Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Could accused wife-killer Rod Covlin walk free because of bungled investigation?

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Could accused wife-killer Rod Covlin walk free because of bungled investigation? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. You steal for your children.
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Speaker 1: You're the four. You're stealing the college money and spending
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Speaker 1: college Why an every penny you're spending right now is
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Speaker 1: her money in Mile's money. Hold on a second, Adam,
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Speaker 1: I'd like you to come here. Hold on a second,
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Speaker 1: come in here place. Yeah, because you'll have a harget
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Speaker 1: five years in the twelve you never worked with your mother,
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Speaker 1: worked her off for every penny that he's spending. Let
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Speaker 1: me tell you that, Dana Chefskis, I'm not wrong and
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Speaker 1: maybe wrong about something, not the money. Worked and worked
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Speaker 1: and worked, and you're father seven. Now he refuses to
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Speaker 1: get a job. He's spending your money. Okay, first of all,
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Speaker 1: he's spending. Oh. Nothing could make me happier than to
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Speaker 1: hear a secretly recorded argument between a grown man in
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Speaker 1: his in the home arguing with his parents, a man
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Speaker 1: who has quit work and gone off to be a
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Speaker 1: professional bat gammin player. Did you hear that? Jack and
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Speaker 1: I didn't move a hair as we were listening to
1:36
Speaker 1: Rod Coughlin arguing with his parents. Did you hear his
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Speaker 1: mom say, we worked our whoop off and you're spending
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Speaker 1: all your children's money. Your mother worked like a dog,
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Speaker 1: and you're spending at all and you won't get a job. Well, yes,
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Speaker 1: what not having a job is the least of his
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Speaker 1: worries right now, because he is facing a murder charge
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Speaker 1: for the brutal death of his wife, who ps did
2:05
Speaker 1: have a job. Shelley Dennishevski, I'm talking about the case
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Speaker 1: going on right now in a court of law against
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Speaker 1: professional backgammon player Rod Covlin. I neanc Grace, this is
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Speaker 1: crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. I mean, Jackie,
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Speaker 1: what would you think if I said, you know what,
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Speaker 1: I'm just quitting and I'm gonna play backgammon professionally. Oh
2:34
Speaker 1: she's laughing to herself, laughing on the inside. She knows better.
2:40
Speaker 1: But that's what happened. But I want to hear more
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Speaker 1: of this secretly obtained, secretly recorded audio of Coblin, the
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Speaker 1: professional backgamon player who's facing a murder who caught caught
2:53
Speaker 1: a little murder charge? You know, um, Kathleen Murphy nor
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Speaker 1: North Carolina trial lawyer. I remember all the thousands, literally
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Speaker 1: thousands of plea negotiations I would conduct, and very often
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Speaker 1: I had one judge that did it this way. I
3:13
Speaker 1: would sit there with all the files and one by
3:16
Speaker 1: one would do the jail cases. First the lawyer would
3:18
Speaker 1: come in, then bring in his line, and then sit down.
3:20
Speaker 1: I'd go through what I had. I'd read the police
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Speaker 1: report with a lot of dramatic pauses and staring and
3:25
Speaker 1: Harry eyeball looks anyway, and then you did X. And
3:31
Speaker 1: then the cops says you did Why. I think A'm
3:34
Speaker 1: gonna be sick. Things like that, and gee, I wonder
3:37
Speaker 1: why they hated me. But long story short, as you
3:42
Speaker 1: are going through discussing what happened, very often one of
3:48
Speaker 1: them would say, yes, miss Grace, I caught a little
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Speaker 1: murder charge, like they caught a cold or they caught
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Speaker 1: a baseball. Well, you know what, Rod Coblin has caught
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Speaker 1: a murder charge. But let's take a listen to that
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Speaker 1: secretly recorded argument. What you're saying now, what you are
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Speaker 1: what you're saying now in front of Anna Miles. Okay,
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Speaker 1: we'll ensure that you never see my children again if
4:11
Speaker 1: you continue. Okay, you've threatened us with you. I'm not
4:17
Speaker 1: excuse by October first. Okay, even I went down for
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Speaker 1: eleven years. Okay, even threaten me. Excuse me, evict me.
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Speaker 1: You know what answers me. I spent a million dollars
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Speaker 1: of mine money to make sure you didn't go to
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Speaker 1: the Danish ships. Know you spend a million dollars of
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Speaker 1: Bonnie's money. I owe the money. I'm gonna pay the money.
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Speaker 1: You're never gonna pay me back. Beat out. You're gonna
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Speaker 1: steal from me because you're gonna dig beat Okay, You're
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Speaker 1: gonna steal from me. And if you steal from your children, wow, Okay,
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Speaker 1: And I'm sure that was just the tip of the iceberg.
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Speaker 1: Joining me right now, in addition to forensics expert Karen
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Speaker 1: Smith out of the Florida jurisdiction. Karen Stark, psychologist, joining
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Speaker 1: us out of Manhattan. This is in your back yard.
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Speaker 1: You can find her at Karen starkn dot com. Kathleen
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Speaker 1: Murphy right now, North Carolina family and divorced lawyer. But
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Speaker 1: she's seen it all and joining me right now, of course,
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Speaker 1: with Jackie Howard and Alan Duke. Robin Willinski crime online
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Speaker 1: dot com investigative reporter and the author of an incredible book,
5:25
Speaker 1: It's Beautiful Life, The CSI behind the Casey Anthony Trial.
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Speaker 1: Robin how did this whole thing come to Like, let's
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Speaker 1: just start at the beginning, because right now, the state, unwittingly, unwittingly,
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Speaker 1: no malice, no intent, has got to deal with a horrible,
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Speaker 1: horrible snaphu, a boo boo, a misstep in the case
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Speaker 1: that may cost them a conviction. And there's nothing the
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Speaker 1: prosecutor can do about it. It happened at the time
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Speaker 1: Shelley's body was found, and there's no fixing it, there's
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Speaker 1: no turning back. They just simply have to hope that
6:03
Speaker 1: the rest of their evidence can overcome a big, big
6:07
Speaker 1: problem in their case. But I want to start at
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Speaker 1: the beginning, Robin, what happened? Okay? Well, first of all,
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Speaker 1: I want to say that when I hear that audio,
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Speaker 1: he sounds like an enabled forty something year old baby.
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Speaker 1: Are parents right in front of his children over the money?
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Speaker 1: You see his true self and his true colors there.
6:28
Speaker 1: But wait, wait, wait, Robin, Robin, Robin, Okay, I noticed
6:31
Speaker 1: a little bit off topic. But have any of you
6:33
Speaker 1: ever seen mister Smith goes on vacation. It's with Jimmy Stewart, anybody, Okay,
6:38
Speaker 1: at least Jackie has Okay, Jimmy Stewart takes his wife,
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Speaker 1: Marino Harra on vacation and they rent this horrible, horrible home.
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Speaker 1: It's falling apart by the beach because the mom wants
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Speaker 1: family time and they get there. Jackie, I know you
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Speaker 1: don't know where I'm going with this, but they have
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Speaker 1: a foe that is a party line. And yes, we
6:58
Speaker 1: used to have a party line, and making George it
7:00
Speaker 1: was with our neighbor, which makes it even worse because
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Speaker 1: you know everything that's happening in their house. Anyway, every
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Speaker 1: time he would pick the phone up, he would hear
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Speaker 1: these little little ladies talking about all their ailments and
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Speaker 1: this thing is oozing and this is a boil and
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Speaker 1: all of her stomach and diarrhea, And every time he
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Speaker 1: would pick the phone up, these two little old ladies
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Speaker 1: would be talking. My point is, Robin, even every time
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Speaker 1: I go, Mom, who lives with me? Now, Robin, you
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Speaker 1: know that I go, what's happening in making And she'll
7:29
Speaker 1: start with the list of ailments and who died and
7:32
Speaker 1: how there was a poor tendance at the church, and
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Speaker 1: who this one got laid off, and that one got
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Speaker 1: laid off, and this one had a septic tank problem
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Speaker 1: and blah, and finally I'm like, I don't even want
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Speaker 1: the children to hear all this. And I was thinking
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Speaker 1: that I don't want my children to hear who's sick
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Speaker 1: and making Georgia within our little church at Liberty United
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Speaker 1: Methodist Church. But this dad actually dragged his children into it,
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Speaker 1: by name Anna and Miles. He dragged his children into
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Speaker 1: the room to hear this bitter argument about him not working. Well, yeah,
8:09
Speaker 1: he wants the children to know how messed up and
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Speaker 1: entitled the father is, and what a spendthrift he is,
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Speaker 1: and what a bad guy he is, and how he's
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Speaker 1: stealing all the money and acting younger in age than
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Speaker 1: his own kids. You know, that's you know, Karen Stark,
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Speaker 1: psychologist friend. We have sat through I don't even know
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Speaker 1: how many many hundreds of cases together since I first
8:37
Speaker 1: started at Court TV with Johnny Cochran way back when.
8:41
Speaker 1: And I remember considering thinking about marrying David Lynch and
8:46
Speaker 1: you said, well, why would you marry him? Because I
8:49
Speaker 1: was perfectly happy without being married, And I said, well,
8:55
Speaker 1: I want a family in one day. And plus I
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Speaker 1: know he's not going to be out whoring around. He's
9:00
Speaker 1: not going to be doing drugs or getting boozed up.
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Speaker 1: He's not going to gamble away all the money. He's
9:05
Speaker 1: not gonna he works. I know where he is right now.
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Speaker 1: He's at work. I don't have to even call and
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Speaker 1: find out. I trust him, and I know that it's
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Speaker 1: terrible when your husband is not there not to support you,
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Speaker 1: because a woman can support herself. But reliable and trustworthy Karen.
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Speaker 1: I mean, that's the number one bedrock to me in anything. Yes,
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Speaker 1: And I remember being very supportive of David. If you
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Speaker 1: would call at the time, Nancy. And here's a guy
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Speaker 1: who writes in the start this book, you listen to
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Speaker 1: what you were just playing. He absolutely has no boundaries.
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Speaker 1: He doesn't even understand that he shouldn't be calling his
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Speaker 1: children into the room. He doesn't care if he's not working.
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Speaker 1: This is a very very despicable and scary guy. And
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Speaker 1: here he is in an investigation that has been completely
10:02
Speaker 1: messed up. I just think about it, guys. We haven't
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Speaker 1: even gotten murder yet. Friends and family of Shelley Coblin
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Speaker 1: rushed out of him in Hattan courtroom without saying a
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Speaker 1: word inside. Her estranged husband Roderick, face charges for killing
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Speaker 1: her six years after she died. His attorney tells News
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Speaker 1: four his client distunned. In the back of his mind,
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Speaker 1: he did not know this stay was going to come.
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Speaker 1: It was right from the beginning, he said. He did
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Speaker 1: not commit the crime, So what changed? Prosecutors won't say. Shelley,
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Speaker 1: a successful financial advisor, was found dead in her bathtub
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Speaker 1: inside her Upper West Side apartment New Year's Eve two
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Speaker 1: thousand and nine. She had an appointment the next day
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Speaker 1: to meet with an attorney to cut her husband out
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Speaker 1: of her will. The medical examiner initially ruled Shelley's death accidental,
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Speaker 1: her body exhoomed months later. This time, the emmy concluded
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Speaker 1: Shelley was strangled. Shelley and her husband were going through
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Speaker 1: a bitter divorce, their families fighting over custody and finances.
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Speaker 1: The children now lived with Roderick's parents here in Scarsdale.
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Speaker 1: We knocked today, but no one was home all the time.
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Speaker 1: They're all said, riding bikes and playing beautiful kids. Late today,
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Speaker 1: the district attorney issued this statement, saying, it is our
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Speaker 1: hope that this prosecution will bring justice from Miss Denishevsky
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Speaker 1: Covlin and provide closure for her grieving family and friends.
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Speaker 1: We are going to see whether they in fact have evidence,
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Speaker 1: credible evidence to support a murder indictment. Wow, you are
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Speaker 1: hearing from our friends at w NBC, our friend Laurie Bordonio,
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Speaker 1: who is right there covering it on the courthouse steps.
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Speaker 1: You know, I was reading one of my favorite newspapers. Yes,
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Speaker 1: an actual newspaper. Wait a minute, No, I wasn't because
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Speaker 1: it was on my iPad. But it was a newspaper
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Speaker 1: on the iPad. It was a New York Post and
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Speaker 1: they actually had photos. I've dug up a lot of
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Speaker 1: the crime scene photos and her bed was totally bloody,
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Speaker 1: and there was let me address the problem that has arisen.
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Speaker 1: Robin Willinski here to tell us about it. But Shelley Denishevsky,
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Speaker 1: the mother of Anna and Miles, beautiful, beautiful? What was she, Robin?
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Speaker 1: Was she a stockbroker? Yeah? She was earning lots of
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Speaker 1: money on Wall Street, working hard every day, unlike her
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Speaker 1: husband who was playing games literally. And you know what,
12:23
Speaker 1: there's the thing about being a stockbroker on Wall Street.
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Speaker 1: It's not like, you know, a lot of people work
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Speaker 1: at home and they can actually sit at their laptop.
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Speaker 1: I mean I do it when I'm writing a book,
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Speaker 1: in their sweatpants and tshirt. So I'm all down with that,
12:40
Speaker 1: but I remember all the days I had to be
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Speaker 1: in court at eight with one hundred and fifty case
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Speaker 1: files for a plea calendar and wearing then you couldn't
12:50
Speaker 1: even wear pants in court. Women didn't anyway, and I
12:53
Speaker 1: would have to have on heels, hose, a Sunday dress,
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Speaker 1: the hair up, the makeup, the everything, eight am, sharp,
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Speaker 1: ready to go. And that was my life, you know,
13:05
Speaker 1: for ten years in court. So when you say a
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Speaker 1: stockbreaker on Wall Street, she was there a lot and
13:13
Speaker 1: loaded when the bill went off. I guess at eight
13:16
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, whatever time it goes off. To
13:19
Speaker 1: support his backgammon career. Anyway, Shelley Denishevski is found. Karen Smith,
13:26
Speaker 1: you're the forensic sex braun. I'll let you tell it
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Speaker 1: how she's found. Well, this is such a convoluted story, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: and from what I've gleaned, according to Rod Coblin, and
13:37
Speaker 1: I'll take this in his word for now, and we'll
13:40
Speaker 1: work through that in a minute. He says she was
13:43
Speaker 1: faced down in a tub full of water and there
13:47
Speaker 1: was blood everywhere, and he pulled her from the water
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Speaker 1: and attempted CPR covered her with a blanket. And this
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Speaker 1: all started when either his daughter either called him or
14:02
Speaker 1: came across the hall to his studio apartment and got him,
14:05
Speaker 1: at which point he called for help. The police showed up,
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Speaker 1: and then things literally spiraled down there, downhill from there.
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Speaker 1: You know one fact that I love Robin Malinski, and
14:15
Speaker 1: I argue this a lot in the add no On
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Speaker 1: Sayed case and in other cases as well that I
14:20
Speaker 1: tried myself, is it's called routine evidence, routine evidence, and
14:26
Speaker 1: that means evidence of a particular routine. In this case,
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Speaker 1: Rod Covlin, the backgammon professional, never once in all the
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Speaker 1: years he lived in that building in his wife's apartment.
14:41
Speaker 1: Let me tell you those apartments are not cheap, and
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Speaker 1: they have apparently had two of them, had never once
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Speaker 1: spoken to the doorman ever, Robin. But that morning, early early,
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Speaker 1: he goes out the door for the first time, and
14:55
Speaker 1: let's just say ten years, he asked the doorman would
14:59
Speaker 1: they like a up of coffee? What? And they were stunned.
15:06
Speaker 1: He goes, I'm going out on my morning walk, would
15:09
Speaker 1: you like me to bring you a cup of coffee?
15:13
Speaker 1: Robert Rollinsky it's so fake and phony. He was trying
15:16
Speaker 1: to establish an aliba. Okay, Rob, you take it front
15:20
Speaker 1: and Karen gave me the forensics point of view. You
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Speaker 1: take it from what was observed. Well, I'll tell you
15:25
Speaker 1: that's very odd. I lived in a dorman New York
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Speaker 1: City building the majority of my life, and I was
15:30
Speaker 1: very friendly with the doorman. And you bring them, you know,
15:33
Speaker 1: cookies and milk at night, and you do offer them coffee.
15:37
Speaker 1: But you have a relationship with these people, and they
15:39
Speaker 1: know the people in the building that are oddballs that
15:42
Speaker 1: don't speak to them. So his behavior of asking, you know,
15:46
Speaker 1: do you want a cup of coffee in the morning
15:48
Speaker 1: is extremely odd. And yes, he was trying to establish
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Speaker 1: an alibi that he was leaving that particular building on
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Speaker 1: the Upper West Side of Manhattan. That all said, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: what's so bizarre. You talk about collection of routine evidence.
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Speaker 1: They didn't collect any Here's a guy who claims, you know,
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Speaker 1: I pulled her out of the bathtub and his clothes
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Speaker 1: are dry, and the cops don't don't say ended CPR.
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Speaker 1: He claims he pulled her from the bathtub she was soaking,
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Speaker 1: and that he tried CPR and with all the blood
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Speaker 1: in the water and on the bed and on her
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Speaker 1: body from her wound in the back of her head.
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Speaker 1: No blood, no water, no nothing, Robin, It's so bizarre.
16:33
Speaker 1: You know, this is CSI class, you know, day one,
16:37
Speaker 1: you go in there. Oh and by the way, the
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Speaker 1: lead detective, as I understand it, Nancy didn't even take notes.
16:44
Speaker 1: So there's no notes from the lead detective who walks
16:46
Speaker 1: into the apartment. The apartment is not secure. She was
16:51
Speaker 1: Orthodox Jewish. They had a rabbi go in there who
16:54
Speaker 1: contaminated the crime scene. No fault of his, but they
16:58
Speaker 1: let him in. Where was the yellow ape. They didn't
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Speaker 1: collect any fluids, no blood from the floor, the bathtub
17:06
Speaker 1: was drained. There's no shirt from Rod Coblin. And oh,
17:09
Speaker 1: get this, you know, she falls allegedly into the bathtub,
17:13
Speaker 1: the old flipping fall and there's a cabinet right over
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Speaker 1: the bathtub, and the cabinet Nancy is kind of off kilter. Well,
17:21
Speaker 1: they don't even dust it for fingerprints. Was it her
17:24
Speaker 1: hand that oh I'm falling until you hold onto that
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Speaker 1: cabinet as you're slipping into the tubs or were his
17:30
Speaker 1: fingerprints on it? We don't know because they didn't even
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Speaker 1: dust it for fingerprints. And that's where we are right now.
17:37
Speaker 1: The children lived with their mom, Shelley Denishevsky, and their
17:42
Speaker 1: Manhattan apartment. She would go off to work every single
17:45
Speaker 1: day to support the family. She had actually filed a
17:48
Speaker 1: protection order against her husband, okay, and then surprise, she
17:54
Speaker 1: ends up dead. So the daughter, the little girl, she's
17:58
Speaker 1: eight or nine years old, Anna, comes in and finds
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Speaker 1: mommy in the tub, which I'm sure is something she
18:04
Speaker 1: will never forget the rest of her life. She calls
18:07
Speaker 1: her dad, who's out on his walk. Wink wink, nudge, nudge,
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Speaker 1: and Dad comes back. Coblin, he says, he finds her facedown,
18:17
Speaker 1: pulls her out and tries CPR. He is completely dry. Now,
18:22
Speaker 1: Robin mentioned that she's Orthodox Jewish. What that means as
18:27
Speaker 1: it relates to this case is that they do not
18:29
Speaker 1: believe in autopsies. Karen Starr, isn't that correct, Nancy, That's
18:35
Speaker 1: absolutely correct, and you're not allowed to do an autubsy
18:38
Speaker 1: and the body has to be buried as quickly as possible.
18:52
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace for religious reasons. Shelley was
18:58
Speaker 1: buried the next day. Her death ruled an accident, but
19:01
Speaker 1: months later her family had her body exhumed and autopsy
19:05
Speaker 1: was done, and the death was then ruled a homicide
19:08
Speaker 1: by strangulation. When he was arrested yesterday morning, Covlin was
19:12
Speaker 1: on his way to visit his kids, now fifteen and
19:15
Speaker 1: nine years old, who lived with his parents in a
19:18
Speaker 1: home in this quiet call de sac. The two people
19:22
Speaker 1: who who are suffering tremendously by this are the two
19:28
Speaker 1: very young children, and mister Covlin is devastated by that.
19:33
Speaker 1: He's done everything in his power to watch over them
19:37
Speaker 1: and take care of them, and still their money. You
19:41
Speaker 1: were hearing from ABC New York, and that was reporter
19:45
Speaker 1: Kimberly richardson our friend. That is what turns the case
19:49
Speaker 1: on its head, right there, Karen Smith, forensics expert, this
19:55
Speaker 1: is how you do it. That's a very big step
19:58
Speaker 1: to have a body examed. That hardly ever happens. Now listening, guys,
20:02
Speaker 1: you might think, wow, it happens all the time, because
20:04
Speaker 1: you sure to talk about it. That's because in high
20:07
Speaker 1: profile cases or intricate cases, very often you will see
20:10
Speaker 1: an exhimation, but typically you do not see a body
20:15
Speaker 1: dug up out of the cemetery and re examined. But
20:19
Speaker 1: thank the Lord, they did it because Karen Smith, forensics expert.
20:22
Speaker 1: They found that she didn't die from a blow of
20:24
Speaker 1: the head. She died from strangulation. And this is how
20:27
Speaker 1: they tell It's very simple. You look at the eyeballs,
20:33
Speaker 1: because when you're a strangle, when you asphyxiate, there are
20:37
Speaker 1: tiny blood vessels in your eyes, the particula. They are
20:42
Speaker 1: invisible to the naked eye. They hemorrhage, they blow up
20:46
Speaker 1: because of the pressure. And that's what they found. I
20:50
Speaker 1: assume Karen Smith, not only did they find that, and
20:54
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right, Nancy, the potiqui I are a giveaway,
20:57
Speaker 1: the little pinpoint blood vessels in capitalises that burst because
21:01
Speaker 1: of the pressure in the head when you're strangled. What
21:03
Speaker 1: they also found was a broken bone in her neck.
21:07
Speaker 1: Now that didn't specify which one. I don't know if
21:09
Speaker 1: it was a cervical bone in the back or if
21:12
Speaker 1: it was more telling, which is the highoid bone in
21:15
Speaker 1: the front of the neck, and it covers the thyroid.
21:18
Speaker 1: That highoid bone is very substile, it's very fragile, and
21:21
Speaker 1: when you have a strangulation, when you have a chokehold,
21:23
Speaker 1: type death. That bone will snap in half. That is
21:27
Speaker 1: not indicative of a slip and fall. That is indicative
21:31
Speaker 1: of somebody strangling you. And I also would like to
21:35
Speaker 1: know if this was an accidental death and she was
21:37
Speaker 1: in water, was water found in her lungs? Did she
21:41
Speaker 1: have any any type of evidence that she was under
21:46
Speaker 1: that water while she was still alive? You know, Also,
21:49
Speaker 1: dead bodies don't have a forceful bleeding. I read that
21:54
Speaker 1: there was some blood spatter in the bathroom. Where did
21:58
Speaker 1: that come from? What was she struck in the back
22:01
Speaker 1: of the head or was she pushed into a wall?
22:04
Speaker 1: All of these questions should have been answered at the
22:06
Speaker 1: initial crime scene, which was bungled so badly that I
22:10
Speaker 1: can't even begin to express the crime scene one oh
22:13
Speaker 1: one that Robin was talking about, the fingerprints, looking at
22:17
Speaker 1: the blood scene, looking at the patterns, looking at her
22:19
Speaker 1: body position, looking at the bathtub, all of the evidence
22:22
Speaker 1: around the bathtub that was moved by this rabbi into
22:26
Speaker 1: another room without even police supervision. I'm so disturbed by this.
22:32
Speaker 1: And this should not be a circumstantial case. This should
22:34
Speaker 1: be a factual case. It is open and closed. Yeah,
22:37
Speaker 1: what Karen Smith just said is so critical because if
22:43
Speaker 1: Shelley Denishevski has this blow where she quote fell in
22:48
Speaker 1: the back of her head, why would her hyoidal bone
22:51
Speaker 1: in the front of her neck be broken. But all
22:55
Speaker 1: that really doesn't matter, and a lot of the bungling
22:58
Speaker 1: by the state and hey, you know what, let's don't
23:01
Speaker 1: be too hard on them. They come in. It looks
23:04
Speaker 1: like a fall. The daughter found her. The dorman says,
23:07
Speaker 1: the dad was gone getting coffee, and they believe it.
23:12
Speaker 1: And because of the religious beliefs of the family, the
23:15
Speaker 1: police bowed to the religious beliefs. They did not do
23:18
Speaker 1: an autopsy. A lot of that was cured by the
23:22
Speaker 1: exhimation and the later autopsy by the medical examiner, because
23:26
Speaker 1: we find the true cause of death. She was strangled,
23:28
Speaker 1: she was asphyxiated. So that means not only do we
23:32
Speaker 1: know a predator did this, the children couldn't have the
23:36
Speaker 1: force to do that, but then the scene was actually
23:41
Speaker 1: staged to look like a fall in the tub. Wow,
23:45
Speaker 1: who could have done that? Kathleen Murphy Nancy, there's only
23:50
Speaker 1: one person, And it's typically my experience when there's that
23:53
Speaker 1: protective order in place, it's in place for a reason.
23:57
Speaker 1: They in wait County North. I want to do not
24:00
Speaker 1: just hand out protective orders without just cause, because there's
24:06
Speaker 1: a protective order in place, and because there's a botched
24:09
Speaker 1: crime scene like it is. I hope he's got I
24:12
Speaker 1: hope he's convicted. I'm concerned about that. Did you know,
24:15
Speaker 1: Robin Wilensk, I'm sure you do. One of the gars
24:18
Speaker 1: actually fainted when the autopsy photos were shown. Did you
24:22
Speaker 1: know that one? And it was a mail. Now, you've
24:25
Speaker 1: got to go through a lot of hoops to get
24:26
Speaker 1: autopsy photos into evidence because they're not of the crime scene.
24:30
Speaker 1: They're very, very upsetting, and you have to get them in.
24:34
Speaker 1: This is how you do it. By the way, you
24:35
Speaker 1: have to say, your honor. I've got to get this
24:38
Speaker 1: autopsy photo in because it shows the nature of the
24:41
Speaker 1: wound that cannot be shown from a shot of the
24:46
Speaker 1: body pre autopsy. I've got to prove this. And this
24:50
Speaker 1: is why that's the way you get the autopsy photo in,
24:53
Speaker 1: because it's normally deemed to be too gruesome. Robin Wilensky,
24:56
Speaker 1: So Gerar actually fainted when they saw an autopsy photo. Yeah,
25:01
Speaker 1: that's true. And you know what it reminds me of
25:03
Speaker 1: Nancy and I know you were there when they showed
25:05
Speaker 1: the little skull of Kaylee Anthony and the Casey Anthony trial,
25:09
Speaker 1: and it was on a Saturday morning, and I remember
25:11
Speaker 1: looking up when they put it up on the video
25:14
Speaker 1: and there was this audible in the courtroom like, oh
25:18
Speaker 1: my god, there's her little skull with the weeds coming out.
25:21
Speaker 1: And that's how bad these photos were as well that
25:25
Speaker 1: the guy passed out. Same situation where people are overcome.
25:28
Speaker 1: People who are not used to seeing that graphic level
25:32
Speaker 1: of horror either passed out or make an audible noise
25:36
Speaker 1: in a courtroom. It does not surprise me. Take a
25:39
Speaker 1: listen to the prosecutor discussing the injuries of silly Danishevski
25:43
Speaker 1: in court. Look at her face. We know she's led
25:48
Speaker 1: it right. You shot its mouth right, that's clear. You
25:57
Speaker 1: know she's led him to a shot. By the way,
26:02
Speaker 1: defense suggested people didn't hear screaming really with a hand
26:07
Speaker 1: or an arm over your mouth and ain't gonna be
26:09
Speaker 1: aby screaming. So we know she blood, that's clear. Question
26:14
Speaker 1: is where she lea where the attack begin. That's the
26:18
Speaker 1: bath match. By the way, please go ahead and take
26:21
Speaker 1: that photo. Blow it up. And tell me that that
26:23
Speaker 1: bath Matt made goes irregular math it's a figure. No,
26:27
Speaker 1: pretty well, the irregular scratches on her face. Please, here's
26:34
Speaker 1: her face after the bloods washed off. That's not blood,
26:40
Speaker 1: I mean those are scratches, dry bud. Next. Wow, I
26:44
Speaker 1: just saw a photo, an autopsy photo um off Shelley,
26:51
Speaker 1: and it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking to think of the mom
26:55
Speaker 1: wrenched away from her children in this manner. I want
26:59
Speaker 1: to go back to Robin Mlensky. That morning, so the
27:02
Speaker 1: daughter finds her, she calls the dad. They call police immediately,
27:08
Speaker 1: people from the synagogue or there. They ask the cops
27:12
Speaker 1: if they can come in. And not only is there
27:15
Speaker 1: not an autopsy Robin Mlynsky, but I guess the rabbi
27:20
Speaker 1: from her synagogue cleans the scene. He asks, and they
27:25
Speaker 1: go yes. And because they don't want the children to
27:28
Speaker 1: see the bloody bathwater and the bloody sheets and the
27:31
Speaker 1: bloody bathroom. So the rabbi takes it about himself, thinking
27:36
Speaker 1: he's doing a good deed, and he cleans and scrubs
27:39
Speaker 1: the bathroom so the children will not be upset. And
27:43
Speaker 1: there goes the evidence, Robin Lynsky that is exactly correct.
27:48
Speaker 1: And not only does he drain the bathtub of blood
27:52
Speaker 1: bodily fluids cleans the floor, he does use chemicals to
27:56
Speaker 1: do it as well. It is you know, they call
27:59
Speaker 1: it mind boggling missteps. I mean, there's no other word
28:02
Speaker 1: for it. And you know, who knows how this is
28:05
Speaker 1: going to impact the jurors. But I want to bring
28:07
Speaker 1: in one other nugget, Nancy, that we haven't gotten to,
28:10
Speaker 1: and that is this Rod Coblin lives in an apartment
28:14
Speaker 1: on that same hallway, in the same New York City building.
28:18
Speaker 1: He's in the studio apartment, and police, if you can
28:21
Speaker 1: believe it, never search his apartment or examine his body.
28:26
Speaker 1: You know, they say he's in the dry shirt, But sir,
28:29
Speaker 1: can you lift up your shirt? Can we see if
28:31
Speaker 1: there's any wounds, any markie and he scratches any anything,
28:35
Speaker 1: And they don't even go into his apartment and peek
28:37
Speaker 1: around and collect any evidence in a brown paper bag.
28:40
Speaker 1: Roderick Coblin sat mostly stone faced in court today as
28:44
Speaker 1: the prosecutor spent two and a half hours laying out
28:47
Speaker 1: a scathing timeline leading up to the murder of his
28:50
Speaker 1: estranged wife, telling the story of a disgruntled and abusive
28:54
Speaker 1: husband obsessed with extramarital affairs, Backhammon and his wife's money,
28:58
Speaker 1: all alleged mode it is for murder. You're hearing from
29:02
Speaker 1: w NBC New York reporter Ida Siegel. Listened cameras in
29:07
Speaker 1: the court only allowed us to capture the back of
29:09
Speaker 1: the prosecutor as he spoke to the jury. He's on
29:11
Speaker 1: trial from murdering the woman he hated with an unrelenting, visceral,
29:15
Speaker 1: ever growing, all consuming anger. Forty seven year old Shelley
29:19
Speaker 1: Kavlin was a successful money manager for ubs. She was
29:23
Speaker 1: found dead in her bathtub on New Year's Eve two
29:26
Speaker 1: thousand and nine by her own daughter, then nine years old. Initially,
29:30
Speaker 1: police ruled it an accident, but after exuming her body,
29:33
Speaker 1: investigators found she had been strangled. Prosecutors argued her estranged
29:37
Speaker 1: husband became enraged when he hacked into her email and
29:40
Speaker 1: discovered that she was making moves to remove him from
29:43
Speaker 1: her will, potentially denying him more than five million dollars.
29:47
Speaker 1: The only human being on the planet, But the motive,
29:49
Speaker 1: the opportunity, and the means to have done this is
29:51
Speaker 1: sitting just across from you here in court. This prosecution.
29:56
Speaker 1: The defense today vehemently denied the prosecution's version of events,
30:00
Speaker 1: allowing that the divorce was contentious, but there was no
30:03
Speaker 1: physical evidence connecting him to Shelley's death, and more so,
30:06
Speaker 1: that there was no murder. They claim it was an accident.
30:10
Speaker 1: But you heard was such a gross misleading distortion of
30:14
Speaker 1: the fact. I don't think it was a distortion at all.
30:17
Speaker 1: You're hearing from w NBC New York reporter Ida Siegel.
30:23
Speaker 1: Long story short, We also know Shelley Denishevski, the victim,
30:26
Speaker 1: had bright red scratches on her face, bruising on her
30:29
Speaker 1: right hand. She was right handed, but there was never
30:34
Speaker 1: an autopsy. I guarantee you he had scratches on him.
30:38
Speaker 1: I mean, bottom line, Kathleen Murphy in the middle of
30:41
Speaker 1: a contentious divorce where she actually has to file a
30:43
Speaker 1: protective order against him. We know, according to forensic evidence,
30:48
Speaker 1: that he hacked into her emails and found out she
30:51
Speaker 1: was cutting him out of her wheel as she should.
30:53
Speaker 1: They're getting a divorce. She has money that saved and earned,
30:58
Speaker 1: and he had to stop her before she could change
31:01
Speaker 1: the will. Motive, motive, motive, I mean, that's exactly what
31:06
Speaker 1: we look for right, you're the criminal prosecutor. But in
31:10
Speaker 1: family court, when I see protective orders, I take them
31:14
Speaker 1: very seriously. And if he's violated the protective order in
31:18
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form, that's another clue. I am
31:22
Speaker 1: shocked that we're able to list ten incidences where the
31:27
Speaker 1: police messed up this crime scene. And I'm very worried
31:29
Speaker 1: about that. Well, I tell you I'm worried too, But
31:31
Speaker 1: I still think the evidence is so overwhelming. Malinsky, what
31:36
Speaker 1: do we know about him trying to actually frame his
31:38
Speaker 1: nine year old daughter Anna. He taps into a computer
31:43
Speaker 1: and he writes an apology letter, a confession letter, allegedly
31:49
Speaker 1: in the words of how a nine year old world
31:51
Speaker 1: expressed herself. You know, Mommy, I pushed you. I'm so sorry,
31:56
Speaker 1: And he fakes it. He pretends to be the nine
32:00
Speaker 1: year old apologizing for pushing her mother. But it was
32:05
Speaker 1: totally bogus. I mean, right there to you, Karen Stark,
32:11
Speaker 1: forensics expert. They can tell who went into the email,
32:16
Speaker 1: who created this document. You can tell from your IP
32:20
Speaker 1: address and in many many other ways, who wrote the document.
32:27
Speaker 1: The nine year old girl didn't not push her mom,
32:31
Speaker 1: and she died because she died of strangulation, okay number one,
32:37
Speaker 1: So they know that he taps in and he writes
32:42
Speaker 1: his confession by his nine year old daughter Anna, which
32:46
Speaker 1: is ridiculous. That she pushed her mom or mom died
32:49
Speaker 1: from a fall. That's not how she died. So who
32:52
Speaker 1: else would have motive to go in and frame their
32:55
Speaker 1: own daughter from her Rod Hoblin. It's very simp He
33:00
Speaker 1: went in and he's trying to cover his tracks. He's
33:03
Speaker 1: writing this note which is just so despicable. I can't
33:06
Speaker 1: even begin to describe, and you know, putting it in
33:09
Speaker 1: the words of a nine year old girl. Really, they
33:12
Speaker 1: can tell who wrote this, They know the time that
33:14
Speaker 1: it was written, they know the IP address of where
33:16
Speaker 1: it was written from it was. It's just such a
33:19
Speaker 1: disgusting frame up. And to try to blame your own
33:23
Speaker 1: daughter for something this heinous. I can't wrap my head
33:26
Speaker 1: around it. Well, that's what I always say when you're
33:28
Speaker 1: looking at crime scenes. A random killer. And remember, there's
33:32
Speaker 1: no robbery, there's no ray, nothing's missing from the home.
33:36
Speaker 1: She's just murdered. So what's the motive to sneak in
33:38
Speaker 1: while the children are there asleep and kill her? And
33:41
Speaker 1: by the way, she was in full rigor, which means
33:44
Speaker 1: that she had been dead for a long time. Rigor mortis.
33:48
Speaker 1: Robert Lensky, what about this cell phone evidence, because what
33:53
Speaker 1: we find out in court, Coblin had a key to
33:56
Speaker 1: Denishevski's apartment still and cops say he took her iPhone
34:02
Speaker 1: to search for information to give him an upper hand
34:05
Speaker 1: in the divorce, and cell phone data shows it remained
34:10
Speaker 1: turned on after the murder, which means somebody was charging
34:15
Speaker 1: it and it never left the vicinity of the building.
34:21
Speaker 1: So bottom line, somebody was accessing her phone reading it
34:25
Speaker 1: after she's dead. Wow, who did that? The eight year
34:29
Speaker 1: old daughter? I mean, it just goes on and on
34:33
Speaker 1: with the evidence. Go ahead, Well, Nancy, the thing is
34:39
Speaker 1: about the cell phone is that's how he found out
34:42
Speaker 1: that she was supposed to be meeting with an attorney
34:45
Speaker 1: to write him out of the will on the first
34:48
Speaker 1: of the year. Keep in mind, she's murdered on the
34:50
Speaker 1: thirty first, on New Year's Eve. The next day, he
34:53
Speaker 1: finds out through her cell phone that she's meeting with
34:56
Speaker 1: a lawyer to drop the papers to get him out
34:59
Speaker 1: of the wi. Well, Nancy, this man Rod Coblin looked
35:03
Speaker 1: at his wife as if she was a human ATM machine.
35:07
Speaker 1: He didn't love her, he was cheating and all she
35:10
Speaker 1: was good for in his mind was money so he
35:13
Speaker 1: could continue to play games and Backgavin. It's outrageous. You know.
35:18
Speaker 1: Another thing is that he Rod Colin actually bragged about
35:24
Speaker 1: his martial arts death grip. His martial arts death grip. Now,
35:31
Speaker 1: how do I know that? Because his friends talked about it.
35:37
Speaker 1: During a night out with his friends from synagogue, Coblin
35:40
Speaker 1: boasted about his mastery of his death grip, talking about
35:46
Speaker 1: he could kill either the friend or somebody else. I
35:50
Speaker 1: could kill you with one hand in a way no
35:53
Speaker 1: one would ever find out. I mean Karen Stark, who
35:56
Speaker 1: goes around bragging. I mean, Karen, if I walked up
35:59
Speaker 1: to you said I could kill you with one hand
36:02
Speaker 1: and nobody would ever know, you would have me admitted
36:06
Speaker 1: to the Luney Bean immediately, And they have it on tape, Nancy.
36:10
Speaker 1: This whole thing is so outrageous. He was bragging about
36:15
Speaker 1: it because he just doesn't think about what he's doing.
36:18
Speaker 1: Even if you take a look as a psychologist, I
36:20
Speaker 1: find a look at the fact that he faked that
36:23
Speaker 1: note from his daughter, who doesn't have compassion, love, caring
36:28
Speaker 1: about their children, want to protect them. He has no feelings,
36:31
Speaker 1: he doesn't think about what he's doing. And he's so
36:34
Speaker 1: full of himself that he needs to brag about the
36:37
Speaker 1: sack that he can do the very thing that killed
36:40
Speaker 1: his wife, snapping her net. And we also have video
36:45
Speaker 1: that and you can find it a crime online dot com.
36:49
Speaker 1: Here is Comlin in the common area in the jail
36:53
Speaker 1: showing how to do the lethal next snapping martial arts hold,
36:59
Speaker 1: I mean present video showing Ron Coughlin demonstrating a chokehold.
37:04
Speaker 1: Does it never end? We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy
37:08
Speaker 1: Grace Crime's Choice, signing off, goodbye friend,