Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / MOM: 'IT'S REALLY JUST OVER...THEY'RE GONE;' ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, 7X DRINK LIMIT, KILLS TEENS
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A mother says it's really
- 0:10Speaker 1: just over. They're gone. She is talking about two beautiful
- 0:18Speaker 1: teens dead. Why an undocumented immigrant seven times over the
- 0:29Speaker 1: legal drinking limit kills the two teens. I Nancy Grace,
- 0:36Speaker 1: this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
- 0:40Speaker 2: A beautiful young couple killed in a head on collision.
- 0:44Speaker 2: We remember t Leah Cruchet and Rylan on Cow.
- 0:49Speaker 1: I am looking at this beautiful teen girl to Leah's obituary.
- 0:57Speaker 1: You know how wrong that is to say a teen
- 1:01Speaker 1: girls obituary. She's beautiful on the outside, but on the
- 1:08Speaker 1: inside as well. Interesting the drunk driver is uninjured. Why
- 1:14Speaker 1: does that always happen? But she's dead. Born in Homa, Louisiana,
- 1:24Speaker 1: living in Thibodeaux, attending the Hlbougois High School and more
- 1:32Speaker 1: recently studying at the by Ukine Education Center. This little
- 1:38Speaker 1: girl not only going to school but working at ross
- 1:45Speaker 1: I imagine in the teen clothing area. She was starting
- 1:50Speaker 1: a new job at the waffle house. She's a homebody.
- 1:57Speaker 1: Her family loved her and she loved them. Love spending
- 2:01Speaker 1: time with her sisters and taking road trips. Her beloved dog,
- 2:07Speaker 1: Zena and was smitten by her new teen boyfriend Ryland
- 2:17Speaker 1: Rylan photoed here, also losing his life.
- 2:25Speaker 3: At the end of this oh bit, it says to.
- 2:28Speaker 1: Leah's sweet personality will be missed by all who knew her.
- 2:36Speaker 1: To Leia's sweet personality will be missed by all who
- 2:41Speaker 1: knew her. All I can think about, and I'm sure
- 2:45Speaker 1: all of you on the panel and all of you listening,
- 2:48Speaker 1: all I can think about are my twins. About this age.
- 2:54Speaker 1: They go out one day in their car and they
- 2:59Speaker 1: never come home. They come home in a box because
- 3:05Speaker 1: an illegal immigrant was seven times over the legal drinking limit,
- 3:13Speaker 1: seven times over.
- 3:16Speaker 3: And these two are dead. You know how I found
- 3:20Speaker 3: out about the case.
- 3:22Speaker 1: I was online and I saw their mother. I saw
- 3:29Speaker 1: to Leah's mother, Devon, crying and saying to the effect,
- 3:38Speaker 1: I can't believe it's all over. They're gone. And I
- 3:43Speaker 1: imagined Devon walking into our home and going back to
- 3:50Speaker 1: the twins room and being dead silent, just dead silent,
- 3:54Speaker 1: And that feeling in the air when you're all alone,
- 3:57Speaker 1: that that feeling and knowing that's what you're going through
- 4:01Speaker 1: every morning, noon, and night.
- 4:05Speaker 3: Yes, that is it like to go into her room now.
- 4:09Speaker 4: It's good Wrenchie her oh, her dog, with her life
- 4:14Speaker 4: besides Ryland working like the dog meant everything to her.
- 4:17Speaker 4: And she's still in there, and I know she notices
- 4:19Speaker 4: that Tila's gone.
- 4:22Speaker 5: My thirteen year old has been sitting one alone.
- 4:25Speaker 6: That's been hard for her because she's in her sister's
- 4:29Speaker 6: room and her sister's gone.
- 4:31Speaker 1: What happened the day you found out about the crash?
- 4:35Speaker 1: You know, Devin Deane. When I was reading the obituary
- 4:39Speaker 1: last night, it refers to an accident.
- 4:42Speaker 3: It's no accident.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Does not argue pick a fight with a funeral home,
- 4:47Speaker 1: But it is no accident. When somebody drinks and drinks
- 4:52Speaker 1: and drinks, then gets their car, key, goes to the car,
- 4:57Speaker 1: opens it up, gets in, cranks up reverse and drives out.
- 5:01Speaker 3: Onto the street, that's not an accident.
- 5:03Speaker 1: Those are multiple decisions that lead into a horrific crash
- 5:09Speaker 1: with your girl.
- 5:11Speaker 3: That's not an accident. When did you learn about the crash?
- 5:15Speaker 6: So Talia she had been at She actually had started
- 5:19Speaker 6: her job at waffle house. Ryland just came in from
- 5:21Speaker 6: his first hitch off shore. He was so proud he
- 5:24Speaker 6: was over here and he was only home for two days.
- 5:27Speaker 6: He said he was going to pick up Tala at
- 5:30Speaker 6: nine o'clock PM from waffle House, him and two of
- 5:32Speaker 6: his best friends, Peyton and Peyton and Devin, and they
- 5:36Speaker 6: were going to fouchonp near Grand Isle to go fishing.
- 5:40Speaker 5: And I even said, why go so far there by?
- 5:42Speaker 6: You's everywhere around here, and he's like, no, they have
- 5:44Speaker 6: a culvert and there's really good fishing there.
- 5:47Speaker 5: So they left. In the early hours of the morning.
- 5:51Speaker 5: I heard a really hard knocking. I answered the door.
- 5:54Speaker 5: I thought my boyfriend locked him out.
- 5:56Speaker 6: I was like, the kids was to come back from fishing,
- 5:57Speaker 6: and he locked the door and the state troopers we're
- 6:00Speaker 6: standing outside. He said, I'm looking for the parents and
- 6:04Speaker 6: to Leah Crocheate Tale has never been in trouble, neither
- 6:06Speaker 6: is Ryland.
- 6:07Speaker 5: They're great kids. And I was just like why, like
- 6:10Speaker 5: what did she do? Like what's going on? And he
- 6:12Speaker 5: said That's when he told me.
- 6:14Speaker 6: He said, ma'am Tale has been in an automobile accident
- 6:16Speaker 6: and unfortunately she's passed. And I was just like, na oh,
- 6:20Speaker 6: that's not true. And I was like, where's Rylan. I
- 6:22Speaker 6: almost was waiting for Ryland to walk.
- 6:23Speaker 5: Out and make it okay, and that's when he told
- 6:25Speaker 5: me Ryland, it passed.
- 6:26Speaker 3: Also, I was in shock.
- 6:29Speaker 6: My boyfriend walked out, Thank goodness, because I just kept
- 6:32Speaker 6: staring at where her car was normally parked.
- 6:35Speaker 5: And then when he handed me our driver's license, I
- 6:37Speaker 5: knew that it was.
- 6:38Speaker 1: It was.
- 6:38Speaker 5: It made it real.
- 6:41Speaker 3: I was listening to you stay earlier. I can't believe it.
- 6:47Speaker 3: They're just they're gone.
- 6:50Speaker 5: It's still unbelievable, Nancy. I missed him so much, not
- 6:56Speaker 5: just to Leah.
- 6:57Speaker 4: Ryland worked with me for a while the machine work,
- 7:00Speaker 4: so I had one on one time.
- 7:01Speaker 3: With this kid. Every day.
- 7:03Speaker 5: He was like my son.
- 7:04Speaker 1: I have three.
- 7:05Speaker 5: Daughters besides my oldest daughter is Beyonce. He had become
- 7:09Speaker 5: my son and I literally saw him every.
- 7:11Speaker 3: Day, Miss Dane. When did you learn what had happened?
- 7:15Speaker 1: I mean, when the state trooper comes to your door
- 7:19Speaker 1: and tells you your daughter has is gone, has passed.
- 7:26Speaker 1: When did you realize what actually happened to your girl?
- 7:30Speaker 6: He may have even told us out there. I was
- 7:33Speaker 6: so out of it, honestly, I just remember thinking, like,
- 7:37Speaker 6: she's dead. And when he handed me the driver's license,
- 7:39Speaker 6: I just kept tapping it and I'm like Oh.
- 7:41Speaker 5: My god, she's gone. She's gone. I came in.
- 7:44Speaker 6: I the first first thing I did was wake up
- 7:46Speaker 6: my thirteen year old to tell her. And then I
- 7:50Speaker 6: called Ryland's grandfather in Texas because he was the closest
- 7:54Speaker 6: person to him besides his sister here and his friends.
- 7:57Speaker 5: And then I had.
- 7:59Speaker 6: To call and tell my old disaughterer, who's pregnant right now?
- 8:01Speaker 6: I was so I was so scared to call her.
- 8:03Speaker 6: But somewhere along that, I think they did tell us
- 8:07Speaker 6: outside that it was a drunk driver.
- 8:09Speaker 7: Yeah, it was.
- 8:09Speaker 6: Actually, I take it back, I do remember he it was.
- 8:12Speaker 6: He did tell us it was a drunk driver that
- 8:13Speaker 6: hit them, because he said Riley was not speeding. They
- 8:17Speaker 6: all had their seat belts on, like they were doing
- 8:20Speaker 6: nothing wrong.
- 8:20Speaker 5: Because that was one of my things. I'm like, well,
- 8:22Speaker 5: what happened? Everything comes up bits and pieces.
- 8:25Speaker 6: I'm sorry, But yes, he did tell us out there,
- 8:27Speaker 6: because I remember him specifically saying like we had to
- 8:29Speaker 6: cut them out, like they had their seat belts on,
- 8:31Speaker 6: he wasn't speeding, and I'm like, of course they weren't.
- 8:33Speaker 6: Ryland was so careful, he was. He was everyone's protector,
- 8:37Speaker 6: including hers.
- 8:38Speaker 1: Let me understand, they had their seat belts on and
- 8:42Speaker 1: they were not spading, so what.
- 8:44Speaker 3: Happened he I don't know.
- 8:46Speaker 5: They they said, we we spopked.
- 8:48Speaker 6: We spoke to the state troopers and they said that
- 8:50Speaker 6: they are doing an investigation into whatever they have that
- 8:55Speaker 6: was in the other vehicle. I guess shows the speed
- 8:57Speaker 6: it was going. They just have to connect it to
- 8:59Speaker 6: some to find out and they said it will be
- 9:02Speaker 6: in the report, like what speed he was going. But
- 9:04Speaker 6: he had to have been flying because it it flew.
- 9:06Speaker 6: We would see the crash slight yesterday for the first time,
- 9:09Speaker 6: and my daughter's car was on the other side of
- 9:13Speaker 6: the little little ditch like it actually flew her car
- 9:17Speaker 6: on the other side of the little ditch. Thank got
- 9:20Speaker 6: it was that side of the road. Though the other
- 9:21Speaker 6: side the other two boys might not have made it
- 9:23Speaker 6: because there was water.
- 9:24Speaker 1: So her the vehicle, the teen's vehicle was on the
- 9:28Speaker 1: other side of the road.
- 9:31Speaker 6: They said Rylan was in his lane. The guy axle
- 9:36Speaker 6: was coming. He went into Ryland's lane. When Rylan went
- 9:39Speaker 6: to miss him, he hit him right where to Liam
- 9:41Speaker 6: was sitting and it spun the car and flew it
- 9:44Speaker 6: like off to the side on the other side of
- 9:46Speaker 6: the little culvert area with the little ditch. I couldn't
- 9:50Speaker 6: believe it when I saw it in person.
- 9:52Speaker 3: How far it was from the road to Sydney.
- 9:54Speaker 1: Sumner Crime online dot Com investigative reporter. What do we
- 9:57Speaker 1: know about the crash itself?
- 9:59Speaker 3: Fancy?
- 9:59Speaker 8: So what we know about this crash is Rylan is driving,
- 10:02Speaker 8: is sitting in the passenger seat.
- 10:04Speaker 3: They have two passengers in.
- 10:06Speaker 5: The back seat. These are two of Ryland's friends.
- 10:08Speaker 8: They are traveling northbound Inland on Highway thirty ninety around
- 10:13Speaker 8: one am. The other driver, Axel Flores Cordoza, is driving
- 10:19Speaker 8: south towards them. Cordoza pulls into the right lane, he
- 10:25Speaker 8: crosses over the middle lane, is driving in Ryland's lane
- 10:29Speaker 8: directly towards them. Ryland sees this and attempts to correct.
- 10:33Speaker 8: He swerves into the left lane to avoid this oncoming car.
- 10:37Speaker 3: Cordova head on runs into.
- 10:40Speaker 8: The passenger side front of to Leah's car that Ryland
- 10:43Speaker 8: is driving.
- 10:44Speaker 1: Just imagine driving in the darkness and seeing a pair
- 10:48Speaker 1: of headlights coming straight for you, straight for you, in
- 10:54Speaker 1: the dark of the night. From what we understand, Ryland
- 10:59Speaker 1: in to try and avoid a head on collision swerves
- 11:04Speaker 1: into the other line, the left lane, but then this
- 11:09Speaker 1: is him trying to get away from the wrong way driver.
- 11:12Speaker 3: Then the wrong way.
- 11:13Speaker 1: Driver also corrects, goes back into the left lane and
- 11:19Speaker 1: has a head on collision with the teams. Is that
- 11:24Speaker 1: what happened, Sidney Sumner?
- 11:26Speaker 8: Yes, Nancy, that is absolutely correct, And as you can see,
- 11:30Speaker 8: the damage to the car was extremely extensive. Ryland and
- 11:35Speaker 8: Talia had to be cut out removed from the car
- 11:38Speaker 8: by firefighters. By the time first responders arrived, Talia was
- 11:42Speaker 8: already gone.
- 11:43Speaker 1: From what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong,
- 11:46Speaker 1: Sidney Sumner from Crime Online.
- 11:48Speaker 3: The driver, the wrong way driver.
- 11:51Speaker 1: In the middle of the night, was seven times the
- 11:56Speaker 1: legal limit.
- 11:58Speaker 3: Is that correct? That is correct, Nancy.
- 12:01Speaker 8: That's what we know from the police report. They have
- 12:03Speaker 8: not released the actual number regarding his.
- 12:06Speaker 5: BAC, but they do tell us that it.
- 12:08Speaker 8: Is nearly seven times the legal limit for an underage drinker,
- 12:12Speaker 8: so that would be somebody under the age of twenty one.
- 12:15Speaker 8: That limit is point zero two. So Cordoza had a
- 12:20Speaker 8: BAC of a round point one four, which is almost
- 12:24Speaker 8: double the point eight legal limit four of age drinkers
- 12:28Speaker 8: twenty one and plus.
- 12:30Speaker 9: The front end of Ryland's Kia Rio is completely carved in.
- 12:33Speaker 9: First responders arrive within minutes, pulling the occupants from the wreckage,
- 12:38Speaker 9: but tu Lea is already gone. Ryland is rushed to
- 12:41Speaker 9: a hospital, where he also dies of his injuries. The
- 12:44Speaker 9: couple's two friends riding in the backseat also have serious injuries,
- 12:48Speaker 9: but are stabilized.
- 12:49Speaker 3: At the hospital.
- 12:57Speaker 2: The eighteen year old suspect was driving under the influence
- 13:01Speaker 2: when he's swerved into the opposite lane, hitting fourteens head on.
- 13:08Speaker 1: Two beautiful teens dead. Why because an illegal immigrant? An
- 13:13Speaker 1: undocumented alien here in the US, drives seven times the
- 13:20Speaker 1: legal limit and plows into these two while driving on
- 13:26Speaker 1: the wrong side.
- 13:27Speaker 3: Of the road in the middle of the night, in
- 13:30Speaker 3: the complete darkness. Listen.
- 13:32Speaker 10: The jeep Cherokee is only occupied by driver Axel Flores Cordoza,
- 13:36Speaker 10: who's found completely unharmed despite not wearing a seat belt.
- 13:39Speaker 10: Flores Cordoza, eighteen, is unlicensed, has open alcohol in his
- 13:44Speaker 10: cup holder, and is clearly drunk. The team voluntarily submits
- 13:48Speaker 10: to a breath test. The results in a BAC just
- 13:50Speaker 10: under point one point four, equivalent to seven times the
- 13:53Speaker 10: point zero two legal limit for drivers under twenty one
- 13:56Speaker 10: and nearly twice the limit for drivers of legal drinking age.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Joining me in addition to this, grieving mother Devin Dean,
- 14:07Speaker 1: Eric Fatas with me, Veterin trial lawyer, doctor Jan Gorniac,
- 14:11Speaker 1: renowned medical examiner, Sidney Sumner, investigative crime reporter, and Sonny
- 14:17Speaker 1: Wall joining us, the executive director from MAD Louisiana Mothers
- 14:22Speaker 1: Against Driving.
- 14:24Speaker 3: Sonny, thank you for being with us.
- 14:26Speaker 1: Explain to me how many drinks this guy had to
- 14:31Speaker 1: have in order to be seven times the legal limit.
- 14:35Speaker 11: Well, first and foremost, Nancy, thanks for bringing light to
- 14:38Speaker 11: this under horrible circumstances. The number one thing, and there
- 14:44Speaker 11: are many components to Matt. You know, underage drinking in
- 14:49Speaker 11: itself is illegal, period, so that's breaking them along. In
- 14:52Speaker 11: the beginning, every miner we see about forty three hundred
- 14:56Speaker 11: miners passing away every year due to being strength because
- 15:00Speaker 11: of alcohol poisoning, because the brain's not fully developed to
- 15:02Speaker 11: the mid twenties and therefore they're not processing it their
- 15:06Speaker 11: accurate ways. So I couldn't really give you a specific
- 15:09Speaker 11: amount of what this alleged person have impaired person had
- 15:13Speaker 11: taken in but any amounts too much.
- 15:16Speaker 5: That's what I can tell you.
- 15:17Speaker 1: Generally speaking, the guidelines and anybody can find these online.
- 15:22Speaker 1: It doesn't take a legal scholar to find it. General guidelines.
- 15:28Speaker 1: Within about a span of an hour, it would take
- 15:31Speaker 1: about four drinks four drinks for a man or woman
- 15:36Speaker 1: to reach the legal drinking limit. That means, under the law,
- 15:42Speaker 1: which is insane, you can have four drinks.
- 15:48Speaker 3: For a man, three drinks for a woman.
- 15:50Speaker 1: This is a man, so four drinks and still be
- 15:52Speaker 1: under the legal limit of point zero eight.
- 15:56Speaker 3: Okay.
- 15:56Speaker 1: Now we know this guy, the undocumented ailien, was seven
- 16:03Speaker 1: times over the point zero.
- 16:05Speaker 3: Two for his age. Okay.
- 16:09Speaker 1: Other general guidelines, it takes five drinks, depending on metabolism,
- 16:15Speaker 1: your weight, your gender, five drinks.
- 16:20Speaker 3: To get to legal limit.
- 16:22Speaker 1: This guy's point two time seven, which makes him point
- 16:26Speaker 1: one four.
- 16:28Speaker 3: So this is.
- 16:29Speaker 1: About ten alcoholic drinks. Ten alcoholic drinks.
- 16:39Speaker 3: Okay.
- 16:40Speaker 1: That said to Eric Fattus, veteran trial lawyer or TV
- 16:46Speaker 1: legal analyst founding partner Varner and Fattest Elite legal jump in, Eric,
- 16:54Speaker 1: I want to hear your defense to this.
- 16:55Speaker 12: Oh dear, this is a really tough one anyway you
- 16:58Speaker 12: look at it.
- 16:59Speaker 3: It is completely devastating. I hope you're not going to
- 17:02Speaker 3: say that.
- 17:02Speaker 1: To the walk to the jury when you're defending some
- 17:05Speaker 1: guy like this. Oh dear, oh my lions and tigers
- 17:09Speaker 1: and bears. Uh no, you better say something to get.
- 17:13Speaker 3: Your client off the hook. And I don't know how
- 17:15Speaker 3: the hey you're gonna do that. Did you hear what
- 17:17Speaker 3: I just said about.
- 17:19Speaker 1: How many drinks this guy had to have to be
- 17:22Speaker 1: seven times the legal limit for his age.
- 17:26Speaker 3: That's point one.
- 17:27Speaker 12: Four, absolutely, but you know there are some mitigating circumstances.
- 17:31Speaker 12: Not that it excuses anything. He was eighteen, As the
- 17:35Speaker 12: mad executive director said, his brain was not fully developed.
- 17:39Speaker 12: That doesn't excuse the decisions he made, but it puts
- 17:42Speaker 12: it into context and puts it into perspective.
- 17:44Speaker 3: Are you serious? My head's blowing off? Did you what
- 17:48Speaker 3: did you just say? Did you say his brain wasn't
- 17:52Speaker 3: fully formed? You know where you can stick that right?
- 17:56Speaker 3: His brain is not fully armed. Oh.
- 18:01Speaker 1: I can't wait for that to be argued in front
- 18:04Speaker 1: of the jury.
- 18:05Speaker 12: And typically that kind of thing would be argued in
- 18:07Speaker 12: front of a judge at sentencing, to just give perspective
- 18:10Speaker 12: in context, in terms of culpability, in terms of moral blameworthiness.
- 18:14Speaker 12: Oftentimes judges will look at a person's age, their development,
- 18:18Speaker 12: but also past criminal history. I'm not aware of any
- 18:21Speaker 12: criminal history for this gentleman.
- 18:22Speaker 1: We don't know because he's not from here. We don't
- 18:25Speaker 1: have his record. How do I know what his record
- 18:29Speaker 1: was from another country? He's from Hoan, Duras. How do
- 18:33Speaker 1: I know what he did there? He could have done anything,
- 18:36Speaker 1: I hear you.
- 18:36Speaker 12: And it's a problem when it comes to enforcing the
- 18:38Speaker 12: laws and sort of the influx of migrants recently, because
- 18:42Speaker 12: we can't exactly tell what is in their background and
- 18:45Speaker 12: whether there are any there is any prior criminality, any
- 18:48Speaker 12: prior substance issues. Certainly the defense attorney will look into that.
- 18:51Speaker 3: They may hire a mitigation.
- 18:52Speaker 12: Specialist, conduct a full sort of psychological evaluation and present
- 18:57Speaker 12: that to try and lessen the sentence for for this general.
- 19:00Speaker 1: A psychological evaluation to tell me, while these two teams.
- 19:05Speaker 3: Are dead, why they are dead?
- 19:08Speaker 1: Can you imagine what they experience in the middle of
- 19:11Speaker 1: the night, probably trying to come home from fishing, and
- 19:17Speaker 1: they see in the dark this guy drunk coming at
- 19:22Speaker 1: them in.
- 19:22Speaker 3: The wrong lane. It's one am.
- 19:25Speaker 1: He tries ryland tries to maneuver away, and then this
- 19:30Speaker 1: guy maneuvers at the same time too late, and they crash.
- 19:35Speaker 1: And just to chop it all off, he doesn't have
- 19:38Speaker 1: a license, he is not wearing a seat belt, and
- 19:41Speaker 1: he lives.
- 19:43Speaker 3: Where is the justice in that? There is an absence
- 19:47Speaker 3: of justice.
- 19:48Speaker 12: And it's bizarred that sometimes we see in these drunk
- 19:50Speaker 12: driving cases where the driver, the drunk driver lives. I've
- 19:53Speaker 12: heard speculation that it's because they don't brace for the
- 19:56Speaker 12: impact and somehow that they turn out better off than
- 20:00Speaker 12: the individuals who were doing nothing wrong and turn out
- 20:03Speaker 12: to be victims in a horrible tragedy like this.
- 20:05Speaker 1: You know what, Eric Fattus, I got to hand it
- 20:08Speaker 1: to you, I really do. I don't agree with anything
- 20:11Speaker 1: that you're saying. Is just like Satan himself spat it
- 20:13Speaker 1: out on the air, but.
- 20:16Speaker 3: You never give up. I knock you down one theory
- 20:20Speaker 3: after the next.
- 20:20Speaker 1: His brain's not formed, really, then, how did he know
- 20:24Speaker 1: how to order drinks? How did he know to get
- 20:27Speaker 1: to his car crank it up? How did he get here?
- 20:30Speaker 1: His brain is formed? He managed to make his way here,
- 20:33Speaker 1: all the way from the Honduras.
- 20:35Speaker 3: Okay, so his brain is formed.
- 20:38Speaker 1: Then you're telling me he needs a psychological evaluation.
- 20:41Speaker 3: I mean, I do have to hand it to you.
- 20:43Speaker 1: You do never give up and no matter what I
- 20:47Speaker 1: throw at you, And I guess that's kind of lawyer
- 20:50Speaker 1: this guy will need. I'm trying to understand something about
- 20:56Speaker 1: what happened to these two teams. No license, not wearing
- 21:00Speaker 1: seat belt. Doctor Jen Gorniac is joining me, renowned medical
- 21:05Speaker 1: examiner formerly with Clark County Office of the Coroner. Never
- 21:10Speaker 1: like a business in Vegas, Doctor Gorniac at World Peace
- 21:14Speaker 1: Forendsic Consulting. What does that mean? Because it can't be
- 21:18Speaker 1: just anecdotal. And when I say anecdotal, I mean anecdotes stories.
- 21:24Speaker 1: It can't be just stories because I hear it over
- 21:26Speaker 1: and over and over and over that the perp who
- 21:31Speaker 1: is completely drunk, stinking drunk had to have what did
- 21:38Speaker 1: I say, Jackie eight or ten drinks before he got
- 21:41Speaker 1: behind the wheel, hard liquor drinks. How is it that
- 21:45Speaker 1: I keep hearing the drunk person without a seat belt
- 21:48Speaker 1: lives and the two teams who are not drinking and
- 21:53Speaker 1: are in a seat belt they die.
- 21:55Speaker 7: It is I don't think anybody has that answer. And
- 21:58Speaker 7: you're absolutely right, You always here of the impaired driver
- 22:03Speaker 7: walking away and leaving victims behind. I'm not sure we
- 22:08Speaker 7: can always speculate on the fact that as the victims,
- 22:13Speaker 7: as we're driving and we see it, we try and
- 22:16Speaker 7: we have the wherewithal to try to avoid any collision,
- 22:20Speaker 7: and the impaired driver just reacts, you know what I mean,
- 22:25Speaker 7: and unfortunately doesn't react properly.
- 22:29Speaker 3: Doctor gorneyact.
- 22:30Speaker 1: There's got to be something to it that the drunk
- 22:34Speaker 1: driver is not bracing for impact, because I hear lawyers,
- 22:41Speaker 1: medical examiners say it over and over that they're so
- 22:45Speaker 1: drunk they kind of go with the collision. I don't
- 22:49Speaker 1: understand how that works, but I've heard that explanation. We
- 22:53Speaker 1: just heard it from Status. He's not the first one
- 22:56Speaker 1: to say it, and maybe there's some truth to it.
- 22:58Speaker 7: I also think, well, especially at that level of a
- 23:01Speaker 7: point one four, your judgment and your perception are going
- 23:04Speaker 7: to be affected. So you know, Riley was trying to
- 23:08Speaker 7: Rylan was trying to move out of the way, right,
- 23:13Speaker 7: judgment perception intact, compared to someone who's impaired or you know, intoxicated,
- 23:19Speaker 7: legally drunk. His response was to go back into the
- 23:26Speaker 7: same lane and even though that car is still coming
- 23:29Speaker 7: instead of going the opposite way. And I think it's
- 23:32Speaker 7: because of the effect of the alcohol. You know, your
- 23:36Speaker 7: perception and judgment is also impaired.
- 23:39Speaker 2: The two teens riding in the backseat of the car
- 23:42Speaker 2: suffered major injuries but are in stable condition, while te
- 23:47Speaker 2: Leah died at the scene and Ryland shortly after at
- 23:51Speaker 2: the hospital.
- 23:52Speaker 1: And then Mom has woken up in the middle of
- 23:54Speaker 1: the night with a shrimper to tell her hur tane
- 23:58Speaker 1: girl with her life in front of her is dead
- 24:01Speaker 1: thanks to a drunk driver. A drunk undocumented alien driver,
- 24:08Speaker 1: an illegal immigrant from the hung durists seven times over
- 24:13Speaker 1: the legal limit, no license, no seatbelt, nothing, just a
- 24:19Speaker 1: car full a drunk driving Back to Devin Dean joining
- 24:23Speaker 1: me in joining us from Homer, Louisiana. This is Talia
- 24:28Speaker 1: Cruchet's mother, Devin. When you hear all of these arguments,
- 24:33Speaker 1: his brain, the defendant's brain, had informed he needs psychological.
- 24:38Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. All I keep thinking about is hearing you.
- 24:44Speaker 1: It sounded like your heart was actually breaking when you
- 24:47Speaker 1: said it's really over.
- 24:50Speaker 3: They're gone.
- 24:51Speaker 5: Yeah, it still is.
- 24:53Speaker 6: Honestly, Nancy, I say so busy making sure all the
- 24:55Speaker 6: kids are taken care of. We've passed some of his
- 24:59Speaker 6: friends that have spent time with us in the last week,
- 25:02Speaker 6: other ones and their parents reaching out to us constantly.
- 25:05Speaker 6: I don't I've just I've just stayed so busy. I
- 25:08Speaker 6: don't even know if I'm fully accepting or going through
- 25:12Speaker 6: the grief. Ya to be honest with you, because I'm
- 25:13Speaker 6: so concerned about all the kids. Rylan's sister here, Madison,
- 25:18Speaker 6: his family in Texas, my thirteen year old, and like
- 25:21Speaker 6: I said, my twenty four year old is she's pregnant,
- 25:23Speaker 6: So I mean this is extremely stress was.
- 25:26Speaker 5: Time for her.
- 25:28Speaker 6: Honestly, I've just been holding it together and making sure
- 25:30Speaker 6: they're all taken care of right now.
- 25:31Speaker 5: I think it's what's keeping me going.
- 25:34Speaker 6: But I'm so broken every time I think that my
- 25:36Speaker 6: baby girl is just really not here and not coming home. Honestly,
- 25:39Speaker 6: it's just it's something no one can ever understand. And
- 25:41Speaker 6: people say this, but until you experience it.
- 25:44Speaker 5: You will never understand.
- 25:46Speaker 6: Tealiah was such a sweet person and she always like
- 25:49Speaker 6: she was the one I said.
- 25:50Speaker 5: I always joke and say she.
- 25:51Speaker 6: Kept us on our toes because she did so and
- 25:55Speaker 6: one of the day that she passed. The first thing
- 25:56Speaker 6: I said was, what are we gonna do? Like I
- 25:58Speaker 6: told my boyfriend, what are we gonna do now? We
- 26:00Speaker 6: don't have her? We all just you know, we're always
- 26:03Speaker 6: so involved with her, with everything, and now she's just gone.
- 26:06Speaker 1: Joining us an all star panel to make sense of
- 26:08Speaker 1: what we are hearing to Sunny Wall joining us executive
- 26:13Speaker 1: director of Mad Mothers Against Drunk Driving Louisiana.
- 26:17Speaker 3: How do you deal with.
- 26:19Speaker 1: Moms dads that have to endure the loss of their
- 26:23Speaker 1: children to a drunk driver, in this case, seven times
- 26:27Speaker 1: over the legal limit.
- 26:29Speaker 11: It's absolutely one of the most horrific things that anyone
- 26:32Speaker 11: can experience in their lives. We are a victim's first
- 26:37Speaker 11: organization and we have victim advocates that reach out after
- 26:42Speaker 11: a certain amount of time to offer services at no
- 26:46Speaker 11: cost to them to make sure that our justice system
- 26:50Speaker 11: does its job, and you know, explain to them how
- 26:54Speaker 11: no one is given a book, Nancy, on what to
- 26:58Speaker 11: do when this happens. We're not handed. This is a
- 27:02Speaker 11: club no one wants to join, and with good reason.
- 27:04Speaker 11: It's absolutely heart wrenching and we are devastated for all
- 27:09Speaker 11: that's happened, and we are here for the victims. First, victims,
- 27:12Speaker 11: family First. It's just heart wrenching. There is no sense
- 27:17Speaker 11: to it, and you're right, but you said earlier, this
- 27:19Speaker 11: is not an accident. An accident is something without intent.
- 27:23Speaker 11: But when you become impaired and get behind the wheel,
- 27:27Speaker 11: you're driving a two ton weapon and that's a choice.
- 27:30Speaker 11: It's a senseless, one hundred percent preventable crime, and we
- 27:34Speaker 11: need to stop it.
- 27:35Speaker 3: Listen.
- 27:35Speaker 13: Actual Flora's Cordoza is immediately arrested on several traffic charges
- 27:39Speaker 13: and DWI. During this processing, Louisiana Say police determined Flora's
- 27:43Speaker 13: Cordoza is not a US citizen and came to the
- 27:46Speaker 13: country illegally from his native Honduras. As cops learned the
- 27:49Speaker 13: status of his victims that Tleah Crochet and Ryan on
- 27:51Speaker 13: Cal have passed away, Flora's Cordoza is additionally charged with
- 27:55Speaker 13: two counts of duivehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular
- 27:58Speaker 13: negligence injuring.
- 28:00Speaker 3: More do we learn Listen?
- 28:02Speaker 10: The jeep Cherokey is only occupied by driver Axel Flores Cordoza,
- 28:06Speaker 10: who's found completely unharmed despite not wearing a seat belt.
- 28:09Speaker 10: Flores Cordoza eighteen, is unlicensed, has open alcohol in his
- 28:13Speaker 10: cup holder, and is clearly drunk. The team voluntarily submits
- 28:17Speaker 10: to a breath test. The results in a BAC just
- 28:20Speaker 10: under point one four, equivalent to seven times the point
- 28:23Speaker 10: zero two legal limit for drivers under twenty one and
- 28:26Speaker 10: nearly twice the limit for drivers of legal drinking age.
- 28:29Speaker 1: To Eric Fattis, you have handled so many dui Vehicular
- 28:34Speaker 1: homicides is what they're called. I really don't think that
- 28:38Speaker 1: they should be distinguished from malice murder. Vehicular homicides are
- 28:44Speaker 1: equivalent to a manslaughter, where you don't have the requisite requisite.
- 28:48Speaker 3: Intent to commit a crime.
- 28:52Speaker 1: I disagree, because every time you take a drink, in
- 28:55Speaker 1: this case seven to eight alcoholic drinks, hard alcohol, every drink,
- 29:02Speaker 1: every swallow, was a decision, and it's a decision to
- 29:06Speaker 1: drive after drinking. To me, you know, of course, the
- 29:10Speaker 1: law is very clear. Intent to commit a crime can
- 29:14Speaker 1: be either express or not implicit. Explicit or implicit explicit.
- 29:23Speaker 1: That's when I say, Eric.
- 29:24Speaker 3: Fattis, I've had it and I shoot you in the head.
- 29:27Speaker 1: I'm killing you, man. That's explicitly stated. Implicit means the
- 29:33Speaker 1: law determines you intended the act based on your actions
- 29:40Speaker 1: what you did, and that is the case here. There
- 29:44Speaker 1: is explicit evidence he meant to drink and drive with
- 29:49Speaker 1: the consequence death.
- 29:51Speaker 12: I hear you, and it's a fair point. I think
- 29:53Speaker 12: what the law it makes a distinguished a distinction on
- 29:56Speaker 12: is you know, the intent to really take a life
- 29:59Speaker 12: is different than than just being reckless and knowingly disregarding
- 30:03Speaker 12: a substantial risk that ends in tragedy. Unfortunately, they both
- 30:07Speaker 12: have the same outcome. And a lot of people think
- 30:10Speaker 12: that that point matters substantially, and I understand that. But
- 30:13Speaker 12: when we're looking at the choices the perpetrator made, the
- 30:17Speaker 12: law would say that the choice to try and intentionally
- 30:21Speaker 12: take someone's life is different than being reckless than taking
- 30:24Speaker 12: a risk.
- 30:25Speaker 3: And we're talking about an.
- 30:26Speaker 12: Eighteen year old here, clearly a horrible decision, but I'm
- 30:29Speaker 12: not sure in his mind did he ever intend to
- 30:31Speaker 12: kill somebody. And I'm not sure that that intent would
- 30:34Speaker 12: be implicit in just making bad decisions.
- 30:36Speaker 3: I didn't mean to kill anybody.
- 30:38Speaker 1: How about if I take a gun and point it
- 30:40Speaker 1: at year head and pull the trigger and they.
- 30:43Speaker 3: Say, oops, I didn't mean to kill him. I just
- 30:45Speaker 3: meant to scare him.
- 30:47Speaker 12: You know, there's certainly a weapon involved, like the mad
- 30:50Speaker 12: director said, but it's just a different scenario. When a
- 30:54Speaker 12: person acts with this reckless disregard. Now that's not okay either,
- 30:59Speaker 12: But I think that our law and our legislators have
- 31:01Speaker 12: said that that choice is less culpable than someone who
- 31:05Speaker 12: really wants to steal another person's life. I just don't
- 31:09Speaker 12: have any evidence that this driver have that such intent,
- 31:12Speaker 12: although he did, of course act recklessly.
- 31:15Speaker 3: It has been.
- 31:22Speaker 2: It's really just over, like they're gone. A grieving mother
- 31:27Speaker 2: speaks out about the devastating loss of her daughter and
- 31:31Speaker 2: her daughter's boyfriend.
- 31:33Speaker 1: Te Lea and Ryan, both gone after an undocumented individual,
- 31:41Speaker 1: also known as an illegal immigrant from Honduras comes to
- 31:45Speaker 1: our country, gets seven times over the legal drink limit.
- 31:50Speaker 3: Drives on the wrong side.
- 31:51Speaker 1: Of the road in the dark, and mows into these
- 31:55Speaker 1: two beautiful teens now angels.
- 32:00Speaker 3: How did the whole thing start?
- 32:02Speaker 13: Listen to Leah crochet Is head over heels for Ryland
- 32:05Speaker 13: on Cow, the Louisiana eighteen year olds to meet just
- 32:08Speaker 13: after graduating from neighboring hl Bourgeois and Central Laforcee High schools,
- 32:12Speaker 13: they quickly become inseparable, to Lea even going with Ryland
- 32:15Speaker 13: to Heartland, Texas to spend several weeks with his family.
- 32:18Speaker 13: To Leah can't wait for Ryland to return to Raceland
- 32:20Speaker 13: after starting a new job with Gulf Logistics working as
- 32:23Speaker 13: a deckhand.
- 32:24Speaker 1: These two had just graduated from high school, all one
- 32:28Speaker 1: at the HL Bourgeois and one at Central Lafourche, and
- 32:35Speaker 1: they immediately fall in popul love.
- 32:39Speaker 9: Listen Ryland on Cow meets girlfriend to Leah Crochet and
- 32:42Speaker 9: two friends in Port Fortune, just after finishing his first
- 32:46Speaker 9: twenty eight day shift as a deckhand on an oil rig.
- 32:49Speaker 9: The teens enjoy a much needed night out together on
- 32:52Speaker 9: dry Land, then poland Ryland's Kia Rio to head back
- 32:56Speaker 9: to Raceland, taking Highway thirty ninety Inland from the Cost
- 33:00Speaker 9: on their.
- 33:00Speaker 3: Way home from fishing together that night.
- 33:04Speaker 10: This happens as Rylan drives through the one am darkness,
- 33:08Speaker 10: he spots a set of headlights coming towards him. As
- 33:10Speaker 10: the car gets closer, Rylan realizes the oncoming jeep is
- 33:14Speaker 10: driving in his lane. Rylan swerves into the left lane
- 33:17Speaker 10: to avoid the wrong way driver, but the jeep also
- 33:20Speaker 10: corrects back into the left lane and slams into the
- 33:23Speaker 10: teens head on, the front end.
- 33:25Speaker 1: Of the Kia is totally destroyed. Can you imagine what
- 33:31Speaker 1: happened to the driver and the passenger up front?
- 33:34Speaker 9: Listen, the front end of Ryland's Kia Rio is completely
- 33:37Speaker 9: carved in. First responders arrive within minutes, pulling the occupants
- 33:41Speaker 9: from the wreckage, but to Lea is already gone. Ryland
- 33:45Speaker 9: is rushed to a hospital, where he also dies of
- 33:48Speaker 9: his injuries. The couple's two friends riding in the backseat
- 33:51Speaker 9: also have serious injuries, but are stabilized at the hospital.
- 33:55Speaker 1: Right now, Medical examiner doctor Jane gorniack joining us. I
- 33:59Speaker 1: know you've handled a lot of the hicky or homicide cases.
- 34:03Speaker 1: Looking at the front of that car, that Kia Rio
- 34:09Speaker 1: is totally destroyed.
- 34:12Speaker 3: What do you make of the cause of death?
- 34:15Speaker 1: Could they have survived even for moments after impact?
- 34:20Speaker 3: What would they have endured?
- 34:22Speaker 7: Doctor Gorniac, Especially on that passenger side, you can see
- 34:26Speaker 7: the intrusion into the car. I would believe there are
- 34:31Speaker 7: I would say multiple blood force injuries, crush injuries, even
- 34:36Speaker 7: sometimes the seat belt. I don't know if you've ever
- 34:38Speaker 7: been in a car crash, and the seat belt tightens up.
- 34:42Speaker 7: That can cause some neck injuries. So I can assume
- 34:45Speaker 7: that you know she had neck injuries, chest injuries, crushing injuries,
- 34:51Speaker 7: especially too when you have al bags deploying, so then
- 34:54Speaker 7: you get pushed from both sides. Ryland probably the same thing.
- 35:00Speaker 7: Most likely you have the steering wheel that can cause
- 35:03Speaker 7: chest injuries, head injuries. You see, I'm not sure that
- 35:07Speaker 7: glass was probably a combination of the collision and the
- 35:13Speaker 7: firefighters using the quote unquote jaws of life to extricate them.
- 35:18Speaker 7: But it's a lot of compression, I would say compression,
- 35:21Speaker 7: so lung injuries, rib injuries, head injuries, neck injuries, so
- 35:26Speaker 7: just I mean a massive amount of injuries, especially being
- 35:33Speaker 7: pronounced dead at the scene.
- 35:35Speaker 2: The Onseene breath test revealed the driver's blood alcohol level
- 35:40Speaker 2: was seven times the legal limit for an underage driver.
- 35:46Speaker 1: Joining me is Talia's mother, Devin Dane joining us from Louisiana.
- 35:51Speaker 1: I just don't know how you had the strength to
- 35:56Speaker 1: go through the funeral.
- 35:58Speaker 3: How did you get through that?
- 36:00Speaker 6: Honestly, Nancy, the days leading up to the funeral, we
- 36:03Speaker 6: were so busy making sure that Rylan and Talia had
- 36:06Speaker 6: the most beautiful service and had the best of everything
- 36:08Speaker 6: that we could give them, and from there it's really
- 36:12Speaker 6: just been making sure all the other kids are okay.
- 36:16Speaker 5: I have my moments.
- 36:17Speaker 6: I break down a little bit here and there, but
- 36:19Speaker 6: for the most part, we're all staying very close knit,
- 36:21Speaker 6: and my daughters have been coming.
- 36:23Speaker 5: Over every day. Madison's been coming over every day. That's
- 36:25Speaker 5: Ryland's sister. We've all just been a unit and kind
- 36:28Speaker 5: of keeping each other's spirits up.
- 36:31Speaker 6: And right now it's working, but I know at some
- 36:33Speaker 6: point that that's not going to be able to continue,
- 36:34Speaker 6: and honestly, that's probably what I'm more scared of than anything.
- 36:38Speaker 1: What bits and pieces do you recall of the funeral.
- 36:42Speaker 5: Over I remember the entire thing. I was very alert
- 36:46Speaker 5: and aware.
- 36:47Speaker 6: Every time I would blink, someone else was grabbing me
- 36:50Speaker 6: and hugging me, and it felt like a million people.
- 36:53Speaker 5: To be honest, it felt like I was there for
- 36:56Speaker 5: ten hours versus four.
- 36:58Speaker 6: It was just crazy, the amount of the outpouring of
- 37:01Speaker 6: love that we had at that funeral and that service.
- 37:05Speaker 6: But girls, seeing all those children break down, kids their
- 37:08Speaker 6: age that should never have to see a friend of
- 37:10Speaker 6: theirs in a casket was absolutely the worst that was
- 37:15Speaker 6: the worst thing.
- 37:15Speaker 5: I was like me as a mom, my heart, my
- 37:17Speaker 5: mom heart is broken.
- 37:18Speaker 1: Devin, you sited that there were youngsters there that actually
- 37:23Speaker 1: saw to Leah in her casket. It was an open
- 37:28Speaker 1: casket funeral.
- 37:29Speaker 6: We were blessed enough that she did have extensive injuries
- 37:33Speaker 6: to the right side of her face where the car hit,
- 37:36Speaker 6: but the left side she was perfectly beautiful, so we
- 37:39Speaker 6: were able to fix her hair to where.
- 37:41Speaker 5: It covered half of her face and the other half.
- 37:44Speaker 4: Of her face was beautiful and looked just like her,
- 37:47Speaker 4: and Ry will look perfect.
- 37:50Speaker 1: I just don't know how you're putting one foot in
- 37:53Speaker 1: front of the other. What is your message to other parents?
- 38:00Speaker 6: First and foremost, my biggest thing was I was always
- 38:02Speaker 6: so careful with my kids.
- 38:04Speaker 5: I always told them, you know, this is what.
- 38:06Speaker 3: You need to do.
- 38:06Speaker 5: You need to be careful, watch this. It doesn't matter.
- 38:09Speaker 6: It genuinely doesn't matter, because no matter how careful they are,
- 38:13Speaker 6: when something like this happens, my.
- 38:15Speaker 5: Kids are gone and they did nothing wrong. They were
- 38:17Speaker 5: having a good afternoon out fishing. Don't drink and drive.
- 38:21Speaker 5: Teach your children, stop others from drinking and driving. Do
- 38:24Speaker 5: not get behind the wheel if you're intoxicated because this
- 38:27Speaker 5: is not worth it.
- 38:28Speaker 6: It's just not like there's nothing that they can measure
- 38:32Speaker 6: up to what this family is going through. And not
- 38:34Speaker 6: even just a family. This is rocked our Try Parish area.
- 38:39Speaker 6: Like the outpouring, like I said, of love is just unbelievable.
- 38:42Speaker 6: People crying daily, reaching out to me like it's so sad.
- 38:47Speaker 3: Guys.
- 38:48Speaker 1: The toll free tip number for Mad Mothers Against drunk
- 38:53Speaker 1: Driving eight seven seven Mad Help eight seven seven six ' two.
- 38:59Speaker 3: Three three four three five.
- 39:03Speaker 1: If we can even stop one dunk driving fatality, it's
- 39:09Speaker 1: all worth it. And our prayers go out to Devon
- 39:16Speaker 1: and the family of Ryland.
- 39:19Speaker 3: Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend,