WEBVTT - The Descent [9] 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome to Monster d C Sniper, a production of iHeartRadio 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:07.920 and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:11.400 podcast are solely those of the podcast author or individuals 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:15.080 participating in the podcast, and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.480 Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.600 December two thousand, the island of Antigua, fifteen year old 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.200 Lee boy Malvo lay alone in bed in a dark shack. 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:34.479 He shivered, sick with rheumatic fever. He needed medicine but 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.519 didn't know how to get it. He was all alone 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.159 in a foreign country, with no family and few friends. 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.080 There was a knock at the door. A man came in. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.680 It was John Mohammed, the American, the man who had 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.720 smuggled Lee's mother into the United States. John had just 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.000 come by to check on the boy, who he knew 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.400 was living alone, but when he saw Lee's dire state, 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.840 brought him to the doctor. Lee got an antibiotic shot 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.480 and John stayed with him while he recovered. 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.600 Mohammed he stated me the entire time of nurse and 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.240 back to health, and I told him my entire life story, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.280 my parents, my situations when I bounced around what I felt. 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.920 I told him everything. I left nothing out Because I 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:27.360 trusted this guy. He gave me his time. It's that simple. 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.080 He was one of the only people who listened I 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.040 lead on him. I trusted him. I did not trust 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.240 my mom. I didn't trust anyone else, but I trusted him. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.400 Before long, Lee asked John if he could live with him. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.560 John agreed, and Lee moved in with him and his children. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.840 He was so desperate to have a father figure. My 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.680 name is doctor Chonathan Harold Meck. I am a clinical 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:56.800 nurse psychologist. Very quickly, Malvo starts calling Muhammed dad. 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.080 He said, everything that you've been taught from your religion, 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:07.920 your morals, your education, you've basically been brainwashed. And he 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.800 would explained to me a mixture of his worldview and 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.279 the nation of Islam. He twisted a lot of things. 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:20.000 It certainly wasn't you know, standard religion. He would have 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.680 him listen to tapes even when he was falling asleep. 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.560 Speaches and all sorts of stuff, thousands of hours, over 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:27.200 and over. 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:31.320 Again, giving him subliminal suggestions that there is essentially a 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.440 war going on between blacks and whites. 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:37.960 There is a ruthless person on the loose. 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.559 What I nerves this community the most is the randomness 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.480 of the murders, ordinary people doing ordinary things. 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.400 They killed the five people in one day and then 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.000 went on the rampage for the next month. 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:52.400 It is quite a mystery. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.040 The police say they have never had a crime quite 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:55.440 like this. 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.600 Be careful, these guys are using weapons that are going 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.040 to go right straight through our full of proof best. 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.160 From My Heart Radio and Tenderfoot Teva. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:09.760 This is Monster DC sniper. 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.480 Very quickly when I met Mom and I assimilated everything 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:17.080 about him. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.079 At the beginning of two thousand and one, after Lee 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:23.600 had moved in with John in Antigua, friends and teachers 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.280 remember seeing Lee change. His good grades began to slip. 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.640 He started bringing a Koran to his Christian high school 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.840 and arguing with other students about religion, and Lee also 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.680 started talking a lot about guns. 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.120 I just became someone. It was something I'm used to doing. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.760 I can bouncing around from home to home, place to place, 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.920 and I became what I call a change in him. 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:51.040 Whoever I'm around, whoever the authority is, I changed the 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:51.840 suit that person. 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.720 The attachment to a mother or a father is really 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.880 core to developing a stable mentally health the adult. 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.320 Doctor Jonathan Mack is a neural psychologist and co author 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.400 of the book The Making of Lee Boyd. 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:07.840 Malvo. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.640 Max studied Lee's life extensively. He thinks Lee's readiness to 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.200 trust John was due to an attachment disorder, a disorder 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.400 in how kids connect with adults. 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:23.760 I felt that Malvo met the criteria for disinhibited social 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:25.000 engagement disorder. 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:30.360 With disinhibited social engagement disorder, kids are so desperate for 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.000 a caregiver that they are overly trusting of strangers. They 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:38.000 will latch onto any authority figure they can, ignoring signs 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.919 that the adult might not have their best interest at heart. 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.520 If you look at Malvo's history, his father in the 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.800 first years of his life was in his life, out 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.560 of his life. His mother was also in and out 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.479 and had a habit of shipping him off, and just 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.000 as soon as he was developing an attachment to the 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.839 new people, he was moved somewhere else. So the fact 0:04:59.880 --> 0:05:03.839 that that Malvo had so many broken attachments from so 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.480 many of the people that he lived with, he had 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:12.479 this social disengagement disorder and was basically ready to attach 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:13.320 on to anyone. 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.800 I went to him because I felt alone in this world. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:24.719 I assimilated everything about him, from his mannerisms, is religion. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:33.240 I lost my accent. I just became someone different once 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.680 he gained my trust. That was the lost copse. 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.720 Throughout early two thousand and one, John continued to forge 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:49.800 documents and helped smuggle people into the United States. On 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:54.840 April fourteenth, John was detained at Miami International Airport. He'd 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.960 flown there from Antigua alongside to Jamaican women. The women 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.120 were caught presenting forged documents to customs agents, and the 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.039 agents suspected John was helping the two women enter the 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:11.240 United States illegally. They couldn't prove it, so they had 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.960 to release John, but they contacted Antiguan authorities and relayed 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.320 their suspicions. Lee says that John called him in a panic. 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.320 John told Lee to hide the kids and the cash 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.640 that he kept in the house. Lee took the children 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.479 to John's girlfriend's place, but when he went back to 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.160 get the money, it had already been seized by Antiguan authorities. 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.440 Lee says John lost at least one hundred sixty thousand 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.240 dollars because of the raid. John feared he would be 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.800 arrested if he returned to Antigua, so he decided to 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.520 lay low in the US. John instructed Lee, who was 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.400 just sixteen years old himself, to watch over his kids. 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.040 John also asked Bale to help out with the business 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:00.000 by delivering fake birth certificates to clients. Lee dropped out 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.400 out of school to help. John then traveled back to 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.680 Washington State, and on April twenty third, he legally changed 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:12.160 his name from John Williams to John Muhammad, perhaps to 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.040 try to avoid raising any red flags when he returned 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:15.640 to Antigua. 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.880 Okay, mister Williams taching to have your name change. 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.680 Just what is your current legal name? 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:29.440 My current legal name is Allen, Okay, and what is 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.560 the new name by which you wish to be known? 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:32.440 Allen Muhammad? 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:34.880 And why do you desire to be known. 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:35.520 By this new name? 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.040 For our religion partner? 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.400 Are you changing your name for any other reason? Are 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.960 you changing your name to defraud or mislead any person 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.520 or creditor? Are you involved in any legal proceeding other 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.400 than this name change? And have you ever been convicted 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.120 of a felony? Are you under supervision of any probation 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.800 department that requires you to report a change of address 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:58.240 MILCA ahead you grant. 0:07:58.000 --> 0:07:58.960 Your name change there. 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.160 While in Washington State, John also visited Earl Donze. 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.800 I met John when I used to work for Horizon Airlines. 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.880 I was actually interested in a printer that I saw 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.280 at a store. This printer was an ALPS MD five 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:18.600 thousand CERI. Printer had a big. 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.440 Reputation during the early nineties of making counterfeit money. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.640 It views film as inking, so it was really expensive 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.239 printers I wouldn't afford at the time. And this cowork 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.480 of mine knew a friend as did it. 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.120 So I met John that way. John was really flashy. 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.280 He had nice suits. He become different cars all the time, 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:40.319 Jaguar Diamante. 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.240 He said, I can get the printer for you if 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.680 you can help me out. He want to know if 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.880 I can alter some documents because for a hobby I 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:53.560 do graphics designs. Okay, so a fairy deal. So John 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:54.000 got it for me. 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.440 I don't know how he got it. He asked me 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:58.000 to stand a birth certificate with. 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.960 His name on it and asked me if I can 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.640 raise the name that was on the birthday. So I 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.000 used a simple program on computer to erased a name, 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:09.920 and he asked me to type another name. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:10.080 Man. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.880 Okay, sure, so he wanted me to type I'm guessing 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:16.040 could have been Lee. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:16.840 You know. 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.120 This is where I realized that he was actually involved 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:20.800 with smuggling people across the border. 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.840 He was charging thousand bucks ahead I think maybe more. 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.280 On May twentieth, two thousand and one, John traveled back 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:33.080 to Antigua with his new name and altered documents in hand. 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:38.199 When John returned to the island, the government had already 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.600 seized over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, but John 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:44.640 did not scold Lee. 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.320 This is criminologist and co author of Lee Boyd Malbo's 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:50.200 autobiography Anthony Meoi. 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.520 When he got back, John pulled him tight, hugged him 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:58.360 and said, great job, son. And it was that very 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:04.320 moment that really select that defies their relationship. Lee said, 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.520 from that moment on, I was willing to do anything 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:08.240 for that man. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.080 A week and a half later, on May thirty first, 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.960 John returned to the United States with his three children 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:22.960 and Lee Boyd Malville. They traveled through Puerto Rico to 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.160 Fort Myers, Florida, where Lee's mother was living and working 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.720 at a red lobster restaurant. Lee says that John was 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:33.240 planning on setting up a counterfeiting operation with friends from 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.880 the Caribbean. John wanted Lee to watch over the kids 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.400 while he traveled to get the equipment they needed to 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.839 print fake currency. According to Lee's diary, John asked Lee's 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.800 mother if the boy could continue staying with him, but 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.720 she was having none of it. Una thought John was 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.600 a bad influence on her son. Lee remembers his mother saying, 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.959 he is my child. What I eat, he eats. If 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:02.040 he cannot be satisfied with that, that greed will kill him. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.880 She then looked at Lee and said, you met this 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.400 man no more than six months ago, and you've completely 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:13.680 forgotten where you come from. Reluctantly, John left Lee with 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:33.439 Una and disappeared again with his kids. Back in Washington State, 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.600 Mildred Muhammad was still searching for her children. It had 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.800 been fifteen months since she had seen or spoken to them. 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.079 Following her hospitalization, Mildred had moved into a women's shelter 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.960 where her friend and former accountant, Eisen Nichols volunteered. Mildred 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.480 took a pair ofegal course to learn about what legal 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.240 options she had to get her children back. She divorced 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:00.040 John in his absence and legally gained full custody of 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.120 the children. The problem was no one knew where they were, 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.280 so she also filed a red of habas corpus, which. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.000 Meant that anywhere they found my children, they needed to 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.199 pick them up and bring them back to me. So 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:19.840 I had all of my paperwork notarized. And my sister 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:24.600 calls and says, Mama sick, can you come to Maryland. 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.680 I have not found my children, but I can wait 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:29.160 over there. 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.520 Mildred moved to the town of Clinton in Prince George's County, Maryland. 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.280 Three more months passed without any sign of the children. 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.880 It was now August two thousand and one, and the 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.000 shelter where Mildred had been staying got a call. Her 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.000 friend Issa Nichols was volunteering there when it happened. 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.520 We get a call and it is the Department of 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:58.600 Social Health Services in Bellingham, Washington. They're calling following up 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.480 an application for support, but John had completed with his 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.920 three kids. Well, what John didn't know the three kids 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:08.280 were already in the system. 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.000 John Muhammad had returned to Washington State with his children 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:17.000 and tried to register them for welfare, but Ath already 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.280 suspected him of committing welfare fraud, so they looked up 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.880 the children's previously listed contact information and tried calling Mildred 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:25.600 at the shelter. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.439 I get a call from the executive director of the 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.439 shelters in and she said, Millie, I think we found 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:38.439 your children. You need to fax all of your paperwork 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.480 to Detective McCarthy. So I did that, followed up with 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.880 a phone call. I said, did you get my paperwork? 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:50.120 He said yes, Smam, I did. But Ms Muhammed, do 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.240 you know where we are? I say, you're in Bellingham, Washington. 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.640 He said correct, but we're on the border of Canada. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.280 If he gets across the border with your children, there 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:10.760 will be nothing we can do. I said, I appreciate 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.720 that information, but if you could just go get my children, 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:22.600 I would appreciate that too. August thirty first, four thirty 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:32.160 five pm. He called and he said, Miss Mohammed, we 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:36.680 got your children. I screamed, and my brother in law 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:37.720 came downstairs. 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:38.320 What's going on? 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:39.680 I said, hey found my children. 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:40.760 Can you please talk to him. 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.480 I'm running up and down the stairs, running outside and 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.400 in and he said, nol, do you want to talk 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:46.880 to him? 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:47.600 I stopped. 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:54.200 I hadn't heard their voices in eighteen wards. So the 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:58.720 first person I talked to is Taliba and she says, hi, mommy. 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:01.880 I said, hey, honey, how you doing? She said, I'm good. 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:06.160 You want to talk to my sister. Let's said, yes, 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:07.560 say me talked to your sister. 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:10.880 She said, hi, mommy. I say, hey, honey. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:12.160 She said guess what. 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:16.000 I said, what honey, I'm nine years old and you 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:21.680 missed two birthdays. I said, oh, I'm sorry. I'll make 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:22.400 it up to you. 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:23.160 I promise. 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.240 She said, okay, mommy, but John doesn't want to talk 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.200 to you because he's angry. I said, okay, that's fine. 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.120 So Detective McCarthy gets back on the phone and he said, 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.040 it's Mohammad. We need for you to come back to 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.080 Tacoma for any emergency custody hearing. 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.240 Mildred flies out the next day and she calls me 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.480 up that next morning and she says, will you go 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.600 with me to the courthouse? And I said sure. I 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.280 didn't think anything about it. You know, eighteen months have 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:55.800 gone by. I want to see the kids. 0:15:56.200 --> 0:16:01.720 I so went with me to court and We're standing 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.760 in the hallway and I said, oh, my god, there's John. 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.720 Mildred looks at John. John stares at Mildred. Mildred starts 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:15.000 running and screaming. She's just scared. She hasn't seen John 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:19.680 in eighteen months. The sheriff's apartment is in the courthouse, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:21.960 and they come out and they get her and they 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.160 put us in a room somewhere until the court case. 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:31.240 So we walk in the courtroom and as soon as 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.440 I get in the door, I see John on the 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:39.520 back road to the right side, and I froze and 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.960 I just remember feeling that I was so scared. But 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:46.080 he was just sitting there, just oh, nonchalant. And I 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:47.280 used to say, Mildred, just. 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.840 Breathe, breathe. What do you mean, just breathe. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.520 Do you know how fast this man can move? 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:54.920 She said, Mildred, we just have to breathe. 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.520 So we're calming her down. She's holding my hand. Were 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.840 sitting by her attorney. They're going over the paperwork, and 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:02.960 the judge hiss the. 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.320 Gavel morning, please be seated. 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.600 This is enery the marriage of Mildred Denise Williams, John 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.919 Allen Williams Council, Your honor, Heather Smith on behalf of 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.240 the petitioner. This is Mildred Williams. She is present in 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.399 the court. Let me swear both parties in before it begins. Sir, 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:23.560 if you raise your right hand, ma'am you both saw 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:25.720 me swear from the name testimony. You're about to provide 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:29.360 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes, yes, sir, sir, 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.280 what is your name? Legal name is John Allen Muhammad 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.280 and ma'am what is your name mild Muhammas. But they 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.959 said that we needed to use the ninth that we 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.879 were married on their death wives under William Council. You 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:42.639 have if I believe a return on a rid of 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.000 habeas corpus. I do have at Commissioner Dickie issued it 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.840 back in June of two thousand and this is the 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.239 first contact with these children since that time. Yes, it 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.480 is your honor. The divorce decree and apparenting plans were 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.119 entered in October of two thousand, after the writ that 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.800 the final parenting plan gives who custody the children? 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.560 All three children? Yes, I can I say something just 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:09.560 a moment, okay. 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:11.480 The concern I have right now is I don't know 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.080 who's got these children where they're at and speaking with 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.760 a deputy right this morning. All they would need was 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.879 an order releasing the children from protective custody to the 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.840 mother's custody. Cyah, would you like to say, Yohna, can 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.560 you please tell me what's going on? There is a 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.480 parenting plan was entered by the court on October six, 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:34.760 two thousand. Awarepons, there was an order of default taken 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.639 against you because you did not respond to divorced summons. 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.600 It was published against you. As part of that Mother 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:43.720 obtained on her own without the help of an attorney, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.720 for ritt of habeas corpus, which allows her to have 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.960 the physical possession of the children, so the children to 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.000 have a mission the waradots whenever known by mother. That's 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.800 why the court apparently issued the writ you never responded 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.840 to the published summons for divorce. Are you telling me 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.359 the reason why I don't have my children won't be 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:04.880 to keep my children because I don't have the proper 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.439 paperwork ynt No, I'm saying that you've been divorced. The 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.960 court has entered orders that mother had sole residential placement, 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.560 care and custody of the children, and then you've got 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:19.159 no visitation at present without for the court order. So 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.720 I'm not able to see my children by virtue of 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:25.879 the private court order, not today's court order. So if 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.200 you believe that the allegations are not valid, you should 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.879 bring that to the court's attention, all right. If you 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.120 do not have copies of the court orders, I suggest 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.040 that sir, you ask for copies of those documents so 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.480 you can look at them and reflect on what you'd 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:39.160 like to do next. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:42.480 Thank you, Thank you. 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:48.000 John finds all of that information out in the courtroom 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.080 that day that he is divorced for Mildrid and she 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.720 has sole custody of the children. He was so angry 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:03.040 he flipped. It was that look that I will never forget. 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.760 John leaves the courtroom. We come out and we're standing 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:10.919 against the wall. 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.760 And all of a sudden, I fell a presence and 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:22.240 I turn and it's John. I take off down the hallway, 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:24.400 My shoes go everywhere. 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:29.040 Mildred takes off sprinting down the corner. I look up 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:33.800 and John passes by me, heading towards Mildred. He was 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.359 just so focused, he just had this dead stare. He 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.399 was so angry, and I look back. 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.280 John puts his hand on the courtroom door, looks at 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.120 me and says, gotcha. 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.600 He turned around and he walked back the other direction, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.040 and I was just up against the wall, hoping he 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:56.760 wouldn't see me. 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:01.159 My attorney said, oh, hell no, we gotta get out 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:01.480 of here. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.240 I'm scared. I'm letting my daughter know. Lock the doors, 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.560 don't answer if anybody comes to the door, because I 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:10.520 figured he would probably come there looking. 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:15.240 So we take the stairs to go down to the 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:19.360 police station and we explained to them what happened, and 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:22.240 can we please go out of their back door. They 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:24.440 say no, we need to go out the front door. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:41.359 Just like everybody else, John was no joke. 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.760 I believed everything he said to me. He was gonna 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.000 kill me. It was gonna be a headshot, and he 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:49.919 was gonna bury me when nobody would be able to 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:54.600 find me. I was terrified, and the terror came because 0:21:54.680 --> 0:22:00.960 nobody believed me. They thought I was being dramatic. They 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.080 were actually gonna let me die. And then what were 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:05.800 they going to say? Oh, she was a good old girl, 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:08.480 you know, she loved the children. We did not see 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.320 that coming, Yes you did. When I hear people say that, 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.080 oh I didn't see that, Yes you did. Victims always 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:21.480 give signs, they always tell somebody. So we walk out 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:25.320 of the court like a triangle where everybody's watching each 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:25.960 other's back. 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:28.000 Get to the car. 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:32.120 I slouched down in the car so no one could 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:35.680 see that I was in the car. We go over 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:38.920 to the Department of Health and Human Resources because that's 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:43.480 where my children were, and the first person I see 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:48.840 is my son. He's tall, he's skinny, he's trying to 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:54.119 wear afro, but it's in a dome, you know. And 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.040 I walk up to him and he got his pants 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:58.200 on his butt sagging. 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:00.320 Oh geez whiz. 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:05.199 And I should have said, honey, I'm so glad to 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:08.400 see you, but I'm pulling up his pants, sayings, this's 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:11.920 gonna be an issue, and he starts laughing. And then 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:16.080 I hear my daughters, mommy, mommy, mommy, they're coming down, 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:18.040 and I'm just so overwhelmed. 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:19.760 I'm crying might in my eyes. 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:20.719 I can't see you. 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:21.800 I can't see you. 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:29.359 And Selena said, Mommy says, honey, Daddy said he was 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:33.919 looking for you, but he couldn't find you. I said, really, 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:38.600 I was trying to find you, but he changed your names. 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:44.879