The Bexley Box Comfort Initiative

Right An Here in New Jersey, every school day begins with the pledge of Allegiance. And every school day, they learn a little more about our shared history so they can help build a brighter future for us all That's how we will live up to the promise made over two hundred and fifty years ago We liver and justice for all Hey, it's Ry Reynolds from MitMobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited preremium wireless for fifteen dollars a month is back So I thought it would be fun if we made fifteen dollars bills, but it turns out That's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at midmobile d. com slash switch. Upront payment forty dollars for three mons, ninety dollars for six months or one hundredyllars for twel month plan reired fifteen dollars month equalent taxes extra. initial planerm only greater than fifty gigabyes slow netork busy t. Good morning everyone. You're listening in to the Dateline story meeting. Okay, so let's jump in. Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news. Do you think there's gonna be cameras in the trial? We're on track with this. Everyone is losing their minds over this story. Welcome to Dateline True Crimekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's may twenty eighth and here's what's on our docket In San Diego County, California, it's week two in the murder trial of a man accused of paying people to cast magic spells on his wife. I can't remember a time that we talk about magic or spells in general when we're talking about homicide trials. In dateline Roundup, we've got the latest from the courtroom in the case of Barry Morphew, a Colorado man accused of murdering his wife using animal tranquilizers And a New Jersey businessman convicted of murdering his own brother and his brother's family faces the judge at his sentencing. You are a quadruple murerer who slaughtered innocent children. That is the identity you will carry for the remainder of your life behind prison walls Plus, the widow of a man murdered in front of their two year old child, tells us about her campaign to bring comfort to children who end up alone and scared at the police station. So as I reflected on that night, wishing that there had been more to comfort her, that she had a diaper that fit her, I just thought we have to do something. But before all that, we're off to Los Angeles Talk star has been charged with attempting to take out a hit on her ax Beautiful lifestyle influencer, Gabby Gonzalez has built a devoted following on social media, documenting her life in Hawaii and beyond Hundreds of thousands of followers tune in to the twenty four year old' posts about exotic travel, beachy fashion. music. Every day my favorite song keeps changing, but this was my fite song a day two and even motherhood In the castle Can you help me Wow She seemed to have it all, but now Gabby is attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. Allegations of conspiracy to commit murder LA prosecutors accusing a TikTok star of trying to hire somebody off the dark web to kill her ex. Gabby's ex and the alleged target, Jack Avery is a former member of the boy band Why don't we say that? Why is it so hard to say He is also the father of Gabby's child Prosecutors in Los Angeles say back in twenty twenty, Gabby embarked on a years long quest to find a hitman to kill Jack and they alleg she didn't act alone Here to bring us up to speed on the alleged plot and what took so long to uncover it is NBC News Breaking News reporter Matt Levitas. Matt, thanks for being here. Thank you So Matt, let's start with some background on Gabby Gonzalez. We know she's this beautiful influencer. Tell us more about her. She's this twenty four year old from Florida. She has hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and on Instagram. And like you just said, she posts these sort of glamorous shots of her in Hawaii and her in California in front of waterfalls and recording her on vacation with her young daughter in Paris, she describes herself on her Instagram page as a lover of life and a mermaid at heart Yeah, it's ironic because everything in her posts, I was scrolling through the years and everything is so light. So Matt, what do we know about her relationship with Jack Avery? this ex of hers who was in the boy band? Yeah, so they dated in the late twenty ten s when they were both teenagers. Their relationship was brief. They had a child together in twenty nineteen And really since then, they've been in this contentious custody battle. with Gabby accusing Jack Gabriel of being this sort of unfit father What did Jack Avery have to say about this dispute? He actually addressed it on X and on TikTok describing the allegations against him as false accusations and painful attacks. What happened with the legal side of things with regards to this custody dispute over their daughter We don't have those details, but what we do know from the prosecution in this case is that Gonzalez wanted full custody of their daughter and she, you know did not get that. Yeah, so this actually became a part of the prosecutor's felony complaint that, you know this was a possible motive. So As we mentioned off the top, Gabby acccording to prosecutors was not acting alone Who do they say she was allegedly plotting with to take out Jack with a hitman? So prosecutors are alleging that Gabby oted with her father, Francisco Gonzalez, who's the successful personal injury attorney in Florida and her boyfriend at the time back in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, a young man by the name of Kai Cordri, who lives in Hawaii. And no prosecutors alleged that Francisco Gabby's dad was sort of funding this whole scheme, right? So in April of twenty twenty one, he transferred ten thousand dollars to Kai Cordree for the purpose of hiring this hit man. Okay. and then prosecutors say, Ki, then took that money and searched for a possible hitman on the Dark Web. Right. so after receiving the money, Ki in May of twenty twenty one, according to prosecutors, signed up for a Dark Web murder for hire sight using the alias Lizard King sixty nine and he asked for Jack Avery to be killed by, quote, whatever method was easiest and that included a shooting or some sort of staged accident In septtember twenty twenty one, the FBI came into the picture. Tell us how they get involved Right. So prosecutors say that at some point, Kai made contact with this undercover FBI agent who was posing as a hitman and that the FBI recorded the phone call between these two suggesting that Kai wanted the plot to take place and that he was acting at the behest of his girlfriend at the time, Gabby Gonzalez And by December of twenty twenty one, Francisco Gonzalez also got on the phone with an undercover FBI agent. These are wild accusations, Matt But this alleged plot never came to fruition. Jack, Avery is alive and well What went right, if you will, for Jack that this did not happen? So the last we know about this case where the prosecution laid out that Gonzalez and Kai spoke about the matter over the phone in October of twenty twenty two with Gabby suggesting that she had some concerns that they were going to get caught We know that a month later, November of twenty twenty two, her home was searched and raided by the FBI But we don't know what happened from then until now. And that's sort of the large question here. why whyy was no action taken? Yeah, because that was Th three and a half years ago. It's very interesting, to think like what has transpired in these years Gabby and her dad were arrested just last week and Kai was arrested over the weekend. Right. so that's what I've been asking the authorities in Los Angeles. and you know they keep pointing me to this statement that they gave us last week. The LA, DA, Nathan Hoockman said that This was a lengthy investigation that was initiated by the FBI and eventually turned over to our office resulting in criminal charges being filed. Has there been any comment from any of the defendants? We have not heard a peep from any of them. They have not entered please to our knowledge. We know that Francisco was arrested his home state of Florida and extraded to California. We know that Gabby is out on two million dollars bail that she posted. And as a condition of that bail, she is not allowed to have any contact with her daughter or to post throughout the case on social media, We know that she is expected to make her plea this summer. All right, more hearings to come on this and if convicted They face the possibility of twenty five years to life in state prison Matt, thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me ing up Five years after a woman disappeared from her California home, her body has still not been found, but her husband is on trial for her alleged murder Prosecutors say he may have used Hamlock to kill her Right in of the United States of America Here in New Jersey, every school day begins with the pledge of Allegiance. And every school day, they learn a little more about our shared history so they can help build a brighter future for us all That's how we will live up to that promise made two hundred and fifty years ago.. 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Chula Vista is a city in San Diego County known for its peaceful neighborhoods and suburban charm In Spanish, the name means beautiful view But what happened to a working mom on a winter'sday back in twenty twenty one would cast a dark shadow over the area Thursday, january seventh, a security camera captured thirty nine year old Maya Milete pulling into the driveway of the house she shared with her husband, Larry and their three young children. But investigators say there is no footage of Maya ever leaving the house after that Five years later, Larry is now on trial for her alleged murder. Prosecutors believe he killed Maya, but can't say for certain how or where he disposed of her body because it has never been found What they do point to is a trail of evidence they say includes poison, an alleged affair, and even magic spells. Larry's defense attorney on the other hand says there is no proof Maya is even dead And if she is, there were other people who may have killed her like her marri's lover As Larry's trial enters its second week, NBC seven investigative reporter Alexis Reis is here to tell us more about the proceedings so far, which Alexis includes a call you got from Larry himself right in the middle of trial. That's right. I definitely wasn't expecting that, and it's definitely a first for me. Yeah, well, thank you for joining us. We're gonna to get to that in just a moment But you've been covering the story from the very beginning. Give us a sense of who Larry and Maya were before all this happened, at least who they seem to be to the outside world They got married very young. They were teenagers in Hawaii Eventually through the Navy, Larry gets relocated over to Southern California. Maya goes with, and they both wind up working very successful jobs He's an optometry, she's an administrative specialist for the Navy and from photos They had kind of the perfect family. As we talked about off the top of the segment, the last confirmed sighting of Maya was when she was captured on her neighbor's security camera pulling into her driveway. Maya's sister reports her missing a few days later. That's right. So she had her daughter's eleventh birthday coming up. There was a big family trip that they were all supposed to go on together in Big Bart And then just a couple days before this She stops responding to anyone. It seemed completely out of character Ultimately, her sister drove down to Maya's house and insisted that she go inside and see what was going on. and that's when she called nine eleven. Mayas sisters and brothers started vigils and searches and trying to find her. That's right. I mean, we saw hundreds of people from Tulavesta come out looking for Maya very early on and notably not at those events was Larry Melet, And that's something that police mentioned when they initially arrested him about nine months after she banished. Which brings us to this trial that has been five years in the making. Assistant District attorney Christie Bowles gave the prosecution's opening statement And she painted a picture of a marriage in serious trouble. You absolutely get that picture. When you listen to her friends or her coworkers have started to take the stand and her family members. Everyone kind of said that she said that she was done with him. and there was also the fact that he had found out she had an affair with a coworker. And after that, he sort of started T engage in behavior're constantly asking other people to help him convince her to stay in the marriage And he also reached out to somethingomething called a spell caster Yeah This is something that's I think makes this case particularly unique. I can't remember a time that we talk about magic or spells in general when we're talking about homicide trials that we've never in San Diego. Yeah, no Larry Milente spent thousands of dollars requesting spell after spell after spell from a couple of spellcasters talk to the prosecution, they say it shows that he had intent to harm his wife. And in fact, one of the spells was He was willing to ask for Maya's bones to be broken so that she wouldn't leave the house and be reliant on him. But if you talk to the defense, they'll say all these spells show that he was just in love with her and so badly wanted to keep her and hold her close. Seems bizarre. The prosecutors do have a lot of missing pieces as to how they believe this alleged murder happened. What are they telling the jury frront in the opening statements, the prosecution said, We're not going to be able to tell you how she died We don't have a body in this case They've thrown out a couple of things. They said there were some Apicious Google searches Larry was making about poison. What kind of poison acts the quickest? Is there a plant poison where you never wake up And the big moment in trial came when they talked about a vial where they tested it for heemmlock. And according to the prosecution, the results came back positive and investigators found this vial in the house, right Well, it wasn't right away. It wasn't during the initial search of the house. The defense said that they tested that multiple times and that the vial came back negative for Hmlock three out of the four. So they're arguing it's inconclusive. What other theories did the prosecution have for the jury about Maya's cause of death? There's testimony She had been talking to friends leading up to her disappearance about how Larry had once choked her to a point of unconsciousness. That might explain why there's no direct forensic evidence. And then last but not least, a neighbor told police that they heard nine gunshots and they have surveillance video. However, the FBI said the video just wasn't good enough quality to confirm or identify those sounds as gunshots. So there's different kinds of ways that they're sort of hinting this might have happened. but the reality is no one really knows yet What happened to Maya and where is she now Alexis, we've talked about this alleged affair with a coworker. The affair is confirmed, according to the prosecution. They said that Maya and a coworker named Jamie Laird began having an extramarital affair. And so you have the affair playing into Larry's motive But on the flip side, you've got the defense saying there's a couple loose ends on the other side of that affair that should have warranted some investigating of more people than just Larry. In their opening statement, Larry's defense team suggested that Jamie Laird had acted suspiciously around the time of Maya's disappearance. That's right. Something the defense has pointed out that I think we didn't know until last week Their anniversary of their affair is the day that Maya vanished, january seventh and Jamie Laird stopped texting Maya after Maya vanished. Granted, his wife who was pregnant at the time of their affair Birth on january eighth So w there could be a viet of reasons, right? But there's also the fact that when police eventually did talk to him, he had a new phone. The wife's phone was investigated, but her mother also, apparently there's reports that she was harassing Maya So you have some other people here that we really never learned very much about at all until now The prosecution alluded that we're going to hear from these people. There's so much interest in them. I think they have to bring them to the stand, and I think they're going to have to eliminate them as suspects if they're going to eliminate any reasonable doubt, according to some of the experts that we've talked to So that's the nuts and bolts of the cases so far for both sides. But before you go, Alexis, let's talk about one moment that stopped the trial in its tracks. Maya's dad was on the stand. Yes. Her father was I think, one of the most difficult things to witness in a courtroom. He's just answering questions about kind of some of Larry's behavior. And then he just stops answering questions altogether. and he starts crying and screaming at Larry and pointing at him and saying, you're a murderer. Why did you do this to my daughter? Why did you do it?? And Larry's own defense attorney starts crying And because she's crying she's worried about how that looks in front of the jury. So she calls for a mistrial. Oh my God. comes close. We come back though and the judge asks the jury if they can basically disregard the accusations of murderer that they watched The jury says that they can do that And we decide to keep moving forward. And it's kind of a couple hours after that That my phone rings from your county Hry It's Larry. Why is he calling you in the middle of a trial? I know after the fact now that his attorneys had no idea he was doing this But mainly, Larry wanted to talk about the fact that he doesn't think he's getting a fair trial He is really worried about the jury for a couple reasons. As they were going through selecting jurors eighty percent of them had already heard about the case. And he didn't like that this emotional raw moment with Maya's father happened right in front of the jury, and he is worried about that. Yeah. Alexis, wow, this trial is absolutely fascinating. I look forward to having you back on to see how this all unfolds. Well, thank you so much for having me Next, it's time for Dateline roundup. Barry Morfew, the Colorado man accused of murdering his wife with animal tranquilizers, appears in court. And the New Jersey businessman convicted of murdering four members of his own family learns his fate. plus, a mother's mission to bring comfort to young children who find themselves alone at the police station Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax, and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. 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I want to tell everyone about it So do we? Here at Designerhoe Warehouse. We'll give you something to brag about the latest styles from Brainy Love, or the trends everyone's obsessing over, orr shoes that make you feel like, well You So go ahead, show off a little. F shoes to get you, but prices to at your budget. That's your DSW store or dsW. com today. DSW. Let us surprise you. Welcome back. Joining me for this week's roundup is Dateline producer Haley Barber. Thanks for being here, Hailey Thanks for having me So Hailey, first we are heading to Colorado where Barry Morphheew, a man who has been accused of murdering his wife with a cocktail of animal tranquilizers, was back in court recently. And Haley, you have been reporting on this case since it broke. Give us a quick refresher on this one Yeah, absolutely. So Barry's forty nine year old wife, Suzanne, went missing on Mother's Day back in twenty twenty, and her mountain bike was found in a ravine close to the house and her helmet was actually in a different location. You were actually there, Haley as hundreds of people started searching for Suzanne. What was Barry saying at the time about what might have happened? Barry actually, in a video that was posted on Facebook at the time, he made a kind of very emotional appeal asking for tips and begging for Suzanne to come home Oh, Suzanne, if anyone is out there that can hear this that has you Please We'll do whatever it takes to bring you back. We love you. We miss you. Y girls need you A year later, however Barry was arrested and charged with Suzanne's murder. Her body had not been found. Why did investigators zero in on him? Investigators say they learn the marriage was in trouble. Suzanne wanted out. She had told friends she was afraid of Barry Barry insisted that he was innocent and about nine days before trial The case against him imploded when the judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to hand over evidence to the defense. The charges against Barry were ultimately dropped at the time. Haileley, how did Barry end up getting charged a second time? Because it wasn't over? Yeah. In twenty twenty three, three years after Suzanne went missing, her remains were found. An autopsy indicated that she had animal tranquilizers in her system. And according to prosecutors, it's a very rare drug that's used just to specifically tranquilize deer is not something that's very easy for just your a regular citizen to get invvestigators were able to determine that Barry Morheew had that chemical within four years of Suzanne's disappearance. Berry was arrested for a second time and he has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder. He's actually out on bail and he's awaiting the start of his trial, which will begin in October. Let's get the latest from the courtroom. Barry's defense team has filed thirty one pret tririal motions seemeems like a lot of motions. What are they arguing? Yeah, a lot of them are run of the mill motions. You know, their're motions to get more information about the backgrounds of prospective jurors. Also a couple that stood out to me, including one in which they talk about these kind of statements that Suzanne had made, which are Basically some text messages she was sending to friends at the time, Barry is not being nice to me. I'm very concerned about the status of our relationship. Okay, we'll definitely keep an eye on that case as we get closer to the October trial date Our next story is in New Jersey where fifty nine year old convicted killer Paul Canaro appeared in court last week for his sentencing. He was convicted back in February for the twenty eighteen murders of his younger brother Keith, Keith's wife, and their two young children. Haley, what was happening in the courtroom during sentencing? Yeah, the courtroom was packed with family members, Andrea, and, you know, based on local reporting, we're seeing, it looks like he was just kind of stone faced sitting there as the judge ultimately sentenced him. Yeah, there he is, you know, once a businessman, now he's wearing a yellow jumpsuit. It's quite the fall from Grace There were several emotional statements from the family. Paul did not just take Keith and his family's lives. He trying to steal the man The legacy of a man whose character compompassion and integrity he could never, ever come close to being. Hay did Paul give a statement at all? Paul did not speak and his defense informed the judge that he maintains his innocence and he didn't wish to say anything in court Before he handed down the sentence, the judge walked through the events of the murders. Let's take a listen to Judge Lamu. You are no longer Paul Canero You are an intimate number in the Department of Corrections You are in quadruple murder who slaughtered innocent children That is your identity That is the identity you will carry for the remainder of your life behind prison walls. So Haey, what sentence did he get? Paul was sentenced to four life sentences plus an additional sixteen years For our final story, we are heading to Florida for an update in the case of thirty three year old Microsoft employee Jared Brideigan, who got out of his car in february twenty twenty two to move a tire blocking the road and was shot dead by a gunman Britigan's ex wife, Shannna and her second husband, Mario Fernandez, Saldana, were charged with conspiring to murder Bide again. They have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go on trial later this year Central to the case against them is the man prosecutors say the couple hired as a hit man. Haley, before we get to the latest on this, just remind us what we know about this suspected gunman. Prosecutors say the alleged gunman is sixty five year old Henry Tennon. He was a tenant of Mario Fernandez Elddona, and he drove a truck similar to the one caught on security camera at the scene of the shooting. After being questioned, Tennon told investigators he had in fact been hired by Mario to carry out the murder. He pleaded guilty to second degree murder in March of twenty twenty three. As part of his plea, he agreed to testify against both Shannna and Mario. Earlier this year, Tennon abruptly changed his mind and withdrew his guilty plea. His defense attorney also asked the judge to throw out all the statements Tennon made to prosecutors. That's right. The defense argued that anything he said to prosecutors should never be heard by a jury That's a big deal because presumably, if Tennon's jury can't hear it, then neither can the juries at Shannah and Mario's trial. The judge made a ruling on the motion this week. What did she decide, Haley? The judge ruled that the conversation between Tennon and prosecutors before he pleaded guilty could not be presented as evidence, but his sworn statement when he pleaded guilty can. So the jury is going to hear some of Tennon's, you know, original story that he had given So what can we expect next for Tenon? Yeah, that's a good question. There's no trial date set for him yet But in the meantime, Jared Bridean's ex wife, Shannna Gardner, will head to trial in August Her now estranged husband, Mario Fernandez Saldonna, will stand trial in September. Okay, thank you for all these updates, Hailey. Of course, thanks for having me We just told you about the latest developments in the case of Jared Bride again. What makes this story even more heartbreaking is that Jared wasn't the only one in the car that night. A couple passing by found Jared's two year old daughter, Bexley strapped in the back seat. They made this call to nine hundred eleven. He's just laying there and he has a little kid in the car My husband right now is holding her. She was crying I think it's just him and this little girl. Bexley was taken to a nearby police station where Sergeant Tona Tater tried to comfort her, but said there was only so much she could do. She later talked to NBC twelve about the experience. Me being a stranger to her, her not knowing who I am, and obviously the trauma she just went through, you try to do the best that you can. When Bexley's mom and Jared's widow, Kirirststen Bride Reunited with her daughter at the police station, she realized there were few resources to comfort kids who find themselves in the care of law enforcement. So Kirsten came up with the Bexley box. It's a kit containing items designed to help calm young children during moments of crisis. There are now dozens of them in police stations across the country. We invited Kirsten to come on the podcast to tell us more about what's inside those boxes And how she and Bexley are doing. Welcome to the podcast, Kirsten. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. First off, I just want to say all of our hearts go out to you and your family. How are you doing? I'm doing okay. I think it helps that. The trials are coming up. finally. We've been waiting for almost four and a half years and it's finally here. Yeah, it's like you say you never get closure, but you can certainly have closure on a you know the legal portion of it, which is very difficult Right. I'm so sorry for all of you And I also commend you because out of this grief, you have created something good for other children. First off, take us back to the day when you walked into that police station to get Bexley and she's there all by herself with law enforcement. And that must have just been excruciating as a mother. It was At night, we walk in and she's in Essentially the break room. She's sitting on a table. She's got one little squishy toy, believe it was like a stress ball type of a toy and then a few crayons in a coloring book. and And she's two and a half. She's little And just to sit there without more to comfort her was heartbreaking. She also needed a diaper change and I didn't have a diaper bag. So there's just several things that sat with me for months after that experience that I wish had been different for her. And you had been looking for Jared, right? Like until that point, you didn't know what had happened. I had been calling him repeatedly and there was no answer until finally a different voice answered his phone and it was a police officer They wouldn't tell anything except to come to the police station. And so I walked in there and I had No knowledge of what had happened up until that point. Wow. I can't even imagine you that evening having to go through all of that. Has Bexley ever talked to you about that night? Does she remember anything? We haven't spoken in detail about it for probably a couple of years, but when she was younger, she would repeat Mostly about sounds that she heard that night and Daddy on the ground was another phrase that she would repeat Mostly now we talk about who our dad was, the memories that we have, we look at pictures and videos, you know, his photos all over our home. And she's six now turning seven this year. She'll be seven and this summer. She's excited. So let's talk about your initiative after that terrible day. You launched a foundation and you created something called the Bexley box. So tell us about how this came about, what this box is, what it entails. So as I reflected on that night, wishing that there had been more to comfort her, that she had a diaper that fit her, I just thought we have to do something, something that'll make this better for other kids that might, you know, hopefully not be in the same situation, but similar situation where they need to be comforted while at a police station