"WOLFENBARGER WALKS FREE: Jury Acquits Wife-Killer Despite Google Searches for 'How to Strangle Someone'"

0:03 Calorogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Red Carter. Monday, August twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. Today on Celebrity Trials, Christopher Wolfenbarger is a freeman. A jury in Georgia just acquitted a man who googled how to kill someone with your bare hands before his ex wife disappeared and was found buried on his family's property. But sure reasonable doubt. We'll recap the Menendez brother's spectacular failure at parole. Turns out admitting to prison phones, gang associations, and tax fraud doesn't scream rehabilitation. Plus, your weekend murder roundup includes a death row killer who murdered his therapist then killed himself and a California woman who shot her husband then immediately posted on Facebook about needing a new boyfriend. Subtle All that and more on today's Celebrity Trials. Let's quickly recap the Menendez brothers' parole hearings for those just joining us. Thursday, Eric Menendez was denied. Friday, Lyle Menendez was denied, and the parole board didn't mince words about why. According to their decision, both brothers are lacking in insight about their crime.

1:21 That's bureaucrats speak for, you're still lying about why you murdered your parents. The board specifically cited Eric's recent disciplinary issues, the cell phones, the gang associations, the tax fraud scheme from prison. They said he poses an unreasonable risk to public safety. A man who can't follow rules and maximum security can't be trusted on the streets. Lyle got similar treatment multiple cell phone violations in twenty twenty four, not decades ago. Last year, the board said both brothers continue to minimize their responsibility and haven't genuinely accepted what they did. Commissioner Amy Lamb put it per ffc The brutal nature of these crimes and your continued failure to fully acknowledge your role makes you unsuitable for parole. Translation, you executed your parents for money and were not buying the abuse excuse.

2:14 Thirty six years later, The brothers can try again in three to fifteen years, though with their moderate risk assessment it could be as soon as one year. But after these catastrophic hearings, good luck with that. Kim Kardashian has been silent since the denials. Netflix hasn't announced any new documentaries. Turns out celebrity endorsements can't overcome contraband, cell phones and prison gang memberships. The Menendez brothers killed their parents in nineteen eighty nine. They'll die in prison sometime in the next few decades. Justice served, even if it took the parole board to confirm what the jury decided in nineteen ninety six. Now for your weekend murder roundup, because apparently people can't stop killing each other, even on Saturdays and Sundays.

3:04 First up, Matthew Kaylor, a North Carolina death row inmate who was out on a forty eight hour pass. Yes you heard that right, A death row inmate on a weekend pass decided to murder his therapist before killing himself. Kaylor was serving life for the nineteen ninety seven murder of Melinda Hinson, who he shot during a robbery. He'd been on death row for twenty eight years, but North Carolina, in its infinite wisdom, gave him a forty eight hour unsupervised release. During this brilliant decision, Kaylor went to his therapist's home and killed her. Then he killed himself. The therapist's name hasn't been released, but she's dead because someone thought a convicted killer needed a weekend off. This is what happens when we prioritize inmate's mental health over public safety.

3:52 A therapist is dead because the system cared more about Kaylor's feelings than the danger he posed. Next up, Nicky Sale McCain in Califf. Excuse me in California? Who gives us the most insane social media confession since people started live streaming crimes. McCain thirty six, shot and killed her husband, Tyler McCain, thirty four, on Friday night in Stockton. Within hours, not days, hours, she was on Facebook posting about needing a new boyfriend. The post, which has since been deleted but was screenshot by everyone with a phone, said, and I quote, well I'm single now. Who wants to be my next mistake? Hashtag fresh start? Hashtag new beginnings. Your husband's body isn't even cold yet. Police arrested her Saturday morning after neighbors reported hearing gunshots and seeing her drag something heavy to her garage. That something was Tyler McCain's body.

4:48 Her motive, according to investigators, she was angry he'd eaten the last of her yogurt. I'm not making this up, she allegedly shot him twice in the chest over yo play. She's being held without bail and his pleaded not guilty, though I'm curious how her lawyer is going to explain away the Facebook post, your honor, My client was grief stricken and processing trauma through social media. This is your brain on social media, folks, murder your spouse, immediately post about dating because nothing says I'm innocent, like advertising for a replacement before the blood dries back in a moment.

5:35 But now for the main event, the story that made me throw my coffee mug at the wall. Friday afternoon, Christopher Wolfenbarger is a free man. After a week long trial. After prosecutors presented evidence that he googled how to kill someone with your bare hands after his ex wife's body was found buried on his family's property, a Georgia jury acquitted him of murdering Melissa Wolfenbarger not guilty. He walked out of that courthouse Friday afternoon, a free man. Let me remind you what we learned during this trial. Day four brought us detective Jamie Abernathy's testimony about Wolfenbarger's Google search history in the months before Melissa disappeared in November nineteen ninety eight. He searched for, and I'm quoting here, how to kill someone with your bare hands, how long does it take to strangle someone? And how to make someone disappear? But apparently that's just light reading for the jury.

6:31 Day five brought doctor Karen Bailey, the medical examiner, who testified that Melissa died from blunt force trauma to the head, multiple impacts. Her skull was fractured in several places. This wasn't a single blow in a moment of rage. This was a beating. Day six, the prosecution laid out their timeline. Melissa was last seen November twenty fourth, nineteen ninety eight. Christopher claimed she left to go shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. Her body was found in two thousand and two, buried on his parents property. He told their children their mother abandoned them. But here's what destroyed the case. Melissa's mother, Norma Patten. Remember Norma, She's married to serial killer Carl Patten.

7:13 She admitted, under immunity to helping her husband dispose of multiple bodies. The defense painted her as completely unreliable, and apparently the jury agreed. Defense attorney McClean. Watson stood up and actually argued with a straight face that maybe Melissa asked Christopher to kill her, that it might have been assisted suicide, that maybe she was so depressed about her serial killer father that she wanted to die, and the jury bought it. They deliberated for less than four hours. Four hours for a murder case with Google searches about killing methods, a body buried on the defendant's property, and a pattern of lies about the victim being alive. Christopher Wolfenbarger's own daughter, Christina Garrett, testified about growing up believing her grandparents were her parents, about finding out at age six that her whole life was built on lies about her father telling her that her mother had abandoned them.

8:09 Didn't matter. The prosecution had everything motive, a custody battle opportunity, she disappeared from his house, evidence, those google searches, the body on his property, witnesses, multiple people testifying about abuse, but they had one fatal flaw. The victim's mother was married to a serial killer. This is what's wrong with our justice system. The defense doesn't have to prove innocence, They just have to create doubt. And what creates more doubt than a serial killer's wife is your star witness. Never Mind that Norma Patten was desperately searching for her daughter. Never Mind that even someone who helped cover up murders knew something was wrong here. Never Mind that being married to a killer doesn't make you wrong about everything. The jury looked at Norma Patten and decided they couldn't trust anything she said, and without her her testimony, the prosecution's case fell apart. So Christopher Wolfenbarger, who googled how to strangle someone whose ex wife was found beaten to death and buried on his property, who lied about her being alive for four years, is walking free today. He's probably having breakfast somewhere, maybe looking at apartments, perhaps setting up a dating profile, free as a bird, while Melissa Wolfenbarger's bones lay in a grave he put her in. This verdict is a masterclass in how to get away with murder.

9:31 Make sure your victim's family has credibility problems. It doesn't matter if you leave a digital trail of murder planning. It doesn't matter if the body is literally in your backyard. If you can make the jury doubt the witnesses, you walk. The district attorney's office says they're disappointed, but respect the jury's decision. That's lawyers speak for, we can't believe these idiots. Let him walk. Christina Garrett, who lost her mother when she was two, had to watch her father walk free. On Friday. She released a statement saying, simply, the system failed my mother. Yes, it did. It failed Melissa Wolfenbarger when Christopher was googling how to kill her. It failed her when he was beating her to death, It failed her when he was burying her body, and it failed her again on Friday, when twelve people decided that reasonable doubt was more important than obvious guilt. Christopher Wolfenbarger murdered his ex wife. Everyone knows it. The prosecutors know it, the judge knows it. Hell I bet even his defense attorney knows it. But because the jury couldn't get past the serial killer connection, he's free. This is why domestic violence victims don't come forward. This is why women stay in abusive relationships, because even when their abuser googles how to kill them, even when their body is found buried on his property, he can still walk free if his lawyer tells a good enough story. Melissa Wolfenbarger was twenty three years old when she died. She had two young j children. She was trying to escape an abusive relationship,

11:03 and the man who killed her just got away with it. Welcome to justice in America, where you can literally search how to kill someone, kill them, bury them, and walk free. If the jury doesn't like the victim's mom, Christopher Wolfenbarger is a murderer. The jury just decided they didn't care that. Celebrity trials from Monday, August twenty fifth. Tomorrow, we're checking in on the cardib assault trial as jury selection begins. Can the rapper convince twelve people that beating up your own security guard is somehow justified? Plus updates on next week's sentencing for the Austin Drummond family murders, and a preview of our upcoming Eight Days of OJ series beginning September twenty sixth. I'm Red Carter. Today we saw the Menendez brothers stay in prison where they belong, and Christopher Wolfenbarger walk free where he doesn't belong. The system works sometimes.

11:57 Today wasn't one of those times until tomorrow. And remember, apparently you can Google how to kill someone and still get acquitted. So maybe clear your search history anyway, See you tomorrow.