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Caalarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Wednesday, September
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twenty fourth, twenty twenty five. Today on Celebrity Trials, Sean
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Ditty Combs wants out of federal custody because apparently jail
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is too uncomfortable for billionaires accused of sex trafficking and racketeering.
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A man who shot up a New Hampshire country club
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makes his first court appearance because nothing says class warfare
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like opening fire at the ninth Hole. Jeffrey Spence's trial
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begins for plotting to murder his father. The inheritance couldn't
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wait for natural causes, apparently, and a mother faces sentencing
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for starving her baby and leaving him to die in
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a ditch. Some stories are too horrible for clever commentary. Plus,
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I'll tell you about our eight day O. J. Simpson
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Special starting this Friday. Thirty years later, we're still asking
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how he got away with it. This is Celebrity Trials.
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Shawn Combe's Puff Daddy p Diddy, Didty Brother Love or
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whatever he's calling himself this week, wants out of federal custody.
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The man facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, thinks
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he deserves to await trial from his mansion instead of
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a cell. His lawyers filed a motion yesterday arguing that
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Combs should be released on bail because and I quote,
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the conditions at Metropolitan Detention Center are not suitable for
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a person of mister Combe's stature stature. He's accused of
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running a criminal enterprise that trafficked women, distributed drugs, and
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used violence and intimidation to cover it up. His stature
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is alleged sex trafficker. That's exactly who MDC Brooklyn was
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built for. The motion claims Comb's is suffering irreparable harm
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to his reputation and business interests by being detained. Irreparable
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harm to his reputation. The indictment alleges he forced women
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into freak offs, the elaborate sex performances that lasted days,
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required IV drips for recovery, and were recorded for blackmail.
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What reputation is there left to harm? His legal team,
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led by Mark Agnafilo, is proposing a fifty million dollar
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bail package. Fifty million that's more money than most people
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see in a thousand lifetimes. They're offering his Miami mansion,
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his private jet, and his mother's house as collateral. His
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mother's house. This fifty four year old billionaire is putting
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up his mom's house to get out of jail. Janis Combs,
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eighty four years old, might lose her home if her
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son decides to flee. That's not love, that's leverage. The
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conditions they're proposing are laughable. House arrest at his Star
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Island mansion in Miami, electronic monitoring, surrender of his passport,
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private security to ensure compliance. Private security he pays for
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to make sure he follows rules. That's like asking a
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wolf to guard himself and promising he'll only eat vegetables.
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The prosecution's response was beautiful. Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson wrote,
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the defendant has unlimited resources, multiple properties in non extradition countries,
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and a demonstrated pattern of witness intimidation. He is the
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definition of a flight risk. She's not wrong. Combs owns
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property in the Caribbean, has connections worldwide, has the money
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to disappear forever, and, according to the indictment, has a
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history of threatening and bribing witnesses. The indictment alleges Combs
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ran a criminal enterprise from two thousand and eight to
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now seventeen years of alleged sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery,
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and obstruction. But he thinks he deserves to wait for
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trial in his mansion with an ocean view. The motion
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also argues Comb's needs to be free to prepare his defense,
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that jail restricts his access to lawyers and evidence. Every
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defendant in America faces these restrictions. But did he thinks
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he's special, thinks his money makes him different, thinks the
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rules don't apply to Bad Boy Entertainment's CEO. Here's what
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the indictment actually says. Combs did. Forced women into sexual
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performances with male sex workers, recorded it, use the recordings
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as blackmail, distributed drugs to keep victims compliant, used violence
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when they resisted, bribed witnesses, intimidated victims. Ran it like
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a business with employees who knew and participated. That's not
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music industry excess. That's organized crime with a soundtrack. The
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judge will rule on bail tomorrow. But here's what won't change.
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Combs is charged with crimes that carry a life sentence.
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The evidence includes videos, financial records, and multiple cooperating witnesses.
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His empire is crumbling, his legacy is destroyed. His freedom
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might be gone forever. Sean Combs made millions selling the
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image of luxury and excess, private jets, mansions, parties that
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lasted for days. Now he's in MDC, Brooklyn, eating prison food,
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wearing prison clothes, living the prison life he rapped about
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but never experienced. He wants out because jail is hard,
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because it's uncomfortable, because it's not suitable for his stature.
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You know what else isn't suitable. Allegedly trafficking women, allegedly
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drugging victims, allegedly running a criminal enterprise disguised as entertainment.
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Did he thought he was untouchable, thought his money protected him,
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thought his fame made him immune. He's learning what every
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criminal eventually learns. Federal prosecutors don't care about your Grammys.
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They care about your crimes. Robert Walsh, forty seven, made
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his first court appearance yesterday for shooting up the Brookstone
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country Club in Drry, New Hampshire. Because nothing says I
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hate rich people like attempted murder at a golf course
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September nineteenth, Friday afternoon. The country club was hosting its
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annual member, guest, tournament, lawyers, doctors, business owners, all enjoying
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their privilege on a perfect September day. Then Walsh showed
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up with an aar fifteen and a grudge. He opened
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fire from the parking lot. Sixty three rounds and under
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two minutes. Miraculously, only three people were injured, none fatally,
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not for lack of trying. Walsh just couldn't shoot straight,
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probably because he was drunk. His blood alcohol was point
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one to eight when arrested, more than twice the legal limit.
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He drove drunk to commit mass murder and failed because
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he was too drunk to aim. That's not evil, that's
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pathetic evil. Walsh's motive. He'd been fired from the country
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club three years ago, three years He held a grudge
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for three years about losing a job as assistant groundskeeper.
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Decided the appropriate response was mass murder. At yesterday's arraignment,
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Walsh appeared via video link from Valley Street Jail. His
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public defender, Sandra Martinez, asked for a competency evaluation, claims
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Walsh has mental health issues and alcohol dependency. Mental health
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and alcohol don't make you plan mass murder. They might
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lower inhibitions, but they don't create homicidal rage from nothing.
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That comes from entitlement, from believing the world owes you something,
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from thinking violence solves problems. Judge Catherine Brown denied bail,
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calling Walsh an extreme danger to the community that's under
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selling it. He shot up a country club because they
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fired him three years ago. What happens when McDonald's gets
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his order wrong. The victims are recovering. Doctor James Patterson
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sixty seven took shrapnel to his leg. Attorney Margaret Chen
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fifty four was grazed by a bullet. Businessman Todd Williams,
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forty five, has bullet fragments in his shoulder. They were
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playing golf, now their gunshot victims. The country club is
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closed indefinitely. Members are traumatized. The annual tournament that's been
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held for forty seven years is canceled because Robert Walsh
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couldn't get over being fired from a minimum wage job.
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Walsh faces three counts of attempted murder, reckless conduct with
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a deadly weapon, and criminal threatening If convicted on all counts,
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he's looking at forty five to life for a job
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he lost three years ago for a grudge he couldn't
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let go for victims who didn't even know his name.
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The prosecutor, Michael Stevens, said it best. The defendant turned
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a golf course into a war zone because he couldn't
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accept consequences for his actions three years ago. He's been
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planning this, waiting, choosing his moment. Robert Walsh, forty seven
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years old, threw away his entire life because a country
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club didn't want him trimming their grass. Now he'll spend
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the rest of his life in a place where there's
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no grass at all, just concrete and regret. We'll be
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right back with a son plotting patricide and a mother
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who starved her baby to death. Jeffrey Spence's trial started
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yesterday in Jackson, Mississippi. He's accused of plotting to murder
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his father, Richard Spence, because waiting for inheritance is apparently
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too difficult. The prosecution laid out their case. Jeffrey, thirty eight,
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unemployed living off his father's money, decided he wanted it
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all now, not when Richard died naturally, not when the
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will was read. Now. The plot was simple and stupid.
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Jeffrey tried to hire a hitman through a friend of
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a friend, offered fifty thousand dollars for the murder. The
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hit man was an undercover FBI agent, because of course
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he was. It's always an undercover FBI agent. The recorded
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conversations are devastating, Jeffrey explaining how his father takes walks
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every morning at six am, describing the route, suggesting making
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it look like a mugging, negotiating the price like he's
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buying a used car, not murdering his father. In one recording,
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Jeffrey says, make it quick. He's old, he doesn't deserve
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to suffer, just needs to be gone. Doesn't deserve to suffer,
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but deserves to die so Jeffrey can inherit early. The
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moral gymnastics of a son justifying patricide. Richard Spence seventy one,
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made his money in commercial real estate, built a fortune
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from nothing, gave his son everything, private schools, college, paid
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for trust fund jobs at his companies that Jeffrey kept losing.
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And Jeffrey's gratitude murder for hire. The FBI agent testified
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yesterday described how Jeffrey wanted updates, wanted confirmation, wanted to
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know when it would happen so he could establish an alibi.
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He was going to be at a casino on camera
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when his father was murdered. Jeffrey even discussed the funeral,
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told the hit man he'd need to act grieving but
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not too grieving, said he'd practiced his shocked face in
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the mirror, practiced his shocked face. The defense attorney, Robert Clark,
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is claiming entrapment, that Jeffrey never would have gone through
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with it, that he was just talking, just venting frustration
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about his controlling father. Venting frustration doesn't include providing walking
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roots and negotiating prices. That's not venting, that's planning murder.
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Richard Spence was in court yesterday watching his son stand
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trial for plotting his death. He looked broken, not angry,
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just broken, like he's trying to understand how the baby
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he raised became the man who wanted him dead. In
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victim impact pre trial statements, Richard said, I gave him
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every thing everything I failed as a father, not in
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what I provided, but in what I created A son
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who sees me as an ATM. That's taking too long
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to dispense. Jeffrey faces life in prison if convicted. His
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inheritance gone. Mississippi has son of Sam laws. You can't
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profit from trying to kill someone, even if you're inheriting anyway.
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Jeffrey Spence wanted his father's money so badly he was
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willing to kill for it. Now he'll have nothing, no money,
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no father, no freedom, just decades to think about how
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greed destroyed everything his father built, including his son. Content warning.
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This next case involves infant death. It's horrific. There's no
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other way to describe it. Melissa Chen, twenty six, faces
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sentencing today in Phoenix for starving her four month old
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son and leaving him to die in a ditch. I've
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covered a lot of horrible cases. This might be the worst.
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Baby Marcus was found July fifteenth by a jogger in
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a ditch in one hundred and fifteen degree heat. He
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weighed eight pounds, a four month old who weighed what
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a newborn should weigh. He'd been starved systematically for weeks,
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then abandoned to die alone. The medical examiner said Marcus
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was alive when left in the ditch, died of dehydration
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and exposure. It took hours hours of a baby dying
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alone in the Arizona heat because his mother decided he
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was too much trouble. Chen's story kept changing. First she
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said Marcus was kidnapped, Then he died of sids and
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she panicked, Then she couldn't afford formula. Finally the truth.
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She didn't want him anymore, didn't want him, so instead
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of adoption, safe haven laws, giving him to literally anyone else,
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starved him, fed him water instead of formula, watched him
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waste away, then drove him to a ditch and left
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him to die. Her lawyer argues she was overwhelmed postpartum depression, poverty,
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no support system. That's not an excuse, that's not a defense.
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That's an explanation for why she's a monster, not whether
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she is one. The prosecutor, Lisa Rodriguez, showed photos of
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Marcus when he was born, healthy, seven pounds six ounces,
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then photos from the autopsy. I won't describe them, the
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jury cried. The judge had to call a recess. Chen's
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mother testified, said she offered to take Marcus, begged Melissa
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to let her help, but Melissa refused, said she could
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handle it, handle it. She handled it by murdering a
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baby through starvation. The grandmother brought Marcus's blanket to court,
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the one he was wrapped in when found, tiny yellow
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with ducks on it. She held it while testifying, saying,
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this is all I have left of him, this blanket
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and the knowledge my daughter killed him. Chen pleaded guilty
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to avoid the death penalty. She's facing twenty five to life.
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The judge will decide today. But what sentence fits this crime?
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What prison term equals starving a baby? What justice exists
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for Marcus? The prosecutor's closing statement. Marcus Chen lived four months,
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most of it hungry, most of it crying, most of
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it ignored. He died alone in a ditch in the
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desert because his mother decided he was inconvenient. There is
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no punishment sufficient for this crime. She's right, there isn't.
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Melissa Chen will get her sentence today, twenty five to life.
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Probably she'll eat three meals a day in prison, more
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than she gave her son. She'll have shelter, water, medical care,
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everything she denied Marcus. Baby. Marcus died at four months old,
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eight pounds, in a ditch in Phoenix in twenty twenty five,
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in America, where safe haven laws exist, where adopt is available,
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where help is possible, But his mother chose murder instead
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before we go. Let me tell you about something special
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we're doing. Starting this Friday, Eight Days of O. J. Simpson,
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eight episodes covering each month of the trial that defined
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modern America, thirty years after the murders of Nicole Brown,
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Simpson and Ronald Goldman were going back to nineteen ninety four. Friday,
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we start with June and July nineteen ninety four. The murders,
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the Bronco chase, the suicide note, when OJ Simpson went
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from beloved athlete to accused double murderer. Each day we'll