When teenager Dennis Lewis is killed fighting off home invaders, all police have to go on is a single handprint; when lab results reveal who the print belongs to, no one wants to believe it.
HS football coach Ed Thomas is a legend in Parkersburg, Iowa, who had mentored multiple players into the NFL, and kids even had a poster of him on their walls; when he is gunned down during an early morning workout, the entire town is shocked.
Prosecutors accusing Karen read of murdering her boyfriend called in a neuropathologist to testify. Dr. Renee Stonebridge broke down her findings from her examination of the brain of John O'Keefe. The medical evidence that proved John O'Keefe sustained blunt force trauma to the head was critical to both sides. The state contended he hit his head on the ground, possibly on a curb, after being hit by Karen Read's SUV.
Jurors listened to testimony from the medical doctor who performed the autopsy on John O'Keefe. Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello found that he sustained blunt force trauma to the head and suffered from hypothermia. Dr. Bello went into the categories of causes and manners of death for the jury. She admitted that his death was undetermined and could've occurred by accident or homicide.
The medical examiner on the stand said the manner of John O'Keefe's death was undetermined. Jurors learned that the cause of death involved multiple wounds, including skull fractures consistent with blunt-force trauma, along with hypothermia. Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello went into the alcohol levels in O'Keefe's system when he passed away. According to Dr. Bello, his high alcohol level exacerbated the hypothermia as he was lying in the snow for hours during blizzard conditions.
Jurors saw autopsy photos as part of the state's case. On the stand was the medical examiner who did the full external body examination on John O'Keefe. Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello's conclusion was that the manner of death was undetermined caused either by an accident or a homicide. During cross-examination, Karen Read's defense zeroed in on Dr. Bello's conclusion that one of O'Keefe's injuries was blunt force trauma. She admitted to jurors that a punch could explain the wounds found on his head.
The State's final witness was still under cross-examination. Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello testified that the injuries she examined on John O'Keefe's body could be consistent with both a hit-and-run and a severe beating involving blows to his head. Prosecutors finally rested their case against Karen Read after two months of testimony. The spotlight now turned to her defense who tried to cast doubt on the State's case that she intentionally killed her boyfriend with her car.
A snowplow driver testified that he was working in the very area where John O'Keefe was found in the snow. But he told jurors, he did not see a body on the front lawn. Brian Loughran claimed to have passed the Albert home in the early morning hours the day John O'Keefe died. Not once, not twice, but three times... And he said there was not a body on the front lawn. His testimony contradicted the timeline of events presented by the State.
Jurors were brought back to expert evaluation as to Lorena Bobbitt's state of mind when she mutilated John, her husband. The court-appointed forensic psychologist claimed that Lorena lacked the threshold needed to meet the criteria for temporary insanity. During the cross-examination of Dr. Henry Gwaltney, he pointed out how Lorena suffered severe depression and PTSD when she attacked John, her husband, mutilating him. But he disagreed that a psychotic break was the reason for the maiming.
More expert testimony from a court-appointed forensic psychologist continued. Lorena Bobbitt's attorney was challenging Dr. Henry Gwaltney's report that concluded she did not suffer temporary insanity when she maimed her husband, John. Next to the stand was the third and final court-appointed mental health doctor who evaluated the defendant—Dr. Evan Nelson.
The third licensed psychologist working at the same psychiatric hospital in Virginia took the stand. Prosecutors wanted to convince the jury that Lorena Bobbitt was fully aware and knew right from wrong when she chose to chop off her husband John's genitalia and throw them away. Dr. Evan Nelson read through his report and noted for the jury the conduct of his interview with the defendant.
According to her mental health evaluation, Lorena Bobbitt was getting ready to leave her marriage to John. That was just days before she attacked her husband. So, why did she attack him? That'll be a question for jurors ahead in their deliberations. Cross-examination began on the third court-appointed mental health doctor who evaluated her. Dr. Evan Nelson was also the third expert to dismiss the idea that Lorena suffered from temporary insanity when she attacked her husband and mutilated him.
The prosecution paints Jeffrey Dahmer as a criminal lurking about and choosing not to control his sexual urges, highlighting the many weeks and months in between his killings of 15 people in an attempt to show he had self-control.
The state makes very clear during its closing argument to jurors that the burden is on the defense to prove that Jeffrey Dahmer was legally insane when he took the lives of 15 people; the defense gets one last shot at trying to sway jurors.
The defense in Wisconsin v. Dahmer focuses on the defendant's mental issues over the years in its rebuttal during closing arguments; the judge gives the jury its instructions to begin deliberations.
The jurors must decide whether Jeffrey Dahmer was insane at the time of the killings after sitting through two weeks of disturbing testimony about the crimes; victim impact statements condemn Dahmer's actions that left families ruined.
She's one of the most camera-friendly killers in true crime history. A glamorous Texas social climber turned convicted black widow. Celeste Beard Johnson has done many television interviews, flashing a smile as she proclaims her innocence and pleads for sympathy. But she's never been questioned by David Scott. And this interview is unlike any that she's ever done. In this special episode of Interview With a Killer, host David Scott reveals the real Celeste - cunning, calculating, and deadly.
A gruesome video on a stolen SD card exposes Brian Steven Smith's secret double life; David Scott confronts this soft-spoken husband and serial killer about his nighttime hunts for vulnerable Alaskan women.
Yaser Said breaks his silence about the night he fatally shot his teenage daughters near Dallas, Texas, the events leading up to the tragedy, and how he managed to evade capture for over a decade.
Denali Brehmer agrees to kill her best friend for a man she met online offering millions for murder, but an interview with Brehmer reveals she's far from a naive teen led astray by an outside influence.