Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Did evil boyfriend slit teen's throat before throwing her down mine shaft?
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- 0:05Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Lewis and Otis and wore
- 0:12Speaker 1: kneeling and Riley was standing facing Bomb with his hands
- 0:15Speaker 1: tied behind his back. Riley asked if he could kiss
- 0:18Speaker 1: his girlfriend, and then Greezy said, Nolan, she started crying,
- 0:21Speaker 1: you're hearing our friends at ABC four. That is Marcus Ortiz.
- 0:26Speaker 1: What we know now is a Utah man forty one
- 0:29Speaker 1: accused of fatally stabbing two teams and dumping their bodies
- 0:34Speaker 1: in a mine, admitting he made one of them watch
- 0:40Speaker 1: as the other suffered. Listen. Then she says Bomb appeared
- 0:44Speaker 1: to be attacking Powell as they were standing next to
- 0:46Speaker 1: each other. Harry Riley say, I'm dying and he was gurgling,
- 0:52Speaker 1: and that's when I realized that he wasn't hitting Riley,
- 0:54Speaker 1: he was stabbing Riley. It was the most horrible sound
- 0:57Speaker 1: I've ever heard. Then it was Adison's turn, as Bob
- 1:00Speaker 1: walked behind her. Thought she remained tied up and it
- 1:03Speaker 1: seemed like he had his arms around her, but I'm
- 1:05Speaker 1: not sure. And he said it's okay, darling, and he
- 1:07Speaker 1: went to her, and then I felt warms on my leg. Okay,
- 1:13Speaker 1: And what did you perceive at that point it was
- 1:17Speaker 1: her bud. Lewis says she saw Bomb Tosspowa's body into
- 1:20Speaker 1: the mine. Austin was next, but her life was spared.
- 1:24Speaker 1: He's got this huge grin on his face like he's
- 1:27Speaker 1: enjoying himself, and he was. He did later he laughed
- 1:33Speaker 1: about it. He said that was like lambs to the sladder.
- 1:35Speaker 1: They didn't even fight. Lewis says she felt threatened that
- 1:39Speaker 1: she too would be murdered by Bomb if she told police,
- 1:42Speaker 1: but later on she felt guilt and wanted closure for
- 1:45Speaker 1: the families. I mean, I see grace. This is crime Stories.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. To Robin Willinski, crime
- 1:50Speaker 1: online dot Com investigative reporter, author of Beautiful Life, the
- 1:54Speaker 1: CSI behind the Case, he hath any trial, Robin, what happened? Well,
- 1:58Speaker 1: this is beyond belief that actually this guy, Gerard Baum,
- 2:02Speaker 1: the forty one year old, they say that he's a Nazi.
- 2:05Speaker 1: He has this large swastika that is visible on his
- 2:10Speaker 1: check when you look at him, Nancy, straight on, kind
- 2:13Speaker 1: of in the nape of your neck where you would
- 2:15Speaker 1: wear a necklace. He's got a tattoo of a swastika,
- 2:19Speaker 1: and then he's got a smaller one on his face,
- 2:22Speaker 1: on his face, And isn't this what the Nazis did
- 2:27Speaker 1: in Nazi Germany, you know, shooting Jews and some Christians
- 2:32Speaker 1: and just throwing them into their graves. That's what it's
- 2:35Speaker 1: reminiscent of to me. And that's what went down here
- 2:38Speaker 1: with these two teens, seventeen and eighteen years old. And
- 2:42Speaker 1: there was a report that the girl, the seventeen year old,
- 2:46Speaker 1: may have even been pregnant and still kills her and
- 2:50Speaker 1: throws her into the mind too, all in front of
- 2:53Speaker 1: his girlfriend who did nothing. I'm talking about suspect Jared Baum,
- 2:57Speaker 1: the victim's Braylon Addison, seventeen, and her teen boyfriend Riley Powell.
- 3:04Speaker 1: To doctor Michelle Dupree, South Carolina Medical examine or author
- 3:09Speaker 1: of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, Doctor Dupree, how would we
- 3:14Speaker 1: know if Morgan was in fact pregnant at the time
- 3:17Speaker 1: of her murder? Yes, ask you, well, as you know,
- 3:19Speaker 1: we would do an autopsy because of the nature of death,
- 3:21Speaker 1: and in doing that autopsy could do a complete autopsy.
- 3:25Speaker 1: So we would investigate whether or not she was actually
- 3:28Speaker 1: pregnant and make that determination and include that finding in
- 3:30Speaker 1: the autopsy report. Well, what we know now is that
- 3:34Speaker 1: two teens dead. And did you say, Robin Lensky that
- 3:38Speaker 1: hit their bodies were thrown down a mine. Yes, if
- 3:41Speaker 1: you can believe this that he pushed after he killed
- 3:45Speaker 1: both of them, Allegedly he pushed both of them down
- 3:48Speaker 1: a mind and they were found a hundred feet down.
- 3:52Speaker 1: This is in Utah, where there are many minds, deep
- 3:55Speaker 1: minds like this. They were missing for ninety I don't
- 3:59Speaker 1: understand to aske you Wolcott joining me jeven I'll judge lawyer,
- 4:03Speaker 1: you can find her, asked Wolcott dot com. How the
- 4:06Speaker 1: girlfriend managed to stay quiet and not say anything? You know,
- 4:10Speaker 1: That's what's astounding to me. This one just two teens.
- 4:14Speaker 1: I can't even imagine how a even if she fears
- 4:19Speaker 1: her life, why wouldn't she try to get involved before
- 4:24Speaker 1: he actually kills them instead of fearing her life and
- 4:26Speaker 1: going along with it. B Once she realizes I'm not
- 4:30Speaker 1: going to be killed? How do you sit quiet on that?
- 4:32Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense to me. It happens more frequently
- 4:36Speaker 1: with horrific crimes than I'd like to believe. It doesn't
- 4:39Speaker 1: make sense. But on the other hand, Nancy, thank gosh,
- 4:42Speaker 1: she came forward, so we know what happened. Dude, Robert
- 4:45Speaker 1: will Lensky, what do we know about a potential motive
- 4:49Speaker 1: in the case. Yeah, that's the interesting part. When you
- 4:51Speaker 1: hear something that's horrendous, you know what set him off? Well,
- 4:56Speaker 1: the investigation shows Nancy that the girlfriend, Morgan Lewis, apparently
- 5:03Speaker 1: had these two over the house and they were allegedly
- 5:06Speaker 1: to smoking some weed, smoking some pots, and he was
- 5:10Speaker 1: apparently a very controlling personality and didn't want her smoking
- 5:14Speaker 1: pot or not smoking pot with these two, didn't want
- 5:17Speaker 1: her talking to other men. So Riley who's eighteen, and
- 5:21Speaker 1: then you had Breezy who's seventeen, and he doesn't want
- 5:24Speaker 1: them in the house, doesn't want them smoking pot. But
- 5:27Speaker 1: does that mean you go and kill them? Well, what
- 5:29Speaker 1: about asking them to leave? What about that possibility? Ashley
- 5:32Speaker 1: Wilcot judge lawyer Ashley Wilcot dot com. What about it?
- 5:35Speaker 1: Why not just say hey, guys, you gotta go home. Well,
- 5:38Speaker 1: that's attributing rational thought to someone and that's exactly what
- 5:42Speaker 1: should have happened. That's what happens probably ninety nine percent
- 5:44Speaker 1: of the time. But then you have someone like this
- 5:46Speaker 1: who's going to engage in this level of criminal activity.
- 5:49Speaker 1: He's got a screw loose. My word, nobody else's, but
- 5:52Speaker 1: he should never ever see the light of day again.
- 5:54Speaker 1: Right now, this is all unfolding in a preliminary hearing
- 5:58Speaker 1: in court. Take a listen to what the family members
- 6:03Speaker 1: are learning in court for the very first time. This
- 6:06Speaker 1: is the first time Breezie and Riley's family heard Lewis
- 6:08Speaker 1: recount those moments in details behind what what happened to Riley,
- 6:14Speaker 1: I know that was that was a hard foe to swallow,
- 6:17Speaker 1: and what happened to Riley, it just looks to me
- 6:19Speaker 1: like he was in some sort of fit of rage
- 6:22Speaker 1: or whatever. Again when she said, he was smiling and
- 6:25Speaker 1: like he enjoyed it. At this point, they say this
- 6:28Speaker 1: isn't about closure in the death of the two teens.
- 6:30Speaker 1: They just hope for justice. We know that him being
- 6:35Speaker 1: tried and hopefully the death penalty coming that it's not
- 6:38Speaker 1: going to be it's not never going to give us
- 6:41Speaker 1: a piece that we're looking for, but at least it
- 6:43Speaker 1: gives validation that we're going to fight and we're going
- 6:45Speaker 1: to fight for the kids, and it's that's all we
- 6:49Speaker 1: can do at this point, is fighting there on. Our
- 6:51Speaker 1: bomb faces eight charges in the deaths of Brezie and Riley,
- 6:54Speaker 1: including aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping. You're hearing our friend
- 6:58Speaker 1: with Box thirteen Utah reporter Larrence Steinbrecker terrible, terrible to
- 7:04Speaker 1: hear this playing out in a court of law. Now,
- 7:08Speaker 1: for me, Ashley, I would never have wanted, if I
- 7:11Speaker 1: were the defense, a preliminary hearing, because all of this
- 7:16Speaker 1: gets out into the public and juries here about it.
- 7:19Speaker 1: They'll later be put on the actual jury. But if
- 7:23Speaker 1: you do a preliminary hearing, you remember the one in O. J.
- 7:25Speaker 1: Simpson about jumping over the fence and doing the search
- 7:28Speaker 1: of the home, You, the defense, get a chance to
- 7:31Speaker 1: cross examin the state's witness before there's ever a jury trial,
- 7:35Speaker 1: because a state bears the burden at a preliminary hearing.
- 7:38Speaker 1: A preliminary is just really, is there enough evidence for
- 7:42Speaker 1: this to go forward to a felony jury? That's right, Nancy.
- 7:45Speaker 1: So the whole reason is a defense attorney. I've never
- 7:47Speaker 1: been a defense attorney, but I'm very close with many
- 7:49Speaker 1: who are. I've done lots of trial coverage. Is exactly
- 7:52Speaker 1: what you said, if its defense, you want to quote
- 7:54Speaker 1: unquote free look at the evidence to see exactly what
- 7:58Speaker 1: they're going to present a preliminary and an opportunity across
- 8:01Speaker 1: just like you said, that's exactly why the defense is
- 8:04Speaker 1: going to do it. I believe they did it in
- 8:05Speaker 1: this case because they want to They want to force
- 8:08Speaker 1: the prosecution to show their hand. The biggest witness of
- 8:11Speaker 1: the afternoon was Morgan Lewis, and this is the first
- 8:14Speaker 1: time that the public was hearing directly from her what
- 8:17Speaker 1: happened that night that Breezy and Riley died. As the
- 8:20Speaker 1: prosecution laid out their evidence against Jared Baumb, they called
- 8:23Speaker 1: up family members, detectives in the case, and a medical
- 8:25Speaker 1: examiner who explained the pair died of blunt force trauma
- 8:28Speaker 1: and stab wounds, including right across the neck. Then Bomb's
- 8:32Speaker 1: girlfriend explained what unfolded after midnight on December thirtieth, twenty seventeen.
- 8:37Speaker 1: Jared told me to get in the car, and I
- 8:39Speaker 1: felt I was scared and I listened to him. Morgan Lewis,
- 8:43Speaker 1: formerly Morgan Henderson, testified for three hours. She said Bomb
- 8:47Speaker 1: came home to find Riley and Breezy had visited Lewis,
- 8:50Speaker 1: which made him mad. I knew that something bad was happening,
- 8:54Speaker 1: it just didn't feel it was in a normal situation.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Lewis explained, Bomb drove them to a mine near Eureka.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Breezy and Riley tied up with duct tape over their mouths.
- 9:03Speaker 1: She said, Bomb started to hit Riley near the open mine.
- 9:06Speaker 1: I heard Riley say I'm dying, and he was gurgling,
- 9:12Speaker 1: and that's when I realized that he wasn't hitting Riley.
- 9:13Speaker 1: He was stabbing Riley. He knelt down behind Breezy and
- 9:16Speaker 1: he took her in his arms and he said, it's okay, Darlin,
- 9:21Speaker 1: and he looked like he was rocking her. Bluish says
- 9:25Speaker 1: at that moment, Bomb killed Breezy, then threw both bodies
- 9:29Speaker 1: in the mind, I almost feel sick. I remember this
- 9:33Speaker 1: feeling from court when I'm good be trying cases or
- 9:38Speaker 1: investigating cases. The level of cruelty, of depravity, it's just
- 9:45Speaker 1: overwhelming to me sometimes. And I remember that often in
- 9:50Speaker 1: the trial when we would the jury would want a break,
- 9:53Speaker 1: I would of course never ask for a break, but
- 9:56Speaker 1: if the jury took a break, I would go into
- 9:59Speaker 1: the lighties bathroom far away from the courtroom. I'd even
- 10:02Speaker 1: go to a different floor. I'd go in the furthest
- 10:05Speaker 1: stall and just cry. And I remember during jury trials,
- 10:10Speaker 1: I couldn't eat a thing ever, I would be so
- 10:15Speaker 1: upset to my stomach that I just these details are
- 10:20Speaker 1: so upsetting. We are in the middle of a preliminary
- 10:24Speaker 1: hearing regarding suspect Jared J. E. R R O. D.
- 10:28Speaker 1: Bomb be as a brother au M and the victims
- 10:33Speaker 1: are teens. There's just a couple of years older than
- 10:36Speaker 1: my children that are my world. And to hear them
- 10:40Speaker 1: slaughtered like this, and Bomb laughs about how they quote
- 10:45Speaker 1: didn't even fight back like lambs to the slaughter. I
- 10:49Speaker 1: mean doctor Bethany Marshall. Now we're hearing he's got the
- 10:52Speaker 1: tattoo the swastika on his chest and another one on
- 10:56Speaker 1: his face. It just I'm just overwhelmed, Bey and Nancy.
- 11:03Speaker 1: One detail is that he cradled the teenage girl and
- 11:07Speaker 1: called her sweetheart as he was slitting her throat. It
- 11:11Speaker 1: reminds me of what we read about sociopathy in the literature,
- 11:15Speaker 1: that there is a charming, a superficial, charming exterior that
- 11:20Speaker 1: hides a cold, calculated interior. And I think what may
- 11:25Speaker 1: have happened here is that bomb is one of these
- 11:28Speaker 1: men who just wanted to kill. He probably had been
- 11:31Speaker 1: thinking about it for a long long time. He fits
- 11:36Speaker 1: the profile of somebody who wants to do what we
- 11:38Speaker 1: call a thrill kill, meaning just the thrill of slitting
- 11:42Speaker 1: somebody's throat is something that excites him and captivates him.
- 11:46Speaker 1: And he comes home and these two teenagers are hanging
- 11:49Speaker 1: out with his girlfriend, smoking pot, and there it was.
- 11:52Speaker 1: There was this opportunity, Nancy. They could have been coming
- 11:55Speaker 1: in and out of his house for a long long
- 11:56Speaker 1: time while he plotted and planned. I don't think of
- 12:00Speaker 1: this as simply that he was jealous that they were
- 12:03Speaker 1: hanging out with his girlfriend. I think he was thinking
- 12:05Speaker 1: about this for a long time, and finally he had
- 12:07Speaker 1: his chance, you know, To Robin Wilenski, who is covering
- 12:11Speaker 1: the case with me, doctor Michelle Dupree, South Carolina medical examiner,
- 12:15Speaker 1: doctor Bethany Marshall, PSYCHOALIS out of California, Karen Smith, forensics expert,
- 12:21Speaker 1: Ashley Wilcott, judge lawyer at Ashley Wilcott dot com, and
- 12:25Speaker 1: Robin Wilensky crime on Line reporter to Karen Smith, forensics
- 12:30Speaker 1: expert throwing the bodies down a mine. Now my question
- 12:36Speaker 1: do you would be how do you get forensics off
- 12:39Speaker 1: a body that has been down a mine? Now this
- 12:43Speaker 1: is in Utah, so I don't know that there was
- 12:45Speaker 1: water in the bottom of the mine at all. I
- 12:48Speaker 1: assume that it was dry. I don't know. And you
- 12:51Speaker 1: know what my mind has been spinning with that question.
- 12:53Speaker 1: You know, my job description includes flying in helicopters, shore
- 12:57Speaker 1: going out in boats. Sure we do that too, but
- 13:00Speaker 1: you know, splunking down a mine shaft was not in
- 13:04Speaker 1: my job description. And I really don't know where I
- 13:06Speaker 1: would begin with something like this. How do you take photographs?
- 13:08Speaker 1: How do you collect evidence when you're in a harness?
- 13:12Speaker 1: I have no idea. Apparently, according to the the reports, they
- 13:14Speaker 1: were about one hundred feet down on a ledge. I
- 13:17Speaker 1: don't know what that means. I don't know what it
- 13:18Speaker 1: looked like. And our job is forensic investigators, is to
- 13:22Speaker 1: collect everything in its most Christine manner possible, especially for
- 13:25Speaker 1: the medical examiner to do their their findings. I don't
- 13:29Speaker 1: know how I would do something like that, Nancy, that's crazy, Yeah,
- 13:32Speaker 1: it's And if you don't know, I don't know who
- 13:34Speaker 1: would know. And doctor Michelle Dupree, South Carolina medical examiner,
- 13:38Speaker 1: author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. I guess they sent
- 13:43Speaker 1: CSI Crimes and investigators down with harnesses to get the bodies,
- 13:48Speaker 1: decomposing bodies and bring them up after Bob's girlfriend, Morgan
- 13:53Speaker 1: Lewis finally comes clean and tells cops what happened. How
- 13:58Speaker 1: do you go about putting all those bones back together,
- 14:02Speaker 1: doctor Dupree? And trying to get physical lotus, And keep
- 14:05Speaker 1: in mind that this guy Jared Baum said that quote
- 14:11Speaker 1: he felt bad because he never had to kill an
- 14:13Speaker 1: innocent before. I want you to percolate on that, Bethany Marshall.
- 14:16Speaker 1: He never had to kill an innocent before number one,
- 14:20Speaker 1: suggesting there were other people he had to kill that
- 14:24Speaker 1: were not innocence, and his compulsion that he had to
- 14:28Speaker 1: do it why because they were over to his home uninvited.
- 14:31Speaker 1: Back to you, doctor Dupree, while doctor Bethany Marshall percolates
- 14:34Speaker 1: on that question, Doctor Dupree, how do you put all
- 14:36Speaker 1: those bones back together again? Actually, Nancy, as a medical examiner,
- 14:41Speaker 1: we do go to the scene of the crime. We
- 14:43Speaker 1: would be the ones in the harness going down that
- 14:45Speaker 1: ravine or going down in that well to Colessa Evidence
- 14:47Speaker 1: and collecsa body. It is difficult. I have propelled down
- 14:52Speaker 1: the sides of cliffs and mountains and things like that
- 14:54Speaker 1: to retrieve bodies before. And yes, we take a clean bag,
- 14:58Speaker 1: we take a clean sheet, and we try to collect
- 15:00Speaker 1: as much evidence that as surrounding the body as possible
- 15:03Speaker 1: to get it back up to a place where we
- 15:05Speaker 1: can then examine it and collect the evidence. As far
- 15:08Speaker 1: as putting the bones back together, we simply laid them
- 15:12Speaker 1: out on the table and you'd be surprised. It's not
- 15:16Speaker 1: that difficult, especially when you have a body that has
- 15:18Speaker 1: been tossed over a cliff and not dismembered, so to speak. Well,
- 15:22Speaker 1: doctor j pretty not difficult for you, difficult for me
- 15:25Speaker 1: to even think about it, Doctor Duprey. I was thinking
- 15:27Speaker 1: back on Kelly Anthony and how they were searching for
- 15:30Speaker 1: all of her bones and they worked around the clock
- 15:33Speaker 1: under a tent under bright lights at night. There are
- 15:36Speaker 1: two hundred how many bones are in the body, and
- 15:40Speaker 1: you certainly rattle that off the tip of your tongue.
- 15:43Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about how detectives sound out about this. Apparently,
- 15:46Speaker 1: Robin Willinski, they found a Facebook conversation between Riley and Henderson,
- 15:54Speaker 1: and that led them to be suspicious. You know, down
- 16:00Speaker 1: to doctor Bethanie Marshall, is that Lewis Morgan Lewis, the
- 16:04Speaker 1: girlfriend of this Nazi freak, got pulled over speeding and
- 16:08Speaker 1: just like spilled her guts. That's how they found everything out. Nancy,
- 16:12Speaker 1: she sat on this for a long time. She did
- 16:14Speaker 1: not go to the police. Apparently became despondent, suicidal. She
- 16:19Speaker 1: was in her car with an axe, I think a
- 16:22Speaker 1: knife rope. Apparently she was going to go to the desert,
- 16:25Speaker 1: take mushrooms and kill herself. I don't know if I
- 16:28Speaker 1: believe that story or she was simply speeding, but she
- 16:31Speaker 1: was pulled over and then she yeah, she spilled her guts,
- 16:34Speaker 1: told the police that she was tired of listening to that.
- 16:38Speaker 1: The families kept searching for these teenagers unsuccessfully. You know, Nancy,
- 16:42Speaker 1: I think Gerald Jared Baumb is just a serial killer
- 16:46Speaker 1: in the making. I think you talked about that. He
- 16:49Speaker 1: said that they were innocence. We talked about like sheep
- 16:52Speaker 1: to the slaughter. What kind of pattern do we see
- 16:55Speaker 1: with serial killers? Often they pick young couples lovers is
- 17:00Speaker 1: usually a sadistic, heinous quality to the crime. When about
- 17:04Speaker 1: sociopathy and serial killers that they commit acts of cruelty
- 17:09Speaker 1: to enhance their sexual arousal. It's a part of his
- 17:11Speaker 1: sexual offending pattern. And I think we can dressed the
- 17:15Speaker 1: story up as oh, he came home, he was jealous,
- 17:17Speaker 1: he found other people in his house. Yeah, I guess happen.
- 17:21Speaker 1: We have a serial killer who was lying in wait
- 17:23Speaker 1: and these two quote unquote innocence were in his house
- 17:26Speaker 1: and they were just the low hanging fruit. And thank
- 17:28Speaker 1: god he's at trial now because I think he's one
- 17:31Speaker 1: of those people who could be quite prolific, and there
- 17:33Speaker 1: could have been other victims if he wasn't stopped. Well,
- 17:36Speaker 1: it's already qualifies as mass murder. More than one body
- 17:39Speaker 1: equals mass murder. To Robin will Lensky, Bomb's defense team
- 17:43Speaker 1: is going to reportedly challenge the girlfriend, Morgan Lewis's testimony,
- 17:49Speaker 1: climbing she's not credible. Do you believe her testimony will
- 17:54Speaker 1: hold up? I mean, you got to think about it.
- 17:56Speaker 1: My grandmother would say, you lay down with a dog,
- 17:58Speaker 1: you wake up with a lee. Birds of a feather
- 18:01Speaker 1: flock together. So why should I believe anything? She says,
- 18:04Speaker 1: I agree with Grandma, and I do believe she's credible.
- 18:08Speaker 1: I watched her entire testimony. I believe everything she says,
- 18:11Speaker 1: including one statement that he said that after he kicked
- 18:17Speaker 1: Riley the boy's body into the shaft, he said, goodbye, Riley,
- 18:22Speaker 1: you piece of sh I mean, you can't make that up. No,
- 18:28Speaker 1: you really can't. And the fact that she says the details,
- 18:32Speaker 1: that's what I look for, Ashley Willcott, when I'm trying
- 18:34Speaker 1: a case and I'm trying to determine credibility. Is is
- 18:37Speaker 1: their story rich in detail? For her to say they
- 18:39Speaker 1: were kneeling down on their knees and he said it'll
- 18:42Speaker 1: be okay, darling and slid her throat. That's not That's
- 18:45Speaker 1: not the stuff you just make up. No, it's not.
- 18:47Speaker 1: And she added additional details. For instance, she said, after
- 18:50Speaker 1: that happened, she felt something warm. She looked down. It
- 18:53Speaker 1: was the blood. She details the entire specific conversations between
- 18:57Speaker 1: the boyfriend and the girlfriend before the boyfriend was so,
- 19:01Speaker 1: I agree with you. Those are signs of credibility. Now,
- 19:04Speaker 1: the next piece that the prosecution has is, I promise
- 19:07Speaker 1: you she's made more than one statement. I promise She's
- 19:09Speaker 1: been interviewed more than once. And I know as well
- 19:11Speaker 1: as you do that that's another measure of credibility. Does
- 19:15Speaker 1: the story remain the same or does it change? And
- 19:19Speaker 1: if it remains the same, no reason in my mind
- 19:22Speaker 1: to doubt what she's saying. And you know what. You
- 19:24Speaker 1: pull up beside this guy at a red light. He
- 19:26Speaker 1: looks like everybody else, except for, of course, the swastika
- 19:29Speaker 1: tattooed on his face. Jared baumb This is step one
- 19:34Speaker 1: preliminary hearing God Willing you will rot in Hell Crime
- 19:48Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Police and e Sat Louis are
- 19:54Speaker 1: investigating a preschool where children were allegedly told to strip
- 19:58Speaker 1: naked and stand in a closet. She didn't learn us anywhere.
- 20:01Speaker 1: This is what she tried and felt like it would
- 20:04Speaker 1: calm the children down by doing this, But it's obviously
- 20:07Speaker 1: it's a no teaching manual anywhere. It's inappropriate and actually
- 20:11Speaker 1: against the law to do this. The police chief says
- 20:14Speaker 1: they moved swiftly once they heard of those allegations. Within
- 20:18Speaker 1: a couple of hours, the teacher and her assistant were
- 20:20Speaker 1: removed from the classroom of twenty kids. It's believed four
- 20:24Speaker 1: of those children were victims of the punishment and were
- 20:27Speaker 1: told to strip naked and stand in a closet for
- 20:30Speaker 1: up to five to ten minutes as punishment. The chief
- 20:33Speaker 1: does not believe the children were physically or sexually harmed. Okay,
- 20:37Speaker 1: if you say so. Forcing little children, preschoolers to strip
- 20:43Speaker 1: naked and stand in a dark closet as punishment, and
- 20:49Speaker 1: that was to quote, calm the children down. I wonder
- 20:54Speaker 1: how that preschool teacher would feel we stripped her down
- 20:57Speaker 1: naked it for its artists, stand in a dark closet.
- 20:59Speaker 1: You think it would calm her down? Because it would
- 21:01Speaker 1: not call me down. It would make me krayz angry, Imancy, Grace,
- 21:08Speaker 1: this is crime stories. Thank you for being with us.
- 21:10Speaker 1: I guarantee you this much. I guarantee the parents of
- 21:13Speaker 1: those preschoolers had no idea that that was the punishment.
- 21:17Speaker 1: I can guarantee you that a teacher forcing a four
- 21:22Speaker 1: year four year old preschoolers to strip naked and stand
- 21:26Speaker 1: in a dark closet as punishment, and not only did
- 21:30Speaker 1: she do that, another teacher stood by and watched and
- 21:33Speaker 1: did nothing with me an all star panel, Doctor William Moroney,
- 21:37Speaker 1: renowned medical examiner, author of America narcan on Amazon, psychologist
- 21:45Speaker 1: Karen Stark at Karen dot com joining us from Manhattan
- 21:49Speaker 1: with me. Robin will Lensky joining me. Crime online dot
- 21:52Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter, author of Beautiful Life, the CSI behind
- 21:58Speaker 1: the Casey Anthony Trial, and Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family
- 22:03Speaker 1: lawyer Kathleen Murphy. Before I get into the facts, what
- 22:06Speaker 1: do you make of this? You're the family lawyer. You
- 22:09Speaker 1: ever heard this from one of your cases that children
- 22:12Speaker 1: are forced to strip naked and stand in a dark closet. Never?
- 22:16Speaker 1: And Nancy, you have the best listeners in the world,
- 22:20Speaker 1: the best. We need to find out who we should
- 22:23Speaker 1: call to make sure ay these teachers are named and
- 22:26Speaker 1: be their prosecutor. Yeah. To Robert Willinsky, crime online dot
- 22:29Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter and author of Beautiful Life. Robin Willinski,
- 22:34Speaker 1: how come the teachers aren't being named? I don't get it.
- 22:37Speaker 1: You know, that's a great question, and I don't know
- 22:40Speaker 1: the answer. Normally, in cases like this, we hear the
- 22:43Speaker 1: names and we can find out the names. But in
- 22:46Speaker 1: this case, Nancy, they are not releasing the names of
- 22:48Speaker 1: this twenty six year old teacher. She'd worked at the
- 22:51Speaker 1: school for three years. And then the other lady is
- 22:54Speaker 1: forty one, the one who knew about it, looked on
- 22:56Speaker 1: and did nothing. And I have to tell you, I
- 22:59Speaker 1: agree with you. This was done allegedly to keep the
- 23:02Speaker 1: kids calm, and this was their punishment for trouble. It
- 23:06Speaker 1: doesn't keep a kid calm. This creates anxiety, I guess.
- 23:09Speaker 1: So think about it, Robin, do you want to get
- 23:11Speaker 1: stripped down and forced to go stand in a closet
- 23:13Speaker 1: with a bunch of other people Because I don't absolutely not.
- 23:17Speaker 1: That would absolutely have the opposite effect on me. I
- 23:20Speaker 1: would imagine that these children, Nancy, were far from calm
- 23:24Speaker 1: when they came out of the closet. This is the
- 23:26Speaker 1: kind of thing that creates terrible dreams and night terrors
- 23:31Speaker 1: and something you never get over for the rest of
- 23:33Speaker 1: your life. To doctor William Maroney, medical examine or author
- 23:36Speaker 1: of American Narcan, doctor Maroney, not only are you an
- 23:41Speaker 1: MD a doctor, but you're also a dad. I can't
- 23:45Speaker 1: imagine anything that would be make your heart race more
- 23:48Speaker 1: than a running one hundred yard dash. Is forcing a
- 23:54Speaker 1: child to take off all their clothes and stand in
- 23:56Speaker 1: a dark closet with other naked children. I mean their
- 24:00Speaker 1: pulses were racing. I think the important thing about safety
- 24:04Speaker 1: here is children can fall down. You lock them in
- 24:09Speaker 1: a dark closet, they can get hurt. You take off
- 24:13Speaker 1: their clothes, they can get hurt. That's the physical damage.
- 24:17Speaker 1: But your previous guest just said damaged for life. These
- 24:22Speaker 1: are adverse childhood events that lead you to distrust people.
- 24:28Speaker 1: It can lead you into drug addiction, it can lead
- 24:30Speaker 1: you into separation, anxiety. There is so much trauma from
- 24:34Speaker 1: this little event that somebody would say, oh, well, you know,
- 24:37Speaker 1: we were just trying to calm them down. This doesn't
- 24:40Speaker 1: calm people down. This damages their spirits for life and unhealthy.
- 24:47Speaker 1: It's terribly unhealthy and I'm gonna shriek, but I know
- 24:50Speaker 1: that much. And Karen Stark talk about lifelong damage. Karen
- 24:53Speaker 1: Stark joining us at a Manhattan psychologist. You can find
- 24:57Speaker 1: her at Karen Stark dot com. Karen, as much as
- 25:00Speaker 1: we try to tell children, oh, your body is healthy,
- 25:03Speaker 1: it's nothing to be ashamed of. Sure, you're great, you're beautiful,
- 25:06Speaker 1: you're perfect, and then as punishment you make them take
- 25:09Speaker 1: their clothes off. That's punishment to be naked. That's not
- 25:13Speaker 1: good it's awful, Nancy. There's something that's very sado masochistic
- 25:18Speaker 1: about what they did. This was more about the people
- 25:21Speaker 1: in charge getting off in some way. I hate to
- 25:24Speaker 1: say this, but it's true on this punishment than it
- 25:28Speaker 1: was about calming the children down. For the children, this
- 25:32Speaker 1: is something that will absolutely stay with them because they
- 25:35Speaker 1: do know about their bodies, and they know that their
- 25:38Speaker 1: bodies should be closed, and so they deal with shame
- 25:41Speaker 1: and humiliation and something they can't possibly understand. Can you
- 25:45Speaker 1: even imagine how mad I would be. I would chew
- 25:48Speaker 1: a nail in half if somebody did this to John
- 25:50Speaker 1: David and Lucy. You were not kidding. Take a listen
- 25:52Speaker 1: to our friend at NBC two. This is Sarah Mocky.
- 25:55Speaker 1: They're in East Saint Louis. Is a letter that administrators
- 25:58Speaker 1: sent to parents late last week outlining a complaint here
- 26:01Speaker 1: at the SIU Edwardsville Headstart, housed inside the Jackie Joyner
- 26:05Speaker 1: Kersey Center. Investigators say that four students were subjected to
- 26:10Speaker 1: inappropriate discipline, force to take off their clothes and stand
- 26:13Speaker 1: alone inside a closet. Michelle Mitchell leaves the Jackie Joyner
- 26:19Speaker 1: Kersey Center her two sons by her side as they
- 26:22Speaker 1: always are. I can't do a daycare ever again. Mitchell
- 26:25Speaker 1: says she's had problems with daycare centers in the past,
- 26:29Speaker 1: so she stays home now to take care of her kids.
- 26:32Speaker 1: It's not worth it to me. I want my keys
- 26:33Speaker 1: to grow up and have a full life without anything
- 26:35Speaker 1: like this traumatizing. SIU. Edwardsville Police Chief Kevin Schmall says
- 26:39Speaker 1: his department started to investigate staff when a student told
- 26:43Speaker 1: their parents about the discipline. They have now identified four
- 26:46Speaker 1: victims and one young witness, but it is possible there
- 26:49Speaker 1: will be more kids involved. I want to emphasize how
- 26:52Speaker 1: brave these little kids have been coming forward and talking
- 26:56Speaker 1: to us about these incidents. People always look at me
- 26:59Speaker 1: like I'm overreacting, my overprotective with my keys. I don't
- 27:02Speaker 1: care what they say. No more, I don't and don't
- 27:04Speaker 1: make a difference because look at all stuff that happen
- 27:06Speaker 1: in the news today. Because this case involves so many kids,
- 27:09Speaker 1: the chief says that they're going to partner with child
- 27:12Speaker 1: interview experts when they sit down and talk with the
- 27:14Speaker 1: kids next month, and at that time there could be
- 27:17Speaker 1: criminal charges in this case. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
- 27:22Speaker 1: is in charge of several head start centers across the area,
- 27:25Speaker 1: including one right here at the Jackie Joyner Kersey Center.
- 27:28Speaker 1: It's a believe this is where the incidents happened last week. Now.
- 27:32Speaker 1: The chief of the Siue Police, Kevin Schmall, told me
- 27:36Speaker 1: they moved swiftly once they heard of the allegations, within
- 27:38Speaker 1: a couple of hours to teach her, nor assistant or
- 27:40Speaker 1: removed from the classroom of twenty kids. It's believed for
- 27:44Speaker 1: the children are victims the unusual punishment. There could be
- 27:47Speaker 1: other victims, though the investigation is far from over. The
- 27:50Speaker 1: chief does believe there are no other suspects at this time.
- 27:53Speaker 1: The teachers a twenty six year old woman. Her assistant
- 27:56Speaker 1: is a forty one year old female. Neither is new
- 27:58Speaker 1: to the program. The chief does not believe the children
- 28:01Speaker 1: were physically or sexually harmed, he said. The teacher admitted
- 28:05Speaker 1: to the punishment. He credits a young boy for coming
- 28:08Speaker 1: forward and revealing what was going on. Very hard, especially
- 28:12Speaker 1: it's your teacher. You know, you have a lot of
- 28:14Speaker 1: pitrust far and everything, and to especially go up against
- 28:18Speaker 1: your teacher and say something about what was going on.
- 28:20Speaker 1: But it was the right thing for that little boy
- 28:21Speaker 1: to do. He's very brave by coming forward and telling
- 28:24Speaker 1: his mother what happened. Now, Siue just send a letter
- 28:27Speaker 1: two parents of the kids involved in this program, and
- 28:31Speaker 1: they said the safety and well being of the children
- 28:33Speaker 1: as their top concerned. They say, no, under no circumstances
- 28:37Speaker 1: does a program condone or tolerate inappropriate treatment towards children,
- 28:42Speaker 1: families or staff. You're hearing our friends at Fox to
- 28:44Speaker 1: Saint Louis. That was reporter Rocky Madden talking. So one
- 28:48Speaker 1: little boy comes forward in the whole thing cracks wide open.
- 28:52Speaker 1: This is the Jackie Joiner Cursey Headstart program. Now, for
- 28:57Speaker 1: those of you that don't know, head Start is a
- 28:59Speaker 1: program here within the US in the Department of Health
- 29:02Speaker 1: and Human Services that gives early childhood education at very
- 29:07Speaker 1: young ages. It gives health and nutrition, It feeds the children.
- 29:13Speaker 1: And this is for low income children and their families.
- 29:17Speaker 1: Trying to give them a quote head Start to foster
- 29:22Speaker 1: family relationships, help the children's physical and emotional well being,
- 29:27Speaker 1: develop a strong cognitive skill set, to help them get
- 29:34Speaker 1: into preschool and elementary school learning things they may not
- 29:38Speaker 1: have the opportunity to learn at home. This is for
- 29:42Speaker 1: low income families. So we know that these children are
- 29:46Speaker 1: coming from homes where they don't have much. They're trying
- 29:49Speaker 1: to give them a leg up to get them on
- 29:51Speaker 1: equal footing with other children they'll be in school with
- 29:55Speaker 1: later on. And this is what happens to these children
- 30:01Speaker 1: who are already at a disadvantage in life. They get
- 30:05Speaker 1: treated like this. I'm so mad, I could you a
- 30:09Speaker 1: nail and a half Robert Wilensky. Not only that I
- 30:12Speaker 1: understand that these horrible people are put on leave with pay.
- 30:18Speaker 1: I mean, how outrageous is this? You know they call
- 30:22Speaker 1: it the head start program, Nancy. This is a false start,
- 30:26Speaker 1: an absolute false start for these children that they will
- 30:30Speaker 1: never get over. And you know what I want to know.
- 30:32Speaker 1: I want to know what happened to the other sixteen kids.
- 30:35Speaker 1: There's a total of twenty in the class. For that
- 30:39Speaker 1: they know how to strip and be in the closet,
- 30:43Speaker 1: and what about the other sixteen? And I'd like to see,
- 30:46Speaker 1: you know, if they would install a camera in this classroom.
- 30:50Speaker 1: What else has gone on? I mean, who thought of this?
- 30:53Speaker 1: Who comes up with such a horrendous you know, tell
- 30:56Speaker 1: the kids quiet down now, put some nice comming music
- 31:00Speaker 1: on and go sit in the time out corner with
- 31:02Speaker 1: your clothes on, not in the closet naked, to strip
- 31:06Speaker 1: and humiliate you. To Kathleen Murphy, I wonder about the
- 31:11Speaker 1: other children two, but I've never heard of anything like
- 31:15Speaker 1: this before. Making the children's strip naked and go stand
- 31:18Speaker 1: in a dark closet to calm them down. It is
- 31:21Speaker 1: criminal and it is so mentally sick of these teachers
- 31:25Speaker 1: who may even be parents. Let's see what kind of
- 31:28Speaker 1: parents they really are at home too, Nancy. If that
- 31:32Speaker 1: happened to one of my children or one of the
- 31:34Speaker 1: little lads in my neighborhood, I would be up in arms,
- 31:40Speaker 1: and your listeners need to be up in arms. Well,
- 31:42Speaker 1: I mean, think about it, Kathleen. Why would we treat
- 31:46Speaker 1: this with child victims differently than we would adults. What
- 31:50Speaker 1: if somebody got you stripped, it made you stripped naked?
- 31:53Speaker 1: Is humiliation, probably in front of the whole class and
- 31:57Speaker 1: walk naked into the closet and being a dark punishment,
- 32:01Speaker 1: maybe prosecuted dart right, they would be. So why is
- 32:04Speaker 1: this different because their child victims? And as far as
- 32:10Speaker 1: these two headstart teachers a not having their names public,
- 32:15Speaker 1: they're still getting paid. Listen to our friend at CBS four.
- 32:20Speaker 1: Gilma evalis an investigation underway after police say preschoolers were
- 32:24Speaker 1: forced to strip naked and stand in a closet as
- 32:27Speaker 1: part of punishment for misbehaving. Children would misbehave in the class,
- 32:31Speaker 1: This teacher would have them disrobe and make them stand
- 32:34Speaker 1: inside of a closet for about five or ten minutes.
- 32:36Speaker 1: Its allegedly happened in Saint Louis at a Headstart program
- 32:39Speaker 1: operated by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at the Jackie Join
- 32:43Speaker 1: or Kersey Center. Police say four students ages four and
- 32:46Speaker 1: five were disciplined in this way, and that this had
- 32:49Speaker 1: been going on since early February but was just reported
- 32:51Speaker 1: to them last week. The twenty six year old allegedly
- 32:54Speaker 1: behind this incident has been teaching at the school for
- 32:57Speaker 1: three years. A second teacher, a forty one year old
- 33:00Speaker 1: who has been with the program for five years, was
- 33:02Speaker 1: put on paid administrative leave for allegedly witnessing the punishment
- 33:05Speaker 1: and not reporting it. That's right, That is right. Two
- 33:09Speaker 1: preschool teachers are paid administrative leave. At a head Start
- 33:13Speaker 1: program located in Southern Illinois University, a twenty six year
- 33:18Speaker 1: old teacher punishing the students by making them strip down
- 33:22Speaker 1: and stand naked in a dark closet. She had been
- 33:25Speaker 1: working there for three years. A forty one year old
- 33:27Speaker 1: instructor given paid leave for witnessing it and doing nothing
- 33:33Speaker 1: about it. Then time passes, nobody said a word until
- 33:37Speaker 1: one of the little boys told Mommy, why are they
- 33:41Speaker 1: keeping these teachers names a secret? We don't know? And
- 33:46Speaker 1: a twenty six year old going on twenty seven and
- 33:49Speaker 1: a forty one year old teacher. I bet Jackie Joyner
- 33:52Speaker 1: Kersey has no idea that the head start named in
- 33:56Speaker 1: her honor is doing something like this. These children just
- 34:00Speaker 1: four and five years old. A parent complained after hearing
- 34:05Speaker 1: the story from her son, leading police to get involved.
- 34:09Speaker 1: Is it true, Robert Willinsky? There was a lag time
- 34:11Speaker 1: nobody would found out about it until the little boy
- 34:14Speaker 1: told his mom, well, that's right, Nancy. Here we are,
- 34:17Speaker 1: you know, in March, already past Saint Patrick's Day. And
- 34:20Speaker 1: this had allegedly been going on since the beginning of February.
- 34:25Speaker 1: And I bet when they get to the rest of
- 34:27Speaker 1: the interviews they have not his parents that is first
- 34:30Speaker 1: taking place. Some of these interviews scheduled for the month
- 34:33Speaker 1: of April, and I bet when they sit down in
- 34:36Speaker 1: the proper psychological setting with the medical professionals, you're going
- 34:41Speaker 1: to hear more unseemly details that have gone on in
- 34:45Speaker 1: that classroom. So to you, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina trial lawyer,
- 34:50Speaker 1: what charges do you believe can be bought brought against
- 34:54Speaker 1: these teachers? Criminally misdemeanor child abuse? Unfortunately, it could be
- 35:00Speaker 1: sealony child abuse if there's a pattern of disbehavior or
- 35:03Speaker 1: repeated incidents of disbehavior. I'd love to see some salony
- 35:07Speaker 1: child abuse. It's mental abuse, it's physical abuse, and it
- 35:11Speaker 1: should be addressed appropriately by the prosecutor. And Jackie Joyner
- 35:17Speaker 1: Kersey should be outraged that our center in her name
- 35:21Speaker 1: is part of this. Take a listen to our friend
- 35:24Speaker 1: Russell kinseaul A k M. The two preschool teachers are
- 35:28Speaker 1: a paid administrative leave. They are teachers with the Headstart
- 35:31Speaker 1: program operated by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, SIUE, and it
- 35:35Speaker 1: is housed here at the Jackie joined Kersey Center. Any
- 35:38Speaker 1: Saint Louis and I would be outraged. I would be
- 35:40Speaker 1: appalled and completely upset. People are expressing outrage when they
- 35:44Speaker 1: find out a Headstart teacher if that should have been
- 35:46Speaker 1: helping students learn, as accused of humiliating them instead of
- 35:50Speaker 1: protecting children. She's accused of child abuse. Children would misbehave
- 35:54Speaker 1: in the class. This teacher would have them disrobe, im
- 35:58Speaker 1: hey them stand inside of a closet for bof over
- 36:00Speaker 1: ten minutes. Police say four students, ages four and five
- 36:03Speaker 1: in the head Start program at the Jackie Joyner Kersey
- 36:06Speaker 1: Center were disciplined this way. As a mother myself, I
- 36:08Speaker 1: can't believe they will let something like this go on.
- 36:11Speaker 1: Police believe this had been going on since early February,
- 36:14Speaker 1: but only learned about it last week. We felt that
- 36:17Speaker 1: as very inappropriate and possibly there is some criminal actions
- 36:20Speaker 1: charges that could come as a result of this. Something
- 36:23Speaker 1: needs to be not at a teachers. They should be
- 36:25Speaker 1: disciplined as far as what's going on. The teacher accused
- 36:29Speaker 1: of disciplining students by forcing them to take their clothes
- 36:32Speaker 1: off is twenty six years old and has been teaching
- 36:34Speaker 1: at the preschool three years. A forty one year old
- 36:37Speaker 1: teacher who's been there five years was also put on
- 36:39Speaker 1: paid administrative leave for allegedly witnessing the children being humiliated,
- 36:43Speaker 1: but never reporting it. You send your kids off to
- 36:46Speaker 1: school or places. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace
- 36:52Speaker 1: Crime Stories, signing off, goodbye friend,