March 8, 2022 • 41 mins
24-year Alisha Canales-McGuire is babysitting for her sister when there is a 2 am knock at the door. Canales-McGuire is shot five times when she answers. The case is unsolved for nearly two years, when there is a break in the case. Police get a call about a teen bragging she had been hired to kill someone. A connection is made between Alexis Hale, 17, and Jerradon Phelps, 19. Phelps received a message from his cousin, Kevin Lewis. That message from Kevin Lewis, 34, asked Phelps is he would kill Lewis' ex-wife, Amanda Canales. Lewis expected his ex to be home, not knowing she was out of town on business. Canales-McGuire was watching her nieces and nephew.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Dante Pride - Sexual Assault Attorney, Founder: The Pride Law Firm, victimlawyer.com, Instagram: @thepridelawfirm
- Dr. Jorey Krawczyn - Psychologist, Faculty Saint Leo University; Consultant Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S.
- Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan"
- Ellen Dennis - Public Safety Reporter, The Daily Herald (Everett, Washington. heraldnet.com, Twitter: @reporterellen
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a gorgeous young woman gunned
down in her own home. Something was off about the investigation.
What happened to Alicia Michelle Canalis McGuire. I'm Nancy Grace.
(00:28):
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us
here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM one eleven. First
of all, take a listen to this. Detectives still have
the road closed out here, so we have not had
any access to where the shooting happened. In fact, you
can't even see the home from where we are. This
Nahomish County Medical Examiner unseen after a young woman was
(00:49):
shot and killed in a home near Everett. It was
around two o'clock this morning when people called nine one
to report gunshots fired in the thirty one hundred block
of York Road. When deputies arrived, they found a young
woman dead inside the doorway of a duplex. We all
just woke up and looked out the windows. Brandon Blevins
lives in the neighborhood and woke up to the gunshots.
His roommate called nine one one. They didn't see a
(01:11):
car drive off, but that could have been any card.
The Sheriff's office says three children and another woman were
also inside the home during the shooting. Detectives interviewed that woman,
but a sheriff spokeswoman says there were no eye witnesses
when the shots were fired. This time, we still don't
have a suspect identified. We're still following up on leeds.
L as I said, this is an active homicide investigation.
(01:34):
Throughout the morning, detectives waited for a search for it
to begin collecting evidence at the home, gunshots ringing out
in the middle of the night around two am. According
to our Francy at KOMO that you just heard the victim,
an unarmed young woman age twenty four, answers the door
seemingly and gets gunned down right there at the threshold
(01:57):
to the home. Why no one in the home sees
a thing with me? And I'll start panel to make
sense of what we know right now. First of all,
Dante Pride, attorney and founder of the Pride Law Firm.
You can find her at Victim Lawyer dot com. Doctor
Jerry Crossen, psychologist, faculty Saint Leo University, consultant and author
(02:20):
of Operations. Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville, State University,
author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and Star
for a brand new you hit series on iHeart Bodybags
with Joe Scott Morgan. But first I want to go
to Ellen Dennis, reporter with a Daily Harold and Everett. Ellen,
(02:42):
thank you for being with us. That's a very bizarre
set of facts because the person the victim, seemingly comes
to the door. You don't have a home invasion, you
don't have a burglary, you don't have anything stolen, you
don't have a sex assault. So the woman comes, so
the door is gunned down at the door. The victim
(03:04):
opened her door roughly around two am that morning, and
she was shot multiple times too. Dante Pride joining us
at turning out of San Diego and founder of the
Pride Law Firm. Dante again, thank you for being with us.
You know how many times have I argued to juries
(03:25):
nothing good happens after midnight. I mean, two am, somebody
knocks at your door. I'm not blaming the victim at all,
but two am, right, there should have been a tip
off that something is very wrong. Absolutely two am in
the morning for any you know, law abiding citizen at
the time. That would be absolutely insane to have someone
(03:46):
knocking your door, and I'm not sure that she didn't
feel that way when she answered the door. We don't know. Yeah,
we'll never know. Do we know, Ellen Dennis joining us
from the Daily Herald there in Everett. Do we know
how many times she was shot or anything about the
shooting at all? So dozens of people allegedly spoke with
(04:07):
detectives in the hours after the shooting. Neighbors testified in
court that they heard sound resembling a sledgehammer. One said
that they went to a man a window and saw
a man running. Wow, that's a lot of evidence right there.
From what I'm understanding to you, Justice Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics,
(04:30):
the victim was shot multiple times and that's telling me
a lot. Ah, she died instantly, but b what would
have been the motive? There was again, no home invasion,
no burglary, no rate, nothing was stolen that we know of.
You know, when you talk about an individual being shot
(04:50):
in multiple times, Nancy, that's an indication of one of
two things. Either the individual is making sure that the
subject is in fact deceased at that moment time, or
they're not very practiced at doing this sort of thing,
you know, like a professional killer. Say, for instance, if
it was some trained army marksmen, they might fire one
(05:12):
time to take the individual down, very sure of the
shot that they're taking. There's another big takeaway here, Nancy.
It's not like this is kind of randomized where she
shot out in the yard and there's a car driving by,
she came to the door. What does that indicate, Well,
there was perhaps a knock at the door, the doorbell rang,
she opened the door, So that gives you an indication
of proximity. And one more thing, we do know that
(05:35):
she was shot multiple times, five times, Joe Scott. I
found out five times, and so that's even a bigger
indicator of the fact of proximity. Nancy. That if you
can put five rounds on target on target, now five
of them, that means you're really really close or highly
highly skilled. I'm thinking you're really close. I mean, let's
(05:56):
talk about it. If you've got a handgun, how many
bullets are in the chamber Joe Scott, Well, it's going
to be depended upon the type of firearm. If it's
a revolver, probably only six. But if you're talking about
some semi automatic weapons you can have stacked in there.
You can have up to seventeen rounds, perhaps with one
in the chamber. Let's just go with six in the chamber,
(06:18):
and they shot five times and hit the target five times.
Obviously at close range, But if you're trying to figure
out if it was at close range, you would look
at the victim's body and you would look for, for instance,
gunshot residue. Was the gun less than thirty six inches
away from the body, which would That's how you find
(06:40):
gunshot residue. If you're further away, the residue doesn't hit
the clothing or the body. That's wide. Defendants often have
their hands tested for GSR gunshot residue. If they're the shooter,
they may very well have the residue on their hands.
You will look for burning stippling. What would you look
for to find out if she was shot at close range?
Joe Scott, Yeah, when one of the best examples I've
(07:01):
ever heard to give, Nancy, I got to have you
come over and teach for me. Sometimes the fact that
you'd like to use the water hose description, where you
know the further you are away, the more broad the
spray pattern is. As you approach to the target, it's
going to be tighter and tighter. So not only will
you have a defect or hole where the bullet actually enters,
but you will have a powder ring that surrounds and
(07:22):
the tighter that area is as far as the distribution
of the you know, as you put the gunpowder residue
or the unburned powder that's burned into the skin, or
perhaps the clothing, that's going to give you an indication
of range of fire. Once you get outside that, some
people will say from eighteen inches to thirty six inches,
it begins to kind of fall away because powder, it's
(07:43):
not like a bullet. It doesn't have any aerodynamic quality,
so it just kind of floats to the ground. Outside
of that, it's an indeterminate range. But I'm betting, I'm
betting you're going to find some kind of powder on
this young woman's body, guaranteed, kind of Jerry Crossen, joining
US psychologists on the faculty at Saint Leo University, and
author and consultant doctor Jory I, often refer to, for instance,
(08:07):
stabbing and strangling deaths as sweetheart murders, not that there's
any love lost between them. The victim and the killer.
But that year, it's an intimate killing in that you're
very close to the victim in proximity. A close range
shooting would have the same characteristics. You're in close range
(08:29):
to the victim. You're not taking a pot shot out
of the car window like the Miami serial killer. You
are up close and personal to your victim. And that's
a whole other type of psychopathy. The personality is different
from say a sniper. Yeah, close like this with a
(08:50):
firearm usually reveals, you know, somebody that wants to get
in quick and leave quick, you know, So it comes
down to time. They want to be ontar, do their
deed and get out of there, versus, like you said,
stabbing that's close and personal. That takes a little bit
more time. They get to see the effect of their
you know, their work that they've done with a knife.
(09:12):
We're shooting is just you know, you go five shots
and body massing, you're out of there. So it comes
out close. You would see the victim recoil, you would
see her in pain. You would see her crumple to
the ground. Some of these shots had to be while
she's already down on the ground, probably wearing her pj's
at home in the background. You've got children and a babysitter.
(09:35):
Take a listen to our cut two. This is Christian
jew Komo. Yeah, it just doesn't feel fair. It's hard
to imagine being in Amanda Lewis's situation. Her sister, Alicia
Canalis McGuire was murdered five months ago and no one
has been arrested. It's hard enough losing someone you know
we were so close to but not having justice for it.
(09:56):
And this person is just walking around like nothing ever
happened and living their life. That's hard to swallow. Alicia
was shot at Amanda's home near Everett. At the time,
Amanda was out of town for work, so her sister
was staying here to help the nanny with Amanda's three kids.
Deputies found Alicia's body near the front door after the
nanny called nine one one. I was just just a
(10:20):
really horrible time. Since the murder, detectives have not released
any information about a person of interest or suspect, and
the affidavit for a search warrant, a detective wrote there
was a lack of probable cause for a suspect in
this case. He said the violence associated with the murder
is disturbing, and that it appears to be a targeted attack.
(10:42):
Targeted attack that could mean a number of things. Who
was Alicia? Take a listen to our cut a one
our forensic ki Roo. Alicia is what I want people
to remember. I mean, she was an amazing sister, an
amazing friend who people amazing Auntie and twenty four year
(11:03):
old Alicia can Alis McGuire was a newlywed trying to
have a baby of her own when she was gunned
down in her sister's doorway. Alicia was babysitting her sister's
kids and her kind hearted, selfless sister who died doing
what she always did a favor, watching the nieces and nephew.
She adored Prime stories with Nancy Grace. There's something about
(11:36):
that dichotomy, doctor joy of a young girl, a newlywed
trying to start her own family just mowed down and
the prime of her life. That seeming innocence of starting
fresh and then being gunned down in this way makes
(11:58):
it even more poignant if you look at it as
a targeted then you start looking at her background. I
mean you see like a saint. You know all that
she was doing at the time in her life, and
you try to think what could possibly bring about a
target on this person. Now, according to Ellen Dennis, joining
Us reported with a Daily Harold in Everett, a neighbor
(12:21):
had video surveillance footage of a single male running away
from the murder scene. That is what one neighbor alleged
when talking to a lawn person official. Yeah, multiple neighbors
(12:41):
heard gunshots and saw somebody in a white tainktop a male.
I believe at this scene. You know, though Jess got Morgan.
We hear Ellen Dennis describing what was seeing what was
caught on video surveillance. But at that time of the night,
(13:02):
it's really going to be hard to get a good picture,
a face recognition picture of the shooter. They're running and
it's two am, Yeah, it would be, and I agree
with you, because it's going to be dark they're running away.
But here's what's kind of curious about this, Nancy, is
the fact that this individual, whoever they are, if this
is a suspect, they didn't even take time to put
(13:26):
dark clothing on or something that's going to obscure their face.
Because what I'm hearing Ellen say is that they were
wearing a white tank top. Well, if that's the case,
then you can assume that the head and the face
are not covered. So I think this goes to the
type of perpetrator that we're talking about, somebody that's probably careless,
maybe unplanned. I don't know if this was something sudden perhaps,
(13:48):
but it doesn't sound like that this is necessarily a
professional killer that's involved in the circumstance. Take a listen
to our cut A three Joanna Small's k R seven.
Isaiah is only three from keeper and keep barw she
did die. He shouldn't have to understand death, let alone murder,
but he does because Aunt Punky Alicia Canalis McGuire was
(14:09):
shot to death while he and his five and six
year old sisters were sleeping inside their Average home. It
was two am and she was shot in the doorway,
multiple gunshot wounds. Alicia had been watching the kids for
their mom, her sister, Amanda Canalis, who was away on
a business trip, and learned of her sister death from
their father over the phone. Yeah, that was a hard moment.
(14:33):
Ella Dennis joining me reporter with a daily Harold, did
you say that one of the neighbors said they heard
something like a sledge hammer. That is what one neighbor
told Man firstman ig you interesting, what would that have been,
Jessice Scott Morgan, if there were five gunshot wounds to
the victim, what would have sounded like a sledgehammer? Well,
(14:53):
you know, in the middle of the night like this,
when you have a firearm going off in a neighborhood,
you know, we have to contextualize this and saying think
about this is an area where other people live. You know,
these sounds like this, this report you're talking about perhaps
something that is breaking the sound barrier. If a weaponist
(15:14):
discharged and it is going to be loud, and then
it's a it's a succession of these. If you're pulling
the trigger multiple times, you're going to have this kind
of concussive event that's going to go out of sending
out sound waves, it's going to come off sounding like
someone hitting on a piece of ten with a sledgehammer.
More than likely not on a piece of wood that
would be blunted, but there'll be a sharp crack like that,
(15:37):
and so it's going to get your attention, even if
you're asleep. Just think if you're living next to order
these folks and you're jolted out of bed by the sound,
and not just one, not two, not three, not four,
but five times. It's going to sound like the end
of the world. It's coming visiting at your doorstep. You know,
I was just looking at the timing of this. The
murder victim, Alicia was married I July two seventeen. She
(16:01):
was killed in September twenty seventeen. She truly was a
newly wed to Dante Pride, joining us from the Pride
Law firm. A newly wed who in the world would
have a vendetta, I guess to young girl that had
only been married a couple of months, right, Nancy. I
mean that's something to think about, and I would think
(16:25):
from the police's perspective, they have to start thinking about
jolta decks lovers. Yeah, you have to. And isn't it true,
Dante Pride, You're absolutely correct that investigations typically start close
to the family. Like you look at the boyfriend, you
look at the husband, and you look at the neighbor.
You start moving out. Then you start looking at the
(16:46):
ex boyfriend and the guy that delivers the pizza and
the grocery store clerk. So that's where you would look first,
but it's kind of hard for me to believe they've
only been married about three months and suddenly it's escalated
to a murder scenario, right, So that's why I would
think it's someone from the past and by like a
current husband that because you know they're still on the high,
(17:08):
they're still louy wed and she's only twenty four how
much of a pass because she have? That leads me,
Dante to look at Everette, the county seat and the
largest city in Snahomash County, Washington. The population is about
one hundred thousand. That's still a relatively small town. And
(17:28):
I know I came from an area that wasn't even incorporated,
it wasn't any city at all, So that really narrows
your suspect pool, Dante absolutely. And I think the way
the crime occurred also narrows your suspect pool, right, because
this isn't a random crime that someone got shot with
(17:48):
a straight bullet. This is five bullets that were put
on target on purpose, and so we know that they
targeted this person and so there has to be some
connection in some story, and I think that's where the
police need to look in order to figure out and
unravel this thing. Straight back to Ellen Dennis joining us
a reporter with the Daily Herald and Everett where this occurred.
(18:10):
I heard you mentioned earlier than in some of the
law enforcement filings it said there was no PC probable
cause to issue a warrant at this time. Didn't you
say that, Ellen Dennis? That is correct. So, Dante Pride,
when you hear police admit they don't have PC probable
cause to issue a warrant, you know they've hit a
(18:32):
dead end. Absolutely. I mean, probable cause is the lowest
level standard that we have in our legal system. It's
just really a suspicion. Right, Probable cause breaks down to
basically a suspicion, I think, and then fill in the blank.
I think we should perform the search because and then
you give a few facts and you have probable cause,
and a judge typically will sign it. That's the law
(18:55):
under the constitution. Yes, no, Dante, absolutely so. Right now
we have got the cops at a dead end. No answers,
no leads. They admit themselves there is no PC for
an arrest or even a search warrant. They got nothing,
(19:15):
and then out of the blue, a crack in the case.
Take a listen to reporter Natalie Swabi King five News
Patrol perceived a phone call from somebody in the Spokane
area who said she had been at a social gathering
and a young woman there claimed that she had been
hired to kill someone in Snhamas County. The young female
(19:38):
would have been sixteen at the time of the crime,
and the difficult thing for detectives as she went by
different aliases on social media. Now, wait a minute, that
had a lot of information, Jackie, Could you play that
again please. Patrol perceived a phone call from somebody in
the Spokane area who said she had been at a
social gathering and a young woman there claimed that she
(20:00):
had been hired to kill someone in Snahomas County. The
young female would have been sixteen at the time of
the crime, and the difficult thing for detectives as she
went by different aliases on social media, different aliases on
social media bragging that she had been hired to kill
someone and Snahomash County. To you, Ellen Dennis, where is
(20:23):
Spokane as it relates to Snahomash County? Well can? I
would estimate is roughly four hours by car. It is
located in Eastern Washington. So it is definitely a cartrid.
So what do you make of this, Jessica Morgane got
a little girl sixteen years old bragging that she's a
hit person at a party. When you said not professional,
(20:46):
you were right about that. But a sixteen year old
girl a hit man. Plus according to the witness, it
was a man that ran away. Yeah. Yeah, And you
think about this, and cons can't even keep their mouth
shut in prison many times they snitch each other out.
Now you've got an individual who is at this age
(21:08):
they've got you talk about. You think about cons and
the networking prison. You're thinking about a sixteen year old
who has access to social media and she's going out
and blastemous information at parties. Of course it's going to
get out. My question is what would be your motivation
for throwing this out there? Is it to improve your
(21:29):
social status? Is it to make people fear with her?
She's a hired hit girl? Okay, Doctor Jordy Crossing. Why
can't people keep their yapp shut? And why would you
brag about something like that if it were true? Well,
you got to look at the social media. All of
this is anonymity, okay, And you can look at the personality,
(21:51):
how it develops in morphs within that anonymity they're hiding.
So you know, even hearing that, they're going to be
questions as well, is this valid? You know? How reliable
is this? Is this just something you think about it?
Doctor Jory. A teen girl barely sixteen, four hours away
in Spokane bragging at a party, probably after she had
(22:15):
a couple of drinks or a big fat dubie that
she's a hit girl. It doesn't it doesn't really fit
with reality. You think about a sixteen year old doing this,
But I mean it's still a lead that you know,
it's got to be followed, it's got to be run out.
Just think about it. A sixteen year old girl bragging,
(22:37):
probably drunkenly at a party that four hours away. She
was responsible for a hit on an innocent newly wed,
a young bride sixteen years old, but they can't find
her because she has so many aliases on social media.
Jessica Morgan explain what that means. Well, you know, you
(22:59):
have individuals and there and they bury themselves. I can't
tell you how many times I get friend requests and
all kinds of people that are from all over the world.
You can tell it, and you don't know who they are,
so they're kind of hiding behind this digital curtain. But
this is the key. If this sixteen year old girl
turns out to be a person of interest in this case,
remember my reference to cons earlier in prison, they have
(23:20):
a certain level of sophistication. If they can track down
who she is, they can apply a certain amount of
pressure to her. And trust me, Nancy, she's going to
roll over. When they start talking about things like a
life imprisonment that you brought about the death of somebody,
she's going to give something up. Remember we're not looking
for a sixteen year old girl in this case, per
the description earlier. We're talking about possibly an adult male
(23:44):
that's running away from the house. That's going to be significant.
If you pull the thread on that, she's going to
come apart. And of course, Dante Pride, you can't threaten
or if you ever do find her, she's like a
needle in a haystack with a death penalty, because the
US Supreme Court affirmed recently that anyone under eighteen cannot
(24:05):
get the death penalty in the United States, no matter
how many people they killed, including like school shooters, nor
can they get elwa life without parole. So that's not
anything you could ever hang over her head if you
found her right, that's true, and I think it's it's
the right decision by the legislature. I mean, children make
(24:25):
a lot of poor decisions, and we know in this instance,
this young lady made a poor decision. But we know
because of her age, she was likely influenced by someone
who was older. I mean, that's just how it goes. Well,
you know what, I don't know if mass shootings in
schools are a quote poor decision, but that said, it
(24:46):
is the law of the land. Now. Well, it took
months and months to unravel. She went by different aliases
on social media that took months to unravel. But once
they were able to identify who she was, they discovered
that she was the ex girlfriend of Kevin's cousin. The
(25:07):
ex girlfriend of Kevin's cousin. Hold on, let me digest
what I'm just hearing. The ex sixteen year old girl
is the ex girlfriend of Kevin's cousin. And Ellen Dennis
(25:28):
joining us in the Daily Harold and Everett, who is Kevin?
Kevin Lewis is a man who resided in Sahomish County
at the time of the shooting. He was formerly the
partner of the victim sister. Kevin Lewis, thirty four year old,
(25:53):
is the ex husband of the murder victims sister. Okay,
let that so ken, the sixteen year old girl probably
drunk at a party bragging that she's a hit man
four hours away is the ex girlfriend Wait, I need
a family's tree here the ex girlfriend of the cousin
(26:17):
of the murder victims sisters husband. Okay, whoa is anybody
beside me getting clarity? Take a listen to our cut
four Komo. The accused seventeen year old girl in this
case told a couple of friends in Spokane that she
(26:40):
had killed someone here in Snohomish County. It turns out
those girls contacted investigators here and that ultimately led to
these arrests. Alicia Cannellis McGuire was a caregiver of a
loved sister and aunt and a newly wed. She was
the girl who said I love you every time she
said goodbye, but nobody expected her life to be cut
(27:02):
short at just twenty four years old. It's hard enough
losing someone you know we were so close to but
not having justice for it. But justice could come after
all a year and a half after her murder. Alicia
was Amanda Lewis's sister and now listen to our cut
five Komo. Three people have been arrested in the suspected
(27:25):
murder for hire. Prosecutors say twenty year old Jared and Phelps,
a cousin of Kevin's, and a seventeen year old girl
from Spokane had been hired by the thirty one year
old to kill his wife, but that night, Amanda's sister, Alicia,
who was babysitting her kids, answered the door and took
the fatal bullet. I was just a really horrible time.
(27:47):
Amanda and Kevin had been married for eight years and
have three children. Kevin is currently serving three years in
prison for assaulting his ex wife. Court records say the
seventeen year old girl claims she and Pumps were promised
ten thousand dollars for the killing. Court documents say cell
phone records and social media posts revealed trails of evidence
(28:08):
that led to all three arrests, and all three are
facing different levels of first degree murder. Kevin Lewis will
be back in court. Tomorrow so his bond can be set.
Phelps bond has been set at five million dollars. Let
me understand something. The father of three, Kevin Lewis, age
(28:28):
thirty four, pays two teenagers to go kill his ex wife.
They go to the door and they shoot the woman
that comes to the door in pj's in a case
of murderous mistaken identity. They gunned down her little sister
(28:51):
who was babysitting that night. Is that what is being alleged,
Ellen Dennis? That is correct. Levin Lewis, the ex husband,
had made threats to his former wife the target, and
he was actually in sharving a sentence in prison at
the time for assaulting her. Take a listen to our
(29:14):
cut seven. This is Natalie Swaby Kingthonnews. With search warrants,
investigators obtained phone records. Both of the suspects phones were
in the same location at the same time, traveling across
the state to western Washington. They actually met up with
Kevin and he took them to the house where they
were supposed to commit the crime. Detectives say social media
(29:34):
also provided a trail of evidence, including a picture from
the male suspect allegedly posted a snapchat that showed hundred
dollar bills fanned out a few hours after the murder.
Sixteen year old young woman. The eighteen year old Mail
had been paid by Kevin, had been hired to come
out from Spokane to Sahamash County to essentially murder Kevin's
(29:59):
ex wife, and then they drove back. The murder for
higher case is the reason three suspects are now encusted,
at least to give them some answers as to what
happened exactly and frankly, some justice. These suspects, Jared and Phelps,
age eighteen, the alleged shooter, and that is Kevin Lewis,
(30:19):
the husband's cousin. Jared and Phelps, age eighteen. Then you've
got Alexis Hall, sixteen years old. That's Phelps's girlfriend, the
one apparently bragging at the party that she was a
hit person. So Dante Pride joining me, high profile lawyer
(30:41):
out of San Diego. You can find him at the
Pride Law Firm. Dante Pride. I just love it when
I can get pings and I can actually track two
suspects phones together in the same car traveling the four
hours from Spokane to Snahomash County, right to the doorstep
(31:05):
of the dead victim. And then to top it all off,
they shoot the wrong person. I mean, why else would
they travel all the way from Spokane to Snahomash County together,
They don't know anybody there, and she's bragging about it
at a party. You know, the old World War two
(31:25):
slogan started in brit with the Brits loose lips sink ships.
True awards were never spoken, Dante Pride, True awards were
never spoken, And from attorney's perspective, was very difficult when
you're climbed to the one who spoke the words, and
then they have evidence showing that you go four hours
outside of your normal area the one night when the
(31:47):
murder occurs, and then never do that again. So uphill
battle for any attorney miss case for these people. Jessica Morgan,
please outline what we know about the electronic trade all
these two left behind themselves. Yeah, you know, reflectively, it's
it is almost like a fairy tale where someone's leaving
(32:07):
breadcrumbs and that's the beauty of the world that we
live in now. From a from a forensic standpoint, so
every when, not only do they have one cell phone, Nancy,
they've got two. They're traveling in tandem. And you're going
to a location that, as was spoken of just a
moment ago, that is not familiar to you, or it's
not your common, common locale that you're going to inhabit,
(32:30):
you know, when you're moving around with your cell phone,
say in home, like these individuals back and Spokane. It's
in the eastern part of the state. You can get
hits all over there, and it's gonna if you look
at it on a dot graph, it's gonna be highly concentrated.
But all of a sudden, you've got this, You've got
this thin line that's kind of in tandem, where these
two dots going down the road. And as a reporter
(32:51):
mentioned earlier, this is a four hour drive, Nancy, And
so these little dots are a company. Every time they're
hitting a cell tower, every time it's bouncing off, they're
given an occasion this trail. And to our attorney's point,
this is a nightmare. This is a nightmare to try
to defeat this in court. And then when they show up,
they're going to show up at the precise location. These
(33:11):
two people are in the car together, not to mention
the ex husband who are in proximity. How can you
explain that away? Yeah, they meet up with the ex
husband for what one thirty am chat. Yeah, this is
what happens when you hire teenagers to commit a murder
and as not the first time. Take a listen to
(33:47):
crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This is what happens when
you hire teenagers to commit a murder and as not
the first time. Take a listen to our cut twenty.
This is Tammy Matuza Komo. When another pars attained to
(34:09):
commit murder, well, you know what happens. Everything goes wrong.
Court documents paint a deliberate and disturbing murder for higher scheme.
Bellevue police say Sharon Kelly hired a seventeen year old
boy to murder her ex husband, Baron Lee, and offered
to pay the teenager thirteen thousand dollars something like this
is rare, It is rare. On the day of the
(34:30):
shooting in July, police say, the seventeen year old got
his friend to drive him to the overlook at Lakemont
Apartments in Bellevue, where court documents say he was going
to cap someone and empty the clip. Police say the
seventeen year old gunman ambushed Lee, shooting him nine times.
The victim fell to the ground, the suspects stood over
him and continued to fire. According to court documents, Lee
(34:53):
said he couldn't think of anyone who would want to
kill him besides his ex wife, saying they were in
the midst of a very acrimonious custom battle that also
included a financial motive for Kelly to sole custody of
their child. We know that children were involved in the
current case, and in that case, you got the teen
boys standing over the victim shooting him as he is prone,
(35:16):
and the victim still lives and can identify the teen
hit man. So I don't get it, doctor Jory. Why
would you hire a teen, much less two teams to
commit a murder? Well, they could be several reasons. One
(35:36):
that they can get away with it basically with a
light sentence that are going to face a death penalty,
but they're going to implicate you. You think you can't
crack a sixteen year old girl for Pete's sake. Yeah,
but a lot of times they don't think that far
down the road, Okay, The anger, the aggression, the hatred,
the rage really puts a tunnel vision on their cognitive process.
(35:58):
They want to eliminate this person. This seems to be
an easy way out, a quick way, maybe even an
inexpensive I mean twenty four hundred dollars. I mean you
can't even get decent home repair at that cost to you.
Dante Pride, high profile lawyer out of San Diego at
the Probably Law firm here is the kicker. And I
think doctor Jordy mentioned it. We see a lot in
(36:21):
dope cases where the doper will hand the cry, the
myth or whatever to a juvenile and then stand or
place himself obscured, maybe in a car, around a bush
or corner, and watch the team sell dope. Because the
team will only get six weeks in GeV jail. An
(36:44):
adult could go down for life if he's a third
time offender. So a lot of times you see criminals
specifically picking teams to do the deed, but in this case,
the teams will definitely rat out the Every time I
mean crimes, when there are more than one individual who
(37:07):
perpetrated the crime, they tell on each other. So these
criminals don't have the forethought. As one of our other
talents that has said they're not thinking at all, and
it's clear. And if this is correct, doctor Jory, he
agreed to have his wife gunned down at the doorway
(37:29):
with his three children asleep in the next room. What
does that tell you, doctor Jory? Very cold blood. There's
a lot of hatred, a lot of anger. He hasn't
been getting his way. This seemed like his only recourse
out of it, not thinking down the road of what
it would do to the children finding the mother there
(37:51):
as if the cell phone trail wasn't enough. Take a
listen to our cut seven. This is Jackie Howard a
crime online. The two hired to kill Amanda Canala were
teenagers at the time, eighteen year old Jaredin Phelps and
his then girlfriend, sixteen year old Alexis Hale. The pair
drove to the Canalis home around two am and knocked
on the door. Amanda Canalis was in New York on
(38:13):
business and her sister was babysitting Canalis's three children. When
Alicia Canalis McGuire opened the front door, she was shot
five times. The pair was reportedly paid twenty four hundred
dollars for the hit. That payment showed up in photos
on Jaredin Phelps social media, as both teenagers bragged about
what they had done. He captioned the photos with effing
(38:36):
never guess what I did for this check. Alexis Hale,
on the other hand, told several acquaintances that she had
been hired to kill someone. Phelps reportedly used the money
to buy Timberland boots, of Ferragamo belt buckle, and several tattoos.
The mastermind behind the hit Amanda Canalis's ex husband. He
hired his cousin Phelps to get his ex wife out
(38:58):
of the way. What a bunch oft they post online?
Guess what I did to get this f and paycheck
and post one hundred dollars bills? Really well, I wanted
to take a listen to this. This is what it
all boils down to. Our cut A two K Lewis
is already serving prison time for attacking Amanda after she
(39:21):
ended their marriage. Initially, I wasn't going to do any
interviews at this point, but then a couple of people
actually reached out to me about how my experiences have
impacted them, and so I thought it was important to share.
Amanda says her rex husband wasn't initially physically abusive, but
she says he was controlling and emotionally abusive. So I
(39:44):
think it's important for people to be aware and recognize
red flags. And if I had maybe recognized that earlier on,
my sister might still be here. When Amanda says Lewis
was physically abusive, attacking her outside her Lynwood home, and
I should have moved at that point because it was
the same house where he had someone show up to
(40:06):
murder me and ended up killing my sister. In the end,
it takes a jury about three and a half hours
to convict Kevin Lewis first degree murder. How does the
story end? Take a Listen to our friend Dave mack
a crime online. It took a jury less than three
(40:26):
and a half hours to convict Kevin Lewis of aggravated
first degree murder and a murder for hire that left
the target sister dead. The jury of seven women and
five men spent nearly six weeks in Snohomas County Superior
Court absorbing testimony about the killing of twenty four year
old Alicia Canalis McGuire. Jared On Phelps pleaded guilty and
testified against Lewis at trial, claiming he only knew the
(40:47):
address he was supposed to target, not the name of
the woman he was supposed to kill. Phelps and his
friend Alex Hale drove from Spokane to Snahomas County, where
Lewis directed them to the home of his ex wife.
Hale pleaded guilty to her heart and was sentenced to
fifteen years. Phelps got thirty one and a half years,
and Lewis sentenced to life without parole. Is it the
(41:08):
end of the story? I say no, because the children
in the home that night, well forever, how this ingrained
in their minds. Nancy Grace Crimes Stories, signing off goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a gorgeous young woman gunned
down in her own home. Something was off about the investigation.
What happened to Alicia Michelle Canalis McGuire. I'm Nancy Grace.
(00:28):
This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us
here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM one eleven. First
of all, take a listen to this. Detectives still have
the road closed out here, so we have not had
any access to where the shooting happened. In fact, you
can't even see the home from where we are. This
Nahomish County Medical Examiner unseen after a young woman was
(00:49):
shot and killed in a home near Everett. It was
around two o'clock this morning when people called nine one
to report gunshots fired in the thirty one hundred block
of York Road. When deputies arrived, they found a young
woman dead inside the doorway of a duplex. We all
just woke up and looked out the windows. Brandon Blevins
lives in the neighborhood and woke up to the gunshots.
His roommate called nine one one. They didn't see a
(01:11):
car drive off, but that could have been any card.
The Sheriff's office says three children and another woman were
also inside the home during the shooting. Detectives interviewed that woman,
but a sheriff spokeswoman says there were no eye witnesses
when the shots were fired. This time, we still don't
have a suspect identified. We're still following up on leeds.
L as I said, this is an active homicide investigation.
(01:34):
Throughout the morning, detectives waited for a search for it
to begin collecting evidence at the home, gunshots ringing out
in the middle of the night around two am. According
to our Francy at KOMO that you just heard the victim,
an unarmed young woman age twenty four, answers the door
seemingly and gets gunned down right there at the threshold
(01:57):
to the home. Why no one in the home sees
a thing with me? And I'll start panel to make
sense of what we know right now. First of all,
Dante Pride, attorney and founder of the Pride Law Firm.
You can find her at Victim Lawyer dot com. Doctor
Jerry Crossen, psychologist, faculty Saint Leo University, consultant and author
(02:20):
of Operations. Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville, State University,
author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and Star
for a brand new you hit series on iHeart Bodybags
with Joe Scott Morgan. But first I want to go
to Ellen Dennis, reporter with a Daily Harold and Everett. Ellen,
(02:42):
thank you for being with us. That's a very bizarre
set of facts because the person the victim, seemingly comes
to the door. You don't have a home invasion, you
don't have a burglary, you don't have anything stolen, you
don't have a sex assault. So the woman comes, so
the door is gunned down at the door. The victim
(03:04):
opened her door roughly around two am that morning, and
she was shot multiple times too. Dante Pride joining us
at turning out of San Diego and founder of the
Pride Law Firm. Dante again, thank you for being with us.
You know how many times have I argued to juries
(03:25):
nothing good happens after midnight. I mean, two am, somebody
knocks at your door. I'm not blaming the victim at all,
but two am, right, there should have been a tip
off that something is very wrong. Absolutely two am in
the morning for any you know, law abiding citizen at
the time. That would be absolutely insane to have someone
(03:46):
knocking your door, and I'm not sure that she didn't
feel that way when she answered the door. We don't know. Yeah,
we'll never know. Do we know, Ellen Dennis joining us
from the Daily Herald there in Everett. Do we know
how many times she was shot or anything about the
shooting at all? So dozens of people allegedly spoke with
(04:07):
detectives in the hours after the shooting. Neighbors testified in
court that they heard sound resembling a sledgehammer. One said
that they went to a man a window and saw
a man running. Wow, that's a lot of evidence right there.
From what I'm understanding to you, Justice Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics,
(04:30):
the victim was shot multiple times and that's telling me
a lot. Ah, she died instantly, but b what would
have been the motive? There was again, no home invasion,
no burglary, no rate, nothing was stolen that we know of.
You know, when you talk about an individual being shot
(04:50):
in multiple times, Nancy, that's an indication of one of
two things. Either the individual is making sure that the
subject is in fact deceased at that moment time, or
they're not very practiced at doing this sort of thing,
you know, like a professional killer. Say, for instance, if
it was some trained army marksmen, they might fire one
(05:12):
time to take the individual down, very sure of the
shot that they're taking. There's another big takeaway here, Nancy.
It's not like this is kind of randomized where she
shot out in the yard and there's a car driving by,
she came to the door. What does that indicate, Well,
there was perhaps a knock at the door, the doorbell rang,
she opened the door, So that gives you an indication
of proximity. And one more thing, we do know that
(05:35):
she was shot multiple times, five times, Joe Scott. I
found out five times, and so that's even a bigger
indicator of the fact of proximity. Nancy. That if you
can put five rounds on target on target, now five
of them, that means you're really really close or highly
highly skilled. I'm thinking you're really close. I mean, let's
(05:56):
talk about it. If you've got a handgun, how many
bullets are in the chamber Joe Scott, Well, it's going
to be depended upon the type of firearm. If it's
a revolver, probably only six. But if you're talking about
some semi automatic weapons you can have stacked in there.
You can have up to seventeen rounds, perhaps with one
in the chamber. Let's just go with six in the chamber,
(06:18):
and they shot five times and hit the target five times.
Obviously at close range, But if you're trying to figure
out if it was at close range, you would look
at the victim's body and you would look for, for instance,
gunshot residue. Was the gun less than thirty six inches
away from the body, which would That's how you find
(06:40):
gunshot residue. If you're further away, the residue doesn't hit
the clothing or the body. That's wide. Defendants often have
their hands tested for GSR gunshot residue. If they're the shooter,
they may very well have the residue on their hands.
You will look for burning stippling. What would you look
for to find out if she was shot at close range?
Joe Scott, Yeah, when one of the best examples I've
(07:01):
ever heard to give, Nancy, I got to have you
come over and teach for me. Sometimes the fact that
you'd like to use the water hose description, where you
know the further you are away, the more broad the
spray pattern is. As you approach to the target, it's
going to be tighter and tighter. So not only will
you have a defect or hole where the bullet actually enters,
but you will have a powder ring that surrounds and
(07:22):
the tighter that area is as far as the distribution
of the you know, as you put the gunpowder residue
or the unburned powder that's burned into the skin, or
perhaps the clothing, that's going to give you an indication
of range of fire. Once you get outside that, some
people will say from eighteen inches to thirty six inches,
it begins to kind of fall away because powder, it's
(07:43):
not like a bullet. It doesn't have any aerodynamic quality,
so it just kind of floats to the ground. Outside
of that, it's an indeterminate range. But I'm betting, I'm
betting you're going to find some kind of powder on
this young woman's body, guaranteed, kind of Jerry Crossen, joining
US psychologists on the faculty at Saint Leo University, and
author and consultant doctor Jory I, often refer to, for instance,
(08:07):
stabbing and strangling deaths as sweetheart murders, not that there's
any love lost between them. The victim and the killer.
But that year, it's an intimate killing in that you're
very close to the victim in proximity. A close range
shooting would have the same characteristics. You're in close range
(08:29):
to the victim. You're not taking a pot shot out
of the car window like the Miami serial killer. You
are up close and personal to your victim. And that's
a whole other type of psychopathy. The personality is different
from say a sniper. Yeah, close like this with a
(08:50):
firearm usually reveals, you know, somebody that wants to get
in quick and leave quick, you know, So it comes
down to time. They want to be ontar, do their
deed and get out of there, versus, like you said,
stabbing that's close and personal. That takes a little bit
more time. They get to see the effect of their
you know, their work that they've done with a knife.
(09:12):
We're shooting is just you know, you go five shots
and body massing, you're out of there. So it comes
out close. You would see the victim recoil, you would
see her in pain. You would see her crumple to
the ground. Some of these shots had to be while
she's already down on the ground, probably wearing her pj's
at home in the background. You've got children and a babysitter.
(09:35):
Take a listen to our cut two. This is Christian
jew Komo. Yeah, it just doesn't feel fair. It's hard
to imagine being in Amanda Lewis's situation. Her sister, Alicia
Canalis McGuire was murdered five months ago and no one
has been arrested. It's hard enough losing someone you know
we were so close to but not having justice for it.
(09:56):
And this person is just walking around like nothing ever
happened and living their life. That's hard to swallow. Alicia
was shot at Amanda's home near Everett. At the time,
Amanda was out of town for work, so her sister
was staying here to help the nanny with Amanda's three kids.
Deputies found Alicia's body near the front door after the
nanny called nine one one. I was just just a
(10:20):
really horrible time. Since the murder, detectives have not released
any information about a person of interest or suspect, and
the affidavit for a search warrant, a detective wrote there
was a lack of probable cause for a suspect in
this case. He said the violence associated with the murder
is disturbing, and that it appears to be a targeted attack.
(10:42):
Targeted attack that could mean a number of things. Who
was Alicia? Take a listen to our cut a one
our forensic ki Roo. Alicia is what I want people
to remember. I mean, she was an amazing sister, an
amazing friend who people amazing Auntie and twenty four year
(11:03):
old Alicia can Alis McGuire was a newlywed trying to
have a baby of her own when she was gunned
down in her sister's doorway. Alicia was babysitting her sister's
kids and her kind hearted, selfless sister who died doing
what she always did a favor, watching the nieces and nephew.
She adored Prime stories with Nancy Grace. There's something about
(11:36):
that dichotomy, doctor joy of a young girl, a newlywed
trying to start her own family just mowed down and
the prime of her life. That seeming innocence of starting
fresh and then being gunned down in this way makes
(11:58):
it even more poignant if you look at it as
a targeted then you start looking at her background. I
mean you see like a saint. You know all that
she was doing at the time in her life, and
you try to think what could possibly bring about a
target on this person. Now, according to Ellen Dennis, joining
Us reported with a Daily Harold in Everett, a neighbor
(12:21):
had video surveillance footage of a single male running away
from the murder scene. That is what one neighbor alleged
when talking to a lawn person official. Yeah, multiple neighbors
(12:41):
heard gunshots and saw somebody in a white tainktop a male.
I believe at this scene. You know, though Jess got Morgan.
We hear Ellen Dennis describing what was seeing what was
caught on video surveillance. But at that time of the night,
(13:02):
it's really going to be hard to get a good picture,
a face recognition picture of the shooter. They're running and
it's two am, Yeah, it would be, and I agree
with you, because it's going to be dark they're running away.
But here's what's kind of curious about this, Nancy, is
the fact that this individual, whoever they are, if this
is a suspect, they didn't even take time to put
(13:26):
dark clothing on or something that's going to obscure their face.
Because what I'm hearing Ellen say is that they were
wearing a white tank top. Well, if that's the case,
then you can assume that the head and the face
are not covered. So I think this goes to the
type of perpetrator that we're talking about, somebody that's probably careless,
maybe unplanned. I don't know if this was something sudden perhaps,
(13:48):
but it doesn't sound like that this is necessarily a
professional killer that's involved in the circumstance. Take a listen
to our cut A three Joanna Small's k R seven.
Isaiah is only three from keeper and keep barw she
did die. He shouldn't have to understand death, let alone murder,
but he does because Aunt Punky Alicia Canalis McGuire was
(14:09):
shot to death while he and his five and six
year old sisters were sleeping inside their Average home. It
was two am and she was shot in the doorway,
multiple gunshot wounds. Alicia had been watching the kids for
their mom, her sister, Amanda Canalis, who was away on
a business trip, and learned of her sister death from
their father over the phone. Yeah, that was a hard moment.
(14:33):
Ella Dennis joining me reporter with a daily Harold, did
you say that one of the neighbors said they heard
something like a sledge hammer. That is what one neighbor
told Man firstman ig you interesting, what would that have been,
Jessice Scott Morgan, if there were five gunshot wounds to
the victim, what would have sounded like a sledgehammer? Well,
(14:53):
you know, in the middle of the night like this,
when you have a firearm going off in a neighborhood,
you know, we have to contextualize this and saying think
about this is an area where other people live. You know,
these sounds like this, this report you're talking about perhaps
something that is breaking the sound barrier. If a weaponist
(15:14):
discharged and it is going to be loud, and then
it's a it's a succession of these. If you're pulling
the trigger multiple times, you're going to have this kind
of concussive event that's going to go out of sending
out sound waves, it's going to come off sounding like
someone hitting on a piece of ten with a sledgehammer.
More than likely not on a piece of wood that
would be blunted, but there'll be a sharp crack like that,
(15:37):
and so it's going to get your attention, even if
you're asleep. Just think if you're living next to order
these folks and you're jolted out of bed by the sound,
and not just one, not two, not three, not four,
but five times. It's going to sound like the end
of the world. It's coming visiting at your doorstep. You know,
I was just looking at the timing of this. The
murder victim, Alicia was married I July two seventeen. She
(16:01):
was killed in September twenty seventeen. She truly was a
newly wed to Dante Pride, joining us from the Pride
Law firm. A newly wed who in the world would
have a vendetta, I guess to young girl that had
only been married a couple of months, right, Nancy. I
mean that's something to think about, and I would think
(16:25):
from the police's perspective, they have to start thinking about
jolta decks lovers. Yeah, you have to. And isn't it true,
Dante Pride, You're absolutely correct that investigations typically start close
to the family. Like you look at the boyfriend, you
look at the husband, and you look at the neighbor.
You start moving out. Then you start looking at the
(16:46):
ex boyfriend and the guy that delivers the pizza and
the grocery store clerk. So that's where you would look first,
but it's kind of hard for me to believe they've
only been married about three months and suddenly it's escalated
to a murder scenario, right, So that's why I would
think it's someone from the past and by like a
current husband that because you know they're still on the high,
(17:08):
they're still louy wed and she's only twenty four how
much of a pass because she have? That leads me,
Dante to look at Everette, the county seat and the
largest city in Snahomash County, Washington. The population is about
one hundred thousand. That's still a relatively small town. And
(17:28):
I know I came from an area that wasn't even incorporated,
it wasn't any city at all, So that really narrows
your suspect pool, Dante absolutely. And I think the way
the crime occurred also narrows your suspect pool, right, because
this isn't a random crime that someone got shot with
(17:48):
a straight bullet. This is five bullets that were put
on target on purpose, and so we know that they
targeted this person and so there has to be some
connection in some story, and I think that's where the
police need to look in order to figure out and
unravel this thing. Straight back to Ellen Dennis joining us
a reporter with the Daily Herald and Everett where this occurred.
(18:10):
I heard you mentioned earlier than in some of the
law enforcement filings it said there was no PC probable
cause to issue a warrant at this time. Didn't you
say that, Ellen Dennis? That is correct. So, Dante Pride,
when you hear police admit they don't have PC probable
cause to issue a warrant, you know they've hit a
(18:32):
dead end. Absolutely. I mean, probable cause is the lowest
level standard that we have in our legal system. It's
just really a suspicion. Right, Probable cause breaks down to
basically a suspicion, I think, and then fill in the blank.
I think we should perform the search because and then
you give a few facts and you have probable cause,
and a judge typically will sign it. That's the law
(18:55):
under the constitution. Yes, no, Dante, absolutely so. Right now
we have got the cops at a dead end. No answers,
no leads. They admit themselves there is no PC for
an arrest or even a search warrant. They got nothing,
(19:15):
and then out of the blue, a crack in the case.
Take a listen to reporter Natalie Swabi King five News
Patrol perceived a phone call from somebody in the Spokane
area who said she had been at a social gathering
and a young woman there claimed that she had been
hired to kill someone in Snhamas County. The young female
(19:38):
would have been sixteen at the time of the crime,
and the difficult thing for detectives as she went by
different aliases on social media. Now, wait a minute, that
had a lot of information, Jackie, Could you play that
again please. Patrol perceived a phone call from somebody in
the Spokane area who said she had been at a
social gathering and a young woman there claimed that she
(20:00):
had been hired to kill someone in Snahomas County. The
young female would have been sixteen at the time of
the crime, and the difficult thing for detectives as she
went by different aliases on social media, different aliases on
social media bragging that she had been hired to kill
someone and Snahomash County. To you, Ellen Dennis, where is
(20:23):
Spokane as it relates to Snahomash County? Well can? I
would estimate is roughly four hours by car. It is
located in Eastern Washington. So it is definitely a cartrid.
So what do you make of this, Jessica Morgane got
a little girl sixteen years old bragging that she's a
hit person at a party. When you said not professional,
(20:46):
you were right about that. But a sixteen year old
girl a hit man. Plus according to the witness, it
was a man that ran away. Yeah. Yeah, And you
think about this, and cons can't even keep their mouth
shut in prison many times they snitch each other out.
Now you've got an individual who is at this age
(21:08):
they've got you talk about. You think about cons and
the networking prison. You're thinking about a sixteen year old
who has access to social media and she's going out
and blastemous information at parties. Of course it's going to
get out. My question is what would be your motivation
for throwing this out there? Is it to improve your
(21:29):
social status? Is it to make people fear with her?
She's a hired hit girl? Okay, Doctor Jordy Crossing. Why
can't people keep their yapp shut? And why would you
brag about something like that if it were true? Well,
you got to look at the social media. All of
this is anonymity, okay, And you can look at the personality,
(21:51):
how it develops in morphs within that anonymity they're hiding.
So you know, even hearing that, they're going to be
questions as well, is this valid? You know? How reliable
is this? Is this just something you think about it?
Doctor Jory. A teen girl barely sixteen, four hours away
in Spokane bragging at a party, probably after she had
(22:15):
a couple of drinks or a big fat dubie that
she's a hit girl. It doesn't it doesn't really fit
with reality. You think about a sixteen year old doing this,
But I mean it's still a lead that you know,
it's got to be followed, it's got to be run out.
Just think about it. A sixteen year old girl bragging,
(22:37):
probably drunkenly at a party that four hours away. She
was responsible for a hit on an innocent newly wed,
a young bride sixteen years old, but they can't find
her because she has so many aliases on social media.
Jessica Morgan explain what that means. Well, you know, you
(22:59):
have individuals and there and they bury themselves. I can't
tell you how many times I get friend requests and
all kinds of people that are from all over the world.
You can tell it, and you don't know who they are,
so they're kind of hiding behind this digital curtain. But
this is the key. If this sixteen year old girl
turns out to be a person of interest in this case,
remember my reference to cons earlier in prison, they have
(23:20):
a certain level of sophistication. If they can track down
who she is, they can apply a certain amount of
pressure to her. And trust me, Nancy, she's going to
roll over. When they start talking about things like a
life imprisonment that you brought about the death of somebody,
she's going to give something up. Remember we're not looking
for a sixteen year old girl in this case, per
the description earlier. We're talking about possibly an adult male
(23:44):
that's running away from the house. That's going to be significant.
If you pull the thread on that, she's going to
come apart. And of course, Dante Pride, you can't threaten
or if you ever do find her, she's like a
needle in a haystack with a death penalty, because the
US Supreme Court affirmed recently that anyone under eighteen cannot
(24:05):
get the death penalty in the United States, no matter
how many people they killed, including like school shooters, nor
can they get elwa life without parole. So that's not
anything you could ever hang over her head if you
found her right, that's true, and I think it's it's
the right decision by the legislature. I mean, children make
(24:25):
a lot of poor decisions, and we know in this instance,
this young lady made a poor decision. But we know
because of her age, she was likely influenced by someone
who was older. I mean, that's just how it goes. Well,
you know what, I don't know if mass shootings in
schools are a quote poor decision, but that said, it
(24:46):
is the law of the land. Now. Well, it took
months and months to unravel. She went by different aliases
on social media that took months to unravel. But once
they were able to identify who she was, they discovered
that she was the ex girlfriend of Kevin's cousin. The
(25:07):
ex girlfriend of Kevin's cousin. Hold on, let me digest
what I'm just hearing. The ex sixteen year old girl
is the ex girlfriend of Kevin's cousin. And Ellen Dennis
(25:28):
joining us in the Daily Harold and Everett, who is Kevin?
Kevin Lewis is a man who resided in Sahomish County
at the time of the shooting. He was formerly the
partner of the victim sister. Kevin Lewis, thirty four year old,
(25:53):
is the ex husband of the murder victims sister. Okay,
let that so ken, the sixteen year old girl probably
drunk at a party bragging that she's a hit man
four hours away is the ex girlfriend Wait, I need
a family's tree here the ex girlfriend of the cousin
(26:17):
of the murder victims sisters husband. Okay, whoa is anybody
beside me getting clarity? Take a listen to our cut
four Komo. The accused seventeen year old girl in this
case told a couple of friends in Spokane that she
(26:40):
had killed someone here in Snohomish County. It turns out
those girls contacted investigators here and that ultimately led to
these arrests. Alicia Cannellis McGuire was a caregiver of a
loved sister and aunt and a newly wed. She was
the girl who said I love you every time she
said goodbye, but nobody expected her life to be cut
(27:02):
short at just twenty four years old. It's hard enough
losing someone you know we were so close to but
not having justice for it. But justice could come after
all a year and a half after her murder. Alicia
was Amanda Lewis's sister and now listen to our cut
five Komo. Three people have been arrested in the suspected
(27:25):
murder for hire. Prosecutors say twenty year old Jared and Phelps,
a cousin of Kevin's, and a seventeen year old girl
from Spokane had been hired by the thirty one year
old to kill his wife, but that night, Amanda's sister, Alicia,
who was babysitting her kids, answered the door and took
the fatal bullet. I was just a really horrible time.
(27:47):
Amanda and Kevin had been married for eight years and
have three children. Kevin is currently serving three years in
prison for assaulting his ex wife. Court records say the
seventeen year old girl claims she and Pumps were promised
ten thousand dollars for the killing. Court documents say cell
phone records and social media posts revealed trails of evidence
(28:08):
that led to all three arrests, and all three are
facing different levels of first degree murder. Kevin Lewis will
be back in court. Tomorrow so his bond can be set.
Phelps bond has been set at five million dollars. Let
me understand something. The father of three, Kevin Lewis, age
(28:28):
thirty four, pays two teenagers to go kill his ex wife.
They go to the door and they shoot the woman
that comes to the door in pj's in a case
of murderous mistaken identity. They gunned down her little sister
(28:51):
who was babysitting that night. Is that what is being alleged,
Ellen Dennis? That is correct. Levin Lewis, the ex husband,
had made threats to his former wife the target, and
he was actually in sharving a sentence in prison at
the time for assaulting her. Take a listen to our
(29:14):
cut seven. This is Natalie Swaby Kingthonnews. With search warrants,
investigators obtained phone records. Both of the suspects phones were
in the same location at the same time, traveling across
the state to western Washington. They actually met up with
Kevin and he took them to the house where they
were supposed to commit the crime. Detectives say social media
(29:34):
also provided a trail of evidence, including a picture from
the male suspect allegedly posted a snapchat that showed hundred
dollar bills fanned out a few hours after the murder.
Sixteen year old young woman. The eighteen year old Mail
had been paid by Kevin, had been hired to come
out from Spokane to Sahamash County to essentially murder Kevin's
(29:59):
ex wife, and then they drove back. The murder for
higher case is the reason three suspects are now encusted,
at least to give them some answers as to what
happened exactly and frankly, some justice. These suspects, Jared and Phelps,
age eighteen, the alleged shooter, and that is Kevin Lewis,
(30:19):
the husband's cousin. Jared and Phelps, age eighteen. Then you've
got Alexis Hall, sixteen years old. That's Phelps's girlfriend, the
one apparently bragging at the party that she was a
hit person. So Dante Pride joining me, high profile lawyer
(30:41):
out of San Diego. You can find him at the
Pride Law Firm. Dante Pride. I just love it when
I can get pings and I can actually track two
suspects phones together in the same car traveling the four
hours from Spokane to Snahomash County, right to the doorstep
(31:05):
of the dead victim. And then to top it all off,
they shoot the wrong person. I mean, why else would
they travel all the way from Spokane to Snahomash County together,
They don't know anybody there, and she's bragging about it
at a party. You know, the old World War two
(31:25):
slogan started in brit with the Brits loose lips sink ships.
True awards were never spoken, Dante Pride, True awards were
never spoken, And from attorney's perspective, was very difficult when
you're climbed to the one who spoke the words, and
then they have evidence showing that you go four hours
outside of your normal area the one night when the
(31:47):
murder occurs, and then never do that again. So uphill
battle for any attorney miss case for these people. Jessica Morgan,
please outline what we know about the electronic trade all
these two left behind themselves. Yeah, you know, reflectively, it's
it is almost like a fairy tale where someone's leaving
(32:07):
breadcrumbs and that's the beauty of the world that we
live in now. From a from a forensic standpoint, so
every when, not only do they have one cell phone, Nancy,
they've got two. They're traveling in tandem. And you're going
to a location that, as was spoken of just a
moment ago, that is not familiar to you, or it's
not your common, common locale that you're going to inhabit,
(32:30):
you know, when you're moving around with your cell phone,
say in home, like these individuals back and Spokane. It's
in the eastern part of the state. You can get
hits all over there, and it's gonna if you look
at it on a dot graph, it's gonna be highly concentrated.
But all of a sudden, you've got this, You've got
this thin line that's kind of in tandem, where these
two dots going down the road. And as a reporter
(32:51):
mentioned earlier, this is a four hour drive, Nancy, And
so these little dots are a company. Every time they're
hitting a cell tower, every time it's bouncing off, they're
given an occasion this trail. And to our attorney's point,
this is a nightmare. This is a nightmare to try
to defeat this in court. And then when they show up,
they're going to show up at the precise location. These
(33:11):
two people are in the car together, not to mention
the ex husband who are in proximity. How can you
explain that away? Yeah, they meet up with the ex
husband for what one thirty am chat. Yeah, this is
what happens when you hire teenagers to commit a murder
and as not the first time. Take a listen to
(33:47):
crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This is what happens when
you hire teenagers to commit a murder and as not
the first time. Take a listen to our cut twenty.
This is Tammy Matuza Komo. When another pars attained to
(34:09):
commit murder, well, you know what happens. Everything goes wrong.
Court documents paint a deliberate and disturbing murder for higher scheme.
Bellevue police say Sharon Kelly hired a seventeen year old
boy to murder her ex husband, Baron Lee, and offered
to pay the teenager thirteen thousand dollars something like this
is rare, It is rare. On the day of the
(34:30):
shooting in July, police say, the seventeen year old got
his friend to drive him to the overlook at Lakemont
Apartments in Bellevue, where court documents say he was going
to cap someone and empty the clip. Police say the
seventeen year old gunman ambushed Lee, shooting him nine times.
The victim fell to the ground, the suspects stood over
him and continued to fire. According to court documents, Lee
(34:53):
said he couldn't think of anyone who would want to
kill him besides his ex wife, saying they were in
the midst of a very acrimonious custom battle that also
included a financial motive for Kelly to sole custody of
their child. We know that children were involved in the
current case, and in that case, you got the teen
boys standing over the victim shooting him as he is prone,
(35:16):
and the victim still lives and can identify the teen
hit man. So I don't get it, doctor Jory. Why
would you hire a teen, much less two teams to
commit a murder? Well, they could be several reasons. One
(35:36):
that they can get away with it basically with a
light sentence that are going to face a death penalty,
but they're going to implicate you. You think you can't
crack a sixteen year old girl for Pete's sake. Yeah,
but a lot of times they don't think that far
down the road, Okay, The anger, the aggression, the hatred,
the rage really puts a tunnel vision on their cognitive process.
(35:58):
They want to eliminate this person. This seems to be
an easy way out, a quick way, maybe even an
inexpensive I mean twenty four hundred dollars. I mean you
can't even get decent home repair at that cost to you.
Dante Pride, high profile lawyer out of San Diego at
the Probably Law firm here is the kicker. And I
think doctor Jordy mentioned it. We see a lot in
(36:21):
dope cases where the doper will hand the cry, the
myth or whatever to a juvenile and then stand or
place himself obscured, maybe in a car, around a bush
or corner, and watch the team sell dope. Because the
team will only get six weeks in GeV jail. An
(36:44):
adult could go down for life if he's a third
time offender. So a lot of times you see criminals
specifically picking teams to do the deed, but in this case,
the teams will definitely rat out the Every time I
mean crimes, when there are more than one individual who
(37:07):
perpetrated the crime, they tell on each other. So these
criminals don't have the forethought. As one of our other
talents that has said they're not thinking at all, and
it's clear. And if this is correct, doctor Jory, he
agreed to have his wife gunned down at the doorway
(37:29):
with his three children asleep in the next room. What
does that tell you, doctor Jory? Very cold blood. There's
a lot of hatred, a lot of anger. He hasn't
been getting his way. This seemed like his only recourse
out of it, not thinking down the road of what
it would do to the children finding the mother there
(37:51):
as if the cell phone trail wasn't enough. Take a
listen to our cut seven. This is Jackie Howard a
crime online. The two hired to kill Amanda Canala were
teenagers at the time, eighteen year old Jaredin Phelps and
his then girlfriend, sixteen year old Alexis Hale. The pair
drove to the Canalis home around two am and knocked
on the door. Amanda Canalis was in New York on
(38:13):
business and her sister was babysitting Canalis's three children. When
Alicia Canalis McGuire opened the front door, she was shot
five times. The pair was reportedly paid twenty four hundred
dollars for the hit. That payment showed up in photos
on Jaredin Phelps social media, as both teenagers bragged about
what they had done. He captioned the photos with effing
(38:36):
never guess what I did for this check. Alexis Hale,
on the other hand, told several acquaintances that she had
been hired to kill someone. Phelps reportedly used the money
to buy Timberland boots, of Ferragamo belt buckle, and several tattoos.
The mastermind behind the hit Amanda Canalis's ex husband. He
hired his cousin Phelps to get his ex wife out
(38:58):
of the way. What a bunch oft they post online?
Guess what I did to get this f and paycheck
and post one hundred dollars bills? Really well, I wanted
to take a listen to this. This is what it
all boils down to. Our cut A two K Lewis
is already serving prison time for attacking Amanda after she
(39:21):
ended their marriage. Initially, I wasn't going to do any
interviews at this point, but then a couple of people
actually reached out to me about how my experiences have
impacted them, and so I thought it was important to share.
Amanda says her rex husband wasn't initially physically abusive, but
she says he was controlling and emotionally abusive. So I
(39:44):
think it's important for people to be aware and recognize
red flags. And if I had maybe recognized that earlier on,
my sister might still be here. When Amanda says Lewis
was physically abusive, attacking her outside her Lynwood home, and
I should have moved at that point because it was
the same house where he had someone show up to
(40:06):
murder me and ended up killing my sister. In the end,
it takes a jury about three and a half hours
to convict Kevin Lewis first degree murder. How does the
story end? Take a Listen to our friend Dave mack
a crime online. It took a jury less than three
(40:26):
and a half hours to convict Kevin Lewis of aggravated
first degree murder and a murder for hire that left
the target sister dead. The jury of seven women and
five men spent nearly six weeks in Snohomas County Superior
Court absorbing testimony about the killing of twenty four year
old Alicia Canalis McGuire. Jared On Phelps pleaded guilty and
testified against Lewis at trial, claiming he only knew the
(40:47):
address he was supposed to target, not the name of
the woman he was supposed to kill. Phelps and his
friend Alex Hale drove from Spokane to Snahomas County, where
Lewis directed them to the home of his ex wife.
Hale pleaded guilty to her heart and was sentenced to
fifteen years. Phelps got thirty one and a half years,
and Lewis sentenced to life without parole. Is it the
(41:08):
end of the story? I say no, because the children
in the home that night, well forever, how this ingrained
in their minds. Nancy Grace Crimes Stories, signing off goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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