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a warning to listeners that this episode contains graphic depictions of violence just over 2 years since Aaron
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left the Marine base and never came back her family finally had the answer of what happened to her and who did it
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Christopher Lee killed her for the first time they finally learned his story why
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according to Aaron's killer she allegedly abused his daughter the court was shocked by Chris Le's testimony it
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was hard to believe it kind of came out of left field it kind of seemed like it was this last attempt to paint Aaron in
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a in a horrible light to make some type of excuse for his behavior and it was hard to watch NCIS analyst Ashley deelin
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kept up with the case thanks to reporter Beth Ford Roth's blog and the national news coverage since ncis's official
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involvement in Aaron story had concluded the NCIS agents had done their job they helped find Aaron and the
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person who killed her but special agent Clifton Randolph Jr said it was hard to move on from a case they had worked on
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so intensely years before it never goes away especially when you you had such a big role in it in the news coverage the
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agents remembered seeing a side of Chris Lee that chilled them when I saw it his testimony I was
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surprised by what he said that he had done to Aaron Corell I was surprised that he admitted what he did in the
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detail that he did I I was surprised by his spcial Expressions kind of like he was reading off the script yeah the
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script it was shocking and almost robotic but was Chris Lee telling the truth I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie
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Morales this is 48 Hours NCIS episode 6 Last Breath the air in the courtroom when he testified I think initially uh
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became very very heavy prosecutor sha D was seated at the prosecution's table the one closest to the jury when Chris
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testified you could feel the emotions in the courtroom you could see it on the juror's
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faces could have heard a pin drop I think very quiet very serious very heavy prosecutor dty said the court was
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silent when Chris claimed that many months before he killed Aaron his wife Nicole was giving their daughter a bath
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when she noticed something wrong and that Nicole said I I think that maybe she's been molested and I think Aaron
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did it reporter Beth Ford Roth sat in her usual seat in the courtroom right behind Aaron's mother lore she had
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watched every second of the trial making note of every piece of evidence she didn't want to miss anything in her
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daily write up for the blog she knew the rest of Aaron's family would be following along and this part would be
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especially difficult for them to read up to this point the court knew that Aaron would sometimes babysit Chris
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and Nicole's daughter so it might have seemed plausible to the jurors that something could have happened to the
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Le's daughter and that Aaron could have done it but the time came for prosecutor d to
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cross-examine Chris and DH was prepared for something like this Chris's last ditch attempt to save himself he spoke
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to lur first to prepare her for this possibility when Sean first told me I was just like you there's just no way
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absolutely no way Aon would do anything like that sha had actually asked him if they'd noticed
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any difference in their daughter's Behavior once this supposedly all started and Chris answered no like why
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in the world are you even asking me this you know Chris had made the allegation now he had to prove it Beth
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watched how quickly the claim dissolved Under Pressure did they call military police
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no did they go to a pediatrician who would have been requ fired to call the police no there was no evidence entered
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in by anyone to say there's evidence this child was molested special agent Randolph said the
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NCIS never received a report about the Lee's daughter on the 29 Palms Marine base it was known protocol that anyone
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on base who has any sort of problem any criminal matter could and should report it to NCIS
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there's at least one agent working 24 hours a day that can take any report of any wrongdoing especially on a military
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installation and we don't operate in secret we interact with the commands and say hey we're here we're here to assist
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so that's why I was shocked being in that area that was never reported to us clearly if Aaron actually abused the
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Lee's daughter her parents didn't appear to take it it very seriously to say well oh we thought
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Aaron did it like 6 months ago but we kept letting her babysit and you know I was still having romantic relationship
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with her no we didn't tell anyone we just sort of Let It Go it didn't make any sense at all but as for why this
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allegation came up now that made perfect sense well the reason to do this was to
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get the jury to vote for voluntary manslaughter voluntary manslaughter is the crime of killing another person in
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circumstances that do not amount to murder for example killing without premeditation that's what the defense
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attorney in his closing arguments said that this was not premeditated very last minute he didn't think about it at all
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until he was actually doing it he didn't really know what he was doing and it was
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brought in by this incredible love for his daughter and protection for his daughter and therefore he would not be
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guilty of first-degree murder not even second deegree murder but voluntary manslaughter when Chris Lee was arrested
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he was charged with first-degree murder killing with a full intention to kill it's the most serious type of murder and
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punished accordingly in California if you are convicted of first-degree murder you
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face 25 years to life in state prison if you are convicted of voluntary manslaughter it's a much lesser
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punishment you face a sentence of up to 11 years in state prison and a fine of up to
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$10,000 so if prison was unavoidable Chris wanted to do as little time as possible I argued during the trial that
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he wasn't confessing out of some sense of remorse or sadness or anything else he couldn't care less about that or
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Aaron for that matter he was telling them that story in the hopes that someone by uh the heat of passion
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argument and in order for anyone to believe the heat of passion argument his child abuse allegation against Aaron
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would have to be airtight the jury would have to believe it to be true it was horrifying because the only
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thing worse than a murderer is a child Mester and so Christopher Brandon Lee tried to make himself the second most
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terrible person in this story and if Aaron was the worst person then he would have been Justified for what he did in
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the courtroom Beth couldn't believe what she was hearing my reaction was immediate emotion I had to put my head
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down because I began to cry this man not only broke this poor girl's heart he murdered her and now to save his own
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skin he was going to try and ruin her name and turn her into some sort of monster it was so
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horrific and I have a flash of looking at the jury and the jury's face reflected that it sounded like an
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absolute complete and total lie there was no evidence Aaron Corin was molesting his daughter other than from
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him uh his story was ridiculous even from the basic fact of a 19-year-old girl being out in the middle of the
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desert with someone she loves and according to him confessing to a horrible crime just doesn't pass the smell test
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at all in the very first row of the courtroom lur sat listening she watched Chris Lee admit to killing her daughter
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and then she had to watch him try to avoid responsibility in order to shave off a few years from a prison
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sentence Chris was trying to cover all his bases trying to do whatever he needed to do to make things less
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horrible for him prosecutor DH had one more thread to pull that he hadn't [Music]
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already according to Chris's testimony he found out about Aaron allegedly abusing his daughter from his wife
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Nicole Lee so Nicole was sort of this little Insidious thread throughout the trial the jury never saw her testify but
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she was there and her name was mentioned and there was always a suspicion of what
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did she know when did she know it there were no charges against Nicole and while she was kept on call as a
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witness for both sides at points in the trial she was never called to testify spousal privilege means that
00:10:50
wives don't have to testify against their husbands and the defense never did end up calling Nicole for reasons that
00:10:58
are unclear she told more than one person that she didn't care if Aaron had died that if
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there's no body there's no case and that they'll never find the body and that her
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husband needs to keep his story straight so there's every indication that Nicole knew in my opinion but no
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charges have been brought against her it was only when the judge was questioning Chris's heat of passion
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argument that Nicole was called to court after Christopher brenon Lee testified that Aaron had abused his
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daughter and that was the reason why he had killed her the prosecutor asked that Nicole be
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brought into the courtroom when Nicole arrived in court she seemed at peace she had a big smile on her face she was
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wearing her husband's dog tags you know she was dressed business suit make up just everything was great Nicole stood
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in the middle of the court in front of prosecutor dhy and the judge D said if Nicole's daughter really was put in
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danger if Aaron really was abusing her he was prepared to call the child to the stand as soon as the prosecutor said you
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need to have your daughter available to be brought in as a witness she started to shake
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and got very very angry I think she was absolutely shocked that the prosecutor sort of called their
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Bluff and said okay if you're going to use your daughter as a tool to try and get your husband off of
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murdering his mistress we're going to ask her questions if she was really abused that we should want to find out
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what happened to her according to Beth Nicole stormed out of the courtroom Beth felt Nicole's emotional response wasn't
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out of concern for her daughter's well-being it was almost like at that moment she realized that that lie wasn't
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going to work and that her husband was going to get convicted of murder so if Aaron was innocent why
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would Chris kill her to prosecutor DH Chris's motive was clear here Chris Le killed Aaron Corwin
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because he didn't want the baggage of a child with another woman and the fact that she was going to be a part of his
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life for the rest of his life Chris when he was on the stand was talking about the fact that he joined the Marines
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because he wanted to protect our country and he had several deployments but none of them involved him being in
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action and he was very very disappointed that he did not get to kill anybody he actually said that he said
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that if that was painful for lore to hear the next bit was excruciating a warning to listeners that
00:14:15
what you're about to hear is graphic I knew about the garot before the trial it was still around her
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neck as prosecutor d cross-examined Chris on the stand he felt Chris's story and the way he told it made murdering
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Aaron sound sort of sterile and one-dimensional doy needed to help the jury better visualize the crime he had a
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strategy he had prepared lore for it as he knew she would be watching in the courtroom Sean warned me that he was
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going to have Chris demonstrate how he used the garot and I did not watch it when I cross cross examined Chris Le and
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we reached the point where I was bringing out the dummy and the garat uh I believe my question was show me how
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you did it show me how you killed her reporter Beth Ford Roth was seated near the front of the courtroom as usual
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her eyes fixed on Chris she watched as he stepped down from the stand the prosecutor had sort of a um it
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looked like a r giant rag doll basically a a humanized doll and he asked Christopher Lee to demonstrate on the
00:15:32
doll how he used the garat on Aaron Corwin I was absolutely shocked because he had no emotion about it it was kind
00:15:42
of like oh okay yeah I'll do that Chris Lee faced the court his back to the judge Beth couldn't look
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away we can see his face the doll is in front of him he puts the garat around the doll 's neck and then he when he
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twists it he turns around and the doll went up it flew up in the air Beth heard a gasp the
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demonstration was violent but Chris didn't seem aware of this he continued when he twisted it he wasn't
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facing her anymore she was back to back with him he didn't have to look at her when he was doing
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this the people in court didn't have to imagine Aaron's shock or how her body responded because she was so tiny her
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feet would have flown up in the air and they never did find her shoes when she was down there they must have
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flown off her feet Beth's eyes moved from Chris to lore I sat there and put my head down
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and closed my eyes while he was demonstrating what he had done to my daughter and then the prosecutor
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timed what happened just so that the jury could see how many moments how many seconds
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how many minutes he had to change his mind and stop doing what he was doing to save Aaron's
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life ear earlier in the trial the medical examiner had testified that it would have taken 20 seconds for Aaron to
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black out which means that for 20 seconds she experienced pure conscious panic and so the prosecutor timed out 20
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seconds of what she must have experienced and I would ask him every 20 seconds or so could have stopped you
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could have stopped you could have stopped the jurors reactions they're right in front of me they're squirming in their
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chairs uh several of them are tearing up I think a lot of us hoped it was she didn't see it coming at least she didn't
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know what was about to happen to her but she did the medical examiner testified that
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it would have taken 4 and 1 half to 5 minutes for Aaron to die Chris stood with the dummy hanging
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over his shoulder it's legs kicked out and Limp he held the garat taut until he was told to stop it was dead silent and
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um I got the point across I I I did I I stopped they get it it was so brutal to know that he just stayed there after she
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was no longer conscious and and held her like that for 4 minutes to make sure she was dead
00:19:00
the demonstration proved that Aaron's death was no accident regardless of whether it was voluntary manslaughter or
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first-degree murder what I was showing is the to the jury is he had plenty of time to think about life letting someone
00:19:14
live or think about killing them and once you've had that opportunity that's premeditation Liberation when you choose
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death and that's certainly what he did and and he could have stopped which even further shows premeditation Del
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liberation in the desert with the garat still around Aaron's neck Chris had to get rid
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of her body the prosecutor asked how Aaron ended up in the mine and he said I dragged her with the garat and she went
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down head first into the mine he didn't initially want to answer eventually he admitted that's the way he
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did it it was important for the jurors to hear that it was important for everyone to hear that that he he did he
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threw down like a piece of garbage lur kept her head down during the demonstration but she knew she would
00:20:08
never forget it one thing that does kind of haunt me is what was going through her brain what was she thinking when he
00:20:15
was joking her she was with somebody that she thought loved her somebody she felt she could
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trust and my only Saving Grace is I choose to believe that she was unconscious very quick that she didn't
00:20:38
have much time to think about it after three full days in court spread across the month of October
00:20:54
2016 the judge sent the jury to deliberate the day the jury went out I was so totally drained that I
00:21:05
literally was tripping just walking I could not pick my feet up reporter Beth Ford Roth recalled that it
00:21:13
didn't take long for the jury to come back with a decision so the jury was given the case the last day of trial
00:21:21
after the closing arguments that afternoon and by the next morning they had a verdict it was just
00:21:29
a very scary day cuz you just don't know you know what are all these people thinking when
00:21:36
the jury filed in I mean you're still very apprehensive you know I don't have a good read on them the courtroom held
00:21:44
its breath awaiting the verdict Christopher Brandon Lee was convicted of first-degree murder and
00:21:52
sentenced to life without the possibility of parole when they read that the verdict I you know immediately
00:22:02
thought we've got Justice for you Aaron prosecutor sha dar's strategies in court had paid off the special
00:22:12
circumstance allegation in the case was ly and wait and that is he essentially waited and watched for an opportunity to
00:22:19
act to kill with the intent to kill all the evidence in this case pointed that that's exactly what he did Chris sat in
00:22:26
the defendant's chair in handcuffs his expression did not change I didn't look over at him I I've
00:22:33
heard he didn't react at all behind him his mother started to cry lur Aaron's mother fixed her eyes on
00:22:43
Chris Chris would not look at me when he was sitting on the stand and saying how
00:22:50
sorry he was that he did this to her I literally stared at him during that time and he would not look up at me you know
00:22:59
if you're truly sorry look at me and tell me you're sorry but he would not look at
00:23:05
[Music] me Chris was led away in handcuffs the judge returned to his Chambers and the
00:23:15
rest of the room filed out after four long days in court and 2 years since Aaron's murder perhaps the community
00:23:23
could finally start healing but there would be no peace for lore not yet Chris wasn't done fighting he
00:23:33
filed an appeal on November 29th 2016 the day of the sentencing hearing in his appeal Chris claimed that had the jury
00:23:41
been more fully instructed it could have found that he did not premeditate and deliberate The Killing and therefore the
00:23:50
jury could have convicted him of second degree murder instead of first-degree murder the Appellate Court disagreed and
00:23:58
affirmed the judgment and they're basically saying you have nothing to stand on but then his attorney has a chance to
00:24:07
reply again this could go on for years and years and years and years it's just like you're going along
00:24:16
just fine and then all of a sudden someone rips your emotional scab off again today Chris is in prison in San
00:24:25
Bernardino County since he lost the appeal he filed in 2016 he has not filed another and since the day he was
00:24:33
sentenced when he couldn't look lore in the eyes it's not clear whether he feels
00:24:39
any real remorse for taking Aaron's life you know he's stolen so much from us but I also talked about the huge
00:24:49
ripple effect you know yes it affects us it affects her siblings it affects her nieces and nephews it affects her
00:24:57
friends but lore demonstrates an unbelievable Grace I felt a peace that couldn't be
00:25:08
explained pretty much through the whole trial I had so many people praying for me that's the only way I can explain the
00:25:14
peace that I felt I have no hate or animosity towards Chris I've forgiven him a long time
00:25:24
ago if I was hateful and bitter it wasn't going to bother Chris at all it would destroy
00:25:31
me and I decided he's already taken enough from me he's not going to get my heart my mind my soul lur knows that
00:25:40
Aaron is not the only victim here not only did he throw Aaron under the bus he threw his daughter under the bus I mean
00:25:48
what's she going to think when she grows up and Googles all this with astonishing
00:25:53
empathy lur thinks of the rest of Chris's Family Y when his mom gave birth to him and holding him the dream she had
00:26:01
for him and surely this wasn't one of her dreams and how proud was she of him when he played football and how proud
00:26:09
was she of him when he joined the Marines and how excited was she when he was getting discharge and coming home
00:26:15
not only did he destroy our family he destroyed his fames too following his sentencing Chris Le's
00:26:35
military service record was amended with a dishonorable discharge Beth Ford Roth with her
00:26:42
reporting background on military family life says this is a huge deal so you're never supposed to say that someone is an
00:26:50
ex-marine he's an xmarine after he was honorably discharged he was dishonorably discharged with dishonorable discharge
00:26:58
charge status the US government does not legally consider Chris Lee a veteran and
00:27:04
therefore he cannot receive veteran benefits it is an indelible mark on his service permanent for the rest of his
00:27:12
life and while this doesn't have a serious effect on Chris serving a life sentence it means his family isn't
00:27:20
eligible for benefits either but as far as we can tell Nicole is still married to Chris we couldn't find divorce
00:27:28
records her latest address is listed as Chris's mom's house in Alaska at the White Rock horse rescue
00:27:38
where Aaron and the Lee family first came together Isabelle megley has reminders of Aron everywhere I had her
00:27:46
horse her horse just passed away every time I saw that horse I thought of her Aaron's murder changed how Isabelle runs
00:27:54
the horse rescue I learned that anything can happen that the friendship I had with a volunteer is now different I
00:28:04
don't trust uh I I can't believe what they say and it has changed me to be a little
00:28:12
harder but for the best because it can happen and you can see in this instant good went to bad in a
00:28:21
minute Beth maintains that it was a formative court case for her to cover as a journalist she thinks of Aaron often
00:28:30
but there's this feeling of oh my gosh it all could have stopped at age 19 and it could have been me it could have
00:28:40
been my older sister it could have been any 19-year-old girl who fell in love with the wrong guy prosecutor Shawn DH
00:28:48
still defends Aaron in a sense he remembers how vulnerable she was I I've heard the sentiment that Aaron was at
00:28:56
fault for having an affair um I just always thought it was important to keep in mind her age and her lack of
00:29:04
experience as for John Aaron's husband he is as enigmatic as ever we know he was remarried after Aaron's murder and
00:29:13
they had a child he's divorced now the NCIS agents officially closed the case once Chris was convicted but
00:29:24
Aaron's story stays with them when you work a case like that everyone's ultimate goal is to get Justice for the
00:29:30
victim and to ensure that families have closure and obviously it was a very sad circumstance
00:29:37
and a very sad thing that occurred and I think my main focus was are we getting Justice for Aaron and her family and the
00:29:44
people who loved her in Aaron's case the NCIS agents helped ensure that Justice was served
00:29:53
but her case was just one of many investigations that the agents were conducting at the time Aaron Corwin was
00:30:01
just one victim who special agent Randolph and analyst DCH hin fought for you're working cases simultaneously
00:30:10
there's always mail coming in you know deliveries are going out but males coming in it's a constant process so
00:30:17
there's no moving on really it's compartmentalized this is what I'm working with here this is what I'm
00:30:23
working with here okay we got a conviction here uh did we do everything we needed to do to shore this up and
00:30:29
ensure that we did everything on our part so you're never really over like because I I still I remember that case I
00:30:36
haven't forgotten [Music] it we are at the Min shaft where Aaron's body was found in March 2018 almost four
00:30:50
years after Aaron's murder lur visits the place for the first time where her daughter took her last breaths she goes
00:30:58
with 48 Hours producer Paul L Rosa I wanted the opportunity to be able to come up here to have like a memorial
00:31:08
service for her like you see the flowers on the side of the road when someone has
00:31:13
passed away I wanted to remember the last place where my daughter was alive in the desert lur stands at the
00:31:24
opening of the mine shaft Wind Blows against the Sands it's hard to imagine how desolate it is here pictures don't
00:31:34
do it justice it's very desolate very vast but Beauty just a different kind of beauty Laura bows her
00:31:48
head Aaron Renee our sweet precious daughter sister Aunt friend when you were taken from us we lost our breath of
00:31:57
fresh air shy loving nurturing trusting naive animal Whisperer you were such a wonderful young lady a gift from God we
00:32:05
were a blessed to be chosen to be your family I'm sure the Angels were saying come to Jesus as you left us
00:32:14
here my ear and size hole in my heart is a little bit deeper right now to know that this was
00:32:27
where her life was taken from her didn't know that she had dreams that were stolen from
00:32:35
her memories that were taken from us in in this spot times that we could have spent
00:32:42
together do you feel Aaron here no Aaron's not here Aaron's in Heaven from CBS News and CBS Studios
00:32:59
this is 48 Hours NCIS original reporting by 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa Anthony Batson is
00:33:07
the senior producer for 48 hours Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount audio special thanks to 48
00:33:15
Hours executive producer Judy igard CBS studi senior vice president Rob luchow and Paramount audio vice president Megan
00:33:24
Marcus our podcast was written and produced by J vbl Isabelle Kirby Macwan Cara shillin Max Johnston Megan adoli
00:33:34
and Ian Enright additional reporting and recording by Isabelle Kirby McGowan Jay
00:33:40
venables and Megan adoli our executive producers are Megan adoli and Ian Enright theme and music by epidemic
00:33:49
sound original music from goat rodo with additional music from Paramount Final Mix by Rebecca Sidell Ian Enright is our
00:33:58
fact Checker our production manager is Megan adoli I'm Natalie Morales if you're
00:34:05
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