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[Music] up next a young woman is murdered after years of domestic abuse he's beat her before he shot at her but
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the ex-boyfriend isn't the only suspect people will report the crime just to steer suspicion away from them
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it's a crime where things aren't always what they seem there were hamburger buns
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thrown all over the bathroom floor even as a youngster christina sanubain had dreams of working
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in the news business christina just want to be a journalist she said mom i cannot be a doctor for
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you mom i cannot be a lawyer for you but her plans were stalled by an unexpected pregnancy
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in her senior year in high school she'd made some bad choices with the people she associated with and
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the kinds of things she did for recreation including a fair amount of drug use it appeared
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christina dropped out of high school had the baby and moved in with jacob hadley the
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father of her child unfortunately that didn't appear to work out either jacob regularly knocked her around she
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was seen with bruises and and was very open about it somebody would ask her why why where she got that bruise and
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she'd say oh jacob beat me no matter what how he treat her she just cannot be apart from jacob
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i don't know why i asked her can you leave him no mom i'm i can't i love him very much
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in 1999 jacob shot christina in the face with a pellet gun and spent three days behind bars she
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actually had a diary where she described some of her struggles and her desire to start out fresh
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and to make a good life for her and her young son he criticizes me he puts me down and
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physically abuses me after three years i'm just starting to realize that i was the only one in love
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finally christina and the baby moved out into a duplex apartment a few miles away
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four days after christina moved one of her friends stopped by to see how she was doing
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he rang the bell but there was no answer the door was locked when he looked through
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a screened window he saw christina's two-year-old son alone and crying he thought he heard the child say
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mommy's dead and that prompted him into action he removed the screen climbed inside and found christina
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semi-clothed face down in a bathtub full of water he rushed outside and asked the next
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door neighbor to call 911 was pronounced dead at the scene the child possibly witnessed his own
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mother's murder and that's that's horrifying to me investigators found evidence that the initial attack took
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place in the kitchen the victim's sandals were found squarely in the middle of the
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kitchen it was almost as though she was struck with such force that had knocked her right out of
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her sandals our crime scene investigators found a metal collar that could have belonged on
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a frying pan handle she was hit with such force that it knocked her teeth out christina had been stabbed to death with
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a knife but no knife was found at the scene at first i got mad at god why you let her die this way why you
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take her away from me this way to investigators it was clear the killer had tried to hide his
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tracks well it looked like the person that killed her i tried to wash away some evidence
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while cleaning up however he tracked the bloody footprints all over the bathroom floor into the kitchen
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and back it was a curious thing why he why he was barefoot i we just really weren't sure
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and there was something else extremely unusual in the bathroom there were hamburger
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buns thrown all over the bathroom floor it looked like a bag of hamburger buns had just been opened
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and tossed around but they couldn't find the wrapper anywhere in the apartment you have to wonder what goes through a
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person's mind that kills someone and then leaves a child behind to sit there in that bloody crime
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scene christina's ex-boyfriend jacob was the prime suspect jacob certainly had had motive he was
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separated from his child and they had separated they had a rocky past jacob did this
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everybody thought in my family thought that jacob did it the crime scene showed signs that
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christina sanubain knew her killer there was no forced entry and nothing was stolen
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i don't believe robbery was ever an issue it was about something else could have been about drugs it could
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have been about rejection it could have been about anything but but it wasn't robbery
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at the autopsy the medical examiner found evidence christina had been sexually assaulted
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her throat had been cut at autopsy it revealed that her trachea had been totally severed
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when the knife is used on a victim that's very much up close and personal there was no toxicology screening test
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done on christina and this is because dr erlers could not get any blood an x-ray showed a metal pellet lodged in
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christina's face a stark reminder of the time her ex-boyfriend jacob hadley shot her with
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a pellet gun just 18 months earlier they've had a fight all the time and who's going to
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kill her except jacob the most dangerous time for a domestic abuse victim is shortly after she tries to make a
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clean break from her abuser and she had just done this in a big way she had moved away
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investigators interrogated christina's ex-boyfriend jacob immediately after her murder he said
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that on the night of the murder he was a half hour away jacob produced two very credible
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witnesses to testify that he had been drinking with them as a matter of fact they were
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members of the university of iowa women's track team but the medical examiner estimated the
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time of death could have been any time between 9 pm and 3 am and not all of jacob's time could be accounted
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for the evidence at the crime scene indicated the perpetrator was probably someone
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christina knew other evidence suggested it was someone who lived close by for example the killer wasn't wearing
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shoes when you have a barefoot print in blood it's obviously someone that's close to
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the scene whether it's someone that lives in the residence or someone close by people generally don't run around
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barefoot as a matter of course and inside the bathroom investigators found a possible
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explanation for why the hamburger buns were there they found the clip to the hamburger
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buns on the floor in the bathroom so it appeared that the hamburger buns had been opened in the bathroom
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but they never found the bag that the hamburger buns came in we surmised that the killer may have
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used the wrapper to wrap the knife in so that as he carried the knife out of the
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apartment it wouldn't drip blood anywhere this was yet another clue that the killer
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lived nearby not only did he have bare feet but he was concerned about leaving a
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blood trail possibly one leading straight to his door this pointed towards two men who hadn't
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previously been thought of as suspects the man who claimed he found christina's body
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32 year old todd hale and christina's next-door neighbor carlos robinson who had called 9-1-1 both men knew one
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another since they both helped christina move into her apartment three days earlier investigators had
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been suspicious of todd hale's claim that he'd been able to enter christina's apartment through a small window opening
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without disturbing the items on the entertainment center inside we thought for todd to get in
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through that window he would have to maybe have an acrobat's physique which he did
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not todd they felt when i had been a suspect because of the way he entered the apartment
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he wasn't invited in he opened the window removed the screen and snaked himself into this small opening
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so they asked him to do it again while they watched we'd allowed him to demonstrate how he
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was able to climb through that window and around the entertainment center and he was able to do that even wearing
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some steel-toed work boots hale got inside again without touching any of the items on the entertainment
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center it was a little bit amazing watching him do that it was like watching a burglar in action next
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police asked christina's neighbor carlos robinson to provide a routine statement
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and he willingly complied investigators described it as being very helpful very cooperative when the police left
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the room of course they keep their eye on him he got down and began praying he was on
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his knees praying and that doesn't happen very often i don't think investigators had three suspects in the
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murder of christina sanubain her ex-boyfriend jacob hadley who had previous arrests for physical violence
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against christina he's beat her before he shot at her he's beat her several times that she has
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restraining orders against him the other two included the man who found christina's body
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and christina's next-door neighbor who called 9-1-1 sometimes people will report the
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crime just to steer suspicion away from them but investigators needed forensic evidence
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to compare to these suspects and we're fortunate to find some footprints at the scene
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you can't see the prince really with the naked eye and unless you're really looking
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and i'm sure that the suspect never realized that he had left so many prints behind
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in his haste to collect the physical evidence that he thought might be damning these bare footprints which contain
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ridge detail can be identified belonging to a specific person just as a fingerprint
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would so jacob hadley todd hale and carlos robinson were asked to provide their prints we brought jacob
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todd and the neighbor down to the identification bureau and took footprints from all three of
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them todd was very cooperative we inked his feet he walked down one side of the paper we re-inked and he
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walked on the other side of the paper todd hale's footprints didn't match jacob was the same way very cooperative
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jacob padley's footprints didn't match either well then there was carlos and it struck me as i i inked carlos's feet
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and asked him to step down from the chair onto the the paper and he was reluctant to do
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that carlos walked down one side of the paper and then walked over the footprints he
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just made something's just not right here it wasn't hard instructions to understand and follow it's almost like
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he was trying to obliterate as his known footprints finally technicians got usable prints
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and they were compared to the bloody footprints in christina's bathroom this is our guy we've got him this this
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is the guy who left the footprints there and and they were shocked they they just are
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you sure are you sure and yeah we're all sure it's his footprint carlos's palm print was also
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a perfect match to the bloody palm print on christina's bathroom sink and carlos's dna
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matched the dna from christina's rape test kit when faced with this incriminating
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evidence carlos made a startling confession he now claimed he'd had a consensual sexual
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relationship with christina in the couple of days he'd known her he also claimed
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he found christina's body several hours before todd hale did but said he got scared
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and ran home instead of calling police he insisted however he wasn't the killer his story for not calling 9-1-1 was that
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he was a black man and he was scared that he would be framed for the murder the medical examiner estimated christina
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sanubain was murdered between 9 pm and 3 am robinson was alone with his children
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during this time carlos's wife was gone on the night this murder occurred she was gone to
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visit a relative in a neighboring city but investigators needed proof that carlos robinson was the killer after all
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and not just a neighbor who found her body and hadn't reported the crime people often look for somebody that has a
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motive and what we were trying to prove to the jury is that a person who barely knew the victim for four days
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had killed her and that the ex-boyfriend who was abusive to her didn't then investigators discovered either
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another piece of evidence or a complication in looking at the crime scene evidence
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scientists noticed something in the hamburger buns at first when we looked at the buns we
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we just really couldn't understand what we were seeing one of them was misshaped we did use
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some light oblique angles and some ultraviolet light this was also used when we took photographs of the bun the
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indentation strongly resembled a right toe the ball of a foot and bits of the second and third toes
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it was obvious that this is somebody's foot and it looked like there were ridge details in the soft bread
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that resembled prince if these were footprints that met carlos robinson prosecutors had an
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open and shut case our suspect found the package of hamburger buns in christina's kitchen
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dumped the buns on the floor and used the plastic bag to carry out the knife the buns were fresh
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and the barefoot person had also stepped in these hamburger buns but if they weren't robinson's prince
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then it raised the possibility of reasonable doubt or the possibility that robinson had an
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accomplice so it was almost like we had to prove not just that the defendant committed
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this crime but that nobody else did either investigators assigned to christina sanubain's murder found
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an unusual piece of evidence at the crime scene they had what looked like a footprint in
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a hamburger bun next to christina's body investigators believed it was made by the killer as he
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fled the scene in order to verify their work iowa investigators took the bun and photographs to gene zarniki
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a certified print examiner at the dci crime lab in des moines iowa zarniki not only
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confirmed this was a right foot in the soft bread but found enough clear ridge detail to convince him
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that it was the footprint of carlos robinson i think if the bun was in a dry or stale
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condition the print may have not been reproduced we were quite fortunate in that the bun
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appears to have been fresh when he stepped on it i've never seen hamburger buns at a
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murder scene before and for the suspect to step into it and leave what looked like a very
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identifiable patent print on the bun was was really unusual this proved that the only evidence at
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the crime scene was carlos robinson's investigators believe christina was a victim of her
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own trusting nature carlos was her neighbor they'd already met so when he knocked on
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her door she let him in christine carlos wasn't wearing any shoes since he lived next door
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once inside prosecutors believe he made a sexual advance which christina turned down
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so carlos hit christina with tremendous force knocking out three of her teeth he then dragged her to the bathroom
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where he sexually assaulted her and killed her with a knife he filled the tub with water in an
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attempt to wash away evidence but he grabbed the sink with his bloody hand as he got up
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leaving behind a perfect palm print he needed to get rid of the murder weapon so he went to the kitchen
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tracking his bloody footprints he grabbed a bag of hamburger buns dumped them on the floor then put the
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knife inside the bag so it wouldn't leave a blood trail when he left on his way out he stepped on one of the
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buns leaving the one piece of forensic evidence he couldn't refute robinson murdered christina with her child inside
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the house that little child was in that house for up to 24 hours we estimate with his dead mother in the bathtub i
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am calling him a monster and i never forgive him [Music] even i die till the day i die i'm not
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going to forgive him ever prosecutors believe carlos was afraid his wife would end their marriage when she
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found out he had made a sexual advance toward christina and that's why he decided to murder her
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robinson was charged with first-degree murder mr robinson i would advise you with
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respect to the charge you have a right to have an attorney and to have the attorney represent you at
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all stages of the proceeding robinson was convicted of christina's murder and was sentenced to life in prison
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without parole i think one of the things that comes out of this case just be aware of the people around you and
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and we have to be pretty vigilant about who we know and who we have contact with
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it was not one little thing that convicted him it was a whole bunch of little things
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and a big hamburger bun there's certainly a feeling of the victim getting some justice but at
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the end of the day you still have a 20-year-old single mother that died for no reason other than
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someone else's violence and that that's sad i believe that other people parents have a children got killed or
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murdered and they move on in their life but me i don't know why i can't i cannot go work outside it hurts me
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and it hits me all the time that i miss christina so bad you