Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Perp Guns down Movie Goer in Theater After Popcorn Throw, WALKS FREE

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Perp Guns down Movie Goer in Theater After Popcorn Throw, WALKS FREE · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It's a big treat when
0:17
Speaker 1: we all go out to the movie. I get the twins,
0:21
Speaker 1: I get David. We load up on drinks and candy
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Speaker 1: and popcorn, the works, and we sit down and we
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Speaker 1: completely love every minute of it. But that is not
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Speaker 1: what happened in a Pasco County, Florida theater when shots
0:39
Speaker 1: ring out. I mean, Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
0:43
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
0:45
Speaker 1: and Sirius XM one eleven. When all the smoke cleared
0:49
Speaker 1: and the lights were turned on, there was a dead
0:53
Speaker 1: body in the cinema. Take a listen to our friends
0:57
Speaker 1: at WFTS. It was supposed to be a nice afternoon
1:00
Speaker 1: at the movies. Vivian Reeves and her husband Curtis there
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Speaker 1: to see a matinee of Lone Survivor. Their adult son
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Speaker 1: was on his way to meet them. But then when
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Speaker 1: the yelling started, Vivian says She's never been so scared
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Speaker 1: in all her life. Vivian Reeves testify today that inside
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Speaker 1: theater ten, she noticed Chad Olson in the seat in
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Speaker 1: front of her using his cell phone. Once the previews started,
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Speaker 1: she saw her husband lean forward and say something to him.
1:26
Speaker 1: She says. Olsen barked back. He used to work. He
1:30
Speaker 1: was very loud, and I think he's the word texting.
1:37
Speaker 1: And his daughter, she says, Reeves, a former police captain,
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Speaker 1: wouldn't let Olson's behavior go. He started to stand and
1:45
Speaker 1: he said, I'm going to go get the manager, and
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Speaker 1: I said, let's just move, and he just continued on.
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Speaker 1: How many times have scenes like that played out in
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Speaker 1: a cinema where somebody's on the phone, or somebody's xting,
2:01
Speaker 1: or just generally causing a disturbance, But for it to
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Speaker 1: rise to the level of a shootout like the Wild
2:10
Speaker 1: Wild West? When does that happen? Who are these people? Again?
2:15
Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us here on crime Stories. Let
2:17
Speaker 1: me introduce you an all star panel to make sense
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Speaker 1: of what we know right now. John W. Deal personal
2:23
Speaker 1: injury lawyer, high profile lawyer joining us out of that jurisdiction,
2:28
Speaker 1: Winter Park, Florida. Author of the method Proven Techniques for
2:32
Speaker 1: Winning jury trials. So you can find him at Johnwdal
2:35
Speaker 1: dot com. Renowned psychologists joining us out of Manhattan. Karen
2:39
Speaker 1: Start at Karen Start dot com. That's Karen with a
2:42
Speaker 1: See Greg Smith, longtime colleague, Special Deputy Sheriff Johnson County
2:48
Speaker 1: Sheriff's executive director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation, and you
2:52
Speaker 1: can find him at Kelsey's Army dot com. Doctor Kendall Crowns,
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Speaker 1: the chief medical Examiner and Tiering County. That's fort Worth Esteemed,
3:02
Speaker 1: a lecturer at University Texas and Texas A and M,
3:05
Speaker 1: and faculty at University Texas Medical School. But first to
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Speaker 1: Christy Missouri Emmy Award winning investigative reporter Christie MISSOURIK, I've
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Speaker 1: gone and investigated where this happened there at Wesley Chapel.
3:21
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful stretch of road, largely residential, but to
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Speaker 1: the point where people still have deer walking through their backyards.
3:33
Speaker 1: It's got just enough of that to make it seem
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Speaker 1: anything but urban for sure, affluent suburbia of Tampa. Tell
3:44
Speaker 1: me what we know about Wesley chap Let's just start
3:46
Speaker 1: with that. Well, you know, it's it's very picturesque. This
3:51
Speaker 1: is not a place that is riddled with crime, neighbors,
3:55
Speaker 1: no neighbors, So this wouldn't be a local where things
4:02
Speaker 1: would become a fatal shootout in a movie theater, in
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Speaker 1: a movie theater of all places. And there's something about
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Speaker 1: that too, Karen Stark. When you go into a cinema,
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Speaker 1: you kind of suspend your disbelief and you are into
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Speaker 1: the movie. I kind of compare it to, for instance,
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Speaker 1: being on a cruise ship. You're lulled into complacency. Your
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Speaker 1: attention is elsewhere, and everybody generally feels safe. Everybody's there
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Speaker 1: just to chill and see the movie, and people let
4:35
Speaker 1: their guard down. People are completely relaxed. As you said, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: if you think about, you know what's horrible events have
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Speaker 1: happened in movie theaters. What makes it even worse when
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Speaker 1: there's anything going on there that doesn't have to do
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Speaker 1: with watching the movie, is that no one even begins
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Speaker 1: to anticipate that something terrible would happen. You are entering
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Speaker 1: a place where you're looking at a great big screen,
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Speaker 1: and your sense of reality has now altered because you're
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Speaker 1: living through the movie. That's a good way to put it.
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Speaker 1: Your sense of reality is altered because your focus is
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Speaker 1: the movie and what's happening there. An altered sense of reality. Interesting, guys,
5:17
Speaker 1: take a listen now to our friends at WFTS. When
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Speaker 1: Reeves came back, he sat down, but his wife, says
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Speaker 1: Olsen went crazy. What did mister Olson say? You told
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Speaker 1: on me? Who do you think you are? She says
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Speaker 1: Olson stood up, leaned forward, and she thought he was
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Speaker 1: coming over the seats. She says she's blocked out what
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Speaker 1: happened next. I just didn't know what had happened, and
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Speaker 1: I just couldn't handle what happened. Reeves says her husband
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Speaker 1: told her Olsen hit him in the face. The defense
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Speaker 1: contends Olsen through his cell phone at him. That phone
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Speaker 1: was found on the floor. Meanwhile, as Olson lay dying,
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Speaker 1: and off duty deputy who happened to be in the
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Speaker 1: theater took Reeves gun. I said, what happened? You can't
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Speaker 1: shoot into a theater full of people something like that,
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Speaker 1: and he said not now. Yeah. And Vivian Reeves testified
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Speaker 1: today that she turned away before the shot. She didn't
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Speaker 1: see the popcorn fly. She did not see her husband
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Speaker 1: shoot that gun. Let me understand what exactly happened, because
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Speaker 1: Chrissy Missouri joining us. The shooter is Curtis Reeves and
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Speaker 1: he's seventy nine years old, sitting in a dark cinema
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Speaker 1: with wife Vivian, And as I understand that he's retired
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Speaker 1: law enforcement, then you've got Chad Olson forty three with
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Speaker 1: his wife Nicole. What ensued, Christie, Well, the Olson couple
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Speaker 1: is sitting in the roll ahead of the Reeves family.
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Speaker 1: The lights dim and the previous start rolling, and that's
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Speaker 1: when Chad Olson starts scrolling through his cell phone and
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Speaker 1: was texting a babysitter. That's when the retired member of
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Speaker 1: law enforcement kind of sits up in his seat and says, hey,
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Speaker 1: can you put your cell phone down? And this war
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Speaker 1: of words ensues, prompting Curtis Reeves to get up and
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Speaker 1: go and get the manager. Okay, hold on who So
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Speaker 1: seventy nine year old Reeves asks forty three year old
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Speaker 1: Olson to put down his cell phone because he's scrolling
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Speaker 1: through his phone, which is lighting up. I don't know
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Speaker 1: if he's texting, calling, or what he's doing. The movie
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Speaker 1: is starting and Reeves says, hey, put down your cell phone,
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Speaker 1: and Olson what says? No? What happened right there? Yeah?
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Speaker 1: Not so kindly of depending on whose testimony you believe me,
7:49
Speaker 1: have had a huge few harsh explicatives back to the
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Speaker 1: retired cop. And at that point, Reeves stands up to
7:58
Speaker 1: go and tell the manager, and he says I'm gonna
8:01
Speaker 1: go get the manager. That's all right. Then what happens
8:03
Speaker 1: he comes back into the theater. At that point, ched
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Speaker 1: Olsen cell phone is gone. So as Reeves sits down,
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Speaker 1: he said, well, you should have done that in the
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Speaker 1: first place, and I wouldn't have had to go and
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Speaker 1: get the manager. Oh, I bet that was pouring gas
8:19
Speaker 1: on the fire right there. That's correct. That's when the
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Speaker 1: argument errupt taking. Listen out at art CUTT eleven. This
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Speaker 1: is Gloria Gomez with Fox thirteen. Chad Olson's wife, Nicole
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Speaker 1: took the stand this afternoon and said that Reeves was
8:32
Speaker 1: rude and, like you said, was the aggressor. Now. She
8:36
Speaker 1: took the stand around three o'clock this afternoon. She described
8:39
Speaker 1: the moment that Reeves told her husband to put his
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Speaker 1: phone away, that he demanded that he put his phone away.
8:46
Speaker 1: She says, the next thing she remembers is her husband
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Speaker 1: pretty much ignoring him, and then after that, she says,
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Speaker 1: she remembers him standing up. When she remembers that, she
8:57
Speaker 1: says she doesn't remember too much. She felt something, but
9:01
Speaker 1: that's when prosecutors say that Chatt Olson actually grabbed a
9:05
Speaker 1: bag of popcorn threw it at Reeves. Reeves then pulled
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Speaker 1: out his gun, shot and killed Chatt Olson. This is
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Speaker 1: how she remembers it and what she told Did Jerry
9:14
Speaker 1: take a look. It felt like my hand was on fire,
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Speaker 1: just fire. It felt like my hand was blown off
9:24
Speaker 1: to John W. Deal joining US high profile lawyer out
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Speaker 1: of Florida. John. So often we see deadly shootings, other
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Speaker 1: types of homicides stemming out of every day occurrences, like
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Speaker 1: using a cell phone and a theater, somebody parking in
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Speaker 1: the handicapped spot, someone cutting somebody off, and then McDonald's
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Speaker 1: drive through. How often do you see a simple confrontation
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Speaker 1: or disagreement like that suddenly erupted into Hamas side. Well,
10:01
Speaker 1: you know, this is unfortunate, and I think it's you
10:04
Speaker 1: know again, like you've mentioned before, the Wild Wild West.
10:07
Speaker 1: I mean, a an altercation where people are disagreeing about
10:11
Speaker 1: texting and talking to the manager suddenly becomes a shootout,
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Speaker 1: and it's pretty shocking. Especially in Westley Chapel. I'm familiar
10:21
Speaker 1: with the area. It's really a bedroom type of community
10:24
Speaker 1: north of Tampa. It'd be similar to like Rodwell to Atlanta.
10:27
Speaker 1: It's a upper middle class area, very nice, should really mean,
10:31
Speaker 1: it's nice. Those lots and those homes, they're beautiful. And
10:35
Speaker 1: behind them, John W. Deal, you can see forest land
10:41
Speaker 1: and pastures. It's really pretty. Yeah, very picturesque. But certainly
10:47
Speaker 1: when you hear about shooting the movie theaters, you know,
10:50
Speaker 1: obviously it's happened in tragic situations like Aurora, but it's
10:54
Speaker 1: something like this, it's just really surreal. You know what
10:57
Speaker 1: the difference is though, because I immediately thought Aurora, which
11:01
Speaker 1: is a great little town my um. I learned to
11:05
Speaker 1: dive with a woman who lives in Aurora, so it
11:08
Speaker 1: has a special spot in my heart. In that case,
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Speaker 1: John Deal, didn't the perk at the subject, didn't the
11:15
Speaker 1: park go in like him swat gear. He meant to
11:19
Speaker 1: go in his scarybody in shoot them all, as opposed
11:22
Speaker 1: to a tiff over a cell phone. Oh absolutely, I
11:25
Speaker 1: mean that's when I first heard moves up as the joker.
11:28
Speaker 1: Oh that was him, Ye, right exactly. And he was
11:31
Speaker 1: mentally unstable clearly, and you know, committed a lot of
11:34
Speaker 1: murders there. He was just an a hole. I mean,
11:37
Speaker 1: you say potato, I say potato. Maybe a combination of
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Speaker 1: the boat, but certainly that's not a tip over somebody
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Speaker 1: texting the movie theater, which I'm guilty of myself, so
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Speaker 1: you know I have Actually I'm pretty sure had somebody
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Speaker 1: say my phone my cell phone rang or I was
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Speaker 1: talking to the twins and I said, and it did
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Speaker 1: irritate me. But I was caught red handed and I
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Speaker 1: just said sorry. I tried to stop what I was doing.
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Speaker 1: Uh right, I didn't think I was angry. Not then
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Speaker 1: I was angry. I was caught doing that, but I
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Speaker 1: wouldn't I found of like throwing my popcorn at the
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Speaker 1: person or starting and all. I like when you cut
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Speaker 1: somebody off and you you seriously don't mean to and
12:30
Speaker 1: they're all mad. I usually try as best as you
12:34
Speaker 1: can in traffic to you know, way would say, I'm sorry,
12:37
Speaker 1: But how does it escalate so quickly? And John, I
12:40
Speaker 1: always call you John W. Deal because there are probably
12:43
Speaker 1: other John deals. Um, yes, and it's deals and deal
12:48
Speaker 1: pickle correct, I said, the real deal. Okay, I'll go
12:54
Speaker 1: with that. So John, I'm getting to and I guess
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Speaker 1: I did a shrink on this as well. But in
13:00
Speaker 1: your practice you have a huge practice. Are you saying
13:04
Speaker 1: more and more escalation of conflict over simple things where
13:11
Speaker 1: you know before or if somebody cut you off in traffic,
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Speaker 1: you go beep, and that would be Yet now if
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Speaker 1: you go beep, you might just shot in the face,
13:19
Speaker 1: right absolutely, And you know what you mentioned before about
13:22
Speaker 1: the kind of the road rate situation in Florida, there's
13:25
Speaker 1: been quite a few cases where what was brought up
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Speaker 1: in this case as far as the standard ground law
13:31
Speaker 1: was used in a road rate situation as a defense.
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Speaker 1: So it's really things are escalating. It's not back when
13:39
Speaker 1: we were younger and maybe people would to shallow each
13:41
Speaker 1: other and that would be the end of it. Things
13:43
Speaker 1: escalate quickly, unfortunately and tragedy. What did you say about
13:47
Speaker 1: using road race what as a defense. No, Florida's standard
13:51
Speaker 1: ground law essentially, which was used by mister Reeves, has
13:55
Speaker 1: been used quite a bit in a road rate situation
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Speaker 1: when somebody comes out of the car or walks up
14:00
Speaker 1: to the car and the person in the car ends
14:02
Speaker 1: up shooting him and then they say, listen, I was
14:04
Speaker 1: afraid that he was going to commit a felony on
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Speaker 1: the end, that's the defense under Florida law. So that's
14:10
Speaker 1: basically played out here. It's really really gotten far afield
14:14
Speaker 1: of standing your ground, which I think goes all the
14:18
Speaker 1: way back to the Trayvon Martin case is one of
14:20
Speaker 1: the first times I heard stand your ground right, it's more,
14:25
Speaker 1: it's more, yes, ma'am, it's more. It's more. Quite a
14:27
Speaker 1: bit I think originally was the castle doctor and if
14:30
Speaker 1: somebody's breaking in your house, your home, right, exactly. But
14:34
Speaker 1: that's now morphed into somebody approaching you and you reasonably
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Speaker 1: think or you say, hey, I thought he was going
14:40
Speaker 1: to commit a felony against them, maybe with his popcorn. Right, Okay,
14:45
Speaker 1: all right, here we go. You know, Karen start what
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Speaker 1: about everyday situations now suddenly morphing into a homicide? I mean, Karen,
14:53
Speaker 1: you know how easy going my husband David is. Usually.
14:57
Speaker 1: Of course, something happens when he's behind the wheel of
15:01
Speaker 1: a car and he will like fuss at the other person.
15:06
Speaker 1: I have never seen him shoot a bird ever, but
15:10
Speaker 1: he'll fuss at the person and like speed up after them, like, well,
15:13
Speaker 1: you stopped, children, because I'm afraid they're gonna start shooting.
15:17
Speaker 1: For Pete's sake. That is not unusual, Nancy. We are
15:21
Speaker 1: a very mild, matted person. When you put them behind
15:24
Speaker 1: the wheel of a car. They get outraged and very stressed.
15:29
Speaker 1: Christ if you hit traffic and all of a sudden,
15:32
Speaker 1: they can't stand there. They're angry at the other person
15:34
Speaker 1: in the car. And I think that everything has escalated,
15:38
Speaker 1: particularly since COVID and people are here. Do you go
15:43
Speaker 1: you blame everything on COVID. This was all happening before
15:47
Speaker 1: COVID Care and Stark, Yes, but now it's even worse.
15:51
Speaker 1: You know, people people don't feel they have control over
15:54
Speaker 1: their lives, but when you're in a car, there's this feeling.
15:58
Speaker 1: You know, you're protected by your car, and it's a
16:02
Speaker 1: feeling of Okay, now I can take control. I'm in charge.
16:06
Speaker 1: And everybody they just had a trigger kind of a
16:10
Speaker 1: response to being cut off. Not everyone, but a lot
16:14
Speaker 1: of people. What about it, Greg Smith, you hear Karen
16:16
Speaker 1: Start and John Deal. You are the special Deputy sheriff
16:20
Speaker 1: in Johnson County. Are you saying more crime stemming out
16:25
Speaker 1: of what normally would have been just a polite disagreement. Well,
16:31
Speaker 1: crime is definitely up for a number of reasons. But yeah,
16:36
Speaker 1: it's I guess what you would or we would categorize
16:41
Speaker 1: as stupid. Stuff can escalate into a violent confrontation fairly quickly.
16:48
Speaker 1: Why that is why people feel the need to do that.
16:51
Speaker 1: If I had the answer, I could I could probably
16:53
Speaker 1: stop a lot of stuff. But I don't know what
16:55
Speaker 1: the answer is. Take a listen to our friends at
16:57
Speaker 1: Fox Certain Tampa Bay punish servation. Chad, he takes a
17:07
Speaker 1: couple of steps and he collapses. Are you concerned about
17:14
Speaker 1: your hand? Are your husband? Oh? My husband? I knew
17:18
Speaker 1: he was way worse than me. Chatt Olson died a
17:24
Speaker 1: few minutes after that. Prosecutors say Reeves was angry and
17:28
Speaker 1: he overreacted to popcorn being thrown in his face. But
17:31
Speaker 1: the defense says, no, that's not true. He was a
17:34
Speaker 1: seventy one year old man who feared for his life
17:37
Speaker 1: and had no choice but to shoot and kill Chattilson.
17:41
Speaker 1: So Christy, Missouri joining us Emmy Award winning investigative reporter.
17:47
Speaker 1: The wife Nicole was she also shot in the hand, then, correct,
17:53
Speaker 1: she tried to deflect the bullet. I'm just sheer fear
17:59
Speaker 1: and reaction. When the gun came out, she put her
18:03
Speaker 1: hand up and the bullet blasted through her hand and
18:06
Speaker 1: eventually into Chad Olson's chest. So we're hearing the side
18:11
Speaker 1: of the Olsen's Chad Olsen and wife Nicole. Chad Olson
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Speaker 1: is a forty three year old dad who was texting
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Speaker 1: during the movie. The retired cop Curtis Reeves seventy nine,
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Speaker 1: and wife Vivian, sitting right directly behind him, say hey,
18:28
Speaker 1: turn off your phone. An argument ensues. Reeves gets up
18:33
Speaker 1: and goes to get the manager. When he comes back,
18:36
Speaker 1: Olson furious that he had quote told on him. Let's
18:40
Speaker 1: hear their side of what happened. Takeing us our cut
18:44
Speaker 1: thirteen from WFTS. During hours long testimony Thursday, Curtis Reeves
18:49
Speaker 1: told a jury, well he remembered in the moments before
18:52
Speaker 1: and after he shot Chad Olson eight years ago, after
18:56
Speaker 1: an argument over the use of a cell phone. When
18:58
Speaker 1: I realized that it wasn't going to go often that
19:01
Speaker 1: it was still shining my face, I leaned over and
19:05
Speaker 1: requested that he turned his phone off. Reeves told a
19:07
Speaker 1: jury he got profanities as a response back. He said
19:10
Speaker 1: he went to management and the situation later escalated. At
19:14
Speaker 1: some point, Reeves told the jury he believed he'd been hit,
19:18
Speaker 1: describing Olsen during his testimony as volatile. I've never been
19:23
Speaker 1: encountered by somebody exhibiting that uncontrolled anger or rage, and
19:30
Speaker 1: all of the perceptors that you could imagine, whether it's verbal,
19:35
Speaker 1: physical expression at some point that at that time, I
19:41
Speaker 1: had no other choice, and I reached the frolif pristim
19:45
Speaker 1: no other choice. He says that he was afraid he
19:52
Speaker 1: had been hit. He described Olson as volatile, that Olson
19:59
Speaker 1: was had uncontrolled anger and rage, and that everything he
20:05
Speaker 1: observed verbally, physically, expression wise made him believe he had
20:10
Speaker 1: no choice but to pull his gun in the theater
20:14
Speaker 1: and shoot. Take a listen to more of their side
20:19
Speaker 1: our cup fourteen wfts. Reese told a jury he didn't
20:22
Speaker 1: want to shoot anybody. Did you shoot mister Olson because
20:27
Speaker 1: of harkness? Shout mister Olson because I thought he was
20:31
Speaker 1: gonna seriously injured me or potentially kill me. State prosecutors
20:39
Speaker 1: hit back, pressing Reeves on his de escalation training as
20:42
Speaker 1: a former officer. The state also questioned Reeves over his
20:46
Speaker 1: previous statements and how he claims the situation unfolded. You're
20:50
Speaker 1: testifying that there's a and he came out of six
20:53
Speaker 1: foot four six foot four Chad Olson, who's full of rage,
20:57
Speaker 1: is virtually on top of you, and he punches you
21:01
Speaker 1: or he's you hard with a cell phone so much
21:03
Speaker 1: so that your days. Yes, you easily bruise and there's
21:07
Speaker 1: not a single mark on your face. That's what someone
21:12
Speaker 1: dreamy believe. Yes, I do crime stories with Nancy Grace.
21:28
Speaker 1: Straight out to doctor Kendall Crowns, the chief medical examer,
21:32
Speaker 1: and join us out of Tarrant County. That's Houston, doctor
21:36
Speaker 1: Kendall Crowns. If Reeves had been hit in the face
21:40
Speaker 1: with a cell phone, would there have been a mark?
21:43
Speaker 1: There should have been. I mean a cell phone is
21:46
Speaker 1: heavy enough, I'm throwing hard enough. There should have been
21:48
Speaker 1: some sort of injury on his face from it. But
21:52
Speaker 1: there's potential that if it hit hit a broad enough
21:56
Speaker 1: the area and the force of the cell phone kitting
22:00
Speaker 1: the face was spread out of a lot enough surface
22:03
Speaker 1: area that it caused more thought tissue damage than it
22:07
Speaker 1: did again damage right, maybe on the cheek. If the
22:14
Speaker 1: sault hit some flat on the cheek, potentially it wouldn't
22:17
Speaker 1: have caused the bruise. They may have caused a saut
22:20
Speaker 1: tissue or some cutaneous tissue hemorrhage with not surface bruising.
22:25
Speaker 1: But that's if it hits flat and on like the cheek,
22:27
Speaker 1: but if it hits on a corner, it should have
22:29
Speaker 1: caused an injury. What do we know about forty three
22:32
Speaker 1: year old Chad Olsen's gunshot wound? What can you tell
22:37
Speaker 1: us about that? So ye had a gunshot wound of
22:39
Speaker 1: the chest, so potentially the gunshot would would have involved
22:43
Speaker 1: his lung or his heart. The fact that he walked
22:48
Speaker 1: a few feet after he got shot. He didn't die immediately,
22:52
Speaker 1: but he probably was bleeding into his chest cavity as
22:56
Speaker 1: he was walking right before he collapsed. So it's essentially
23:00
Speaker 1: hit his long and as hard he's going to have
23:02
Speaker 1: trouble breathing, he's going to be coughing up blood, and
23:06
Speaker 1: then he's going to die with an up two minute
23:08
Speaker 1: Why would he be coughing up bloody? Time to get
23:10
Speaker 1: hit the chest and it compromises your long with the
23:14
Speaker 1: airways to go unto your long and start getting timbridge
23:17
Speaker 1: in then and then you start kind of it cause
23:20
Speaker 1: of irritation, and then it causes you to cough and
23:23
Speaker 1: that causes you to start coughing up blood. Take a
23:27
Speaker 1: listen to our cut one. This is Matt Gutman, our
23:30
Speaker 1: friend at ABC. The Olsen's were enjoying a rare night out.
23:33
Speaker 1: It was just so excited and looking forward to spending
23:36
Speaker 1: the day with the love of my life. Before the
23:38
Speaker 1: movie started, the screen lit up with that now familiar announcement,
23:42
Speaker 1: turn your phones off. Really, this is the most important
23:45
Speaker 1: scene in your cell phone rings. Chett Olsen sent one
23:48
Speaker 1: less text to the babysitter. The prosecutors say that annoyed
23:51
Speaker 1: the man sitting behind him, retired police Captain Curtis Reeves.
23:55
Speaker 1: Police say the two men started arguing, then stood up.
23:58
Speaker 1: At that point, Olson threw corn at Reeves, Reeves pulled
24:01
Speaker 1: his handgun, fired, and feel as Reeves was charged with
24:05
Speaker 1: second degree murder. He's now claiming self defense. He was
24:09
Speaker 1: hid in the face with an unknown object at that
24:12
Speaker 1: point in time. He has every right to defend himself.
24:15
Speaker 1: What Attorney Mark Eyeglarsh says that won't hold watch The
24:18
Speaker 1: problem is that popcorn traditionally isn't recognized as a deadly weapon. Okay,
24:23
Speaker 1: you are hearing not only Matt Gutman, our friend at ABC,
24:26
Speaker 1: but also Attorney Richard Escobar and Mark Eyeglash. So I
24:32
Speaker 1: guess I'm not understanding the facts, even though they've been
24:36
Speaker 1: laid out in court. There's a lot of confusion over them,
24:39
Speaker 1: Christy Missouri. Number one, did Olson just throw popcorn or
24:45
Speaker 1: did he strike Reeves in the face in the dark
24:48
Speaker 1: with a cell phone? Which one based on you know,
24:52
Speaker 1: the Olson family testimony it was just popcorn, based on
24:57
Speaker 1: Curtis Reeves and his family members glasses were rescued and
25:01
Speaker 1: the cell phone was found on the ground. And the
25:04
Speaker 1: Reeves family also argued they felt that Chad Olsen was
25:10
Speaker 1: going to jump the chairs at Curtis reads that's what
25:16
Speaker 1: eventually made him pull out his thirty caliber pisture. Have
25:20
Speaker 1: you seen Chad Olson? Have you actually seen a picture
25:25
Speaker 1: of him? Because right now I'm looking at him standing
25:28
Speaker 1: by his wife, and in this picture, I swear he
25:31
Speaker 1: looks like he's six foot seven. Have you seen the picture? Oh,
25:33
Speaker 1: he's a big man, taller than that. He is a
25:38
Speaker 1: big guy. Typically Now, anyway, there is surveillance video, security,
25:44
Speaker 1: surveillance video, especially in cinemas. After the incident that John
25:48
Speaker 1: Deal brought up in Aurora, the theater shooting in a
25:52
Speaker 1: ror that claimed many many lives. And that wasn't it correct,
25:56
Speaker 1: Christy missourik wasn't their video surveillance in this case as well. Yes,
26:01
Speaker 1: take a listen to our friends at WFTS well. This
26:03
Speaker 1: new video shows how all this played out from multiple
26:06
Speaker 1: cameras set up around the movie theater. Immediately after the shooting,
26:11
Speaker 1: we see people run from theater ten pointing to someone
26:15
Speaker 1: off screen. But before the shooting, before Chad Olson and
26:19
Speaker 1: Curtis Reeves ever even met each other, we see Reeves
26:22
Speaker 1: and his wife walk in after buying their tickets before
26:24
Speaker 1: the shooting. We also see Reeves leave the theater and
26:27
Speaker 1: go talk to an employee at the front desk. In court. Friday,
26:30
Speaker 1: we saw this video for the first time when Olson
26:33
Speaker 1: supposedly throws popcorner Reeves before Reeves pulls a gun and fires.
26:38
Speaker 1: This new angle from a camera on the opposite side
26:40
Speaker 1: of the theater shows people rushing to help Olson after
26:43
Speaker 1: the shooting, while Reeves is seated next to an off
26:46
Speaker 1: duty officer. We spoke to a legal expert about the
26:49
Speaker 1: video this afternoon, specifically about that moment Reeves goes to
26:52
Speaker 1: talk to that theater employee. We also see mister Reeves
26:55
Speaker 1: come out of the theater. We see him approach the
26:58
Speaker 1: man who is at the service desk, and it would
27:01
Speaker 1: appear that the man at the service desk, although we
27:03
Speaker 1: had a conversation with him, took no action as a
27:06
Speaker 1: result of mister Reeves coming out to see him. And
27:08
Speaker 1: it's very clear mister Reeves is agitated. So you know,
27:13
Speaker 1: I was missing right there, Greg Smith, any visual Olson
27:20
Speaker 1: hitting Reeves in the face with a cell phone or
27:22
Speaker 1: hitting him at all, I didn't hear that. I didn't either.
27:25
Speaker 1: And there's so many things that consider here. I mean,
27:29
Speaker 1: you're in a movie theater. It's dark already because they've
27:31
Speaker 1: already started running something on the screen. You have two
27:35
Speaker 1: people with a confrontation with the person that at least
27:41
Speaker 1: fired the weapon is facing the screen, so his view
27:44
Speaker 1: of what's in front of him could be distorted changed
27:47
Speaker 1: just because of the backlighting. I mean, it's it's a
27:50
Speaker 1: weird environment to be in to have a firefight, not
27:53
Speaker 1: that it's uncommon for firefights to occur in weird situations.
27:58
Speaker 1: And what you see and what you perceive are the
28:02
Speaker 1: things that the court looks at in those situations. So
28:05
Speaker 1: it's it's difficult to make a judgment call here on
28:09
Speaker 1: what really happened because we really don't have the evidence
28:11
Speaker 1: to see what really happened. And as so many other
28:14
Speaker 1: the panelists who said there, you know a cell phone
28:18
Speaker 1: can cause a lot of damage. This is a big guy. Um,
28:23
Speaker 1: maybe it was just a simple he threw his popcorn
28:25
Speaker 1: at him and he overreacted. We just don't know, um,
28:29
Speaker 1: And so it's very, very difficult. You know, I'd love
28:32
Speaker 1: to see like a frame by frame of the security
28:35
Speaker 1: video that you know, it might provide I'm sure they
28:38
Speaker 1: did that in court, but it might provide some information.
28:41
Speaker 1: John W. Dal, how difficult is it to enhance the
28:43
Speaker 1: video of this nature. It's not. It's not as difficult
28:47
Speaker 1: as he used to be, certainly with all the digitals,
28:49
Speaker 1: it being a little bit more dark, maybe difficult. Um,
28:52
Speaker 1: you know, I think what it really comes down to
28:55
Speaker 1: is just mister Read saying that he believed he was
28:58
Speaker 1: in danger seems to be the defense. Well, just because
29:01
Speaker 1: you think you're in danger. I mean it goes back
29:05
Speaker 1: to the theory in law school of the eggshell head.
29:09
Speaker 1: Some people have more propensity to, let's just say, crack
29:12
Speaker 1: their skull. That's true, but that doesn't mean it's reasonable
29:16
Speaker 1: to believe if you fall down, you're gonna fracture your skull.
29:20
Speaker 1: I mean, I could claim right now I mean fear
29:22
Speaker 1: that Jackie's gonna jump over the electronics board and shoot
29:26
Speaker 1: me in the head. But is that reasonable? Is that real? True? Okay,
29:33
Speaker 1: then we have, of course, let me just go ahead
29:38
Speaker 1: and throw another wrench in this another wrinkle. Take a
29:45
Speaker 1: listen to our cut. Six wfts years before Curtis Reeves
29:50
Speaker 1: shot and killed Chattelson inside a movie theater, Edward Thompson
29:53
Speaker 1: says he also had a confrontation with the retired police
29:56
Speaker 1: captain in twenty fourteen. Thompson told ABC Action News he
30:00
Speaker 1: and a woman were at the Zephyr Hills Theater talking
30:02
Speaker 1: quietly in the back road during the previews. Reeves was
30:05
Speaker 1: close by in the stat and it turns like this
30:10
Speaker 1: and looks back towards us, and he says, why don't
30:16
Speaker 1: you shut up? Thompson says he politely asked Reeves to
30:19
Speaker 1: find another seat, but Reeves responded saying, this is my sheet,
30:23
Speaker 1: and I said shut up. I talked to Thompson today.
30:27
Speaker 1: He says he's watching the case closely. Even though he
30:30
Speaker 1: moved to Iowa. He says no one has contacted him
30:32
Speaker 1: about testifying. I wrote a letter to the safe Attorney
30:36
Speaker 1: about a month ago and fully. Well, thanksgi me. It
30:41
Speaker 1: s me twollow our notice and I'll be there and
30:43
Speaker 1: murge up the back. Okay, I would say, Karen Start,
30:47
Speaker 1: that's a reliable witness. You know why because in a witness,
30:51
Speaker 1: I look for detail, any detail that was very detailed.
30:57
Speaker 1: And also, this guy remembers Raves all these years later.
31:03
Speaker 1: He's even moved to another state, he sees his singers.
31:06
Speaker 1: That's the same guy. That sounds believable to me. It
31:09
Speaker 1: tends believable to me too, especially Nancy, since he said
31:13
Speaker 1: he's willing to go back, that they should contact him
31:17
Speaker 1: and testify against the sky. So obviously he had an
31:21
Speaker 1: experience that stuck in his mind because it was that outrageous.
31:27
Speaker 1: The response was not pleased, be quiet. And you know
31:30
Speaker 1: what else I think, Karen Start, I think sometimes you
31:34
Speaker 1: feel powerless that you've got a bully bussing you, maybe
31:38
Speaker 1: in front of your family in the theater. There's really
31:40
Speaker 1: nothing you can do about it. That kind of sticks
31:42
Speaker 1: with you. Yeah, I think you're right, Nancy, And I
31:45
Speaker 1: think that, you know, humiliating because the person didn't say
31:50
Speaker 1: please turn it off or speak nicely. He was a bullet,
31:54
Speaker 1: just like you said. And then He's left with this
31:57
Speaker 1: memory in his mind of some who just went out
32:01
Speaker 1: of their way to frighten him in a movie theater
32:04
Speaker 1: for no reason. Really, And as we hear him saying,
32:07
Speaker 1: he heard nothing back from the state prosecutor. So I
32:10
Speaker 1: guess the jury never heard about that. Well, that's not all.
32:15
Speaker 1: I hope you're sitting down. I'll take a listen our
32:17
Speaker 1: cut seven from WFTS. Also in twenty fourteen, ABC Action
32:21
Speaker 1: News interviewed Michael and Jamira Dixon about an incident they
32:24
Speaker 1: say happened just weeks before Reeves killed Olson. The Dixons
32:28
Speaker 1: say at the same theater in Wesley Chapel. Reeves was
32:30
Speaker 1: also barking at them about texting during the previews. He's like,
32:34
Speaker 1: can you do me a favor? Can you please just
32:37
Speaker 1: stop texting? Dixon says Reeves actually followed her out when
32:41
Speaker 1: she went to the bathroom. I was like, oh my god,
32:43
Speaker 1: what is wrong with this guy. After Reeves was arrested,
32:46
Speaker 1: both Thompson and the Dixons told us they instantly recognized
32:49
Speaker 1: him as the same man they had dealt with. All
32:52
Speaker 1: of them have spoken with authorities in the past, but
32:54
Speaker 1: it does not appear and he will be asked to
32:56
Speaker 1: testify in the trial. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Also
33:14
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, ABC Action News interviewed Michael and Jamira
33:18
Speaker 1: Dixon about an incident they say happened just weeks before
33:21
Speaker 1: Reeves killed Olson. The Dixons say at the same theater
33:24
Speaker 1: in Wesley Chapel. Reeves was also barking at them about
33:27
Speaker 1: texting during the previews. He's like, can you do me
33:30
Speaker 1: a favor? Can you please just stop texting? Dixon says
33:34
Speaker 1: Reeves actually followed her out when she went to the bathroom.
33:37
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, what is wrong with
33:39
Speaker 1: this guy. After Reeves was arrested, both Thompson and the
33:42
Speaker 1: Dixons told us they instantly recognized him as the same
33:45
Speaker 1: man they had dealt with. All of them have spoken
33:48
Speaker 1: with authorities in the past, but it does not appear
33:51
Speaker 1: and he will be asked to testify on the trial.
33:54
Speaker 1: John Deal. That's what you call similar transactions, cases where
33:59
Speaker 1: there may not have been an arrast or a conviction,
34:03
Speaker 1: or maybe there was, and you use them at trial
34:07
Speaker 1: to show remous method of operation, modus operandi, frame of
34:12
Speaker 1: my course of conduct. And here we see the same
34:16
Speaker 1: thing happening, not just once before, but twice before that
34:20
Speaker 1: we can verify absolutely. I mean it's called you know,
34:23
Speaker 1: in Florida Williams rural evidence or in the federal system
34:26
Speaker 1: four full be evidence. But it's exactly the type of
34:29
Speaker 1: evidence that would Rebut this thing I would say to
34:32
Speaker 1: fear with from my life. It almost looks like this gentleman,
34:37
Speaker 1: based on those folks, was kind of looking for a fight,
34:40
Speaker 1: you know, maybe wanting some reaction certainly, which tend to
34:44
Speaker 1: show that this wasn't just an innocent man just sitting
34:47
Speaker 1: there attack the popcorn. Suddenly that there's probably something else
34:50
Speaker 1: operating going on, and being has a gun with them.
34:53
Speaker 1: That would be key evidence. I would think. Maybe people
34:56
Speaker 1: questioning the testimony of Olsen's wife, Nicole, but listen to
35:02
Speaker 1: what she had to say. This is our cut to wfts,
35:06
Speaker 1: her voice shaky, the emotion almost instantly pouring out. Nicole
35:11
Speaker 1: Olson spoke for just about two minutes, seated right here
35:13
Speaker 1: at this conference table, as her left arm was bandaged
35:16
Speaker 1: in a soft pink cast. Remember she was shot too,
35:19
Speaker 1: she says, trying to shield her husband from the gunfire.
35:22
Speaker 1: Listen es Nicole takes us back to that afternoon when
35:24
Speaker 1: she says an argument over texting escalated to her husband
35:28
Speaker 1: being shot to death. Me and my husband didn't get
35:32
Speaker 1: a date night very often, much less the whole day
35:34
Speaker 1: to spend together. So I was just so excited and
35:37
Speaker 1: looking forward to spending a day with the love of
35:39
Speaker 1: my life, you know, at a place of entertainment, family entertainment.
35:44
Speaker 1: And just to think that, in the blink of an eye,
35:46
Speaker 1: my whole world just got shattered into a million pieces.
35:51
Speaker 1: And now I'm left trying to pick them up and
35:52
Speaker 1: put them all back together. And it's so hard and
35:56
Speaker 1: it's so unbearable. But I want to thank you all.
35:58
Speaker 1: And Nicole went on to tell us her focus now
36:01
Speaker 1: will remain on her young daughter, alexis a girl too
36:03
Speaker 1: young to understand why her father is now gone. Now,
36:07
Speaker 1: what you're hearing is typically something lawyers tell their clients
36:10
Speaker 1: not to do. That was Nicole Olsen speaking just a
36:17
Speaker 1: week or so right after the shooting. You don't normally
36:22
Speaker 1: want a witness to do that because even if they
36:24
Speaker 1: get one fact wrong or they leave something out that
36:28
Speaker 1: will be used against them at trial and cross examination,
36:32
Speaker 1: as if they're making up the story, you're adding to
36:34
Speaker 1: it or changing it. But the emotion in her voice
36:38
Speaker 1: seems very real. To doctor Kennel Crown's what does this
36:43
Speaker 1: sound like happen to the wife, Nicole Olson's hand, It
36:47
Speaker 1: sounds like she was trying to either she had her
36:52
Speaker 1: hand on her husband's chot for whatever reason, and the
36:57
Speaker 1: bullet passed through one of her fingers, so potentially she
37:01
Speaker 1: could have lost the finger. It could have been severed off.
37:04
Speaker 1: But it sound like she had extensive tissue damage and
37:07
Speaker 1: probably must feel scalable damage to her hand or a finger.
37:12
Speaker 1: That pain must have been intense, But she says she
37:15
Speaker 1: immediately ran to her husband, who was obviously in much
37:19
Speaker 1: worse shape than she was. Doctor Kendall Crowns is there
37:24
Speaker 1: are a lot of arteries on the body which if
37:27
Speaker 1: severed or punctured you'll die. You've got, of course, the
37:31
Speaker 1: carotid artery, you have the femoral artery in your leg.
37:38
Speaker 1: What I guess you're risked what other major vein would
37:44
Speaker 1: cause a bleed out immediately, even if it's for instance,
37:47
Speaker 1: in the arm or the leg. Arm or leg, you
37:50
Speaker 1: can get the radial artery in the arm, and her
37:53
Speaker 1: own artery in the arm can cause a lot of
37:56
Speaker 1: loss of blood. In a quick fashion. Where is that
37:59
Speaker 1: on your arm? The older or the radial, It would
38:01
Speaker 1: be kind of in here four arm, near the crease
38:04
Speaker 1: of your elbow going down. Okay, the leg. There's also
38:08
Speaker 1: the pumplteel artery, which is behind your knee path or
38:12
Speaker 1: behind your knee. Basically it's a fairly good sized artery
38:17
Speaker 1: that you're going to bleed out from that as rapidly
38:20
Speaker 1: as like your fmoral artery, and it's still going to
38:23
Speaker 1: be a major bleeder. Where's the phameral on your leg?
38:26
Speaker 1: Inter side? Interside? Okay? And I was just thinking about
38:30
Speaker 1: the wife Nicole being shot and how many people think, oh,
38:35
Speaker 1: well that's a minor. It's not really always a minor.
38:38
Speaker 1: When you get shot on an appendance, you can actually
38:41
Speaker 1: bleed out very quickly with some of the arteries that
38:44
Speaker 1: doctor Kendall Crowns was describing. So regarding the enhancement of
38:49
Speaker 1: the videotape, you're hearing, first of all, Nicole Olson describing
38:54
Speaker 1: a very very emotional time after her husband is shot
39:00
Speaker 1: down in a movie theater. But what does the hard
39:03
Speaker 1: evidence show? Take a listen to cut three wfts when
39:08
Speaker 1: that tape was played, the lights in a quarter room
39:11
Speaker 1: where turned down. We looked over to Curtis Reeves and
39:13
Speaker 1: saw that he was in fact watching this tape. We
39:15
Speaker 1: spoke to our legal expert, an expert about the tape
39:18
Speaker 1: on what he saw when he watched it. At first glance,
39:21
Speaker 1: the camera inside theater ten seems to show empty seats,
39:25
Speaker 1: but look close toward the bottom right, you can see
39:27
Speaker 1: an interaction between two men, Curtis Reeves and Chad Olson.
39:32
Speaker 1: The defense says Olson first threw his cell phone at Reeves.
39:35
Speaker 1: They played this looped video in court and say the
39:38
Speaker 1: small flash of light is the phone. Moments later, the
39:42
Speaker 1: confrontation turned deadly. We asked our legal expert, Jeff Schwartz,
39:46
Speaker 1: what he saw when he watched the video. Mister Olsen
39:49
Speaker 1: gets up, reaches across his seat, grabs mister Reeves's popcorn,
39:55
Speaker 1: and throws his own popcorn at him, and almost instantaneously,
39:58
Speaker 1: mister Reeves pulls his gun and fires. Wow. So you
40:01
Speaker 1: do see the throwing of the cell phone, but throwing
40:05
Speaker 1: the cell phone is not hitting him or beating him
40:07
Speaker 1: in the face with the cell phone. All of these
40:10
Speaker 1: questions played over and over in the minds of the jurors,
40:15
Speaker 1: and it culminates, take a listen to our cuts sixteen,
40:20
Speaker 1: did please publish the verding in the courts of the
40:23
Speaker 1: sixth Judicial Circuit in and four of Pascoe County, Florida,
40:27
Speaker 1: State of Florida versus Curtis Judson Reeves, Count one murder
40:32
Speaker 1: in the second degree verdict. We the jury finds, as follows,
40:37
Speaker 1: the defendant is not guilty. So say we all this
40:41
Speaker 1: twenty fifth day of February twenty twenty two. Juror number
40:46
Speaker 1: two four person, count two aggravated battery verdict. We the
40:52
Speaker 1: jury finds, as follows, the defendant is not guilty. So
40:57
Speaker 1: say we all this twenty fifth day of February twenty
41:01
Speaker 1: twenty two, journ Number two for a person not guilty.
41:07
Speaker 1: That not guilty has reverberated across the state. What about it?
41:12
Speaker 1: Christie Mazurik, Well, though the judge in this trial really
41:17
Speaker 1: pushed back against the stand your ground defense, and now
41:21
Speaker 1: gun control activists are starting to band together as we speak, Nancy,
41:27
Speaker 1: to try to repeal stand your ground laws, not only
41:30
Speaker 1: in Florida, but the over thirty of them within the
41:34
Speaker 1: US that are on the books. We wait as just
41:38
Speaker 1: as unfolds, but for the family of Chad and Nicole Olson.
41:43
Speaker 1: That is the end. There is no way to appeal
41:48
Speaker 1: an acquittal. Goodbye friend,