Crime Wire Weekly 7/4/25 | Kohberger Pleads Guilty to Murder of (4), Diddy Sentenced, Disney Cruise Disaster (Preview)

0:00 All right, folks, we got a jam packed show for you today. Dominating the crime news this week, Brian Koberger accepted a plea deal in the fatal stabbings of four in Idaho. Some verdicts have been returned, well, all the verdicts in this Sean Diddy Combs trial. We're going to talk about that. A suspect has been identified in Idaho that killed himself after a firefighter and Bush. We're definitely going to cover that. Cartel violence has left twenty dead in Mexico. Some of these people hanging from a bridge. You're gonna want to listen to this story. A man drugs and smothers his wife in Arizona. The woman had dementia and she was in a nursing facility. South Carolina had a deputy get shot in another ambush.

0:56 This week, we're going to be covering. A child falls overboard on a Disney cruise line and is saved by her father. We're going to cover that story. Escapee Antoine Massey has finally been caught in New Orleans and kJ loses a bet. We're gonna cover that. And a Louisiana man has been caught after stealing an ambulance parked outside of a hospital. We're going to tell you all about that wacky crime, and we're going to wrap up with why July fourth is the most violent day of the year. We got some really good insight on why that is. So stick with us and welcome everyone to Crime Wire Weekly. I'm Jim Chapman and I'm Kelly Jenny, And look, we switched it up a little bit this week.

1:44 Kelly and I told everybody kind of a little sypnosis of all the headlines this week, so they know what they're about to hear, kind of roll them in a little bit maybe. And I'm like, hey, it's good to know what we're about to get into. You get in the mindset and you know what you got to deal with. That's exactly right. And this has been one wild week in the world of crime. A lot of big stories have been just fluttered through the internet. Tragic stories too, like stories just out the box, wildness happening. You know, there's no doubt about it. Some stories that'll just flat piss you off. And we're gonna let Kelly start this off with one of those type of stories right now.

2:25 Tell us Kelly, indeed, so we're gonna go to Idaho, and if you have followed this case to date, you're gonna probably understand our sentiment and where we're coming from. If not, let's get into this. So Brian Coberger has accepted a plea deal that will spare him the death penalty in the slayings of four University of Ohio students in November of twenty twenty two. According to a letter sent to the family's victims by prosecutors, Coburger is charged with four counts of murder and the stabbings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogan, and Kaylee Gonzalvez, who were killed at a home in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of November thirteenth, twenty twenty two. In the letter, portions of which were shown by Mogan's father, Ben Mogen, the county prosecutor's office says attorneys for Coburger requested a plea deal, and Coburger accepted it. The letter says Coburger agreed to plead guilty to all the counts against him and that he would be sentenced to quote four consecutive which means back to back life sentences on the four murder counts and would waive all rights to appeal. The letter also says that if Coburger enters guilty, please as expected at an upcoming hearing, we anticipate that this case will be set for sentencing in late July. If the defendant does not enter guilty, please as expected, we are prepared to proceed to trial as planned. The family of one of the other victims, Kaylee Gonsalves, also said they received the letter about the plea deal. Coburger had been fighting the charges. His trial is expected to begin in August, following several delays. The murders terrorized the community, and for

3:58 weeks the hunt for a suspect was shroud in mystery. Coburger was arrested six weeks later at his parents' home in Pennsylvania. According to the police affidavit, DNA evidence linked him to a knife sheath found at the crime scene. At the time of his arrest, Coburger was a PhD criminology student and teaching assistant at Washington State University's Pullham campus, which is about fifteen minutes from the Moscow, Idaho area. Ben Mogan said he was relieved to get the letter about the plea deal, and this is a direct quote. If you get a quick death sentence, then you know you don't have to spend decades thinking about how terrible you made the world. He said. We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don't want to have to be at that we shouldn't have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person, he said. We get to just think about the rest of our lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and without the rest of the kids. The Consolvest family, however, said they are beyond furious at the state of Idaho in a Facebook post shortly after the news broke. They have failed us. This was very unexpected, they wrote. The family he said that the prosecutor's office vaguely mentioned a possible plea on Friday without seeking our input, and presented the plea on Sunday. The family has pushed for Coburger to face the death penalty. The introduction of this plea deal just weeks before the scheduled trial is both shocking and cruel. Aubrey Consolvest, the youngest member of the family wrote, and a letter shared on Facebook, Brian Coburger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships and engage with the world. Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced. In another statement released Tuesday,

5:31 the consolvist's family said they will not stop fighting for the life that was stolen unjustly. We stand strong that it is not over until a plea is accepted. They wrote. At a bare minimum, please require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder, weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, and the true facts of what happened that night. Martin Diaz, an attorney for the Coburger family, said in a statement provided to CBS News Tuesday evening on behalf of the family that in light of the recent developments, the coburg are asking members of the media for privacy, respect, and responsible judgment. During this time, we will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions.

6:11 The trial was originally going to be held in the county where the murders occurred, but the judge later ordered the trial to be moved over concerns the media coverage and statements from local officials would make it impossible for Coburger to receive a fair trial. The Idaho Supreme Court moved the proceedings to Boise. Coburger's defense team had previously tried to remove the death penalty as a possible sentence if he was convicted, but County Judge Stephen Hipler denied their emotions. Back in November of twenty twenty four, among the evidence prosecutors were planning to present was Coburger's Amazon purchase history showing he bought a k bar knife with sheaf and sharpener, which they claimed match the sheath found at the crime scene. Prosecutors also claimed touch DNA matching DNA taken from Coburger was found on the sheath. The defense tried to exclude the touch DNA evidence, but Hipler denied that request. Prosecutors were also playing to present surveillance video of Coburger's car and cell phone data that they said tied him to the vicinity of the killings. Last week, the judge denied emotion by Coburger's lawyers to argue that four alternate perpetrators could have committed the murders. The judge called it rank speculation and said nothing links these individuals to the homicides. So we have a clip for you to listen to via News Nation of Kaylee Consolvas's father reacting to the news of Coburger accepting this plea deal.

7:25 Listen to the emotion here. But I wanted you to have your say. I wanted you to be able to say out loud for everyone to hear what this means to you and your family. This is anything but justice. This is the opposite of our will. There was no majority believing that this was acceptable. I want to honor all the police officers, the FBI, and all the people that work their tail off. The failure is at the court level of one percent, but the men in the boots on the ground and the women we're out there working. I want to honor everything that they did for our children. One the fault is in leadership and the people that you place this evidence upon.

8:15 They they or week they decided to play god and decide what this man's decision should be. And not a journey, not a peers, not his peers. They you know. So that's where we are today. Walk me through what happened. Brian Innton. You know, did some really great reporting at the top of this show here. But tell me from your perspective how the last three days have played out. I would say, ever since Hippler has demanded an independent investigation, they couldn't get away from this case fast enough. They've done everything to make this case go away. So I don't know what that entails. But he said he was going to have an independent investigator, and all of a sudden, we seemed like we were on rails to get rid of this case and make a plea deal. I mean, he's guilty. We all know he's guilty. There's more than enough evidence. But it's tough. It's tough to put a community through this, and it could be bad for reputations and business identities, and there's fallout.

9:31 But this isn't the will of the victims. This is just one person making a decision and it doesn't reflect what we were asking for. Steve, did anybody ever call you from the prosecutor's office to just personally discuss this with you? Did anybody offer to meet with you in person to go over this potential plan. We have meetings all the time on particularly a lot of times on Friday. No, no, no, we had this regular meeting that we have to try and basically do an update of what's going on where things are at.

10:14 Because Idaho is actually an amazing state where it really does care about people. We just get one or two, you know, people who just don't care about the victims and don't care about justice, and they. It's easy to take the weight out. It's easy to make an excuse and say I'm doing this for the victims, even though I've never interviewed the victims, I've never really talked to them to find out what their true feelings are. So here we are. We're stuck. We're stuck, and we can't get out of it. I ask you, your audience, if anybody knows Judge Hitler, reach out to him and ask him to put his foot down and not accept this offer. It doesn't reflect anything in Idaho.

10:58 This is not justice. We had an outsider come to our community kill our kids in their sleep while they're getting at college education doing everything that they should do, and we don't have the courage to hold him accountable. No, plea deal, Let's go for this guy one hundred percent. Let's do it, and that that's how that's how this family stands. See, I know that you know it's no secret your daughter Kaylee was so close with Matty Mogan, best of friends, and I know that you got to know the Mogan family as well. Have you spoken with the Mogan family and do you know what their reaction is to this plea decision.

11:41 We actually just had a meeting with the prosecution and just tore into it and made it clear that we were not in support of this. But we also invited other families into that and I'll let them speak on. Their own that were part of that meeting, But we are in no way alone on this. Multiple families believe the same as we do, but I want to honor their abilities to speak independently and as their child, So I don't want to cross that line. But all I will say is there was no majority for this decision at all.

12:22 And if they're not working for us, they're working against us. Guys. I mean, we have to wake up to this. I mean we have to hold people accountable. Portal Aane just had our shooting where we attacked our firemens. People need to stand up to these monsters and stop fricking bounding down to them and giving them childcare. I mean, prison is nothing but adult childcare. You get free vision, you get free dental, you get free males, you get ac room and board, cable TV, internet access. It's ridiculous. What we give our prison better than what we treat our Vietnam our vets, our vets coming back from war with missing limbs.

13:06 This is unacceptable, all right, Jim thoughts on that, What do you think? I'm disgusted about this. When I first saw this, I assumed. I assumed that this was the wishes of the family, because you will see that sometimes with death penalty cases, where a deal is made, and primarily it's that the wishes of the family affected, and they don't want to relive, right, They don't want to relive that. And who am I to judge whether. Someone should be made to relive the absolute fucking butchering of their kid. So when I saw this, that was my thought. Then the report started coming out, and come to find out, not only was one family, but the majority of families in this case were upset, very upset that this was done essentially behind their back. They were made aware of it, and it was their contention that they really had no choice in the matter. So it makes me wonder, and I'm purely speculating here, it makes me wonder if some of this evidence may have been attained in a not.

14:16 So legal way. Let's just say. That maybe some of that familiar DNA they didn't really have the right to go on someone's property and dig through their trash and get without a warrant. Or maybe they didn't have a warrant. I don't know, Maybe they did something is a mess you talked about. Maybe they didn't have good procedure whenever they got the trash to get the DNA. Well, just if people aren't familiar with this, you have a thing called curtilage, which is going to be basically the area between your sidewalk and the street. So when you bring your trash can and you put it there to be picked up, that in and of itself is not a protected area, and you can collect things from curtilage to get the DNA.

14:57 It's done all the time, and it's not frowned upon. It's actually a procedure that's pretty you know, common. Well, it has to be in a certain spot, right. I'm just saying, so, I mean, it's not like you're stealing trash. I mean, if it's in a spot whatever. So where I'm coming in on this altogether is we've worked all this time, and I say we, as the collective right, we trust in this process. We trust that you're going to do a bang up job. We found the guy. There's no doubt in majority of people's minds whether he did it or not. Now it's coming down to what should a penalty look like. And my personal opinion is that conviction does not equal justice. And I'm saying that through through the scope of being a victim, because just because someone is convicted, for example, and let's say they went to jail for not for this case, but let's say you go to jail for you know, thirty days for something that you did that doesn't fix what you did to me, that doesn't undo what you did to me, and then begs the question, Okay, what do you want to do? Well in this case specifically, this is exactly what the death penalty is for. It's for cases like this. If this does not qualify, nothing would qualify for a death penalty case. And the death penalty should not be a bargaining chip for prosecutors who I feel lack of backbone. Right now, they're getting that easy conviction that shows a win on his record, which, by the way, the prosecutor is going to retire after this from what I read. So you get this easy conviction and then he doesn't have to say a lot of anything. He really doesn't. If he could confesses great,

16:28 we already know that. No shit, shear a lot. These families want some semblance of why why did you do this? What could draw you here? And all he has to do is say, yeah, I did it. We already know that. He knows that. He held out to the very end because the death penalty was on the table. He waited to see if he was going to get any type of plea deal from the prosecution, which he did not get offered from the prosecution to come in and say, hey, well why don't we do this, that and the other. Then he became a total chicken shit and wanted to come up with this fake oh there might have been other people that did it, which tells me he's a fucking liar. And then after that gets shot down, then the prosecution turns around and offers a plea deal without notifying the family ahead of time, so that they can get the win. This is not a win as far as families are concerned. There is no winning. The families will never win. What this was was that his life should be put on the line. And I'm gonna add one more thing to that. People came after me on TikTok okay because I made a TikTok about this one, and they're like, well, I just have to disagree with you.

17:32 You know, life in prison, the family doesn't have to worry. Blah blah blah blah blah. Well, let's go back to what that little sister said, because she nailed it. Because as a person who has worked at a maximum security penitentiary where there is death row and there is population prisoners alike, population prisoners still have a life. They can talk to their families, they can watch TV, they can play games, they can make hobbycraft for example where we are, and they can sell it out a rodeo. I'm not saying he's coming here, but I'm just giving you an example. They can be a part of thing. They continue to study, they can do schooling, They can do a lot of things and build a life in prison. It may not be ideal, but it's still a life. The death row experience, and I want listeners to hear me on this. The death row experience is a motherfucker. They are locked down twenty three hours a day. They are allowed one hour out to walk, a tear or go outside weather permitting, in a cage. It is a miserable life. Miserable and giving him I don't give it care. If you give him a hundred life sentences, he still gets to have a life. And it's as a parent, a side with the dad on this and a side with the sister.

18:44 It's a cop out. And we know now that he killed these four people. And I want everybody to hear this clip. This is the plead from Brian Coburger actually pleading to all. Four deaths as guilty. Here's that Therefore, with respect to count one burglary felony, how do you plead, mister Colberger guilty or not guilty guilty as to count two murder in the first degree as it relates to the murder of Madison Mogan. How do you plead guilty or not guilty guilty as to. Count three as it relates to murder in the first degree for the murder of Kaylee Gonsalvez.

19:25 How do you plead guilty? You're not guilty guilty as to count four, the first degree murder of Xana Cernodle, pardon me, human being? How do you plead guilty or not guilty guilty as to count five? The first degree murder of Ethan Chapin, human being? How do you plead guilty or not guilty? Guilty? You just heard that clip, and no matter what you think in this case, you just heard a guy plead to the murders of four people. And Kelly's right. He gets to live and they don't, and the family didn't like it. It's very upsetting to me. I'm obviously very upsetting to Kelly. It's disgusting.

20:10 I'll say this. I try to put myself in other people's shoes. I do. And my heart also hurts for the Coburger family, like the parents, because they didn't do this. You know, they're in a bad position too. It seems like they're respectful. They said, we're just not going to say anything. You know, nothing they could say anyway would be well taken. They will get their day in court and they will get to look this asshole in the face and tell him what they think about him because during the sentencing, what do we have. Kelly, what's it called victim impact statement? Victim impact statements? And in those victim impact statements, I can't wait for him. I can't wait for these people to get the opportunity to look this guy in the face and tell him what a monster he is.

20:50 And I hope that they are given ample time. Let's move on. To New York City and we're going to talk about. Wow, the case maybe the trial of all trials so far in this century, and that is Sean Diddy Combs, who was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking. He was convicted of some lesser charges. And when I say lesser, I mean lesser. Of all the charges he could be convicted of. Those were the ones he wanted to get convicted of, if he had to be convicted of anything. Of course, the global hip hop titan, whose federal trial unveiled harrowing testimony that accused him of sexual abuse against women and forced drug dazed freak offs, was acquitted just Wednesday on racketeering, conspiracy, and sex trafficking. Now, the Jersey's verdict was delivered on the third day of deliberations. Uh, they found did he not guilty of one count of racketeering conspiracy in two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, but they did find him guilty two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

22:04 This verdict, as I. Told you, it's seen as a win for Combs and his defense team, which they did not call a single witness during the seven week trial. And after the verdict was read, his family stood in the background clapping and cheering. Comes then fell to his knees in prayer. As he left the court room, he told his family, thank you, I love you. Teeny Gerges, one of Comb's attorneys, actually broke out in tears. His lead attorney, Mark Agnafillo, he made a fist in triumph as the defense team hugged each other and hugged his family, And it really made me think about the I was just about as disgusted as when the oj Simpson trial took place. And Johnny Cochran, who, regardless of what you think of Johnny Cochrane, probably the best attorney I've ever seen it relating to a jury, that Sucker could just talk to people. Man, he was extremely talented as a defense attorney. But when they announced the not guilty plea in the oj Simpson trial, the first thing you heard was a shriek and a bunch of crying from the sister of Ron Goldman, who was you know.

23:18 Murdered brutally. And the second thing you see is Johnny Crockran scream yes and pat Oj on the shoulder. And look, there was no celebration there. Everybody knew Oja did it. But even if you're excited about a win, how could you do that with somebody in the audience screaming and crying because her brother did not get justice. I will never understand. Now, to clear it up quickly, Combs is still facing considerable prison time at sentencing the prostitution transportation charge, so he could get twenty years with those two counts. And I want to say this, initially yesterday when this verdict came down, I was not surprised. I did not feel like they proved beyond a reasonable doubt the counts that they needed to prove.

24:07 I didn't. I'm not saying I agree with them. I'm saying the prosecution did not prove that beyond a reasonable doubt the ones he was convicted of I agree with I assumed initially he wasn't going to do any jail time, But something shocking, in my opinion, happened yesterday. The defense attorney basically said, all right, you know it's time for him to get out of jail until sentencing, considering he's only charged with two minor counts in comparison to what he's facing life in prison. And he judge said, nope, he's not getting out of jail till his sentencing. That told me something. They got the red ass for Shawn Combs, and I think that Shawn Combs is going to do every day of that twenty years. I think they're going to sendence him to the max. In both cases. I think they're pissed that they lost this case. The prosecution certainly is going to ask for the max of twenty years. And in this trial, you heard the defense team own the fact that Sean Combs was a abuser of women, a physical abuser, and they said that in court we own that we can't get away with that he beats women. Well, in a court of law, you're supposed to have a blindfold and you're supposed to ignore all these other circumstances that aren't necessarily part of what you're getting prosecuted with.

25:28 But we're also human, and I guarantee you that judge, he won't he didn't like that. How many how many he's. Gonna make paid? How many years has did he been behind bars? About a year a waiting trial? All right? So worst situation imaginable is they do them consecutively, which would be the full twenty years. Then they're going to give him credit for the year time serve, which means he would serve nineteen. Now what happens here is they can give him good time for that, which means if basically you're good, then they'll knock time off of your sentence. So they also offer things called double good time. So what you could do on average is you could divide it in half and say, you know, at least he would spend half of that. So what's half of nineteen?

26:13 What is that? It's like nine and yeah, nine nine, it'd be like nine something. So that would be, in my opinion, worst case scenario, which is unbelievable. I have seen people do fifteen to twenty years for much less, in my opinion, in the whole totality, of this case. But the judge could also say, no, I'm gonna sentence you to max, but we're gonna run them concurrently, which means they would run at the same time, which means it's a ten year flat sentence. But again, he can be getting that good time and he'd. Be out less than five which was my first inclination. But the fact that he made him stay in jail makes me think they're gonna they're gonna send him to some pretty hard time. Now let me let me flip what you said just a little bit, ok, some perspective on it. We all know did He's a piece of shit and he needs to be in jail the rest of his life for all the stuff he wasn't convicted.

27:08 Of, and to protect people in the future, honestly, because he's correct. So I'm not defending did He here. But what I'm doing is I'm taking Diddy out of the equation and I'm giving. You the charges he was convicted of. He was basically convicted of paying prostitutes to get on a plane come to him and have a freak off with him and his girlfriend right when it's. All said and done. That's most people that get caught with prostitutes do no jail time none. If it was someone that was just a normal person and they were being charged with this, If maybe they got online and flew someone from Las Vegas and in Louisiana for the purpose of prostitution, that same charge he got, I don't see anybody really getting ten years for that in normal circumstances. So if he ends up with just what you said, nine years, let's say, in prison for two instances of flying someone in to have sex with him and his girlfriend, I would say that's pretty hard time for those charges. Doesn't mean he doesn't deserve life for all the other stuff, but he was not found guilty of it.

28:13 But hence why the judge has discretion here? And can you know minimum to max? I know this, a whole lot of people didn't testify, and that has to make a defense team that doesn't bring one witness, not one. Isn't that what you just said? None? None? On what planet could you not put one person up without worrying what they might say on really really weigh that. Well? In hindsight, it seems like the right call. It was, obviously, but you don't trust people enough that favorable witness that people that would come for your favor.

28:58 What it tells me is they were much more afraid of the cross and what might get brought up on that on that you know that, and. You didn't even have character like his mother didn't get called up to speak as a character witness for Dinny. Because his mama wouldn't have outweighed everything they had already seen. It was. It was fruitless and all it would do was in essence, you know, piss people off more that. Okay, of course you brought your mama up, bring somebody else up. So it's strategically smart, in my opinion, not bring anybody versus bringing people inherently that would protect you. There's a whole lot of people breathing a sigh of relief, I would say. In the celebrity realm. I would agree. And if you beat the feds, wow, yeah. That's me. That that's the big thing.

29:40 Conventional unlimited resources, unlimited ability to do to go after you, and you walk on, you know, in essence, So let's see. I do hope you get some time, and I hope it's some solid time. I think it will. I think it will be hearned it. So the grim reality of Mexico's escalating cartel violence was underscored on money, as four decapitated bodies were found hanging from a bridge. This horrific discovery comes amidst a surge of bloodshed that has claimed nearly twenty lives in less than twenty four hours, according to authorities. Hey everyone, Crime Wire Weekly has moved to its own new channel. We hope you've enjoyed this preview. To continue listening, please follow the link referenced in the description of this podcast.

30:26 Or simply search Crime Wire Weekly wherever you're listening. And don't forget to follow the show so you can be alerted when new episodes drop. Thanks for listening.