Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Sisters, Friend Killed in Crash by Speeding Driver on Probation for Attempted Murder

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Sisters, Friend Killed in Crash by Speeding Driver on Probation for Attempted Murder · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece.
0:14
Speaker 2: Three people did, Three innocent people did, two of them sisters.
0:21
Speaker 2: Two others left in critical condition in the hospital because
0:27
Speaker 2: a guy named Gregory Black was out walking free on
0:37
Speaker 2: probation in a murder case, slammed into them around one
0:45
Speaker 2: hundred mph and killed them. You know what, there's just
0:50
Speaker 2: so many different directions to go right here. I hardly
0:53
Speaker 2: know where to start. Probation and murder that's one place
0:57
Speaker 2: to start. But even if that weren't true, this guy
1:01
Speaker 2: already has at least three felony convictions that we know
1:04
Speaker 2: of and eleven priors. Even if he wasn't out on
1:11
Speaker 2: probation for murder, He's got a wrap sheet as long
1:17
Speaker 2: as my arm, and he's out walking free amongst innocent people.
1:24
Speaker 2: And now three are dead and two are in critical condition,
1:32
Speaker 2: rushed to the hospital fighting for their lives.
1:35
Speaker 3: Why why is this happening?
1:39
Speaker 2: I know this is a tired old phrase, But we
1:42
Speaker 2: can put a man on the moon, we can't perform
1:46
Speaker 2: all sorts of amazing technological feats, but we can't keep
1:54
Speaker 2: violent offenders behind bars. Is it really that hard? I'm
2:01
Speaker 2: Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being with
2:04
Speaker 2: us here at Vox Nation in series exem one eleven.
2:07
Speaker 2: You think it's hard, well ask the family of Kimberly
2:13
Speaker 2: or Veronica?
2:15
Speaker 3: Are Wevlen?
2:18
Speaker 2: Ask the family of Michelle Lee with a broken neck,
2:24
Speaker 2: mister Lopez, Kimberly, Oh wait, don't ask them because they
2:29
Speaker 2: can't answer, because Kimberly, Wevelen, and Veronica are all dead.
2:34
Speaker 2: What happened? Take a listen to our friends at Fox eleven.
2:38
Speaker 4: The five people inside this black Honda Accord, an uber
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Speaker 4: driver and her four passengers, didn't.
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Speaker 1: Stand a chance.
2:46
Speaker 4: The car t BoNT The impact so great one of
2:50
Speaker 4: the young women who died was ejected.
2:52
Speaker 5: The suspect was traveling northbound on Vermont Avenue when he
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Speaker 5: collided with the victims vehicle, an Uber with five occupants inside.
3:00
Speaker 5: The suspect was speeding, going about eighty five ninety miles
3:03
Speaker 5: per hour.
3:04
Speaker 3: He blew through a red light and then t boned
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Speaker 3: the uber.
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Speaker 5: According to the LAPD, he was blowing through several red lights,
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Speaker 5: so it's possible he was trying to flee from something.
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Speaker 5: We also learned he has an extensive criminal history, including
3:16
Speaker 5: three felony convictions and a misdemeanor conviction.
3:19
Speaker 4: Three young women dead to other people seriously injured after
3:24
Speaker 4: a high speed crash caused by one man, say police,
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Speaker 4: the driver of this white Mercedes, who detectives say was
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Speaker 4: not only speeding but also ran a red light.
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Speaker 6: He passes his vehicles that are stopped at the red
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Speaker 6: light into the turn lanes and goes around and strikes
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Speaker 6: the victims. And you're talking about going about eighty five
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Speaker 6: ninety miles or at.
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Speaker 2: Least other estimates placing him at one hundred mph flying
3:50
Speaker 2: down the street and his white Mercedes, a gang member
3:55
Speaker 2: with a rap sheet. As long as I seventy five,
3:59
Speaker 2: that's what I know. With me and all start panel
4:01
Speaker 2: to make sense of what we know right now. First
4:04
Speaker 2: to senior investigative reporter with Dailymail dot Com. That's when
4:08
Speaker 2: I first found out about this case. Kaitlin Becker is
4:12
Speaker 2: joining us. This is your neck of the woods, Kitlin Becker.
4:14
Speaker 2: What happened?
4:16
Speaker 7: Yes it is. It actually happened not too far from
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Speaker 7: the Daily Mail office. It was shortly before five point
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Speaker 7: thirty in the morning. You have a group of three.
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Speaker 7: You've a group of three girls and one guy.
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Speaker 8: Friends.
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Speaker 7: They were coming back from a concert. They were doing
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Speaker 7: the responsible thing. And not driving, and they waiting to
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Speaker 7: a Sources say that they were waiting to make a
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Speaker 7: turn and a white Mercedes came barreling down the street
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Speaker 7: t boned. Then the force was so hard that the
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Speaker 7: Uber spun something like five times, and then the Mercedes
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Speaker 7: and the driver, this guy Black and Gregory Black ended
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Speaker 7: up basically crashing into the median and those three young
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Speaker 7: girls were pronounced dead on the scene.
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Speaker 3: Okay, you just gave me so much information, Caitlin.
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Speaker 2: I want to understand who these victims are. And I'm
5:06
Speaker 2: looking at them right now, and they're beautiful.
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Speaker 3: Did you say they were coming home from a concert,
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Speaker 3: So it was late at night.
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Speaker 2: Let's say twenty three, twenty three, twenty seven.
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Speaker 3: Those are some of the victims.
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Speaker 7: Twenty three and twenty seven. Kimberly and Veronica at worked
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Speaker 7: twenty seven and twenty three and are actually sisters, and
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Speaker 7: Juvelyn was They're another twenty three year old, their childhood
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Speaker 7: best friend. So they were just out for a good
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Speaker 7: fun night. And these were bright girls.
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Speaker 3: When you say there were bright girls, what do you
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Speaker 3: mean by that.
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Speaker 7: Kimberly had just graduated from nursing school. Nancy, she was
5:43
Speaker 7: involved in her dance team. She was a smart, dedicated student.
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Speaker 7: And then her sister, Veronica, has a BS in wildlife conservation,
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Speaker 7: did a kind of volunteer work with the Redwoods, and
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Speaker 7: had actually recently gotten a job with Orange County with
6:00
Speaker 7: the county working with animals, and she was really just
6:03
Speaker 7: getting started in that side of her career. I mean,
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Speaker 7: these these girls were doing amazing things. Me and you're
6:09
Speaker 7: talking about conservation in nursing, two of the most selfless
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Speaker 7: jobs they could possibly think of.
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Speaker 2: Guys, I've got such an awesome panel joining me right now.
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Speaker 2: I want to go to doctor Michelle Duprie, not only
6:21
Speaker 2: longtime colleague, but friend. You remember Dr Duprie, She's shot
6:27
Speaker 2: to fame during the Alex Murdog case.
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Speaker 3: That's her.
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Speaker 2: Billywick, Columbia, South Carolina, former forensic pathologist, medical examiner and
6:39
Speaker 2: lucky for me, detective author of money, Mischief, Murder, the
6:43
Speaker 2: Murdog saga. The rest of the story that's coming out
6:48
Speaker 2: this month. You know, I can't wait to read that.
6:50
Speaker 2: But before I get back on Alex Murdog, who will
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Speaker 2: right in hell, doctor Michelle dupri did you hear what
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Speaker 2: Caitlin Becker from Daily mil just said have you ever.
7:01
Speaker 3: You performed thousands of autopsies.
7:04
Speaker 2: I've prosecuted or investigated literally thousands of cases.
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Speaker 3: When you're looking at.
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Speaker 2: Somebody on that homicide, on that autopsy table after homicide,
7:16
Speaker 2: do you ever wonder why is it that really.
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Speaker 3: Good, pure people.
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Speaker 2: Get murdered or mistreated by predators, I mean like hyenas, coyotes.
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Speaker 3: Wolves, that's what these perps are.
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Speaker 2: And then the dichotomy of the evil nature of the
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Speaker 2: defendant in the sweet, kind, gentle loving nature of the victims.
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Speaker 3: It's sometimes like a kick in the teeth.
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Speaker 9: Absolutely, Nancy. Sometimes it appears that there's no justice, and
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Speaker 9: I've seen it more often than I want for sure.
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Speaker 9: The innocent people sometimes are the victims. It just happens.
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Speaker 3: I know, it just happens.
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Speaker 2: But guess what, doctor dupree, it didn't have to happen
8:08
Speaker 2: in this case. You were hearing our friends at Fox
8:11
Speaker 2: eleven as well as KTLA talking about what happened that
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Speaker 2: night with me, a very well known senior forensic engineer
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Speaker 2: accident reconstructionist at Veritech Consulting Engineering.
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Speaker 3: You can find them as did.
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Speaker 2: We at Veritech eng for engineering dot com. Joseph Tremblay Joseph,
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Speaker 2: thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 3: Man, what a scene. What did this guy do?
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Speaker 2: I've heard estimates between eighty five and one hundred mph,
8:48
Speaker 2: But there is a way to determine exactly what happened
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Speaker 2: that's correct.
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Speaker 10: And one thing that is going to be made readily
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Speaker 10: available is the speed of both vehicles. There's a lot
9:02
Speaker 10: of ways to do that, but fortunately for vehicles that
9:06
Speaker 10: are newer, that speed data is actually recorded on the
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Speaker 10: vehicle itself during an impact, and that's something that the
9:14
Speaker 10: investigators are going to look into when they go through
9:18
Speaker 10: their investigation.
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Speaker 2: Here, to my understanding, the victims were parked at a
9:25
Speaker 2: red light, so they're not going to have any momentum
9:28
Speaker 2: at all. They're sitting at a red light in an uber,
9:33
Speaker 2: just having gone to a concert. These three girls together,
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Speaker 2: two sisters and their childhood best friend.
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Speaker 3: They're in their twenties. They're sitting there at a red.
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Speaker 2: Light, not moving, when this guy comes flying around them
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Speaker 2: at estimates up to one hundred mph.
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Speaker 3: And I don't believe.
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Speaker 2: You know a lot of times acts of reconstructionists use
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Speaker 2: skid marks and it helps them determine what really happened,
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Speaker 2: Like how long are the skid marks, how far away
10:00
Speaker 2: the skin marks from the crash.
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Speaker 3: I don't know that we're even going to have any.
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Speaker 2: Skin marks in this case, Joseph, because I don't think
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Speaker 2: this guy ever touched the brakes.
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Speaker 10: I agree, I don't think he did either. And honestly,
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Speaker 10: there are some other pieces of evidence that are going
10:15
Speaker 10: to be really important for this investigation. There is, I believe,
10:20
Speaker 10: a surveillance footage that captured this impact, at least some
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Speaker 10: of it, not all of the details. But one thing
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Speaker 10: they're going to want to look at when the police
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Speaker 10: do their investigation is whether or not any of the
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Speaker 10: physical evidence that it was left at the scene is
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Speaker 10: pertinent to this investigation. But the fact that this ubercar
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Speaker 10: was either stopped or moving very slowly. You know, they
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Speaker 10: were just traveling through this intersection on a legal green light.
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Speaker 10: And then the impact itself occurred when the Mercedes failed
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Speaker 10: to yield for the green light through on a red
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Speaker 10: light and then contacted the left rear corner of that
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Speaker 10: uber vehicle, causing it to spend.
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Speaker 2: Spinning it around just on that one impact five times,
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Speaker 2: hitting the vehicle so hard. One of the ladies, one
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Speaker 2: of the young girls, actually ejected as they're saying it
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Speaker 2: flew out of the car.
11:38
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: Guys, we've got a renowned accident as he calls it crash,
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Speaker 2: as I call it reconstructionist. But also with me is
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Speaker 2: Mike McCormick, also from this jurisdiction, owner and lead investigator
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Speaker 2: of mcm Investigations in LA, former LAPD over twenty five
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Speaker 2: years working gangs for five years of that.
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Speaker 3: That ain't a picnic working gangs in LA.
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Speaker 2: I'm surprised you're even alive, Mike McCormick, and you can
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Speaker 2: find them at mcminvestigations dot com. Okay, enough about you,
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Speaker 2: let's talk about murder. When Joseph Tremblay correctly says they're
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Speaker 2: going to look at physical evidence of the same, I
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Speaker 2: think that's going to mean if there are any skid marks,
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Speaker 2: surveillance video, which there's a lot of that in LA
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Speaker 2: and really everywhere now, such as red light cams, corner cams,
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Speaker 2: business cam surveillance videos, and not only that, dash cams.
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Speaker 2: This is an Uber car that was destroyed by Gregory Black.
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Speaker 2: You know they've got a dash cam going. There's gonna
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Speaker 2: be a plethora of cam surveillance camera proof. But but
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Speaker 2: you're also going to look at the angles in which
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Speaker 2: the car was hit. You're going to look for pieces
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Speaker 2: of metal, for pieces of brake lights. All of that
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Speaker 2: is going to be physical evidence to help us reconstruct
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Speaker 2: what happened. Bottom line, I don't really need all that
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Speaker 2: because I know I got three dead girls, three two sisters,
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Speaker 2: one best friend who's sitting at a red light in
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Speaker 2: an uber waiting, and this guy with a wrap sheet
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Speaker 2: out my rear end comes flying down at one hundred mph.
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Speaker 2: I mean, what more to you, Mike McCormick of mcm Investigations.
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Speaker 2: What else are you going to look for? Do I
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Speaker 2: need anything more than that? I think I could take
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Speaker 2: that to you, Jerry Nancy.
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Speaker 8: You really don't need much more than that. There's gonna
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Speaker 8: be a plethora of video.
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Speaker 3: Foot I just said that.
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Speaker 2: I threw out my big word plethora, and you totally
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Speaker 2: stole it. Don't think I don't know what you just did.
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Speaker 2: But go ahead.
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Speaker 8: Anyways, there's footage of him traveling at a high rate
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Speaker 8: of speed and blowing through red lights prior to this accident.
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Speaker 3: Okay, hey, Mike McCormick, are you sitting down?
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Speaker 11: Yes?
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Speaker 2: I am, Well, you may need to lay down after this,
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Speaker 2: take a listen to our friends at Fox eleven and KTLA, so.
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Speaker 6: That for these families who don't know yet who we're
14:22
Speaker 6: working on trying to make contact with, that their loved
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Speaker 6: ones are gone, and you know, it's something that we
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Speaker 6: all do every day just driving. These people had the
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Speaker 6: right of way, they were going through a green light.
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Speaker 5: And LAPD detectives with the South Traffic Bureau here they
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Speaker 5: announced the charges against the suspect. We now know his
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Speaker 5: name Gregory Black, thirty one years old and a well
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Speaker 5: known gang member in the city of Los Angeles. According
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Speaker 5: to the LAPD, on August twenty sixth, the day of
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Speaker 5: the accident, he was out on probation for a previous
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Speaker 5: murder conviction.
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Speaker 12: What's adding to the family's anguish is the news that,
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Speaker 12: according to police, the suspect was on probation and connection
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Speaker 12: with a twenty twenty murder d having this white Mercedes
15:01
Speaker 12: more than one hundred miles per hour through red lights
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Speaker 12: as it smashed into the black Honda the women were
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Speaker 12: ubering in. Greg Black is his name, thirty one years old,
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Speaker 12: described by detectives as a gang member with quote a
15:13
Speaker 12: checkered past.
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Speaker 6: Eleven bookings phony bookings, in which three he's been convicted on.
15:18
Speaker 6: I was the eleven. He's had four misimiter.
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Speaker 2: Bookings, including being on probation on murder. Now even scarier.
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Speaker 2: Back to Mike McCormick joining us not only lead investigator
15:31
Speaker 2: mcm Investigations, but worked gangs. When I hear gang member
15:38
Speaker 2: a lot of people, and I might think that's cool,
15:42
Speaker 2: but every time I had anything to do with gangs,
15:45
Speaker 2: it was a murder, horrible murders. I remember one gang case.
15:50
Speaker 2: It was the Doom gang held I think the victim
15:54
Speaker 2: was thirteen or fourteen, held her upside down and put
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Speaker 2: her on her head in an ice chest full of
16:02
Speaker 2: ice cold water and drowned her dead. When she was
16:06
Speaker 2: drowned being held upside down by her breasts, as I
16:10
Speaker 2: recall it, they threw her body down and said go
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Speaker 2: to Hell and tell them Doom sent you. Okay, drink
16:21
Speaker 2: that in for a moment, Oh yes. And then the
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Speaker 2: last DP case I was working on before I left
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Speaker 2: the court TV, there are two rival gangs. Of course
16:30
Speaker 2: there's rival gangs, but the girlfriends of the rival gangs
16:34
Speaker 2: were mad at each other over some clothes. Clothing clots clothes.
16:42
Speaker 2: So they got their boyfriends, the gang members, to throw
16:45
Speaker 2: molotov cocktails into the other side's town home, knowing that
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Speaker 2: there were two infants and their.
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Speaker 3: Layup beds, their little baby beds.
16:56
Speaker 2: And when they threw the molotovs, which immediately on fire
17:00
Speaker 2: in the chalk baby's bedrooms, they said, let's fry them babies.
17:05
Speaker 3: That's what I'm talking about.
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Speaker 2: So, Mike McCormick, when I hear very well known gang member,
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Speaker 2: ain't nothing good about that?
17:18
Speaker 3: What does that mean?
17:19
Speaker 2: Very well, No, not just a gang member, but a
17:22
Speaker 2: very well known gang member.
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Speaker 8: Oh, that usually means that he's been in and out
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Speaker 8: of Jeral numerous times, has numerous contacts with law enforcement,
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Speaker 8: and usually is an extremely violent individual.
17:42
Speaker 2: Kaylan Becker, have you looked at these girls? Have you
17:45
Speaker 2: looked at Evlyn that smile.
17:49
Speaker 7: Mile her gimbles.
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Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember the old Gidget movies.
17:53
Speaker 3: Does anybody remember them?
17:54
Speaker 2: But me, this looks like Gidget. It's just like Gidget,
17:58
Speaker 2: that big, beautiful smile. And then look at Kimberly, totally glamorous.
18:05
Speaker 2: She's kind of got almost off the shoulder, but not
18:07
Speaker 2: quite like a satin evening dress or blouse on, and
18:11
Speaker 2: her hair as all wavy down the side on one
18:14
Speaker 2: side of her shoulder. Absolutely stunning. I just I want
18:20
Speaker 2: to cry, Caitlin, my daughter and son, of course they're twins,
18:25
Speaker 2: are fifteen. These girls are just a little bit older
18:29
Speaker 2: than my John, David and Lucy, and this guy space
18:34
Speaker 2: through three red lights and kills them.
18:39
Speaker 7: The hole that this loss has left in their family
18:43
Speaker 7: is just impossible to understand. Several of their relatives have
18:48
Speaker 7: spoken to the media and they're just it's just a
18:51
Speaker 7: gut punch. Kimberly and Veronica were actually one of seven children,
18:57
Speaker 7: so they've got brothers and sisters. They were described as
19:01
Speaker 7: great big sisters who would take their siblings to get
19:04
Speaker 7: Starbuck because theydn't get something to eat. They just seemed
19:07
Speaker 7: like this very just close knit, wonderful family, and they'd
19:10
Speaker 7: been friends with Weblin for years and years and years
19:13
Speaker 7: and anty. We also have to remember that in the
19:15
Speaker 7: front seat passenger seat, another friend of theirs was there
19:20
Speaker 7: as well, and he was terribly injured but survived. So
19:24
Speaker 7: now you also have a survivor of this group and
19:28
Speaker 7: of this tragedy that has to live with that moving
19:31
Speaker 7: forward and just knowing that the person who did this,
19:34
Speaker 7: there were plenty of opportunities for this person who have
19:37
Speaker 7: been put behind bars for any number any number of crimes,
19:41
Speaker 7: and maybe wouldn't have been on the road that night.
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Speaker 3: Gosh Cyclist Nower cut seven from title.
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Speaker 5: This tragic accident took the lives of three innocent people.
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Speaker 1: To them sisters.
19:50
Speaker 5: The three women were passengers in an uber when the
19:52
Speaker 5: suspects Mercedes ran that red light and collided with their car.
19:56
Speaker 5: The impact was so strong that the vehicle spun around
19:59
Speaker 5: five time times before coming to a stomp. The uber driver,
20:02
Speaker 5: a thirty eight year old woman, and a fourth passenger,
20:05
Speaker 5: a young man, were taken to the hospital, both of
20:07
Speaker 5: them severely injured.
20:09
Speaker 2: Joining me right now in addition to doctor Joni Johnson
20:12
Speaker 2: and forensic psychologist and author of Serial Killers one hundred
20:17
Speaker 2: and one questions true crime fans asked. Joshua Ritter is
20:21
Speaker 2: with us, a veteran criminal defense attorney, former LA County
20:26
Speaker 2: Deputy district attorney, now partner. You can find him at
20:31
Speaker 2: Joshua Ridder dot com. Joshua, what's the name of your
20:35
Speaker 2: law firm?
20:36
Speaker 11: Held? Dobby Ridder Trial Lawyers.
20:38
Speaker 2: Joshua, why do people insist on calling this an accident,
20:41
Speaker 2: Because when you run three red lights at one hundred mph.
20:46
Speaker 3: That's not an accident.
20:47
Speaker 2: Your foot is on the gas, you are choosing to
20:51
Speaker 2: run through three lights.
20:53
Speaker 3: That's not an accident. That's a crash.
20:55
Speaker 11: Now, that's an excellent point. It's not only not an accident,
20:58
Speaker 11: it's very arguably an intentional act. I mean, you are
21:03
Speaker 11: putting people's lives. There's no argument to be made that
21:05
Speaker 11: you should not be aware that you were putting people's
21:08
Speaker 11: lives at risk by driving that speed down a busy street,
21:13
Speaker 11: running through red lights. That to me is pushing this
21:16
Speaker 11: from you know, they're charging him with vehicular manslaughter. This
21:19
Speaker 11: is pushing this towards murder charges. To me, if you're
21:21
Speaker 11: driving at that high rate of a speed, going through
21:24
Speaker 11: stop science, how can you possibly claim this was an accident,
21:28
Speaker 11: that this was not an unintended, unforeseen consequence of your actions.
21:32
Speaker 3: What is this area?
21:34
Speaker 2: Does anybody on the panel note a lot of you
21:37
Speaker 2: are from this jurisdiction? Doctor Jony Caitlin, Mike McCormick, Joshua Ritter.
21:44
Speaker 7: It's thirty five miles per hour. Yeah, it's a residential area.
21:47
Speaker 3: It is residential.
21:49
Speaker 8: Yeah, Mike unccormick, Gregory Block was on a mission to
21:54
Speaker 8: create a devastating carnage. This was absolutely no.
21:58
Speaker 3: Accident, no accident at all.
22:01
Speaker 2: Joseph Tremblay joining a senior forensic engineer, Accident reconstructionist joining us.
22:06
Speaker 2: You can find them at veritech Janjfengineer dot com.
22:11
Speaker 3: Joseph, if we didn't have.
22:12
Speaker 2: A surveillance video, we may not be able to prove this,
22:17
Speaker 2: but we do have the surveillance video. Why do people
22:20
Speaker 2: insist on calling this an accident.
22:23
Speaker 10: That's a very good question. There's a lot of things
22:25
Speaker 10: that indicate that this was not an accident, and I
22:28
Speaker 10: do want to point out one thing too. We have
22:32
Speaker 10: footage that has this uber car in the intersection. But
22:38
Speaker 10: what's also important to realize is that this ubercar was
22:42
Speaker 10: in that intersection for a long time before the accident happened.
22:46
Speaker 10: So what you can deduce from that is that mister
22:50
Speaker 10: Black may not have even been paying attention or he
22:55
Speaker 10: just didn't care because he probably saw this vehicle. He's
22:58
Speaker 10: probably saw cars passing in front of him long before
23:01
Speaker 10: the impact occurred.
23:02
Speaker 7: And Nancy, if I can just jump in where the
23:05
Speaker 7: accident was located, so it's all kind of This is
23:08
Speaker 7: sort of how a Lock Angeles is sort of set
23:09
Speaker 7: up all around. It's sort of a main thoroughfare with businesses, restaurants,
23:13
Speaker 7: seven eleven, kind of up and down the streets, but
23:16
Speaker 7: all the side streets are residential, so it's not really
23:20
Speaker 7: This isn't a highway area. And at this time of
23:22
Speaker 7: night you can drive on the highways in LA without traffic.
23:25
Speaker 7: So if he was trying to get from point A
23:27
Speaker 7: to B, there are probably better ways to have gotten there.
23:29
Speaker 7: But what some of our sources have said is their
23:33
Speaker 7: investigators are looking into why Black was going the speed
23:37
Speaker 7: he was going in the area that he was driving.
23:40
Speaker 7: There's no reason to be going one hundred miles an
23:42
Speaker 7: hour per hour at that point.
23:43
Speaker 3: Is there any reason I care? Why?
23:45
Speaker 7: Maybe because where was he coming from? And the question
23:48
Speaker 7: is if he was fleeing something, are there potentially more
23:51
Speaker 7: charges we can get there?
23:52
Speaker 3: Give me like a crime flaeing a crime?
23:54
Speaker 2: Oh, by the way, he had a gun in his car.
24:00
Speaker 2: In his car, Okay, with that in mind, take a listener,
24:05
Speaker 2: friend Hal Eisner.
24:07
Speaker 13: To Jose, this is the tragedy.
24:09
Speaker 3: No parents should have to bury their shop.
24:12
Speaker 13: Jose's parents now have to bury two, and their friend's
24:15
Speaker 13: family have to bury one as well. The way Jose
24:18
Speaker 13: puts it, they all grew up together. They grew up
24:21
Speaker 13: as friends, and they died as friends.
24:23
Speaker 9: When people talk about things like soulmates, that's that's what it.
24:26
Speaker 13: Is, investigators told our jugigress. Yet they were looking into
24:30
Speaker 13: whether the suspect driver was fleeing another crime.
24:33
Speaker 2: Just like Caitlin Becker was telling us to. Doctor Joni Johnson,
24:37
Speaker 2: joining us from Dill Mahr, forensic psychologist and also author
24:42
Speaker 2: of Serial Killers one hundred and one questions true crime
24:45
Speaker 2: fans ask, you can find doctor Jony at doctor Joni
24:48
Speaker 2: Johnston dot com. Doctor Joni way in on the thinking,
24:53
Speaker 2: not that this is an element the state has to prove,
24:56
Speaker 2: but the thinking of this killer.
24:59
Speaker 14: Well, we know he wasn't thinking about any potential victims
25:02
Speaker 14: on his wrap, that's for sure. It'll be interesting to
25:06
Speaker 14: find out what he was in fact, if he was
25:08
Speaker 14: fleeing from something, what he was fleeing from. But I
25:11
Speaker 14: think I've interviewed many gang members in prison and outside
25:15
Speaker 14: of prison, and you know, it's a lot of times
25:18
Speaker 14: there is a different mentality and the mentality is is
25:21
Speaker 14: you've put it out this kind of gang war that's
25:23
Speaker 14: going on, and so it's like, that's how the world is.
25:26
Speaker 14: We're soldiers and we have to do these certain things,
25:29
Speaker 14: and if there are a collateral damage, if there are
25:32
Speaker 14: civilian victims, well that's just too bad because this is
25:35
Speaker 14: the world that we live in and this is how
25:36
Speaker 14: we're going to operate. And it's just it's just so unfair.
25:42
Speaker 14: You know, somebody else point out on the panel to
25:43
Speaker 14: think of these beautiful young women, this young man who
25:46
Speaker 14: knows their life in front of them, who are doing
25:48
Speaker 14: everything right, who are being safe, and then you have
25:51
Speaker 14: somebody who is engaging, at the very minimum so recklessly
25:55
Speaker 14: intentionally putting other people's lives in danger, and clearly has
25:59
Speaker 14: this long history of similar behavior or worse behavior behind him.
26:04
Speaker 2: Guys, we're talking about him being out on probation from murder.
26:11
Speaker 3: Take a listener. Our friend Phil Schumann.
26:13
Speaker 12: The District Attorney's office, clarified to Fox eleven that Black
26:16
Speaker 12: did not commit murder. He was caught on camera and
26:19
Speaker 12: a car used in a murder wasn't the shooter or driver.
26:21
Speaker 12: So rather than prosecuting him for that, a plead deal
26:24
Speaker 12: for probation was offered to Black and accepted for another
26:27
Speaker 12: related crime, an attempted murder in which no one was hurt.
26:42
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
26:46
Speaker 2: Let me understand, is he or is he not on
26:49
Speaker 2: probation for murder Caitlin Becker.
26:51
Speaker 7: He's on probation for attempted murder. He received five years probation.
26:56
Speaker 7: Initially he it was.
26:57
Speaker 11: Four people were charged for or murder.
27:00
Speaker 7: Conspiracy to commit murder, and for shooting in an occupied vehicle,
27:05
Speaker 7: So this is a drive by shooting. In twenty twenty,
27:08
Speaker 7: the murder charges were dropped one of those four, his
27:12
Speaker 7: case is still working its way through the court system.
27:15
Speaker 7: Two of the others pled down, and in this case,
27:18
Speaker 7: our guy that we're concerned with, Gregory Black, got five
27:21
Speaker 7: years probation for attempted murder.
27:23
Speaker 3: Let me understand something.
27:25
Speaker 2: Did the victim in the drive by shooting die?
27:28
Speaker 7: Yes, the victim in the drive by shooting did die?
27:31
Speaker 7: Because there are murder charges still working their way for
27:35
Speaker 7: some of the other defendants.
27:37
Speaker 2: So where is the attempted murder coming from? If the
27:40
Speaker 2: person died.
27:41
Speaker 7: I think it's involving how Black was involved in the instant.
27:47
Speaker 2: Okay, so look, either he's they want to tell me
27:51
Speaker 2: he's asleep in the car when all this happened, when
27:56
Speaker 2: the shooting went down. Is that what they're saying, Kaitlonard,
27:59
Speaker 2: Josh ts Ritter, do you know?
28:01
Speaker 7: I don't know. And this is specifically because a lot
28:03
Speaker 7: of the case details for this twenty twenty case haven't
28:06
Speaker 7: been revealed.
28:07
Speaker 3: I bet they have.
28:08
Speaker 2: Not because you know, the prosecutors don't want me to
28:11
Speaker 2: find out this. So, okay, you've got a dead guy,
28:16
Speaker 2: but it's just attempted murder.
28:18
Speaker 3: It's to drive by shooting.
28:21
Speaker 2: But he's on probation for attempted murder even though it's
28:26
Speaker 2: a dead body. And his defense is he was asleep
28:30
Speaker 2: or unconscious. Do I am I getting this right? Please
28:35
Speaker 2: tell me I'm wrong.
28:36
Speaker 7: I haven't seen anything along the lines of him being
28:39
Speaker 7: asleeper unconscious in my reporting, but I do know that
28:42
Speaker 7: he was in the vehicle and the two other people who.
28:46
Speaker 2: Let me read to you from Fox eleven and I'm quoting,
28:49
Speaker 2: prosecutors have an ethical duty not to pursue charge. We
28:52
Speaker 2: cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt in the murder. We
28:54
Speaker 2: had evidence to indicate he was asleep or unconscious at the.
28:59
Speaker 3: Time of the fence.
29:01
Speaker 2: Now I'm talking, but he was in the car, and
29:04
Speaker 2: what he sleeps through a drive by shooting?
29:08
Speaker 3: Really?
29:09
Speaker 2: And if they're talking about their ethical duty, Joshua Ridder,
29:13
Speaker 2: the ethical duty is if you don't think they're involved,
29:16
Speaker 2: then you drop the charges. You don't take a plea
29:19
Speaker 2: and have somebody plead guilty to something that.
29:22
Speaker 3: You don't believe they did. This is completely past ackwards.
29:26
Speaker 3: They want their cake and they want to eat it too.
29:29
Speaker 2: You can't say, oh, we're dropping the murder charge because
29:31
Speaker 2: he was a sleeper unconscious, but we'll let him plead
29:34
Speaker 2: guilty to attempted murder.
29:36
Speaker 3: What the hey is.
29:37
Speaker 7: That he pleaded no contest.
29:39
Speaker 3: I don't know if that may it makes no difference none.
29:42
Speaker 3: That is total bs.
29:44
Speaker 2: That's what a defendant wants to the stand and he
29:46
Speaker 2: won't say I'm guilty, But yet he takes his sentence
29:50
Speaker 2: and he's adjudicated as guilty. So how does this work
29:54
Speaker 2: with their ethical duty? Josh Ritter That they think he
29:59
Speaker 2: was a sleeper and conscios during the drive by shooting
30:01
Speaker 2: and he's in the car, I guess what slept through it?
30:06
Speaker 2: But so they're not going to prosecute him for murder
30:09
Speaker 2: or a tip, but they let him played guilty to
30:11
Speaker 2: a lesser offense. So how can he be asleep and
30:14
Speaker 2: unconscious and not guilty in any way, but yet they
30:18
Speaker 2: take a guilty point.
30:20
Speaker 11: No, I agree with you, Nancy. This is this is laughable.
30:23
Speaker 11: I mean, look at the wording that the DA released there.
30:27
Speaker 3: Who is the DA.
30:29
Speaker 11: They're not saying what that evidence is, is the evidence
30:32
Speaker 11: coming from him? Is the evidence him saying I was
30:36
Speaker 11: asleep at the time I didn't know. Is that their
30:38
Speaker 11: evidence to indicate he was asleep? They don't say what
30:40
Speaker 11: that actual evidence is. I worked as a DA for
30:44
Speaker 11: many years and we had cases like this all the time.
30:47
Speaker 11: Drive by shootings don't take place with one person in
30:49
Speaker 11: the vehicle, and.
30:50
Speaker 3: They're not asleep in the backseat either.
30:53
Speaker 11: Correct, And they all know what they're going to do.
30:55
Speaker 8: They all know what the plan is.
30:57
Speaker 11: So that's why everyone is charged with the crimes. Everybody
31:01
Speaker 11: is charged with taking part in that drive by shooting.
31:05
Speaker 11: A person ended up dead here, and you're saying that
31:08
Speaker 11: this person not only got probation, but it was able
31:10
Speaker 11: to plead to something less than murder. It's shocking to me.
31:15
Speaker 11: I mean, this is why the decisions made by prosecutors
31:20
Speaker 11: can have vast disastrous consequences beyond the actual case that
31:24
Speaker 11: they might be dealing with. You have a person here that,
31:27
Speaker 11: by all of our assessments, should be in prison to
31:30
Speaker 11: this day. This led shooting took place in twenty twenty,
31:34
Speaker 11: so she's not even three years into what it should
31:37
Speaker 11: have been a very long prison sentence, and it steadies
31:39
Speaker 11: out and driving one hundred miles down the road and
31:41
Speaker 11: kills three innocent people.
31:43
Speaker 2: Not only that, did you say, Joshua Ritter and anybody
31:46
Speaker 2: on the panel jump in if you know more or
31:48
Speaker 2: better facts on this That he has at least three
31:53
Speaker 2: felony convictions and eleven priors that are open. Did you
31:58
Speaker 2: hear that many of which are failony charges? Why is
32:03
Speaker 2: he even out walking around?
32:05
Speaker 11: I saw that reporting, and like we talked about earlier,
32:08
Speaker 11: the fact that the police are referring to him as
32:11
Speaker 11: a known game member, meaning that he's not only committing crimes,
32:14
Speaker 11: he's committing game related crimes. This is not a candidate
32:18
Speaker 11: for probation. I don't care what they're saying. Their involvement
32:22
Speaker 11: was in this drive by shooting This is not the
32:25
Speaker 11: person that you put in the column of possible probation.
32:28
Speaker 7: This is a.
32:28
Speaker 11: Person who once again is caught up in some sort
32:32
Speaker 11: of crime that led to someone's death. Talking about that
32:35
Speaker 11: drive by shooting and they should have been put in
32:38
Speaker 11: prison and taken off the streets so that they couldn't participate,
32:41
Speaker 11: and other types of behavior like the one that we're
32:44
Speaker 11: talking about today, driving one hundred miles down the road
32:47
Speaker 11: and three innocent people who are just trying to go home.
32:50
Speaker 11: End ub debt.
32:51
Speaker 2: You know, when you are the elected district attorney, you
32:55
Speaker 2: have other As you're hearing Joshua Ritter was a deputy
32:59
Speaker 2: district attorney. They're the lieutenants. They prosecute the crimes. They're
33:04
Speaker 2: in the courtrooms as was I trying cases every day.
33:10
Speaker 2: I did it for ten years as a violent fellowy prosecutor.
33:15
Speaker 3: Before that, I was a fed.
33:17
Speaker 2: The elected district attorney sets the tone of how cases
33:24
Speaker 2: are prosecuted. If you're week on crime, you get taken
33:27
Speaker 2: out of the courtroom or fired, or you go right appeals,
33:30
Speaker 2: or you handle GV cases, or you collect child support
33:35
Speaker 2: from deadbeat dads. If you can't prosecute a case and
33:39
Speaker 2: put somebody behind bars. So I don't necessarily blame the
33:44
Speaker 2: ADA Assistant District Attorney that did this.
33:48
Speaker 3: I blame the DA who is the DA renter.
33:52
Speaker 11: He's a gentleman by the name of George Gusco who
33:55
Speaker 11: came into office and has dramatically changed the way that
34:00
Speaker 11: cases are prosecuted in that office from day one. He
34:03
Speaker 11: really several directives that dramatically change the way that they
34:07
Speaker 11: handle things.
34:07
Speaker 3: In what way I take it not more harsh?
34:11
Speaker 11: No, from things from abolishing bail essentially to not prosecuting juveniles.
34:15
Speaker 2: When you say abolishing mail, you know what I mean,
34:17
Speaker 2: Hey you can't have bail, you have to sit in jail.
34:20
Speaker 2: He means, hey, you can want free and you don't
34:22
Speaker 2: even have to put up bail.
34:24
Speaker 11: Exactly and most poignantly to our case here today. He
34:28
Speaker 11: also has a near blanket policy, is my understanding.
34:32
Speaker 8: As far as.
34:33
Speaker 11: Any type of gang allegation, the gang allegation is a
34:36
Speaker 11: very powerful tool for prosecutors in California, where if a
34:41
Speaker 11: crime was committed for the furtherance or benefit of a gang,
34:43
Speaker 11: it can add time to their case. This is a
34:48
Speaker 11: known gang member. I am certain I don't even need
34:53
Speaker 11: to read the facts of that drive by shooting that
34:55
Speaker 11: was somehow gang related. Had those policies been applied or
34:59
Speaker 11: been a lot to be applied, they're not off the
35:01
Speaker 11: books in California. He just won't apply them to the
35:04
Speaker 11: crimes in Los Angeles County. Had those been applied, that person,
35:08
Speaker 11: very well, the person that we're talking about here today,
35:10
Speaker 11: very well could have still been behind bars.
35:12
Speaker 2: If you have information on this case, I'm not sure
35:16
Speaker 2: what good it will do with this district attorney who
35:20
Speaker 2: was elected by the people.
35:22
Speaker 3: It's on them.
35:24
Speaker 2: But who is going to stand up for crime victims
35:29
Speaker 2: and their families left behind?
35:32
Speaker 3: If not me, if not you, then who.
35:39
Speaker 2: And what will happen when we're the crime victim or
35:42
Speaker 2: our family or our friend.
35:44
Speaker 3: Who will stand up for us?
35:48
Speaker 2: It's not the elected district attorney there Gasconn It's not.
35:52
Speaker 2: And this is yet another example. Look, I don't care
35:57
Speaker 2: about politics. I hate politics. This DA is not protecting
36:02
Speaker 2: innocent victims. Ask the families of weapland of Veronica of
36:08
Speaker 2: Kimberly if you have information on this case, and I
36:13
Speaker 2: pray to God it would help, dial eight hundred two
36:16
Speaker 2: two two tips. That's eight four seven seven for crime
36:20
Speaker 2: Stoppers in La eight hundred two two two eight four
36:24
Speaker 2: seven seven.
36:25
Speaker 3: Goodbye friend,