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Speaker 1: Crime Alert I Nancy Grace breaking crime news Now. A

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Speaker 1: Tennessee family of six grabs sledding gear to enjoy the snow.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly they hear gunshots and see a man seemingly shooting

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Speaker 1: directly at them from his backyard. The parents scream for

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Speaker 1: him to stop, as bullets caused snow to fly up

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Speaker 1: just fate away from their one year old boy. Benjamin

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Speaker 1: Cook insists the families on his property and fire several

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Speaker 1: more shots as the family runs for it.

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Speaker 2: Nancy. The family immediately calls police when they make it

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Speaker 2: to safety. Neighbors show officers photos of Cook carrying a

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Speaker 2: black rifle in the same snow gear he inswers his

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Speaker 2: front door in. Cook confirms he did fire shots of

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Speaker 2: the family, reiterating that they were on his property, though

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Speaker 2: the property line is not the legal issue here. Investigation

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Speaker 2: reveals the family was not on Cook's property before Cook

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Speaker 2: is carted off to jail.

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Cook, fifty six, now charged with six counts ag assault.

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Speaker 1: Michael Schuer furious when Disney removes his job due the

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Speaker 1: task of creating menus for park restaurants, Sheer discovers his

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Speaker 1: passwords still work, so he makes several edits to every menu,

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Speaker 1: changing the font to windings, made up symbols, ad profanity,

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Speaker 1: and Mark's dishes containing peanuts as being allerge and safe.

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Speaker 1: She also accesses employees' personal info and eggs one of

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Speaker 1: the employees' homes. She were pleads guilty to multiple charges

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Speaker 1: in hopes of a more favorable sentence than the maximum

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Speaker 1: ten years and thousands in fines. More crime and justice

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Speaker 1: news after this Now with the latest crime and justice

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Speaker 1: breaking Knees Crime on Lines.

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Speaker 3: John Lemley in Tennessee, sentencing for five former Memphis police

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Speaker 3: officers convicted in federal court for their role and the

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Speaker 3: beating death of Tyree Nichols, has been delayed until after

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Speaker 3: their state trial in April.

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Speaker 4: US District Judge Mark Norris has scheduled sentencing to begin

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Speaker 4: the week of June sixteen. The officers t Darius Bean,

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Speaker 4: Demetrius Hailey, Emmett Martin, Desmond Mills Junior, and Justin Smith

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Speaker 4: are also facing state charges, including second degree murder for

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Speaker 4: the January twenty twenty three traffic stop that ended in

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Speaker 4: Nichols's fatal beating. Nichols, a twenty nine year old black man,

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Speaker 4: died three days after being repeatedly punched, kicked, and hit

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Speaker 4: with a baton near his home. Police video showed him

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Speaker 4: calling out for his mother as the officers ignored his injuries.

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Speaker 4: Two of the officers, Martin and Mills, have already pleaded

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Speaker 4: guilty to federal charges. The other three were convicted of

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Speaker 4: tampering with evidence related to covering up the incident. All

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Speaker 4: five officers were members of the now disbanded Scorpion Unit,

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Speaker 4: a controversial crime suppression team disbanded after Nicholls's death. The

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Speaker 4: killing sparked nationwide protest and renewed demands for police reform.

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Speaker 4: A federal investigation into the Memphis Police Department found a

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Speaker 4: pattern of excessive force and discrimination against black residents. In

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Speaker 4: a case that has lingered for nearly five decades, a

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Speaker 4: retired minister from Georgia has been acquitted of charges in

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Speaker 4: connection with the nineteen seventy five death of eight year

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Speaker 4: old Gretchen Herrington. As Crime Online Sidney Sumner tells us,

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Speaker 4: the jury deliberated for just one hour following a four

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Speaker 4: day trial.

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Speaker 2: Eighty four year old David Zanstra, a retired minister from Marietta, Georgia,

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Speaker 2: was found not guilty of the kidnapping and murder of

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Speaker 2: Gretchen Herrington. The girl disappeared in August nineteen seventy five

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Speaker 2: while walking alone to Bible camp Out, a chapel where

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Speaker 2: Zanstra served as pastor. Her body was discovered two months

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Speaker 2: later in Ridley Creek State Park in Pennsylvania. Zanstra had

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Speaker 2: been accused of offering Harrington a ride before she vanished. Prosecutors

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Speaker 2: claimed Zanstra confessed to the crime following new investigative leeds. However,

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Speaker 2: Zanstra's defense team argued that the confession was coerced, with

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Speaker 2: no physical evidence linking him to the crime. After a

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Speaker 2: brief deliberation, the jury sided with the defense. Zanstra, who

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Speaker 2: had spent eighteen months in custody, was acquitted and returned

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Speaker 2: to his family. In the week of Harrington's disappearance, authorities

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Speaker 2: launched a massive search effort, including distributing thousands of flyers

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Speaker 2: and setting up a hotline. When her remains were found,

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Speaker 2: the unsettling details included clothing found in a neat pile

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Speaker 2: near her body, with her underwear hanging from a tree branch.

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Speaker 4: David Sanstra's acquittal brings it in to a long chapter

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Speaker 4: in a case that has remained in the public consciousness

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Speaker 4: for decades.

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Speaker 1: Thanks John, James Solight makes his dream of traveling across

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Speaker 1: the country on bicycle a reality. His latest cross country

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Speaker 1: ride from Saginaw, Michigan, to Reading, Pennsylvania. He spends the

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Speaker 1: winter exploring Pennsylvania and sets out for Surf City, North.

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Speaker 4: Carolina April one.

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Speaker 1: April eight, he sends a text to family saying he

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Speaker 1: accidentally left his backpack on the side of the road

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Speaker 1: while changing a tire. When he went back for it,

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Speaker 1: it was gone. His money, ID and maps were inside.

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Speaker 1: He never met sit to Serve City. His phone stops

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Speaker 1: pinging after the last text from Clarksville, Maryland. James Solac

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Speaker 1: fifty nine five eleven, one hundred and sixty five pounds,

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Speaker 1: gray hair, blue eyes, usually with mustache and goateee. He

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Speaker 1: has the name Helen tattooed on his upper left arm.

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Speaker 1: If you have info on James Solac, please call Central Burkes,

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania PD six' one zero seven seventy nine eleven hundred.

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Speaker 1: For the latest crimestice news, go to crime online dot

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Speaker 1: com and please join us for our daily podcast Crime Stories,

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Speaker 1: where we do our best to find missing people, especially children,

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Speaker 1: and solve unsolved homicides with this crime alert.

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Speaker 4: I'm Nancy Grace