"GAVE MY SON A GUN: WOUNDED TEENS TESTIFY, WIFE SEALED IN FERTILIZER TANK & DON LEMON'S FELONY FIGHT"

0:03 Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Red Carter. Wednesday, February eighteenth, twenty twenty six. Three stories today, Two murder trials that just opened, and a former CNN anchor fighting federal felony charges for doing his job. Winder, Georgia, Day two of the Colin Gray trial. The father who gave his fourteen year old son an Ar fifteen style rifle for Christmas, despite FBI warnings about online shooting threats, despite the boy googling how to kill your Dad at age eleven, despite a shrine to the Parkland school shooter hanging above his computer. September fourth, twenty twenty four, that boy allegedly carried the rifle to Appalachi High School in a backpack hidden behind poster board, killed two teachers and two students, wounded nine others.

0:56 Now his father faces twenty nine felony counts. The wounded teenagers took the stand. Adrian Michigan the Dale Warner murder trial. His wife d told him she wanted a divorce and planned to sell their businesses April twenty fourth, twenty twenty one. She was never seen alive again. Three years later, investigators cut open a sealed and hydrous ammonia fertilizer tank on Warner Family property. Inside D's body, still in her pajamas, duct tape around her face and neck, strangled, blunt forced trauma to her head. Dale tracked her movements over two thousand times, searched the internet for how to dispose of a ten thousand gallon propane tank. Now he's on trial for murder and Don Lemon, former CNN anchor, pleaded not guilty Friday to two federal felony charges. His crime walking into a Minnesota church to cover a protest about an ice connected pastor. His attorneys call it an unconstitutional mess.

2:00 The government seized his phone. Multiple judges refused to sign arrest warrants before prosecutors went to a grand jury. Press freedom advocates are furious. I'm reed Carter today. A father's Christmas gift that killed four people, a wife sealed in a tank, and a journalist facing prison for covering a story. This is celebrity trials. Let's start in Georgia, Barrow County Courthouse Winder the trial of Colin Gray. This is only the second time in American history that prosecutors have charged a parent with murder in connection with their child's mass shooting. First were Jennifer and James Crumbly in Michigan, both convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the Oxford High School shooting, sentenced to ten to fifteen years each in April twenty twenty four.

2:51 Now Colin Gray fifty five years old, facing twenty nine felony counts, two counts of second degree murderunts of involuntary manslaughter, twenty counts of cruelty to children, five counts of reckless conduct. Maximum sentence one hundred eighty years in prison. He's pleaded not guilty. His son, Colt Gray, was fourteen years old on September fourth, twenty twenty four. It was his fifth day at Appalachi High School, New School, New Town, just enrolled after being out of school for an entire year. That morning, Colt put a sig sour M four hundred AR style rifle in his backpack, beryl sticking out, wrapped in poster board to conceal it. Boarded the school bus with a loaded weapon. First period computer science class teacher Suzanne Harris noticed the heavy backpack. Colt asked her about active shooter drills. Red flag. She emailed school officials. Nobody pulled him out before second period started. Colt's mother, Marcy Gray, called the school counselor, frantic she'd received alarming text messages from her. Prosecutors haven't revealed the content, but Marcy told the counselor that Colt had access to firearms. That triggered concern.

4:09 School resource officers started searching for Colt too late. Colt left his second period class, told his teacher he needed to go to the counseling office, went to a bathroom instead, waited twenty six minutes, then emerged with the rifle. He opened fire in a classroom and hallway. Teachers Richard Aspinwall thirty nine years old, and Christina Irimi, fifty three students, Mason Shermerhorn and Christian Angelo, both fourteen, all four killed. Nine others wounded seven hit by gunfire. Barrow County Sheriff jud Smith was at the gun range that morning when the emergency notification came through. He raced to the school, found wounded students, one girl bleeding pleading with him, don't cover me with a sheet, don't let me die. Sheriff Smith delivered the most most devastating testimony on day one described helping wounded students describe the task. No law enforcement officer ever once telling parents that their children had been murdered at school. Then yesterday, day two, the wounded students took the stand. Natalie, a juvenile whose last name was withheld shot in her wrist and shoulder. She was fifteen years old. I started to scream that I got shot.

5:27 It was like time stopped. Everything was moving quickly and slowly. I was worried I was going to die and how that would affect my parents. She saw Colt Gray on the floor afterward, hands behind his back. Said she'd seen him before but didn't recognize him, but I saw red when I saw him. Melanie Delira Castaneda, fifteen at the time, working on her math book. Her ear started ringing, smelled smoke. She stood up, turned toward the door and saw Colt Gray pointing a firearm into her classroom, firing indiscriminately. I didn't know I was shot, but I was. My body just told me to hold my arm. She hid between a pillar, the smartboard, and her desk. When police finally escorted her to the hallway, she saw two of the dead students lying on the floor. These are children testifying about being shot at school, being shot while doing math.

6:24 Make it make sense. Now, Here's why Colin Gray is on trial, not because his son pulled the trigger, because prosecutors say he loaded the gun years before. The timeline is devastating. September twenty twenty one, Colt Gray was eleven years old, search the Internet for abuse and how to kill your dad. Child welfare case opened monthly checkups with a caseworker. Colin Gray consistently told the caseworker everything was fine, never mentioned counseling needs. May twenty twenty three, FBI received an anonymous tip a user on Disaccord the messaging platform had threatened in a chat group to shoot up a school within the next two years. FBI traced the threat to a computer in the Gray home. Jackson County deputies visited the home, questioned Colin Gray, asked if his son had access to firearms. Colin Gray's answer, he and his son take this school shooting stuff very seriously. Said if Colt made threats, he'd be mad as hell and all the guns would go away. Colt denied making the threats, said his account was hacked. Nobody confirmed or denied whether the threats came from Colt. Prosecutors say Colin Gray never received a definitive answer from law enforcement. Defense says that matters, Prosecution says it doesn't. Christmas twenty twenty three, seven months after the FBI visit, Colin Gray gave his fourteen year old son the AR fifteen style rifle as a Christmas gift.

7:51 Continued buying accessories after that, including, according to prosecutors, a lot of ammunition. Prosecutors alleged Colin Gray knew about the Parkland shrine. Photos shown to the jury. Colt had images of Nicholas Cruz, the Parkland shooter who killed seventeen people in twenty eighteen, displayed above his computer. Prosecutors say Colt's mother, Marci knew the boy had tried to email crews in prison and send him money. She allegedly responded to this information with a laughing emoji. Days before the shooting, Colt told his father he was hearing voices telling him what to do. Prosecutors say Colin Gray still allowed the rifle to remain propped against a wall in his son's bedroom when deputies arrived at the Gray home after the shooting Colin Gray's first words, according to the prosecution, I knew it.

8:42 My little girl just texted me. She's in middle school. She said, we're in lockdown. I'm like, God Almighty, please tell me your brother didn't do something. I knew it. Two words the prosecution wants burned into every juror's brain. Defense attorney Brian Hobbs painted a different picture, said Colt Gray lived a double life, sent affectionate text messages to his father, hid violent plans in private phone notes and online accounts. That the shooting was originally planned for February twenty twenty five, but Colt accelerated the timeline. Colin couldn't predict what was deliberately concealed from him. When someone conceals a plan, deceives the people around them acts independently. The law does not allow us to pretend that the people left behind should have seen through all of it. Hobbes argued.

9:33 Colin Gray was a single father. Colt's mother, Marci, had lost custody of the two younger siblings due to substance abuse issues. Colin was raising three kids on his own. Tried to get his son help, even scheduled a mental health appointment for September fifth. The shooting happened September fourth, one day too late. The defense also pointed the finger at Marseilles, said she knew about Colt's obsession with school shooters, knew about the cruise case, didn't warn Colin. Trial expected to last three weeks. Jurors imported from Hall County because the judge agreed Barrow County residents were too close to the tragedy. Dozens more witnesses expected. The legal question, did Colin Gray consciously disregard a known risk? Did he have enough warning signs to know his son could hurt people?

10:23 Or was Colt Gray so deceptive that no parent could have predicted what happened? The human question is simpler. You buy an AR fifteen for your mentally ill teenager who was visited by the FBI about school shooting threats, and who has a shrine to a mass murderer on his wall? What did you think was going to happen? Richard Aspinwall was thirty nine years old math teacher coach. Father Christina Eremi was fifty three, math teacher, immigrant from Romania who came to America for a better life. Mason Shermerhorn was fourteen, Christian Angelo was fourteen. They should be in class us right now, should be complaining about homework, should be planning prom Someone has to say their names. We'll be right back with the Dale Warner murder trial. His wife told him she wanted a divorce. Three years later, they found her body sealed inside a fertilizer tank on his property.

11:29 Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed, Carter Adrian, Michigan, Lenawee County Circuit Court. The murder trial of Dale Warner, charged with open murder and tampering with evidence, faces life in prison. Pleaded not guilty, rejected a plea deal for second degree murder. April twenty fourth, twenty twenty one, tecumsa Michigan small farming community southeast of ann Arbor. Dale and d Warner lived on a large agricultural property on Munger Road, multiple buildings, barns, offices. They ran several businesses together, a farm, a farm equipment supply company, a trucking operation. D managed three companies employing fewer than twenty people. The marriage was over, had been over. Prosecutors described it as no intimacy, only secrecy.

12:20 They didn't sleep together. They were just roommates. The couple fought nearly every day by text, face to face, over money, over the businesses, over everything. That Saturday morning, D learned Dale had told an acquaintance that she was on xanax and was a mess. That was the final straw. D's daughter, Amber Million, testified about what she saw when her mother came home. She was hysterically crying. When she came into the house, she threw up and was crying and just saying she was done, done with the marriage, done with Dale, wanted a divorce, wanted to sell everything. That evening, D's sister in life law, Amy Joe Alexander, came to pick up the warner's nine year old daughter for a sleepover.

13:05 Arrived at seven forty two pm found D outside on the deck. She'd been crying, red, blotchy spots on her neck, puffy eyes, make up, a mess. D told Amy she was done, wanted to sell the trucking company, planned to ask Dale for a divorce. That night, Amy took the daughter. It was D's idea to have the child sleep elsewhere. She didn't want her daughter witnessing the fight she was about to have with Dale. Nobody ever saw d Warner alive again. The next morning, D's phone went straight to voicemail. Her hummer was parked at the office, no response to texts, no activity on her credit cards or bank accounts. Nothing.

13:49 D Warner, fifty two years old, vanished. Dale told investigators d was upset Saturday night, but eventually calmed down and fell asleep on the living room couch. He left the house around six am Sunday while she was still sleeping, said she was gone when he got back. Prosecutors say every statement Dale gave about that morning was inconsistent. Dee's children wanted to call police. Dale didn't. The kids got together and reported her missing anyway. Then the investigation unraveled Dale Warner's secret life. Prosecutors revealed Dale had been stalking his wife. Used a mobile phone app to track the location of her vehicle more than two thousand times between January twenty twenty and April twenty twenty one. Two thousand times, had someone clone her phone to monitor her movements, installed cameras in the home, asked a farm worker to buy a GPS tracker to place on one of her cars.

14:43 That's not a husband worried about his wife. That's a man keeping tabs on his target. When retired Lenwy County detective Kevin Greca arrived at the property with a search warrant days later, Dale wasn't there, but surveillance cameras on the farm captured what happened next. Dale's son, Jarn, called him and said cadavered dogs were coming to search the property. Surveillance video showed Dale racing to the Munger Road property, climbing into a front end loader moving an anhydrous ammonia tank to the spray barn. Prosecutors played drone footage for the jury Dale moving the tank, the same tank where D's body would eventually be found. Police later learned Dale had searched on an iPad for how to dispose of a ten thousand gallon propane tank similar to an anhydros tank.

15:29 The man was googling how to get rid of the evidence while investigators closed in Google search history as forever folks. The tank was eventually located in a storage building on Warner family Land in Tipton, several miles from the couple's home. A sealed anhydrous ammonia tank welded shut a tag on it reading do not use. August twenty twenty four, authorities cut it open, put a camera inside. First there was the tarp, and in the tarp was a body d Warner, still in her pajamas, duct tape covering her face and neck, strangled, blunt forced trauma to her face and head. Dale's fingerprint was found on the tank. Surveillance footage showed him accessing welding equipment around the time d disappeared. He killed her, wrapped her in a tarp, taped her face, stuffed her in a fertilizer tank, welded it shut, moved it off the property when investigators got close and searched the internet for how to make it all disappear smart enough to plan a cover up, too stupid to know they'd check his iPads search history. Defense attorney Marisa Vinsky kept her opening statement brief, said the prosecution's case is built on speculation, assumption, and innuendo. Pointed out that multiple people were on the farm at the time D disappeared. Said the jury shouldn't judge Dale's character, just whether there's proof beyond reasonable doubt.

16:54 D's daughter, rickle Bach, testified she last saw her mother around five to six pm that Saturday, texted her around nine pm. No response. Late that night, Rickle drove past her mother's house. Lights were on the Hummer parked unusually. The next morning D was gone. Dale told Rickle that D had been leaving in the night, said she had pills everywhere, said she left her wedding ring behind, trying to make it look like D just walked away from her life. But D didn't walk away. D didn't leave her children, her businesses, her life. D told her husband she wanted a divorce, and she died for it. The trial is expected to run through mid March, dozens more witnesses.

17:42 The prosecution must prove Dale not only killed D but did so with premeditation. The evidence looks damning. The stalking, the surveillance footage of him moving the tank, the welding, the Google searches, the fingerprint, the inconsistent statements, and the body of a strangled woman sealed inside a tank on his property for three years. D Warner was fifty two years old, mother, business owner, friend, She managed three companies, raised her children, built a life in a small Michigan farming town. She should be running those businesses today, should be watching her grandchildren grow. Instead, her husband sealed her in a tank like she was nothing. Rest in paced.

18:25 Someone has to say your name coming up. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon facing federal felony charges for covering a church protest. His attorneys call it an unconstitutional mess. Multiple judges refused to sign arrest warrants. The government seized his phone. Is this journalism or a crime? Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed. Carter f Day, February thirteenth, Federal Court, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Don Lemon, fifty nine years old, former CNN anchor pleaded not guilty to two federal felony charges. The charges conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating, and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.

19:24 His alleged crime covering a protest with a camera as a journalist. January eighteenth, twenty twenty six, City's Church in Saint Paul. Protesters entered the church during a service. They alleged a pastor there worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE amid the federal immigration raids that had been sweeping through Minneapolis and the surrounding region. Don Lemon, now working as a freelance journalist, followed the protesters inside, live streamed the demonstration, documented what was happening, did what journalists do. January thirtieth, federal agents arrested Lemon. A grand jury returned an indictment against him and eight co defendants connected to the church protest. Friday's hearing was brief. Procedural Magistrate Judge Douglas Miko reminded Lemon of his constitutional rights, asked if he understood the charges. Lemon said yes. Judge said he was free to travel unless he violated any state or federal laws. Not guilty plea entered on all counts. But here's where it gets interesting. Prosecutors revealed they seized Lemon's phone during the arrest and obtained a search warrant for it.

20:39 Lemon's attorney, Abby Lowell called the phone seizure a possible over execution. A journalist's phone seized by federal agents searched with a warrant. Think about what's on a journalist's phone. Sources, contacts, story notes, communications with confidential informants. The government now has all of it. Outside the courthouse, Lemon addressed reporters. I wanted to say this isn't just about me. This is about all journalists, especially in the United States. For more than thirty years, I've been a journalist, and the power and protection of the First Amendment has been the underpinning of my work. The First Amendment, freedom of the press, is the bedrock of our democracy. His attorney, Lowell, made a significant legal argument inside the courtroom, told the judge the defense wants grand jury. Transcripts said prosecutors took an unusual path to secure the charges. Here's why. Before the grand jury indictment, a judge declined to sign arrest warrants against Lehman and his co defendants. Not one judge, multiple judges.

21:44 They looked at the evidence and said no, So prosecutors went around them took the case directly to a grand jury. Late Friday, attorneys for Lemon and fellow journalist Georgia Fort filed a joint motion calling the prosecution an unconstitutional mess, unworthy worthy of the American justice system. In the United States of America, we do not prosecute journalists for doing their job. That happens in Russia, China, Iran and other authoritarian regimes, and yet the government sold this unconstitutional mess to the Grand jury. The motion noted something unusual about the indictment. It doesn't bear the name of a single line prosecutor from the Minnesota US Attorney's office. That's irregular suggests the charges were driven from Washington, not from local federal prosecutors who actually know the community. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the church protest a coordinated attack on Citi's church.

22:42 But Harmeat Dillon, the administration's top civil rights official at the Justice Department, made a remarkable admission, said, the statutes being used to charge Lemon have never been used this way before. In all these years up until I was the Assistant Attorney General for Civil rights, nobody ever used that houses of worship part to prosecute protesters or criminals blocking access to a house of worship. So we've started to do that. So the government is using religious freedom laws designed to protect worshippers to charge a journalist who is documenting a protest, first time ever, novel legal theory untested in court. The National Association of Black Journalists released a statement calling the arrests part of the government's escalating effort and actions to criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement. This case sits at the intersection of immigration enforcement, press freedom, and religious liberty. The federal government has been conducting aggressive immigration raids in the Minneapolis area. Two American citizens were fatally shot by federal agents during clashes. Protests erupted across the region. Don Lemon went to cover one and got arrested for it. Whether you think the church protesters were right or wrong, the question for this trial is simple. Is a journalist who documents it's a protest a participant in that protest is pointing a camera the same as blocking a door, is live streaming, the same as intimidation. Every press freedom organization in the country is watching this case because if Don

24:13 Lemon can be charged with felonies for covering a protest, any journalist can at any event anywhere. Lemon spent thirty years at CNN, anchored the network's nightly news for years, left in twenty twenty three, went freelance. Now he's facing federal felony charges that could mean prison time to my colleagues, countless journalists around the world, my family, and my friends. You all have showed up for me in a real way, Lemon said outside court, and I am extremely grateful for that. I feel it. I feel it, I feel it. Trial date not yet set, but the legal battle has already begun.

24:53 Defense wants grand jury transcripts. Wants to know exactly what prosecutors told the grand jury to get an end sightment that multiple judges had already refused to authorize. Welcome to Justice in America, where a journalist goes to prison for pointing a camera and a father who gives his mentally ill son and ar fifteen gets to plead not guilty. That Celebrity trials for Wednesday, February eighteenth, twenty twenty six. Colin Gray trial enters day three in Georgia, Wounded teenagers testified about being shot at Appalachi High School. Father faces twenty nine counts for giving his son the rifle. I knew it, he allegedly told deputies when they arrived at his home. Dale Warner on trial in Michigan, wife d found strangled and sealed inside a fertilizer tank on his property, three years after she told him she wanted a divorce.

25:48 Surveillance footage Google searches and a fingerprint on the tank, and Don Lemon pleads not guilty to federal felonies for covering a church protest. Defense calls it an unconstitutional mess phone seized press freedom on trial Richard Aspinwall thirty nine, Christina Iremi fifty three, Mason Shermerhorn fourteen, Christian Angelo fourteen, d Warner fifty two. Someone has to say their names. I'm reed, Carter, see you tomorrow. This is celebrity trials.