Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / PROSECUTOR ORDERS BROKEN-HEARTED MOM TO SORT CRIME PHOTOS OF DISMEMBERED DAUGHTER

Transcript

PROSECUTOR ORDERS BROKEN-HEARTED MOM TO SORT CRIME PHOTOS OF DISMEMBERED DAUGHTER · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece. Your daughter, the love of
0:16
Speaker 1: your life, goes missing. You suffer and suffer until you
0:25
Speaker 1: find out the worst she's dead. Can you imagine anything
0:34
Speaker 1: else that could be heaped on you as a mother
0:38
Speaker 1: or father that could intensify your pain after what you've
0:44
Speaker 1: already been through? Well, how about this? How about if
0:50
Speaker 1: the Assistant District Attorney ask you, the mother of the
0:58
Speaker 1: dead girl, to come to the DA's office, escort you
1:05
Speaker 1: to a little office and ask you to sort through
1:11
Speaker 1: the evidence and organize it, including the photos of your
1:20
Speaker 1: girl in death. Now, I've got to say, when my
1:27
Speaker 1: fiance was murdered, I did not want to see his body,
1:31
Speaker 1: even in a casket, even with all the makeup on
1:34
Speaker 1: and the fixing him to cover up the five bullet
1:37
Speaker 1: wounds to his head, his face, his back, his neck,
1:43
Speaker 1: and the one moment I did see a tiny bit
1:46
Speaker 1: of his profile at a distance in the casket, I
1:50
Speaker 1: passed out. So what has this mother endured? Thanks to
1:59
Speaker 1: a week prosecutor I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
2:06
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Foxination and
2:09
Speaker 1: Serious Exam one eleven. First of all, take a listen
2:14
Speaker 1: to this report from our friend Taylor Alanice at k
2:18
Speaker 1: R six.
2:20
Speaker 2: I'm supposed to trust her. I'm supposed to trust the DA,
2:24
Speaker 2: and you're asking me to do something.
2:27
Speaker 3: I trust you, trust that, Fallen Wood says, was broken
2:31
Speaker 3: by what she thought was a simple favor.
2:34
Speaker 2: I remember her saying that she needed help sorting out
2:39
Speaker 2: and arranging the boxes containing all the evidence.
2:45
Speaker 1: So she did what she thought any mother would do.
2:48
Speaker 2: She did not say that it would jeopardize the case,
2:50
Speaker 2: but she did say, you know, just keep this between us.
2:54
Speaker 3: Wood says, Assistant DA and Helga Avnandez brought her to
2:57
Speaker 3: a small room.
2:59
Speaker 2: I sat on the floor for three days sorting all
3:04
Speaker 2: the interviews, everything from each name, from all seven names.
3:09
Speaker 3: She says. Anande's made copies of video interviews with one
3:13
Speaker 3: man who took a plea deal in connection to Brianna's murder.
3:17
Speaker 3: Wood was allowed to take those videos home and keeps
3:20
Speaker 3: them locked in her safe. The evidence also included pictures
3:25
Speaker 3: of Brianna's body.
3:26
Speaker 2: It's the last image I see every night when I
3:29
Speaker 2: go to sleep, is that picture of what Brianna looked
3:33
Speaker 2: like when they found her.
3:35
Speaker 1: You are hearing the voice of someone I now consider
3:40
Speaker 1: to be a friend Fallon would the mother of Brianna.
3:47
Speaker 1: I had heard nothing about this horrible travesty until I
3:54
Speaker 1: happened to go speak in Corpus CHRISTI for the Purple Door,
4:01
Speaker 1: who raises money for the women's shelter there, and there
4:07
Speaker 1: I met some incredible women. In addition to hearing fallen
4:13
Speaker 1: Wood's story about what she endured at the hands of
4:18
Speaker 1: the local Assistant prosecutor, the week DA, who has now
4:21
Speaker 1: taking the death penalty off the table, I also met
4:25
Speaker 1: another woman, a victim's advocate, Sharon Sedwick. She's a victim's
4:33
Speaker 1: advocate because she is the mother of Jennifer Cave, who
4:38
Speaker 1: was murdered. The Jennifer Cave Act was passed, making mutilation
4:47
Speaker 1: of a corp corpse a felony. Sharon, how did you
4:53
Speaker 1: become involved in fallen Wood's the mom of Brianna Wood
4:58
Speaker 1: murdered case.
5:00
Speaker 4: I had been watching it on the news and it
5:04
Speaker 4: felt like I was reliving our nightmare. And I became
5:09
Speaker 4: very concerned because I didn't think she was getting any
5:12
Speaker 4: victim services help. And this was before COVID and I
5:16
Speaker 4: went to our county commissioners about the lack of victim
5:21
Speaker 4: services in our DA's office because at that time we
5:24
Speaker 4: only had one lady and she had just quipped.
5:27
Speaker 1: Gee, I wonder why Yeah. In an atmosphere like that,
5:30
Speaker 1: they obviously do not place any emphasis on crime victims. Guys,
5:35
Speaker 1: let's just start at the beginning. Brianna Wood goes missing.
5:40
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at crimeonline dot com cuta.
5:45
Speaker 5: Brianna Wood and her mom talked or texted every day.
5:48
Speaker 5: The family was close. Brianna, her mom, Fallon, and a brother.
5:52
Speaker 5: The family had moved to Corpus Christi from Nevada just
5:55
Speaker 5: four years before. On October eleventh, about ten pm, twenty
6:00
Speaker 5: one year old Brianna texts her mom, She's on the
6:02
Speaker 5: way home.
6:03
Speaker 1: Guys with me. In addition to victim's advocate Sharon Sedwick
6:06
Speaker 1: in an all star panel of guests, Taylor Alanie is
6:11
Speaker 1: with US TV news anchor journalists for Kris six, who's
6:16
Speaker 1: been on the case from the very beginning, joining us
6:18
Speaker 1: out of Corpus Christy at the very beginning, where was
6:22
Speaker 1: Brianna going?
6:23
Speaker 6: The last we heard of Brianna, she was at a PMI,
6:28
Speaker 6: which is a convenience store. She was seen on camera
6:31
Speaker 6: that same day that she texted her mom earlier in
6:34
Speaker 6: the day and that was the last time people saw.
6:37
Speaker 1: Her, so she goes missing. Last heard from around ten PM,
6:43
Speaker 1: she texts mom and says I'm on the way home,
6:47
Speaker 1: but she never made it. Listen.
6:50
Speaker 5: The next day, Fallon Wood files a missing persons report.
6:54
Speaker 5: As police investigate, they learned Brianna Wood was last seen
6:57
Speaker 5: at a PMI market. Missing persons flyers are posted, and
7:01
Speaker 5: the Corpus Christi Police asks the public for help searching
7:04
Speaker 5: for Wood. Family and friends create a GoFundMe account to
7:08
Speaker 5: raise money to pay for the search for Brianna. Then
7:11
Speaker 5: police get a tip a woman tried to use Brianna
7:14
Speaker 5: Wood's ID card at a pawn shop. The tip didn't
7:17
Speaker 5: pan out. Detectives interview the woman and quickly take her
7:21
Speaker 5: off the suspect list. She was Wood's friend who had
7:24
Speaker 5: previously used the card with Brianna's consent. In early December,
7:28
Speaker 5: a Justice for Brief Facebook page is created. Days later,
7:32
Speaker 5: police receive an anonymous tip that leads officers to a
7:35
Speaker 5: pond and flower Bluff. Nothing was found. The search for
7:39
Speaker 5: Brianna Wood continues.
7:40
Speaker 1: To Taylor, a niece, joining us Kris six false Hope. First,
7:46
Speaker 1: they find they believe that her cards are used that
7:50
Speaker 1: was wrong. Then they find out that they should rush
7:53
Speaker 1: to a pond and flower buff Nothing was found, So
7:57
Speaker 1: the mom is being taken on a roller coaster ride
8:01
Speaker 1: of pain. What was happening within the home at this
8:06
Speaker 1: time as everyone was trying to find Brianna Wood and
8:09
Speaker 1: what was going on in the search for Brianna Wood?
8:12
Speaker 1: What was the community doing? What were police doing to
8:15
Speaker 1: try to find her?
8:16
Speaker 6: There wasn't much, you know, other than of course searches
8:19
Speaker 6: going on families and friends. I mean, police were kind
8:22
Speaker 6: of remaining tight lipped. We don't think there was even
8:25
Speaker 6: anything other than a tip about the pond where, of
8:29
Speaker 6: course no, nothing was found. And then when they went
8:32
Speaker 6: to a pawn shop and ended up being a friend
8:35
Speaker 6: of Brianna's who had used her identification card before. Brianna
8:39
Speaker 6: had given her permission to use that card before, So
8:41
Speaker 6: that was that lead. Was nothing, So people a dead
8:46
Speaker 6: end and a family had already gone is going through
8:50
Speaker 6: the holidays without their daughter.
8:52
Speaker 1: Guys, take a listen now to our friends at Action
8:54
Speaker 1: ten Crime Fighters.
8:55
Speaker 7: Twenty one year old Brianna Wood has been missing for weeks.
8:58
Speaker 7: Her family and friends of seen or heard from her.
9:01
Speaker 7: We're told Brianna's cat was left at her home unattended.
9:05
Speaker 8: She was last seen at the PMI here downtown at
9:08
Speaker 8: on Tankowa.
9:10
Speaker 7: Brianna's mother first reported her missing back in October the eleventh.
9:14
Speaker 7: Mom told cops she's concerned because she spoke with Brianna
9:18
Speaker 7: daily and hadn't heard from her in almost a week.
9:21
Speaker 7: Is there a possibility that she was abducted or harmed.
9:25
Speaker 8: Yeah, there's certainly a lot of speculation. You know, a
9:29
Speaker 8: lot of room for speculation. We're worried that maybe something
9:33
Speaker 8: has happened, but at this point we don't have any
9:34
Speaker 8: supporting evidence.
9:35
Speaker 1: No supporting evidence. I find that very very difficult to believe.
9:40
Speaker 1: Joining me, Doctor Jeff Kalashevski, forensic psychologist, author of Dark Sides,
9:49
Speaker 1: Doctor Jeff, thank you for being with us. You know,
9:51
Speaker 1: when a young girl just twenty one years old is
9:55
Speaker 1: constantly in touch with her mother, her family on social
9:58
Speaker 1: media and suddenly she off the face of the earth,
10:01
Speaker 1: I think that's a pretty good indicator that something has
10:04
Speaker 1: gone horribly wrong. And I'm saying that based on her
10:09
Speaker 1: track record. When you text home and call home throughout
10:13
Speaker 1: the day, every day of your life and then suddenly
10:17
Speaker 1: nobody can hear from you, or find you or track you.
10:21
Speaker 1: Why do cops insist on saying no foul play?
10:25
Speaker 9: This case is just was idrid from the beginning. It
10:29
Speaker 9: just seemed like no one was really in any type
10:31
Speaker 9: of hurry or had a lot of motivation to really
10:36
Speaker 9: investigate and try to find this girl. As I read
10:40
Speaker 9: through things in the case, I just think I wore
10:42
Speaker 9: a patch out in my head, scratching my head. I
10:46
Speaker 9: don't understand why this wasn't a bigger story and why
10:49
Speaker 9: there wasn't more effort I put forth to fin this person.
11:05
Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace joining me now is someone
11:11
Speaker 1: that may have answers. In addition to Sharon said, joining
11:14
Speaker 1: me is jeff Rickle, private investigator hired by Brianna Wood's mother,
11:20
Speaker 1: Former Texas ranger. Jeffrey, Well, thank you so much for
11:24
Speaker 1: being with us. When did you first get involved in
11:27
Speaker 1: the search for Brianna?
11:28
Speaker 10: Thanks for having me. First met Brian Fallin, probably in November,
11:35
Speaker 10: a little bit for the holidays, and she, you know,
11:38
Speaker 10: she was at her within. She's a shattered woman searching
11:41
Speaker 10: for answers, trying to find her daughter, and my boss
11:46
Speaker 10: and I met with her and she desired to hire
11:50
Speaker 10: us and to get some help try to She was
11:55
Speaker 10: doing everything she could. She was handing out flyers and
11:59
Speaker 10: just some dangerous neighborhoods in any place she could go
12:03
Speaker 10: to and ask where she might could find something about
12:06
Speaker 10: Brianna and.
12:08
Speaker 1: What, if anything, did you do.
12:09
Speaker 10: We interviewed a few people, some lead to try to,
12:15
Speaker 10: you know, to see who was involved or what somebody
12:18
Speaker 10: might know, any information we could get.
12:21
Speaker 1: Jeff, what was Brionna's mother fell in going through at
12:24
Speaker 1: this time? She was the one out searching. She was
12:27
Speaker 1: the one out putting up posters, handing out flyers. Finally
12:31
Speaker 1: is to the point where she hires a private investigator,
12:34
Speaker 1: has to go get a gofundly started to help her
12:37
Speaker 1: find her daughter. What state of mind was she in
12:41
Speaker 1: at the point where you got involved in the case.
12:44
Speaker 10: I really don't know how she's putting one foot in
12:46
Speaker 10: front of the other at that point and functioning, but
12:49
Speaker 10: she was. I mean that he's looking for her daughter.
12:53
Speaker 11: You know.
12:53
Speaker 1: Matthew Mangina joining US, high profile lawyer and author of
12:57
Speaker 1: the Executioner's Toll, former prosecutor Matthew you know, it's bad
13:02
Speaker 1: when the victim's family cannot find their girl and they
13:05
Speaker 1: have to hire a private investigator to help them search
13:10
Speaker 1: because the DA's office and local law enforcement is not
13:13
Speaker 1: doing their job.
13:14
Speaker 12: Well, you're right, Nancy. Unfortunately, you know, when you're dealing
13:18
Speaker 12: with a missing missing person, you know, the first couple
13:22
Speaker 12: of days may be the most important days in terms
13:25
Speaker 12: of investigation, trying to put something together where she was,
13:29
Speaker 12: you know, when she was last seen, who might have
13:31
Speaker 12: seen her, where she might have been.
13:33
Speaker 2: You know.
13:34
Speaker 12: Unfortunately, sometimes when these missing persons calls are made and
13:38
Speaker 12: it's an adult, you know, they're not they're not looked
13:42
Speaker 12: at with any real seriousness. You know, they'll they'll they'll
13:46
Speaker 12: turn up, is kind of the explanation. And that's just
13:50
Speaker 12: not satisfactory.
13:51
Speaker 1: Matthew Man Gina, I always hear, oh, she probably went
13:54
Speaker 1: off with her boyfriend. Take a listen to our friends
13:58
Speaker 1: at ten Action ten.
14:00
Speaker 7: Brihanna is five foot five, weighs about one hundred pounds,
14:04
Speaker 7: has black hair and hazel eyes.
14:06
Speaker 8: She's missing. We're really concerned about her. This is unlike
14:09
Speaker 8: her to be not in contact with her family. She
14:14
Speaker 8: had a cat that she cared for.
14:16
Speaker 7: Her picture has been posted all over social media, in newspapers,
14:20
Speaker 7: on television, and still no one has come forward with
14:23
Speaker 7: any kind of information about her whereabouts.
14:26
Speaker 8: Really come to a point where we really want the
14:29
Speaker 8: public to help us find Brianna Wood.
14:31
Speaker 7: If you have any information about the whereabouts of Brianna Wood,
14:34
Speaker 7: called crime Stoppers at eight day Tips or submit a
14:37
Speaker 7: tip online at eightada eight tips dot com.
14:40
Speaker 1: This mother Fallon Wood doing everything she can to bring
14:46
Speaker 1: her daughter home, what could be worse and feeling like
14:51
Speaker 1: the system is actually fighting against her. Now take a
14:55
Speaker 1: listen to three News.
14:57
Speaker 13: It has now been seven weeks since twenty one year
14:59
Speaker 13: old Hannah Wood was last seen and police still need
15:02
Speaker 13: your help.
15:02
Speaker 1: To find her. Wood has been missing.
15:04
Speaker 13: Since October eleventh, after she was last seen at the
15:07
Speaker 13: PM convenience store on Tonqua and Hancock. A reward has
15:11
Speaker 13: been doubled now to.
15:12
Speaker 1: Ten thousand dollars.
15:14
Speaker 13: If you have any information, call detectives at eight eight
15:16
Speaker 13: six twenty six hundred.
15:18
Speaker 1: You know I've got a question for you. Sharon Sedwick,
15:21
Speaker 1: joining us victim's advocate and crime victim herself. I believe
15:26
Speaker 1: that rewards do help, do you, I?
15:30
Speaker 4: Yes, I do think and especially in this case, I
15:33
Speaker 4: could see where it would help because there were a
15:38
Speaker 4: lot of extended players. So yes, I do think rewards
15:42
Speaker 4: do help in a situation like this.
15:45
Speaker 1: I agree with you and to you, Matthew Mangino, high
15:48
Speaker 1: profio lawyer. Here's a great example. People will always say, oh,
15:52
Speaker 1: the cops planted the evidence on OJ Simpson. That's not true.
15:55
Speaker 1: There's no conspiracy. You need to tell me, Mangino that
15:58
Speaker 1: after all this time one of those cops Wooden crack
16:01
Speaker 1: for a million dollar book deal. No, there was no conspiracy.
16:05
Speaker 1: So when you do have more than one person involved
16:07
Speaker 1: in a crime, very often somebody cracks and talks. Would
16:11
Speaker 1: do you agree with that?
16:12
Speaker 12: Well, no question. I think that's one of the major
16:15
Speaker 12: ways unsolved crimes are finally solved. You know, someone talks,
16:21
Speaker 12: someone wants a deal because they got arrested again. You know,
16:25
Speaker 12: someone brags about what they did in a drunken stupor
16:29
Speaker 12: at the bar. So yeah, people talk. And when you
16:32
Speaker 12: have more than one person involved, sooner or later that's
16:36
Speaker 12: going to happen.
16:38
Speaker 1: And true to form, that is what happens here. Take
16:43
Speaker 1: a listen to Brionna Whitney at K three News.
16:46
Speaker 14: Investigators claim when inmate told them where they could find
16:49
Speaker 14: Wood's body. He led them to a rural area near
16:52
Speaker 14: Bluntser on State Highway eighteen thirty three. The report says
16:56
Speaker 14: when they got to the location, they found an eighteen
16:58
Speaker 14: by twenty four inch blocks duct taped and inside Wood's
17:02
Speaker 14: body wrapped in heavy plastic. The twenty one year old
17:05
Speaker 14: autopsy showed she was killed by a single gunshot to
17:08
Speaker 14: the back of her head before her arms were broken
17:10
Speaker 14: and her body was sexually assaulted. Until now there was
17:14
Speaker 14: no knowledge of where the weapon was, but a tip
17:16
Speaker 14: to authority is prompted today's search. Now we have gone
17:19
Speaker 14: reports that a gun was found by that I have
17:21
Speaker 14: teamed this afternoon.
17:23
Speaker 1: Straight out to our friend at Kris six Tailor, Anice Taylor. Again,
17:29
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Explain to me how
17:32
Speaker 1: this tip generated. I mean, as I have said a
17:36
Speaker 1: million times as a felony prosecutor in INTERCDI Atlanta, when
17:40
Speaker 1: I can't crack a case, where do you go the
17:44
Speaker 1: Fulton County jail? Because somebody knows something, even if it's
17:50
Speaker 1: a tenuous connection. Somebody knows something. So an inmate blabs
17:57
Speaker 1: to explain what we know.
17:58
Speaker 6: Yep, exactly that Nancy this inmate not only knew he
18:03
Speaker 6: was involved inmate at the Nisses County Jail here in
18:06
Speaker 6: Corpus Christy about five pm on January Tewod told the
18:11
Speaker 6: police that he knew where Brianna's body was and that
18:15
Speaker 6: he was paid five hundred dollars to hide her body
18:19
Speaker 6: at a vacant home in rural NASA's County.
18:21
Speaker 1: Sharon Sedwick, joining us victim's advocate a crime victim herself.
18:28
Speaker 1: When I hear Taylor Alnie's speaking, it's as if Brianna,
18:35
Speaker 1: this twenty one year old girl, it's a piece of meat.
18:41
Speaker 1: Just yeah, they paid me five hundred dollars to just
18:44
Speaker 1: throw her body in this abandoned house. It's like she's nothing,
18:48
Speaker 1: She's trash. She's a piece of evidence to get disposed of.
18:52
Speaker 1: That's what it sounds like. It's it's heartbreaking, and I hate, hate,
18:56
Speaker 1: hate that Brianna's mother had to endure all this and
19:03
Speaker 1: then be asked by the prosecutor to sort through the evidence,
19:06
Speaker 1: including witness statements like this piece of trash behind bars
19:12
Speaker 1: that turned into a snitch.
19:14
Speaker 4: The whole thing, The part I've always had a problem
19:18
Speaker 4: getting over is that she saw the pictures of her
19:24
Speaker 4: daughter's body when Jennifer was killed and dismembered. I had
19:32
Speaker 4: mental health professionals all over saying don't let her look
19:36
Speaker 4: at those ever, it'll kill her. And that Fallen is
19:40
Speaker 4: still standing after going through that alone, I can't imagine.
19:50
Speaker 1: Guys, take a listen to our cut.
19:53
Speaker 14: Eleven Free Mus obtained the arrest affidavit, and the details
19:57
Speaker 14: surrounding Wood's death are nothing short of horrific. The report
20:00
Speaker 14: claims to Hada with Wood at his apartments sometime between
20:03
Speaker 14: October eleventh and October fifteenth, when he broke both of
20:06
Speaker 14: her arms.
20:07
Speaker 1: And shot her in the head.
20:09
Speaker 14: Her family devastated by details they never wanted or expected
20:13
Speaker 14: to hear.
20:14
Speaker 15: Yeah, nobody would want to hear that.
20:16
Speaker 1: It's tragic, sad.
20:18
Speaker 14: The affidavit says to Hada then hired a friend to
20:20
Speaker 14: dispose of her body.
20:21
Speaker 1: Back out to Taylor Alaise with Kriis six, tell me
20:25
Speaker 1: about the discovery of this young girl, Brianna Wood's body.
20:30
Speaker 6: So an inmate of the West County Jail had told
20:34
Speaker 6: police that he was paid five hundred dollars to hide
20:37
Speaker 6: her body at a vacant home in Rolling West's County,
20:41
Speaker 6: and the way her body was found is horrific. It
20:46
Speaker 6: was found in a box smaller than two by two feet,
20:50
Speaker 6: covered in a white sheet, wrapped in plastic.
20:53
Speaker 1: This member explain that to me one more time, plays
20:56
Speaker 1: a box. It was two x two wrapped in plastic,
21:00
Speaker 1: and Brianna had actually been dismembered.
21:04
Speaker 6: Yes, something horrified. I mean, as a journalist, you hear
21:08
Speaker 6: about these horrifying stories. You see stuff like this in movies,
21:13
Speaker 6: but when you realize that it has happened in real
21:16
Speaker 6: life that a young girl's body was wrapped in plastic,
21:23
Speaker 6: found in a two foot by two foot box smaller
21:27
Speaker 6: than that, wrapped in a white sheet, dismembered.
21:31
Speaker 1: Joining me right now, the chief medical examiner out of
21:34
Speaker 1: Tyrant County, that is fort Worth. This is his backyard
21:39
Speaker 1: in Texas Lecturer University Texas Austin and Texas Christian University
21:45
Speaker 1: Medical School, Doctor Kendall Crowns. Thank you for being with us.
21:49
Speaker 1: It's really hard for me to imagine when I look
21:51
Speaker 1: at the photos of twenty one year old Brianna that
21:56
Speaker 1: her entire body was in a two by two box.
22:02
Speaker 1: How can that be?
22:03
Speaker 16: Well, if you really think about it, the longest part
22:05
Speaker 16: of your body is your torso. So if you begin
22:09
Speaker 16: removing the limbs from the torso and breaking it down
22:14
Speaker 16: and then decapitating the head, you can pretty much compact
22:18
Speaker 16: the body into a two foot space, because most torsos
22:21
Speaker 16: are about two to three feet.
22:23
Speaker 1: You know, doctor Kendall Crown's. We see dismemberments and more
22:28
Speaker 1: in or an airbrust version of them in movies and
22:32
Speaker 1: on TV. It's nothing like that at all. I'm actually
22:38
Speaker 1: glad for this one moment that Breonna's mother is not
22:43
Speaker 1: with us right now. She's under a gag order, by
22:46
Speaker 1: the way. I invited her personally and she told me
22:50
Speaker 1: she couldn't comment because she's under a court gag order.
22:55
Speaker 1: I usually always want to speak to victims' families first,
22:59
Speaker 1: but I'm glad you can't hear this because what was
23:01
Speaker 1: done to her daughter is nothing less than a slaughter house,
23:05
Speaker 1: a rendering of a body the way you would take
23:09
Speaker 1: the way people take animals and cut them apart and
23:14
Speaker 1: use every single part of the animal. That is what
23:18
Speaker 1: was done to this beautiful young girl. And her mother
23:26
Speaker 1: had to see those kind of photos at the District
23:30
Speaker 1: Attorney's office. Take listen to more of mom Fallon speaking
23:37
Speaker 1: about what happened to her when she was summoned to
23:39
Speaker 1: the DA's office and as to sort through evidence, including
23:43
Speaker 1: crime scene photos. Listen, it certainly can cause Fallon to
23:48
Speaker 1: be disqualified as.
23:49
Speaker 3: A witness, and for now Wood is still on the
23:52
Speaker 3: witness list.
23:53
Speaker 15: It would be the equival to put her on the jury, like,
23:56
Speaker 15: what do you you know? You would never put her
23:59
Speaker 15: on the jury because she is somebody who cannot be
24:01
Speaker 15: a fair and impartial person.
24:03
Speaker 3: Jason Goss is a law professor at Saint Mary's in
24:05
Speaker 3: San Antonio. He says if anyone besides the prosecution or
24:09
Speaker 3: the defense has access to evidence, anything could happen.
24:13
Speaker 15: Notes that the prosecutor took about what witnesses might have
24:16
Speaker 15: said that would be bad for the case. They just
24:19
Speaker 15: get pulled out and shredded. Nobody ever knows like they'd
24:22
Speaker 15: ever existed.
24:23
Speaker 2: It's been five years for her, it's been you know,
24:26
Speaker 2: over five years for him. It goes both ways. Yes,
24:30
Speaker 2: he deserves his day in court and Branda deserves her
24:34
Speaker 2: day in court.
24:34
Speaker 15: Everybody should know, if they don't already, that you should
24:37
Speaker 15: never do this ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, let anybody
24:40
Speaker 15: associate with the case. That closely look through the evidence.
24:42
Speaker 1: So bottom line, not only has the victim's mother been
24:47
Speaker 1: forced to look at photos of her dismembered daughter, who's
24:51
Speaker 1: all of her remains were in a two x two box,
24:55
Speaker 1: she now faces the possibility of being disqualified as a witness.
25:01
Speaker 1: Explain that to me, Taylor Alanise joining us in k
25:04
Speaker 1: R I S six.
25:06
Speaker 6: Yes, Nancy, she is looking at evidence in several cases
25:11
Speaker 6: involving her daughter's death.
25:13
Speaker 10: Their daughter's murder.
25:15
Speaker 6: The case specifically that she's talking about that she had
25:20
Speaker 6: copies of interviews and pictures and notes from detectives was
25:27
Speaker 6: a person that had pled out in her daughter's case.
25:30
Speaker 6: But that's still evidence that's going to be entered in
25:34
Speaker 6: cases that haven't been tried yet regarding her daughter's murder.
25:38
Speaker 6: So she's going to be called on the stand and
25:41
Speaker 6: have to talk about that stuff that she she shouldn't
25:44
Speaker 6: be knowing about.
25:45
Speaker 1: No, I'm just trying to think this tocy go ahead.
25:49
Speaker 12: Yeah, this is Matt, I mean, this is a wrong
25:53
Speaker 12: on so many levels in terms of Brionna's mother having
26:00
Speaker 12: opportunity to go through these files. Number one, she's exposed
26:02
Speaker 12: to these photographs, which no parents should have to endure that.
26:08
Speaker 12: And you know, some of these photographs may not even
26:10
Speaker 12: be admissible a trial. They might be too inflammatory for
26:13
Speaker 12: a jury.
26:14
Speaker 11: Let alone the mother of the victim to look at those,
26:17
Speaker 11: and then she has access to evidence, potential evidence in
26:22
Speaker 11: a trial. I mean, if I'm defending this case, I'm
26:25
Speaker 11: going to say, wait a second. You know mom had
26:27
Speaker 11: a chance to go through these files. Is there anything missing?
26:30
Speaker 11: Are there interviews? Are there notes that are important to
26:33
Speaker 11: this that are gone because someone who is not affiliated
26:37
Speaker 11: with the District Attorney's office has access to files and
26:41
Speaker 11: evidence that could be used in this case.
26:44
Speaker 12: Maybe there's inculpatory or exculpatory evidence that the defense says
26:49
Speaker 12: I never got because it was removed from the file.
26:51
Speaker 12: I mean, there's so many things that could.
26:53
Speaker 1: Go wrong exactly. The whole thing has been thrown into jeopardy.
26:57
Speaker 1: So Taylor Alanise joining us six take a listen to
27:02
Speaker 1: our cut sixteen.
27:04
Speaker 17: Gonzales said Wood's murder was a network of individuals doing
27:07
Speaker 17: a lot of bad things, and those people have been
27:10
Speaker 17: indicted by a grand jury.
27:13
Speaker 2: I'm so happy you get all these people off the streets.
27:18
Speaker 17: That woman you just heard from is Brianna Wood's mother.
27:21
Speaker 17: She was there for today's announcement.
27:23
Speaker 18: It's one thing to charge somebody, but it's another thing
27:26
Speaker 18: to actually bring them to try and hold them accountable.
27:28
Speaker 17: We've already reported on the arrest of Joseph Tahita. He's
27:32
Speaker 17: now charged with capital murder.
27:34
Speaker 1: And we'll face the death penalty.
27:36
Speaker 17: Today the DA announced that Sandra Vazquez and Christopher Gonzales
27:40
Speaker 17: are also charged with capital murder in addition to other crimes.
27:45
Speaker 18: I promise the community these individuals will have a fair trial,
27:48
Speaker 18: but it also promised you that justice will be served.
27:51
Speaker 1: Who is that, Sharon Siedwick saying justice will be served?
27:54
Speaker 1: Who is that?
27:55
Speaker 4: I think that was Smartzales.
27:58
Speaker 1: Our DA explained to me why the death penalty has
28:03
Speaker 1: been taken off the table.
28:05
Speaker 4: He doesn't believe in it.
28:06
Speaker 1: Well, wait, did you say the prosecutor in Texas Corpus
28:14
Speaker 1: Christy does not believe in the death penalty.
28:17
Speaker 11: That's it.
28:18
Speaker 4: He made that announcement a while back at the execution
28:23
Speaker 4: of another person not involved in this case, that he
28:28
Speaker 4: doesn't believe in the death penalty and therefore we'll not
28:32
Speaker 4: ask for it in trials here in New Issis County.
28:36
Speaker 1: You know, Sharon said Wick. How long has it now
28:41
Speaker 1: been that Brianna was murdered.
28:44
Speaker 4: Brianna was murdered in twenty sixteen, My daughter Jennifer was
28:49
Speaker 4: murdered in two thousand and five, and I worked my
28:54
Speaker 4: tail off to get dismemberment of a corpse made a
29:00
Speaker 4: third degree felony so no other mother would have to
29:03
Speaker 4: sit there and go I don't understand they butchered my daughter.
29:07
Speaker 4: I don't understand.
29:22
Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace. You know, I heard something
29:30
Speaker 1: in the reporting tailor Alanise, and in my own investigation
29:34
Speaker 1: of this, I heard that Brianna's body, that the purp
29:40
Speaker 1: had sex with Brianna's body. Am I understanding correctly that
29:48
Speaker 1: Brianna was raped after her death?
29:55
Speaker 6: Post mortem? Yes, her we learned that just if Tahda
30:00
Speaker 6: had shot her in the back of the head, broke
30:03
Speaker 6: her arms, and raped her her body.
30:09
Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns joining me, chief medical Examiner, joining us
30:13
Speaker 1: out of Texas. Doctor Kendall Crowns, how do you in
30:20
Speaker 1: a dismemberment case this young girl, how do you determine coeod,
30:28
Speaker 1: cause of death and whether the victim was raped during
30:34
Speaker 1: a life or postmortem?
30:36
Speaker 16: So you determine cause of death based on the injuries
30:40
Speaker 16: that are not related to the dismemberment. In her case,
30:43
Speaker 16: it's going to be a gunshot into the head. Usually
30:46
Speaker 16: the dismemberments occur after they've done something else like stab them,
30:51
Speaker 16: shot them, or beaten them to death, So you'll look
30:54
Speaker 16: for those injuries as far as evidence of rape in
30:58
Speaker 16: the living will be damaged to the genitalia that can
31:01
Speaker 16: be seen bruises, lacerations or tear or scratches, abrasions. In
31:08
Speaker 16: the post warum state, you may not see those, but
31:10
Speaker 16: you'll see possibly tearing of the skin from the forceful
31:15
Speaker 16: penetration in the general region. But other than that, you're
31:21
Speaker 16: not going to see much else.
31:23
Speaker 1: Years years since the body of this twenty one year
31:28
Speaker 1: old girl, Brianna Wood, was discovered in an abandoned oil
31:33
Speaker 1: filled trailer surrounded by brush off a lonely state Highway
31:40
Speaker 1: six ' six ' six near Robstown, Texas. But yet still,
31:46
Speaker 1: even though years have passed, still no justice. In that time.
31:51
Speaker 1: District Court Judge Jack Pulcher recused himself, he was replaced,
31:57
Speaker 1: and the district Attorney Mark Gonzalez has now asked for
32:00
Speaker 1: himself to be recused. To Taylor Alanise, why did the
32:06
Speaker 1: judge recuse himself? And why has the district attorney, who
32:10
Speaker 1: I thank god he's off the case, has asked to
32:13
Speaker 1: be recused. But why did he want to be taken
32:15
Speaker 1: off the case?
32:16
Speaker 6: He had said that Fallen would Brianna's mother had threatened
32:20
Speaker 6: to sue him, the police department and the judge Jack
32:24
Speaker 6: Pulture at the.
32:25
Speaker 1: Time, and I wonder why why was that? Why did
32:29
Speaker 1: the mom feel like she had to sue the judge
32:31
Speaker 1: of the DA, which.
32:32
Speaker 6: Fallen says she didn't. She didn't make any threats of lawsuit.
32:35
Speaker 6: She just said that they weren't getting justice for her daughter.
32:40
Speaker 6: She took everything in her own hands to help find
32:44
Speaker 6: her daughter and help get justice for her. And she
32:47
Speaker 6: just let that be known, whether it was to the
32:49
Speaker 6: media or to family or to friends, that they weren't
32:54
Speaker 6: doing their jobs. She never threatened them with a lawsuit,
32:58
Speaker 6: but still the district attorney said that she did and
33:04
Speaker 6: said that he felt like he couldn't help her under
33:08
Speaker 6: the crime Victim's Bill of rights.
33:11
Speaker 1: Is it true that miss Wood Fallon would Brihanna's mother
33:19
Speaker 1: says Gonzales blocked her personal email address. Is that true?
33:25
Speaker 1: Taylor Alanise yes.
33:27
Speaker 6: That's what Fallen told us. That's what Fallen told us.
33:30
Speaker 6: That she had receipts, she had messages from when she
33:34
Speaker 6: would try to email him that said that she was blown.
33:38
Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, she did file a
33:43
Speaker 1: legal process, a legal action, not a regular lawsuit. This
33:50
Speaker 1: mom getting no help in her daughter's murder and dismemberment
33:55
Speaker 1: and rape post mortem files a grievance with the Texas
33:59
Speaker 1: Attorney Funeral's office and the Texas State Bar as she
34:04
Speaker 1: should have, and now she's being punished. How many people,
34:11
Speaker 1: tell or Alanise, have not been adjudicated. How many of
34:16
Speaker 1: this what is it a gang?
34:19
Speaker 6: I'm not sure about the gang affiliations. I know some
34:23
Speaker 6: of the charges had to do with organized crime. But
34:26
Speaker 6: we have Joseph to Hey that, we have his mother,
34:29
Speaker 6: Sandra Massea, we have Sandra Voska. We have at least
34:33
Speaker 6: three people that were part of a group of people
34:36
Speaker 6: that were involved in this crime that have not had
34:40
Speaker 6: their day.
34:40
Speaker 1: Incour to Sharon, Saidwick, joining us Victims Advocate. It's been
34:45
Speaker 1: now since October eleven, twenty sixteen, and still no justice.
34:54
Speaker 1: Explain to me what Brianna's mother is enduring now after
35:00
Speaker 1: she's asked to sort through the death scene photos of
35:04
Speaker 1: her daughter and her daughter's dismember body.
35:07
Speaker 4: I mean, it's psychologically it has kicked her in the head.
35:12
Speaker 4: I had breakfast with her shortly after this happened, and
35:16
Speaker 4: she told me, and I was incredulous a that she
35:22
Speaker 4: had to see those pictures alone, but that she saw
35:24
Speaker 4: that evidence. And I said, get rid of it, take
35:28
Speaker 4: it back, get rid of it. And I'm sorry. The
35:34
Speaker 4: travesties that have been done to fallon as a human being,
35:38
Speaker 4: as a crime victim and as a mother are almost
35:43
Speaker 4: incomprehensible to me. And I know well in the state
35:48
Speaker 4: of Texas, and I had to learn this. It is
35:50
Speaker 4: the state of Texas versus and they make it very
35:54
Speaker 4: clear that as moms, our children were adults and it's
35:59
Speaker 4: the Texas versus so and so not mom. And it's
36:06
Speaker 4: a very hard thing to get your hands around as
36:09
Speaker 4: a mom.
36:09
Speaker 1: Well, I guess it's pretty hard to get your hands
36:11
Speaker 1: around it when it seems like there is no justice.
36:13
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this mom. Suffering mom speaking to
36:18
Speaker 1: Brianna Whitney at K three News is cut five.
36:22
Speaker 14: Twenty one year old Brianna Wood first went missing in October,
36:25
Speaker 14: her body found in a box. Months later, in January,
36:28
Speaker 14: twenty six year old Joseph ta Haita was charged with
36:31
Speaker 14: her murder, and Monday, his attorneys will ask for the
36:33
Speaker 14: Nuaces County District Attorney's Office to be off the case.
36:37
Speaker 1: Another hearing.
36:38
Speaker 14: Brianna's mom will have to sit through, but even from above,
36:41
Speaker 14: she can feel her daughter's support.
36:43
Speaker 2: I feel like she's on me, like because I feel
36:46
Speaker 2: so heavy. So I don't know if it's just my
36:49
Speaker 2: heart beating on my chest or it's just you know
36:52
Speaker 2: what that feeling is.
36:55
Speaker 1: And more of Mom fallon Wood and Our cut eight
36:59
Speaker 1: Speaking to Chris.
37:00
Speaker 9: Brianna Wood disappeared in October of twenty sixteen.
37:04
Speaker 1: She was found last January. He couldn't celebrate the holidays.
37:08
Speaker 4: Since then, he's fallen Wood devoted her energy to finding
37:13
Speaker 4: justice for her daughter.
37:14
Speaker 2: I haven't crieved because I can't yet.
37:17
Speaker 1: I have to do my job.
37:18
Speaker 2: I told her, I would never stop until you know
37:22
Speaker 2: justice is therefore and then I can, then I'll then
37:27
Speaker 2: I'll crieve.
37:28
Speaker 1: Matthew Mangino, joining US high profile lawyer, former prosecutor. The
37:32
Speaker 1: reality is everyone seems to be blaming fallen Wood Brianna
37:37
Speaker 1: Wood's mother, it's not her fault. An inexperience. An inept
37:44
Speaker 1: assistant prosecutor asked the mother of a murdered, dismembered girl
37:49
Speaker 1: to sort through the crime scene photos and statements. It's
37:53
Speaker 1: not the mother's fault. But that said, it doesn't matter
37:59
Speaker 1: because this evidence is not going to be excluded from trial.
38:03
Speaker 1: The first hurdle the defense has in order to get
38:05
Speaker 1: evidents excluded is to show that it was in fact
38:09
Speaker 1: tampered with, that there's something wrong with it, there's something missing,
38:13
Speaker 1: and that's never going to happen because it was not
38:15
Speaker 1: tampered with. It was organized and put in piles, whether
38:20
Speaker 1: alphabetical or chronological that I don't know. But this evidence
38:25
Speaker 1: will not be excluded from trial.
38:27
Speaker 12: Well, I agree with you. I mean it remains to
38:32
Speaker 12: be seen. You know what would be presented by the defense.
38:35
Speaker 12: I'm sure the defense is going to try to make
38:37
Speaker 12: that argument. I wouldn't expect that they're going to be
38:41
Speaker 12: able to prove that breon his mother, you know, disposed
38:46
Speaker 12: of evidence or do anything like that. She's doing what
38:50
Speaker 12: any parent would do if they were asked to assist
38:53
Speaker 12: in some way in an investigation of the murder of
38:57
Speaker 12: their child. So I don't anticipate that anything is going
39:02
Speaker 12: to be excluded.
39:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, not going to happen. And we also know the
39:05
Speaker 1: way this case was actually cracked wide open is to
39:08
Speaker 1: Hada's cellmate passed on information to hate had been bragging
39:13
Speaker 1: about the murder, and it cracked wide open. But still
39:16
Speaker 1: the case is lingering. Last question, Taylor Alanise joining us
39:20
Speaker 1: from Chris six. How did this da get in office?
39:25
Speaker 1: To start with?
39:25
Speaker 6: He is known as the biker district Attorney. He is
39:31
Speaker 6: covered in tattoos from head to toe, and he has
39:35
Speaker 6: a giant tattoo across his chest that says not.
39:38
Speaker 1: Guilty, Stop right there, stop right there. Tattoos, don't care
39:42
Speaker 1: one way or the other, but not guilty. The prosecutor
39:47
Speaker 1: has a tattoo across his chest that says not guilty.
39:50
Speaker 1: Where did that come from? But when he was a biker?
39:53
Speaker 1: Let me guess? Yes? No, am I right?
39:57
Speaker 6: Yes, he is part of a motorcycle club.
39:59
Speaker 1: You know. That's who was elected. Now the voters are
40:05
Speaker 1: reaping what they sewed and who was suffering fallon would
40:11
Speaker 1: and the memory of her daughter, Brianna. We wait as
40:15
Speaker 1: justice un false. Goodbye friend,