegedly pulling up Lake and Riley's close
35:13
Speaker 3: to sexually saw her, then hit her on the head,
35:16
Speaker 3: asphyxiating her, according to prosecutors pleading. And he's not been
35:20
Speaker 3: charged with sexual assault. The peeping toms a separate incident
35:24
Speaker 3: as well, but he's pled not guilty to these ten
35:27
Speaker 3: counts of malice, murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, other crimes. I mean,
35:31
Speaker 3: it's just a laundry list right now that is piling
35:34
Speaker 3: up on a Bara and his defense team, and so
35:37
Speaker 3: it it's something that that that it's going to be
35:40
Speaker 3: very very difficult for them to unprove, to prove that
35:43
Speaker 3: he is innocent. But they're they're grasping at straws right now.
35:46
Speaker 3: And I think that the fact that you've got these
35:49
Speaker 3: other separate cases peeping tom and other kind of this,
35:53
Speaker 3: this track record that Bara has for these sexual related crimes,
35:58
Speaker 3: I think that is part of what the prosecution will
36:02
Speaker 3: use to as part of the foundation of their case.
36:05
Speaker 2: Who murdered Laken Riley? And why we do know this?
36:11
Speaker 2: We know the man charged Ibarra, a member of a
36:15
Speaker 2: vicious Venezuelan gang that is infiltrating the US, was spotted
36:20
Speaker 2: wearing plastic gloves. Why are you wearing plastic gloves in
36:24
Speaker 2: the middle of the day. I hate to give the
36:26
Speaker 2: defense any ideas, but I'm guessing that somehow they're going
36:30
Speaker 2: to connect this to being a food server in the
36:33
Speaker 2: UGA cafeteria. Also, I wonder why he's not charged with
36:38
Speaker 2: any particular sex attack. Since her clothes had been let
36:43
Speaker 2: me say, disheveled, he obviously attempted a sex attack. You know,
36:48
Speaker 2: let me analyze very quickly some of these charges. Andrew Stoultman,
36:53
Speaker 2: it's genius in the charging. I think that they did
36:57
Speaker 2: not charge with an attempted sex attack because they may
37:00
Speaker 2: fail improving that and you don't want to throw in
37:04
Speaker 2: a bad.
37:04
Speaker 1: Charge with other good charges.
37:06
Speaker 2: One bad apple can spoil the whole thing, right, like
37:09
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson said, So why throw in a weak charge
37:14
Speaker 2: that could infect the other charges. Listen to this, Andrew Stoltman.
37:19
Speaker 2: It's a defense attorney's worst nightmare. They've got in charge
37:22
Speaker 2: with malice murder, which is intentional killing. And of course
37:28
Speaker 2: malice or intent to kill does not require any particular
37:33
Speaker 2: amount of time, such as a long process like poisoning
37:36
Speaker 2: someone over weeks and months. It could be the time
37:39
Speaker 2: it takes you to pick up a rock and bash
37:43
Speaker 2: her skull. That's enough time to form intent under the law.
37:47
Speaker 2: But just in case the jury doesn't buy it, Stoltman,
37:51
Speaker 2: he's also charged with felony murder, the underlying felonies being
37:56
Speaker 2: AG battery and AG assault kidnapping. Now what that means
38:02
Speaker 2: is it doesn't matter if you intended to kill. If
38:06
Speaker 2: very simply, if a death occurs during the commission of
38:10
Speaker 2: a felony, that's felony murder. You don't need intent to kill,
38:14
Speaker 2: and felony murder carries the same penalty in this jurisdiction
38:19
Speaker 2: as does malice murder.
38:21
Speaker 1: Genius charging, Yeah, absolutely.
38:23
Speaker 7: I mean this obviously is in the first rodeo for
38:26
Speaker 7: these prosecutors, and I think they want to make sure
38:28
Speaker 7: and they lead with the tip of the spear, lead
38:30
Speaker 7: with charges that they can absolutely positively prove. And all
38:35
Speaker 7: of these are going to carry a lifetime prison sentence,
38:38
Speaker 7: so you know these are good prosecutors. They're going to
38:41
Speaker 7: hammer this guy. I think it's going to be a game,
38:44
Speaker 7: set and.
38:44
Speaker 10: Match for him.
38:45
Speaker 2: One weak link in the jury could be disastrous. One
38:51
Speaker 2: person that finds an issue with the fingerprint with the DNA.
38:56
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how they're challenging the DNA. I think
38:59
Speaker 2: it's because of the search warrant. But that said, all
39:02
Speaker 2: it takes is one weak link. I mean, I want
39:06
Speaker 2: you to hear this. Cheryl, during the attack on Lacoln,
39:12
Speaker 2: the perp allegedly prevents her from calling nine one one,
39:17
Speaker 2: just like in Molly Tibbett's murder, then uses an object
39:21
Speaker 2: which we believe to be a rock, to beat her
39:24
Speaker 2: in the head so badly her skull is crushed disfigured.
39:31
Speaker 1: Then he's accused it. I don't know why.
39:33
Speaker 2: This isn't in the indictment of not only asphyxiating her,
39:37
Speaker 2: but trying to pull her clothes off to sex assault her.
39:41
Speaker 2: Then he drags her body from the intramural fields to
39:44
Speaker 2: a secluded area to conceal it. I mean, think about it.
39:49
Speaker 1: It's again. It's like a wolf out in the wild, Cheryl.
39:54
Speaker 5: He targeted her as soon as he saw her. This
39:56
Speaker 5: was absolutely a crime of opportunity. What you were say
40:00
Speaker 5: seeing is a sexually motivated predator, a motivated sexual assault.
40:06
Speaker 5: Whether he completed what he intended or not. Maybe he
40:10
Speaker 5: got disrupted because somebody else was coming down the path.
40:13
Speaker 5: Maybe he heard people talking and laughing.
40:16
Speaker 1: I don't know.
40:17
Speaker 5: But what we do know is he at a level
40:22
Speaker 5: of murder, took a life of someone he simply saw
40:27
Speaker 5: in a moment.
40:29
Speaker 2: As we go to air, there are challenges to the
40:32
Speaker 2: state's evidence. The defendant wants the pipping Tom severed. Why
40:39
Speaker 2: he doesn't want the jury to know he's a PERV.
40:43
Speaker 2: They are challenging the search warrant. That search warrant yielded
40:49
Speaker 2: very valuable probative evidence, evidence that proves something. If that
40:54
Speaker 2: search warrant attack prevails, much of the evidence will be suppressed.
41:05
Speaker 2: We are also seeing, as in the Brian Coburger case,
41:09
Speaker 2: a demand for a change of venue the defense saying
41:14
Speaker 2: the defendant cannot get a fair trial in Athensy, Georgia.
41:20
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye friend,