Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Brian Hooker Back in States to Care for Ailing Mother|Crime Alert Recap Saturday 04.18.26

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Brian Hooker Back in States to Care for Ailing Mother|Crime Alert Recap Saturday 04.18.26 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime a lord hourly update, breaking crime news.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I'm Sydney Silvanni. The search for missing Michigan mother
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  Speaker 2: Lynette Hooker takes another confusing turn as her husband, Brian Hooker,
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  Speaker 2: has officially left the Bahamas, Just twenty four hours after
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  Speaker 2: claiming his sole focus was finding his wife. Brian Hooker,
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  Speaker 2: fifty nine, boarded a commercial flight out of the Caribbean
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  Speaker 2: on Wednesday. According to his attorney, Terrell Butler, the move
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  Speaker 2: wasn't an escape, but a response to another family crisis.
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  Speaker 2: In a statement, Butler said that Hooker's mother is very
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  Speaker 2: ill and he has traveled to the US to be
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  Speaker 2: at her bedside. While his legal team insists he plans
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  Speaker 2: to return. The timing is raising eyebrows. It was only
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  Speaker 2: Monday that Hooker was released from behavian custody after investigators
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  Speaker 2: failed to file charges within the legal time frame. Following
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  Speaker 2: his detention last week. Hooker spoke with several outlets for
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  Speaker 2: the first time Tuesday, proclaiming he would never harm Lynette
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  Speaker 2: and would not stop searching for her. I won't be
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  Speaker 2: able to stop looking.
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  Speaker 3: You want to keep looking for Nette.
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to need somebody with more authority to tell
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  Speaker 4: me to stop. I said, I'd never harm Lynette, and
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  Speaker 4: I never would harm Lynette, and I want to find Lynnette.
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  Speaker 4: No one has told me not to stop looking, and
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  Speaker 4: I'm gonna keep looking. My one job, and one job
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  Speaker 4: was to look out for her, and that has not happened.
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  Speaker 5: And I'm going to keep looking out for her now.
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  Speaker 4: It's best back.
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  Speaker 2: It was April fourth, near Elbow k when Hooker claims
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  Speaker 2: Lynette fell overboard from their dinghy while they were heading
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  Speaker 2: back to their anchored yacht.
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  Speaker 4: She basically just bounced off the dinghy in the middle
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  Speaker 4: of a little blow like twenty some that winds that
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  Speaker 4: popped up on a pretty cool half mile maybe trip
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  Speaker 4: back to the dinghy and angle thing failed every single thing.
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  Speaker 4: We weren't wearing my jackets. It was sundown, and the
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  Speaker 4: sun said like basically ten minutes after she fell over
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  Speaker 4: dingy killer with her because it wasn't clipped to anything
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  Speaker 4: or anybody, and she had the spare ding a key
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  Speaker 4: in her dry bag which was with her. The wind
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  Speaker 4: blew us apart so fast that I think I think
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  Speaker 4: she tried to swim back to the sailboat, to her
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  Speaker 4: back to our sailboat.
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  Speaker 2: Lynnette's family is painting a much darker picture. Her mother
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  Speaker 2: describes Hooker as a mean and hateful drunk, alleging Lynette
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  Speaker 2: had considered leaving him several times. The most chilling details
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  Speaker 2: come from Lynette's daughter, who claims Hooker has a history
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  Speaker 2: of violence, including a previous incident where he allegedly choked
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  Speaker 2: Lynette and threatened to throw her overboard. Public records back
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  Speaker 2: up a pattern of volatile behavior. In two thousand and five,
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  Speaker 2: Brian was charged with child abuse for allegedly choking his
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  Speaker 2: daughter from a previous relationship. Stepdaughter Carly Aylesworth, remembering the
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  Speaker 2: incident vividly, I've seen him choke out one of his
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  Speaker 2: daughters before and we had to go to court for that,
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  Speaker 2: and I was only in third grade.
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  Speaker 3: So he's just repeating patterns.
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  Speaker 2: Ten years later, a domestic dispute where Lynette claimed Brian
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  Speaker 2: choked her and punched her in the forehead during a
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  Speaker 2: drunken rage. Meanwhile, Hooker's attorney says Carly is not to
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  Speaker 2: be believed.
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  Speaker 3: She has a medical history that needs to be looked in.
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  Speaker 3: She's on certain medication, she can be easily influenced and
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  Speaker 3: that may be affecting what she's seeing as well as
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  Speaker 3: her grief at this time.
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  Speaker 2: As of today, the search for Lynette Hooker has officially
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  Speaker 2: shifted from a rescue to a recovery mission with Hooker's
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  Speaker 2: departure from the Islands. In a history of domestic allegation surfacing,
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  Speaker 2: many are left wondering if local authorities have made a mistake.
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  Speaker 2: More Crime and Justice news after this, A high stakes
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  Speaker 2: legal battle is heating up in the case against Tyler Robinson,
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  Speaker 2: who stands accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk. Attorneys for Robinson
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  Speaker 2: are now fighting to pull the plug on media access
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  Speaker 2: for a critical upcoming hearing. It's a move that's drawing
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  Speaker 2: a sharp rebuke from Kirk's widow. In a motion filed Sunday,
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  Speaker 2: Robinson's defense team is asking Judge Tony Graft to ban
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  Speaker 2: all still cameras, video cameras, and microphones from the courtroom
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  Speaker 2: on April seventeenth. On that day, Robinson is expected to
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  Speaker 2: be in court as both sides file a flurry of motions.
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  Speaker 2: Legal experts say the defense is using a hearing by
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  Speaker 2: hearing strategy by asking for a ban on just this
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  Speaker 2: one date, they avoid a blanket ruling that could allow
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  Speaker 2: cameras for the entire trial.
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  Speaker 6: There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered.
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  Speaker 6: There have been cameras all over my friends and family morning.
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  Speaker 6: There have been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move,
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  Speaker 6: panalyzing my every smile, my every tear. We deserve to
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  Speaker 6: have cameras in there. Why not be transparent. There's nothing
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  Speaker 6: to hide. I know there's not, because I've seen what
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  Speaker 6: the case is built on.
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  Speaker 2: Erica Kirk told Jess Waters that since the media has
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  Speaker 2: followed her grief, the public deserves to see the evidence.
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  Speaker 6: Let everyone see what true evil is. Let everyone see
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  Speaker 6: and know how it happened, how it even got to
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  Speaker 6: this point. This is something that could impact the generation
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  Speaker 6: and generations to come of understanding. There is never a
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  Speaker 6: justifiable moment for violence, especially political violence. And that's another
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  Speaker 6: reason why, too, I've been so open about certain private
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  Speaker 6: moments within our family. There's nothing to hide. Let the
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  Speaker 6: world see what I'm see.
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  Speaker 2: Robinson's defense also demanding a May eighteenth preliminary hearing be delayed,
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  Speaker 2: insisting they cannot move forward until all expert discovery is finalized. However,
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  Speaker 2: prosecutors filed a scathing response, claiming the defense is trying
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  Speaker 2: to confer rights upon itself that don't exist yet. They
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  Speaker 2: argue that full discovery is a right reserved for the
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  Speaker 2: actual trial, stating the defense has already been given more
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  Speaker 2: than enough leeway to prepare.
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  Speaker 1: Accounting or not counting getting finance.
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  Speaker 2: Oh Robinson is accused of lying in wait on a
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  Speaker 2: rooftop about three hundred yards from Kirk's Prove Me Wrong
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  Speaker 2: booth at Utah Valley University campus and firing a single
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  Speaker 2: shot that struck Kirk in the neck on September tenth.
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  Speaker 2: Robinson allegedly admitted to what he had done in text
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  Speaker 2: to his partner in the minutes after the shooting, remaining
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  Speaker 2: in the area in hopes of retrieving his grandfather's mouser
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  Speaker 2: ninety eight. With the release of more surveillance footage from campus,
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  Speaker 2: family members eventually recognized Robinson and convinced the twenty two
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  Speaker 2: year old to turn himself in.
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  Speaker 1: On the evening of September eleventh, a family member of
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  Speaker 1: Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted
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  Speaker 1: the Washington County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had
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  Speaker 1: confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.
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  Speaker 2: Judge Graff has yet to rule on the camera ban
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  Speaker 2: or the request for a delay. A complex legal battle
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  Speaker 2: is unfolding over the death of a twenty three year
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  Speaker 2: old Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte. After a state court ruled
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  Speaker 2: the suspect incompetent to stand trial, federal prosecutors are stepping
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  Speaker 2: in to ensure the case does in stall indefinitely. On
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  Speaker 2: August twenty second, twenty twenty five, Irena Zarutska was traveling
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  Speaker 2: on the Links Blue Line when, according to investigators, thirty
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  Speaker 2: four year old de Carlos Brown Junior pulled a knife
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  Speaker 2: and stabbed her three times without provocation. The sheer randomness
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  Speaker 2: of the attack left passengers in a state of shock.
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  Speaker 3: Charlotte nine one one police fire medic.
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  Speaker 4: You said a mail stout is the one for no reason?
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  Speaker 4: Did any met it? You believe it?
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  Speaker 6: Okay?
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  Speaker 2: Cal Brown was apprehended moments later, but the road to
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  Speaker 2: a conviction has hit a major snack. This week, court
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  Speaker 2: documents revealed that a state evaluation determined Brown is incapable
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  Speaker 2: to proceed in his upcoming criminal trial, effectively halting the
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  Speaker 2: North Carolina prosecution. The defense has pointed to a long
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  Speaker 2: history of mental illness, supported by Brown's own statements to
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  Speaker 2: authorities and family members. A year before the attack, Brown
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  Speaker 2: called nine to one one from a hospital claiming he
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  Speaker 2: was being manipulated by external forces, leading to a welfare
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  Speaker 2: check and Brown's arrest.
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  Speaker 7: My body got exposed to the SEIO. I need you
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  Speaker 7: guys to investigate.
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  Speaker 2: It's not if I get a mroy and they see
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  Speaker 2: what the see what it is, what they gonna say.
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  Speaker 7: We gotta get surgery and get that out so we
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  Speaker 7: can investigate what the.
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  Speaker 4: Hands on your back.
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  Speaker 3: He's being arrested for missus now on one.
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  Speaker 6: Right.
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  Speaker 7: As I told you, you didn't have a police saying
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  Speaker 7: that if you call back, I've had over some nonsense,
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  Speaker 7: we wouldn't have to arrest you for.
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  Speaker 3: Issus in nam on one.
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  Speaker 2: While the state case is stalled, the Department of Justice
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  Speaker 2: is moving forward. Assistant Attorney General Harmeit Dillon confirmed that
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  Speaker 2: the state's competency ruling is completely separate from federal proceedings.
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  Speaker 2: Brown remains in federal custody, and the US Attorney's Office
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  Speaker 2: in Charlotte is preparing for its own independent psychiatric evaluation.
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  Speaker 2: Even while behind bars. Brown has continued to deny personal
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  Speaker 2: responsibility for the killing. In a jailhouse call to his sister,
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  Speaker 2: he blamed his actions on materials he believes were implanted
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  Speaker 2: in his brain. Because Brown is in federal custody, the
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  Speaker 2: state's process for restoring his competency is currently on hold.
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  Speaker 2: The move by the doj ensures that even if the
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  Speaker 2: state case remains frozen, the federal charges provide a parallel
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  Speaker 2: path towards a resolution Utah where a judge has unsealed
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  Speaker 2: a ballistics report in the high profile assassination case of
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  Speaker 2: Tyler Robbinson. Robinson is accused of gunning down Charlie Kirk
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  Speaker 2: during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University
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  Speaker 2: in September twenty twenty five, allegedly perched on a rooftop
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  Speaker 2: where he fired a single fatal shot from his grandfather's
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  Speaker 2: mouse or rifle into a crowd of three thousand people bouncing.
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  Speaker 7: Or not conic gang wyss, Oh my god.
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  Speaker 2: The unsealed ATF report clarifies that while physical damage to
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  Speaker 2: a recovered bullet fragment prevented a conclusive match to the
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  Speaker 2: rifle's barrel, a spent thirty oh six cartridge case found
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  Speaker 2: on that rooftop was positively identified as having been fired
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  Speaker 2: from Robinson's weapon. Investigators also noted prone position impressions in
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  Speaker 2: the gravel where the shooter allegedly laid in wait. Furthermore,
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  Speaker 2: separate testing reportedly found Robinson's DNA on the weapon, a
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  Speaker 2: towel in several rounds of ammunition. Perhaps most chilling are
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  Speaker 2: the inscriptions found on those rounds. During a conference, Governor
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  Speaker 2: Spencer Cox read the messages that investigators say were engraved
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  Speaker 2: on the casings.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found
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  Speaker 1: with the rifle. Inscriptions on a fired casing read notices
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  Speaker 1: bulge's capital OWO, what's this question? Mark, inscriptions on the
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  Speaker 1: three unfired casings read hey fascist, exclamation point, catch, exclamation point,
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  Speaker 1: up arrow symbol, right arrow and symbol, and three down
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  Speaker 1: arrow symbols. A second unfired casing.
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  Speaker 5: Read oh belli chow bella chow bellachow chow chow, and
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  Speaker 5: a third unfired casing read if you read this, you
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  Speaker 5: are gay lmao.
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  Speaker 2: While the defense argues the inconclusive ballistics on the bullet
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  Speaker 2: fragment shows a weakness in the case, experts say it
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  Speaker 2: simply a result of the bullet hitting bone and breaking
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  Speaker 2: on impact. Robinson is due back court today for a
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  Speaker 2: hearing on his motion to bar cameras from future proceedings.
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  Speaker 2: He faces the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder.
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  Speaker 2: Federal charges have been unsealed against the sixteen year old
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  Speaker 2: stepbrother of Anna Kepner, the eighteen year old cheerleader found
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  Speaker 2: dead last November during a family vacation aboard a carnival
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  Speaker 2: cruise ship. The U. S. Attorney's Office for the Southern
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  Speaker 2: District of Florida announced Monday that the teenager, identified in
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  Speaker 2: court documents only by his initials THH, is facing counts
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  Speaker 2: of murder and aggravated sexual abuse. While the motion was
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  Speaker 2: initially filed under seal in February, the case was unsealed
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  Speaker 2: Friday following its transfer to adult prosecution. The tragedy unfolded
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  Speaker 2: on November seven, while the Carnival Horizon was in international waters.
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  Speaker 2: Returning to the port of Miami, Anna excused herself from dinner.
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  Speaker 2: Early surveillance footage showing Anna entering the room she shared
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  Speaker 2: with her brothers after eating. The teen boys came to
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  Speaker 2: the room before the youngest sibling ventured out again to explore,
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  Speaker 2: leaving Anna and their stepbrother alone. When he returned, he
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  Speaker 2: noted Anna wasn't in bed, but assumed she got a
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  Speaker 2: second wind and was spending more time with the adults.
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  Speaker 2: The next morning, panic ensued when Anna didn't meet her
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  Speaker 2: family for breakfast, as housekeepers made a horrifying discovery the
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  Speaker 2: teen's body wrapped in sheets and stuffed under her bed.
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  Speaker 2: According to the indictment, thh allegedly sexually assaulted and intentionally
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  Speaker 2: killed Anna. The Miami Dade Medical Examiner's Office has since
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  Speaker 2: ruled the cause of death as mechanical asphyxiation. Anna's youngest
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  Speaker 2: sibling reportedly heard fighting in the cabin the night of
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  Speaker 2: her death, telling her boyfriend the details.
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  Speaker 7: He heard him yelling at her, like in a harmful
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  Speaker 7: way of like shut the hell up and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 7: Like something was like banging around and stuff, and like
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  Speaker 7: the chairs were getting thrown around in the room.
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  Speaker 2: Joshua Too says Anna was afraid of her stepbrother, but dad,
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  Speaker 2: Chris Kepner, ignored his warnings.
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  Speaker 1: He says that I tried to tell the parents that
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  Speaker 1: this was happening, and they didn't want to believe me.
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  Speaker 1: He's like infatuated, attracted her like crazy. He's always one
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  Speaker 1: of the data.
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  Speaker 2: Captner spoke out yesterday, stating simply that justice needs to
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  Speaker 2: be served. He expressed frustration that THH has been released
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  Speaker 2: into the custody of a guardian rather than being held
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  Speaker 2: in a detention facility. Anna was a high school senior
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  Speaker 2: with dreams of cheerleading for the University of Georgia. Her
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  Speaker 2: family remembers her as a bubbly and reliable sister who
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  Speaker 2: loved her siblings deeply. As for the legal proceedings, the
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  Speaker 2: FBI is leading the ongoing investigation. Lawyers for THH and
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  Speaker 2: his biological father have not yet responded to requests for comment,
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  Speaker 2: while an attorney for his mother declined to comment. For
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the latest crime and justice breaking news, be sure to
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: follow the Crime Alert hourly update on your favorite podcast
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  Speaker 2: app with this Crime Alert. I'm Sidney Somni