The jury needed to assess Allen's credibility and consistency in his statements, especially since he initially placed himself at the crime scene but later denied being there after the girls' deaths.
The prosecution claimed a bullet found near the girls' bodies matched Allen's gun, though the defense argued this was not true and that Allen was a victim of a flawed investigation.
Initially cooperative, Allen became increasingly agitated and defensive, eventually demanding to leave and mentioning his awareness of Dateline, suggesting he feared becoming a subject of such investigations.
Brad was arrested on charges of family violence and unlawful restraint, stemming from a neighbor witnessing a physical altercation between him and Susann, and later faced federal weapons charges for an improperly registered firearm found in their home.
Police found a gun hidden in Cotter's home that matched one missing from the Simpson residence, and text messages indicated Brad had contacted Cotter about the weapon, leading to charges of tampering with evidence.
Gascon cited the brothers' exceptional behavior in prison, including running support groups and beautification programs, and noted that most family members believe they were abused, suggesting a more lenient sentence based on changed cultural attitudes towards such cases.
Matthews was sentenced to 158 years in prison for sexually assaulting eleven women, eight of whom he raped after drugging them, with several victims testifying about the lasting impact of his crimes.
Trust your instincts, change your route, and if necessary, make noise to draw attention and deter the potential threat. Predators often seek easy targets, so appearing unpredictable or difficult can discourage them.
Focus on simple, effective strikes like kicking the shins, scratching the face, or targeting the groin. The goal is to create a distraction or opportunity to escape, not to engage in prolonged combat.
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Everyone is Andrea canning back with the latest episode of date line true crime weekly episodes drop first thing every thursday morning, and you can also find them by searching for the date line true crime weekly feed. So give us a listen and follow the show wherever you get your podcast and tell your friends. Good morning. You are listening into date lines morning meeting in thirty rockefeller halloween.
a very day line holiday. A our editorial .
team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country. I just got the bore. It's a recommendation of time this case were .
supposed to go to the drain expert, but now they actually think it's gonna go this week.
Well, it's a news maker for sure.
I am a canning welcome to date line, true crime weekly. It's october thirty first. And here's what's on our docket, the latest in the case of a missing texas mom, a second man has been arrested. Her husband's business partner.
simpsons, have A A room that's full of guns. They noticed one of the guns was missing from in date line.
Round up. The top prosecutor in los Angeles reveals the reasoning behind his decision regarding the manana z brothers and what comes next. And we have a verdict in the so called suitcase murder trial.
So I took them less than two hours to come to their verdict. Plus.
we've got some tips from a former secret service agent about the best thing to do if you think someone is following you.
IT makes you proactive and quite honestly, you're going to a minimize your exposure to bad .
things happen IT. But before all that, we're heading back to an inDiana courthouse and the trial of the man accused of murdering two school girls this week, the jury got to hear him tell his story for the first time in rural delphi, inDiana, its week three. In the double murder trial of Richard Allen, he is accused of fatally stabbing to eighth grade girls abbi Williams and libby german.
In twenty seventeen, IT took investigators five years to zero in on Allen and charged him with the grum crime because of a ga gorder. We hadn't heard much of the evidence against him until now. In the first week, the prosecution told the jury they can prove that a bullet found in the ground next to the girl's bodies at the crime scene came from his gun.
The offences that's not true, and the Allen is the victim of a botched investigation. This week, the jury finally got a chance to hear from Allen himself as the prosecution played clips from his police interviews in the days before his arrest. There are no cameras allowed in the courtroom, so you want to hear any of the audio from these interviews. But date line producer mariano dals here to fillson on what he saw. Hey, marian.
Hey there. How are you?
good. And thank you for coming back. I know this has been a very difficult trial to sit through.
He really has been. You got to see these police interviews in court. What was in them?
So let me set the stage here. Richard Allen initially talked to a park officer back in twenty seventeen days after the girls were found, and he said, hey, listen, I was on the trail that day. He said I didn't see the girls, but he said I was there from like one thirty to three thirty.
That tips sort of got lost through the years. Now fast forward to october thirteenth, twenty twenty two. And now the police have discovered that long lost tip lead, whatever you call IT, and they are focused on Richard Allen nearly because of what he said that he put himself there that day.
But they simultaneously are searching his house and they're finding a lot of guns, a lot of knives and a lot of telephones. Why he has all those big question, mark. So in this interview they're trying to very soft t very nice approach.
They are trying to get him to confess. One of the key things that Allen says that is friend, from what he told that officer back in two thousand seventeen. There's no way I was there after one thirty. And he says that again and again.
which would be before the girls took that video of the bridge guy, they are probable killer.
Now here's the question, is he trying to revise history to put himself somewhere else when those girls are the emerge married?
And I was going to ask you like, what was his dinner like as he's being questioned? IT sounds like he .
was hostile IT beings with him being very reasonable, very much trying, you know, I I want to help you guys. I know you have a top job to do and increasingly, IT gets more heated to the point where he's like, look, I keep telling you IT wasn't me and he keeps going on until I just really boils over. He says, and I free to leave.
And this is a little crazy. He mentioned date line.
He and his wife have watched date line. He said he wasn't a follow guy. End up like one of those people in date.
wow. And they bring a man for another interrogation a few days later by a different officer.
I am. This is a full on interrogation where believe investigator is telling them, remember the gun that we found at your house. Guess what? It's a match.
How do you react to that?
He's a way, wow, that did not come from my gun. I can explain that. I just, I know that fully did not come from my gun.
So the lead investigator, he testifies about the second interview. He admit something that we see fairly common in these police interviews. And we see the police lie to their suspect tran order to illicit information.
So i've heard that you've heard that sitting in trial any number of times listening to IT though, listen to him say that, understand. I have to wonder how the jury heard that.
yeah. Tell us what what the lie was.
Well, one of the things was he says, we have, you know, five witnesses who put you on that bridge. Well, there's only one woman who says he saw a guy and he actually described him different than what Richard Allen looks like.
Does he bite when he hears that all these people saw him there?
No, he's saying, no.
What did you learn about Richard Allen from these police interviews about who he is?
One key thing we learned is that he has had a history of psychological issues, depression and anxiety. Everything else you described, though, he seems to be someone who, you know, raise a daughter, live a quiet life. But I was so IT was so intense anda to listen to this man say over and over again. I didn't do this on telling i've been straight with you from the beginning.
Marian, break this down for a son because from what you're saying, that sounds like Allen was adamant in these police interviews that he had nothing to do with the murder. But then you heard from other witnesses this week who testified that once he was in custody, more than five years after the crime, he confess to the murder. In fact, the prosecution has said he confessed over sixty times. That is a big flip flop. What what did you learn about that.
Andrea? What we hear, we hear from, I think it's like nine guards and awards saying he says, hey, I killed these girls. I'm sorry, I kill these girls meanwhile, the garage saying, he is also acting, he is spreading his species over the cell room he is running in place while singing god bless s amErica and at the same time confessing his lawyers are saying, look at the conditions he's in.
He comes in there, not middle, all that IT to begin with. And of course, he's breaking down. And I remember him in court coming into court during this time, and he looked hollywood.
He was got all those guards said they believed he was play acting with the behavior. But the implication was that what he was saying, I killed those girls that you should trust. So that kind of A A weird little baLance that the prosecution has to do, you want to say on the one and he's faaers IT.
But at same time he's saying, you know, I did this, so if he's faking IT, is he faking the confession? I think the defense will also go after that. And when they present their taste.
I do not envy these juries.
I don't, but I will tell you. And where they are laser focused. This is what's so quirky about inDiana.
Once the witness is testified, the judge turns to the jurors and say, do you have any questions? So the jurors actually have been writing on little pieces of paper, and they handed to the baLance, and he handed to the judge and SHE. There are questions and their good questions, their questions about D. N. A, the questions about the science of ballistic.
I love that because you want the jurors to really understand everything you can question.
I think, whether not these juries are paying attention.
All right. Maria, thank you so much for the update and for coming back.
thanks.
Under up next the case of a missing texas real tourists making headlines within days of her disappearance, her husband was behind bars facing an assault charge. Then just last week, a second man was arrested. We've got the details.
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Susann had simply vanished. Clear alert has been activated for a missing mom out of almost park. So here is the very latest that her husband, brad, reported her missing. But just days later, brad was arrested, charged family violence and later a federal weapons charged. As the search for the missing mother of four intensifies, almost police are looking in with the possibility of foul l play. Then just last week, a second arrest in the case hinted at something potentially much darker story is grip the national news as Susana been murdered here to break down what we know about the search so far as reporter maria mendoza from our nbc affiliate, woa santoni SHE is joining us today from her busy newsroom. Mara, thanks for coming on the podcast.
Thank you for having me. Yeah.
you've been following this case since the beginning, talking to family members and investigators to start, tell us, what do we know so far about the last time Susan was seen?
The last time he was seen was about four weeks ago. He was going to the argal, which is a very fancy private club here in sania tonio and her and her husband. We're going to a party and said that a fight transpired back at their house after the party .
and and some people saw this right in the neighborhood.
One neighbor saw the couple fighting from his bedroom window, which was in the arrest of a David for bread Samson. He had wednesday the couple fighting outside of their home in the driveway, and that brad was trying to restrain her. And then after that, he heard screams.
They live across from a wooded area. The neighbor, when I try to look for them, he didn't see anything. And that was the last time anyone heard from Susann.
was the screams. And this neighbor did witness brad driving away.
Yes, he told police, said brad drove away his pickup truck and then he returned a few hours later, maybe in the early morning hours of monday OK.
So one of the things police realized, things weren't exactly what they seemed with this couple. You know, things weren't as perfect as they might have appeared to the outside world.
right? So their Youngest daughter had spoken to someone at her school. SHE had witnessed her parents in a fight and noticed her dad push her mom, and her dad took away her mom's phone. And so that was also in the rest afa, David.
So brad's arrested three days after Susan was last scene, and he's charged with this assault to a family member and unlawful restraint that the family violence charge that we mentioned off the top. Can you explain first.
that stems from what the neighbor saw sunday night? And then when they searched the home, the simpson home, they found a short bird rifle, which was not properly registered. So bread is also on a federal detainer. Now our our federal hold. So even if he bonds out right, he technically can't get out, he would go into that kind of jail system he's .
being held on the multimillion dollar born seems like their strategy right now is to hold him while they're trying to sort out where Susan is and what happened.
right? And keep in minds of domestic violence charges. Those are mister miners. And when I ve spoken to attorneys, it's unheard of for for the bond to be that high for them. So that is a lot.
So there were these charges, but then there was a second arrest in this case.
right last week, they rested his long time business partner, James valley cotter, on felony charges for allegedly tampering with evidence with intent to hinder an investigation.
Do we know the tampering with evidence allegation .
that relates to so police, they had a search warrant to look at quarters home, and they found a gun. IT was hidden in the master bedroom of cottar's home behind a TV. And law enforcement is saying that when they were looking at simpsons home, they noticed a gun was missing.
Well, that gun matched a gun that was found in Carter's home. They found on his phone that brad had texted cotter. So brad was also charged the tempering of evidence and also another weapons charge. So those are things that keep adding up with him.
Braza arney says that the brad intends to plead not guilty. Do you know what quarter is planning that?
We don't know. I've reached out to his attack. Y, i've not heard back.
No one right now was saying that Susan has been murdered. But is that the the theory police at this point, and SHE hasn't turned up. Are they .
thinking the worst? unfortunately? Yes, dave said this is A A surge in recovery mission. So a we going to have ago they read the southeast bear county landfill looking for her.
everyone searching the side lander missing mother from almost park, confident that they would find something there. They did not. Texas GPS specials who are leading that search say they are not done with the investigation.
What does the family say about all of this? This has to be just crucial for them not knowing where Susan is. And i've asked .
them directly if, as a sister directly, I said, do believe your sisters alive and he said, no, no, I believe she's in heaven. They just save. They want Susan's body back so that they can lay her to rest.
And what's chilling about this is, is Susan's mother had a plan.
When we spoke to Susan's mom, SHE had said I came up with a plan where Susann would come with with me for a little while.
He called me up and hope that sh'd moved in with me and have heard a little toddler go to the eleven mentally school and neighborhood. I never got a toller. The plan all right.
So we're looking at the next court da of november thirteenth brads arrangement. Well, again, he plans, according to his attorney, to pleaded not guilty um we certainly hope that they find Susan alive if not, that SHE can be brought home to her family. Mara, thank you so much for joining us and bringing us all of your knowledge on this case.
Thank you for having me appreciated.
Next, its date line round up blame. Alexander has the latest on the menendez brothers saga and a verdict in the so called suitcase murder trial. And we've got some safety tips for you from former secret service agent evy pump for us. What can you do if you think someone is following you?
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Welcome back joining me for this week. Round up as our very own blame Alexander.
hey, Andrew.
a good to be here. So first up, some big news out of california. Last week, George gascon, the los Angeles district turney, held a press conference to announce his decision.
In the case of american mile milena, they are of the brothers convicted of shooting their parents to death, and their beverly hills home mile was twenty one. Eric was eighteen. At the time of the murder, they were sense to life without Pearl in one thousand and ninety six. We have been talking about this for a few weeks, about whether the prosecutor was going to try to get them out of prison. And now we have the beginning of that lane.
Yeah, Andrea, this really did feel like I was a sort of countdown because the da had given himself about ten days to announce a decision. So the room where the press conference was held was hacked with journalists and family members. And he was a little late, but he eventually came in.
And here's what he said. We are gonna recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parle be removed and that they would be sentenced for murder since they were under twenty six years of age. At the time that this crimes occurred, there will be eligible for parole immediately. Break IT down for us. Why does the da think, after all this time, the brother should get a new sentence?
Also, on the day of the pressure, he filed a motion with the court, basically laying out his reasons, and he rides that the brothers are no longer a threats of public safety, saying that they, they ve demonstrated exceptional post conviction conduct on coding. In there, he references his various programs that the brothers have been part of during their more than thirty years.
And eric runs a hospital support group and teaches meditation classes, and lie runs a beautification program in the prison where they are both serving time. So in that filing, the D. A also noted that all of the minimise family members, with one exception, who believe that the brothers were abused and that they should have their sentences reduced.
The conversation around the men as brothers has been that, you know, times were different in the late eighties, early nineties, when they were put on trial. If that was the case today, they might have gotten perhaps a manslaughter conviction rather than murder with special circumstances.
absolutely. And that's something that the da mentioned during that conference, that kind of change in culture. But he was also clear that this decision had nothing to do with the merits of the case or how the trial was conducted. But rather, IT was about the justness of the brothers sentencing all these years later.
They won't be released immediately there, right? If if they are released.
right? And that's a big if so, no, there is a hearing that where a judge, we will decide whether to go along with the D A. And after that, they may need to then go in front of a whole board.
But there is still one more step in all of this. The governor still has to sign off and could ultimately block the brother's release, as he has done for a number of high profile prisoners in the past. So Andrea.
it's definitely not over yet. And this week, the brother's lawyer filed a clemency petition with the governor. So more to come. Next up we've got a story out of a denver courtroom where there was a dramatic sentencing last week.
yes. So back in August, a thirty seven year old cardiologist named savan Matthews was convicted on sexual assault charges for drugging eleven that he'd met through dating apps and raping eight of them.
This trial had to be so painful for the victims. The cardiologist had filmed some of the attacks and and they had to watch those videos in court.
I was just so disturbing. Yeah, the D. A. There in denver really has thanked these women for their courage in speaking. And prosecutors said that they believe that there were probably a lot more victims out there.
Several of them spoke at Matthews sentencing.
They did.
IT was very emotional. I develop debilitating anxiety and P, T, S, D when having sexual encounters where men touching me made me tremble and cry. What sentence did he ultimately got?
The judge really through the book at him. He got one hundred fifty eight years in state prison.
Now you have diminished this world. You have been many of these lights. You've heard our society, and it's a darker place because of you.
And his lawyer has said that he will appeal this conviction.
Lastly, a conclusion to a story we've been watching for a while on true crime. Weekly, we have a verdict in the sera bon trial. SHE is the florida woman who was accused of killing her boyfriend by zipping him into a rolling suitcase and leaving him to die. SHE argued. He had physically abused her and he suffered from battered spouse syndrome A A.
but the jury didn't buy. They found her guilty of second degree murder. She's facing life in prison when she's sentenced in december. Remember, this is after SHE rejected a plea deal that would have sent away for only fifteen years.
Okay, thanks so much blame for comment on this .
week's round up. absolutely.
I have ever looked over your shoulder afraid that someone was following you. Most people have. With the clocks falling back this weekend, it'll start getting darker even earlier.
So we thought we had asked our safety expert, former secret service agent evy pm. Porus, for her tips on what to do in this horrifying scenario. Hey, hey, hello. As I mentioned, we've all had that feeling like someone's behind you, maybe following you, maybe not, but it's a weird feeling that you get what should you do in that situation when you are unsure.
you should absolutely trust that feeling. Don't second guess yourself and perhaps nobody is following you, but that feeling might also be telling you the environment they are in right now is generally unsafe. So it's telling you be cautious, be aware and maybe remove myself from here.
IT doesn't make you weak. IT makes you aware and IT makes you proactive. And quite honestly, you're to minimize your exposure to bad things happening.
Yeah so what should you do? Should should you ever confront the personal? Should you just keep walking faster?
What do you do? I will say that depends on the scenario s so let's say someone is following you if I feel somebody is too close and there's distance all cross the street, I move away or all turn down a different blog. Now if somebody makes contact with you, if they come close to you or they're speaking to you, what you wanna portray them to some degree is not me, not today.
Predators want easy prey. They want easy targets. And if they think you are a little bit off, a little bit crazy, guess what? They will leave you alone. And the other thing people can also do is yell, scream, make noise. Yeah.
they don't want that attention on them.
They don't want the attention. And sometimes these predators, they're not that strong. You envision them as being this really horrific, strong, powerful human being. I will tell you most of time, they are not.
What classes do you recommend for self defense? What do you think are the best ones um for helping you out there in the .
real world with self defense classes? Simple ones are the best. But what I find sometimes as they teach you these really confusing moves and when you're in A A scenario where your stresses up, you're not gna remember them.
That's why I always told people, think simple, okay, somebody is coming at me, clock their eyes OK, scratch their face, write their neck. Sounds savage. But I will do the trick, kick their shins.
You want to think of like, where can I strike this person? And the whole goal always is to strike and run away. Your job is not to sit there and engage and have, I need a few seconds to get out .
there and and you say a way, the chest area, if you're going after the man, go after the groin area.
I know what let's do this kind of like, let's go win reverse. We're going to go from bottom up areas to strike top of somebody y's foot the front of somebody's en. why? Because there's bone under that skin. Now, as you move further up, growing area is good, but you have to have power to do that, and that's really hard and you have to come close. I know it's on repetitive scratch, claw, bite in the face.
What can you have with you in your purse or your pocket that that could help keep you safe?
You know those personal alarms are really good at these alarms you can put on your key chain and that draws attention and that person instinctively turn around and go. Those are really simple ways .
to keep yourself safe. Those things are high pitched. Those alarms are right every um as always, incredibly helpful tips to keep all of us safe. And thank you so much for your expertise in this area.
Thank you. Thank you for having .
that's IT for this episode of date line through crime weekly to find out more about the cases covered on the show had to our website deadline true crime weekly dot com and coming up this friday on date line, a suspect goes to trial more than a decade after the murder of Karen swift. Tense mama IT was so frustrating year after year, and there was still not an arrest made.
Did investigators get their guy watch Keith new two hour mystery after the halloween party airing this friday at nine eight central N N B C, or saturday on peacock, and be sure to listen to key's newest date line original podcast, the man in the black mask. It's a hunting story about a man who goes missing near the set of a horror film and a killer arrested on halloween. You can binge all six episodes now wherever you get your podcast to get out free.
Listening for all our podcast subscribed to date line premium. Thanks for listening. Dateline through crime weekly is produced by Frank Kelly and kate ferguson.
Our associate producers are carson commons and Caroline casey. Our senior producer is liz Brown coral off production. In fact, checking held by Sarah adea. Veronica eza is our digital producer record as our sound designer. Original music by justice magi Price in barns ahead of audio production, paul ryan is executive producer and liza al is senior executive producer of date line.
I know it's following, but they take the Christmas street and IT will be here very soon outside doing dusk.
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