Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / SHOCK WITNESS: Alleged killer of high school football star Ahmaud Arbery bragged he shot black man "with gold teeth."
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This is a case that
- 0:16Speaker 1: will live in infamy, regardless of the verdict, for years
- 0:23Speaker 1: to come. And in the last days more information about
- 0:30Speaker 1: the brutal shooting of a young man in the prime
- 0:35Speaker 1: of his life. Why because of hatred, prejudice, bigotry. As
- 0:47Speaker 1: the mother of twins now thirteen, including a boy, the
- 0:54Speaker 1: thought that somewhat would fall hellow him as he is
- 1:01Speaker 1: jogging in their vehicle like they were hunting, loaded with
- 1:11Speaker 1: weapons and shoot my son. But according to the facts
- 1:21Speaker 1: as we know them now, that is what happened. To
- 1:26Speaker 1: a modar Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. All across the country,
- 1:45Speaker 1: people are watching this case waiting for justice. Take a
- 1:53Speaker 1: listen to this. Here there's a guy in the house
- 2:01Speaker 1: right and round the house under constructions, and do you
- 2:05Speaker 1: have your address or the other that house of the address? Uh?
- 2:09Speaker 1: Right at two nineteen or two twenty. Stealer drives and
- 2:13Speaker 1: he said, tell of them breaking into it right now. No,
- 2:16Speaker 1: it's it's all open. It's under constructions. And he's running
- 2:19Speaker 1: right now, very good, he's right now. Okay, what is
- 2:22Speaker 1: he doing? He's running down the streets hopeful. Okay, back here, okay,
- 2:29Speaker 1: that's fine. I'll getting them out there. I didn't even
- 2:31Speaker 1: know what he was doing wrong. Was he just on
- 2:34Speaker 1: the premises they're not supposed to be looking stuff on her?
- 2:41Speaker 1: And you've been caught on the camera a bunch before
- 2:43Speaker 1: nineteen have an all one thing out here. The man
- 2:48Speaker 1: is fielding the house. He got parte. He's I think
- 2:50Speaker 1: he's not going to finishing shirt. Okay, that's fine. And
- 2:53Speaker 1: you said it was a mail in a black T shirt,
- 2:55Speaker 1: that white T shirt. Black guy, white T shirt. And
- 2:58Speaker 1: he's done back and run back. You're hearing the nine
- 3:02Speaker 1: one one calling at this moment. Amant Aubrey is still alive,
- 3:08Speaker 1: and it sounds like the guy is talking about an animal.
- 3:13Speaker 1: He's running. Look at him like, I don't even understand
- 3:17Speaker 1: what that has to do with the nine one one call.
- 3:20Speaker 1: But let's hear more from the nine one one call.
- 3:22Speaker 1: Listen with the addressing emergency. I'm not here as a
- 3:29Speaker 1: black male running down where where? Where? At Steller's shorts?
- 3:34Speaker 1: I don't know what three girl about? That is it?
- 3:37Speaker 1: Stop grati, sir? Hello, sir? Sure where are you at?
- 3:48Speaker 1: You can hear him screaming at amar At Aubrey. She
- 3:51Speaker 1: stopped right there, and of course amant Aarbury keeps running
- 3:56Speaker 1: with me an all star panel to break you down
- 3:59Speaker 1: and put it back together again. In the last day,
- 4:02Speaker 1: significant advances in the case have occurred. Levi Page Trim
- 4:06Speaker 1: Online dot Com, investigative reporter, Professor forensics Jacksonville State University,
- 4:11Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and star
- 4:14Speaker 1: of a brand new hit series, Poisonous Liaisons on True
- 4:18Speaker 1: Crime Network. Joseph Scott Morgan, death investigator Psychoanalysts joining us
- 4:23Speaker 1: from Beverly Hills on INSTA doctor Bethany Marshall. Lee Merritt,
- 4:30Speaker 1: renowned lawyer joining us. Lee Merritt EESQ for Esquire dot
- 4:37Speaker 1: Com representing the mother of Ahmad Aubrey, who is with
- 4:43Speaker 1: us now, Wanda Cooper Jones. In the last hours, there
- 4:48Speaker 1: has been not only a bond hearing to let the
- 4:52Speaker 1: shooters out of jail, that's the point of a bond hearing,
- 4:56Speaker 1: but a preliminary hearing as well where we learn a lot.
- 5:02Speaker 1: But I want to go first to miss Cooper Jones, ma'am,
- 5:06Speaker 1: thank you for being with us, Thank you for having
- 5:09Speaker 1: me hopeful. You know, Miss Cooper Jones just playing that
- 5:14Speaker 1: nine one one call. There was a reason I would
- 5:16Speaker 1: always play it for juries, because it takes you back
- 5:20Speaker 1: to the moment of the incident. But I hated playing
- 5:25Speaker 1: it knowing you were listening. But I bet you've heard
- 5:29Speaker 1: it before. What comes to your mind when you hear
- 5:33Speaker 1: these guys ordering your son who's out jogging to stop.
- 5:39Speaker 1: I'm so heartbreaking to know that when those calls are
- 5:44Speaker 1: being placed in them, all was actually still alive. It's
- 5:49Speaker 1: just pretty far, you know, Miss Cooper Jones. I always
- 5:55Speaker 1: wonder about the murder of my fiance many years ago, Keith.
- 6:00Speaker 1: He was shot five times in the back, the face,
- 6:05Speaker 1: the neck. I wonder what he endured in the last
- 6:10Speaker 1: moments of his life. I wonder about what was he thinking,
- 6:16Speaker 1: What was going through his mind as this happened. Do
- 6:21Speaker 1: you wonder that about Ahmad every day? Every day? It's
- 6:34Speaker 1: very hard to think that he was clueless all was
- 6:38Speaker 1: about to happen. I mean, my mom had began doing
- 6:42Speaker 1: laudry before he went out for his jog. When I
- 6:45Speaker 1: returned home, his closest to live a dry air and
- 6:48Speaker 1: he picked clothes also in the washer where he anticipated
- 6:51Speaker 1: coming back and finishing his lawgry. Not normally he would
- 6:56Speaker 1: never return. I just taking in what you're telling me
- 7:01Speaker 1: and thinking, you know, the shooters described him being in
- 7:10Speaker 1: a house that was under construction, and I've been exactly
- 7:15Speaker 1: to this neighborhood and this scene. When we were growing up,
- 7:20Speaker 1: we were in such a rural area, Miss Cooper Jones,
- 7:23Speaker 1: that when somebody would build a house, it was, you know,
- 7:26Speaker 1: a wonderment and we would all go in the house
- 7:31Speaker 1: and you know the construction of the house and look
- 7:34Speaker 1: around and say, oh, this is going to be their
- 7:37Speaker 1: bedroom and this is going to be the entryway because
- 7:41Speaker 1: it was open and we could go in there and
- 7:43Speaker 1: see the house being built and never really thought anything
- 7:49Speaker 1: of it. When you first got the news that Ahmad
- 7:55Speaker 1: had been shot? What happened? How did you discover what
- 7:58Speaker 1: had happened? Um? I was actually in Wayne spread Wi
- 8:02Speaker 1: am on today. I'm lying on the couch and my mom,
- 8:06Speaker 1: my mom was sitting in her recliner. I was lying
- 8:09Speaker 1: on the on the couch and I got a call
- 8:14Speaker 1: from a from an unknown number and I answered the
- 8:17Speaker 1: call and there was visted the investigator who identified this
- 8:21Speaker 1: Stuffs and my brother Um Green counter Coaching department and
- 8:25Speaker 1: told me how my had been a blocked up in
- 8:27Speaker 1: a burglary. Well wait, I'm sorry, did you just say
- 8:32Speaker 1: you were told your son had been involved in a burglary? Yes,
- 8:36Speaker 1: ma'am okay, And then he said, and then missus. The
- 8:41Speaker 1: burglary a mom was still funded by the homeowner, and
- 8:45Speaker 1: unfortunately there was a fight over the weapon and my
- 8:48Speaker 1: mom was shot killed. And he had only been out
- 8:54Speaker 1: of the house. How long? Um, I wasn't there because
- 8:59Speaker 1: I had traveled a weekend, so I'm not I'm sure
- 9:02Speaker 1: he wasn't gone that long because my neighbor told me
- 9:06Speaker 1: that he saw him tryably to believe in the house.
- 9:10Speaker 1: It was a long for it. They was told that
- 9:12Speaker 1: he was shot and kill so he wasn't gone bed
- 9:14Speaker 1: But all time stories with Nancy Grace, we are talking
- 9:31Speaker 1: about the sudden, kind upsetting death of a young man
- 9:37Speaker 1: in the prime of his life, the apple of his
- 9:41Speaker 1: mother's eye. To this day we're wondering why what happened?
- 9:49Speaker 1: Why did Ahmad get chased down and shot? With me?
- 9:57Speaker 1: Is his mother Wanda Cooper Joe her lawyer Lee Merit
- 10:02Speaker 1: in an awesome panel to make sense of at all.
- 10:06Speaker 1: In the last days, there has been a bond hearing
- 10:10Speaker 1: to let the shooters out of jail. That was their
- 10:12Speaker 1: wish as well as a preliminary hearing. I want to
- 10:18Speaker 1: go now to Miss Cooper Jones's lawyer, Lee Merit. You're
- 10:24Speaker 1: a veteran trial lawyer. A preliminary hearing is really a
- 10:30Speaker 1: field day for the defense because at a prelium it's
- 10:35Speaker 1: simply the state putting up enough evidence to get the
- 10:39Speaker 1: case bound over for trial or bound over it's sent
- 10:42Speaker 1: to the right court. Should it be a shoplifting, should
- 10:45Speaker 1: it be a misdemeanor, should it go to felony court.
- 10:48Speaker 1: But it gives the defense the opportunity to explore and
- 10:54Speaker 1: test the state's witnesses that they normally don't have prior
- 10:58Speaker 1: to trial. Mister Merrick, what did you learn from the
- 11:03Speaker 1: preliminary hearing? And well, yeah, it's often the closest thing
- 11:07Speaker 1: to a death position that you'll get in criminal court.
- 11:09Speaker 1: And I have to tell you that this preliminary hearing,
- 11:12Speaker 1: the judges were worked on us a couple of times
- 11:14Speaker 1: and to produce such a volumes record because this was
- 11:17Speaker 1: an extensive preliminary hearing, we learned not only about you know,
- 11:23Speaker 1: some of the ongoings in that community, that there were
- 11:28Speaker 1: a group of men who decided to patrol essentially the community,
- 11:33Speaker 1: that they were organized to a Facebook Internet group, that
- 11:39Speaker 1: they were getting some advisement at least from the Glen
- 11:44Speaker 1: County Police Department, and in a lot of ways that
- 11:46Speaker 1: Glenn County pt were deferring to these men for safety
- 11:50Speaker 1: concerns in the community, but not really safety, because I
- 11:53Speaker 1: guess I should take property concerns. But beyond that, we
- 11:57Speaker 1: also learned about Gregory Travis McMichael, and there the racist
- 12:05Speaker 1: motivation for their not only accusation of a Modelbaria, but
- 12:10Speaker 1: ultimately their their decision to a costume with William Roddy
- 12:16Speaker 1: Brian and in his last moments. Well, I learned a
- 12:22Speaker 1: lot from the hearing and whether this case is about
- 12:29Speaker 1: racism or not, this if the facts as we know
- 12:34Speaker 1: them are true, this is a clear murder, one with
- 12:40Speaker 1: multiple perpetrators pursuing an unarmed individual who has not been
- 12:47Speaker 1: proven to have committed any wrongdoing. And even if he
- 12:52Speaker 1: had been in a home under construction, even if he
- 12:56Speaker 1: had taken something, which let me be clear, he did not.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Even cops can't chase down a fleeing felon from a
- 13:08Speaker 1: burglary and shoot them dead. No, the person you're chasing
- 13:14Speaker 1: has to present a threat that they're going to hurt
- 13:18Speaker 1: you or somebody else. This guy was out jogging for
- 13:21Speaker 1: Pete's sake, but I learned something very very disturbing. Take
- 13:26Speaker 1: a listen to Kelly Wiley w j XT four. During
- 13:31Speaker 1: the hearing, Gregg McMichael's wife and Travis's mother took the stand,
- 13:35Speaker 1: so did Greg McMichael's doctor, and a slew of Travis's
- 13:38Speaker 1: longtime friends. Several of the witnesses say they would be
- 13:41Speaker 1: willing to put up their own property as collateral for
- 13:44Speaker 1: bond for the former Coastguard member and father, but the
- 13:47Speaker 1: Steve had questions for one of Travis's longtime friends. Do
- 13:50Speaker 1: you recall that text exchange between you and defendant Travis
- 13:54Speaker 1: McMichael in which he was talking about shooting a black
- 13:57Speaker 1: with gold team that had a high point for five.
- 14:01Speaker 1: He was referring to a record. The next day, Judge
- 14:04Speaker 1: Walmsley said he was concerned testimony from the witnesses was biased.
- 14:12Speaker 1: Absolutely what he is talking about. And mister Lee Merritt,
- 14:21Speaker 1: the lawyer for miss Cooper Jones and Mod's mother and
- 14:25Speaker 1: Wanda Cooper Jones, they're both with us. So I ain't
- 14:30Speaker 1: even say it out loud because it's so hateful. So
- 14:36Speaker 1: tell me Lee. One of the shooters send a text
- 14:42Speaker 1: after a mod has been shot stating that he he
- 14:47Speaker 1: texted about shooting a black c oo in with gold teeth,
- 14:55Speaker 1: and then later had someone state that he was into
- 15:00Speaker 1: a raccoon. That's right, I am, I understanding this right,
- 15:05Speaker 1: and that is self described as Travis the shooters best
- 15:09Speaker 1: friends the childhood for him, they grew up together and
- 15:12Speaker 1: they went on hunting expeditions together. And so I mean,
- 15:15Speaker 1: this has been the narrative that has been most prominent
- 15:19Speaker 1: about the murder of a mob, that it appeared that
- 15:21Speaker 1: these men were all hunting something that hunters do as
- 15:25Speaker 1: they brag about what they did, they share pictures of it,
- 15:28Speaker 1: they take video, and this is what he was doing
- 15:31Speaker 1: and sending the text describing killing that black coon with
- 15:36Speaker 1: gold teeth high point forty five in Newports. It was
- 15:41Speaker 1: really really disturbing. It shocked me when I heard them court,
- 15:45Speaker 1: and I appreciate it. The judge took a moment when
- 15:48Speaker 1: denying the bond hearing to say, if this was the
- 15:50Speaker 1: best character witness that you could call for Travis and
- 15:53Speaker 1: he lied, of course about what he said. Oh, actually
- 15:55Speaker 1: we were described describing the raccoon, and we're being facetious.
- 15:58Speaker 1: I doubt the young man knows how to feel that word,
- 16:01Speaker 1: but that's what he offered as an explanation. Miss Cooper Jones.
- 16:06Speaker 1: Were you in the courtroom when this testimony occurred? I
- 16:10Speaker 1: was what it must be like to hear people bragging
- 16:18Speaker 1: about shooting your son and referring to him as an
- 16:22Speaker 1: animal with gold teeth. And this is after the shooting, which,
- 16:31Speaker 1: if the facts are as we believe them to be,
- 16:34Speaker 1: as we know them to be at this time, shows
- 16:36Speaker 1: absolutely no remorse at all. He is making fun of Ahmad. Again.
- 16:44Speaker 1: It's just showed me that the value Mama's life at all.
- 16:49Speaker 1: Mama wasn't wasn't a human. And again I hate to
- 16:54Speaker 1: keep saying that it breaks my heart, but this case
- 17:00Speaker 1: really breaks my heart over and over again. What led
- 17:06Speaker 1: you to be in the courtroom throughout the hearing, Miss
- 17:10Speaker 1: Kaper Jones? When I had the day that A laid
- 17:15Speaker 1: them to rest was the twenty ninth of February, My
- 17:19Speaker 1: last first summer was you know, I will find out
- 17:23Speaker 1: what happened. And with telling them that I think it's
- 17:28Speaker 1: my duties is mom to be in the courtroom each
- 17:32Speaker 1: time Mama's name is called, and that's what I plan
- 17:36Speaker 1: to do. Time Stories with Nancy Grace. We were talking
- 17:55Speaker 1: about the recent legal events in the case of Ahmad
- 17:58Speaker 1: Rbury who shot dead to Leavipage climb online dot com
- 18:05Speaker 1: investigative reporter. For those that are not familiar with the case,
- 18:08Speaker 1: please give me a description of what happened the day
- 18:15Speaker 1: Ahmad Armory, just twenty five years old, was shot dead. So, Nancy,
- 18:19Speaker 1: this is in Brunswick, Georgia, Glenn County, a coastal community,
- 18:23Speaker 1: very beautiful and in that neighborhood is Sentilla Shores, residential
- 18:28Speaker 1: large oak trees with Spanish moss draping down. Then it
- 18:32Speaker 1: looks peaceful. But what happened February twenty third was not.
- 18:36Speaker 1: Gregory McMichael. He's sixty five years old. He called ninety
- 18:39Speaker 1: one one. He says a man walked around a house
- 18:42Speaker 1: that was under construction and he was running away, And
- 18:47Speaker 1: as he was on the phone with nine one one,
- 18:49Speaker 1: he and his son, thirty four year old Travis McMichael,
- 18:53Speaker 1: jumped in a pickup truck armed with guns and chased
- 18:58Speaker 1: him and another man, William Roady Bryan followed him. And
- 19:04Speaker 1: that man, William Bryant, actually videoed this pursuit of this
- 19:09Speaker 1: unarmed Ahmed Arbury, and we know that it was caught
- 19:15Speaker 1: on video. They caught up with him in their vehicle.
- 19:19Speaker 1: Travis McMichael got out, tried to confront him. Ahmed Aarbury
- 19:23Speaker 1: tried to run away. They're outside of the phone camera's view.
- 19:26Speaker 1: You hear arguing and then you hear gunshots and Ahmed
- 19:31Speaker 1: Aarbury is shot dead. He was shot twice in the chest, Nancy.
- 19:36Speaker 1: And you know what's very disturbing is that William Bryan
- 19:40Speaker 1: said after Travis McMichael shot Ahmed Arbury, as he was
- 19:46Speaker 1: on the ground dying, he muttered the words effing inward.
- 19:51Speaker 1: You know, Lee Merritt, you tried a lot of cases,
- 19:54Speaker 1: as have I. Is there ever a moment in court
- 19:58Speaker 1: where you just stop still, just almost like it hints
- 20:03Speaker 1: you in the face, the hate and the perversion people
- 20:09Speaker 1: have toward each other. I mean, are you just used
- 20:12Speaker 1: to it by now because you've thought you fought so
- 20:15Speaker 1: many racial battles? Is it just like water off a
- 20:20Speaker 1: duck's back to you? Because it's still just It actually
- 20:25Speaker 1: makes me feel sick to my stomach to hear about
- 20:28Speaker 1: the hatred people have toward each other. It was that
- 20:33Speaker 1: moment in court when Travis Michael's cole defended explained what
- 20:38Speaker 1: he said to a mind as he laid down on
- 20:41Speaker 1: the ground, and you're right, I've seen a lot of death. Unfortunately,
- 20:47Speaker 1: the vast majority of the families that I work with,
- 20:50Speaker 1: I've had a level and kill to violence or hatred,
- 20:55Speaker 1: and you can become numbed to it, but it's it's
- 20:58Speaker 1: it's the evil behind those words. In that moment, a
- 21:06Speaker 1: young man, for whatever reason that he may have justified
- 21:10Speaker 1: in his head, was dying in front of him, and
- 21:13Speaker 1: he only wanted to keep one last insult on him
- 21:17Speaker 1: as he left this earth. It broke, It broke my heart,
- 21:20Speaker 1: and it snapped something inside of me. Honestly, I'm I.
- 21:27Speaker 1: I like to hold my composure because I know families
- 21:30Speaker 1: need that from me. They do, and I could not
- 21:32Speaker 1: in that moment. You know, Lee, there were times in
- 21:37Speaker 1: court when we'd be on a we'd get a recess
- 21:40Speaker 1: for whatever reason, and I would tell the victim's family
- 21:43Speaker 1: just wait right here, I'll be right back, and I
- 21:45Speaker 1: would go to a run up the stairs. Nobody ever
- 21:48Speaker 1: uses the stairs in the courthouse. They all use the elevator.
- 21:51Speaker 1: I'd run up the exit stairs one floor up to
- 21:55Speaker 1: the ladies' bathroom and go in the furthest stall and
- 21:59Speaker 1: just get it together, yeah, and go back down to
- 22:05Speaker 1: the courtroom. So I like you in court would appear
- 22:10Speaker 1: strong for them, because that is what they need. They
- 22:13Speaker 1: don't need you falling apart. They don't need you giving
- 22:18Speaker 1: in to the hate that's being heaped upon this young man.
- 22:25Speaker 1: We learned a lot Joseph Scott Morgan with me, renowned
- 22:28Speaker 1: death investigator. What do we learn about Ahmad's injuries? And
- 22:34Speaker 1: what I'm getting at, specifically, jose Scott, is to show
- 22:38Speaker 1: that Ahmad was not the aggressor in any way. I
- 22:42Speaker 1: already know he's on foot, he's unarmed, and he's being
- 22:45Speaker 1: chased by a vehicle by a group by two men
- 22:49Speaker 1: and a videographer for Pete's sake, trailing. I already know that.
- 22:54Speaker 1: But what can you tell me specifically about the autopsy? Well,
- 23:00Speaker 1: l autopsy is you know, for whatever reason, I think
- 23:04Speaker 1: that it is very fortunate in the sense that it's
- 23:06Speaker 1: performed by one of the most renowned forensic pathologists in
- 23:10Speaker 1: the country. Doctor Edmund Donna, who who was who's now
- 23:13Speaker 1: in Savannah as the former chief medical examiner in Chicago,
- 23:17Speaker 1: and he did a very thorough job. And let me
- 23:19Speaker 1: just so folks understand, because there's some confusion here relative
- 23:25Speaker 1: to these horrible comments that were made in the past
- 23:27Speaker 1: about the high point a mod was killed with a shotgun. Nancy,
- 23:32Speaker 1: this is and this is what is so egregious and
- 23:34Speaker 1: striking about this. This is not like someone who is
- 23:38Speaker 1: using a concealable pistol in their pocket and they pull
- 23:42Speaker 1: it out. This is a long gun that they're literally
- 23:44Speaker 1: chasing him down with and you can hear the shots
- 23:48Speaker 1: being fired on the video. We've all seen this. Unfortunately,
- 23:53Speaker 1: a man sustained to what doctor Donna who is referred
- 23:57Speaker 1: to as two shotgun wounds. And these both fired at
- 24:01Speaker 1: close range. And when you take a look at the
- 24:03Speaker 1: videography here you can get an idea for the range.
- 24:07Speaker 1: It's they closed on him, the individual with a shot
- 24:10Speaker 1: gun closed on him, and the muzzle is literally pointed.
- 24:14Speaker 1: If folks at home will just imagine the left side
- 24:16Speaker 1: of their chest. Okay, he sustained one that was kind
- 24:20Speaker 1: of in center mass like right over your stern, m
- 24:23Speaker 1: slightly to the left, and another that it's like superior
- 24:26Speaker 1: to the left breast area. And it left him with
- 24:30Speaker 1: these large, large shotgun pellets. It's actually buck shot contained
- 24:36Speaker 1: within his body. And when Donohoe talks about this, he
- 24:41Speaker 1: talks about this from the perspective of that it is
- 24:44Speaker 1: close range. This is not like you're firing at a
- 24:47Speaker 1: great distance, Nancy. The ammunition that was used in this case,
- 24:51Speaker 1: the reason it's called buck shot is because it's it
- 24:57Speaker 1: was originally designed so that hunters could use it to
- 25:00Speaker 1: kill deerwit bucks. Okay, And so he was actually hunted
- 25:05Speaker 1: down in the street and shot at close range with
- 25:08Speaker 1: a very very powerful way. Hold on, before you go
- 25:11Speaker 1: any further, you brought something up in my mind to
- 25:14Speaker 1: missus Cooper Jones. This is Ahmad Albory's mom. When you
- 25:19Speaker 1: know what I think? I think, Missus Cooper Jones, if
- 25:23Speaker 1: it had not been for that video emerging, there would
- 25:27Speaker 1: have never been a prosecution. As the days in the
- 25:31Speaker 1: weeks passed and nothing happened after Ahmad was shot. What
- 25:37Speaker 1: was going through your mind? Had you accepted that there
- 25:40Speaker 1: would be no prosecution? What were you just so heartbroken
- 25:44Speaker 1: after his death. He didn't care what was going through
- 25:48Speaker 1: your mind at that time before the video emerged, I
- 25:52Speaker 1: knew that I had to I knew that I had
- 25:57Speaker 1: to pull myself together to find out what it is
- 26:00Speaker 1: that going to happen. Once I learned from the local
- 26:06Speaker 1: newspaper later that week that Ahmad was chased down, and
- 26:12Speaker 1: the newspaper articles stated that there was two or more
- 26:16Speaker 1: men standing over the disease man, and there was two
- 26:21Speaker 1: or more weapons evolved, I knew that something shady had happened,
- 26:25Speaker 1: and I knew that I really had to push to
- 26:28Speaker 1: see what really happened, and that's what I did, Lee Merritt.
- 26:34Speaker 1: You know, I'm so used to angry people, angry victims'
- 26:39Speaker 1: families as they should be, angry cops, angry witnesses. What's
- 26:45Speaker 1: it like to have a lady like miss kiper Jones?
- 26:50Speaker 1: Is your clients so calm, so articulate, so almost she's
- 27:03Speaker 1: an example for everybody else. That's really rare. I mean,
- 27:10Speaker 1: you've got to get in there, and you've got to
- 27:12Speaker 1: be the bad guy. You've got to be the tough
- 27:16Speaker 1: you understand, of course, right right. She's so mild mannered
- 27:21Speaker 1: and so soft spoken. You know that's rare, right, Yeah,
- 27:30Speaker 1: And it's and I tell her this um at this
- 27:33Speaker 1: last hearing, she saw that video early supportion of the
- 27:38Speaker 1: video for the first time that we will announcing and
- 27:42Speaker 1: I'm sure hearing the injuries described after watching that video,
- 27:46Speaker 1: and she couldn't sit through it. A man was exceptional
- 27:52Speaker 1: for a number of reasons. She raised an exceptional son,
- 27:56Speaker 1: and it's because she's an exceptional woman, and it's it's
- 28:01Speaker 1: it hurts to even have her revisited. But the strength
- 28:06Speaker 1: that she displayed was displayed in her son, even in
- 28:09Speaker 1: his last moment, as these men set upon him and
- 28:12Speaker 1: he fought for his life. I know she takes a
- 28:16Speaker 1: great deal of silas and it reminds me of how
- 28:19Speaker 1: hard we have to fight. Her legal team maestified in
- 28:21Speaker 1: the people who are standing up for her because he
- 28:25Speaker 1: fought to his last moment and he fought bravely, and
- 28:32Speaker 1: she just exudes so much power, dignity, and respect. I
- 28:37Speaker 1: want her to know that she can, she can set
- 28:41Speaker 1: her armor down for a moment and begin to heal,
- 28:44Speaker 1: as as the people that she's entrusted to take on
- 28:47Speaker 1: this fight. I will fight and continue to fight for her.
- 28:51Speaker 1: Until we have some semblance of justice crime stories with
- 29:08Speaker 1: Nancy Grace and a bond. Hearing these perps want out
- 29:14Speaker 1: on bond, let me just cut the chase. They didn't
- 29:17Speaker 1: get a bond, They're not going to get out. But
- 29:20Speaker 1: I want you to hear from the defense in this case.
- 29:24Speaker 1: Hear what they are saying. Take a listen to our
- 29:27Speaker 1: friends at k excuse me, w j X TV news
- 29:31Speaker 1: for defense teams for the McMichaels, saying, the McMichaels didn't
- 29:35Speaker 1: follow our breed because of his race, but out of
- 29:38Speaker 1: concern for their neighborhood. This case isn't about grace your honor.
- 29:44Speaker 1: This case, in the indictment, is about whether or not
- 29:51Speaker 1: the private citizens arrest law and the justification statutes allowed
- 29:57Speaker 1: Greg McMichael to do what he chose to do that
- 30:00Speaker 1: day for the sole purpose of defending his family and
- 30:06Speaker 1: his property in his community. The judge in the case
- 30:09Speaker 1: denied on for both McMichael's, saying the video shows a
- 30:12Speaker 1: significant risk and threat of danger. Mont's mother says she's
- 30:30Speaker 1: relieved the tools stay in jail. Day was a good
- 30:33Speaker 1: day defending family, property and community. They were chasing a
- 30:38Speaker 1: guy in a vehicle and he's running on foot unarmed,
- 30:43Speaker 1: you know, to you doctor Bethany Marshall's psycho, Alan's joining
- 30:46Speaker 1: me out of Beverly Hills. Not about race, Nancy, Not
- 30:51Speaker 1: about race. They texted after that they shot a black
- 30:57Speaker 1: c o O. And I'm not even gonna say it
- 31:00Speaker 1: because I don't want my children to ever think their
- 31:02Speaker 1: mother uttered such a thing with gold teeth. How can
- 31:07Speaker 1: this not be about It's actually it's about hate. That's
- 31:12Speaker 1: what it's about, pure hate, and Nancy. Not only is
- 31:16Speaker 1: it about race, hate, malice, it's predatory. We use that
- 31:21Speaker 1: term so many times in society, but predatory means cold
- 31:26Speaker 1: blooded without remorse. That there's kind of a thrill of
- 31:31Speaker 1: the hunt, you know. I this sounds like they're talking
- 31:36Speaker 1: like hunters talk. If you've ever talked to a hunter
- 31:38Speaker 1: or somebody who likes to shoot, you know, elk or
- 31:41Speaker 1: deer or something like that, they love to tell very
- 31:44Speaker 1: long stories about like I sat in the stand and
- 31:49Speaker 1: then I was looking all day, you know, out at
- 31:51Speaker 1: the deer, and then the buck came here, and then
- 31:54Speaker 1: I looked them in the eyes. And there's a lot
- 31:57Speaker 1: of methodical planning to kill their prey and there's a
- 32:02Speaker 1: great delight, there's a thrill. And I'm sorry to say
- 32:08Speaker 1: this with the family members on the show, but I
- 32:10Speaker 1: think that these two father and son murders were hunters,
- 32:17Speaker 1: but they were hunting a human being instead of an animal,
- 32:21Speaker 1: and they equated a human being to an animal. And
- 32:25Speaker 1: then they breaked afterwards, like you're breaking about a trophy,
- 32:29Speaker 1: like somebody who holds up you know, goes on safari
- 32:33Speaker 1: in Africa and then then shoots photos of a lion
- 32:37Speaker 1: or or you know, sitting on top of an elephant,
- 32:40Speaker 1: and how thoughtless and cold hearted it is. So I
- 32:43Speaker 1: don't know. We can say racism, malist hate, but it's
- 32:47Speaker 1: also equating a human being with an it or an animal.
- 32:52Speaker 1: And a mod was so beautiful, twenty five years old,
- 32:58Speaker 1: jogging through a neighborhood. I've listened to so many stories
- 33:02Speaker 1: about his life. I know that on his sports team,
- 33:06Speaker 1: he would help the other members, he helped the coach.
- 33:09Speaker 1: This was a high school student, a sibling, a son,
- 33:15Speaker 1: a beloved member of the community, and all he was
- 33:18Speaker 1: doing was looking after his health. That's all he was doing.
- 33:22Speaker 1: Just the thought that they would send these texts back
- 33:26Speaker 1: and forth basically laughing about shooting Ahmad. This is a
- 33:30Speaker 1: case that has brought down a district attorney. Take a
- 33:34Speaker 1: listen to our cut seventeen. It's Kelly Wiley a w
- 33:37Speaker 1: j XT News for voicemail to the district attorney. State prosecutor.
- 33:42Speaker 1: Jesse Evans played a voicemail gregging Michael left for current
- 33:45Speaker 1: district Attorney Jackie Johnson after his son shatamat Aubrey. Johnson
- 33:50Speaker 1: is his former boss. He worked in her office for
- 33:52Speaker 1: more than twenty years as her investigator. The shooting was
- 33:56Speaker 1: technically hers to prosecute before it was handed to a
- 33:59Speaker 1: new district attorney, Jackie, This is great. Did you call
- 34:02Speaker 1: me possibly? Can I've been involved in the studio and
- 34:10Speaker 1: I need advice a way to please call me? Steve
- 34:17Speaker 1: said they were not suggesting the district attorney helped me
- 34:19Speaker 1: Michael or called it back. Johnson recused herself from the
- 34:23Speaker 1: case three days after the shooting, but not before calling
- 34:26Speaker 1: another district attorney who agreed to accept the case. To you,
- 34:30Speaker 1: Lee Mara, this is miss Wander Cooper Jones's lawyer. No
- 34:34Speaker 1: stranger to a courtroom. What happened to that? In DA
- 34:38Speaker 1: The one that took that message in the last election,
- 34:41Speaker 1: Cycloda Jackie Johnson was voted out of office. To add
- 34:45Speaker 1: to that, she is under federal investigation for corruption and
- 34:49Speaker 1: for her role in covering up the murder of a
- 34:51Speaker 1: mode of arbery. As you know, the men went for
- 34:54Speaker 1: almost seventy three days without facing any of her arrests.
- 34:57Speaker 1: No arrest, no, nothing. Slowly, slowly, the case is progressing.
- 35:06Speaker 1: To you, mister Merritt. The case is now going to
- 35:10Speaker 1: be tried, and I believe Cobb County is that correct.
- 35:14Speaker 1: It's being handled by the Cobb County Attorney's Office or
- 35:18Speaker 1: DA's office. The venue is still a progress. I say,
- 35:23Speaker 1: I say, I want to go back to Miss Cooper Jones.
- 35:27Speaker 1: Is a MOD Aubrey's mom. Could you just share with
- 35:30Speaker 1: me your most vivid memory of a MOD growing up? Um? Well,
- 35:39Speaker 1: I have so many, because I've gone through him more
- 35:43Speaker 1: than once. But I was angry with the MOD one day.
- 35:47Speaker 1: He had done something at school and he comes in
- 35:50Speaker 1: and you know, I'm giving him some giving him some
- 35:54Speaker 1: you know, some some good words of advice. But he
- 35:56Speaker 1: would live think so at the time, and you know
- 35:58Speaker 1: he's just he's just sitting to the dining room table.
- 36:00Speaker 1: He's just staring at me, and he's just staying it.
- 36:03Speaker 1: He's not saying anything. He's just staying because he's staying
- 36:07Speaker 1: at me because he wants them look in his direction
- 36:10Speaker 1: so he can smile, because he knows if he smiles
- 36:14Speaker 1: at me, you know, if I'm angry, I'm not gonna
- 36:16Speaker 1: be any anymore. And I just remember him sitting there,
- 36:19Speaker 1: just staring, and I was I'm fine not to look
- 36:22Speaker 1: at him, because I know that's what he's trying to do.
- 36:24Speaker 1: But I couldn't help it, and I looked at him
- 36:27Speaker 1: and that he was at the diningroom table. We're just
- 36:29Speaker 1: looking at his mama with a big old smile on
- 36:31Speaker 1: the twice and then we ended that that little talk
- 36:37Speaker 1: when we got onto something else. But he would do
- 36:40Speaker 1: little things like that because he knew I mean, he
- 36:42Speaker 1: knew that. And I'm looking at him right now, and
- 36:46Speaker 1: this must have been his graduation photo. He looks like
- 36:48Speaker 1: he's got on a tuxedo and he's got that smile,
- 36:52Speaker 1: those big brown eyes. It looks like he's looking right
- 36:55Speaker 1: at me when I'm looking at him. I remember that
- 36:59Speaker 1: day to be drolling to Zack for we over have
- 37:02Speaker 1: those photos taken, and he was such a hurry because
- 37:06Speaker 1: he wanted to get back. He probably to go to
- 37:07Speaker 1: the team center. He was such a hurry that day
- 37:10Speaker 1: because he got to get back for a certain times
- 37:13Speaker 1: to go to They had a local team center that
- 37:15Speaker 1: he'd like you to attend every Saturday, and he was
- 37:18Speaker 1: in such a big rush, Miss Keeper Jones. Please know
- 37:23Speaker 1: that people all across the world are lifting you up
- 37:27Speaker 1: in prayer and demot as well. Please know that, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am.
- 37:34Speaker 1: I want to thank you guys, thank you fall the support,
- 37:37Speaker 1: thank you for all the prayers, and they're very much appreciated.
- 37:41Speaker 1: We wait as justice un false Nancy Grace crime story.
- 37:45Speaker 1: Signing off goodbye for