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The Case Against Nicole Addimando - True Crime Documentary · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: She was afraid for her life. I mean I was
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: constantly afraid for her life. I messaged her every morning
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to see if she was still alive. On the night
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of the shooting, my phone rang and it was a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: little after two in the morning. Looks and it's Nicki.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: She sounded so scared.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Nikki Atamanda, better than anybody else in this world, knew
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: how dangerous he was at that moment.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: What did hero.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Chris Broger?
• 0:57
  Speaker 5: She had been asking him sort of throughout the night,
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: you know, just let us leave, Just let me leave
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: with the kids. What would he say to me?
• 1:04
  Speaker 6: I'm not going anywhere, but I'm not leaving.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: He pulled a gun out of the couch and said
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: he would kill her.
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: I meet him, And when she did that, the gun
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: fell to the floor.
• 1:19
  Speaker 7: I picked it up, and you would do it.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: NICKI didn't attempt to evade the police and didn't hide
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: the fact that she shot him.
• 1:30
  Speaker 7: He's lying on the.
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: He's playing there. Nikki is the most gentle, loving friend
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: we've ever had.
• 1:53
  Speaker 7: Everything she does is for her kids.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: In hindsight, it's so easy to connect the dot. There
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: were so many instances where I would notice a bruise
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: she attributed it to playing with the kids in some
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: kind of accident.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: We had medical documents demonstrating physical injuries.
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: There were many people who saw her with black eyes,
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: with bruises, injuries.
• 2:24
  Speaker 7: On her face or on her neck.
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: Had bite marks on her back, barn marks.
• 2:31
  Speaker 8: Well, if that's true, as a prosecutor, it's my obligation
• 2:34
  Speaker 8: to investigate it. Anyone who knew Chris was there to
• 2:38
  Speaker 8: support him.
• 2:40
  Speaker 7: He was my gymnastics coach. He always made us feel safe.
• 2:45
  Speaker 9: My son never heard anybody. He lived for Nikki. He
• 2:49
  Speaker 9: lived for those kids. He was a gentle soul who
• 2:53
  Speaker 9: was full of life, and she took it. She was
• 2:58
  Speaker 9: a very good actress.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: To take a rest.
• 3:04
  Speaker 8: We know that it's not popular to say that a
• 3:06
  Speaker 8: woman who's claiming domestic violence is lying. It's not popular
• 3:14
  Speaker 8: to say that she was self inflicting injuries.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: You believe the people who were supporting Nikki Alamando were
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: manipulated by her.
• 3:27
  Speaker 8: I don't believe Chris ever abused her. She intentionally planned
• 3:30
  Speaker 8: and murdered him when he was sleeping.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: At two am. On September twenty eighth, twenty seventeen, police
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: officer Richard Secily encountered a car stopped at a red light.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: The light turned green, and when the car didn't move,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Officer Sasily says he tooted an airhorn to get the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: driver's attention. What happened next stunned him. Neither were blas
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: okay to take a few depress An agitated young mother
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: named Nicole Almando and stocking Feet told him something had
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: gone terribly wrong at home.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: He's playing on the.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Playing there, he said.
• 5:11
  Speaker 10: I'll tell you.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: She said she'd been abused, had tried to leave, and
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: her boyfriend had a gun kill.
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: I picked it up and do it.
• 5:21
  Speaker 8: And police Officer Cecilia, I think, is in shock that
• 5:28
  Speaker 8: this is unfolding before him.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Putnam County Chief Assistant District Attorney Hanna Krauss would soon
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: be investigating Nicki's story.
• 5:37
  Speaker 8: He doesn't know if there's an ambulance that's necessary. There
• 5:40
  Speaker 8: are two children in the car.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Nikki had called a friend. Seeing here on the police
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: dash cam video, The friend, Elizabeth Clifton, pulls up and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: officers ask her to wait in a nearby parking lot.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I watched police emergency vehicles going bully. At some point
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I saw that the ambulance went back the other way,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and it didn't have its lights on, so I was afraid.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I was afraid of what had happened.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: The officers went to Nicki's apartment and found her partner,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Chris Grover, who appeared to be sleeping on the couch,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: dead with a single gunshot to the head. They found
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the shower running and a broken laptop in the bathtub.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: They brought Niki to the police station, where she was
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: interrogated by detectives, and Elizabeth learned Chris was dead.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I never in a million years had to fear that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: he would die. I was afraid she would die every day.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Not long afterward, Gail Grover got a heartbreaking visit from
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: the sheriff.
• 6:54
  Speaker 9: He told us that Chris had passed. And my first
• 6:58
  Speaker 9: question was are Nikki and the kids?
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: Okay?
• 7:02
  Speaker 9: That right there tells you we had no clue.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: No clue, says Gail, that anything was a miss in
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: her son's life. She describes Chris as kind an athletic.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: He had a black belt in taekwondo and was head
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: gymnastics coach at mister Todd's Jim and Poughkeepsie. Beth Waalan
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: coached with him there.
• 7:25
  Speaker 11: He was just always so happy and full of energy.
• 7:27
  Speaker 11: I mean he was like a rocket running around the gym.
• 7:30
  Speaker 11: He was a huge kid at heart, huge kid.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And that's where In two thousand and eight he met
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: a pretty young coach named Nicole A Demando. He was
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: twenty one, she was nineteen. Soon they began dating. In
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: twenty twelve, they moved in together and announced Niki was
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: expecting their first child, son Ben. Was he excited about.
• 7:55
  Speaker 9: Being absolutely ecstatic. He was a proud papa.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Chris, a talented amateur videographer, made this video for Nikki,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: which he called Becoming Mom. Two years later, daughter Fay
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: came along. Those kids were everything to him and to
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Nikki too. Gail says Nikki was an excellent mom. Elizabeth
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Clifton taught a Mommy and Me music class Nikki attended
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: with Ben.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: One time she came to class with what looked to
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: me like a black eye. She covered herself completely, and
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: even in the summer, she'd be wearing long sleeves, long pants,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: have a scarf covering around her neck.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Nicki's childhood friends Laura Moka, Danu and Rachel Hawks also
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: noticed injuries but didn't press her.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: I would notice a Bruce you know. She would often say,
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: you know, oh, I was playing with Ben and I
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: got hit by his guitar. You know.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: It was always.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: Something that to me at the time seemed very It
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: was plausible, plausible. I didn't think twice about it.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Then one day, a mom from the gym where Chris
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: coached heard about Nicky's injuries. She'd seen Chris lose his
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: temper in the past with young gymnasts in his class. Concerned,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: she made an anonymous report to Child Protective Services or CPS,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: as required by law. CPS visited Nicki and Chris's apartment.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Before long, Chris was dead and Nicki was trying to
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: explain why he faced me, and then.
• 9:36
  Speaker 6: He looked up for a second.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And I.
• 9:39
  Speaker 8: Think she thought she got them to believe that she
• 9:42
  Speaker 8: had acted out in self defense as opposed to intentionally
• 9:45
  Speaker 8: killed Chris Grover.
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: It's like obviously self sense, right.
• 9:50
  Speaker 8: I think she thought she was going home that night,
• 9:52
  Speaker 8: but Nicki did not go home that night.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Instead, she was charged with second degree murder and Chris
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: is dea What did you think when they charged Nikki
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: with murder?
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I was heart broken.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: A few weeks after Chris Grover's death, friends family, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: former students like MICHAELA. Hughes. He always said, let's go
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: kid gathered to release balloons in his honor, too run.
• 10:48
  Speaker 9: And it felt really nice to know that, like I
• 10:50
  Speaker 9: wasn't alone.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Supporters of Nikki Adimando were reeling too. Her arrest for
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Chris's murder prompted an outcry from friends, family, and advocates
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: for victims of domestic violence.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: For choosing to defend herself and survive, Niki may spend
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the next twenty years to life in prison.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth Clifton began organizing rallies and fundraisers, oh and also
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: reliving the years of terror she says she went through
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: with Nikki, beginning in April of twenty sixteen, when she
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: decided to confront Nikki about her injuries.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: And I said to her that I'm really scared for
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: you and I'm worried that you're not safe at.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Home, Elizabeth says. Nikki reluctantly admitted her partner, Chris, was
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: abusing her.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like Fuddgates. I would say, a slight trickle
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: of acknowledging that yes, this was happening.
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: Vicky's key stood out to me because of the level
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: of violence that was involved.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Rachel Louise Snyder is a journalist who spent ten years
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: studying domestic violence for a book called No Visible Bruises.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: As part of her research on Nicky's case for a
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: New Yorker article, she read the full court record and
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: interviewed dozens of people. She says. Nicki alleged Chris forced
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: himself on her sexually, but didn't become violent until after
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: son Ben was.
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: Born, and he slammed her head into the doorframe of
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: Ben's room and then raped her.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: It happened again, said Nicki. Almost two years later, when
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: she was pregnant with Fay. She sought medical attention here
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: at Vasser Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie.
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: And a couple of days later, she was standing in
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: the kitchen making eggs for Ben, and Chris allegedly came
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: in and said you better be making some for me,
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: and she said, yes, sir, pretty sarcastically. He forced her
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: to the ground and took a spoon and held it
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: into the gas flame and burned her all over her
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: body with it.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Again, Nikki sought medical attention. The report from the exam
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: states assailant named Chris heated up a metal utensil on
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the gas stove and burned Nikki in multiple areas of
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: her body.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: He was as far as I understand, tying her up.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: You know, I remember seeing the marks around her neck
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and wrists. I mean, what he was doing was raping her.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Nikki feared Chris was videotaping the encounters. Elizabeth says she
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: and Nikki's therapist pushed Nikki to press charges.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: Multiple people, in fact, tried to get her to file
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: police reports, and she was just petrified.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: She said that Chris would tell her.
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: That nobody would believe her, and she doesn't want her
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: kids taken away from her. She knew she was in danger.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth tried to help Nikki leave, and in the summer
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: of twenty sixteen, Nikki did pack the kids in the
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: car and drive over to Elizabeth's house.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: One of the hardest things I've ever experienced is that
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: she would come and she'd drive, and she'd slow down
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and then go again.
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: She saw Niki drive past her house over and over
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: again for hours, and she was on the phone saying,
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: con't just come in, just come in the front door,
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: and Nikki just couldn't do it, and that's what a
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: domestic violence victim leaving looks like. It looks like a
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: series of false starts. In this mindset, her terror of
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: him is stronger than her belief that the system will
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: save her.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, just months before Chris died, Nicki sought
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: medical help three times from a midwife, who noted multiple injuries.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: In may rope like Burns states, Chris has a gun
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: and uses it in my body and June vulva swollen
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: looks inside out. In August, bruised and bleeding, Chris at
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: gunpoint raped her, and then in September came that anonymous
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: call to Child Protective Services.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: CPS called Nicki and Chris and said we're going to
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: come by and interview you tomorrow. Suddenly there were outside
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: eyes on them.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Nicki said Chris left the house that day with a
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: bag full of evidence of abuse, presumably to get rid
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: of it. The next day, CPS conducted its home visit. Afterwards,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Chris went to work and came home that night in
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: a quiet mood. At one point, Nicki said, he called
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: her into the bedroom where he was loading his gun, and.
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: He wants her to try to load it, and he
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: gives her a bullet and apparently she's shaking it.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: According to Nicki, she later took a shower and at
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: some point Chris threw the laptop in the tub. She
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: said he forced her to have sex with him on
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: the couch, but was unusually gentle.
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: And if you are a domestic violence victim and someone
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: who is usually very violent with you was suddenly gentle,
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: you're gonna get that message. You're going to understand immediately
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: that that is a goodbye.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Nicki said she lay for a while on top of
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Chris and believed he was asleep. When she tried to
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: get up, he pulled the gun from behind the couch cushions.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Nicki said she got got the gun away and pointed
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: it at him.
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: She said he laughed at her, and then he said,
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: here's what's gonna happen. You're going to give me the
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: gun and I'm going to kill you, and then I'm
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: gonna kill myself and the kids are going to have
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: no one, And she said she just lunged and shot
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: shot him in the head.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Nikki's supporters say her choice that night was simple, either
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: kill or be killed. In March of twenty nineteen, Nikki Atimando,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: out on bail at the time, went on trial for
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: the murder of her partner, Chris Grover. Friends and advocates
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: wearing purple, the color for victims of domestic violence, lined
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: up in support. They stood side by side with loyal
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Chris supporters, heartbroken to learn Nicky's defense would hinge on
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: allegations that he abused her. What do you want people
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: to know?
• 18:21
  Speaker 9: Chris didn't do this. My son never heard anybody, and
• 18:27
  Speaker 9: that's the bottom line.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Video cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom here at
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: the Duchess County Courthouse and Poughkeepsie. Prosecutors argued that Nicki
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: painted herself as a victim, but that her allegations of
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: abuse were untrue.
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: She was not the victim in this case. Chris was
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: the victim in this case, and that became very, very apparent.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Prosecutor Hannah Kraus has spent much of her career advocating
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: for victims of sexual violence. Kraus told jurors the physical
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: evidence was overwhelming, starting with the fact that Chris was
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: killed with a direct contact wound to the head.
• 19:11
  Speaker 8: The medical examiner testified that the muzzle of the gun
• 19:16
  Speaker 8: that was imprinted in Chris's head meant it was embedded
• 19:20
  Speaker 8: in his head when she pulled the trigger.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Kraus said, Nicki not Chris through the laptop in the
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: tub and an attempt to make it look like Chris
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: had evidence to hide.
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: She didn't expect the laptop to be recovered in a
• 19:34
  Speaker 8: way that we could still examine it, and determined that
• 19:37
  Speaker 8: there was absolutely no evidence of abuse on that laptop.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: And Kraus presented a series of texts Nicki sent Chris
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: just days before he died, calling him an manchild and
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: asking wtf is wrong with you? Are you this stupid?
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: She was the one who was abusing him in these
• 19:56
  Speaker 8: messages when they communicated throughout the day.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Then there were Internet searches on Chris's phone the night
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: he died. Kraus believes Nicki made them.
• 20:06
  Speaker 8: If you shoot someone in their sleep, will the police know?
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: Fifteen minutes of searches that are a roadmap to exactly
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: how he was murdered.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Even more damning was a text Nikki sent a friend
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: six weeks earlier.
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: I haven't figured out a way to kill him without
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: being caught, so I'm still here.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Nicki punctuated the text with a grimace emoji, which her
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: lawyers say clearly shows she was joking.
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: Yet several weeks later he was dead, so that's quite
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: a coincidence.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Kraus acknowledges Nikki had a traumatic experience when she was
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: just five years old. Nicki was raped on a sleepover
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: at a friend's house. The rape was witnessed by another child.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Nicki didn't tell anyone at the time, but her friends
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: say it had a lasting impact.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: So if we wanted to have sleepovers that Niki would
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: always go and sleep at her home. She never ever
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: slept at one of our houses.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Nikki said the assault made her uncomfortable with sex as
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: an adult, which she confided to Chris. When they began dating.
• 21:15
  Speaker 8: For about a year. They didn't become intimate because he
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: cared so much about her and that was who he was.
• 21:21
  Speaker 10: He never changed.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Chris didn't change, says Kraus, but Nikki grew into someone
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: who invented stories of abuse. She never reported these allegations
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: to police, but the stories spilled out over the years
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: to friends and therapists. Kraus told the jurors these accusations
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: began before Nikki met Chris, when she accused an ex
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: boyfriend of assaulting her.
• 21:47
  Speaker 8: What are they going to think if she alleges every
• 21:49
  Speaker 8: relationship she ever had was non consensual? Would they believe
• 21:51
  Speaker 8: what she said about Chris?
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: A few years after she began dating Chris. Nearly a
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: decade ago, Nikki told Air that a maintenance worker at
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: her mother's apartment complex raped her. Nikki later said her
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: memories of the time were unclear and she wasn't sure
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: which abuse was by the maintenance worker or Chris.
• 22:13
  Speaker 8: How do you not remember which abuse was by the
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: maintenance worker and which abuse was by your partner.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Around the same time, Nicki met a married police officer
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: who invited her to become a living babysitter with his family.
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: He was the parent of a child who was coached
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: by the defendant at one point Chris Grover as well.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Kraus says they began a relationship that lasted several years,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: including after Nikki lived with Chris and was pregnant with Ben.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Nikki said the married police officer also forced himself on
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: her sexually.
• 22:50
  Speaker 9: There were so many other men, so which one was
• 22:54
  Speaker 9: she talking about.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Nicki's supporters insists these aren't false allegation, they are true.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: An author Rachel Luis Snyder says child victims of assault
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: often grow up to become victims again.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: The fact that Nikki was assaulted when she was five
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: years old means that as an adult, she's put into
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: a much higher risk category. In fact, it would make
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: her two thirds more likely to be victimized as an adult.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: But prosecutor Kraus told the jurors that in Nikki's case,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: there is proof her allegations were false and that her
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: injuries often had an innocent explanation.
• 23:37
  Speaker 9: The bruise on the eye was from Ben hitting her
• 23:39
  Speaker 9: in the eye with a guitar. It's not rocket science.
• 23:42
  Speaker 9: It was witnessed seeing Ben hit her with it.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: The medical records weren't clear cut either, according to Kraus,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: including that first visit Nikki paid to this hospital when
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: she was pregnant with Faye and was asked a series
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: of questions to which she answered, no.
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: Is abuse inflicted with tools?
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: No?
• 24:05
  Speaker 8: Do you have burns? Or does he burn you?
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: No?
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Kraus says it wasn't until Niki returned a few days
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: later that a nurse noted those burns. So what do
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: you think that means?
• 24:17
  Speaker 8: I think she decided to go back a second time
• 24:19
  Speaker 8: and be able to answer yes to every single one
• 24:21
  Speaker 8: of those questions. What she was saying was happening was
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: completely inconsistent with the evidence we were finding as our
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: investigation went.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: On, and so Niki faced a huge risk that day
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: when CPS came calling, says Kraus, her inventions of abuse
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: would be exposed. To Kraus, that was Nikki's motive for murder.
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: She was concerned that Child Protected Services would know this
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: manipulated history that she put out there was not truthful,
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: and that she might lose her.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Children when seen in this light, Kraus argued, Nicki's story
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: of what what happened the night Chris died quickly unravels.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: The pretty young mother eliciting sympathy was never what she seemed.
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: I think people need to understand what really happened here
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: and what really happened here. Chris Grover was asleep when
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: she killed him. That's what happened here.
• 25:24
  Speaker 12: See more photos from the case on Facebook. At forty
• 25:27
  Speaker 12: eight hours.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: It was time for attorneys John and Gracia and ben
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Ostro to present the defense case in Nikki Attamando's murder trial.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: They say she lived in constant danger and believed she
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: would die the night Chris growed, you have.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: A woman with no prior history of violence, no prior
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: criminal history at all.
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: We know that too often women who have sought help
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: end up in a body bag. That was what she
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: was confronted with on that evening.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: The lawyers would need to convince a jury that Nicki
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: acted in self defense and shot Chris to save her
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: own life. So they called witnesses to corroborate Nicki's claim
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: that she was brutally abused by Chris for years.
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: There were psychologists, nurse midwives who were fearful of the
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: abuse that Nicki was undergoing. There was a police officer
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: testified at our trial he was ready to send police
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: officers to affect and arrest.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: They produced photos documenting Nikki's injuries and argued that Nicki's
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: wounds could not have been self inflicted.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Burns to the faith the point of leaving a blister,
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: burns to the breast.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: She had bite marks on her shoulder blades. You can't
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: reach your own shoulder blades.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: What about the bite marks on her neck, on her back,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: places that she couldn't reach.
• 27:15
  Speaker 8: How do you know if any of those injuries actually
• 27:18
  Speaker 8: came from Chris and not one of the other individuals
• 27:21
  Speaker 8: that she was claiming she was involved in a relationship with.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: But Nikki's lawyers say the other men brought up by
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: the prosecution were an attempt to create confusion, and that
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Nikki hadn't had sexual relations with anyone but Chris for
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: years before.
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: His death, So that kind of fog that they created
• 27:42
  Speaker 6: was shaming Nicki in a way.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: And it's not relevant to the case of whether mister
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Grover was victimizing her with intimate partner violence.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: They insisted the aggressive texts Nikki sent Chris were way
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: to stick up for herself and said she paid for
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: them afterwards when Chris hid her.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: It's not on common for people to use words to
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: fight back.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: The lawyers reminded the jurors that the internet searches about
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: how to kill someone who was sleeping. They were made
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: on Chris's phone with no evidence that Nikki made them,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: and the medical examiner testified there was no proof Chris
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: was sleeping.
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: Doctor Newman said it could have happened exactly the way
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: Nikki said it happened.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: They called Nikki herself to the stand so the jurors
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: could hear from her directly, what did you tell her?
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Day one, day two?
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: To tell the truth, Just to tell the truth. The
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: truth never changes, and Nicki's story did not change.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Visibly shaken and sometimes in tears, Nikki told the court
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: that Chris lashed out when he felt disrespected, beat her,
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: raped her, choked her, and left her tied up for hours.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: For Laura Moka Danu, watching her friend testify was heartbreaking.
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: It was three full days of her up there, being
• 29:15
  Speaker 7: interrogated and having to relive the trauma that she experienced.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Nikki told the jurors that after Fay was born, Chris
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: began watching pornography constantly and would try to recreate the
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: porn with Nikki. Nikki's attorneys presented photos, most too graphic
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: to show, which Nikki claimed Chris posted without her consent
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: on Pornhub, a pornographic video sharing website.
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: The videos had keywords like bound and pound, or break
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: a bitch or it just really ugly disrespectful language.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: The jurors saw the photographs, but they didn't see the
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: ugly words or the information on the post about the
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: user who uploaded the images. Someone called Grover respect who
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: like Chris Grover described himself as a twenty nine year
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: old cinematographer who loved martial arts. The judge ruled there
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: was no way to prove Chris created it.
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: Grover respect who posted the pornhub videos which were clearly
• 30:28
  Speaker 6: our client.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: There was other evidence jurors did not see, including the
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: full medical report from twenty fourteen and these midwife exams
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: documenting injuries the summer before Chris died.
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: In some ways, her case was cut off at the
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: knees from the start.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: It's not uncommon for some evidence to be excluded at
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: a murder trial, and prosecutor Hanna Krauss believes this was
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: excluded for good reason. She argued that Nicky may have
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: made the porn herself. There is no way to identify
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: a man in the photos, and it wasn't rape. Does
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: that look like someone is taking part in a consensual act.
• 31:10
  Speaker 8: I believe that was consensual with Nikki absolutely.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Nicki's testimony may not have changed many minds.
• 31:19
  Speaker 9: She would say one thing, and then in the next
• 31:20
  Speaker 9: breath she was saying something else. Right on the stand.
• 31:24
  Speaker 9: You could see that it wasn't the truth.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Music teacher Elizabeth Clifton did testify for Nicky's defense, but
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: wasn't asked about everything she'd seen, including one day in
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen when Nicki said she was having a miscarriage.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: The amount of blood just like puddles of blood on
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: the floor, and her clothing stained.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth believes Chris's abuse caused the miscarriage and says Nicky
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: was afraid to go see a doctor because Chris would
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: get angry.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I witnessed her suffer through a horrible, painful where she
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: was almost unable to speak because she was in so
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: much pain, miscarriage because she was afraid to go to
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the hospital.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Laura did not testify at the trial, but this photo
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: of Niki and a bridesmaid's dress at Laura's wedding was
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: a defense exhibit to document a burn on Nicki's chest.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Laura says it's an example of how the prosecution and
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: not Nicki, manipulated the story.
• 32:34
  Speaker 8: And she has what I believe was a burnmark from
• 32:37
  Speaker 8: a curling iron because her hair was clearly just curled.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Nicki's hair was just curled, says Laura, because the bridal
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: party had just gone to the hair salon together. She
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: says the mark was big and oval shaped and was
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: old and already healing when they got to the salon.
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: It was a burnmark from a heated metal spoon. There
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: was no question.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: After fourteen days of testimony, the case finally went to
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: the jurors, who would have to decide was Nikki Atamando
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: a terrified victim or a manipulative liar. After three days
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: of deliberations, finally a verdict. A jury of eight women
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: and four men rejected Nikki Atamando's claim of self defense
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: and convicted her of criminal possession of a weapon and
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: second degree murder.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: So I getting punched in the stomach really hard. This
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: for her was the worst possible verdict.
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: Who is traumatics?
• 34:01
  Speaker 10: She's so tiny and she's sitting there and people thinking
• 34:06
  Speaker 10: she's a criminal, and I just wanted to hug her.
• 34:16
  Speaker 10: I gotn't.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Chris Grover's family and friends found some comfort at.
• 34:23
  Speaker 9: Last, Thank god somebody was listening and for once a
• 34:28
  Speaker 9: little bit of relief, because they had drug Christopher's name
• 34:32
  Speaker 9: through the mud so bad and turned him into this
• 34:34
  Speaker 9: monster that he was not.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Did you feel vindicated? No, this never about me.
• 34:40
  Speaker 8: I felt happy for Chris's family. They got to the
• 34:42
  Speaker 8: point where they heard the jury say guilty, but.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: The case wasn't over yet. Under an updated New York
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: state law, the Domestic Violence Survivor's Justice Act, Nicky was
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: entitled to another day in court, a hearing were her
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: claims of domestic violence might be factored in to reduce
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: her sentence.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: I wrote a letter to the judge explicitly saying like
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: these are the situations in which it was specifically clear
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: to me that it was Christopher Grover who was hurting her.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Judge Edward McLaughlin, who also presided over Nikki's murder trial,
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: heard from other witnesses and from the prosecutors who argued
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: that Nicki wasn't a real victim, had access to services,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: and she could have left Chris at any time, including
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: the day he died.
• 35:34
  Speaker 8: She had a car, she had the means to leave
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: if she was concerned. If any of this were truthful,
• 35:39
  Speaker 8: she had the whole day to leave.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: But author Rachel Louis Snyder does believe Nikki and says
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: expecting a victim of domestic violence to leave is misguided.
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, you're most likely to die leaving. The research points
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: to that over and over and.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Over, Snyder says, Nikki did avail herself of services, but
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: especially with two very young children at home, she couldn't
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: figure out how to get out alive. In fact, on
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: the night Chris died, Nicki told the police officers that
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: she asked Chris to let her go at least seventeen times.
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: She said, let me leave, and I won't tell anyone.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: I said, I won't with anything, and Nikki repeated that.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: He said, you're not leaving.
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: I tried to leave.
• 36:28
  Speaker 10: He wouldn't want me to believe me.
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: I represented a young woman who left. Eleven months later
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: she was killed. Leaving doesn't protect you, and leaving isn't
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: the answer.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: What about the research that shows women who try to
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: leave they're more likely to be harmed.
• 36:53
  Speaker 8: I don't dispute that at all. I just don't believe
• 36:55
  Speaker 8: she was a victim here. I believe that she created
• 36:59
  Speaker 8: all of the.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: In a forty seven page ruling released in February of
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty, the judge essentially sided with the prosecution, saying
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Nikki was only steps from her front door the night
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Chris died and could have left. He also said her
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: inconsistent statements about past abuse made it impossible to know
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: the identity of her abuser. He denied Nikki's request for
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: a lighter sentence.
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: The reasons basically boiled down to she could have just left,
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: and who knows who was abusing her.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: Nikki's supporters insist they know exactly who was abusing.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Her, Chris, Chris Grover. Like his name is in those documents,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: and those documents were submitted to the judge, and his
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: name is there, over and over and over again.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: But to this day, Chris's friends and former students defend
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: the man they knew.
• 38:04
  Speaker 11: Everybody loved Chris. He would go above and beyond for everyone.
• 38:07
  Speaker 11: You never saw him get upset, You never saw him
• 38:10
  Speaker 11: get mad at the gym.
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: He always made us feel safe, And I don't believe
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: that he was ever capable of Like any type of harm,
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: someone can be a wonderful person in a lot of
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: situations and still be an abuser, in the same way
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: that someone can be a wonderful person and still be
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: a victim.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: On February eleventh, Nikki's supporters gathered once again outside the
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Poughkeepsie Courthouse, this time for her sentencing, hearing.
• 38:45
  Speaker 8: The system didn't get it who the system got it right.
• 38:48
  Speaker 8: We need to make sure that other real victims that
• 38:50
  Speaker 8: are out there, true victims and domestic violets, understand that
• 38:54
  Speaker 8: we are there to help you get out safely.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: To Prosecutor Hana Krauss, they are so dangerous message.
• 39:02
  Speaker 8: I think she manipulated them. I think she was manipulating
• 39:05
  Speaker 8: everybody around her.
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: But look, she may very well be manipulative. I have
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: no idea, right, but was she the victim of sustained
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: an extremely severe abuse? Yes, absolutely, no doubt in my mind.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Nikki was sentenced to nineteen years to life in prison.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: The Grover family is now focused on the kids. Ben
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: and Fay live with Nikki's relatives and spend weekends with
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: the Grovers.
• 39:34
  Speaker 9: That's what means the world right now, those kids.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: Nikki drew these pictures of herself with her children while
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: in jail. To many, the outcome of her trial was
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: exactly what she feared all along, that no one would
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: believe her.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: If you don't believe that a woman was victimized based
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: the proof that we had here, then what happens when
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: you don't have visible bruises.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: I'd like to imagine there's a day, some day when
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: she'll be free, But right now, but right now that
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: feels very distant.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Nikki's supporters continue to raise money to help defray her
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: legal expenses.
• 40:26
  Speaker 8: I will send down on.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: You.
• 40:48
  Speaker 12: An appeals court found that Nicole Atamando should have qualified
• 40:52
  Speaker 12: for a reduced sentence under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice
• 40:56
  Speaker 12: Act and reduced her sentenced to seven point five years.
• 41:00
  Speaker 12: If you were a loved one or a victim of
• 41:02
  Speaker 12: domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline one eight
• 41:06
  Speaker 12: hundred seven nine nine seven two three three. This is
• 41:11
  Speaker 12: by far the worst thing I have seen.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Victim was a Jacqueline Vandagraff.
• 41:16
  Speaker 12: A chance encounter of vicious murder? Was it because she
• 41:19
  Speaker 12: resembled the killer's ex?
• 41:21
  Speaker 10: How he was stalking me was completely related to Jackie
• 41:24
  Speaker 10: Vandergriff's deaff
• 41:25
  Speaker 12: Forty eight hours Saturday at ten nine Central on CBS