April 24, 2026

THE KILLER’S MOTHER TAKES THE STAND: ATHENA STRAND DEFENSE BEGINS, D4VD AUTOPSY REVEALED

THE KILLER’S MOTHER TAKES THE STAND: ATHENA STRAND DEFENSE BEGINS, D4VD AUTOPSY REVEALED
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Plus: a trial date for the Florida man who allegedly murdered a suicidal British woman he met online, and a Salvadoran housekeeper sues Kylie Jenner.

Garret Fisher returns to the Athena Strand trial as the defense’s mitigation case opens in Fort Worth with testimony from Tanner Horner’s mother. Before that, jurors heard from Athena’s parents, the forensic DNA team, and the audio of her final moments. Then: the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner finally reveals the cause of death for 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found last September in a Tesla registered to the singer known as David. Plus a new story — a November trial date set for Dwain Hall, the 54-year-old Ocala man charged with murdering Sonia Exelby, a 32-year-old from Portsmouth, England, who flew to Florida after two years of messaging him on a fetish website. And a housekeeper sues Kylie Jenner and the companies that staff her Hidden Hills home, alleging a “toxic and abusive” workplace that mocked her religion, her nationality, and her immigration status.

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WEBVTT

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Kalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Garrett Fischer. This is

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Daily Crime Injustice, Friday, April twenty fourth, twenty twenty six.

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I want to start with a sentence I've been turning

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over in my head since yesterday afternoon, when Tanner Horner's

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mother sat on a witness stand in a Fort Worth

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courtroom and spoke for hours about her life. Look, I'm

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going to be honest with you. I watched a lot

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of that testimony, and there is nothing in it that

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I would wish on any child in this world. What

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that woman described, the sexual abuse she endured beginning at

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the age of four, the decades of addiction that followed,

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the strip clubs, and the rehab, and the bipolar and

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the schizo effective disorder. That is a lifetime of suffering.

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She was dealt a hand that maybe two percent of

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human beings in this country ever have to hold. And

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the defense put her on the stand in Fort Worth

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for a reason. They put her there because they want

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twelve Texans to look at the man who strangled seven

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year old Athena Strand in the back of a FedEx

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van while singing jingle bell rock. And they want those

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twelve Texans to see that man as the sum of

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his mother's pain. That is the argument. That is the playbook,

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and we're going to walk through it today because that

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is what happens in a capital sentencing phase. The defense

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builds a biography designed to stop a jury from reaching

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for the needle. And here's the thing about that biography.

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Most of it, probably almost all of it, is true.

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His mother did drink while she was pregnant. He was

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exposed to lead as a child, he was bullied, he

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was diagnosed with Asperger's and ADHD. He grew up with

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a mother who cycled through rehab centers while her kids

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bounce between her and her mother. All of that can

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be true, and a seven year old girl named Athena

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Strand can still be dead because Tanner Horner, thirty five

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years old, a grown man, a FedEx driver, decided to

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put his hands around her neck and squeeze. Both of

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those things can sit in the same courtroom. They have to.

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That is what the jury is being asked to weigh.

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We have three more stories after that. The Los Angeles

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County Medical Examiner released the cause of death for a

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Celeste Revas Hernandez yesterday. We now know how she died,

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and it is worse than the public has been told

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for seven months. Down in Okalla, Florida, a judge set

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a November trial date for a man accused of murdering

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a British woman who flew across the Atlantic to meet him.

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And prosecutors are offering exactly one thing, life in prison,

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take it or leave it. And a Salvadoran housekeeper filed

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suit in Los Angeles against Kylie Jenner, her companies, and

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the staff who allegedly told her that. And I am

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quoting from the complaint here. Catholics are horrible people. Let's

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get into it. We have been with this trial since

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it began. You know this case. You know what Tanner

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Horner did to Athena Strand. On the evening of November thirtieth,

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twenty twenty two, he pleaded guilty to capital murder and

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aggravated kidnapping, the morning his trial was supposed to start

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on April seventh, and since then, the only question in

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front of the jury has been whether he lives in

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prison for the rest of his life or whether the

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State of Texas executes him. That's it. That's the only question.

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Since we last updated, you the trial has moved through

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three crucial days, Days seven, eight, and nine, and the

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shape of it has changed. The prosecution has now rested,

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the defense has now begun its mitigation case, and I

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want to walk you through what happened in between, because

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these three days are the emotional center of this proceeding.

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Day seven, the DNA and A mother Day seven was Wednesday,

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April fifteenth. That day, the jury heard from multiple DNA

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experts from the Texas Department of Public Safety crime Lab.

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Forensic scientists Erica Renaga, Amber Moss, Elizabeth Seastrunk, Ruby Kelly,

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and Kristin Casota all testified in sequence about what was

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found and what was not found on Athena Strand's body.

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And I want to be honest about what they said

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because this is the evidence question in the case, and

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the defense is going to fight it hard. The initial

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DNA testing, what's called autosomal str testing, was inconclusive. The

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lab tried to pull a DNA profile from a vaginal

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swab taken during autopsy. They got a mixture, and because

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the victims DNA overpowered whatever male DNA was present, the

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result weekly excluded Horner as a contributor. That's what the

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lab put in the report weekly excluded. But here's what

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happened next. The lab ran a second round of testing,

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a more sensitive technique called y S TI he are testing,

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which specifically targets male DNA. They ran that test on vaginal, anal,

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and oral swabs from Athena's body, and in that testing

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Tanner Horner could not be excluded as a contributor. His

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DNA profile was and I'm reading from the labs language

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consistent with the male DNA recovered from Athena's body, though

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the expert stopped short of calling it a definitive match.

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So two things are true. The chief medical examiner, doctor

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Jessica Dwyer, who performed Athena's autopsy and testified earlier in

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the trial, found no visible signs of sexual trauma to

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Athena's body, and the YSTR DNA testing placed male genetic

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material consistent with Tanner Horner's profile on vaginal and anal

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swabs from a seven year old girl. You can hold

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both of those findings and ask yourself what happened in

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the back of that van. I'm not going to pretend

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to know. I'm going to tell you that Horner has

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denied from the jail letters to the day he pleaded

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guilty that he sexually assaulted her. And I'm going to

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tell you that the y s TR results are not nothing.

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A jury is allowed to consider that. A jury is

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going to consider that. And then on that same day,

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Maitland Gandy took the stand. Maitland Gandy is Athena's mother.

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Court TV reported her testimony. She described her daughter Athena

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was playful, she was happy, she was deeply loved. They

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showed photos of her in court, the kind of photos

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any parent has of a seven year old, the candid ones,

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the ones where the kid is laughing with her mouth open,

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the ones where you can see every tooth. And Maitland

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Gandy on the stand said she felt like she was

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dying the day she learned her daughter was missing. That's

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how she put it, I felt like I was dying.

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The reporting also noted that during her testimony, Tanner Horner

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fought back tears. Whatever that means. I don't weigh the

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tears of a man who strangled a seven year old.

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Neither does the jury, but I'll mention it. Day eight

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the father the audio the prosecution rests Day eight was Thursday,

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April sixteenth, two pieces of testimony. The first was Jacob Strand,

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Athena's father, and Jacob Strand's testimony is what you would

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expect from the father of a murdered seven year old,

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except that it is also worse than that. Jacob Strand

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testified about the barbie dolls Tanner Horner delivered to the

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house in the FedEx package the day of the murder.

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Those barbies were Athena's Christmas present. Jacob Strand bought those

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for his daughter for Christmas, and then he spent time

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with his kids before leaving on a hunting trip with

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his own father. And while he was gone, a stranger

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knocked on the door with those barbies and killed his

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little girl. Jacob Strand said in court that he feels guilty,

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that he feels like he wasn't there to protect her.

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That's what he told the jury. Now I'm gonna say

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something about that in a second. The second piece of

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testimony on day eight was Texas ranger Job Espinoza recalled

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to the stand, and Espinoza's testimony is where things got

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very dark in that courtroom. Espinosa walked the jury through

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dashcom video from November thirtieth, twenty twenty two, the day

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of the murder. The video showed Tanner Horner in the

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FedEx van using sticky notes to cover up the cameras

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inside the vehicle. The morning of the murder, at four

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h nine PM, he covered the front facing camera. Then

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at five point thirty pm he arrived at the Strand residence.

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Ranger Espinoza testified that after the murder, some of Athena's

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clothes were taken off her body and placed in a bag.

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Her underwear and her pants were put into Horner's backpack.

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Those items were later found at his home, and then

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the ranger played the audio. The FedEx van had audio recording,

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so there is a recording of what happened in the

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back of that van in the minutes after Horner struck

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Athena with the truck. The jury heard it. The prosecution

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played it. On that recording, Tanner Horner can be heard

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singing jingle bell rock while a seven year old girl screamed.

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I'm not going to describe that recording any further. I'm

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not going to editorialize. There is a podcast industry that

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would spend forty five minutes reconstructing what was on that audio.

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That's not what this show does. I'll tell you the

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jury heard it. I'll tell you it was played in

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open court. I'll tell you that after the audio, after

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the dash cam, after the pants and the underwear, and

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the cleaning up of the van at the Love's truck stop,

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and the hours that followed. The prosecution rested its case

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day nine, the defendant's mother. Day nine was yesterday, Wednesday,

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April twenty second. The defense opened its mitigation case and

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the first witness they called was Tanner Horner's mother. Short

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livestream kept her face blurred. She is referred to in

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court records only as Missus Horner. Her testimony went on

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for hours, and I've read the coverage from NBCDFW and

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from Court TV and from the Daily Mail. Let me

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walk you through what she said. Missus Horner was born

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to a teenage mother. Her parents divorced when she was

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one year old. She was sexually abused by her stepfather

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beginning at the age of four. She told the jury,

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and I'm paraphrasing the language here, that she does not

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remember having dreams as a child, that she did not

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have a childhood. Those were her words. She went to

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rehab for the first time. At fourteen, she dropped out

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of high school. She got a job at a strip

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club in Fort Worth as a teenager. That is where

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she met the man who would become her husband and

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Tanner Horner's father. She told the jury he raped her

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the night they met. She told the jury she married

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him at nineteen. Anyway, it was not for love, that

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is how she put it. She used heroin for twenty

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five years. She is currently on methadone. She has been

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diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizo effective disorder. She drank

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while pregnant with Tanner. She said she drank heavily enough

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to develop cirrhosis, and she did not find out she

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was pregnant until she was roughly eight and a half

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weeks along. Even after she knew, she continued to smoke

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cigarettes in marijuana. She told the jury she relapsed on

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drugs when Tanner was two years old. She described nodding

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out on the toilet and Tanner as a toddler walking

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in and believing his mother was dead. The defense's argument,

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and they are being direct about this, is that Tanner

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Horner arrived in this world carrying damage. He did not

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choose prenatal alcohol exposure, led exposure as a child Asperger's

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a DHD, a mother in and out of rehab and

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in and out of prostitution, arrests, a childhood where he

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and his younger brother moved between their mother and their grandmother,

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where Tanner was bullied so severely that he would hit

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himself in the head. The defense wants the jury to

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weigh all of that when they decide whether he should

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be executed. That's the case they're making. And I want

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to say two things about it. The first is, as

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I said at the top of this show, I believe

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almost all of it is true. That is a real

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and terrible childhood, and the damage of prenatal alcohol exposure

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and early let exposure is not made up. It is

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documented studied science. Brains grow wrong under those conditions. That

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is real. The second thing I want to say is

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this Missus Horner, when the defense asked her on direct

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examination whether she was angry with her son given what

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he pleaded guilty to, said, and this is a direct

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quote from the reporting. I want to just tear his

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ass up. She was just a baby, that's her, that's

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his mother. And she said on the stand that she

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no longer believes her son's claim that he didn't rape

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be Athena strand she no longer believes him. So the

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defense put on a mitigation witness who, under questioning, set

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out loud in front of the jury that she doesn't

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believe her own son's account of what happened in the

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back of that FedEx van. That is a remarkable moment.

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I don't know what twelve Texans do with that. I

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don't know what they are supposed to do with that.

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Also on day nine, the defense called doctor John Edens,

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a psychologist and professor who does exactly this kind of

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capital mitigation work. His testimony is still in progress. I

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expect we will get more from him on Monday, along

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with more defense witnesses, and then a rebuttal case from

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the prosecution, and then closing arguments, and then a jury

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that has to go into a room and answer two questions.

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Is Tanner Horner a continuing threat to society? And is

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there sufficient mitigating evidence the brain damage, the mother, the childhood,

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all of it to warrant a sentence less than death.

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Both answers have to be unanimous for the needle. Any

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disagreement had any step and it becomes life without parole.

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We will be here when the closings come. Athena's name

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is still Athena Strand. She was seven. She loved to

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draw in color. She was sorting laundry in a converted

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storage shed that was her bedroom when she answered the

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door to a bedex driver who had been watching her house,

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say her name. We have been on the David case.

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That's D four VD pronounced David since last fall, when

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Celeste Revas Hernandez was found in a tesla at a

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Hollywood tow yard. We covered the arrest of David Anthony Burke.

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On Monday, we covered the formal filing of first degree

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murder charges with three special circumstances. On Wednesday, today, the

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Los Angeles County Medical Examiner filed the last piece of

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this picture we have been waiting seven months to see.

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Wednesday afternoon, the emme's office released Celeste's cause of death.

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They had been holding it under seal while the investigation proceeded.

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Chief Medical Examiner doctor Odi Ukpo said in a written

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statement that he was grateful this information could finally be

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released to the public and to the grieving family. Here's

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what the report says. Celestrevas Hernandez, aged fourteen, died of

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multiple penetrating injuries caused by object or objects manner of

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death homicide. What that means in plain English is that

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she was stabbed. The autopsy report was obtained by Rolling

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Stone and by E News and by NBC Los Angeles.

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It describes two stab wounds, one on the right side

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of her upper abdomen that perforated her liver and went

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about one and a half inches deep, a second on

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her left lower chest that when at least two inches deep.

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She was wearing a tube top underwear, black leggings, and

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black socks when she was found. The tube top had

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quote multiple holes in the front and the back. Now

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you will notice that does not match the description the

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district attorney gave at Monday's press conference when Hochman said

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Celeste was killed with quote a sharp instrument. That language

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was chosen carefully. Theme says object or objects, which has

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broader the DA says sharp instrument, which is more specific

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either way. The prosecution theory is that she walked into

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David's house on April twenty third, twenty twenty five, which

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I remind you is the same day tickets went on

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pre sale for his world tour, and she was stabbed

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to death in that house, and then her body was

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kept somewhere for roughly twelve days, and then on or

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around May fifth, according to prosecutors, she was dismembered. The

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autopsy describes the state of her body when it was

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00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:43.600
recovered in September. I am going to report this because

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the facts of this case matter, and because we do

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not sanitize this show. Celeste's arms and legs had been

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quote dismembered into several fragments. Her body had undergone liquefaction

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from decomposition. She could not be fingerprinted because of waterlogged fis.

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The report notes that her left ring finger and pinky

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finger appear to have been mutilated. Those fingers were not found.

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They were not recovered from the tesla. They have not

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been recovered anywhere. The one small mercy in the report,

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and it is a very small one, the distinctive tattoo

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that identified her body, the one on her right index

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finger that read SSH. The same tattoo on the same

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finger that David Burke also has that survived. That is

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how they knew it was her. There is one more finding.

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I want to mention the toxicology screening returned presumptive positives

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for benzodiazepines that's a class of prescription anxiety medication, and

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for methamphetamine and MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy. I want

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00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:51.440
to be careful with that finding because presumptive means preliminary,

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not confirmed. The full toxicology will be folded into the

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prosecution's case. But it suggests she was drugged before she

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was killed. It is consistent with the lying in wait

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00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:06.200
special circumstance the DA filed on Monday. It is consistent

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00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:10.720
with premeditation. David Anthony Burke, who is twenty one years old,

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00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:14.720
is being held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty

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through his attorney, Blair Burke. Burke has said the evidence

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will show her client is innocent. That is what good

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00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:25.559
defense lawyers say. And Blair Burke is a very good

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defense lawyer. And David Burke has the money to afford. One.

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00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:33.640
Celeste Revas Hernandez was fourteen when she died. The day

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her body was discovered, September eighth, twenty twenty five, would

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have been her fifteenth birthday. Say her name. I'm going

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to introduce you to a case we have not talked

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00:18:47.559 --> 00:18:50.200
about on this show before, and I have to warn

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00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:53.000
you before we get into it. This segment is going

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00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:57.079
to discuss suicide, self harm, and the sexual exploitation of

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a mentally ill woman. If that's not something you can

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00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:03.519
sit with right now, skip ahead about eleven minutes, no

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00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:07.000
hard feelings. If you are someone you know needs help,

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the nine eight to eight Suicide in Crisis Lifeline is

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available in the United States. That's just nine eight eight

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from any phone. Mental health resources will be at the

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end of this episode. Okay, here's the case. On Wednesday afternoon,

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00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:24.759
in a Marion County, Florida courtroom, a judge set a

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trial date of November sixteenth, twenty twenty six for a

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00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:31.400
fifty four year old man named Dwayne Hall. Hall is

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charged with first degree premeditated murder and kidnapping. The state

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00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:39.680
is not offering anything less than life in prison. Those

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00:19:39.720 --> 00:19:44.480
are the only terms, life or a trial. The victim

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in this case is a woman named Sonia Exelby. She

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was thirty two years old. She was from Portsmouth, England.

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She had a long term partner named Stevie and a

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cat named Merrill, and a life in the United Kingdom.

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She also had serious mental illness that had been getting

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00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:02.759
war worse. She had attempted to take her own life

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00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:05.880
before her family and her partner knew she was struggling.

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In October of twenty twenty four, according to the affidavit

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00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:12.920
in this case, Sonia began communicating with a man on

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a fetish website. That man was Dwayne Hall. He was

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fifty three at the time. He lived in O'calla, Florida.

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On that website, according to prosecutors, Hall used the profile

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name Alpha Sadist. They communicated for approximately two years. At

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00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:34.599
some point those conversations moved off the website and onto Discord,

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a private messaging platform. On Discord, according to the arrest affidavit,

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Sonia told Hall that she wanted to die. She wanted

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00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.960
someone to kill her, and over the course of months, Hall,

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according to Florida investigators, positioned himself as the person who

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would do it. On October tenth, twenty twenty five, Sonya

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Exelby boarded a plane from the United Kingdom. She flew

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00:20:57.480 --> 00:21:00.880
to Gainesville, Florida. Dwayne Hall picked up up at the airport.

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He took her to an Airbnb cabin in a rural

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area called Reddick, northwest of Okalla. She was supposed to

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fly home on October thirteenth. She did not get on

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that plane. Her partner called UK authorities. UK authorities called Interpol.

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Interpol called the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and investigators

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00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:23.920
tracing charges on Sonya's debit card to a business in

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Florida located Dwayne Hall. Four days after her return flight,

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Sonia's body was found in a shallow grave in the

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00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:35.599
woods in Marion Oaks. She had been stabbed four times.

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The wounds were four to seven inches deep. A knife,

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believed to be the murder weapon, was later recovered. Hall

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00:21:42.680 --> 00:21:45.400
had mailed it to a friend in Ohio. Her blood

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00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:48.839
was on the knife. A shovel was recovered with DNA

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00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:52.359
from both Hall and Sonya, and there is on Hall's

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00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:57.480
phone a deleted video. That video was recovered by forensic investigators.

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Reporters who have reviewed the affidavit dish describe what is

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00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:07.119
on it. Sonya bruised. Sonya visibly upset Sonia in that video,

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00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:12.279
answering what the investigators describe as disclaimer questions. Questions. Hall

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00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:15.000
was asking her on camera to create a record of

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her consent. She is described in the affidavit as hesitant, tearful,

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looking down, not looking at the camera, swallowing hard, exhaling.

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In another exchange, Hall allegedly told investigators that if he

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00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.599
were compelled to help Sonya take her own life, he

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would take her to a place in the Everglades called

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Alligator Alley, where quote local predators would have taken care

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00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:45.880
of her. When investigators directly asked Hall whether he killed Sonya,

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Hall declined to answer. He said, quote, She's happy now

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because she got what she wanted. I want to stop

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00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:56.599
there and talk about what is actually going on here,

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00:22:57.160 --> 00:22:59.039
because the framing that is going to come out of

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00:22:59.079 --> 00:23:01.599
the defense in this and has already come out in

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00:23:01.640 --> 00:23:04.319
some of the British tabloid coverage, is going to be

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00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:08.279
that this was a suicide pact, that this was consensual,

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that this was two adults and a dark kink and

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00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:14.279
a woman who wanted what she got. There's a British

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00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:17.759
criminologist named alex Esat who has written about this case,

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00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:20.319
and she said it clearly, so let me just pass

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00:23:20.359 --> 00:23:23.519
her framing along. She said Hall's role was never the

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00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:26.839
role of a participant in a mutual fantasy. She said

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00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:29.599
he did not need to persuade Sonya Xelby of anything.

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He needed only to validate herself. Annihilation. That is the

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00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:36.440
word she used, validate. And I want to add to that.

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00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:39.720
I want to say as directly as I can, that

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00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:42.039
there is no such thing as consent to be tortured

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00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:44.640
to death. You cannot sign away that right, you cannot

393
00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:48.000
discord your way into it. The legal term for what

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00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:51.960
Hall is accused of is first degree premeditated murder, and

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00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.160
it is first degree premeditated murder because the law of Florida,

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00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.000
like the law of every state in this country, says,

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00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:01.039
the life of a mental, life ill thirty two year

398
00:24:01.079 --> 00:24:04.119
old woman does not become a man's to take away

399
00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:07.079
just because she asked him to take it. That is

400
00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:10.240
not how consent works. That is not how any of

401
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:15.759
this works. There is also this. Sonya Xelby's text messages

402
00:24:15.799 --> 00:24:17.720
to a friend during the days she was in that

403
00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:23.079
Airbnb cabin express fear. They express regret, They express a

404
00:24:23.079 --> 00:24:26.279
woman who wanted out. She wrote to a friend that

405
00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:29.880
Hall kept taking her phone, that she was sorry that

406
00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:32.039
he had told her the only way out was for

407
00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:36.480
her to shoot him, that she was questioning everything, that

408
00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:40.640
she couldn't kill anyone. Those are not the messages of

409
00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:44.599
a woman in a suicide pact. Those are the messages

410
00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:46.799
of a woman who went somewhere she shouldn't have gone,

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00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:49.480
and realized it too late and could not get out.

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00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:54.200
The prosecution offer is life in prison. Hall's trial starts

413
00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:57.160
November sixteenth. It is expected to last about a week.

414
00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:00.359
We will bring you updates. There is a playbook for this.

415
00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:03.920
It is older than the Internet. There are men who

416
00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:07.119
find women in pain and position themselves as the person

417
00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:12.240
who understands, as the mentor. That's what Hall called himself,

418
00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:16.960
a mentor. Sonia Exelby wasn't looking for a mentor. She

419
00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:19.960
was looking for a way to stop hurting. And what

420
00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:22.680
she found was a man who saw her mental illness

421
00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:27.279
as his opportunity. Accountability doesn't have a legal department, but

422
00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:29.640
it does have a jury and it has a courtroom.

423
00:25:29.799 --> 00:25:33.160
And starting November sixteenth in Ocala, Florida, one is going

424
00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:35.039
to be asked what to do about a man who

425
00:25:35.079 --> 00:25:37.559
said of a woman he met online for two years

426
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:41.039
and then allegedly stabbed four times in the woods quote

427
00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:45.480
she's happy now. Her name was Sonia Exelby. She had

428
00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:49.440
a cat named Merrill. She was thirty two, say her name.

429
00:26:05.640 --> 00:26:08.160
We are going to close today with a civil lawsuit.

430
00:26:08.440 --> 00:26:11.279
No one died in this one, which, after the hour

431
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:15.880
we have just spent together, is a small grace. On Friday,

432
00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:20.480
April seventeen, a woman named Angelica Hernandez Vasquez filed an

433
00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:23.960
eleven cause of action civil complaint in Los Angeles County

434
00:26:23.960 --> 00:26:29.440
Superior Court. The defendants are Kylie Jenner personally Kylie Jenner Incorporated,

435
00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:35.720
her company TriStar Services LLLC, le Maison Family Services LLLC,

436
00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:40.000
and twenty five unnamed individuals who are listed as does

437
00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:43.599
one through twenty five, which is standard legal practice when

438
00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:46.200
you believe someone on staff was involved and you don't

439
00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:51.160
yet have their name. The plaintiff, Angelica Hernandez Vasquez, describes

440
00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:53.839
herself in the complaint as a Salvadoran woman and a

441
00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:58.160
practicing Catholic. She worked as a housekeeper. She started on

442
00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:02.480
September tenth, twenty twenty four, at Kylie Jenner's Beverly Hills home.

443
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:05.440
About a week later, she was transferred over to the

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00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:09.079
Hidden Hills residence. At Hidden Hills, she was supervised by

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00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:12.480
two people. The complaint names only by first name, A

446
00:27:12.519 --> 00:27:16.640
head housekeeper identified as Patsy, and another supervisor identified as

447
00:27:16.680 --> 00:27:20.359
Elsie Vasquez worked there for just under a year. She

448
00:27:20.519 --> 00:27:23.880
resigned in August of twenty twenty five, and her complaint

449
00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:26.799
describes what happened in that year. She alleges she was

450
00:27:26.839 --> 00:27:30.160
treated with quote hostility and exclusion. From her first day

451
00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:33.440
on the job, she was assigned the most difficult and

452
00:27:33.640 --> 00:27:37.839
undesirable tasks. She was excluded from the housekeeping team. She

453
00:27:38.039 --> 00:27:41.359
was publicly belittled and humiliated in front of co workers.

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00:27:42.039 --> 00:27:45.240
She alleges she was intimidated and demeaned on the basis

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00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:49.680
of her race, her national origin, her religion, and her

456
00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:54.799
immigration status. Specifically, she alleges she was told, and I

457
00:27:54.839 --> 00:28:00.519
am quoting from the complaint, Catholics are horrible. People were

458
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:03.759
snapped at her while she was shouted at. In March

459
00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:06.440
of twenty twenty five, after she raised a formal complaint

460
00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:09.680
about how she was being treated, a supervisor allegedly threw

461
00:28:09.720 --> 00:28:13.680
clotheshangers at her feet. The lawsuit also alleges the usual

462
00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:16.519
wage and hour violations that come in this kind of filing,

463
00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:21.559
unpaid overtime, late payment, missed meal and rest breaks, business

464
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:25.279
expenses that were not reimbursed. It alleges that when she

465
00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:29.960
complained about the treatment, her complaints were dismissed, mocked, or ignored.

466
00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:34.960
It alleges she developed anxiety and quote symptoms consistent with

467
00:28:35.079 --> 00:28:39.079
post traumatic stress disorder. It alleges she took medical even

468
00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:42.640
July of twenty twenty five, and when she returned felt

469
00:28:42.680 --> 00:28:45.759
she had no choice but to resign by August. She

470
00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:50.759
is seeking damages unpaid wages, rest and meal break premium pay,

471
00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:59.279
unreimbursed business expenses, unpaid sickly emotional distress damages, and punitive damages. Now,

472
00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:02.160
I want to be fair to Kylie Jenner here, because

473
00:29:02.200 --> 00:29:05.319
this lawsuit does not allege that Kylie Jenner personally said

474
00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:09.880
Catholics are horrible people. It doesn't allege that Kylie personally

475
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:14.359
threw clothes hangers at anybody. It doesn't allege that Kylie

476
00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:18.720
personally snapped her fingers at a Salvadoran housekeeper. Kylie is

477
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:21.799
in the suit because she is the employer, because this

478
00:29:21.960 --> 00:29:26.200
is her house, her company, her staff, and California law

479
00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:30.519
holds employers responsible for what happens in their workplaces. The

480
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:34.680
allegation against Kylie Jenner specifically is that she allowed this

481
00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:39.680
that when the complaints came up the chain, nothing was done,

482
00:29:39.880 --> 00:29:42.799
that the culture in her household was one that permitted it.

483
00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:47.359
Sources familiar with Kylie's household told TMZ that Vasquez was

484
00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:51.359
a junior housekeeping employee who had attendance issues. That is

485
00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:56.720
the pushback attendance issues. Okay, that's going to get tested

486
00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.400
in discovery. Here's what I think about cases like this.

487
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:02.079
I think about them a lot because you can see

488
00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:06.519
the pattern. Wealthy household, large staff, layers of middle management

489
00:30:06.519 --> 00:30:09.519
between the principle and the person doing the actual cleaning,

490
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:13.880
contractors within contractors, within a celebrity brand that has a

491
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:17.960
valuation in the billions. When something goes wrong inside a

492
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:20.920
machine that big, when a woman has told her religion

493
00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:24.119
is worthless and her immigration status is a joke, the

494
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:28.519
person at the top of the machine always has plausible deniability.

495
00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:32.440
They didn't know, they weren't told, the manager should have

496
00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:36.559
handled it. There's a playbook for this too, and what

497
00:30:36.680 --> 00:30:40.279
California Civil Court is for, among other things, is to

498
00:30:40.359 --> 00:30:44.319
test whether that plausible deniability actually holds up when somebody

499
00:30:44.359 --> 00:30:48.880
has the resources to pursue discovery, when they can depose Patsy,

500
00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:53.079
when they can depose Elsie, when they can subpoena the text,

501
00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:56.279
when they can find out whether those complaints actually did

502
00:30:56.400 --> 00:30:59.839
die at the supervisor level or whether they went higher.

503
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:03.880
Angelica Hernandez Vasquez is going to have her day in court.

504
00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:07.559
Kylie Jenner's lawyers are going to file a response. This

505
00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:10.000
will take eighteen months to get anywhere near a jury

506
00:31:10.039 --> 00:31:14.000
and probably will settle before it does. That's the usual arc,

507
00:31:14.440 --> 00:31:18.440
but the filing is public. Patsy and els whoever they are,

508
00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:22.240
are now in a lawsuit, and a Salvadoran woman who

509
00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:25.599
left that job with PTSD symptoms is on the record

510
00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:28.640
about what happened in the house behind the gate. That

511
00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:36.759
matters will follow it. One more piece of news. Two

512
00:31:36.759 --> 00:31:39.559
weeks from Tuesday, May fifth, we are launching a ten

513
00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:43.039
episode series called Fighting Back. It is going to run

514
00:31:43.079 --> 00:31:45.960
two weeks straight. Ten cases where the little guy took

515
00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:49.160
on the machine and won the Central Park five, The

516
00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:53.240
Radium Girls, Stella Leebek and the Hot Coffee, Aaron Brockovich,

517
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:58.319
The Sacklers Karen Silkwood, Gideon versus Wainwright, David versus Goliath,

518
00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:02.000
No murders for a chance. I'm gonna need all ten

519
00:32:02.039 --> 00:32:04.359
episodes to get through my contempt for the people on

520
00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:08.079
the Goliath side. You'll want to subscribe if you don't already.

521
00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:12.359
I'm Garrett Fisher. This is Daily Crime and Justice from

522
00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:17.799
Calaroga Shark Media. Disclaimer. This episode covers active criminal cases,

523
00:32:17.960 --> 00:32:22.160
medical examiner findings, and civil litigation. Details are drawn from

524
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:26.519
court records, police statements, coroner reports, news reporting, and AI

525
00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:30.799
assisted research. Some reporting is preliminary and may change as

526
00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:34.920
additional information becomes available. A few specific notes on Tonight's

527
00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:39.839
sources in the Athenas Strand trial. The ystrd NA testing

528
00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:43.680
language used in this episode consistent with and could not

529
00:32:43.799 --> 00:32:47.920
be excluded, is the Texas DPS Crime Lab's own wording

530
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:51.000
as presented in courtroom testimony, and is not the same

531
00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:55.799
thing as a definitive DNA match. Doctor Jessica Dwyer's autopsy

532
00:32:55.839 --> 00:32:59.079
finding of no visible evidence of sexual trauma is part

533
00:32:59.079 --> 00:33:02.799
of the same record. Testimony from Tanner Horner's mother, who

534
00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:05.599
was referred to in court only as Missus Horner with

535
00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:12.359
her face blurred on livestream, is sourced from NBCDFW, CBS News,

536
00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:16.039
and Fox four reporting. In the D four VD case,

537
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:19.119
the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner listed the cause of

538
00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:23.680
death as multiple penetrating injuries caused by object broader than

539
00:33:23.720 --> 00:33:28.240
the District Attorney's press conference language of sharp instruments. Toxicology

540
00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:33.599
findings of benzodiazepines and methamphetamine slash MDMA are described in

541
00:33:33.640 --> 00:33:38.759
theme report as presumptive positives, meaning preliminary and not confirmed.

542
00:33:39.559 --> 00:33:42.680
David Anthony Burke has pleaded not guilty and is presumed

543
00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:46.160
innocent under the law. In the Dwayne Hall case, facts

544
00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:49.559
are sourced from the arrest affidavit as reviewed by Court, TV,

545
00:33:50.039 --> 00:33:54.039
NBC News, and Rolling Stone. Hall has pleaded not guilty

546
00:33:54.119 --> 00:33:58.680
and is presumed innocent. In the Kylie Jenner lawsuit, allegations

547
00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:02.440
are from the civil complaint filed by Angelica Hernandez Vasquez

548
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:06.240
on April seventeenth, twenty twenty six, in Los Angeles County

549
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:09.920
Superior Court. Kylie Jenner is named as a defendant in

550
00:34:09.960 --> 00:34:13.239
her capacity as employer and is not personally alleged to

551
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:17.079
have committed any of the specific discriminatory acts describe, and

552
00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:21.480
no defendant has yet filed a responsive pleading. This program

553
00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:25.079
is entertainment and commentary. It is not legal advice. We

554
00:34:25.159 --> 00:34:27.559
try to get the facts right. When we don't, we

555
00:34:27.679 --> 00:34:32.000
correct it on air. This episode contains discussion of child murder,

556
00:34:32.079 --> 00:34:35.840
sexual assault, suicide, and the murder of a mentally ill person.

557
00:34:36.519 --> 00:34:38.840
If you are someone you know is in crisis, the

558
00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:42.039
nine eight to eight Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available

559
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:45.039
in the United States dial nine eight eight from any

560
00:34:45.079 --> 00:34:49.360
phone For non US listeners. Local crisis lines are available

561
00:34:49.360 --> 00:34:53.079
in most regions. Daily Crime and Justice is a production

562
00:34:53.199 --> 00:35:05.440
of Calaroga Shark Media. Two