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2:03

Erin SANNAVAL IS THE PERSON THAT

2:05

YOU COULD MEET ON THE street and say,

2:07

wow, she seems like a really nice person.

2:11

She had the type

2:12

of upbringing that

2:14

millions of people have had before.

2:19

She dated. She fell in

2:21

love.

2:22

There's nothing quite like that first

2:25

thrill of love. She was

2:27

so into Daniel. The first time

2:29

she spoke about him, she was just like, cold

2:31

color of his eyes and then he was

2:34

so nice to her. She

2:36

was just in heaven. Erica

2:38

always wanted to just have a stable

2:40

relationship, have children. It

2:42

is unquestionably one of the most

2:44

intense, profound emotions

2:46

a person can feel. when

2:48

everything was going the way they

2:51

should be in her eyes, she was

2:53

pleasant to be around. It's only

2:55

when things didn't go her way that

2:57

she became nasty and and things got ugly

2:59

between the two of them.

3:00

But when intense love

3:03

slips into

3:03

hate, It

3:05

can lead to violence.

3:06

And from what

3:08

I saw, the bad was

3:10

really bad. She had cut up the

3:12

couch and she had cut up the bed springs

3:15

and stabbed holes in the wall

3:17

and, you know, taking a bottle of pancake

3:19

syrup and just spread it all over carpet. Just

3:22

a ridiculous amount of vandalism

3:25

or even Murder. On

3:28

February sixth two thousand fifteen, in

3:30

the mid afternoon, time stood still in

3:32

Telaria County when we in the

3:34

law enforcement community came to find

3:36

out that Daniel was

3:38

executed that afternoon in

3:41

the sanctity and privacy of his own home.

3:43

I'm Moriarty, forty eight

3:46

hours and this is

3:48

my life of

3:48

crime.

3:52

There's

3:52

a reason why cops investigating murders

3:55

look first at the person closest

3:57

to the victim. I mean, who

3:59

else feels so intensely

4:02

that they would risk

4:03

everything to hurt another person.

4:06

The Daniel Green case may change

4:08

the way you look at domestic use,

4:10

what you think it is, who

4:12

you think commits abuse, and

4:15

whether the legal system treats

4:17

all abusers the same.

4:19

We begin on that

4:20

awful afternoon in February

4:22

two thousand fifteen. The

4:24

day when thirty one year old Daniel

4:26

Green was found shot to death in his own

4:29

bathroom in the town of

4:31

Goshen, California. He

4:33

was executed. Here's a man who

4:35

was literally on the

4:37

toilet. when he was shot.

4:39

That's the district attorney for Telaria

4:42

county, Tim Ward. He

4:44

was still angry when I spoke to him about

4:46

a case because Daniel Green

4:48

wasn't just a young man senselessly

4:51

murdered. He

4:52

was also a cop, an eleven

4:54

year veteran.

4:54

OF THE EXCIDER POLICE

4:57

DEPARTMENT.

4:58

THIS CRIME WHEN THIS HAPPEN REALLY

5:00

RIPPED APART, NOT ONLY THIS SMALL

5:03

TOWN THAT HE WAS FROM AND WAS police

5:05

officer in, but kind of the law enforcement community

5:07

as well.

5:08

And because Daniel was a cop who had

5:10

dealings

5:11

with local gangs,

5:12

Investigators at first veered his

5:15

death might be connected to his job.

5:17

The killer had fired four bullets

5:20

at green. the fatal shot

5:22

hitting him in the forehead. He

5:24

was found lying on his back in the

5:26

bathtub.

5:26

One of his fellow officers

5:28

is the one that discovered him back Daniel

5:31

being a cop.

5:32

Alex Geyser was the fellow officer

5:34

who found him.

5:35

We love getting out into the community and

5:37

making a difference. So on the day of the

5:40

Daniel was supposed to come into

5:42

work right before me.

5:44

When I got to the police station, I

5:46

asked the lieutenant where wise

5:50

that you get this gut feeling that

5:53

something's wrong, that

5:55

something bad was happening, Daniel's

5:58

home was just yards from his neighbors,

5:59

but because he was shot in

6:01

the day, many of them were at

6:03

work. So no one heard the shots

6:06

or called 911 Know

6:08

why witnesses saw the killer enter

6:11

or leave the house. and the

6:13

killer fled with the murder weapon.

6:15

Matt calls me and

6:16

I've never heard mott's voice like

6:19

this. And he says, hey,

6:21

and I said what's going on and

6:24

can't really get it out. Daniel's

6:27

sister, Misty Gray, first

6:30

heard the news from her other brother,

6:32

Daniel's twin brother,

6:34

his identical

6:35

twin brother, Matt. I

6:37

can't say anything. it

6:39

was like he there were no words.

6:42

And

6:42

he said And you knew? I said just

6:44

to help me, Daniel,

6:48

Just tell me he's okay.

6:51

And that's what I can't. I happen to

6:54

be a twin myself. and I'm not

6:56

sure I have ever seen two brothers

6:58

who looked so much alike

7:00

Erin Matt had trouble pointing out

7:02

to me. Who was whom

7:04

in photos? Who were kind of like a

7:06

team? It was the three of us

7:08

against the world type of thing. They had

7:10

grown up In the nearby small town

7:12

of Porterville, California, both

7:15

brothers became police officers. Although

7:17

Matt later traded law enforcement

7:20

for law school.

7:21

I always thought it was neat that

7:23

my my big brothers

7:25

who were twins were

7:28

both police officers at the same time, and

7:31

I actually have the same photo

7:33

of the two of them. And I

7:35

cherish it.

7:35

And Daniel, was gone.

7:38

We

7:38

will never be the same.

7:42

Never.

7:42

My life will

7:44

forever be changed by this.

7:50

That's to sound in the spell.

7:52

Was his death connected to his job?

7:54

Daniel did have a reputation as

7:56

a hard nosed by the book hop.

7:59

But that theory

7:59

didn't lead investigators anywhere,

8:02

so they took a closer look at

8:04

Daniel's personal life. At

8:07

the time of his death, Daniel Green was

8:09

divorced and living alone. But

8:11

at one time, he had had a very

8:13

passionate and often tumultuous relationship

8:16

with Erica Sandoval,

8:19

his ex wife.

8:21

Hours after Daniel was found dead,

8:23

Erica rushed to the scene,

8:25

teary eyed and distraught. She

8:27

told police that she hadn't seen

8:29

Daniel that day, and Daniel's

8:31

brother, Matt, believed her.

8:33

If it had been years earlier, I think I

8:35

would have automatically assumed it was her,

8:38

but we just seen them together, you know,

8:40

a month before and

8:42

it didn't seem like there was any tension,

8:44

so I just didn't know. I didn't

8:46

know what had happened.

8:48

Daniel had met his future wife's six

8:51

years earlier in two thousand nine,

8:53

and he fell hard.

8:55

I

8:55

think he loved her. In his

8:58

way,

8:58

he wanted the family. he

9:00

wanted so desperately to have a

9:02

family. Now it was married.

9:05

By then, I was married and he was

9:07

the only one that was not. he

9:08

was, you know, infatuated with her.

9:10

And Erica was

9:11

just as infatuated with

9:13

him. Take a little girl, like, you know, when they

9:15

get cat being super

9:17

excited. She was so

9:19

into Daniel. Was

9:21

she? She was. That's

9:23

Angelica

9:23

Ramirez, one Erin close

9:26

friends from childhood. But the

9:28

two came from very different backgrounds.

9:31

Daniel

9:31

and his siblings had a

9:33

tough childhood. while Erica was

9:35

from a close knit middle class

9:38

family from Southern California.

9:39

poor yeah David

9:41

is her older brother. she

9:43

wanted her to find the right guy and

9:45

then obviously start having a

9:47

family.

9:47

Still, everyone was

9:50

surprised when Daniel and Erica

9:52

skipped a traditional wedding and got

9:54

married in Las Vegas. Daniel

9:56

was twenty six,

9:58

Erin, twenty three. I

10:00

getting a text message at

10:02

ten o'clock at night. Yeah.

10:04

It's a picture of a marriage

10:05

license in Vegas. And some

10:07

of Daniel's friends, especially

10:09

from

10:09

a local motorcycle club,

10:11

were

10:12

downright concerned. Few

10:14

things

10:14

happened before they even actually

10:17

got married. And I pulled Daniel

10:19

aside and I said, dude, don't marry this chick.

10:21

That's herb out of me.

10:22

Tell me why. What what happened that

10:25

made you say that? It

10:26

was the it was all the

10:29

the incidents at the house. Herb

10:31

says that Daniel had talked about

10:33

Erica's anger. Eith said

10:35

that she had once cut up

10:36

furniture with a razor blade.

10:39

Daniel's brother

10:40

said that he had heard Daniel crying

10:42

after Erica laced into

10:45

him. It devastated me to hear my

10:47

brother crying and to hear the

10:49

way that she was talking to him, it broke

10:51

my heart.

10:51

Erica was trying to

10:54

create a rift in the

10:56

family

10:57

between us. Do

10:58

you use sister and brother said that he

11:00

might have thought that kind of behavior

11:02

was perfectly normal

11:04

because they'd grown up in a

11:06

troubled home with an abusive stepfather.

11:09

Alcohol.

11:09

Drugs, alcohol, abuse,

11:12

stuff like that. Were any of

11:14

you abused? to physical

11:16

abuse -- Yeah. -- being some neglecting

11:18

stuff. Would your stepfather hit

11:19

you -- Yeah. -- with

11:22

with his hand or with his belt?

11:25

board. there

11:27

What

11:27

I guess whatever was laying around?

11:29

Their

11:29

stepfather had a long criminal record

11:32

that included arrest for assault

11:34

domestic violence,

11:35

and driving under the influence.

11:37

And Misty says, her

11:39

older twin brothers to

11:41

the brunt for her. Matthew and

11:43

Daniel always protected me. They would get in

11:45

between my

11:46

septide trying to physically harm

11:48

us and When

11:51

I would get scared, I would

11:53

go crawling out of my brother's. Their

11:55

mother at one point did get a restraining

11:56

order against their stepfather

11:58

who is now

11:59

dead. But

12:01

now they worried that the domestic

12:03

abuse that they all endured as

12:05

children

12:06

seemed to be repeating itself

12:08

with Daniel and Erica. in

12:10

the case of my brother, he was the

12:12

one constantly being controlled and

12:15

and isolated and, you know,

12:17

verbally and emotionally abused. As a

12:18

officer, he would probably run into

12:21

women who were being abused, would he

12:23

not recognize himself in

12:25

that same situation?

12:26

I think he did. He just probably felt

12:30

like he had nothing he could do about it, then

12:32

he was maybe trapped in a cycle.

12:34

We don't hear about male victims often,

12:36

maybe because men like Daniel don't

12:38

want to admit they are being abused.

12:40

And in

12:41

fact, it's not as rare as

12:44

you might think. I think men

12:46

don't come forward for many of the same

12:48

reasons that women come forward

12:50

when they are experiencing domestic

12:52

violence. Hating Meter runs the

12:54

Telaria family services in

12:56

the county. And

12:56

she says that she actually had to expand

12:59

the women's shelter

13:00

to include rooms for men

13:02

who were

13:03

also fleeing abuse.

13:05

Erica would cut up

13:07

mattresses and couches.

13:09

Is that domestic abuse?

13:12

Absolutely. Property damage is

13:14

very common. Female Vic symptoms. They

13:16

will often describe, well, well, my partner

13:18

never hit me, but

13:20

he did punch a hole in the wall. And

13:22

so there's this threat of physical go violence.

13:24

If I can do this to your

13:26

property, if I can do this to the things that

13:28

you love, what can I

13:29

do to you?

13:31

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14:18

Domestic abuse isn't always

14:20

black and white. If Daniel thought

14:22

violence was normal in a relationship,

14:25

then it might explain some of his

14:27

own behavior. You will

14:29

model

14:29

relationships that have been for

14:32

you. Angelica

14:32

Ramirez says that Erica had said

14:35

that Daniel was also abusive.

14:37

She

14:37

would told me constantly that he would grab her

14:39

and choke her. she told

14:40

me, hey, choked her and then she felt

14:43

like she was gonna pass out. Once

14:44

again, Daniel's sister,

14:47

Misty. It was a very toxic relationship.

14:49

People should

14:49

absolutely know and understand

14:52

that it doesn't matter if you're a man or a

14:54

woman, you're five foot or six, but

14:56

you can be a victim of

14:57

domestic violence. Matt

15:00

did you ever tell Daniel to leave?

15:02

Of course, a lot. A lot.

15:04

Yeah. He knew it was bad. People

15:06

don't change. She's not gonna change.

15:08

That's not what happens. There

15:10

was one more violent episode in

15:12

February twenty eleven

15:14

when the police were called. neither

15:17

Daniel nor Erica were

15:19

arrested, but it was the last

15:21

straw. The marriage was

15:23

officially over in January

15:25

two thousand twelve. a little more

15:27

than a year after it began. Well,

15:29

I remember thinking he he escaped this

15:31

without, you know, anything terrible happening.

15:34

and that maybe he could get

15:36

peace and be happy.

15:38

But then, a

15:40

news that Erin was pregnant

15:42

with Daniel's child I

15:43

was like, jeez. He stuck

15:45

with her for eighteen years. Erica

15:48

moved back in with Daniel and

15:49

they tried to make it work. But

15:51

Daniel's motorcycle seemed to

15:53

come between them. She hated that

15:55

motorcycle. Yep. despised

15:57

it. You know, he didn't get on his bike and he'd take

15:59

off

15:59

the and you

16:01

know, she couldn't sit next to him

16:03

in the passenger seat yelling at

16:05

him.

16:05

She hated it so much that one

16:07

of Daniel's friends

16:08

thinks She may have sabotaged

16:11

the bike one day before a ride.

16:13

Once out on the road, Daniel

16:15

was unable to stop for a

16:17

red light. And I'm like, hey, what's

16:19

going on man? You just grab all the

16:21

wires and you just pulled them

16:23

out. It was all the wires were all

16:25

cut up. And I'm like, oh

16:27

my goodness. This is crazy.

16:29

Daniel told Mark Cortez that

16:31

he believed his wife had cut

16:33

the wires. He had

16:34

no question. It was Erica.

16:36

Yeah. Erica

16:39

later admitted to a friend that

16:41

she had quote, just sniffed

16:43

wires. Still Daniel

16:46

never reported it to the

16:48

police and initially didn't even tell

16:50

his siblings. he

16:51

hit a lot of the stuff that was going on.

16:54

I think he knew that it

16:56

would upset us. Daniel and Erica's

16:59

son, Adam, was born in January.

17:01

two thousand thirteen. I don't have any

17:03

doubt that the day his son was born was the happiest

17:05

day of his life. Him having a kid

17:07

was the best thing for him. On

17:10

his Facebook, every day

17:12

it was a picture of his kid. That was his

17:14

life. That was his pride and joy.

17:16

But the couple's relationship was

17:18

just too broken. And thousand

17:20

thirteen,

17:20

Erica moved out of the house,

17:23

and their

17:23

problems only got worse.

17:26

The

17:26

couple began to engage in a

17:29

vicious

17:29

award words. Dan Chambers

17:31

is Erica's lawyer. There's a

17:33

lot of bitterness and anger throughout these text

17:36

messages. No about it. I mean,

17:38

Daniel does call Erin some

17:40

very bad names and here Erin Erica

17:42

does the same. Daniel

17:45

one, Erin pussity

17:46

of his son, which only deepened

17:48

the divisions between the two.

17:51

But

17:51

here's the really weird part

17:53

even with all the anger. all

17:55

the victory. The couple

17:57

would still occasionally

17:59

sleep

17:59

together. And yet,

18:01

the dysfunction in relationship was

18:03

always just below the surface.

18:06

Like a night in

18:06

the fall of two thousand fourteen,

18:09

when Daniel

18:09

told his friend Herb that

18:12

he awoke, to find Erin with

18:14

a gun. He

18:15

told you that she woke up,

18:18

dreamed

18:18

that he had been

18:19

with another woman and how the gun to us have.

18:21

What did she say to him at that point.

18:23

She said that she was gonna kill

18:25

him.

18:26

If he left? Yeah.

18:27

Or if he cheated on her. By the

18:30

New Year, Daniel and Daniel to have turned a

18:32

new leaf on the relationship. They were

18:34

still living apart, but

18:35

they were civil with each

18:37

other. And that's

18:38

why neither Matt nor

18:40

Misty thought she could possibly

18:42

be responsible for his

18:44

murder. that occurred one month

18:47

later. That morning, February

18:49

fifth two thousand fifteen, Daniel

18:51

Green dropped off their son,

18:53

Aiden, with Erica's mother, and then

18:55

went to the gym. It was

18:57

when he returned home

18:59

that someone shot him dead

19:01

to Lara district attorney,

19:04

Tim Ward. This was not anything

19:06

other than a cold blooded

19:08

calculated execution. The day

19:10

following

19:10

the murder, Erica was brought in

19:12

for Route team questioning, and that's

19:14

when

19:15

her stories began to shift.

19:18

Erica originally said that she hadn't been

19:20

inside

19:20

Daniels how in

19:23

weeks, but a neighbor's surveillance

19:25

camera appeared to

19:27

contradict her. The video that out

19:29

there shows a female

19:31

enter into that home.

19:34

On the very

19:34

day of the murder, you can see a

19:36

woman enter the house.

19:39

investigators couldn't ID the woman

19:41

in the video, but they tricked

19:43

Erin. And they told her they

19:45

knew it was her. That's

19:47

when she broke down and led detectives to

19:50

an empty lot where

19:52

they found the murder weapon. a

19:55

millimeter

19:55

gun. She had shot

19:58

Daniel with his own

19:59

gun. Erica

20:01

Sandoval was arrested her

20:03

first degree murder.

20:10

Two

20:11

years ago, on the Northern Cheyenne

20:13

reservation in Laneshare, Montana,

20:15

Christie

20:15

wouldn't die's family rushed to

20:17

her home after receiving shocking news. On

20:20

March sixth, my daughter had

20:22

came and notified me that

20:25

Christy was run over. I said,

20:27

Christy, okay, and she was like, she

20:29

died. I was

20:29

like, what? But when they arrived, there

20:32

were no police. Where's the cops? First

20:34

of all? Why is there no cops here?

20:37

Because it's crime scene, you know, like, there should have been

20:39

yellow tape. Missing justice from

20:41

CBS News takes you inside what

20:43

really happened that night, and

20:45

the federal investigation that

20:47

followed. We kinda

20:47

had confidence in the police, hoping

20:50

they'd arrest him. And

20:52

then we just, like, it was just

20:54

silence. Like, nobody came us

20:56

know anything.

20:57

And how for years,

20:59

a family fought for justice.

21:02

Listen to justice from CBS News,

21:04

on Amazon Music, or wherever you

21:06

get your podcasts.

21:09

Erica Sandoval

21:12

faced

21:12

the death penalty for killing

21:14

a cop who happened to be her

21:17

ex husband, Her legal team took

21:19

nearly five years to prepare her

21:21

defense. But finally, in

21:23

October two thousand nineteen, YOU IN

21:25

ON TRIAL AND THAT'S WHEN

21:28

PROSECUTORS REVEALED WHAT THEY

21:30

BELIEVE WAS THE MOTIVE. Daniel

21:32

WAS SHOP ONE WEEK after

21:34

he posted an Instagram photo of a

21:36

new girlfriend, twenty year old

21:39

Brenda Vela.

21:39

Is it possible that Daniel Gray

21:41

would still be alive if he had never posted

21:44

that picture on social media? That's an

21:45

impossible question, but you'll wonder.

21:48

It's such a tragedy that we'll never

21:50

know. Yeah. We'll never know. Still,

21:52

there is compelling evidence to

21:54

support that theory, including

21:56

a yellow sticky note found

21:58

in Erica's

21:59

purse with

22:00

Brenda Vela's name and

22:02

birth year.

22:03

Erica also bombarded Daniel with

22:06

one hundred and sixty seven

22:08

phone calls. in the days leading

22:10

up to the murder. I think when

22:12

Erica found out that the

22:14

girl was hanging out with her son and

22:16

that kinda nadir snap.

22:19

But a trial, Erica's defense

22:21

attorney

22:21

Dan Chambers

22:22

tried to shift the guild away from

22:25

Erica. to

22:26

Daniel Greene himself in essence

22:28

putting the dead police officer

22:31

also on

22:31

trial. And at the end of the day,

22:33

he was abusive. The

22:35

jury listened over and over

22:38

again to audiotapes of the

22:40

couple's verbal battles, like

22:42

this one over their son,

22:44

Aiden. who was just a baby at that point.

22:46

you know that me

22:47

don't flinch me yeah

22:51

Alright.

22:52

If you

22:54

wanna judge your And

22:56

then

22:56

Erica takes a chance and

22:59

takes the stand in her own

23:02

defense, hoping she can convince the

23:04

jury that she was driven to take

23:06

her husband's life. It was a

23:08

collective decision. and

23:09

it wasn't an easy decision. At that

23:10

point, we were arguing a lot.

23:13

You're listening to Erica herself

23:15

on the stand. describing

23:17

to Jurs the abuse, she

23:19

claimed she suffered from Daniel over

23:21

the

23:21

years. He grabbed me by

23:24

the shirt, my shirt, and he started shaking

23:26

back and forth then as he was yelling at my

23:28

face, shut the up. He's

23:30

like, you know, I could feel like you make it look like

23:32

an accident. that's

23:34

when when

23:37

he grabbed me from my ponytail,

23:39

and he saw in my head, but in the

23:41

dashboard, while I was holding it, and

23:43

he and

23:43

then she told them why she'd gone into our

23:45

ex husband's

23:46

home on February fifth two

23:49

thousand fifteen. According to

23:50

Erica, she had just gone there to

23:53

snoop around. Saw the

23:55

kitchen window, and I

23:57

figured I'd try to see if it was

23:59

open.

23:59

And so I took off the screen and I

24:02

wedged it and it was open. She walked

24:04

through

24:04

the house, grabbing two

24:06

of Daniel's guns, and then she

24:09

Blames. She found an open

24:11

safe that contained

24:12

two photos

24:13

depicting child pornography.

24:16

the

24:16

first picture I

24:19

saw.

24:19

It was like

24:22

a girl. She

24:23

looked to be twelve

24:27

thirteen. Next to

24:28

a bed. Erica's

24:30

story took prosecutors and

24:32

investigators by surprise. because

24:35

she had never mentioned the photographs in

24:37

any previous statements.

24:39

District Attorney Ward doesn't

24:41

believe her account. That

24:43

was the very first time that we ever

24:46

had even heard that or

24:48

anything close to that. Ward

24:50

says

24:50

no such photos were

24:52

found. But on the stand, Erica

24:54

says she left them in

24:56

the safe.

24:58

It's just made me think like,

25:01

fantasies that he, like,

25:03

had with me, the

25:06

school graph that he told me, and

25:08

where I thought, you mean, like,

25:10

is he watching this kind of

25:12

stuff around me, son? What's the next thing

25:14

you remember doing? I heard just

25:17

a truck. I was thinking about

25:19

Aiden. I don't know if

25:21

he's do we

25:23

accept to Aiden maybe? And

25:25

then Erica says she heard Daniel come

25:28

home. and so she

25:28

hid in a closet. And

25:31

I heard

25:31

him coming down the hallway.

25:35

passing by the room.

25:37

Scared. I didn't know

25:39

where he

25:40

was going. And when she heard him

25:42

go into the bathroom, Erica

25:44

told the jury, she just

25:47

snapped.

25:47

I stepped out

25:48

of the closet. I stepped out of

25:50

the apartments room and I

25:53

stood right there in front of the panel. He was in the

25:55

toilet. As soon as he

25:58

saw me. Okay.

26:00

kill you. And

26:03

he

26:03

started getting up. And then

26:05

the third weight is in my arm.

26:09

Then you shot. I

26:12

didn't

26:16

know

26:16

how many times they just got.

26:18

I only shot. Can

26:20

you regret what she did? Clearly,

26:25

regret it. everyday.

26:28

nation Sorry.

26:31

Good

26:32

at everything. Has

26:34

it cost you?

26:36

my son. My

26:41

family. And

26:42

Erica sticks to her story about

26:45

the photos. Even when cross examined

26:47

by the assistant DA, David

26:50

Alabasos,

26:50

who clearly doesn't believe

26:53

it. You know they're not in the so

26:55

you just expected that they're magically short.

26:58

No.

26:58

I advised my attorney as to what

27:01

I saw. and

27:02

no vacuums? No. Just

27:04

my attorney.

27:05

Erica says that she deliberately kept the

27:08

information

27:08

from investigators.

27:11

hadn't trust them. They've

27:13

never given me a reason to trust

27:15

them. Daniel always told me

27:17

how they always had

27:19

each other's backs. She never

27:21

loses her cool. But Al

27:23

Aviso makes it clear for the

27:25

jury what he thinks of her

27:26

story. That's a

27:29

disgusting lie.

27:32

To make you feel Daniel's not

27:34

worth a

27:35

murder, you're gonna charge to

27:39

devalue

27:39

him as a human

27:40

being. That is

27:44

the sole

27:44

purpose of it. But

27:46

what will the jury do with the information? Will

27:48

they

27:48

believe Erica? Will they

27:50

feel sorry for her and find her guilty

27:52

of something less? than

27:54

first degree murder.

27:56

In his

27:57

closing arguments, Erica's

27:59

attorney Dan Chambers puts the blame

28:02

on both Erica and

28:03

Daniel tied together,

28:05

he says, by a traumatic

28:08

bond

28:08

that is difficult

28:09

to understand. Both are

28:11

victims and both are aggressors. On

28:15

November twentieth

28:15

two thousand nineteen, the

28:17

case went to the jury.

28:20

After four long days

28:22

of deliberations, they tell

28:24

the trial judge

28:26

they're done.

28:27

they are hopelessly deadlocked.

28:35

A mistrial. deadlocked

28:37

eleven to one

28:38

with one single jur

28:41

refusing to convict Erin

28:43

in the first degree.

28:45

Three of

28:46

the jurors agreed to discuss

28:48

that pulled

28:48

out cure. It

28:51

came evident that after

28:53

day after hour after hour that

28:55

we she wasn't going to waver

28:58

and and the reality

29:00

of a hung jury start to sink

29:02

in. And she just never gave much

29:04

reasoning behind why she felt the way she

29:06

did. Tensions just got high and they started yelling

29:08

at each other and it they

29:10

were getting emotionally involved. The

29:12

one juror refused to

29:15

budge even as her fellow

29:17

jurors raised doubts about Erica's

29:19

story about finding

29:20

that child born. There was

29:22

never any picture that we saw. You can tell she

29:24

obviously lied on the stand, and I

29:26

think a lot of the trial was spent

29:28

by the defense. not

29:32

defending

29:32

her, but rather

29:34

attacking Daniel. I think

29:37

every juror had empathy for

29:39

her. They also

29:41

had empathy for him.

29:44

We saw just how

29:46

they did feel for forceful

29:49

that she was towards him.

29:52

And why is

29:54

she still staying there? Why is he

29:55

still staying there? These

29:58

are the same questions we

29:59

all have. Why were

30:02

Daniel and Erica still sleeping

30:04

together? Could anyone have intervened?

30:06

Erica

30:08

is alive, but she's lost everything.

30:11

She's lost her son, her freedom,

30:13

her future. Although

30:15

she wasn't convicted this time

30:17

around, she will remain in prison

30:20

until she's tried again for the first

30:22

degree murder. of the man she

30:24

says, she once loved.

30:30

It's devastating. There's a

30:33

hole that'll

30:35

never be filled. It'll

30:38

never heal ever.

30:39

ever Daniel's

30:41

son, Aidan, is almost

30:43

ten, and is now living with a

30:45

man who is the spitting image

30:47

of his dad,

30:49

that Matt. You're

30:50

raising Daniel's son. Was that a

30:52

tough decision? No. I

30:53

don't know. At least that I could

30:55

do is make sure that

30:58

he knew How much

31:00

his father loved him? I'm

31:02

Moriarty forty eight

31:05

hours,

31:05

and that's my life of

31:08

crime. This podcast

31:10

series is developed by forty eight

31:12

hours in partnership with CBS

31:14

News Radio. Judy

31:16

Tigard is forty eight hours

31:18

executive producer. Jonathan

31:20

Clark is CBS News

31:22

Radio Executive Producer. production

31:24

and editing for this season in my

31:26

life of Prime

31:27

by Allen Tang.

31:29

This

31:29

episode was also produced by

31:32

Palerosa

31:32

and Cat turfs of forty eight hours.

31:35

Craig Swagler is vice

31:37

president and general manager of

31:39

CBS News Radio. And

31:42

finally, a thank you to all of

31:44

you,

31:44

our listeners.

31:45

We owe it all to you,

31:47

the millions of forty

31:48

eight hours Don't

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32:00

be talking to you soon.

32:03

Accused of his mother's murder

32:05

at fourteen. What could could commit a

32:07

crime? violence and not leaving any friends of

32:10

governors, then it sinks to life. The

32:12

state never really had any case against this

32:14

kid. Was he wrongly convicted? Too

32:16

very close to Ambush. or

32:18

maybe. Follow and listen to the forty eight

32:20

hours podcast on Apple Podcasts,

32:22

Amazon Music, or wherever you get

32:25

your podcasts. There

32:27

are a lot

32:28

of lingering questions, but the

32:30

main one is, are there more

32:31

victims?

32:33

Two young women. two

32:34

unsolved murders. They were both

32:37

killed the same night. Imagine

32:39

socks found at two different crime

32:41

scenes. The mystery of

32:42

what happened to these two beautiful young women

32:44

would haunt their families

32:45

and investigators for

32:48

years. Now, can DNA from a

32:50

fast food bag finally catch

32:52

the killer? It was like gold. Follow and listen

32:54

to the forty eight hours podcast on

32:56

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32:58

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