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FIFTH HUSBAND POISONED DEAD IN NIGHT, Other Hubbies Feel 'LUCKY' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A young father of two
0:16
Speaker 1: dies after his glucose levels go dangerously low. I means,
0:23
Speaker 1: he Grace, this is crime Stories. Thanks for being with
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Speaker 1: us here at Phluccination and Serious Exam one eleven. So
0:32
Speaker 1: he dies of dangerously low glucose levels? Or does he again?
0:41
Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us? How did this unfold? Take
0:45
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at crime Online.
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Speaker 2: Joseph Hartsfield is a diabetic whose glucose levels had been
0:50
Speaker 2: under control for years, but in January Hartsfield was hospitalized.
0:55
Speaker 2: Hartsfield had been at home when his blood sugar levels
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Speaker 2: dropped dramatically. His wife, if Sarah Hartsfield, says when it happened,
1:02
Speaker 2: she went to the kitchen to get him juice and jam.
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Speaker 2: When she returned to the bedroom, Hartsfield had vomited on himself.
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Speaker 2: Sarah Hartsfield then called an ambulance. By the time Joseph
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Speaker 2: Hartsfield arrived at Houston Methodist Hospital in Baytown, he's unconscious.
1:17
Speaker 2: Hospital staff begins treatment, pumping glucose into his body, but
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Speaker 2: Hartsfield did not respond as he should have. Nurses said,
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Speaker 2: hartsfield blood sugar level kept crashing Joseph Hartsfield is brain
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Speaker 2: dead and eleven days later he is pronounced dead, and just.
1:32
Speaker 1: Like that, a husband and a father is gone. You know,
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Speaker 1: when we talk about diabetes, we kind of discount it
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Speaker 1: as being a real mortal danger, but it is. With me,
1:51
Speaker 1: it's an all star panel. But first I want to
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Speaker 1: go to doctor Kendall Crown's, chief medical examiner in Terrey County,
1:57
Speaker 1: Fort Worth, lecturer at the University of Texas Austin and
2:01
Speaker 1: Texas Christian University Medical School. Doctor Crown's I will never
2:05
Speaker 1: forget my daughter's birthday party one year. Fourteen girls sleeping
2:12
Speaker 1: over and you can only imagine, Well, they finally get
2:15
Speaker 1: quieted down around three o'clock, but not me. Why because
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Speaker 1: one of her little friends, who imbibed in a lot
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Speaker 1: of birthday cake, is diabetic and she was wearing an
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Speaker 1: alarm that goes off if her sugar level changes, and
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Speaker 1: if it went off, I was supposed to give her
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Speaker 1: a pill. I slept outside my daughter's bedroom on the
2:46
Speaker 1: floor with a sleeping bag and a pillow because I
2:50
Speaker 1: was so afraid I would not hear that alarm, and
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Speaker 1: in my mind, the little girl could just die in
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Speaker 1: her sleep. Well, I was so worried, but guess what,
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Speaker 1: the alarm did go off. I ran straight in there
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Speaker 1: and I shook her awake very gently, and I had
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Speaker 1: a bottle of water sitting right where she was asleep
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Speaker 1: on the bed with a lot of other little girls,
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Speaker 1: and she took her pill went back to sleep. I
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Speaker 1: was a nervous wreck the whole night, and the alarm
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Speaker 1: did go off. As a matter of fact, I went
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Speaker 1: off several times. I finally had to call the mother
3:25
Speaker 1: in the early morning hours to figure out what to do.
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Speaker 1: It's not easily or is it easily controlled? I don't
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Speaker 1: know how did this happen to this guy, Joseph Hartsfield?
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Speaker 3: How did he.
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Speaker 4: Die from his underlying diabetes?
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Speaker 1: I mean, explain to me how you're right? Let me
3:45
Speaker 1: if I put you on the stand, I would have
3:46
Speaker 1: a big f for asking an incorrect question in court.
3:51
Speaker 1: Let me rephrase my question. Why do your glucose levels drop?
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Speaker 1: And why does that kill you?
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Speaker 4: Okay, So with guy Beates, you have a defect in
4:03
Speaker 4: your pancreas basically that your body doesn't produce enough insulin.
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Speaker 4: And because your body, insulin breaks down of food in
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Speaker 4: your body.
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Speaker 3: So it processes glucose.
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Speaker 4: Without insulin, you get a condition called hyperglycemia.
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Speaker 1: What is glucose.
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Speaker 4: Glucose is basically sugar. It's the sugar in your system
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Speaker 4: that is processed from the food and then used to
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Speaker 4: give energy to your body.
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Speaker 1: I know you've got an MPT, but they did not
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Speaker 1: teach diabetes in law school, so just I need to
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Speaker 1: hear about diabetes for dummies so I can understand this.
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Speaker 1: But I did just make a connection that the wife
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Speaker 1: trying to save him runs in the kitchen to get
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Speaker 1: juice and jam for the sugar content. And I've always
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Speaker 1: seen people with low blood sugar they need juice, they
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Speaker 1: need orange juice and quickly. Now now it's making sense
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Speaker 1: to me, go ahead, right.
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Speaker 4: So, when your body doesn't have enough insulin, you can't
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Speaker 4: process sugar correctly and you get a buildup of sugar
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Speaker 4: in your body. We called hyperglycemia. This buildup of sugar
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Speaker 4: in your body can actually cause your body to shut
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Speaker 4: down and for you to die.
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Speaker 1: Hyper gloscemia, that's hyperglycemia is correct versus hypo when it
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Speaker 1: would be too low.
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Speaker 4: Too low blood sugar is hypoglycemia. So in diabetes, it's
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Speaker 4: kind of a hyperglycemia, you have way too much sugar
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Speaker 4: in your system, your body can't process it, and it
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Speaker 4: causes you to die. But people that have too much insulin,
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Speaker 4: they get hypoglycemia and then they can also die because
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Speaker 4: it caused you to go into a coma. And it
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Speaker 4: affects your brain because your brain uses a lot of
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Speaker 4: the sugar in your system. So in either situation, too
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Speaker 4: much sugar, too low sugar, it both affect your brain
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Speaker 4: cause you can cause you to go into a coma
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Speaker 4: and pass away.
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Speaker 1: Now, this guy, it was diabetic, Joseph Hartsfield. His glucose
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Speaker 1: levels had been under control for years and then suddenly
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Speaker 1: they drop dangerously low. What could cause that?
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Speaker 4: Usually in well controlled diabetics where we see an incidence
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Speaker 4: of hypo hypogue, meaning too low blood sugar, it's a
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Speaker 4: mistake in their medication. Often when they're using their injectable insulin,
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Speaker 4: they may put in too much, or they may put
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Speaker 4: in too little, or they have forgotten that, oh, I
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Speaker 4: use my insulin a few hours ago. Whatever it is,
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Speaker 4: it's usually a mistake in how they've administered their insulin
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Speaker 4: resulting in their body then taking too much sugar out
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Speaker 4: because there's too much insulin available and then they get
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Speaker 4: a low blood sugar.
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Speaker 1: Ryce and Eberry's joining us reporter k p RC two.
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Speaker 1: That's NBC. Bryce, thanks a lot for being with us.
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Speaker 1: Let me understand correctly, mister Hartsville Joseph, did he have
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Speaker 1: hyper or hypo I thought I thought his glucose went
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Speaker 1: dangerously low? Is that correct?
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Speaker 5: That's right. His blood sugar did drop dangerously low, but
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Speaker 5: from what his family says, by all accounts, his sugar
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Speaker 5: normally ran high. He was the type of person who
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Speaker 5: he liked food, they said, and he normally had high sugar.
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Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, Bryce, wait a minute. I like everything
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Speaker 1: that you just said. I just want to I want
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Speaker 1: to go through a point. Did you hear that, Doctor Crowns?
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Speaker 1: He liked food, and this guy is not overweight. He
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Speaker 1: doesn't look overweight to me, so he didn't eat too much.
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Speaker 1: He just enjoyed food. And it reminds me, Doctor Kendall Crowns,
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Speaker 1: the little girl I was telling you about. Her mother
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Speaker 1: was very careful about what she ate, but she didn't
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Speaker 1: want her daughter to feel like she was a prisoner
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Speaker 1: in any way a food, so she had arranged through
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Speaker 1: the day watching what the daughter ate for her to
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Speaker 1: have birthday cake at the birthday party. See what I mean,
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Speaker 1: So the little girl wouldn't feel deprived in life and
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Speaker 1: angry and resentful about having diabetes. And I'd like to
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Speaker 1: report that she's doing really great and in fact, she's
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Speaker 1: now a star athlete in basketball. So she did manage
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Speaker 1: to survive to spend the night at our house. That said,
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Speaker 1: diabetics can eat what they want, but they just have
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Speaker 1: to manage it. Like if you want to have pancakes
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Speaker 1: and syrup, you have to kind of plan for that
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Speaker 1: and eat appropriately so you can enjoy what you want
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Speaker 1: to eat. Does that make sense? I mean, I'm not
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Speaker 1: a doctor. I'm trying to phrase it as best as
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Speaker 1: I can. Managing your diet correct.
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Speaker 4: A lot of diabetics can manage their diet, especially Type
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Speaker 4: two diabetics that they have more of an insulin resistance
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Speaker 4: and it's more of a long term process where their
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Speaker 4: pancreas is beginning to fail because of an unhealthy lifestyle.
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Speaker 3: So to say.
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Speaker 4: But if you manage your diet and don't have too
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Speaker 4: much sugar or carbohydrates, which are what usually gets turned
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Speaker 4: into sugar in your body, you can function normally. You
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Speaker 4: just have to be very careful of your diet, and
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Speaker 4: that is one of the ways of treating diabetics is
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Speaker 4: to have them monitor their diet where they can have
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Speaker 4: those little moments of splurges, so to say, where they
9:43
Speaker 4: can have birthday cake or a milkshake or something like that,
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Speaker 4: but then they have to be very aware of what
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Speaker 4: they eat for the rest of the day so they
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Speaker 4: don't get too much glucose or sugar in their system.
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Speaker 1: Well, usend dotor Crown's mind. Dad was borderline diabetic the
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Speaker 1: last ten years of his life. We obsessively watched how
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Speaker 1: many grams of carbs or sugar everything that he ate,
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Speaker 1: and he really did a good job managing his diet.
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Speaker 1: You know, did you hear what Bryce Newberry said from NBC.
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Speaker 1: He said that the victim in this case was typically
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Speaker 1: hyper too much sugar, but that night he went hypo
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Speaker 1: his glucose dropped really low. What about that, doctor crowns So.
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Speaker 4: I mean, if he liked his food and had a
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Speaker 4: tendency to eat a little bit too much sugar, that
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Speaker 4: would explain why he had probably difficulty regulating it with
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Speaker 4: his medication, and that's why he would have the higher
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Speaker 4: blood sugar or hyper glycemia, but the fact he is
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Speaker 4: hypoglycemia either means he did not get enough sugar in
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Speaker 4: his system that day when he took his insulin and
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Speaker 4: it caused him to crash or drop into hypoglycemia, or
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Speaker 4: there was a mistake with his insulin that was a
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Speaker 4: minister to him that caused his blood sugar to drop
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Speaker 4: dramatically and have made him hyperblacing or have a critically
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Speaker 4: low blood sugar.
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Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace, Ryce Meanberry joining us kp
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Speaker 1: RC two. So explain to me the events of that night.
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Speaker 1: I understand what doctor Kendall Crowns is telling me, how
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Speaker 1: he could have been hyper glossamic and then suddenly went
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Speaker 1: hypo that one night. Tell me how it unfolded that night,
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Speaker 1: Bryce Newberry, So, what time of the night was it?
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Speaker 1: Was the wife asleep beside him? Were they in their
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Speaker 1: home alone? Were other people there? I know he has
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Speaker 1: two children from a previous relationship. She has fourtune children
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Speaker 1: from a prior marriage. They don't the children don't live
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Speaker 1: with the couple. How did it unfall? Were they alone?
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Speaker 1: Were they at home? What time of the night was it.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, they were alone in their home in Beach City, Texas,
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Speaker 5: and the night before, the wife claims that she made
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Speaker 5: dinner for him, one of his favorite meals in fact,
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Speaker 5: according to his family, broccoli, cheese, and rice. And then
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Speaker 5: in the middle of the night is when the blood
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Speaker 5: sugar started dropping pretty low. And it wasn't until about
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Speaker 5: one o'clock in the afternoon the next day that the
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Speaker 5: wife says that she checked on him and he was unresponsive.
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Speaker 1: Okay, wait a minute, they were at home together. How
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Speaker 1: much time passed? I mean, how long have you been
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Speaker 1: unresponsive before she checked on him? When does she last
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Speaker 1: see him alive?
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Speaker 5: And well, that's something that's not clear in the court document.
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Speaker 5: It was around eight thirty in the evening. She says
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Speaker 5: that she made dinner and had him eat it. And
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Speaker 5: then the next time that's listed in these documents is
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Speaker 5: one o'clock in the afternoon the following.
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Speaker 1: Day and she was asleep on the side of correct.
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Speaker 5: Yes, that's what she says, because she herself was recovering
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Speaker 5: from a surgery and says that she was on narcotics
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Speaker 5: at the time.
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Speaker 1: Okay, take a instar our friends at kp RC.
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Speaker 6: The grand jury met on the top floor of the
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Speaker 6: Chambers County Courthouse for several hours this morning, but we
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Speaker 6: were not allowed up there because the whole point of
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Speaker 6: grand jury proceedings is that they are secret. But our
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Speaker 6: camera captured those witnesses being escorted by a DA's office
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Speaker 6: investigator in and out of the courthouse. We saw the
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Speaker 6: oldest daughter of Sarah Hartsfield, as well as the Houston
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Speaker 6: Methodist emergency room doctor who tended to her husband, forty
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Speaker 6: six year old Joseph Hartsfield back in January. He died
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Speaker 6: in a Baytown hospital due to what the medical examiner
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Speaker 6: ruled complications of toxic effects of insulin.
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Speaker 1: While it's it's entirely true that grandeury proceedings are secret,
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Speaker 1: it's very clear what's going on here. You've got the
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Speaker 1: wife's oldest daughter going into a secret grand jury hearing,
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Speaker 1: followed by the emergency room doctor that attended her husband,
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Speaker 1: Joseph Hartsfield when he died. Clearly they're looking at her
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Speaker 1: for his death. To again, Doctor Kendall Crown's joining us
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Speaker 1: out of Tarrn County Fort Worth, what does this mean
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Speaker 1: toxic effects of insulin? Because it seems to me we're
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Speaker 1: hearing he died of extremely low glucose levels, So what
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Speaker 1: does it mean if he has toxic effects of insulin?
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Speaker 4: So what happens when he did way too much insulin
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Speaker 4: here in your system? The insulin kind of takes all
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Speaker 4: that sugar out of your body and you become a
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Speaker 4: crash and get a hypoclasmic episode or a very low
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Speaker 4: blood sugar. So it's a too high level of insulin
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Speaker 4: resulting in the removal of all the blood sugar from
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Speaker 4: his body. Where again, like I said earlier, your brain
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Speaker 4: kind of functions on the sugars as well, and that
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Speaker 4: the toxic effect of the low blood sugar causes you
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Speaker 4: to go into a coma and eventually die.
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Speaker 1: The way you're saying it makes it sound like glucose
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Speaker 1: and insulin are the same thing. I thought. You got
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Speaker 1: injected with insulin.
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Speaker 3: You do.
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Speaker 4: You get injected with insulin, and then the insulin gets
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Speaker 4: in your body and it causes your body to use
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Speaker 4: up all the sugar. And if you get too much insulin,
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Speaker 4: it starts taking the reserves that your body has out
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Speaker 4: of preserve.
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Speaker 1: Basically, let me just be clear, doctor Kinnel Crowns. Does
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Speaker 1: your body create insulin?
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Speaker 4: Yes, your body does create insulin, so.
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Speaker 1: How do I know if his body created too much
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Speaker 1: or if he was injected with too much.
15:55
Speaker 3: So he is a.
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Speaker 4: Diabetic, so he is on insulin, So that is his
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Speaker 4: body is inherently not producing insulin properly. So any insulin
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Speaker 4: he has in his system is probably being injected into
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Speaker 4: a system. And you can also do drug testing to
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Speaker 4: see the insulin levels in the body. So if you
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Speaker 4: see a really high abnormal insulin level, you know he's
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Speaker 4: gotten too much insulin in his system, which then caused
16:24
Speaker 4: his blood sugar to drop to basically a low enough
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Speaker 4: point that it put him in a coma and eventually
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Speaker 4: he died.
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Speaker 1: Do you feel yourself going into a coma? Do you
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Speaker 1: know what's happening to you when you've got you ag insulin?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, you can feel very lethargic and confused, and
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Speaker 4: before you pass out, it's a time period of this
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Speaker 4: kind of tiredness, confusion, and it can even affect your
16:49
Speaker 4: heart rate and things of that nature. So you can
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Speaker 4: feel yourself slipping into a diabetic coma initially, but it
16:56
Speaker 4: may or may not. You may be so confused you
16:59
Speaker 4: don't realize what's going on.
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Speaker 1: I understand. So the confusion makes you or can make
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Speaker 1: you unaware of what's happening to you. You're that confused. Well,
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Speaker 1: as police and detectives began to investigate the truth cause
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Speaker 1: of death the toxicity of way too much insulin, the
17:21
Speaker 1: case develops in a very unusual manner, a very bizarre manner.
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Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut eleven.
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Speaker 6: Chambers County, DA Cheryl Lee Henry says investigators have already
17:32
Speaker 6: started hearing from people out of state with information about Hartsfield.
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Speaker 7: She had a lot of people cry for a long time,
17:40
Speaker 7: is what I'm finding out.
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Speaker 6: One of those people her first ex husband, I felt
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Speaker 6: threatened quite often.
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Speaker 1: He says.
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Speaker 6: Their marriage ended horribly and his family has been watching
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Speaker 6: their backs for the last twenty seven years as she
17:52
Speaker 6: kept interjecting herself into their lives.
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Speaker 7: Sarah's a narcissist, and she's good at making herself look
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Speaker 7: like whatever she wants or the other person wants to see.
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Speaker 8: I knew she would eventually get caught for.
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Speaker 3: Who she is.
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Speaker 1: Well, her former family may despise and hate her. They
18:11
Speaker 1: go so far as to say they've been looking over
18:13
Speaker 1: their max for the last twenty plus years. Wondering what
18:16
Speaker 1: she may do next. But how does that fit in
18:20
Speaker 1: to the death of Hartsfield. Take a listen to Marik
18:24
Speaker 1: Glover of Fox nine.
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Speaker 9: Joe eventually died an investigators say the story his wife
18:29
Speaker 9: told them didn't add up.
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Speaker 8: If the hospital had to call this, we didn't. Our
18:33
Speaker 8: officers didn't get involved and make good decisions, we wouldn't
18:38
Speaker 8: be here and potentially could have somebody getting away with murder.
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Speaker 9: According to a determination letter from the Douglas County Attorney, Hartsfield,
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Speaker 9: whose last name was Donahue, five years ago, shot and
18:51
Speaker 9: killed her fiancee, David Bragg during an argument that turned
18:55
Speaker 9: physical in Garfield, Minnesota. The Douglas County Attorney found that
18:58
Speaker 9: Hartsfield shot Brad in self defense because he fired a
19:02
Speaker 9: gun at her and declined to file charges against her
19:05
Speaker 9: in Bragg's death.
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Speaker 1: To Bryce Newberry joining us from kp RC two, that's
19:09
Speaker 1: NBC in Houston, Stop everything. I've got one dead husband
19:15
Speaker 1: from insulin overdose. And according to our doctor who is
19:21
Speaker 1: a renowned medical examiner, Hartsfield didn't create enough insulin, but
19:28
Speaker 1: suddenly he has an overdose of insulin and dies after
19:32
Speaker 1: lingering for days in a come went hospital. Now I'm
19:35
Speaker 1: hearing about another dead lover fiance David Bragg shot dead
19:43
Speaker 1: by the same woman in twenty eighteen. And I've got
19:49
Speaker 1: husband number one, Titus Cornchild, who has four children with
19:56
Speaker 1: this woman. Is he the one that says he looks
19:59
Speaker 1: over back for the last twenty years and his children
20:03
Speaker 1: do too, because they don't know what she's going to
20:05
Speaker 1: reinsert herself in their lives? Do I understand she's lost
20:08
Speaker 1: custody off her children, Yes, that's right.
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Speaker 5: In twenty twenty one, her two youngest children were put
20:17
Speaker 5: in custody of their father, Christopher Donahue. That was because
20:22
Speaker 5: he filed for a protective order for him and for
20:26
Speaker 5: the children and his new wife because they found out
20:30
Speaker 5: from Sarah Hartsfield's fourth ex husband that she had been
20:35
Speaker 5: pressuring him to drive across the state line to Arizona,
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Speaker 5: where the Donahue family lives, to kill the new wife
20:45
Speaker 5: of Christopher Donahue.
20:47
Speaker 1: Okay, you know what, I'm sorry that I've lost. I've
20:49
Speaker 1: run out of paper on my flow chart. This woman
20:52
Speaker 1: who just happened to be asleep on the sofa downstairs
20:55
Speaker 1: when her husband has a toxic level of insulin injected
20:59
Speaker 1: into himself. Sarah Hartsville husband number one, Titus Cornchild, she
21:04
Speaker 1: has four children with him. Husband number two, Michael Traxler.
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Speaker 1: Don't know what happened to him yet. I just want
21:12
Speaker 1: to know because he's still alive. Husband number three you
21:16
Speaker 1: just mentioned, Christopher Donahue, got a protective order against her
21:22
Speaker 1: because she was putting somebody up to come kill him
21:26
Speaker 1: and his new wife fiance, David Bragg is the one
21:30
Speaker 1: she shot dead. Then happy number four David George. I'm
21:37
Speaker 1: curious to see he did or alive. And now husband
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Speaker 1: number five, Joseph Hartsville, who dies of insulin toxicity. Do
21:46
Speaker 1: I have the husband's right?
21:47
Speaker 5: Well, actually the children were not with Titus. The children
21:51
Speaker 5: were with Christopher Donahue. That was number three.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so the four children come from Donahue. Got it?
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Speaker 1: Which husband was being pressured to go go back and
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Speaker 1: kill Donahue.
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Speaker 5: So the man that Sarah married after shooting and killing
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Speaker 5: David Bragg in Minnesota, that's the man who was then
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Speaker 5: allegedly being pressured to drive to Arizona to kill the
22:18
Speaker 5: new wives of Christopher Donahue. And the reason, according to
22:21
Speaker 5: that application for a protective order was because she didn't
22:25
Speaker 5: want or she wanted Christopher Donahue to be too distracted
22:32
Speaker 5: dealing with his wife's death to be fighting for their
22:36
Speaker 5: children anymore.
22:37
Speaker 1: Okay, so I was starting to fit together in a
22:38
Speaker 1: kind of bizarre, crazy way. Sarah Ford is joining US
22:42
Speaker 1: legal director of South Carolina Victims Assistance Network, former prosecutor
22:47
Speaker 1: host so Stepping Toward Justice podcast. Sarah, thank you for
22:50
Speaker 1: being with us. Explain why a grand jury is secret
22:55
Speaker 1: and how basically if you can watch the witnesses going
22:59
Speaker 1: into the grand procedings, you can figure out what's happening.
23:02
Speaker 1: I mean, she sees her oldest daughter go into the
23:05
Speaker 1: grand jury procedings and then she sees the er doctor
23:10
Speaker 1: of her dead husband go in. Uh two it is
23:13
Speaker 1: to go still equals four, I think, Sarah Ford.
23:16
Speaker 7: Yeah.
23:16
Speaker 10: I mean, it's really important for our grand jury system
23:19
Speaker 10: to be secret because we want everyone who's going to
23:22
Speaker 10: come in there and testify, to make sure that they're
23:24
Speaker 10: testifying to the truth, that they don't see her reprisal
23:27
Speaker 10: from it from defendants who may know you know, obviously
23:31
Speaker 10: they're watching, they can see what's happening. So it's really
23:34
Speaker 10: important that that is a secret process and of course.
23:37
Speaker 11: It's not going to remain secret.
23:39
Speaker 10: You know, if they indict the individual, then you know
23:41
Speaker 10: they'll be tried and by a jury of their peers.
23:44
Speaker 10: But it's incredibly dangerous to have, you know, defendants watching
23:48
Speaker 10: what you know who's coming in to testify against them,
23:51
Speaker 10: because they certainly have an interest in stopping people from
23:54
Speaker 10: testifying before the grand jury, which would mean that their
23:57
Speaker 10: case would never be able to come to trial.
23:59
Speaker 1: Absolute correct. I agree with you, guys. This is not
24:03
Speaker 1: the first time we have been seen death by insulin.
24:09
Speaker 1: Take a list at our cut thirty one, our friends
24:11
Speaker 1: at WAFF forty eight.
24:13
Speaker 12: The state is still waiting to receive the final autopsy report,
24:17
Speaker 12: but the medical examiner told officials it's consistent with being
24:20
Speaker 12: poisoned by insolent. A check at the hospital where Capella's
24:23
Speaker 12: wife worked as a charge nurse.
24:25
Speaker 1: Showed that insolent was missing.
24:27
Speaker 12: The judge found probable cause for the case to move
24:30
Speaker 12: forward in court with the victims family was hoping for.
24:34
Speaker 1: He's shining down on us right now. He's He's with
24:38
Speaker 1: us every step of the way. You know, he was
24:40
Speaker 1: well known in the Huntsville community. Here's my son, and
24:44
Speaker 1: I miss him. He didn't deserve this, but he deserves justice.
24:49
Speaker 12: The couple's daughter, meanwhile, is in the care of loving relatives.
24:53
Speaker 1: Jim Cappella was a local private investigator who knew everybody's secrets,
25:00
Speaker 1: all about divorce proceedings, lawsuits, double dealing of all sorts.
25:05
Speaker 1: So at first there's a big question as to who
25:08
Speaker 1: would have motive to kill him. Well, then focus turned
25:12
Speaker 1: on his wife, a charge nurse, after it was discovered
25:16
Speaker 1: it was all about the insulin. So Jason Gensen joining
25:22
Speaker 1: us a very well known private investigator, cold case expert
25:25
Speaker 1: and co founder of Cold Case Coalition. You can find
25:29
Speaker 1: him a Jensen Private Investigations dot com. Jason, how can
25:35
Speaker 1: we prove in this case that the defendant, Sarah Hartsville
25:41
Speaker 1: injected her husband with insulin as opposed to him mistakenly
25:46
Speaker 1: injecting himself or his body somehow producing too much insulin?
25:52
Speaker 1: How can you go about proving this was an intentional killing.
25:58
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a very good question, and I think that's
26:00
Speaker 7: really the hill that prosecutors have to overcome because, just
26:06
Speaker 7: like doctor Crown was explaining, oftentimes it's a mistake and
26:10
Speaker 7: you have to overcome the nature of a mistake to
26:14
Speaker 7: prove the intent here. What I believe that law enforcements
26:18
Speaker 7: relying on is her own inconsistent statements to show that
26:25
Speaker 7: there's no logic behind it. Otherwise, Yeah, we're still wondering
26:30
Speaker 7: if we can prove that wasn't a mistake.
26:32
Speaker 1: What sort of inconsistent statements do we know of? Has
26:36
Speaker 1: that been released to Bryce Newbery?
26:39
Speaker 3: Yeah?
26:39
Speaker 5: I mean she has shared different stories with investigators over time.
26:44
Speaker 5: She's also been communicating with us via text messages from
26:50
Speaker 5: her jail cell to explain her side of the story
26:55
Speaker 5: and says that there was no wrongdoing.
26:58
Speaker 1: So her story is there's no wrong doing. What is
27:01
Speaker 1: the inconsistent portion of her statement? According to police?
27:04
Speaker 5: His obituary says that he died of an aeschemic stroke,
27:08
Speaker 5: Which that's the first thing that doesn't match up with
27:11
Speaker 5: what the medical Examiner's office actually ruled in this case
27:16
Speaker 5: in terms of the story that she shared immediately when
27:23
Speaker 5: things were not adding up to the medical staff, that's
27:26
Speaker 5: when the Sheriff's office was called in and said that
27:30
Speaker 5: the story really just didn't add up and match up.
27:34
Speaker 5: Because you know this dexcom that hearts Joseph Hartsfield war
27:40
Speaker 5: is what monitored his sugar level, and according to his family,
27:44
Speaker 5: both of them had apps on their phone that would
27:48
Speaker 5: send the alerts, and she allegedly ignored those alerts when
27:54
Speaker 5: his sugar was dropping dangerously low. Now she denies that.
27:58
Speaker 5: She says she didn't ignore those alert.
28:00
Speaker 1: But yet she has the app on her phone to
28:02
Speaker 1: alert her. And I can tell you this much. I
28:04
Speaker 1: heard the alarm go off very clearly in my daughter's sleepover,
28:09
Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns, Would it be a matter of proving
28:12
Speaker 1: the case by showing how much insulin was injected that
28:18
Speaker 1: it was such a huge amount it cannot possibly have
28:21
Speaker 1: been a mistake.
28:22
Speaker 4: Yes, Actually, the testing the Medical Examiner's office can do
28:25
Speaker 4: can show that the amount of insulin injected it was
28:29
Speaker 4: extremely high. It wulb not kangruous or similar to just
28:35
Speaker 4: a standard. Oh I gave myself one extra injection, it
28:38
Speaker 4: would look have more of a look of I gave
28:41
Speaker 4: myself ten extra injections, which wouldn't make sense. It would
28:44
Speaker 4: either be a suicide or a homicide at that one.
28:46
Speaker 1: There are actually eight insulin pins beside his bed. Eight
28:52
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Doctor Crown's eight insulin pins?
28:55
Speaker 4: So potentially he was injected with eight round of insulin
29:00
Speaker 4: all at one time, which would be more than sufficient
29:04
Speaker 4: to kill him.
29:05
Speaker 3: And then they would see.
29:06
Speaker 4: That at the toxicologic testing that he had, you know.
29:11
Speaker 3: Eight times the normal amount of insuluin in his system.
29:26
Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace too. Doctor Sherry Schwartz joining
29:31
Speaker 1: us for now forensics psychologists specializing in capital mitigation and
29:36
Speaker 1: victim advocacy at panthermitigation dot com. She's also the author
29:41
Speaker 1: of Criminal Behavior and author of Where Law and Psychology Intersect.
29:47
Speaker 1: Doctor Schwartz, thank you for being with us. You know,
29:50
Speaker 1: there's a big difference in my mind, getting into an
29:54
Speaker 1: argument at a bar, let's just say, and pulling a
29:57
Speaker 1: gun and pulling the trigger and immediately regretting the a
30:01
Speaker 1: while the law doesn't care if you immediately regret the deed,
30:05
Speaker 1: the person still dead. I believe there is a difference
30:09
Speaker 1: in that and a cold hearted, calculated plan to commit
30:13
Speaker 1: murder where you know your victim is going to suffer,
30:17
Speaker 1: suffer greatly before their dead, and you do it anyway.
30:21
Speaker 1: Doctor Schwartz, Yes.
30:22
Speaker 11: There's a remarkable difference. There's a remarkable difference in the approach.
30:26
Speaker 11: What it seems on miss Hartsfield's part. If we're to
30:30
Speaker 11: believe everything that everyone said, and there doesn't seem to
30:32
Speaker 11: be a reason not to right, that she engages inmpredatory
30:37
Speaker 11: behavior with the intent to inflict harm violent homicide on people.
30:43
Speaker 11: So this is if we look at the FBI definition
30:47
Speaker 11: of a serial killer, and I don't know that that's
30:50
Speaker 11: what we're dealing with, but it seems to have shades
30:52
Speaker 11: of that feeling. What we're looking at is someone who
30:55
Speaker 11: would fit into the hedonistic category, such that they kill
30:59
Speaker 11: for the pleasure of killing, They seek to kill for
31:02
Speaker 11: the thrill of killing, and she does it in a
31:05
Speaker 11: very planned way, and she doesn't consistent it seems if
31:08
Speaker 11: the evidence is correct here with how most female serial
31:13
Speaker 11: killers do it, it's either for revenge, and then the
31:15
Speaker 11: mode of homicide tends to be something like poisoning.
31:21
Speaker 1: You know, one of these pins should last about a month.
31:26
Speaker 1: One of the diabetic insulin pins holds about three mls
31:31
Speaker 1: of insulin and it should last about a month. He
31:35
Speaker 1: had eight of them beside his bed. Eight pins. That's
31:41
Speaker 1: eight months worth of insulin. If we are reading the
31:46
Speaker 1: directions in the packaging correctly, this wouldn't be the first
31:51
Speaker 1: time that a very obscure method of murder has been used.
31:58
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our twenty one Our friends at
32:01
Speaker 1: GMA Death by eye drop.
32:04
Speaker 13: The investigators say they still have no clear motive as
32:07
Speaker 13: to why fifty two year old Lana Clayton allegedly used
32:11
Speaker 13: eye drops to kill her husband of four years.
32:13
Speaker 9: Well, she did admit during interviews with our detectives that
32:17
Speaker 9: she committed the crimes.
32:18
Speaker 13: Stephen Clayton was found dead in the four year of
32:20
Speaker 13: this eight hundred thousand dollars South Carolina mansion he shared
32:24
Speaker 13: with his wife in July. Police say they never suspected
32:27
Speaker 13: foul play was involved until toxicology results from his autopsy
32:31
Speaker 13: revealed high levels of tetrahydrosleen, the chemical found in eye
32:35
Speaker 13: drops and nasal sprays, in his bloodstream.
32:38
Speaker 1: It mocks, for instance, a heart attack because just as
32:43
Speaker 1: eye drops, light feizin restrict the blood flow to the
32:48
Speaker 1: tiny vessels in your eye, so your eyes are no
32:52
Speaker 1: longer red, it can also constrict the blood vessels going
32:58
Speaker 1: to You're a art and that one has been used again.
33:03
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends Inside edition. This is
33:07
Speaker 1: Jim Murray and cut twenty three.
33:08
Speaker 14: He saved dozens of lives as a paramedic. Now prosecutors
33:12
Speaker 14: say he murdered his wife by poisoning her with visine.
33:16
Speaker 14: Joshua Hunsucker and his wife, Stacy were high school sweethearts,
33:20
Speaker 14: raising two adorable daughters aged five and six. Stacey died
33:24
Speaker 14: in September last year from what appeared to be a
33:27
Speaker 14: heart attack, but in a stunning development, her thirty five
33:30
Speaker 14: year old husband has just been charged with murder.
33:33
Speaker 13: He is the one who poisoned mess Hunsucker with vizine
33:37
Speaker 13: or a similar product and calls.
33:40
Speaker 1: Her dead murder by insulin, death by eydrop? Well, what
33:46
Speaker 1: about death by cereal? Breakfast cereal? Take a listen to
33:52
Speaker 1: our thirty wd IV. Stephanie Arnold remembers how she reacted
33:56
Speaker 1: when she got the news her friend was dead.
33:59
Speaker 15: And Christie's she's a mom, breast being a baby. That
34:05
Speaker 15: doesn't happen.
34:06
Speaker 1: Did you ever know her to do drugs?
34:08
Speaker 13: No?
34:09
Speaker 1: Did Christy seem happy in her life with her children?
34:14
Speaker 1: You pause and you say with her children?
34:18
Speaker 16: Her relationship was rocky, The fights were bad.
34:21
Speaker 12: Christy and Jason Harris were married for eleven years, knew
34:24
Speaker 12: each other for sixteen, and had two children.
34:26
Speaker 16: Together when we found out about overdose.
34:29
Speaker 15: That's kind of exactly where our brain went, because she
34:32
Speaker 15: wouldn't do that herself.
34:34
Speaker 16: Nobody believed that she would do that.
34:37
Speaker 1: It was only by comparing the breast milk that she
34:41
Speaker 1: had pumped and frozen to her toxicology reports, then it
34:47
Speaker 1: became very clear her cereal had been poisoned with a
34:51
Speaker 1: high dosage of drugs. Back to our case in chief,
34:56
Speaker 1: the very latest take a list to our cut eight
34:58
Speaker 1: investigation has taken ou to other states.
35:00
Speaker 16: Let's just put it that way.
35:02
Speaker 5: I'm hoping within the next year and a half to
35:04
Speaker 5: get Miss Hartsfield tried.
35:06
Speaker 6: Minnesota authorities are also getting close to the end of
35:09
Speaker 6: a reopened investigation of Sarah Hartsfield, who in twenty eighteen
35:13
Speaker 6: fatally shot her fiance at the time, David Bragg, but
35:16
Speaker 6: she was never charged because prosecutors ruled it self defense.
35:20
Speaker 6: Sarah Hartsfield has maintained her innocence, and in messages to
35:23
Speaker 6: me from her jail cell, said, the real story is
35:25
Speaker 6: quote when a citizen with no criminal history can be
35:28
Speaker 6: thrown in jail while they think I did something but
35:31
Speaker 6: aren't sure, and if I did do something.
35:33
Speaker 1: They don't know how she wrote.
35:35
Speaker 6: If she's guilty of anything, it's picking horrible husbands.
35:39
Speaker 1: Wow, blame the victim. It's their fault. They're the horrible ones,
35:44
Speaker 1: all five of them. Plus you've got the fiance that
35:47
Speaker 1: got shot and the other one that was afraid. Surprise,
35:50
Speaker 1: he lived through it to tell the tale. You were
35:52
Speaker 1: hearing the voice of Bryce Neeberry joining us right now
35:55
Speaker 1: from kp RC two, NBC Houston. What did that mean
36:01
Speaker 1: that they are now looking in other states and other
36:04
Speaker 1: jurisdictions for what.
36:06
Speaker 5: There's a lot of things that have happened allegedly in
36:09
Speaker 5: Sarah Hartsfield's past. Of course, there's the shooting in Minnesota.
36:14
Speaker 5: There's the murder plot.
36:15
Speaker 1: Well, you mean the shooting and the dead husband, that one,
36:19
Speaker 1: the dead the deaf fiance that one, yes.
36:22
Speaker 5: That one, and you know the family in that case.
36:25
Speaker 7: We've interviewed them.
36:26
Speaker 5: We've traveled to several states covering this story and interviewed
36:29
Speaker 5: people from Sarah Hartsfield's past. And when we spoke with
36:34
Speaker 5: the family members of David Bragg, they said that she
36:39
Speaker 5: tried to explain herself for that shooting to them, and
36:43
Speaker 5: when she shared her version of the events, they say, well,
36:46
Speaker 5: it really didn't add up, and they even called her
36:49
Speaker 5: story far fetched. So they're understandably very grateful that this
36:56
Speaker 5: case is getting a renewed book.
36:58
Speaker 1: Now Takelos to America nine.
36:59
Speaker 6: Sarah Heartsfield is in the Chambers County jail tonight for
37:02
Speaker 6: the murder of her husband in Beach City last month,
37:05
Speaker 6: but investigators says she's been married at least five times,
37:08
Speaker 6: and tonight we've learned just five years ago she shot
37:11
Speaker 6: and killed a man who never made it to the altar.
37:14
Speaker 1: Forty three year old.
37:15
Speaker 6: David Bragg was engaged to Sarah Hartsfield in twenty eighteen
37:19
Speaker 6: when she shot and killed him in their Douglas County,
37:21
Speaker 6: Minnesota home. The county's top prosecutor declined to file criminal charges,
37:26
Speaker 6: saying she fired in self defense, but tonight the Douglas
37:29
Speaker 6: County Attorney's office is reopening the investigation in light of
37:33
Speaker 6: new information that came into the sheriff's office. Bragg's family
37:37
Speaker 6: is relieved, telling us in a statement, his death was
37:40
Speaker 6: very random and the circumstances that surrounded his death seemed
37:43
Speaker 6: far fetched and almost made up Rise Kneeberry.
37:47
Speaker 1: We know so many other men in her life. Husband's
37:50
Speaker 1: fiance's boyfriends. Is there a chance Sarah even more dead bodies,
37:55
Speaker 1: possibly not just the man in her life, but a
37:59
Speaker 1: neighbor alone rival. How do we know?
38:02
Speaker 5: Well, throughout this coverage of the story, we've been looking
38:06
Speaker 5: into different people around Sarah Hartsfield who have died, and
38:12
Speaker 5: in fact, in nineteen ninety her little brother died of
38:17
Speaker 5: an accidental death in Otterville, Missouri. That case is also
38:22
Speaker 5: getting a renewed look, although Sarah Hartsfield was not present
38:27
Speaker 5: at the time that her little brother died. There is
38:29
Speaker 5: also the two thousand and five deaths of her biological father,
38:33
Speaker 5: which was reviewed earlier this year by police in Bell County, Texas.
38:40
Speaker 5: They did not file criminal charges in that but based
38:44
Speaker 5: on the events that have come to life throughout this investigation,
38:49
Speaker 5: there are a lot of other investigations that are getting
38:53
Speaker 5: a more focused.
38:54
Speaker 4: Look at them now.
38:56
Speaker 1: Who knows where this is all going to end, but
38:59
Speaker 1: I know one thing. She will be tried for murder
39:03
Speaker 1: in the death of Joseph Hartsfeld, and his insulin toxicity
39:09
Speaker 1: will play a major factor in that prosecution. We wait
39:13
Speaker 1: as justice unfolds. Goodbye Friend,