June 4, 2026

Rick Chow Acquitted in the Cyrus Carmack-Belton Killing, the 'Tooth in the Ashes' Trial, and a Reality Star's Custody Win

Show Notes
Transcript

Here's where things stand this morning. In Columbia, South Carolina, a jury has found gas station owner Rick Chow not guilty of murder in the shooting death of fourteen-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton. In Juneau, Wisconsin, Zachariah Rasch is standing trial, accused of killing his estranged wife, Crystal Rasch, and burning her body in a pit on their property. And in Salt Lake City, Utah, reality star Taylor Frankie Paul has won back unsupervised time with her young son. Three cases.

Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!

Join the Daily Crime & Justice community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Daily Crime & Justice" on either platform.

You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Garret Fisher's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.

But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.

We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Garret's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:13.160
Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning and welcome to Daily Crime Injustice.

2
00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:17.480
I'm Garrett Fisher and it's Thursday, June fourth, twenty twenty six.

3
00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:22.039
Here's where things stand this morning. In Columbia, South Carolina,

4
00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:25.079
a jury has found gas station owner Rick Chow not

5
00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:27.920
guilty of murder in the shooting death of fourteen year

6
00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:32.960
old Cyrus Carmack Belton. In Juno, Wisconsin, Zachariah Rash is

7
00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:37.079
standing trial accused of killing his estranged wife, Crystal Rash

8
00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:39.439
and burning her body in a pit on their property.

9
00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:43.880
And in Salt Lake City, Utah, reality star Taylor Frankie

10
00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:47.280
Paul has won back unsupervised time with her young son.

11
00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:52.920
Three cases. Let's get into them. Look, I'm gonna be

12
00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.719
honest with you. Every one of today's cases comes down

13
00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:00.159
to the same thing. A person who is gone or

14
00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:03.240
a child caught in the middle, and a system deciding

15
00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:04.239
what that's worth.

16
00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:06.200
We start in South.

17
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.159
Carolina, where we brought you day one of the Rick

18
00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:11.680
Chow trial on Monday. It's over now, the verdict is

19
00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:13.920
in and I have some things to say about it.

20
00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:16.959
Then we go to Wisconsin to a trial with a

21
00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.000
name I haven't been able to shake all week. They're

22
00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:24.159
calling it the tooth. In the ashes, a wife vanishes,

23
00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:27.159
her husband tells a sheriff's deputy she's done this before.

24
00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:29.879
And investigators start digging in a burn pit out back.

25
00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:33.280
And we'll close with an update on a name you'll recognize,

26
00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:37.359
reality star Taylor Frankie Paul back in a courtroom, this

27
00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:41.280
time over her own little boy. I'm Garrett Fisher. This

28
00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:48.760
is Daily Crime in Justice. Let's go. Let me start

29
00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:51.400
by reminding you where we were, because we were standing

30
00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:54.799
right here in this story. On Monday, Columbia, South Carolina,

31
00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.640
May twenty eighth, twenty twenty three, a fourteen year old

32
00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:02.280
boy named Cyrus Karma Belton walks into a Shell gas

33
00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:07.120
station on Park Lane Road. Smart kid, funny kid, quick wit,

34
00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:10.520
well liked at Summit Parkway Middle School. He wanted to

35
00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.560
own a tattoo shop one day. He wanted to be famous.

36
00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:17.159
He was fourteen years old. The owner's wife asked him

37
00:02:17.159 --> 00:02:18.439
to take off his backpack.

38
00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:19.240
He does.

39
00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:22.199
He picks up four bottles of water, and then, on

40
00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.240
the store's own surveillance video, he puts each one of

41
00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:29.439
them back. Investigators went back and checked the footage afterward.

42
00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:35.400
Nothing was stolen. Nothing. He gets confronted. Anyway, there's a chase.

43
00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:38.520
The store owner, Rick Chow, sixty one years old and

44
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:41.520
his son go after this boy and it ends with

45
00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.479
Cyrus Carmack Belton shot in the back, dying in the street,

46
00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:49.240
a fourteen year old while a stranger gives him CPR

47
00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:50.840
and a man tries to clear.

48
00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:53.560
The vomit from his airway. That was the case.

49
00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.520
That's what we laid out for you Monday. Here's what

50
00:02:56.599 --> 00:03:00.439
happened since after three days of evidence, this case went

51
00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:02.960
to the jury. And it's the closing arguments I want

52
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.879
you to hear because they tell you exactly what each

53
00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:09.800
side was asking twelve people to believe. The prosecutor, Dale

54
00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:13.039
Scott stood up and asked the jury a simple question.

55
00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:17.039
Did this boy deserve to die? He pointed out it

56
00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:20.479
took investigators about seventeen minutes to confirm that nothing had

57
00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:25.080
ever been stolen, seventeen minutes, and he said Rick Chow

58
00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:27.439
could have just walked back into his own store and

59
00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:30.120
looked at his own surveillance video before any of this.

60
00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:34.000
He told them Cyrus would have been a rising senior

61
00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:37.280
right now. And he told them the boy died scared,

62
00:03:37.479 --> 00:03:40.719
bleeding out, and that the last face he ever saw

63
00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:43.879
was the face of the man who shot him. The

64
00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.560
defense told a completely different story. Their attorney told the

65
00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:50.960
jury this was never about water bottles. This was a

66
00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:53.680
father who saw a gun pointed at his son and

67
00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:58.080
made a decision in a split second. Chow's son testified

68
00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.719
that Cyrus pulled a gun, that he pointed it at him,

69
00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:03.280
and that he was terrified he was about to be shot.

70
00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:07.439
And here is the fact both sides actually agreed on

71
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:11.439
the one the whole case turned on. Cyrus Carmack Belton

72
00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:15.159
did have a gun on him. Even the detectives conceded

73
00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:19.680
that what they disputed, what everything hinged on, was whether

74
00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:22.800
he ever pointed it and whether any of that justified

75
00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:25.279
chasing a fleeing fourteen year old off your property and

76
00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:29.560
shooting him in the back. Multiple eyewitnesses testified they never

77
00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:32.720
saw a gun in his hands. They described a frightened

78
00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:35.600
kid running, holding his pants up with one hand, one

79
00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:39.199
shoe flying off as he sprinted away. The jury deliberated

80
00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.199
for about eight hours and they came back not guilty

81
00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:45.480
on all of it. When the verdict was read, there

82
00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:48.959
were shouts and there was crying in the gallery. Rick

83
00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.600
Chow sat there expressionless, next to his attorneys, and he

84
00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:55.800
walked out a freeman. Now, I want to be careful

85
00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:58.399
here because this is exactly the kind of case where

86
00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:00.800
I could just stand on a chair and yell, and

87
00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:05.240
that wouldn't honor anybody. So let me be precise. Twelve

88
00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:08.560
people sat in that courtroom. They heard testimony I didn't hear,

89
00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:11.439
and saw a video I didn't see, and under South

90
00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:16.040
Carolina law, including its stand your ground framework, they concluded

91
00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:19.519
the state had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

92
00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.000
That is the system, that is how it is supposed

93
00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:25.600
to work. I'm not going to sit here and tell

94
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.800
you that jury was corrupt or stupid, because I was

95
00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:30.279
not in that room and.

96
00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:33.680
Neither were you. But both things can be true.

97
00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.839
The jury can have followed the law exactly as they

98
00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:39.560
understood it, and a fourteen year old can still be

99
00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:42.160
dead over four bottles of water that he put back.

100
00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.399
Both of those are true. At the same time, a

101
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.759
man chased a child off his property and shot him

102
00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:50.600
in the back, and a jury said that was not murder.

103
00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:53.240
You're allowed to sit with that and not feel good

104
00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:56.399
about it, because there's a playbook for this, and you've

105
00:05:56.439 --> 00:05:59.480
seen it run before. A young black kid gets accused

106
00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:03.160
of stealing. Nobody checks the tape first, nobody slows down.

107
00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:07.120
The accusation becomes a chase, and the chase becomes a shooting,

108
00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:10.160
and by the time anybody confirms that nothing was ever

109
00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:13.920
actually taken, the kid is already dying on the pavement.

110
00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.800
Seventeen minutes to confirm the truth. Seventeen minutes that came

111
00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:23.079
too late for Cyrus. Cyrus Carmack Belton was fourteen years old.

112
00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:25.920
He wanted to open a tattoo shop. He wanted to

113
00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:29.560
be somebody. He should be finishing his sophomore year right now,

114
00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:34.199
annoying his teachers, texting his friends planning a summer Instead,

115
00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:37.040
his name is on a verdict sheet. Somebody has to

116
00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:41.879
say his name, so I will Cyrus Carmack Belton when

117
00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:45.040
we come back. A missing wife, a fake account with

118
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.399
no emojis, and a tooth and a fire pit.

119
00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:48.439
Stay with me.

120
00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:08.879
Welcome back to Daily Crime and Justice. I'm Garrett Fisher,

121
00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:11.399
and this next one, I want to give you the

122
00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:14.040
name they've given this trial up front because I have

123
00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:16.319
not been able to put it down all week. They

124
00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:20.639
are calling it the tooth in the Ashes Juno, Wisconsin.

125
00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:24.959
Let me introduce you to Crystal Rash, thirty seven years old,

126
00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:28.639
a mother by June of twenty twenty four. Her life

127
00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:31.399
was hard. She was going through a divorce from her husband,

128
00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.920
Zachariah Rash, and the state had removed their children and

129
00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:38.519
was moving to terminate their parental rights. That is a

130
00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:42.360
brutal stretch for anybody. But the prosecutor said something about

131
00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:44.759
Crystal that I want you to hold on to. He

132
00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:47.120
said she was not a woman phasing out of her

133
00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:48.000
own life.

134
00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:49.360
She was a woman.

135
00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:51.519
Still trying to hold onto the parts of it that

136
00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:56.639
mattered most. June eleventh, twenty twenty four, Crystal is seen

137
00:07:56.680 --> 00:07:59.839
on surveillance video out running errands and getting something to

138
00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:04.000
eat with her estranged husband. That is the last time

139
00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:07.920
anyone sees her alive. She isn't reported missing until twelve

140
00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.160
days later, June twenty third, by her stepmother and when

141
00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.079
a Dodge County Sheriff's deputy drives out to the Rash

142
00:08:15.079 --> 00:08:18.560
property to start asking questions. Here is what the body

143
00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:22.600
cam played for the jury this week shows. Zachariah Rash

144
00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:26.079
comes walking up toward the deputy. Prosecutors say he had

145
00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:28.920
been standing near a burn pit, and he tells the

146
00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:32.480
deputy flatly that he hasn't seen his wife in weeks.

147
00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.919
She's done this before. He says, she won't talk for

148
00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:39.200
a while and then she'll come back. No argument, he says.

149
00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.200
He just figures she's mad and letting herself cool off.

150
00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:45.440
That is the story he is selling. Now Here is

151
00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:48.440
the story the evidence tells. Cristel's best friend of twenty

152
00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.360
four years, a woman named Robin Reels, testified that right

153
00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:55.200
around this time, she started getting messages from an account

154
00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:59.399
she didn't recognize, claiming to be Crystal, and something was off.

155
00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:03.879
The messages didn't sound like her. No emojis, and Crystal

156
00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:07.440
always used emojis, and whoever it was would not get

157
00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:10.200
on the phone, would not send a photo, would not

158
00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:12.559
do the one thing that would prove she was alive.

159
00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:16.000
Robin put it plainly on the stand. No matter how

160
00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:18.679
mad Crystal ever got at her, she would always call.

161
00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:22.720
Prosecutors say Crystal never sent those messages at all. They

162
00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:26.120
say her husband sent them to buy himself time. It

163
00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:29.399
gets worse. While not one living person had laid eyes

164
00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:33.240
on Crystal, her debit card was still busy. Surveillance allegedly

165
00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:37.559
shows Zachariah Rash using his missing wife's card day after day,

166
00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:43.639
location after location, buying cleaning products, including Prosecutors say eight

167
00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:47.840
thirty two ounce bottles of drain cleaner and sulfuric acid,

168
00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:53.279
along with several cash withdrawals. Then investigators searched the property

169
00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:56.799
and they found multiple burn areas and in one of

170
00:09:56.840 --> 00:09:59.879
those burn pits, they recovered a tooth and a fragment

171
00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:04.519
of skull. The tooth match Crystal rashes dental records. The

172
00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:08.519
skull fragment matched her DNA, that is, the tooth in

173
00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:13.279
the ashes, that is a human being, a mother reduced

174
00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:15.679
to a fragment in a fire pit behind a house.

175
00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:19.240
And there is a car, a Mitsubishi found at a

176
00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.679
family property. Detectives say the seat belt, the front passenger seat,

177
00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:27.600
and the passenger door were saturated with blood. They said

178
00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:29.440
it looked like someone had tried to clean it up,

179
00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:33.240
but not nearly well enough. The blood was a match

180
00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:37.600
to crystal. And then there are the searches, because there

181
00:10:37.639 --> 00:10:41.679
are always the searches. Prosecutors say a dump of Zachariah

182
00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:46.120
Rash's phone records showed a progression. Before Crystal disappears, he

183
00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.240
is allegedly searching things like whether you die instantly from

184
00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:51.559
a gunshot to the head and how long you can

185
00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:55.639
collect widows benefits after she is gone. He is allegedly

186
00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:00.080
searching about cleaning, about bones, about sulphuric acid, about how

187
00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:03.679
how quickly police can get a warrant about missing persons alerts.

188
00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:06.840
People still think the delete key is some kind of

189
00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:10.240
confession booth where it all goes away. It is the

190
00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:14.440
opposite of that. It is a transcript. Now the defense,

191
00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:19.399
because this is a trial and Zachariah Rash is presumed innocent,

192
00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:22.360
and his lawyers have a theory and you deserve to

193
00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:26.759
hear it straight. His attorney, Zaki Zahawi, told the jury

194
00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:30.480
that prosecutors have this all wrong. He says Crystal Rash

195
00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:34.279
tragically took her own life while handling Zachariah's nine millimeter

196
00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:38.320
handgun in his car, that the gun discharged. He says

197
00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:41.159
his client panicked because it was his gun and there

198
00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:44.000
was a divorce pending, and he was convinced he would

199
00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:47.559
be blamed, so, by the defense's own account, he lied

200
00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:51.360
to his friends and family. He raised suspicions he disposed

201
00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:55.320
of her body. The defense concedes all of that. They

202
00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:58.000
concede that he lied and that he got rid of

203
00:11:58.039 --> 00:12:01.440
her remains. What they just scid is whether he killed her.

204
00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.440
So that is the question in front of this Wisconsin

205
00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:08.519
jury right now as we record this, not whether Zachariah

206
00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:11.840
Rash behaved like an innocent man. Even his own lawyers

207
00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:15.720
concede that he did not. The question is narrower and harder.

208
00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:20.039
Can the state prove he intentionally killed Crystal? Or was this,

209
00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:23.440
as the defense claims, a horrible accident followed by a

210
00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:27.440
guilty man's terrible choices. I'm going to let that sit

211
00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:31.200
because the trial is still going. There is no verdict yet,

212
00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:33.480
and we are going to follow it all the way through.

213
00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:35.799
But I'll tell you what I keep coming back to.

214
00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:40.360
Crystal Rash was thirty seven years old. She was living

215
00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:42.480
through one of the hardest years of her life, and

216
00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:44.679
the people who loved her say she was still reaching

217
00:12:44.759 --> 00:12:47.279
for the parts of it worth keeping. She had a

218
00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:50.360
best friend who knew instantly, from nothing more than the

219
00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:55.200
absence of emojis that something was deeply wrong. Because she

220
00:12:55.240 --> 00:13:00.279
knew Cristel would always always call. Nobody ever got that

221
00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:03.159
phone call. Somebody has to say her name while this

222
00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:07.320
jury does its work, Crystal Rash. When we come back,

223
00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:10.960
a reality star, a barstool, and a custody fight where

224
00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:30.519
both parents say they're the victim. Welcome back to Daily

225
00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:34.639
Crime and Justice. I'm Garrett Fisher. Last case today, and

226
00:13:34.679 --> 00:13:37.240
we are shifting gears out of a courtroom where a

227
00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.799
life ended and into a family court in Salt Lake City, Utah,

228
00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.759
where the fight is over a life that's just getting started,

229
00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:47.000
a two year old. Some of you will remember this one.

230
00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:50.240
Back in March, we covered Taylor Frankie Paul, the reality

231
00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:53.600
star from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives who had

232
00:13:53.639 --> 00:13:56.639
been announced as the lead of The Bachelorette before ABC

233
00:13:56.840 --> 00:14:00.320
pulled the entire season. The reason it got pulled was

234
00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:03.559
a piece of surveillance video from twenty twenty three tied

235
00:14:03.559 --> 00:14:06.600
to a criminal case that showed Paul in a violent

236
00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:11.320
altercation with her then boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, including picking up

237
00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:14.639
a metal barstool. Her young daughter was in the room

238
00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:17.679
for it. That was the story in March. Here is

239
00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:21.519
the next chapter. Paul and Mortensen share a two year

240
00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:24.919
old son and they have spent this spring accusing each

241
00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:28.960
other of domestic abuse. At an earlier hearing, a judge

242
00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:30.840
ordered the two of them to stay at least one

243
00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:34.559
hundred feet apart, gave Mortenson full custody of their son,

244
00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:37.519
and ordered Paul, who had previously had most of the

245
00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:42.320
custody time, to see the toddler only under supervision. Both

246
00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:47.120
parents were ordered to undergo psychological evaluations. This past Monday,

247
00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:50.080
June first, they were back in court and Paul's side

248
00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:53.720
one around her attorney argued that she has taken ownership,

249
00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:56.639
that she has done the evaluation, that she has taken

250
00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:00.639
concrete steps, and that Mortenson, in his work words, had

251
00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:04.799
not even started the race. Mortensen's attorney pushed right back

252
00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:07.559
and told the judge his client is the documented victim

253
00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:10.480
of domestic violence here and that what he hears coming

254
00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:13.320
from Paul's camp online isn't acceptance at all.

255
00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:16.399
It is over and over. He's the abuser.

256
00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:20.919
And the judge, Judge Russell Menis, said something I thought

257
00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:24.279
was the most honest line in the whole transcript. He said,

258
00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:26.039
both of them have a sense that they are the

259
00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:30.480
victims and not the perpetrators, and in his words, he

260
00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:34.759
gets that that is the whole thing, isn't it. And look,

261
00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:36.879
I'm going to be honest with you. This is a

262
00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:40.120
case where both things can be true. Two people can

263
00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:44.159
each be genuinely convinced they are the wrong party, harm

264
00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:47.480
can run in more than one direction inside the same relationship,

265
00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:50.120
and a court can stare at a mountain of evidence

266
00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:52.919
and a pile of social media posts and still have

267
00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:54.799
to make a call on behalf of a two year

268
00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:58.000
old who cannot say a word for himself. The judge

269
00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.240
said he favored Baby Steps. He lifted the supervision requirement.

270
00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.240
Paul now gets one weekday and alternating weekends with her son,

271
00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:09.120
not the roughly seventy percent of the time she was

272
00:16:09.159 --> 00:16:13.960
asking to get back Baby Steps, but unsupervised time with

273
00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:17.080
her own child again. The two of them are due

274
00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.159
back in court on July eighth. Here is where I land.

275
00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:23.360
I'm not here to crown a winner in a custody fight.

276
00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.960
That is the court's job, and the court is clearly

277
00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:30.440
trying to move carefully, which is exactly the right instinct

278
00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:33.200
when there's a kid in the middle. But I'll say

279
00:16:33.240 --> 00:16:35.960
this much. The one person in this entire story who

280
00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:38.840
didn't pick any of it, who didn't pick the relationship

281
00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:41.759
or the fame, or the cameras or the fight is

282
00:16:41.799 --> 00:16:45.240
that two year old him and the eight year old

283
00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:47.600
daughter who was in the room for the last one.

284
00:16:48.360 --> 00:16:52.559
Accountability doesn't have a legal department, and neither does childhood.

285
00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:56.159
Whatever these two adults decide they are to each other,

286
00:16:56.519 --> 00:16:59.879
those kids are watching, and both of these parents would

287
00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:03.000
do well to remember that the real audience here was

288
00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:12.640
never the one online. That's Daily Crime and Justice for Thursday,

289
00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:16.440
June fourth, twenty twenty six. In South Carolina, gas station

290
00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:19.440
owner Rick Chow was found not guilty in the shooting

291
00:17:19.480 --> 00:17:23.359
death of fourteen year old Cyrus Carmack Belton. A jury

292
00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:27.640
followed the law a child is still gone. In Wisconsin,

293
00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:31.960
the trial of Zachariah Rash the Tooth in the Ashes continues,

294
00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:35.200
with his wife Crystal's remains found in a burn pit

295
00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:38.480
and his own lawyers conceding he lied and disposed of

296
00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:42.200
her body while disputing that he killed her. No verdict yet,

297
00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:46.039
we will be on it. And in Utah, reality star

298
00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:49.480
Taylor Frankie Paul won back unsupervised time with her two

299
00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:53.160
year old son. Both parents head back to court July eighth.

300
00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:56.680
If today's show meant something to you. Do me a favor,

301
00:17:56.920 --> 00:18:00.799
Share this episode, tell a friend. Word of mouth is

302
00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:03.359
how a show like this one survives, and yours is

303
00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:07.759
the recommendation people actually trust. And if you're listening on Spotify,

304
00:18:08.119 --> 00:18:10.720
drop a comment. Tell me where you land on that

305
00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.640
Chow verdict, because I read them and I want to know.

306
00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:17.480
Same goes for YouTube and wherever else you're tuning in from.

307
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:23.079
I'm Garrett Fisher, Cyrus Carmack, Belton, Crystal Rash. Somebody has

308
00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:27.000
to say your names. We just did do better. A

309
00:18:27.079 --> 00:18:31.640
note on today's reporting. The Zachariah Rash trial in Wisconsin

310
00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:32.519
is ongoing.

311
00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:35.319
As of this recording, no verdict has been reached.

312
00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.960
Mister Rash has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent.

313
00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:43.160
The defense's account that Crystal Rash's death was a self

314
00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:47.759
inflicted or accidental shooting, and that mister Rash's only wrongdoing

315
00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:51.279
was lying to others and concealing her body is the

316
00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:54.240
defense's theory, not established facts.

317
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:56.920
The allegations regarding.

318
00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:00.119
His purchases, the messages, the physical evidence, and his his

319
00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:04.880
online searches are the prosecution's allegations to be proven at trial.

320
00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:09.000
Rick Chow was tried and found not guilty. He stands

321
00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:13.039
acquitted of all charges. The dispute between Taylor, Frankie Paul

322
00:19:13.079 --> 00:19:17.079
and Dakota Mortensen is a family court custody matter, not

323
00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:20.400
a criminal case, and both parties have accused the other

324
00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:24.200
of domestic abuse. Nothing in this program is a finding

325
00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:28.240
against either parent, and their case continues. All details are

326
00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:31.400
drawn from Court TV's reporting and from court proceedings, and

327
00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:35.519
were accurate as of recording. This program is for information

328
00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:38.680
and commentary only and is not legal advice.