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JUSTICE! LAKEN RILEY MURDER SUSPECT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace guilty, guilty on all accounts,
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Speaker 1: illegal immigrant Jose Ebarra guilty, and the brutal murder of
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Speaker 1: uga co ed lacn Riley out for a morning jog
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Speaker 1: this after murdered. Lacan's mother's frantic text to her just
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Speaker 1: before her daughter's body found brutalized, and Nancy Grace, this
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Speaker 1: is crime Stories, thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 2: And what is the text says, good morning, about to
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Speaker 2: go for a run?
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Speaker 1: Is you're a freaking daughter? And did she in fact
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Speaker 1: call her mother? She did in the last hours a
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Speaker 1: stunning verdict in an Athens, Georgia courtroom, illegal immigrant migrant
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Speaker 1: worker Jose Ebara guilty and the brutal murder of a
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Speaker 1: gorgeous young Deans student Lake and Riley with me an
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Speaker 1: all star penalty. Make sense of what we are hearing
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Speaker 1: straight out to Dave Matt joining us at the courthouse.
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Speaker 1: You know, Dave mac as the defense put up a
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Speaker 1: semblance of a case, it almost seemed to me as
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Speaker 1: if they weren't really trying or Dave, is it a
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Speaker 1: matter of the fact they didn't have that much to
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Speaker 1: work with?
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Speaker 3: I think they didn't have that much to work with Nancy,
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Speaker 3: and they were trying to point the finger at jose
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Speaker 3: Ivar's brother, Diego in particular, and that was what the
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Speaker 3: whole point of their defense was going to be. Because
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Speaker 3: they didn't have anything else but last minute stuff. They
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Speaker 3: had planned to call Diego and their other brother to
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Speaker 3: the stand as.
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Speaker 4: Part of their defense testimony. Didn't do it.
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Speaker 3: They actually presented some things to the judge late last
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Speaker 3: night and then decided not to call jose A Bara's
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Speaker 3: brothers as part of this case.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I know why. Joining me, founder
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Speaker 1: director of Cold Case Research Institute, star of Zone seven podcast,
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Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, I think you and I know why Diego
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Speaker 1: Ebarra didn't take the stand.
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Speaker 5: Absolutely, He's a known gang member. He is a criminal,
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Speaker 5: and there's nothing he could say that can help his
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Speaker 5: brother unless he got himself into some trouble.
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Speaker 1: Line to the court, what a day in an American courtroom,
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Speaker 1: A case that stunned the nation in its brutality. Comes
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Speaker 1: to a close straight out to Philip Dubay joining us
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Speaker 1: high profile lawyer in the La County Public Defender's Office.
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Speaker 1: Of course, Diego Ebarra, which is really where the defense
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Speaker 1: had hung its hat, was not going to come in
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Speaker 1: and jeopardize himself by saying what I did it.
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Speaker 6: Well, a couple of problems.
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Speaker 7: First of all, I believe the prosecution violated due process.
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Speaker 7: They should have never presented that third part culprit defense
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Speaker 7: in its case in chief. The prosecution has to build
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Speaker 7: its case completely independent of the defense case, and by
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Speaker 7: hijacking that defense and building into its case in chief
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Speaker 7: is illegal. And the reason why is that the defense
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Speaker 7: Oh sorry, I fell asleep.
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Speaker 1: Why didn't they call diego Ebor to the stand nutshell,
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Speaker 1: we're playing ping pong, not chess.
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Speaker 7: Because they would not immunize him should he say something incriminating.
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Speaker 1: And I believe he means that I did it.
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Speaker 7: No, I mean what if, hypothetically he said something that
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Speaker 7: could be contorted and twisted into a tacit admission. What
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Speaker 7: protection does the young man have. He's already an immigration jeopardy,
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Speaker 7: having to go back to a country where we have
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Speaker 7: no diplomatic relations. He's not going to do anything to
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Speaker 7: compromise his status, let alone go to prison.
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Speaker 6: Okay, you know what, Cheryl mccoum.
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Speaker 1: You're not a lawyer, much less a high profile lawyer
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Speaker 1: like Philip Debay, But.
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Speaker 6: Can you give it to me?
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Speaker 1: In a nutshell, there's no way in h e double
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Speaker 1: l The Diego Ebara was going to take the stand
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Speaker 1: to defend his brother on a brutal attempted rape and
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Speaker 1: murder charge bludgeoning a co ed dead with a rock.
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Speaker 1: And what was he going to say to save his brother? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: you got the wrong guy, I really did it.
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Speaker 5: Zero chance he was ever going to take this stand.
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Speaker 5: Anything that he says can and will be used against them.
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Speaker 5: While he's sitting there, what was he going to say, Yes,
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Speaker 5: that's my hat, Yes, I.
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Speaker 4: Was wearing it the day she was murdered.
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Speaker 5: He cannot say anything truthfully that could help his brother.
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Speaker 5: His brother is own video fulcan being a predator hunting
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Speaker 5: for a victim. He's own video walking to the path
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Speaker 5: where he attacked lakeln Riley. Then he's own video discarding
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Speaker 5: bloody clothing that as his DNA and Lakeland together them.
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Speaker 5: His fingerprint is on her sell phone. His brother Diego
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Speaker 5: could say nothing to help Hooset nothing.
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Speaker 6: And in one.
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Speaker 1: More twist, Cheryl McCollum, if the brother Diego Ebara had
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Speaker 1: taken the stand and there was quite a courtroom skirmish
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Speaker 1: over whether he would take the stand. Whatever he said,
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Speaker 1: even if he took responsibility, even if he tried to
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Speaker 1: give his brother an alibi, would subject him to perjury charges. Look,
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Speaker 1: he would get He's going to get deported anyway, much
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Speaker 1: less taking the stand and lying. Now, remember this was
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Speaker 1: a bench trial. This has been a bench trial from
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Speaker 1: the get go, with the defense wanted to have the
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Speaker 1: case heard before a judge and not a jury. So
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Speaker 1: throughout this entire trial we have seen great deference given
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Speaker 1: to Lincoln Riley's family. Now this judge, remember as he's
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Speaker 1: looking out at the family, he had to render a
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Speaker 1: verdict and sentencing after this. Listen.
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Speaker 8: In shocking testimony, University of Georgia police sergeant Sophie Rabout
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Speaker 8: recounts the last moments of Lake and Riley's life, breaking
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Speaker 8: down the minutes into a timeline. Preparing for the last
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Speaker 8: jog of her life, Lake and Riley reaches out to
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Speaker 8: her mother by text at a fifty five am asking
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Speaker 8: if she's free to talk. At nine oh three am,
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Speaker 8: Riley calls her mother. Leake and Riley then listens to
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Speaker 8: music and is seen on a trail camera at nine
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Speaker 8: oh five am. She carries her iPhone in her left hand,
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Speaker 8: which is facing toward the intramur fields. At nine oh
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Speaker 8: six am, Lake and Riley runs out of view of
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Speaker 8: the camera.
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Speaker 1: Now this testimony regarding the final texts sent by Laken
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Speaker 1: to her mother. Her mother in court throughout the trial
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Speaker 1: sobbing at the memory of those texts, and then mom
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Speaker 1: tries to call back.
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Speaker 9: Listen data collected from the Garmin watch Lake and Riley
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Speaker 9: was wearing on her jog her heart was no longer
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Speaker 9: beating at nine to twenty eight am. She does not
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Speaker 9: reply to her mother's text at nine thirty eight am
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Speaker 9: and fails to answer phone calls. Her mother sends another
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Speaker 9: text at nine fifty eight am. You're making me nervous,
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Speaker 9: not answering when you're out running. Are you okay? And
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Speaker 9: another text from her mother at eleven forty seven am,
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Speaker 9: pleading please call me. I'm worried sick about you.
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Speaker 1: You know to Scott Iiker, joining us founding member of
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Speaker 1: the FBI's Cellular Analysis Survey Team. Scott can be found
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Speaker 1: at PCA Experts dot com. Scott, I know you deal
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Speaker 1: with data. You deal with satellites and raw digital and
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Speaker 1: sell data every day of your life. Amazing that you're
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Speaker 1: a founding member of the FBI Sell Analysis Team Cellular analysis.
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Speaker 1: How does it feel you have been analyzing the digital
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Speaker 1: facts that we know so far, the data that came
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Speaker 1: forward at trial, but to hear it put in such
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Speaker 1: human terms. For instance, her Garmin watch shows her heart
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Speaker 1: stopped beating at nine twenty eight, she's texting her mother,
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Speaker 1: trying to reach her mom, trying to call her at
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Speaker 1: nine o three. By nine twenty eight, she's dead in
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Speaker 1: twenty five minutes. By nine p fifty eight, her mother
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Speaker 1: is sending repeated texts, you're making me nervous. You're not
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Speaker 1: answering when you're out running, are you okay? It's almost
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Speaker 1: as if the mom had a foreboding premonition, and it's
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Speaker 1: all proven through Sell data analysis. Scott, I agree.
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Speaker 10: This information that you can like from not only the
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Speaker 10: cell phone, the victim's cell phone, but the defendant cell
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Speaker 10: phone and the garment watch really puts it all together.
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Speaker 10: It was fantastic how the cast agent that testified in
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Speaker 10: this case and the officers that downloaded the garment information
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Speaker 10: they put it all together in this presentation that really
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Speaker 10: did show the judge that this information showed that the
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Speaker 10: defendant's phone and the victim's phone were in the same
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Speaker 10: area at the time of her death, at the time
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Speaker 10: of her heart stopped stopped beating. It's sad, but it's
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Speaker 10: fantastic when we can get this information together at all
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Speaker 10: at once.
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Speaker 1: And the defense actually brings forward a witness suggesting that
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Speaker 1: it was another trail gooer that could have murdered Laken.
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Speaker 1: But the poignant nature of the video you're seeing right now,
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Speaker 1: no doubt, had a huge impact on the judge.
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Speaker 6: And I mean, think about it.
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Speaker 1: To doctor Angela Arnold joining us renowned psychiatrist in the
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Speaker 1: Atlanta jurisdiction at Angela Arnold MD dot com. The mother,
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Speaker 1: the whole family sitting in the well watching this trial
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Speaker 1: and they have to see Lacn's final moments and she
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Speaker 1: was out.
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Speaker 6: Running free before.
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Speaker 1: She was so brutally murdered. And Mom has to remember
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Speaker 1: those moments we're talking about. And the judge sees all
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Speaker 1: of this happening and he knows what the evidence is.
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Speaker 1: Mom has to sit there and listen to the call
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Speaker 1: where her daughter tried to call her, the text where
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Speaker 1: her daughter was texting her, her trying to call back,
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Speaker 1: those moments where she had no idea Laken was already
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Speaker 1: dead or was in the middle of an attack.
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Speaker 11: Nancy, I am not sure that this is something that
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Speaker 11: the mother will ever be able to recover from. This
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Speaker 11: is a trauma that she has suffered. And anyone who
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Speaker 11: is a mother, I'm sure is feeling the exact same
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Speaker 11: way about this. How unsafe, how unsafe somebody can be
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Speaker 11: just to go out on a run. I feel for
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Speaker 11: that mother from the bottom of my heart. Nancy, It's
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Speaker 11: a tragedy beyond belief.
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Speaker 1: Well another thing, doctor Angie, there is such a thing
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Speaker 1: as survivor guilt. The mom forever chastising herself, saying, oh,
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Speaker 1: what if I had called her and we had gotten
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Speaker 1: in a conversation. What if I had picked that phone
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Speaker 1: up or answered that text and we talked for ten minutes.
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Speaker 1: Would jose E Barro have picked somebody else? I mean,
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Speaker 1: I've thought over and over in my mind for years.
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Speaker 1: What if I had kept Keith at the house at
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Speaker 1: my parents' house for twenty extra minutes the morning he left.
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Speaker 1: Would it have made a difference. I mean, it's so
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Speaker 1: hard on the victims' families.
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Speaker 11: And I'm sure Nancy, like you said, you're still thinking
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Speaker 11: about that, Nancy. How And there's certain things we can't control.
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Speaker 11: The mother will think that forever, and yes, she will
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Speaker 11: have some form of survivor guilt on top of the traumatic,
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Speaker 11: the post traumatic stress disorder that this poor woman will suffer.
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Speaker 11: She will have nightmares, she will not be able to sleep.
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Speaker 11: She's going to see Laken, She's going to replay this
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Speaker 11: in her mind for years. It's a tragedy beyond belief.
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Speaker 1: I'm just looking at the video, Cheryl, and you and
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Speaker 1: I have walked the scene over and over and over
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Speaker 1: and traced her route, but looking at her as she
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Speaker 1: rounds that bend out just running, young, free as a bird, beautiful,
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Speaker 1: so full of vitality, so alive, and she runs and
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Speaker 1: runs and turns that corner, and you and I looking
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Speaker 1: at it, we know that corner and we know what
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Speaker 1: awaited her. I mean, it's heartbreaking, it really is.
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Speaker 5: It's so heartbreaking, especially sitting in the courtroom with her mama,
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Speaker 5: and you know she's watching that just thinking, oh my god,
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Speaker 5: if I could stop her, if I could just make
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Speaker 5: her take a rite instead of a lift. Nancy, you
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Speaker 5: and I know he was laying in wait, he had
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Speaker 5: already spent seventy three minutes looking for a victim, and
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Speaker 5: he lay in wait until Lakelyns came up owning and
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Speaker 5: he brutally attacked her, beating her with a rock.
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Speaker 1: You know, Cheryl, how many times have you and I
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Speaker 1: cornered each other and shown each other pictures and videos.
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Speaker 1: I've looked at the twins videos throughout, you know, from
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Speaker 1: day one all the way through, and I kind of
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Speaker 1: relive it, relive that moment taking that video, seeing them
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Speaker 1: so young and happy and alive. And this video the
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Speaker 1: mom in court when she saw this, it was a
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Speaker 1: dagger to her heart.
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Speaker 5: Shehrrel It was gut wrenching to watch her. And you know,
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Speaker 5: Nancy again, I think the prosecutor put it so beautifully
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Speaker 5: today that Lakeland she got it, she fought him, she
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Speaker 5: put evidence on his body, she got it. And Sheila
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Speaker 5: all said that she twisted a powerful knot that the
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Speaker 5: defendant can't get out of, and she's absolutely right.
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Speaker 1: Back to Dave Mack joining us outside the courtroom, Dave
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Speaker 1: mac threw out the state's closing argument. As prosecutor Ross
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Speaker 1: went through the evidence to the judge, Lincoln's mother just
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Speaker 1: she just sobbed just audibly sobbed. Anyone could hear it,
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Speaker 1: and it would be over my dead body if they
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Speaker 1: tried to silence her in that courtroom. And I don't
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Speaker 1: know if you noticed a bar acted like he didn't
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Speaker 1: hear anything.
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Speaker 3: He acts like he's in traffic court, Nancy. He doesn't
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Speaker 3: act like any of this matters to him, that he
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Speaker 3: is part of it at all. He actually is being
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Speaker 3: very disconnected is probably the best way to put it.
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Speaker 4: He just is totally not there.
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Speaker 3: And when you actually are laying out the facts of
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Speaker 3: this case, okay, there are no doubts. The closing argument
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Speaker 3: is just basically laying out the map. Here's what happened,
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Speaker 3: here's how we know he did it, and it's all there.
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Speaker 3: There's no way of looking at this any other way.
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Speaker 3: That's why there was a conclusion the way I was,
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Speaker 3: there was nothing else they could come up with in
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Speaker 3: terms of any kind of defense. You know, the only
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Speaker 3: defense they had, Nancy was well it was his brother maybe,
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Speaker 3: but his brother was That was part of the rebuttal
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Speaker 3: witness Tody, you know, for the prosecution, was to say
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Speaker 3: Diego was asleep. Nothing proves he wasn't asleep at the
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Speaker 3: time that killing appen eleven forty.
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Speaker 2: Seven am and coming text from her mother said please
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Speaker 2: call me.
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Speaker 1: I'm worried sick about you.
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Speaker 6: Is that text spread?
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Speaker 1: Is not? Her house of death is decombined, effects of force,
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Speaker 1: head trauma and asphysia. What is her manner of that homicide? Oh,
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Speaker 1: blunt force trauma with a rock still covered in Liacan's
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Speaker 1: blood and hair and asphyxia. You were just hearing doctor
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Speaker 1: Michelle DeMarco, the medical examiner that testified for the state.
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Speaker 1: That is just one piece of evidence that weighed into
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Speaker 1: the judge's finding of guilty, Jose Ebarra guilty and the
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Speaker 1: murder of this beautiful young co ed lacoln Riley in
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Speaker 1: the opening statement, So we heard Prosecutor Ross state that
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Speaker 1: Ibarra was out hunting, hunting for a woman, and he
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Speaker 1: lay in wait, waiting for a victim to go by.
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Speaker 1: And here comes Lake and Wright. Look at him hiding,
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Speaker 1: hiding in the bushes amongst the trees, just waiting. What
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Speaker 1: was going through his mind?
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Speaker 6: Do I know?
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Speaker 1: No? Do I care?
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Speaker 2: No?
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Speaker 1: I don't have to go into the mind of a
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Speaker 1: killer and would be rapist and figure out what he's thinking.
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Speaker 1: But look at him, look at him pacing waiting for
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Speaker 1: a victim to come by, and she did. But this victim,
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Speaker 1: as Prosecutor ros said, refused to be his rape victim,
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Speaker 1: and she fought tooth and nail, providing the state with
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Speaker 1: valuable and probative evidence.
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Speaker 6: In the charges, we see a assault.
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Speaker 1: So the intent to rape the defendant Ebarra was indicted.
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Speaker 1: I have the indictment right here in my hand, with
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Speaker 1: ten counts. In addition to malice murder charges that means
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Speaker 1: intent to kill is shown, there are felony murder charges,
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Speaker 1: which means a death occurred during the commission of a felony. Now,
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Speaker 1: what did the state offer to support a guilty verdict
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Speaker 1: for attempted rape which proves felony murder? Listen, then, waste standard.
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Speaker 12: Her pants had been moved to the backside of her
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Speaker 12: running pants were pulled down, exposing the top of her buddocks.
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Speaker 1: Joining us at the courthouse, Crime online dot COM's investigative
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Speaker 1: reporter Dave Mac Dave uh oh, by the way, you
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Speaker 1: were just hearing that from our friends at the national desk.
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Speaker 1: That was trial testimony from special agents Lucas Bayer. Dave
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Speaker 1: Mac Lucas Bayer home run home run for the state.
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Speaker 1: Did you you hear that testimony you've been in court
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Speaker 1: where he describes how her waistband, the backside of her
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Speaker 1: pants were pulled down over her career end, and of
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Speaker 1: course she was left exposed that way. I mean, why
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Speaker 1: else would Ibarro be pull trying to pull her pants
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Speaker 1: off if he wasn't trying to rape her.
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Speaker 4: That was the whole point he was making. Nancy. You know,
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Speaker 4: Lucas Bayer was such a good witness.
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Speaker 3: They even brought him back as the rebundal witness after
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Speaker 3: the defense closing because they were trying to point the
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Speaker 3: arrow at Diego at Ibarra, you know, and it was
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Speaker 3: Lucas Bayer they brought back to the stand. Is that
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Speaker 3: there's no evidence that Diego was anywhere other than in
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Speaker 3: better sleep.
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Speaker 6: And there is more.
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Speaker 1: Listen, the clothing was pulled up extremely high above her breast,
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Speaker 1: which completely exposed her breasts. Cheryl McCollum, I don't see
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Speaker 1: that the judge really had any choice at all on
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Speaker 1: the agasault to rape crime stories with Nancy Grace. For
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Speaker 1: those of you just joining us, Hosei Ebara guilty guilty
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Speaker 1: in the murder of Lake and Riley we've got an
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Speaker 1: aggravated battery, which is beating her with a rot in
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Speaker 1: the head, but count three to support a felony murder charge.
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Speaker 1: The underlying felony is aggravated assault with intent to rape.
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Speaker 1: And you are hearing GBI special Agent Lucas Bayer laying
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Speaker 1: it out. We got that from our friends at the
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Speaker 1: National Desk. I mean, Cheryl McCollum. Did you hear what
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Speaker 1: he said last? Her clothing was pulled up high up
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Speaker 1: above up to her neck as she was left that
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Speaker 1: way with her breasts exposed.
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Speaker 5: Nancy three layers of clothing, her jacket, her shirt, her
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Speaker 5: sports bra were all moves above her breast to expose them.
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Speaker 5: Her pants had been pulled down, her underwear had been
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Speaker 5: pulled and torn. And I also want to remind you
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Speaker 5: one of the injuries that Lakelan Riley left on Jose
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Speaker 5: oh Bara was between his shoulder base on his back,
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Speaker 5: which he didn't get running away. He got that because
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Speaker 5: he was on top of her.
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Speaker 1: And there's more. Listen to GBI special agent Lucas Bayer.
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Speaker 12: The sports braw had been manipulated so that had become
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Speaker 12: the outermost layer of her clothing.
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Speaker 1: Buyer on the stand from our friends at the National desk,
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Speaker 1: Philip Debay, high profile lawyer joining us out of LA
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Speaker 1: who has covered the case from the get go. Really,
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Speaker 1: you don't think is there any way with a straight
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Speaker 1: face debate, a straight face that you could argue this
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Speaker 1: was not aggravated assault with the intent to rate because
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Speaker 1: in closing arguments, the defense attorney argued earlierly this morning
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Speaker 1: that there was reasonable doubt. I don't see any reasonable
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Speaker 1: doubt there. The waistpin of her pants pulled down over
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Speaker 1: her rear end, her clothing yanked up around her neck.
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Speaker 1: She's left with her breast and rear end exposed, her
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Speaker 1: underwear torn, and the sports bra had been so jerked
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Speaker 1: around it was on the outside of her clothing.
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Speaker 7: Wrong place, wrong time. There were hundreds of people on
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Speaker 7: and off campus at the same time. What I think
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Speaker 7: would have been the appropriate argument would be to say
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Speaker 7: he happened upon the body already dead, and as a
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Speaker 7: crime of opportunity, he rifled through her things, and you
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Speaker 7: tried to take advantage of the situation and is in
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Speaker 7: fact not the perpetrator, And in the process it was
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Speaker 7: transfer of DNA and the scratches are completely unrelated. The
22:48
Speaker 7: DNA expert could not testify that the cells found under
22:52
Speaker 7: her fingernails were not from transfer. He could have been
22:55
Speaker 7: touching her hands, going through her purse, going through her pockets,
22:59
Speaker 7: whatever she had on her and in the process touched
23:02
Speaker 7: the phone. You have no eyewitness or video putting him
23:06
Speaker 7: at the crime scene at the time. Instead, you have
23:09
Speaker 7: him after the fact, wrong place and wrong time.
23:12
Speaker 1: Well, thank Heaven, the judge did not listen to any
23:16
Speaker 1: gibberish such as that, did you actually say maybe he
23:20
Speaker 1: went through her things? You mean her underwear and her
23:23
Speaker 1: sports bra, those things.
23:25
Speaker 7: I'm talking about whoever actually did it, and he happened
23:28
Speaker 7: upon it after the fact and there was transfer. Look,
23:31
Speaker 7: you don't have an eyewitness, you don't have video, you
23:33
Speaker 7: don't have anything else. I'm not saying he's an angel,
23:36
Speaker 7: but he took advantage of the situation if that were
23:40
Speaker 7: to be believed, And it doesn't necessarily prove a homicide,
23:44
Speaker 7: It certainly doesn't prove a felony murder committed during the
23:47
Speaker 7: commission of a stalking. I mean, under Georgia law, stalking
23:50
Speaker 7: is a misdemeanor, So you don't even have.
23:52
Speaker 1: Anybe We're talking about an attempted rape A we're talking
23:57
Speaker 1: about attempted rape, not stalking.
24:00
Speaker 7: You know what, what.
24:01
Speaker 1: Did I've tried so many trials I can't even count
24:05
Speaker 1: them all. Don't try to confuse the charges. We're not
24:10
Speaker 1: talking about a stalking charge. This is felony murder with
24:15
Speaker 1: the underlying felony being attempted rape is an attempted rape
24:20
Speaker 1: a felony in LA. Of course it is, of course
24:23
Speaker 1: it is. But what I don't know what you're talking
24:25
Speaker 1: about stalking.
24:26
Speaker 7: The allegation was that he was following and lying in
24:28
Speaker 7: wait and hanging out peeping through windows.
24:31
Speaker 1: It says, no, that's not an allegation. That's what I'm
24:33
Speaker 1: arguing here, because I know that he stood there for
24:37
Speaker 1: about an hour. Cheryl McCollum. Stalking is not part of
24:41
Speaker 1: this case. That is not an indicted charge. But just
24:43
Speaker 1: to prove Philip Dubay wrong, jump in Cheryl.
24:47
Speaker 5: Is he was not killing her. Why would he hang
24:49
Speaker 5: up on nine one one and throw the phone. He
24:52
Speaker 5: did that because Lincoln knew she was in danger, and
24:56
Speaker 5: when she called now one one, he grabbed the phone,
25:00
Speaker 5: just engaged that call and threw it away from her.
25:04
Speaker 5: Is fingerprint was on the phone with her blood on it.
25:10
Speaker 1: A Hollah, that's bodycam from the ug A p D.
25:37
Speaker 1: Sergeant Joshua EPs Allah Allah Vamas could not wake him up,
25:42
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum. The judge clearly believed the state's argument that
25:49
Speaker 1: after the murder of Lake and Riley, beautiful young deansless student,
25:56
Speaker 1: jose Ebara had a great night's sleep. In fact, the
25:59
Speaker 1: words he slept like a baby. Did you look at this?
26:04
Speaker 6: They could hardly wake him up.
26:06
Speaker 5: He was sound asleep to the point they could hardly
26:10
Speaker 5: wake him up. And Nancy, the most just horrific part
26:13
Speaker 5: of this whole thing is knowing her mama ain't fled
26:17
Speaker 5: a full night since her baby was murdered. And this
26:20
Speaker 5: man is going to walk out of that house start
26:23
Speaker 5: chatting among his friends and started laughing. And the judge
26:28
Speaker 5: didn't miss that either.
26:29
Speaker 1: In closing arguments early this morning, we heard the defense
26:33
Speaker 1: attorney arguing that there were alternate theories as to what happened,
26:40
Speaker 1: one being that the brothers Diego Ebara and jose Ebara mingled,
26:47
Speaker 1: co mingled their clothing in the apartment. And we see
26:50
Speaker 1: that's absolutely true. It's a big mess, and that somehow
26:56
Speaker 1: there was a transference onto I guess she's trying to say,
27:01
Speaker 1: diego Ebarra's close, so therefore implicating diego Ebarra. That's what
27:09
Speaker 1: was argued in the defense closing. But listen to more
27:14
Speaker 1: of this bodycam footage. We played that for you because
27:49
Speaker 1: there you can hear more of the conversation by the
27:52
Speaker 1: uh PD sergeant Joshua Epps telling him to come slowly.
27:58
Speaker 1: Uh Ebarra is starting to walk further in the house
28:01
Speaker 1: and the officer chastises him. At that point, Ibarra puts
28:04
Speaker 1: on his shoes and walks out to doctor Angela Arnold.
28:08
Speaker 1: I think I need a shrink right now. For those
28:10
Speaker 1: of you just joining us. Ibarra guilty. The judge had
28:14
Speaker 1: no other choice, and I think a jury would have
28:16
Speaker 1: agreed as well, Doctor Angie Arnold, how can you, according
28:21
Speaker 1: to the state, now proven in a court of law,
28:24
Speaker 1: brutally attempt to rape a young girl jogging by wait
28:29
Speaker 1: in the woods for her, attack her, murder her by
28:35
Speaker 1: bludgeting her with a rock and then leaving her dead, bloody,
28:40
Speaker 1: her face is figured and her private parts exposed, and
28:45
Speaker 1: then get a good night's sleep.
28:48
Speaker 11: Because Nancy, we are dealing with the severest of a sociopath. Here,
28:53
Speaker 11: he has no conscience. Do you notice how, over the
28:57
Speaker 11: course of all of this, we have all become so
29:01
Speaker 11: attached to Lake and Riley, haven't we. She's a beautiful girl.
29:05
Speaker 11: She brings out feelings inside of us. We all think
29:10
Speaker 11: of our own children when we look at this beautiful
29:12
Speaker 11: girl and what happened to her. And he sits in
29:15
Speaker 11: the courtroom with no emotion on his face because Nancy,
29:22
Speaker 11: he is a sociopath. And you know what else that means, Nancy,
29:27
Speaker 11: I wish I could tell the judge this. He is
29:30
Speaker 11: not capable of rehab. They need to put him under
29:34
Speaker 11: the jail and pour some concrete on him. There is
29:38
Speaker 11: no possibility of this person ever being rehabilitated because there's nothing.
29:44
Speaker 6: There's nothing to rehab.
29:46
Speaker 11: He doesn't have any empathy, he doesn't feel any remorse.
29:51
Speaker 11: The entire country looks at this beautiful girl and feels
29:55
Speaker 11: for her mother, They feel for her family. He did
29:58
Speaker 11: this to her, and he feels nothing because he is
30:01
Speaker 11: the severest of a sociopath and he needs to be
30:05
Speaker 11: done away with Nancy.
30:13
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace guilty guilty. Jose Ebara found
30:24
Speaker 1: guilty in a court of law in the brutal murder
30:27
Speaker 1: of a beautiful young co ed UGA nursing student lacln Riley.
30:34
Speaker 6: What went in to that verdict finding?
30:38
Speaker 1: You heard Philip debate earlier arguing it could have been
30:41
Speaker 1: someone else, and I want you to hear this and
30:45
Speaker 1: closing arguments, the defense actually argued to the judge with
30:50
Speaker 1: a straight face that lacoln Riley, the murder victim, should
30:57
Speaker 1: have could have outrun jose Ebarra. Why why is that relevant?
31:04
Speaker 1: Because the defense Caitlin Beck, argued that jose Ebarra was
31:11
Speaker 1: shorter end quote fatter than brother Diego. So I guess
31:17
Speaker 1: she's arguing the killer had to be Diego, the brother
31:20
Speaker 1: because he was taller and faster. They actually argued that.
31:26
Speaker 1: But back to real evidence.
31:28
Speaker 2: Listen, a match between the contact slobbings from the jacket
31:33
Speaker 2: and jose Abara is approximately one hundred trillion times more
31:37
Speaker 2: probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated person in
31:40
Speaker 2: the population.
31:41
Speaker 1: That from our friends at the National desk. You were
31:43
Speaker 1: hearing the GBI Crime Lab analyst Ashley Hinkle, Did you
31:47
Speaker 1: hear that dubet one hundred trillion times?
31:51
Speaker 7: But you could not eliminate and it is a match.
31:54
Speaker 7: She could not eliminate transfer.
31:56
Speaker 1: Okay, problem, hold on, there is a match. I think
31:59
Speaker 1: I think that we can eliminate transfer because Dave Mack
32:04
Speaker 1: joining us at the courthouse. Isn't it true that video
32:08
Speaker 1: catches Jose Ebara.
32:11
Speaker 6: Throwing that jacket.
32:13
Speaker 1: Not Diego the brother, but Jose Ebarra throwing that jacket
32:17
Speaker 1: into up there he is that's the same shirt he
32:20
Speaker 1: was wearing one hour earlier, posting on.
32:23
Speaker 4: Nancy what's happened that video?
32:26
Speaker 3: Okay, the video of him throwing the jacket into the dumpster,
32:30
Speaker 3: that is what they've used to say Diego is the
32:33
Speaker 3: killer because they said that. One of the friends that
32:36
Speaker 3: actually was interviewed by Belie said she thought it was
32:39
Speaker 3: Diego throwing the jacket in the dunster.
32:41
Speaker 4: Now she wasn't one hundred percent.
32:42
Speaker 3: Sure, but a friend who knew them both much better said, no,
32:45
Speaker 3: that's Jose. So that's for the defense got their whole
32:49
Speaker 3: idea was from the winds say I think Diego.
32:51
Speaker 4: Throwing the jacket away.
32:52
Speaker 3: That entire defense strategy came from that one comment from.
32:56
Speaker 4: Somebody who was not even sure.
32:57
Speaker 1: Okay, so to believe that mac, I mean I've seen.
33:02
Speaker 1: I was sitting in court when the state showed the
33:05
Speaker 1: photo of Jose E Barra one hour before the murder
33:10
Speaker 1: posting selfies wearing that exact shirt. I'd like to see
33:15
Speaker 1: it because it has very unusual markings. There is there.
33:20
Speaker 6: He is in the shirt one hour later throwing the.
33:24
Speaker 1: Jacket with a one hundred trillion likelihood DNA match. So
33:29
Speaker 1: I don't know what dubet is talking about. Transfer And
33:33
Speaker 1: listen about the fingernail clippings.
33:35
Speaker 2: The DNA match between the wet rush swabbings from the
33:39
Speaker 2: fingernail clippings from the right hand and the match was
33:43
Speaker 2: to Jose Antonio.
33:45
Speaker 1: Abara still Ashley Hinkle on the stand from our friends
33:49
Speaker 1: at the National desk, and there's more on the fingernail
33:53
Speaker 1: DNA match.
33:54
Speaker 2: The match is ten million times more probable than a
33:58
Speaker 2: coincidental match to an unrelated pushing in the population.
34:01
Speaker 1: Okay, Philip Dubay, ten billion likelihood, one hundred trillion likelihood.
34:09
Speaker 1: There's no chance of the transfer because you just saw
34:12
Speaker 1: jose Ebora throwing that jacket into the trash minutes after
34:17
Speaker 1: Laken is killed. So when's the transfer.
34:20
Speaker 7: There's a difference between consciousness of guilt and throwing that away,
34:23
Speaker 7: and consciousness of fear. He obviously realized that there was
34:27
Speaker 7: some type of zerological evidence on the jacket and dumped
34:30
Speaker 7: it out of fear of being accused.
34:32
Speaker 1: So he dumped it.
34:33
Speaker 7: I mean, that's how I would have attacked it. It
34:36
Speaker 7: doesn't necessarily mean just because biological evidence is on your
34:40
Speaker 7: clothing that you're the culprit. We've seen this in history.
34:42
Speaker 7: We saw it a few months ago out of the
34:44
Speaker 7: Detroit murder where a well known Jewish community advocate was
34:48
Speaker 7: murdered by knife in front of her home. The defendant
34:51
Speaker 7: was caught on video outside of her home. He testified
34:54
Speaker 7: he was acquitted. He said he touched her as an
34:57
Speaker 7: afterthought to try to rifle through her belonging see what
35:00
Speaker 7: was happening. The jury believed him in this case, the
35:03
Speaker 7: judge would not have believed him.
35:05
Speaker 1: Speaking of fantastical arguments, the defense also argued that Jose
35:09
Speaker 1: Ebara was just an accomplished that maybe two men were
35:16
Speaker 1: involved in Lacoln's murder and two rocks that makes it
35:20
Speaker 1: so easy for the judge to find Eborra guilty. Joining
35:24
Speaker 1: me right now, a special guest, renowned medical examiner doctor
35:29
Speaker 1: Kendall Crown's chief medical examiner, Terrence County, Esteemed lecturer at
35:33
Speaker 1: the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU Dodgor Kendl Crowns,
35:37
Speaker 1: you and I have gone over and over the autopsy
35:41
Speaker 1: evidence in this case. Could you describe what happened to
35:46
Speaker 1: lacoln certainly so.
35:48
Speaker 13: She has one trauma to the head from the rock
35:52
Speaker 13: that set the scene with the blood on it, that
35:54
Speaker 13: has caused lacerations or kind of splitting of the skin,
35:57
Speaker 13: and a depressed call fracture which has kind of putshing
36:00
Speaker 13: in of the skull itself from being struck over and
36:03
Speaker 13: over and over with the rock. She also has what
36:06
Speaker 13: they've described as asphyxia. The medical examiner said she had
36:10
Speaker 13: signs of a sixia at the autopsy. That can be
36:14
Speaker 13: particular hemorrhages of the eye, which are a little bursting
36:17
Speaker 13: of the capillaries on your eye. It can also be
36:21
Speaker 13: hemorrhages and the knuck musculature from a manual strangulation. So
36:26
Speaker 13: probably she's strangled, wakes back up Annox and then beats
36:32
Speaker 13: her head in with a rock or he hits her
36:34
Speaker 13: with a rock, she passes out. He's trying to rape her.
36:39
Speaker 13: What she wakes back up and then he strangles her.
36:41
Speaker 13: Either way, it's pretty bad now.
36:44
Speaker 1: I always wondering, Dubey, we'll have a big fit over
36:47
Speaker 1: this based on what doctor Kendall Crown's has just told us,
36:51
Speaker 1: what lacoln went through as she fought for her life.
36:56
Speaker 1: Why the defendant didn't take the stand and testify. Hey,
37:00
Speaker 1: if you're not guilty, where were you? What were you doing?
37:03
Speaker 1: Listen your war you want to tour and you want to.
37:08
Speaker 3: Give you no sense?
37:11
Speaker 1: I guess he didn't. That's my friends at the National
37:14
Speaker 1: Death Cheryl McCollum. You just heard what doctor Kendall Crowns
37:17
Speaker 1: explained happened to Lakan and her fight to live, how
37:23
Speaker 1: she was humiliated, attacked, brutalized, her face disfigured. Did you
37:30
Speaker 1: really think a barrow was going to take the stand?
37:33
Speaker 5: Not a shot? And I'll tell you something. We can
37:36
Speaker 5: talk about her injuries and those are vital. To understand
37:40
Speaker 5: that the injuries that she gave to him, to me,
37:43
Speaker 5: are just as vital. She punched him dead in the mouth,
37:47
Speaker 5: She scratched him on the wrist, on the throat, on
37:50
Speaker 5: the back of the neck, on his back, on his elbow,
37:54
Speaker 5: on his arm. She fought for those eighteen minutes like
38:00
Speaker 5: her life depended on it, because she knew it did.
38:03
Speaker 14: One of the defense's first witnesses is a neighbor of
38:07
Speaker 14: the Ebarras. The woman says Diego Ebarra approached her the
38:10
Speaker 14: evening of February twenty second, asking why the complex is
38:14
Speaker 14: crawling with cops. In broken Spanish, the woman tells him
38:18
Speaker 14: a young lady lost her life behind the complex. Aware
38:21
Speaker 14: that it's along Diego's path to work, she encourages him
38:24
Speaker 14: to speak up if he saw anything suspicious. Two officers
38:28
Speaker 14: briefly check in on Ibarra.
38:30
Speaker 1: And the woman. When they walk away.
38:32
Speaker 14: The woman says, Diego Ebarra urgently type something into the
38:35
Speaker 14: translator app for her to read.
38:37
Speaker 1: The defense, trying to shift blame on Jose Ibarra's brother, Diego.
38:42
Speaker 1: It didn't work. Straight back out to doctor Kendall Crowns,
38:48
Speaker 1: joining us. We're now medical examiner out of Terrant County.
38:52
Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns, we know that Lake and fought that
38:55
Speaker 1: she fought for her life. She refused to be Jose
38:59
Speaker 1: ebar as next rape victim. How long would she have
39:05
Speaker 1: lived sustaining the injuries she did to her skull.
39:09
Speaker 13: So the injuries to the skull with the depressed skull fracture,
39:13
Speaker 13: she could have survived that. Had a concussion, she could
39:17
Speaker 13: have potentially, depending on how much brain damage there was,
39:22
Speaker 13: been still able to survive that injury. If it was
39:26
Speaker 13: severe enough, she probably could have died within minutes of
39:29
Speaker 13: receiving it. It all depends on how much damage the
39:33
Speaker 13: skull fracture went through into her brain. The strangulation, on
39:37
Speaker 13: the other hand, she'd probably be on unconscious when a
39:41
Speaker 13: little over ten to twenty seconds, and if he continued
39:44
Speaker 13: to apply pressure, she'd be dead within about four to
39:47
Speaker 13: five minutes.
39:48
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, it's beyond understanding for me that the defense
39:55
Speaker 1: actually argued maybe there were two assailants in two.
39:59
Speaker 5: Rocks, you know, Nancy. The injuries to his wrist and
40:03
Speaker 5: his elbow. Says to me, she probably knocked the first
40:06
Speaker 5: lock out of his hand, and he simply grabbed the
40:09
Speaker 5: second one and finished the job. To the point part
40:13
Speaker 5: of her skull was in her brain. He beat her,
40:17
Speaker 5: He beat her violently. He set out that morning to
40:23
Speaker 5: find a victim. He did not care who.
40:26
Speaker 1: In my mind, the judge had no alternative other than
40:30
Speaker 1: finding Ebara guilty in the murder of Lacoln. Riley, Yes,
40:38
Speaker 1: a verdict has been rendered. He's not the only one
40:42
Speaker 1: sentenced in this case. Her mother, her family are sentenced
40:48
Speaker 1: to life without Lacoln. Their sentence to life remembering what
40:56
Speaker 1: she suffered. They are sentenced to life remembering those last
41:02
Speaker 1: images of her running free. Lake and Raleigh rest in peace.
41:12
Speaker 1: Good night friends,