Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Murderer Released on Bond, Kills 23-year-old Summer Chester

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Murderer Released on Bond, Kills 23-year-old Summer Chester · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How does a killer get
0:16
Speaker 1: set free by a judge who should know better, only
0:22
Speaker 1: to kill again? And nobody seems to have noticed. But
0:27
Speaker 1: guess what we have I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
0:32
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
0:35
Speaker 1: and series XEM one eleven, and I am talking to you,
0:40
Speaker 1: Judge Natalia Cornelio. Judge Natalia Cornelio, you're the reason that
0:53
Speaker 1: Summer Chester is dead because you let her killer from
1:00
Speaker 1: behind bars after police catch him following a deadly home invasion.
1:05
Speaker 1: They get him behind bars, you let him out and
1:09
Speaker 1: guess what, it ain't her first trip to the rodeo.
1:13
Speaker 1: She's done it before. Again. Thank you for being with
1:17
Speaker 1: us here at Fox Station. In series M one eleven,
1:20
Speaker 1: take Less to our Frisday kp RC two. I want
1:23
Speaker 1: to show you something right off the bat that we notice.
1:25
Speaker 1: Take a look at the front door. It is riddled
1:28
Speaker 1: with bullet holes. Police still trying to figure out if
1:31
Speaker 1: the shooting happened outside or inside the home. We know
1:34
Speaker 1: that the man who died, the fifty five year old man,
1:37
Speaker 1: did die inside the home. A lot of moving parts
1:40
Speaker 1: to this investigation still ongoing. Let's take a look at
1:43
Speaker 1: the video. Police say this happened around one fifty this morning.
1:47
Speaker 1: Three men came up to this house, forced their way in.
1:50
Speaker 1: There was some sort of altercation or fight. Then shocks
1:54
Speaker 1: rang out and one man was hitting the torso, the
1:57
Speaker 1: other man hitting the leg. Both of those men if
2:00
Speaker 1: at this home. The man who was hit in the leg,
2:01
Speaker 1: in fact, police say, was on his way to work.
2:05
Speaker 1: He is recovering at Benab. The man hit in the torso,
2:08
Speaker 1: the fifty five year old man, died here at the scene. Now,
2:11
Speaker 1: the three suspects, they were able to get away with
2:14
Speaker 1: a cell phone, a purse, and some cash. And then
2:18
Speaker 1: we don't know why they wanted those things, but that
2:20
Speaker 1: is why. That is what they got away with. A
2:23
Speaker 1: home invasion, leaving two men shot, one dead, over a
2:27
Speaker 1: cell phone, a purse, and some cash that was in
2:30
Speaker 1: the purse. A home invasion nearly two a m. In
2:35
Speaker 1: the morning. It seems like a horror movie. But why
2:40
Speaker 1: why did this judge? She's got a New York University, Okay,
2:45
Speaker 1: I went there NYU Baxter's degree. Then she goes to
2:50
Speaker 1: law school and University of Chicago, great schools. So what
2:54
Speaker 1: went wrong with me? An All Star Panel to figure
2:58
Speaker 1: out what the hay is going on. First of all,
3:00
Speaker 1: former federal prosecutor, high profile lawyer off and on TV.
3:05
Speaker 1: You can see him practically everywhere. Douglas Burns. Doug Burns,
3:10
Speaker 1: and it's in his blood. His father was the US
3:15
Speaker 1: Attorney General as well in that jurisdiction. Doctor Jorry Crawsen
3:19
Speaker 1: joining US faculty Saint Leo University, psychologist, author of operations,
3:26
Speaker 1: Chris Buyer's former police chief John's Creek, Georgia, twenty five
3:31
Speaker 1: years on the force, now PI and polygrapher at Chris
3:35
Speaker 1: Buyer's Investigations and polygraph dot Com. Doctor Kendall Crowns, the
3:41
Speaker 1: chief medical Examiner Charrant County. That's in Fort Worth. Lecturer
3:46
Speaker 1: University Texas and Texas A and M. He's also at
3:49
Speaker 1: the University of Texas Medical School. I could go on
3:53
Speaker 1: and on about doctor Kendall Crowns. But doctor Kendall Crowns,
3:57
Speaker 1: aren't you turne of seeing all these dead bodies piling
4:00
Speaker 1: up in your office? This went down in Texas. Kendall Crowns,
4:05
Speaker 1: your backyard with me a very special guest, longtime colleague,
4:10
Speaker 1: and I consider a friend. Andy Cohn director of Victims
4:16
Speaker 1: Services and Advocacy Crime Stoppers of Houston. Andy has been
4:22
Speaker 1: fighting the good fight as long as I've known him.
4:26
Speaker 1: But first to Alexis Terreschu, Crimealine dot Com investigative reporter, Alexis,
4:31
Speaker 1: I don't get it. So this guy home invades, murders
4:37
Speaker 1: somebody for a cell phone in a pocketbook, and then
4:39
Speaker 1: this judge, Natalie Cornelio, let's have walk. Then he kills
4:44
Speaker 1: somebody else, Summer Chester. Let's see, Summer's just twenty three
4:48
Speaker 1: years old. Who is this guy Jonathan Vera, So he
4:53
Speaker 1: was twenty years old, not a teenager. Twenty years old
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Speaker 1: when he and two other men first into the home
4:59
Speaker 1: of a man named Silvano Quartet. Now Silvano and his
5:03
Speaker 1: wife were in bed. This is one fifty in the
5:05
Speaker 1: morning day. How'd a gentleman who was staying with them?
5:07
Speaker 1: He was leaving the house. He was going to work
5:09
Speaker 1: and he worked for a late or an early morning shift. Alexis,
5:14
Speaker 1: I'm sure I've told you about my dad working on
5:16
Speaker 1: the railroad Norfolk Southern for the longest time. He did
5:22
Speaker 1: what they call the mobile route because they went through
5:24
Speaker 1: a lot of layoffs and my dad got they had
5:28
Speaker 1: one job for him, Alexis was the mobile route, which
5:32
Speaker 1: means he would drive sometimes three or four hours to
5:35
Speaker 1: get to work wherever they needed him throughout the Southeast
5:40
Speaker 1: for that day. One day he might drive an hour
5:43
Speaker 1: to work, the next day four hours, the next day
5:46
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, depending on That's the only way he'd keep
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Speaker 1: his job at Norfolk Southern with a wife who was
5:52
Speaker 1: then a bank teller, and three children. So one night
5:56
Speaker 1: my dad would go to work at eleven pm. Next
6:00
Speaker 1: day you might go to work at three. So I
6:03
Speaker 1: get it. Somebody is up going to work at what
6:07
Speaker 1: was at one fifty A m Alexis, Yes, one fifty
6:10
Speaker 1: am leaves the house like is walking out the front
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Speaker 1: door to go to work and is ambushed by three
6:15
Speaker 1: men with guns and so they shove him back in
6:18
Speaker 1: the house. They go in the master bedroom, they grat
6:22
Speaker 1: and that this is where mister Cortez and his wife
6:24
Speaker 1: are sleeping in their bed. They hold them at gunpoint.
6:27
Speaker 1: So these to this couple is you know, in their
6:29
Speaker 1: pajamas in bed in the middle of the night, and
6:31
Speaker 1: they're being held at gunpoint. And these guys are running
6:34
Speaker 1: around the house, ransacking the house looking for things and
6:37
Speaker 1: all they get to the person cell phone and some cash.
6:40
Speaker 1: Now it sounds like they're in your house right now,
6:42
Speaker 1: go ahead. They don't leave with the stuff and just
6:44
Speaker 1: say by guys there. They end up opening fire. The
6:47
Speaker 1: people in the home did not have guns. They were
6:49
Speaker 1: not shooting to descend themselves. These people were just shot
6:53
Speaker 1: by the folks that broke into the home. So Sylvano
6:57
Speaker 1: shot in his bed, and then as the other man
7:01
Speaker 1: is leaving the house, it appears that the three guys
7:04
Speaker 1: outside turned fire back into the house. So they were
7:08
Speaker 1: already gone and nobody was shooting at them, and they
7:10
Speaker 1: turned back around and shoot at the guy who had
7:12
Speaker 1: been reading for work. Take a listen to our cut
7:15
Speaker 1: to This is Randy Wallace Fox. Twenty six. Police say
7:19
Speaker 1: twenty year old Jonathan Vira and two other men killed
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Speaker 1: Solvano Cortez during a home invasion in the greens Point area,
7:27
Speaker 1: held the homeowner and his wife at gunpoint, ransacked the home,
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Speaker 1: and then ended up killing a fifty five year old
7:35
Speaker 1: homeowner and then shooting another suton shooting another person while
7:39
Speaker 1: they were fleeing the scene. Then, seventeen year old Jonathan
7:42
Speaker 1: Vira was charged with capital murder. His bond was set
7:45
Speaker 1: at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He was actually
7:50
Speaker 1: in Harris Kenner jail for at least two plus years,
7:53
Speaker 1: and while he was in county jail, he also was
7:56
Speaker 1: charged with another felony by harassment of a public servant
8:01
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty First Criminal District Court. Judge Natalia
8:05
Speaker 1: Cornelio Lord, there is bond three fifty First District Court.
8:09
Speaker 1: I mean lowered it to what I've never seen in
8:12
Speaker 1: my career. Fifty thousand dollars for capital murder. Wow, okay,
8:18
Speaker 1: when you hear fifty thousand dollars is the bond to you?
8:22
Speaker 1: Former federal prosecutor, high profile lawyer Doug Burns. We all
8:27
Speaker 1: know when we hear fifty thousand dollars bond, you don't
8:30
Speaker 1: put up fifty thousand, You don't more, you don't take
8:33
Speaker 1: a lean on your home, You don't rush to the
8:36
Speaker 1: bank for a fifty grand loan. You put up ten
8:39
Speaker 1: percent of that five thousand dollars. Exactly right. You put
8:43
Speaker 1: up five thousand dollars with a bail bondsman, PaperWorks filled down,
8:46
Speaker 1: and you're released and real quick. Fifty thousand dollars reduction
8:50
Speaker 1: on a capital offense is absolutely absurd and it's horrific
8:54
Speaker 1: what happened. And again, I'm just glad that you're calling
8:57
Speaker 1: this church to account because this kind about, no question
9:01
Speaker 1: about it, nothing crime stories with Nancy Grace, you know, Doug,
9:16
Speaker 1: another thing about bill bond. For instance, if you go
9:20
Speaker 1: to any jail, and I don't advise it. I've been
9:23
Speaker 1: in way too many jails. All around the jail, all
9:27
Speaker 1: around the jail's crop up bond companies, bonding companies because
9:33
Speaker 1: you know, let's just pretend your son gets a DUI
9:38
Speaker 1: ve vehicular homicide. You've never had any contact with the
9:44
Speaker 1: justice system at all. You got to bond him out,
9:48
Speaker 1: and right by the jail you see triple A bonding.
9:54
Speaker 1: You walk in, you give them the arrest report, and
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Speaker 1: they can take collateral f since they may take a
10:01
Speaker 1: lane against your home very often to get that five grand.
10:04
Speaker 1: You don't even have to put up five grand. How
10:06
Speaker 1: does it work? Doug Burns simply put, Yeah, I'm making
10:09
Speaker 1: a really great point, of course, which is that when
10:12
Speaker 1: you go to local courthouses, you know, in state court,
10:15
Speaker 1: for example, here in New York, you see signs and
10:17
Speaker 1: offices for bonding companies all over the place. They're incentivized,
10:20
Speaker 1: obviously to do business, and as you say, they take
10:24
Speaker 1: a small percentage, because if you want to look at
10:26
Speaker 1: it from a statistical point of view, you know generally
10:29
Speaker 1: those who fully you know, are in the minority. But
10:33
Speaker 1: this case, by the way, real quick, is not about
10:35
Speaker 1: risk of flight. This is about danger to the community.
10:38
Speaker 1: That's a very important point. You keep people detained pre
10:41
Speaker 1: trial for two reasons, One because they may not reappear
10:44
Speaker 1: in court, but two ten times more importantly in a
10:46
Speaker 1: violent crime case, Nancy, so they don't hurt somebody else, obviously, Exactly,
10:51
Speaker 1: Doug Burns, Exactly, you're preaching to the choir right now.
10:55
Speaker 1: Burns and I want to talk Andy Kahan joining me,
11:00
Speaker 1: longtime colleague, fighting for victim's rights. Andy, I want to
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Speaker 1: hear about the murder in the first case, the case
11:11
Speaker 1: where Sylvano Cortez is shot dead in his own bed,
11:16
Speaker 1: lying there with his wife asleep. Now, this is before
11:20
Speaker 1: the same guy gets out and kills Somerchester. Thanks to
11:24
Speaker 1: Natalie Cornelio, the judge tell me about the death of
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Speaker 1: the first victim. I Nancy, this was a brutal, horrific
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Speaker 1: dead This is a home invasion that you see on
11:35
Speaker 1: the news where they're kicking the doors at one forty
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Speaker 1: five in the morning, and you got Almater fifty five
11:40
Speaker 1: years old sleeping with his wife and they held him
11:43
Speaker 1: at gunpoint, and then they shoot and kill him, and
11:46
Speaker 1: then they shoot another guy that was just simply trying
11:48
Speaker 1: to go to work. He was actually bara was on
11:51
Speaker 1: the land. They didn't actually arrest him and his two
11:53
Speaker 1: accomplices until almost a year later. So he's taken in
11:58
Speaker 1: the custody. He's charged capital murder, the most egregious offense
12:03
Speaker 1: that you can charge anyone. It is the only offense
12:07
Speaker 1: in which a judge actually can have a no bond.
12:13
Speaker 1: That didn't happen in this case. The judge sets a
12:16
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars bond. From our perspective,
12:20
Speaker 1: it's pretty lowball for capital or murder, but obviously it
12:23
Speaker 1: was good enough to keep Barr in jail for two
12:26
Speaker 1: years and then inexplicably, all of the I mean you
12:30
Speaker 1: lowered the bond. Not only do you lower the bond
12:34
Speaker 1: to a low ball fifty thousand, he's actually charged with
12:37
Speaker 1: another felony while he's in oh Andy, Cohn. Please tell
12:42
Speaker 1: everybody what this guy did behind bars? Jonathan Verr. He's
12:47
Speaker 1: already home invaded, shot one guy dead in his sleep.
12:51
Speaker 1: Now he's behind bars, after year walking free, bragging, what
12:55
Speaker 1: did he do behind bars? So he's one of the
12:58
Speaker 1: officers evidently approa oshim and he chucked it. Basically, he
13:01
Speaker 1: chucked his saliva at him, and so he's charged with
13:05
Speaker 1: harassment of a public servant. He's spent on the he's
13:09
Speaker 1: spent on the jail keeper. Yet ninety nine pages of
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Speaker 1: jail infractions documented, and this is the person you deemed
13:19
Speaker 1: to be a good risk. Will you say that again,
13:21
Speaker 1: Andy com ninety nine pages? Please say that again? Ninety
13:25
Speaker 1: nine documented pages of infractions while in custody, and yet
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Speaker 1: dis judge deemed this person to be a good risk
13:35
Speaker 1: to lower from two hundred and fifty thousand to an
13:38
Speaker 1: unheard of fifty thousand per capital murder. Guys, I want
13:44
Speaker 1: you to take a listen to our cut three, our
13:46
Speaker 1: friend Randy Wallace at Fox twenty six Houston. That is insane.
13:51
Speaker 1: That is a two years ago that would have been
13:54
Speaker 1: aggravated assault bone. One day after Cornelio lowered to respond,
13:58
Speaker 1: he walked out of jail. Just last week, police say
14:02
Speaker 1: Vera took another life and is now charged with manslaughter
14:05
Speaker 1: and the death of summer Chester. The reduction of his
14:09
Speaker 1: bond from two fifty to fifty led to the result
14:15
Speaker 1: of killing summer Chester. The judge should be held accountable
14:20
Speaker 1: right now. They have absolute immunity. They can do whatever
14:22
Speaker 1: they want because they know no one's going to hold
14:24
Speaker 1: them accountable. You know you're hearing speaking reporter Randy Wallace
14:28
Speaker 1: Fox twenty six, but you're also hearing Doug Griffith, the
14:31
Speaker 1: president of the Houston Police Officers Union, and of course
14:36
Speaker 1: our friend Andy conn at Crime Stoppers. So he gets
14:39
Speaker 1: out thanks to the judge and then kills somebody else.
14:43
Speaker 1: I want to go now to our special guest, doctor
14:45
Speaker 1: Kendall Crown's chief medical examiner, Fort Worth. Doctor Kendall Crown's
14:52
Speaker 1: shot in your sleeve, shot lying in your own bed
14:56
Speaker 1: with your wife. How long does it take before a
15:01
Speaker 1: victim bleeds out dead? I mean, I wonder a disc
15:06
Speaker 1: guy in the middle of the night realizes he's dying
15:10
Speaker 1: right then and there. Well, of course it's going to
15:13
Speaker 1: depend on where you get hit. But if you're not
15:15
Speaker 1: hit in the head and involving your brainstem, which could
15:20
Speaker 1: kill you instantly. Let's say you get hitting the chest.
15:23
Speaker 1: Even if it's hit in your heart, you're going to
15:25
Speaker 1: have at least several seconds where you can feel the
15:28
Speaker 1: pain and bleeding and then you realize you're dying and
15:32
Speaker 1: you're going to be able to cry out. Also, if
15:34
Speaker 1: you get hitting your lungs, you're going to be bleeding
15:36
Speaker 1: into your chest cavity, breathing into your airways, so you're
15:40
Speaker 1: going to be gasping and coughing up blood and also
15:43
Speaker 1: be able to realize that you're dying. So, just depending
15:47
Speaker 1: on where you get hit, it can be instantaneous or
15:49
Speaker 1: it can take a matter of minutes. The door Kittel Crowns,
15:53
Speaker 1: has there ever been a point in your life where
15:55
Speaker 1: you thought you were actually dying. Yes, A couple of times.
15:59
Speaker 1: My there held me underwater until I had in hail
16:02
Speaker 1: water and I thought it was going to drowned. It
16:04
Speaker 1: wasn't a pleasant experience. That was when you were a kid,
16:06
Speaker 1: a child, a team. I've had a couple of times.
16:12
Speaker 1: One was and I was out with my investigator, Earnest,
16:15
Speaker 1: and we were in one of the worst areas, the
16:19
Speaker 1: most crime ridden area of Atlanta housing project and I
16:24
Speaker 1: was trying to serve a subpoena on a guy. It
16:28
Speaker 1: was about noon, a little before noon, and we went
16:34
Speaker 1: up to a door and I was directly in front
16:37
Speaker 1: of the door, and my investigator was standing to my right,
16:41
Speaker 1: and the sun was bright, so inside the apartment it
16:45
Speaker 1: was dark, and they had a screen door over the
16:50
Speaker 1: front door, so I couldn't see in through that. It
16:54
Speaker 1: was a rusted screen door, and the first thing I
16:59
Speaker 1: saw was the barrel of a long gun pointed right
17:04
Speaker 1: at my face, and my investigator shoved me to my left.
17:11
Speaker 1: I felt I went flying off the porch down about
17:16
Speaker 1: I don't know, three feet into a bunch of shrubs,
17:18
Speaker 1: and we immediately he immediately grabbed the guy, and just
17:24
Speaker 1: so you know, the subpoena was served. Long story short.
17:29
Speaker 1: In that split second, I guess I thought I'm gonna
17:34
Speaker 1: get shot. I didn't have time to really think about it.
17:36
Speaker 1: There was another time, Doctor Kendall Crowns at one of
17:39
Speaker 1: my sons early early soccer baseball. I just raced across town,
17:47
Speaker 1: literally raced from work to get there for the game,
17:52
Speaker 1: and my chest hurts so bad I had to lay
17:55
Speaker 1: on the ground and my dress up clothes because I
17:58
Speaker 1: couldn't sit up. Well, I'm having a hard tag. I'm
18:01
Speaker 1: going to die right here in the dirt. My point is,
18:05
Speaker 1: doctor Kendall Crowns, I wonder if the victim, Sylvannah Cortez,
18:11
Speaker 1: was aware his wife was right beside him screaming or crying,
18:15
Speaker 1: if he knew what was going on around him, if
18:17
Speaker 1: there were children in the home screaming and crying. I mean,
18:20
Speaker 1: how long does it take you to die if you're
18:23
Speaker 1: not shot in the head again, it can take several minutes.
18:26
Speaker 1: So he would be aware of what's going on around him,
18:29
Speaker 1: hearing his family screaming, you know, realizing he's probably going
18:33
Speaker 1: to die. So it is I'm sure not a pleasant experience.
18:38
Speaker 1: And then doctor Jerry Cross and psychologist's faculties Saint le
18:41
Speaker 1: On University and author his family for the rest of
18:45
Speaker 1: their lives, if they stay in that home, every time
18:49
Speaker 1: they walk through that room that's where dad died. It's
18:52
Speaker 1: from my husband, It's going to be very traumatic, very traumatic.
18:56
Speaker 1: I mean, like we know the day a year August six,
19:02
Speaker 1: I think, well, this day sucks because this is the
19:06
Speaker 1: day my fiance was martyred, or this is the day
19:08
Speaker 1: my dad passed away. But they have to walk through
19:12
Speaker 1: the room every day or look at the front door
19:15
Speaker 1: that was kicked in. I mean, how do you get
19:17
Speaker 1: past that jewlry. A lot of families actually moved because
19:21
Speaker 1: the memory is so intense. Yeah, that they've got to
19:25
Speaker 1: get out there because it's a reoccurring trauma to them.
19:29
Speaker 1: I mean, everything in that house is going to remind
19:31
Speaker 1: them of that incident. At Death Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,
19:49
Speaker 1: you know, Chris Buyer's joining me. I'm destructed by the
19:54
Speaker 1: dichotomy of the peaceful sleeping in the home about to
19:59
Speaker 1: a and the eruption of gunfire somebody kicking the door in.
20:07
Speaker 1: But Chris, you're the former police chief over twenty five
20:12
Speaker 1: years now, PI, What did the judge think this guy's
20:16
Speaker 1: going to do when he gets out after as Andy
20:18
Speaker 1: con just told us, after murdering someone asleep in their
20:22
Speaker 1: own bed for a person's cell phone. What does she
20:28
Speaker 1: judge Natalie Cornelio think that the defendant, Jonathan Vera, was
20:35
Speaker 1: gonna do when she let him walk ninety nine in
20:40
Speaker 1: fractions behind bars alone. Yeah. Absolutely. And one thing about
20:45
Speaker 1: a home invasion, Your home is where you feel safe.
20:49
Speaker 1: It's it's it's it's where you know your your family
20:52
Speaker 1: is and you feel like that, you know you're secure
20:55
Speaker 1: from everything, And to come into somebody's home at that
20:57
Speaker 1: time of the night to be shot there, I mean,
21:00
Speaker 1: it just shows just to me a special kind of
21:03
Speaker 1: evil and to be definitely not what we would Here
21:07
Speaker 1: is the model prisoner, model inmate with ninety nine infractions.
21:12
Speaker 1: And believe me, as somebody who's been gearing arrest and
21:15
Speaker 1: spitting their face probably two dozen times, that's not a
21:19
Speaker 1: pleasant experience either. Do you ever get spent on, Chris, Yeah,
21:22
Speaker 1: at least at least two dozen times during my twenty
21:25
Speaker 1: five years. Okay, I didn't get spit on in all
21:28
Speaker 1: the years I was a prosecutor or a fed But
21:31
Speaker 1: can I tell you how many I don't even know
21:34
Speaker 1: how many times my car got the windows broken in
21:37
Speaker 1: or the tires slit while I was at the courthouse
21:39
Speaker 1: trying a case. During one murder trial, somebody stole my
21:42
Speaker 1: cell phone out of the court room where it was charging.
21:45
Speaker 1: But I had my car broken into, not to take anything,
21:50
Speaker 1: just to vandalize me for trying the case. And so
21:54
Speaker 1: many times I memorized I had memorized the number four.
21:58
Speaker 1: I think it was doctor Glass and my tire slit
22:02
Speaker 1: so many times I had memorized the name of somebody
22:05
Speaker 1: to come helped me change the tire in the middle
22:07
Speaker 1: of the night if I needed help, you know. That's
22:12
Speaker 1: that's what I got triple A then when I was
22:15
Speaker 1: a prosecutor, because I have a tire slit so many times.
22:18
Speaker 1: Didn't ever get spit on, But I remember I'd come
22:22
Speaker 1: out of the courtroom after a long day ago, all
22:24
Speaker 1: the way to where my car was part for cheap,
22:27
Speaker 1: like eight blocks away and the wind to be broken in.
22:30
Speaker 1: I'm like, on top of everything else, that much less
22:34
Speaker 1: getting spit on. I mean, Joory Cross and you're the shrink.
22:39
Speaker 1: That is like the ultimate insult to remember a defendant
22:43
Speaker 1: spat on a rape victim. Now I'm glad he did
22:46
Speaker 1: because I got his DNA that way, But that said,
22:50
Speaker 1: that's like the ultimate fu. Yeah, that's an invasion of
22:54
Speaker 1: your person. And this judge let this guy out. Jory
22:59
Speaker 1: the sense of vulnerability that they can basically hurt you,
23:04
Speaker 1: they can touch you like that. Okay, he gets out
23:09
Speaker 1: thanks to Judge Cornelio. I mean, why is she on
23:12
Speaker 1: the bench in Texas, Andy Cohn, she went to NYU
23:17
Speaker 1: and University of Chicago. What is she doing on a
23:20
Speaker 1: Texas bench? What does she know about Texas? You know, Nancy,
23:23
Speaker 1: we've had a complete makeover of all our judges in
23:27
Speaker 1: Harris County. So this particular judge was actually a policy
23:32
Speaker 1: analyst for a county commissioner, and she was instrumental in
23:37
Speaker 1: our bail reform statute that changed everything in Harris County.
23:43
Speaker 1: You mean no bail, I mean like letting everybody out
23:46
Speaker 1: like a revolving door in that reform, pretty much the
23:48
Speaker 1: revolving door at the courthouse. She was one of the architects. Hey,
23:52
Speaker 1: you love something out, Andy, And no offense to the
23:56
Speaker 1: public Defender's office. Everybody winds when they get the public
23:59
Speaker 1: defender for free. Those people try a lot of cases.
24:03
Speaker 1: But she was a federal public defender, so that's where
24:08
Speaker 1: she's coming from. She identified he actually has the most
24:12
Speaker 1: individuals out on bond of any felony district court judge
24:17
Speaker 1: in Harris County. And this is not her first dog
24:20
Speaker 1: and pony show that we've had to go on national
24:22
Speaker 1: news to talk about. So this is just par for
24:25
Speaker 1: the course. It's not an anomaly. How on earth do
24:28
Speaker 1: you justify reducing someone charged with an egregious capital of
24:33
Speaker 1: murder shooting a homeowner during a home invasion, killing them,
24:37
Speaker 1: getting charged with another felony in jail ninety nine pages
24:42
Speaker 1: of infractions? What on earth makes you think this person
24:45
Speaker 1: is a good risk to rerelease to the public, And
24:48
Speaker 1: now you've got another young girl that paid the price
24:52
Speaker 1: for that decision. It defies logic. Speaking of this young girl,
24:58
Speaker 1: twenty three year old Summrchester, take a listen to crime
25:01
Speaker 1: online dot com'st Dave matt cut seventeen. Summer Chester has
25:06
Speaker 1: an accomplished life with plans for an accomplished future. The
25:10
Speaker 1: twenty three year old graduates from Lone Star College with
25:13
Speaker 1: an associate's degree of Arts. She attends the University of
25:16
Speaker 1: Houston and transfers to Texas Southern University as a senior,
25:20
Speaker 1: majoring in business administration. Chester's ultimate goal is to become
25:24
Speaker 1: an elementary school teacher. Despite her school schedule, Chester also
25:28
Speaker 1: works as a customer service agent at best Buy. If
25:31
Speaker 1: you ask her family, they'll tell you Chester's biggest accomplishment
25:35
Speaker 1: is life itself. Summer and her friends are on a
25:37
Speaker 1: quest to discover new and different restaurants. She enjoys playing music, dancing,
25:42
Speaker 1: loves animals, and is even known for pulling a practical
25:45
Speaker 1: joke or two. Well, I think of this young girl,
25:48
Speaker 1: just twenty three. I pulled up her a bit last night,
25:53
Speaker 1: and she's got a million dollars smile. She had a
25:59
Speaker 1: million dollars smile before this p o s technical legal
26:04
Speaker 1: term killed her. Take a listen now to our cut eighteen.
26:10
Speaker 1: Somerchester died in January this year. The twenty three year
26:14
Speaker 1: old died in a hit and run car accident caused
26:17
Speaker 1: by Jonathan Vera, who ran a traffic signal. He is
26:21
Speaker 1: now charged with manslaughter in the case. So where is
26:25
Speaker 1: he now? Alexis terrest chick? Before I get to the
26:29
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty other cases like this one, Andy
26:32
Speaker 1: CON's going to tell me about where is he? Jonathan
26:35
Speaker 1: Vera has Judge Cornelio let him out again. No, he
26:38
Speaker 1: is actually in jail. Now when is he going to trial?
26:41
Speaker 1: And once he gonna go to trial for first his
26:44
Speaker 1: first murder victim or his second manslaughter victim. I believe
26:47
Speaker 1: he should be charged first for Silvano Cortez's murder since
26:51
Speaker 1: that was in twenty seventeen and then this one will follow.
26:54
Speaker 1: Although this is a manslaughter charge and that is a
26:57
Speaker 1: murder charge, so there. I mean, he should have an
27:00
Speaker 1: attorney who comes up with a pleadio for one or
27:02
Speaker 1: the other. Let's talk about Zakias Guestone to you Andy Kahn,
27:08
Speaker 1: director of Victim Services Avacacy Crimestoppers, who is Layla Steel.
27:13
Speaker 1: La Sale was a twenty four year old mother who
27:17
Speaker 1: was involved in a relationship with a defending guest Stone
27:21
Speaker 1: and was trying to break it off. Guest Stone has
27:24
Speaker 1: three prior felony convictions. He was also a registered sex offender.
27:29
Speaker 1: He was out on seven felony bonds by you guessed it,
27:34
Speaker 1: the three hundred and fifty first District Court judge whom
27:37
Speaker 1: we've all been talking about today. He was also on
27:40
Speaker 1: an ankle monitor. Listen to this. He was on bond
27:44
Speaker 1: for failure to registers and sex offender, assault with intent
27:47
Speaker 1: to mt breathing which is trying to strangle someone to debt, assault,
27:52
Speaker 1: evading arrest fell and in possession of a weapon another
27:55
Speaker 1: evading arrest. And now he's charged with the murder of
27:58
Speaker 1: twenty four year old Laylist Steel and also shooting one
28:02
Speaker 1: year old Zeus as well as a matter of fact,
28:05
Speaker 1: take a listen to Melissa Korea Khou eleven are cut thirteen.
28:11
Speaker 1: These are the many faces of Zachaeus Gaston, a twenty
28:14
Speaker 1: seven year old whose criminal record is a decade long.
28:17
Speaker 1: The Harris County DA's office describes him as a true
28:20
Speaker 1: habitual offender. Harris County District Court records show Gaston's currently
28:24
Speaker 1: facing seven different charges for crimes like assault of aiding arrest,
28:30
Speaker 1: failing to register as a sex offender, and a felon
28:33
Speaker 1: in possession of a weapon. Prosecutors have repeatedly asked the
28:36
Speaker 1: courts to refuse bail, but even after reviewing public safety
28:40
Speaker 1: assessments and all of the pending felony cases, magistrates continue
28:45
Speaker 1: to set bail. In some cases, record show it's the
28:48
Speaker 1: same magistrate then on Thursday, with a suspect having being
28:53
Speaker 1: out on bond for seven major felonies, this could have
28:59
Speaker 1: been prevented. Layla's Steele was shot four times while she
29:03
Speaker 1: was carrying her son. Police say baby Zeus was shot
29:06
Speaker 1: once in his leg during an argument between Layla and
29:09
Speaker 1: Zeus's father, Schaius Gaston. Layla died at a hospital now
29:14
Speaker 1: listen are cut. Fourteen port documents showed the steps prosecutors
29:18
Speaker 1: took to try and protect Layla. They asked for a
29:21
Speaker 1: protective order and an ankle monitor that would include geo
29:24
Speaker 1: fencing to prevent Gaston from going near Leyla's apartment. And
29:28
Speaker 1: even though the court acknowledges Gaston's past and threats he
29:32
Speaker 1: made to Layla, a magistrate still set bail at thirty
29:36
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. In April, the Harris County DA petitioned to
29:40
Speaker 1: have Gaston's bond revoked because he continued to harass Layla.
29:44
Speaker 1: A court decision is still pending. The motion was filed
29:48
Speaker 1: April fifth, nearly three months before Layla's Steele was killed.
29:52
Speaker 1: There's no way that that should have slipped. Where seven
29:55
Speaker 1: felony bonds, A person was out and I feel like
29:57
Speaker 1: my sister's blood is on their hands. You know where's
30:00
Speaker 1: achas gassed in? Is called police. He's now facing a
30:03
Speaker 1: murder charge in addition to several other crimes crime stories
30:20
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace Andy Khan. How did he get out?
30:25
Speaker 1: It's the revolving door at the courthouse. This is what
30:28
Speaker 1: I call another victim of a Harris county bond pandemic.
30:32
Speaker 1: I have now documented one hundred and sixty people who
30:37
Speaker 1: have been killed by defendants released on multiple felony bonds
30:42
Speaker 1: in the last few years. That's one hundred and sixty
30:47
Speaker 1: people who were tragically killed. Yet it was so utterly
30:50
Speaker 1: preventable because we keep spitting the same people out time
30:54
Speaker 1: and time again. Who is Andy karn DeVante William Davanta?
31:00
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this one really really chat me. I
31:03
Speaker 1: mean Davanta. Williams is out on multiple felony bobs. He
31:07
Speaker 1: has multiple prior convictions. He's been the prison several times.
31:11
Speaker 1: So there's a police chase because he's wanted for two
31:14
Speaker 1: aggravator robberies. And during the police chase, a horrific accident
31:19
Speaker 1: and it costs the life of a mother. Twenty four
31:22
Speaker 1: year old mother, Audrey Davis, died in the accident. Now,
31:27
Speaker 1: Williams was out on multiple bonds. Now gets this. He
31:31
Speaker 1: was out on two separate aggravator to assault with a
31:34
Speaker 1: deadly weapon bonds. But here's the real rub of why
31:38
Speaker 1: I was so irate with this. His bonds were revoked
31:42
Speaker 1: as they should be, because it should be one bond
31:44
Speaker 1: per customer. You're out on bond and you get charged
31:47
Speaker 1: with a new case. You shouldn't be back out on
31:50
Speaker 1: bond again. Those days are long over. So the bond
31:53
Speaker 1: was originally eighty thousand, the judge reinstates the bond and
31:58
Speaker 1: lowers it from forty to ten, and then on the
32:01
Speaker 1: other agassault with a deadly weapon, it gets lowered from
32:04
Speaker 1: forty to five. I have never seen a bond lowered
32:08
Speaker 1: after you've already been revoked. That decision costs a twenty
32:13
Speaker 1: four year old mother for life. Take a listen hour
32:16
Speaker 1: cut five Fox twenty six. Twenty seven year old Davante
32:20
Speaker 1: Williams violated his bond for aggravated assault with a deadly
32:23
Speaker 1: weapon by picking up another aggravated assault with a deadly
32:27
Speaker 1: weapon charge. His bond was revoked. But get this. Instead
32:31
Speaker 1: of reinstating his bond with a higher amount, three hundred
32:35
Speaker 1: and thirty seventh Colonel District Court Judge Colleen Guido lowered
32:39
Speaker 1: it go from forty thousand to five thousand. So he's
32:44
Speaker 1: out now on a ten and a five when he
32:47
Speaker 1: originally had an eighty and a forty. What makes that
32:51
Speaker 1: even more troubling is what a magistrate told the court
32:54
Speaker 1: about Williams three arrust for aggravated cases. Quote, it's impossible
32:59
Speaker 1: to bond conditions that could reasonably assure community's safety due
33:05
Speaker 1: to the randomness of each act. Last Wednesday, Williams led
33:09
Speaker 1: a deputy on a chase that turned deadly. Now you
33:12
Speaker 1: have you know, you have a deputy sheriff that was
33:15
Speaker 1: in the hospital injured. You have a mother of pooh dead.
33:19
Speaker 1: I got a question, you know. First to you, doctor
33:22
Speaker 1: Kimdall Crowns. We're talking about all these victims that are
33:27
Speaker 1: killed by purps, that are released over and over and over.
33:32
Speaker 1: But these are not just statistics, they're not just stories.
33:36
Speaker 1: These are real people that end up in your morgue.
33:42
Speaker 1: I mean, do you ever feel like there's no stopping it? Yeah,
33:47
Speaker 1: sometimes it does seem like there's no insight. Now, always
33:51
Speaker 1: find it interesting, one, individuals who obviously have violent tendencies,
33:58
Speaker 1: who are already arrested and put in gail for something
34:01
Speaker 1: and not necessarily convicted of it, yet are allowed to
34:04
Speaker 1: be released, especially in these domestic situations, because you know,
34:08
Speaker 1: these pieces of paper aren't going to protect someone from
34:11
Speaker 1: someone who's already violent, and it's not like they're going
34:14
Speaker 1: to follow the rules, So I always wonder why that's done,
34:18
Speaker 1: because it does increase the amount of debt that come
34:21
Speaker 1: through the morgue, you know, Chris Buyer's form police Chief,
34:25
Speaker 1: John's Creek now PI and polygrapher Chris Buyers. I remember
34:30
Speaker 1: so many times getting a case to prepare for trial,
34:34
Speaker 1: typically a murder or a rape, and I would open
34:38
Speaker 1: the jacket, which is the file, and at the back
34:41
Speaker 1: of all the police reports and supplementals and crime WIB
34:44
Speaker 1: reports and toxicology and all that would be the rash
34:47
Speaker 1: sheet and it would be a mile long. Now for me,
34:54
Speaker 1: it would just make me more angry, But for some
34:58
Speaker 1: people it's debilitating because you feel overwhelm. It's like why bother? Yeah,
35:05
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely. I mean I can't tell you how many times,
35:10
Speaker 1: whether it was when I was on DUIs passports or something,
35:12
Speaker 1: I'd stopped somebody with like rest of them for DUI
35:16
Speaker 1: and they have ten twelve DUIs on the record, And
35:18
Speaker 1: of course DUI is minor compared to what we're talking to.
35:21
Speaker 1: We're talking about lives here that we're you know, basically
35:25
Speaker 1: when we talk about that one lady that was killed,
35:27
Speaker 1: the guy that had like seven felonies on him. I mean, basically,
35:31
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars is what the price was put on
35:33
Speaker 1: her life. And yeah, I mean you just see it
35:36
Speaker 1: over and over. It's you know, ten percent of the
35:39
Speaker 1: people that are doing ninety percent of the crime senior communities.
35:43
Speaker 1: And it's very rare that you arrest somebody with for
35:46
Speaker 1: a very violent crime that it's their first time out.
35:49
Speaker 1: There's usually that rap sheeting. You wonder, how are we
35:53
Speaker 1: even still here on the street talking And you, Doug Burnus,
35:56
Speaker 1: former federal prosecutor, when you look at the rap sheet,
36:00
Speaker 1: what do you What are the judges think this guy's
36:03
Speaker 1: going to do when they have all these felonies, ninety
36:07
Speaker 1: nine pages of jailhouse infractions? What was she Judge Cornelia's
36:15
Speaker 1: thinking when she led him out? Then he was going
36:18
Speaker 1: to show up at Sunday school the next morning. Now
36:20
Speaker 1: you heard the context of this. This is a person
36:23
Speaker 1: who has the whole ideological background of bail reform and
36:27
Speaker 1: so on, and now she's on the bench. What I
36:29
Speaker 1: can bring to the table is, in thirty five plus years,
36:31
Speaker 1: I've never heard of a situation where somebody's bond is
36:35
Speaker 1: revoked for committing another offense and then boom, it's lowered.
36:39
Speaker 1: I've never heard of that, so obviously this is an
36:42
Speaker 1: allier situation. You know, I would normally be reluctant to
36:45
Speaker 1: use the term rogue, but I'll use it unhesitatingly. Rogue
36:49
Speaker 1: judge to make these type of decisions. It's really disgraceful
36:53
Speaker 1: and I'm just again I'm glad you're bringing it to
36:54
Speaker 1: the forefront with this pound, doctor Jerry Craws enjoining me
36:58
Speaker 1: psychologists faculties Leo University, consultant with the Blue Wall Institute.
37:03
Speaker 1: It's got to be demoralizing for police officers because they
37:07
Speaker 1: put the same people behind bars over and over and over.
37:11
Speaker 1: It's like a joke. Yeah, it is a joke. It's
37:14
Speaker 1: a force to the criminal justice system. You know, there's
37:18
Speaker 1: so many safeguards that have been built into the system
37:23
Speaker 1: over the years, and it appears that she's abandoned them.
37:26
Speaker 1: You know, like here in Florida, we have risk assessments
37:29
Speaker 1: that are done on violence of senators and can be
37:31
Speaker 1: offered in mind hearings, you know, so the judge knows
37:35
Speaker 1: what's the chances of them repeating. Well, I mean, I'm
37:38
Speaker 1: glad that you have that there, doctor Joy, But I
37:42
Speaker 1: mean when I look at somebody's rap sheet. I don't
37:44
Speaker 1: need a risk assessment to tell me when they've gotten
37:48
Speaker 1: ninety nine infractions behind bars. They've got a rap sheet
37:51
Speaker 1: as long as I seventy five. When you don't know
37:54
Speaker 1: a horse, look at his track record. It's really just
37:58
Speaker 1: that simple. Sure, if you want to predict past behavior
38:04
Speaker 1: is violent and aggressive, deadly. This is a case that
38:08
Speaker 1: has me very, very upset because it reminds me of
38:11
Speaker 1: my mother. Take a listen to our cut six sin
38:15
Speaker 1: is Micah Hatfield with Katie Rk ABC thirteen. My mom
38:19
Speaker 1: was eighty years old. She was disabled, you know, she
38:23
Speaker 1: shuffled with the cane, and she's the prototypical grandmother, you know,
38:28
Speaker 1: reading glasses down on her nose, knitting needles by the
38:32
Speaker 1: side of a rocking chair, A mother of three, grandmother
38:35
Speaker 1: of six. Rosalie Cook was three minutes from home at
38:38
Speaker 1: Walgreen's and guest in South Bray's Wood Boulevard to buy
38:41
Speaker 1: a card one year ago. As she headed towards her
38:44
Speaker 1: car in the parking lot to go home, Rosalie was
38:47
Speaker 1: stabbed to death by Randy Lewis. The system failed my
38:52
Speaker 1: mom in a number of ways. Lewis was what's often
38:56
Speaker 1: referred to as a career criminal. The thirty eight year
38:59
Speaker 1: old had been arrested sixty seven times and was out
39:02
Speaker 1: on two personal recognisance bonds in Harris County. Court records
39:06
Speaker 1: show he was released from an extended stay at a
39:09
Speaker 1: mental health facility to a group home on May first.
39:12
Speaker 1: On May fifteenth is when Rosalie was killed. When police responded,
39:17
Speaker 1: officers shot and killed Lewis. I'm going to do something
39:21
Speaker 1: that I was disallowed to do at trial when I
39:25
Speaker 1: would argue to a jury enclosing argument. Think about these cases.
39:31
Speaker 1: Think about twenty three year old Somerchester, her whole life
39:35
Speaker 1: in front of her. What if that was your daughter?
39:41
Speaker 1: Think about Sylvana Cortez. What if that was your husband
39:46
Speaker 1: or your wife lying in bed next to you and
39:50
Speaker 1: you hear splintering of the door and then gunshots and
39:52
Speaker 1: then suddlely, your spouse is dead. Just like that. About
40:00
Speaker 1: this young mom who goes over and over trying to
40:04
Speaker 1: get protection from an abuser, and he keeps getting out
40:08
Speaker 1: of jail, and now she's dead. And finally this grandma
40:13
Speaker 1: eighty years old going to Walgreen's to buy a card,
40:17
Speaker 1: stabbed dead by a career criminal that some judge let go.
40:27
Speaker 1: Judge Natalia Cornelio, I pray to God you're listening. Goodbye, friend,