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EVIL-STEPMOM-TURNS-KILLER · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I vividly remember my children
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Speaker 1: at age nine. It was one of the very best
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Speaker 1: years where they could walk and talk and feed themselves,
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Speaker 1: but they still or full of wonderment and believed in magic,
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Speaker 1: and everything was so incredible. That's why I'm really confounded
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Speaker 1: to learn that a beautiful little boy, Emeric, just nine
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Speaker 1: years old, has been found dead. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
1:04
Speaker 1: Emeric has been found dead. The way his body was found,
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Speaker 1: the condition in which it was found is very disturbing
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Speaker 1: to me. He was vastly underweight, he was pale, and
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Speaker 1: he had trauma to his penis like a rubber band
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Speaker 1: had been tightened around it. And let me assure you,
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Speaker 1: that's just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, when
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Speaker 1: I would prosecute cases like this in front of a jury,
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Speaker 1: it would pain me. I might choke on the words,
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Speaker 1: but I would tell them every graphic detail for your benefit.
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Speaker 1: I am not doing that because the case is very,
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Speaker 1: very disturbing, but superseding that I want his killers to
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Speaker 1: rot in Helle, a beautiful little boy just nine years
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Speaker 1: on this earth. First of all, take a listen to
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Speaker 1: this family friend, Hannah Barry Drove to the Osuna home
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Speaker 1: the night Emerick died after receiving a message from the
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Speaker 1: stepmother that the boy was ill. Around eight thirty, Barry
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Speaker 1: found Emrick covered in blankets, lying motionless on the floor.
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Speaker 1: She told police that when she held Emrick's hand it
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Speaker 1: was cold to the touch. The parents then tried to
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Speaker 1: lift the boy to his feet to wake him up,
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Speaker 1: but say the boy stopped breathing. It's now nine forty pm.
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Speaker 1: Nine one one is called and Moniko Sona begins performing CPR,
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Speaker 1: causing a milky liquid dispute from the boy's nose and mouth.
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Speaker 1: I'm just taking that in right there. Your child's on
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Speaker 1: the floor, and instead of calling nine one one, you
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Speaker 1: call a friend. You know, that's something for me to analyze,
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Speaker 1: which I would love to pick apart in front of
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Speaker 1: a jury. But let's move forward. Take a listen to
2:59
Speaker 1: our friends at KATVB seven. Meridian Police say that shortly
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Speaker 1: after nine thirty last night, officers were called to a
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Speaker 1: home on West Broadway, where they found the boy was
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Speaker 1: not breathing and had no heartbeat. Officers performed CPR until
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Speaker 1: medics arrived. Sadly, the boy died at the hospital. A
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Speaker 1: little boy aged nine dead at the hospital. Let me
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Speaker 1: introduce to you an all star panel to help me
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Speaker 1: analyze exactly what happened and exactly what's going to happen
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Speaker 1: now with me. Jason Campo, Chief of Prosecutor one hundred
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Speaker 1: and seventh the District Court, Cameron County. Five years leading
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Speaker 1: the DA's Office of Family Violent Violence Unit and the
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Speaker 1: Domestic Violence Task Force. Doctor Jen Mann. You can find
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Speaker 1: her at doctor jen dot com. All spelled out, no abbreviations,
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Speaker 1: marriage family Therapist, hosts of Couples Therapy, Family Therapy on
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Speaker 1: v H one, the Doctor Jen Shows series XIM and
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Speaker 1: The A to Z Guy to raising happy, confident kids.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Tim Gallagher renowned medical examiner, forensic pathologist, the medical
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Speaker 1: examiner for the entire state of Florida. He is a
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Speaker 1: Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida Medical School,
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Speaker 1: teaching forensic medicine. He lectures quite often and it is
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Speaker 1: about to lead the Daytona Beach Death Investigators Conference in September.
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Speaker 1: Dan Scott joining me, former La County's sheriff sergeant twenty
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Speaker 1: six years with a special victims unit specializing in child abuse.
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Speaker 1: Former lecturer at UCLA, but first to Anjanette Levy, Emmy
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Speaker 1: nominated reporter and anchor on Twitter. You can find her
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Speaker 1: at Anjanette five, Anjenette, let's just start with the nine
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Speaker 1: one one call. Where did this take place? Meridian, Idaho?
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Speaker 1: Where's that? Yeah, it's a small town in Idaho and
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Speaker 1: they called nine one one hours after? Who's they? Who's they?
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Speaker 1: Monique Assuna, who was Emric's stepmother, She had actually called
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Speaker 1: a friend first to come over to the house because
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Speaker 1: she said that Emrick was ill, and then she called
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Speaker 1: nine one one. She and her husband are there. You
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Speaker 1: know what. Hold on, Anjeanette Levy, I just want to
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Speaker 1: follow up on something you've just said that I find
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Speaker 1: really interesting, Doctor gin Man, have you ever noticed, in,
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Speaker 1: for instance, fairy tales there's always an evil stepmother? Did
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Speaker 1: we have an evil stepmother? And Hansel and Grattel? We
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Speaker 1: have an evil stepmother in Cinderella? We haven't. Is there
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Speaker 1: an evil stepmother in sny Why? I think it's okay?
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Speaker 1: Yet the queen is an evil stepmother. There's no reason
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Speaker 1: that they are portrayed as evil. Have you noticed this? Oh?
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Speaker 1: I have noticed a trend. And yet at the same time,
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Speaker 1: I think that my stars. I thought you were going
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Speaker 1: to say, I have an evil stepmother. No, but there
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Speaker 1: there a reason that arn't imitates life, and I think
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Speaker 1: one of those reasons is Monique Asuno. Well, I do
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Speaker 1: think that there are a lot of amazing stepmothers out
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Speaker 1: there who are doing a spectacular job. Not my question,
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Speaker 1: but not my question. Do see the trend especially in
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Speaker 1: Disney movies and some stories for kids. Well, I can
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Speaker 1: see you totally dodge that bullet, and I give you
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Speaker 1: great credit for that. But that's why people just like
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Speaker 1: this woman Monique Assuna, the little boy stepmother. That's why
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Speaker 1: stepmothers are portrayed the way that they are. Okay, sorry
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Speaker 1: for that deviation. Enginet Levy back to you, the stepmother
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Speaker 1: and friend call nine one one and it's late at night.
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Speaker 1: You know another question to you, doctor Tim Gallagher medical examiner.
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Speaker 1: Have you noticed that so many mishaps occur at night?
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Speaker 1: I remember my dad was a heart patient almost his
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Speaker 1: whole life, starting in his mid thirties, and I studied
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Speaker 1: it and researched every procedure he was having throughout his life,
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Speaker 1: and I learned that a majority of heart attacks occur
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Speaker 1: in the early morning hours. I've thought about that a lot,
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Speaker 1: and I wonder if it's because you're getting up and
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Speaker 1: you're rustling around trying to get ready to leave and
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Speaker 1: go to work. And I wondered about the correlation between
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Speaker 1: the morning hours and heart attacks. I've noticed that a
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Speaker 1: lot of these incidents regarding child abuse nine on one
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Speaker 1: is called at night. Have you ever noticed that correlation? Well,
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Speaker 1: that's true. You know, we have a saying and a
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Speaker 1: lot of law enforcement people know this one as well.
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Speaker 1: Nothing ever, good happens after midnight, after midnight. Okay, did
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Speaker 1: you steal that from me? Or did I steal that
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Speaker 1: from you? Because I've told Jerry's had a million time
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Speaker 1: nothing good happens after midnight? And now the twins run
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Speaker 1: around saying it they're just thirteen. But I'm a very
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Speaker 1: wise woman, doctor Tim Gallagher, There is a correlationship. Was
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Speaker 1: not just me, you've noticed it too. Oh. Absolutely. You know,
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Speaker 1: when you are sleeping, your heart rate is low, and
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Speaker 1: of course you're horizontal, but as you get up and
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Speaker 1: start to wake up, your heart rate increases. You now
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Speaker 1: become vertical so that the heart has to do more work.
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Speaker 1: And if you do have a pre existing heart condition
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Speaker 1: such as a blocked artery or hypertense or hypertension high
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Speaker 1: blood pressure that's going to become exacerbated or worse when
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Speaker 1: you do start to wake up, and that's typically when
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Speaker 1: the heart is What about these child abuse issues, doctor um?
8:45
Speaker 1: You know, have you noticed that as the hours pass,
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Speaker 1: the emergency room line gets longer and longer and longer.
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Speaker 1: And here they're not calling nine one one till nine
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Speaker 1: forty five at night. The little boys already called to
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Speaker 1: the touch. I think he's already been Most likely he
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Speaker 1: is or has a very very thready type of heartbeat,
9:03
Speaker 1: you know, But you're absolutely right. I guess most people
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Speaker 1: wait until the very last possible moment to take their
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Speaker 1: child into the room because they don't want to be,
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Speaker 1: you know, with this child who has all of these
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Speaker 1: bruises on them and then charged with child abuse. The
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Speaker 1: people in the emergency room have a keen eye in
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Speaker 1: these cases and are also looking for signs of child abuse,
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Speaker 1: and they will call the police on very low suspicious
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Speaker 1: accounts because they'd rather be worth songs than miss a case.
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Speaker 1: So they're very acute to looking for these types of injuries.
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Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace, Guys, we were talking about
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Speaker 1: a little nine year old boy. For some reason, the
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Speaker 1: evil did I say that the stepmother calls a friend
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Speaker 1: before she calls nine one one with her child, her
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Speaker 1: stepchild lying in the kitchen floor, cold with me and
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Speaker 1: all star palel. I want to go now to Jason Campo,
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Speaker 1: chief prosecutor out of Cameron County, who is leading the
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Speaker 1: DA's office in the family violence Unit. Jason Campo, I
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Speaker 1: will not belabor the point much longer, but I do
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Speaker 1: notice an uptick in reports of child abuse as the
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Speaker 1: hours go on in the day. You don't get a
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Speaker 1: whole lot of reports at eight o'clock in the morning.
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Speaker 1: That said, it speaks volumes to me that this stepmother
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Speaker 1: and don't I'm not letting the bio dat off the hook.
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Speaker 1: He's home to our waiting until the little boy is
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Speaker 1: cold to the touch and they cover him up with
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Speaker 1: a blanket and call a friend. I mean, right there,
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Speaker 1: to me, that's child to be absolutely they knew what
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Speaker 1: they were doing. I believe there was a text between
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Speaker 1: the father and the stepmother at five o'clock in the evening,
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Speaker 1: and so they should have taken into the hospital right then.
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Speaker 1: I think they were afraid that they were going to
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Speaker 1: get arrested and have to face the consequences of what
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Speaker 1: they've been doing to this little boy for all this time.
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Speaker 1: You know, Jason Campo, I really like the way you
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Speaker 1: think once you go to law school, and I really
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Speaker 1: think once you become a prosecutor, or at least a
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Speaker 1: trial lawyer, you start every bit of evidence you hear,
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Speaker 1: every fact you hear, you think of how it relates
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Speaker 1: to proving the case. And you're so right. I'm talking
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Speaker 1: about how this isn't reported until like nine forty five
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Speaker 1: at night, when the boys already cold to the touch,
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Speaker 1: and I haven't even gotten to the abuse signs yet.
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Speaker 1: But the reality is, to Antinette Levy, this started much
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Speaker 1: before ninety five pm, and we know that because of
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Speaker 1: a text sent between the stepmother and the father. Do
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Speaker 1: you know about the text, Anginette, Oh, I sure do.
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Speaker 1: And it was at five o'clock in the evening that evening,
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Speaker 1: so you would have to deduce from that text where
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Speaker 1: he said to Monique, Dad says to Monique, I know
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Speaker 1: you're scared, so am I. So he and they were
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Speaker 1: saying he needed to go to the hospital. He was
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Speaker 1: still alive. The boy probably could have still been saved
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Speaker 1: at five o'clock in the evening, yet they still let
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Speaker 1: him lay there, according to the prosecutors, for hours. And
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Speaker 1: then I think that she calls the friend. I'm deducing
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Speaker 1: that she calls the friend to try to set up
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Speaker 1: some type of alibi to say, oh, I'm concerned. I
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Speaker 1: was concerned trying to take care of him. So I
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Speaker 1: just it's horrifying. This abuse went on for weeks. I
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Speaker 1: want to talk about that text because, as Jason Campo,
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Speaker 1: chief prosecutor, has pointed out, it's probative. In other words,
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Speaker 1: it proves something. Jackie, let's play our cut twenty five
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Speaker 1: from our friends at crime Online. At least say the
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Speaker 1: day Eric will Sooner died, he had and struck with
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Speaker 1: the dog leash and fed rice and water. When the
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Speaker 1: boy threw up, he was then forced to do a
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Speaker 1: one legged stand. Eventually he was allowed to lie down
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Speaker 1: on the floor. My five pm, it was evident to
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Speaker 1: the family that something was wrong. Eric was Soona texted
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Speaker 1: his wife to say they needed to take the nine
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Speaker 1: year old to the emergency room and face it. He wrote,
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Speaker 1: if you don't want to go, that's fine, I'll go.
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Speaker 1: I know you're scared. I am too so, Jason Campo,
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Speaker 1: Chief Prosecutor. They're not worried about the little boy, Emeric.
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Speaker 1: They're worried about their own skin, saving their own skin.
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Speaker 1: I'm afraid, I'll go. If you don't want to go,
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Speaker 1: We've got to quote face it. They're worried about what's
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Speaker 1: going to happen to them, Jason. Absolutely, they know that
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Speaker 1: this is about to be exposed and that they're about
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Speaker 1: to go to jail, and that their lives are going
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Speaker 1: to change. And when they had all the power over him,
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Speaker 1: they showed no concern or remorse for him. But now
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Speaker 1: that it's going to be about them, that's when they're scared,
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Speaker 1: and they don't and I faced the consequences of what
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Speaker 1: they've been doing. You know what I've been doing, Dan Scott,
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Speaker 1: former La County sheriff sergeant specializing in child abuse. I've
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Speaker 1: been avoiding discussing the details of what happened to Emeric
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Speaker 1: in your career, Dan Scott, have you ever seen cases
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Speaker 1: that are so heinous sometimes you just don't want to
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Speaker 1: think about them. Unfortunately, all the time, I have seen
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Speaker 1: so many of these. Gabriel Fernandez was mentioned. This is
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Speaker 1: almost identical though to Danny Hillman in the Lakewood area
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Speaker 1: where grandma murdered or four year old grandson, it was
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Speaker 1: a torture murder and he was forced to do things
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Speaker 1: very similar to this case. You're right, and the abuse
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Speaker 1: went on for months. And the only difference is we
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Speaker 1: didn't have it in a text that they were bringing
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Speaker 1: the child in to get They know that they're going
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Speaker 1: to get reported for child abuse because they know exactly
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Speaker 1: that's what they're doing. This case is unusual in that
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Speaker 1: you have a text, but they all say that to
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Speaker 1: other people. Well, I couldn't take him in because they'd
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Speaker 1: report me. You know what, Nan Scott, once again, you're
15:17
Speaker 1: absolutely correct. But the time has come. Our duty is
15:21
Speaker 1: not to turn away from the truth, but to face
15:24
Speaker 1: the truth and rustle with it. I want you to
15:27
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut twenty two more probative evidence.
15:32
Speaker 1: As Jason Campo and I were discussing earlier, when a
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Speaker 1: year parents remove the nannie cams, there's a reason listen.
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Speaker 1: Nanny cams document the disturbing abuse Emericosona suffered for months.
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Speaker 1: Meridian Police say they were able to review more than
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Speaker 1: two weeks of footage in one video, recorded the day
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Speaker 1: before he died. The little boy is standing shirtless in
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Speaker 1: the kitchen. He is balancing on one leg with both
15:55
Speaker 1: arms raised above his head as he stares straight ahead.
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Speaker 1: He wobbles to keep his balance and his arms shake.
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Speaker 1: The little boy is painfully thin, and his entire rib
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Speaker 1: cage protrudes from his skin. This nine year old weighs
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Speaker 1: only forty four pounds. Doctor Tim Gallagher, medical examiner for
16:14
Speaker 1: the State of Florida, lecturer at University of Florida Medical School.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Gallagher, how much the nine year old boy? Way?
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Speaker 1: I mean right now, my son is tall and thin,
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Speaker 1: but he weighs about one hundred and eighty pounds and
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Speaker 1: he's only thirteen. At nine, I think he weighed about
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Speaker 1: probably eighty or ninety pounds. Yeah, this child is grossly underweight.
16:38
Speaker 1: This child to weigh between eighty five and ninety five
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Speaker 1: pounds at this age. So this is just just an awful,
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Speaker 1: awful visual you know, of this child and very malnourished.
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Speaker 1: It's just unbelievable. You know, there's something I don't know
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Speaker 1: how to say it, Doctor Jen Maybe you and Dan
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Speaker 1: Scott and Jason Campo can help me with the right
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Speaker 1: words to verbalize it. But I prosecuted so many child
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Speaker 1: abuse cases. There were times that, you know, when I
17:11
Speaker 1: would meet with child victims, I would hug them and
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Speaker 1: I could feel their ribs like sharp through their skin.
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Speaker 1: And there's something that is just inherently instinctively you almost
17:26
Speaker 1: recoil because you instinctively know, I don't need a doctor
17:31
Speaker 1: to tell me there's something wrong. You inherently know there's
17:36
Speaker 1: something very wrong when the child's ribs are just sticking out,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Jen. Yeah, and look, you can feel the trauma.
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Speaker 1: And in this case, in particular, with this nanny camp
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Speaker 1: footage that shows a child who is being tortured over
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Speaker 1: time and dying on camera, it is so horrific. And
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Speaker 1: what you said before about the text message of you know,
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Speaker 1: the parent's fear of being caught also shows that they
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Speaker 1: had a clear understanding that this was child abuse, that
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Speaker 1: they had empathy for each other, but for some reason,
18:14
Speaker 1: they had no empathy for this pore, dear child who
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Speaker 1: had they've been torturing over time, which really shows such
18:22
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just such horrific, disgusting behavior. And typically
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Speaker 1: when we see this kind of stuff and I know
18:29
Speaker 1: you have enormous experience with this. It tends to be
18:32
Speaker 1: someone who either is a drug user or who is
18:35
Speaker 1: deeply pathological. But what is revealed in this is that
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Speaker 1: they have an understanding of what they're doing is wrong
18:42
Speaker 1: and they're about to get into trouble. Crime Stories with
18:57
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Now you heard from our friends at crime Online.
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Speaker 1: You see the little boy even in the nanny cam
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Speaker 1: before they removed it. The ribs are sticking out and
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Speaker 1: you can see that on the nanny cam. So given
19:13
Speaker 1: the quality of nannycam video footage, it must have been
19:18
Speaker 1: very severe to show up on the nannycam. But also
19:22
Speaker 1: he is standing on one leg, balancing with his arms
19:25
Speaker 1: above his head. Why take a listen to this. Meridian
19:31
Speaker 1: police found emericos soon on the living room floor, bruised
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Speaker 1: and without a heartbeat. Officers say the nine year old
19:37
Speaker 1: was tortured so much so that his body gave out.
19:40
Speaker 1: An investigation discovered the child was forced to do grueling
19:44
Speaker 1: physical exercises for long periods of time, including wall sits,
19:48
Speaker 1: one leg, it stands, and more. An average day, investigators said,
19:52
Speaker 1: would see him exercising for twelve hours a day, sometimes
19:55
Speaker 1: as much as twenty hours of constant exercise. Detective say
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Speaker 1: in the footage they reviewed, Emeric is never seen playing
20:03
Speaker 1: with a toy, nor does he receive any affection from
20:06
Speaker 1: other family members. When other family members would eat fast food,
20:10
Speaker 1: he is not allowed. And at bedtime he would curl
20:13
Speaker 1: up on the living room floor or be forced to
20:16
Speaker 1: sleep in a hallway closet. Guys, we are talking about
20:19
Speaker 1: the just heartbreaking existence that a nine year old boy
20:24
Speaker 1: endured before his death. The parents' stepmother, Monique Assuna and
20:31
Speaker 1: Eric Assuna guitaras in my mind must rot in hell.
20:38
Speaker 1: That's after a little pit stop in jail. So far
20:43
Speaker 1: you have only heard the tip of the iceberg. How
20:46
Speaker 1: the other children were allowed to eat but not him,
20:50
Speaker 1: How sometimes he had to exercise twenty hours straight. Take
20:55
Speaker 1: a listen to our friend Embrace Yourself, Shira Musawa at
21:01
Speaker 1: KAT seven. On the night Emrick died, Prosecutor Tamra Kelly says,
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Speaker 1: law enforcement found the nine year old without a pulse.
21:09
Speaker 1: They say he appeared malnourished, pale, and covered in bruises
21:13
Speaker 1: and vomit. But this wasn't the first time he was beaten.
21:16
Speaker 1: The defendant told police that she would hit him with
21:18
Speaker 1: a frying pan wooden spoon struck him with a backscratcher
21:22
Speaker 1: hard enough that it broke that backscratcher. She also struck
21:26
Speaker 1: him with a belt she later moved to a dog leash,
21:29
Speaker 1: and she admitted that she struck him with a dog
21:31
Speaker 1: leash because it was heavier than the belt. During today's hearing,
21:35
Speaker 1: the prosecutor revealed Monique would starve Emrick and lock him
21:38
Speaker 1: in a small closet at night to sleep. She added,
21:41
Speaker 1: the boy's father, Eric, admitted to knowing and observing the
21:44
Speaker 1: physical abuse of his son by his wife and admitted
21:47
Speaker 1: to doing nothing to save his son. The prosecution says
21:50
Speaker 1: after the boy's father called nine one one on the
21:52
Speaker 1: night Emrick died, he then took down nanny cameras inside
21:55
Speaker 1: the house and gave them to someone else to hide.
21:58
Speaker 1: Police have since recovered those cameras. The judge set bail
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Speaker 1: for both Eric and Monique get two million dollars with
22:03
Speaker 1: a no contact order when it comes to their three
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Speaker 1: other children, who are currently in the care of health
22:07
Speaker 1: and welfare. To Jason Campo, Chief Prosecutor joining us out
22:10
Speaker 1: of Cameron County, Jason, most of the cases that I
22:15
Speaker 1: dealt with prosecuting child abuse. Some molestation cases did not
22:20
Speaker 1: involve denial of food, although I did see it also.
22:26
Speaker 1: I noticed then as anecdotal. I don't have statistics on this,
22:31
Speaker 1: but I did notice that even the very large families,
22:34
Speaker 1: one child is often picked out to be the scapegoat,
22:38
Speaker 1: to be tortured more than the other children. And that's
22:42
Speaker 1: what I'm seeing here in the case of Assuna. That's
22:45
Speaker 1: absolutely correct. There's so much to unwrap in that clip
22:48
Speaker 1: that you just played about the evidence and the abuse
22:51
Speaker 1: that that boy suffered those last couple of weeks. The
22:55
Speaker 1: fact that they caught it all on the nanny cams
22:57
Speaker 1: is amazing. You don't normally have that kind of evidence
23:00
Speaker 1: as a prosecutor. You basically have his last two weeks
23:03
Speaker 1: of his life and everything that he was exposed to
23:06
Speaker 1: and the picking out of one child. They actually have
23:11
Speaker 1: a name for that. It's called the Cinderella syndrome for
23:14
Speaker 1: because this is something that we see occasionally in these
23:18
Speaker 1: child abuse cases. And of course for our viewers, if
23:21
Speaker 1: there are any and listeners that don't know about Cinderella explained,
23:25
Speaker 1: is it? Well, Cinderella, you know, had her evil stepmother
23:28
Speaker 1: and treated the other daughters, the daughters that were hers
23:32
Speaker 1: better than they ever treated Cinderella. She was kind of
23:35
Speaker 1: like the help and the servant at the house. And
23:39
Speaker 1: the other kids got everything that they wanted, and you know,
23:43
Speaker 1: unfortunately for this little boy, there was no fairy godmother
23:46
Speaker 1: to come and save him in the end. We want
23:48
Speaker 1: to go too. Is this Dan Scott jumping Dan? Yeah.
23:52
Speaker 1: We also call it the whipping boy syndrome, where one
23:55
Speaker 1: is targeted and oftentimes some of the other siblings will
24:00
Speaker 1: participate in the abuse to please the main attacker, in
24:05
Speaker 1: this case, the step mom, because they know that as
24:08
Speaker 1: long as they stay on her good side, they won't
24:11
Speaker 1: be targeted next. So a lot of times they're forced
24:15
Speaker 1: to actually participate and abuse their brother or sibling. You know,
24:21
Speaker 1: Doctor Tim Gallagher, a medical examiner for the State of Florida.
24:25
Speaker 1: As an aside now, I say that because in court
24:30
Speaker 1: you have an aside or a bench conference, which means
24:35
Speaker 1: you go out of the hearing of the jury. It's
24:39
Speaker 1: also a statement may that does not have any bearing
24:42
Speaker 1: on the case. In cheek, it's an aside statement. But
24:47
Speaker 1: doctor Tim Gallagher, after you deal with so many child
24:51
Speaker 1: abuse cases like this, you know, sometimes it's hard to
24:57
Speaker 1: remember that I grew up and really happy home with
25:01
Speaker 1: a great brother and a great sister, and a great
25:04
Speaker 1: mother and father. Because when you see case after case
25:07
Speaker 1: after case like this, it's kind of overwhelming. When you
25:13
Speaker 1: see a child's body wheeled into the morgue for you
25:16
Speaker 1: to autopsy, does it ever just hit you like a
25:19
Speaker 1: ton of bricks? Oh? Absolutely, Nancy. You know, we have
25:23
Speaker 1: to remember that you know your medical examiner as a
25:25
Speaker 1: person too, and they have family, and they have children
25:28
Speaker 1: as well, you know, one of the you know, and
25:31
Speaker 1: it does hit them emotionally. And I've had doctors who
25:34
Speaker 1: had requested somebody else do a case because the child
25:38
Speaker 1: abuse or the physical signs were just so bad that
25:42
Speaker 1: they could not bring themselves to do it. But we
25:45
Speaker 1: have to remember that in spite of all the emotion
25:48
Speaker 1: that we go through when we do these cases, one
25:50
Speaker 1: of the hardest things is to remain unbiased. You know.
25:55
Speaker 1: We've had a couple of cases come in where it
25:58
Speaker 1: was alleged to be child abuse and the results did
26:03
Speaker 1: not support that, you know, So we have to remain
26:05
Speaker 1: to have to have a clear mind and not to
26:09
Speaker 1: let the emotions get in the way of coming up
26:12
Speaker 1: with an accurate diagnosis because a lot of people's lives
26:17
Speaker 1: are depending on what our report says, and we have
26:20
Speaker 1: to keep that in mind and keep unbiased and fair
26:25
Speaker 1: judgment about what we find during the procedure. And Jason Campo,
26:30
Speaker 1: Chief Prosecutors Joinings out of Cameron County. I assume you,
26:34
Speaker 1: like me, I was often overwhelmed with the violence, especially
26:39
Speaker 1: directed toward children. Of course, you have to keep a
26:43
Speaker 1: clear head in court or you'll lose your case. Absolutely,
26:46
Speaker 1: we I mean the things that we see sometimes it
26:50
Speaker 1: makes it difficult when you go home to your own
26:52
Speaker 1: house and you have your happy house and to leave
26:55
Speaker 1: that stuff in the office. But you know, the victims
26:58
Speaker 1: need you to be able to out. This is just
27:00
Speaker 1: one of those cases though that I think that you know,
27:03
Speaker 1: this will lead stars on the prosecutors, on the officers,
27:07
Speaker 1: on the jury, on everybody who's involved. This is just
27:10
Speaker 1: going to be one of those ones that they'll never forget.
27:27
Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace. You know, do you, doctor
27:31
Speaker 1: Tim Gallagher, medical examer for the State of Florida. You
27:35
Speaker 1: were saying that you got to keep clear head because
27:38
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not child molestation or child abuse in this case,
27:41
Speaker 1: this little boy, just nine was found weighing only forty
27:44
Speaker 1: four pounds with trauma to his penis like a rubber
27:48
Speaker 1: band had been tightened around it after the stepmother and
27:53
Speaker 1: bio dad basically starved him to death in a lot down. Now,
27:59
Speaker 1: is there any way you could believe this was not
28:04
Speaker 1: child abuse? What little boy would tighten a rubber band
28:07
Speaker 1: around his penis so much the way this child was found? Well,
28:12
Speaker 1: that's a very good question, Answy, And actually there is.
28:15
Speaker 1: You know, there are some digestive diseases where a child
28:19
Speaker 1: cannot absorb the nutrients from the food and they will
28:22
Speaker 1: be underweight. You know, so just because they are underweight
28:25
Speaker 1: does not necessarily mean it is child abuse. We have
28:28
Speaker 1: to eliminate the possibility that this person had a digestive
28:32
Speaker 1: disease such as Crohn's disease or alterative collidis, or a
28:36
Speaker 1: problem with their intestine, and maybe that's why they're not underweight.
28:40
Speaker 1: As far as what be really, well, what would you
28:42
Speaker 1: say about his body being curved in bruises and vomit
28:45
Speaker 1: dried in his hair? Okay, that would be a different story, right,
28:48
Speaker 1: That would require a greater degree of explanation, and it
28:51
Speaker 1: certainly would suggest that there had been some previous injury
28:58
Speaker 1: to the body. But we have to look at and
29:00
Speaker 1: we have to date the wounds, you know, are these
29:02
Speaker 1: wounds that happened during one event or these wounds that
29:05
Speaker 1: are in different stages appealing that happened over a long
29:08
Speaker 1: period of time. So all of these things have to
29:10
Speaker 1: come together before we can submitt a diagnosis of child abuse,
29:15
Speaker 1: which would be a homicide. Well, all right, if you
29:19
Speaker 1: say so to doctor. To a Jeanette Levy, let me
29:22
Speaker 1: go to her. She's an Emmy Award winning reporter and anchor.
29:27
Speaker 1: And Jeannette, I find the intense workout regiment to be
29:34
Speaker 1: abusive in its own right, and I've seen it before.
29:37
Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen, and Jeanette to
29:39
Speaker 1: this case that I worked on at HLN. The case
29:45
Speaker 1: a Little Savannah Harden. This is our cut seventeen last
29:49
Speaker 1: prop the afternoon, about three o'clock. So nine year old
29:52
Speaker 1: Savannah Harden comes home from elementary school with her grandmother.
29:55
Speaker 1: She was fine when she left school. She gets back
29:57
Speaker 1: to her house and that's when investigate. You say, the
30:00
Speaker 1: grandmother discovered that at some point. We're not sure exactly
30:02
Speaker 1: when this was maybe it was Friday, maybe it was
30:04
Speaker 1: the day before. The grandmother found out that Savannah had
30:07
Speaker 1: had a candy bar. Now she was not supposed to
30:09
Speaker 1: have chocolate, according to the grandmother, forty six year old
30:12
Speaker 1: Doyce Garrard, because Savannah had a bladder condition that they
30:15
Speaker 1: believed chocolate could exacerbate or make worse. So to punish her,
30:19
Speaker 1: according to investigators, Joyce Garrard began making her durinschild run
30:24
Speaker 1: around the house and this continued, they say, for about
30:27
Speaker 1: three hours until she collapsed into a seizure about six
30:30
Speaker 1: forty five. That's when her stepmom, twenty six year old
30:33
Speaker 1: Jessica Harden, who by the way, at the time was
30:36
Speaker 1: nine months pregnant, calls ninety one and says, my stepdaughters
30:39
Speaker 1: having a seizure. Medics come out to this scene in
30:41
Speaker 1: rule Etowa County, northeast of Birmingham, take her to a
30:45
Speaker 1: local hospital day beside. She's in bedenough condition, they're going
30:48
Speaker 1: to airlift her the Children's Hospital in Birmingham, and that
30:51
Speaker 1: is where she died about noon on Monday. You're hearing
30:54
Speaker 1: our friend, reporter Jonathan Hardison speaking. So they make the
30:58
Speaker 1: little girl the grandmother. And by the way, Mommy pregnant
31:01
Speaker 1: was on the front porch watching all this, having a
31:03
Speaker 1: sig watching the stepmommy. Let me correct myself as the
31:07
Speaker 1: little girl Savanna runs right now holding an armful of logs.
31:12
Speaker 1: Just to add to it, but listen to more. Take
31:15
Speaker 1: a listen to our cut eighteen. Right now, the stepmother
31:18
Speaker 1: and the grandmother are being held on what charges they
31:23
Speaker 1: are currently being held on murder charges? And what is
31:28
Speaker 1: the mode of murder? Because in any murder indictment you
31:33
Speaker 1: have to say they're shot to death, they're stabbed to death,
31:36
Speaker 1: they're bludgeoned to death, they're asphyxiation. What is the charge,
31:41
Speaker 1: what is the mode of murder? And the charges against
31:44
Speaker 1: the stepmom and the grandmother this is steleny murder on
31:47
Speaker 1: aggravated child abuse. So with felony murdered child abuse means
31:52
Speaker 1: that when you're not sure about the mode of death,
31:55
Speaker 1: you can charge a felony I a child abuse and
31:59
Speaker 1: the child died during the child abuse, so no specific
32:03
Speaker 1: intent to kill is required for the prosecutor to prove.
32:07
Speaker 1: Now there we see a bizarre case of forcing a
32:11
Speaker 1: young girl to run and run and run until she
32:15
Speaker 1: literally drops dead. But there is another case. Take a
32:19
Speaker 1: listen to our story of little Churlie blothed you old.
32:22
Speaker 1: This is our cut nine. Harlie told investigators he was
32:26
Speaker 1: forced to get up at five am by his father
32:29
Speaker 1: and complete one hundred pushups, two hundred situps, twenty five
32:33
Speaker 1: arm curls, and thousands of revolutions on the elliptical trainer
32:37
Speaker 1: twice a day, seven days a week. The twelve year
32:41
Speaker 1: old said he had to complete the grueling routine in
32:43
Speaker 1: under an hour or he'd have to do it again.
32:46
Speaker 1: Charlie said sometimes he couldn't finish because he was in
32:49
Speaker 1: too much pain, pain allegedly caused by his father hitting
32:53
Speaker 1: him with a PVC pipe on his feet. Those are
32:56
Speaker 1: our friends over at a chill in speaking in the
33:00
Speaker 1: a that I covered, So Angeanette Levy joining us reporter
33:03
Speaker 1: and anchor. What were these so called exercises that were
33:07
Speaker 1: forced on as soon between the beatings? Oh, it was
33:11
Speaker 1: awful that he was forced to do jumping jacks and
33:14
Speaker 1: then do wall sets for very long periods of time
33:17
Speaker 1: and he would only be a wall set. A wall
33:19
Speaker 1: set is kind of an exercise that you can do.
33:22
Speaker 1: It's supposed to tighten your quads and kind of your
33:25
Speaker 1: rear end you. Basically, it's like you go up against
33:28
Speaker 1: the wall and then you sit as if you're sitting
33:31
Speaker 1: in a chair, and you make it so that your
33:33
Speaker 1: knees and your legs and your thighs like it's a
33:36
Speaker 1: ninety degree angle. So essentially, like you it sounds horrible. Well,
33:40
Speaker 1: I've tried it. I'll just tell you right now. It's
33:42
Speaker 1: no fun. And I've done it in the past, the workout,
33:46
Speaker 1: and it's hard, and it's supposed to strengthen your legs.
33:50
Speaker 1: But he was forced to do that along with the
33:52
Speaker 1: jumping jacks, and he would only be allowed to stop
33:55
Speaker 1: for a moment, according to the prosecutors. And I just
33:59
Speaker 1: what I don't understan, And it's why you would force
34:02
Speaker 1: a child to do such a thing, Jason Camp, have
34:04
Speaker 1: you ever seen anything like it where children are forced
34:05
Speaker 1: to exercise, which normally in this world it's applauded when
34:10
Speaker 1: someone over exercises, but you exercise children to death. I mean,
34:15
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a shot of Eric as Sooner right now,
34:18
Speaker 1: and he's smiling and seemingly happy. Apparently the world had
34:24
Speaker 1: no idea what was going on at home. It's definitely
34:28
Speaker 1: something that you see occasionally. I think it's still kind
34:31
Speaker 1: of rare, the overexercising. I think maybe it's a way
34:35
Speaker 1: that they can torture or punish the child, but without
34:38
Speaker 1: leaving the typical bruises of child abuse, so that they
34:41
Speaker 1: can still have that psychological power over them, but not
34:45
Speaker 1: have the physical evidence. And I think in this case,
34:48
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that we have to
34:50
Speaker 1: remember is that with the COVID lockdown in schools being closed,
34:54
Speaker 1: he was at home twenty four hours a day, right,
34:56
Speaker 1: He didn't even have that break of being able to
34:58
Speaker 1: go to school and get out of the house and
35:00
Speaker 1: get away from her because she was working from home
35:02
Speaker 1: and he was at home for school. And I think
35:05
Speaker 1: that's probably also something that led or at least fed
35:09
Speaker 1: up to this end for him. Yeah, and also Dan Scott,
35:13
Speaker 1: former La County sheriffs sergeant. There weren't the safety nets
35:16
Speaker 1: you get if a school teacher sees a child under nourished, starving,
35:22
Speaker 1: covet and Bruis's vomit crusted in their hair, they, I
35:27
Speaker 1: hope will report it. But he wasn't going to school.
35:31
Speaker 1: He was at home in the lockdown exactly and teachers
35:35
Speaker 1: are very good at mandated reporting, and our case load
35:39
Speaker 1: would always jump in September when kids went back to school.
35:43
Speaker 1: They're great. Anybody would have seen this, you know, looking
35:46
Speaker 1: at it from a doctor's point of view on proving
35:50
Speaker 1: child abuse is one thing. But any person that saw
35:54
Speaker 1: this child would have suspected in their mind child abuse.
35:59
Speaker 1: The question is would they have called the teachers, would
36:03
Speaker 1: have that child would have probably been saved, although Gabriel
36:07
Speaker 1: Fernandez had school teachers calling left and right, and he
36:10
Speaker 1: still succumbed to the injury. So it's a tragedy anyway
36:15
Speaker 1: you look at it. Frasier told the court Emrick's penis
36:18
Speaker 1: appeared to have horrific trauma, like someone had left it
36:22
Speaker 1: a tight rubber band around it. This is according to KATVB.
36:26
Speaker 1: We see also the withholding a food and I saw that.
36:30
Speaker 1: Let me go to doctor gen Mann joining us from
36:33
Speaker 1: Serious XM. We saw that in the turping case in California,
36:39
Speaker 1: where the parents would the House of Horrors, where the
36:42
Speaker 1: parents would bring home pies from the deli and food
36:46
Speaker 1: and they would eat it in front of the children
36:49
Speaker 1: but not let them have food. They would starve the children.
36:54
Speaker 1: Another form of not only mental and emotional abuse, but
36:59
Speaker 1: physical abuse because they're starving the children. They did that
37:01
Speaker 1: to this little boy too, exactly, and it's it's food
37:06
Speaker 1: is a basic, primal need. We are wired, obviously to
37:12
Speaker 1: need food. And when we are starved, when children are starved,
37:16
Speaker 1: are our brains are less able to cope with trauma
37:20
Speaker 1: and stress. We go into a survival mode. I mean,
37:25
Speaker 1: this poor child just suffered on so many levels, and
37:29
Speaker 1: these parents just hit and I don't even know like
37:32
Speaker 1: calling them parents, but these these people just hit him
37:39
Speaker 1: on so many levels of abuse, psychological, physical, deprivational, negless abuse, trauma.
37:46
Speaker 1: It's just so overwhelming. Yeah, it's hard to ask you.
37:53
Speaker 1: I want to ask Annginette Levia question. Isn't it true
37:55
Speaker 1: that the father is now climbing mentally and comfidence he's
37:59
Speaker 1: madly incompetent to stand trial. Yes, which is shocking because
38:04
Speaker 1: he allowed this to go on. He's not accused of
38:08
Speaker 1: actually participating, but he knew about it and didn't stop it.
38:12
Speaker 1: How can that be? Jason Campo, he stood by and
38:15
Speaker 1: let his bio's son be murdered at the hands of
38:19
Speaker 1: his step of his wife, the child stepmother. How can
38:22
Speaker 1: he now skate out of this thing? Differences between what
38:26
Speaker 1: he did versus what she did everything is shown in
38:29
Speaker 1: that in those two weeks of the nanny cams, I
38:32
Speaker 1: think him trying to claim incompetence when he was the
38:36
Speaker 1: one who ran around and collected all the nanny camps
38:39
Speaker 1: to give to the friend to hide before the police
38:41
Speaker 1: got there, shows that he knew exactly what was going on.
38:44
Speaker 1: He should be up for capital murder just like she is.
38:48
Speaker 1: Yes now, in this jurisdiction, Idaho, I'm pretty sure there
38:52
Speaker 1: is a death penalty. We wait as justice unfolds. See
39:00
Speaker 1: Gray's crime story signing off Goodbye Friend,