Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / South Dakota TOP COP mows down, kills pedestrian & says, 'I thought it was a deer!'

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South Dakota TOP COP mows down, kills pedestrian & says, 'I thought it was a deer!' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Imagine your father, your brother,
0:15
Speaker 1: your son dying in a ditch on the side of
0:20
Speaker 1: the road, and somebody out there knows he's there but
0:25
Speaker 1: does nothing. Those are allegations right now, But the alleged
0:31
Speaker 1: perp is the well respected Attorney General South Dakota on
0:38
Speaker 1: his way home from a political fundraiser. So what's justice?
0:43
Speaker 1: Where is it? Will it ever happen? Beaver's cousin, Nick Nemick,
0:54
Speaker 1: also identified the body. It just seems like the whole
0:58
Speaker 1: the whole process was just put on the back burner,
1:02
Speaker 1: and they could have got Victor up there a heck
1:06
Speaker 1: of a lot sooner to take a statement or identify
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Speaker 1: a body or something. Beaver's wife also has concerns. How
1:16
Speaker 1: can you not see someone walking down the road and
1:22
Speaker 1: for no sirens to go off around here? Is highly
1:25
Speaker 1: unusual because anytime there's an accident or anything. Why did
1:30
Speaker 1: my husband lie in a ditch for twenty two hours?
1:35
Speaker 1: Why were no alarms sounded off over here when the
1:38
Speaker 1: accident happened. I mean, we have no answers yet, and
1:44
Speaker 1: right now I'm just raw and I just lost the
1:50
Speaker 1: man of my life. I can really stand even hearing it, Todd,
1:53
Speaker 1: you were just hearing our friend at Kilo Land. Yes,
1:56
Speaker 1: that was Dan Santilla speaking with that victor's widow. With
2:01
Speaker 1: me an all star panel to make sense of it all.
2:05
Speaker 1: First of all, James Shelnutt, twenty seven years Metro major
2:08
Speaker 1: case detective squad officer, now lawyer at Shelnutt Law Firm
2:13
Speaker 1: dot com renounced like hijras joining me out of the
2:15
Speaker 1: Atlanta Jurisdiction. Doctor Angela Arnold and Angela Arnold, MD dot com.
2:20
Speaker 1: Greg Smith, special Deputy Sheriff Johnson County Sheriff's Office in
2:24
Speaker 1: Kansas and the executive director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation
2:28
Speaker 1: at Keltse's Army dot com. Please check that out. It's critical.
2:35
Speaker 1: Joe Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of
2:38
Speaker 1: Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon. Now he's the star
2:42
Speaker 1: of Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network. Joe Scott
2:46
Speaker 1: has covered literally thousands of death scenes. I don't mean
2:49
Speaker 1: covered them, I mean investigated them. He is a death investigator.
2:54
Speaker 1: But first to Sierra Gillespie, Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter,
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Speaker 1: I don't understand exactly what they're saying happened the attorney general,
3:03
Speaker 1: who is essentially the top cop in the state. Every
3:07
Speaker 1: state has one, the federal government has one. So the
3:11
Speaker 1: top cop for South Dakota, it's on his way home
3:15
Speaker 1: from a political fundraiser. And what's the allegation, Sierra, what happened?
3:21
Speaker 1: So what hes happened is he tended to Pier that's
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Speaker 1: the state capital. And you've headed along US Highway fourteen
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Speaker 1: east of Highmore, South Dakota, which is a very small town. Well,
3:33
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you something, Sarah, I gotta tell you something.
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Speaker 1: You know, I just took an RV trip with the
3:38
Speaker 1: twins and my husband. We went from Atlanta all the
3:43
Speaker 1: way across the country to Mount Rushmore, which is you know,
3:47
Speaker 1: is in the Dakotas, all the way to Yellowstone, the
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Speaker 1: Titas and back. So we went exactly where we're talking about.
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Speaker 1: And there are really long stretches where you don't see
4:01
Speaker 1: anybody or anything. There's not a pullover on the interstate nothing.
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Speaker 1: So I'm trying to tell you that, not for the
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Speaker 1: RV trip purposes, Sierra, but when you're out there, there
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Speaker 1: may be a long stretch road where you don't see anybody.
4:18
Speaker 1: For a while. Okay, now I'm sorry. What were you saying? Yeah,
4:21
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. So I even went on Google Maps
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Speaker 1: yesterday to kind of look at me. I love it
4:26
Speaker 1: when you do that, by the way, so I can
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Speaker 1: understand the time. It's actually pretty important because I don't
4:31
Speaker 1: know how this got laid in a ditch for a day,
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Speaker 1: twenty two hours and nobody noticed. So what did you learn, Sierra? Exactly.
4:38
Speaker 1: So the area that I was looking at, there aren't
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Speaker 1: even very many homes. I mean occasionally you'll pass like
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Speaker 1: a farm or something along the way, but it's not
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Speaker 1: a very populated area. So at the time the Attorney
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Speaker 1: General says that he was driving, it's ten thirty at night.
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Speaker 1: There aren't street lights or anything in that area, so
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Speaker 1: it's probably pretty dark. And let me let me just
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Speaker 1: hold that in, hold on, let me hold that thought,
5:04
Speaker 1: you know. To Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University.
5:08
Speaker 1: I remember when I was at cnnh Lynn for so
5:11
Speaker 1: many years, we were investigating the death of a little
5:14
Speaker 1: boy and we went down to Florida. Well, he disappeared.
5:18
Speaker 1: His body's never been found, but we went to Florida
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Speaker 1: to cover it live, and one of my New York
5:26
Speaker 1: producers was totally freaked out because there were not street lights.
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Speaker 1: And I remember saying, Norm, this is the way most
5:35
Speaker 1: of the country lives. You live in New York City.
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Speaker 1: It's not like that. Once you get out of Manhattan
5:42
Speaker 1: and you leave the city of New York, it's not
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Speaker 1: like that. There's not street lights. He thought something was
5:48
Speaker 1: actually wrong. He thought, why aren't the street lights working?
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Speaker 1: I said, Norm, there are no street lights. You're in
5:54
Speaker 1: the middle of a country. But when you're out there
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Speaker 1: like that, I'm not making an excuse for the hit
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Speaker 1: and run. But what I'm saying is I wondered to
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Speaker 1: have anything to do with the fact that no one
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Speaker 1: saw the body of this father and husband for so long. Yeah. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it could very well be Nancy. And these are long,
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Speaker 1: as you had mentioned in Sierra had mentioned, these are
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Speaker 1: long stretches of rural road. And he was this actually
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Speaker 1: occurred on US Highway fourteen and looking at a picture
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Speaker 1: of it right now that Jack pulled up for me, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I don't see anything but green fields way in the distance.
6:30
Speaker 1: I think it's see a war tower and uh, telephone
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Speaker 1: poles go ahead, Yeah, And this is farming country, Nancy.
6:38
Speaker 1: And these roads are kind of built up, if you will,
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Speaker 1: all right, and on either side there are ditches. If
6:44
Speaker 1: if you look at some of these images, all you
6:47
Speaker 1: have are kind of agricultural fields where they probably grow
6:50
Speaker 1: things like wheat and barley and all that sort of thing. Well,
6:52
Speaker 1: they have to they have to have those ditches right
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Speaker 1: there in order to drain for you know, for water runoff.
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Speaker 1: And this is word thinks. So if you hit an
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Speaker 1: object on that road, whether it be a human or
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Speaker 1: an animal or something, it's gonna get kicked off road
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Speaker 1: and it will be beneath your field of view by
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Speaker 1: probably three to four feet. So you're just driving down
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Speaker 1: the road, you're not gonna see anything downe on that ditch.
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Speaker 1: Does that confirm what you learned? Sierra Gillespie, Yes, it does. So.
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Speaker 1: Basically what he said is that he was driving along
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Speaker 1: the road and he hits something. The Attorney General, right,
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Speaker 1: Jason Roundsburg, forty four years old, big, big, big in politics,
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Speaker 1: on his way home from a big time political fundraiser.
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Speaker 1: All right, So he's on his way home from that
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Speaker 1: en route to Pierre, the capitol, And what time and
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Speaker 1: night was it Sierrah. So it was about ten thirty
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Speaker 1: at night when this crash happened. Have he been drinking?
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Speaker 1: For Pete's sake? He didn't know he hit a man.
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Speaker 1: He says he had not been drinking before. He was
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Speaker 1: not drinking and driving. He did not drink after. Huh. Well,
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Speaker 1: I guess we'll never know because it wasn't called in. Okay,
8:03
Speaker 1: I don't want to jump the gun. Go ahead, Okay,
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Speaker 1: So technically he did call in, but he reported that
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Speaker 1: he hit a deer. He says he got out and
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Speaker 1: used like the flashlight on his phone to look around
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Speaker 1: in the area to see like what it was, but
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Speaker 1: he says he wasn't able to find anything at all.
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Speaker 1: So he actually was in contact with the local sheriff
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Speaker 1: and borrowed his vehicle to drive back to Pierre. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying. So this guy,
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Speaker 1: the top cop of South Dakota, is coming home from
8:37
Speaker 1: a fancy fundraiser and you're telling me nobody it was dry,
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Speaker 1: nobody had a drink. Okay, I'll just go with that.
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Speaker 1: And he hits a person and doesn't know what a hit.
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Speaker 1: He calls sheriffs and says he hit a deer and
8:59
Speaker 1: then what happen and yep, so he says he hit
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Speaker 1: the deer. He says he got out and looked for it,
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Speaker 1: didn't find anything, and the sheriff came to that area.
9:09
Speaker 1: His vehicle was no longer drive a bull, so the
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Speaker 1: sheriff allowed him to borrow his vehicle. Did the sheriff
9:17
Speaker 1: look for the deer? I guess, but I apparently nothing
9:22
Speaker 1: was found at that time. I don't know that the
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Speaker 1: sheriff looked. I don't know that. Fact Climb Stories with
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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about the top cop,
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Speaker 1: the Attorney General for the state of South Dakota, who
9:49
Speaker 1: is coming home from a big time fundraiser. I'm being
9:52
Speaker 1: told by Sierra Gillespie that nobody had a drop. It
9:55
Speaker 1: was dry. I find that really hard to believe, but
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Speaker 1: I'll go with it, Siara, just for now. And he
10:03
Speaker 1: rides over smashes into the victim, Joe Beever, but calls
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Speaker 1: nine one one and says he hit a deer or
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Speaker 1: he thinks he hit a deer. I don't know how
10:16
Speaker 1: you could head on collide with somebody and you don't
10:20
Speaker 1: know what you hit. Take a listen to this. My
10:25
Speaker 1: fears that the authorities were trying to get their ducts
10:29
Speaker 1: in a roll before they putting that as a priority
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Speaker 1: over identifying positively identifying the victim. Approximately twenty two hours
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Speaker 1: from the time of the accident, for the time were
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Speaker 1: identified of the body, and ten hours from the time
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Speaker 1: my brother gave him the heads up on who the
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Speaker 1: dead pedestrian the dead out on the highway probably was.
10:50
Speaker 1: It seemed like it just took him a done long
10:53
Speaker 1: time to follow up on anything. You were hearing our
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Speaker 1: friends at drg Inn and they're speaking to Nicknamic, relative
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Speaker 1: of the dead victim. You know what I hate, James
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Speaker 1: Shelnup twenty seven years Metro major case now lawyer, When
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Speaker 1: regular people like my family are doing battle with those
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Speaker 1: more powerful, more wealthy, or more influential than they are,
11:26
Speaker 1: and you can't get answers and you get the run around.
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Speaker 1: I'm thinking about my dad, you know, James. My husband
11:34
Speaker 1: travels a lot for his work, and he was just
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Speaker 1: in Florida working and I thought, when I hadn't heard
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Speaker 1: from him for like seven or eight hours, I thought,
11:47
Speaker 1: what if he's been in a crash, and how would
11:51
Speaker 1: they even know to call me or contact me. I
11:53
Speaker 1: got so worried, and I think about this guy, Joe Beaver,
12:00
Speaker 1: and did the pain in that woman's voice talking about
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Speaker 1: he was the love of her life and he laid
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Speaker 1: there in a ditch for twenty two hours. And now
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Speaker 1: nothing's happening with the ag that ran them down and
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Speaker 1: said it was a deer. I mean, the power, the
12:22
Speaker 1: power dichotomy here is very upsetting to me. What do
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Speaker 1: you think, Yeah, it's bothersome, you know, And in South Dakota,
12:32
Speaker 1: with it being less populated, it's a lot more of
12:34
Speaker 1: a closely knit communities. And say where you may have
12:37
Speaker 1: four or five times the number of law enforcement officers
12:40
Speaker 1: or prosecutors or other people in law enforcement. You know,
12:45
Speaker 1: this is even a smaller community out and I've been
12:47
Speaker 1: out that way and it is a much smaller area,
12:50
Speaker 1: much less populated area. You know, I don't buy what
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Speaker 1: this guy's saying. You know, I've worked for the past
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Speaker 1: twenty years, you know, in our practice investigating autostrophic accidents,
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Speaker 1: fatality accidents, pedestrian accidents, and we've had several times where
13:05
Speaker 1: someone who has killed one of our clients said, hey,
13:07
Speaker 1: I thought ahead a deer or I thought ahead a dog.
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Speaker 1: And when you go back and look at it, and
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Speaker 1: you start looking at the stretch of roadway where this
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Speaker 1: was a long stretch of roadway, you start looking at
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Speaker 1: the factors as far as you know, nothing impeding view.
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Speaker 1: You know there's it starts to add up to me,
13:24
Speaker 1: you know, looking at it from an investigative standpoint, that
13:26
Speaker 1: he had plenty of time to perceive what he had hit.
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Speaker 1: And even if he wasn't sure, the reports say that
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Speaker 1: there was only eight inch tall grass on the side
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Speaker 1: of the roadway four ways, and it should have been
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Speaker 1: fairly easy to locate a dead victim being on the
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Speaker 1: side of the road. To Greg Smith joining me, a
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Speaker 1: special Deputy Sheriff Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Kansas, and
13:51
Speaker 1: he's the executive director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation Kelsey's
13:54
Speaker 1: Army dot com, And I really urge you to go
13:57
Speaker 1: to that website, Kelsey's Army dot Com. Hey, Greg, just
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Speaker 1: thinking about when I've hit something, and I've covered so
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Speaker 1: many the hic and or homicide cases, I'm actually slow
14:10
Speaker 1: down when I drive, believe it or not, because usually
14:13
Speaker 1: I'm flying like a bat out of h double el
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Speaker 1: No matter where I'm going, But when I'm in the car,
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Speaker 1: I really take it easy. I hit a dog once
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Speaker 1: I was coming off the Interstate. I turned so I
14:23
Speaker 1: was going fairly slowly. I was come out of a
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Speaker 1: red light, turned left off the interstate, and a dog
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Speaker 1: ran out. He belonged to a service station gas station owner,
14:36
Speaker 1: and he usually stayed at the gas station and ran
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Speaker 1: across the street. I was so upset, and I saw
14:41
Speaker 1: the dog, but it was too late. It's like he
14:44
Speaker 1: ran straight into my car and I got out. I
14:48
Speaker 1: went running to try to find somebody to help me
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Speaker 1: save the dog, and I happened to find the gas
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Speaker 1: station owner. It was his dog, and okay. Then another
14:58
Speaker 1: time I hit a squirrel that out in front of me.
15:01
Speaker 1: But both times I saw what happened both times. How
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Speaker 1: can you hit a person and you're hitting in front,
15:13
Speaker 1: You've got your lights on, probably your bright How can
15:16
Speaker 1: you not see it was a person? Help me? You're
15:19
Speaker 1: the deputy sheriff, for Pete's sake. Well, it depends. I mean,
15:22
Speaker 1: there's so much that we don't know about what happened here.
15:27
Speaker 1: I mean, reportedly mister Beaver was walking. I've heard reports
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Speaker 1: he was on the side of the road. I've heard
15:33
Speaker 1: reports he was in the road. We don't know if
15:36
Speaker 1: what his condition was, had he been drinking. Why do
15:40
Speaker 1: I care? He's not driving drunk. Why would I even
15:42
Speaker 1: think be concerned about whether he was drinking. He's dead.
15:46
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with drinking and walking as as far
15:49
Speaker 1: as I know, Greg Smith, Well, it is against the wall.
15:51
Speaker 1: But if there is, I'm telling my husband to sit
15:54
Speaker 1: down right now, quit walking because the point is I'm
15:57
Speaker 1: not I'm not blaming mister beaver, but what it kind
16:00
Speaker 1: of sounds like you are what it's his actions caused him?
16:03
Speaker 1: What if he stepped in front of the car unexpectedly
16:06
Speaker 1: rather than what is being reported here. We just don't know.
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Speaker 1: We don't have enough infant, Greg Smith, I like you.
16:13
Speaker 1: You and I go way, way, way back. But are
16:16
Speaker 1: you actually trying to tell me they could be the
16:20
Speaker 1: victim's fault. He got mowed down by this guy and
16:23
Speaker 1: then laid in the ditch twenty two hours. For all
16:25
Speaker 1: I know, he could have been saved, Greg, How do
16:29
Speaker 1: I know he died immediately he laid in that ditch
16:31
Speaker 1: and die. That's a heck of a way to go.
16:34
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with what you're saying, Nancy. I'm just
16:37
Speaker 1: saying there are so many factors that we have to
16:40
Speaker 1: consider before we can save with absolute conviction that this
16:44
Speaker 1: is a crime, that this needs to be a conviction.
16:47
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that. I'm okay. Let me ask you
16:50
Speaker 1: a lightning round of questions. Let's pretend you're on cross examination,
16:55
Speaker 1: Greg Smith, you poor thing. Okay. Number one, isn't it
16:59
Speaker 1: true that this was a public road? Yes? No, ye?
17:03
Speaker 1: And isn't it true that on public roads, Greg Smith,
17:06
Speaker 1: people in general have the right to walk as a pedestrian.
17:11
Speaker 1: It may not be as a general rule, yes, okay.
17:15
Speaker 1: And isn't it true, Greg Smith that generally speaking, pedestrians
17:20
Speaker 1: have the right away? Yes? Okay, Greg Smith. Have you
17:23
Speaker 1: ever got behind a jogger or a bicyclist and being
17:28
Speaker 1: irritated because they're going so slow? Yep? Okay? Did you
17:33
Speaker 1: run them down? Greg Smith? I'll leave him to dine
17:35
Speaker 1: in the ditch. Nope? Okay, that's good to know. Now.
17:38
Speaker 1: Isn't it true, Greg Smith that the victim in this
17:41
Speaker 1: case was hit by the front of the suspect's car.
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Speaker 1: The ag the top cop Jason Rounsberg, and isn't it
17:51
Speaker 1: also true that he would have had his lights on
17:55
Speaker 1: as he was driving at night. I don't know. Okay,
17:59
Speaker 1: let's assume he had his lights on because he was
18:01
Speaker 1: driving at night. Are you telling me that you think
18:04
Speaker 1: he didn't see he hit a person? I don't know
18:06
Speaker 1: that either. Very wise, ma'am. Okay, Joe Skuy Morgan, wait,
18:09
Speaker 1: hold on, Joe skuy before I get to you on
18:11
Speaker 1: the whether he could have lived and died in that
18:14
Speaker 1: ditch after surviving for several hours. James shell Nutt. Greg
18:18
Speaker 1: Smith is being very circumspect, and I respect that I do,
18:23
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be a cold day in Hubl that
18:27
Speaker 1: I don't think this guy saw he hit a person. No,
18:30
Speaker 1: look at Nancy. If you just go back just to
18:32
Speaker 1: some basics time and speak calculations. I'm not about to
18:36
Speaker 1: put on a math class because I think you want
18:38
Speaker 1: your listeners to stay awake. Yeah, please don't start math.
18:41
Speaker 1: I'm having hard enough time with pre algebra with the twins.
18:44
Speaker 1: But let's just talk about some basics. Okay. A car
18:48
Speaker 1: travels about two Hope you're listening, Greg Smith, go ahead,
18:52
Speaker 1: James shell Nutt. First of all, you want to look
18:54
Speaker 1: at a human human factor reaction time, and you know
18:57
Speaker 1: most acts that reconstruction to shoes somewhere between one point
19:00
Speaker 1: five and three seconds as the amount of time it
19:04
Speaker 1: takes for someone to perceive something and then react in
19:07
Speaker 1: a car wrex, So let's just say that we've got
19:09
Speaker 1: three seconds there, it takes another two seconds. At sixty
19:16
Speaker 1: nine seventy miles an hour, which is what this guy
19:19
Speaker 1: was calculated as traveling, he would have had four or
19:22
Speaker 1: five seconds looking at this object to tell whether or
19:26
Speaker 1: not sa deer one one thousand two, one thousand three,
19:30
Speaker 1: one thousand four, one thousand five, one thousand. I just
19:35
Speaker 1: can't fathom that within four to five seconds I'm staring
19:38
Speaker 1: at this object, he wouldn't know the difference between a
19:41
Speaker 1: fear and a human thing. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,
19:59
Speaker 1: Guys against thank you for being with us here at
20:01
Speaker 1: Fox Nation in Serious X one eleven. I do have
20:04
Speaker 1: to agree with Greg Smith joining us at Kelsey's Army
20:07
Speaker 1: dot com. This is not about convicting anybody, It's really not.
20:12
Speaker 1: This is about finding the truth. And in my mind,
20:16
Speaker 1: there's no way he could have not seen what he hit.
20:21
Speaker 1: There's absolutely no way if he had on his lights. Now,
20:25
Speaker 1: it's my understanding. Sierra Gillespie Roundsberg was driving from a
20:31
Speaker 1: fundraiser in Redfield to his home one hundred and ten
20:34
Speaker 1: miles away on Saturday night, and he did have on
20:38
Speaker 1: his lights. At the very worst. The victim was walking
20:43
Speaker 1: in the road. How do you not see that at
20:47
Speaker 1: a distance or even up close? And how do you
20:51
Speaker 1: think you hit a dear Jackie, I want to before
20:54
Speaker 1: I go to Siera, I want to circle back to
20:56
Speaker 1: our salt one listen to Dan Santella with Kilo Landis.
21:02
Speaker 1: Beaver's cousin, Nicknamic, also identified the body. It just seems
21:06
Speaker 1: like the whole the whole process was just put on
21:11
Speaker 1: the back burner, and they could have got Victor up
21:14
Speaker 1: there a heck of a lot sooner to take a
21:17
Speaker 1: statement or identify a body or something. Beaver's wife also
21:24
Speaker 1: has concerns. How can you not see someone walking down
21:28
Speaker 1: the road and for no sirens to go off around
21:34
Speaker 1: here is highly unusual because anytime there's an accident or anything.
21:39
Speaker 1: Why did my husband lie in a ditch for twenty
21:42
Speaker 1: two hours? Why were no alarms sounded off over here
21:47
Speaker 1: when the accident happened? I mean, we have no answers yet,
21:54
Speaker 1: And right now I'm just raw and I just lost
21:59
Speaker 1: the of my life. That hurts me so bad to
22:03
Speaker 1: hear her, to hear her speak about the pain she's suffering.
22:07
Speaker 1: To think of her husband lying in a ditch for
22:11
Speaker 1: twenty two hours. What if he was alive for half
22:15
Speaker 1: that time, or any of that time, it could have
22:17
Speaker 1: been saved. But he lied that he lay there and died.
22:21
Speaker 1: What was he thinking about? Was he unconscious? I don't know, guys.
22:27
Speaker 1: We are hearing more about the attorney general. It is
22:30
Speaker 1: said that he does drink occasionally, but makes it a
22:34
Speaker 1: practice not to drink at political events, according to another
22:39
Speaker 1: state senator. Now you know how I feel about politicians.
22:43
Speaker 1: You can take that with a box of salt. I
22:45
Speaker 1: did not see him with anything but a coke. The
22:49
Speaker 1: worst he's got is a traffic ticket for speeding, seat
22:53
Speaker 1: about violation and proper exhaust and muffler system. That's means
22:59
Speaker 1: nothing to me. That he does not have a prior conviction,
23:02
Speaker 1: that means nothing to me. All that matters to me
23:05
Speaker 1: is what happened that night. Back to Cierre Gillespie, Crime
23:08
Speaker 1: online dot Com investigative reporter, what else do we know.
23:11
Speaker 1: So after all of this happens and he reports the
23:16
Speaker 1: situation that he claims he hit a deer, he heads
23:19
Speaker 1: back to Pierre. Everything is relatively fine, I guess he
23:24
Speaker 1: arrives at midnight. But the next day, the Attorney General,
23:28
Speaker 1: Jason Raunsberg, says he heads back to the scene, hopefully
23:32
Speaker 1: to gather his vehicle all of that, and that's when
23:35
Speaker 1: he says he discovers that there is a body there.
23:38
Speaker 1: That's also when he says he reports it right away
23:41
Speaker 1: and says this person was clearly deceased. I'm calling the
23:45
Speaker 1: authorities to Joseph Scott, Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University,
23:50
Speaker 1: Joe Scott based on what we know right now, what
23:53
Speaker 1: happened to the victim when he was hit. Well, if
23:56
Speaker 1: you take a look at the vehicle, which I've seen
23:58
Speaker 1: the images of the vehicle to day, damage to the vehicle,
24:01
Speaker 1: as you had mentioned, it is on the front of
24:03
Speaker 1: the vehicle and on the right side. Uh, it appears
24:06
Speaker 1: as though that we have we have an incident where
24:11
Speaker 1: he was struck by the leading right bumper of the
24:14
Speaker 1: vehicle and then cast up onto the windshield, which is
24:17
Speaker 1: very common. Uh. And then he rolls off of the
24:22
Speaker 1: of the vehicle into this ditch, you know, where he
24:24
Speaker 1: came to rest. Now, there's a variety of different types
24:28
Speaker 1: of injuries that we can talk about relative to this,
24:31
Speaker 1: but at you know, at autopsy, you know, one of
24:34
Speaker 1: the things that we're going to be looking for something
24:35
Speaker 1: that that that our listeners can remember, something called bumper marks.
24:40
Speaker 1: And you'll see these on the shins and knees and
24:42
Speaker 1: sometimes the upper legs, depended upon how the victim reacts.
24:46
Speaker 1: The pedestrian victim reacts to an oncoming vehicle. If they're
24:49
Speaker 1: standing erect, there's a high probability that you'll have what
24:53
Speaker 1: are referred to as bilateral or twin fractures in the
24:57
Speaker 1: lower extremities. And then you're gonna have shoulder injuries and also,
25:02
Speaker 1: and this is the big one, you're gonna have closed
25:05
Speaker 1: head injuries. So I think, going back to what you
25:07
Speaker 1: had said, one of the things I'm interested in is
25:10
Speaker 1: at autopsy, did this guy die immediately upon impact or
25:14
Speaker 1: did he kind of languish there where he's literally bleeding out,
25:17
Speaker 1: And that's something that we can determine it autopsy, you know,
25:22
Speaker 1: after the results are in and find out also if
25:25
Speaker 1: he's impaired in any way, you know what does his
25:29
Speaker 1: toxicology show? And of course with the Attorney General, we're
25:33
Speaker 1: not going to know what his toxicology showed because he
25:36
Speaker 1: didn't get tested for almost twenty four hours after listen, Nancy,
25:40
Speaker 1: anything he may have had on board we're talking about
25:42
Speaker 1: going to this party and whatnot, it's already metabolized, it's
25:45
Speaker 1: already gone through his system. So there's no you can't
25:48
Speaker 1: unring the bell at that point. So you have to
25:51
Speaker 1: think about was he impaired in some other way and
25:54
Speaker 1: one other thing? And I'll shut my mouth, but i
25:57
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, he's on a long trip. You had
25:59
Speaker 1: mentioned this. This is a long way to drive. He's
26:01
Speaker 1: out in the middle of nowhere. I'm not so much
26:03
Speaker 1: worried if he consumed alcohol at that party. You know
26:07
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about, was he distracted by his phone
26:09
Speaker 1: in any way? And that is something they can go
26:12
Speaker 1: back and take a look at, Nancy. They need to
26:14
Speaker 1: get their hands on that phone and see what this
26:15
Speaker 1: guy was doing at precisely that time when he was
26:18
Speaker 1: supposed to be in transit in this vehicle. Was he
26:21
Speaker 1: distracted in any way and listening to everything you're saying
26:26
Speaker 1: and to you Greg Smith's Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County
26:29
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office in Kansas. It's going to be hard to
26:32
Speaker 1: pinpoint the exact time of the crash because we only
26:36
Speaker 1: have his word for it when he called nine one one.
26:39
Speaker 1: But I heard Joscott Morgan say, typically with a case
26:43
Speaker 1: like this, based on where the damage is to the
26:46
Speaker 1: Attorney General's car, the victim would have gone up on
26:50
Speaker 1: his windshield. How could you think that was a deer. Yeah,
26:55
Speaker 1: there's obviously an impact on the windshield, so that would
26:59
Speaker 1: be one thing. And I have some of the same
27:01
Speaker 1: concerns that were just mentioned. My first thought was, was
27:06
Speaker 1: he distracted by his cell phone? It's very common anymore
27:08
Speaker 1: in accidents, much more common. It's become as common as
27:12
Speaker 1: alcohol or drug involvement, and as far as the means
27:15
Speaker 1: of impairment. The other thing. He ten thirty at night,
27:22
Speaker 1: he had a day at work, he went to a fundraiser.
27:24
Speaker 1: He's on his way back. It's one hundred and ten
27:26
Speaker 1: mile drive. Did he goes off and that may be
27:30
Speaker 1: why he didn't see what he hit until it was hit.
27:34
Speaker 1: That's a good point. He may not have seen it
27:36
Speaker 1: if he was sleepy. There's just so much that we
27:38
Speaker 1: don't know, which makes the whole thing frustrating. I mean,
27:41
Speaker 1: I played around just a little bit with the skid
27:45
Speaker 1: marks that they reported, some two hundred feet of skid
27:48
Speaker 1: marks in that. Now there's a lot of factors I
27:50
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know the drag factor on the road.
27:51
Speaker 1: I don't know breaking efficiency. I want board or your
27:54
Speaker 1: listeners with all the board. I love every word you're saying.
27:57
Speaker 1: Did you say there are two hundred feet of skid marks?
28:01
Speaker 1: That's what I read in one report. But on an
28:05
Speaker 1: average road, two hundred feet of skid marks calculates out
28:09
Speaker 1: to about sixty four, sixty five, sixty six miles an hour.
28:12
Speaker 1: So we're not talking the concessive rate of speed here,
28:15
Speaker 1: but two one hundred feet of skid marks. That tells
28:19
Speaker 1: me he either saw the victim for two hundred feet
28:24
Speaker 1: and was hitting the brakes, or he hit the victim
28:28
Speaker 1: and hit the brakes for two hundred feet one or
28:32
Speaker 1: the other. And that's what we don't know because the
28:34
Speaker 1: report doesn't say were they before the impact site? And
28:38
Speaker 1: again we may never know where the impact side. Or
28:41
Speaker 1: there are some things you can look for. It's It's
28:43
Speaker 1: not uncommon for pedestrian the tip by a car to
28:45
Speaker 1: literally come out of their shoes near the impact point.
28:50
Speaker 1: That happens a lot. I don't can't really explain the
28:53
Speaker 1: math behind it, but it happens a lot. I've seen
28:55
Speaker 1: it a lot in my career, so that would be
28:58
Speaker 1: one thing. You know, there may be there may be
29:03
Speaker 1: some kind of blood trace or blood remains that were
29:07
Speaker 1: on the road at the point of it back where
29:09
Speaker 1: there may not, you know, I just I don't know.
29:11
Speaker 1: I just don't have enoughing form crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
29:26
Speaker 1: we are bringing you the latest on a very very
29:29
Speaker 1: troubling death. Dad husband Joe Beaver, found dead on the
29:35
Speaker 1: side of the road. Apparently the top cop, the Attorney
29:39
Speaker 1: General for the state of South Dakota, was driving about
29:42
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten mile drive that night and plowed down.
29:46
Speaker 1: Beaver called him on one said he hit a deer,
29:51
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until nearly a day later that mister
29:54
Speaker 1: Beaver's body was found. Sierra Gillespie correct me if I'm wrong.
29:58
Speaker 1: From what I have learned, the body of Joseph Beaver
30:02
Speaker 1: was discovered in the grass next to the crash site.
30:06
Speaker 1: How could you miss that? Is that correct? Yes, Nancy,
30:10
Speaker 1: that is correct. It was discovered in the ditch, so
30:13
Speaker 1: I'm not entirely sure how far from the actual crash
30:17
Speaker 1: that was, but relatively close in that area. Again, we
30:22
Speaker 1: are hearing that the Attorney General had not been drinking,
30:25
Speaker 1: but as Joe Scott Morgan pointed out, we'll never know
30:29
Speaker 1: because it took a full day for the body to
30:32
Speaker 1: be found and for him to be tested for alcohol
30:36
Speaker 1: or anything else. Was he texting? Was he asleep? You know?
30:41
Speaker 1: Doctor Angela Arnold psychiatrist joining me out of the Atlanta
30:44
Speaker 1: jurisdiction at Angela Arnold MD dot com. When I hear
30:48
Speaker 1: the widow speaking, the power dynamic is very upsetting to me.
30:53
Speaker 1: Here she is this woman and she's basically taking on
30:58
Speaker 1: the South Dakota government, the very highest echelons of government.
31:04
Speaker 1: I don't like it. Well, and Nancy, look at all
31:07
Speaker 1: of it, Look at all of the experts you have
31:09
Speaker 1: on your show today, and everyone has set there's not
31:13
Speaker 1: enough evidence. There are so many holes in this story,
31:16
Speaker 1: so we can't even imagine what she's going through. She doesn't,
31:20
Speaker 1: as far as I'm concerned, she doesn't have a chance
31:22
Speaker 1: of ever knowing the whole truth. Guys, take a listen
31:25
Speaker 1: to the governor. Last night, at about ten thirty pm
31:29
Speaker 1: in Hyde County, the Attorney General was involved in a
31:32
Speaker 1: crash while driving on US Highway fourteen just west of Hymore.
31:37
Speaker 1: There was a fatality and law enforcement is working on
31:41
Speaker 1: identifying the deceased and notifying the family. South Dakota Highway
31:46
Speaker 1: Patrol will run the investigation, and the Department of Public
31:49
Speaker 1: Safety Secretary Craig Price will oversee that and report directly
31:54
Speaker 1: to me. You are hearing the governor speak out, Christy
31:58
Speaker 1: Nome right there. They claim that they are appointing an
32:02
Speaker 1: independent investigator. Investigator, what is that, Sierra Gillespie, please explain.
32:07
Speaker 1: So I also saw in a different report too that
32:10
Speaker 1: they're bringing in some investigators from North Dakota. And occasionally
32:15
Speaker 1: they'll do this because obviously the Attorney General of South
32:19
Speaker 1: Dakota has a lot of connections within South Dakota. So
32:23
Speaker 1: sometimes that there's a high profile case like this, I'm
32:26
Speaker 1: sure some of your experts can speak better to this
32:28
Speaker 1: than I can, but they'll bring in like outside investigators
32:32
Speaker 1: or things like that, just to make sure that it's
32:35
Speaker 1: not biased in any way. Well, we're learning that the
32:41
Speaker 1: Attorney general there Roundsburg Sandy discovered Beaver's body in the
32:46
Speaker 1: grass just off the shoulder of the road, just off
32:50
Speaker 1: the shoulder of the road. This is reminding me of
32:53
Speaker 1: a case that I watched live, every minute of it.
33:00
Speaker 1: It was one of the very first death by vehicle
33:04
Speaker 1: cases that hit hit the headlines. Anyway, the defendant's name
33:09
Speaker 1: was Shauntey Mallard. Listen or seth any further inside of
33:14
Speaker 1: the commission or attempt or an immediate flight from the
33:17
Speaker 1: commission or attempt she committed or attempted to commit and
33:20
Speaker 1: act clearly dangerous to human life to it transported grad
33:25
Speaker 1: Vias to her home, who who was seriously injured and
33:28
Speaker 1: lodged in her car, were lodged in the wind shoulder car,
33:31
Speaker 1: and she seated to him in her gage, which prevented
33:34
Speaker 1: him from receiving medical care, which caused the death of
33:37
Speaker 1: grave basis paragraph two. And it started to present again
33:42
Speaker 1: in two say forth to the defended in the county
33:44
Speaker 1: tier and state of courseetn on or about the twenty
33:48
Speaker 1: sixth day of October two thousand and one, and then
33:50
Speaker 1: and there intentionally and normally commit or attempt to commit
33:53
Speaker 1: a malony. Now, in that case, Shaunte Mallard from Fort Worth,
33:58
Speaker 1: Texas was convicted and sentenced to fifty years behind bars
34:03
Speaker 1: because of her role on the death of thirty seven
34:05
Speaker 1: year old man Gregory Glenn Biggs. Chante Mallard was driving
34:10
Speaker 1: along she hit Biggs. He was lodged on her windowshill.
34:15
Speaker 1: She didn't claim she didn't know what to do, think
34:18
Speaker 1: about it, just call nine one one on your cell phone. Instead,
34:21
Speaker 1: she drives home over a mile with him on the windowshill,
34:25
Speaker 1: parks at her closed garage while he dies. Now, it
34:30
Speaker 1: has been said that she had been drinking, but so
34:33
Speaker 1: much time past, we don't really know, you know, in
34:37
Speaker 1: that case. Joseph Scott Morgan, death investigator, I'm just having
34:41
Speaker 1: a really hard time understanding why the Attorney General did
34:46
Speaker 1: not see a man on his windshield or at the
34:50
Speaker 1: very front of his vehicle. Why did he say he
34:53
Speaker 1: thought it was a deer, you know, again, absent more information.
35:00
Speaker 1: What I'm thinking is is that you know, when you
35:03
Speaker 1: think about striking, I've hit many deer, you know, out
35:07
Speaker 1: here in the rural South where I live. There like cockroaches,
35:09
Speaker 1: they're everywhere, and so you hit this deer, you don't
35:13
Speaker 1: expect to see a human being in the road. So
35:16
Speaker 1: I think that one of the things your mind immediately
35:19
Speaker 1: flies to in this is, well, I hit a deer,
35:22
Speaker 1: you know, and in a flash. Maybe that's what happens.
35:25
Speaker 1: There are a lot of deer in South Dakota. Maybe
35:27
Speaker 1: that's what he was thinking at the time. Right in
35:29
Speaker 1: front of your car. You can't see to your headlight.
35:32
Speaker 1: You can't see that far, Joe Scott. You can't see
35:35
Speaker 1: a person at your headlight of your car. Well, this
35:39
Speaker 1: goes back to what we were saying. Was he distracted
35:41
Speaker 1: in some way or did this guy just step out
35:44
Speaker 1: of the shadows and into the path of the oncoming car,
35:47
Speaker 1: Because I think that your reaction time is going to
35:50
Speaker 1: be diminished greatly if the guy kind of stepped. We've
35:53
Speaker 1: already said there's no street lights out there. It's a rural,
35:56
Speaker 1: farming community. So if this guy is just standing on
35:58
Speaker 1: the edge of the road, maybe it's going to how
36:00
Speaker 1: to flag this guy down. I'd like to know why
36:03
Speaker 1: he was out there in this kind of desolate region.
36:05
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why he had a problem with his car.
36:09
Speaker 1: That's why he was on foot. That's what happened. That's
36:11
Speaker 1: why the victim was on foot. Guys, take a listen
36:14
Speaker 1: to Alicia Garcia. Kota. South Dakota Attorney General Jason Rounsberg
36:20
Speaker 1: issued a statement late tonight about the car accident he
36:23
Speaker 1: was involved in this past Saturday, where he apparently struck
36:26
Speaker 1: and killed a man. According to Rounsburg, after the collision,
36:30
Speaker 1: he called nine to one one immediately telling the High
36:32
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's office that he had hit a deer. But
36:35
Speaker 1: the next morning, fifty five year old Joseph Beaver of
36:38
Speaker 1: Hymore was found dead at the scene. Rounsberg said tonight
36:42
Speaker 1: that after the collision, he immediately stopped to his vehicle
36:46
Speaker 1: to investigate. He said he could not see what he
36:49
Speaker 1: had hit, but saw pieces of his vehicle laying on
36:52
Speaker 1: the roadway. Rounsberg remained at the scene while the sheriff
36:55
Speaker 1: surveyed the area. Rounsberg's car was towed from the scene,
36:59
Speaker 1: and he drove the sheriff's car back to Pier. The
37:02
Speaker 1: next day, Roundsberg returned to the scene of the accident
37:05
Speaker 1: and found mister Beaver's body in the grass just off
37:08
Speaker 1: the roadway. According to him, on the night of the crash,
37:12
Speaker 1: Roundsberg had been in Redfield for the Spink County Lincoln
37:15
Speaker 1: Day Dinner. Rounsberg says he did not consume any alcohol.
37:19
Speaker 1: Jo Scott, what do we know about the condition of
37:22
Speaker 1: the Attorney General Jason Roundsberg's vehicle? Yeah, just you know,
37:27
Speaker 1: to kind of reiterate this, when they examined the vehicle
37:30
Speaker 1: and our listeners can go in and see this vehicle.
37:34
Speaker 1: Their significant damage to the right side of the windshield
37:38
Speaker 1: and also to the front right aspect of the vehicle,
37:42
Speaker 1: you know, where the headlights. What did you say about
37:43
Speaker 1: the windshield? The windshield is actually kind of caved in,
37:47
Speaker 1: if you will. And when just think about this, Nancy,
37:51
Speaker 1: you're traveling, do I need to think anymore? Seriously? His
37:54
Speaker 1: windshield is caved in and he didn't know it was
37:57
Speaker 1: a person. Okay, well it's there any way around that.
38:01
Speaker 1: The windshield is caved in, and he's saying he thought
38:04
Speaker 1: it was a deer. Yes, okay, Shellnutt. Nancy, you know,
38:09
Speaker 1: if you look at whether or not this acts that happened,
38:12
Speaker 1: you know, and he hit this victim and then hit
38:15
Speaker 1: the brakes, or whether or not he hit the brakes
38:17
Speaker 1: and hit the victim. If you go back and look
38:19
Speaker 1: at the reports. The victim has a cousin named Nick Niemeck,
38:23
Speaker 1: and Nick is a state lawmaker out in South Dakota.
38:27
Speaker 1: Nick says that he went to the scene and that
38:29
Speaker 1: there were two hundred feet of skid marks, and at
38:32
Speaker 1: the end of those two hundred feet of skid marks
38:34
Speaker 1: there was blood That would have been consistent with the
38:40
Speaker 1: Attorney General hitting the brakes, then hitting the victim, and
38:44
Speaker 1: then the victim flying off the car and landing on
38:46
Speaker 1: the side of the roadway. If what he is saying
38:49
Speaker 1: is accurate, it's clear that he hit the brakes and
38:53
Speaker 1: then hit the victim. And did you read did you
38:57
Speaker 1: learn also that the relatives of the victim told they
39:00
Speaker 1: could not take pictures of the scene. I did, and
39:03
Speaker 1: they were told they couldn't take pictures of the scene.
39:05
Speaker 1: And then he Nick Nemick then went to the toeyard
39:10
Speaker 1: where the Attorney General's carl was being stored and was
39:13
Speaker 1: told he couldn't see it. Now, that's not abnormal, but
39:16
Speaker 1: in the same token, it appears that after things got
39:20
Speaker 1: looked at that next day, they actually shut the roadway
39:23
Speaker 1: authority shut the roadway down and then went back into
39:26
Speaker 1: a lot more thorough investigation, and so I look for
39:29
Speaker 1: there to be a lot of information coming out of
39:31
Speaker 1: that investigation by the time of decisions made whether or
39:34
Speaker 1: not to prosecute. Okay, I'm just gonna drop it right there.
39:37
Speaker 1: Let's see if justice un falls. Nancy Grace Crime Story,
39:42
Speaker 1: signing off, Goodbye, fro