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LAKEN RILEY ACT, NAMED AFTER MURDERED UGA STUDENT, SIGNED INTO LAW · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: A beautiful young nursing student sex assaulted and murdered by
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Speaker 2: an illegal immigrant, A migrant here in the US, of course,
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Speaker 2: I'm talking about lacan Riley. Her trial tore apart the
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Speaker 2: local community and her family, causing a reverberation across our
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Speaker 2: country in the last days of bombshell development. I'm Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: This is crime Stories. Thank you for being with us
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Speaker 2: in the last days. Congress passes the lacan Riley Act,
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Speaker 2: requiring undocumented immigrants arrested for theft or violent crimes to
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Speaker 2: be held behind bars pending trial. It was a House
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Speaker 2: of vote by two hundred sixty three to one hundred
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Speaker 2: and fifty six. Who wouldn't want that? Now the White
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Speaker 2: House signed into law.
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Speaker 1: Why why this bill?
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Speaker 2: Because the purp convicted of murdering Laken had been arrested
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Speaker 2: twice in New York and in Georgia just months before
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Speaker 2: the killing, but in both cases was released ahead of trial.
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Speaker 2: If he had not been released, lacn would be alive today.
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Speaker 2: What happened in Lacin's case, Uga co ed Lacn Riley
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Speaker 2: out for a morning jog. This after murdered Lacoln's mother's
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Speaker 2: frantic text to her just before her daughter's body found brutalized.
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Speaker 1: And what is the text says? Good morning about to
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Speaker 1: know run?
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Speaker 3: Did you agree your daughter and did she in fact
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Speaker 3: call her mother?
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Speaker 4: She did?
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Speaker 2: A stunning verdict in an Athens, Georgia courtroom illegal immigrant
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Speaker 2: migrant worker Jose Ebara guilty and the brutal murder of
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Speaker 2: a gorgeous young Deans student.
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Speaker 1: Lake and Riley with me an all star penalty.
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Speaker 2: To make sense of what we are hearing straight out
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Speaker 2: to Dave mac joining us at the courthouse. You know,
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Speaker 2: Dave mac, as the defense put up a semblance of
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Speaker 2: a case, it almost seemed to me as if they
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Speaker 2: weren't really trying or Dave, is it a matter of
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Speaker 2: the fact they didn't have that much to work with.
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Speaker 5: I think they didn't have that much to work with, Nancy,
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Speaker 5: and they were trying to point the finger at jose
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Speaker 5: Ivar's brother, Diego in particular, and that was what the
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Speaker 5: whole point of their defense was going to be. Because
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Speaker 5: they didn't have anything else but last minute stuff. They
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Speaker 5: planned to call Diego and their other brother to the
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Speaker 5: stand as part of their defense.
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Speaker 6: Testimony, didn't do it.
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Speaker 5: They actually presented some things to the judge and then
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Speaker 5: decided not to call Joseevara's brothers as part of this case.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think I know why, joining me, founder
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Speaker 2: director of Cold Case Research Institute, star of Zone seven podcast,
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Speaker 2: Cheryl McCollum, I think you and I know why Diego
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Speaker 2: Ebarra didn't take the stand.
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Speaker 7: Absolutely, he's a known gang member. He is a criminal,
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Speaker 7: and there's nothing he could say that can help his
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Speaker 7: brother unless he got himself into con trouble. Line to the.
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Speaker 2: Court, what a day in an American courtroom, A case
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Speaker 2: that stunned the nation in its brutality comes to a
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Speaker 2: close straight out to Philip Dubay joining us high profile
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Speaker 2: lawyer in the LA County Public Defender's office. Of course,
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Speaker 2: diego Ebarra, which is really where the defense had hung
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Speaker 2: its hat, was not going to come in and jeopardize
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Speaker 2: himself by saying what I did.
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Speaker 1: It Well, a couple of problems.
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Speaker 8: First of all, I believe the prosecution violated due process.
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Speaker 8: They should have never presented that third party culprit defense
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Speaker 8: in its case. In chief, the prosecution has to build
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Speaker 8: its case completely independent of the defense case and by
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Speaker 8: hijacking that defense and building into its case and chief
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Speaker 8: is illegal. And the reason why is that the defense?
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Speaker 2: Oh sorry, I go asleep. Why didn't they call diego
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Speaker 2: Ebara to the stand? Nutshell, we're playing ping pong?
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Speaker 8: Not yes, because they would not immunize him should he
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Speaker 8: say something incriminating.
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Speaker 1: And I believe he means that I did it.
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Speaker 8: No, I mean what if, hypothetically he said something that
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Speaker 8: could be contorted and twisted into a tacit admission. What
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Speaker 8: protection does the young man have. He's already an immigration jeopardy,
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Speaker 8: having to go back to a country where we have
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Speaker 8: no diplomatic relations, going to do anything to compromise his status,
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Speaker 8: let alone go to prisons.
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Speaker 2: Okay, you know what, Cheryl McCollum, you're not a lawyer,
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Speaker 2: much less a high profile lawyer like Philip Debay, But
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Speaker 2: can you give it to me in a nutshell?
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Speaker 1: There's no way in.
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Speaker 2: H E double l that diego Ebara was going to
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Speaker 2: take the stand to defend his brother on a brutal
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Speaker 2: attempted rape and murder charge bludgeoning a co.
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Speaker 1: Ed dead with a rock. And what was he going
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Speaker 1: to say to save his brother?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you got the wrong guy, I really did it.
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Speaker 7: Zero chance he was ever going to take the stand.
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Speaker 7: Anything that he says can and will be used against them.
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Speaker 7: While he's sitting there, what was he going to say, Yes,
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Speaker 7: that's my hat, Yes, I was wearing it the day
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Speaker 7: she was murdered. He cannot say anything truthfully that can
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Speaker 7: help his brother. His brother is own video falcon being
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Speaker 7: a predator hunting for a victim, his own video walking
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Speaker 7: to the path where he attacked lake and Riley, then
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Speaker 7: his own video discarding bloody clothing that has his DNA
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Speaker 7: and Lakeland together them. His fingerprint is on her cell phone.
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Speaker 7: His brother, Diego could say nothing to help Jove. Nothing.
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Speaker 2: And in one more twist, Cheryl McCollum, if the brother,
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Speaker 2: Diego Ebarro had taken the stand, and there was quite
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Speaker 2: a courtroom skirmish over whether he would take the stand,
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Speaker 2: whatever he said, even if he took responsibility, even if
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Speaker 2: he tried to give his brother an alibi, would subject
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Speaker 2: him to perjury charges. Look, he would get He's going
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Speaker 2: to get deported anyway, much less taking the stand and lying. Now,
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Speaker 2: remember this was a bench trial. This has been a
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Speaker 2: best trial from the get go, with the defense wanted
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Speaker 2: to have the case heard before a judge and not
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Speaker 2: a jury. So throughout this entire trial we have seen
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Speaker 2: great deference given to lacln Riley's family. Now this judge,
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Speaker 2: remember as he's looking out at the family, he had
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Speaker 2: to render a.
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Speaker 1: Verdict and sentencing after this. Listen.
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Speaker 9: In shocking testimony, University of Georgia police Sergeant Sophie Rabout
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Speaker 9: recounts the last moments of Lake and Riley's life, breaking
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Speaker 9: down the minutes into a timeline. Preparing for the last
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Speaker 9: jog of her life, Lake and Riley reaches out to
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Speaker 9: her mother by text at a fifty five am, asking
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Speaker 9: if she's free to talk. At nine oh three am,
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Speaker 9: Riley calls her mother. Leake and Riley then listens to
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Speaker 9: music and is seen on a trail camera At nine
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Speaker 9: oh five am. She carries her iPhone in her left hand,
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Speaker 9: which is facing toward the intramur fields. At nine oh
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Speaker 9: six am, Lake and Riley runs out of view of
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Speaker 9: the camera.
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Speaker 2: Now this testimony regarding the final texts sent by Lacan
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Speaker 2: to her mother. Her mother in court throughout the trial
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Speaker 2: sobbing at the memory of those texts, and then mom
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Speaker 2: tries to call back.
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Speaker 10: Listen data collected from the Garmin watch Lake and Riley
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Speaker 10: was wearing on her jog. Her heart was no longer
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Speaker 10: beating at nine twenty eight am. She does not reply
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Speaker 10: to her mother's text at nine thirty eight am and
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Speaker 10: fails to answer phone calls. Her mother sends another text
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Speaker 10: at nine fifty eight am. You're making me nervous, not
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Speaker 10: answering when you're out running.
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Speaker 1: Are you okay?
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Speaker 10: And another text from her mother at eleven forty seven am,
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Speaker 10: pleading please call me. I'm worried sick about you.
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Speaker 4: You know.
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Speaker 2: To Scott Iiker joining us founding member of the FBI's
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Speaker 2: Cellular Analysis Survey Team. Scott can be found at PCA
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Speaker 2: Experts dot com. Scott, I know you deal with data.
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Speaker 2: You deal with satellites and raw digital and sell data
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Speaker 2: every day of your life. Amazing that you're a founding
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Speaker 2: member of the FBI Sell Analysis Team Cellular Analysis. How
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Speaker 2: does it feel you have been analyzing the digital facts
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Speaker 2: that we know so far, the data that came forward
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Speaker 2: at trial, but to hear it put in such human terms.
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Speaker 2: For instance, her Garmin watch shows her heart stopped beating
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Speaker 2: at nine twenty eight She's texting her mother trying to
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Speaker 2: reach her mom, trying to call her at nine three.
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Speaker 2: By nine twenty eight, she's dead in twenty five minutes.
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Speaker 2: By nine fifty eight, her mother is sending repeated texts,
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Speaker 2: you're making me nervous. You're not answering when you're out running,
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Speaker 2: are you okay. It's almost as if the mom had
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Speaker 2: a foreboding premonition, and it's all proven through sale data analysis.
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Speaker 1: Scott, I agree.
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Speaker 11: This information that you can click from not only the
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Speaker 11: cell phone, the victim's cell phone, but the defended cell
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Speaker 11: phone and the garment watch really puts it all together.
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Speaker 11: It was fantastic how the cast agent that testified in
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Speaker 11: this case and the officers that downloaded the garment information,
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Speaker 11: they put it all together in this presentation that really
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Speaker 11: did show the judge that this information showed that the
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Speaker 11: defendant's phone and the victim's phone were in the same
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Speaker 11: area at the time of her death, at the time
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Speaker 11: of her heart stopped stopped beating. It's sad, but it's
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Speaker 11: fantastic when we can get this information together at all
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Speaker 11: at once, and.
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Speaker 2: The defense actually brings forward a witness suggesting that it
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Speaker 2: was another trail gooer that could have murdered lacan but
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Speaker 2: the poignant nature of the video you're seeing right now,
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Speaker 2: no doubt, had a huge impact on the judge.
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Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace in the last days.
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Speaker 2: The Lake and Riley Act approved by the House and
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Speaker 2: passed with bipartisan support the following Wednesday.
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Speaker 1: It requires the Department.
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Speaker 2: Of Homeland Security to detain migrants if they are charged
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Speaker 2: with certain criminal offenses like theft, shotlifting, burglary, assault against
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Speaker 2: law enforcement, or crimes that result in death or serious
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Speaker 2: bodily injury of another person. If the killer had been
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Speaker 2: detained in Lacoln's case, she would be alive today. See
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Speaker 2: doctor Angela Arnold joining us from down psychiatrist in the
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Speaker 2: Atlanta Jurisdiction at Angela Arnold MD dot com. The mother,
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Speaker 2: the whole family sitting in the well watching this trial
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Speaker 2: and they have to see Lacn's final moments and she
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Speaker 2: was out running free before.
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Speaker 1: She was so brutally murdered.
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Speaker 2: And Mom has to remember those moments we're talking about.
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Speaker 2: And the judge sees all of this happening, and he
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Speaker 2: knows what the evidence is. Mom has to sit there
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Speaker 2: and listen to the call where her daughter tried to
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Speaker 2: call her. The text where her daughter was texting her
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Speaker 2: her trying to call back those moments where she had
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Speaker 2: no idea Laken was already dead or was in the
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Speaker 2: middle of an attack.
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Speaker 3: Nancy, I am not sure that this is something that
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Speaker 3: the mother will ever be able to recover from. This
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Speaker 3: is a trauma that she has suffered, and anyone who
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Speaker 3: is a mother, I'm sure is feeling the exact same
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Speaker 3: way about this. How unsafe, how unsafe somebody can be
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Speaker 3: just to go out on a run. I feel for
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Speaker 3: that mother from the bottom of my heart. Nancy, It's
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Speaker 3: a tragedy beyond belief.
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Speaker 2: Well another thing, doctor Angie, there is such a thing
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Speaker 2: as survivor guilt. The mom forever chastising herself, saying, oh,
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Speaker 2: what if I had called her and we had gotten
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Speaker 2: in a conversation. What if I had picked that phone
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Speaker 2: up or answered that text and we talked for ten minutes.
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Speaker 2: Would jose E Borrow have picked somebody else? I mean,
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Speaker 2: I've thought over and over in my mind for years.
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Speaker 2: What if I had kept Keith at the house at
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Speaker 2: my parents' house for twenty extra minutes the morning he left,
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Speaker 2: would it have made a difference.
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Speaker 1: I think it's so hard on the victims' families.
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Speaker 3: And I'm sure, Nancy, like you said, you're still thinking
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Speaker 3: about that, Nancy, how And there's certain.
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Speaker 1: Things we can't control.
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Speaker 3: The mother will think that forever, and yes, she will
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Speaker 3: have some form of survivor guilt on top of the traumatic,
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Speaker 3: the post traumatic stress disorder that this poor woman will suffer.
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Speaker 3: She will have nightmares, she will not be able to sleep,
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Speaker 3: She's going to see Laken, She's going to replay this
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Speaker 3: in her mind for years. It's a tragedy beyond belief.
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Speaker 2: I'm just looking at the video, Cheryl, and you and
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Speaker 2: I have walked the scene over and over and over
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Speaker 2: and traced her rout but looking at her as she
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Speaker 2: rounds that bend out just running, young, free as a bird, beautiful,
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Speaker 2: so full of vitality, so alive, and she runs and
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Speaker 2: runs and turns that corner, and you and I looking
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Speaker 2: at it, we know that corner and we know what
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Speaker 2: awaited her.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's heartbreaking, it really is.
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Speaker 7: It's so heartbreaking, especially sitting in the courtroom with her mama,
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Speaker 7: and you know she's watching that just thinking, oh my god,
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Speaker 7: if I could stop her, if I could just make
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Speaker 7: her take a rite instead of a lipt, Nancy. You
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Speaker 7: and I know he was laying in wait. He had
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Speaker 7: already spent seventy three minutes looking for a victim, and
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Speaker 7: he lay in wait until Lakelands came up owning and
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Speaker 7: he brutally attacked her, beating her with a rock.
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Speaker 2: You know, Cheryl, how many times have you and I
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Speaker 2: cornered each other and shown each other pictures and videos.
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Speaker 2: I've looked at the twins videos throughout, you know, from
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Speaker 2: day one all the way through, and I kind of
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Speaker 2: relive it, relive that moment taking that video, seeing them
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Speaker 2: so young and happy and alive. And this video the
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Speaker 2: mom in court when she saw this, it was a
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Speaker 2: dagger to her heart.
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Speaker 7: Shehrrel It was gut wrenching to watch her. And you know, Nancy, again,
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Speaker 7: I think the prosecutor put it so beautifully today that
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Speaker 7: Lakeland she got him, she fought him, she put evidence
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Speaker 7: on his body, she got him. And Sheila al said
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Speaker 7: that she twisted a powerful knot that the defendant can't
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Speaker 7: get out of, and she's absolutely right.
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Speaker 2: Back to Dave Mack joining us outside the courtroom, Dave
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Speaker 2: mac threw out the state's closing argument as prosecutor Ross
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Speaker 2: went through the evidence to the judge, Lincoln's mother just
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Speaker 2: she just sobbed, just audibly sobbed. Anyone could hear it,
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Speaker 2: and it would be over my dead body if they
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Speaker 2: tried to silence her in that courtroom. And I don't
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Speaker 2: know if you noticed a bar acted like he didn't
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Speaker 2: hear anything.
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Speaker 5: He acts like he's in traffic court, Nancy. He doesn't
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Speaker 5: act like any of this matters to him, that he
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Speaker 5: is part of it at all. He actually is being
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Speaker 5: very disconnected is probably the best way to put it.
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Speaker 6: He just is totally not there.
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Speaker 5: And when you actually are laying out the facts of
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Speaker 5: this case, okay, there are no doubts. The closing argument
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Speaker 5: is just basically laying out the map. Here's what happened,
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Speaker 5: here's how we know he did it, and it's all there.
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Speaker 5: There's no way of looking at this any other way.
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Speaker 5: That's why there was a conclusion the way it was.
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Speaker 5: There was nothing else they could come up with in
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Speaker 5: terms of any kind of defense. You know, the only
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Speaker 5: defense they had, Nancy, was well it was his brother,
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Speaker 5: maybe his brother that was part of the rebuttal witness today,
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Speaker 5: you know, for the prosecution was to say Diego was
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Speaker 5: asleep nothing proves he was in a leave with the
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Speaker 5: time at gilling Abban Helen forty.
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Speaker 2: Seven am and coming text from her.
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Speaker 9: Mother said please call me.
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Speaker 1: I'm worried sick about you.
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Speaker 8: As that text spread, is not her pose of death.
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Speaker 2: Is decombined effects of force, head trauma and asphyxia.
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Speaker 1: What's her manner of the homicide?
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Speaker 2: Oh, blunt force trauma with a rock still covered in
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Speaker 2: Lacan's blood.
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Speaker 1: And heir and asphyxia.
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Speaker 2: You were just hearing doctor Michelle DeMarco, the medical examiner
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Speaker 2: that testified for the state. That is just one piece
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Speaker 2: of evidence that weighed into the judge's finding of guilty
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Speaker 2: Jose Ebarra guilty and the murder of this beautiful young
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Speaker 2: co Ed lacoln Riley. In the opening statements, so we
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Speaker 2: heard Prosecutor Ross state that Ibarra was out hunting, hunting
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Speaker 2: for a woman, and he lay in wait, waiting for
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Speaker 2: a victim to go by.
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Speaker 1: And here comes Lake and Wright look at.
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Speaker 2: Him hiding, hiding in the bushes amongst the trees, just waiting.
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Speaker 1: What was going through his mind? Do I know?
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Speaker 5: No?
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Speaker 1: Do I care?
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Speaker 12: No?
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Speaker 2: I don't have to go into the mind of a killer,
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Speaker 2: and would be rapist and figure out what he's thinking.
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Speaker 1: But look at him, look at.
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Speaker 2: Him pacing, waiting for a victim to come by, And
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Speaker 2: she did. But this victim, as Prosecutor ros said, refused
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Speaker 2: to be his rape victim, and she fought tooth and nail,
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Speaker 2: providing the state with valuable and probative evidence. In the charges,
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Speaker 2: we see a assault with intent to rape. The defendant
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Speaker 2: Ebara was indicted. I have the indictment right here in
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Speaker 2: my hand with ten counts. In addition to malice murder
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Speaker 2: charges that means intent to kill is shown, there are
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Speaker 2: felony murder charges, which means a death occurred during the
20:16
Speaker 2: commission of a felony. Now, what did the state offer
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Speaker 2: to support a guilty verdict for attempted rape which proves
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Speaker 2: felony murder?
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Speaker 1: Listen, even waste.
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Speaker 4: Stand her pants had been moved to the backside of
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Speaker 4: her running pants were pulled down, exposing the top of
20:35
Speaker 4: her buddocks.
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Speaker 2: Joining us at the courthouse, crime online dot COM's investigative
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Speaker 2: reporter Dave mac Dave uh oh, by the way.
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Speaker 1: You were just hearing that from our friends at the
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Speaker 1: national desk.
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Speaker 2: That was trial testimony from Special Agency Lucas Bayer, Dave
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Speaker 2: mac Lucas buyer home run home run for the state.
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Speaker 2: Did you hear that testimony you've been in court where
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Speaker 2: he describes how her waistband, the backside of her pants
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Speaker 2: were pulled down over her career end, and of course
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Speaker 2: she was left exposed that way. I mean, why else
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Speaker 2: would Ibarra be pull trying to pull her pants off
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Speaker 2: if he wasn't trying to rape her.
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Speaker 6: That was the whole point he was making. Nancy. You know,
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Speaker 6: Lucas Bayer was such a good witness.
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Speaker 5: They even brought him back as the rebundal witness after
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Speaker 5: the defense closing because they were trying to point the
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Speaker 5: arrow at Diego at Ibarra, you know, and it was
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Speaker 5: Lucas Bayer they brought back to the stand. Is that
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Speaker 5: there's no evidence that Diego was anywhere other than in
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Speaker 5: bed sleep.
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Speaker 1: And there is more.
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Speaker 4: Listen, the clothing was pulled up extremely high aboff her breasts,
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Speaker 4: which completely exposed her breasts.
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Speaker 2: In the last days, Congress passing the Lake and Riley
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Speaker 2: Act to keep undocumented immigrants behind bars in jail pending
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Speaker 2: their trial, allspurred by.
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Speaker 1: The Lacan Riley murderer.
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Speaker 2: I remember sitting in that courtroom hearing her mother sobbed
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Speaker 2: during testimony, and I'll never forget it, and with good reason.
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Speaker 1: The facts are horrific.
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Speaker 2: We've got an aggravated battery, which is beating her with
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Speaker 2: a rot in the head, but count three to support
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Speaker 2: a felony murder charge. The underlying felony is aggravated assault
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Speaker 2: with intent to rape. And you are hearing GBI special
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Speaker 2: Agent Lucas Bayer laying it out.
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Speaker 1: We got that from our friends at the National Desk.
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Speaker 2: I mean, Cheryl McCollum. Did you hear what he said last?
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Speaker 2: Her clothing was pulled up high up above up to
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Speaker 2: her neck as she was left that way with her
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Speaker 2: breasts exposed.
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Speaker 7: Nancy, three layers of clothing, her jacket, her shirt, her
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Speaker 7: sports bra were all moves above her breast to expose them.
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Speaker 7: Her pants had been pulled down, her underwear had been
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Speaker 7: pulled and torn. And I also want to remind you
23:13
Speaker 7: one of the injuries that Lakelan Riley left on Joseabara
23:18
Speaker 7: was between his shoulder base on his back, which he
23:22
Speaker 7: didn't get running away. He got that because he was.
23:25
Speaker 1: On top of her. And there's more. Listen to GBI
23:28
Speaker 1: special agent Lucas buyer.
23:30
Speaker 4: The sports braw had been manipulated so that had become
23:34
Speaker 4: the outermost layer of her clothing.
23:36
Speaker 1: Fire on the stand from our friends at the National.
23:38
Speaker 2: Desk, Philip Dubay, high profile lawyer joining us out of
23:43
Speaker 2: LA who has covered the case from the get go. Really,
23:48
Speaker 2: you don't think is there any way with a straight
23:51
Speaker 2: face debate, a straight face, that you could argue this
23:55
Speaker 2: was not aggravated assault with the intent to rate because
23:59
Speaker 2: in closing all arguments, the defense attorney argued earlierly this
24:04
Speaker 2: morning that there was reasonable doubt. I don't see any
24:07
Speaker 2: reasonable doubt there. The waistpin of her pants pulled down
24:10
Speaker 2: over her rear end, her clothing yanked up around her neck.
24:15
Speaker 2: She's left with her breast and rear end exposed, her
24:18
Speaker 2: underwear torn, and the sports bra had been so.
24:21
Speaker 1: Jerked around it was on the outside of her clothing.
24:24
Speaker 8: Wrong place, wrong time. There were hundreds of people on
24:27
Speaker 8: and off campus at the same time. What I think
24:29
Speaker 8: would have been the appropriate argument would be to say
24:32
Speaker 8: he happened upon the body already dead, and as a
24:35
Speaker 8: crime of opportunity, he rifled through her things and he
24:38
Speaker 8: tried to take advantage of the situation and is in
24:41
Speaker 8: fact not the perpetrator, and in the process it was
24:45
Speaker 8: transfer of DNA and the scratches are completely unrelated. The
24:49
Speaker 8: DNA expert could not testify that the cells found under
24:53
Speaker 8: her fingernails were not from transfer. He could have been
24:56
Speaker 8: touching her hands, going through her purse, going through her pockets,
25:00
Speaker 8: whatever she had on her and in the process touched
25:02
Speaker 8: the phone. You have no eyewitness or video putting him
25:07
Speaker 8: at the crime scene at the time. Instead, you have
25:10
Speaker 8: him after the fact, wrong place and wrong time.
25:13
Speaker 2: Well, thank Heaven, the judge did not listen to any
25:17
Speaker 2: gibberish such as that, did you actually say maybe he
25:21
Speaker 2: went through her things?
25:22
Speaker 1: You mean her underwear, at her sports bra, those things
25:26
Speaker 1: I'm talking about.
25:27
Speaker 8: Whoever actually did it, and he happened upon it after
25:30
Speaker 8: the fact and there was transfer. Look, you don't have
25:32
Speaker 8: an eyewitness, you don't have video, you don't have anything else.
25:36
Speaker 8: I'm not saying he's an angel, but he took advantage
25:39
Speaker 8: of the situation. If that were to be believed, and
25:42
Speaker 8: it doesn't necessarily prove a homicide, it certainly doesn't prove
25:46
Speaker 8: a felony murder committed during the commission of a stalking.
25:49
Speaker 8: I mean, under Georgia law, stocking is a misdemeanor, So
25:53
Speaker 8: you don't even have anything.
25:54
Speaker 2: We're talking about the attempted rape and we're talking about
25:58
Speaker 2: attempted rape, not stalking.
26:00
Speaker 13: Wait, you know what, what did lawyer.
26:04
Speaker 2: I've tried so many trials I can't even count them all.
26:08
Speaker 2: Don't try to confuse the charges. We're not talking about
26:12
Speaker 2: a stalking charge. This is felony murder with the underlying
26:16
Speaker 2: felony being attempted rape.
26:20
Speaker 1: Isn't attempted rape a felony in LA. Of course it is,
26:24
Speaker 1: of course it is. But what I don't know what
26:25
Speaker 1: you're talking about stalking.
26:27
Speaker 8: The allegation was that he was following and lying and
26:29
Speaker 8: wait and hanging out and peeping through windows.
26:32
Speaker 1: It says that's not an allegation.
26:34
Speaker 2: That's what I'm arguing here, because I know that he
26:37
Speaker 2: stood there for about an hour.
26:39
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, stalking is not part of this case.
26:42
Speaker 2: That is not an indicted charge. But just to prove
26:45
Speaker 2: Philip Dubay wrong, jump in Cheryl is.
26:48
Speaker 7: He was not killing her. Why would he hang up
26:51
Speaker 7: on now one one and throw the phone? He did
26:54
Speaker 7: that because Lincoln knew she was in danger and when
26:57
Speaker 7: she called now one one, he grabbed the phone, disengaged
27:01
Speaker 7: that call and threw it away from her. Is fingerprint
27:07
Speaker 7: was on the phone with her blood on it.
27:11
Speaker 14: A holla, that's bodycam from the ug A p D
27:37
Speaker 14: Sergeant Joshua EPs Hollah Alla.
27:40
Speaker 2: Bammas could not wake him up, Cheryl McCollum. The judge
27:46
Speaker 2: clearly believed the state's argument that after the murder of
27:51
Speaker 2: Lake and Riley, beautiful young dazeless student, Jose Ebara had
27:58
Speaker 2: a great night sleep.
28:00
Speaker 1: In fact, the words were, he slept like a baby.
28:03
Speaker 1: Did you look at this? They could hardly wake him up.
28:07
Speaker 7: He was sound asleep to the point they could hardly
28:10
Speaker 7: wake him up. And name the most just horrific part
28:14
Speaker 7: of this whole thing is knowing her mama ain't fled
28:18
Speaker 7: a full night since her baby was murdered. And this
28:21
Speaker 7: man is going to walk out of that house, start
28:24
Speaker 7: chatting among his friends and started laughing. And the judge
28:29
Speaker 7: didn't miss that either.
28:30
Speaker 2: In closing arguments, we heard the defense attorney arguing that
28:36
Speaker 2: there were alternate theories as to what happened, one being
28:41
Speaker 2: that the brothers Diego Ebar and Jose Ebara mingled co
28:47
Speaker 2: mingled their clothing in the apartment, and we.
28:49
Speaker 1: See that's absolutely true.
28:51
Speaker 2: It's a big mess, and that somehow there was a
28:56
Speaker 2: transference onto I guess she's trying to say diego Ebarra's close,
29:03
Speaker 2: so therefore implicating diego Ebarra.
29:07
Speaker 1: That's what was argued in the defense closing.
29:12
Speaker 13: But listen to more of this bodycam footage.
29:47
Speaker 2: We played that for you because there you can hear
29:49
Speaker 2: more of the conversation by the uh PD sergeant Joshua
29:54
Speaker 2: Epps telling him to come slowly. Uh Ebarra is starting
29:59
Speaker 2: to walk further in the house and the officer chastises him.
30:02
Speaker 2: At that point, Ybarra puts on his shoes and walks
30:05
Speaker 2: out to doctor Angela Arnold, I think I need a
30:08
Speaker 2: shrink right now.
30:09
Speaker 1: For those of you just joining us Ibara guilty.
30:13
Speaker 2: The judge had no other choice, and I think a
30:16
Speaker 2: jury would have agreed as well, Doctor Angie Arnold, how
30:20
Speaker 2: can you, according to the state now proven in a
30:22
Speaker 2: court of law, brutally attempt to rape a young girl
30:27
Speaker 2: jogging by wait in the woods for her, attack her,
30:33
Speaker 2: murder her by bludgeting her with a rock and then
30:38
Speaker 2: leaving her dead, bloody, her face is figured and her
30:42
Speaker 2: private parts exposed, and then get a good night's.
30:47
Speaker 3: Sleep, Because, Nancy, we are dealing with the severest of
30:51
Speaker 3: a sociopath here. He has no conscience. Do you notice, however,
30:56
Speaker 3: over the course of all of this, we have all
31:00
Speaker 3: becomes so attached to Lake and Riley, haven't we. She's
31:03
Speaker 3: a beautiful girl. She brings out feelings inside of us.
31:09
Speaker 3: We all think of our own children when we look
31:11
Speaker 3: at this beautiful girl and what happened to her. And
31:14
Speaker 3: he sits in the courtroom with no emotion on his face,
31:21
Speaker 3: because Nancy, he is a sociopath. And you know what
31:25
Speaker 3: else that means, Nancy, I wish I could tell the
31:28
Speaker 3: judge this. He is not capable of rehab. They need
31:33
Speaker 3: to put him under the jail and pour some concrete
31:36
Speaker 3: on him. There is no possibility of this person ever
31:40
Speaker 3: being rehabilitated because there's nothing.
31:44
Speaker 1: There's nothing to rehab.
31:46
Speaker 3: He doesn't have any empathy, he doesn't feel any remorse.
31:57
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
32:03
Speaker 2: In the last days, a bill signed into law, all
32:09
Speaker 2: motivated by the death the murder of a beautiful young
32:16
Speaker 2: nursing student, Lake and Riley what went in to.
32:22
Speaker 1: That guilty verdict finding.
32:25
Speaker 2: You heard Philip debate earlier arguing it could have been
32:28
Speaker 2: someone else.
32:29
Speaker 1: And I want you to hear this and closing.
32:32
Speaker 2: Arguments, the defense actually argued to the judge with a
32:37
Speaker 2: straight face that Lake and Riley, the murder victim, should
32:43
Speaker 2: have could have outrun jose Ebarra.
32:49
Speaker 1: Why why is that relevant?
32:51
Speaker 2: Because the defense Caitlin Beck, argued that jose Ebarra was
32:58
Speaker 2: shorter end quote fatter than brother Diego. So I guess
33:03
Speaker 2: she's arguing the killer had to be Diego, the brother
33:07
Speaker 2: because he was taller and faster.
33:11
Speaker 1: They actually argued that. But back to real evidence.
33:15
Speaker 12: Listen, a match between the contact slobbings from the jacket
33:19
Speaker 12: and jose Abara is approximately one hundred trillion times more
33:24
Speaker 12: probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated person in
33:27
Speaker 12: the population.
33:28
Speaker 1: That from our friends at the National desk.
33:30
Speaker 2: You are hearing the GBI Crime Lab analyst Ashley Hinkle, did.
33:34
Speaker 1: You hear that dubet one hundred trillion times?
33:38
Speaker 8: But you could not eliminate and it is a match.
33:40
Speaker 8: She could not eliminate transfer Okay, problem, hold on, there
33:44
Speaker 8: is a match.
33:45
Speaker 2: I think I think that we can eliminate transfer because
33:50
Speaker 2: Dave Mack joining us at the courthouse. Isn't it true
33:53
Speaker 2: that video catches jose E Bara throwing that jacket. Not
34:00
Speaker 2: Diego the brother, but jose Ebarra throwing that jacket into.
34:04
Speaker 1: Up there he is.
34:06
Speaker 2: That's the same shirt he was wearing one hour earlier, posting.
34:10
Speaker 6: On Nancy what's happen?
34:12
Speaker 5: Okay, the video of him throwing the jacket into the dumpster.
34:17
Speaker 5: That is what they've used to say Diego is the killer,
34:20
Speaker 5: because they said that one of the friends that actually
34:23
Speaker 5: was interviewed by police said she thought it was Diego
34:26
Speaker 5: throwing the jacket in the dunster.
34:28
Speaker 6: Now she wasn't one hundred scent.
34:29
Speaker 5: Sure, but a friend who knew them both much better said, no,
34:32
Speaker 5: that's Jose.
34:33
Speaker 6: So that's for the defense got. Their whole idea was
34:36
Speaker 6: from the winds I think Diego throwing the jacket away.
34:39
Speaker 5: The entire defense strategy came from that one comment from
34:42
Speaker 5: somebody who was not even sure.
34:44
Speaker 2: Okay, so to believe that, Dave Mack, I mean, I've
34:48
Speaker 2: seen I was sitting in court when the state showed
34:52
Speaker 2: the photo of jose Ebarra one hour before the murder
34:57
Speaker 2: posting selfies wearing that exact shirt. I'd like to see
35:02
Speaker 2: it because it has very unusual markings.
35:06
Speaker 1: There is there. He is in the shirt one hour
35:09
Speaker 1: later throwing the.
35:10
Speaker 2: Jacket with a one hundred trillion likelihood DNA match.
35:16
Speaker 1: So I don't know what Dube is talking about.
35:18
Speaker 2: Transfer And listen about the fingernail clippings.
35:22
Speaker 12: The DNA match between the wet rush swabbings from the
35:26
Speaker 12: fingernail clippings from the right hand and the match was
35:30
Speaker 12: to Jose Antonio.
35:32
Speaker 2: Abara still Ashley Hinkle on the stand from our friends
35:36
Speaker 2: at the National desk.
35:37
Speaker 1: And there's more on the fingernail DNA match.
35:41
Speaker 12: The match is ten billion times more probable than a
35:44
Speaker 12: coincidental match to an unrelated person in the population.
35:48
Speaker 2: Okay, Philip Dubay, ten billion likelihood, one hundred trillion likelihood.
35:55
Speaker 2: There's no chance of the transfer because you just saw
35:58
Speaker 2: Jose Ebarra throwing that jacket into the trash minutes after
36:04
Speaker 2: Laken is killed.
36:05
Speaker 1: So when's the transfer.
36:07
Speaker 8: There's a difference between consciousness of guilt and throwing that
36:10
Speaker 8: away and consciousness of fear. He obviously realized that there
36:14
Speaker 8: was some type of zerological evidence on the jacket and
36:16
Speaker 8: dumped it out of fear of being accused.
36:19
Speaker 1: So he dumped it.
36:20
Speaker 8: I mean, that's how I would have attacked it. It
36:23
Speaker 8: doesn't necessarily mean just because biological evidence is on your
36:26
Speaker 8: clothing that you're the culprit. We've seen this in history.
36:29
Speaker 8: We saw it a few months ago out of the
36:31
Speaker 8: Detroit murder where a well known Jewish community advocate was
36:35
Speaker 8: murdered by knife in front of her home. The defendant
36:37
Speaker 8: was caught on video outside of her home. He testified
36:41
Speaker 8: he was acquitted. He said he touched her as an
36:44
Speaker 8: afterthought to try to rifle through her belonging to see
36:47
Speaker 8: what was happening. The jury believed him in this case,
36:50
Speaker 8: the judge would not have believed him.
36:51
Speaker 1: Speaking on fantastical arguments. The defense also argued.
36:55
Speaker 2: That Jose Ebara was just an accomplice, that maybe two
37:01
Speaker 2: men were involved in Lacln's murder and two rocks that
37:07
Speaker 2: makes it so easy for the judge to find abora
37:10
Speaker 2: guilty Joining me right now. A special guest, renowned medical
37:14
Speaker 2: examiner doctor Kendall Crown's chief medical examiner, Terrence County, esteemed
37:19
Speaker 2: lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine, at TCU Dodger
37:23
Speaker 2: Kendl Crowns. You and I have gone over and over
37:27
Speaker 2: the autopsy evidence in this case.
37:29
Speaker 1: Could you describe what happened to Laken?
37:33
Speaker 15: Certainly so, she has blunt trauma to the head from
37:38
Speaker 15: the rock that set the scene with the blood on it,
37:40
Speaker 15: that has caused lacerations or kind of splitting of the
37:43
Speaker 15: skin in a depressed skull fracture, which is kind of
37:46
Speaker 15: pushing in of the skull itself from being struck over
37:50
Speaker 15: and over and over with the rock. She also has
37:53
Speaker 15: what they've described as a sixia. The medical examiner said
37:57
Speaker 15: she had signs of a sixia at the auto That
38:00
Speaker 15: can be particular hemorrhages of the eye, which are a
38:03
Speaker 15: little bursting of the capillaries on your eye. It can
38:07
Speaker 15: also be hemorrhages and the knuck musculature from a manual strangulation.
38:12
Speaker 15: So probably she's strangled, wakes back up, annocks and then
38:18
Speaker 15: beats her head in with a rock, or he hits
38:21
Speaker 15: her with a rock, she passes out, he's trying to
38:25
Speaker 15: rape her what she wakes back up and then he
38:28
Speaker 15: strangles her. Either way, it's pretty bad.
38:31
Speaker 2: Now. I always wondering Dubey we'll have a big fit
38:34
Speaker 2: over this based on what doctor Kendall Crown's has just
38:37
Speaker 2: told us, what Lincoln went through as she fought for
38:40
Speaker 2: her life. Why the defendant didn't take the stand and testify.
38:46
Speaker 1: Hey, if you're not guilty, where were you? What were
38:48
Speaker 1: you doing? Listen? Sure do you want to testify?
38:52
Speaker 2: And if you go no sense, I guess he didn't.
39:00
Speaker 2: That's from our friends at the National Desk, Cheryl McCollum.
39:02
Speaker 2: You just heard what doctor Kendall Craw's explained happened to
39:06
Speaker 2: Lakan and her fight to live, How she was humiliated, attacked, brutalized,
39:14
Speaker 2: her face disfigured. Did you really think Ebarra was going
39:18
Speaker 2: to take the stand?
39:20
Speaker 7: Not a shot? And I'll tell you something. We can
39:23
Speaker 7: talk about her injuries, and those are vital. To understand
39:27
Speaker 7: that the injuries that she gave to him, to me,
39:29
Speaker 7: are just as vital. She punched him dead in the mouth.
39:34
Speaker 7: She scratched him on the wrist, on the throat, on
39:37
Speaker 7: the back of the neck, on his back, on his elbow.
39:41
Speaker 1: On his arm.
39:43
Speaker 7: She fought for those eighteen minutes like her life depended
39:48
Speaker 7: on it, because she knew it did.
39:50
Speaker 16: One of the defense's first witnesses is a neighbor of
39:53
Speaker 16: the e Barras. The woman says Diego Ebarra approached her
39:57
Speaker 16: the evening of February twenty second, asking the complex is
40:01
Speaker 16: crawling with cops in broken Spanish.
40:03
Speaker 1: The woman tells him.
40:04
Speaker 16: A young lady lost her life behind the complex. Aware
40:08
Speaker 16: that it's along Diego's path to work, she encourages him
40:11
Speaker 16: to speak up if he saw anything suspicious. Two officers
40:15
Speaker 16: briefly check in on Ibarra.
40:16
Speaker 1: And the woman. When they walk away.
40:19
Speaker 16: The woman says, Diego Ebarra urgently type something into the
40:22
Speaker 16: translator app for her to read.
40:24
Speaker 2: The defense, trying to shift blame on Jose Ibarra's brother, Diego.
40:29
Speaker 2: It didn't work. Straight back out to doctor Kendall Crowns
40:35
Speaker 2: joining us. We're now medical examiner out of Terrant County.
40:39
Speaker 2: Doctor Kendall Crowns, we know that lake and fought that
40:42
Speaker 2: she fought for her life. She refused to be JOSEI
40:46
Speaker 2: Ebara's next rape victim. How long would she have lived
40:53
Speaker 2: sustaining the injuries she did to her skull?
40:56
Speaker 15: So the injuries to the skull with the depressed cull fracture,
41:00
Speaker 15: she could have survived that had a concussion, she could
41:04
Speaker 15: have potentially, depending on how much brain damage there was,
41:08
Speaker 15: been still able to survive that injury. If it was
41:13
Speaker 15: severe enough, she probably could have died within minutes of
41:16
Speaker 15: receiving it. It all depends on how much damage the
41:20
Speaker 15: skull fracture went through into her brain. The strangulation, on
41:24
Speaker 15: the other hand, she'd probably be on unconscious when a
41:28
Speaker 15: little over ten to twenty seconds, and if he continued
41:31
Speaker 15: to apply pressure, she'd be dead within about four to
41:34
Speaker 15: five minutes.
41:35
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, it's beyond understanding for me that the defense
41:42
Speaker 1: actually argued maybe there were two assailants in two rocks.
41:46
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, Nancy. The injuries to his wrist and
41:50
Speaker 7: his elbow says to me, she probably knocked the first
41:53
Speaker 7: lock out of his hand and he simply grabbed a
41:56
Speaker 7: second one and finished the job. To the point of
42:00
Speaker 7: her skull was in her brain. He beat her, He
42:04
Speaker 7: beat her violently. He set out that morning to find
42:10
Speaker 7: a victim. He did not care who.
42:13
Speaker 2: In my mind, the judge had no alternative other than
42:17
Speaker 2: finding Ebara guilty in the murder of lacoln Riley. Yes,
42:25
Speaker 2: a verdict has been rendered He's not the only one
42:29
Speaker 2: senticed in this case. Her mother, her family are sentenced
42:35
Speaker 2: to life without Lacoln. Their sentence to life remembering what
42:42
Speaker 2: she suffered. They are sentenced to life remembering those last
42:49
Speaker 2: images of her running free.
42:54
Speaker 1: Lacoln. Riley rest in peace. Good night.
43:01
Speaker 14: It's I can't take its