Killing Dad: The Crystal Howell Story - 9: Confessions of a Teen Killer

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

Crystal is arrested and interrogated for hours resulting in questionable maneuvers by her court appointed attorney.

My name is Jason Alexander, the star of bedtime stories of the Ingle Side-In, a brand-new scripted comedy podcast in which I play Palm Springs Hotelier, Mel Haiber, who in the 1970s turned the rundown Ingle Side-In into the best-kept secret getaway for Hollywood's elite, thieves, and mobsters. The series also stars Brian Jordan Alvarez, Michael McKeen, Richard Kind, Lance Bass, and Moira. You can find bedtime stories of the Ingle Side-In on Sirius XM, Pandora, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode. He would deal with me when he got up. He didn't like that, I went in like down four and half. And that was the last thing he ever said to me. Where was your dad, Crystal?

He was sleeping on the couch. The only thing I remember seeing afterwards was, you know, I looked out of his bedroom door and I saw him and I heard like his last breath. I didn't have any sort of plan. I never sat there and thought about killing anyone or hurting anyone. I never sat there and thought about killing anyone or hurting anyone. On February 24th of 2014, Crystal Howell killed her dad, Michael. In a quaint and swear calling Lanzee,

helped her clean up the crime scene and disposed of the body and his storage bin in the shed. According to Crystal, he also extorted her by forcing her to withdraw money from Michael's bank account in exchange for his silence. After what her friends called a psychotic breakdown, on March 21st, Crystal fled back to her hometown of Augusta, Georgia, and it was there that she was apprehended by law enforcement. Ruth Garrison, now retired,

was the lead homicide investigator for the Sheriff's Department in Augusta, and was the one that took Crystal Lin for her interview with North Carolina investigators. I didn't do the official interrogation over, but one thing with our system or their system at the Sheriff's Office is it's a closed-captain system and I can sit there and watch what's going on live, it's just being recorded.

And so I wasn't interested there and listen to the interview and see how, you know, I was going, they kind of dove right in from my perspective of what an interrogation, you know me personally I may take an hour to build up to it Whereas they didn't they didn't they didn't beat her in the bush at all She had that look like she knew oh shit. This is about to happen and It was almost an instant of clarity she had where she realized, okay, now I can just get this off my chest. I can talk now, I don't have to hide from it.

And she still was very eager in the way she said it, but it was just like her demeanor kind of changed when she realized, okay, I don't have to run anymore, I don't have to hide anymore. I can tell my story. But Crystal has never been ready to tell her full story to anyone until now. I'm Melissa McCarty, and I'm Kelly McLean. We are Emmy-nominated investigative journalists

and we've been talking to Crystal Howell since her dad's murder in 2014. Eight years after Michael Howell's murder, a 25-year-old, Bristol, is telling her story. We bring you the exclusive series, Killing Dad, a first-degree mistake. I must see on the skin in this world. Arrested on a warrant for concealment of a death, Crystal was placed in an interview room at the Richmond County Sheriff's Office in Augusta,

George up. So I waited for probably a couple hours for the detective to drive down to the bus from North Carolina. And so I was waiting to hold myself on kind of freaking out, like not knowing what to do. I'm crying a lot, kind of being a king. My mom was a very, sorry, I'm late, I didn't see her. So I just wanted her to do so, wait until when they did told me you have to be questioned. I remember I had to find mom beforehand and I was I was checking up so it wasn't really like a good home. But I was pretty nervous here that I just didn't mean to do it. I didn't know what else I didn't know what else to say, I didn't know an explanation to give. Looking for an explanation, though, was Detective Scott Robinson of the Haywood County Sheriff's Office in Special Agent Casey Drake with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

When I was questioned, they brought me to the point where my mom was with me. They were like, you need to come here with her. She's shooting out. So my mom was sitting here there. And like I said, I didn't want my mom knowing what happened. So I was like, I don't want her here. You can be make believe basically. Like, I don't want to confess what I did with my mom's neck right here. And so I find a favor to say to him when my mom presents that I didn't have a lawyer.

I didn't know who to call. So I just said, I didn't need a lawyer. I didn't know. I didn't have a lawyer, I didn't know who to call, so I just said, I didn't need a lawyer, I didn't know. I don't know, it just seemed like he's addicted to my friends and it seemed like they were going to sell. I didn't sell them the truth at first. I was afraid of being fully honest, like it's not being believed, and I wasn't sure that it was how to sell them, like, while I shot my head, because this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this will build up to it. So I told them at first I said it was a gun jam and shot him and I told them what really happened because I didn't want to I knew that this would be a long process. I knew that I wouldn't just say what happened

and then it would be over a a day I knew better than that. I wanted to be someone that's been knew if I'm telling them something that just happened to Matt if I'm not dancing around the truth. So I decided that's only a six time for me to just accept what I did, be honest about it and anywhere that's from there. So I told them what, I shot my dad, he got an argument and I shot him.

And I told him about moving his body and moving the couch, but I let down that I had help. And they could still, I just kind of tell, I was about 120 pounds at the time. They were like, we know you didn't do this by yourself and I just kept insisting that I did. As soon as they had my whole profession, like they had me draw out, like, this is where I went this way, and this is where I went that way.

We'll say, add that to email, to get fitter, kind of begin talking down to me, basically. I heard a bit of words where you shot your dad and left him in a bin. I had something in a bin. And I started crying. And she was like, you don't need to make your tears now, like, very no. And it wasn't even that I was making my tears. But when I confessed to what happened, I wasn't crying more just And it wasn't even that I was making my peers, but when I confessed to what happened, I wasn't trying more just because I was, I was so focused on just getting it out,

and telling them what had happened, that I was just trying to take the facts, and I was trying to make sure I had everything right. And I don't know it embarrassed me because I wanted to tell them why, I didn't, I wanted to tell them about the stuff I've been going through. But when she started talking to me like that, it didn't make me shut down. It made me scared to donate further because I get so at the point that I realized, you want to just mess up. You're telling these people the stuff that you know, they're going to help you.

When in reality, they're the ones working. You and I try to realize until she started to ring me like that. She wasn't on the same side as I was. in reality, there's a one working unit that I just realized until she started to email like that. She wasn't on the same side as I was. While not admissible as evidence and court, investigators asked Crystal to take a lie detector test. They were pretty good just like, we don't believe you like, or you wanted to take a lie detector test.

And whenever they started talking about a lie detector test, debt, I didn't even want to take that because clearly I was lying about what that had happened and also I didn't want them to find out that somebody had helped me because I knew that would be one of their questions and then that would lead to all other things. So I knew really that I knew what they were looking for. I knew that they wanted me to say that I did it so I told them the truth. I told them that I knew what they were looking for. I knew that they wanted me to say that I did it.

So I told them the truth. I told them that I had shot my dad. Crystal's interview with the investigators lasted approximately three and a half hours. Upon my arrest, I was thinking they're going to know what to do. But when I was arrested, nobody told me you're being arrested for murder. You're being arrested for murder. You're being arrested. You're being arrested.

Literally, the arresting officer asked me, he said, you know why you're being arrested. And I said, I didn't mean to do it. I'm sorry. And even being interrogated, interrogated, he asked me. They said, you know why you arrested and I did send you because I assumed, I didn't know I wasn't arrested for murder, I was arrested for failure to report death. But I never knew my charge, so I committed murder.

And then it was specifically charged with that. When I was talking about it, it was such a relief to finally get me to the house. And I was kind of talking to my talking about it, it was such a relief to finally get it out. I was kind of talking plainly about it. I don't know, like being very factual and just trying to say everything that I need to say. And I'm going to shut down emotionally because I had never talked about it before. I didn't know how to process it or I didn't know how to go about doing that. And also I guess at the same time, you know, most of my life, my dad had talked about murder

and kill each other. So to talk about someone like that was kind of normal for me, you know, as a discussion like, so I just told him what's happened and they had asked me a couple questions, they were like leading questions like basically like what kind of man was my dad, I think my grandmother wanted to say it at and I just remember trying to defend my dad the whole time like I, I kept saying he was a good person. He was a good person. He didn't deserve it.

Even though everything I still said about it, I don't think he deserved it. I don't think anybody deserves it to have it happen to them. But I remember saying also, I was trying to help him. And I think that statement was a chance to how broken I was mentally at the time because it's not something, I mean the old situation at the whole is not something normal that happens. New spread fast of Michael's body being found in the shed of the mountaintop house and crystals subsequent arrest. And he said, and you know, I've had a lot of death in my family and a lot of tragedy.

And he said, I think he said, you won't know, can't guess who's staying there. And they thought I was going to go to peace. But I'm thinking one of my kids, you know, and they said, Michael, well, I said to say, it was a relief because it wasn't my child. You know, I love, I cared about him because he was my brother's child. And I know my brother would be there for my grandchild. And that's why I will be there for Christ.

When you found out it was by the hands of Christal, what first went through your mind? I needed to help her. Those were my first thoughts and, you know, I'm not her mom. I'm not. So I knew I had a lot of restrictions, you know, but I reached out to her and let her know, if you need anything, I'm here, you know. And like she needed panties when she was in jail, when she first got in there, I would gather everything she wanted, but I'm thinking, where's your mother?

Where's your mother? We reached out multiple times to Crystal's mom, Kristina, but she has never responded. A woosey consensus or the overall tone of the Howell family, finding out about Crystal. Mixed feelings probably. I was devastated. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed.

I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I was diagnosed. I look at the fact that she was 17.

Her life had been jerked around tremendously. She was begging her mom to love her and she felt like a mom didn't love her. She was a lost child. I mean, that was evident, you know. And so I immediately, I'm gonna be there. My family and my children, they're mixed,

you know, on how they feel. I'm not mixed on how I feel. I knew from the very beginning, there was a lot more to this story. I didn't know what, but I knew there was something, and that she needed me. Someone else would come to Christal's aid, but would they be a wolf and sheep's clothing?

While in custody, Crystal did not want her mom Christina in the interview room with her, nor did she request an attorney present. After her confession to investigators for killing her dad, Michael, Crystal is assigned a public defender, Bridgetget a guire. I told her from the very beginning I told her everything I told her about rancid I told her about the abuse I told her about all that so on hearing everything that I was telling her she decided that our media legal defense would be to leave insanity. Having spent time in and out of mental facilities throughout her young life,

Crystal was no stranger to mental health evaluations, but this one would decide her fate. I told a man about the hallucinations I've had and the way that my dad talks about people. I just try to tell him everything I can think of to kind of make him see the bigger picture of my circumstance. And I just remember feeling kind of crazy. Like I've been through mental evaluations before in my life, but I felt like I never really took.

And seriously, I never really opened up in therapy and told them she's saying so to commit to a stranger out loud, like they saw the things that were asking them to do is different against it was that in my comfort zone. I don't remember exactly what all my diagnosis were, but she told me that I would have to undergo another evaluation because that ran out of the need to be of a diminished capacity at the time of my crime, which means basically that

I couldn't decide between writing or all. And so I would have to undergo a evaluation by the state would be the next step. I was given a second evaluation. I think it was about two years after my heart's duration. So the first one was almost immediately in the next one two years later. months to your slayer. In this evaluation is in and on half of the state. So these are people who are working with the district raise office. And I was taking back to the jail and come probably making a month later to the evaluation came back. And my lawyer told me that the day I was fine, I was confident in staying trial that there was nothing wrong with me. So basically, it didn't matter what the firm person said, we had to move forward. received his PhD in human development in 1973, and has since become sought after as a psychological expert witness in murder cases pertaining to juveniles. He has not spoken to Crystal or treated

her, but has reviewed her case file. To understand what he calls Crystal's state of crisis, he told us about the adverse childhood experience scale. It should have been taken into consideration when evaluating crystal. It's ten questions about bad things that can happen to you when you're kid. And one reason why it's being promoted so strongly and used across the country is, each question is a simple yes or no answer. It deals with emotional abuse, psychological abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, poverty, parental separation, substance abuse in the home, mental health problems in the home, family member going to prison.

Well, the number of yes answers in zero to ten predicts about half or more of the variation in teenage suicide, depression, substance abuse, and about 30% of the variation in violence. So, it's a very powerful way, you know, to map where a kid stands, because at first prosecutors would say, well, lots of kids have difficult offerings and they didn't kill anyone. So when I can show that their adverse childhood experience scale is seven, the data shows that only one in a hundred American kids gets the score of seven. So this isn't just a bad childhood. This is worse than 99 out of 100 kids.

And if the score is eight, nine, or 10, it's worse than 999 out of a thousand kids. So that's a starting point to say that's who we're dealing with. That's what they were dealing with. Now I try to think about, you know, Crystal, her, her score must be very, very high. On the adverse childhood experience scale, Crystal scored a seven out of 10. Each time you answer yes to one of these ACE questions,'s like you're giving a kid a rock and now you put it in your backpack and I got to carry around that rock. If you're carrying around seven, eight, nine, ten rocks, no wonder you stagger under the weight of that

because it's a lot to carry around. The teen brain isn't all of our brains aren't fully developed into the mid-20s. Can you go into that research and why it's so important to apply? The research is focused more and more on the fact that this process of getting to mature brain is not complete in childhood and can't really be presumed to about age 25. So that means

that until you're 25 as a normal teenager you're not playing with a full deck. You have a sort of disability of being a teenager's brain. And this particular effects, what's called executive function, which is decision-making, weighing short-term benefits, long-term benefits, making good decisions, weighing consequences. And the secondary is what's called

affective or emotional regulation, which is being emotionally intelligent, understanding your emotions, understanding the emotions of others. And then the other finding is that what is also slow to mature is the connection between those two areas. If you live with adversity and trauma, it tends to disrupt the process of the maturing rain. So if normal teenagers in normal environments are dealing with a deck that's not complete, teenagers in adverse traumatic environments are dealing with a deck that is stacked in

addition. And Crystal was about to receive another card that would stack the deck against her even more. While she sat in prison in North Carolina awaiting her fate, a message comes in from her accomplice, we call Lanzi. At one point when I was in Gallyjo, I don't know if he was locked up or he knew somebody else that was locked up, but somebody, the girls in my spot would go to court with the guys. So they would always bring back notes and messages from the guys.

And I remember one time somebody brought the message and said that if I were to tell on Lindsey that he would have these staffed phrases. Lindsey had a different story to tell investigators on March 23rd of 2014. According to the investigation summary we've obtained, he said that he had only just met Crystal two, three weeks prior to her dad's death. He also told them that he helped Crystal move some items out of the house, including a tote that weighed about 100 pounds, but he didn't know what was in it. He also noticed the couch that was down off the back of the house and thought it was from a party.

We reached out to Lanzi multiple times, but have not heard back. Even Michael's longtime golfing buddy, Mike, doesn't think Crystal acted alone. I don't see how that was I don't see how that was done alone just in opinion. How do you mean Mike? I just I think there was other influences involved other people maybe. You know based on what I read about the aftermath. And what went on for a week or so after that happened. I just think that some people maybe not have been held accountable.

But only Crystal, being the one that admittedly pulled the trigger, was held accountable for her dad's death and what happened afterwards. Our public defender, Brigitte Guire, comes back with a surprising offer. My lawyer wrote a handwritten contract and he said something along the lines of, I crystal how, and willing to take the charge of first to remurder. And he said, the subject of the students, he said, the students of around, I think, 25 years it was. And then another semester said, I would be willing to take ages of around 30 years. And they had something about life in there.

She told me that I needed time at St. Persons so that she could go and go, she could plead yo with the district attorney. And so there was always something in my gut. I don't know. I just felt like something was wrong. And I asked her, I said, well, can I be there whenever the negotiation happens?

Because I didn't feel like I felt like the other side didn't really understand where I was coming from. And after I said all these things that had happened, I just understand how they could still say things about me like that. I actually all my dad because he was going to cut me off and I didn't understand really why they weren't. I didn't do it anymore or ask me more questions or something. So I asked, can I be here when the negotiation happens and my my lawyer told me, no, that's not how it works. You're not allowed to be there.

This is just a lawyer's base. And so I just kind of brushed it off because I don't know the law. So I said, OK, and she came back with that document. And she said, well, the reason they offered you is life with her old plus five is seven years, which rounds to be about three years. And I was just kind of floored a little bit. And so after a little bit of thinking, I told her, I don't think I want to do. I think maybe I should take my chance to try and even if I

have to go to prison for the rest of my life, at least I had a chance to know that these people knew what happened. And people at that document, and she told me that since I signed this paper, if I was to trial, I would be charged in surgery because I made for a sign of documents saying that if they offer to have 60 seconds remaining, crystal called us right back. I feel like I ordered myself like I didn't think oh, well, maybe my lawyer tricked me or I still

was trying to have full trust nurse. So I felt like, you know, I guess like whenever somebody signs a contract or something, it doesn't bring the fine for it. It doesn't realize they've agreed to something. That's kind of what I felt like. I felt like it was my own ball and I didn't know what to do from there.

So I was like, well, if I go to trial, is that a option? Do I have to switch to do that? Is she told me, you do have a choice to go to trial? But if you go to trial, you're going to be trying to partry because of this document and you're going to get life and free. There's another juvenile who filed an affidavit stating she too was represented by attorney Brigitte Aguyer for larceny and trespassing charges. She says a Guyer asked her to sign a pre-arranged promise

to take a plea deal, and when she changed her mind over the offered deal, the attorney also threatened her with perjury. Now, we've reached out to this person for comment, but they have not responded. Crystal's great aunt Brenda has a strong opinion of the public defender assigned to the case. My opinion, a bridge at a choir, was not good from get,

you know, I did not see any redeeming qualities in her as an attorney. I would ask her things and she didn't want to tell me anything, you know, even when even after, you know, Crystal would want me to get information from her. She represented her a letter giving me permission to get all her paperwork. Bridget said she couldn't give it to me, it was against legal ethics. Well, I didn't understand how that could be so if Crystal gave her permission and I had a power of attorney. I didn't understand that, but she finally refused to talk to me. We reached out to Bridget Aquire for comment and she did not respond to our calls or messages.

Were you surprised that Crystal made a full confession and took a pleadial? No. No, she never denied that she shot him, never. You know, and I think she didn't know any better, and I'm sitting there going, where's the rest of the trial? Who's going to talk for her? Is, you know, but nobody. Crystal took the plea deal, so there would be no trial. She was sentenced to 25 years to life for the first-degree murder of her dad, and an additional five to seven years for the failure to report a death.

Left behind in Maggie Valley, were her friends that were still reeling from the events that transpired, including Bristol's best friend Summer. I was scared to talk to her. I was scared to leave my house. I think for the longest time, I actually didn't talk to anybody

because for one, people like to run their mouth in this town. So they had already put out the fact that they thought I had something to do with it and Taylor had something to do with it and everybody else that was living there. So they put that out there and then we naturally got labeled as murderers. And even till this day, I still have people

that bring it up and harass me and leave mean stuff all my doors to open all kinds of shit. Yeah, you would be surprised what happens. Like what people will go, the extent people will go to to hurt somebody. How much time passed before you finally talk to her and then what did you say? Oh gosh, I remember riding her letters. It might have been maybe like a couple months after after everything had went down. Just to kind of be like, Hey, I'm sorry, I told on you, but I mean, I don't know really what else you wanted me to do. Like you didn't give me any other options. You didn't give me any time to say anything or nothing, not

that I would have anyway. But just giving me a heads up, Hey, there's something you might not want to see in there. Would have been great. I don't know. I don't know. Ultimately, the decision that she made wasn't the greatest one. And I would have told on her regardless, because you don't get to decide to kill people. Crystal, it took a pleadial. Were you surprised that she took a pleadial?

Not really. I know that things are not always cut and dry. There's always so many different sides to every story and they're not necessarily wrong. It's just different accounts of things. The district attorney who could really make an impact on Crystal's sentence reexamines her case and interviews with us. But first, since Crystal's public defender wouldn't return our calls,

we reached out to famed former Orange County California deputy district attorney, who's now a practicing private attorney, Matt Murphy, to get his take on the conviction of Crystal Howell. Murphy started his career in the California Juvenile Court system, and throughout his tenure and promotion to the homicide unit tried and won over 200 criminal cases. So Matt when it comes to charging and sentencing juveniles which Crystal was 17 at the time. How do how does the state and prosecutors

handle that? Can you just talk about how you do with juveniles and how states handle them all differently? So there are, there are these very significant procedural differences between juveniles and adult prosecution, except in cases of murder. And that's where we get into a little bit of a gray area. However, when it comes to violent crime, especially cases of murder, there are certain circumstances where juveniles of course are prosecuted as adults. And there's a bunch of different factors that come in a plan that a lot of it is the age. A 17-year-old is much more likely to be prosecuted in adult court than a 16 or 15-year-old would be.

And the law is a little bit different in every state. So, there are three ways it works. Basically, you've got a juvenile that's prosecuted as a juvenile. And there's going to be local juvenile hall that they can do time-end. You've got juveniles that are prosecuted as adults, but sentenced to juvenile court, to juvenile prison, then the third way that it's done

is you prosecute a juvenile in adult court as an adult, receives an adult sentence in adult prison. And that's essentially what would happen with Crystal Howe. So, but during that time, not only did her attorney tell her not to say anything or speak, but we know that people weren't interviewed. And there were key eyewitnesses never spoken to by law enforcement, and she never gave a defense. She never said why she did it. She just never spoke.

If she would have brought up proven abuse, would that have made a difference? And even if it's, I'd say, there was some physical abuse, but there was a lot of mental emotional that drove her to that. Would that have played a role in sentencing if she would have spoke up?

The presentation of abuse, where we'll could have affected the judge's sentencing, or the thoughts on what the appropriate punishment would be. So essentially, we've got a confession in one form or another, whether she's being, whether she's holding back details or protecting other people, you know, the fundamental question of what happened to this man was answered by her, she killed them. So then the next step in the analysis for law enforcement, court for the defense lawyer and for anybody that's listening is what are the surrounding circumstance? What do we know now concerning that?

So we've got, you know, with the idea that there's a, you know, another person involved. Okay, so that becomes, once we analyze that, we take a step back and go, okay, what happens if that's true? Number one, like, can we trust her word on that at all, or what other corroborating evidence external from her do we have of that? For example, if there was somebody else involved, like, what would her criminal liability be?

If a friend of hers or when these other kids came and actually helped put them in that bag and move out to the shed? And the answer is nothing. She's the one that killed them. There's another kid that came involved. He came involved afterwards. That doesn't alleviate her responsibility. It doesn't mitigate what what she did. It just means there's another kid that came and helped drag them to the shed. You know what I mean? Well, it's it's her version, but her narrative is this older guy, five years older. He was the one that said, don't call police,

they're not gonna believe you. Let's bury the body. The ground was frozen, so he had, let's put him in the shed. It was his idea. He pointed out the bin in the shed. And he is in the interrogation transcripts saying he helped remove a bin that was over 100 pounds,

but he didn't know what was inside of it. Also a kid with a long wrap sheet. And would that be influence of someone else? So that's actually a really good question. And that's broken down. My expertise is in California law, but it's essentially things like this are going to be the same in most states. So that's what we would call an accessory after the fact.

Just doesn't really have much of an impact. So I think sentencing wise, I don't think a judge would have been swayed by that. I don't think a jury would have been swayed by that or a prosecutor. Now, she still did it and some other kid came along and helped her try to get rid of the body. It's different. What doesn't it fall under her failure to report a death charge? It would, what it would mean in my view is that there's another person who would have equal responsibility for that. It seems, it does seem a little bit interesting to me that you can commit a murder

and then get additional time or unlawful disposal of the human remains. So the legislature of North Carolina has determined that unlawful disposal of the human remains. So the legislature of North Carolina has determined that unlawful disposal of a body or failure to report death is a separate crime in and of itself. That's a really, that's a heavy sentence for a juvenile. We may never know if Christel's court appointed defense

attorney strong armed her into signing a plea deal. But we do know she received the maximum sentence that would have been given to an adult. But when it comes to 30 to life for a plea deal for a juvenile, is that common? No, that's not common. Why? Because 30 to life is a juvenile is really much, I think, the close to the maximum sentence,

and it's unusual for somebody to plead to the max in general. Like, there's almost nothing to lose by going to trial. Now, again, I gotta say, I'm not an expert on North Carolina law, but also this could be, this could be, look, the remedy for that is a new trial. That's, or a trial in this case, as she pled. So that's, I think, a better course for her is probably be a recent and saying, not a re-trial.

So this girl was 17 when she killed her dad. Her behavior after was horrific. Sex drugs were all in a stripper pole. It was going to turn a lot of people off. And she did that. This was such an unsophisticated killing. She puts them in a tote bag and drags them out to the shed. That's the brain of a 17-year-old.

You know what I mean? That speaks to everything that you guys were talking. It speaks to the idea that she's unsophisticated. I think the best way for her to do it is to come in on the perspective that I am a juvenile. I was abused. The evidence wasn't put in there. How about I get a reduced sentence?

Can you also maybe use the same analogy of a wife who was You also maybe use the same analogy of a wife who was verbally and emotionally abused for years and had enough and shoots her husband. And are they given the same sentence of 30 years to life? No. They're not. It's a good point. How is this different? I mean, other than, yes, the party's afterwards

and then herfling to Georgia. But would it have been different if this was crystal shooting her husband? And that's the best argument to a prosecutor that's reviewing this thing, to a conscientious DA, which you're gonna have, is, yeah, that's a very, that's a good argument. At the end of the day, she's 17-year-old kid.

And as horrific as this was, I think you're going to get somebody conscientious somewhere along the way. But as things evolve in society, and we were taking a second look at the juvenile justice system, I would not be at all surprised to see somebody take a third look at this and think that this sentence, you know, that Crystal may deserve an earlier chance at parole than she's currently, currently lined up for.

["The End of the World"] ["The End of the World"] On the final episode of Killing Dad, Crystal takes another shot at a resentencing hearing. I just don't get why, why, why not do your job right the first time? Why not? Looking the same deeper because if you also find this stuff out like simply just speaking to a few people, why, they just I feel like I wanted to believe there was. Crystal puts it all in the line to prove she's telling the truth. Her response to each of the four relevant questions that were asked on the exam was yes and has a message for her estranged sister Ciro I'm going to be a little more. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, And please go you