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Speaker 1: Crime Alert, I'mancy Grace breaking crime needs Now. Detroit police

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Speaker 1: respond to a call about a white Range Rover blocking

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Speaker 1: a driveway, and they find blood inside the car. The

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Speaker 1: car belongs to doctor Devin Hoover, fifty seven, who doesn't

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Speaker 1: appear to be home when cops knock on his door.

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Speaker 1: Next day, his family asks for a welfare check, and

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Speaker 1: cops find blood at his back door. They force their

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Speaker 1: way inside and find Hoover's naked body wrapped in a

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Speaker 1: blood soaked carpet, shoved into an attic crawl space, shot

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Speaker 1: twice in the head.

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Speaker 2: Nancy Hoover's family became concerned when he failed to visit

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Speaker 2: his dying mother in the hospital. After discovering his body,

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Speaker 2: cops processed several sets of fingerprints on Hoover's car. They

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Speaker 2: belonged to Desmond Burke, Hoover's boyfriend. Copps then discovered Burke's

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Speaker 2: cell phone traveled to and from Hoover's home multiple times

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Speaker 2: the day before his car was discovered. A search warn

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Speaker 2: at Burke's home turns up Cartier Watchetts, belonging to doctor Hoover.

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Speaker 1: Hoover's boyfriend. Desmond Burke's thirty four now charged with murder

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Speaker 1: and grand theft. Escha Persaud, thirty four, buys her husband

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Speaker 1: a taco bill feast for his birthday, expecting a warm response,

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Speaker 1: but she's infuriated when he actually complains he was hoping

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Speaker 1: for something a little fancier for his celebration. In anger,

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Speaker 1: Escha Persad grabs several tacos and hurls them at her husband.

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Speaker 1: Cops are called, and with burrito still on her hubby's face.

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Speaker 1: Esther Persaud arrested for domestic battery by taco. Happy Birthday.

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

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Speaker 1: latest crime and justice breaking news. Crime on Lines.

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Speaker 3: John Limley actor Achelee McDowell, best known for his role

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Speaker 3: in the television series David makes Man and appearances in

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Speaker 3: Billions and The Astronaut Wives Club, has now been charged

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Speaker 3: with murder in connection with a fatal shooting at a

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Speaker 3: Houston apartment complex. We turned to Sydney's Sumner of Crime

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Speaker 3: Online for more. The Harris County, Texas Sheriff's Office reported

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Speaker 3: that the twenty one year old McDowell has been charged

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Speaker 3: with the murder of twenty year old Caesar Peralta. According

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Speaker 3: to authorities, the incident occurred on July twentieth in Houston.

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Speaker 3: McDowell is currently held on a four hundred thousand dollars bond.

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Speaker 3: Deputies responded to a call about a shooting at the

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Speaker 3: apartment complex on July twentieth and discovered Paralta unresponsive with

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Speaker 3: gunshot wounds. Witnesses indicated that Peralta had been involved in

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Speaker 3: a physical altercation with another man who fled the scene

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Speaker 3: on foot. McDowell gained recognition for his betrayal of David

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Speaker 3: in David Makes Man, a series on Oprah Winfrey's own network,

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Speaker 3: which depicts a teenager navigating life between his magnet school

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Speaker 3: friends and the drug dealers in his South Florida neighborhood.

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Speaker 3: Our friends with IMDb are reporting that McDowell also appeared

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Speaker 3: in episodes of Billions and The Astronaut Wives Club, and

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Speaker 3: he was recently featured in the movie The Water Boys.

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Speaker 3: In a landmark decision, South Carolina's Supreme Court has ruled

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Speaker 3: that the state can resume executions using one of three

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Speaker 3: methods firing squad, lethal injection, or the electric chair. As

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Speaker 3: Crime Online Sidney Sumner tells us, this ruling could end

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Speaker 3: a decade long hiatus in the state's use of capital punishment.

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Speaker 2: The Court's unanimous decision was not without dissent on specifics.

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Speaker 2: Two justices raise concerns over the legality of the firing squad,

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Speaker 2: in one voice, that the electric chair constitutes cruel and

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Speaker 2: unusual punishment. Justice John Fugh, writing for the majority, emphasized

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Speaker 2: that allowing inmates to choose their method of execution is

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Speaker 2: not meant to cause pain, but to make the death

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Speaker 2: penalty less inhumane. There are currently eight inmates who have

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Speaker 2: exhausted traditional appeals, but the timing of any resumed executions

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Speaker 2: remains uncertain. Legal representatives for death row inmates are reviewing

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Speaker 2: the court's ninety four page decision and considering further appeals.

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Speaker 2: Governor Henry McMaster expressed support for the ruling, stating that

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Speaker 2: it aligns with the law and brings the state closer

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Speaker 2: to providing closure and justice for victims face Since the

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Speaker 2: reinstatement of the death penalty in nineteen seventy six, South

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Speaker 2: Carolina has executed forty three individuals, with lethal injection being

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Speaker 2: the preferred method since its introduction in nineteen ninety five. However,

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Speaker 2: the state has not carried out an execution since twenty

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Speaker 2: eleven due to the expiration of its lethal injection drugs

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Speaker 2: and the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to supply them under

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Speaker 2: public scrutiny. In response, South Carolina lawmakers authorized the use

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Speaker 2: of a firing squad in twenty twenty one, providing an

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Speaker 2: alternative to the electric chair. This prompted legal challenges from inmates,

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Speaker 2: who argued that both methods were unconstitutional. In twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 2: the state legislature passed a shield law to protect the

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Speaker 2: identities of lethal injection drug suppliers, allowing the state to

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Speaker 2: secure the sedative pentobarbidol and switched to a single drug

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Speaker 2: protocol for lethal injections.

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Speaker 3: Currently, South Carolina has thirty two inmates on death row,

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Speaker 3: while four inmates are actively suing the state. Others have

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Speaker 3: run out of appeals, with two awaiting competency hearings before

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Speaker 3: potential execution.

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Speaker 1: Thanks John, Nancy Brittain, forty five, gets a few meals

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Speaker 1: together for her sister, Betsy, who's undergoing cancer treatments. Nancy

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Speaker 1: gets a ride from her fiancee to Betsy's Winchester, Virginia

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Speaker 1: apartment and stays with her all morning. That afternoon, she

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Speaker 1: visits her daughter and grandchildren who live in the same complex.

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Speaker 1: Then returns to sister Betsy's apartment around six to heat

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Speaker 1: up dinner. Eleven PM, she starts to call around for

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Speaker 1: a ride home. Betsy suggests she stay the night, but

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Speaker 1: Nancy doesn't want to miss a visit from her son

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Speaker 1: and his children, who she hasn't seen in nearly a year.

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Speaker 1: She's still looking for a ride when Betsy falls asleep.

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Speaker 1: Next morning, Nancy is gone, but she isn't home when

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Speaker 1: her son visits. There's no surveillance footage at the complex,

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Speaker 1: and Nancy's phone stops pinging in Frederick County, Virginia. Nancy's

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Speaker 1: five to four, one hundred and ten pounds, brown hair,

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Speaker 1: brown eyes, and has a cross tattoo on her left shoulder.

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Speaker 1: If you have info on Nancy Brittner, now missing over

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Speaker 1: a year, please call Winchester, Virginia, p D five four

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Speaker 1: zero sixty six two four one three one. For the

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Speaker 1: latest crime injustice news, go to crime online dot com

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Speaker 1: and please join us for our daily podcast crime Stories

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Speaker 1: with this crime alert. I'm Nancy Grace