Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Erbie Bowser: Salt deficiency blamed for Texas killing spree
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: It's been nearly three years now since a killing spree.
- 0:07Speaker 1: This span from the Soto to Dallas. Herbie Bowser accused
- 0:10Speaker 1: of murdering his estranged wife, a girlfriend, and their two daughter.
- 0:14Speaker 1: We say the former special education teacher killed his forty
- 0:17Speaker 1: three year old girlfriend Toias Smith and her daughter and Inn.
- 0:20Speaker 1: Fifteen minutes later, Bowser and accused of shooting is a
- 0:22Speaker 1: strange wine. Zeena Bowser and her daughter Yours heard Nema
- 0:26Speaker 1: Williams terrified whispers coat and a friend. They called it
- 0:29Speaker 1: to nine one one, no warning, no death bed. This
- 0:39Speaker 1: is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Chills in the murder
- 0:44Speaker 1: trial for former man's maniac Herbie Bowser. William's younger brothers
- 0:47Speaker 1: told juniors that the family turned off the lights and
- 0:50Speaker 1: kid for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Alan Duke.
- 1:01Speaker 1: We're following the case of Herbie Browser, a Dallas, Texas
- 1:04Speaker 1: man on trial for killing four women and wounding several
- 1:08Speaker 1: other people in a series of shooting rampages nearly four
- 1:11Speaker 1: years ago. Browser is not your normal serial killer. Basketball
- 1:16Speaker 1: fans in Dallas know him as the four hundred pound
- 1:19Speaker 1: cheerleader for the NBA Mavericks Mail Dance team. His nickname
- 1:24Speaker 1: e Love, but there was no love the night of
- 1:27Speaker 1: August seven, when Browser allegedly invaded the home of his
- 1:31Speaker 1: ex girlfriend, fatally wounding her and her teenage daughter. He
- 1:36Speaker 1: then drove to the nearby Dallas suburban town of DeSoto, Texas,
- 1:40Speaker 1: on a hunt for his ex wife. Police say he
- 1:43Speaker 1: tossed a grenade at her door as he ran in shooting,
- 1:47Speaker 1: he shot the ex wife and her daughter. They both died.
- 1:50Speaker 1: He also wounded her fourteen year old son and a
- 1:53Speaker 1: family friend. The shooting stopped only after Browser apparently ran
- 1:57Speaker 1: out of ammunition. When police arrived on the scene, they
- 2:00Speaker 1: said it looked like a war zone. Browser faced down
- 2:03Speaker 1: on the floor, apparently pretending to be a victim. When
- 2:06Speaker 1: they first questioned him, Browser kept repeating his name, his
- 2:10Speaker 1: army rank, and serial number. He served in the U. S.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Army for nine years back in the nineties, rising to
- 2:16Speaker 1: the rank of staff sergeant before he was booted out
- 2:18Speaker 1: of the military for being overweight. He stands six ft
- 2:22Speaker 1: seven and once weighed six hundred fifty pounds, although he
- 2:25Speaker 1: more recently weighed in at just four hundred. After leaving
- 2:28Speaker 1: the military, Browser became a special education teacher working for
- 2:32Speaker 1: a Texas school district from two thousand one to two
- 2:35Speaker 1: thousand and ten. What makes Browser's trial especially sensational is
- 2:40Speaker 1: his defense. His lawyers argue he's not guilty because he
- 2:44Speaker 1: was insane, a brain injury suffered playing high school football,
- 2:48Speaker 1: post traumatic stress disorder from his time as a soldier,
- 2:52Speaker 1: and Nancy, get this, a low level of sodium in
- 2:56Speaker 1: his blood combined to mess up his mind and turn
- 2:59Speaker 1: him into a serial killer. First there was the twinkie defense.
- 3:04Speaker 1: Then we had the PMS defense. Now we have the
- 3:09Speaker 1: low sodium intake defense. Oh yes, I'm not kidding. Four
- 3:15Speaker 1: people are dead, four body bags. The defense low sodium.
- 3:21Speaker 1: That's salt soy sauce. That's what I'm talking about. Allan,
- 3:26Speaker 1: What what low sodium? It's not just low sodium. This
- 3:30Speaker 1: gets even more bizarre because they're the defense for this
- 3:35Speaker 1: guy and this is in Dallas, Texas. He's forty eight
- 3:37Speaker 1: year old Rby Bowser. They said that it was a
- 3:41Speaker 1: perfect storm in his brain that caused him to kill
- 3:47Speaker 1: four women, including girlfriends and an estranged wife, and he
- 3:52Speaker 1: injured several of the kids and a couple of attacks.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Back in two thousand, Alan stop, Okay, so we just
- 4:00Speaker 1: happened to have a low sodium. Let me just say
- 4:04Speaker 1: sell when he was around women that had likely rejected him,
- 4:09Speaker 1: an ex wife, an ex girlfriend or girlfriend. So suddenly
- 4:16Speaker 1: when he's around then he does like such, Okay, go ahead.
- 4:21Speaker 1: It caused an insanity, this perfect storm, not just along
- 4:25Speaker 1: with the low sodium. They said when he was in
- 4:27Speaker 1: high school, he suffered a brain injury while playing football,
- 4:32Speaker 1: and he has a shrunken hippocampus. In addition to that,
- 4:37Speaker 1: he has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome disorder
- 4:40Speaker 1: from service in the U. S. Army. But like me,
- 4:43Speaker 1: I was in the Army. He never saw combat. So
- 4:47Speaker 1: how did that happen? But this created a perfect storm
- 4:51Speaker 1: in his brain that justifies this plea of not guilty
- 4:56Speaker 1: but insane. So Okay's claiming an old football in jury,
- 5:01Speaker 1: you know, hold on, wait a minute. One time I
- 5:02Speaker 1: pulled my hamstring when I was doing a backflip into
- 5:06Speaker 1: a split as a cheerleader. I wonder if that would work, Nancy,
- 5:11Speaker 1: It's not in your brain. Your tendon is not in
- 5:14Speaker 1: your brain. Oh, if I have hired this defense attorney,
- 5:17Speaker 1: it might be Okay, So he had a football injury,
- 5:21Speaker 1: then loads sodium intake for him. That happened to manifest
- 5:25Speaker 1: when he's around his ex wife and his girlfriend. Was
- 5:28Speaker 1: she an ex girlfriend or a girlfriend? It was his
- 5:32Speaker 1: ex wife and a strange girlfriend. Who are the targets
- 5:36Speaker 1: of this perfect storm? Will you quit? Okay? Stop stop? Stop?
- 5:40Speaker 1: What stop saying perfect storm? Okay, that's what the defense said. Well,
- 5:46Speaker 1: I'm mocking it, not to say it. Quit calling it
- 5:51Speaker 1: a perfect storm. That is a lie. Well, actually it's
- 5:54Speaker 1: a doctor. Dr Tony Strickland. He's a neuropsychologist and chief
- 5:58Speaker 1: executive officer of the Sports Concussion Institute. He said the
- 6:03Speaker 1: combination of those three issues created a neurobehavioral perfect storm
- 6:08Speaker 1: that gave rise to this tragic event. Unquote, how much
- 6:12Speaker 1: was he paid? You mean? These four tragic event, these
- 6:17Speaker 1: four tragic events. I want to pause and thank our sponsor,
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- 8:08Speaker 1: Simply Safe dot com slash Nancy. Who was the victims?
- 8:13Speaker 1: Kill me again? You've got the ex wife. It was
- 8:16Speaker 1: an ex wife that he told this psychiatrist that he
- 8:19Speaker 1: had been having frequent nightmares about choking her in his sleep,
- 8:24Speaker 1: and that was one of them. Her name was Zenna
- 8:28Speaker 1: Bowser and they were actually married. She's forty seven years old,
- 8:31Speaker 1: but also there was her twenty eight year old daughter.
- 8:34Speaker 1: Let me jump in right here to claim a temporary insanity.
- 8:39Speaker 1: That means you've had a sudden, uncontrollable impulse. If you're
- 8:43Speaker 1: having dreams about murdering someone, that is going to work
- 8:48Speaker 1: against the theory of a sudden uncontrollable impulse. I mean,
- 8:54Speaker 1: he's been dreaming, even thinking about strangling this woman, killing
- 8:57Speaker 1: her so much he's actually dreaming about it now. All right,
- 9:01Speaker 1: it could be that perfect storm, Nancy, a storm. You're
- 9:05Speaker 1: just like one of those trained parents. Did you give
- 9:08Speaker 1: it a cracker and then forever from that moment on
- 9:12Speaker 1: on once storm that was actually pretty good, Allen. Along
- 9:23Speaker 1: with the forty seven year old ex wife, Zena, her daughter,
- 9:26Speaker 1: twenty year old Nemo Williams, was killed. That was August
- 9:31Speaker 1: also killed Toya Smith three her daughter seventeen year old
- 9:36Speaker 1: Tasmia Alan. Addition to the victims, the ones that survived,
- 9:40Speaker 1: I guess that's the girlfriend, Yes, the girlfriend. Toya Smith
- 9:44Speaker 1: also shot Storm Malone Smith's son, her daughter's friend, Dasmond Mitchell,
- 9:51Speaker 1: along with Zena Bowser's two young sons. Somehow and all
- 9:55Speaker 1: of that it got lost in the soft I think
- 9:58Speaker 1: you're saying it trained her daughter, girlfriend and her daughter
- 10:03Speaker 1: or friend. I think it's what you're trying to say.
- 10:05Speaker 1: So for women, you know what, it's starting to sound
- 10:08Speaker 1: more and more like a misogynistic take mine, many, many
- 10:12Speaker 1: years ago, he has a football injury. Now for the
- 10:16Speaker 1: first time, after thinking about murdering his ex so much,
- 10:20Speaker 1: he starts to dreaming about it. He suddenly goes Loso
- 10:24Speaker 1: los Podium and he murders four women. Yeah, I'm not
- 10:30Speaker 1: buying the temporary insanity any more than I bought the
- 10:33Speaker 1: Twinkie defense or the p MS sense. No, no, what
- 10:37Speaker 1: about PTSD. According to the defense lawyers, he was acting
- 10:41Speaker 1: out a military delusion in the shootings that happened at night.
- 10:45Speaker 1: What's the delusion that he was in a military on
- 10:48Speaker 1: a military mission. What is his military background? What's his
- 10:52Speaker 1: army background? Did he ever see action? Oh, he saw
- 10:55Speaker 1: some action in the chow hall. He was honorably discharged
- 10:59Speaker 1: from the army in two thousand for being overweight. He
- 11:02Speaker 1: currently weighs four hundred pounds, but once weighed six hundred
- 11:07Speaker 1: and fifty pounds. There's no way he saw action. How
- 11:11Speaker 1: can he have PTSD if he never saw action? You
- 11:14Speaker 1: know what? You know now that's really making me mad
- 11:16Speaker 1: because now, not only did you kill four innocent women's
- 11:20Speaker 1: now the smirching everybody that has ever served in our
- 11:25Speaker 1: country by claiming this ridiculous PTSD. I totally agree with
- 11:31Speaker 1: the PTSD defense post traumatic stress syndrome, especially for vets.
- 11:37Speaker 1: But this guy never saw anything but the end of
- 11:41Speaker 1: the chow line. He may be a victim of Hamburger Hill,
- 11:44Speaker 1: but not the not the actual battle Hamburger Hill. You know,
- 11:48Speaker 1: my back store neighbor, Mr Talbot was on Hamburger Hill,
- 11:52Speaker 1: and I will never forget. He had three daughters and
- 11:55Speaker 1: his son and his wife goes to do our church
- 11:57Speaker 1: and making. And oh you know, to now claim p
- 12:02Speaker 1: t SC when he never saw action. You know, a
- 12:05Speaker 1: defense at trial, Alan, it's not a buffet. You can't
- 12:11Speaker 1: have PTSD and low salt and football injury and delusion. No,
- 12:19Speaker 1: you pretty much have to take a devance whether it's
- 12:21Speaker 1: true or not, and stick with it. You gotta go
- 12:24Speaker 1: home with the one that bring you. In other words,
- 12:26Speaker 1: he can't have all of this and just throw it
- 12:29Speaker 1: all at the jury, or you know, maybe they will
- 12:31Speaker 1: do that. It'll be a he's mistake. Some indication of
- 12:35Speaker 1: this guy's character. He told his family that he actually
- 12:38Speaker 1: was a ranger Ranger Special Forces in the Army. He
- 12:42Speaker 1: claimed he served tours of duty and Somalia Haiti and
- 12:46Speaker 1: was part of Desert Shield. He also said he had
- 12:49Speaker 1: a purple heart because he was wounded in combat, but
- 12:52Speaker 1: none of that according to his military records presented at
- 12:54Speaker 1: the trial. I mean he is lying. He never saw combat.
- 12:59Speaker 1: The only only medal he ever got was the Expert Marksmanship,
- 13:03Speaker 1: which is about the actually the only one of two
- 13:06Speaker 1: medals I ever got. A psychologist, a forensic psychologist by
- 13:09Speaker 1: the name of Robert Stamulus, says that his brain damage
- 13:14Speaker 1: that would be from the football in this perfect storm
- 13:17Speaker 1: affects his ability to make moral decisions and control his emotions.
- 13:22Speaker 1: That he was quote unable to appreciate that his conduct
- 13:25Speaker 1: was wrong that night, that he did all of these killings,
- 13:29Speaker 1: and that his mental illness combined with the low sodium
- 13:33Speaker 1: put him in a state of delirium. It wasn't eating
- 13:36Speaker 1: so much that caused this low sodium problem. The doctor
- 13:40Speaker 1: testified it could have been caused by a combination of
- 13:44Speaker 1: prescription drugs. He was taking anti anxiety medications, antidepressants, and
- 13:49Speaker 1: anti psychotic drugs. Okay, all right, I think I have
- 13:53Speaker 1: the picture. I don't think it's gonna work with the jury,
- 13:57Speaker 1: but I'm done that any asta. The doctor would even suggestice,
- 14:02Speaker 1: you know, Alan, I could go with PTSD. Okay, I
- 14:06Speaker 1: could go with it would take a lot, but I
- 14:08Speaker 1: could go with an actual brain injury. But if this
- 14:12Speaker 1: had never manifested before, and he suddenly goes crazy on
- 14:18Speaker 1: his ex wife and his girlfriend and whoever standing around,
- 14:21Speaker 1: and then suddenly snaps back to normal, I don't buy
- 14:27Speaker 1: any of that. Okay. Our eyes are all in the
- 14:29Speaker 1: courtroom as this guy actually tries to tell a jury
- 14:33Speaker 1: he committed quadruple promicide because of low sodium and an
- 14:39Speaker 1: old football injury and the p T s D he
- 14:43Speaker 1: suffered in the chow wine in the military. Okay, and Nancy,
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- 15:13Speaker 1: goodbye friends,