April 20, 2026

THE TESLA KILLER IN HANDCUFFS: D4VD ARRESTED FOR MURDER OF CELESTE RIVAS

THE TESLA KILLER IN HANDCUFFS: D4VD ARRESTED FOR MURDER OF CELESTE RIVAS
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Plus: the Athena Strand trial turns devastating as DNA evidence lands — and we meet Tracey Grist, the Utah mother who Googled a famous murder-for-hire before her son-in-law was lured to his death.

Garret Fisher returns to the D4vd case months after it went quiet — and the quiet is over. LAPD Robbery-Homicide kicked open the gate of his Hollywood Hills mansion Thursday afternoon and arrested 21-year-old David Anthony Burke for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. He is being held without bail. Then: the Athena Strand trial hits Days 7 and 8 with DNA evidence, a mother's testimony that brought her daughter's killer to tears, and prosecutors resting their case. Plus a brand-new trial in Provo, Utah — where a 60-year-old grandmother allegedly studied the Dan Markel murder-for-hire on her computer before her son-in-law was shot seven times in her living room.

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WEBVTT

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Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher. Monday, April twentieth,

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twenty twenty six. Let me walk you through this. Months ago,

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we were following a case that looked for a little

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while like it might just quietly disappear. A twenty year

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old singer whose stage name is spelled D four VD

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but pronounced David. Real name David Anthony Burke, had a

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tesla that had been abandoned on a public street in

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the Hollywood Hills. That tesla got towed it sat at

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a Hollywood impound lot. Employees at the towyard noticed a smell.

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They called police, and inside the trunk, investigators found a

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black cadaver bag holding the decomposing body of a fourteen

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year old girl named Celeste Revas Hernandez, whose arms and

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legs had been severed and placed in a second black

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bag underneath the first. She had been reported missing by

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her mother three times in twenty twenty four. She was

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thirteen when she disappeared. She was fourteen when she died,

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and her body was found days after what would have

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been her fifteenth birthday. We spent weeks on this case

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in the fall. Then it went quiet. The medical examiner's

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records got sealed by court order. The LAPD declined to

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officially call it a homicide because the remains were too

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decomposed to determine cause of death. A grand jury was

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quietly convened in November. David's managers testified. A friend of

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his named Neo Langston testified in February. Unsealed court documents

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revealed the prosecution had formally named him a quote target

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of a murder investigation, and then for two more months nothing,

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no indictment, no charges, just a young woman in a

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black bag, a singer on hold, and a city waiting.

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That weight ended the thirdday afternoon LAPD robbery homicide rolled

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up to a twenty thousand dollars a month. Hollywood Hills

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mansion with K nine units, gang and narcotics officers, a

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battering ram and tactical gear. They forced the front gate open.

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One officer yelled on footage TMZ later obtained quote if

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you try to run or try to resist, you will

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get hit and you will get hurt. David Anthony Burke,

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twenty one years old, was taken out of that house

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in handcuffs, thrown into a cruiser, and driven to La

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County Jail, where he is being held this morning without bail.

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The case is being presented to the Los Angeles County

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District Attorney's office today. His lawyers are pushing back hard.

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No grand jury indictment has been returned, no criminal complaint

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has been filed, and they say they will vigorously defend

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his innocence. The DA's Major Crimes Division is reviewing everything

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to decide if there's enough to charge. But I'll tell

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you what you don't roll swat on a rented mansion

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in Hollywood Hills with a K nine unit and a

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battering ram on a whim. That was a decision, that

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was a plan, and that happened for a reason. We've

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also got updates today on the Athenas Strand trial out

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of Fort Worth, Texas, a case we took a full

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episode on last Monday and updated again last Thursday. Since then,

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there have been two more days of testimony that includes

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some of the worst DNA evidence I have seen presented

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at a capital trial, a mother's testimony that reduced the

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defendant to tears, and a prosecution that has now officially

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rested its case. And then finally we're going to introduce

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you to a brand new trial happening right now in Provo, Utah.

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Meet Tracy Grist, sixty years old grandmother, mother of two,

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charged with masterminding the murder of her own son in law,

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who was shot seven times in her living room by

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her own son after being lured there by her own daughter.

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It's called the family Trap murder trial, and the Google

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search history on this woman's devices connects this case to

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one of the most infamous murders for hire of the

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last decade. You'll never guess who she was googling. Actually,

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if you listen to this show you might. Let's get

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into it, so, David Anthony Burke, let's go back to

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where we left this one, because some of you might

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be new to the case, and some of you were

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with us back in the fall when we were covering

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it every week. If you're new, here's what you need

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to know. David Burke, professional name D four VD is

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a twenty one year old singer who went viral on

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TikTok in twenty twenty two with a song called Romantic Homicide.

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If you've heard it, you know what that chorus is about.

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If you haven't heard it, here are the last words

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of the song quote in the back of my mind,

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I killed you and I didn't even regret it. I

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can't believe I said it, but it's true. I hate you.

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That song got him signed, It got him a Billboard

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chart run, It got him collaborations with Sizza and Caliuchiese.

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It got him a world tour in support of his

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first full length album, and then in September of last year,

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it got him a body in his trunk. On September eighth,

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twenty twenty five, employees at a towyard in Hollywood noticed

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a stench coming from a twenty twenty three Tesla Model

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Y that had been impounded after sitting abandoned on Bluebird

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Avenue for more than seventy two hours. The Tesla was

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registered to a Texas address belonging to David Anthony Burke.

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When investigators opened the trunk, they found a black cadaver

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bag covered in insects. They partially unzipped it and saw

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a decomposed head and torso. Then they lifted that bag

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out and underneath it was a second black bag. Inside

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the second bag were the victim's severed arms and legs.

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It took a week to identify her. Her name was

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Celeste Revas Hernandez. She was fourteen. Her body was found

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the day after what would have been her fifteenth birthday.

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Her mother, who lived in Lake Elsinore, had reported her

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missing three separate times in twenty twenty four, when Celeste

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was thirteen. Her mother has said her daughter was dating

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a guy she'd never met, a guy her daughter only

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referred to as David. Friends of David Burke have told

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TMZ the two were frequently seen together. People who partied

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with them said they thought Celeste was much older than

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she was, and they had matching tattoos on their right

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index fingers that said, and I cannot believe I'm about

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to say this on air. Sh So that's the backstory. Now,

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let me walk you through what's changed. Through most of

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the fall, David's team insisted he was fully cooperating with

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the investigation. Lapdsources told NBC News in November that was

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not true. He was not cooperating. What he was doing,

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apparently was moving. He broke these on the Hollywood Hills

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home police had raided in September and moved somewhere else.

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Police also confirmed that sometime in the spring of twenty

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twenty five, right around when investigators believe Celeste actually died,

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David traveled to Santa Barbara County. They haven't said what

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he was doing there, but they know he was there

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and they think that matters. In mid November, the Los

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Angeles County District Attorney began presenting evidence to an investigative

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grand jury. Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman led the presentation.

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His managers testified, a friend of his name, Neil Langston, testified.

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The grand jury sat for several days. Nothing was formally announced.

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In February, unsealed court filings, specifically petitions demanding that David's

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parents testify in front of the grand jury, revealed something

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we hadn't known before. In those petitions, David was formally

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described as a quote target, not a person of interest,

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not a witness, A target. The document used the words

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quote target may be involved in having committed the following

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criminal offenses. One count of murder That was February, then

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two months of silence, and then Thursday. Here's what Thursday

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looked like. Around four point thirty in the afternoon, in

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broad daylight. LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division, along with Gang and

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narcotics officers and a K nine unit descended on David

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Burke's current Hollywood Hills residence, a rented mansion reportedly going

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for twenty thousand dollars a month. Officers in full tactical

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gear with rifles forced the front gate open with a

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battering ram. TMZ published the footage. One officer can be

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heard yelling quote, if you try to run or try

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to resist, you will get hit and you will get hurt.

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Minutes later, David Burke, twenty one years old, was walked

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out of the house in handcuffs, placed in a squad car,

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and driven directly to La County Jail. He is being

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held without bail. The LAPD issued a statement Thursday evening

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confirming the arrest. Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department

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Robbery Homicide Division have arrested David Burke, a twenty one

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year old resident of Los Angeles, for the murder of

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Celeste Rivas. Burke is being held without bail. The case

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is being presented to the La County District Attorney's Office

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today Monday. The DA's Major Crimes Division will review whatever

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evidence LAPD has assembled and decide whether to formally file charges.

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David's defense team came out swinging. In a statement released

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Thursday night, His lawyer said, quote, there has been no

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indictment returned by any grand jury in this case, and

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no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion.

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We will vigorously defend David's innocence. Now, I want to

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break that statement down for a second, because it's carefully worded.

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Notice what it says and what it doesn't. It says

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no grand jury indictment has been returned. Okay, maybe the

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grand jury didn't return one. Maybe the prosecution decided to

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go the preliminary hearing route instead, which is their right

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in California. It says no criminal complaint has been filed.

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That's technically true. The complaint gets filed when the DA

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decides to proceed, which is exactly what's supposed to happen

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this week. It does not say he is innocent. It

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does not say he wasn't with her. It does not

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say he doesn't know how she ended up in his trunk.

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What it says is a procedural objection to the posture

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of the case, which is exactly what good defense lawyers

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are paid to say, when your client just got walked

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out of a mansion in zip ties. Here's what we

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don't know yet. We don't know what LAPD recovered in

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Thursday's raid. We don't know what flipped. We don't know

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whether someone who testified before the grand jury suddenly provided

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corroborating evidence, whether forensic work finally pinned down cause of death,

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whether her digital evidence from the tesla's on board systems

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placed David somewhere he said he wasn't, or whether one

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of his associates is now cooperating. All we know is

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that on Thursday afternoon, someone in the Robbery Homicide Division

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walked into their lieutenant's office and said, we're ready, and

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the lieutenant said, go. Here's what we do know. We

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know the medical examiner determined Celeste had been in that

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Tesla for an extended period of time, weeks, possibly longer.

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We know her body was dismembered. We know that tesla

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was registered to David Burke. We know the car was

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moved multiple times in the months leading up to when

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it finally got impounded. We know David traveled to Santa

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Barbara County in the spring of twenty twenty five, which

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is right around when investigators believe Celeste actually died. We

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know she was fourteen. We know he was twenty. We

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know she was missing from her home in Lake Elsinor

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for over a year before her body was found. We

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know her mother was trying to find her. We know

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he was on a world tour when she was discovered,

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from voding an album called Withered, performing songs about killing women.

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There's a playbook for this. The young famous guy with

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the money and the lawyers and the pr team and

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the carefully worded statement, the system that protects young men

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who make money for record labels for as long as

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it possibly can. The fans who will tell themselves that

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maybe there's another explanation. The defense team that will file

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motions and push for delays and request bail hearings and

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argue about chain of custody. It is coming. All of

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it is coming. But there's also this. A fourteen year

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old girl in a black bag in a trunk, whose

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mother reported her missing three separate times and was ignored,

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whose body was discovered because a tesla smelled bad at

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a towyard, who had a matching tattoo with a man

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seven years older than her that said be quiet. Nobody

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was paying attention to her. Now everybody is Celestro vas Hernandez,

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fourteen years old. Say her name. Last Monday, we spent

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an entire episode on the Athena Strand case. Last Thursday

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we came back with an update, and today we have

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to come back again because the trial in Fort Worth

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has produced two more days of testimony since we last

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spoke about it, and the nature of the evidence has changed.

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Quick refresher in case you're joining us. Late Tanner Lynn Horner,

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thirty five years old, pleaded guilty to capital murder and

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aggravated kidnapping on April seventh, the morning his trial was

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supposed to begin. He was a FedEx contract driver who

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delivered a package of Barbie dolls to the home of

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seven year old Athena Strand in Cottondale, Texas in November

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of twenty twenty two. He hit Athena with his delivery van.

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She wasn't seriously hurt. Instead of calling for help, he panicked,

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put her in the van, tried to break her neck,

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and when that didn't work, strangled her with his bare hands.

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He led police to her body in the Trinity River.

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This trial is the penalty phase the jury's job is

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to decide whether Tanner Horner dies by lethal injection or

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spends the rest of his life in prison. On day seven,

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which was Wednesday, the fifteenth, prosecutors called a DNA expert

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named Kristin Casoda, and what she said from the witness

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stand is the thing I haven't been able to shake.

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Forensic scientists had done DNA testing on swabs taken from

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Athena's body during the autopsy, specifically a vaginal swab, an

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anal swab, and an oral swab. Initial testing on the

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vaginal swab showed what's called a DNA mixture that weakly

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excluded the suspect, which at first sounds exculpatory, but Casoda

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explained why it wasn't a clean result. The victims DNA

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was overpowering any male DNA that might have been present

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in plain in English, Athena's own DNA in high concentration

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was washing out the trace amounts of anyone else's DNA

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in the sample. So the lab ran what's called y

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str testing. That's a specialized DNA test that only targets

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male DNA markers. It filters out everything female. It zeros

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in on whatever male DNA is present even in trace

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amounts and amplifies it. They ran y STR on all

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three swabs, vaginal, anal, oral, All three came back the

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same way Tanner Horner could not be excluded as the contributor.

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That's a very careful, very legal phrasing. What it means

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in the real world is this his DNA profile was

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consistent with the male DNA found on Athena's body, not

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quote a match, because why str testing doesn't produce the

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same statistical certainty as standard autosomal DNA testing, but can

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resistant on her mouth, inside her body in three separate

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places from a seven year old child. That's what this

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jury heard on Wednesday. And it tells you what happened

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in that van, and it tells you what happened after

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he hit her, and it tells you why he was

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so desperate to hide the body. Because the autopsy itself

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didn't show what you would call definitive sexual trauma, but

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the DNA evidence suggests that something happened that is not

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consistent with an accidental collision between a van and a

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child sorting laundry in her backyard. And on day six,

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which we talked about last Thursday, the jury had already

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heard from two adult women who testified that Tanner Horner

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had sexually assaulted them years before Athena died. One of

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them was sixteen when they met, Horner was twenty one.

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He told her to lie about her age. In December

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of twenty fourteen, she testified she woke up to him

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raping her. So on Wednesday, the state built on all

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of that with the DNA and then after the DNA expert,

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

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And what she did on that witness stand, I'm going

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to be honest with you, I don't know how she

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got through. She described her daughter to the jury. She

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talked about who Athena was, playful, happy, deeply loved. Images

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were shown in court of Athena as a joyful little girl,

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hair and Bow's big smile, a kid. Gandy talked about

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the moment she found out her daughter was missing. She said,

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and this is her testimony, I felt like I was dying.

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The Court TV producer who wrote the headline on that

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segment titled it quote, I felt like I was dying.

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And while she was testifying, while this mother was on

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the stand describing the daughters she will never see grow up.

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Tanner Horner sat at the defense table and cried, wept,

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fought back, tears broke down. Now. I want to be

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careful here. I know some of you are listening and thinking,

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oh good. Maybe he feels something, Maybe he has some

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shred of humanity. Maybe this means something. And I want

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to tell you what I think it means. I think

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it means he feels sorry for himself. I think Tanner

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Horner has had three and a half years to sit

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in a jail cell and get used to the story

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he tells himself about his own victimhood, about the alter

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ego he blames the one he calls zero, about his autism,

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about his mother drinking while pregnant, about the led exposure

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as a child, about the fact that he quote has

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a good personality for rules and protocol, as his own

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defense attorney said in opening statements, three and a half

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years of building up a self concept in which Tanner

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Horner is the real tragedy here and then the mother

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of the child he raped and strangled gets on the

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witness stand, and for maybe the first time in a

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long time, Tanner Horner had to look directly at the

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00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:59.519
actual tragedy, not the one he invented for himself. The

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real one, the one with a name, the one who

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was seven, the one whose mother was describing what it

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was like to lose her. That's not remorse, that's reality.

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Briefly breaking through the story he's been telling himself. And

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when the hearing ends today, he'll go back to his

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cell and rebuild the story because the story is the

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only thing that protects him from what he actually did.

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And Maitland Gandhy has something to say to him. Court

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TV published her statement separately. She has one question for

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her daughter's killer. She wants to know why, not the

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elaborate shifting, alter ego blaming version. Tanner Horner has given

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police seven different ways, the real one Why a grown

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man saw a seven year old girl sorting laundry in

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her backyard, hit her with a van and decided the

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safest thing for him was to make sure she never

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spoke again. I don't think she's going to get an answer.

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Tanner Horner doesn't have one. What he has is a

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catalog of excuses and a willingness to cry when it

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suits him. Then, Day eight, which was Thursday, Athena's father,

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Jacob Strand, took the stand, and his testimony was different, quieter,

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more interior, absolutely gutting in its own way. He talked

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about the Barbie dolls that Horner had delivered that day.

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The barbies were a Christmas present. The reason Horner was

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at the house delivering a FedEx box was because Athena's stepmother, Elizabeth,

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had ordered her stepdaughter's Christmas gifts online. Jacob talked about

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spending time with his kids before he left on a

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00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:39.000
hunting trip with his own father that weekend, and he said, quote,

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he felt like he wasn't there to protect her, and

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he feels guilty. Let me say something about that. Jacob

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Strand did not kill his daughter. Jacob Strand was not

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00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:54.039
failing his daughter. Jacob Strand is a father who went

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on a hunting trip one weekend because that is a

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00:20:56.680 --> 00:20:59.759
normal thing fathers do. And while he was gone, a

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00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:02.880
stranger in a FedEx vest pulled into his driveway and

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took his child. There is no world in which the

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00:21:06.519 --> 00:21:10.559
guilt belongs to Jacob Strand. The guilt belongs at the

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00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:14.240
defense table. It belongs on the man in the orange

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jumpsuit who was crying for himself on Wednesday. It does

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not belong to a father who went hunting with his dad.

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I wish someone would tell him that. I hope the

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jury told him that. Then Texas Ranger Job Espinoza was

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recalled to the stand to walk the jury through the

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physical evidence that completes the picture of premeditation and what

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Espinoza showed that jury is the part that makes this

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case for me shift from a panic decision to a

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00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:47.000
planned one. Let me walk you through this. Horner had

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dash cameras inside his van, both a front facing one

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00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:53.599
pointed at the driver's seat and ones that captured the interior.

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Those cameras were installed by his contracting company to monitor drivers.

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On no ninth, the day before Athena was murdered, Horner

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made a delivery at the home of a man named

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00:22:05.079 --> 00:22:08.640
Kevin Huffman. Huffman has two kids who were playing outside

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when Horner pulled up, ages seven and ten. Horner asked

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00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:17.359
them if an adult was home. The next day, November thirtieth,

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at four oh nine in the afternoon, Horner covered the

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front facing camera in his van with sticky notes. Sticky

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notes on the camera at four oh nine At five

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point thirty, he arrived at Athena's house. You do not

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00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:33.599
cover a camera at four o nine on a whim.

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You cover a camera at four o nine because you

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have decided what is about to happen next. That's not

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a mistake, that's a choice. It gets worse. After Horner

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00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:46.680
murdered Athena, he drove to a Love's gas station to

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clean the van. Then, on December first, the next day,

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while the Wise County community was out searching for Athena

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with dogs and horses and four wheelers, he drove right

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back to the area where he had dumped her body

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on the job in his FedEx van, and while he

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was driving, Dispatch called him on the radio asking about

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a delivery from the day before. That call was captured

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00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:12.759
by the truck's internal recorders. On the audio, you can

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00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:16.680
hear Horner cheerfully say I have more packages. I have

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more packages, while driving past searchers looking for the little

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girl he'd killed the day before. And then there's the

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final thing. Espinoza presented, and this is the part I

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00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:31.519
have struggled with. Investigators recovered items from Horner's home. Among

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those items were articles of Athena's clothing, her underwear in

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her pants had been placed in his backpack, the backpack

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he carried to work and taken home with him. He

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took them as trophies, as keepsakes. I don't know, but

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00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:50.480
he took them. And then the prosecution played the audio

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that captured Athena's final moments for the jury. Court TV's

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00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:56.920
reporting does not describe what is on that audio, and

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I am not going to speculate on this podcast, but

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I will tell you that after prosecutors presented that evidence,

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they announced they were resting their case. That means the

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state's presentation is over. The defense begins calling their witnesses

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now the mitigation phase, where they will try to convince

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00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:18.200
the jury that Tanner Horner should live instead of die.

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The jury won't be back until April twenty second, Wednesday,

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00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:24.680
because the court is holding what are called dobare hearings

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00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:27.920
in the meantime. Those are hearings outside the presence of

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the jury to determine whether certain expert defense witnesses are

399
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:35.319
qualified to testify. Expect the defense to lean heavily on

400
00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:40.839
autism spectrum diagnosis, fetal alcohol syndrome claims, and mental illness.

401
00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:44.119
Whether any of that will matter to twelve jurors who

402
00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:48.160
have now seen the DNA results. Heard Maitland Gandhi describe

403
00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:51.880
her daughter and listen to audio of Athena's final moments.

404
00:24:52.279 --> 00:24:57.799
Will find out Athena Strand, seven years old, will keep

405
00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:17.039
saying her name as long as this trial. Right, all right,

406
00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:20.440
let's move to Provo, Utah, because right now, in a

407
00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:23.759
courtroom in Provo, there is a trial starting that has

408
00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:29.160
everything family betrayal, a stage self defense, a son as

409
00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:32.559
the trigger man, a daughter turning state's evidence on her

410
00:25:32.599 --> 00:25:36.240
own mother, a knife in the wrong hand, and I

411
00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:39.799
am not making this up. A Google search history that

412
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:42.519
connects this case to one of the most infamous murders

413
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:46.359
for hire in American legal history. It's being called the

414
00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:50.279
family Trap murder trial. The defendant is sixty year old

415
00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:53.279
Tracy grist the victim is her son in law, forty

416
00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:56.960
two year old Matthew Ristelli, and the state is arguing

417
00:25:57.039 --> 00:25:59.640
that this sixty year old grandmother was the architect of

418
00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:02.279
a plot in which her own son shot her own

419
00:26:02.359 --> 00:26:05.720
daughter's husband seven times in her own living room while

420
00:26:05.720 --> 00:26:08.880
the two young grandchildren were in the house. Let me

421
00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:12.759
walk you through this, because the setup matters Matthew Rostelli

422
00:26:12.839 --> 00:26:15.559
lived in California with his wife, Katherine, who is Tracy

423
00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:19.079
Griss's daughter, and their two young children. By the summer

424
00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:23.200
of twenty twenty four, the marriage was falling apart. Catherine

425
00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:27.640
wanted out, she hated her husband. She'd been sending text

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00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:30.480
messages to her mother and to her brother, a man

427
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:34.319
named Kevin Ellis, about how much she hated him, how

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00:26:34.359 --> 00:26:37.599
she wanted a divorce, and this is the key. She

429
00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:39.519
did not think she would get custody of her kids

430
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:41.880
if she divorced him, and she did not think she

431
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:45.119
would be allowed to leave California with the children, so

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00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:48.880
instead of filing for divorce, the state alleges Catherine and

433
00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:51.200
her mother and her brother came up with a different plan.

434
00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:55.400
On July twelfth, twenty twenty four, Matthew Rostelli was told

435
00:26:55.440 --> 00:26:57.880
his wife and kids needed him to come get them

436
00:26:57.880 --> 00:27:01.359
in Utah. His wife was visy ziting her mother, the

437
00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:03.960
kids were with her, and he needed to drive out,

438
00:27:04.119 --> 00:27:06.519
pick them all up and bring them home to California.

439
00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:11.559
Except according to the state, Catherine had no intention of

440
00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:15.319
ever going home with him, and according to Catherine's own testimony,

441
00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:19.119
last Monday, at her mother's trial that plan, the plan

442
00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:22.440
to kill Matthew had been in motion for a while.

443
00:27:23.400 --> 00:27:28.440
In her words, it quote started as a joke, just

444
00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:32.759
a dark conversation among family members that eventually stopped being

445
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:36.119
a joke. Catherine testified that at some point she told

446
00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:37.880
her mother she didn't want to go through with it,

447
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:42.519
and she testified that her mother insisted. Her mother insisted.

448
00:27:43.559 --> 00:27:46.720
Matthew drove to Utah. He pulled up to Tracy Grists

449
00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:49.440
home in the town of American Fork, just north of Provo.

450
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:52.559
The lights inside the house were off. He walked up

451
00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:55.079
to the door. He went inside to get his wife

452
00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:58.440
and his kids and go home. He was shot seven times.

453
00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:03.000
Kevin Ellis, Racy's son, Catherine's brother, Matthew's brother in law,

454
00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:07.200
was waiting for him inside. Ellis pulled the trigger. When

455
00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:09.839
police arrived, Ellis was standing over the body with his

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00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:13.680
arms folded. He told officers he'd shot Matthew in self defense.

457
00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:16.319
He pointed them to a knife on the floor near

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00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:20.119
Matthew's hand. Tracy Griss told officers she'd heard the shots

459
00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:22.680
from another room, run to check on her daughter, and

460
00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:26.400
called nine one one. The story was self defense and

461
00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:29.720
intruder with a knife, a son protecting his mother and

462
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.920
his sister and his nieces and nephews from a violent

463
00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:37.160
brother in law. Here's why the story fell apart. First,

464
00:28:37.480 --> 00:28:40.799
Kevin Ellis has already been convicted. He had a separate trial.

465
00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:46.640
He was found guilty. He's going to prison. Second, Catherine Ristelli,

466
00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:51.519
the victim's wife, pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy to commit murder,

467
00:28:51.640 --> 00:28:55.039
and discharge of a firearm shortly after her arrest. She

468
00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:58.440
was sentenced to one to fifteen years, and she testified

469
00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:01.559
against her brother at his trial, and she's now testifying

470
00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:05.960
against her own mother at this one. Third, the knife

471
00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:09.240
police found in Matthew Ristelli's hand was in his non

472
00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:12.920
dominant hand, which is not it turns out how self

473
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:15.359
defense generally works when a man is rushed by an

474
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:19.359
armed gunman. And when investigators traced where that knife came from,

475
00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.640
they found it had been purchased online, allegedly by Tracy

476
00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:29.480
grist Fourth, the medical examiner, doctor Amanda Ho, testified on

477
00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:33.680
day two of the trial last Wednesday, that Matthew Ristelli

478
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:37.440
had seven gunshot wounds. Three shots went entirely through his body,

479
00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:41.359
four more stayed lodged in him. The damage she cataloged

480
00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:45.960
included both lungs, his heart, his diaphragm, his liver, his stomach,

481
00:29:46.359 --> 00:29:51.359
his spleen, his kidney, and his ribs. Seven shots perforated

482
00:29:51.480 --> 00:29:56.039
organs across his entire Torso that is not a self

483
00:29:56.039 --> 00:29:59.720
defense shooting. That is not oh no, I feared for

484
00:29:59.799 --> 00:30:03.720
my mind life. I fired until the threat stopped. That

485
00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:09.079
is a man being emptied into fifth. A forensic scientist

486
00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:12.519
at the State Crime Lab, Rachel Williams, tested the knife

487
00:30:12.519 --> 00:30:16.480
for DNA, and here's what she found. The DNA on

488
00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:20.559
the knife did not belong to Matthew Rostelli. It did

489
00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:25.000
not belong to Catherine Rostelli. It did not belong to

490
00:30:25.119 --> 00:30:29.519
Kevin Ellis, It did not belong to Tracy Grist. It

491
00:30:29.559 --> 00:30:32.759
didn't belong to any of them, which is a very

492
00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:35.599
interesting result because if you were going to grab a

493
00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:38.759
knife from your own kitchen to defend yourself from an intruder,

494
00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:41.920
you would expect your DNA to be on it. And

495
00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:44.839
if the victim had been holding the knife, even in

496
00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:49.160
his non dominant hand, even briefly, even post mortem, you'd

497
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:52.599
expect his DNA to be on it. But neither was.

498
00:30:53.079 --> 00:30:55.640
The knife had been handled by none of them, which

499
00:30:55.680 --> 00:30:58.680
is consistent, the state argues with a brand new knife

500
00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:01.920
that had been purchased online for exactly one purpose, to

501
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:05.960
be placed in a dead man's hand. Sixth, the neighbors.

502
00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:09.680
Tracy Gris's next door neighbor, Caitlin Laney, called nine to

503
00:31:09.720 --> 00:31:12.200
one one that night because she heard what she thought

504
00:31:12.200 --> 00:31:17.319
were gunshots six to eight loud bangs in succession. Before

505
00:31:17.359 --> 00:31:20.960
she called nine to one one, she texted Tracy Grist and,

506
00:31:21.240 --> 00:31:23.920
in a text message that the jury saw last Wednesday,

507
00:31:24.200 --> 00:31:28.680
Tracy Grist admitted to her neighbor in writing that Kevin

508
00:31:28.759 --> 00:31:34.359
Ellis had just shot Matthew Ristelli. Seventh Earlier in this segment,

509
00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:36.920
I promised you a Google search history that connects this

510
00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:40.240
case to an infamous murder for hire. Let me deliver

511
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:44.759
Dan Markel. Longtime listeners of this show know the name.

512
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:48.640
Dan Markel was a law professor at Florida State University

513
00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:52.000
who was murdered in his own garage in twenty fourteen,

514
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:54.799
shot in the head by two hit men hired by

515
00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:59.000
his ex wife's family, specifically by his former mother in law,

516
00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:03.119
Donna Adelson, his former brother in law, Charlie Adelson, and

517
00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:06.960
a middlewoman named Katherine Magbanua, who had a relationship with

518
00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:10.440
Charlie Adelson and served as the liaison between the family

519
00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:13.960
and the shooters. Five people have been convicted in that case.

520
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:17.400
It is a landmark murder for Higher Case. It was

521
00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:20.720
the subject of a Dateline episode. It has been covered

522
00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:24.759
extensively in legal media. Here's what investigators found on Tracy

523
00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:29.160
Griss's devices. A search for Catherine Magbanua, A search for

524
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:34.599
quote where was Donna Adelson arrested? A search for the

525
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:38.599
dateline episode about the Addlson family, A search for quote

526
00:32:38.839 --> 00:32:41.759
how to get my US passport fast? And for a

527
00:32:41.799 --> 00:32:44.160
little dessert on top of all of it, A search

528
00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:48.799
for the quote it's happening meme the office meme, you

529
00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:53.559
know the one, Oh my god, it's happening. Stay calm.

530
00:32:53.680 --> 00:32:55.720
That's not a person who got swept up in a

531
00:32:55.759 --> 00:32:59.640
messy situation. That's a person who studied. That's a person

532
00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:03.240
who researched how other family murder plots had been investigated,

533
00:33:03.599 --> 00:33:06.279
who noted where they had failed, Who thought about how

534
00:33:06.359 --> 00:33:08.039
quickly she'd need to get out of the country if

535
00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:11.519
things went sideways, and who celebrated the execution of her

536
00:33:11.559 --> 00:33:15.200
plan by googling an internet meme. There's a playbook for this,

537
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:19.960
and Tracy Grist apparently wrote it down. The defense's argument,

538
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:24.119
delivered by Attorney Dana Faismeyer on day one, is essentially this,

539
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:27.920
It was a messy situation that got out of hand.

540
00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:32.039
Kevin Ellis has already been convicted. He is solely responsible

541
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:35.839
for Matthew Rostelli's death, and the state is overreaching by

542
00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:38.279
trying to pin his mother for a crime. Her son

543
00:33:38.440 --> 00:33:42.519
pulled the trigger on quote, one guy murdered a guy.

544
00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:45.759
One guy murdered a guy. That's what the defense is

545
00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:50.279
going with. Matthew Rostelli's own mother, Diane Rostelli, took the

546
00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:53.960
stand on day two and day three. She testified about

547
00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:59.480
her three sons, Thomas, Jonathan, and Matthew. She described Catherine,

548
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:03.039
her daughter in law, with two words dark and tough.

549
00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:06.759
She described the phone call she got from Tracy Griss

550
00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:11.320
the night Matthew died. Tracy told her quote, matt is dead,

551
00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:14.920
and she testified that later when she spoke to Catherine

552
00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:17.679
on the phone, she could hear Tracy Grist in the

553
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:24.440
background quote coaching her responses, coaching her own daughter on

554
00:34:24.599 --> 00:34:26.719
what to say to the mother of the man. She

555
00:34:26.840 --> 00:34:30.840
helped kill. On day three, the jury saw bodycam footage

556
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:33.760
from the scene. They saw officers arriving to find Matthew

557
00:34:33.800 --> 00:34:36.159
face down on the floor, his son standing over the

558
00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:39.559
body with his arms folded. They saw the knife, They

559
00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:43.039
heard the self defense claim. They heard Tracy Grists composed

560
00:34:43.119 --> 00:34:46.559
carefully rehearsed nine to one to one call story. The

561
00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:50.000
trial continues next Monday, April twenty seventh, with day four.

562
00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:53.480
We'll keep you posted as it moves toward verdict. Here's

563
00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:55.719
the thing I keep coming back to on this one.

564
00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:59.039
Tracy Grist is a sixty year old grandmother. She sits

565
00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:02.280
in court in Cardig. Her hair is neat, she looks

566
00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:04.480
as every woman of a certain age in these trials

567
00:35:04.519 --> 00:35:08.840
seems too utterly unremarkable. Someone's grandma, And if the state

568
00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:12.840
is right, this grandmother researched a famous murder for hire,

569
00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:16.880
bought a knife online to frame a dead man, lured

570
00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:20.079
her son in law across state lines under the pretext

571
00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:22.639
of picking up his wife and children, and stood in

572
00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:25.559
her own home while her son emptied a firearm into

573
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:29.159
the man seven times, three through and through four, still

574
00:35:29.199 --> 00:35:31.960
in the body, and then coached her daughter on how

575
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:34.679
to lie to the dead man's mother on the phone afterward.

576
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:39.719
There's a playbook for this, There really is. And every

577
00:35:39.719 --> 00:35:42.559
time we think we've seen every version of it, someone

578
00:35:42.639 --> 00:35:46.880
finds a new way to run it. Matthew Ristelli, forty

579
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:50.639
two years old, husband, father of two, drove to Utah

580
00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:53.960
thinking he was bringing his family home. Someone has to

581
00:35:54.039 --> 00:36:00.519
say his name. Three stories today, One around that was

582
00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:03.719
months in coming, one trial that is grinding toward verdict

583
00:36:03.760 --> 00:36:06.599
with DNA evidence that shouldn't exist in a case about

584
00:36:06.599 --> 00:36:09.320
a seven year old, and one trial that is barely

585
00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:12.519
beginning about a family that apparently ran a murder plot

586
00:36:12.519 --> 00:36:15.960
out of grandma's living room. The common thread, if there

587
00:36:16.119 --> 00:36:18.760
is one, is that every one of these cases got

588
00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:23.199
where it is because somebody decided accountability was optional. A

589
00:36:23.239 --> 00:36:26.239
grown man who thought he could fame and lawyer his

590
00:36:26.280 --> 00:36:29.079
way out of a dismembered fourteen year old in his trunk.

591
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:32.800
A delivery driver who thought sticky notes on a camera

592
00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:36.639
and a good panic could be his defense. A grandmother

593
00:36:36.679 --> 00:36:39.000
who thought she could google her way to a full

594
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:43.039
proof murder plot. Accountability doesn't have a legal department, it

595
00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:46.239
doesn't have a PR team, it doesn't have sticky notes,

596
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:49.079
and it doesn't care what you searched on your browser history.

597
00:36:49.400 --> 00:36:52.440
It just shows up on a Thursday afternoon with a

598
00:36:52.440 --> 00:36:57.400
battering ram. I'm Garrett Fisher. This is Daily Crime and Justice.

599
00:36:57.719 --> 00:37:00.440
Tomorrow will be back with whatever the week bring us

600
00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:08.000
do better. Disclaimer. Daily Crime and Justice is produced by

601
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:12.679
Calaroga Shark Media. This episode draws on court records, LAPD

602
00:37:12.840 --> 00:37:17.599
press statements, reporting from The Daily Mail, NBC news people,

603
00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:22.079
the Los Angeles Times, Court TV trial coverage, and AI

604
00:37:22.159 --> 00:37:25.440
assisted research. We do our best to get it right,

605
00:37:25.639 --> 00:37:28.639
but we are a podcast, not a court room. This

606
00:37:28.880 --> 00:37:33.159
is entertainment and commentary, not legal fact. We work from

607
00:37:33.199 --> 00:37:37.159
Internet sources, tabloids, and public reporting, and we acknowledge that

608
00:37:37.239 --> 00:37:39.800
some of it may turn out to be wrong. When

609
00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:43.239
it does, we correct it on air. Everything here is

610
00:37:43.320 --> 00:37:47.119
our opinion and interpretation of events, offered in the spirit

611
00:37:47.199 --> 00:37:50.639
of honest, candid conversation about cases that matter.