November 15, 2024 • 19 mins
Today Nancy Grace and Sheryl McCollum critique the developments of the Laken Riley murder trial in Athens, Georgia. Nancy and Sheryl focus on the defense's controversial decision to opt for a bench trial rather than a jury trial. They cover the prosecution's compelling evidence, including DNA and video footage, emotional testimonies, and a 911 call capturing the victim's final moments. They also dive into the implications of pre-existing knowledge that a judge would have versus a jury, the emotional toll on the victim's family, and the broader political and social issues at play.
Show Notes:
- (0:00) Welcome! Nancy and Sheryl introduce this week’s crime roundup
- (0:10) Sheryl introduces The Laken Riley trial
- (0:25) The decision for a bench trial
- (3:00) Prosecution's emotional opening statements
- (4:30) Evidence breakdown: DNA, fingerprints, and surveillance footage
- (11:30) Prosecution's strong case
- (12:45) Defense lawyer’s strategy in questioning the evidence
- (14:00) The defense’s claim of “circumstantial” evidence
- (18:00) Final thoughts
---
Nancy Grace is an outspoken, tireless advocate for victims’ rights and one of television's most respected legal analysts. Nancy Grace had a perfect conviction record during her decade as a prosecutor. She is the founder and publisher of CrimeOnline.com, a crime- fighting digital platform that investigates breaking crime news, spreads awareness of missing people and shines a light on cold cases.
In addition, Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a daily show hosted by Grace, airs on SIRIUS XM’s Triumph Channel 111 and is downloadable as a podcast on all audio platforms - https://www.crimeonline.com/
Connect with Nancy:
X: @nancygrace
Instagram: @thenancygrace
Facebook: @nancygrace
Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice.
Connect with Sheryl:
Email: coldcase2004@gmail.com
Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
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 (00:06):
Crime Round Up with the one and only Nancy Grace.
We are live in Athens, Georgia for the Lakeland Riley trial,
and I tell you, Nancy, it has already been gangbusters
as far as I'm concerned, right out of the gate
this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, can we just start with the fact that the
defendant and his lawyer, which I think this is a
grave mistake, chose a bench trial over a jury trial.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What were they thinking?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And this is not a comment on the judge. I
understand this is pretty good judge. It's just that a judge,
I mean, you might be able to trick somebody on jury,
make them believe that, hey, the cops framed him or
something like that, or hey the crime why I'm framed him?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
This isn't really his DNA just crazy, all right?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Sure, but Judda just gonna be going have you lost
your mind?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I do not believe the.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Entire Athen's Police department and the crime lab in Panthers
Off Panthers Doll and this one and that one all
got together to frame your client.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
That did not happen. And think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
We know that there's a peeping time charge connected to
the murder case because this guy.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
According to police, he's presumed Edison.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
According to l E law enforcement, he was peeping on
women before he murdered Lake Kenriley.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Wouldn't you know?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Right when I get talking, here comes shut up David. Anyway,
all right, so we know that charge is in there,
but the defense thought, who's and nail to have the
charge removed?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Who did they argue that to the judge.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So even.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Say a motion to suppress, and what if the judge says, okay,
I'm suppressing this evidence. But then that judge is the
sole fact finder. He's acting as the jury. He knows
about all of this extrinsic evidence that otherwise the jury
would never have heard.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I never ever went with a bitch trial over a
jury trial. And I loved my judges, most of them anyway,
and I thought they would do the right thing. But no,
that was a bad move. Let's just kick it off
with that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I agree with you one hundred percent. There is no
chance anybody's gonna sympathize. There's no chance you're going to
pull the wool over anybody's eyes. This is it. You've
got one sole person now determining your faith instead of twelve.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So the defense is trying to basically argue that we're
trying to that the state is trying to explain away
a tragedy.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
A tragedy.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
There's no question her head was bashed in with a rock.
That's not an accident. I mean, can we just get
real for a minute. Where else can defens go?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
That's right, Nancy. They've got no eyewitness that can put
him in another location. They've got nobody that's going to
come up and say, hey man, you know he was
with me. They've got nothing. They got him on video
for crying out loud.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And what about the nine to one one call that
captured Lake and Riley's final moments played in court? You know,
it just her mother just burst into tears.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
There's so many things that go through your mind when
you're watching the prosecution put this on and you're watching
her roommates, and you're watching that first officer and they
play that nine one one call and they confirm what
you and I said from day one, and that is
Lake Glynn fault. She fought for her life, she tried
(03:55):
to call for help. Nancy. It's just been an emotional,
just wildfire. This morning.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
The mother had to cover her face with her hands
when that nine on one call was being played. She
couldn't not hear. She couldn't even look in the courtroom
when that was being played. I mean, and you don't
really hear Lakan herself. You hear a muffled audio, A
(04:24):
male voice is what you hear. But you know those
are her final moments. I mean, I can't even stand
if one of the twins gets upset.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Whenever they've gotten upset, even tho they were a little
and cried, I.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Would just it would like somebody's stabbing me in the heart.
This mother to hear that, knowing what was happening to
her daughter, and you know she was.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Going to devote her life to saving the lives of strangers.
You know, you just think of all the goodness that
is taken, and every life is precious. But I think,
especially when you're fixing the you know your entire adult
life is going to be saving people. And that's who
he chooses to kill. It just on some level, to me,
(05:11):
is so much worse because she wasn't just taken from
her friends and family, she was taken from all of
these people that she was gonna help Nancy.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, A thing that Another thing that I hate is
that this case has been turned into a political football
and it should not be because he got swept up
in the debate over immigration, illegal aliens or as they say, migrants,
after investigators said the perp came here illegally from Venezuela
(05:46):
and he is a member of a horrible, horrible gang
that many people are just learning about. But it's that
this particular gang gang has now infiltrated across the country
and nothing good. But that said, that's that's another thing
why you don't, if you're the defense attorney, why you
(06:08):
don't want a bench.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Trial, because see, the judge already knows that.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
He's a member of the gang, right, but the jury
would probably not have heard that because that would have
been deemed too present prejudicial. You cannot have a bents
trial unless both sides agree to the bench trial.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Okay, So the.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Judge is going to know a lot more than a
jury would ever know. For instance, that he's an undocumented migrant,
all right. The jury may not have been able to
hear that. That may have been deemed too inflammatory for
a jury. But the judge knows all of this.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And the judge also knows that the former prosecutor that
lost the election is the one that took the death
penalty off the table. He knows all of it, the good,
the bad, and the ugly, and he cannot take that away.
Even though he's impartial, it's still knowledge that he possesses.
That He's got to factor that in. As far as
(07:07):
I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, of course, I'm just trying to think through what
all the judge knows that a jury would never have known.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's extensive.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
For instance, whenever a judge gets the file, the judge
has an injury would never see this, the person's wrap sheet,
all sorts of even arrests that are not convictions.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
All of that is in the file.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The jury would never ever hear that, And if the
prosecutor tried to bring it up, there would be an
immediate mistrial, granted possibly with prejudice, so the state could
not re try it and not screw up the second time.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That's right, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Outside outside of her being dedicating her life to helping
other people, she was an incredible scholar athlete. She inspired
other people with as they say, with her kindness. I
wonder what all that means. She was in her low sorority.
(08:14):
They all loved her just, I don't know, kind of
like this precious, beautiful girl that the parents thought, Wow,
how did I how did we get so lucky to
have her?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
You know, that's that's.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Girl, absolutely, and you know there's proof of how just
you can count on her. She was a solid friend,
She was a solid human being. When she went missing,
it wasn't an hour after she should have been home,
and her roommates were on it. They were like, this
is not like her. She doesn't just drop off. She
(08:51):
is where she says she is going to be always.
And I'm going to tell you now. You know, I
got four sisters, and there's one of them. If she
was late, I would be immediately concerned. There's another one.
I mean, it might be three or four days before
we find out where where she Dan John.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Davia will be sitting outside the house in his truck.
Lucy will be no telling. There's just no telling where
Lucy will be when everybody's waiting, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
At the other morning, the other morning.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
They were supposed to be acolytes at the eleven o'clock service, and.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I had already gone over.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I was calling and I'm like, do I have to
march down the aisle with the candle myself?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Get in the car.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Nobody cares about your hair, Lucy, nobody.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You're the only one that cares about your hair.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Now get in the car.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Of course they made it okay, and it's so funny morning.
John David has on that robe and he's six '
six that comes just below his knees and you can
see his sweatpants and his tennis shoes coming out at
the bottom. But that said okay, and then there's perfectly
adorned okay, anyway, that said exactly here when she is not.
She is supposed to be exactly on time. Everybody says
(10:10):
something horrible must have happened.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
They knew it, they knew it was not like her.
And that's what I'm saying. That would be true if Sheila.
It would not be true of my sister Shelley. But
that goes to prove it's not just us saying it.
Her roommates lived it. They knew something is wrong. And
of course, like we've had in other cases, this case,
(10:33):
she's got you know, the smart watch, and it can
tell exactly when her heart stopped beating, so that evidence
came in this morning.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well right in the opening statements, the prosecution slammed it
and Lamb's making notes.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
On Feb.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Two, the prosecutor says, is about Ibarra put on a
black hat, a hoodie style jacket, and black kitchen style
disposable gloves and went hunting for females on the UGA campus.
I mean, when Ross said that, who would put on
(11:15):
beside Brian Coburger, who would put on plastic gloves for
something innocent? I mean, this guy and Brian Coburger are
the only two that I know that would just walk
around wearing plastic gloves.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I mean, right there.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Right there, Sheila Ross is so solid, She's so good.
She is so just mechanical the way she will dissect
the case. She is And I'm telling you, you know,
they might have elected not to have a jury, but
I'm gonna tell you in this case, it ain't gonna matter.
(11:57):
She would have said it the same way showed the evident.
It's the same, you know order, And I think for
me watching her is one of those things I used
to get from you. You leave no stone unturned. And
most people will say because they said this during the
trial up in Delphi. They were like, well, the defense
(12:20):
had enough, so they just ended early. Let me tell
you something, you don't end early. If you have it,
you put it up. And Sheila is gonna put every
nail in that board she can find.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I had a lot of people argue, you're overdoing it.
It's overkilled. You're putting too much, you're overtrying your case.
And this is my opinion on that, and I stand
firm on it. Better to do it all and overdo
it than to not put up enough, lose your case
and then think, wow, what should have could have? Yeah,
(12:55):
a problem with the defense attorney. I'm not saying it's
not a great lawyer. It's and Kirby arguing an opening
statement evidence would not rude beyond a reasonable doubt that
he Barrow killed Riley, Okay, he said, and I quote
it would take gymnastics for the prosecution to argue Ibarro
killed Likan with quote circumstantial evidence. I don't know about you,
(13:21):
but I find the evidence to be airtight. I don't
consider DNA fingerprint to be circumstantial evidence.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
No, ma'am. And let me tell you, Sheila Ross is
fixing in not it coming each this thing She's going
to have no trouble because not only do you have
DNA and the fingerprint on her phone and a video
of him discarding what he was wearing with her blood
on it. I mean, it's going to go own and
own and own in the time table. You know, you
(13:53):
always tell people that timeline is your money tree. It
is so tight, Nancy. They've got him going and coming,
and he's right there, not in camera shot, but he's
in the camera. He kills her, he's back in camera
discarding evidence that ain't circumstantial, baby, not at all. No.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What was very poignant to me that when the nine
one one picked up, they were saying, hey.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Can anybody hear me?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Because not on one couldn't hear any voices. The only
sound they could hear were birds chirping, you know, and
like a quiet, muffled sound.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Just the fact that as this.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Girl was dying, this beautiful young girl Liaken, you know,
everything was going on as normal, Like the birds were chirping,
people were going to classes, everything was happening normally in
the backdrop, and no one had any idea that Lacn
was fighting for her A lot. I gets the guy
(14:57):
who would come out hunting for a woman, like an animal,
like you know, the coyote looking for the weakest.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Animal it can find, like the hyena.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Looking for the slowest gazelle, just you know, a.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Pad of her.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
He didn't care who it was.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
He was just looking for a woman to attack, and
when she fought back, he wasn't having it, and he
killed her with the most convenient object he could find,
right there on the scene, and then got rid of
the evidence.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I mean, it's so.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Clear to me, you know, being here this morning. We
just broke for lunch, and the officer that testified, he's
walking down the pathway and he's got his brown file
under his arm, that accordion file that we've all had
since the eighties. And I just said to him, I said, hey,
I just want to tell you about Lakeland's case. And
(15:57):
he said, ma'am, I can't discuss it. I said, I
know you can't discuss it. I just want you to
know we have all been thinking of y'all. I mean,
this was a tremendous undertaking. It was horrible for all
of you. And he just said thank you and then
went on into the police department. But that's how everybody is.
The integrity of that case is being maintained just outside
(16:20):
that courthouse.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
The defense is making it sound like this is going
to be a long shot and their circumstantial evidence, Well, no,
because investigator state that they immediately went to a dumpster
nearby and found a believe it was a sweatshirt. They
find a sweatshirt in there, and on the sweatshirt they
(16:42):
find blood and hair. Okay, that dumpster was near the
apartment complex where Ibora lived, hair and blood on it. It
was immediately submitted for testing and it came back with
a mixture. I don't know when all of the DNA
evidence is going to completely come in in front of
(17:04):
the jury, but that DNA was the combination of both
the defendant Ann Lakin's DNA.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Now not only is their video, but there.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Is a witness that positively identifies Ebarra as the one
disposing the sweatshirt. A woman living in Ebar's apartment, Ross
Belly Flores Bellow. I d's the man in the video
as Ebarra done. You know, the judge Haggard and I'm
(17:37):
not saying this is going to affect his opinion or
his decision at all.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know, he's a crime victim.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
His father was killed, shot and killed nearing an armed
robbery at a housing complex when he was working as
a salesman.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Well again, I know somebody else that dedicated their life
because somebody they loved was murdered, and it does affect you.
It should affect you, Nancy. I'm one of those people
when they say, don't show the jury these photographs. It
could inflame them. Dad Gummet, it ought to inflame them.
That's why they have that duty. The judge should see it,
(18:15):
The jury should see it. The public should see it
if they want to. You want to know what murder is.
It's ugly, it's horrific, it's horrible, but that should factor
into your decision. As far as I'm concerned, this isn't
something where people say, oh, well, I didn't realize, you know,
a fistfight looked like that. I just can't even watch boxing.
(18:36):
If boxing upsets you, you have no idea none. And
to me again, when you're going to take somebody's freedom,
you ought to know one hundred percent why.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I just hate it.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I hate it for her family and the people that
love her. But in years, God willing, there's a guilty
verdict in years to come, they will look back and
appreciate that this happened, that someone stood up for Lakan
and gave it two hundred percent at trial, because.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
What if they didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
What if it was a half assed job and they
lost the case, so they made bad decisions during the case,
or they didn't really work the case. I've seen it
happen and you get a bad verdict, but not in
this case.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That is not happening.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
In this case, that is not going to happen. Next
to you. Sheila Ross is the best I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I appreciate that because she is really good. Okay, I
wurn it upward back in the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Thea by guys
Crime Round Up with the one and only Nancy Grace.
We are live in Athens, Georgia for the Lakeland Riley trial,
and I tell you, Nancy, it has already been gangbusters
as far as I'm concerned, right out of the gate
this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, can we just start with the fact that the
defendant and his lawyer, which I think this is a
grave mistake, chose a bench trial over a jury trial.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What were they thinking?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And this is not a comment on the judge. I
understand this is pretty good judge. It's just that a judge,
I mean, you might be able to trick somebody on jury,
make them believe that, hey, the cops framed him or
something like that, or hey the crime why I'm framed him?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
This isn't really his DNA just crazy, all right?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Sure, but Judda just gonna be going have you lost
your mind?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I do not believe the.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Entire Athen's Police department and the crime lab in Panthers
Off Panthers Doll and this one and that one all
got together to frame your client.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
That did not happen. And think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
We know that there's a peeping time charge connected to
the murder case because this guy.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
According to police, he's presumed Edison.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
According to l E law enforcement, he was peeping on
women before he murdered Lake Kenriley.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Wouldn't you know?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Right when I get talking, here comes shut up David. Anyway,
all right, so we know that charge is in there,
but the defense thought, who's and nail to have the
charge removed?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Who did they argue that to the judge.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So even.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Say a motion to suppress, and what if the judge says, okay,
I'm suppressing this evidence. But then that judge is the
sole fact finder. He's acting as the jury. He knows
about all of this extrinsic evidence that otherwise the jury
would never have heard.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I never ever went with a bitch trial over a
jury trial. And I loved my judges, most of them anyway,
and I thought they would do the right thing. But no,
that was a bad move. Let's just kick it off
with that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I agree with you one hundred percent. There is no
chance anybody's gonna sympathize. There's no chance you're going to
pull the wool over anybody's eyes. This is it. You've
got one sole person now determining your faith instead of twelve.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So the defense is trying to basically argue that we're
trying to that the state is trying to explain away
a tragedy.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
A tragedy.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
There's no question her head was bashed in with a rock.
That's not an accident. I mean, can we just get
real for a minute. Where else can defens go?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
That's right, Nancy. They've got no eyewitness that can put
him in another location. They've got nobody that's going to
come up and say, hey man, you know he was
with me. They've got nothing. They got him on video
for crying out loud.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And what about the nine to one one call that
captured Lake and Riley's final moments played in court? You know,
it just her mother just burst into tears.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
There's so many things that go through your mind when
you're watching the prosecution put this on and you're watching
her roommates, and you're watching that first officer and they
play that nine one one call and they confirm what
you and I said from day one, and that is
Lake Glynn fault. She fought for her life, she tried
(03:55):
to call for help. Nancy. It's just been an emotional,
just wildfire. This morning.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
The mother had to cover her face with her hands
when that nine on one call was being played. She
couldn't not hear. She couldn't even look in the courtroom
when that was being played. I mean, and you don't
really hear Lakan herself. You hear a muffled audio, A
(04:24):
male voice is what you hear. But you know those
are her final moments. I mean, I can't even stand
if one of the twins gets upset.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Whenever they've gotten upset, even tho they were a little
and cried, I.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Would just it would like somebody's stabbing me in the heart.
This mother to hear that, knowing what was happening to
her daughter, and you know she was.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Going to devote her life to saving the lives of strangers.
You know, you just think of all the goodness that
is taken, and every life is precious. But I think,
especially when you're fixing the you know your entire adult
life is going to be saving people. And that's who
he chooses to kill. It just on some level, to me,
(05:11):
is so much worse because she wasn't just taken from
her friends and family, she was taken from all of
these people that she was gonna help Nancy.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, A thing that Another thing that I hate is
that this case has been turned into a political football
and it should not be because he got swept up
in the debate over immigration, illegal aliens or as they say, migrants,
after investigators said the perp came here illegally from Venezuela
(05:46):
and he is a member of a horrible, horrible gang
that many people are just learning about. But it's that
this particular gang gang has now infiltrated across the country
and nothing good. But that said, that's that's another thing
why you don't, if you're the defense attorney, why you
(06:08):
don't want a bench.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Trial, because see, the judge already knows that.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
He's a member of the gang, right, but the jury
would probably not have heard that because that would have
been deemed too present prejudicial. You cannot have a bents
trial unless both sides agree to the bench trial.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Okay, So the.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Judge is going to know a lot more than a
jury would ever know. For instance, that he's an undocumented migrant,
all right. The jury may not have been able to
hear that. That may have been deemed too inflammatory for
a jury. But the judge knows all of this.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And the judge also knows that the former prosecutor that
lost the election is the one that took the death
penalty off the table. He knows all of it, the good,
the bad, and the ugly, and he cannot take that away.
Even though he's impartial, it's still knowledge that he possesses.
That He's got to factor that in. As far as
(07:07):
I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, of course, I'm just trying to think through what
all the judge knows that a jury would never have known.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's extensive.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
For instance, whenever a judge gets the file, the judge
has an injury would never see this, the person's wrap sheet,
all sorts of even arrests that are not convictions.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
All of that is in the file.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The jury would never ever hear that, And if the
prosecutor tried to bring it up, there would be an
immediate mistrial, granted possibly with prejudice, so the state could
not re try it and not screw up the second time.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
That's right, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Outside outside of her being dedicating her life to helping
other people, she was an incredible scholar athlete. She inspired
other people with as they say, with her kindness. I
wonder what all that means. She was in her low sorority.
(08:14):
They all loved her just, I don't know, kind of
like this precious, beautiful girl that the parents thought, Wow,
how did I how did we get so lucky to
have her?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
You know, that's that's.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Girl, absolutely, and you know there's proof of how just
you can count on her. She was a solid friend,
She was a solid human being. When she went missing,
it wasn't an hour after she should have been home,
and her roommates were on it. They were like, this
is not like her. She doesn't just drop off. She
(08:51):
is where she says she is going to be always.
And I'm going to tell you now. You know, I
got four sisters, and there's one of them. If she
was late, I would be immediately concerned. There's another one.
I mean, it might be three or four days before
we find out where where she Dan John.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Davia will be sitting outside the house in his truck.
Lucy will be no telling. There's just no telling where
Lucy will be when everybody's waiting, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
At the other morning, the other morning.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
They were supposed to be acolytes at the eleven o'clock service, and.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I had already gone over.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I was calling and I'm like, do I have to
march down the aisle with the candle myself?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Get in the car.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Nobody cares about your hair, Lucy, nobody.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You're the only one that cares about your hair.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Now get in the car.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Of course they made it okay, and it's so funny morning.
John David has on that robe and he's six '
six that comes just below his knees and you can
see his sweatpants and his tennis shoes coming out at
the bottom. But that said okay, and then there's perfectly
adorned okay, anyway, that said exactly here when she is not.
She is supposed to be exactly on time. Everybody says
(10:10):
something horrible must have happened.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
They knew it, they knew it was not like her.
And that's what I'm saying. That would be true if Sheila.
It would not be true of my sister Shelley. But
that goes to prove it's not just us saying it.
Her roommates lived it. They knew something is wrong. And
of course, like we've had in other cases, this case,
(10:33):
she's got you know, the smart watch, and it can
tell exactly when her heart stopped beating, so that evidence
came in this morning.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well right in the opening statements, the prosecution slammed it
and Lamb's making notes.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
On Feb.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Two, the prosecutor says, is about Ibarra put on a
black hat, a hoodie style jacket, and black kitchen style
disposable gloves and went hunting for females on the UGA campus.
I mean, when Ross said that, who would put on
(11:15):
beside Brian Coburger, who would put on plastic gloves for
something innocent? I mean, this guy and Brian Coburger are
the only two that I know that would just walk
around wearing plastic gloves.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I mean, right there.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Right there, Sheila Ross is so solid, She's so good.
She is so just mechanical the way she will dissect
the case. She is And I'm telling you, you know,
they might have elected not to have a jury, but
I'm gonna tell you in this case, it ain't gonna matter.
(11:57):
She would have said it the same way showed the evident.
It's the same, you know order, And I think for
me watching her is one of those things I used
to get from you. You leave no stone unturned. And
most people will say because they said this during the
trial up in Delphi. They were like, well, the defense
(12:20):
had enough, so they just ended early. Let me tell
you something, you don't end early. If you have it,
you put it up. And Sheila is gonna put every
nail in that board she can find.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
I had a lot of people argue, you're overdoing it.
It's overkilled. You're putting too much, you're overtrying your case.
And this is my opinion on that, and I stand
firm on it. Better to do it all and overdo
it than to not put up enough, lose your case
and then think, wow, what should have could have? Yeah,
(12:55):
a problem with the defense attorney. I'm not saying it's
not a great lawyer. It's and Kirby arguing an opening
statement evidence would not rude beyond a reasonable doubt that
he Barrow killed Riley, Okay, he said, and I quote
it would take gymnastics for the prosecution to argue Ibarro
killed Likan with quote circumstantial evidence. I don't know about you,
(13:21):
but I find the evidence to be airtight. I don't
consider DNA fingerprint to be circumstantial evidence.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
No, ma'am. And let me tell you, Sheila Ross is
fixing in not it coming each this thing She's going
to have no trouble because not only do you have
DNA and the fingerprint on her phone and a video
of him discarding what he was wearing with her blood
on it. I mean, it's going to go own and
own and own in the time table. You know, you
(13:53):
always tell people that timeline is your money tree. It
is so tight, Nancy. They've got him going and coming,
and he's right there, not in camera shot, but he's
in the camera. He kills her, he's back in camera
discarding evidence that ain't circumstantial, baby, not at all. No.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What was very poignant to me that when the nine
one one picked up, they were saying, hey.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Can anybody hear me?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Because not on one couldn't hear any voices. The only
sound they could hear were birds chirping, you know, and
like a quiet, muffled sound.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Just the fact that as this.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Girl was dying, this beautiful young girl Liaken, you know,
everything was going on as normal, Like the birds were chirping,
people were going to classes, everything was happening normally in
the backdrop, and no one had any idea that Lacn
was fighting for her A lot. I gets the guy
(14:57):
who would come out hunting for a woman, like an animal,
like you know, the coyote looking for the weakest.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Animal it can find, like the hyena.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Looking for the slowest gazelle, just you know, a.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Pad of her.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
He didn't care who it was.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
He was just looking for a woman to attack, and
when she fought back, he wasn't having it, and he
killed her with the most convenient object he could find,
right there on the scene, and then got rid of
the evidence.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I mean, it's so.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Clear to me, you know, being here this morning. We
just broke for lunch, and the officer that testified, he's
walking down the pathway and he's got his brown file
under his arm, that accordion file that we've all had
since the eighties. And I just said to him, I said, hey,
I just want to tell you about Lakeland's case. And
(15:57):
he said, ma'am, I can't discuss it. I said, I
know you can't discuss it. I just want you to
know we have all been thinking of y'all. I mean,
this was a tremendous undertaking. It was horrible for all
of you. And he just said thank you and then
went on into the police department. But that's how everybody is.
The integrity of that case is being maintained just outside
(16:20):
that courthouse.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
The defense is making it sound like this is going
to be a long shot and their circumstantial evidence, Well, no,
because investigator state that they immediately went to a dumpster
nearby and found a believe it was a sweatshirt. They
find a sweatshirt in there, and on the sweatshirt they
(16:42):
find blood and hair. Okay, that dumpster was near the
apartment complex where Ibora lived, hair and blood on it. It
was immediately submitted for testing and it came back with
a mixture. I don't know when all of the DNA
evidence is going to completely come in in front of
(17:04):
the jury, but that DNA was the combination of both
the defendant Ann Lakin's DNA.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Now not only is their video, but there.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Is a witness that positively identifies Ebarra as the one
disposing the sweatshirt. A woman living in Ebar's apartment, Ross
Belly Flores Bellow. I d's the man in the video
as Ebarra done. You know, the judge Haggard and I'm
(17:37):
not saying this is going to affect his opinion or
his decision at all.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
You know, he's a crime victim.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
His father was killed, shot and killed nearing an armed
robbery at a housing complex when he was working as
a salesman.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Well again, I know somebody else that dedicated their life
because somebody they loved was murdered, and it does affect you.
It should affect you, Nancy. I'm one of those people
when they say, don't show the jury these photographs. It
could inflame them. Dad Gummet, it ought to inflame them.
That's why they have that duty. The judge should see it,
(18:15):
The jury should see it. The public should see it
if they want to. You want to know what murder is.
It's ugly, it's horrific, it's horrible, but that should factor
into your decision. As far as I'm concerned, this isn't
something where people say, oh, well, I didn't realize, you know,
a fistfight looked like that. I just can't even watch boxing.
(18:36):
If boxing upsets you, you have no idea none. And
to me again, when you're going to take somebody's freedom,
you ought to know one hundred percent why.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I just hate it.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I hate it for her family and the people that
love her. But in years, God willing, there's a guilty
verdict in years to come, they will look back and
appreciate that this happened, that someone stood up for Lakan
and gave it two hundred percent at trial, because.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
What if they didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
What if it was a half assed job and they
lost the case, so they made bad decisions during the case,
or they didn't really work the case. I've seen it
happen and you get a bad verdict, but not in
this case.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That is not happening.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
In this case, that is not going to happen. Next
to you. Sheila Ross is the best I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I appreciate that because she is really good. Okay, I
wurn it upward back in the courtroom.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Thea by guys
Host
Sheryl McCollum
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