A California mother is now charged with murder after driving drunk and killing her 4-year-old daughter.
Juliette Acosta, 26, crashed her SUV into a canal. The sound of the crash was loud enough to alert nearby residents, including Acosta’s uncle and a neighbor. Her Subaru SUV landed partially submerged in the water. Acosta’s uncle jumped in, helped her out of the vehicle, but could not find 4-year-old Reagan.
When officers arrived, Acosta was no longer at the scene. A deputy immediately entered the water to search the vehicle and found Reagan Herrin still buckled in her seat. With help from Acosta’s uncle, the deputy freed the girl and began CPR as an ambulance arrived.
Deputies later found Acosta at a nearby home, reportedly taking a bath. She was arrested and initially charged with felony DUI. Her blood alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit.
Acosta now faces charges of murder, drunk driving, and several related offenses. She remains in the county jail on a no-bail warrant.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
-
Derek Smith - Criminal Defense Attorney
-
Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta, GA. Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital
-
Kimberly Cockrell - Victim Services Manager at Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) South Carolina; FB: Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Instagram: @maddnational
-
Bill Garcia - Owner of Bill Garcia Investigative Services; Facebook: Bill Garcia Investigative Services, Instagram @BGISInternational
-
Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author of "Blood Beneath My Feet," and Host of "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;" X:@JoScottForensic
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Ben Dobrin - Emergency Response Diving Instructor and Instructor Trainer, Police Diver
-
Nina Burns - Reporter, KOVR CBS13 Sacramento; Instagram: @neeburr, Facebook: NinaBurnsReporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
According to police, the so called dui mom crashes her
car into a canal, then flees the scene to take
a boozy drunken bath, leaving her four year old little
girl to drown in the car back in the canal.
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to
(00:29):
thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Tragedy strikes near Modesto, California, when twenty six year old
juliet Acosta crashes her vehicle into an irrigation canal with
her four year old daughter, Reagan still inside of When
police arrived, Juliette is nowhere to be found, and what
they uncover next stuns the community.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Okay, crashing bad enough with your child in the car,
the car flipped in the water in a canal. Why
wasn't mommy frantically trying to save her daughter?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
And why does she flee.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The scene to go take a boozy drunken bath, leaving
the baby in the car. Joining me an all star
panel to make sense of what we were learning right now.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
But I want you to listen to this.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
So is a baby strapped in it? Or would we
be looking in the water like I didn't know what
to do.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
Acosta subru suv is upturned and partially submerged in the canal.
When Acosta's uncle arrives, he jumps into the water, helping
Acosta get out of the vehicle, but is unable to
find four year old Reagan. A neighbor describes seeing Juliet
Acosta and her uncle standing on top of the submerged vehicle,
but there's no sign of the little girl. The neighbor
asks if the child is in the car or in
(01:48):
the water, but Acosta doesn't provide an answer.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
That from our friends at CBS thirteen Sacramento, straight out
to special guests joining us, Nina Burns, Reporter kov Our,
CBS thirteen Sacramento. Nina, thank you for being with us.
First of all, I'm trying to get my mind around
leaving a crash with your child and the backseats trapped
in in the water so you can go take a
(02:14):
drunken bath. But first things first, tell me about the
crash itself.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
What happened, Nina.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
So it was March eighth, It was a Sunday, and
what we've heard is that she was leaving her uncle's
house right by the canal. It was only about about
nine hundred feet, I would say, and she drove it
straight in. The uncle did dive in, saved her. They
went to the service a. As you heard earlier. The
witness said she saw the uncle jump in and retrieved
(02:45):
the mother. Twenty minutes later she realized the daughter was
still in the car, and that's when the sheriffay.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Whit white, white, white, white, hold on.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Nina, So the uncle that's the home that d ui, mom,
do you I?
Speaker 8 (02:59):
Mom?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I had been at and she leaves there the crash occurred.
I want to hear about how that crash went down,
What exactly happened, I mean, driving on and suddenly in
the water.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
There has to be something in between, you would assume.
Speaker 7 (03:13):
But all of the witnesses heard the crash. I mean
it was pretty late at night. All we know is
when we saw the car go into the canal. That's
what we're still trying to figure out exactly how she
went straight on into that canal. I mean the road
is completely to the right. You do look at the screen.
I mean it is nowhere near.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Now, Nina Burns, I'm learning a little bit.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Listen, Juliette, A consta is driving home from a party
with her four year old daughter, Reagan Herron, buckled into
her car seat in the back of the Subaru Suv.
Driving south on Arlberg Road, Acosta is not in control
of her vehicle as she drives onto the shoulder of
the road on the left hand side, sideswiping a pole,
pushing her vehicle back onto the asphalt. Acosta continues south
(03:54):
and fails to make a turn, driving up an embankment
and crashing into an irrigation canal along Canal Bank Road.
The sound of the crash into the pole and into
the water is loud enough to get the attention of
those living nearby, including Acosta's uncle and a neighbor, who
head to the canal to see if they can help.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Wow, okay, I'm hearing maybe five to seven times the
crash and the daughter's drowning death could have been avoided.
Straight out to joining me, Nina Burns you just her
joining us kov R CBS thirteen. Bill Garcia is with us,
owner of Bill Garcia Investigative Services. In this jurisdiction, critical
(04:35):
Bill and your jurisdiction. What's the blood alcohol necessary for
a duy charge?
Speaker 9 (04:41):
It's a point zero eight and obviously she was at
least three times out of a mile.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
You're seeing a shot right now, the so called dy mom,
Juliet Acosta. There she is when pregnant with three friends. Okay,
you know I'm listening to this crash point zero eight.
How is it We've got so many cases where you
mix a mom with a car with booze and water,
(05:12):
and somehow they live and the baby dies. It just
always seems to be that way. Also joining me in
addition to Nina and Bill Garcia, special guest Kimberly Cockrel.
You know her well, victim service manager at Mother's Against
Drunk Driving who lost her best friend to a drunk
(05:34):
driver as well.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Kimberly, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Did you hear all the points during that scenario where
the baby Reagan could have been saved instead? I mean,
I haven't even gotten to the fact that mom goes
takes a drunken bath while the baby's drowning, while the
baby's upside down pinned with a seat belt. Can you
imagine what the baby was going through? What the little
(05:59):
girl screaming for mommy. I'm sure mommy gone. Listen to this, Kimberly, Okay,
the child's buckled into the back seat of the Subaru suv.
Driving south, she drives onto the shoulder of the road
I'm guessing in a boozy fit on the left hand side,
(06:19):
so she crosses across the lanes into oncoming traffic. She
sideswipes a pole that should have been enough right there
for her to hit the brakes, but that didn't happen.
The vehicle gets back onto the asphalt. Kreene's back onto
the asphalt. She then keeps driving, instead of just hitting
(06:42):
the brakes, failing to make a turn, instead driving up
and embankment what you couldn't see basically the mountain. She
drives up an embankment and then crashes into an irrigation canal.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
The sound of the crash was so wowed.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
The crash into the pole, remember that original crash into
the pole and then into the water that neighbors all
run out to find out what happened. How many points
were there, Kimberly Cockraw in just that scenario where the
(07:21):
baby's life could have been saved by dui.
Speaker 10 (07:24):
Mom numerous, the first, the first being that she should
have never put that baby in the car with her. Never,
She should have never been intoxicated behind the wheel. She
should never have had her daughter in that car. As
a mother, I do not understand this. How number one
she would do those actions, but how you would leave
(07:45):
the scene.
Speaker 11 (07:46):
With your child.
Speaker 10 (07:47):
You know your child is in that water. You know
you put your child in that water, and you leave
there and go take a bath. The irony of that
is something that I have never the circumstances of this
in my thirty two years of dealing with mothers against
drunk driving and representing.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Them that I have ever heard in my life.
Speaker 10 (08:06):
I have never heard circumstances this agregious, guys.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Not only did she have so many points during the
driving incident to save her daughter's life just four years old,
but think about the lead up because Kimberly, I often
hear in court it was just an accident. It's not
an accident driving drunk and crashing. It's not an accident.
(08:31):
I've handled plenty of hicular homicide cases, and this is
what I would argue to a jury. Was it an
accident that you went into the bar to start with?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Was it an accident you had too much to drink
at dinner? Was that did somebody hold your mouth open
and force the alcohol down your mouth.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
No, you did that all on your own.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
That was your decision to get another drink, and another drink,
and another drink.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
That's not a crime. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It was your decision to get the car keys. That
was a decision. That was no accident. It was her
decision to rustle the keys out of her pocketbook or
wherever she kept them, to walk to the car to
strap her daughter into the car.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
That was an accident.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
No, she strapped Reagan into the back seat in a
car seat for safety. It was her decision to open
her door, get in, put the key in the ignition,
turn the ignition, reverse it, and put it in drive,
and put her foot on the gas.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
None of that was an accident.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
This is a dui vehiculo homicide crash with intent.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
What I don't get, Kimberly.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's why dui crashes fatalities are not considered to be
murdered because there's so much intent.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
I agree with you.
Speaker 10 (09:56):
I absolutely wish that every single one of these cases
could be murder. In the state of South Carolina where
I am, we don't have that option. I am very
glad that the state of California, where this woman committed
this crime, has that option, because that's something we just
don't have. But everyone should be considered.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To Derek Smith joining me, high profile lawyer who has
handled plenty of moms, let me just say that are
not strangers to the criminal justice system. I remember your
last one where mommy went to Puerto Rico and left
her daughter to starve and a playpen. I don't know
how you do it, but you do do it, and
(10:48):
I'm sure a lot of people are grateful you do it,
not me but them. Derek Smith joining me, as I said,
high profile lawyer at d W Smith Legal dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Derek, how are you gonna explain away the boozy bath?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Mommy leaves the scene and goes.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Runs a hot bath. Nobody did that for her, strips
down and takes a bath.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, the baby is still out there hanging upside down
from a car seat in a canal.
Speaker 12 (11:20):
Those actions aren't necessarily the easiest to defend. Obviously, However,
we need to get into actually.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
How if you're not going to say that to the jury, Derek, Well, really,
how to explain what she did?
Speaker 4 (11:34):
But let me give it a stab.
Speaker 12 (11:38):
How the intoxication happened. Now you mentioned before, you know,
maybe somebody wasn't pouring booze down her throat.
Speaker 8 (11:44):
Maybe they were.
Speaker 12 (11:45):
Maybe something was slipped into her drink that we don't
know about.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Okay, wait his demeanor when he says she was force
fed alcohol? Okay, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Would you repeat that? Maybe she was force fed the
alcohol by who?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Her uncle?
Speaker 13 (11:57):
No, we don't know yet.
Speaker 12 (11:58):
It's still early in the investigation, isn't it. I mean,
there could have been a new medication that she was on.
There could have been some other factors that led into
her getting to that state that she was in prior
to operating the vehicle. Well, like I said, whether it's
new medication, whether something was in her drink, whether she
was involuntarily taking something she thought was something else that
caused this reaction chemically inside her body. And then the
(12:20):
second part, after the crash, was there some trauma, did
she sustain any injuries that maybe she had no idea
where she was after that crash happened. She didn't know
what was going on. That's the other possibility that we
don't know yet. That's why you kind of got to
get into these cases. I understand the frustration and the
just anger. Absolutely you shouldn't be drinking and driving. Absolutely
(12:41):
you should not be having a child in your car
after consuming alcohol and then driving. However, was she fully
understanding what was going on inside her body at that time?
Speaker 8 (12:52):
What do we know?
Speaker 12 (12:53):
Was there a toxicology report? Was there kind of blood
work done? Do we know what was actually happening inside
her when this was going on? And that's what we
need to find out.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
We do know that toxicology was run.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
It's a point one five. That's almost double the legal
limited point zero eight.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Now, hold on.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I love to interrupt you, but I held back because
I was taking notes. So furiously, let's just go down
your list. Okay, do you I mom force fed alcohol? Okay,
let me just scratch that off right right at the beginning. Okay,
Now here's something that the state better be ready for
a new medication. However, if it didn't show up in
(13:33):
the toxicology report, I can go ahead.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Scratch that off. Now you've got head trauma.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
You're brilliant, like dtor evil, brilliant trauma to the head.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
That might work.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
But was her head examined at the hospital, and if so,
and it wasn't injured. I must scratch that off. But
you've got two things going for you right now. You've
got a new medication argument and you've got trauma to
the head. I'm totally as I'm sure you understand Derek
Smith discounting that her uncle held her mouth open and
force fed her alcohol. I'm also discounting that he slipped
(14:08):
a Ruthie in her drink. Yeah, that's too far out there. Plus,
you can bring the uncle on the state will bring
on the uncle to rebut such a claim. But as
to new manage and trauma to the head, at least
you've got something to say to the jury. But as
a prosecutor, I would count how she left the scene
(14:29):
on her own, went to the bathroom, took off her clothes,
ran a bath.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Did she put calgan in at her bath? Salts?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I'm just curious anyway gets to the bath, did you
take a bit? And you know, I don't know because
every move she makes adds intent.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
For all I know, she clipped her toenails.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I don't know what happened in that bathtub, but I'm
going to find out, and when I do find out,
I'm going to make a big poster of everything she
did that shows she knew what she was doing, goes
straight to the bathroom, stops up the tub, turns on
the hot water, strips down. Yet sin that shows a
certain degree of coherence to me. That said, back to
(15:13):
the facts, something that will not raise my blood pressure
like Derek Smith is right now, what else do we
know about the night that four year old Reagan drowned
dead suspended from a car seat in mommy's car while
mommy was clipping her toenails in the bathtub.
Speaker 8 (15:31):
Listen, how zethus aknel and it is lossible that the
four year old.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
Is still later vehicle Juliet Acosta is already gone by
the time of Stanislaus County deputy arrives, but her daughter
has him been located. The deputy immediately jumps into the
water to see if the little girl is still inside
the vehicle and finds Reagan heron still buckled in her seat.
With help from Acosta's uncle, the men are able to
break the little girl free and bring her to the surface.
The deputy performs CPR as an ambulance arrives, so rush
(15:57):
the little girl to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
All of this occur wrying while mommy is letting Calgon
take her away. That from our friend CBS thirteen, Sacramento.
How could a beautiful, young first grade teacher be stabbed
twenty times, including in the back, allegedly die of suicide? Yes,
that was the medical examiner's official ruling after a closed
(16:21):
door meeting. He first named it a homicide. Why what
Happened to Ellen Greenberg? A huge American miscarriage of justice.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
For an in.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Depth look at the facts, see What Happened to Ellen?
On Amazon All proceeds to the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
A call for help goes out after a car swerves
into an irrigation canal near Modesto. Inside a four year
old girl trapped, but the driver the child's mother is missing.
After police find Juliet Acosta drunk and soaking in a baptize,
but her blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I don't know if I would call her missing so
much is having a drunken, boozy bath while her daughter
is submerged in water. Joining me an all Star panel,
but right now straight out to Ben Dobrin joining US
Emergency Response diving instructor. Wow, you've seen a lot I
(17:26):
know that, Ben, But I don't know how often you've
seen a child strapped in a car seat submerged in
water while.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Mommy flees the scene.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
She's not missing, she's out taking a bath, a nice
hot bath after all she's been.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Through, while the baby drowns.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Ben, explain to me how the EMTs race to the scene,
they see what's happening. They can't find the mom, the dad,
no adult. They jump in and try to save the child.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
You know when we see on TV.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
In movies, you can never unbuckle the car seat. They
always have to cut the seat belt. I always have
to cut the seat belt, and it's so hard underwater.
Just describe the nightmare scenario that these amts and divers
were going through.
Speaker 8 (18:18):
You're correct, it is a nightmare. Cars underwater are horrible.
And you know when you watch on TV, they always
do filming at a pool or in some very clear
water situation and then people have a mask on and
can see. So you've got dark water, you don't have
a mask on, you don't have it's dark. You're feeling
around and a car seat is hard enough and dry land.
(18:40):
I mean, if you've been a parent, you know that
getting a child in and out of a car seat
is always some sort of struggle. But then when you're
in the water, anything that is in your car, I
want you to go to your car this afternoon and
later today and just look around that anything is loose,
A box of kleenex, a soda can you, a coffee cup, whatever,
anything that's loose in a is could be floating around
(19:02):
and it's gonna be getting in your way and it's
gonna be bumping into you. And so now you've got
you know, you're in the water, it's dark, you're trying
to feel your way into the back seat, You're trying
to figure out where the buckles are. You've got clothing,
you've got a jacket, you have a blanket that's blocking.
It's just the word nightmare is very appropriate. That's the
(19:24):
situation that you're going into and you're working against the clock.
You're trying and we've all done this. We've all tried
to do things very very quickly or fast, and you
make mistakes. So you have to slow down to be
more effective. But you want to be moving as quickly
as possible to also be effective, and you know you're
(19:45):
racing against the clock. You're hoping you can get this
person out, this child out, you know, to do life
saving measures, and you're fighting against all of these hazards.
You're fighting against the dark water and nothing. I've read
that they were on scuba. It was, you know, people
just coming in and jumping up and down. So they're
doing this while holding their breath and trying to do
(20:06):
this and then having to go back up and then
breathe and breathe and breathe and go back down. Sticking
your head inside of a car, you know, is dangerous.
You can get stuck, and if you're doing it on
a breath hold, it's a horrible situation. In my hat
is off to any person that did that. They were
brave and they took control of the situation and they
were trying to save a life. And my hat is
(20:28):
truly off to those people that did that.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Now, I'm just trying to take in what you just said.
Ben Dobrin.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Dobrin Er, Emergency Response Diving instructor, instructor, trainer, police diver,
Emergency Services diver. You're right, it's actually easier if you're
equipped with a dive suit than to free dive, in
other words, without any air sustaining equipment. You can only
(20:55):
be in as under the water as long as you
can hold your breath and you're in the waters. My
understanding that the suz was upside down with the little
girl hanging suspended upside down from her seat belt. You
have to go in and you see the little girl
amidst what you just said, the box of Kleenex, the shoes,
(21:18):
the jacket, all the things that children travel with in
the car. It's all floating around, and then you see her.
But you can only stay under for so long. I mean,
how long then can you stay underwater without coming up
for air.
Speaker 8 (21:37):
You know, if you sit in a pool and hold
your breath and are really calm, you know you can
hold it for thirty seconds a minute. Whoever, that's not
the situation. They're diving down into a stressful situation. I
didn't know the car was upside down. Upside down is
a whole different ball game. So they're having to pull
themselves down to the window or to the door. You
burn up your air very quickly. If they could do
(21:57):
this for thirty seconds or forty five seconds out of time,
I'd be impressed. You know, your body is burning through
all that oxygen. Your body is saying you have to breathe,
you have to breathe, and you can't do it, and
they're burning it. They're under stressed. They're using their muscles,
they're physically pulling themselves down to look in that car.
The seat is not where you expected. An upside down car,
(22:18):
upside down anything, everything. Our brains are not wired to
handle things upside down, So their brains are trying to
look for a car seat and a car that's a normal,
you know, up upright. They were in a horrible situation
trying to do this, but they're burning through that. You know,
if you hold your breath you can't do it very
long sitting still. They weren't sitting still, and so it's
(22:41):
impressive that they did that.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Guys, what more do we know?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I can imagine the EMT's jumping in the water, and
the dead of night, the neighbor shows up screaming, where's
the little girl? Where's the little girl? Mommy is gone
taking a bath. It's beyond comprehension.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Listen to this.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I can't get it out of my head. So every
time I close my eyes, as all I can see
it's a little girl coming out of the water with.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Four year old Reagan heron in the back of an ambulance.
Deputies search for the mother, the driver of the car
at Juliet Acosta, even though her uncle lives nearby. A
Costa is found at a nearby residence, reportedly taking a
bath while her daughter is still missing.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
From CBS thirteen Sacramento. Nina Burns is joining me reporter
k VRCBS thirteen. They're in Sacramento, Nina, Uh, where is
the report coming from that cops found her taking a bath?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Still waiting for that answer.
Speaker 7 (23:41):
They told us if it was in the uncle's house
nearby resident. I mean this did hacken happen in Hickman,
which is only about fifteen minutes away.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
From her hometown Oakdale, So she could have had a friend.
We're not sure.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
The defense attorney in the DA neither of us are
exactly telling us where she was taking that bath, just
as she was taking a bath.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Also trying to figure out how deep the canal is,
Nana at that juncture, because it can be It can
be very deep twenty thirty feet deep at one spot
and less so at another spot.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
We understand the car was upside down? Is that correct.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
We have heard as well from the DA that the
car was not upright. Now I'm not sure if it
was exactly upside down on its side.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
We just know it was not upright.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So Ben Dobrin, how would that add to the confusion
of the e mts of the cars upside down and
the child's hanging upside down?
Speaker 8 (24:33):
That add a lot of confusions. You know, your brain
is wired. We see things every day. We see cars upright,
we see people, you know, babies in car seats, and
a particular you know, orientation upside down changes everything. And
then in dark water, you know you're feeling around, We
naturally feel on the floor for the seat. We put
our hand on the floor and ride rub our hand
up to the seat. Once we're in the seat, and
(24:54):
then we're gonna be searching for the car seat. Once
we find the car seat, we're gonna be looking for
the buckles. That tation change and now I'm not searching
on the floor, I'm searching on the ceiling basically for
that car seat. And so it just changes everything. Your
mindset has to completely change. And one of the things,
you know, the cars, when cars go in the water,
you know, it depends on what type of car is
(25:15):
the Most cars have an engine in the front that
will sink first, depending on the type of car. You know,
car with a trunk, the trunk will float for a while,
and suv doesn't have a trunk, but you're going to
have an air bubble that will make it float for
a while, and then when it starts to settle, they
usually don't settle on all four tires. A lot of
times they will roll over just because of the orientation.
(25:36):
That motor goes down first, and then it'll just roll
onto its roof. That's a very common thing for cars
when they go in the water, depending on the depth
of the water. If the water shallow enough, you know,
shallower than the length of the car. Oftentimes when that
the motor will hit before while the back end is
still floating, so then it will just rest on the
(25:58):
four tires. But if it's deeper, very often they will
roll and like you just said, sometimes they'll roll on
the roof, but a lot of times they'll just roll
on their side, which makes it even more difficult because
now you're going down into a car and looking you
don't have access to both sides of the doors. You
only have the doors that are exposed on what is
now the top end. So I mean the orientation of
(26:20):
the car makes it, you know, an unknown is what
you're going to find. And so whether it's on its
roof or on its side, it makes it very difficult
for people coming in, especially if those people are free diving.
That just is an extreme situation.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I can't get it out of my head. So yeah,
the time you close my eyes, as all I can
see it's a little girl coming out of the water.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Our friends CBS thirteen.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Sacramented police responding to a vehicle submerged in a Modesto
area Canal are stunned to find a young girl trapped inside,
but no adult in sight. The child's mother, twenty six
year old Juliet Acosta, is later found intoxicated in a bathtub.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Amts desperately performed CPR on four year old girl Reagan
and then load her into an ambulance and race her
to the hospital.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
This is what happens.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Juliet Acosta is not at the accident, is seen when
deputies and rescue personnel arrive as her daughter is still
trapped in her car seat underwater. Acosta has gone to
a nearby home and reportedly when deputies arrive, she's taking
a bath. Acosta is arrested in charge with felony dui
when she's found to be nearly three times over the
legal blood alcohol limit. Her daughter, four year old Reagan Heron,
(27:35):
dies the next day at an area hospital. Acosta is
initially jailed in the felony dui charge and released on bond.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Moms plus children, plus car plus water the seminal case,
combining all of those into a deadly recipe.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
This good, my love. That is a lady.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You come on Onda and some guy, a gentleman, to
a red light with her car with her two kids
in it. It tookf and she got out of call
here at Ohio.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
In her call it I don't see your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I need to go along down here, Susan Smith. Her
name will live in infamy forever. There's so many, there
are almost two many to count. Of course, there's Ebony
Wilkerson can't have the conversation without throwing her in.
Speaker 14 (28:33):
Different video captures the moments a mini van drifts deeper
and deeper into the Atlantic off Daytona beach. Inside the van,
a pregnant mom and her three small children. Witnesses say
the vehicle was moving along the water's edge, then suddenly
plunged into the ocean. The children can be heard screaming,
help help us. By Standers rush toward the scene, pulling
(28:56):
two children out before realizing there is a baby in
her seat. The children tell police Mom tried to kill us.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
F f from our friends at ID Investigation, Discovery and
of course Diane Schuler.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I have a family here that thinks that they might
have a medical emergency of their sister. There's three kids
in the car.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
Five are trying to locate her.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
The girls just called in distressed.
Speaker 8 (29:18):
She said that the ants is driving very radically. We
think she's sick, and we're trying to.
Speaker 14 (29:24):
Locate the kids.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
She lives, the children die joining me.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
In addition to the guest you met so far, doctor
Angela Arnold, a renowned psychiatrist in the Atlanta jurisdiction at
Angela Arnold md dot com, Doctor Angie, thank you for
being with us. The mixture of Mom's cars alcohol, it
never goes away.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
It happens over and over and over. Dottr Angie, I.
Speaker 11 (29:48):
Know, I mean the people and every time we hear
a story like this, it's heart Riching. There is a
comment that I would like to make about the child
being wrapped in the car seat Nancy, who put the
child in the car seat? Because if that mother straps
the baby in the car seat, then she knew enough
(30:09):
to put the baby in the car seat, even in
her drunken state. So what made her forget about the
baby between the time she put the baby in the
car seat and she crashed the car. No one's talked
about that.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Joe Scott Morgan with me, death investigator, Professor Forensics Jacksonville
State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon
starvia Hitting You series Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan,
I would say you've probably performed over one thousand death
scene investigations. Could you explain what the child goes through
(31:00):
in a drowning? Many people believe drowning is the single
worst death possible, much less.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
For a four year old child. Joe Scott.
Speaker 13 (31:09):
Yeah, we're talking about a vehicle that has inverted, Nancy.
So it's on the roof. Just imagine, if you will,
You're laying on a table on your back and your
head is hanging off of it. Someone takes a picture
of water and pours it directly into your nostrils and
into your mouth. That's the position she would have been in, Nancy,
(31:29):
because water is going to seek the lowest point of
gravity in that vehicle. It's not like some movie where
you have this air bubble above the head and people
are kind of gasping for air up there as the
water rises. That's not going to be the case. And
one more thing about this. Do you remember you had
mentioned early on, I know you do, where she apparently
struck a utility pole prior to going in the canal.
(31:53):
That's going to compromise the structural integrity of the vehicle.
So now I don't know for a fact, but she
might have a gap in the car already when she
goes in. And when we talk about baby Reagan, here,
the thing about it is this, upon that initial impact,
that child, if she was asleep at that time, she
will be awakened with a jolt. She's going to start
(32:16):
shallow breathing already out of fear. And then when the
car goes into the canal and begins to invert, now
she's going to be tasked with trying to fight for
her life. While being strapped in and inverted as water
begins to fill the cabin. Now, I can tell you
this at autopsy. One of the things that we're going
(32:38):
to see with this child is that her lungs will
be heavier than normal. And here's something that people don't
think about as well. There would be water actually in
her stomach because she's going to be ingesting water. She's
gulping like this, just trying to do anything she can
to survive, and of course there's no way that she
(32:59):
can being in this compromise position.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
How long would she have lingered there? J Scott calling
out for her mother with the water coming up around her.
I mean I always think of Susan Smith's boys as
the water came up, people could I mean, they apparently
were screaming for their mother.
Speaker 13 (33:20):
Yeah, and those kids were strapped, they were upright. Remember
her car went down the ramp, she just kind of
let it glide down into that lake. It's not the
case with Reagan. This was a very violent event that happened,
and the car kind of twisted in the air and
in the water, and so it winds up this way.
I would estimate that it would not have been I
(33:43):
want to be very clear about this. She's not going
to immediately lose consciousness. And the reason I know that
is she's strapped in a car seat. So unless the
integrity of the vehicle is so compromised that she sustains
blunt force trauma and strikes her head, she's going to
be awake during this Nancy certain point when she begins
to lose consciousness. I'm thinking probably top end, maybe about
(34:06):
a minute to minute thirty seconds. Remember, her little lungs
don't have the same capacity as ours do.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
Expecting to arrest Juliet Acosta in Stanislaus County, the California
Highway Patrol tries to serve a nobail warrant for second
degree murder. A Coosta has been free on bail on
the DUI charge, and investigators don't find her in Stanislaus
County as expected. Chief Deputy District Attorney Wendall Emerson says
investigators apprehended a Costa at a San Francisco hotel as
she is trying to flee the area. A Costa's father,
(34:33):
in Clifford, Acosta Junior, is detained on suspicion of aiding
his daughter's flight. Acusta's attorney Gil Samara says his client
was not on the run.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Kyle, lawyer's got.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
A lot more to worry about than his client hold
up in a hotel with her dad on the run.
That from our friends at CBS thirteen is Sacramento. So
the lawyer is focusing on she was not attempting to flee.
That's completely false. Why would you say that? Okay, then
why she hold up in the hotel in a different city?
And then he focuses on another issue? Or is he
(35:04):
not focusing on the fact that four year old Reagan
is dead?
Speaker 4 (35:08):
But listen to this.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Julie had A Costa's attorney, Gil Samara deny she was
taking a bath after the accident, claiming the timeline is
almost impossible, telling the Independent quote time wise, you can't
go take a bath while your daughter's drowning.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
So I don't quite get it.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Derek Smith, you're the veteran trial lawyer, defense attorney. Why
is the attorney focusing on she didn't flee the same
she did not and I will convince a jury she
did not take a bath. Okay, what about driving drunk
and killing your daughter? Shouldn't that be his priority?
Speaker 8 (35:41):
Well?
Speaker 12 (35:41):
Yeah, but we're talking about, you know, intent and culpability here.
If you're running, if you're fleeing, you're alluding to the
point that you might have some kind of liability or
some criminal intents here. But if you're just going to
focus on the fact that, hey, you know, she wasn't
taking a bath, she wasn't fleeing, she wasn't a right
you can start to build a defense around intent, around
(36:03):
what her mental state was during the accident, during I
guess prior to drinking, while she was drinking, or other
circumstances around that. But if you can create some kind
of narrative within the public or within the prosecution, No,
she wasn't fleeing. She was just doing what she had
to do to kind of come to grips with the
(36:23):
fact that her daughter is gone, because that's the main tragedy.
Hear that she had a beautiful child that.
Speaker 8 (36:28):
Is not with us anymore.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Okay, So as they go to arrest her on a
nobel warrant on second degree murder, they find her slung
a hiding out at a San Francisco hotel. Okay, Bill Garcia,
how far would that be away from the canal crash?
If she's in a hotel in San Francisco.
Speaker 9 (36:48):
Yeah, this sence, it's right about one hundred miles, so
it's quite a significant distance.
Speaker 13 (36:53):
From the Oakdale area.
Speaker 9 (36:57):
And I'm not really sure why was that far from
her home.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And what they want to put Please, I just have
to see Bill Garcia. Bill, you don't know why she
was hold up in a hotel?
Speaker 9 (37:10):
No, And that's a significant distance away from where she
lived and from where the incident occurred. So there has
to be some kind of reason why she was that
far away and why she was with me.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I mean, you're telling me you don't think you know
the reason. She leaves the scene where her daughter is
dying upside down in her suv in a canal as
the water slowly engulfs the little baby. Everybody else is
out there trying to save the baby while she's taking
a warm bath. And now, I mean, Bill, have you
(37:48):
ever heard this phrase when you don't know a horse,
look at her track record. When you don't know what
somebody's going to do, look at what they've already done.
She's already fled the scene with her daughter dying years old.
So you're telling me the straight face, you don't know
why she was snugged up in a hotel over an
hour away near a major airport.
Speaker 9 (38:09):
As an investigator, I do have my suspicions as to
why she was doing it.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And what only my stars man, I'm a JD, not
a DDS. I can't pulltate. Why please blurt it out.
Speaker 9 (38:21):
Well, she's trying to get away from the situation. And
whether she was trying to flee to a different region,
another country, we don't know. But all of these things
put together do show the intent that she was trying
to flee.
Speaker 6 (38:36):
The day Scott Peterson is arrested, he has dyed his
brown hair blonde and grown out of goatee. His Mercedes
is stuff with survival gear, camping gear, several changes of clothing,
two driver's license, his and his brothers, four cell phones,
fifteen Granny cash, and twelve Viagra pills.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Families trying to help their loved one. In that case,
it was Scott Peterson. He goes on the run, bleaches
his hair, U is a car in his mother's name,
and Mercedes as I recall with ten thousand dollars cash,
camping equipment, water filtration equipment, and a technical legal term
(39:12):
crap ton of viagra with fake IDs using his brothers.
I believe driver's license. But the family says, no, no,
he wasn't fleeing. He just wanted to go play a
round of golf and he didn't want the media to
follow him. He needs viagra for that family helping their
(39:32):
loved one. In this case, the father is found with
the so called duy moms. Juliet Acosta joining me, as
you know from CBS thirteen kov R Nina Burns, Nina,
what have you learned?
Speaker 4 (39:49):
You were in court yesterday? What did you learn?
Speaker 7 (39:51):
I did talk to Acosta's defense attorney, who told me,
for starters, the reason she was in San Francisco was
she was accompanying her father on business trip, his business.
She wanted to be a family, That's what she was there.
And he says his qualm with the DA then releasing
the stement that she was trying to flee, is that
he was informed the day before that she was going
(40:13):
to be charged with second degree murder. He told them
she would turn herself in at eight am on Friday.
They came in much earlier to San Francisco that Friday
and then arrested her.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Nina, I'm sure you've heard the name Sean Combs. He
was going to turn himself into but the fans arrested
him at a five star hotel for a reason.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
They thought he was going to flee.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
So I appreciate what the father is doing here, but
do you recall the two gorgeous Kansas moms that were
on their way to pick up children for a children's
birthday party as Veronica Butler and Jilly and Kelly. They
were brutally murdered over a custody issue by who family members?
(40:59):
What Emily won't do to save their loved one. Was
dad really on a business trip? Well, I'm sure we'll
find out. Nana Burns, where does the case stand now?
Speaker 7 (41:10):
It's started off with just a felony dui and then
she was arrested on second degree murder. Right now, the
DA off the record has some ideas and why they're
going to nail her for that. But the defense attorney
also says that you know, in his exact words for
Beatam is that the dui felony charge was already a
(41:30):
horrible felony charge. Adding a second degree murder charge doesn't
really change much.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
We wait as justice sun falls. Nancy Grace signing off
goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
According to police, the so called dui mom crashes her
car into a canal, then flees the scene to take
a boozy drunken bath, leaving her four year old little
girl to drown in the car back in the canal.
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to
(00:29):
thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Tragedy strikes near Modesto, California, when twenty six year old
juliet Acosta crashes her vehicle into an irrigation canal with
her four year old daughter, Reagan still inside of When
police arrived, Juliette is nowhere to be found, and what
they uncover next stuns the community.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Okay, crashing bad enough with your child in the car,
the car flipped in the water in a canal. Why
wasn't mommy frantically trying to save her daughter?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
And why does she flee.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The scene to go take a boozy drunken bath, leaving
the baby in the car. Joining me an all star
panel to make sense of what we were learning right now.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
But I want you to listen to this.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
So is a baby strapped in it? Or would we
be looking in the water like I didn't know what
to do.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
Acosta subru suv is upturned and partially submerged in the canal.
When Acosta's uncle arrives, he jumps into the water, helping
Acosta get out of the vehicle, but is unable to
find four year old Reagan. A neighbor describes seeing Juliet
Acosta and her uncle standing on top of the submerged vehicle,
but there's no sign of the little girl. The neighbor
asks if the child is in the car or in
(01:48):
the water, but Acosta doesn't provide an answer.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
That from our friends at CBS thirteen Sacramento, straight out
to special guests joining us, Nina Burns, Reporter kov Our,
CBS thirteen Sacramento. Nina, thank you for being with us.
First of all, I'm trying to get my mind around
leaving a crash with your child and the backseats trapped
in in the water so you can go take a
(02:14):
drunken bath. But first things first, tell me about the
crash itself.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
What happened, Nina.
Speaker 7 (02:22):
So it was March eighth, It was a Sunday, and
what we've heard is that she was leaving her uncle's
house right by the canal. It was only about about
nine hundred feet, I would say, and she drove it
straight in. The uncle did dive in, saved her. They
went to the service a. As you heard earlier. The
witness said she saw the uncle jump in and retrieved
(02:45):
the mother. Twenty minutes later she realized the daughter was
still in the car, and that's when the sheriffay.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Whit white, white, white, white, hold on.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Nina, So the uncle that's the home that d ui, mom,
do you I?
Speaker 8 (02:59):
Mom?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I had been at and she leaves there the crash occurred.
I want to hear about how that crash went down,
What exactly happened, I mean, driving on and suddenly in
the water.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
There has to be something in between, you would assume.
Speaker 7 (03:13):
But all of the witnesses heard the crash. I mean
it was pretty late at night. All we know is
when we saw the car go into the canal. That's
what we're still trying to figure out exactly how she
went straight on into that canal. I mean the road
is completely to the right. You do look at the screen.
I mean it is nowhere near.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Now, Nina Burns, I'm learning a little bit.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Listen, Juliette, A consta is driving home from a party
with her four year old daughter, Reagan Herron, buckled into
her car seat in the back of the Subaru Suv.
Driving south on Arlberg Road, Acosta is not in control
of her vehicle as she drives onto the shoulder of
the road on the left hand side, sideswiping a pole,
pushing her vehicle back onto the asphalt. Acosta continues south
(03:54):
and fails to make a turn, driving up an embankment
and crashing into an irrigation canal along Canal Bank Road.
The sound of the crash into the pole and into
the water is loud enough to get the attention of
those living nearby, including Acosta's uncle and a neighbor, who
head to the canal to see if they can help.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Wow, okay, I'm hearing maybe five to seven times the
crash and the daughter's drowning death could have been avoided.
Straight out to joining me, Nina Burns you just her
joining us kov R CBS thirteen. Bill Garcia is with us,
owner of Bill Garcia Investigative Services. In this jurisdiction, critical
(04:35):
Bill and your jurisdiction. What's the blood alcohol necessary for
a duy charge?
Speaker 9 (04:41):
It's a point zero eight and obviously she was at
least three times out of a mile.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
You're seeing a shot right now, the so called dy mom,
Juliet Acosta. There she is when pregnant with three friends. Okay,
you know I'm listening to this crash point zero eight.
How is it We've got so many cases where you
mix a mom with a car with booze and water,
(05:12):
and somehow they live and the baby dies. It just
always seems to be that way. Also joining me in
addition to Nina and Bill Garcia, special guest Kimberly Cockrel.
You know her well, victim service manager at Mother's Against
Drunk Driving who lost her best friend to a drunk
(05:34):
driver as well.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Kimberly, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Did you hear all the points during that scenario where
the baby Reagan could have been saved instead? I mean,
I haven't even gotten to the fact that mom goes
takes a drunken bath while the baby's drowning, while the
baby's upside down pinned with a seat belt. Can you
imagine what the baby was going through? What the little
(05:59):
girl screaming for mommy. I'm sure mommy gone. Listen to this, Kimberly, Okay,
the child's buckled into the back seat of the Subaru suv.
Driving south, she drives onto the shoulder of the road
I'm guessing in a boozy fit on the left hand side,
(06:19):
so she crosses across the lanes into oncoming traffic. She
sideswipes a pole that should have been enough right there
for her to hit the brakes, but that didn't happen.
The vehicle gets back onto the asphalt. Kreene's back onto
the asphalt. She then keeps driving, instead of just hitting
(06:42):
the brakes, failing to make a turn, instead driving up
and embankment what you couldn't see basically the mountain. She
drives up an embankment and then crashes into an irrigation canal.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
The sound of the crash was so wowed.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
The crash into the pole, remember that original crash into
the pole and then into the water that neighbors all
run out to find out what happened. How many points
were there, Kimberly Cockraw in just that scenario where the
(07:21):
baby's life could have been saved by dui.
Speaker 10 (07:24):
Mom numerous, the first, the first being that she should
have never put that baby in the car with her. Never,
She should have never been intoxicated behind the wheel. She
should never have had her daughter in that car. As
a mother, I do not understand this. How number one
she would do those actions, but how you would leave
(07:45):
the scene.
Speaker 11 (07:46):
With your child.
Speaker 10 (07:47):
You know your child is in that water. You know
you put your child in that water, and you leave
there and go take a bath. The irony of that
is something that I have never the circumstances of this
in my thirty two years of dealing with mothers against
drunk driving and representing.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Them that I have ever heard in my life.
Speaker 10 (08:06):
I have never heard circumstances this agregious, guys.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Not only did she have so many points during the
driving incident to save her daughter's life just four years old,
but think about the lead up because Kimberly, I often
hear in court it was just an accident. It's not
an accident driving drunk and crashing. It's not an accident.
(08:31):
I've handled plenty of hicular homicide cases, and this is
what I would argue to a jury. Was it an
accident that you went into the bar to start with?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Was it an accident you had too much to drink
at dinner? Was that did somebody hold your mouth open
and force the alcohol down your mouth.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
No, you did that all on your own.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
That was your decision to get another drink, and another drink,
and another drink.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
That's not a crime. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It was your decision to get the car keys. That
was a decision. That was no accident. It was her
decision to rustle the keys out of her pocketbook or
wherever she kept them, to walk to the car to
strap her daughter into the car.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
That was an accident.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
No, she strapped Reagan into the back seat in a
car seat for safety. It was her decision to open
her door, get in, put the key in the ignition,
turn the ignition, reverse it, and put it in drive,
and put her foot on the gas.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
None of that was an accident.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
This is a dui vehiculo homicide crash with intent.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
What I don't get, Kimberly.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's why dui crashes fatalities are not considered to be
murdered because there's so much intent.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
I agree with you.
Speaker 10 (09:56):
I absolutely wish that every single one of these cases
could be murder. In the state of South Carolina where
I am, we don't have that option. I am very
glad that the state of California, where this woman committed
this crime, has that option, because that's something we just
don't have. But everyone should be considered.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To Derek Smith joining me, high profile lawyer who has
handled plenty of moms, let me just say that are
not strangers to the criminal justice system. I remember your
last one where mommy went to Puerto Rico and left
her daughter to starve and a playpen. I don't know
how you do it, but you do do it, and
(10:48):
I'm sure a lot of people are grateful you do it,
not me but them. Derek Smith joining me, as I said,
high profile lawyer at d W Smith Legal dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Derek, how are you gonna explain away the boozy bath?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Mommy leaves the scene and goes.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Runs a hot bath. Nobody did that for her, strips
down and takes a bath.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, the baby is still out there hanging upside down
from a car seat in a canal.
Speaker 12 (11:20):
Those actions aren't necessarily the easiest to defend. Obviously, However,
we need to get into actually.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
How if you're not going to say that to the jury, Derek, Well, really,
how to explain what she did?
Speaker 4 (11:34):
But let me give it a stab.
Speaker 12 (11:38):
How the intoxication happened. Now you mentioned before, you know,
maybe somebody wasn't pouring booze down her throat.
Speaker 8 (11:44):
Maybe they were.
Speaker 12 (11:45):
Maybe something was slipped into her drink that we don't
know about.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Okay, wait his demeanor when he says she was force
fed alcohol? Okay, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Would you repeat that? Maybe she was force fed the
alcohol by who?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Her uncle?
Speaker 13 (11:57):
No, we don't know yet.
Speaker 12 (11:58):
It's still early in the investigation, isn't it. I mean,
there could have been a new medication that she was on.
There could have been some other factors that led into
her getting to that state that she was in prior
to operating the vehicle. Well, like I said, whether it's
new medication, whether something was in her drink, whether she
was involuntarily taking something she thought was something else that
caused this reaction chemically inside her body. And then the
(12:20):
second part, after the crash, was there some trauma, did
she sustain any injuries that maybe she had no idea
where she was after that crash happened. She didn't know
what was going on. That's the other possibility that we
don't know yet. That's why you kind of got to
get into these cases. I understand the frustration and the
just anger. Absolutely you shouldn't be drinking and driving. Absolutely
(12:41):
you should not be having a child in your car
after consuming alcohol and then driving. However, was she fully
understanding what was going on inside her body at that time?
Speaker 8 (12:52):
What do we know?
Speaker 12 (12:53):
Was there a toxicology report? Was there kind of blood
work done? Do we know what was actually happening inside
her when this was going on? And that's what we
need to find out.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
We do know that toxicology was run.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
It's a point one five. That's almost double the legal
limited point zero eight.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Now, hold on.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I love to interrupt you, but I held back because
I was taking notes. So furiously, let's just go down
your list. Okay, do you I mom force fed alcohol? Okay,
let me just scratch that off right right at the beginning. Okay,
Now here's something that the state better be ready for
a new medication. However, if it didn't show up in
(13:33):
the toxicology report, I can go ahead.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Scratch that off. Now you've got head trauma.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
You're brilliant, like dtor evil, brilliant trauma to the head.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
That might work.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
But was her head examined at the hospital, and if so,
and it wasn't injured. I must scratch that off. But
you've got two things going for you right now. You've
got a new medication argument and you've got trauma to
the head. I'm totally as I'm sure you understand Derek
Smith discounting that her uncle held her mouth open and
force fed her alcohol. I'm also discounting that he slipped
(14:08):
a Ruthie in her drink. Yeah, that's too far out there. Plus,
you can bring the uncle on the state will bring
on the uncle to rebut such a claim. But as
to new manage and trauma to the head, at least
you've got something to say to the jury. But as
a prosecutor, I would count how she left the scene
(14:29):
on her own, went to the bathroom, took off her clothes,
ran a bath.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Did she put calgan in at her bath? Salts?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I'm just curious anyway gets to the bath, did you
take a bit? And you know, I don't know because
every move she makes adds intent.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
For all I know, she clipped her toenails.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I don't know what happened in that bathtub, but I'm
going to find out, and when I do find out,
I'm going to make a big poster of everything she
did that shows she knew what she was doing, goes
straight to the bathroom, stops up the tub, turns on
the hot water, strips down. Yet sin that shows a
certain degree of coherence to me. That said, back to
(15:13):
the facts, something that will not raise my blood pressure
like Derek Smith is right now, what else do we
know about the night that four year old Reagan drowned
dead suspended from a car seat in mommy's car while
mommy was clipping her toenails in the bathtub.
Speaker 8 (15:31):
Listen, how zethus aknel and it is lossible that the
four year old.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
Is still later vehicle Juliet Acosta is already gone by
the time of Stanislaus County deputy arrives, but her daughter
has him been located. The deputy immediately jumps into the
water to see if the little girl is still inside
the vehicle and finds Reagan heron still buckled in her seat.
With help from Acosta's uncle, the men are able to
break the little girl free and bring her to the surface.
The deputy performs CPR as an ambulance arrives, so rush
(15:57):
the little girl to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
All of this occur wrying while mommy is letting Calgon
take her away. That from our friend CBS thirteen, Sacramento.
How could a beautiful, young first grade teacher be stabbed
twenty times, including in the back, allegedly die of suicide? Yes,
that was the medical examiner's official ruling after a closed
(16:21):
door meeting. He first named it a homicide. Why what
Happened to Ellen Greenberg? A huge American miscarriage of justice.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
For an in.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Depth look at the facts, see What Happened to Ellen?
On Amazon All proceeds to the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
A call for help goes out after a car swerves
into an irrigation canal near Modesto. Inside a four year
old girl trapped, but the driver the child's mother is missing.
After police find Juliet Acosta drunk and soaking in a baptize,
but her blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I don't know if I would call her missing so
much is having a drunken, boozy bath while her daughter
is submerged in water. Joining me an all Star panel,
but right now straight out to Ben Dobrin joining US
Emergency Response diving instructor. Wow, you've seen a lot I
(17:26):
know that, Ben, But I don't know how often you've
seen a child strapped in a car seat submerged in
water while.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Mommy flees the scene.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
She's not missing, she's out taking a bath, a nice
hot bath after all she's been.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Through, while the baby drowns.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Ben, explain to me how the EMTs race to the scene,
they see what's happening. They can't find the mom, the dad,
no adult. They jump in and try to save the child.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
You know when we see on TV.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
In movies, you can never unbuckle the car seat. They
always have to cut the seat belt. I always have
to cut the seat belt, and it's so hard underwater.
Just describe the nightmare scenario that these amts and divers
were going through.
Speaker 8 (18:18):
You're correct, it is a nightmare. Cars underwater are horrible.
And you know when you watch on TV, they always
do filming at a pool or in some very clear
water situation and then people have a mask on and
can see. So you've got dark water, you don't have
a mask on, you don't have it's dark. You're feeling
around and a car seat is hard enough and dry land.
(18:40):
I mean, if you've been a parent, you know that
getting a child in and out of a car seat
is always some sort of struggle. But then when you're
in the water, anything that is in your car, I
want you to go to your car this afternoon and
later today and just look around that anything is loose,
A box of kleenex, a soda can you, a coffee cup, whatever,
anything that's loose in a is could be floating around
(19:02):
and it's gonna be getting in your way and it's
gonna be bumping into you. And so now you've got
you know, you're in the water, it's dark, you're trying
to feel your way into the back seat, You're trying
to figure out where the buckles are. You've got clothing,
you've got a jacket, you have a blanket that's blocking.
It's just the word nightmare is very appropriate. That's the
(19:24):
situation that you're going into and you're working against the clock.
You're trying and we've all done this. We've all tried
to do things very very quickly or fast, and you
make mistakes. So you have to slow down to be
more effective. But you want to be moving as quickly
as possible to also be effective, and you know you're
(19:45):
racing against the clock. You're hoping you can get this
person out, this child out, you know, to do life
saving measures, and you're fighting against all of these hazards.
You're fighting against the dark water and nothing. I've read
that they were on scuba. It was, you know, people
just coming in and jumping up and down. So they're
doing this while holding their breath and trying to do
(20:06):
this and then having to go back up and then
breathe and breathe and breathe and go back down. Sticking
your head inside of a car, you know, is dangerous.
You can get stuck, and if you're doing it on
a breath hold, it's a horrible situation. In my hat
is off to any person that did that. They were
brave and they took control of the situation and they
were trying to save a life. And my hat is
(20:28):
truly off to those people that did that.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Now, I'm just trying to take in what you just said.
Ben Dobrin.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Dobrin Er, Emergency Response Diving instructor, instructor, trainer, police diver,
Emergency Services diver. You're right, it's actually easier if you're
equipped with a dive suit than to free dive, in
other words, without any air sustaining equipment. You can only
(20:55):
be in as under the water as long as you
can hold your breath and you're in the waters. My
understanding that the suz was upside down with the little
girl hanging suspended upside down from her seat belt. You
have to go in and you see the little girl
amidst what you just said, the box of Kleenex, the shoes,
(21:18):
the jacket, all the things that children travel with in
the car. It's all floating around, and then you see her.
But you can only stay under for so long. I mean,
how long then can you stay underwater without coming up
for air.
Speaker 8 (21:37):
You know, if you sit in a pool and hold
your breath and are really calm, you know you can
hold it for thirty seconds a minute. Whoever, that's not
the situation. They're diving down into a stressful situation. I
didn't know the car was upside down. Upside down is
a whole different ball game. So they're having to pull
themselves down to the window or to the door. You
burn up your air very quickly. If they could do
(21:57):
this for thirty seconds or forty five seconds out of time,
I'd be impressed. You know, your body is burning through
all that oxygen. Your body is saying you have to breathe,
you have to breathe, and you can't do it, and
they're burning it. They're under stressed. They're using their muscles,
they're physically pulling themselves down to look in that car.
The seat is not where you expected. An upside down car,
(22:18):
upside down anything, everything. Our brains are not wired to
handle things upside down, So their brains are trying to
look for a car seat and a car that's a normal,
you know, up upright. They were in a horrible situation
trying to do this, but they're burning through that. You know,
if you hold your breath you can't do it very
long sitting still. They weren't sitting still, and so it's
(22:41):
impressive that they did that.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Guys, what more do we know?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I can imagine the EMT's jumping in the water, and
the dead of night, the neighbor shows up screaming, where's
the little girl? Where's the little girl? Mommy is gone
taking a bath. It's beyond comprehension.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Listen to this.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I can't get it out of my head. So every
time I close my eyes, as all I can see
it's a little girl coming out of the water with.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Four year old Reagan heron in the back of an ambulance.
Deputies search for the mother, the driver of the car
at Juliet Acosta, even though her uncle lives nearby. A
Costa is found at a nearby residence, reportedly taking a
bath while her daughter is still missing.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
From CBS thirteen Sacramento. Nina Burns is joining me reporter
k VRCBS thirteen. They're in Sacramento, Nina, Uh, where is
the report coming from that cops found her taking a bath?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Still waiting for that answer.
Speaker 7 (23:41):
They told us if it was in the uncle's house
nearby resident. I mean this did hacken happen in Hickman,
which is only about fifteen minutes away.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
From her hometown Oakdale, So she could have had a friend.
We're not sure.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
The defense attorney in the DA neither of us are
exactly telling us where she was taking that bath, just
as she was taking a bath.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Also trying to figure out how deep the canal is,
Nana at that juncture, because it can be It can
be very deep twenty thirty feet deep at one spot
and less so at another spot.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
We understand the car was upside down? Is that correct.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
We have heard as well from the DA that the
car was not upright. Now I'm not sure if it
was exactly upside down on its side.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
We just know it was not upright.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
So Ben Dobrin, how would that add to the confusion
of the e mts of the cars upside down and
the child's hanging upside down?
Speaker 8 (24:33):
That add a lot of confusions. You know, your brain
is wired. We see things every day. We see cars upright,
we see people, you know, babies in car seats, and
a particular you know, orientation upside down changes everything. And
then in dark water, you know you're feeling around, We
naturally feel on the floor for the seat. We put
our hand on the floor and ride rub our hand
up to the seat. Once we're in the seat, and
(24:54):
then we're gonna be searching for the car seat. Once
we find the car seat, we're gonna be looking for
the buckles. That tation change and now I'm not searching
on the floor, I'm searching on the ceiling basically for
that car seat. And so it just changes everything. Your
mindset has to completely change. And one of the things,
you know, the cars, when cars go in the water,
you know, it depends on what type of car is
(25:15):
the Most cars have an engine in the front that
will sink first, depending on the type of car. You know,
car with a trunk, the trunk will float for a while,
and suv doesn't have a trunk, but you're going to
have an air bubble that will make it float for
a while, and then when it starts to settle, they
usually don't settle on all four tires. A lot of
times they will roll over just because of the orientation.
(25:36):
That motor goes down first, and then it'll just roll
onto its roof. That's a very common thing for cars
when they go in the water, depending on the depth
of the water. If the water shallow enough, you know,
shallower than the length of the car. Oftentimes when that
the motor will hit before while the back end is
still floating, so then it will just rest on the
(25:58):
four tires. But if it's deeper, very often they will
roll and like you just said, sometimes they'll roll on
the roof, but a lot of times they'll just roll
on their side, which makes it even more difficult because
now you're going down into a car and looking you
don't have access to both sides of the doors. You
only have the doors that are exposed on what is
now the top end. So I mean the orientation of
(26:20):
the car makes it, you know, an unknown is what
you're going to find. And so whether it's on its
roof or on its side, it makes it very difficult
for people coming in, especially if those people are free diving.
That just is an extreme situation.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I can't get it out of my head. So yeah,
the time you close my eyes, as all I can
see it's a little girl coming out of the water.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Our friends CBS thirteen.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Sacramented police responding to a vehicle submerged in a Modesto
area Canal are stunned to find a young girl trapped inside,
but no adult in sight. The child's mother, twenty six
year old Juliet Acosta, is later found intoxicated in a bathtub.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Amts desperately performed CPR on four year old girl Reagan
and then load her into an ambulance and race her
to the hospital.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
This is what happens.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Juliet Acosta is not at the accident, is seen when
deputies and rescue personnel arrive as her daughter is still
trapped in her car seat underwater. Acosta has gone to
a nearby home and reportedly when deputies arrive, she's taking
a bath. Acosta is arrested in charge with felony dui
when she's found to be nearly three times over the
legal blood alcohol limit. Her daughter, four year old Reagan Heron,
(27:35):
dies the next day at an area hospital. Acosta is
initially jailed in the felony dui charge and released on bond.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Moms plus children, plus car plus water the seminal case,
combining all of those into a deadly recipe.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
This good, my love. That is a lady.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You come on Onda and some guy, a gentleman, to
a red light with her car with her two kids
in it. It tookf and she got out of call
here at Ohio.
Speaker 6 (28:08):
In her call it I don't see your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I need to go along down here, Susan Smith. Her
name will live in infamy forever. There's so many, there
are almost two many to count. Of course, there's Ebony
Wilkerson can't have the conversation without throwing her in.
Speaker 14 (28:33):
Different video captures the moments a mini van drifts deeper
and deeper into the Atlantic off Daytona beach. Inside the van,
a pregnant mom and her three small children. Witnesses say
the vehicle was moving along the water's edge, then suddenly
plunged into the ocean. The children can be heard screaming,
help help us. By Standers rush toward the scene, pulling
(28:56):
two children out before realizing there is a baby in
her seat. The children tell police Mom tried to kill us.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
F f from our friends at ID Investigation, Discovery and
of course Diane Schuler.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I have a family here that thinks that they might
have a medical emergency of their sister. There's three kids
in the car.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
Five are trying to locate her.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
The girls just called in distressed.
Speaker 8 (29:18):
She said that the ants is driving very radically. We
think she's sick, and we're trying to.
Speaker 14 (29:24):
Locate the kids.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
She lives, the children die joining me.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
In addition to the guest you met so far, doctor
Angela Arnold, a renowned psychiatrist in the Atlanta jurisdiction at
Angela Arnold md dot com, Doctor Angie, thank you for
being with us. The mixture of Mom's cars alcohol, it
never goes away.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
It happens over and over and over. Dottr Angie, I.
Speaker 11 (29:48):
Know, I mean the people and every time we hear
a story like this, it's heart Riching. There is a
comment that I would like to make about the child
being wrapped in the car seat Nancy, who put the
child in the car seat? Because if that mother straps
the baby in the car seat, then she knew enough
(30:09):
to put the baby in the car seat, even in
her drunken state. So what made her forget about the
baby between the time she put the baby in the
car seat and she crashed the car. No one's talked
about that.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Joe Scott Morgan with me, death investigator, Professor Forensics Jacksonville
State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon
starvia Hitting You series Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan,
I would say you've probably performed over one thousand death
scene investigations. Could you explain what the child goes through
(31:00):
in a drowning? Many people believe drowning is the single
worst death possible, much less.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
For a four year old child. Joe Scott.
Speaker 13 (31:09):
Yeah, we're talking about a vehicle that has inverted, Nancy.
So it's on the roof. Just imagine, if you will,
You're laying on a table on your back and your
head is hanging off of it. Someone takes a picture
of water and pours it directly into your nostrils and
into your mouth. That's the position she would have been in, Nancy,
(31:29):
because water is going to seek the lowest point of
gravity in that vehicle. It's not like some movie where
you have this air bubble above the head and people
are kind of gasping for air up there as the
water rises. That's not going to be the case. And
one more thing about this. Do you remember you had
mentioned early on, I know you do, where she apparently
struck a utility pole prior to going in the canal.
(31:53):
That's going to compromise the structural integrity of the vehicle.
So now I don't know for a fact, but she
might have a gap in the car already when she
goes in. And when we talk about baby Reagan, here,
the thing about it is this, upon that initial impact,
that child, if she was asleep at that time, she
will be awakened with a jolt. She's going to start
(32:16):
shallow breathing already out of fear. And then when the
car goes into the canal and begins to invert, now
she's going to be tasked with trying to fight for
her life. While being strapped in and inverted as water
begins to fill the cabin. Now, I can tell you
this at autopsy. One of the things that we're going
(32:38):
to see with this child is that her lungs will
be heavier than normal. And here's something that people don't
think about as well. There would be water actually in
her stomach because she's going to be ingesting water. She's
gulping like this, just trying to do anything she can
to survive, and of course there's no way that she
(32:59):
can being in this compromise position.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
How long would she have lingered there? J Scott calling
out for her mother with the water coming up around her.
I mean I always think of Susan Smith's boys as
the water came up, people could I mean, they apparently
were screaming for their mother.
Speaker 13 (33:20):
Yeah, and those kids were strapped, they were upright. Remember
her car went down the ramp, she just kind of
let it glide down into that lake. It's not the
case with Reagan. This was a very violent event that happened,
and the car kind of twisted in the air and
in the water, and so it winds up this way.
I would estimate that it would not have been I
(33:43):
want to be very clear about this. She's not going
to immediately lose consciousness. And the reason I know that
is she's strapped in a car seat. So unless the
integrity of the vehicle is so compromised that she sustains
blunt force trauma and strikes her head, she's going to
be awake during this Nancy certain point when she begins
to lose consciousness. I'm thinking probably top end, maybe about
(34:06):
a minute to minute thirty seconds. Remember, her little lungs
don't have the same capacity as ours do.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
Expecting to arrest Juliet Acosta in Stanislaus County, the California
Highway Patrol tries to serve a nobail warrant for second
degree murder. A Coosta has been free on bail on
the DUI charge, and investigators don't find her in Stanislaus
County as expected. Chief Deputy District Attorney Wendall Emerson says
investigators apprehended a Costa at a San Francisco hotel as
she is trying to flee the area. A Costa's father,
(34:33):
in Clifford, Acosta Junior, is detained on suspicion of aiding
his daughter's flight. Acusta's attorney Gil Samara says his client
was not on the run.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Kyle, lawyer's got.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
A lot more to worry about than his client hold
up in a hotel with her dad on the run.
That from our friends at CBS thirteen is Sacramento. So
the lawyer is focusing on she was not attempting to flee.
That's completely false. Why would you say that? Okay, then
why she hold up in the hotel in a different city?
And then he focuses on another issue? Or is he
(35:04):
not focusing on the fact that four year old Reagan
is dead?
Speaker 4 (35:08):
But listen to this.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Julie had A Costa's attorney, Gil Samara deny she was
taking a bath after the accident, claiming the timeline is
almost impossible, telling the Independent quote time wise, you can't
go take a bath while your daughter's drowning.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
So I don't quite get it.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Derek Smith, you're the veteran trial lawyer, defense attorney. Why
is the attorney focusing on she didn't flee the same
she did not and I will convince a jury she
did not take a bath. Okay, what about driving drunk
and killing your daughter? Shouldn't that be his priority?
Speaker 8 (35:41):
Well?
Speaker 12 (35:41):
Yeah, but we're talking about, you know, intent and culpability here.
If you're running, if you're fleeing, you're alluding to the
point that you might have some kind of liability or
some criminal intents here. But if you're just going to
focus on the fact that, hey, you know, she wasn't
taking a bath, she wasn't fleeing, she wasn't a right
you can start to build a defense around intent, around
(36:03):
what her mental state was during the accident, during I
guess prior to drinking, while she was drinking, or other
circumstances around that. But if you can create some kind
of narrative within the public or within the prosecution, No,
she wasn't fleeing. She was just doing what she had
to do to kind of come to grips with the
(36:23):
fact that her daughter is gone, because that's the main tragedy.
Hear that she had a beautiful child that.
Speaker 8 (36:28):
Is not with us anymore.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Okay, So as they go to arrest her on a
nobel warrant on second degree murder, they find her slung
a hiding out at a San Francisco hotel. Okay, Bill Garcia,
how far would that be away from the canal crash?
If she's in a hotel in San Francisco.
Speaker 9 (36:48):
Yeah, this sence, it's right about one hundred miles, so
it's quite a significant distance.
Speaker 13 (36:53):
From the Oakdale area.
Speaker 9 (36:57):
And I'm not really sure why was that far from
her home.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
And what they want to put Please, I just have
to see Bill Garcia. Bill, you don't know why she
was hold up in a hotel?
Speaker 9 (37:10):
No, And that's a significant distance away from where she
lived and from where the incident occurred. So there has
to be some kind of reason why she was that
far away and why she was with me.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I mean, you're telling me you don't think you know
the reason. She leaves the scene where her daughter is
dying upside down in her suv in a canal as
the water slowly engulfs the little baby. Everybody else is
out there trying to save the baby while she's taking
a warm bath. And now, I mean, Bill, have you
(37:48):
ever heard this phrase when you don't know a horse,
look at her track record. When you don't know what
somebody's going to do, look at what they've already done.
She's already fled the scene with her daughter dying years old.
So you're telling me the straight face, you don't know
why she was snugged up in a hotel over an
hour away near a major airport.
Speaker 9 (38:09):
As an investigator, I do have my suspicions as to
why she was doing it.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And what only my stars man, I'm a JD, not
a DDS. I can't pulltate. Why please blurt it out.
Speaker 9 (38:21):
Well, she's trying to get away from the situation. And
whether she was trying to flee to a different region,
another country, we don't know. But all of these things
put together do show the intent that she was trying
to flee.
Speaker 6 (38:36):
The day Scott Peterson is arrested, he has dyed his
brown hair blonde and grown out of goatee. His Mercedes
is stuff with survival gear, camping gear, several changes of clothing,
two driver's license, his and his brothers, four cell phones,
fifteen Granny cash, and twelve Viagra pills.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Families trying to help their loved one. In that case,
it was Scott Peterson. He goes on the run, bleaches
his hair, U is a car in his mother's name,
and Mercedes as I recall with ten thousand dollars cash,
camping equipment, water filtration equipment, and a technical legal term
(39:12):
crap ton of viagra with fake IDs using his brothers.
I believe driver's license. But the family says, no, no,
he wasn't fleeing. He just wanted to go play a
round of golf and he didn't want the media to
follow him. He needs viagra for that family helping their
(39:32):
loved one. In this case, the father is found with
the so called duy moms. Juliet Acosta joining me, as
you know from CBS thirteen kov R Nina Burns, Nina,
what have you learned?
Speaker 4 (39:49):
You were in court yesterday? What did you learn?
Speaker 7 (39:51):
I did talk to Acosta's defense attorney, who told me,
for starters, the reason she was in San Francisco was
she was accompanying her father on business trip, his business.
She wanted to be a family, That's what she was there.
And he says his qualm with the DA then releasing
the stement that she was trying to flee, is that
he was informed the day before that she was going
(40:13):
to be charged with second degree murder. He told them
she would turn herself in at eight am on Friday.
They came in much earlier to San Francisco that Friday
and then arrested her.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Nina, I'm sure you've heard the name Sean Combs. He
was going to turn himself into but the fans arrested
him at a five star hotel for a reason.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
They thought he was going to flee.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
So I appreciate what the father is doing here, but
do you recall the two gorgeous Kansas moms that were
on their way to pick up children for a children's
birthday party as Veronica Butler and Jilly and Kelly. They
were brutally murdered over a custody issue by who family members?
(40:59):
What Emily won't do to save their loved one. Was
dad really on a business trip? Well, I'm sure we'll
find out. Nana Burns, where does the case stand now?
Speaker 7 (41:10):
It's started off with just a felony dui and then
she was arrested on second degree murder. Right now, the
DA off the record has some ideas and why they're
going to nail her for that. But the defense attorney
also says that you know, in his exact words for
Beatam is that the dui felony charge was already a
(41:30):
horrible felony charge. Adding a second degree murder charge doesn't
really change much.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
We wait as justice sun falls. Nancy Grace signing off
goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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