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Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Wednesday, October eighth,
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twenty twenty five. Yesterday we covered Mark Sanchez fighting a
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sixty nine year old oil collector over a parking space.
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Today we cover the lawsuit Perry Tol, the man Sanchez
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threw toward a dumpster before getting stabbed, is suing Sanchez
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and Fox Corporation for millions. His speech has been affected,
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his jaw is damaged, his face is permanently disfigured, all
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because a drunk NFL analyst decided a parking space was
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worth fighting over. Darien Brown pleaded guilty to murdering four
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year old Cash Journan life in prison. Bianca Ellis goes
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on trial for murdering three year old Julian Wood, both
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claiming mental illness, both facing life sentences. And in Florida,
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Daniel Stearns has been convicted of killing his girlfriend, Nancy Howery,
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shooting her in the head during a supposed gun lesson,
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then spending weeks burying her, digging her up, burning her body,
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and scattering eight hundred bone fragments across four different locations
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so nobody would find her. Welcome to Wednesday, where parking
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disputes lead to lawsuits. Mental illness doesn't excuse child murder,
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and boyfriends turned girlfriends into scattered remains. This is Celebrity Trials.
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Quick update on Mark Sanchez, who we covered yesterday for
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his Saturday morning parking space brawl in Indianapolis. Perry Toll,
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the sixty nine year old truck driver who stabbed Sanchez
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in self defense, filed a civil lawsuit Monday. He's suing
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both Mark Sanchez personally and Fox Corporation, Sanchez's employer. The
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lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney's fees, and anything
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else the court deems appropriate. According to court documents, Toll
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has suffered severe, permanent disfigurement, loss of function of other
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physical injuries, emotional distress, and other damages as a result
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of Sanchez's actions. His attorney, Eric May, told reporters that
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Tolly's speech and other functions have been affected by injuries
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to his mouth, jaw, and face. Think about that. Perry
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Toll was working collecting used cooking oil from hotels and
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restaurants at twelve thirty in the morning, making an honest living,
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and Mark Sanchez drunk and aggressive threw him toward a
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dumpster and beat him badly enough that his speech is
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now impaired, his jaw is damaged, his face is permanently disfigured.
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May said Toll is back home recovering, but will require
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extensive medical care in the coming days, weeks, and months.
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Toll has worked his whole life. May said, it's a
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heck of a thing to see somebody like that still
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working as hard as he was, and he's hopeful to
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continue working someday. He's a tough son of a gun,
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hopeful to continue working someday. That's what happens when a
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professional athlete attacks you. You don't know if you'll be
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able to work again. Your face is permanently changed, your
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jaw doesn't work right, your speech is impaired, all because
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you were in the wrong alley when the wrong drunk
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celebrity decided you were parked in the wrong place. The
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lawsuit also goes after Fox Corporation the claim Fox knew
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or should have known about Sanchez's unfitness as an employee,
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propensity for drinking and or harmful conduct, and failed to
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supervise him properly. The suit accuses Fox of negligent hiring.
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That's a tough legal argument to win. Fox would have
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to know Sanchez had a history of getting drunk and
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attacking people, and hired him anyway or failed to supervise him.
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But it's worth filing because Fox has deeper pockets than Sanchez.
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You can get a judgment against Sanchez personally, but can
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you collect. Fox Corporation can definitely pay. On the criminal side,
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Sanchez posted a three hundred dollars bond after his arrest.
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Three hundred dollars that's what it cost to get out
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of jail after throwing a senior citizen toward a dumpster
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and getting charged with felony battery. He had an initial
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hearing scheduled for yesterday, but a judge granted a motion
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to waive the hearing. It's been rescheduled for November fifth.
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Sanchez still faces one felony battery charge carrying one to
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six years in prison, plus three misdemeanors battery resulting in injury,
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public intoxication, and unlawful entry of a motor vehicle. Marion
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County Prosecutor Ryan Mears was right when he said this
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was a situation that did not need to occur. We
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are literally talking about people fighting over a parking space,
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but it did occur, and now Perry Toll has permanent
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damage to his face, jaw and speech. Mark Sanchez faces
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criminal charges and a civil lawsuit. Fox Corporation is dragged
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into litigation over their analysts drunken parking dispute all over
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a parking space at twelve thirty in the morning in
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downtown indianas Apolis. That's the update. We'll follow both the
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criminal case and the civil lawsuit as they proceed. Now
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to Dallas, where Darien Brown pleaded guilty Monday to murdering
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four year old Cash Jernin. Brown now twenty two, entered
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the plea moments before his trial was set to begin
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life in prison without parole. May fifteenth, twenty twenty one.
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Five am. Home surveillance footage shows an unknown male entering
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a bedroom where four year old Cash Jernin and his
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twin brother are sleeping. The mail picks Cash up from
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his crib. Cash doesn't wake up. The mail carries the
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sleeping child out of the house. Nearly two hours later,
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seven am, a nine to one one caller reports finding
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an unresponsive child lying in a puddle of blood in
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the street eight blocks away. The child is dead, brutally
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murdered by eleven am. Cash is reported missing. Monica Sherid,
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the girl friend of Cash's father, identifies the man in
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the surveillance video, Darien Brown. She knew him he'd been
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to the house before. Brown's defense team claimed he'd recently
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been released from a mental health facility before the murder,
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that he suffered from hallucinations, that he was in a
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trance like state. In twenty twenty two, a judge found
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Brown incompetent to stand trial. He spent over two years
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in psychiatric custody. In January twenty twenty five, he was
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declared competent Monday morning, moments before trial, Brown pleaded guilty
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to first degree felony murder. The charge was reduced from
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capital murder in exchange for the plea life without parole.
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He'll die in Texas prison. After sentencing, prosecutors read victim
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impact statements from Cash's family. Trevor Gernon, Cash's father, wrote
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that his son's death has reduced him to a fraction
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of his former self, that he would have given his
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life to defend Cash, that initially he wanted the death
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penalty for Brown, but Cash's death wasn't painless or humane,
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so he wanted Brown to live out his life behind
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bars instead. That's both mercy and vengeance. Brown doesn't get execution,
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he gets decades of waking up knowing he murdered a
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four year old child, sixty years of carrying that weight.
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Mental illness explains behavior, it doesn't excuse murder. Brown was
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competent enough to enter a house, locate a child, remove
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him from his crib, and transport him eight blocks. That's
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planning an execution, not a trance. Cash Jernin should be
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eight years old now third grade, growing up with his
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twin brother. Instead, he's dead, murdered at four, his family destroyed.
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Because Darien Brown made a choice. Brown has sixty years
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to think about that choice. Locked in Texas prison, no parole,
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no second chance, just decades of consequences for what he
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did to an innocent child. To Cleveland, where opening statements
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began Tuesday in the trial of Bianca Ellis, accused of
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randomly stabbing three year old Julian Wood to death outside
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a grocery store June twenty twenty four. Margo Wood is
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shopping with her three year old son Julian at Giant
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Eagle in North Olmsted, Ohio. Just Saturday, errands a mom
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and her toddler getting groceries. Bianca Ellis, thirty two, goes
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to the Volunteers of America thrift store next door and
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steals two knives, then walks to Giant Eagle. She spots
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Margo pushing Julian in a shopping cart. Margo is returning
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to her car. Julian is sitting in the cart, probably
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tired from shopping. Ellis runs at them with a knife,
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no warning, no words, just runs directly at a woman
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and her three year old child. She stabs Julian multiple
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times while he sits in the shopping cart, while his
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mother stands right there. Margo tries to pull Julian to
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safe tries to protect her son. Ellis stabs her too.
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Margo survives, Julian doesn't. Three years old, murdered by a
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stranger in a grocery store parking lot. Authorities believe Margot
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and Julian were randomly targeted. Ellis didn't know them, no connection,
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no motive, just saw mother and child and decided to
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stab them. Ellis Is pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
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In September twenty twenty four, she was giggling in court
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during proceedings about the murder. That behavior led a judge
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to rule her incompetent. She spent five months in psychiatric treatment.
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In February twenty twenty five, she was deemed competent enough
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to stand trial. Opening statements began Tuesday. The prosecution laid
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out their case. Ellis stole knives, stalked a mother and child,
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attacked without provocation, murdered a three year old, and tried
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to kill his mother. They argue this wasn't mental illness,
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this was evil. The defense are ugues Ellis was so
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mentally ill she couldn't understand right from wrong that her
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giggling proved her disconnection from reality. That randomly murdering a
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three year old proves insanity, because no sane person would
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do that. But insanity doesn't mean this was crazy. Insanity
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means you didn't understand what you were doing or that
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it was wrong. Ellis stole knives before the attack, choose
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a weapon, went to a specific location, targeted specific victims,
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ran at them with purpose. That's not someone who doesn't
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understand reality. That's someone who understands exactly what they're doing
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and does it anyway. Julian Wood should be four years
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old now, starting pre k making friends, driving his mother
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crazy with questions. Instead, he's dead. Margo Wood is traumatized
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forever reliving the moment she tried and failed to save
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her son. Ellis faces ten felony charges, including murder and
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attempted murder if convicted, life in prison. If found not
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guilty by an insanity, indefinite commitment to a psychiatric facility.
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Either way, she never walks free. The trial continues this
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week will cover the verdict when it comes. For now
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a jury must decide whether Ellis is mentally ill or
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just evil hiding behind mental illness. We'll be right back
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with Daniel Stearns and the girlfriend he turned into eight
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hundred scattered bone fragments to Florida, where Daniel Lauren Stearns
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has been convicted of second degree murder, abuse of a
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dead human body, and tampering with evidence for killing his
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girlfriend Nancy Howery, then spending weeks trying to make her disappear.
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February fifteenth, twenty twenty three, Howery, forty four years old,
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divorced mother of two, spent her last morning with her
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friend Eana Ramos. They drank coffee together. Nancy talked about
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meeting Daniel Stearns, her on and off boyfriend. She face
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timed with him repeatedly. The conversations got heated. Around eleven
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thirty a m. Nancy left Ramos's house to meet Daniel.
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She was last seen alive leaving to meet him at
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a CVS parking lot. She never picked up her children
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from school that afternoon or the next day. Her ex
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husband Todd reported her missing. Police found Nancy's gray twenty
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fourteen Honda Odyssey abandoned in Palm Bay. Personal items and
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groceries were inside, her driver's license, her bank card, everything
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except Nancy. Investigators focused on Daniel Stearns. Todd Howery had
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an alibi backed by surveillance footage. Stearns was a thirty
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five year old US Army veteran who served an Afghanistan,
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trained in combative techniques and Iiketo martial arts, and when
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police talked to him on February nineteenth, he lied. Sterens
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told police he and Nancy had a falling out and
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he hadn't seen her in weeks. He claimed not to
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have her number, offered vague suggestions about where she could be,
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but flock license plate reader cameras told a different story.
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Stern's black Chevrolet Silverado was recorded repeatedly going to a
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location called the Compound, an undeveloped twelve point two square
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mile area in Palm Bay late at night, multiple trips.
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Something was happening out there. The Brevard County Sheriff's Office
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and the Game Over Task Force started surveillance on March eighth.
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They watched Stern's home around nine fifteen pm. They saw
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his truck at the residence early hours of March ninth.
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They saw him place an unknown item in the truck bed,
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handle a shovel, and move in and out of the
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truck several times. At four fifteen am, he left in
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the black pickup inside the compound. Agent Tyler Harrel hid
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overnight doing surveillance. He heard a loud metallic pinging sound.
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Later found freshly disturbed dirt with circular shovel like grind marks.
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Saw Stern's truck with a shovel in the bed. On
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March ninth, the Star Unit helicopter with infrared surveillance followed
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sterns watched him dump material from a bucket into a canal,
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then he was detained. Police found shovels, gloves, a tarp,
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and other items in his truck. Cadaver dogs were brought in.
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A dog named Tito, trained to detect decomposition odor, alerted
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on five different spots in the compound, five different locations.
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Nancy Howery wasn't buried in one place, she was scattered.
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Over the next several days, investigators recovered human remains from
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four different locations within the compound, not a body, fragments,
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over eight hundred bone fragments, skin fragments ranging from four
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to twenty nine centimeters, three pieces of skull bone with
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matted hair, skin fragments with fingernails showing red and gold
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nail polish, tooth evidence. Doctor Heather Walsh Hainey, forensic anthropologist
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from Florida Gulf Coast University, examined the fragments. Extreme fragmentation
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pieces ranging from half an inch to three point five
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inches consistent with fire damage and thermal exposure. She identified
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a semicircular defect with beveling on a skull fragment, a
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gunshot exit wound to the right temple area, also blunt
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forced trauma to the left side of the victim's head.
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All the fragments came from one person, Nancy Howery, confirmed
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by a fingerprint lifted from a skin fragment that matched
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Nancy's left middle finger. Doctor Matrina Schmidt, Associate medical Examiner,
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determined cause of death gunshot wound to the head. Manner
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of death homicide. Here's what happened according to the evidence.
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Even though the jury never heard Stern's confession, it was
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suppressed for Miranda violations. Sterens and Nancy met up after arguing,
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he claimed, she asked for a shooting lesson. They went
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to the compound. During the lesson, Sterne said Nancy lunged