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Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter. Friday, August
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twenty second, twenty twenty five. A quick note before we
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dive in, as we're recording this Thursday evening. The Menendez
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brothers' parole decisions haven't been announced yet. Eric went before
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the board yesterday, Lyle goes today. Check our Bonus episodes
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for complete coverage of those outcomes. Now today on celebrity trials,
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Cardi b is heading to trial next week for allegedly
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beating up her own security guard, and folks, when your
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bodyguard needs protection from you, you might have an anger problem. Then,
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days four and five of the Christopher Wolfenbarger trial brought
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us Google searches for how to kill someone with your
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bare hands and a defense attorney who actually argued the
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victim was planning to kill herself. In a twisted family
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tree that includes a series real killer Grandfather. Somehow this
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is still the most disturbing branch. And we close with
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an Idaho father who made it real simple for investigators.
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When they asked Jeremy Best about his dead ten month
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old daughter. He said, and I quote, I did it, dude.
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Sometimes killers write manifestos. Sometimes they just confess like they're
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admitting they ate the last slice of pizza. All that
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and more on today's celebrity trials. Let's start with Cardi B,
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because apparently being worth eighty million dollars doesn't buy you
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self control. Jury selection begins Monday in Los Angeles for
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what might be the most embarrassing lawsuit in hip hop history.
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Cardi B real name Belcalis Almanzar, is being sued by
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her former security guard, Immani Ellis for assault, battery, and
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get this racial discrimination. Yes, you heard that right. A
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black security guard is suing a black wrapper for using
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racial slurs while allegedly beating her up. Make it make sense.
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Here's what allegedly went down. On February twenty fourth, twenty twenty,
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Cardi B was at her Beverly Hills mansion when Ellis,
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who was working security, apparently did something to set off
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the Wrapper. According to the lawsuit, Carti struck Ellis multiple times,
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used profane and racial language, and even spit on her.
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Ellis claims she was left with injuries and emotional distress.
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She's seeking unspecified damages for assault, battery and infliction of
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emotional distress. But here's where it gets interesting. She's also
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claiming racial discrimination and harassment. Now, Carti's legal team has
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been busy. They scored some pre trial wins getting certain
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evidence excluded. They're arguing Ellis can't prove her case, that
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there's no evidence of actual injury, and that the whole
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thing is a money grab. But Ellis's attorney, Shahrad Tavacoli,
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isn't backing down. He says they have witnesses, they have evidence,
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and they're ready to present it all to a jury
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starting Monday. Let me tell you what this is really about.
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This is about a celebrity who thinks the rules don't
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apply to her. Cardi B has a documented history of
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violent behavior. She pled guilty in twenty twenty two to
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assault charges for ordering an attack on two strip club bartenders.
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She was involved in that infamous New York Fashion Week
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brawl with Nicki Minaj. She threw a shoe at Minage
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for God's sake, and now we're supposed to be surprised
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that she allegedly beat up her own security guard. Here's
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what kills me about this case. Ellis was there to
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protect Cardi B. Her job was literally to take a
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bullet for this woman. If necessary, and instead she allegedly
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ended up taking punches from her. The racial slur allegations
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make this even more twisted. We're talking about a woman
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who built her career on being authentically from the Bronx,
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representing her Afro Caribbean heritage, and now she's accused of
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using racial slurs against another woman of color. Cardi scored
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some legal victories leading up to trial. The judge limited
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some of the evidence Alice can present. But here's the
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thing about assault cases. They're simple. Did you hit someone?
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Did witnesses see it? Were their injuries? And in California,
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even minor, unwanted touching can constitute battery. You don't need
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broken bones, you don't need hospital records. You just need
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to prove someone put their hands on you without consent.
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This trial is going to be a circus. Cardi b
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showing up to court in designer outfits worth more than
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most people's cars, her fans outside screaming support, the media
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treating it like entertainment instead of what it is. A
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powerful person allegedly abusing someone who worked for them. You
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know what's really sad Ellis probably took this job thinking
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she was lucky working security for Cardi b that's good money, prestige,
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maybe a stepping stone to bigger things. Instead, she allegedly
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ended up getting beat up by the very person she
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was supposed to protect. Jury selection starts Monday. Trial could
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last a week or two, and somewhere in Los Angeles,
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twelve people are about to decide whether being a celebrity
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means you can put your hands on anyone you want.
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Spoiler alert, it doesn't. Now for our update on the
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Christopher Wolfenbarger trial in Atlanta, where the family tree looks
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like something out of a gothic horror novel. Days four
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and five of testimony gave us everything from Google searches
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about murder methods to a defense attorney actually arguing the
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victim was suicidal because when you can't explain away the evidence,
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just blame the dead woman. Thursday's testimony brought us Patton
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County Sheriff's investigator Jamie Abernathy, who delivered the kind of
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evidence that makes defense attorneys lose sleep. Christopher Wolfenbarger's Google
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history included and I'm not making this up, how to
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kill someone with your bare hands? And how long does
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it take to strangle someone? The searches were made in
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the months before Melissa's disappearance. You know, normal stuff everyone
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googles while planning. Definitely not a murder. But wait, it
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gets better or worse, depending on your perspective. The prosecution
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played Wolfenbarger's interview with investigators where he claimed Melissa was
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alive when he left the house on November twenty fourth,
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nineteen ninety eight. He said she was planning to go
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shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, except her body was found buried
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on his family's property, and forensic evidence suggests she'd been
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dead for days when he made that claim. Friday's testimony
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brought us doctor Karen Bailey, the medical examiner who performed
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the autopsy on Melissa's remains when they were discovered in
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two thousand and two. Cause of death blunt forced trauma
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to the head. The skull fractures were consistent with multiple
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impacts from a heavy object. But here's where the defense
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got desperate. Attorney mcclan watson actually stood up and suggested
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with a straight face that Melissa might have been planning
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to kill herself, that maybe she asked Christopher to help
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her die. Let me break down how insane this defense
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is they want us to believe that Melissa Wolfenbarger, mother
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of two young children, daughter of a serial killer, which
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already gave her enough trauma for ten lifetimes, asked her
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estranged husband to beat her to death with a blunt
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object and then bury her on his parent's property, and
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that Christopher, being the helpful ex husband, he was obliged,
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then kept it secret for four years, then acted surprised
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when her body was found. The prosecution also introduced evidence
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about Christopher's behavior after Melissa's disappearance. He filed for divorce,
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citing abandonment. He told their children their mother didn't want
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them any more. He moved on with his life like
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she never existed. Meanwhile, Melissa's mother, Norma, who remember helped
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her serial killer husband dispose of bodies, was frantically searching
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for her daughter. Even someone who helped cover up multiple
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murders knew something was wrong here. The defense keeps trying
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to paint Norma Patten as unreliable because of her past.
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But here's the thing. Being married to a serial killer
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doesn't make you wrong about everything. Sometimes terrible people can
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spot other terrible people. Takes one to no one, As
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they say, Christina Garrett, Melissa and Christopher's daughter, return to
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testify about growing up believing her grandparents were her biological parents.
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She only learned the truth when investigators showed up in
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two thousand and two. Imagine being six years old and
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finding out your whole life is built on your father's
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lies and your mother's bones. The prosecution is methodically building
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their case, google searches about killing methods, a body buried
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on the defendant's family property, lies about the victim being alive,
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a pattern of abuse testified to by multiple witnesses. The
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defense they've got nothing but character assassination of a dead
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woman and her serial killer adjacent mother. This trial continues
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next week, and folks, if you're googling how to kill
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someone with your bare hands, maybe don't just a thought.
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We're back with more in just a moment. We close
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today with a confession so casual it's chilling. Jeremy Albert Best,
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forty eight, of Kellogg, Idaho, was charged Monday with first
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degree murder in the death of his ten month old daughter,
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Kaylee Jean Best, and when investigators asked him about it,
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he didn't lawyer up, he didn't claim innocence. He didn't
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even try to lie. He said, I did it, dude,
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like he was admitting to forgetting to take out the trash.
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Here's what we know. On November fifth, twenty twenty four,
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emergency responders were called to Best's home for an unresponsive infant.
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Kaylee Jean Best, just ten months old, was pronounced dead
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at the scene. The coroner determined she died from multiple
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blunt force trauma injuries to her head. This baby was
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beaten to death by her father, who then confessed like
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it was no big deal. According to court documents, Best
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initially told investigators various stories. First, he said Kaylee fell
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off the bed. Then he said she might have hit
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her head on the crib. Classic abuse excuses, the kind
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emergency room doctors here every day from parents who don't
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know how their child got those suspicious bruises. But when
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Detective Brad Masks of the Shoshonee County Sheriff's Office pressed him,
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Best cracked. And when he cracked, he didn't just confess,
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he gave details. Best admitted to striking Kayley multiple times
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over several days. He said he was frustrated with her crying.
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He said he lost it. He demonstrated for investigators how
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he hit his infant daughter in the head with his hand.
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Then came the statement that should haunt everyone involved in
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this case, I did it, dude, What else do you
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want to know? The medical examiner found injuries consistent with
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child abuse, multiple impacts to the skull, bruising in various
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stages of healing, trauma that didn't match any accidental fall scenario.
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This wasn't a moment of lost control. This was sustained
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abuse that ended in murder. Best is being held on
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one million dollar bail. His preliminary hearing is set for
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next month. His public defender hasn't commented yet, probably because
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what do you say when your client confesses this casually
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to killing a baby. Here's what makes this case particularly disturbing,
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the casual nature of the confession. Most people who kill
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their children, and God, what a horrible sentence to have
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to say, most of them at least pretend to be devastated.
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They cry, They claim it was an accident. They put
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on a show of grief. Jeremy Best said I did it, dude,
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like he was talking about drinking the last beer. That
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level of disconnection, that absence of apparent emotion about murdering
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your own infant daughter. That's not just criminal, that's sociopathic.
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Kayleie John Best was ten months old. She was just
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learning to stand, maybe saying her first words, starting to
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show personality, and her father beat her to death because
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she cried. You know what babies do. They cry. It's
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literally their only form of communication. They cry when they're hungry, tired,
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need changing, or just want to be held. It's not personal,
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it's not defiance. It's literally the only way they can
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tell you they need something. And Jeremy Best's response to
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his daughter's cries for help was to beat her until
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she couldn't cry anymore. The death penalty isn't on the
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table here. Idaho reserves that for first degree murder with
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aggravating factors, but Best is looking at life in prison
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if convicted, and with a confession like eyes, I did it, dude,
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conviction seems pretty likely somewhere in Idaho a ten month
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old girl should be taking her first steps. Instead, she's
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dead because her father couldn't handle the basic responsibilities of parenthood,
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and he confessed to it like it was nothing. I
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did it, dude. Four words that sum up the banality
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of evil. No grand explanation, no complex motive, just a
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man who killed his baby and shrugged about it. Kaylee
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Jean Best deserved better. Every child deserves better. But in America,
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we keep pretending that biology makes people fit parents, that
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DNA creates love, that chromosomes generate protection instincts. Jeremy Best
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proved that's a lie. Sometimes fathers are monsters. Sometimes the
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person who should protect you most is the one who
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destroys you. I did it, dude. Remember those words. Remember
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them the next time someone says a parent would never
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hurt their child. Remember them the next time someone says
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we should always keep families together. Remember them for Kaylee
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Jean Best, who died at ten months old because her
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father was frustrated by crying. She never got to say data.
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He got to say, I did it, dude. That's justice
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in America. That's Celebrity Trials For Friday, August twenty second.
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This weekend, check our bonus episodes for the Menendez Brothers'
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parole decisions. Will thirty five years be enough? Will California
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release two men who shotgunned their parents. We'll have complete coverage,
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and don't forget our weekend Classic Trials episodes Saturday, we're
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diving into Phil Spector's Wall of Sound becoming a chamber
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of death. And Sunday we're examining Martha Stewart's journey from
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billionaire to federal inmate number five five one seven zero
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dash zero five to four. I'm reed, Carter. This week
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we saw a rapper allegedly beat her body guard, a
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killer google how to strangle someone, and a father confessed
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to murdering his baby with four casual words. But sure,
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tell me again how people are basically good until tomorrow,
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and remember your Google search history will definitely be used
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against you in a court of law. See you tomorrow,