Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / 8-year-old girl kidnapped from Walmart superstore, murdered. New trial in the case?

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8-year-old girl kidnapped from Walmart superstore, murdered. New trial in the case? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I guess every three days,
0:17
Speaker 1: you know, to be fair, let's just say once a week.
0:21
Speaker 1: I am in a Target or a Kroger, or a
0:26
Speaker 1: Publics or a Costco or a Walmart with my children
0:32
Speaker 1: and it's just me and them. I've been on crowded
0:36
Speaker 1: New York streets many many times, in museums, you name it,
0:41
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering about that moment when you realize within
0:48
Speaker 1: that crowd that you really are alone. Your child is gone.
0:58
Speaker 1: That is a story of a little girl named Cherish
1:03
Speaker 1: Perrywinkle Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, an eight year old
1:21
Speaker 1: little girl. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank
1:27
Speaker 1: you for being with us. Cherish Perrywinkle was with her mother,
1:32
Speaker 1: and everybody starts a story at Walmart, but that is
1:36
Speaker 1: not where the story starts. The story does not start
1:39
Speaker 1: in Walmart. The story actually starts in I think it
1:44
Speaker 1: was a family Dollar or a Dollar General. And Cherish's
1:49
Speaker 1: mom had her there and they were buying some clothes
1:54
Speaker 1: for Cherish and her sister. And it's the mom and
1:57
Speaker 1: the two girls, and they try to go to check out,
2:01
Speaker 1: and the mom doesn't have enough money, and in steps
2:06
Speaker 1: a man and he says, oh, man, you're having a problem.
2:10
Speaker 1: You know what, let me cover that. And you know
2:13
Speaker 1: what else, I'm about to meet my wife up the
2:15
Speaker 1: street at Walmart. Bring your girls up there. I've got
2:21
Speaker 1: some money. I'm going to buy you guys some clothes.
2:24
Speaker 1: So Rain Perrywinkle and her it's three daughters including Cherish,
2:29
Speaker 1: get together and they go up to the Walmart. There
2:34
Speaker 1: you see a gray haired man looks like an old grandpa,
2:40
Speaker 1: Donald Smith inside the walmart and it's a superstore, and
2:47
Speaker 1: they're in their shopping and I've looked at the surveillance
2:50
Speaker 1: video very very carefully. And the guy says they've been
2:56
Speaker 1: shopping for a while and they're waiting on his wife
2:59
Speaker 1: to get there. And he goes, hey, you know what,
3:02
Speaker 1: I don't want to make your kids await anymore. Let's
3:04
Speaker 1: go up front to the McDonald's. Come on, Cherish, let's
3:06
Speaker 1: go up there and get some deed. And the mom says, okay,
3:09
Speaker 1: I'll be right up there. It's within the same structure,
3:13
Speaker 1: it's you know what, eighty feet away, and she never
3:19
Speaker 1: sees Cherish again. Cherish is kidnapped, brutally raped, and murdered
3:26
Speaker 1: and there's no doubt about that. And her body is
3:29
Speaker 1: in submerged halfway down beneath a tree and a swampy muddy.
3:36
Speaker 1: All I can say is a ditch. That's what happened
3:40
Speaker 1: to Cherish that fast before I go to John Limley
3:45
Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, take a listen to
3:49
Speaker 1: Cherish his mother When she calls nine one one one,
3:54
Speaker 1: Robinson him that were almost intersting, been taken? What do
4:00
Speaker 1: you mean taken by stranger? I get prayinger, Okay, man,
4:06
Speaker 1: hold can you say you had the Walmart? Onlim Turner
4:12
Speaker 1: saying okay, when where did you last here? At Walmart?
4:21
Speaker 1: And made him in today at Dollar General? He saw
4:23
Speaker 1: that I was struggling to buy them some clothes. Keep
4:27
Speaker 1: her us here to buy us some clothes. And the
4:30
Speaker 1: only reason I went with him because she said his
4:32
Speaker 1: wife was scared to be here because I told him
4:35
Speaker 1: I gon't take rides with strangers. Okay, man, I'm watching
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Speaker 1: and her with her last name? Can you start up
4:43
Speaker 1: on me please? And it's your white female black female?
4:47
Speaker 1: Excuse me? Is she a white or black female? No?
4:54
Speaker 1: Remember what close she's wearing because I'm panicking right now
4:57
Speaker 1: I'm trying to not pathetic. Okay, yes, she was last
5:00
Speaker 1: What this man is He said he was going to
5:03
Speaker 1: McDonald's that he hasn't been there. In a stunning development
5:07
Speaker 1: in the last hours, the case is back on the
5:10
Speaker 1: hot seat. What's the way to jarl Emley Nancy? More
5:13
Speaker 1: than eight years after her abduction, rape and murder stunned
5:18
Speaker 1: Tallahassee and the entire country, Cherish Periwinkle's killer is getting
5:23
Speaker 1: a new hearing in his bid for a new trial.
5:26
Speaker 1: Donald Smith is on death row for his crimes, having
5:30
Speaker 1: been found guilty in twenty eighteen. The Florida's Supreme Court
5:34
Speaker 1: has agreed to hear Smith's appeal this week. For more,
5:38
Speaker 1: Let's turn to w JA X TVs. Janice Harris. During
5:42
Speaker 1: the trial, doctor Valerie Rau, that then chief medical examiner
5:46
Speaker 1: for District four, explained to the jury Perrywinkle's injuries caused
5:49
Speaker 1: by Smith details it made the jury and Raoul emotional.
5:53
Speaker 1: It's one of three reasons the defense claims Smith should
5:57
Speaker 1: get a new trial, claiming bias. Smith's attorney H. K.
6:00
Speaker 1: Baddell believes her clients should have been given the proper
6:03
Speaker 1: opportunity to move the trial to a different county, and
6:06
Speaker 1: there were improper opening and closing statements during the trial.
6:10
Speaker 1: Janice Harris there with w JAXTV and again Nancy. The
6:14
Speaker 1: Florida's Supreme Court will decide if the reasons Janice mentioned
6:19
Speaker 1: are enough proof for a new trial on a case
6:22
Speaker 1: that honestly has haunted the lives of many for the
6:25
Speaker 1: better part of a decade. Somehow, and all the hullabaloo,
6:29
Speaker 1: the facts surrounding the murderer have gotten somehow lost in
6:34
Speaker 1: the sauce. Let's get back in touch with the facts.
6:39
Speaker 1: I want you to hear this Rain. I want to
6:44
Speaker 1: start at the very beginning. What was it about him
6:50
Speaker 1: that made you trust him? The first of all, Nancy,
6:53
Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to say this in the courtroom during
6:56
Speaker 1: my testimony, that I had seen him before. I had
7:00
Speaker 1: in him earlier that week in his van, really, but
7:04
Speaker 1: I didn't piece it all together until after all these
7:07
Speaker 1: tragic events unfolded. It's just like a jigsaw puzzle. You
7:11
Speaker 1: have to piece it all together, and you can't always
7:13
Speaker 1: piece it together in the same day. Sometimes it takes time.
7:17
Speaker 1: But looking back, I saw his van Rain that is
7:21
Speaker 1: incredible to me. Not in a sense of unbelievable. But
7:25
Speaker 1: I spoke to other women, another woman and her child,
7:30
Speaker 1: and they had seen his white van before, and then
7:34
Speaker 1: it approached them. I believe it was at a McDonald's
7:38
Speaker 1: and he pretended to be a state child worker. And
7:43
Speaker 1: that's what happened. And now I'm hearing for the very
7:45
Speaker 1: first time you had seen him before, ween what happened.
7:51
Speaker 1: It was earlier that week. It was probably either Monday
7:54
Speaker 1: or Tuesday of that week, because Cherish was taken on Friday,
7:57
Speaker 1: June twenty. First, it was just a regular day. I
8:01
Speaker 1: wasn't thinking anything different, and I was just standing in
8:04
Speaker 1: my living room looking at the television. And then all
8:07
Speaker 1: of a sudden, now at the corner of my eye,
8:09
Speaker 1: I could see a white van moving so slowly down
8:13
Speaker 1: my street. And it caught my attention because of the
8:16
Speaker 1: way it moved like a snail's pace. And I had
8:20
Speaker 1: never seen that before, because first of all, there was
8:23
Speaker 1: nothing on the road, There was no other vehicles, there
8:26
Speaker 1: were no children walking. So I ran out there, leaning
8:30
Speaker 1: over the rail and I said, who the hell is that?
8:33
Speaker 1: And the van was moving so slow, and when it
8:36
Speaker 1: got to the corner, it made a left turn and
8:40
Speaker 1: it almost stopped. It moved that slow. And it was
8:44
Speaker 1: a couple of days after Cherish was taken. One of
8:47
Speaker 1: our friends came over and she lives around the corner,
8:49
Speaker 1: and she said, Rain, you know that van went down
8:51
Speaker 1: the street and then I remembered that morning. Oh my stars, Cheryl,
8:56
Speaker 1: you know what that says to me, Cheryl McCallum, Director
8:59
Speaker 1: of the Coal Case Institute. That says to me that
9:04
Speaker 1: I find that to be up simpatico with the facts
9:09
Speaker 1: as we know them in other cases. So that means
9:13
Speaker 1: to me, Cheryl, he did not just meet them that
9:16
Speaker 1: day in Family Dollar. He had been watching them and
9:20
Speaker 1: likely followed them to Family Dollar. And the reason they
9:23
Speaker 1: probably didn't want to talk about it at trials because
9:25
Speaker 1: she didn't see his face and can't prove that was him.
9:28
Speaker 1: And if you absolutely don't know a fact, don't bring
9:31
Speaker 1: it into trial because you can get attacked on it later.
9:34
Speaker 1: You know, like he could have jumped up and said, oh,
9:35
Speaker 1: I had my van at the shop that day and ruined,
9:39
Speaker 1: which of course would be a lie. But what does
9:42
Speaker 1: that say to you, Cheryl, what you're hearing right now,
9:45
Speaker 1: she would be installed. He already made his mind up.
9:49
Speaker 1: He's a predator rain. It is not your fault. It
9:54
Speaker 1: is not your fault. It is not crime stories with
10:15
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. I'm looking right now as we're talking. I'm
10:21
Speaker 1: looking at this guy walking out the door of the
10:25
Speaker 1: Walmart superstore with the little girl beside him. And I've
10:29
Speaker 1: reviewed the video over and over and over, and so
10:32
Speaker 1: there's the two other little girls and the mother, but
10:35
Speaker 1: even when they're all together, it's like he gets her
10:37
Speaker 1: off to the side. His focus is all on this
10:40
Speaker 1: one eight year old girl. It is very obvious. Then
10:44
Speaker 1: the surveillance video switches and you can see them walking
10:48
Speaker 1: to his vehicle in the parking lot. John Limley Crime
10:52
Speaker 1: online dot Com investigative reporter, what more do you know? Nancy?
10:56
Speaker 1: The man convicted of killing eight year old Cherish Periwele
11:00
Speaker 1: is pushing for a new trial. This week, the Florida
11:04
Speaker 1: Supreme Court is hearing an appeal in the Donald Smith
11:07
Speaker 1: case as he sits on death row. W JAXTV reporter
11:12
Speaker 1: Christy Turner has heard from Cherish Perrywinkle's mother on the
11:16
Speaker 1: matter and brings us details. In an appeal, Smith's attorney
11:20
Speaker 1: argues the trials should have been moved out of Duval
11:23
Speaker 1: County because the case drew too much attention for a
11:25
Speaker 1: fair trial, and gruesome autopsy pictures of the victim shouldn't
11:29
Speaker 1: have been shown to jurors. Rain Perrywinkle, the mother of Cherish,
11:33
Speaker 1: says Smith is right where he deserves to be. She
11:36
Speaker 1: sent me this statement that says, in part, I believe
11:39
Speaker 1: in the death penalty. I always have, I always will.
11:43
Speaker 1: Death should mean death. And everybody's attacking the mom. Yeah,
11:46
Speaker 1: the momma mistakes, but the mom isn't the killer here. Yes,
11:49
Speaker 1: the mommae mistakes, but she's not the killer. She described
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Speaker 1: that he kept they were looking for clothes, and he
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Speaker 1: kept wanting to get the little girls still like high heels,
12:00
Speaker 1: and she would say, no, no, that that wouldn't be right. Listen,
12:04
Speaker 1: he says, you go in first and meet me in
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Speaker 1: the little girl's section. That's what he said. So I
12:10
Speaker 1: went to the shoe section, and I was trying on
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Speaker 1: all these shoes on my children, and I was trying
12:16
Speaker 1: not to get too excited because I thought, I hope
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Speaker 1: he doesn't ditch us and leave me here with all
12:21
Speaker 1: this stuff, and then I have to put it all
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Speaker 1: back and take a taxi home and really, I didn't
12:26
Speaker 1: have enough money for a taxi because I was supposed
12:29
Speaker 1: to save that money for the next morning to go
12:31
Speaker 1: to the airport. So I was in a bind then, okay,
12:35
Speaker 1: and I still kept wondering, when he is his wife coming?
12:38
Speaker 1: So I left the shoe section and went to the
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Speaker 1: little girl's section, and then he appears. And the first
12:44
Speaker 1: thing out of my mouth was where's your wife? And
12:46
Speaker 1: he said, oh, she's coming. So I thought, oh way,
12:50
Speaker 1: because he said she's coming, Well, how far does she
12:54
Speaker 1: have to drive? So we looked around the closed section
12:58
Speaker 1: and it seems like he wanted Cherish to have whatever
13:02
Speaker 1: clothes she wanted. And at that time I didn't know
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Speaker 1: he was grooming her, But now I know the signs.
13:09
Speaker 1: Back then, people some people say I was really stupid.
13:13
Speaker 1: I should have known. Well, maybe if they were in
13:16
Speaker 1: my shoes that night, they might not have known either,
13:19
Speaker 1: because when someone approaches you with seemingly good intentions and
13:25
Speaker 1: pretends that they go to church and pretends they're at
13:27
Speaker 1: Christian why would you not believe them? Christians are supposed
13:32
Speaker 1: to be perfect and walking in Christ and being generous
13:35
Speaker 1: and all this, which there was a facade. Well, I
13:40
Speaker 1: have to say, as a Christian, Christians like myself and
13:44
Speaker 1: others are all, you know, pretty much centners. And the
13:50
Speaker 1: whole reason we even try is because we need help.
13:54
Speaker 1: I don't believe I've ever known but one perfect Christian.
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Speaker 1: I agree with you, Rain, I agree that when, for instance,
14:03
Speaker 1: when I take the children to church, I assume that
14:06
Speaker 1: everybody has good intentions. I don't think something bad is
14:10
Speaker 1: going to happen to them. And you know, maybe that's wrong.
14:15
Speaker 1: Well it is wrong, but I agree with you. He
14:18
Speaker 1: portrayed himself that way. It seemed as if he was
14:20
Speaker 1: trying to do a good thing for you. Guys. You
14:23
Speaker 1: had no idea this, and who had been disgub in
14:26
Speaker 1: stalking you for over a week. So you're in the
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Speaker 1: little girl's section. He's getting wanting to get everything for Cherish,
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Speaker 1: But what about the other girls? Oh, I got them
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Speaker 1: all clothes, and I was so excited. I was getting
14:38
Speaker 1: them the same type of clothes, but in different colors.
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Speaker 1: And I was putting Cherish's clothes on one side of
14:44
Speaker 1: the cart and the Vega's clothes on the other side
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Speaker 1: of the cart, and destined these clothes on another side
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Speaker 1: of the cart. And then I had all the shoes
14:50
Speaker 1: in the middle. I recall that he kept he pointed
14:54
Speaker 1: out stiletto hills high heels for the girls do. Cherish
14:59
Speaker 1: appeared to me on two different occasions with it seemed
15:04
Speaker 1: like there were adult women shoes, and at the time
15:06
Speaker 1: I didn't know that until later on I saw the
15:08
Speaker 1: shoes on the shelf. A few days later, I returned
15:12
Speaker 1: to that store, I looked for the shoes and I
15:14
Speaker 1: found them in the women's section, and I was highly,
15:17
Speaker 1: highly infuriated, and that he had the nerve to send
15:22
Speaker 1: the Cherish over to me and she said, Mommy, could
15:24
Speaker 1: I get these? And maybe he could have been a
15:28
Speaker 1: man that didn't understand that they're women shoes, but now
15:31
Speaker 1: I look back, he knew the hell what he was doing.
15:34
Speaker 1: He was grooming Cherish because Cherish knew full well there'd
15:38
Speaker 1: be no way I'd let her have shoes like that,
15:40
Speaker 1: but he was saying to her right in front of me,
15:42
Speaker 1: she could have whatever she wants. And now I know
15:46
Speaker 1: I was a target number one because of a single
15:49
Speaker 1: mother on foot with three leetle children. Number two. He
15:54
Speaker 1: knew that I was struggling for money that day, and
15:58
Speaker 1: he knew that there was no men around me. Even
16:00
Speaker 1: if my ex boyfriend was with me, I believe this
16:04
Speaker 1: demon would have left us alone. He was looking for
16:07
Speaker 1: someone vulnerable and someone with more than one child. Because
16:11
Speaker 1: when I saw those videos before I went to court,
16:16
Speaker 1: I was allowed to view them, and I realized now
16:19
Speaker 1: he was waiting for us, the way he was walking
16:21
Speaker 1: around the store flipping through a magazine, and I knew
16:25
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to buy it just by his demeanor.
16:27
Speaker 1: Let's see, at the time, I didn't see that. I
16:30
Speaker 1: was just focused on cherish destiny in the day. I
16:32
Speaker 1: mean ask you this, after you have been shopping for
16:36
Speaker 1: a period of time, no wife has appeared yet, the
16:38
Speaker 1: children are getting hungry. How did you come to the
16:42
Speaker 1: decision to let Cherish go with him to McDonald's, which
16:45
Speaker 1: I want to point out is not down the street,
16:48
Speaker 1: it's not on the other side of the town. It's
16:51
Speaker 1: there in the superstore, is Nancy? May I say something
16:55
Speaker 1: really quick. There's a big misconception about the dressing room.
16:58
Speaker 1: A lot of people that are hating on me saying
17:01
Speaker 1: you let him go to the dressing room with her.
17:03
Speaker 1: First of all, the dressing room was a clear shot
17:06
Speaker 1: from the children's section and if you go to any Walmart,
17:09
Speaker 1: you'll see what I'm talking about. You can see a
17:11
Speaker 1: clear shot of just straight there. There's no other way
17:16
Speaker 1: to get there, you know. And there was one time
17:20
Speaker 1: that I looked up and they were returning from the
17:23
Speaker 1: dressing room, and you said, here, you take her next time,
17:25
Speaker 1: and the shirts didn't fit her because they were way
17:27
Speaker 1: too big. And later on that night, when I was
17:31
Speaker 1: waiting for the police to arrive, I asked one of
17:34
Speaker 1: the attendants from the dressing room and said, did he
17:36
Speaker 1: take her in there? She said no, So that cleared
17:39
Speaker 1: my mind. He did not go into the dressing room
17:41
Speaker 1: a cherish. He walked her there, but he did not
17:45
Speaker 1: go in there. How did he bring up taking her
17:48
Speaker 1: to the McDonald's within the store? I was looking at
17:50
Speaker 1: all the clothes in the car, and then I look
17:53
Speaker 1: up and Cherish comes over and stands by my left
17:57
Speaker 1: and she said, he's got one hundred and fifty dollars
17:59
Speaker 1: gift card. I said, is that what he told you?
18:02
Speaker 1: And he walks up and he's a few feet away
18:04
Speaker 1: from me and he puts up his right hand like
18:07
Speaker 1: a puppet. Is what Mark Khalil, the prosecutor said, And
18:11
Speaker 1: that's exactly true. This is his gesture. He puts up
18:14
Speaker 1: his right hand very strangely and says, I'm going to McDonald's.
18:19
Speaker 1: What do you want to eat? And he never said we,
18:23
Speaker 1: he said I. And when Cherish ran over to me,
18:27
Speaker 1: she asked me, what do you want to eat? And
18:29
Speaker 1: I said cheeseburgers, And then she repeated cheeseburgers, and that
18:32
Speaker 1: was the last thing she said. I watched her walk
18:35
Speaker 1: away behind him, but because of how close she was
18:42
Speaker 1: to me, she would never have willingly ran away from me.
18:47
Speaker 1: And I knew that McDonald's is inside Walmart, and I
18:53
Speaker 1: thought to myself, he can't hurt her. In here Crime
19:10
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace Cherish and Perrywinkle, an eight year
19:17
Speaker 1: old little girl is gone, kidnapped, brutally raped, and murdered.
19:26
Speaker 1: And John Limley Crime online dot Com investigative reporter tell
19:30
Speaker 1: me and all the listeners, what more do you know?
19:34
Speaker 1: The facts of this case are horrifying. That's not just
19:38
Speaker 1: an opinion. That's the opening line of the written appeal
19:41
Speaker 1: for a retrial in well one of Jacksonville's most savage crimes,
19:47
Speaker 1: the killing, rape, and murder of eight year old Cherish Perrywinkle,
19:52
Speaker 1: the man convicted of her murder, has been on death
19:55
Speaker 1: row since twenty eighteen, and this week his case goes
19:59
Speaker 1: before the Florida's Supreme Court as he seeks to have
20:02
Speaker 1: his conviction and death sentence overturned, and Schendler is with
20:08
Speaker 1: WTLVTV and brings us more. The Florida Supreme Court will
20:12
Speaker 1: hear oral arguments this week, part of the automatic appeal
20:15
Speaker 1: process that follows any death sentence. Smith's attorney will argue
20:18
Speaker 1: that the trial judge made several mistakes, including allowing graphic
20:22
Speaker 1: autopsy photos to be shown to jurors and to refusal
20:24
Speaker 1: to declare a mistrial when the medical examiner began to
20:27
Speaker 1: cry on the stand, I'm sorry, I have to take
20:29
Speaker 1: a break. Can I just have like five minutes. Attorneys
20:33
Speaker 1: will also argue it was a mistake for the judge
20:35
Speaker 1: to deny a request for a change of venue in
20:37
Speaker 1: light of the quote voracious nature of the media interest
20:40
Speaker 1: in the case WTLVS and Schendler Nancy. An immediate ruling
20:46
Speaker 1: is not expected. In fact, even if it's denied, the
20:50
Speaker 1: appeals process in the case of Cherish Perrywinkle's killer could
20:54
Speaker 1: easily take another ten years, possibly by what would have
20:58
Speaker 1: been Cherish Perry Uncle's twenty sixth birthday with me long
21:05
Speaker 1: time friend Mark Class is with me, founder of Class Kids.
21:11
Speaker 1: After your little girl Polly went missing and was murdered.
21:17
Speaker 1: From that point on, your life has been about one thing,
21:21
Speaker 1: and that is helping to find missing people, no matter
21:26
Speaker 1: what it takes. So many people failed this eight year
21:30
Speaker 1: old little girl because the response to the mom's devastating
21:36
Speaker 1: nine one one call was delayed by police officers who
21:40
Speaker 1: didn't believe her. They thought she was lying because she
21:45
Speaker 1: was in the middle of a custody battle fighting to
21:48
Speaker 1: keep her children. Then the media were not notified of
21:53
Speaker 1: the Amber alert for hours. Hours after the little girl disappeared.
22:00
Speaker 1: More officers were disciplined over that. I don't know what
22:06
Speaker 1: the failure was there. The vehicle that he had I
22:12
Speaker 1: believe had been used in other crimes. Listen to this.
22:16
Speaker 1: The same guy had been released from jail less than
22:21
Speaker 1: one month before, where he served only four hundred and
22:26
Speaker 1: thirty eight days on felony child abuse and impersonation of
22:33
Speaker 1: an officer. He had been out a little over four
22:36
Speaker 1: hundred days. He has been a registered sex offender since
22:40
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three for trying to kidnap a little girl.
22:47
Speaker 1: I mean, is arrest go back as far as nineteen
22:50
Speaker 1: seventy seven, where he was convicted of indecent assault on
22:56
Speaker 1: a little girl under sixteen. It was nineteen seventy seven.
23:02
Speaker 1: And it goes on and on. He went to prison
23:05
Speaker 1: again in ninety two for attempted kidnapping. He was convicted
23:09
Speaker 1: on that charge in addition to two counts of showing
23:13
Speaker 1: obscene material to a child. I mean, it just goes
23:16
Speaker 1: on and on, and here he is wandering around Walmart.
23:20
Speaker 1: I don't get it. I don't get it. And what
23:23
Speaker 1: this child lived through before she was murdered is awful.
23:27
Speaker 1: There are blood stains on the carpet of his car,
23:32
Speaker 1: of his white van, and you know what, there's no
23:36
Speaker 1: telling how many children he has raped and molested that
23:40
Speaker 1: we don't even know about. Mark, There's no telling how
23:44
Speaker 1: many children really out there that may be dead. Do
23:47
Speaker 1: you think this is the first child he killed? I
23:49
Speaker 1: know it wasn't the first child he raped. That's very
23:53
Speaker 1: telling because what happens with these characters is that the
23:57
Speaker 1: nature of the crimes tend to escalate. And we're talking
23:59
Speaker 1: to a guy that had a forty year history of
24:02
Speaker 1: escalating criminal activity, and they learn at a certain point, Nancy,
24:06
Speaker 1: that you don't leave the evidence behind, that you don't
24:10
Speaker 1: leave the child alive so that the child can ultimately
24:13
Speaker 1: point you out or testify against you. That if you
24:16
Speaker 1: want to stay out of prison, the way you stay
24:18
Speaker 1: out of prison is you become a stealth predator. You
24:22
Speaker 1: take the children, You take the children under the veil
24:26
Speaker 1: of darkness, and you get rid of them. So you're
24:30
Speaker 1: exactly right. How many victims were there? Victims that will
24:34
Speaker 1: never be able to tell their story, that you'll never
24:36
Speaker 1: be able to tell their story, Kids that are missing
24:39
Speaker 1: and will continue to be missing, probably forever, an effort.
24:43
Speaker 1: This is what I know about Cherish Periwinkle because I
24:47
Speaker 1: have reviewed the documents and much of the evidence in
24:52
Speaker 1: her case. Although it has not gone to trial a yet,
24:55
Speaker 1: Cherish Periwinkle's a murder is nauseating. There are over one
25:02
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety pages of documents, nearly a thousand photos.
25:07
Speaker 1: We know that specifically, this eight year old little girl's
25:11
Speaker 1: body was found partially clothed, submerged in about six inches
25:16
Speaker 1: of water and a tidal creak like a ditch, hidden
25:21
Speaker 1: under a log and weighted down by asphalt chunks, an
25:28
Speaker 1: eight year old little girl. We learned that he was
25:33
Speaker 1: covered in scratches, We learned that his clothes were so
25:39
Speaker 1: keen wet. By putting her body in the water mark,
25:44
Speaker 1: you know, it was in the hopes that she wouldn't
25:48
Speaker 1: be found and that the water would wash away evidence.
25:51
Speaker 1: There's no doubt in my mind. What do you make
25:54
Speaker 1: of that? No, I think you're absolutely correct. I think
25:57
Speaker 1: that his flaw in this particular case was that he
26:01
Speaker 1: was so desperate for a new victim that he exposed himself.
26:05
Speaker 1: And I think that, you know, in retrospective, you were
26:08
Speaker 1: to look back, he probably would play this out very differently.
26:12
Speaker 1: But you know, it is what it is. This guy
26:14
Speaker 1: has been caught, Thank goodness. He will never have an
26:17
Speaker 1: opportunity really another child. You don't think so, Lauren, Whitn't
26:21
Speaker 1: you think that after his first conviction, hey, they put
26:24
Speaker 1: him away, he'll never get out again. But he got
26:26
Speaker 1: out once, twice, three times, and now Cherish is dead. Well,
26:31
Speaker 1: there has there ever been a better argument for the
26:33
Speaker 1: death penalty? N answer me, seriously, has there? Because finally,
26:37
Speaker 1: you know, that's how you put a stop to these guys,
26:40
Speaker 1: and unfortunately that's the only way you put a stop
26:44
Speaker 1: to these guys. I don't want to take you and
26:47
Speaker 1: me to a dark place, but I'm going to. This
26:51
Speaker 1: guy's body was covered in scratches. You know what that means.
26:59
Speaker 1: As the child was raped, As this child was murdered,
27:03
Speaker 1: she was fighting to live and she ended up. Dad
27:10
Speaker 1: submerged in water. You know, that's three hundred days more
27:14
Speaker 1: free he had than the guy that killed my daughter
27:16
Speaker 1: ad I mean he was out ninety days, oh the
27:19
Speaker 1: forty five. Decided he was going to take out falling.
27:22
Speaker 1: I don't understand it either, Nancy. I don't understand why
27:25
Speaker 1: you get a serial predator, somebody with the recipivious history
27:29
Speaker 1: that goes back decades and decades and decades, that escalates
27:33
Speaker 1: all along the line, and they continue to find reasons
27:36
Speaker 1: to allow these people back out under the streets, knowing
27:39
Speaker 1: full well exactly thing happened, not knowing who the victim's
27:44
Speaker 1: going to be, but knowing full well that they're going
27:47
Speaker 1: to kill, they're going to rape, and they'll probably do
27:50
Speaker 1: it multiple times unless they slip up like this character did.
28:08
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Cherish is kidnapped, brutally raped
28:15
Speaker 1: and murdered, and there's no doubt about that. But in
28:18
Speaker 1: a stunning development in the last hours, the case is
28:22
Speaker 1: back on the hot seat. John Lumley explain. Nancy Donald Smith,
28:27
Speaker 1: the man convicted of Cherish Perrywinkle's murder, has as you know,
28:31
Speaker 1: been on death row since twenty eighteen. This week, his
28:36
Speaker 1: case is going before the Florida Supreme Court as he
28:39
Speaker 1: seeks to have his conviction and death sentence overturned. The
28:43
Speaker 1: appeal will be heard what is now just a few
28:46
Speaker 1: weeks before Perrywinkle would have turned sixteen years old. Smith's
28:51
Speaker 1: new legal team will present oral arguments before the Florida
28:55
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, part of the automatic appeals process that follows
29:00
Speaker 1: any death sentence. Smith's attorneys will argue the trial judge
29:04
Speaker 1: made several mistakes, including allowing graphic autopsy photos to be
29:09
Speaker 1: shown to jurors and her refusal the judge's refusal to
29:14
Speaker 1: declare a mistrial when the medical examiner began to cry
29:18
Speaker 1: on the stand. They will also argue it was a
29:21
Speaker 1: mistake for the judge to deny a request for a
29:25
Speaker 1: change of venue in light of the quote voracious nature
29:29
Speaker 1: of the media interest in the case. Now, Nancy, an
29:33
Speaker 1: immediate ruling is not expected, and even if it's denied,
29:37
Speaker 1: the appeals process in the case of Perrywinkle's killer could
29:41
Speaker 1: easily take another decade to complete. Listen, I want to
29:46
Speaker 1: understand how you get through the day. Now. What did
29:50
Speaker 1: you tell your other two girls about Cherish. Oh, we
29:54
Speaker 1: were sitting. We were sitting in Walmart that night and
29:58
Speaker 1: I told him. She told me took Cherish out of
30:00
Speaker 1: the store, and they were too little. They didn't really
30:03
Speaker 1: understand too much back then. Have you felt that Cherish's
30:08
Speaker 1: tried to communicate with you? You know, it's strange that
30:11
Speaker 1: you ask that, because a lot of people that have
30:14
Speaker 1: been through this, whether it be their fiancee, whether it
30:17
Speaker 1: be apparent relative or a child, they will they will
30:24
Speaker 1: say certain things that it could be taken as well
30:29
Speaker 1: as she's just having a dream. No, there were at
30:34
Speaker 1: least two different incidences where I felt her. I touched
30:39
Speaker 1: her picture. I think it was a day or two
30:41
Speaker 1: after she was taken. There was a picture of her
30:44
Speaker 1: on my wall and I just touched her race and
30:47
Speaker 1: I said to her, Cherish, tell me where that man
30:50
Speaker 1: took you and within a few seconds, I just was
30:55
Speaker 1: trying to be quiet and I had a thought. He
30:59
Speaker 1: took me to a house with a dog and the
31:02
Speaker 1: house was white. Well after the stroller was found, I
31:09
Speaker 1: asked Mark Khalil a few days ago, was a house white?
31:13
Speaker 1: And he said well, I said, Tomal, was it white
31:16
Speaker 1: or was it off white? And he said yes. So
31:20
Speaker 1: I take that information that she was trying to tell me,
31:25
Speaker 1: and I can't prove it. It's just what I felt
31:27
Speaker 1: at the time. And a lot of little children like dogs,
31:31
Speaker 1: even though I don't like dogs around my children because
31:34
Speaker 1: they could get bitten by them. But I don't believe
31:37
Speaker 1: that he did this act in the then. I think
31:39
Speaker 1: that he had to have some elbow room. I think
31:43
Speaker 1: he had to have a lot of space, and he
31:46
Speaker 1: had took time to think about it. Rain, what was
31:49
Speaker 1: the most painful part for you as you endured the
31:53
Speaker 1: trial of Donald Smith. That's a good question. The worst
32:00
Speaker 1: day was the Tuesday, the following day. First of all,
32:05
Speaker 1: after my testimony, I went to an empty room and
32:09
Speaker 1: I watched Officer Wilkie he had found cherish and I
32:13
Speaker 1: fell on the floor screaming at his testimony. So that
32:17
Speaker 1: was extremely difficult. But you're asking me what was the
32:21
Speaker 1: worst day. It was on the Tuesday when doctor Rao
32:25
Speaker 1: was talking about Cherish's injuries and uh I was on
32:32
Speaker 1: the flour screaming for that, I knew I couldn't sit
32:34
Speaker 1: in the courtroom and her injuries were far worse than
32:39
Speaker 1: I thought. Rain take a listen as a verdict is
32:43
Speaker 1: handed down nice wedded River churn. So I was premeditated
33:00
Speaker 1: the elation of special battery to mun We with ours,
33:13
Speaker 1: we might a special battery seci Verna, count three guilty
33:23
Speaker 1: of special battery Personal as Training, United Florida Find Order,
33:32
Speaker 1: February fourteen, Ashley Wilcott final saut First, all all my
33:38
Speaker 1: thoughts and fairs terign and her family, the siblings, everyone,
33:42
Speaker 1: But we have got to be more diligent as people
33:45
Speaker 1: as a system to identify these perpetrators, to believe parents
33:50
Speaker 1: when they say, hey, something's happened to my child, to protect,
33:55
Speaker 1: to investigate, to arrest, to convict, and then not to
33:59
Speaker 1: re lease perpetrators and pedophiles who are so prolific like
34:08
Speaker 1: this man was. And we have to do all of
34:11
Speaker 1: that with crazy urgency. The second thing I would say
34:14
Speaker 1: is trust your gut and others need to trust it
34:17
Speaker 1: to all of us know deep in our gut when
34:19
Speaker 1: something's happened, and if others would trust that as well,
34:24
Speaker 1: it goes a long way to improving the system response
34:27
Speaker 1: that failed in this case. When it comes to your children,
34:31
Speaker 1: don't trust anybody. Don't trust the family they want to
34:34
Speaker 1: go spend the night we have because it's their best friends.
34:36
Speaker 1: Don't trust the preacher, don't trust the boy scout leader.
34:39
Speaker 1: I here who it is. You make sure that you
34:44
Speaker 1: as you know the oversight of your child. All the pounds.
34:49
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just a scary reality because I'm going
34:52
Speaker 1: to say again, this is not Ray's fault. This person set.
34:57
Speaker 1: They're sub oh cherished pa A Winkle Halliott Rain My
35:03
Speaker 1: last question, final thought. I miss everything. She would sing
35:07
Speaker 1: a lot, and sometimes she would annoy me. They're looking
35:11
Speaker 1: back now. I'm so sorry, because children can be annoying, Nancy.
35:19
Speaker 1: Little children can be annoying. Sometimes you'd have you'd have
35:23
Speaker 1: your days where you'd say get away from me and
35:25
Speaker 1: go to bed. But looking back, I miss everything. I
35:30
Speaker 1: miss it when they scribbled on the wall in their bedroom.
35:33
Speaker 1: I miss it when they were running around the yard
35:36
Speaker 1: playing with all those cats we had, and I miss
35:40
Speaker 1: taking them to school. I miss diaper changes, I miss breastfeeding,
35:44
Speaker 1: I miss everything. And for some people to say I
35:48
Speaker 1: wish my child would grow up and I'm tired of this.
35:51
Speaker 1: Just please, I hate saying the word cherish, I only
35:55
Speaker 1: use it for her name, but just please revel and
36:00
Speaker 1: if that's a good word, just appreciate what you have
36:07
Speaker 1: with your children now, because one day they may not
36:10
Speaker 1: be here. We wait as justice unfalls. Nancy Grace Crime Story,
36:15
Speaker 1: signing off, good bye friend,