Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Actress plays killer in movie, charged with copycat murder PLUS teen boy offers $100K for hit-man to rub-out teacher

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Actress plays killer in movie, charged with copycat murder PLUS teen boy offers $100K for hit-man to rub-out teacher · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Talk about art imitating life. Wow, I couldn't believe it
0:10
Speaker 1: when I heard the fact scenario. In this case, a
0:14
Speaker 1: writer turned actress Aisling tuck her More Read guns down
0:22
Speaker 1: her uncle, apparently in some type of an altercation about
0:27
Speaker 1: money and property and a will shamee. Patrick Moore dies
0:33
Speaker 1: there in the home after being gunned down by his niece.
0:37
Speaker 1: But the twist is advancing time fast forward. She Read
0:44
Speaker 1: then takes a role in a movie where she plays
0:48
Speaker 1: a woman that guns down her victim eerily similar to
0:54
Speaker 1: gunning down her own uncle. Talk about the past coming
0:57
Speaker 1: back to haunt you. And in the wake of yet
1:01
Speaker 1: another school shooting, this Florida high school student eighteen now
1:07
Speaker 1: charged with soliciting murder after he posts online in an
1:12
Speaker 1: Instagram post offering one hundred thousand dollars for somebody to
1:17
Speaker 1: kill one of his teachers. Later, he says he's quote joking, Well,
1:22
Speaker 1: I don't find it funny at all. This is crime Stories.
1:27
Speaker 1: I Nancy Grace. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. When the
1:42
Speaker 1: foolmakers first held auditions, they say Read went by the
1:45
Speaker 1: name win Read, concealing her true identity. They say she
1:49
Speaker 1: nailed the audition, showing genuine emotion that felt real. But
1:52
Speaker 1: knowing what they know now, they say they never would
1:55
Speaker 1: have cast her. That's part of the accusations. That really
1:59
Speaker 1: is part of the nightmare, is that we knowingly cast
2:02
Speaker 1: this person to take advantage of this horrible situation. And
2:06
Speaker 1: I can say none of us wanted this. For two
2:11
Speaker 1: Grants Past filmmakers the saying life imitates Art has turned
2:15
Speaker 1: into a nightmare. Matthew Spickard and Justin Adams say they
2:18
Speaker 1: cast a local actress who, as it turns out, has
2:21
Speaker 1: a lot more in common with her character than they thought.
2:24
Speaker 1: You could feel that she is in a really dangerous
2:29
Speaker 1: position and she just handle it exactly how we wanted.
2:35
Speaker 1: Aisling Tucker Moore Read, a Jacksonville writer who goes by
2:38
Speaker 1: the pen named Tucker Read, was at the time of
2:41
Speaker 1: the filming out on bail. She was charged with two
2:43
Speaker 1: counts of manslaughter in the death of her uncle, Shane
2:46
Speaker 1: Patrick Moore in July of twenty sixteen. This appeared to
2:49
Speaker 1: be an intentional act and that she was angry during
2:53
Speaker 1: this time. It wasn't until the last day of the
2:56
Speaker 1: shoot in July of twenty eighteen that the men say
2:59
Speaker 1: Reads Past was revealed we got the story that made her.
3:02
Speaker 1: It painted her as a as a hero. Basically, did
3:05
Speaker 1: a thirty year old actress gunned down her uncle the
3:10
Speaker 1: same way as a murder in a horror movie she
3:15
Speaker 1: just finished filming. I'm Nancy Grays, this is Crime Stories.
3:20
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us, joining me an all
3:23
Speaker 1: star panel. Wendy Patrick, renowned prosecutor out of California, James
3:28
Speaker 1: shell Nutt metro major k SWAT officer now lawyer, doctor
3:32
Speaker 1: Tim Gallagher the medical examiner in the state of Florida
3:35
Speaker 1: right now. To Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Dave Matt, Okay,
3:41
Speaker 1: I don't understand. So she is an actress, A sling
3:44
Speaker 1: Tucker More read that's a mouthful. What's her real name?
3:47
Speaker 1: Let's just go with that. What's her real name? As
3:50
Speaker 1: ling Tucker More? A sling Tucker Yes? Okay, are you do?
3:54
Speaker 1: You get it all out? Aisling Tucker More? Okay, let's
3:58
Speaker 1: just go with Tucker more. Third year old female looks
4:02
Speaker 1: like an actress. I mean, she looks like she could
4:03
Speaker 1: star in a TV show or a movie. So she
4:08
Speaker 1: films a horror movie, including a scene eerily similar to
4:14
Speaker 1: the real life murder of her own uncle Patrick Moore.
4:18
Speaker 1: Let's just start at the beginning. How was more killed?
4:22
Speaker 1: From what we understand, the sixty three year old uncle
4:26
Speaker 1: Shane Patrick Moore, was walking into one of the family
4:30
Speaker 1: homes when he was gunned down. To Dave Matt Crime
4:34
Speaker 1: online dot Com investigative reporter, what can you tell me
4:37
Speaker 1: about Acelink Tucker more Read, the thirty year old writer
4:42
Speaker 1: turned actress, tell me about the horror movie she was
4:45
Speaker 1: starring in. It was an independent film and they put
4:49
Speaker 1: out a casting call and she responded to it got
4:53
Speaker 1: the part. The gentleman involved with writing and directing the
4:57
Speaker 1: film said that she seemed to really capture the character.
5:01
Speaker 1: Didn't even have to act. It is an independent film,
5:05
Speaker 1: it takes time to raise money. They actually want an
5:07
Speaker 1: indie go go to try to raise the funding to
5:09
Speaker 1: do the film to start with. In the day that
5:13
Speaker 1: it rapped, or the day after they rapped shooting, is
5:16
Speaker 1: when they found out the writer and producer director of
5:20
Speaker 1: the film. That's when they found out the background of
5:22
Speaker 1: their lead actress. This is what we know, aisling tuck
5:25
Speaker 1: her more Read had just finished filming the role. The
5:30
Speaker 1: title of the movie from the dark and she plays
5:34
Speaker 1: the lead role of Valerie Fast. Now, the movie is
5:38
Speaker 1: about a young tour guide at a lodge in an
5:41
Speaker 1: Oregon forest celebrating her last day on the job when
5:45
Speaker 1: things go sideways and take a senator turn. The very
5:49
Speaker 1: day after she's done filming, she gets busted in connection
5:54
Speaker 1: with the deadly shooting off her own uncle. Now we
5:57
Speaker 1: also know that she was a one time reporter for
5:59
Speaker 1: the Grants Past Daily Courier and for Cosmopolitan magazine. That's
6:05
Speaker 1: the so called ladies magazine where there's always a scantily
6:08
Speaker 1: clad woman on the front with a lot of black
6:10
Speaker 1: eyeliner around her eyes. So no that police have obtained
6:13
Speaker 1: video footage of the shooting. I want to go to you,
6:17
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick. You think that movie is going to be
6:22
Speaker 1: played in front of a jury over and over and over.
6:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a mirror image of the shooting of
6:28
Speaker 1: her own uncle, you know, Nancy. That had to make
6:30
Speaker 1: it relevant. And that's one of the things that somebody
6:33
Speaker 1: who's looking at the story for the first time might think, Well,
6:35
Speaker 1: of course it's going to come into evidence. Of course
6:38
Speaker 1: it's going to be played. They're going to drop parallels.
6:40
Speaker 1: But there are just so many evidentiary hurdles, but she
6:43
Speaker 1: gotta think this is so unique that perhaps there is
6:47
Speaker 1: some theory under which the prosecutor can at least say, hey,
6:51
Speaker 1: you know, any prejudice might go to wait, but it
6:54
Speaker 1: is marginally relevant. Oh wait, and wow, what do you
6:56
Speaker 1: mean marginally relevant, Wendy Patrick. She plays the role of
6:59
Speaker 1: val very fast and commits a murder by shooting, and
7:03
Speaker 1: then that very day, when the movie wraps, she guns
7:08
Speaker 1: down her uncle in the very same way. But that's
7:10
Speaker 1: the argument, Nancy. Now, I begin my career as a
7:13
Speaker 1: defense attorney, and if I were to take that side
7:15
Speaker 1: just for fun, what I would argue is, you know,
7:18
Speaker 1: obviously it has to be a weighing of the prejudicial
7:21
Speaker 1: and the probitive value. You would have to believe that
7:24
Speaker 1: that and again, that's a great prosecution theory, and I
7:27
Speaker 1: would hope that if it were my case, I would
7:29
Speaker 1: win that argument. But that's what you'd be battling against,
7:32
Speaker 1: that it is so prejudicial, partially because it's probably true.
7:35
Speaker 1: It is so prejudicial that some defense attorney might get
7:38
Speaker 1: in there and be able to persuade a judge that
7:40
Speaker 1: unless a door is opened further, that it should be excluded,
7:43
Speaker 1: hopefully not, but those are the two sides of the coin.
7:47
Speaker 1: After shooting her uncle dead, she stars in this role
7:51
Speaker 1: as a Valerie Fast Dave Mack. It seems bass ackwards.
7:57
Speaker 1: So was she not ever charged in the shooting of
8:01
Speaker 1: her uncle at the time, Yes, ma'am, she actually was charged.
8:06
Speaker 1: And when you actually look at what happened the night
8:09
Speaker 1: her uncle was shot, you have to realize that that
8:13
Speaker 1: Aisley Tucker Moore Read was with her mother, the sister
8:18
Speaker 1: of the victim here, and they were at a family
8:21
Speaker 1: home discussing family matters and real estate issues, and there
8:27
Speaker 1: was a problem with the uncle. As a matter of fact,
8:31
Speaker 1: the uncle who is the victim here, actually was awaiting
8:37
Speaker 1: trial on attacking Aisling Tucker Moore Reid and her mother,
8:43
Speaker 1: Kelly Read, And there was a long background of physical
8:50
Speaker 1: emotional violence between the family members and so ultimately she
8:55
Speaker 1: shoots him dead. Now let me understand this um was
8:59
Speaker 1: the video recording of the actual shooting, Yes, ma'am. Because
9:05
Speaker 1: of their past. Ainsley Tucker Moore Read actually had her
9:09
Speaker 1: cell phone on as the uncle was coming into the home.
9:14
Speaker 1: And when she was charged with two counts of manslaughter
9:18
Speaker 1: at the very beginning. They arrested her immediately after the shooting,
9:21
Speaker 1: like five hours later, and they thought they, being the
9:25
Speaker 1: officials that investigated, thought it was self defense because that's
9:29
Speaker 1: what the mother of Tucker Moore Reid said that it
9:32
Speaker 1: was self defense. She filmed it, and then they hid
9:35
Speaker 1: the phone. Her mother, Kelly Reid, who was formerly an
9:39
Speaker 1: attorney in California, actually hid the phone. When police recovered
9:43
Speaker 1: the phone, that's when everything changed in this case. So
9:47
Speaker 1: there was the shooting, then the horror movie, and then
9:51
Speaker 1: the arrest. Correct. Okay, straight out to doctor Tim Gallagher
9:55
Speaker 1: and medical examer State of Florida. Doctor Gallagher, when you're
9:58
Speaker 1: looking at a shoe victim, can you tell the angle,
10:03
Speaker 1: the trajectory path, whether there are defensive wounds? I mean,
10:07
Speaker 1: what about the body itself? Can tell you what happens? Oh? Absolutely,
10:10
Speaker 1: And that's one of the major reasons why we do
10:12
Speaker 1: these autopsies to determine that. We have to make sure
10:16
Speaker 1: that the story does match the evidence presented on the body.
10:20
Speaker 1: So if he did enter the house as she alleged,
10:22
Speaker 1: and she shot him afterwards, we would expect the entrance
10:27
Speaker 1: wound of the gunshot to be on the front of
10:30
Speaker 1: his body and possibly an exit or a bullet recovery
10:34
Speaker 1: on the back part of the body. So if anything
10:38
Speaker 1: else is different than that, then we have to propose
10:41
Speaker 1: another scenario as to what it actually happened. What do
10:44
Speaker 1: you make of her claim, James Shell not twenty seven
10:46
Speaker 1: years metro major case swat officer now lawyer. Her claim
10:51
Speaker 1: of self defense. You know, she may have an argument
10:53
Speaker 1: of self defense. You know, she had a protection from
10:56
Speaker 1: abuse or against her uncle. She was inside, She didn't
11:00
Speaker 1: go outside to confront him. The uncle was actually walking
11:03
Speaker 1: into the house. You know, she's gonna argue, hey, I'm
11:07
Speaker 1: a weaker female. You know this guy has been abusive before.
11:11
Speaker 1: I had a court order. And the circumstances around that,
11:14
Speaker 1: Nancy are going to be very important. You know, okay,
11:17
Speaker 1: that the victim is shot in the chest, but you're
11:20
Speaker 1: gonna have to take a close look at what was
11:22
Speaker 1: that relationship. Was there a reason for her to fear him?
11:25
Speaker 1: Was that use of force justifiable under those circumstances? And
11:29
Speaker 1: you're really gonna have to take a close look and
11:31
Speaker 1: put everything under a magnifying glass as it relates to
11:34
Speaker 1: that situation and the relationship between us. There crime stories
11:51
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. Months later, Agree Injury added a murder
12:01
Speaker 1: charge after investigators found a video recording on Reid's cell
12:04
Speaker 1: phone which ended with Reid pulling the trigger killing her uncle.
12:08
Speaker 1: Once we saw a video, it was like, oh, the
12:11
Speaker 1: entire story that we got was was completely fabricated. All
12:16
Speaker 1: the more disturbing, the two say, is why Reid would
12:18
Speaker 1: want to star in this film. There's a scene where
12:21
Speaker 1: she shoots someone. There's also like this thing about manslaughter
12:25
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. It felt like she knew the
12:26
Speaker 1: character more than actually we did in the end, saying,
12:32
Speaker 1: Reid's mother told NBC five News shortly after the shooting
12:35
Speaker 1: that her brother threatened to kill her and was physically
12:37
Speaker 1: assaulting her when he was shot. So they had a
12:39
Speaker 1: volatile relationship. We know that, Wendy Patrick. The reality is
12:45
Speaker 1: is after looking at the video the mom allegedly kid
12:48
Speaker 1: the cell phone video of the shooting, they charged her.
12:53
Speaker 1: Now what do you make of that, Wendy Patrick, veteran
12:56
Speaker 1: California prosecutor, and any claim of self defense, more evidence
13:00
Speaker 1: that can be recovered, the difference may actually justify more
13:04
Speaker 1: serious charges. So it looks like, at least it sounds
13:07
Speaker 1: like chronologically once that video footage, even though my understanding
13:10
Speaker 1: is it doesn't capture the actual shooting, it captures the
13:14
Speaker 1: circumstances surrounding the shooting to the extent that the prosecutors
13:17
Speaker 1: believed that that evidence, even circumstantially, would justify a higher charge. Now,
13:22
Speaker 1: having said that, we've all followed so many different types
13:24
Speaker 1: of self defense cases, particularly when you have a woman
13:27
Speaker 1: shooting a man, that do have at least elements that
13:31
Speaker 1: allow jurors to consider whether or not. Obviously, this is
13:36
Speaker 1: not a who done it? It's a what is it?
13:37
Speaker 1: Is it murder one? Murder? Two? Is it voluntary manslaughter?
13:41
Speaker 1: Was there reasonable use of force used? And was there
13:44
Speaker 1: reasonable reason to be afraid? Those are the kinds of
13:47
Speaker 1: things that, apparently, in this case, let the prosecutors to
13:50
Speaker 1: believe that, in fact, it wasn't manslaughter and that they
13:52
Speaker 1: could go forward on the more serious charge. Now there
13:55
Speaker 1: is a video phone video, and there is sound as well,
13:59
Speaker 1: and you hear a scream and the words he's coming
14:02
Speaker 1: into the house, You son of a bitch, Get out
14:04
Speaker 1: of here. The phone continues to record through all that confusion.
14:08
Speaker 1: Then you hear the gunshot. On the video. You can
14:12
Speaker 1: hear the actual shooting. Shane More, of course, suffered a gunshot,
14:17
Speaker 1: went to the chest and died. Then you hear the
14:20
Speaker 1: uncle agonizing in pain from the shooting. In the background,
14:26
Speaker 1: you hear everybody yelling. The phone picks up the sound
14:30
Speaker 1: of someone in the bathroom sobbing and sounding sick. Shane More,
14:36
Speaker 1: the victim is apparently still alive and bleeding, and you
14:41
Speaker 1: hear read that's the suspect. The female suspect ask her mom,
14:46
Speaker 1: he's not dead, and then she says the F word,
14:51
Speaker 1: He's not dead. Now that is definitely going to work
14:56
Speaker 1: against her, so too, Dave mc let me ask this
15:02
Speaker 1: as the question everyone is asking, why would she take
15:05
Speaker 1: a film that mirrors the crime she's charged with? And
15:08
Speaker 1: what about the timing? What does that tell him? I
15:10
Speaker 1: think the timing Nancy has just happened. Stance. Okay, this
15:13
Speaker 1: is a young woman who actually, you know, saw herself
15:17
Speaker 1: as an author and an actress, and I think she
15:23
Speaker 1: just auditioned for a movie role. I don't think that
15:25
Speaker 1: it had I really don't think one thing had to
15:28
Speaker 1: do with the other. You look at her background. She
15:30
Speaker 1: took an indie film job, she auditioned for the part
15:33
Speaker 1: we do know that she didn't use her real name
15:36
Speaker 1: when she actually, you know, auditioned. She made up a
15:39
Speaker 1: different name when read so that if they did search her,
15:42
Speaker 1: they wouldn't pull up the manslaughter charges that she was
15:44
Speaker 1: facing at the time. Well, another issue about that. To
15:48
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, they may be disconnected in time and space,
15:53
Speaker 1: but it tells me something that she would take the
15:55
Speaker 1: role of a shooting fatal shooting by shooting eerily similar
16:03
Speaker 1: to her gunning down her uncle and thinking nothing of it.
16:07
Speaker 1: What does that tell you about her frame of mind?
16:10
Speaker 1: I'll say, if you can't make this stuff up, Nancy,
16:12
Speaker 1: that's what we you and I have both probably told
16:14
Speaker 1: our families over the years as we go through the
16:16
Speaker 1: facts of some of these cases. It is one of those,
16:19
Speaker 1: you know, Dave Mack accurately says, happenstance. If in fact
16:22
Speaker 1: that's what it was, it has to be one of
16:25
Speaker 1: the most unique coincidences available. You would have thought that,
16:28
Speaker 1: given what should just done, even if she has to
16:30
Speaker 1: claim of self defense, that this would have been a
16:32
Speaker 1: role that gave her some pause as to whether or
16:35
Speaker 1: not it was wise to accept. Knowing full well or
16:38
Speaker 1: at least anticipating that she would have to answer to
16:41
Speaker 1: these charges one way or another in court and wondering
16:44
Speaker 1: whether or not this might become admissible. Whether it will
16:47
Speaker 1: or not, that'll be up to a judge. But it is,
16:49
Speaker 1: as you say, eerily similar. I echo those sentiments, and
16:52
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see how it's played out in
16:54
Speaker 1: a court of law. Well, to me, at the very least,
16:55
Speaker 1: it shows a complete disregard of the facts and the law.
16:59
Speaker 1: Your charger shooting somebody dead, then you know, a few
17:02
Speaker 1: months later you play the role of someone shooting somebody dead.
17:05
Speaker 1: Now take a listen to the video we have obtained day.
17:11
Speaker 1: She's not any any ranging me. He came into this
17:17
Speaker 1: house to pass me while I was sleeping. Yes, yes,
17:21
Speaker 1: this man, this man he threatened. This one was like
17:25
Speaker 1: my mother. Unless she signed that people shot, wasn't she
17:37
Speaker 1: was sold. He wasn't inheritance. So will okay? Right now,
17:40
Speaker 1: the uncle is looking through the window and she is
17:44
Speaker 1: sitting around a table it looks like, with the mom
17:46
Speaker 1: and another woman and they're talking into the house. You
17:56
Speaker 1: was built so big? Not Jesus, Jesus, oh not here.
18:44
Speaker 1: You see the camera wildly moving around and it seems
18:55
Speaker 1: as if he was shot still outside? Was he outside,
18:58
Speaker 1: Dave mccer had he gotten in the house. According to
19:00
Speaker 1: what came out in court, he was actually in the foyer,
19:04
Speaker 1: just inside the front door. Okay, so he had come
19:07
Speaker 1: into the home. This is what we know. By taking
19:09
Speaker 1: that role, it indicates a total disregard of the circumstances
19:13
Speaker 1: of playing the role of a killer when you're you've
19:17
Speaker 1: just killed someone your own uncle. Now, how will her
19:21
Speaker 1: decision to portray a killer are the screen affect her
19:25
Speaker 1: real life murder trial next month? Wendy Patrick. Yeah, that's
19:28
Speaker 1: going to be a question for the judge because obviously
19:30
Speaker 1: the prosecution and the defense have opposite ideas as to
19:33
Speaker 1: how that should become relevant. One of the things that
19:37
Speaker 1: it probably will show if it does does come into
19:40
Speaker 1: evidence is this level of callousness, you know, one of
19:43
Speaker 1: the things that jury has to decide to fear. And
19:45
Speaker 1: when you look at someone's conduct after they pulled a
19:48
Speaker 1: trigger in this kind of a homicide, that response is
19:52
Speaker 1: enormously relevant to what the mindset was at the time,
19:55
Speaker 1: So too that decision making to accept the role of
19:58
Speaker 1: the killer when you just killed someone one whether she's
20:00
Speaker 1: claiming its self defense or not. Is going to be
20:03
Speaker 1: very important for a jury, and it's really going to
20:05
Speaker 1: be seen in light of so many of the other
20:07
Speaker 1: just bizarre facts surrounding this footage which obviously looks bad,
20:12
Speaker 1: but can be spun the other way, as we've seen
20:14
Speaker 1: in some of these cases that have been very newsworthy
20:17
Speaker 1: as to what exactly was going through her mind at
20:20
Speaker 1: the time she pulled that trigger. This case heading to
20:22
Speaker 1: try all we wait as justice unfalls crime stories with
20:38
Speaker 1: Nancy grace An. Investigators say there will be zero tolerance
20:50
Speaker 1: for this type of crime now. The eighteen year old
20:52
Speaker 1: is facing a felony charge. I'm calling to let you
20:55
Speaker 1: know that one of our students when the rested last
20:58
Speaker 1: night or solicitation. That's the message by high school parents
21:02
Speaker 1: are receiving this afternoon. We will not sit back and
21:05
Speaker 1: allow people to threaten other people or to harm other people.
21:08
Speaker 1: Pasco County deputies say they arrested eighteen year old Nicholas
21:11
Speaker 1: Godfrey for trying to solicit someone to kill a staff member.
21:14
Speaker 1: Quite honestly, he has ruined his life by a simple
21:17
Speaker 1: threat on social media. According to court documents, the eighteen
21:20
Speaker 1: year old is accused of sending messages through Instagram a
21:23
Speaker 1: read quote I need a guy who could kill someone
21:26
Speaker 1: and offered a hundred thousand dollars. He also states no joke.
21:29
Speaker 1: Speaking with mister Godfrey, he did not have any clear
21:33
Speaker 1: direction or I guess plan is to follow through with
21:38
Speaker 1: this as he said, but more of he was joking around.
21:42
Speaker 1: Did eighteen boy threaten murder offering one hundred thousand dollars
21:49
Speaker 1: to kill a school employee? Well that's what authorities in Hudson,
21:53
Speaker 1: Florida say. I'm Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank
21:57
Speaker 1: you for being with us in Hudson, Florida say, a
22:00
Speaker 1: Florida teen offers one hundred thousand dollars for someone to
22:05
Speaker 1: murder a staff member at his high school. Pasco County
22:10
Speaker 1: Sheriff Chris Noko announcing during a news conference that teen
22:16
Speaker 1: boy Nicholas Godfrey charge with solicitation to commit murder with
22:24
Speaker 1: me Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Dave Matt, what happened, Nancy,
22:28
Speaker 1: it's your bottom line eighteen year old high school student
22:32
Speaker 1: who again claims he wasn't serious. But I'm gonna tell
22:34
Speaker 1: you in this day and age, Nancy, when you put
22:37
Speaker 1: out something on social media claiming that you want somebody
22:41
Speaker 1: dead and you're willing to offer a hundred thousand dollars
22:44
Speaker 1: to get it done. I don't know how in the
22:46
Speaker 1: world you don't take it serious, And the police did.
22:50
Speaker 1: The sr at the high school was actually notified by
22:53
Speaker 1: somebody on campus about this instagram. Whoa the s r O.
22:58
Speaker 1: The school resource officer, police officer is actually at the school.
23:02
Speaker 1: He was notified by somebody at the school. They won't
23:04
Speaker 1: tell us who, but they notified this SR. Rowan said, hey, man,
23:08
Speaker 1: you might want to take a look at this posting
23:10
Speaker 1: from this other high school student. And he looked at
23:14
Speaker 1: it and immediately got it up the chain of command
23:16
Speaker 1: and they took action immediately on this to Ashu Wilcott
23:19
Speaker 1: joining me judge, trial lawyer or anchor at Court TV.
23:22
Speaker 1: You can find her at Ashu Wilcot dot com. When
23:26
Speaker 1: does a social media post turn into a crime? Anytime
23:32
Speaker 1: it's a threat. So the problem is joking is not
23:35
Speaker 1: a defense. Oh it was a joke. That is not
23:37
Speaker 1: a legal defense. Anything that threatens criminal activity is a crime.
23:43
Speaker 1: And that's the problem. And we've got these teenagers making
23:46
Speaker 1: dumb decisions because that's what teenagers do. But they can't
23:50
Speaker 1: rise it to the raise excuse me, to the level
23:53
Speaker 1: of threatening to do a crime, you know to Cheryl
23:57
Speaker 1: McCollum joining me, forensics expert and director of the coal
24:00
Speaker 1: Case Research Institute. He posted it on Instagram. It takes
24:06
Speaker 1: about five minutes to trace that account back to his
24:10
Speaker 1: home exactly, and then when he asked about it, he goes, oh,
24:14
Speaker 1: I was joking. However, he had already typed out in
24:19
Speaker 1: a second post, no joke, like he wanted this person
24:24
Speaker 1: extinguished as fast as possible. He said he wanted a
24:27
Speaker 1: hit man. He offered an amount of money, and he
24:30
Speaker 1: said who the victim was. That is a straight up
24:33
Speaker 1: threat in anybody's book. And here's something else that the
24:36
Speaker 1: young people listening to this show need to understand. This
24:39
Speaker 1: is like a drug driver that runs over and murders somebody.
24:44
Speaker 1: You can't say, well, mine intent wasn't the murder anybody.
24:46
Speaker 1: I don't even know that guy. I went mad at him.
24:49
Speaker 1: This is one of those doesn't matter what your intent was, buddy,
24:53
Speaker 1: you said it, and now you've got to deal with
24:55
Speaker 1: it for the next however long they're going to send
24:57
Speaker 1: it them to. You know, I'm curious about the legal intricacies.
25:02
Speaker 1: Eighteen boy is charged with attempting to commit a murder
25:08
Speaker 1: by offering one hundred thousand dollars for a school employee
25:13
Speaker 1: to be killed. Who did he want, Dad, Dave mack Nancy.
25:16
Speaker 1: They won't say. They're only saying a staffer at Five
25:19
Speaker 1: Day High School. And that's all they're telling us. They're
25:22
Speaker 1: not telling you if it's a teacher, administration, nothing, They're
25:25
Speaker 1: just saying it was a staff member. Yeah, but it's
25:27
Speaker 1: got to be on the indictment to Stephen Lampley, detective,
25:30
Speaker 1: author of Outside Your Door on Amazon. You know, these
25:34
Speaker 1: school resource officers A lot of people pooh pooh them,
25:37
Speaker 1: but they're on the front line with this type of thing.
25:39
Speaker 1: Steve Lampley's as they are, and they're very vital, especially
25:43
Speaker 1: nowadays when I was a police officer where they were
25:46
Speaker 1: just getting into that. But SR officers are most states
25:49
Speaker 1: are highly trained in specific incidents such as this. I
25:54
Speaker 1: mean they received special training of web and beyond what
25:58
Speaker 1: they would get at the police academy to handle situations
26:01
Speaker 1: like this as well of active shooters and other things.
26:04
Speaker 1: School resource officers are a definite class from definitely needed
26:08
Speaker 1: in our school system to doctor Bethany Marshall, and boy,
26:10
Speaker 1: do we need a shrink psychoanalyst joining us out of
26:13
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, Doctor bethany way In, I would like to
26:16
Speaker 1: address the cultural component. I received a call this weekend
26:20
Speaker 1: from a very prominent family. Their son had just turned eighteen.
26:24
Speaker 1: Since he was in the fifth grade, he has racked
26:27
Speaker 1: up millions of followers on YouTube and he is now
26:31
Speaker 1: worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Okay, Sadly, this is
26:34
Speaker 1: not an unusual case in my practice. I hear this
26:38
Speaker 1: the minute he turned eighteen. The parents lost control, buying
26:43
Speaker 1: fancy cars, making threats, doing behavior out of control. And
26:48
Speaker 1: I don't know what this kid's family life was like,
26:51
Speaker 1: but the hundred thousand dollars he offered really hit me.
26:55
Speaker 1: It struck me because I have another case of a
26:57
Speaker 1: kid who bought one Louis then wallet, and then he
27:01
Speaker 1: traded it up for a jacket, then he traded it
27:03
Speaker 1: up for tennis shoes, and now he has hundreds of
27:06
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars in this bank account. And this is
27:09
Speaker 1: a layer. Obviously, this kid made a homicidal threat. Obviously
27:14
Speaker 1: he's ruined the rest of his life. Obviously, he's spoiled
27:18
Speaker 1: at some pathological level. But kids now have the resources
27:22
Speaker 1: to carry out threats and parents have lost control. My
27:25
Speaker 1: dearest friend is a professor in the School of Social
27:29
Speaker 1: Work at USC and she says that whenever she gives
27:32
Speaker 1: a bad grade, or whenever she disciplines a student, they
27:35
Speaker 1: will call their parents and get attorneys. They get attorneys
27:39
Speaker 1: because they're upset at her. So our educators are not
27:44
Speaker 1: just being threatened in terms of their life, but they're
27:46
Speaker 1: being threatened in the legal system. They can't even teach.
27:49
Speaker 1: So culturally, we have fostered this attitude that kids have
27:54
Speaker 1: too much money and it's okay to threaten our school
27:57
Speaker 1: system and our staff take a listen to this. So
28:03
Speaker 1: today we announce that we arrested Nicholas Godrey day to
28:07
Speaker 1: birth nine five zero one for attempting to solicit and
28:10
Speaker 1: conspire for a first degree felony to kill someone. That
28:14
Speaker 1: person he tried to kill was a person a member
28:17
Speaker 1: of the five A staff, And so I just want
28:20
Speaker 1: to put it out there that you know there's gonna
28:22
Speaker 1: be zero tolerance you threaten a member of the school
28:25
Speaker 1: district who's out there trying to do their job to
28:28
Speaker 1: educate children to be part of that process. You know
28:31
Speaker 1: we're gonna come hunt you down. We will track you down.
28:34
Speaker 1: And the very sad part of this whole situation is
28:38
Speaker 1: that when the investigators, when Detective Dacy got there, the
28:41
Speaker 1: parents were shocked because they had no idea. And that
28:45
Speaker 1: is another sad reality of what's going on. I just
28:47
Speaker 1: want to read you some of the statements on Instagram
28:50
Speaker 1: that Nicholas put Us posted out there. He stated on
28:54
Speaker 1: a message within the five A fan club, this is
28:57
Speaker 1: I quote, I need a guy who could kill someone.
29:00
Speaker 1: Another quote was we have one hundred thousand dollars for
29:03
Speaker 1: the victim's head, and the third quote was no joke,
29:06
Speaker 1: I need him eliminated as soon as possible. Crime stories
29:22
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace from talking to them, it didn't seem
29:29
Speaker 1: like there was anything. You look at his past, It
29:31
Speaker 1: wasn't like this was a bad student. This adult was
29:35
Speaker 1: The record did not show somebody who had consistently bad,
29:39
Speaker 1: terrible issues. But yeah, it is one of those things
29:41
Speaker 1: that surprises because it goes back to it. It doesn't
29:44
Speaker 1: matter if somebody says I was joking, It doesn't matter
29:46
Speaker 1: what their intense is. When you do it and you
29:49
Speaker 1: post it out there in social media. You committed that crime.
29:51
Speaker 1: But I'll let Detective Dacy go a little further into
29:54
Speaker 1: it to see if there was anything to that. Now,
29:56
Speaker 1: after speaking with mister Godfrey, he did not have any
30:00
Speaker 1: clear direction or I guess plan is to follow through
30:05
Speaker 1: with this as he said more if he was joking around.
30:09
Speaker 1: You know, I'm thinking about the legal requirements to Cheryl McCallum,
30:13
Speaker 1: Director Coal Case Research Institute, Cheryl, it's one thing to
30:17
Speaker 1: just sit around and going, man, it wouldn't bother me
30:20
Speaker 1: if they were dead. But then typically the law requires
30:24
Speaker 1: a quote overt act, like you have to go by
30:28
Speaker 1: a god, or you have to case out the victim's location.
30:33
Speaker 1: Here he sat not one, but two emails soliciting murder,
30:39
Speaker 1: and if I were prosecuting it, I would argue that
30:42
Speaker 1: that is the overt act that turns us not into
30:45
Speaker 1: just a team dreaming about how much he hates is.
30:48
Speaker 1: By the way, we have information suggesting that the victim
30:52
Speaker 1: the target was a male teacher there at the school.
30:56
Speaker 1: That turns it from just day dreaming into an overt
31:01
Speaker 1: act that constitutes a conspiracy and solicitation murder. Any child
31:07
Speaker 1: that has gone past ninth grade has on some occasion
31:12
Speaker 1: which the teacher didn't make it to school, maybe because
31:14
Speaker 1: of the flu. Maybe where's you know, bolt of lightning
31:18
Speaker 1: with clothes of fool down? But nobody when you take
31:22
Speaker 1: tens of paper. Even back in the day before we
31:24
Speaker 1: had cell phones, to write a note like this, to
31:27
Speaker 1: leave a message on a answer machine like this, there
31:31
Speaker 1: was always ways to you know, make these threats. So
31:36
Speaker 1: you know, social media was just the way that he
31:39
Speaker 1: chose to do it. But he didn't make one. He
31:42
Speaker 1: made two and he clarified for us not joking. You know.
31:48
Speaker 1: The other issue here is determining intent to say I
31:53
Speaker 1: was joking. Mmm, it doesn't really negate that intent at
31:58
Speaker 1: the time you put it out there on social media,
32:00
Speaker 1: and this was Instagram to actually Wilcott, he's not even
32:05
Speaker 1: trying to hide it, right, And that's you know, just
32:07
Speaker 1: what you said is so key and juvenile. Court. When
32:10
Speaker 1: I'm on the bench, I have seen a lot of
32:13
Speaker 1: youth come in and be in trouble for something that
32:16
Speaker 1: they've posted online, a note that they've written. And here's
32:21
Speaker 1: the problem. I see, Hey, it doesn't matter if you're joking,
32:24
Speaker 1: it's still a threat. It's still a crime. Be they
32:28
Speaker 1: forget that social media puts it out there to everyone.
32:33
Speaker 1: It's such a norm to them to do that. Sometimes
32:36
Speaker 1: I think they forget that it's really significant and makes
32:40
Speaker 1: it even worse by putting it on social media. They
32:43
Speaker 1: don't think twice about it, and it is not a
32:46
Speaker 1: good thing to do. Take a listen to this. Honestly,
32:49
Speaker 1: I'm tired of meeting with a press to or with
32:52
Speaker 1: the public announcing the foolishness that goes on with the
32:57
Speaker 1: behavior some of our kids from media issues are incredibly
33:03
Speaker 1: disruptive to our mission to educate kids in this district.
33:07
Speaker 1: One of our top priorities in this district is to
33:09
Speaker 1: ensure that our kids are safe. When this situation came up,
33:15
Speaker 1: they were very quick to respond, both with protection for
33:18
Speaker 1: the individual. But then this morning when I rolled out
33:22
Speaker 1: of bed and I had a text waiting for me
33:23
Speaker 1: that indicated that they had arrested this man is young
33:27
Speaker 1: man that quite honestly has ruined his life by a
33:30
Speaker 1: simple threat on social media. I was elated that we
33:35
Speaker 1: had apprehended him, but very saddened, very saddened by what
33:41
Speaker 1: this young man has just done to the rest of
33:44
Speaker 1: his life. And this is the message that I have
33:47
Speaker 1: tried to get through to all of our students across
33:49
Speaker 1: this district. I have begged with students, I have pled
33:52
Speaker 1: with parents to know what your kids are doing on
33:56
Speaker 1: social media and who they're talking to. Two days, Matt,
34:00
Speaker 1: what did they defend an eighteen year old Nicholas Godfrey
34:04
Speaker 1: say about the money? Well, it's an interesting sidebar to this, Nancy,
34:07
Speaker 1: because while he's making these posts online, he actually says,
34:12
Speaker 1: we have one hundred thousand dollars for the victim's head
34:15
Speaker 1: plural we What does that mean? Though? Well, he claims
34:20
Speaker 1: it was all a joke, but I'm wondering, I mean,
34:22
Speaker 1: do we have other people that need to be investigated.
34:25
Speaker 1: Was he a part of a group of people that
34:28
Speaker 1: believe they needed to take this person out? Or I
34:31
Speaker 1: mean what does he mean by we? So this is
34:33
Speaker 1: what we know Pasco County Sheriff's Office. The eighteen year
34:36
Speaker 1: old Nicholas Godfrey used an Instagram account called five A
34:42
Speaker 1: Fan Club and that's the name of high school five
34:44
Speaker 1: A High School to send messages to another student on Instagram.
34:50
Speaker 1: A student at five A High School stating I need
34:53
Speaker 1: a guy who could kill someone saying that he would
34:57
Speaker 1: give that student one hundred thousand dollars to murder a
35:02
Speaker 1: staff member we now believe to be a male teacher.
35:05
Speaker 1: So he wasn't just posting it blindly on Instagram to
35:08
Speaker 1: the general population. He set it to a specific person
35:13
Speaker 1: offering one hundred grand, then follows up by saying, no, Joe,
35:17
Speaker 1: I need him eliminated as soon as possible. He confesses
35:22
Speaker 1: to sending the messages and even handed over the cell
35:26
Speaker 1: phone that he used to send the Instagram. So if
35:29
Speaker 1: he is convicted to Steve Lampley, Detective joining Me, author
35:35
Speaker 1: of Outside Your Door on Amazon, Steve Lampley, You've seen
35:40
Speaker 1: plenty of solicitation for murderers cases. What's the potential sentence
35:44
Speaker 1: in this case Nancy and Florida. He could get up
35:47
Speaker 1: to thirty years in prison and a ten thousand dollars
35:51
Speaker 1: fine for his actions, thirty years behind bars, and as
35:55
Speaker 1: you say, thirty thousand dollars fine, ten thousand dollars, ten
36:00
Speaker 1: thousand dollars fine, and the likelihood that he's going to
36:04
Speaker 1: be treated as an adult. That's not even a question.
36:07
Speaker 1: Once you turn eighteen, you are treated as an adult.
36:12
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfolds Nancy Grace crime stories. Signing
36:18
Speaker 1: off goodbye friend,