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Vegas Sisters Lured Man for Sex Before Robbing, Killing Him · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Picture, just for a second, picture a really quintessential modern tragedy.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And it's playing out right on the glowing screen of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: a smartphone.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You have this 18-year-old guy and he's showing off just
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: absolute stacks of cash on his Instagram.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Which, I mean, we see that a thousand times a day, right?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah. It's just, you know, the visual language of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: success right now in the digital age. But then there's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: this flirtatious digital exchange. Okay. Like a promise to meet up.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: And it all just leads to this completely chaotic, brutal
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: encounter in a Las Vegas apartment parking lot that ends
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in murder.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And on the surface, the narrative feels, I don't know,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: completely binary. Like you see the cash, you take the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: bait and the trap just snaps shut.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Well, the human brain naturally wants to categorize an event
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: like this. Yeah. You know, as a very straightforward cause
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and effect.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: We crave that simplicity, like a cautionary tale where a
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: bad decision just intersects with bad intentions. and you get
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: this tragic but entirely predictable outcome.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But the moment you actually step into the timeline of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: what happened here, that neat little cautionary tale, just, it
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: shatters completely.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really does.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, we were looking at a sequence of events
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that is incredibly messy. It's this violent collision of digital deception,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: profound financial desperation, and honestly, just sheer unfiltered panic.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Absolute panic.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: So, welcome to The Deep Dive. Today, our mission for
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: you is to really untangle this incredibly complex web. We're
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: going to examine a botched robbery and the fascinating and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: frankly kind of terrifying legal maneuvers that follow in its wake.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Definitely. And we've got a whole stack of official police
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: reports guiding us today, along with some really brilliant, highly
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: technical expert commentary from former prosecutor Melba Pearson via the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Law and Crime Network.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: And, you know, the reason this case demands such a
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: deep analysis is because it serves as this flawless, albeit,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: you know, tragic case study of modern crime. We aren't
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: just analyzing the physical violence in that parking lot. We're
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: dissecting the weeks of digital footprints leading up to it,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: the psychological state of the perpetrators and how the justice
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: system actually attempts to untangle legal intent from just total chaos.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Right. So before we get completely bogged down in the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: intricacies of the timeline, I Um, let's just establish the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: key players involved here. Okay.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: You have Connor Rebello. He's the 18 year old victim.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And then you have the trio accused of his murder.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: That's 22 year old Nathan Nava, 23 year old Skylar
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Bailey and 20 year old Emily right out. Okay. And
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I am just immediately so intrigued by this case because it,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Perfectly illustrates that collision of, you know, our online personas
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and real world consequences.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Like we all live half our lives on these devices, right?
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: We project these images. We want the world to see.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: But this case shows exactly what happens when the screen
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: disappears and you're left facing the physical reality of the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: people you've been messaging.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: It's a really harsh reality check.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And the wildest part, the absolute wildest part of this
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: entire story is how their meticulously crafted plot unraveled in
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: record time. All because of a single, unbelievable misunderstanding involving
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: an unmarked police car.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Which is just wild to think about.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: It is. But to understand how they ended up in
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the back of a squad car, we kind of have
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: to look at how this teenager inadvertently placed this massive
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: target on his own back.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Right. And the origin of that target is entirely rooted
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: in his digital footprint.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Connor wasn't just, you know, some kid who happened to
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: come into some money and wanted to flex online. He
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: actually had a specific job. He refilled ATM machines.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And because of that occupation, he had access to
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: just massive amounts of institutional currency.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Right. Because he's handling ATM cash. We aren't talking about
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a guy holding up, you know, a few crumpled hundred
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: dollar bills.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: He was posting photos of large banded stacks of physical currency.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: And according to his manager, Connor claimed he was posting
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: this just to show how the money was packaged, like
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: essentially documenting the mechanics of his day to day job.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Which, I mean, you can kind of see the innocent
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: intent there, right?
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Sure. But to me, it's like walking through a shark
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: tank with chum in your pockets, you know? You might
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: just find the mechanics of the chum interesting, and you
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: might just be showing off how it's made. But to
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the sharks circling in the water, it is nothing but dinner.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: That's a perfect analogy.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Because the visual language of those posts is exactly what
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: makes them so dangerous.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: And his manager actually recognized that immediate peril. The manager
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: explicitly warned Connor, told him point blank, you need to
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: take those photos down.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Did he really?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Because the specific way that money was packed, the
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: institutional banding, the sheer volume, it made it glaringly obvious
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: that it was real liquid cash. It wasn't just a
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: prop for a music video. Right.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: It's undeniable.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The manager told him it made him a highly
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: visible target for a robbery. Because when you broadcast the
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: presence of untraceable cash to a public audience, you bypass
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: all the traditional barriers that usually protect financial assets.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: So the manager literally saw their writing on the wall.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, the pictures either stayed up or
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the digital damage was already permanently done.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the internet is forever, as they say. Exactly.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Those images functioned as a beacon. And that is what
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: brings us to the bait. Because Connor starts messaging a
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: girl named Emily on Instagram.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: And from his perspective, he's just engaging in a very
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: normal digital courtship. He thinks he's talking to a girl,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: setting up a casual hookup. But the timeline of this
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: digital dance, it reveals a really highly calculated manipulation.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: The timeline is honestly perhaps the most chilling aspect of
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: the whole setup.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Because this was not a spontaneous crime of opportunity, you know.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like they saw a kid with cash and
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: just grabbed him on the street. Right.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: It was planned.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Very planned. They actually had a date scheduled for July 16th.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: But Emily canceled.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: So they're essentially testing his responsiveness, right? Like keeping him
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: engaged while maintaining total control of the interaction. Because then
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: they reschedule for July 18th, which is the day before
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the murder. And again, Emily cancels. And this time she
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: feeds him an excuse about getting a flat tire.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: And psychologically speaking, this back and forth, it builds this
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: sunk cost fallacy in the victim.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, interesting.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's invested time and anticipation into this meeting. So
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: By pulling back and, you know, manufacturing these delays, the
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: perpetrators ensure that when the meeting finally does happen, the
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: victim is super eager and perhaps a lot less cautious
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: than he might normally be. It's a very deliberate tactic
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: to lower his defenses.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: That is so dark. So they finally reschedule for July 19th,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: which brings us to the horrific events of that evening. Right.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: It's shortly before 8 p.m. at a Las Vegas apartment complex.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: It's the middle of summer, so the sun is likely
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: just starting to dip, you know, casting those long shadows
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: across the parking lot.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, classic Vegas summer evening.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And we know the exact sequence of events because
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: an apartment resident was actually looking out her open window,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and she became this crucial eyewitness.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: And her eyewitness account provides the really unvarnished reality of
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the ambush. She states that she saw Connor walking through
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: the complex with a woman. Okay. And then suddenly... Three
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: men just run up and swarm the 18 year old.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: They don't just confront him, though, right? Like they violently
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: jump him.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: All three men are beating him simultaneously. And the witness
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: notes that one of the men has a gun and
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: he doesn't just use it for intimidation, like to demand
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the cash. He uses the weapon as a blunt instrument.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's brutal.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: He's pistol whipping Connor several times in the head while
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the other two are striking him. And the woman who
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: lured him there, what is she doing?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Well, according to the witness, the woman stood nearby and
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: did absolutely nothing.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Nothing at all.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Nothing. She didn't attempt to defuse the violence. She didn't
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: call for help. She simply observed the brutal beating of
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the person she had literally lured to that exact spot.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: That is just ice cold.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: It really is. It was only when the situation escalated
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: to actual gunfire that she finally fled the scene.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because the man who was pistol-whipping Connor, he ultimately
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: shoots him two to three times. And when law enforcement
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: arise on the scene, they find this tragic, chaotic tableau.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Connor is unresponsive on the pavement with a fatal gunshot
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: wound to the head.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Just awful.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: But the detail that fundamentally shifts our entire understanding of
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: this crime scene is what they found in Connor's hand.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Right. This changes everything.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: He was holding his own gun and his finger was
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: still resting on the trigger.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Finding the victim armed. Completely recontextualizes the violence. It moves
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: the event from this one-sided mugging into a highly volatile
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: two-way armed confrontation. Yeah. And this details exactly what former
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: prosecutor Melva Pearson focused on when she was analyzing how
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: these supposed, you know, simple robberies devolve into homicides.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because you bring a gun to a robbery,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: you are voluntarily introducing the highest possible stakes into a
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: wildly unpredictable environment. Like, I assume these perpetrators expected total compliance.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: They probably thought, you know, they would flash a weapon,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the terrified kid would hand over the ATM cash, and
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: they would just vanish into the Las Vegas night.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: But the flaw in their plan is the same flaw
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: present in almost every single armed robbery.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: What's that?
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Criminals who plan these ambushes, they rarely account for the
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: human variables.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: They fail to factor in the adrenaline surging through their
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: own nervous systems, which completely destroys fine motor skills and
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: rational thought.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: And they don't account for the victim freezing in terror,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: which robbers often misinterpret as defiance or, you know, stalling.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, I hadn't thought about that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And most critically, in this specific case, they never
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: account for the possibility. that the victim will fight back
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: with lethal force.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: When the perpetrators lose control of that script they wrote
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: in their heads, panic takes over and the trigger gets pulled.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: That sudden lethal resistance from Connor, it just shattered their
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: entire plan. It turned a calculated robbery into a chaotic
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: scramble for survival. Like they didn't expect him to be armed.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And that unexpected variable just sent them into a blind panic.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: And that sheer unfiltered panic is exactly what drove them
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: right into the lap of law enforcement in this almost
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: comical twist of fate.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: It's honestly unbelievable. The immediate aftermath of the shooting is
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: like a masterclass. in how the cognitive load of a
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: high-stress event severely impairs your judgment. Because after the shots
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: swing out, the suspects scatter, right? And the police dispatch
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: immediately broadcasts their physical descriptions over the radio.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: And by pure coincidence, a plainclothes Las Vegas Metro PD
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: detective is driving through that exact apartment complex in an
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: unmarked police vehicle.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Just rolling through. And her situational awareness is clearly off
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the charts because she's just navigating the parking lot and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: she notices a car behind her mimicking her exact path
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: through the winding complex. And as she observes this, she
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: spots a woman and two men hurriedly exiting the complex
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: on foot. And these three individuals perfectly match the clothing
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and physical descriptions of the suspects that dispatch just broadcasted.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Right, so they're fleeing a murder scene. Their adrenaline is
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: absolutely peaking, and their sole focus is on escaping the
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: immediate area. Yeah. And this is where their impaired judgment
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: leads to a fatal... Irreversible error.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: I still can't get over this part.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I know. They see the detective's unmarked car rolling slowly
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: through the complex, and their brains leap to the most
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: convenient conclusions. They genuinely believe the undercover detective is their
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: rideshare getaway driver.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: It is genuinely hard to fathom. I mean, you have
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: just committed a murder, you are fleeing for your life,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and you start frantically waving down an undercover police detective,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: trying to flag her down to act as your personal
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: chauffeur away from the crime scene. It's insane.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: It speaks to the extreme tunnel vision that occurs during
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: a flight response. Yeah, they aren't assessing the make and
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: model of the car critically. They aren't looking for, you know,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: police antennas or anything like that. They're just looking for
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: a vehicle to match the general description of whatever they
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: ordered on an app. Right. So they just projected their
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: desperate need for an escape vehicle onto the very first
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: car they saw.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: And the detective, recognizing exactly what is happening, she plays
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: it perfectly.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: She really does.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: She realizes they think she's their Uber or Lyft, and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: she doesn't slam on the brakes. She doesn't jump out
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: with her badge. She doesn't spook them.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Which takes incredible restraint. Definitely.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: She simply keeps driving. maintains her cover, and watches in
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: her rearview mirror. And she observes the group realize their
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: mistake as the actual getaway car, the one that had
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: been tailing the detective, pulls up.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: And the suspects pile into that car.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: But because the detective maintained her tactical patience, she now
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: has the suspects contained in a moving vehicle. Right. She
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: simply coordinates with marked police units to execute a felony
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: traffic stop on that specific car Just outside the complex,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: they detain the occupants, which include 22-year-old Nathan Nava, a
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: relative of his who was driving, and 23-year-old Skylar Bailey.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, within mere minutes of a fatal shooting,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the perpetrators are sitting in police custody.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Minutes. It's crazy.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: The speed of that apprehension is just staggering. And this
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: is where the initial interrogations begin. And it gives us
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: a front row seat to the really flimsy, desperate alibis
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: they attempt to spin.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, the alibis or something else.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Let's look at the narrative Nathan tries to sell the
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: detectives first. He's sitting in the interrogation room and he
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: claims that he and Skylar, who, by the way, is
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the mother of his child, were just innocently hanging out
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: at a friend's place in that very same apartment complex.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Right. Which is the most common default lie in the
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: criminal playbook.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Is it really? Oh, yeah.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Acknowledging presence at the scene while entirely denying any actual participation.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Right. So he says they're just hanging out and suddenly
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Connor Abello just happens to show up.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Just a total coincidence.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Right. And then, according to Nathan, two completely unnamed random
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: men at the apartment decide out of nowhere that Connor
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: owes them money and they are going to rob him. Wow.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Nathan looks the detectives dead in the eye and says
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: he wanted no part of this spontaneous plan. He claims
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: he just stood there and watched these two mysterious strangers
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: jump Connor, and he asserts he never even saw a
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: gun during the entire altercation. And he caps off the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: story by saying once the fight started, he simply asked
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: his relative to send a ride share to get him
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and Skyler out of the dangerous situation.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Ah, the mysterious strangers defense. It's an attempt to fit
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: the undeniable facts, you know, that witnesses saw multiple people.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: And that Nathan was caught fleeing the immediate area into
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: this sanitized narrative where he's nothing more than an unfortunate bystander.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And Skylar's story is somehow even more disjointed.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: What did she say?
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: She claims she met Connor a month prior at a party.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: And she tells police she was just taking a casual
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: walk with him through the complex when completely out of
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the blue, random men ran up and jumped him.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Just random men again.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Exactly. I always struggle with the psychology of this moment
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: in the interrogation room, though. Like, why do suspects invent
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: these incredibly elaborate, easily disprovable alibis on the spot?
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Right. Why not just ask for a lawyer?
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Exactly. They have to know they are covered in physical evidence.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Their adrenaline is crashing. They know there are cameras everywhere.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: They know their cell phones are in police custody. So
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: why weave this tangled web of verifiable lies instead of
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: just invoking their right to an attorney?
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Well, this raises a really important question about the cognitive
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: state of a suspect. transitioning from the chaos of a
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: crime scene to the, you know, sterile environment of an
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: interrogation room. Okay. When individuals are caught abruptly, their immediate
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: psychological imperative is to just talk their way out of
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: the current discomfort.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Like they can just explain it away.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Right. They suffer from what psychologists actually call a superiority illusion.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Despite sitting there in handcuffs, a 22-year-old genuinely believes they
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: possess the cunning to outsmart a seasoned detective with 20
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: years of experience.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: That's wild.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: They drastically underestimate the investigative process, the forensic technology available
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: to law enforcement, and honestly, the sheer volume of digital
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: exhaust they leave behind in their daily lives. Right. They
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: operate under this delusion that if they can just string
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: together a plausible founding sequence of events, the police will just,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: you know, apologize for the inconvenience and let them walk
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: out the door.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: It is a staggering cocktail of arrogance and profound desperation.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Because those verbal lies, they spun in the back of
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the squad car and the interrogation room. They were instantly
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: incinerated by the digital truth hidden in their own pockets.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: The physical crime scene gave the police the bodies, but
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the suspect's cell phones handed the detectives an absolute treasure
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: trove of digital evidence.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: And that pivot from the physical evidence to the digital forensics?
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: That is where the structural integrity of their conspiracy completely collapses.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, totally.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: The detectives didn't waste time arguing with Nathan and Skylar
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: about their random stranger story. They went right to work
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: building the timeline. They interviewed Connor's mother and his girlfriend.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: And both the mother and the girlfriend corroborate the exact
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: same detail. Connor received a text message that night, announced
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: he's meeting a friend, and promised he would be back
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: home in half an hour. Right.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: And then the detectives interview Connor's coworker, And the co-worker
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: holds the missing piece of the puzzle.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, the co-worker knew.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: He informs the police that Connor had been actively messaging
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: a girl on Instagram named Emily and was planning to
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: hook up with her. And this provides law enforcement with
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: the context of the canceled dates on July 16th and
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: July 18th.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: So armed with that specific name and the timeline of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the digital courtship, the police execute search warrants on the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: confiscated cell phones belonging to Connor, Nathan, and Skylar.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: And the digital forensics unit quickly realizes that the Emily
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: from Instagram isn't a random local girl. It is 20-year-old
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Emily Rideout. And Emily Rideout is Skylar Bailey's younger sister.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Wow. And that familial link, it ties the entire conspiracy together.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: You have Skylar, this 23-year-old mother of Nathan's child, weaponizing
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: her 20-year-old sister's image as the digital bait to lure
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: the victim into a trap set by her partner.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, we have to unpack this because when the police
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: start extracting the message histories between the sisters, they don't
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: just find the logistical setup for a robbery.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: What else do they find?
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: They uncover the raw underlying catalyst for the entire tragedy. Severe,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: immediate financial desperation. Because the texts reveal that Skylar and
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Nathan had been formally evicted from their home along with
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: their children on July 2nd.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Ah, okay. And that specific date, July 2nd, serves as
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: the anchor point for the prosecution's timeline.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The eviction creates a sudden acute need for money.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: The pressures of housing insecurity and providing for children act
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: as the psychological trigger. And on that exact same day,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: July 2nd, the text messages regarding Conor Robelo begin.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: The anatomy of this conspiracy is documented in their own words,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and reading the transcript of these texts is genuinely chilling.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: I can imagine.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: On July 2nd, the day of the eviction... Emily texts
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: her older sister Skylar, okay, already done, like I unfollowed
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: you and removed you. She is explicitly discussing scrubbing their
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: digital connection on Instagram, so Connor won't be able to
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: deduce they're related if he does any digging.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: It demonstrates active concealment and premeditation from the very first day.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: They are architecting a false reality for the victim.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Then Skylar replies that Connor blocked her on his account.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: And Emily sends a screenshot of her ongoing conversation with
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Connor to Skylar, adding the caption, only for y'all.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: And Skylar's response is honestly the smoking gun of the conspiracy.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: She replies, we win, you win.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, that phrase, we win, you win, is devastating from
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: a legal perspective.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: It clearly implies a shared criminal enterprise. It's a joint
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: venture where the financial spoils of the impending crime will
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: be distributed among the participants.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: It legally establishes that Emily wasn't just blindly following her
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: older sister's instructions without understanding the context. She fully understood
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: there was a tangible payoff for her participation in the scheme.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: We even see the target selection process happening in real
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: time over text. Emily asks Skylar, how you know he
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: even going to have the money on him? And Skylar
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: replies with absolute certainty, he likes to look flashy and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: show off.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Which circles directly back to his Instagram feed. The trap
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: was engineered entirely based on his digital persona. They profiled
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: him based on his social media activity, assessing him as
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: this high value, low risk target because of his penchant
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: for displaying ATM cash.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: And the most manipulative part is that Emily wasn't even
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the primary person seducing him.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Wait, really?
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The digital forensics discovered that from July 2nd to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: July 16th, Skylar was essentially ghostwriting the entire flirtation. There
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: were instances where Skylar literally typed out the exact messages
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: for her younger sister to copy and paste to Connor.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: That is wild.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: And then, on the day of the murder, Skylar texts
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Emily and tells her to stop replying to him altogether,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: explaining that she, Skylar, is going to take over the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: communication and text him directly from a different, untraceable number
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to coordinate the final meetup.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: The level of calculation is just astounding.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Skylar is managing the entire operation from behind a screen,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: meticulously puppeteering the interaction... to ensure the victim feels comfortable
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: enough to arrive at the designated ambush location. She's acting
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: as the director of the crime.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: It is as if they drafted a detailed screenplay of
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: their own felony, documented every single stage of pre-production, and
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: then just handed the finalized script directly to the homicide detectives.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: The digital hate portrayal is just mind-blowing in its thoroughness.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the coordination between the sisters. The
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: extracted text between Skylar and Nathan reveal even darker context
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: regarding their intentions.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: And those specific messages reveal a historical pattern of behavior
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: and escalating criminal intent. The police actually uncovered messages suggesting
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Nathan had an established history of robbing people dating back
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: to 2023. At one point in the text logs, Nathan
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: messages Schuyler. I promise this month over. I'm going hard baby,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: no more robbing.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: No more robbing. Like, he discusses armed robbery the way
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: someone talks about putting in overtime at a warehouse job
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: they hate.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: It's treated like this temporary, unpleasant gig he just has
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: to endure for a little while longer until they get
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: back on their feet.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: It's terrifying.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: And then you look at the text from July 16th,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: which is three days prior to the murder, the date
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of that first canceled meetup. Nathan texts Skylar to check
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the status of the trap, asking, is he talking to you?
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: And Skylar replies, He's checking his messages as well as
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: I love you too, my stomach and knots.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: My stomach and knots. That physical manifestation of anxiety signifies
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: she knew exactly what was about to transpire.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it proves it.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: It proves she understood the gravity, the violence, and the
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: inherent danger of the situation they were orchestrating. This wasn't
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: a misunderstanding about a casual hangout, you know. It was
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: a high-stakes felony. And her physiological reaction, documented in text,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: proves her awareness of that fact.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And the evidence of premeditation becomes undeniable the day before
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the murder.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: What happened then?
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: On July 18th, Nathan and Skylar are actively texting each other,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: discussing who they could borrow a gun from.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: They are sourcing the murder weapon via text message.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Of course they are.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Then, on the actual day of the murder, Skylar texts
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Nathan the exact address of the Las Vegas apartment complex
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: where Connor was ultimately ambushed and killed.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Furthermore, we have to examine the text Nathan sent to
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: a contact saved in his phone Under the moniker Spaz Out. Oh, right.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Nathan messages this noodle. Bro, can you grab C already?
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: And he's trying to link and everything, bro. And he
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: immediately follows it up with another text stating he just
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: came back from the casino and he got bread. Though, bro,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: he just came back from the casino.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: They truly believe they had hit the jackpot. Like they
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: thought Connor had casino winnings on top of his usual
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: ATM cash.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: They were practically salivating over this perceived payday, and the
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: police are still actively investigating the identity of Spaz out,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: but the working theory is that it's one of the
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: other men who conspired to rob Connor and physically participated
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: in the beating in the parking lot.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: When you evaluate this entirely from a prosecutorial standpoint, Melba
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Pearson describes this text history as a treasure trove.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: It is vital to understand the mechanics of why digital
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: evidence is so devastating in a courtroom setting.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Because unlike witness testimony, which can be impeached or confused,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: digital evidence completely obliterates any wrong place, wrong time defense
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: a lawyer might attempt to mount.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Because it provides immutable proof of intent.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Precisely that. It establishes undeniable timestamp premeditation spanning over two
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: full weeks. So when a defense attorney stands up in
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: front of a jury and tries to argue that Schuyler
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: and Nathan were just innocent bystanders who happened to be
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: hanging out in the complex... The prosecutor will simply project
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: that text on a massive screen. We win, you win.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Game over.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When the defense tries to argue they didn't know
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: violence was going to occur, the prosecutor shows the jury
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: the text. Who can we borrow a gun from? The
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: digital evidence systematically removes the concept of reasonable doubt regarding
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: their intentions.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: That transition from gathering evidence to weaponizing it in the
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: courtroom brings us right into the legal labyrinth of this case.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this gets complicated.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Because all three individuals, Nathan, Skylar and Emily, were arrested
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: and charged with battery, with the intent to commit robbery,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: conspiracy to commit robbery and open murder. So let's break
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: down what this actually means for them legally. Let's start
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: with Emily, the 20-year-old sister. She acted as the digital bait.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: She didn't pull the trigger. She didn't physically pistol whip him.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Can her defense attorney argue that Listen, my client just
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: set up a date on Instagram so her sister could
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: steal his wallet. She never signed up for a homicide.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Well, that argument strikes at the very heart of the
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: felony murder rule.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Melba Pearson explained the mechanics of this legal culpability brilliantly.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: In the eyes of the law, if you enter into
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: a legal agreement to commit a dangerous felony, like an
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: armed robbery, you are inherently assuming the risk of absolutely everything.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: anything that happens during the commission of that felony.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: So if you participate in planning a robbery and a
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: life is taken during that robbery, you bought the ticket,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: so you have to take the ride.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: That is the legal reality.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Even if Emily, acting as the bait, only explicitly agreed
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: to a robbery, the fact that a death resulted during
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: the execution of that felony puts her on the hook
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: for homicide just as much as the individual whose finger
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: pulled the trigger. Under the doctrine of principal liability, she
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: is considered a principal to the murder. The law simply
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: does not allow you to separate the lethal outcome from
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: your initial felonious intent.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: That is a heavy legal burden to carry. But the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: charge that truly fascinates me here is open murder. Right.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: The Nevada statute.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Yes. It's specific to Nevada and it drastically changes the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: landscape of the trial. Because in most jurisdictions, a prosecutor
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: has to look at the evidence before the trial and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: make a hard, definitive choice. They have to plant their
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: flag and say, we are charging you with first-degree murder.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: And if they fail to prove the specific element of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: premeditation to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: could actually walk free, unless the prosecution also specifically requested
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: lesser included offenses.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: And historically, prosecutors in those jurisdictions face an incredible burden. Yeah.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: They must pin their entire case... to a specific degree
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: of murder right out of the gate, which risks a
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: hung jury or an acquittal if the jury believes a
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: murder occurred but disagrees on a specific intent level.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: But Nevada's open murder statute completely upends that traditional structure.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Can we dive deeply into how this unique legal framework
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: actually functions in the courtroom?
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. If we connect this to the bigger picture
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: of criminal justice, what open murder does is is allow
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: the prosecutor to bring the general charge of murder to
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: the jury without having to legally specify the degree at
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the trial.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's interesting.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: It leaves the ultimate classification entirely up to the jury
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: after they have heard all the evidence.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: So the jury can review the two weeks of text messages,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: the sourcing of the gun, and conclude this was meticulously planned.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: This is first-degree premeditated murder.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Alternatively, they might look at the chaotic nature of the
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: parking lot ambush... factor in the victim pulling his own weapon,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: and decide they only intended a robbery, the shooting was
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: a reckless spontaneous escalation, so this is second degree murder. Or, theoretically,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: they could even step it down to manslaughter.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: So instead of the prosecutor bringing a single highly specific
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: item to the checkout counter and praying the jury buys
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: it at full price, open murder is like taking the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: jury to a legal buffet.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: You lay out all the facts, all the texts, all the...
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: witness statements, and you let the jury build their own plate,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: picking which charge fits best based on how they interpret
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the ingredients of the evidence.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: The legal buffet analogy is incredibly accurate. It is an
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: exceptionally potent tool for the prosecution because it drastically lowers
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: the risk of an all-or-nothing acquittal.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: It empowers the jury to find the exact level of
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: legal culpability they're comfortable with, which almost guarantees a conviction
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: on some level of homicide when the underlying facts are
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: this strong.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: And Melba Pearson noted that she believes all three defendants
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: will likely face very similar conviction levels. Like, even with
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: this open buffet, she doesn't anticipate the jury will hand
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Emily a significantly lighter plate than Nathan. Right.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Pearson argues that there simply won't be much daylight between
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: their convictions. Because the digital evidence proves they were deeply
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: intertwined in every stage of the planning.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the texts prove it.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: They all knew the identity of the target. They all
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: understood the motive was a forceful robbery. And crucially for
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: the felony murder application, they all knew a firearm was
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: being sought out and brought to the scene.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: And you introduce a firearm into a volatile situation. You
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: introduce the distinct foreseeable possibility of death. You really cannot
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: act shocked when the gun actually goes off.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The logical, foreseeable next step of an armed robbery
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: is a shooting. By participating in the planning of an
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: armed robbery, they all assume their fatal risk collectively.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: But this brings us to the single biggest complication in
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: the entire case, like the wild card that the police
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: found on the pavement.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: The victim's gun.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, we have to analyze the victim's own weapon and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: how that drastically impacts the impending trial. Connor was found
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: with his finger on the trigger of his own gun.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: We know he pulled it. Is there any legal avenue
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: where a defense attorney stands up in court, points to
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: that fact, and attempts to argue self-defense on behalf of
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the robbers?
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Like they shot him in self-defense? Yeah.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Can they argue? Look, Nathan and the others only wanted
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the money, but suddenly they were staring down the barrel
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: of a gun and they reacted in fear for their
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: own lives.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Well, you are outlining the classic stand-your-ground dilemma. And a
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: defense attorney is ethically obligated to introduce reasonable doubt wherever
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: possible— So they will absolutely try to make an issue
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: out of it.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: They will attempt to paint a narrative where the robbers,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: despite their bad intentions, suddenly found themselves as the victims
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: of an armed threat and fired only to save themselves.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: But legally speaking, does that narrative actually hold any water
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: in a courtroom?
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Legally, the doctrine regarding the instigation of violence is unequivocally clear.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Melba Pearson translated this complex legal principle into a fantastic
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: grounded colloquialism. Don't start none, won't be none.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: That is the most succinct legal analysis I've ever heard.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Right. It perfectly encapsulates the forfeiture of self-defense rights. An
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: instigator of criminal conduct cannot claim stand your ground or
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: self-defense when they are confronted with deadly force by their
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: intended victim.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: OK, that makes sense.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: If you initiate an illegal violent interaction, if you coordinate
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: an ambush on a teenager in a parking lot with
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: the intent to rob him, You completely forfeit your legal
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: right to claim self-defense if that victim fights back.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Because you started it.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The victim was legally protecting himself against the wrongful,
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: felonious actions of the defendants. The fact that the victim
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: was armed doesn't exonerate the robbers in any way. It
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: merely highlights the inherent explosive danger of the felony they
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: chose to initiate.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: So the self-defense fallacy is entirely legally hollow. It might
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: muddy the waters for a jury for a brief moment.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: But the judge's instructions on the law will be clear.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: You cannot claim self-defense against the person you are actively
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: in the process of robbing.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Which naturally makes me wonder about the periphery of this conspiracy.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: What about the individual who provided the gun when Nathan
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: and Skyler were texting around looking for one? Or this
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: mysterious spaz-out character? Are we anticipating more arrests in this web?
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Pearson strongly suspects law enforcement will make further arrests, particularly
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: targeting the other individual's who physically participated in the beating
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: in the parking lot.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, the other guys.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: However, the charges those individuals face will be highly dependent
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: on what they actually knew prior to the event. Consider
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the person who lent them the firearm. Right.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: If Nathan just casually texted a friend, hey, man, I
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: need to borrow a piece for protection this weekend, and
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the friend hands it over without asking any follow-up questions
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: about what it's for.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Exactly that scenario. If the text messages soliciting the gun
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: are cryptic and devoid of context— That provider might face
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: various firearms offenses for illegal transfer, but they wouldn't necessarily
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: face an open murder charge.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, because they didn't know the plan.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Right, because the state cannot prove they were an active,
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: knowledgeable participant in the conspiracy to commit the robbery. In
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: conspiracy law, intent and prior knowledge are everything.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: So let's project this forward. We have a preliminary hearing
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: scheduled for September 7th. The race to the courthouse steps
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: has officially begun. Does a case like this actually proceed
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: to a full jury trial?
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: That's the big question.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: You have three co-defendants, months of extracted digital evidence, and
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: a highly complex open murder charge.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: Based on her experience as a prosecutor, Pearson predicts that
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: plea deals are highly probable. Makes sense. The sheer volume
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: and specificity of the evidence are simply too overwhelming. The
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: treasure trove of text messages makes taking this to a
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: jury incredibly perilous for the defense, as a guilty verdict
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: on first-degree murder carries catastrophic sentencing implications.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Which introduces the most dramatic human element of this entire
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: legal labyrinth, the prisoner's dilemma.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: You have an incredibly tight family dynamic here. Skylar and
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Emily are sisters. Skylar and Nathan share a child together.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: When the immense pressure of the justice system is applied,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: when you are a 20-year-old staring down the reality of
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: spending the next several decades in a Nevada state prison,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: does loyalty to a partner or a sibling survive?
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: That's a tough question.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Or does pure biological self-preservation override everything else?
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: This is exactly where the romanticized view of human nature
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: collides violently with the mechanical reality of the justice system. Yeah.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Pearson's insight on this dynamic is chilling, but historically accurate.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: In a courtroom setting, facing life behind bars, the old
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: adage that blood is thicker than water usually evaporates entirely.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Do you believe the sisters will slip on Nathan?
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: It is the most statistically likely outcome.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: The prosecution holds all the leverage. They will likely offer
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: the sisters a plea deal, perhaps pleading guilty to the
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: robbery charges, to avoid the murder charge in exchange for
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: their full cooperation and testimony against the male shooter. Wow.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: The sisters will be highly incentivized by their defense attorneys
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: to paint Nathan as the sole mastermind, characterizing him as
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: the aggressive, controlling force who drove the entire plan while
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: claiming they merely went along with it out of fear, coercion,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: or misplaced family loyalty. Ah, I see. They will attempt
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: to save their own lives by ensuring he absorbs the
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: absolute heaviest blow from the state.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: It becomes a desperate race to see who can sit
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: down with the prosecutor and cut a deal first. That
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: text message, we win, you win, devolves into every man
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: for himself the second the handcuffs click shut.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The conspiratorial unity they demonstrated on July 2nd will
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: inevitably fracture under the immense crushing weight of an open
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: murder charge.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: It is just a staggering, tragic sequence of events from
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: top to bottom. And taking a step back, it brings
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: us to the overarching tragedy that initiated this entire chain.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, let's not forget that.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: An 18-year-old kid is dead because he posted a photograph
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: of the physical money he worked with at his job.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Melba Pearson concluded her legal commentary with some very grounded,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: practical advice about the modern realities of dating and socializing.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: And her parting advice is sobering, but absolutely necessary in
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: the current landscape.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: What did she say?
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: In an era where a massive percentage of our interpersonal
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: interaction originates online, the absolute necessity of thoroughly vetting the
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: people you intend to meet cannot be overstated.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: It means insisting on meeting in a public, well-lit place.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: It means acutely knowing your physical surroundings so you have
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: a viable exit strategy the moment a situation feels off.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: It is about maintaining strict situational awareness when you cross
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: that precarious bridge from the digital world into the physical one,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: which highlights the profound, tragic irony at the very core
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: of this entire case.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: What's that?
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: The illusion of the stream.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: How do you contextualize that illusion?
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Social media is the exact mechanism that made Connor a target.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: He utilized the platform to project an image of wealth,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: of being flashy, of having endless stacks of cash, and
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: that broadcast allowed the predators to find him. True. But
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: that exact same social media architecture, the Instagram messages, the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: digital footprint, the text logs detailing the eviction is what
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: immediately solved his murder. The screens provided the killers with
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the bait they needed, but those exact same screens meticulously
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: built the cage they are now sitting in.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: It is a profound paradox of modern technology.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: We utilize these devices constantly to obscure our true intentions
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: to architect fake personas like Emily, genuinely believing the glowing
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: screen provides a shield of anonymity.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: But in reality, the device is passively recording every single thought,
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: every logistical plan, every moment of premeditation with permanent, time-stamped,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: unalterable accuracy.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Which leaves us with a lingering question for you to
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: mull over as we wrap up this steep dive. As
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: our daily lives become increasingly inextricably tied to our digital devices,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: is the concept of a secret crime entirely dead? If
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: every malicious intention, every moment of financial struggle, every illogical
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: plan is documented, backed up, and stored on a cloud
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: server weeks before the crime even takes place, perhaps the
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: true danger isn't just the personal information we willingly share
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: with strangers online.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: What is it, then?
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Maybe the true danger is the blind, foolish faith we
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: have in the privacy of our own screens. You know,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: we started by talking about that quintessential modern tragedy playing
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: out on a smartphone, that clean binary proof of a
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: trap snapping shut. Right. In the digital age, those text messages,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: they are the ultimate unblinking witness. And there is simply
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: no deleting the truth once it's been sent.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: A fascinating and necessary point to end on.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: We'll catch you on the next one.