"UVALDE TRIAL ROCKED BY WITNESS BOMBSHELL, PAMELA SMART SEEKS FREEDOM & FRYING PAN KILLER'S FATE AT OHIO SUPREME COURT"

0:03 Caalarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm reed Carter. Thursday, January eighth, twenty twenty six, Corpus Christi, Texas. First day of testimony in the Uvaldi School shooting trial and already chaos. Former Uvaldi School officer Adrian Gonzalez faces twenty nine counts of child endangerment for his response to the rob Elementary massacre May twenty fourth, twenty twenty two. Nineteen children and two teachers murdered nearly four hundred Officers waiting seventy seven minutes before confronting the shooter, Gonzalez was one of the first on scene. Prosecutors say a teacher pointed directly at the gunman and told him where to go. He didn't move.

0:49 Then the trial hit a snag. A teacher's testimony differed from what she told investigators in twenty twenty two. Defense cried foul, judge halted proceedings, no testimony yesterday. Families waiting three and a half years for accountability watched the case nearly derail on day one. Remember Pamela Smart, the twenty two year old high school media coordinator who seduced her fifteen year old student and convinced him to murder her husband in nineteen ninety. She's back filed a habeas corpus petition Monday seeking to overturn her conviction. Claims prosecutors gave jurors fake transcripts with words that weren't actually audible on the recordings. She's fifty seven, now serving life without parole.

1:32 Finally admitted responsibility last year after three decades of denial, and Ohio's highest court heard arguments yesterday in the Sydney Powell case. Remember her, the college student who killed her mother with a cast iron frying pan and stake knife in twenty twenty, argued insanity, jury rejected it. Convicted of murder, but an appeals court granted her a new trial. Now the state wants that overturned. Says the decision could change how every trial in Ohio Io works. I'm read Carter today. A cop who didn't act, a teacher who seduced her student, a daughter who killed her mother. Three cases, three chances for justice. This is celebrity trials. Let's start in Corpus Christi Nuaysa's County Courthouse. Judge Sid Harley, Presiding State of Texas versus Adrian Gonzalez. Tuesday morning, courtroom packed with victims, families, media from around the world. Tissue boxes distributed before testimony even began. Everyone knew this would be devastating. Special Prosecutor Bill Turner rose for opening statements, voice trembling, eyes wet.

2:47 Even the prosecutor couldn't hold it together. May twenty fourth, twenty twenty two, started as a day of celebration. Turner told jurors fourth graders at rob Elementary were supposed to receive end of year certificates, awards, assemblies, summer vacation just days away. Then a car crashed near the school. A man with a rifle walked toward the building. Gilbert Lemonez was the first witness. Part time pastor at Hillcrest Funeral Home next to the school, testified he saw the crash tried to help the driver, but as he approached, the driver started shooting at him, then walked toward the school very nonchalantly started firing at children on the playground. Limone's ran back to the funeral home called nine to one one.

3:35 The recording played in court. Frantic, terrified families sobbed, jurors wiped their eyes. Turner laid out the prosecution's case. Adrian Gonzalez was the first officer to arrive. Before the shooter even entered the building. A coach, Melody Floris, ran up to him pointed directly at the gunman over there. He's wearing black. He's in the teacher parking lot. Turner emphasized those words as shots are ringing out. This is not confusion. Another witness, a teacher, came face to face with the gunman before he entered the building. He fired at her. She ran, fell, got up. Gonzalez was there. She told him he's over there, urged him to go get the shooter.

4:21 Gonzalez got on the radio, said shots were fired, the shooter was wearing black in the parking lot. He knew where the gunman was, but according to Turner, Adrian Gonzalez remains at the south side of the school. Turner walked jurors through what happened next. The shooter fired toward rooms one O two and one oh four. Adrian Gonzalez remains. Other officers started arriving. The shooter reached rooms one hundred eleven and one hundred twelve, fired twenty plus shots in the hallway. Adrian Gonzalez remains inside those classrooms. Children and teachers hid in the dark, waiting for police. Some grabbed safety scissors to confront a gunman armed with a rifle.

5:06 Fourth graders with scissors against an ar fifteen. We're not asking Adrian Gonzalez to commit suicide. Turner told the jury he was trained to go to the corner of a building and distract, delay, and impede the gunman while help is arriving. He only went inside the school, Turner said after the damage had been done. Defense attorney Nico Lawhood delivered a longer opening, walked jurors through a second by second timeline using aerial images. Argued Gonzales acted based on the information available, radioed for help, evacuated children as other officers arrived. There's an animal involved in this situation, a monster, and he's no longer here. Lahoud said that monster can't sit in that chair. Defense attorney Jason Goss added, this isn't a man waiting around, This isn't a man failing to act. Our client did not cause any of these injuries.

6:02 Salvador Ramos caused these injuries. Then came the testimony that nearly derailed everything. Stephanie Hale, former rob elementary teacher, testified she brought her class inside from the playground when she heard gunfire. Teachers tried to secure their classroom door with an extension cord. She and other teachers came up with a plan for students to defend themselves with scissors. Do what we had to do to defend she testified. But then Hale said something the defense claims she never said before. She testified she saw the gunmen on the south side of campus, the same area where Gonzalez was located. Defense attorneys immediately objected, argued Hale's testimony differed from statements she gave to a Texas ranger during a twenty twenty two legislative investigation. This was new information never disclosed could fundamentally change the case. Judge Harley excused the jury questioned the prosecutor.

7:00 In an unusual move. Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell was sworn in and testified, said she'd been caught off guard by Hale's testimony too. Hale had described seeing a man in black with a long rifle, but hadn't mentioned specifically where the suspect was. The judge halted proceedings for the day. No testimony Wednesday while lawyers argued legal matters. Testimony resumes today. Families were devastated. Manuel Rizo, uncle of Jackie Kazaris, one of the nineteen children killed, said we're already anxious and now we're upset. All we want is justice for Jackie. It's been three and a half years and here we are. Velma Lisa Duran, sister of teacher Irma Garcia, said Gonzales could have stopped him, but he didn't want to be the target. Said authorities stood by while her sister died protecting children. When asked if he'd seek a mistrial defense, attorney Lehood demurred, it's a remedy allowed by law. We're not saying we're going to take that remedy or not yet. Criminologist Alex del Carman, whose trained police departments across Texas, said he estimates the chance of conviction at roughly fifty percent. This is unprecedented territory.

8:20 Only the second time in US history prosecutors have sought to hold a member of law enforcement criminally accountable for their response to a mass shooting. The first was Scott Peterson, the Parkland deputy who stayed outside during that school shooting. He was acquitted in twenty twenty three. Gonzales faces twenty nine counts of abandoning or endangering a child, one for each child who was inside those classrooms. Maximum sentence two years per count if convicted on all counts, and sentences run consecutively up to fifty eight years, but that's unlikely. Former Uvaldi School's police chief, Pete Aradondo was also indicted ten counts. He was the on site commander. Trial hasn't been scheduled yet. The trial was moved to Corpus Christi after defense argued Gonzales couldn't get a fair trial in Uvalde.

9:07 Some families wanted more officers charged. Nearly four hundred responded that day, only two face criminal charges. Make it make sense. A gunman walked onto campus, Teachers pointed directly at him, told the officer where he was. Children called nine to one one from inside classrooms. Parents begged officers to go in, and seventy seven minutes passed before anyone confronted the shooter. Your tax dollars at work. We'll be right back with Pamela Smart. She seduced her fifteen year old student, convinced him to murder. Her husband spent thirty four years in prison, claiming she's innocent. Now she wants out. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm redcar May First, nineteen ninety Dairy, New Hampshire, small town south of Manchester, population thirty five thousand, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. Gregory Smart, twenty four years old insurance salesman, newlywed, came home to his condominium after work. Someone was waiting. Two teenagers burst through the door. One held a knife to his throat, the other put a gun to his head. Bang, one shot.

10:25 Gregory Smart fell dead. Iness Foyer, forced to his knees, executed his wife. Pamela discovered the body, called police, played the grieving widow. America believed her until the truth came out. Pamela Smart twenty two years old, high school media coordinator at Winnicunnet High School in nearby Hampton. Blonde, attractive, ambitious, she'd started an affair with one of her students, William Flynn, fifteen years old sophomore. The affair began after Pamela recruited Flynn to help with a school video project. Groomed him, slept with him, made him fall in love with her, then told him she needed her husband dead. According to Flynn's trial testimony, Pamela said she feared she'd lose everything if she divorced. Gregory threatened to break up with Flynn if he didn't kill her husband, so Flynn recruited his friend Patrick Randall, seventeen. They recruited two more teens to help made a plan May. First, Pamela made sure she was out of the house attending a school board meeting.

11:27 Alibi established. Flynn and Randall broke in waited when Gregory came home. Randal held a knife to his throat. Flynn fired a hollow point bullet into his head. They ransacked the condo to make it look like a burglary. Pamela came home discovered the body played the victim, but Cecilia Pierce, a friend of Flynn's, started cooperating with police, wore a wire recorded conversations with Pamela. Those recordings became the prosecution's key evidence. Flynn, Randall, and the other her teenagers cooperated testified against Pamela. All pleaded guilty and received reduced sentences. Flynn got twenty eight years to life, released on parole.

12:10 In twenty fifteen, Randall got the same, also released. Pamela went to trial March nineteen ninety one, one of the first trials in American history broadcast gaveled. A gavel on court TV media circus doesn't begin to describe it. The case had everything sex, murder, a seductive older woman, a teenage killer, secret recordings. Pamela denied knowledge of the plot, said she was shocked shocked that her teenage lover and his friends murdered her husband. The jury didn't buy it. Convicted of being an accomplice to first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering. Sentenced to life without parole.

12:51 The teenagers who actually pulled the trigger and held the knife got less time than the woman who planned it. For thirty four years, Pamela maintained her innocence a pear heels denied. Sentence reduction requests denied. Last summer, New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte rejected her latest request for a hearing. Then something changed. June twenty twenty four, Pamela released a video finally taking full responsibility for Gregory's death. Said she'd spent years deflecting blame, almost as if it was a coping mechanism. Now, Monday of this week, her lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition seeking to overturn her conviction entirely filed in both New York, where she's incarcerated at Bedford Hill's correctional facility, and New Hampshire, where the murder happened.

13:39 The arguments are fascinating. First, prosecutors allegedly gave jurors inaccurate transcripts of the secretly recorded conversations. Words that weren't actually audible on the recordings were written in the transcripts. According to Pamela's lawyers, the word killed in the sentence you had your husband killed, the word busted in I'm going to be busted, the word murder in this would have been the perfect murder. Her attorney, Matthew Zehnheldt, said, modern science confirms what common sense has always told us. When people are handed a script, they inevitably hear the words they are shown. Jurors were not evaluating the recordings independently, they were being directed toward a conclusion. Second, the media coverage was so intense it tainted the verdict, wall to wall coverage. Joyce Maynard wrote a book about it. Hollywood made a movie starring Nicole Kidman. The trial became entertainment before the jury even deliberated. Third, the jury instructions were allegedly faulty. Jurors were told they must find that Smart acted with premeditation, not that they must consider only the evidence presented at trial. Fourth, New Hampshire didn't mandate life without parole for being an accomplice to first degree murder.

14:56 The sentence was discretionary, not required. Attorney Jason Ought said missus Smart's trial unfolded in an environment that no court had previously confronted, wall to wall media coverage that blurred the line between allegation and evidence. This petition challenges whether a fair adversarial process took place. New Hampshire's Attorney General's Office responded the state maintains miss Smart received a fair trial and that her convictions were lawfully obtained and upheld on appeal. Here's the reality. Pamela Smart is fifty seven years old. She served thirty four years. William Flynn, the teenager who actually pulled the trigger, served twenty five years, and has been free since twenty fifteen. Patrick Randall, who held the knife to Gregory's throat, same story free. The person who planned the murder is still in prison, the people who executed it are free. Is that justice? Maybe Pamela groomed a fifteen year old, used sex to manipulate it child into committing murder, created the entire conspiracy. Without her, Gregory Smart would be alive, But William Flynn pulled the trigger, made the choice, followed through. He's been free for a decade.

16:15 The habeas petition is a long shot. Courts rarely overturned convictions this old. The legal arguments are creative but speculative, and Pamela spent three decades lying before finally admitting responsibility. Hard to trust someone who lied for that long. Gregory Smart was twenty four years old, insurance salesman, newlywed, married less than a year, shot in his own home by teenagers his wife sent to kill him. He should be fifty nine today, should have had children, grandchildren, a life. Rest in peace, Gregory. Someone has to say your name coming up. Sidney Powell killed her mother with a frying pan and a steak knife. Claimed insanity, jury rejected it.

16:59 Appeals court granted a new trial. Now Ohio's highest court decides whether to put her conviction back in place. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed, Carter Columbus, Ohio Ohio Supreme Court yesterday attorneys arguing over expert testimony and trial procedure in a brutal matricide case. March third, twenty twenty, Akron, Ohio, Scudder Drive, middle class neighborhood police received a call for a welfare check around one pm. When officers arrived, they found Brenda Powell, fifty years old, with life threatening wounds, cuts, stab wounds, blood everywhere. She was transported to Cleveland Clinic.

17:44 Akron General died later that day. Outside, police found Sidney Powell, Brenda's nineteen year old daughter, collapsed at the end of the driveway, eyes rolled back, clawing at the asphalt until her fingers bled, catatonic, not responding to anything. Sidney was a college student at Mount Union University had recently been kicked out of school that day. Brenda was on the phone with school officials when the attack began. The murder weapon a cast iron frying pan a stake knife. Sydney hit her mother with the skillet stabbed her more than thirty times, according to prosecutors. She then broke a window and initially claimed someone had broken in and attacked her mother, staging the scene tampering with evidence. Sydney was charged with murder, felonious assault, and tampering with evidence. But this wouldn't be a typical murder trial. February two thousand, twenty two, Sydney changed her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

18:47 Her attorney Don Mallersik argued she'd had a psychotic break. Multiple doctors evaluated her found she suffered from anxiety, borderline personality disorder, and schizo effective disorder. At trial in September twenty twenty three, the defense called psychologists who testified Sidney was out of touch with reality when she killed her mother. She only had flashes of memory sitting on the couch next to her mother, crying, feeling the need to get away, going down the basement steps and back up voices in her head saying loser, worthless, kill yourself, then waking up in the hospital. Her father, Steve Powell, begged prosecutors not to proceed, testified on his daughter's behalf I don't know why we're doing this. This isn't what anyone wants here.

19:38 I'm trying to keep my family together. But prosecutors called their own expert. Sylvia Obradovitch, a psychologist, testified Sidney was sane when she murdered her mother, not in a fully blown psychosis, understood the wrongfulness of her actions. The jury deliberated, rejected the insanity defense, found Sydney guilty on all ca She sobbed as the verdicts were read. September twenty twenty three, Sydney sentenced to fifteen years to life. Her attorney said afterward, this wasn't justice. Sydney appealed the key issue. Before the trial began. Her attorney had filed a motion requesting a surrebuttal.

20:23 In Ohio trials, the prosecution presents its case, the defense presents its case, then the prosecution gets a rebuttal. The defense wanted the right to present additional witnesses after the prosecution's rebuttal, the judge denied it, said there had been lots and lots and lots of expert testimony. December twenty twenty four, Ohio's Ninth District Court of Appeals agreed with Sydney, granted her a new trial, found the trial judge had aired by not allowing the surrebuttal. Since insanity is an affirmative defense where the burden is on the defendant to prove it, the surrebuttal is actually the defense's rebuttal case which they have an unconditional right to present. Prosecutors appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court said the decision sets a dangerous precedent that creates an unconditional right to surrebuttal and fundamentally changes the structure of trials. Yesterday, both sides argued before Ohio's highest Court. C Richly Rayley, representing the state, warned the appeals court decision could serve as a vehicle to entirely rewrite the order of trials throughout the state of Ohio, create an unconditional right to recall expert witnesses that could go on forever. As Justice Patrick Fisher noted, Sidney's attorney Daniel Eisenbry argued, the issue is narrower. No absolute right to surobuttal exists. He agreed, but the trial judge abused her discretion in this specific instance by not

21:53 allowing the defense to respond to new information the prosecution's expert raised during rebuttal, Rayleigh delivered a three minute closing rebuttal. I don't believe we have a surrebuttal in this case, he remarked, pointedly ask the justices to reinstate Sidney's conviction. The justices took the case under advisement, no timeline for a ruling. Here's what's at stake. If the Ohio Supreme Court sides with Sydney, she gets a new trial, her insanity defense gets another chance. If they side with the state, her conviction is reinstated. She continues serving fifteen years to life. The legal question matters for every trial in Ohio, but for Sidney Powell and the family of Brenda Powell, this is personal. A daughter who killed her mother, a father trying to hold what's left of his family together, a victim who can't speak for herself. Brenda Powell was fifty years old child life specialist at Akron Children's Hospital. Patients called her their second mom. She treated us just like her own children. One four patient said after her death, she should be sixty five today, should be retired, playing with grandchildren, enjoying the life she built helping sick children feel safe, rest in peace, Brenda. Someone has to say your name. That's celebrity Trials for Thursday, January eighth, twenty twenty six. Adrian Gonzales trial in Uvaldi resumes today after

23:25 witness testimony derailed proceedings on day one. Teacher's surprise statements about seeing the gunman near where Gonzalez was standing prompted defense objections and a day of legal arguments. Twenty nine counts of child endangerment, twenty one victims who deserve answers. Pamela Smart filed habeas petitions seeking to overturn her nineteen ninety conviction for having her teenage lover murder. Her husband claims prosecutors gave jurors fake transcripts. She's fifty seven, served thirty four years. The teen who pulled the trigger has been free since twenty fifteen. Ohio Supreme Court weighing whether to reinstate Sidney Powell's murder conviction killed her mother with a frying pan and steak knife, claimed insanity, Jury rejected it, Appeals court granted new trial. State says the decision could rewrite trial procedure across Ohio I'm reed Carter tomorrow. Updates from Uvalde and whatever else breaks. This is celebrity trials, word count,