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Smiling Sister 'Cookie' OUT OF JAIL After Mother's Brutal Murder · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Imagine, if you will, the kind of evening we've all
0:03
Speaker 1: had like a hundred times.
0:05
Speaker 2: Oh, definitely.
0:05
Speaker 1: You know, you're sitting on your couch. Maybe the TV
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Speaker 1: is on in the background just providing some ambient noise.
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Speaker 2: Right, just zoning out.
0:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And you're just endlessly doom scrolling through TikTok.
0:16
Speaker 1: You know exactly the rhythm of it.
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Speaker 2: You swipe past like a high energy dance trend.
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Speaker 1: Right, or you scroll past someone dramatically narrating a cooking disaster,
0:24
Speaker 1: maybe a movie trailer. And then suddenly your thumb just stops.
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Speaker 2: You land on something that actually cuts through all that
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Speaker 2: digital noise.
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Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. It's this video from a young mother and
0:37
Speaker 1: she's holding her four-year-old son and the intimacy of the
0:41
Speaker 1: moment just, I mean, it radiates through the screen.
0:43
Speaker 2: It's palpable.
0:44
Speaker 1: It really is. The caption she wrote for this short
0:47
Speaker 1: video is practically poetry. She's writing with this raw, vulnerable
0:52
Speaker 1: sincerity about how this little boy fundamentally saved her life. Wow. Yeah.
0:58
Speaker 1: She talks about how he gave her a, renewed sense
1:00
Speaker 1: of purpose. And she's professing this profound, just entirely unconditional
1:05
Speaker 1: love for him.
1:06
Speaker 2: That's the kind of deeply human post that makes you pause,
1:09
Speaker 2: you know? Right.
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Speaker 1: You actually take a breath, maybe even smile. It feels
1:14
Speaker 1: completely genuine. It feels pure.
1:16
Speaker 2: It makes you feel this fleeting sense of connection with
1:19
Speaker 2: a total stranger.
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Speaker 1: Totally. But then I want you to imagine the absolute
1:24
Speaker 1: psychological whiplash of opening a news app Just like a
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Speaker 1: few weeks later and seeing that exact same face.
1:30
Speaker 2: Oh man, that's always so jarring.
1:32
Speaker 1: It's insane. The woman who wrote those beautiful, life-affirming words
1:37
Speaker 1: is now sitting under the harsh fluorescent lights of a
1:39
Speaker 1: county jail cell.
1:41
Speaker 2: And she's not there for a minor infraction either.
1:43
Speaker 1: No, not at all. She is accused of actively participating
1:47
Speaker 1: in a gruesome, broad daylight murder that left another young
1:51
Speaker 1: mother bleeding out on the pavement of a residential street.
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Speaker 2: I mean, it's the kind of reality check that completely
1:56
Speaker 2: stops you in your tracks.
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Speaker 1: It really forces you to question everything you think you
2:00
Speaker 1: know about the people you see online, right?
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Speaker 2: It absolutely forces a complete recalibration of your perception. You
2:07
Speaker 2: find yourself just staring at this digital footprint, looking for
2:10
Speaker 2: cracks in the facade.
2:12
Speaker 1: Right, wondering how the person in that heartwarming video could
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Speaker 1: possibly be the same person described in these grisly police reports.
2:18
Speaker 2: Exactly. You're watching a real-time catastrophic collision between the court
2:23
Speaker 2: of public opinion... where identities are so carefully curated, and
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Speaker 2: the cold, unyielding court of law.
2:29
Speaker 1: Where actions actually have permanent consequences.
2:32
Speaker 2: Yes, and that specific collision is exactly what we're going
2:36
Speaker 2: to navigate today in this deep dive.
2:37
Speaker 1: We really are. We're looking at a case that has
2:39
Speaker 1: absolutely paralyzed the community of Del Rio, Texas, and honestly
2:43
Speaker 1: reverberated far beyond it.
2:45
Speaker 2: So today we're pulling from a really fascinating stack of
2:47
Speaker 2: sources to make sense of all this chaos.
2:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have detailed excerpts from the Law and Crime
2:52
Speaker 1: Network show On the Case, which is hosted by Chris Stewart.
2:56
Speaker 2: And that coverage features some incredibly sharp legal analysis from
2:59
Speaker 2: criminal defense attorney Matt Menino.
3:01
Speaker 1: Which is going to be so crucial later. But we
3:04
Speaker 1: aren't just looking at the legal briefs and the expert commentary, right?
3:07
Speaker 2: No, not at all. We are diving into the raw,
3:10
Speaker 2: unfiltered digital exhaust left behind by the suspects themselves.
3:14
Speaker 1: We're analyzing their social media footprints. And perhaps most crucially,
3:18
Speaker 1: we're examining raw, on-the-scene footage captured by a local Del
3:22
Speaker 1: Rio blogger.
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Speaker 2: Who just happened to be there documenting the immediate, chaotic
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Speaker 2: aftermath of the incident, right as the police moved in.
3:29
Speaker 1: Which is wild. The goal here is to push way
3:33
Speaker 1: past the initial shock value of the true crime headlines. Right.
3:36
Speaker 2: We're going to explore the jarring disconnect between those digital
3:39
Speaker 2: personas people meticulously craft online and the grim, sometimes wildly
3:44
Speaker 2: violent reality of their physical lives.
3:46
Speaker 1: But beyond the psychology of it, this deep dive is
3:49
Speaker 1: a masterclass in the bizarre, often baffling mechanics of the
3:53
Speaker 1: American bail system.
3:54
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. We're going to look closely at how financial
3:57
Speaker 2: leverage essentially dictates freedom.
4:00
Speaker 1: And finally, we're going to break down the immense, almost
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Speaker 1: insurmountable legal hurdles of claiming self-defense when a situation descends
4:07
Speaker 1: into total lethal chaos.
4:09
Speaker 2: Because in our current era, the landscape of justice has
4:12
Speaker 2: just fundamentally shifted.
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Speaker 1: It really has. We live in a world where there
4:16
Speaker 1: are doorbell cameras on virtually every porch.
4:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, and where citizen journalists are live streaming practically every
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Speaker 2: police encounter.
4:22
Speaker 1: Not to mention social media documenting our every passing thought.
4:27
Speaker 1: The way you and I consume, analyze, and ultimately judge
4:30
Speaker 1: crime is completely different than it was even like a
4:33
Speaker 1: decade ago.
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Speaker 2: Completely. As you listen to this analysis today, you're going
4:37
Speaker 2: to see exactly how a criminal case is constructed and
4:40
Speaker 2: how it can be utterly compromised in the public eye.
4:44
Speaker 1: Right. Long, long before a jury is ever seated or
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Speaker 1: a trial officially begins.
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Speaker 2: Because the permanence of this digital evidence changes the entire
4:52
Speaker 2: legal calculus.
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Speaker 1: In previous decades, a defense attorney really only had to
4:56
Speaker 1: worry about what a jury might hear in the courtroom.
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Speaker 2: Exactly. Today, they have to worry about what the jury
5:01
Speaker 2: has already watched, shared, and commented on a hundred times
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Speaker 2: before they even receive their jury summons.
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Speaker 1: The narrative is often cemented before the gavel even falls.
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Speaker 1: So to really understand how all these modern elements crash
5:13
Speaker 1: into each other.
5:14
Speaker 2: And to understand how a 19-year-old murder suspect could actually
5:17
Speaker 2: be out walking the streets right now.
5:19
Speaker 1: Which is where this incredibly complex story ultimately leads. We
5:23
Speaker 1: have to go back to the inciting incident.
5:25
Speaker 2: Right. We need to go back to a sunny, seemingly
5:27
Speaker 2: normal day in June and meticulously break down the chaotic
5:30
Speaker 2: timeline of the alleged crime itself.
5:33
Speaker 1: Let's start with the broad daylight altercation that set all
5:36
Speaker 1: of this into motion.
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Speaker 2: So the timeline anchors us on June 25th in Del Rio, Texas.
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Speaker 1: Right. And for context, Del Rio is a relatively small,
5:44
Speaker 1: tight-knit border town in South Texas.
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Speaker 2: It's the kind of community where people generally know each other,
5:49
Speaker 2: or at least know of each other.
5:51
Speaker 1: Which plays a huge role in how conflicts escalate. The
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Speaker 1: victim at the center of this tragedy is a 32-year-old
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Speaker 1: woman named Caro Pena.
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Speaker 2: And she was a mother to five children.
6:01
Speaker 1: God, it's a devastating detail to confront right at the beginning.
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Speaker 1: 32 years old, leaving behind five kids.
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Speaker 2: It's horrific. And the setting for this loss of life
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Speaker 2: isn't some dark, secluded alleyway at 3 in the morning.
6:13
Speaker 1: No, it happens right outside a residential home in broad daylight,
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Speaker 1: completely exposed to the neighborhood.
6:19
Speaker 2: According to the official police narratives in the sequence of
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Speaker 2: events provided by the sources, the incident ignites when Pena
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Speaker 2: arrives at this specific residential location.
6:28
Speaker 1: Okay, set the scene for us.
6:30
Speaker 2: So there's a 19-year-old woman named Condra Faz, who was
6:33
Speaker 2: present at the house and allegedly involved in the subsequent altercation. Right.
6:37
Speaker 2: Fass gave a statement to the police claiming that Pena
6:39
Speaker 2: arrived at the property in a black pickup truck and was,
6:42
Speaker 2: in her words, looking to start a fight.
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Speaker 1: OK, if I'm looking at this from a legal perspective,
6:48
Speaker 1: that phrase looking to start a fight immediately sets a
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Speaker 1: very specific, aggressive tone.
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Speaker 2: It absolutely does. It suggests premeditated conflict on the part
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Speaker 2: of the victim.
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Speaker 1: But even if we assume that's entirely true for a moment,
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Speaker 1: the way things escalate from her arrival in that black
7:01
Speaker 1: truck is incredibly fast and wildly disproportionate.
7:05
Speaker 2: Because very shortly after Pena pulls up, a second vehicle
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Speaker 2: arrives on the scene.
7:09
Speaker 1: Right. It's a black Chrysler, and inside are two sisters.
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Speaker 1: 19-year-old Amaya Diaz, who goes by the nickname Cookie, and
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Speaker 1: her older sister, Mia Diaz, who goes by Kitty.
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Speaker 2: And thanks to the doorbell camera footage that police eventually obtained,
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Speaker 2: we have a very clear visual record of this arrival.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we know that Cookie stepped out of the vehicle
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Speaker 1: wearing a red tank top and blue jeans, while Kitty
7:31
Speaker 1: was wearing a pink tank top and blue jeans.
7:34
Speaker 2: The arrival of that black Chrysler containing the Diaz sisters
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Speaker 2: is the undeniable flashpoint of this entire case.
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Speaker 1: It really is. The police reports relying heavily on that
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Speaker 1: doorbell camera footage indicate that almost immediately upon arriving, Cookie
7:47
Speaker 1: and Kitty exit their vehicle. Right.
7:49
Speaker 2: And they aggressively approach Pena, who is already engaged in
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Speaker 2: some level of confrontation or dispute outside the home.
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Speaker 1: But there is a crucial case-defining detail captured on that video,
8:00
Speaker 1: isn't there? Yes.
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Speaker 2: As 19-year-old Amaya, Cookie is observed approaching Pena. She is
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Speaker 2: holding an object in her right hand.
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Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: And based on the visual evidence and the subsequent injuries,
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Speaker 2: law enforcement firmly believes that object is a knife.
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Speaker 1: So if we pause the tape right there before a
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Speaker 1: single punch is thrown, the entire nature of the encounter
8:23
Speaker 1: has already been fundamentally altered.
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Speaker 2: Completely altered. Completely altered.
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Speaker 1: The weapon isn't something that gets grabbed in the heat
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Speaker 1: of a desperate struggle. It is introduced to the scene
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Speaker 1: immediately upon their arrival.
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Speaker 2: That is the pivotal moment. From the second that knife
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Speaker 2: enters the frame, an incredibly intense, chaotic physical altercation erupts.
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Speaker 1: And it involves all three of these younger women, Cookie, Kitty,
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Speaker 1: and Candrafaz, engaging physically against the 32-year-old Pena, right?
8:51
Speaker 2: Exactly. It rapidly devolves into a three-on-one situation. And during
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Speaker 2: this chaotic struggle, the doorbell footage allegedly captures Cookie striking
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Speaker 2: Peña in the back.
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Speaker 1: Just awful.
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Speaker 2: It's a swift motion. And almost immediately after that specific
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Speaker 2: strike is delivered, a dark, unmistakable stain of blood becomes visible,
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Speaker 2: rapidly spreading across the back of Peña' s shirt.
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Speaker 1: The visual documentation of this is just staggering to think about.
9:18
Speaker 1: We aren't just relying on shaky eyewitness testimony trying to
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Speaker 1: remember who did what.
9:23
Speaker 2: No, there's an unblinking doorbell camera. recording the choreography of
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Speaker 2: the violence.
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Speaker 1: And beyond that private footage, an incredibly graphic, horrifying image
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Speaker 1: somehow made its way out of the neighborhood and started
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Speaker 1: circulating wildly online.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, our sources describe it as an image showing Peña
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Speaker 2: with this bloodied back, completely surrounded, almost boxed in by
9:46
Speaker 2: these three women.
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Speaker 1: It is a chilling, visceral piece of digital evidence, and
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Speaker 1: it really speaks to the ferocity of the encounter.
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Speaker 2: It does. A friend of Peña' s actually gave an interview
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Speaker 2: to Fox News, and she described her friend's demeanor during
9:58
Speaker 2: this horrifying moment.
10:00
Speaker 1: What did she say?
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Speaker 2: She said she was a fighter. She was still standing
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Speaker 2: her ground.
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Speaker 1: Wow. When you take all of these raw facts and
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Speaker 1: funnel them into the legal system, you really start to
10:11
Speaker 1: see how drastically the landscape shifts based on these specific
10:14
Speaker 1: granular details.
10:16
Speaker 2: Let's critically examine the narrative that Kendra Fahs provided to
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Speaker 2: the police. The claim that Peña arrived in her truck explicitly, quote,
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Speaker 2: looking for a fight.
10:25
Speaker 1: Right, because while the underlying motive for this confrontation remains
10:28
Speaker 1: unclear to the public, police have indicated they believe these
10:32
Speaker 1: parties knew each other.
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Speaker 2: Yes, this was not a random act of violence. There
10:36
Speaker 2: was existing bad blood.
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Speaker 1: But legally speaking, that bad blood and even the initiation
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Speaker 1: of the conflict loses its protective shield under certain conditions,
10:44
Speaker 1: doesn't it?
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. Even if we accept the premise that Peña drove
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Speaker 2: over there looking for trouble... The entire dynamic of self-defense
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Speaker 2: or mutual combat is obliterated the exact moment a deadly
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Speaker 2: weapon is introduced by a secondary party arriving fresh on
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Speaker 2: the scene.
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Speaker 1: So if I'm visualizing a courtroom argument here, it seems
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Speaker 1: like the prosecution would argue that bringing a knife to
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Speaker 1: what is essentially a verbal argument or a fistfight completely
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Speaker 1: changes the legal definition of the encounter.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 1: You elevate it from a misdemeanor assault or disturbing the
11:14
Speaker 1: peace directly into the realm of lethal force.
11:16
Speaker 2: That's exactly it. The introduction of a lethal weapon into
11:19
Speaker 2: a non-lethal scenario is the ultimate escalatory act in the
11:23
Speaker 2: eyes of the law.
11:24
Speaker 1: Makes total sense.
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Speaker 2: Furthermore, there is a very bizarre geographical oddity embedded in
11:29
Speaker 2: the police reports that any competent defense attorney is going
11:33
Speaker 2: to zero in on and probe aggressively.
11:35
Speaker 1: Oh, really? What kind of oddity?
11:37
Speaker 2: Well, Canada Fawes told the police that Peña showed up
11:40
Speaker 2: at her house looking to start this fight.
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Speaker 1: Okay, which implies a violation of her personal space, her property.
11:47
Speaker 2: Exactly. However, when you look closely at the court records
11:51
Speaker 2: and property details, Faz actually appears to live next door
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Speaker 2: to the very specific address that the police officially listed
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Speaker 2: as the location where the altercation and the stabbing took place.
12:02
Speaker 1: Wait, let me make sure I am tracking this correctly.
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Speaker 1: The official police report documents the fight occurring on the
12:08
Speaker 1: property of address A, but the resident who is claiming
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Speaker 1: that the victim aggressively came to her home actually resides
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Speaker 1: next door at address B.
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Speaker 2: Yes. That is exactly what the records suggest.
12:20
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
12:21
Speaker 2: To someone just reading the headlines, that might seem like
12:24
Speaker 2: a minor clerical error or a trivial detail about property lines.
12:28
Speaker 2: But in a courtroom.
12:29
Speaker 1: I imagine that's huge.
12:31
Speaker 2: It's massive. Establishing the exact geography of the crime scene
12:35
Speaker 2: is absolutely foundational to a defense strategy. It dictates who
12:39
Speaker 2: had a legal right to be where.
12:41
Speaker 1: So if Faz is building a narrative that someone came
12:44
Speaker 1: to her property to attack her, triggering a defensive response.
12:47
Speaker 2: Right, but the physical evidence and blood trails show the
12:49
Speaker 2: fight actually happened on a neighbor's property. It severely complicates
12:54
Speaker 2: any potential claims of self-defense or defensive habitation.
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Speaker 1: It begs the question, were you defending your home or
13:00
Speaker 1: did you step off your property to engage in a
13:03
Speaker 1: street fight next door?
13:04
Speaker 2: Precisely.
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Speaker 1: It is like watching a powder keg looking for a
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Speaker 1: match and someone just tosses a lit flare into it.
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Speaker 1: The whole situation from top to bottom just feels incredibly brazen.
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Speaker 2: Brazen is the perfect word for it.
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Speaker 1: If you're Kandrafaz and you have this intuition or knowledge
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Speaker 1: that someone is coming over with bad intentions, looking for
13:23
Speaker 1: a fight, the logical step is to lock your doors
13:25
Speaker 1: and call the police.
13:26
Speaker 2: Right. You don't call your friends to come over.
13:28
Speaker 1: Exactly. But instead, your friends drive across town, pull up,
13:32
Speaker 1: and immediately introduce a deadly weapon in broad daylight, right
13:36
Speaker 1: in front of a glaring doorbell camera.
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Speaker 2: It's astounding.
13:39
Speaker 1: I keep getting stuck on the sheer visibility of this crime.
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Speaker 1: Does a scenario like this... broad daylight, cameras rolling, multiple
13:46
Speaker 1: attackers imply a level of cold, calculated premeditation.
13:51
Speaker 2: Like they plan to end this dispute with a knife.
13:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. Or does it point towards something else entirely, like
13:56
Speaker 1: a highly volatile, emotionally charged situation that just spiraled entirely
14:01
Speaker 1: out of control in a matter of seconds before anyone
14:03
Speaker 1: could think about the consequences?
14:04
Speaker 2: That tension between premeditation and reckless escalation is the exact
14:09
Speaker 2: battleground where the prosecution and defense will clash.
14:12
Speaker 1: Okay, break that down for me.
14:14
Speaker 2: From an investigative standpoint, the brazenness you mentioned, the middle
14:17
Speaker 2: of the day, the residential street, the complete lack of
14:20
Speaker 2: any attempt to conceal their arrival or their identities from
14:22
Speaker 2: the cameras, strongly suggests a lack of sophisticated criminal planning.
14:26
Speaker 1: That makes sense.
14:27
Speaker 2: Individuals who meticulously plan to commit a murder usually do
14:30
Speaker 2: not execute that plan at high noon in a highly
14:32
Speaker 2: visible area.
14:33
Speaker 1: Right. They do it at night, hide their faces, avoid cameras.
14:36
Speaker 2: Exactly. This kind of chaotic scene points much more toward
14:40
Speaker 2: a highly volatile emotional reaction. A localized conflict that exploded
14:44
Speaker 2: out of control the moment the adrenaline spiked and the
14:46
Speaker 2: knife was brought out of the car.
14:48
Speaker 1: But the legal hurdle for the defense is still going
14:49
Speaker 1: to be massive, right?
14:51
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. The fact that the footage allegedly shows Cookie
14:54
Speaker 2: arriving with the knife already in her hand before she
14:57
Speaker 2: even engages in the physical altercation is devastating.
15:00
Speaker 1: Because it implies intent before the fight even started.
15:03
Speaker 2: Yes. It suggests that even if she didn't plan a
15:05
Speaker 2: murder that morning, she formulated the intent to use deadly
15:09
Speaker 2: force the moment she stepped out of that vehicle.
15:11
Speaker 1: It is... Truly baffling to try and map rational thought
15:14
Speaker 1: onto such an irrational act. And the brazenness of the
15:17
Speaker 1: attack itself is really only matched by the sheer, almost
15:21
Speaker 1: comical clumsiness of what these suspects chose to do immediately afterward.
15:25
Speaker 2: The post-crime behavior is fascinating.
15:27
Speaker 1: The disconnect between the severity of the crime and the
15:31
Speaker 1: amateur nature of their escape is fascinating. I want to
15:34
Speaker 1: transition into what happened after the victim was left on
15:37
Speaker 1: the ground.
15:37
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
15:38
Speaker 1: Because their actions in the real world sharply contradict the
15:41
Speaker 1: lives they were projecting online. Let's really analyze the flight,
15:45
Speaker 1: the subsequent cover-up, and what we can call the digital
15:47
Speaker 1: funhouse mirror.
15:49
Speaker 2: So the immediate medical aftermath of the altercation is deeply tragic.
15:53
Speaker 2: After the suspects fled the scene, Carapena was left suffering
15:56
Speaker 2: from three distinct stab wounds.
15:59
Speaker 1: Two located in her back and one in her stomach.
16:02
Speaker 2: Right. The severity of these injuries was so extreme that
16:05
Speaker 2: the local medical facilities in Del Rio just could not
16:08
Speaker 2: manage the trauma.
16:09
Speaker 1: She was in such critical condition that emergency responders had
16:12
Speaker 1: to airlift her out of Del Rio all the way
16:14
Speaker 1: to a major trauma center in San Antonio.
16:16
Speaker 2: It was a desperate attempt to save her life. Tragically,
16:19
Speaker 2: despite those extreme measures, she succumbed to her injuries and
16:23
Speaker 2: passed away at approximately 9 p.m. that same evening.
16:26
Speaker 1: It's just heartbreaking. While the medical teams were fighting to
16:29
Speaker 1: save her life, the police response back in Del Rio
16:32
Speaker 1: was moving incredibly fast, right? They weren't dealing with a
16:34
Speaker 1: cold case or a mystery assailant.
16:37
Speaker 2: Not at all. They moved with intense speed. It took
16:41
Speaker 2: local law enforcement only about two hours to piece together
16:44
Speaker 2: the initial puzzle and make their first arrests.
16:47
Speaker 1: Wow, two hours. Yeah.
16:48
Speaker 2: That's nothing. Using the descriptions and the doorbell footage, they
16:52
Speaker 2: managed to track the Diaz sisters down to a house
16:54
Speaker 2: located on the complete opposite side of town from where
16:56
Speaker 2: the stabbing occurred.
16:58
Speaker 1: And the way they confirmed they were at the right
16:59
Speaker 1: location was almost absurdly simple, wasn't it?
17:03
Speaker 2: It really was. They found Cookies Black Chrysler, the exact
17:06
Speaker 2: same highly identifiable vehicle she had allegedly driven to the
17:10
Speaker 2: scene of the violent altercation just two hours prior, parked
17:14
Speaker 2: casually right out in the street in front of the house.
17:16
Speaker 1: Let me just process the logic of that. You allegedly
17:19
Speaker 1: participate in a brutal multi-person stabbing. You realize the severity
17:24
Speaker 1: of what you have done enough to flee the scene.
17:27
Speaker 1: You drive all the way across town to hide out. Right.
17:29
Speaker 1: And then you just leave the primary getaway vehicle parked
17:32
Speaker 1: in plain sight on a residential street.
17:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, that defies logic.
17:36
Speaker 1: That brings us to the alleged tampering with evidence, which
17:39
Speaker 1: is where their actions show a very selective, confused type
17:43
Speaker 1: of criminal awareness.
17:44
Speaker 2: When the police eventually make contact with Cookie and Kitty
17:47
Speaker 2: inside this house, they immediately notice some highly suspicious physical details.
17:52
Speaker 1: The sisters' hair is wet, strongly indicating they had both
17:56
Speaker 1: recently taken showers, right?
17:57
Speaker 2: Exactly. Furthermore, they have entirely changed out of the highly
18:01
Speaker 2: distinct clothing they were seen wearing on the doorbell video
18:04
Speaker 2: just a couple of hours earlier.
18:05
Speaker 1: So Cookie is no longer wearing the bright red tank top,
18:09
Speaker 1: and Kitty has shed the pink tank top.
18:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. And because of these deliberate actions to alter their
18:15
Speaker 2: physical state and hide the clothes they wore during the assault,
18:18
Speaker 2: Kitty was subsequently hit with an additional, very serious charge
18:21
Speaker 2: of tampering with evidence.
18:23
Speaker 1: If we pull back and look at this through the
18:24
Speaker 1: lens of criminal psychology and investigative strategy, we see a fascinating,
18:29
Speaker 1: deeply contradictory set of behaviors.
18:31
Speaker 2: How so?
18:32
Speaker 1: Well, on one hand, the act of showering and immediately
18:35
Speaker 1: changing clothes after a violent physical altercation indicates a very clear,
18:39
Speaker 1: lucid presence of mind. It demonstrates an acute awareness of
18:43
Speaker 1: guilt and consequence.
18:45
Speaker 2: That's a great point. They intuitively understood that they likely
18:49
Speaker 2: had biological evidence, like the victim's blood, DNA, perhaps hair
18:54
Speaker 2: or skin cells, on their bodies and their clothing.
18:57
Speaker 1: And they took deliberate, sequential steps to destroy or remove
19:01
Speaker 1: that evidence.
19:02
Speaker 2: Which, in a courtroom, prosecutors rely heavily on. This exact
19:06
Speaker 2: type of behavior establishes a concept known as consciousness of guilt.
19:11
Speaker 1: The argument is simple but powerful. Innocent people who believe
19:14
Speaker 1: they were acting lawfully in self-defense do not sprint across
19:18
Speaker 1: town to scrub themselves clean and hide their laundry.
19:21
Speaker 2: Exactly. If you truly believe you just survived an unprovoked
19:25
Speaker 2: attack and defended your life, you are usually calling the
19:28
Speaker 2: police yourself or at least waiting to explain your side
19:31
Speaker 2: of the story.
19:33
Speaker 1: Right. You're not jumping in the shower to wash away
19:35
Speaker 1: the crime scene. But on the other hand, we have
19:37
Speaker 1: the car.
19:39
Speaker 2: The glaringly obvious car.
19:41
Speaker 1: Yes, they executed this hurried, panicked forensic cleanup on their bodies,
19:46
Speaker 1: but they left the extremely identifiable black Chrysler parked right
19:49
Speaker 1: next to them. right out front, essentially serving as a
19:51
Speaker 1: neon sign for the police cruisers patrolling the area.
19:54
Speaker 2: It really highlights a severe lack of sophisticated, holistic criminal planning.
19:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. They possessed enough localized awareness to understand they needed
20:02
Speaker 1: to wash the physical blood off their skin.
20:05
Speaker 2: But they completely lacked the broader strategic foresight to hide
20:09
Speaker 2: or ditch the massive two-ton piece of evidence that directly
20:13
Speaker 2: tied them to the scene of the crime.
20:14
Speaker 1: It is a very common phenomenon in chaotic crimes, isn't it?
20:18
Speaker 1: The brain hyper-focuses on the immediate visceral threat, which is
20:21
Speaker 1: the blood on their hands, and completely ignores the macro threat,
20:25
Speaker 1: which is the vehicle.
20:26
Speaker 2: Exactly right.
20:27
Speaker 1: It is the criminal equivalent of a toddler hiding under
20:30
Speaker 1: a glass coffee table. You think you're completely invisible to
20:34
Speaker 1: the world because you have covered your own eyes, but
20:36
Speaker 1: to everyone else walking into the room, you are entirely,
20:40
Speaker 1: undeniably exposed.
20:41
Speaker 2: That's a perfect analogy.
20:43
Speaker 1: But here is where the narrative shifts from just a
20:46
Speaker 1: chaotic true crime story into something that feels deeply symptomatic
20:49
Speaker 1: of our modern era. We have to talk about the
20:53
Speaker 1: psychological whiplash of Kitty's TikTok account.
20:57
Speaker 2: This part is just fascinating. The digital footprint is a vital,
21:01
Speaker 2: inescapable element of how both the public and potentially a
21:03
Speaker 2: jury will perceive this case.
21:05
Speaker 1: It's the modern complication of criminal defense. Our sources point
21:09
Speaker 1: out a very specific, deeply unsettling contrast.
21:13
Speaker 2: Because Katie's social media presence paints a very deliberate picture
21:16
Speaker 2: of a gentle, deeply loving, and profoundly devoted mother.
21:20
Speaker 1: They highlight a specific video she posted to her TikTok
21:23
Speaker 1: account on June 9th. Now, Keep the timeline in mind.
21:26
Speaker 1: June 9th is literally just a couple of weeks before
21:29
Speaker 1: this lethal, broad daylight street altercation.
21:33
Speaker 2: And the video itself is incredibly sweet. It's just her
21:36
Speaker 2: and her four-year-old son, who she affectionately calls Gigi.
21:39
Speaker 1: But it is the caption she chose to write that
21:41
Speaker 1: is so striking. It is incredibly eloquent and emotionally raw.
21:46
Speaker 2: What does she write?
21:47
Speaker 1: She writes, quote, The piece of my heart that walks
21:50
Speaker 1: outside my body. Thank you for saving me. giving me
21:54
Speaker 1: purpose and showing me a love so pure and unconditional. Wow.
21:59
Speaker 2: That's a beautiful sentiment.
22:01
Speaker 1: It really is.
22:02
Speaker 2: And it raises a massive, highly complex question for any
22:05
Speaker 2: potential jury member who might eventually be tasked with judging
22:07
Speaker 2: her character.
22:08
Speaker 1: How does a human being reconcile the person who sat
22:11
Speaker 1: down and thoughtfully typed out that beautiful, profound caption with
22:17
Speaker 1: the exact same woman who is accused of eagerly jumping
22:20
Speaker 1: out of a car and to participate in a lethal
22:23
Speaker 1: street assault just a few short weeks later.
22:26
Speaker 2: In a trial setting, the prosecution will almost certainly attempt
22:28
Speaker 2: to argue that the digital persona is nothing more than
22:31
Speaker 2: a complete fabrication, a carefully curated mask designed to hide
22:36
Speaker 2: a volatile, violent nature.
22:38
Speaker 1: They'll say the TikTok is the fiction and the doorbell
22:41
Speaker 1: camera is the reality.
22:42
Speaker 2: Precisely. The defense, conversely, might try to use that very
22:46
Speaker 2: same digital footprint to humanize her to the jury.
22:48
Speaker 1: Oh, interesting.
22:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:50
Speaker 1: Like showing she isn't a monster.
22:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, they might argue that the TikTok shows her true,
22:54
Speaker 2: peaceful nature. That she is a loving mother who simply
22:58
Speaker 2: made a terrible, tragic split-second mistake while in a state
23:00
Speaker 2: of panic, trying to protect her younger sister from a
23:03
Speaker 2: perceived threat.
23:05
Speaker 1: I always think of social media as a funhouse mirror
23:07
Speaker 1: at a carnival. It takes one tiny, very real sliver
23:11
Speaker 1: of your reality, in this case, a mother's genuine love
23:14
Speaker 1: for her child... And it stretches it out, distorts it,
23:17
Speaker 1: and magnifies it until it looks like it represents your
23:20
Speaker 1: entire flawless existence.
23:22
Speaker 2: That's incredibly accurate.
23:24
Speaker 1: And in doing so, it completely hides the darker, messier,
23:27
Speaker 1: more complicated parts of your life that exist just out
23:30
Speaker 1: of the frame.
23:31
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
23:32
Speaker 1: If I'm looking at this from the perspective of a
23:34
Speaker 1: judge deciding what a jury gets to see, does a
23:37
Speaker 1: digital footprint like a poetic TikTok caption actually matter legally?
23:42
Speaker 1: Or is it just psychological fodder, something for the public
23:45
Speaker 1: and the media to chew on while the real legal
23:47
Speaker 1: work happens behind closed doors.
23:50
Speaker 2: Well, legally speaking, its admissibility is an incredibly tricky and
23:53
Speaker 2: nuanced area of the law. Really?
23:55
Speaker 1: How so?
23:56
Speaker 2: The introduction of character evidence is heavily restricted in the courtroom.
24:01
Speaker 2: A judge is highly unlikely to allow the prosecution to
24:03
Speaker 2: just project her TikToks onto a screen for the sole
24:06
Speaker 2: purpose of saying, look how fake she is. She's a liar.
24:09
Speaker 1: Oh, because that would just be attacking her character, not
24:12
Speaker 1: proving she committed the crime.
24:13
Speaker 2: Exactly. That is generally inadmissible because it prejudices the jury
24:18
Speaker 2: without proving a specific fact about the crime. However, the
24:22
Speaker 2: door swings both ways.
24:23
Speaker 1: Meaning what?
24:25
Speaker 2: If the defense team decides to make her character a
24:27
Speaker 2: central part of their argument, like if they put a
24:30
Speaker 2: witness on the stand to testify that she's a universally peaceful,
24:33
Speaker 2: gentle mother who is biologically incapable of committing such a
24:37
Speaker 2: violent act, Then the defense has officially opened the door.
24:42
Speaker 1: Ah, I see.
24:43
Speaker 2: Once that happens, the prosecution is legally permitted to walk
24:46
Speaker 2: right through it. They can then introduce her social media,
24:49
Speaker 2: or specifically the stark contrast between her curated online persona
24:54
Speaker 2: and her documented violent actions, to impeach that character claim
24:59
Speaker 2: and destroy her credibility.
25:01
Speaker 1: Wow, so the defense has to be really careful about
25:03
Speaker 1: playing the quote-unquote good mother card.
25:05
Speaker 2: Extremely careful.
25:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.
25:07
Speaker 2: But even if those TikToks are entirely excluded from the
25:10
Speaker 2: physical courtroom, I mean, in the modern court of public opinion,
25:14
Speaker 2: it absolutely matters.
25:15
Speaker 1: Right, because everyone's already seen it.
25:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, it irrevocably shapes the narrative. And the narrative often
25:21
Speaker 2: dictates the pressure placed on prosecutors regarding plea deals and
25:25
Speaker 2: charging decisions.
25:26
Speaker 1: Well, that jarring, almost surreal disconnect between their curated online
25:30
Speaker 1: behavior and their grim physical reality definitely does not end
25:35
Speaker 1: with a poetic TikTok post.
25:36
Speaker 2: No, it gets much worse.
25:38
Speaker 1: Because the absolute most shocking piece of visual footage we
25:41
Speaker 1: have from this entire case was not captured before the
25:45
Speaker 1: crime on a doorbell camera.
25:47
Speaker 2: Right.
25:48
Speaker 1: It was captured right at the exact moment the handcuffs
25:51
Speaker 1: were being slapped onto their wrists. I want to look
25:54
Speaker 1: closely at the phenomenon of the smiling suspect and dive
25:57
Speaker 1: into the massive legal headache of a tainted jury pool.
26:00
Speaker 2: This brings us to the most controversial piece of media
26:03
Speaker 2: in this entire saga. The arrest footage.
26:07
Speaker 1: And this wasn't released by the police department, was it?
26:09
Speaker 2: No. It was captured independently on June 25th by a
26:11
Speaker 2: local Del Rio blogger who operates on YouTube under the
26:14
Speaker 2: handle Good Citizen. Got it. This individual, acting essentially as
26:19
Speaker 2: a real-time citizen journalist, managed to be on the scene
26:23
Speaker 2: with a camera rolling when the police finally apprehended the
26:25
Speaker 2: sisters at that house across town.
26:27
Speaker 1: And the demeanor of these two suspects in this raw,
26:30
Speaker 1: unedited video is simply unbelievable.
26:32
Speaker 2: It really is.
26:33
Speaker 1: Given what we know just happened two hours prior... You
26:36
Speaker 1: expect to see tears, panic, or at least a grim,
26:39
Speaker 1: stony silence.
26:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, standard arrest behavior.
26:42
Speaker 1: Instead, they appear remarkably lighthearted. Cookie, the 19-year-old who is
26:47
Speaker 1: actively accused of bringing the knife to the fight and
26:50
Speaker 1: plunging it into the back of a mother of five,
26:52
Speaker 1: is actually seen visibly smiling and laughing for the blogger's
26:56
Speaker 1: camera as she is being escorted by armed officers into
26:59
Speaker 1: police custody.
27:00
Speaker 2: It's just wild.
27:02
Speaker 1: It is a visual that just makes your stomach drop.
27:05
Speaker 2: It is a highly disturbing visual, without question. However, as analysts,
27:09
Speaker 2: we have to inject a very important nuance regarding the
27:12
Speaker 2: timeline here, because it fundamentally changes the legal context of
27:16
Speaker 2: that smile.
27:16
Speaker 1: Okay, what's the timeline detail?
27:18
Speaker 2: At the exact moment this arrest video was being filmed
27:21
Speaker 2: and live-streamed, Carapena was in a hospital, severely injured and
27:26
Speaker 2: desperately fighting for her life. But she was still alive. Right.
27:31
Speaker 2: She did not officially pass away until roughly 9 p.m.
27:33
Speaker 2: that evening. which was several hours after this laughter was
27:37
Speaker 2: caught on tape.
27:38
Speaker 1: That is a crucial distinction. So when Cookie is laughing
27:41
Speaker 1: for the camera, in her mind, she doesn't technically know
27:44
Speaker 1: she is a murderer yet. She thinks she's just been
27:47
Speaker 1: in a bad fight?
27:48
Speaker 2: Correct. At that specific moment in time, based on her
27:51
Speaker 2: knowledge of the situation, she was likely assuming she was
27:54
Speaker 2: facing aggravated assault charges, not a first-degree murder charge.
27:58
Speaker 1: The legal severity of the crime escalated hours later when
28:01
Speaker 1: the victim's heart stopped.
28:02
Speaker 2: Yes. But as criminal defense attorney Matt Menino astutely points
28:06
Speaker 2: out in our source material, the strict chronological timeline almost
28:10
Speaker 2: doesn't matter to a jury's emotional processing.
28:13
Speaker 1: Because seeing is believing.
28:14
Speaker 2: Exactly. Regardless of whether she knew the victim was dead
28:17
Speaker 2: or alive, if this video gets admitted as evidence during
28:21
Speaker 2: a murder trial, it is an absolutely catastrophic look for
28:25
Speaker 2: the defense. It paints a picture of a remorseless, cold-blooded individual.
28:30
Speaker 1: If we unpack this from the perspective of a judge
28:33
Speaker 1: managing a trial, there is a very specific legal concept
28:36
Speaker 1: that comes into play here, right? It's the balancing act
28:38
Speaker 1: of probative value versus prejudicial effect.
28:41
Speaker 2: That's the one.
28:42
Speaker 1: How does a judge look at this explosive piece of
28:45
Speaker 1: media and decide if a jury is actually allowed to
28:47
Speaker 1: sit in a jury box and watch a murder suspect
28:51
Speaker 1: laughing in handcuffs?
28:52
Speaker 2: That decision will be the subject of a massive, aggressively
28:55
Speaker 2: fought pretrial motion. And the American legal system, specifically under rules...
29:01
Speaker 2: akin to Federal Rule of Evidence 403. A judge must
29:04
Speaker 2: act as a gatekeeper.
29:06
Speaker 1: Okay, what's the standard they use?
29:09
Speaker 2: The standard for admitting a piece of evidence is that
29:11
Speaker 2: its probative value, which means its logical ability to prove
29:15
Speaker 2: or disprove a factual element of the case, must substantially
29:20
Speaker 2: outweigh its prejudicial effect.
29:22
Speaker 1: And prejudicial effect meaning?
29:25
Speaker 2: It refers to the evidence's tendency to make the jury
29:28
Speaker 2: convict the defendant, for the wrong reasons, usually based on
29:32
Speaker 2: raw emotion, disgust, or hatred rather than the facts of
29:36
Speaker 2: the crime itself.
29:37
Speaker 1: So in this scenario, what does the prosecution argue?
29:41
Speaker 2: The prosecution will argue passionately that this video is highly probative.
29:45
Speaker 2: They will claim it offers a rare, unfiltered window into
29:48
Speaker 2: the defendant's state of mind immediately following the act.
29:52
Speaker 1: That she was remorseless. Yes.
29:54
Speaker 2: They will argue it proves she was entirely remorseless, legally unfazed,
29:59
Speaker 2: and perhaps even proud of what she had just done,
30:02
Speaker 2: which negates any claim of panic or justified self-defense.
30:06
Speaker 1: And the defense attorney is going to fight tooth and
30:08
Speaker 1: nail against that. How do they counter the argument that
30:11
Speaker 1: her smile proves her guilt?
30:13
Speaker 2: The defense will argue the exact opposite, emphasizing the overwhelming
30:17
Speaker 2: prejudice of the imagery. They will point out, relying on
30:20
Speaker 2: the timeline we just discussed, that this was not actually
30:23
Speaker 2: a murder case at the exact moment the video was taken.
30:26
Speaker 2: They will argue that showing a jury a short, out-of-context
30:29
Speaker 2: clip of a teenager nervously smiling will improperly and irreparably
30:34
Speaker 2: inflame the jury's emotions.
30:35
Speaker 1: The defense's core argument will be that once the jury
30:38
Speaker 1: sees that smile, they will be so blinded by disgust
30:40
Speaker 1: that they will be completely incapable of objectively analyzing the
30:44
Speaker 1: complex legal facts of the self-defense claim.
30:47
Speaker 2: Exactly. The judge has to weigh those two competing realities
30:50
Speaker 2: in chambers and make a ruling that could easily define
30:53
Speaker 2: the outcome of the trial.
30:54
Speaker 1: I have to push back a little on the immediate
30:57
Speaker 1: public assumption that always follows these viral clips.
31:00
Speaker 2: Sure, go ahead.
31:00
Speaker 1: When the average person on the internet sees that video
31:02
Speaker 1: of Cookie laughing, the immediate knee-jerk reaction in the comments
31:06
Speaker 1: is pure evil, psychopath, or cold-blooded killer.
31:09
Speaker 2: Oh, the comments are always brutal.
31:11
Speaker 1: But if we force ourselves to consider the fact that
31:14
Speaker 1: Enya hadn't died yet, and if we look at human psychology,
31:17
Speaker 1: is it possible we're looking at something else entirely?
31:19
Speaker 2: What are you thinking?
31:21
Speaker 1: Could this laughter be the result of massive amounts of
31:24
Speaker 1: adrenaline flooding her system, severe emotional shock, or even just
31:28
Speaker 1: a performative defensive act of toughness for the cameras? You know,
31:31
Speaker 1: the whole you-can't-break-me routine that teenagers often default to when
31:35
Speaker 1: they are actually terrified out of their minds?
31:37
Speaker 2: It is not only possible, but from a clinical psychological standpoint,
31:41
Speaker 2: it is highly likely. Really? Yes. Human beings react to
31:45
Speaker 2: extreme trauma, violence, and acute stress in bizarre, deeply counterintuitive ways.
31:51
Speaker 2: Inappropriate affect, which includes smiling, laughing, or even making jokes
31:55
Speaker 2: in the immediate aftermath of a horrifying event, is a
31:58
Speaker 2: well-documented physiological and psychological response to overwhelmingly stressful stimuli.
32:04
Speaker 1: So it's like a glitch in the brain.
32:06
Speaker 2: Exactly. The brain simply shorts out and produces the wrong
32:09
Speaker 2: emotional expression. Or, as you astutely suggested, it could be
32:13
Speaker 2: a conscious defense mechanism, a layer of bravado put on
32:16
Speaker 2: specifically because she saw a local blogger aiming a camera
32:20
Speaker 2: at her. and refused to look weak in front of
32:22
Speaker 2: her community.
32:23
Speaker 1: Which makes total sense for a 19-year-old.
32:26
Speaker 2: But here is the brutal reality for the defense. Explaining
32:30
Speaker 2: that nuanced psychological reality to a jury, a jury who
32:34
Speaker 2: is simultaneously looking across the courtroom at a grieving family
32:38
Speaker 2: who just lost a mother of five, is an incredibly steep,
32:41
Speaker 2: almost vertical hill to climb.
32:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, nuance rarely wins out over a visceral visual.
32:47
Speaker 2: Never.
32:48
Speaker 1: So putting yourself in Matt Menino's shoes, How does a
32:51
Speaker 1: defense attorney actually prepare a client to overcome this kind
32:54
Speaker 1: of visual baggage? You have this highly inflammatory video floating
32:57
Speaker 1: around out there on YouTube. You are operating in a small,
33:01
Speaker 1: tight-knit border town like Del Rio, where news travels fast.
33:04
Speaker 1: How do you even begin to build a defense?
33:07
Speaker 2: You have just hit on the core existential issue for
33:09
Speaker 2: the defense team, the tainted jury poll.
33:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you find people who haven't seen it?
33:14
Speaker 2: You almost can't. Del Rio is not a massive, anonymous
33:17
Speaker 2: metropolis like Houston or Los Angeles. It is a community
33:20
Speaker 2: where people talk, where local news is consumed heavily, and
33:25
Speaker 2: where local bloggers have significant reach.
33:27
Speaker 1: The inescapable reality is that the potential jury pool in
33:30
Speaker 1: that county has almost certainly already seen this YouTube video.
33:35
Speaker 2: Oh, without a doubt. They have already seen the graphic
33:37
Speaker 2: image of the victim's bloodied back circulating on Facebook. The
33:41
Speaker 2: well is already poisoned.
33:42
Speaker 1: So the jury pool might be deeply poisoned. perhaps irreparably
33:46
Speaker 1: prejudiced by the image of that smiling suspect long before
33:50
Speaker 1: jury selection even begins.
33:52
Speaker 2: Yes. And to prepare a client for this, a defense
33:55
Speaker 2: attorney cannot hide from it. They have to confront it
33:58
Speaker 2: head on during voir dire, the intensive jury selection process.
34:02
Speaker 1: They just ask them straight up?
34:03
Speaker 2: The attorney has to stand up in front of dozens
34:06
Speaker 2: of locals and explicitly ask them, have you seen the
34:09
Speaker 2: video of my client on YouTube? If so, Can you
34:12
Speaker 2: promise this court that you can set aside your visceral
34:15
Speaker 2: emotional reaction to a teenager's nervous smile and judge this
34:19
Speaker 2: case solely on the rigid legal definitions of self-defense?
34:23
Speaker 1: It has to be incredibly difficult to find 12 people
34:26
Speaker 1: who can genuinely do that.
34:28
Speaker 2: It is, which is why defense attorneys in these situations
34:30
Speaker 2: often file motions for a change of venue, arguing that
34:33
Speaker 2: a fair trial in that specific county is mathematically impossible
34:38
Speaker 2: due to media saturation.
34:39
Speaker 1: It is a logistical nightmare for the court. You would
34:42
Speaker 1: naturally assume that a suspect caught on camera smiling at
34:45
Speaker 1: a murder scene, or at least caught smiling in the
34:48
Speaker 1: immediate bloody aftermath of what would become a fatal stabbing,
34:52
Speaker 1: would be locked away in a cell until the trial
34:54
Speaker 1: without question.
34:55
Speaker 2: You think so, right?
34:56
Speaker 1: You would think. Public safety and flight risk would override
34:58
Speaker 1: everything else. But in the American justice system, the concept
35:02
Speaker 1: of freedom often comes down to simple, cold mathematics rather
35:06
Speaker 1: than morality.
35:07
Speaker 2: It really does.
35:08
Speaker 1: I want to shift our focus and dive deep into
35:10
Speaker 1: the economics of freedom and explore the baffling reality of
35:14
Speaker 1: how Cookie actually got out of jail.
35:16
Speaker 2: This is a segment of the criminal justice system that
35:18
Speaker 2: routinely shocks people who are not intimately familiar with its
35:22
Speaker 2: daily bureaucratic workings.
35:25
Speaker 1: So let's examine the timeline of the initial bonds.
35:27
Speaker 2: Immediately after the victim died and the charges against the
35:30
Speaker 2: suspects were officially upgraded to murder, the court set the
35:34
Speaker 2: initial bonds for all three suspects, Cookie, Kitty and Kendra.
35:39
Speaker 2: at astronomical figures hovering around $ 5 million each.
35:43
Speaker 1: Which sounds exactly like what the public would expect for
35:46
Speaker 1: a brutal, coordinated street murder. $ 5 million is a number
35:50
Speaker 1: designed to ensure you do not get out.
35:53
Speaker 2: Yes. And our sources note that Condor-Faz's bond is actually
35:57
Speaker 2: still set at that initial mark of $ 5. 2 million.
36:00
Speaker 1: But then something changes for the sisters.
36:03
Speaker 2: Right. Regarding the Diaz sisters, something within the legal machinery shifted.
36:08
Speaker 2: In July... roughly a month after the violent incident, a
36:11
Speaker 2: judge inexplicably adjusted the terms and lowered the bonds for
36:15
Speaker 2: both Cookie and Kitty Diaz down to $ 2 million each.
36:19
Speaker 1: Now, let's be clear. $ 2 million is still a massive,
36:23
Speaker 1: life-altering amount of money for almost anyone.
36:26
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
36:28
Speaker 1: But here is where the theoretical math of the courtroom
36:30
Speaker 1: crashes into the reality of the bail bond industry. On
36:33
Speaker 1: October 6th, Cookie managed to post the required 10% of
36:37
Speaker 1: that $ 2 million bond.
36:38
Speaker 2: She utilized a private company called El Amigo Bail Bonds.
36:42
Speaker 2: And through them, she put up $ 200, 000 in cash.
36:46
Speaker 1: And because that financial transaction cleared, she is currently out
36:49
Speaker 1: of jail.
36:50
Speaker 2: She's walking the streets of her community, sleeping in a
36:53
Speaker 2: real bed, awaiting her November 4th arraignment.
36:56
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, her sister Kitty, who had her bond lowered to
36:58
Speaker 1: the exact same amount, and their friend Candra, who is
37:02
Speaker 1: stuck at $ 5.
37:02
Speaker 2: 2 million.
37:03
Speaker 1: Both remain incarcerated behind bars.
37:06
Speaker 2: And what makes this massive financial transaction even more baffling
37:10
Speaker 2: and suspicious is that official court records list all three
37:13
Speaker 2: of these young women as unemployed.
37:16
Speaker 1: Which immediately begs the obvious glaring question. If you are
37:21
Speaker 1: a 19-year-old unemployed defendant, where on earth does $ 200, 000 in
37:27
Speaker 1: liquid cash come from?
37:28
Speaker 2: Exactly. Are they putting up the deeds to family homes?
37:31
Speaker 2: Are they draining life savings?
37:33
Speaker 1: Wild.
37:33
Speaker 2: It is highly likely the extended family pooled every conceivable resource,
37:38
Speaker 2: leveraging property, vehicles, and savings to satisfy the bondsman.
37:42
Speaker 1: How does the system even justify this?
37:44
Speaker 2: Let's look closely at Matt Menino's expert analysis of how
37:48
Speaker 2: this specific system operates in the state of Texas. Under
37:52
Speaker 2: Texas law, a non-capital first-degree murder charge, meaning the state
37:56
Speaker 2: is not actively seeking the death penalty, constitutionally entitles a
38:01
Speaker 2: defendant to the option of bail.
38:03
Speaker 1: OK, so it's a constitutional right. Yes.
38:06
Speaker 2: The philosophical and legal primary purpose of bail is not
38:09
Speaker 2: to serve as a pretrial punishment. We must remember that
38:13
Speaker 2: legally the defendant is presumed entirely innocent until proven guilty
38:16
Speaker 2: in a court of law.
38:17
Speaker 1: Right.
38:18
Speaker 2: The sole purpose of bail is simply to serve as
38:21
Speaker 2: a financial guarantee that the defendant will actually appear in
38:24
Speaker 2: court for their eventual trial.
38:27
Speaker 1: But what about the danger to the public?
38:28
Speaker 2: Well, public safety and the threat a defendant poses to
38:31
Speaker 2: the community are certainly vital factors a judge considers when
38:35
Speaker 2: setting the initial dollar amount. But the right to seek
38:38
Speaker 2: bail itself is foundational in these types of non-capital cases.
38:42
Speaker 1: OK, I understand the constitutional theory behind it. But let's
38:46
Speaker 1: talk about the bail bondsman's actual financial risk here, because
38:49
Speaker 1: the business model is wild to me.
38:51
Speaker 2: It's a unique industry.
38:53
Speaker 1: El Amigo Bail Bonds takes that $ 200, 000 in cash from
38:55
Speaker 1: the family. They keep that money as a non-refundable premium.
38:59
Speaker 1: It is their fee for doing business.
39:01
Speaker 2: Correct.
39:02
Speaker 1: But by accepting that fee, they are now legally on
39:05
Speaker 1: the hook to the court for the full $ 2 million
39:08
Speaker 1: if Cookie decides to flee the jurisdiction and miss her
39:10
Speaker 1: court dates, right?
39:11
Speaker 2: That is precisely correct. By posting that bond, the private
39:15
Speaker 2: bail company essentially acts as a localized form of private
39:19
Speaker 2: community supervision.
39:21
Speaker 1: Because they don't want to lose $ 2 million. Exactly.
39:23
Speaker 2: Exactly. A bail bond agency that is willing to take
39:26
Speaker 2: on a massive financial risk of this magnitude is not
39:29
Speaker 2: doing it blindly. They are going to conduct deep, invasive
39:33
Speaker 2: background checks on the family.
39:34
Speaker 1: They'll secure massive collateral. Right.
39:38
Speaker 2: Likely the deeds to homes of relatives. And once she
39:42
Speaker 2: is out, they are going to monitor her constantly, perhaps
39:45
Speaker 2: requiring daily check-ins or an angle monitor.
39:48
Speaker 1: Because if she runs for the border, which isn't far
39:50
Speaker 1: away in Del Rio, and disappears, the bond company loses
39:53
Speaker 1: $ 2 million, which could easily bankrupt them.
39:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, the stakes are incredibly high for the bondsman.
39:59
Speaker 1: I always look at bail bondsmen as the absolute most
40:02
Speaker 1: extreme venture capitalists in the world. But their unique business
40:05
Speaker 1: model is that their only return on investment is not
40:08
Speaker 1: losing $ 2 million. Right.
40:10
Speaker 2: They aren't trying to make a massive profit on the
40:11
Speaker 2: back end of the trial. They just want to secure
40:14
Speaker 2: their initial premium fee and avoid total financial ruin.
40:17
Speaker 1: What is truly bizarre and deeply tragic about this specific
40:22
Speaker 1: situation in Del Rio is the stark reality of who
40:25
Speaker 1: is currently out of jail and who remains in a cell.
40:28
Speaker 2: It's a striking disparity. The primary suspect in the murder, Cookie,
40:32
Speaker 2: the one who allegedly brought the knife to the scene
40:34
Speaker 2: from the car, the one who allegedly delivered the lethal
40:38
Speaker 2: fatal blows to the victim's back, is the only one
40:41
Speaker 2: of the three who's walking free right now.
40:43
Speaker 1: Which feels completely upside down to any rational observer. You
40:47
Speaker 1: would naturally assume that the specific individual wielding the deadly
40:50
Speaker 1: weapon would be viewed by the court and the community
40:53
Speaker 1: as the absolute highest risk to public safety.
40:56
Speaker 2: It's definitely counterintuitive. And attorney Matt Menino offers some fascinating,
41:01
Speaker 2: highly plausible speculation on this strange family dynamic.
41:04
Speaker 1: What's his theory?
41:06
Speaker 2: He asked the million-dollar question. Why did this family pool $ 200, 000
41:09
Speaker 2: in hard cash exclusively for Cookie, but not for Kitty?
41:14
Speaker 1: Right, because Kitty is facing the exact same first-degree murder
41:17
Speaker 1: charge under the law of parties. Plus, she has the
41:20
Speaker 1: additional felony tampering charge for the clothes and the shower. Yet,
41:24
Speaker 1: she didn't allegedly wield the weapon.
41:26
Speaker 2: Menino theorizes that it is highly probable Cookie was facing specific, severe,
41:32
Speaker 2: and immediate physical threats inside the county jail.
41:35
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought of that.
41:36
Speaker 2: Given the incredibly brutal nature of the crime, the fact
41:39
Speaker 2: that the victim was a local mother of five, and
41:41
Speaker 2: the tight-knit dynamics of a small town where inmates likely
41:45
Speaker 2: know the victim's extended family.
41:47
Speaker 1: The family might have pooled every single resource they had
41:50
Speaker 1: exclusively for Cookie's immediate physical protection.
41:53
Speaker 2: Exactly. They likely felt they had to get her out
41:55
Speaker 2: immediately to keep her safe from retaliation, while perhaps they
41:58
Speaker 2: calculated that Kitty wasn't facing those same imminent lethal threats
42:02
Speaker 2: behind bars. Wow.
42:04
Speaker 1: I have to press you on the broader implications of
42:06
Speaker 1: this because it brings up a really uncomfortable, glaring reality
42:11
Speaker 1: about our justice system that we often try to ignore.
42:13
Speaker 2: I know where you're going with this.
42:15
Speaker 1: If all three of these young women are listed in
42:17
Speaker 1: court documents as unemployed and one magically walks free because
42:20
Speaker 1: a family scraped together 200 grand while the others rot
42:23
Speaker 1: in a cell, does this case not perfectly highlight that
42:26
Speaker 1: the American justice system fundamentally operates on a two-tiered basis?
42:31
Speaker 2: It absolutely, undeniably highlights that systemic disparity.
42:35
Speaker 1: Like whether you sit in a dangerous concrete cell for
42:38
Speaker 1: a year waiting for your trial to start isn't actually
42:40
Speaker 1: based on the severity of your crime or the physical
42:42
Speaker 1: threat you pose to your neighbors, but purely on the
42:45
Speaker 1: depth of your family's pockets.
42:46
Speaker 2: That's the reality. The cash bail system in America has
42:49
Speaker 2: been heavily criticized by legal scholars and civil rights advocates
42:53
Speaker 2: for decades for exactly this reason.
42:55
Speaker 1: Because it's fundamentally unequal.
42:57
Speaker 2: Yes. You can have two individuals charged with the exact
43:00
Speaker 2: same crime. possessing the exact same criminal history and posing
43:04
Speaker 2: the exact same theoretical flight risk.
43:07
Speaker 1: But if one has access to generational wealth or just.
43:10
Speaker 2: A family willing to leverage their homes and assets, that
43:13
Speaker 2: person gets to sleep in their own bed. They get
43:15
Speaker 2: to maintain their physical and mental health. They get to
43:17
Speaker 2: walk into their lawyer's office in civilian clothes and actively
43:21
Speaker 2: assist in building their own defense.
43:23
Speaker 1: And the other person?
43:24
Speaker 2: The other person, lacking those financial funds, sits in a
43:27
Speaker 2: county jail for months or years. This pretrial incarceration often
43:31
Speaker 2: leads to catastrophic life events.
43:33
Speaker 1: Right. They lose their jobs. They get evicted. They lose
43:36
Speaker 1: custody of their children.
43:37
Speaker 2: And they face intense, crushing psychological pressure to accept a
43:41
Speaker 2: plea deal just to get out of the cell, regardless
43:44
Speaker 2: of their actual guilt.
43:45
Speaker 1: In this specific case, the stark reality of the two-tiered
43:48
Speaker 1: system is happening within the exact same group of co-defendants.
43:51
Speaker 1: One sister is home eating dinner. The other is locked
43:54
Speaker 1: in a cell.
43:56
Speaker 2: It is a stark, deeply unfair contrast.
44:00
Speaker 1: So with Cookie now out on bond and the pretrial
44:02
Speaker 1: hearings rapidly approaching in November and December, the focus of
44:06
Speaker 1: this entire saga shifts entirely from the county jailhouse to
44:09
Speaker 1: the formal courtroom.
44:11
Speaker 2: It's all about the legal strategy now.
44:13
Speaker 1: How in the world does a defense attorney build a
44:15
Speaker 1: case when the prosecution has crystal clear doorbell footage of
44:18
Speaker 1: the attack, the physical introduction of a knife and a
44:21
Speaker 1: lethal stab wound to the victim's back? Let's get into
44:24
Speaker 1: the legal chessboard of this trial.
44:26
Speaker 2: As the old legal saying goes, and as we will
44:28
Speaker 2: explore deeply, You can't respond to a shove with a stab.
44:33
Speaker 1: Right. So the legal battle is looming very quickly on
44:36
Speaker 1: the horizon. Cookie's formal arraignment is officially set for November 4th.
44:41
Speaker 2: And Kendra Fahs, who has already entered a plea of
44:44
Speaker 2: not guilty, has a crucial pretrial hearing set for December 11th.
44:49
Speaker 1: As Menino explains, the arraignment date is critical because it
44:52
Speaker 1: starts the official ticking clock for the defense team to
44:55
Speaker 1: file their pretrial motions.
44:57
Speaker 2: This is when they will attempt to challenge the severity
44:59
Speaker 2: of the charges or, as we discussed earlier, file motions
45:02
Speaker 2: to suppress highly prejudicial evidence like the smiling arrest video.
45:06
Speaker 1: Right. They have to try and clean up the battlefield
45:08
Speaker 1: before the jury arrives. But when it comes to the
45:11
Speaker 1: actual trial itself, the core defense strategy is what's truly
45:14
Speaker 1: fascinating here.
45:16
Speaker 2: Menino breaks down the extreme, rigid limitations of claiming self-defense
45:20
Speaker 2: in the state of Texas.
45:21
Speaker 1: What are the limits?
45:22
Speaker 2: He notes that while Texas is known for robust self-defense laws,
45:26
Speaker 2: Self-defense fundamentally requires the use of, quote, equal force. Furthermore,
45:31
Speaker 2: it requires a reasonable, articulable fear of imminent, serious bodily
45:36
Speaker 2: injury or death.
45:37
Speaker 1: To illustrate this specific foundational legal tenet, our sources reference
45:41
Speaker 1: a completely separate, well-known Texas case involving a man named
45:45
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony.
45:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, we won't detour into the weeds of that separate trial,
45:49
Speaker 2: but the legal precedent established and reinforced by it serves
45:52
Speaker 2: as the anchor for the proportionality argument.
45:55
Speaker 1: Which brings us back to that phrase, you can't respond
45:58
Speaker 1: to a shove with a stab.
45:59
Speaker 2: Right. If someone comes at you with their bare fists
46:02
Speaker 2: in a mutual combat situation, you generally cannot unilaterally escalate
46:06
Speaker 2: the encounter by introducing lethal force, like a knife or
46:09
Speaker 2: a gun. Unless you have a reasonable, objective belief that
46:13
Speaker 2: their bare fists are about to cause you serious bodily
46:16
Speaker 2: injury or death.
46:17
Speaker 1: And here is where the physical forensic evidence of the
46:20
Speaker 1: autopsy becomes an absolute mystery. unmitigated nightmare for Cookie's defense team.
46:24
Speaker 2: It really does.
46:25
Speaker 1: The medical reports show that Pena was stabbed twice in
46:28
Speaker 1: the back. Plus, according to the video, Cookie allegedly brought
46:32
Speaker 1: a knife to what was, up until the exact moment
46:34
Speaker 1: she arrived, an ostensibly unarmed verbal or physical altercation between
46:39
Speaker 1: other people.
46:40
Speaker 2: A stab wound to the back is perhaps the single
46:43
Speaker 2: hardest piece of physical evidence for any defense attorney to
46:46
Speaker 2: overcome when they are trying to claim self-defense.
46:49
Speaker 1: Because it implies they were running away.
46:52
Speaker 2: Exactly. By its very legal definition, self-defense requires an imminent threat.
46:58
Speaker 2: You must be in danger right now. If you are
47:01
Speaker 2: plunging a knife into someone's back, it inherently implies that
47:04
Speaker 2: the victim was either actively turning away from you, attempting
47:08
Speaker 2: to retreat from the conflict, or at the very least,
47:11
Speaker 2: not presenting a forward-facing, immediate, lethal threat to you at
47:15
Speaker 2: that precise second.
47:17
Speaker 1: You cannot claim you were terrified for your life from
47:19
Speaker 1: someone who was facing the other direction.
47:21
Speaker 2: It just doesn't hold up in court.
47:23
Speaker 1: So if I'm the defense attorney looking at those autopsy photos,
47:27
Speaker 1: and I know I am highly unlikely to win an
47:29
Speaker 1: outright acquittal on self-defense because of those stab wounds to
47:32
Speaker 1: the back, my only play is extreme damage control.
47:36
Speaker 2: What would you do?
47:38
Speaker 1: If pure self-defense is off the table, what is the
47:40
Speaker 1: alternative strategy? Do they just admit she did it and
47:43
Speaker 1: hope for mercy?
47:44
Speaker 2: Well, Menino suggests that a pure self-defense claim is indeed
47:48
Speaker 2: highly unlikely to succeed here, given the video and forensic evidence.
47:52
Speaker 2: A much more viable, pragmatic path for the defense might
47:55
Speaker 2: be arguing for a heat of passion reduction.
47:58
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a very different legal mechanism.
48:01
Speaker 2: Yes, it is. This means the defense would stand in
48:03
Speaker 2: front of the jury and explicitly concede the physical act.
48:07
Speaker 2: They admit unequivocally that Cookie held the knife and stabbed Pena.
48:11
Speaker 1: But they argue for a reduction in the charge, pushing
48:14
Speaker 1: to move it from first-degree premeditated murder down to a
48:17
Speaker 1: lesser charge such as manslaughter.
48:19
Speaker 2: To achieve this, they would have to convince the jury
48:21
Speaker 2: that she completely lost her composure due to intense anger
48:25
Speaker 2: or sudden overwhelming provocation, rendering her temporarily incapable of rational
48:30
Speaker 2: thought or premeditation.
48:32
Speaker 1: OK, let me play devil's advocate and push back on
48:34
Speaker 1: this whole equal force doctrine for a moment, because I
48:38
Speaker 1: want to look at it from the perspective of the
48:39
Speaker 1: terrified people who were already.
48:41
Speaker 2: At that house. All right, let's hear it.
48:43
Speaker 1: Kandrafaz says Peña drove her truck to that location explicitly
48:47
Speaker 1: looking for a fight. If someone aggressively drives to your location,
48:51
Speaker 1: gets out of their car, and initiates a hostile confrontation,
48:55
Speaker 1: doesn't the law grant the inhabitants of that property and
48:58
Speaker 1: the people who rush over to defend them some leeway?
49:00
Speaker 2: That's a fair question.
49:02
Speaker 1: I mean, put yourself in Cookie's shoes. If you arrive
49:04
Speaker 1: in your car and you immediately see your sister and
49:07
Speaker 1: your friend engaged in a volatile, violent, physical brawl with
49:12
Speaker 1: an older woman who purposefully came there looking for trouble...
49:16
Speaker 1: Where is the legal line between being a fiercely protective
49:19
Speaker 1: sister coming to the rescue and being a first degree murderer?
49:22
Speaker 2: That incredibly thin, highly subjective gray line is exactly what
49:26
Speaker 2: the jury will be asked to walk. It is the
49:28
Speaker 2: crux of the case.
49:30
Speaker 1: Because Texas has stand your ground laws, right?
49:32
Speaker 2: They do. Texas has exceptionally strong stand your ground laws
49:36
Speaker 2: and they have robust provisions for the defense of a
49:39
Speaker 2: third person. Under Texas law, you are legally allowed to
49:42
Speaker 2: use force to protect someone else, like your sister, if
49:46
Speaker 2: you reasonably believe they are in intimate danger of unlawful force.
49:49
Speaker 1: So doesn't that protect her?
49:51
Speaker 2: However, the legal protection of that statute is entirely crossed
49:55
Speaker 2: and nullified by the twin concepts of proportionality and premeditation.
50:00
Speaker 1: Explain that.
50:02
Speaker 2: To win a heat of passion defense, or to claim
50:04
Speaker 2: defense of a third party, you have to prove the
50:07
Speaker 2: victim did something so suddenly provoking that a reasonable person
50:10
Speaker 2: would completely lose control in the moment.
50:12
Speaker 1: Okay.
50:13
Speaker 2: But the prosecutor's absolute strongest, most devastating counter-argument is the
50:17
Speaker 2: rigid timeline established by the doorbell camera. The knife. The knife.
50:22
Speaker 2: Coogie didn't arrive, see her sister losing a fight, panic,
50:24
Speaker 2: and then find a random knife on the ground during
50:27
Speaker 2: a frantic struggle. She allegedly arrived in her vehicle with
50:30
Speaker 2: a knife already gripped in her hand as she confidently
50:34
Speaker 2: approached the victim.
50:35
Speaker 1: Right.
50:35
Speaker 2: That specific documented action heavily suggests she had formulated the
50:39
Speaker 2: intent to use deadly force before she was even directly
50:42
Speaker 2: involved in the physical altercation.
50:44
Speaker 1: It completely negates the quote-unquote sudden provocation required for a
50:48
Speaker 1: heat of passion defense, and it shatters the proportionality required
50:53
Speaker 1: for the lawful defense of a third person. It's like,
50:57
Speaker 1: you cannot claim you were suddenly, unexpectedly provoked into a
51:01
Speaker 1: blind rage by a fight if you preemptively brought the
51:04
Speaker 1: lethal weapon to the fight before you even stepped foot
51:07
Speaker 1: out of your car.
51:08
Speaker 2: That few seconds of video showing her approaching the scene
51:11
Speaker 2: with the object in her hand is the undisputed pivot
51:14
Speaker 2: point upon which this entire case will balance.
51:17
Speaker 1: It is the visual evidence of premeditation that the defense
51:20
Speaker 1: must somehow explain away. So what does this all mean
51:23
Speaker 1: for us watching from the outside?
51:26
Speaker 2: As we step back and look at the entirety of
51:28
Speaker 2: this deep dive, this case forces you to confront the
51:31
Speaker 2: very uncomfortable reality that the American justice system is rarely
51:35
Speaker 2: the neat, tidy, morally absolute institution we see on television.
51:40
Speaker 1: No, it is messy, it is inherently contradictory, and it
51:44
Speaker 1: is deeply, tragically human.
51:46
Speaker 2: We see clearly that astronomical, multi-million dollar bonds do not
51:51
Speaker 2: guarantee a suspect stays in jail if they can somehow
51:54
Speaker 2: leverage the right financial resources, creating a glaring two-tiered system
51:58
Speaker 2: of freedom.
51:59
Speaker 1: We see that video evidence, which we so often assume
52:01
Speaker 1: will provide absolute objective clarity to a crime scene, can
52:05
Speaker 1: actually complicate a case just as much as it helps it,
52:08
Speaker 1: depending entirely on how the timeline is interpreted by opposing lawyers.
52:12
Speaker 2: And perhaps most chillingly, we see how the beautiful, carefully
52:15
Speaker 2: curated personas we all build online, the devoted mother, the
52:20
Speaker 2: declarations of unconditional love, can be completely irreparably shattered in
52:25
Speaker 2: a chaotic two-hour window. on a sunny afternoon in Texas.
52:29
Speaker 1: If we connect all of these threads to the bigger
52:31
Speaker 1: picture of our modern society, it leaves us with a profound,
52:36
Speaker 1: almost unsettling realization about the terrifying permanence of digital evidence
52:40
Speaker 1: in the modern age.
52:40
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Decades ago, an incident exactly like this might have
52:44
Speaker 2: been a horrific, tragic, but relatively quiet localized dispute.
52:49
Speaker 1: It would be contained entirely within the geographical borders and
52:53
Speaker 1: the whisper networks of Del Rio. But today, A mother's
52:57
Speaker 1: violent death, a sister's loving TikToks, and a suspect's smiling,
53:02
Speaker 1: laughing arrest video are immortalized globally on the internet forever.
53:07
Speaker 2: They are viral content before the blood is even washed away.
53:12
Speaker 1: Exactly.
53:12
Speaker 2: They are processed as viral content consumed by millions of
53:16
Speaker 2: people long before the formal legal process even attempts to
53:21
Speaker 2: begin finding the truth.
53:22
Speaker 1: Which is terrifying.
53:24
Speaker 2: And it raises an incredibly important Almost existential question for
53:29
Speaker 2: all of us as active participants in a society that
53:33
Speaker 2: fundamentally relies on a jury of our peers.
53:35
Speaker 1: What's the question?
53:37
Speaker 2: If justice is truly supposed to be blind, how can
53:41
Speaker 2: a jury possibly remain impartial when the absolute worst, most chaotic,
53:45
Speaker 2: and most violent moments of these young women's lives have
53:48
Speaker 2: been packaged, broadcast, endlessly commented upon, and definitively judged by
53:53
Speaker 2: millions of strangers before they even step foot into a courtroom?
53:57
Speaker 1: It is a heavy question that certainly doesn't have an
54:00
Speaker 1: easy answer, but it is one you have to think
54:03
Speaker 1: about every single time you doom scroll past a sensational
54:06
Speaker 1: headline or a 15-second video that seems to effortlessly tell
54:10
Speaker 1: the whole damning story.
54:12
Speaker 2: That's so true.
54:14
Speaker 1: Remember that funhouse mirror we talked about at the beginning
54:16
Speaker 1: of this deep dive? Next time you see a heartwarming
54:19
Speaker 1: TikTok of a devoted mother or a 10-second clip of
54:22
Speaker 1: a suspect smiling in handcuffs on your local news feed,
54:25
Speaker 1: remember Del Rio.
54:28
Speaker 2: Remember that the image you see is never the full,
54:30
Speaker 2: complex picture.
54:32
Speaker 1: No, it's just the specific angle that catches the most light,
54:35
Speaker 1: designed to make you feel a certain way. Keep looking
54:37
Speaker 1: for the rest of the room. Keep questioning the narratives
54:40
Speaker 1: you see, and keep questioning the world around you. We
54:44
Speaker 1: will see you on the next deep dive.