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General you may proceed with your opening remarks thank you [Music] I don't know that I know that I can tell
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you why I don't know but I'm not required to prove why she did it just that she did I
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say it's a very old simple Farm uh however very effective this is a tough case this is a purely
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circumstantial case isn't it absolutely it is I'm Erin Moriarty 48 hours and this is part three of married to
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death one of the strangest cases I've ever covered with a truly unexpected and shocking ending
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now let's return to the Knox County Tennessee courtroom where the trial of raynella Leith the murder of her second
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husband David is underway it's May 2017.4 for Knox County Tennessee division one is Alpha percentage of
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German senior judge Paul Summers provided good morning that senior judge Paul Summers he's
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handling the third murder trial of reynella Lee third trial for reynella lathe and you
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have to pick a jury how worried are you when I spoke with brainella's defense attorneys Josh Hedrick and Rebecca
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Legrand they were worried they wouldn't be able to find enough people who hadn't already heard about
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raynella I was I was very concerned Rebecca was more concerned I was I was very concerned there is no way to put
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out of your mind what you've read when you've read 10 years of this coverage of calling renella a black widow you can't
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put that out of your mind and that was everywhere so yeah I was very worried that we were going to be starting from
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so far back from so far from the presumption of innocence that you should have that it was going to be this an
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incredibly uphill battle they tried to have the case moved out of Knoxville and they asked for a change of venue but
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judge Summers was having none of it and this was a major issue going into this trial here's my producer Josh Gainer
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could they find a group of men and women to put on this jury who had never heard
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about a woman who's been on front pages of newspapers for decades and they tried
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to have it moved but what what was interesting to me is yes when we first started on this trial
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we thought it's going to be very hard to find jurors who hadn't heard about reynella Leith over the last 14 years as
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it turns out Knoxville is that college town and it's a town where people move in and move out and it turns out that
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they had no trouble finding jurors who had never heard of reynella leave so instead of waiting for days to try to
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choose jurors and putting off the trial day and a half and we were off and running in this trial
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16 that your lord are present and accountable 16 jurors are chosen and will sit for
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the entire trial but only 12 of them will actually decide reynella Lee's fate four will be alternates
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but they're not notified until right before deliberation there are 12 Men Four Women all white
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except for one Hispanic man at this point I always wonder what's the defense thinking are they concerned that
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women will be harsher judges is that why there are more men the 16 are a variety of Ages and they
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all come from different backgrounds there's a coffee roaster with a family history of dementia a Walmart pharmacist
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a farmer and a grocery store worker as jurors you are the ones that will decide the case
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this is a complicated case and it's time to get into the nitty-gritty of what both sides think happened to David Lee
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trial begins with the state's case General you might proceed with your opening remarks thank you that's Stephen
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Crump sometimes you'll hear the judge call him General he's not in the military but in
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Tennessee the D.A is called a district attorney general here's Josh again he's an elected
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official and somewhat newly uh to his position he didn't have to take this case on
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himself he could have allowed one of his deputies to do it so he took it on himself which is it was an interesting
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point coming in is he put himself out there a little bit as well but clearly thought strongly that he had had a good
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case if you remember raynella's first husband Ed Dawson was also a D.A in Knox County
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and he's still well known around the courthouses here so the current D.A removed herself from
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the case even Crump on the other hand he's from a different County he's entirely fresh and
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new to this case this is a tough case this is a purely circumstantial case isn't it absolutely it is and you don't
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have like an eyewitness no you don't have any kind of direct evidence that says raynella Leith killed David Lee that's
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right Trump told me what he thinks happened with raynell and David in that bedroom the morning of March 13
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2003. I think she walked up to the side of the bed intended to make it a one shot is going to be a suicide it was
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going to look like a suicide and she missed and then it changed the dynamic of everything that came after that
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she ended his life with that second shot and then in an attempt to cover up and make the scene out to be what it needed
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to look like she fired that third shot to get gunshot residue on him that's what I think
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says the way David Leith was found just didn't add up for investigators he was tucked in
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there was a pillow between his legs he was naked you heard David Lee about David Lee he
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was a proud man he liked to look good he liked to he liked to show himself you really think that's the way that he
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would want to leave naked with a pill between his legs [Music] Josh says that nearly everyone we spoke
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with mentioned David Lee's near obsession with his physical appearance and the way he's seen in town this is uh
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outside Knoxville Tennessee by all accounts he was a very Macho masculine type of guy in in somewhat of a macho
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masculine sort of environment he was very into cars he worked with his hands on the farm he went to tanning salons he
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got plastic surgery for his face his pants were always perfectly tailored everybody says everything on him was
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perfectly manicured at all time and he was so self-conscious of about the way that he looked the way the Cindy says is
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that he always wore his sunglasses even during pictures as we discussed in a previous episode The prosecution doesn't
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have to give the jury a motive for murder but Crump knows that the jurors will be
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thinking about it we've talked about the Angles and we come down to why I told you that I don't
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know that I could tell you why she did here I don't know but I'm not a part of a group why she did it just that she did
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despite not having a motive it was still plain to Josh and me that the prosecution was presenting a certain
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narrative about reynella what the prosecution wants the jury to believe is that not only did raynella kill her
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husband David Leith but it had been a in-process planned going on for weeks months a real cold-blooded calculating
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killer someone who is able to execute her husband in bed go to see her mother-in-law at the hospital talk to
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her stepdaughter go see her daughter at school and have all of those people except for Cindy of course say there was
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nothing out of the ordinary most trials are whodunits who committed the murder but in this case Krampus yet even
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established that David Leith was murdered let alone that raynella leave was the one who killed him
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to prove his case crumb is relying on two key pieces of evidence one is the gun the other is the blood spatter found on
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the headboard of David's bed those three shots were fired at remarkably different
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angles if you remember there were three shots fired here's Steve Crump during opening
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statements one striking the headboard going into the wall and exploding chips of wood into the
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back of the hair of David Lee's head you'll hear another bullet entered his forehead
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you're a third bullet entered the bed at the angle you see there downward and was recovered from the
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floor Crump believes those bullets tell the story we'll explain how in a second but let's start with the gun itself they
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found a handgun 38 caliber Colt police special positive is the name of the weapon that positive
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the six shot revolver and it's important and you will see why we missed the conclusion of my opening it's
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important that this was a revolver and you will hear that after the brain stem was severed he was no longer capable
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of moving firing that gun a third round was fired and we know that because you will hear that the third
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round was the one that was different Crump says David Leith was incapacitated and couldn't have fired the gun a third
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time he relies on Expert Witnesses like Don Carmen call your next witness god of the state
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calls Don Carmen Carmen is a Firearms expert and he's a former agent with the Tennessee Bureau
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of Investigation he led the team that analyzed the gun back in 2003. for 30 years I was a forensic scientist with
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the Tennessee Bureau Investigation Carmen took the revolver down in front of the jury box to show jurors how it
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works I say it's a very old simple Farm uh however very effective it's a revolver with a cylinder that holds the
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bullets in individual Chambers in this case six think of those guns in the old western movies where you can spin that
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round section that holds the bullets and then click it back into place that's the
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cylinder a few things happen when this particular gun is fired first each bullet casing
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stays in the cylinder in the exact same spot it started second when the triggers pulled a small
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circular indentation called a hammer strike is left on the empty casing it looks like a small dimple like if you
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were to poke the tip of a pencil into a piece of clay [Music] and third every time the gun fires that
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cylinder rotates now if you notice the cylinder this particular cylinder moves clockwise
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to line up the next bullet in this case we know three shots were fired investigators say they can tell which
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was fired first and they say they took a photo of that open cylinder as they found it
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uh the first cartridge fired would be this one so that you can see it in your mind
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think of the gun cylinder like a clock the first spec cartridge is at four o'clock the second would be this one the
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second spec cartridge is at two o'clock and the third would be this one and the third is straight up at noon or
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12 o'clock investigators say they got lucky because the gum was loaded with two different kinds of ammunition same
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caliber different brands and colors two silver Remington bullets one gold Winchester
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first two fired cartridges at four and two o'clock are silver their fragments were found in the headboard and in
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David's head and the last fired round at 12 o'clock in the cylinder was the Lone gold
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Winchester shot through the mattress the prosecution says that that proves the last bullet was fired after David
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was already shot in the head this is a crucial piece of evidence for the state in court Stephen Crump asked the medical
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examiner Dr darinka malusanec to explain why it matters who datedly sprained stem was transected
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what happened to his body when you hear stories about somebody falling like a board somebody just basically becomes
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flaccid and totally paralyzed that's what happens was David Lee in any way capable of any sort of
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voluntary movement after that bull has transected his brain none whatsoever in other words the state says David Leith
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could not have physically fired that final shot there just simply is no other explanation a suicide simply does not
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explain all of that the only conceivable answer in our mind was that it was Amazon and then there's the blood
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spatter that's the trail of blood that Stephen Crump considers to be his most compelling evidence
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but where all this falls apart or anything except homicide is where the blood spatter is found
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[Music] when David Leith was shot in the head blood from that injury landed on the
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headboard and the wall behind it forensic experts use those stains to estimate that David's head was
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approximately a foot above the mattress when he was shot a foot above the only way that all of this works
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together is that if regularly the standing at the side of the bed and she misses with that first shot and we
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know that the first shot was the one that went into the headboard because David Lee's hair was found in the divot
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that was created by the bullet going into the headboard we know that his head was below that
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because there was wood particles in his hair and so the first shot happens the only thing that could have happened is
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that he raises up his hair goes through there and is trapped against the headboard and so it stays on the
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headboard the second shot occurs and he falls straight back down to where it was
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found [Music] words Crump believes that David's killer shot the headboard jolting David awake
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then shot again and hit David in the head causing him to fall back down isn't it possible that David was trying to
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shoot himself missed and then just tried again I mean no it's not the blood spatter that was on
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the headboard and on the wall behind the headboard does not provide a basis for that to
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happen that is in line with the laws of physics what is physics enough to convince
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jurors that a murder occurred because the defense insists that that very same evidence points to David Lee as the
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shooter that each and every one of these shots each and every one of these trajectories
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could have been accomplished by David Leith himself both sides have their own experts to
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back up their cases there's a difference between innocent and not guilty I have no idea if she's innocent I truly
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believe she's not guilty if we interpret not guilty as being no proof was offered
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that reynella Leith shot and murdered her husband so I have no idea as a human being whether she's innocent or not as a
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forensic pathologist at least on the evidence that I've been privy to there's no way on Earth I think she's guilty
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[Music] I'm Aaron Moriarty 48 hours and that's part three of married to death this podcast series Married to death is
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developed by 48 hours in partnership with CBS News Radio Judy tigardt is executive producer Nancy Kramer is our
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executive story editor Mike filet and Alan Pang are the series producer editors this episode was produced by Josh Gainer
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Lisa freed and Luis Geraldo and edited by Mike McHugh Dwayne Tolleson Jamie Benson and Meghan Marcus
00:19:00
thanks to composer Richard piocca for his original scores Gabriella de mergian and Morgan Canty
00:19:09
are our associate producers Kayla cadell is our production associate thank you to Craig swagler the vice
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president and general manager of CBS News Radio and finally a shout out to all of you
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our fans we owe it to all of you the millions of fans of 48 hours in the U.S and around the world don't forget to
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join me online I am at EF Moriarty on Twitter and we are at 48 Hours on Twitter Facebook and Instagram see you
00:19:47
soon